Esau
Corporal
Reged: 06/25/02
Posts: 74
Loc: Stevens Point, Wisconsin
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Another story by me!
#83071 - 02/15/04 04:14 AM (24.197.244.193)
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Deep inside the Clan Rabid Badger command and control bunker the atmosphere was subdued, quite. Specialist Carl Von Redond sat monitoring the Doppler radar while smoking. The room was bathed in a warm red light, small pools of green or yellow light hung in the room from various monitors. Von Redond yawned and rolled his head trying to crack his neck, he was rewarded with a series of satisfying crunches and pops. Looking back at the radar he fought the urge to close his eyes.
Across the room, Lt. Greene, the officer of the watch sat at his desk filling out mountains of paperwork, he looked up from time to time and looked around the room. He glanced at the clock and noted that forward tower reports would be coming in soon. They reported in every hour. If a tower failed to report then the rapid reaction force would be dispatched to investigate. Greene rested his elbows on the desk and watched the clock tick by. He stoop up finally and walked toward Von Redond, in an attempt to find something worth doing. Greene stopped behind him and looked over his shoulder at the radar. The pulses went out, and nothing came back. The constant ping could drive a man crazy after a while. Usually the sound was off, and only came on when the radar was tracking an object. This time however Von Redond had left it on.
“Specialist, why don’t you turn that ping off, it’s driving us nuts.” Greene tried to sound stern and official while fighting a yawn. His face was drawn with stress and fatigue, the red light cutting deep lines in his face.
“Begging your pardon sir, but it’s the only thing keeping me awake, sir.” Von Redond turned to face his superior.
“You know that you’re here every night. Being tired isn’t an excuse.” Greene started to wake up some, and he could feel his anger rising. Why? He wasn’t really that mad.
“Sir, I don’t see why you’re getting all bent out of shape, it’s just a sound, you can barely hear it over there, sir.” Von Redond shot back quickly. He looked at Greene with hard eyes.
The room was silent save for the ping, ping, ping, ping, of the radar. The test of wills continued, both not willing to back down. A silent struggle between 2 men who where at their breaking point. In the back ground the radar pinged away.
“Specialist! I order you to turn the damn sound off on that thing!”
“Ey sir.” Von Redond turn, flipped a switch and the radar fell silent.
“Thank-you.” Greene turned his back to the radar and walked back to his desk to await for the tower check in. Before he could even make it up the first step he heard a quiet “Ping” coming from the radar. Greene whirled around and prepared to cut the specialist to pieces with words, but before he could open his mouth a subtle “Pong” reached his ears.
“Sir! Contact! Baring 143 South! Sector Zulu Charlie King!” Von Redond sat up ram rod strait and forgot about how tired he was. Greene sprinted to his desk and picked up the phone. Before he punched in the ready room he shouted. “Identify the target, give me numbers!”
“Sir, looks like 14 or more units, moving south east, their heading toward Madison!”
“Sir, tight band sensors have locked on!” Private Claire Maxidon shouted from across the room.
“Report!” Greene shouted
“Sir, 12 tank contacts, Heavy Tanks, bulldogs sir.” She paused and then continued. “6, no 8 mixed heavy and medium mechs, I can’t get a fix on what they are, sir.”
“Ok, bring the base up to status Yellow!”
Inside the pilot ready room Dinkins and Pride where sitting across from each other at a table playing an old card game. Both where dressed in their combat suits and seemed ready for anything. Their helmets sat on the table next to them and various cards lay between them.
“Ok, I tap 4 and destroy target enchantment.” Dinkins adjusted a few cards, showed Pride another card and then pointed toward a 3rd card close to Pride.
“Christ!” Pride said and picked up the card that Dinkins had pointed at.
Sitting on a couch along the opposite wall Luke Langworthy, Tony Johnson, Tina Roberts, and Brita Down sat watching a small TV. If it wasn’t for the uniforms it would have looked like any gathering of friends. The room was nearly silent save for the mummer of the TV and the occasional curse from the card players. Suddenly the room went black and then glowed red, a yellow light on the wall flashed and the pilots jumped to their feet rushing for the door to the hanger.
