Chappy's Howling Siegers--battles based off of MekHQ/MegaMek

[mchapman1970]

I have redone some of this story. I am almost done with the second book...My idea was to do nine books spanning from 2786 to 3050. books 1-3 is about the beginning of a legacy, books 4-6 will be about the conception of my new faction and the war of 3039.  The last three books will be about the clan invasion and how my faction will handle that.  Think about re-introducing this story with the new version since it was originally conceived in 2016.

I am in the process of correcting some of my errors so a chapter every few days until I am caught up with the new writings.

[Middcore]

So where's the story?  ???

[mchapman1970]

Disclaimer
This story is based on my imagination, what happens in MegaMek and MekHQ, and input from others. Any names are based on fiction, and I do use some of the canon names, and any location is based on MegaMek, and BattleTech universe. The timeline takes place right before and after the SLDF exodus.  The mercenary group is complete fiction some names from BattleTech Lore have been used in this book.  This is the start of my alternate Universe that is in 3030 of how one man and one merc unit can change the face of the universe.

Prologue
Niles
Capital Planet
Freedom Federation
Steps of Museum of Military History
June 1, 3033

General Matthew Chapman looked across the tens of thousands of citizens, hundreds of reporters and his command regiment in full colors, that had gathered for his speech and the grand opening of the museum.  Chapman was 53 years old; his dress blues was all decked out with all his medals and awards; his hair and beard was completely white, but his blue eyes still shown bright.  He cleared his throat and continued with the speech.
“So, as we gather to this great hall and partake of its wonders, artifacts, both written and visual history of how it all began from the Great Exodus till the end of the fourth/fifth Succession Wars and all the time in between.  Remember that today, 1 June 2033 is the first day that the treaty between us and the Draconis Combine begins.  This will mark the first time in three years that this nation is at peace.  Make no mistake either, though this nation was forged by blood and destruction, it will not continue down that path.  If no other nation attacks us, we will stay peaceful.  If a nation attacks the Federated Suns and they call on our defense treaty to help we will be honored bound to help our closest ally.  But now is the time to build our planets, bring total prosperity to every citizen within the borders of this nation.  Build each planet militia so that they can sustain against an invasion or pirate activity until one of the Federation units can come.  We will rebuild trade, interstellar commerce, HPG Communication.  We also will explore, there are stellar maps indicating hundreds of planets that were known and at one time inhabited during the early years, we have teams out there now looking for those planets.  We will be strong, we will be brave, we will succeed, and most important we will be free and govern our own lives by keeping the government honest and keeping this nation as a republic.”
The crowds cheered as General Chapman walked off the stage and into the background.
20 minutes later
General Chapman was walking around the hall and randomly went into the Chappy Howling Siegers wing.  This is where it all began, he thought.  He was named after the first commander, basically the forefather of all.  The original memoirs were displayed under glass and locked, but a digital copy could be transferred to anyone’s pad if so desired.  The General open the first page on his pad and began reading.

Chapter One
Unity City, Earth
SLDF Base
Strait of Juan de Fuca
Officers lounge
11 October 2780
07:00GST

Major Matthew Chapman looked out of the panoramic view overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  He had always been a history buff, so he knew that this area used to be part of the United States before the Terran Alliance.  He was drinking his beer while recalling what happen the day before, the High Council and their petty difference could not agree on making Kerensky the First Lord of the Terran Alliance even after all he did to help save it.  Matthew was one of the few surviving company officers of the 151st Royal BattleMech Division, the civil war had taken its toll and even though it was over, every night when he closed his eyes all he had was nightmares about the war.  Most of his friends were dead, most of the members of the battalion were dead, but his side had won the battle and the war, so what was left of the151st was on some well-deserved R/R around the world. Ordering another beer, he heard a person walk up to him, the sound was familiar and the air in the lounge went cold.  It could only mean one thing; his pompous father had entered the room. Basil Chapman the Vice Admiral, Commander of the 171st Reconnaissance Squadron of the 17th Fleet was in Matthew’s opinion arrogant, self-righteous, and out of touch with the real war man. 
“Father, what brings you to the lounge of MechWarrior scum?”  Matthew said without turning around.
“Major Chapman, I would have appreciated it if you call me by my rank while on-duty”
Matthew then slowly turned around, “Admiral…sorry, but I am not on-duty.  So, say what you have come to say and then leave me alone…Admiral.”
“Major…. Um son the 151st is dead I am going to transfer you to a proper position with me at the 171st.  There are things in play in the background and I need to make sure you are with me when it comes to pass.”
“No, Admiral if you gave such order I will resign, I have seen the way you operate, and I don’t want to be part of it.”  With that Matthew walked away, the unfinished beer sitting on the table.
Matthew left the lounge angry at the world upset at his father but more than anything angry at the truth his father had said about the 151st.  Matthew decided to take a walk to clear his head, but he started to remember again the next to last battle he was involved in, the one in which he lost most of his unit all because of his father.
July 2779 Colombia River
It was the hardest fought battle to date.  At the time he was a Captain in charge of the 101st Company, but after the last failed attempt at a direct assault against the fortified position on the other side of the river he had lost two of his lance commanders, and his battalion commander was also dead, the Archer was still face down in the water just meters away from the enemy’s banks.  Matthew’s mech, a Nightstar-9J, was beat the hell up, the techs currently were retrofitting armor from a destroyed Longbow on both his arms in attempt to give the inner systems some protection.   As Matthew walked through the crumpled and destroyed town in which his unit was resting, he notices yet another horror from this war.  The scene was gruesome, a Civilian wife holding the head of her half burnt and destroyed body of her husband. Simply, because missiles had missed their mark and destroyed their home.  A child that looked just like him sat on the ground in front of them sobbing because his dad was dead, as the child looked into the eyes of the soldier that was walking by, he broke out in a scream and ran toward the burning house.  Matthew right then had a moment of worry; his family had moved to New Earth last year but still he worried about his children and wife and wondered what they were doing. His communicator went off, “Chapman here”
“Sir, this is HQ, General Hayes wants all commanders at the briefing room for details on the next push”
“Roger HQ, I am on my way.”
Running to the makeshift command tent Matthew started to question the sanity of command.  He understood that the enemy needed to be defeated, but there must be a better way than just run up to them only to get destroyed because they are fortified. 
Captain Chapman was the first one to the brief room and took his seat so that he could cool down from the five-mile run he just performed.  Slowly the commanders that were still alive arrived. Out of the three regiments in this AOR (Area of Responsibility) only 4 out of 9 Battalion commanders showed up, out of the 27 company commanders only 15 showed up for this brief meaning, the others were dead.  Everyone stood up when the call for commander on deck was announced, Major General Lauren Hayes walked in the room, while everyone in the audience were dirty-up, messy, and sweaty she was in pristine military blues.
“Have a seat, we have a lot to go over.” Hayes said.
30 minutes later
As the General finished her plan, which was really the same plan 6 times over, Captain Chapman raised his hand when she asked if there were any questions.
“Yes Captain”
“Ma’am, Captain Chapman here we have tried this plan six other times with no success, is there any other possibility?  Could we have the fleet bombard the area for a while to soften them up?”
“Mmm Captain Chapman, you are the son of Vice Admiral Chapman, aren’t you?  It is amazing that your father had the same suggestion.  He is moving into position, but we are attacking before he does, is that final?”
“Yes Ma’am!!!!”  said all her commanders.
“Oh, and by the way, Captain I am in need of Battalion leaders stand up and let me pin Major on you.”
20 minutes later
“101st and Alpha Battalion, saddle up we are attacking again” Matthew said to his company, and his battalion.
Ten minutes later his forces along with the rest of the regiment was pushing into the river firing at the fortified bunkers, a mech next to Matthew just went down with a PPC to the head, his own mech has already lost the use of the left arm, things were not looking good.  Then out of the sky the bombardment started, but whoever was up there did not care who was down here in the water since the weapon fire was all over the place.
“Actual, actual this is the Alpha Battalion the bombardment is hitting friendlies I repeat friendly fire!!” Major Chapman said over the command net.
“Roger that Alpha Battalion, be advise bombardment has started we informed them of friendlies in the bombardment area and they did not care, now there is a radio silence in affect with the fleet” the General announced.
“Damn it” Matthew said to himself out loud.  Right then two more of his troops were destroyed in their mechs.
“Back up back up!!”  Matthew yelled into the com net.  As a laser from space hit right in front of his mech knocking him over and causing a blackout, when Matthew came-to a few moments later he righted his mech and took stock of the battlefield.  He was down another 4 mechs that gave him a total of 5 mechs but of those only two besides himself was functional.  His communication system was down though and there was a hole in his canopy so that could be dangerous.  Even with this Matthew started forward to see what the bombardment did to the enemy, sure enough as he approached the other side of the riverbank everything was destroyed.  Arms, legs, heads of both mechs and humans laid scatter across the banks of Columbia so much so that the blue color of the river was turning a rusty red due to blood, and hydraulic fluid.


