The Styx Strikers

by Thor Zollinger

  “Reloaded! Firing!” A second volley of screaming Streak missiles arced up and over the facility, impacting the Loki square in the chest and right arm. The missiles slagged a lot of armor plating, but didn’t really have much affect on the big mech. One of the two center ER Medium Lasers took some damage, but that was about it. Hitting it in the center of mass was a poor strategy, but the Streak missile launchers didn’t allow for pinpoint targeting. Red Legs now knew where the missiles had come from.

  “Oh $%^&*!, The Raven is almost on top of us! I forgot about him! George, get us out’a here!”

  George slammed the wheeled vehicle into reverse and backed away as fast as he could up and over the small hill behind them. Stan somehow managed to keep the missile targeting system locked onto the Loki and fired one more volley before switching to the smaller Raven that was in hot pursuit. It had come around the side of the logging facility fence and was gaining fast on the mobile SRM launcher. The Raven got off a shot with it’s pulse lasers and slagged the armor down the right side of the vehicle before George managed to get it over the hill top. Loss of visual helped the two launcher operators survive a bit longer, the Raven’s long range missiles failed to lock soon enough as the vehicle disappeared quickly over the hill.

  George kept going backwards, he was too scared to think straight and had the pedal pressed into the floor of the vehicle. A few seconds later the Raven’s body popped up over the hill top. Stan panicked and had trouble getting the fire control radar centered on the mech. It finally locked and he stabbed the fire button, managing to get off another volley of Streaks before the Raven could fire again.

  Off balance from the missiles, the Raven staggered momentarily and Black Sam missed with his lasers. Taking more careful aim after the mech stabilized, Sam scored a direct hit on the front windshield of the SRM Launcher with his pulse lasers before it could reload and fire again. The vehicle came to a stop, smoking badly from the cockpit. Game over for Stan and George.

  The screeching alarm in the Raven’s cockpit turned off. “Finally. I hate that $%&* thing. Red Legs, this is Black Sam, the first SRM Launcher is history. Sorry you didn’t get the kill, but I was faster.” Sam was smirking in the cockpit of his Raven, he’d get to paint another kill symbol on the side of his mech right below his name. “Now, where’d that other one go?” he said glancing around the hillside.

  The Loki had caught up and went lumbering past the Raven. Red knew where the other launcher had ran off to, he had a bright yellow marker on his fire control screen. The launcher’s radar was blaring loud and clear since it was trained on Griffin’s Vulture. “Out’a my way, you $%&**&^ %$^*&^% freak!” Red hollered at the Raven as he went by.

  Red could see the launcher coming up the next rise heading straight for the position of the Vulture, which had gotten tangled up in the tall trees on the lower south east corner of the facility. Taking aim with his four grouped medium lasers, Red Legs stabbed the SRM Launcher in the rear, shearing off the left side launcher mount and piercing the engine compartment. The side doors popped open as the vehicle came to a halt and two men exited the vehicle and ran just as Red stabbed it again. This time the missiles exploded, totally destroying the vehicle. The two men inside were smarter than the other crew, these guys dove into the underbrush and held still. By not moving they disappeared from view, especially since the torched vehicle was whiting out all of the IR sensors.

  Red Legs didn’t waste any time looking for the crew of the SRM launcher, he stomped his mech right through the center of the burning wreckage and headed towards Griffin. “Where’s that $%& %^&* sorry excuse for a scout!” he bellowed into the comm link. “Your @#$% is mine after this is all over! You *^&%$*& %^&*^% stupid %$&*%^*!”

  Sneak hadn’t moved, he’d kept his head down during the fighting. His mech was the only one the missile launchers could have done any real damage to. He knew he was in hot water and would definitely end up bruised and battered after this was all over. “#$^&* *^.” He’d screwed up and he knew it. He should have spotted the missile launchers up front. Sneak cursed under his breath, “If only one of those two’d hit Red’s cockpit with a missile. $%^&&^ %$^^&$ bad shots, cost’n me plenty!” Sneak didn’t respond to Red’s chastising, he shot up a bunch of trucks rallying in the center of the logging facility with his medium laser instead. It made him feel better for the moment.

