When it comes to planning for the future, it is important to always keep a few things in mind.
First; there is no such thing as perfect intel. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot or a liar.
Second; no matter how in depth a plan, no matter how genius its creator, random chance can, has, and will screw it over.
Third; the enemy always has a vote.
So it was that one single day after I started doing my thing that somebody else elected to play the fuck-around game that made the entire thing moot.
No, I wasn't annoyed at all.
Alright. From the beginning.
After the continuous clusterfuck of... basically the entire past three months, one of the groups that had come to Rubicon had a brainwave.
They all came here looking for Coral, right? Well, who would actually know where to find Coral? The PCA was one option, but they wouldn't exactly be eager to share.
But there was another option! A group that definitely had access to Coral- and enough of it that they could afford to just throw it away in food growth! Don't those dirty bumpkins know how much that's worth?!
Mmm. Yeah.
So, one of the Corps decided to attack an RLF position.
As one may have imagined, the situation immediately devolved into a shitshow.
"New plan." I spoke. "Zatsuba Inc, one of the two remaining established Corps on Rubicon, has decided to stir the hornet's nest. They have attacked the West-Central Belius Checkpoint, an RLF position that guards entry into the civilian heartland. According to Flatwell, they're after the logistics personnel, who they believe will be able to lead them to where the RLF is keeping its Coral supply." It wouldn't, of course. The PCA had already tried that several times, and any such information was on a strict need-to-know basis, with people and routes changing on the regular so that any information gathered would be rendered useless very quickly.
But the Corps didn't know that, and the lesson that the RLF wasn't just a bunch of backworlds hillbillies had not yet fully sunk in for them.
"The RLF is handling the Checkpoint. Dolmayan is already on his way to visit Zatzuba's assaulting force personally. Your job is to clean up the backlines. You'll be hitting their established position, and you'll be cracking the place wide open. You will be operating under the expectation that stealth, while ideal, is no longer a priority. Your only standing orders are to deny as much information about yourselves as is reasonable. While the PCA is likely going to be more focused on the actual battlefront for the moment, the lack of Firestorm cover means that it is possible you will be observed from orbit, and, in turn, that the PCA will deploy on you. Any questions?"
Resounding silence greeted me. That, as well clenched hands and gritted teeth, because these outsiders had just dared to make an attack on their people. A sentiment I understood, though also one we couldn't allow to affect us too severely.
I wasn't worried too much about that, at least. My Firekeepers may have been new, but professionalism had been an important thing I had focused on during their training.
"One squad will be deploying initially." I continued, after a few moments when it became abundantly clear to me that they weren't going to ask anything. "The rest will be held in reserve in case there are any complicating matters. I don't expect there to be much that can reasonably threaten you, but don't get sloppy. Go get suited up."
Zatsuba is one of the several Corps that had set up on Rubicon. They were not the Corp that managed to get itself savaged early on, but they had absorbed a decent amount of the assets of said Corp. This offset a significant amount of their losses, and now they were tying for second place on "Most Powerful Outsider".
They were also, as far as I could determine, not actually as high up on morale as their position would have indicated.
They came in expecting significantly less trouble than what they had actually faced, that much was certain. Their combat groups were not hardened professionals, they were Corp security armed with powerful technology that had evidently done most of their training under the assumption that they would be more capable than anything they were going to be dealing with.
Then they came to Rubicon, and the planet had chewed them up and spat them out.
With nearly a full quarter gone by, it was clear to me that the accountants had looked at the ledgers and had promptly shat themselves. Not only had they spent much more money than they intended, it was every indication that they were going to continue spending much more money than they intended.
Coupled with the low morale and dwindling assets, they launched a final scheme in order to make something out of this whole mess. All they needed was just a bit of Coral, and at least one group on the planet had it.
Hence, they launched an attack on the RLF in an attempt to claim at least some of that Coral, and in doing so, they had doomed themselves beyond any hope of recovery.
Were there more ideal circumstances to reveal the Firekeepers? Yes. Was I doing this anyway? Yes.
"Alpha Squad. You are cleared to proceed."
Five ACs suddenly went active, burning out of their cover. It was another standard setup this time, Melee, Scout, Support, and two ranged. Learning from the previous engagements, Alpha Scout had elected to take a pair of Back Boosters for distance-closing, while everyone else was equipped with their full, range-appropriate loadouts. It was effective, after all.
Zatsuba had decided to set up in proximity to a Grid, though not actually within it. They came down on a ship, see, and had landed it as their base of operations. It was a bit too big and awkwardly shaped to connect directly to a Grid without keeping its Skyrmion Engines permanently active, and, well, that wasn't economically viable for them.
