Chapter 9 - Providence

When you speak of 'Games' most people don't think of the quarterly games put on by each of the five members of the Inner Sphere, they think of Solaris VII, also known as the Game World. It's here the top Mech Warriors migrate, having made their way up the ladder from the less well known arenas, from the minor leagues so to speak. We here on the Periphery like the games also. As Solaris VII is too far to travel (and as many of us here on the Periphery can't or won't return to the Inner Sphere) we have our own 'Games' on Freehold. Many people know Freehold by the name of its one large city, Port Krin.

Shadow Brigade was four months into a boring Retainer contract with the Taurian Concordat. They're really not that bad to work for it was just boring. We're supposed to act like old style Firemen, run around to all the hot spots and stomp out the fires. The problem was that there had been no hot spots. We trained, had debriefings, tried to eliminate the rough spots and trained some more. All the Mechs were brought up to like new condition, we even replaced that foot actuator that was acting up from time to time in Bad Ass, Dirk Gentry's Blackjack. For excitement we had started to watch the grass grow. That's boring!

About then the Concordat came up with an assignment for us. It was outside of their area and also outside our contract but Zeke Jones our commander snapped it up before they gave it to someone else.

Some new No-name Pirate company was out to make a reputation for themselves. They strolled into the arena offices of Port Krin and issued an open challenge to all takers, company strength or less. From the battle that we had put up at Rimrock and again on Tortuga Prime we had earned ourselves something of a reputation in this part of space. They even called out Shadow by name. The Concordat felt that they are being supported by someone else and that this was just a preliminary to their assault on one of the worlds of the Concordat.

So Zeke sent a message that we would accept the challenge... just like that. He informed us of this during a staff meeting of the Company Commanders.

"Zeke," I said quietly, "I have a few questions about this. Who are they? Are they veterans or greenies? What are they piloting, what size are they? You don't know diddly squat about them and you accept an assignment like this? You are madder than any native of Canopus!"

"Yeah, I am ain't I? Mick, we have to take it. We've been four months now with nothing. You can only train for so long and then the men start to go stale. We can take Karuska along. Let him do his magic and find out who and what, where and why and we can also take some surprises of our own," Zeke said. With that silly little grin of his and a far away look in his eyes he walked away.

I called in J.J. who, when he is not being our medical officer is the Executive Officer for Phantom Company. When we grew to Battalion size I got the Recon Company. It's now CAPTAIN Mick Leofa. Sounds real good, all it really means is more head aches. We started going over the training reports of all the new people we had hired. Several of our regulars were on leave so we needed to fill in empty spots with newbies. (As the Scout Company has the lightest Mechs we know more about the newly hired Warriors as they normally start out with us and graduate up to the larger machines.)

After talking with Zeke we decided mainly on our veterans for two reasons. Their experience both at fighting and fighting as a Shadow style team plus they had earned a change.

Then Zeke pulled a sneak attack. "Mick, I don't want you in the Highland Lass. Your Shadow Hawk is good but I need you with me. Karuska has pushed through the work on the modifications for the Phoenix Hawk LAM we purchased and I want you to pilot it during this battle."

"Colonel, that bird is assigned to Jacobs. He isn't even here to defend it. What is he going to say about me taking her into combat?"

"Come on. You know Jake better than that, Mick. The good of the Brigade comes first. He might not like it but he'll accept it for what it is."

So I'm stuck piloting a LAM. Don't get me wrong, LAMs are good Mechs. I had lots of simulator time in them and even a hundred hours or so in the cockpit in training but as anyone can tell you there is a big difference between training and combat. Not only that, it's someone else's LAM. A Freshly painted, Brand new (newly rebuilt), Never been scratched, Belonging to someone else LAM that I'm supposed to take into combat. Cripes! I know guys who had rather you mess with their wives than with their Mechs! Captain Jacobs was ex-First Sergeant Jacobs and any military or ex-military man can tell you how generous First Sergeants are with their personal possessions. I just hope he doesn't hold it against me for the Colonel's decision.

Karuska, Zeke and I got together several times on the trip out. It was a three jump trip so we had a couple of weeks. We were to be a Lance so we were going over attack formations, strategy etc. Really I think they were just reassuring me that a LAM was not much different than a normal Mech, just faster and I ain't buying their line of drivel at all.

I spoke in private with Zeke and he agreed with me. We had decided to teach this new group a lesson if we could. Walton's Rifles, our infantry, was Zero 'G' trained and had the necessary equipment. We took two platoons of them along with us on this mission.

