Asuncion, Free Zion
December 14th, 3057Major Silver stood outside the medical bay. Inside, Joe knelt beside the bed Erin lay in. He could hear that they were talking, so he kept his distance. Clearing his throat to announce his presence, Lt. Faller turned around and held up a finger, indicating that he needed another moment. As they concluded their conversation, Joe stood and kissed Erin on the forehead before turning to leave the bay.
Major Silver walked in and stood next to her bed. “You alright, Captain?”
Grimacing, Erin nodded. “Aye sair. I’ll be fine.”
Kevin looked at the floor as he spoke. “I’d like your permission to pilot
Macha for a bit. Unfortunately,
Mercury II doesn’t have hands and right now we need all the hands out there we can get.”
Erin nodded and answered with a single word. “Aye.” She never looked at him, embarrassed at her stupidity.
Now very uncomfortable, Major Silver just nodded. “Alright. Well, take it easy Captain. We need you.” At that, he left to help with the recovery operations.
Fifteen minutes later, both intact
Wraith BattleMechs were being dragged into the large barn by farmhands driving tractors while the debris from the two destroyed ‘Mechs was picked up or buried in the topsoil. As they worked furiously, Major Silver piloted McKenna’s
Thunderbolt using the Technician’s maintenance codes. Though the weapons would not activate, it was enough that the hands worked and the ‘Mech was mobile.
As he carried the
Jackal’s intact right arm to the barn, his comms toned. “CIC to Silver Actual. We’re picking up an airborne target at extreme range bearing one-seven-eight. We can’t tell for certain yet, but it looks to be a Legionnaire
Union at high altitude.”
Major Silver felt a shiver down his spine. “ETA?”
PFC Wages had a tone of uncertainty. “Not sure sir. It’s moving very slowly and not directly toward us. Looks like a search pattern maybe? At a guess I’d say 20 or 30 minutes before it is overhead. They don’t seem to be in a big hurry, so they’re probably taking their time to look very carefully at the ground.”
Nodding, Kevin replied. “Inform the Silver Eagles that we’ll be leaving immediately. Mister Jefferys will have to disembark and finish the job without us. Have Commander Hoffmeyer douse the lights and plot a course perpendicular to the target. Silver Actual out.”
As Major Silver entered the bridge of the
Areion a few short minutes later, the darkness made him have to pause and let his eyes adjust. Joe waited just outside the bridge. “What do we have, Commander?” he asked, almost whispering as though the enemy might hear him.
Drey Hoffmeyer never looked away from his instruments. “We’re heading two-six-five at 73 knots. The Dropship is still over 100 kilometers south and closing on our Drop Zone at under 50 knots.”
Doing a quick mental calculation Major Silver replied. “That puts them over an hour out, doesn’t it? When did they slow up?”
“Just before we got underway.” Commander Hoffmeyer answered. “We also detected several BattleMechs dropping, so they likely have troops on the ground now under their position.”
Major Silver nodded in the dark. “How long until we pass over the horizon from their line of sight?”
Hoffmeyer looked down at his navigational plot. “At their current altitude, if they keep their course and speed we’ll break LOS in under twenty minutes.”
Kevin patted the airship pilot’s shoulder. “Very good, Commander. Keep this heading for at least another half-hour then. I’ll have a new course for you by then.” At that, he left the bridge.
Captain Zimmerman responded to Major Silver’s knock. “Enter.”
Major Silver and Lt. Faller entered the spacious quarters that Captain Zimmerman had taken as his living and working area. The space was heavily cluttered with data files, hardcopy printouts of seemingly endless data, and other intelligence data. “Captain, I need to know what you want us to do with your prisoners.”
Zimmerman came out of the separate bedroom carrying a hardcopy file. “Sorry Major. I’ve been going over data reports for our organization trying to figure out what would be best. Please, have a seat.” Looking around, the two found space on the couch and sat down across from their Zion liaison. “I’ve been reviewing the data and I think I found a good place we can rest and refit.” He looked up at the Major. “Can we divert to Coronel Oviedo, Major?”
Not yet that familiar with the planets geography, Kevin turned to Lt. Faller. “Joe?”
Pulling out his Compad, he pulled up the data file. “Population 14.5 million, 1.1 million loyalists, about 1,600 kilometers north of here.”
