Loyalty, Marik-Stewart Commonwealth, Fall 3126
1st Lt. Sula Babushian maneuvered her Shadow Hawk down the low foothills that surrounded the wide flat valley that Kallon had built its test site. A JumpShip had entered the system by pirate point 39 hours ago putting the planetary defenders on alert. Just over an hour ago Bonne Temps traffic control had calculated the DropShip’s trajectory and determined that “Bonne Flatts” was the most likely place for the raider to put down. “Bonne Flatts” was Kallon Industries property, which meant it was Kartr’s Kavaliers responsibility, and with Colonel Kartr still on light duty after the last raid, she was the senior officer with a ‘Mech fast enough to reach the site before the raiders.
“Babe, Firecracker” Lt. Latakara’s transmission crackled through through Sula’s headset, the distortion minimal despite the ECM that Latakara’s Hatchetman was putting out. “Firecracker, this is Babe. Send it.”
“Babe I count four, repeat four ‘Mechs moving towards the flats.” Lt. Latakara, ‘Firecracker’, sounded eager, almost hungry as she reported. “Looks like two Rifleman, a Phoenix Hawk and…” The transmission cut off as Latakara tried to make out the fourth ‘Mech.
“Firecracker, Babe. I copy two Rifleman and a Phoenix Hawk. Do you have an ID on the fourth ‘Mech?”
“Negative Babe, I’ve never seen one that looks like it, and they’re too far away for my computer to get a solid ID, but they’re moving fast towards the east field control bunker.”
“Copy that Firecracker.” Sula opened up the throttle on her Shadow Hawk, the beak like head of her “Project Phoenix” model leaning into the run. “‘Dust Devil Two’ head west and drop your ‘crunchies’ at the west control bunker. ‘Bus Three’ you’re with me, we’re heading to the main research bunker.”
‘Dust Devil Two’, a Fulcrum III hover tank with Marauder battle armor clinging to it like barnacles, raced up next to her and veered off, fans blowing the eponyms dust as they ramped up to full power. At just over 150km/h they were practically guaranteed to reach their objective before the opposing forces. ‘Bus Three’, a Maxim Mk II, paced her as she hit 75km/h, keeping her covered in its ECM bubble. While 75km/h was not her best speed, any faster and she’d risk dislodging the Marauder battle armor clinging to her ‘Mech.
They’d come down the service road from the main Kallon facilities and it spilled them out of the low foothills and forests just under half a kilometer from the main research and monitoring station. Within twenty seconds she was bringing the Shadow Hawk to a fast stop next to the bunker’s entrance. Opening a commline to the squad clinging to her she said, “Everyone off! Take and hold that bunker.”
Switching her comm channel, as she felt the battle armor release their clamps and drop away, she called over to Bus Three, “Bus Three, Babe. Drop the machine gunners here at bunker alpha, then Firecracker and I will screen you so you can make the run to bunker charlie.” She saw the Maxim slide up next to the building, hugging it to prevent the enemy units from firing on it or the squad of Inner Sphere Standard battle armour that was charging down the rear ramp.
A call from Firecracker pulled her gaze up and away from the dismounting infantry. “Uh Babe, Firecracker one of those Rifleman isn’t…” Firecracker’s Hatchetman was dropping into a stand of trees, fire from her jump jets scorching the trunks as laser fire crackled past the ‘Mech. “My computer is reading it as a ‘Glass Spider’!” Sula could hear the Hatchetman’s rotary autocannon spinning up for a long burst and the hint of fear that Latakara couldn’t quite hide.
It was fear that was starting to trickle down Sula’s spine as well. They’d already been heavily outmassed before, at least two sixty ton mechs to her fifty-five tonner and Latakara’s fourty-five tonner. Now one of those sixty tonners the raiders were driving turned out to be a Clan ‘Mech! ‘Dust Devil Two’ was a solid combatant, but the Maxim mk II alongside her wasn’t armed with anything worth counting and there were two other ‘Mechs in the blue livery of the raiders. Her unit probably wouldn’t be able to do much more than secure any data they could and then pull back to the heavy element that was still twenty minutes or more away. And with the range and hitting power of that Clan ‘Mech they’d be hard pressed to do even that!
“I read you Firecracker” she responded. “Stay mobile, we only have to keep them distracted long enough for the infantry to pull the data drives and wipe the servers.”
“Copy that, Babe. Computer identifies the other two as a Crusader and a Battle Cobra, Inner Sphere…” The rest of Firecracker’s transmission disappeared into the ripping thunder of her RAC vomiting 105mm shells towards the blue ‘Mechs. Sula triggered her own jump jets, now that the infantry was clear, and vaulted over the building as her own rotary cannon began to spin up.
“Bus Three, Babe. See if you can whip around bunker charlie and drop your crunchies.” As she landed she saw Latakara come flying out of the copse she’d been hiding in, clear the Battle Cobra and land right by the Glass Spider. She almost cheered as the daring Hatchetman’s rotary cannon tore chunks out of the clan ‘Mech, but the subsequent swing of the heavy hatchet missed the Battle Cobra as it stepped forward and shed some sort of battle armour that had been clinging to it.
