ADO Chpt 21

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Rise and Break

Chapter 21 - Aurigan Dreams (BattleTech CYOA)

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Keeping the Princess in Line

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“Damn it, Kamea.” I mutter to myself as we reach the position that was calling for help.

The two of us are pretty much too late. As close as it was, an Atlas is too slow even sprinting and the enemy has already done a number on the defenders. Meanwhile Kamea’s ability to run in her ‘Mech without faceplanting means that the Arano heiress reached the fight before I did.

Stinger light 'Mech

A broken Stinger lies on the ground with an empty head, presumably from the pilot having ejected. A lance of vehicles are burning wrecks while there is infantry scattered about, both survivors milling around and plenty of corpses lying on the ground.

Meanwhile, Kamea and a crippled Firestarter are engaging a lance of ‘Mechs consisting of a Shadow Hawk, a Centurion, a Mongoose, and a Stinger and I’m fairly certain the enemy lance is winning. Deciding to focus on the weaker Centurion, I slow my quick walk to a halt as I prepare to fire my autocannon and LRMs as the hostiles are too far away for my medium lasers and SRMs.

Firestarter Light 'Mech

Atlas pressing the attack

My volley goes badly. Even using the latest target data from Kamea’s Atlas and the Firestarter, my aiming is poor enough that the autocannon shell goes wide and only a couple of LRMs slam into the side of the Centurion. As I begin to walk forward as my weapons cycle, the enemy ‘Mech shifts to put some obstruction between us to block our line of sight.

I fire a second volley of LRMs as soon as my launcher is ready, sending a score of missiles arcing over the guard outpost that the Centurion has chosen to hide behind and every last one misses. Because of course. I mean, I wasn’t expecting much given my low skill, but surely one or two could have hit home?

Kamea follows up my attack, firing nearly an alpha strike into the Centurion and that is only because her LRMs are aimed at the Stinger engaging the Firestarter in the distance. I don’t see what happens to the LRMs and that Stinger, but that is because I am too focused on watching Kamea’s assault autocannon strike true.

Slamming into the left torso of the Centurion, the autocannon shell isn't enough to completely take out that side of the ‘Mech, but it does blast away all of the armor and inflicts no small amount of harm to the internal structure. That would be impressive except one of the SRMs strike the same area. That wouldn’t be enough to do a meaningful amount of damage, but somehow what remains of the left torso ignites in a fiery explosion, sending the arm flying off.

Ammo explosion. That must have been it.

Centurion Medium 'Mech

Yet even as the banged up Centurion goes stumbling, our victory is short-lived. The pilot of the Firestarter ejects and I barely have time to register that before the Shadow Hawk fires almost a full alpha into Kamea’s side.

No, wait, that was a full alpha. The Shadow Hawk lacks any LRMs and it isn’t a standard configuration though I don’t have time to figure out the details.

Kamea begins to turn to face the new threat, but I am already ahead of her as I twist my ‘Mech around to fire the autocannon. My LRM launcher hasn’t finished cycling for another volley yet and the Shadow Hawk is too far away for any of my other weapons so my heavy autocannon it is. My attack goes wide as the Shadow Hawk jumps away with far more jump jets than the three it should have.

Shadow Hawk medium 'Mech on the attack.

Definitely not the stock model.

“Finish off that Centurion, Princess,” I order as I continue to slowly walk closer, “I’ll distract that Shadow Hawk.”

“Got it, Knight.” replies Kamea, sounding both tense and giddy at the same time.

Somehow.

While my autocannon loads another shell, I fire my LRMs after the flying Shadow Hawk. None of them connect of course, but hopefully it will be enough to make them switch to me as their new target.

My plan is disrupted as the Mongoose comes at me, firing its medium lasers the moment it comes within range for them. The red beams of light sear away at the armor of my Atlas, burning gashes in the plates of armor.

I twist around to return fire, firing all of my own lasers in addition to my SRMs as well. Most of them miss, but a single medium laser burns a ragged cut in the right leg. An autocannon shell strikes the shoulder of my Atlas as the Mongoose darts back out of range of my lasers and SRM launcher, but I ignore it as I focus on engaging the Mongoose. It might be out of range of my short-ranged weapons, but my autocannon and LRMs can still reach the enemy ‘Mech.

The majority of my LRMs miss, but a couple do actually hit and my autocannon slams into the right arm of the Mongoose, blowing away its armor in one fell swoop. The internals are left stricken, though not so badly damaged for the limb to be rendered useless and my computer reports that the medium laser in the arm is still functional.

Then Kamea strikes, firing her assault autocannon and all four lasers into the rear of the Mongoose. The autocannon blows the left leg away at the knee whilst the lasers rip into the weak rear armour, rending out chunks of it and burning into the internal structure. As the ‘Mech topples over and falls to the ground, the pilot ejects, their ejection seat zooming into the sky.

“I’ve got your back,” says Kamea firmly, “I’ve taken down the Stinger as well.”

