Too often, it is possible to forget that there are two sides in every battle. The enemy is perceived as a faceless target, an inanimate and unthinking thing which appears in a Mech's HUD reticles, then vanishes in flame and destruction. This illusion is reinforced by sessions in training simulators or in holographic training scenarios, where it is impossible to escape the sense that the opponents moves are no more than a computer's electronic jugglings, or the craftiness of a scenario referee. Military historian and author Greggson DuVall was able to compile the following BattleTips article by assembling both sides of tive story, interviewing pilots, Techs and eyewitnesses on both sides of a classic 'Mech-to-Mech action which occurred last year during a raid on Keid. The result is a combat story from two points of view... that of a Steiner Mech Warrior on a recon mission, and that of the Liao Mech Warrior whose mission was to stop him. It has been said that no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. This elementary maxim of warfare is illustrated by this contest of skill, wits, and courage amid the ruins of a city called Bel. Lieutenant Brian Scully keyed in the transmitter circuits of his HCT-31F Hatchetman's comlink, "Dark Horse to Phalanx. Have reached outer marker. Am beginning penetration." The sophisticated Thalia HM-22 communications system scrambled the signal and sent it off to the Lyran command center nearly 20 kilometers to the east. The radiotech who received the transmission relayed the cryptic message to the on-site commander. To Major Mariah Thibeaux it meant that her advance scout had reached the outskirts of the small Capellan-held city of Bel and had begun working his way into its concrete canyons. Scully was good, she admitted to herself, but was he good enough to slip into the city, locate the spare parts dump, and escape with his information? Battalion command said yes, but the Lyran major was still skeptical about the new scout. At the controls of his 'Mech, Scully paused, listened for, and received, the short-long-short bursts of static which signalled the command center's acknowledgement of his message. Drawing a deep breath, he took hold of the control grips, set his feet on the pedals, and started moving his 40-ton machine slowly into Bel. Close to the center of that small city, the Capellan Confederation had built a small underground installation. This facility, intended to house a full company of BattleMechs, now held only one-a CN9-A Centurion. Even as Lt. Scully was making his covert entry into the city, the Liao technicians were bolting down the last sheet of replacement armor over a newly-repaired medium laser. The Centurion's pilot, Captain Daniel Gyory, stood on the floor of the repair bay, impatiently tapping his fingers on a 200-liter plastic barrel of coolant fluid. Irritated with the slowness of the repair process, Captain Gyory paced, cursing the ill luck which had brought him to this pass. Just over 24 hours ago, when the Lyran Commonwealth troops first landed on Keid, his company was strafed and bombed by a pair of Steiner Lucifer fighters. His Centurion took several hits, which crippled the 'Mech's left leg and destroyed its rearwardfiring Photech medium laser. As severe as this damage was, other 'Mechs in his company had suffered worse; his was one of the last machines to enter the repair bay and would be the last to leave. When the Lyrans left to attack Port Anderson, 30 klicks south, the rest of his company deployed to meet the attack, leaving Captain Gyory and his Centurion behind. Gyory ceased his nervous pacing when he saw a comtech running across the repair bay with an electronic comp-pad in his hand. The tech skidded to a halt in front of the MechWarrior and gasped out, "Captain, the perimeter sensors have picked up large MAD and seismic traces moving toward the center of town. From the size and intensity of the readings, it seems to be a BattleMech massing at least 40 tons. "Commandant Deng wants you to check it out. If it is an enemy'Mech, you are to lead it away from the center of town and destroy it." Gyory snatched the comp-pad from the tech, quickly scanned the orders it held, and, with an electronic stylus, scrawled his name across the bottom of the pad. Thrusting the unit back into the tech's hands, Gyory began yelling for his personal tech and pulling off his uniform smock. Just over two kilometers away, Brian Scully worked his way through Bel's outskirts. Suddenly, a pair of missiles flashed past his cockpit. A red square lit the lower left corner of his heads-up display while the word "THREAT" blinked on and off beneath it. Punching in the computer enhancement system, he saw a grey-and-black camouflaged jeep parked behind a low stone wall. The jeep's green-uniformed crewmen were scrambling to reload its pintle-mounted SRM launcher. Scully brought up the Hatchetman's left