"When It Rains", Part 1
- Date: August 4, 3031
- Planet: White Reach, Orenn Continent
- Location: Unknown Grid, DropShip "Nameless"
"You son of a bitch." Commander Dupree backhanded the uniformed officer, sending him stumbling backwards. "You knew when you picked the city as the drop site. This was a trap, and we walked right into it. You. Knew!" He grabbed the Leftenant by the collar of his dress uniform and lifted, ignoring the burn in his muscles from the exertion. His voice fell into a very harsh whisper. "If you can't give me a good reason why, we're about to have an unfortunate accident."
"Put me down-"
Adamant's nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed, as he tugged the officer around and looked down to make sure there wasn't anything valuable below. "You have ten seconds."
About then, the Davion officer realized the mercenary was serious and potentially unhinged. "We didn't know anything like that, damn you!" He glanced over his shoulder. "I had intel there were a number of other mercenary commands on the planet, but there was nothing about this level of hardware! None of them should have been a trouble-"
"Well, one of your students is dead, I'd say they gave me a good amount of trouble. I'm waiting on the damage reports but I'm fairly sure it's more than you estimated."
"If you had withdrawn, not pushed the attack-"
"You know, back home, some of the others say Davion loyalists think they can get away with anything." Adamant scowled. "Do you think you can order gravity to let you fall safely?" He pushed the officer over the railing while still holding on, watching the face go pale. "Would you like to find out?"
"I didn't make the call! You insisted you had operational command in the contract." The officer glanced over a shoulder. "This was your bad call!"
There was a long silence, and finally Adamant hefted him back up and tossed him aside roughly. There was a gasp of air escaping the officer's lungs and then a couple sharp inhales as he struggled to get up. "Get off my ship."
C cleared his throat and finally spoke up. "It's technically not our ship."
"Fine. Get off the ship. And take your 'Mech with you." The Commander turned away, and looked down. The Davion officer scowled, but after a look at the expression on Adamant's face he hobbled out of sight. Adamant let out a long breath, trying to calm down. "We'll regroup and take another crack at this. C, I want preliminary reports in two hours. We're going to use this place as a makeshift base of operations, until we can arrange something better."
"Well, I'm pretty sure the one Hatchetman is-"
Adamant whirled and poked C in the chest, but gently. "Two. Hours." He muttered. "And tell the 'MechWarriors to get what rest they can, while they can. For now, I'm going to try not to panic."
"Don't panic, sir, it never helps." C saluted vaguely with his fingers near his head, and turned back to call orders down to the technician teams still waiting for instruction, and the medical team milling around as well.
- Date: August 5, 3031
"Very good. How were the injuries?"
C picked up a tablet to check the report. "Nothing major, we've taken some time to be sure everyone is getting rest. But we've still no communications with any planetary authorities, or even orbital traffic control. Taking off with the DropShip for any reason is going to be risky, until the interference clears. There's no telling what's above us without the OTC signals." At the glance from Adamant, C blandly simplified it into three words. "We're stuck here." He noticed Adamant sighing, and then glanced down at the reports again. "There's more bad news."
"Oh, please, do go on."
"We're picking up a sizable 'Mech force approaching from the southeast. They haven't tried contacting us, and seem intent on doing us harm. The good news is, they seem to be led by two Heavy 'Mechs and the rest are lighter scout units." C set the tablet down. "No positive IDs on them yet."
Adamant closed his eyes, thinking for a while before speaking slowly. "The Atlas, Awesome, and a Hatchetman will deploy." He looked upwards, thinking. "I'll need Deadeye and Badboi to join me. So long as we can put down the Heavies quickly, we should be able to weather the others. Just in case?" He held up a finger. "I want Sureshot also ready."
C nodded, and paused. "I have one other thing to note, and I made sure to put it on your data feed. One of the companies here, Antan Exports, seems to be in the business of trading in combat materiel. While making a deal for a restock on ammunition, a couple inquiries bore interesting fruit. I was able to leverage some of the pay we'd been going to pay our late Davion friend to pick up two Light 'Mechs." Adamant scowled, and C just pointed. "Check the schematics."
The Commander glanced at his tablet, checking over the information. "Mongoose MON-67. That's not something I've seen before, sort of rare." His eyebrows went up, and he slowly leaned back in his seat. "Scout hunters, it looks like. Flanker, harasser, and general nuisance. Perfect." He set the tablet down. "When do they arrive?"
"Already took possession of them. Teams Delta and Eden are currently giving them a systems check, and to answer the next question, they won't be ready to engage the approaching forces."
"Just as well. Get them ready as soon as we can, I'll want them prepared for the next phase of this combat."
"Next phase?"
Adamant stood slowly, and slammed a closed fist into his other hand. "Finding out where these attackers came from, and making sure they're not going to be a problem any more."
- Date: August 6, 3031
- Location: DropShip "Nameless", Briefing Room
With everyone present, though, Adamant seemed more inclined to begin the briefing than continue whatever discussion had been going on. "Please welcome Louis and Finn Bannister." He motioned to the pair of new faces, who each gave a small wave which was pointedly ignored. "They came onboard with the two Mongoose 'Mechs, compliments of a contact on the planet."
