Lancer, not a Mechwarrior
Chapter 6
-VB-
Jessica realized she found herself in a … new situation.
It’s not difficult to realize that when her new commander metaphorically looked at a planetary noble dead in the eyes and told him to shoot and see what that gets him. It made her realize she signed up with someone either very brave or very foolish and way in over his head.
Darius von Hohenheim was a strange combination of stoic, intrusive, and introverted.
In the five days that she’s been on this ship (still parked on Kilbourne spaceport), she met and talked with Darius at least once or twice a day, mostly during meal time. When they talked and Darius asked a question, he wasn’t unsubtle about some of the questions he asked but some of those questions were slightly intrusive about her and her friends’ histories while having nothing to do with her actual work history.
At the same time, he didn’t react much at all to anything. He didn’t laugh at jokes, though he claimed he found some funny. He hummed a lot more than he replied verbally.
This wasn’t to say that he was not intelligent or incapable of social interactions.
But the man definitely and wholeheartedly preferred to work with machines more than people.
“What are you doing, commander?”
It had been only a day since that noble fop came and went like the spindly and weak-willed coward like he was, and her new boss carried on without even a hint of care.
Instead of fretting over planetary nobles and the AFFS, he was in the gut of the Hunchback up, doing something to the medium mech’s chest.
“The Hunchback is too slow. I’m making it fast.”
“So you’re giving it a higher rate engine?” she asked.
“Kind of.”
She blinked and then frowned. “But won’t that ruin the actuators?” she asked as she took a few steps forward and crouched down. Then she paused when she saw what the commander was doing.
Because the Hunchback’s engine didn’t look right. Of course, there were hundreds of engines made by a hundred different major manufacturers, and most of them would deviate from each other in appearance, output, and make. In fact, she had only ever seen a dozen different fusion engines in her life. What would she know about fusion engines, anyway? She was not a mechtech.
But even with her lack of practical and theoretical know-how about fusion engines and their construction, she knew right off the bat that whatever this thing was sitting inside the Hunchback in the place of the fusion engine, it was not a fusion engine as she understood it.
Most battlemech fusion engines she saw were made up of three parts: the core where power was made and the two wings that helped transmit that power to the parts of the mech that needed it. Put together, a fusion engine … might look like a fat hot dog. A very fat hot dog.
This thing the commander was deftly installing did not look like that.
In fact, it looked less like a fat hot dog and more like a … spool? A spool inside of a glass and metal cubic cylinder (she doubted that the transparent bits were actually glass). Still, that was the best way to describe it. And instead of the wings that moved mechanical power from the core to the mech, there were thick tubes that came out from the top and bottom of the mech.
“... It looks fragile,” she commented.
“It isn’t,” he replied before abruptly full-swinging a wrench at the glass bits. She reared back in surprise before flinching when the wrench bounced off of the “glass” with a high pitched metallic sound that didn’t belong to something like that. “In fact, I guarantee this engine won’t come apart unless it specifically takes a direct hit from an AC/20.”
“You are that confident with it?” she asked as she recovered from the scare.
“Yes,” he replied as he finished something and began to close the Hunchback’s internals. “Alright. Do you want to take her out for a drive?”
“... me?”
“Yes. I thought you were going to be the Hunchback pilot,” he said as he stood up, greased and all, and looked at her.
“... But it’s the heaviest mech here. You aren’t going to use it?” she asked instead of answering. “Frankenmechs aren’t… good for your health.”
“Rayray isn’t a Frankenmech,” he replied flatly.
Did she touch on something she shouldn’t have?
“More importantly, we do need to get you and your friends used to your new mechs. So I guess that we’ll go playing in the forest.”
-VB-
Jessica told them that the commander was looking to test the mechs after he’s worked on them. John didn’t know much about the inner workings of mechs, aside from the fact that they had fusion engines, used myomers to move, had actuators, and needed to cool off like any other machine, but he heard from the new mechtech hires that whatever it was that Darius did to the mechs, they were unfamiliar with it.
So testing needed to be done.
And that’s what they did.
After getting permission from the Kilbourne administration, they flew off to a random corner of the continent, far away from any major and minor population centers, and set the Leopard down.
That’s how Michael found himself sitting inside of one of the two Locusts.
And it didn’t feel right.
It felt weird. The weird neurohelmet was so tiny yet it fit snuggly over his eyes and head. It was … efficient, which was rare. It was also possibly Lostech, but it didn’t look like any of the Star League era neurohelmets he saw pictures of.
For one, it was bulbous. The visor wasn’t a smooth surface. It bulged out like he had two giant eyes. But somehow, it gave him a wider vision and had HUD. Two, the helmet was thin. Like it was thinner than anything he’s seen before. Three, it was light. It didn’t strain his neck to move them. Four, the helmet only had two pairs of thin wires connecting it to the mech.
And then there was the near instantaneous mind to metal reaction.
He thought about moving his body with the intent to turn. The Locust responded before he was even finished thinking and moved.
The radio crackled.
“How’s it going, Mike?”
“Peachy, Jess,” he responded. “The ride’s a piece of shit cheap bug mech but whatever bullshit the commander did made it smoother than butter.”
