Baker III, 11 July, 3068...
The unmistakable shape of the LCS Invincible emerged from jump.
The same force that had been over Dompaire was now at Baker 3.
Nadia Binetti didn't know where she was. She she slowly opened her eyes, and the noise was immediate and crashing. She could hear the whine of laser capacitors discharging and recharging. She could head explosions in the distance, most likly missiles impacting on armor. She could smell the ozone stench that came with repeated PPC firing. Her head hurt like someone had jammed a ferro-aluminum spike into her cranium, and her hand came away dark with blood when she touched her hair. Normally considered a very attractive woman by her fellow Clansmen, she was slightly distressed to note that there were cuts and bruises all across her face and head. But she had other things to worry about, as she slowly remembered what had happened.
Phi Galaxy was stationed on Baker 3 for now, the majority of the forces there comming off the frontlines for some refitting, repairs, and some decompression. Despite their trueborn origins, no warrior, not even a Clanner, could literally fight constantly without becoming mentally exhausted. So the Khan had pulled them back, thinking Baker 3 was a relativly safe world in the OZ. That was untill the massive Lyran battlegroup had appeared in orbit. With only their integrated aerospace cover, Binetti had allowed the Lyrans to claim the skies for themselves. Instead, she had prepared her forces to fight off whatever invaders came down. Judging from the number of dropships, she estimated 2:1 or worse odds, and she had unfortunetly been proven right. However, it seemed that the forces they'd engaged were not lining up with the number of Dropships their radar had said were coming.
Her forces were almost universally veterans of the various engagements against the Lyrans. That was good: the last thing she needed in a lopsided fight was a trinary's worth of newbloods with no real combat experiance. They had been confident, as all clanners were when faced with Successor House armies, that they would prevail despite their being heavily outnumbered and outgunned. The 8th Provisional Garrison Cluster had ranged ahead, being the less experianced of her 3 Clusters. They had reported being heavily outgunned, but had done well, achieving a 1.5:1 kill ratio in their favor against one of the Lyran regiments. When the other 2 Clan Clusters hit the already damaged regiment, it had begun falling back, but was quickly stiffened by the addition of the main body of Lyran forces.
Evelyn Mosovich...
"Fall Back you con trai của một con điếm!" the Falcons had successfully decapitated the ground force command staff, leaving only two Generals-and no army functions with two generals. Evelyn Mosovich was actually, technically, senior to Tony Liddle-she'd served in the war of '39, and was one of a few dozen armour crew survivors of the debacle of Tamar during the first Clan invasion.
But in a feudal state, Barons do not give orders to Dukes, Tankers do not order 'mechwarriors. It simply isn't done.
The Second, Third, and Fourth Tamar Cavaliers, therefore, seeing what they believed to be a weakness, were charging headlong into a trap.
"Hammer, this is Banshee, shift fire six zero west, range ten kilometers, high explosive and incendiary-Liddle's going off the reservation but I'm damned if I'm going to let them close that trap, OVER." Her voice over the comms was a hissing sibilant buzz, something between a chainsaw's growl and speaker feedback. "All Four-Sixteen units and Romeo, continue retrograde advance, Tiếng sét, pattern bombardment along northwest arc from nine to twelve, pattern is curtain, HE, Cluster and Incendiary, retrograde pattern at rate Gamma, I want them to eat shell all the way in when they realize we're not advancing on Guttenkradsburg, Acknowledge."
Unlike Liddle and his freinds, Soloman Thurl of the Seventh Tamar Cavaliers wasn't raised among the mores of the Nobility or at the knees of social generals-the man knew how to take orders and didn't need to worry about society's civilian pecking order. "Banshee Six, this is Vampire six actual, I've got Toads coming out my ass over here, can we have some of that suppressing fire, pretty-please, Over."
"Tiếng sét Charlie and Delta, you're on the tacnet for Vampire, Acknowledge, and Execute, Over." the artillery for the 416, like most of its conventional forces, were drawn from training camps on Kowloon, Arluna, and Winter-their Thumpers were not the biggest guns in the inventory, but they were quick firing, with decent range, and being mechanized infantry based units, their detection footprint was small. "Con quạ, I want ordinance delivery covering the stragglers from White Knight and Pikeman, tell me you've got birds ready to strike, Over."
"Banshee, this is Con qua six, mail is in-bound at Mach, do we have flashlights on the ground, over?" Charlene Qua's voice crackled over the channel.
"Set seekers and look for the lightshow, Con qua, Over."
"Banshee, this is Hammer Two, we've lost contact with Eisenjaeger and Mace, bounce says they're caught in a crack, over."
"Follow your ****** orders, Hammer Two. Liddel's made his decision but we're on recall, I will NOT waste more men trying to recover an officer who's chosen to commit suicide. continue retrograde advance to rally Delta, OVER."
duty, or honour? eventually every commanding officer faces this choice-to violate their duty, or to violate their morals.
Nadia Binetti
That was when Nadia had been hit, a gauss rifle round smashing into the torso of her Timber Wolf, dangerously near the cockpit. It had overloaded her gyro, knocking the mech off it's feet, and casuing her to hit her head on the way down. Seeing that her mech was still fully functional, having fallen forewards, but not breaching any of the armor, she slowly righted the battered mech. The situation was not something she was prepared for.
Fully half her command had been downed so far, the Lyrans pressing the Clanners hard, teaming up to bracket single Clan machines with horrendous fire, and overwhealming their armor. The sight of her brave warriors being brought low by such dishonorable, stravag, freebirth scum was enraging. She could feel her ire for these Lyran dogs soar to new heights. To her left, Star Colonel David of the 1st Falcon Swoop Cluster was hit simultaneously by no less than 5 PPCs, coming from 3 mechs her computer tagged as Awesomes. David was an excellent warrior, and she knew that he was supposed to be heading back to the homeworlds in 2 weeks to compete for his Binetti bloodname.
"Warriors of Phi Galaxy! Rally on me, we show these Lyran dogs what a true warrior can do! No glory is to be had through ganging up on a mech with 3:1 odds! We shall show them the strength of our honor, and we shall destroy as many of these stravag freebirths as possible. The Lyrans will not soon forget the horrors they experianced in trying to take Baker 3 from the talons of the Falcons!" She switched her com system to an open broadcast, wanting the Lyrans to hear her next words.
"Hear me Lyran scum! I am Nadia Binetti, Galaxy Commander of Clan Jade Falcon, and i shall be your doom! We shall rip every last, freebirth," she triggered her LRM 20 racks, pumping over 30 missiles into the cockpit assembly of one of the 3 Awesomes," scumbag from his mech! We will kill 5 of you for each warrior of our own lost this day!" She fired her twin ER large lasers, amputating the right leg from a Lyran Centurion. Her warriors were suddenly around her, opening fire with everything they had, blasting craters of armor, sending limbs flying, dropping Lyran mechs left and right. The return fire from the Lyrans was disjointed, not fully expecting to be counter attacked when they had nearly broken the Clanners mere moments before.
Evelyn
"Consolidate, Three-Deuce and Four One Six, cover retrograde movements of Seven, and surviving elements of Fourth Tamar Cavaliers, and ****** where in hell is my ****** TAC AIR??"
