CPL Nickelbaucher

Location: Harper’s Junction, Star Kingdom of Windsor

“Form a firing line on me!” the SGT yelled as he rushed forward to a prepared fighting position. Without complaint, the rest of the squad left their foxholes covering the back portion of the perimeter and ran to join the SGT. That was what the chain of command dictated. That was what training had ingrained in them, and Mitch knew that was what was going to get them all killed.

“Sergeant, we need to leave this to the tank. We might as well fart in its general direction for all the good it will do,” he relayed, as he jumped into an occupied foxhole. The PVT there was from the other fire team, but he didn’t care. Having someone at your back when five meters of armored death came rushing at you meant everything.

“Quit yappin’, Nickelbaucher. I’m trying to get us some air or HI.”

Mitch couldn’t fault the SGT. The man was a competent NCO, and had been leading infantrymen for a decade. He’d fought pirates and Blockies, and knew the battlefield he was fighting on. The problem was that the Windsor’s weren’t the Blockies. Forming a firing line of a squad of marines wasn’t going to slow down this enemy’s advance. Their only chance was…

The tank bucked as it fired another shot from its 125mm cannon. A powerful hum followed as the tank rose higher off the ground and started to move away from the squad. Because of the hum, he missed the whistle of incoming fire. A five-round burst of HE shells arched in, and the mech’s swatters went to work. All five were knocked out of the air, just as the tank fired again.

Their first rounds had missed, but this one clipped the shield and sent the mech spinning. They didn’t even get to start their cheer before the mech twirled like a dancer, easily recovered from the glancing blow, and extended its own cannon.

“Incoming!” Mitch yelled as the graviton cannon from the mech shook the earth around them.

The tank swerved and propelled itself upward onto its side so it made a ninety degree angle with the ground. He could hear the anti-gravs on the fifty-ton machine whining in protest, but it did the trick. The mech’s cannon blast smashed into the ground where it had been. The tank was fine, but the marines were batted around their foxholes like pinballs. Mitch had to disentangle himself from the PVT to get his eyes on the fight.

The tank was putting distance between it and the marines as the mech was getting closer. From the brief engagement it was obvious the mech was more maneuverable. It was tough to say whose cannon was stronger. Both would ruin a marine’s day.

“We’ve got danger close incoming. It might not hit the bastard, but it might distract him,” the SGT relayed.

“Stick your head between your knees and kiss your ass…”

“Lock it up,” Mitch snapped to stop the gallow’s humor. “Stay alert and maybe we’ll…” a missile launched from the mech’s armor and angled straight at them.

The tank’s swatter joined the squad’s swatter to protect the marines. The missiles was knocked down just as the mech engaged the incoming arty, and the tank fired again. The mech rolled out of the way to avoid the cannon blast, which threw off its targeting. Two of the dozen incoming shells got through and smashed into the ground.

“Jesus fucking…” the SGT screamed as the thermobaric rounds ignited the air around them and turning the world into a raging inferno.

Mitch sunk as far into the foxhole as possible and got to know the PVT really well. He barely heard the SGT yelling at the HI trooper who’d nearly killed them. His HUD told him the ambient temperature had risen nearly eighty degrees, but was rapidly cooling. His armor’s cooling system engaged to keep him from boiling.

“Everyone run a diagnostic and make sure you didn’t roast anything,” he relayed to his team.

Within ten second he had all greens coming back to him, so he ventured to sneak a peek. The tank and mech were still there shaking off the effects of the thermobaric rounds. Both had blue shield shimmering, and then the tank roared. The rounds caught the unprepared mech in the chest area and threw it backwards.

“Fuck yeah!” The SGT yelled as the tank rushed toward the down mech to seize the opportunity. “Hit it again!”

Adrenaline rushed through Mitch’s veins and he couldn’t help but grin as the tank closed in for the killing blow…and then the mech moved. It was quicker than anything the tank commander could compensate for, especially since he was focused on lining up a kill shot.

The mech rolled and fired. The powerful cannon blast hit the tank dead center. Its shield took the hit, but fizzled and died as the capacitors were overwhelmed.

“Fire! Fire!” Mitch screamed at the tank.

It was drifting a little to the left, either by design or because some of the kinetic energy had leaked through and rattled the driver. Either way, the mech was moving to get away from the cannon. It was turning into a battle of the batteries. Both war machines had recently taken shots. The mech shot first, but with its shield down, the tank undoubtedly was damaged in some way, which meant rerouted power might give them the edge in timing. Both were circling each other now for a kill shot. It was only a question who got the power to do it first. Mitch was sure the mech was hurting too. Glancing blows from the tank’s cannon and the thermobaric arty must have done something.

