CHAPTER 27
FIRST CUT IS THE DEEPEST
Review Corner
The Colonel: Part One is on the way
jdoug4118: I'll try as quickly as I can
Pacifica,
Chara III, Freedom Theater,
Lyran Alliance, Inner Sphere,
March 16, 3065
"We have a new development," Trystan's voice reverberated in vigor, splitting the stillness of dawn with his childlike gusto. The holographic map in front of him illuminated part of his face in a skewed way, giving the impression of a zombie. "The Blazing Aces are leaving Chara III. Their dropship will make a dustoff somewhere on the eastern plain of Starpad. It's an old Union class dropship, a real clunker but can still sting. If we can immobilize it, the Blazing Aces had no means to go off world. They may surrender without a fight."
Trystan's early morning burst caught everybody off guard. Saskia rubbed her eyes, trying to follow where Trystan was going with his briefing. To her right Ronan and Valen held back their yawns without any effort to understand what was going on. Osiris, standing on her left, showed courtesy by shooting a blank stare at Trystan, but it was easy to see that he was as dumbfounded as everybody else. Vicky didn't even look at the holographic map, and Lei Fong bit his lips in annoyance.
"Where do you get this information?" Osiris mumbled halfheartedly.
"I have my sources," Trystan replied.
"Are they reliable? What if this is a trap to flush us out into the open?"
"No. Not gonna happen."
"Are you desperate to gain control of the Blazing Aces that you disregard common sense, or are you getting a fever that your brain cells rot?" Lei Fong joined in sarcastically. "Who's your contact? Can you verify it before we take action?"
"We don't need to. Some of the Blazing Aces operatives are still loyal to me."
"Oh really? The ones that sold you to the pirates?"
"Days past we sought but shadow of the same," Saskia tried to make sense of the situation. "And yet it finds shape in words of our enemy?"
"Look, I know this is hard to believe, but I need you to trust me. The dropship is coming. I need you and your zoid to neutralize it before it reaches the Blazing Aces."
"Me?" Saskia cringed. "Taking attempt at a specter yet to be seen?"
"Saskia, the dropship is a fearsome defense point," Trystan said, half begging. "Even the combined power of our battlemechs is not enough to bring it down. You are the only one capable of dealing with it."
Saskia paused briefly, observing the sincerity in Trystan's face. She pondered if she should go along with Trystan's ploy. Her zoid had already taken more than it could handle and been stripped from its most powerful weapons. Taking on a dropship which, according to Trystan, a lethal weapon platform didn't sound like a good idea.
But Trystan promised her to take her back to Planet Zi, and she gave him her word that she would help him first before he helped her. Seemed like her other options had been taken out of her hands. Besides, her Gilvader would love to stretch its legs. It had been months since it last shot its weapons, and knowing her zoid, she knew it was dying of boredom.
"With all due respect, Commander," Vicky interjected. "If the Princess does not want her fingernails to get chipped, I will to do it. It is my job to support the ground units."
"You wish to die? Go ahead!" Lei Fong sneered at Vicky. "But you're not taking any of these battlemechs, least of all that flying machine! You wanna die, you die walking!"
"Alright, your will, my hands," Saskia stepped in before the situation turned out of control. "See mind filled with mission parameters."
"The dropship will land around 0600 hours," Trystan initiated the briefing. "I don't know the exact location, but you can cut it off in the air. I need the dropship immobilized, not destroyed. Hit one of the engines to immobilize it, then clean up the weapons. Once the weapons are neutralized, Captain Osiris and Lieutenant Lantham will infiltrate the dropship and take control."
"But I am a pilot, not an infantry," Vicky grimaced. "I don't have combat experience as an MI."
"Perhaps changing toilet paper is more agreeable in its undertaking," Saskia flashed a curt smile.
"You're lucky that Trystan fancies your ass!" Vicky was quick to return the barb. "Without your overblown puppy, you are nothing! You are not worthy of shit!"
"We don't have time for this!" Trystan scratched his head in frustration. "Will you girls act like adults?! Lieutenant Lantham, this is all I have. If you choose to decline, you just have to sit out."
