Low Orbit
Planet X
15 Jan 3146
Sgt. Onel "Limbo" Limcangco watched his HUD with mild excitement. Pre-drop was always nerve-wracking and he exercised the breathing techniques that kept his heart-rate down. As orbital drops went, this was going to be a complicated one, owing to the special circumstances of the mission. Limbo's Squad and all the rest of the Ghost BattleArmor Company, callsign "Ghost", by tradition, were going in the first wave, and would be the first ones to touch the ground.
Under other circumstances, such as the presence of active enemy forces, the BattleMechs, callsign "Ranger", also by tradition, would go first, to help soak up some of the damage and give the smaller and less armored units a chance to hit dirt, form up and find some cover. Today, however, there had been no sign of anyone even near the dropzone. This afforded the Ghost Rangers an opportunity to go in quiet and with minimum fuss.
Limbo ran another diagnostic check. The time to determine if a critical system in either his Ghost BattleArmor or the DropPod was going to fail was now. As much as it would have killed him to miss a drop, Limbo knew better than to throw himself and his gear away on some broken piece of kit.
Everything looked A-OK.
"Two minutes!" came the voice of Ghost 1-1, or "Ghost Actual", Cpt. Belchoir "Rook" Ruchir, over the Company channel. Two minutes meant that, basically, come Hell or high water, the drop was a go.
Technically, although the Ghost BattleArmor Company was in the first wave of troops to touch ground, they were not the first ones to go down there and take a look. The Waneta LAM flight, callsign "Wayfarer", had, actually, been the first ones to enter the atmosphere proper and go down to the surface. They performed lightning fast overflights of the LZ, then shifted to land-air mode and quick-cruised over suspicious locations to scan out potential trouble spots.
It was a dangerous job, as they would be almost sure to draw the wrath of any enemy anti-air assets they might uncover. Fortunately for them, they would not be required to destroy any of those assets, but call in the BattleArmor, and possibly Mech, fire that would. Both they and code-word "Vagrant", the Zhen Niao EW Craft, were providing most of the imagery and data.
A new status update from Vagrant's Hyperspectral Imager, while not as good as a look from up close, reassured Limbo that the Wanetas were in position to check any ground forces that had been missed in the overflights and scans. Data feeds were up and reception was 5x5. Ready for drop.
Ghost 2-1, Master Sgt. Gudrun "Papa" Papanicolaou, called out for his Platoon's ready status when Ghost Two's turn in the checklist came.
"Ghost Two! Sound off!"
When it was his turn, Limbo called out his part in the ritual.
"Ghost 2-2! Ready for drop!"
The Ghosts completed their pre-drop final check. 30 seconds. He could feel the inertial change of the DropShip's final-minute braking maneuver. There was nothing to do but wait, and breathe.
Then came the voice of "Ranger Actual", Lt. Col. Storm Douglass, greenlighting the whole parade.
"Ghost Rangers! Drop! Drop! Drop!"
Shoom! Limbo was suddenly in free fall as his DropPod was ejected away from the DropShip, callsign "Drifter", into the very upper limits of the atmosphere-space interface. He, the other 15 BattleArmor members of his Company, and their 4 Anhur-Ps, with 2-person crews, quickly approached terminal velocity in teardrop-shaped DropPods, gravity embracing them in it's grip. He glanced at how the fall pattern was shaping up on his HUD. Everything looked good.
Timing was critical. In the next 4-5 minutes, several things had to happen correctly and in the right order. Limbo had the first couple of those minutes to continue to watch the line-up. Individual BattleArmor Pods fell just a bit slower, in the windy altitudes, than larger and heavier Anhur's, and so they had gone out first in squads, followed by the VTOLs in pairs. This allowed the Company to enter the final stage in roughly two flattened, parallel lines, platoon and VTOL, each.
The Purifier and Taranis Companies, callsigns "Gypsy", "Nomad" and "Rambler", would come next, in wave two. The difference being that those BattleArmor units would drop buttoned-up inside their Anhurs, to disembark after the VTOLs were clear of the DropPods and maneuvering under their own power, sketching an approximate box around the corners of the area that the Battalion was to secure. Unlike the Ghost Company, those suits didn't have specially designed BattleArmor VTOL thruster packs that allowed a suit to fly alongside a Anhur. It would accomplish little to deny those Squads the additional mobility afforded by staying mounted. In this sense, Ghost Company acted as a Pathfinder tactical element for the whole circus.
Below, skimming the treetops in land-air configuration, the Wanetas circled the field, playing their sensors over every nook and cranny to detect potential trouble. Corkscrewing down, roughly level with, and at the same rate of fall as the DropPods, CAS Flight "Vagabond", composed of two Scytha AeroSpace fighters, warded the dropping units against air interception. Up above, doing the same for Drifter, was the Interceptor flight, "Rover", composed of 2 Ostrogoth AeroSpace fighters. If there was opposition, the guns of all the AeroSpace elements, and the Wanetas, could be brought into play, and no one was without some kind of covering fire support.
