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Chapter 4

Nowhere

Solaris VII

Lyran Commonwealth

November 20, 3070

The two Moon Knight dropships sat in the outskirts of Nowhere, a city north of Solaris City. That morning Jonan held a woefully inadequate funeral for the troopers that had lost their lives the day before. He had not been able to recover the bodies of all of the fallen. That hurt Jonan the most. The Word of Blake would pay for this.

Jonan's officers gathered in the ready room of the Union class dropship Grimlock. He turned to his XO Sarah Steiner. "We have an information leak. I need you to figure out where it's coming from and plug it with extreme prejudice. We've had this leak for awhile, but I let it go on because I wanted the Word to know a little of what we were doing. But I thought that I had taken adequate precautions to keep it from affecting the operations. I obviously did not do my job, and people died. I have to live with that, but not again. I want an airfield constructed so we can fly missions from here. The gloves come off now."

Nowhere
Solaris VII
Lyran Commonwealth
December 1, 3070

Jonan stood looking over the airfield his people had built and hoped it would work for Ace's squadron. Trying to land a 100 ton aerospace fighter on a weak runway could be dangerous. It was good that it was done because Jonan was sick of cooling his heels until he could start running operations.

Jonan returned to the ready room on the 'lock. He saw Sarah sitting in a seat in the front row of the auditorium. She walked over to him and handed him a report. Jonan looked it over and nodded.

Soon after that, the Moon Knight officers started to file into the ready room. He took his place up at the dais. "Well, looks like we might be ready to start operations," he began. He hit a button on the holo-projector to show a map of Solaris City. "Our first objective is to hurt their current air superiority. I'd like to hit them while most of their aerofighters are on the ground. Ace, I'll need you to fly in under the radar and hit them quick. The command company will draw their 'Mechs out and when that occurs, I need the rest of the battalion to smash them. Curtain goes up at 2400."

Don met his squadron in their ready room. He greeted the other flight leaders as they entered. First was Jess Carlisle, call sign "Raven." She had long black hair, and was dressed in a flight suit. The next pilot to arrive to the briefing was Anna Matthews, call sign "Mental." She was about 5 feet tall with short brown hair. She wore a flight suit unique to this unit, a Jade Falcon flight suit. The rest of the squadron filed in so that Don could give the briefing.

"Alright people, here's the mission. We're going to hit the Robes' main airfield. Mental, your flight will be carrying bombs to hit the fighters on the ground. Raven, you and your wingman will cover us in case they have any air cover. As for Speedbump and I, intel thinks they have a dropship, so we will carry Arrow IVs and try to take it out on the ground. Alright, watch each other's asses out there. Let's do this." At that the squadron headed to the makeshift hanger that had been constructed for the aerospace fighters.

As Don approached his Stuka he saw some techs he did not know swarming around his fighter. Also Colin O'Neil and a couple of his infantry were standing watch over the activity. "What's going on here?" Don demanded.

"Just checking your load out," said O'Neil with a smirk.

Don looked at the ordinance that was being loaded onto his fighter. He noticed and sword and starburst insignia on them. "What is this? I've never seen these before," continued Don, starting to get angry.

"Those? Oh those are experimental anti-ship missiles courtesy of your Federated Suns."

The man standing next to O'Neil chuckled. "We were saving them for a special occasion, but I guess this will have to do."

"Where did you get them?" demanded Don again, the vein is his forehead beginning to bulge.

"Well there was this thing. Then "we" had them," said O'Neil conspiratorially. "We heard that you were going to try and take down a dropship, and we figured these would give you the edge. As you well know, those things go down hard."

"We also slung a TAG under your fighter so you can direct these babies to the target," added one of the techs.

Don looked at the fighter then looked back at the smirking spook. "Well they better work or I'll have all of your heads."

At that the techs packed up and left the freshly armed heavy fighter for Don to take control of.

Don joined his wingman Speedbump, flying an 85 ton Shiva that was loaded down with Arrow IV missiles. They accelerated to catch up to Mental's Visigoth and her wingman Slipstream's Shilone. Raven's flight consisted of a pair of Daggers. They were way out in front of the formation. They would fly low and hit the base with cluster munitions and incendiaries to cause havoc before the large aircraft arrived.

As the squadron approached the target they began to see the Moon Knight 'Mechs engaging Blakist 'Mechs on the ground below. Mental came over the comm. "After we get done with the mission are we going to help the mudbugs?"

"Mental, let's worry about the mission before we worry about the ground pounders. Jonan's men can take care of themselves," answered Raven.

"Approaching target," radioed Raven. "Dropping ordinance." The two light fighters dropped their bombs over the unsuspecting Blakist airbase. The incendiaries carried by Raven were dropped on ammo dump, the fuel stores and the fighters themselves. As the fuel and ammo began to cool off, the cluster munitions carried by Raven's wingman Corndog hit and sowed more confusion and chaos. After the bombing run, the two fighters climbed to a high altitude to wait for the heavier fighters.

