The Business of War: 31st Century Mercenaries [R, Sci Fi]

[IDoLikeMudkip]

Victor "Vic" Fisher
Dropship "Wild Ride"
Enroute to the Planet Drush

Vic got out amongst the crew as soon as the violent shaking of the ship stopped. Navigating in zero gee wasn't too hard, a couple of runs through space and a person normally got used to the feeling. He tried to help out in whatever way he could, the words from the DI consultant still pulled at the back of his mind. Even though none of the rest of the squad had heard what was said, he felt he had to prove, more to himself than anyone, that he could be trusted. A good commander should have the trust of his crew and vice-versa.

Along with that thought was a stronger one. This would be his first mission since the loss of his bothers and the rest of the Mad Dogs. This also pushed him to prove himself to the team. He had a hard time sleeping, pre-mission axiety but the kind only felt by the rookies, so he spent a lot of time in and arround his mech. Finally they were able to undock from the jump ship, they were here, and all lingering doubts were quickly pushed out of mind cause the mission and the safty of this team was more important.

"Four hours to planet fall." Jason's voice filled the ship though the speakers. This would be the last time the team got to work though strategy so they had to make the most of it.

They convened in the main war room, and Jason went over a couple different infiltration options. One involved landing right where a ship should, in the spaceport. They would go under the guise of a merchant vessel and by the time the pirates figured out what was going on there would be nothing they could do. A second was landing at the mines, less pirates, less civies, easier to do what they needed to without collateral damage. The last option was to land in the middle of nowhere. No pirates, but no surprise, it could be made to work though.

Ayame was the first to speak up.

"All three are a risk in some way or another. The overall safest I think is the land in the middle of nowhere since we will not be forced into a fight right off the bat, but this will allow our enemies to fortify their positions. Most likely this method will cause the campaign to drag out the longest. The other two methods we hope to take the advantage early and keep the advantage. They are riskier but the payoff from the initial surprise could quickly give us the upper hand. One huge issue with landing out in the middle of nowhere is that they can set up defenses in the mine or city to react to our incoming forces… we lack a lot of range firepower such as LRMs, and our mechs are not the fastest models so they could try weakening us at a distance while we close in on the city."

"Sounds reasonable. I agree, but I'll leave it up to you, sir." Allen chimed in.

Vic just stood looking at the map for a few long moments, then he began to speak, laying out what was in his head.

"OK, I see two big options here, and from what I've heard we'll probably go with the latter. One is that we land in the spaceport, so yes pirate presence will be heavy. But to counter that I would like to have all the mech's geared up and ready. When that ramp would drop, Logan I would want you to scramble like eggs getting the first shots off and getting out of here, then providing air support and getting rid of theirs. Doc I'd want you right behind him with that AC-20 cleaning house. Me and Ayame would be right behind you with my Ac-10 and her Large Lasers. The plan would be to close house and move out ASAP, as Ayame said we don't have many long range weapons besides my LRM's so close quarters wouldn't hurt our chances too much I would think."

Vic pause for a second to let those details settle before he continued. "The second option is landing out in no man's land. If we do this I would like to see an air drop of Logan's bird. Weather you would then just provide recon support or go harass theirs would be up to you." Vic said specifically to Logan. "The rest of us would land, and if the air drop won't work this is where Logan would go up, and we would get moving as fast as we can. I'd take point to hopefully get lucky with my LRM's to scatter them while we close. But we'd go for the mine and then hit the city, with the intent of drawing the pirates out of the city to minimize collateral damage and maybe get them to fight on a field of our terms."

Vic paused, longer this time, before he finished up. "So if you have any input one way or the other, now's your time to speak up."

 

[Draginja]

Kat Ortega
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drush

Kat remains quiet, letting the others say their piece. After Vic outlines their options, Kat realizes she's been left out. She raises her hand, drawing Vic's attention to her. "Question, Captain. Where should I go? Sounds like we're hittin' the wasteland, so where do you want me and my Stinger?"

 

[IDoLikeMudkip]

Vic Fisher
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drush

Kat raised her hand and spoke. "Where should I go?"

Vic was a little confused, he thought that in not saying anything specific it was assumed she would be with the main force, just farther to the back due to the lack of armor on her Stinger. But now that it was brought into direct confrontation Vic's mind was sent into overdrive and he came up with a couple more option.

"OK, sorry Kat I made some assumptions I shouldn't have. I didn't outline anything for you because you wouldn't have a 'main' role to play, not to say any role you would play wouldn't be important. But here's a few more options, when we land you could be a second scout to help Logan or to free him up to do some harassing. Then when we hit the mine, since your mech is a lot faster than the rest, you could get in and among the pirates that are there and be a pest. Use the speed of the mech to dodge their return fire and just keep nipping at them until the rest of the team can get into range. So that's what you could do, unless you had another idea."

 

[Stingray]

Ayame Saito
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drush

Jason looked over at Victor and said, "Well my personal preference is to land in the middle of nowhere so I don't get shot at when **** goes down. Of course my motives are purely personal since I don't like getting shot at and I'm not sure how well this old tin can will hold up under fire. Either way it would be nice to make a choice so I can figure out the best way to approach the planet." He then focused back on the planet they were flying to so he wouldn't run into any random objects out in space.

Ayame looked at Jason then at Victor and said in a soft voice, "While Jason makes a good point my instinct tells me we should act the part of merchant and try to deal a devastating blow to their forces as soon as possible. The big thing that bothers me is in the wasteland they might be able to pick us off or if we attack later rather than now their defenses will be better prepared. Of course it's leaping head first into the unknown, but at least then if he are destroyed we can do some damage, and not just get picked off at range while we try to advance on the city or mine." She then looked around at the others wondering if she was making the right recommendations to their commander.