Major Silver nodded in thought. “We could get there sometime around mid-morning tomorrow. It’s feasible, Captain.”
Zimmerman read from a file he had in hand. “We control the city for all intents and purposes. There’s a political team there, left behind by the Third Legionnaires when they made their first landings, but they’ve been... contained. We feed them a line they want to hear and conduct business as usual there, according to my reports.”
Major Silver stood. “Then Coronel Oviedo it is, Captain. We’ll get you there by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. In the mean time, we all need to catch some rest.” Shaking the Zion representative’s hand, he added, “I hope what we did this morning was worth it, Captain.”
Zimmerman nodded. “So do I, Major. So do I.”
As Major Silver walked into the Mess facility at 1015 hours local time, he saw Lt. Vahzenov and Captain Thorpe already eating breakfast. Walking up to the serving counter, he turned to Private Dooling who was serving breakfast. “Good morning, Private. Four trays, if you please.”
Kent Dooling, one of the hundreds of Negushevo natives serving with the Silver Eagles, blanched at the order. “
Four trays, sire... uh... sir?”
Lt. Vahzenov overheard the order. “If you are
zat hungry Kevin, you can finish my tray.” He joked.
Turning slightly, Major Silver chuckled. “It’s not for me, Vaz. It’s for our
guests.”
Piotr took another bite of reconstituted scrambled eggs and spoke around the bite. “If you mean ze Legionnaire pilots, I already took care of zat.”
Looking a bit surprised, he turned back to Private Dooling. “Just the one tray then, Private.”
Having already served up two trays, he looked at them a moment, then dumped the second serving on to the first and silently handed the tray to his CO and landlord.
Eyeing the oversized serving, Kevin shook his head and sat down with the two other senior officers to eat before their scheduled 11 AM meeting.
As Captain McKenna finally awoke, she felt the sting across her belly as Dr. Cox peeled off the bandages. “Good morning, Captain. Just checking your wound for toxicity.”
Sitting up slightly, she felt the wave of nausea from the chemical soup flowing through her. “Do ye haf’ te’ keep me filled we tha’ nauseatin’ potion, Doctor Cox?”
Manuel Cox looked up at her. “Yes. Yes I do, Captain. That ‘nauseating potion’ as you call it is stimulating your immune system into removing the mild toxins more quickly. Would you rather I stop and let you run the risk of genetic damage?”
Erin flopped back into the bed. “Nay, doctor. Juice me up as ye please.”
Examining the wound carefully and checking the blood sample return the geneticist nodded satisfactorily. “Well, it looks like you got off lucky, Captain. You only received a very mild dose and there doesn’t appear to be any signs of DNA damage in your vital organs. If your secondary tests on your dermal infection comes back clean, I can discharge you by noon. How does that sound?”
“Wonderful.” She replied dryly. “Does tha’ mean ye kin stop givin’ me these poisons that air supposed ta be helpin’ me?”
Pulling the IV bag and clamping the end, he nodded. “Yes Captain. It does at that. But now we know, don’t we?”
Erin nodded. “Aye. Dinnae be bringin’ a coolant vest ta a gunfight. Got it.”
As Captain McKenna entered the HQ tent, she overheard Captain Zimmerman. “Gentlemen, there is something you all need to know which may affect your plans.” Pausing a moment outside the tent, she listened. “At 2200 hours local time this evening, two hours before the rest of the Third Legionnaires make their landings, Zion agents all over the planet are setting up to seize the various political teams that have been scattered around the planet in every major city. Only New San Pedro, Benedict, and Puerto Flor de Lis will not be struck as they are too well garrisoned to make the effort. As it stands, the Third Legionnaires are confident that their political teams are safe and secure and can inform them of any incursions into the nominally captured cities. We intend to make them realize that it is
we who control this planet and that we can and will strike them a blow. They will be forced to re-occupy the same cities all over again, setting them back to no better off than they were when the made first landings here.”
Major Silver added to the idea. “Not only that Captain, they’ll be forced to actually
garrison the cities to claim to be controlling them and protect their replacement political teams. Good move!”
At that, Captain McKenna entered the HQ tent. “Mornin’ gents. What evil air we concoctin’ now?”
