human
His mind was shattered, swimming in and out of short bursts of consciousness. Not enough awareness yet for complex thoughts, but just enough to feel the jagged, gnawing pain ravaging the space between his ears, and just behind his eyes. His thoughts slowly returned to him, as his brain felt and processed more of his environment. The sounds of faint, hoarse coughing of in the distance, followed by a remorseful wailing a little closer. Metal clattering. The scent of unwashed bodies and grease...
Max Sat up quickly from his spot on a cold rusted metal floor, his gray eyes wide, his face covered in streaks of black soot and glistening with sweat. His eyes then immediately clenched shut as the full force of his headache struck his nerve endings, making him bring one of his powerful hands up to hold the side of his head. He groaned.
The year was 3045, hundreds of years after the human race had developed space flight, faster than light travel, and had colonized many worlds and star systems in a spherical shape with the earth directly in the center.
The "Inner Sphere" it was called, and like humanity would always do until its extinction, there was war. And in this advanced age, the preferred weapons were colossal engines of destruction. Huge, robotic war machines called, "Battlemechs."
The Inner Sphere was ruled by several noble houses, with each territory squabbling over star systems and resources like the feudal kingdoms of old. The constant warring and destruction had cost humanity a heavy toll in lives and knowledge, with many advanced technologies developed during the Star League era having been forgotten and buried under the rubble of countless battlefields.
Only two decades ago, the infamous mercenary company known as "The Gray Death Legion" had unearthed an intact Star League era computer core, filled with the advanced knowledge that had been lost. Realizing its true value, and not trusting the local faster than light telecommunications network, the Legion made many copies of the data contained therein, and did their best to disseminate it themselves. In the few years that followed, a technological Renaissance was stimulated, and humanity made great strides in the realm of medical, military, and civil engineering.
Liao engineers had been working on something beforehand, and the release of this old information had suddenly made older documents and blueprints suddenly make sense. Breakthroughs were made.
Max was not entirely sure what the breakthrough was. All he knew was that his mercenary company had been hired out to acquire it.
Like all grunts, he was only given enough information to complete his part of the mission, which was to pilot his fifty ton war machine, and to keep faster moving enemies off of the bigger, more powerful, but ultimately slower mechs, allowing them to punch a hole in the enemies defenses. Colonel Lawhorn had given him an order, and like a good Soldier Max had followed his orders without question. All he thought about was his payday. A payday that would likely never come now.
Despite his best efforts, his company of eight mechs had been ambushed and outgunned by a vastly superior force. Within the first few minutes of battle, focused particle cannon fire had ripped through the Colonel's massive 100 ton king crab chassis, leaving it to be just another smoldering, rusted heap on some forgotten battlefield. One by one their mechs had fallen, with Max's Swayback being the last. He could still hear their voices screaming in agony over his radio, as they burned in the ferro fibrous coffins.... He flinched. As a new recruit, Max had barely known any of them, he was just a green, eager newcomer, wanting to prove himself in the eyes of his new comrades.
His mech had suffered a reactor hit, making it overheat and shut down. His adrenaline had been pumping hard, and he had been bloodthirsty. He grabbed the battle rifle from its stowage rack, and kicked open the hatch of his stricken mech. He likely wouldn't do much, but he was determined to die with a weapon in his hands, and to go down fighting. As soon as his boots had hit the battle torn soil at his mech's feet, an enemy war machine had unleashed a barrage of short range missile fire at his Swayback, striking true. The Lance Corporal didn't remember much after that. He surmised the concussion from the blasts nearby had knocked him unconscious.
Max rubbed the side of his head, easing the pain away, and slowly scanned his surroundings. He was in a four foot by eight foot metal room. Behind him was a small one foot square window, covered with bars, Artificial light filtered in from it from the sodium vapor lights outside. In front of him was a barred wall, similar to a prison cell.
No, exactly like a prison cell. This was one of those mobile containment facilities, made to be set up in a hurry. And from the sounds of things, he wasn't the only prisoner here. Many people had been captured, and some in worse shape that he was. He tested his arms and his legs, stretching them, checking for any injuries. There was a slight twinge and soreness in his left shoulder, but otherwise he was not seriously injured.
Inside of the cell was a folded gray blanket, similar to what one was issued in boot camp... Made of recycled plastic fibers.
He grunted, and stood up, going to the barred door at the front of his cell. He knew it was futile, but he gripped the metal in his powerful hands anyways, and tried to shake the door, testing it.
It rattled slightly, but otherwise held strong. A soldier then walked by, dressed in a Capellan green uniform, holding a combat rifle. The soldier was just out of his reach, else he would have tried grabbing at him.
Just so long as he sent one of these bastards to hell before they killed him, he would be satisfied.
He ran a soot covered hand over his short high and tight haircut, and adjusted his sleeveless olive drab undershirt they had left on him. He was likewise wearing his camouflage cargo pants, but his feet were bare. His boots must have been taken away when he was knocked out. His belt was likewise missing.
No shoelaces or belt... Damn.
He thought as he relaxed upon the bars, watching the patrol guard as he walked. Lost in thought. He looked into the cell across from his. He could barely make out the human outline in the shadows...
Max shook his head, and slumped down against the metal back wall of his prison, snatching up his blanket, gnawing at its sewn edge with his teeth, ripping at it, growling angrily.
Finally, the seam ripped. Max grinned, but then stopped as he saw the guard walk by again, eyeing him this time. Max wanted to strangle him with his bare hands, to choke the life from his damned haughty face.
However, the soldier just averted his eyes, trying to give the illusion of a man defeated, someone who was no threat at all. The guard continued walking past.
As soon as he was out of sight, max continued his work, tearing a few long strips off of his blanket, and tying them together like a makeshift rope.
"Just you wait greenie..." He wispered under his breath to the guard walking around outside. "...I'll have a few choice words for you, soon enough..."
gpt
All in all, it had just been a shitty week. A hard drop with limited intel, there ahd been a fair amount of reliance on recon work for the company to advance. Of course, that relied on the recon forces being able and ready to spot enemy traps. Mostly, they were good at it, until they wound up discovering that their active probe scans were being jammed. The alarm went out, but it was too late and most of the company was caught in a crossfire.
They'd all fought like brazen bastards, and done probably mroe damage than an ambushed group had any business doing, but it was amazing what coudl happen when you were backed into a corner. One of the last to fall had been Tomoe, widely regarded in the company as one of the better pilots of light mechs, but also for being insanely reckless, relying on her mechs speed and agility to let her perform some truly remarkable feats of combat, but also putting her mechs through a lot of extra strain and punishment. She'd been piloting a Jenner with distinction, putting her weapons to good use and trying to keep the heat off of her comrades, but numbers told on them hard. A lucky round from a gauss rifle had cripled her mech, and she hand't waited to see what follow up fire would come for her. She'd bailed out, bidding her beloved mech farewell, adn made for some kind of safety.
As it turned out, that hadn't gone so hot for her.
A burst of autocannon fire had shredded the light woodland that she'd been heading for, the explosion of wood and steel had perforated her with light shrapnel, and laid her out. When mdeics had arrived to see to them, at least to see if they were surviors or not, she'd been bundled off by the enemy. Medical treatment and a small barrel of sedative later, she found herself coming to in a containment unit.
She took stock of her room, and of herself. Those that had taken her had picked the shrapnel out of her, but not much beyond that. Still, it meant she wasn't wounded in ways that would slow her down. She stood up, stretching, finding a multitude of small aches adn pains that came from getting dusted with wood shrapnel. She wished she could have said that it was the firtst time she'd been hit with something like that, but alas, witht he way she fought, wounds like that were shockingly common.
Tomoe wasn't the tallest person from teh comapny. just under five adn a half feet tall, she weighed in at around a hundred adn fifty pounds. At a glance her background put a lot of people off their guard, showing a lot of very clear signs of her Kuritan heritage. A closer look showed that she was a bundle of corded muscle, and she had the reckless aggression show that she wasn't ready to take crap from anyone. Her hair had been unpinned, adn hung loose down ehr back, psat her shoulder blades, adn she desperately wanted some kind of way to tie it back properly. Lacking that, she moved to the door to ehr cell, and rattled the door, checking how well secured it was.
The short answer was pretty damned solid. She rattled it again, the noise starting to attract the attention of the guard that was patroling the aisle. She picked herself up with her hands on the bars, bringing her face more fully up to teh space to look oiut. She gave the guard the sweetest smile she could, all teh while mentally picking out he positions that she arrange his teeth in a necklace if she got her hadns on him for a few moments.
