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Chapter 5 - Fortunes of War[]
Konstantinople, Konstance
The Draconis Combine
August 16, 3024
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Marauder heavy 'mech
In design, the Marauder was wholly unlike the Vindicator, or Keely’s Hermes II, or even the Combine Dragon they had already encountered. While many BattleMech designs adhered to a traditional, roughly humanoid shape, the Marauder had an elongated, pod-like body that looked more like the hull of a spacecraft, set atop legs that canted backwards at the knee like those of birds or one of their ancestor predatory reptiles. At seventy-five tons, the Marauder was at the top of the heavy weight class of BattleMechs, almost twice the size of the Vindicator or Hermes II and exceeded in power only by the rare and titanic assault-class machines. Its arms each contained a PPC as powerful as the Vindicator’s, plus a medium laser, and an intermediate-caliber autocannon was mounted atop the hull. The Marauder came to a stop and swung its torso in Kit and Keely’s direction. As Kit stared down the barrels of that fearsome arsenal, she suddenly realized that in the face of this new threat, moving or shooting or just about anything was a better choice than simply continuing to stare.
In an instant awe gave way to self-preservation instinct. Kit stomped down on both foot pedals and the Vindicator lurched forward gracelessly, triggering another twinge of neurohelmet feedback-induced nausea. She fought to line up the targeting reticles on her HUD over the Marauder’s low profile as she brought the Vindicator to a halt shoulder to shoulder with Keely’s Hermes II, but the Kurita MechWarrior’s shot was already dialed in.
Keely somehow managed to pivot on the Hermes II’s almost immobile left leg to angle the less-damaged right flank of her 'Mech to the enemy. One of the Marauder’s PPC bolts obliterated most of the armor that remained on the Hermes II’s chest. The other one, and the autocannon shell that arrived a split-second later, both struck the Hermes II’s right arm, which Keely had raised as if to shield herself. The arm snapped off just below the shoulder and flew off into the canal, tons of metal and myomer spinning in the air like a twig thrown by a child into a stream.
Kit froze, awestruck once again at the display of firepower. She found her hands suddenly slack on the controls. If Keely was similarly shaken, however, she recovered quicker. “Söderlund.” her voice came through Kit’s headphones, sounding strained but still calm, “I. Said. Get. Out.” The Hermes II shouldered its way in front of the Vindicator, blocking the Marauder’s line of fire, its autocannon barking out a defiant but ineffective retaliatory barrage.
Kit hesitated. An insistent alarm beep sounded in her ears. Her attention was drawn to a blur of motion at the edges of the viewstrip above the Vindicator’s cockpit viewport, which compressed a 360-degree view of the 'Mech’s surroundings into a 160-degree picture. Three blocks behind the two Talons 'Mechs, the Kurita Dragon stepped out onto the canal bank.
“Keely, the Dragon.” Kit cried out, “He circled behind us! Let’s go back to back.” she suggested, starting to pivot the Vindicator to the left to face the threat.
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Dragon Heavy 'Mech
“GET OUT!”
Keely’s scream was blood-curdling and brooked no argument. It was barely human. It was, Kit instantly understood on some primal level, the scream of a person who saw their own impending death and sought only to have their demise not be completely without a purpose. Kit had never heard anything like it. She hoped she would never hear anything like it again.
With a shudder, she stomped down hard on the Vindicator’s foot pedals again and the machine staggered into a careening run down the same street where Pascoe had driven away in the MRV what seemed like hours ago. The Dragon’s cannon fire cracked and pitted the armor of the Vindicator’s left arm and leg, a couple of stray shots striking Keely’s Hermes II as the Vindicator passed behind a dilapidated tenement out of the Kurita warrior’s sight.
Kit throttled the Vindicator up to as near its top speed of sixty-four kilometers per hour as she dared with her traction hampered by the pitted, rain-slicked pavement and her control impeded by the neurohelmet feedback. Behind her she heard the rumble of more autocannon fire, the high-pitched hum of lasers, and then the hand-of-god thunderclap of PPC’s that must have come from the Marauder, but there was no sign of any immediate pursuit. The pair of Kurita heavy 'Mechs seemed content for the moment to finish off the Hermes II.
Kit ran for several blocks before even thinking about whether she was running in the right direction. With a curse she realized that she had no clear idea of where in the abandoned city she was, and she also might not have a working map. Taking one hand off the control sticks, she jabbed at the controls for the Vindicator’s auxiliary display screens, trying to switch over from tactical to navigation.
To her pleasant surprise, she found that the memory bank salvaged from the Commando and spliced into the Vindicator’s system still worked. One stroke of luck, she thought. If the drive was intact, it might still be possible to get data off of it which would satisfy the Talons’ employers. If they could get off the planet to bring it back. And would that make things worth it for Sterns and Keely?
Kit shook off the thought and switched the Vindicator’s comm system from the recon lance frequency to the Talons’ company-wide channel. “...at least a full Combine lance pressing into the city from the West,” a voice she thought she recognized as Bobby Trishwant of the Talons’ strike lance was saying. “Novak had to punch out and I couldn’t see where his chute came down. How the hell did they get the jump on us?”
“Hopped in during the storm, set down somewhere on the far side of the city, and crept up is my guess.” replied Eric Lehmann, the Talons’ XO. But how did they figure out we were here? Kit wondered.
“Talons, debrief comes later!” Commander Diana Toszka sounded as boisterous and confident as Kit had become accustomed to in her brief time with the unit. If she was worried by the Combine noose tightening around her people, her voice did not betray it. “Trishwant, can you break contact?”
“We’re leapfrogging towards the ship a couple blocks at a time but they’re nipping at our heels.” said Trishwant. “This is a bad situation, Commander.”
