I want to say I don't own neither Battletech nor Mechwarrior, and want to thank all the writers from this great series without you the franchise would have died long ago.
Capellan Confederation
Shensi Capital City
April 17th 3028
Captain Spears was enjoying the down time he had received over the last few days. He had been on active duty for the last three weeks with all the hustle and bustle going on close to the boarder worlds. Several Davion units were being moved around over the last few weeks and the Liao command was very nervous or at lest seemed to be nervous. Spears was the acting Xo for a small merc unit who was due to be relocated some two weeks ago, but word from the Liao Liaison was the Cobras would be on the front line at lest another two to three weeks.
Spears was an advent runner so much he would spend an entire morning exploring the Wei park (one of the biggest natural parks on Shensi) This morning he was enjoying a short 20 kilometer run about half of his normal run. Spears noticed his personal communicator was going off as he had set it to silent not wanting to be disturbed this morning.
"Captain Spears, here this better be good."
Captain Spears this is Sergeant Kilmer Major Carter needs you and all personal back to the nest ASAP we have several inbound dropships unknown origin but we are being advised they are not friendless.
Spears instinctively looked to the sky; Sergeant is this a drill or is this a credible threat?
Captain if this is a drill I've never seen the Major lose color from her face when she issued the order to call in all off duty personal.
Spears had known Major Gillian Carter for the last 5 years and she was one of the most level headed officers he had the pleasure of serving under. If she was this spooked something big was going down.
Sergeant, have a VTOL pick me based on my comms coordinates I have no form of transportation to the Nest (The Nest was the term the unit called CIC).
Yes sir I will have one there within the hour.
One last thing Sergeant keep your cool, you need to speak even and without any doubt in your voice, panic will spread, lets not worry till we have something to worry, have the techs do a quick ready prep of all the mechs and have them on alert 5 status, also if the Major has not yet scrambled our Aero assets lets get two lances in the air to see if we can ID these dropships.
Yes sir, we will see you as soon as you get in Captain. And… thank you sir, for being so level headed about this.
Don't thank me yet Sergeant, I'm not saying we don't have anything to worry about I'm just saying we don't know what type of worry we have, Spears out.
2 hours and 12 minutes later. Cobra Nest
Major, Spears snapped a quick salute to his OIC. She gave him a quick snap salute and went back to talking to an aide who was taking notes, Spears waited until she was finished and the aide was dismissed.
Paul you took the wrong day to take a hike.
It would seem so sir. Any idea who they are?
Well I know they aren't any inbound Liao units nor any type of commercial drop ships, as they refuse any type of communications and they are moving at 2-G's toward the planet surface.
2-G's yea that's an invasion force or a raiding force one, how many in total?
Carter looked at her second in command for what seemed to be an eternity.
Four Overlords, two Unions, and 1 Fury class.
Spears mouth dropped as she told him the size of the drop ships.
That's an invasion force, Four Overlords that's a reinforced regiment.
I know she said, the question now is a Regiment of who?? What do we have in the way of forces on the Militia level?
Spears thought for a minute.
The Militia has a reinforced Company of Mechs, Captain Lei has his lance on station with him. The Militia also has two battalions of assorted armor but most of that is smaller stuff geared toward police actions, parades etc.
The Major rubbed her eyes with her left hand.
Paul even with everything we have if that is indeed a full regiment we can't hope to slow them down. The closest unit to us is the Garrotes Grizzlies a reinforced Mech battalion and they are two jumps away putting them almost 2 weeks out. At the rate they are coming down on us they will hit planet side in 37 hours…….. Any ideas?
Spears turned from his commanding officer and he knew if there was any hope she would of put it on the table before asking him what other forces were available on the planet, she knew better then he did what military assets were on this rock, as she received daily reports from all military assets and weekly ready checks. She was in fact a Mercenary but was the highest ranking military officer on Shensi.
Major, I see three possible out comes to this.
And they are Paul?
One- We gather all available military assets and we find the best defensible body of ground and make a stand there and we are destroyed. Two- We take to the hills and woods a wage a guerilla campaign until help arrives, depending on who they are we might be able to hold out for two or three months. Three- You radio them and ask them for terms of surrender.
Carter looked at her second in command with disbelief, she had never heard him ever mention a word of giving up, and not when it came to a fight.
Well Paul that's a first. I've never heard the words surrender come from your lips not when it comes to a fight.
Major, with all do respect we cant win this war not at this scale. I see a lot of our people dieing to hold something they are going to take from us, again if they are indeed the size force they appear to be.
Major, Major Carter. Yelled Sergeant Kilmer.
Yes Kilmer what is it. Sounding almost aggravated realizing Spears words rang truth to her.
Sorry sir, our Aero assets have Identified the in bound drop ships. It is a Davion unit.
Well which one Spears asked
Sir's it's the 1st Davion Guard.
Both Carter and Spears looked at each other in total disbelief.