Chaos Irregulars 03 Crossroad Battletech

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.An hour before the exercise, they’d received their “intel” on thepossible locations of the target and suspected distribution of de-fender forces.The terrain of the operations area progressed froma rocky fault region along its eastern border through a narrowand wooded river valley to a rolling plain in the west.There was aprobable target location in each of these three main divisions.The Chaos Irregulars were to approach from the north, deter-mine which location held the target and attain it with as many‘Mechs as possible.From their MercNet data file, they knew the Broadsword Legion,with its balance toward hard-hitting but slower ‘Mechs, preferredurban combat settings.Lacking an urban option, it was likelythey’d select either the rocky, broken terrain of the cliff region orthe heavy woods along the river and avoid the plain.In fact, bothshe and Captain Jacoam strongly suspected the easternmost lo-cation.They’d decided to make their initial approach along the easternrim of the river valley, essentially splitting the difference betweenthe eastern and central locations.Force One moved along theeastern edge of the valley, skirting the dense forest, while ForceTwo stayed slightly farther east, probing the broken land at thebase of the fault cliff.At the last moment Ariel had split her attack element, pairingDavis and his Phoenix Hawk with Christian’s Specter and assign-Crossroads at Outreach • Page 26ing them the western rim of the narrow river valley.The two wouldbe dangerously far from support, if they got in trouble only theirspeed and mobility would keep them alive.But with the future ofher command riding on this engagement, she’d be a fool not tohave the best eyes available looking west.Just in case.“Recon two: contact,” Master Sergeant Chowla’s voice brokeinto her thoughts over the company-wide channel.“Tally two: oneThug, one Cestus; map grid Quebec seventeen.”The Thug was Legion commander Colonel Marita’s BattleMech.The Cestus was one of the smallest ‘Mechs the Broadswordsfielded, but it was a heavy hitter perfectly adapted for fighting inbroken terrain.That both should be just this side of the easternlocation pretty well pointed an arrow directly at their objective.“Cestus attempting to engage,” Chowla reported.“Evading.”Ariel wished the master sergeant luck.With three times themass of a Mongoose and proportionally ungodly firepower, theCestus was a formidable hunter.Particularly in the rocky terrainnear the cliff base, where the Mongoose could not make full use ofits speed.It would take all of Chowla’s purported prowess to stayalive even minutes against such a hunter.Of course it would be Chowla who found the target location andengaged the opposing commander.She’s already caught the at-tention of the MRBC evaluators.The physical inspection of the Chaos Irregulars’ BattleMechs andvehicles had been flawless.The one boast of Captain Jacoam’sshe would never question was the proficiency of his—of their—tech and support personnel.Only Sergeant Chowla had presented a problem.But that poten-tial disaster had turned out.odd.As the inspectors had made a final review of the company ofIrregulars that would be taking part in the exercise, Ariel had beenhorrified to see Chowla standing beside her Mongoose withoutthe black field jacket she’d been issued.Instead she’d worn theolive drab costume she always affected, adorned with campaignribbons she could not possibly have earned, over her shorts andcooling vest.Of course the Dragoon inspector had stopped in front of Chowla.He’d glanced up at the Mongoose, then back down to the diminu-tive master sergeant.Crossroads at Outreach • Page 27For her part, Chowla held her position.Ramrod straight at atten-tion, she stared fixedly at some point in the middle distance.Ariel couldn’t see his face, but the Dragoon inspector clear-ly made a point of reading Chowla’s name from her jacket.Heseemed to make some sort of mental note before he moved on.A step behind him, Ariel made a mental note of her own.Chowla’s dead-ahead stare hadn’t flickered when she passed.“Two Alpha to One Alpha,” Captain Jacoam’s voice came overthe command channel.“You’ve picked up a shadow.Guillotine onyour eight o’clock.Attack Two moving to intercept.”“Broadswords work in pairs,” she reminded her co-commander.“Nothing else moving,” Jacoam answered.If he resented herpointing out common knowledge it didn’t show in his voice.“Theyknow we know they like pairs.May be using individual snipers tothrow us off.”Ariel was unconvinced, but let it ride.She ordered her supportto move closer.“One Alpha to Recon One,” Ariel broadcast on their frequency.“See anything, Mr.Christian?”“Nothing moving, One Alpha,” Christian responded.“Possibleheavy metal stationary at extreme range to the west.”That would coincide with the westernmost target option.Broadsword command at the eastern location.Defenders of thecentral location pulling back and to the east as they advanced.Possible western defenders not moving and an apparent pincer ac-tion—never mind Jacoam’s belief it’s a single ‘Mech—closing fromthe east, trying to drive them west.If there’d been any doubt.“Damn!” Captain Jacoam’s voice broke into her thoughts.“Targetthe Black Knight!”Black Knight?“On it,” replied the Dervish pilot.Truman? Troutman? Arielcouldn’t remember.On her screen she spotted Jacoam’s Grasshopper on her leftflank, facing away.The status readout indicated he’d already tak-en several hits and somehow ruined his left knee actuator.Crossroads at Outreach • Page 28He was firing his full tor-so, his favorite close-rangepunch, at the base of whatlooked to Ariel to be a pillarof basalt thrusting up outof the ground.At nearlythe same instant a volley oflong-range missiles, firedwith remarkable accuracyby the Dervish at extremerange, rained down on thesame spot.Painted thermally byJacoam’s lasers and lit-erally by marker-loadedmissiles, a Black Knightsuddenly stood out clearlyagainst the shadow of therock outcropping.Jacoam fired his own LRMs, though the range was so close Arielwas surprised the warheads had time to arm before striking.Allfive of the missiles found their target.But even as they landed, the Black Knight unleashed its PPC andboth large lasers, hitting Jacoam’s Grasshopper solidly.Ariel’shands spasmed on her own safety-locked fire controls in sympa-thetic reflex.Jacoam’s status readout went black.The Black Knight victory was short-lived.Rounding the out-cropping from either side, Clint and Heather bracketed the heavy‘Mech with combined laser fire.Having already absorbed the pun-ishment of over twenty missiles and the Grasshopper’s lasers, itsstatus readout went black under the onslaught of six medium la-sers at near contact range.Ariel’s attention snapped from the stricken Black Knight to the topof the escarpment skirting the mesa as jump jets flared.Sensorsidentified a Guillotine inbound; thirty seconds to weapons rangebased on current course and speed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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