Knockers McGuinty, chief tech of the DoB was sitting with a wide white grin on her boisterously buxom from, promising mischief and mayhem. Whatever training the Chief had lined up was dangerous, and probably insane. Knockers grin was seldom bestowed upon the stable or safe. What mayhem the chief had envisioned for training they were about to learn, as the CO was striding into the briefing room with his war gear already on, and the grin given to lunatics or fresh minted 2nd Lt with a map. They were in trouble.
“We have a war coming up, and no idea what the enemy will look like, save that they will be stronger than we have ever faced. Once again, we will be the underdog, but we know how to play that game, and win. Or we did. We have gotten stronger, more powerful weapons, more powerful mecha, we are no longer the underdogs on most missions, we are getting used to slugging it out on equal terms, and that is not how we are going to win the next war. We have not got the gear to match the AFF or RND toe to toe on their terms, we cannot face the Highlanders man for man and win; they have too much power behind them, too much of an advantage in depth, in tonnage, and in niodes to out batter them. If we are bringing a knife to a gunfight, we have to remember how to stick and move, how to use superior skill to better superior mecha. We have got to walk naked into a firefight against flamethrowers to remember we cannot afford to get hit simply to get a hit. That is a habit that will get us killed. Better the foolish die now, in training, than in war when the Clan rides on it.”
They had the sinking feeling he was not speaking metaphorically. He shot a data squirt at their implants
DATA EXLOAD: Defenders of Bunny Eyes Only: Report, Pirate activity linked to Novum Dolorum Pyrotechnic Institute. Suspect Security/Project director Tory may be working with Pirates.
Mission parameters: Reconnaissance in Force.
Opposition: Numbers: conservative estimate 30-50 mecha (63%)
Maximum possible 500+ (15%)
Mech Weight: Medium/Heavy
Suggested Tasking: Black Company-Heavy Assault configuration
++++Command Override+++Bunny-6 Actual
Tasking: Black Company-Red Ant/Anzu
The pilots took in the data inload with something resembling shock. They were being asked to take Red Ants against Buchis and Cindrons, to match an Anzu against Inferno! Inferior numbers, inferior armour; granted the weapons slots available would allow the Red Ants to pack enough punch to kill small mountains, and Anzu with the ability to make a Namtar beg for mercy, but they would be eggshells with sledgehammers. They could kill pretty much anything they hit cleanly, but could explode like soap bubbles if they caught any fire in return. This wasn’t war, this was a bullfight, when the bulls had FLAMETHROWERS!
The ponderous tread of the confident assault mech is a thing that calls for Orchestral music, something stirring with strings and heavy brass, with dignity and somber majesty. The Defenders of Bunny hit the gate with an Ancient Terran tune “March of Cambredth” blaring on all frequencies and from the speakers. The last words on the DOB frequency as they passed through the gate was a disturbing harmony between Mad Dog, Skadi, and Hammer on the refrain “How many of them can we make die!?”
+++Novum Dolorum+++
Tory was not happy to be taken from her latest experiments by the security alarm.
Her lab assistants had been mixing their pharmacologicals again, damnit. I told them, no hallucinogens on mech duty! That was the only explanation for this report.
“You have twenty plus Red Ants and Anzu at the outer marker and they are attacking? Don’t be stupider than your records already indicate. You are putting your hours in the guard mecha because of your substandard lab work. Don’t make me double your shifts for stupidity. Red Ants do not attack Cindron, they burn in tidy little piles of low grade slag”
She stared at her screen in confusion, had he hung up on her? The last man that did that was still alive, or at least some of his tissues persisted in the lab. They had been peeling layers off him for over a year now and culturing separately. She checked her indicators on the mecha reactor status and saw her 16 mecha patrol group was gone, and two sections of the Rapid Reaction Force were gone as well. Checking the seismic sensors she confirmed; no attackers beyond 15 tons; the bulk 10 tons even. Red Ants, actually attacking……her. Was gravity reversing next? Would government auditors return her tax money, was that low down dirty two timing Drake going to return her calls? She took off her lab coat and with a whimsical smile hit the alarm. It was only Red Ants, and seemed silly, but officially, if attacked by forces beyond a single patrols ability to handle, she must hit the alarm. Even for….Red Ants.
+++DoB +++
Suicide King watched the Cindron burn, its plasma vessels ruptured by the pure blood red spear of the Black Widow laser. John cut the Red Ant right, watching the Anzu's wave of Berserker missiles bathe two of the enemy mechs, and selecting the left most as his next target; stick and move, stick and move, bloody the bull then get out of its way. Only stand for the final kill. The Anzu “Don’t Shoot” dodged right after toggling the Berserker missiles over his Buchis and the second Cindron, moving slightly before the flash/slam of guass slugs passing through the space his cockpit had just occupied. The white scream of an Arctic Gale told him he had nothing to fear from Skadi’s Anzu's “Innocent Bystander” opponent, as she had just frozen him solid.
A square flame caught John’s Suicide King square in the chest plate, but his shields kept the damage from going internal or critical, and in return his Exacto Shot neutered the Buchis, with the legs collapsing to each side of the, now missing, groin and hip structures.
There was no question, the Red Ants and Anzu were forcing the Defenders of Bunny to fight harder, faster, and cleaner than they had in years. Gone was the arrogance of big steel, and back was the mongoose quickness and blood hunger that allows little mongoose to hunt mighty cobra. Just in time, here came Tory.
+++Tory+++
Screaming her rage, she toggled the liquid torch that was her own creation, and saw the Red Ant that she targeted finally go down. Here she was, fighting in her last rank, and she scored the first kill. Alarms shrieked in her cockpit, the Flavian Spear the madman in the Red Ant had fired had struck deep, damaging her shielding systems. If she didn’t reconfigure them swiftly, she would be easy meat for……
+++DoB+++
The Anzu stood above the Inferno. The pilot had ejected before the weapons struck, so while she got away, the ejection shut down her mecha, and the Inferno may just me salvageable. They pulled John out of his beloved Suicide King, his beard was singed a bit from Tory’s liquid torch, but his spirits were high.
“Beautiful. That is what I call GOOD TRAINING!, Back to basics, back to the ABC’s of piloting!”
Hammer looked over at the Chief of the Bunnies like you would a naked lunatic with a chicken strapped to his head “How in the hell do you consider fighting Inferno with Red Ants to be back to the ABC’s of piloting, I have been a pilot for years and have never done anything this stupid until today!”
John smiled happily and explained
“Piloting ABC: Ants, Bad Guys, Carnage. Back to basics. You just took out an Inferno with an Anzu. What can I possibly send you after in your Dreadnought that is going to be as hard as that?”
Hammer’s stony face cracked, and he broke down laughing, eventually having to sit on his mech’s foot. Hell, bring on the Clan War, it can’t possibly be any more dangerous than this!
Submitted by John T Mainer #28840