Present time
Matthew shivered as he remembered that scene, he shook himself out of the memory and realized he was walking in the water on the beach, “Man” he thought, “these shoes are destroyed with salt water.”
****

August 12, 2781
Buenos Aires
151st Royal BattleMech Division home base
News was spreading like wildfire, the Council Lords after stripping General Kerensky of all titles 10 months earlier, just announced that the Star League and the Council Lords were dissolved due to differences in picking a new First Lord.
It has been 10 months of rebuilding and still the 151st was only 70% strength Major Chapman thought, now this, wondering what was going to happen to the Army made him lose sleep that night.
****

October 2783
Hilton Head Island
South Carolina, Terra
COMSTAR Headquarters

Major Matthew Chapman was at the grand opening gala to commemorate the completion of the Hilton Head HPG complex, as he was sipping on the Champaign Matthew noticed the COMSTAR leader Jerome Blake and General Kerensky go into a room and then security securing the door.  Odd thought Matthew very odd what would those two be doing meeting all secret like, he then turned back to his wife and asked her to dance with him.
****
February 25, 2784
The defection of the 91st Heavy Assault Regiment to the Federated Suns was disturbing to Matthew, but he could understand, the Army was falling apart, gone was the Star League, now they were now part of the Terran Hegemony even though they still went by SLDF but even that was shaky with the five great houses ever increasing hostilities.  Then the message came, one hour after his commanding officer returned from a meeting with Kerensky on Terra, it was a message calling for all members of the SLDF to abandon the inner sphere and join Kerensky on a quest to find better worlds and build a better life.  In a public message his commanding officer General Hayes sent out a message to Kerensky and to her troops stating that the 151st was staying on Terra.  Shortly after that he received a call from his father begging him to come with him to the unknown.   Gladly, Matthew told his father that his unit was staying on Earth and so was he and his family, sadden Vice Admiral Basil Chapman left for the unknown with the rest of the SLDF without most of his family only Matthew’s younger brother went with him.
A few months later Major Matthew Chapman resigned his commission due to his commander General Hayes making the unit into the military arm of COMSTAR.  His mother also died due to the heartbreak of her husband, his father leaving without taking her.
Dallas, Terra
Two weeks after the funeral
14 Dec 2784
In a rare snowstorm Matthew looked out of a window in his now past mom’s house, things never happen the way you plan.  He was a rising star in the SLDF due to his skills and not his name, and then it fell apart with the civil war.  When General Kerensky left with 80 percent of the SLDF, and his old commander decided to make his unit a COMSTAR unit his career was over.   Losing focus, thinking about past decisions and whether or not they will end up as regrets the snow started to kick up then Matthew regains focus when he heard the familiar chop chop chop of a VTOL.  Matthew looked up into the dusk sky to see what was flying so low, then he caught a glance, it was a Cobra Transport command version by the look of the antennas protruding out of it.  Once it landed. a three-person contingent un-boarded, Matthew took his laser rifle out of the front closet, checked the power level, and open the door. 
“Is that anyway to treat your three best friends?” ask the tall man in the middle.
“Gee I know you kept saying no to my advances but really? A rifle?  Can’t you forgive me” said the now identify as a woman to the right.
The man on the left was silent but reached up pulled the covering off his head and the snow googles to which then Matthew recognized as Dalton Tournier, with that blast from the past Matthew then recognized the other two since they never went anywhere without Dalton.
“Haleigh, Ethan, Dalton it’s been a few months how have you been?  Please come inside.” As Matthew lowered his rifle
“Thanks” said Ethan “it's cold out here and we have a lot to talk about.”
As Matthew closed the door the three guests took off their coats and he could not help but notice the uniform on them, which was not a uniform he recognized, and a suitcase that Haleigh was carrying.
“What’s up with the digs? What unit is that?” Matthew said.
Haleigh spoke up first as she sat down the suitcase, “well it’s our own uniform one we hope that you will wear also” right then she opens the case, and it was one of those uniforms in Matthew’s size.
“Like I said Chappy we have a lot to talk about” Ethan said.
“Man, I have not heard my callsign in months, sounds kind of weird” Matthew said
“The universe is falling apart with the General’s abandonment every little and big ass is fighting over everything.” Dalton said, “in fact there have been cases of the great houses slaughtering those who were in the SLDF that stayed behind if they would not join them.  We each have a lance willing to form a group and there are three other past subordinates that want to work with you in your command lance if you want.”
Matthew thought for a second to process what was just said, “Wait, what? Command lance? You have a company size unit ready to go and be what? Mercenaries. A Command lance that would follow… you want me in charge? I don’t know.”
Haleigh just looked at Matthew with her long brown/reddish hair and her deep blue eyes and said “yes Matthew at one time or another you have been in charge or over every single person that is ready to start this merc unit.  We even have a name Chappy’s Howling Siegers.”
Matthew was shocked a command of his own, but he knew there was a lot more to a unit than just MechWarriors.  “What about support personnel and transport?”
“We got that all cover, or should I say the Chief does” Ethan said with a smile.
“The Chief? He left the 151st also?  And he wants to be part of us?  Well, I guess I cannot say no.  When do we start?”
Ethan got up and said “well right now of course”

***

[snakespinner]

In the disclaimer i would have thought that the story is based on your nightmares.
Good start. :thumbsup:

[DOC_Agren]

one Ping only

[Daryk]

Oh!  A 3033 timestamp will definitely get a read when it isn't after bed time.  More snowstorm reading to do this weekend...  :thumbsup:

