BattleTech Legends: Call of Duty by Blaine Lee Pardoe

Author:Blaine Lee Pardoe [Pardoe, Blaine Lee]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2016-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

The huge mound of debris was open on one side, creating a cavern nearly four stories tall. At one time, it must have been a parking garage. The upper levels had held during the bombing, but the lower levels had crumbled, either from time or from the damage that had destroyed most of Bealton three centuries ago. All that interested Tasha at this point was that the place would provide some cover for her techs to repair the damage the First Thorin had inflicted on her command.

She had fielded two battalions of mostly BattleMechs against them, and the fight had taken a considerable toll. The biggest problem was that she’d had to yield the field of battle, which meant being unable to recover or salvage any of the BattleMechs she or the First Thorin had lost. Instead, Archer’s techs, meanwhile, were cannibalizing her ‘Mechs for parts, ammo, or outright repair. The best she could do was order the repair of the machines that had survived to fall back to Bealton.

She watched as a team of techs worked on the burned and torn chest of her BattleMech in the old parking garage. With the help of a makeshift gantry, they were crawling over it to cut off damaged armor plates and to hoist new ones into place. Ammo loaders were also scrambling all around the cave, coordinating the reloads. While still in her cockpit, all she knew of her ‘Mech’s damage was the digital readouts showing her battle computer’s assessment. Now, from the rubble-strewn street, she could see the raw destruction that had been inflicted.

Captain Norris strolled over. His shaved head was slick with sweat, and he ran a hand over it, wiping away the excess moisture as he came toward her. His face and neck muscles were tight, as if he were fighting back anger ... or possibly even constipated. The last thought almost made Tasha laugh, but she knew that wouldn’t help improve her generally unpleasant dealings with Norris.

“Major,” he said curtly, as if he despised her rank, “we have numerous problems to discuss.”

“Go on, Captain,” she said, crossing her arms, mentally preparing for the worst.

“I have checked with the techs, and we are low on ammunition—primarily missile and gauss rifle rounds. At present, we have only enough to last a few hours of fighting.”

She had asked him to investigate the supply issue, wishing to hell she hadn’t lost those transports. As a major on garrison duty, she’d never previously had to deal with supplies. Now that she was in command of the whole unit, the problem rested squarely on her shoulders. “We’ll have to issue orders to conserve ammo and concentrate on the energy weapons.”

“There is more,” Norris said, not acknowledging her words. “Our fresh-water supply is down to eight days, and rations are limited to seven days.”

Tasha frowned at that news. Fresh water in the ruined city was almost nonexistent. Even after three centuries, pockets of lingering radioactivity still made purification difficult. Also, all chemicals present in the onetime metropolis had been seeping into the ground water for centuries, making it deadly.

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