----- Two Days Later -----
Date: November 14, 3024 [See Notes]
Location: Trell I
Title: Decision at Thunder Rift
Author: William H. Keith
Type: Novel (Decision at Thunder Rift)
Synopsis: Having taken over the merchant DropShip at the spaceport, Renfred Tor now faces the challenge of how to dock with his ship, the Invidious, without alerting the Combine forces on board, or worse, alerting the crew of Duke Ricol’s ship holding station only 30 minutes away. He has to take the ship without letting it get off a warning, so the plan is to time the boarding action on the Invidious to coincide with another raid by the Lancers on the spaceport to destroy the port’s communications array.
Back on Trellwan, Grayson leads his forces towards the spaceport from the west. Grayson notes that the DCMS has deployed two ‘Mech companies – one split between the Castle and Sarghad, and the other providing security at the spaceport, supported by 250 mechanized laser, rifle, and SRM infantry, with hovercraft and light tracked vehicles. Grayson plans to have the Lancers’ light ‘Mechs strike the port’s hydrogen tanks, then flee, drawing most of the Combine garrison off in pursuit, opening a path for Grayson to slip in and destroy the communications array.
The diversionary attack goes off as planned, and Grayson gets the all clear signal once his lancemates successfully reach their defensive positions on the slope leading to Thunder Rift. Concentrated fire from the defenders takes out two scout ‘Mechs, and then pre-planted explosives destroy two more, and force the others to withdraw and regroup. Lori hopes they’ll be able to hold out long enough to let Grayson carry out his mission.
Up at the jump point, the DropShip docks with the Invidious, and Tor gathers his squad, along with many of the freed militia officers, as a boarding party. They slaughter two of the Combine guards at the docking port, but one flees for the bridge to send a warning message.
On Lori’s signal, Grayson throws off his camouflage netting and proceeds to the port, ignored by the remaining defenders, who assume the Shadow Hawk is part of the DCMS garrison. All goes well until he approaches the antenna – when a missile strikes his ‘Mech in the back. Grayson turns to face Harimandir Singh’s Crusader. The two ‘Mechs engage, but Grayson manages to down the heavier machine, giving him an opportunity to destroy both the communications array and the control tower. When he returns to where he left the Crusader, he finds it gone, but is confronted by a fully functional Marauder in its stead, piloted by Lt. Grieg Vallendel.
Grayson moves to engage the pilot who killed his father, hoping to get in close where the Marauder’s particle cannons and autocannon will be inaccurate. As the battle rages, Grayson’s sensors register the Crusader approaching as well. Caught in a crossfire, the Shadow Hawk falls to the pavement and Grayson blacks out.
On the slopes of Mount Gayal, the Lancers down more DCMS ‘Mechs before being forced to withdraw when enemy force attempt to flank their position. They pull back to earthworks along the ridge in front of Thunder Rift. DCMS reinforcements soon arrive, including Duke Ricol’s personal Marauder, backed by infantry and armored vehicles. The Combine forces charge the Lancer positions, attempting to overrun their earthworks. More Combine ‘Mechs fall, but Lori’s Locust goes down hard, and Garik Enzelman is killed when a PPC bolt strikes his cockpit. Lori is only saved when Ramage dispatches three hovercraft to strike at the Marauder’s rear. Faced by a flank assault, and badly overheating, the Marauder and its support troops fall back.
As the Lancers attempt to conduct salvage and cool-down operations during the lull, they are ambushed by dozens of Combine commandos wearing thermal sneak-suits. Lori’s Locust is hit by an Inferno missile, causing her to panic and put her machine to flight.
Grayson awakens to find the Marauder looming over his Shadow Hawk. He executes a kick from a prone position, toppling the heavier machine, then flees towards the tank farm at the southeast corner of the spaceport. He punches a hole in the side of an aviation fuel tank, then fires his laser at it when the Combine ‘Mechs come near it. The Crusader is destroyed, and the Marauder is downed by the blast. Grayson prepares to kill Vallendel, but is interrupted by Lori’s panicked broadcast that she’s burning up. Grayson chooses to forego his vengeance, and instead races north to try to help Lori.
Out at the jump point, Tor has succeeded in disabling the eight DCMS guards and retaking the Invidious. Despite the Combine crew’s successful call for help, Tor realizes Grayson must have succeeded in destroying the communications array, since the Combine JumpShip nearby has, as yet, made no hostile moves. Tor orders his crew to furl the jump-sail in preparation for departure.
