Mech Battle 2 - Raid on Ramsau
Written by BlackPhoenix
Part 1 - The Orders
Dark Wizard took the envelope handed him by the young cadet and entered his small
office making sure that the door was closed firmly behind him. He sat down at the
desk and adjusted the light to shine on the red letters on the front.
"Dark Wizard……Eyes Only"
He hated this cloak and dagger stuff, but welcome to the command staff. He
flipped the envelope to look at the back. In a heavy wax was the seal of the KHAN,
holding the flaps closed. He broke the seal and settled back in the chair to read
the contents.
"….. Good morning, DW. Sorry about this falling to you, but I had no idea
where else to turn. Comstar is getting rather pushy and needs a reality check. Their
forces are spreading out in all directions and this must be stopped. It is felt that a
small attack on their home world will force Comstar to recall some of its forces for
defense of their home planet and slow their expansion. This tactic is not condoned by the
council and has never been used before. Because of your flare for the unusual and command
abilities this is now your suggestion. On Ramsau the home world of Comstar, they maintain
a private compound for the clan high command. It is a weapons development center also. A
quick clean attack could get in and out of this area. Causing as much destruction and
damage as possible. It is believed that any damage at all will have a devastating effect
on moral and cause Comstar to re-think their plans.
I am sorry to say that you will not have any support that can be traced. There can be
no rescue, even if asked for, and if any of your force is caught or killed the clan
leadership will be forced to disavow any knowledge of this action. The personal for this
mission MUST be volunteers and will be given extended leave at once for personal reasons.
I wish there were another way. Good luck. RD."
Crap! Was the only thing to come to mind. DW went to the basin to splash
some water on his face. As he looked up, he gazed into his own reflection.
"And you wanted to be on the command staff, STUPID!" He threw the towel he
was holding at the person in the mirror and headed for the barracks.
Part 2 - The Raid
Ramsau was a beautiful planet, the pride of the Comstar Empire. They held it up to new
worlds as an example of their power. The Command compound was on the other side of the
planet from the one large city. The compound was the pinnacle of what little beauty
Comstar had plundered from the galaxy. The marble walls of the Comstar hall, along with
the shining quartz of the hall of honor stood in contrast to the weapons buildings and the
stark area for mech repair. Security was at a minimum, who would dare attack the
headquarters of the most powerful clan in the universe. Or so their pathetic little minds
thought.
Nova Colonel "Q" was in charge of the base at Ramsau. It was quite an honor
to be in charge on the main headquarters of Comstar, and being posted to home world duty
was the best a warrior could hope for. After a heavy day of paper work and supply forms he
had just settled down to a quiet evening of music and relaxation. As his eyes slowly
closed into a sleep of peace the comstation started its annoying chatter. Raising with a
sigh he headed for the console.
"Colonel Q here, report."
"Um sir, this is the observation tower, um we um well sir, um…."
"Spit it out warrior, what is it?" he demanded in his best command voice.
"Well sir the duty officer is off base and we didn’t know what to do
sir" was the uncertain response.
"About what son, just tell me what you got."
"We think there is a situation out side the west wall, but we are not sure what it
is sir."
"Well what does it look like to you son?" trying to calm an excited young
warrior with fatherly calm.
"Well sir, don’t think I’ve been drinking or anything but it looks like
a dancing Warhammer." The voice trailed off.
"A what?" was his only stunned reply.
"I swear sir, it looks like a Warhammer dancing outside the west wall." A
touch of fear could be heard in the young mans voice.
"I will be right there son." Q turned off the comlink and headed for the
door. Some drunken pilot out for a joyride. Boy at times ……
On his way across the compound Q called the maintenance shed, all Mechs were accounted
for Warhammers or any mechs for that much. He approached the tower in the middle of the
compound, it was 150 feet high and the entire countryside could be seen from there. He
used the lift to get to the top and entered the small room where the guards stood watch.
