MechWarrior-Fur
Bullets zinged through the air. The ground exploded as rockets and grenades detonated. The air was filled with hot metal and hot blood as soldiers on either side fell in battle. The screams of the wounded and dying, coupled with the shouts of sergeants and Commanders giving commands on the field or through communication stations. The air was heavy with the smell of burning debris and flesh and fur. This was the front line of battle between the Eastern Coalition and the Rising Sun Alliance.
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A rocket detonated several meters to Simon's left, the explosion rocking the cockpit of his M.A.S, or Mechanized Assault Suit, mech for short.
"Gah! Son of a bitch!" He traced the rocket back to an office building about twenty meters in front of him. He raised the right arm of his M.A.S and fired a missile from the wrist launcher. "If you can't take it, don't dish it" he mumbled as he watched the floor of the building, as well as the two above and below it, become engulfed in flames as the missile found it's target.
Simon was a grizzly bear, about 6' 8" tall and near 300 lbs. He was also a Commander in the Eastern Coalition and leader of his Wolf Dragoon squad, which consisted of his Dragon Type 4 "Annihilator" mech, several light recon Phoenix Type 1 mechs, three Golem Type 2 Medium Assault mechs, and three Gryphon Type 3 Base Assault mechs.
He grinned in satisfaction as he continued his hunt. He was piloting his Dragon Type 4, one of the heaviest suits built by the Eastern Coalition. It was primarily designed as a Mech buster and armed to the teeth with armor piercing incendiary rounds loaded into auto-cannons, both long and short range missiles, a pair of shoulder mounted gauss cannons, and a rarely used plasma mortar. His mission was to hunt down and destroy a squad of light R.S.A suits that were reported to be patrolling this part of the city. So far however, all he'd been able to find were small outposts filled with anti-tank and anti-mech weapons. He was beginning to think the intel they'd received was false, and he was walking into a trap.
As Simon rounded another corner, he caught cannon fire from an APC that was currently off loading troops and equipment. He aimed his gauss cannons at the vehicle and fired, a green and blue projectile flying from each of the barrels connected to the APC, and obliterated it. The surviving soldiers began to scramble, but were torn apart by his standard issue gatling guns mounted on his legs. They were computer controlled and were focused towards the ground to remove infantry. Seeing the enemy off loading units and supplies only heightened his suspicion of a trap. The APC detonated a little too violently for it have just been from the fuel tank. It had have been loaded with some kind of explosive ordinance
"Dragoon Actual this is Dragoon Leader, do you copy?"
"We copy Dragoon Leader, go ahead".
"Dragoon Actual I don't think there's a squad out here. Whatever intel we received has to false, I've run into too many rocket nests out here. I think it's a trap".
There was a silence for a few moments before Simon heard a "Stand by Dragoon Leader".
Simon clicked his mic off and sighed. "Freaking command. Can't give me a straight-" he was once again cut off by a rocket detonation, only this time it was a direct hit, and too his leg.
"Mother fucker" he mumbled as he rotated the torso of his suit and launched a pair of short-range missiles in the direction of the incoming fire. He didn't watch to make sure they hit, he knew they would. The rockets detonated inside the building, hitting a support beam and shattering it. The resulting explosion rattled the building, weakening the already unstable structure. The building shook for a short time before collapsing on itself, finishing off anyone left.
"Dragoon Leader this is Dragoon Actual, do you copy?"
Simon sighed again, silently cursing his luck as he clicked his mic back on, "This is Dragoon Leader go ahead".
"Dragoon Leader continue to scout the area for a possible attack force while we go over the intel and decide whether the information is valid or not".
"Copy that Dragoon Actual. Dragoon Leader out" he sighed. He clicked off his mic and mumbled, "Well fuck me sideways". He did did a quick scan of the area for any signs of movement before heading for his next waypoint.
As he lumbered on his thoughts began to drift away from his mission, and made their way to his wolf mate, Khris. He longed to see him again, but his current assignment had him stationed near 500 miles away from his beloved, and with the recent hold on communications with back home it had been stressful not being able to talk to him.
He was shaken from his reverie as an alarm went off just seconds before a missile impacted the back of his suit. He stumbled a bit before turning to look in the direction of the attack and there they were, though it was more than the light force they had been told about. With three Type 3 and four Type 2 suits incoming, this was an assault pack, not a patrol.