"Alright, fine, I'll play grunt," Vicky sighed in defeat, shooting appalling stare at Saskia . "But you'd better utilize me in my capacity next time or I'll leave your unit!"
"I shall move Gilvy to position," Saskia turned around with a huff.
"Take Osiris and Vicky with you," Trystan followed her, leaving the rest of the team dumbfounded. "As soon as you finish your job, drop them off and guide them into the dropship. I know your zoid is looking forward to action, but do not let it destroy the dropship. We need it to get off world. Lei Fong will upload the dropship specs to your database, so you know what to shoot."
"I would never have dreamt of sharing Gilvy with that bitch!" Saskia growled irritatingly.
"You are not sharing your zoid with her so just do your job," Trystan couldn't believe how much the two pilots despised each other. "Saskia, I need you. I need you to do this for us. We cannot afford the Blazing Aces to rendezvous with the dropship. Losing the dropship means the Blazing Aces lose a major fire support and a means to escape off world. It is a massive morale blow for them. They may surrender, saving us a lot of assets. Don't let your conflict with Vicky cloud your judgment. I count on you on this one. We all do."
Saskia shot a conceited grin. "Do not think it a favor."
"Thank you," Trystan returned Saskia's sneer with a sincere smile. Before Saskia realized, he leaned forward and kissed her in the lips.
"You overstep!" Saskia lashed out at him. "The sum is not balanced to warrant the recurrence of it!"
"Actually that was for good luck," Trystan grinned clumsily, winked, then turned around and yelled at the remaining crews who were still waiting for him, "Mechwarriors! Rally on me! We have some mercenaries to beat!"
On normal day Saskia would make Trystan pay dearly. But this journey had been all but normal, and this blonde Swedish kid, oftentimes dark and brimming with vengeance, yet impish and spirited when the mood struck him right, started to pique her interest. She didn't know what she saw in him, yet she couldn't decide if she wanted him as an associate, a colleague, a friend, or more than that.
She moved to her zoid, who picked up her body language and deduced they were going to fight. It started to growl and purr in delight long before she said anything.
"Set teeth and nails to purpose," Saskia said, smiling as she watched her zoid partner gleaming in excitement. "We move to spill blood, long overdue."
The Gilvader responded in a predictable way, short bursts of growls that sounded much like sinister guffaw. It lowered its head and popped up the canopy to get Saskia into the cockpit.
"Gilvy put ears to work," Saskia said as she secured herself on the command couch. "Our enemy is a demon, dispatched from the underworld by Cerberus itself. Yet we are not to have its life. We shall see its arms severed, but head attached. Do not, I repeat, do not make attempt to see bloodlust satisfied. Am I understood?"
The Gilvader, who didn't know how to exist beyond laying waste to its adversaries, responded with disdainful barks.
"Apologies, Gilvy, all options had departed from hands," Saskia sighed. "We are far removed from Mother Zi. Feet mired in a world of shit, where words merit more than deed, and men steal to gain stations. Oh, what I'd kill to see us home! Yet until then, we must stand in their semblance, or fall to undeserved ends."
As the Gilvader continued voicing its displeasure, Lei Fong approached the cockpit, followed by Osiris and Vicky. He hooked up a small tablet to the dashboard, and a schematic of a Union dropship appeared on the main screen. Its weapon turrets were highlighted in various colors.
"The Union dropship is stronger and more powerful than you," Lei Fong said as he tapped various buttons on his tablet. "But you're faster. So use your speed. If you catch it in the air, destroy one of the engines and it will crash land. Its weapons are set to cover all directions but once landed it can't maneuver to bring them all to bear. The best way to attack it is to pick a side and endure the shitstorm. You don't have to disable all weapons, just ones that pose threat to you."
"Understood," Saskia nodded.
"Red is for PPC," Lei Fong pointed at the pointers on the screen. "Nasty sonsofbitches. Knock them out first. Yellow is for missile launcher. They shoot 20 homing missiles per salvo. One doesn't hurt, but 20 will give you headache. Green is for lasers. The Union has many of them but they have limited range. Keep your distance and it won't know what to do with the lasers."
