AldariSiradla
Knight of the Fountain Pen
Nice, the Great Whale...
Moby Dick comes!
Ah, cool, cool...
Things are progressing nicely...
Oh yes...
Moby Dick comes!
Ah, cool, cool...
Things are progressing nicely...
Oh yes...
Whelp this could be worse (Battletech x Zoid SI)
- Thread starter Dragonblade001
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- United States
So, why did someone gasp at Chen taking off his helmet? Is it because he's very attractive or perhaps looks very young,?
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
It something that will pop up in the interlude. I'm kinda glad someone noticed.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
The next chapter section nears completion done, but I like conversations, so I'm going to say this. A new Zoid warrior and a surprise are coming up. I want people to try and guess who it will be since there are so many named characters—also, what zoid. Hint it really heavy.
Interlude six will be short since this is happening within two days.
Interlude six will be short since this is happening within two days.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
Personally I have a hard time just keeping track of all the characters much less hints on future Zoid ownership. Maybe it will be one of the decent royals or maybe the high lady herself?
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Well, you will find out in a few days. or maybe a couple. I'm working on the final section for chapter 6.03 right now
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
Just spitballing an idea here but wouldn't Warhammer, Thunderbolt, and Longbow torsos work for the guntank concept as the mech half is effectively a weapons platform? You would need to shorten the arms so that the guns don't get in the way of the tank half though.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
The Warhammer definiety. Just trying to find a good bottom would be the issue. The problem is. A Warhammer (normal original production) is a good enough mech. there is no reason to make a guntank version. The Longbow is iffy. Thunderbolt is too top-heavy.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
So it is a weight issue. I was afraid of that, the parts not being able to handle the strain. On the plus side the Warhammer is known for being able to be modified and there is no shortage of parts to go around. That one you can justify as an experiment. The Warhammer is a good enough mech that is easy to obtain so not much is lost if it doesn't work. The longbow does work towards the original pitch of the guntank being to provide long distance support fire only now as a guntank the Longbow would be able to move out of the way and relocate quite quickly. It can be argued as an upgrade. The thunderbolt is just heavy and I am worried that the tank half wouldn't be able to handle the strain but it does have a nice stout, bulky shape which would make it hard to tip over given some stabilizers are installed. If Chen can figure that one out then he would have a heavily armored defender variant of the guntank. Still wouldn't be one I would allow in a city however but certainly on jump ship stations.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
I'll think about it
Also, my final chapter section is done. It is currently being reviewed by the betas and any volunteers who want to see it.
Chapter 6.03: A Coup? What Coup? Meet my anti-Coup Wolf!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Chapter 6.03: A Coup? What Coup? Meet my anti-Coup Wolf!
————————————————————-
Location: Hyperspace in the Aurigan Reach, Moby Dick plus SNAFU
Date: March 13, 3022, 04:00?
Michael J. Caboose knew he was a bit slow as he watched the shiny light flow around the outside of his home. He watched the leader of Red lance moving their tanks to the exit for some reason. Still, no one told him any order to shoot anything yet, so he just stared at the bright rainbow lights around his home and the flashes of yellow and blue lights from the Whale they rode on.
"Oh, another squid," He said aloud as he watched another pink color. Wait, it's blue now, space fish coming at them again. He saw the beautiful flash of the PPC as Wash, who must be the gunner today. He fired the big blue first before the two little ones and the rockets.
It seemed like the squid liked it and came even closer. Maybe he should see if Church wanted to tickle the fishy with their new ride?
"Hey, Tucker! Church! I think that fishy wants some more energy." Caboose said as he moved over to their new mech. He never thought Benny would get one of these things, but it was half a car and half a battlemech. It was the best of both worlds!
"Caboose," Church shouted from the driver seat of their new machine. "Get in the top half now. Colonel Glen wants us to blast that thing and harvest it. The Reds are getting a head start."
Caboose turned to where he saw the Red's vehicles shooting those green lights from two tanks with the other two firing big bullets. The boyish man hurriedly sprinted to Church to climb into his new room. He turned on the green circles that let him point the new lights at the calamari and fired his favorite weapons.
"Missiles away, Church," Caboose said as he pulled the triggers only to fire his two green lasers into a tiny shrimp that tried to play with Green's Scorpion. "Oops," those two lights cut that little thing in half before Caboose pulled the correct trigger again to fire his missiles at the giant squid.
The thing finally decided to go to sleep as it crashed into Whaley. Many people went outside to grab the fishy and dump it into the hole that had just opened near it.
"Wooo who boys, we bagged another one of them," Came the voice of Red Sarge. "Suck it, Church. You failed to get enough hits in this time for our bet." So came the voice of Grif.
"Everyone clear the air," Came the voice of the girl Ciel, if Caboose remembered correctly. "Our aerospace fighters need support and want to time it right when they fly close to our ramp. So, everyone. Prepare to shoot on my command. But, private Caboose, wait until I say to fire, and don't help."
They waited a bit as the soldiers in space gear managed to make it back to their home when the voice of the lovely Foehammer came through. "This is Echo 419. I got them right behind me and ready for a bath. ETA twenty seconds."
"Okay, everyone, get ready. All infantry, get your rockets and rifles ready as well." Ciel ordered as Caboose could feel everyone ready to shower the new friends with love.
One of those arrow planes suddenly flew right past the entrance at high speed as Ciel gave the order to fire. As dozens of smaller shrimps and crabs appeared, everyone shot their weapons and were a bath in the multi-colored lights and explosions. Their burnt bodies hit the floor, and everyone waited a moment before Benny's voice came through.
"All right, boys and girls, we are home free now. So all ASFs are to return to your docks and all vehicles and mech back up to your bays. All infantry go out again, collect those bodies, and drop them into the Whale below us. They will be sending us some more supplies soon."
"Caboose," Came Tucker's voice. "We killed enough for upgrades. I'm going to see if I can't swap out my Vedette for a Pike. How about you two?"
"I'll get me some upgrade for this guntank. There must be one where I can shoot something besides the machine guns." Church replied as the Guntank parked into its modified mech bay.
"I still don't understand how killing these monster are getting us all this free metal and ammo," Caboose heard Simon say after the dropship pressurized. "Those things aren't made out of metal, and they're organic from what my sensors say."
"Ah, shut it, Simon," Came Grif's voice. A man in custom yellow armor noticed Caboose and his group. "Hey Caboose, nice shooting there. You saved Green One from that giant shrimp."
"It was nothing. No, really, it was nothing," Caboose said as he noticed several members of the Green Team thank him for saving the Green Leader.
"Still," Simon continued despite being told to shut up. "Are they collecting the bodies as evidence for what we fought here?"
Church and Tucker started arguing with the Reds about what they were probably using the seafood for.
Caboose looked at the nearby holoscreen that showed the outside again. He loved watching what was about to happen.
The Whale under them started glowing as Caboose watched it slowly gain more of those tubes again.
Then, Sarge spooked him by sneaking up on him. The man in custom red armor asked, "What are you looking at out there, son?"
"Saaaaaarrrge, why you do that?" Caboose said before looking back outside. He then said.
"I'm watching the Whale grow bigger." That caused the Red and Blue to stop talking and turn to look at him. Why was everyone looking at him? He was just watching what happens after every battle here.
"There is no way that this weird warship can get any bigger. These things are usually a known size," Simon said before being shushed by Benny, who showed up with Adam and that girl Ciel.
"Private Caboose, can you say that again?" This time, the request came from Adam, so he pointed at the holoscreen. "The Whale is getting bigger. I think I see it giving birth to those cannons over there."
All three head commanders looked at each other before running to the nearby terminal. All the resting crew members followed them as they worked the controls, eagerly looking at something.
It was then that Church came back and patted him on the head. "Well, Caboose, you won the biggest bet about the ship below us." This confused Caboose. What ship? They had his home and the planes, but that was all around them. Whaley had some ASF but had come out since the last battle, so what ship was he talking about?
As if seeing Caboose's confusion, the navy armored soldier spoke up, "Well, the Whale below us is now over a kilometer long. The boss is gonna ask the other crews if they noticed that during the first battle a few hours ago."
Church waited for his response, but Caboose thought about something he had just heard.
The navy armored soldier walked off as Church knew the dimwit would take some time before realizing what he said.
-An hour later-
"Ah, you mean Whaley when you said ship! But, wait, where did everyone go?"
—————————————————————-
Location: Coromodir system, Coromodir VI, Outskirts of Cordia City
Date: March 13, 3022, 05:00
I waited in anticipation. The bastards had decided to gather their forces between Cordia City and Rotua Township to strike us here at the drop port. The ASFs were working overtime to take down any enemy fighters as they kept trying to do bombing runs.
Wolf was fully repaired and had replaced the lasers we lost with our original loadout. I had the electromagnetic cannon attached above my twin beam cannons. The twin eight-barreled Vulcans were reattached to the head with two tons of ammo this time to let me have more bullet hell time.
I watched my forces of a Gespenst, a Guntank, four Pikes, Melody (Shadow Hawk), a Firestarter, and two infantry platoons. The new hires of the MechWarrior and extra foot soldiers were all that Apex could hire. I had posted the combat vehicles at a higher elevation as a defense for the drop port and to add their weapons fire to the main battlefield. Only the Gespenst and Apex's mech would join me on the frontlines. I asked the Firestarter (FSH-9) Mechwarrior, ironically going by the name Ice, to support the two platoons of infantry heading to the nearby ruins in the field where the fight would occur.
I saw the Markham's Marauders and Sablehart Irregulars group together with the Katinka's Guntank-P and Quasit. I was still surprised that militiamech from the Taurian Concordat was still functional even though I knew the Mechwarrior as a decent pilot. They partner up with the Marauder's Swordsman, Vindicator (VND-1R), Shadow Hawk(SHD-2H), and the Irregulars lance of three Griffin (GRF-1N) led by a Centurion (CN9-A).
Part of me felt the composition of the Irregulars was weird until I heard it was the only battlemechs they had ready with healthy mechwarriors. Captain Zobel was taking to the field in his old Centurion that he kept at the ready in his Dropship storage area. His original mech, an Ostsol, was still being repaired from yesterday's battle. I sent them a greeting before checking on the rest of our forces.
The Aurigan forces had split into two distinct units. One led by Mastiff that protected Kamea was called First company. It was composed of his mech, a Kintaro (KTO-18), four Swordsman, and two Locust (LCT-3V). I recognized the four Swordsman battlemechs as the ones I sent only weeks ago. I Also flinched at the Locust; it was the worst variant for this battle unless it could find some infantry for fighting. At least the composition of the combat vehicles was well balanced.
They had four Vedette medium tanks, three Goblin tanks, and five Scorpion light tanks with SRM. Their four Vargr APC tanks had driven ahead with an entirely loaded infantry bay to the adjacent area from where my foot soldiers were. I was glad both groups could have an APC and battlemech support if the enemies reached their spot.
I looked to the Second company led by Captain Yuki as she and her lance were still up with new faces. She still piloted her Blackjack, and her two lancemate had the two Swordsman I gave them months ago, although they seem to have been refitted. I also noticed that their lance was even weaker than First as it had two Urbanmech (UM-60), a Firestarter (FSH-9), and a Locust (LCT-3V) for their extra battlemech support. The Urbanmechs weren't meant for the open-field combat we were about to enter. At least their combat vehicles matched for the slugfest as they had four Scorpion light tanks and four Saladin assault hover tanks. They were the only group out of us to have close air support in the form of four Warrior VTOLs.
I knew this was a fight to stall for time, so I opened up with my Ziputer to all the leaders and the command center back at the dropships. "This is Commander Chen," I said as I moved Wolf forward. His targeting solutions were already targeting another group of incoming fighter jets. "We just need to hold out another six hours for our reinforcement to arrive. So I'm activating battle code zero nine nine nine for all the Ziputers everyone has. It will keep everyone connected while my satellite is up."
I entered the modified battle code into my machine as I heard everyone else doing the same. That was when the Judge's voice came through the speakers. I'm so glad I found the AI for that robot, but it's too bad I couldn't give his satellite its navel-grade pulse lasers. As the mode set in for everyone with my system, the battle map expanded as the Ziputer turned into a side map detailing everything in this area for forty kilometers.
I saw the aircraft I was targeting were more freaking Guardians. I'm questioning Kamea or Mastiff where all these convention fighter planes came from after this. I'm going to ask if I could have one to create a factory module to produce them elsewhere. My main cannon started charging up as I locked onto the closest one.
"This is amazing," came Captain Zobel's voice from his Centurion. "I can see all incoming enemies. I got LRM lock already on the closest fighter."
"This is High Lady Kamea Arano to all forces," The VIP for this battle called out from within her Kintaro. "We shall strike them before they get close until we are forced to fight mech to mech. Make sure all your LRMs count and begin firing on my command. We don't have enough ammo to restock too many times."
"No problem, ma'am," Came a voice from the Vindicator. "Let's do this, Mechwarriors! Locked on and awaiting orders!" It must be Glitch with how energetic she talked.
I activated my coms, "Lock on to the last eight fighters, people. I can handle the first four as they get into range. This way, we can save some of your ammo."
This time I got a connection request from Captain Yuki. "Yes, Captain?" I asked as I noticed her Blackjack coming closer with her class two autocannon aiming into the skies. "Are you sure you can hit them with your weapons? They do not seem to have adequate range, do they?"
I chuckled to myself as I said, "Well, what does this say?" I fired my electromagnetic cannon once as those planes reached the two-kilometer mark. The build-up of electrons fired from my gun as it flew right into the leading fighter plane at high speed. It went up in flames but caused the others to speed up. By the time my second shot was ready, they were a kilometer and a half away. I fired the electromagnetic cannon at one while firing the twin-beam guns at the third one. Both attacks struck their targets, but the rest of the aircraft entered the LRM range.
