Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale

by cliff.west

This is a spinoff story. It takes place after "But a somehow a most melancholy" and" Hunted Tribes". Please read those before this bit of work. I will not be recovering those stories, but re-reading them will help you fallow this story. This fiction also will be slow on the combat action.

30. Chapter 30 30 April 3048

Chapter 30

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

30 April 3048 the second run

Xanthe III on the way to Lopez.

The time spent traveling and trading after leaving the Canopus system had been uneventful for the little convoy. The time had been well used to get the pilots use to their newer and heavier rides, all without being seen by any unwanted eyes and ears. The learning curve was not that bad, for most of the pilots. Each of the pilots had been fully qualified on this type of craft, before they had left the hidden system.

The trick was to make sure that no one saw that the Hobgoblin was packing more than just one Ironsides with its lone Stuka, that they had needed to buy more spare parts for. It was good training had by the flight crews, and the gunners on the dropships and jumpship who were using the fighters for simulated target practice with their clan grade weapons. That was almost as important, as the cargos they were getting, when they stopped in a system that had a trading station or the rare worthwhile planet to land on.

The stop in Xanthe III was not expected to gain much in the way of cargos. It was hoped that the ice ball of a planet might have some strains of extreme cold tolerant food plants. They also did have a nice semiconductor industry, which might have some extra supplies on hand for trade with anyone with enough money. Robert stuck to the plan that he had briefed the others on, and only the White Rabbit would make the run planet side in this hole in the wall system.

As it turned out Robert had lucked out, and the planet was only a three day burn at one g from the jump point. Robert would use the time to talk to the people dirt side, before they landed. They were close to the Capellan border. Robert was not surprised, that there was a mixed mercenary battalion on the mostly ice-covered planet. It was a warning from that unit, that let them know something was up.

The White Rabbit was just about to flip and start slowing down to achieve orbit, when a frantic young voice came over the speakers plugged into the ships main radio. "White Rabbit! Pull back! It's a Trap! They are waiting for you!"

That was it, and static filled the now open channel. Every eye on the bridge of the dropship was looking at the speaker with wide eyes. The message cut off, as quick as it had started, and the bridge's duty crew were looking at each other with huge eyes. They did not know what to do. Jess was on the bridge as the duty officer, and she gave the order before alerting the rest of the ship. She had already learned a lot, from the different Captains that she had worked with on this mission.

"Flip us, now! Put power to the engines! Sound the Alert!" The last statement was the only part that she said in any real volume. That did not mean that the other words were not filled with stress and strain.

The ship was still at one g thrust, so when the ship flipped? It was in unexpected zero g condition for about 20 seconds, before they again felt the pull towards the deck plates by the massive plasma engines. When the Captain of the Dropship made it on to the bridge. He was followed on his heals by a bleary-eyed Robert. The Captain was not happy with Jess.

"What the Frak are you doing!" He did not even realize that he broke the speaking protocol, by his statement.

Jess looked around him and saw the Commander not ten feet behind the dropship's Captain. "Sir, we picked up a single transmission coming from the planet. It was a warning of a trap, waiting for us, by name. I ordered the ship flipped and started to slow her down."

Now that she had a few minutes to think about it. Jess was starting to second guess her reaction to the warnings. "We are at one g, so that if it does turn out to be false. We will not blow our orbit, to badly. We have not been able to raise anyone planet side, yet. Traffic control has not replied to all attempts to contact them after the warning was received. It's like someone cut all long-ranged communications to the planet with a knife."

The Captain turned and looked at the Commander, and Robert took command of the situation. "Keep trying to raise dirtside. If we don't hear from them in another five minutes?" He turned to be face to face with the other officers. "Captain increase the deceleration burn to 1.2gs and plot a course back to the jump point. Let the Styx and the other dropships know what happened and put them on full alert."