arm, centering the computer- generated sighting reticle on the enemy ground vehicle. A brief flash of light at the 'Mech's wrist and a sudden jump in internal temperature marked the laser's firing. The results at the target were more spectacular. Armor incandesced and spalled away under the caress of the intense beam of light. Scully triggered the laser again. The jeep vanished in a fireball of detonated fuel and ammunition. "Well, that's done it," Scully muttered to himself. "Even if those guys didn't have the chance to sound the alarm, that fire is certain to alert every Liao soldier for kilometers." Scully allowed himself a brief smile. "But for metal, it sure burns good." Indeed, for metal, the destroyed jeep burned magnificently. Captain Gyory was reaching for his neurohelmet when his personal tech reached in through the open hatch. Touching the captain's shoulder, Technician Ara Dilles said, "Sir, you'd better get on the comlink." Gyory settled the bulky helmet on his close-cropped scalp and plugged the sheaf of cables trailing from it into the multi-connector above and behind his com-chair. "...crossing 21st. I say again, we've spotted an enemy BattleMech, east side of town. He's moving south on Davis, crossing 21st. Gyory heard the crack-whoosh sound of missiles leaving their tubes in the background. Then the soldier's voice rang in his ears again. "Damn! Missed him clean. We can't hold him, we're pulling out. Recon V7 moving to tan..." Then static. Gyory shook his head. Damn fools. They should have known better than to take on a BattleMech with a recon jeep. Running quickly through the code sequence which unlocked his 'Mech, the Liao captain motioned Dilles off the 'Mech's shoulder. A momentary rush of vertigo swept over Gyory as the Centurion's computer interface attuned the huge gyro somewhere beneath his feet to his own sense of balance. Such alignment of man and machine was necessary to keep even the smallest 'Mech from toppling over with its first step. When his head cleared, he glanced left and right to assure himself that all power and restraining cables had been disconnected from his Centurion before stepping the steel giant from, its repair cradle. Automatically he checked his 'Mech-status display. All indicators showed green. Plant up to full power, actuator packages functioning normally, weapons fully loaded and charged. Pivoting the Centurion's head, he looked back at the repair gantry where Ara Dilles still stood, giving him the age-old thumbs-up gesture. Even though he knew Dilles could not possibly have seen him through the polarized glass viewscreen, Gyory returned the gesture and then stepped his green-and-black 'Mech out into the fading light of the evening sun. Moving as rapidly as he dared, Brian Scully slipped through the outskirts of the city, putting as much distance as possible between the shattered, burning jeep and his 'Mech. So far that jeep was the only sign of the Capellan army that Scully had seen. He knew the attack on Port Anderson would have diverted most, if not all, of Bel's defenders from their posts. The mission planners believed that he would face only slight resistance-a few soft-skinned vehicles or a couple of platoons of infantry at the most. Major Thibeaux had argued that the Confederation would never leave a position undefended if there was a possibility of its being the objective of an invader raid. In the end the Lyran High Command won out, and Scully was sent out alone. Pausing in the lengthening shadow of the first tall building he encountered, Scully checked his map-box. The supply dump was supposed to be close to the center of the city, a few blocks away from the low, hardened ferrocrete building which orbital scans had identified as the Liao defense force headquarters. From his present location, it would take less than 20 minutes to reach the general area of the supply dump, and about 10 minutes more to locate the warehouse. Scully made it about an hour until he could be clear of the city with the information he had been sent to collect. If, that is, he didn't run into any more opposition. From his vantage point 10 meters above the street, Daniel Gyory searched the deepening gloom with his Centurion's sensor array. The wrecked scout jeep continued to smoulder sullenly, the red-hot metal creating a bright spot on the B-Tech's infrared scanners. All other readouts were blank except for the magnetic anomaly detector. The large amount of structural steel used in the city's buildings was causing confused readings on his MAD sensor. Gyory tapped his console with the fingers of his left hand, trying to second-guess his opponent. Of course, the enemy MachWarrior would have moved on as quickly as possible, but where did he go? Not straight down Davis Street-he'd have run into Gyory's Centurion if he had. East? Not likely, that would take him back the way he'd come. North? Same thing. West then, he had