ASO Chpt I4

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==Interlude: Blackmane - Aurigan Sentinels (BattleTech CYOA)==
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===Bad day for a Pirate===
Axylus, Alloway System
Aurigan Coalition, Rimward Periphery
19th February, 3021
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Winton “Blackmane” Preston was not having a good year when things got a whole lot worse. That weirdass DropShip had jumped into the system and he would say that he hasn’t seen its design before if the pirate wasn’t certain it was the same design as the crashed DropShip he was squatting in.
 
Unlike any regular DropShip, it started heading towards his moon as opposed to the planet. Not that he couldn’t blame them for that given that Alloway wasn’t much of a planet, but they were heading for his moon and that almost certainly meant trouble for him. Too many people had been sniffing about his base of operations.
 
That’s the life of a pirate for you, a couple of bad missions and then everyone is smelling blood in the water as word gets around. Fair weather friends and amicable acquaintances have turned into rivals as they want to see if Blackmane’s Buccaneers are on their last legs.
 
Then he got a message from one of Herman’s lieutenants. At first he thought it would be an ultimatum from the man, telling him to join or die. Shadow Eclipse is having its own problems just like Blackmane is with the Lyran guy Baumann muscling on Herman’s territory.
 
If he lives long enough, Blackmane wouldn’t be surprised if Herman bent the knee to Baumann. Or maybe Herman will just get himself killed at Baumann’s hands given that the former is a Leaguer and the latter is an Elsie. That means they should hate each other thanks to their homes being neighbors in the Succession Wars.
 
Whatever happens, it is future Blackmane’s problems. Present, Blackmane needs to worry about the current top dog, which is still Herman right now. So Herman wants the people on that inbound DropShip dead. Specifically the lady in charge, who is Herman’s little old half-sister and who the pirate boss has a major hate on for and the crime boss is willing to pay a hefty reward for her death.
 
Personally, Blackmane doesn’t get it. He doubts that little Miss Elizabeth Nora has actually done anything other than be born to piss off Herman. Herman is an arrogant pissant like that and that is part of why Blackmane is independent of him. That and he likes being the one to call the shots. What’s the saying? Better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.
 
The only problem is that Blackmane is certain he has heard the name before even if he can’t quite place it.
 
“Crap.” grunts Blackmane as he remembers just who made the LosTech find of the century last year.
 
“Boss?” calls Heidrun, one of his MechWarriors, and Blackmane realizes that he just transmitted that over the lance comms.
 
“I just realized who is coming for us.” says Blackmane before deciding that they don’t need to know any more than that.
“Baumann?” asks Lucius in low-key panic, the greenhorn replacing Matus in the Phoenix Hawk after Blackmane’s reliable MechWarrior bit it in their last raid.
 
“No, it is the Battleship Bitch.” growls Blackmane, “Now shut up and get ready.”
 
“We are going to have to fight a battleship?” demands Lucius.
 
“I would have told you if there was a freaking WarShip coming our way.” snaps Blackmane, “Now shut the goddamn hell up and get ready for a fight.”
 
“Didn’t she also find a regiment of ‘Mechs?” asks Coranni, one of the down on their luck mercs that Blackmane hired for this fight.
 
Those three aren’t pirates, just MechWarriors with more skill on the battlefield than they have business sense. A sad tale, but a far from uncommon one. Blackmane wouldn’t normally trust a bunch of do-gooders, but he needs experienced pilots to watch his back. If Matus hadn’t died, Blackmane would have still hired them, but he would have certainly felt less uneasy about it.
 
At least he doesn’t have to count on either their greed or honesty with the hostages he has taken. They won’t be running off or backstabbing Blackmane with the people he is holding at gunpoint, especially when those people are their DropShip crews and ASF pilots.
 
“The Battleship Bitch might have a whole regiment back home, but she only brought two Leopards with her here,” retorts Blackmane, “That means two lances and we have two lances. That means we can take her if we play our cards right.”
 
He’ll have to deal with Coranni and her MechWarriors if they survive this. At the very least, he isn’t letting them walk with their ‘Mechs as even without Coranni’s broken Crusader, they still have three fifty-five tonners. It would be an easy choice just to have the meat shot and the metal seized except Blackmane needs experienced MechWarriors right now. He’ll try to bait them in, get them to do an unthinkable crime or two and then leak word of it. Once they’re committed to the pirate life, they won’t be able to walk away and they’ll have to look to him for protection.
 
If they try to escape him anyway, he can just fall back on killing them and taking their rides for himself.
 
“Umm, Blackmane boss guy?” says one of the mercs hesitantly, “I’m picking up unknown objects coming down from orbit?”
 
“What?” demands Blackmane and the merc audibly gulps over the comms.
 
“A dozen of them, coming down nearby.” continues the merc, “Not too far away from the base.”
 
“I see them!” calls Heidrun, “Looks like ‘Mech drop pods!”
“I guess they aren’t using the Leopards after all,” says Coranni and Blackmane glares in the direction of her Shadow Hawk.
 
“Or they are and they’re bringing even more ‘Mechs!” exclaims Lucius as the rookie begins to panic again.
 
