5th June 3045
Kaus Media
Hyadamos
5 kilometers away from
Snake Eater“Patriot Company, Magic Company, continue to fall back! Phantom Company, continue to cover their retreat!” Colonel Marvick ordered as her
Zeus laid down covering fire.
All members of the 1st Company wordlessly followed the Colonel’s command as they fired right at the incoming DC vehicles. Michelle’s cockpit spiked in heat as green beams were emitted out of her mech’s arms while the SRM launchers were smoking from releasing its package. The
Saracen within the targeting reticle was quickly immobilised by the laser followed by a finishing punch with the SRM salvos.
Not as hot with NSS on. I can handle this heat.
Right as she was aiming for a
Saladin, three streams of lightning bolts barely passed over her mechs.
Schrek!, she thought.
Approximately a company of those PPC carriers has bunkered down at the green hill kilometers away from here. While whoever firing those guns have bad aiming skill, getting pummelled by those PPC bolts when they actually hit wasn’t good at all. She didn’t forget the previously found surprise of artillery company hidden in the wood that her lance has to destroy to ensure the safety of the retreat either. This whole mission has gone bad right from the start.
“This is Patriot 10, our track has been heavily damaged! Request assistance!”
Sure enough, she noticed a Patton retreating slower than the others at the formation behind her company through 360 degree external camera system. A new ping on the radar quickly alerted her to the presence of a
Saladin. Before she could warn Patriot 10, LBX submunitions struck the side of the
Patton and wheels were blown right off the chassis. Accurate pulse laser fire from Jayson’s
Phoenix Hawk swiftly disabled the
Saladin but the damage has already been done.
“Patriot 10, bail out now! I will cover you!” Jayson’s voice blasted through the channels.
As the crew of the
Patton escaped out of their vehicle, he moved his mech in the way of incoming fire, blocking hundreds of 20mm machine gun rounds heading straight for the exposed crews. A
Maxim from the 4th Hovercraft Company swiftly rushed in towards the crew and the BA squad within charged out with the machineguns discharging. As the crew moved into the hovercraft, the
Sparrowhawk squad aimed their TAG at a
Tokugawa just as an Arrow IV sailed over them. The
Maxim with the crew and the BA squad quickly retreated right before the Arrow IV blew the turret off the tank.
That makes it the third Patton
we lost this week.“This is Blue 4, I detected lots of movement at 9 O’clock!” Marley reported, fatigue showing in her voice.
“This is Red Leader, how fast are those boogies?” the Colonel asked demandingly.
“More than 100 klicks per hour! Light mech or hovercraft, I can’t be sure.”
“Blue lance, intercept the
. To all dropship defend units, light units are heading your way! Take them out!”
------
5th June 3045
Kaus Media
Hyadamos
Snake EaterMech bay
The dropships were firing again.
It’s not hard to notice the entire arsenal of the Snake Eater was shooting against whatever DC threw at us as I can feel the floor vibrating from the rhythmic firing like an Orchestra. The heavy discharge of a gauss rifle, the rapid thuds of an autocannon, the mass launching of missiles from their launcher rack and the loud barrage of the Long Tom artillery that shook the entire dropship. These are the only mechanical sounds that could calm my beating heart down right now.
Because everything feels chaotic now.
And by chaotic, I meant a gigantic hovercraft literally flew into the wrong floor and I nearly fell off my wheelchair. A cry for medic came within the Maxim and the medic team on standby moved in for their latest patients. A woman was carried out the back of the hovercraft on a stretcher and her uniform has splotches of red on it. A squad of
Sparrowhawk troopers then exited the hovercraft, grabbed a few bottles of refreshments, then climbed right back into the hovercraft.
“You guys are heading out again!?” a medic asked with clear concern.
“Is that even a question? Thompson, move out!”
And just like that, the Maxim left in a gust of wind that almost knocked people over and went straight into the battlefield.
“Christ, it looks bad out there.” David said, with fear.
“I’m going to take a look.” I said, ignoring him and wheeling my way towards a window.