Ergo, it was at the base of a Grid, which provided them with all the raw resources they thought they'd ever need, and easy access to any number of useful things.
As one final additional benefit, the Grid covered the sky above, preventing easy satellite monitoring from a 45 degree angle above them. This made for a decent blind spot when the central pillar of the Grid blocked one side and their ship's own bulk blocked another.
Was it particularly useful?
Eh. Maybe if you were trying to hide a container or two being loaded. So, in most cases, no, but if that container was for Coral...
Well, it didn't matter now.
"Long-range observation indicates multiple weapon emplacements in their base. Expected engagement range of two kilometres." I informed them.
I kept an eye out on their signals, waiting for the moment that they realised they were about to be engaged. It took a little longer than I was expecting, but it did come, and I promptly slammed the jamming into place.
I could actually see the results. A brief pause as their MTs stopped, before the entire place kicked into gear, like a kicked ant-hill.
The gun emplacements turned even as the MTs went and armed themselves. I saw energy begin to charge in some of the emplacements, but others just thundered with kinetic rounds, starting to spew bullets.
The squad scattered, splitting into five. Melee and Scout both went forwards, arcing away from each other at first. Alpha Scout engaged her boosters, and went screaming forwards at blindingly fast speeds.
A significant portion of those emplacements went to track Alpha Scout, but keeping a lock on something moving that damned quickly was no easy feat, and even the ones that did achieve it couldn't match the mobility of Alpha Scout.
And once she was close?
Red light flashed, and bolts of Coral reduced the emplacements to so much scrap metal. The MTs responded with their own fire, but that honestly did more damage to their own ship than it did to Alpha Scout.
She probably could have handled it alone, honestly.
The rest of the squad involved themselves shortly afterwards.
Alpha Melee was the second one in, Coral Oscillator already charging and ready to wipe out an unfortunate target. A hail of missiles went over their head from Alpha Support and both Rangers, targeting the backline and causing severe chaos. Red, blue, orange, and smoke went every direction, the pitched screaming of Coral synchronising with the dangerous hum of lasers and thunderous roars of kinetic rounds, even as missiles added their own sound to the symphony of destruction. MTs vanished one after another, wiped out with great precision. They were better than ever now, after enjoying Dolmayan's direct attention.
I was quite proud to see the results of their efforts in so spectacular a fashion.
It took just over two minutes for them to finish everything off. They had a lot of MTs, good positioning, and considerable amounts of cover in the form of their current base, but none of that would stop an AC, let alone five.
The final part of their mission was to destroy the ship itself.
The squad wisely moved away before they tried to finish that one off. Once they had a few hundred metres between them and the ship, Alpha Support fired a volley of missiles at pre-targeted points along the ship, before turning around and getting the fuck out of there.
The missiles slammed into weapon ports, ammunition stores, the keel of the ship, and the fuel cells. Any of these would be spectacularly bad, and all of them at the same time?
The ammo cooked off, and the ship would have cracked in half just from that if the fuel cells detonating didn't do the job, starting a massive burn that consumed the entire base in a blaze of flames. Shrapnel went everywhere, and one of the Rangers had to dodge to the side to avoid a piece of bulkhead from slamming directly into them.
"Mission complete." I stated. "Prepare to return-" An alert pinged, and I focused my attention on it. Long-ranged radar, paired with skywatch systems...
My eyes were redirected skywards, and the cameras flicked through vision and magnifications until I caught sight of the incoming signatures.
Oh.
Well, that's less than ideal.
"Belay that." I frowned. "You've got incoming. Two PCA AH12: HC Helicopters. They'll reach your area in the next minute. Find a place with a decent amount of cover, you'll need it."
What the fuck were AH12s doing here? Subject Guard shouldn't be anywhere near here. The closest patrol was...
No. This was a pair of AH12s, without any further escort. They would have been split off specifically. Without any other escorts, the damned things were deceptively fast. Normal patrol routes would have them nowhere near here, but if the PCA had changed their routes in response to the attack on the RLF position, then they easily could have been in the vicinity. With satellite monitoring, an investigation group could be split off immediately.
Am I reading too much into this, or did the PCA just use Zatsuba as bait?
If they had, then that was remarkably and uncomfortably effective.
Still. "You'll be on a time limit. You need to kill those Helicopters as fast as possible before fading. The longer it goes, the more information the PCA will gather and the more likely more forces will deploy on your area." Fortunately, preparation was the name of the game and I had come very prepared. "Evacuation zone is WCB6."
Okay, this wasn't ideal, but it was manageable. Five ACs against a pair of AH12s meant odds well in our favour.
We could do this. The only question was if we could do it quickly enough.