At Thunder Rift, Yarin’s Stinger knocks Lori’s Locust into the water, dousing the flames. The commando attack has been repulsed, but the defenders have taken casualties, and the Locust’s weapon systems and heat sinks are a wreck. Lori considers executing the contingency plan – to retreat through the Rift and make for the rendezvous point on the far side of the mountains. She tells Sgt. Ramage that they’ll have to retreat soon or be overrun, and that Grayson must be dead, or he would have been at the Rift by now.
The Combine ‘Mechs rush the Lancers’ positions en masse, but the Lancer troops pour on the fire, making the DCMS forces pay for every meter gained. Just as the Combine forces seem about to breach the earthworks, they are attacked from behind by the Shadow Hawk. Surprised by this fresh threat, the Marauder withdraws, trailing smoke, and the rest of the Combine ‘Mechs flee with it, leaving their slower auxiliaries behind to surrender.
Out at the jump point, the Kuritan JumpShip has dispatched its Union-class DropShips to investigate why the Invidious has furled its jump sail, but Tor manages to jump out of the system moments before they come into weapons range.
Meanwhile, in Sarghad, Claydon approaches the palace on a mission to take revenge for the death of his father, Berenir. During his time working at the palace, Claydon had searched the computer logs and discovered that Stannic was at the heart of the conspiracy, and the one who had sent the bandits to kill his father, had overthrown the government, and killed King Jeverid in his bed. In the throne room, Claydon sees General Adel, Captain Nolem, King Stannic, and their security escort preparing to withdraw to the Castle as news of the fiasco at Thunder Rift comes in. Claydon falls in with the group, then pulls his Stetta heavy pistol. He manages to kill Stannic and Adel before the security troops gun him down.
Notes: The climactic battles are stated as taking place two days after the battle at the spaceport.
The ‘Mechs are painted in a mish-mash of color schemes, one noted as being suitable for jungle operations. The Red Hunter Special Operations Group appears to have pulled together lone MechWarriors from all over the service, since they appear to operate without any official unit color schemes. This probably helps them when they want to pass themselves off as bandits or mercenaries.
The running battles in this climactic scene showcase just how differently heat was originally envisioned. Under even second edition BattleTech rules, each ‘Mech has at least ten heat sinks and purges waste heat fairly efficiently. A ‘Mech that goes all the way to 30 on the heat scale will shut down, but will be back to zero heat in at most 30 seconds. Here, just moving raises the heat to uncomfortable levels, and firing weapons makes it much, much worse. ‘Mechs are frequently forced to withdraw from battle as their heat levels become excessive. Physical attacks are also handled interestingly, with Grayson's Shadow Hawk managing to kick from a prone position.
This battle is also the “Crowning Moment of Awesome” for the Shadow Hawk design, which manages to take out a Marauder and Crusader, and then puts an entire Combine ‘Mech company to flight just by arriving on the scene and firing an SRM-2. In the next two installments, we’ll be looking at the official scenarios based on the fight at the DropPort and on the slopes below Thunder Rift, and seeing how FASA interpreted the battle according to their ruleset.
The Combine commandos attempt to infiltrate the Lancers’ positions using black thermal sneak-suits. Per the write-up in the Intelligence Operations Handbook, these sound like DEST Infiltration Combat Suits, which “absorb heat from the wearer’s body and bleed it evenly into the air around him, reducing his infrared silhouette.” They might also just be standard Infrared Suppression Suits (from TRO:3026), which has sensors to register the temperature in the area around the wearer and adjust the suit’s temperature to match. The IR Sneak Suit costs 7,000 C-Bills, while the full DEST suit costs 50,000.
Claydon’s Stetta pistol is interesting. A Time of War shows it as having an “F” availability rating during the Succession Wars “Unique – one of a kind or close to it.” This drops to “C” (Uncommon) by the Clan Invasion era. It’s got the same damage profile as the much more common Mydron pistol, but only half the range, with a 500% larger magazine. The gun isn’t a Star League relic – it didn’t exist in that era. My guess is that it’s a locally manufactured weapon (like the Rugan SMG), but one that was unique to Trell I, making it vanishingly rare in the rest of the Inner Sphere. After Grayson’s victory there, the local manufacturer may have signed licensing deals with other manufacturers, spreading the design across the stars.
The structure of the climactic battles seems very similar to that of "Return of the Jedi," with one battle in space, one among small armies of ground troops, and one personal duel between the rebel leader and the big-bad's lead henchman, all taking place simultaneously, and with the good guys depending on victories in one battle to enable victories in the others.
