CnC Chpt 13

==Cat and Crescent - Chapter 13 -==
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===Playing Tag with Autocannons===
Bingham Prefecture
Moab, Lyreton, Rimward Periphery
Thursday, October 7th, 3024 
Some deluded people want to be mechwarriors, Marius de Vries laughed to himself. His H-7 Warrior flew low and fast along the Capelinha highway. Sixty meters off the deck, flat-out for the target zone. 
He let instinct guide his piloting. His helicopter performed beautifully on Moab. The low gravity improved his fuel economy, but the atmosphere remained dense enough not to seriously alter the Warrior's flight characteristics. The system's golden-red sun rose over the horizon behind him. Ideal weather for ground-attack.
For now, Marius remembered. He didn't see any sign of the predicted furaca, but he didn't have the expertise to read Moab's weather. Tropical biomes, he knew, could change their faces quickly.
 
He passed over a river where water churned in a dark stone cauldron. The road curved and dropped toward the sea. It ran along the base of a cliff, and the sea stretched out across a black sandy beach in the vain attempt to pluck it off its elevated causeway.
 
"Here," Marius said. "Here's the spot."
 
<<"Agreed,">> Jason Diao said. Jason's Warrior followed him by half a klick. <<"We can hover out to sea and snipe at anything moving on the road.">>
"That's right," Marius grinned. The Moabites depended on prayer and good wishes for their air defense. Given enough time and ammunition, the two Warriors could pick apart the column of BattleMechs.
 
Mirza Hosseini's voice cut across the comm channel. His lightly-built Ferret scouted ahead of the two Warriors, looking for the enemy. "I've got something. Five klicks ahead. Mechs - a lot of mechs."
 
"Keep your distance," Marius ordered. Mirza's Ferret had no armor protection. A lucky hit could take him out of the sky. The much heavier Warriors wouldn't stand up much better; they all depended on speed and maneuverability.
After a few moments, the enemy mechs showed up on the Warrior's sensors. Marius took a few moments to classify them. A pair of scout mechs - a Wasp and a Commando - moved ahead of the main force. The four-legged Scorpion and long-legged Cicada stomped a half-kilometer behind them. After that came a Javelin with two UrbanMech bodyguards. The Hunchback and a Shadow Hawk followed them. A lone UrbanMech served as tail-end charlie.
 
Marius activated his comm. "Crescent One, this is Air One. Enemy spotted. Ten mechs. They're on the move, approaching..." He checked his map. "Capim Bay."
 
>>"Air One, affirmative. No change to your orders. Harass, delay, distract, hinder."<<
 
"Will comply. Air One out."
 
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Ten minutes later, the enemy mechs approached the road along the beach. Marius circled out over the sea and watched them from long range. Some deluded people wanted to be mechwarriors. Now I get to shoot at those poor idiots.
 
The second pair of mechs moved out of the overgrown countryside, following the road. Marius eased into maximum range of the Warrior's centerline AC/2 autocannon. His neurohelmet picked up where his eyes looked, and selected a target. Cicada. Forty-ton scout hunter. Weak armor. Prey. The Warrior's computer lined up a shot, and Marius tapped the trigger. The gun roared and spat a stream of shells toward the enemy.
 
The Cicada detected his target lock and immediately danced. Some of his shots missed, while others shaved off armor from the Cicada's boxy form. Marius ceased fire and banked away.
 
The enemy didn't even know how to process air attack. As autocannon rounds fell, the Cicada ran for cover. The Scorpion paused, hunched down on its four legs, and flung a futile PPC bolt at the airborne attacker. The other mechs pulled back toward the trees.
Marius banked away, back out of range. The enemy mechs tried to lock sensors on him. "Your turn, Jason."
 
To the east, the second Warrior opened fire. Autocannon rounds struck one of the bodyguard UrbanMechs, scraping off armor.
 
The mechs retreated back toward a stand of trees. Marius watched them take cover. Bet you wish you had a Rifleman along for the ride, hm? Too bad.
 
Marius switched off with Jason again, firing more AC/2 rounds at the Shadow Hawk. <<"Good hits,">> Jason called out. <<"You think we'll get any of these guys down before we run out of ammo?">>
 
"If we do, I'll buy you a bottle of Cromarty Black."
 
