Lance Alpha
An Explosive Adventure
By ThatSapphireFox
3 Joint Effort
Several crewmembers scurry the halls aimlessly in search of somewhere else to be, Damien wanders the halls fairly groggy after a long night on shore leave with Glitch and Angel. In an attempt to feel better she heads to the Mess hall to get something to eat and drink, passing several crewmembers and personnel on the way.
"I wish this ship wasn't so annoying to traverse…" She thinks to herself while strolling.
When she makes it to the mess hall she joins the line and grabs a platter of food, Lasagna and vegetables, with a side of their 'Special' soup. Finding a place to sit she is surprised she isn't being harassed by anyone yet, and good thing too since her head keeps pounding like she is getting punched in the forehead. Plunging a spork into her lasagna she wonders if this is all that 'Merc work is cracked up to be. Breathing a sigh of relief she consoles herself and affixes her focus on her food so she can get all the energy she can get.
Several tens of minutes have passed since she finished her food; lost in space with a thousand yard stare. She snaps out of it and stands up to throw away her trash, passing Angel she gives a smiling nod while heading back to her quarters. On the way she sees Jameson and Magnet talking in the halls, doing her best to hide her face and keep walking. She briskly brushes past the two of them and slips into her quarters before either of them can so much as peep. With a press of the lock button on her door and the safety and silence of privacy she slithers out of her pajamas and slips into her jumpsuit, brushing her teeth and getting ready to head to the bridge for today's meeting.
She steps out of her door and immediately Magnet bumps into her and knocks her to the ground, completely blindsiding her and ripping her jumpsuit in the process.
"What the hell! Ughhhh, my fucking best suit! I'm so damn mindless today it's nobody's fault but my own, but damn does it make me mad!" She exclaims, still sitting on the floor with Magnet.
"Uhh… Hey boss.. It's not your fault I walked into you without looking… My bad haha…" He sheepishly says, sweating bullets as he just knocked the Commander on her ass by being clumsy.
A brief period passes before the two speak up again, Damien trying to assess the damage to her jumpsuit and if it's salvageable. Shooting Magnet, a sharp scowl that could cut diamonds.
"It's alright soldier, you can get up off my tail now… Would be real great." She sarcastically mutters, frustrated with the fact she's going to be late for the meeting she has.
"O-Oh yeah! My bad ma'am!" He says hobbling up off the floor and freeing her tail, helping her up as well to try and salvage the situation.
"Humph. It's fine, just work on the clumsiness or else I'll pull you out of your cockpit when you trip over a Manticore and tackle me to the ground." She huffs, walking off down the hall before he can respond.
On her way to the bridge she passes a few windows showing the view outside, realizing they're still docked on planet; she shrugs and keeps heading on her journey to the brief. Seeing her crewmembers attending to their jobs and tasks, she smiles and feels better knowing she has a not so lazy crew, unlike some merc outfits. After her short journey she finally arrives at the bridge, heading through the door with it closing behind her.
"Alright sorry I'm late I got delayed, let's get this show on the road so we can get back out of port and onto our course." She says, pulling a data file up on the holo-desk. A hologram of a high security outpost slips onto the screen.
"What's this now, already another MRB Sponsored combat op?" Jameson jokingly says.
Damien slaps his hand as he was reaching for the controls. "This is a black op, we have work to do and I'd appreciate it if the peanut gallery would stuff it until the end."
Lights on the table flicker and shift to a wide-scale view of the facility, with a large cluster of forested mountainous terrain, highlighting the entryways and high angle observational points along the mountain tops.
"It'll be on Northwind, as you know the climate is typically cold as hell. We're going in on foot, terrain is too rugged for our mechs and I can't risk losing a good pilot due to a landslide, or tripping over a boulder and alerting the enemy of our presence. Recon shows us only two to three mechs light and medium class but you can't be too careful, we can slip in on foot and find our target and make for extraction before anyone even notices we're gone." She says, pointing at all of the objects that pop up on screen, while also handing everyone a copy of the report for the mission.
