The Styx Strikers

by Thor Zollinger

  A few more gauss rifle slugs to the rear armor of the Raven, and it started to smoke badly. All Jake could do was fire a few more volley’s of missiles at this range, but they didn’t do much good with the Loki’s ECM on line. His missiles snaked wild trails all over the sky trying to home in on a target, like squiggly fireworks. Jake tried his large pulse lasers out on the Raven and stitched a series of brilliant blue bolts across the waist of the Raven. It was dodging quicker than his ability to target it. He needed to keep the pulse lasers concentrated on one spot in order to do any real damage with them to the Raven.

  The Loki managed to maneuver itself over a small hill, putting the hill between it and it’s attackers. Ben signaled Bjorn, “I’m going south around those big trees, I want to see if I can get in behind them. I can’t do much out here at this range.”

  Just then, Dan, Zane, and Hai popped up on Jake’s tactical screen, coming in from the north down the sandy strip next to the ridge they’d followed in. “Hey you guys, the cavalry is here!” Dan shouted on the comm link to Bjorn. “Need some help?”

  Bjorn answered back, “Nope, we got this. We need you guys to go find that dropship. Go find it and shoot it down before it can escape! Make it quick too, once they get their trucks and loot loaded they’ll abandon the mechs.”

  “Any ideas on where it’s at?” Zane chimed in.

  “Go active on the radio and have Ariel get the location marked on the tactical map for us from Central Command. It’s got to be somewhere south of the ranch house, opposite to the direction the pirate mech’s are headed.”

  “Roger. Will do.”

  While the guys talked, the pirate mechs were busy hunkering down. They’d found a rocky ravine to hole up in behind the hill and were digging in. Bjorn and the guys went back to business. Jake could see it had just gotten a lot harder to take out the pirate mechs, the pirates were in behind the rocks while his lance was still exposed out in the open. The pirates could stand up, take a shot, then hunker back down. The guys had them out gunned, but not out foxed. Not yet, anyway.

  “Jake, follow Ben and see if you two can get a shot up the throat of that ravine from the south. Sven and I will head to the north end. I need to get behind some cover before I get my damaged leg shot off.”

  “Yes Sir, Commander Bjorn.” Jake was grinning from ear to ear, he’d only been hit a few times so far and they were winning! Four on two were good odds for a mech battle. Sven and Bjorn had actually taken most of the damage up to this point, so Jake was feeling pretty good about himself.

  “Ariel, this is Zane. Get Wayfarer Central Command on the horn and get them to mark the dropship on the tactical map, OK?”

  “It’s about time you guys decided to talk to me. How am I supposed to do any good here if I can’t see you or talk to you? Tell Bjorn to go active so I can see what’s going on.”

  “Roger. Bjorn, did you hear that? You’re the lance leader, go active so Ariel can see what’s going on.”

  “Roger. Going Active. The rest of you, stay passive, the laser links will take care of the rest. Ariel, situation brief. The two remaining pirate mechs are holed up in a ravine. We’re going to have to either pick ‘em off slowly or rush in and flush ‘em out. They’re not going anywhere for now. We need you to get the dropship location to Zane’s lance. Once the pirates figure out their mechs aren’t coming back, they’ll make a run for it in the dropship. Zane needs to disable that dropship before they can get it off the ground. Got it?”

  “Roger, I’ll get right on it.”

  Ariel dashed from the Command Center back into the radio room and called up Wayfarer Central Communications Command on the screen, “WCC, this is Styx Base. Come in, Over.”

  “Styx Base, this is WCC. This is Lieutenant Nelson, go ahead.”

  “We need the location of the pirate dropship highlighted on the tactical map. We need to take it out before it can lift off. Over.”

  “Roger, Sticks Base. You’ll have it in a minute.” Turning to his right, Lieutenant Nelson hollered, “Chief! Why isn’t that pirate dropship marked on the tactical map?”

  “Sorry, sir. I missed that one. It’s marked now, sir.”

  “Sticks Base, the dropship is marked on the tactical map as Airborne-1. It’s south-south-west of your second lance’s current position. Range is three klicks. Relay the information, then update us with a sit rep, over.”