"Gratitude," Saskia shot a small smile. "Spec account aids mission to take proper hold in mind."
"Try not to go overboard," Lei Fong disconnected his tablet from the console. "We have to reuse it for our own escape. The more havoc you wreak, the more stuff I have to fix. Now good luck and happy hunting."
Saskia gave a thumb up as she pushed the button to close the canopy. The red plexiglass dome descended and sealed itself, giving her a sharp jab on the ears. She turned around to observe Osiris and Vicky, tucked comfortably behind her command couch. She snorted as even the slightest image of Vicky hitchhiking in her zoid made her stomach churned. So did Osiris', although to a lesser extent.
"See yourselves anchored," Saskia said then slammed her throttle home. The rocket boosters roared, spitting superheated air that powered the Gilvader into a near-vertical climb. Even the detuned thrust was strong enough to bury her in her seat. Osiris and Vicky, however, were not that lucky. Without seats to hold them, they tumbled all the way to the bulkhead. Osiris' genetically-enhanced reflex helped him regain balance, but Vicky's body flew like a heap of flesh, splattering onto Osiris' midsection. Her butt pinned Osiris' torso to the bulkhead while her endowed breasts smothered the Clanner's face.
"Bastard!" Vicky hissed as she pulled herself up. Her face turned blood red as she realized where Osiris' face had rested seconds ago.
"Get off me, Freebirth!" Osiris pushed her hard, but his jerking maneuver made her slip. She tumbled again, pressing her luscious breasts against him. A proud Clansman, Osiris looked down on Inner Spheroids. But after years without the touch of a woman, Vicky's smooth skin against his cheek gave him an involuntary boner, which made him absolutely livid.
Saskia's lips curled into a smile, enjoying every second of their misery.
The Gilvader climbed above the cloud then levelled up. Saskia turned on her active radar to search for the dropship. It was not long until a big heat signature appeared in her radar. The bulbous structure broke through the cloud, spitting fire from its quadruplet engines. Its exterior gave an impression of a fort: rugged, bedraggled, but impenetrable by even the strongest weapons. Multiple turrets
"Here we go!" Vicky snarled, watching the Blazing Aces logo busted through the cloud. "Let's see if your fighting skill is as good as your flirting!"
Saskia subdued the urge to retaliate and focused on the dropship. He held the Gilvader steady as her crosshair danced on the dropship's hull. A long beep reverberated and the crosshair burnt gold, a sure sign of a hard lock. She fired all Particle Cannons in unison, using the exhaust of an engine as a single target. The bolts gored the nozzle with murderous intention, pumping cinders and burning metals that illuminated the dimly lit atmosphere. But the dropship ate Saskia's opening salvo like it was nothing. The nozzle sputtered in smoke but kept blasting.
The dropship accessed the threat and started rolling to protect its engine. The turrets rolled to bring its weapons to bear. Two azure bolts, similar to the Gilvader's particle shots, burnt through the cloud and savagely cored the Gilvader in the left wing. As the Gilvader reeled, a plethora of missiles leapt from their tubes all over the hull. The Gilvader engaged evasive maneuvers, but with Lei Fong tampering with its thrust, it was not as agile as it thought it was. Dozens of missiles exploded all over the Gilvader's body, shredding armor like paper.
"Damn Lei Fong, what did you do to my zoid?!" Saskia grimaced as she gripped the joystick hard until her hands cramped. "Grav Cannons to purpose! Now!" The four Gravity Cannons lit up, followed by a long shrilling battlecry. Saskia banked hard to the right and fired the cannons, never minded the mission parameter not to destroy the dropship. But instead of the lethal Plana-Tellasite bombs she betted her life on, the cannons spat nickel-ferrous slugs that failed to penetrate the thick armor of the dropship.
"What in Guylos blood is that?!" Saskia lamented. "Drones absent sting?"
"What do you expect, Princess? The dropship's armor is as thick as a battlemech torso! You think you can take it down in one shot?" Vicky jeered.