Her Maxim Mk II raced forward and spat a pair of missiles that cratered into the Rifleman, while ‘Dust Devil Two’ lashed out with its PPC but missed the Glass Spider. Firecracker wasn’t so lucky as her foe. The Glass Spider lashed out with most of its laser scoring deep gouges across the unfortunate Hatchetman, before twisting and slashing at the Maxim Mk II with its remaining pulse lasers. Most of the attackers other shots missed, apparently thrown off by Latakara’s insane choice to rush her Hatchetman into the middle of a full lance of enemy machines.
Lt. Sula kept her ‘Mech unpredictable as she leaped towards a stand of trees, her rotary autocannon burning through ammo at a high rate. Unfortunately the enemy seemed less interested in her as ‘Bus Three’ took a pair of solid hits from the Rifleman’s light autocannons. She heard screaming in the background as the corporal in charge of the flame thrower squad commed her, “Babe, ‘Flamer 6’. We are going to need a medivac, we have a casualty from that last hit.”
Her mind racing Lt Sula replied, “Copy that, stabilize him and prepare to fall back.” Making up her mind she opened a commline to her entire force. “All units prepare to fallback as soon as the bunkers are sanitized.” She continued to hammer at the Glass Spider with her rotary autocannons and lasers as her units acknowledged her orders. ‘Dust Devil Two’ speared one of the enemy battlesuits with it’s PPC while ‘Firecracker’ charged past the enemy Rifleman and turned to bring her heavy hatchet to bear. For a second Sula thought that Latakara had succeeded in avoiding most of the enemy firepower, then she saw unknown battle armor disappear behind a solid wall of smoke. “Firecracker LOOK OUT!” She screamed into the comm and for a second she thought the Hatchetman might evade the worst of that terrible volley of missiles.
Lt. Latakara heard the warning too late. She glanced out the left side of her cockpit canopy to see the pall of missile smoke billowing around the battle armor she had been ignoring and tried to throw her ‘Mech to the side. The hatchet in her right hand was already hurtling towards Rifleman’s vulnerable rear armor and the momentum was too great for her to overcome. Stumbling, she tried to compensate, but it was too late. The missiles hammered on her ‘Mech, blasting armor then cratering internal structure. Suddenly she heard the computer warning her of containment failure and she felt the heat spike in the cockpit, a stunningly loud explosion slammed her back in her command chair as one of the enemy missiles slammed into the Hatchetman’s head. Then, before she could even gather her wits, two more missiles cracked open the reactor of her ‘Mech and the automated ejection system rocketed the Hatchetman’s head up and away from its stricken body.
Sula watched the head of the Hatchetman shoot skyward and knew there was no chance for her surviving machines to stop the enemy lance. The best they could hope for was to deny the enemy forces access to the files they’d undoubtedly been sent to steal. ‘Bus Three’ had just disappeared behind bunker charlie and would be able to clear the far side and make the dash to safety in the next couple of moments. Then she noticed the Rifleman, that ‘Firecracker’ had been focusing on, twist and unleash a full salvo at the retreating Maxim Mk II. For a second she thought the tough little APC might survive, but incredibly accurate autocannon fire hammered into the same spot over and over again until it plowed into the ground. Things were going from bad to worse and for a moment she though everyone aboard must have been killed, then she saw armored figures cut their way out of the wreckage with their battle claws and sprint towards the bunker. First three and then four more, they disappeared inside the bunker, the orange glow of hellfire preceding them. Still she was going to have to extract the rest of her people.
“‘Dust Devil Two’, Babe. Your passengers should be almost done by down, get back and pick them up.” She commed as she threw her ‘Mech backwards on pillars of fire. “‘Gunners One’, Babe. Your ride is down. I need you to start withdrawing back towards the forests. Avoid enemy contact and regroup with the second detachment as quickly as possible.”
“Copy that, Babe. We’ve also got the data from the drives here we’ll take that with us.” She breathed a small sigh of relief. At least they were going to secure most of the sensitive data that Kallon had tasked with protecting. The loss of the east bunker wasn’t going to reflect well on her, or the Kavaliers, but at least the research bunker and its valuable testing data weren’t going to fall into raider hands. “‘Marauder One’ I’m going to pick you boys up and we’re in a bit of a hurry!” She called to the other battle armor squad in the research bunker.
“We read you Babe. We’ll be waiting and ready!” Something smashed into her ‘Mech and the machine almost tumbled out of the sky. A quick glance at her monitors showed her that one of the jumpjets in her torso had been smashed shut by an autocannon round from the Rifleman. “Negative ‘Marauder One’ I just took heavy damage. I’m not going to be able to make pickup. Get back in the bunker and hold till the relief column gets here.”
“Hold until relieved. Aye.” The almost bored response was somehow heartening as she stumbled into a run towards the hills she’d come out of at the start of the fight. The Marauders were tough battle suits, they’d hold up against anything that tried to root them out of that bunker. ‘Dust Devil Two’ was picking up the squad of Marauders and they’d extract behind her, regroup with Lt. Lorenz “Antman” Antinian and his column then drive the raiders back to their DropShip and off world.
