CHAPTER 8

Pummelo, Outworlds Alliance,
May 20, 3074

The presence of the sole Grand Dragon on the radar screen was enough to throw the Davion loyalists into frenzy. Neptune elbowed his way through a crowd of mechwarriors and technicians to get a clear view of the overhead map. An archetypal Kuritan mech, the Grand Dragon stood just outside the turret's range, showing no intention to break through the thick laser and ballistic defense. The mechwarrior knew full well that the Davions had taken control of the command center, and reprogrammed the turrets to shoot the Kuritans. Yet it made itself known, making sure that the Davions knew that it came for war, and the turret grid wouldn't stop it.

"What is he doing?" Alex mused.

"He comes for the POW," Mogami replied. "She was the ranking officer of the defense force of this facility, and I suspect she was more than that."

"So what's this asshole going to do? Negotiate? Kuritans don't negotiate!" Joezen blurted. "They don't have what we need. And even if they do, they won't give it to us. All they want is our heads."

"Let's hear what he has to say," Neptune opened a communication channel with the Grand Dragon. "Unidentified Dragon, you have 1 minute to state your name and intention. Fail to response and we will regard you as a hostile unit subject to termination."

"Attention Davion units, this is Talon Sergeant Drake," a man draped in mechwarrior gear popped up on the comm screen. Nothing much was revealed underneath the neurohelmet, but his small dark eyes pierced the screen with a raging intensity. "You have something that belongs to the Draconis Combine. Return it immediately, and your lives will be spared. If you refuse, I will bring destruction upon you like you've never seen before."

As far as Neptune was concerned, he had 2 choices. He agreed with Mogami, that the POW had something of value the Kuritans were not willing to lose, and he could use it to put the Kuritans in a very debilitating position. Strategic grounds. Logistics. Ammunitions. Battlemechs. All for the life of the POW.

But would the Kuritans be willing to give up their war superiority? The only language the Kuritans understood was honor for the country. The tradition of seppuku was a testament of their military doctrine: victory or death. They would rather die than dishonor their mother land. What would the life of one mechwarrior matter compared to honor for Draconis Combine?

"This is Lance Commander Neptune, Lexington Legends Mercenary Command. See you in the battlefield." With that, he cut off the comlink.

Mogami's eyes bled fire. "How irresponsible of you! You just destroyed the only bargaining chip we have against the Kuritans! We can trade the prisoner's life with war commodities for our effort! What authority do you have to shut down prospect of negotiation?!"

"The one that shows you don't do your homework on your enemy," Neptune shoved the technicians – Kuritan technicians – out of the console and ushered them out of the room. "Kuritans do not negotiate. As soon as we deliver the POW, they will obliterate us with any means necessary. With the POW in our possession, at least they will watch their fire, if she means that much to them." He turned to Alec and Ian. "Lock the techs in the warehouse! I don't want any Kuritans near the command center while we're fighting!"

"Do not forget your place, Lance Commander! You are not the ranking officer!" Mogami growled. "You and I stand on equal ground! I will not let you put my lance on unnecessary risks!"

"I am keeping your lance alive! If your lancemates follow you to negotiate, the Kuritans will kill you to the last woman! The only thing they respect is fight to the death, and they will not negotiate until they are bleeding dry! Our best chance to negotiate lies in the battlefield!"

"By the time you realize your sore mistake, you're already dead! The Kuritans are intelligent warriors, and underestimating them will only get you killed!" Mogami snarled. "But I guess I can't expect more from mercenaries! Money is your concern, and you just dive headlong into the battlefield with no plan!"

"Sarge! Sergeant Mogami!" Sam interjected. "Multiple bogeys coming inbound!"

Neptune took only a second to see the upper part of the overhead map turning red with the Kuritan's heat signatures. "Everybody on battle stations! NOW!" He turned to Mogami, looking straight into her eyes. "I'm a mercenary, not a politician! I'm here to fight, not talk! If you want to reason with them, be my guest! But as of now, they are here to fight, and we're all dead if you don't get your ass on your mech and start shooting!"

