Star Age Sigma 2009 a.D
Location: Eastern Hemisphere on Orion 8
Logbook Entry 2076
Local Time: 17:00
“It has been a grueling entry, the dropship falling through a wall of black for the first two minutes, feeling like a leap of faith into a never-ending void, the only indicator of altitude change were the more frequent lightning bolts that danced over the hull of the ship.
The tremors and contractions seemingly attempt to shake the structure apart, that is protecting the mercenaries inside of the dropship.
While also testing the stabilization and anti-grav engines of the mercenary-class drop ship. The planet lays before us, flashes of red and white lightning coming from the turbulence in the upper atmosphere.
The payload of the planetary bombardment seems to have caused atmospheric lightning storms that now plague the landscape.
This is not anymore a place for humans. It is a reality bathed in plasma fire and molten alt-steel and we have to make due in this hellscape.”
Captain Lika is currently on her way to the main command tent of their small headquarters while she records her thoughts for posterity.
These thoughts might never reach those who committed the crime of bombarding a planet with star blades - giant alt-steel sickles super heated to a white-hot smelter - that cause lightning storms upon impact and can disable the technology of a whole planet while eradicating everything around the impact point.
But this biblical devastation needs to be catalogued and preserved to show the future citizens of the Kuratan Democracy, Lika’s employer, what their “democracy” can do if they really set their mind to fucking shit up real good.
Calm down Lika, no time to harbor disdain for your own employer. It’s time to check my Edge Patriot and make him battle-ready and prepared for sortie.
Which is not a small task for eighteen feet of steel on two backloaded walker legs, blistering with weaponry.
“Hey, Henry! How is the maintenance on Patriot going? Last time I was interfaced, she had issues with the fibrous cables in her left walker unit!”
Upon approaching, a small woman with mousy gray hair turns around while wiping her hands on a black oil-smeared towel.
“No need’ta worry, Ma’am. All in order. T’ was nothing but a small damage in one of the engines that are used to coordinate the leg.”
Answers the small woman while grinning from ear to ear and chewing on something teal-colored. Probably some kind of candy.
“Henry, you know this candy shit is bad for you. Why do you still stuff yourself with this stuff?”
"Roger, Roger, Cap'n. It’s my only real vice so I have to think about it. Would ya like to change the equipment of your medium-class edge? I can still hot-swap equipment because the next deployment is only tomorrow at 0800. Enough time to make a few changes.”
“Nah, I had my loadout prepared on the dropship. No need to run overtime for the loaders.” replies Lika to Henry. “Get a good snooze, tomorrow repairs and maintenance might not be as relaxed as today, depending on the resistance during the sortie in quadrant 4."
Lika pulls out a small tablet with a map of the sortie quadrants and taps on Quadrant 4’s tile, creating a small projection of the area, layout and mission details.
“Sadly, the reward for this sortie is not that good and there were only sightings of light edges in the area. Hopefully it will cover the repair costs for my baby and the others.”
“Oh well, gotta make it count. This is our only chance to earn money before our funds run out and we have to cancel our mercenary license. Let’s give it our all Henry.”
“Sure thing cap’n. Don’t forget that we are all on the same page. Just hope we can stabilize our finances or its light out and that would put many of our pilots into a difficult spot. Especially Darryl, whose mother is in the hospital on Orion 6.”
Upon hearing Darryl Keynes Name, Lika falls silent and moves on towards the food stalls of the camp. Yes, we cannot afford to get shafted on this deployment, much is dependent on our success as a company and as individuals.
After ordering a portion of pasta and some buns she sits down and pokes in her food totally lost in pondering the strategy to make tomorrow's deployment as surefire as possible. This is her responsibility, and she cannot disappoint those who trust her.
After some time, a man sits right next to her and taps her lightly on the shoulder.
Lika turns around and looks at the new arrival. “Who are you?"
“Do we know each other from somewhere?”
The man answers: “I don’t think so. Let me introduce myself, my name is Farren Dal, head of Coyote Company. I have been assigned to the same sortie as you tomorrow.”