to have gone west. With a last look at the burnt-out jeep, Gyory turned his'Mech and sent it lumbering quickly down 20th Street, hoping that he was following his intended prey. The Lyran 'Mach pilot checked his map again and turned south once more onto Sable Avenue. If he had figured it correctly, one of the large buildings lining 91h and 1011 Streets would be the warehouse. Scully looked around at the tall buildings, whose anodized panels and mirroted windows flared golden orange in the light of the dying day. "It's a pity that so many beautiful cities are destroyed by men who never stop to appreciate the sunset," Scully said aloud. Then, chuckling to himself, "Scully, you're starting to sound like a Kuritist, writing poetry in the cockpit of a BattleMech." An alert buzzer sounded from the sensor panel. Scully tore his attention away from the reflected sunset and focussed it on, the sensor display. Confused as the readings were, both the IR and the MAD sensors briefly detected a large object moving across the intersection behind him. The contact was quickly lost. Scully slid his big machine into the deep shadows created by the late-evening sun. Partially concealed by the first story of a building, which projected from its base like a monstrous foot, the Lyran scout turned his entire sensor array down the street toward the fleeting contact. Nothing appeared on the screens but the "noise" created by the lights, motors, and structural steel of the city around him. Scully briefly considered switching on the Hatchetman's high intensity floodlight, but discarded the idea immediately. Turning on that light would be like jumping up and down, shouting, "Come and get me!" Scully was not that crazy. He settled for walking his 'Mech back as far as he could into the gathering gloom, to wait. As he sat there staring at the sensor displays, the scout silently berated himself for becoming distracted from the task at hand. Captain Gyory found himself, unknowingly, in a position very similar to Lt. Scully's. As he crossed Sable Avenue, his sensors picked up a large heat source. Ducking the 50-ton Centurion around the corner, the Capellan MechWarrior switched on his entire sensor array, but the momentary IR signature had vanished. Was that contact just another radar ghost? Or was it the Steiner 'Mech which had destroyed the recon jeep? Nothing moved on Sable Avenue. Only the normal readings for a city of this size and type showed on his scanners. Was there something lurking in the shadows lining the street? Long minutes went by before Scully decided to act. If the sensor trace had been an electronic mirage, he was wasting valuable mission time and accomplishing nothing. If the phantom contact was a real threat, possibly another BattleMech, the sooner he faced it, the sooner he could finish his mission. Scarcely 200 meters away, Gyory arrived at the same decision. Taking a last glance at the weapon stores list on his Centurion's MSD, Gyory stood his 50-ton 'Mech upright and stepped into the street. At the same time, a dark grey 'Mech appeared out of an alleyway. Its distinctive reptilian head and the cleaver-shaped battle club mounted in its right hand marked the machine as a Hatchetman. Gyory stabbed the switch that activated his targeting computer. A red sighting dot appeared on his HUD. Even as he brought his autocannon to bear, brief gouts of flame flickered from the torso of the spindly Lyran 'Mech. Shattered glass and concrete showered Gyory's 'Mech as 90 mm high- explosive rounds slammed into the building beside him. Adding his Luxor autocannon's report to the thunder already echoing through the streets, Gyory sent a line of red tracers downrange towards his enemy. In the near- darkness, he saw the tracers stream past the 'Mech's legs, detonating against the pavement behind it. The explosions backlit the enemy machine with strobe-like pyrotechnic flashes. Scully recovered from the surprise of seeing the Liao Centurion step into the street at the same instant as his own 'Mech just in time to trade wild bursts of autocannon fire with his opponent. Realizing that the Capellan 'Mech outweighed and outgunned the Hatchetman, Scully seized the only advantage he had. Flexing his 'Mech's knees, the Steiner pilot fired its jumpjets and leaped into the air. The thrust of the Luxor jumpjets mounted in the 'Mech's feet lifted it high over the building and into the next street. The 45-ton machine jolted to the earth with an ear-shattering crash which jarred Scully's entire body. Flailing for a moment to recover his balance, the Steiner scout turned and ran up the street, a wild plan forming in his mind. If he could reach the intersection up ahead before the Liao 'Mech came around the corner, perhaps he could ambush the heavier machine and bring his deadly "hatchet" into play. Skidding to a halt, Scully put the Hatchetman's back up against a building and raised its right