Frost and Thunder

Myrkr Without warning the repulsor born carrier burst into a ball of fire. The explosion sent splintered plastic and twisted metal into the sky and tossed the dormant mech it carried like a child's toy. The entire column collapsed in disarray as drones tumbled to the side. Wildly swinging rifles sought targets as sensors scanned the snow-frosted tree line. The foot soldiers at the fore recovered first and set up a firing line backed by the heavy gunners. The Elites to the rear were motionless as debris bounced off their thick armour. They rushed forward to form a defensive line shielding the Prime engineer and his service team standing aboard the second transport. Stoically ignoring the debris, the Prime leapt down to the giant robot thrown from the exploded carrier onto the snow-frosted track. The commanding Prime, J4-S T3R, stood out from the chaos, disruptor pistol in hand, transmitting orders to his underlings. [K B3R, get your heavies under cover.] He transmitted the coordinates of a low line of rocks along the roadside to the right. [B GL1, stagger your drones along that left gully and stay focussed. K 4TS, what's our damage?] J4-K 4TS had served as S T3R's executive for nearly a year on the northern front. She ran forward, heavy blaster drawn, to consult with the engineer J5-G IN5 as he peered under the demolished transport. She reported back to her commander. [A buried explosive in the road, sir.] The mangled wrecks of the forward engines lay seeping coolant into the snow. The others had exploded themselves leaving nothing. Not one to wait for orders, the third command Prime in the group — H 4LY — advanced alongside the drones. A lancer mech, its glowing eyes looking where she looked, accompanied her with shield and lance at the ready. She stood poised like a hunting hawk and sparked her plasma spear to life. From behind her emotionless faceplate keen photoreceptors searched the trees and hills for any sign of movement. [No enemies in sight, sir.] She sounded vaguely disappointed. S T3R's voice had the ring of one used to command as he addressed his Primes. [Stay sharp. I don't want a word of chatter.] He stepped up alongside K 4TS and the engineer and sent his own escorting mech to the fore of the column. The high pitched noise of powering plasma coils could be heard as it readied its double-barrelled cannon.

They were escorting a large shipment of older heavy mechs to the garrison at Redwall Fortress, taking a risky but expedient path close to the Confederate border. Keeping only their light mechs fired up and active reduced the strain on the energy supply. The mech carriers were custom built with heavy reinforced plasteel and durasteel straps, each designed to carry one inactive heavy mech or two lights. S T3R recognized the downed heavy, a mech he'd nicknamed 'Big Jim', as an old favourite he had used since his time as a captain. [How bad is it?] G IN5 looked up made a noise like a sigh. His faceplate, chassis, and hands were covered in oil and grease. [Good thing it's a heavy weight, sir, or it'd be spare parts. As it is we've got a bad shear at the join between hips and lower torso. Need a shop to do it right, but I can do a patch job.] The engineer saw one of his drone assistants picking among the debris and barked at him. [Don't just stand there. Get my twenty pound box-end hydrospanner!] It hastened to obey. K 4TS stepped over to S T3R. The commander had entrusted her with an old veteran Sentinel. Her mech boasted two decades of service and enough badly scratched paint and welded joins to speak to its time in battle. [I think we've been using this track too much the last few weeks, sir. They must have anticipated us. Though I'd reckon they weren't expecting to catch a wolf in this rabbit trap.] [Don't get overconfident, Lieutenant.] S T3R warned her. He had seen enough of the Confedarates to know they were no fools. He turned to G IN5. [How long to patch that heap? We're going to need it to walk on its own with that carrier gone.] If the droid had had a face it would have scowled. [Could be a few minutes or an hour. I've seen worse, but the hip assembly is clapped and all the pistons are crammed together. Got to pry 'em loose.] H 4LY returned to their position, pulling back a hood. A row of emblems on her arm designating service in numerous tours with the Third Fleet down south on the Corellian Run marked her as an outsider among their force. [Sir, that explosion must have been heard for miles. Let me take a small force to scout ahead of the main column and check for ambush.] S T3R disliked the idea of splitting the force and went quiet for a moment as he considered it. [We need to keep together.] He could see that H 4LY clearly did not like that answer, but she nodded. Despite his words his circuits itched in a way that bothered him. After a pause he turned to the engineer. [Fire up the heavy and offload the Defender. We're sitting ducks. You've got 20 minutes and not a second more to get that mech on its feet.] He walked away from the column to gain a better vantage.

