February 6, 3026
Restoration Territory
Ryan's Fate
Wolf rocked uncomfortably back and forth in the rumble seat of the Phoenix Hawk behind Dekker as they climbed down into the dark of a cave that had been fully mined and abandoned long ago. They were close to the coordinates Lady Arano had provided for her House's last hidden reserves.
Dekker picked his way carefully, the 'Mech's feat slipping on the damp rock. But in short order they reached a large, sealed metal door with a small control panel.
"This must be it," said Wolf, and Dekker went to a knee. Wolf sealed his environmental suit then signaled Dekker, who cracked the canopy and Wolf carefully climbed down the exterior handholds. It was extremely hot and muggy in the tunnels and his breath fogged up the helmet, but he pressed on to the door controls. He punched in the code Lady Arano had provided and the door cracked open. Wolf looked inside as overhead lights turned on and his breath caught. There were two 'Mechs inside – two heavy 'Mechs.
His mind immediately started considering the possibilities as he stared up at the Thunderbolt and Warhammer.
February 7, 3026
Restoration Territory
Ryan's Fate
Back aboard the Argo, Donavan sat on the couch in his office, Sumire comfortably nestled next to him, and wrestled with questions. They were on their way to their next target, Fjaldr. The mood was unhappy from the loss of Glitch and the damage they'd taken, and it had only grown darker since they set course for Fjaldr, the site of the company's deeply costly campaign against pirates for the Aranos shortly before he joined.
"So, what do you think of Lady Arano's strategy?"
Sumire sighed comfortably on the couch. "It's certainly a new direction. I think she's hoping she can gain so much momentum sweeping up the outskirts that the Directorate will collapse. I doubt it'll work, though – the frontier depends on the industrialized worlds, not the other way around. If she stalls out, the Magistracy aren't going to pay her enough to support those worlds long term, and it could all collapse like a house of cards. I do have to wonder what Lord Madeira is doing here, though."
Donavan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "It was certainly a surprise. Maybe she's losing confidence in him? In terms of strategy, she must be planning something to flip the Houses… and my guess is it's going to involve us. Unfortunately, we're not in the best shape right now, from personnel to hardware to morale."
"I've been thinking about that, actually, and I have an idea. If we ask Farrah to repair the simulators on this pod, we can rig up a network and link them together. We could even have a competition."
"I like it. It could help the lances get more comfortable with each other, once we settle on the composition, at least."
Sumire leaned her head on his shoulder. "I get that you want them to work well together, but what goes into that? What makes a lance good or bad?"
Donavan smiled. "If you ask a hundred 'MechWarriors that, you'll get a hundred different answers. But to make it short, conventional wisdom is that 'Mechs fall into a few main categories depending on what they're supposed to do." He held up a hand, tapping fingers as he went. "You need front line brawlers to get in close. But to have enough weapons and armor for the job, they sacrifice speed and are a little slower. That's what the Thunderbolt we picked up is designed to do. They'll need fire support, which don't need as much armor but have lots of long-range weapons, things like the Archer. Then you need bodyguard 'Mechs which are quicker to protect the fire support and watch the front line's backs, like the Centurion. Then you need cavalry to move quickly and threaten the other sides' fire support. Lady Kamea's Kintaro is actually pretty good at that sort of thing. There are some other kinds, with true scouts like the Locust or really heavy line-breakers, but they don't come up as often outside of big House militaries."
Sumire considered all of this. "So, in a lance you want to cover as many roles as you can? Or have them all do the same role?"
"I'm going to cop out and say that it depends. For small mercenary companies like us, though, the answer is more straightforward. We're a short-handed Company getting into what promises to be an ugly and hard campaign. We're not big enough to need to do our own scouting, and most people with the cash to hire us either have their own recon assets who don't get beat up much, as long as they're used right. If we were a full company I'd try for a frontline lance built around the Thunderbolt, a fire support lance that doubled as the command lance built around the Archer, and a cavalry lance with whatever else we had that moved quick enough."
"So lances with the same job then. You said it depends – when is it different?"
