"Battle for Katabatic"

Team 3 gets in the mix...

Okay, read on, read on...

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The shuttle was vibrating so badly by now that the Dragon Wolves in the back were afraid they weren’t even going to make the drop. Doomhawk glanced over at ShadowSpawn, then at Oed, Metallica77, Pumpmonkey and the rest of Team 3. They were all hanging onto their seats and trying to keep from banging around too much. The shuttle was just not designed to handle this type of maneuvering and it was beginning to tell. Finally the ship leveled off and the bay door began to unwind. The jump light began to flash and the warriors all grabbed the handles that were attached to the jump seats in the ore hold. The custom designed jump seats were taken from an ordinary dropship and converted to use for this specific battle. The ore ship had been left basically the same, besides the ore hold, which was radically different from the original configuration. The jump seats were not the only thing taking up space in the hold. There was a Havoc transport also! Even now, Schrike, Praetor-Vong, Racewiz, and qor72 were unsnapping their harnesses and heading to the big transport to prep it for the attack. Schrike climbed up into the cockpit and began the pre-jump run-up. The other three CDL warriors climbed aboard and settled in for the wild ride to the planet’s surface. The ship wasn’t taking any fire at the moment, probably because the other teams were absorbing all the attention from the ground.
“Havoc power generator going on line. Watch for static surge!” Schrike calls to his teammates. He mashes the power transfer button and the Havoc thrums to life under its own power, switching away from the shuttle power grid. The hair on Schrike’s arms stands up for a second then calms as the static charge subsides. The bay door is open and the snow and wind howl into the bay as the shuttle comes to a total stop in the air above the TRA base. They would be sitting ducks if they were the only target in the sky, but h0micide had planned this well, accounting for the massive confusion caused by the surprise of more than one ship appearing in the skies over the base. The shuttle hovered, waiting for its warriors to unload. The Havoc is inched forward by Schrike, and the jump seats in the bay fall in behind the Havoc moving on rails leading to the end of the bay and pointing out into the sky. The transport picks up speed and then slides out into the sky, followed by the jump seats, which stop about ten feet from the end of the ramp. The Dragon Wolves stand up and walk to the edge of the ramp, and look at each other: Pumpmonkey, Oed, Metallica77, Doomhawk, and ShadowSpawn. They all salute and as a team, jump out into the air. The free fall is exhilarating to them as they fall speeding to the planet’s surface. They are in a line, each one with one hand on their parachute release handle. ShadowSpawn glances at his teammates, and smiling, signals for the release. As a unit, they all yank the handles and their white camouflaged chutes pop open and yank them to a slower descent. The warriors checked their weapons, and some readied their mortars to drop a few preliminary rounds below them. The skies are filled with anti-air blasts, rocket trails, and other chutes from Team 2. They are below the Team 3 warriors as they had used the LAPES to drop and were already some of them hitting the ground. Team 3’s area of concern was near the vehicle pad of the TRA base. The TRA warriors were just now beginning to congregate there, probably dialing in their vehicle selections even now. Doomhawk tries to arch a mortar round right into the midst of the TRA warriors, but manages only to catch a few on the periphery of the blast radius. Those warriors are blown into the others though, and the blood and gore and flying pieces of armor scattered in the group of survivors delays any vehicles being generated for the moment. The surviving warriors are busy seeking cover and trying to see where the mortar round came from. The ground is still a long way off, and the CDL warriors of Team 3 are impatient to get out of the air and on the relative safety of the ground. Anti-air shots and a few remaining missiles still scream by, making the trip down harrowing. The warriors of Team 2 are all down, it appears and were already establishing a fire zone and perimeter. They were slowly working their way towards the Team 3 drop zone to help minimize enemy activity directly underneath the still falling warriors. Team 1 was also still dropping, as it appeared they were slightly behind schedule. The arrest-cables connected to the jump seats of Team 1 were almost played out and the Team seemed ready to eject from their seats to the ground. Oed saw the Team 1 warriors suddenly hit the end of the arrest-cable length and jolt to a stop, braced by the seats. Then the seats kicked forward, dumping the waiting warriors onto the ground on their feet. The