Dropship Nile, Drop Zone Alpha,

Einstein, Deep Periphery,

3^rd March 3068

 

The mercs based off the Nile spent an exhausting night preparing their equipment for the lostech hunt the next day. The upshot was, they were heartened by the news that the rest of the mercs on planet had also decided to fight the Falcons for their rides home. A major of a merc battalion had already been tentatively chosen as their representative to speak with the Falcon commander, as he was the highest ranked officer they had.

The overall plan, hammered out in the night, called for the Falcons to commit their forces all over the planet in dozens of trials at once, so that the mercs could avoid getting smashed one piece at a time by the clanners. The side that survived to the end would obviously be the victor. If the Falcons won, there would not be anything for them other than access to the planet free and clear. If the mercs won, they would get the jumpships back, as well as undisputed possession of the planet. Of course, there was every possibility the Falcons would simply disregard their terms and kick their asses, but it all rested on the good Major’s shoulders to ensure that they didn’t.

The one thing that was most important to all the mercs now was to examine all the possible star league sites. Although the sites had been picked out due to fusion reactor readings, the sites themselves, even with buildings, might not be star league bases. The neutrino detectors had been set to a high sensitivity that even locations where there was previous fusion activity could be detected. The locations could be just mech wreckage, or simply areas where a fusion engine was present in the past six hundred years. It was important, therefore, that they started searching for the bases immediately.

So, on the following morning after the bad news of encroaching Falcons, the mercs of the dropship Nile set off for their site on the breaking of dawn. The forest around them was quiet and peaceful, as the nocturnal creatures active during the night had retreated back to their lairs upon the coming of light, and the rest of the native fauna had not yet shaken off the effects of sleep. Moist dew glistened on the leaves of the trees and bushes, looking much like precious jewels as they reflected the dawning sunlight.

Almost the entire dropship complement of mercenaries was going on the search. Two lances of mechs were left behind as defense, just in case. Most of the crew was also left behind, so that there would be people to man the awesome firepower of the dropship should there be any attack. Many of them were sorely disappointed, but they knew their duty came first.

The two recon lances of both the Dragoons and the Raiders accompanyied the rest of the mercs, who traveled in jeeps, loaded down with every conceivable piece of combat equipment, as well as some non-combat ones. LAWs, RPGs, recoilless rifles, infantry gauss cannons, blazer rifles, needler guns, sniper laser rifles, pocket White Dwarf pistols, and countless other weapons were packed by the anxious mercs.

Frank Meronac personally thought they were being a bit too much. But that didn’t stop him from carrying a modified double barreled shotgun with an attached grenade launcher. After all, it never hurt to be too prepared.

He glanced around his surroundings as the trees sped by, as the jeep he was on rolled over the bumpy dirt and grass on its way to the site. The sky was gradually getting brighter, and the air was almost imperceptibly heating up. About a hundred meters to the left of the jeep, a Dragoon Garm easily kept pace with the jeep, eating up the ground with easy strides. There were about fifteen other jeeps with mechwarriors, tankers and support personnel, all armed to the teeth, and eager for some treasure hunting. It felt like those safaris that he had always read about in the books.

Kily Gonzalez was in his Commando, along with the Raider’s Spider, scouting ahead of the column of jeeps for hidden enemies. The rest of the recon lances’ mechs were spread out throughout the column, providing heavy support in case of attack. Of course, nobody was expecting one.

As they neared the base site, the forest slowly came together on both sides, causing the path the jeeps were traveling on to narrow, and finally become sparse foliage, and light forest. This forced the mechs to maneuver more carefully to avoid unnecessary damage from collisions. The thickening forest also hindered the movement of all vehicles.

 

Beneath the ground, hidden sensors picked up approaching objects. The sensors immediately sent a signal to the machine core, for awakening of the central processor. Signals were also sent out to others of its kind, waking them up from a long sleep interrupted only rarely by a foolish animal.

 

After some jarring tree hugging actions by the recon mechs, Captains Vansen and Sheik finally decided to get the mechs to form a one kilometer diameter perimeter around the site. The rest of the mercs continued on in the jeeps until the jeeps were unable to continue, at which point the mercs would simply go on foot.

They soon found themselves less than 800 metres from the site. Their best estimates indicated that they would have to abandon the jeeps in about three hundred more meters. That would leave them with only five hundred more meters to cover.

 

As the mercs squeezed their vehicles through the forest, Deserk was suddenly seized by a terrible sense of foreboding. There was something up ahead, and it seemed to be dangerous. He unslung his blazer rifle and held it to a ready position, simultaneously checking its readiness. He suggested to his fellow passengers to do the same. They drove on warily.

He was sure something terrible was about to happen. With the imminent arrival of the Jade Falcons, one part of his dream had been fulfilled. He had a hunch that the next few moments might reveal more of his vision.