 

[The Noob Hacker]

Derrick Muinintal
Drush
Pirate-Occupied Spaceport

Derrick and his small group of fellow rebels moved silently closer to the spaceport. As silent as poor, untrained lower city dwellers could move in police armor, that is. They were armed and armored with as much as they could afford to carry. They all wore the armor customary to the local police. Though that wouldn't do much good. The armor was designed to protect against weapons that a street thug might have: Melee weapons, weapons that used conventional ammunition, and low power lasers. Not the illegal high grade firepower the pirates packed. Each rebel carried at least two weapons with them. Derrick personally was armed with a close range stun gun, a small pistol, and an automatic rife he managed to pick up from a truck commonly used by the High Threat Response Team. (OOC: A SWAT-like force, basically)

Recently, the rebels had been driven further and further back by the pirates. Their numbers were laughably small at this point. It was time for desperate measures. One final strike that would either critically wound the pirates, or wipe the rebels out entirely. More likely was the latter, Derrick thought. The rebels spared no expense and were prepared to go all out in this assault. The main bulk of the rebels were further to the edge of the city, practically in the wastelands. They were busy holding down a makeshift fort, which in reality was a cluster of buildings, the heart being an apartment complex. They had lured the pirates into that area by planting a map to that location in a spot where they assumed the pirates would go. They then set up some spies around that position ready to report when the pirates had taken the bait. The rebels were not leading the pirates to their true base, of course. Their true base was several miles away, in which all those unfit to fight, plus a few guards were holed up. Then, a small group of rebels would go to their main base of operations, the spaceport, and sabotage their ordnance. Derrick had the "honor" of being a part of this squad. Sure, the plan was based entirely on whether or not they were lucky enough for the pirates to leave behind at least most of their ships and supplies. But the rebels were worried and desperate, they had no idea what they could do. This seemed like the best option. They were already living in torture, death didn't seem too bad. And the worse thing that could happen to them on this mission was death.

As Derrick and the rest of his party neared the port, one of the other rebels, one who went by Micheal, pulled out a pair of high powered binoculars and surveyed the spaceport.

"What do you see?" Derrick asked, looking back. "Perimeter's guarded, looks like at least five at every entrance, plus a patrol circling. Possibly more on the rooftops." Micheal responded. "How well are they armed?" Derrick asked, despite it being a rather useless question. Micheal sighed, "Better than us." "Tell me something I don't know." Derrick responded. Micheal pulled the binoculars back to his eyes. "They've got plenty of weapons, mainly rifles. Looks like they have some long range guns by the entrances. They patrol seems to have some more close range weapons. Not much cover anywhere, so don't ask me how we're going to get in there."

Derrick sighed. Just how were they going to get in there? It all seemed so hopeless. But he had to try! There must be some way in. He surveyed the area, there were no buildings around, and the land was flat. He began to circle the spaceport, the rest of the squad following. It seemed that there were guards at every turn. Then, the ticket in appeared. There was a long wall, no doors, so nobody guarding it. The patrols would pass by every so often, but that was it. Derrick stood there and attempted to estimate the approximate time for a patrol to pass. Once he was mostly sure he was correct, he ordered his squad to move.

They ran to the wall and hung to it. Nothing had happened yet, they were safe for now. "Move to the corner, and take out the next patrol to pass. Keep it silent." Derrick ordered. The squad did as told, moving to the corner that the patrol should be coming from. They waited, tension building, nervousness sinking in. After what seemed an eternity, the squad heard footsteps approaching. Derrick pressed his body closer to the wall. Then, the patrol came from around the corner. By some miracle , they seemed not to notice the squad. Quietly, Derrick crept behind one of the men in the patrol and pulled out his stun gun, the rest of the squad, who almost all also had stun guns, did the same. It was just then that one of the men of the patrol turned their head. As he was opening his mouth, Derrick shot. The man was zapped by the stun gun, and then fell to the ground. The rest of the squad followed in turn until the patrol was all down and unconscious. They could only hope that they were not detected.

After swapping out attires and weapons, the group hurriedly moved along the patrol's routes. "It'll be a matter of time before they find the patrol. We need to get in there quickly." Derrick announced. The squad eventually approached the next entrance, they then walked to the guards outside it.

One of the guards walked forward. "What are you doing? You don't go in for another three hours." they said, annoyed. Derrick took a deep breath. "One of my men is getting frostbite. He needs to go in and get medical attention." The guard stared at Derrick questioningly. "Frostbite, eh? Who?" Derrick pointed back, and the squad moved out of the way to reveal Micheal, who was acting as best he could. His face and hands were covered so that one couldn't question his condition on appearances. The guard sighed. "Fine then, Yorin, get up here." he said as another guard approached him. "Take this guy to the med wing." the guard commanded. The new pirate, Yorin apparently, walked towards Micheal. Derrick interrupted. "I think it would be best if my squad would get him to the medical wing." The head guard cast him a stare and moved in closer to him. He was tall, just about level with Derrick. He had a stubble of a beard and his breath smelled horrible. "And why would you care? Who are you anyways. I've ne-" the guard was cut off by Derrick's pistol. He panicked and saw this as the only option. Micheal was the first to respond, quickly dispatching of the pirate Yorin. Soon, all of the pirates guarding the entrance were killed. The squad then rushed into the spaceport. The second they walked in they were greeted with shots from people both on the ground and in an elevated position on the second floor. A rebel directly to the left of Derrick was the first to fall, being shot in the head. "Take cover!" Derrick yelled.

The squad ducked behind whatever they could find. The rebels managed to pick off a couple of the pirates but then the firefight fell into a pattern of exchanging shots with no clear winner in sight.

Eventually, Derrick managed to get a couple people, two on the second floor and one on the first. He moved out from his cover and shouted to his squad. "Let's move!" He saw his fellow rebels take a few pot shots at some pirates, and then they joined him in the run. As the pirates were taking multiple shots at the rebels, Derrick was firing back at whatever target he saw. He was less worried about hitting his targets than he was making them retreat to cover. As they rushed for a door, more pirates rushed out to protect it. They opened fire on the rebels, and the rebels did the same. Derrick was hit a few times, but they were grazing shots and his armor got most of the impact. He saw another fellow rebel get shot and collapse to the ground. Once those pirates were cleared out, Derrick charged through the door, but it didn't budge. There were probably pirates barricading the door with their bodies, or the door was locked. He and a few other rebels rammed against the door a few times, but to no avail. Derrick then led the group upstairs, where the blocking pirates had come from.

The upstairs, as it turned out, were the office buildings. Though they weren't normally occupied by pirates, some were there in order to try and stop the rebels. Derrick was constantly moving from one piece of cover to the next, always firing off shots when he was exposed. He rushed to a door he saw at the end of a hall. There were two pirates running to defend it. He ducked inside a cubical and fired at the pirates. Once they were dead he ran to the door in hopes it wasn't locked as well. It wasn't. He burst through those doors and ran into the next available cover.

This continued for an incredibly long time until Derrick was out of breath. He had already exhausted all of his ammunition for his weapons twice, and had to constantly retrieve new weapons and ammunition. He had been shot tens of times and was bleeding in several spots. As he caught his breath he realized he was nearing the end of the spaceport. He was next to a giant window overlooking the planet. He could see several long buildings in which one would normally stow vehicles. That was probably where their aircraft were. Panting, he pointed outside for the remaining rebels to see. "We need to get there." he gasped. One of the rebel's eyes widened. "There? Are you crazy? We'll all be killed!" Derrick heard murmurs from the rebels. "He's right." Micheal said. Micheal had removed the covering around his head. He was bleeding in several places, and a mixture of sweat and blood covered his face. "We can't hope to get there in one piece." "We have to try." Derrick responded.

