Hello fellow fans. First of all, this is my first post. My name is Brandon and I am a huge fan of Battletech. In fact, it was the first book series I read that I would call a "Grown up" series, back when I was in 9th grade. Since then, I have read pretty much every battletech novel and some of the Dark Age ones as well.
I am the author of the book "Ruin" on Amazon and most other retailers but I don't know the rules on external links, so I'll avoid making one. Anyhow, I have been a fan since my first novel "Decision at Thunder Rift" and a heavy player of all the games. MechCommander, MechWarrior 2 Titanium, 3, 4, and now MW5 Mercs.
I am going to try my hand at some short fiction in the BTech universe, as it's on my bucket list. As a big fan of the Raven and light mechs in general, I thought I would start there. Enjoy, and go easy on me :thumbsup:
Chapter 1 - Patrol
4th of June 3051 (Earth Calendar): Southern Outskirts of Ajnanabal City, Hassad, Free Worlds League 07:20
The red giant that was Hassad’s sun crept over the treeline and bathed the thick jungle undergrowth in deep shades of orange. To the north, Ajnanabal City stuck out of the growth like a concrete giant, constantly fighting to hold back the encroachment of nature.
Shimmers of heat were already rising above the cityscape as the sun washed over Ajnanabal’s many flat pebble rooftops and asphalt roads. Soon, the moisture of the tropical rains that had visited in the evening prior would begin to evaporate into a sticky fog.
Despite all this, Sgt. Kiran Loren was freezing. His cooling vest hummed quietly as the liquid in its many pockets was slowly circulated by a small pump behind his command chair. If he were in combat, or doing anything besides another routine morning patrol of the city perimeter, his mech might produce enough heat for him to appreciate such a luxury.
Kiran flipped the toggle for his radio. He shivered and then cleared his throat, “Bird 2 reports nominal activity in sector 3A. Request permission to continue to 3B.”
For a moment, Kiran wasn’t sure his message had been transmitted. After a few more seconds of silence, he reached for his transmit toggle to try again, but was stopped as a static pop sounded over his headset.
“Bird 2, permission granted,” came the tired voice of whoever had drawn the short straw at Ops Command. Early shift was almost as undesirable as third shift. Almost.
“Proceed to 3B and link up with Bird 1,” the voice crackled in his neurohelmet.
“Ack,” Kiran replied before cutting the connection. He called up a topographical map of his assigned patch of jungle. The electronics in his 35 ton Raven 3L battlemech were still some of the most impressive displays of technology available in Inner Sphere mechs.
As the only mech purpose built to house the 1.5 ton Guardian ECM Array, his Raven was cutting edge. In light of the recent clan incursion into Draconis territory, Ravens were seeing heavy use. However, that conflict, concerning though it was, was on the other side of the galaxy. Here on Hassad it was just another Wednesday on patrol.
Tracing the touchscreen with his finger, Kiran plotted out a course to sector 3B. His ten kilometer trek would take him over a small range of rock covered hills that jutted out of the dense jungle and offered a great view of the coastline. It was a slower route than staying in the jungle below, but Kiran was in no hurry to link up with his patrol partner. That would just mean more patrolling through dense and choking brush.
“Hey Kiran, my heads up is showing a really wonky route to me from your nav computer. You lost?” came a woman’s voice over his headset.
“Damnit, Sala.. I mean Lieutenant, use callsigns,” Kiran grumbled, checking to make sure the comm channel was private. “It’s OpSec 101.”
“My apologies, Bird 2,” Lt. Sala replied. Kiran caught a sarcastic emphasis on the “2.” And was that insubordination I heard, Sergeant?
Kiran chortled and grinned before throttling his mech to an easy 50kph. He was mindful of the trees as head dodged left and right. Sure, his mech could easily topple most of them, but the loud noise of solid objects striking his chassis would just set his ears to ringing. Not to mention the inevitable outcry from the city college’s environmentalists.
With the increase in speed, his cockpit began to warm by a couple degrees. His Hermes 210XL engine thrummed steadily as it fed power to the myomer muscles that gave his bird shaped mech its mobility.
Soon, he had reached the top of the range. Almost at once, the thick trees fell behind him, and the bare rocky top of the ridgeline appeared. Kiran throttled down as his Raven reached a mostly flat area of the hill. He turned the 35 ton bulk to face the coastline to the north, and with a low pitched whine, the mech came to a stop.
Knowing he had little time before command radioed for an update, Kiran detached the neuro-helmet from his head, unbuckled his safety harness, and ascended the ladder to the hatch above.
As he pulled the release, a gust of warm humid air gushed in from the outside. It smelled of dirt, water, and chlorophyll. It smelled like a jungle. Kiran hoisted himself the rest of the way up and sat on the edge of the hatch hole.
The jungle air was a welcome comfort against his skin. He’d left his cooling vest in the cockpit and shivered to think of putting it back on. To the north, the city was coming alive. The freeway that ringed around Ajnanabal, the capital city of Hassad, was already choked with rush hour traffic. He could hear the honking of horns carry over the morning breeze.