“The whole damn universe is a bad situation, Lieutenant, it’s up to us to make the best of it.” Toszka replied. “Recon lance, do you read me? Stef, Sterns, are you out there?”
Kit swallowed hard and keyed her mic. “Commander, this is tech Söderlund. I’m in Sterns’ 'Mech trying to find my way back through the city. We got jumped by a couple of Kurita heavies.” Kit found she had to blink away hot tears and swallow another lump in her throat. “Sterns and Keely are… I think they’re gone. But I’ve got the data from the 'Mech they found and…”
She was stopped in mid-sentence by the feel of the hair on the back of her neck standing up, in spite of the bulky neurohelmet and the stuffy air of the Vindicator cockpit. As she passed through an intersection there was a flash of movement in her peripheral vision. Kit throttled back slightly and looked left as she reached the next intersection. Two or three blocks over, a Combine Shadow Hawk was running parallel to her course, stalking her.
Kit slowed the Vindicator to a sudden stop in the shadow of an ancient skyscraper. “Söderlund, talk to me.” Commander Toszka’s voice said in her ear.
“Got a Kurita 'Mech on my trail, Commander.” She poked at her left display screen and after a moment of fumbling brought up the seismic scanner. A line of pulsing lights on the screen marked the Shadow Hawk’s footfalls as it ran ahead another block and then cut to the right, and the display correctly assessed the tonnage of the contact as fifty-five tons. As Kit watched the display the lights pulsed slower and then faded out. The Kurita MechWarrior had brought his machine to a halt as well.
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Shadow Hawk
“Söderlund,” said Toszka, “You keep running. Do you hear me?” Kit thought she could make out the sound of weapons fire in the background of the Commander’s transmission.
“I hear you, Commander.” But I can’t outrun a Shadow Hawk in this Vindicator, she thought. As long as neither she nor the Combine pilot moved, with their lines of fire blocked by the intervening buildings, they were at a standoff. But if she tried to break away the swifter Kurita 'Mech would detect her and run her down easily. And what chance did she stand in a one-on-one fight against a real MechWarrior?
A roar filled the steel and concrete canyons of the abandoned city as the Shadow Hawk fired its jump jets and soared into view on columns of superheated plasma. The Kurita MechWarrior wasn’t going to give her time to stop and come up with a strategy. The Shadow Hawk touched down a mere sixty meters in front of where the Vindicator stood. Kit reacted quickly, tracking the Shadow Hawk with her targeting reticles as it descended, but she fired too early, and the target was inside the minimum range for the Vindicator’s PPC and missiles. The PPC bolt flashed over the Shadow Hawk’s head and the missiles battered uselessly against its armor without sufficient time for their warheads to arm. Only the medium laser built in to the Vindicator’s head struck home with any effect, drawing a glowing scar over the Kurita 'Mech’s chest. The temperature in the Vindicator’s cockpit spiked and Kit remembered why MechWarriors wore T-shirts and cooling vests, not coveralls.
The Combine 'Mech counter-punched with its own laser, a pair of short-range missiles, and a stream of depleted uranium shells from its shoulder-mounted autocannon. The Vindicator’s armor held but the onslaught destabilized it almost beyond Kit’s ability to correct through the untuned neurohelmet. She managed to save the 'Mech from falling, just, but was forced to drop the forty-five ton machine to one knee.
He’s got more weight, more experience, more firepower at this distance, and more speed so I can’t run away, Kit thought. Her sweat had started to run cold. What can I do?
Kit raised the Vindicator’s right arm PPC into line. Not that I could hit the proverbial side of a barn with a PPC at this distance. The Shadow Hawk took a step closer. As its massive foot fell, Kit noticed the crumbling five-story office building next to it visibly tremble, and tiny shards of concrete and glass showered the street below. In an instant, Kit saw her best shot at making the best of the bad situation she was in. That’s a lot bigger than a barn.
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Vindicator Medium 'Mech
The Vindicator sprang to its feet quickly enough it seemed to surprise the Kurita MechWarrior. Kit swung her targeting reticles past the Shadow Hawk and on to the decrepit office tower, then squeezed all her weapon triggers at once and gasped for air as the Vindicator’s cockpit transformed into a sauna. The long range missile warheads once again failed to arm during their short flight to the target, doing little more than setting fires inside the tower with their propellant. Her medium and small lasers sliced into the building and melted through steel girders and the structure sagged. Then her PPC bolt almost cleaved the building in two.
There was a terrific groaning sound, then the front half of the office tower collapsed into the street. Chunks of concrete, steel, glass, and flaming debris rained down on the Shadow Hawk and battered it to its knees. Kit saw rubble piling up around the Kurita 'Mech almost up to its waist before clouds of dust filled the street and obstructed her view.
Kit gave no thought to sticking around to exploit her advantage. She spun the Vindicator on its heel and sprinted down a side street, leaving the Kurita pilot to try to extricate his machine from the remains of the collapsed building. Dimly she became aware again of the ongoing radio chatter in her headphones.
“Söderlund, are you out there? Talk to me, dammit!”
Kit keyed her mic as she tried to make sense of the city map on her right-side auxiliary display. “I’m still here, Commander. Had to give a Shadow Hawk the slip. I’m heading towards the LZ.”
“Well done, MechWarrior!”
MechWarrior. “Thank you Commander.” The word sent a thrill down Kit’s spine and she hoped she managed to keep her voice from cracking as she answered. “Commander, I’ve got the memory bank from the 'Mech recon lance found. It might have the Intel we’re after.”
“You’re a ****** miracle, Söderlund,” said Toszka. “Hear that Talons? This trip might not have been for nothing after all. We’re moving up our extraction deadline - all units flank speed for the DropShip.”