5
December 17, 2990
Federated Suns
Crusis March
Cholis
Morten Estate
By now every jumpship that came into the system Stephan expected to be carrying his men, but every time so far he had been wrong. However, when the latest arrived, it didn't respond to inquiries from Cholis…and immediately deployed two Union-class dropships toward the planet that also did not respond.
After a day of no comms, Stephan finally got a call from Duke Thorsen.
"Stephan, I'm afraid I need to ask you for a big favor," the man's image said on the screen in the First Lord's new office, built in a rounded tower three stories high that now connected to the northern section of the mansion.
"Raiders then?"
"At this point I don't know what else it would be. They never announce themselves on arrival, and I doubt it's just a comm problem or something else explainable. I've got no way to prevent them from landing, and when they do they'll blow through my light mechs. They have to know what I've got here, but if they're only sending two dropships they might not know that you have any. You never brought them in through the spaceport, did you?"
"No, I had all deliveries come straight here once our pads were built. But two Unions can carry two full Companies."
"Not if they want to steal the iron ingots currently in the spaceport warehouse. Insterion Mining has been storing them up for the past 6 years, and they're supposed to go out on the next scheduled jumpship arrival. Then these bastards show up at exactly the wrong time. I tell you, it's no coincidence! They have a spy here, I'm sure of it. And if they do, there's no way they can know what you've got. They have to have room in those dropships to take the ore back up with them. No way they've got two Companies in there."
"There's a slight possibility they are here for me," Stephan noted.
"I doubt it, but you'll have our support if they are," the Duke said, letting the silence hang for a moment.
"Quit your worrying, Harris," Stephan said in a friendly and familiar manner, breaking the ice. "Of course we'll help. But if you're right about them not knowing about our mechs, then I don't want them to notice until after they land. We'll wait until we're sure of where they're heading, then I'll get a dropship over near the spaceport a few minutes behind them. I don't want to risk landing inside their weapons range."
"The south of the spaceport is open grasslands. If they land inside, you can put down there, but every time we've been hit the bandits have landed in that field and attacked from the exterior."
"Same bandits each time?"
"Not always, but they always take the same approach. We've no way to ID those dropships or jumpships, but I think they've made a grave miscalculation this time."
"Two Companies would be a fair fight…unless they brought a lot of heavies."
"I'd guess one or two tops. They'll be mostly mediums and lights, which is enough to run over my light Company, if you even want to call it that. It's undersized and four of my mechs are Urbanmechs, which aren't bad around the buildings, but if we have to fight in the grass they won't be able to keep up. And if they land their dropships right in the spaceport, I can't take on two of them. I just don't have the tonnage to stand up to that slugging match. If they want, the bandits might even be able to just steal the ingots under the threat of those guns and try to force us to fight them within the dropships' range.
"Can you move the ingots before they land?"
"Where to?"
"Put them on the landing pads. Make them land out in the grass."
The Duke looked thoughtful for the moment. "Make them take us out, or we can snipe them as they're trying to pick up the cargo. I like that move. It will also make it look like we're conceding the cargo."
"I don't want to scare them off," Stephan said, the look in his eye one the former General knew well. "I want to trap them and force a fight, preferably away from their dropships. Then I want them running away in retreat. They need to get stung hard enough they won't try coming back again."
"Agreed. I'll keep my mechs in and around the spaceport and try to get them to fight on the edge of it. You land outside and try to flank them. Just make sure you're not late. Their typical attitude is to just barge in and run people over because they know they have a mismatch, and I've only got two medium laser defense turrets at the spaceport."
"I didn't know you had any."
"I've had a little more tax revenue the past year," he said with a smirk. "It's not much in the way of defense, but they've got more armor on them than any of my mechs. I don't like being a sitting duck for these bandits."
"You're just the bait this time, Harris. Try to delay them once you're engaged."
"Thank you, Stephan. I know there's no way to repay you for this."
