“Come back to bed, Gunshow, please?” one of the half-awake harlots moans.
“Not right now, sugar, daddy’s got work to do.”
I step into the briefing room only 2 minutes late, but it looks like the meeting has already begun. The only light in this darkened chamber is from the map projection, though that’s still enough to see the eyes looking back on me. Zvolimir and Sao-Shao Stoneblade are standing in the front next to the projection. In the first row of seats, I make out Sao-Wei Sphener. I take my position in the back most row. Zvolimir continues with the brief.
“We talked to the deuce (Intel); they said there is a possibility that some Davions would able to sneak in on the tails of some space debris that passed through the system two days ago. Shortly after the debris passed, we received the first seismic ping. When you take that into account, the chance of it being something hostile is too great to ignore.
“Keep in mind, we’re not 100% certain what we’re dealing with here, you know how twitchy the seismic sensors can be, but the magnetic ground sensors don’t lie. They logged three unidentified vehicles moving at approximately 75kph into a canyon network. The canyon’s primary exit dumps them right into the direction of Vientiane’s industrial corner. For all we know, these could be backpackers coming home from some hippy camping trip, but you two are going to head out there and get eyes on what comes out of that canyon.”
The map projection abruptly swivels around and zooms onto a point of terrain, halfway between the last known sensor readings and Vientiane.
“This is where you’re going to confront and identify whatever is out there, boys.”
“I’m a man.” I whisper to Sphener.
“You keep telling yourself that.” He looks back and quietly replies.
“Oh, well why don’t you meet me by the flagpole so I can whoop your…”
“Shutup and listen to the brief, Gunshow.” Zvolimir snaps before continuing on.
“Stoneblade will be the 6 (commander) for this mission.”
With that, the Sao-Shao takes over the brief.
“Alright guys. We’re going to assume the worst case scenario. Don’t leave anything to chance, so carry your full combat load out there. Gunshow, you’re going to step off in Sprinkles, your awesome Awesome.”
I slowly nod my head in deep approval.
“Sphener, you’ll support him in your Catapult, for whatever that’s worth.”
“Oh, very well then.” Sphener dejectedly replies.
“For support, medevac will be on standby out of Vientiane, and they’re looking at a 20 minute flight to the canyon." Stoneblade continues, "Their call sign will be Angel. IDF support is will also be on call, their call sign is Hammer. Keep in mind, the canyon is at the far limits of their effective range, so anything called in will have a substantial amount of air time. The QRF (quick reaction force) will not be in distance to save you guys if something goes wrong. If you fail, they’re going to be the primary defense for Vientiane.
“For any mechanical failures en route to the destination, the course of action will be….”
As he goes through the mandatory and more mundane details of the op, my mind wanders, thinking about the girls left behind in bed.
“It’s a three hour walk to your destination, so make sure you bring a sack lunch to tide you over. I don’t want either of you to get the hunger-grumps halfway through the op.” Stoneblade glances us over before giving us the 'go' sign.
“Alright, get to your 'mechs. You cross the LOD (line of departure) in 45.”
I mount the ladder and ascend into the cockpit. As I strap myself in, I notice a half-eaten cupcake on the left of my dashboard. Even though I know it’s two weeks old, I hold out hope that it’s still good.
I flip the red switch and everything comes alive with beeping, buzzing and talking. Each time I hear, “weapon systems online”, my juices start to flow.
“Gunshow, 6.”
“Go for 6.” comes the curt reply from the Command Tower.
“All systems online and nominal, break - I request permission to depart friendly lines, over.”
“6, Gunshow, permission granted.”
I slowly push the throttle forward, and look out to the bay mechanics beneath me to see them saluting, celebrating and cheering in utter jubilation as I depart. Only a few of them were giving me the middle finger as I departed. I cross the threshold of the large doors where I see Sphener and his petite Catapult waiting for me.
“This mission is just another chance for him to ride on the coat tails of my glory”, I think to myself.
In reflective silence, we begin our journey to the canyon.
“Gunshow, Stoneblade.” I call back to Command.
“Send your traffic, Gunshow.” Stoneblade's voice returns, crackling through the comms-line.
“Sphener and Gunshow are on station, break, we are opening a bag of potato chips to camp and wait. How copy, over.”
“I read that Gunshow. Enjoy the chips. Over and out.”
I turn to my partner and gently antagonize him. “Sphener, you take position behind a rock, where you belong, about 300 meters to my right. Just cover my back.”
“Don’t worry, Guns, I won’t let you down.”
“Whatever.”
Almost a half hour passes and I suddenly hear a random, solitary beep. The quick noise, although soft in tone, may as well have been an explosion in the cockpit.
“You see that on seismic, Sphener?”
“What? I was asleep, Gunshow. What happened?”“I got a contact. Look alive!”
Beep….beep….beep, beep, beep.
