OBT Forum

This was inspired by this thread and the Heavy Gear game - the units use pure CBT technology and the story will be pure CBT (from my AU Timeline - link in sig) - haven't decided the exact date for this one yet.

http://www.ourbattletech.com/forum/mechfactory/heavy-gear-as-cbt/

In the Darkness, there is light

One

For the last two years the Rim Association had pushed into several of the independent systems of the Free Worlds League increasing its influence and strength.  The former Nova Cat warriors of the Liger Warriors, the Association’s best equipped and trained troops, were a the fore of this easily overwhelming the under-equipped and trained Independent world militias.

This system was different to others however; it wasn’t officially an FWL world or at least didn’t appear on any Interstellar map.  The Rim Association scout team had only stumbled onto it when discovering the wreckage of a Monolith-class JumpShip, scouting further they had found an inhabited world with strange characteristics.

The world was massive three to four times the size of Terra standard, and it was easily 90% covered in land with few open bodies of water.  The Northern and Southern Hemispheres seemed well developed separated by a massive desert that ran the entire circumference of the world.  As they approached the DropShip’s sophisticated sensors could tell there were fusion plants on the world but they were very few, they could also tell the world was well built up with a population in the millions with at least two dozen cities and three Maglev lines linking the North to the south.

“Quite a prize” Major Sandra Rimmer said quietly, she was a Nova Cat by birth but had fully embraced her place as a Rim Association citizen going as far to take the surname of “Rimmer” to show her dedication to their new cause.

“Star… I mean Major; we are detecting a battle on going on the surface.”  One of the crewmen explained

“Show me” she ordered moments later one of the screens changed showing a group of tanks firing on another group either side of a group of trees.  There were infantry formations moving around them and what appeared to be Mechs.  “No fusion signatures?” She noted “IndustrialMechs?”  She wondered thinking of the Arbiter SecurityMechs in her own unit, which were little more than armed IndustrialMechs.  The Clans and Inner Sphere would never use such units but here on the Periphery they made do with what they had.

“Possibly” the crewmen replied, the Mech-type units moved swiftly around the armoured vehicles supporting them, the Mechs looked small but highly mobile.  “We also have a cluster of fusion signatures from this area in the east, looks like we might have a pair of DropShips?”

“Local Drop Port in a desert” Sandra wondered looking over the ships, even from this distance Sandra could tell the ships were not operational missing parts of their hulls.  “Maybe a junkyard or a military compound, any other signs of DropShips or other space craft?”  Sandra asked frustrated, a Drop Port would be the perfect place to put down.

“None they seem fully stuck on the planet despite their number of armed units.”

“They also seem to be stuck in a civil war of some sort.”  Sandra said slightly annoyed, it seemed this planet would be far more of a find than any of them had ever expected.  “All right we are landing here north of this MagLev line and city.  As soon as we land we offload everyone and secure a perimeter, and then we will see where these people stand.  If they come after us, we will strike the MagLev to cut off reinforcement.”  She said watching the monitor again the “battle” they had seen before had tapered off now with the two forces pulling back rapidly, now the real interesting bit would start.

Moving from the bridge to her Shadow Cat Sandra felt the DropShip change its orientation and then felt the familiar “thud” of the vessel hitting the atmosphere.  The planetary gravity soon began to pull the vessel down and Sandra could feel the real gravity under her feet, it felt like a normal g’ strength.  Reaching the Mechbay she could see her Shadow Cat waiting her, the Mech had been hers from Clan Nova Cat and was of the advanced OmniMech type.  Only five OmniMechs survived under Liger command since they had moved to the Rim Association, the rest had been destroyed or scavenged for parts.  So far the Rim Association’s researchers on Niops had failed to reverse engineer any of the Clan technology they had been given.  Beside the Shadow Cat were the other two true BattleMechs in her formation a medium class Nimravus salvaged from combat against the Federated Suns and a lighter Raven which had been taken during their stay on Herotitus.  Across the bay were eight Arbiter SecurityMechs, more spoils from the Liger Warriors travels, which had been upgrade with Autocannons which replaced their ancient Rifles.