"Just being a good neighbor, my friend. And I dislike bandits as much as you do."
"You've never been on the receiving end to really know."
"No I haven't," he admitted, "and I don't plan to be this time either…"
Two days later…
"Stephan…" Vander said, standing in the Estate's mech bay as the First Lord arrived in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt at the foot of his Centurion.
"We only have two real mechwarriors here," he said, giving his uncle a 'I'll have none of it' look. "And aside from you, everyone else in the House qualified to even sit in one hasn't done so since before we left Neubenn. Grady's got the trainees up to a point I think they'd be better than they'd be."
"Still, I've got Frank, Cait, and Anders ready to strap into the backup mechs if needed. They'd do better than the worst of the trainees. That's where you should be too. You're too damn valuable to risk on the front lines."
"They're bandits, not the Dracos, and I'm not going to let some trainee get smoked because I'm too cowardly to do the job I've trained for."
Vander smiled. "Just playing devil's advocate. We've got plenty of Mortens to replace you with, after all."
Stephan had gotten up two rungs of the gantry's ladder, then glared back at him. "Sure you don't want to come along?"
"If you need a second wave I'll be there with the has-beens," he said, referencing the 4 Hunchbacks they had out of the total 16 mechs that wouldn't fit on a single dropship, but were instead standing watch at the Estate in case fighting somehow shifted over there or someone took advantage of the coming battle to do something unpleasant here.
"You're not a has-been," Stephan said, climbing again. "But the others deserve that."
"Just let Grady draw the majority of the fire…please."
Stephan got to the top of the gantry and began walking around to the easier access to the Centurion's cockpit. "I know, I know. He's been in a real battle and I haven't."
"About to fix that, aren't you…First Lord?" Vander half mocked.
"It's probably the only time I'm going to be needed," he said, with a tech standing by the open mech hatch.
"Good luck, sir. Give em hell."
He silently clapped the man on the shoulder as he passed, then climbed into the cockpit and sat down in the single seat. There was enough room to squeeze one more person in in a pinch, but part of that was taken up by a small satchel of emergency gear that he could grab if needed. It wouldn't eject with his seat if it came to that, but it was rather cold outside right now…just above freezing…and if his mech went down with him still in it, he'd at least be grateful for the warm clothing in the bundle.
As it was, he was underdressed for a reason. The excess heat the mech would produce from its weapons, movements, and taking hits from the enemy would raise the temperature in the cockpit to extreme levels if not for the heat sinks that were basically super-charged air conditioners, not just for him but the equipment as well. Get the heat too high and things would malfunction on their own…not to mention kill him before or after he passed out.
Bottom line was, one way or another he was going to sweat profusely, and while he didn't want to pilot the mech naked, the shorts and T-shirt were an in between compromise over which he slid a cooling vest tied into a panel by a series of tubes that would circulate and pull heat directly away from his center of mass. It felt chilly as he turned it on, but it would auto-regulate so it didn't turn him into a popsicle while he waited for combat.
"You ready for this, laddie?" he heard a voice over the comm that was already open to their Company's command channel.
"I'm just here to shoot, Grady. You're calling the shots."
"Well, first rule is don't 'shoot Grady,'" he joked. "Second is get your ass moving. Those dropships are coming in hotter than expected and none of us are in ours yet."
Stephan slid on his neurohelmet, making limited mental connection with the mech so it could use his own sense of balance, along with several gyroscopes that he was powering up now along with the rest of the battle machine, to allow the otherwise stiff-looking hunk of metal to move around as if it was a limited extension of his own body. He still had to maneuver it using hand controls, but they included several options to allow him to move the mech's hand and handless arm around like clubs or to stomp or kick something with his beefy metal legs. Otherwise, the mech's steps were auto-controlled with his subconscious brain adding the adjustments necessary to keep standing and shuffle around as needed.
Which meant you didn't want to be standing anywhere near the feet when a mech was powered up. They could step on you without even trying to, because the pilot wasn't manually doing the stepping in most cases.