Before I could aim at my last target, the Blackjack beside me began firing her autocannons. A hell swarm of missiles followed this gunfire as everyone fired one salvo of LRM. Everyone's target was marked as who was firing on who.
Within seconds, all targets were downed, and new ones came on screen. They were forty kilometers away and would be in range in half an hour. That would have given us some breathing room, but another wave of fast-moving vehicles showed up on the Ziputer battle map.
It wasn't Guardians but Defenders and Warrior VTOLs with Hover APCs and Saladins following behind.
I saw a Kintaro's LRM lock onto a Defender with two other mechs locked onto it when Kamea said. "All troops, Lock on to your targets and prepare to fire. Commander Chen, please mark which ones you will be aiming for so no one wastes time locking onto it."
I picked the closest one and the second one to its right to be my targets. Suddenly, those with LRM lock on their turn to the other incoming vehicles. "I'm ready to fire once they are in range. Sensor movement showed a company of military vehicles not on our side incoming from Rotua path. That was when red dots began appearing all over my battle map.
"Captain Yuki," Kamea spoke up. "Send your Urbanmechs back to the drop port and watch the skies. All our ASF units will be busy soon defending the dropships."
"Affirmative," Yuki responded as the two mechs moved at their max speed back to base. Well, crap. We were already down two combatants. I recheck the Ziputer's battle map to see another set of the enemy coming from north of Cordia and another going through it. They were getting wiser as I blasted another fighter out of the skies as missiles took care of the rest of the second wave. They only had those Saladins survive due to their sheer speed of turning and running away.
I noticed the Ziputer registered an enemy attempt at communicating with us, so I informed everyone. "Enemy is trying to talk with us, Lady Arano. What's your command for this?"
"Commander, you did say we need to buy time, and I will buy it with talking. Connected me to them," she said as I pressed a few keys to let the connection to Kamea's Ziputer. If there were a virus or something in that connection, it wouldn't affect the zoid tech compared to the Battletech machines.
I kept what they were saying in the background as I focused on the battle map. I saw plenty of enemy mechs ranging from light to heavy class. The computer's warbook registered all the enemy mechs on the map, and my jaw dropped. How the heck did the Directorate, have this many battlemechs? I know they haven't stolen them from the Founding Houses yet since they all managed to run back to their planets with promises of reinforcements.
Yet, almost an entire regiment of mechs was in front of me.[1]
The amount of battlemech had my mind near-frozen in shock as my system categorized them in their weight classes.
Light class mechs were: Three Jenner (JR7-D), one Javelin (JVA-10A), two Panther (PNT-9R), three Locust (LCT-1V), three Firestarter (FS9-H), three Spider (SDR-5V), and three Commando (two COM-2D and one COM-1B).
Medium class mechs were: Three Centurion (two CN9-A and one CN9-AL), two Shadow Hawk (SHD-2H), one Blackjack, two Griffin (GRF-1S), two Trebuchet (TBT-5N), one Cicada (CDA-3C), one Hunchback (HBK-4P), one Enforcer (ENF-4R), and two Vindicator (VND-1R).
Heavy class mechs were: Three Dragon (DRG-1N), two Jagermech (JM6-S), one Thunderbolt (TDR-5SE), and one Black Knight (BL-6-KNT), one Catapult (CPLT-C1), and one Grasshopper (GHR-5H).
Last but not least, the only two Assualt mechs: One Battlemaster (BLR-1G) and one Awesome (AWS-8T).
They were supported by dozens of combat vehicles too. I had seen seven Bulldogs, ten Scorpions, six Strikers, four SRM carriers, two LRM Carriers, two Manticores, eight Hunters, five Pegasus, two Sleipnir APC, and ten standard APCs.
All of these were registered as Directorate forces. It wasn't even including six unknown mechs, at least from my warbook, before another battlemech appeared from them. With the Directorate IFF codes. A King Crab (KGC-0000).
I could feel Wolf growling in anger as we realized a third party was involved. However, it wasn't the Black Carvels as they showed up behind the Directorate forces (just a lance made up of two Whitworth [WTH-1], one Vulcan [VL-5T], and one Dervish [DV-6M]).
It was when a stray memory hit me of what the King Crab had on it when I faced it in the Battletech game. It had medium pulse lasers that were not normal on a King Crab of this era. That was because pulse-based energy weapons were extinct during this era until the Helm Memory core was found. There was only one faction in Battletech that still had pulse lasers. Technically two, the other one was located on the other side of the Inner Sphere.
"God damn ComStar," I cursed as I began giving targeting solutions to all forces to prepare for battle. But unfortunately, the talks between Kamea and her uncle were already turning south. Nevertheless, the High Lady kept trying to keep the negotiations going. Still, her uncle must have realized something was up. Only an hour had passed before he began demanding a surrender again.
"What did ComStar do?" The voice of Glitch came through the system as I realized the entire lance had heard me. "Well, shit. Guys, especially the mercenaries in our force, ignore what I said if you don't want to be constantly watching your backs." I replied as I hoped they would just accept that. They didn't.
I noticed all the mercenaries who weren't in the know asking for clarification. I didn't want to answer, but the lance of four unknowns was heading this way and told me it was not a good time to hide things.
"Ah damnit," I said as Kamea's uncle stopped the negotiation with a declaration that all but the High Lady shall die. "Okay, if my suspension is correct. Comstar is behind some of the reasons for this coup. First, they supplied the Directorate with a King Crab that had lost tech. Second, who else would let them use the HPG for a coup? Neutrality? How is that neutrality to support a coup?"
"There no reason for ComStar to break their Neutrality for some small Periphery nation, no offense," Captain Zobel said. His Centurion and his mech force all locked onto the newly incoming conventional fighters. It seemed more and more armor was coming in first. "Do you have proof of such accusations, Commander Chen?"
"Yes, I do," I replied as I cycled Wolf's targeting system to the second group of incoming VTOLs and hover combat vehicles. "I'll personally hand y'all copies if we survive this. Does anyone have an old warbook to link up with the Ziputer?"
The replies of "No" made me sigh, but I continued after blasting the last incoming Defender. It seemed they would wait now as all the hover vehicles were behind cover and outside the LRM range. But unfortunately, they seem to be waiting for the rest of their forces.
"Well, since we got maybe an hour, I'll send everyone the data I have on ComStar, and then you make up y'all's mind on why I dislike them."
I began sending the data to all members when I felt something off. It felt like someone was almost here. My eyes must have widened as everything seemed bright. I sensed two familiar beings somewhere, and something else connected with me deeply. I wonder what it was.
However, the feeling was distant, so if it's our reinforcement, they got a few hours before arriving.
————————————————
Location: Hyperspace in the Aurigan Reach, Moby Dick plus SNAF
Date: March 13, 3022, 07:00?
Cecilia Dark had a massive headache from the reports throughout the ship and the SNAFU attached above. She knew the Moby Dick was a living being, but really? It grew bigger by eating the corpses of the monsters they had been killing for the past several hours.
Some people were slightly hurt when the ship suddenly increased in size. Not just that, several more weapons stations appeared, and even weapons had 'grown' on Moby Dick. Attempting to man all of them stresses the crew. They were doing their best to rest before the upcoming battle.
"MOM!" Cecilia heard her daughter, Julie, yell out with the sounds of metal on metal steps not far behind her. The Chief Mechtech turned to see her daughter riding on a much bigger raptor zoid. When did it grow that big? It was just the size of a large dog the last time she saw it.
She noticed that everyone who did not know about her children's new friends was staring at them. Cecilia ignored them and asked, "What wrong, honey?" Her husband had also abandoned his station to a nearby tech, someone name Fox last time she checked, to stand beside her.
"Tochter," Michael said as he knelt to talk with their daughter. "What is wrong? Did something happen to Hugh? What is so important that you leave the cores alone?"
The word cores caused some of the nearby crewmates to jerk up and look at them, but she ignored them as the room was guarded by a team of marines and internal turrets. If the size of the Gun sniper was to say anything, then the Liger Zero should have experienced growth just as significant.
"Vater, you have to come quick. Don't you feel the connection?" Julie said, and Cecilia watched her love freeze as if he had just realized something. The fact that her daughter said connection made what she was trying to say snap into place in their mind.
Cecilia shouted at the highest-ranking soldier currently awake. "Subaltern Baba, you are in command while we deal with the issue below deck."
Said man saluted and quickly ran over to the command station—his second taking his former weapon controls.
They hurried down the stairs to the secondary halls. They passed several mechwarriors and combat vehicle operators helping AsTech and infantry move the dead monsters' bodies to the entrance of the pseudo room for the Zoid Cores. All those corpses would be sent down to its distribution area, where Hugh and Julie stay with their partners and a heavy infantry squad. They ran into the room, ignoring the monster bodies, and entered the hidden hallway to the core hanger.
When they arrived, they heard the squad of infantry shouting and crashing metal crates. The Mechwarrior and mechtech enter with their child to see a two-meter tall, bipedal dinosaur zoid that is entirely smooth compared to the Gunsniper. It had red eyes and a smooth slivery body and was now looking directly at them. The Liger Zero, the size of a J. Edger tank, watched the baby zoid without doing much.
She felt something and turned to look at one of the larger cores. The same one Michael was looking at. There was a siren call, making her want to touch it. Before she knew it, she and Michael had one hand on the core. They had walked right past the baby zoid, who was looking at both of them.
Cecilia heard something in her head, but whatever it was, her husband answered loudly with a "Yes!"
Everything went white, and she felt a bit of vertigo. She didn't like it and wanted it to stop. The next thing she knew, Cecilia was in front of Michael's QuickDraw with the baby zoid next to her. The core they touched was nowhere to be seen.
She looked around as there were dozens of people just staring between her and the battlemech.
"Liebe," She heard her husband in his battlemech. "You must join me in here. From what I read, you must also agree to what will happen."
Cecilia shook her head to alert herself enough to start climbing. She knew her husband. He wouldn't lie to her about anything important. She could hear the Houndsoldier, her Commander left to protect the Whale King stepping closer to them. She could listen to her kids' familiar cries of joy and the twin roars of their partners.
When she reached the cockpit of the Quickdraw, she saw Michael turning on the power and systems without his neurohelmet or his coolant vest. "Cecilia, did you remember the voice of the core?" Michael asked as everything booted up. She tried to remember as the voice she heard in her mind had shocked her.
"Do you wish for me now?"
The memory of that voice returned to her as Cecilia looked at her spouse with the same look, saying, "Explain."
"I wished our co-bonded core to grow as fast. Because that dinosaur over there," the Mechwarrior pointed at the dinosaur standing beside their children. "Said, somehow, the Commander is in danger. Our core is waiting for you to reply."
She hesitated as she wasn't a combat personnel. She loves working on machinery and helping her husband rather than going into battle. However, she owed the Commander for saving her love and giving her the chance to look at so many new technologies.
"How do I tell our core that I'm ready?" She said as her hand touched the sensor computer. The entire mech began glowing from parts that shouldn't be able to do that. "What the hell!" She shrieked as Michael laughed.
There was a roar from outside before everything went white again. The next thing Cecilia knew, she was sitting in a conformable chair. Michael was sitting in another in front of her. The once see-through cockpit glass was replaced with a large computer screen that showed everyone inside the hanger. The weapon systems that were once reading standard battlemech weapons now read as weapons she had never heard of.
A Heavy Hyperbeam launcher, TVM GtF two-shot Tactical Missile Launcher, twin Iron Hammer Knuckles, and AZ 3-Barreled Linear Cannon. There seem to be more spots for extra weapons too. She could see people taking old fashion photos with their old cameras.
"Warning," A robotic-sounding voice rang throughout the ship that both could hear. "Exiting Warp Gate in one minute. All crews prepare." That message repeated as mechwarriors, militiamech pilots, ASF pilots, and combat vehicle crews rushed to their respective hangers.
It seemed like any questions about what happened would come after they landed. Suddenly, a screen in the cockpit showed Subaltern Baba, who was getting into his piloting suit while still at the command station. "Subaltern Baba," Michael said, causing the man and a few others to jump and look at them through their screen. "We are heading for the catapult launcher with the Houndsoldier. When we break through the atmosphere, shoot us to the battlefield."
"Yes, sir," the man said as he saluted and began ordering people around him. It took a while for Cecilia and Michael to direct the newly born full-size zoid to the catapult. Still, Hound moved in a way they followed to avoid the battlemechs and militiamechs being ready for battle.
The sensor she read on her computer showed her child's zoids following them but no signs of the first newborn.
"Dear," She said as the sensor swept the area multiple times. "Where is that baby zoid?"
Michael looked at his sensor before replying, "I'm not sure, honey."
"Warning, breaching into real space!"
—————————————————
Location: Coromodir system, Coromodir VI, Outskirts of Cordia City
Date: March 13, 3022, 08:00
Wolf had dodged another LRM barrage by outrunning the fuel within them. I completely controlled the turret and blasted another SRM carrier to oblivion. I winced, though, at where I hit. I think I destroyed the entire ammo store in it.
I wanted to fire Wolf's smoke grenades to make ambush attacks, but if I did that, it would end up making it worse for my allies. We were down four mechs already. Both Firestarters were down on my side. Ice had taken severe injuries when he ejected, and the other Mechwarrior had died from having his mech shredded by the two LRM and one SRM carrier. But, at least before they went down, they took out five of the ten APCs heading to where our infantry was stationed.
One of the Swordsman had been blown up from focus fire from two Jenners that got behind him, but it managed to take out the lone enemy Javelin. One of our Locust had been destroyed by a swarm of Scorpion tanks focusing on it. At least it went out by taking two of those light tanks out.
I fired the beam and electromagnetic cannons into a Bulldog who savaged a Scorpion (SRM). That main battle tank went up as the light class one limped back to the HQ. I glanced at the battle map and was glad we managed to thin down the number with LRMs, AC/2, and PPC weapon fire. We had the advantage of the satellite system allowing us to hit them before entering their sensor and weapon range.
