Any way, here is a little short story I put together sometime ago in about 15 or 20 minutes. Its not very in depth and there is no real background for it, its just a story about a bunch of pirates being hunted down and how they use their 'contacts' to worm out of a tight situation. I hope you enjoy it. Its called 'Early Capture'.
It involves some NPCs (Non Player Characters - folks we 'made up') and a few of the teams we played against or made alliances with over the years. I like it, I hope you do.
Dawn broke over the landscape. The sun slowly began to rise. The grass was covered with morning dew, so much so it looked like a lake reflecting the sunlight back to the sky. The guard tower was nestled in the side of hill giving it a spectacular view of nature’s beauty only blocked in the distance by a ridge of mountains.
Just to the other side of the mountain ridge, two lances of battlemechs were forming up preparing to do battle for the base that is suspected of housing the pirate troop known as The Blood Pearls.
Sgt. Arista was on guard duty in the tower. He was patched into the base’s sensors and vid cams allowing him readouts and visuals to any area within 2000 meters of the base. Movement sensors were currently showing all normal. Visuals were clear as well.
The Lyran Lance Leaders were both driving Black Knights for the electronic packages installed. The basic plan was to cross the mountain ridge and split into separate lances, one going right and the other going left. Other than the two Black Knights, the rest of the warriors would run in passive mode to avoid detection as long as possible. Each Lance consisted of a Black Knight and three Thanatos.
The sergeant had a feeling that something was in the air other than the morning coolness. He ran diagnostics on each of the systems and then initiated deep scans in hopes of losing this feeling he had or, if there was something out there, picking it up in time to respond. He picked up his transmitter and radioed base.
“Guard Dog to big house, the yard is empty,” reported Arista.
“Roger Guard Dog, almost time for your walk,” was the response.
Still not satisfied, Sgt. Arista picked up his field binoculars and manually started scanning the mountain ridges for any signs of life. Starting on his far left and slowly sweeping to his right, he stopped suddenly near the end of his sweep. Tweaking the binoculars and trying to zoom in as much as possible, the sarge felt the blood began to flow through his body as a tingling came over him. He spotted what looked like a tree breaking just to the top of ridge line about 2500 meters from his tower. He strained to see but now there was nothing out of the ordinary. To be sure, he turned on some motion sensors that were rarely used in the mountain range because of the wildlife in the area.
“Damnit Black-Two, be careful and watch out for trees. A Tree break can be seen for thousands of meters. We need to get real close WITHOUT being seen!”
“Sorry, boss, I..”
“Maintain radio silence Black Lance!”
Sgt. Arista was sure he had seen a tree break even though the sensors were not picking anything up. “Guard Dog to big house, I need some bloodhounds to look for a fox.”
“Guard Dog, have you seen the fox?”
“No big house”
“Then why do you need the hounds?”
“The fox might have broke a branch”
“Did you or do you have a picture, guard dog?”
“No”
“Get a picture or lay your eyes on the fox, then call for the hounds.”
The sergeant was getting pissed. He was sure he had seen a tree break on the ridge. The sensors showed nothing, but did not always pick up things in that area. The base refused to send a recon lance to search for whatever was out there until the sensor showed something or until the Sergeant spotted something himself.
As quickly as possible, trying very hard to avoid trees and staying under cover, Black Lance was making their way along the ridge line just north of the base. Green Lance was doing the same heading south. With any luck, they would be at the base within minutes, hopefully to capture the pirates while they slept.
Continuing to manually scan the area, Arista again stopped almost due north. This time he took a picture as a tree broke just below the top of the ridge line. The slight morning fog kept him from seeing what broke the tree, but he did see the tree break. “Guard dog has seen the fox. Request bloodhounds!” he shouted over comms.
“What is it now Arista?”
“Sir, I saw a tree break about 2 clicks from my tower, due north. Sending the vid to you now. The morning fog has kept me from seeing the cause, but there is definitely a tree break on the vid.”
“Roger, guard dog, confirm tree break, sending four bloodhounds your way. Rover 1 will be your contact. Continue to observe and advise.”
“Roger, big house, will do, tell Rover 1 to hurry.”
“Heard your request guard dog, will be there soon, Rover 1 out.”
Black Lance had come to a complete stop after breaking a few more trees. They did not want to be seen. SOP would be for them to hold position for 5 minutes, scan the area, then resume if the scans were negative.
Rover 1 had made it to the tower where Sgt. Arista was on duty. Rover 1 was the call sign given to the 1st of 4 Bushwackers assigned to the ‘Bloodhound’ Lance. Their basic job was to investigate possible sightings that were just outside base perimeters. Bushwackers were used because of multiple factors; they had a good weapons load out, they were fast and they were tough as nails. A Bushy, as they were called by pilots, could stand up to a lot of fire power from mechs much bigger and live to tell about it later. The rest of Rover Lance was now at the tower awaiting instructions from Rover 1.
