Adventures in Babysitting (BattleTech)

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Katherine Folsom walked through the Mercenary Review Boards halls with wide-eyed wonder. Leading her own merc unit excited her. This was what she wanted for too long, even though her family were staunch Lyran supporters. It wasn't easy to break tradition, but her parents knew her well enough to realize she would go her own way despite the consequences. With sighs, her family used its contacts with minor noble houses to bankroll Katherine's dream.

"Sorry, sir," she stated with suprise when she bumped into an offical-looking man.

The man steadied her and smiled. "Kat, I haven't seen you in years. Ciaran Blackmoon." He shook her hand.

She gave him a closer look, taking in the bright, green eyes he was known for. Ciaran had grown older with his temples going grey and more wrinkles around his mouth. "It has been a long time. Are you still with the military?"

"No, I'm in administration these days. I heard you were approved by the Board." Ciaran guided Kat to his office as they talked.

"Yes. Finally got my dream off the ground." She glanced around. "Why are we going this way?"

"I want to talk to you about a job," Ciaran replied. Kat stifled a gasp of amazement. Once in his office with the door closed, he continued. "There's some rumbling of trouble around Wotan. Pirates or some such."

"I don't even have a full lance yet!" she protested.

"Kat, you would be part of a garrison. Oslo has its own private Mechs watching the city." He showed her a map of the planet Wotan's city of Oslo, pointing out an area isolated from the city. "Here's where I want you to be. It's a civilian power generator for the east half of Oslo. No, it's not important military wise, but you know how civvies get when they don't have electricity." Both of them rolled their eyes in memory.

"How long are we talking? What about payment?"

"A year to get you started with the option for an extension. 250,000 C-bills sound good?"

"Sounds wonderful. What about traveling? I don't have a dropship at my disposal."

"Not a problem. We can use Lyran navy vessels to get you there. We'll pay you for all battle damage."

"Oh that's rich. Garrison duty, Ciaran! We won't be fighting anyone!"

Winking, he said, "You might." She raised an eyebrow in disbelief and he gave in. "All right, we'll pay for half of standard maintainence costs. You can work that out with the liason officer."

"Um, no," she answered. "I got out of the military to get away from people like that."

"He would be your equal, not your superior. We just want someone to represent our view of things."

"Fine, but what about salvage rights?"

It was his turn to laugh. "On a garrison job? Oh why not, we can share rights and you choose what you keep." He handed over several sheets of paper and asked her to sign the contract. Once the signatures were affixed, Ciaran asked, "How would you like a nice dinner made by yours truly tonight?"

Standing, Kat folded her copy of the contract and stuck inside her jacket. "Can't, Ciaran, sorry."

"Another date?"

"Mmm, sort of. I need to find myself some Mechwarriors to fill out my lance." She left the room, listening to his roguish laughter as she closed the door.

 

Simon sat down and scratched his temple. He had just been dismissed from the army and now needed work. He was allowed to buy a new Mech, a Pheonix. He craved a new assignement just to pay through this year untill he could retire. He grunted and struted up to the Merc post, 64 and he was still a limber man and strong. He was an amazing driver but was very nefarious and was finely decommissioned for getting frisky with his captains daughters. He yawned and marched up to a desk and peered at some lists but wasn't interessted in any. He sat down in one of the many couchs and waited for maybe easier ones.

 

The Zenislev wanzer strode into the compound, before halting near the building, and lowering into repose. A hatch on the side of it's head opened, and a figure leapt out, swinging from the arm to the leg, before leaping to the ground.

He caught sight of the woman striding along, she certainly looked like the description he'd been given.

"Miss Folsom! Hey!" ALex Roken sprinted over to her, and skidded to a stop a few feet away.
"I hear you're recruiting. Do you have room for another pilot?"

He self-conciously smoothed down the creases in his off-white flightsuit, and thrust his hands into his pockets. He knew he presented a scruffy figure, with his unkempt dark hair, baggy suit and muddy shoes, but a month or two on the run left you a little messy, and he desperately hoped she would take him on. Nothing like a little merc work to lie low.

 

She gave him a quick once-over. "Word travels fast. I've got a contract to babysit a mining town about ten planets north of here, called Wotan." Looking at the big machine behind him, she asked, "Is that yours? It's nice. I haven't seen one of these up close. As long as it's yours, you can sign on. There's a bar across the road. I'll buy you a drink while I scout for more pilots."

 

Alex looked back up at the imposing wanzer.