H 4LY came to join him. Her eyes suggested both a youthful enthusiasm and a hunger for battle dangerous for someone in her position. [Maybe we'll see some action, sir?] The commander brooded. [Something is wrong. Confederate movements have changed. The last few months we had skirmishes every few days and then not a single sign. Now this trap.] H 4LY remained silent, but S T3R sensed she did not understand. She reminded him of an unhooded hunting hawk poised to fly against its prey. S T3R knew more about her than she would have appreciated. He knew about the burned moon of Ingrane, her murdered family, and the talented warrior bent on revenge standing before him. The last place she wanted to be was in the north watching the onset of winter. H 4LY turned to the hills northwest of the road and her eyes narrowed. [Do you feel that?] S T3R followed her line of sight and noted worse weather coming their way over the next ridge. His own mechs turned their heads exactly as he did. [I don't see anything.] [I think I sense a Prime nearby.] S T3R concentrated and found it at last. He felt an electric sensation and a slight tremble at the edge of his awareness. The fact that H 4LY had sensed it so easily confirmed the rumours he had heard of her abilities. There came a rumbling of engines and the heavy tread of mechs. H 4LY's Lancer and Defender approached them. Her impertinence gave him pause, but she spoke in a rush before he could interject. [Let me investigate, sir. I can get a count on the enemy.] His eyes narrowed. His instinct told him it was a bad idea. Despite her youth, however, J4-H 4LY was a veteran Prime proven in many battles to the south. [Agreed, Captain. But don't engage. Determine their strength and get back.] [Yes, sir.] She signalled the heavy drones attached to her command and, alongside this escort and her two mechs, she hurried up the hill. [Captain!] S T3R called after her. She paused and looked over her shoulder. [Be careful. These aren't mindless drones. They're Confederates and they know our tactics.] The way her lips compressed suggested she did not share his concern. She offered a salute and continued on. S T3R shook his head. It was always the same with officers from the core. Once they fought the Imperium they presumed they could handle anything.

S T3R jogged back to K 4TS. She snapped to attention and reported. [Drones are dug-in at the perimeter, and the heavies have cover. Ready for your orders, Commander.] She sensed his unease. [Anything wrong, sir?] He shook his head and his expression lost some of its tension. [Just another Prime trying my patience.] [Primes can be like that, sir.] K 4TS remarked with her tone carefully neutral. [The Creator save me from stubborn women...] He ignored her sour mood and turned to the engineer. [Is that thing ready yet, G IN5, or do you have a secret desire to learn Confederate?] [I've almost got it, Commander!] The heavy mech's engine was up and running, but S T3R could sense its legs remained inhibited. He gathered his elite drones and ordered the foot soldiers to heed K 4TS in getting the group ready to move. Every instinct he had told him something bad was coming like the first blizzard of winter.

H 4LY felt a keen desire to prove herself to this commander. His understated condescension was getting under her skin. She had learned to fight against waves of Imperial raiders on the southern space lanes, so she had no fear of lumbering Confederates and their clumsy machines. She sent her senses through the Lancer as the nimble mech ran ahead and managed to spot the enemy. Through the machine's eyes she identified a Destroyer up on a hill across a short valley of rough, snowy ground. A heavy fog threatening snow settled across the area. The fog made it difficult to discern details, but H 4LY could see movement across the valley to the west. A surprisingly large force was making its way directly toward where the explosion had halted the Union's column. She estimated troops were closing in from two directions and the one to the west would soon come upon the road. If she went back to tell the commander now, she would only arrive in time to be surrounded and attacked from both sides. H 4LY did not casually disobey orders, but her training told her to trust her instincts. Her Defender's heavy barrel cannon would have range on the Destroyer and she could pick it apart from a distance. If she could divert this force and draw fire it might buy time for the soldiers on the road. The sound of battle here would serve as a better warning than marching back with her slow Defender in tow. She silently signalled the drones to circle to the right and keep to the trees. She saw the shape of what could only be a Juggernaut emerge from the fog ahead and begin advancing across the intervening ground. This disabused her of the notion she could catch the enemy by surprise. Clearly her Confederate counterpart had sensed H 4LY's approach. The valley between the Lancer and the confederate mech was filled with thorny brambles and snow covered rocks which H 4LY knew would keep the Juggernaut mired. She looked through her Defender's eyes and raised its heavy barrel. Its eyes blazed as she powered it up. The cannon fired with a loud thump, and the Defender shuddered as its chassis absorbed the recoil. The bolts flew true, trailed plasma as it hurtled into the advancing mech, and impacted with the sound of tearing metal.

