----- 2 Years Later -----
Date: April 4, 2765
Location: New Vandenberg
Title: An Ill-Made House
Author: Jason Schmetzer
Type: Short Story (BattleCorps)
Synopsis: SLDF Captain Aaron Dane, a graduate of the Gunslinger program, discusses secessionist propaganda being broadcast by Taurians on New Vandenberg with his CO, Major Talbert. Talbert informs Dane that General Kerensky is personally monitoring the situation from Fort Gorki, on the other side of the planet from Dane’s duty post at Fort James Miller in the city of Haganau. Dane would like to get to the task of breaking heads and gunning down revolutionaries, but Talbert cautions restraint, seeming to empathize with the Taurians. He orders Dane to take his company out for a patrol.
Dane’s company, uniformly comprised of Thugs, heads out on patrol and discusses the news that fighting has erupted at Fort Gorki, with a battalion of Taurian rebels attacking General Kerensky. Dane wishes he were there. The patrol encounters three TDF hovertanks, which pace them across the Elbe river. On patrol, Dane discusses the dismissal of the company’s former CO – Lt. White – who was arrested for conspiring with Taurian rebels.
Dane’s company is very multinational, including troopers from the RWR, OA, and the Great Houses. Accordingly, perspectives on the Reunification War and the current tensions vary. The discussion continues until the patrol unexpectedly runs into a reinforced force of Taurian ‘Mechs – mostly older designs, but headed by a cutting-edge Emperor.
Dane attempts to negotiate with the Taurian commander, setting the river as a red-line boundary. The Emperor’s pilot, having lost a daughter in the fighting around Fort Gorki, isn’t in the mood to parlay. When the Emperor lights his Thug up with its active targeting array, Dane issues a dueling challenge to the Taurian commander, despite the Emperor’s edge in armor and armament.
The scene shifts back to Fort James Miller, where Dane’s XO, Lt. Thomas Brake, reports to Major Talbert. He sees the battalion’s infantry complement geared up and standing by in their APCs. However, instead of riding to the rescue, Talbert orders Brake’s detention, and reveals that he’s a New Vandenberg native who has decided to back the Taurian rebels.
Dane wins the battle, targeting the Emperor’s XL engine, and finishing it off with a punch following a failed Death-From-Above attack. The Taurians withdraw, with a promise to be back the following day, and Dane begins to wonder where the rest of the battalion is. As the company returns to base, Major Talbert orders the fort’s perimeter defenses (quad-PPC turrets) to open fire. One of the Thugs takes heavy damage, and Dane moves to engage the turret after Major Talbert informs him that the fort is now a TDF installation.
Inside the fort, Lt. Brake disables his distracted guard and takes his rifle, attempting to assassinate Talbert with it, but misses as he is tackled by infantrymen. Talbert returns the favor by shooting Brake between the eyes with his own laser pistol, then pitches Brake’s body over the fort’s walls. Trapped between a rock and a hard place, Dane pulls back, intending to get to a communications center in Haganau and contact the large SLDF naval contingent in the system (four McKennas and a host of frigates and support craft). Half the company battles the Taurian ‘Mechs they faced down earlier, while Dane heads for the transmitter.
The communications center turns out to be hidden in a multi-faith chapel at the Bureau of Star League Affairs Civic Center – a secret resource intended to be used by troops during the post-Reunification War occupation in case of an uprising. Successfully contacting the fleet, Dane is given coordinates to rendezvous for resupply. The remaining ten Thugs move back across the Elbe, then destroy the bridge to prevent the Taurian ‘Mechs from following.
At the rendezvous point, an SLDF Union arrives to repair and rearm the Thugs. Intel reports that Taurian rebels are overrunning SLDF positions in Vandenberg City and all across the planet, with nearly 2,000 BattleMechs onworld. The company’s new orders are to reduce Fort James Miller to slag, clearing the way for the rest of the battalion to be dropped in to form a bridgehead.
Back at the fort, Major Talbert is running into problems getting the base’s technical staff to cooperate. With the Thugs laying waste to the fort’s fixed defenses, he orders his Taurian-loyalist infantry to evacuate in their hover APCs. Backed by a flight of TDF Cyranos, they try to shoot their way clear to the river. Despite taking heavy damage, Dane manages to blast the APC carrying Talbert. Only three APCs escape, each carrying one platoon of rebel infantry. As the rest of the battalion arrives, Dane readies his command to join the fight for New Vandenberg.
Notes: In addition to the Emperor, the Taurians in Haganau are packing a Guillotine, a pair of Sentinels, unnamed hovercraft (probably Maultiers, though possibly Condors or antiquated LTV-4s, given their use by the TDF during the Reunification War), and 12 Cyrano VTOLs. Fort James Miller’s turrets appear to consist of LRM turrets supported by AC/5 turrets (described as “light autocannon” hitting at shorter ranges than the LRM turrets), with each wall of the fort anchored by a single quad-PPC turret packing an estimated 10-13 tons of armor (it takes 21 PPC hits to destroy it). Based on the turret illustration in the Star League sourcebook, I’d guess that each missile turret is an LRM-10 or SRM-6, while each support turret packs an AC/5.
Given the description of Talbert’s vehicles as hover APCs capable of carrying a whole platoon, I’d guess they’re either Maultiers or Maxims. Probably Maultiers, since we know it was a design fielded by the SLDF in the Concordat. Each facing on a Maultier has enough armor to take one PPC blast, so either the Thugs scored two hits each against the APCs they took down, or managed to tag them with enough SRMs to blow the hover skirts on the Motive Damage Table.
Per FM:SLDF, New Vandenberg plays host to the SLIC’s Taurian HQ, the LVI Corps, the 95th Royal Jump Infantry Division, and the 329th BattleMech Division. Circa 2764 (when FM:SLDF was set), the First French Regiment was stationed on Paf, so their change of station to New Vandenberg must have been pretty recent.
Reference is made to the Fort Gorki fighting. TDF militia were stationed at Fort Gorki, and mistakenly fired on elements of the First French Regiment (an independent regiment attached to the LVI Corps). Fearing a counterattack (which wasn’t actually planned) the militia eventually decided to launch a pre-emptive strike, touching off the Periphery Uprising. Though no date for the incident beyond “2765” has been given in the sourcebooks, the immediacy conveyed in this narrative places it on or about April 2nd or 3rd.