The Captain of the White Rabbit nodded and went about his business. They were not going to slow down that much faster with only a .2 g's harder burn, but it would build up the longer it was used. When they had gone an hour and still there was no contact with the planet? Robert had the dropship go to the maximum safe thrust of 1.5 g's. It was now that they really started to slow down the 3,000ton dropship. It also made the engine pointed at the planet a lot hotter, and thus more visible to them about what the ship was doing. They were three hours into the higher energy burn, when the radio came back on. It was not from the still quiet planet. They still were falling towards the planet, but every minute at this rating was hanging the math for an orbital insertion. Thanks to the power of the plasma engines, they still could make land fall. It just would take a lot longer.

"Robert, this is Jules. You might be getting some company soon. You might want to step on it. I can have three or four eggs ready for dinner, if you want."

The message was sent encrypted, but it had an underlying code just in case. The eggs were not about any chickens. It also did not mean dropships. He was saying that he could launch three or four fighters and send them his way. Robert did not have to look around the bridge, to know what they were thinking.

"Captain please bring the ship up to full power. Give it all to her, as soon as you can. Then tell the Styx that she might need all the eggs, that she can get and not us."

1.5g's is hard on the body. But with training? It can be endured for a long time. 2.5gs? Now that was just ugly, and it was hard on the ship. It was almost as hard on the ship, as it was hard on the crew inside of her. They were still closing on the planet, as the engine went to full power. The abused of the people inside the ship had started at the same time it worked harder to slow down. It would take another four hours of this abuse, before the dropship stopped closing with the planet, and it had started to move back towards the jump point.

It was going to be a long four hours. Everyone that could was ordered to be in their beds as much as possible. That would help, a little, and it will keep them almost combat ready. Whoever was on shift when the engines went to full power, were going to stay on shift until the engines were throttled back. This was why everyone in the SLDF Navy had to have a full-blown medical exam every year, or upon the return of a major mission. This kind of g loading could kill a person, if they were not very medically fit. Warships were expected to do twice this g loading for days if not weeks on end, and it was why Robert had been down check from serving on them.

Igarashi Miya was upset, but he was not showing it on his face. He was sitting planet side on Xanthe III. He was so upset, that he should have had steam visibly blowing out of his ears. After so many miss-steps? He had taken over control of this mission, personally. That did not stop all of the problems from coming up and slapping him in the face. He had been advised to be more hands on with ROM's dealings with this one problem.

That had been after the ComStar tracking ship had lost this strange company and jumpship, that seemed to have come out of nowhere after not being seen for decades. ROM had still kept looking for them, but it had become the butt of a few jokes at some high-level meetings within and outside of ROM. That is until Copeland had showed up selling Star League weapons tech and computers again. Them showing up had started some large balls rolling.

A deep data search had pulled up some odd facts, that were not looking good for ComStar. When Copeland had disappeared off the edge of the map, things had settled out some. But word had already started to spread about, how they had stood up to the massiveness that was ComStar. That could not be allowed to stand. One of the great houses had already done it, and it had been able to get away with it. Now this small "company" was back, again, and they were up to their same old tricks. ROM could not allow this to continue unchecked.

Igarashi was sitting in his grounded Command version of the Overlord class dropship. When word had gotten back to him, and the others within the upper layers of ComStar. That this Captain Copeland had been seen again, it had kicked over a hornet's nest of activity. He had already been given clearance to capture them. That is as long as it did not point back to closely, to ComStar as a whole or part. He was told to handle them and find out where the rest of their people were. ROM was keeping that last information firmly within its own ranks. Sometimes it was better that ComStar kept secrets from the rest of ComStar.

Igarashi was starting to believe in the demon Murphy. The head of ROM had run into the first issue, when early on into this planning. He had approached the main high-end mercenary unit in his area. He had thought that the offer he had made to Newton Ramilli was fair. If the Raiders could capture Copeland and his people? The Mercenaries would get all of their damaged units repaired, and ROM would turn over two rebuilt 45ton VND-1R Vindicators. Igarashi had pointed out that they would have to give up all salvage, that might be collected on the mission. It was to pay for the Raiders transportation to any ambush point that ROM wanted. They would look at selling anything but the Mule to the mercenaries, at list price and as is after the battle. The target only had six fighters, with a known break down of types. So, there was not that much risk involved to them. He had been truly shocked with the mercenary unit, that they had not only said no. But had basically thrown him out of their small offices on Canopus.

