Snakebite 03
North East of the Fake Star League Depot
Galtor III
When Major Edward Stimson was promoted directly into a regimental commander, some grumbled that a fresh Colonel with a poor understanding of logistics was probably not the best for that role. Many of those complaints evaporated once it was learned he would be commanding a force of primarily Urbanmech.
When he was still a battalion commander, Stimson was the sort of person to make his command lance out of light mechs just so he could swoop from one end of the battlefield to the other, watching and contributing as necessary. He could not decisively end things by himself, but could always shift the situation to the benefit of the rest of the battalion. He embodied experimental team play above all things and that did seem appropriate for such a force.
Super Urbanmechs had endless variety and endless potential for experimentation. The word 'omnimech' was not yet in the vernacular of anyone in the Inner Sphere, but as an Urbanmech had sizable weapon pods arms, changing the weapons load was possible a field refit of several hours.
The 17th Benjamin and Sharon's Battalion already had enough of this bullshit.
Urbanmechs would pop out, shoot a few ER PPC bolts, and then leave. While most of these shots missed, a single hit would shave off half a ton of armor. Not responding at all would be a death of a thousand cuts. With orders not to chase after them, the Kurita troops could only grit their teeth in bloody frustration.
The only weapons they had that could exchange fire at that range were LRMs.
Archer versus its weight in Super Urbanmech! Fight!
Swoosh swoosh swoosh! Missiles arced through the skies from both ends of the Wagnall plains. It was like fighting the Mongols all over again. Light Horsemen were unwilling to charge into the enemy, while Heavy Cavalry were likewise hesitant to give chase.
Stop. Lock. Fire. Move.
LRMs rained down, pecking away at enemy mechs. Unless used in absurd numbers, LRMs were rarely a decisive weapon that could kill a mech outright. However, even for a
The UMS-LRS was a variant based on the UMS-AIV, carrying a LRM-15 and two Laser AMS systems. Going up to 86 kph, they were capable of outrunning the target lock of the first missiles coming out of the launchers. The tail end of the stream accounted for up to 60% of the remaining Archer volley.
Blep blep blep blep. AMS degraded the incoming threats even further.
The Archers, much slower at a top speed of 64 kph, and lacking anything to actively reduce missile swarms, had to suffer nearly 80% successful hits from active Artemis-guided LRM warheads.
They were 70-ton mechs and they were losing against a bunch of piddly 30-tonners.
They could all see Urbanmechs out in the distance wiggling their torsos as if laughing.
The situation was reported to Yoriyoshi. "They have anti-missile systems? That *is* a most important lostech and we must have it!"
"We have Dragons. They are at least as fast as these Urbanmechs, if we give chase we would also be able to withdraw from any trap."
"No. Maintain a cordon. Push slowly towards the depot but never give in to the temptation to over-extend yourself."
"We obey."
Had they but known that Stimson only had a single Battalion with him, the 4th "Sneaky Devils", things would have been different. The 3rd "Allwine's Winners" battalion was still at New Aberdeen.
-.
-.
South of the Fake Star League Depot
Galtor III
Meanwhile, Jakodo Naguchido's no good terrible bad day started with the question:
"WHY IS EVERYTHING EXPLODING?!" Brigadier General Naguchido screamed for answers from just as bewildered and panicking staff.
This had to do with Colonel Stimson's vision of the 91st Cavalry as something that could fight the Clans. He wanted something that could move at high speed uniformly up to 86 kph.
Armstrong had to tell him "That's unrealistic. You can't just put XL Engines on everything." He paused. "All right, yes technically, we *can* put XL Engines on everything, but that does not mean it's a good idea. It is fine for small mechs where speed is life, but makes things more complicated for heavier mechs. It is far too soon to be too radical with our doctrine."
Compromises had to be made. But as a combined-arms regiment, almost everything that used to need Vehicles and AeroSpace Fighters could now be accomplished with Urbanmech. No, *needed* to be accomplished by Urbanmech.
As a combined-arms regiment, the Regimental Battlegroup or Command Company of the Eridani Light Horse usually consisted of two mech lances, two artillery lances, and two platoons of motorized infantry. An artillery lance was usually six units.
Those artillery Lances, previously slow-moving Long Tom Artillery pieces, were now Super Urbanmech Arrow IV and Thumpers. The Arrow IV launchers meant that these artillery sections were also their own integrated Air Defense with Arrow IV ADA missiles.