<<"You're on!">>
 
"Tag, you're it," Marius declared. He banked away again as the Scorpion tried another speculative PPC shot.
 
As Jason sniped at the Hunchback, Marius got back on the radio. "Status update. We've engaged. The enemy moved into cover and stopped advancing, but we haven't scored significant damage yet."
 
>>"How's the weather look?"<<
 
Marius glanced back toward the western horizon. "Some heavy clouds are moving in. Might be this furaca you're concerned about."
 
>>"Keep harassing them for now. Don't worry about trying to bring a target down. Just keep them worried. They'll probably pause and wait for the weather to drive you away. Return to Boca Grande when that happens."<<
 
"Yes, sir." Mechwarriors want to fight their own, Marius sighed to himself. Well, that's fine. Let them slug it out. He grinned, lined up another shot, and sent another five-round burst into the Cicada. Did you imagine this when you decided to become a mechwarrior?
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===Disagreement in the choose of Battle Plans===
 
I dinnae like this plan."
 
"Why not, Da?" Josie asked. She flipped up the visor on her neurohelmet and looked out the cockpit of Carrousel's Cavalier VTOL. The furaca rolled across the western horizon. A skirmishing line of light fluffy clouds retreated before a boiling wall of gray-black monsters that floated inexorably forward to the marching-tune of thunder. Even inside the Cavalier's cockpit, Josie smelled the incoming rain, and the mech's external audio pickups whispered to her the fretful sound of palm-fronds in the rising wind.
 
"Yer commander - he isnae in the front. In my day…" he paused. "Feck, Ah'm doon that thing th' old farts alwa' did."
 
Josie understood his meaning anyway. "Commander Greenbrier's not a coward. He explained his strategy. Luke and Wes hit their forward skirmishers and draw them in. I provide sniper cover. Then we fall back into the kill zone."
 
"Aye…" Stephen sighed.
 
"What's wrong, Da?"
 
"Dinnae, wee yin, I jist dinnae… Tell ye what, lassie. If it works, Ah'll eat my kippy haun."
 
It took Josie a moment to mentally translate. "Uh, Daddy… your left hand isn't… it isn't there anymore."
 
"Aye," he agreed. He paused for a few moments, and Josie felt awkward bringing it up. "Ah got to laugh aboot it, Josie - ain't worth moanin' over now."
 
"What happened?"
 
"Crivoi."
 
"What'd he do?"
 
"He wanted tae make sure Ah'd never pilot a mech again. Dinnae think aboot it tae much, lassie - it'll live in yer heid."
 
"Too late for that," Josie said, her anger boiling up. She reached out with intent and seized the Griffin's controls, her fingers on both hands tightening down until her knuckles turned white through the open back of her gloves.
As if on cue, the comm clicked. "This is Four. Got something on the sensors. Light mechs, probably bugs."
 
One fat raindrop splattered into the center of the Cavalier's canopy and heralded the next wave of the furaca. After a few moments, the downpour began, drenching the Griffin and reducing visibility from the cockpit. Josie quickly lowered her visor again, seeing more with the mech's sensors than her own eyes.
 
Wes and Luke waited in ambush behind the Linhares ridgeline. Josie couldn't pick them out on visuals, but saw the heat on her thermal sensors. The first trap - a dozen anti-mech mines - lay in front of their position, waiting for the enemy to approach.
 
Blips appeared on Josie's sensors, fed to the Griffin remotely by the Phoenix Hawk's more advanced comm suite. "Here they come, Daddy," Josie said. "You ready?"
 
"Show yer da wot canny tricks ye've learned, Teacup," Stephen said.
 
Josie grinned. She knew her father couldn't see much from his jumpseat, but he possessed an almost mystical sense of the battlefield. She'd never beaten him in the simulators. The realization that Mandrinn Crivoi purposefully crippled him - never to pilot a mech again - stoked a white-hot anger within her. You have hurt my family enough, she vowed. You killed my Momma. You crippled my Da. You will not escape my wrath. Not today!
 
On the dark horizon to the west, a Commando and a Wasp appeared on sensors, moving forward as scouts on the road. The Wasp belonged to de Souza's Reavers, but of the two, it represented a lesser threat. The Commando carried a number of dangerous short-range missiles. Over the comms, Remihel issued orders. "Prioritize the Commando and get their SRMs off the board. Remember - your first shot's usually the most accurate. Take your time and get effective hits first."
 