That rejection had not stopped the Head of ROM in the MC. It had only added fuel to his fire to take care of this issue. After all the Merc would not have said no to ComStar, if this Copeland had not shown that it was possible to do so and survive. That was one of the reasons that the head of ROM in the MC was on an ice world on the FWL and Confederation border, and not in a nice warm office. It had not taken long to find a unit that matched his need, after he had put his mind to it full time.

After some modifications, he had a workable plan. The "Pirate unit" had been a down on its luck mercenary unit before it had started working for a different department within ComStar. It had been providing security around some well-kept secrets, not far from his area of operations. With all the parts in play? All it needed was for the parts to get pushed closer together, and then the magic would happen.

Igarashi had gotten the first bit of data from a loose lipped crewmember off of one of the dropships he was targeting. It was a very detailed plan of their travels, for the next few months. This information was confirmed by a very deep buried spy connected to MIM. With this head's up. ROM's agents got the set pieces moving in the right direction.

The first part of the plan had been when a few Level IIs, had landed on Xanthe III. ComStar had its hooks deeper into the FWL, then in any of the other great houses. The dropship had been on the ground for a few days, watching and acting empty to the locals. When the time was right, and the Tramp Class had left its last point. A Magellan class ship had sent an HPG message to him. This Command Overlord had been his command post for the exercise, that he had planned out. He had sent a few Level IIs of battlemechs to take control of the local fighting units. He had been assured, that the Guards had everyone under control within a few hours. When the M/V Styx showed up in this system. That was where things had gone wrong, first.

Igarashi looked at his screens for the hundredth time. Why had they chosen to come in at the zenith point? They had been using the nadir point for all of their last five jumps and most of the other reported jumps, had all been at the Nadir points. So why the change this time? That put the first kink in the great ambush plan he had put together. It took some quick math and an equally quick message to have the attack happen at a different pirate point. Then a scout group of locals had been able to get away from one of the "overlooking" mercenary units. He had not been that worried about a few light mechs, when the first report had come into his command ship.

Copeland's dropships were not going to be allowed to land on this planet. Unless they crashed into the ground, due to battle damage that is. He had been out of the field a long time, and out of a battlemech for even longer. He had forgotten that one of the escaped mechs, had a very long ranged radio built in to is machines human like hull. That pilot had been able to get a warning off, before a nearby Guard mech could activate its Guardian ECM and cut off the transmission.

With his target aware that something was wrong? It had flipped and started to decelerate an hour early. It was now cutting the massive amount of speed, that it had picked up on the way in. If he did not do something quickly? They were going to get away, again. He quickly sent a message to the HPG class B station on this planet and he had ordered a message sent. The message was not going to a planet or even a star system. It was just an empty spot in space. The ship there was able to pick up the message up out of the back-ground noise, on its secret mobile HPG station. It would still take a few hours to get ready for the jump, but that was nothing that had not been planned for, one way or the other.

The White Rabbit did not have the specialized equipment to detect the energy wave that preceded a jumpship's arrival into this local area. The first warning was when the long jumpship was picked up on the Blockade Runners light speed sensors. Only the largest military dropships had the equipment and crew to detect something like that. The bridge crew of the dropship was strapped into the thick padded seats. Now they were very thankful for every millimeter of the thick padding, even if it was hard to keep clean. It was hard to think while you're were pulling Gs like that, but the crew was sharp and well trained. The White Rabbit was just crossing the line in space, where they had been when the warning had been first sent out to them.

"Sir! Jump ship on Radar! She must have come in at a pirate point. Plotting the information now." It took three times as long to get those words out, compared to normal. It was very hard to yell, when you were mainly fighting just to breathe, much less trying to talk.

