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Chapter 3 – Cry Wolf[]
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Extraction[]
08/14/3051 | Astrapolis, Free Rasalhague Republic
A Ghost Bear Elemental kept watch from their perch within the bell tower his rangefinder binoculars collecting starlight then amplifying it to see almost as well as daylight. COMSTAR’s compound had a large easement but the solar panel arrays provided to much cover limiting sightlines. He dipped the binoculars to look at the sledgehammer beside him, part of an un-jammable warning signal that could be heard just outside where a pair of Omnimechs waited.
“To much cover. Why could I not smash them, Star Commander?”
He breathed deep and squatted down bringing his Mauser IIC rifle to his lap, “Not like there is any threat left out there. I did not train for years on Bearclaw to be a prison guard like some common freeborn.
Soon I will be able to rip through plates, tear hatches off, and rend ferroglass to see their fear. It will be glorious.”
An oily black shape slipped through solar arrays then executed a running jump over the perimeter fence. It clung to pieces of statuary and blended into wall decorations and tapestries like a chameleon as Ghost Bears walked past it through the abandoned corridors of the monastery. The armory was empty as were most of the functional rooms and outlying buildings according to his HUD. Raucous laughter came from the refectory where a squad of Elementals sat around a table. Two fully armored Elementals waited outside the main entrance to the HPG Sanctum, problematic but anticipated, and maybe manageable. He avoided the cloister where the Kell Hounds had been encamped for two weeks and went into the penitent cells and interrogation room. “No guards in the prison, what a welcome surprise.”
Something surprising was found in the interrogation room. A dull metal security keycard had been left behind on the table, “How dumb are these Bears?” Along with a neural whip, “Sorry comrades, I needed a new moon, and for them to drop their guard.”
His armored fingertips turned all the lights up and inserted the keycard into its slot. He hoped that when he wiped his ID from the roster it didn’t register on ROM’s closed system. If they didn’t know he existed they couldn’t remove his access codes.
“Adept Rho Twelve Yuri Vulkan, ROM Protocol Five Oh Three Alpha White Terminate.”
A synthesized man’s voice responded, <{“Access granted.”}>
“Unlock all cells.”
Green lights replaced the red in front of each cell. “Hopefully someone is alive in there.”
Cell 12 loomed before him and Yuri opened it to a young man slamming a metal meal tray into his helmet. “Good to see you too, kid.”
“Dmitri?”
“How did you get in here?”
Dmitri activated the camo system and disappeared into the background for a moment before reappearing. “I didn’t need this suit to be invisible, but it helps.”
“That’s amazing.”
“This is just the Omega branch prototype. I’m busting you out, and maybe everyone else makes it too, at least until the Hounds send a rescue team.”
“Kai and Akira should be on the way, but we can’t use the HPG or get on the dropship. The Bears have it and Alpha branch locked down; they’ll kill us.”
Phelen had angry red scars across his arms and ugly bruises peeking through his clothing.
“Better fast then slow don’t you agree?” He produced a disk from a compartment concealed in his armor. “The now Precentor Martial gave me a workaround just in case. Unfortunately it will fry the HPG in the process,” he returned the disk to its armored compartment, “but that’s a Phi branch problem.”
Buying Time[]
The interrogation room’s bright light dazzled Phelen Kell and the emaciated ROM agents but slid off Dmitri’s opalescent green armor like beads of water. “I know you’ve been through hell, but you’ve survived where eight others didn’t, and we have a job to do.”
“How are we getting out, Dmitri?”
“There are maybe a dozen Elementals upstairs and two mechs outside. If we can rally quickly and make a run for it. We’ll get fifteen to thirty minutes head start before they pursue.”
“How are we getting off-world?”
Phelen leaned forward, “We don’t need to get off-world yet, just out of this area until a rescue party arrives.”
“Even if Oberon could send units that would still take weeks, and there is no guarantee that the Bears haven’t dealt with them already.”
“There are shuttles and planes at the Starport. We could use them to evade until Second Regiment arrives. It’s in the Free Rasalhague Republic. We failed to contact them on the third, so they know we are in distress.
Cote doesn’t have enough men to chase us all.
We must escape,” Phelen looked at his wounds and those of ROM, “or we will just die slower deaths.”
Dmitri put his hand on the helmet sitting on the table, “You heard the kid. Escape or die, those are our options.
