The Adventures of Whirlwind

Warfare in the Thirtieth Century

Episode 2

The Mercenary

Chapter 2 The Raid

Aello held her breath as her Ocelot dropped earthward. She had never liked this part of combat. Mechs were not meant for aerial combat and were at their most vulnerable on their way in. For that reason the robotic fighting machines were dropped at the maximum allowable speed.

The atmosphere outside screamed as the mech dropped into thicker air. The disposable heat shield glowed cherry red, increasing Aello’s anxiety. She knew that from the ground her plunging vehicle was plainly obvious; a perfect target for a ground-to-air missile. There was some comfort in the fact that about a dozen decoys were dropping with her in order to confuse the enemy, but she still felt quite vulnerable.

However, she need not have worried. No intercepting missile was detected and soon she and her companions were dropping below radar. By this time most of the heat shield had burned away, but it had done its job, the main parachute deployed with a thump and her descent slowed dramatically.

There were five mechs in the mercenary squad. They had been sent on a simple smash and grab mission. Their target was a technical facility on the outskirts of the largest city on Fushida’s Planet. They were to shoot their way in, seize important electronic components, and get out before the enemy recovered from the surprise of the attack.

The facility, however, was quite heavily guarded. There were four heavy mechs and two of them the attackers had been pointedly told to stay away from. Carter had given the briefing: “I will be in the command ship, keeping an eye on your progress. As usual, if you get yourselves into trouble, you will be on your own until you can reach the pickup point. And you better be there. I won’t wait an extra minute for any of you. Now, there is one critical detail. There are four mechs guarding the facility. Two of them are your standard heavy mechs. A couple of 70-ton Goliath class. The five of you should be able to handle them. But the other two are something else. They are Kami class, a completely new design. They are bigger, faster, and better armed and armoured than anything we have encountered before. Your best defense is to keep away from them. I doubt that any of you have the firepower to take any of them out.”

Duly warned, the five mercenaries had readied themselves for combat. Miklos had done what he could to prepare Aello’s mech for the coming ordeal. As the newest recruit, Aello had been given what was left over. Her mech was a diminutive 25-ton Ocelot. It was best used for scouting and taking on infantry, not other mechs. Miklos, however, had done his best with it. He had managed to boost the power of its engines by about 30%, giving it a top speed exceeding 200 kilometres an hour.

“I’m afraid I can’t do much about its armament,” Miklos had apologized. “The chassis simply isn’t designed to hold anything heavier than a couple of rail guns. Your best defense and offense is to stay out of the way and use that incredible marksmanship of yours to bring down the enemy.”

Aello had smiled at the compliment. She had started out in a mech about the same size as the Ocelot. She could do it again.

She was almost down now. With a flick of a switch she disengaged the parachute and let her jump jets take her to the ground. It was a safer landing than just letting the machine fall unguided. Her companions soon joined her, forming up on either side of her. Since Aello had the smallest and fastest mech it would be her job to move ahead of the others and scout out the enemy. With any luck, despite their dramatic landing, the reaction of the ground defenses would still be slow enough for them to complete their mission and get away.

Aello pushed the throttle forward and accelerated to half speed. Her mech clipped over the terrain like some giant ostrich at 120 kilometres an hour. Her eyes scanned the instrument panel looking for any signs of the enemy. A red light flashed. “Heavy fixed fusion cannon at grid 452031,” Aello sent. A mile back was Jeff Avery in a Rhino. His mech was well named, being heavily armed and armoured, but ponderously slow. However, it packed a power punch in its twin long-range particle beams. He would take out the fusion cannon.

Aello swung her vehicle wide to avoid coming under fire from the enemy emplacement. A second red light glowed. “Second emplacement at grid 452035.”

“Righto, honey, I’ll take em out.”

Aello made a little frown. She liked Jeff. He had a sort of boyish charm, but he had an annoying habit of referring to all members of the opposite sex as “honey, baby,” or some other endearing term. If he hadn’t been so good-looking none of the women in the squad would have tolerated such sexist language.

