Outreach

Mechwarrior Dyllard was slammed back into his command seat as the Shadowhawk's fire hit. Autocannon shells chewed their way into the armour across his chest, followed by a flight of LRMs. Alarms blared, and then Dyllard was crushed down into his seat as the auto-eject system activated. His Stinger recon 'Mech toppled backward down the hill, its head carving a furrow through the earth as the battlecomputer recorded a simulated reactor explosion. A few seconds later, Dyllard was on the ground, struggling out of his seat straps, and sprinting towards the nearby copse of trees. His unit, the Green Eagles were engaged in a training excercise with another new mercenary unit, the Golden Legion. They were on the training range on Outreach, the home of Wolf's Dragoons, taking advantage of the facilities offered, in order to practice working together, and also show off their skills to potential employers. Dyllard and the rest of the Eagle's recon lance had moved to counter the advance of their counterparts from the Golden Legion, but things were not going too well. The Golden Legion had superior firepower, with a Stinger and Phoenix Hawk, an old Star League era Mongoose, and a Shadowhawk refitted with some of the latest technology. The Eagles had nothing but the older models of 'Mech, Thunder and Swarm LRMs being the only "lostech" they were using. The Recon lance of Stinger, Wasp and two Firestarters had begun to retreat in the face of the enemy onslaught when Dyllard was hit, the Shadowhawk's fire savaging his already damaged Stinger. As he reached the trees, he looked back over his shoulder, and didn't like what he saw...

Matt grinned as he saw the Eagle Stinger pilot reach the trees. Now to really scare him! Matt started his Stinger running down the slope towards the pilot, but as he did so his eyes widened in surprise. A Trebuchet rose into view, pulling itself up onto the roof of a nearby building in order to draw a bead on his Stinger. As he tried to stop, the Trebuchet straightened up, and let loose with a full volley of thirty LRMs towards him. He yelped as they shredded armour across the Stinger's body. Less than half of the missiles hit, but the others tore up the ground around his feet, sending pieces of turf and earth spraying into the air, blackening and cratering the hillside. The Trebuchet's three lasers quickly followed the missiles, two melting their way through the last traces of armour on his left arm, and liquifying the foamed aluminium bones. The third somehow missed, but before he had registered the extent of the damage, the Stinger had taken another pace, bringing it into the view of a Crusader that had been blocked from sight by the trees. The Crusader followed the example of the Trebuchet, letting loose a twin volley from the LRM packs mounted on the shoulder armour of its arms. These thirty missiles were more than the Stinger could handle, and as they peppered the front of its chest, the last vestiges of armour and internal skeleton fragmented. As his Stinger now blew apart from computer simulated damage, Matt was also ejected, but unfortunately had less luck than Dyllard. As the top of the Stinger's head blew off, the ejector seat was fired up through the gap, but Matt caught his arm on the frame, and there was a nasty crack as the seat spun free. He was still conscious as he landed behind his now silent Stinger, but it felt as though something had broken in his arm, from the pain, and also the faint grating noise that could be heard as the seat jolted down.

Dyllard gave a wave of thanks to the Trebuchet and Crusader before running further away from the trees. Some of the buildings would provide him with better cover until the command crew could send a jeep to pick him up. Behind him he could hear the roar of autocannon, as the Eagle's tank lance opened fire of the Phoenix Hawk that had foolishly jumped into their midst. The lance had held its position rather than retreating, just moving their turrets to track the Phoenix Hawk as it jumped past. As a result, three of the tanks had achieved a target lock, and two autocannon 10s and an autocannon 5 cut swathes of destruction across the Hawk's pristine armour, the two Leopard medium tanks following up with their SRMs. Dyllard was pleased that they seemed to have overcome their previous problems - all four tanks had managed to miss the Mongoose as it ran towards them just before his Stinger had bought it.

Over on the other side of the battlefield, the Golden Legion's mechanized laser infantry platoon were making their move. Their Warrior mechanized combat vehicles were speeding across the edge of the large hill on the outskirts of the city, pursued by three APCs from the Eagle's own laser platoon. At the top of the hill, six of the Eagle's laser infantry stood at the windows of the Tudor mansion and watched. They had been "killed" when a simulated artillery strike from the Eagles had hit the mansion, destroying half of it as far as the Dragoon's computers were concerned. Another of the laser squads fired from their position in the surviving part of the mansion, and their APC added its machine gun, severely damaging one of the Warriors. The Warriors returned fire, with most of the APCs on both sides taking light damage.

At the bottom of the hill, the Cougar fire support vehicle and the SRM carrying scout car that the Eagles had sent in to support the infantry lay silent, both having been destroyed in the battle that still raged between the Legion's tank lance of two Challengers and two Von Luckners, and the Eagle's Wolverine. A Legion Rifleman stood nearby, trying to move behind the Wolverine and cut through the weak rear armour with ultra-autocannon and laser fire. A Legion Hunchback was also closing in, having already taken out the SRM carrier.

Nearby, a Warhammer and Marauder tried to slow the Legion advance by concentrating their fire of the Goliath that strode towards them. PPC and laser fire cut huge slabs of armour away, but it didn't even slow. It, and the Atlas beside it let fly with their huge Gauss rifles, followed by missile flights from their LRM20 and two LRM10s. The Marauder staggered as the entire left torso collapsed, the arm falling to the floor, disintegrating as it went. The armour across its chest was also destroyed, and huge sections of the torso fell away. The fusion engine and gyro lay exposed, just waiting for the lightest of touches to send the entire Mech collapsing to the ground, but, incredibly, it remained upright. The Eagle's Dragon standing next to it returned fire with autocannon and LRMs, but to little effect.

Things were going better at the Eagle's command bunker. As a Ferret scout car and a Landrover hurtled toward the bunker, the defenders made ready. The SRM platoon leapt into action, spreading out across the car park and roof of the bunker, as the jeep weapons carrier on the roof helipad turned towards the ramp down. It turned out that the weapons carrier was unnecessary, as one squad sent its SRMs through the front armour of the Ferret, and the next squad sent a volley through the expanding computer generated fireball, into the following Landrover. Above the explosions was heard the sound of 'Mech footsteps and jump jets, as the Legion Mongoose sprinted towards the command bunker, closely pursued by an Eagle Firestarter, leaping over the intervening woods. An Eagle's Wasp ran towards the Mongoose as well, closing from another direction...