If you've already read my Freelancer story, this is basically the same idea; novelization with a hint of narrative Let's Play. As the Damocles Commando was part of the Eridani Light Horse from their insignia, it's assumed they've all lived through the attack on Huntress and are pretty veteran. I've actually read Loren Coleman's novelization but the personalities feel off from their appearances in the game (particularly in terms of Pirate's Moon), and it's not the most faithful adaption in general. One gets the impression it was contractually required and without heart.
Yes, Pirate's Moon. I'm doing the expansion too, come the time for it.
The Devil Went Down to Tranquil
"Sergeant Sinclair." There was something...unreal about this meeting. I'd been on Huntress since Task Force Serpent had landed, and for the last week or so I'd been firmly convinced I would die here.
Now I, we, were safe. Being briefed by a Com Guard officer, a full Precentor, and in the background hovered Focht. Anastasius Focht, the man who'd saved the Inner Sphere at Tukkayid, the Precentor Martial of ComStar, highest-ranking officer in that organization. "The Eridani Light Horse has done a great deal, but under the circumstances you're the only ones we can turn to. A large Smoke Jaguar force is moving through Clan space to another of their worlds, where Galaxy Commander Brendon Corbett has issued a call to rally. While most of their holdings are under attack by opportunists in other Clans, this one is not, and it includes enough manufacturing capacity to possibly let them reform. Not as a force as powerful as they were, but it would ruin our effort to annihilate them outright."
Ah. They wanted me to volunteer. "And you need people from the Light Horse who are still in fighting shape. Not just physically, mentally." You see your regiment reduced to a couple of companies effective. You watch the guy who marked your landing zone and made your drop a pushover get vaporized. Yeah, he was DEST, but dammit. DEST are the best special forces in the Inner Sphere. They shouldn't...just die. Yes, it's stupid to think that. It's emotional, not rational. Understanding that does not rob it of its power.
But I'm still sane and still fighting, unlike poor Jeremy in his Crusader who snapped, running forward to beat on a stunned Jaguar Fire Moth while the rest of the Star shot him to pieces. Jeremy never punched out, even when his ammo blew. Unlike Linda, who bought the farm to a lucky PPC hit on her Blackjack Omni's cockpit. Unlike Max, who lost an arm as he punched out of his wrecked Phoenix Hawk.
Of course my Bushwhacker is a wreck and all the Clantech we'd kitbashed onto it since invading Huntress has to be replaced with factory-fresh Inner Sphere parts because it was such a mess. Shame.
"Yes." That was Focht. Focht. Holy shit, I am talking to Anastasius Focht. "Are you willing to join up for this operation?"
And I say "Yes sir." because it's Anastasius Focht and what else am I going to say? No, can't do it, sorry savior of the Inner Sphere?
"This is Tranquil. Ironic name for a Clanspace world, but seems to fit what we know of its history. The majority holdings are Clan Wolf, but this peninsula here;" the recon shot was black and white, they'd dug it out of the wreckage of the Mount Szabo command facility I guess; "is held by the Jaguars. So is the polar continent above it, but there's nothing there worth mentioning. It's the site of their only 'Mech production facility off Huntress that hasn't been taken by another Clan. We hoped the Wolves would move against it, but they're battening down the hatches instead. The arrival of our main force in Clan space has them worried." The briefing is being given by Commodore Berswick. He's the ranking officer of Task Force Serpent left, no matter what you'd hear about Andy Redburn. At least as far as most of us in the Light Horse care.
"We are borrowing the FCS Invincible for transport. The Jaguars have a pair of aerospace stars in the garrison, second-line fighters, but it leans heavy and they will probably contest a landing. The WarShip and her fighters can make sure the landing is possible, and as a last resort can strike targets that are too tough for the ground team. DropShips Eclipse and Black Hammer will carry six lances for a commando strike against preplanned targets. Captain Mitchell?"
Mitchell was an intel guy. I knew him by rep; he was 71st Light Horse, like me. Not too many of us left, honestly. These two companies represented about a third of the combat strength of the Eridani Light Horse at the moment, and at least some of the folks in the room aren't actually ELH from their patches. Perversely, there are more combat troops left than support staff, after the Jaguars deliberately went after the support crews a couple times. We probably have half the support structure that's not in the hospital in this room.
Well, half the support structure that doesn't consist of Clan techs we've adopted. It seemed weird to us back after Trafalgar, that Clan non-warrior castes would turn-to and work for us so easily. It no longer seems weird after our time on Huntress. The Jags were brutal on their civvies. We treat them like people rather than as expendable as ammunition. What kind of a warrior society beats their maintenance people? How does that even work without causing constant sabotage?