“Good-ah crap,” I begin to reply as I spot a Leopard-class DropShip coming int

Leopard Class Mech Carrier DropShip coming in for landing.

o sight, one that doesn’t have Aurigan colours on it.

“Colonel Nora,” declares a loud, commanding voice, broadcasting from the DropShip, no, from a ‘Mech aboard the DropShip, “This is General Farron of Farron Military Solutions. I’ll admit that you and the rest of the locals have proven more resourceful than I would have expected for a bunch of Periphery barbarians, but I’m afraid that your run of good luck is at an end. My contract says that I get paid extra for taking care of you, whether it is capturing you alive or bringing in your corpse. So are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

As the man speaks, the Leopard comes to the ground with a lance of ‘Mechs jumping out of the side doors, each landing on the ground with a thud.

A STK-3F Stalker, a AWS-8Q Awesome, a ZEU-6S Zeus and a CP-10-HQ Cyclops. An entire lance of Assault ‘Mechs and I’m pretty sure that Cyclop is one of the fancy command variants. It is certainly tagged as General Farron’s ride.

We cannot fight this and win. They have us outnumbered two to one and their ‘Mechs look fresh whilst the Atlases of myself and Kamea have already taken damage from the prior fighting.

“Give me a moment to speak with my comrade here,” I reply to General Farron on an open broadcast before opening a private channel to Kamea.

“Kamea, you need to run back to friendly lines.” I hiss to Kamea.

“What?” exclaims Kamea, “No, you’ll-”

“Listen here you dumb stupid bitch!” I shout at her, not bothering to keep my anger with her out of my voice, “I can’t reliably run away and you are the heir to the Aurigan Coalition. I’m not getting away, but you can so you better get your arrogant arse out of here. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Elizabeth,” says Kamea, “I’m sor-”

“Get going!” I hiss at her, not in the mood for her apology even as part of me acknowledges this might be the last time that we speak.

“The easy way then, Colonel Nora?” says General Farron as I stride forward while Kamea runs past me, “I’ll need you to power down-”

I don’t let him finish speaking as I fire a full alpha strike into the Zeus, my computer stating that it is the least armoured of the enemy ‘Mechs. I am a terrible aim, but the Zeus is remaining stationary which makes it an easy target even for me.

Lasers and missiles smash into the front of the Zeus, burning gashes and blowing holes in its armour while my heavy autocannon slams into the left torso, where combined with the green beam of a medium laser, it strips away almost all of the armour.

The enemy returns fire instantly, the Zeus falling back as it and the other ‘Mechs unload into me. I began to move as soon as I opened fire on the Zeus, but it is nowhere near close enough to let me avoid the enemy barrage.

Zeus Assault 'Mech

I go staggering back as lasers, missiles and a pair of PPC shots batter my ‘Mech. My Atlas is one of the most heavily armored ‘Mechs around and that is enough to prevent any armor breaches right now. Yet as the enemy continues to pound me, I know it won’t be enough, even as I unleash another alpha strike, leaving me sweating from heat in addition to fear in my cockpit.

I can get off another alpha strike at the retreating form of the Zeus without overheating, but that would be pushing it and a fourth would see my ‘Mech burning from the inside. But given the amount of firepower I am facing, it might be worth it as I might not live long enough for a fifth volley. Hell, I might not even last long enough for a fourth volley as my left arm is stripped of the last of its armour. Hopefully I’ll be able to eject.

I didn’t expect to die here, but Kamea is a moron. Hopefully, my death will motivate her to become the woman and leader that I know she has the potential to be. I have a will naming Moana as the new owner of the Rimward Sentinels and inheritor of my important assets. I can trust her to take care of the Coalition and our people. I have notes about the important things I remember from that other lifetime, including about the Clans and how to find the Helm core, which Moana will find in my belongings.

I thought I was being silly preparing for the worst, but it turns out that the worst sometimes comes to pass.

As I fire a third alpha strike and bring my Atlas to the brink of overheating, it comes to an end. My left arm is slagged into uselessness whilst more of my armor is stripped away, exposing the internals in multiple locations. My cockpit is hit by a pair of stray missiles, rocking me about and I finally take enough of a pounding to lose my balance. My Atlas goes tumbling backwards as I lose my footing, rocking me around even further and definitely leaving me injured this time. My head and chest hurt, I want to puke and I can taste blood in my mouth.

That is it. I put up a good fight, but no miracle occurred to save my arse. I reach for the ejection handlebar and pull it, just as something hits my cockpit. I’m rattled around once more and a moment later, I am staring at an error message stating that the ejection system is offline.

Crap, something must have damaged the ejection system. More shots hit my Atlas and a warning message pops up warning me that my SRM launcher is offline while a heatsink in my right leg is destroyed.

Despite everything, a calm washes over me. I did what I could to let Kamea get away and now I’m going to die covering the escape of the Arano heiress. Was it worth it? I have to trust that it was, that Kamea, Moana, and others will continue on using the information that I’ve left behind.

I wait for the end to come. I gave it a good go, but my best just wasn’t enough to cut it. Maybe if I had more time to train, maybe if Kamea hadn’t been an idiot, maybe if these mercenaries had never attacked in the first place, but those maybes don’t matter when it comes to dealing with the reality that has borne out.

