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Images of The Dispensables Lance in the spoiler

Spoiler

Jenner - John's 'Suzy Q'

Javelin - Not the variant Darla is using, but gives you an idea

Spider - Jerome

Blackjack - Franky

Leopard

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The light of the afternoon sun flooded the cockpit for a moment as John took his first few steps out of the Leopard, blinding him for a moment before the windows began to filter out the glare. In front of him was a sunbaked plateau, several football fields wide, surrounded by what almost looked like giant stone tiger teeth surrounding their landing area and extending as far as he could see. It reminded him of the Tsingy in Madagascar, except on an even larger scale.

On the farside of the plateau was the opening to a wide canyon, their apparent route into the pirate base. According to his map, it was almost a labyrinth inside, but it would give them several options for reaching the target. It would probably also play hell on their sensors, but that went both ways. The pirates wouldn't see them coming... hopefully.

"What's the plan, Johnny? Situation normal, or do you want us to get all fancy like and do something completely unexpected?" Franky asked, bringing his larger mech alongside John's.

John looked at their composition again and realized there were only two things they could reasonably do. One, enter the canyon, or two, use their jump jets and traverse the maze of rocks on the surface. That would be fine for the lighter mechs, but the Blackjack didn't have anywhere near the range of jumping that its lighter counterparts did. That, and his new memories told him that going that route would be a good way to overheat before they even made it to the camp.

"Jerome, take point, I'll be behind you. Darla and Franky take the rear. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get home and crack open a few beers. Supposedly, they only have a few light mechs at most, but stay on your toes, it wouldn't be the first time pirates did something surprising."

"Yeah, remember that time we had to jump over to the Zertarum system and the pirates had rigged up an old Gauss rifle on the back of that APC? Funniest shit I ever saw, I tell ya. One shot that missed me by a hair, but watching that vehicle get ripped to shreds by the recoil was hilarious." Franky commented, fondly recalling yet another time he was almost killed in action. John chuckled at that, then signaled the group to move out.

Dust was kicked up by the dropship taking off behind them, blinding the lance’s vision, but that didn't stop them from advancing forward into the canyon. They kept their speeds down to about sixty km/h, which was about the maximum speed the Blackjack could move. It would only take them five minutes or so to make it to the base if they maintained this speed, which would depend on the terrain down there. Still, it wouldn't take them very long.

John realised something very quickly once 'Suzy Q' started moving with some speed; this wasn't going to be a smooth ride. He felt every single step through his spine, the mech's joints, and the springs in his seat, only able to compensate so much for the jarring motion. There was also some side to side sway, which would admittedly be quite relaxing if it didn't come with a jarring shudder every time he put his foot down.

My god, if DEN hadn't already fixed my back, I wouldn't even be able to operate this thing. My shoulder is already starting to ache. I wonder if there are massage therapists back in town?

He quickly cast a barrier spell on himself and a quick heal, hoping that the damage reduction spell would mitigate at least a little of the concussive impacts his body was receiving. He had no idea how his lance mates could put up with this at their age.

The air cleared once they descended the gentle slope, the brown limestone walls rising nearly a hundred feet on either side. When they got to the bottom, the canyon opened up to nearly the width of a football field, with a lazy river running down the middle of it. There were some smaller boulders scattered along the path in front of them, but nothing that would slow them down. There were several paths ahead of them they could follow, but most were fairly narrow and wouldn't allow them to maneuver.

"Jerome, scout up the river for us. We will be right behind you if you find anything." John ordered the man piloting their fastest and most maneuverable mech.

"Roger."

The spider darted off ahead of their formation, quickly disappearing behind the first bend in the canyon. They followed as quickly as Franky could keep up. The man's quiet cursing could be heard over their channel every dozen or so steps he took as his mech shook at its top speed.

They continued like this for a few minutes, the silence on the radio making John wonder why he hadn't heard from Jerome yet; his speedy mech should have been able to make it most of the way to the base by now.

"Johnny, I am pickin-" Franky started to say something when John's mech was suddenly peppered with machine gun fire. Two bolts of green laser fire passed right in front of him, almost causing him to stumble. He jammed his feet down on his pedals immediately, his instincts kicking in before he was completely aware that he was under attack.

Suzy Q launched from the ground immediately, tracing a high arc through the sky. John feathered his foot pedals, slightly changing his trajectory, and adjusted his orientation so he would come down facing the two pirates who had darted out of one of the many side passages in this canyon.

"Contact, two Locust. Engaging." Frank said before John had even landed, as the larger mech came to a halt and backpedaled, trying to get range on the two close range harassers. His medium lasers opened up on the furthest one, their green bolts catching it in the torso, slagging some armour there with their incredible heat. His auto cannons opened up a moment later, bombarding the smaller machine with its 25mm rounds.

