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Mirrorsmoke Company
- Interlude 1 -[]
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Mackenzie Nakamura never could keep her emotions in check in a fight. Some would say it was a failing; thinkers like Dav or Emil certainly would. She however, would say it was a boon. Sure, she might have trouble trying to see through the redness in her vision at times, the hot blood in her veins hazing her mind, instincts all too focused on destroying whatever it was she had in front of her. She could follow orders well enough. The bloodrush was just so addicting. As addicting as freefalling from orbit in sim-space, or the thrust of the afterburners as she flew through Mach speeds during her brief periods of ASF training.
But to her, there was no truer source of that rush than 'Mech combat. She eyed her sparring partner, the leader of Fireteam Arrowhead. The both of them circled each other like two titanic predators encroaching on each other's territories, both of them studying the other's loadout and tactics and styles.
A skill she needed to master quickly. With their scanners and sensor systems turned off, one on one duels were unpredictable in the worst of ways, especially with how every Everest or Sagarmatha was as uniquely configured as the person who piloted the chassis.
Mackenzie would have to go for the head. One of the win conditions they had agreed for this fight; depleting the armor integrity down to 0%.
She might have been a hothead as Dav would so often like to call her, but she wasn't dumb. She briefly remembered how the other team leads individually fought in their 'Mechs. Dav, ever the soldier, had a penchant for practicality in his loadout, preferring to have a mediocre answer at any range rather than hyper specialize. He was a deadshot with his 'Mech scale assault rifle, loaded with custom ammunition that seemingly had endless permutations of effects. Alongside it were a pair of missile racks that served to soften his opponents at longer distances, and if they'd actually get close, a one-handed blade to make short work of them.
Emil himself preferred to hunker down, and usually getting close to him was a death sentence with all the Hex charges he'd have set up. He'd pepper his opponents with mortar fire if ignored, and for the unlucky ones that did try to engage him, they would have to deal with the heavy machine gun he had behind his deployable covers.
Bjorna was neither of them.
Mackenzie made the first move, her left hand thrusting a control stick forward. With her other hand she made a reaching motion, grasping at an invisible handle on her back that her Everest mimicked. She was synced, neural-bridge at nominal levels and through her 'Mech she felt the charged blade on her mechanical hand come to life as lightning began to form from its edge. She began to sprint, and she felt as if her Everest was as eager as she was.
She sneered. To some of her siblings, there was still that fear. She was banking on it. A niggling little whisper that froze them for a split second as they faced down a speeding BattleMech, nevermind that they themselves were inside one. That one minute hesitation was all she needed to exploit. She swung her sword diagonally, blade rippling with tempestuous energies that tendrils of lightning spewed forth from the arc of her motion. Had Bjorna froze, her Everest would have been bisected head to cockpit, making Mackenzie the victor in one fell swing.
Had Bjorna froze.
Instead, just as the slash was about to connect, Bjorna instantly ducked to the side, pistol spitting a single bullet towards the mid-swing sword. Mackenzie's control sticks fought her, and she heard the sound of metal screeching from her cockpit's audio feeds; the blade redirected, just barely shaving off a large piece of the Everest's shoulder.
"Oh shit!" Mackenzie called out. She made a lethal mistake. Bjorna's response was powering her leg thrusters, small engines whistling in force as she drove a metal knee straight onto Mackenzie's cockpit. The blow had her take a step back. She tried to counter; tried to swing her sword again, but she was too slow, Bjorna had aimed her pistol straight to Mackenzie's head point blank. Three shots burst forth, each hit severely damaging the armor of the Everest before being finished off by a single heavy jab that left Mackenzie's ears ringing. She stumbled down to the ground, cratering the ferrocrete street below her with a thunderous crash.
All she could do was raise her mechanical arm to her face, a single act of instinctive motion, before Bjorna pulled out a 'Mech scale knife from her side and thrusted it straight down to her head.
The blade never came.
Mackenzie realized she had closed her eyes, deep rapid breaths were pumping her lungs full of hot air. Through the webs of shattered camera lenses was the knife plunged just beside the head of her Everest, the blade penetrating clean through the ground. Bjorna's 'Mech loomed over her fallen body, an executioner waiting for the order to do the deed.
"That was disappointing, Mack. And here I was looking forward to this duel. I thought you'd be better than that," Bjorna called out over the Everest's speakers. There was smug amusement in her tone, and Mackenzie could practically hear the damn smile as she spoke. This was the first time she'd lost, and handily at that. She couldn't help it. She laughed hard.