They could only move at a plodding 54 kph at most, but as these were Assault Mech speeds, it was no problem moving along with the Assault Mechs in the RBG. What was most interesting were the UMS-WRK, Super Workmechs that followed along. Almost identical to the UM-CIV, Civilianmech, they were built on a military chassis and were just slow and minimally armed and armored with two ER Medium lasers and 5 tons of armor.
What they did have were arms. And two integrated 5-ton Cargo Containers and a Lift Hoist. The Lift Hoist allowed the Workmechs to carry up to half their weight - 15 tons - with no penalty to movement. These containers contained extra ammo that could be reloaded into the Urbanmech Artillerymechs while on the field.
With just TWO of these Workmechs, an Artillery Lance had access to an extra fifty tons of ammo. The Cargo could also be dumped in a hurry in case they were caught in direct combat.
A single ton of Thumper ammo was good for 10 shots. A single ton of Arrow-IV ammo was good for 5 shots. The 15 tons of universal containers lashed onto the mech could contain more artillery ammo or missile replenishment for the battalion. A ton of LRM-15s was 8 shots, and a ton of MML/9 missile reloads were 13 and 11 shots of LRMs and SRMs respectively.
Poom. Poom. Poom. Poom. Poom. Poom.
Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh.
The Thumper Artillery mechs had more to fear from their guns melting than running out of ammo. They could, quite literally, do this all day. Armstrong looked at his artillery section, and keeping in mind the old military adage that 'logistics is king', even he felt this was an abuse of royal privilege.
Stimson did not have a good head for logistics. So just make Urbanmech fix it.
Poom. Poom. Poom. Poom. Poom. Poom.
Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh. Fwoosh.
The 1st Heavy Assault Battalion of the 91st Bright Horse moved in, LRMs and PPCs blazing.
-.
-.
South West of the Depot
Same time
BROTHER EYE showed a bird's eye view of the 3rd Benjamin Regulars' landing site. Naguchido's group consisted of an Overlord and a Union. Some distance away, the 3rd Battalion of the Kurita force was being assaulted by the 91st's 2nd Striker Battalion. The Kurita forces were arrayed around a cluster of four DropShips.
Major Jamal Fallehy was the first to take initiative and request a transfer from the 21st Regiment into the 91st. Found abandoned in a Steiner city, Jamal Fallehy grew up steeped in the Eridani traditions, and was a believer in the eventual return of General Kerensky. He spent most of his time researching the history of the Star League Armed Forces.
When the words "we are reactivated" filtered through the RCT, he was electrified. It was like a religious moment, and in private there were tears and such joy that he lived in just the right moment of history. Even the prospect that he would be leaving his battalion to command a force of mainly Urbanmech could not dampen his ambitions.
Not even the fact that he would be commanding the 2nd battalion instead of the 1st could diminish his fervor to make this work.
From his previous command, only six mechwarriors followed - the rest preferring to be promoted up into the new vacancies in more historied regiments. These six became company leaders, herding a force of green troops into their first battle.
Fortunately, the 91st for all its technological wizardries had a simple battle plan. Move towards the enemy, running as fast as possible, shooting as often as possible, and concentrate fire as much as possible.
Colonel Jamal Fallehy's previous mech was a Hunchback. Now his Urbanback still moved at a stately 64 kph, keeping pace with two Urbarchers and an Urbanforcer. One of the sweet temptations for soldiers to transfer to the 91st was to have any mech in any configuration they could possibly want… as long as it was shaped like an Urbanmech. Many still preferred their ancestral mechs with a long gallant history, but as a war orphan Fallehy had less attachment.
FHWANG.
And there was no feeling like firing a Gauss Rifle from right beside you. The recoil kicked up his seat, and the sound echoed inside the cockpit. This. This was glory.
In the distance, a Jenner just crumpled into itself.
This was the legacy of the Star League, given to its most worthy sons and daughters! His grin was almost rictus and his cheeks hurt.
He was offered the choice of a heavier mech, but he preferred the 50-ton Urbanback because of its flexibility. With 24 shots for the Gauss Rifle, he feared nothing on the battlefield, while three Jump Jets allowing a jump range of 150 meters meant he could get to any firing position.
The new doctrine demanded that instead of trying to fight first on the line trying to gain glory like some Kuritan samurai, teamwork was the Light Horse's glory and a commander's time was best used paying attention to the battlefield. The Gauss Rifle let him contribute and plug any weaknesses as they appeared. Colonel Stimson enthusiastically approved.