"Well," explained Donavan, waving his free hand. "Take the Catapult. It's part fire support with the two LRM-15's, but it doesn't have enough ammo to do the job full-time, because it uses so much tonnage on a big engine, jumpjets, armor, and lasers. You can leave it with the other fire support 'Mechs and have it be their bodyguard, or you can have it join up with the cavalry 'Mechs at an opportune moment. The Warhammer is kind of the same way. Its two PPCs let it hang back as direct fire support, but it has enough armor and short-range weapons to turn into a front line brawler at a critical moment, but not enough to start there."
"So a good lance would be…" prompted Sumire.
"So in theory a good lance is one built to accomplish a purpose and to support each other as a team. But most of the time, the best lance is the one you have available. What's prompting the question?"
"Oh, no reason," said Sumire with a smile.
February 14, 3026
Restoration Territory
Ryan's Space
Sweat dripped down Kevin "Farmboy" Sandris' face as he gripped the controls tightly while he maneuvered the Locus between a narrow rock outcrop. He and the enemy Locust were the last two standing and they had hunted each other for over twenty minutes now. But he was very close… there!
He squeezed the trigger and the 'Mechs medium laser burst to life, searing through armor and exposing structure. His twin Sperry Browning machine guns followed suit, devastating the more delicate internal structure and the enemy Locust tumbled to the dust.
His cockpit abruptly popped open and he climbed out of the simulator to a mixed chorus of cheers and groans. Dekker stepped closer and clapped him on the back with a grin. "Congratulations, Kevin! I knew you had it in you!"
The simulator pod next to his opened and a dejected Medusa climbed out. "Where did you learn to do that?" he demanded angrily.
"I warned you," said Elena with a frown and crossed arms. "You rely too much on speed and do not keep sufficient situational awareness."
Medusa sneered, furious and embarrassed. "You're not my mom, and I'm not your son!"
Elena rolled her eyes. "For which I am grateful. You should be more like Kevin and listen." She turned back to Kevin dismissively. "Well done. I am proud of you."
"Yes, mom," replied Kevin with a grin. "Or should I say, Muqin?"
"It's official!" shouted Sumire over the hubbub, wearing a purple jersey sporting a stylized Urban 'Mech with a flaming autocannon. "The first Argo team tournament win goes to Team Urban 'Mech's Revenge!"
Donavan, whose team did not have matching t-shirts, or a logo, or a banner, could only shake his head and accept defeat as gracefully as he could.
February 16, 3026
Aurigan Directorate
Fjaldr System
The command team sat in the conference room aboard the Argo for Lord Madeira's briefing. Behind him the image of a truly nasty-looking planet rotated slowly. Completely barren, enveloped by ice, and constantly swept by winds and snowfall, there was very little to invite colonization.
"This is Fjaldr, a miserable planet on the border of the Capellan Confederation and two jumps from the Taurian Concordat. The planet is rich in minerals, but the harsh conditions have limited investment to a small mining operation. Despite these limitations, its location makes it relatively convenient as a trading hub. That also, unfortunately, has invited a stubborn pirate problem that you are all too familiar with. Your company's previous efforts cleaned out the system, but in light of the ongoing conflict it has returned. Due to its trade, the pirates, and simply being a border world, it has an unusually large garrison for a frontier world."
He tapped the controls and the display changed to an organizational chart. "The world is garrisoned by the sixteenth infantry battalion supported by a lance of light 'Mechs formed by nationalized House units. Until recently they were also supported by a lance from the Black Caravel mercenary group, a Company-sized outfit based out of Fronc."
"What do you mean, until recently?" asked Behemoth skeptically.
"The Black Caravel have been doing short term - in some cases very short term - contracts. This has created something of a bidding war between the Magistracy and the Directorate. They have fought for both sides over the course of the conflict. Unfortunately, the Magistracy has taken particular care to avoid allowing Lady Arano to control these contracts the way she did with yours, but the Magistracy won the most recent contract bid and they have decamped to engage in a raid elsewhere. Does that answer your question?"
Behemoth nodded, and Alexander continued. "The mining operation is largely underground in the honeycombed passages throughout the crust of the planet. The Directorate base is positioned over the primary entrance to the mining tunnels, and is principally a defensive position."