moment the Team 1 warriors cleared their seats, the arrest-cables were supposed to retract quickly back to Dragonmother. Something went terribly wrong. The warriors had just cleared the seats when the cables started their retraction, then stopped with a jerk, and then went slack, dropping the seats right back onto the ground and hitting at least one of the Dragon Wolves already on the ground. From what Oed could make out, it had swung into the warrior’s back, knocking him or her down and pinning the person under it. The mass of cables all fell amongst the warriors, knocking some more of them down and smashing the seats into the ground. Evidently something had destroyed the coil or Dragonmother! Oed jerked his head up and quickly scanned the sky for the dropship. With a sigh of relief he saw Dragonmother still flying, but there was smoke issuing from the drop bay. She seemed to hesitate for a moment, then banked and shot into the cloud cover, oily smoke trailing behind her. Hopefully she could gain orbit again, Oed thought to himself. He looked back down at the mess on the ground, now a lot closer. The Dragon Wolves that had not been struck by falling cables and seats were now helping their fellow CDL and getting the ones that could still walk back on their feet and to cover from the reacting TRA soldiers. Oed noticed some movement from what appeared to be supplies warehouse about 300 feet from the drop zone of Team 1. A group of TRA warriors had recovered enough and were pressing their attack right at the unaware and injured members of Team 1! They had begun to lob grenades into the area, and Team 1 was starting to come under direct fire. Oed made a decision and broke com silence.
“Claw 3, Talon 2… fire suppression needed at three 0’clock, up 300 feet. Drop three mortars, check fire, then fire for effect, over,” he ordered the warriors.
“Copy,” replied Doomhawk.
“Copy,” replied Praetor-Vong. The two warriors began a walking barrage of mortars that caught the attacking TRA warriors by surprise. They had just began to cross an open field slightly lower than the surrounding terrain. This was good for affording them cover when attacking the CDL warriors, but from above, it allowed the two CDL warriors dropping mortars to simply hit the area and let the mortars roll into the group of TRA men. Accuracy was not as needed due to the bowl shaped field. It was over very quickly. After two salvos of mortars from each, the field was a churned up mess of mud, blood and ravaged pieces of armor. The attacking TRA warriors were obliterated. But the breaking of the com blackout had its own repercussions. The TRA ground defense was equipped with sophisticated anti-air weapons that included com searching radar. The moment the Team 3 troops had keyed their mics, the weapons alertly locked and fired a series of deadly flechettes resembling oversized chaingun shells. Even now the rounds were bearing down hyper-sonically on the hapless CDL troops hanging from their chutes, and riding in the Havoc. The first rounds struck the Havoc, but it absorbed almost all the damage intended for Praetor-Vong. The Havoc keeled over under the impact, but Schrike’s deft maneuvering kept her in the air. Oed and Doomhawk experienced the full blast of the rounds. Most of them struck Oed first, then ripped by and struck Doomhawk next. Both warriors were knocked almost out of their parachute harnesses and the force of the impact blew them both sideways and level with their canopies. Oed was instantly knocked unconscious. His armor was breached in six different places, the back plates hanging loose dangling from a few remaining riveted places. He hung limp from the parachute, blood seeping through some of the holes in his armor, dropping in a red rain to the closing ground below. Doomhawk had tried to shift sideways to avoid taking the projectiles face-on, but had only managed partially. The flechettes tore into his armor plating nearly taking the front plates off the jug armor. His left arm plates were stripped completely off, exposing his insulation and padding to the frigid air. The blast of cold air stung like a thousand hornets, but he barely felt that along with the impact. His mortar was totally destroyed. The very fact he had shifted had allowed the flechettes to impact his weapon more than his armor and that alone saved his life. He swung wildly until his weight settled him back to hang properly. His head was pounding from the impact and his left arm was getting numb from the cold. He reached to his repair kit panel and mashed the self-repair button. The armor began the instant self-repair process. It wasn’t a complete repair for the whole armor, but it would usually reestablish his suit integrity against the outside elements. The armor plating around his arm soaked most of the repair kit up in reforming a thin seal against the planet’s air. But it was enough, as Doomhawk felt the arm begin to warm from his suit’s heating element.