We managed to end all their air support as the Warrior VTOLs were destroyed before they could get in range of their autocannons. The same went for the four Saladin assault hover tanks via long-range missiles and my EC shot.
The Swordsman, before we lost one, had focused their LRM on a Panther and managed to destroy its cockpit and left torso. The forces' other long-range missiles struck from the Griffins, Quasit, Centurions, and Vargr had struck down two of the three enemy Spiders.
Kamea had linked her Kintaro's LRM with those of the Guntank, Guntank-P, Vindicator, and Shadow Hawks and struck down five of the eight enemy Hunters together. The four Pike stationed on the hill near our planned path of retreat had managed to use their autocannons to rip apart a Locust and the remaining enemy Panther before they could retaliate.
However, by the time we could fire another volley of guaranteed kills, they finally got a lock on us. That began a slugfest as both sides could hit each other with LRMs. I was glad we managed to take out most of them. I had personally taken out the remaining Hunters before they could fire those LRM-20s. Still, I was chased off by the five Pegasus hover tanks. Oh, I killed them, but that was when I lost focus on the battlefield.
I finally had time to check who was left as I let Wolf savage the enemy's two Jenner, the bastards who took down Koga's Swordsman.
I first noticed that the enemy had lost more than we had as I registered. The OpFor count was down by twenty, not including my four recent kills. However, I noticed how badly damaged we were. I causally aimed the EC and fired it at the Awesome, who peaked out while I was reviewing the data. I missed the battlemech, but my weapon caused it to go back behind the building again.
For one, most of the infantry was still alive and took down a few light mechs that got in their way. On the other hand, both Guntank types were out of ammo and had lost most of their upper armor plating. Dragon's group lost a Pike to long-range missiles and a PPC but removed the LRM carrier from their position. Private Mikasa's Gespenst had launched its rockets and took out a Centurion but was now missing most of its weapons and moving around half speed. I didn't like that she kept fighting despite only having a flamer and one small laser.
"Private Mikasa. Private Ian. Get the hell back to the HQ. You two aren't fit to fight anymore, and I will not have my people die a wasteful death," I yelled at them while blasting a Striker that tried to finish them off. My battle computers warned me of heat building up in the EC and that I had to shut it off before it went into overload.
"But Commander," I heard the young woman shout out in defiance, but that meant nothing as a second Striker came at them. Its SRM flew out and struck the center torso of the militiamech. I fired my twin-beam cannons right into its side and destroyed it.
"No buts, get back to the dropship," I checked our position and realized she was the only mech left protecting the infantry. The enemy infantry and their APCs had damaged the two Locusts. However, those two bugmechs destroyed three of the enemy transports and dozens of troopers at the cost of losing one leg each.
The two Locusts were prone due to the loss of the limb. It was only thanks to the efforts of two squads of our foot soldiers that kept the enemy away from killing the Mechwarriros.
Our infantry had lost two of its Vargr APC (standard). There was chatting about retreating to the second defense line where Kamea stood with two damaged Griffin. They were acting as LRM support fire for those on the front lines.
"I got the infantry covered," I said while Wolf flung the Jenner into the ground and allowed me to fire three bursts of machine gun rounds into the downed mech. It powered down, so I must have struck something within its center torso.
"This is Commander Chen to all infantry and damage forces," I shouted in the Ziputer. "Retreat to the second line and regroup there. I'll draw their remaining recon and anti-infantry units on me."
I shot the twin beam cannons into an enemy Scorpion, destroying its tracks and causing something to happen inside when I received a message. "This is Battalion Chief-Sergeant Āpirana Ngata," came a voice through my Ziputer. "I'm ordering a withdrawal of all infantry to the second line. All Scorpion tanks will assist in their fallback. Protect our troops."
I glanced and watched the six Scorpions, and the two Vargr APC leave with the infantry in tow. I made sure to stand in the way of the incoming fire. Some enemy fire went wide, but a PPC shot from the Awesome slammed into Wolf's right foreleg. The status on it went from green to light yellow.
I was pissed off, so I turned the EC back on to return fire but missed my intended target and hit the Enforcer behind it right in the damaged right torso. The autocannon ammo must have blown as it went up as the Mechwarrior ejected from his mech.
"This is Glitch of Markham's Marauders," came another voice that I recognized. "We are pulling back to the second line as well. Medusa and Behemoth battlemechs are nearly out of this fight."
I gave a quick check as I blasted another Scorpion to hell. Behemoth's Shadow Hawk was missing its right side, but she was still reading as healthy. Unfortunately, Medusa's Swordsman was only down to its small laser and was missing both sides torso. The Mechwarrior was registering with a broken arm and leg.
Glitch's Vindicator was fine. Hell, she just jumped up and blasted the final LRM carrier into scarp. This was followed by several autocannon shots that flew past her and into the two defending SRM carriers. They also went up in flames. Glitch got hit by a few LRMs from the enemy Vindicators. Still, they missed with their PPC, allowing my Pikes to severely damage the one in their visual range.
"This is Zobel," I heard as a dot on my map near me lit up. "I'm coming to cover the infantry and tanks." I saw his status and winced as he was out of autocannon and LRM ammo. I almost wished he had the laser version of his Centurion. At least his twin medium lasers lashed out and crippled an enemy Scorpion. I could see the two-person crew abandon it quickly. The mercenary Captain was damaged everywhere on his mech, but nothing too dangerous. He was walking backward while firing his dual lasers at anything in range.
I fired at a damaged Bulldog and finished it off as the two remaining Arano Locusts limped behind the retreating units. They fired their twin medium lasers at the enemy if they had a chance but still acted like slow-moving tanks.
Several autocannon rounds flew past the two and slammed into the remaining enemy Scorpion tanks. Still, they turned off as a Cicada ran in. That battlemech fire it PPC right into the Warrior VTOL and took it out. However, those autocannons shooting at the enemy light tank suddenly slammed into the cockpit of the bugmech. The Mechwarrior managed to eject before the other five rounds hit the area around its head.
The Directorate forces seemed to be also backing off as their advance force was pulling back. However, they still had most of their battlemechs while most of ours were damaged. I did an accurate final count while keeping my main guns on the wrecked buildings the Awesome and Enforcer hid behind.
I glance at where Mastiff held off the Grasshopper and Black Knight. It was funny as a single medium holding off two heavy mechs. To make it even better, Mastiff took out most of those twenty enemy combatants if the number over his icon was correct.
Hell, that Mechwarrior had downed more enemies than Wolf and I. I knew he was good, but wow, he makes me jealous if it wasn't because it ended people's lives.
"Mastiff," I called out. "We are backing up to the second defense lines. Enemy King Crab and six unknown mechs are several minutes out, and we best reload before we fight them."
"Roger that, Chen," The ruff voice replied. "I still have to thank you for this new weapon and shield. I would have fallen back earlier if it weren't for them."
"No problem," I replied as we both moved backward with our guns scanning the areas with which the OpFor was located. "I see you took out a lot. I bet those Commandos with inferno SRM learn very quick it was a dumb idea to burn you."
"Heh. It's a good thing too. It allowed me to take down most of their lights and mediums," then the man's voice turned sour. "But I failed to protect a few units from the combat vehicles. So I still thank you for caring for those passing my group."
"No problem," I replied as we passed into the second line. Turrets and towed guns lined the temporary walls as I fully accounted for what happened.
I checked whom we had left, and it wasn't pretty. Most mechwarriors survived even when their mech went down, but there were a few KIA, but none from me.
So I looked at what we had left and what they had done since my last check on them.
I had Apex's Melody from my forces, banged up and out of LRMs and Autocannon ammo, but that was quickly being loaded on. Her armor was patched up as best as possible since the enemy's heavier elements would be here in twenty minutes. She had three confirmed mech kills with Swordsman's LRM assistance. She had taken down the two remaining Locust and her cousin of a Shadow Hawk. She damaged those enemy Firestarters, according to the Ziputer, and killed off a Bulldog and a Striker that didn't overlap with other kills.
The two remaining Pikes were under Lieutenant Manning as Dragon had been nearly killed in his from LRM fired from those three Hunters I couldn't hit earlier. Right now, my XO is being treated in medical. At least before he went down, Zin had made sure to kill off the remaining Scorpions with concentrated fire from three Pikes. The Ziputer still has my Pike group as dealing armor damage to everything but the King Crab group and the two Manticore. The only problem now was the lack of class two autocannon ammo that the Pikes used. We had some in the Magnolia on its way as the AC/2 ammo here was slightly smaller than what the ZesuBolt AC/2 used.
Ice, my recent hire, was in bad condition and may not survive unless we could get him into my healing stasis chambers. He and the House Arano Firestarter only got the kills from earlier before they were taken down.
Lieutenant Potter, in his Guntank, had managed to assist nearly every kill with his LRMs. He only got a Striker to kill with his mech's lasers, but other than that, he was pretty okay. Some minor armor damage and a fix on his tank treads. He did request that he join the front lines in the next deployment. I agreed to let him as he would need to.
The Gespenst status was horrible as it was pretty much done for. I overlooked some kills on the enemy infantry and a Commando (COM-1B) with ground soldiers' assistance.
I checked up on our fellow mercenaries and wanted to slam my head into the headrest. However, they took a beating and gave it back.
The Markham's Marauders had made the kills I saw during our free-range with LRMs and those I saw during their retreat. It seems like I missed Glitch taking down two Bulldogs during their return to the second defense line. However, only their Vindicator was in any condition to continue the fight. Behemoth's Shadow Hawk lost its right arm during the retreat and only had its AC/5 and SRM left, so it was being left behind to defend the base. What was left of the Swordsman was pretty much a write-off.
The Sablehart Irregulars had one battlemech down and all the rest injured. At least that one Griffin that went down had managed to take down one of the three hunters, which explained why I didn't see it on the battle map. The two remaining Griffin had helped their leader take down the two remaining Centurions. Unfortunately, they were savaged and lost their dead arm and their PPC to the Catapult. Their Captain, however, managed to use their damage to kill the heavy missile boat. Unfortunately, this was at the cost of all his ammo. Now he was loaded back up but had none of his men to follow him into the field.
I almost thought he would break his contract after suffering so much damage, but he refused as he and his people had a personal stake in this fight.
The group led by Captain Yuki had done well, but she had lost a lot. That Firestarter, for one. The second was Koga's Swordsman, who still had the luck of the gods on his side, was down but had taken a few enemies out. The Locust also was gone, but at least it did its job of infantry killing and taking out a couple of Combat Vehicles with assistance. At least her Blackjack and Aether's Swordsman were left alongside three Warrior VTOLs were alive. Her remaining combat vehicles were destroyed, abandoned once disabled or needed repairs, and now acting as extra turrets.
I turned to review Kamea and Mastiff's unit and its damages. They had done a great job weakening the enemy with heavy LRM fire until Mastiff led two Swordsmen onto the battlefield. Their combat tanks of Goblins, Scorpion (SRM), and Vedette tanks follow the trio of mechs. They managed to take out those two Hunters and a Dragon. Still, the conventional forces with Mastiff started taking too much damage. All four Vedette tanks were destroyed but managed several injuries at Thunderbolt that did them in. Nevertheless, everything had been damaged, and only Kamea's Kintaro and Mastiff's Centurion could still fight properly.
Cornet Esposito had helped with the defense of the drop port and had slight damages. The Guntank-P had joined the front lines with the Quasit to shoot out their LRMs. They had to leave the front within minutes after shooting their LRMs to empty as the dropships were about to fall under attack. They joined up with the Urbanmechs, ASF, and dropships in wiping out the enemy. The only ones to take severe damage was one of the Urbanmechs as its AC/10 ammo went up and nearly killed the Mechwarrior.
"Lady Kamea," I said after double-checking our forces and estimating the feeling I had since the fighting began. "We only have so many active forces left, but we should be getting a good surprise in twenty minutes."
"Commander Chen," The tired voice of the High Lady replied. "I hope this wait is worth it. We have lost so much, but I can't let them take over if the reports we received from the few prisoners we took reported." I could understand that there was always conscripts in these kinds of fight in history.
"Do you have anyone who can look around this area?" I asked while pointing to the feeling I had. It was directly above us, after all.
"My people say there was something but couldn't give a good answer. Some were doubting what they saw," Kamea said as her mech was fully loaded and ready to go.
"Well, that means our reinforcements are almost here then. My ship is speedy," I replied as Command Wolf had loaded back on two tons of machine gun ammo.
"Lady Arano," Came the voice of Mastiff. "The Directorate is moving towards us. There is an issue." The elderly man paused before saying, "They are being led by Victoria in a damn King Crab and six unknowns. They will be within the second defense line in ten minutes."
I hurried to move Wolf back to the front lines as everyone rushed to the active defense position. I had taken stock of the remaining enemies, which still wasn't good for us.
Combat vehicles under the Directorate were three Bulldogs, two Strikers, and two Manticores.
The battlemechs, besides those six unknowns, and that King Crab pilot by Victoria. Those remaining mechs were one Spider, one Shadow Hawk, one Hunchback, two Vindicator, two Dragons, two Jagermechs, one Thunderbolt, one Black Knight, one Grasshopper, one Battlemaster, and one Awesome.
The remaining Black Carvel forces were just two Whitworth and a Dervish.
I was surprised those traitors didn't leave yet. Still, I guess being accused of setting off a WMD in a middle of a city must have caused something to make them stay on the Directorate side. Maybe it was ComStar in the right way. There is no way the MRB would probably let a mercenary group get away with detonating a WMD in the middle of the city…probably.
I noticed another attempt at communication to our side from the Directorate, so I signaled Kamea if she wanted to answer or not. She turned it on herself as I listened in.