  Small arms fire was all the response the logging crews could muster after the SRM Launchers bit the dust. The crews didn’t have any weaponry large enough to take on a mech, the mechs were just too big. Sneak picked off anyone brandishing a gun and picked off any vehicles making a run for it. It didn’t take long for the other three mechs to retake their positions. Soon after, the lead trucks and vehicles from the dropship arrived, along with several troop carriers filled with pirate troops.

  First Officer Skytte was in the lead of the troops, in full ceramic armor. A few of the chiefs also wearing armor fanned out on the tarmac in the center of the facility and began ordering the logging personnel into a group over to one side. Killing everyone last time had turned the press violently against them on the news channels. Skytte knew that would increase public outrage and resistance, and ordered his men to refrain from excessive use of deadly force.

  Picture Pack: First Officer Skytte

  “Get those civies rounded up, Senior Chief. I want a sweep of the entire area for armed combatants so we can deploy the work crews.”

  “Yes Sir! Red One, Red Two, and Red Three, sweep the west half of the buildings and herd all non-combatants over with the rest. Blue One, take Blue Two and Three and sweep the east buildings. Green team, check the command center and clear it out of personnel. Try not to kill too many unless you have to.”

  “Yes Sir! Deploying assault teams.”

  The squads of armored pirates stomped off on their assigned tasks, as additional personnel formed up loosely behind the First Officer. These consisted mostly of techs and salvage crews, ready to identify equipment, cut it out of the facility, and haul it off. The forklifts arrived last out of the vehicles, since they were the slowest. They trundled in next, pulling off to the right side of the lay down yard as directed. Skytte stood and waited with his armored arms crossed and waited while he listened to the chatter between the assault teams.

  After another twenty minutes or so the assault teams had emerged from the buildings, leading groups of forlorn loggers at gunpoint out of the buildings and towards the group of prisoners that had been assembled in the south west corner of the facility up next to the fence. Most of the prisoners had been tie-wrapped at the wrists when they caused trouble inside the buildings. From what he heard on the comm channels Skytte didn’t think too many loggers had been killed outright for no reason.

  With the loggers mostly corralled, Mr. Skytte turned to the work crews. “Go to work, see what you guys can find for us.” and pointed at the buildings. Turning to Quartermaster Roche, “Get all of this lumber out here in the lay down yard loaded. We don’t have all night!” Roche saluted and scurried off to direct the truck traffic to where the forklifts were starting in on the stacks of cut lumber.

  Forklifts loaded steadily, trucks cycled and headed off for the dropship, and equipment was ripped out of the facilities and brought onto the tarmac for loading. It took several hours to complete, but the pirates managed to strip the facility of almost everything of value. They ran out of trucks before they were able to load all of the cut lumber though, the dropship could only hold so much at one time. They didn’t locate any large safes in the facility either. They ran out time and truck space anyway. Skytte was irritated by the lack of cooperation he got from the loggers and shot a few just for good measure when they wouldn’t talk. He just couldn’t understand why men with integrity held out when threatened with death. He didn’t have any himself, he’d sell out his closest buddy in a heartbeat if it would save his own skin.

  Last to leave were the four mechs. Red Legs backed out of the gate
and turned to head off down the road, “All right you filthy @#$%^^%$#’s, lets get out’a here. Job’s done. Sneak, you’re on my $%$% list, we’re head’n int’a the boxin’ ring when we get back.” Red growled a few more expletives into the microphone and threw a couple of punches into the tree limbs as he walked down the roadway back towards the dropship. He was looking forward to pulverizing the little man for missing the two missile launchers. “What’s a scout for anyway if’n he can’t spot th’ enemy?”

  Black Sam fell in behind Griffin and followed him out of the facility. Sneak stepped out of the trees and pulled up the rear, he hadn’t moved position the entire night. He was always first on site and last to pull out. “Next time I’d better run a loop around the facility.” he muttered to himself. Getting punched silly by Red wasn’t what he had in mind. “#%$^&&.”

  A short time later, Skytte popped onto the bridge, “Cargo ready, Captain. Everything’s loaded.”

  “Roger, Skytte. Countermeasures, anything on the scope?”

  “Not a peep, sir. No contacts. Recommend the jammer for the return trip just in case.”

