Lance Alpha
An Explosive Adventure
By ThatSapphireFox
1 The Operation
A bright shining light beams into her eyes as she wakes from an unrestful slumber, her wings extend out and then curl back inwards; she yawns and slumps out of her bunk and onto the cold hard floor. She steps out of her captain's quarters and heads to the washrooms, crewmembers passing her as she wanders the ship to enjoy a nice warm shower before she heads to the bridge. One of the crew chased after her cat after she had scratched him, yelling obscenities as he ran past the Commander.
"I'm not ready for today to even start…" she thought to herself as she wandered the halls.
Over the intercom she hears an emergent briefing is happening in less than five minutes for the senior staff of the ship; she decides to push the shower to later as business calls, hurrying to the bridge to find out what's so important she gets to the bridge just in time, swiping her access card and heading inside; the faces of her Senior Staff seem bewildered as to why she showed up in pajamas.
"Commander! We weren't expecting you to be in this meeting… This meeting was for the staff but since you're here, we can save the trouble of writing you a dossier on your notepad." Jameson said.
"Alright, tone it down with the passive aggressive tone, I haven't even had my coffee yet and you're testing my patience already. What do you have for us Jameson?" She reluctantly said, walking up to the command table. Her tail swinging from side to side as she struts.
Jameson wanders over from his desk with two coffee cups, setting one down in front of Damien; Having one ready before she even walked in. A hologram pops up onto the table showing a building complex surrounded by walls with guard towers on top.
"This is our next job boss; I got a word down the line from the Mercenary Review Board that there were some high value targets being held within this complex, and it isn't just any prison or security complex, this is a high security work camp, equipped with battlemechs and heavy armored vehicles" Jameson say as the hologram projects to a top down view, showing several hangar bays and prisoner holding areas.
"Remind me why I wasn't going to be in on this operations briefing in the first place? This sounds like an awfully big job for me to not be the first to know about it…" She says while sipping her coffee, a slight glare thrown at Jameson.
One of the Mechwarriors chimes in from across the table, "I was going to head down to your quarters Commander… But you showed up here unexpectedly! We thought you were going to be taking your shower like you usually do in the mornings?" He picks up his helmet from the table and moves the hologram to zoom in on what looks like the main building.
"I was told this building was heavily fortified and resistant to most weapon calibers, even from orbital bombardment! This structure was built back in the Star League Era and it was built to withstand anything that was thrown at it. That's where the most valuable 'HVT's will be kept. You'll be entering the combat zone under the cover of darkness, it'll be raining as Planet Thestria's biome is known for heavy rains." Jameson says as he highlights the area around the building itself.
"This doesn't seem like an easy job…. Where the hell did the MRB get off on giving this to us? Without even notifying the Commander before even signing off on it… Something doesn't seem right." She thought, spinning her coffee cup in her hands deep in thought.
"What was the payout for this one Jameson? It has to be high for us to be so happy about it, Am I gonna get a bonus?" The Mechwarrior asked.
"I don't want to bring your hopes up, but I was told it was well over Two million C-Bills" Jameson contently expressed while tossing the dossier for the mission details onto the table, the hologram flickering.
The gathering of the staff exploded into cheer, already imagining what they could buy while on shore leave when they get back, Damien slamming her hand down onto the table to quiet everyone down, her wings twitching slightly.
"Maintain your professionalism, people! We haven't even gone into the drop zone and you are all acting like you haven't had a big payout before!" Damien exclaims as the group quiets down, she sips her coffee and turns the hologram off, dismissing everyone to the bays as they take the helm to lower the ship into orbit for the drop ship to undock and enter the combat zone. The Mechwarriors that attended the meeting scattering out of the bridge and down to the mechbay, Damien soon following and wandering past everyone to her quarters to change into her jumpsuit; grabbing her wartorn helmet and rushing out to meet everyone in the mechbay.
"Fuck I keep forgetting how big this ship is sometimes…" She thought to herself as she's becoming out of breath from hustling everywhere, alarms blaring as the ship descends into the atmosphere.
After several minutes of silence and thought, Damien stands in the mechbay awaiting the green light to drop, meanwhile a Mechwarrior walks over to her Timber Wolf, leaning on one of the legs. "Hey, Commander? I've got a question… It's kind of important."
"What is it Magnet?" His Call Sign was Magnet, it didn't leave much to the imagination on how he achieved that sort of nickname. "We're on standby, you should be at your Atlas and checking all of your sensors and computers so you're ready for the drop."
