Part V
CarsonValley
Dunianshire
Magistracy of Canopus
March 15th, 2588
Floral swore as the blue and white Stinger ducked behind cover yet again and her LRMs plowed into empty ground. Other SLDF units did the same, drawing return fire from the Magistracy line before fading into the night. As soon as they had appeared the enemy units were gone again, vanishing into the valley's wooded terrain.
They had been doing it all night, making weak probes against the Magistracy emplacements before pulling back once more. She knew what Zhukov was up to; he was testing her lines, trying to find the weak link that he could best exploit. What frustrated her most was the waiting, the constant nibbling that Zhukov was content to limit himself to while he searched for an opening. Still, he must have learned his lesson earlier today, she thought with a grim smile. Rushing headlong into the fight wasn't going to win the battle for him this time.
All in all, things had gone well that day. The Magistracy had lost less than a battalion's worth of armor, and just two lances of 'Mechs in the battle. At the same time, they had killed or captured twice that number of Star League units before Zhukov had ordered a withdrawal. Admiral Carr and his second fleet had performed splendidly, harassing the SLDF's naval assets so that they couldn't support Zhukov's actions on the ground. Without that help, the battle surely would have met with disaster. But if everything kept going apace, Floral could see a light at the end of the tunnel. She had hope, and as long as there was hope, there was a chance of victory.
Her sensors suddenly beeped for her attention. She glanced down at the instrument panel to see that several large heat signatures were approaching the right flank.
She opened up her tactical frequency to the rest of her command lance, "Looks like they're preparing another probe. Lets mix things up a bit and shift to the right flank to give 'em a little something to think about."
They all clicked their acknowledgement and lumbered into motion. Floral kept her Thunderbolt moving along the tree line, trying to obscure her movements as much as possible as she jockeyed for position along the northern flank.
Flares suddenly rocketed up from beyond the far tree line, spiraling upward into the sky. They went off with a loud bang, exploding over the sky in a brilliant display of light that turned the darkened night into day. The sight momentarily took Floral aback, briefly wondering what the hell they were doing launching flares during an exploratory probe. And then they came. Dozens of 'Mechs and armored vehicles emerged from their cover, charging toward the Magistracy flank.
Realization seized Floral. This was no recon force.
"Shift troops from the center to the right flank!" she shouted into her comm., "They're making their assault!"
She began to backpedal her Thunderbolt just as a flight of LRMs slammed into one of the Magistracy tanks. The barrage shredded through armor into the tank's interior before the fuel tank exploded, showering the surrounding units with flaming debris.
Floral let go with her long range weapons, both laser and missiles flying wide of their mark. She still kept backing up, trying to find some cover as the enemy 'Mechs opened up on the MAF lines. All manner of ordinance filled the space between the two forces, muzzle flashes and laser fire lighting up the darkness as the Magistracy army attempted to return fire on the vanguard force.
More units went up to concentrated SLDF fire before reinforcements could shift from the center, but even then it wasn't enough to stem the tide.
Floral grimaced as her 'Mech was buffeted by swarm of SRMs that blasted into her left side. "All units, move to reinforce the right flank, they're about to break through!"
She turned back to the raging firefight, centering her aim on the Commando that had closed within SRM range. She let loose with a combined volley of lasers and missiles, and the heat in her cockpit suddenly spiked. The torrent of fire reduced the Commando's arms to slag, but still it came on. Then Colonel Buquoy's Hunchback stepped into the fray, literally blasting the diminutive Commando to pieces with a well-placed shot to the center torso.
"Thanks Adam," Floral said breathlessly as she tried to line up a shot on an advancing Catapult.
"They're going to break through," he said, ignoring her thanks. "We can't shift up enough troops in time. It's going to be a rout if we don't pull back!"
"We can't pull back!" she yelled, clamping down on the trigger to launch a volley of LRMs.
"It's going to be a slaughter!" he protested.
