| APAGear II Archives | Volume 2, Number 6 | July, 2000 |
LePierres' gear dropped down onto one knee, smoothly loading a new clip of AP rounds into its autocannon as he crouched it behind a centuries old wreck of a tank.
"Ah well, vacation would've been boring anyway..." Harik joked, his gear doing likewise to it's light bazooka, after manually loading a shell into its' back mounted mortar.
Hariks' Jäger, distinguished both by the mortar and pairs of heavy hydraulics attached externally on its' calves, began to slowly move toward the rocks ahead and pointed at the two larger boulders, even as its' pilot continued to chatter, eventually breaking out into a happy and very off-key song.
Oh the most wunnerful thing about Jägers, is they're roly and poly and fun,
But the most wunnerful thing about JumpJägers, is I got the only one!
The more conventional Jäger shadowing the Jay-Jay merely put it's
palm flat against the side of it's head and panned it's sensors back and
forth, doing a passable imitation of its' pilots gestures.
Then it pointed, two fingers indicating a series of platelike rock upthrusts, almost perfect for a defensive position, four hundred meters distant.
The amplified Jäger nodded and pointed to a sloping rock, almost like a ramp pointing at the plate-forest.
"When in danger, when in doubt" Harik Kzyn muttered over his com.
"Run in circles, scream and shout!" Robert LePierre replied, his Jäger snugging its' autocannon into its' armpit.
"Yup, so let's GO!"
In a flash the Gears lurched from their cover, LePierres' gear weaving between vocanic pillars while Hariks' gear leapt up, landed running on the ramp-boulder, and then engaged its' jumpjets.
As the jumpjets engaged, the Jäger fired its' mortar. Even as an arc of fire chased the shell down onto the rocks below, a Hunter and a Jaguar dashed from behind the largest plate-boulder and began weaving between dolmens, trying to achieve a safe distance from the blast as the mortar round slammed into the rocks where they had hidden.
As the Hunter scrambled away, leavign cover for a split second, LePierre opened fire, his 35mm autocannons' shells chewing the knees out from under the fleeing gear. Seeing it immobilized, he casually blew its arms off, rendering it completely helpless.
Even as it fell facedown onto a pile of rubble, Hariks' JumpJäger alighted on a large upthrust, leg hydraulics hissing as they tried to compensate from the shock of landing. Nonetheless, he sighted his rocket launcher midair and cleanly fired a round into the back of the Jaguar even as his gear hit. The remaining gear, trailing smoke and shrapnel as its' engine died, took only two quick bursts from the other Jägers' autocannon- chewing its right arm and leg off. As it collapsed facedown, the gear began a sort of tortured writhing as the pilot tried to inch away or at least turn to face his foes.
"Good shot." LePierre commented as his gear tipped over the Hunter, its' massive steel manipulators ripping the pilot hatch open like it was cardboard. The dazed pilot within offered little trouble as the southern gear freed him.
However, as Hariks' SchattenJäger approached the second gear in its charachteristic bouncing gait, several loud pops issued form the half-opened pilot hatch, and the SJs' right arm jerked and went dead in a flash of sparks. Only the immense dodging power of the leg hydraulics saved the gear and pilot, even as the northerner fired another, belated, burst.
"Shit! Northies' got an AGR!" Harik shouted, pulling his gear even further out of the Northers' field of fire.
LePierre, however, had quickly fired off a round from his gears' APGL at the charred wreck, releasing a dense cloud of green smoke. Seconds later, a choking NGIS officer emerged, collapsing onto the gravel as he proceeded to vent his last meal.
"Tear gas?" Harik exclaimed. "They only needed one prisoner... You're gettin more like me every day, boss."
"Lieutenant, when I want shit from you, I will sqeese your head." Le Pierre replied, his gear casually scooping up the retching officer with one arm. "Also, sey said t'ey would like the officer, and I had already disabled the Hunter..."
Hariks gear followed suit, his picking up the second pilot after slinging its' autocannon one handed.
"You know Supply is going to take strips out of us for this, don't you?" He commented, twitching the shattered arm.
"Us? I did not get shot, mon ami." LePierre replied, his gear shaking a fist at Hariks'.
"Sir! Fuck you! Sir!" Harik replied, and saluted, as his gear fell in step with his commanders.
During the increasing skirmishes between polar confederations following
the War of the Alliance, the southern military began to place much more
empahsis on commando actions and lightning raids, rather than direct
warfare that threatened to publicly escalate the conflict and point the
blame in their direction.
Unfortunately, despite such technological advances for frontline warfare as the Black Mamba and its variants, the Southern High Command lacked a good, low maintanence rugged-terrain gear suitable for such covert raids.
Fortunately, one High Command officer's aid happened to have recently been transferred from a training base that was being used by the 99th Skyhawks, and mentioned the use of a customized DartJäger that had been developed by strike recon pilots serving on the frontlines.
After a hurried consultation and a Alpha-Priority-Urgent message to the base, all three "JumpJägers" and their pilots were immediately brought to Marabou, where the three customized gears were scrutinized and reverse-engineered into a high quality production version.
Thus, after only about six months, the first northern recon cadres and supply dump guards began to report sightings of these fearsome new "JumpJägers," gears that packed the ferocity of Gold Mambas into a smaller, cheaper, and more plentiful assault version.
[NOTE: Click on the image of the JayJay to see a larger version, 69 kB download. -Ed.]
LAC 120rnds LRP16 32rnds VLRP128 256rnds HG 3rnds HHG 2rnds Vibroblade Sensors +1 Manouver 0 Armor 14 FireControl 0 Max. foot speed 48kph Max. SMS speed 84 Rugged Movment Systems Jump-Jets level 1 Hazardous Ammunition and Fuel Storage Offensive Threat = 642 Defensive Threat = 298 Misc. Threat = 299 Threat Value = 413
Unfortunately, due to many of the modifications made to upgrade DJ chassis into a bounding Death-From-Above, engineers had to radically modify many parts of the gear, even to the point of entirely removing the SMS systems and replacing them with massive calf-and-foot hydraulic shock absorbers to partially cushion the force of landing and prevent damage to the gear.
RFB 50rnds LRP16 32rnds HHG 3rnds VB Sensors +1 Manouver 0 Armor 14 FC 0 Walk 54kph NO SMS Rugd Mov Exo Chas Jump Jets level 3 Haz Am/Fu Offensive Threat = 591 Defensive Threat = 207 Misc. Threat = 1127 Threat Value = 642
Also, a top-of-the-line Command Variant was implemented, but only about a hundred were produced before a cheaper modification of a standard LuftJäger was created.
MAC 100rnds LRP24 48rnds HG 5rnds LFM 5rnds Vibrosword Sensors +1 Manouver 0 Armor 15 Fire Control 0 Walk Speed 54 kph NO SMS Rugged Movement Systems Reinforced Crew Compartment Jump Jets (level 2) Backup Communications Systems Electronic Counter-Countermeasures Hazardous Ammunition and Fuel Storage Offensive Threat = 1043 Defensive Threat = 236 Misc. Threat = 1003 Threat Value = 761
Special thanks to Josh Peters, long live the non-harpies.
| APAGear II Archives | Volume 2, Number 6 | July, 2000 |
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