Major Silver nodded to his XO. “Good
afternoon, Captain. Our Zion liaison was just informing us of a plan that will be executed at 2200 hours this evening. The Zionists are going to capture all the political teams in the cities outside the three most heavily garrisoned sites. This gives us an opportunity to strike.” Turning to Lt. Faller, he nodded.
Joe read the intel report once more. “In the latest data burst from the resistance, it included info detailing the occupation of Villa Elisa and Pilar. Seems we got the Legionnaires attention there and they have kept troops on the ground in those cities. Villa Elisa is being guarded by 1st Lance, 2nd company, 3rd Battalion, while Pilar has 2nd and 3rd Lances of the same company. The
Leopard is still in Villa Elisa, and their
Union is still in Pilar.”
Major Silver turned to Captain McKenna. “It’s a trap. Both cities are close enough together that they can be mutually supporting, and Benedict is only 2,200 kilometers away. Intel says that the rest of third Battalion is stationed there and they could be on us in a very short time. If we hit either city, we could be facing an entire Battalion of Veteran troops. It seems they intend to make the Eagles an example to the Zionists.”
Erin considered the information. “But if the rest of the Battalion is busy with a world-wide revolt...”
Kevin finished her thought. “...then they’ll be too busy to deploy anyone, anywhere.”
Captain Thorpe added to the thought. “Even better. When they realize that they’ve lost control, they’re going to recall all their troops stationed away from their three main garrisons and slam the doors shut until the rest of their Regiments arrive. We could catch them in the middle of that recall order. That would let us pick the target apart without much fear of backup and with them unsure of exactly what they’re supposed to do.”
Major Silver nodded. “That leaves the question of which city do we hit. Villa Elisa or Pilar?” Turning to Lt. Faller he asked, “What do we know about those units, Joe?”
Reading from his Compad, Joe took a deep breath. “Well, first Lance is a heavy hitter Assault Lance. Four AWS-9M
Awesomes led by Captain Morris Perrell. Captain Perrell chooses every member of the Lance for expert gunnery skill. All four are classified as Veterans, though they may actually be better classed as an Elite headhunter Lance. Second Lance is classed as a counter-recon unit led by Veteran Mechwarrior Lieutenant Senior Grade Calvin Meighen from his GRF-3M
Griffin. The rest of his lance are classed as Regulars, two TBT-7M
Trebuchets and a QKD-5M
Quickdraw. Third Lance is a Fire Lance, consisting of an APL-1M
Apollo, a CRD-5M
Crusader, an ARC-4M
Archer, and a modified HBK-5M
Hunchback as a bodyguard. The ‘Hunchie is the personal ride of Lieutenant Senior Grade Deidra Harrist, the Lance leader. It’s been modified to double the normal autocannon ammo bins as well as the Hellion-V lasers in its arms at the expense of redundant heat exchange systems. Also, the Sunglow pulse laser is yanked out in favor of an Olympian Flamer. All the other ‘Mechs in the company are stock.”
Major Silver listened to the report and took a few notes. “Joe, what do we know about Captain Perrell? What kind of tactician is he? What would he likely do in the face of conflicting orders?”
Joe looked though the personality profile duplicitously provided by the Captain-General. “Captain Perrell is a ‘by the book’ soldier. If he got conflicting orders, like a recall order when having already been ordered to re-deploy to Pilar to support the other two Lances of his company, he would more than likely follow the most recent order and return to base and await further instructions.”
Kevin continued. “And Lieutenants Harrist and Meighen?”
Anticipating the thought, Joe immediately answered. “They might first deploy to Villa Elisa to pull First Lance out,
then obey the recall order. They’re both a little loser and more flexible than Captain Perrell and have less to lose for disobeying orders to save a fellow unit.”
Major Silver smiled. “That’s about what I expected to hear. As far as I can see, Pilar is the perfect target. We hit just as the operation is going down, using the confusion to prevent their call for backup from being answered. Objections?”
Hearing none, he continued. “Now comes the difficulty of picking our assault method. Suggestions?”
Captain Thorpe turned to Lt. Faller. “What do we know about their patrol habits? Are they even keeping a patrol up?”
