Chapter 23

May 14th, 3025

North of Triple-M district

New Syria

Suk II

The countdown timer on Emily's readout decided to do a dramatic shift to the center of her vision. Apparently since there's nothing going on, my AI thought it'd be a good idea to put huuuuuge numbers in my face. 0059. 55 seconds to go.

She was about to speak, when Ifrit keyed up before she could. "OOOooOOoOoOoOoooo…"

"For the fifty-second time tonight, knock it off, Ifrit." Romeo's voice. He sounded a little more than irritated at this point. "If your 'mech is haunted, then mine would have run off on the new leg it got this morning." Both Romeo's Fire Jav and Ifrit's new Dervish, taken from Jawbone's lance, were both sporting a new leg and head, respectively. Romeo insisted his ribs were ready for this op.

Both had nothing but primer coatings over their rides, courtesy of the rush job and the spare parts haggled from the RoughRiders as part of the exchange for that Warhammer a short while ago.

Emily had traded for that and more, including a second Trebuchet that was still in the process of being refit to her specs before it could be delivered. Still, their force was slowly growing. They had gained two mediums and one Catapult in the last month. Their TO&E was well over 100-ways-to-deliver-a-LRM with supporting weaponry at this point, and the mobility to use it. Often.

Cueing her channel tied to both the Coyotes and the 3rd Cavalry, she forgot to clear her throat before speaking. "Coh-te Alpha to all units." Shit. "It's go time. Coyotes will engage and pull hostiles north. 3rd Cav wait until 0110 to move out. Close the door behind them and we can capture more delicious loot."

They settled on a movement at dusk to circle around to the western edge of the Seldiran Forest, and with a little luck, managed to get about five kilometers out before going into low-power for about a half hour before starting. The 3rd Cavalry, comprised of three full lances of twelve total LTV-4's for a combo of a dozen PPC's and four dozen SRM's were waiting for the 0110 cue once the bad guys had been drawn out of their camp.

The fans on their hover tanks were much louder than the 'mechs, so they remained another five kilometers back. The ambience and general vegetation of the forest combined with being downwind helped out with the sound a little bit, but Emily wasn't taking any chances.

Hauptmann Taysir Rathore, Commander of the 3rd Cav, chimed in before they got started. His voice had the sound of ancient Terran Indian about it. "Roger Coyote Alpha, waiting until 0110. We've got your back. Go get 'em!" A chorus of high-pitched howls rang out from various drivers and gunners of the 3rd Cav across the comms, and Emily basked in the moment. For a moment, anyway.

The timer had shrunk back down to the top left of her HUD on her neurohelmet, showing 0101. Shit, better hustle.

"Coyotes, on me. Line abreast, all the big kids with the big toys on the left flank, to the north. Take it about to forty kph and make a lot of noise for about a solid minute as soon as you make contact. Prepare for a fighting withdrawal to the north. Make it look good, but your primary objective is to not get caught." She put a lot of emphasis on those last three words.

A rousing chorus of ayes and a few barks and growls answered her, and she throttled up by pressing her feet down on the pedals.

Their somewhat newer Mongoose, piloted by Nymph who was normally in the Urbanmech, was next to her while the three Fire Javelin brothers brought up the right side, what was also soon to be their rear.

A few minutes later, after some incredibly tense strolling, everyone had spread out to about a two-kilometer line north to south. Her night vision was showing that the ground in this area around mostly cypress and pine trees was clear, so the route for the hover tanks should be fine.

"Countact! Something fast, proubably a Loucust." Nymph's Russian accent had a thing for pronouncing deep-sounding words much more deeply for some reason. Her Mongoose, passed to her from Bullhorn in his Griffin, had better sensors than most of the Coyotes, so Emily wasn't surprised she picked up something first. "Bearing ouh-five-ouh."

