Alternate Reality
Chapter 8: Lost Projects
Location: Triton R&D facility.
Date/time: 2553/3073 Mar 20th 1:27GST
Specter jumped up and fired his laser pistol, his beam pierced the guard who had first seen him in the head. "The Word of Blake are stealing technology, typical, but I need you all to come and help me get rid of them." Specter stated into his mike to his team.
"On it." Beowulf answered. "I found a group in my area working on some sort of ship-sized Gauss cannon."
"I found several tied and gagged techs in my area." Falcon answered. "What should I do with them?"
"These stair go all the way to the top, I'll come help you." Bullseye panted.
Specter turned his attention to the soldiers below for one more second and shot down one who was trying to climb the ship.
"Falcon, unite the prisoners and find out how we can help." Specter ordered, a dwindling amount of misplaced fire speeding over his head.
Specter leaned over the balcony once more to get a view: three soldiers were hiding behind some crates and the techs had scattered to various corners. one of the soldiers shout at the techs pointing his rifle at him and yelled. "Get back to work!"
Specter seized his chance and felled the man who had spoken as he leaned out of his cover. Two soldiers remained. They seemed to get an idea and both jumped up at once and fired at his position. Just as Specter was beginning to sweat, a voice cried out and two shots range throughout the room.
"Bullseye!" The voice crowed as two bodies fell to the ground with bullet holes in their foreheads.
"Thanks for the assist." Specter stated as he climbed down the balcony and ran toward one of the techs. "It's okay, we were sent to help."
The man he had addressed gave an audible sigh. "Thanks, we have been captured for the past five hours. They came in and found our project and stole our plans before leaving only a skeleton crew here to have us build a second prototype."
"What are you working on?" Specter asked, curious.
"We like to call it a heavy Frigate, it has the same thick Titanium-A armor, but is upgraded with a plasma reactor and has a Covenant slipspace drive. The two thick wings house several missile racks, a MAC cannon each, and two plasma torpedo launchers per wing. That is not the best part of it, it has a shield generator." The tech proudly showed him the ship. "It's a good thing they only took the original prototype; it had malfunctions, while this one does not."
"I can see why they came here, but the real question is how they knew to come here." Specter mused. "But the worry is: can they fix it?"
"I don't know." The tech replied. "My name's Kendel by the way."
"I'm john." Specter nodded and looked the ship over. "How many more are here?"
Prince Victor Steiner-Davion relaxed his shoulders slightly as he watched his small fleet from a view port on his drop ship. They were attached to a large jumpship and were in the perfect position to watch the other ships attach.
"Tell me again," Victor began addressing his brother Peter. "Our scouts discovered the wormhole which took the Word of Blake?"
"Specter may not have known this, but we sent them through the portal at our current coordinates so that they could distract the WOrd of Blake while we close the trap." Peter crossed his arms. "They duplicated the jump, and I think it is quite possible for us to help them."
"Indeed," Victor nodded, satisfied. "I'll be in my quarters." He strode away with a distracted gaite.
Peter stalked his way down to the mechbay near the ground of their Overlord class dropship. The room was filled with armor plating, myomer bundles in carts, busy techs, but his eyes caught on to his mech. His Fafnir was nearly destroyed when facing down the Archon's aunt, he remembered Specter's influence in her downfall. The giant assault mech was still shredded from its encounter, there had been only about a week and a half and the techs had hardly had time to repair it. Wires and myomer splayed out from the gashes and cooled slag formed rivulet patterns on the dented torso that surrounded the Heavy Gauss rifles' barrels.
As the Prince was in deep thought, he was rudely awakened to the voice of the Jumpship's Captain. "We are fully charged, commencing jump in five...four...three...two...one..." The ship lurched, tossing Peter's insides and bringing his recent meal into his throat. He held on, thankful that his magnetic soles held him in place. The next instant, after the immense feeling of euphoria and nausia, Peter saw a bright light and was erupted back into reality. The Captain's voice came back online. "Whoa several Word of Blake ships are in orbit around something, we've been noticed! all pilots get in your ships!"
Peter sighed. "So soon?"
Specter shook Kendal's hand. "I need to secure this facility, but in the mean time you and your boys can get back into your normal routine."
"Sir, I don't any of us will get completely back to normal, but it's good to be free." Kendal waved and ran back to a computer station behind a shield of glass. "You might want to stand back sir, I'm going to run some tests!"
Specter ran off and activated his mic. "Any more resistance?"