Joe nodded. “Second Lance is on roving patrol for the rest of the day and evening. The unit is expected to pull out by midnight when their relief arrives on the incoming Dropships. Third Lance is buttoned up in the
Union. I think they may be trying to goad us into attacking
their Dropships so they can nullify our claim of non-combatant status for
our Dropships. Last report said that they were grudgingly abiding by the Conventions of War in this regard, but our people are virtual prisoners aboard the
Comstock and
Hadrian.”
Randall thought a moment. “What if Sixguns and I were to approach the city and try to draw them out? We’re fast enough to at least keep pace ahead of the fastest units in their Company, so keeping them on the chase might be possible. Lead
them into a trap.”
Major Silver thought for a moment. “It could work. But what if they don’t take the bait? We’re not dealing with green forces here. These guys are veterans with a good deal of experience. If someone were to try that on us, I know
I wouldn’t fall for it. Not unless I knew more than they did and had overwhelming force to bring in, and that might just trigger them to follow orders and call for help. If a recall has already been ordered, they just might pull out rather than face an obvious trap. If no recall has been ordered, or it just hasn’t been ordered
yet, they’ll just sit tight and call in the cavalry. If the recall comes in while they’re waiting, they’ll just follow orders. If it doesn’t, then we get most of a Battalion dropped on us. I just can’t see how it would work.”
Lt. Jones sat forward. “Then what we need is a way to get our ‘Mechs into the city without them seeing them, then draw out both lances in such a way that they don’t think it’s us and call for help. Right?”
Major Silver nodded. “In a nutshell, yes. So, how can we solve the first problem? How do we get our ‘Mechs into the city unnoticed?”
Lt. Vahzenov turned to Lt. Faller. “How does Pilar receive food from ze surrounding agricultural regions? Trucking?”
Joe nodded. “Mostly, yes. Local delivery trucks bring in harvests to local food packing plants, who then truck it to the global mass transit system, trucking some food out and megleving the rest out to major cities like New San Pedro. But a lot of the food is consumed locally in Pilar itself.”
Lt. Vahzenov turned to Major Silver and continued the line of thought. “Couldn’t ve go to one of ze local farmers and get a ride into town zat vey?”
Kevin considered the idea. “It’s doable. But some of our ‘Mechs like Lieutenant Collins’
Executioner or Lieutenant Faller’s
Zeus are too heavy for typical light agricultural trucking. We’d need a way to get them in without being seen too or we’re looking at having a very hard time of it.”
Lt. Windsor was normally very quiet in tactical planning. But as the Civil-Military Operations Officer a thought occurred to him and he spoke up. “What about the maglev line? Couldn’t we
all get into the city that way?”
Joe sat forward. “That’s not a bad idea right there. If we can get aboard a maglev, and get the help of some of the locals at the depot in Pilar, we could get access to the heart of the city with little fuss.”
Major Silver jotted down some notes and turned to Captain Zimmerman. “Captain? Is it possible to get such a secure site in Pilar?”
Zimmerman sat back in his chair. “It is. We have a warehouse connected to the maglev line that is completely crewed by Zionists. We use it for major shipping of war materials in and out of that region. Officially, it’s a commercial distribution warehouse for consumer goods distribution to retailers. If the Legionnaires knew about it, they would have shut us down by now, so the chance of a mole or subversive there is very small. It’s secure enough.”
McKenna asked the inevitable. “That gets us
off th’ train in Pilar, but how dae we get
on a meglev
headed tae Pilar?”
Zimmerman pointed toward the north. “The maglev line runs into Coronel Oviedo and we effectively control that city. All you’d need is a train.”
Lt. Jones pulled out his Noteputer and brought up the data on local maglev routes. “There’s a cargo maglev departing Coronel Oviedo in just under two hours that’s scheduled to stop in Pilar at 2000 hours local time this evening for about an hour. That doesn’t give us a lot of time.”
McKenna nodded. “Aye, nay much, but enough.”
Major Silver jotted down a few more notes. “Alright, so that gets us in. How do we draw them out? We don’t dare attack their second Lance in the
Union, and that’s half the prize. Ideas?”
Again, Lt. Vahzenov turned to Joe. “Ze food distribution. Earlier you mentioned zat ze Legionnaires had seized several shipments of food for redistribution to zeir troops. Vas Pilar affected?”
