The problem with some deployments is you can't tell they are going to turn to shit right up until the moment it happens. As soon as the Baroness Mitchells Challenger bit it, I knew Peshawar was going to be hard.
Sergeant Major Walther Bruno, Steel Talons Able Vehicle Company, 1st Lance"What's this city called Duchess?" Walther shouted into the lance comms. His Devastator was hammering down one of the arterial roads into the so-far nameless city, following behind Alex's Deitmars Challenger X. A few hundred meters away Leutnant-Colonel Elisa Mitchell (Callsign: Duchess) was pushing down the main highway parallel to them, followed by Sergeant Eleanor Carina's bodyguard variant
Sturmfuer. The roads where allowing them to make good time into the heart of the city, and towards the objective: the planetary governmental offices. Walther could already see the massive structure looming over the rest of the city. Right now the Assault vehicle lance was pushing up to the right of the cyclopean building. Two lances, the Axmen and Hachetmen of Able Mech Company 2nd Lance, and the Stealth, Jenner and a pair of brand spanking new Spectres from Able Mech Company 3rd Lance where pushing up the left. Their jump gets where allowing them to vault buildings with ease and keep pace with the tanks.
"The city is called New Peshawar." Answered Elisa. "With the march in the state it is, the locals have started shooting at each other, which is why we think that force of Marik mechs was up in the mountains. One of the local factions has hired us to secure the Government offices."
"One of the factions?" Walther's brow furrowed. "What about the other faction?"
"Our last flyover indicated there was a force of mechs sitting on the objective, probably with some Vee support. Hence this little jaunt. Scouting in force. Local intelligence indicates its another merc company, probably Davion. "
"Confirmed." he flipped the radio to his crew frequency. "Scouting in force." Walther muttered, "We Lyrans never do anything by half's."
*****
Elisa popped the hatch on the turret and clambered out to get a view that wasn't grainy tac-screens and periscopes. From her own experience she knew that sometimes, human eyes caught things sensors missed. the buildings looming on her left and right had a distinctly Indian feel to them, all arches and minarets. The massive government building, rendered in dull flat blocks on the Tac display, came to life as some kind of ludicrous white wedding cake sitting in the middle of the city like a Sultans palace.
She caught movement at the corner of her eye and dropped back into the turret just as her loader, Mickey Krauser, hollered out the words she had been waiting for.
"Contact!" She hauled the turret round and aligned the gauss rifle, mashing the firing trigger button as the lance tac-grid lit up. A Cestus, standing proud on the highway, returned fire with its own gauss rifle, both slugs missing their intended targets as windows blew out from the twin sonic booms as the tungsten shots ripped along the highway. Dietmar in his Challenger swore over the open comms as his shot skimmed the Cataphract facing of against him, missing it by metres.
"Press it! If we can get the Devastator and Sturmfuer involved we'll tear them to bits!"
*****
The fight had devolved into a brawl. Autocannons and gauss thundered and shrieked, lasers scorched the asphalt and buildings. Missiles fell in clumps around Battlemechs and vehicles alike as deadly infernos created lakes of fire. The Steel Talons lighter mechs where being pressed by the Davions heavy lances. And the Talons heavy tanks where bogged down trying to fight clear of the enemy mediums.
Walther swung the turret round at a warning from his driver and centred the reticule on a Striker as it fired its missile racks. By some miracle not a single missile from the Davion machine impacted his tank, while his two AC20's found the enemy machines front armour. The tank lurched like a massive hand had reached down smacked it, flame belching from its crumpled front armour. Then the SRM's impacted, and the Striker disintegrated into a massive, dirty explosion that rattled his teeth and flung flaming debris across the road.
"Left! ****** Left! Ignore the mechs and get us to Duchess!"
*****
Mobility kills are dangerous in an open environment. In a city they are a death sentence.