Thing hasn’t been going well at all since weeks ago. As we conducted more raid, it became clear that the DCMS and the local militia has gained a second wind after all but one of the Clan warships have left for Vega. With only one warship in orbit, the local dropship transport could just avoid the warship as it was obvious where it is with rudimentary detection and tracking system.
Oh, the Alpha Expeditionary Galaxy is still unmatched on the planet. But for the rest of us? We are in deep shit.
Over 40% of merc force has either been lost or activated their escape clause before their loss becomes too great (Most were the latter case though, thankfully). The remaining one are either stupid, desperate or us, the stubbornly professional. It’s barely 2 weeks left on our contract, but this campaign seriously took a turn for the worse.
I hope this mission doesn’t ge-
Through the window, a company of militia hovercrafts was heading straight towards here.
Bloody Murphy.“Incoming DC hovercrafts!” I yelled as loud as I could.
Chief Technician Pedro quickly noticed my cry, “Close the bay door now!”
Just before the door could close in time, I saw streaks of tracers passed through the gap and punched holes on the wall. I didn’t notice if anybody was injured but someone has already called out for a medic. As I looked back at the window, the external camera showed nearly a two battalion of hovercrafts and APC heading straight for us. I can recognise the
Scimitars with their long autocannon barrel, the
Saracens with its numerous missile launchers and the
Saladins with its massive autocannon but I can’t recognize the fourth type that’re armed with laser, missile and a whole bunch of rotary machineguns.
A lost model in canon Succession War? Maybe I could find out if I have more time to look at it but the
Demolishers quickly lived up to their name as they got too close. The 40mm Pom Pom Shatterstorm LBX AC 20 was really amazing at just how much AC rounds it could unleash towards the enemy at practically 8 times maximum fire rate of the modern GAU-8 gatling autocannon. The DC hovercrafts simply melted apart from all the AC rounds hammering their armored chassis and the infantries disembarked from their flipped APC disintegrated into pink mist from all the machinegun fire.
“Incoming Artillery! Brace for impact!” the intercom blared.
Before I could even brace myself, the whole dropship rocked like it was suffering from an Earthquake. Only a handhold on the wall stopped me from rolling around on my wheelchair. By the separated vibrations, I counted maybe 6 to 10 separated explosions bombarding the outer shell of the dropship, good thing the
Snake Eater was armored with heavy ferro-aluminium plating or else I would notice things falling apart already.
As I pulled myself back to the window, I spotted a company of DC battlemechs skirting around the dropship.
Owens,
Striders and
Raptors, all modularmechs that looked to have configurations that featured a TAG. It was obvious that they were the one spotting for guided artillery rounds.
And that fact was obvious to the 1st Company too as the Blue lance torn right into them.
------
5th June 3045
Kaus Media
Hyadamos
1 kilometer away from
Snake Eater“The DC hovercrafts are assaulting the base!” Michelle reported.
“Forget them, the dropship can handle it. Blue lance, engage the light scouts!” Jayson ordered as he aimed his guns towards a
Raptor.
With the whole DC light mech company concentrated at the dropship, the Blue lance viciously dealt their first blow without any return fire. The lance of
Raptors closest to them was the first to utterly annihilated. For a light mech, standing still is a mistake. And as Marley’s barrage of medium laser sliced a
Raptor apart, that statement was proven right once more.
When the death scream of their comrades finally reached their radio, the remaining militia
Owenses and
Striders finally turned around right as one of them was getting kicked in the leg by Jayson’s
Phoenix Hawk. The
Owens, unbalanced by the attack, fell onto cockpit first to the hard dirt. Jayson deemed it harmless and shot at the nearby
Strider. The pilot within the fallen
Owens tried to aim his TAG towards the dropship again but Smithy put an end to it with a crushing stomp right through the windshield before directing his quad pulse laser at another
Owens.
With her CLPS useless at such close range, Michelle turned it off and split her fire at two different DC mechs, trying to direct their attention at her than at the dropship. It worked, as the heat from the inferno gel made the two militia mechwarriors panicked. Within seconds, her
Commando closed the distance between her and the two militia mechs, her speed enhanced by the supercharger and MASC.