Just then a mass of pirates ran from halls, and pulled weapons on them. The rebels tried to fire on them, but then one pirate launched an explosive projectile at them. It made impact a few feet from the rebels and exploded. The force was enough to shatter the glass and launch the rebels out of it. Derrick heard the screams of his comrades and was sure it was over. He hit the ground and heard a crunching sound. He wasn't sure who it came from, though. He lay there for a second, believing he would either go unconscious or die, whichever came first. Yet he lay there, and it didn't happen. He struggled to his feet, intense pain in his chest and back. There were only four of the rebels alive now, Derrick included. He tried to speak, but only blood came out. He instead pointed to a shining miracle on the frozen ground. There was an air vehicle, a Pelican VTOL. Derrick limped to the bird, his feet couldn't possibly carry him fast enough. Just as he reached it, a group of pirates began to fire on it and on him. They were willing to sacrifice their own aircraft to make sure the rebels couldn't escape.

Derrick was shot in the back multiple times, but he was so concentrated on getting in the Pelican that he didn't care. Eventually, he did reach it and stumbled to the cockpit. He was able to start it and he heard the engines starting. He saw that the rest of the rebels were still far behind. He began firing the machine gun at the pirates closing in on him. The Pelican had already taken shots and was continued to be shot. At least it was drawing the fire, Derrick thought. The rebels were moving slow, too slow. "Come on! Come on!" Derrick yelled even though he was fairly certain he couldn't be heard. Then, one by one the three rebels outside began to get picked off. Derrick continued to shoot the machine gun at every pirate he could see, but it just wasn't enough. Finally, the last one alive, Micheal looked behind him to see what the source of his comrade's screaming had been. Seeing him slow down, Derrick shouted again. "Move!" But it was too late, Micheal had been shot, and he collapsed, dead. Derrick screamed out a curse. He then realized that some pirates had come up from behind and were attempting to board the Pelican. Derrick closed the ramp and took off, leaving behind all of those he had come with. He had one last thing left to do. He fired on the buildings he suspected housed the aircraft. He had caused three of them to blow up, likely from hitting fuel tanks, before he was too far away.

As he flew further and further away from the port, Derrick mourned the loss of the rebels that had died. He felt blood trickling down his skin in so many places, he knew he didn't have much time left.

 

[IDoLikeMudkip]

Vic Fisher
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drush

Vic listened as the group finished off giving out their suggestions. Most of the group opted to land in the wastes, but there were some other votes for landing in the spaceport. Vic just stood there contemplatively stroking his chin as he stared at the map. He had to make a decision, people needed to know what to do and they were running out of time. He thought over each option with care and finally had a decision.

"OK Jason, land us in nowhere. Everybody else, I want you to be ready just because we aren't immediately in the fire doesn't mean we can dally. I want to move out ASAP, got it? Good, dismissed."

 

[Stingray]

Ayame Saito
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drop Zone

Jason smiled and said, "Got it… you Mechwarriors better suit up 2 hours to planet if they got air support they will start buzzing us as soon as they realize we are here to "donate" to their cause." Jason then started barking orders to the dropship crew. "About **** time I got back to delivering hell itself on the battlefield," said Jason with a sadistic smile. The sphere shaped dropship's engines hit full burn as the dropship accelerated toward the planet.
1 hour and 30 minutes later…

Ayame crawled into the cramped cockpit of her Crab Battlemech. She took off her kimono revealing nothing but tight spandex pants and a sports bra. She put on a large vest with hoses running all over it that was in the small storage area she kept her kimono behind her seat. The coolant vest was a commonly used item by Mechwarriors that carried coolant through the tubes to try in keep the Mechwarrior cool during battle when a Mech's cockpit would begin to heat up from excess heat from combat. The temperature in a mech could actually cook an unwary Mechwarrior alive if they pushed the heat too high. All the coolant vest did was allow the Mechwarrior to tolerant more heat than they could without it. Putting on a small neuro helmet that allowed the Mech to use her sense of balance to help keep the mech standing in battle, Ayame began powering up the reactor.

"Neuro scan complete, Ayame Saito, voice password required," stated an electronic female voice. Ayame then quickly quoted a Haiku her mother taught her as a child, and a few seconds later the Mech's "voice" replied, "Password accepted, Reactor online… Sensors online… weapons online… all systems nominal." As the voice spoke the various panels lit up the small cockpit augmenting the single light over Ayame's right shoulder that allowed her to see in her fully enclosed cockpit. Ayame quickly checked all her systems to make sure everything was working correctly before she grabbed the controls.
The Crab stood up from his squatting position and its torso twisted to the left and right a slightly as Ayame looked around the Mechbay. "This is Ayame, Mech online all systems are green. Comm check can everyone hear me?" asked Ayame as she felt the Dropship begin entry into the atmosphere.

Right after the Dropship entered the atmosphere Jason opened up the single fight bay door to allow their single Aerotech fighter to take off. "Talon 01 you are cleared for takeoff… picking up activity coming from the space port looks like a single aircraft heading in our general direction, looks like it will cut south of us by ten miles. Wait it looks like we have two more unknowns moving from the spaceport… these are flying higher and faster. Talon 01 good hunting and keep close so you're not fighting three to one without support," said Jason before switching radios to the Mech bay, "Striker Lance… hostile are already mobilizing once we hit the dirt the bay doors are opening… get out quick and start scanning the skies for hostiles."


((Not my best post might revise later... just wanted to get things going))

 

[SV]

Allen "Doc" Korhal
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drop Zone

Vic mulled over the options heard. Allen noticed that he took extra time to decide, perhaps the trait of a good leader. Only time will tell, of course. Finally, he spoke.

"OK Jason, land us in nowhere. Everybody else, I want you to be ready just because we aren't immediately in the fire doesn't mean we can dally. I want to move out ASAP, got it? Good, dismissed." he said. He heard Jason add afterward.
"Got it… you Mechwarriors better suit up 2 hours to planet if they got air support they will start buzzing us as soon as they realize we are here to "donate" to their cause."

Allen finished his cigarette, dropped what remained, and put it out with his foot, and headed off.

About an hour later, after making his other preparations, Allen headed for his Battlemech. It felt good getting back into it after such a long time. After strapping in and placing on his neuro helmet, a synthetic female voice came online.

