| Dee |
| (Sergeant Major) |
| 11/18/06 07:41 AM |
| 142.177.221.205 |
Re: Stories of the Dee Dee Combine
|
Chapter 5: A Lagging Of Transit; A Twisting Of Fate
The rural village had provided little challenge for the fighting forces of the Dee Dee Combine, but the damage had added up on one member.
The Ant King and his clint battlemech toppled backwards from the recoil of the large caliber autocannon. Normally the mech would have been able to absorb it, but thanks to some clever infantry the clint's right hip actuator and foot actuator was damaged and an earlier cluster of short ranged missles hit his gyro. It was all he could to do make the 'mech move let alone fire accurately.
"Are you ok, Ant King?" Dee comm'd over.
"Just give me a shout if you need some fire support Ant King," offered the new scorpion commander, Deedle.
"I should be fine, you three shouldn't wait up for me."
"'kee-doke then Ant King." Deedle shifted his vehicle into top gear and burned off towards the much faster hornet.
Dee punted a jeep, which exploded in mid-air. Dee smirked, liking it to the color-flare displays on the days of celebration in the Combine.
By now Dee had been piloting his hornet for more than a year, he'd long since grown used to it's quirks and had mastered the most effective uses of it's systems.
Dee fired off a few tight bursts from his LRM5, rocking a manticore with the multiple explosions. With a fire erupting from it's side the tank attempted to turn it's turret but it jammed. Dee dashed in before the busted tank could turn itself to face him to bring it's formidable weaponry to bear.
Counting the seconds until he came into the effective range of his medium laser Dee kept his eyes scanning every screen while never looking away from his quarry.
The side of the tank buckled, Dee saw it breifly contorted and twisted, but mere seconds and the broken tank exploded in a ball of fire and unspent munitions.
"Damn it!" Came the deep voice of the burly Ant King through the comms.
He had gotten the clint in range and fired, but he fell again.
"How does your 'mech look? This city seems clear, but we'll have to wait a while for the landing craft."
"My medium laser is damaged, my leg is hanging on by a thread and I think my torso is almost non existant. Will be a rough ride if I have anymore fighting to do at the moment."
***
They hadn't bothered to even prop up the broken clint. It couldn't maintain it's balance on it's own anymore and they couldn't risk a chance of the ammo exploding since it would probably rip them all apart.
"It sure is taking a while for that landing craft isn't it? Seems like we've been waiting for days." Deedle sets himself down on the ground near Dee and the Ant King after his latest attempt to fix his scorpian's turret.
"Yeah, you'd think with the money we pay them they'd be actually willing to perform the service we paid them for."
"Just have patience," the big man says.
An uncomfortable silence came over them. This place was a city, but there was so few buildings and people here and they were spread far out so you couldn't see two buildings at one time. At least they didn't need to mingle with the locals other than to steal what food they had.
Dee and company felt an odd rumbling, like the ground itself was being shifted. But there was no quake. They could see no battlemechs on the small portable sensor the tech-inclined Deedle carried.
"I'm going to check that out, you two stay here and keep the clint safe."
Dee started up the hornet, feeling at ease as the hum of an activating engine and the buzz of panels and screens coming on surrounded him. First thing that caught his attention was the rather large slow mover coming in from the west.
Cautious as always, Dee made his way from hill to hole, keeping as few potential firing lanes on himself as possible while he searched for the slow mover. Didn't take long to find it though.
"Sweet merciful spirit in hell!" Dee shouted into the comm.
"What have you found emperor Dee?" Ant King responded calmly.
"It's a freaking behemoth assault tank! It's looking at me like it wants to eat some hornet stuffed with Dee..." Dee was laughing incrediously. Such a small empire with such a large and expensive piece of military?