Chapter 10

When we got back from our little outing on Freeport we found out that we were not the only ones who had experienced a little excitement. The Kiddy Company was on garrison duty on Tortuga Prime and had a run in with the BITCH! There was a message waiting for us that we were needed at Tortuga yesterday!

Captain Milt Jacobs had returned from his leave early and stayed at Prime. He was the second ranking Brigade Officer present and they (he and Rock McKinnon) decided he was needed more with the Kiddy Company than at Providence. (The Kiddy Company is so named because the oldest member of the company other than the commander is only eighteen.) He had them out on training maneuvers. (Yeah, he got back and the first thing he wanted to know was where was his LAM!) He said the kids were shaping up real well when all of a sudden it wasn't training any more. A Buccaneer was inbound with all the correct identity codes when it started to smoke and go off course. It landed over west of town. Milt headed over towards it to see if he could assist when suddenly the doors opened and two Assault Lances deployed. The Bitch was back. Her very distinct Battlemaster was the last Mech to deplane.

No one could figure why she would return unless there was something very important that she had left behind. She had weight, experience and firepower on Milt and the Kiddy Company. What she didn't have was luck and unmitigated gall. The kids didn't know who she was and didn't realize they were supposed to be afraid. They just waded in, guns a blazing, kicking ass and taking names.

Milt in his Marauder was the heaviest thing our side had. Granted there were two Catapults, two Grasshoppers and a Warhammer only a bit lighter. She came out with her Battlemaster, two Stalkers, an Awesome, a Victor, a Goliath, a Zeus and an Atlas. Talk about heavy Assault Lances!

Dame Murderess swung south from the Buc to take on Milt. The others headed straight east towards the Castle. All of our Mechs started towards them to intercept.

Sgt. Jero Conn who is the First Sergeant for Phantom Company had been working with Captain Jacobs' group. He said he opened up on the Atlas and several of his LRMs scored. It was from him that I got all the details of the action. He said the main thing he did was mar the paint job. Then one of the new kids hit the Atlas with a large laser and LRMs. Conn said puffs of smoke were popping out of wells, chinks in the armor and holes and then all of a sudden the entire chest erupted on that giant and it fell over. The kid had penetrated and set off a chain reaction. The SRMs had detonated taking the LRMs with them which set off the AC-20 rounds just below them. The first exchange of fire and the largest Mech on the field died. Conn said the Atlas went down fighting but didn't think it scored any serious damage. He also said as far as he could tell he and the kid, Dykson (17) were the only two that had fired on the Atlas when it died.

The problem with killing the Atlas was that made the others mad. The two Stalkers and the Zeus opened up on Conn and his Catapult. The Victor and the Warhammer traded shots, the Griffin and the Goliath traded shots, Milt and the Bitch traded shots and the others did what they could before moving in closer.

The Raiders or Pirates I guess I should say continued towards the Castle. The Victor and the Goliath moved a bit south to take on McLaren in the Grif. The poor kid was seriously out weighed and out gunned. The Zeus and the Stalkers moved a bit north and continued to pound on Conn. Jero said he threw caution to the wind and fired off everything. He pounded on the Zeus in return as it was the closest one to him but couldn't concentrate his fire. All the armor absorbed his hits. He told me that every time he fired off a round he had to hit the override switch to keep from shutting down from heat buildup. LRMs don't produce that much heat but he was firing so fast that what heat was produced didn't have a chance to dissipate. Overrides only help if you allow the Mech to cool down, he kept firing until it shut down. That is a very dangerous position to be in, facing three Mechs, each of which outweighs and outguns you and you're helpless. About then you want to dig a hole and crawl into it but you don't dare move. It might give them the wrong idea.

Milt and the Bitch kept trading shots. Both took damage but were both able to continue. Sue 'Rabbit' Trayee (17) and Fritz Wagner (32, so I forgot he was older, he acts young!) had been hiding. Rabbit opened up on the Victor and knocked it down. Not bad when you consider the weight disadvantage. A 65 ton Ostsol versus an 80 ton Victor. 15 tons of guns and armor makes a big difference. Wagner opened up on the Awesome. He had been hiding in one of the buildings. He just fired through the building, walls and all. Of course the Awesome returned fire. In all the excitement Wagner was tagged but not real hard. He then backed through the rear wall just as the Awesome entered chasing him. This brought the house down on top of the Awesome. That helped to slow him down. Firing into the wreckage set the house on fire which helped to raise the heat on the Awesome.

Ahmed Sadek (16) moved into position and targeted the Zeus. It and the two Stalkers ignored him and continued to go after the Catapult. Ahmed pounded on the rear of the Zeus but couldn't break through. Then Davy Mason (15) stepped in with the second Catapult. With the massive amount of missiles coming in the Mechs were forced to leave the shut down Cat and defend themselves against the aggressors attacking them. It was also at this point that Brenda 'Pinky' Adams (17) piloting a Warhammer joined in. Her first volley took off a LRM launcher from one of the Stalkers. Unfortunately the missiles had just been fired so she didn't get a chain reaction. She did however, remove a large part of the offensive firepower from the Stalker.

The rest of the company had finally arrived and selected opponents. Connar McLaren (the baby at 14) moved his Griffin to assist Rabbit against the Victor. Christine Flynn (18) in her Wolfie (a highly modified Wolverine) went against the Awesome, joining Wagner. Georgie Smith (15) in a Flex 50, Jason Benson (18) in a DragonFly and Clay Dykson in the Grasshopper took on the Goliath. Now all of the Mechs were engaged. Most of the Raiders had two Mechs opposing them which made up for much of the awesome weight advantage that they had.

