CHAPTER 2
New Macao, Liao Commonality,
Capellan Confederation
April 14, 3073
The dropship door rumbled open and the bright white light blinded Neptune momentarily. So much light he had to shield his eyes with his hands. The star was not that bright. It was the snow that reflected and amplified the light from all direction, making him feel like he was inside a star.
"Come on, Kid! Move yerr ass!" the lance commander's voice exploded in his ears.
Still adjusting to the natural light after weeks of artificial environment, Neptune brought his Hermes -4S slowly down the ramp. The battlemech felt lighter on the feet than his old construction mech. It was 10 tons heavier but almost 10 times faster than his old Shugosha, thanks to that little thing called MASC. The suspensions were more stable, since the battlemech was designed to shoot while moving on rough terrain. He couldn't believe he felt more comfortable in a platform that was designed for combat.
"Alright, Legends, we're in hostile territory, so pay attention," Commander Korra briefed the company from her massive Awesome -9Q. "This place used to be a Davion stronghold until it fell to Capellan during Operation Guerrero. There are some operational Davion facilities that are being used by the Liao to disrupt Davion logistic line in this area. Major Fernandes, our Fed Sun liaison, wants them destroyed.
"Our objective is an old Davion Fire Base at Nav Point Epsilon. Support Lance will draw fire and lead the defenders to Nav Point Rho, where Command Lance will pick them off and burn them. Pursuit Lance, as soon as the defenders are out, move in and destroy the Fire Base. Start with the wind turbines north of the base to deactivate their turret grid. Once their turrets are down, mow down the base. Keep your eyes open; Liaos love their Stealth Armor. May find a unit or two hunkering in the snow.
"Everybody clear? I want this fast and by the numbers. Let's move out, Legends!"
Korra's Awesome led the Command Lance, consisting of a Grasshopper, a Quickdraw, and an Enforcer to Nav Point Gamma to set up an ambush. Lance Commander Drew went to the other direction, leading a quartet of Jagermechs to lure the defenders of the Fire Base. His 70-ton Jagermech looked meaner and deadlier than its 65-ton cousins, though most of its 5 extra tonnage went to armor plating. The Pursuit Lance took flight to the south, with a Wolftrap on point and a Wolfhound, a Battle Hawk, and Neptune's Hermes following up in diamond formation.
"Don't snooze in yerr cockpit, you hear? Commander yapped 'bout Liao chinks prowling in the snow, so keep yerr eyes open!" the lance commander blabbered over the commlink. "When in doubt, shoot!"
The entire planet – or at least the part their mission took place - was blanketed in snow. The temperature clocked in at -20 Celsius. It was an advantage for a laser boat like the Hermes. Neptune had been struggling with heat, as any green mechwarrior often did. Three Medium Pulse lasers was tough to manage in a 30-ton frame. The subzero temperature of New Macao would definitely help, but still he had to be careful not to fry himself.
Twenty minutes running in the snow took the foursome to a wide plain. A kilometer ahead lied half a dozen wind turbines, painted in white camouflage. The Wolftrap slowed down to a mere 20 kph, then crouched behind a small hill. Neptune stayed behind the Battle Hawk. He turned his radar off, a standard operating procedure to avoid detection, and relied on visual contact to detect the enemy. But the visibility was poor. All he could see was the top of the wind turbines. Everything else was just white.
Ten more minutes passed before activity picked up on the commlink. Intermittent burst of chatters and static flooded the channels. Neptune raised the reactor to maximum and set his weapons online. Sweat beaded on his forehead, both from excitement to finally use the Hermes' awesome weaponry, and fear to fight Capellan veterans who had been trained for years to kill Davion operatives like him.
Perhaps I should stay in jail at Lexington, he thought.
The activity intensified until Drew's voice boomed in the speaker, "Pursuit Lance, go!"
The Pursuit Lance Commander barked undecipherable commands at supersonic rate while pushing his Wolftrap to maximum speed. Neptune put a 75-meter gap between the big Wolftrap and his Hermes then followed it. As they got close, the wind turbines swelled into three monstrous windmills as tall as a Union dropship. The blades of the turbines were larger than the Hermes.