The green troops had a simpler time of it. ER PPC Super Urbanmechs could support from long range with minimal risk. Panthers and Warhammers with their PPCs were favorite targets, as the notorious Kurita Light Mech lacked the speed to get into range quickly. Being baited into a duel with Super Urbanmechs meant they were not engaged against much closer and more dangerous targets.
Others skirmished and screened away Kurita fast mechs with their Large Pulse lasers. Dragons trying to close in met very enthusiastic dragonslayers, pelting away at them from all angles. Good gunnery skills were less relevant when mech pilots simply had the sheer cycle rate to shoot twice as many times per minute as the enemy.
As previously mentioned, missile mechs in the 91st had Artemis guidance for their launchers. Fallehy saw a lance of Kurita mechs break off to try and take out the missile firing line. Unfortunately for them, Urbarchers were ironically based on the ARC-2K, the Kurita variant with two LRM-15s and two Large Lasers.
He turned his attention away. That problem would shortly resolve itself.
The battalion they were facing was Amar Shazli's Battalion, a relative of the 6th Benjamin Regular's regimental commander. He did not share his relative's reticence towards battle, and instead had the reckless bravery typical of DCMS officers and a disdain towards casualties.
Shazli's battle plan was just as simple. His Battalion Command lance and Chu's Company would fight the enemy to give the rest of the battalion to offload. With a lance of four Assault mechs and a full company of Heavies, he was confident of being able to throw aside any attack.
FHWANG.
Previously, Fallehy thought 'An Urbanchback is good.' It fit his preferences perfectly.
FHWANG.
Why not collect other pilots with the same tactical preference and train them?
FHWANG.
FHWANG.
FHWANG.
FHWANG.
'If one Urbanchback was good, then a fire lance of Urbanchbacks would obviously be better.'
The 91st had the philosophy - if you have good aim, here, have a Gauss Rifle. If you are wary of close combat? Here, have an ER PPC. If you want to fight up close and personal? Here, have a Large Pulse Laser or a whole battery of Medium Pulse lasers to delimb enemies quickly. If you want to contribute more generally? Carry two PPCs or ER Large Lasers and go do whatever. If you suck at both running and gunning? Here's some LRMs with Artemis. If you have an inflated opinion of your skills and value? Go be a LAM pilot. If you are not good at anything? Here take these range tables and pilot an Artillerymech.
The Wagnall Plains did not give Fallehy much of a vantage point. As mechs closed in, chaos ruled the battlefield and finding clear shots harder and harder.
This, he discovered, was one benefit of half the battation being short and stumpy Urbanmechs, because by being half the size of most heavy mechs it was not as likely for them to suffer friendly fire from fire support lances.
FHWANG.
SHRAK.
Nonstop Gauss Rifle and ER PPC fire let out an almost tribalistic drum beat.
Bardeen's Company of Shazli's Battalion was made of all Green troops in Medium Mechs. Normally, this would have been safe enough as Mediums were the quintessential workhorses of the Inner Sphere. Anything they could not outrun they could try to outgun, just with enough armor to survive mistakes until they could withdraw.
Raziya Bardeen also piloted a Hunchback. With an AC/20, it was an opponent that could cause any mechwarrior to sweat nervously if they happened to be in its gun range. Able to destroy Light Mechs outright in a single hit and heavily damage any other, Fallehy was familiar with a Hunchback's ability to quickly turn the tide of battle.
FHWANG.
Fallehy punched its face in, and Raziya Bardeen's mech fell back as if fainting. Its cockpit opened and staring up at the sky with a sightless gaze.
A nearby mech was punched through the side, the hypersonic blow igniting its SRM and LRM ammo, and the Assassin just burst open like an egg meeting a hammer.
Most of these medium mechs were fast, able to hit 118 km/h or more, while Super Urbanmechs were only capable of running and gunning at 86 kph. Unfortunately, the price of such speeds with these Mechs was that they were limited to mainly short-range weapons like Medium Lasers or light missile loads like LRM-5s and SRMs.
They crossed the battlefield quickly. They slid past the screening Pulse Laser Super Urbanmechs. They pursued the ER PPC Super Urbanmechs to try and drive them off the field, while others veered towards the line of Urbanbacks because a torso-mounted weapon would have a harder time trying to keep a bead on fast mechs. Only fools ignored scout mechs circling around and slicing away at them with Medium Lasers and SRMs. Back armor hits were dangerous even to Assault mechs.