Elisa knew that, but kept her tank firing despite her shredded tracks. Her and Dietmars Challengers hammered railguns, missiles and cannons into an old style
Maruader sitting in an ornamental pond to keep cool. The ornamental statues where blown into chunks of rubble alongside its armour as the Marauder turned its fire on First Leutenant Cora Schneider's
Axman. Missiles and Autocannon fire from the pair of Typhoons on the road hammered Sergeant Major Stanford Marcel's
Jenner. Cora weathered the pounding and brought her massive axe down on the top of the crippled Typhoon, smashing its side open before burying an armoured foot into the tanks guts, shunting it 10 metres of the road as a tangle of wreckage. Stanford's Jenner slashed lasers and missiles into an immobilised Striker and then both mechs, mauled but operational, jetted away on their jump jets. The Davion vehicle lance had been reduced to an immobilised Typhoon.
"Marauder is backing off!" shouted Elisa's driver. She nodded, and swung the turret round for targets.
The Cestus chose that moment to step back out of cover. A gauss rifle slug slammed into the turret, knocking Elisa out of her seat. Two lasers burned into the side of her damaged
Duchess and the fusion plant died.
"Gotdammerung!" she shouted as she scrambled back to her feet. "Everyone out! Go go go!"
Krauser reached the escape hatch first, pushing it open and then jumping clear. Elisa waited, counting off her crew and handing them each a sub machine gun and survival kit from a stowage bin. She had bailed out of too many damaged tanks to not insist they trained and equipped for this. Once everyone was clear she jumped out onto the blasted tarmac and took stock.
She suddenly felt very small, and very vulnerable. On her left a flowing brawl was tearing up the city, and the Davion mechs had a tonnage and armour advantage. On her right her pair of Spectres where fighting, along with Walthers Devastator, an inspired delaying action, but that was all it was.
"Get to the top of that building!" She shouted, pointing to a nearby concrete car park. She needed to direct the battle if possible, and for that she needed elevation. She got onto her lance frequency as she and her crew ran for the building, away from their stricken tank. "Eleanor, come in! You need to bail out!"
*****
"Bail out. . .can you hear me Eleanor?"
Eleanor shook her head, trying to clear the grogginess. "Elisa? You alive?" she managed. Her driver shouted something about the engine being dead. Considering how many missiles had just hit her Sturmfuer, she was surprised they weren't all in soldiers heaven right now.
"Yeah I'm alive, but you won't be if you don't get out of there right now!"
"Got to cover your retreat Elisa" she responded, the muzziness clearing. The turret was locked but that was fine: she had the bastard Typhoon in her sights already. She fired all the SRM tubes, slathering the enemy Vee in blazing inferno gel. Her Sturmfuer rocked again as it returned fire, defiant to the end.
"VERDAMMT STERBEN SCHWEINEHUND!" She screamed as she hit the trigger again, switching the SRM's to the plentiful anti-armour ammunition and adding in the LRM for good measure. The missile barrage burrowed through the Typhoons weakened frontal armour and into its ammunition bins. There was a dull 'whump' that echoed through along the road as the autocannon ammo cooked off, flipping the Typhoons turrets metres into the air.
"I've got the rearguard covered Elisa!" She said as her crew cheered. "Get the mechs and other armour out of here!"
*****
Lammert landed his Axman in a copse of ornamental trees nestled against the Government offices, what was left of them. The stone facade had been pocked by missiles and autocannon rounds, windows melted by lasers and statues and plant beds mashed by massive metal feet. They might win this city for their clients, but they would only get what was left once the fighting was done.
C&C had gone silent a few moments ago, so he was in command of the left flank. Badly underweight to fight the
Grasshopper,
Victor,
Guillotine and
Penetrator, they needed to nail at least one of these mechs, or draw them into range of the Vee's, to get an advantage back.
His target was the Victor. It had walked forward slowly, covering the rear of the advance after several cagey minutes of cat and mouse earlier. He centred it just as the enemy mechwarrior spotted him and swung that fearsome autocannon arm to bear.