arm. The reinforced striking edge of the terrible weapon clenched in that metal fist gleamed dully in the twilight. Scully could almost feel the weight of the huge club as though he were holding it in his own hand. He waited, hidden in the shadows. Seconds crept by...5, 10, 30. Then the green-and-black armored giant came into view, his battle-cry ringing inside the closed neurohelmet. Gyory's motion sensors shrieked a warning as the Lyran 'Mech suddenly appeared in from of him. Seeing the Hatchetman's right arm scything forward in a vicious arc, Gyory flung up the Centurion's left arm to ward off the blow. Metal screamed and buckled as the hatchet smashed into the Centurion's arm just above the elbow. Stunned and off balance, Gyory closed his hand convulsively on the firing grip, triggering the laser mounted in his 'Mech's center torso. The laser bolt lanced into the sky, missing the Lyran by more than a meter. Staggering backwards, Gyory fired the laser again and added in a burst from his autocannon. This time, through better aim or better luck, both weapon blasts hit the Hatchetman. The high-explosive armor-penetrating rounds from the Luxor-D shredded the armor on the enemy 'Mech's right leg, while the laser blew a small crater in its left torso. The Lyran 'Mech rocked a bit and sent a pair of laser shots scorching past the reeling Centurion. Then it jumped again, its jet exhaust lighting the street with its lurid orange glare. "Dammit!" Scully said, as his 'Mech recovered its balance after landing in the center of a small square. "That Liao bastard is just too malfing fast." Scanning the indicators on the MSG, Scully saw that most of the armor protecting the delicate inner workings of his Hatchetman's right leg had been shot away, and a deep hole had been burned in its left torso. Too much more damage would reduce the battle machine to scrap. As he stood there trying to formulate a plan, the THREAT warning lit up his HUD. Scully whirled his 'Mech around, as a cluster of long-range missiles streaked past him like a swarm of angry rocket-assisted hornets. At just under 400 meters, the Defiance medium lasers mounted in the 'Mech's arms were useless. Scully studded in the autocannon. At that range, the sighting reticle nearly blotted out the image of the CN9- A, making it nearly impossible to aim. Taking his best guess, Scully depressed the trigger. The Hatchetman shuddered as a long burst of 90 mm rounds thundered from the 'Mech's torso. Bright flashes blossomed from the Centurion's center torso, as armor shattered and flew away, leaving a ragged line of craters gaping in its chest. Before a fresh cassette of ammunition could be fed into the HCT-3F's autocannon, Scully saw the Centurion raise its right arm, training the heavy gun mounted there on him. Light flickered in the muzzle on the enemy's arm and flared from its chest. Unsteady from the slamming impact of the Steiner's autocannon, Gyory recovered quickly, aimed, and fired his autocannon and his missiles simultaneously . In the minimal light, Gyory saw his tracers hammer into the Lyran 'Mech's right arm. Most of the missile volley hit its left arm and torso. The Hatchetman was severely damaged. Gyory did not intend to let his wounded prey escape. Urging his 'Mech into a lumbering run, Gyory tried to close the gap so that all of his weapons could be used. When the computer rangefinder registered 200 meters to target, Gyory stopped short and snapped the sighting reticle into place, but before he could shoot, the Steiner 'Mech fired its jumpjets again. Desperately trying to track the escaping 'Mech, the Liao pilot triggered his LRMs. He followed up the volley with both autocannon and laser. The laser and autocannon bursts hit the upper floor of the building that the Hatchetman was jumping over. The exhaust flare of the missiles temporarily blotted out his vision. When Gyory recovered, the Steiner'Mech was nowhere to be seen. Turning about, Gyory ran his 'Mech back the way it had come and into the next street. As he rounded the corner, he brought up the autocannon, preparing to finish off the badly damaged enemy 'Mech. The street was deserted. As the blackness receded from his mind, the first thing Lt. Scully heard was the sporadic clatter of rubble falling from the shattered walls of the ruined building which cradled his shot-riddled BaftleMech. Indicators on his 'Mech Status Display told of severe damage to nearly every circuit of the battered machine. Both arms were damaged. One actuator package in the Hatchetman's right leg had been destroyed. Scully knew that his enemy was also hurt, but how badly? Captain Gyory slammed his fist on the armrest of his comchair. "It's just not possible," he muttered. "Something that big can't just disappear." Glaring at the Centurion's sensor display, he tried to find some clue to the whereabouts of the Steiner 'Mech. As before, the battle had become a game of