"Moving as ordered," Stephan said as he saw Grady already heading out of the mech bay ahead of the 10 trainees he'd selected who were also climbing into their mechs. His friend was in a heavy Crusader that outmassed his own Centurion 65 to 50 tons, but the movement speeds were comparable, so after he logged his ID into the already unlocked combat computer, he got moving and was able to keep pace third in line as a trainee by the name of Azerton slid out ahead of him in an even larger 75 ton Orion.
The idea was, put the kids in the bigger mechs that could just stand still and shoot if they had to. Grady said to leave the maneuvering to him and Stephan, which was why the First Lord hadn't claimed one of the heavies for himself. He was comfortable with a Centurion. The trainees were comfortable in nothing right now…while Grady seemed to fly like a bird no matter what type of mech he strapped himself into.
Speaking of which, Stephan kept his straps loose for the moment, not wanting them to dig into his skin as they were only walking over to one of their parked dropships and moving onboard. The Orion in front of him was managing to walk in a straight line at least and not hit any of the structures they were passing by like an army of weaving ants.
Progress…but can they shoot straight under pressure?
Twelve mechs marched in a line towards the dropship as the incoming two were just beginning to hit the upper atmosphere. Grady was right. They were coming in extra hot, and if they didn't move their asses they were going to get to the party late…
The dropships were identified halfway down, based on their markings, as belonging to the Red Baron. Stephan almost laughed when he heard the name. How many Red Barons were there in the Inner Sphere? A dozen or more at least. It was such an old and overused name he was surprised an egotistical bandit wouldn't try something a little more original…but then again, if you were trying to usurp someone else's reputation, originality wouldn't work very well.
Regardless, the name Red Baron implied a force to be reckoned with, and as Stephan sat strapped into his Centurion as it was likewise strapped into a holding frame inside the Red Pearl as it launched from the Estate, the Duke informed him that this wasn't a typical bandit, but a known warlord in the Periphery that had hit a number of other small systems in the Federated Suns, but had never been here before. He guessed the cargo, being more valuable than anything they'd ever had sitting in a warehouse, had been enough for this Red Baron to come out and get it. Or who knew, maybe these scumbags took turns hitting systems.
Whatever the case, the Red Pearl lifted off and made a short hop over to Brinestorm, with Stephan able to watch from a camera view in his cockpit the landing the Red Barron made in the grassland well south of the spaceport via the city's camera mounts that the Duke was feeding him and Vander, who was also on a separate channel tied in to him and Grady only, while Stephan had one going straight to the Duke that he could toggle through with a series of buttons on his dashboard.
"Right where we want them," the Duke said approvingly. "Where are you going to set down?"
"Just to the west, outside their dropships' range. Hold your position and we'll come to you," he said, waiting for a ramp to come down on the enemy's sphere-like ships that were identical to his own at a glance, but the weaponry they carried may very well be different. He wanted to see how many mechs they'd actually brought.
The Red Pearl had already hit the peak of her trajectory and was on her way down before he finally got his first remote peak of the enemy as a 45 ton Blackjack walked down resplendent in a crude mix of red and black paint with a tiny Red Baron's cross emblazoned on the shoulder. It was heavier than anything the Duke possessed, but had inferior firepower to his own Centurion.
Next came a pair of 45 ton Phoenix Hawks, followed by their own 50 ton Centurion.
A medium lance, on its own enough to tear through the light mechs defending the spaceport if the pilots were any damn good. If not, the Duke's forces might have a chance.
But then one of the boarding ramps on the second dropship lowered, and out came a flood of 20 ton Wasps. He counted 5 in total, followed up by another Blackjack and three Javelins…one of which did a faceplant as it came down the ramp, perhaps unaccustomed to the 1.1g of gravity on Cholis. That mech design was always heavy on the front side, but no seasoned pilot should have fallen.