The g loading was so high, that no one was walking around the bridge much less the rest of the ship. They could get viewed data on some smaller screens near them, without having to move too much. Robert was looking at the screen as it now showed a red dot to show it was a threat. It was almost on top of the green line on the same display. That had been the line that the dropship had been taking, before it changed its' mind after the warning.

Jess saw the information, and her command training kicked in. "Good god! It would have jumped right on top of us!"

Robert had to clinch his teeth to speak clearly. He was getting to old for this kind of thing. "Not really. Look at the scale of your display, but it would have been close. Real damn close!"

Before he could add more. To make sure that Jess did not say anything more, that would distract the bridge crew another report came in. "Sir, she is an Invader class jumpship. I am picking up two heat blooms, that combat launched off of her. Looks like a Monarch and Leopard CV class dropper are burning hard off her back."

The person giving the report stopped talking. Maybe it was to catch their breath, because the gravity load or stress loads that they were working under. They were not quiet for long. "Picking up smaller targets separating from both dropships. I have four, now six craft pulling away from the larger contacts."

Again, it was quiet for a few seconds. "Sir, I have a count of ten targets moving away from the dropships. The dropships are heading our way, and we are counting two Corsairs, two Samurais, and two maybe TR-13 Transgressors. Calling it Group One, Group Two looks to be four Dragonstar class 150ton small craft by their electronic emissions. I would bet that they are Assault model ships. Group Three and the slowest group is the pair of dropships. They are still making a burn towards us, at high Gs."

Robert looked over very slowly to face the captain of the White Rabbit. He had been less sure of Robert's hunch, than any of the other officers about the warning they had been given on Canopus. "Medium to Heavy fighter squadron. Now it looks like they added some ground troops or marines to board us with."

Robert had to stop talking to catch his breath. "I think you might want to let your counter boarding people know. It is your ship captain, but a stern chase is a long one. I am just glad, that they are starting from Zero speed after the jump. We have some of the same distance that they will have to cross, and we will be running to keep the range as open as we can."

Jules picked up the arrival of the jumpship before it had appeared in system, by about three minutes. With the maybe second jaw of the trap sprung on them. It was time to let the attackers know how badly they miscalculated the prey. They were going to try to take the White Rabbit, and maybe even jump out of the system with her. This left the Styx open to affect the overall battle. Jules made a mental note that this was very 2D thinking.

Jules launched the Hobgoblin toward the Blockade Runner, and soon it was putting its brood of fighters into the deep black. Soon five Star League era fighters massing 65tons each was burning to help their fleet commander. It was followed by the 100ton Stuka. The odds were still not in Commander Copelands favor, but it was a lot closer to even now. What would be the telling factor, would be the weapons on the craft and training of all of the crews that were about to be in combat.

It had taken the White Rabbit over a day of traveling, to get where it had been. It would take even the slowest unit, the Stuka, only a few hours to cover that same distance. During all of that time. The Dropship was doing all it could to meet up with its smaller on rushing friends. All the while, the enemy fighters were trying to catch the other dropship, before that happened. They had only been expecting to face a single lance of fighters and not a full squadron.

David Klod was not a name found on any of the Clans rosters of blood names. His family had been rescued as slaves decades ago. He had stayed in the active duty military after his draft service had ended, so that he could save other slaves and to kill any slave takers he happened to run across. He tested out with having very good aero pilot skills at a young age, and he had been a Sled driver for more than a decade. He had just been down checked from front line units, before the Colonials appeared over his planet.

Even in war? He had not been able to get one of the new jump fighters. To be a good Sled driver? You did not need to be the best pilot or even a "good" pilot. David would have only rated as Regular skills in the piloting skills department within the Inners Sphere. What you needed to be a good Sled driver was to be a good shot, and David was a very good shot. Sleds or Lead Sleds were the slang terms for a 100ton fighters or flying weapons battery.

