Tamar, early 3051...
Stoplossed. Patrick could have been bitter about it, but he understood why the AFFC was refusing to accept his resignation.
If he'd needed an explanation, that explanation grounded dropships after gutting the aero wings. Clan Wolf.
Natasha Kerensky. He'd read stories of the Black Widow of Wolf's Dragoons as a kid, that she was here, leading the enemy charge? well...it isn't like the Dragoons didn't come out with who they really were, is it? no. Not at all-they confessed and started prepping the leaders of the Inner Sphere for the resumed invasion. ONe of those preparations was a hold on all discharges, both voluntary and involuntary.
"Would've been nice if they sent us reinforcements, hey?" Leutnant Grohl, the scout lance leader, commented.
"It would be nicer, yes." at the feet of his 'mech, a column of vehicles carrying dependents was making their way to the secondary port outside of town. Bravo was the 'light' company in second battalion, machines between 50 and 60 tons, intended as a medium cavalry force, and utterly outgunned by the Clan machines that matched their collective movement profile. He goosed his Griffin along the route, keeping pace with the trucks and busses, an overwatch.
"Contact, three o'clock, multiple signatures, range five kliks."
they could just let the civilians evacuate, but that wouldn't be any FUN would it? "assume formation Bravo-diamond, scouts out, get a look at our incoming but do not engage, if they shoot at you, I want you to take those commandos and locusts and run, you can't poke a fight with these guys, just sound off your T-coords and bug the ****** out. everyone else, get on the sunny side of that berm, we're protecting civilians here, I want zero stray rounds hitting that convoy, all sections acknowledge!!"
It violated their standing orders from the General, lighter elements melt like wax in a blast-furnace against Clan weapons, the company was, for any real purpose, a flank and rear guard not meant to go toe-to-toe with the invaders unless backed against a wall.
sometimes, god says no.
his recon section's crisp reports turned to screams and the sound of chaos. in the distance, the fastest and arguably best 'mech in the recon lance, a Jenner, raced out of the trees, only to explode under a barrage of synthetic lightning from a 'mech that vibrations said was ten tons lighter.
he snapped orders, and 'mechwarriors he'd trained with did their jobs, spreading out and using the berms around the port, the irrigation ditches and the railway's pillars as cover, moving in split overwatch to engage.
He did it too, and the Clanners lost a 'mech.
and then he lost two more.
and then, they lost one, and the remaining three pulled back.
"They're retreating?"
"REGROUPING." he scolded over the comm, "Someone check on Carlos?"
"He's on foot, sir."
"Good."
He checked the battalion's channel, it was chaos on the far side of the city.
******. no luck there.
A civilian dropship lifted. and then another. The enemy's air assets let them through, passing close, and even escorting them until they left sight.
"Thank god, they let them go..."
as far as we know.
"fall back to the start line boys, that was a probe, they got what they were after."
the six remaining 'mechs of Bravo fell back in overwatching moves, until they were on the inside of the structural and noise berm around the port. On audio, order was restored with the rest of the battalion.
"Wll they let us go the same?"
"I don't think so." Patrick said grimly, "We don't have orders to retreat, but they listened to those civilian transponders and let the civilians go. They're here for us."
the military dropships were being fueled.
"Any word on the Duke's evacuation, sir?" Connolly was native to Tamar, he'd been in AFFC service two years, not including academy service.
"He's refused, but Evvie's company from the 328 is bringing his daughter. We hold here, and then...we wait for evac orders or reinforcements."
a column of tanks rolled down the service road. as they passed checkpoints, engineers from the infantry group closed contacts and activated minefields, vibrowire barriers, and trip sensors, then fell back behind the tanks.
In the middle of the armored column, a limousine flying Tamar's pennant on the left fender, and the Federated Commonwealth flag on the right, pulled up to a K-1 shuttle.
The civilians boarded ship for the next wave, this time escorted by the few functional aerospace fighters on the field, while the armor units started to either dig in, or load up.
The Clanners let the civilian ship through, again. we might make it out of this...
"Incoming contacts...jesus, they're surrounding us."
Or not.
Patrick made a call.
"Get everyone you can on those ships, technicians and support first, combat arms dig in, we have to fight this!!"
The minefields did absolutely nothing. Toads, 'elementals' on the recognition book, bounded off the backs of 'mechs as they strode over the poorly constructed barriers meant to shield the port.
He raised his PPC and released missiles, running laterally and barking short-form orders to his men that got them into formation. some of the tanks fell in with him, adding their firepower to his.
it really looked like they might win this skirmish...
until the enemy's heavies came rumbling up the service road. Mad-Cats...
when on deadly ground, fight.
out the corner of his eye, he saw Evelyn's tank, 'Joker', one hundred meters away, backing up with a toad on the turret like a tumor. He popped the toad with one shot from his PPC, but in that moment of distraction...
white
darkness.
after the battle...
Wolf Clan technicians and captured personnel were sorting the damage.
The body of Hauptmann Patrick Ngo was given a measure of respect, even as Wolf Clan Watch officers searched it for useful information such as notes, maps, and logs.
What they found, was a printed copy of a book from the Amaris War era, a small patch, six centimeters by four of yellow cloth, bisected three times with red lines, a six pointed star in the center wrapped by a dragon rampant and the number '171', and family pictures.
News of the identity of the dead was broadcast to the retreating jumpships of the 26th Lyran Guard, as a psychological warfare tactic, one made harsher by the phrase 'defended with unusual gallantry and honor' being appended to Hauptmann Ngo in particular.
respect for a defeated foe isn't at cross purposes to the Clan way, after all.
Neither is rubbing it in how badly that foe was defeated. The information SaKhan Kerensky sent, included both, with tactical view of Bravo 2nd Battalion's actual performance from the initial engagement in the treeline, to the final, lethal stand at the spaceport.
"You should have given them the machines you wasted at the gates, General, it would have been a real fight."
Tamar belonged to Clan Wolf.