I’m not certain my Tornado can take down even one of the lesser armored ones but I’ll try and clear a path so you can reach the workshops and repurpose something there.
I need the armored Elementals away from the HPG sanctum so I can send a message.
Phelen, I want you to watch my back at first, then you and the Hounds should make for the motor pool and see if your pilots can get the shuttles online.”
He looked around and realized that he was in the best condition out of the eight survivors. “I understand.”
“The rest of you, you know what needs to be done, avoid the cloister until I handle the man in the belfry.” They nodded in grim unison, one of them grabbed the Neural Whip on the table, and they all crept out barefoot into the abyssal night wearing their prison uniforms.
A realization dawned on Phelen, “Dmitri, you don’t have a weapon. Are you going to punch him?” “The camo system cannot disguise stuff I carry, so I don’t normally carry one. I did however bring some options.”
He opened a compartment built in his gauntlet and Phelen saw a spooled garrote wire, the micro-disk, and something else.
“Are those bo-shuriken?”
“Yes, I spent some eventful time in the Draconis Combine. I miss it, things were simpler then.”
They paused and shrunk into shadows as an Elemental strode past them. The giant stopped to put the monstrous Mauser 960 style rifle on his hip, listening intently while looking up at the belfry and moonless sky.
Dmitri disappeared into the shadows adaptive camouflage flickering as it adjusted between lighting conditions. Phelen waited impatiently, almost losing track of him except for the dust disturbed in its wake. A cold shiver crept up his spine if this man could be mouse quiet in a suit. How stealthy could he be outside it?
The shimmer lifted to wrap an almost invisible garotte wire over the Elemental’s neck. Sudden violence disrupted the illusion as the augmented strength lifted the behemoth onto the suit’s back. Despite being strangled the giant slipped the gauntlet on their left hand under the wire.
Their Mauser clattered to the floor as the Elemental let out a bellow and with a flash of blood the Elemental lifted themselves vertical then reached back to grab Dmitri’s armored form, hold him aloft and threw him into a nearby wall like he was a child. The masonry and armor plates cracked as the Elemental stomped toward his attacker.
“You thought you could strangle me?” The Elemental lifted Dmitri’s fallen form to the wall with one arm and was almost helmet to helmet with the Tornado, “I am going to pound you into paste.”
Phelen rushed forward to grab the fallen Mauser. He thought he was strong, but this thing weighed as much as a heavy machine gun. “Why is this thing so damn heavy?” He flipped the side-folding bayonet out, then thrust it into the Elemental’s flanks. As blood rushed out he grimaced, then glared toward him. A sharp side kick knocked him sideways to crash into the concrete with the impact felt deep in his bones.
His fingers reached toward the trigger for the underbarrel grenade launcher; vision blurred with pain, but his target was hard to miss, and his friend had armor but that wasn’t going to be much help against being hit with by the Elemental’s fist.
A half dozen 30mm canisters drove themselves into the Elemental which collapsed from the horrific wounds he had just inflicted. Dmitri smashed the Elementals left arm to free himself and walked toward Phelen’s fallen form. “How did you know they had a safe arming distance?”
“I didn’t. I just wanted to get him in the ribs.” Phelen said as he caressed his own.
“Well good work, kid. I think you may have killed the first Elemental in the Inner Sphere.”
“Yay for me. How are you?” Phelan asked
“I’d just be another old man complaining about his back.”
Running Gun Battle []
Like a gargoyle an Elemental crouched and peered through range-finding binoculars as he heard a roar below him and brought his rifle up. “I heard something. Barta, get eyes on all roamers.”
“Aff, Rhys, Sitrep in five.”
Tense moments passed as he watched the cloister where the Kell Hounds were encamped, everything was still and dark down there, his IR scope registered everyone was accounted for. He looked behind him, the sledgehammer was missing, right until it hit him in the jaw.
Dmitri’s Tornado Power Armor materialized from the shadows standing over the mess, “If it was good enough for cattle its good enough for these beasts.” He picked up Rhys’ discarded Mauser, passed it down to a waiting ROM member who struggled with the mass before they split it into three weapons, distributing it to his compatriots. “You know what to do.”
Something only recognized by the hammer in its hands disappeared back down the ladder and into the shadows.
