Kelly, too badly positioned to help, saw what the Clint's pilot apparently didn't see.
Trahn's Raven strutted stealthily, moving from cover to cover behind the mercenary. The Raven's torso twisted, turning to point at the oblivious Killer as the Clint stood its ground trying for a better shot at one of the fleeing Commandos. Trahn must have decided to concentrate and be sure of her aim for she only fired a single launcher. The NARC beacon didn't miss this time. It clamped itself squarely between the Clint's jump jet exhausts. Trahn whooped on an open channel in celebration.
The Clint spun around.
So did the Commandos.
As the Clint's weapons fire vainly sought the Raven, both Commandos launched. SRMs streamed in on the Clint, following the beacon's call. Kelly didn't know if it was from blast or damage, but the Clint went down.
Trahn warned that the Enforcer was moving in. Kelly vetoed an attempt to finish the Clint. They left the Enforcer to cover his fallen companion.
Prudence demanded it. So far they had been lucky and taken only the lightest of hits, but the element of surprise was fading. And the Vigilantes were now between the paired Killers and their master. It was not a position they could afford to stay in for long. To turn it to their advantage, Kelly ordered a running pass at the Pillager as they sought better cover beyond it.
They did their best shooting so far. Everybody tagged the beast at least once, but its thick armor meant that they didn't take out any vital systems. The Pillager's return fire cost them more than both attacks against the lesser 'Mechs combined. Sam reported an armor breach in her Commando's left leg and JJ said he was down to the last shreds of armor on most of his Javelin's right side. The Kressily Stoneskin 30M armor of Kelly's own machine was badly cratered from multiple laser hits. It was only through the mercy of the gods, and Trahn's jamming, that no one had taken one of the Pillager's nickel-iron gauss slugs.
Crawford shouted obscenities over an open channel and sent slug after deadly nickel-iron slug roaring at the retreating Vigilantes. The gauss rifle shells wrecked machinery and exploded buildings, but all that hit the comital 'Mechs was flying debris.
After the indignity that they had just handed Kingston's Killers, Kelly expected the hot-headed Crawford to order a full out pursuit, but it didn't happen. Trahn reported the Enforcer and Clint rejoining the Pillager, but instead of advancing, they held their ground.
"Waiting for us to come to them?" Snell asked.
"They'll have a long wait," replied Kelly.
"Commander." Trahn's voice was uncertain. "I think I just picked up a flash from the Cat."
"Commo laser?"
"Could be. The Cat's outside my jam range, but she'd need a laser to get through to the others."
"So what are they talking over?" JJ wanted to know.
"They better not be calling in Arrow fire from the Catapult," said Snell.
"They'd be shooting blind," Trahn said.
"The Catapult could be passing on info from their headquarters," Kelly suggested. "He's outside Trahn's jamming."
"They already know we're here," Snell pointed out.
"But they're here, too," Kelly countered. "And they're not supposed to be. Maybe what they don't know about is what is happening elsewhere."
With timing that Kelly thought only came on holodramas, Kingston Crawford's voice boomed on an open channel.
"Rest of you go kick Ling-Marabie's butt. This bucket won't move fast enough, and Price's Protectors are gonna need all the guns they can get. Ain't nothing but Shoe trash here, and they ain't got the bullets, let alone the balls, to try to take me."
It was a challenge as much as a put-down.
"You hear me, Shoe trash?"
Kelly was too busy reviewing the scan that Trahn was providing. It looked like Crawford's broadcast orders weren't a fake. The Enforcer and Clint had turned around and were headed back the way they had come. The Catapult had backed down from its overwatch firing position. The only Killer 'Mech not pulling out was Crawford's own. The Pillager remained standing while he continued to broadcast his boasts.
The situation had taken a sudden change, and Kelly dared to hope that it was one for the better. The Vigilantes had the Pillager by more than half his tonnage, but the hundred-ton 'Mech carried weapons that could take down one of the lights with a single shot. In contrast, most of the Vigilante weapons were short-ranged and not particularly powerful. Still, they might be enough to use the old Warrior House strategy of Death by Many Stings. The Pillager would be vulnerable to it now that he was on his own. Once Trahn planted a NARC beacon on the big 'Mech, Vigilante missiles would swarm to it like bees to honey. It could work.