"Come out, Kamea!" A familiar voice of a foolish girl shouted out. "Come and fight me! You shall fall upon the great future of the Directorate."
I wanted to facepalm. Victoria sounded like a cartoon villain right there. Mastiff spoke to Victoria as if he was going to be the adult of the conversation. But, at the same time, Kamea, well, I could hear her struggling not to go into a childish or cartoon retort.
"Ten minutes," I whispered to everyone as that how long before Moby Dick breaks into our area. "Shall I head out to stall with some of our forces?"
Kamea had already ended her talks with her cousin and replied, "I shall come with you. I will take her down and stop this. My uncle hasn't been seen since our conversation this morning. I believe he has already left Coromodir VI and returned to his ancestral house on Coromodir V."
"Then I'll lead the charge with our fastest units. Those six unknowns could be a massive problem, but with Guntanks, Warriors, and me leading, we can strike down or weaken them."
"Thank you, Commander." Her Kintaro stood next to Mastiff's battlemech. "This is Kamea Arano to all forces. We must strike down the remaining enemy and end this civil war right here and now. All our fastest units join with Commander Chen in the spearhead strike force. Everyone else follows me."
"For the Aurigan Coalition!" I shouted as Wolf kicked off into the fray. I could hear the Guntanks moving as fast as they could while firing their LRMs at the enemy. While they couldn't get a lock on the six unknowns, they did get a lock-on to the Dragon. Forty long-range missiles mainly slammed into the heavy mech causing it to stumble a bit for my weapons to destroy its left leg. The Goblin tanks fired away at the down mech with Pike's and Vargr's assistance at long range.
The second Dragon tried their luck alongside the Thunderbolt, but they were slammed with LRMs fire from behind my charging force. Both heavy mechs stumbled slightly from over a hundred missiles from damaged and rear line mechs, turrets, and vehicles. The few autocannon fires from the remaining Swordsman keep those two pins down. The three Warriors unleashed their SRMs while doing a flyby. Their autocannons were firing into the enemy heavy still ahead.
I saw Lieutenant Potter's Guntank lose its right arm as both Jagermech tried to blast its tank portion, but he protected it with the lost limb. Cornet Esposito rammed his Guntank-P right into the left-most Jagermech as Potter did the same to the right. They were too close for the enemy heavies to fire at them with their cannons while both hybrid mechs fired their weapons at point-blank. However, I heard a beep as one of our Warriors was blasted out of the sky.
"We'll handle these two. Go!" Shouted the Cornet as his mech torso twisted to slam its left arm with a pack of four small lasers in a gun pod mount. He fired them as they closed into the mech. Someone went, but I didn't know what as I blasted that damn Awesome, who somehow dodged my fire again.
I tried to dodge the PPC, but how the heck is that assault pilot that good? Wolf took all three shots to the side and caused us to stumble out of the high-speed motion we were going. I went into a tumble for a reasonable distance before we stopped, separated from my lance.
It took me two minutes to get back up as the rest of our forces slammed into the Directorate forces. My sensors told me that Kamea and Mastiff, with their Swordsman support, are directly fighting the King Crab and Grasshopper.
Eight battlemechs surrounded me. The Awesome and Black Knight stood together while the white-painted maybe ComStar mechs behind me. There was no communication between the six unknowns besides some beeps in a particular order. However, I did recognize three of those mechs from BTA 3062. It was two Sentinels and one Falcon. The other three mechs were two medium-weight and one of the assault class.
The Falcon had been shooting at me with its lasers and machine guns before I blasted it with a ton of my bullet hell. It went down smoking when those two Sentinel locked onto me with their Streak SRM and slammed into Wolf's head, followed by their autocannons. The impact rocked me and turned some parts of Wolf's status yellow. I fired the EC at one Sentinel while directing the zoid right into the Black Knight to strike at it with the electron bit fang.
I registered the kill on the Sentinel, a cockpit hit, as the Black Knight's alpha strike hit home with Wolf bit still going for its cockpit. I saw Wolf's entire underside go from white to deep red. I also heard something funny from the heavy Mechwarrior. Still, it wasn't enough to cheer me up as the Awesome and the unknown assault. Their attacks knocked us off the Black Knight but allowed Wolf to rip its head off and eat it. I felt my stomach clench as the pilot didn't eject.
I finally got those fighting me trying to access my coms. It was coming from the unknown assault class battlemech, and I answered it. I knew they were probably ComStar's ROM, but it would help stall for time. It would give a few seconds for the metal Wolf ate to heal (don't think about the meat inside).
"Well fought Mechwarrior but you and your mech shall die here," The voice said, sounding so old and ruff. Like listening to Rorschach from Watchmen. "All those in House Arano shall die for the future of the Reach!" Oh, trying to keep your identity hidden but still using bright white mechs? That is just stupid and smart as it would draw the Taurian's eye here due to the pure white color. If someone from the Inner Sphere saw this, they would know it was ComStar.
I decided to call them on their lie, "Future of the Reach? Don't make me laugh, you Blakists bastards. You want this war to bring them back to the brink." I targeted the Awesome again and finally broke through its weakened center torso. Thank god for the Pikes and LRMs barrages for weakening it enough for my twin beam shot to break through and go internal. This was followed by the remaining ammo I had in my Vulcans.
The remaining Sentinel still tagged me, and the three unknown mechs closed in on me. Damn it. The lasers and autocannon scrapped my electromagnetic cannon as the assault class mech got closer.
I got punched by the two Chameleons.
Wait, for what? Those unknown mediums were Chameleons?
I absentmindedly noted that Wolf must have taken the data from the Black Knight. We then got punted by the freaking assault battlemech. Everything went off as everything went red, and my combat computer froze.
"Shit," I shouted as I tried to get Wolf back up. Unfortunately, the controls were unresponsive as the Assault mech was nearly on top of me as my coms to it opened up. My twin beam cannons got destroyed from that kick and landing. I heard something break but couldn't pay attention to it as the zoid kept shaking from autocannon and missile strikes.
"Foolish man. Do you think knowing about us would convince us to let them all live? They shall all die as the barbarians they truly are!" The LBX autocannon was pointed directly at Wolf's head. "I will enjoy taking apart your lost tech mech and using it to keep the words of Blake." He didn't bother with his ruse. Too bad he doesn't know I'm connected to every Ziputer in the area.
I loved it when the enemy monologs like a freaking anime villain as something from the sky was coming in fast right at the foolish ROM agent.
"Hey," I called out with a cough. I must have something wrong with me as my chest hurt from the crash. "You want to know something interesting?" That caused the mech to pause, as I had hoped. "This isn't a battlemech, fool!"
The dot representing Houndsoldier crashed straight into the assault mech, piercing both of its side torsos with its spears. The three medium mechs tried to finish me off instead of helping their leader. That was when something else entered the battlefield by landing right on top of the Sentinel and crushed it!
It's an Iron Kong… an adult Iron Kong with many different weapons than usual. What the hell? How is there a fully grown zoid here? I suddenly got the feeling from the two people inside it. Wait, how do I know there are two people inside it? Why am I feeling a bit better?
"Commander," Rook's voice came through the coms from the Iron Kong. "We come to help. Wait, what? Do you want to go out? Okay, I bet the Commander is whom you're bonded with."
I don't know whom he was talking to, but suddenly, the Iron Kong glowed red before something shot out of it and crashed into Wolf's head. I just stared at it as its silver-white coloring and red eyes made me think it was Zeke for a moment…until I saw it had wings. Suddenly Wolf's cockpit opened, and the Organoid's chest opened as metal cords suddenly wrapped me up.
What happened next was confusing, but I found myself back in the cockpit and a greater connection to Wolf, fading away earlier, and a realization. Am I not human?
That confusion faded as I noticed all the ComStar mech destroyed around me. Rook's Iron King and Houndsoldier stood behind me on the screen. I noticed Wolf had changed into something else, and the weapons read were new.
"Ahhh," I heard a scream through the Ziputer as I noticed the King Crab had just knocked Kamea's Kintaro down. Her two Swordsman escorts were downed, and only Mastiff was up but without its shield arm.
I locked onto it as I moved the newly reborn Wolf. I felt the energy of my zoid go into its claws. I smiled as I whispered to the Organoid, "Your name will be Hulk, my good buddy." [2]
"This is the end, Mastiff," I heard Victoria say as the Centurion ducked under the claw and took the flamers head-on. "House Espinosa shall rule the Aurigan Reach!"
"I object to that," I shouted as my König Wolf Strike Laser Claw tore through the AC/20 and the claw arm that held it. "Your coup end here. My Wolf will make sure of that!" So I finished as we stood on top of the downed battlemech.
A silence befell the battlefield as König Wolf howled with Houndsoldier and Iron Kong roared.
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AN: I decided to cut down that massive combat part to summaries.
[1] All the mechs here are almost identical units to the ones who appear in the game.
[2] Hulk is the name of my pet pit bull who died of old age.
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Location: Hyperspace in the Aurigan Reach, Moby Dick plus SNAFU
Date: March 13, 3022, 04:00?
Michael J. Caboose knew he was a bit slow as he watched the shiny light flow around the outside of his home. He watched the leader of Red lance moving their tanks to the exit for some reason. Still, no one told him any order to shoot anything yet, so he just stared at the bright rainbow lights around his home and the flashes of yellow and blue lights from the Whale they rode on.
"Oh, another squid," He said aloud as he watched another pink color. Wait, it's blue now, space fish coming at them again. He saw the beautiful flash of the PPC as Wash, who must be the gunner today. He fired the big blue first before the two little ones and the rockets.
It seemed like the squid liked it and came even closer. Maybe he should see if Church wanted to tickle the fishy with their new ride?
"Hey, Tucker! Church! I think that fishy wants some more energy." Caboose said as he moved over to their new mech. He never thought Benny would get one of these things, but it was half a car and half a battlemech. It was the best of both worlds!
"Caboose," Church shouted from the driver seat of their new machine. "Get in the top half now. Colonel Glen wants us to blast that thing and harvest it. The Reds are getting a head start."
Caboose turned to where he saw the Red's vehicles shooting those green lights from two tanks with the other two firing big bullets. The boyish man hurriedly sprinted to Church to climb into his new room. He turned on the green circles that let him point the new lights at the calamari and fired his favorite weapons.
"Missiles away, Church," Caboose said as he pulled the triggers only to fire his two green lasers into a tiny shrimp that tried to play with Green's Scorpion. "Oops," those two lights cut that little thing in half before Caboose pulled the correct trigger again to fire his missiles at the giant squid.
The thing finally decided to go to sleep as it crashed into Whaley. Many people went outside to grab the fishy and dump it into the hole that had just opened near it.
"Wooo who boys, we bagged another one of them," Came the voice of Red Sarge. "Suck it, Church. You failed to get enough hits in this time for our bet." So came the voice of Grif.
"Everyone clear the air," Came the voice of the girl Ciel, if Caboose remembered correctly. "Our aerospace fighters need support and want to time it right when they fly close to our ramp. So, everyone. Prepare to shoot on my command. But, private Caboose, wait until I say to fire, and don't help."
They waited a bit as the soldiers in space gear managed to make it back to their home when the voice of the lovely Foehammer came through. "This is Echo 419. I got them right behind me and ready for a bath. ETA twenty seconds."
"Okay, everyone, get ready. All infantry, get your rockets and rifles ready as well." Ciel ordered as Caboose could feel everyone ready to shower the new friends with love.
One of those arrow planes suddenly flew right past the entrance at high speed as Ciel gave the order to fire. As dozens of smaller shrimps and crabs appeared, everyone shot their weapons and were a bath in the multi-colored lights and explosions. Their burnt bodies hit the floor, and everyone waited a moment before Benny's voice came through.
"All right, boys and girls, we are home free now. So all ASFs are to return to your docks and all vehicles and mech back up to your bays. All infantry go out again, collect those bodies, and drop them into the Whale below us. They will be sending us some more supplies soon."
"Caboose," Came Tucker's voice. "We killed enough for upgrades. I'm going to see if I can't swap out my Vedette for a Pike. How about you two?"
"I'll get me some upgrade for this guntank. There must be one where I can shoot something besides the machine guns." Church replied as the Guntank parked into its modified mech bay.
"I still don't understand how killing these monster are getting us all this free metal and ammo," Caboose heard Simon say after the dropship pressurized. "Those things aren't made out of metal, and they're organic from what my sensors say."
"Ah, shut it, Simon," Came Grif's voice. A man in custom yellow armor noticed Caboose and his group. "Hey Caboose, nice shooting there. You saved Green One from that giant shrimp."
"It was nothing. No, really, it was nothing," Caboose said as he noticed several members of the Green Team thank him for saving the Green Leader.
"Still," Simon continued despite being told to shut up. "Are they collecting the bodies as evidence for what we fought here?"
Church and Tucker started arguing with the Reds about what they were probably using the seafood for.
Caboose looked at the nearby holoscreen that showed the outside again. He loved watching what was about to happen.
The Whale under them started glowing as Caboose watched it slowly gain more of those tubes again.
Then, Sarge spooked him by sneaking up on him. The man in custom red armor asked, "What are you looking at out there, son?"
"Saaaaaarrrge, why you do that?" Caboose said before looking back outside. He then said.
"I'm watching the Whale grow bigger." That caused the Red and Blue to stop talking and turn to look at him. Why was everyone looking at him? He was just watching what happens after every battle here.
"There is no way that this weird warship can get any bigger. These things are usually a known size," Simon said before being shushed by Benny, who showed up with Adam and that girl Ciel.
"Private Caboose, can you say that again?" This time, the request came from Adam, so he pointed at the holoscreen. "The Whale is getting bigger. I think I see it giving birth to those cannons over there."
All three head commanders looked at each other before running to the nearby terminal. All the resting crew members followed them as they worked the controls, eagerly looking at something.