"Alpha here. Keep advancing. Fire a few lasers his way to light up the night and wake up the rest of 'em, Coyotes." There was no shortage of medium lasers in their company. The green beams were their main source of damage if they ran out of LRM's. Might happen tonight, Emily guessed.

The Locust pilot got a hell of a jolt to the nervous system when well over twenty beams of light reached out in its general direction. Many had faded out before even reaching, as most of them weren't even in range of it. Everyone just wanted a piece of scaring him. The pilot broke and run at top speed, back east towards their encampment, no doubt screaming on as many channels as possible while holding onto his controls for dear life.

The timer in Emily's corner read 0104. They'd better scramble awful damn fast, or we're going to be late. The airhorn Martin told her about began to wail, and spotlights shot on ahead of her through the trees. They all swung west towards the advancing line. Some small flashes from low to the ground would punch through the darkness for an instant, as some of their infantry guards engaged with small arms at their max range. One missile, fired from a portable launcher the guards had, broke a large boxwood next to Danek's Wolverine.

"Awful desperate for those grunts to give away their position like that." Ifrit. Probably a little extra cocky now that he's in almost double the tonnage he previously was. "Think we can take 'em all with just us?" Emily wanted to put that demon to rest immediately.

"Yes, but we want to capture their tech, not blow it up. Stick with the plan. All Coyotes, all Coyotes, swing left at zero-four-five. Start drawing them north. Everyone on the left flank start picking up speed. Don't worry about LRM's in these trees right now. Save the missiles. We want them chasing us." More fire from the infantry bunker closest to them was silenced within another few seconds by Martin's six-tube SRM from his Wolvie.

"Moultiple pouwer-oups!" Nymph's sensors were going nuts. "Bouth lances are getting ounline, Alpha." Yesssss…come to me my pretties, Emily thought.

"Good. Get moving, Coyotes! We have eight minutes to get eight kilometers. Move move move! Romeo, Tarzan, Mowgli, cover our flanks and stay out of trouble." The Fire Javelin brothers all copied and turned to provide a dozen of their own combined lasers for cover fire while backpedaling.

Trees around the Coyotes and a few of the 'mechs began to take increasing amounts of autocannon, PPC, and laser fire. The cyprus and boxwoods near Emily's 'mech sent splinters all over her viewscreen. She retaliated by moving her crosshairs onto the other Locust, now in full view on her thermal sensors as it darted around a tree. She pressed on her trigger controlling her fifty-five millimeter autocannon in her left shoulder and put a round into the twenty-tonner's left side, crushing whatever weapons were housed in its "ear" for a left arm.

No PPC on this one, just smaller guns, she realized.

The blow staggered the 'mech at a high rate of speed, but the pilot held on with the help of its gyros, and it found some cover behind a large oak for now. Emily backpedaled for a moment, waiting for it to come out, then turned and broke into a run to the north with the rest of her company.

Her timer read 0106.

Suddenly the familiar-looking death triangle from the Marauder's PPCs in its arms and the AC-5 in the shoulder screamed out and found Tarzan's backside as he was turning to get some distance of his own. He was shoved forward, off-balance into a large nearby pine that was instantly uprooted and pushed down by thirty tons of metal taking its place. Tarzan continued to stumble, but his gyro must have taken a hit, because he couldn't recover from what should have been an easy save if everything was intact.

The light 'mech continued forward, becoming more horizontal with each step, until it finally faceplanted into the ground and slid forward several meters. Its feet flung backwards in the air momentarily as it gathered a respectable collection of mud and twigs on its front half.

"Huh." His breath was knocked out of him as his harness kept him in his seat at the price of the air in his lungs. "Tarzan…down."

"Tarzan, this is Clothesline. Can you eject to the north? Are there any trees in your path?" Oh god not again," Emily thought in a brief flashback of Maiden ejecting into a tree.