"Yeah, it's mine. Did the paintwork myself. Like it?"

That was a lie, but only a small one. It was black, something which a corrupt technician had done for him, but the decals were his own. A female angel with her hands clasped to her chest graced the left arm of the wanzer, her sword pointing down at the shotgun, while the other side saw a male angel, his burning sword pointing down at the enormous knuckleduster. While her face was calm, almost morose, his his scrunched into a snarl of hatred.

Alex was proud of the paintings, they had taken days to get right, considering that each was larger than he was.

He looked over the road to the bar, and nodded. Looked like an alright kinda place.

"I'll leave the wanzer here. No point walking it over there."

 

Ben was waiting for his commander, nursing a PPC - marik style with the ouzo - and idly watching the barfolk.

He stood and gave a casual version of a slaute to Lt. Folsom as she entered, a callow youth in tow.

"Been recruiting, ma'am?"

"Kinda - he followed me home, can I keep him?" she replied with a laugh as she ordered a couple of drinks.

"Well, judging from your mood, I'm thinking we got a job, right?" The commander merely nodded. "In that case, if you posted us as a full lance, we'd better."

Ben turned to the new recruit and offered his hand. "Ben Spencer, lad. Welcome to The Claws Of The Cat."

As they shook, the other replied "Alex Roken."

"That your thing out there in the street?" Alex nodded. "Right, after the commander here explains our contract, you and I'll take it back to our hangar before the Dragoons' metermaids stick you with a parking citation," he explained with a grin. "There we can get your payroll junk worked out assign an AsTech for you."

He turned back to the woman. "And I'm pretty confident we can pick up a fourth before we leave, so what's the operation?"

 

"Lord, yes. They're real pains about keeping Mechs in hangars." Kat rolled her eyes. She ambled over to an older man sitting alone. Propping her hands on her hips, she said, "If you're able and ready, I've got a job waiting for you. Katherine Folsom, commander of Claws of the Cat merc unit." The man sipped his drink and looked back at her. "We've got a job as a support garrison on Wotan near the Periphery sector."

 

Simon entered the bar and heard Merc. He looked around and found the Mercs. He noticed they were talking to a woman, who was the leader. He waited until he heard babysitting. That was one of things he wanted and money. He walked over and saluted.

" Sorry, ma'am. I do not know you're name but I overheard you talking about a Merc groupe. My name is Simon Hlsink and I got obe year left until my retirement. I'm looking for a easy babysitting job and yours sounds perfect. If you don't mind I'll join you. I've got a Pheonix, good at reconassaince but can kick a hefty punch as well. So will ya take me?" he asked.

 

"Sure. Let's head over to the ships and get ready to jump to work." She showed Simon where to go, meeting up with her other two recruits along the way. "I got word we're jumping pretty much right now. I see the Mechs are loaded and our techies are here, too. All aboard then." Kat walked onto the jumpship and strapped herself in for a long, boring, 2 month ride.

<months pass>

With the ship unloaded, Kat gave the guys a quick overview of what they were supposed to do. "We're just here to back up the Oslo City Defense in case of pirate raids. Wotan is a good mining planet and raids are common, though intel says raiding is on the rise. There've been some unknown ships orbiting nearby planets." Kat took a pause and let her orders sink in. This was heady stuff, being in command. Neat.

"Tracker, you and me, we'll scout out around this generator," she pointed on the tactical map where they would be, a few miles southwest of their encampment. "Simon and Alex, stick close to here and watch the base. Keep an open com channel people and shout if you see anything."

Feeling confident and comfortable, Kat dressed in her jumpsuit and boarded her Hatchetman. The neural helm slid over her hair easily and she buckled herself into the pilot's chair. Hitting several switches, she fired the reactor and gripped the controls. For luck, she patted the wobbly-headed dog glued to the dashboard.

Time for some action...hopefully.

 

Simon crawled up into his "Kelly" and started her up. He put on his head set saying a couple of words.

" Check, Alex can ytou hear me? " he got the response he wanted. " Okay, lets stick to gether I'll go first, you take up the rear." Simon was a vetran of 42 years and knew the drill. They did a slow patrol of the whole complex, taking their time to fing good positions and hiding spots. Nothing came to them as suspicious, but just in case they heart-beat scanned as they went. Nothing but some animal lifeforms came up.

" Okay, we're done, let's head back." he said as he pulled back the joystick turning "Kelly" in a wide arc. When they returned the others wern't there. Simon turned of "Kelly" and went to urinate.