"Hey big guy. You look tense, want me to help you relax a little?" She called. The man made a face that dripped disdfain for her, but she didn't let it put her off. She knew she'd have to be rather lucky, adn him rather stupid to get anywhere with this, but it was worth the try.
human
The trained soldier, while not on the field that long, had lived with military doctrine since before he knew how to wipe his own ass. His father had served in the Lyran army, and then the federated commonwealth after that. Ever since he took his first steps, his father had handed down everything he knew. "Always be aware of what is happening around you. Dont ever be caught daydreaming..." That memory alone made him gnash his teeth.
Max hated his father with his very core. But he had to admit. The old man knew what he was talking about. And so he listened, watched , and felt.
The sounds of the dungeon were all around him, and so he filtered most of them out. All he listened to was that green cappelan gaurd, pacing back and forth, regular as clockwork. He memorized the pattern of his boots.
Max contemplated his situation carefully, as he tied three strips of his recycled blanket together using square knots, and tested it. His makeshift rope was roughly eightteen feet long, and felt quite sturdy.
The rest of his blanket, he draped over his shoulders, mith his makeshift rope in his hands, hidden under it.
He stood up, and approached the bars of his cell door. The prison gaurd came walking past as usual, and a feminie voice could be heard, flitatious, yet husky. The voice was familiar, yet he couldnt place it.
That didn't matter anymore, as Max saw his opportunity. The gaurd had turned away from him, to look at the cell across from him.
The merc just grinned, and casually slid the bundled rope through the bars with one hand, with his other arm a few bars down. He loosened the rope, grabbing the raw end with his other hand. Max tested its weight. He then took a deep breath, and furiously tossed the rope around the front of the gaurds neck with deft precision.
Max did not hesitate, and yanked upon the rope, steping backwards with all his might, gripping the rope with force. The gaurd stumbled backwards, gasping, dropping his rifle to the floor. He reached up to loop his hands in front of the rope that was cutting off his air supply, and struggled. His kevlar helmet was knocked from his head, and skittered to the floor.
Max jerked the rope from side to side, then back, leaning on it, winding his arms into it, and even standing sideways on the bars, pulling against everything he had, screaming at the top of his lungs.
The guard's face turned purple as he struggled futilely. Suddenly, there was a loud popping noise, as the makeshit rope broke in two.
Max swore as he landed to the floor, hard, knocking the wind out the mechwarrior.
The gaurd, dazed and weak, stumbled forward a few steps, only to trip on the raised walkway. He lunged foreward, Hitting his head upon the lower area of Tomoe's cell door. His neck bent at a sickening angle, followed by a wet crunching noise. His body then went limp.
Max swore agan as he scrambled to his feet.
"Shit!" he yelled. He then called out to the cell in front of his, as the other prisoners hooped and hollered thier cheers. "Hey, that bastard has keys on him..."
gpt
Tomoe Felt a sick thrill go through her as she saw the prisoner across from her made a play. The makeshift rope was a decent play, though it clearly needed another layer of reinforcement as she watched it break. The guard fell at what could be possibly the worst possible place. SHe hissed in vexation at the whole thing. They were close now, close to breaking loose, and here they were possibly beaten by a broken blanket rope and sheer bad luck.
"Really? The guard has keys on him? I'd have never thought of that champ!" Tomoe shouted back to be heard over the roar of the others. She tested the bars again, knew that they weren't coming apart no matter what she did. Which meant she ahd to find a second option. She also needed one other thing.
"EveryoneSHUT IT!" She roared out. The cheering died out. "You want another guard to come in here looking for this one? To keep us quiet? Clam up and let me try and work something out here." She said acidly. When the prison was quiet again, she started moving. She gripped the bars, and used them as an anchor, walking her way up the door. The bars were strong, but had a decent amount of space between them. She slipped one of her feet through the door. She snaked her leg down the door, patting around until she could feel the guard, thanking hte Gods that she'd grown to be a long legged bitch.
She felt her toe touch metal, metal that jingled. She smiled, seizing it between ehr toes, and lifting. THey wer connected on a string that seemed to be extending from a retractable unit, and that suited her fine. She stuck her arm through the gap in the next bars, letting her lay hands on the keys. She had a wolfish grin on her face as she let herself slide back out of the door.
Feet back on the ground, she reached back out, pawing around the door until she found the lock. One deft turn later, she was kicking the door open, shoving the dead guard aside. She crouched, pulled his side arm free, checked it, and nodded. She also found a sturdy combat knife on him, which she added to her equipment. She was armed. And that meant they were in business.
Tomoe crossed the hall with a smile, and unlocked the door to the man who had started this whole process.
"Nice play champ. You ready for the encore performance?" She asked him, stepping out of hte way to let him out while she moved to start unlocking the other doors. This was happening. They were starting a real escape. A little more luck, and they'd be on the move.
human
Max let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding, as he saw a military camouflage covered leg work its way out of the shadows and fish the guard's key away from him.
A moment later, a familiar and most welcome face appeared, and unlocked the door to his cell.
It was the female Kurita mechwarrior, that had been part of the other 4 man fire team for his company. To his shame, he couldn't remember her name. Tammy was it?
He cast the trifling thought aside, and slapped her on the shoulder. "Good to see you're not dead..." He murmured.
One by one, they opened the cells of the prisoner, letting them out, and checking them for injuries. For the most part, if a little starved, most of them were prisoners of war, Free Worlds League soldiers, mechwarriors, scientists, technicians, and a few civilians. Disturbingly however, there was no one else from his Merc Unit. Max spat at the floor and swore.
Most of the released prisoners were grateful, with one notable exception.
She was a sullen faced young brunette woman that could be considered beautiful, but her back and arms were covered in bruises.
She did not react at all when her cell door opened. She just stood silently, looking out the window, watching a few scattered raindrops fall through the beams of sodium vapor light outside.
"You're early..." She said in a flat tone, laced with acid. "...just cant get enough can you?" She then growled as Max entered her cell. With speed that caught the mercenary off gaurd, the woman spun around, screaming, and charged at him, thrusting and slashing with what looked like an improvised knife. Max jumped back just in the nick of time, as her blade cut through the fabric of his shirt, but didn't touch his skin.
He immediately assumed a defensive stance, his brain going into full combat mode. His instincts kicked in. His eyes focused on the sharp piece of metal in the woman's hand, only to see it waver as she faltered.
"You...You're not a Capellan?" she murmured, her voice quaking. Max did not relax his guard, assessing her posture. He visibly relaxed when the shiv dropped to the floor. The woman then looked around, and saw that the other prisoners were out, in the hallway. Her hand went to cover her mouth, as she sobbed. "I'm sorry..." She wailed. "...They always come around this time, and take me out into the camp, where they.... Do things..." she said, sobbing as she fell to her knees.
Max's initial reaction was to help her, comfort her, but the soldier in him kept him cautious, and detached...
Then he thought about what the woman had just told him. He then looked to Tomoe, and then to the dead Capellan guard. He was about the same size as Max, and the visored riot helmet would hide his face well enough. Max helped the woman to her feet, snatched up her shiv from the ground, handing it back to her, handle side first. "You might need this, as we are getting the fuck out of here..." He then looked around at the group of just released prisoners. "...all of us." He murmured, low and deep.
That comment brought a few nods and more than a few whispered words of approval. He looked back to the girl. "Tell, me, where do they take you, and who all shows up?"
The girl began speaking in low, hushed tones, talking of how there is an area nearby, consisting of stacked metal crates, creating an ad hoc private area, away from the rest of the base.
The mercenary then quickly began stripping the soldier of his uniform, and quickly donned it. It was almost a perfect fit, but the boots were a size too small. He just crammed his feet into them anyway, improvising, and keeping his toes curled.
He then grabbed a set of manacles from the wall, and gestured to Tomoe. "I have an idea..." He murmured, He then raised up his hands, getting everyone's attention.
"Alright, we are not out of the woods yet, and we have one chance. Here is my plan..." He said to everyone. "I pretend to be a guard, and take this one with me, in the manacles, but without their securing pins..." He started. "...We go to this area that was described, and we wait, and ambush any thirsty perverts that decide to show up, weakening their presence..."