Oed was not so fortunate. He was unconscious and the repair kit activation had been destroyed in the impact. It would have to be activated manually. Schrike, seeing this happen from the cockpit of the Havoc, got the vehicle under control and began to maneuver the ungainly craft towards the falling Oed. It was difficult, trying to edge in and not injure the limp warrior. Praetor was standing in his seat, trying to steady himself and reaching out to grab Oed and maybe guide him into the Havoc. Racewiz and qor72 were also straining to help, standing in their seats awkwardly. The ground fire from the anti-air units of the TRA warriors had begun to pick up again, since Dragonmother had left the area. The Havoc was a juicy target for the ground crews. One such crew had locked onto the Havoc’s exhaust and had just pressed the fire release for a salvo of missiles. The high-energy missiles screamed towards their target, mindlessly seeking to fulfill their mission of destruction. The Havoc crew had no clue they were getting ready to be shot down from the sky. Suddenly, as the missiles had just about reached their intended target, the massive shuttle they had left earlier, piloted by a lone CDL warrior left to run the shuttle and return to orbit, flew directly into the group of warheads exploding them and the shuttle in a huge ball of fire. The explosion was mostly on the opposite side of the shuttle from the Havoc, so the brunt of the fireball went away from them. But a good portion of shrapnel from the thick hull of the shuttle and a large section of the shuttle itself was blown into the Havoc, causing it to slew sideways and tangle Oed’s chute cords in its antennae. The group on board manages to grab Oed. A large chunk of shuttle had flown towards the unconscious warrior, but qor72 threw himself into the path, taking most of the impact on his own medium armor. Although it didn’t tear his armor up too bad, he too was forced to use his repair kit to enable self-repairs. It did keep the chunk of steel from further injuring Oed. Team 3 approached the ground intact, but badly mauled for being in battle for less than twenty minutes.

 

Hmmm, I think the MPB ends up getting blown before the portal can be operative... not sure...

 

NEXT!!!

Here we go, more battle! w00t!
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Manitou dragged the unconscious Great Dane to cover behind a small rise in the terrain. Grenades and a mortar round or two thumped around them throwing dirt and muddy snow all over them and into the air. GroovieMan was returning fire blindly as the attacking enemy was over a rise and couldn’t be directly seen. The TRA attackers were lobbing more and more ordinance as they approached and the Team 1 warriors were being forced into a small pocket of ground that would soon become a slaughtering field if the TRA attackers were able to zero their weapons. Manitou was near frantic trying to get his Team to cover before he lost any of them. Testflight and American Psycho were dragging a bleeding MuTeD over to join Manitou and the rest of Team 1 huddled behind the small hill. Diocletian was busy returning fire with grenades and a few disc shots. Arglaar had set up his remote inventory and was looking for the opportunity to establish some type of defense so that they would not be wiped out within ten minutes of landing. Marsman was furiously re-scripting his PDA to jam any sensor nets established locally. He flinched each time a mortar round landed nearby, throwing more dirty snow and rocks over all of them. Pan, RaptorMax and SwiftasFeather were working around the end of the small rise, trying to flank the attackers and get some relief from the intense fire. Asmodeus and h0micide were taking laser rifle shots, hoping to thin the attackers out that way, but not getting the opportunities they needed. The raining grenades and mortars constantly pinned them down. Fortunately nobody had been killed outright, although MuTeD’s wounds appeared bad. The arrest-cables that normally served to safely drop the Dragon Wolves to landing zones actually had landed directly on MuTeD when the coil had given way. He had been stunned and when he had tried to crawl out, a series of grenade blasts had turned the arrest-cables into deadly shrapnel that had splintered his armor plating and pierced his body in a few places. Manitou crawled over to where AP and test had stopped with MuTeD, both of them working to get his armor repair kit activated manually. MuTeD’s helmet was torn partway off and his face was exposed to the elements. He was slightly conscious now and when Manitou approached he tried to sit up some. Manitou hand signaled for him to remain prone, and he pressed on the warrior’s shoulder slightly to keep him from fighting to sit up. Manitou’s heart almost stopped when he saw his comrade’s wounds. They were horrible. MuTeD should be dead from the wounds he had received. It was a testament to the warrior’s sheer toughness that he had not been killed instantly. His blood steadily seeped onto the ground, staining the snow around him a deep crimson red. Steam was rising from his body where the armor was pierced and the cold air bled away his vital body warmth. Manitou commed his mic for Team com.
