"Listen up, Lemmings! We're going to raid those Kurita goons. We're all of us going in together and we're going to hurt them."
Jennie hoped her morale-boosting speech did not jinx the operation, but she had to be positive.
"Anna, you're on point. Scout them out and keep that tin can of yours out of harm's way. It will be hard with the low hills all over the area. If you have to, retreat onto the reverse slope of any hill and wait for us to take out the threats. Our goal is to sweep the area clean ready for a strike at their infrastructure. Spot, kill, spot, kill, right?"
Anna nodded. She knew that her Locust had tinfoil armour, so she would use her manoeuvrability to spot for the other two.
"Sure thing, Jennie."
"Mike, you're with me. Stay on my flank and work with me to take any goons we see down."
Mike nodded too.
"Yup, boss. Got it."
"Ok. We're still quite new at this, so I want to see you take care, but also remember that if we do not know what we are going to do, how can they predict it? When they go low, we shoot them in the head!"
The words made no real sense, but Jennie felt better for having said them. The three mech pilots marched outside and mounted up. Once the startup checks were completed, they moved out up the dusty road in single file. Anna's Locust led the column.
An hour later they were deploying at the edge of the operational area. As the trio trio advanced off the approach road and onto their assault trajectory, comms squawked.
"Lemming team, this is Control. We have three bogeys on scanner, covering the whole front of the operations area, twelve o'clock, one and three. They should now be showing on your displays. Good luck."
"Roger that, Control. Lemmings ho!" called Jennie over comms, "And keep it tight!"
She had heard commanders say this last. She had no clue what it meant, but she was a commander now and so it was something she too must say, she felt.
The Lemming team moved quickly to the lee of the nearest hill.
As Jennie and Mike took up position just behind the crest of a hill, Ann advanced her Locust to the crest of the next hill ahead of her.
"All clear, Control. Bogey was negative."
"Bogeys advancing. Countdown to contact."
"Hold in position, Lemming 2."
"Roger that. Aw crap, incoming Orion."
Anna backed the little Locust behind the hill and out of sight.
Jennie and Mike quickly moved up to the crest that Anna had so recently vacated. The Orion lumbered round to face them and fired, but its payload only kicked dirt up into the faces of the Thunderbolt and the Wolverine. Jennie stabbed the fire button on her PPG a second before Mike let rip. The crimson energy bolt hit the Orion full in the chest. Armour melted as if it had not been there and the mech disintegrated into a thousand component parts, like a New Year's fireworks show.
"Lemming team, multiple bogeys incoming on our three. I count a Warhammer, a Wasp and a Valkyrie."
While they had been focused on the Orion, a Kurita goon team had moved up on their flank. The Lemmings raced to swivel their mech's torsoes and fire.
Jennie counted the nanoseconds as the Thunderbolt's systems locked onto the approaching Warhammer. Each nanosecond felt like an hour. The time it took her thumb to depress the fire button felt even longer. But it was her shot that went first. Rockets blasted the chest of the Kurita mech, melting bits of its armour to slag. Then her PPG lanced out. A crimson beam of death nearly ripped the giant mech in half. As the pilot ejected, Mike turned his attention to the Valkyrie beside it.
Green fire leapt from all his lasers only to set light to the dry grass around the little mech. Then his rockets landed and the mech's head exploded. The headless mech toppled to the ground. As this was happening, Anna focused her fire on the remaining Wasp. Her Locust and the Wasp exchanged fire, it's laser lancing out, only to hit the hill that Anna's mech was behind. She, in turn hit the enemy mech but failed to do more than scratch its paintwork. The gun duel continued until suddenly a lucky shot hit Anna's mech in the middle and nearly cut it in half. Cursing as her autoeject went into action, she now had a bird's eye view of the rest of the battle, while her parachute opened and she drifted back to the ground.
Both Jennie and Mike turned their attention to the Wasp. It was never clear which of them hit it, but there would be no salvage from the little mech. Their fire had cut it to bits and triggered an explosion in its turbine.
"Objective complete. Operations area secured. Control, send salvage teams. We are returning to base."
Stopping to pick Anna up, Jennie turned for home. Things had gone better than they could have.
Campaign Morale
Lemmings: 3
Kurita: 1
Outcome
Anna was recovered with her pride hurt but otherwise uninjured. Her Locust was also recovered and repaired. It will be usable next scenario. With Kurita morale reduced to 1, the next scenario could be the last.
This could have gone a lot worse than it did. Anna's gun duel could have gone better though. She and the other mech got into a duel where neither side managed to roll low enough to damage the other but both kept passing tests, so they kept fighting until the goon got lucky and blew the Locust in half.
With the way casualties pile up, I get the feeling that a campaign could quickly see you running out of mechs if you lose a scenario or two. I guess it is probably best to stick to fielding a smaller percentage of your force. Enemies are scaled based on what you field, so it would make sense to husband your resources in that way.
The next scenario will be a Lemmings assault again. If you win an assault scenario, you assualt again. I mean, why wouldn't you keep kicking someone while they are down if it means the war will be over sooner? Will it be the last battle for this mini-campaign though?
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