In the cloister, Phelen looked around the corner and saw that the belfry was clear, even Dmitri was gone but that was to be expected for a guy with chameleon armor. Without the Grenade Launcher and survival kit the laser rifle was stock heavy but surprisingly handy. One of the female Elementals paced the cloister with her weapon readied.
Through his protective goggles he took aim and fired a mostly silent pulse of roughly four kilojoules worth of energy into her. The barrel noticeably heated up despite the built in phase change coolant and heatsink. He retched at the powerful laser rifle’s effect on her head.
Phelen tried not to look as he recovered and separated the rifle into rifle, grenade launcher, and bayonet as ROM had shown him, it was mostly identical to the SLDF’s 960 but built for the larger Elemental’s ergonomics rather than normal people. “Kell Hounds up and at it!”
Captain Wilson was first out of his tent and Phelen tossed him the other rifle. He picked it up and hugged him with his free hand. “How did you get out?” Then he looked at his injuries. “What happened?”
“I had help from ROM and Captain if we live, I’ll tell you. Right now, get to the motor pool and make for the shuttles. The master key codes are,”
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a post-it, “five oh one three eight.
Five oh one three eight.
Shuttle code, Stargazer Prime Assembly Three Oh Niner.
Pass it on, I’m going to try and clear a way.”
Smoke began rising as fires erupted throughout the HPG compound. “Hurry up!”
“Roger that, MechWarrior! Good luck.”
Michael started to stomp and shout. “Hounds! Wake up! Get your asses moving! We are getting the hell out of here! On the Double!”
At the HPG Sanctum the Ghost Bear radio net was saturated with multiple reports of aggressors, sabotage, and mayhem throughout the compound. “The Kell Hounds are escaping! Armored units redeploy to the motor pool and stop them.”
“We were told not to leave our position, Point Leader.”
“I am giving you new orders. Redeploy and stop them.” The Elementals shifted in their armor and looked at one another as they marched down the corridor and toward the motor pool. Heavy machine guns on the left arms readied for action.
A shadow detached itself from the wall as they walked by. Like a magician’s trick, a keycard appeared from the air seemingly swiping itself to open the heavy metal door.
Once he was within the sanctum Dmitri removed his helmet and inserted the EOM disk into the master HPG console. Computer code and stellar coordinates, mapped to the Redcastle ROM base on New Caledonia, scrolled across multiple screens.
“I hope you were fast enough, kid.” His fingers snapped across the keyboards typing out his EOM message to Precentor ROM, as prompts and warnings flashed everywhere as his infiltration software slaved the interface to his, and ROM’s will.
He heard a pistol click and a women’s voice behind him, “Yuri, put your hands behind your head, and step away from that console.”
Yuri Vulkan did as asked. He turned to see Precentor Andalo ten paces away holding an auto-pistol to him. Her hair was a mess, face a scowl, nightshift charred and shredded. “Christina.”
Unexpected Reunion[]
To his surprise, his own Sternsnatch Python heavy pitol was pointed at him, “I wondered what happened to it.”
Christina’s aim never wavered as she stepped to the side, “I killed Cara with it after she tried to stab me in my sleep, then I jumped out the window to escape the flames.
I know what you did on Hachiman and Victoria, and a dozen other worlds.”
“The important thing is nobody knows COMSTAR did it.
What’s your plan, Precentor?”
“I was thinking about holding you at gunpoint then handing you over to the Ghost Bears and undoing whatever you’ve done afterwards.
Or shooting you in your head now then tell the Ghost Bears after I’ve undone whatever you were trying to do to the HPG.”
“It’s protocol.”
“****** protocol!
I didn’t kill, steal, and sleep my way to Sargasso’s HPG from my slum town when I was thirteen to die on some flyspeck bit of rock for protocol.”
He felt for smooth steel in his right hand, “I always wondered. If they told you. Would it make it easier?”
“Make what easier?”
Yuri flicked a pair of bo-shuriken into Christina’s arm, ducked return fire, then disarmed her and firing a single shot to her head. She collapsed on the floor with a squelch. “What ROM is really here to do.”
Status bars had progressed during his standoff, but they still weren’t ready. Not that it mattered soon it was going to be locked in and nothing was going to stop the end of mission message and a warning to New Caledonia. Yuri clicked ‘enter’ one last time and put his helmet back on to walk back into the uncertain and dark night, then disappeared.