This story was received at the ComStar Alpha
Station of Dieron, by way of Luthien, in the Draconis
Combine on June 28th 3050. The anonymously hanctwritten
diary was accompanied by a generous tithe in the name of
Our Blessed Order with the following request: that it be
published in the ComStar Monthly Reader, and made
generally available to the citizens of the InnerSphere. While
ComStar is not in the practice of granting every petitioner's
request, the information presented in the diary was of a
suitable vital nature that it was decided by certain members
of the First Circuit that it merited publication. What follows is
the complete, unedited transcript as received by ComStar on
the date mentioned.
From the Offices of Precentor Dieron New Denver City, Dieron , DC July 25, 3052
Those who've seen the Clans fight up close will bear this record out, and those who haven't will fearto believe it. As God is my witness, every word is the truth.
I'm a mercenary who has fought for a dozen different flags since I came of fighting age, so what I don't know about 'Mechs and mercs isn't worth knowing. Most mercs hate the Draconis Combine, especially those who sympathize with Wolf's Dragoons and the treatment they received at the hands of the Coordinator a few years back.
My policy has always been that holding a grudge is just bad business, and the Kanrei pays well for reliable bushi. The band I was with had done well enough so we could fight where we pleased (rumor had it that Captain Rhodes was independently wealthy), and the fighting was good in the Combine after the War of 3039. We called ourselves the Redcoat Renegades, but you probably never heard of us. We never carried more than a company of 'Mechs on our roster at any one time.
Our captain was Ricky Rhodes. Captain Rhodes would have been older than God K God were a MechWarrior. You've never seen a more ancient character climb into the cockpit of a'Mech. The first time I met him, I kept expecting him to have a cardiac arrest. He and I jawed for two hours over serious drinks while he thought over signing me up for the Renegades. Rhodes used to tell me how he used to wear a blade which he said had been presented to him by Coordinator Hohiro Kurita back in 3001, but the weight got to be too much on his old bones.
He still handled a laser pistol like a twenty-year old gunslinger. Rhodes had moments of humor, but he was generally mean-spirited, stubborn, and very professional. As long as I knew him, he'd never been beaten in a fair fight. That's all that a mercenary who enjoys waking up in the morning really wants from a leader.
Captain Rhodes hired only the best, since he could afford the most elite MechWarriors of the Inner Sphere. That kind of warrior doesn't come around looking for word every day, but Rhodes had connections to most of the best merc units, connections on Outreach and Galatea, and he'd even talked a few House warriors into taking early retirement to join him.
Lieutenant Savich, for example, was a LCAF officer from the Isle of Skye who had decided that he didn't like working for the Fox and his brood. Hecould have been a Colonel in any unit in the Inner Sphere, but he liked Ricky's style. Besides, the Renegades weren't likely to be working for the Federated Commonwealth any time soon.
I joined up with the Renegades in the summer of 3041, coming off of a five year tour with Hansen's Roughriders. I'd liked working for the 'Riders, but there had been a serious misunderstanding which made my departure the best plan for all concerned. Rhodes was auditioning recruits on the capital world of the Free Rasalhague Republic, Rasalhague itself . From what I heard later from other Redcoats,
I beat out a captain from the Proserpina Hussars and a Twenty First Centauri Lancer major to get my spot. I didn't have a 'Mech, but Rhodes didn't seem even to consider that. In fact, the minute I signed the Standard Mercenary's Agreement, Captain Rhodes asked me, right out of the blue, what kind of 'Mech I had always wanted to pilot. Incidentally, the SMA states that the mercenary agrees to fight, even to die, for the unit as long as he draws a steady paycheck.
Well, the thought of choosing from any 'Mech design in the Inner Sphere was totally alien to me. I had been Dispossessed twice, through no proven fault of my own, mind you, or Rhodes and I wouldn't have been having such a pilot conversation. I'd have been glad to find myself in any cockpit. Naturally, I thought I had misunderstood him. so I asked what kind of work the unit usually did.
"Reconnaissance in force," said Captain Rhodes.
"Oh," I said, thinking that I understood him now, "The best recon 'Mech I ever piloted was a Locust with the machine guns taken out to make room for an SRM short rack. But I'd settle for a Locust in the standard configuration if you've got one lying around."