When the wave of six fighters of the SLDF Navy in Exile was about 300 miles from the White Rabbit. They could tell that they were going to win the race to make it to the fleeing dropship. With the help of the fire control systems of the White Rabbit. Quickly targets were given out to each of the onrushing SLDF pilots. This first attack was going to be a classic slashing attack. It would start at Long-medium range, and then they would close into knife fighting range less than 30 seconds later. All before they would pass each other.

David settled a little deeper into his armored cockpit and let his targeting systems feed him information about his primary and secondary targets. David went over all of his craft systems one more time, while he waited for the short but very violent combat to start. Most people did not know it, but he had been the one pushing for the upgrades to his craft.

At first, they had just pulled the old heatsinks out and replaced them one for one with second generation ones. It was not too much work, and it was quick. Then they had gotten the word about the exostars the Commander had found. To make room in the nose of his sled for those weapons. The Short range four pack and ammunition had to be ripped out. That was still not enough mass, so they had taken out seven of the high efficiency heatsinks they had just put in. This was leaving him with "only" 23 of them to handle the heat of his weapons or engine. Now his Sled was a little hotter of a ride, but he now had six large bore lasers firing forward to go along, with a twenty rack of long-range missiles. It was for those days, that you needed a bigger hammer and the six pack of gamma beams was just not enough. He was a real heavy hitter now.

David was looking at the information on his HUD, and he did not like what he saw. He pushed his controls stick a little more to the right and he watched the data change. His firing control systems did not like the adjustment, but he did not care. The Transgressor had three of the same type of lasers as the larger Stuka was now packing, but it was not the gunner that David was. And that was what he was counting on.

When it was the right time, the computer told him it was time to fire. His trigger pull was about a half second behind the rest of his lighter group as they unleased their paired PPC's. They had just fired at the edge of medium and long range. Most pilots would not have wanted to waste the shots or risk the heat buildup with the low probability shots they had just taken against targets moving that fast. That all changed when the "pirate" ships were fired on. No one likes to just sit there and just take maybe death causing weapons fire. The on-rushing enemy fired back. Too bad that it was a bit rushed and Copeland's people were not rushed in the least when they had pulled the triggers.

David did not feel the first and only hit from the three large bore lasers from the enemy fighter on his craft. It hit him flat on the very well armored nose of his Stuka. He had fired all six exostars and the 20-tube launcher with two quick pulls of the trigger. The heat had hit him like a sun exploding in his face. It would have made him cook in his own juices, but for his cooling vest and his updated heatsinks spread out around his assault class fighter. He was still too hot to fire that much again, as the two groups passed. This time he "only" fired three of the exostars. He was still hot, but not too hot to affect his fire control or other sensitive systems of his craft… that much.

David's first strike was impressive. All six of the large bores struck, and then eighteen long range missiles struck the same Transgressor as the slower weapons followed the speed of light ones. The speed of light energy blast started hitting on the nose of the Transgressor and they worked back towards the high thin tail of the craft. The hammer blows blew massive holes into the thick armored skin, of the 75ton fighter. Most of the time the armor kept the assault out of the sensitive parts of the craft, and other times something breakable was touched by the energy blast. The slower solid fueled rockets came next and eighteen of them spread their damage over the nose and left and right wings. The missiles not only had the warhead they were packing to do damage to the Transgressor. The speed they had generated in flight and the speed that the enemy craft had generated, also helped the missiles do some damage to the hull.

A shower of armor fragments was blown off and they fell behind the on rushing enemy fighter. Over half of the armor on the nose and body was gone within a few eye blinks, and they were still closing toward each other. A smarter pilot might have broken off contact to assess his craft's health, before continuing combat with an enemy that out massed you by a quarter. This pilot did not, he just pushed to go after the target they had been paid to take out. He had taken everything that the Stuka could dish out. To be packing that much firepower, the Stuka had to be almost dead of heat stroke or have only very thin armor. Those were two things that the TR-13's pilot thought that he could exploit and win the battle.

