I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross
My countrymen Kiltartan’s poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds;
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.- William Butler Yeats.
* * *
Date: 26th December 3091
Delivered: Fort Habersburg, Gacrux, Lyran Alliance
Sent From: Ecol City, Thorin, Lyran Alliance
To: Colonel Zhao Zi Long, Commander Black Stars
From: Captain John Kelly, Commander Glengarry Independents
Subject: Reply – Summer Update
Sir,
Thank you for the update on the Summer situation. I understand the difficulty the Lyran High Command has placed you in. Personally I concur with your assessment that the Black Stars should be able to eliminate the ULTRA forces on world. It is probable whoever is in charge has suddenly gotten cold feet and is hesitant to throw good units after bad, should the Summer operation explode in his face.
In any case, personal feelings notwithstanding, we must do as our employers demand. My unit is currently at Thorin. I have arranged for transport to take us to Gacrux by way of Milton. The circuitous route is unfortunate as few JumpShip captains are willing to chance the Castor and Pollux pocket, where fighting has been fierce. Nonetheless we hope to see you at Gacrux by the 15th of January. My unit will be combat ready.
Best regards,
John Kelly
* * *
Union Class DropShip Hope Warden (formerly Provide Hope XII),
En route to Zenith Jump Point,
Thorin, Lyran Alliance.
26th December 3091.
1625 hours.As the spherical steel spacecraft settled into a steady one gravity burn, accelerating at ten meters per second, John Kelly glanced out the porthole of the
Hope Warden’s wardroom at the receding planet. The small, cramped space was barely deserving of the name, being nothing more than a small square compartment measuring three meters on a side, furnished with a table and six chairs and a small sideboard for serving the officers’ meals, coffee and ‘mid rats’ or mid-watch rations. The latter merely consisted of cold cuts and vacuum packed army bread, long in life and hard in texture. He slapped cold chicken sausage on bread, layered a good helping of mustard, and assembled the sandwich. It was filling stuff, albeit plain and cheap – but Kelly didn’t mind as the cost was coming out of his pocket. The costs of everything around him were coming out of his pocket.
He owned the
Hope Warden.
The Union class DropShip was formerly known as the
Provide Hope XII, a modified military surplus charter vessel in the service of the Interstellar Red Cross. The ship was restored to its military specifications and had been rechristened just two weeks ago, in a brief ceremony Kelly had had done on Landing Pad 19 of the Harlech City Spaceport Annexe. Instead of the customary champagne Kelly had cracked a bottle of Arbroath Glengarry whiskey on the hull of the DropShip. It was the single most expensive piece of equipment Kelly had ever personally owned. Kelly and his unit had salvaged the DropShip following a series of vicious battles with a large and well equipped pirate band based on Huanghuadian, an abandoned planet in the Capellan Confederation’s Periphery. Oh yes, the unit.
Kelly owned the Glengarry Independents.
The Glengarry Independents currently comprised the
Hope Warden and her abbreviated seven man crew, eight BattleMechs, eight Longinus battle armour suits, two heavy hover armoured personnel carriers, twelve Mechwarriors and vehicle crews, sixty eight infantrymen and sixty techs. All of them were on board the
Hope Warden, and it was straining her passenger capacity to the limit. In her refit Kelly had converted the unused aerospace fighter launch bays on Deck Five into much needed cargo space and two empty Mech bays down on Deck Four into accommodation and life support systems for the two infantry platoons Kelly had hired to provide base security.
Cramming in an additional sixty men and women into two spaces meant for a hundred ton BattleMech and two personnel each had been a real headache. Kelly had at first thought of partitioning off barrack spaces in the former Mech bays, but working together with his officers they had discovered a more effective solution was to use containerised field accommodation modules. Each module accommodated five individuals, suited to an infantry squad of one non-com and four privates. The containers also allowed stacking to make use of the Mech cubicle’s vertical space. The result was ugly and appeared ramshackle and space was still a premium – the enlisteds were forced to eat in the common areas, with the non-commissioned officers having taken over the DropShip’s primary messdeck – but it worked. To a degree.
The DropShip’s small wardroom was the only place Kelly had left to use as a planning and conference room.