 

This was boring. Ben liked it.

It had been about six weeks into their garrison duty, and the most exciting thing to happen was a manfunction four days ago on one of the generators that had extra repair crews driving up to the facility to help.

The local guards units were planning a little join exercise in another month - sort of a combination 'getting to know you' and '20 C-bills says I know this area better than you'. It would break the tedium, but then "boring lets you live longer" was Ben's motto - he'd seen enough mercenary commands hankering for 'action' get chewed up in battle.

Besides, there were safer ways to cure the skull-eroding doldrums...

He moved his 'Mech slowly to the hilltop outside the south side of the facility's perimeter - it was one of his favorite sentry points; it commanded a good view of the entire valley, including all approaches to the generators, and just on the edge of sensor range, was the Kowalskis' house.

Mr. and Mrs. both worked at the generator - thus their home's proximity, and for the past week, their rather comely daughter was home from college for summer break, and she liked to sunbathe...

Ben chuckled as his thermal sensors picked up a single contact at the house; it was moving around. He stood his Hermes on the hilltop facing northwest, focusing most of his equipment around the facility, yet slaving a single telefoto camera to a multi-function display, and ramped up the magnification.

"Oh, that's different, Jenna - nice two-piece outfit...heh, I'm not surprised by the belly ring...ahhh, must be nice to just be able to lounge around all day next to a pool..."

After a few minutes of oggling, Mechwarrior Spencer realized his comm deck had a flashing 'Receiving' light. He grunted, and flipped over to it, on the Planetary Guard frequency.

"...of arrival is two to three days. Repeat: All units to maintain Alert status. Unidentified vessels have entered Wotan system. Jumpship at nadir jump point is not responding to hails, and has detached a single Dropship which is currently burning for our orbit, estimated time of arrival is two to three days. Repeat: All un-"

Ben snapped off the channel with a scowl. "Aw, spit. There goes the gravy train." He retrained his sensors in an omnidirectional sweep and shifted his 'Mech to face out from the facility. "Sorry lovely, but duty calls - maybe see more of you in a little bit." He opened a channel on the Claws' unit frequency.

"Uh, commander? Are getting the alert message on the Guards-Planetary freq?"

 

Kat's knuckles grew paled as her fingers tightened on the controls. Ben's voice came over the comm and she responded, her voice quavering, "Uh, don't have time now. Facing two unknown Mechs right now. Get over here, east of the flattop hill you like. And contact Alex and Simon!"

The two Mechs facing her were about her size. They were painted a dark green to blend with the grassy terrain. On one shoulder, there was a simplistic picture of a light green bird on a light blue background. The smaller she dubbed Bug because of the twin antennae on its head. The other she called Big Nose for the large, bulbous cockpit.

A voice came over her comm, filled with contempt and arrogance. "I, Bers Chi-Li of Clan Jade Falcon, challenge you for a Trial of Possession for this generator. What misbegotten freebirths think they have the right to defend this facility?"

"What? I'm defending this generator from you two scumbags here and now!" Kat growled at Bug, lifting her Mech's arm which held the hatchet and waved it threateningly.

"Batchall accepted," Bug's pilot answered after a moment and began circling Kat clockwise. Big Nose trotted a safe distance away. Kat recognized a circle of death when she saw one and pushed her Mech full throttle to escape. When Bug didn't fire, she worried. "Your battlemech is worthless isorla, freebirth. It is not even fit for scrap metal," the stranger taunted.

Kat screamed in rage and fired her LBX. The shotgun's blast hit on target and knocked the smaller Mech to the ground. Siezing the advantage, she ran over, chopped at its arm servos and succeeded in dissecting it from the torso.

"Savashri! Star Commander Jayne said Inner Sphere freebirths have no honor!" Bug yelled across the comm.

"Honor this," she murmured, firing her three medium lasers at the downed Mech's head. A scream echoed over the comm as Kat faced Big Nose.

"You have won the Trial, freebirth," Big Nose stated plainly, the grief in the voice clearly heard. "But you will not win the war. Clan Jade Falcon will remember you as the killer of ristar, Bers Chi-Li!" The Mech turned and began running away from the battle scene.

"Damn!" Kat tapped her comm. "Tracker, double time it. We've got invading clanners; one down and at least one loose. The Mech's about my size with a big cockpit. I'm following it." She poured on the speed and chased, letting the large indentations in the ground guide her. She continually spoke to her lance, instructing them on how to find her.