"Absolutely not!" one older prisoner growled. "...Why should we trust you? How do we know you won't just leave us here and escape, using us as a smokescreen? I'm getting out of here right now!" he exclaimed, as he started walking towards the door. More than a few people growled their agreement, and started to walk with him.
Max's adrenaline surged. With one well placed punch to the side of his head, the older prisoner's legs buckled, and he fell to the floor, groaning. "We have one shot to get out of here. If you hose this up by jumping out into a hostile, unknown environment, and alerting these bastards, I will send you to hell myself..."
Max's tone was dark, low, and absolute. There were a few grumbles from the crowd, but no one else said another word.
The mercenary then went to check on the older prisoner, and raised him to a sitting position. He then handed the man the keys to the prison.
"When I come back, I will knock 3 times..." He said to the man, who looked at him in a mixtures of anger and disbelief. "...At which point, we leave. All of us. In the event anyone else comes in that door, or you hear gunshots, then it means we have failed. Jump whoever comes in, or try and make your escape as best you can..." Max murmured to him
The old man's eyes went wide, but then he nodded, and clutched the keys tightly.
He then stood up, and shouldered the gaurd's rifle, as his knife and pistol were already claimed by his company mate. He handed her the manacles. "You ready for this?" he murmured to her, as the tip tapping of a light rain could be heard starting on the thin metal ceiling above their heads.
gpt
So much happened, and in so little time. The brief conflict between the others made Tomoe almost move into action. If she took up the rifle and head out, she could likely take out a huge number of the guards, and raise enough hell to buy the others a chance at escape. Maybe not a good chance, but a chance. But she pushed the urge down, knowing that she had tasks to perform, and that these people were her people now too. Same company, same unit. A new family, a new group to link to. She pushed the thoughts from her mind.
She didn't really know Max well, she'd seen him around during briefings and the like, there was a always a certain amount of turnover in that way. Frankly, no one had expected her to survive as long as she had, one of the most aggressive pilots in the unit. She'd figured that they left her on scout detail more often than not just to try adn keep her in mechs that would prove easier to replace when she wrecked them. And that was fair really, she was pretty rough on the hardware. She weighed the weapons in her hands, knowing that while she wasn't a bad hand with a rifle, she always did her best work up close. Pisolt and blade were her choices when she had them, though a nice shotgun wouldn't go awry for her either.
Tomoe had to admit she wasn't fond of the idea of being used as bait. There were a dozen ways that it could go pretty wrong. But it was a chance to get personal with these pricks. She took the nife sheath and belted it on to her lower leg, letting her pants ocever it nicely, while she tucked the pistol into ehr waistband, safely out of the way on her back. She let out a breath, and took the manacles from Max.
"You realize this is insane, right?" She asked him, closinghte manacles on one wrist, sliding the lock pin in place on it, but not the other. Both cuffs being loose was hard to manage, very hard to hide. But she manage one. "But I guess that means you picked the right bait for the trap." She gave a grin, not one that looked like it had a lot of mirth, it was the look of a well fed predator anticipating another meal coming. It looked a shade unhinged.
"Let's do this." She answered, heading for the door She hunched her shoulders in, trying ot look afraid, to look vulnerable, and she was managing reasonably well. The compound was dark, the light rain blocking out any real moon or starlight, and small pockets of light were set up from some of the buildings. The base was actually reasonably well set up as a forward supply depot, and that annoyed her. This is the kind of thing that they should have been able to spot on satellite recon. This shouldnothave been a surprise. There were a lot of dead people that shouldn't be.
She kept her stance, didn't look around as much as she could have, not wanting to make it look like she was actively plotting, even if she was. They only had one really good shot at this. Her pulse was punding in her temples, hammering away a rapid pace that had her almost quivering in place. To the caual onlooker it might have looked like she was understandably terrified of what was coming. But she wasn't. There wasn't an ounce of fear in her now, just anticipation and adrealine.
The location that had been mentioned was coming into view, and Tomoe was instantly picking out points along the area that she could use. Points of cover, hiding places for the dead when she was done with them. She was glad of hte rain, adn the fact that the place wasn't paved. Mud hid spilled blood easily enough in the rain. Tomoe walked to the wall where she was out fo sight and had a place that it looked like manacles would be linked to. She swung them into place, adn let otu a long, slow breath.
"Keeo yourself scarce." She warned Max. She didn't think the kind of people that would be coming here wanted much of an audience.
She didn't have to wait long for hte first arrival. He smirked as he saw her, advancing on her while lossening his belt.
"Got a new one it looks like. Always liked me a little Kuritan bitch on the side." he mused. Tomoe didn't look him in the eye until he was close.
"You'll just love me then." She countered. The man faltered a moment, adn she used that moment to swing her manacle free, the loose end hitting him in the face, staggering him while she pulled the knife free from her leg and leapt onto him, bearing him tothe ground while she rammed the knife into his neck. It was quick, it was quiet, and it was exactly what she needed at the moment. She leaned her head back, letting hte rain fall on her face a moment, letting it all wash over her. She stood up, looking to see wheree Max had positioned himself.
"Help me movce this asshole." She called quietly, getting a hold of the dead mans feet, and trying to drag him away.
human
Max nodded to her, likewise agreeing that this was indeed insane. "Yeah, but think of the fun..." He murmured to her with mock confidence.
Their chances were slim at best, but he figured it was better to die on his feet, than to be enslaved in some capellan factory, making parts for things that were used to kill his employers.
Likewise shouldered the door open, and looked around quickly, surveying the layout of the base.
His viewpoint was limited, given that the makeshift prison was on a lower elevation than the rest of the base. There was however a small office pod perched up high on a spire like hill in what he assumed was the center of the base.
From what he could see, this was a forward supply base, with many heavy airlift containers stacked nearby. "Alright, that matches the description of what that young woman told us..." He murmured to his mercenary comrade. He had Tomoe walk in front of him, making use of her submissive, hunched position. He thought to nudge her forward with the rifle to make a show of things for anyone looking on, but decided against it.
A light, misty rain obscured visibility all around in the dark night air. That would make things noticeably easier. Max led her inside of storage pens, and sure enough, there was a space set up between the large shipping container pods. They even had a makeshift hitch point for handcuffs welded up high. Max quietly smoldered at their tactics, but none the less, figured they could use it to their advantage.
Max lifted her handcuffed hands up to the hitch point, making sure they were loose. Tomoe would be able to relax her arms and lean on the cuffs to rest her arms, until they were needed. He looked around, seeing that no one arrived yet. He then drew her knife, and placed it in her dominant hand, with the blade running parallel to her forearm, concealing it between her arm and the surface of the metal containers.
In response to her request to make himself scarce, he murmured: "Alright, I'm going to climb up on one of these containers, and try to keep a better lookout" He whispered to her.
Max quickly climbed up a set of makeshift stairs made from smaller shipping crates, and took a vantage point, allowing him to survey the immediate area. He was greeted by an excellent view of his immediate area.
He was right in his assumptions of this being a forward supply base. and from the looks of things a fairly quiet one. He casually walked along the tops of the containers, even spying a makeshift bridge across them made from a scrap armor plating. It looked to be rectangular, from the arm of a spider mech maybe? It had a melted hole in the center of it, likely from laser fire. He walked across it, holding his rifle just as he saw the prison guard hold it, close to his chest, to keep up the illusion.
As he walked, he took in the area, making mental notes. The base was fairly small and compact, nestled in a tiny mountain valley, with only two points of entry to the East and West. Near where he was, he saw 3 Maxim type hovercraft, neatly parked in a row. Near them, through the haze of the mist and the sodium lights, he could barely make the outline of a smaller class mech chassis, possibly a spider or a commando, he wasn't quite sure it was so dark. Further away he could see the buildings on the supply base. He could only see one building that fit the description of a barracks, which at best might house eight to twelve soldiers. They already took out one, meaning that left seven to eleven.
He chuckled a little at that, thinking of an ancient chain of convince stores that had started on old Terra. An ice cold big gulp would really hit the spot right now....
Max grunted, and made an entry to stock up on soda at the first available opportunity. His adrenaline was running high, as his eyes darted this way and that, looking for any movement. One lone soldier finally made his way thought the three foot wide space between the crates to find the hidden area. Max said nothing, but raised his rifle to the soldier. The soldier waved him off dismissively.
Max just shook his head, and chuckled, turning away as he walked to keep the soldier in view, it still being dark enough so that he wouldn't be recognized.