In addition to the wardroom commissary supplies the sideboard was now heaped with datachips, makeshift wired communications gear linking to all parts of the ship, boxes of dry rations, and miscellaneous personal gear. The table itself was mostly occupied by a large portable holo projector in the middle, pushing datachips, personal datapads and noteputers to the sides. Kelly had ensconced himself at the head of the table where he had spent almost all of his time since the start of the deployment.
On either side of the table sat or stood his lieutenants – Robert Zibler-Carlyle, his de facto chief of staff; Peter Raman and Amelia Hawke, commanding his two Mech lances; Dave Jackman, the gruff infantry specialist in charge of the two Longinus battle armoured trooper squads; and Christine Hirschfeld, who oversaw the Glengarry Independents’ battlefield support and technical staff from the inside of one of the two heavy hover APCs. These were the senior lieutenants who made up his command staff; there were actually two other junior lieutenants in charge of his two security platoons.
During his days as a Mech company commander in the Hellstorm Hussars mercenary regiment, Kelly had once had a little more firepower under his command than he did now; his Night Raiders combined arms company then had boasted eight BattleMechs, four infantry fighting vehicles and four squads of battle armour. Yet he had never commanded as many men and women then as he did now. He had learned very quickly the importance of an administrative adjutant and to forgo his usual one on one talks with subordinates for a proper staff meeting where everyone could be updated.
As he devoured his sandwich, Kelly listened intently as Raman finished his report of the previous week’s activity. “And finally, Neil Sengupta tells me that the training programs have been tested on all our equipment. We can run the programs at any time.”
Kelly checked his chrono. “I don’t think we can make it before the jump. We can schedule it for when we reach Milton. There’s lots to do before we rendezvous with the Black Stars; we need to finalise planning and make sure everything is combat prepped. As soon as we enter the system we need to link up with the Black Stars, find out what their operations plan is and our part in it and be prepared for combat ops at once.”
The other lieutenants smiled and Dave Jackman shrugged unconcernedly; Kelly was pleased to see they were all quietly confident. Morale at least was high, though their readiness was not. This mission had been taken too far too fast, but then it had been Kelly’s decision to pursue the contract. Outfitting the Independents and refiting the DropShip had consumed all of Kelly’s cash – his unit’s share of the Black Stars’ contract payout, the combat bonuses from the previous mission, and every C-bill of Kelly’s personal funds. His investment portfolio was a distant memory of the past – he was fully invested in himself now. The Independents were all he had, aside from the house in the valley on Glengarry, and they were living from contract to contract.
“Okay, then we’ll hold a table top crawl through exercise tonight after dinner. After jumping into Milton we walk through company drills, after action review the day after. Truthfully, I’m not that concerned as we have a good number of experienced personnel and its not like we are all new to small unit tactics. Still, it will be good for us to have at least one proper simulation before we drop anyway,” said Kelly. “Carlyle, draw us up a good scenario, will you?”
“You got it, Kelly,” said Zibler-Carlyle with a grin. Kelly had made it a stipulation that the senior staff were to refer to him by name whenever they were out of earshot of the men; all of the men and women here in the wardroom were as close to partners as he had in the Independents.
“Which brings us to lance assignments,” said Kelly. “I’m still working on who gets to drive what for now. It don’t help that some of us are being a tad stubborn about giving up their favourite rides,” and he winked at Raman.
The Mechwarrior shrugged. “I like to move fast, boss. That thing you want me to get into, it’s too slow.”
“Yes, well, I want us all to be equipped with the best we can afford. Anyway, here are the lance assignments. Raman, you’ll get Webster and Schmidt. That makes up your Recon Lance. I know it’s short one Mech but we couldn’t get another Mech and a pilot before we left, I’m sorry.”
Raman waved a hand casually. “That’s good. I’ve talked to Webster and he’s knows his way round that Raven of his. And Schmidt seems like a steady sort.”
Kelly nodded. “Yes, we lucked out good with this batch of newbies. Schmidt’s file has good things to say about his piloting and I want our best pilots in the Recon lance. You’ll all do a lot more running than the rest of us.”
“Yeah.”