He turned to engage, warming up his gauss cannons and auto-cannons before clicking on his mic. "Dragoon Actual come in, this is Dragoon Leader. I have made contact with the enemy. I repeat, I have made contact with the enemy." His suit rocked as two more missiles detonated nearby. He began firing his cannons as his computer lined his gauss rifles for a combined hit against the nearest Type 3. They were his biggest concern right now, as the R.S.A's Type 3s were loaded with pretty much nothing but Long Range Missiles with light cannons for short range defense. Some were even reported to be armed with EMP weaponry.
"Dragoon Actual, do you copy?!" Silence. "Fuck!" His communications were being jammed. An assault pack coupled with a jamming station already in place could only mean one of two things. His mission was leaked and this was a set up for him specifically, or the Suns had an assault force mustered and were moving on their lines in force. With the outposts being setup and defenses set up along the best routes through the city the latter was most likely, but he still couldn't shake the idea that there was a spy in their camp.
He growled menacingly at the suits in front of him, some primal fury coming out as he pulled the trigger on his gauss rifles just as the computer gave him a positive lock. Instinct began to kick in as he watched the first of the rounds impact the armor of the suit and leave a small crater in the outer armor, then saw the second round hit the same location and punch a hole into its power generator. The generator overloaded and erupted in electric blue flame. The cockpit ejected just in time, but it didn't matter. Simon was in no mood to let anyone escape or take any prisoners. He flicked a switch and one his missile launchers locked onto the pod and fired a single rocket, the explosive projectile finding it's mark and blasting it into oblivion.
"One down, six left. Should be a walk in the park".
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"Dragoon Leader do you copy? Come in." Nothing. "This can't be good, get me Lieutenant Colonel Cole, now!"
Several minutes later the Lieutenant Colonel, a 7' 6" gorilla, walked into the room.
"What's the situation Sergeant?"
"Sir, we've lost contact with Dragoon Leader. We received intel about a scouting party of enemy mechs moving through the city. The last contact we had with him was a report of multiple rocket nests, but no mechs. He said he believed it to be a trap. After that we lost all contact with him".
The Lieutenant Colonel stared at one of the screens hanging on the wall, statistics of wins and loss, estimated death tolls and the sort scrolling across it.
"Send Dragoons 3 and 4 to his last known coordinates". Dragoons 3 and 4 were two of the three Golem Type 2 mechs in the Dragoon Echelon. The pilots were also twin cougars.
The sergeant nodded and flipped a few switches, calling across the base for the pair to report to their mechs immediately.
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"Dragoons 3 and 4, report to the mech hangar immediately. You'll be briefed en route to your destination".
Corran sighed. "It never fails. We get alone time finally and then what happens? We get a random ass mission. Come on bro, we gotta get dressed".
Horn gave his brother's feline prick one last lick before gliding up and kissing his twin. "Yeah yeah. Let's get going".
The two shared one last kiss before jumping out of bed and hopping into their pilot jump suits, adjusting their tails, then grabbed their helmets and bolted out the door for the hangar. Once in their mechs they powered up and put their helmets on, turning on their comm units.
"Dragoon 3 to Dragoon Actual, how do I sound?", Corran asked.
"Like an irritated cat. Did I interrupt you and your brother again?"
"You never fail Actual" Horn snorted. As the pair walked their mechs out of the hangar he asked, "So what's damn important?"
"As you know Dragoon Leader was out looking for a Sun mech patrol that was reported in the city. The last contact we had with him, he reported running into multiple rocket nests, and believed it to be a trap. After that report we lost contact with him."
It didn't take any more incentive. Corran and Horn punched their suits to the limit, playing chicken with their heat sinks as they sped for the last known coordinates of their leader.
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Simon had managed to take down another Type 3, and two Type 2s, but he was still drastically out numbered and was beginning to get out maneuvered. There were only so many moves he could pull in a cramped city with a Type 4 mech, and the list was starting to run short.
"I need to find that" a missile impacted a building next to him, detonating and sending rubble flying in all directions, including into his mech, "fuck! Okay, this is getting old, fast". He targeted the nearest mech with his short-range missiles and fired a burst of ten. He watched as several missed the target all together, but a few hit. He got notice of a sparks flying from the right leg of the suit and laid waste to it with his auto-cannons. The leg blew apart, sparks flying, and the suit collapsed.
He turned his attention to another suit and open fire once again with his auto-cannons. He checked the ammo gauges on each one as he fired bursts of incendiary rounds at his opponents. He was starting to run low. Even if he switched out to regular armor-piercing he wouldn't be able to kill them all and still keep his mech in one piece. Several components were already in the red and things were getting worse. The enemy mechs were starting to over take him. Even though they were using hit-and-runs, they were ducking out of sight behind buildings and he couldn't enough shots off accurately to do any real damage. One might slip up every now and then and he'd score a decent hit, but it would be overshadowed by him taking a pair of missiles to his back or a leg, or auto-cannon rounds into his chest or glancing off his cockpit.
