Through a Mirror Darkly 1
These are Bruce's work compiled from the original forum posts.
Through a mirror darkly
“I am not a leader of men, because I prefer to follow”
Nickelback Leader of men
Chapter 1 Beginnings
Historians will look back at the Star League and say it was a golden age. A paradise some will say. Maybe, but it’s gone now. To say Stefan Amaris ruined it is too simple. The truth is we, in our hubris, lost sight of what we had. It’s an old story, repeated time and time again. Our story is what came after.
Bruce (Free Falling over Manhattan Island.)
Combat drops are always unnerving, I mean there’s something wrong about being dumped blind out of a perfectly good DropShip. Something really wrong when you consider the other guy is gonna do all he can to bring you to a sudden, permanent and messy marriage with the ground. Still there is a certain malefic beauty to it all. When the drop cocoon splits away and your ‘Mech comes alive around you the sky is alive with a fireworks show few ever get to see. Above me the SLS Tiger Claw and SLS Farragut filled the sky with fire as their area denial barrages kept our drop corridor clear of Amaris SAM s and the bulk of his fighters. Skimming around like deadly fireflies, careful to keep clear of the big cruisers firing solutions the Rapiers and Hammerheads of the Rakshasha’s flew MIGCAP and ground strike missions. Beautiful until you realized those fireworks were Captain Matos’ command lance being picked apart by Amaris Corvin heavy fighters. And that big ball of light was the Fortress class Mangenot taking a mixed battalion to a fiery end.
Hussy’s threat warnings lit off as a ground based radar began to track the big Marauder. Despite the millions of drop pod fragments and other chaff floating about it’s almost impossible to miss a 75-ton fusion powered beast with all the radar cross section of a T-Rex. My HUD began tracking two Arrow VI surface to air missiles homing in on me. Hussy however, wonderful 'Mech that she is, could do more than be a sitting, or rather falling duck. SAM’s throw off enough heat from their engines that my sensors could track them even at several miles. The real question was, could I aim and shoot without throwing my ‘Mech out of control.
Shifting gently in the linear frame that controls my ‘Mech, I brought the blocky right vambrace that made up Hussy’s left forearm. At two klicks out I let go with whip slash from the Magna Hellstar PPC encased within. The nice thing about the particle cannon is that you don’t have to actually hit dead on. It’s basically a lightning bolt you flick like a whip throwing off spurs that seek out large metal objects and electromagnetic energy sources. Like the delicate seeker head of a SAM. The first missile didn’t so much explode as simply spiral out of control. The second however came on looking just like a damned flying telephone pole. And its’ twisting spiraling flight took it out of my sights.