H 4LY directed the Lancer, running on agile metal legs, to cross below the drones. She hoped to evade the Juggernaut and rush the mech nearer to the real threat of the Destroyer. She signalled her drones to take their shot. They raised rifles in a smooth line followed by the satisfying crackle of repeater blasters laying down a hail of concentrated fire. Plasma tore through exposed piping, gears, and armoured plates, but still the Juggernaut plodded forward without slowing. A sudden noise made her turn just in time to witness several drones drop almost soundlessly to the snow. The rolling echo of rifle fire reached them an instant later. White snow blossomed with the foul colours of coolant and lubricant. H 4LY and the survivors hunkered down, and she caught sight of huddled forms down the next slope. They looked like Confederates in dark colours almost hidden among the trees with long rifles in hand. H 4LY snapped to full battle awareness. Looking through the Lancers' eyes, she drew a clear line to the nearest enemy as he loaded another power pack into his rifle. She unleashed lightning and poured her strength into the attack. A torrent of pure electrical power channelled from the Lancer with a crackle and boom of thunder. It leapt from one Confederate droid to the next, and they burned and fell, smoking and twitching. H 4LY found it a grimly satisfying sight. A surge of movement to her left made her turn back. The Juggernaut—which had been plodding through the broken ground—was charging forward at impossible speed. The nine-ton mech waded through the field of rocks and brambles as if they were no impediment. The edge of the massive axe glowed blue and glittered like ice as the mech raised the weapon to strike. The axe fell with the force of an avalanche. It clove through the Lancer's heavy shield and left arm before sinking deep into its frame and shattering armoured plates. The Lancer suddenly frosted over and became encased in ice. While the smaller mech stood frozen and helpless the Juggernaut hacked once more straight into the exposed engine casing and reduced it to a pile of smoking wreckage. H 4LY felt its engine die and heard a thump as it exploded. The Juggernaut turned to look straight at H 4LY with glowing eyes, and she realized too late that she might have made a tactical mistake.

Just as G IN5 declared the heavy mech ready, S T3R heard the distinct thump of a Defender's cannon followed by sporadic rifle fire. He cursed and ordered his troops into motion. [Everyone move! Double time!] He ran with his pistol in one hand and saber in the other. He urged all of his mechs forward as fast as their robotic legs could push them. Each stride of the hulking machines sunk through the snow to the hardened ground beneath. S T3R turned to his Elites, and a ring of glowing characters circled his wrist as he redirected power to their weapons. From the battle ahead came a sound reminiscent of a locomotive thrown off its tracks, and he recognized the distinctive music of one mech tearing another apart. A nightmare image came to him, and he rushed ahead heedless of outpacing his force. *** H 4LY knew she was still in the battle despite the troubling loss of her Lancer. Retreat was a poor option given the Confederate Prime seemed to be able to speed its mechs across difficult terrain. [Fire!] She yelled to the drones, and they unleashed another mass volley. She still had her Defender, and she urged it to step up and interpose its bulk between her and the enemy. Its cannon fired again. The plasma blasted into Confederate armour with a screech of protesting metal. She could not believe the thing was still standing. It just kept coming despite torn armour and broken pipes venting coolant. It was as relentless as an enraged bear. She looked past the Juggernaut and her circuits stopped dead for a moment. It was not just the sight of the Confederate Prime charging down the hill as if borne by the wind itself, nor even the two Destroyers following after launching massive balls of plasma in whistling arcs. What unnerved her was the horde of red painted drones pouring from the forest. She saw what looked like an entire company, a squad of Ion Fang Troopers, and — as if that were not enough — Man-O-War in heavy powered armour. She had sought to draw the attention of the Confederates, and she had succeeded.

