(Note: This story is a sequel to 'The Dance of Fire and Steel', and takes place approximately two weeks afterwards)
Paladin, was, for all intents, purposes, and descriptive language, a mess. Mechwarrior Herman Corian, or rather Leutnant Corian, Herman corrected himself as he observed the sixty-year old fighting machine, which looked like it had tried to take on a star of Dashis in long-range combat. Herman considered the twists of fate.
The Eighteenth had successfully burned for orbital after the near-debacle on Carver V, when most of the units was spread aross the planet for training exercises. After the Liao ambush which apparently destroyed the lance, and Herman successfully making it across a hundred kilometers of unfriendly terrain, the Guard decided to reconginze both him and Amy Southlander with promotions to leutnants. This was partially for the tactics they displayed, and the fact they had each garnered two confirmed Mech kills on Carver, and they had displayed excellent tactics. The other part was the new Lyran Alliance, which meant the rank of leutnant once again existed in the Inner Sphere. Of course, the LAAF report made little mention of how Amy's second kill was their commanding officer, driven to a blind, mad rage after his cowardly retreat, had ambushed Herman. Herman's Shadow Hawk, Paladin, an ancient relic, was too battered to win, and Herman was headed to the big Mechbay in the sky when Amy dropped her PXH-5M down and took the Quickdraw out with a Sunbeam ER laser. Now, the S3245, the Second Battalion, Third Company's Union class ship, was docked to a Monolith Class ship as the Eighteenth awaited the Archon's orders on dealing with the new Chaos March.
Herman grinned, the only benefit to the whole exercise was the reason his Paladin looked in such bad shape. A patter of footsteps made him turn from where the astechs continued their work.
"You know, which all the access panels and armor removed, you can't recongize the Paladin. It had its own special pattern of corrosion," Amy Southlander chuckled as she watched the Paladin get repaired, "How much damage did you take?"
Herman sighed, "The damage is actually all fixed, but, thanks to my," Amy coughed, "OUR efforts, the CO gave permission for a few modifications to Paladin. The Mech was already down a ton of armor for two more jump jets, but I've got a way to get it back."
Amy cocked an eyebrow, "You can't have done well enough to get an XL engine mounted, cause then I want Clan tech." Herman nodded a no, "They salvaged an Endo Steel chassis that should work, and they're very carefully removing the skeleton and replacing it." One of the Techs looked up in annoyance, but Herman continued, "Thanks to the, ahem, jury-rigged nature of Paladin's systems, the Techs now hate me. They have absolutely NO idea how to get the myomer bundles attached to the right connection points, so I have to micromanage the whole exercise, and everyone's hating it. On the plus side, I get a CASEd torso for ammunition, another ton of armor, and an Ultra-5 autocannon. Now I don't have to worry about Crusaders ripping me to shreds at long-range." Amy nodded in approval, "Good plan, except you're going to have to lock down the Paladin, the Batt commander wants to see us for a special assignement, right away." Herman nodded, then looked at his grease-stained coveralls, "Can't I change to a duty uniform first?"
Amy pursed her lips, "Five minutes."
Four minutes, 48 seconds later, Herman arrived at Major Harris's door, his boss. Amy was already there, sitting down, and the Major was unrolling a topographical map of a planet. "Sit down, Leutnant, this is a classified brieifing, breaking the confidential infomration is considered treason, do you understand?" Herman nodded a yes. Harris continued, "As you know, Tommy Marik and Sun-Tzu has thrown the heart of the Inner Sphere into chaos. We're going to try and get some order here. This planet is Elgin, its two jumps into disputed space. Things are currently a bit dicey political wise, and it looks like the Successor Wars all over there again. High Command wants a lance of troops sent in. They are to be given full autonomy, with sealed orders upon arrival. All I can tell you know is that its job is to serve as intelligence gathering before our troops could put together an assault on the planet. This is a volunteer mission, probably very dangerous. If you don't accept, you of course will not be allowed to tell anyone, but do you accept?
Herman considered, it sounded thought out, though without previous intel, it'd be the Carver march all over again. "Assuming, we can finish my Shadow Hawk's upgrades, then yes sir, I'm glad to serve."
Amy considered a little longer, "You want me to volunteer on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines to try and find recon when almost nothing is known?" Harris nodded. "Sounds dicey, a challenge, and you need someone good. One question, why us?"
Harris sighed, "An elite lance would never rebel, but you two show talent, and with the Alliance secession, you two just considered regular troops from green, in the confusion..." Amy nodded. "Sure, I'll do it, there's a lot of people going to suffer because of the Chaos March, and I'm going to help minimize it."
Harris nodded, "Very good, you'll get further information in three days. Until then, you're on a vow of silence," Harris sat down, and began shuffling through reports, "Dismissed!"