Two very nervous and YOUNG cadets stood there trying to look the best they could.
"Sir, sorry to bother you, Sir." Standing at attention,
looking straight ahead and saluting as best they could.
"What you got for me son?" He asked giving a halfhearted salute in return.
The one cadet that had called moved forward and pointed out the west window.
"There sir." The other cadet dared not move from fear in front of the commander
he had never seen before.
Q looked out the window and saw nothing. He looked back at the young cadet,
"Where son?" The cadet looked out the window in a panic attack, that the
reason he called the commander here was a figment of his imagination. Then with a loud
sigh of relief,
"There sir."
Q turned and looked in the general direction of the place the man was pointing. And to
his surprise a shape could be seen moving out from a pile of rocks. Q strained to see what
exactly it was. The young cadet tapped the Colonel on the shoulder and handed him a pair
of binoculars. Q held them to his eyes and turned the knob to focus them. There was a mech
there all right and it did appear to be a Warhammer. Thinking this kid might not be that
dumb after all, he looked closer at the machine. It did in fact appear to be just dancing
around out there in the open. Why would any fool be out at this time of night just dancing
around in a bright yellow mech.
Panic seared into the pit of Q’s stomach, and sweat broke out on his forehead. He
crammed the glasses to his eyes in the hope he was seeing things.
"WHERE IS THE ALARM BUTTON!!!!" looking about frantically "WHERE THE
HELL IS THE ALARM BUTTON!!!!!"
The cadet watched in disbelief as their commander was throwing things about the
guardroom looking for the alarm button. Finally one of the cadets pointed to the far wall
and shouted "THERE". Q dove for the button, and pandemonium broke in the
compound. The loud claxon was reverberating from everywhere. Q grabbed the intercom mike
and was screaming over the P.A.
"INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT, ALL MEN TO THE WEST WALL, ALL MEN TO THE WEST
WALL, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, THIS IS NOT A DRILL, ……"
Men ran half-dressed from the barracks, dragging weapons and clothing with them. Q
raised the glasses to his eyes again and looked for the Warhammer. Finally it came into
focus. It was moving fast and much closer that before, flanked by 2 others moving at full
speed headed for the main compound. They cleared the wall with ease and their AC’s
left streaks of fire in the evening light. The sound of ac fire was lost in the rapid
sounds of explosions from the other end of the compound. Q turned in time to see at least
6 other mechs coming in from the east missiles destroying everything in sight. One of the
black mechs from the west was off the ground and headed for the tower. Q pushed the cadets
out the door and was in he air himself. The Warhammer landed right on the tower stand
crushing the guardroom and managing to stay up there. Launching missiles as fast as they
would reload. Q pushed the cadets into a bunker and decided to wait out the battle in this
small bit of safety. The Battle lasted 15 minutes tops, but for the FORMER commander of
the homeworld security force it was as long as his career.
Part 3 - The Consequences
The Khans office was impressive, the polished oak and glistening stone was designed to
impress and that it did. The three officers stood about just leaning and waiting. They had
been here for almost an hour, and boredom was sitting in. They knew they were in major
trouble, but the specifics were yet to be known. Nightowl opened the door.
"Hail the Khan!" he shouted.
The warriors jumped to attention and saluted.
"Fall in" DarkWizard commanded and the officers formed a line if front of the
big desk.
"Gentlemen" greeted the Khan as he took his seat. "This was just
supposed to be a quick little raid, in and out. Fast, clean and gone. BUT! That is not
what happened, is it? I have been on the satellite link with Comstar all day, denying
knowledge of this incident. You gentlemen make that hard." Stepping around the desk
to stand in front of BlackPhoenix. "It appears that a group of mechs of unknown
origin broke off from the attack and raided the Hall of Honor belonging to Comstar. One of
these unknown mechs stood on the observation tower and covered the other two by blowing up
anything and everything in sight. While these 2 mechs used a large laser to cut the dome
off of the Hall and dump in 4 tons of human waste onto the marble floors. They then turned
the dome upside down, and put it in like a big cork. They then burned and I quote
"TELL THE KHAN B.P. WAS HERE." On to the underside of the dome. Can you explain
this Nova Captain?"