But Crawford was a good pilot. The Pillager wouldn't go down easy. There would be a price.
Who, Kelly wondered, would pay it?
38
Hinchuan
Duvic Palatine, Epsilon Eridani
Chaos March
6 May 3062
But Kelly soon found out that Crawford wasn't going to cooperate in his plan to deal with the Pillager. Despite several runs at the big 'Mech, Crawford didn't take the bait and chase them through Hinchuan. Instead he pressed on, lumbering toward the space port. The Vigilantes speculated on his intent as they trailed him.
"He must want to keep us away from the DropShip," offered Sam.
"Then why is he leading us there?" asked Snell.
"He's not," Kelly said. "It's where he wants to be. He'll have good fire lanes from the field, the better to keep us away from the DropShip."
"He may have more in mind," suggested JJ. "Those MechWarriors that tried to leave the ship were headed to start up some partially assembled 'Mechs. I saw the reports while I was on board. The machines are unarmored but mobile, and some of them have functional weapons. They could give covering fire to Crawford."
"Without armor, they'll be easy meat if they engage us," Trahn said.
"Long as that Pillager is sitting where we want to be, we have to play the game his way. We do that, and it's us who may end up meat."
The Pillager reached the space port and stalked across the field to the DropShip. The Vigilantes couldn't actually see him do that, they didn't dare expose themselves for a direct sight, but watched a sensor-built map track Crawford's progress. For close to fifteen minutes, the Pillager stood on the field as if awaiting something. Then, expectations met or not, it moved closer to the ship. On the scanners, the images practically merged. The sound of tortured metal was soon audible through the Vigilantes' external mikes.
"Told you," JJ said. "He's trying to open up that can of a DropShip."
A 'Mech's lasers were adequate to melt armor and seal a hatch, but they weren't refined enough to cut open that same place, at least not safely. Crawford was likely using his Pillager's hand spikes to pry up plates and open enough of a gap for him to get a grip for the fingers of his battlefists. With a good grip, the Pillager could wrench open an access to the DropShip.
"We can't let him," Kelly said. The odds were bad enough as it was.
Making sure that Trahn's Raven had him under its electronic screen, Kelly found himself a long fire lane through the streets of Hinchuan. He picked a spot that put his missiles at maximum effective range. He'd be in range for the Pillager's intimidating gauss weapons, but the Raven's Guardian suite ought to shift the odds in his favor. It wouldn't matter much, he told himself, he wasn't intending a duel. All he wanted to do was get out there long enough to send ten LRMs downrange. He just needed to distract Crawford.
He readied the shot, wishing that he was sending Inferno missiles. The sticky flaming gel could push up a 'Mech's heat debt, and they were probably the only way to get a 'Mech like the Pillager with its well-balanced weapon-to-heat-sink ratio into the danger zone. Kelly's Lineholder wasn't so well designed.
But since a duel wasn't his objective, just a fast shot followed by a duck and cover, he could afford to incur heat debt for this attack. Too bad that he didn't have the weapons for it. Still, he had his large Bla
zeFire laser. He did his best to align it onto the same target area as his missiles as he triggered the shot.
His missiles flew true, impacting on the Pillager's upper back. The laser cored into the cratered area. A fierce plasma fire exploded briefly from the Pillager's torso, telling Kelly that he'd caused critical damage to the target's jump jets. Too short to mean he'd canceled the Pillager's ability to jump, though. At least he'd curtailed it.
He'd rather have hit the gyros, or far better still, the fusion plant.
Crawford turned his machine. Despite the penetrating hit, Crawford seemed unimpressed. "Thought that might flush you Shoe weasels."
The Killer sent gauss shells and lasers toward Kelly's position, calling, "Come and get it!"
Expecting the retaliation, Kelly wasn't there to receive it. And very glad of his absence he was, as significant chunks of Hinchuan real estate was demolished.
The extent of the destruction chilled him. The Pillager's laser array was bad enough, punching out enough shattering power to match the beam armament of Kelly's Lineholder without the heat debt attached, but the twin Poland Main Model A gauss rifles were what made the machine a true demolisher. They were what the Vigilantes needed to fear the most.
