AN: Another Omake from Yellowhammer!
Cat Fight Part 5
"The board is set, the pieces are moving. We come to it at last...
The great battle of our time." J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
CNCS Mata Hari
Pesht, Pesht District
15 May 3057
"Status Change, Star Captain!" The voice of Star Commander Alex woke the captain.
Star Captain Jeanne slapped the intercom in her spartan quarters and snarled "Report!"
"Drive plumes detected! Estimate of three Battlemech regiments plus auxiliary forces boosting for the Zenith point from spectral analysis."
Jeanne grabbed her duty jumpsuit and swam into the bridge. Strapping herself in as the ship drifted in its ballistic course through the Pesht system, she watched the holotank with interest as the set of vectors left Pesht and headed toward the icons of a cluster of transport jumpships.
"HPG preliminary movement report to Irece! Communications traffic analysis? Is this a planned Trial for our worlds?" She snapped out as she pulled her uniform on.
"Positive identification of DCA Kaga, DCA Akagi, DCA Shoukaku, DCA Zuikaku assigned to Ryuken regiments according to the Watch." The holotank redrew itself as the advanced computers on the Bug-Eye used the combination of the telescope's observation of the distant dropships and their drive's unique spectral characteristics plus electronic emissions to determine a picture of the DCMS movements.
Jeanne glanced to the communications section. The best computers that the Scientist caste could produce labored there to break the coding on the HPGs. "Code break!"
The message came up on the screen. "Tai-sa Shotoku, take command of Ryuken-go, Ryuken-roku, and the 22nd Dieron Regulars, secure Midway for the Dragon as a forward staging area to liberate Galedon V."
Jeanne's eyes glittered. "Append the message to our next transmission to Khan Leroux. Continue observation of the Spheroids and work up a profile on what they left behind. Once they commit..."
A feral smile, "Pesht is ours."
-
Palace of Spreading Harmony
Galedon V, Galedon Military District, Draconis Combine
17 May 3057
Coordinator Franklin Kurita stared at the holotank. Worlds under his control, the true Dragon's control, gleamed scarlet, while his cousin Miyako's worlds were an angry orange. A scattering of loyal icons held the border secure, but unless things changed, his cousin would breach the border.
What to do, what to do?
"Replay projections."
One orange arrow shot out from Xinyang in Benjamin to Hachiman, while another speared down from Pesht to impale Midway. As those worlds fell, the arrows struck deeper into Galedon, aimed for him.
I can't stop her, not alone.
A touch on the control and the map zoomed out, showing the blue of the Federated Commonwealth and the gold of the Clan invasion corridor.
But I can bleed her, slow her and...
He turned to the young man next to him. "Tai-i Karoda. I have a mission of utmost importance to the Combine for you."
The fifth-generation Samurai bowed. "My life for yours, Kurita-dono."
"Assemble a company of my most loyal samurai and take our information about the DCMS supply base on Xinyang with you. Your mission will begin here." A touch highlighted a world along the Smoke Jaguar/Combine border.
As Karoda departed, Franklin nodded to himself and then touched a control on his terminal. A burly man with a shaved head and African features entered and bowed before him.
"What is the Dragon's will?" He rumbled.
Franklin spoke quietly. "It is time to use some of our assets, Director Jerrar. Inform Tai-sa Ioto, Tai-sa Doi, and Tai-sa Kusunoki to begin disruption operations. Code word is Kyomou."
Jerrar bowed and departed at a gesture as Franklin began to touch and move icons of his unis to assemble them at Agematsu.
-
29 May 3057
Konstance City, Helen, Draconis March
Konstance City burned.
Subaltern Victoria Sanromea-Davion clenched the joysticks of Santiago, her family's Enforcer with sweating palms.
The day had started out so well. Just a routine field exercise for her lance of the Sakhara Training Battalion.
That had changed when a Drac jumpship had appeared in the Hector/Helen Pirate point and detached a trio of Unions on a high-speed run at the planet. The Training Battalion aerolances and planetary militia's ASF force had been sent out to intercept them while Santiago and the rest of Gold Lance had been frantically rearmed with live munitions.
Very few of the aerojocks had survived their attempt to intercept.
Now it was her turn. The Dracs had dropped one company at the spaceport to try to secure a landing zone. The other two...had been deployed straight into the built up areas of Helen's planetary capital.
"Gold One to Gold Three, Report." That was Leftenant Marks in his Crusader.
