The Relief of Mishima Works 107
In the period before the outbreak of the Great Machine War, there were many border incidents involving small raids and counter-raids between the Human Imperium and the Robotic Directorate. When the Tokugawa Cluster reported that Mishima Works 107 had been over-run, and that a small detachment of the Naomasa Red Devils was under siege amidst the ruins of the plant complex, a scratch force was thrown together to attempt a relief effort. Two squads of DAK (Deutsche Aerospace Korps) light infantry in local transit were reinforced by a single squad of the famed Red Devil Yoroi no Kozan-do armored infantry to form the composite force, which lacked heavy weapons or accurate intelligence of the situation on the ground.
Dropping into the outskirts of the sprawling complex, they encountered much stronger resistance than they had expected, and many historians mark Mishima 107 as the first of the real battles of the Great Machine War. Somewhere over Mishima 107, on an outbound Tokugawa transport. The two men sat facing each other, silent for the moment, seeming strangely alone amidst the score of empty seats, which only hours before they had hoped would be filled with re-united companions. One was in the garish armor of the Naomasa heavy infantry, the other in light battle dress."I think you should not have come, Hosokawa", said the unarmored man. "Bah! What do you know, Kuroda!" shouted the armored man, gesturing with a gauntleted hand around the empty cabin. "We have lost men, not honor, and one is easier to replace than the other. We survive to carry word to our lords, and it is up to them to regain what we have lost." When the other soldier gave a curt nod in reply, Hosokawa let out a slow breath, returned a hesitant smile, and admitted "Not that I have any real idea what happened, though!" "Well, I can tell you we did a lot of shooting and running on our end, that’s for sure!" said Kuroda. "The Machines must have realized you landed soon after we received the signal, because no sooner had we manned our forward positions than we were hit by two assault groups. Oh, we held them a bit at the west gate, but it wasn’t long before they broke through, and then it was run, fire, run some more, regroup with the commander at the east gate, and run some more, trying to break through the city to your lines. I tell you, if they had the time to assault both gates we would have been in deep, but your attack must have thrown them off. I never expected so many Machines!" "That’s the truth, at least," continued Hosokawa. "There was easily over a hundred of them, and with more firepower than before. As for us, we were stuck in from the first moment. The DAK’ers ran straight into a fire group as soon as they hit the outskirts of the city, and we had to jump in to keep them in one piece. After we had that under control, we left the DAK to clean up and then jumped over the next block, but damn me if it wasn’t full of Machines too! Out they came, and we had a straight up fight in the middle of the street, trying to keep them from piling on against the DAK. We lost two men there, but we crushed whatever came at us and then jumped as fast as we could towards your position at the west gate. I suppose by that time you had evacuated, because the whole western sector was thick with three assault groups led by some huge Machine. I got knocked down then, and the next thing I know the rest of the squad was either lying in the street dead or had jumped east trying to hook up with you. Well, I suppose you saw what happened to them. They get caught in a crossfire, and then all of a sudden I’m the only one left standing. It was pure luck that I managed to join up with you on the eastern edge of the city, as you made your last stand." "We were actually doing pretty well until that last fight," continued Kuroda. "We had avoided the Machines at the barricades through some fast footwork, and most of us survived to make our way along the eastern edge of the city, well ahead of the main assault group. But enough of them caught us to make us stop and fight, and that’s when the commander went down, along with the rest. If the DAK’ers hadn’t hit the Machines from behind, none of us would have gotten out." "Yes," said Hosokawa, "I have to admit that I didn’t think much of the DAK’ers until today. They did their job well enough, but there were just too many Machines in that city for them to push through. They spent the whole time pinned down on the southern edge of the city -- lucky for us, I suppose! Well, I wish them well, wherever they end up. I think we’ll all end up fighting more Machines than we saw today before we see the end." Somewhere else over Mishima 107, on a crowded DAK transport. "Damn it, Karl, stop your screaming! You think you’re the only one hit? Serves you right, officer or not, for charging around without a helmet and trying to rush the city all on your own!" Sergeant Hagen paused to look around the cabin while bending Karl’s arm back into place, as Karl obligingly passed out. What a cock-up this fight was! Well, at least they had got everyone out that was still in one piece. The entire command section was dead back on the streets, except for Karl here, but his squad’s six wounded were all here, as were Roland’s pair of wounded troopers from the other squad. Things had gone wrong right from the start, with those Machines jumping them in the very first block. Only the command section’s Plasma Rifle and the intervention of the Mishima armored troopers had given them the edge, and it had taken a long time to finally shoot the Machines to bits. Once they had the situation under control, he learned that Karl had taken a stray shot to his helmet and gone berserk, leading the other squad straight up a street with knife in hand. Not hard to predict what happened next -- Roland’s squad was shot up pretty badly, and the rest hid in the ruins and waited for the Mishima troopers to come to them. He had swung his own squad over to the eastern flank then, and got the chance to pay the Machines back a bit, catching them from behind as they chewed on the escaping Mishima. That damned big Machine with all the guns had vaporized the poor Plasma Rifle gunner as he covered their withdrawal, but they had at least managed to carry out their wounded. Hagen wasn’t sure that rescuing Karl was actually a good thing or not, but he was at least one more rifle for the next fight, and a next fight there surely would be now that the Machines had attacked in force. What would their next move be? |
What Really Happened on Mishima Works 107Friends, A lot has been said on what happened on Mishima Works 107. A lot of lies. The time has come to set the record straight. The time has come to tell the truth and nothing but the truth.
Mishima Corp. had retained the services of several of our fellow machines to work at the local chemical plant because the human workers refused to wade in the corrosive chemicals. However, despite several promises, Mishima Corp. refused to pay the agreed hazardous work extra, claiming that the work was not hazardous since our brave compatriots were able to do it.
The honest workers of the Machine Workers Union still thought all this was just a misunderstanding and all could be solved by negotiation. Thus they gathered in their housing district and led a peaceful march towards the factory offices. As you can see, the workers were not armed, some had merely forgotten to leave their tools at the workshop due to all the excitement, quite understandable for some of the older 8GB CPU units.
However, the treacherous humans had called in interstellar mercenaries to forcefully return our brave fellows to work. They had barricaded the entryways to the factory compound and placed armed guards with orders to shoot to destroy.
While most of our brave lads assembled at the factory gates, the vicious mercenaries entered the homes of some poor machines and started shooting at them! Our poor fellows could do nothing but hunker down and pray for the best! Even in this sorry state, the oil thirsty humans continued to shoot and shoot and shoot at our fellows!
Meanwhile, the humans at the gate decided to run away. Perhaps their conscience would no longer allow them to madly fire at unarmed laborers, perhaps they ran out of ammo. We might never know. Our brave lads followed but the factory manager grabbed the company credit card and made a dash for it. Seeing their hard earned pay disappearing, our fellows set in pursuit of the fleeing executives, only to collect their fair dues ofcourse.
We have also learned that some humans were crossing a street and were hit by a runaway truck, probably steered by some unlicensed human. Even though they had just wittnessed terrible cruelties committed by these humans, nearby machines could not ignore their plight and come to their aid. However, human jump troopers used their comrades' sorry condition to further their own ends, and launched a cowardly sneak attack on the unarmed machines, invalidating the warranty on many a brave fellow.
While several humans stumbled and fell during their mad dash, they managed to smuggle the company credit card off the planet. We machines shall not rest (not that we do anyway) until our wages are paid in full, including overtime compensation, hazardous duty extra and stock options! Next stop is Mishima Corporate HQ!
Sincerely, |
Sucks!