But gauss rifles used ammunition and ammunition didn't last forever.
How many gauss shots had Crawford taken in this engagement? Kelly called up Pillager stats on his computer. He was dismayed to see just how much ammunition the machine carried. The only way Crawford would be approaching empty was if he started light, and Kelly doubted the mercenary had done so.
"Back shooting the best you can do?" Crawford taunted. "You Shoes are wimps with all the honor of a rim world slaver. Come out and fight!"
Sam and Snell obliged him, breaking cover and starting a double weave approach. Sam's first volley scored well and Snell even managed to get a few SRMs in, but Crawford didn't fall for the deception. Whipping the Pillager's right arm around, he potted Sam with his Defiance B3L laser. The shot stripped armor and tore at internal structure, but it wasn't a killer. Sam stumbled her Commando back under cover.
Kelly was grateful that the mercenary hadn't been sure enough of the target to use his twin Poland Main gauss rifles.
"Forget the fancy stuff," he told Sam and Snell.
"Already have," Sam replied. "What do we do instead, boss?"
Kelly was thinking as hard as he could. "We need to hit him from all sides. That way some of us will have shots from angles he can't reply to."
Nobody mentioned the obvious corollary that someone would have to be at an angle Crawford could reply to.
"Good as far as it goes," JJ said. "He's got the canal at his back."
That was true. The Kennesaw Canal was broad, an easy hundred meters, and there wasn't much cover within another hundred or so beyond it. The far shore would be little better than a practice firing range for the Pillager. Worse, any Vigilante 'Mech on the far bank would likely be outside the Raven's protective screen. If the Raven were over there, the reciprocal would apply to anyone remaining on the Hinchuan bank.
"If Trahn can cross somewhere down the canal, I could jump over anywhere," JJ suggested. "Her Guardian suite will give us the best cover we can get over there and we'll be in flanking position."
"The canal itself is better cover," Sam said.
"It isn't very deep," Kelly pointed out. It was three to four meters mostly, deep enough for the barges that traversed it, but barely more than waist deep to the light 'Mechs. "It's not enough for a submerged approach."
"We don't need it to be," Sam stated. "The banks give us another couple of meters. The Commandos can crouch, and moving along the near embankment, we won't be seen. Better still we might be able to stay within reach of Trahn's Guardian suite. Then, if the rest of you can get Crawford's fat behind away from the DropShip, we can pop up and give him a good kick in the pants. I, for one, would really like to do that."
Kelly approved the plan, but he had a caveat. "You can start your approach, but you don't show your heads till we get a NARC beacon fixed on that beast. We need maximum effective firepower on target the first time if we're going to make this work."
Tagging the Pillager with the beacon was its own problem.
Kelly found himself another long lane with a line on the space port. This time he didn't have the Raven to give him cover. Trahn had taken the Raven in close, as stealthily as she could. JJ had found himself a shorter line of fire. The idea was that Kelly and JJ would uncover and launch simultaneously, giving Crawford dual targets and distracting him enough for Trahn to uncover and get a good shot.
Kelly gave the word. Missiles arced down field. Explosions rocked the Pillager and the ground around it. Nickel-iron slugs cracked through the air, seeking a fast-dodging Kelly. Trahn emerged and launched. Kelly's screen lit with the call of the NARC. Success!
Unfortunately, their distractions proved insufficient as Crawford once again demonstrated his killer reflexes. The Pillager's torso swiveled on the Raven. The twin gauss rifles spat their electro-magnetically propelled solid shot. The Raven caught a slug on its stubby right arm. Ferro-fibrous armor, weapons, actuators, and endosteel skeleton shredded as the light 'Mech's entire right shoulder assembly tore away. The shock of the hit cost Trahn her control. Spewing fluids, the Raven keeled over.
Fortunately for Trahn, it fell out of Crawford's line of fire. That didn't stop him from trying to drop a building on her by shelling the structure with his gauss rifles. Trahn pumped the legs of her 'Mech. Its stumpy "arms" made it hard for her to get it back on its feet in the best of circumstances. Recognizing that she wasn't making progress fast enough, she starting using the Raven's powerful, kicking feet to shove the 'Mech along the ground away the impending collapse.
