Cameron Continent
Sinclair
Periphery
29 July 3049
"You were right," Costigan noted, popping up from behind the cover of a rock face to unleash all five of the lasers mounted on his
Assassin into a Grendel that was trying to scale the rear of the base. "Duke Togo's company is very sought after." He had aimed for the left side
of the omnimech's chest, where his computer had painted a non-existant tear in the Grendel's chest, the result of a shot from one of the other
defenders.
Two of Costigan's lasers missed completely, but three more sliced deeply into it and the forty-five ton warmachine spun out of control as
a jumpjet cut out in response to the simulated damage. The Grendel hit the side of the ridge with a crunch that made it clear that the uncontrolled impact had
not been simulated, and slid several meters before the pilot managed to stabilise it and start edging for cover. The hit had done serious damage from the look
of things and even the lightest hit was likely to shatter the entire shoulder.
Costigan ducked his own Mech out of the way as the battle computer painted a simulated volley of long range missiles arcing towards his
position. They hit the rocks instead and if they had been real, even the near miss would have ruined his paint job, sending shards of granite flying. Behind
shelter, the young mechwarrior noted that the temperature in his cockpit, although it had risen noticably when he fired, returned to normal almost immediately.
The Assassin was a very efficient machine in that respect.
"It is not quite what I meant," Oscar admitted, his voice relayed from the crevasse a short distance away. The Asps and Fangs of
the 17th were doing their best to hold the narrow space against their counterparts from the 28th Dragoon Cluster, part of Delta Galaxy. "However, given
that not only are the 28th trying to get in here, but that it seems to be a race between the 10th and 206th Hussars over which of them gets here first, I am
not too proud to take the credit." The outcome of that race would decide a lot, since the 10th Hussars were part of Alpha Galaxy and the 206th were from
Delta Galaxy.
A tall Battlemech moved between two of the bunker-style hangers that lined this side of the base and after a moment's consernation,
Costigan realised that the battered Guillotine didn't have four gold stripes painted below the face of the cockpit, meaning that it belonged to one of Duke
Togo's subordinates rather than the Galaxy Commander himself. The heavy battlemech was missing its right arm from above the elbow down, leaving it without
the three lasers mounted there, and its chest was battered and torn from the battle at the other side of the base.
"Warrior Costigan," the other Mechwarrior called. "Duke sent me to take over here - the battle is hotter on the other side and
I have little armour left."
Costigan nodded. "Understood," he replied. "I to join him at the main entrance, quiaff?"
"Aff. The 206th Adder Hussars have been sighted," he added grimly. "And Duke does not expect the 10th Hussars to arrive soon.
Doubtless he has some strategm in mind."
"A strategm to overwhelm two clusters intent on destroying the eight BattleMechs and assorted infantry and Asps guarding this little
enclave or ours?" asked Costigan, stepping back to clear the gunnery spot.
The Guillotine stepped forward to take it, immediately bringing its left arm up to spear an unwary Adder, unwisely confident that it was safe
outside of the effective range of an Assassin's guns. The shot caught the left leg, but only one of the other two large lasers, these in the chest of the
heavy Battlemech, hit as they reached out, although it too caught the Adder's left leg. The simulated view showed armour shattering and the Adder limped
away quickly on a leg that seemed more of a stump than an effective limp. "More like how to gain some advantage from our deaths, I think," the
warrior said. "He is a calculating man, the Galaxy Commander."
Costigan's Mech didn't precisely scurry as he moved away from the edge of the base. "I understand," he said thoughtfully,
as much to himself as to the other man. He understood, but that degree of fatalism still bothered him.
The rest of the Command Star were holding the top of the slope against the Dragoons. Standing a little back from the edge, they were able to
target anything that reached the top. Costigan couldn't see the other Assassins, but he could see a Star of heavies - three Timber Wolfs and a pair of
Cauldron-Born - cresting the slope just as he walked into range. A storm of laser fire connected the two forces and Costigan could hear the hypersonic cracks
of Gauss Rifles being fired.
The first to fall was a Timber Wolf, the battlecomputer painting an indentation over the cockpit where one gauss rifle slug had done its
bloody work. One of the Cauldron-Born staggered as a Night Gyr unleashed its arsenal into it - paired railguns and lasers shattering both arms back to skeletal
frameworks.
The lone Warhawk among the defenders slumped back against the nearest support - a defense turret that had clearly been knocked out earlier in
the engagement - probably the victim of gyro damage since neither leg had serious damage to it. Leaning against the turret, it raised both arms and its second
volley tore the heart out of another Timber Wolf.