A brief pause, as more fire was traded back and forth across over two square kilometers and between the better half of around twenty 'mechs. Another PPC shot, this time from the other Locust, went right into Tarzan's exposed right foot, melting the entire thing to the ground. Tiny arcs of blue/white light set all the nearby leaves on fire in a quick foomph.

"Tarzan, Clothesline. Eject! Take the chance! You're dead if you don't. Eject and run north as fast as you fucking can!" If he wasn't thinking about Maiden, he'd have ejected already.

"Hell with it," said a winded Tarzan, and Emily watched the 'mech do a small push-up to get a decent angle. The cockpit shot free at about forty-five degrees off the ground. She lost track of it as more missiles hit her shoulder and a nearby tree. Oh please oh please not again…The timer ticked over to 0107, but she didn't notice.

"Romeo, Mowgli, break off and run, now!" Martin's voice directing his lance sternly. The two remaining Fire Javs fired one volley of four lasers each at the trailing Marauder trying to get a bead on either of them. It withdrew behind a group of trees as a good portion of its armor on its left side had relocated downward as a molten heap. The two combat-functional Jav brothers broke and ran towards Emily's position. She was still using her thermal sensors, and saw both 'mechs almost glowing pure white, having pushed their 'mechs at least slightly past a normal shutdown point.

The inner mercenary in her decided to pipe up, letting her know that was likely an expensive repair for the both of them when they got back. Electronics would be singed or fried, parts wouldn't move the way they were supposed to and would grind together. And she hated herself for thinking about it right now.

"Alpha here. Keep moving to the shore." Turning her 'mech northward again for what felt like the twentieth time this morning, she had regained some of her calm as the trees were giving their opponents a hard time keeping up and tracking them, though they seemed to be gaining ground. "Where is Tarzan's pod?"

"Clothesline here. He made it clear, lucky lil' shit. He's out and running the best he can for now. None of us can pick him up without shaking him too hard while running."

There was a large bright flash to her right, up ahead about a hundred meters. One of the 'mechs on her company readout panel flashed red, then remained red. The computer relaying the data to her own 'mech must have been damaged, because that was the default setting if something like that happened.

It was Presto's Firefly. His 'mech had been knocked straight forward as the engine had likely been blown out. It wasn't a big 'mech, relatively speaking. She couldn't tell if he was alive, because of the electronic damage not giving any info and likely wrecking his comms, too.

Emily's timer ticked over to 0108. They were about six kilometers away. Unguided missiles screamed past her cockpit and spiraled around each other to hit the right shoulder of Mother Hen's Trebuchet, which had turned to provide a thirty LRM salvo of its own while it had a rare chance to fire them between the trees. Nice job, baby, she thought, pushing her own 'mech past Pearl's.

Fuck it, I'm doin' it. I have to. She changed channels to her combined 3rd Cav/Coyote comms. Black Actual, this is Coyote Alpha."

Seconds later, "Black Actual, go for Coyote Alpha." Redundant as fuck, Taysir.

"Requesting you come now. These guys have several of our lighter 'mechs down and we're getting slowed down trying to cover them. We might not make it to the shoreline in time."

The familiar hum of a power amplifier connected to his tank's own PPC warming up in the background was all the answer she really needed. "Cavalry's coming, sweetheart. Out."

Switching back to her company's channel, she caught a quick blip of heat on the ground as Tarzan happened to run by and stop at a nearby tree, clearly out of breath. "Mutt Alpha, this is Rapunzel Actual."

"Go, Rapunzel."

"ETA 0114. Should be coming up on your sensors now. Couldn't be helped. We'll push south faster." Emily was grateful for the extra minute the RoughRiders gave them to properly spring the trap, but it meant she might lose more people or equipment, or both.

Meanwhile, her HUD's timer ticked over to 0109. Five clicks to go. Fuck, this feels like a thousand. Damn trees slowing us dow—wait.

The trees! "All Coyotes, Alpha here. Find the two nearest trees next to you that won't block a friendly's retreat and chop it down. It'll buy us some time and look more authentic." Another chorus of ayes.

