Battletech: Planet's Fall

Richard stood in front of the Phoenix Hawk he had been given to strengthen the unit's combat capabilities. It was a nice machine, heavier than the Vulcan, a little less armed, but Richard no longer had to worry about an ammunition chamber exploding.

He lit a cigarette and read through the TRO, trying to concentrate but not really succeeding. He closed his eyes and saw the smile, a blank face and blood.

He took a deep breath. "You miserable fool." he whispered to himself. "What was all that for? All for a neurohelm? One minute you're telling her you want to enjoy the future with her, and the next you're putting her in such danger," he let out a long sigh and shook his head.

He began to read the TRO again from the beginning.

"Hey, I guess salvage ops must be going as good as the brass said if I'm not the only one reading up on TROs this morning," the pink haired pilot said as she noticed Richard also in the out of the way part of the mech bay. She took a sip from an energy drink as she tilted her head to see what TRO he had, "What are you moving up to?"

He broke away from his thoughts and turned to Ez. "Hey Ez, what's up?"

In response to her question, he waved the TRO around. "They put a Phoenix Hawk in my lance," he said. "But, why are you reading through one,.....?" Then he remembered. "Oh. Fuck. Right, how are you Ez?"

"Bruising is mostly cleared up, stitches are healing well, so not bad. Though, I'm going to skip on the contact sports," she grinned, "But I got my new mech assignment, moving up to the Orion, some mild strings attached, but it'll stop my lance from making jokes about me being stuck chasing after them in the Urbie."

"That's all right, then," he laughed, "The Orion,... that's the one from the battle in Budai, right? Then you've made a pretty good step up, I hope for your sake that the mild strings are worth it in the end."

"I believe so. I was told the previous owner didn't make the best use of it," she shrugged, "Which, I suppose makes sense for some research site pilot. Probably more used to the testing range than, let's say, live fire exercises?"

"Anyways I'm looking forward to it. A bit more punch than my old hunchback but more armour and a bit more range but a less efficient damage. So a fair upgrade. If we make an absurd amount of money this operation I'll have to have an argument with brass and well, the only other string wound be if it gets wrecked so... I've been trying not to think too much about that."

"Well, you have to say that it's not every day that you get ammunition flying around your ears," he said, nodding. "The Hawk doesn't have as much power as the Vulcan, but nothing can blow up. I don't know if that's a good thing, on the other hand the Hawk is meant to be a command mech, so it makes sense that I'm running it."

"Ohh if this is the Orion from Budai: do you have a Gauss rifle now?"

"Nah, they offered me the Cyclops, which has one," she took a pause to sigh before moving forward with some exasperation, "But as this isn't reassignment as much as replacing my owned mech, as per my contract, the difference in cost is technically a loan against future earnings so.... I picked the cheaper mech with lots of armour over the cool, huge, bad-ass one with less armour than my old mech that screams 'shoot at me' with that gauss rifle."

"They gave me a good offer on the loan as an advance but even the deal leaves me in debt to the company should it be destroyed this campaign," she frowned, "Like a lot in debt. And the Cyclops would have doubled it and probably had more strings, I didn't even ask."

He pulled air through his teeth once. "It almost sounds like you're playing high stakes right now,.... on the one hand, you can make a huge profit.... or a huge loss. I wish you good luck either way." he said and smiled.

"But I'm sure if you and your lance throw yourself into the simulator the next few days the tide will turn more toward you. I might even join you, after all, the Hawk is new to me."

She nodded in agreement, "Thanks, though I am hoping 14 and a half tonnes of armour will hedge my bet nicely. I'll try and clear up some sim time and let you know. A couple of lance commanders familiarizing themselves with new mechs seems an easy sell to admin."

"I am sure someone is going to have fun with that thing I just hope it is on the company's account," she said relaxing a bit by mildly changing the subject, "The specs on the thing sure seem impressive..."

She drifted off mid-sentence before adding deadpanly, "I probably could've played coy and asked to give it a test run on a patrol. No way that hasn't been assigned by now."

"Well,......" a grin crept onto his lips "Looks like it hasn't been easy for you lately. He chukled at his own pun, "I guess it will go to one of the heavy lances sooner or later, an Assault in a recon unit would be a bit silly.... Even if I would like to play with a Gauss rifle, not gonna lie."

She rolled her eyes at the pun. "Heh, that hasn't stopped some pirate lances I've fought from trying," she laughed, "Pirate lords aren't exactly modest with their Ego displays."

She crossed her arms, "That said I think a gauss rifle on a mobile mech would be good like a better Hussar or even a Shadowhawk. Probably eats up a lot of tonnage though. Only designs I've heard of using them are assaults like the Highlander."

"I wish Cat was here now, if anyone knows how to put something together that works, it's her. Although it would probably be very cool on a Centurion, too, just imagine," he raised his metal arm protectively in front of him and put his healthy arm on top of it, his hand formed into a pistol. "Probably wouldn't be the fastest medium, but hey, at least no AC/20 Urbie."

"Yeah, that thing is someone's mad science experiment," she shook her head, "Next to no armour, only 5 shots, too slow to get into range effectively; pure madness. You are probably better off bringing an srm carrier out over it, honestly."

"Anyways, brass seems happy having a gauss assault mech in the force so that is always good news."

"You happy with your new scrappier scout mech? They run hot enough that they named it after a thing on fire."

"I'll wait for the first fight and then I'll know, but at least I'm glad that he has no ammunition, I'll take the sauna for that," he nodded, "And it has the same speed profile as the rest of the lance, meaning we can proceed in unison."

"I suppose light armour and ammo can be a dangerous mix," she looked at the TRO, "I suppose risking exploding over machineguns is a big difference from autocannons or missiles as they are just short range anti-infantry weapons. Honestly flamers are the better anti-infantry solution anyways."

"It can get very fast, very scary, when the enemy is about to expose the ammunition depot and all you can do is run at best." he said slightly chuckling, "Intel says we're actually fighting infantry today, which of course is tailored to my lance, we'll probably make some use of the good old flamethrower."

"Ha! Of course. You phase out your machine guns just in time for anti-infantry work to land in your lap," she seemed genuinely amused, "You still have a Firestarter in your lance though, right?"

He nodded, "Not only that, Command was gracious enough to leave the Vulcan in the team and take out the pilot killer, the Spider, instead, so we have two mechs with flamethrowers and one with an MG. The recruits of Camp Kerkina will probably have their first and last combat today."

"Ooof, yeah, Spiders are why mechs have rear mounted lasers but when that trick doesn't work they are kind of screwed," she put her hands on her hips, "I've still met pilots that swear by them though. Some mechwarriors are more brave than sane so they say. The Phoenix Hawk will bring everything it offered beyond breakneck speed and not immediately crumble in the face of enemy fire."

"Good hunting out there."