"NO SIR, I can not sir, I did not dump 4 tons of waste on Comstar SIR." The
Khan stared in disbelief. "It was 6 tons sir, and I take complete responsibility for
the actions committed by the men under my command Sir."
"But of course you do Nova Captain, I would expect nothing else." Was the
Khans reply as he moved to stand in front of ProPhet. "Star Captain ProPhet, it seems
that a second group broke away after the battle to destroy the water and sanitation
complex for the city of Ramsau. It will take years for these to be useable again, and the
city is with out power for at least 3 weeks. Would you have any Idea what happened Star
Captain?"
Star Captain ProPhet snapped a salute and replied. "SIR I accept full
responsibility for the actions committed by the men under my command Sir." The Khan
just shook his head and moved
"DarkWizard," Reddragon was looking at the floor shaking his head. "IF I
had issued orders for a raid it would have been a lightening attack, what happened?"
"I received no orders for this sir." Was the reply.
"True" was the Khans answer. "But can you explain something for me? It
seems that someone of unknown origin stole 47 flats, FLATS of Comstar beer from the
storage facilities. Then loaded those flats onto the private ship of the Commander of
Comstar and then stole the ship and left for parts unknown. DO you realize that it is over
20 TONS OF BEER." The Khan was a little red in the face. "TONS jeez."
No one said a word. Reddragon paced back to his desk and sat down with a flop into the
chair. He felt old right now.
"You and your men will report to Altier 6 for guard duty until further
notice." He said in a voice just loud enough to be heard.
"But sir Altier is an automated listening post on the rim" Injected DW.
"I know that, but you guys are hot. There is nothing to get you in trouble there.
Comstar keeps an Automated station there on the opposite side of the planet, just leave it
alone and don’t do ANYTHING! Just guard the facilities and behave. You are all
dismissed." A short salute was given to the officers and they turned to leave.
Nightowl opened the door and closed it behind them.
"Well I guess we went to far this time." Whispered ProPhet
Dark Wizard held up a finger and pulled a listening device from his inside pocket. He
headed for the door. The Cadet on duty moved to block his way. Dark Wizard just looked at
him and the man resumed his position. He placed the pick-up next to the door and turned on
the tiny speaker. Quietly but loud enough to be heard laughter came from the small unit.
With a group smile the officers head for their new assignment.
On planet Altier6, DW. sat at the command console talking into the comlink.
"Milwaukee one you have clearance to land, just put it down in the middle of the
compound bro."
The sounds of engines were getting louder. DW. headed out side.
It was the personal ship of the Comstar Khan settling down on its landing skids. The
doors opened and Rasp jumped to the ground.
" Your booze boss." He said s he snapped a salute to DW.
"Well at least we won’t go thirsty." Was all that was said as he head
into the ship. Stein in hand.
Final - The Aftermath
It had been a long day. Boy was Comstar pissed. Despite the concentrated efforts of
Ambassador Tamer, the Galaxy Commander from Comstar insisted on a video audience with the
Khan. So Reddragon, Ambassador Tamer and SaKhan Nightowl were here waiting. The Link
became active. RD adjusted the camera so he was the only one in the frame and greeted the
Galaxy Commander.
"Hello Commander how can I help you?" Diplomacy sucks.
"It is about time" was the curt reply "I have been trying to get to you
all day. I see you have your trained robots keeping people out of the way while you commit
acts of aggression against peaceful people."
At this comment Ambassador Tamer rose to her feet and showing her middle finger to the
screen, stormed out of the room. Reddragon watched her leave and muttered "Perfect.
Oh what commander …nothing please continue."
And this was just the beginning.