The two enemy scouts moved forward. Wes and Luke remained in their ambush spots, waiting for the ideal opportunity. Josie brought up the particle projection cannon mounted on the Griffin's right arm, but waited to establish target lock.
 
The first exchange of fire rippled out like lightning. Wes drew blood with the Phoenix Hawk's potent large laser, while Luke also scored a hit with the Stinger's medium laser. The twenty-five-ton Commando staggered and fell, only to rise a few moments later to fire a wild salvo of SRMs in the general direction of the ambushers. None of them hit, and Wes hit the damaged mech again with another well-placed shot from the large laser. The pilot ejected, but the rising wind caught their canopy and blew them sideways, directly into the teeth of the ambushers. The Wasp, in the black and gray colors of de Souza's Reavers, turned and fled back into the storm.
 
Josie watched the Commando pilot's chute race toward her, bellied out fully in the wind, nearly sideways with the pilot dragged through the air. When it eventually came down, the pilot faced death or serious injury. On impulse more than conscious decision, she turned the Griffin and stepped forward. She brought her feet down on the foot-pedals to activate the mech's jump-jets. The Griffin rose with the thunder, and she felt the furaca's headwind push against her. Adjust. Lean into it… now balance…
 
As the chute blew toward her, she reached out with the mech's left arm and closed an oversized fist on the silken canopy. She swung the arm up until the pilot dangled, still helpless, from the risers.
 
Josie throttled back the jump-jets and picked her landing spot. She hadn't gone very far or very high from her starting spot. As fifty-five tons of mech came back down, Josie pushed harder on the foot-pedals and landed softly. The Commando pilot, still hanging from the chute, dangled only a meter or so above the ground. He quickly detached himself from the lines and ran for cover to one side of the road.
 
Remihel's voice came over the comm. "Well done, Two."
 
"Aye, a braw move!" Stephen added.
 
"Thanks," Josie said.
 
Now the rain came howling through the palms and lashed against the Griffin's cockpit. Josie scowled at the sensors, quietly demanding they reveal the location of the enemy. One mech down, nine to go - all five of the Reavers, and then Mandrinn Crivoi.
 
She barely heard her father laugh. "Teacup," he said. "Tell me ye've got pure class encryption on yer lance comms…"
 
"Aye?" she answered, wondering at the reason for the question.
 
"Try channel 17.4," Stephen said. "An' use the encrypt key abc."
 
"What." Josie's jaw dropped. She punched the channel into her comm board, and heard the silky voice of Mandrinn Jairo Crivoi arguing with his mercenaries. She immediately switched back to the Rangers' channel. "Crescent One, this is Two."
 
"Go ahead," Remihel said.
 
"Enemy is using channel 17.4 for their comms," she reported. "Encryption key is abc."
 
The commander laughed, a roguish chuckle that assured her that this information would be exploited fully. "Well done…"
 
A few minutes passed as the enemy prepared their next move. Denis de Souza tempered Crivoi's hot-headed demand to rush forward and overrun the roadblock. Instead, to suit the Mandrinn's demand for haste, the Reavers sent forward their fifty-five ton Scorpion, the Cicada, and the damaged Wasp.
 
"Remember the plan," Remihel coached over the comm. "Give them one - maybe two shots - if you think you can manage it. Then run."
 
Wes and Luke backed up slowly, further behind the reverse slope of the hill. With the first skirmish, the enemy hadn't reached the thin row of anti-tank mines laid across the highway. Now they'd likely push into them while trying to cross the ridge. The first snare for unwary feet, Josie grinned. After suffering so many times in the simulators to Remihel's mines, she felt nothing but joy to pass that experience on to Crivoi and his mercs.
 
"Here they come!" Luke warned.
 
The Cicada bounded into view. The forty-tonner carried a reputation as a terrible mech, but it was fast. The Wasp came hot on its heels, the pilot clearly shy about getting too far from the larger Cicada's shadow. Last to appear was the low-slung, four-legged Scorpion. Whoever pilots that thing has my respect, Josie begrudgingly allowed. Something about its four-legged design messed up a mechwarrior's ability to command their machine as an almost integral part of themselves. But it possessed a PPC, a six-tube SRM launcher, and a speed higher than the Griffin.
 