"So… Four mech pilots are going to be reassigned to become specialized infantry?" Jameson says with a worried look on his face.
"This mission can end in failure or with complete success. I trust the combat sims have given us a good enough understanding of concealment, firearm use, and movement tactics. Right?" She asks, knowing the answer.
"If I may, what could be so precious that we can't risk alerting the enemy of our presence? It can't be that important…" Angel says, a little confused.
"It's a secure Data file that we can't risk them getting word of what it is and bugging out and deleting it or uploading it to someone who can take it off world." She sternly says. "I don't have any more information at this time aside from go get geared up, and ready for takeoff because we leave in fifteen minutes and we'll be en-route to our target shortly after. Make sure you check out your weapons from the Armory and make sure you memorize the Serials on it lest you lose it during our engagement and have to replace it. Speaking mostly for Magnet but it goes for all of you."
With that, turning off the hologram and waltzing out of the room, the meeting is adjourned. Heading to her quarters to change jumpsuits because of a certain someone she gets her spare and starts packing her gear, making sure a single bag with all the essentials is loaded and ready to go.
"I guess that will have to be enough… Atleast I hope?" She thought to herself, unsure about the small amount of equipment. "Is one winter fleece enough? I feel like we could have more… I guess we can build fires? Hmm…"
Minutes later the ship shudders as it lifts off the ground and out of the spaceport, once outside of atmosphere and well beyond the planet's gravity well, an alarm blares signifying that the ship is docking with the jumpship and a few moments after that begins the jump to Northwind, taking several days the crew secures their weapons and equipment from the armory, Radios, Firearms, and Thermal devices.
With the ship keeping a distance from the planet by orbiting the Northwind moon 'Glasgow' the crew begins final preparations for the operation. Down in the mechbay Damien observes Angel and Glitch putting their gear onto a Vargr, loading it into the back of the crew compartment and securing each piece of equipment they have.
"You know this thing is getting left on planet, we can't take it all the way to the op site. It'll be ditched after destruction about 25 Kilometers away while we have the rest to hoof it." She states much to the crew's dismay.
"I know she's old but why can't we just pick her up when we leave? Or atleast have someone drive it back to the LZ… I like this ol' gal." Glitch says, gently rubbing the rough exterior of the transport.
"Kid, there's a reason we're taking it. We need to downsize the unit since we're more than capable of using less, we already have a new Griffin 2N on order. it'll be here in a few weeks, gotta make space for all the new equipment and salvage we'll be bringing in with it." Damien said, peering into the backside of the APC.
"Alright fine…" Glitch says, pouting.
After everyone secures their equipment, snacks, and selves into the vehicle, Damien heads to the front where Angel is awaiting in the front seat, she hops into the TC position and the few await the descent onto the surface. All the lights in the vehicle dimly lit, the rough metal exterior blocking all sounds. Over the radio a tech informs the crew thirty seconds to touchdown.
"Alright kiddos, you know the drill! We ditch this 25 out and we get in, and get out. We aren't here to play games. I don't want any of you coming home in bodybags. Got it?" She says, shouting to the back.
"Roger!" Shouted all of them.
At last the Bay door opened and the Vargr took off at a blazing speed, feeling every bump in the rocky terrain while also struggling to maintain grip on the icy surface. Glitch is doing a functions check on her weapons as she likes to be prepared, Magnet is just sitting there staring off into the distance, and Angel is focused on keeping it from getting stuck. After some time they reach the first checkpoint, where they ditch the ride and start their real hike.
"Alright, everybody dismount! We got a business meeting and I don't want to keep our company waiting!" She says, as everyone dismounts with all their gear, dropping a thermite charge with added explosives into the cabin to destroy the vehicle before getting out herself.
"I hope this is worth it, my favorite champ is on solaris tonight!" Glitch says as the APC bursts into a violent fiery explosion.
