TOW45

Chapter 45 - The Other War
Star Commander Rex’s gun-light illuminated about a hundred meters underwater before it was lost to darkness and silt. Thus far there was nothing down here but some rusty old industrial equipment and lots of wet sand.
A bright glint of metal and bright blue paint caught his attention. The rest of his Star spread out carefully walking along the lake bed while searching for this elusive cache’s entrance. Rex neared the wreckage finding the angled hood of a Phantom D Omnimech with a 79th Strike Cluster insignia on its shoulder.
His Conjurer took a knee in order to get a closer look at the face down Diamond Shark. There was a small amount of battle damage on the unit. Delios was a warzone however and the Sharks were engaged in a delaying action to salvage as much as possible before the Coyotes reclaimed the world. “What happened to you, Warrior?”
The Battlemech flipped the fallen mech, it crashed into the sand sending another cloud of debris. Massive holes in the armor of its center torso seemed the likely cause of deactivation but it was curiously precise for such intense damage. Either the Warrior was very unlucky or faced a very accurate foe. The cowling protecting the cockpit was breached but there was no mechwarrior inside. “Curious.”
A blinking light caught his attention, the mech's torso twisted underwater to find the Horned Owl whose lights emitted from the cyclopean visage of the humanoid shaped mech. Hand signals from the unit confirmed what he suspected, there were more, a whole Binary of drowned Diamond Shark mechs all in a similar condition. It was time to withdraw and report this unusual situation to command.
Unable to use their jump jets they instead had to slowly walk out of the water watching for whatever killed these Mechwarriors. Magscan, the only Mech based sensor that worked well under water was active looking for anomalies such as a fusion reactor.
Rex watched his step and the screen filling out magnetic anomalies. No active reactors besides those of his Starmates were found. “There has to be an enemy mech around, nothing else could have done that much damage so accurately.”
The farthest reactor signal fell off causing the Star paused waiting for the MagScan to update. A reactor does not just shut down without warning particularly when there are no other Mechs around. “Where did you go, Hu?”
Four Mechs clustered together like surrounded soldiers, each machine covered a 90* arc and each other’s back.
Force Commander Brodric ran silent, deep, and dark within his underwater combat armor. If the Rasalhague Amfibiekåren on Constance had this level of tech Clan Ghost Bear wouldn't have made him a refugee. Now he was satisfying his vengeance one dead Warrior at a time and didn't care which Clan they belonged to, they were all the same to him.
These Warriors were bunched up making the approach tricky, but they could not see or move well in this dark water. Their movement stirred up sediment further degrading their LOS. Passive sonar allowed them to ‘hear’ the enemy which the onboard computer parsed together into a near real time display right to the visor.
Rex’s eyes were glued to his sensor display until he saw a dark mass slowly float toward the formation just beyond the light. Once it came into range it looked like bunch of duckweed come unrooted from the lakebed and he relaxed his guard, until it moved against the current and separated into battle armors trailing a kelp like camouflage behind them. “Undines!”
He leveled the pulse laser rifle and fired a rapid high-power burst that cut through the enemy battle armor, but his regular lasers missed the agile swimmers. This went unanswered by a swarm of torpedoes which was unexpected. Rex backed up crashing into Jen's Clint II. The sudden shock caused both machines to lose their footing before crashing into the sandy bank and jarring their rookie Mechwarriors.
The Lamprey's continued their approach as Brodric cursed this Mechwarrior and its pulse laser that had taken the lives of his men. Their sacrifices would be honored when this Mechwarrior joined the others whom this lake had claimed tonight.
He tracked the slow-moving machine dodging laser fire that created a small steam explosion in its wake. His targeting computer used a fast ultrasonic pulse to range in the enemy and finalize the targeting solution for his Lamprey's magnetic mine launcher.
Two mines found their mark drawn as they to the powerful electromagnets surrounding the reactor. Seconds later their explosive charges detonated creating a massive over-pressure crumpling and deforming the Conjurer's armor plates with damage so extensive that water flooded its reactor chamber drowning the nuclear fire within. Rex's Conjurer fell back into the sand dropped by the concussion as much as the power loss.
