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Wraith calls up a map-overlay on the HUD of her Tharhes Aries-7i tracking system and converses with the group. ***Got it, Viper. Nice work.
Okay guys, since their playmates are still 58 mikes out, what say we advance on their 'fall back' position and liquidate that, too? Who knows what surprises or juicy intel they have still stored there. That should still give us plenty of time to Orpheuseses's ambush spot. M'kay?***
Not one to waste time, Wraith JUMPS up and over a handful of buildings before landing and sprinting to the HQ-J, weapons still hot.
I am thinking that we head over to the repair facility, and take a long look so we can give wraith and the others a heads up whats there.
Viper slings his rifle, while the ganger is running for his life.
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***Roger Wraith. On yer Six.***
Jester carefully maneuvers his Centurion 'mech around the buildings until he reaches an open path and carefully engages the fusion engine interlocks, knowing this is a new mech, and has not been officially broken in yet.
Gotta think of a name fer you...Dang why do all these jockeys feel the need ta show off??
Over the comm, the old man says "Jocks go ahead and set up your ambush. Your support will be along. Shouldn't need us until afterwards, anyway."
Off the comm, to the people standing around him. "Want to try to find someplace to grab a quick bite?"
Orpheus nods, "**One ambush, coming up. We shall return with some fine salvage and even more demoralized foes.** " He adds, "**Switching to tightbeam comms for the tac discussion, just in case of eavesdroppers.**"
Kyle gestures to a stack of fresh pizzas. "I picked us up something to eat on the way here." he says with a smirk.
Viper helps load the pizza's into the car.
*** Don't take to long, the pizza's getting cold ***
Titian takes a big slice and slowly starts to munch it down.
"Well we do something constructive while the little boys and girls play.!"
"Our real work doesn't start until they finish fighting. Pizza." He sighs. "I was hoping for something more . . . satisfying. Oh, well."
Well, we could run this stuff to the ship, and then go check out the plant while they are keeping the bad guys busy.
Viper Grabs a small pizza for himself, and starts to munch down on it.
After all, no telling what else might be in there.
Orpheus, Jester, and Wraith move to take positions in a nearby patch of junk and garbage. The location selected will provide them some limited cover from long-range scans due to the presence of heavy metals and ferrous scrap.
From behind rough cover they watch as the CyBulls move into the area. The Shreck plows ahead into the valley of refuse, skidding to a stop about a kilometer from Hoffen's mechwarriors. One of the dangerous PPC barrels is missing, but the other two seem functional. Climbing one ridge is a smaller 'mech that is easily recognizable as a Wasp. Bringing up the rear is a much larger shape bearing arms with large rotary autocannons and an impressive radar array over it's head. A Rifleman, and one of the newer upgraded versions. Both 'mechs are sprayed with a generic urban digital camo pattern. The Rifleman is looking to take cover in shredded solar fabric as the Shreck's turret slowly pans the valley ahead.
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Wraith laughs clear and cool over their secured comms as the gimped Shreck enters their sights. ***Ha ha ha! My main worry was if they had ER's on that bad boy, which actually make it more accurate at point-blank range, go figure! But if'n they can't even keep 2 lo-techs working, I think we're clear on that account!***"
He tone turns decidedly more dark as the shiny new Rifleman enters view. ***Oh drek. If that were the basic 3N, I'd not give it a second thought, rubbish that it was. But that, boys and girls, is a sparkly new 5M. goRAM those bastiches at Marik! They'll sell their own gramma if they could get some C-bills for her. Th' 5M's got double freezers, so it can actually shoot those guns more than once.
Okay, Imma still in line to take out the Schrek. The rest of you guys wanna focus on the R-man?
Oh, and there seems to be a Wasp somewhere, like I care.***
Jester grunts in displeasure when the enemy 'mechs make their appearance on his sensor readout. Feels like back in the day, gettin' those useless intel briefings...what a joke...
**Roger that sweetheart. R-man is main target** He acknowledges curtly before studying the tech readout of the 'mech.
Hmmm...he is heavier...yet I have mobility on 'im and range with me missiles. Whoever is in the cockpit must be a leader of this clown show. Gotta be a way to draw 'im out of there...
**Orpheus, let's draw the R-man's attention here...target the Wasp first...see what he does here.**
Kyle trys to find an elevated location from where he can watch the fight go down. Once located he lays down so as to conceal himself as much as possible and watches the show.
Viper crawls up beside Lambert, and offers him his RF Bino's.
You might see more clear with these.
Viper brings his RF bino's to observe.
+++ Wraith, be advised the Rifleman is under partial cover due to scrap, the others are just lumbering on. Cannot see anything wrong on the Shreck yet. +++
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***Copy that, Viper. Imma veer off, away from the Rifleman and toward the Shrek.