 

The contacts were coming ever closer to the hidden. Primitive combustion engines could be detected. However, advanced power sources were also present. The central processor passed on new commands to its limbs, preparing them for action. Per its very last orders, all disturbances shall be removed. Similarly, all around the site, other identical devices were spurred into alertness at the presence of intruders.

 

Indeed, after three hundred meters, the mercs were forced to proceed on foot. After spending some time organizing themselves and unloading their equipment, they advanced on foot, their weapons ready at their sides. The closely packed trees forced them to move cautiously. Soon, they came across an interesting sight.

Scattered on the ground were the skeletons of many native creatures. Some were decaying, pieces of yellowed bone flaking off. Some were still quite new, and had even some remnants of flesh on them.

Frank was really having a bad feeling by the time he got to the line of bones. Somehow, by unspoken consent, the mercs had halted just before the rows of skeletons. Evidently, there was someone or something that wanted to keep people out. Looking around him, he now felt glad they had brought out the heavy weaponry.

The good news for the mercs was that they could now see signs of a structure in the distance. It could only be what they were after, an abandoned Star League base. Nobody, however, wanted to take that first step past the line of bone.

“Well, what’s wrong with all of you!” Jon Falks suddenly yelled, sober for once. “It’s just a line of dead critters, nothing to worry about. Let’s go!” With that, he stepped over the line, his submachine gun at the ready for any enemies.

All of a sudden, he was engulfed by a horde of small black spider-like machines, clinging to his body like crabs. All the mercs gaped, disbelieving at the sheer speed of the machines, which had appeared from nowhere. Jon screamed as his flesh was torn away in seconds, the scream stopping moments later when his throat was ripped out as well. There was a whole mass of more machines all waiting on the ground behind the line, between the mercs and their destination.

Captain Sheik managed to regain control of her body first, and yelled, “Everybody! Fire at will!”

Nobody needed any instructions as to what to shoot at. Raising their motley assortment of guns, the mercs unleashed their personal brand of hellfire at the black machines. The majority was aimed at the ones still clustered on Jon’s body, or what was left of it.

Energy and kinetic bolts slammed into the machines, smashing apart thin armour plates and tearing into the vulnerable inner components. Gauss rounds punched holes through the machines, the vicious speed and velocity of the rounds attesting to the effectiveness of gauss technology even when scaled down to the level of personal sidearms. Even the relatively weak penetration power of submachine guns was having an effect, the rapid stream of bullets seeking out weak spots on the machines to exploit.

The black machines did not just remain at their positions for the mercs to take potshots at them. They charged at the mercs as an entire black wave of death, with only one objective.

Eliminate the intruders.

The air literally came alive with the roar of battle as the two forces clashed in a deadly close range melee in the heavy woods. Laser beams streaked through the air. Grenades exploded in fiery gouts of flame as they scattered the machines. Mercs screamed with pain as they died with their innards outside their bodies as the machines tore out their intestines, lungs, brains and other vital organs.

Frank was fighting desperately for his life with two other mercs, blasting away with the shotgun without aiming. Loaded with sabot rounds, the heavy slugs fired by the shotgun were able to inflict plenty of damage. They also had the added benefit of pushing back the machines behind as those hit were flung back. Saving his grenades for massed groups of machines, he was still able to stay clear of the enemies. Others were not so lucky, and were pulled down like mechs swarmed with elementals.

Frank scrambled back desperately as he sensed the growing panic in the mercs, and also in himself. This wasn’t part of the plan!

It was clear who had the upper hand as the mercs fought a fighting retreat back to their jeeps, where they hoped to form a defensive line not possible in the dense forest. The jeeps also held more weapons that they could use to try to push back the strange machines. There were simply too many enemies for the mercs to destroy with what they had.

“What the hell are these things?” Deserk grunted as he came up beside Frank, blazer rifle sputtering bursts of laser darts at the black machines.

“I think they might be a base defense mechanism devised by the League, sorta like those Casper drone warships they used last time! Has anyone called in the mechs for this one? I don’t think we can hold out much longer! I’m running out of ammo!” Frank yelled back.

“Captain Sheik has already got on the horn to the mechs! They should be here any moment now. We just have to hold on!” With that, he fired again as Frank turned and ran for a few meters to a tree while reloading, then Frank turned round, took cover beside the tree and gave Deserk a chance to pull back as well as he fired, in a leapfrog retreat.

After a few minutes, the mercs had finally managed to reach their jeeps, where they grimly grabbed the last few bits of ammunition off the jeeps and prepared for a last stand.

 

Kily was bored out of his mind, as he patrolled around the perimeter in his Commando. The commanders did not want any of the mechs to be damaged by moving around in the heavy woods, which is why the recon mechs were ordered to just maintain a perimeter.

His comm suddenly came to life, “All mechs! This is Wolf One! We need assistance ASAP! Just bash through the woods to our position, and be ready to fire!” Sounds of intense gunfire could be heard in the background. Kily even heard some screams, which caused a momentary chill up his spine.