"Put a sock in it kid, you'll get to watch the re-run if we don't get captured" Angel says, much to Glitch's dismay.
The four proceeded to fastmarch to the target, the ride was short because of the easy terrain. Damien stays near Angel as he is the Radio operator and she uses him to relay coordinates to the bridge on the ship, along with minor updates on the situation and radar info from above. The first break to rest is at 15 kilometers away from the target, the four set down to set up a small patrol base.
"I want one of you on lookout at all times, I'll take my watch when it's my turn, First is Magnet, then Glitch, and then Me with Angel being the end going back to Magnet. Trackin?" She says, stripping her rucksack and weapon while clearing some brush for a spot to sit.
"Alright… I'll get to it then." Magnet reluctantly says, heading off to find a good place to hold up.
Picking up her gunbelt that has her sidearm in it's holster, she walks off to the edge of the group and before going too far she says. "I need to use the latrine so make sure to yell if we become compromised, Angel keep in contact with the ship so we don't head in blind, tell them to stay sub orbital and keep the extraction team on stand-by. This is going too well so far."
"What the fuck do you mean by that commander? I think it's good that it's going well for a change…" He says confused.
While Damien is off doing her business, Glitch pulls out a camp-stove and she starts cooking up some soup she brought with.
Getting odd looks from Angel she looks at him with a curious look. "What? I didn't have dinner… I was waiting for my program damn it!"
"What are you… Sixty? Who the hell says programs when they're referring to a TV show anymore." Angel says with a slight chuckle.
Damien wanders back over, with a hand on her still sore wounds, laughing as she sees Glitch's little setup. "Did you bring any actual combat gear with you? Or did you just bring cookware?"
Glitch now pouting, puts away the other cans of soup and utensils. "Fine, no soup for any of you if you're going to be mean about it…"
As Damien walks past she pats Glitch on the head and chuckles. "You don't have to put those away, we're just poking fun since we didn't think to br-" Mid sentence Damien is cut short by the sight of Angel pulling a griddle and a power inverter out with still cold sausages from his rucksack. "What the actual fuck… I guess I'm the only one then."
Angel laughs as he cooks his food, getting comfortable in his compact folding chair. "Ma'am, you just came unprepared I guess!"
"How much you want to bet Magnet is out there eating a fucking Cheeseburger from the goddamn fast-food restaurant he probably has in his rucksack?" Damien says, trying to hold back laughter.
The group stays around their little campsite enjoying their fresh cooked food, it started to snow and after a few hours the firewatch rotation has already gone back to its beginning and the group is becoming restless, Damien reviewing the land plan after revisions from more information after passive surveillance. By the time the group gets ready to step off again, the snow has already properly powdered their gear and all of their footprints from earlier, Damien getting so cold as to use her dragon's breath to keep her hands from becoming too frozen.
"Alright, we've been here long enough, don't want to attract any unwanted attention! If I can get detailed schematics of their compound they can sure as hell detect heat sigs out here." She says, slinging her rucksack over her shoulder and readying her rifle.
"I'll take point this time, just tell me what direction and we'll get there" Glitch says, hustling to the front.
The group traverse the open terrain, over a few mountains and a set of ravines. The snow becoming a nuisance as the ability to see gradually diminishes.
"I thought you said we were Fifteen klicks from the target! We've been marching for hours! Are we going the right way ma'am?" Magnet chirps.
"Pipe down, it's less than two klicks and we'll be there in a few, the snow slowed us down, stop complaining Sergeant!" Damien commands.
On the eve of another hour, the group arrive at a cliff-face overlooking the complex, Damien pulls out a pair of binoculars and observes the outer perimeter. "Prepare to copy info, Angel."
"Send it" He says, holding a notepad under a poncho to avoid windage and snowflakes ruining his writing.