“Guard Dog, this is Rover 1. you need us to sniff out something for you?”
“Roger that Rover 1. Vid shows some serious tree breaks due north just beyond the big house perimeter.”
“Roger Guard Dog, Rover will go check it out. Keep this frequency open and we will report back to you with our findings. Rover Lance let move out, form on me.” Rover lance went into a line abreast formation with about 10 meters between each mech. They seemed in no hurry as they made their way through the grass field towards the ridge line.
“Well, they are sure to send out a scout party Black Lance. We need to take up positions behind this ridge line and be prepared to start this party a little early.”
“Roger Black Leader.”
“Commander Vettie? Sorry to wake you sir, but you did say let you know if we got visitors. Commander Vettie? Sir?”
“Yeah, what is it?”
“Sir, you said to wake you if we got vis……”
“Who’s here? Where are they? How many? Did you wake the rest of the Blood Pearls?”
“No Sir. You were the first one I tried to wake, sir I can…”
“I’ll do it. These guys are likely to blow you away just for touching them. How many bad guys are out there?”
“Commander, we don’t know. We have sent a scouting party north of base to investigate a possible.”
“Alright. Have you notified your base commander?”
“No Sir, you were the first to be notified, Commander.”
“Better let him know. I am sure that the Lyrans will be after us. They wont be real happy with anyone that is friendly to The Blood Pearls, especially after we stole their new prototype assault mech in broad daylight.” With that, I began to sound the alarm for The Blood Pearls to be ready to go. Our drop ship was just south of the base in a heavy wooded area. We could make it there and be on our way in just about an hour.
“Green Lance this is Green 1. We are parallel to the Taurian Base. Black Lance has had some trouble. Green 2 and 3, ready your Long Toms and smoke. We are gonna bombard that base and get our damn mech back. If you see any of the Blood Pearls, their equipment, men or mechs, do not hesitate to blow it away. I would like to take Vettie back to stand trial, but taking him back dead is better.”
“Roger Green 1, Smoke and Long Toms ready.”
“Black 1 this is Black 3. I got Bushwackers 1000 out and closing. Looks to be 4.”
“Black Lance, this is Black 1, passive radar please. Black 4, you and I will ready jump jets for sniper fire. We wanna try to take out the leader, concentrate on the middle mech, shoot for his cockpit.”
“Rover Lance this is Rover 1. Closing in on the foxhole keeps your eyes open and radar pinging. Just up that ridge line is where the action was. Let head up there, follow me…”
“Green Lance, fire on my command. Ready…..Ready…”
“Now! Black 4! Jump jets and fire! Get the lead mech in formation. Rip that cockpit out!”
“Fire Green lance FIRE!!!”
“This is Rover 1, I thin………”
The base was quickly covered with a thick, black smoke as the ground shook from the long toms that were raining in.
“Holy CRAP!!! What was that sir?”
“Sounds like long toms hitting the base. Inform your commander that The Blood Pearls have enjoyed the hospitality, but we will be leaving before breakfast. Tell him he can send me the bill for damages.”
“Yes, sir, Vettie, I will”
Black Lance had managed to ambush Rover Lance killing 3 of the 4 Bushwackers in just seconds. Those Black Knights and Thanatos were deadly accurate in cockpit shots. The mechs had barely any damage, but the cockpits were fried. The forth Rover was totally destroyed as he tried to return fire on the uninvited guests. All of Black Lance made it through with very little damage and were now heading right towards Guard Dog’s outpost.
At the same time, Green Lance opened up fire with smoke to cover their advance and long toms to clear the way of any ground personnel. Three Thanatos and a Black Knight jumping the wall of the base at the same time is a fearsome sight.
Vettie and The Blood Pearls had mounted up and headed out the south gate as Green Lance came over the east wall. The smoke from Green Lance actually aided the pirates as they scrambled southward towards their drop ship with their booty they lifted from the Lyrans.
Guard Dog was on Comms screaming for help from the base as Black Lance closed on his position. Remembering one of the articles he read during his many months of training, he recalled that the field north of the base was an electronic minefield. To work, it only had to be activated. Anything weighing over 35 tons would set off an explosive charge strong enough to rip the leg from an Atlas, if it stepped on a mine. Quickly he logged into the security comms and searched for the activation sequence for the minefield. Black Lance was closing fast and was now starting to fire on the tower. The computer controlled laser turret automatically began to return fire.