"Neuro scan complete, Allen Korhal, voice password required," Doc smiled as he took out another cigarette and lighted it in the cockpit. He spoke.

"Ain't no business like war business." He said clearly, smiling a bit. The synthetic voice seemed to process this for a few seconds, and then "spoke" once more.

"Password accepted, Reactor online… Sensors online… weapons online… all systems nominal."

All manner of devices and panels were now activating. Allen made the usual adjustment he did when operating his mech. Everything seemed to be ready. He cracked open the Comm as a voice came on.

"This is Ayame, Mech online all systems are green. Comm check can everyone hear me?"

The Doctor replied. "Loud and Clear." He paused for a second, and then spoke in to everyone again. "Do me a favor, everyone. Try not to get yourselves killed. I may be a mechwarror, but I'm your doctor first. Oh, but if you do get hit bad down there, do us a favor and do the 'honorable' thing and kill yourself. I'd rather not waste medical supplies on a lost cause."

The way he said it was cruel, calculating, and yet in Allen's mind, totally right and justified. He dumped the ash of the cigarette on the floor of his Mech, before taking another drag of the cigaratte. He added one more thing.

"Good luck."

 

[Draginja]

Kat Ortega
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drop Zone

Kat nods to Vic. "Can do, Captain!" Vic strokes his chin for a moment before speaking. "OK Jason, land us in nowhere. Everybody else, I want you to be ready just because we aren't immediately in the fire doesn't mean we can dally. I want to move out ASAP, got it? Good, dismissed."

Kat heads down to the Mech Bay, going over all the last minute details. When the time comes, she climbs into her modified StingWasp, pulling her coveralls down to free her torso and putting on her coolant vest. She puts on her neuro helmet, starting up the Mech. "Reactor online… Sensors online… weapons online… all systems nominal."

"Alright! Let's kick this pig." Kat's radio crackles to life. "This is Ayame, Mech online all systems are green. Comm check can everyone hear me?"

Doc's voice comes in next. "Loud and Clear. Do me a favor, everyone. Try not to get yourselves killed. I may be a mechwarror, but I'm your doctor first. Oh, but if you do get hit bad down there, do us a favor and do the 'honorable' thing and kill yourself. I'd rather not waste medical supplies on a lost cause. Good luck."

Kat chuckles. "Can do, Doc. Just don't damage your Mech too bad. I don't have spare parts or spare change." Kat steps forward, positioning her StingWasp near the exit while leaving room for Lance to launch.

((So we're taking a metaphorical highway into a zone filled with danger. Anyone else hearing Kenny Loggins music right now?))

 

[IDoLikeMudkip]

Vic Fisher
Dropship "Wild Ride"
En route to Drop Zone

That was that, the decision was made and the team began to head out.

"Got it… you Mechwarriors better suit up 2 hours to planet if they got air support they will start buzzing us as soon as they realize we are here to "donate" to their cause." Jason said before turning his attention to the crew.

The rest of the team disbanded to finish up whatever they needed to before planet fall.

Vic spent most of the time in his quarters a combination of the past visiting him and him trying to avoid it. The rest of the time he spent in the mech bay giving his mech a once-over. He spent quite a bit of time in the cockpit going over the interface, it all seemed foreign. His thoughts kept retuning to the fact that this was his first outing without his long time mech, it made him a little nervous. Finally the time came and the rest of the team began to file into the bay and get into their mechs. Vic as well began the start up sequence on his mech, putting on the neuro helmet.

"Neuro scans complete, Victor Fisher, voice password required." Said the integrated system's voice.

"Vengeance for my past, justice in the present, and hope for the future." Vic replied.

"Password accepted, Reactor online… Sensors online… weapons online… all systems nominal." the voice responded, as the comm crackled to life.


"This is Ayame, Mech online all systems are green. Comm check can everyone hear me?"

"Loud and Clear. Do me a favor, everyone. Try not to get yourselves killed. I may be a mechwarror, but I'm your doctor first. Oh, but if you do get hit bad down there, do us a favor and do the 'honorable' thing and kill yourself. I'd rather not waste medical supplies on a lost cause. Good luck." chimed in Doc, cheery guy really.

"Can do, Doc. Just don't damage your Mech too bad. I don't have spare parts or spare change." Kat responded with her own form of the request.

"Keep the chatter to a minimum we have cash to earn." Vic said as he added his mech to the [FONT=&quot]queue[/FONT].

 

[Stingray]

(( Ok was waiting to see if the Noob Hacker or Elite Killer were going to post but decided to stop waiting. I Bunnied everyone a little to get the fight started. I'll be posting up some details in the OOC soon about what your fighting including some more tactical analyses of the terrain...))

Ayame Saito
Drush Wastelands


The Dropship was 30 seconds from touching down when the sounds of weapon fire could be heard outside. The Union dropship's defensive turrets came online and began firing an assortment of missiles, laser, autocannon shells, and a random bolt or two of man made lightning at the two incoming pirate fighters. The two fighters began using evasive maneuvers and then responded with their duel large lasers mounted on each of the two pirate corsairs. If any of the mechwarriors had been in the bridge they would have heard Jason cursing at his gunners to actually hit something. Before the Aerotechs could make another pass the Mechbay doors opened wide letting in cold air and revealing a very uninteresting desert in front of the mechs. In the distance they could see several mountains, and even the outlines of the city. Jason had parked the Dropship closer to the city than the mine. Once the mechs had stepped out they could see most of the terrain was littered with small rock formations and tended to be very uneven with hills, crevices, and small rock formations. In fact where they landed seemed to be one of the only really flat areas large enough to park their dropship.

Just as the Mechs exited the Dropship the two red, yellow, and blue painted Corsairs swooped by digging small holes in the Dropship's armor before turning away toward the city, It looked like the two fighters had decided to fall back for the time being since they were clearly outnumbered. The Dropship and a few of the mechs fired on the fleeing aerotechs and the one in the rear of the little formation took a few hits. It shuttered as armor was torn off including a chunk of its wing from Victor's Autocannon. The damaged Corsair started to swerve and go into a spin, but at the last second the pilot recovered and the aircraft was able to stay in the air.