FHWANG.
'But I'm not afraid of you?' Jamal Fallehy sighed.
Not all forces would get disorganized at getting fast mechs in their back lines. The Gauss Rifle may have a minimum effective range where its bulk made targeting more difficult, but it was half that of a PPC's minimum discharge range, and only a third that of a Medium Laser's effective range. Gauss Rifles could be used like an AC/20 in close range just fine.
One by one, the Kurita Medium Mechs died on their feet, their armor hardly strong enough to withstand even one Gauss Rifle hit.
Those that survived realized that a trio of ER Medium Lasers could rapidly strip armor as well.
Interestingly, a few of the Kurita mechs broke off from the attack. Fallehy noted that they were Cicadas - 3Cs, to be exact, armed with a PPC and two Machine Guns, which made them a potent threat on the battlefield like a faster Panther that can swoop in and out skirmishing from medium-long range. They could go up to 118kph, a far improvement to a Panther's 64 kph!
Unfortunately, to get both light mech speed and the 7-ton PPC, it also had a light mech's armor. Say 4 tons, like the Locust, that the HildCo chassis was originally marketed against as a Locust-killer.
ER PPCs made short work of them before turning back to harass enemy Heavy mechs at range. The Super Urbanmech, though slower, was better in every other possible way. A Medium Pulse Laser zipped and zapped this way and that, punishing enemies that thought they might be more vulnerable at close range.
The Urbanbacks fired until they ran out of ammo and had to retreat. 24 shots were good, but a pitched battle could see them run dry quickly. The Urbarchers with a pair of Large Lasers and a heavy mech's armor screened them, and the Urbanhammers were turning themselves into the center of battle, wading deep into the fight and smashing through everything in their way.
UMS-WRK mechs approached and took out Gauss Ammo from their internal cargo compartments; ammo which were inert metal slugs and safe to carry deep into the front lines. A single ton of Gauss Rifle ammo provided 8 slugs. If he still carried an AC/20, Fallehy would be getting just 5 shots per ton.
Ammo bins opened and quickly the Gauss Rifles were manually reloaded by the Workmechs.
The 121 Dark Horse's 3rd Strikers Battalion used to be known as "Jamal's Plague". Now he liked to call his new battalion "Jamal's Plague Doctors" and his battalion insignia was the ominous historical beak-shaped mask.
The enemy was the sickness to be excised with prompt and brutal efficiency.
The enemy formed up into close order lines, intending to break through. This way they could concentrate their fire and reimpose order on the battlefield. The typical top-down DCMS doctrine spurned junior officer initiative, and now with the Kurita forces in much more manageable chunks Amar Shazli could exercise some strategic control.
He ordered the troops into a refused flank formation, preventing the Eridani Light Horse from being able to flank from the right while concentrating their own forces forward. This would force the Light Horse to thin out their own forces into a wide front while with local force superiority Amar Zhazli could ram into Jamal's battle line and overwhelm one of their flanks instead.
The reasonable counter-position was to refuse *that* flank as well, turning the line into an angle, turning the axis of the battlefield into the length of the field instead of its width, causing both forces to keep shooting and maneuvering against each other in a swirling yin-yang formation.
Jamal Fallehy looked at the tacmap as provided by BROTHER EYE, nodded, and called for artillery.
-.
-.
Slightly north of the area
Same time
Imagine you were Sergei Nakajima Gamasy.
You were stuck inside an egg-shaped coffin being battered by artillery.
Artillery barrages guided by infantry spotters in the trenches focused on one side of the vessel, trying to breach into the engines or take out its landing gear. You heard the sound of tearing metal and the DropShip begun to list dangerously to one side.
You received a transmission:
.
ATTENTION, KURITA DROPSHIP.
YOU HAVE NO CHANCE. POWER DOWN AND LEAVE BEHIND YOUR MECHS. SURRENDER AND WE WILL SPARE YOUR LIVES.
THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. FAILURE TO COMPLY WILL RESULT IN THE DESTRUCTION OF YOUR DROPSHIP AND THE TOTAL ANNIHILATION OF YOUR FORCES.
DAVION COMMAND OUT.
.
Now with this in mind, what would you do?
1) Ignite the damaged drives and try to leave anyway?