Guard Dog found the activation module. He entered the security code and confirmed the activation. The mine field was now active, Guard Dog just need those Heavy Lyrans Mechs to step on a mine or two.
“Green lance Spread out and use your cameras to locate our property, destroy anything that tries to stop you!” Those huge Thanatos began stomping around the small Taurian Base blowing up buildings and looking for their Marauder II. Buildings, trucks, men and equipment were either crushed under the feet of the huge mechs or blasted by weapons fire.
The Leader of Black Lance saw the large pulse laser on the guard tower and fired a volley of Light Gauss rounds and a PPC ripping the laser from the building in 1 easy shot. He gave the order not to kill the guard but to keep going to the base. Black Lance began to spread out putting a bit of distance between them. Just as Black 4 stepped forward the left leg of the massive Thanatos was torn completely off by a blast from below.
“Mines!!! Damnit!!! Kill that S.O.B. in the guard shack!!! Black 4 are you ok? Careful Black 3, ah shit….! “
Black 3 had also found a mine. As he stepped down on it, the blast from the mine disrupted his mech enough that he lost balance and fell to his left. The fall landed him face first on another mine that blew the cockpit out of the back of the mech.
Seeing one of his best friends being blown out of back of a battlemech was just too much for Black 1. He turned in place in fired an alpha right into the guard tower.
Stories have it that when a PPC blast hit human skin, the human never knows what hit them. It is said that the force and the heat rip the skin right off the bones while the body is still alive, for a second or so anyway. Sgt. Arista knew what was to become of him as he watched the mech turn and fire. He knew…
“This is Black 2, I got a medium pulse laser I can fire in rows in front of us and clear us a way to the base”
“Fire away Black 2, fire away.”
Black 2 did exactly that. Using his pulse laser as a detonator, he fired a few meters in front of the 2 mechs as the crept their way to the Taurian base.
“Green 1 this is Black 1”
“Go ahead Black 1”
“We’ll be there soon. I lost 2 Thannies, with 1 dead. We ran into a minefield. We are clearing a path to the base. We took out 4 Bushwackers.”
“Roger Black 1, no hurry. Vettie and The Blood Pearls are not on this base. Neither is our Marauder II!”
“But I thought..”
“Oh they WERE here, but they made it out before we got here.”
“And the Taurians?”
“I think the base commander is an old friend of Vettie’s. I don’t think the Taurians had anything to do with helping those damn pirates, I think they were just following the orders from their base commander, what a mess.”
“What you gonna do Green 1?”
“I am going to take him into custody and let our boss deal with the politics. When you get here we can form up and head back the way Green Lance came in, its clear.”
“Roger Green 1 be there in a bit. Still blowing mines.”
“Lt. Please Raise Triple X of the Taurian Concordat. I think The Blood Pearls are gonna owe TC some serious cash and we need to let them know, the Lyrans have taken Sir Paul under arrest for helping pirates”
“Yes sir Vettie. On your secure channel. Good to hear you boss”
“Thank you Lt. Always nice to hear your voice. Ah, Triple X, how are you old friend? Long time, huh? Well, let me just ask you how good my credit is with you, see we ran ……”
“We interrupt regularly scheduled programming to bring you this News Flash from the Lyran Alliance. We go now to Horendo Revolver, special investigative reporter on the scene…”
“The Lyrans lost a top secret proto-type assault class mech based on the heavy class Marauder. On a planet owned by the Lyrans but guarded by Taurians, a small band of pirates walked right in to a heavily guarded secret military testing ground and walked out with this proto-type mech. They did it without firing a shot in broad daylight with the base on full alert. Supposedly, this same set of pirates walked into a nearby Taurian Base and held the Base Commander captive demanding supplies, food and rest or they would kill the base commander in front of his wife and children. Again, supposedly, when two Lyran Lances and a Taurian Lance staged a rescue mission, these same pirates killed the 4 Taurian pilots as they tried to mount up in their defensive battlemechs, then managed to take out two of the would be rescuers by using dishonorable tactics like legging and managed again to walk out in broad daylight before the other rescue squads reached the base. How The Blood Pearls came across this data about the secret base and the proto-type mech remains a mystery. This is Horendo Revolver reporting from Lyran Air space for Pirate News Network.”
“How’s that Vettie?”
“That should do it for now Horendo. I made a small donation on behalf on the Lyrans in your account. See ya soon my friend.”
“Roger Vettie, thanks for the, WOWWWW! Small donation my Ass!!!”
“Lt. O’Hara, please close that channel. Navigator, take us home. We got a mech auction to plan.”
“Roger that Vettie.” “Aye, Aye, sir”
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