The trio of enemies, all Reavers, sprinted to the crest of the hill, and topped it just in time for the black sky behind them to crackle with lightning. Josie felt her pulse rise. She selected the Scorpion in her targeting computer. The computer tried to lock on, accompanied by a "Pip, pip, pip, pip…" that played in her ears. After a few interminable seconds, she felt a quick buzz from the feedback system in her trigger grouping, and the audio cue changed to a bright "Weeeee…"
 
"Fire!" Wes snapped, and snapped a beautiful shot off with his large laser. It must have been aimed for the Cicada, but flashed under the medium mech's legs mid-stride and took the shorter Wasp square in the head. The twenty-tonner instantly went down, pilot dead in her cockpit.
 
Josie let loose with an alpha strike. The discharge of the PPC sizzled lightning-blue in the rain, and she felt the static discharge on her neck and her eyelashes. Moments later, the LRMs volleyed out in a percussive staccato, and Josie adjusted her stance ever-so-slightly to keep the mech's right shoulder firm. Both PPC and missiles played over the Scorpion's hull, scourging off armour plating.
 
A moment later, the Reavers triggered the first set of mines. The Cicada reached them first, and its right foot disappeared in a detonation flash. The mech stumbled on for a few dozen more meters, the pilot fighting to stay up by limping on one knee, then it crashed nose-first down onto the road. The Scorpion, too, hit at least one mine, and stumbled off to the side of the road in a drunken daze.
 
Josie felt a surge of pure joy rise in her chest, and she let it out with a wildcat yowl. "Yes! That is what it feels like, bitches! I hope you enjoy it! EAT DIRT!"
 
The Scorpion survived better than its smaller compatriot, stumbling off to the right and throwing a salvo of SRMs at Wes's Phoenix Hawk. One, maybe two, hit Wes's mech, and his yelp of surprise and alarm could be heard over the comm.
 
Other mechs appeared over the hill. Alerted to the trap, they pushed forward through the gaps in the minefield that their comrades just cleared. In the lead marched de Souza's Hunchback, trying to get into range with its monster autocannon.
Over the comm, Remihel's voice urged immediate action. "Three and Four - withdraw!"
 
"Just one more shot-" Wes said.
 
"Now!"
 
"Hoora good call…" Stephen muttered from the back seat. "Git ye ready, wee yin… incoming fire soon."
 
"I know, Da," Josie said. She took a slow backwards step, exactly as planned. "I got this."
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===Fatal dance in the Minefield===
 
Ahead of her, both Wes's Phoenix Hawk and Luke's Stinger quickly fell back in a rush. Josie snapped off another PPC shot at the Scorpion, but she couldn't see the result. Her heart climbed up into her throat as the enemy pressed in. She saw Mandrinn Crivoi's Javelin pop up once or twice on sensors, but he was in the back, protected by a pair of UrbanMech bodyguards. Reluctantly, she sent a PPC bolt sizzling into de Souza's Hunchback, though the fifty-ton mech was evasive and she didn't spot any hits.
And then she took a hit - a sharp whack from an autocannon that rattled her teeth together. The wireframe display on the Griffin's console flashed, showing a loss of armor on the mech's left torso. Time to withdraw...
 
The Reavers' comms grew noisy. They had poor comm discipline, and Josie heard Crivoi urging his forces onward. "We've got them on the run! Push them harder! After them!"
 
Luke's Stinger bolted right past Josie, trying to get clear of the enemy fire. Josie continued backing away, but mentally prepared herself to turn and run. Wes's Phoenix Hawk still fought ahead of her, drawing most of the enemy fire - but he couldn't take that spot forever. Finally, Wes lit off his jump jets and allowed the furaca winds to give him an extra push back towards safety.
 
I'm the front line now, Josie told herself. I need to run.
 
She matched action to desire. Behind her, the pursuit grew hot. In his Hunchback, de Souza led the way, with the Reaver Shadow Hawk and Crivoi's Javelin close on his heels. With her back to the enemy, Josie felt the first chilly finger of panic on her spine. Her breathing turned quick. Don't lose control - this is all part of the plan!
 
And then, through the rain ahead of her, she spotted the road junction where the Angelandia road crossed the Capelinha highway. Remihel's Marauder waited on the far side, leaning into the wind, eager to join the fight. The Pegasus hovertank, powered down to keep from blowing away, hid in ambush nearby.
 