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Two
Dallas, Terra
Metro Star Port
DropShip Lounge
1 Jan 2785
Matthew just disconnected the COMSTAR link with his wife in the private booth at the drinking hole when his three best friends in the universe popped in with shots of tequila and beers as chasers.
“Hey boss time to drink now that all the kissy mushy is done with your Diana” Captain Haleigh Pople said.  “Heck, once we get home, I will kiss your wife to, and u can only watch” she continued.
“Ha-ha, I think you had too much to drink already Captain” Matthew replied.
“She sat down with bottom lip out and mumbled “party pooper.”  Matthew just shook his head and said, “Anyway, I have filed all the documents with all the recommended government and non-government agencies.  We are now officially a Merc unit with the name that you guys picked out Chappy’s Howling Siegers.  My wife was not happy about it but understood, it is in my blood, and luckily, she has a family friend with office space right near the Capital on New Earth that he will let us use for recruitment, contracts, and a main office.  We already had an inquiry for our services and Diana told them I am here; a rep will be here shortly.”
As the drinking settle down so that the other guys in Matthew’s command group looked sober, he stayed vigilant looking for this unknown representative.  Matthew thought that he had to get used to this unknown, something he never had to do in the SLDF.  This not knowing where the next paycheck was coming from was already doing a number to his stomach when he spotted the one person that he did not want to see, the one person that he hoped was not the representative, and that was their old commander General Hayes in civilian gear making a bee line right to their table.
“Chapman” Hayes said as she slides her way into the booth.  “I must say I am still disappointed in you” then she glanced at everyone, “all of you, for leaving the 151st.”
“Well, I was not ready to be COMSTAR, ma’am” Matthew said, and she saw that everyone was shaking their heads in agreement.
“Chapman, that has not happened yet, I am here under orders by the Terran Hegemony and COMSTAR.  There is a very sensitive matter that we need your group to take care of, up until now we had no way of dealing with it, since we could not go officially, and we had no merc unit that we could trust.”  She paused to let that sink in.  “With the collapse of the SLDF and the eventual demise of the Terran Hegemony we at COMSTAR need to gather as much information and tech as possible without others knowing it, this is where you come in.  On the planet Helm there was a SLDF weapons depot under the Castle Brian complex, we need you to get there find the Castle Brain and clean all the weapons and research material then leave.  Word is that several factions are gearing up to look for it.”  As she was saying this a look of shock fell between all the MechWarriors she then slid an old paper topography map over to Matthew.  “This is the area that we believe the site is, it is still about a 75 kilometer area but at least you won’t have to search the whole planet like everyone else will when they get there you have three months, you can keep what salvage you want from any battles, we will let you have 20 percent of the mothball mechs in the depot, and your payment will be around 800 thousand a month.”
Matthew sat back and tried to look cool, this was his first negotiating for a job ever and he felt like his cherry was about to pop.  “Wait, why are you here for us? I mean we just became official.  It’s interesting, but I think we need more, considering we are starting from scratch I have yet got all my support units and personnel bought.”
The General looked at Matthew and rapped her fingers on the table over and over.  “Ok, fine I have two lances at the HPG site they are not running colors nor are they wearing any patches, I will send orders to for them to help you guys out when needed and I will give you an extra month of payment as a bonus, and we will take you there free of charge.”
Matthew thought about it for a minute, for a three-month mission, they will earn almost 3 million C-bills plus all the salvage and free travel, but something was not sitting right with him.  Matthew thought about it and looked at his people they all nodded yes so, he said, “Ok, something is bothering me the way you said your pitch, is there a double cross going on here between the hegemony and COMSTAR?”
“No.” the general said, “a certain amount of items will be going to the Hegemony but COMSTAR will be taking position of the more…sensitive items.”
“Ok,” Matthew said, “we are in, give me the contract to sign.”

****


Inbound Helm
DropShip Skulker
3 March 2785
Sitting in a mech while not in battle is boring but sitting in the cockpit while waiting to do a hot drop was pure torture.  The plan was simple, while the dropship was entering the atmosphere they would drop, the ship would declare an emergency and land with the “cargo” missing burnt up over the ocean.  The unit will then move west toward the mountain ranges that lay about 50 kilometers away, and 100 kilometers from the city Freeport.  Somewhere in that area the items that the Siegers were charged to find which have been hidden by Major Keeler, the commander of the militia.  Why he had hidden everything was beyond the comprehension of Matthew, if this were the future tech that the SLDF stored here wouldn’t it made more since for Keeler to hand the items over to his Marik bosses?  He was still thinking on this when the light went from red to green, Matthew turned on the command link and said, “Ok Howling Siegers it’s time to drop let’s get to the ground, be safe, group up and let’s find treasure.  The support teams will land at Freeport then make their way to the city of Drango.”
****


Shores of the township Lewisville
A man and his boy were fishing on the dock when the bubbles started to form on the surface of the water.  The man directed his son back off the dock.  Then a sight that the boy will never forget, 12 mechs popping up out of the water all painted gray, red and black with a half man half wolf symbol on the shoulders of every mech.  “Dad who are they?” “I have no idea son, but whoever they are, it can’t be good, hurry up back to the house.”
As soon as his mech cleared the water his radar got a hit on six targets.  “Siegers contact at one-one-two-three we must eliminate all enemy forces we cannot allow them to know we are here yet. Split up into your lance and take out all targets” Five more enemy targets show up on the radar, so Matthew put in a call for support help from the unknowns, the name he gave the two unmark COMSTAR lances.
Alpha lance
Rushed into the city looking for targets but careful to not destroy the city both sides had ECM coverage and was jamming each other.  An enemy tank made first contact by removing half the armor on sergeant Mackherdhuj Rifleman.  Captain Pople targeted a JagerMech when she moved around the building with her AC/5 and large lasers all hitting the left leg and causing the enemy to fall to his side.  The same tank that had ripped the armor off the sergeant’s Rifleman was crippled with a PPC to the rear when a griffin showed up from behind, he identified himself as Star 07.  Unfortunately, an enemy crusader turned all its weapons on Star 07 causing the mech to fall and the pilot to be knocked out. The captain directed fire at another crusader destroying it the kill went to sergeant Liu piloting a JagerMech.  “Good job team two down four more to go.”  Star 07 woke up, stood up, and destroyed the crusader that had hit him before but then forgot him.  “Got you” he said.  An enemy Phoenix hawk came out of hiding hitting sergeant Mackherdhuj in the head.  “Are you ok Mack?” the captain asked, “yeah but my canopy is hit and some of the glass is in my left arm.  With that she shook her head and saw that an Icarus was coming straight for her.  She took aim with all her weapons that were in the green and fired, at the same time the other pilot did the same.  After the dust settle, she looked at all her systems all the weapons on her arms were gone but there was still little damage to her torso, the enemy Icarus though was destroyed, report shows that Mack’s lasers destroyed the head the AC-5 ripped off the last of the armor in the chest so when the mech fell the boulders hit the engine causing the mech to explode.  With the Captain taking care of the tanks the battle was over with all enemies dispatched with extreme prejudiced.
Meanwhile
Charlie Lance
The Major ordered Charlie lance to move up on the hills behind the coastal town and take out the enemy that was there.  Captain Dalton took his medium lance consisted of his Starslayer, two Lynx, and a Shadow Hawk up and over the hills.  Immediately, engaged two tanks destroying them with SRMs and LRMs.  Charlie Lance circled around and engaged more tanks, two Icarus showed up blasting away at the captain’s mech ripping most of the back armor off, the captain turned around along with Corporal Gallegos in the Shadow Hawk and fired on the first Icarus taking his legs out.  The captain called out “Good Shooting!! now target the other one before it runs away.”  “Roger sir” the volleys of missiles and the laser vomit between the two were devastating in the end, several Siegers were moderately damage, but all the enemy was destroyed.
Down on the beach
Command Lance
Was engaged in a battle that featured mud, lots of mud and very wet sand.  Luckily, the Longbow in the Major’s lance was a pretty good shot, firing 50 LRMs at a time was just too much after the second round of missiles, the enemy Orion went down in a heap of metal.  Major Chapman fired his two gauss weapons hitting the head of a wolverine killing the pilot. “Boss two Gauss to the head overkill much?” asked Master Sergeant Filomena Dionsio “Well, I am bored so target practice on small heads is good for my eyes.” The major replied.  With the Longbow releasing its missiles and the dead shot of the Major this battle was more like an afterthought and only lasted for a few minutes.

