The Kobe Dragons: Chapter 12

12
Al-Nafud, Equatus Desert
Solaris VII, Lyran Commonwealth
17 February 3042

The mess hall aboard League Two, the Leopard class DropShip being used to transport the Kobe Dragons and their BattleMechs, was somewhat cramped; but had more than enough room for the team to meet in. Tashizo was trying to hide his nervousness. He’d never been in a DropShip before. It was noisy and vibrated and shook during its flight out of the atmosphere, around half the planet, and back down again towards their destination: Al-Nafud, the desert battlefield sponsored by the Federated Suns. Which meant the Black Hills Legionnaires would be fighting on home turf.
    Tashizo stood there in a pair of combat boots, shorts, tank top and his brand-new cooling vest. His neurohelmet was on the mess hall table. Cera and Aya were similarly clad, although Cera’s neurohelmet was a marvel of lostech, a model used during the days of the Star League. She had been given it by Garadun who had another just like it. Not only that, but instead of a cooling vest he wore a Star League-era cooling suit that looked like an aerospace pilot’s flight suit. The right sleeve had been vaporised along with his arm, but had since been replaced. Although the new sleeve lacked lostech, it was made from ballistic weave to protect his myomer arm.
    Cera put a hand on her helmet. “Okay, guys, listen up. League brass has decided that to make this little fight of ours more exciting, we’re going in hot. This Leopard will be letting us off directly on the battlefield. The doors will open sixty seconds before we touch down, and as soon as we land, we deploy and the match is underway.”
    “Cera-san, we haven’t trained for this,” Aya remarked, looking worried.
    “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine,” Cera assured her.
    “How come we weren’t told beforehand?” Tashizo demanded in annoyance.
    “Last minute decision, apparently.”
    “Ha! Last minute, my ass,” said Garadun sarcastically. “They plan from start.”
    “In any case, that’s the situation,” said Cera, then gave Aya and Tashizo a smirk. “But we can play, too. While we were with the Fusiliers, Garadun-san and I practiced combat drops with the rest of the company. Alexandra-sama wanted her mercenaries to be the best, and we were. Gar’s hot-dropping before we land.”
    Tashizo spoke to Garadun in English. “What’s hot-dropping?”
    “I jump out of the DropShip before we land,” Garadun told his yakuza friend with a grin. “Oni’s got jump jets. I hop out, hit my jets, and down I go.”
    “Why do this?” Aya asked curiously.
    “According to League rules, each team is supposed to be deployed at their home base at the start of the match,” Cera explained. “But Gar and I don’t trust the rules and we definitely don’t trust those Federat scum. An ambush isn’t out of the question, or any other treacherous shit. This way we at least have a warrior on the ground ready to cover us if something goes wrong. No-one knows we’re doing this.”
    Tashizo put a hand on Garadun’s shoulder. “You risk much for us, my friend.”
    Garadun shrugged. “All part of job.”
    “But you’ll be alone out there,” said Aya, deeply concerned. “If there is an ambush, you’ll be outnumbered maybe four-to-one.”
    “Gar can handle himself, don’t worry.” Cera glanced at him and he closed his eyes for a second in agreement. “He doesn’t like to talk about it, but I do. Garadun-san was awarded the Commonwealth Star for valour when we served on Kolovraty.”
    Tashizo and Aya looked at their fellow Dragon in surprise.
    “He earned that medal when we were raided by pirates. A Leopard just like this one landed in the capitol, right in the middle of a park. All on his own, Garadun-san attacked the DropShip and neutralised it in a single, daring manoeuvre. When the four ‘Mechs it was carrying deployed, he took them all on at the same time and wiped them out.”
    Garadun shifted uncomfortably as their surprise turned to looks of astonishment. He had never seen what he’d done as special, simply as part of the job he’d been hired to do. What was he supposed to have done? Not attack the DropShip? Let it shoot up the city and kill innocent civilians? Let the pirates run amuck? Besides, he’d been damned lucky because the lance of BattleMechs had all been lights and he got the drop on them. It was the fortunes of war, nothing more.
    Aya bowed deeply. “I am honoured to fight by your side, Garadun-san.”
    “As am I, Garadun-san,” said Tashizo, also bowing.
    Garadun bowed because it was proper etiquette. “No more than I honoured to fight with you. But what I do was duty. Bushido.”