He saw Jessica, or Jess, in her new Hunchback, and looked exactly like how he felt: springy and flexible. The Hunchback, just like his Locust, was surprisingly agile, and Jess was doing some awkward shadowboxing. Most of the ducking and weaving motions of shadowboxing was missing, but the fast punches and footwork? All there. That would have been extremely difficult for her to do if she was in her old mech.
As for him, he got the Locust hopping. It jumped from side to side exactly as he wanted it to… and then he did something risky. He spin-jumped.
The Locust swirled around and landed on its other leg, and he didn’t feel any strain there. Which he definitely would have felt if he was in a regular Locust. He would know; his family had two Locusts.
After he brought himself to a stop, he looked around and found Xav, which wasn’t short for Xavier but rather that was his actual full given name. Xav was in his Locust and just like what Michael had been doing, he was also pulling some footwork moves.
Which was very interesting to watch.
But the most interesting mech to watch … was “Rayray,” the commander’s light(medium?) mech.
It was hard to tell if it was a medium mech or a light mech because of its size, and, according to the commander, he sometimes made it under forty tons for a specific loadout.
The most important thing about it? It looked - and moved - like a cowboy. The Wild West theme was something that people still made and watched, especially considering that the periphery and their barbarism was a thing.
(Of course, he wasn’t going to tell his new commander that he was a periphery barbarian to his face. That was a career suicide move.)
At the same tim-.
The radio crackled. “Boss, it’s John. We have something on the radar, and it’s coming in fast! 330!”
330. Almost northward. Slightly from the west.
Using the top of the HUD which displayed a 360 degree digital compass, he turned to face that exact direction.
“Have you tried contacting them?” the commander asked from his mech while he too turned to face that direction.
Michael couldn’t see anything yet in the blue and white sky.
“I have been. They’re not responding.”
“Try to reach out to the local administration and the HPG, and I want you to begin recording now. Tell me when it is.”
“... Recording.”
“This is Commander Darius von Hohenheim of the Hohenheim Rangers. We are currently in … the foothills of the southern Kalaki Range, some four hundred kilometers southeast of the Kilbourne Spaceport. We were out here, with permission, to test our new mechwarriors in our mechs when we are being approached by something that is not responding to radio. Can you confirm, First Mate John?”]
“... Confirmed. I’m still pinging them, but they aren’t returning.”
Michael cursed. This sounded like shit was about to hit the fan. ‘It’s only been a week since we got hired,’ he thought with a snarl.
“And the HPG station?”
“They are responding, and they don’t have any idea who this is.”
“Is their response on record?”
“Yes.”
“And the local spaceport?”
“I’m calling them but they aren’t responding.”
“I swear, if this is another fucking noble pulling shenanigans…!” Jessica snarled.
The “Rayray” looked up toward the direction. They couldn’t see -.
“I finally have them in my sights. It’s a Leopard,” John alerted them.
Nevermind, they could see. But if it was a Leopard, then that meant someone was hauling mechs over to them.
“I got in contact with the port!” John abruptly shouted over the radio. “They’re saying that the Leopard approaching us does not have clearance to be flying in the area right now, and their IFF is off!”
“Figures,” Darius drawled. “Do we have permission to shoot first?”
“... No, it’s been denied. Only when they shoot first or get too close.”
“Roger.” Then after a pause, the commander spoke again. “Looks like we’re gonna have a live fire practice. Gunner, Cover me with your guns. Snake, Cobra; you two will flank them the moment a firefight breaks out. Got it?”
“Copy,” he responded.
“Acknowledged,” Jess, Gunner, replied.
“Copy,” Xav, Cobra, copied his response.
Michael moved away with his Locust to their right flank.
Then they finally saw the Leopard. It came straight toward them before stopping just outside what Michael thought was the maximum effective range of their Leopard’s Big Fucking Gun (everyone but Darius called it that).
“... Commander, they are putting out mechs. The CompCon? Yes, the CompCon is telling me that it’s two Centurions, one Enforcer, and a Wasp.”
Michael grunted. Essentially, the OpFor had a medium lance against their light lance.
“Commander, it’s your call. We can get in and take off,” Gunner spoke up.
“No, that Leopard has targeted our Leopard,” John replied. “The moment we take off, it’ll start shooting. And unlike our dropship, their dropship is already hot and ready to move. Loading you all will also take time, and that’s time they can use to take potshots, including the inside of the mech bays. I’m spooling her up right now, but it’ll take a few minutes before she’s completely ready.”
“But wouldn’t our ship tank a few hits easily?”
“A Leopard’s only got thirty tons of armor spread across all of its surface. That’s even less armor than the Locust per square meter of surface. Against two PPCs, three LRM-20’s, five large lasers, and seven medium lasers, our ship is going to be perforated,” Michael spoke up.
“...I didn’t know the Leopard had armor so thin,” commander grunted.
“I had a lot of time while Dispossessed,” Michael shrugged.
“So we fight if they start shooting?” Cobra asked.
“We fight,” the commander replied.
And that’s when the OpFor fired off their dropship’s weapons.
And John, the First Mate, responded by firing their Leopard’s rotary autocannon.
-VB-
A/N: for encounters, I literally use the Battletech Random Assignments & Rarity Table, version 10.64. Cuz that’s the one I downloaded and haven’t updated since.