Kelly turned to Amelia Hawke. “Amelia, you’ve got command of the Force lance obviously. You’ll have the three other recruits under you, pick a second in command and make him a corporal. I don’t want to promote a new chap over the others so soon but I’ve no choice.”
“I suggest we make the position Acting Sergeant,” said Amelia. “With a six month probationary period, no pay increase unless confirmed but both pay and promotion back dated if confirmed. I should be able to tell if he’s suitable after three months, sir.”
“Good,” said Kelly. “Do you have anyone in mind?”
“That Julian fellow looks promising,” said Amelia. “And he’s the only one who’s ever been made second in command in his previous unit.”
“Done,” said Kelly. “Now... Summer.” He extracted a datachip and inserted into the holo projector. The projector flared to life, emitters projecting a translucent three dimensional image from a special light spectrum that formed a model of a planetary system several inches above the tabletop. “I’ve passed out the Black Stars’ briefing packet to you all, so I won’t go into fine details. This is Summer. Distance from jump point is only two and a half days, which is in our favour. The planet itself has standard atmosphere and gravity, but rather high temperatures that will probably affect our weapon functions slightly. There is little vegetation and the terrain is mostly rocky and infertile, with no native life beyond very hardy plants. There are three continents, Lestrade which contains the capital Curitiba, the polar landmass Aberdale which has a large number of refineries around the city of Mount Breighton, and Wessel which has been tagged as not a concern by Loki. Those are only the main cities; Lyran intel identified the general area surrounding these two target cities as the reconaissance objectives. Within the objective area are a few smaller towns; there’s one of particular interest called Sandhurst Point which could have been the site of an old Star League military base.”
Kelly focused the holo display on the Summer system’s first planet. The two target areas were delineated in red. “As you know we are conducting a reconaissance in force in support of the Black Stars. There are two Black Stars sub-units assigned, Colonel Zhao’s Sharp Shooters and Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Callahan’s Bloody Marauders. The Sharp Shooters were en route, last seen holding at the Gacrux system, while the Bloody Marauders have landed on Lestrade in the Mountain Lake area near Curitiba.” He pressed a button and a green icon flared to life on the holo projection of the planet Summer. “And the Sharp Shooters were to be heading for the Mount Breighton area. Any questions?”
“You said the Sharp Shooters ‘were’ en route, boss,” said Dave Jackman. “What happened to them?”
Kelly sighed. “This morning’s HPG packet from Gacrux included a message for us from Colonel Zhao with an update on the Summer situation. The Black Stars’ Lyran employers have asked all uncommitted sub-units to hold at Gacrux for the time being, as the enemy forces the Bloody Marauders found on Summer are a little stronger than the Loki intelligence team reported. It looks to me like the op planners have suddenly gotten cold feet and are panicking.” He ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “The damned Social General in charge just wanted to cut losses to cover up his stupidity. After all, it’s only expendable mercenaries who are on planet, not Lyran troops.”
A wave of cynical amusement swept the table, even including the usually taciturn Christine Hirschfeld who said “It is known to happen.”
“Well, no one is very happy with the decision, least of all me,” said Kelly. “For one, Colonel Zhao anticipates that he will be asked to resume our drop on Summer once Lyran High Command has got their knickers unentangled. So our plans really are unchanged – save that instead of approaching the target separately we will first link up with the Sharp Shooters at Gacrux and prepare to join them for a combined drop on Summer. Any questions?”
There were none. Kelly continued the briefing.
“Alright, let’s go into the enemy situation. We are facing ULTRA – the Unified Leadership of the Tikonov Revolutionary Army. I don’t know how ‘liberate Tikonov’ became ‘terrorise the Inner Sphere’ but there you go. Lyran intel claims a small regiment worth of ULTRA forces are on planet. Now, these guys are basically terrorist militias, so unit strength varies greatly. Loki has identified the 71st ULTRA Dragoons which is a reinforced Mech company, the 133rd ULTRA Armour, also a reinforced company, and Colonel Zhao’s update mentioned a 101st Dragoons which comprises two combined arms battalions of Mechs, armour and mechanised infantry. We have no solid intel on their dispersion throughout the planet, or their equipment, but the Bloody Marauders on Summer have encountered elements of all three units around Curitiba, as well as at least six aerospace fighters. Chris, I heard you’ve been looking into the ULTRA attacks. Do you have anything to add here?”