Costigan charged forward, forty tonnes of metal hurtling into the fray at over a hundred kilometers an hour. At that speed he covered the
distance in seconds. His medium lasers tore into the unsteady Cauldron-Born, shattering both arms and leaving it badly off balance. The heavy Mech almost fell,
but then it steadied and fired a salvo of forty missiles from the torso-mounted launchers. Most of the missiles missed Costigan, but divots were punched into
his chest armor by the half dozen that hit.
Then a volley of lasers slashed through the Cauldron-Born's right leg, shattering the thigh and dropping the Mech to the floor. Unable to
rise and with its last weapons aimed only at the ground, the pilot wisely powered down and surrendered. Costigan looked back and saw that the laser fire had
come from Duke Togo's Guillotine. The heavy Mech had clearly been clipped here and there by laser fire, but it was certainly the most intact of the Mechs
remaining.
None of those survivors were from the Dragoons. Besides the Warhawk, which Costigan could now see was missing large chunks of armour from its
front as it rose back to its feet, one of the Night Gyrs was down and since the pilot was exiting the cockpit, probably wasn't going to stand up again
without technical assistance. Or at least, confirmation to the battle computer that it could quit simulation mode and stop pretending that the reactor had shut
itself down in response to the damage. One Timber Wolf was not in sight, and he realised that it had retreated back out of sight.
The other two Assassins emerged from behind cover and Costigan realised that they'd been stationed out of sight where their lighter
armour would not be exposed to the first volleys of anyone reaching the top. "Take some cover," ordered Duke. "They are rushing up Mechs and
Asps from the 206th."
"Where are our Hussars?" Costigan grumbled as he complied.
-/-
"Kerensky damn that canny old snake," Star Colonel Mordecai Paik muttered as reports came back from what was left of his Fourth
Trinary. With almost a third of his cluster either disabled or damaged to the point that they wouldn't last another clash of battle, Mordecai had sent his
lame ducks back to their starting base under the escort of the Fourth's star of Asps. The campaign was scheduled to last for a clear month and conserving
his forces for it would be important.
Unfortunately, twenty-three Asps and a dozen damaged Mechs were no match for the full cluster of Alpha Galaxy Hussars that had appeared
almost from nowhere and snatched control of the base before sweeping up the damaged force. And now the same force was menacing his rear.
"Colonel Talasko," he commed the commander of his own Hussar allies on the Delta Galaxy command channel. "We have a
problem."
-/-
Assassins, Grendels and Mist Lynxes charged right into the teeth of Alpha Command's fire, followed by a swarm of Asps. The little beasts
were tough, Costigan noted as he saw an Asp struggling back to its feet after a simulated hit from a gauss rifle. He sprayed laser fire into the mass,
genuinely surprised that one shot missed. He wouldn't have thought that there was room in that mass for him not to hit something.
Nothing dropped when his lasers hit them, but they softened the Asps up nicely and halted their rush for a moment, just long enough to hinder
their larger brothers. Some of the Hussars slowed, making themselves targets for the heavy Mechs, and others didn't ploughing throught the Asps and doing
almost as much damage (none of it simulated) as the fire from Costigan had.
Duke Togo's two remaining Mechs proved why he had selected their pilots to fight alongside him. The leading Grendel went down, hard, as
simulated damage caused by the Warhawk's final volley cut through half its torso. The Night Gyr put a Mist Lynx on the floor a moment later, cutting a leg
off the Mech with its lasers. A second later and an Assassin was sent staggering, if not out of a fight then at least seriously weakened as both the
seventy-five tonner's gauss rifles caught it square in the centre of the chest. Costigan winced as he imagined what that would do to his own, essentially
identical, battlemech.
The Galaxy Commander was no slouch either. Using his jumpjets to hop out of the way of the incoming fire he unleashed an alpha strike that
left another Assassin little more than a smoking wreck. The air practically sizzled around the Guillotine, usually a very cold Mech to run, as the alpha
strike's heat combined with that caused by simulated damage to the engine shielding.
The Night Gyr fell, a dozen lasers from the Asps eating through what little was left of its armour. The gauss rifle coils detonating,
shattering the Mech's arms as the pilot tried to ride it to the ground. Costigan picked his target and blew a hole through the sternum of the last enemy
Assassin and out the back, reducing the gyro to so much wreckage. The Delta Assassin's own lasers tore away more than a ton and a half of his own armour,
which was paper-thin in places.
