War Criminals, Gavin Smith [best novels for beginners .txt] 📗

firing the 105mm mass driver from the combination weapon the mech carried in its hands. The plasma bolts turned much of the enemy mech’s armoured torso to burning liquid, then one of the electromagnetically-driven mass driver rounds shot straight through it and hit a cargo harbour crane behind the mech. The burning mech collapsed in on itself, sinking to the ground.

Hemi’s mech was putting round after round from the larger calibre shoulder-mounted 200mm mass driver into one of the patrol boats just at the waterline. He used the flame gun element of his combination weapon and sprayed a line of napalm over the deck of the patrol craft. Enemy combatants leapt into the river, still burning as they sank beneath the water.

Missiles were blown out of the sky and then the launchers destroyed. Both the patrol boats were sinking now. The shoreside bunkers burst by the mass drivers were now both burning. Miska could make out infantry and light-skinned military vehicles fleeing the area. An APC jumped into the air, buckling as a mass driver round hit it. The mechs were still waist-deep in the river.

‘Heavy-One-Actual to all Heavy call signs, watch your field of fire,’ Mass warned them, a little hypocritically. Mass was taking his three-mech platoon through the marina. Hemi was taking his platoon through the commercial port. The firing was sporadic now. They were taking heavy weapons fire from vehicles and rooftop strong points but nothing that was giving them too much pause. As they climbed up onto dry land, Mass seemed content to let the Satyrs hunt the heavy weapons emplacements.

Missiles streaked across the rooftops from launchers in the hills surrounding the town. The mechs’ point defence lasers blew them out of the sky before they got close. Depending on their configuration, all six mechs were firing their carried 105mm or shoulder-mounted 200mm mass drivers over the roofs of the town and into the missile launchers and point defence systems protecting the Triple S base. As soon as the point defence lasers were destroyed, the mechs launched missiles from the batteries on their backs. Targeting packages provided by the stealth rotor drones guided the missiles into defensive emplacements, heavy weapons and armoured vehicles that Miska would have loved to steal but that were too dangerous to leave in play. With the town’s missile launchers and point defence systems down, Pegasus 1 and 2 started their approach.

All six of the Heavy Bastards’ Medusas were advancing through the town now, their combination weapons raised to their shoulders, looking for all the world like two giant infantry fire teams. Miska wondered what had become of the seventh Medusa but she didn’t want to distract Mass by asking. As individual mechs got hit they turned and checked the source of the fire. If the target was a significant threat, or their background was clear, they destroyed it with their own weapons fire. If not, they soaked up the damage and continued going. The two understrength mech platoons were trying to use the two-and three-storey buildings for concealment only, as even the indigenous hardwoods provided very little cover from railguns and lasers. More than one building was burning.

Miska watched as Mass kicked a soft-skinned light strike vehicle into the air and then removed the magazine on his 105mm mass driver, sliding home his second and final magazine for the huge weapon.

‘Heavy-One-Actual to Hangman-One-Actual, they’ve got man-portable plasma weapons down here that are—’ Mass started and then his mech staggered. For a horrible moment Miska thought the Medusa was going to topple over. Instead Mass’s mech went down on one knee, a hand out to steady itself.

‘Mech, mech, mech!’ Hemi said over the comms link. Four Medusas had just walked out of the treeline and were heading through the Triple S hillside base towards the town. Miska assumed that Mass must have been hit by a mass driver round. The other five mechs, still shrugging off small arms and man-portable heavy weapons fire, immediately turned their weapons on the enemy mechs. Mass driver rounds and plasma bolts impacted on the Triple S mechs cratering armour plate or turning it to slag. This was the benefit of being trained by Miska and her dad. Even with mech combat they had trained her legionnaires in the primacy of aggression and violence of action. Counter attack as ferociously as possible, worry about the resources afterwards.

Mass’s Medusa was back on its feet, advancing on the mech that had shot him, firing round after round from his 105mm mass driver. Miska could almost hear the clanging as the huge tungsten-cored electromagnetically-driven penetrators hit the enemy mech’s thick armour.

‘Heavy-Two-Two to all Heavy call signs, we have multiple gunships preparing to take off from the pads to the south and east of us,’ one of the Whānau mech jockeys said.

‘Heavy-One-Three and Heavy-Two-Three, engage the enemy ass with your mass drivers, the gunships with your Vengeances,’ Mass told them. Two of the Bastards’ mechs, one from each of the sections, turned towards the south and east and knelt down behind two-storey buildings.

Each of the mechs had a slightly different configuration. One-Three and Two-Three were set up to destroy bunkers with the 200mm mass drivers mounted in the hardpoint on their right shoulders. The flamethrower element of their carried combination weapons would then be used to clear out any surviving enemy personnel in the busted bunker. Like all the other mechs they each had a missile battery, currently folded down against their back, mounted on their left shoulder hardpoint. Heavy-One-Three and Two-Three reversed their mass drivers so they were pointing to the north, the direction of the enemy mechs, and resumed firing. Meanwhile they each lifted their combination weapons to their shoulders and aimed the 30mm Vengeance railguns over the tops of the town’s buildings. Each Medusa had a huge ammo hopper affixed to its lower back that chain-fed ammunition to the automatic cannon as the rounds tore up the hillside and shredded the VTOL gunships as they tried to take