A well-placed PPC shot to her chest brought her back to the battle she was fighting. It nudged her backwards, but she braced the impact with ease. Shit, too busy juggling stuff. She ignored the blast for now, turning to a tree to her left that was about as wide as her 'mech's arm, and she leaned her 'mech's weight on both the Shadow Hawk's hands, shoving it over with loud cracks and thumps. Seconds later, her seismic sensors went into a small panic as a couple dozen trees began falling all around them.

It removed some of their cover, but everyone continued north to another nearby tree relatively quickly. Guess some of their guys were running hot trying to volley us and took a sec to cool down. Yay.

0110. Emily's seemed to involuntarily widen at every time the clock had an amazing new revelation for her—time was running out. Four clicks to go and we're down two guys already.

A random large laser created a bridge of light between her right arm and the Phoenix Hawk's laser. The laser seemed to be replaced, but most of the right arm was still a mess from a couple days ago, except for replacement armor. Cameron's Chronic Carbuncles, he made the shot with an arm like that? Her damage display put a decently-sized scar along her right bicep, but the armor held. She retaliated with an alpha-strike, firing everything her Shadow Hawk had. Two lasers, the AC-5, the SRM-2 and even her five-tube LRM-launcher. She was immediately rewarded by her fusion engine shoving more heat throughout her 'mech, making her cockpit temp spike almost ten degrees Celsius instantly.

He wasn't far away—the LRM's didn't even arm before reaching him, but they landed after a short barrage starting with the beams, making some of the now-liquified metal splatter like a sodering experiment gone totally wrong. Then the AC-5 sent an explosive round into one of the scars, turning the burst boil into a large crater of metal, sending shards of metal into all the trees in front of it. The two SRM's followed up, but hit the other opening instead, creating two smaller gouges. Despite all that, his armor held up and nothing went through.

It did, however, cause a moment of panic for the Phoenix Hawk pilot as the duel between Hawks continued. He was faster than she was, but he was also out-weighed by ten tons of armor and weapons in an area that didn't allow him to use his speed. He turned to break away from Emily's Shadow Hawk momentarily as she heard her AC-5 rack another round. She never took her crosshairs off of him, leading ever so slightly for the cannon. As he put his back to her, she fired and managed to blow a hole through his much-thinner rear armor into his right shoulder.

The arm came clean off in one hit. The pre-mangled arm that carried his main weapon flipped end-over-end and impaled a tree, with its laser aimed back at Emily. For a millisecond, she imagined some sort of psychokinetic power would allow him to shoot a weapon no longer powered by his fusion reactor. Or connected in any way at all. And the thought was gone almost as if she went back in time to erase it.

She turned once more northward, while a single laser raked across her rear armor as she regained speed. The cockpit cooled slightly, but she felt out of breath and leaned over to take a quick sip of water out of her tube over her shoulder. The water entered her system before it even went down her throat.

And then she was shoved forwards by a massive blast into her backside. She felt the world spin around her as her 'mech's upper half spun to the left while she was mid-stride. Her 'mech's feet managed to find solid ground, she had trouble breaking the forward momentum. She saw sparks and flames blow past the right side of her cockpit. She could only focus on keeping her balance, but it seemed like the entire universe was all calling out for her attention at once. She instinctually slammed both her feet down and used her jump jets to keep her mech forward.

She rose into the canopy, the twigs and branches trying to slow her forward fall like a living net, and allowed her to come down solidly on both feet at she landed. She didn't waste any time, moving back into a run while trying to keep her left side more exposed, since it was the only side that had any armor left. Or anything at all left.

OhshitOhshitOhshit…Okay…mostly still in one piece. The universe seemed to give up its cries of help and her senses began to register some of the voices in her helmet.