"Operation Damocles will be conducted in four tactical sub-ops. Each will target a different facility that the Jaguars have, in addition to engaging any targets of opportunity, with an eye towards military infrastructure. Damocles One under Lieutenant Sinclair," you know, somebody could have mentioned my apparent promotion before this meeting, "will be going after this smaller peninsula off the main one, which houses a 'Mech production facility." At a glance, there's a river valley that would channel all movement awkwardly while moving towards the factory. The op area looks like it's about 20 by 20 klicks, maybe a little less, but the river valley constrains things to a corridor maybe a couple of klicks wide and seven to ten long. Need more sense of scale to be sure. "Damocles Two under Lieutenant Lovat will attack a hydroelectric dam here while Damocles Three under Captain Tanya will attack here, which includes a major logistics site and some hardened underground facilities, contents unknown. Considering the trouble the Jags went to, however, they are likely quite important. Damocles Four, Five, and Six will land in these locations and coordinate their operations to the level of enemy activity. Their targets are a training facility, several munitions factories, and a fortress. All teams will rendezvous here, at the city of Durgan, destroy its military quarter and storehouses, seize the local spaceport, and extract after it has been rigged to blow. Durgan is critical; it houses one of the only facilities in Clan space that builds parts for 'Mech production equipment, so the Jaguars could build as many 'Mech factories as they want as long as they have Durgan intact, or trade those parts to other Clans for almost anything they like." How did anyone miss that? It seems kind of important, for Blake's sake. I take a breath and step back, mentally. We knew nothing about Clanspace when we got here; we only had intel on Huntress. It actually makes sense we'd miss stuff like this. "From there, they will move to the spaceport and destroy it."
"The Jaguars had a pair of Provisional Garrison Clusters in place, but at least some of it was accounted for on Huntress in the second wave. Most of them are likely staring over the border on the other side of the pole from this area, looking at the Wolves. They can't move, if the Wolves break through then all is lost just as much as if we succeed. Based on our experience on Huntress, we expect many of them to be using Inner Sphere equipment, or old Star League gear. Brendon Corbett himself means a command unit of front-line troops, though."
"Detailed briefings will be presented by your intel officers." Now what does that mean? Lances don't have intel officers.
Lances have intel officers. Each team on this op has about thirty support folks, comms, intel, techs. Lieutenant Sorenson, First Kathil Uhlans, runs intelligence and operations for Damocles One. Scratch team all around. I was actually promoted, but the usual snafuing meant I was late to find out. Dominic Paine, Tracey Duvall, and Keith Andrews for my first command as fighting parts, Sorenson leads the support staff. They worked out a way to drop the mobile field bases we use with us, so we can repair and reload in the field, or rekit if we have the time.
Dominic was regimental recon for the 151st Light Horse. The 'Mech he came to Huntress in was toasted by the Jags in the original drop, but they put together a shiny new Shadow Cat for him, and he managed to keep it intact through the long retreat from the Jaguar reinforcements. Tracey was part of a Battle Lance somewhere, one of the other regiments. She has a Black Hawk which I gather is her third 'Mech since she came to Huntress. Keith was in the Fire Lance of my own company. Catapult, Arrow IV artillery missile system. I learned to rely on those missile artillery blasts like I did my 'Mech's armor during the retreat, and I am glad to have him on board for this.
We've gone over the op, all of us, several dozen times. We've also gone over the other ops in less detail, except for the spaceport and the last op. We're as ready as we can be, and we're loaded up, waiting. Our deployment DropShip is the SLS Black Hammer, part of the 151st regimental transport group. The Jags never really touched our DropShips, fortunately. "Deployment in five minutes."
It's not my first drop. It's nobody's first drop, at least among the MechWarriors. We all dropped on Huntress. There we were afraid. I feel no shame in that admission. What we planned to do was bold, almost lunatic; not since Morgan Hasek-Davion and Andy Redburn had dropped the First Kathil Uhlans on Sian during the Fourth Succession War had anything like this been attempted. And our plans involved seizing and wrecking an enemy capital world, not raiding one.
Here...I don't feel fear, so much. A kind of...wariness. Watchful, but not keyed up. This was not a time for action, and so I do not feel compelled to be active, nervous. I have a partial scan going over the Bushwhacker's instruments, out of habit. BattleMech fusion reactors are about as safe as fusion reactions can be made; only catastrophic combat damage can cause them to be any danger, and even then that danger is only to the BattleMech that's carrying it. The plasma doesn't last long outside containment but it can still fry up the 'Mech's innards pretty good in the half-second it's loose. Still, the next three minutes are the last chance I have to detect any lingering maintenance issues. The reactor power output and containment stability are smooth as silk. The tech team for this op is half ex-Jaguar, lead by a Bethany who is also ex-Jaguar. Bethany's an interesting character; she wasn't born Smoke Jaguar, but belonged to some other Clan and was taken as part of a Trial. Which Clan has never come up when I've spoken to her, though I do know that she was never actually Warrior Caste.