"Damage to the dropship minimal they almost hit my radar array but we got lucky… looks like they are falling back, but don't get too comfortable. We have incoming! Radar showing what looks like eight armored vehicles or mechs, 2 helos, and another aerotech or a conventional fighter coming our way… Ok you ground pounders you keep those pests away from my drop ship personally I don't want to get trapped here," said Jason over the radio.
The Mechs moved out to intercept the enemy forces and quickly came under long range missile and light autocannon fire. The terrain offered cover and at long range the pirate forces were unable to get good shots on them. The Pirate force had the range advantage on the Mercenaries with their four Striker combat vehicles each carrying a LRM 10, their two Warrior VTOLs had autocannon 2s, and they had four Scorpion light tanks with an autocannon 5 each. Overall the pirate force had faster speeds with their slowest vehicles, the scorpions, having the same speed as the Mech force and the VTOL and Strikers being faster. The problem was the wheeled Strikers were having serious issues with some of the terrain, and even the tracked Scorpions had to maneuver carefully over the broken and jagged terrain. The Mechs on the other hand were not being hindered as much. The big problem was the two VTOLs, the 2 Corsairs, and the single Mechbuster conventional fighter. The Mechbuster lived up to its name thanks to its Autocannon 20 that could tear through lighter mechs with a single burst of its massive autocannon. Strangely, the Mechbuster nor the Aerotechs had committed themselves to the battle and were flying around over their allies instead of engaging the mercenaries. They seemed to be waiting for the Mechs to make the first move.

"WARNING MISSILE LOCK DETECTED!" blared in an electronic female voice in Ayame's cockpit as she maneuvered her Crab behind a small rock formation. Seconds later a barrage of ten long range missiles slammed mostly into the rocks while one missile happened to find the part of her mech's long "nose" tearing off minimal armor, Ayame like the other Mercenaries were trying to close in on the armored vehicles, but was being harassed by long range fire. Thankfully the Pirates were not the best shots and their weak weapons were only a threat if they focused them on a single mech at a time, or were allowed to whittle away on the Mechs over time. The sound of a light autocannon hitting her mech filled the cockpit as he looked through her sensors to see one of the pesky Warriors had moved to fire on her and actually was able to hit the Crab.

She noticed one of the Strikers she had been moving toward had not moved despite her getting closer and closer. At the same time two of the scorpion tanks were moving toward the Striker alongside the one warrior. Keying her microphone Ayame said, "Looks like one of the Strikers hit some rough terrain and immobilized itself for now. They may be faster than us, but I think this rough terrain is causing them lots of problems." Just then the warrior VTOL's autocannon hit her mech again and she said over the radio with a bit of irritation in her voice, "I thought we had air support? Those Warriors are really starting to get on my nerves!"

 

[The Noob Hacker]

(OOC: Sorry for not posting in awhile, I was waiting for Elite to post and get in his Aerotech and fly out, seeing as how that would probably have the greatest effect on my situation. Suppose that there's not much point now, though.)

Derrick had set the VTOL into a cruise state so that he could leave the cockpit and look for some sort of first aid kit. He was approaching the Wastes anyways, so there wasn't a whole lot to look out for considering he was flying over the tops of most all the mountains. Clutching at his chest and periodically coughing up bits of blood, he stumbled through the Pelican. He was running through his mind all the places where a medical kit would be. He had no medical experience, but he had to do something to try and stabilize his bleeding until he could reach a doctor at the rebel base, assuming that any were left alive.

One of the men that assaulted the spaceport with me was a doctor. He thought with remorse and grief. What if the true base was found? What if the distraction didn't hold as long as we wanted? What if the pirates are at the base right now? But Derrick could receive no answer. He was alone. Alone and heavily injured.

His eyes practically closed, he felt his hand lay upon an hard, thick box attached to one of the Pelican's walls. Desperately, he attempted to open the box. When that failed, he undid the latch and then opened the box. Inside were several bits of medical supplies designed for first aid use. Derrick had no idea how much that would actually help him, but he did his best to heal himself nevertheless. After several minutes he had done all he could. The bleeding was reduced, and the wounds had been stanched so at least he would loose blood at a greatly reduced rate. With that, he stumbled back to the cockpit, taking the medical kit with him just in case.

When he reached the cockpit and re-situated himself, he found he was fully in the Wastes. But that wasn't the problem. On his radar he saw one blotch of color far to the south. More startling, a huge movement could be detected coming from the same direction he had. In time, he caught sight of the first two Aerotechs high above him, flying fast. Derrick was reminded of the bombing run on the city. He then realized what the huge movement had to be, pirates!

"Here already?!" Derrick yelled aloud. "How could they get here so fast? And why are there so many of them?" It made no sense, even if they could get to this spot so fast, they wouldn't have sent so many units after on person. They had to have known that Derrick was only one person retreating in one vehicle. So then why send this fleet out?

However, more oddly, they seemed not very interested in him. So then what are they doing? Derrick got his answer. He saw a huge ship off in the distance. It looked like a giant flying sphere. It was some sort of dropship. Was that a pirate ship? Did they really have that kind of vehicle? What could be inside, more vehicles? A cold chill ran throughout Derrick's body. It was hopeless. Between the pirate's massive fleet and a dropship, there was no way he could make it out alive. As more and more pirate vehicles closed in, he got a growing sensation that his fate was sealed.

Then the dropship landed. He noticed an opening grow on the ship, and Mechs, five to be exact, jump out! Now there's Mechs involved? Derrick considered just taking his rifle and shooting himself right then.

No. No I can't do that. For so long all I've wanted to do is fly. At least I can ride this one flight all the way before the end.

But then, to Derrick's surprise, combat broke out. But was not the massive concentrated fire on him that he anticipated. In fact, one of the Aerotechs fired missiles upon the group of mechs. What's more, the dropship began to fire on some of the pirate ships. Derrick's eyes widened. He might get out of this skirmish alive yet! With the pirates and whoever the mechwarriors were fighting, they both might be distracted enough for him to sneak out. All he had to do was fly low through the mountains. He began his descent.

However, it seemed as if one of the pirates were on to him. As Derrick began to make his way for the mountains, one of the Aerotechs, a Crosair from the looks of it, began to slowly go after him. Picking up speed as it went. There was not much chance of out speeding the enemy ship, so he would have to out maneuver it. And for an inexperienced pilot such as Derrick, that could mean trouble. Luckily, Derrick was inside the mountains before the Crosair was within range of him.

However, that luck didn't last long. Soon, the Crosair was nearly with him, and it began to fire on him. The Pelican could take the shots to a degree of aptitude, but it couldn't hold if this was prolonged. Derrick began flying up and over mountains, going down into valleys, anything he could to keep the shots off him. It worked in the sense that he stopped getting hit, but the pirate ship was always not far behind. Derrick began shooting his machine gun at the pirate, hoping to deter him. The Crosair pulled back a bit, but still was trailing him. Suddenly, it charged straight at him, guns in constant fire. In a fit of panic, Derrick pulled up and slowed down, allowing the enemy Aerotech to pass by him. Derrick began to resume fire on it. But the pirate wasn't going down easily. With a far more maneuverable ship, he managed to shake off Derrick's fire quickly, and began to circle around to get to the back of Derrick again. Derrick quickly switched to flying backwards and continued to shoot at the Crosair. Eventually, he had damaged the ship enough to force the pilot to fly off. They were gone, for now.