Maybe they're drunk at that, or they've got some rookies too? Either way, that's 13 mechs and not the 24 I had worried about. The Duke called it right.
The Javelin behind it managed to stop before it ran over its twin as it got back to its feet, then they quickly hurried up and formed into the right flank of the long line the Red Baron was making, with his all-medium lance taking the center and the Wasps on the left flank. They took a while to form up then started walking for about 300 meters before stopping as the House Morten dropship came down 3 kilometers to their west in a roar of thrust slowing the descent of the fat dropship as it skillfully landed in the grass, easily visible over the uncluttered distance between them as the city of Brinestorm rose up on the other side of the spaceport to the north.
"Alright, laddies," Grady said to the Company and the dropship Captain simultaneously. "Everyone stays put except the First Lord and meself. We're going out the side so they can't see what we've got inside. Hopefully they'll think we're just a couple of old geezers with some lovely ladies we've been carefully spit-shining for the past decade coming to help the Duke. Let's see if we can a bait them our way. Captain, lower the northern ramp if you would please."
Without a word of reply the large piece of the ship on one side cracked open and began to fold down into a ramp that led out into the grasslands…which were already on fire due to the dropship's landing. Some of the smoke blew up into the hold, but it looked like it wasn't going to spread very far.
"After you," Grady said, with Stephan walking his Centurion out and feeling the claustrophobic nature of the cramped dropship bay open up, as did his vision across the grasslands. He could see for dozens of kilometers to the east and south, along with the two 'ticks' of the enemy dropships planted over to his east and the tiny mechs standing out between them and the city.
He immediately began running his mech mostly parallel to them, but at a slight angle to the northeast and closer, heading for the spaceport to meet up with the Duke's defense Company. Grady's Crusader followed him step for step 30 meters behind him, allowing the Red Baron to see that the mech out-classed everything they had brought to the field.
Nothing happened for several minutes as they worked to cross the gap, getting halfway there when the enemy forces suddenly wheeled to the left and charged for both of them…intending to force a fight 13 vs 2 and take away the advantage of Grady's heavy mech.
"Aye, they took the bait. Pull a little more west, Stephan. We don't want them getting to us too soon."
"Make sure you time it right," he warned. He didn't want to get caught by their faster Wasps and forced to fight or run with them nipping at him from behind. If he stayed to fight, the others would catch up pretty fast.
The Duke broke in over his channel. "Stephan, do you want us coming out to you?"
"Not yet. We need them well away from their dropships. When I say so, try and get behind them and slow them down. Don't stand your ground and die, but delay them."
"As you bring the hammer."
"Hopefully," he said, watching the 5 Wasps sprint ahead of the medium mechs like a pack of bloodhounds with the pair of Phoenix Hawks trailing a little further behind, almost as if they were a little too good to keep company with the light mechs despite their similar speed.
Fortunately the Wasps had no long range weaponry. Only a medium laser and an SRM-2, but they could move at a maximum of 95kph while his Centurion topped out at 64kph, meaning there was no way to avoid them if they wanted the fight, and his own dropship was too far away now to run to the cover of, and the spaceport was nearly just as far away.
"Now laddies," Grady announced. "Out here on the double. No formations, just run towards us and shoot anything that comes within range. Mind the friendly fire though."
"We keep running or start shooting?" Stephan asked.
"Running. Don't know how long it will be before they notice. Every meter this way benefits us. Pull more west again, but keep getting closer to the spaceport."
"You think they're that dumb?" he said as the first of the reinforcements stepped down off the Red Pearl and headed towards them…a Blackjack of their own, followed by two more Centurions, then a Phoenix Hawk, then another Centurion, but the Red Baron mechs didn't seem to notice, and the first of the enemy Wasps got within firing range of Stephan and fired its medium laser into his mech's right arm. A moment later it got hit from the left and was knocked clean over by Grady's missile barrage, a combination of SRMs and LRMs fired at close range, which managed to mostly hit. He peppered another with his medium lasers and machine guns as the little pack split apart and ran around the side of the two larger mechs, chipping away at their armor as they both zigzagged to keep moving and target the smaller mechs.