This was the way you did it to prevent a catastrophe.
Before Limbo had time to appreciate all this, consciously, though he did by second nature, training, and briefing, Rook announced the next phase. They were near enough to the ground to be rid of the confining Pods.
"Ghost Company! Blow your Pods!"
Papa repeated the order for his Squad, as did the other Platoon and VTOL Flight Leaders. Limbo activated the system that would section his Pod and propel the pieces clear of his suit.
Snap! Crackle! Pop!
All that remained was the drag chute that would help to slow his rate of descent. It's purpose was limited, only to slow a dropping unit temporarily, so that when Limbo kicked in his suit's thruster pack, he wouldn't run the risk of overtaxing the motors before he was safely close enough to the ground to survive the fall, should one or both of the vectored thrust modules fail. The principle was the same for the Anhurs, it would allow them to spool up their own engines for a few moments and achieve an acceptable flight profile and angle of attack before they cut the chute loose. He felt the jerk of the sudden deceleration, then made his check-in in proper order.
"Ghost 2-2! Pod clear! Chute is deployed!"
He wouldn't need the chute for long. Once his rate of fall was reduced, he could activate his pack and enter powered flight. This was a luxury that no other BattleArmor, Mech or Vehicle had, except the Anhurs, and made Ghost BattleArmor somewhat special.
After a few seconds, Rook gave the final order of the dropping-from-orbit part, and the first of the what-we-are-here-to-do part.
"Ghost Company! Free to maneuver!"
This was it. All the Ghost Company units were now free to maneuver under the own power and deploy out to their assigned positions to prepare the area for the next wave. Limbo checked his geopositioning map, fed from his own sensors, those of their Anhurs, the Wanetas and the Hyperspectral Imaging feed coming from the Zhen Niao. Some of that data was probably being fed from Drifter as well as the large DropShip prepared to enter the atmosphere for it's own fast descent.
Right on target.
Although senior in rank to Papa, for the purpose of the maneuver, Warrant Officer Tierney Allen, pilot of the Squad's Anhur-P, deferred to him as Squad Two's ground force leader.
"Papa, I'm leading us out to our position."
"Roger that, Ghost 2-5. Squad! Form up on 2-5 and let's move!", Papa responded in kind
The squad made it's formation with two troopers slightly below and to each flank of the advancing Anhur-P stealth bird. They moved out to their corner of the LZ 'box' and took up their post. Doctrine called for the BattleArmor to ground, find some cover, and spot for the next wave of forces that would form the sides of the box.
The Anhur-P established a treetop orbit roughly over the top of their position, the pilot and gunner on vigilant scan to spot any approaching forces. Armed with 2 LRM-15 launchers and a Medium Pulse Laser and protected by a Gaurdian ECM system with Vehicular Stealth, an Anhur-P could carry up to 5 and a half tons, enough for the 4 troopers of Limbo's squad with some room to spare. It hit almost as hard as a medium sized Mech, and could be sneaky doing it. Mechs, of course, even small ones, were much more durable. Once detected and locked up, an Anhur could be something of a glass hammer and was incapable of withstanding sustained punishment. As a BA transport with some limited fire support and EW capability, however, it was unmatched.
Limbo and his Squad grounded in a copse of evergreen-looking trees and began scanning down their sector. They listened as WO Allen checked in with Wayfarer. Limbo watched one Wanata sail by out at the limit of his scanning range. Roughly twice the mass of an Anhur-P, a Waneta LAM in land-air mode had roughly the same flight profile. Coordination between the 2 Wanetas and the Anhur flight leaders was important to ensure maximum coverage of the ground. Higher overhead, the circling CAS flight was on call to rain doom upon anyone that dared to oppose.
There wasn't anybody there to take the dare, of course, all according to plan and intel, with one small exception: Unknown to Ghost Two, their chosen grounding spot was already occupied by a den of native mammals. They had been briefed on potential encounters with the wildlife, and Limbo had seen a short piece that included some video of the creatures while they had been burning towards the planet at one of the mandated 'orientation' sessions. It had mostly consisted of small groups sitting in a Squad Room watching public tri-vid news and entertainment shows that intel was picking up. One of the rougher running jokes had been the difficulty of telling the difference between some of the GeneCaste personalities and said wildlife. In a few cases, it took more than a passing glance.
Although this society did not hold itself as constrained, in regards to genetic engineering, as compared to the experience of any of the Rangers by a long-shot, there was a strong prohibition, punishable by severe penalties, against modification of the wildlife native to the world. By an overwhelming margin, where the GeneCastes used genetic splicing, it was from themselves and Terran-based stocks they had brought with them when the worlds of the system were colonized and before contact was lost.
This was held to be necessary for survival, as the delicate balances of any life sustaining planetary ecology that had evolved it's own higher order animals might not remain life sustaining, or not in any really useful way, with too much heavy handed treatment. It was a basic guiding principle of any colonized world. That ethic, of course, did not apply to what the locals did for themselves, or so it seemed to some of the Ghost Rangers. Although fairly open minded and optimistic as a rule, there were some intolerant attitudes. But they were Rangers first and obeyed their orders.