2) Move out your entire battalion and try to cut through the minefield?
3) Surrender and hope for mercy?
.
"WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER, DAVION DOGS!" Gamasy retorted through the radio. "YOU UNDERESTIMATE THE MIGHT OF A TRUE SAMURAI! WE ARE NOT DISHONORABLE COWARDS LIKE YOU! NOW YOU WILL FACE YOUR DEATH!"
.
This fanatical willingness, even an eagerness, to throw away their lives was often disturbing to enemies that faced the Draconis Combine. It could shake the morale of defenders, and cause them to withdraw from positions that could otherwise have been defended. All it takes is one Kurita warrior to get through and with their death charge wreak havoc in the middle of the enemy's line.
But right now there was no one for the Combine troops to *fight* at all.
.
You are Colonel Gamasy and you have decided to force your entire battalion to leave the stricken Overlord and cut through the minefield into safety. Assume with 1 being the layer closest to the depot and 20 the outermost ring, and you are in minefield ring 14, do you
1) Shoot at the ground trying to clear the minefield until you reach and attack the depot ?
2) Shoot at the ground trying to clear the minefield until you reach the open fields and rejoin the rest of the regiment?
If you had chosen option 2), you would have preserved some of your forces even with losses to mines and artillery, away from the potential total battalion loss of trying to leave with a compromised dropship with its engines exposed to ground fire.
Sergei Nakajima Gamasy, obviously, as a true brave son of the Combine, chose option 1.
Kurita banzai!
Gamasy's Battalion ceased to be any relevant force to the Galtor Campaign.
-.
-.
West of the Fake Star League Depot
Galtor III
Lieutenant General Wilson Mandella moved out the 33rd Avalon Hussars after an hour. Usually, an entire regiment was not concentrated in one force when defending a planet. Most combat in the Inner Sphere usually happened in company and battalion-level units.
On Galtor however, uniformity of command with soldiers fighting side by side with their brothers was considered its own advantage.
The 33rd Hussars waited for BROTHER EYE to come back online. It was important for the plan to know if the 17th Benjamin had already decided to pancake themselves around the Depot's minefields. Too soon and Yoriyoshi might decide not to visit the depot entirely and make it an open fight. Too late and they would be wasting time trying to catch up.
-.
#GALTORCOM
EYE: PLANETARY SITUATION REPORT.
EYE: 91ST ERIDANI LH engaged SOUTH SLDF DEPOT with 3RD BENJAMIN REGULARS regiment.
EYE: 12TH VEGAN RANGERS engaged in NEW WUHAN with 1ST AMPHIGEAN LIGHT ASSAULT GROUP regiment.
EYE: DAHAR DMM engaged in NEW DERRY with 21ST GALEDON REGULARS and 7TH SWORD OF LIGHT regiments.
.
Lt.G_Mandella_(33Hussar) God damn it.
Lt.G_Mandella_(33Hussar) We are hurrying.
.
Mrgv_Douglass_(12thVega) New Wuhan is much closer to the Depot than it is to the six thousand kilometers to New Derry.
Mrgv_Douglass_(12thVega) If it is urgent enough, I could combat drop there instead.
Mrgv_Douglass_(12thVega) Armstrong has dropships too, so if this situation at the depot is resolved quickly enough, I do not care who relieves the Rangers at New Wuhan, only that someone does.
.
Gen_Dobson_(Dahar_DMM) We're holding on well enough.
Gen_Dobson_(Dahar_DMM) Don't rush it and make mistakes. More haste, more waste.
Gen_Dobson_(Dahar_DMM) Fight your own fights first.
-.
Lieutenant General Mandella still felt somewhat responsible. His regiment was the only one unengaged so far. Excessive conservatism tried to defend the depot with two full regiments, expecting the enemy to land with at least three regiments.
No one expected Kurita to hit three planetary centers - New Derry, New Wuhan, and Changlee - all simultaneously. Maybe two battalions would have been enough instead of leaving Changlee completely defenseless. Who knows what horrors the helpless populace were now suffering down there.
The only thing he could do now was to resolve this quickly.
With his RBG and Benham's Battalion, he moved along the main road directly towards where the map showed Yoriyoshi had landed. Meade's Battalion was ordered to go west, then up, in a flanking maneuver. Lyon's Battalion remained near the base as a reserve.