It was then that Church came back and patted him on the head. "Well, Caboose, you won the biggest bet about the ship below us." This confused Caboose. What ship? They had his home and the planes, but that was all around them. Whaley had some ASF but had come out since the last battle, so what ship was he talking about?
As if seeing Caboose's confusion, the navy armored soldier spoke up, "Well, the Whale below us is now over a kilometer long. The boss is gonna ask the other crews if they noticed that during the first battle a few hours ago."
Church waited for his response, but Caboose thought about something he had just heard.
The navy armored soldier walked off as Church knew the dimwit would take some time before realizing what he said.
-An hour later-
"Ah, you mean Whaley when you said ship! But, wait, where did everyone go?"
—————————————————————-
Location: Coromodir system, Coromodir VI, Outskirts of Cordia City
Date: March 13, 3022, 05:00
I waited in anticipation. The bastards had decided to gather their forces between Cordia City and Rotua Township to strike us here at the drop port. The ASFs were working overtime to take down any enemy fighters as they kept trying to do bombing runs.
Wolf was fully repaired and had replaced the lasers we lost with our original loadout. I had the electromagnetic cannon attached above my twin beam cannons. The twin eight-barreled Vulcans were reattached to the head with two tons of ammo this time to let me have more bullet hell time.
I watched my forces of a Gespenst, a Guntank, four Pikes, Melody (Shadow Hawk), a Firestarter, and two infantry platoons. The new hires of the MechWarrior and extra foot soldiers were all that Apex could hire. I had posted the combat vehicles at a higher elevation as a defense for the drop port and to add their weapons fire to the main battlefield. Only the Gespenst and Apex's mech would join me on the frontlines. I asked the Firestarter (FSH-9) Mechwarrior, ironically going by the name Ice, to support the two platoons of infantry heading to the nearby ruins in the field where the fight would occur.
I saw the Markham's Marauders and Sablehart Irregulars group together with the Katinka's Guntank-P and Quasit. I was still surprised that militiamech from the Taurian Concordat was still functional even though I knew the Mechwarrior as a decent pilot. They partner up with the Marauder's Swordsman, Vindicator (VND-1R), Shadow Hawk(SHD-2H), and the Irregulars lance of three Griffin (GRF-1N) led by a Centurion (CN9-A).
Part of me felt the composition of the Irregulars was weird until I heard it was the only battlemechs they had ready with healthy mechwarriors. Captain Zobel was taking to the field in his old Centurion that he kept at the ready in his Dropship storage area. His original mech, an Ostsol, was still being repaired from yesterday's battle. I sent them a greeting before checking on the rest of our forces.
The Aurigan forces had split into two distinct units. One led by Mastiff that protected Kamea was called First company. It was composed of his mech, a Kintaro (KTO-18), four Swordsman, and two Locust (LCT-3V). I recognized the four Swordsman battlemechs as the ones I sent only weeks ago. I Also flinched at the Locust; it was the worst variant for this battle unless it could find some infantry for fighting. At least the composition of the combat vehicles was well balanced.
They had four Vedette medium tanks, three Goblin tanks, and five Scorpion light tanks with SRM. Their four Vargr APC tanks had driven ahead with an entirely loaded infantry bay to the adjacent area from where my foot soldiers were. I was glad both groups could have an APC and battlemech support if the enemies reached their spot.
I looked to the Second company led by Captain Yuki as she and her lance were still up with new faces. She still piloted her Blackjack, and her two lancemate had the two Swordsman I gave them months ago, although they seem to have been refitted. I also noticed that their lance was even weaker than First as it had two Urbanmech (UM-60), a Firestarter (FSH-9), and a Locust (LCT-3V) for their extra battlemech support. The Urbanmechs weren't meant for the open-field combat we were about to enter. At least their combat vehicles matched for the slugfest as they had four Scorpion light tanks and four Saladin assault hover tanks. They were the only group out of us to have close air support in the form of four Warrior VTOLs.
I knew this was a fight to stall for time, so I opened up with my Ziputer to all the leaders and the command center back at the dropships. "This is Commander Chen," I said as I moved Wolf forward. His targeting solutions were already targeting another group of incoming fighter jets. "We just need to hold out another six hours for our reinforcement to arrive. So I'm activating battle code zero nine nine nine for all the Ziputers everyone has. It will keep everyone connected while my satellite is up."
I entered the modified battle code into my machine as I heard everyone else doing the same. That was when the Judge's voice came through the speakers. I'm so glad I found the AI for that robot, but it's too bad I couldn't give his satellite its navel-grade pulse lasers. As the mode set in for everyone with my system, the battle map expanded as the Ziputer turned into a side map detailing everything in this area for forty kilometers.
I saw the aircraft I was targeting were more freaking Guardians. I'm questioning Kamea or Mastiff where all these convention fighter planes came from after this. I'm going to ask if I could have one to create a factory module to produce them elsewhere. My main cannon started charging up as I locked onto the closest one.
"This is amazing," came Captain Zobel's voice from his Centurion. "I can see all incoming enemies. I got LRM lock already on the closest fighter."
"This is High Lady Kamea Arano to all forces," The VIP for this battle called out from within her Kintaro. "We shall strike them before they get close until we are forced to fight mech to mech. Make sure all your LRMs count and begin firing on my command. We don't have enough ammo to restock too many times."
"No problem, ma'am," Came a voice from the Vindicator. "Let's do this, Mechwarriors! Locked on and awaiting orders!" It must be Glitch with how energetic she talked.
I activated my coms, "Lock on to the last eight fighters, people. I can handle the first four as they get into range. This way, we can save some of your ammo."
This time I got a connection request from Captain Yuki. "Yes, Captain?" I asked as I noticed her Blackjack coming closer with her class two autocannon aiming into the skies. "Are you sure you can hit them with your weapons? They do not seem to have adequate range, do they?"
I chuckled to myself as I said, "Well, what does this say?" I fired my electromagnetic cannon once as those planes reached the two-kilometer mark. The build-up of electrons fired from my gun as it flew right into the leading fighter plane at high speed. It went up in flames but caused the others to speed up. By the time my second shot was ready, they were a kilometer and a half away. I fired the electromagnetic cannon at one while firing the twin-beam guns at the third one. Both attacks struck their targets, but the rest of the aircraft entered the LRM range.
Before I could aim at my last target, the Blackjack beside me began firing her autocannons. A hell swarm of missiles followed this gunfire as everyone fired one salvo of LRM. Everyone's target was marked as who was firing on who.
Within seconds, all targets were downed, and new ones came on screen. They were forty kilometers away and would be in range in half an hour. That would have given us some breathing room, but another wave of fast-moving vehicles showed up on the Ziputer battle map.
It wasn't Guardians but Defenders and Warrior VTOLs with Hover APCs and Saladins following behind.
I saw a Kintaro's LRM lock onto a Defender with two other mechs locked onto it when Kamea said. "All troops, Lock on to your targets and prepare to fire. Commander Chen, please mark which ones you will be aiming for so no one wastes time locking onto it."
I picked the closest one and the second one to its right to be my targets. Suddenly, those with LRM lock on their turn to the other incoming vehicles. "I'm ready to fire once they are in range. Sensor movement showed a company of military vehicles not on our side incoming from Rotua path. That was when red dots began appearing all over my battle map.
"Captain Yuki," Kamea spoke up. "Send your Urbanmechs back to the drop port and watch the skies. All our ASF units will be busy soon defending the dropships."
"Affirmative," Yuki responded as the two mechs moved at their max speed back to base. Well, crap. We were already down two combatants. I recheck the Ziputer's battle map to see another set of the enemy coming from north of Cordia and another going through it. They were getting wiser as I blasted another fighter out of the skies as missiles took care of the rest of the second wave. They only had those Saladins survive due to their sheer speed of turning and running away.
I noticed the Ziputer registered an enemy attempt at communicating with us, so I informed everyone. "Enemy is trying to talk with us, Lady Arano. What's your command for this?"
"Commander, you did say we need to buy time, and I will buy it with talking. Connected me to them," she said as I pressed a few keys to let the connection to Kamea's Ziputer. If there were a virus or something in that connection, it wouldn't affect the zoid tech compared to the Battletech machines.
I kept what they were saying in the background as I focused on the battle map. I saw plenty of enemy mechs ranging from light to heavy class. The computer's warbook registered all the enemy mechs on the map, and my jaw dropped. How the heck did the Directorate, have this many battlemechs? I know they haven't stolen them from the Founding Houses yet since they all managed to run back to their planets with promises of reinforcements.
Yet, almost an entire regiment of mechs was in front of me.[1]
The amount of battlemech had my mind near-frozen in shock as my system categorized them in their weight classes.
Light class mechs were: Three Jenner (JR7-D), one Javelin (JVA-10A), two Panther (PNT-9R), three Locust (LCT-1V), three Firestarter (FS9-H), three Spider (SDR-5V), and three Commando (two COM-2D and one COM-1B).
Medium class mechs were: Three Centurion (two CN9-A and one CN9-AL), two Shadow Hawk (SHD-2H), one Blackjack, two Griffin (GRF-1S), two Trebuchet (TBT-5N), one Cicada (CDA-3C), one Hunchback (HBK-4P), one Enforcer (ENF-4R), and two Vindicator (VND-1R).
Heavy class mechs were: Three Dragon (DRG-1N), two Jagermech (JM6-S), one Thunderbolt (TDR-5SE), and one Black Knight (BL-6-KNT), one Catapult (CPLT-C1), and one Grasshopper (GHR-5H).
Last but not least, the only two Assualt mechs: One Battlemaster (BLR-1G) and one Awesome (AWS-8T).
They were supported by dozens of combat vehicles too. I had seen seven Bulldogs, ten Scorpions, six Strikers, four SRM carriers, two LRM Carriers, two Manticores, eight Hunters, five Pegasus, two Sleipnir APC, and ten standard APCs.
All of these were registered as Directorate forces. It wasn't even including six unknown mechs, at least from my warbook, before another battlemech appeared from them. With the Directorate IFF codes. A King Crab (KGC-0000).
I could feel Wolf growling in anger as we realized a third party was involved. However, it wasn't the Black Carvels as they showed up behind the Directorate forces (just a lance made up of two Whitworth [WTH-1], one Vulcan [VL-5T], and one Dervish [DV-6M]).
It was when a stray memory hit me of what the King Crab had on it when I faced it in the Battletech game. It had medium pulse lasers that were not normal on a King Crab of this era. That was because pulse-based energy weapons were extinct during this era until the Helm Memory core was found. There was only one faction in Battletech that still had pulse lasers. Technically two, the other one was located on the other side of the Inner Sphere.
"God damn ComStar," I cursed as I began giving targeting solutions to all forces to prepare for battle. But unfortunately, the talks between Kamea and her uncle were already turning south. Nevertheless, the High Lady kept trying to keep the negotiations going. Still, her uncle must have realized something was up. Only an hour had passed before he began demanding a surrender again.
"What did ComStar do?" The voice of Glitch came through the system as I realized the entire lance had heard me. "Well, shit. Guys, especially the mercenaries in our force, ignore what I said if you don't want to be constantly watching your backs." I replied as I hoped they would just accept that. They didn't.
I noticed all the mercenaries who weren't in the know asking for clarification. I didn't want to answer, but the lance of four unknowns was heading this way and told me it was not a good time to hide things.
"Ah damnit," I said as Kamea's uncle stopped the negotiation with a declaration that all but the High Lady shall die. "Okay, if my suspension is correct. Comstar is behind some of the reasons for this coup. First, they supplied the Directorate with a King Crab that had lost tech. Second, who else would let them use the HPG for a coup? Neutrality? How is that neutrality to support a coup?"
"There no reason for ComStar to break their Neutrality for some small Periphery nation, no offense," Captain Zobel said. His Centurion and his mech force all locked onto the newly incoming conventional fighters. It seemed more and more armor was coming in first. "Do you have proof of such accusations, Commander Chen?"
"Yes, I do," I replied as I cycled Wolf's targeting system to the second group of incoming VTOLs and hover combat vehicles. "I'll personally hand y'all copies if we survive this. Does anyone have an old warbook to link up with the Ziputer?"
The replies of "No" made me sigh, but I continued after blasting the last incoming Defender. It seemed they would wait now as all the hover vehicles were behind cover and outside the LRM range. But unfortunately, they seem to be waiting for the rest of their forces.
"Well, since we got maybe an hour, I'll send everyone the data I have on ComStar, and then you make up y'all's mind on why I dislike them."
I began sending the data to all members when I felt something off. It felt like someone was almost here. My eyes must have widened as everything seemed bright. I sensed two familiar beings somewhere, and something else connected with me deeply. I wonder what it was.
However, the feeling was distant, so if it's our reinforcement, they got a few hours before arriving.
————————————————
Location: Hyperspace in the Aurigan Reach, Moby Dick plus SNAF
Date: March 13, 3022, 07:00?
Cecilia Dark had a massive headache from the reports throughout the ship and the SNAFU attached above. She knew the Moby Dick was a living being, but really? It grew bigger by eating the corpses of the monsters they had been killing for the past several hours.
Some people were slightly hurt when the ship suddenly increased in size. Not just that, several more weapons stations appeared, and even weapons had 'grown' on Moby Dick. Attempting to man all of them stresses the crew. They were doing their best to rest before the upcoming battle.
"MOM!" Cecilia heard her daughter, Julie, yell out with the sounds of metal on metal steps not far behind her. The Chief Mechtech turned to see her daughter riding on a much bigger raptor zoid. When did it grow that big? It was just the size of a large dog the last time she saw it.
She noticed that everyone who did not know about her children's new friends was staring at them. Cecilia ignored them and asked, "What wrong, honey?" Her husband had also abandoned his station to a nearby tech, someone name Fox last time she checked, to stand beside her.