As the weapons on both ships cycled to recharge, they closed on each other. Each pilot moved their craft to make it a harder target for any additional fire that might be coming their way. The term was called "helping to generate a miss." They were just about to pass each other, and David's craft was hit again. His system was telling him about the hits. But it was a single medium laser hit, that had his undivided attention for a few seconds. It had hit and damaged his craft, but thankfully it did not punch all the way through the hardened armored glass of his cockpit. His cockpit had a nice chunk taken out by the laser, but it was only a mild distraction. It made David madder then unnerved at the close call with death.

He kept his head, thankful for the new triple layering now required by the SLDF Navy for new spacesuits of all kinds. The first or inner layer was the full cooling suit that dated back to the time just before the fall of the Star League. Then you had a full Colonial spec spacesuit, and the outer covering was the normal spacesuit that Clan Aero Pilots wore for the last few hundred years. The new middle layer was added to protect in case the outer suit was breached. This new layer had helped save numerous lives after it had been added.

At the last second, before they passed each other in a blur, David fired. It was too close for the lower heat but very powerful and ammunition limited 20 tubed missile launchers to add its firepower. David pulled his second trigger and fired "only" three large lasers. The heatsinks had been able to vent most, but not all of the heat from his massive alpha strike. He just fired what would keep his craft "only a little warm", but not enough to be damaging to his electronic support equipment. This fire was a lot more than the targeted craft had expected.

Only two of the exostars hit, but again it was the nose and main body that took the hits. Now that the two craft were separated, David took time to try to workout first his status. That turned out to be okay and combat ready. Then he looked for his target or another target that was worth his attention. He found it first on radar and it was not looking good, for the Transgressor. It seemed it was out of the fight, for now. The radar said that it was tumbling in space, and maybe in an out of control situation or worse.

Now David hit the play back button on one screen, so he could try to work out the damage or threat it might be later in the battle. The replay showed that one of the big bore laser hits had struck the cockpit square on. That craft was dead, and David was thinking that they might be able to recover it. That was when nature stepped in and took the future out of his hands.

The Transgressor was 25 tons lighter, than the Stuka. It was only a little faster than the Sled, but it could not take the amount of damage the larger fighter could have taken. As the hits had come in, the armor had cracked more and more. Through these cracks, the laser energy had been able to touch more and more of the fragile parts under that hard-outer shell. The enemy craft had taken damage to heatsinks, avionics, life support, and its engine had been damaged twice. All before the second round of laser firing had taken place. The lighter craft was done. It was just that the pilot of the Transgressor did not know it yet. Shock is your bodies way of saying you really don't want to remember what was about to happen.

The second strike of laser fire had, in hindsight, not been necessary. The one laser blast had burned right through the damaged cockpit and turned the pilot to ash, suit and all. The second laser blast had punched into the massive power plant and caused a fuel line to be kinked by a fuel pump. Less than one minute, after the last strike the 75ton craft blew itself apart. It went from a damage mass into bits no bigger than a young boy's fist, in a blink of an eye.

David was not the squadron commander. He was more of just a heavy gun. Now that his assigned target was down. He needed to see what other threats were around his local space. He flipped his craft over, so that his nose and its heavy weapons were pointed at the tails of the fleeing enemy craft. They were out of range of any weapon, all but maybe clan made Extended Range Large Laser, Long Ranged PPC or Gauss Rifles. All of those weapons were not allowed this close to the Inner Sphere, so he would never find out if he could have scored a hit. He could count that all of his unit was still in the fight, and that was not true of the enemy formation. He noticed that the enemy flights were short the two Samurais' along with the Transgressor, that David had taken down.

When they had launched the plan had been to take out both heavy hitters, the two suspected TR-13's. Unlike the other Clans. The Star League in Exile had no plan to fight one on one. Not if they didn't have to, so the other Transgressor would have been dog meat. The plan had changed, when Jules told them that they needed to buy time for the White Rabbit. That meant taking out the fastest of the enemy fighters first, the two 50ton SL-25's. David still had been given one of the Transgressors to remove from the battlespace.