The mechwarriors scrambled out of the command room, and Neptune was about to do the same when Mogami grabbed his arm and turned him toward her. "If you're wrong about this, I'll hunt you down and I'll kick your ass in the afterlife!"

"Then I'll see you in hell!" Neptune yanked his arm free and sprinted toward his mech. He strapped himself down and started up his Jagermech in quick succession. The radar sprung to life and immediately broadcast the Kuritan's ID signatures: a company of main battle tanks, and a lance of heavy battlemechs. The tank's low profile gave them advantage against the turret grid, which was set up to hit battlemechs.

Keeping his thumb on the trigger, Neptune brought his Jagermech to the center of the turret grid. Joezen was already waiting there, and Alec and Ian joined him not too far behind. Mogami's lance formed a barricade in front of the mech hangar a few dozen meters right of Neptune's position.

"What do you think, Boss? A lance of Tokugawa, a lance of Manticore, and a lance of LRM Carriers," Joezen reported. "Backed up by a lance of hard-hitting mechs. A Grand Dragon, a Crab, a Daimyo, and a Chimera. Looks like they really want to bust through the grid."

"Legends! I want a firing line, and I want fusillade down the range! Hold the line no matter what happens! Attack your closest target, and don't let go until it goes up in flames!" Neptune laid out his plan. "Sergeant Mogami! Destroy anything that passes us! Defend the generator at all cost! We can't afford to lose power!"

"Acknowledged!" Mogami replied with a huff. She didn't even attempt to hide her contempt toward Neptune's plan, but she carried it out nonetheless. Her lance fell back to the back of the complex, covering both the generator and the turret control tower.

"Here we go!" Neptune cried out as the front turrets started trading blows with the Kuritan tanks. "Hold the line! Fire at will!"

The Manticores and Tokugawas charged the turret grid, taking the brunt of the laser and ballistic batteries from the turrets. A cloud of missiles blanketed the heavy tanks. Smoke and fragmented armor obscured the view, and soon it was hard to distinguish the missile's explosions from the tanks' muzzle flashes. Everything jumbled up in a large, black oily smokescreen.

The tanks returned fire with equal intensity, and the outermost turrets crumbled into fiery rubbles. The Kuritan pushed forward, with the LRM carriers raining down missiles upon the turrets. The mechs intensified the pressure with their long-ranged energy weapons, bringing down more turrets. Soon they found a hole in the turret grid and capitalized on it. Under the bombardment of the LRM carriers and the mechs, two Tokugawa tanks slipped through the defense, with others eyeing for similar opportunities.

Neptune took a long-drawn breath and let his weapons go. His lasers turned the armor of a Tokugawa into a molten slag and his ballistics carved deep trenches on the bubbling mass that threatened to break the tank apart. Temperature spiked inside the cockpit, but the double heat sinks quickly dissipated the waste heat. The Tokugawa launched a fierce counterattack with its shotgun, staggering the Jagermech. Neptune held his joystick steady, then fired another salvo, holding down his trigger to let his autocannons roar with reckless abandon. The ballistic streams tore into the armor and torched the engine. The tank burst into flames then drifted aimlessly.

The Grand Dragon led the mechs to carve a swath toward the HQ building. The turrets shifted target, now singling the mechs with laser strands and missile barrages. The LRM carriers upped the pressure, taking down more turrets paving the way for two more Tokugawa to breach the turret grid. A Manticore found another path to strike the HQ building, with the other three lining up for equal opportunity.

"Sergeant Mogami!" Neptune yelled.

"I'm on it!" Mogami turned her Sentinel to face the Manticore. "All hands! I want all guns at the Manticore! Take it out!" Her nickel-ferrous slug smashed into the Manticore's right hull, shredding armor to ribbons. Sam's Heavy PPC and Alex's missiles wreaked equal damage on the left side. Clover's plasma shot capped the turret, though failed to subdue it.

The Manticore shrugged off the attack and fired a salvo of particle bolts and missiles at the HQ. The thick concrete dulled the attack, though the heft of the attack was greatly felt. The south corner of the building split, and although it was not enough to breach the wall, it stamped a blueprint of how to bring down the building in a quick and easy fashion.