Aello slowed her speed, without stopping. She wanted to give the others a chance to catch up and take out the fixed defenses. She kept her eyes on her instruments, constantly scanning the landscape ahead of her. A number of small flashing blue dots now showed up on her scanner. Enemy infantry. Well, here was something she could handle. Aello turned toward them, then paused. There was something directly behind the infantry. Two large red moving dots indicated the presence of enemy armour.

“Two mechs,” she reported. “Heavy armour.”

She scanned the instruments. Apparently the scouting report had been wrong or else the enemy had beefed up the guard. “A couple of Ares,” Aello reported. “Better get ready for some action.”

From behind her came a blinding pulse of blue light. It was Jeff, firing his particle beam over her. Ahead of her one of the enemy fusion cannons exploded with a blinding flash. A few seconds later, a second pulse took out the second enemy emplacement. Now there were just the mobile defenses ahead of her.

The two Ares were closing at their best speed. They were big machines, 100- tonners, so they didn’t move very fast, but once they got within range their firepower was frightening.

Aello continued to swing wide. The Ares would probably concentrate on the larger mechs in her squad and she could come in behind them. She could also throw a scare into the enemy infantry, keeping them from using their anti-mech weapons.

Her tactics worked well. Pushing her speed up to 220 kilometres an hour she descended on the surprised infantry like her namesake, the Whirlwind. Her attack was devastating. She came in from the flank and caught most of the infantry out in the open. Her twin mounted gattling guns, each spewing 3000 rounds per minute, tore them apart. The troops scattered, running for their lives and Aello turned toward the rear of the advancing enemy mechs.

By now the two huge machines were exchanging fire with Aello’s companions. Only Jeff had a mech big enough to match the firepower of the two Ares, but the three other machines were pouring fire in the direction of the enemy, while at the same time moving swiftly to avoid being blown to bits. Most of their shots missed the target. It was one of the most difficult of tasks to hit a moving target while moving at full speed. Only a very few mech pilots mastered the art. Aello’s companions were better than most, but only a few of their shots struck the heavy armour of the enemy machines. In the meantime, the two powerful vehicles directed their fire at Jeff’s Rhino, the only machine really capable of hurting them.

The Rhino, was not the best of machines for close combat, except in one respect. Its heavy armour made it very difficult to bring down. Unfortunately, it also made it ponderously slow. As a result, it usually took quite a few hits in battle. A huge flash on the Rhino’s cockpit indicated another hit. The vehicle rocked, but kept on plodding ahead.

Aello’s earpiece crackled. “Come on, babes. Take out those pricks before they burn my ass!”

“Babes,” Jeff was referring to the fact that all of his squadmates were young women. Women made exceptional mech pilots due to their quick reflexes and excellent hand to eye coordination, but even so it was the rare individual who could actually hit the enemy while moving at the gallop.

Aello closed in from behind. Her twin rail guns packed a powerful punch, but they were not capable of penetrating the thickness of armour an Ares possessed. There was only one area that she had any chance of damaging, and that was the point where the massive knee joint connected the upper and lower sections of the leg. It was a most difficult target to hit, but it was her only chance.

Pressing the firing button, she directed a stream of high velocity particles toward the enemy. She watched in exultation as the railgun tore fragments of metal off the knee-joint of the closest Ares. Then her speed took her right up to the huge machine and she had to swerve sharply to keep from plowing into it.

Her momentum took her right past the advancing Ares and under their guns, but she kept the throttle wide open until she was about 300 yards beyond them. Then she hit her jump jets, and steering rockets simultaneously. The Ocelot shot straight up in the air, rotating 180 degrees as it did so.

The maneuver had been completed so quickly that the enemy had no chance to train its heavy armament on her. In any case the two huge enemy vehicles were still too busy trading fire with Aello’s companions to worry about her.

