INTERLUDE 3

Review Corner

mobmal: I'm looking for a chance for her to say "Get your hands of her you *Beeyotch*!" :lol:

Ulquiorra9000: Quasit is a really really close to a real battlemech, so she is not in that much of a danger


Iscariot, Ashio,
Ashio Prefecture, Dieron Military District,
Draconis Combine,
February 22, 3074

The ambiance of defeat had spread through the last pocket of Ashio resistance.

Gunjin Mirabel sat hugging her legs in a corner of a large hall, watching technicians working around the clock to patch up whatever was left of Ashio planetary defense. A few battlemechs stood in the distance, most of which had lost at least one arm. The armor platings were near nonexistent. Medium tanks, dominated by Vedettes and SRM carriers, occupied the center of the hall. Oil and coolant dripped from every part of the tanks, creating a large pool of sludge in between and around the war machines, hindering the technicians from doing their job.

Mirabel could almost hear what the technicians were thinking. Is there a point in doing this? We're gonna die in 2 hours anyway. Just roll the goddamn mechs and tanks out and start shooting. She could see it in their eyes. That long, gloomy, desperate look in the face of every technicians working to get the war machines operational. And it was not just the technicians. The infantrymen, the mechwarriors, and the civilians, husbands, wives, children, fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of the combatants, all shared the same sentiment. And if she could find a mirror, she would've seen the same hopelessness in the reflection.

A recent graduate of Sun Zhang Mechwarrior Academy at New Samarkand, Mirabel was sent to Ashio as a part of the 16th Sun Zhang Cadre to bolster the planetary defense against the Word of Blake invasion. It was a promising start, in which the Kuritan young mechwarriors routed Word of Blake forward battalion. Everything changed when the Markham's Marauders made planetfall. They were too big, too fast, too strong, and too experienced for the fresh graduates to handle. The 16th Sun Zhang Cadre was obliterated within weeks, and the survivors joined Ashio militia to make their last stand at Iscariot, the capital of Ashio.

A conversation between Ashio planetary leader, Duke Nikolai Jansma, and the CO of 16th Sun Zhang Cadre caught her attention. The two men were yelling at each other's face as if they were getting ready for blows. Duke Jansma's family stood a few feet away behind him, probably waiting to catch him if the CO decided to draw first blood. As much as Mirabel wanted to leave them alone, it was hard not to overhear their argument.

"I am not leaving my people!" Duke Jansma roared. "What do you think Ashio citizens will be thinking of me? A coward who ran away from war? No, I'm staying! The Marauders bastards can murder me anyway they want! This is my city! My home! My people! I'd die for my people!"

"If you die, our deaths will be for nothing!" the CO returned fire. "The Marauders will raze Iscariot down to the ground like they did to Shigata, and they will take Ashio in the name of the Word of Blake! But if you survive, you can show the world that Ashio is still alive! The hearts of Ashio's citizens are still beating! It is not over until you're dead or captured! That's why you've got to get out of here and continue fighting! "

"I'm not fighting like a coward!"

"You're fighting like an idiot! Get out of here while you still can!" Then the CO fixed his eyes on Mirable. "Gunjin Mirabel!"

"Sir! Yes Sir!" Mirabel shot up and approached her CO.

"I need you to escort Duke Jansma and his family out of Iscariot!" the CO said. "Protect them with your life."

"I'm not going!" Duke Jansma was still adamant.

"Then I'm gonna have to drag you out myself!" the CO started losing patience. "Gunjin, use any means necessary to make sure Duke Jansma and his family is safe, away from the Marauders!"

"With all due respect, Sir…" Mirabel stammered, "… I – I want to fight with you…"

"This is my last order for you, Gunjin. Protect the duke and his family at all cost. Have him rally whatever is left at Ashio, command a guerilla warfare, and broadcast this atrocity to the entire Inner Sphere. Somebody, anybody, has to listen to what happens at Ashio."

"S-S-Sir, my place is by your side," Mirabel started to well up. "I want to fight, Sir."

"Nobody wants to leave Iscariot as a coward, asshole!" Duke Jansma snarled. "Why don't we just mount a final charge, one last time, and kick them in the nuts? Let's all die in glory!"

"And what does it make you? A dead fool!" the CO bellowed. "I'd rather have a living coward than a dead hero!" He turned to Mirabel and grabbed her by the arm. "Listen, Soldier! You are a member of Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery! You are trained in the best military program in the Inner Sphere! You will carry your order for as long as you live, and your order is to protect the duke and his family from the mercenaries. Is that understood, Gunjin?!"