It's only got 2 of its three poppers. That means it can't deal the firepower, but it does mean it can shoot them all the time, and doesn't have to worry about heat.
Inefficient design for a crawler, but it still hurts when it hits.***
Wraith hits the jump jets and flies out as far as she can. She lands in the lee of large brick barn. Hay spills out of the doors, rotting in the air and flies orbit around in a great black cloud, annoyed at the heavy mech's disturbance.
Jester flicks the safety off his fire control system, arming all his weapons. Seeing his readouts all in the green he urges his Centurion 'mech onto the broken and littered path.
So far so good...now comes the fun part... he thinks as he brings the targeting computer on line, the Artemis FC feeding him up to date firing solutions. THAT will take some getting used to...
As he heads towards a low berm, the only suitable cover near by he waits until he is just inside the maximum range of his missiles...pressing the firing trigger here a plume of white-hot exhaust gasses plume from the back of his 'Mech as the missiles streak towards the Wasp...
The lordling watches the battle from his vantage point on the ridge, idling chatting with Viper. He seems to have acquired some form of locally grown nut somewhere, and is shucking them and casually tossing the meat into his mouth.
"So whats your assessment of the battle?" He gestures to the fight between the mechs.
Titian listens on his earphones, listing to the battle unfold.
Well, right now, i think that we might have the advantage, but it is hard to say with the Rifleman and Shreck in play. But I think we will take them, barring bad luck.
External microphones capture a delayed crack sound. The 'mechs computers instantly identify the noise as coming from a Long Tom artillery piece. The current trajectory is a bit past crew's position, but comm static bursts from the Rifleman are unmistakable to the seasoned fighters as forward-observer corrections. Orpheus' comm breaks in to announce he will handle the distant artillery since the other warriors can easily handle the immediate threats.
Meanwhile Jester's missiles plunge down on the Wasp, which tries to jump back at the last moment. Explosions rock around the scout and knock off the armor plating around it's left left. The structure beneath suffers from the concussive force and shrapnel, taking the left off at the calf.
The Shrek plows forward, almost trying to protect the falling Wasp. It takes a shot at Wraith with one PPC.
It's blast misses the mark by a few dozen meters, setting fire to some refuse in the distance.
The Rifleman merely darts from one piece of cover to an adjacent location before taking a shot at extreme range toward Jester's Centurion.
Shells chew up the scenery in front of Jester, throwing dirt and garbage into the air.
Viper asks rhetorically. Where in the hell did those idiots get a tom
+++Be advised, Viper and Lord are probably going to relocate due to Tom fire, Luck all, and remember, try not to bang any of them up too bad. I could use one.+++
Viper signs out with a grin and looks at Kyle.
Shall we go, as I don't want to be where the Tom fire lands.
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***OH DREK! OH DREK!*** Wraith starts screaming over the comms. It took her a minute to work it out, but her own PPCs weren't in range yet, and it just fired at her from --extreme-- range. Which meant that...
***THEY'RE NOT MISSING ONE LO-TECH! They just have two hi-techs! Those are ERs on that big boy!***
It took her a while to get her bearings, but her Angel's A-TAC just updated the data and kept plotting a course.
***Okay, yeah, I have soooo much enough to worry about without that tomikins ruing my day by making me a splat-fest. As long as someone can go make it have a bad day, Imma good with that.
Anyway, yeah, first blood to Jester! Nice shooting.
I hope to be just like you someday.***
She jumps into a dense copse of trees and is just about ready to make her move.
Wincing from the screaming over the net.
+++Wraith thats hard on the ears, they may be ER's, and Ultras, but you both can do this. Good shooting Jester, Good hunting Both.+++
He while running for a car.
+++ Anyone know if we have inferno's on the ship??+++
Jester nearly has to yank his comm headset off due ti the sudden panic coming from Wraith over the net. "Easy, LEFtenant! You know how to handle it, now do it!" His reply is curt and he switches off before she can respond.
Seeing the Wasp as neutralized for the moment he focuses his attention on the remaining two targets. Taking heed of the warning of artillery on the field he darts over to the left before making a jinking move to the opposite side increasing the pace of his 'mech as he looks for a another large bern to take cover behind. As he gets closer into range his autocannon screams forth a blister of shells that pepper the Rifleman...
Kyle quickly follows behind Viper.
"Yes, Lets not be out any longer than we need to."
Jester's cannon cracks into the right arm of the Rifleman, knocking armor plating to the ground but causing little significant damage. The Rifleman returns fire with the light autocannons from medium range before it backs up slightly.
The Shrek skids to a hard stop. The turret moves to track Wraith as she leaps from cover to cover. Brilliant white-blue lightning fires from the same barrel as before.
Despite the heavy focus on aiming from the unprofessional crew, the Shrek comes nowhere near hitting it's mark.