Falcon was the first to reply, "I freed the technicians, and found a hangar occupied by Word of Blake forces. I cleared it out." Over the mic, Specter could hear someone gurgle and collapse as if impaled by some crude, sharp metal object.
"Good, continue scouting." Specter sighed. "Anyone else find anything?"
"No sir, all is in the clear." Beowulf stated. "At least it is now."
"Seriously, can I tell ONI that it is taken care of?" Specter tapped his foot in annoyance.
"Yes sir." Beowulf was somewhere.
"Yeah." Bullseye ran up to his side.
"Aff." Falcon barked over the line.
"Alright, that's the kind of answer I wanted." Specter ran back to Kendal. "I need to get a message to Earth, how soon can you and your team repair your communications?"
"Soon sir, but I think it would be best if you guarded our entrance and make sure no more rebels come here."
They're not rebels, at least not in the traditional sense. Specter thought. "Alright team, get your gear back in it, I need everyone back to guard the entrance."
He got a chorus of answers, or it was more like deafening silence. That is until Bullseye groaned. "Can't we just stay in our ship and keep an eye on our sensors?"
"That's a good idea Bullseye, we'll watch the radar while you stand outside, does that sound good?" Specter teased and punched him in the shoulder. "No seriously, Hannibal and his team have been sitting around for a while; it is our turn now."
"Yes sir." Bullseye groaned but ran back to the elevator and slipped back into his enviro-suit.
(Hours Later)
Time flew by as fast as the wind that shifted the dunes of ice and buried their mechs. Specter felt as though he wanted the Word of Blake to come just so he could get some action. Hannibal had long since returned to the ship which was now parked on top of the facility where it was relatively flat. Four APU's surrounded the ship providing extra power in case they needed to take off in a hurry, and over the comm he could hear Hannibal and the bridge crew sharing a round of fine Whiskey.
"Save some for when we get back." Specter stated, inside he was jealous of the warmth and angry that he could not celebrate with them because of their upcoming payday.
"Specter," Katrina chided. "There really is no need for you to torture yourself by staying out there; the ship is right here and you could get out there at a moments notice!" She was chuckling uninhibitedly.
"How many shots have you had?" Specter asked, suspicious.
"Enough." She closed the line and silence filled the cockpit of his Raven.
"Alright team, Bullseye was right, it stinks being out here. Let's head in." Specter turned his mech and ran back to the ship. He was about to call for them to open the bay doors when six red blips appeared on his radar. His computer happily informed him: "Enemy detected." About six times.
"Falcon, Bullseye, Beowulf, follow me and stay concealed and in passive sensor mode." He led them through a series of dunes and drifts to where he could see four Myrmidon medium tanks, and two light mechs: a Flea, and an Osiris. He quickly warned them. "Watch out for those Myrmidons, they mount PPC's, take them out and then focus on the mechs... or... no wait! Falcon and Beowulf deal with the mechs while Bullseye and I crush the tanks... got it?"
"Yes sir!" Bullseye crowed. "Finally some action."
"Aff commander." Falcon answered coldly.
"This is it!" Beowulf declared. "At last!"
"Come on Bullseye." Specter said as he maneuvered his Raven at a hundred and thirty kilometers per hour in a zigzag pattern until he was three hundred meters from the tanks. He silently cursed the fog on his glass shield and wished fervently that the frost would disappear as well. At the right moment, he jumped forward and beelined for the lead Myrmidon. He depressed the trigger on his joystick and fired his medium X-pulse lasers; all three. The X-pulse laser is pretty new on the market, a healthy blend of the Clan influence allowing it more power, but unfortunately as it was created by the Inner Sphere; it had a short range.
His red lasers burned into the first Myrmidon, cutting into the armor, causing superheated slag to roll and drip down before freezing in the cold environment. Seconds later, the Myrmidon swiveled on its base and fired a bolt of man-made lightning inches from his mech's cockpit. Specter's computer, and sensors and all onboard equipment glitched and screamed warnings from the proximity of the bolt of accelerated particles.
"Bullseye?" Specter asked shakily as he gunned down the tank.
"I'm on it sir." Bullseye loved the Wolfhound; it was his favourite light mech, even though he would always be more comfortable in a heavy mech. He leveled his right arm, the one bearing the deadly Clan Extended Range Particle Accelerator Cannon that was colloquially known as the PPC. His arm flashed in a brilliant display of blue sparks and light, the bolt of energy smashed into the closest Myrmidon and crushed it into sparse debris.