“Shut up, Lucius!” roars Blackmane even as the pirate has some misgivings of his own.
A dozen drop pods means a whole company to his seven ‘Mechs and a trio of Quikcell tanks and if Lucius is right for once, then the Battleship Bitch will be bringing an even score of ‘Mechs to crush him. If it goes to that, well, he’ll have the press-ganged mercs cover his escape while he makes a run for his DropShip. He won’t have any aerospace cover, but folks don’t attack any ships in this part of the Periphery and the Battleship Bitch is a local if he recalls correctly.
 
Wait, she is Herman’s half-sister. Does that make her a Leaguer? She might have different opinions about how things are done around here.
 
“Lucius, Steren, go and scout.” orders Blackmane.
 
“You’re sending us-” starts Lucius, but the pirate boss has had enough with the sniveling coward.
“You are in a scout ‘Mech so go and freaking scout!” shouts Blackmane as he aims the weaponry of his Thunderbolt at Lucius’ Phoenix Hawk.
 
He is too close for the LRMs to reliably hit, but Blackmane is a good enough shot that he could tear apart the exposed rear armor of the medium ‘Mech. Not that he would actually do it as he needs every ‘Mech he has for this, but Lucius doesn’t know that. No, the craven fool just needs to fear Blackmane more than the Battleship Bitch for the duration of this battle. Then Blackmane can have Lucius shot and replaced with someone who has a goddamn spine.
 
As Steren dutifully runs off in her Locust, Lucius reluctantly joins her in his-no, in Matus’ ‘Mech. The pair of recon ‘Mechs advance into the barren lifeless hills that surround their base, where the drop pods came down from above.
“Just get a good look at what we’re facing and get back here,” says Blackmane, “I don’t need you getting yourselves killed for no goddamn reason.”
 
Steren gives a snappy ‘yes, boss’ while Lucius mutters some vulgarities about Blackmane under his breath, but Blackmane ignores them. If they survive this, Steren is getting the Phoenix Hawk next. She might lack the talent of Lucius, but at least she isn’t a coward and knows how to follow instructions.
 
“Boss!” reports Steren as she gets close to the confusing mess of hostile sensor contacts, “I’m seeing Griffins, but my ‘Mech-oh god!”
Whatever Steren was about to say is cut off as one of the largest swarms of LRMs that Blackmane has ever seen comes bearing down on the hapless Locust. There has to be over a hundred and fifty of them, perhaps even as many as two hundred or more. They come raining down on Steren and while the majority of them miss, enough of them are hitting to seriously threaten the Bug ‘Mech with its poorly maintained armor.
 
Steren tries to eject before it is too late, but one of the stray LRMs strikes her ejection seat before it can get too far away from her Locust. Blackmane curses his luck at this unfortunate turn of events. Not only is he down a ‘Mech, but he just lost a promising MechWarrior as an insult to injury.
 
At least the amount of LRMs combined with the number of drop pods tells Blackmane something. The Battleship Bitch must have brought several mid-weight ‘Mechs loaded with LRMs or she brought heavier ‘Mechs with plenty of LRMs as part of their substantial arsenals. The former would be infinitely preferable as a bunch of LRM boats will be easier to take out than a bunch of heavies. Blackmane just needs to get near enough to blast the mercs apart at close range.
 
But if they are a bunch of heavy-weights, then Blackmane is screwed. His Thunderbolt is the only machine above sixty tons on his side of the battle. 
 
“Screw this!” shouts Lucius over the comms.
 
“Stay in line, you sniveling coward!” roars Blackmane back at the gutless MechWarrior.
 
“Suck a dick, Preston!” snaps back Lucius as he turns his Phoenix Hawk around and begins to flee, “You can’t kill me if they kill me and you certainly can’t kill me if they kill you.”
 
“You’ll be lucky if I just kill you when I get my hands on you!” screams Blackmane, but it is too late.
 
Two pairs of PPCs leash out at Lucius and while three of them go wide, one of them gets lucky and strikes his torso. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem as the torso has the most armor on it except thanks to Lucius being a worthless coward, the rear armor of his Phoenix Hawk is facing the mercenaries. The heavy firepower of the PPC shreds the weak armor plating and mangles the internal structure before igniting the machine gun ammo.
 
As Lucius’ screams over the radio before being abruptly cut-off, Blackmane curses his bad luck. While Lucius is a good riddance to bad rubbish, the loss of his Phoenix Hawk is going to hurt. Especially since unlike with Steren’s Locust, the pirate boss knows that there is no chance of his ‘Mech techs salvaging the Phoenix Hawk, not with its fusion engine blown to hell and back.
 
“Your scouts are dead.” points out Coranni very unhelpfully and Blackmane resists the urge to scream at the dumb whore.
 
This is going to be a much tougher fight than he expected or wants.
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==Author's Chapter Commentary==
; A Word from the Author: I’m trying something new here. Rather than cover Elizabeth’s perspective, I’m going to show the perspective of her opponents since I feel that will be more interesting. If this experiment works out, I might try it again in the future though it certainly won’t be an everytime thing. Anyway, Blackmane is meant to be an unlikeable arsehole as befitting of a pirate. At the same time, he is supposed to be competent, but with limited information and way in over his head even if he doesn’t realise it until it is too late.
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I4 Chapter