mattbuck
Eeyore
Reged: 02/13/04
Posts: 3285
Loc: Nottingham, UK
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The Bravest Hornet That Ever Fought
#148845 - 12/02/07 06:15 PM (128.243.220.22)
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"Now, young Alexander, what story would you like me to tell you before you go to bed?"
"Please papa, could you tell me of the Hornet again?"
"Ah, the hornet you say," the old man smiled. "Yes, the story of the most courageous hornet that ever fought on Neveron. Long ago, in the year 3272, there was a great province called Fluffy Bunny Love, and that province was part of the alliance then known as Legion. Legion had existed for almost forty years by then, having been formed by a great leader of men who went by the name of Tigre, when his old alliance was overthrown by the Harbingers of Chaos. After thirty years, Tigre left Neveron to return to Terra, and left the alliance in the charge of the Right Honourable mattbuck.
"In the dying days of 3271, the shadow of war fell across Legion, with their greatest faction suffering an attack by the elite Scorpian Guards of House Liao. Legion begged the Harbingers for help, but those were dark times for the Harbingers, with the threat of overwhelming assault by Order of Terran Knights forces hanging over them like the Sword of Damocles. The Harbingers refused to violate their non-aggression pact with House Liao, only offering to defend a few select empires if they were attacked. And thus as 3272 dawned, the Legionnaires found themselves fighting for their very survival against a faction almost double their size, and the Neveron Commonwealth mercenaries their enemies employed.
"One such mercenary was the province of Chemical Ba†h, whose military reputation was feared across the planet. This empire caused much unrest among Neveronians of the time, since its very name could cause computer systems to spit out bold text, and communications channels to fail. It was this empire which attacked Fluffy Bunny Love.
"The leader of Fluffy Bunny Love, a man named murphy, was in his day a great warrior, but time and family had taken their toll, and his body was no longer capable of the strength required to operate a battlemech. His keen intellect, however, was undiminished by age, and he oversaw the defence of his empire. However, things did not go well, and within days of the first assaults, Fluffy Bunny Love's capital, New Silverclaw, was soon surrounded on all sides by the enemy; and murphy was forced to beg for a cease-fire. Chemical Ba†h withdrew back to his twin citadels of Akkon and Syracuse, and from the turrets of his palace, murphy awaited the dawning of the new day.
"Days passed, and as the province of Fluffy Bunny Love fell into debt from the cost of having to keep their troops mobilised, the citizenry began to despair. But help was at hand, for when hostilities resumed, murphy was in contact with the Legion commander in chief, who advised the old warrior. Thus, the Chemical Ba†h troops were taken by surprise as the Fluffy Bunny Love army swept out of New Silverclaw and regained control of the badlands surrounding the city. Indeed, so successful was the counterattack, and so unprepared were the enemy, that within hours the province of Fluffy Bunny Love had been cleared of all enemy forces. But murphy knew he could not stop there, for while the enemy believed they were safe within their fortresses, his citizenry could not sleep soundly at night. And thus was devised one of the most daring feats ever attempted - to take Akkon, and thus force Chemical Ba†h into submission.
"Of course, both mattbuck and murphy knew that it would not be an easy task to take Akkon. It was surrounded on three sides by a territory known as Haven, and on the fourth by Syracuse. They knew they needed information. They needed a volunteer.
"Thanks to money donated to Fluffy Bunny Love by Gobi, emperor of The Red Legion, itself under assault, murphy was able to purchase a simple scout mech from Alliance Command, the superpower that led the Dynasty of Neveron, once a great alliance, but which had since fallen on hard times. It was not a fast mech, it was not a deadly mech, it was not even a fluffy mech. What it was was the cheapest money could buy - an HNT-WOB. The HNT-WOB is known more commonly as the HNT-151 throughout the galaxy, but on Neveron it was agreed to rename it after the first Neveron empire ever to learn how to build it - the ancient empire Word of Blake, long-since deceased after its Primus, Chetter, left the planet for loftier goals. It was painted in standard camo-green, with its name emblazoned across its flank - Chemicalbathcloseyourboldtagplzkthx. Its pilot was a man known only as The Stig. He had fought in every kind of battlemech imaginable, and was the only man that murphy trusted enough to get the job done.
"At dawn, the dropship took off from the spaceport at Happy Cake Oven Factory, and flew due south towards Akkon and Syracuse. It took several passes, dodging artillery fire from the ground, before the dropship was able to open its hangar bay doors. Inside the cockpit, The Stig took a deep breath beneath his white battlehelmet, and took powered his mech forward into a running jump out of the bay doors. As he fell, he engaged the basic stealth and ECM suite the mech was equpiied with, praying it was enough to confuse the targetting sensors of the defenders below. Shells exploded all around him, but miraculously none hit, and he came down safely in the middle of Akkon - enemy territory.