"Now Harris," Stephan said to the Duke on their private comm channel, seeing the dots on his radar within the spaceport almost immediately start moving.
"It's gonna get hot here, laddie," Grady said, crossing in front of the Centurion as Stephan stopped to line up a shot with his autocannon. The experienced mechwarrior kept his mech on the run, circling around in such a way that the enemy didn't know which way he was going to go next. "Stay behind me and pick at what you can, but start shuffling back towards our Company. I don't think these bandits have noticed they're a wee bit outgunned yet."
"On it," Stephan said, shooting at a Wasp with his medium lasers but holding back on his autocannon for fear of missing again. They were moving too damn fast, and he'd only hit with the lasers 3 out of the last 5 shots. He paused for a moment and launched a round of his LRM-10 at one of the approaching Phoenix Hawks, satisfied to see it not dodge at all and just take them to the face as his own armor started to get chewed off on a spot on his back that the Wasps seemed to be favoring as they circled around from different angles, meaning he could never get them all in front of him at the same time.
Even the one that had been knocked down was back up on its feet and shooting again.
"Victor, focus all your missiles on one of the mediums. Ignore the lights," Grady said to the 85 ton Longbow that was now trotting its way across the grass towards them as a lance of their Phoenix Hawks had already raced past it, moving virtually as fast as the Wasps, but each doubling up their mass at 45 tons and sporting a large laser.
The House Morten recon pack was a clear mismatch against the Red Baron's, but it was the Longbow that was really going to mess things up once it got within missile range, for it was their single Assault Mech, carrying 2 LRM-20s with another pair of LRM-5s for good measure. It was basically a walking missile turret, and Grady had both him and Stephan angling back towards it rather than the spaceport.
The First Lord…whom the enemy could not know was the pilot…was taking the majority of the fire from the Wasps and starting to get his armor wore down in multiple spots, with the indicator for the patch on his back sitting in yellow for what felt like an eternity as he couldn't avoid their swarm fire, even as Grady nailed one with his medium lasers and blew through the already weakened armor into the interior, lighting off its stored missiles in an explosion that knocked it sideways as the pilot ejected. Rather than going up, he shot over the ground and skipped on it multiple times before finally coming to a halt.
Stephan didn't want a closer look, knowing the pilot was dead and probably missing several limbs from the multiple impacts.
Suddenly the swarm of Wasps disappeared as they took off running back towards their dropships along with the rest of their mechs, apparently having seen their mistake as the rest of the Morten Company was heading towards them, and the friendly Phoenix Hawks were outright racing to get to Grady…but another sharp-eyed command had him turn them towards the enemy dropships and race laterally alongside the retreating mechs, moving faster than they could, to a waypoint that the old mechwarrior put down for them.
Stephan sent his Centurion after its twin, with them both sprinting at full speed in the same direction. He was out of weapons range though, as was Grady for the most part, but the Wasps were not sticking with their companions and trying to distract the trailing mechs to give them a head start. All of them were just shooting off towards the safety of their dropships, essentially leaving their companions behind in an 'every man for himself' chaotic retreat.
The Duke's four Wasps and two sensor-neutered Ostscouts got in their way through, engaging the heavier mechs with no caution and making them choose between stopping to swat them down or keep running…while the four Urbanmechs futilely chased after the fight at half their speed, never going to catch up unless the enemy turned around and decided to slug it out.
Instead they chose to run, but not straight…weaving this way and that, peppering the spaceport defenders with a few shots as they tried to scramble around them, but the 6 light mechs kept getting in their way and making them zigzag more.
Grady got another launch of LRMs off at one of the Blackjacks, but it was the Longbow that came in at an angle and just got within extreme range thanks to the delay and launched a full volley against the Centurion, for the Red Baron Phoenix Hawks had left it and the pair of Blackjacks in the rear, and the smaller mechs from both the Morten Company and the Duke's Company were picking them apart from behind.