“Everybody! Let’s move!” Lieutenant Jenny ordered. She was not one to hesitate.

The mechs quickly swung into action, this time using their weapons to clear paths through the forest or just using their mass to bash through. All other concerns were now secondary to the task of rescue. Kily hoped they would get to their beleaguered comrades in time, as he blazed away with his laser and SRMs.

 

We are going to die. Frank kept thinking as he launched his last grenade from his shotgun. Although losses so far had been pretty light, the mercs are almost down to their last few rounds. And the machines kept on coming. He could not believe the sheer numbers facing them. They must have blanketed the entire forest!

“I’m out of ammo! I’m getting outta here!” One merc yelled as he threw down his weapon and dashed back to the direction of their dropship. All along the line of defense, mercs were throwing down their guns and making a run for safety.

“Damn it! Get back here!” Deserk roared, as the machines plunged through the holes vacated by the fleeing soldiers and chased after them. Their amazing speed allowed them to catch up in just a few moments, and the running mercs were killed after a short struggle.

It was almost the end for them. Having expended their last rounds on pushing the machines as far back as possible, they were now simply waiting for the closest wave of machines to bring them death.

Goodbye life, short as it was, it was great. Frank fired his last round at a drone, and then closed his eyes as he waited to die.

A few seconds passed, and he suddenly heard a massive explosion. This prompted him to open one eye, then both eyes. He staggered with relief at the sight that greeted him.

The mechs had arrived.

Despite the machines’ sheer numbers, they were no match for the mechs’ heavy weapons. SRMs blasted them into pieces with explosive shockwaves, while lasers tore huge gaps through the massed ranks. A Garm’s LB-X autocannon unleashed a salvo of pellets, smashing and scattering aside enemies. The black machines could not even get close.

It was over in five minutes. Finally, silence had once again descended on the forest.

 

“Whew, we were almost goners there.” Frank was commenting to a battered Deserk as he tried to staunch the bleeding on a leg. One of the machines they are now calling Spidercrabs had managed to tear a chunk of flesh off Deserk’s leg.

“Aff, I would hate to think of what might be coming next. Heh, even the Falcons might be shocked.” Deserk was in a surprisingly good mood despite his injury. Frank figured he was still in a bit of shock from the blood loss.

The surviving mercs were all gathered in a clearing just outside the structure, tending to their wounded. Mechs stood around protectively, as if daring any more Spidercrabs in the area to attack.

Considering the difficulty they just had in getting through the forest, everybody was a bit leery of entering the structure for fear of what could be inside. Several jeeps had been sent back to the dropship for more weapons and ammunition, which would be needed when entering the structure.

Serious consideration was being given to having the mechs just tear apart the flimsy structure. The drawback to this method was that valuable lostech could be damaged. Furthermore, preliminary scans had shown that the installation actually extended underground, and the structure they had gathered around was only a ground entrance.

The structure itself did not look too good. There were scorch marks from laser blasts all over the walls, and portions had been holed by what could only be autocannon rounds.

Some of the holes were even big enough for people to enter. It was obvious that any more damage might collapse the entire structure, and thus the entrance, which would be the last thing anybody wanted.

In the end, the plan called for several groups of mercs to penetrate the structure from several points. Any contact with hostiles was to be avoided, and the group under attack to pull back out immediately. The hostiles would hopefully pursue the mercs back to the forest where the mechs could destroy them.

Again, the plan was full of Atlas-sized holes, much like the entrance itself, but they were plain out of options at this point. All the remaining combat-capable mercs were assigned to base entry, while those wounded were told to stay put at the clearing, along with the mechs.

Frank was assigned to a team consisting of Liase Rossovich, two Dragoon mercs, one Raider tech and three tankers. The Raiders had been hard hit in the battle, losing two mechwarriors, Jon Falks and Marco Kluivert. The Dragoons had also lost two warriors, and Deserk had been just moments away from joining them. The tankers had lost five of their warriors. That was losses to the warriors alone. Frank did not even want to think about the support personnel losses, as well as the dropship crew. Dealing with the wounded and the dying had brought back a lot of bad memories.

Deserk, as one of the wounded, was left at the perimeter. A total of five teams would be going in, equipped with as much close range firepower as they could muster. They also brought along some trip mines and timer bombs, in case they needed to cover their retreat from the base.

Forsen Mandela was also one of those staying put. Although he had not been wounded, he had been seriously stunned by the sheer viciousness of the battle, as well as the Spidercrabs. He had expected an abandoned base, not one defended by a bunch of killer drones! With the losses sustained by the mercs, their chances of fighting off the Falcons were even lower.

Captain Jadine Sheik had gotten off a message about their encounter to the dropship, to be relayed to the other mercs on planet. Hopefully, nobody would be surprised like the mercs off the Nile.

With survival foremost in their minds, the mercs cautiously entered the base. Yes, they still wanted to seek out the treasures within, but they were more than aware of the painful price they might have to pay.