Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
14 September 3028
Fuhito flipped up the visor on his neurohelmet and popped a food concentrate bar into his mouth. Yuk,he thought, when will they stop making these things out of three-day-old fish?He tried to wash the taste away with a mouthful of water, but the liquid from the 'Mech's recycling system was tepid, stale, and had a faint metallic tang. Such cuisine. Even the slop in the Legion's messhall was better.
The messhall was history now. Two weeks ago, the Elsies had assaulted Massingham and forced the Legion away from its base. Since then, they'd been on the run, dodging Steiner aerospace while playing tag with the ground forces and living off rapidly dwindling supplies. The Legion had fought as well as it could. Even the ground-pounder regiments had held their own along the trees of the great forest. Again and again, the Kuritans had stung the Steiner invaders and then disappeared into the shadows of the brella trees.
Despite it all, all the sacrifices, nothing had been gained and much had been lost. Half of the Eleventh's BattleMechs were crippled or destroyed. The conventional regiments had taken an even worse pounding. Only the Eleventh and Fifteenth Armored remained as fighting forces, and most of their surviving vehicles were stranded for lack of fuel, reduced to immobile pillboxes. The Steiner juggernaut rolled on.
The Elsies were weakened, perhaps even hurt, by Tai-saKurita's tactics. Now the end was near. Expendables, especially ammunition, were running out, the supply insufficient to last more than a week of fighting, even at their reduced numerical strength. The men were worn down, almost spent.
At the morning briefing, Theodore Kurita himself had been bleary-eyed and haggard with exhaustion. But the Tai-saseemed unbroken, firm in his determination to resist the Elsies to the end. Just as the meeting was breaking up, word had come that the Thirty-fourth Infantry, who had remained in unmolested containment in Massingham, had surrendered to the Lyran forces. With them had gone the spaceport where the Legion's DropShips had stood—and all hope of evacuating the planet. Theodore had not wavered. "A setback," was all he said before ordering the planned hit-and-run tactics to continue. "We must defeat the Steiner forces."
Fuhito had been impressed with Theodore's conviction, his display of the Dragon's virtue of tenacity. He found the Tai-sa'scalmness and certitude encouraging. Though Fuhito could see no way out of the Steiner trap, he had confidence in his commander. If there was no hidden solution to be revealed when the time was right, Theodore would lead them down the path of honor to warriors' deaths. Comforted, he had led his battered company out to play their part in the Tai-sa'splan.
Now the waiting was getting on his nerves. Fuhito was used to action, movement. He understood the necessity, but that didn't make him like ambushes. He scanned among the trees, trying to spot his own men. Their concealment was excellent. He could only find Gutherie's Locust,and he had known where to look. The reduced heat signatures of the motionless BattleMechs and the screening effect of the giant tree trunks helped protect them from IR searches. Fuhito was pleased; he might not like ambush duty, but he could set a good one. A yellow flag flashed among the sparse undergrowth, attracting Fuhito's attention.
A soldier in the tan fatigues and padded brown battlejacket of a Kurita infantryman stepped away from the bole of a tree. He raised his left arm and pumped it up and down four times. He then held up both hands, fingers spread wide. He closed his hands into fists, then opened them again. He repeated the motion, but raised only nine fingers.
Twice more he opened his hands, showing seven fingers each time.
"Frak!" Fuhito cursed aloud. A full lance of four 'Mechs. If the groundpounder's estimates of tonnages were correct, nothing less than a seventy-tonner. What remained of Fuhito's recon company was outclassed. Their heaviest survivor was Busek's fifty-five-ton Griffin .
Fuhito watched the soldier disappear into the shadows. May we all have good karma, soldier, but your last life had best have been very good. I wouldn't want to be out in the woods as naked as you are when the energy weapons let loose. Old "Katana Kat" may be only a light 'Mech, but he's still carrying a lot more armor than your DCMS tans.
Fuhito checked his scanners. IR caught the flash of the supporting infantry moving through the undergrowth, taking positions in the meager protection of fallen tree trunks. Magscan was overloaded by the metallic content of the brella trees, so he flicked it over to anomaly detection. The screen flickered as wind ruffled the leaves, sending subtle shifts through the magnetic field. The minor disturbances of the field were suddenly overridden as a huge mass moved from behind a thick brella stand four klicks to the northeast.
Confirming the presence of a 'Mech on passive radar and IR scans, Fuhito ran the profile through his computer, searching for an ID. Just as the massive Steiner machine hove into view, he read the identification.
An Atlas!
As he set his computer to monitor the scanners and tied in the ID function, he studied the approaching hundred-ton monster. From its globular death's-head cockpit assembly to its blocky feet, the humanoid 'Mech was heavily armored, imposing. Its weaponry was awesome, ranging from the 100 mm High Velocity 1000 autocannon over its right hip to its pair of rear-mounted Martel 5cm lasers. Even alone, it could probably outfight his whole command.
Another machine, almost as massive, moved up behind the Atlas.The "Kat's" computer tentatively identified the 'Mech as a Banshee.Fuhito switched on visual scan and zoomed in. The 'Mech looked to be a variant on the standard BNC-3E. A small missile launcher sat on its right shoulder and its left arm was replaced by an energy cannon assembly. This was certainly no standard-model Banshee.Among MechWarriors, the ninety-five-ton behemoth was widely considered to be under-armed for an assault BattleMech.
For an assault 'Mech! Frak! What was he thinking? His company was almost all lights.Those two Steiner BattleMechs alone massed almost as much as his entire command. This Bansheecarried heavy armament and Dragon knew what else. Whatever modifications the machine had, Fuhito felt sure they would make the 'Mech a more formidable opponent than he cared to deal with.
The rest of the Steiner lance appeared. A pair of ZEU-6S ZeusBattleMechs, the Lyran Commonwealth's standard eighty-ton assault 'Mech. The hunch-shouldered humanoid machines lumbered out to either flank of their heavier brethren, arm-mounted weapons swaying as though already seeking targets.
Strips of wayward sunlight flickered over the Steiner 'Mechs as they advanced, sparkling off the heat-scoured weapon muzzles. The insignia of the Fourth Skye Rangers blazed from the chest of each BattleMech, far more prominent than the Steiner fist decorating each machine's right shoulder. The machines showed battle damage and the marks of field repairs, but were clearly functional. Fuhito had no doubt that theywere well-supplied with missiles and ammunition.
The Zeuson the Lyran left flank began to move at an angle, bringing it closer to where the Kuritans lay in ambush. Then it pivoted and took a few tentative steps back in the direction of its fellows, and halted. Fuhito noted the depth to which the Zeus'sfeet had sunk into the debris of the forest floor, and he realized that the Ranger feared miring his 'Mech or losing his footing in the soft ground.
The Atlasswiveled its head to regard its wayward companion briefly, but continued on its way. The Zeusbegan to move again, its pilot searching for a path able to bear the assault 'Mech's weight. The separation of the Ranger lance increased to two hundred meters as the Zeuscontinued to be frustrated by the soft footing. The 'Mech turned in an effort to skirt around the problem terrain and walked up the slope from the soft ground, right into the clearing where the Kuritans awaited their prey.