Another Assassin, so battered that if he hadn't been keeping count he would not have known which side it was on fell over, decapitated by
an Incubus's pulse laser. Duke Togo jumped behind the light battlemech and almost casually fired all the large lasers in his chest through its back.
Somewhere along the way, the arm mounted laser had been disabled, Costigan throught, or the heat inside the cockpit might be even worse than the IR readings
suggested.
The left arm went red and then abruptly black and Costigan felt his Mech stagger as the gyro adjusted for the loss of the arm. A Grendel, the
last Mech of the attackers, missed with its other large laser. With a snarl, Costigan opened the throttle and charged at it. He barely noticed feathering his
jumpjets to hop over the fallen Night Gyr but the impact of the Assassin's right fist crashing into the Grendel's visor was enough to rock him against
his five-point harness. The larger Mech reeled back, and then crashed backwards to the ground. It took a moment for Costigan to realise that the pilot must
have been knocked out by the impact.
In that moment, lasers from the remaining Asps dug deep into the rear of his Assassin and sweat ran down Costigan's face as he felt the
temperature rise. Engine hit, he noted. And the Gyro. Off balance, he flared his jets, jumping backwards, aiming for the cover of one of the disabled turrets.
He didn't quite make it, landing short and tumbling across the scarred concrete to wind up with his Mech sprawled and battered behind the cover he'd
wanted.
"Get up," Duke ordered, dropping a pair of Asps with the medium lasers in his right arm. The Guillotine loomed over Costigan
menacingly, computer generated smoke pouring from two of the jumpjets and a torso laser. It was a minor miracle that the Mech hadn't fallen over yet. It
took almost half a minute for Costigan to bring the Assassin upright, leaning against the turret as he fired all three remaining lasers into the closest
Asp.
And then they were gone. Gathering his wits, Costigan realised that a dozen Asps had jumped down the slope and out of sight of his position.
A second Guillotine was standing opposite him, lasers still pointing after the fleeing enemy warriors, Oscar and a dozen Asps and Fang battle armour suits from
the 17th flanking the machine.
"What happened?" he asked.
"The 10th arrived in their rear," Duke told him. "Delta is withdrawing to regroup. Good enough."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
Sinclair
Periphery
29 July 3049
"You were right," Costigan noted, popping up from behind the cover of a rock face to unleash all five of the lasers mounted on his
Assassin into a Grendel that was trying to scale the rear of the base. "Duke Togo's company is very sought after." He had aimed for the left side
of the omnimech's chest, where his computer had painted a non-existant tear in the Grendel's chest, the result of a shot from one of the other
defenders.
Two of Costigan's lasers missed completely, but three more sliced deeply into it and the forty-five ton warmachine spun out of control as
a jumpjet cut out in response to the simulated damage. The Grendel hit the side of the ridge with a crunch that made it clear that the uncontrolled impact had
not been simulated, and slid several meters before the pilot managed to stabilise it and start edging for cover. The hit had done serious damage from the look
of things and even the lightest hit was likely to shatter the entire shoulder.
Costigan ducked his own Mech out of the way as the battle computer painted a simulated volley of long range missiles arcing towards his
position. They hit the rocks instead and if they had been real, even the near miss would have ruined his paint job, sending shards of granite flying. Behind
shelter, the young mechwarrior noted that the temperature in his cockpit, although it had risen noticably when he fired, returned to normal almost immediately.
The Assassin was a very efficient machine in that respect.
"It is not quite what I meant," Oscar admitted, his voice relayed from the crevasse a short distance away. The Asps and Fangs of
the 17th were doing their best to hold the narrow space against their counterparts from the 28th Dragoon Cluster, part of Delta Galaxy. "However, given
that not only are the 28th trying to get in here, but that it seems to be a race between the 10th and 206th Hussars over which of them gets here first, I am
not too proud to take the credit." The outcome of that race would decide a lot, since the 10th Hussars were part of Alpha Galaxy and the 206th were from
Delta Galaxy.
A tall Battlemech moved between two of the bunker-style hangers that lined this side of the base and after a moment's consernation,
Costigan realised that the battered Guillotine didn't have four gold stripes painted below the face of the cockpit, meaning that it belonged to one of Duke
Togo's subordinates rather than the Galaxy Commander himself. The heavy battlemech was missing its right arm from above the elbow down, leaving it without
the three lasers mounted there, and its chest was battered and torn from the battle at the other side of the base.