blind man's bluff. The city was blinding or confusing his sensor readings, leaving only the cockpit starlight systems and Gyory's own eyesight with which to find and destroy the invader 'Mech. Gyory pounded the armrest again. "Where did that bastard go?" Scully reached out with blood-slicked fingers and grasped the Hatchetman's controls. Pain from his wounded left arm lanced through him as he pushed the handgrips; forward, levering the battered 'Mech into a sifting position. Grating curses between clenched teeth, he remembered how the Liao pilot had fired a cluster of missiles from the Centurion's torso-mounted launcher just as the Hatchetman cleared the roof of the building in which he was now sitting. Most of the rockets went wide, but three hit the 'Mech's head. Even through the noise dampers and baffles built into his neurohelmet, the sound of those explosions was deafening. The three hollow charges were insufficient to penetrate the armor on the Hatchetman's head. Still, they were powerful enough to spall fragments of boron nitride reinforced steel away from the inside of his cockpit and send them flying around the cramped control cabin like rifle bullets. One of those shards tore into Scully's left bicep, lodging against the bone. The shock of the wound had caused him to let go of the controls, and the 50-ton 'Mech had crashed through the roof of the building beneath it. Gyory knew that the Hatchetman was hurt, but he wasn't sure how badly. Even though the exhaust trails from his last missile volley had obscured their target, the Capellan pilot felt certain that at least one of those rockets had actually struck the enemy 'Mech. He also believed that he had seen the spindly machine lurch to one side before the smoke and flame from the missed shots blocked his line-of-sight. Eager to destroy the Lyran, Gyory ran the Centurion around the corner and onto Library Avenue. Except for the rubble from the shell-blasted office building, the street was empty. The Hatchetman couldn't have jumped again without being picked up on the Centurion's motion detectors. Even if the Steiner pilot had hit the ground running, Gyory still should have caught a glimpse of him as he rounded the corner. This could mean only one thing. The Lyran 'Mech was hiding somewhere waiting for him to get closer before opening fire on him, possibly even lying in ambush, preparing to use that great bloody club which gave the vehicle its name. The thought of the Hatchetman's club shearing into his already battered 'Mech made Gyory's skin crawl. Turning the resolution up on his sensor array, the Liao captain made his cautious way down the center of Library Avenue. Twice light from the pale single moon of Keid glittered on something metallic. Twice Gyory whirled the CN9-A around and fired blindly, once destroying a parked ground car and once blowing out the mirror-like windows of a storefront. "Dammit, now he's got me jumping at shadows." Gyory swore viciously as shattered glass and twisted aluminum sprayed into the street. "Where the devil is he?" Scully finally managed to wrestle his crippled 'Mech into a kneeling position. Hampered by the destroyed actuators in the machine's right knee, even that minor operation took nearly five minutes. As he struggled with the 'Mech's balky controls, Scully could hear the rolling thunder of the Centurion's autocannon. "What is he firing at?" Scully wondered, then gasped in pain as the restive 'Mech lurched to the left, throwing his injured arm against the life support control panel. The Steiner MechWarrior knew that his Liao counterpart would eventually figure out where he was and burn what remained of the shattered office building down around him. Fighting pain and nausea which came over him at every movement of his wounded arm, Scully carefully brought his 'Mech to its feet. After taking a moment to orient himself, he slowly rotated the Hatchetman's torso until he was facing the ruined windows looking out over Library Avenue. Inside the Centurion's cockpit, a motion detector screamed for attention. The sensors indicated something very large moving inside the partially destroyed off ice building. Cautiously Daniel Gyory moved his Centuriondown the street until it was opposite the shell-cratered structure. Whatever had been moving behind that broken wall had stopped. Once again, his confused scanners couldn't make out anything definite. Aiming at the place where his sensors had detected the last movement, Gyory lifted the 90 mm gun and fired. The explosive rounds blew chunks of ferrocrete and glass away from the building and threw them across the street to rattle against the Centurion's armor. Laser light stabbed into the wall, creating another, smaller storm of debris and enlarging the hole blasted in it by the hammering autocannon. Inside the ruined building, Scully's eyes widened in surprise as the Centurion raised its heavy gun. The black muzzle