Disclaimer: I own virtually nothing in here, so don't blame me, lol.
Thank you to ShadrachVS for another review. I apologize for the sketchy grammar at times, it's stuff that I've missed and so has my Beta, but English is neither of our majors so I suppose a bit is to be expected. Yeah, the Bridge battle was intended to be a quick little pop…some Police mech-jocks that haven't likely seen a day of mech to mech combat in their lives, a lance of fairly green and overconfident Militia jocks, and a few infantry without large guns or power-armor probably won't give the best of fights. I'd imagine this'd also be the case when two mechs are put down in a matter of seconds, the best mech of the bunch is clothes-lined by an assault mech, and you're outnumbered 13 to 8 at full strength. It really was designed for the "slap, slap, out!" as you describe it. Hope you enjoy and continue reading.
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Thermopylae Base
Marduk, Draconis Combine
February 5, 3059
0500 hours
Gale Miller was literally tossed into the room. She had been rudely awoken five minutes earlier and dragged from her cell. Now, she lay against the far wall looking at a very pissed off 'Rommy' Witters and a very very large man holding a large knife. The man hauled Gale to her feet and threw her into a chair in the center of the room.
"Well, well…welcome to Thermopylae Base, 'Sergeant' Miller. I'm so glad you could join us this morning" said Rommy as she walked around the room. "Now we're going to play a little game called 'tell me everything I want to hear'. Is that simple enough to comprehend?"
"What are you going to do, torture me? Ares Conventions. You can't do a thing to me, merc scum" snapped Miller.
"Oh, so you're going to play that way, huh? Well hun, let me tell you a few things. One, we're not at war, hence you are not a prisoner of war. Ares Conventions don't mean a thing in this room at the moment. Two, Tai-sa Toriyama has stated that the New Baltimore garrison has fled its post without orders, so you are officially AWOL. But it gets even better. You 'stole' Marduk Militia equipment and you used it to attack me and my people. You have about as much standing right now as a terrorist. So I will tell you what, you had better answer my questions with everything you know or I will PERSONALLY see to it that you can never physically pilot a mech again. Do I make myself clear?"
The only answer that Rommy got was a bunch of spit in her face from Miller. Turning away and wiping the spittle off, Rommy took a second to compose herself. Then, she spun around and slammed a knife she'd had hidden down through Gale's hand, pinning it to the armrest of the chair, earning screams of pain from her victim.
"I told you Gale. I will personally see to it if you give me reason to. You came after me and you attacked my 'family', now I want to know why."
"Suck it, bitch. I'm not going to tell you anything" came the reply through clenched teeth.
"Jackman, take care of the other hand" said Rommy. Charles Jackman, the Sergeant in charge of the Spartan's infantry, nodded in response. He grabbed Gale's hand, slammed it down onto the armrest, and pinned it there with a dagger, eliciting another scream from the victim. "Now you are starting to try my patience, Gale. Are you going to cooperate or am I going to have to let Jackman here do the same to your feet? Who ordered the New Baltimore garrison away from their posts?"
All that Miller did in response was to stare straight ahead. A nod from Rommy had Jackman pulling out another pair of knives. These ones he carried over to the cart and dipped in peroxide, careful to make sure that his every move was visible to Gale as she sat pinned to the chair. Coming back over to the chain, Jackman knelt down and drew his arm back to strike, a move that would send one of the knives through the top of Miller's foot.
"Alright! For the love of God, just don't stab me again! I'm not sure who it was. All I know is that he was some aide from the Governor's office. He came in about a week or so ago to talk with Madison…that's our CO. I don't know what was said, just that we started to pack up the next day and moved out on the 27th." A loud bang sounded from the next room, almost sounding like a gunshot. "What the hell was that?"
"That," said Rommy, "was probably Kastor finishing off one of your uncooperative lancemates in the next room. We don't want to kill anyone if we don't have to, but if you or any of your compatriots aren't being any help to us with information, then we really have no reason to keep you around. If we just released you you'd likely be killed anyway, so it doesn't matter to us."
"I tell you everything else I know and you won't kill me?" Rommy nodded. "That was recorded, right?" Another nod. "Alright, we moved out form New Baltimore on the 27th. Headed inland and passed north of New Pontiac at night to avoid detection. I have no idea where we ended up, but I do know that various parts of the garrison entered the jungle northwest of New Pontiac. My lance and a company of infantry was left at the jungle's edge and given orders to proceed down to the Norse-Pontiac road and escort a police force in its mission…to take charge if I had to."
"Alright, that's enough about your movements. We can piece together the rest. Now what can you tell me about the force composition of your unit?" said Rommy as she fingered the edge of a curved knife.
With a nervous look and an audible gulp, Gale started to list off what she knew. "They have a full regiment of infantry, though mostly green troops…almost all are volunteers that live in the New Baltimore area, they're the 'weekend warriors', only one company of power-armor infantry though. I think they might be Cavaliers from some exchange with Davion. Two battalions of armor; good number of hovercraft with tanks of all sizes. I know there are some Tokugawa tanks, at least a lance worth of Regulator Hovertanks, missile launchers, short and long range, basically a well rounded bunch.
