Chapter 10: Liberation of Weldry

July 22, 3025

Weldry System, Jump Point

Leopard DropShip

Donavan was distinctly nervous as they floated at the jump point in the Weldry System. They were still eleven days of sublight travel away from the planet itself, but they were now officially inside the Aurigan Directorate for the first time since they'd fled during the coup.

At least they weren't alone. Outside the viewport were two venerable Union-class DropShips, one without colors, but the second draped in House Arano crimson. Speaking of which, he refocused on the more immediate surroundings in ops as Lady Arano and Lord Madeira began their briefing.

Kamea gave Alexander a nod to begin.

"Welcome to Weldry, one of the most notorious hellholes in the Aurigan Reach. Everything about this place is hostile to human life. Under the Coalition it was a maximum-security prison for the most hardened of criminals. The Directorate has turned it into a holding place for political prisoners and hostages from the Founding Houses." He gestured to the central display, which showed a slowly rotating planet that seemed to be composed completely of ice.

Lady Arano continued from there. "Everything about this place is hostile to human life." She tapped on the display controls, shifting to view a squat facility of several buildings surrounded by solid, heavy-duty walls. The architecture had a distinctly Taurian look to it, and it looked old, though in elements that harsh it was impossible to be sure. "The Directorate is making use of this prison complex on the planet's surface. The inmates call it the Icebox."

Lord Madeira continued. "As I said, the Directorate has been using the facility for high-value hostages. Members of each of the Founding Houses are here—spouses, sons, and daughters. If we liberate the prison and set them free, we break the Directorate's leverage over the Founding Houses. The political map could change overnight."

Kamea nodded firmly. "We don't know what the Directorate has been doing to our people in there, but we have to set them free. Not just for political gain, but because they're our people. And we need your help to do it."

Donavan held up a hand. "Uh, I'm all for liberating the oppressed, but aren't the Founding Houses mostly figureheads these days? I thought Espinosa nationalized their House Guards?"

"True," answered Kamea, "but the Founding Houses are also a symbol of the Coalition and the freedoms enjoyed by the people that they lost when my uncle stole the throne. And while their BattleMechs have been taken, they still command significant traditional military forces. If they rally behind us, the people who love them will follow. Governments have been toppled with less."

Donavan definitely had doubts about the whole popular uprising thing, but co-opting existing power structures, that he could get behind. "Alright, so what, exactly, are we walking into down there? Just how inhospitable are we talking?"

Alexander winced. "It's bad. The climate is near constantly sub-zero, the vegetation is inedible, and the whole planet is infested with blood-sucking insects... the swarms can stretch for miles.

Yang scoffed. "You're joking."

"I'm afraid not. They're called Bronson's Mosquitos. Imagine a colonial biting fly, but the size of your thumb, and they serve as carriers for harmful bacteria."

Sumire gave him a very pointed look. "And you're dropping infantry there? On purpose?"

"The army will be safe," responded Kamea coolly. "All population centers, including the Icebox, use ultrasonics to keep the swarms at bay."

"So, Lady Arano, it looks like you have something of an army out there," said Donavan, getting them back on track with a gesture out the viewport to the two DropShips, "what's our part in this?"

"Decisive, yet subtle action. I will be frank—I expect that the Magistracy anticipates that I will merely annoy the Directorate, unwilling to commit my limited forces. They have provided me with a number of infantry, but they also turned your debt directly over to me."

Donavan and Sumire shared a surprised glance.

"This means that the only people whose interests align with mine are yours, and whoever joins us without a Magistracy paycheck. So yes, I could hold you back and throw my last few 'Mechs and borrowed infantry into this fray, but then the directorate would know our objectives and available forces and counter us. The Magistracy would also be much more limited in how they could support us."

She sighed softly. "And there is a more practical reason. If the Directorate sees me or my forces coming, there is a small but real chance once their defenses are compromised that they will simply deactivate the ultrasonic generators, costing us all the hostages we wanted to save and slaughtering the limited ground forces I have. So, you will make a quiet, rapid assault to breach the perimeter and neutralize their defenses. Once the initial breach is made my ground troops will follow up to secure the prison site. So that's the plan—steal the hostages and put the Founding Houses in our debt."

