CHAPTER 10
Pummelo, Outworlds Alliance,
May 23, 3074
The coastal defense at the offshore refinery paled in comparison to the one on the mountain. Only 5 turrets defended the entire facility, spread over a couple mile radius, both in land and on water. The only good thing about the defense grid was that the turret control tower was located on top of a rock formation jutting from the water. Only mechs with jump jets would be able to access it.
Neptune's Jagermech rested in the water, waist deep. Ian's Jagermech was on his left, sandwiched between his and Alec's. Joezen's Jagermech stood at the ready on his right, shifting its weapons up and down in a sweeping motion. A few dozen meters away Mogami's lance formed another firing line facing the open sea, certain that the Kuritan would come from the water rather than from land.
The freezing water would dissipate heat even faster than the cold air, so the heat-prone Jagermechs could fire their weapons as much as the mechwarriors wish. But the water also created drag, so much the heavy mechs could only move at 55-percent of their nominal speed. They would have to rely on their armor to blunt enemy's attack. And that was a big problem. There was not enough time to fix the armor of 8 battlemechs. Every single one of them still carried the damage from the previous battle. Neptune's armor was only patched partially. The front torso armor was still marred with holes and cracks. His lance mates and Mogami's lance shared similar fate, and it worried him, since he knew the Kuritans would come with more intensity.
Neptune's radar beeped, and the much-too-familiar Grand Dragon appeared again on his screen. Last time Neptune was gung-ho enough to scorn the Kuritan ace. Now he wasn't as cocky, and if Talon Sergeant Drake offered him another negotiation, he would definitely accept it. But he had a feeling that Drake wasn't there to negotiate.
"Davion units," Drake spoke smugly over the comlink. "You have fought admirably, but you have been defeated. The Draconis Combine had besieged the facility from all directions. You have no escape. Lay down your weapons and your lives will be spared. If you refuse, we will kill you to the last man."
"You said the same thing last time. Yet we are still here. I'm still holding Master Sergeant Kasumi…"
"If you touch her, I swear…"
"Perhaps we can discuss terms," Mogami interjected. "You want her back, we want information about Brian's Cache. Trade possessions and make everybody happy."
"We do not negotiate with Davion terrorists! The only term you get is to return Master Sergeant Kasumi safe and sound in timely manner!" Drake growled. There was a sense of urgency in his voice, absent on the first engagement. "Failure to meet this demand results in annihilation!"
"If you make attempt at us, we will kill Master Sergeant Kasumi!" Mogami made sure Drake understood the gravity of the situation.
"Master Sergeant Kasumi is an honorable member of Okita family! Her death will raise a thousand warriors in her stead, each one of them is laden with lust for Davion's blood!" Drake's voice turned dark, accompanied by gnashing teeth. "Return her, or each and every one of you will suffer in flames!"
"Then our answer is the same," Neptune replied with equal intensity. "See you in the battlefield!"
As soon as Drake cut off the comlink, a company of Sea Skimmers rode the waves toward the offshore facilities. A lance of them were off the Sniper type, launching missiles into the air as soon as they came into range. The missiles sailed past the mechs and slammed into the offshore rigs. Only lightly armored, the rigs immediately caught fire. The smoke covered the dusk sun, but the towers of fire provided eerie sources of light.
"Well, so much for negotiation!" Mogami grunted.
"I told you they don't come to talk!" Neptune shot Mogami with a terse message. He switched to general frequency. "Legends! I want those boats gone before they reach 500 meters out!"
"Easy!" Ian blurted and fired his Gauss rifles at the incoming boats. The metallic balls looked like a meteor in the fire-lit coast. One missed the target by a mere inch and ended up in a geyser a dozen meter behind it. The other smashed into the bridge, killing all but the helm officer. The boat veered to the right, forcing two other Sea Skimmers to take evasive maneuver. Smoke billowed from the command center.
Alec and Joezen followed up Ian, trading fire with a few Sea Skimmers. Neptune lined up his crosshair at the multi-barreled launcher of another Sea Skimmer. The tubes wafted white smoke, and Neptune gripped his joystick hard as the missiles blasted his torso. Fragmented armor sprayed to a wide area. Neptune realigned his crosshair and fired off. Four traces of energy and projectiles leapt from the Jagermech's arms. Geysers of near misses sandwiched the boat, but the laser carved the paper-thin deck armor. Smoke wafted from a grotesque fissure on the hull. The Sea Skimmer banked left to throw Neptune's aim, but Neptune locked on the boat and unleashed a second volley of autocannons. The armor piercing shells ripped the side armor like paper. The boat began to list and the crews decided the risk was not worth it.