Floral ignored Buquoy's statement as she dodged to the side, lasers searing barely a meter overhead. Units on both sides exploded, illuminating the terrain in harsh shades of orange and yellow as the Magistracy forces attempted to realign themselves before coming SLDF tide. "Where are those reinforcements?" she yelled.
If there was a reply, it was lost in the jumble of panicked cries swarming over the communications net. She swore to herself as she desperately looked around the battlefield, hoping to find some way of to stem the deluge of enemy forces.
The SLDF troops were at the front line by now, blasting through what was left of the Magistracy flank with ease. Already her army was beginning to crumble. The battle looked as if it was quickly becoming a rout. That wasn't going to happen. She wouldn't let that happen.
"Damnit, we have to hold them!" she shouted desperately. "All troops forward, give 'em hell!"
She spurred her Thunderbolt into a run and charged into the midst of the SLDF spearhead.
----------
Colonel Buquoy watched as the Magistrix rushed headlong into the enemy's waiting arms. The remaining Magistracy units followed suit, sometimes bodily throwing themselves into the SLDF line as the battle degenerated into melee. Floral fought like a woman possessed as she waded into battle with reckless abandon. Her Thunderbolt brought its fist down on the cockpit canopy of an enemy Catapult, and the reinforced glass and steel buckled inward, crushing the pilot inside.
She had the Thunderbolt moving before the other machine even hit the ground, setting her sights on an enemy Hunchback. She didn't even bother triggering her weapons as laser fire melted armor along her machine's chest. Before the enemy 'Mech could get out of the way, the Thunderbolt slammed into the Hunchback with a deafening clang. The force of the blow knocked the 'Mech backwards where it collapsed on its side. Floral followed up with a kick, then released a volley of laser fire that blew open the 'Mech's torso and detonated its ammunition stores. The resulting explosion blossomed upward, barely kissing the Thunderbolt's armored hide before the Magistrix was already off again in search of another target.
But the rest of the Magistracy units didn't fare so well. A Magistracy Shadowhawk pitched forward as its leg was kicked out from under it, and still another armored vehicle exploded as a barrage of fire blew apart its front side. More and more men died, men that Buquoy could have saved if he had followed through before.
He winced as a Wasp's fusion engine went critical, nearly disintegrating the diminutive machine in the resulting explosion—another life gone.
He clenched down on the controls, cursing the Magistrix for her stubborn pride, cursing Cameron for his arrogance, and cursing himself most of all for his own cowardice. This was his fault. He could have stopped it.
He still could.
He looked to where the Magistrix's Thunderbolt had engaged an enemy Zeus, backpedaling as the other machine sought to close the gap. It was Zhukov. It had to be. Even as he watched, the two behemoths traded shots at each other, blasting apart armor plating on both 'Mechs with each salvo.
He had a momentary urge to rush to her defense, to add his silent armaments to the cacophony of battle. But then another Magistracy vehicle went up in a fiery explosion, silhouetting the Magistrix and her quarry in its fiery light.
He made up his mind. He selected his autocannon twenty and centered his targeting reticule over the back of Floral's struggling 'Mech. A pang of guilt struck him as his finger settled over the trigger. This was his liege, his leader. He was about to betray the one person who trusted him the most.
A moment of indecisiveness seized him, but he angrily forced such thoughts away and clamped down on the trigger before he had a chance to change his mind again.
The staccato thump of discharging shells reverberated throughout his cockpit as the depleted uranium slugs blasted into the weak back armor of the Magistrix's Thunderbolt. It seemed as if everything froze in place for barely a moment before ravenous flames exploded outward from the Floral's BattleMech, hungrily consuming both flesh and steel as the conflagration devoured the 'Mech from inside out.
Both Magistracy and Star League units alike fell silent as the blackened hulk of a machine crashed to the ground. Silence reigned over the battlefield, broken only by the crackle of flames dancing along the Thunderbolt's metallic corpse.
Gravely Buquoy reached down to select a wide-band channel on the communications net.
"This is Senior Colonel Adam Buquoy of the Magistracy Armed Forces. I hereby offer the formal surrender of the Magistracy of Canopus to First Lord Ian Cameron and the Star League.