The 33rd Avalon Hussars brushed aside the Kurita light mechs sent out in a picket line as they approached the crossing of the Salt Lick River. With the first company of his battalions composed of Assault and Heavy mechs and the rest Mediums, the Hussars operated in a hammer and anvil approach that sought to envelop the enemy.
Gonen's Battalion had spread out in a firing line along a series of small hills and forests, with the right flank cutting through the river shallows.
General Mandella's RBG was two lances of Assaults and Heavies, and with Benhams Assault Company, he personally led the charge to smash through the Kurita positions and flank the strong hilltop firing lines. There were no advanced technologies nor strange new tactics here - it was all about brute metal and bloody-minded men, stabbing at each with spears of light and fire, and defeat hinged around whose nerve would break first.
The Kurita mechs on the right could overburn at will, with their feet dipping into the cool rushing waters of the Salt Lick, their energy weapons could fire continuously with deadly intent. An Awesome here was truly an overwhelming presence - with its three PPCs firing without rest, it could shatter a mech in a couple of well-placed hits.
The two sides blasted at each other in almost Napoleonic firing lines. Artillery thudded around both lines, aiming to suppress and scatter each other, and it was only this that forced movement. The Long Toms of the 33rd Hussars base were too far away to reach the Kurita landing site, while at the same time the mobile Long Toms of the 17th were kept far behind rather than do counter-battery.
Losses mounted and the situation began to grow desperate on both sides.
The Kurita right flank wavered first. Although the riverine position was advantageous for hot-running energy weapon mechs, it was also the more exposed position. As Assault Mechs were poor chase mechs, they withdrew to a more defensive position along the woods at the bottom of the hills. The Imperial Artillery Battalion at the landing site pulverized the bridge crossing the Salt Lick River, though this would only block Combat Vehicles as the river was already fordable by BattleMechs.
General Mandella now had the forced action of sending units to cross those exposed positions.
By this time, Eleazar's Battalion had joined up with Yoriyoshi's Regimental Battlegroup.
Just as Meade's Battalion crossed the Salt Lick, they caught sight of Eleazar's mechs with a paint scheme of white with lines of red. They charged out, guns blazing, but the Kurita mechs continued to make an organized withdrawal.
Meade's mechs were now on the other side of the Salt Lick and could see the rest of the 33rd Hussars still fighting with Gonen's Battalion. This would have been an excellent time to rout the Kurita line from an attack to their rear, but they themselves could not expose their rear armor to the now rallying 17th Benjamins.
What developed was an odd yin-yang situation. On either side of the Salt Lick, a heavy battalion fought against another heavy battalion plus an attached battlegroup.
This was when Lt. General Mandella made his first mistake. To support Meade's exposed battalion, he ordered the artillery to stop suppressing the hill firing line of Gonen's battalion and support the more exposed mechs on the other side.
With Kurita artillery also suppressing *them* however, Yoriyoshi ordered Gonen to turn about and withdraw across the Salt Lick masked by the hills. A company of Mediums were the first to arrive, plunging into Meade's right flank and forcing the battalion to thin out its front line to protect from behind
Mandella hurried to rescue Meade's battalion from being cut to pieces.
However, this was the time when Menacham Gonen proved again why he was the best battalion commander of the 17th regiment, who turned down a promotion to a regimental command in the Pehst Regulars simply because it would lead to less fight and commanding fewer assault and heavy mechs.
When the mechs vanished from the hilltop, Mandela assumed they would be making best speed towards the battle on the other side of the river.
Instead, Gonen's assault company waited behind the hills for the Hussars to start crossing.
Davion mechs were slowed by moving through water and soft clay and made for easy prey with long range fire.
Mandella had no choice but to order a full run to cross the river with minimal shooting back. The remains of Whiteway's Recon company had to cover their pell-mell sprinting and splashing. These mechs ran out to disrupt the Kurita assault mechs' aim from close range, and Mandella knew he was likely sending them to their deaths.
With the airways now clear, Mandella felt he had no choice again but to commit his reserves. Lyon's battalion would cut down Gonen's battalion now that the Kurita assault battalion was also a diminished force. If… if Lyon could get there in time.
He turned back to the west, and let loose a volley from the pair of LRM-15s on his 65-ton Crusader BattleMech. He could only hope that from all these weapons fire going on in all directions he would not get a random shot in the back.
He could only hope that this time, the 33rd Avalon Hussar's terrible luck would not again raise its head and lead to its decimation.