"Y-Yes Commander but I really need to ask you this… Do you think we have the firepower for this? I was looking over the mission details and it shows there's two full lances of Heavy class or bigger mechs! Can we even take that?" He exclaims while a slight shake in his voice can be heard.
"We will be perfectly fine as long as you follow orders and don't get cocky; you're pretty good at that!" She giggles, stepping closer to him to give him a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry kid." A siren wails as it's three minutes to the drop zone, she rushes Magnet off so they both can get ready, Damien climbing into her mech as a MechTech is removing tubes and wire connectors from the hull of the machine, giving her a thumbs up when she sits into her cockpit turning on the sensors and weapon systems, running safety checks in the time until combat.
The ship shudders as anti aircraft flak explodes within meters from the ship, damaging the hull and shaking the ship violently, the lights go dark as the ship approaches the Landing Zone; the bay doors open up as the outside is filled with explosive flashes and noise, the rain seeping into the bay as the awesome wind throws it into the mechbay, covering the cockpit in a thick layer of water; almost impossible to see through without the high-tech sensors. Within moments, the ship glides over the Landing Zone and the mechs are dropped from mid air into the thick forest, towering over most trees and crushing them as they land.
After landing she looks around with her mech and checks her sensors to make sure their drop was unnoticed; the rain coating her windscreen with a layer of rainwater. Nothing shows up after an active ping on her radar so she opens her radio channel. "Alpha Actual on station, we've landed without issues and I think we're clear of contacts for now, see you when we're ready for extraction. Radio check Alpha Lance" Damien says into her headset.
"Alpha Two on station, ready to assist" Magnet responds.
"Alpha Three on station, ready to rock and roll" Glitch chimes off.
"Alpha Four on station, let's kick it" Angel replies.
After a quick radio check, the lance heads towards the objective, maintaining tight spacing. After a few moments of hiking they get close enough to provide recon; as a light mech is spotted heading on a patrol around the compound.
"Just one light mech? I'd expect the numbers we were told…" panning through her sensors looking for a sensor trace. "Looks like we need a closer look, Angel can you get some eyes on the other mechs? I'm only seeing one on sensors."
"Copy Commander; I'll get a closer look, be ready with your LRMs if things go south and I need cover alright?" He says as he rushes forward, his Raven speeding forward at 130kph, he's had time to modify it to his skillset, being armed with a Rotary AC/5 cannon with well over Four hundred rounds of ammunition and three Heavy machine guns for closer engagements, with fairly light armor and a powerful engine his speed is his best ally.
"Always got you covered, just get in and out quickly, can't afford to blow our cover" she says, puzzled as to why there's only one mech on the trace and in the details it said there were two full lances of mechs. "Where's the other seven mechs? They can't all be in their hangars; there were only three hangars on the holographic we saw…"
Magnet chimes in "Commander! Bearing Three Two Three! It's an ambush!"
Before she can react, her mech's left arm is blown off by a gauss rifle damaging her left torso and most of her weapon systems on that side, fired from a Highlander mech seven hundred meters to the left, Magnet fires his AC/20 at the enemy mech and scores a direct hit center mass, although the Mech has tough armor as it's an Assault class mech. It returns a shot directly towards Magnet's Atlas but it misses; Glitch rushes up with her Shadowhawk and tries to close the distance between her and the enemy mech.
"No! Glitch fall back! Angel get back here we need to regroup! I'm hit and we need to withdraw! This mission is too dangerous right now!" She says as she fires a full salvo of LRMs towards the lone mech, trying to buy time. Taking evasive maneuvers in case he can get a clear shot on her again.
Angel makes his way back in short time after dispatching the scout mech that was patrolling, linking back up and trying to provide cover fire as the lance tries to withdraw, Glitch heading past him while momentarily firing a salvo before continuing her sprint. The two encountering an Uziel mech that was waiting to ambush them, it fires two PPCs directly towards them, one flying between the two and one hitting Angel's left leg; His leg actuator gets destroyed and he continues to try and limp past the enemy mech, his Rotary AC/5 winding up and slinging rounds into the Uziel.
"Alpha Actual to Mother of Creation! We are in need of immediate exfil as the situation got out of hand faster than anticipated! Danger close; Heading to the Emergency extraction point!" She says, out of breath as the situation unfolding is worrying her as the near death encounter. The blast had injured her arm and she could see blood on her jumpsuit.