The imagery switched to a picture of the base itself, and Donavan winced. It was low to the ground and heavily built with lots of firing positions connected by what had to be underground tunnels, all built around a landing pad and a big tunnel entrance. That nasty of a position supported by 'Mechs to threaten flanks would be a bear to try to take out. "That's a nasty-looking position. We'll have to be careful with how we approach it."
Lord Madeira blinked in evident surprise. "I'm surprised, Commander. Your numbers and firepower far outweigh their 'Mechs, and the rest is merely infantry."
Donavan hid a frown. This is Kamea's chief strategist? He might know politics, but he doesn't know a thing about ground combat. He considered how to best respond.
"Don't underestimate infantry, Lord Madeira. The planetary militias that make up most of the bodies in uniform across the galaxy are largely helpless against 'Mechs, I'll grant you that, but regular infantry are another animal altogether. It's true that our weapons outrange and outpunch theirs, but they're intended to hit something ten to twenty meters tall. And if it's as windy as it looks down there, then LRMs are going to be even less effective than they normally are. No infantry armor in the galaxy can withstand a medium laser hit from a 'Mech, but to hit an individual soldier you have to get in close, and you only get one at a time. We do have a few anti-infantry weapons, but they're much shorter range, so to fight effectively we have to get in close enough that we're in range of their weapons, and battalion-level infantry deployments carry support and crew-served weapons that can put the hurt on a 'Mech. So if we discount our 'Mechs with no anti-infantry weapons that would just be walking around to get blown up, we have two Locusts and a Phoenix Hawk going up against about three hundred infantry, meaning they'll actually outgun us, at least until we can start taking out some of those heavier weapons."
Alexander frowned. "I'm trying to understand, Commander. If that is the case, why are 'Mechs used so heavily in raiding if they can be repulsed by infantry?"
"A few reasons," he explained. "First, you can get more combat effectiveness per ton out of a 'Mech than anything else. So when you've got limited space on your DropShip, you get the most bang for your credit with a 'Mech. And second, infantry are slow. They can fight us effectively when they stop in place and sit there, but we can always go around them. So a single lance can effectively threaten every objective within a hundred kilometers or so, and unless you have enough infantry and arms to sit right on top of every one of those objectives, you're vulnerable. The equation shifts some with mounted and especially mechanized infantry, but the infantry are still more vulnerable in transit."
The advisor grasped it quickly. "You're saying that a direct assault would be costly, but that the infantry cannot effectively defend anything beyond their base."
"Exactly. If they're willing to sit in their hole, it will be costly to get them back out, but if they do that, then we get the mines and the rest of the planet."
Lord Madeira nodded. "Then we'll just have to convince them to come out."
…
Elena Golubev stood in Donavan's office with a straight back and controlled expression. "You wished to speak with me?"
"I did," he said, gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. She looked at it, then sat down with a posture so stiff it looked less comfortable than standing.
"How are things going? Are you getting along with the crew?"
Elena considered the question with a deep focus, as if it were a dangerous animal that might turn on her at any moment. "I have completed every assignment I have been given. There have been no complaints of my performance."
Donavan resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Let me rephrase the question. Do you feel comfortable here? Do you enjoy working with us?"
Elena considered this for a few moments. "I do not understand the purpose of this question."
"Can you answer it anyway?"
"…Yes. My time here has been more comfortable than I expected."
"I'm glad to hear it. I have two requests to make of you, Elena. The first is, I heard you are doing Tai Chi in the cargo hold. We're almost done finishing the repairs on this pod of the Argo, including the lounge. I would appreciate it if you would be willing to lead a Tai Chi class there from time to time. I think it would help calm tempers and make sure we're staying fit between deployments."
She nodded. "This I can do."
"And the second thing is, I would like you to join us as a 'MechWarrior. I hear you are experienced with Catapults?" he added, hiding a smile.
Her eyes widened. "I do not understand. Why would you do this?"
His moment of levity quickly faded as he answered with the seriousness her question demanded. "You've worked well with Yang, done everything we asked for, but you've also done more. You went out of your way to give me advice on piloting the Catapult and tutored Farmboy. You've shown you want us to succeed. We need you, given our shortage of pilots, and I trust you enough to fight with you."
"I am honored by your trust… but you trust too easily, Commander Melodan. You would not have survived in the Confederation."