"Warrior Costigan," the other Mechwarrior called. "Duke sent me to take over here - the battle is hotter on the other side and
I have little armour left."
Costigan nodded. "Understood," he replied. "I to join him at the main entrance, quiaff?"
"Aff. The 206th Adder Hussars have been sighted," he added grimly. "And Duke does not expect the 10th Hussars to arrive soon.
Doubtless he has some strategm in mind."
"A strategm to overwhelm two clusters intent on destroying the eight BattleMechs and assorted infantry and Asps guarding this little
enclave or ours?" asked Costigan, stepping back to clear the gunnery spot.
The Guillotine stepped forward to take it, immediately bringing its left arm up to spear an unwary Adder, unwisely confident that it was safe
outside of the effective range of an Assassin's guns. The shot caught the left leg, but only one of the other two large lasers, these in the chest of the
heavy Battlemech, hit as they reached out, although it too caught the Adder's left leg. The simulated view showed armour shattering and the Adder limped
away quickly on a leg that seemed more of a stump than an effective limp. "More like how to gain some advantage from our deaths, I think," the
warrior said. "He is a calculating man, the Galaxy Commander."
Costigan's Mech didn't precisely scurry as he moved away from the edge of the base. "I understand," he said thoughtfully,
as much to himself as to the other man. He understood, but that degree of fatalism still bothered him.
The rest of the Command Star were holding the top of the slope against the Dragoons. Standing a little back from the edge, they were able to
target anything that reached the top. Costigan couldn't see the other Assassins, but he could see a Star of heavies - three Timber Wolfs and a pair of
Cauldron-Born - cresting the slope just as he walked into range. A storm of laser fire connected the two forces and Costigan could hear the hypersonic cracks
of Gauss Rifles being fired.
The first to fall was a Timber Wolf, the battlecomputer painting an indentation over the cockpit where one gauss rifle slug had done its
bloody work. One of the Cauldron-Born staggered as a Night Gyr unleashed its arsenal into it - paired railguns and lasers shattering both arms back to skeletal
frameworks.
The lone Warhawk among the defenders slumped back against the nearest support - a defense turret that had clearly been knocked out earlier in
the engagement - probably the victim of gyro damage since neither leg had serious damage to it. Leaning against the turret, it raised both arms and its second
volley tore the heart out of another Timber Wolf.
Costigan charged forward, forty tonnes of metal hurtling into the fray at over a hundred kilometers an hour. At that speed he covered the
distance in seconds. His medium lasers tore into the unsteady Cauldron-Born, shattering both arms and leaving it badly off balance. The heavy Mech almost fell,
but then it steadied and fired a salvo of forty missiles from the torso-mounted launchers. Most of the missiles missed Costigan, but divots were punched into
his chest armor by the half dozen that hit.
Then a volley of lasers slashed through the Cauldron-Born's right leg, shattering the thigh and dropping the Mech to the floor. Unable to
rise and with its last weapons aimed only at the ground, the pilot wisely powered down and surrendered. Costigan looked back and saw that the laser fire had
come from Duke Togo's Guillotine. The heavy Mech had clearly been clipped here and there by laser fire, but it was certainly the most intact of the Mechs
remaining.
None of those survivors were from the Dragoons. Besides the Warhawk, which Costigan could now see was missing large chunks of armour from its
front as it rose back to its feet, one of the Night Gyrs was down and since the pilot was exiting the cockpit, probably wasn't going to stand up again
without technical assistance. Or at least, confirmation to the battle computer that it could quit simulation mode and stop pretending that the reactor had shut
itself down in response to the damage. One Timber Wolf was not in sight, and he realised that it had retreated back out of sight.
The other two Assassins emerged from behind cover and Costigan realised that they'd been stationed out of sight where their lighter
armour would not be exposed to the first volleys of anyone reaching the top. "Take some cover," ordered Duke. "They are rushing up Mechs and
Asps from the 206th."
"Where are our Hussars?" Costigan grumbled as he complied.
-/-
"Kerensky damn that canny old snake," Star Colonel Mordecai Paik muttered as reports came back from what was left of his Fourth
Trinary. With almost a third of his cluster either disabled or damaged to the point that they wouldn't last another clash of battle, Mordecai had sent his
lame ducks back to their starting base under the escort of the Fourth's star of Asps. The campaign was scheduled to last for a clear month and conserving
his forces for it would be important.