She saw burned houses and farms as she drew closer to the city of Oslo. The devastation was on a massive scale. She hung back, retracing her steps until she met the rest of her lance.

 

Simon ran out of cover and cut off the fleeing Mech. He came out of hiding right behind it. Simon stopped and took the time to lock on a missle on the enemy's back. Direct hit, it hit under the cockpit, with enough force to knock him over, head first into a crumbling building.

" That'll show 'im! " he roared, he walked over his guns pointing directly at the cock pit. " Get out, slowly!" Simon warned, when the man finaly came out. He voiced over to Kat.

" I got a prisoner, get over here and do something with him, I have I smell him from here!" he complained as he laughed.

 

After getting his lancemates awake, aware of the situation and on their way to help, Ben actually turned his 'Mech north and through the generator park.

Clearing the far fence, he reached over his right shoulder and flipped two switches marked "MASC L/R" and then slapped a large red button. The pace of the Hermes' legs increased significantly, and the Mech streaked across the farm fields.

There was a significant risk of overloading the myomer actuators in his leg joints from this 'overdrive', but a risk of immobilization was worth closing to the city in just over half the time expected.

The pilot clenched his teeth as the Hermes began to vault off low hills along the far edge of the valley, and then he was jarred forward slightly as it began to climb out of the valley.

When he reached the crest of the hill, his hands dropped from the controls for a moment, then he shut off the MASC distractedly and slowed his mech to a stop. Haste wouldn't make any difference - Oslo was a cinder.

Ben's jaw worked in disbelief. "But...civilians...the Ares Conventions...DAMMIT; you don't DO this!!!" He slammed his fist on the dash, cracking a gauge and drawing blood from his hand.

A scan of the comm channels painted a sorry picture. Several mechs had approached the city and its mining equipment factories, and acted similarly - announcing some kind of challenge. The company's security forces - consisting of tanks and infantry - fired a massed volley against the aggressor mechs with only marginal effect...and then was hunted down by these 'Clansmen'.

The natural instinct for a person faced with an invincible enemy is to hide, but this merely meant the mechs had to rip buildings apart to get at and 'defeat' their opponents. Half the city had been levelled.

The rattle of heavy machine gun fire drew Ben's attention to the factory complex - one of the enemy mechs was coming out from between the buildings, chasing an APC.

Emerald beams of coherent light lanced through the intervening air and linked the troop transport to its attacker before it exploded, splitting apart like a corn husk in a frying pan.

Snarling, the mechwarrior grabbed the targeting joysticks and powered up his lasers. Taking a few moments to aim down the mech's arms at his target; he mashed down the firing studs and smiled grimly as two ruby shafts tore out and struck the mech in the leg, piercing its armor and splitting the mainshaft. It tumbled forward over its own knee and came to a rest with its insect-like antennae trembling in the air.

Satisfaction changed to surprise as the stricken mech raised an arm and an green ray reached out and vaporized a tree just past Ben's mech. As he turned it to flee back down the hill, his viewport panned across the other two mechs already climbing the city side of the ridge. Before he could fire, the smaller and faster of them let loose two arcs of blue-white lightning at him; one earthed in the ground before Ben's Hermes, the other in his left arm.

Gauges and displays sparked and shorted out along the cockpit's left side as the electrical charge grounded itself by passing through Ben's mech on its way to the earth. The lasing chamber of his left arm weapon exploded in a blinding flash.

And on instinct, he re-engaged the MASC 'overdrive' and pushed his ride into a full-out retreat back to the generator complex.

A couple more particle streams flashed trees into smoke before he managed to escape their weapons' range. As he began to calm, his focussing the remaining working sensors could only barely bring up a trace on his opponents - they were persuing, but at a pace slightly slower than his unaugmented speed. He eased off on the accelerator circuts and opened a channel.

"Grass Cat? Tracker, here. Oslo's a write-off; the defense forces tried to face off against what looks like three of those 'clan' mechs - they're done for and the factory park is taken.

"I managed to kneecap one of them, but the other two are on my tail - they've got PPCs, but they've got range and accuracy I've never seen before! And one strike took my left arm off - and I mean OFF; there's nothing but a damn STUB!

"Anyway, inbound on phaseline gold; the two mobile bogeys are following at the same rate; you may want to gather up a welcoming party. Don't expect any fancy targeting locks since they're running jammers - these guys are a LOT better equipped than pirates. Your recommendations?"