"Tochter," Michael said as he knelt to talk with their daughter. "What is wrong? Did something happen to Hugh? What is so important that you leave the cores alone?"
The word cores caused some of the nearby crewmates to jerk up and look at them, but she ignored them as the room was guarded by a team of marines and internal turrets. If the size of the Gun sniper was to say anything, then the Liger Zero should have experienced growth just as significant.
"Vater, you have to come quick. Don't you feel the connection?" Julie said, and Cecilia watched her love freeze as if he had just realized something. The fact that her daughter said connection made what she was trying to say snap into place in their mind.
Cecilia shouted at the highest-ranking soldier currently awake. "Subaltern Baba, you are in command while we deal with the issue below deck."
Said man saluted and quickly ran over to the command station—his second taking his former weapon controls.
They hurried down the stairs to the secondary halls. They passed several mechwarriors and combat vehicle operators helping AsTech and infantry move the dead monsters' bodies to the entrance of the pseudo room for the Zoid Cores. All those corpses would be sent down to its distribution area, where Hugh and Julie stay with their partners and a heavy infantry squad. They ran into the room, ignoring the monster bodies, and entered the hidden hallway to the core hanger.
When they arrived, they heard the squad of infantry shouting and crashing metal crates. The Mechwarrior and mechtech enter with their child to see a two-meter tall, bipedal dinosaur zoid that is entirely smooth compared to the Gunsniper. It had red eyes and a smooth slivery body and was now looking directly at them. The Liger Zero, the size of a J. Edger tank, watched the baby zoid without doing much.
She felt something and turned to look at one of the larger cores. The same one Michael was looking at. There was a siren call, making her want to touch it. Before she knew it, she and Michael had one hand on the core. They had walked right past the baby zoid, who was looking at both of them.
Cecilia heard something in her head, but whatever it was, her husband answered loudly with a "Yes!"
Everything went white, and she felt a bit of vertigo. She didn't like it and wanted it to stop. The next thing she knew, Cecilia was in front of Michael's QuickDraw with the baby zoid next to her. The core they touched was nowhere to be seen.
She looked around as there were dozens of people just staring between her and the battlemech.
"Liebe," She heard her husband in his battlemech. "You must join me in here. From what I read, you must also agree to what will happen."
Cecilia shook her head to alert herself enough to start climbing. She knew her husband. He wouldn't lie to her about anything important. She could hear the Houndsoldier, her Commander left to protect the Whale King stepping closer to them. She could listen to her kids' familiar cries of joy and the twin roars of their partners.
When she reached the cockpit of the Quickdraw, she saw Michael turning on the power and systems without his neurohelmet or his coolant vest. "Cecilia, did you remember the voice of the core?" Michael asked as everything booted up. She tried to remember as the voice she heard in her mind had shocked her.
"Do you wish for me now?"
The memory of that voice returned to her as Cecilia looked at her spouse with the same look, saying, "Explain."
"I wished our co-bonded core to grow as fast. Because that dinosaur over there," the Mechwarrior pointed at the dinosaur standing beside their children. "Said, somehow, the Commander is in danger. Our core is waiting for you to reply."
She hesitated as she wasn't a combat personnel. She loves working on machinery and helping her husband rather than going into battle. However, she owed the Commander for saving her love and giving her the chance to look at so many new technologies.
"How do I tell our core that I'm ready?" She said as her hand touched the sensor computer. The entire mech began glowing from parts that shouldn't be able to do that. "What the hell!" She shrieked as Michael laughed.
There was a roar from outside before everything went white again. The next thing Cecilia knew, she was sitting in a conformable chair. Michael was sitting in another in front of her. The once see-through cockpit glass was replaced with a large computer screen that showed everyone inside the hanger. The weapon systems that were once reading standard battlemech weapons now read as weapons she had never heard of.
A Heavy Hyperbeam launcher, TVM GtF two-shot Tactical Missile Launcher, twin Iron Hammer Knuckles, and AZ 3-Barreled Linear Cannon. There seem to be more spots for extra weapons too. She could see people taking old fashion photos with their old cameras.
"Warning," A robotic-sounding voice rang throughout the ship that both could hear. "Exiting Warp Gate in one minute. All crews prepare." That message repeated as mechwarriors, militiamech pilots, ASF pilots, and combat vehicle crews rushed to their respective hangers.
It seemed like any questions about what happened would come after they landed. Suddenly, a screen in the cockpit showed Subaltern Baba, who was getting into his piloting suit while still at the command station. "Subaltern Baba," Michael said, causing the man and a few others to jump and look at them through their screen. "We are heading for the catapult launcher with the Houndsoldier. When we break through the atmosphere, shoot us to the battlefield."
"Yes, sir," the man said as he saluted and began ordering people around him. It took a while for Cecilia and Michael to direct the newly born full-size zoid to the catapult. Still, Hound moved in a way they followed to avoid the battlemechs and militiamechs being ready for battle.
The sensor she read on her computer showed her child's zoids following them but no signs of the first newborn.
"Dear," She said as the sensor swept the area multiple times. "Where is that baby zoid?"
Michael looked at his sensor before replying, "I'm not sure, honey."
"Warning, breaching into real space!"
—————————————————
Location: Coromodir system, Coromodir VI, Outskirts of Cordia City
Date: March 13, 3022, 08:00
Wolf had dodged another LRM barrage by outrunning the fuel within them. I completely controlled the turret and blasted another SRM carrier to oblivion. I winced, though, at where I hit. I think I destroyed the entire ammo store in it.
I wanted to fire Wolf's smoke grenades to make ambush attacks, but if I did that, it would end up making it worse for my allies. We were down four mechs already. Both Firestarters were down on my side. Ice had taken severe injuries when he ejected, and the other Mechwarrior had died from having his mech shredded by the two LRM and one SRM carrier. But, at least before they went down, they took out five of the ten APCs heading to where our infantry was stationed.
One of the Swordsman had been blown up from focus fire from two Jenners that got behind him, but it managed to take out the lone enemy Javelin. One of our Locust had been destroyed by a swarm of Scorpion tanks focusing on it. At least it went out by taking two of those light tanks out.
I fired the beam and electromagnetic cannons into a Bulldog who savaged a Scorpion (SRM). That main battle tank went up as the light class one limped back to the HQ. I glanced at the battle map and was glad we managed to thin down the number with LRMs, AC/2, and PPC weapon fire. We had the advantage of the satellite system allowing us to hit them before entering their sensor and weapon range.
We managed to end all their air support as the Warrior VTOLs were destroyed before they could get in range of their autocannons. The same went for the four Saladin assault hover tanks via long-range missiles and my EC shot.
The Swordsman, before we lost one, had focused their LRM on a Panther and managed to destroy its cockpit and left torso. The forces' other long-range missiles struck from the Griffins, Quasit, Centurions, and Vargr had struck down two of the three enemy Spiders.
Kamea had linked her Kintaro's LRM with those of the Guntank, Guntank-P, Vindicator, and Shadow Hawks and struck down five of the eight enemy Hunters together. The four Pike stationed on the hill near our planned path of retreat had managed to use their autocannons to rip apart a Locust and the remaining enemy Panther before they could retaliate.
However, by the time we could fire another volley of guaranteed kills, they finally got a lock on us. That began a slugfest as both sides could hit each other with LRMs. I was glad we managed to take out most of them. I had personally taken out the remaining Hunters before they could fire those LRM-20s. Still, I was chased off by the five Pegasus hover tanks. Oh, I killed them, but that was when I lost focus on the battlefield.
I finally had time to check who was left as I let Wolf savage the enemy's two Jenner, the bastards who took down Koga's Swordsman.
I first noticed that the enemy had lost more than we had as I registered. The OpFor count was down by twenty, not including my four recent kills. However, I noticed how badly damaged we were. I causally aimed the EC and fired it at the Awesome, who peaked out while I was reviewing the data. I missed the battlemech, but my weapon caused it to go back behind the building again.
For one, most of the infantry was still alive and took down a few light mechs that got in their way. On the other hand, both Guntank types were out of ammo and had lost most of their upper armor plating. Dragon's group lost a Pike to long-range missiles and a PPC but removed the LRM carrier from their position. Private Mikasa's Gespenst had launched its rockets and took out a Centurion but was now missing most of its weapons and moving around half speed. I didn't like that she kept fighting despite only having a flamer and one small laser.
"Private Mikasa. Private Ian. Get the hell back to the HQ. You two aren't fit to fight anymore, and I will not have my people die a wasteful death," I yelled at them while blasting a Striker that tried to finish them off. My battle computers warned me of heat building up in the EC and that I had to shut it off before it went into overload.
"But Commander," I heard the young woman shout out in defiance, but that meant nothing as a second Striker came at them. Its SRM flew out and struck the center torso of the militiamech. I fired my twin-beam cannons right into its side and destroyed it.
"No buts, get back to the dropship," I checked our position and realized she was the only mech left protecting the infantry. The enemy infantry and their APCs had damaged the two Locusts. However, those two bugmechs destroyed three of the enemy transports and dozens of troopers at the cost of losing one leg each.
The two Locusts were prone due to the loss of the limb. It was only thanks to the efforts of two squads of our foot soldiers that kept the enemy away from killing the Mechwarriros.
Our infantry had lost two of its Vargr APC (standard). There was chatting about retreating to the second defense line where Kamea stood with two damaged Griffin. They were acting as LRM support fire for those on the front lines.
"I got the infantry covered," I said while Wolf flung the Jenner into the ground and allowed me to fire three bursts of machine gun rounds into the downed mech. It powered down, so I must have struck something within its center torso.
"This is Commander Chen to all infantry and damage forces," I shouted in the Ziputer. "Retreat to the second line and regroup there. I'll draw their remaining recon and anti-infantry units on me."
I shot the twin beam cannons into an enemy Scorpion, destroying its tracks and causing something to happen inside when I received a message. "This is Battalion Chief-Sergeant Āpirana Ngata," came a voice through my Ziputer. "I'm ordering a withdrawal of all infantry to the second line. All Scorpion tanks will assist in their fallback. Protect our troops."
I glanced and watched the six Scorpions, and the two Vargr APC leave with the infantry in tow. I made sure to stand in the way of the incoming fire. Some enemy fire went wide, but a PPC shot from the Awesome slammed into Wolf's right foreleg. The status on it went from green to light yellow.
I was pissed off, so I turned the EC back on to return fire but missed my intended target and hit the Enforcer behind it right in the damaged right torso. The autocannon ammo must have blown as it went up as the Mechwarrior ejected from his mech.
"This is Glitch of Markham's Marauders," came another voice that I recognized. "We are pulling back to the second line as well. Medusa and Behemoth battlemechs are nearly out of this fight."
I gave a quick check as I blasted another Scorpion to hell. Behemoth's Shadow Hawk was missing its right side, but she was still reading as healthy. Unfortunately, Medusa's Swordsman was only down to its small laser and was missing both sides torso. The Mechwarrior was registering with a broken arm and leg.
Glitch's Vindicator was fine. Hell, she just jumped up and blasted the final LRM carrier into scarp. This was followed by several autocannon shots that flew past her and into the two defending SRM carriers. They also went up in flames. Glitch got hit by a few LRMs from the enemy Vindicators. Still, they missed with their PPC, allowing my Pikes to severely damage the one in their visual range.
"This is Zobel," I heard as a dot on my map near me lit up. "I'm coming to cover the infantry and tanks." I saw his status and winced as he was out of autocannon and LRM ammo. I almost wished he had the laser version of his Centurion. At least his twin medium lasers lashed out and crippled an enemy Scorpion. I could see the two-person crew abandon it quickly. The mercenary Captain was damaged everywhere on his mech, but nothing too dangerous. He was walking backward while firing his dual lasers at anything in range.
I fired at a damaged Bulldog and finished it off as the two remaining Arano Locusts limped behind the retreating units. They fired their twin medium lasers at the enemy if they had a chance but still acted like slow-moving tanks.
Several autocannon rounds flew past the two and slammed into the remaining enemy Scorpion tanks. Still, they turned off as a Cicada ran in. That battlemech fire it PPC right into the Warrior VTOL and took it out. However, those autocannons shooting at the enemy light tank suddenly slammed into the cockpit of the bugmech. The Mechwarrior managed to eject before the other five rounds hit the area around its head.
The Directorate forces seemed to be also backing off as their advance force was pulling back. However, they still had most of their battlemechs while most of ours were damaged. I did an accurate final count while keeping my main guns on the wrecked buildings the Awesome and Enforcer hid behind.
I glance at where Mastiff held off the Grasshopper and Black Knight. It was funny as a single medium holding off two heavy mechs. To make it even better, Mastiff took out most of those twenty enemy combatants if the number over his icon was correct.
Hell, that Mechwarrior had downed more enemies than Wolf and I. I knew he was good, but wow, he makes me jealous if it wasn't because it ended people's lives.
"Mastiff," I called out. "We are backing up to the second defense lines. Enemy King Crab and six unknown mechs are several minutes out, and we best reload before we fight them."
"Roger that, Chen," The ruff voice replied. "I still have to thank you for this new weapon and shield. I would have fallen back earlier if it weren't for them."
"No problem," I replied as we both moved backward with our guns scanning the areas with which the OpFor was located. "I see you took out a lot. I bet those Commandos with inferno SRM learn very quick it was a dumb idea to burn you."
"Heh. It's a good thing too. It allowed me to take down most of their lights and mediums," then the man's voice turned sour. "But I failed to protect a few units from the combat vehicles. So I still thank you for caring for those passing my group."
"No problem," I replied as we passed into the second line. Turrets and towed guns lined the temporary walls as I fully accounted for what happened.
I checked whom we had left, and it wasn't pretty. Most mechwarriors survived even when their mech went down, but there were a few KIA, but none from me.
