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Wolfly Games
An ''In character'' story of a contest on Arc Royal
by Tempest |
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Using about as much stealth as a 45 ton machine can muster, I crept, staying low, trying not to move the trees around me as I advanced. It's a skill they don't teach mech pilots - a mech moves like an infantryman, and avoids detection the same way, despite advanced sensors. A quick glance at the satmap indicated a flat, open area ahead, with a pair of wide trails leading to it, one of which ran parallel to the river west of me. The magnetic resonance detector pinged off of a large object on the north edge of the clearing, the direction seismic was pointing to as the source of some heavy footfalls. I held position, observing. He hadn't spotted me yet, since his path hadn't turned this way. A quick scan of the terrain revealed a simple method of attack.
A warm feeling crept up by back as I ignited my Hawk's jump columns, pushing me rapidly into the air. The Grand Dragon swung around, but was a little behind, following the path of my heat trail from the ground up. I waited, aiming my shot, until the mech's head was looking right at me. The instant of weightlessness at the top of the jump settled in, giving me a momentarily steady shot - the particle blast crashed into the Dragon's left side, causing it to twitch slightly with the impact. It dropped to one knee, torso spinning to fire at me. Teec bleeped a lock-on, but it was just a tad too late, as my jump slipped me behind a rise in the ground. The missile salvo struck the side of the hill, igniting the trees. During my downjump and landing, the quiet part of my brain analyzed the tactical situation. I was at a disadvantage in armor and long-range firepower, but I could jump and, if I could get in to point-blank range, I could probably rip him apart. He would know that, too. That meant the Dragon was now pinned by the forest on two sides, so he could only effectively go down one of the two trails, to maintain distance. 50/50 chance for me. I guess right, I'd be right next to him coming out. Guess wrong and we'd dance some more.
My jump carried me through the high flames on the hillside, camouflaging the heat of my jets and disguising my approach for a few seconds. As I came out of the smoke, the 60 tonner took shape in front of me, perfectly positioned. I landed dead in front of him, cutting him off from the trail. The Dragon was good, though - he twisted rapidly, running due westward into the woods to avoid my fire. I went with him, a step behind and only 40 meters away. We rumbled through the woods, small trees splintering as we shouldered through them. A trail of flames leapt up on the edges of our path as stray shots exploded, ignited and shredded what we didn't smash through. Unable to bring his missile launcher into play, the Dragon simply lashed out with his lasers and particle cannon. I skipped the rifle, using the chains of weapons on my wrists. There was a quick rush of adrenaline when the missile tubes first opened up, slamming four rockets right into his chest. We exchanged fire, tree trunks blurring around us at 100kph. The particle gun cut a thick welt in my leg, but he took a peppering of lasers and machine gun shells for his trouble. Teec screamed out a collision warning, pulling my attention from the gunfight to the stand of giant trees ahead. Each one was easily as big around as my mech, and would definitely hurt if I hit one. However, it was far too late to turn.
I jabbed out my leg, digging in my other heel to slow down. My raised leg crashed into the massive tree, and I could feel the knee pop out of alignment. The structural skeleton muttered at me, bending. With a tremendous explosion of splinters, the ancient tree broke at the base, thankfully giving out before my leg did. The Dragon kept on going, overshooting me, as he dug his heels in to keep from hitting the trees himself. But without something to brace against, the force was just too much, and the soil ripped out oddly, spilling the big mech onto the ground - and right in the path of the falling tree I'd broken.
Without the time to stand, he rolled out of the way as best he could. He wasn't going to be able to evade or return fire like this! I leapt forward, landing moments after the tree, firing everything I had. He continued rolling away from me, bending his shoulder and coming up into a kneel. Supporting himself with his arms, he only had one weapon at his disposal. The missiles didn't have time to arm before they hit me, but reaction made me flinch at the flare of thrusters and the pressure of the impacts. That was all he needed to regain his feet, and start backpedaling away. I arced around to his north, exchanging fire with him as I went. We were both wearing down now - one of my missiles cracked a hole in his cannon arm, which he exchanged for a laser hit blowing the communications antenna off of my head. The force dazed me for a second, and he reversed his momentum, charging full bore southwards, towards a bend in the river.
Even still shaken, I jumped southwards, cutting him off from escaping into the water. He turned southwestwards, running parallel to the river, forcing me to arc widely. With his back exposed to me, I rattled off my weapons, cutting several holes in the weak armor. With a sharp movement, the Dragon stopped dead in front of me, and ducked down.
He rotated, thrusting one leg out low in a beautiful sweep kick for a 60 ton hunk of metal. Instinctively, I jumped over him, narrowly avoiding the kick. In mid-air, I realized that I'd fallen for the trap, just as the Dragon came out of the spin facing me. I kept my jets ignited, hoping that I could stay in the air long enough to land on the other side of the huge fallen tree, but they were already burning hot.