 

[Draginja]

Kat Ortega
Drush Wastelands


Kat hits the ground running, surrounded by gunfire. She manages to get behind some large rocks, providing some good cover. She gives the area a visual scan, planning her attack. Without any range weapons, the air raid was out of her reach, but the ground vehicles were fair game. If she could get to them. Ayame's voice crackles over the radio. "Looks like one of the Strikers hit some rough terrain and immobilized itself for now. They may be faster than us, but I think this rough terrain is causing them lots of problems." A hail of missles impacts nearby, one of them dealing a glancing blow to her Crab. Kat winces, knowing she'll have to fix that, and her adrenaline starts pumping. "I'll see if I can get some of them to veer off. I'm faster than their tanks, especially in this environment, but it's those Strikers I'm worried about."

Kat takes off, headed for another rock outcropping. Autocannon shells slam into the ground behind her, barely missing as she dives for cover. She goes left, hoping to pull their fire away from the ship while going for the Strikers' flank. Her target is the Striker trio, the three not stuck, specifically the one at the edge. While under cover of the rocks, she manually adjusts her left wrist laser to combat mode. She bolts for the next piece of cover, jumping on top of a large rock, firing two quick laser blasts at the lead Striker, then jumping into a ditch to avoid fire.

An alarm klaxon blares, signalling incoming missles. The missles slam into the ground around Kat, showering her StingWasp with dirt and debris. "Where's that cover fire?" she yells, but forgets to key her mic. "Getting a little warm over here!"

 

[SV]

Allen "Doc" Korhal
Drush Wastelands

The second the doors went open, Allen got out of the dropship with his HBK-4G Hunchback. Allen instantly absorbed the area around him, noting the rather unremarkable terrain. It did, however, provide useful cover, and they were now going to need it. The two initial pirate fighters sped away, clearly outnumbered. Allen and the others concentrated their firepower on the fighters, Allen getting in a few well-placed shots with his Autocannon. He always had a knack for hitting shorter ranged targets, especially when he was still. Although the fighter was damaged, it managed to remain in the air and speed off. Allen heard a voice on his Comm system.

"Damage to the dropship minimal they almost hit my radar array but we got lucky… looks like they are falling back, but don't get too comfortable. We have incoming! Radar showing what looks like eight armored vehicles or mechs, 2 helos, and another aerotech or a conventional fighter coming our way… Ok you ground pounders you keep those pests away from my drop ship personally I don't want to get trapped here," He heard Jason say.

Allen nodded, more to himself than to answer Jason's radio transmission, speeding off to intercept the enemy fighters, before they had a chance to shoot out some long range shots. No luck. Allen cursed a bit as he was forced to take cover behind the rocks. He had always preferred faster mechs than his current one, which maximum speed was only about 65 kph. It'll do for now, he assumed. He hoped.

He tried his best to avoid the long ranged fire. The rocks took most of the hit as he crouched behind a formation, waiting for the opportunity to advance to a closer formation. Allen noticed a "cooldown" period for the shots fired. He observed once more, staying behind the half-destroyed formation of rocks as he waited for the right moment.

For the most part, though, Allen wasn't paying attention to the others. As he said to himself countless times before, the first mission was more like a "pilot", a test run, so to speak, to see how the team holds up. If they pull through relatively unscathed, he might consider better relationship building, and interaction, perhaps even battlefield cover and help. For now, he'll try to avoid that.

There it was, the "cooldown" period. Allen broke cover, taking the mech to maximum speed. He warmed up his Medium Lasers on his arms. Allen also debated firing his small laser attached to his head, but decided against it. It had a nasty issue with the heat damping, causing excess heat to build up in the cockpit, cooking Allen up. Allen called it Lorraine. Sort of a joke. The laser was elegant, yes, but also able cook him up from the inside of his own mech. Perfect name for a man of Allen's sort of sick and misplaced humor.

At this moment, he heard Ayame on the radio, talking about one of the Strikers.

"Looks like one of the Strikers hit some rough terrain and immobilized itself for now. They may be faster than us, but I think this rough terrain is causing them lots of problems."

Perfect chance for a hit. Allen heard Kat over the radio.

"Where's that cover fire?" she yells, but forgets to key her mic. "Getting a little warm over here!"

Allen takes his chance. Speeding up, he makes his way through the limited fire to get to a closer point. Allen thought he was close enough for one. Slowing down in his mech, Allen aimed at the incoming target through his scope, lifted up his arms, and fired his two Medium Lasers, followed by his Autocannon. However, there was retaliation fire from the force, and Allen's mech was pierced, hot sheets of metal being tossed of his mech like tissue paper. Allen cursed out loud.

"Motherf***in' pieca' sh!t!" He yelled, as he made his way behind another rock formation. He didn't get to see his damage, if any. The hit had better have been worth it.

 

[IDoLikeMudkip]

Vic Fisher
Drush Wastelands

The dropship came down hard and everyone was quickly thrown into the fire. The two Corsairs that were giving chase made one pass at the dropship and turned off, but right on their heels was a pirate attck force

"Damage to the dropship minimal they almost hit my radar array but we got lucky… looks like they are falling back, but don't get too comfortable. We have incoming! Radar showing what looks like eight armored vehicles or mechs, 2 helos, and another aerotech or a conventional fighter coming our way… Ok you ground pounders you keep those pests away from my drop ship personally I don't want to get trapped here," Jason said.

Vic made a mental checklist of what they were facing. He then jumped out of the bay doors and hit the nearest piece of cover. Scans of the area showed rocky out-croppings and uneven terrain. Good for cover, bad for maneuvering but at least both sides had to deal with it.

The rest of the unit was in sorts just as bad as him. Ayame was keeping behind some rocks just up ahead, Kat was attempting to move around the flank and Doc, well who knew what Doc was doing he was sitting still behind a rock. Then there was the pirate transport being chased by the pirates. Vic had to think fast, the battlefield needed direction and he was the one who needed to give it.

"Looks like one of the Strikers hit some rough terrain and immobilized itself for now. They may be faster than us, but I think this rough terrain is causing them lots of problems." Ayame said over the comm.

That was good, the fewer targets they had shooting at them, the easier it would be to target the rest. The inhibited ground vehicles would be secondary targets, the air cover even though it wasn't giving them any problems would have to be taken out.