As he spun to attack a suit that had stepped to far out from behind a building he saw the mech he had downed just a few minutes before start to flip over and take aim at him. That's when he remembered the fully charged plasma mortar. He grinned as he flipped a switch, marking the mech as a computer secondary target and let his targeting system take over as he took aim with one of his gauss cannons, targeting the Type 2 that had stepped to far out. He fired off a shot, hitting the suit in the knee causing it to buckle. He grinned a toothy grin as he fired his second cannon, targeting the other knee, and watched as his plasma mortar landed on the cockpit of the suit. The red and purple splash melted away at the glass and the innards of the cockpit, cooking the fur inside. Then roared as the mech exploded, a new fire burning to life inside him, that primal force returning.
"Come on you bastards! I'm gonna cook every one of you!" He flipped the switch for his mortar to take out the one he disabled moments ago, and was about to fire until he watched a dozen or more missiles impact the body and cockpit, a massive detonation following. He rotated to look in the direction the attack came from, and as he spotted a pair of mechs he heard a pair of voices come through his helmet.
"I stole your kill~", Corran said, his voice taking on a sing-song tone.
"Need a paw here boss?" Horn asked as he fired a burst of missiles down an alley, hitting the last Type 3 in the face, the mech turning into oblivion.
"About damn time you pricks get here! What, were you two fucking again?"
An irritated 'murr' came over his headset from the both of them as Simon just laughed. He took that as a yes and figured the Lieutenant Colonel had interrupted them.
"Hey, don't get mad at me. Get pissed at the weasels who gave us the false intel.
He watched as the remaining Type 2s began to retreat. Simon grinned and fired a few rounds at their back, chuckling. He even fired off a plasma mortar for giggles, not even taking the proper time to line up a shot. He began to turn his mech to head out of the city and back to base as he heard a massive detonation, as well as an ejection pod fire. He flipped on his rear camera in time to see the remains of one of the Type 2s rain down from the sky, and the ejection pod from the other land on the ground. The Mech was still intact, but the pilot must of been startled by the explosion and hit his eject on reflex.
"Well, I could try and play that off as intentional, but that'd be a bunch of bullshit. Let's head back to base".
The twins just clicked their affirmative as they formed up and began to head back to base. As they moved Simon allowed his thoughts to drift again, once again heading back to Khris, and he smiled. He had 2 weeks of leave that he hadn't been able to use, and when the hold was lifted he'd be all over the first transport back home like shit on velcro. He was ready for this to be over. All of it.
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"Attention. Attention. The hold on communications has been lifted. The hold on communications, has been lifted. All of you waiting to call home may now do so".
Simon leaped out of bed, half naked, and practically sprinted half way across base to get the communications building. Furs had to practically jump out of the way to avoid being tackled and run over by the bear.
He burst into the building, the first one in there, and grabbed one of the comm booths they had set up for calling home. He took a few breaths, trying to slow his breathing a bit, before dialing home. "Please, for the love of the gods, please be home".
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Khris had just walked into the front door, arms full of groceries. He kicked the door shut behind him and glanced at the vid phone. His heart leaped into his throat as he dropped the bags and bolted to the unit, eggs breaking and milk spilling everywhere. He stared at the number for a minute, praying for it to be real, and hit answer.
When he saw his bear's face he broke into tears.
"Hey babe" Simon said. "How've you been?"
Khris smiled, trying to choke back tears, "Alright I guess. Lonely. When are you coming home?"
Simon shook his head and shrugged, "I don't know Khris. I can't say much, but it looks like activity is picking up. If that's true then they need me here. If not then I may be able to get my leave request through".
Khris nodded sadly. He wanted so bad to have his bear home again. It had been killing him these past weeks, not being able to see him or even just talk to him.
"I'll try and find out what's going on out here, and I'll try and call you tomorrow. If I can't then it's because they most likely replaced the hold on calls."
Again, Khris nodded sadly, sniffling a bit.
Simon looked past Khris and saw the beginnings of a mess on the floor and smiled lightly.
"Hey Khris, it looks like you dropped something behind you".
Khris turned and saw the mess and laughed, genuinely. He looked back at Simon, "Yeah, just walked into the door from the store when you called. I guess I kind of freaked out a bit."
"That's fine. It's good to know you miss me enough to make a mess of the place".
"Hey now! This place is spotless and you know it."