"Boy," Captain Rhodes said, looking me square in the eye, "I ain't talking about juked-up toy 'Mechs and joy rides through unfriendly neighborhoods. Where you're going, a Locust wouldn't last you three seconds. I'm talking firepower and mobility. Old tech or new tech. If it can be got on the open market, that's great. If it can be got with special permission frorn a House arsenal, then I've got a few favors I can swap. If it can't be gotten from anywhere but the other side of the Sphere, that'll take a little longer, but I'll find you one. Now, what's your pleasure?"
"You must be kidding, sir!"
"Don't waste my time, boy. At my age, time's the one thing I can't afford. Pick something over sixty tons and let's go find a dealer."
I was starting to feel cocky, or maybe it was the ninth 'Hague-style PPC he'd treated me to. So I got up my nerve, took a deep breath, and gushed out:
"I'll take a Guillotine. Seventy tons, jump jets with 120meter range, fiver lasers, an ER large and four mediums! SRM six-pack, and CASE with twelve tons of ammo over an Endo-Steel skeleton. It's produced exclusively by Irian BattleMechs Unlimited for the Free Worlds League."
When he hesitated, I dug out the wrinkled promotional photo I'd been keeping in my wallet and handed it to him. I held my breath, wafting for the refusal which was sure to follow.
"Oh, yeah," he said, holding it in his yellowish fingers and nodding his bald head, "..one of those. Good choice, actually. You might have saved yourself some trouble and picked a 'Mech that's seen service since Kerensky knocked heads with The Usurper. But I've always let my people have all the rope they need to hang themselves, which hasn't happened yet. I know a guy who's got connections on Atreus. It'll take a couple of months, depending on the winds of trade between Irian and Rasalhague. In the meantime, I'll send for simulator data from a unit that's worked for the Marik recently and you can get to work."
I couldn't believe my ears. This guy could have been Saint Nicholas and the Easter Bunny rolled into one, if either of those bums could transport BattleMechs across borders like Ricky Rhodes. I was still a little skeptical, but that faded as soon as I strapped myself into a simulator loaded with the latest technical readouts on the GLT-5M Guillotine. It was then that I found out what I had gotten myself into.
The Guillotine was one of those rarest breeds of 'Mechs; a heavy with jump jets. Most pilots wouldn't even attempt to control such a monster, and everyone lived in terror of meeting things like this on the battlefield. But that was just what appealed to me about them. I'd met pilots of GrassHoppers, Quickdraws, and Catapufts. I even once met the pilot of the Victor, once the king of the 'flying heavies' before Jaime Wolf started distributing Marauder II's to his buddies in Miller's Marauders. The Guillotine combined mobility and firepower in a way that made it the ideal machine for Its weight class.
All of this made it extremely difficult to get a handle on. I spent weeks learning to jump and fire six weapons simultaneously. By the time I could make it around the holographic obstacle course without somersaulting and crushing the cockpit, Rhodes was sneaking enemy 'Mechs into the training session. The first time I crossed the finish line inside of the time allowed, Rhodes had a company of Locusts standing there wafting for me. I guess it was his little joke, because they tore me to pieces while I was still trying to bring the ER large laser mounted in my left arm to bear. In time, I was able to evade the whole company as it pursued me from start to finish, sniping at me from behind hills and trees. Once I even managed to takeout half of them without missing a step.
So Rhodes dumped a company of Wolverines into the picture, and I found that I couldn't stand and fight if I wanted to get away in one piece. Even though they were faster than me, I learned to split them up and tag them as they chased after me until I finally lost them. Once I'd mastered that, Rhodes sent in one more company, this time BattleMasters. I was lucky to survive five seconds with an assault battalion out hunting me. Once I got out of their sight, though, I learned to use natural cover to cloak my process.
After three months, I was able to cross the finish line without firing a shot in return. Rhodes handed me my unit insignia and walked me out to the 'Mech bay he'd been renting. That was the first time I actually saw the BattleMech that I'd been piloting in my dreams.
After my inagural test run, I asked Rhodes why he'd made the tests so nearly impossible. I had never experienced that level of training in any of the merc units I'd worked with before. I wondered what he was trying to train me to do.
"Reconnaissance in force, boy. Reconnaissance in force," said Captain Rhodes.