"What's so funny?"
Mackenzie wiped a lone tear from her eye. "You burned your injectors didn't you, Bear?"
Bjorna just scoffed. "Well, if you want my spot, then take this seriously."
"Honestly, I'm just here for the fight too." And that had been the truth. Competition was fierce among her siblings. Everyone vied for the top position or just to be the very best, from the Washouts who decided to become their med-techs or engineers, to the Batch-2's desperation to be put front seat at the coming battles. Now that age as a rank no longer mattered but skill and aptitude instead, whatever it was or whatever it meant, so long as there was an accolade to be earned or a seat to sit on, there was an eager recipient trying to claw their way to it. A trait too ingrained to be cured, literally beaten into all of them during their time under the minders.
No matter how many times Logan or Dav had tried to discourage it, everyone aimed to be the sharpest blade. Everyone had to be, because they had never known any other way to live. Mackenzie, on her part, had been fully set from the start. What mattered the most to her right now was how she could be better sharpened for when they finally had to face the Dracs.
"Then get up," Bjorna said, ignoring her thoughts. "Show me what the best frontliner of Speartip can do. I'll be real sporting."
The hand of Bjorna's Everest whipped upwards, and for a brief moment Mackenzie saw a canister flung high into the air, before it was shot out of the sky by a pistol. Mackenzie flinched, eyes slamming shut again. Her arms–her body–reflexively tried to cover herself from the coming flashbang, only for her 'Mech to move as well.
And for her to realize it was a smoke charge that had been used, when the fog began to encapsulate the area around her.
Don't get too uppity now, Bear, Mackenzie thought, sighing. She had barely even seen Bjorna's Everest through all the smoke, trudging deeper into the simulated inner city. She gritted her teeth. She had to remind herself why Bjorna was chosen as team lead, and not her.
A grunt tore its way out from her mouth, feeling sufficiently chastised. Hands grasped at the control sticks, pulling at them before bending forward, the mechanisms of her machine alongside the neural feedback systems interpreting the motion as her trying to prop herself up. The 'Mech's torso whirred, twisting as she pushed a mechanical arm down to the ground. She kneeled briefly, glancing at her diagnostics.
<{Armor integrity holding at 42%}>
An arm punched the ferrocrete street, creating a large hole as she bade her 'Mech to fully stand. She readied herself, plucking her blade from the ground and placed it on her back, and exchanged it for the shotgun as she followed Bjorna.
The simulated city was littered with hollow skyscrapers, large tinted windows that reflected only what could be seen through the view screens, her resplendent Everest squeezing through the large towering buildings.
She hated urban combat, especially without support. Lethal sightlines on all sides, plenty of corners to hide behind. A scenario popped in her mind; if she was up against the entirety of Arrowhead, they'd have already pinched her in an intersection. The worst had been the narrow walkways which needed tight and precise controls of her machine that took ages to master, all so she could minimize the damage to civilian property. She'd been yelled enough about unnecessary collateral damage by Logan that she could practically hear the words already.
Her 'Mech stilled. She heard the telltale whistle of small turbines from a jump jet system, the hard rumble of a collapsing wall as it struggled to support the full weight of a 50-something-ton BattleMech trying to jump up.
Mackenzie immediately tilted herself forward, allowing simulated gravity to do its thing, before she pushed herself off the ground, scraping the street as she sprinted towards a bend. Momentum was building. The first thing she had learnt was that the bigger they were, the harder it was for her to stop all that kinetic energy she had gathered. One wrong move and she'd trip face first onto the ground. She'd once heard of MechWarrior cadets dying that way, their necks snapping from the inertia.
She twisted her controls and kicked a pedal. Her 'Mech made a small hop, hip actuators twisting her legs to the side as she braced herself. Mechanical feet met solid ground, her 'Mech scale shotgun loaded with lethal intent. Sparks flew from under her as she skidded across the pavement, slowing down just as her visuals showed her–
Nothing.
But Bjorna had been here. There was damage across the building windows. Large gashes and holes from giant hands that tried to grasp at the floors like climbing stones. It led all the way up to the skyscraper's spire. Then the trail jumped off, leading high into more and more buildings. Mackenzie's eyes pulled away, her weapon sweeping across corners and between alleyways. All she could do was follow along.
If Logan had been a spider, so busy inside his mind spinning his webs and schemes that he'd forget the fist coming to his face, then Bjorna was a wolf leading a ravenous pack. Surprise and ambushes were Arrowhead's gimmick; one to tie down and isolate a target, while the other four aimed at vital areas like a finely sharpened scalpel through flesh.