"Six vehicles, Two Scorpion light tanks, a pair of Edgars, as well as a pair of Self propelled SRM launchers. Looks like… one company worth of troops? Uh… Stand by switching to thermals if it gives a better view… Nope, Still fuckin blind. Looks like we have to assume there's more than that." She states, moderately irritated by the weather.
Glitch creating a small lean-to for the group to huddle under to formulate a plan. Damien heating up the wood they scrounged up from the immediate area. Angel sending as much info they gathered to the bridge for the combat report. Magnet pulling security again the group holds up in the cold.
Damien checks her watch, weather indicates the snow will continue for another four hours and their window is in less than thirty minutes. "Good news and bad news kids, Good news? We'll be pretty warm while we advance on the compound so much as you don't get shot at. Bad news? It's going to keep snowing for the next four hours and we don't have that much time to get in and get out."
"I don't think any of that was good news…" Glitch says, passive aggressively.
Angel pipes up with a scoff. "Well, you can just sit this one out. I'll do your job for you. It's alright!"
Before it got any further Damien pipes up, really mad it's visible that smoke pours from her nose and mouth as she scolds the two. "No fucking bickering! You think I like this? It's fucking cold and there's a lot to risk here, three of my best pilots. This is the state of things and we can't fix shit. Deal with it!"
Angel lays out a holographic tactical map of the area, noting the troop movements and vehicle placement with watchtower and patrol routes. Pointing out a slight gap. "It's not really a good place for us to just rush in, we need a distraction, I volunteer to be on the team, who's goin' with me?"
Magnet pipes up and volunteers, much to the shock of Damien and company. "That's new…"
"Well, to the east the rear of the facility has the most patrol routes, but the west has little to no security, being that it's the front gate there's only two guard posts with overwatch from watchtowers, it's also an entry point for all of the armored vehicles. What me and Magnet are going to do is hijack a Scorpion and take a little joyride, hopefully he's had enough training on operating the DFCS on that tank." Angel explains, as serious as can be as his instruction is key.
Magnet just nods in acknowledgement.
"Meanwhile, Damien and Glitch will head into the compound while we form the distraction, we'll fire a Blue flare if we fail and need to retreat. And a Red flare for carry on. It's key you wait for the signal since radios take too long. You two will enter from the west and search the main building that houses the data server, we need to level the facility before we exfil but if it's too dangerous prioritize your lives over the demo op. We're here for an encrypted file so we should prioritize that, download the file, and then extract. You fire a Yellow flare when you've finished your end, we'll meet up here and head for the ship once they touchdown. Tracking?" Angel continues.
"Cut and Clear kid, making use of those training sims." Damien affirms.
The group splits, heading to their respective waiting areas. Damien and Glitch hunker down in a defilade just short of their entry, Angel and Magnet make their way to one of the unoccupied bays housing one of the tanks, Magnet keeps watch while Angel attempts to get it started.
"You think you can get it hotwired Angel? I don't like the situation here…" Magnet cries out.
"Discourage the Curious, don't shoot if you don't have to, but if you can't get us out of it just open up!" Angel retorts, slightly irritated.
Magnet hides as two soldiers on a patrol wander over.
"You think Mike wants to go to the bar later? Or does he have shit to do without us again?" One of the soldiers says.
"I don't know man, he's always blowing off our plans to hang by himself, I think he doesn't like us." The other soldier responds
Off in the distance a soldier calls out "I CAN HEAR YOU TWO OVER THERE! IM ANTISOCIAL BUT IM NOT FUCKIN DEAF!"
"I guess we have our answer then" They both state.
Magnet hiding inside the tank's commander's cupola, praying they don't investigate the vehicle. Eventually the soldiers continue on their patrol and by that time Angel gets the tank started and Magnet fires off the Red flare as they start to cut rounds off through the surrounding vehicles, aiming for the powered down tanks before assaulting the running ones.
