Yellow Breeches Creek
Caripare
Irece Prefecture
Draconis Combine
July 3152
Po Ding stopped his Jade Phoenix at the edge of the woodline and surveyed the scene before him. A substantial creek flowed through the gentle valley in front of him. It was the perfect place from which to fight. There was significant enough foliage on the banks to provide cover for his BattleArmor, and the slope up the other side was gentle enough to be easily traversed by BattleMechs.
Yes, this would be a good place for battle. He knew the enemy was out there, Max's patrols had spotted them moving towards this area only moments before. On learning the location of the enemy main body, Po had released Max to ride wide around the enemy flanks in search of one of the convoys of seeds that intelligence had said passed through this region regularly. Now Po would engage the enemy while Max secured their loot. The plan was perfect. They had run this mission before. They were good at it. Hell, they were great at it.
"Contact, about a thousand meters front, Master Po!" Ban-zhang Allison Burkett called over the comms. She piloted a Warhammer IIC and was stationed about one hundred and fifty meters to his left. He scanned his vision and picked up some movement in the treeline across the creek. Then he caught sight of another. The enemy was in the woods opposite them, mirroring their position and deployment. Po could make out at least three mechs in the woods.
A Schreck tank rumbled over a low ridgeline, exposing only it's turret enough to get a shot off, sending a PPC bolt and two clusters of Autocannon flechettes, striking Burkett's Warhammer and staggering it briefly. Burkett responded with her Large Lasers, but could hit only a glancing blow to the exposed turret before the Schrek backed down behind into cover.
"Ahn, deploy on the flanks. Let us try to bait the enemy into coming out of their cover."
In response Pai-zhang Ahn sent several Maxim transports forward at high speed on their airskirts on both the right and left flank of Po's position. They bounded with incredible speed across the open territory until they reached the next available cover, where they promptly disgorged their contingents of BattleArmored troopers from their back bay doors. The troopers scurried into the woods and were almost invisible with their stealth armor.
Several of the Maxims on his left exchanged fire with something Po could not see, but he saw the return fire in the form of a Gauss Rifle slug that crashed into the hover transport's delicate motive systems, sending it crashing to the ground.
"Into the creek, let us draw them out of their cover."
His mechs advanced out of the trees at full speed, bounding down into the cooling waters of the creek below. He triggered his jump jets and lurched forward to join them, softening his landing by flexing his Mech's knees as he landed in the water. The water rose about to the level of his Mech's knees, and would provide some cover and ample cooling benefits.
He took fire from the tree line ahead, a PPC bolt from an enemy Tenshi that barely emerged from the woods. It was now that he got the first sign that something was very wrong. The Mech was colored a blazing red, and he recognized the flaming sword insignia of the elite Sword of Light regiments of the Draconis Combine. These were no mere militia. Something was awry.
At that moment, two mechs burst from the cover for the trees, a Shiro and a No-Dachi, each sporting a giant Mech-sized sword. Both designed to look like samurai, the mechs charged forward, the Shiro coming straight towards him.
The Schrek also reappeared and began peppering the Warhammer Po's left with autocannon submunitions and PPC blasts. The Shiro unleashed a hail of forty long range missiles in Po's direction, and they scattered over the frontal armor of his mech, one rattling off the cockpit glass and shaking Po in his command couch. As if that were not enough, it added fire from it's clan-spec ER PPC, striking Po's leg and coring enough armor off that Po could not maintain his machine's balance. The gyro whirred in protest, but despite his best efforts, his Jade Phoenix crashed onto it's back in the water.
Enough of this. This is a real fight, you must rise to the occasion, Po. He quickly righted his Mech, and seeing the Shiro still charging towards him, he lowered his crosshairs onto the samurai-like form of the Mech.
"Shut that Shiro down!" was the command he gave over the comms. The Shiro fired another blast from it's weapons, but Po managed to weather this fusillade more steadily than the last, in spite of taking some heavy damage.
The Warhammer to his left, having just fired it's Large Lasers and cored into the turret of the Schrek immediately turned it's torso and unleased both of it's Plasma cannons into the running Shiro. Immense heat was transferred onto the target, and the Shiro slowed somewhat in it's charge. Now was time for Po to add the final blow.
He pulled into all of his weapons triggers, sending his medium lasers burring armor from the mech's legs. The stream of slugs from his Hyper-Assault Gauss rifle stung the Shiro squarely in the chest, followed by his Large Pulse Laser.
Finally, his own Plasma cannon fired a shot of white hot plasma into the enemy torso, striking it squarely. The Shiro had had enough. The withering fire, combined with the heat, sent it crashing onto it's back in the throws of heat-induced shutdown. Po resisted the urge to laugh as he watched the heat visibly radiating from the downed Mech.