"I should have! We should have!" Saskia bemoaned. It was a rude awakening, knowing that the Gilvader did not dominate the sky as it did in Planet Zi. Here in the strange universe called the 'Inner Sphere', the once fearsome zoid had been grossly overshadowed, on land by smaller but more effective battlemechs, and in the air by the slow, cumbersome, but strong and virtually impenetrable dropship. It had been reduced to a mere 'flying thing'.
"Get this flying thing out of the way!" Vicky yelled from the back. "You're gonna get us all killed!"
The dropship blasted its rapid-fire cannons, blanketing the zoid with armor-piercing bullets. Driven mad, the Gilvader took control and returned fire with its own autocannons. Ballistic tracers went back and forth, chewing up armor at both ends. The dropship's thick hides could afford such a wild shootout, while the Gilvader's thinner armor started to wear out. Knowing that it was losing, the Gilvader fired its jets to get closer, hoping to even the odds with its melee weapons. But as soon as it went inside the laser range, the dropship lit them up, turning the Gilvader's armor into glowing jelly.
"Dive dive dive!" Saskia returned the control to manual and pushed her joystick as far as it would go. The Gilvader made a steep dive, like a falling pile driver. Its armor had been shredded to bits, and what was left would not enough to sustain another full assault from the dropship. The Gilvader scored some big hits on the dropship armor, but it was so thick that the hits barely made it through the first few layers.
"Pull head from ass and use it for once!" Saskia yelled as she yanked the joystick to level off. "The dropship holds strength far outweighing your own! Head-on engagement offers none but death! The path to victory is beyond teeth and nails upon neck!"
"You realize that you're talking to an animal, don't you?" Vicky sneered. "What are you expecting from an animal? To fight with strategy?"
"Counsel not requested, nor needed!" Saskia harshly replied and maneuvered the Gilvader to attack the dropship from below. She aimed her weapons at the dropship's big rockets, then fired everything she had. But the dropship expected her maneuver. It rolled to the side, exposing its unscathed hull armor to the Gilvader's weapons. Only a handful of ballistics and one Gauss slug hit the engine. The rest of them slammed into the dropship's side, creating a spectacular display of fireworks, but failed to do harm.
The dropship returned fire with its missiles. Hundreds of warheads leapt from the tubes and charged the Gilvader like raindrops. Saskia pushed the throttle as far as she could, but there was no way to escape the missiles. Wave after wave crashed into the Gilvader's rear, disintegrating the remaining armor and piercing the structure. Smoke billowed from two rocket boosters, while the rest started to sputter and cough sparks.
"You suck! You are not qualified for this task!" Vicky started to make her way to the command console. "Get out of the seat! I will finish the job!"
"Fall to reserve or see yourself out!" Saskia pushed Vicky back, but deep inside she began to worry that it would eventually happen. She didn't understand this world. She had not fought a dropship before. She did not understand how these people think and acted. Vicky obviously did. She hated the idea of leaving the Gilvader's control under Vicky's command, but for the sake of the team, she might have to do it.
The Gilvader roared impatiently and started arming its Beam Smasher saws.
"Alright, alright! We do it your way!" Saskia brought the Gilvader to level off. She settled the throttle at half power while lining up her crosshair with the dropship's turrets. The Gilvader let out a loud taunting roar, asking the dropship to give its best shot. The dropship launched everything it had, determined to finish the fight in one decisive strike. Saskia activated the Beam Smashers, which quickly spun to hypersonic speed, creating a massive shield around the Gilvader's body. Ballistics, missiles, and particle bolts hammered the shield without relent, but the shield held fast.
"Good grief! This thing has a shield!" Vicky, for the first time, spoke without venom in her voice.
"What stravag reason held you from utilizing this function?" Osiris chimed in.
"Damaged core. I can only do it once," Saskia said while watching the Gilvader's energy level. The energy bar started to blink and the shield began to diminish, but at that time the dropship had punched itself out. "Gilvy, your turn! Fire everything!"