With the
Owens pilot suffering panic, she grabbed the mech by its missile box arm and pushed it onto the ground before firing everything she has at it. Without even confirming kill, she charged straight towards the last
Strider, intending to slam it to the ground. However, the Strider moved at the very last second and her blow was glanced off its armor.
With the streak SRM launchers and pulse laser this
Strider config has, it was a terrible mistake to expose her back. Luckily, the
Strider didn’t notice his entire company was dead except for him and the rest of her lance was directly behind him. The
Strider didn’t even get to pull the trigger as a massive burst from the eight machineguns mounted on Marley’s
Firestarter triggered an explosion within the mech.
With the fight ended, Jayson quickly reported, “This is Blue Leader, we have finished off the light mech company.”
“Good work, Blue lance. Get to the dropship now, we are leaving!” the colonel replied.
“Alright, Blue lance. Let’s go!”
A ping popped up on her radar. With her rear camera, she saw the
Owens she has shot was still moving with a functional TAG.
“Shit!”
“I’m on it!”
Jayson stepped hard on the pedal and jumped his mech right onto the
Owens. This time, the
Owens was truly dead with its cockpit completely crushed flat, but it has definitely fired the TAG somewhere as the copperhead shells began to turn their course towards them.
He quickly realised the
Owens mistakenly shot its TAG at him. Going prone on the ground, he pulled the dead
Owens over him to shield against the artillery strike. Nobody could tell whether he survived or not as dust billowed from multiple massive explosions.
“Shit! Jayson!” Michelle yelled in hope of a response.
As the dust finally settled, the rest of the Blue lance was relieved to find his mech heavily damaged but otherwise intact. The
Owens, however, was essentially deader than dead as the only piece big enough for Jayson’s mech to hold onto was a crumbled missile box.
“Everyone, I’m detecting more signal than the time we fought on a Kerensky damned live volcano! Let’s get the hell out of here now!” Marley yelled through the comm and the Blue lance quickly headed back to the dropship.
------
5th June 3045
Kaus Media
Hyadamos
Snake EaterMech bay
Sweet Jesus, I have never seen Michelle fighting with such ruthless brutality before. Even from the free time between missions, I can see her and every single combat personnel getting high strung from all the difficult missions we have finished. Even the supply was getting stretched with our ammunition supply running low enough that we could only do 5 more sorties and we might need to downgrade the light ferro fibrous armor we used on our mech to all the standard grade armor plating we have salvaged soon. Thankfully, food and medicine supply was not an issue so far, those were a lot lighter than armor and ammo and easy to double up. Thing simply just wasn’t looking up at all.
“Open up the bay door! All personnel, move away from the bay door! Battlemechs coming through!” Pedro ordered with a phone through the intercom.
As soon as the bay door was fully opened, the battlemechs of the 1st company in various states of damage moved in a rush rather the usual slow walk and my body felt like it was being shaken apart from each quake caused by the footsteps. Armor covered in burn scars and bullet holes, gun barrel cut and smashed from enemy fire, myomer bundles exposed to the light outside and yet functionally moving the mech forward. Today’s fight was harder than the last one for sure.
After most of the medium and heavy mechs have gotten into the Snake Eater, Colonel Marvick and Major Davion swiftly took cover at the sides of the door.
“Cover your ears!” Colonel Marvick’s voice came through the external speaker.
Then, I quickly realised two things. One, mech scale weapon fire are stupid loud when someone was firing it right above you. Two, I should really have moved as I saw the UAC 5 mounted on Colonel Marvick’s
Zeus’s left arm was spewing out hundreds of empty shell casings above me. Apparently my brain has decided that since I’m still stuck on a wheelchair, I didn’t need to move away on Pedro’s warning myself!
Brilliant thinking, brain! You stupid piece of grey mat-
Thankfully, someone pushed me out of the way as the casings clinked and clanked onto the floor.
“You really should be more careful.” Sarah’s voice came behind me.
“Well, this is a bit ironic.”
“Really? Not even a thank you?” she asked skeptically.
“Maybe we should call even here.”