That damage, when combined with the LRMs from the Longbow, didn't even give the pilot time to eject. The Centurion got hit in the rear with such force than it tripped forward, smashing down into the grass and tearing right through it, plowing a short trench in the dirt as if digging its own grave.
"Phoenix hawks, break off," Grady warned. "You're almost in range of their dropships. Don't a cross that line," he said, toggling his own command controls within his Crusader and marking the outer boundary for the long range defenses that were presumed to be on the dropships.
To emphasize that point, a gaunt rifle ball flashed past one of them near the knees, impacting the ground a few hundred meters on past, but so far out they didn't have any real chance of accuracy. But even a lucky shot from one of those massive metal balls could do a lot of damage.
"Hit the BlackJacks!" Grady yelled, and with about half his mechs in range, and 6 of the Duke's, the two didn't make it much further. One's fusion reactor overloaded and exploded the body of the mech, throwing shrapnel everywhere that hit three of the allied mechs. The other one did an expert job of leaning forward while ejecting, which put his trajectory towards the safety of the dropships. His chute opened well inside the defense perimeter and he floated on down beyond the gaggle of mechs all stopping outside the closer dropship's firing range.
The Duke broke in again on his channel. "Do you want to make a run at one of them?"
"Not worth the damage," Stephan said, watching the remaining mechs limp their way back onboard the nearest one. "Neither of us lost a man today. That might change if we push our advantage. I've got a lot of rookie mechwarriors anyway, and I'll take the win as is if you don't mind."
"Completely your call, Stephan. All my people did was use the open shots you gave us."
"Would have been a lot messier without them."
"Stephan," Grady said, not realizing he was already in a private conversation. "That Centurion has puked up a little ol mechwarrior that's running hard across the grass."
The Duke didn't hear that, but continued on saying something as Stephan turned down the volume so he could hear Grady, then turned it back up as he switched his mic so both of them could hear him, but only Grady could hear the Duke and not vice versa.
"Harris, there's a survivor out here. Do you mind if we claim him?"
"All yours, my friend. Same goes for the salvage."
"Thanks, but this trash is on your lawn," he said jokingly. "You pick it up."
"You are too damn gracious for a noble," the Duke complained. "You're not even going to charge me a fuel fee, are you?"
"You're confusing us with bean counters. Rich guys have the luxury of being nice and not worrying about what stuff costs."
"I guess not all Dukes are equal then, because I'm already running the figures in my head for what it would cost on the upkeep for that one Blackjack that ejected a bit early."
"I hope it's recoverable," Stephan said, walking his Centurion in the direction of the man running slowly against the metallic giants with Grady already pacing beside him. "If you'll excuse me, I need to see to our soon to be prisoner."
"Do you need someone to come and pick him up?"
"Thanks, but I've got it covered," he said as the first of the dropships lifted off. "Actually, it looks like I might have two prisoners after this. They're leaving the closer one behind," he said, seeing the rocket flare on the second one ignite a few moments later.
"If you need any more assistance, just ask. I'll keep my mechs on site until I can get a recovery team out there. Thorsen out."
"Grady?"
"I got all that. I already called Roger in. Would you mind tracking down the other guy and making sure he doesn't dive into a hole somewhere?"
"Yours not surrendering?"
"He just turned towards town when his ride disappeared, but nay, he's not stopping."
"Maybe he can't understand your accent."
"I used the ol gun barrel version. Probably thinks he's a gonner either way."
"Alright, stay on him. I'll find the other guy," he said, noticing a pair of fast moving dots on radar that would be the hover bikes they'd brought along with them so they could retrieve any of their own personnel that had to eject. Thankfully the battle had been entirely one sided.
Stephan glanced at his rear armor reading, seeing it in the light red.
Damn Wasps.