    “Definitely no gaijin, bro,” said Tashizo with a big smile and slapped his friend on the shoulder. “We’re gonna kick some serious Federat ass today.”
    Garadun gave him a grin. “Damn straight we are.”

                                                                          *****

When the starboard forward bay door rolled up and open, the viewport on Garadun’s Hunchback immediately polarised in the bright sunlight. Below him stretched the wastes of the Equatus Desert. He increased the magnification of the 360° holoimaging in his cockpit and could see the huge, blocky ferrocrete bunker which had been painted in desert camouflage. To the east he could make out the distant fence line.
    Without a word of warning he leapt his BattleMech into open air and dropped like the proverbial stone. Oni’s arms were flung up and out to stabilise the fall and then he hit the jump jets, sending out a long blast of ionised plasma from the robot’s feet. He pivoted the right foot slightly and turned in the air, looking down in search of danger. Again and again he ignited his jump jets in long, controlled bursts; until he threw full throttle into them a hundred meters from the ground, slowing to almost a halt in midair. He cut power only a meter above the sand and the Hunchback’s legs bent at the knees and ankles when he touched down. He immediately hurried forward, dodged left, and then hit his jump jets once again; this time leaping him up and onto the flat roof of the bunker to act as a sentry. One smaller screen on his control panel tracked the path of the Leopard as it came down, but his main attention was everywhere else.
    League Two touched down about a hundred meters to the south, and he saw Tashizo’s Centurion immediately step out of its ‘Mech bay and start slowly walking away from the DropShip with its right arm raised. Cera’s Orion and Aya’s Dragon soon came around the Leopard’s nose to join him, and together they crossed over to the bunker. By the time they arrived, their transport had dusted off and was heading out of sight. A green light on Garadun’s panel flashed: it was the comm.
    “The crew flipped out when you jumped,” Cera supplied with a laugh.
    “So long as they pick us up after the fight, I don’t care what they think. On the way down I didn’t see anyone.”
    “All right, Dragons, check your maps,” Cera told them. “We’re here, at our base. The enemy base is on the western side, and there’s another one in the middle of Al-Nafud. Gar and I figure they’ll probably head for that first. Federats love to play King of the Mountain, even when no-one else is playing.”
    “What’s the plan, Kuroda-san?” Tashizo asked respectfully.
    “Same as we discussed before: we’ll head for the southern border, then move west for several klicks and try to outflank them.”
    “Stay alert,” Garadun added. “It’s been game-on since I landed. Aya, you’re with me. Shiz, with Cera. Standard formation.”
    “Hai!”
    “Hai, Morr-san.”
    Turning south, the Kobe Dragons moved into a traditional finger-four formation with Cera in the lead and Tashizo on her left. Aya stayed on Garadun’s right, and within seconds the whole team was moving at top speed through the burning desert. It wasn’t as bad as the scorched wastelands of Galatea, yet neither was it any fun, either. They all had plenty of water, food and desert survival gear stowed in their cockpits, just in case. Each of them was also armed.
    It wasn’t too long before they reached the southern perimeter. Cera brought them to a halt and each of them ran sweeps through all their scanners: motion, infrared, seismic, magnetic anomaly, and of course the good old Model 0 Mark I Sensors: their eyes. She and Garadun were big believers in that what nature had supplied was often a lot more reliable than any technology. There were things the human eye and gut instinct could do that electronics simply couldn’t. Seeing nothing, Cera’s waved Shinigami’s arm and they headed west, their eyes peeled for the enemy.

Thousands of kilometres and several time zones away, Li Song sat on the sofa in her home with her eyes glued to the holoscreen. When Garadun’s BattleMech jumped from the DropShip, she had let out a cry of fright.
    The SBC commentators hadn’t expected it either and were speculating like mad as the Hunchback used its jump jets to make a controlled combat drop. It landed safe and sound, much to her relief. Then relief became pride as she listened to the commentary describing her friend’s move as very daring and executed with extreme professionalism. Hunchbacks weren’t normally equipped with jump jets, so they were wondering what other surprises the Kobe Dragons might have in store.

Cera‘s plan to outflank the Legionnaires seemed to be working. They had run their BattleMechs the length of Al-Nafud along the southern perimeter and hadn’t spotted the opposition. She turned them north for a couple clicks and then east. Only a few minutes later Garadun called for a halt by raising Oni’s right arm. He pointed to the sand: before them were BattleMech-sized footprints heading east.