He stood ready to pop that guard with the rifle should Tomoe have any trouble. The guard made a few snide comments, with Tomoe making a good spirited counter, enough to make him grin. As she jumped out of that shadows, and was upon the Capellan soldier like a hungry wolf upon a rabbit. She had dispatched him quickly with her knife.
Tomoe was apparently an efficient killer, that would come in handy later. Max was getting ready to jump down and help, when he saw the flicker of a flashlight approaching his position. "Shit..." He murmured. He jumped down quickly, and helped Tomoe drag the corpse to the stack of smaller crates nearby, shoving his lifeless body under the tarp draped over them. He then relayed everything about the base that he saw to her.
"We have 3 more coming..." He said to her quickly, as he stashed the rifle nearby where Tomoe could get to it quickly. He then took the newest guards knife, and stuck it in his belt. "Look alive..." He said, as He clambered back up onto the containers. The three people were close enough now to make out minute details... Two looked like normal Capellan soldiers, while the one in the middle was shorter, fatter, and wearing a longer trench coat. He relayed these details down to Tomoe.
"Lets try to keep Trench coat alive if we can, maybe get some Intel out of him. He looks important." He whispered.
He then inwardly swore as one of the soldiers stayed outside the crates, and lit up a cigarette.
The other guard, and the short, fat man began making their way into the hidden area.
Max made silent hand motions to her. First he pointed to both of his eyes, and then held up two fingers. He then pointed to her. Max pointed next to the entry way, then to himself, then made a slashing motion across his neck.
The mercenary then walked across the tops of the containers, towards the entryway, staying out of view of the two others. He stood just above the smoking soldier, who was completely oblivious. These guys were lazy, and apparently complacent.
Max took a deep breath, placed his rifle on the top of the container, and drew the knife he had taken from the other guardsman. He then jumped down, gripping the knife in both hands tightly. With his full weight bearing down on the blade, he drove the weapon into the Capellan's green felt hat, and into his underlying skull. He twisted it twice as his feet hit the ground, making sickening, wet crunching noises in the man's head.
His body collapsed silently, but spasmed uncontrollably for a few seconds. Max let out the breath he was holding, as he felt his lungs start to burn a little. He yanked the blade free, shouldered the third rifle, and hoisted the dead soldier onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry fashion, and quickly walked down the narrow space, hearing the sounds of scuffling just ahead. He dropped the dead soldier, ready to spring forward with his knife as he rounded the last corner....
gpt
Tomoe knew that Max was probably right. The different outfit probably had some kind of distinction, but it didn't really matter that much to her. He was an enemy, and there wasn't much choice in what to do with enemies in her book. She was running hte numbers when they approached her. The shorter man cocked his head at the sight of Tomoe.
"Not our usual fare. We'll need to speak to the selection guards, I don't like surprises." The man groused. "But we'll make do. Grab her and bring her to me, I want her on her knees." The guard approached, and Tomoe started to tremble. It likely looked like fear, but it was nothing short of pure adrenaline. When the guard reached for the manacles, he found one of her hands came free.
"What the-" the words ended as a small, hard fist crashed into his throat. Tomoe had her knife free and made a hard slice on his leg, ripping open his femoral artery, and he fell, gasping from a crushed larynx.
The short man gasped, and turned to run, but Tomoe risked a throw with her knife. It landed high on his leg, and as he fell she pounced on him. She stuffed his face into the mud, silencing his cries. She drove her fist into his head several times until he stopped screaming, and stilled. When she rolled him over, he was still breathing. Not quite how she'd like to handle it, but there was work to be done here. She left the man where he lay, and dragged the other guard out of sight. More weapons, she made sure to loot him for what he had. Then it was time to go. She didn't really figure that the rate they were going that the other guards would be able to miss the loss of the dead men.
She gave a signal to Max, and checked the rifle that she'd taken. Loaded, primed, ready. Not as much ammo as she'd like, but enough.
"You wanted the fat ass, he's all yours. I think it's about time to go active and get this over with. Standard layout for a base like this will put main power not far from here. I shut that down, their comms go dark, and I can mop up the rest of them. Can you get the others moving once the lights go out?" She asked.
human
Max nodded to Tome once in approval, as he eyed the dead soldier, as well as the dazed officer. "...You're going to make someone a fine wife one day." He teased her. This was a stroke of luck. The markings on the fat man's jacket marked him as a prison warden.
He took a mental stock of the weapons they had acquired thus far:
4 standard capellan combat rifles, all of them descendants from the venerable SKS design. Each with 30 round magazines, as well as 16 extra fully loaded 30 round magazines.7 fixed blade knives of various designs, 4 standard Capellan 9mm automatic pistols. The Warden was likewise armed with a pistol, but his was an artistic, pearl handled variant of what looked like Lyran manufacture, resembling the German Luger. Max Scoffed.
He listened to Tomoe, and Nodded. "Yes, I can get them moving, I very much want to get the fuck out of here, to, but before we do anything rash, lets gather some more intel. For all we know, that unit that ambushed and killed everyone else is just over that ridge. If we go loud, we risk someone using a short ranged transmitter to warn them..."
He then gave the Kuritan a level gaze. "If I'm wrong, and we are isolated out here, I will cut you loose, and let you slaughter these fucks..." He growled as he kicked at the fat Warden. "...to your hearts content. I'll even help, we can go loud and proud..." He said not so much to her, but to the fat warden who was coming to."
The little man looked up at him, and then at Tomoe in sheer terror. Max had to admit that it was satisfying, seeing a pompous enemy officer full of fear.
Rain started to fall a little heavier now, prattling all around them, forming small puddles that ebbed and splashed... Max wasted no time, and grasped one of the warden's thick pinkies. Using one of the knives, Max sawed it quickly, with one down stroke cutting into the bone and tendons, halfway through the joint, and then taking it off with one upstroke, and tossing it away.
Before the terrified man could scream, he grabbed the officers hat off of his head, and then shoved it into his mouth. The man screamed into his hat quietly, clenching his eyes shut, with tears flowing from them generously. As his cries died down a few minutes later to choked sobs, max tore the hat from the officers mouth, and looked him dead in the eyes. His face lost all expression, and went white.
Now that he established that he was willing to hurt the individual he would save time trying to convince the waste of flesh that he was serious.
"Here's the deal..." Max murmured low and deep, jabbing the tip of the knife into the Capellan's crotch, making him whimper. "...I'm going to ask you some questions, and you are going to answer me. In the event I don't like your answer, I start by taking an inch off of your penis."
Markus then went quiet, holding the soldiers gaze. The older fat man's face froze, but he slowly nodded. He had proved quite cooperative, and answered all of Markus's questions quickly, and completely.
The base itself was little more than a rear POW camp, with a few reserve units, and limited supplies.
Of the Maxim tanks nearby, only two were operational. One of them was outfitted as an APC, while another was an ad-hoc experiment of cobbled together spare parts. The other two were derelict, and just being used for parts.
The only complete mechs in the area were the spider nearby, which was in good working order, but had suffered minor arm damage. There was also a lone locust out on patrol, on the other side of the hill.
In addition to the four soldiers they had just killed, there would be two more. A lone radio operator, as well as a watchman in a tower by the front gate.
Once the man had said that was all he knew, Max dug the knife a little deeper into the man's crotch. All that did was make the man insist that that was everything, and then start pleading for his life in a most pathetic manner.
Max just shook his head. This bastard had intended to come down here, and rape, ravage, and do god knows what else to some poor girl. The mercenary didn't even think, and let his anger mount. Holding his knife tightly, he shoved the wide blade straight into the warden's throat, staring straight into his eyes, as he clenched his teeth angrily, veins defining in his muscular neck.
The warden stared back at Max in disbelief, as his eyes went bloodshot, filled with sheer agony. Max felt no remorse whatsoever, and only got angrier. He twisted the knife violently, popping the neck vertebra in the wardens throat apart, with a sickening, wet crunching sound as the tendons and ligaments snapped.
Max yanked the blade free as gouts of blood erupted from the wardens severed throat.
The warden's head was still alive, looking at him, blinking in disbelief as his eyes slowly went gray, and his mouth slowly stopped moving.
The mercenary spat angrily at the dead warden, kicking his corpse once, then twice, then again as hard as he possibly could, slamming his body into the metal crates nearby.
His breathing was erratic, as he huffed and puffed for several seconds. After he regained his composure, The mercenary soldier picked up the bundle of rifles. "Alright..." he murmured to Tomoe over the rain. "...Go and kill the power, then execute those two remaining Capellan fucks." He growled low and deep, almost inhuman in its tone.