So I looked at what we had left and what they had done since my last check on them.
I had Apex's Melody from my forces, banged up and out of LRMs and Autocannon ammo, but that was quickly being loaded on. Her armor was patched up as best as possible since the enemy's heavier elements would be here in twenty minutes. She had three confirmed mech kills with Swordsman's LRM assistance. She had taken down the two remaining Locust and her cousin of a Shadow Hawk. She damaged those enemy Firestarters, according to the Ziputer, and killed off a Bulldog and a Striker that didn't overlap with other kills.
The two remaining Pikes were under Lieutenant Manning as Dragon had been nearly killed in his from LRM fired from those three Hunters I couldn't hit earlier. Right now, my XO is being treated in medical. At least before he went down, Zin had made sure to kill off the remaining Scorpions with concentrated fire from three Pikes. The Ziputer still has my Pike group as dealing armor damage to everything but the King Crab group and the two Manticore. The only problem now was the lack of class two autocannon ammo that the Pikes used. We had some in the Magnolia on its way as the AC/2 ammo here was slightly smaller than what the ZesuBolt AC/2 used.
Ice, my recent hire, was in bad condition and may not survive unless we could get him into my healing stasis chambers. He and the House Arano Firestarter only got the kills from earlier before they were taken down.
Lieutenant Potter, in his Guntank, had managed to assist nearly every kill with his LRMs. He only got a Striker to kill with his mech's lasers, but other than that, he was pretty okay. Some minor armor damage and a fix on his tank treads. He did request that he join the front lines in the next deployment. I agreed to let him as he would need to.
The Gespenst status was horrible as it was pretty much done for. I overlooked some kills on the enemy infantry and a Commando (COM-1B) with ground soldiers' assistance.
I checked up on our fellow mercenaries and wanted to slam my head into the headrest. However, they took a beating and gave it back.
The Markham's Marauders had made the kills I saw during our free-range with LRMs and those I saw during their retreat. It seems like I missed Glitch taking down two Bulldogs during their return to the second defense line. However, only their Vindicator was in any condition to continue the fight. Behemoth's Shadow Hawk lost its right arm during the retreat and only had its AC/5 and SRM left, so it was being left behind to defend the base. What was left of the Swordsman was pretty much a write-off.
The Sablehart Irregulars had one battlemech down and all the rest injured. At least that one Griffin that went down had managed to take down one of the three hunters, which explained why I didn't see it on the battle map. The two remaining Griffin had helped their leader take down the two remaining Centurions. Unfortunately, they were savaged and lost their dead arm and their PPC to the Catapult. Their Captain, however, managed to use their damage to kill the heavy missile boat. Unfortunately, this was at the cost of all his ammo. Now he was loaded back up but had none of his men to follow him into the field.
I almost thought he would break his contract after suffering so much damage, but he refused as he and his people had a personal stake in this fight.
The group led by Captain Yuki had done well, but she had lost a lot. That Firestarter, for one. The second was Koga's Swordsman, who still had the luck of the gods on his side, was down but had taken a few enemies out. The Locust also was gone, but at least it did its job of infantry killing and taking out a couple of Combat Vehicles with assistance. At least her Blackjack and Aether's Swordsman were left alongside three Warrior VTOLs were alive. Her remaining combat vehicles were destroyed, abandoned once disabled or needed repairs, and now acting as extra turrets.
I turned to review Kamea and Mastiff's unit and its damages. They had done a great job weakening the enemy with heavy LRM fire until Mastiff led two Swordsmen onto the battlefield. Their combat tanks of Goblins, Scorpion (SRM), and Vedette tanks follow the trio of mechs. They managed to take out those two Hunters and a Dragon. Still, the conventional forces with Mastiff started taking too much damage. All four Vedette tanks were destroyed but managed several injuries at Thunderbolt that did them in. Nevertheless, everything had been damaged, and only Kamea's Kintaro and Mastiff's Centurion could still fight properly.
Cornet Esposito had helped with the defense of the drop port and had slight damages. The Guntank-P had joined the front lines with the Quasit to shoot out their LRMs. They had to leave the front within minutes after shooting their LRMs to empty as the dropships were about to fall under attack. They joined up with the Urbanmechs, ASF, and dropships in wiping out the enemy. The only ones to take severe damage was one of the Urbanmechs as its AC/10 ammo went up and nearly killed the Mechwarrior.
- Command Wolf- light damage
- 2 x Pike (reloaded)
- Shadow Hawk (Melody) - moderate damage
- Guntank GT-02 - reloading
- Guntank-P GTP-001P- Reloading
- Quasit - Reloading
- Glitch's Vindicator - reloading and repairing - light damage
- 2 x Swordsman - rebuilding and reloading - moderate damage
- Kamea's Kintaro
- Mastiff's Centurion - patch work on armor and reloading
- Captain Zobel's Centurion - patch work on armor and reload
- Captain Yuki's Blackjack - reloading and repairing - light damage
- 3 x Warrior VTOL
- 3 x Goblin medium tanks - repairing but ready to fight
"Lady Kamea," I said after double-checking our forces and estimating the feeling I had since the fighting began. "We only have so many active forces left, but we should be getting a good surprise in twenty minutes."
"Commander Chen," The tired voice of the High Lady replied. "I hope this wait is worth it. We have lost so much, but I can't let them take over if the reports we received from the few prisoners we took reported." I could understand that there was always conscripts in these kinds of fight in history.
"Do you have anyone who can look around this area?" I asked while pointing to the feeling I had. It was directly above us, after all.
"My people say there was something but couldn't give a good answer. Some were doubting what they saw," Kamea said as her mech was fully loaded and ready to go.
"Well, that means our reinforcements are almost here then. My ship is speedy," I replied as Command Wolf had loaded back on two tons of machine gun ammo.
"Lady Arano," Came the voice of Mastiff. "The Directorate is moving towards us. There is an issue." The elderly man paused before saying, "They are being led by Victoria in a damn King Crab and six unknowns. They will be within the second defense line in ten minutes."
I hurried to move Wolf back to the front lines as everyone rushed to the active defense position. I had taken stock of the remaining enemies, which still wasn't good for us.
Combat vehicles under the Directorate were three Bulldogs, two Strikers, and two Manticores.
The battlemechs, besides those six unknowns, and that King Crab pilot by Victoria. Those remaining mechs were one Spider, one Shadow Hawk, one Hunchback, two Vindicator, two Dragons, two Jagermechs, one Thunderbolt, one Black Knight, one Grasshopper, one Battlemaster, and one Awesome.
The remaining Black Carvel forces were just two Whitworth and a Dervish.
I was surprised those traitors didn't leave yet. Still, I guess being accused of setting off a WMD in a middle of a city must have caused something to make them stay on the Directorate side. Maybe it was ComStar in the right way. There is no way the MRB would probably let a mercenary group get away with detonating a WMD in the middle of the city…probably.
I noticed another attempt at communication to our side from the Directorate, so I signaled Kamea if she wanted to answer or not. She turned it on herself as I listened in.
"Come out, Kamea!" A familiar voice of a foolish girl shouted out. "Come and fight me! You shall fall upon the great future of the Directorate."
I wanted to facepalm. Victoria sounded like a cartoon villain right there. Mastiff spoke to Victoria as if he was going to be the adult of the conversation. But, at the same time, Kamea, well, I could hear her struggling not to go into a childish or cartoon retort.
"Ten minutes," I whispered to everyone as that how long before Moby Dick breaks into our area. "Shall I head out to stall with some of our forces?"
Kamea had already ended her talks with her cousin and replied, "I shall come with you. I will take her down and stop this. My uncle hasn't been seen since our conversation this morning. I believe he has already left Coromodir VI and returned to his ancestral house on Coromodir V."
"Then I'll lead the charge with our fastest units. Those six unknowns could be a massive problem, but with Guntanks, Warriors, and me leading, we can strike down or weaken them."
"Thank you, Commander." Her Kintaro stood next to Mastiff's battlemech. "This is Kamea Arano to all forces. We must strike down the remaining enemy and end this civil war right here and now. All our fastest units join with Commander Chen in the spearhead strike force. Everyone else follows me."
"For the Aurigan Coalition!" I shouted as Wolf kicked off into the fray. I could hear the Guntanks moving as fast as they could while firing their LRMs at the enemy. While they couldn't get a lock on the six unknowns, they did get a lock-on to the Dragon. Forty long-range missiles mainly slammed into the heavy mech causing it to stumble a bit for my weapons to destroy its left leg. The Goblin tanks fired away at the down mech with Pike's and Vargr's assistance at long range.
The second Dragon tried their luck alongside the Thunderbolt, but they were slammed with LRMs fire from behind my charging force. Both heavy mechs stumbled slightly from over a hundred missiles from damaged and rear line mechs, turrets, and vehicles. The few autocannon fires from the remaining Swordsman keep those two pins down. The three Warriors unleashed their SRMs while doing a flyby. Their autocannons were firing into the enemy heavy still ahead.
I saw Lieutenant Potter's Guntank lose its right arm as both Jagermech tried to blast its tank portion, but he protected it with the lost limb. Cornet Esposito rammed his Guntank-P right into the left-most Jagermech as Potter did the same to the right. They were too close for the enemy heavies to fire at them with their cannons while both hybrid mechs fired their weapons at point-blank. However, I heard a beep as one of our Warriors was blasted out of the sky.
"We'll handle these two. Go!" Shouted the Cornet as his mech torso twisted to slam its left arm with a pack of four small lasers in a gun pod mount. He fired them as they closed into the mech. Someone went, but I didn't know what as I blasted that damn Awesome, who somehow dodged my fire again.
I tried to dodge the PPC, but how the heck is that assault pilot that good? Wolf took all three shots to the side and caused us to stumble out of the high-speed motion we were going. I went into a tumble for a reasonable distance before we stopped, separated from my lance.
It took me two minutes to get back up as the rest of our forces slammed into the Directorate forces. My sensors told me that Kamea and Mastiff, with their Swordsman support, are directly fighting the King Crab and Grasshopper.
Eight battlemechs surrounded me. The Awesome and Black Knight stood together while the white-painted maybe ComStar mechs behind me. There was no communication between the six unknowns besides some beeps in a particular order. However, I did recognize three of those mechs from BTA 3062. It was two Sentinels and one Falcon. The other three mechs were two medium-weight and one of the assault class.
The Falcon had been shooting at me with its lasers and machine guns before I blasted it with a ton of my bullet hell. It went down smoking when those two Sentinel locked onto me with their Streak SRM and slammed into Wolf's head, followed by their autocannons. The impact rocked me and turned some parts of Wolf's status yellow. I fired the EC at one Sentinel while directing the zoid right into the Black Knight to strike at it with the electron bit fang.
I registered the kill on the Sentinel, a cockpit hit, as the Black Knight's alpha strike hit home with Wolf bit still going for its cockpit. I saw Wolf's entire underside go from white to deep red. I also heard something funny from the heavy Mechwarrior. Still, it wasn't enough to cheer me up as the Awesome and the unknown assault. Their attacks knocked us off the Black Knight but allowed Wolf to rip its head off and eat it. I felt my stomach clench as the pilot didn't eject.
I finally got those fighting me trying to access my coms. It was coming from the unknown assault class battlemech, and I answered it. I knew they were probably ComStar's ROM, but it would help stall for time. It would give a few seconds for the metal Wolf ate to heal (don't think about the meat inside).
"Well fought Mechwarrior but you and your mech shall die here," The voice said, sounding so old and ruff. Like listening to Rorschach from Watchmen. "All those in House Arano shall die for the future of the Reach!" Oh, trying to keep your identity hidden but still using bright white mechs? That is just stupid and smart as it would draw the Taurian's eye here due to the pure white color. If someone from the Inner Sphere saw this, they would know it was ComStar.
I decided to call them on their lie, "Future of the Reach? Don't make me laugh, you Blakists bastards. You want this war to bring them back to the brink." I targeted the Awesome again and finally broke through its weakened center torso. Thank god for the Pikes and LRMs barrages for weakening it enough for my twin beam shot to break through and go internal. This was followed by the remaining ammo I had in my Vulcans.
The remaining Sentinel still tagged me, and the three unknown mechs closed in on me. Damn it. The lasers and autocannon scrapped my electromagnetic cannon as the assault class mech got closer.
I got punched by the two Chameleons.
Wait, for what? Those unknown mediums were Chameleons?
I absentmindedly noted that Wolf must have taken the data from the Black Knight. We then got punted by the freaking assault battlemech. Everything went off as everything went red, and my combat computer froze.
"Shit," I shouted as I tried to get Wolf back up. Unfortunately, the controls were unresponsive as the Assault mech was nearly on top of me as my coms to it opened up. My twin beam cannons got destroyed from that kick and landing. I heard something break but couldn't pay attention to it as the zoid kept shaking from autocannon and missile strikes.
"Foolish man. Do you think knowing about us would convince us to let them all live? They shall all die as the barbarians they truly are!" The LBX autocannon was pointed directly at Wolf's head. "I will enjoy taking apart your lost tech mech and using it to keep the words of Blake." He didn't bother with his ruse. Too bad he doesn't know I'm connected to every Ziputer in the area.
I loved it when the enemy monologs like a freaking anime villain as something from the sky was coming in fast right at the foolish ROM agent.
"Hey," I called out with a cough. I must have something wrong with me as my chest hurt from the crash. "You want to know something interesting?" That caused the mech to pause, as I had hoped. "This isn't a battlemech, fool!"
The dot representing Houndsoldier crashed straight into the assault mech, piercing both of its side torsos with its spears. The three medium mechs tried to finish me off instead of helping their leader. That was when something else entered the battlefield by landing right on top of the Sentinel and crushed it!