Unfortunately, twenty-three Asps and a dozen damaged Mechs were no match for the full cluster of Alpha Galaxy Hussars that had appeared
almost from nowhere and snatched control of the base before sweeping up the damaged force. And now the same force was menacing his rear.
"Colonel Talasko," he commed the commander of his own Hussar allies on the Delta Galaxy command channel. "We have a
problem."
-/-
Assassins, Grendels and Mist Lynxes charged right into the teeth of Alpha Command's fire, followed by a swarm of Asps. The little beasts
were tough, Costigan noted as he saw an Asp struggling back to its feet after a simulated hit from a gauss rifle. He sprayed laser fire into the mass,
genuinely surprised that one shot missed. He wouldn't have thought that there was room in that mass for him not to hit something.
Nothing dropped when his lasers hit them, but they softened the Asps up nicely and halted their rush for a moment, just long enough to hinder
their larger brothers. Some of the Hussars slowed, making themselves targets for the heavy Mechs, and others didn't ploughing throught the Asps and doing
almost as much damage (none of it simulated) as the fire from Costigan had.
Duke Togo's two remaining Mechs proved why he had selected their pilots to fight alongside him. The leading Grendel went down, hard, as
simulated damage caused by the Warhawk's final volley cut through half its torso. The Night Gyr put a Mist Lynx on the floor a moment later, cutting a leg
off the Mech with its lasers. A second later and an Assassin was sent staggering, if not out of a fight then at least seriously weakened as both the
seventy-five tonner's gauss rifles caught it square in the centre of the chest. Costigan winced as he imagined what that would do to his own, essentially
identical, battlemech.
The Galaxy Commander was no slouch either. Using his jumpjets to hop out of the way of the incoming fire he unleashed an alpha strike that
left another Assassin little more than a smoking wreck. The air practically sizzled around the Guillotine, usually a very cold Mech to run, as the alpha
strike's heat combined with that caused by simulated damage to the engine shielding.
The Night Gyr fell, a dozen lasers from the Asps eating through what little was left of its armour. The gauss rifle coils detonating,
shattering the Mech's arms as the pilot tried to ride it to the ground. Costigan picked his target and blew a hole through the sternum of the last enemy
Assassin and out the back, reducing the gyro to so much wreckage. The Delta Assassin's own lasers tore away more than a ton and a half of his own armour,
which was paper-thin in places.
Another Assassin, so battered that if he hadn't been keeping count he would not have known which side it was on fell over, decapitated by
an Incubus's pulse laser. Duke Togo jumped behind the light battlemech and almost casually fired all the large lasers in his chest through its back.
Somewhere along the way, the arm mounted laser had been disabled, Costigan throught, or the heat inside the cockpit might be even worse than the IR readings
suggested.
The left arm went red and then abruptly black and Costigan felt his Mech stagger as the gyro adjusted for the loss of the arm. A Grendel, the
last Mech of the attackers, missed with its other large laser. With a snarl, Costigan opened the throttle and charged at it. He barely noticed feathering his
jumpjets to hop over the fallen Night Gyr but the impact of the Assassin's right fist crashing into the Grendel's visor was enough to rock him against
his five-point harness. The larger Mech reeled back, and then crashed backwards to the ground. It took a moment for Costigan to realise that the pilot must
have been knocked out by the impact.
In that moment, lasers from the remaining Asps dug deep into the rear of his Assassin and sweat ran down Costigan's face as he felt the
temperature rise. Engine hit, he noted. And the Gyro. Off balance, he flared his jets, jumping backwards, aiming for the cover of one of the disabled turrets.
He didn't quite make it, landing short and tumbling across the scarred concrete to wind up with his Mech sprawled and battered behind the cover he'd
wanted.
"Get up," Duke ordered, dropping a pair of Asps with the medium lasers in his right arm. The Guillotine loomed over Costigan
menacingly, computer generated smoke pouring from two of the jumpjets and a torso laser. It was a minor miracle that the Mech hadn't fallen over yet. It
took almost half a minute for Costigan to bring the Assassin upright, leaning against the turret as he fired all three remaining lasers into the closest
Asp.
And then they were gone. Gathering his wits, Costigan realised that a dozen Asps had jumped down the slope and out of sight of his position.
A second Guillotine was standing opposite him, lasers still pointing after the fleeing enemy warriors, Oscar and a dozen Asps and Fang battle armour suits from
the 17th flanking the machine.
"What happened?" he asked.
"The 10th arrived in their rear," Duke told him. "Delta is withdrawing to regroup. Good enough."
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.