Just before Vic could say anything Doc broke from cover and moved toward the enemy lines. He got off a couple of shots before he had to duck back into cover from the return fire. Vic couldn't quite see what the damage was, but it probably wasn't too good.

"Ok everyone listen up," said Vic over the comm. "Try to take out the air forces, they are the primary targets, the ground forces are secondary but take them out if you have a good shot. Try to stick to cover, no good getting yourself killed the first town out. And Jason try to contact that transport, lets find out why the pirates don't like him."

 

[Stingray]

When Kat sent her Mech diving for cover the ground was less kind to her as she expected. As her Stinger hit the ground she was thrown forward violently, and her status diagram that was an outline of her Stinger on the left side of her HUD went from all bright green to a green yellow mix on the arm she tried to stop her fall with. The force of the fall from the 25 ton Stinger had actually damaged some of the armor plating on the arm she had caught herself with. Clearly all those action show Holovids that showed Mechs doing all sorts of diving and such were wrong and the Mech wasn't as graceful as the actors in those shows made them look. The positive side is the awkward dive completely took the two Strikers off guard that were targeting her and their missiles completely missed the small Mech. Her charge up a small rock and twist and fire was rather difficult, and her lack of real combat training showed when her two lasers both went wide and just made two black burn marks in the alien desert. Once she moved into the ditch she could only watch her radar as the three Strikers moved in for the kill. Each Striker carried a six tube Short Range Missile launcher and Kat's 20 ton Mech wasn't the most well armored Mech out there.

The pirate Strikers moved toward Kat's position like sharks to a wounded fish. Each one moving to surround her position, but their inexperience showed as they didn't notice the much more powerful Hunchback Mech closing on them. The Striker closest to Kat noticed the Hunchback as its two lasers slashed across its front armor melting away armor plating and making way for the Hunchback's massive Autocannon to deal the killing blow. The Striker's turret turned to retaliate on the Short range Mech but it was too late. The shoulder mounted Autocannon on the Hunchback roared loudly as it spat a burst of high powered armor piercing shells. The Striker shook violently as the stream of cannon shells smashed into its front armor. At first the Striker's armor plating held up as the first several rounds tore off large chunks of armor, but just as it looked like the Striker would survive the last shell in the barrage punched through the last of the outer layer of armor and started to cut through the internal structure of the vehicle. A split second later the Striker turned into a fireball from the inside out as the Autocannon shell tore through the gas powered engine igniting the fuel, which in turn cooked off the Ammo bins full of missiles. The explosion moved up toward the turret which exploded violently as all the missiles exploded in a chain reaction.

There wasn't much left of the Striker but a husk of burnt and twisted metal bellowing black smoke. The other two Strikers quickly forgot the Stinger as their Lance Leader's Striker turned into a fireball. They both turned their turrets and locked on the Hunchback with their Short range missiles. Each Striker launched a salvo of six short range missiles which streaked at the Hunchback impacting its armor plating tearing off armor all over the Hunchback's torsos, arms, and legs. Out of the twelve missiles nine found their mark and tore off more than a ton of armor off the Mech. Also one of the four scorpions turned its turret and fired its much weaker Autocannon at the Hunchback, but the green gunner was unable to hit the Mech as it dodged behind cover. Allen's Damage display was showing minor damage all over his Mech. Nothing to be too concerned about, but that would soon change.

Just as Vic ordered his Lance to try to take out the Air support just as the the Mechbuster and undamaged Corsair turned and made their first strafing run. Their target was Allen's Hunchback. Allen didn't have any time to react as the Mechbuster led the attack its nose mounted Autocannon unleashed a hail of cannon shells that tore into the Hunchbacks right arm. Allen's damage montoring system went berserk as the fighter's autocannon tore through his Mech's arm. The outer armor on the arm wasn't enough to protect against the most powerful class of autocannon, and the shells pierced the outer protective layer of armor and then started tearing up the internal structure that held the arm together. "Critical hit, upper arm actuator destroyed," announced a passive electronic female voice in Allen's cockpit. Just then his Mech was hit by the Corsair's lasers. The Corsair's pilot wasn't as skilled as the Mechbuster's and several of his lasers missed. One Large laser went wide, while the second on finished off the Hunchback's arm. The laser hit a little above the hole created by the autocannon but the outer armor was so damaged by the autocannon it seemed to just collapse under the extreme heat of the laser. The laser then shot deep into the internal structure melting away Myomer and the armored internal structure. The arm's structure wasn't able to withstand so much damage and suddenly the lower arm, including the medium laser, completely separated from the Hunchback and fell to the ground. The Hunchback started to sway left from the force of the attack and the sudden imbalance from the loss of an arm.

On Allen's display the outline of the Hunchback's right arm changed from green to yellow to red, and finally to black within a second or two, and one medium laser on his weapon status display went black as well as the computer announced, "Critical hit, right arm destroyed, critical hit medium laser destroyed…"

Meanwhile the two remaining mobile Striker vehicles began to fall back from the Hunchback trying to avoid the same fate of their smoking comrade.
Once Victor gave the order to destroy the Pirate's air support first Ayame instantly switched her mech's main target to the Mechbuster that was just opening fire on the Hunchback. As it flew over the Hunchback, Ayame quickly twisted the torso of Crab while bringing up her Crab's arms toward the fighter. The two claws opened up and a crimson beam of focused light fired from each arm. One barely missed the Mechbuster, but the other one tore into the aircraft's light armor in its belly. It shuttered as large plates of lightweight metal melted off in an instant. Ayame's medium laser also fired and it hit the Mechbuster in the wing melting more armor off. Ayame cursed herself for missing with one Large laser as her cockpit sudden heated up from the use of the three powerful lasers. Her heat sinks struggled to keep up with the heat load, but there weren't enough of them to get rid of all the heat.

The two Warrior helicopters moved together to flank the Crab that was firing on the Mechbuster. The Crab's lighter rear armor was exposed and both Warriors fired on it with their autocannons. One missed while the others autocannon did light damage to the Mech's weak rear armor. Problem was the light autocannons were too weak to punch through the armor so one brave Warrior pilot pitched forward and rapidly advanced on the Crab to use its much stronger short range missile launcher. Ironically the one playing it safe and hanging back was the first to die as a third Corsair belonging to the Mercenaries swooped in seemingly out of nowhere firing its duel large lasers at the hovering helicopter. One laser tore into the rotors, completely detaching it from the body of the attack helicopter sending it falling to the ground with a violent explosion.