Over the next nine years, I learned exactly what "Reconnaissance in force" meant. Ricky Rhodes and his Redcoat Renegades were an elite BattleMech commando outfit, and that made us the most specialized until in the Inner Sphere, next to larger units like Wolf's Dragoons Seventh Kommando and the now defunct Capellan Death Commandos.
We charged a high fee, but there were plenty of politicians ready to pay our price when important lives or state security were on the line. Our unit had the virtue of being a total unknown outside of the highest echelons of government. One notable job we pulled involved a raid on the Capellan world Grand Base to interrupt Chancellor Romano Liao's plans to sack and burn a certain world in the St Ives Compact. Our appearance unnerved her elite House Units so much that the deaths of culpable subordinates were still being reported two years after the raid.
Our tactics so impressed Kanrei Theodore Kurita that he hired us to raid Santander's World to teach the pirate king a lesson. Before we could carry out that mission, worlds began failing silent on the Periphery; heads of government got very worried, and wanted any intelligence available. The problem was that no useful intelligence was coming from the units who had been forced to beat a hasty retreat in the Rasalhague Republic, Federated Commonwealth, and Draconis Combine. Almost simultaneously, Captain Rhodes received requests from three different top officials to attend them on their home worlds. Rhodes decided to make the short hop to Luthien to talk shop with the Kanrei first.
May of 3050 found the borders of the Combine closer to Luthien than anyone had expected. The capital of the Draconis Combine was in an uproar over the heir to the Dragon's capture on Turtle Bay, but Rhodes seemed confident that Theodore would deliver his son in short order. Captain Rhodes held private conference with both the Kanreiand the Coordinator, the latter out of respect for their past relationship. In the end, it was decided that the Renegades would visit the world of Bjarred in the Pesht District, presently under the thumb of the Smoke Jaguars. Bjarred is approximately six jurrips from Luthien, meaning that our unit's JumpShip couldn't arrive in-system until August, by which time the Clans could have reached Albiero at their current rate of progress. So the Kanrei arranged a command circuit which ideallywould have us back on Luthien by the end of June.
As always, the mission was "Reconnaissance in Force". To facilitate our arrival on a Clan-occupied world, the Kanrei signed a mercenary AeroSpace company, with whom the Renegades had worked successfully before, and a Leopard-CV class DropShip. In addition, we picked up a Leopard class DropShip two Jumps out from Bjarred, which was intended to transport any Clan 'Mechs we happened to find lying around on Bjarred. Included in the crew of this ship were four gentlemen with interesting tattoos and similar accents who assured us that there wasn't a 'Mech security system in existence that they couldn't penetrate.
Making the run to the planet was a snap. I've got only one word for the Clan second line fighter jocks: ineffectual. They sent an air battalion out to deal with our arriving AeroSpace contingent, which included a lance each of Stukas, Reivers, Slayers, Chippewas, and Shilones, plus the Union, Leopard, and Leopard- CV class DropShips. Sincewe never saw anything butthoseweird designs which first appeared, I figure we wiped out their whole air contingent on arrival. Bjarred was already a subdued world, so the Smoke Jaguars' interstellar battlewagon, the one that roasted Edo on Turtle Bay, was off creating mayhem somewhere else, just like we'd hoped.
We lost three fighters and a few weapons systems on our DropShips in achieving air superiodty, but we were then able to scout and drop bomb loads with impunity. The bombers dusted the airfield outside of Kango, the capital city, just to keep the ground forces busy. We don't know whose property it was, but we figured that the Clans would foot the bill for the dozen or so DropShips that we plastered. In the meantime, the Renegades made an orbital insertion into the low hills to the north of Kango and proceeded to enter the city.
Captain Rhodes was riding his BNC-Banshee at the head of the company, a top-of-the-line 'Mech purchased recently from the Federated Commonwealth. Unlike just about every MechWarrior in the Sphere, Rhodes changed his 'Mech as often as he changed jobs. He favored factory condition 'Mechs to blooded ones, and the ones he returned from battle with usually received a higher resale price. In the case of the Banshee, the FedCom designers were hoping that with Ricky's stamp of approval on it, the previously unpopular design would have an easier time making sales.