Donavan grinned. "Yes, Muqin."
February 17, 3026
Aurigan Directorate
Fjaldr
Fjaldr was just as nasty, barren, icy, and windswept as Lord Madeira had warned.
At the moment, there was a small mining operation there as much to cement the Aurigan Coalition's (and now Directorate's) claim to the planet as anything else. It was also more heavily defended than it merited thanks to its position on the border. According to Lord Madeira's intelligence, there should be one battalion of infantry and a lance of light BattleMechs down there. But their intelligence so far didn't have the best track record, so he wasn't planning on taking any chances.
They reached high orbit and were loading up the two Leopards when Darius pinged him. Donavan headed to the briefing room to meet him.
"Darius, what's going on?"
"We got a call, boss. I don't like it, but it's from some pirates. They want to hire us to hit a Directorate shipment of resources that's going to be heading offworld soon."
Donavan crossed his arms and frowned. He hadn't been around when the company crossed swords with the pirates on Fjaldr, but he knew it hadn't been pleasant and there were some hard feelings there. But they also had compatible goals, at least for the comment, and at the end of the day they were still mercenaries.
"Let's at least talk to them. Put them through."
After a few minutes a voice-only call came through the speakers and a hard, female voice came through clearly. "This is Cyclone of the Border Freebooters."
Donavan glanced at Darius, who shrugged. "This is Wolf of Donavan's Wolves."
"I understand you used to be Markham's Marauders. Your people killed a lot of friends of mine."
"You didn't exactly make friends over here, either," replied Donavan. "But you're the one calling me, Cyclone, which makes me believe you see a way to do business despite our… unfortunate history."
"Fair enough. Let's talk business then. The Directorate is planning to move a shipment of raw materials offworld. It's several month's worth of production, so they're taking a significant escort for transport. Fortunately for us, the Black Caravel mercenaries who would normally do the job got pulled out, leaving it to some Directorate pushovers. I want you to take out the escort and we'll commandeer the shipment."
Donavan tapped his fingers in thought. "High-bulk, low-value doesn't strike me as a typical target."
"What's it matter to you?" retorted the pirate. "I'm the one that's going to be moving it, not you."
"True, but I'm under contract with the Aurigan Restoration. Your offer involves damaging the Directorate, so it should be fair game, but if it ends up hurting my employer, then my payment is at risk. And who knows - if our relationship keeps damaging the Directorate, the Restoration might see fit to… overlook some of your activities."
There was a pause before Cyclone spoke again. "An interesting proposition. I like you, Wolf - you sound reasonable. I'll tell you what. I've heard you can get things done, so if this mission goes well, I would consider giving you access to my suppliers in exchange for you keeping the Restoration off my back."
"I can't make any guarantees on that," warned Wolf, "but I can point out the value you are bringing and how many higher priorities there are out there."
"Done. Now, let's talk terms."
"I trust you won't take offense when I say I'll be insisting on independent command rights. We can do business, but I'm not putting you in command of my people."
"And I trust you won't take offense when I say that I won't be loading your BattleMechs onto my DropShips, so you'll have to provide your own transportation."
Donavan rolled his eyes. "Of course. Though providing our own transport will increase our expenses, which brings us to overhead compensation…"
…
Yang was deeply unhappy to be working with the pirates that had caused so much pain, and even Sumire was less than enthusiastic about it, but in the end everybody was willing to get the job done.
Which was why the two Leopards were on their way down to the surface of Fjaldr to meet up with their new employers.
Wolf had rearranged the lances for this mission. The lead lance would be led by Behemoth in her Shadow Hawk, Sunshine in the Thunderbolt, Dropline in the Centurion, and Farmboy and Dekker in the Locusts. Sunshine might be less well-suited to the heavy Thunderbolt, but she'd done well on the front lines, and he trusted her more than Dropline.
He was going to lead the other lance in person in the Warhammer, with Muqin (who had mixed feelings about her new callsign) in the Catapult, and Dekker in the Phoenix Hawk to keep enemy light 'Mechs off them.
Wolf was nervous about the Warhammer. He had done alright in the Catapult, but he was nowhere near as good as Muqin, who could practically make the thing dance. That showed just how far he had to go when handling the heavier machines. But they didn't have many pilots to spare, and he wanted every gun he had on the ground when dealing with both pirates and the Directorate.
