The Awakening - Enter the Steel Wolves
Wolf Base Theta
Tigress, Prefecture IV
Republic of the Sphere
July 2, 3133
The bid for the attack on Ingress was complete and Kendrick Fetladral had won with a bid of three platoons of elementals, a binary of vehicles, no aerospace assets and a trinary of battlemechs. No one contested the youth for all wanted to see his prowess in combat.
Not even Natasha Kerensky had said anything, although her attitude to Fetladral was still calculating and cold. Khan Radick granted him the mission and he was to depart within five hours as the departure of the Sphere military was closing in. The Khan had to admit that the boy was almost like a "Ristar" of his Clan; resilient, cunning and swift.
Although Fetladral still had something to learn about the chain-of-command, Kal found himself trusting the boy with a mission more suited to a veteran star captain. His skill is almost unmatched; I would like to see this young cub fight before I put him in more dangerous surroundings. An aide walked up to Radick and announced that Kendrick Fetladral was finished with his selection of warriors and that he would be departing shortly. Khan Radick acknowledged the report and walked up to the dropship launch pads as Steel Wolves infantry, vehicles and mecha entered the cavernous dropship hold.
Kendrick Fetladral stood at 5" 9' and was lean with just a few muscles visible. He wore a standard mechwarrior coolin vest and a neuro-helmet craddled in his left arm. Khan Radick approached him and Fetladral stiffened at the sight of his Khan right in front of him. "Star Captian Fetladral, you know your mission, you must insure me that no one in that base remains alive. Understand that the entire honor of Clan Steel Wolves rests on your first strike".
Fetladral stiffened further as the full importance of his mission dawned on him but nevertheless, he spoke evenly, "Yes, my Khan, I know what I have to do and I will do it to the fullest capacity" Kendrick forced his mind to accept that these free-births would have to be massacred in their sleep for the Clan to survive.
He didn't like it, but what was his opinion compared to the survival of all those men and women of all castes around him? Nothing. The answer was simple and direct. He pushed his thoughts aside and saluted to the Khan as he was about to depart. "I shall return with honor and glory for the Clan or not return at all." With that, Fetladral entered the gangway of the dropship and disappeared into the dropship's maw.
"Are you so sure he will succeed, Khan?" Khan Radick turned to face Natasha Kerensky, the current commander of "The Crusaders" and probably his newest nemesis. "He is only eighteen and barely 3 months out of the Steel Academy and you give him this kind of mission? Khan Radick, are you sure you made the right decision?"
He turned to her, his eyes concealing the rage that burned at her insolence, "Yes, I made the right decision." His eyes reflected her own, cold and ruthless, "You do not need to question what I choose, Star Colonel, I suggest you attend to your own galaxy."
She said, "Very well, my khan." Although was angered by his arrogance. How dare he do this to me? I am Natasha Kerensky of the true Clan Wolf! This dishonor will not go unanswered! She turned away and walked back to her own command post.
The dropship exited the atmosphere of Tigress and blasted for open space, at the Nadir jump point. Kendrick, inside one of several pressurized compartments was planning his attack into the Hampton Plains of Ingress, where the base of the cursed Sphere army was and wondered where should he strike? The base was backed against mountains on two sides and the other sides were kilometers of plains.
He decided to land in the mountains and then make a short jump with his full force into the base. Yes, that would make the enemy frantic and is objective would be easily accomplished. He settled into his chair and slept for the remainder of the journey.
Base Alpha, Ingress capital city
Ingress, Prefecture IV
Republic of the Sphere
July 3, 3133
Preparations were underway at the Sphere army base and they would all set out for Deneb Kaitos by sunset. Leon strained to see the glaring sun at high noon but knew it was useless because he was wasting time, time that should have been spent discussing politics with Katherine since Deneb Kaitos would have to be won over not only through battle but also through the bureaucracy of the planet. He just didn't feel it right that she should be with him on such a dangerous mission and although he would never admit it to himself or to anyone else, he was worried about her. He shrugged the mood of and began to walk to the mech' bay to inspect the readiness of the mech' company.
He entered the cavernous warehouse which served as a temporary mechbay and was immediately assaulted by all sorts of unsettling fumes. He wondered how long his mechanics could stand the foul odor. He strolled up to his Ryoken II and ran his hand along the smooth metal of its feet, pleased that the techies had fully repaired her in time for their launch.
He was inspecting the Spider next to his mech when he noticed the woman standing behind him. He turned around and his jaw nearly fell of; she was cute beyond belief. Her small face was almost perfectly and so was the rest of her body, he thought. To his further dismay, she was also wearing a tank top and shorts.
"Good afternoon Knight-Errant, I hope my techies did a good job on your Ryoken II. The auto cannon shells took them some time to dig out of its shoulder." Leon was still gawking at her, barely able to keep a straight face. "Oh, I'm sorry, my name is Alice Toranaga, the head of the Engineering Corp. on loan from Towne, remember?"