Lieutenant Juan Jaco, his second-in-command, drove a CP 11-A Cyclops which carried the DCMS's latest innovation, a C3 computer. To make room for it in the Cyclops, Jaco had downgraded his LRM 10-rack to a 5-rack and dropped a ton of ammo. This gave the Redcoats'command lance the fire coordination which would give us an advantage in spread-out fighting. The equipment links required that the Banshee drop the small lasers in chest and forehead, Havermack's BLR-3M BattleMaster dropped a medium laser from its right side, and Butcher's CGR-3K Charger downgraded a pulse laser to a standard laser.
The fire lance was led by a CRD-5M Crusader. Filling out the lance was an RFL-5M Rifleman, and ARC-4M Archer, and an ON-1M Orion. I was Lieutenant Savich's wingman, which placed me in the rearguard of the Rapid Advance Team (RAT). At the head of the RAT was a GHR5J Grasshopper and a MAD-513 Marauder. Then came Savich's VTR-9K Victor and my Guillotine. Our heavy lance was fully jump-capable, and that had surprised more than one enemy lance over the years.
The plan was for the RAT to advance by twos, one 'Mech protecting the advance of his wingman, while command and fire lance held open an escape route through the hills. We entered the city's outskirts wfthout challenge, just sending a few civilians scurrying indoors. I was grateful to see no evidence of a massacre like that which occurred on Turtle Bay, for which the Kanrei promised to make the Smoke Jaguars pay dearly. Civilians rarely knew what to make of our 'Mechs when they appear suddenly and in unexpected places. We weren't exactly waving the red and black banner of the Dragon. The red and blue crest our 'Mechs bear is virtually unknown, so they may have thought we were a new Clan.
MAG scan is useless in a modern city, and Infra-red can be thrown off by industrial facilities. We relied on satellite imaging, tight-beamed to us from the Cyclops, but that soon was blocked by the outlying buildings. So we navigated by the road maps programmed into our 'Mechs by Combine techs, looking for the city's armory. The immediate plan was to sneak in and steal some Clan 'Mechs, then liberate a few upstanding citizens and take them back to report to their master on Luthien.
The shifty types we had brought along to pull the job were riding in the jump-seats behind the RAT pilots. They wore unconnected cooling vests and neurohelmets in anticipation of the theft. We turned the last corner and came in sight of the armory, Before us was the 'Mech yard, where four machines stood idle. Two were Clan designs common to the Smoke Jaguars, known as Koshi and Daishi to the Combine High Command, but the other two were well known in the Inner Sphere, a Phoenix Hawk and an Ostscout.
I will explain later how we acquired the nomenclature and technical data on Clans that I will use hereafter. The unit appeared to be a command lance, since the one hundred ton Daishi was probably a battalion commander's 'Mech, and the light 'Mechs were his scouts. I didn't know it at the time, but Clan lances are called Stars and consist of five'Mechs, or points, instead of the usual four. One of the 'Mechs in this Star was missing, but I had other things to worry about just then.
Walking patrol in the yard were about ten of the powered suits, called Elementals, which already had a bad reputation for tenacity in battle. Seeing the Grasshopper and Victor appear, they sounded an alarm and began to swarm towards us.
The lead 'Mechs flinched at seeing the insect-like attackers and leaped away from the flying infantry. When I turned the corner, I saw the Lieutenant tag a suit with a pulse laser, but the thing just shook it off. The Grasshopper lived up to its name, never stopping long enough for the tiny metallic clawsof the defenders to catch on. I triggered a full salvo of lasers and SRMs, and was astonished to see only a pair of SRMs find targets. Soon I was hopping around like the others, trying to get out of the range of their small lasers and the SRM rounds which erupted on every side. The closeness of the buildings made it impossible to avoid their weapons and still provide fire support for my lance mates.
I had leapt the standing Clan 'Mechs and was trying to split the two points of infantry when I spotted a fifth Clan 'mech moving fast down a side street toward the fight. I had broad shoulders, backward-canted legs, and a protruding torso assembly. It was what we now call a Vulture. I radioed a warning to the Victor, but then two more points of infantry appeared to either side of me so that I was surrounded on three sides. The Marauder leapt expertly through the air to take the pressure off my front quarter. A well-time kick by one of its claw-like feet sent one of the little buggers arrowing through a Savings and Loan.
I tried a kick myself when a suit got too close but I slipped and sent my 'Mech crashing to the street. I had plugged one of their men or they would have been quicker to swarm.