Viper puts actions to words and heads for the nearest ground vehicle.
Lets see if there are any inferno's in the ship
Jester catches the intent of Wraith here and decides to try drawing the attention of both hostiles, as he kicks in his fusion generator and tracks a course zigzagging along the rough terrain.
The tank's turret spins as it tries to keep up with Wraith's leaping. The same barrel fires yet again.
The crew clearly does not now how to lead a target, however, and the energy blast strikes where her 'mech was seconds earlier.
Meanwhile the Rifleman almost seems to be visibly taken aback by Jester's movements. It recovers from the 'shock' and darts a few hundred meters to the west, seeking cover before letting loose with both of the Ultra AC5s.
Although the pilot is clearly more skilled than the Shrek he still fails to connect his shots.
Orpheus leads Eurydice towards the source of the artillery and spots the massive barrel sticking out of a barn a half a kilometer ahead. It does not seem to have any obvious defenders.
Orpheus smiles, then sends an encrypted burst, "Found it. Undefended. Shouldn't take long."
He starts in a run toward the position, raising his large pulse laser and firing off some shots as he does.
Orpheus' laser goes a bit too high, but the trio of medium pulse lasers blast into and ignite the barn. The flare of heat scrambles his Streak's sensors, but it quickly becomes obvious that missiles would not be needed as the massive barrel collapses to the ground. A shell loaded into the barrel suddenly cooks off and explodes, thoroughly ruining the artillery piece and sending CyBull corpses flying.
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Wraith decides she's in a good position and launches attack pattern 'marauder'.
She jumps forward again into a stand of trees and looses off a volley with twin medium lasers followed by twin PPCs.
The medium lasers sore past the tank, but then she gets the range and the larger cannons slam into the ground-crawler.
Atta Girl...
Jester knows he needs to keep the Rifleman busy here so he angles his path parallel and eschewing cover so as to present an inviting target.
Take the bait... He mutters to himself as he opens fire with his autocannon. At that time his 'mech stumbles as his legs hits a loose rockpile here. It's all he can do to maintain control as his volley goes wide.
"DAMNSIT!"
Viper moves to the car that we have been using, and starts it up.
Shall we go Lord, and get something to help clean up the mess?
Kyle and Viper hop into the ground car and head back toward the drop ship as the shell lands on the hill they had occupied recently. The explosion throws dirt and garbage everywhere.
While one of Wraith's shots scars the thick front plates the other knocks most of the already compromised armor off the right side and causes the treads to be mangled. The Schrek tries to back up, but does not get too far with the damage.
The Rifleman focuses fire on Jester with both pairs of autocannons, foolishly remaining in it's position to do so.
His panic fire mostly misses, but a few shells from the light cannon manage to rattle the cockpit.
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"Ha! There we go! Watch out, boyos. I hear these things are dangerous!"
Seeing no need to change tactics, Wraith again jumps forward, hiding just behind an abandoned building that may have once been a bar, and keeps firing attack pattern 'marauder'.
The lasers maintain an illusion of incompetency, but one big gun reaches out and touches someone.
Seeing the Debris fly up from where they were in the rear view.
Good thing we moved.
+++ Viper and Lord are clear, and headed for the barn.+++
+++Understood.+++
Jester switchs from the encrypted channel to a broadcast speaker emanating from the cockpit. He trains his autocannon on the lone Rifleman here while moving behind a partially collapsed building.
Wraith hits the Schrek in it's forward armor a second time. It holds up against the attack, but the crew clearly doesn't. A handful of gangers pour out of the damaged machine and take off on foot.
All support gone, the Rifleman's pilot activates his own PA.
Sensors indicate a spike in heat and analysis from targeting systems flashes with a reactor breach warning. It would seem the man piloting the 'mech is ready to destroy it if he doesn't receive a satisfactory response.
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"Heh ya. You better run!" Alison cajoles as she fires off a few lasers over the heads of the fleeing footie-boys to keep them honest.
***Alright, mission accomplished, me chummers,***" she reports back, jumping over to the rest of the action just as the Rifleman's deal comes across.
***Idunno, guys,*** she says on an internal channel. ***I think he's bluffing. Blowing up one's own hoop? Only the snakes do that. Small time gangers that wanna live to knock over another old lady? Not so much.
Hey, think about how much you want me to kill this guy and let me know. I'll stall for time.***
Hoping to keep him talking, Wraith has a counter offer for him. "Oy! I got a counter offer for ya. You want a job? We're a high-paid mech team and you got a mech. And you got some big brass ones, we can see that. Also, we just kinda WREKT your old team...whatever they were.
Why don't ya come on over to the winning side and start leaving easy? WE got free trid, epic-level repairs, and all the grape soda you can drink!"
***We do got grape soda, right guys?***