She just rolled her eyes at me.
A metal screeching noise quickly drew our attention back to the bay door as the Blue lance has finally returned with their lance leader’s mech being dragged back into the mech bay. Even with his mech in pieces, he’s still firing back with pulse laser and machineguns. I’m briefly thankful that machinegun fired caseless round or else we will have to clean thousands of tiny round casings off the dropship.
“Close the baydoor now!” the colonel spoke, her voice sounded robotic, “All dropships lift off ASAP! Secure up the battlemech, we are going for a hard burn.”
------
8th June 3045
Kaus Media
Hyadamos
Snake EaterDining Hall
Even as we burned through the atmosphere that day, the DCMS refused to stop there as the onboard sensor detected a full wing of DC ASF heading our way. Fortunately, the Qualip’s Phantom had the same experience a few years ago and has modified their dropship to counter such threat. All three dropships in service of the Qualip’s Phantom has downgraded some of their carrying capacity for more cargo capacity and increased level of firepower and armor.
The heavy vehicle bays of the
Snake Eater has been reduced to light vehicle bays to carry the
Maxims, a lance worth of heavy vehicle bays was removed in the
Policenaut as the colonel deemed they have enough vehicle support, and with the sheer space
The Snatcher has as a mule, the question of what you can’t put was easier to answer than the opposite. Funny enough, The Snatcher was actually the most heavily armored dropship here, I guessed the colonel really preferred her loot intact.
But even then, the dropships have suffered damage from the artillery bombardment before and it was only the timely reinforcement from the Dame Dans L’eau that the DC wing was deterred away. It was a whole merc company built to achieve aerospace superiority and escort protection. In this era where even jumpships are fair game, actual aerospace support is important now.
Once again, we are recuperating from the failed raid and the morale just isn’t good right now.
Another yawn left my mouth as if my exhausted look wasn’t obvious enough.
“Not getting enough sleep, Iceman?” Jayson asked while looking at his datapad, probably watching recorded footage of Noisiel Summer Game again.
“Yes and stop calling me that.” I growled, “I’m stuck in a bloody wheelchair and I still have to spend the time I used for my beauty sleep on repairing
your mech because even your tech team couldn’t fix everything in that poor Phoenix Hawk of yours that was one shot away from being permanently sent to the scrapyard.”
“Apology to that, I really wasn’t in the best condition that day.”
“Say, when are all those regiments sent to Vega going to be here?” David asked while stabbing a sausage hard with a fork, “They have been delayed for more than two weeks already. We were supposed to be supporting them right now, not fighting for our life on this planet full of trees and insects here.”
“Sometimes, things just don’t go your way. That’s life, and life can be a bitch to handle.”
We both nodded in acknowledgment.
“But what I’m really afraid now is that… whether the Federated Commonwealth is inflicted with victory disease.” I said with fearfully.
“Victory disease? What is that supposed to mean?”
“It’s a ‘sickness’ that has plagued many civilisations before, all of which shared one thing in common. Ignorance.” I explained, “It always happens after a civilisation has so many major successes in a row that they began to believe they were favoured by fate or their deity, or that they were superior to their opponents in some ways. And rather than using the advantages they got from those victories correctly, they began to think they were invincible and did more stupid things until one day, everything collapsed under its own weight.”
“That… isn’t gonna happen to the Federated Commonwealth, right? I meant, nobody has achieved such scale of unification besides the Star League.”
“And the Star League eventually fell apart under its own weight. I lived those time, David. I would be lying if I said I couldn’t see the same syndrome in this era again. To believe that one is greater simply because of their advancement in technology or culture was a completely foolish idea that got a lot of people killed.”
It’s only when I have finished my explanation that I noticed people sitting at the surrounding table were looking at me.
My injured leg suddenly throbbed painfully and I realised I must have stood up during my explanation somehow. Slowly, I sat back down on the bench.
“Sorry about that. I make the mood grim again.”
All I got back was silence, because in a way, people knew that I was saying part of a truth.
------
“Next mission briefing starts in 10 minutes in the dining hall.” the intercom blared once again for the past hour.