“MuT! Stay calm! We will get you dusted as soon as we get your armor repair kit functioning!” he shouted into his mic frantically.
“Mani…” MuTeD could barely speak, and blood flecked his mouth. It was frothy blood; his lungs had been hit. “Make sure my family gets my letter, and they get my Dragon Wolf head.”
“You are going to be fine!” Manitou replies, glancing at AP. AP simply shakes his head slowly, not able to get the repair kit functioning. Manitou knows that MuTeD realizes his plight. He does not carry on a charade but sends the fellow Dragon Wolf into eternity with honor. “They will know you fought with honor. We will exact our vengeance, MuT. Go now with Valor and find your Victory in the Final Dragon Wolf Lair.” MuTeD smiles painfully, and with his last strength, salutes his teammates, then dies. AP grimaces and looks at test. This is the first battle death she has ever seen, and for it to be one of her own is devastating. She looks at Manitou and AP, and then sets her jaw.
“Manitou, when we find the vile crap that infests this planet, I will not be denied my vengeance. I will kill until they cry for their homes,” she states in a flat voice. Manitou and AP simply nod. AP removes the small bolt that is attached to the back of MuTeD’s armor. Every CDL warrior has similar attachments. The CDL call them “death-bolts” and rarely are they ever used. Reason being is they are only pulled when a CDL warrior died. It basically activates a cremation process fueled by an internal one-shot fusion battery. It just overheats a series of elements threaded throughout the CDL warriors’ armors and cremates the body of the fallen warrior. This served to prevent capture by enemy soldiers and utilization of CDL technology. The three of them kneel there in the bloody snow as the suit begins to break down into molecular plasma. Thos not busy firing back at the attacking TRA stare at their brother as he enters the Lair of Honor. Just about that time, the sound of incoming mortars from above signals some fire support from somewhere. Manitou looks skyward and sees what appear to be Team 3 troops firing on the attacking TRA. The mortars arch overhead and land with a low crumping sound over the rise. The sounds of explosions and a wave of debris washed over the CDL warriors pinned down in their group. Then the incoming fire ceased completely. GroovieMan ran up and commed to Manitou.
“Mani! The Team 3 guys just OWNED that group attacking us! OH MY GOD, they wiped the whole company out!” Groov almost shouted over the com. Then he noticed the Dragon Wolf head lying in the snow in front of Manitou, AP and testflight. It shined brilliantly in the blood-soaked snow. It pulsed with an inner light, and seemed to be made of the most brilliantly clear diamond. Manitou glanced at Groov and reached down to pick up MuTeD’s Dragon Wolf head. The head was scripted to be all that remained of the warrior when he died. It was a composite from his armor and body tissue and all the equipment he wore. Every Dragon Wolf head was different but they were recognized anywhere in the Rim systems and surrounding areas. They were priceless, but nobody had ever taken one for barter after the death of a Dragon Wolf. The CDL had only allowed that once, and the Clan that the warrior belonged to who had taken it and sold it no longer existed. They had been burned from existence by the fierce heat of the Dragon Wolves vengeance upon them. It was a message well understood by anyone seeking to gain from the sale of one of them. The head gleamed beautifully in Manitou’s armored glove. He stowed it in a compartment in his armor and turned to Great Dane who was now sitting up groggily. His helmet had a big dent in the back where the jump seat had crashed into him. The paint was scratched and had some of the yellow paint from the seat on it also.
“Dane, you okay, buddy?” Manitou asked, as he stood.
“Yeah… ugh… man my head hurts. Are we down?” he asks, feeling the back of his helmet.