looked to be as large as that of a long-tom cannon when it finally came to rest pointing directly at the battered Hatchetman. Then flame erupted from that huge dark opening. The front of the building flew away in burning shards. The high-explosive rounds were followed by the eye-searing flash of laser fire. More of the curtain wall collapsed into the street. As the smoke and dust started to clear, Scully brought the electronic gun sight into focus, locking it on the Capellan BattleMech's torso. The Liao MechWarrior heard a fresh cassette of 90 mm rounds drop into place in the breech of the Luxor-D gun, as the last of the dust began to settle. As he lined up the crosshairs again, a bright tongue of flame lanced out of the blasted ruin. White, glowing tracers leaped across the narrow street into Gyory's'Mech. They clawed away what little armor remained on the Centurion's damaged left arm. Warning lights flicked on, telling of damage to the internal structure. A pair of laser blasts flashed from the building, one narrowly missing the Centurion's head, the other slagging the armor protecting its right torso. Before Gyory could recover from the sudden onslaught, the front of the office building exploded outward, shattering under the sudden rush of 45 tons of steel giant, its huge battleax already swinging. Panic seized the Liao warrior. Slamming his hands down on the fire-control console, he fired his entire complement of weapons. At less than 60 meters, the Luxor long-range missiles had no time to target before they had already burned past the charging Steiner 'Mech, exploding harmlessly against yet another building. The autocannon shells, however, slammed into the Hatchetman's left arm, exposing myomer bundles and aluminum bone. The forward- firing laser clawed a ragged gash in the enemy's center torso. The rearward laser burned an ineffective hole in the building behind Gyory's 'Mech. Scully felt the autocannon rounds punch into his 'Mech, but still he did not hesitate in his lumbering rush. The two monstrous war machines met with a toothrattling crash. Moving at a speed of nearly 55 kph, the Hatchetman slammed the Centurion back into the building. Frantically, ignoring the pain which threatened to overwhelm him, Scully fought to keep his machine on its feet. The Capellan machine bounced off the wall behind it and fell over on its face. Even as it struggled to rise, Scully dropped the Hatchetman to its knees and brought its right arm down in a whistling arc. Gyory hung face down from the restraining straps of his comchair, trying to force the badly abused Centurion's limbs to lift the downed 'Mech to its feet again. Before he even managed to pull its mangled arms under it, the CN9-A was driven back down to the pavement with a force like a sledgehammer smashing an egg. A dozen idiot lights came on, warning of armor breach, of coolant system failure, of severe structural damage. Another devastating blow pile-drivered into his 'Mech's back, destroying the newly-replaced Photech medium laser and cracking the shielding surrounding the Centurion's power plant. Knowing that another blow like that would most likely destroy his 'Mech and kill him, Gyory slammed his fist down on the emergency hatch release button. Twice the Liao Centurion attempted to rise to its feet. Twice Scully's descending club smashed it back to the pavement. Huge rents appeared in the downed 'Mech's back. Scully saw miniature lightning storms playing in the gap where the rearward medium laser had been. Scully brought the hatchet over and down for a third time, its hard edge cleaving straight through the already torn dorsal armor. Suddenly a shattering explosion tore through the wrecked Centurion. Scully's last blow had smashed the Luxor 3M missile launcher and detonated the missiles still in its magazine. The blast tore the helpless Liao 'Mech apart and pitched Scully's Hatchetman over onto its back. The last thing Scully saw before the explosion engulfed the Centurion's head was the emergency escape hatch blowing off, but the pilot didn't make it out. Stunned from the fall, weak from loss of blood and the aftereffects of adrenaline, Lieutenant Brian Scully lay in the street staring up into the night sky. Eventually, he wrestled his reluctant machine to its feet. He programmed his comlink to send a zipsqueal message to the Lyran field HQ. "Encountered and destroyed enemy BattleMech. Have suffered severe damage. Will attempt to complete assignment. Scully out." Taking a last look at the ruin which once was his opponent, Scully wondered briefly who the Capellan MechWarrior had been. Then, after a moment's pause, he sent his battered machine limping away into the gathering night. Back to BattleTechnology 5 Table of Contents Back to BattleTechnology List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1988 by Pacific Rim Publishing. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com