I can just hear the groans echoing from both the mech bay and vehicle bay levels even when I physically couldn’t as all the tech teams have been spending days and nights getting all those mechs and vehicles up and running. Hell, some of the replacement vehicles were even brought out of mothballs to replace the lost vehicles. If there were even more vehicle loss, we will have to start figuring out how to cut the good parts out of two tanks and weld them together.
If we failed the next mission, the Qualip’s Phantom might need to seriously consider activating its escape clause.
As I wheeled myself towards the dining hall, Sarah was just so happened to be walking out of hallway intersection.
“Drake.”
“Sarah.”
“So, what do you think the mission is going to be this time?”
“Hopefully not literally swarming us with several regiments of infantry and armor again, Akira was having a field day about it.” I replied sarcastically, it was kinda genius of the militia commander to rush us with waves of tanks because we have a ‘magician’ that can make cockpits disappear in seconds. Still, really bad for us.
Eventually, we made it to the dining hall. The whole tech team was there and Sai Yong has left some space for us to sit, until she remembered I didn’t really require one.
“Everyone in? Good.” with a gesture from the colonel, the crews closest to the door locked them down.
“Let’s get the important part mentioned first. Tomorrow’s mission will be the last of our campaign. After this, we will be burning towards our jumpship ASAP and return to Qualip.” the colonel spoke through the mike, “So I want all of you to do your best for one last time!”
A couple vocal members below the stage started cheering and said some variations of ‘Finally!’, a lot of people here have certainly gotten homesick.
“That’s nice, but what’s the catch?” Teron questioned to himself skeptically.
A green hologram was projected on the wall behind the colonel as the room light darkened. The hologram showed the sight of Kaus Media from the orbit, then zooming down onto the surface before slowly centering onto a military base.
“At tomorrow 0200, we will strike at Yokota military base which housed the 11th Benjamin Regular.” the colonel continued.
“Shit.” no point guessing who said that. I doubted anyone needed a reminder that an ambush DC line regiment nearly wiped out the whole company, and now we will be fighting the regiment right at their home turf? There’s only so many times one could say the word ‘suicidal’ in all variations of human languages.
“Fortunately, we won’t be alone in this mission. Thanks to the coordination effort from our liaison officer, Steve Manlington, this mission will be conducted by a joint force operation.”
The hologram map expanded outward, showing us other strategic targets around the base.
“The Alpha Expeditionary Galaxy, Hellion’s Dragoon-”
I made a very ugly noise.
“Di-did you just hissed?” Sarah asked rhetorically.
“-will be assaulting the Merlin military spaceport 120 kilometers away from the base. They will be causing massive destruction via bombardment with their warships, gunning down anything that moves and generally being a public menace. Thereby diverting attention from the 11th Benjamin Regular, possibly leaving token force at Yokota military base. In the sky, we will be having massive air support from Dame Dans L’eau to ensure that any dropship trying to come back as we engage with base defender will be having a rude surprise.”
With his hand raised up, Jayson asked a question, “Who would be joining us for the base assault?”
“That’s what I’m about to get into. Other merc forces that will be assisting us are the Briar Patch Guards, Crazy Diamond, Winchester’s Tango Fusiliers and the…”
The colonel took a deep breath before continuing.
“Chinatown Brigade.”
Suddenly, the entire hall went nut.
Everyone was yelling or groaning or facepalming, though Sai Yong seemed to yell just because it seemed fun. The only people that have no idea what’s happening were the new guys, us.
“W-what is going on!? Is Chinatown Brigade that bad?” Sarah asked nervously.
Sonya sighed, “They were a part of the CCAF which went rogue after the Capellan Confederation suffered a massive defeat in the Fourth Succession War. As such, they would use extreme underhand tactics that are just around the edge of what’s being considered as warcrime. The last we fought them at Lyons was… not good.”
That bad huh?
Well… I sure hope we wo-
Nope, not even going to finish that line.
------
9th June 3045
Kaus Media
Hyadamos
10 kilometers away from Yokota military base.
“Dragonfly Actual to headquarter, northwest sector is clear.”