    Cera used Shinigami’s left arm to wave him forward, and he took point while Aya moved to cover Cera’s right flank. They went forward as cautiously as was possible in ten-meter tall robots, and when the central bunker appeared on the edge of their screens, Oni motioned them to a stop and then gestured them to crouch down. Its companion robots squatted to about half their height.
    The Hunchback actually sank to its knees and then onto its hands and belly. Then it crawled to the edge of a high dune. Tashizo could only watch in amazement at how his friend could move a BattleMech like a person. Oni’s boxy head peeked over the top of the dune just the way a man would. After a few moments the right hand came up, making a V with its fingers and then tapping the front of its “face.” The hand swung out and held up three fingers; then one finger and gesturing high.
    Cera activated her comm system’s laser, beaming directly to her lancemates and thereby preventing anyone from listening in or detecting radio signals.
    “Gar’s spotted three ‘Mechs, one of which is on top of the bunker,” she explained. “When he stands up, so do we. Then we charge. If at all possible, my target is the Warhammer. Gar will be after the Crusader, and you two take the Centurions. Clear?”
    “Yes, Cera-san,” said Aya.
    “Very clear, Kuroda-san,” Tashizo replied.
    “If that doesn’t pan out, just watch each other’s backs and give ‘em hell,” she told them with a fierce grin. “Remember: don’t hesitate. They’ll try to kill you.”

Garadun pumped his Hunchback’s right fist three times and then stood up and started running flat-out towards the bunker. He could see the Crusader standing on the roof with its back to them; either it had jump jets or it’d walked up the ramp inside the bunker to get there. The Centurions were standing on either side of the bunker, and the Warhammer was nowhere in sight. It had to be inside the bunker or on the opposite side. There was virtually no cover apart from some of the high sand dunes; and they were only semi-effective if a BattleMech was lying down. With no cover they would be picked up by radar in no time at all. The key was how much attention the Legionnaires were paying to their screens. They were clearly expecting the Dragons to be coming at them head-on like a bunch of samurai: as bold and honourable as they were stupid. MechWarriors of the Draconis Combine were famous for their love of stand-up fights filled with honour and glory, even if cost them battles and lives. Baka.
     Cera’s Orion wasn’t far behind Garadun’s Hunchback, and when the range between them and the bunker dropped below five hundred meters, she targeted the Crusader and unleashed a volley from her LRM-20 rack, as well taking a shot with her gauss rifle. The latter went wide and the missiles exploded in clusters just behind it, blasting chunks of ferrocrete into the air. The Crusader staggered in shock and surprise. Cera would’ve given a lot of money to have seen the pilot’s face. As the Dragons ran across the open sand, the Legionnaires turned a full one-eighty and started forward to meet the enemy. The Crusader stopped at the edge of the roof while the Centurions cleared either side of the bunker. The Warhammer finally made an appearance, coming around the southern end of the bunker. Unlike the Dragons who sported individualised paint schemes, the Black Hills Legionnaires were all painted the same: white with black and yellow accents, and the House Davion sword and sunburst in the middle of the chest.
    The Crusader opened up on Garadun’s Hunchback with the twin LRM-15s that were located in its arms, as well as the twin medium lasers in the same locations. A lot of sand got blown into the air, and some of it was melted into glass, but Oni emerged from the clouds of sand unharmed. A little over two hundred meters away was one of the lance’s Centurions, and it targeted him as well. The Luxor D-Series autocannon in its right arm sprayed the ground at his Hunchback’s feet with high-velocity rounds, and the missiles from its chest-mounted Luxor 3R LRM rack exploded far behind it.
    The Warhammer, piloted by Anderson Carlyle, fired azure blasts of charged particles from its twin PPCs at Aya’s Dragon, which was almost four hundred meters away. One shot went very wide, but the other struck Shizukesa in its left arm, vaporising over half a ton of armour. Aya let out a cry of shock and fear as her cockpit lights and controls frazzled for a second or two. It was the first time she’d ever been hit by live weapons fire. Her Dragon lurched to the left but she kept it under control.