"Back in New Silverclaw, murphy watched the live feed from the Hornet, sent back via an upload link from the dropship which was circling over friendly territory nearby. The terrain of Akkon was rolling plains, with patches of rough but no woodlands. Buildings dominated the landscape - the dropship telemetry showed close to a thousand, with an estimated 86,000 residents. He knew that The Stig had volunteered for what was probably a suicide mission, but he knew that it was necessary for the safety of his empire. Sacrifices had to be made, and sometimes good people had to die. He'd learned that the hard way in his youth when he had watched Turtle on its Back, his first empire, be destroyed by Free Worlds League troops. They had razed the empire to the ground, and then laughed. He refused to let that happen to another empire he controlled.
"The Stig jumped backwards, into a cul-de-sac formed by three residential complexes, and took cover as the city's IDF defences whistled through the air. One, two, three, four, five thudded into the ground around him, but none found their targets. Still, he knew he had to get moving, and towards the western edge of the city seemed as good a direction as any. As he fired up his jumpjets, his sensor unit bleeped a warning. A 100t Marauder, backed up by a Highlander, less than a kilometre away from his position. Cursing his primitive sensors, he danced his way through the buildings, suppression fire thudding into the ground around him, and bullets pinging off his armour from the citizens' personal firearms. He had made it almost half a kilometre when two IDF shells hit him on the right side, spinning his mech round and causing the destruction of a heatsink. With more mechs showing up for a few seconds at a time on his sensors - a Grasshopper, a Victor... - and the occasional rain of sniper fire, he ran for the border.
"He crested the final hill and was within sight of the border when his sensors beeped urgently. Twisting around, he saw a Flea light mech just yards behind him. He snapped off a shot with his medium laser, but it went hopelessly wide. With a crash of gears he dashed over the border and into Syracuse."
"Then what happened?" Alexander begged, as young children are wont to do. "What happened to Stiggy?"
"Ah, I'm afraid young Alexander that it is already past your bedtime. I'll continue the story another night."
"PLEASE papa, please. Just tell me about Syracuse."
"Well, I suppose I could go on a little longer, but after that it's lights out, do you understand?"
"Yes papa, I understand. Please."
"Well, as I was saying... The Stig had just crossed the border into Syracuse, having narrowly escaped from the chasing mechs. With his sensors blinded by interference, he ran towards the centre of the city. Immediately though, he attracted attention. If the artillery fire in Akkon had been like rain, then in Syracuse it was like a thunderstorm. LRMs screeched towards him and slammed into the building behind him. The Stig knew there was no way out this time as a company of Guardian tanks rolled towards him, their LRM launchers swivelling to find their target. But if he was going to go out, he was going to go out in style. Sighting a line of towers to the south, he kicked his hornet into top gear, and ran towards them, hoping that when the inevitable ammo explosion occurred, he would be among them and might take out a few. LRMs thudded into his left hand side, ripping off the arm in an explosive fury of sparking metal. He fired his LRMs at the towers in the distance, hoping that one of his missiles might hit, but to no avail, as they flew over the three storey structures. But then IDF hit him, and he fell to the ground, his right leg lying a few hundred yards away. It looked like the end.
"Back in New Silverclaw, the screen turned briefly to static before changing to a blank screen with red lettering - Transmission Terminated. A single tear rolled down his face. The Stig had sacrificed himself for the good of Fluffy Bunny Love, and to no avail. There was no way his military had a hope of defeating the great fortresses. He sat on his throne, staring blankly at the screen in front of him.
"But of course, that was not the end of the war, and although the battle was a loss for Fluffy Bunny Love, it told Chemical Ba†h's leaders that murphy's great nation would not go quietly into the night. It was a huge defeat for the enemy's morale, and when The Stig's body was finally repatriated, he was hailed as a national hero, and his hornet, Chemicalbathcloseyourboldtagplzkthx, would enter the history books for its daring attempt.
"And THAT, Alexander, is the tale of the greatest Hornet to ever fight on Neveron. The war was not over, but that, my son, is a story for another night. Goodnight Alexander, sleep well."
"Goodnight papa."
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cbtgod
Lieutenant Colonel
Reged: 12/14/05
Posts: 1812
Loc: IN A BOX UNDER A HOUSE
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Re: The Bravest Hornet That Ever Fought
[Re: mattbuck]
#148849 - 12/03/07 12:13 AM (97.97.246.88)
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nice story mattbuck, i wrote a small one for the empire contest a long time ago and havnt started the 2nd part of it think i will this week.
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yes its a toad, if you didnt know that you dont know anything about cbt
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DE
Corporal
Reged: 09/11/05
Posts: 88
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Re: The Bravest Hornet That Ever Fought
[Re: cbtgod]
#148854 - 12/03/07 01:43 PM (24.251.116.116)
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Pretty good read. nicely done MB
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