Whatever the play was, Mackenzie would be walking straight into it.
She wandered, taking slow steps as she followed the trail. Ever so often she could hear Bjorna in the distance. Sometimes the whistles of her turbines would get so far it would sound like a whisper barely picked up by her audio feeds, and then the next moment it would sound like she was so close, Mackenzie could practically hear the whirring servo-motors of Bjorna's Everest as it moved.
She wished the arena had been more open. She was checking every blindspot and corner, and this burgeoning game of cat and mouse of theirs had made it seem as if she was jumping at shadows. Whoever was watching their duel would think so, and she'd certainly be hearing about this later in the day.
Mackenzie would be happy to remind them why she was the best melee fighter among all of them.
Information just simply overwhelmed her. The neural-bridging between man and machine had not only given her enhanced senses, but also faster reaction speed. A surreal experience that was taking its time to get accustomed to. If she had a coin–and if she could flip it–she wouldn't be surprised to be able to see the sides of that coin as it spun in the air. Every sensation, from the clarity of her vision to the ability to discern the different sounds carried by the air had been amplified.
She was once warned that a first time interface would be uncomfortable, but it had never been what she expected. She still remembered the numbing sensation that ran down her spine as the lights of her simpod dimmed, a lost soul being placed inside a new body. She remembered how her heart still beat so furiously that it threatened to burst out of her, primal instincts braying at the freezing feeling, like ice cold meat hooks in the joints of her limbs as they were slowly being torn from her control.
Then lines of code overrode her nerves, filling her brain with false reality. When her eyes had settled, she sat in the cockpit of her customized Everest. The Coldcore of her chassis willed itself alive, her new beating heart that spurred the rest of the 'Mech's slumbering systems awake like an old being of war. Then she felt the weight of her charge blade magnetized to her back. Felt as her 'Mech felt as she gripped its full heft with one hand. Then came the elation. The sudden realization that this was her chance to fight back, the metaphorical chain around her neck loose, and like a rabid dog she was going to–
Focus on the now, girl, she thought, pulling herself away from her wandering mind.
She repeated the word again and again like a mantra. Focus. Bjorna was clearly leading her somewhere. That meant a trap; a one and done surprise. She scoffed, confident she could blow through whatever trick she made.
She rushed forward, ignoring her old training. She beelined towards the end of the trail, knowing full well this would cost her. It was all over the place, making odd turns and twists that made no sense.
Until Mackenzie realized she was back to where the trail had started.
An explosion from above had the head of her, Everest whipping upwards. She saw the spire and its remains were barreling down towards her. Her shotgun swiveled high into the air, years of infantry training had turned the motion into instinct. As if the target had slowed down, she pulled the trigger. She felt the minute but violent shift in the air pressure, the primers in her giant shotgun shells spitting out hot cluster munitions at supersonic speeds. She fired three times, turning the spire into ferrocrete dust raining over her chassis as each hit pulverized the debris like a clay pigeon.
She saw movement in her peripherals, and immediately turned her barrel towards it, firing twice. Both shots tore through the buildings with ease, like a maw of explosives taking a bite out of even the thickest of walls.
Suddenly a thud rang out through the cockpit, and she thought a large piece of debris had just managed to hit her. Then a hand appeared in one of the tiny cameras that served as her Everest's eyes, performing a peace sign, and then giving her a thumb's up.
<{Warning! Warning! Enemy pilot attached to hull!}>
"...What the fuck?" Mackenzie said, clamping down on her welling disbelief as a bright light seared across her view screens. There was a throbbing sensation on the side of her forehead, and she could hear a wild and violent sizzling through the audio feeds. A quick glance at her diagnostics confirmed what she feared, showing a visibly growing tinge of red that was quickly spreading. Her armor was being melted down by a thermite charge!
Her head reared back, finally letting out a shriek of laughter as she rammed her 'Mech to the nearest building, slowly twisting the control sticks back and forth as she desperately tried to scrape off some of the discharging thermite before it could fully dig down to her structure.
<{Armor integrity holding at 27%}>
From the windows' reflections she could see the damage; hot metal oozing like a glowing pustule slowly began to spread towards the cameras, covering her view screens like a splotch of paint to her eyes.
Her 'Mech turned to see Bjorna airborne in a mobility hardsuit, boosting away to safety. Mackenzie combined a roar and maniacal laughter. She fired her shotgun once, then twice more, each shot rippling the nearby windows from the cones of air dispersed from her barrel, all of them missing just by a hair's breadth.