Later that day the Siegers loaded all the salvage they could on the flatbeds they liberated and started the long march toward the mountains scanning the underground as they went hoping to find the depot sooner rather than later.  They first went due south out of the coastal town then about 40 miles down the way, took a right and headed due west hoping that if the local militia ask local town folk what direction the Siegers went the militia will continue south missing them completely.  With ECM coverage and only moving at 35 km the hope was to only engage the enemy on the Major’s terms and only when necessary.  As they were marching the Major’s XO called him on a private channel.
“Hey boss”
“Yeah, what’s up Haleigh?” Matthew said
“Why does COMSTAR want the weapons depot so badly, I mean I already don’t trust them, nor have I ever trusted General Hayes, maybe we should not find it, or if we do find it re-hide it.  There must be a reason for the local commander to hide the crap in the first place, you know?”
As usual his XO hit the nail on the head Matthew thought, it was exactly what he had been struggling with since lifting off from Earth.
“I don’t know Haleigh we have a mission to do so let’s do it if we find the weapons depot, then we find it, and deal with it then.”

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Three
HQ Helm Defense Force
Freeport
4 March 2785
Major Keeler was sitting in ops watching his staff work, for a militia they were quite efficient, and he was very proud of it.
“Sir, patrol Delta has not reported in, they are 5 hours overdue.” Lt Wallace said.
“And I am just hearing about this now!!!” the Major replied, so much for efficiency he thought, out loud he said.  “Where were they patrolling Lt?”
“Lewisville on the east coast.” Replied Wallace

“Order Alpha Company and Echo Company to change their location and mover to where Delta was patrolling” he paused and looked at the map, if a patrol went missing something was up, just the day before several satellites malfunctioned, and that civilian dropship had an emergency and landed at Drango, something is defiantly wrong.  Then he saw it, “have both companies start out at Lewisville, place Alpha Company in the lowlands and Echo Company up in the hills have them move west paying attention to the riverbed, along the way.”
“Ummm yes sir, what are they looking for?”

The Major sighed, ok maybe some of his men are not as smart as he thought.  “We are looking for an enemy, an enemy of Mechs”
****





Town of Lewisville
Both the Alpha and Echo Company Commanders were interviewing the locals, most of them talk about how the enemy mechs marched out of the water and attacked the patrolling militia mechs without mercy and then left the town untouched, which left the local impress and in awe to this strange unit, whoever they were, they did take all the flatbed trucks (full of salvage) from a local transport company.  All the locals seem to think that the mechs went south but that just did not jive with Captain Henson of Echo Company.
“Captain Jackson, why would the Major send us west along the riverbank if the enemy went south?”
“I am not sure Captain Henson, either he has some other type of Intel, or it is just his gut feeling that whoever these warriors are they are after Star League depot and not the planet.”  Jackson looked up to the sky and then said, “either way they have two days head start, they are not setting off any radar or seismic alarms so they must be moving pretty slow, if we head south like the locals suggest we could catch them by this afternoon.  I think if we go south for 100 kilometers, and we don’t catch up then they must have doubled back somewhere and went the riverbed way.”
“Yep, just what I was thinking we could still catch up to them in the middle of the night if they maintain the slow speed.” Henson said.
****
200 kilometers east of the city of Drango
Riverbed
Night Camp of the Siegers
Things was going fairly good Major Chapman thought, maybe just a little too good.  So far two days after the initial battle there have been no signs of the militia, unfortunately as slow as they were moving, they still had another day to make it to the city of Drango, the city at the foothills of the mountain range that if the information provided by General Hayes is correct has the Castle Brian and the warehouses either built on mountain range or in them.  The Major, knowing how Star League had operated didn’t think they would have warehouses just sitting on top of the mountains so best bet there are hidden access points to a big natural or man-made cavern.
He just got up to go see his XO to bounce off his thoughts on her to see if it made sense, when the call came that he knew would happen but hoped it would not.
“Major, this is lookout 3 sergeant Moa, I detect movement baring 2348”

“Sir, Corporal Gallegos on lookout 1 movement detection around 2848.”
The Major swapped to the all-unit channel, “attention alert alert this is not a drill Alpha, Beta Lance go north-ish toward sector 2848 stealth scout unless contact is the enemy then attack and destroy.  Command and Charlie Lance will scout south toward 2348, Delta lance hold the middle let’s be silent but if the enemy is out there destroyed them.”
The moons were hidden behind a thick cloud cover; the hills were affecting regular radar "Switching to IR” the Major announced.  The Lances started to move out and Major Chapman was extremely proud of his veteran group of MechWarriors, and techs…everything was done in amazing silence the only noise was that of the mechs starting up.
Militia
Captain Jackson spotted the unit first, but before he could call over the BattleNet Captain Henson beat him to it.
“Looks like targets sector 2548 in the riverbed just like the Major said, but long-range communication is being blocked.”
“Yep” Jackson replied, “might be because of all the metal in the hills but they may be jamming us.”
“Captain Jackson if they are jamming us, how are we communicating with each other?  Numnut,”

Siegers
Thank goodness they had put the jamming pods around the camp before settling down communication was still possible inside, Chapman thought.  Thankfully though there was no way the enemy will be able to communicate with HQ inside the area unless they escape the battle and move 20 miles outside the Jamming picket line.
Militia
Jackson was cursing himself, guess the unit was not quite while marching or this was always a trap, no communications to the outside world and now IR shows heat buildup and the enemy splitting up, looks like half his way half toward Henson.  That still has their two units out numbering the enemy by a lance each, although both his and Henson’s company were mixed units, Jackson was sure this would be a quick and easy victory for him.
Siegers—the Hills
As Beta Lance marched up the hill Captain Bruce and Sergeant Hayashi both in Warhammers walked right into a Gallant Urban Assault Tank, and a Firefly the sergeant missed on all accounts when he fired on the tank, but the captain hit the firefly’s head with an ER PPC destroying the mech.  “Splash one, eleven more to go on this side” the captain said.
Siegers—lowlands
As Major Chapman in his Nightstar and the rest of his team moved out past the riverbank he saw the enemy out in the open.  The targets were just turning in their direction as if they just truly spotted the two lances coming at them at full speed.  “Fire at will destroy them all” the Major proclaim through the unit comm.  With that the two lances including himself fired at the enemy.
Captain Jackson within seconds knew he was a dumbass; his whole company was out in the open and his radar just lit up like ants coming out of a hiding place.  “Alert enemy baring at….” It was the last thing anyone heard from Captain Jackson.
Master Sergeant Dionsio was the first to record a kill, which was too bad for the light hover tank that got in her way.  A militia Stinger tried to do some damage to her, but she just ignored it and went after a Falcon 4N standing off to the side.
Corporal Sakei in her Longbow fired all 50 LRMs at a single mech, from her display it showed up as a Mongoose-66, out of those 50 missiles 37 hit the Mongoose destroying the right leg left arm and the head, killing the pilot Captain Jackson.
The Stinger that attacked Dionsio never stood the change when Major Chapman aimed both Gauss Rifles at it and destroyed the Stinger.