  “Do it, Countermeasures. Pilot, get us out of here, but take a circuitous route back. A little obfuscation can’t hurt. It’ll make it harder to figure out where we’re headed, just in case anyone reviews the satellite data.”

  The ship lifted off smoothly, a bit slower than earlier in the evening. The ship was loaded to the gills with cargo now and the Pilot could feel the extra weight in the sluggishness of the controls. Lumber was pretty heavy compared to other types of cargo. The Pilot flew the craft north, directly away from the direction they were actually going, then cut east following the ridgeline.

  “Not a bad night Captain. The ship is full, we didn’t lose any men, just some repairs to do on a couple of the mechs. Those two missile launchers were a surprise. Didn’t expect that. I’m going to have to shake down that intel guy again and find out how they snuck into the picture.” Skytte frowned and looked out the window of the dropship.

  “You do that, Mister Skytte. I don’t like surprises, no matter how small.”

  “The two SRM launchers weren’t much of a challenge for the mechs, though. I’d hate to be in Sneak’s shoes right now, he’s going to get pounded when we get back. Want to make a bet on how many rounds Sneak will last?”

  “Hah. You know better than that. He didn’t even last ONE round last time, went down like a sack of %&#& on the first good punch. Sam’s the only one to last in the ring with that bruiser.”

  “All muscle, no brains. Good thing he knows how to drive a mech, ‘cause you can’t make much scratch as a fighter, not on this %$&^%$* moon anyway.”

  “Pilot, that’s far enough east. Head south west for awhile, just don’t get too close to Port Canaveral. We need to stay at least ten clicks out from the airport or we’ll run afoul of their navigation radars.”

  “Yes sir. Turning to starboard.” The dropship curved gently in it’s flight path to answer the helm. It had become a very dark night, lots of stars were out. You could even spot one or two of the other moons around Ceazar. The gas giant was on the other side of the moon tonight, the better for a raid. It was a pretty night though, just not for one certain logging company. Hai’s uncle had survived the raid, but without all of the equipment the pirates stole, the company was a bust. He’d have to ask for help from the family in order to survive the year. The pirates never experienced the devastation they left behind or the lives they ruined. Most of them were too callous to even care.

  Chapter 10 “Mech Simulations” –––––––––––––––––––

  Jake pulled on his orange Saber Cats jersey and ran upstairs as fast as he could, he didn’t want to miss the opening parade of mechs at the beginning of the Solaris-7 bouts. It wasn’t really live, it was a re-broadcast specifically for Wayfarer residents. He could hear the roar of the crowd as he topped the stairs and came around the corner into the great room. Aunt Glory and Petunia were busy setting out bowls of chips, flavored creamy dips, filling glasses with punch, and setting out some vegetable snacks. Jake could smell the sweet aroma of barbequed pork and ham simmering in the kitchen for sandwiches. They also had some corn cobs in the pot on the stove to go with the pork. “This is going to be good!” Jake dove into one of the big leather chairs, then bounced right back up to get some food off the center table.

  Bjorn and Sven were already digging into the chips and salsa. Christina was sitting on the floor behind the couch playing with one of the cats, she had a wand with a ribbon streamer tied to it she wiggled across the floor. Frick would stalk the ribbon around the corner of the couch and pounce, then roll with it in her mouth. Frack was over lying in the sunshine by the window panting in the heat of the direct sunlight. Aunt Glory had stuffed the cats earlier with scraps of ham so they wouldn’t be bothering everyone during the broadcast. Uncle Helmut was tilted back is his leather recliner with a segmented tray of snacks in his lap, with a big mug in his hand.

  “Hey look, here come the mechs for the bouts!” Sven was pointing at the screen with a piece of celery. The fighting machines were trotting out of the main entrance into the arena, with one of the meanest mechs Jake had ever seen in the lead. The Marauder II assault mech had three flags on it, the Solaris-7 flag on the top center gauss rifle barrel, and two team flags hanging from the two lower weapon barrels. One of them was the Saber Cats flag in orange, the other belonged to the Diamond Sharks. The lead mech was followed closely by a parade line of mechs, all of the machines they would see today in the bouts. The warriors changed machines depending upon the type of event they were entered in, so the guys couldn’t really tell which pilot was in which mech.