When we arrived at the drop point for Port Krin there were a dozen or so Jumpships present, sails extended. The majority of them were either Merchant or Invader class. They all had at least one Dropship still attached. As we didn't know their insignia we couldn't distinguish No-Name's ship from the rest. Look out Port Krin, Shadow Brigade has arrived.

Upon arrival on planet we were taken out to a large plain, down the middle of which was a swamp. There were clumps of trees all around and some very low ground cover. A few rises but no real hills and certainly no mountains. This was to be the battlefield. Monitors were set up all around to record the action and broadcast it on the Entertainment/Sports channel. It would go out live to all this planet and on chips to the others. We were informed of the Rules of Engagement. There was only ONE. The contest started here and could continue in ANY non-populated area. With this out of the way we were free until the start of the contest two days from now. The preliminary fights were to take place the next day with us and No-Name as the featured event the following day.

I decided to get in some practice time in the LAM. I had little real time in them, mostly simulator time. While I was doing that Karuska, Jones and the others spread out to gain what information they could about our opponents.

Captain Neil Walton, boss man of our infantry, had one platoon of his men guarding our Dropship while the other circulated trying to pick up info. They hit all the bars, chip joints and dives around the spaceport. Between his men and Karuska's expertise with a computer they found No-Name's Dropship. It was a Union in pretty sad condition. Also Karuska worked out their communications frequencies. Something about the length of the antenna or some such garbage. I always thought all antennas were the same length. He was also working on a way to jam those frequencies by white noise, don't ask me! I didn't know that noise came in colors. Something about imitating increased solar activity or something like that. By tracking their signals he had also worked out the placement of their Jumpship. It was a Merchant class with a Leopard attached.

The next evening while he was patching into the monitors on the battlefield, Karuska made a discovery. The initial purpose for the patch was for us to use the monitors for indirect firing of our LRMs. However he observed and recorded No-Name placing mines on the battlefield. They were using large mines, one ton or larger. They used their handed Mechs to place them, cover them over and tamp down the dirt. As this area had been used all day for other contests a little freshly plowed ground wouldn't look unusual. We couldn't allow this act to go unpunished so later after they had departed we went out to the field and moved the mines. They were to start from the north end of the battlefield so we moved them from what would be their right to what would be our right! When they activated the mines they would be in for a BIG surprise.

For some obscure reason the contest was slated to begin at high noon. When the time came we were ready and started our approach from the south. They were in a Standard three Lance formation while we started in four groups. Their Recon Lance was a Wolverine, a Griffin, an Enforcer and a Phoenix Hawk. Their Heavy Lance was a Crusader, a Panther, a Thunderbolt and a Warhammer. The Assault Lance lived up to its name, it was another Thunderbolt, a Marauder, a Zeus and a Battlemaster. For a 'new' Company that's a lot of VERY impressive heavy metal.

We, as I said had broken into four not the Standard three Lances. We were one Mech shy of a full company and over a hundred tons lighter than them. Our edge was the LAMs. As we found out later there had never been LAMs used in the Games before. The Director of Games had gone as far as to bring cameras over to be installed on the LAMs. Our techs had installed the cameras in such a way that they didn't interfere with our operation yet had a good view of anything that we as the pilots saw. The speed and maneuverability of the LAMs made up for a lot of No-Names weight. (The bookies knew something because the odds on this contest were only 5 to 4 in our favor. I bet c10,000 on us and after a brief discussion Zeke had bet a megacredit of the Battalion's money on us.)

As we faced off with the Pirate Company Colonel Jones came over the combat channel and said 'Peel me an Onion'. The only reply was a 'click, click'. The special mission was underway.

Captain Johnny Schultz in a Grasshopper, Bruce MacAmon and Sin John Knight both in Warhammers went up the right side. J.J. in his Shadow Hawk took the two new kids in Phoenix Hawks up the left side and Gentry in his Longrifle and Henson in an Archer started up the middle skirting the swamp. We LAMs went right up the middle also.

It was great fun and worked even better than a flight simulator. They knew we had them but until you face a LAM in combat it doesn't mean a lot. All of a sudden Jones and I were on them. We had gone zipping up the middle so low over the swamp that I had to pull up a couple of times because of a large ripple on the water. Because of their speed we hit their Recon Lance first. We popped up in front of them and I hit the P. Hawk. I thought that was appropriate after all I was in a P. Hawk LAM. I hit him and then Zeke hit him and his left arm fell off. That's nice because he has a laser and a machine gun on that arm. Jones and I split then. I turned and came in behind the Griffin while he came in behind the Wolverine. We both hit. I didn't realize how thin the rear armor was on a Grif. I penetrated and took out his LRM pod and then watched as he dumped missiles all over the ground. If I could have hit those ejecting missiles he might have blown up but I couldn't.