They can visibly see through the darkness of the night the Leopard class ship heading to their destination to meet them, Glitch dispatches the Uziel and continues to try and keep pace with the limping Raven as Angel tries to keep a steady pace.
Damien turns around to attempt to get a missile lock on the Highlander, successfully launching a salvo of LRMs at the opposing mech and scores a direct hit; but to no avail the enemy still stands tall like nothing even scratched it. "What the hell?! This son of a bitch is tougher than any Highlander I've encountered…"
Eventually the Lance makes it to the target zone and prepares for extraction. While the mechs begin to board the docking bays a PPC rips past Glitches mech and into the rear of Angel's Raven; knocking the mech over as a fire from the reactor can be seen the cockpit hatch opens. Glitch attempts to fire blindly where the shot was fired from, unable to acquire a target lock to properly engage. Rounds from her AC/10 flying down range into the trees.
"Angel! Get out of there! Your mech is going critical!" Damien roars over the radio. "Get clear of the Raven! Don't attempt a salvage of it, just get to the dropship and get inside, we need to get out of here!" Her words are the only radio chatter to be heard, everyone silently agrees and continues the evacuation. Angel scrambling from his mech on foot and running to the dropship, into the hangar bay his mech was supposed to be in, the Raven exploding before the bay door closes. Once everyone is aboard the ship takes off after taking a few strikes from enemy fire.
Glitch runs over to see if Angel is okay, soon followed by Magnet. Damien climbs out of her mech still dripping blood, coating her cockpit in it. Angel only sustained a few bruises. With the mission a total failure and with the loss of one of the company's mechs she waits for the ship to dock with the Mother of Creation. Wandering over to see how Angel is doing she kneels down as Angel is sitting on the floor of his mechbay. Everyone's eyes widened as she wandered over still bleeding and with a slight limp.
"Hey, You alright Angel? You took a beating out there…" She says looking him up and down. "We should have known more about this mission before taking it. This should not have happened."
"I… I'm alright Commander, You need to see a medtech I'm fine you're literally bleeding" He says standing up and grabbing onto Damien's arm.
"Commander, you did what you could and we didn't know the troop movements before we landed. The information we had wasn't a lot but we had mostly what we needed…" Glitch says as she walks over to inspect Damien's condition.
"I need to go to the bridge when we get back, I have some words for Jameson and I'll have to find out from the MRB what they knew or didn't know." She says as she stands up and starts walking off, Heading up to her mechbay to wait. Accumulating a pool of blood as her wound doesn't seal itself, she takes off the top of her jumpsuit and exposing the gash in her side, just under her ribcage. More blood seeps from it as she puts her hand onto it to put pressure on it to slow the bleeding. "Shit… I'm fucking myself over. Can't we get back sooner?"
The ship finally docks back with the Mother of Creation and immediately everyone scrambles back to their bunks and to the medbay to get checked out, Damien forgoes the idea of heading there with them and heads straight to the bridge, slamming the door open and walking over to Jameson. Her Dragon claws digging into the comms table as her XO looks at her in disbelief.
"Why aren't you in the medbay Commander? You're injured!" He looks at her while she's holding her side, his eyes wide and his face bright white.
"How much intel did we get from the MRB? Did they give us any indication that the enemy was spread out and in an ambush position? And not the mention they weren't even on sensors until they fired at us!? We couldn't even get target lock half the time, I know my mech has been routinely checked and we had no issues before we entered combat!" She exclaims while gripping tighter into the desk. Her wings tightly tucked to her back and her tail sliding from side to side on the floor.
One of the Mechwarriors opens the door and a medtech follows suit; She gestures to Damien as she's still standing in front of Jameson, the medtech pulls up a trauma kit and takes Damien's hand and tries to lead her out with as kind words as possible. "Come now, you're injured sweetheart, you can't be running around with a wound like that!" After moments of coercing her to leave the bridge she reluctantly wanders out, limping slightly as the adrenaline is wearing off from earlier.
"Thank you, Glitch… I'll have the paperwork written out so she can read it while she's in the medbay recovering" He says as he starts tapping on his keyboard as quick as his hands will type.
"Anytime boss, Anytime. Did Angel get admitted to the medbay yet? I heard the commotion and figured I'd find Damien here." she says as she starts for the door.
"A little busy now but I believe he was in the Aft medbay, he won't be out for a while as you know the techs like to take their sweet time." He distractedly says.