“My name is Lika Caldria of Razor Company.” her face changing to steely eyed resolve upon hearing this man will be her rival in this sortie. “This is weird though, as far as I know this sortie was meant for a single mercenary battle group, because of the low activity in that area. It seemed to be merely a scouting and disposal mission.”
“Haha. Don’t get defensive. I am not here to steal your thunder, misses. Not interested in a conflict between mercenaries over a small deal like this sortie.” Farren Dal replies “But it is true that this is weird that they deploy two battle groups for such a small sortie.”
“This is why I came here today to talk. I have a bad feeling about this whole shebang. Something is not right, and I wanted to make sure that we have each other's back if something goes awry.” he notes while taking a sip from his coffee mug.
Taking some time to organize her thoughts, Lika replies: “Well, we can’t really back out of this sortie, Captain Dal but I appreciate your worry.” After finishing she stands up and holds out her hand as a sign of good will. Farren Dal accepts and replies “No problem. My only request is to be careful and keep an eye on our sensor arrays tomorrow. I would bet my Edge on the fact that there will be a nasty surprise along the way.” His face changes into a grim, foreboding expression.
But after a few moments he excuses himself with a salute and leaves the food tent.
Next Morning…
Star Age Sigma 2009 a.D
Location: Eastern Hemisphere on Orion 8
Logbook Entry 2077
Local Time: 0820
A wake of sand obstructs the sensor arrays on the steel titans that trod throughout a seemingly endless wasteland of glassed sand, burned foliage and ruins of buildings.
Four of these monstrosities measuring more than eighteen feet in heigh are currently on their way to the sortie meet up point where they will converge with the second battle unit of the Coyote Company.
Each of these custom made for the people that pilot them and emblazoned with crossed hook blades, standing for the razor companies first battle unit:
Patriot:
The titanic edge called patriot has a square structure with seemingly thin armor and two backjointed walker units made for fast sprints combined with a multitude of weapon systems arranged around the round cockpit that makes up the main part of the torso. Its form resembles that of a grasshopper with a shorter torso and no appendages beside legs, and weighing in at around 50 tons.
This is Captain Lika Caldria’s medium-class edge of the type “Bullfrog” with a custom loadout made to fit Lika Caldria’s battle strategy.
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The loadout includes dual light rail guns (LRG), to contend with medium armored targets, an anti-personnel missile launcher (APM) against soft targets and a Plasma Accelerator (PAC) to contend with most other targets and packing a custom-installed electronics package for disrupting seeker systems and scanner swipes.
This Edges strategy is a balanced one with a focus on command functionality and long range support. Each weapon is able to engage at extended range, to whittle down the target.
Quad Iron:
The one walking next to the patriot is of a completely different nature.
Resembling a humanoid walking upright but with a quadratic structure where the head should have been, the quad iron is heavily armored with thick plating around the square chest and front legs marked by thick, blueish glinting armor plates.
This edge towers above the patriot and seems to be marked as a type “Bandit” Edge with seemingly some custom modifications applied like the additional armor platings and a long range visual sensor package (VSP).
Seemingly taking the role of a vanguard, this heavy Edge is piloted by Darryl Keynes, one of the most veteran pilots of the Razor Company.
While the loadout is more focussed on close-ranged combat for this Edge, the VSP is meant to give insight on hidden subjects to be reported by this vanguard Edge, its loadout includes two dual-arrays of bolt-class anti-material missiles (dual AMMs) in the shoulders, enabling it to fire four high-penetration missiles to crack open heavy machinery or bust small bunker installations, two monoblade melee weapons, one on each arm to engage in direct melee with extreme prejudice and a torso-installed heavy rail gun (HRG) to fire at longer range to grant suppression fire while closing the distance.
This Edge’s personality is like its masters, rough and tumble and always in your face with overwhelming strength.
Felicitas:
This one as the smallest of the bunch stands at around fourteen feet in height and weighing in at thirty tons while sporting a sleek design with sharp curves resembling a quadrupedal lizard without a tail and a more rectangular body.
On its back it sports two small weapon compartments and a sentry-like installation that sports a larger weapon.