It looked like damage had been done to one of the Corsairs, and the last of the Transgressors. That was not the only damage, his systems were telling him about. One of the Ironsides was not acting right, and just as he was about to start putting power to his engines and work on catching up to his wingmen. His radio broke silence in his ear. One part of his mind knew that he was about to hear bad news. Each of their craft had suicide charges outfitted, but that did not mean he was eager to use it or have one of his unit need to use theirs.

"Iron 3, this is Iron 1. I can see the damage to your engine. Fall back to the Sled. Sled this is Iron 1. I want you to try to work over the small assault ships. If you can take a few of them out. Even if they make it to the White Rabbit, if you can pop one or force them to delay. it will help the grunts on the security teams. Do you copy?"

David touched his microphone button twice, and then used his controls to flip his craft again to point it the way he had come. He only had to turn his head to the side a little, to see that Ironsides Three was facing the same way. He knew that Dede was not a happy camper, right about then. The odds were not with the lance of damaged fighters. They were outnumbered two to one in craft, but both fighters only massed a total of 165 tons. While each of the closing small craft each massed 150 tons, and there were four of them. Long odds, no matter how you looked at it.

David had to rely on his computers to plot out an intercept course on his new targets. He had worked out one, and it was not good. The one the computer came up with, was even less good. They were going to have to flip again and fire up their engines to full power. This would let them sideslip, as they built up speed on a totally new vector. The attacking small craft had a top speed that was about equal to the Stuka, and they were only a little slower than the now damage Ironsides. If they could catch the Dragonstars out of mutual supporting position. The heavy firepower of the fighters might let them nibble on them.

Robert watched his fighters sideslip up on the powerful radar mounted on the aft of the Blockade Runner. The bridge crew also saw the four Ironsides flying up the tail pipes of the attacking fighters, but it was a stern chase. The advantage was that the two lances of Ironsides had a pair of long shooters on each craft. With the faster enemy fighters now dead, it was going to be an even longer chase to reach the now fleeing Blockade Runner. The second Transgressor had been the first to fall to the closing Ironsides, but it had taken out one of the Ironsides before it had died in the cold of deep space.

The last two enemy fighters, the lance of Corsairs, were getting ready to make an attack run against the engines of the Blockade Runner. It would seem that the attackers did not realize they were not going after a merchant ship, but a Blockade Runner. It was as close to being a wolf in sheep's clothing as could be. When the enemy fighters were in the right spot, and still out of range of their weapons. The captain of the White Rabbit flipped his ship, and now all of that recent training with the fighters was going to pay off. The massive craft flipped a lot faster, than any dropship had the right to being able to move.

Instead of facing two medium sized lasers mounted in the thin armored covered aft. The attacking fighters were facing two LRM 20s in the nose and a set of two LRM 20s and a larger bore laser mounted on the left and right sides of the craft. That firepower when combined with the three remaining 65ton Ironsides coming up behind them? This turned the two fighters into expanding balls of short-lived fire, when the weapons fire from the two different directions hit their targets. Just like that, the attacking squadron was now no longer an issue for anything but a navigation hazard.

The mood on the dropship's bridge rose and then fell as the data came in from the rest of the local space. The team of David and Dede were only able to take out one of the small craft and damage another of the Dragonstars. Before they were out of play on Group Two, now with engine damage to both fighters. The SLDF just lost one third of its firepower for the next part of the battle.

Notes:

Fighters in this battle. I used the Mercenaries Tables to come up with the attack force. I just picked a heavier battle line.

Shift change at more than 1.5gs? I have pulled 6 Gs at Huntsville, once. It…sucked. Trying walking around with half of your body weight on your back…for a dozen hours. That is 1.5. It goes downhill from there.

ComStar's ROM. Right now, it is not Copeland vs ComStar. It is Copeland vs ROM. In some ways this is worse than just facing ComStar.

Fighter battle. I was trying a different way to handle this battle and getting it into a readable forum. Still not happy with it, and I will see how it finally turns out.