In the meantime, the Victor had leapt a building to bring it face to face with the astonished Vulture. I say astonished because the Vulture pilot, who must have been a little inexperienced with non-simulated combat, triggered all his weapons simultaneously. Large and medium pulse lasers melted armor from the Victor's chest and left arm. Only half of a rack of the Vulture's two LRM 20s impacted the assault 'Mech, even though the Clans don't seem to have any problem targeting LRMs at close range. The Victor returned fire with its Gauss Rifle, medium pulsers, and SRM quad rack, exposing the Vulture's left torso to internal damage.
The Lieutenant was surprised then, to see the Vulture freeze as its computer automatically shut down the fusion reactor to deal with the incredible heat buildup. Every MechWarrior knows that when an enemy 'Mech freezes, you stop, take aim at its head, and make a quick end to it. Lieutenant Savich had a number of kills to his name, so he did just that. The Gauss Rifle took the head off cleanly, and then the lasers just made a mess of the torso. But two previously undetected points of Elementals had seen the Victor about to finish off one of their own and popped up behind the preoccupied machine, appearing in its blind spot.
At close range, the suits' small lasers shredded the ar or on the Victor's back and arms, opening holes which soon were followed by a score of SRMs. The Lieutenant dived to the street after taking the full laser barrage and managed to avoid most of the deadly fire blossoms, which detonated instead on the headless Vulture and caused it to topple. The Victor then made a hasty exit through an adjacent building in the attempt to reach its command.
By now, the Marauder and Grasshopper were teaming up to swat down swarming Elementals point by point. I extricated myself from a nasty position by leaning on the jump jet pedals, then my Guillotine joined them in a trio. We would surround a group of five suits and pick them apart with laser and PPC fire, then step on any survivors. One managed to avoid the feet of the Marauder and Grasshopper only to make a pleasant squish under my 'Mech's toes. We polished off the remaining suits this way, but not before taking hits on every surface.
When the Victor appeared from the building standing across from the armory, it was covered in Elementals trying to claw their way into every surface. The assault 'Mech had lost a jump jet from missile damage to its back, but otherwise it was intact. The Lieutenant had to be carefuI not to scorch his own armor as he turned his arm lasers to burn off the parasites. We leapt, literally, to his aid and began pulling the suits off him. The Grasshopper took one and threw it a hundred meters distant before it righted itself on jets and returned to attach itself to he Victor's face plate. With a measure of frustrated deliberation, the Hopper recaptured the Elemental and kneeled, holding the struggling form between its fingers while the Marauder stepped on it.
Having finally seen the last of the defenders, we walked
our savaged 'Mechs over to stand next to the wafting Clan 'Mechs.
In a flash, the yakuza were out of the hatches and leaping the gap
to land atop an enemy 'Mech's head. We wafted nervously, with
the siren still sounding, while the gangsters trained in high-tech
street crime broke the codes which protected the Clan 'Mechs and
powered up their fusion engines.
I was told to watch the armory, and I almost missed a soldier climbing out of a sewer grate. With incredible agility, he scrambled to the top of the Daishi; I barely had time to give the yakuza warning. We waited even more tensely then, prepared to blow the assault 'Mechs head off should our men be incapacitated and the Daishi be used against us. Then the yakuza radioed, with a great deal of hostility toward me personally, that the soldier, who was actually an off icer, had been subdued and was now providing information on operation of the 'Mech. As I listened to the muffled screams in the background, I did not doubt that the enemy officer had discovered how persuasive a modern DCMS warrior could be.
Once the machines were powered-up, we began making our way back through the city to the waiting Renegades. Almost as an afterthought, the Grasshopper picked up an Elemental whose suit had merely been melted and encased around him. We couldn't afford to involve our new 'Mech acquisitions in combat, for knowledge of Clan technology had top priority for the Kanrei. Even the Ostscout contained enough valuable information on Clan electronic warfare that it had to be preserved at all costs. Secretly I hoped that the yakuza were as competent in 'Mech fighting as armed robbery, because I feared that the need for these unscathed 'Mechs would arise shortly. The Daishi slowed our unit down dangerously, but of all the 'Mechs it was the greatest prize, and the one which would instill the greatest fear in our enemy if it departed with us.