Siegers—the Hills
With the trees on the hill and no moons it was dark well almost dark bright flashes of laser and LRM explosions was almost blinding at times.  Glancing blows on the enemy mechs was frustrating Captain Bruce, one of his troops Corporal Akiaten in her Lancelot gave out a scream on the net “Spider down yeeepppiieeee I destroyed it.”  A militia Archer and Crusader launched all their weapons and missed, leading Captain Bruce to think that this militia was really green. Each side was getting closer until Sergeant Kizza in his Guillotine was able to reach out with a foot hitting the Crusader in the shoulder causing the arm to fly off, with that violent exchange the Crusader fell knocking out the pilot.  Sergeant Kizza moved his Guillotine over the down mech and looked for the next target.  Finding a Prowler, he did an alpha strike all weapons hit the front of the vehicle destroying it.
Siegers—lowlands
The Militia tried to form up after their commander went silent, some of the warriors saw what happen others did not Lt. Grimes decided to take over command.  “Unit this is Beta Lance commander follow me, we need to retreat, sorry but the three tanks that are immobile cover our exit, your families will be rewarded.”  As soon as the Lt. was finished his left arm was blown off from an AC/5, SRM 6 and medium laser from Dionsio.  When Lt. Grimes finally got up from that onslaught, he turned his mech to where the weapon fire came from to deliver his own attack when all he saw was the Wolverine II in his face kicking him. The kick pushed him to the ground causing an engine explosion.

Siegers—the Hills
Captain Bruce placed his sites on an enemy Guillotine stripping it of all its armor on the right arm and chest.  The militia kept firing but just was not hitting or when they did, they were glancing blows Captain Bruce was pleased with how the battle was going for him and his fellow lance mates “Come on people time to put this militia in the ground finish them off.”  With that Sergeant Kizza fired an alpha shot to the Archer that was trying to hide behind a hill, somehow Kizza was able to get behind him taking out his right leg as the Archer was falling then the pilot was able to get a few shots off, getting a lucky hit on Kizza’s head he shook of the initial shock and saw that all his armor for the head was gone.  Well, he had better be careful now on he thought. 
Siegers—lowlands
By now both units were in punching range Major Chapman fired his PPC and two medium lasers into a LTV-4 Hover Tank destroying it as he stepped over the burning hulk, he fired his Gauss weapons at a Packrat destroying it right away. Soon all the enemy mechs and tanks were burning or disabled the battle was over.
Siegers—the Hills
It soon became clear that the Siegers had the upper hand three more heavy tanks were crushed as the full strength of two veteran lance came to bare.  Sergeant Hayashi in her Warhammer lashed out at another Crusader coming around the tree line that for some unknown reason exposed itself to the Warhammer.  Sergeant Hayashi open fire with a PPC shot to the left torso which hit the Machine Gun Ammo, causing an explosion, and ripping off the left arm which went flying.  She followed that up with over half of her LRM 15 round hitting the same spot the shock wave and heat from the explosion killed the pilot and putting the mech out of commission.  Sergeant Kizza was following Hayashi up and around the hill as she was killing that Crusader Kizza notice an Archer sneaking around the tree line about 20 meters to the left, Kizza thought what was a good wingman supposed to do? Protect, so he alpha strike the Archer. Kizza fired a large laser 4 medium laser all which hit various parts of the Archers chest then the SRM6 penetrating enough due to the exposed parts of the chest and causing the LRM 20 ammo to explode destroying the mech.  At the same time Kizza was firing his weapons, the Archer, was firing his at Kizza, both LRM 10 missed but the two medium lasers got Kizza in the left arm.  With the fall of the Archer none of the militia was left standing.


Dawn the next day.
After first light the Major looked at how much more salvage that they have, hopefully the dropship past customs and is sitting at the small space port at Drango, because they were able to capture a Griffin, Guillotine, Crusader, Falcon, and a Mongoose.  While winning the battle so decisively was a good thing, whoever sent those two companies will be missing them and soon.
“Siegers, it is time to move out best top speed of the slowest unit we need to bug out now.”
HQ Militia
Freeport
Major Keeler was drumming his fingers, after the initial report of the two companies going back to the riverbed and heading east it was dead silence.  How big of force was this enemy.  Captain Jackson report that the town people had said anywhere from 14 to 20 mechs, because they were simple folk it was probably just 12 mechs Jackson had said.  Maybe he was wrong, two companies should have been able to take care of one company.  Unless that one company was all elite, but the unit patch on the mechs did not register on any of the local networks.  Major Keeler put out a feeler to the Capital planet to see if they were a new merc unit but no word yet.  The major looked at his TO&E things are bad now, down to three companies two of those are just tanks, plus a battalion of infantry.  This enemy is trying to hide from the militia, they are not trying to conquer the planet, so they must be after the warehouse full of star league equipment.  He must stop them at all costs.


****

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Four
Siegers Camp site in Red Forest
10 clicks outside of Drango
6 March 2785
The command staff for the Chappy’s Howling Siegers were sitting around a makeshift table with their portables open.  Chapman looked around at the other five warriors from left to right his trusted best friend Haleigh Pople, Ethan Bruce, Dalton Tournier, Filomena Dionsio, and the newest member of the command staff Elise Borsellino.  Filomena was the highest-ranking enlisted MechWarrior, so Chapman wanted her there.
Ok guys we are going into Drango…on foot Ethan and Dalton investigate the north side of the town, Filomena and Elise take the south side and Haleigh and I will look around the town square.  We are looking for any clues where the Star League warehouse is located.  Be careful we do not want to raise suspension and keep in radio contact.

Drango Town square
Chappy looked around, not much was happening since it was in the middle of the workday.  Haleigh took Chappy’s arm and folded her arm into it, “what do you think you are doing? Haleigh” 
“Trying to blend in people won’t notice lovers walking down the street looking at stuff.”
“Urgh I thought you understood that in the military there are no improper relations.”
“Matthew we are not part of the SLDF we are a mercenary group, so we don’t have to obey the rules.”  As the two walked down main street Haleigh noticed an antique shop, “let’s go in here and ask around.”
Drango South side
Elise was nervous even though technically she out ranked Master Sergeant Filomena Dionsio, Filomena had been in combat 10 years longer and had been with the boss 6 of those years.  Although according to all the enlisted she should be really scared of Master Halder, everyone called him chief, he oversaw logistics, so you never wanted to piss that man off, and he had known the boss longer than anyone.  Elise flung her long brown hair so that she could look straight into the prettiest woman she had ever seen, “Filomena, I don’t see much on this street, there is a pub over there though I bet there are guys in there that will tell all to, two extremely hot chicks.”
Filomena stopped in the middle of her tracks and looked at the young Lt.   “You think I am hot?”
“Yes Filomena, I do, and you are hotter than me.”  She said as she walked into the pub.  Filomena followed the Lt. with a big ass smile on her face and said, “she thinks I am hot.”
Drango North side
Ethan and Dalton wander around the town not really finding a lot just houses upon houses.
Drango South side
The two women were playing pool and taking the drunk men’s money like it was taking candy from a baby.  Little did these guys know that instead of just being a local woman with low tolerance for alcohol these two warriors were well verse in the art of drinking.  Elise, when she thought all the guys were significantly wasted asked.
“So, Frank we just got to town from the capital, anything interesting happening here or anything interesting to do?”  As she caressed his chest hair and looked at him like she wanted more, so much more.
Drango town square
“Come on Matthew, the girls at the antique store said that Father Charles would know if there was something strange or different in the town.”
“Yes, I know but he is a priest at a catholic church, you know I am a protestant, Catholics and Protestants don’t mix it is like water and oil.” Matthew said.
“Oh, grow up silly man.”
With a sigh Matthew said, “ok I will try to ignore everything that’s in the building.”
As they walked into the church Haleigh notice the high arches and rich look of everything that was in the building.  “Outside looks like a regular average somewhat poor-ish town.  How can this church afford all this?  I was never into church even though my parents were.”
“I don’t know, the churches I always belong to were small and used all the money on feeding the locals.”  Matthew said.
“Who are you?  Stop right there don’t take another step!”  a disembody voice said.
A figure stepped out of the shadows with a long laser rifle as the light from the high arched windows filtered down onto the figure.
“Sir, we are looking for Father Charles can you please show us where he is at?” Matthew said.
“The one you seek is I” as Father Charles stepped into the light Matthew and Haleigh both took a step back in shock.
The man that stood in front of them was 6 foot 7 inches tall ripped in all ways that matter, blonde hair cut in a flat top style, a scare from left to right across the entire face, but the biggest shock was that they knew him.
“Col Booker what the F, we thought you died in the invasion of Terra.” Matthew and Haleigh said together.
“Long story there, cubs, long story.  The short story though is I did not die, and then later after my recovery just before General Kerensky left, he tasks me to get rid of all caches of weapons that he had to leave behind, which is why I am here now.”