“Yes, and let’s get moving. We have to take the area defended by that company of lancers up ahead and we are slightly behind schedule,” Manitou answers. He glances around and coms the rest of the group. “Team 1, regroup on me!”
The Team 1 warriors gather around Manitou and then prepare for the coming encounter with the lancers they know will be trying to exact a high price from them. They are not fazed by this thought, as they have a newfound reason for meeting these TRA warriors. They have vengeance on their hearts, and a vengeance that will be quenched only on the blood of their enemies.

Hitting the ground running, the Team 2 warriors had a lot more success in their landing than the other teams so far. Hamma had flown around for a little bit taking fire to prevent too much on the dropping Dragon Wolves. Once they were fairly low, he had flown Dragonfather to a secure location and had set the auto-repair functions, then departed by grav-bike back to the drop zone. HalftheSky was still coordinating the Team 2 crew as they oriented themselves and set up a defensive perimeter, waiting for Hamma. Their objective is the vehicle pad and surrounding support buildings and anti-air emplacements. Of course, any TRA warriors that interfered would be swiftly dealt with.
“We secured the perimeter and swept for sensor nets. We look clean for now,” Desperado reports, arriving from the patrol.
“Good, we need to remain here until Hamma arrives, then we should be timed to hit the vehicle pad and that area at the right time. Is Darkwing and Malone suppressing the anti-air?” Sky replies.
“Yep, they are laying lots of green gems for our friends. They have taken out one or two batteries already,” Despo answers. He glances around noticing the other Team members setting up other equipment. He looks to the enemy vehicle pad about 400 yards away. There seems to be some slight activity going on there now.
“Yes, they are regrouping,” Sky comments, noting Despo’s gaze. “Hamma needs to be quick about getting here.” As if in answer to that statement, Hamma’s grav-bike can be seen zig-zagging up from the backside of the CDL perimeter. He is taking some fire from a sniper on a nearby hill. Sky and Despo can see the red laser line hit the grav-bike and deflect off the shields. Suddenly a red line snaps from the CDL perimeter and touches the distant TRA sniper on the forehead, blowing his helmet off and killing him instantly. Both Sky and Despo look at the origin of the return fire. Thronebeast simply re-slings his rifle, looks at them and shrugs, then continues about his business. Hamma’s bike skids up and he leaps off reaching for his PDA immediately.
“Sorry I am running behind. I had to run down a few TRA cronies trying to stop me,” Hamma states matter-of-factly. Sky looks at the grav-bike and notices the damaged front end and some bloody residue on the windscreen and sides of the bike. “We need to get the mortars walking into the vehicle pad. That has to be down within the next 5 minutes. I can see they are regrouping there. Rubick! Get your mortar close enough to start spamming that vehicle pad! Malone and Darkwing, where are they right now?” he asks Sky.
“They are suppressing some AA batteries southwest of us, about 350 yards from here,” Sky reports.
“Recall them now, and lets move on the vehicle pad,” Hamma says. He turns his PDA off and stows it in a compartment in his armor. They all begin the regroup and when Malone and Darkwing return they begin moving in pairs towards the vehicle pad. As they approach to within 300 yards, they see a barrage of mortars begin the long slow arch from the TRA warriors defending it. Hamma calls out to take cover. The barrage begins to land around them, but they were well prepared and were able to return fire. Heirax begins to use a painting laser for the heavies to aim at and they begin to drop with much more accuracy among the enemy. Hamma signals for Heirax to mount up, and he runs over and climbs aboard the Jericho again, starts it up and follows the advancing CDL warriors. Suddenly a mortar that had landed and not exploded from the earlier barrage detonated in the middle of the group. It was closest to Darkwing and he was thrown right under the Jericho’s rear wheels. Heirax couldn’t bring the heavy vehicle to a stop in time and the mortally wounded CDL warrior was crushed under the weight of the Jericho. Hamma shouted on the com to keep pressing, as the incoming fire got more intense and more accurate as they pressed in. Heirax drove forward, trying hard to erase the sound of the crumpling armor from his memory. He got the Jericho positioned in the pre-selected area, then, sending the all-clear com to Hamma, he deployed the big mobile base. Hamma in turn punched a button on his PDA, then stowed it again. The signal sent from Hamma’s PDA streaked at the speed of light to a little sensor in the Lair that turned a warning light to a solid green. This in turn allowed five very eager Dragon Wolves to step one at a time onto a portal pad. Rayzer was the first to appear as if by magic into the combat zone. He hesitates for a moment, as if gathering his wits, then he runs a little unsteadily to Hamma.