The Gilvader held nothing back. Barrages of ballistics and beam strands illuminated the dark sky. Saskia guided the crosshair to the dropship turrets and let the zoid empty its ammo bins with reckless abandon. The turrets exploded in mushroom-like fireballs. As the Gilvader got within an arm's length with the dropship, Saskia jerked her joystick, and the dragon zoid pulled up while swinging its bladed tail toward the dropship's engine. The tailblade split the nozzle in half before tearing the turbine apart. The Gilvader retracted its tail just seconds before the engine erupted, spewing burning parts every which way. The dropship staggered to stay afloat, but with just 3 engines it had only one way to go. It used the remaining engines to slow down its dive, until it crash landed in a plume of smoke and dust.
"Hands of skill yet again proved master over fatuous claim," Saskia chuckled victoriously as he landed the Gilvader not far from the dropship. "Gilvy, provide path for boarding party!"
The Gilvader marched with its horn glowing in purple glory, and its four Beam Smasher saws whirring in high pitch. The dropship fired whatever weapons it had left, but the dragon quickly smothered them with overwhelming firepower. It came within contact range and shoved its saws up the nearest bay door. The screeching metal screamed through the plain. The metal door held fast but the Gilvader was relentless. It added extra pressure on the saws until the door split into 3 parts. It retracted the saws and headbutted the door, which immediately crumbled in loud clangs.
"Provision formed," Saskia lowered the cockpit and opened the canopy. "Your turn."
Osiris didn't expect much resistance, but still a few dropship crew members fired their guns as he entered the dropship. He took cover behind the hull, examining the situation inside while planning his entry. By the sound of the gunfire, he estimated 5 armed men were taking up resistance, even though they knew it was futile.
"Great! Why didn't she just finish the job and kill all these pests?" Vicky grumbled as she obliviously hid behind Osiris. "I didn't sign up for this shit!"
"Make yourself useful," Osiris sneered as he handed in his 12-gauge Remington and Goncz pistol to Vicky. "You know how to use them, quiaff?"
"Wait, wait, what do I do with these?" Vicky asked nervously as she almost fumbled the shotgun.
"Shoot!" Osiris drew his kukri from his belt. "I need cover fire!"
"Shoot what? I don't even know what to shoot!"
"Anything!" Osiris started to lose patience. "Target the coolant tank to create diversion. Shoot until it explodes."
"Wait, what?" Vicky didn't know where Osiris was going with this. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Shoot, or cower under the steel dragon!" Osiris growled in disgust. "I will report your combat effectiveness, or lack thereof!"
"Aw crap!" Vicky cocked the shotgun and came out to the open, firing blindly. The dropship crews returned fire, forcing her to get back behind cover. She sprang out again, firing the shotgun until it ran out of ammo, then blasted the Goncz without particular target, praying that Osiris actually had a plan beside making her look foolish.
As Vicky traded shots with the dropship crews, Osiris dashed into the dropship. Stray bullets from both sides whizzed behind his back, forcing him to duck and crisscross his path. He saw a dropship crew firing his Rorynex at the same time he turned toward his direction. The dropship crew switched target but Osiris threw his kukri at him. The curved blade gored the dropship crew on the left chest, squeezing an agonizing groan. As the dropship crew sloshed to the ground, Osiris grabbed his Rorynex and sprinted toward the other direction. Two more dropship crews fired their machine guns at him. He blasted his Rorynex, emptying the clip on one gunman, then held the machine gun by the barrel and clubbed the other one with its stock. The dropship crew tumbled like a log. Again, Osiris drew the crew's sidearm then bolted toward the remaining gunmen, using the muzzle flash as his beacon. He fired the autopistol at the muzzle flashes, heard the mortal screams, then ran back to the first man he killed to retrieve his kukri. He went to the elevator and pushed the button to the command center.
The remaining dropship crews didn't even try to resist. The image of the kukri, still dripping with blood, was enough to force them to surrender. Osiris locked them in the passenger quarter, then set up comlink with Saskia, "Dropship occupied. Mission accomplished."
Saskia relayed the message to the rest of the team. "Trystan, dropship had fallen to grips."
"Excellent!" Trystan chimed. "Hold position. Now it's my turn to spill blood!"