The gun light continued to shine on Brodric but its laser would no longer carry death to his combat divers. He usedl the massive but precise rents in the core to move about on his claws. Upon reaching the cockpit the Rasalgheti ripped the armored cowling from its mountings.
Within was a young man illuminated by red tactical lighting. He was certainly the youngest he had seen today no older than his own son. There Mechwarrior showed no signs of fear even in his current situation, the Sharks were in a panic attempting to bribe him into spared them. Instead this man, 'Rex' from the helmet was looking him right through the viewpoint.
Rex looked out at the strange Elemental faintly illuminated against the he inky dark waters. Its heavy bulbous helmet had no face but he could see what appeared to be quartz view ports for eyes. The was painted with a black octopus whose tentacles wrapped to the back.
Two heavy battle claws rested on the glaz. He felt another explosion nearby of the same type that had crushed his Conjurer.
He reached for the Avenger auto-shotgun attached to his seat and aimed it through his own cockpit glass, mouthing, “If am going to die I will do it fast and with a gun in my hand,” before pulling the trigger and sending a three round burst of solid tungsten slugs toward his foe.
The shots penetrates but, caused little damage against the Lamprey's armor even at this range. Where the slugs punched through however a stream of water followed, Rex fired again but didn't hear it this time deafened as he was after shooting the shotgun in such close quarters.
All it did was speed the flow.
He kept at it until he ran out of air and ammo while the octopus faced water monster watched him.
05/15/3062 Belle's Wharf
The morning sun brought no relief to the Coyotes, Star Commander Rebekah's Star was in no shape for additional combat after fighting the 15th Cruiser. They were replaced by tankers from the Reserve Trinary who completed the final push to acquire the mines nearby.
Worse news was filtering in as dawn illuminated the ruins around her that had traded hands several times over this five month campaign. It was a strategic point due to its shuttleport and Harbor.
Right now she was sipping tea and looking at a smoking wreck of a small cargo ship blocking the harbor just barely visible as the morning mist burned away.
A female SibCadet ran towards her, the young woman's gray fatigues were dirty but the body armor and Gauss SMG on it were clean. Khan Sullivan Koga's Repossession Campaign against the Diamond Sharks had pressed everyone into service. SibCadets regularly supported their Warrior brothers and sisters gaining valuable experience on a real battlefield.
Good performance would allow a 15 year old Cadet like Cara a chance to undergo her Trial of Position ahead of schedule. “Star Commander Rebekah, I was looking for you.”
“What is it, Cadet Cara?”
The brown haired teenager paused to catch her breath breathing deep to fill her lungs with the temperate heavy sir of this planet. “I looked for Star Commander Rex at the Cluster Aid Station like you asked but he is nowhere to be found.
Even Star Captain Cyne has no idea where he could be. His Star failed to rendezvous here as planned last night and they have no one to spare for search and rescue.”
The girl looked past her slightly older counterpart toward the situation in the harbor, “Not while the harbor is blocked by that wreck. What happened?”
“Mines. Has to be the Sharks. They did not want to fight for it again so they wrecked its value to us and redeployed their force.” Rebekah walked up a short stairway to the main road where her now perfectly tuned gray jeep was parked on the street. “Come with me, Cara. I will talk to Cyne myself.”
Cara strapped herself in easing her SMG over the seat belt and adjusting it to her recently obtained armored vest. Between them were a pair of Mk.39 Pulse Laser Rifles on their charging cradle behind them the back bench seat held enough supplies for a small scout team as well as Rebekah's armored vest. A vest they were all supposed to be wearing now.
The girl looked strangely excited, “Can I drive, Becky?”
Rebekah looked over to her put on her helmet and sunglasses, “Not this time. Maybe when you are older.”
Cara glared at her, “But you are only...” The rest of the sentence was lost as Becky hit the supercharger throwing the girl into her seat as they burned rubber down the abandoned seaside roads in search of her brother.
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Category:The Other War Chapters
Category:Works by AlphaMirage