"-nchbg oun your six, Alpha!" She couldn't be sure who's voice that was during all this hubbub, but it sounded like they said…

"I'm okay, keep moving!" No doubt several of them were her people hoping she was alright. Emily allowed a brief split-second of clarity to look at the timer. 0111. And she wasn't much closer to the shore than the last time it ticked a new number.

"…Did you say Hunchback?" Emily asked.

"Confirmed that Hunchback just took out your right shoulder, Alpha. Get out of there!" Pearl's voice. The Hunchback's giant AC-20 almost killed me in one shot. Pearl kept speaking. "All Coyotes, this is Mother Hen. Fire LRM's. I say again, fire LRM's to cover Alpha. Don't even worry about a lock, just hose the fucking forest down! Two full vollies, then turn and continue north."

Within seconds every Coyote from every distance, most of them in front of her, turned and fired over a hundred long-range missiles in the general vicinity over her ragged shoulder. Fires erupted all over trees and some managed to go even further to reach some of the 'mechs chasing them. Several took sporadic hits, but that alone wouldn't stop them from advancing.

The ensuing forest fire that sparked to life less than a hundred meters behind Emily on the other hand…that was slowing them down. Running through that might push some of the already toasty pursuers into shutdown at this point.

Emily finally got a glance at her damage readout. Her entire right side and everything that previously lived there was almost completely removed with one shot. Everything about her 'mech seemed like it was on a cruise ship riding a big wave, tilting her to the left all the time. She felt both her and her 'mech slowing down as the explosions and fires erupting around them increased by the second.

Everything started to feel hazy. Voices started to become slower, almost unrecognizable. She was sure Pearl took over the whole thing on the fly, but suddenly Emily felt very cold as she realized she might not make it out of this herself. I fucked it up. I didn't give us enough time. Not enough time. I got greedy.

As if whoever she was silently wondering all this to seemed to agree with her, she got loudly shoved again. The left side of her viewscreen erupted with blue and white sparks, arcing electricity, and a whole lot of flying metal as her left side was blown off by PPC fire.

And then she got slammed by no less than three PPC's blowing out what was left of her left side, sending her rocking forward almost face-first into a large tree, stopping her forward momentum and causing her to turn perpendicular to all the oncoming forces. Another throw against her harness took the breath out of her like it did to Tarzan, and the rest of the 'mech, or what was left of it, felt like she did. It just wanted to lay down and accept its fate.

And that's what it did. Her gyros took some damage from the last wave of hits and began to keel over, and all Emily could do was turn her top half to the left to protect the cockpit. She slammed against her harness while her neck jerked to the side with the weight of her neurohelmet.

Turning towards the more than half-dozen 'mechs stomping their way through the fire, unlike what she hoped earlier, some slowed to train their weapons on her just in case she made a wrong move. She was motionless. There was a whole lot of noise in her helmet, people talking, other people talking, some people talking about the people talking. Someone telling everyone else to stop talking and then talking a lot. What a hypocrite, she thought dumbly.

Then someone else talking on a completely different channel, a voice less familiar to her. All the trees and bushes around her suddenly started to vibrate furiously and a few limbs and branches and rocks went flying. Dust then filled her viewscreen until a large metal foot came down very close to her head on a bed of fire. There was a mix of various camouflage colors on it, but she could out the one decal on the shin before it moved away.

Blue shield, white skull. Lots of horns and stuff. She looked at her timer one last time.

0113. Right on time after all. And behind them instead of in front. Well-played. Emily decided now was a decent time to try and get herself out, but her body wouldn't cooperate the way she planned. As she unhooked herself, she tumbled out of the couch and onto the right side of her cockpit. Her head bounced off something. Her neurohelmet kept anything from going into her skull, but things started to get very blurry and dark. Resting her hand on some cool metaler somewhere inside her cockpit she thought, welp, I think I'll take a nap for the both of us, old girl.

"Emily Wright, Channel Seven News, good night Solaris, we love ya." And then she passed out.