  Picture Pack: SaberCats, Diamond Sharks

  A trio of Land & Air Mechs flew over the arena in a triangular formation, with a Pheonix Hawk LAM in the lead and two Stinger LAM’s right behind. “Whoa, check it out! Look at the fliers!” The three did one fast fly by, then came back for a second pass at a slower speed, with the two rear mechs revolving in a slow barrel roll.

  After one lap around the arena the parade of mechs trotted back out the main entrance at the far end of the Factory Arena. The Factory Arena was essentially indoors, uneven terrain, deep trenches and walls here and there for the mechs to maneuver in and around. The roof was high enough the mechs could use jump jets if they wanted to. The spectator stands were up high, overlooking the side walls of the arena. The stands were protected by heavy clear ceramic armor windows capable of stopping most of the weapon rounds the mechs would be throwing at each other, but every now and then it was known that spectators had been killed or injured. Attendees had to sign a waver to enter the stands, which made it all the more exciting. In the center of one of the sides of the arena was where the announcers sat, with large video monitors hanging down in the center of the arena in front of them for close up views of the action.

  “The factory arena is a buzz tonight. That’s right, it’s Factory Time! This is Duncan Fisher, broadcasting from downtown, Montenegro, and the talk tonight is about Bill Dexter. He has come out of retirement and is anxious to get another chance at the Solaris championship. His last light match was amazing, this old dog has picked up some new tricks to dazzle us with. The arena is almost sold out, which is a good thing too. The season has been off to a slow start, the early matches have been too predictable. Just last week there was a scandal when Randy ‘killer’ Plano was accused of throwing a match, but the fans haven’t lost their faith.”

  “Braaaaaaaaap!” “Game on…”

  “We can see the newest warrior on the circuit, Specter, has entered in his Battlemaster assault mech and is checking his surroundings for his first target. His Battlemaster is sporting twin RAC-2 Rotary Autocannons, twin PPC’s (particle projection cannons) and a couple of lasers thrown in for good measure.”

  “Bill Dexter is down in the trenches again tonight. Back in the day, it was a no-brainer who would win this match. Bu
t he’s been in retirement for four years, eight years since he placed 37th on the charts in his prime. He’s back, and has nailed three consecutive victories on the light circuit. Now he’s primed to show the heavier mech pilots what an old veteran can do. He’s teamed up with the Diamond Sharks tonight, we’ll see if he likes team play.”

  “Ouch, that one’s gotta hurt! The Battlemaster just cut a couple of tons of armor off a lighter weight Hellspawn with those autocannons, it looks like that’s going to be one mech for the trash heap. The Hellspawn is heading for the hills to safety behind one of the stone wall barriers here in the arena.”

  “Now the Battlemaster is trading shots with Bill Dexter in his Ryoken, those PPC’s are devastating. That rotary autocannon sounds menacing, I’d hate to be in Dexter’s place on the receiving end of that barrage.”

  “Oh! That wasn’t smart! The Hellspawn came back and ended up in the crossfire between the other two larger mechs. His mech is toast! Now the two combatants are circling counter clockwise, trading shots at close range. I can see smoke coming off of both machines, they’re throwing caution to the wind and overheating like crazy.”

  “The talk this week is all about last week’s medium match. Randy Plano was cleaning house in the medium weight circuit, then a badly mauled Marik rookie simply tore him apart. Plano barely even fired back. All the media is saying the ‘killer’ took a dive. I’m not so sure. He claims he had some equipment fail. From my time covering the circuits, I believe him. No matter how much you spend to keep your mechs operational, accidents do happen.”

  “Ouch!! And there goes Bill Dexter in the Ryoken! He’s outta there! It’s a real shame too, I thought he’d go the distance today, but that just isn’t going to happen. From the crowd’s reaction, they were expecting it too. The Battlemaster took some real damage, his engine’s shut down, overheating and he’s smoking like a forest fire. He’ll be alright though, there isn’t anyone close by to take advantage of him while he’s shut down. He can cool off and continue the match in a minute or two. He’s really chocking up the points for the Saber Cats tonight, with two Diamond Sharks down he’s in the lead on points.”