“We’re clear!”
Leftenant Kerstine
Wendorf scream over the company frequency failed to drown the sickening crunch
of ferro-fibrous metal and the deafening crack of an ancient wooden pine as
Hans crashed his battered Jenner into
the wood line. The scarred Jenner’s
left torso slammed into a massive pine tree and the spindly legged war-machine twisted
with a tortured scream of dilapidated metal to the right of the sturdy tree
creating a billowing cloud of dust, oily-smoke, mist and debris. In complete
contrast, Corporal Hans Kristoferson silently succumbed to his injuries,
becoming Echo Company’s first official casualty in an undeclared war.
“Bishop-two to
Bishop one, all Knights are in Hauptmann.” reported Adara adroitly. After a
short pause she added “Hans is dead.”
“Bishops power
up!” was Curtis’ only response as he ignored the death of a fine man and
brought his seventy-ton Archer,
nicknamed “Aura Deva” to life. The
slumped machine snapped erect with the sudden surge of electrical power from
the Battlemech’s fusion engine flared
through its myomer muscle structure filling Curtis’ cockpit with a wave of comforting
warmth. The targeting data from Max’s Oscout
immediately scrolled along Curtis’ primary monitor. The Instatract Mark VII
targeting computer showed that the COMSTAR Quick Response Lance or QRL had
entered the one-point-five kilometer war perimeter. The QRL was still too far
to be properly identified, but the computer indicated that they were medium
weight jump capable ‘Mechs. They were
currently leaping along the plains at a speed of roughly one-hundred and fifty
meters every seven seconds which would put them right on top of Bishop Lance in
roughly a minute.
Curtis’ computer
immediately drew a line ahead of the QRL’s approach indicating the effective
range of his lance’s Long Range Missiles or LRMs. LRMs had an effective minimum
range of one hundred and fifty meters and a maximum effective range of
six-hundred and seventy-five meters. The Bishop’s advantage was that they were
not and could not be spotted immediately by the rapidly advancing QRL. However,
trying to hit a target that was moving at twenty-one point four meters per
second half a kilometer away was virtually impossible even with the
sophisticated targeting equipment of his Archer.
He needed them to stand still.
Adara's company monitor indicated that Major Dorne had split his tank column up into two groups. A lance of medium tanks was skirting it's way at flank speed leaving behind the main column of heavy tanks and technical support units. The mediums would reach their position within five minutes, the main-body would make it in around ten.