We started receiving the Cyclops's satellite reconnaissance, and knew that we had passed the first test. But an enlargement of the telemetry showed that at least a company of "Mechs had picked up our trail, and were organizing the hunt back at the armory.
Among them was what appeared to be another Daishi and some Masakari. The Rapid Advance Team and the unit designated Team Delta broke from the cover of the buildings and hit top running speed, heading for the hills. As we passed the first rise, Captain Rhodes' Banshee rose and began running along my right side, while the Cyclops flanked me on the left.
Ahead was the fire lance, running as quickly as the rest of us, and pounding an unmistakable trail into the rocky soil. We were all headed for a large mining operation ten kilometers to the north. Because of the Clan assault 'Mech, it was going to take us eleven minutes to reach the kilometer-wide, man-made valley where Rhodes had told the DropShips to pick us up. Eleven minutes gave any faster "Mechs that the Clans had nearby a chance to engage us, but we couldn't afford to slow down and fight them on even footing. If we did, the Smoke Jaguars could anticipate our destination and lay an ambush, but not before destroying our DropShips and stranding us on this backwater planet. If worse came to worse, I thought, Rhodes would order us to abandon the Daishi and leave the warrior to destroy the 'Mech and himself.
Observing the machines newly added to his company, Rhodes decided that it would be a waste not to take advantage of their capabilities. The Ostscout was unarmed, fitted with Target Acquisition Gear by the Clans, but it was faster than any 'Mech in the Inner Sphere and capable of relaying data on enemy positions through the satellite link. So Rhodes sent it ahead to ensure that the drop zone was unoccupied and sent the Phoenix Hawk and the Koshi to follow it as quickly as possible. With our forces thus spread out more effectively, the Charger took point, and the company raced on.
Bjarred is a barren world with a scorching sun that permits no standing water on the surface. Instead, the planet is crisscrossed by vast underground waterways over which the worlds inhabitants have built their cities. Growing above these subterranean rivers are forests of greenery which contrast sharply with the mountainous terrain. The forests crowd these narrow strips of moist soil in such a dense fashion that 'Mechs could cross them but slowly.
The road we were following to the mines was actually an extinct river that had been dry for thousands of years, causing all Its vegetation to wither and leave a wide, barren scar. At one point the road intersected and crossed a healthier forest where man had made and maintained his own road at great expense.
Five minutes into the run, the Ostscout radioed its first contact, the five-'Mech lances of Pumas and Black Hawks, each lead by a Koshi, approaching from the east. This was confirmed by our own Koshi operating its Clan-made Active Probe, which meant that our Koshi had in turn been spotted. The scout lance easily evaded the pursuit, which was slowed by the Black Hawks. Instead, the Jaguars turned to intercept our company.
They reached the road we were on and raced headlong toward us. The danger now was that they would either force some of us to stop and engage or they would pursue us closely and pick us apart from behind. We closed ranks around the Daishi and prepared to receive them.
At the speed we were closing the distance between us, the change from extreme to close range would be a matter of seconds. The Clan Pumas opened up with paired PPCs on our point 'Mech, who responded with a flight of LRMs. The Koshi pilots weren't as adept as their lance mates and their own LRMs went far too wide. But the Charger was savaged, first by the coruscating lightning bolts and then by the incredible arrays of medium lasers on the Black Hawks. The Charger was stripped from head to toe and only managed a laser strike in return.
By this point, the company had achieved firing range and our skill was quite a shock to the Jaguars. The Charger, as I mentioned before, was tied in to a Command/Control/ Communications computer mounted in the Cyclops which enabled the command lance to target the lead Black Hawk as if at close range. Captain Rhodes struck with Gauss Rif le and PPC, the Cyclops with Gauss and LRMs, and the BattleMaster with its PPC. The Hawk's right arm disintegrated, along with most of its chest. The engine must have taken hits, because the machine turned white hot on infrared and crashed to the ground.
The RAT Lance, which was following closely on the heels of the Charger, pumped Gauss slugs, lasers, PPCs and LRMs into the lead elements, shearing the arm off a Puma. I was bouncing all over the road, trying to target the Black Hawks which turned to attack the Daishi. One turned his back to me and I got a clear back shot, with with little effect. The Orion and Rifleman hafted before the charging Hawks to prevent their having a clear shot at our prize.