Mogami fired her Gauss rifle as soon as it recycled, and the slug grazed the turret, displacing the half-round structure from its moorings. Misaligned and off centered, the Manticore swiveled toward her, hoping to still catch the Sentinel with its LRM-10, but Clover's plasma beam put an end to its run. Fire belched from every hole, and the Manticore ceased to moved.

The Daimyo and Chimera made a bold dash, but the remaining turrets put up a saturated fire so dense the two medium mechs were forced to back up. Their front armor was savaged. The Grand Dragon took the charge and destroyed a couple more turret to open up a crack in the defense grid.

"Ian! Smoke the LRM carriers! Alec, Joezen, hold the Manticore back! I'm going after the Dragon!" Neptune shifted his Jagermech to close the gap. The Crab took a half-round route to exploit the gap while the Grand Dragon charged the Jagermech headlong in a contest of superiority.

"Let's dance, asshole!" Neptune gritted his teeth. The Dragon's azure bolt smashed into his right shoulder. As the particle bolt dug into the ferro-fibrous, the straps dug into his flesh, reminding him unkindly of the killing potential of that bolt, and not to get another one. He took a step back and fired a barrage of lasers and cannon shells at the Dragon's midst. Half of the barrage shredded the armor on the center torso. The Dragon held fast, then launched a multi-missile salvo from its cascaded launchers. Neptune pivoted to protect his damaged torso, and the warheads ate a ton of armor on his right arm. Klaxon blared in his cockpit, warning him about the damage on the right arm shielding.

The Manticore trio moved in to mug Neptune, but Alec and Joezen cut off their routes. Their cannons barked, spitting autocannon shells to join force with laser bolts and missiles from the turrets. The Manticore returned fire but the pressure was too intense. One laser bolt slipped past a crack on a Manticore's carapace and cooked the ammunition bins. The tank exploded in a fireball, forcing the other two to crisscross their way to avoid splash damage. Alec and Joezen concentrated fire on the lead Manticore, reducing the hull into smelter. Smoke billowed from the tank, and the other Manticore used it as a smokescreen as it turned away.

The Crab, meanwhile, managed to slip past the dueling mechs and made a mad dash at the HQ. Its lasers set up major fire on the east wall.

"Sam, Alex, swing around that Crab and stab it from behind! Clover, with me!" Mogami set up her defensive pattern against the very dangerous mech. Her Gauss slug whizzed a mere inch away from the Crab's cockpit. Acknowledging the threat, the Crab twisted and showered the Sentinel with laser beams. Mogami bit her lips as the front armor of her Sentinel turned to superheated mush. Molten armor dripped from the torso. She turned right to expose her still pristine left armor to the Crab.

"Bail out, Sarge, I got this one!" Clover slipped past the Sentinel and fired a long burst of plasma. The superheated beam drilled the Crab on the right torso, adding heat to the already steamy laser boat. The Crab turned to disengage the Sentinel – Clint tandem but inadvertently fell into another tag team. Sam's Heavy PPC cored the center torso, while Alex's missiles tore exploited the barren spot. Desperate, the Crab fired both large lasers, striking both the Cicada and Assassin mid torso. But the maneuver put the heat level in critical, and the Crab was forced to back out.

"This is my land, bitch!" Mogami snarled as she hit his trigger. The muffled thump of her Gauss rifle eerily echoed through the complex, ending in a high-pitched screech when it found home at the Crab's right torso. Sparks showered like a waterfall. The Crab attempted rebound, but a well-placed volley by Sam and Alex cut through the engine casing, and the Crab went down in a plume of smoke.

The victory was, however, short lived. Four more heat signature appeared on the small pass behind the complex, exactly where Neptune and Mogami came into the base a few days ago.

"Ambush! Two Panther and two Jenners at the back door!" Alex exclaimed.

"Sam, Alex, Clover, take them down! Neptune! The Kuritans are creeping up on our six!"

"Alec, Joezen, cover Sergeant Mogami! Defend the generator at all cost!" Neptune sidestepped a vicious missile attack from the Grand Dragon. "Ian, what's your sitrep?"