Leon choked out a response, his own voice sounding hoarse, "Ah, yes, the Towne volunteers. Thank you again for coming along for the ride. How is the rest of the vehicle and mech' company, are they ready for launch later this night?" He smiled at her, attempting to regain his composure.
She smiled back at him and all his self-discipline evaporated in an instant. "Yessir, almost all of them are ready." She paused to count all the mechs and found all accounted for. But then she said, "Sir, there's one delivery coming in though, an Arbalest from the Irece Prefecture, it's for the analyst, a gift from a Nova Cat Star Captain."
Just then, Katherine walked into the hangar, and started for Alice when she saw Leon. Uh-oh, Leon's here, and he's talking with Alice, I wonder if she told him about my Arbalest, I hope not. Well, he's seen me, it's too late to walk out of here now. "Good afternoon Leon, Alice, I trust we'll be leaving on schedule?" Her voice was just a bit on edge, hoping that the inevitable wouldn't come.
"Katherine, I was just talking to Ms. Toranaga here and she says there's a mech' being delivered here and it's for you, further, it's from a Nova Cat Star Captain." He paused, letting it all sink in, then turned to Alice who was staring at the two, not knowing what to do. "Alice, please excuse me and Ms. Desoto." The head mechanic walked away and didn't look back. Katherine, on the other hand was about ready to sprint for the nearest jeep. "Now, Katherine, please explain why you want to further endanger yourself in an already dangerous situation?"
She replied, her voice barely squeaking out of her mouth, "Leon, please listen to me before you say anything else. Star Captain Desoto, my uncle, gave the Arbalest to me because when I was at Irece, I helped settle some matters, he tested me out since he wanted to find out if his relatives trained me in piloting a mech'. At first, I didn't want the mech' but he insisted and in the end, I accepted." She was quite meek after that, her eyes looking above Leon's head.
Leon noticed that he was enjoying seeing her squirm under his gaze, but he pressed on, disregarding her look. "So you were tested, against an Osiris?" He immediately knew it was the wrong thing to say and he could see she was hurt. She turned away from him and he could faintly recognize a sob and reached out to her with his hand. She whirled on him and slapped his hand away.
"It wasn't a scout mech', you jerk! I was in an Arbalest and I fought a Shadow Cat to a standstill in the simulators on Irece. The Star Captain was impressed and he gave an Arbalest as a gift, he said "My blood relatives have kept their promise, I give you this mech' to honor mine." I wanted to show that I could compete with you and I will, I don't need your big brother crap!" She stalked off the mech' hangar and ran all the way back to her quarters.
Leon felt half the eyes in the hangar on him, he had really screwed up this one. "Back to work people, we have a schedule to meet!" yelled Jonah as he came out of the cockpit of his black Atlas. Now Leon saw Jonah walking towards him, great, first she screams at me, then its his turn. "Paladin Levin, I didn't know you were there. Forgive me for my misconduct earlier, it was my fault."
"At least you know that, now explain to me why I shouldn't demote you because of that." Then his gaze softened and he said, "Never mind about the explanation, I'll settle for us getting out of this mess in one piece." Jonah started walking back to the base proper and motioned for Leon to follow, "I, we need all the able men AND women in this fight, I'm telling you now, what the Star Captain did is none of our concern, guard her with your life but do not let any sort of chauvinism get in the way of your duty, if she wants to volunteer, then let her. Do you understand that?"
Leon didn't know what else he could say, he was lucky to retain what he still had. "Yes Paladin"
"Good, now go back to our preparations and get this battalion ready before sunset. I'll be in my quarters if you need me." With that, the paladin walked into the afternoon sun and back to base.
Beta Drop Point, Hilarium Mountains
Ingress, Prefecture IV
Republic of the Sphere
July 3, 3133
Greyhound, a Talon-class dropship landed into the mountain ranges just south of the Sphere base. Kendrick was inspecting his troops as they were off-loaded into the dusty surface of the plateau. He watched as his own Madcat III was unloaded, as well as the rest of the binary of battlemechs he brought along. When all of the mechs were assembled, he conntacted the dropship bridge, "This is Star Captain Fetladral, move out in T-minus thirty minutes, your orders are clear, understood?" The pilot acknowledged the command and proceeded to his duties.
"Star Captain, we are ready to move out on your command, the binary is ready to move out." Kendrick knew it was his XO, Vellin in his own Black Hawk, reporting.
"Then let us do so, we have to catch the Sphere army before they leave." Kendrick signaled his star to move out and so did Vellin. The trek was uneventful and Kendrick found himself staring into the undulating plains, wondering how would the coming battle end and why, of all the experienced Star Captains in the touman, was he selected for this mission? Now is not the time to question, now is the time to focus on the upcoming struggle. Silence yourself Fetladral! He marched his binary into the setting sun.
They reached the outskirts of the base an hour later and Kendrick ordered all the mechs at minimal power, all were waiting in ambush. The rest of the Steel Wolves forces were arrayed and within striking distance, concealed behind the grassy plains, even the Behemoth II was fully covered. Kendrick wanted to call the ambush right then and there but he knew that if he did, it would be premature and the Sphere army might be able to mount a defensible position.