Its looks don’t deceive, it might be the lightest of the bunch and the least armed but its speed on desert terrain leaves the other Edges in the dust while scouting the environment with advanced sensory arrays.
This Mongoose-Edge is piloted by Miriam Banner, an accomplished recon specialist and the scout of the battle unit.
Its loadout is meant to be used to distract opponents and sow confusion, including two arrays of distortion dust throwers (DDTs) and small dual plasma accelerators for light targets. But while sporting only light weaponry, the sensory package is advanced and it carries an emitter for scan and lock-on distortion.
Paradigm:
And the last one in the formation is probably the most unique of the bunch.
It’s appearance resembles that of a bird with short stocky legs and two wing-like appendages bristling with weapon pods and a torso resembling the form of a spaceship with missile compartments beside and below the cockpit.
The top of the mech sports a jet-straight design with high aerodynamic aspects.
The most unique part is the lower torso, which sports two large jump jet engines to clear long distances in a single bound.
The pilot is just as odd as the edge he pilots, Thawne Goldhaus is a stocky man with a tendency to be a loner and a tinkerer, always researching the best loadouts and addons for his beloved paradigm.
His role and loadout reflect that, he is probably the most egocentric edge in this group with a hybrid loadout for short range and long range, but bad performance at medium ranges.
This loadout includes two quadruple long range seeker missile arrays (LSM) combined with dual heavy shockwave batteries (SWP) against larger targets at close range on a 60 ton heavy “Widestrider” Type Edge.
Thawne’s combat doctrine is ever evolving but mostly includes long range harassment until he gets an opportunity to jump into close range combat and bring his shockwave batteries to bear.
After reading the reports on her unit mates once again while advancing towards the meet up point heavy doubts plague the captain because of the many weird coincidences that happened around this seemingly unimportant sortie.
First they were seemingly lied to about the military opposition in this sortie, evidently based on the addition of the coyote company battle unit.
But it doesn’t seem this is the only issue in this case, something is just off… No military signals or presence on the approach to the sortie area is probably the worst of the signs.
They should be atleast vigilant and evaluate the situation critically and retreat when anything seems exceedingly odd about the situation
Upon reaching the slope of a sand dune, Lika initiates a radio call to her squad mates “Hey boys, many weird things happened around this sortie… Keep your wits about you and follow my orders. We might have to extract if this is some kind of ambush or dirty tactic by the dog ears. Over and out.”
Darryl Keynes: “Hmph, no military presence, no structures and seemingly no animal life. Indeed this seems weird as a sortie target. I will take precautions. Keynes out.”
Miriam Banner: “Haha, don’t be a downer Darryl. This will be a fun ride! We will show 'em what's what even if this is some kind of hookey ambush. Banner out.”
Thawne Goldhaus: “Stop squabbling. This is a serious situation. I will stand ready for a quick escape if necessary. Hopefully you have loaded the Distortion Dust Weaponry, Miriam? Might be our best friend in this situation. Thawne out.”
Miriam Banner: “Of course, duh, Miriam over and out.”
Lika Caldrian: Great, we will reach our target location in 0015 around 0900. Be ready. We will meet up with the other battle unit at that point.
Everyone: Roger, Captain.
Ten minutes later, the razor company unit just triumphed over a particularly steep dune; an urgent radio call from their scout, Miriam Banner came in “Contact, five hundred meters behind the next dune. Unmarked vehicles of light support nature with a combat helicopter entourage.”
“They came out of nowhere, no long range sensor or audio scan detection. Almost like ghosts.”
Upon registering the call, the unit separated into combat formation with Felicitas in the advanced position, Quad Iron as the vanguard, Patriot as support and Paradigm as the skirmisher behind the vanguard.
“People, this is not a test or a joke. The enemy is heavily undergunned compared to us but we will not leave anything to chance.”
“This smells of an ambush with advanced deployment of a light distraction. Be aware of your surroundings. Order for engagement given, hold the formation until contact has been made. Lika out.”
Like a well oiled machine, the mercenary unit forms a simple formation with a flexible core and raises their engine output to eighty percent to reach combat speed.