The Hawks poured their full firepower into the weaker Rif leman, sending rivers of molten armor pouring into the rocky soil and causing engine damage. In response, the pair of heavies pumped the new LB 10-X shotgun shells and double-fire Ultra autocannon shells into the lead Hawk, piercing its armor in a dozen places. The command lance then teamed up through the C3 links to ravage the remaining Black Hawk, which sustained gyro hits and went sprawling.
All the missile-equipped 'Mechs in the company joined in the secondary attack which sent hundreds of LRMs raining down on the first fallen Black Hawk, blasting bits of high-tech 'Mech junk all over the road.
A Koshi drifted too close to Lieutenant Savich on jump jets, trying to reach the Daishi. The Victor, rotating on crimson jets of super-heated mercury, speared the light Clan 'Mech mid-flight, dead center, with its Gauss Rifle. I won't even mention what the Marauder, Grasshopper, and Charger were doing to the more lightly armored Pumas, who seemed to drop like flies.
Through all this, the Daishi never missed a stride and remained nearly undamaged. The yakuza was having trouble targeting the strange Clan weapons, but had managed to deal out some punishment to a desperate Puma which had disintegrated trying to impede its progress. The faster'Mechs lagged behind to finish off the Jaguar scouts and then caught up to the company. Our Rifleman and Charger wouldn't survive any more head-on attacks, but we still had several 'Mechs in mint condition, including mine. The Archer took point because of its healthy armor. Things were looking up as the mine valley drew closer and closer with each passing second.
When the Ostscout radioed that an ambush had been detected ahead, my heart sank into the floor. I started getting that cold and clammy feeling which always precedes a hairy fight. I knew that if we could break through this last barrier, we were home free. That was the biggest 'if ' I'd ever 'iffed'.
A Clan lance of heavy Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs had set up a defensive position in the forest through which our road crossed before it rose into the mountains where the mine was located. A new danger chose this moment to occur to me. If the Clans had any artillery pieces in range of the mine, the lance ahead could spot the DropShips as they landed and call down fire, ending this mission in quick order.
We couldn't just bypass; we had to rub that lance out. I told Captain Rhodes what was on my mind and, as usual, he was three steps ahead of me. Just for good measure, the Cyclops reported that the battalion which had been pursuing us since we left Kango was still three kilometers behind us. That meant a three-minute margin between reaching the DropShips and blasting off. Now we had two enemies, the Smoke Jaguars and time.
Rhodes committed our remaining AeroSpace fighters, which were operating out of the orbiting Leopard-CV, to slowing down our pursuit, giving us the time to deal with the blockade. The fighters harassed the Smoke Jaguar battalion, bombing and strafing. They took losses from the heavy return ground fire and were forced to withdraw. All in all, they bought us about two minutes, which was a blessing in itself.
We took up an arrowhead formation, with our Archer and Charger at the point, three "Mechs fanned to either side, and four 'Mechs running close alongside the Daishi. The scouts had been allowed to bypass the ambush unmolested. Perhaps the Clan pilots didn't think we were aware of them and didn't feel like wasting ammo on small fry. We knew the 'Mechs were hidden in the forest ahead, but the data we had was a couple minutes old when the gigantic stands of ancient tirriber began to crowd us on both sides of the road.
I was on the left side of the arrowhead formation, running directly alongside the dense foliage. My first indication of the trap came when a Ryoken stepped out of the unexceptional patch of forest I had just passed and maneuvered behind the four guard 'Mechs. We were taken totally by surprise, but our formation still made it difficult for the Jaguars to get a clear shot.
The BattleMaster and Banshee triggered their rear-firing lasers, but the response of the Ryoken and Masakari was more potent. A fire bloom erupted on the hunched back of the Daishi as it blundered madly forward trying to escape is tormentors. The thick armor protected it from the first salvo of PPCs and lasers, but its legs and back were bared in places. Two Vultures then appeared where the forest ended ahead and began lobbing LRMs over the head of the Archer in an attempt to reach our prize.