She has the Bushwhacker running like it's factory-new. Maybe better. Perfectionists don't last handling combat repairs, where "perfect" can be the enemy of "good enough". Bethany wasn't a perfectionist. She'd just had three weeks of transit time to make sure. "The smoother it is now, the easier it will be to return it to an acceptable standard after our warriors have bashed it around. We can get this right, quiaff?" she'd said to the other techs, until it drove them up the wall.
Three minutes are up. Drop pod is moving onto the deployment arm. "Damocles One, stand by to drop. Our window is a little off, minute and thirty. Lieutenants."
Sorenson's voice as the hard-wired comms to the DropShip disconnect. "Damocles One, report readiness."
"Damocles One-One, ready op." "Damocles One-Two, ready op." "Damocles One-Three, ready op." "Damocles One-Four, ready op."
"Damocles Support, ready op." Sorenson finishes. "Black Hammer, Damocles One is ready to drop."
"Roger, standby." I mentally count down the seconds. "Drop." Freefall.
"Drop pods deployed, Damocles One and support vehicles are away." Sorenson's voice. I'm looking at an external shot from a recon probe. It's panning; Sorenson's doing. He has the controls nearby. For me, there's no control at all. Strapped into a drop pod's cradle, the Bushwhacker can't even move, and I only have an emergency backup for the braking rockets. The computer is handling this because I can't do it. Now there is a spark of fear. If the drop pod bumps some orbital debris, gets hit by a meteorite, if the computer barfs, I will die. And there will not be a damn thing I can do about it. Black Hammer swept the area with radar and infrared to check it, and a DropShip's targeting radar can track things down to the size of a loose bolt at ten thousand klicks, but there's always a chance.
It's not the chance, though. It's the helplessness. That's what brings that spark of fear. The idea that I'll be unable to do anything but watch death approach. I can deal with dying if I think I have a chance to affect it, even if that's only a chance to delay it or choose the manner of it. My view pans over to the Black Hammer on its deployment run, while Damocles Two's pods pass close to mine on course for their objective. Sorenson's on the line again. "Testing recon probe. Video image optim-"
"Sir!" Someone in the background, with Sorenson, coming over his mic. "Energy spike on the planet's surface, that indicates large-"
One. Then another. A spear of emerald emerald light spiking up from the planet's surface, striking the Black Hammer. There's what looks like a shower of sparks; armor and internal components being melted and flash-vaporized, glowing briefly in vacuum as they move away from the DropShip. Then the feed fuzzes out on me. Fear goes to dread.
I saw the vids of the fight over Huntress. CSS Emerald and CSS Starlight, spearing a Clan WarShip with their naval lasers. It looked very much like that. If there's a WarShip here, we are all dead men and women. It'll kill us before we touch down. The feed dies. Panic in the background on Sorenson's mic. "What the hell was that-" "Can't get a reading on this equipment-" "Can you confirm 'Mech pod deployment?" That last was Sorenson himself.
Another voice, I don't recognize it. "Mayday, mayday, we are going down!" Then, silence. The comms were being patched through the Black Hammer, and apparently the Black Hammer is no longer able to do so. Possibly because it's no longer with us.
The blasts came from the planet though. SDS. Space Defense System. Nobody knew they had one, but if they do an active SDS will kill us all just as surely, unless-
The feed comes back with an automated "Communications reestablished" from my 'Mech's computer. "What are we looking at?" Sorenson again. "Can somebody redirect the probe?" It turns towards a pair of pods. One is burning into the atmosphere straight. The other...is weaving. It must be tumbling. Shit!
"Sir, I have Damocles One Dash Two on the left-damn!" The other pod catches fire obviously, beyond normal reentry flames at the front. "Sir, Damocles Four is breaking up." Sorenson's assistant, a Feldwebel Jurgen from the Seventh Lyran Guard. Damocles Four, one of them...the pod splits in half and turns into two streaks of flame. They're dead. Debris from the Black Hammer must have hit them.
"Damn." Sorenson's is calmer, but somehow more heartfelt. "Damocles One, please stand by."
"We've lost contact with DropShip Black Hammer and the other commandos." That's Captain Taylor, commander of the other DropShip, the Eclipse. "Eclipse is abandoning its run. Datafeed from the probe indicates you are dropping on-target. Will ascertain your situation and their current threat level as soon as possible. Eclipse out."
Taylor just threw us into the shark pool, and he didn't even have the courtesy to act like he was going to listen to us as he did it. Just "out" and not "over"; announcing he was ending the conversation. I'm angry with him, and I know it's irrational considering the Black Hammer just got pasted, but I'm still angry. "Damocles One-One to Damocles One-Support. Status of Damocles One?"
"We have confirmed a pod for Damocles One-Two and One-Four, but no communications with any other Damocles elements aside from Eclipse at this time." Jurgen, not Sorenson, though I can hear him in the background, trying to establish contact with the others.
Rumble and a bit of a shimmy as the pod hits the atmosphere and starts to aerobrake. Welcome to Tranquil. Welcome to the deep end.