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#GALTORCOM
EYE: Look to the skies.
.
"What?"
For a moment, Wilson Mandella glanced up, and only managed to catch a short glimpse of four disc shapes flying by. For a moment he felt frantic that they were Sholagars, but the fighters swooped past without strafing the Hussars.
Gonen's assault mechs were big, they were intimidating, they were powerful - and they were also big and easy to spot on the battlefield.
Internal Bomb Bays on the lance of Super Urbanmech LAMs opened up, and four Arrow IV air-launched artillery missiles lanced out and away.
A quick series of blossoming booms wracked Gonen's assault lance, followed by yet more booms as some mechs, with their armor already stripped thin through the fighting, had their internal ammo stores ignited by the missile artillery's blast radius.
Gonen's Awesome survived, though heavily damaged. Three other assault mechs did not. Two more were crippled outright.
The assault company was suddenly cut in half. The mechs from Whiteway's company rejoiced as their medium mechs could now ravage the distracted and compromised armor of a force that normally outmassed them twice over.
.
#GALTORCOM
EYE: EYE am here.
EYE: Let none of us ever fight alone.
.
"Like an angel looking over your shoulder," Mandella breathed out in gratitude.
-.
-.
New Wuhan
Galtor III
Things were not turning out as well for the 12th Vegan Rangers. However, it was also odd in that the two forces were more concerned with preserving their forces than going into an all-out attack. For the Rangers, this was simple enough - they had less numbers in the first place. For the 1st Amphigean LAG, their corporate command structure and the terms of their payment from the DCMS for this mission was a proportion of the lostech loot from the SLDF cache.
There was nothing interesting to loot inside a city and the 1st Amphigean saw potential salvage from destroying the 12th Vegan Rangers as barely worth their time.
Majors McCulloch and Johnston were likewise unwilling to make a destructive city fight out of it.
The battalions moved out and positioned themselves along the woodline tracing the Yaonjanig river.
The numbers advantage by the 1st Amphigean allowed them to prosecute a classic Draconian wave attack - they would spread out and attack all along a line, identify their defender's weak positions, flank and isolate it, and force it to retreat or be destroyed. While not immediately decisive, it put relentless pressure on the defenders.
The 12th Vegan Rangers were running out of wooded pockets to retreat into, and behind them was an open field to New Wuhan City.
But the thing is, these were Davion troops, and they had to put up with Kurita's bullshit for a thousand years. Federated blocking force action was all about exposing that such speedy mechs built for maximum aggression would also by nature compromise by reducing weapons load or armor protection.
The day had already stretched out long, and the skies were starting to turn orange.
Exhausted, overheating, and running out of ammunition, the Lt. Colonel Johnston sent mechs back in lances to re-arm back at the spaceport. There, ELH Carrier GAMBLER BAY rested on its pads slightly shorter than the Ranger's Overlord dropships. Conventional wisdom was to keep DropShips well away from the fighting, even if it would leave troops no easy way to retreat and evacuate. They would have to pick a fall back point where the dropships would then land.
The DropShip was a carrier and had no Mech Bays to quickly repair mechs. However, they did have a week to prepare, so techs from both the Light Horse and the Rangers set up a mobile field base under the shadow of GAMBLER BAY's guns.
There, the Rangers hastily re-armed and slapped on replacement armor, returning to the battle lines for even more hours of hasty back and forth skirmishing.
"Why isn't the general landing yet?" James McCulloch muttered.
"When Kurita gives up on trying to flank from the east," Lt. Colonel David Johnston replied. The Yaonjanig had a north-south flow coming out from the mouth of the mountain range splitting the continent in two. Wuhan Pass was directly north of New Wuhan city.
The Combine units had strung out in a similarly vertical line parallel to the Yaonjanig. They had no more room to try to flank from the north, rubbing against the mountainsides. If they tried to press through across the Yaonjanig, the Rangers would be the ones to flank them instead from their thick woodland redoubt.
The defensive position occupied by McCulloch along the Yaonjanig had old growth forests on either side of the river, giving it the sense of a castle with only north and south gates. As the Rangers were a heavy-weight regiment, the 1st Amphigeans advantage of speed and pack tactics would instead be a hindrance if they tried to get into a close-range brawl to push the Rangers out of the trees. They had heavies and light mechs.
The southern flank was much more vulnerable. Tree cover consisted of small 'islands' in a sea of green farmland, much more easily cut off and pocketed.