<{Armor integrity holding at 18%}>
Her trigger locked into place, the ammo counter in her peripherals counting to zero. She could only watch as Bjorna's Everest appeared from out of a corner, shielding her at the last possible second.
"Risky trick, Bear!" Mackenzie shouted, teasingly. "I almost had you!"
She bade her Everest to give chase, fingers rapidly flicking switches on the side of her throttle levers. The cockpit vibrated in anticipation, Coldcore pumping out more and more energies to her systems just to give her machine more speed. Within moments she could feel the confines of her compartment turn as hot as an onsen, her hardsuit's internal cooling systems immediately fighting with the new change of temperature. But she wasn't done. She unlatched a small opening on the side of her armrest, slamming her fist down on the button inside.
Time stretched to a crawl.
The Hyperspec Fuel Injector built into her Everest overclocked the systems like a wild adrenaline rush. Everything was slow. So slow that it felt like wading through water. So slow that she could see the whites in Bjorna's eyes as she frantically tried to squeeze herself back inside her chassis. Mackenzie realized she was still moving, with each step from her Everest came a dull drone that echoed through the audio feeds. Mechanical hands chucked the empty shotgun at her opponent, launching it with as much power that could be mustered from the desperate action.
She sucked in the hot air, then exhaled. The entire thing felt like forever. She could feel the tip of her tongue drying. Beads of sweat trickled at a snail's pace down her forehead despite how cold she was inside her hardsuit. She impatiently watched what little she could make of her dwindling vision as the empty shotgun soared through the air for a brief moment.
<{Armor integrity holding at 13%}>
Before sparks finally flew like a slow motion fireworks display as it hit the Everest's shoulder, the same one that had been damaged during the opening attack. A load-bearing joint must have finally broken down; the arm was now hanging limply as Bjorna's 'Mech crashed at a wall.
Mackenzie's hands reached for the sword. A single swing. That was all it would take. That was all she could do. She allowed Bjorna to recover from the stumble, letting her 'Mech turn against hers. For a brief instant, they stared at each other, the both of them knowing what's to come next. No more tricks. No more talk.
Bjorna made a ready stance, dropping the pistol in her functioning arm for another knife just as Mackenzie thrusted her control sticks forward, feet planted firmly down on the pedals. Like the knights of ancient Terra, the both of them boosted forward like they were jousting.
Mackenzie's sword swung down, only to slice at air. Bjorna had dodged at the last possible moment, recreating the movement from their opening act. Her leg thrusters whistled forward, ready to once again counterattack.
Exactly as predicted.
A mechanical hand twisted the sword around, ramming the hilt towards Bjorna's head like a mace. It connected to the visor with a sharp crack that made Mackenzie shudder from her feedback sensors. The screech of bending metal echoed through the audio feeds, the Everest's head armor warping from the blow, finally sending Bjorna crashing down to the ground.
"You wanted to fight me, right?! That's what you said?!" Mackenzie shouted, voice oddly hoarse. She struggled to control her chattering teeth, extremities trembling from the rush coursing through her. She could practically feel her pupils dilating.
Sloppy. Too sloppy. She'd need to do a lot better than this.
- Explanation of Mechs from Lancer RPG and How they Fit in the BattleTech universe
- Due to the loose nature of Lancer RPG's chassis sizes, you kind of have to make a lot of creative liberties when it comes to how big they're going to be.
They're both supposed to be size 1. That's incredibly inconsistent, and that's just because of how the developers want freedom for their GMs.
So to ease my mind and make it a little bit more even scaled in the world of BattleTech, this is my interpretation--and I know a lot of you might disagree with me here--but this is how I'm going to be writing them:
Size 1/2: Heavily sophisticated Battle Armors. That's just what they are. Elemental armor that non-clanners can use without too much training or effort other than being pilot trained. Depending on their loadout, a ton or two at most. Size 1: Unless specified otherwise, most of the Size 1's are Mediums. Take the Everest for example. With it being so heavily customisable, I can confidently assume that it would have to have a huge range of tonnage. 45-55 depending on what systems and weapons it has. On the end of that spectrum, I consider the Lich a Light mech. Size 2: These are the Heavies. With some exception (Balor for example, absolutely reaches the lighter end of the assaults and I will die on this hill.) Size 3: The main man himself, the big kahuna, Barbarossa is an uncontested Assault.