  “Roger. Styx Base out.” Ariel called up Zane on the radio and fed him the new information. Zane was able to find the dropship location quickly, once it came up on the live tactical map in his tank. Airborne-1 was highlighted in orange south of the ranch’s main buildings out in the open grassland. Switching to the satellite thermal camera view, Zane could see a LOT of activity swarming in and around the dropship.

  Zane studied the camera view for a moment, then formulated a plan for his lance. “All right, guys. It looks like they’re loading the dropship as fast as they can, but not fast enough to get it off the ground in the next three minutes. I can see four lift fans on it, one in each corner. Target the lift fans. Hai, you have the longest range weapon. As soon as the dropship is in range, hit it with your large laser. Stop to fire if you need to, I don’t want you to miss.”

  “Roger. Hit the lift fan with my large laser. I’m on it.”

  The pirates could see Hai’s mech and tanks coming in fast and panicked. The dropship cranked up the thrust and started to lift off the ground, causing a truck that was driving up the loading ramp to slide off the ramp and crash to the ground on it’s side. Pirates on the ground scattered in every direction away from the dropship as it side slipped away from the incoming machines.

  Hai quickly slowed to a stop, aimed carefully at the nearest lift fan and fired. Shhhrang!! A brilliant red bolt of sizzling lightning pierced the ducted fan housing, cutting the fan blades repeatedly as they spun through the long laser blast. The lift fan shredded, throwing shrapnel in all directions as it became unbalanced and flew apart. The housing wasn’t armored, since it was basically a commercial aircraft. The drop ship heaved in towards Hai as the opposing lift fan tried to compensate, reducing it’s output to rebalance the aircraft. As it cut thrust, the ship tried to ramp up the thrust from the other two lift fans, causing the aircraft to bobble sickeningly in the air. Hai took aim and fired into another lift fan housing, then watched grinning as the entire craft surged sideways and came plunging back down to the earth. The near side of the dropship dug heavily into the ground, ramming the open loading bay doors into the rich earth.

  Zane and Dan coasted to a stop to watch as the huge dropship plunged back to the ground with a loud thud. “Yahooo! We got it! Check that out!”

  The two pirate mechs bolted out of the rocky ravine and made a run for it straight past Ben and Jake. Jake fired everything he had at the big Loki, hitting it square in the right arm, blowing one of it’s two LBX AC-10 autocannons clean off. Jake took another hit on his right side from the Loki’s medium lasers and it’s remaining LBX AC-10 shotgun, disabling several of his own lasers and causing the missile loading mechanism on that side to jam. “I’ve lost half my weapons!” Jake yelled as the Loki raced past him towards the stricken dropship. Turning at the waist, Jake fired all of the weapons he had left into the back of the Loki. Half of his missiles missed, flying erratically past the fleeing mech due to it’s ECM, but he did some real damage with his remaining lasers.

  Bjorn yelled into the microphone, “Zane! Mechs incoming! Fall back and regroup!” Bjorn didn’t want Hai taking on the Loki all by himself in the small Chimera mech, not even with the two tanks at his sides.

  Ben managed to do some more damage to the smoking Raven as it ran past him, but it did what it could to return the favor. It fired all of it’s short range lasers and LRM-15 missile launcher at point blank range right into Ben’s side. The missile launcher didn’t do too much damage since Ben’s laser anti-missile system was still functional. Only a portion of the missiles struck him, they w
ere fired much to close to allow maneuvering thrusters to guide them in. The missiles damaged his laser targeting actuators and pierced one of his core heat sinks. Ben came out of the drive-by shooting somewhat intact, but the Raven was nearly out of range of his small lasers by the time he turned around all the way after it passed him. “AAAAARG! I can’t move my arm!”

  Hai, Dan and Zane continued to pull back away from the dropship and retreated back towards Bjorn and the other guys who were gathering in the open grassland. As they retreated, the Loki and the Raven circled past them trying to avoid contact as they bolted towards the fallen dropship. Dan and Zane managed to fire off a few parting shots at the two fleeing mechs as they ran past. With the dropship down, the pirates on the ground at the ranch didn’t know quite what to do. Jake could see them madly yelling and waving at each other. Some were scrambling to get to the stricken dropship, others were dumping their cargo and preparing to head for the hills.