She was well away from the fighting when her comm crackled to life. “Babe, Marauder Two. ‘Dust Devil Two’ clipped a tree, we’ve got the crew and we’re dispersing into the forest. Enemy forces are moving on bunker bravo.”
“‘Marauder Two’ I copy. ‘Marauder One’ keep me apprised of the enemies actions.” The force commanders voice crackled through Staff Sergeant Mourad’s helmet. “Marauder One-Six I copy.” He replied reflexively. His small squad, fire team really, had moved back into the bunker and now he was watching a full lance of BattleMechs mill around bunker bravo. The two squads that were aboard ‘Bus Three’ when it died had reported contact with an enemy battle armor squad in bunker charlie. Then almost immediately after they reported the enemy squad had fallen back towards the DropShip and flight recorder drives were missing. He’d ordered them to holdfast, they’d be safer in a bunker than trying to engage BattleMechs in the open.
“There’s the battle armor boss.” One of his troopers reported as the enemy battle suits dashed from bunker bravo and clambered back aboard one of their BattleMechs.
“Think they’ll call it quits or come here?” Asked one of the other troopers “I’d like to actually get some today instead of just babysit electronics.” The soldier continued.
“Well that ‘Mech is moving towards us… Scratch that they’re all moving towards us!” The first trooper interjected.
“That answer your question, Charlie?” Mourad said. “Alright its four on four, but we’ve got the advantage being in here so lets put them in the ground and earn that combat pay.”
The four Marauders opened fire on the enemy battle armor as it dismounted. Support PPCs and recoilless rifles tore chunks out of the heavy clan armor, but none of the enemies actually went down before they breached the bunker’s entrance. Once inside the fighting got brutal as both sides unleashed what would have been anti-tank weapons in a previous age. Protected by their heavy armor SSgt Mourad’s Marauders managed to gain the upper hand and kill or incapacitate all four of the clan suits though not without losses. Their battle armor out of commission and more Kavaliers showing up on long range radar the raider ‘Mechs pulled back to their DropShip.
Summary
Jason's force heavily out massed me as he had a Glass Spider, Battle Cobra (IS), Rifleman with four Light AC/5s shooting precision ammo, and a Crusader vs my Hatchetman, Shadow Hawk, Fulcrum III and Maxim Mk II. I had the advantage in infantry terms though, with two squads of Marauder BA, one of IS Standard MG, one of IS Standard Flamers and one of Gray Death Standard (LRR) as well as fast transport capabilities.
I was too aggressive with the Hatchetman, though poor rolling on Jason's part kept her alive for the first couple of turns and then the Corona BA fired 30 SRMs at the Hatchetman spent edge to re-roll the clusters for and wound up getting something like 24 hits. That breached the left and center torsos and scored three engine crits as well as a head hit putting the Hatchetman down.
I'd already decided I was going to start pulling everything back and rely on having held the two bunkers to his one keep my score up. Then the Rifleman knocked out the Maxim Mk II, which lead to a lot of confusion about what happens to infantry carried by APCs. Joel eventually ruled that we were going to use "mechanized infantry" rules from the BA section which only killed off one suit of Flamers. The IS Standard Flamers and GD Standard LRR squads rushed into the bunker hoping to "reset" Jason's counter. Joel said that it wouldn't reset and I couldn't kill his BA that turn, so Jason scored the bunker and moved his squad off the field the following movement phase.
Shadow Hawk took a JJ crit as it was falling back so I decided to move the Marauder BA back into the bunker and force a stalemate while moving the IS Standard (MG) off the field to score the objective. Fulcrum went to pick up the other Marauder squad and extract them to score another objective. Fulcrum fails a driving check (rolls 4 needs 5) and skids into light woods and is immobilized. Marauder BA dismounts. Jason's mechs hammer on the Fulcrum and score something like two more immobilized results and a stunned result, Fulcrum returns fire to no effect. Fulcrum crew bails out at the end of the round.
Over the next three rounds the Marauder BA move through the woods getting more and more difficult to hit until they're blocked (1 heavy and 1 light intervening) and make it off the board. Jason moves his Corona BA into the far bunker and we start "fast forwarding" because I have nothing that can shoot at him and he doesn't want to shoot the bunkers. Basically we just skipped the three turns it took for him to search the bunker and score the objective and the two turns to move the BA out, and pick them up.
Once his BA dismounted by the central bunker we started rolling dice again. I did some decent damage to his battle armor as they dismounted, but not enough to kill any of them. He moved into the building and almost killed a Marauder, while I killed one of the Coronas. That was his last shot of SRMs so the next turn it was his 3 recoilless rifles and three heavy flamers vs my 8 support ppcs, 4 recoilless rifles and 4 anti-personnel weapons. He finished off the Marauder who was out of armor and another one that had only two points left. My fire killed all three Coronas.
We called it there. Had a lot of fun and Jason was a great opponent.