"I want three shots down the range! Make them count!" Mogami directed her lance. She targeted a Sea Skimmer and fired her Gauss rifle, then cursed when her slug only ended up in a near miss. Sam picked up where she left off; her Heavy PPC hugged the waves and drilled a deep crater on the Skimmer's hull. The Sea Skimmer charged the mechs full speed, but Alex tagged it with her Plasma bolt. The Sea Skimmer engulfed in flames, leaving it dead in the water.
Clover's Assassin launched a 5-missile salvo at a Sea Skimmer, then received the exact sum in return. The missiles detached a few armor platings, hastily welded to the chassis by overworked technicians, but didn't breach the structure. Only one of her missiles hit the Skimmer, but enough to pull a crack on the thin armor below the waterline. The boat staggered, and tried to pull away when Mogami's Gauss slug exploited the crack. The boat listed rapidly and the crews abandoned ship soon after.
The Sea Skimmers were a few hundred meters away from their weapon range when another company appeared on the opposite directions. A dozen helicopters came from the land, trying to catch the mechs off guard from behind. The two turrets near the silos on the shore picked up three helicopters, but the rest of them rained down their missiles on the turrets until they were nothing but rubbles.
"Gunships! A company of Cavalry Attack on our six!" Alex cried out.
"Neptune, keep your lance on the boats! I'll handle the chopper!" Mogami turned her Sentinel around. "Take them down, Girls!" She swiveled up and got a hard lock on the closest Cavalry then fired her Gauss rifle. The slug split the Cavalry attack's fuselage. Clover's missiles rose next, charging the next Cavalry in line like mindless drones. Only two hit the fuselage, and although they failed to bring it down, they were enough to damage the tail rotor. Sam and Alex waited patiently for the choppers to come into range.
The choppers launched their counterattack, singling Mogami with their missiles. Mogami crisscrossed her way erratically, but the water hindered her mech so much it was almost a sitting duck. No less than 2 dozen missiles charred the Sentinel's hide, and although the armor plating held up admirably, it barely hung on.
"Get these bastards off my back!" Mogami yelled. The armor screen made her cringe. She lined up with another Cavalry Attack, then fired, but her targeting system had been screwed by the Cavalry's relentless assault. The slug zipped past the Cavalry and disappeared into the smoke canopy. But Alex finished what Mogami started. Her long, blinding plasma bolt torched the Cavalry midair. The fireball gracefully fell into the water.
"Mogami's in trouble!" Neptune inspected Mogami's Sentinel on his screen. "Joezen, back up Mogami! Alec, Ian, keep pressure on the boats!"
"Aye aye!" Joezen's Jagermech turned and raised a thick anti-aircraft fusillade. It didn't hit anything, but it forced the Cavalry Attacks to break formation and engaged evasive maneuvers. Sam, Alex, and Clover hunted down the Cavalry Attacks one by one, while Mogami begrudgingly took an early exit from the engagement.
Ian's Gauss shots took out the majority of the Sea Skimmers, while the rest were split between Neptune and Alec. But just when they thought they would call it an early day, another company appeared at the edge of their radar. A company of Crabs and Chimeras, led by none other than the Grand Dragon from the mountain plant, strode across the shallow water toward the offshore refinery. The water made them move at a snail's pace, but their ghoulish advance still made everybody nervous.
"Commander Korra, we are outgunned and outnumbered!" Neptune resolved to his superior. "We need reinforcement now!"
"Draw them in closer!" Korra replied. "I want to trap them in a tight box!"
"Ma'am, we're hanging on a thin thread! We're going to die if we don't get reinforcement soon!"
"And they're getting away if we rush to close the door on them, and we'll have to fight them another day! I want this to end right here, right now! Draw them in more!"
"Ma'am…"
"You're a mercenary, Neptune! You signed your name in blood to get paid! Draw them in!"
Neptune gritted his teeth. Korra's plan would work, but with a great cost, and Neptune just hated to be in the wrong end of the plan. And it didn't feel right. His lance and Mogami's lance had to give up their lives for Korra's men, and they would be the one who got the credit and the gold. He started to feel like he was being used. The pay would be higher if there were less mechwarriors to share the bounty.