While the lance of Mechs battled the pirate forces Jason pulled up open communications to the unknown transport VTOL. "Unknown contact, why were the pirates chasing you and are you in need of assistance?" asked Jason with a stern commanding voice. Looking at the radar display the unknown transport was just outside the range of his dropship's weapons, and seemed to be flying to avoid him. Where it was flying he had no idea since it looked like it was just heading deep into the wastelands where from Jason's knowledge there was nothing but dirt and rocks… and more dirt.

 

[The Noob Hacker]

Derrick sighed with relief as the enemy Corsair disappeared out of range. Now, he might have a sliver of a chance to make it back to base. He checked his ship's status. The VTOL took some pretty heavy fire, but was still in working order, yet damaged nevertheless. Derrick saw rapid movements on his radar indicating that the battle he was fleeing form was heating up. Like he cared. The only thing on his mind was to get out, for some reasons, he only wanted to return to the miserable hole he at this point called a home. It was ironic, really. All he wanted most of his life was to get away from what he called home, yet now he only wanted to return. It was almost as if he accepted the fact that he would be on this rock all his life.

Derrick jumped as he heard an incoming transmission. "Unknown contact, why were the pirates chasing you and are you in need of assistance?" it said. Derrick realized that the sender must be the dropship off in the distance, or otherwise one of the new arrivals. Derrick was hesitant to decide if he should answer or not, and if he did, what he should say. While their help would be very useful, if Derrick accepted it, he would be at their mercy. And if it turned out these new arrivals weren't trustworthy, Derrick could do nothing to get out of that situation.

After considering his options, Derrick responded to the call simply to avoid the dropship from thinking he was an enemy.

"Let's just say those pirates and I aren't on friendly terms. And the only thing I need is to get out of here." Derrick said, hoping his words would allow him to avoid further contact with either side of the conflict.

"Ugh. ****" he said without even turning off the comm link as he felt a sharp pain in his chest and felt blood begin to leak from his hastily applied first aid. Derrick's wounds were intensifying, he would never make it all the way back to the base, especially with possibility of pirates trailing him. Derrick knew this, and he knew the only way out. The only way out in which he would live, that is. Derrick thought for a moment, considering if he would actually go through with it.

"... You got a medic on that ship?" Derrick said softly over the comm. "Got messed up pretty bad, might need a check-up."

 

[Stingray]

Jason replied to the pilot of the transport who was clearly in pain, "We have a small medical staff, and we are here to kill pirates so we are not friends of them either… turn left to a heading of 050, set NAVAID channel to 133.575, and our fighter bay is currently positioned at 330. Once your in visual of landing bay I'll open the doors. Can you get gear down or are you coming in for a no gear landing?" Jason quickly turned his head and yelled at one of his crew members. "Get the fighter bay doors ready to open, a medical team to the fighter bay ASAP… also get a security team there as well just in case, and be prepared to seal off the fighter bay if this happens to be an ambush."
Jason looked back at the radar station off to his left where an older man sat monitoring the inbound transport. "I hope I'm not making a mistake bringing that transport aboard, but my gut is telling me it's ok and my gut is usually right... usually."

Minutes later the fighter bay was evacuated of all personnel, but a small security team with some not so small weapons. If this was some pirate trick the dropship's marines would be ready to repel any boarders. Right outside the sealed off docking bay a full medical team, was ready to move once the coast was called clear. Whoever was wounded hopefully wasn't too bad since the unit's main doctor was off killing.

Jason triggered his microphone once more this time transmitting to Allen, the unit's doctor, "Hey Doc, once your done killing we might have a patient for you so you can show us how good you are at saving people and not just killing them."

 

[The Noob Hacker]

Derrick sighed again, this time not of relief though. This was the sigh of one knowing their fate and accepting it despite whether they like it or not. But he had no choice now. If these people fighting the pirates turned on him, Derrick would have no power over it. He was trapped by his own decision, and it would either save his life or end it.

Well, I'm going to die if I don't go to them anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter. Derrick thought. After making the proper adjustments to his flight pattern Derrick responded through the comm link. "Yeah, I think I can get down gear." As he flew he hoped that the pirates would be too preoccupied with the fighters out in the wasteland to try and assault him again.

Once Derrick had flown to the proper positions, the fighter bay opened as promise. With one final sigh, the VTOL pilot flew inside, sealing whatever fate, good or bad, he had. He landed with minimal difficulty. It was a bit shaky due to his inexperience, but he was still able to land fairly well. Outside his cockpit, Derrick could see a small, yet well armed team. Not a warm welcome, but understandable. That is, if the team outside was just security, and wasn't positioned there to blow his head off the second he walked out. Derrick swallowed a lump in his throat, he had no control over the situation. His life was in these stranger's hands. He shakily got up from his seat, leaving his rifle and other weapons as he exited the transport ship. He hoped the pirate armor he wore as a disguise for entering the spaceport wouldn't provoke the team outside.

As Derrick stepped outside the VTOL, he held his arms in surrender.

 

[SV]

Allen "Doc Korhal
Drush Wastelands

A number of expletives left the doctor's mouth as he was hit. He seemed to be mobilized for a second in his suit as he realized the extent of the damage. The mechs' arm was gone. The computer began, to Allen spouting nonsense as it spoke of the situation.

"Critical hit, right arm destroyed, critical hit medium laser destroyed…"

"Yea, I hear ya, you pieca sh*t!" He said trying to adjust the controls on his faulty mech. Armless, it was still usable. And Allen intended to use it. He attemped to open fire at the remains of the other pirates as the other mercs were taking them down. He was placed in the unfortunate position of might requiring their aide. But suddenly, a transmission came to him from Jason.

"Hey Doc, once your done killing we might have a patient for you so you can show us how good you are at saving people and not just killing them."

Allen responded back, almost immediately.

"Got it, I'll head there right away, you guys deal with the pirates. I may be a mech warrior, but I'm a doctor first." He said, transmitting to all of them. Allen decided to launch one more barrage of attacks with his Autocannon and lasers, before retreating back, using the cover of rock formations to make his way back to the dropship. He arrived into the fighter bay, still cursing loudly, as he made his way off to the damaged Hunchback to examine the patient, who was, from first appearance, apart of the pirate group, judging by his armor. But Allen never judged a patient's allegiance. A patient was a patient. He lit up a cigarette as he examined the man holding up his arms in surrender, and spoke to him.

"Put your hands down, a$$hole and lie down." He then turned to the others. "Get him to the med bay and gather up my team. I'll get to work on him right away." He said, as he turned to go make the preparations. First show of his skills were coming up, Doc had to be ready. Ready and Sterilized.