“Three contacts. Radio Stone, let him know the situation.”
“Roger, Gun.”
The multiple objects beeping suddenly pause before coming into the open. Then there is one beep, slowly moving toward the entrance. As it nears, my radar and sensors go crazy.
“Sphener, they have ECM. I’m being jammed, you got anything?”
No reply. The sensors must be jamming both sensors and comms. I keep an eye on the entrance, remaining perfectly still.
Out peeks a lone Raven, clearly marked in Davion red, white and blue. It is investigating the exit to make sure all is clear. All is not clear, for them.
Before the Raven even realizes that he’s stepping into an ambush, I let my four medium pulse lasers burn into his torso. He quickly panics, firing a blue beam of large laser fire in my general direction as he pulls back into the canyon. Half of the beam ends up torching the canyon in front of him as he makes his retreat. Undisciplined amateur.
Expecting his posse to come running through the same exit, I was momentarily startled by the sight of a Cataphract and Trebuchet jumping out of the canyon, barely 300 meters in front of me. As soon as they crest the ridge, I am under fire.
Under the searing barrage of medium lasers, I can also feel AC-5’s impacting across my Sprinkles; I let the enemy Cataphract get a taste of my bosoms. My dual PPC’s blast right into the front of the Cataphract, and follows that with a rapid burst of pulse laser fire.
The show of power had shaken the Davion pilot and he steers away from me, right into the guns of Sphener. His UAC-5’s repeatedly smash into their target, and from the corner of my eye I see the unmistakable sight of a Cataphract’s right arm flying through the air as it’s sheared off by the Sphener’s unrelenting fire. Meanwhile, I still have a 50 ton nuisance barraging me with SRM’s and laser burns.
The pilot is clearly more experienced. He’s holding his fire until he has my weakest points in sight. I'm having trouble getting the nimble bastard in my reticle, so I put Sprinkles in full reverse and pull hard to the right. After just a few moments, the Trebuchet glides into my HUD and I begin to chain fire a steady stream of pulsing lasers at him. Under pressure from my sustained retaliation, I finally force the enemy to turn and pull away from me.
My poor Sprinkles has sustained heavy damage to everything left of center. The good news is that everything right of center, where the majority of my firepower lies, is still in great shape. Before I can even finish my damage assessment, I see the Trebuchet has turned back for another dance. He's making sure to protect his damaged pieces. This time he also brought his little buddy, the already laser-scarred Raven.
I take a crushing volley of SRM fire from the enemy pilots. I hear an explosion, my power systems and lights flicker.
I recover, look up, and see an opportunity. The Raven pilot has made an egregious error. He peeled off in the wrong direction and put his back armor right in front of me. With all my remaining weapons, I fire.
The lasers beat the PPC to the target, paving the way for the heavy hitting energy projectile.
The enemy is sheared right down the middle. Components and Davion kibble are projected in all direction as the remaining larger chunks scatter forward with what momentum the Raven had. With comms back up, I radio to my partner.
“Blasted Sphener, where are you!?”
“I’m on my way, Guns! The Cataphract didn’t want to go down.”
The Trebuchet and I, like two exhausted boxers, begin to trade blows. Each of us hopes that the next hit will be the crippling strike. I fire my PPC, and though I'm too close for physical damage I am hoping to disrupt his electronic systems. Missing the Trebuchet, my projectile manages to strike Sphener’s left weapons’s pod, causing it to explode like a piñata.
Meh. Oh well.
Sphener, now about 400 meters away, opens fire with what little inadequate UAC-5 rounds he has remaining in his magazine. The veteran Davion’s concentration is broken by the inaccurate ballistic fire. He hesitates.
I level my three remaining pulse lasers right at his center torso and fire. Having no armor left to protect his guts, the strings for this puppet are clipped. His shattered 'mech collapses beneath him.
“How ya looking, Sphener?”
“I guess I’ve been better, no thanks to you.”
Then I see a glint, the movement of glass and metal at the cockpit of the Trebuchet. The pilot has survived.
“Great!” Sphener exclaims, “A prisoner! I’ll call for an Angel flight to pick him up!”
I remain silent.
“I’m sure we’ll get some great intel off of him.”
Sprinkles and I look down at the pathetic Davion. I swear he looks back at me, right into my eyes. He knows what is coming. I lift Sprinkle’s leg high, and her foot comes crashing down onto the scum.
“NOOOO, Gunshow! We could’ve learned about their future plans!” Sphener is truly concerned.
“He had…tickets.” I grumble.
Satisfied, I grab my cupcake and take a full, celebratory bite from it. I then set it gently back onto the dashboard. With a crumbs spilling from my mouth, I radio back to the COC (Command Operations Center).
“Stoneblade, this is Gunshow. Send for cleanup. Our work here is done, and we’re coming home.”
No comments:
Post a Comment