General Satterwaithe considered burning out the Rangers with Inferno rounds, but unfortunately he had only SRM Infernos inside in stock. He did not have much confidence they would survive an attempt to set the treeline on fire without sufficient heavy mechs as a backstop to distract the Rangers, and at that point they might as well make it a full assault.
The 1st Amphigean saw the darkening skies with similar relief. Without air power of their own to clear the skies, they had to continually respond to strafing and bombing runs, preventing any attack from making serious headway.
Satterwaithe pulled back some of the companies to protect the landing zones and set up a picket line against night attack.
-.
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Changlee
Galtor III
With communications cleared up and upper atmosphere conditions more favorable, General Saad Shazli made encrypted radio transmissions bouncing off the ionosphere, asking for orders.
Warlord Yoriyoshi received Shazli's transmissions with both surprise and consternation. What was this spineless worm doing? Why did they not follow through with the plan and land at the depot?
With the air war over Galtor III still undecided, any lifting off was a risk, but with an entire regiment still unengaged this was a tremendous waste of resources.
General Shazli's response was that the dropships had taken serious battle damage. He was also in combat. Technically all true.
His northern scouting force of light mechs had made contact with the Marquis of Ormonde's tank battalion and French's company from the Dahar DMM. He had taken losses, he just did not specify that most of these were from accidents rather than battle damage.
He was securing Changlee and its spaceport, as long as one didn't care to mention that there was no resistance whatsoever.
Changlee was thousands of kilometers away from the Star League depot, an entire hemisphere away. New Wuhan was closer, but New Derry was more important.
Text communications between the two command dropships slowly revealed Yoriyoshis mounting frustration. He ordered Shazli to support the 1st LAG so that they could go up Wuhan pass and then make way to the Depot. As a light regiment, their speed was possibly less useful in city combat and might be taken as an insult to the Galedon and Sword of Light regiments.
Shazli had no option to refuse. The orders were clear. Move out and be useful or suffer official censure.
Shali's mouth tasted a mixture of sour and salty, as blood mixed in with stomach acids.
Having seen the results of the space war, he feared sending defenseless dropships too high up into orbit to cross the continent. Spheroid dropships were ungainly and un-aerodynamic, best moving at the atmos/space boundary where they could marginally maneuver to point their nose in the right direction.
But as a light regiment, the 6th Benjamin also used refitted Triumph dropships and Leopards - aerodyne dropships that could more easily combat drop BattleMechs. Unfortunately what they made up for in more atmospheric stability compared to a spheroid dropship they paid for in reduced capacity, with the Triumph carrying two companies of Mechs and two companies of Vehicles. The Leopard could just carry one lance, but despite its brick-shaped appearance was surprisingly nimble for a 1,900-ton craft.
It was getting dark, however.
That might help? Fighters did not usually fight at night. Aerodynes could fly much lower to the ground compared to Spheroid dropships, and might evade notice by aircraft.
Shazli decided that he would stay behind with the RBG and Seleuciu's Battalion set up around Changlee's spaceport. Sultan Jellalladin's Battalion, which contained the regiment's only heavy mechs, would set up a base camp in front of Changlee pass. He prepared to send off Kuribayashi's battalion, composed entirely of Light mechs, to join the 1st Amphigean LAG.
-.
With the only Davion force not actively participating in combat, Douglass at the orbital reserve ended up serving as overall planetary defense commander, observing the situation as reported with BROTHER EYE and sending out aerofighter forces as needed.
Hearing this through GALTORCOM, Margrave Douglass knew he had the perfect opportunity to take the 1st Amphigean LAG completely unawares.
-.
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New Wuhan
Galtor III
Night
General Satterwaithe saw a pair of lights coming in from the south.
The radio through the normal Kurita channels announced "Amphigean, this is Kuribayashi Battalion from the 6th Benjamin. We are coming in for a landing. Provide your location, over."
He asked his aide and was informed that the 6th was a lightweight sector defense regiment. They were unlikely to be here to steal glory or salvage.
Satterwaithe nodded and nonchalantly bid the RBG communications and control staff to handle this. The dropships and all combat units of the 1st Amphigean LAG were running lights out to keep safe from eyes in the sky.
The dropships landed at a clearing south of the 1st Amphigean's LAG's landing zone.
-.
The 12th Vegan Rangers were excellent night fighters.
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