"I will get these weapons to the prisoners. I have no doubt the two remaining idiots will give you much trouble. When you are done, go and have a look at the Spider. I'll see what I can do with the Maxim Transports. And Tomoe..." He said to her low and deep. "...Comrade, remember, these bastards killed our friends. Don't be quick, make them suffer and pay for what happened to the colonel, and our brothers."
Max didn't look the same at all, he was distant, darker than before. He didn't give her a chance to reply, leaving her with her rifle in the rain, pattering around her.
gpt
Tomoe didn't dwell on this sudden change that Max seemed to be going through. It suited ehr fine to go live, and if he wanted her to be more off the chain, then that was fine by her. The wolfish grin was back, and she scooped up the rifle without a second thought. She was on the mvoe quickly. The main power was coming from a portable generator. She knew exactly enough about this kind of unit to know it was expensive and dangerous. She settled for hitting the main breaker on it, closing off power to the base proper, plunging the place into darkness. Then she was on the move.
She knew that she could hole up, wait for each guard to come by to check out the generator, but that wasn't what she was all about these days. She ahd a goal. She ahd something that resembled orders, though she knew she and Max were going to have to have a very serious talk about issued orders when there was no established chain of command. His orders suited her, so she follwed them through. Now though, it was time to really go to work.
The communications building was on her way, and she noted that the guards were running for the generator. A few well placed shots, adn she'd have them laid out. But no. Not now. Not yet. She jogged tot he com building int he dark, and rapped on the door sharply. A moment later it unlocked, and opened.
"The hell is going on?" The man within demanded, starting when he saw a smaller framed woman looking up him with ehr head cocked to one side, smiling at him lopsidedly. Tomoe was drenched from her time in the rain, and that moment of hesitation bought her the time she needed. Her hand shot out, the knife in it neatly slicing the tendon on his knee, making his leg give out under him. She stepped intot he building with him, closing hte door behind her as he started to scream. She crouched beside him, covering his mouth with her hand adn shushing him.
"Shhh. Shhh. Easy. It's okay. It'll all be over soon." She prosmied him. She caught his hand as it went for his pistol, and she broke it without a second thought, twisting the fingers harshly. he howled into her hand, and she smiled. She could spend a lot of time with this one, but that wasn't the point. She ahd other tasks this night. She drove her knife up into his ribs a few times, and felt him go slack. As he staretd to fade she took his pistol and the service knife on him. No rifle, but she had one already. She smiled as she noticed he had smallish feet, and took his boots. She had them laced up adn on when the power came back on. She let out a long slow breath, and went back outside.
The guards were coming at a dead run towards her, adn she only smiled as the tower painted her with a searchlight. She was walking slowly, arms out to the sides, lettign the rain fall on her easily, eyes tilted tot he sky for a moment, and she could hear the falter in the step of those coming for her. She darted ehr hands down and lifted them back up, a pistol in each one. Shots rang out, hitting each guard int he chest, and staggering them. These two were more careful, bringing body armour to the task, which made her pistols much less useful. Still each shot took a toll, staggering the men which opened her up to close the distance. She cast the pistols aside, no longer needing or carinng about them. She kenw the guard in the tower would be drawing a line on her, but iut didn't matter now. She had her dance partners.
Low sweep of a blade, blood in the air, a shout of pain, and then she was driving her knee into the groin of the other man. He gave a shout of pain, but there was a dull thump as she made contact, showing he was armoured there as well. Still she swung a kick to the chest of her first man, feeling ribs shift from the hit, sending him off balance. As her second target came for her, swinging his rifle around Tomoe kicked the barrel away from her and slashed his wrist, opening a wound adn a vein. As he released the rifle, she seized it and dropped to one knee A pair of bullets smacked intot he mud near her, coming through the space her head would have occupied if she'd stayed standing. Ignoring her partners, she fired a burst at the tower itself. Rounds smacked into it, and she tracked the bullets into the shooter. There was a heavy crash as he fell from the tower to the ground. By then she had other things on the go.
She tossed the rifle to one of her attackers, he caught it reflexively. She came into range and dragged a blade across his stomach, knife angling under the armour to lay him open, his guts spilling out of his body. As he fell to the mud screaming, she felt a fist hit her head, sending her to the side. She threw herself that direction, getting some distance, and then smiling as her last foe came at her. He was leaning down, a low tackling stance, and she was ready for that. She met him headon.
His size and weight meant she'd lose a collision, but she slid onto ehr back and kicked up at him, heaving him over her and face first into the mud. As he was rising, he felt a flare of pain in his neck, and dropped. Tomoe rolled him over and smiled down at him.
"That's your spine. Neck down you're not much good. But you'll live for awhile like this. Remember this moment. Remember what happens when you're on the wrong side of a war." She told him. With that she head back towards the prison. When she met the others, the rain had washed hte blood off of her face, but ehr fatigues wer still stained more red than normal from her escapades.
"We ready to go?" She asked Max.
human
Max looked older somehow, his eyes sunken in. His mind was on fire, scared beyond belief that he had just killed a man, with a knife, slowly, in cold blood. Yet the rest of his mind was at ease, and relaxed. He felt as if the eyes of his former colonel and comrades were upon him, looking on in approval. He had never done something like that before, save for when her looped his shredded blanket around the guards neck. Oh hell! He had done that too!
Icy claws of self doubt and loathing played at the edge of his mind, as his reality was tested. He had be running on adrenaline and hate before, and had been able to distance himself from what was happening, just focusing upon the moment, whatever needed to be done to survive. Now his stomach felt empty, and bottomless, as fear and remorse crept up his spine as he clutched the soggy bundle of rifle's to his chest, as he slogged through the mud back to the prisoner barracks, with the rain pelting the ground all around him.
His boots were still too tight, and his feet were toes cried out in agony at being pinched and bent for so long. Max scoffed, and tossed the wrapped bundle to the ground, and plopped down in the mud on his rear, frantically tearing at his stolen capellan boots, ripping them off of his feet, and tossing them aside with a frustrated growl.
What in the hells was he doing here, on some god forsaken world many light years away from the comfortable farmer's life that he could have had if he had just listened to his parents? He could be driving a combine somewhere, and could have married that cute red head 19 year old that had been following him around since she was 5... He took a few deep breaths through clenched teeth, Shook his head, ad stood up.
There would be plenty of time for wallowing, reflection, and self doubt later. For now, he had a promise to keep. Max stood up, feeling a cooling rush wash over his feet as they sank into the cool mud and water about an inch. Nothing had ever felt so good as that. From this point forward, if he survived, he promised himself he would take nothing, no matter how small, for granted ever again. He snatched up the soggy bundle, and walked a little faster. He stood at the door, and as he had promised, her rapped upon the sheet metal panels with the backs of his knuckles. He then opened the doorway, and disappeared inside.
He was greeted by many smiling faces at first, the first of which was the older gentleman from before that had challenged him. "I was wrong about you..." He murmured in his gravelly voice that sounded like he chain smoked and drank a fifth of bourbon for breakfast each morning. His expression then changed to one of worry. "...What of the girl?" he asked in a worried tone. "...Where is she?" He asked in a more urgent tone.
Max just grinned "..Shes fine" Max whispered back. "...I cant say the same for the guards that she's about to eviscerate, but hey. I brought us a care package..." He finished, tossing the bundle to the floor, and unwrapping it, revealing the stolen Capellan weapons. He handed one of the rifles to the older gentleman, and then watched as the more able bodied people also armed themselves.
He then knelt down where everyone could see him, and he scratched out a crude diagram on the floor with one of the knives.
"This is the layout of the base..." He murmured to everyone, and then pointed to the vehicles. "Two of these still work. Two Maxim transports, while we put Tomoe in that Spider..." He continued saying. "We steal enough supplies and what what not to last a week, and then we head east to this spaceport, about 300 miles away from all of the action to the west. We then either charter, steal, or Hijack on a dropship, and get the hell out of dodge..."
Everyone then murmured and nodded thier heads in approval. At that point, two pistol shots were heard ringing out somewhere in the distance.