Simon laughed and said, "I know babe, just giving you shit". He paused for a moment before saying, "I love you Khris".
The wolf smiled and nodded, "I know Simon".
"What, not going to say you love me?"
Khris smiled and said, "I'll tell you when you get home".
Simon chuckled, "Alright. I'll call you again soon okay?"
Khris nodded. He couldn't say anything for fear he'd lose his composure again.
"Love you babe", was the last thing he said, before the screen went black.
Khris stared at the screen for a moment longer before he took a deep breath and turned around, gasping slightly at just how big the mess was. "Dammit all" he mumbled before going to work on cleaning it up.
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Simon sat still for a moment longer before leaning back and sighing a bit. He finally stood up from the station and stepped aside for the next guy to call home. He walked back to his bunk and got dressed in his uniform, and headed for the command structure.
"Hey Simon!" a seemingly monotonous voice shouted. He looked over his shoulder and saw the twins, running after him, grinning like idiots. The shit was about fall.
"So Simon. Get to talk to your wolf?"
"I'll bet he was the first one in there"
"Was probably naked".
Simon chuckled, "Yes, yes, and only half".
The twins laughed a bit before Corran spoke, "You know anything about when we'll get some leave time?"
Simon shook his head, "Not yet, was headed over to talk to the Lieutenant Colonel and ask him".
The twins nodded and decided to follow after Simon. As they entered the prefabricated structure they headed for the Strategic Overview Screen where they knew their leader would be. Many of the enlisted men found great humor in the fact that the acronym for strategic planning tool was S.O.S.
The three walked up and saluted, waiting for the "At ease" before returning to their normal posture.
"Sir", Simon began, "with the lift on communications, does that mean there may be opportunities for leave as well?"
The gorilla sighed heavily, "You may be going home sooner than you think Commander".
The bear's ears perked a bit but he steadied himself as the darkness of that statement hit him. "What do you mean sir?"
Another heavy sigh came from the gorilla as he turned, "We don't know how they got past our costal defenses, but a large strike force of Sun mech suits, infantry and armor was able to evade our outer costal defenses. They've yet to reach the mainland but several of our island installations have been hit hard. Your suits are being loaded as we speak. You and your team will leaving for him within the hour."
Simon stood and stared, blank faced at his commanding officer. This was impossible. This couldn't happen. He had gone to war in order to protect his home and to make sure that the enemy never stepped onto their land. Now some error was made that allowed their enemies to do exactly what they were hoping to prevent.
He was in shock, it took both the twins to shake him back down to Earth, but once they did he was in motion. Just like this morning, Simon bolted across the base to get back to his bunk. He couldn't move fast enough. Every minute that ticked by meant that the enemy was one more minute closer to his mate, and that was something he could not allow.
Once home he grabbed everything he had, which wasn't much, and threw it haphazardly into his duffel, grabbed his helmet and was back out the door. He moved as fast as he could move to the transport and met up with the rest of his squad.
Once everyone was there he shouted, "Alright, everyone on board, I'll brief you all from the cockpit on the situation for anyone who doesn't know." There were several confused faces but they did as they were told and loaded into their mechs where they would spend the whole trip, the Type 1's and 2' switching around for escort.
As soon as Simon was in his suit he checked the ready markers for each of his squad mates. As soon as they all checked green he flicked on his mic. "Alright everyone listened up. For those who don't know, I've just been told a very horrifying fact. Somehow the Suns were able to slip past our outer costal defenses, and have hit several of our island stations. I can only assume that these will used as staging areas for an assault and a possible later invasion of home." He paused for a moment to let all of that sink in before saying, "Now I don't know about of all you, but I'm scared shitless at this point. My mate Khris lives on base, on the coast, and you cannot imagine how scared I am right now. All we can do is punch it full speed back home, and pray to the gods that we make in time to stop their push. That's all".
He clicked off his mic and settled down for the ride. He looked down at the picture he was holding in his hand. It was of him and Khris on their first date. They'd gone to a local fair. Simon looked it over and chuckled slightly. Khris had cotton candy stuck to his nose and was staring cross-eyed at it. He remembered the look on Khris's face when he had leaned down and licked it off. The blush that had come over his face had been priceless. They'd shared their first kiss that night. Simon leaned back, picture pressed against his chest, and closed his eyes. He cried. He cried tears of fear. The thought that he would get back to see everything destroyed. The base, the town, their house. The thought that everyone would be gone, killed. It killed him.
He sniffled a bit and opened his eyes, looking into the eyes of the picture Khris.
"I'll be there Khris. I'm coming. I'll protect you".