Battletech: Redemption Rift by Jason Schmetzer

Author:Jason Schmetzer [Schmetzer, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2019-09-23T07:00:00+00:00

Hack Kincaid tapped Ellie Chan on the shoulder. “Look out,” he whispered, pointing.

Nathan Castle had just entered the Blue Rock TOC serving as the test control center for the Wolfsbane training exercises. Hiding his grin, Hack pretended to study a display over a tech’s shoulder.

“Major!” Castle said. “No one told me they’d be using their arty, ma’am.”

“Oh?” Chan’s voice was patient. She feigned surprise. “Did I forget to mention that?” Hack barely stifled a snort. “How inconsiderate of me. I should have known the enemy always sends over their order of battle before attacking.”

“I’d have deployed my company differently if I’d known Gamble had his Thumpers for the operation.”

“Then you’ll know for next time,” Chan said. She turned to Hack. “Colonel? You were saying something?”

Hack turned around and straightened, nodding a salute to Castle. “I was saying we might want to look into adding artillery batteries to all the striker companies,” he said. “What do you think about that, Captain Castle?”

“Sir.” Castle swallowed. “I think they’re too slow for my strikers, sir.”

“Too slow?” Hack inclined his head. “They got you in that op, didn’t they?”

“Yeah, but—” Castle stopped, looked at Hack. “Colonel. My cavalry’s standard speed is over a hundred kph. My ’Mechs can move at almost ninety, and I can carry all my Elementals. The Wolfsbane Thumpers are certainly more mobile than towed tubes, but they’d slow me down by almost a quarter.” His face settled into a set expression, as if he’d just talked himself into it. “Speed is life, sir.”

“Spoken like a true aerospace pilot,” Hack said, laughing. “But you’re probably right.” He shrugged. “We’ll game it out. How did the rest of your company do after you went down?”

“Not too bad,” Castle admitted. “They’re not used to Davy equipment being used so well.”

“Colonel?” One of the Gamma Regiment captains acting as judges for the exercise raised his hand. “We have the tally, sir.”

Hack grinned at Chan and Castle. “Let’s hear it.”

“The Wolfsbane gets the win, sir,” the captain said.

“What?” Castle blurted.

“Tally is five ’Mechs down, fourteen tanks disabled and one disqualified, and twenty-five Elementals marked incapacitated for the Spider’s Web.” The captain gave Castle a minuscule shrug. “The Wolfsbane is down five ’Mechs and eleven tanks. Of the twenty-five Cavalier battlesuits that began the exercise, twenty-four are disabled.”

“Doesn’t look good for you, Captain,” Major Chan said. “Have you ever seen the bilge of a DropShip?”

Chan looked at Hack, who nodded. “Better luck next time, Captain,” he said. Chan took her officer by the shoulder and led him out of the TOC. She was speaking softly as they went, and the sentry at the door frowned after they were gone.

“Trooper?” Hack asked.

“She was saying something about requisitioning new toothbrushes, Colonel,” the sentry said. “Something about theirs being too dirty to use again?”

Hack laughed. He turned back to the Gamma captain and took the offered noteputer. Figures were displayed on the screen—accuracy percentages, damage percentages, ordnance expended.

“I don’t know why he’s worried,” the captain said. “His company did a hell of a lot better than mine did against Able Company.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.