"That's a rare machine." Sassy said as she sat down, glancing at the pair. "And you were able to find two of them?"
Before Adamant could speak, Louis leaned forward and opened his hands palm-up. "Truth be told, we were looking for business. I go by 'Sureshot' and my brother by 'Spike'. We've been independent for a long time, it'll be good to be of use-"
Sassy just waved it off, knowing a rehearsed speech when she heard it. Deadeye had to agree, it was certainly sounding empty. "I'm calling you Rookie One and Rookie Two."
"Until we get our first confirmed kill?"
She snickered, and smiled indulgently. "Sure thing, kid." She pointed her thumb at the pair, looking to Adamant. "Are we seriously a daycare now? First the Davion brats, now these two?" Trailblazer was halfway out of his chair before Bones dragged him back in by his arm. Sassy laughed and leaned towards him with an expression which was only technically a smile. "Anytime, kid, if you think you got the balls."
"So, let me introduce you to Sassy, who lives up to her name." Adamant's eyebrows twitched as he stared at her. She opened her hands in silent surrender of the point. "She drives the Capellan machine you've seen in the bay. Deadeye also lives up to his, and he owns the Awesome. Which also lives up to its name."
"Pleasure." Deadeye drawled out, then pointed two fingers at the commander. "How did the chase go?"
"Sureshot?"
The one rookie stood up, and coughed. "The escaping Wasp and Shadow Hawk met up with a Phoenix Hawk and Locust, trying to get through a dead area. Badboi and I wound up getting ahead of them while Spike was coming from their rear in his Mongoose. Since mine hadn't quite passed maintenance check, I was using one of the Hatchetmen."
Sassy tilted her head to the side. "Three on four? I take back the balls comment, but I still think that's stupid."
"Thanks." A bland reply, as the young man fell back into a practiced stance to continue his report. "We wound up catching up to them and crippling the Wasp and Shadow Hawk. The Phoenix Hawk and Locust managed to escape, so whomever they were now they know we're coming."
Deadeye slowly clapped his hands together. "Good job. Gold star. You killed a bug and managed to hang a Shadow Hawk out to dry."
"And we got one prisoner, the other having taken a serious wound." Adamant motioned, Sureshot sitting back down. "We turned him over to the local militia, before going to work on the prisoner. For an agreed-upon amount, he will be turned loose in a week at the local ComStar center. And in exchange we know his employers and roughly where they are." He pointed to the table as a map of the continent showed up, blurry from the images taken as they had landed. A large crater-lake was visible but a red highlighted area to the east of it was where he was pointing. "The enemy firebase is located in this area, somewhere. I'll be assigning Sureshot and Spike to start canvassing the area, looking for it specifically."
"So what do we know about the enemy? Either of them?" Deadeye frowned at the map, realizing the area which was displayed would take a while to really comb through. "Aside from being outnumbered, and possibly outgunned? That first group had two ships, one looked like an older Union, and we didn't get a good look at the other one." That gave them up to sixteen 'Mechs they could be carrying, and there had been only six on the field.
"It was not a Union. But that's not important right now."
"When is it going to be important?" Bones asked quietly.
Sassy leaned across the table and smirked. "When they combat drop on our heads."
"We don't have the time to really work on worrying about that." Adamant cut across the talk with an open hand. "The 'Mechs are almost ready to go again. In theory." He sat down. "The crews want another maintenance pass to be sure, but when we find these enemies we're on the move. So about them?" He motioned and C pulled up data on the terminals so others could see them. "They're called 'Pryde's Crucible', and are holed up about a hundred and fifty kilometers to the northeast. What we know is they also are well-equipped with a pair of Assault 'Mechs forming the bulk of their defensive armament, and the base has a couple long-range defense turrets."
"Assault 'Mechs aren't a laughing matter." Badboi glances around for support, then notices Sassy snickering. "What?"
Deadeye spoke up, lifting a single finger and pointing it to himself. "Awesome." Then slowly pointing it to Adamant. "Atlas."
"And?"
"That means we've got a good chance at handling it." Sassy said, calmly. "All we'll need are the Mongoose 'Mechs watching our flanks."
Adamant watched this, and finally smiled thinly as he leaned forward. "We're going to divide into two teams for this, and hit them from the east. Once we engage, Deadeye and Sassy will take Badboi and Rookie One and I'll take everyone else to back up the Atlas. The goal is to let the big guns push ahead and take out targets as they pop up. Our primary goal is to seize control of their command center and neutralize their commander to break them."
"Assuming we do, and they don't surrender?"
He just shrugged. "Then we bury them, keep the spoils, and move on." He straightened up. "We have three days before repairs and rearming is completed. Use that time to get familiar with your assigned 'Mechs and their controls. Any concerns, come to me and we'll discuss it. If anything changes, I'll find you." A glance around the table. "Dismissed."
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