Specter made no comment as he watched Bullseye flash-fry the occupants of the tank, but rather focused his attention on the remaining two tanks. He darted forward and leaned his mech into a jump, he soared through the air for several fleeting seconds and landed before the first tank. His quick hand caused his mech to dodge to the side as the tank's gunner predictably fired at Specter's previous position. The small SRM 4 missile rack set back from the main gun flared, and four unguided missiles streaked into the sky as specter crouched low and fired his lasers into the treads and body of the tank; hoping to depressurize the inside and cause the men to suffocate. He hoped that they might be able to salvage the tank and use it for their own use. Alas it was not to be so: his laser hit the tank's reactor after punching through the weak armor at the bottom of the tank's front. The tank wobbled and imploded in on itself before creating a little crater around it and blackening Specter's paint.
"Bullseye, did you get that other one?" Specter asked, pulling his mech into a standing position, looking oddly like a Vulture pulling its beak from a carcass, especially the way its discolored beak practically untangled itself from the insides of the imploded tank.
"We're all clear of here sir, do I have permission to help out Falcon and Beowulf?" Bullseye's Wolfhound's legs agitatedly stomped up and down as it anxious to get moving.
"Yeah let's get going!" Specter gunned forward and pounded over a drift to find Beowulf and Falcon fighting their own matches. Beowulf Cornered the Flea, but most his shots missed as the quick light mech dodged in an unpredictable manner. Falcon was a grisly scene, she was covered in soot and had small holes burnt into her armor. However, the Osiris was a different matter all together, one of its legs was mangled and was half dragged awkwardly behind it.
"Die Freebirth Stravag!" Falcon taunted and fired an alpha strike consisting of all her currently loaded Streak MRM missiles. They immediatly homed in on the doomed Osiris, and just before the thirty odd missiles impacted, the Pilot ejected from his mech and flew into the sky. Specter made a mental prediction that the man would die rather than be picked up, personally he was dissapointed that the Word of Blake would flee rather than die. He quickly switched his attention back to the Flee and fired his laser into the knee joint of the mech. It stumbled and collpsed onto the ground where Beowulf pounded it gunfire. Cracks opened in the rear side of the mech, and the reacter could be seen glowing just as the projectiles destabalized it and exploded in a bloom of smoke and flame.
"Come on guys, it's our turn to party!" Specter cheered over the comm.
(Orbiting unidentified World)
Peter watched as the fire from flights of Aerospace fighters raged between the heavy ships. He wished that he could somehow help in the battle; but he was a Prince whose only real skill in battle was on land and front the pilot seat of a Battlemech. He watched as concentrated fire from all the eight dropships and the four battleships caused the lead Word of Blake ship to explode. Three ships remained; though one was of a design Peter didn't recognize. Whenever stray fire drifted close, a buble of energy diverted it away from the body of the vessel. Peter watched with interest as it fired two massive Gauss cannons and crushed the lead battleship. He saw the danger, but he had to make sure everyone else did as well.
He ran to a comm unit. "All ships, concentrate fire on their flagship!"
Victor came running into the observation platform moments later. "What is it?" He asked, but he gaped when he saw the fire from the ships either being deflected or absorbed by a shimmering shield that surrounded the lead ship of the Word of Blake. "How did they get that?" He didn't have time to get an answer. The shields collpsed with a visible pop and the concentrated fire began to tear mercilessly into the ship. The next instant, the ship lurched forward as a black tear in space enveloped it.
Peter choked. "A battle ship of that size cannot possibly have a Translight engine!"
Victor took no time, but yelled over the comm. "Finished off the other ships, track the trajectory of the flagship and find out where they are going and how long it will take them!"
He got an answer right away. "They're on their way to Terra! If we leave right now we can arrive just behind them in a week." The voice was unfamiliar, but Victor didn't who answered him.
"Just get us moving, we have to get that ship, Specter may be in trouble!" Victor sighed. It's no use having your own mercenary just to lose him before your plans are finished.
Specter relaxed. "I know ONI might have information, I think we need to pay them a visit and get our pay." He glanced over at Katrina who was sleeping soundly on the couch in the lounge, the rest of his team talk quietly in different corners or read books in silence.
"I don't trust ONI," He said without reason. "Something tells me that there's something else going on." Specter leaned his head against the back of his favorite chair and drifted off.
This was a fixed chapter, I will continue to edit and rewrite things.
-Tremble Wolf