    Beyond the north side of the bunker, the second Centurion, piloted by Benton Forbes, took aim at Cera’s charging Orion and opened up with its LRM rack and autocannon. Tracers and missiles streaked through the air but failed to hit anything. Cera retaliated with much greater effect. She fired her gauss rifle and struck the Centurion’s right leg, blowing off a ton of armour. This was followed by the extended-range medium lasers in either arm; one just missed the mark, but the other slagged almost a half-ton of armour from the left torso. Cera unloaded her LRM-20 for good measure, and missiles blasted the Centurion, taking more armour from the left torso, left leg and right arm. The giant robot staggered back a couple steps but remained on its feet. The assault spiked Shinigami’s heat levels into the deep yellow zone, and it lost a bit of speed because of it.
    Tashizo yelled the traditional Banzai! of the Draconis Combine and fired Akakame’s PPC and LRM launcher at Forbes’ Centurion, also sending his machine’s heat levels into the deep yellow. Unfortunately, all twenty missiles failed to hit the mark, as did his PPC. Tashizo uttered a nasty yakuza curse.
    Although she was understandably a bit rattled from her first true combat experience, one thing Aya Kanno did not lack was courage. The Centurion and Warhammer were both out of range of her medium laser and Tomodzuru Type 20 autocannon, but not her LRM-10 launcher. Mathew Gadbois’ Centurion was closer, so she dropped her crosshairs on its centre mass and pressed her joystick’s top thumb button. The missiles corkscrewed through the air, but overshot and exploded far behind the Centurion.
    “Cera-san! We’re outnumbered!” Aya called through the comm channel.
    “Understood. Hang on,” came Cera’s calm reply.
    Looks like this is gonna be three on two for now, Garadun thought and put his crosshairs on Lisa Tager’s Crusader. He pulled his joystick’s main trigger twice, firing Oni’s ER medium lasers, and struck the Crusader with one of them in the left leg, melting armour. He hit the top left thumb button and fired a hellish volley with his ultra class heavy autocannon, striking the Crusader dead centre of its torso and shredding armour. Its pilot managed to keep it standing despite the violent assault.
    “I’ve got the Crusader, don’t worry,” Cera told her team-mates. “Shiz?”
    “I got him,” Tashizo replied, eyeing Forbes’ Centurion.
    “Aya, his flank,” Garadun told her, and saw the Dragon advance at full speed across the sand and rock to come up on Gadbois’ Centurion’s left side, less than ninety meters away. He moved on the boss Warhammer, bringing Oni to within a hundred meters or so. Cera and Tashizo opted to stay put to bleed off some heat, as well as provided a more stable firing platform – although this also made them easier targets.
    Now within short range of her main weapons, Aya yelled defiance at the Legionnaires and opened up on the Centurion. The medium laser in her Dragon’s left arm fried armour off the BattleMech’s right flank as it twisted to face her, and her heavy autocannon roared and blasted the Legionnaires BattleMech in the middle of its chest. All the armour was shattered, and high calibre slugs ripped away at the internal structure, destroying the forward medium laser in the process – but not before it burned her Dragon’s left leg. The Centurion’s autocannon shot her centre torso as well, and four missiles from its SRM-6 launcher blew away small bits of armour from all over. But whereas Aya was able to keep Shizukesa on its feet after the attack, Mathew Gadbois wasn’t as skilled and his BattleMech fell over on its ass, ripping off most of its spine armour in the process before rolling onto its front. Aya let out a scream of victory.
    Infuriated at seeing his lancemate fall at the hands of a Snake, Carlyle took aim at the Hunchback and fired his Warhammer’s PPCs and medium lasers. Oni’s pilot was a known Drac lover and an enemy of the Federated Suns. High-energy protons obliterated armour from the Hunchback’s left arm and centre torso, while the lasers slagged the remaining armour from the left arm and partially melted its bones.
    Despite the hellish attack, Garadun stood his ground and shot back. His lasers scored hits on the Warhammer’s own left arm and centre torso, and his heavy autocannon followed suit by ripping all the armour away from the middle of its chest and tearing into the structure beneath. Dozens of rounds blew large pieces away from the engine, as well as smashing into the delicate gyro stabiliser. The Warhammer toppled to the ground with a crash, damaging the armour on its right arm. Far more critical was that its fusion engine was forced into auto shutdown due to heat levels. The captain of the Black Hills Legionnaires screamed obscenities as his machine died.