It's an Iron Kong… an adult Iron Kong with many different weapons than usual. What the hell? How is there a fully grown zoid here? I suddenly got the feeling from the two people inside it. Wait, how do I know there are two people inside it? Why am I feeling a bit better?
"Commander," Rook's voice came through the coms from the Iron Kong. "We come to help. Wait, what? Do you want to go out? Okay, I bet the Commander is whom you're bonded with."
I don't know whom he was talking to, but suddenly, the Iron Kong glowed red before something shot out of it and crashed into Wolf's head. I just stared at it as its silver-white coloring and red eyes made me think it was Zeke for a moment…until I saw it had wings. Suddenly Wolf's cockpit opened, and the Organoid's chest opened as metal cords suddenly wrapped me up.
What happened next was confusing, but I found myself back in the cockpit and a greater connection to Wolf, fading away earlier, and a realization. Am I not human?
That confusion faded as I noticed all the ComStar mech destroyed around me. Rook's Iron King and Houndsoldier stood behind me on the screen. I noticed Wolf had changed into something else, and the weapons read were new.
"Ahhh," I heard a scream through the Ziputer as I noticed the King Crab had just knocked Kamea's Kintaro down. Her two Swordsman escorts were downed, and only Mastiff was up but without its shield arm.
I locked onto it as I moved the newly reborn Wolf. I felt the energy of my zoid go into its claws. I smiled as I whispered to the Organoid, "Your name will be Hulk, my good buddy." [2]
"This is the end, Mastiff," I heard Victoria say as the Centurion ducked under the claw and took the flamers head-on. "House Espinosa shall rule the Aurigan Reach!"
"I object to that," I shouted as my König Wolf Strike Laser Claw tore through the AC/20 and the claw arm that held it. "Your coup end here. My Wolf will make sure of that!" So I finished as we stood on top of the downed battlemech.
A silence befell the battlefield as König Wolf howled with Houndsoldier and Iron Kong roared.
————————————————-
AN: I decided to cut down that massive combat part to summaries.
[1] All the mechs here are almost identical units to the ones who appear in the game.
[2] Hulk is the name of my pet pit bull who died of old age.
- 1 x Gespenst
- 2 x Firestarter (FS-9H)
- 1 x Command Wolf (Power Reinforce type refit)
- 4 x Pike Support vehicles
- 1 x Shadow Hawk (Melody)
- 1 x Guntank-P (GTP-001P)
- 1 x Guntank (GT-02)
- 1 x Vindicator (VND-1R)
- 1 x Shadow Hawk (SHD-2H)
- 3 x Griffin (GRF-1N)
- 7 x Swordsman (SWD-2)
- 1 x Quasit (QUA-52T)
- 1 x Kintaro (KTO-18)
- 1 x Centurion (CN9-A)
- 1 x Centurion (Mastiff custom)
- 3 x Locust (LCT-3V)
- 1 x Blackjack (BJ-1)
- 2 x Urbanmech (UM-R60)
- 4 x Vedette medium tank
- 3 x Goblin medium tank
- 5 x Scorpion light tank (SRM var)
- 2 x Vargr APC tank (LRM var)
- 2 x Vargr APC tank
- 4 x Scorpion light tank
- 4 x Saladin assault hover tanks
- 4 x Warrior VTOLs
- 1.5 x Company of Infantry (mix type total count 220 troopers)
- 12 x Guardians
- 8 x Defender
- 8 x Warrior VTOL
- 3 x Jenner (JR7-D)
- 1 x Javelin (JVA-10A)
- 2 x Panther (PNT-9R)
- 3 x Locust (LCT-1V)
- 3 x Firestarter (FS-9H)
- 3 x Spider (SDR-5 V)
- 2 x Commando (COM-2D)
- 1 x Commando (COM-1B)
- 2 x Centurion (CN9-A)
- 1 x Centurion (CN9-AL)
- 2 x Shadow Hawk (SHD-2H)
- 1 x Blackjack (BJ-1)
- 2 x Griffin (GRF-1S)
- 2 x Trebuchet (TBT-5N)
- 1 x Cicada (CDA-3C)
- 1 x Hunchback (HBK-4P)
- 1 x Enforcer (ENF-4R)
- 2 x Vindicator (VND-1R)
- 3 x Dragon (DRG-1N)
- 2 x Jagermech (JM6-S)
- 1 x Thunderbolt (TDR-5SE)
- 1 x Black Knight (BL-7-KNT)
- 1 x Catapult (CPLT-C1)
- 1 x Grasshopper (GHR-5H)
- 1 x Battlemaster (BLR-1G0
- 1 x Awesome (AWS-8T)
- 7 x Bulldogs main battle tanks
- 10x Scorpion light tanks
- 6 x Striker Light tank
- 4 x SRM Carriers
- 2 x LRM Carriers
- 2 x Manticores heavy tanks
- 8 x Hunter Light Support Tank
- 5 x Pegasus scout hover tank
- 2 x Sleipnir APC tanks
- 10 x wheeled APC
- 4 x Saladin assault hover tank
- 2 x Whitworth (WTH-1)
- 1 x Vulcan (VL-5T)
- 1 x Dervish (DV-6M)
- 1 x Emperor (EMP-6A)
- 1 x King Crab (KGC-0000)
- 2 x Sentinels (STN-3L)
- 2 x Chameleon (TRC-4B)
- 1 x Falcon (FLC-4N)
- 1 x Battalion of infantry (500 troops)
- Location
- United States
Well at least there's a lot of Salvage to make more factory modules. The Aurigan Reach will soon be known as the leading Mech and Vehicle Manufacturer in the IS and Periphery if this keeps up...
Also, I wonder how angry the Robes back on Terra are gonna be over this snafu and the Aurigan Branches blatant break of neutrality, to say nothing of the use of a WMD. I'm sure they will disavov and excommunicate the whole lot, and replace them wholesale with Terran Members, if only to try to save face. They'll even probably try to claim the unknown Mechs as equipment stolen from the Comguards...
Also, I wonder how angry the Robes back on Terra are gonna be over this snafu and the Aurigan Branches blatant break of neutrality, to say nothing of the use of a WMD. I'm sure they will disavov and excommunicate the whole lot, and replace them wholesale with Terran Members, if only to try to save face. They'll even probably try to claim the unknown Mechs as equipment stolen from the Comguards...
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Well, one, It requires them to know that the Aurigan branch had thoroughly messed up. Around this time, the Comguard isn't known too well in the Periphery. There is the thing about white-painted ASF and mechs interfering with the TC attempt of taking a warship but it wasn't known to be ComStar. Also, they could easily say those were just people who believe in Blake goal differently then ComStar and had just used their name.
Also, those unknown mechs have lost tech. You know that ComStar will just say it wasn't them but then send or make MRB put contracts out to destroy the salvage. (too bad we can make factory modules to reproduce them. It will allow scientists to study it even if the original gets destroyed!).
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
You got to love the childish, cartoonish banter between siblings. We have been robbed! Though perhaps that is for the best, and it is reassuring to see that there is an entire ecosystem of hyperspace seafood and not just squids that for some reason likes to snack on ships. The area around the core has got to stink.
I would like to know the perspective of the guy who kept dodging the command wolf's attacks. Character aside his skill is certainly worthy of respect and to be remembered. Though couldn't you have let the guy believe it was lost tech? It is technically correct, it is just alien lost tech which also happens to be living organisms. At the very least Comstar was kind enough to give us plenty of mechs to salvage including some thunderbolts and a king crab. Now we can combine their lost tech with our zoidian lost tech mwuahaha!
Is the Konig Wolf that the command wolf evolved into based off the Heavy Arms Konig Wolf or just the base version? It is kinda weird that the evolution happened so quickly. Usually it takes a while inside a cocoon of light. I can only imagine people's thoughts, both military and civilian, as the whale king descends out of the sky with reinforcements including a mechanical hound, mecha kong mark two million, and a weird raptor creature that can fuse with the big mechs.
I would like to know the perspective of the guy who kept dodging the command wolf's attacks. Character aside his skill is certainly worthy of respect and to be remembered. Though couldn't you have let the guy believe it was lost tech? It is technically correct, it is just alien lost tech which also happens to be living organisms. At the very least Comstar was kind enough to give us plenty of mechs to salvage including some thunderbolts and a king crab. Now we can combine their lost tech with our zoidian lost tech mwuahaha!
Is the Konig Wolf that the command wolf evolved into based off the Heavy Arms Konig Wolf or just the base version? It is kinda weird that the evolution happened so quickly. Usually it takes a while inside a cocoon of light. I can only imagine people's thoughts, both military and civilian, as the whale king descends out of the sky with reinforcements including a mechanical hound, mecha kong mark two million, and a weird raptor creature that can fuse with the big mechs.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
You are welcome and yep. ComStar does give a whole new meaning to customer service. It was more obvious when Waterly took over compared to what these guys did.
It is the Heavy Arms one but with a change where it is energy-based twin sniper instead of bullet ones. Also has strike laser claws.
No need for long cocoon time unless it was changing it to a much heavier or even a different species of zoids.
Yes, Interlude will have people staring. Although I'm surprised no one notice the ComStar spy in the chapter.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
To be fair there is a lot going on in this chapter so it is quite easy to miss the spy.
Really? I didn't think that the Blade Liger was that heavier than the Shield Liger. Same for the Genobreaker. I never got the sense that weight was a factor.
Is the switch to energy based snipers an attempt to conserve resources or that it is more effective on battlemechs?
Really? I didn't think that the Blade Liger was that heavier than the Shield Liger. Same for the Genobreaker. I never got the sense that weight was a factor.
Is the switch to energy based snipers an attempt to conserve resources or that it is more effective on battlemechs?
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- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
That is true, I hid it with a one-sentence mention of the agent's name.
Blade Liger is like 40 tons heavier than an Mk I Shield Liger. The reason Zeke took so long was a mixture of both needing healing if my memory is correct and Fiona awakening her memory.
Energy-based snipers were due to my SI subconscious needs. They don't have a super range like a Gun Sniper's tail but it still has a range about 1.5 times greater than the EC.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
Darn you Gundams and other mech shows with your obsession with beam weaponry and space combat! On a more serious note I asked because generally artillery is better for terrestrial environments than beam weaponry which is why zoids generally have high amounts of artillery in comparison to beam weaponry. So I find the change to be a bit odd. Can't really argue with the subconscious on the inherent cool factor though.
I never realized that the Blade Liger was that heavier than the Shield Liger. So was Raven's Genosaur's cocoon also due to the weight? Because I do know that the orange color of the Genobreaker is due to Hiltz's interference.
I never realized that the Blade Liger was that heavier than the Shield Liger. So was Raven's Genosaur's cocoon also due to the weight? Because I do know that the orange color of the Genobreaker is due to Hiltz's interference.
AldariSiradla
Knight of the Fountain Pen
The cavalry's here!
And C* shows a portion of their hand...
Oh the events to come would be glorious.
And C* shows a portion of their hand...
Oh the events to come would be glorious.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
It actually less on the Gundam beam weapon and more on resource. Why use ammo when you can just cycle a charge up? Of course they have disadvantages such as energy dispersed in the atmosphere but it cheaper than firing bullets. Missiles can track so they are worth their money.
And brown pants are passed around.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
While Zi based materials are certainly rare and that is an advantage, in terrestrial environments kinetic weaponry is just better. The shell won't suffer rapid losses in energy, they have a greater physical impact, they have far greater range, and are actually more energy efficient as beam weaponry have to poor in a lot more energy to push through the various environmental factors that disperses the energy. There is a very good reason why kinetic weaponry is very prominent in Zoids.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
I know that. Just pointing out resource limitations. It would take a bit before more kinetic weapons appear due to the limits Ted amount of Zi metal. Of course if they have power adaptors like most zoids then they could just add in BT autocannons until they can get Zi based ones.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Update on the upcoming interlude. It might be ready by Saturday as I gotta give time for the Beta to check over. It's not too long and mainly goes over some POV we didn't see as well as what happens.
I do need someone to help me come up with a decent upgrade for the Swordsman. An upgraded one that can weigh anywhere from 40-50 tons. Trying to make a nation more independent requires so much research. Oh god, so much. At least the AC hasn't suffered too much damage.
I do need someone to help me come up with a decent upgrade for the Swordsman. An upgraded one that can weigh anywhere from 40-50 tons. Trying to make a nation more independent requires so much research. Oh god, so much. At least the AC hasn't suffered too much damage.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
After doing a little bit of research, and by little bit I mean I found one podcast talking about it, I would suggest improving the speed and maneuverability of the Swordsman, improve the targeting, increase the armor and thus weight to 50 tons to make it a mini thunderbolt, utilize those zoid based connectors for ease of swapping weapon loadouts, adding two pairs of mantis style blades, extra shielding on the auto cannon near the head, and a ridiculous number of jump jets allowing for ludacrisly high jumps and short hover capabilities thereby transforming the Swordsman into a mech version of a final fantasy dragoon. The jump height also helps with long range and surveillance variants. On the side I would suggest researching battle armor to better protect your pilots particularly those in guntanks. Due to being defensive power armor they could feasibly integrate into the guntank itself without sacrificing their defensive purpose, as well as drones fittingly enough shaped like animals.
For the galactic force itself I would suggest focusing on transportation and architecture/construction. That way it would be difficult for an outside source to disrupt trade and the deliverance of resources, and structures destroyed can be rebuilt in record time. I would also suggest having the planets be on some level autonomous. They are planets not states so it is best to treat them as such. A lot of the issues in Battletech I think comes from a lack of understanding scale.
For the galactic force itself I would suggest focusing on transportation and architecture/construction. That way it would be difficult for an outside source to disrupt trade and the deliverance of resources, and structures destroyed can be rebuilt in record time. I would also suggest having the planets be on some level autonomous. They are planets not states so it is best to treat them as such. A lot of the issues in Battletech I think comes from a lack of understanding scale.
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