One deck below Sandra knew there were two Oro Heavy Tanks, two Hachiman Fire Support Tanks and ten Elemental Battle Armour suits all crewed by the same people who had come with her from Clan Nova Cat, it seemed a lifetime ago since those days.  Sometimes Sandra pondered over where her life would have taken her if she had chosen not to betray the Clan who had given her birth… but that was not for today.  “Bridge to Major Rimmer!”  The comm. unit called raising her own personal comm. unit she answered them.

“Bridge this is Sandra” she said, she was still getting used to her new “surname” she truly wondered if she ever would.

“Major the engines are suffering from heavy turbulence, once we are down I think it will be difficult to launch again.”

“We could be stranded here Quineg?”  She asked using the Clan interrogative, as she felt her heart sinking could this be why this world had fallen off the interstellar maps because once you landed you never left?  She remembered seeing those broken down DropShips on the ground, could her ship be about to join them?

“Neg, I think we will be able to leave again sir, but the stresses on the hull mean that once we land we shouldn’t move again unless we’re trying to leave.”  The crewmen answered his speech slurred by the contractions, right now however Sandra did not care, as long as this was not a single trip.  “Regardless sir, it would be more damaging to try and reverse our course now.”  He added as if reading her mind.

“Understood continue landing sequences.  We will come to the problem of leaving after we have resolved the other issues on this world.”  She answered as she removed her jumpsuit revealing just shorts and a t-shirt, the gear of a MechWarrior preparing for combat.  She then quickly began her ascent to the top of her OmniMech.  The DropShip around them continued to shudder heavily as it descended towards the ground; Sandra concentrated on getting her Shadow Cat powered and ready for potential combat.  As the OmniMech came to life she saw the engineers had kept the Mech in her preferred Alpha configuration which mounted a pair of Extended Range Large Lasers and a Streak Short Range Missile (SRM) Launcher.  The greatest asset an OmniMech had over all others were that its weapons, equipment and in some cases jump jets could all be switched between battles giving them more tactical flexibility.  The battles the Ligers had gone through had robbed them of many of their OmniMechs but from what Sandra had heard recently the rebuilding factories and labs on Niops were close to a breakthrough to producing the Rim Association’s first home grown OmniMech.

As the Mechbay doors opened Sandra stepped her Shadow Cat out of its bay towards the doors, the DropShip was still over two hundred metres in the air but that wasn’t going to stop Sandra “Sierra One, Bridge, I will provide ground cover” she communicated to the bridge before stepping her Shadow Cat out of the doorway, immediately there was a strange sensation as the solid deck disappeared and the forty-five ton Mech began to fall, Sandra fought hard to avoid the temptation to interfere with the Mech’s fall.  Within moments the fall had been slowed considerably as the Jump Jets mounted in the Shadow Cat’s back fired, normally used to provide additional mobility on the battlefield they were perfect for fast insertions.  As her Mech dropped towards the ground Sandra could see seven of the small BattleMechs she’d seen before advancing over the sand dunes that dominated the scenary, she also noticed her comm. array was active.  Flicking the switch to receive she heard the planet’s first words.

“Dark Caste force you are not welcome on Twin Sons leave now or be considered a hostile force.”  A male voice declared, Sandra’s mind raced, how could this world cut off from the rest of the Free Worlds League and the greater Inner Sphere know of the Dark Caste?  Or better yet how could they know her force was of the Dark Caste?  She didn’t like to consider herself a member of the Dark Caste but there was little disputing it, even to her parent Clan she’d be considered to be little more than a bandit that needed to be hunted down.

“People of the Twin Sons” she started using the same name the enemy had used “this is Major Sandra Rimmer of the Liger Scout Company; we hail from the Rim Association.  We come here to bring this world back into the Free Worlds League which it has been cut off from for so long.”  She said as her Shadow Cat came into a land, the seven Mechs she had seen were still approaching.

“Dark Caste, we know your ship and your technology” Leave now and we will not consider you hostile.  Inform Port Arthur that these incursions are an act of war.”  The man repeated, Sandra had no idea what or who Port Arthur was but had quite enough of threats.

“Twin Sons defenders, I am very willing to defend myself, and my people.  I did not come here for war but if you bring it, I will answer.”  She said defiantly swapping communication channels “Sierra One to control, have made contact with natives consider them hostile.  Command Lance deploy to the North-West.  Alpha One through four and all Echo units attack targets of opportunity.  Support Group One and two deploy to North-East and South-West flanks, targets of opportunity but do not pursue any target.  Control try to keep out of this fight, I don’t want the DropShip targeted if we can help it.”  She ordered, she saw a variety of clicks and acknowledgements from her people before turning back to her incoming targets.  “All forces shoot to disable not destroy I want prisoners.”

