First Watch

By Steve Heavyside

It was pretty cool this morning when I rolled up to the hanger.  My
head was pounding from all of the Lunar Ale from the party the night
before.  You see, when a Mech Warrior is promoted in rank, it is
tradition that he buys all of his mates rounds, until they either
leave, or pass out.  In this case Duke was there and this Mech Warrior
could not drink him under the table.

It all started out just fine, the message came across the datalink
"Attention to Orders".  I was elated that another one of my Lance Mates
was getting a deserved promotion.  To my surprise it was to me.  Excited
I called up all of the Bros I could to meet for a couple of rounds of
good Lunar Ale.  Little did I know, they had already been planning the
shindig.  Round after round was knocked down like the DDM soldiers we
encountered a few night earlier.  The next thing you know the Boss was
up on top of the bar dancing with the bar maid.  I knew I had to get
out of there pretty quick.  I had an early morning run with Hammer. 

Finally everyone passed out or left, so I was left wobbling around the
bar like a duck in shooting gallery.  Everything was spinning and I was
getting woozy.  Not to fear though, the bar keep gave me a couple of
rounds of strong coffee and some grub to soak up the fun.  I passed out
for a couple of hours.

When I got to the Hanger Hammer was just suiting up.  We got all linked
up and were putting the final touches on the plan for the day when
across the database came an invite from our wanna be allies BCR.  I
jumped in my Loki and headed out the North West sector for a little
early morning round of mech testing.  I let Hammer know where I was
going just incase it was an ambush.  The BCR was testing a new THOR.
Mean little sucker it was, for some reason my alpha's were barely
scratching the paint on his new ride.  He wound up getting the best of
me, but I wasn't going to let him leave without putting a dent in his
day.  After all...my head felt like it was going to explode and I damn
sure wasn't going to tarnish my Sgt emblems on the first round.  He made
a jump to the Lunar surface to meet up with some of his lance, but I
strong message to him that he wasn't going to get away that easy.  Told
him to bring it on.  I put my Loki in the bay and jumped in the Madcat
that was just repaired from the DDM round.
    The BCR was surprised when I let loose an alpha strike in the head
to set the standards.  Nothing short of pissed was I.  It was a good
battle, but the Grave had to come out on top.  And we did.
    Hammer showed up to do a little training with the 2 BCR in the
area.  He made pretty short work of one of em, but had problems with
the other.  While watching the melee from a distance, I caught the glint
of the sun off of one of the distant Lunar peaks.  I thought I would
take a quick run of the loop to ensure that we were not going to be
ambushed.  As I came up on Nav Gamma, I was struck in torso by some
LBX's.  Damn...He took out my com link, so I was stuck out here.  I
made the best of it and moved to the bottom of the crater to hide
behind some of the gas jets and buildings to try and figure out who
just hit me and where he was.  Radar was down and I was out 2 lasers.
This was going to be rough.  First Watch as Sgt, and I was badly
damaged.  I tried to get the commlink working as I worked around the
crater to get better position on the enemy.  I saw him peaking up over
the crater rim to try and get another bead on me, but to his dismay, he
was met with the Green Sting, full in the chest, just below the
cockpit.  He ducked back behind the crater rim to try and close into
range for his LBX's.  I knew his tactic and maneuvered away through the
valley, but when I crested the rim, he was about 200 meters out, he
didn't know I was coming up there, but he was able to maneuver a little
better, and caught me in the leg with a tight group.  My reverse was
out, and I was blinking like a Christmas tree.  I hit him with another
alpha, but went hit wide and damaged his mech more, but not good
enough.  He circled around and caught me with a full barrage of LBX's
right in the face.  I knew what he was going for, so I waited for the
last possible second, hoping for the recycle of the lasers, I knew I
was too late, and punched out, just in time to see my mech go up.  He
didn't see me punch out, so I scrambled away and hid in a cavern until
he left.
   A little battered up, quite bruised and a really bad hangover, what
a way to start the promotion.  The Boss is going to be pissed. I took my
time getting back to the drop ship. I know that the Boss and Duke are
going to be pissed, but, there is another day to get em back.  As I was
crossing the crater I saw a piece of the enemy mech that jumped me.  It
had a SF emblem on it.  I said to the crater walls, "You got me today,
but wait until tomorrow...you will pay for the tarnish on my chest, You
will pay to the Grave"