Kiran lay back on the elongated chassis of his mech and looked up into the sky. Already, the afternoon rain clouds were beginning to form. One of the darker clouds crept north and covered the sun, offering a nice view of the light blue sky.
To the east, high in the atmosphere, he spotted the familiar glowing tail of a decelerating dropship. He tried to recall the name of the incoming craft from the list of inbound transports, but was drawing a blank. No doubt, another transport from the nearby moon of-
Suddenly, his heart jumped. Three more fire trails resolved in the sky behind the other. Something about what he was seeing triggered alarms in his mind. Ajnanabal starport was small, supporting only a single dropship landing pad and a couple atmospheric landing strips for commercial flights. Four made no sense except-
As he scrambled down the ladder and reached for the hatch, Kiran heard the mournful howls of air raid sirens come up from the city. He slammed his hatch shut and nearly forgot to secure it in his haste. Quickly, he dropped into his command couch and strapped in.
No sooner had he secured his neurohelmet on his head than a cacophony of radio traffic flooded his earpiece.
“Tracking inbound unidentified -”
“Who the hell is-”
“Alpha Whiskey Two Niner, reposition to-”
Kiran flipped his comm switches to filter non-directed traffic.
“Bird 2 Bird 2! Come in, this is 1. I repeat-”
“This is Bird 2, what the hell is going on?” Kiran interrupted.
Before Sala could respond, a familiar voice crackled over Kiran’s headset, “South Patrol, this is Major Reece at Ajnanabal OpsCom, proceed at maximum speed to grid 1 and take up position in subgrid 3A for a possible R.Rep action.”
Sala’s voice replied quickly, “This is Bird 1 confirming request. South Patrol is on the way. Out.” There was a click as the comm line was closed. At the rank of Lieutenant, Sala was his superior and expected to handle all communications between their patrol group and OpsCom.
“Bird 2,” Sala sounded flustered, OpsCom has us in grid 1-3A for a possible Raider Repel mission, that puts us right on the outskirts of the city. Pedal to the metal, Sergeant.”
“Yes sir,” Kiran responded. Caught up in the excitement, he jammed the throttle to 100%. The sudden jolt in speed nearly overcame the balance that his inner ear was feeding the neurohelmet. Following a brief struggle against the ensuing dizziness, he was sprinting at his Raven 3L’s full 97kph.
A few minutes, or seconds, Kiran couldn’t tell, passed. The jungle continued to rush by him in a blur and the comm traffic from the city was still a jumbled mess. Pressing a button, he switched to a private channel with Sala.
“Sa- Bird 1, this is Bird 2, over,” Kiran said, doing his best to keep his voice from shaking.
“Bird 1 copies,” came the quick response.
“Any more word from command? Or anything to indicate what’s going on?” Kiran asked.
“Plenty of traffic from OpsCom, but none directed toward us,” Sala replied. She sounded to Kiran like she was between heavy breaths. It gave him some relief to know, he wasn’t the only one handling the sudden threat poorly. In terms of experience, they were both low on the ladder of mech warrior greatness.
Both had never seen real combat. The only thing that separated the Lieutenant from himself was a few years in the Second Marik Militia, most of which she had spent patrolling or running the occasional readiness drill. When Colonel Gierke had taken the bulk of the Militia’s forces to the nearby planet Vanra to recruit, he had left a light force of two light mechs, a couple dozen mixed vehicles, and two divisions of infantry to protect the backwater world of Hassad.
Sala continued, “From what I can gather, there are four yet unknown dropships coming in hot. There was no warning from orbital and nothing from the jump point. Sounds like a raid. But it’s a lot of hardware for something like that.”
“Do we have dropship classifications?” Kiran asked.
“Two confirmed so far,” Sala replied. There was a moment of silence before her voice returned, “looks like two Union Class dropships. The other two are smaller. I don’t have any word on- Wait a second. Switch to OpsCom channel nine.”
Kiran did so, and nearly ran headfirst into a Kapok tree twice the width of his light mech. The channel buzzed to life.
"Hostile signatures have increased to nine… no, fifteen, correction sixteen. Twelve smaller signals, looks like aerofighters. I- yes confirmed, incoming light aerofighters. Activate countermeasures. Where the hell are our squadrons!?"
A reply came, muffled in the background, "Blue 3 is launching now. 2 and 1 were in the middle of a maintenance cycle. We weren’t expecting-"
Just get every ****** fighter in the air that you can before-
The line went silent. Sala’s voice broke back in over Kiran’s headset, “I just lost all traffic from OpsComm. I still have plenty on civilian channels though. I think the array may have been hit.”
“Shit,” Kiran exclaimed. “What do we do?”
“Continue on mission, Sergeant. We get to grid 1-3A and try to link up with the OpsComm. Ours are the only mechs on this continent right now, and with Colonel Gierke off planet with the majority of the militia, we’re the only thing standing in the way of a complete takeover of the capitol. It’s time to put that academy training to use. I hope you’re ready.”
The red glow of fires and war ahead began to break through the thinning jungle canopy. Kiran wasn’t sure if he was ready, but he knew, he was about to find out.