"Behind me, Two," Remihel ordered. His veteran voice remained unshaken. Josie's cold shiver of fear evaporated. A killing zone waited for Crivoi.
 
She turned and formed up on the Marauder's left shoulder. A double-vee of vibrabombs, activated by remote, appeared on her situation map. The enemy marched straight into them, in pursuit of an enemy they thought was already broken.
 
"Try to salvage the mechs!" Crivoi commanded. Josie could hear his excitement building as they charged. Not much longer now…!
 
The enemy charged into the kill-zone. Crivoi, in his fast light Javelin, crossed the first line of vibrabombs without incident. His Javelin didn't weigh enough to set them off. He reached the second row of vibrabombs, set for thirty tons, at the same moment de Souza's Hunchback and the badly-damaged Scorpion reached the first line.
 
Detonations lit up the sensors. Crivoi's Javelin came spinning out of the smoke cloud and flopped face-first onto the ground, its legs mangled. The Scorpion, its two forelegs already damaged earlier in the fight, lost them both now, and slammed nose-first into the road with enough force to shear off the front half of its PPC barrel. Last of all, de Souza's Hunchback slowly limped out of the rain, right leg dragging uselessly.
 
"Rangers!" Remihel's voice sounded clear and cold over the comms channel. "Firing line."
The Marauder fired its alpha strike, with double PPCs, medium lasers, and the big class-five autocannon all unleashed against the Reavers' Shadow Hawk, which avoided the vibrabombs by lagging slightly behind the pack leaders. As the Shadow Hawk tried to avoid the minefield, the heavy mech's firepower played over its upper chest and head, and the 55-tonner crashed backwards to the ground.
 
From its ambush spot, Sergeant Reich's Pegasus tank unleashed an impressive salvo of short-ranged missiles. They slammed into de Souza's Hunchback. The armored cover for the mech's shoulder-mounted autocannon came off, and tumbled into the road. 
 
Wes's Phoenix Hawk focused on the badly-damaged Scorpion. A hit from the large laser brewed up the Scorpion's onboard magazine of missiles, and it disappeared in a brief, violent fire.
 
Josie did not fire. Instead, she stalked forward, closing on Mandrinn Crivoi's downed Javelin. The Mandrinn tried to rise, but the Javelin's damaged legs wouldn't keep traction on the rain-slicked highway. 
As she closed, she stabbed a finger down on her comm, switching to channel 17.4. "Mandrinn Crivoi!" she hissed. "I'm Josie Wallace. It took me two years, but I've come to finish the job my da started."
 
The Javelin kept trying to stand upright. "A fair fight," he croaked. "A duel! I demand trial by combat!"
 
"No," Josie snapped. "Not today."
 
At the last moment, the Javelin managed to stand on broken legs. Josie dodged a last-ditch salvo of point-blank LRMs. Like a gladiator, she clenched the Griffin's left fist and punched the Mandrinn's mech. She aimed for the head, but Crivoi got an arm up first. The Javelin stumbled back. Josie continued her charge and tapped her feet on the jump-jet controls, lifting off just long enough to plant one foot in the middle of the Javelin's chest. 
 
The Mandrinn stumbled back, trying to keep upright. Josie halted her advance, mindful of how far forward she'd already ventured. The Javelin slowly fell backwards and landed on a vibrabomb. The mech's store of LRMs detonated, and Josie stepped back as the fire blossomed through the storm.
 
A moment later, over the burning wreckage of the Mandrinn's dead mech, de Souza's Hunchback crunched toward her. The mech looked far worse for wear, but Josie's breath and heart both seized at the dark, oversized muzzle of the AC/20 autocannon. That gaping maw pointed directly at the Griffin's cockpit, and no armored ferroglass canopy could stop that shell when it hit.
 
"Move, lassie!" her father shouted.
 
Before she could, burning blue PPC lightning-bolts struck the Hunchback in the chest. Remihel's Marauder strode into the fight. The rain boiled on the Marauder's overheating exterior and surrounded the mech in a spectral cloak of steam. He kicked the Hunchback and casually snapped off the mech's damaged left leg, and then bulled straight into de Souza and forced him over backwards. As he went down, Josie heard de Souza's scream over the comm. Then the Marauder brought one oversized foot down on the prone Hunchback's cockpit, and the comm channel turned abruptly quiet.
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Chapter 13