Max's face lit up, and met the older mans gaze. "Fuck..." both of them said, as the scrambled for the dorr, tossing it open. Max clutched his rifle, training it high, watching as he heard rifle fire quickly follow, watching as the rounds shredded through the guard's chest, with him falling over the railing soon after. Max then grinned, "..Good." he said flatly. He then saw Tomoe standing in the center of the base's staging area, holding another rifle, grinning at him. "Yeah..." he replied to her, reveling in the moment. For the next few moments at least, they were soldiers again, not just prisoners.
They made thier way to the Maxims, with the 20 ton Spider Mech standing over them, its upper torso lost to the gloom and mist of the rain. As the warden had told him, one of the Maxim's was in good working order, and easilly had enough room in its 50 ton chassis to carry all of the prisoners, with room to spare. The older gentleman introduced himself as Jason, and offered his piloting skills to drive the transport. As they had discussed earlier, Max left checking out the spider to Tomoe.
Max directed a few of the release prisoners to gather up all of the food, medical supplies, and ammunition they could carry, and load it up onto the first Maxim Hovercraft, while he looked at the rest of them. The other two were little more than wrecks, one without an engine, and the other stripped of its drivetrain and hover blast fans.
The last one however, was.... Well, interesting.
The space normally used for cargo and armored personnel had been been taken up by a makeshift turret system that housed two weapons. One was a snub nosed particle cannon, side by side with a large laser barrel. It was effectively a heavily armed, lightly armored hover tank. Normally such a thing would be operated by a crew of four, but it only had one seat in it?
Max ran his fingers over its controls, and started its fusion core. The hovercraft roared to life as its fusion reactor spun up its plasma loops, and then fell silent. It was still running, just equalized, and quiet.
Just something they had cobbled together from spare parts, whatever they had lying around. Hopefully it would work for him...
He spun the control levers for the turret, and chuckled as the heads up display whirred this way and that, tracking in the infrared, showing him a completely open sky, filled only with cold dark rainclouds.
"Yeah, I think we understand each other..." He whispered to the hovercraft.
Max then went to everyone else, outside. He spoke to Tomoe and Jason directly, giving them a radio frequency to tune to for thier own, hopefully masked communications.
"I got the one Frankenmaxim started, but its questionable, but better than nothing I suppose.... How does that spider look?"
gpt
Tomoe nodded as Max explained that he was taking the tank. Suited her just fine. She'd been checking out the Spider, thirty tonnes of pure speed and agility.
"How's it look? It's still got a Pitban LFT-10 system on it! You have any idea how hard those are to find these days? Give me one of those and I'll make that mech dance on the head of a pin thirty meters in the air." She assured him. The mech wasn't well armed, it only really carried a pair of medium pulse lasers, but that was enough in most cases. Creative use of the rest of hte mech would compensate, though it wasn't easy on the unit. There was a large slab of armour that was missing off of one of the arms, but she knew that she could compensate for that. Otherwise, it all seemed to be in good shape.
"Get everyone moving then. I'll fire this beast up and get her going." She said simply. She'd located a neurohelmet, and had it tucked under one arm. She advanced on the mech.
It wasn't a long ride up the small automated scaffold lift that had been set up to allow access to the mech, likely for a maintenence shakedown. When she reached the cockpit, she sighed, and vlamped hte helmet onto her head. The mech was in good repair, up here at least. She sat down in the control seat, and seated her neurohelmet on. She felt hte contacts rest on her head, touching her scalp. She let out a long slow breath before activating the mech. She closed her eyes a moment as the heavy pulse of the fusion drive lit up under her. She opened her eyes, and...
It was like waking up for the first time.
The night peeled away, the rain not nearly so oppressive and obscuring. Her mind was filled with sensory information that was fed into her, and she coudl already see all around her. She felt her face split into a grin, loving the feeling of being behind the controls of a mech again. She eased the Spider forward in a tentative step. The mech responded easily, a single flowing movement moving it foraward. She pulled up her com system, aiming at the preprogrammed bands, finding one that looked like it would be linked to the base and the vehicles.
"Max, you reading me? I'm going to put this thing through her paces, see how far out that Locust is. Get yourselves moving, and catch up when you can." Sje said simply. She threw herself into the mech then, pushing it to accelerate as hard as it could manage.
The spider all but leapt into motion, tearing up great divots int he mud as it charged forward. Tomoe grinning wide as she felt the way the mech responded, almost an eagerness to move coming from the DI computer. Most people said that a mech was just a collection of components, that the computers were simply that, a sophisticated computer, but Tomoe had always wondered if there was mroe to it. After all, if it was justa computer, then there was no real reason that a new pilot often experienced headaches from the link. Each mech had a feel to it, a way it moved, something that was almost akin to a personality, but not quite. Still, she was loving the speed, and she kept tracking ehr eyes along hte sensor feeds, looking for that Locust. She wasn't worried about it hurting anyone, but she was concerned about it calling in help.
Her sensors pinged, finding a distant signal, right on the edge of her sensors.
"Echo 2, good to see you out here! You're early, am I relieved?" The com call came in. Tomoe knew she on;y had seconds to answer, so she put as much of a masculine growl in her voice as she could when she answered.
"Affirmative, head on back." She said quickly.
"Thanks! Looking forward to a little downtime." The locust turn and came towards her.
"Max, Locust is inbound. We've got one shot at this. I can set him up for a hit, but you're goign to have to take him out before he send a signal out." She sent out ont he other channel before letting out a slow breath. The Maxim's could keep pace with her, weren't far behind her, easily within weapoins range. But if the locust got up to speed, it was going ot be a problem to bring down. She stepped her mech tot eh side, opening up the path she'd taken, adn the Locust noticed, moving to head down the path. As it moved past her, she swept an arm out, giving hte mech a hard push, while signalling to fire her weapons.
Burning laser fire lanced out, one shot going wide, but the other dragging up the leg of the other machine, burning through armour and intot he hip actuator, staggering hte mech.
"Now Max! Light him up!"
human
Max sucked in air through clenched teeth as he felt the hovercraft's rotors spin up, letting loose a roar of air that erupted from its base.
It was an unnerving sense of vertigo, feeling the repurposed APC float around a little, side to side before its corrective jets stopped and stabilized it.
It felt odd, Max had not driven a hovercraft since basic training, but her felt as if he had always known this craft. He linked his wireless communiocations system with that Of Tomoe's Spider, and Joseph's other Maxim.
He then checked the Maxim's system health, and everything looked green. The unconevtional reactor was in an excellent state of health, being made for a much larger craft, as well as the overcharged jets. It would be unnaturally quick for a fifty ton vehicle, and was suprisingly well armed.
He edged the differential drive sticks forwards, and the craft nudged forward. He the pulled back on the left stick, as the craft spun to the left on its axis, sliding to the right as it did a few feet. It would be like driving on ice. A little awkward at first, but not impossible.
He grinned as he saw Tomoe's Spider step into his view, and then jog out into the night. He felt his adrenaline surge. This was it, they were actually going to do this...
Max slid both sticks forwards, as he felt the crafts jets direct it after the spider, following behind at a comforable two hundered feet away. He glanced down at his radar, and saw a blue freindly blip behind him, the other Maxim keyed in as a freindly on his IFF.
He then saw another blue blip on his radar, and his eyebrow arched. Max then felt his heart skip a beat as he heard the radio transmissions of the locust they were warned about. He grit his teeth as a moment of panic crept up his spine. Max then found his resolve as he heard Tomoe reply, and then grinned as the reply came back.
That poor bastard was too tired to care, having been out on patrol all night for several hours. He was probably distracted with thoughts of a hot shower and a warm bed.
He stayed close to Tomoe, trying to mask his radar signature with that of hers. Crosshairs appeared on his heads up display, giving him real time data on the smaller twenty ton Locust chassis.
Its spindly legs always looked comical to max. It was a cheap, easily produced mech, and arguably one of the most numerous. He couldnt argue with its agility though, as he had piloted one many a time. He waited patiently as they got closer, keeping Tomoe inbetween himself and the Locust.
As soon as he saw the bright red flash of her medium lasers spit out towards the Capellan mech, he drifted out quickly to the left, Zeroing in his crosshairs upon its center torso. Just as Tomoe roared out to light him up, Max slammed the triggers to both weapons on his control sticks.
The large laser went off first, slicing through the night air with a hiss, as it carved its way deep through the paper thin armor of the locust. Maybie a quarter of a second later, the particle cannon let loose an incredible white blue beam of intensified energy, punching through the already damaged core of the light mech, turning it to slag.
The striken locust tettered for a moment on its spindly little legs, and then fell over into a flaming heap, leveling the few cyprus trees that had been there a moment before.