Lammert opened fire with everything he had at the same time the Victors autocannon let rip, and suddenly found himself crushed back into his seat as the Axmans full head ejection system activated. He watched as the Victor stumbled, its autocannon arm spinning away.
Then he came to a very abrupt stop as the Axmans head buried itself in the side of the objective as it smashed into a wide window. For a second he sat there, dazed and a little confused. Then he heard someone shouting over the radio. Sounded like the Lieutenant Colonel.
"Elisa? Lammert here. Just got punched out. Did you see what happened?"
"Yeah, he hit your AC ammo bin. You ok?"
"Little fried and little pissed, but I'll live. You?"
"Holed up in a car park a klik east. Get to me if you can."
Lammert nodded as Elisa killed the link. He grabbed a backpack he stashed behind his seat and popped the canopy.
Bad idea.
The head of the Axman lurched and Lammert lunged for the edge of the building as he fell away from it. He caught the lip of the floor he had impacted in as the Axmans head fell away.
"******. . .my life." He panted as he hauled himself up into the window. Too close.
For a second he lay still, breathing and wishing away the entire day. Then he got to his feet and looked out on the battlefield below him.
Just in time to see Norris's Hachetman have its leg kicked off by the Grasshopper, and his head rocket off like a jet powered jack in the box.
"Oh balls." He muttered. One Stealth, a hachetman and a battered up Jenner against 4 heavy mechs. Where the hell had Cora got too?
*****
Cora Schneider was looking at death incarnate.
Charging at 60kph plus, the Davion Cataphract was booking for her. After her last scrap her mechs chest armour was ribboned, and her reactor was flooding her mech with excess heat. Walther and his Devastator where facing the wrong bloody way, and behind the Cataphract was the another damn Davion heavy.
Both mechs exchange fire at point blank range. The low rise house behind the Cataphract was blown to rubble by her fire. She just barely kept her footing as the Cataphract hammered her with autocannons and lasers, and even got a ****** kick in as her axe went wild.
She jumped clear, and Walther backed his Devastator up. the Cataphract backed up, not wanting to face a Devastator with mostly fresh armour at point blank range.
"This is Duchess, repeat this is Duchess. Mission is Gipsy Danger: Repeat, Mission is Gipsy Danger."
You didn't need to tell to tell Cora Schneider twice.
She hit the jump jets again and didn't look back until she cleared the edge of New Peshawar.
*****
The Steel Talons pulled back. Those that could.
In her crippled Sturmfuer, Eleanor realised the jig was up. The enemy was circling round her position and not risking her SRM battery.
"Time to go people!" she shouted as she unclipped from her seat. Bailing from a Sturmfuer was always tricky, especially with the engine dead. They would need to manually pop the hatches to get through the massively thick armour.
There was a loud thump, and Eleanor was thrown against the side of her command station, her head smacking into a screen. As she reeled, blood pouring from a gash in her head, she heard something she never wanted to hear in a tank packed with munitions and diesel.
A fire.
She reached for the fire extinguisher, then everything was light, heat and noise.
*****
Deitmar screamed as Eleanor's Sturmfuer exploded, the turret turning into a roman candle as the tons of munitions inside gutted the tank.
"SCHWEINEHUNDS! SCHWEINEHUNDS!" Deitmar swung the turret round and hammered the circling Davion mechs. He was still screaming in rage when his crew pulled him from his immobilised, crippled Challenger and away from the loosing fight. The intersection was littered with smoking, abandoned hulks.
*****
Peshawar taught us all alot. It taught us what it feels like to lose, and badly. We lost an entire lance of heavy Vee's and three mechs. It taught us what it looks like when a battle goes too shit so fast one second you can feel like your winning, and the next you're fighting for your life.
I left my Devastator on the damned highway. We went back for the salvage, after we got our shit straight and counted our dead. That wasn't the last time we would fight in Peshawar. And Elaenor wouldn't be the only person killed fighting over it.