Ghost 2-3, Sgt. 1C Jung-Hye Chong, was the first to notice the partially covered opening of the animal's den. The creatures were roughly equivalent to Terran mountain lions, or cougars, as they are sometimes called. Unarmored and unarmed, a human would be in mortal danger of an encounter with one. In BattleArmor, however, the troopers had little to fear. Sgt. Chong probed the opening of the den with the AP Gauss Rifle attached to his right arm, careful not to foul his barrel.
"Papa, we've got something here."
"Don't make a commotion. What is it?" Papa looked over his shoulder from where he crouched in defilade behind a fallen log.
"Looks more like an animal den than an infantry spider hole. You can see where the animals burrow under the branches through the snow..." Limbo answered as Chong continued to probe.
Suddenly, before Limbo could finish answering, the snow and branch covered opening to the den exploded outward in a minor flurry. One of the creatures came leaping outward, crashing into Chong and knocking him off balance and onto his back. Chong warded off the animal's jaws with an armored glove and muzzle-thumped it with his Gauss. Little more than a grunt had escaped his lips.
"Hold your fire!" Papa called out over the Squad channel. WO Allen heard it and saw the flurry of activity down below.
"What's going on down there? What have you got? Spider hole?" WO Allen was eager for action.
The Anhur-P swung over laterally and it's gunner, Pvt. 1C Hanna Johanson, rotated the Medium Pulse Laser towards the den.
"If you get back I can drill it," she said.
"Negative, negative," Papa replied, "we'll move." He barked an order to the rest of the squad, "Kick it off him."
Limbo stepped forward and delivered a gridiron-football-like punting kick to the animal's hind-quarter with a BattleArmor boot, not hard enough to kill it, he hoped, but hard enough to get it off Chong. The animal flew a meter or two from the impact, with a snarling yelp, landed in the snow and stopped moving. Chong rolled onto his side and got up. He didn't appear to be hurt, the creature's fangs and claws could barely scratch Ghost BattleArmor. He shook off his wounded pride quickly, like a Ranger should.
"Damn," he said, "How many more are in there?"
Pvt. 1C Isam stalked over to the animal and inspected it visually.
"It's still alive. I think you knocked it out, Limbo."
"Good."
Papa spoke up and settled the matter.
"Okay, Rangers, listen up, this is what we're going to do. We're going to let this alone and displace over to that other group of trees 30 meters northwest, you see it?"
"Aye. Roger that."
The Squad stalked, like namesakes, their mimetic armor shifting in subtle ways to the white, brown and green, around a small clearing into another group of the evergreen-looking trees and settled into cover. This time they were careful to check for animal dens.
Hanna watched their movement from her perch in the Anhur-P's gunner station as she scanned the area for targets for her MPL.
"Welcome to Planet X. Enjoy your stay at our beautiful new home, and please, don't mind the cat."
That earned her a guffaw from Papa, "The cat was here first, Private."
Everyone knew weapons fire, or killing one of the animals out of hand, would be unnecessary and contrary to the goal of keeping their presence here as quiet as possible. The landing of the DropShip this afternoon and the construction of Camp Wilderness was going to stir up enough of the forest already and it was better that all the scouting possible be accomplished before those disruptive events. Besides, what was the point of disturbing things for no good reason? In fact, it gave Papa an idea. He went on to recommend to the Captain that a detail be set out to relocate all the ground animals like these as they set up camp.
The suggestion was so good to the Rangers, and word of Ghost Two's encounter so positively received, as it made it's way around the arriving forces, that it traveled all the way up the chain to Ranger Actual, who consequently and immediately made it a Standing Order for the whole Task Force to defend the native flora and fauna, except where it may endanger their objectives. Papa and Ghost Company Squad Two were officially appointed the Task Force "Park Wardens", to be referred to as "Warden" while on a rotating duty, and invested with some authority to see the Standing Order carried out, in the same manner as MP "Officers".
At an all-hands dinner and gathering celebrating the dedication of Camp Wilderness, after Camp construction had really begun in earnest, they were presented with official "Park Warden" badges to be worn on their fatigues while on duty. It was a title and duty each of them accepted solemnly and earned them the status of minor celebrities.
Warden Chong was once observed planting his unarmored self squarely in the path of a CON-9 ConstructionMech, driven by an impatient pilot, during a heated argument and threatening to call in the rest of the Ghost Company in their suits to pry that pilot out of the Mech, strip him naked, and make him stand an all night watch, before he would allow the Mech to destroy a den of woodland mammals that had not yet been relocated.
Although the CON-9 pilot's identity was kept anonymous, for the sake of the unit, there had been no doubt at all among the Rangers that the outcome of that unfortunate scenario would have been one shivering, and possibly frostbitten, Mech-qualified pilot and one CON-9 ConstructionMech in need of cockpit repairs.
Ghost Company Squad Two had become the Task Force's first, and unofficial, heroes.