"Yes… Sir," Mirabel replied reluctantly.

"Take my Dragon," the CO let go of her arm. "We'll make enough noise for you to slip out of the city."

"Sir, I can't take your mech!" Mirabel choked.

"If you don't, it'll die with me," the CO gave her an assuring nod. "It's more useful in your hands than mine. Tell the techs you have my permission to take my mech. If they give you hard times, send them to me." He paused to give Mirabel a small smile. "Take good care of it. It served me well; it should you."

Mirabel looked at her CO in the earnest, seriously considering to defy his order. She looked around; the morale was low, but everybody accepted their fate that they would die soon. Why should she get to leave them and live? It felt like a condemnation. Mirabel was not afraid to die. She wanted to die among her brothers and sisters in arms, carrying the banner of the Draconis Combine until her last breath.

But defying her CO would only dishonor him, and she didn't want it to be the last thing she gave him. "It's been an honor serving Draconis Combine with you, Sir," Mirabel snapped a salute, with tears running down her face. "I will make sure the duke and his family make it to safety."

"The honor is mine, Gunjin Mirabel," the CO returned her salute. "Your next commander will be proud to have you, as I am. Until we meet again, in this life or the next."

Mirabel shot a quick look at Duke Jansma, giving him a sign that she was ready to carry her mission, then walked toward the white Dragon -7N. She had been piloting a Panther for the better part of her career, and she didn't think she deserved her CO's battlemech. It was the totem mech of the Draconis Combine. It was the pride of the 16th Sun Zhang Cadre. And she was just a fresh graduate, a speckle in Sun Zhang long list of grunt soldiers.

The problem was: she didn't have a choice.


Urban fighting had never been Dultom Markham's favorite engagement. Too many obstacles, with the buildings themselves were more of a hazard than cover. Infantry, hiding inside buildings, taking pot shots at unsuspecting mechs. Booby traps, land mines, wired vehicles, all set to explode when his team was in the cusp of overrunning the opposing units.

But it was no surprise that the opposing units would resolve to urban warfare when they were about to get massacred, to 'cheat' themselves from slaughter. To hide behind the walls. To fight another day. To cowardly go where everyone that was about to die had gone before.

Unfortunately that was the case with the remaining defenders of Ashio planetary defense. For almost 2 months the Markham's Marauders pounded the 16th Sun Zhang Cadre and Ashio militia to pulp. The Marauders rolled through plains and hills, sweeping the country clean from oppositions. Some of them mounted guerilla warfare, but a quick strike on the civilians always flushed them out. And now the survivors holed up inside the city of Iscariot, the capital of Ashio.

Dultom contemplated flattening Iscariot with orbital bombardment, but it would take some serious firepower to completely annihilate a city. The Argo was capable of making it happen, but he just didn't want to spend that much money. After all, the 16th Sun Zhang Cadre and Ashio militia were no match for Markham's Marauders. He didn't need orbital bombardment to beat them.

"Attention, Iscariot defenders," he broadcast his manifesto through general frequencies. "This is Lieutenant Colonel Dultom Markham, Markham's Marauders. The city of Iscariot is surrounded. We have barricaded artery roads and stopped water supply to the city. Lay down your weapons, and you will not be harmed. Resist, and famine will be the last thing you'll remember."

Instead, mechs and tanks rolled out of the city, lining up in a single column directly in front of Dultom.

"This is Sho-sa Dickel, 16th Sun Zhang Cadre. You may take our lives, but you will never take away our freedom, you whores of Word of Blake!"

Dultom was familiar with Banzai charge. Almost every Kuritan units that faced total annihilation would resolve to a blind charge. He expected the 16th Sun Zhang Cadre was no different. But somehow this maneuver was out of place. Iscariot still held a lot of resources for them. The defender could wage a war of attrition at least for another 2 weeks. They were not that desperate. Why Banzai charge now?

"People should know when they are conquered," Darius Oliveira called from a private channel.

"Would you, Darius?" Dultom scoffed. "Would I?" He switched to a different private channel. "Glitch, swing around and flank the defender. Check if they don't try to slip something out under our noses."

"Roger that!" Glitch replied and took her Rifleman out of formation. Her lance followed suit.

Dultom waited until Glitch was out of range, then went to general frequency. "Marauders! Unleash Hell!"