"Smoke'em!" the Lance Commander shouted. "Burn them to the ground!"
Neptune swung around to take on the farthest wind turbine. His targeting reticule burnt gold, and he mashed his trigger. Blinding lights leapt from the tubes, stabbing the turbine blades. Rivers of sweat streamed down Neptune's face as he chain-fired his Medium Pulse lasers, eager to finish the job as quickly as possible. The fragile blades splintered after each shot. A few minutes of continuous shooting, the turbine lost cohesion. It broke free from the hub and disintegrated in a sea of shards.
"Turbine destroyed!" Neptune reported.
"Nice shooting, Kid! Proceed to the Fire Base! Smoke the sonofabitch like it ain't no thing!"
While the rest of the lance were still trying to dismantle the other two turbines, Neptune moved south until the long concrete wall of the Fire Base came into view. As expected, the turrets were all dead, and the defending mechs had been lured away. But a lance of Packrats and a group of infantry, half of them carried shoulder-mounted SRM, came out to meet him. Missiles and laser bolts swerved past him as soon as he came within the Fire Base's firing range.
"Heads up, the base is not clear," Neptune circled the base. "A lance of Packrat and a squad of troops are shooting at me!"
"Hold yerr ground, Kid! We're coming!" the Lance Commander replied halfheartedly.
The Packrats were weak and lightly armored but there were 4 of them. One shot to the thin rear armor and the Hermes would be in trouble. Unless Neptune could destroy 2 Packrats in a minute – which he doubted – the 20-ton wheeled armored vehicles would swarm him and turned the Hermes into molten slag. His best bet was probably to engage his MASC and regroup with his lance mates.
But he couldn't just run. He was part of a combat unit now. He didn't do his job, somebody might die.
So Neptune took a large swing, engaging his MASC to push his mech to 190 kph. The Packrats tried to box him in, but his speed forced them to chase him in a single group, negating their number advantage. Neptune twisted as far back as possible and slapped the Packrats with laser bolts from his right arm. A few strands strafed a Packrat and the hull started to cave in. Smoke wafted from the hatched rear, and the Packrat dropped back.
The other 3 Packrats launched a saturated fire at the Hermes. Two laser strands stabbed the mech on the shoulder blade, one grazed the left leg, one melted half a ton of armor on the right torso, and one hit dangerously close to the right ankle. The Hermes wobbled left and right, splaying its hands comically to maintain balance. It took Neptune everything he'd got to keep the mech on its feet.
The cat-and-mouse continued on for a few more minutes until the rest of Pursuit Lance joined the fray. The Wolftrap dove straight in and singed a Packrat with a well-placed LB-10X salvo. The submunitions tore a large gash on the Packrat's hull. The engine caught fire and the armored vehicle roared in a blaze of glory. The Wolfhound and the Battle Hawk ganged up on the remaining Packrat, which exploded in less than a minute.
Neptune's sigh of relief was short-lived. Just as the last Packrat exploded in fiery blast, his radar screamed proximity alert. A lance of mech, most likely a returning patrol, raced back toward the Fire Base. An Assassin and a Mongoose spearheaded the run, while the slower but deadlier Sentinel and Panther made their best speed to keep up with their speedy lance mates.
"Rally on me! Line abrest, fire at will!" the Lance Commander cried out.
The Assassin and the Mongoose charged head-on, which was a terrible maneuver against a lance sporting large-bored weapons like PPC and LB-10X. At 700 meters the Wolfhound opened fire with its ER PPC. The first volley went wide miserably but the second one wreaked havoc at the Assassin's right torso. The 40-tonner twisted and lurched rearward. Static charges whipped from a large fissure on its right torso armor.
Coming into 550-meters limit, the Assassin showcased its firepower with Artemis-guided LRM5. Three missiles slammed onto the Wolftrap's shoulder. The Wolftrap staggered, but quickly regained composure. Breaking 500-meter barrier, the Wolftrap showed its true nature. Its LB-10X barked, brutally scourging the weakened torso armor of the Assassin. Pieces of internal structures and machinery sprayed in a mix of sparks and smoke. The Assassin reeled, trying to get back to fighting position when another PPC bolt finally knocked it down. It tumbled and crashed on the snow, losing its right arm in the process.
