----- 1 Day Later -----
Date: November 13, 3016
Location: Dixie
Title: Good Fighters
Author: Jason Schmetzer
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: In the wee hours of the 13th, Sim Pollock of Zeta Battalion surveils the entrenched Lyran line between the Dragoon line of advance and Beta’s position at Depot Z34. He ponders the tactical situation – just punching a hole through the Lyran lines for Beta to extract would be doable, but would force them to leave their booty-laden DropShips at the depot.
Over at the depot, Isabel Ghent and Vera Holmes oversee technicians who are using the time to maximize their haul from the depot, dumping low value goods for more expensive loads. Ghent wants to hit the Lyrans in the flank once the Zetas engage, but Holmes cautions her to remember that the mission is the extraction of supplies, not engaging the Lyrans.
Back at Zeta, Jamison rages against Terrell, demanding an attack, while Captain Bancroft advocates trying to draw the Lyrans out of their fixed positions. Sim Pollock lays out a plan to flank them, rather than hitting the “long wall” of Lyran Assault ‘Mechs head on. Terrell rejects the idea as being too sneaky – more befitting the Seventh Kommando or Black Widows. In order to preserve the Zeta’s reputation as the irresistible force, she orders her troops to hit the Lyrans where they’re strongest and demoralize them by smashing through.
In the Lyran lines, Timothy Elgar prepares his battalion to meet the Zeta charge, already dreaming of the career advancement he’ll achieve from beating the Zetas at their own game. The Zetas come in and try to soften the Lyran line with an intense long-range missile bombardment, while the Arcturans respond in kind. When it becomes clear that the missile barrage won’t shift the LCAF, Zeta charges.
As Arcturan casualties mount, Elgar decides not to pull his reserves out of their prepared positions, trusting instead in the minefields – which slow the Dragoon advance, breaking up their line. As Zeta slows, the Arcturans and Dixie Militia advance, targeting Zeta’s leading command lance. Pollock advises pulling back, but Terrell rejects that, and urges Zeta to bull through.
In the Lyran lines, Hauptmann-Kommandant Elgar is savoring his victory when unexpected news reaches him – Colonel Hugo, judging the battle already won, has recalled several of his supporting battalions to resume the siege of Depot Z34. As Zeta continues to charge in and the heavy tanks begin to retreat, Elgar calls forward his remaining reserves.
As the battle rages, the Lyran lines begin to show the strain. Elgar tries to counteract the trend by taking out Colonel Terrell’s Marauder II. The Zetas pause in their firing, and Elgar silently wills them to retreat. At first the Zetas resume their firing with doubled intensity, but then begin to withdraw. Elgar is relieved, but also frustrated that he can’t pursue and destroy them, since Hugo stripped off his support battalions.
Zeta, now under the Sim Pollock’s brevet command, tells his battered battalion that it’s not over. They’re going back in.
At Depot Z34, Hugo congratulates Elgar on stopping Zeta, and tells him that he and his troops will now repeat their assault on Beta, this time with full ammo loads. Before Elgar can tell Hugo how bad this plan is, a messenger bursts in with news that Zeta has loaded onto its DropShip (the WDS Hecate) and is en-route to the depot. The DropShip’s jets even now are making the night brighter than daylight over the Lyran field camp, as the Zetas execute a combat drop directly atop the LCAF HQ.
Beta charges out of the depot and slams into the Lyran lines, seeking to open a hole for Zeta to extract to the depot, where the Hecate has just landed next to Beta’s Overlord. In the chaotic camp, Hugo tells Elgar to press the attack, and is flabbergasted when Elgar informs him that there’s no chance of victory without the defensive lines and preparations they enjoyed on the road to Posh, not with the LCAF forces spread across four kilometers and the tanks arrayed for an assault on the depot. Elgar pushes his BattleMaster into a retreat towards Posh, with Sim Pollock’s Stalker in hot pursuit.
Vera and Isabel, of Beta, greet the Zetas as they arrive at the depot and begin loading aboard the DropShips. They identify themselves as the rearguard, and ask Captain Jamison if he’s in command. He informs them that Pollock is the senior company commander, and that he’s still in the thick of the battle.
Realizing that he can’t catch the faster BattleMaster, Pollock opens a channel to Elgar and tells him to be proud of what he’s accomplished, but that despite his efforts, Zeta has accomplished its mission. Elgar taunts Pollock, noting that no matter what the “mission” was, the fact remains that Zeta withdrew from the field of battle.
In the rumble seat of the BattleMaster, Hugo tells Elgar to rally his troops to assault the depot, hoping to catch the Dragoons loading onto their DropShips. Elgar refuses, noting that he’s taken more than 30% casualties while two regiments of Dixie militia are in tatters. When Hugo threatens to sink Elgar’s career with the help of friends at court, Elgar responds that the BattleROMs will vindicate him and ruin Hugo. (Since Elgar is the 17th’s commander circa 3025, it looks like Hugo’s friends weren’t able to save him.)
Notes: This section clarifies that Frank Wells was the first commander of Zeta, dying on Shiro III, making Terrell the second, dying on Dixie. Pollock is the third – dying on Hesperus II, leaving Jamison as the fourth.
A brief reminiscence by Pollock notes that “Roderick had bought his farm in 3012.” This was almost certainly Austen Roderick, one of the viewpoint characters in “Making a Name.” It looks like he survived four years in Zeta back when it was the Dragoons’ high-turnover penal unit, making it to company commander in that time.
There’s an anachronism in the Dixie Militia TO&E – a pair of Rommel tanks is noted as taking the field against Colonel Terrell. The Rommel didn’t even appear as a prototype until 3020, and was first fielded by Hansen’s Roughriders on Solaris VII sometime after that. It didn’t enter mass production until 3027, so its appearance here is at least 11 years too early.
The Zeta frenzy resembles the “Condition Feral” fighting style seen decades later on Outreach. It’s not standard operating procedure for the Dragoons to flip out when a colonel dies – as one did on New Aragon.
This was one of the most effective portrayals of Lyran “social generals” in the fiction. Rather than just telling us Hugo is incompetent, Jason shows us clearly what’s lacking in the Lyran command structure, and how much a desire for personal glory and career advancement makes tactical decisions suffer. One wonders if Colonel Hugo’s friends at court include members of House Hogarth. (Thomas Hogarth doesn’t enter the Nagelring until 3023, but his father is apparently influential at this juncture, due to mining interests.)
Many authors have “pet units” that they cover in depth. Stackpole focused on the Kell Hounds. Victor Milan had the 17th Recon. William Keith had the Gray Death Legion. And Robert Charrette had Wolf’s Dragoons. However, Jason Schmetzer has done a great job of adopting the Dragoons as his own. Whereas Charrette focused primarily on Jaime and his immediate circle in “Wolves on the Border” and “Wolf Pack,” Jason has done justice to Zeta (“Making a Name,” “Good Fighters,” and “The Last Day of Zeta”) and the Black Widows (“The Memory of Pain”). He also covers the Dragoons in “Feral,” “Hector,” “Night Terrors,” “The Day After,” and “A Thing to be Done.” To my mind, this makes the Dragoons as much Jason’s as Charrette’s at this point.