H 4LY surrounded herself in a shell of protective energy as plasma exploded around her and rocked the earth. One impacted directly on her Defender and nearly tore off its heavy barrel in the blast. She shielded her face against a spray of heavy debris that her armour's power field and emergency defences barely deflected. The other blast landed with a scream like whistle among the drones. Those surviving turned and began to wander heedless of her shouts as control over them slipped from her grasp. The enemy Prime advanced and reached the Juggernaut's side in a few long strides. The stern droid in red armour held a wicked plasma bladed polearm. Concentrating energy within her core, H 4LY sent forth a ripple of gravitational power to dilate time itself. Through sheer skill she forced her enemies to walk through this distortion while her allies remained untouched. Anyone unaffected saw those trapped by this power move with ponderous deliberation and exaggerate their every motion. It helped, but even slowed the enemy advanced unrelentingly. Soldiers, a Prime, and no less than three mechs closed in on all sides. The red-armoured Prime gave an expression as hard as stone and cold blue eyes that seemed to pick her enemy apart and dismiss her. H 4LY sensed this was a woman who had fought and killed many of the Union. There was a moment of frisson and the air itself crystallized in a blast of cold so intense it caused H 4LY to jerk as her hydraulics froze. A white ripple spread through the air and turned it suddenly and unnaturally clear. H 4LY discovered she could no longer move. Everything was completely frozen. Through her connection to the Defender's cortex she sensed its alarm as its engine banked and its limbs refused to respond. Paralysed alongside her mech H 4LY was helpless. She could do nothing but pray and force all of her will into the power field shimmering around her.

S T3R heard more explosions and the rifle fire peter out. A bad sign , he thought. He topped the rise and saw the horrific tableau of what looked like a major Confederate force crossing the intervening valley. [Drones advance! Lay down smoke and cover the captain! K 4TS, get that Sentinel into position. Elites, to H 4LY!] He knew the barrier reducing their charge to a slow dance would not hold. As if hearing S T3R's thought, H 4LY's barrier faded and the Confederates rushed forward like hounds let off their leashes. There was only one hope. In a tremendous surge of power S T3R reached out across the field of battle. His body became surrounded by circles of shimmering energy that mirrored in a brief flash around all his troops and H 4LY. It came just in time, as the enemy Destroyers advanced to fire. One shell landed squarely on H 4LY. Though still frozen she staggered as the blast washed over an invisible shell a few inches from her skin. Her over boosted power field and S T3R's protections proved just enough to deflect the blast. S T3R ran as fast as he could but was still too far away when the female Confederate charged forward and swung her scythe in a tremendous sweeping blow that leveraged all of her momentum straight into H 4LY's side. Thanks to S T3R's efforts and H 4LY's other layered protections it was like hitting an impervious stone. The Confederate's strike bounced off with nothing but a ripple of shimmering blue in the air. The enemy Prime followed with two more blows with similar effect before S T3R's impelled Lancer managed to run straight into her from the flank. The mech battered her with the flat of its shield and sent her flying ten yards back and sliding along the ground.