The Black Hawk KU to his right was just itself standing up from having been knocked down by a withering fire from the No-Dachi hurdling towards it. The mech was trading well with his opponent, but this fight was getting too tight.
As the Black Hawk's lasers peppered all over the Kuritan Mech, Po took careful aim and shot a line of supersonic slugs from his HAG-30 into the charging beast, cutting it off at the knee and sending it planting face first into the ground.
Po turned his attention now back to the Tenshi at the woodline. His warrior in a Mad Cat had charged from the cover of the creek to bring it's deadly weapons in line and was hammering the Tenshi with a seemingly endless hail of slugs from it's Class-twenty Ultra Autocannon. The Tenshi was withstanding the fire with practice grace that Po made note of. The warrior piloting it was a master, keeping their machine upright in spite of tremendous damage.
With an almost casual and deadly gracefulness, it raised it's PPC arm and sent a blast of lightning coring through the Mad Cat's canopy glass and smashing the cockpit inside, sending the machine nose first into the dirt with nothing but the smoking hole remaining where once the warrior had been.
This fight was not going as planned. They were holding their own, but were rapidly approaching their combat loss groupings, the stage where Mech's would begin to fall like flies. These warriors were unlike any that he had faced thus far. Discretion was going to be the better part of valor, he suspected, in this fight. His mind began working on an exit strategy, even as he realized that he would have to face down the enemy Tenshi before the battle was over.
As if reading his mind, the Tenshi fired it's PPC, gouging armor from his right torso. It's other arm lit up with a bright flash and an almost imperceptible pulse of energy slammed into his mech. As it did, his cockpit systems flickered for a moment. The automatic shutdown sequence began to initiate, but Po was able to slap the override in time to avoid his mech becoming incapacitated.
The enemy mech was mounting a TSEMP cannon, a Tight-Stream Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapon designed to incapacitate a mech in a single shot. He would have to be wary of that arm moving forward, as he could not afford to shutdown in front of such a skilled warrior.
Po returned fire, hitting with his HAG all over the enemy torso and adding his Pulse laser melting armor from the Mechs leg. This was going to be a long, drawn-out fight. He triggered his jump jets just in time to dodge a blast from the enemy PPC. As he landed in the water again, he was struck again by the TSEMP cannon.
Again he slapped the override switch, and for a brief second, his Mech contemplated shutdown, but it ultimately did not betray him and remained alive.
This cannot go on much longer. We must withdraw from this fight and link up with Max.
His though was interrupted by a transmission that blared across all open frequencies.
"This is Star Colonel Colleen Ravenwater of the Eleventh Mechanized Cluster of Clan Hell's Horses. I have come to this world to conquer it, and will destroy any and all opposition that faces me. I offer no batchall and my bid is my entire force with which I will wipe you out. I have spotted the craft of the treacherous Po Ding in system. If you are here, Po Ding, I have come to crush you and any of your feeble allies. To the garrison commander of this world, get in my way or do not, I will destroy you just the same. The horde has come to Caripare, and you will feel its wrath!"
Po Ding laughed softly in the quiet confines of his cockpit. He pondered a reply, but thought better of it. There was no need to antagonize at this point. There was, however, a problem facing him right now. He keyed a comm line to the enemy.
"Sword of Light Commander, this is Po Ding, Shao-zhang of House Po Ding. I came to this world with the intent of raiding it for grain in the name of the Alyina Mercantile League. You fight an honorable fight, and your skill honors me. But it would seem that we have a more pressing enemy to deal with at the moment. I would suggest that we Parlay so that we may discuss a ceasefire and cooperation in fighting these raging Clan hordes."
He waited for what seemed like an eternity. Neither side moved or fired. In reality, it was only perhaps a few seconds before the enemy commander responded to him.
"I hear your words, Po Ding. I am Sho-sa Jade Takahashi of the Thirteenth Sword of Light Regiment, honor bound to defend this planet on behalf of the Dragon. Your force is unknown to me, but you have acquitted yourself well on the field today. I grant your request for a Parlay."
The woman's voice paused for a brief moment before continuing. "My satellites say that the Clan force is several days burn from planetfall still. Let us both withdraw and tend to our wounds, and meet again to discuss this situation tomorrow. I will transmit the coordinates to you shortly, and will offer you safe passage to the meeting. Is this acceptable?"
"Yes, it is most acceptable, Sho-sa. I will meet you tomorrow at the appointed time."
Things were about to get very interesting.
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