“General Kerensky left us, left the inner sphere, left what was left of the army to COMSTAR, why are you still following his orders?”
“Because I must, why are you here?”
Matthew and Haleigh separated and moved a few feet apart and then Matthew spoke, “Well we left when our unit was shallowed up by COMSTAR, we then formed a merc unit in hopes to help those in need.  But then COMSTAR, believe it or not came to us with a proposal that we could not refuse, find the Star League warehouse here on Helm and transfer the items to COMSTAR so that they can secure it.”
“Well,” the colonel said, I know exactly where the warehouse is, and how the Marik commander has moved most of it in a high secure vault in the mountain.  I could use you and your unit to destroy it. I have the location here on the map.”
Matthew looked at Haleigh and then started talking to the colonel moving slowly away from where Haleigh was. “Colonel I am under contract, so I have to either show something to COMSTAR or have a breached contract, my very first contract by the way.  I am not a fan of them, but I need to somehow honor my contract, also I know that most people worship General Kerensky, but I do not in my book, he left and took most of the means to defend the innocent lives that are now dying due to the greed of the House Lords.” 
The colonel looked at them with unbelief, “He was your commander, I was your comm….....he stopped mid-sentence and fell to the ground Haleigh standing over him with her gun, she had clubbed him.  “What are we going to do with him now” she asked.
“Take him with us” Matthew said as he took the map from the colonel.

20 miles South of Drango
Matthew, Haleigh, Dalton, and Ethan were high on the ridge looking down at the Marik militia guarding the entrance to the warehouse.
“Well, the militia commander looks ready for us, looks like one company of light/med mechs, two companies of armor, and a battalion of infantry.”  Matthew stated.
“Yeah, we got 5 heavy lances about 5 mechs though still have some damage” Ethan said.
“What’s your thoughts Dalton?” Matthew asked.
“Well boss, two choices neither very good, one full frontal, the second options wait them out see if the commander gets tired, maybe he sends patrols out and we can pick them off slowly.”  Haleigh slapped Dalton’s arm and said, “dude what are you thinking we have a timetable I doubt we have time to wait them out.”
Matthew stared at his best friends, trusted advisors, and honorable warriors he just shook his head, and said, “waiting them out is not an option, frontal assault could work but I have another idea, let’s go back to the camp,” as they were walking to their liberated jeep from Father Charles, Matthew started to talk about the battle plan, “this is what we are going to do Ethan you will take your lance and…..”



***

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Five
Battlefield
20 miles from Drango
In front of the SLDF Warehouse
7 March 2785
Major Chapman looked at the battlefield and saw a chance to end this quickly without too much bloodshed.  He knew that if they could take out the militia commander or capture him the rest of the force would give up.  Past battles with militia around the universe had proven this theory correct.  The problem he had was that commander for this engagement was unknown, it looked like a special convey came in late last night so it could have been a command change, or simply a supply run.  For some reason, the enemy force distribution had what look like a flaw, the north side was noticeably light on troops and mechs.  On the south side there was a lot of infantry movement but because of the thick trees he was unable to make out what type of infantry they were.  “Siegers, advance now, Delta lance go to the north and try to flank them.  We need to find their command.  The other three lances follow the command lance.  We will move from the south and cut our way up looking for their commander and meet Delta Lance in the middle.  If we have not found him them, he must be hiding in the mountain.  Is that understood?”  Everyone came across the net and acknowledge the mission parameters.
Major Keller
Commander of the militia
Keller planed his deployment very carefully, all his heavy infantry equipped with AC5 Batteries were hidden in the thick trees off to the south, his mechs were spread out, meaning a few up north some in the south but a lance along with the company of light and medium tanks was hidden against the hill in the middle of the battlefield power off waiting for the light signal to turn on an attack hopefully catching this merc unit by surprise.