Darla had shot into the air at the same time as John, flying backwards as she needed distance as well to use her weapon. At the apex of her jump, a volley of her long range missiles left their tubes, saturating the area around the untouched locust, with only about half of them hitting her target.

John was aware of their actions, but was more concerned with his own landing, bending his mechs' knees and feathering the jumpjets to come down softly. Well, softly as a thirty-five-ton death machine flying nearly a hundred feet in the air could. The shock of the landing caused John to bounce around in his chair as badly as he had when the Phoenix Hawk slammed into the biomass of the Javarian's he had just decimated with his MAG round.

More machine gun fire peppered his mech as he recovered, but John gritted his teeth and stepped forward. In front of him were two spindly looking mechs that kind of looked like an anorexic version of his Jenner, with machine guns on their arms and medium lasers slung under their cockpits. He took aim at the more damaged one and let go with a volley of his own medium lasers.

Locust image in spoiler

Spoiler

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Three of the four weapons connected, melting more armor off its torso and nearly destroying its right leg, much of the limbs' underlying structure now exposed. A wave of heat washed through the cockpit, causing John to sweat almost immediately. He wished he had time to strip down to his underwear.

"Holy shit!" He cursed as he started to move his mech sideways, taking another blast of machine gun fire and a laser just below his cockpit.

The locusts were not standing still, focusing their attacks on John as they split to either side of him, pelting his mech with a rain of .50 caliber machine gun and laser fire. John hit his jump jets again, maneuvering further down the canyon away from the two machines, which turned to chase him. That was their mistake.

Twin autocannon shots punched deep into the lightly armoured rear of the less damaged machine, followed by two medium lasers that started wreaking havoc in the internals of the mech. A volley of missiles followed closely behind, rupturing the engine compartment and causing the mech to explode in a massive fireball that rocked the walls of the canyon. The head of the mech separated from the machine and flew high above the canyon, disappearing somewhere in the field of jagged rocks up there.

"And that's how ya do it missy! God damn it's warm in here. Finish that one off, Johnny, we got places ta be!" Freddy said over the comms as John came down once again. He was nearly melting now, the heat generated from his consecutive jumps and laser barrage overwhelming the inadequate heatsinks the Jenner had. A warning siren blared through the cockpit, letting John know that-

"Heat Level: Critical," the computer's voice helpfully said, as if the fact that John felt moments away from passing out due to the temperature spike in the cockpit wasn't warning enough.

He took aim with his other weapon system, and four missiles shot out from above his cockpit, slamming into the remaining locusts' right leg, causing the limb to all but disintegrate. The mech fell on its torso, its forward momentum causing it to slide to a halt right in front of John. He could see the pirate scrambling on the inside, trying to get his machine back on its feet.

John took a step forward and brought Suzy Q's right foot down on the cockpit, crushing the pirate like a bug and ending the threat.

He stepped the mech back and leaned forward in his chair, panting hard. His mech was rapidly cooling down now that he wasn't moving, as cooler air from whatever form of air conditioning the vehicle used blew into the cockpit.

The battle took less than thirty seconds, but John felt like he had run a marathon already, his leather jacket drenched in sweat. His empty eye socket felt irritated from the moisture running down his forehead, and his palms were slick on the control yoke. And the stench, gods, the stench inside the cockpit from decades of different pilots sweating in there, it was making his stomach turn.

He thumbed the radio controls. "Franky, you don't get to complain about the heat until you ride in this thing. You would shave that carpet you call a beard off the moment you could." John replied on the radio. He was seriously considering shaving himself now; the cool air was making the skin beneath his beard itch horribly.

"Never! Had to shave for nearly fifty years because of their damn rules, and I will be damned if a blade touches this majestic face of mine again!" Franky replied with a laugh over the radio.

"Now, boys, let's keep moving. We still haven't heard from Jerome, and as much as I don't mind making him sweat a bit, he is probably expecting us as backup." Darla said, ending their little tirade.

John grunted and took a quick glance at his console. Those lasers took a chunk of his left and right torso armour off, and the machine guns did some superficial damage all over the mech, but otherwise, he was in decent condition. Maggie would probably give him some flak for the damages, but that was normal for that fiery blonde woman.

He turned Suzy Q away from the battlefield and started down the river again, leaving it at half throttle to accommodate Franky and his slow ass Blackjack. Speed and jumping were the only ways for this mech to survive encounters, which John was beginning to realise was the worst possible thing for the pilot of this mech to have to endure.

They left the two fallen mechs behind, the twenty-ton mechs barely worth considering for salvage. Though they would still do that later, as it was the main way they could rearm their own mechs in the Blackstone Guards. There was barely enough money for them to operate otherwise.