  Ariel came back on the radio, “Hey guys, Central Command has five aerospace fighters two minutes out. They want us to get clear so they can take out the pirate mechs with smart bombs.”

  “Roger, we’re already backing off. We’re clear now.”

  “They’ve also managed to notify the Local Guard unit in Port Canaveral. Ground troops are on their way. Things could get crowded out there.”

  Bjorn thought for a moment and made a quick decision. “All right guys, I think it’s time for us to bail out. If we don’t, we’ll have to face off with the Local Guard commander and the news media. I’d just as soon we stayed anonymous.”

  “Ah man! I didn’t even get to shoot much!” Dan complained loudly.

  “Roger, Bjorn. Form up guys, we’re heading out.” Sven added for emphasis.

  Reluctantly Dan turned off his fire control radar and turned his turret away from the direction of the fallen dropship. Zane followed suit and the two tanks changed course to intercept Bjorn’s lance, who were heading back towards the black rocks of the ridge to the north.

  “Bjorn keyed his microphone, “Great job guys. We took ‘em down! Ariel, let Central command know we’re relinquishing the battlefield. Tell the Local Guard they’re in charge now.”

  “Ok. I’ll get right on it. Heads up, guys. Here come the aerospace fighters…”

  Jake looked up and could see the aircraft in a tight ‘V’ formation, highlighted in blue by the night vision system. He could just see the fighters for real as the sun was gradually coming up over the horizon along with Caezar, the gas giant they orbited. It was going to be a brilliantly lit day, almost as bright as it was back home on Lahti. “Wow, look at that sunrise.” Jake said quietly under his breath. Jake stopped and turned around. The lance was standing on top of a low rise which swept downwards onto the grassy plain towards the ranch and the stricken dropship.

  Jake watched quietly as the fighters made their first pass. The big Loki attempted to fire upwards at the aerospace fighters, but he missed. All he had left with any range were a couple of medium lasers and the aircraft were moving much too fast for him to target effectively. He opened up with his LBX-AC10 autocannon in the general direction of the fighters when the first few bombs exploded at his feet. One of the fighters began spewing smoke from the right wing, but it stayed in control. The bombs erupted in a fast staccato as they peppered the two mechs and the dropship.

  After the initial flashes Jake couldn’t see much of anything for several minutes, just a large column of black smoke in the dawn sky. Thunderous booms shook the ground under his mech several seconds after the bombs detonated in the distance. Deep thunder echoed off the ridge behind him as he watched from up on the foothills. When the smoke started to clear, the Raven was down, reduced to a burning hulk with pieces of shrapnel scattered all over the countryside. The dropship had also taken several hits, gaping black holes could now be seen in the forward end of the ship. Smoke continued to stream out of the cargo bay doors, as something internal burned intensely. Jake strained his eyes, but the Loki was nowhere in sight. “It must be down on the other side of the dropship.” he mused with a smile.

  Picture Pack: Battlefield Casualties

  Jake looked down at his tactical display and noticed something odd, Echo-2 was still on the display headed off towards the south. The Loki was on the other side of the dropship, alright. It was headed off at a dead run, loping off to the south as fast as it could go. “Hey, Echo-2’s still alive! Bjorn, he’s getting away!”

  Bjorn snapped into the headset, “Go get ‘em guys! Form up and run him down, Echo-2 is making a run for it. Bombs don’t work on a zig zagging target! Sven, take point. And stay together!”

  “Yes, boss!”

  “Alright! Action!” Zane was elated. He had a determined glare on his face as he whipped the Demolisher tank around on center and slammed on the accelerator to keep up with Sven in the Rifleman. Dan was right with him. All three guys took off first, determined to pound the pirate into submission. Ben was a little slower to respond as was Jake.