But there was no way out. Either he carried Korra's order, or went AWOL. And Neptune was not about to turn his back on the battlefield.
"All hands! Staggered formation! Concentrate fire on one Kuritan at a time, starting from the Grand Dragon!" He put his crosshair on the Grand Dragon's chest and fired his lasers as soon as the crosshair turned gold. His bolts carved a deep crater on the Grand Dragon's left torso. Alec's and Joezen's armor-piercing shells drilled pockmarks all over its body. Ian's Gauss slug lacerated its leg armor, and Mogami's own slug cut a swath of destruction on the Grand Dragon's right shoulder. Sam, Alex, and Clover were still out of range.
The Grand Dragon wobbled yet unfazed. It staggered and hesitated, but kept charging forward, energizing half a dozen CRB-30 – with Extended Range PPCs – to punish the defenders for drawing first blood. The defense line quickly crumbled and disarrayed. The Cicada and Clint fell backward after getting tagged by 2 PPC bolts each. Ian's Jagermech twisted, and the radar went offline, rendering its Gauss' superior range useless. Neptune, Alec, Joezen, and Clover only got near misses, but it was not a base of celebration. The next round could be theirs, especially when the zippy Chimeras reached their missile range.
The Grand Dragon singled out the Sentinel, and the effect was devastating. The upper carapace was completely blown off, and the missiles clobbered the structure. The Sentinel keeled over in a plume of smoke.
"Mogami!" Neptune hollered.
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Mogami's voice crackled amidst statics. "I'm out! Mech's coming offline!"
"We can't hold the line, Boss!" Alec stated the obvious.
"Mogami bail out!" Neptune desperately fired his weapons at the Grand Dragon. "Commander Korra, the Kuritans are chewing up my men! We need immediate support or they'll walk all over us!"
"Acknowledged. All units! Let's wipe out these Kuritan sonsofbitches!"
By the time the Kuritan mechs realized they were walking into a trap, it was too late. Four cascaded PPC bolts from the massive Awesome quickly reduced a Crab to scrap metal. A wall of missiles from the Quickdraw and the Archer halted the Chimeras from further advance. And the lanky Grasshopper dropped right in the middle of the Crab formation, leading the light lance to pick the Crabs apart from point blank range.
But the Grand Dragon slid past Korra's mechs, and despite Neptune's best effort to kill it, it fired a deadly strike at the Sentinel. The brilliant azure bolt crushed the Sentinel's gyro, and the 40-ton relic tumbled backward, disappearing under the waves.
"Mogami! Sergeant Mogami!" Neptune searched the vicinity frantically. There was no sign of ejection seat anywhere within 500-meter radius, and no beacon distress signal in close proximity. The water where the Sentinel stood last was stained with oil. There was no visual contact with any kind of buoy or beacon, so his best guess what that Mogami was still in her mech.
"Sergeant Mog…" Neptune's effort was rudely interrupted by proximity alarm. The Grand Dragon's missiles found its mark on his right torso, dangerously close to the hastily-patched-up damage from the fight on the mountain. The damage control screen went haywire with all sorts of warning, but Neptune didn't need the details. He had to kill the Grand Dragon quickly or he would end up like Mogami.
"Sergeant Mogami is down!" Neptune broadcast his distress call in general frequency. "Somebody retrieve Sergeant Mogami from her mech! I am going to kill this Kuritan bastard!" He punched his UAC5 triggers repeatedly, sending intermittent burst at the Grand Dragon. "Come on, asshole! Let's finish what we started!"
His short bursts tagged the Grand Dragon on the torso but only made it madder. Its PPC bolt flashed again, filling the air with supercharged particles that aimed to disrupt the electronic circuit of the Jagermech. Neptune yanked his joystick as hard as he could. The Jagermech strained to arch backward, missing the bolt by a mere inch. Neptune could feel the particles streaked right in front of the cockpit. Five missiles came straight at him behind the PPC bolt, and Neptune could only cover his face as the warheads erupted all along the Jagermech's upper torso. Ferro-fibrous platings flew every which way, but the structures remained intact, and that was all Neptune cared about.