Major Chapman
Cockpit of his mech
As they jumped across the small river Delta Lance report contact in the north.  “Bravo lance move up roll around the hill and provide support for Delta” Chapman announced.  “roger, moving now” Captain Bruce said.  Then as soon as Alpha Lance moved into the tree line Captain Pople yelled into the radio, “heavy resistance in the woods, looks like infantry has heavy equipment!”
At that moment Matthew was shook in his seat with multiple AC fire from the woods that tore a hole in his left arm.  Taking aim and firing his gauss weapons just did damage to the trees.  “We are going to have to get closer to negate the tree factor, Go Go Go!”  Major Chapman announced.  In the north a squadron of Warrior Attack Helicopter swoop down and took pot shots at Delta Lance, they were easily dispatched although there were some headshots that took half the armor off.
Helm Militia
Major Keller was waiting for just the right timing to spring his last-minute trap, it looked like at least some of the Mercs are going to trip it, he had hope that 6 or 8 merc mechs would fall for the trap, as it was it was only four, but four dead Mercs was better than none.  He made the light signal then started off in a run to get off the mountain and into combat.
Siegers
Matthew thought he saw some light flashing on the mountain, when he tried to focus on it more AC5 rounds went into his left leg.  Captain Bruce busted through the silence of the radio claiming that there was mechs and tanks waiting on the other side of the mountain and that they were getting torn up.  The major looked at the battle map and where his troops were, and notice that Delta had broken formation he was about to call them when Lieutenant Borcellino came on the net, “Bravo we just destroyed the last mech, we will be there to assist in about 5 minutes.”  As Matthew kept firing, he took another shot in his left arm blowing it off.  Damn it he thought and not for the first time in his life he hated trees.
Helm Militia
Major Keller’s plan was working out, the Mercs lances in the south and in the middle are being overwhelmed he lost information about what was happening in the north since he moved down to join the fight behind the hill, he had made many calls out to the lt. out in the north hopefully everything was ok.  He was about to make a call for the reserves to move up and check out the north when missiles coming from the north flew over him missing him by a few feet.
Siegers
Major Chapman was starting to think they could lose this battle, self-doubt crept in like a thief in the night.  Sergeant Liu in his JagerMech and Sergeant Moa in his Phoenix Hawk were down, luckily, they were still alive.  “Focus fire on the trees if you have to, we have to flush the infantry out in the open before lucky shots kill us all.” Matthew said across the net. Lt. Borcellino and her team came around the hill from the north and the saw carnage, Bravo Lance was down two mechs she had a Shadow Hawk in her sights and fired while she advance her weapons hit the Hawk left arm and left torso enough to when she kicked the Shadow Hawk the SRM2 ammo exploded destroying the militia’s mech. Major Chapman had taken out 6 infantry units but they kept popping out of the trees like termites, another salvo of Auto Cannons hit Chapman this time ripping his right leg off.  Prone he kept firing.  A Rifleman next to the Major exploded but just before it did, he saw the ejection seat take off so he knew that Sergeant Mackherdhuj was ok.  That makes six mechs down on his team, hopefully Delta Lance will turn the tide.  The Major looked at the battle map to see that when the Rifleman blew up it took out several infantry batteries and forced the others to start retreating out in the open.  With his mech crippled all he could do is fire at long range and hoped to do some damage now.  He fired his remaining Gauss Rifle continuously and then another salvo of autocannons hit this time destroying his gauss rifle which also caused the auto eject system to engage, which effectively put him out of the battle. 
“Everyone attention the Major is down this is Captain Tournier I have taken command temporary, continue with the Major’s plan find and destroy their commander.”
Helm Militia
The infantry was breaking but, the middle was holding up pretty good until that lance from the north showed up.  Worse part thought Major Keeler is that his communication array was destroyed in the last LRM salvo so he no contact with the infantry in the mountain to tell them to attack.  He aimed and took out a Lynx by taking off its head.  Major Keller locked on to another merc this time a Starslayer just as he fired the Starslayer jump over the hill causing the Major to miss.
Siegers
Captain Tournier jumped his Starslayer over the hill to do a Death from above maneuver which of course was successful all but destroying the Phoenix Hawk that he jumped on unfortunately he was hit by a few stray weapons and caused him to come down hard on his Right leg.  Captain Tournier slammed against the safety belts so hard he almost blacked out, almost is the key word he was able to shake the cobwebs off and move to a hull-down position.
Major Chapman was shocked he had only lost four mechs in his career upon looking at his mech though he thought it can be repaired and that the ejection seat launched prematurely.  He needed to get up on a hill to overlook the battle to see how his people were doing.
Militia
Major Keller was hot today he never felt so alive and strong hitting a Kintaro in the head with his AC5 and Medium laser putting the Kintaro out of its misery.   As the Major took joy in taking down another merc unit, he saw a flash of laser in front of him then he felt two impacts that ripped his Hermes into two knocking him unconscious oblivious to life.
Siegers
Lt. Borcellino was finally in range she took a PPC, large laser and three medium lasers causing her mech to overheat but with great satisfaction she was able to see her target cut in half and then blow up.  She tracked with her eye the ejection seat and when her system powered back up, she marked it for pickup. 
With that Captain Tournier watched as the militia unit fall apart, only infantry was left anyway and they came out of hiding with their hands in the air.
****

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Six

Makeshift camp of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers
In front of the SLDF Warehouse
March 7, 2785

Major Keller could hear faint sounds like voices underwater, as his senses started to focus back to reality the first thing, he noticed was the blindfold, the second was the handcuffs.  Damn he thought I am a prisoner to these mercenary scums, F me.
“Major, the prisoner is awake” the guard announced into his hand radio.  “Roger, I will be there in just a second.”
A few moments later Major Chapman walked into the makeshift brig he looked at the guard’s name tag.  “Thanks Sergeant Kalmar, I would like to talk to the militia’s commander in private.”
“Yes Sir”
Major Chapman opened the cell went over to Major Keller and took the blindfold off.  “Major Keller we have a lot to talk about.”  Keller was shocked and confused at the same time, he recognized this merc, but where and how, he just could not put his finger on it.  Chapman could see the look of confusion on Keller’s face, 
“You look like a man in a confused state of mind.  I am Major Chapman commander of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers former member of the SLDF my father is Admiral Chapman I believe that he was a delegate a few years ago here on this planet I was a Lieutenant and part of his staff at that time, you were a Lieutenant also and aid to the governor.”
Confusion was lifted as Major Keller realized that was how he had a recognized Major Chapman’s face.
“What in the hell are you doing here….Major Chapman”
“Looking for something, a warehouse that belongs to me.”
Major Keller looked at Chapman with disgust.  “If there was a warehouse it does not belong to you.”
“Wrong answer Major Keller, as a former member of the SLDF and current employer of COMSTAR which by order of General Kerensky became the owners of all SLDF assets still left here, makes it mine.”
“Bull crap, merc scum, that warehouse belongs to Helm.”
“Listen to me Major Keller we are setting charges to the door right now I would rather you open it, since you changed the code.  If I don’t do this and figure out what is inside, COMSTAR will send someone else, and I doubt they will be friendlier.”
“Go to hell merc I don’t care what your pedigree is.”
Major Chapman took out his hand radio, “ok blow it.”
With that a big explosion happen spitting up dirt pushing it inside the tent that they were in.  Major Chapman looked at the militia commander, “sorry the hard way it is then” and then he walked out with Major Keller yelling at him.
As Matthew walked toward the big hole in the metal doors, he issued orders to start taking inventory of everything, to his commanders which were the only ones allowed into the warehouse, the less people that knew what was or was not in there the better Matthew thought.
The warehouse ended up being huge with several levels of storage and each level was several kilometers wide.  There were some prototypes of mechs and some kind of body armor, that Matthew had never seen.  Cache of weapons and supplies that would rival any base on Earth, there were hundreds of mechs mothball that he did recognize.  There were also software updates and a vast bay labeled memory core.
****


Makeshift camp of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers
In front of the SLDF Warehouse
March 15, 2785

After almost a week of going through the warehouse and learning what was in there Matthew had a decision to make and this was a decision that he could not make alone.  With that in mind he called his inner circle to discuss it. Captain Pople, Captain Bruce, and Captain Tournier all sat around the small card table pretending to play cards but the news that Major Chapman just gave them stunned them.  “Are you sure that is wise Chappy?” Captain Bruce adjusting his sling from his broken collar bone he received in the last battle.
“Well Ethan, I just cannot see another way, none of us like COMSTAR but we have a mission to fulfill.”
This time Captain Pople spoke up, “Can’t we just take all the stuff with us?  Why re-hide it.”
Matthew turned to Haleigh, “I trust the chief and you guys with my life, I trust the rest of the unit in combat, but for a secret like this? Also, since we don’t have a dropship that is ours trying to load all that equipment up without COMSTAR finding out will be impossible.  We would need 6 or 7 empty dropships to get all this off planet too.”
Matthew looked at his longtime friends and fellow warriors, “So we put as much equipment starting with the porotypes into the lower level, seal it off, and delete any reference to that level in the database.  Then we will take our cut from what is left and call COMSTAR with the location and new inventory sheet.  The memory core will be hidden elsewhere, no one needs to have that until later.
****


Sergeant Kalmar was standing outside of the commander’s tent, he had no idea why he was charged to report, he racked his brain until it hurt for the life of him, he could not remember violating any rules.
“Come in Sergeant” Major Chapman yelled from inside the tent.
The Sergeant marched in was about to give a crisp salute and report when Major Chapman got up from his desk rolled around and said, “you are not in trouble, nor is this a reporting visit I asked you here to see if I can trust you with something very important. Come have a seat over here,” As Chapman motioned to a makeshift couch.
After talking with the sergeant for a few hours, Major Chapman retrieved a small security briefcase that had a timer on it, and the unit’s symbol on it, to the sergeant it looked like it was counting down, to what he did not know.
“Sergeant, I know this is an unusual request, in this briefcase are documents that I don’t want anyone including our unit to have access for an exceptionally long time.  Once the countdown is to zero it will unlock, the only thing I can say is that I want you to be custodian of this, well you and your children.  This will not be unlocked till around 3000AD so your descendants will have access to it, when you and your family pass it to the next generation for protection the only thing, they need to know is that when it is the right time to decide on who in power truly deserves the information inside, they will need to do it.  Do you understand your orders Sergeant? Will you and your future generations take on this task?”
Sergeant Kalmar licked his lips, “yes sir we will, I am honored that you entrust this to me and my family.”
****

Major Keller was still in a cell when the engine noise started, his best guess was a DropShip or two was landing close the site, it was about three weeks since his captor talked to him, he was well feed and water but was isolated.  Then Major Chapman rolled into the tent in full battle gear, “time to go Major Keller, you are free, COMSTAR is here to retrieve the loot from the warehouse and the Siegers are off to our next contract.”

