Dag needs to win this quickly and displace.
He has no dropships so its really a race to see how many Wolves the 66th can kill before they eventually send more.
-------
Mortar rounds hammered the lone Hypernova like an endless steel rain. Around it the air was thick with the gravel and splintered stone thrown up by near misses. It advanced steadily into an ongoing barrage of autocannon fire the reinforced positions proving difficult to dislodge with the lasers it had at hand. Blakist tanks shifted forward at irregular intervals exchanging fire with their own lasers and particle beams.
Alaric opened his collar and increased the fluid pressure on his cooling suit as the cockpit temperature rose steadily despite the frigid wilderness outside.
“Guess we did need these cooling vests Sig even though its thirty below outside.”He toggled the trigger and slagged the turret of a Myrmidon which exploded with a bright blue flash.
“I do not leave home without it; and not just because it makes it easy to pick up chicks.”
“Doubt either of us have any trouble in that department. We are Foxes.” He strained to maintain control of the Battlemech which was beginning to experience the damage it had accrued over the past several minutes of combat. Explosions stitched a steady path across their increasingly bare torsos. Hot cooling oil sputtered out of a damaged radiator until HarGel filled the breach.
“Where is everyone Alaric? I do not feel confident about our current situation.”
“Ember and Cam are still hunting that Lynx. The others are en route back after losing the Starslayer.”Siegfried zoomed in past the tank’s firing line, seeing groups of snowmobiles armed with missiles racing toward them paced closely by a Blakist Scarabus whose cyclopean head he knew housed a TAG.
“They better hurry because once that thing gets to us. Its going to get dicey.”Above him his brother tapped into the gunnery sight and saw the jagged edges of the Scarabus’ hatchet.
“Was that a joke?”To the South Morgana and Camie’s Battlemechs sped through the canyons in hot pursuit of the enemy Lynx who proved difficult for the pair to pin down.
“He is leading us away from the others Ember. We should turn back.”
“No, we have to catch him. This Lynx is heading toward the Black Bones and other Wolves.” She looked at the latest status update for the Hypernova with growing concern,
“They might need our help more than Actual.”
“We are clearly looking at….” The rest of her transmission was lost as a canyon wall exploded half-way down. The resulting landside caught the Incubus in a rockslide that dashed the Battlemech against the opposite wall like ragdoll. Morgana saw the mirror like sheen of Tornado suits jumping down to take advantage of the situation. Stiletto was hip deep in scree, but Morgana worked the machine’s legs to free herself from the bind.
“Not today!”Stiletto pumped its legs through the fallen rubble toward the actively camouflaging suits which made their weapons appear to be floating as it held by a ghost unless you had an active probe. The Griffin kicked one of the suits sending the armor flying into the canyon wall with a satisfying crunch.
Surprised that their quarry had escaped the trap the Tornados leapt into action using their armored gloves and years of Anti-Mech training to find handholds on the thrashing Griffin. Morgana felt deeply and personally violated by the Blakist incursion on her BattleMech’s armored skin. She attempted to thrash and grab the suits, but they dodged Stiletto’s fists which only succeeded in harming itself. Camie’s Incubus shifted some of the scree off it and weakly shifting its upper body. The lower part clearly trapped and likely damaged.
“Ember hold still. I will shoot them with my machine guns.”Every instinct in Morgana screamed at her as the Tornado’s prepped the satchel charges attached to their bandoliers. She was a Clan Warrior, but she hadn’t any experience dealing with swarming infantry. Camie’s voice was pained no doubt she had experienced a major trauma as her mech slammed into the stone.
“Fast and clean please.”“No guarantees.” The Incubus’ quad machine guns fired in unison perforating the PA(L)s with dozens of 14mm API rounds. They fell off like dead lice, but the overspray covered Stiletto in ugly scars as the grenades exploded. Between the grenades and machine guns her Kinslaughter PPC suffered damage to its power coil.
“Camie my PPC is damaged.”
“Well, my Mech’s legs are not responding, and I am not feeling so hot. I would give you mine, but we don’t have time. You still have missiles and lasers and that will have to be enough.
Cover me up, the batteries have enough power to keep me warm.”
“You want me to bury you?”
“Aff, come on Ember. I will be fine.”Morgana paused unsure what to do. The status reports from Sig and Alaric were worrying. Many Wolves had been KOed, injured, or their mechs and vehicles were trapped in the Black Bone’s wreckage, Sig’s HyperNova was critical in several locations and the other pair of Battlemechs in their Star had been lured into a similar trap with less success. The artillery was too thick for the Vordermark to land nearby and there were only a few IndustrialMechs on-board and none of them were ready. They both knew that every Wolf was needed if they were going to eke any kind of victory out of this mission.
“Do it!”The rapidly cooling Incubus was concealed beneath the canyon rubble with a few swipes of Stiletto’s arms. Morgana jumped out of the canyon and surveyed the battlefield before her.
Star Commander Brade’s Challenger pressed forward through a hail of firepower impacting its hardened armor. Missiles from his Wolves streaked overhead as scattered artillery shells took their toll on the already compromised Wolf Mech’s armor. The assault mech’s imposing silhouette clearly visible amidst the melee particularly in the infrared spectrum as his Triple Strength Myomer gave increased strength to each movement.
Shells streamed endless out of the Rifleman II’s back as the 66th’s lasers burned holes in the Wolves’ tough hides. With nowhere left to retreat for either side they both had a mind for blood.
The first casualty was a Crab 27b which folded under the relentless firepower of the Twin Terrors (Great Wyrms) of Tharkad. They subsequently were disabled by the Blakist Scarabus with a lot of help from laser guided munitions. Blakist motorized infantry astride snowmobiles surrounded and brought down the already damaged and awkward looking Lobo 1. Its star-mate, a Wolf Hussars Lobo 3, ripped the whole formation to shreds with its machine guns and AP Gauss Rifles before they could swarm and kill the Mechwarrior inside.
Back to the West Sig and Alaric played a dangerous game of cat and mouse evading the snowmobile infantry with their jump jets by forcing them to detour hostile terrain. A little luck that all the artillery was facing the other direction and Alaric was good at projecting ghost targets didn’t hurt either.
“We cannot keep this up. They are going to corner us eventually.” “That would not be very smart of them.” Sig slaved the data gloves to the mech’s hands giving the ‘bring it on’ gesture goading the Blakist Scarabus which seemed to be eager to get a kill on the lone Assault mech which had been firing its weapons at the enemy tanks rather than it.
“What are you doing Sig? Just shoot him!”
“Trust me, you will like this.”