He barely breathed as the moment came. It was like in the holos when two prizefighters were about to land a haymaker, knockout blow at the same moment. Both the tank and mech fired for the win. The mech’s shield shattered as the tank’s blast ripped through it and right into its gut. The mech flew back, sparks flying as something big had been broken.

It wasn’t all roses and daisies for the tank. With its shield gone, the only protection was its armor, but the armor wasn’t designed to deal with a graviton cannon. It was made for artillery and normal weapons. The alien tech that allowed a shot as powerful as a graviton blast was just beyond any defensive capabilities aside from the shield, which was why the mech’s blast smashed a hole right in the front of the tank. It continued its forward momentum for a few seconds before the anti-grav’s died and it plowed headfirst into the ground.

“Let’s go,” the SGT yelled immediately as he jumped out of his hole and sprinted into the open. “Nickelbaucher check the mech, while I handle the tank.”

Mitch growled under his breath at having to deal with the behemoth enemy while the SGT got to deal with the friendly tank, but he knew the squad needed a SGT more than a team leader, so he sucked it up and gathered his team. They moved out quickly. The Windsor’s formation was still making a break for it in the distance, but they were running away from the squad’s position. The mech was clearly buying them time to escape, and probably thought it would regroup with them later. As Mitch got closer, he saw the thing was down for good.

“Shit,” he humbled as he finally got close enough.

He knew the mechs were at least five meters tall, but seeing it up close really gave him perspective. The thing was bristling with weapons and armor. Something must have shorted out when it went down because most compartments were open.

“Don’t touch anything,” he ordered. “Give me a perimeter.” His team spread out while he took a deep breath and hopped up onto the thing’s armored chest.

He was making himself an easy target for a sniper, but he had to see. A gaping hole in the thing’s gut was the death blow, but movement to his left caught his attention. Sparks were flying from an open section near the mech’s sternum. He kicked some debris away as he got closer and carefully peeked inside. Half a face glared back.

“Holy shit,” Mitch jumped back and brought his rifle to bear.

He leaned back over into the hole where a pair of eyes just stared at him with pure hatred.

“Got anything, Corporal?” One of the PFC’s asked. The man was getting a little jumpy standing in the open next to unknown enemy tech.

“Bobcat Six, this is Pillbox One-Two,” Mitch broke protocol and radioed directly to the HQ. He wasn’t a glory hound by any means, but sometimes you just had to send stuff up yourself.

“This is Bobcat Three,” the operations officer, a senior LT answered instead. “What do you want, corporal?” The man sounded more than a little pissed. After all, the battalion was still fighting to take control of the town.

“Sir,” Mitch chose his words carefully. “We need a Spyder, engineer team, and some Corpies at my location. We’ve got mission critical enemy tech down along with a POW. This is stuff we want, sir.” He tried not to relay too much info directly over TACCOM in case the enemy had cracked their encryption, but he had to let the LT know that this was a big find.

“Copy that, Pillbox One-Two. Wait one,” the LT cut the line and Mitch looked down at the Windsor’s mech pilot glaring up at him.

He felt bad for the guy, but at the same time he didn’t. He felt bad because being a POW had to suck. It was every soldier’s worst nightmare. Still, he knew what the Windsor had done to the Corpies in the tank. He didn’t want to poke his head in there, but he was sure the crew was finely dispersed matter that covered the interior like an impressionist painting. There was no exit point for the focused cannon blast, so all the kinetic energy just bounced around in there and turned the fifty-ton war machine into a multi-million dollar blender. The SGT was probably sending up his report about the casualties right now.

“Pillbox One-Two, secure the area and stand by for evac. Birds are on their way. Bobcat Three out,” the LT informed and went back to fighting the battle.

Mitch watched the dirt clouds of the fleeing Windsor’s nearly a dozen kilometers away, and knew it was only a matter of time before arty or air took them out. Those poor bastards weren’t making it out of the valley.

“Sit tight,” he told the Windsor pilot, who looked like he tried to spit at him in response.

Mitch slid down the side of the mech and took cover against its bulk. Feeling better at not being completely exposed, he reached into a compartment and pulled out some pogey bait. He popped his helmet and took a bite. It was against regulations, but they’d just taken down a mech. One of the same ones who’d gone through the Commonwealth troops at New Lancashire like a saw through toilet paper.

He took a few bites and stowed the food back in his armor. “Ok let’s…” a crack filled the air, but one of his team on the perimeter was already on the ground.

“SNIPER!”