“Elizabeth!” shouts Vance over the radio, “Are you still alive?”

“May-ugh,” I try to answer before the pain of speaking gets to me.

Wait, I’m still alive. How am I still alive? God, I hurt and I make no attempt to hold back the tears of pain from the sheer ache and hurt that my battered body feels. I hear Vance continuing to speak to me, but his words are making my head hurt so I flick the radio off.

Not really sure what is going on, I grab my controls, wincing at the pain of moving my left arm. I glance at the limb and see that it is black, blue and bleeding, but despite the pain, I can still move it and it looks intact.

Good Lord, my head hurts worse than a hangover, not that I’ve had one of those since the new year. Heck, I haven’t even had any booze since the new year.

Groaning, I bring my Atlas back up to its feet, where I glance at the displays. My ‘Mech is a mess. My head, right arm and left leg have some scraps of mangled armour remaining, but the rest of my ride has its inner structure exposed. My left arm is gone, a heatsink in my right leg is toast and the SRM launcher is slagged beyond use. I have little under half of my LRM ammo remaining whilst a third of my autocannon shells have been used up.

Somehow I have not been finished off by the enemy with all four Assault ‘Mech standing still as they stare at me. I don’t know why they aren’t attacking me anymore, my life is already forfeit at this point, but I am not going to turn up the chance to take out one of them to help make things easier for the survivors.

I open fire on the banged up Zeus, firing a full-well, does it still count as an alpha strike if I’ve lost some weapons due to battle damage? Regardless of the answer, the enemy ‘Mech was not expecting my assault and is already damaged from my prior attacks, so I do a real number on the Zeus.

The right torso explodes as my autocannon strikes it, sending the intact arm flying into the Awesome. My medium lasers lash across the rest of its front, melting their way through the armor and my LRMs pepper the enemy ‘Mech, causing a couple of additional armor breaches along the way.

Awesome Assault 'Mech in action

The enemy returns fire, finalizing my doom. The Cyclops and Stalker unleash a barrage of lasers and missiles while the Awesome fires all three of its PPCs, sending bolts of azure lightning my way. I should die to them and yet they all miss. The lasers and SRMs either hit the ground in front of me or tear up the dirt and grass on either side of me. Two of the PPCs shots go over my head while the third goes under my right arm and the LRMs just go completely wide as if they weren’t even tracking me.

Stalker Assault 'Mech

While I feel like I know what is going on, I don’t have the time or brainpower to figure it out right now. I fire another reduced alpha strike into the Zeus, this time taking out the left torso, causing the pilot to eject.

Even as the other three enemy Assault ‘Mech keep up their inexplicable ineffectual barrage, they begin to back up. Knowing that I need to cover Kamea’s escape, I continue to engage them, walking my Atlas towards the Stalker as it backs up, choosing it as my new target.

Unfortunately, my subpar aim and reduced firepower means that my damage is minimal. I get a smattering of damage across its frontal armor with the most noteworthy hits being an autocannon to the central torso and an LRM to the head.

As I exchange another volley of fire with the Stalker and Awesome, I notice that the Cyclops has turned and broken into a sprint as the Leopard from before comes down. The Leopard tosses a bit of firepower in my direction as it swoops down, but none of it comes close to hitting me.

I continue my assault on the Stalker, having targeted it with nothing less than an alpha strike each time. My Atlas is starting to heat up, but my LRM launcher will run out of ammo before I come close to overheating. In fact, it is almost out of ammo as I get a lucky hit with my autocannon, headcapping the Stalker with an autocannon shot as a fluke.

As the ‘Mech falls over, I switch to the Awesome. I won’t be able to take it out before it reaches the Leopard, but I just need to keep scaring it and the others off. Unfortunately, it is too far away for an alpha strike as my medium lasers are out of range, but I still have my autocannon and LRMs. My autocannon glances off an arm and while a decent number of the LRMs are hits, the computer swiftly warns me that my LRM launcher has used up the last of its ammo.

I have two or three autocannon shots left, but that won’t be enough to do any meaningful damage to the Awesome. Well, short of hitting it in the rear or double-tapping the cockpit that is, but I have next to no chance of pulling either of those off.

I fire a couple more times as the Awesome and Cyclops practically scamper aboard the Leopard DropShip along with the…Shadow Hawk? Where did that come-wait, wasn’t there one of those earlier? Ugh, my head hurts.

God, what am I doing? I’m supposed to be dead, not fighting and winning.

I stand there for a moment, watching the Leopard fly away and then my vision swirls moments before the world goes black.

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Author's Chapter Notes

Word from the Author

And this is the end of the arc. I hope I gave a good showing of someone awakening their Phantom ‘Mech potential.

Anyway, the next arc will be dealing with the fallout of this raid and a couple of other things that are happening. Castle Nautilus is also coming up, but that is significant enough that I’ll be giving the events around it their own arc so Nautilus will be the sixth arc of the story, not part of the fifth.

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