Two other pilots were in the room, one had a Sergeant's chevrons, while the other held the rank of Lieutenant. "Great, outranked," muttered Amy. Herman elbowed her in the gut. Major Harris walked into the room. Herman was surprised. The way he had been talking, he had assumed someone else would give the briefing. Harris turned on a holoprojector in the front of the room, which displayed a planet. "This is Hsing, in the new Chaos March. The planet is divided between baronys, and our garrison was recently routed off planet. We need you to get intel on the planet for a future attack. As you know this mission has no reasonable possibility of extraction, and is two jumps in.
The sergeant rose his hand lazily, "What's our cover." A slight pause, "Sir?"
Harris eyed the sergeant, "You're going in as dissatisfied Mechwarriors. You all have some blot on your record, but you all own Mechs."
Amy and Herman looked at each other, and Herman, despite the sergeant's bravo, knew that lessor officers who spoke up had a bad habit of always REMAINING lesser officers, spoke up, "Blots, sir?"
Harris gave a feral grin, "Yes. You acted above your authority when you ordered a highly dangerous maneuver by splitting up the unit, despite Donaldson's cowardness under fire. And you, Southlander," Amy looked shocked, "Attacked and KILLED a higher officer. Ryan over there caused an Awesome to blow up with his Firestarter by overheating it, though its still suspicious, and Martinez, despite an awesome record in combat of 4 kills per combat, questions his superiors a bit too much and has some demerits. With the new Alliance, your cover story is that, despite being cleared of these infractions, fearful of being brought up, you formed a lance and got hired out. We have you clear at Outreach, and you'll be joining a Leapord class ship to transfer for Hsing tomorrow."
Herman stood up in shock, "Sir, my Mech hasn't gone through testing yet. With its new systems..." Herman trailed off. Mechs, though they could take awesome punishment and had incredible firepower and maneuverability, required more technical maintence than almost any other battlefield unit.
Harris nodded a no, "There'll be Techs on board." Harris went on with the mission, describing their roles, equipment, and destination, a petty noble named Von Staub on Hsing.
Herman and the others paid attention, but came together after the meeting. "Your Mech is DOWNGRUDGED, and they want to take it on a mission?" said the sergeant, Martinez, rather incredulosly.
Amy had a cavalier grin, "It's always downgrudged." Herman shot her a dirty glance, "Modifications..."
Ryan nodded, trying to look either sagely or as a patriarch, and failing miserably on both counts, "Well, let's look over these mission packs. I'll see you tomorrow on the Leapord."
The next day, the "refurbished" Paladin, Phoenix Hawk, Ryan's FS9-S1 Firestarter, and Martinez's Dervish all were loaded on. They didn't really look good. There wasn't time for a thorough maintence overhaul after the fighting on Carver. All Mechs were still missing armor, and the Techs on board were desperately trying to reload Martinez's DV-7D with missiles, and were dragged away as the Dervish was transferred. Herman sighed, the only good thing about this mission was that the intel was from only a week ago. Things can't change too much in that time....
Two weeks later, Herman crawled out of Paladin's cockpit banging on the targeting system, which was older than his father, to get it to start up. Ryan yelled at him from ten meters below. "Get the lead out, baron Von Straub wants to speak to us." Herman climbed down in annoyance, "I haven't checked it all out, and we're going to land in three hours." Amy and Martinez fell in as Ryan shrugged, "We're not landing, he's learned we're all jump capable, and wants a combat drop." All the lower ranked memebers of the lance choked. They'd been in the simulator when not working on the Mechs, but they had never had ANY drop experience. Ryan winced in sympathy. "I know, but he says the area is secure, no trees to impale on. It's to impress the populace."
Martinez groaned in annoyance, "Show us the maps. The only simple thing about this is that I'm getting paid by the Steiners and the baron." Amy grinned wickedly.
Three hours later, a Tech was going from Mech to Mech to finish the checkout as the Mechwarriors slid on their vests. After getting a thumbs up, they did their walkabout, standard procedure every Mechwarrior learns early on, and climbed in.
Herman took a deep breath, trying to calm himself as they all checked in. Ryan gave the go ahead for the Rogues, as the lance dubbed themselves. Mainly sarcasically. The floor dropped from under his Mech. Herman noted his stomach didn't accompany him. The coffin flew away on schedule, and four blips showed up on the scanner. Herman blinked, then noticed one was the Dropship, peeling off to land at the spaceport. Herman feather his jets, as Ryan gave them instructions on where to land. Herman checked his scanners, "Looks like a company of mediums and heavies on the ground. Two Catapults, two Trebuchets. Wow, two Enforcers, Two Valkyries Two Vindies, and a Panther." Amy chirped in, "Talk about the red carpet."
Ryan replied, probably in annoyance since his advanced Beagle Probe hadn't seen them first, "Damp the heat, boys and girl, let's get down in one peace."
And so they nearly did. Thirty meters above the ground, every Mech with long-range missiles opened up. Doing the first thing they could think of the Mechwarriors canceled the jets, making the LRMs go wide, and hit them again. They still hit the ground hard, dropping from six meters up. "Damn, it's a trap!" Ryan yelled over the channel. "Take out those Catapults, Rogues Three and Four. Martinez, with me!" Ryan obviously wanted the Dervish's missiles to guard with his heavy, but short-range flamers.