The seven defenders could barely be classed as Mech’s; even Sandra’s squat Shadow Cat completely dwarfed the largest of them.  Between them they were about six to eight metres in height according to her advanced Active Probe scanner they weighed between ten and fifteen tons – Ultra-lights.  Also according to her scanners none of the incoming designs had fusion engines which were common in BattleMechs.  As they came into view Sandra saw that the designs were similar but different most had either angular or circular armour plating, an arm mounted cannon and a shoulder mounted missile pack, although they varied in size and Sandra guessed capability.

Moments of quiet passed as Sandra watched the defenders move from sand-dune to sand-dune then felt the rapid “ting-ting-ting” as her Shadow Cat took its first piece of damage, she glanced at the armour graph on the left of her cockpit some armour damage.  The computer designated the weapon as a machine gun.  She glanced at her target, a six metre design to her left with angular armour plate on one shoulder was a grenade launcher or a mortar on the other a missile pack while carried in the right arm was what looked like a massive infantry machine gun.  Sandra looked at the design for a second time trying to confirm what she’d seen… yes… the main gun was a “carried” weapon.  She had no interest in letting her own curiosity hold back her attack instead twisting her Mech’s turret-like torso she fired off a laser blast from the Shadow Cat’s left arm.

The green laser blast burned through the air in seconds impacting the small design’s left side almost instantly the entire left torso of the Mech caved in taking the grenade launcher and left arm with is.  Metal fell to the ground as parts flew off the ultra-light before the entire Mech fell to the ground, the enemy Mech wasn’t out of the fight but it was disabled for now.  “Sierra One all units, these guys are ultra-light, conservative firing don’t over tax your cooling systems.”  She ordered feeling more weapons fire this time on her other side, not bothering to move her Mech she twisted the Shadow Cat’s torso and spied two more of the ultra-light machines trying to hide behind a rock as they fired their machine guns.  One was the same as the design she’d just knocked down the other slightly bigger with the same angular plates.  As she looked at them they both fired their shoulder pack missiles at her Shadow Cat.

As she had barely moved the Shadow Cat was a sitting target and suddenly missiles from both designs were smashing into the armour.  The damage schematic glowed under each hit as armour was blown away by the enemies fire, Sandra could tell by the feel of the impacts these were like short range missiles pelting her OmniMech.  Enough was enough she launched her Mech into the air on its jump jets throwing off their machine gun fire.  In the air she targeted her SRM pack, the Streak technology built into the launcher ensuring her missiles waited until lock before firing, six missiles flew away impacting on the first design, several hit the designs left leg while others hit the torso.  Sandra could see the ultra-light’s leg was crippled as was the missile launcher.  Turning on the other design she fired her other large laser, the green blast tore down on the second machine bathing its head and torso section in light.  Normally a head shot was not a kill shot with a large laser like Sandra’s but this one was the entire cockpit crumbled under the blast.

As Sandra’s Mech landed she looked at her sensors realizing these designs have quite light head and cockpit armour, the slightest hit was causing a breach.  She watched as the remaining designs began a fighting withdrawal pulling back, they had impressive mobility able to “hop” over small sand dunes and dodge some obstacles which larger Mechs would need Jump Jets to clear.  Looking around she realized her other units were deploying and these people had seen they were far out gunned.  Activating her comms she spoke again “Twin Sons defenders, we do not want war.”  She said it was short and simple hopefully they understood “Echo One secure disabled target designated Tango One.  Echo Six secure disabled target designated Tango Two.  I want their pilots captured alive.”  She ordered her Elemental points, the armoured warriors lept into the air on their own jump jets towards the two heavily damaged targets both of which were struggling to move under their own power.  “Alpha One, secure wreckage Tango Three, maybe we will learn something from it.”  She said ‘other than they are suicide machines?’ she silently wondered to herself.  First contact with a new world shame it hadn’t been peaceful, these people had spirit exactly what the Association needed if it was going to survive.

Anyway I hope you enjoy theres more to come here and in my timeline proper

comments are welcome