Donavan nodded slowly. That made a lot of sense, and he was deeply reassured by Kamea's realization that the Magistracy wasn't exactly on her side. "Understood, my Lady. And it has the benefit of simplicity. We're ready when you are."

"Good. Make the assault when you're ready, and we'll follow you in. I'll see you on the ground."

September 2, 3025

Weldry

Leopard DropShip

Donavan took a long, slow breath in, and out, and reached for the Blackjack's controls. The last eleven days had been a strange mix of impatience and anxiety. He'd led the squad through as many practice scenarios as he could think up, but in the end they just didn't know what they were going up against.

They did have some good news—Dekker was improving steadily, though he wasn't ready yet to get back in the cockpit, even if they'd had a 'Mech ready for him. On the downside, though, Yang had finally thrown in the towel on the Phoenix Hawk systems. They simply weren't compatible with the Blackjack's computers no matter what he did.

Well, you take what you can get. The deck rumbled beneath his feet as Sumire brought the Leopard in fast and low, scattering a swarm of insects in her wake. "Wolf, Sumire, we're approaching max sensor range from the base. I'm setting down."

The launch platforms rotated around and, as the Leopard crunched down into the snow, lowered to the ground for deployment. The Blackjack immediately rocked as an icy gust of wind hit the 'Mech. He eased onto the controls and cleared the loading doors, getting familiar with the slick footing. He glanced at his HUD, immediately impressed by the fidelity of his neurohelmet imaging. "Sumire, Wolf, you're clear."

"Copy. Good hunting." The Leopard's engine thrummed as it came up to power and the DropShip soared off into the gray sky.

Wolf considered the lance's surroundings. The terrain was mostly flat with very low hills. The wind speed was high and gusting higher, with flurries of snow keeping visibility even worse than he'd feared. That was going to play merry hell with LRM's and even autocannons, but that also meant that they should be able to get closer before the base defenses could pick them up. That was why Glitch was staying behind today, despite her heavier firepower, and Medusa was there with a Locust. He couldn't match the Vindicator's firepower, but he also had their only dedicated anti-infantry weapons in his twin machine guns, and Glitch's firepower was mostly long-range, anyway.

"Lance, form up and let's move. Medusa, don't get too far away, this visibility sucks."

"Copy Boss." The Locust tromped ahead, forcing its way through the snow. The rest of the lance set off just a few seconds later, and Wolf winced as one of those monster mosquitos splattered into the cockpit's canopy. He'd crammed in some emergency cold weather survival gear into the cockpit, which was already making his legs uncomfortably hot, but against that… well, they hadn't talked about it in so many words, but everyone in the lance knew only too well that their life expectancy if they had to eject was going to be in minutes, not hours.

A few tense minutes later and Medusa spoke up once more. "Boss, Medusa, I've got the base. It's as big and nasty as they said. No sign of 'Mechs, but I'm picking up a ring of automated turrets. Some of the generators are nestled into the defenses, but some are outside—my guess is those power guns inside the compound for internal security. Nothing's moving yet, but I think I'm getting some tanks, too."

Wolf processed this quickly. It made sense that, so far away from the Taurian threat, they'd rely on automated and conventional forces to free up their 'Mechs for other deployments. And speed was the name of the game here—if the security folks had any sort of time they could take hostages, or even threaten the ultrasonic generators, and everyone would lose.

"Lance, Wolf, sounds about right. Plan Alpha, I say again, going with Plan Alpha. Weapons free only on my mark. Medusa, once we're out in the open take down as many of the exterior generators as you can until the main gate is down, then move inside to join us, all copy."

"Behemoth, copy."

"Medusa, copy."

"Sunshine, copy."

"Lance, Execute."

Medusa slowed down to an easy walk and let the three medium 'Mechs overtake him, Behemoth to the left, Sunshine to the right, while Wolf, slightly behind them, took the middle. Plan Alpha was brutally simple—charge in and smash the unaware defenses, clearing enough of a gap for the armored personnel carriers behind them and get inside as quickly as possible.