The hanger was alive with activity, techs and crews ran this way and that. A klaxon was screaming as the 6 pilots ran for their Mechs. Mech crews scurried around, disconnecting hoses, checking ammo packs, and clearing the Mechs from their bays. Dinkins settled into his Warhammer, adjusted his helmet and started his pre-trip. The coms system came online, then the onboard radar. The fusion engine roared to life and then settled down to a loud hum. He looked to his left, and saw Pride in his Marauder. Pride gave Jim a big thumbs up and then turned to his crew chief, they exchanged a few words. The canopy closed and Jim turned to his crew chief.
“We all set Mac?” Jim said to the grizzled old Sergeant.
“Yessir, she’s already to go, ya’ take care her now, ya’hear.” The crew chief smiled his big near toothless grin at Jim.
“Thanks Mac, I’ll take care of her.” Jim saluted the sergeant and waited for the canopy to come down. Mac returned the salute with a text book crisp salute and began to close the canopy. There was a short hiss of air, the sound of bolts locking into place, and then near silence. Jim looked down and saw his director and followed his commands. He came out of the bay slowly, and then made his way out of the hanger doors. Moments later he was joined by the rest of reinforced lance. 2 Warhammers, 1 Marauder, 1 StarSlayer, and 2 Griffins. Talics voice came over the com. “Yankee 6, 6, formation 2 whiskey 3. Confirm.” Everyone reported in that they understood, and they set out. Their target wasn’t far off, but it would be a good 10 minutes before they reached the combat zone.
“Ok, here’s the sitrep.” Talic said once they where underway. “We have at least a company of tanks and 2 lances of Mechs heading toward Madison. The Mechs haven’t responded and the tanks seem to be leading them. Forward units have made visual contact of the Mechs and tanks, it would appear that they are fighting one another. Until we know what’s going on, consider all units hostile. We know of at least 6 Mechs and have confirmed that 2 of them are Hunchies, watch those medium lasers.”
“10-4, Yankee 5, over.” Jim confirmed that he understood and made some adjustments to his sensors. It was a dark night and clouds obscured the moon, visibility was very poor. Jim activated his night vision and set his optic filters.
Esau stood in the command and control room. A cup of coffee in one hand and a burning cigarette in the other. His uniform jacket was open and his hair was a mess, he looked as though he had just gotten up.
“Sorry to wake you sir, but we have a situation.” Greene saluted and motioned for Esau to come and look at the reports. Esau nodded and followed the Lt.
“Ok, what’s going on.” Esau said taking a drag from his cigarette.
“Well, we have 12 bulldog heavy tanks being followed by 6 or 8 Mechs, we can’t get a solid fix on how many of them there are. We haven’t been able to establish communications with the tanks, but we did get this response from one of the Mechs, we’re assuming it was their commander.” Greene handed a hard copy of the response to Esau who took it and began to read out loud.
“May the peace of Blake be with you, this does not concern you. Stay out of our business.” Esau sighed and set the paper down. “Wobbies, great, ok,” he rubbed his face and continued. “Get Yankee 6 6 on the horn, I want them to help the tanks, make contact with them, and engage the Mechs. I don’t care who they are, anybody fighting a wobby is good in my book.”
“Understood sir.” Greene turned and went to the comms station.
“Yankee 1 6, 6, do you copy over?” Talic heard the comm crackle to life in his ear and responded.
“Yankee 1, 6, 6, here, I copy command, over.”
“Mission update, you are to engage the Mechs, and assist the Bulldogs. Make contact with them and relay to command, over.”
“10-4, understood.” Talic closed that channel and opened the groups channel. “Ok, listen up, we are to engage the Mechs and help defend the tanks, Down, I want you to raise a comm with one of those tanks and patch it though to command, everybody else, tally ho!”