Joe nodded. “They were. When the troops dropped on the city early this morning, they seized about 20 tons of pre-packaged food and loaded it into their
Union for shipment to New San Pedro. The distributor was ‘compensated’ by forced acceptance of a League voucher worth 12,000 Eagles.”
Vahzenov smiled. “How about a food riot? Is tventy tons a significant amount for ze city?”
Joe shook his head. “Not really. That processing center distributes over a hundred times that much food every day just for the city’s local consumption. There are also six other distribution centers that process just as much that weren’t raided. In the grand scheme of things, it’s not even a noticeable amount.”
Lt. Collins added a point. “
You know that, and
we know that, but what does the common man on the street see? They see food seizures and nothing more. It doesn’t have to be a
logical protest, just
reasonable enough to be believed by the garrison to be genuine to draw them out.”
Over the next half-hour, the Silver Eagles formulated a plan. Part of the plan called for a message to be sent to Lt. Amdecker operating near Benedict to perform a hit-and-fade attack on the garrison there, just before 2200 hours local time to keep the Legionnaires slightly off-balance and think the Eagles were nowhere near Pilar. They headed into Coronel Oviedo immediately, dropped off their prisoners with the local resistance, and loaded their ‘Mechs aboard the maglev. Sven and the other Techs did running repairs aboard the train while stopped at the two cities en route to Pilar. Once they got to Pilar, their ‘Mechs were unloaded into a warehouse near where the food had been seized.
Meanwhile, Captain Zimmerman contacted the resistance forces in Coronel Oviedo and made arrangements for an impromptu protest to be staged both at the warehousing district and the downtown district near where the Legionnaires had parked their Dropship. The plan was that once the protest began, a small riot would be staged and the local police would call on the Legionnaires for help. Hopefully, they would dispatch second Lance to deal with the issue quickly. While that happened, the protest downtown would similarly get ‘out of control’ and the Legionnaires hopefully would deploy third Lance to quiet things down before they were scheduled to depart. Once committed, the Eagles would wait for second Lance to get close and then spring their trap. They would have a minute or two to dispatch the first Lance before the second could reach them.
All this timed to go off just as the Militia would strike their blow.
Scenario 2: Civil DisobedienceAttacker: Silver Eagles
Forces: 26,666 BV / 586 tons (BV adjusted for force-size difference)
Command Lance- 9,554 BV / 265 tons
MAD-5De Marauder Major Kevin Silver (V-3/3)
ANV-3Me Anvil Lt. SG Richard "Grizzly" Jones (V-3/4) ECM - Active
BJ2-Oe Blackjack Captain Randall "NightHawk" Thorpe (V-5/4) ECM - Active
5 Clan Elemental Suits MSgt. Mark Rhode - MG (R-4)
FLC-8Re Falconer Lt. SG Piotr "Sixguns" Vahzenov (V-4/3)
Assault Lance- 9,453 BV / 315 tons
TDR-7Me Thunderbolt Captain Erin "Orchid" McKenna (V-3/3)
ZEU-9E Zeus Lt. SG Joe "Fallguy" Faller (V-5/4) Narc - ECM - Active
Clan Executioner Lt. SG Morander "Smoke" Collins (V-3/2)
5 Clan Elemental Suits St. Sgt. Sean McCleary - Flamer (G-5)
GAL-1eGLS Gallowglas Lt. SG Ryan "Crawler" Windsor (R-4/4)
Provincial Allies- 44 BV / 6 tons
Rifle Infantry Free Zion Militia (rioters) (G-5)
Rifle Infantry Free Zion Militia (police) (R-4)
Defender: Third Free Worlds League Legionnaires
Forces: 11,407 BV / 460 tons
Counter-Recon Lance- 5,724 BV / 215 tons
GRF-3M Griffin Calvin "Jester" Meighen (V-3/3)
TBT-7M Trebuchet Marshall "Grist" Beshear (R-5/4)
TBT-7M Trebuchet J.C. "Sparks" Gaede (R-5/3)
QKD-5M Quickdraw Janessa "Gunsmoke" Seid (R-4/4)
Fire Lance- 5,683 BV / 245 tons
HBK-5M Hunchback* Deidra "Hammer" Harrist (V-4/3)
APL-1M Apollo Rana "WarGod" Mcclure (R-5/3)
CRD-5M Crusader Jake "Knight" Peasley (V-5/4)
ARC-4M Archer Dustin "Lancer" Hellings (R-5/3)
Force-balanced BV Ratio: 2.34-to-1
Maps: Map Set 6, City (Downtown) & City (Suburbs) with Downtown aligned ‘west’ of Suburbs.
