|
|
Angle of Death, The
A new Mechwarriors experiences.
by Dragonfire1968tet |
|
You will fight to the last soldier, and when you die, I will call upon your damned souls to rise and speak horrible curses at the enemy.
-Stefan Amaris to his troops defending Terra, 15 January 2779
August 15 3053
Unnamed uninhabited system
The Periphery
Nova Cat occupation zone
Iron Ranger’s dropship Westmoreland
Iron Ranger’s jumpship Follow Me
“Hey! Today is a day 5! That means range! No wait…shit” only I could wake up floating and still think I’m on Ardennes. That’s what corporal Savage was thinking; as he glumly remembered the fun he’d be having today, if the Rangers were on their jungle-arctic home world. Aw well missing out on range is worth it if I get to go in to action for the first time. Lets see, 0534, Aug 15 3058, another 14 days, we jump and we start the burn in system. Though not eager to kill, corporal Savage was eager to prove himself to his regiment and show them that the 11 years of the training cadet-rangers had to endure had not been wasted on an “adopt-a-merc” as the other cadets had called him. Uh oh! 0534, better get to the head and grab a refresher before I have to get to the grav deck for callisthenics.
All jump ships, especially, the Iron Ranger’s “Follow Me” had grav decks, three of them to be precise. 120m each, which was excessive, considering the crew complement of the “Follow” only numbered 60, but once you considered the fact that 12 dropship hard points could mean ALLOT of people, the number, and size of the decks, looked suddenly inadequate. Jumpships were what allowed 31st century man to travel the galaxy. Looking somewhat like extravagant sceptres, left forgotten in space by some royal court of gods, jumpships accomplished the incredible feat of bending time, space and reality itself, to propel their cargo up to 30 light-years distant in an instant (as if any grasp of time existed in a jump) through the use of the mysterious engines known as kereany-fuchida drives, which were shaped kind of long and spindly-like, which happened to be the shape of all jumpships. Jumpships formed a parasitic relationship with another miracle of engineering, the dropship. Jumpships, unable to land on planets and dropships, unable to jump 30 light-years or even 1 light-year for that matter, worked together with two other scientific marvels, aerospace fighters and battlemechs, to bring the eternal companion of humanity, war to the vastness of space. Aerospace fighters are not much different from the atmospheric fighters of the 20th-22nd century, namely fast, deadly and expensive, the only differences being, that aerofighters mounted considerable armour and fire power as well as weighing up to 100tons and oh yes they could operate in the void or in atmosphere. Battlemechs, however, were the true masters of the battle field (although any self-respecting aero jock would disagree) weighing anywhere from 20-100tons (although there were persistent rumours of ancient wonders that weighed more or less) and with enough fire power to make god jealous, battlemechs and mechwarriors were legends in their own time.
After a very brief and cold “shower” in the refresher, corporal savage was dressed in his PT gear and propelling himself, in 0-g and as fast as he safely could through the dropship corridors, through the docking clamp, though the jumpship corridors and finally in to grav deck 2. 0547! Oh god I’m a putz! I rushed so fast, Bear isn’t even here yet! I wonder if I have time to grab a quick bite…”HQ company report to grav deck 2 for callisthenics, 1st LRRP company report to grav deck 3, 1st assault company, grav deck 1, that is all!” so much for that idea. Corporal Savage thought as he spotted 1st lieutenant Thunderbear and regimental sergeant major Slaughter standing next to the door to grav deck 2 intercom Mic in hand. “Hey sarge! Mind if I grab something to wake me up?” Savage yelled with hope in his voice “HELL NO SON! But you can start warmin up, earnin those chevrons!”
Great for my trouble I get to start warming up early! 100 jumping jacks, 50 sit ups and 60 push ups later the other members of HQ company began to arrive, the 11 most important people on the ship, plus corporal Savage, who did not consider himself very important. HQ Company consisted of colonel Darby (the CO), lt. colonel Winchester (the XO), majors Arbuckle and Vincent (the 3rd in command and quartermaster officer respectively), who made up HQ lance as opposed to company. 1st lieutenant Thunderbear (intelligence officer), captain Kup (who was the chaplain), Regimental Sergeant Major Slaughter (who could and did do everything) and corporal Savage, made up the heavy assault lance and captain Jersey (operations officer), 2nd lieutenant Arthur (no one knew what his job was), master sergeant O’Rourke (communications nco), and last but not least warrant officer 1st class Plumly (super clerk extraordinaire and general handyman), they made up the heavy fire lance. All in all a hard hitting, more so with Savage’ Marauder II, but unmanoverable unit, that was tough and made a good group to rally around. Exactly what a good command company was supposed to be.
Now that everyone had arrived, the Sarge could begin his daily torture session, stretching followed by weights and a nice 10 km run around the grav deck with full pack and gear. By the time they finished it was lunch, by this time almost every one except possibly the Sarge wished they were dead, lunch lasted an hour and then final callisthenics, another 10km run, at this point any one who didn’t want to kill them selves before was converted to the cult. After that, combat drills from when the run ended till 1630hrs, hand to hand, knife fighting, range (as a reward), bladed weapon drills (vibro swords) and then finally 4 hours in the simpods, then supper, then free time and sleep.
Afterwards, when writing in his diary, Savage remarked; hey, it COULD have been worse, it could have been sleep deprivation week. He was awakened barely 15 minutes later.
“What the fuck…YAWN…was that?” he mused sleepily.
I’ve heard that sound before…what does it mean?…danger, fear, death, I remember now. For some reason that last though clamed him.
Again the warning klaxons blared their dire song. “All hands! All hands! This is the captain! We are under attack! Report to battle stations!”
It’s gonna be a helluva long night…damn lack of gravity! Can’t even fallout of bed to wake up! Stupid gravity harness!
He was right. |
|
|
|
|
| Next page >>> |
| Page :
1 2 3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