Patiently, the Dragon waited for me to reach the apogee of my jump and present the best possible target. Teec was almost calm, sounding off the missile lock. This was going to be an all-out attack, and I brought up my rifle. The weightlessness grabbed me, and we both fired everything at each other. In his prime firing range, I proudly took his entire arsenal on my chest, firing back with what I could. My left side shook with missile impacts, and I felt my heart seize up for a moment, sympathetically twitching as the ammunition on my mech's body touched off, tossing it into the ground and shattering both weakened legs. While the CASE had 'saved' my life, the engine's cooling system had been vaporized, lightly irradiating the area and melting a hole clean through my gyro.
Sighing at the screen, I climbed, weak-kneed, out of the simpod. Both my legs were toothpicks, and my whole left side felt something like I imagine a steak does after the tenderizing mallet gets used. Muso bowed to me, and I replied the same to the Snake who'd just kicked my tail.
"Nice work, Tai-i. I must be getting rusty from lack of competition." I reached out and shook his hand. "Good luck in the next round." He smiled warmly at me, obviously proud.
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O'Bannon shook my hand and clasped my shoulder like a proud father. "You did great, Sergeant. Impressive performance, all around." He flashed me a set of incredibly white teeth. "You far exceeded expectations - the Solaris bookies had you pegged for a first round loser, and I'm glad you showed them who's boss!" I just shook his hand back, and put on my best loser's smile. Laura understood - and her hand on my shoulder was wisely on the right side, which didn't still sting.
I turned and smiled at her. "I'll be fine. It was a good, through fight, and he won fair and square. No cheap hit, no pure luck saving him. That Drac earned the win." Laura nodded slowly. She knew it hurtthe pride more to be beaten fairly than by cheating. O'Bannon was chatting with Soseki now, congratulating him on the win. I figured this was a good time to slip out and get a drink, since I was pretty much done for the Games now.
As if sent from above to give me something to do, one of the Kell Hound pilots, a young girl, came dashing in, almost hysterical. "They've attacked!" There was a lot of confused blinking before she clarified.
"The Falcons are attacking Babaeski! We're mobilizing now to reinforce the planet." Muso and I looked at each other. We both had mechs here. A quick nod to each other, and we were following the Hound out the door. I can only imagine what was going through Laura's head at that point.
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When we landed, the battle was mostly over. Wolf forces had already forced most of the Falcons back, but there were still some left fighting. Most of our group had been put together in solid lances, mostly full teams that had worked together before. Actually, all besides ours. The four of us were leftovers - myself, Muso, and two of the Blue Star people. We'd been dubbed 'Mongrel lance', and put on the far west flank of the formation.
Kya Matthews, one of the Blue Stars who shared my taste for the Phoenix Hawk, sounded pleasantly in my ear.
Hey, DeMolay, I've got a small blip that's heading into your area. No visuals, but seismics are suggesting it's under thirty tons andmoving damned fast.
I quickly called up the satellite map and listened to her rattle off a quick series of bearings. A little bit of triangulation, I had a general fix on the target and it's heading.
Thanks, Kya. Probably a reconnaissance outrider. I'll get it. A the quick calculation put it less than a kilck away and heading right past me. I went prone, setting my rifle up on the peak of the hill, bracing it on the one side with a tree. Sure enough, within a few seconds, a little bipedal streak ran into view, striding along the base of a hill. Teec quietly identified it as a Dasher omnimech, Alpha configuration. That meant it was out to find artillery targets in theback areas, like command mechs. Carefully, I drew a bead on the little birdie, waiting for him to line up just right. His sensors must have finally picked me up between the trees, because he suddenly changed direction, making for a large rise. I flushed and broke a sweat with the sudden rush of heat from my gun, in the fraction of a second it took for the cooling system to kick in. The tree I'd braced the rifle against demonstrated just how much heat that was, as it spontaneously incinerated. The flash of the tree drew my attention for a moment, and when I brought it back up, the Dasher was laying on it's back with dust settling, it's left side sheared clean off.
Rising up, I came full-bore over the hill, intending to get in and finish the job before the little mech could get away. It rolled over onto its stomach, pointing at me with an unsteady arm. Teec went berserk. It took me a second to realize just why - being laser-painted for an artillery strike is not an experience I'm familiar with. The high-pitched beep sped up, indicating the Arrow missiles getting closer.
Desperate, I fired my jets, trying to lose the mark. The warning tone changed slightly, just before the shots hit ground. While I'd managed to lose the targeting laser, the missiles still came down, exploding right where I'd been standing before jumping. I swung my right arm up to block my face, which probably saved my life. Shrapnel scored hits all along my front, and I was on my back in the dirt immediately. My jump columns grumbled about the landing, but I was a bit busy to notice. The Dasher, on its feet now, had rushed over and was pointing its missile pod right at my skull.
A brilliant green lightflash blinded me, knocking the tiny Clan mech on its back again. Another Phoenix Hawk, wearing the Blue Star symbol across the chest, lowered it's paired guns.
I wanted some, too.
I laughed and pulled myself to my feet. The Dasher had taken both lasers dead-on, and about all that was left was the legs.
I owe ya one. Though I did do most of the work.
Kya lightly slapped the back of my head, and I could hear her laughing over the channel. |
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