Appearing abruptly out of the sleet-filled misty air ahead of them was a large, dark shape and targets burst to life on sensors. "Weapons free!"

The howling wind was instantly outmatched by the man-made scream of weapons fire as the two turrets on each side of the gate exploded. Another set of explosions, and another, and still no reaction from—

A klaxon began to wail as someone on the other side activated the alarm and emerald-green lasers spit back at them. Wolf ignored them, instead blasting away at the monster gate with everything he had. Even in the icy cold his heat rose precipitously and sweat poured off him.

"Boss, those tanks are warming up!"

Wolf grimaced. This damn gate was taking too long. "Behemoth, Sunshine, jump in there and don't let those tanks come into play. Medusa, get over here." He let off the weapons, lifted one leg, and kicked the half-melted mess of a gate.

The impact almost toppled him even with the improved balance of his neurohelmet, but he managed to keep his feet under him, and it certainly had the intended effect. He'd knocked a hole in it that was several meters wide, and a sweep of his leg cleared it enough to let the APC's in, which was good, because he was already picking them up behind him.

He charged through the gap and watched as a Galleon tank exploded under Sunshine's guns. Okay, vehicle hangar for the tanks, looked like two cell blocks, and what was that other—

The last building's door slid open and an avalanche of fire came out, all of it wild and un-aimed. But the sheer volume meant that even blind-fired several autocannon shells collided with Sunshine, sending her to a knee. Shit, there was a whole lance in there! He returned fire almost unconsciously while he struggled to process the neurohelmet readings.

A Jenner, a Centurion, a Trebuchet, and a JagerMech? What the hell was that unit composition? The Trebuchet and the Jager were both long-range fire-support 'Mechs, and the Jager was a heavy 'Mech, what was it doing all the way out here? Not important. Priorities—they had to keep those APC's covered, and for the downright terrifying amount of firepower those two 'Mechs had, it came at a cost—they were never meant as front-line units and were lightly armored.

"Behemoth, Sunshine, follow me! Keep them boxed into the hangar and get in close! Medusa, keep the infantry off our backs." He jerked on the controls and launched another alpha strike into the darkened hangar, blowing a chunk out of the JagerMech. A full salvo of SRM's and autocannons came at him in response, slamming him back in his command chair and stripping the armor from his right side.

Behemoth charged in fearlessly, guns blazing, and after a split second's hesitation Sunshine followed suit.

"If they get out in the open we're done!" He kept firing desperately, strafing back and forth across the entrance. He was only distantly aware of Medusa strafing infantry as they let loose with shoulder-fired rockets. Another barrage of lasers and SRM's smashed into Behemoth blowing off her arm, as a flight of rockets slammed into Glitch from the infantry behind her.

They have too much firepower! We need to withdraw, but if we let those 'Mechs out we'll get blown to pieces. Maybe if someone stays behind to slow them down? But the APC's, the damned APC's! They'll be slaughtered without help.

Behind him the APC's swarmed in, weaving madly between the legs of 'Mechs ripping into each other with a mix of courage of desperation to get under the cover of the buildings, and disgorging troops who stormed into the structures like their last hope of salvation.

Kamea watched the sudden eruption of violence unfold from the cockpit of her Kintaro, biting her lip hard enough to bleed as he listened to the battle chatter. What in the galaxy was a lance of BattleMechs doing here? But more to the point, her Magistracy-provided lances were both hanging back, covering the DropShips; they'd take maybe twenty minutes to arrive, too long. Only she was close enough to intervene, and that over the strong objections of Alexander and her BattleMech commander. And they had a point—her Kintaro was instantly recognizable. Apart from being the hereditary symbol of House Arano, the Kintaro was nearly extinct; hers was probably the only one in the Periphery, and the goal was not to announce herself yet.

And yet, if she lost the Wolves, she would become exactly what the Magistracy was aiming for—a totally reliant political pawn, and her hopes of restoring the Coalition as anything like an independent power would die with them. And that she could not abide.

She grabbed the controls and launched the venerable heavy 'Mech into motion.