"Piece of cake," Amy answered, with a quaver, as she raised both arms. Herman lowered his brand-new Ultra cannon into position, and threw off the safties and hit the trigger. Silence. Herman checked his readouts. The safeties still read on. Herman checked his scanner, no one else was firing on either side. Martinez answered, "KNEW they shouldn't have rushed the missiles." Amy cursed over the comlink as Ryan rose his arms in futile aiming.
The comm crackled and someone broke onto the channel. "I assume you've noticed that your final checkup, preformed by my man, has sabotaged your safeties. You will now surrender your Mechs to me, or lose your lives. Your Mechs are the property of Von Stroub." The light went on channel 2, and Herman made the switch. Ryan spoke up, "Move into close combat, we'll bash their heads in if we have too. Any ideas how it happened?" Herman was no longer listening, and had removed the panel on his weapons system, and was playing with his wires. Considering the general shape of his systems, "First time I've ever tried to CAUSE a short," Herman muttered. Herman frantically checked the screen as Mechs rose their arms to cover the immobile Lyran Mechs, and Herman knew the time had run out.
Herman played around with the targeting system, trying to reroute around a safety, which was designed to shut down very easily, as paniced shouts came over the comm channels. "It's in the torso, no chance of getting it back form in here!" "I need a Mechbay!"
An unholy chuckle sent shivers up the Lyran's spines. Von Staub had compromised another comm. channel. "Either give up, or I'll be happy to give up your lives." One of the Catapults moves forwards, and aimed at Ryan's Firestarter. Meanwhile, Herman was trying something he had heard his father describe. The safieties blocked the controls from the cockpit. One time, his father had had to reinitalize weapons by routing the targeting controls through the safeties. It would take out his targeting system, but at least he could shoot back. With a shower of sparks, Herman's sabotage announced its completion as a row of lights marking weapon unreadiness went dark. Herman switched to a third frequency. "Okay guys, this is stupid, but listen up..." Herman described the process, as he took aim on a Catapult with his medium laser 30 meters away. The laser was the only thing that could actually be reasonably assured of hitting, since it was sighted on the arm. He snap fired, aiming at the head. A flash of armor went off, striking the armored canopy. "What are you doing, TAGing Von Staub's Mech?" Ryan asked incrdulosly.
Martinez spoke up, "No, but that might work. Power down your lasers and keep a steady beam. Our fritzed targeting systems can aim, and if we take out the leader, we have a chance of escaping." It was the longest sentence anyone had heard from the Dervish driver, but no one was in the mood to remark. Herman dropped the laser power down to where it wouldn't boil water on the surface of a blue giant, and fires, triggering the giant flashlight across to on top of the canopy.
Amy yelled in delight, "I've got a target lock, and its away!" The PXH-5M launched both Sunbeams, and the medium pulse lasers. Everything hit but a pulse laser, and slashed armor away over the bullet-shaped fuselage. Twenty missiles joined the destruction as Martinez fired his Dervish's missiles, and Ryan dropped from the sky to paint the enemy in flamers. The good Baron's forces seemed to confused to respond, and fired only haphazardly, burning a few pieces of armor from the Mechs, in fear of hitting their paymaster.
As the Catapult stumbled under the rain of distruction, "Stupid Streak launchers, too much damage to the targeting system, they can't lock on and won't fire. All I've got left are the LRMS and a couple mediums." The Dervish launched another fuselade, but this time the missiles went wide, striking a Valkyrie trying to move around the Catapult to join the one-sided engagement. Herman replied, 'Hey, all I can do is paint the target, If I fire, it'll distract YOUR targeting." Herman shifted to keep the beam on the Catapult, as the flamers and lasers flickered, gouging armor off the Mech as it went down. It fired its four mediums at the Amy's Hawk, but three went wide, the other one barely rocking it back. "Yeehah! Turkey shoot!." Ryan mentioned, "If those other 11 Mechs join in, we're toast." The Catapult was by now flat on its back, and suddenly it twisted in jerk as missiles exploded in its torture as an ER Laser found a hole in the armor. Von Staub ejected, but his unfortunate angle carried him right into his own Enforcer, turning him which, thanks to constaints of ethics and the English language, can best be described as chunk salsa.
The last rain of lasers stopped, as Von Staub's Mechs looked in confusion at their dead boss. Then, they rose their arms. "Oops, looks like playtime's over kiddies." Martinez quipped. "SHUT UP!" Everyone else yelled. Then, the Mechs turned and fired.
But not at the Lyrans, they instead started ripping up at each other. "What are they doing? Fighting for supremacy?" Amy asked in astonishment. Herman came back, "Who cares, let's leave!" Ryan, so Herman wouldn't exceed his authority, "Agreed! Let's move it!"
From the exhibition field, four Mechs in blue and white ran like heck to get away from the quickly growing firefight.
To be continued, in pt. 4