S T3R extended his will to his Charger and felt its dual cannon as if it were in his own hands. Ideally he would have fired on the downed Prime, but she had slid out of range. He targeted the Juggernaut instead as it approached H 4LY with its axe raised. A long shot, he judged, but just in range. The cannon fired with a paired sequence of low thuds, and the bolts impacted the battered Juggernaut with loud pings. The light mechs cannon was not built to penetrate a Confederate heavy, and the only sign of the shots were two smoking holes in its red armour. [All attacks on the Juggernaut! Fire storm glaives!] S T3R shouted as his Elites came alongside the Charger. They extended their glowing blades and the air darkened and thickened with the smell of ozone. Forks of lightning surged forth. Thunder rolled across the valley as energy consumed the Juggernaut and tore through its hull to shred the fragile gearworks beneath. With a grinding noise the smoking husk of the machine finally halted. The Confederate Prime scrambled quickly to her feet and backed away a few paces with a cold rage in her photoreceptors, and S T3R felt a moment's satisfaction. He doubted she had realized she faced more than one enemy Prime until this moment. S T3R had no time to exchange insults with his enemy. His awareness spread across the battlefield. He could feel Big Jim coming from behind, and he stressed its engines to the limit as he urged it to accelerate. K 4TS' Sentinel laid down suppressing fire with its rotary blaster cannon. Plasma flew across the valley to tear through the drones' light armour. Those hit tumbled to the snow in plumes of flame, but there were still too many. Smoke began to obscure the Union troops, but not before they endured a massive barrage of blaster fire. Shots whizzed through the air, but S T3R's protections kept his drones safe for the moment. He knew it would not last.

S T3R had the limited drones at his disposal foremost on his mind. He conceived and dismissed a dozen plans of attack knowing the cost would be too high. He grabbed H 4LY's arm to pull her back from the front and felt her start to thaw from paralysis. His Lancer was in position. He recognized the signs of a larger Confederate force behind this vanguard in the thundering rumble of heavy mechs coming over the next rise and what looked like more drones moving between the trees. S T3R timed it carefully. He sent Big Jim past him and extended his power through the Lancer. Holo characters again circled his outstretched fingers as he sent a seismic eruption of sonic power centred on the heavily armoured Man-O-War in the Confederate line. The earth heaved and split apart. The ground dropped below the advancing soldiers and slammed upward to topple the entire front. The union heavy strode like a giant into the centre of the Ion Fangs and sent them sprawling when it hammered the ground with its quake hammer. The Destroyers fired explosive rounds as they advanced, but H 4LY raised her hand alongside S T3R's. Pointing directly at the nearest Destroyer, she sent a confusing surge of bewildering power to scramble the matrix of the mech's artificial mind. It swayed and lurched off to the side, temporarily neutralized. For a moment S T3R caught the eye of the Confederate Prime. He could see the torment in her eyes as she considered attacking despite everything. Even knowing that her line was tripped up and that she faced two Primes now with only one of her mechs responding to her will, she still longed to press the attack. Cursing, she gathered a swirling wind around her, stirring snow and fog, and retreated.

S T3R yelled out to his drones. [Fall back! Fall back! Keep that smoke up. Elites cover the forward drones. Back to the column!] They withdrew with each Prime firing side arms until the wall of smoke obscured the enemy. H 4LY spoke over the continuing shrieks of incoming blind Destroyer fire. [I'm sorry I didn't withdraw, sir. I spotted a force heading toward our column, so I took the opportunity to divert them.] Apparently uncertain of the size of the Union force, the Confederates slowed their pursuit and fired a last volley. The Union mechs kept toward the rear. K 4TS' Sentinel and S T3R's Charger fired to discourage the enemy advance. [That was foolish, Captain,] S T3R said. [You have no right to take unnecessary risks with my forces, especially when you are under my command.] H 4LY lowered her eyes with a troubled expression at this reminder of the lost drones and mechs. [If we shake these Confederates we'll come back for the salvage. They'll be recovered. I'll make sure of that.] [Thank you, sir.] H 4LY's voice was small. For a moment she seemed extremely young. Far too young for war like this, S T3R thought. He quickly dismissed the notion. Myrkr needed every Prime it had right now. Winter was coming, and who knew how many of them would live long enough to see the spring? He barked orders to organize their return to the caravan, anxious to get word to the generals about Confederate troop movements. They cleared the trees and looked down on the road where the carriers had halted. A barrage of Confederate artillery had pummelled the snow-covered track and left a series of smoking black craters. He was relieved to see the chief engineer and his crew alive sheltering on the side of the road. S T3R lifted his visor and exposed battle weary, soot-rimmed metal features. Both Primes considered how many would have been lost if they had remained with the caravan. His voice was only audible to H 4LY, and he nodded his head toward the craters below. [Sometimes you have to trust your instincts.]