Autocannon shells, lasers, and SRM's ripped back and forth at point blank range as the Wolves and Directorate forces, equally surprised at the sudden and furious engagement, tore into each other.

They'd taken the JagerMech out of action, damaging enough lightly-armored systems to force it further back into the hangar, but they'd taken a beating in the process. Wolf and Sunshine had both lost an arm, Behemoth had a leg damaged, and—

At least a dozen SRM's erupted into Behemoth's Shadow Hawk at once with enough raw kinetic power to send the 55-ton 'Mech tipping backwards. Wolf could only stare in horror as she went down, and the Directorate was trying to break out of the hangar again.

We're done. "Medusa, abort, take whatever APC's you can and regroup with the other DropShips. Sunshine and I will cover you."

To her credit, Sunshine didn't object as he committed them to a death ride—there wasn't much point in punching out, not in these conditions.

"Hold on Wolf, reinforcements on your six o'clock."

He looked over just as a laser connected with his torso, slicing through his tattered armor. The neurohelmet seared on his head as he lost connection with his left leg, dragging it behind him and nearly tipping him over. Unable to maneuver from the hangar and with Behemoth already down, the Directorate forces concentrated their fire on him. Wolf leaned the Blackjack forward desperately against the storm of SRM's and autocannon shells crashing into him, tearing through armor and into his structure. The Blackjack vibrated from the continuous rolling explosions, wrenching Wolf's hands from the controls, and jerking him around wildly. The safety restraints clamped down harder as they detected the havoc.

Wolf's vision blurred and he clung to his command chair for dear life as over a dozen military-grade, armor-piercing high explosives detonated just three meters away.

With Wolf totally overwhelmed, the feedback from his neurohelmet fell silent and the Blackjack's gyro was left to handle the load alone, and though it did its best, the centuries-old equipment was unequal to the task, and the Blackjack began to fall backwards.

The 'Mech took nearly three seconds to fall while the stunned Wolf reflexively tried to grab anything he could, fingers clenching metal. He gasped in a wordless scream as the world rotated. The cockpit crunched into the compacted snow and concrete with such force the command chair snapped, and Wolf's head slapped into a console and everything went black.

Kamea bit off a curse as she saw Wolf go down, toppling over backwards, but his desperate gambit had kept the Directorate forces bottled up and close together, which was exactly where her short-ranged Kintaro shined. "Hang on Wolf!"

She moved in, her triple HoverTec SRM-6 launchers on continuous fire unleashing a volcano of explosions into the lightly armored support 'Mechs trapped in a confined space to devastating effect. Her torrent of fire was followed by multiple secondary explosions as her fire cooked off spare autocannon ammunition inside the hangar and in the 'Mechs whose thin protective armor had been cut open by the Wolves, and the entire building exploded.

DropShip Cormorant

Lord Alexander Madeira kept himself from pacing back and forth across the command center on the Cormorant through sheer force of will as he listened to the reports coming in. This operation was high risk in more ways than one. At his side Subaltern Regis, known to very few as Subaltern Madeira, looked up.

"Status update, my Lord. The Icebox perimeter is secure apart from some last infantry holdouts. At least one of the Wolves went down securing the site, and it appears they were on the verge of destruction when Lady Kamea personally intervened."

He winced. "She can't risk herself like that! A single random laser and the whole Restoration movement collapses! And especially not to save the damned mercenaries!" He shook his head fiercely, then got himself under control. "Continue."

"The infantry are securing the interior of the last prison building now and are sifting through the prisoners."

Madeira froze. "Containment?"

"We're still processing, but we've secured multiple House Madeira prisoners. Several potential leaks have also been secured, with a few noteworthy ones. Lexa Decimis, Amron Karosas, and… Sir Raju Montgomery."

Alexander swore. He disliked mercenaries on principle, but the old man had earned his grudging respect over the years, and he didn't deserve this. Hell, if he'd been trapped here the last three years, he didn't deserve any of what had happened to him. But whatever his personal feelings, House Madeira came first, and he could take no risks. Not today. "Contain the risks, Subaltern."

"Yes, Lord Madeira."

"Good. This operation has been a mess but it's still salvageable. Let me know if there are any updates. I need to get down there."