Aello saw to her satisfaction that the Ares she had targeted had almost stopped moving. Instead it was dragging its right leg like some monstrous wounded animal. Now it was a sitting duck for Aello’s companions, and their shots tore into it with devastating effect. With an immense explosion the Ares’ cockpit disintegrated and it collapsed in a flaming heap. There would be very little salvage from that machine.

Now there was only one machine left, and the combined fire of the entire squad ripped into it. Within seconds it was turned into a shambling wreck. The way to the technical facility was open.

Now it was Aello’s turn again. As the junior member of the squad, she always got the shit jobs. Her four companions would provide cover, but it was her job to enter the facility and get the technical components. It would mean having to leave her mech, but that was the way it was.

The squad approached the research facility. Aello would have to move fast, the two new enemy prototypes had not yet manifested themselves, but they could easily be anywhere in the vicinity.

After the destruction of the enemy guarding the facility, there was little opposition remaining. Aello entered the research station by striding through the wall. She had been given a map of the facility and knew where to look for the electronic components the squad was supposed to retrieve. Despite their huge value, the components were very compact in size, and weighed not more than a couple of hundred kilos. Aello would have no trouble storing them away in her mech.

She made her way directly to the warehouse section of the facility. Only a thin steel door separated her from the valuable components. A burst of gattling fire blew the door off its hinges. The Ocelot marched into the warehouse. It was empty of personnel. Arranged in neat rows were hundreds of boxes. Quickly, Aello opened her cockpit and leaped from her machine. Racing along the rows of shelves she soon spotted the components she had come for. It took only a few seconds for her to load them into her machine and then head out of the facility.

Her new friends were waiting for her, but now Aello’s sensors warned her off approaching danger. “Two large mechs approaching. Time to get out of here.”

“Roger, Babe,” that was Jeff. A chorus of “Affirmatives” came from the female members of the team.

Aello’s eyes returned to her viewscreen. The two enemy machines were approaching fast – too fast.

“Those must be the Kami,” Aello thought. No normal heavy mech could move that fast.

“Get a move on,” Aello urged, “they’re closing fast.”

The five raiders took off at full speed. Aello, with the fastest machine and the all-important electronic booty soon took the lead, but she kept an eye on her companions. It soon became apparent that Jeff in his massive Rhino could not keep up. The two enemy mechs were now almost within range of their long-range weapons. Aello flicked her rear camera on. An intense blue stream of energy shot out of the closest enemy machine. It was now obvious that the approaching enemy vehicles were the dreaded Kamis. The range and power of their weapons was phenomenal.

Jeff began to zigzag his ponderous machine, but that only resulted in the Kamis moving even closer to him. Soon they would be close enough that their shots would be sure to hit. Without thinking Aello, wheeled her machine around.

“Rookie, what are you doing?” It was Senia, the pilot of one of the medium mechs. “Head for the pickup point. You have the loot.”

Aello ignored her. She could not leave a companion to die by himself. Her clan’s code of honour forbade it. The fact that she had been expelled from her clan was irrelevant, her reaction was almost instinctive. She was not going to abandon her companion for a few microchips.

A blue beam tore into the rear of Jeff’s Rhino. The concussion caused by the vaporizing metal almost knocked the massive machine off its feet. One or two more hits like that and even the massively armoured Rhino would be nothing but a smoking heap of junk.

The Kamis were coming on at an amazing pace for such huge machines. In a few seconds they would be at point blank range. Aello was amazed at their speed. They were moving at a speed usually only obtainable by vehicles half their size.

Aello would have to act fast if she was to have any chance of aiding her squadmate. She knew that she was disobeying instructions, but she could not leave a companion to die.

By now the Ocelot’s speed had brought her within range of the rampaging enemy machines. She lined up the knee joint of the nearest Kami, and pressed the firing button. The slugs from her railgun hammered into the Kami’s leg at the precise point of her aim. To Aello’s consternation there was no effect on the huge armoured vehicle. It did, however, distract its pilot. With a rapidity Aello would not have believed if she had not seen it, the massive mech pivoted, swinging its main armament toward her. Aello looked into the face of death!

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