 

Simon heard the kid's report and struck out to cut them off. His pheonix was far faster then the others, but his fire power far lower. When he saw the dust cloud rising, he switched on the leg jets and catapulted through the air. If he couldn't take them out with fir power, gravity will do it. A hudred meters in front he stopped the jets and sped towards the two. Unforntunly he under shot and crushed the torso of the lighter smaller one but the other one ran past still chasing Ben.

" Damn! Ben! One's still after you, you're on your own." Simon called through the comm link. In the mess it was hard for the unagile Mech to struggle out and even harder to get back up. When up Simon headed back to the Oslo, looking for a smaller Mech to take out.

 

"Oh no you don't, you s.o.b." Kat fired her lasers in chain, drawing the Mech that was chasing Tracker to face her. She got slammed with a jolt of electricity which shot through her Mech and her fillings. "Mother of mercy! I need to get me one of those!"

 

"Thanks for the help, Simon - happy hunting for that limpin' bug in town!"

Ben slowed his small mech and turned sharply to the right, twisting his torso to bring his one remaining laser to bear on the larger mech. As it closed the distance, it let loose with both its PPCs, just as Ben put on a burst of speed and reversed his turn, leaving the streams of charged particles to streak past and burn some of the scattered trees on the valley floor.

While the enemy's weapons recharged, Ben turned fully around and tore back at his persuer. Within moments his crosshairs lit up gold and he got a tone, and fired. The beam struck the clan mech's chest and melted some armor without piercing.

Ben dodged and jinked as his red shot was answered with two green bolts, both missing due to the small Hermes' extreme speed.

The pilot began to curve his mech's course around the heavier opponent, forcing it to slow even further to keep him in its sights. But the clanner's shots were rushed and inaccurate.

Raising his arm again, 'Tracker' fired his laser and managed to strike the mech's weaker back armor; still the shot did not penetrate. "Damn; these guys are fast, powerful AND well-defended?" he growled to himself. "I'm glad we've got numbers...for now."

Another PPC bolt missed Ben's mech, but striking the ground just ahead of him, he could still feel a slight charge crackle over his mount's metal chassis. "He's gonna win this," the mechwarrior thought. "I can't get through his armor and he only needs to be lucky once...but if he'll just keep his attention on me for a little longer..."

 

Tracker looked bad now. Kat eyeballed the enemy Mech and fired consistantly at its legs, hoping for a one in a million crippling shot.

The ground grew pock marked with scorch stains from the heavy laser blasts. "Aim for the legs, people," she called over the comm. "Slow it down. We want this for salvage."

Another PPC hit rocked her. The Mech turned to keep her in sight more than Tracker's little Hermes. Kat powered her jumpjets and soared upwards, letting rip an alpha strike. Blue arcs streaked across the torso of the Mech as her lasers and shotgun hit it, forcing it to a sudden stop. Running, she bumped the Mechs together and slashed at the likeliest place for the cockpit with her hatchet.

 

As she advanced for her strike, the mech shuddered from an impact from the side, wobbling as the pilot desperately tried to balance the war machine. The left leg was smoking, as if it had been struck by a warhead, a fact which was confirmed by the sudden radio transmission.

"Whoo-Yeah! Direct hit!"

The speech halted for a moment, and an old track of the cavalry horn sounding a charge was played, before ALex's wanzer shot into view, hurtling at the mech.

"Stand back!"

He speed up, and the wanzer withdrew it's knuckle duster for an almighty swing. As it reached the mech, it swung and then followed through by crashing into it, sending it flying a dozen metres.

ALex's wanzer spun on the spot, and raised the shotgun to face the now badly damaged mech.

"Surrender, buddy. You're outclassed."

 

Simon found the crippled Mech, struggling to their dropship near by. It must of heard him and spun around and fired a laser that went through the building on his left. Simon didn't have enough power to stood. Switching on his leg jets he leaped up on top of a large skyscraper, and leaped on a smaller building about a hundred meters from the injured Mech. It still shot randomly, he shot a building so much it collapsed in to a cloud of smoke. Simon flicked on his energy sensing visor. He saw the Mech looking back and forth, searching for him. Simon was in range and fired a multitude of shots at the Mechs cock pit. It was nothing but crushed metal, but just to be sure he fired one well aimed laser and took off the arm with the powerful laser.

" Two down and that one chasing Ben, is he still kicking?" Simon asked trough the mike." Kat is there more of the bastards?"