At least this was the 6D variant. The more common 6R was an absolutely lethal machine - it packed a PPC in each arm to fight at range and two medium lasers, two small lasers, and two machine guns, plus an SRM-6 on the right shoulder, for close range. That armament would absolutely shred any 'Mech whose armor had been cracked. It was also quick, with a top speed of about 65 kph.
The problem was that to get that performance and loadout, it had only ten tons of armor, the same as the Catapult, despite having 5 tons more mass and lots of short-range weapons. And it only mounted 18 heat sinks compared to the Catapult's 15 despite how many more weapons it had. Effectively, the Warhammer was an absolutely devastating weapon if piloted well, but also an unforgiving one. Move into close range too soon, and its thin armor (especially on the legs) compared to true front-line 'Mechs like the Thunderbolt, meant it could go down in a hurry. And if the pilot panicked or went too hard on the weapons, it would quickly overheat, leaving it helpless.
The 6D was a little different. House Davion favored this modified version which dropped the machine guns and the SRM-6 for four more tons of armor and two more heat sinks. That gave it less punch up close, but there was less worry about heat, and it could take more of a beating, both because of the additional armor and because there wasn't any ammunition to blow up. And as another plus, he didn't have to keep buying the ammo, either.
The other nice feature of the warhammer, aside from parts for it being easily found across the galaxy and its legendary ruggedness, was the large searchlight mounted over the left shoulder that could come in handy in the caves.
The DropShips dropped their ramps and the 'Mechs quickly disembarked into the snow. Less than a minute later the DropShips roared off into the sky and Wolf hit the comms.
"Cyclone, Wolf, are you there?"
"I'm here, Wolf. And seeing all that metal, I'm glad to be on this side of the fence this time around. You'll be using one of our entry points into the underground caves. It's about two kilometers north of here. I've sent along a guide to get you to the intercept point who's standing by at the entry point. It goes without saying, but don't light him up."
"Copy that. We're moving." Wolf flipped to the company-wide comms channel. "Entrance to the underground is two klicks north of here. There should be a pirate 'Mech there to show the way, so hold your fire. Behemoth, take point with your lance. We'll follow a hundred meters or so behind. Let's roll."
"Lead, Behemoth, we have point."
Wolf switched to the new lance-specific channel he'd set up for himself Muqin, and Dekker. "Alpha lance, Wolf. I'll take lead, Muqin, come alongside me. Dekker, hang back another fifty meters or so and watch our back. You've got the speed to catch up if you need it. All copy."
"Dekker, copy."
"Muqin, copy," said the Capellan with her usual inflectionless tone.
Outside the cockpit he could see Bravo Lance already on the move, Farmboy and Medusa ranging out ahead in the Locusts. They made decent time moving at the best sustainable speed of about 40 kph of their slowest 'Mechs, which meant the Locusts were moving at less than half their top speed.
Still, that was a good pace - their heavies were on the faster side and there were no assault 'Mechs to slow them down. It didn't take long to approach the rendezvous.
"Wolf, Behemoth. Dekker's got a bug 'Mech on sensors in about the right spot."
"Behemoth, Wolf. We're getting the sensor feed from him now. Go on and say hello, we'll watch your back."
"On it."
Wolf spread out Alpha Lance as Bravo made contact. He let Behemoth handle it, and after a minute she called him. "Wolf, Behemoth. It looks like them, but the tunnel is even smaller than we thought. I guess the pirates assumed we would be almost as light as they are - the lights will fit, and probably the mediums, but definitely not any of the heavies. How do you want to play it?"
Wolf calculated quickly. If Behemoth was right, that left him the Shadow Hawk, Centurion, Phoenix Hawk, and the Locusts against what should be a lance of light 'Mechs and potentially infantry in a close-quarters knife fight with no room to maneuver on the enemies' home turf. The lights lost a lot of viability when they couldn't maneuver, so sheer weight of metal should win the day, but it got a lot dicier if the Centurion's autocannon - their only heavy short-range weapon - jammed again.
He grimaced and pulled up the maps again, looking for options.