An alarm claxon went off immediately, as his heat levels spiked. Max clenched his teeth in annoyance, as he watched his heat gauge climb up into the red zone for but a moment, then quickly bleed off as gouts of steam flared out the back of his hovercraft.
They had installed the heat sinks needed, but the heat sensors were likely a little too sensitive.
He checked the status of his weapons, and saw that the large laser was recharged and ready to fire. The particle cannon however was still charging, and would take a few more seconds.
"Alright, good to know..." He murmured to himself.
"Alright, good job Tomoe. We just scored our first kill... Now lets see if we can make it to that forward base they spoke of...."
gpt
Tomoe had a wolfish grin on her face as the mech fell. She paused only long enough to approach the fallen mech and place the foot of the Spider on the cockpit. She pressed down, popping the the cockpit flat. No enemies behind them. No chance of signals being sent. No loose ends. She felt a deep sense of satisfaction that seemed to come more from the mech than from her, and that made her smile. If it was going to encourage her like that, then there wasn't much point in her trying to be restrained about what she did. And she wasn't going to play nice with what they were up against. If all she could really do was set up targets for Max and his tank, then fine, so be it. She'd manage just fine.
She put the mech into motion, calling up any loaded nav points that it had, and what she found widened her smile into a grin. She was looking at hte forward base, the patrol route that this mech had been assigned to, as well as the main patrols for the base itself. She relayed what she had to Max, sending the data package to his tank, knowing that he was likely a better person to plan this than she was. Her approach was likely to just charge into the base adn hold the trigger down until the lasers fused from overheating. She eased the mech into motion. She wanted to keep herslef alert, but also wanted ot make sure they made it where they were going ready to fight.
Tomoe blazed something of a trail for hte hover tanks. They never did terribly well in any kindof real terrain without some kind of pathfinding. She kept ehr eyes ont he sensor readouts, wishing that she had some kind of additional intel reports, some kind of uplink that might give her satelite link. So long as she was wishing, she wanted to be back home with her family, safe and in bed with a large bottle of sake. Both things were as likely to happen in hte next ten seconds. She gave her head a shake. Training crept back in, pushing back her thoughts of home. There was a word for what she was feeling, something her mother had taught her.Heimthra was the word used for longing: for home, for the past, for things to be as they once had been. Even the gods were said to know that yearning, from when the worlds were broken. She wasn't as sure about Gods, but she knew that the feelign could be dagerous if left unchecked. Great warriors could be felled from within far easier than from without. She needed to be sharp.
Finally, well into the night, her sensors lit up. She slowed her mech, allowing more power into her sensors, pushing her reach out somewhat to just tag the other signals that she was getting.
"Max, we've got multiple contacts. System reads...a Locust, a COmmando, and...shit, a Blackjack. We playing this your way or mine?" She asked over her coms.
human
The young mercenary's shirt was bunching up uncomfortably at the small of his back, due to the hastily constructed seat of his maxim heavy hovercraft.
His electrical systems had developed a hiccup at some point during the trip, and his display's were plagued by intermittent noise and static. Every so often Max would thump the base of the displays, which would make the noise go away about half of the time. He could only guess what in the hell the problem was, given the cobbled together nature of this craft. He only prayed it held together long enough for him to get to something more reliable...
Then he heard Tomo's voice come in over the intercom, visibly shaken as she swore at the sight of the Blackjack.
Max grit his teeth. Those carried long range auto cannons, Not enough firepower to kill them outright, but in the right hands could easily whittle them down until the other two mechs closed in to bring their shorter range weapons to bear.
"Fuck..." He murmured into the coms. The radar blips were steadily growing closer and closer, even though their IFF's were keyed in as friendliest. "What to do, what to do..." he murmured to himself softly, forgetting that he still had a hot mic...
"Concentrate all fire on that Blackjack..." He whispered into his microphone. "I will soften him up with long range fire as soon as he gets in weapons range. Use the valleys and gullies to creep up on them."
He then swore again as he turned off his coms. The longer and the more they were at this, the more it seemed like a fools errand. All they had was the element of surprise. He could try to squeeze off a shot from here, as the Blackjack was the closest, and within range of both his laser and particle cannon. But hell, if he missed, it would give away their position, and all of them would be on top of their little force like white on rice.
he nudged his throttle a little, and then positioned his Maxim hovercraft on top of a somewhat high hill overlooking the valley, with a visual on the Balckjack, which was approaching them.
He then heard an incoming transmission coming in from another channel. "Spider two seven, this is reaver, what's your status?" The female Capellan voice came in over the airwaves.
Fuck it. They only had once chance at this... He killed his hover jets, and allowed the craft to settle itself on top of the hill, steadying it. He then swung his turret at the blackjack, said a quick prayer, and then hit both his trigger's as his crosshairs turned red.
White hot particle blasts shot out of his main weapon instantaneously, ripping through the air towards his target. He had been aiming at the blackjack's oversized cockpit, but saw both the laser and the particle cannon blast barrel into the Blackjack's left thigh, making it explode in a brilliant display of melted myomer and slagged armor. The blackjack teetered for a moment, and then fell over hard on its side, facing away from them.
All at once his alarms went off, as his heat gauge spiked, blaring red warnings across all of his screens. "Tomo!" He roared across the coms, "Hit that Damn commando!"
gpt
Tomoe was on edge, knowing that there wasn't going to be much chance of things going well for them. She let out a breath, planning out an assault, a plan of action to somehow squeak out a victory. They couldn't afford to take too miuch damage here, they had to do this right. She looked at her waypoints, seeing hte route she was suppsed to be follwing, but she had to agree with Max, staying on course was likely a fools errand. She had to be ready.
The lasers in the torso of the mech were primed, hot and ready to go, she just needed a target. She was getting close tot he Blackjack, knew that she could spring a trap easily enough, but she'd need heavier support fire from Max to actually bring it down. She heard her com crackle, a request coming in fromt he Blackjack, but before she could answer the lances of fire arced out to hit the mech, pulling a leg off. She grinned wolfishly. It was a perfect shot to her, and then came the call for hte Commando. Dangerous enough, she knew she had to act now, before the enemy had a chance to organize, to bring more heat down on her, or worse, the tanks. Terrain wasn't great for the hover vehicles, and they could get pinned down fast.
The mech leapt forward at her urging, the feeling of eagerness still there, like the mech wanted to push itself as hard as she did. There was a grin as she made a beeline for hte COmmando, no stealth, no subtlety o it. She saw it swinging an arm around, adn she prayed that the mech knew how to dance as well as she wanted it to. The harsh glow of a charged laser came clear, adn was aimed at her. TOmoe threw the mech into a sidestep, rotating around in a pivot to swing the whole mech over to the side, the harsh blue light of a Large Laser slashing through the space she'd just been in. She gave a laugh of pure singing adrenaline, riding hte high as she plowed forward. Teh two lasers in ehr torso lanced out, scraping along hte armour of hte Commando, leavbing brilliant molten lines in the mech beforee the enemy pilot realized that she wasn't goign to duel with him. SHe was set to collide with him.
The Commando started to move, trying to extricate himself fro teh scenario, but Tomoes was too close for that. She goosed the jump jets, thrwoing herself forward harder, adn raising her up off the ground as she came at him. The knee of her Spider came up in a perfect collision witht eh enemy cockpit, shattering hte viewport and caving hte structure in completely. She blasted the jets hard to push herself up over the now slagged mech, and spun her around as she did so. She landed on the ground adn slid, gouging a trench in the ground as she slowed, her mech leaning forward in a crouched posture. Before there was another moment to consider any other course of action, she was off again, the mymer strainging to match ehr orders, and she felt the distant phantom pain of the empathic connection she shared with the mech. Strained muscle. Nothing to worry about now. The Locust was retreating back towards the base, but she had him dead to rights. Laser fire arced out, slashing along hte Locust, while it turned torso to face her, adn blazed away at ehr with a brace fo machine guns. Teh fire stippled along ehr mech, one burst hitting hte arm that was missing armour, but not enough to do mre than piss her off. Laser fire stabbed out again, this time piercing clearly through the mech and sending the Locust staggering as it tried to recover from damage to it's gyro. Tomoe leaned her shoulder intot eh movcement, hammering into the lighter Locust, sending it flying intot he ground. The armour was pierced, adn it looked like the charge had caved int he last of hte gyro on the mech.