Jason Benson had made a pass on the Goliath and had completed a sweeping turn when he was presented with a clear shot at the back of the Zeus. He place all four medium laser shots into the back, hitting the right and left torso as well as the center back. The thing that made this so great was Conn had just recovered from his overheating and fired into the back also. With the armor that had just been removed earlier, along with the armor scrubbed off by Davy's hits the thirty long range missiles fired into the back of the Zeus penetrated and the engine was hit. It shut down which allowed the others to switch to the two Stalkers.

With the whole company present Conn was able to be more conservative and not force the heat as he had done earlier. He had lost a good bit of his front armor as well as two of his medium lasers. He couldn't afford another pounding like he had received earlier. Not if he wanted to finish this battle still in a Mech. Now he triggered off his missiles at a slightly slower pace.

With PPCs, lasers and missiles coming at them from the front and missiles and lasers coming at them from the rear the two Stalkers didn't last long. They did damage in return but still they went down.

As these four Mechs turned to assist they observed the Goliath go down with a final shot from Dykson. This released three more Mechs which also turned to assist their comrades. While most of them moved on the Awesome the Dragonfly moved to assist Captain Jacobs and Dykson moved against the Victor.

It was against the Victor that the most unusual victory of the day was awarded. Dykson moved in on the rear and fired. Rabbit and McLaren had his attention from the front and it was not paying any mind to what was behind it. The Victor is the largest jumping Mech there is. Most pilots forget that even for its 80 tons it can jump. When Dykson fired he hit low. He must have penetrated and caused a short in the firing circuit as he ignited the jump jets on one leg. Even with only one leg the thrust was enough to lift the Victor off the ground and into the air. Due to the uneven thrust it wasn't enough to keep it in flight. The Victor took off and made a very impressive loop landing on its head. With all the weight behind it plus the thrust of the jump jets on landing it drove the head into the ground and it broke off when the Mech fell on over to its side.

The Awesome came apart under the combined fire of six Mechs. While Madam Bitch was finished off by the combination of Milt in the Marauder and Benson in the Dragonfly. The trick to fighting a Battlemaster is not to allow it to close with you. If it can get close then it will bring into play all of its Medium lasers and the SRMs. Keep it back and it only has the single PPC. Granted the PPC is a deadly weapon but against another Mech of nearly equal weight they have the armor to withstand several hits from that big beast before they start to take critical damage. A Marauder has TWO PPCs and the AC-5. Milt had been slowly retreating as he was using the cannon like J.J. and Gentry use the cannon, more like a machine gun and was very affective with it. With multiple cannon hits and the twin Peeps even a massive Battlemaster will start to feel the affects of all of that damage very fast. Her legs were bare of armor. Her torso and arms were nearly bare of armor and then Benson started the strafing attacks from the rear. The Battlemaster is one of the few Mechs with rear facing weapons but to take the time to properly aim them, against a LAM you cease to pay attention to what is facing you. This was her downfall. She tried to stop Benson and Milt could aim his shots instead of just spraying the target. He took out her life support system and her environmental system. With these two systems gone she would cook in just seconds. She could do two things, stay and cook or use the other option left. She took it and ejected.

With all of the Raider Mechs down Milt called in assistance. He needed techs to see to the repairs of our Mechs, he needed them to see to the repairs of the captured Mechs and he needed militia to see to the pilots of the downed Mechs. That is where a problem arose. They found five pilots. Two dead and three they captured. Three pilots including the Queen Bitch had escaped during the confusion.

Another thing that caused confusion was the capture of the Buccaneer Dropship that they had arrived in. With two Aerospace fighters and the Dragonfly circling overhead and the remaining mobil Mechs moving in to surround the Dropship it was fight, run or surrender. He surrendered.

Captain Jacobs had the captured Mechs returned to the Buccaneer and had it flown to the Spaceport. There as the captured Mechs were being off loaded he also had all the fuel removed from the Dropship. At that time it was the only Dropship on Tortuga Prime and he didn't want it recaptured and used to escape the planet.

Now the hunt to find and capture Paula Travelina was on. There was something at the Castle that was important enough to her for her to return for it. They had to find it and find her before she found it. With the militia being used to guard the Dropship, the newly captured Mechs and the captured Mech pilots, there were not many of them to assist in the sweep of the Castle for Dame Murderess.

Captain Jacobs had the Mechs return to the Mech bay for repairs. Taking a couple of the lightly damaged ones with him he had everyone else that he could spare load up in an Armored Personnel Carrier. With personal armor and weapons they went to the Castle and began to search. The Castle was being used as Administrative Headquarters for the entire planet. It is three stories with a full basement. The search started on the roof and continued down floor by floor. The elevators were taken to the basement and shut off as were the drop and lift tubes. Guards were stationed at each stairwell to make sure no one slipped around them into an area that had been searched.

Nothing out of the ordinary was found until they got to the basement. A splattering of blood was found at several points along the floor. It ended abruptly along the west wall. In fact one splatter was cut in half by the wall. Nothing was on the wall, just the half splatter on the floor. Careful checking and sounding of the wall indicated something was behind it. Using hand scanners to search a control was located back against one of the support posts. With the men in place to cover each other the control was activated and the wall shifted out of the way. The opening was about 7 meters high and 7 meters wide. Not large enough for a Mech but large enough for several of the tanks and other types of armor available. No shots came out of the opening so the Mech pilots and militia were deployed and moved into the opening.

A corridor ran north for about 50 meters and then formed a 'T' intersection. As the troops started up the corridor automatic weapons opened up on them from the blank wall at the end of the hall. Returning fire with laser rifles and other weapons as well as grenades the automatic weapon was knocked out. As the position was rushed it was found that it was a remote weapon. There were no gunners, just a sensor that had been triggered by the movement.