The comlink went alive with chants and battlecries. Marauders battlemechs galloped toward Iscariot, while Long Toms and Thumper Artillery Vehicles lobbed high-explosive munitions. Fireballs erupted within the defenders' ranks, quickly putting the inexperienced units in disarray. Armor shards, body limbs, and tank turrets flew in every direction. A third of mechs and tanks were set ablaze. Smoke obscured the vicinity to the point the radar screen only showed one blotch of red.

Yet the Ashio planetary defenders stood fast, and slowly marched to meet the Marauders.

Dultom dropped his joystick to line up with a Strider, a diminutive medium omnimech which had been shredded by artillery fire. Its left torso was wide open, revealing the delicate engine and structure. Dultom took no pride in downing a mech halfway to its grave, but it had to be done. He pumped his UAC5, forcing the Strider to buckle. As the omnimech staggered, he fired his LB10X cannons. Fire belched from the wound, consuming half of the Strider. The omnimech crashed, then exploded on the ground, creating a mushroom-like thick black cloud.

A vintage Whitworth boldly challenged the Bull Shark with twin missile salvo, but the 95-ton assault mech merely shrugged the assault. Dultom spread the legs of the Bull Shark and blasted his Thumper cannon. The HEAP munition zipped in near-straight-line trajectory, and hit the Whitworth squarely on the chest. The Whitworth doubled over and fell back in a plume of smoke. Dultom fired all autocannons in unison at the ball of smoke, and the Whitworth disintegrated in a yellow-orange fireball.

Two kills under his belt put Dultom in bloodlust mode. He cycled through his radar to find a worthy opponent, hopefully the Sho-sa who dared to call him 'whore'. But as far as he could see, the defenders were all wary, disfigured light and medium battlemechs. He picked a battered, bloodied, scorching Wolf Trap with both arms severed. He mashed his trigger, and the Bull Shark's shoulder flashed, spitting four energy beams right at the Wolf Trap's mangled torso. The engine erupted, tearing the torso apart from the inside. What was left of the Wolf Trap crashed and burst into flames.

"Where are you?" Dultom dove deeper into the thicket of battle. "Come on, put your guns where your mouth is!" He twisted left and right before finding a Hunchback, charred to the frames from intense artillery shelling. He tapped his trigger, and his mech pulsed as it spat scattered munitions that swarmed the Hunchback like killer bees. The Hunchback never got a chance. The submunitions severed power conduits and gear trains. Chain explosions turned the Hunchback internal structures into metal scrap. The medium mech twisted and turned before falling forward, face flat on the ground.

The fire on the Hunchback hadn't withered away when two solid autocannon shots exploded near the Bull Shark's cockpit. Dultom was forced to flinch. He twisted to find the source of the shot, and smiled sadistically when his crosshair landed on a Blackjack, with two smoking barrels pointing at him. Laser strands stabbed the Bull Shark in the chest, turning half a ton of armor into bubbling mess.

Dultom admire the resilience of his 'small' adversary. Even in the advent of defeat, the Blackjack still came out firing. It made the one-sided fight a little bit more interesting. He twisted sideways to bring all guns to bear, but a sharp Gauss strike gutted the Blackjack. The 45-ton mech slowly leaned to the left and stumbled with thick smoke billowed from its torso.

"Target destroyed," Behemoth's Highlander came into sight. "You got hit in the head. Are you alright, Sir?"

"You shouldn't have come between me and my prey!" Dultom barked in response.

"Apologies, Sir, I just thought it might have hurt you," Behemoth said.

"Forget about it," Dultom growled. The battlefield was almost empty, with only Markham's Marauders war machines dominating the plain, and the defenders virtually reduced to smelters and charred hulks. He steered his Bull Shark away from the battlefield and contacted his lieutenant, "Glitch, sitrep!"

"Sir, I had visual contact with a Dragon and three vehicles making a run out of the city," Glitch replied. "You're fighting their diversionary force, Sir. Whoever in that convoy must be a significant figure of Ashio."

"Then what are you waiting for? Kill them all!"

"I don't have the speed to catch up with them, Sir. The Dragon alone had me by 20 kph, at least. The vehicles were in excess of 100 kph."

"Shit," Dultom exhaled sharply. That was why the defenders were so eager to die in battle. They were covering an escape. He could send a company of choppers to hunt the convoy down, but with a Dragon covering the vehicles, the choppers would suffer high casualties. There was nothing he could do to catch that runaway convoy.

"Regroup, Glitch," Dultom sighed in defeat. "Let the convoy go. We got Ashio."

"Roger that, Sir. Over and out."