"We're clear for now!" She called into her com for Max to hear. They were living gloriously right now by sheer balls and brutality.
human
Max clenched his jaw in triumph as he watched Tomoe's spider take out the final hostile with a well placed mecha-knee strike to its cockpit, shattering the glass and likely crushing the pilot to an unrecognizable pulp. He glanced at his radar display, only to see it clouded with gray static. He smacked the side of his console sharply, the metallic clang echoing in the cockpit. The LCD display flashed white for a second, and was then replaced with a wire-frame display of the battlefield, with no remaining radar blips upon its surface.
Max felt the gyro stabilizer of his hovercraft start to rattle. He turned in his seat to look at the large, armored disk that dominated the rear bulkhead. As soon as he did, it leveled out, and the craft hovered lightly.
"Alright, good..." He murmured low and deep into his headset, as he maneuvered his hovercraft thought the terrain to the fortifications nearby. It appeared to be a large perfect square of plasteel prefabricated barriers, hastily set up, with several heavy crates stacked inside. No sensor signatures of any living creatures, and no activated power sources, save for a few halogen lamps set up around the perimeter of the walls.
He veered his Maxim in along the roadway, and up into the open area through the walls. It wasn't even a gate per se. The roadway itself intersected inside of the walled structure, criss crossing in the center. Four stacks of crates in each corner, with several trailer type mobile building set up here and there. It seemed eerily calm and quiet. They were far enough away from the battle lines and deep within enemy territory at this point, so the Cappelans had moved most everyone forward. That would explain why they were able to plow through the guard lance they had just made contact with. They were likely a reserve unit consisting of pilots that were not held in high esteem, with substandard mechs that of which maintenance was just not a top priority.
Max thought for a moment, as he made a few passive sensor scans of the area. Nothing was showing up on his heads up display at all. He glanced to his map, and saw that the starport was at worst, only a day away, deeper into enemy territory, where they likely wouldn't have any more problems, until they made contact with the star-port itself.
"Alright..." He wispered into his headset. Technically there was no need to whisper, it was just a force of habit of his when behind enemy lines. "Move everyone into the structure, and lets see whats in these crates." He continued. "...I'm going to have a look at the systems on this maxim, and see if I cant figure out whats causing my displays to malfunction."
gpt
Tomoe was starting to come down from the adrenaline high that she'd been riding during the fight, and that left her almost shivering. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself, trying to find that cold focus that she'd been taught to seek in moments like this. Using her father's heritage to try and tame her mothers, it had...mixed results most times. She heard Max making the statement about going over the displays in his tank, and she couldn't resist the answer that came to mind.
"They probably malfunction because they're held together with spit and chewing gum. But good luck!" She had a cheery tone to ehr voice as she spoke. She was...well, decidedly not helpful at this point, but she had to admit she wanted to get a look at her mech adn see if there was anything in the base that they might be able to use to try and patch up her missing armour point on the arm.
She eased the mech forward, feeling like she was actively fighting the mech in some ways, like it wanted to justgo, but she needed it restrained. It was like a hunting hound on a leash, straining to do what it was made for. She found the gantry that would be used for a light mech, probably where the Commando had been parking before it's untimely demise. The Spider didn't seem to accept being powered down easily, she had to initiate the shutdown process twice, but it did finally die out. The feeds from her neurohelmet went dark, and she sighed, lifting the heavy job off of herself. She set the helmet down, adn massaged her temples, the beginnings of a headache coming in, though not nearly as bad as she'd gotten with some other mechs. The DI computer and her just hadn't had enough time to get acquainted with one another yet, but that could come in time. She remembered the first time she used her Jenner, and the way it had felt like someone was trying to split her skull with an axe after she was done her training cruise.
She opened the hatch, and got out of the mech, stretching as tall as she could to keep the stiffness out of her joints. The gantry was a portable job, something meant to be set up in places like this, but they had the needed lift system to let her ride back down to the ground. She slowed the lift as she passed the missing armour point on the arm. There was a large hole in it, likely from when she'd been raked by the locust's machine guns. It was a wonder that she hadn't lost any more functionality out of the limb. This only cemented her idea that she'd need to pick through the base and see if there was anything that they could use to better prosecute their little activity here.
She was pacing down lines of crates and containers, noting the sheer lack of movement from anything that wasn't their crew. She'd not found any real heat signatures or the like on the sensors from the Spider, it looked as though the mechwarrirors that had been guarding the place had been largely left to their own devices. Likely rotating out from the POW camp they'd broken out from, that still left them in good shape. She let out a breath as a wave of long suppressed fatigue started to wash over her. She was going to need a nap. And some food.
And Gods dammit, she could use a fucking smoke.
human
"Max, and his Maxim" he grumbled, as he was elbow deep inside of the electronics bay of his jury rigged 50 ton hovercraft.
The vehicle was little more than a mass of spare parts, all wired together by some bored technician with nothing better to do. Max was amazed that the conglomeration was even functional, let alone effective in combat. It had been there for him when he needed it though, and already had a few mech kills to its name.
"Maxim..." He breathed. The original Maxim hovercrafts were designed and built in the year 2689, more than three hundred years ago. It was intended as a heavily armed armored personnel carrier, piloted by a crew of 4, to deliver troops to combat, while supporting them with weapons fire. The stock engines were powerful for that era, able to propel the massive vehicle up to speeds around 130 kilometers per hour. Its base armament was considerable, consisting of an array of short and long range missile racks, backed up by a trio of heavy machine guns. The rest of the craft was devoted to carrying armored troops. He had been one of those armored troops not too long ago, and held a great respect for the design, and its comfortable accommodations.
After he had a better look at the vehicle, he saw it was just as much of a Maxim as it was a flesh and blood monkey. The only thing this one shared with the original was the frame, and exterior armor panels. The engine was the first thing he had noticed, being significantly larger than what he had remembered, and if anything, looked like it belonged to a mech, not a hovercraft. The presence of a stabilizer attached to it confirmed his suspicions. They had used a salvaged reactor, gyro, and targeting computer, and somehow mated them to an old Maxim. He found a data-plate nearby, seeing that it was from a CRB-20... "Holy shit..." He breathed, as he wiped the grease and grime away from the stamped sheet metal, revealing its serial number.
He recognized it. These components belonged to a 50 ton crab mech, the very same one that one of his brethren had piloted. It was lost three years ago, with no clues as to what happened. "Well, that solves that mystery..." He grunted. The mech must have been destroyed, and then later salvaged. The computer systems of the crab had apparently integrated well with the vehicle, allowing it to be piloted by only one person, and appeared to be stable. It was as if the machine itself refused to die, hungry, and eager for revenge. Into its turret, two salvaged weapons had been rigged, the before mentioned large laser, as well as the particle cannon, giving the vehicle a good amount of firepower even for a medium sized chassis.
The work itself was actually impressive. The welds and fabrications were damn near perfect, as if it was treated like a work of art. The wiring however, had been haphazard, with things cut and sliced wherever, with minimal insulation.
After running a few diagnostic checks, he was able to pinpoint the interference to a few badly grounded cables. He simply wrapped the frayed areas in gorilla tape, and everything had seemed to stable out. He made a few minor adjustments to the reactor, thinning its mix, as well as its auxiliary power unit.
Four hours later, her fired up the reactor, listening to its hot blue fusion loops coil and coalesce within its ultra magnetic torus shaped confinement, humming away softly as its hover jets made the whole craft seem to float like a cloud. It was a mess, but a refined one. She had treated him well, and he actually felt confident that this old girl would either see him through to the end, of allow him to die in a blaze of glory, just before he took his place among his ancestors.
Some of the other freed prisoners had reported back that the crates had been loaded with food and medical supplies, which seemed like a blessing.
For a jailbreak, things seemed to be going surprisingly well. But, it was always calm before the storm. The space port was still two days away at flank speed, call it three to be safe.
He coordinated with the other prisoners, and set up a watch schedule, using the passive sensors on the other APCs to keep an eye on the immediate area, as well as leeching off of the satellite transmissions. The immediate area appeared to be clear.
Max smiled, and allowed himself a relaxed breath. Using some scrap plastic tarps, he fashioned himself a crude hammock in what was left of the APC's troop bay, and allowed the soft hum of the reactor to lull him to sleep. He slept lightly, keeping the Maxim at the ready. Its engine would run for ten years given the nature of fusion power. A comforting thought as he drifted off....