  Although Sven and Jake looked more formidable in their mechs, the two tanks actually had more fire power onboard, considering all the damage the mechs had sustained. The tanks both carried double AC-20 autocannons and almost full loads of ammunition. Sven’s Rifleman was at about half strength, as was Jake’s Vulture. Ben was pretty shot up too, but determined to keep up even though he was smoking badly. Hai was at full strength himself in the Chimera, but the medium weight mech only carried a couple of lasers and an LRM-20 missile launcher. The missiles were useless with the Loki’s ECM blaring loudly, so all Hai really had were two lasers, a large one and a medium sized one. As a group it wouldn’t be difficult to bring down the Loki, if they could catch him. The only problem was speed. The tanks had only half the top speed of the mechs, they were too low to the ground and couldn’t step over ditches like the mechs, slowing them down considerably.

  Cursing abusively in his mech, Red Legs was making a run for his life. The dropship was down, his command had fallen apart, and his men had been picked off one by one. He knew his only chance of surviving would be to get as far away as he could, ditch the mech, and disappear into the jungle on foot. The mech was too easy to track. He had his mech thundering across the savannah at a dead run, and he had a nice head start.

  Sven cranked up his mech, but realized after pounding through two kilometers and smashing through several stands of trees he wasn’t going to be fast enough. He could match the speed of the Loki, but never catch up, not unless it made a mistake. The bigger the mech, the slower it could run. Jake’s Vulture wasn’t doing any better, he was in the same weight class as the Loki, just like Sven was.

  “Damn! He’s got too much of a lead on us.” Sven cursed in frustration. “Now what? Hai! You and Ben are the only ones fast enough to catch him.”

  Ben chimed in with his status, “Nope. Sorry guys, I’m out. I’m overheating. I took too much damage in that last skirmish.”

  “Hai, it’s up to you. You’ve got to get close enough to hit him and slow him down so the rest of us can catch up. Shoot him in the legs! Otherwise we’re going to be chasing him all day.”

  Hai pursued the fleeing Loki with all the speed he could muster all the way across the lowlands towards the foothills on the other side south of Port Canaveral. The rest of his friends were falling farther and farther behind, but Hai was making up ground on the Loki. The aerospace fighters were focusing on the pirates surrounding the dropship, keeping them bottled up until the Local Guard troops from the city could take over on the ground. They weren’t any help.

  On the far side of the lowlands the pirate mech stomped across a part of a meandering river and stumbled briefly on the opposite side where the bank had been eaten away by the river. Red Legs cursed and turned to follow the high embankment along the river’s edge until he reached a place where it could be scaled by his mech. He found a low spot a half a klick later, but the ground in that location was soft and loamy, it had been washed away
by a small creek. Red Legs cursed and swore as his mech struggled to climb the muddy embankment, he was bogging down in the mud.

  “Yes!” Hai yelled in the cockpit of his Chimera. “I’ve got you now, you filthy pirate!” Hai slowed, took careful aim with his extended range large laser and focused all of it’s raw power onto the left leg of the pirate mech. Shhhrang!! In five seconds the weapon had recharged. Shhhrang!! Hai fired twice more before the left leg finally locked up and stopped moving altogether. The Loki had crawled part way up the embankment, but now it’s struggles were fruitless. Walking towards the mech, Hai could see it was stuck and wouldn’t be going anywhere. It still had weapons though, he knew he had to be cautious.

  “Ok guys, he’s down. The Loki is face down in the mud and hasn’t turned around to fire at me yet. I’m going to wait until you guys get here before I close in, then maybe he’ll give up without too much of a fight. Facing all of us at once, he might surrender.”

  “Roger. We’re about ten minutes behind you.”

  Sven, Jake and Ben arrived a while later, pulling up beside Hai on top of a small rolling hill a kilometer away from the big mech. Sven could see it wasn’t moving at all, not even twitching. “Are you sure he’s still in there Hai? He’s not moving.”

  “Uhhh, no. I don’t think he bailed out. I didn’t see the hatch open.”

  “Maybe we’d better close in and find out…”

  Dan and Zane finally caught up with the rest just as the four mechs started moving faster again to close in on the downed mech. All six guys kept their weapons trained on the still Loki as they moved in, nobody wanted to get caught unaware just because it wasn’t moving. As Hai came around to the side of the Loki he could see an open hatch on the side of the mech. “Oh man! He bailed out the side, he didn’t use the main canopy.” Looking around, Hai couldn’t see anyone on the ground up or down the riverbank, not even on infra-red. “He must have climbed the embankment on foot and went over the top.”