“By God, that thing works!” he nearly shouts into the com mic. He has a big grin on his face. It is good to be back with the gang! “It’s a little odd feeling when you arrive, but not too bad,” he comments, glancing at the spot where he arrived. Just at that moment, WinterKnight appears. He too seems groggy at first then lopes away from the spot. He salutes Hamma, then assumes a firing position near Desperado. Mortars and grenades are crashing all around them and the din of battle is almost overwhelming. Dirt and rock and snow are sent flying with each incoming round. Snipers are reaching for targets among the Dragon Wolves, but Thronebeast’s suppressing sniper fire is keeping their heads low. Hamma is amazed that he is looking at WinterKnight. The man is one of the legends from the early days of the CDL, during the First Tribal Wars. He thinks he has seen it all when Mossimo appears suddenly in the portal spot. Shortly after him appears Ground Chuk.
“Oh my gosh! Will the parade if history not ever stop?” HalftheSky blurts out when she sees these warriors join the fray. They see the forming of another warrior at the spot.
Unseen is a TRA warrior who had managed to work his way to the vehicle pad, dial in a vehicle selection and mash the generate key. Of the twenty-two boards in the housing box, the one that was being touched by the ice that had formed earlier there, this one was closest to the switch. It wasn’t a measurable time as far as human terms, but sub-atomically it seemed an eternity before the chips heated up, the ice melted and a contact was formed that shouldn’t have between the housing and the board. What happened next was extremely fast on any scale. The electro-magnetic energy flashed through the illicit connection and overloaded every circuit in the pad instantaneously. It also created an electro-magnetic pulse that had a diameter of 2 miles. This pulse was not really visible as far as vision went, but the shock wave preceding it was kind of like a ripple in the air. The pulse stopped the heartbeats of any TRA warrior within 100 yards of the pad, killing them quickly. Further out, the blast had a minimal effect on humans, but was devastating to anything electrical and unshielded. Here is where the major difference in CDL technology came into play. Although they never even considered the fact of an EMP blast wave here on Katabatic, every suit of armor and all the equipment issued by the CDL was standard issue EMP blast protected. The First Tribal Wars Theater they had served in was the Insomniax Theater. The use of EMP mortars had necessitated the shielding and the CDL had never retooled their equipment to remove that shielding! That decision proved to be fortuitous for the Dragon Wolves at this time, and was a huge disaster for the TRA warriors and their equipment. They had not served in the Insomnaix Theater. But, the fluctuation in the electro-magnetic field did affect the portal beam Full Otto was partway through. Hamma and Sky both watched in horror as the beam wavered, then popped on bright, then tossed Otto out of it like a rag doll. He shot over their heads and landed on a cliff 250 feet up on the hills surrounding the vehicle pad.
“What the hell was that?” Hamma shouted over his mic.
“Hamma, this is Malone, there appears to have been some kind of short or something at the vehicle pad! We thought we could see like a pulse wave or something emanate from the pad outwards. Whatever it touched of the TRA equipment died instantly. It did not, I repeat, did NOT affect CDL gear,” Malone reports over the com.
“You have GOT to be kidding me!” shouts Rubick over the com. The sounds of laughter begin echoing over the com net.
“I thought I would never be happy to see an EMP ever again!” replies Desperado. Hamme is confused for a moment then remembers Otto.
“Someone get up on the hill and check on Full Otto! NOW!” he commands over the net. The laughing stops suddenly and the sounds of coordinated teamwork ensue.
“Welcome to the world of Insomniax EMP’s,” remarks Ground Chuk stoicly, launching another mortar at the retreating TRA warriors that were left standing. “Next thing you know, we will have snipers with IX2000’s running around.”