Christine Hirschfeld nodded, and answered in her slightly Germanic Lyran accent. “Yes. I did a research analysis on the ULTRA attacks in the past six months. According to reports from units which have engaged them, ULTRA was noted to use mainly standard military off the shelf equipment from independent manufacturers like Quikscell, but a number of designs commonly associated with the Free Worlds League were noted, such as the Stygian strike tank, the
Lancer aerospace fighter, the
Wraith recon Mech and the
Tempest heavy Mech.”
“Does that mean ULTRA is receiving Free Worlds League support?” asked Jackman.
“That particular combination does seem to imply something of the sort,” observed Zibler-Carlyle.
“Well the
Wraith is widely found in the Capellan Confederation too,” said Raman, “but the others are standard Free Worlds designs...”
“There were loads of fingers pointing at the Free Worlds League, back on Outreach; it was the talk of the town...”
Kelly shrugged. “Well, we don’t know anything of the sort for sure yet, so let’s not go there just yet. Fine, we have an idea of what they may be fielding. Colonel Zhao says we can expect the enemy to be dug in and alert. Bear that in mind. Now, friendlies. As I said, the Bloody Marauders are on planet and operating near us while the Sharp Shooters are on Gacrux.” He manipulated the holo projector controls to zoom in and display a flattened map of the Lestrade continent. “The details of the Bloody Marauders’ organisation have been included in your briefing packets. Besides Colonel Callahan’s command lance, their main manoeuvre units are a striker company of light Mechs and two companies of Clan Mechs and a company of battle armour set up as a Supernova and a Trinary. This is supported by two companies of infantry and two companies of VTOLs, and two squadrons of aerospace fighters.”
“But... with that level of force, they could take on the whole of the ULTRA forces on Summer and win!” exclaimed Jackman.
“Which is why Colonel Zhao has a high confidence that the Bloody Marauders, especially reinforced by his Sharp Shooters, will be able to defeat the ULTRA forces on Summer, even taking into account what seems to be a larger force on planet than it initally appeared,” said Kelly. “Damned Social Generals – they ordered us to raid and engage any targets of opportunity. The whole bloody planet is a bloody target of opportunity!”
“Well that’s House Command for you,” said Jackman.
“Anyway. We will be working mainly with the Sharp Shooters, who we’ve met before. I’ll just give you all a reminder that they comprise a battalion of armour backed up by a company of battle armoured infantry. Their battle armour use a ComStar style six man squad, by the way, so that’s a slightly overstrength company they have there.”
“For all intents and purposes, that is considered a combined arms regiment,” pointed out Amelia Hawke. “Sufficient, one might say, to actually retake Summer’s primary population centers at least.”
“Against the opposition levels observed thus far, that is true,” allowed Kelly, “but I can actually understand why the Lyrans are hesitant to commit the Black Stars. For one you’ll notice we are low on infantry assets which makes occupying and controlling an area difficult. For another, you’ll note the ULTRA forces themselves constitute a combined arms regiment too, more or less. One on one odds don’t usually mean good news for the attacking forces.”
“Yeah I can see that,” said Dave Jackman, “but the Black Stars, they’ve an elite merc unit right? They busted a pirate band practically their own size at Huanghuadian, right? And who’re these ULTRA guys anyway? We’ve got better people, better intel, better equipment – look at the Clan tech on the Bloody Marauders – I think we could take them all out. The people on Summer would help us too, so we’d know the terrain better than them too once we link up with the locals.”
“You’re not wrong, Dave,” said Kelly. “In fact, make a note of the idea of linking up with the locals – when it does come down to a fight I want all the advantage we can get. But for now, we are in a situation where our hands are tied and there’s no call for us to go haring into Summer in the hope of linking up with the Bloody Marauders. The game plan as far as we’re concerned is to make our way to Gacrux and place ourselves at Colonel Zhao’s disposal. In the meantime there’s plenty of things to get done.” He shrugged. “For all you know, Lyran High Command may throw us into some other fire elsewhere if the Bloody Marauders have Summer sewn up.”