Free Worlds League
Tellman's Mistake
Foreland Expanse
February 23 3028
Sorolynn Bruister maneuvered her Hermes II behind a pair of rolling hills that put her battlemech between the edge of the Foreland Expanse plains and the start of arboreal forest. She relished the speed that her new ride could put out but at the same time resented her commander for tasking her lance with the cat and mouse game she was currently playing. Instead of engaging in a stand up fight that she wanted in order to test her skills, Major Bishop had ordered her to lead her formation to bait the enemy OpFor with hit and runs in order to bring them away from the Privateers raiding target and closer to the tree line.
“Raider One to team, hold ten then break cover for salvo.” It had been the same thing over and over for the past two hours. Now however, the forest was in sight and it was time to test her mettle. Finally Sorolynn thought We're close enough to actually fight these mercs. The green mechwarrior counted down from ten underneath her breath before pushing forward on her joysticks to draw power from her fusion engine. The gyro of her Hermes II whined before the mech lurched forward again into a run.
Despite her machines high maximum speed of ninty seven kilometers per hour, Sergeant Bruister's medium was the third Privateer to break cover. At a break neck pace, the pair of Scimitar's attached to her lance sped out onto open ground. Through Sorolynn's cockpit shielding the hovercrafts autocannon fire almost sounded to her like song birds chirping, but she knew better than that. The insulated canopy of her Hermes II protected her from the damaging roar the massive weapons would cause her hearing if exposed to it directly.
“With me mechwarriors!” the young Sergeant cried into her comms as the enemy became visible once more. Across the field making chase were the mercenaries tasked with protecting the League world, Lori's Bandits. Sorolynn's HUD painted her first opponent for her, a Charger. It was an assault class machine, but it's weapons payload was almost laughable. It had steadily led the chase for its lance and the rest of the OpFors company. It was closing fast, but not fast enough to avoid being chewed up by the Hermes II's autocannon. As she pulled her main guns trigger, 'Lynn could feel mild vibrations ripple through her mech as it spit out the autocannons macro shells at high velocity from their chamber. Thick armor on the Chargers left arm absorbed the blow of the streaming attack, but didn't appear to break.
Sergeant Bruister let go with another long range volley into the advancing enemy before juking her medium class machine to the right to throw off incoming fire. As she did so the young Privateer noticed as the Charger took more fire from her lance mates, its own pilot twisted the huge mechs torso so that its left arm continued to absorb much of her units abuse. During a brief lull in her offensive as one of her allies crossed her field of fire, a familiar nagging voice chimed in Sorolynn's neurohelmets ear piece.
“Raider One, pull back. You are still over extended and have not brought the enemy into the designated kill zone.” For some reason Major Bishops voice chaffed on Sorolynn's every last nerve. His planned game of cat and mouse was such a waste of her skill. For a moment she strongly considered just ignoring the man as she continued to fight. “Sergeant Bruister, retreat to the treeline now! That's an order.” Again the annoying backseat leader of the Privateers tried to take away her glory. Finally she answered, anger in her words and adrenaline pumping in her ears. “We reached your damned zone but you didn't act. Come out and fight instead of hiding like a coward.” 'Lynns blood boiled with battle lust. Thankfully no other comment was retorted from her arm chair Major.
Being able to focus again at the task at hand, Sergeant Bruister brought her medium laser into play along side her autocannon against the much closer Charger. The coherent light of her attack stabbed into the assault mechs right torso causing a black scar in its orange paint job, but to her surprise the Hermes II's powerful autocannon missed wide though luckily catching an enemy Stinger in its stream.
The battle was moving fluidly and Sorolynn's instinct told her the Charger was on the verge of breaking against her brutal attacks. Her vision tunneled in on her foe as it ran at her spitting out its weak small lasers in an attempt to damage her colossus. Another familiar voice echoed in her ear but unlike the other this one was welcome. Gently it whispered Let them burn and in response 'Lynn toggled her flamer for an attack. Liquid fire spewed forth in a dazzling display from her battlemechs left arm. The inferno blackened her own colored paint job but the beautiful hell it unleashed was worth it.
At the last moment as the Charger stepped past the fiery blaze Sorolynn Bruister's mind fully broke. Through her cockpits reflective canopy glass her eyes widened as she saw the massive fist reach out through the roiling smoke rising from her foes torso. The green mechwarrior wasn't able to hear her own scream as the sound of the assault mechs physical blow quashed all other noise with a deafening crash. 'Lynn would later remember seeing her Hermes II's view screen ripple before exploding from the impact and sending clear shrapnel through her arms, severing both off at the elbow.
Before darkness took her, the future ComStar adept saw the gore of her own dismembered limbs, but still couldn't hear her own screams.
* * *
Alexander Bishop stepped his Warhammer through the edge of the treeline just in time to see the enemies commander cave in the head of his Sergeants Hermes II. Swearing under his breath he was at least relieved to see that the rest of his battered Raider lance was falling back. Analyzing the enemy formation across the plains Alex could tell their heavy recon was buying time as a distraction in order to maneuver their slower fire support into place. “Thunder lance. Fire for effect on top of their recon support. Let it rain until they pull out.” Switching comm channels Major Bishop continued. “Ok Battle lance, it's not ideal but our line in the sand has been drawn. Push out towards the enemies main column under our umbrella and dig in your heels. Make them come to us by focusing on their long range assets.”
The familiar thrumming of his Warhammers fusion reactor grew louder as the Privateers leader throttled up into a run to push himself toward battle. Exiting the trees along side of him in a rough formation were battlemechs newly christened as second company. Alex's HUD displayed green pings that represented allies and he took note of his Marauder's, Orion's, Griffin's, and Wolverine's positioning. Keeva's Black Knight was present as well but he had full confidence already in her ability.
In truth Alex knew he held a superior number and fire power advantage over Lori's Bandits with the reinforced company he fielded, but the purpose of all this was to train his new recruits hard while securing supplies for his grown unit. Already, like Raider lance, he was seeing weak links in his peoples skill set, but it was the trial by fire he needed to forge his pilots into a hard unit.
Wisps of exhaust corkscrewed over head as Thunder lance blanketed the sky with LRM fire. The combined output of missile fire from two LRM Carriers and his Longbow assault mech was staggering. As time went on Alex was learning combined arms with vehicles was a slippery slope but when fielded appropriately could yield amazing results. I do wish I had Anders unit here as well. The new Major had found experienced infantry to be the key to bringing it all together.
Following the cascade of destruction being sent down field, Alexander's Warhammer made range with the enemies recon elements. Major Bishop didn't fire however. Watching the scene unfold he suddenly felt that he didn't need to. “Let them go.” Alex said into an open channel that his people and those of Lori's Bandits could hear. Staring out through his cockpit glass the Major watched as the enemy Charger burn along with a pair of Stinger's. The once advancing mercenaries were now in a full withdrawal. After seeing their own commander sent to ruin, they decided it prudent not to have the same happen to them.
“To the warehouses. Lets go collect our pay cheque.” Alexander continued to watch the routing enemy. You may keep your lives, but I know one man who will not.