We had two companies of mechs, down to five lances now, obviously. Only two lances are veterans, mostly former DCMS mechjocks that aren't fit for active service. They have good machines though…most of the Militia does considering how important the planet is. First off is Monroe's lance. He's in charge of the garrison force and everyone in that lance is a vet. They've got a new SD1-O Sunder omnimech that Monroe likes to pilot, a pair of AS7-K Atlas mechs, and a DRG-5N Dragon to round out their punch.
Our other veteran lance is led by Stephens. He pilots a MAD-5D Marauder…makes that thing dance like a medium mech. His lance also has a JM6-DD JagerMech, a DRG-5N Dragon, and a CRD-5K Crusader with pilots that have all had combat experience against the Smoke Jags or the Ghost Bears.
The other three lances, are fairly green, as are my people. We were all inducted into the militia within the last year and a half, though there are a few pilots with as little as 6 months of Militia training under their belts. These lances have mainly light and medium mechs, though there are a few heavies and whatnot mixed in. You have one lance with a LCT-1V Locust, WSP-1A Wasp, JVN-10P Javelin, and JR7-K Jenner. There's another with a SR1-O Strider, BJ2-O Blackjack, SR1-O Strider, DMO-1K Daimyo. The last lance is a little heavier with a AV1-O Avatar, BHKU-O Black Hawk-Ku, NDA-1K No Dachi, and a WFT-1 Wolf Trap."
"You get all that written down, Jackman?"
"Yes ma'am. Have it recorded too if I missed anything."
"Take care of her then. I'm going to talk to the boss."
"You got it, Boss Lady" said Jackman as he took another syringe, stabbed it into Miller's arm, emptying its contents into her bloodstream. The drugs took hold quickly and Miller's head slumped down as she passed out. "You want me to toss her back into isolation?"
"Yeah, Charles, toss her back into isolation. Double up the guards if you can spare them. If not, call up Toriyama and request a loan from his Combine personnel. We need to keep those pilots safe and separated. They'll make a good bargaining chip later in the game. And please find out if Caboose really shot his assigned person. If he did, I'll chop his bloody hand off myself."
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"…so you see, Ice, they've got some firepower to them. More than enough to rival our own, including the base defenses, if whoever is pulling the strings wants us out of the picture. I want to take two lances up north and scout out the fords and the lumber camps up that way."
"I can't let you do that, Rommy! You know that we can't afford to spare a lance for duty, much less the two you want. Two wouldn't even be safe enough considering what we know is out there, now. I have to say no…and don't even argue it because you know I'm right. If we could even match their mech force in equal firepower you know that I would agree. Even with McDougal's people and the new mechs we are still ridiculously short on firepower against a full garrison force running around. The only reason that we're safe right now from these power-hungry arseholes is the fact we're sitting in the best defended base on the planet with the close-by support of Norse Battlemechs. I want to know where they went too, but we can't afford to spare the forces to search the dozens of potential locations, and we sure as hell couldn't afford to lose you or any mechs."
Rommy pouted since she knew he was right. Two lances against almost two regiments worth of infantry and vehicles was suicide. "Fine, but I'd prefer to have the engineers go out one more time and check all of the perimeter sensors. It'd make me feel safer."
"Granted. I was thinking the same thing myself. Right now we can't tell where they are or what they're doing, but we need to keep an eye open. Until they show themselves again they're a wildcard. I will catch you around to talk later Leslie, I need to go call Toriyama and have another chat."
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New Pontiac
Marduk, Draconis Combine
February 5, 3059
0900 hours
"What do you mean they're still alive?" shouted the suited man from behind his desk. "Are you absolutely sure that this isn't some kind of hoax?"
"I'm positive. Our informant saw them firsthand and even saw them captured…alive…and I have no reason to doubt that intelligence." replied the woman. "My source has proven correct on everything else about these Spartans that has been called in for analysis. At this point I probably know more about what they do on a daily basis than anyone else save that wretched Captain Olsen."
"Damnit! That wasn't supposed to go down like that. I thought you said that your people would be able to get the job done. Do you realize what this could do to our plans! They might be able to trace this back to us, and we can't have that."
"It's not my fault. My people had more firepower and more at stake in this than you did, you cheap bastard. If you hadn't skimped on the resources they might have succeeded, or at least gone down trying. But noooooo, you just had to go ad shortchange everyone involved in this, didn't you? Consider yourself lucky I don't kill you right now, old man. Because of your failure and the failure of your people to even die properly, I have to step up the timetable. The Benjamin Regulars are still tied up with the offensive on the Smoke Jaguars, but my sources on Outreach say that the remaining recruiters that these filthy mercenaries left behind when they came here are gathering another force that could prove troublesome if we don't act and succeed before they arrive here."
"Madam, I spared as many resources for our little attempt as I could without drawing undo attention to our goals…"
"I don't want to hear your damned excuses!" she cut in. "We're going to have to start phase two. I just hope that this proves to be as effective as our previous measures. And don't slip up this time or I will kill you myself."
"Yes ma'am. Phase two will begin by the end of the week. I will see to it personally that the second wave goes off without a hitch."
"You had better, if you value your role in all this and your life."
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AN: not quite as long as my last few submissions, but it'll have to do for now.