"Getting pretty hot in here but I manage!" Ian replied amidst burst of explosions. His Jagermech had been trading blows with a lance of LRM carriers, and his armor suffered a great deal for that. Coolant and gear oil bled from every part of its body, and the armor had been scraped to almost nonexistent. But the equally thin armor of the LRM carriers was no match for the Jagermech's twin Gauss rifle. Out of four, only one was left fully operational. Two had been left charred hulks and the other one was smoking heavily.

At the rear end of the complex, the Jenner held back the Davions while the Panthers used their long-ranged battery to take down the turret control tower. The Jenner didn't stand much chance against four medium and two heavy mechs, and quickly succumbed to their damages. But they bought enough time for the Panthers to sink four salvos into the turret control tower. With a loud groan the tower crumbled, and all turrets disappeared from radar.

"Turret down!" Mogami cried out; a mix of remorse and panic garnished her voice.

"Shit!" Neptune cringed. With the turret grid down, the Daimyo and Chimera went back in the battle, now backing up the Grand Dragon. The remaining LRM carrier maintained safe distance from Ian's Gauss rifle, but the Tokugawa tanks moved in to trap the Jagermech in a crossfire. With Alex and Joezen and Mogami's lance out of position, Neptune and Ian were left to defend the front side by themselves against six vengeful Kuritans.

"Fall back! Everybody fall back to the command center!" Neptune devised his last stand. Multiple PPC bolts rushed toward him, and his Jagermech staggered hard as its right arm breached. His radar screen went blank, overloaded by multiple PPC shots. But Neptune wouldn't go down easy. Putting his mech in a constant backpedal, he lined up his crosshair at the Grand Dragon. His pulse laser cannons pumped up a string of energy bolts, half of which stabbed the Grand Dragon center mass. His large laser and ultra-autocannon incised the Dragon's shoulder, damaged by the turret grid less than 5 minutes ago. The engine went critical and the entire shoulder blew up, tossing the left arm spinning in the air. The Grand Dragon reeled to the left, but regained footing in a matter of seconds.

"An arm for an arm, sonofabitch!" Neptune grimaced. The remaining Tokugawa sandwiched him at 10 o'clock and 2 o'clock position. Their nozzle flashed, sending multitude of strands to his midst. Half of them wiped out the remaining ferro fibrous platings on his front hull. Neptune shrugged it off. He kept his crosshair centered on the Grand Dragon chest. His UAC5 pumped the last rounds, and fragmented armor flew in every direction. His twin medium pulse cannons sent steady streams of laser bolts at the Dragon, which opened up bad gashes on its front armor.

But the Chimera found its sweet spot and sent a school of warheads at the Jagermech's midst. Neptune pulled all the stops to get out of the way – MRM20 were dumbfires – but nearly half of them slammed into the Jagermech's right arm. Its large laser carved a deep crater on the right torso, and an unlucky shot from the Daimyo destroyed two heat sinks. Black smoke seeped into the cockpit, and Neptune knew that his mech wouldn't last much longer.

Just when the Chimera lined up for the killing blow, a train of missiles stopped it dead on its track. The Chimera recuperated admirably, but a Heavy PPC bolt and a plasma javelin crunched its boxy torso. The Chimera wobbled hard, and on its way to realign its crosshair with the Jagermech when a Gauss strike hit it squarely on its midsection. The hull caved in, and the Chimera's torso burst in an earth-shattering explosion.

Smiling, Neptune mashed his trigger with childlike gusto, and a trio of laser strands gutted the Grand Dragon from just under the cockpit down to the gyro. All kinds of fluid gushed out of the gash, and the Grand Dragon ceased all advance. It turned back, and the Daimyo covered its back. The tanks put their gear in reverse, but making no attempt to shoot.

"Enemies are retreating," Mogami said in relief. "Stand down. Let them lick their wound and assess the situation. Hopefully they come to their senses and willing to negotiate."

"I couldn't agree more," Neptune chuckled. "Next time they come, we'll do it your way."