Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Four: Slipping Through the Cracks
October 16th, 3032
"How'd they notice us so quickly?" David asked as he backed his stolen Warhammer up against the wall that was surrounding the Scarborough Manufacturers industrial center. "We did everything they asked us to."
"We must have missed a codeward or something, Captain." Private Vickers, the Jenner pilot replied. "It'll only take them about five minutes to reset their IFFs and we need to be long gone before then."
"Alright, let's get moving, you three are fast movers, so you move through first, and I'll bring up the rear." David replied as they began to move the lance away from the industrial complex. "Don't waste your ammo taking potshots at the factories, we need to focus on escaping." The lance moved into the forest only to be followed closely by a lance of Dragons.
"Fuck," They must have fixed their IFFs faster than I thought." Vickers said as he moved out of the way of an AC/5 round that went past his Jenner.
"On my Mark, we turn and burn them, and then move away while they're stunned." David ordered as he timed the stop with a small creek bed. "Mark"
The lance stopped and flipped around, focusing fire o two different Dragons as they entered range, the twin Vulcans fired their AC/2s and Medium laser at one of them, not quite causing the staggering effect that they were hoping for, but the Dragon did hesitate long enough to slip on the mud and into the creek face first.
Meanwhile, the Private Vickers and David combined their close range firepower onto a Dragon of their own stripping the armor around the cockpit and causing the pilot to halt and start backing up.
"Alright, let's move while they're stunned." David ordered, backing up past the creek as the rest of the lance turned around and moved off as fast as they safely could through the trees.
David, when he reached the minimum distance for his PPCs, began to alternate fire, allowing his heat sinks to do their job while he covered his teammates' evacuation. Then, as soon as he was out of visual range he spun around and began to move to the rendezvous point.
"Shit." David said as the trio of lighter 'mechs moved much faster. "Slow down, we need to move as a lance." He ordered only to receive static across his system. "No no no." He muttered as he continued to try and break through the ECM and slammed his hand against the chair next to him as he watched the other three 'mechs get dismantled one by one by an enemy that wasn't showing up on his sensors and that he couldn't make out due to the darkness.
"I hope that the passive sensor targeting trick you showed me works mom." David said to himself. "Because if it doesn't then getting home is going to be a chore."
David slowed down his pace, trying to see if there were any explosions that typically signaled an ejection. But there was nothing, and with the lance of Dragonsthat would be arriving behind him. The last thing he needed was to get pinched between them and this seemingly invisible force that was directly targeting pilots.
"Let's see if we can drop our heat shall we." David muttered as he moved at a diagonal to the area where his teammates were destroyed. Slowing down and triple checking that his searchlight was shut off he reached the point where his 'mech wasn't generating heat and then crouched his 'mech a bit to not be above the trees before disengaging his active sensors and shutting his 'mech down entirely, including the fusion engine. He hoped that whatever was out there hunting them would simply not notice him, and if it did that he would be able to react to it in time. "I'll switch everything back on in a couple of hours." David said to himself as he looked out at the imposing darkness of the night.
As soon as David finished shutting everything down, the Combine mechwarrior tied into the jumpseat behind him began to stir.
"Shit." David muttered as he got out of the pilot's seat and grabbed his medbag. "I should have listened when dad told me to keep my medbag organized." He said to himself as he moved things around looking for the sedatives that he had brought. After a minute or so of shoving the things in his medbag around he finally found the group of sedatives. Grabbing the injector, he shoved a dose that was specifically designed to keep enemy captives under into the injector and held the struggling pilot down while he injected it, he then waited until the mechwarrior stopped moving before he sat back down in the pilot's chair of the Warhammer.
No sooner had he sat down then he saw a couple of trees around five hundred meters away start to bend from something moving between them.
"Must be Null sig." David muttered to himself, "And given I have no visual aside from the effects, I'd say that they've got a Chameleon Light Polarization shield as well."
The invisible 'mech continued through the forest, the only evidence of its passing being the trees bending and cracking as it moved through.
"I need to rapid start this, I know where it is right now, and if I can break the cloaking I can take it." David muttered as he bypassed several safety protocols in order to get the fusion engine started quickly. "We'll take care of your fusion engine later." David patted the side of the chair as he ran through an abbreviated check and stayed on passive sensors, relying on the signs of the forest to tell him exactly where the enemy 'mech was.
"I got you now bitch." David said to himself as he triggered his SRM 6 and Medium Lasers across the general area where the trees were being shoved out of the way by the enemy 'mech. "I really hope that this works." The lasers missed, but half of the SRMs scattered across the enemy 'mech, breaking up the profile enough that David could finally see what he was up against.
The Exterminator tried to back off in order to get its stealth systems back up and running, fired its lasers at David's stolen Warhammer, but only a couple of the medium lasers connected, the rest hitting a series of trees and starting fires.
Moving forward, not wanting the Exterminator to retain its stealth capabilities, David fired his lasers and missiles as fast as they could cycle, all the while praying that the fires behind him didn't turn into a forest fire. The enemy pilot retaliated as they continued backing up, this time spreading laser damage all along David's torso and coming close to penetrating the SRM ammunition bins.
"Not today." David said as he finally moved at a sprint, "I only get one shot at this, let's make it count." He disabled the limiters on his PPCs and crossed his fingers before pulling the triggers, launching a full alpha at the enemy heavy 'mech, and then shutting down due to overheating.
The Exterminator took one more step back, and then ceased moving, it's engine having been threatened by one of the SRMs having penetrated deep enough that the XL engine's automatic safeties shut it off. Leaving David to finish cooling off his overheating 'mech in peace.
"Time to leave." David said to himself as he began to walk through the forest that was now on fire. "I need to report this to command."
October 18th, 3032
"Ma'am." Major Kent said as he entered the HQ where the 3rd Kentares Guard's CO was waiting for his report. "Here's my written report."
"Give me a rough summary." Sandoval ordered, looking at the paperwork in front of her.
"Everything went by the book until we arrived at the industrial complex. Then it was noted that the typical defenders had cleared out more of the brush and had placed a lance of 'mechs there to guard as well, a Warhammer, Jenner, and two Vulcans. With the threat being so high, we chose the four who were most fluent in Japanese to go and take control of the enemy lance. This was successful and we were able to accomplish our main objectives without being noticed until around the time we were making our way back to the rendezvous point. Then, Captain David Kerensky volunteered the 'mech lance that we had taken as a potential distraction force. I allowed this and the rest of our formation made their way back to our base camp." Kent sighed. "I can only assume and label David Kerensky and the three soldiers that were with him as MIA, potentially pending KIA depending on if we can recover them or not."
Then a staff officer rushed into Sandoval's office. "Ma'am, you've got to see this."
Getting up and following the staff officer out into the open, the group watched as a blackened Warhammer pushed out of the trees in the distance, dragging another heavy 'mech behind it with one of its PPCs.