"That's our cue! Let's get moving, kid!" Damien says as she rushes into the front, firing on the move hitting the guards at the front. As her and Glitch rush inside, she can't help but think to herself "Where are the mechs we were told about? This doesn't seem good…"
Angel and Magnet wreak havoc on their side of things, eventually running out of Armored targets and moving onto taking out the light infantry. An infantryman with a shoulder fired SRM launcher disables the track on the right side swinging it turning towards the soldier, meanwhile another shoots on at the engine compartment in the rear, Magnet manually traverses the turret and uses the coaxial to take down the infantry, becoming a stationary fighting position. After the threat is removed they dismount after destroying the vehicle with demolitions before leaving. Making their way to the exfil site to wait for Damien and Glitch to arrive.
"I sure hope they can make it, we made quite the ruckus over there" Angel worriedly says.
"Sir you sound as old as Glitch does when she says shit like that!" Magnet scoffs.
Meanwhile, Glitch is in the main building for the complex acquiring the file, and Damien is searching the rest of the buildings, clearing them one by one. Eventually she stops encountering OpFor and it all goes quiet. Eventually she comes across a prison area with four holding cells, three of them are empty, the one prisoner is a female, unconscious and her dossier says she's a mech pilot, unknown affiliation. Place looks abandoned and she looks malnourished. She has a pulse but it's faint.
"I better not be making a mistake…" She finds a way to open the cell and picking the girl up, carrying her over her shoulder she runs back to Glitch, where it seems nobody is even advancing to prevent them from capturing the data file. "This doesn't seem right, How much longer on that file!?"
Glitch pulls her connector from the terminal and rushes up to leave "No time at a- Who's that?"
"No time, I'll explain on the ship. Let's get to the rendezvous!" Damien says, rushing outside and firing the designated flare and leading themselves back to their overlook.
"Hey woah where'd you get this beauty from? We taking prisoners for interrogation? Don't seem right here." Angel says, disconcerted with the whole ordeal.
"Ugh, Can it already? We have to get to the ship! We gotta go, This op doesn't feel right and I want to get us out of here!" Damien exclaims, worried if they're compromised
"I already called them over, ETA five minutes." Angel affirms.
Meanwhile, the group looks over the destroyed remains of the 'high security' complex they had to infiltrate. As they wait for the ship to arrive, the demo charges Glitch set go off, lighting the entire area up in bright flames and thick smoke. Damien places a thick warm blanket around the stranger to keep them warm. After a short while the ship arrives and the five rush in, returning the suborbital before plotting a course for out of Northwind and off to Epsilon Eridani.
"Alright guys, Downgrade your gear, take all SI to the armory and get everything stowed. Glitch I need that data file up in the bridge by 1530 Tomorrow, get some rest! All of you. That's an order people, I gotta take Miss unknown to the medbay to get her checked out. Break!" Damien hurriedly orders, rushing off to the medical staff delivering the new patient.
The Next Day
Damien hasn't left the medbay since bringing the new arrival in, worried sick as it brings back an unforgettable past. The girl's vitals are stable and she has yet to wake up, she takes hold of the young girl's hand and holds onto her until she feels she should leave her to rest. Hours go by and it seems hopeless. She stands up and lets go of the girl, as she takes the first step to leave she hears a soft voice..!
"W-Who are you?" The girl cried out
Spinning around almost whipping a nurse with her tail, showing a face of disbelief mixed with glee. "Holy shit you're awake! I'm Commander Damien! Damien Krüger! Happy to have this moment to talk! What's yours?"
The girl remained motionless in the bed, looking around the room without moving her head. "Where…?"
"All of that will be answered in time! You need to tell me who you are, I've been very curious." She eagerly says, practically bouncing with excitement.
"Rylie… Rylie Lucas, I used to go by Ranger…" She hesitantly says.
"Used to? I'm sure it's a long story and all pretty fuzzy right now, I'll stop pestering you and I'll let you rest…" She says, heading for the door, looking back she's already passed back out. "Sleep well, kid."