Special: The street defined by the joining of the two maps is not present, it is the Maglev tracks. The tracks are 2 levels above the ground, allowing ‘Mechs to pass under them unobstructed. Use underlying terrain to determine Movement effects. Any unit exiting the map is counted as disabled or destroyed. (with the exception of the Defenders exiting the eastern edge of the Suburbs map) If the Counter-Recon Lance is completely disabled or destroyed before Fire Lance deploys, the scenario ends. If ECM covers all Defender Units for three consecutive turns, Fire Lance will assume they have been destroyed and never deploy. (resulting in an automatic Pyretic Victory for the Defender and no better than a Partial Victory for the Attackers)
Set Up:Defender: Deploys Counter-Recon Lance in hex columns 13, 14, and 15 of the Suburbs map and must deploy on road hexes. They will head toward the ‘rioters’ on road hexes until the Attackers deploy. Jumping is not allowed until the attackers deploy at least one hidden unit. Fire Lance enters along the eastern edge of the Suburbs Map 6 turns after: the first hidden Attacker unit is deployed
and at least one Defender is not jammed by ECM. Once Fire Lance deploys, they must wait for all four Counter-Recon ‘Mechs to either be disabled or destroyed or exit along the eastern edge of the Suburbs Map. If a Fire Lance unit exits the map before this, it is counted as disabled. (they will be imprisoned for cowardice in the face of the enemy)
Attacker: Treats Attacker units other than the Infantry as Hidden Units. BattleMechs must be hidden in the ‘Warehouse’ designated by the Hardened Structure on the Downtown Map on columns 12-15 between rows 06-12. Hidden units must have their hex location noted on the Sheet prior to start of play. Infantry units begin deployed in Hex 0909 of the Downtown Map. All damage taken and ammo expended from Scenario 1 is still present unless the Attackers are able to repair some of it or replenish from their supplies. (Attackers have 2 Veteran technicians, 1 Regular Technician, all needed Astechs and equipment, and 6 hours of time for repair work)
Attacker Victory Conditions:Total Victory – All eight Defender Units are disabled or destroyed
and no loss of life on the Attacker’s side.
Partial Victory – At least four Defender Units are disabled or destroyed
and no loss of life on the Attacker’s side.
Pyretic Victory – At least four Defender Units are disabled or destroyed
and any Attacker Mechwarrior or Elemental is killed
or either Infantry unit is destroyed.
Total Defeat – Less than four Defender Units are disabled or destroyed
or more than 3 Attacker Mechwarriors are killed
or both Infantry units are destroyed.
Defender Victory Conditions:Total Victory – All eight Defender Units enter the map
and at least five Defender Units exit the map along the eastern edge of the Suburbs Map.
Pyretic Victory – All four members of Counter-Recon Lance are disabled or destroyed before Fire Lance deploys.
Partial Defeat – At least three Defender Units exit the eastern edge of the Suburbs Map.
Total Defeat – All eight Defender units are disabled or destroyed.
Notes: The Attackers out-weigh and out-BV the Defenders, but the Defender’s Counter-Recon Lance need only last 6 rounds of combat before the rest of the Unit shows up. Once they do, the scenario can end quickly with a Total Victory for the Defenders. Once the Fire Lance shows up, they need only spend 1 round fighting the Attackers and then leave, assuming at least one Counter-Recon Lance Member survives and exits the map.
Based on the damage they took from Scenario 1, they were able to use Rush Jobs to get all of their armor repaired. (except for the Marines that is) Because Sven is ‘just that good’ at Jury Rigging and Roland is a Veteran Clan Technician, they’re only looking at target numbers of 5 or better to avoid having chunks of replacement armor fall off in combat. (Technician Fulke is only a Regular so did not rush his jobs and got actual rolls, passing all four and repairing 24 points of damage) They used 5.7 tons of Standard armor and 2.7 tons of Ferro. (mixed types) They’ll definitely need to re-supply after this scenario!