Taking advantage of the Grand Dragon's recycle time, Neptune fired his large lasers in tandem. The Grand Dragon's left torso glowed in orange, and the superheated armor dripped into the frigid water in loud sizzles. The Grand Dragon moved in circle, but the water bogged it down to the pace Neptune could comfortably trace. His UAC5's spun in high speed, spitting cannon rounds faster than a blink of an eye, and blew the Grand Dragon's left arm apart. The Grand Dragon lurched to the right, but pulled itself back up before completely submerged into the water.
Regaining balance, the Grand Dragon whipped another particle bolt at the Jagermech, hitting the unprotected heat sinks on its right torso. Neptune groaned as the Jagermech rocked back and forth. Two heat sinks disintegrated in a fiery blast. The coolant caught fire, and temperature quickly crept up to shut down level, even in the frigid water.
The Grad Dragon followed up with its missiles, but Neptune turned to the other direction, exposing its left side to the incoming missiles. Three missiles tore the left arm, shredding armor and everything underneath. A burst of sparks marked the end of the Jagermech's left arm. The left UAC5 and ER Large Laser went offline, and the left arm fell out of place, dangling on a few strands of cables and myomers.
Neptune realized he had to close the gap with the Grand Dragon to get the upper hand, so he cranked his mech to full speed and charged the Kuritan mech head on. His medium pulse lasers blitzed, showering the Grand Dragon with murderous bolts. The Grand Dragon zigzagged its path but a few bursts singed the stored missiles. The left torso erupted, and if not because of CASE, the explosion would have been more catastrophic.
The Grand Dragon quivered but still had some fight left. Its ERPPC sparked as soon as it was ready. The bolt sheared the Jagermech's left arm off completely. As the Jagermech staggered, the Grand Dragon circled the Jagermech, trying to avoid counterattack. If the ammunition bins hadn't been blown off, the fight would've been over for Neptune.
Instead, Neptune rotated the Jagermech's arm and sneaked a shot at the Grand Dragon's damaged left torso. The engine bled fire, and the Grand Dragon was dead in the water. Fire engulfed the mech's upper body, and Neptune knew the fight was over.
"Eat this, Kuritan scumbag!" Neptune growled as he mashed his trigger. His laser bolts scourged the thin rear armor of the Grand Dragon. Three separate explosions split the Grand Dragon's upper body. A long burst of smoke leapt from the cockpit, seconds before the Grand Dragon collapsed and splashed into the water.
With the ace of the Kuritan gone, Neptune took a quick scan of the battlefield. The backbone of the Kuritan attackers had been broken. Only a few Kuritan mechs remained, squirming under pressure. The Lexington Legends lost limbs and platings all over the place, but they overwhelmed the Kuritans with everything they had. Commander Korra's Awesome was spitting fire and smoke, but the company leader was too adamant to abandon her mech, and kept the offensive running. Two Chimeras desperately pummeled the Cicada with their missiles, but the Archer came to the Cicada's aid and block the Chimeras' missiles with its wide torso. As the Archer reeled, the Cicada fired its Heavy PPC with impunity, quickly turning one Chimera into scrap metal. The other Chimera turned around to escape before Legends' Pursuit Lance mugged it.
"Sergeant Mogami?" Neptune called for his counterpart. "Sergeant Mogami? Does anybody see Sergeant Mogami?"
"She hadn't punched out, Sir," Alex replied with a slight concern in her voice. "I think she is still in her mech."
Neptune didn't think twice when he removed his helmet, cooling vest, and combat boots, then climbed out his mech and jumped into the water. The frigid water gave him a shock, as if he was stabbed by a million needles, but he defied all pain and dove toward the last place he saw Mogami's Sentinel perched. Despite the massive mech battle on the surface, it was surprisingly clear underwater. It took him a moment to spot the Sentinel, or what was left of it, lying on the sea bed with oil and bubbles spilling from every joints. He swam toward the cockpit and saw Mogami, lying unconscious, still strapped on her command couch. Neptune pushed the emergency exit button, and the plexiglass canopy blasted open. He released the straps then pulled Mogami out of the cockpit, knowing that he had only seconds before his body shut down from hypothermia. But if he could get Mogami to the surface, she might have a chance.
He was close to passing out when something enveloped him and pulled him – and Mogami – out of the water. Next time he knew, he was looking at the ludicrous face of the Grasshopper, while Korra's Awesome loomed behind it.
"That's the stupidest thing I've seen anybody have ever done, Lance Commander Neptune!" Korra's voice boomed over the external speaker. "What the hell are you thinking?"
Neptune could only smile before the cold took him out… with Mogami in his arms.