The Wolfhound shifted target but the Sentinel and Panther fired their long-ranged weapons. A stream of blue energy hammered the Wolfhound's left shoulder, and a long burst of armor-piercing projectiles gored the wound. An internal explosion breached the left arm, and the Wolfhound shuddered hard, compensating the sudden loss of mass.
"Break formation! Take out the Panther! I'm going for the Sentinel!" the Lance Commander yelled, and the Wolftrap dashed toward the inbound mechs.
As the Battle Hawk and Wolfhound charged the Panther, Neptune engaged the Mongoose. It had similar profile to his Hermes: superb speed and maneuverability with 3 lasers as their arsenal. The Mongoose had a Small Laser advantage, but the Hermes' pulse lasers were more accurate, with additional armor thrown into the mix.
As expected, the Mongoose came into firing range and smothered the Hermes with laser volleys. Neptune sidestepped the attacks and returned fire. Most of his shots were wide, but a few charred the leg armor of the Mongoose. The Mongoose twisted and circled the Hermes while hurling laser volleys upon laser volleys. Neptune used every bit of 5 years of piloting an industrial mech to dodge the relentless attack, and returned fire whenever he saw an opening in the Mongoose's defense.
The two light mech traded blows for a good while, until Neptune sank 3 strands of laser into the Mongoose's thigh. Molten armor sagged, exposing myomer bundles to subzero temperature. The Mongoose smelled trouble, and turned right to protect its exposed leg. Its laser cannons blitzed in urgency. A couple streaks melted the remaining armor on the Hermes' right arm. Globules of superheated metal hissed in a plume of steam as they dropped onto the snow. The entire upper right arm of the Hermes was stripped naked, and the next hit would certainly end up in a catastrophic blow.
But the Mongoose was too eager to cripple the Hermes, it turned its body squarely against the larger mech. Neptune saw the opportunity to deliver a fatal blow. He poured his lasers on the Mongoose's legs. Three bolts torched the unprotected myomer on the thigh. Black smoke wafted, and the Mongoose's speed dropped to half of what it was a minute ago.
A sense of desperation drove the Mongoose to fire its lasers in rapid succession, but Neptune circled the crippled mech until he was out of the Mongoose's firing arc, then rained down his lasers on the Mongoose's legs. Now moving at a slower rate, the Mongoose took more shots, and before long the leg structures breached from the body. The 25-ton mech crashed to the snow.
"Enemy mech disabled, estimated 60-percent salvageable," Neptune reported.
"Not bad ferr yerr first gig, Kid! Stay put, we're finishing up," the Lance Commander replied. His large bored LB-10X proved to be too much for the Sentinel. The lasers softened up the Sentinel's armored carapace, and armor-piercing submunitions shredded the gooey-ish armor, digging deep into the soft tissue underneath. Tongues of fire licked from every fracture, and before long the Sentinel succumbed to its damages, crumbling into a charred hulk.
The Battle Hawk and the Wolfhound fared worse. The Wolfhound, losing both arms and one Medium Laser, took the brunt of the Panther's firepower. Its armor was almost gone, and some parts were left hanging on threads of cables and myomer. The Battle Hawk's missile launcher was completely drained, and only one Medium Laser was left firing. But it was enough to reduce the Panther to a crackling heap of metal.
"Enemy lance dispatched. Proceed to the base. Leave nothing unburnt!"
The lance marched toward the Fire Base, now completely defenseless, and rained down their firepower on the structures. Liao soldiers and operatives raced out of the old Davion emplacement, leaving the four mercenary mechs happily turned everything upside down and burnt facilities. Mech repair shops, power generators, gun emplacements, HPG uplinks, and warehouses were all set ablaze, and even the feet-high snow melted.
"Mission accomplished. Return to base. First round is on me!" the Lance Commander chimed. His Wolftrap led the way, followed by his lance mates in happy stride.