The thumping thunder of marching many-ton machines sends shockwaves throughout the silent desert, creating a sand storm in the near vicinity and pre ordaining the violence that is to come.
Upon reaching the next dune, the sounds of a heated firefight can be heard from beyond the sand wall.
Miriam Banner: “Engaging the light vehicles of the unknown force. No issues so far. Combat Helicopters are seemingly not yet in fire range but will become a hindrance in the next fifty ticks.”
“Requesting backup. Do you have the battlefield in your sights? "Over."
“Hold on Miriam, Backup is underway. We are currently cresting the dune and can already hear the fire fight. Not more than five ticks until engagement range is reached.” Lika answered.
From the whole battle unit, reloading rail gun cylinders can be heard, thundering while rotating the massive projectiles in and out of the magnetic rail. The buzz of engines picking up powers fills the air while Thawnes’ Paradigm and Patriot pick up steam and fan out with the Quad Iron as their center vanguard.
A wall of steel with blue and red glowing engines that rev up, filling the air with high-charged ozone as the waste product of the fusion engines.
Upon reaching the top of the dune, suddenly blue jet flares fire out of Paradigm’s engine and catapult him over the hill and out of sight, at the same time whining sounds of seeker missiles can be heard from Paradigm’s missile launcher batteries, the blood red streaks of self-propelled missiles color the sand below red and whiz forward, seeking their prey.
Shortly after, muzzled thumbs and explosions can be heard while Patriot is cresting the dune behind Quad Iron, foretelling the destruction wrought by long range missile impacts.
Thawne: “Combat Helicopter disabled. Only four light vehicles are left. A hunter-killer drone, one light perseus-class tank and a mobile LMS battery. Over and out.”
Seemingly happening as a response, shrieking energy weapon fire can be heard, sizzling the crest of the dune but missing the cresting Patriot.
What comes into view is a battlefield, Felicitas and Paradigm circling the small ruin which seems to be the hideout of choice for the three light vehicles.
Small weapons fire coming from inside of the ruins, trying to prevent the intrusion of both Edge’s.
But Lika Baldrian’s team is not green, and know that they will win this war of attrition through destroying the ruin or just digging out the vehicles.
Flicking the console open that contains the controls for Lika’s loadout, she pushes the buttons to trigger the light rail guns, firing two projectiles with hypersonic speed.
Upon impact, they rip holes into the support columns of the ruins, causing the structure to shudder as a response.
Lika: “Team, fire at the support column in the middle of the ruin. We will drop the ceiling on their heads.”
Theme: “Roger, configuring the LSM battery to fire at the column. Three seconds, one, two, fire.”
The same whining of missile propellant can be heard again, the small missiles emerging from Paradigm while drawing red streaks of propellant through the air, directly seeking the columns and impacting with heavy thumbs, finishing the structure.
With a loud rumbling, the column falls backwards and causes the front half of the ruin to collapse on the light vehicles, burying them.
At the last moment, the hunter-killer drone dashes out of the ruins while firing a small plasma accelerator at Felicitas, glancing off the lower actuators of the edge’s legs. Causing Felicitas to falter slightly.
In that moment, a blue flash leads the trajectory of a heavy full-body projectile escaping from Quad Iron’s heavy railgun, crushing the drone on impact into scrap.
Thawne: “This is weird. Why would someone send a vehicle unit into the desert? They didn’t even appear on my scan equipment.”
Lika: “This seems like a distraction or bait for an ambush. Everyone, high alert and watch the sand dunes. We don’t want any nasty sup-”
At the moment Lika spoke her last words, the sand started to shutter around the location where the drone was destroyed by missile fire. Seconds after, a gargantuan geyser of sand erupts from underneath the carcasses of the derelict combat vehicles, drizzling all nearby Edges with desert sand.
From beneath the upheaval sand, a red light emerges and upon burying out of the sand the shape of a huge metal monstrosity becomes visible with pincer claws containing huge weapon systems, a green-shining carapace and red glowing headlights above which a large, prehensile stinger swings.
[https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIG3.WeNlNhCYvc59rzFxVvYt?pid=ImgGn]
Miriam: “What in the star blade’s name is this?”