The rumbling crash of the structure sent vibrations that Kelly felt from a quarter kilometer away. Darting through the dust cloud, JJ's Javelin raced toward Trahn's position. The Pillager's lasers lit the cloud, but they failed to hit the fleet light 'Mech. Kelly blasted at Crawford with missiles and lasers, even his Inteks that were out of range for doing any real damage, anything to distract him and give JJ covering fire.
JJ swooped down on the Raven. Using his Javelin's hands, he helped the Raven back to its feet, and the two light 'Mechs sprinted for cover behind the warehouse line.
Kelly, finally catching Crawford's attention, managed to get behind a hangar with only minor armor damage from the Pillager's large laser. Crawford chased none of them, which was good; they needed the breather.
"Sorry, boss. Lost my lasers," Trahn apologized.
"You did your job, and you're still with us. I've got no complaints."
But the real job had barely gotten started.
He confirmed that Sam and Snell had reached their positions. He let JJ pick his own spot and told Trahn to hang back. If it all went south, they'd need the cover of her electronics to get out. For himself, he picked a point where he thought Crawford would be waiting for a Vigilante 'Mech to show. He was on the edge of the Raven's electronic umbrella. If he had to shift too far to his right, he'd leave it.
With everyone ready, there was nothing to do but give the word to strike.
At his command, the Vigilantes attacked. SRMs swarmed in on the beacon. Lasers stabbed in at the Pillager's back. More lasers, and a single more powerful one, sizzled from Kelly's Lineholder.
They hurt the Pillager, but it was, after all, a hundred-ton BattleMech. BattleMechs were designed to take a lot of punishment, and hundred-ton BattleMechs were the toughest of all. The Pillager withstood their assault.
Crawford howled his rage and returned fire.
JJ caught the Killer's attention first. The range was deadly for the gauss rifles, and the Guardian suite didn't help enough this time. Both slugs slammed home. Lasers clawed the Javelin, savaging it in a crimson frenzy. The battered light 'Mech cartwheeled out of sight in an explosion of metal. JJ's commo circuit went dead.
Kelly's grip tightened on his controls. H
e triggered everything he had at the Pillager. To hell with heat! Mr. Chill could feel no heat.
The fury of his attack staggered the Pillager. Lasers raked across the armored skin, devouring it. Detonating warheads gobbled chunks of it. A great slab of armor and its supporting understructure peeled away from the Pillager's left thigh. In a sparking corona of electrical discharge, gauss shells tumbled out as one of the 'Mech's ammunition reserves was compromised.
Too late. Too damned late.
Despite the damage, Crawford's focus wasn't on Kelly. The Killer turned on the Commandos.
"Didn't get enough the first time we played, Liu?"
Sam sent eight SRMs along with her reply. "Eat this and die, dirt bag!"
Crawford's Pillager shrugged away the missile hits with almost contemptuous ease. His uplifted weapon arms swung away from Sam and he poured his fusillade onto Snell's Commando.
One nickel-iron slug ripped through the Commando's right hip. The other snatched away the now detached limb. Lasers stabbed into the Commando's guts, and its entire right side blew apart as ammo detonated. The Commando toppled backwards, disappearing under the water.
"So much for your little buddy." The massive 'Mech stepped forward and off the embankment. A brief flare of its jump jets eased it into the canal. Agitated water slapped at its thighs. Crawford waded his machine toward Sam. "I took you down once, little girl."
"No!" Kelly screamed as he charged his 'Mech forward. In his mind's eye he saw Sam's 'Mech disintegrating as Snell's had. It was a vision of horror that let him see through the armor that shielded the cockpit and though the visor of the neurohelmet to see Sam's face as she screamed in her death agony.
In reality, he could see none of it for Crawford's movement had taken him out of Kelly's sights.
"I'm going do it again today," he heard the Killer say. "And this time, I'm gonna make it stick."
Kelly heard missile launches. It had to be Sam, making her last defiant attack. Crawford howled in pain on the open channel. Sam had hurt him!
"You little bitch! You're history."
Initiation to War Page 24