Jim felt the adrenaline flood his system and he prepared to fire. The fist Mech, a Phoenix Hawk, came into view. The targeting computer began to chirp and then the cross hairs turned bright red. Squeezing the trigger and letting fly his man made lighting. Both hit their mark and the PHawk lurched from the impact. Turning now to face him it raced across the battle field toward him. 2 more PPC bolts flashed and the PHawk stumbled sideways. Jim prepared to bring his weapons to bare again and fired. Both missed as the other Mech sprung into the air and moved over him. Jim twisted as best he could, and started to turn.
“He’s behind me!”
“Lt. Josephine of Black Hawk Down here, identify yourself!” It was a woman's voice. She sounded strong, capable, but nervous at the same time.
“I am Maj. Esau Johnson, Commander in Chief of Clan Rabid Badger. Why are you in our territory, over.” Esau was serious, he wanted to either get her on his side, or out of his land as fast as possible.
“While on a training exercise we where ambushed by some Wobbies, and now we’re fighting for our lives!” She was shouting at this point.
“Madame Josephine, we are engaging the Mechs that attacked you, we offer safe haven to you and your men.” Esau felt a lump forming in his throat. He couldn’t just stand by and let them get torn apart, but he wondered if he wasn’t making a huge mistake either way.
“Thank-you, we will lend whatever assistance we can.”
Jim strained to find the PHawk that had gotten behind him. Others in the battle had their own problems, he was on his own for right now. The collision warning started going off, but before Jim could do anything he felt his Mech shudder and he stumbled forward. Taking advantage of the momentum he was able to turn and face the PHawk. Jim was close enough now to see his enemy. His weapons locked on almost instantly and he squeezed the trigger. The night was shattered by the laser and charged particle fire. The PHawk stumbled backward and fell on the ground. Before it could get to its feet Jim rushed at full speed toward it and while it was still on it’s knees slammed directly into it. The PHawk tumbled back onto the ground and didn’t move. It’s arm had been severed and most of its torso had been ripped open. Moving quickly into position Jim prepared to fire again. He checked his radar and saw that there was still a pitched battle going on and it wasn’t looking good. Talic hadn’t taken his own advice as was now locked into a slug fest with both of the hunchbacks.
2 more bolts of charged particles slammed into the fallen PHawk, severing it torso and rendering the Mech useless. Turning his attention to the others in the battle Jim prepared to fire again.
Josephine trained her sights on the closest mech. It was a hunchback with its back to her. Steadying her aim she fired the main gun. The bolt hit home and the hunchback shuddered from the impact. She didn’t really know who the other Mechs where that had just shown up, but she really didn’t care, if they where there to help they must have been friends.
“To friendly Mechs, I thank-you for the help, we will do what we can.”
Talic found himself suddenly in a very bad position. The 2 hunchbacks had snuck up on him and where now pumping large amounts of fire into him. He noticed a few of the tanks had started to fire on them and was nervous that they’d miss and hit him. “I could use a hand here people!” Talic shouted into the com.
“I’m on my way, over!” Jims voice resounded in Talics ear. As Talic moved to the left he could see that one of the tanks had fired and scored a hit on one of the hunchbacks, then 2 more hit from a different direction. The Hunchback stopped moving and stood there for a moment. Without warning the center torso blew out from the inside and the secondary explosions ripped it to pieces. White hot metal and debris blew all over the battle field. The remaining enemy Mechs turned and began to withdraw from the battle field.
“Hold your positions,” Talic said.
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I r a m0t0rist!
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Tenshi
Sergeant Major
Reged: 05/27/03
Posts: 259
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Re: Another story by me!
[Re: Esau]
#83093 - 02/15/04 10:20 AM (24.196.181.92)
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Yet another well-writted and engaging piece, Esau. I always look forward to reading your posts, and this one was particularly good. Then again, I'm probably biased because I looooove those PPC's! Great writing 
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Esau
Corporal
Reged: 06/25/02
Posts: 74
Loc: Stevens Point, Wisconsin
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Re: Another story by me!
[Re: Tenshi]
#83137 - 02/15/04 08:31 PM (24.197.244.193)
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Hey thanks man, I like to get feed back from you guys. I always enjoy it. It helps me with my writing, I strive to do better each time.
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I r a m0t0rist!
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