"Gold Three, negative on Magscan. IR is a mess with all the fires that the Snakes set." Her classmate's Gallery rasp was oddly calming. Karl Hendriksson-Steiner was the son of some mining family back on Gallery and a distaff cadet relation to the Archon-Prince. Not a bad sort, if a little too proud to show off the Trenchbucket that his grandfather had captured from the League during a raid late in the Third Succession War.
A raid like what the Dracs were doing here. One battalion couldn't hold Helen with the March Militia nearby. So she just needed to do her duty and minimize the damage. With that her scanner finally showed something.
"Gold One, Four, got movement half a klick at my ten o'clock. Intermittent sensor flux." Victoria rattled off the data by The Book. That had to count for something, right?
"Two, Backstop Four. Four, transmit targeting data for us LRM boats."
"Yessir, Leftenant." Subaltern Laura Gray's Phoenix Hawk jetted down next to Santiago. "I'll swing left while you advance, Vickie."
Victoria nodded and advanced, gripping her joysticks as she tracked the crosshairs from building to building. Just like a sim, just like a sim...
"Panther! I'm on him!" A gold icon popped up on her tactical display. "C'mere you little..."
A flash of man-made lightning illuminated the street to Victoria's left and she kicked Santiago into a run. "F-four's engaging Panther, assisting." She stuttered out, hating how her voice broke in the middle of the report.
The Drac light Mech bounced over a burning office block on ion jets. Moments later Laura's Davion-green painted Phoenix Hawk followed suit, firing the laser as she went. "Gotcha you Snake Bast- OHFUCK-" Her voice tapered off into a scream and the crackle of flames.
"Four's in trouble! Assisting!" Victoria slammed down on the foot pedals and Santiago lifted off. Victoria feathered the jets to land on a rooftop one block over as the smoke cleared.
Below and to the left was a Thunderbolt Heavy Mech bathing the prone Phoenix Hawk in flames from its torso-mounted twin flamers as pulses of coherent light flayed the lighter Phoenix Hawk, snapping a leg off.
"Thunderbolt-Sierra! Engaging!" Victoria snapped out as she punched the button that would send her sensor data to her lance-mates and dropped the crosshairs onto the hulking Mech. Her fingers squeezed the triggers, and the roar of her autocannon filled the cockpit as a wave of heat washed over her.
The emerald beam of her 8cm laser flayed armor from the T-Bolt's torso as the autocannon blew away charcoal gray armor plates from its left thigh, obliterating the Kurita Dragon coiled around a sword of the Ryuken.
"OHGODOHGOD HEL-" Laura's panic-filled screams suddenly cut off as the soaring temperatures inside her burning 'mech caused the ammunition for her machine guns to explode, disintegrating the Phoenix Hawk.
"Die Snake!" Victoria screamed, seeing red. "Gold One, I need fire support now!"
A PPC bolt slammed into her left thigh and she braced against the impact, returning fire with her howling autocannon and laser, blasting more armor from the Ryuken Thunderbolt's thick hide. LRMs rained own around it, further damaging the heavy Mech.
"Just a little mo-" A red light appeared on her HUD and Santiago's Nagging Nora voice sounded in her ears. "Warning Missile Lock Detected." Spears of coherent light hammered into Santiago, blasting away armor in half-ton lots. The loss of the weight caused her to stumble toward the edge of the roof, and then twenty LRMs slammed into her like the hammer of Thor and darkness claimed her.
The sound of the ground shaking caused her to stir toward consciousness. Blinking off the pain, she concentrated on the flickering MFD showing her condition.
Right leg out...armor's red or worse across my whole right side, and I'm looking at the sky. Right. Time to check in according to The Book.
"Gold One to Two, watch for the Panther coming around your six! Dammit, kid!" A explosion in the distance.
"One this is Three. I'm in the red, and four's dead. T-bolt got Laura. Orders, sir?" A distant thud. The officers knew what to do, right?
"Vickie, leave your telemetry running and get to safety on foot. We are falling back to Delta line. Stay safe." Another thud.
"Yes sir." Victoria began to unbuckle her harness then the sky above her suddenly turned dark. She looked up to see a charcoal gray painted Stalker looming over her, smoke trailing from its missile racks.
With elephantine grace, the Assault Mech deliberately raised one foot and placed it on her cockpit, then slowly began to press down as Victoria screamed in terror.