Leaving the Centurion to Tashizo, Cera concentrated her fire on the Crusader standing on top of the huge ferrocrete bunker, to draw its attention away from her best friend who was going after the Warhammer. She grinned to herself: no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. How true. The Crusader saw that she was targeting it and opened fire with the Magna Longbow racks in its arms and the Harpoon-6 launchers in its legs. The missiles exploded all over Shinigami’s left arm, flank and leg, with two missiles impacting the right torso and arm. Cera yelled in fright and anger, and kept her BattleMech on its feet despite the pounding it had just taken.
    Ignoring the fact that her Orion’s heat levels were already in the yellow, she opened up with her ER medium lasers, gauss rifle and LRM-20 launcher. She hit with everything. The lasers melted armour from the Crusader’s left arm and centre torso, and the gauss rifle round blew off most of the armour protecting the right arm. Every single missile was on target. Five shattered more chest armour; the other fifteen blasted every bit of armour from the left leg and cracked the metal bones beneath. Worse still, they smashed the SRM launcher and badly damaged the hip actuator. The whole leg froze, and the force of the explosions blew the Crusader off its feet. It toppled onto its left side, doing more damage to its leg’s bones and myomer muscles, and almost fell off the edge of the bunker’s roof. Lisa Tager, the pilot, was hurt in the fall but stayed conscious.
    While this was going on, Tashizo and his opponent, Benton Forbes, faced each other like Ancient West gunfighters and opened fire. Forbes missed with his medium laser, but his autocannon blew away chunks of armour all along Akakame’s right arm. Even though Akakame was well inside his LRM’s minimum range, he fired it anyway and missed. Tashizo’s missiles were equally ineffective, but his medium laser burned the Davion Centurion’s left arm, and his PPC vaporised the remaining armour from the left flank and ate away at the internal structure.
    With three of their enemy on their asses, the Kobe Dragons stood their ground and prepared to fire again. Lisa Tager, despite her injuries and the horrendous condition her Crusader’s hip and gyro were in, actually got it to its feet and turned to face Cera. The Centurion belonging to Mathew Gadbois also heaved itself to its feet, turning to face its attacker. Aya yelled again and opened up with her Type 20 autocannon, medium laser and, for the hell of it, her LRM-10 rack as well. The Legionnaire Centurion fired its autocannon and SRM launcher. Shizukesa’s missiles of course went well beyond the mark; but its laser struck the Centurion’s right arm and its heavy autocannon annihilated the right leg’s armour, damaging myomer muscles and destroying the foot actuator. The Centurion’s autocannon stripped armour from Shizukesa’s right leg, and missiles exploded on its left leg and arm. One struck the Dragon’s head, giving Aya a fright.
    With the Warhammer down, Garadun happily turned his attention to the Centurion fighting Aya. Oni’s heat level was in the red zone, so he didn’t fire its lasers. But he did activate the ultra mode of his heavy autocannon, and blasted the Centurion with the most unbelievable storm of high calibre rounds. He obliterated what remained of the right leg and completely eradicated first the left side of the torso, and then the middle. The entire BattleMech was blown to pieces.
    Lisa Tager fired her LRM launchers and medium lasers, hitting with all but one laser. Missiles exploded across Shinigami; yet failed to do anything more than blow off bits and chunks of armour; same for the laser hit. Cera let the Crusader have it as it attacked her. Trying to keep her heat levels steady, she fired her gauss rifle, LRM-20 and SRM-6, but left off her lasers. The short-range missiles missed, but the long-range missiles struck home, blasting armour from the left flank and head. The gauss rifle round destroyed what remained of the left leg and ripped away the majority of the left flank with it. This smashed the ammo magazine located there and ignited the missiles. The Crusader blew itself to smithereens before it could fall off the roof.
    “Should’ve stayed down, bitch,” Cera muttered as she spotted Tager’s ejection seat sailing into the air and then its parachute deploy. With his team-mates eliminated in very spectacular fashion, Benton Forbes slapped his hand down on the button in his cockpit that signalled his surrender. Tashizo immediately lowered his PPC.
    “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do that,” said Garadun over the main SBC channel for the match, and heard his team-mates whooping in triumph. He opened a private link to Cera. “Nicely done, beautiful. You’ve still got it in spades.”
    “Thanks, partner, so do you,” she said, laughing. “You buying?”
    Garadun chuckled. “Of course.”