The Archer was well-equipped to fight a long-range duel and answered in kind, its Artemis IV Fire Control System causing better-than-average missile hits which the Vultures could not match. The left wing swept forward to deal with the road block, while the jump-capable right wing leapt to place itself between the rear-guard Jaguars and the Clan assault 'Mech. Captain Rhodes and Havermack surprised the attackers by back-pedalling to place the Banshee and BattleMaster behind the two Ryoken and the Masakari.
That maneuver put the Jaguars in a deadly crossfire. The less intimidating Crusader anchored the other end of the crossfire, so the Jaguars pounded it mercilessly. But the heavy 'Mech had been undamaged to begin with; it survived their assault without serious injury. The Rifleman, with its obvious battle scars, made another tempting target as it zigzagged across the road. But the ancient veteran of all great battles proved itself once again by suffering only some engine damage and a frozen right shoulder when the Masakari showed it some attention.
The Orion tagged a Ryoken with a NARC homing missile, another new invention which improved the performance of the Fire Lance's missiles. The Ryoken suffered under a hail of homing missiles but its partner dashed its way through our defenses to put a full brace of lasers in the side of the Daishi. The 100-ton 'Mech stumbled under the fire and gouged a deep crater in the road where it fell. Despite our best efforts, the battle was on the edge of being lost. The yakuza pilot struggled to get the machine upright while we made one last attempt to save it. The Vultures squatted and launched their missiles, feasting on the fallen prey.
Showers of missiles rained down on the Daishi, which had briefly regained its feet only to lose them altogether. The Ryoken, with its last dying breath, poured pulse laser fire into the burning carcass. The Masaka did not join in the harvest, for it had shut down after spitting one last lightning bolt curse at the BattleMaster, which subsequently claimed its head. The Daishi split in the middle as the unshielded fusion reactor melted its way through a thousand years of technological development and exploded. The yakuza and his prisoner were killed in an instant.
The Vultures, having overloaded their heat sinks with the final assault, were savaged by the Archer and Charger. In the process, the Charger suffered; its leg was blown off by a lucky shot. The pilot of that triumphant, and extremely hot, Vulture then decided that the day had been won. He popped his canopy and sailed high over the trees on his escaping command chair.
We completed the run to the mine and boarded our DropShips in under five minutes, leaving only the onelegged Charger and a dozen 'mech kills behind to mark our passage. When the pursuing battalion of Smoke Jaguars finally arrived, it was just in time to see two crimson columns of fire rising into the sky, far beyond the reach of their vengeance. All our 'Mech pilots were safe, and we had managed to steal one Clan 'Mech and two Clan-modified 'Mech designs.
We had captured only one prisoner of war, the hapless Elemental who had been picked up by the Grasshopper. I suppose that the ISF, the Combine security force, got some information out of him, despite being a pretty tough customer. I guess you'd have to be a real tough guy to attack BattleMechs with just a couple tons of titanium on your back. Anyway, he was impressed enough with the Renegades' performance that he told us the names of the 'Mechs we had beaten. He seemed to think that we owned him because we had beaten him in a fair fight. You can imagine his disappointment when the ISF agents showed up and carried him off without a word of protest from Captain Rhodes.
The Kanrei was not displeased with our results. He told Captain Rhodes that there would be other opportunities to capture the enemy's machines. I was afraid that would not happen before many more lives had been lost. Our superiors refused to consider the mission anything but a success, the first (unofficial) success against the Clans by any military organization in the Inner Sphere. I guess that's something.
Theodore Kurita has more plans for us, too. He wants to strike back at the Smoke Jaguars where it will hurt the most. He wants to set a trap for the battlewagon that massacred civilians on Turtle Bay. Catching it will require some more 'live' reconnaissance, if you take my meaning. That's where the Renegades come in. The Kanrei says, with only the smallest hint of humor, that Stefan Amaris whispered something to him in his dreams. Wouldn't it be funny if Kerensky's navy fell for the same trick twice? I shouldn't talk like that; grudges make for bad business.
I'd like to end this by saying that I am going to swear off of Guillotines. That 'Mech was nothing but bad luck from the word 'go'. I talked to the Captain about it, but he still says that I should make up my own mind. I think he knew it all along. For the future, I'm thinking along the lines of something sharp, something sweet, and something special. Anyone got an Axman for sale? Name your price.
Map is a computer simulation from the tactical computer files of the Redcoat Renegades. BattleTechnology thanks the Redcoats and Captain Rhodes for permission to print.
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