The sunset seemed to approach them quicker than Kendrick could imagine. The ambush was set and he was about to spring it. "Alpha Wolf, go!" He gave the signal and the Wolf Pack descended onto the unsuspecting base.
Darren Westerson was on tower-watch duty and he didn't like it at all. "Dang, there's nothing going on in here, just like home in that agro farm!" He yawned and leaned onto the tower's railings, just in time to see a brown Behemoth II fire a hail of missiles onto the Base's administrative building, and then he saw more brown specks appear from the tall grass. "This is Westerson, I have unidentified vehicles and infantry coming in from the south! Alert the base!" His voice was panicked as he struggled to keep his hands on the comm. and not on his rifle trigger, the reply came, panicked like he was. He didn't bother to hear the rest of the reply; he ran into the inferno and started firing.
Leon was racing across the parade grounds as several explosions rocked his feat, Damn it! We didn't suspect the Steel Wolves to interfere! He was disturbed from the last of the paper work and ran out side to see a brown Scimitar Mk-II fire its SRMs at the barracks and saw a few bodies fly into the air. He ran into the hangar and boarded his Ryoken II. All the lights were green and he ran the mech outside and right into a Black Hawk.
Leon halted abruptly and fired his four med-lasers at the opposing mech, scoring three hits to the right side, melted armor running in rivulets down the brown surface. The other mech tried to punch the Ryoken II in return and although Leon was quick, he received a glancing blow and nearly lost the balance of his mech'.
The Black Hawk fired its own four med-lasers and Leon felt the heat spike yellow, he gulped in the hot air and charged the mech, the Ryoken II's shoulders made contact with the head of the other mech, smashing the glass shield of the cockpit. The pilot was still alive because at the next moment, the Black Hawk ignited its jump jets and lifted itself away from the Ryoken II.
Leon started his mech forward as the brown Steel Wolves mech' fired its laser at him again. Leon felt more heat wash over him, "Cursed mech! Standstill!" he gulped in more air and fired his left LRM rack. He saw missiles streak into the torso of the Black Hawk, ripping armor panels and the softer internal structure into bits as the mech back-pedaled to stay upright.
The brown mech tried to stay upright but two more medium lasers carved into its right leg actuator melting it in place forever. The mech couldn't move and Leon saw the pilot eject from his immobile machine.
Elsewhere in the base, Katherine turned her Arbalest to face two Scimitars making a run for the dropships, she fired both of her arm-mounted medium lasers at them. The first one scored a deep gash in the side of the hover vehicle; the other laser went wide and threw soil onto the second one. The two were about to make a run for it when they saw a Forestry MOD come into view, the opposing mech charged Katherine.
Katherine was in a panic as she heard the menacing buzz saw of the other mech over the din of her LRMs launching themselves at her assailant. Ten of the twenty LRMs impacted all over the mech, and the counter force of the explosions sent the saw into the side of a building, throwing off the aim of the mech'.
The Forestry Mech corrected its course only to see Katherine's Arbalest running towards it and in an instant, the white and blue Arbalest had cupped a hand around the back of the bulbous cockpit of the enemy mech'. The other arm had its mounted medium laser leveled at the cockpit, ready to crack it open.
The pilot of the opposing mech' made a gamble and tried to send the saw into the midsection of the Arbalest off, but before the saw even reached the waist of her mech, the Forestry Mech's cockpit was crushed. Katherine could see blood and glass intermingle in her mech's hands as the now lifeless hulk fell to its knees and crashed into the ferrocrete with a loud thud. She hated herself for doing that, but shook it off as she scanned her surroundings for anymore signs of life.
Kendrick moved easily through the burning wreckage of his latest target, a DI Schmitt tank, stepping over the lifeless bodies of its escorting battle armor. Kendrick liked his anti-infantry weapons, it gave him an edge in this battle and it had accounted for over a platoon's worth of kills. He side-stepped a slumped form of a Koshi and made his way to the dropships where the last of the defenders were holed-in.
He was joined by five elementals, hitching a ride on the hand-holds of his mech ready to pounce on a target at a moment's notice. He received status reports from his entire vehicle binary, which was bad, since the Sphere battle armor had swarmed one whole star and utterly destroyed one of the Behemoth IIs and two Condor hover tanks before they could be stopped. His infantry had been cut by at least two dozen men from the fighting as well.
He ran his mech forward until he rounded a corner and saw the furious exchange of energy and ammunition based weaponry. His XO was nowhere to be seen and although his mech forces had only been reduced by three mechs and their enemy by the same number, things were getting out of hand. He formed up on the other star that was short by one mech and proceeded to the dropships to kill the remaining freebirths.
Hi again guys! I hope you like the latest installment of my story. Btw, this chapter isn't finished yet but I want some reviews on this part. Thanks! Peace out.