Soon Mental and her wingman Slipstream flew over the base dropping their high explosive bombs. The bombs from the Visigoth carpeted over the fighters destroying or severely damaging almost every fighter on the ground. Slipstream's Shilone unleashed its bombs onto the runways, destroying the black tops and hit as many of the buildings he could.

Then a huge blast of smoke and dust flew up from the north end of the airstrip. "Ace, you'd better get here quick. The drop ship is an Okinawa fighter carrier. And it's lifting off." The large spheroid dropship began to shudder as its massive engines strained to create enough thrust to lift it off the ground.

As it dropship began to lift, a pair of streaking missiles slammed into the side of the massive craft. "Woohoo!" yelled Speedbump as the pair of Arrow IVs took massive chunks of armor off the side of the ascending dropship. He then opened up with his full arsenal. The massive LB 20-X in the Shiva's nose blasted another huge scar in the dropship's side armor. Speedbump's large lasers missed wide.

The dropship returned fire. It raked Speedbump's fighter with large lasers and PPCs. Their hits melted tons of armor from the front of the Shiva. LRMs from the Okinawa caught up with the two Daggers, smashing armor. After taking the brunt of the Okinawa's energy weapons, Speedbump rolled away from the dropship.

After Speedbump rolled off his attack, a flight of LRMs from Ace's Stuka chipped even more armor off the side of the Okinawa. Well now it's time to try out these anti-ship missiles. Don painted the dropship with the TAG on his nose. He launched the first AS missile. The missile fell of the rail and small stabilizing wings deployed. The missile sped toward the target, and slammed into the side of the dropship with hellish power. The dual warhead enclosed in the missile ripped through the side of the ship. The whole dropship shuddered with the impact of the AS missile. The dropship began to struggle to gain altitude. Don loosed the second missile and it sped toward the target. The missile again slammed through the armor of the dropship. The explosion ripped through the ship.

Time slowed down as the flames from the ship's massive engines died. The explosion from the missile obviously touched off an explosion of missile ammo inside the dropship. The ship began to crash back to the planet as it lost power. The dropship died as it returned to the planet.

"Alright people lets go see if we can't help out the ground pounders."

Mechwarrior Tor of the Ghost Bears sat in the command couch of his 85 ton Warhawk. He was using the primary configuration which sported four PPCs and an LRM 10. His lance was moving quickly through a thick wooded area. He had sent Daniels and his Marauder II forward to investigate the ECM interference he was receiving, because it was the most heavily armored 'Mech of the lance and because it was his turn to spring whatever trap the Blakists had laid. Unfortunately contact had been lost with Daniels very quickly after he hit the ECM interference. They were moving in an inverted V formation with Francis in his Atlas on his right and Jones in her Battlemaster on his left.

As they entered the area that the ECM covered, missiles slammed into the torso of the Francis' Atlas. A Drillson hover tank and a pair of Myrmidons advanced toward the assault lance. "Francis, destroy these tanks. We will move toward Daniels." The monstrous Atlas moved to deal with the tanks.

Tor and Jones approached the smoking ruins of a 'Mech. A Blakist Avatar stood where the Marauder II's head had once been. Behind the Avatar, three assault 'Mechs approached, a Legacy, an Awesome, and a Thug. A Marauder moved toward the lance as well as three more tanks. "To any Knights out there, my lance is seriously out gunned. We may need some assistance," radioed Tor.

Tor and Jones began to trade shots with the Blakist forces. They began to back up so they could meet up with Francis. Tor saw the destroyed tanks. The Atlas had a few scars from fighting the tanks but looked to be in good shape. "All right, these surats think they can hide behind ECM. Francis, switch yours to ECCM." Francis' move immediately canceled out the ECM covering the Blakist forces.

The Avatar was the first to reach the three assault 'Mechs. The three mercs made short work of the Avatar. The rest of the Blakist forces approached Tor's lance. They began to open up on the mercs. Just as the battle looked like it was unwinnable, a huge blast rocked the Marauder. A Summoner riding on ion jets landed next to the moon night mechs.

"Good morning Tor-sama, I see you need a little help." Sho Takagi's command lance moved into the area and evened the odds against the Blakists.

"Thank you for arriving in a timely manner. I will destroy the Thug." Tor used his targeting computer to focus his fire onto the center torso of the Star League era 'Mech. Tor unleashed a hellish Alpha Strike on the center of the Thug. The 'Mech shuddered from the assault from 4 PPCs. The LRMs were the final nail in the coffin as they pierced they destroyed the gyros that kept the Thug standing.

Tor turned his Warhawk to see how the battle was going. He marched back to the fight stepping on a Condor tank as he moved back into the fight. Tor and the Moon Knight 'Mechs mopped up the rest of the Blakist forces.