“This is headquarter, roger. Report back in 10 minutes.”
“Roger.”
With the Clan Ice Hellion assaulting the Merlin spaceport in full force, one couldn’t help but wonder if this was a gratuitous diversion tactic of a sort. It’s something only a Lyran could think of after all.
Looking up to the moons, she sighed.
Kaus Media has seen better days.
Even with the bright moons of Ajax and Yanu on the night sky, the people of Kaus Media hasn’t forgotten their suffering by the rebellious activities of the merc aided rebels and the constant surveillance and ‘relocation’ done by the DCMS and the ISF.
Chu-i Takao Tomoko was like the countless recruits that have joined the DCMS in the hope that their noble sacrifice on the field would bring a brighter future for the combine and its people. As her service year went by, Takao could feel her loyalty wavered in the cruel reality of war. It wasn’t that she was hopeless about the future of the combine, but rather it could have been better and the Coordinator could have…
No, she can’t speak those words squatted in her mind, that would just invite the ISF knocking on her door.
So many worlds with long and rich history under the combine have been lost in this war already. New Wessex, Kessel, Tukayyid, Balkan, even the Buckminster was under attack from AFFC raid. Then of course there’s Vega, the one system where everyone couldn’t stop talking with the sheer amount of warships being sent there. How many must die for just one planet? What exactly is on Vega?
“Chu-i! Enemy approaching!” one of her lancemates reported.
An attack to the base, right now? “How many?”
“Unknown! We are being jammed by ECM, they could be any-”
Pulse laser suddenly slashed across his
Wolverine’s armor before an unknown mech slammed into him. Even with the moons above, Takao couldn’t see the mech at all as though it was invisible to her infrared sensor.
“The enemy has stealth armor!” she warned through the channel.
But that information wouldn’t help the mechwarrior in time as the unknown mech stabbed a blade right through the cockpit, twisting it as it pulled it out. She still couldn’t see the mech, but she can see the crimson blood dripping down the blade through the thermal sensor.
Quickly, the rest of the lance raised up their arms and fired at the mech. However, the mech disappeared as fast as it appeared.
As she jumped to chase after the mech, she opened her channel, “Headquarter, this is Dragonfly Actual, we are under attack by unknown enemy force! Possibly merc! Please advise!”
Nothing came back from the radio.
“Dragonfly 1, we have been jammed! Only laser com would work, we have to get to a high ground!”
With a flick of the trackball, she quickly found a suitable mountain and marked it.
“All Dragonfly units, move to the west hill! I have marked the nav point on the map!”
Right as they reached the bottom of the hill however, she saw a couple flashes from the mountaintop.
The
Wolverine right beside her was shredded as blurs of silver balls slammed into him.
Shit, gauss rifle.
“Enemy on the hill! Move back!” judging by the distance between the flashes and the steepness of the hill, there’s at least a whole lance of mechs up there.
“They are everywhere, Chu-i! I can’t get a clear signal at-”
It was a shot to the back, a massive, thunderous bang that shook every tree leaves within this valley. The mechwarrior within would have survived with such a clean shot into the back, but the mech instead crushed the cockpit as it stepped forward.
“Who the hell are you!? Answer me!”
There’s no escape now, not with Coordinator knows how many mechs are there within this valley.
“Sorry.” a voice came behind her.
Before she could turn around, a massive slab of metal cleaved into her cockpit and even went deep into the mech reactor. Pain exploded within her as her cockpit was covered in red stain.
“But I’m the one axing question here.”
The hatchet was pulled out of the
Wolverine, like a puppet without string, it fell onto the ground.
“Really, Major? Axing questions? You have said that so many times!”
Please help.“Look, do you want me to ax
you a question or the next idiot that stand in front of me?”
I need help.“Pft, affirmative.”
Everything hurts, please help.…
…
…
“This is headquarter, we are under assault by heavy merc force! Requesting assistance! Any assistance!”
“They are going to breach the base defense, Sir!”
“What the hell is that noi-”
…
…
…
A Stinger, slightly bigger than usual, landed among the recently dead mechs.