General Lauren Hayes walked down the ramp in her shinning new white uniform of COMSTAR.  “What have you got for us, Major?”
“General, I want the rest of our payment in our account before we proceed.”
The General looked into Major Chapman’s eyes and thought for a second, “okay”, she pulled out her comm unit and spoke into it then looked back to the Major, “your money is in the bank merc, let’s hope you delivered, or I will personally see to it that you are downgraded and never see a good contract again. The only reason I am letting you have your money now is because you have served me well in the past.” 
Major Chapman’s people checked and confirmed that the money was there, and he gave the order to pack up and load up.  “Ma’am here are the six Warhammers that we pulled from the warehouse and parts related to those Warhammers that will last a year, per the contract the rest is yours.”
As they moved into the warehouse, they walked into a huge level that was completely empty.
“What the hell is this Major!”
The major calmly gave her a pad with the log for the warehouse on it, “as you can see ma’am a unit of SLDF was here a year prior but looks like they only pulled the first level and some other stuff out of another level.  There was no detail of what they got or reason why they did not take all of it.  My guess is that they did not have any more room, they did blow up the access to the rest of levels fortunately that did not stop us for long.  Come General let me show you the other two levels.”  Major Chapman said.
At last, after the tour that consisted of several hundreds of mothball mechs consisting of all classes and makes that the SLDF used, also all the ammo and spare parts for those mechs the General turned to Chapman and bitch slap him.  Matthew jumped up and was about to jump the General when her guard stepped in front of her, “what kind of fool do you take me for Major.”
After calming himself he replied, “General, I assure you I have no idea what you are talking about.”
The General was getting angrier, “the tech Major the tech, there was supposed to be some advance tech both software and hardware that according to the original inventory I have here, should be here.”
Major Chapman looked at the list and formulated an answer that would hopefully fool the General and get him and his troops out.
“General, there is a chamber that was labeled with this name on level three I did not show you this because it looked empty when we explored it.”
“Damn it show it to me now!”
The General was mixed with emotion, sadness, anger, disappointment, and proudness which was strange, but for the SLDF to come here and gather the memory core that contained all the current research was brilliant.  After she calm down a bit, she turned to the merc, “ok Major looks like you delivered you end of the bargain see you around.”
****
Major Matthew Chapman walked up the ramp of their dropship to talk to his XO about how far along the loading was at because he wanted off this planet fast away from COMSTAR and the general specifically, when Major Keller showed up.
“Major Chapman, Major Chapman!  I need to speak to you.”
“Yes, come up here we will go to the conference room on board.”
After both commanders enter the room Major Chapman shut the door took out a scanner with his finger to his mouth and scanned the room.  After the scan he took out another piece of equipment this time a jammer and turned it on.  “Ok Major Keller we can talk now COMSTAR has been spying on my unit since they got here, what can I do for you, we take off in two hours so make it fast.”
“I know what you did, and even though I am not happy that COMSTAR is getting all that equipment, them not getting the prototype mechs and body armor, along with the memory core I thank you, but where did you put all that equipment?”
Major Chapman looked at him right into his eyes and said, “I have no idea what you are talking about, what is in there was in there when we blew the door.”
“That is impossible I know exactly what was in there, I did a visual inventory three days before you attacked us.”
“Are there any logs or written records outside the warehouse that would prove this? Major Keller”
“No Major Chapman, just me”
Chapman then pulled out his sidearm and aimed it to the militia commander head “I could shoot you so that you will not spread rumors anymore.”
As Major Keller lifted his arms showing submission he said, “look I don’t want them to have anything so when that bitch General showed me the invoice and took me to the warehouse I confirmed some of your story all I said was that just before you showed up I had done a visual inspection and it was like this, I was afraid to add anything else to that story since I had no idea what you had told her.”
Major Chapman tried to get a mean look on his face and then said, “I told you I have no idea what you are talking about the only thing we took was the 6 Warhammers per our contract, but nothing else, I should shoot you for spreading lies and rumors.  If you can stop doing this, I promise I won’t shoot you.” 
“Yes, Major Chapman I can keep your secret.”
“No, I don’t think you can” then Major Chapman pulled the trigger and shot the other Major in the head.  Captain Bruce broke the door down with his gun drawn and saw the situation, “what happen Chappy?”
“The secret of the real cache of weapons and memory core must remain a secret, I trust my friends to keep that secret, I trust our sergeant to keep a secret that he has no idea what it is, I respected this man, but I could not trust him he was the only one outside our circle that knows the truth on this planet.” 
The Major looked at his watch, “take off is less than an hour” he then picked up the body “get the doors for me, I must bury this man.”

Brig
Major Chapman walk into the brig and told the attending to open the cell.  Colonel Booker was about to thrust himself into the Major when the attending leveled his pistol at the Colonel.  “Colonel Booker you are free to go we are taking off in 30 minutes go back to the church and continue to pretend to be a priest.”
“The hell I will cub...Matthew I have no respect for you nor your silly ban of mercs. What did you do with the Generals equipment?”
Chapman looked straight into his former commander’s eyes, “COMSTAR has it all.” With that Matthew did an about face and walked out to the screams of the Colonel Booker.











Epilogue

Wedding Night
Between Lori Kalmar and Grayson Death Carlyle
3025ish

After a long and passion session in the bedroom of Carlyle’s barracks.   Both lovers got their second wind, Lori got out of bed, with the moonlight shinning on her naked body she went over to her footlocker that was transfer over early that day and retrieved an old silver briefcase with a symbol of a half man half wolf and lettering that was worn to the point of missing some important letters.  Curiosity got the best of Grayson and he sat up, “what is that my love” he asked.
“This is something incredibly special that has been passed down from generation to generation.  When I went home to revisit my parent’s grave, I found a secure cache of my families’ stuff, and this was in there with a letter from my father.  I will not go into the details but basically this box was to be kept in the family or given to someone that is worthy.  I tracked down my families’ timeline and discovered that my great-grandfather of like 8 times over or so was a sergeant in a merc group called Chappy’s Howling Siegers, interested I looked up this group and found that it still exists only under a different name called Chappy’s Revenge.”
Carlyle was shocked “you mean the group that was given a planet by the First Prince of the Federated Suns right on the boarder of Kurita Space?”
“Yes, my love that group, I talked to the commander a General Matthew Chapman, the commander of the unit that my great grandfather served was also named Matthew Chapman.”  Carlyle held up his hand, “This is to freaking weird but, really what does this mean?”  Lori with the patience of only a wife can give to her husband exhaled, “General Chapman new exactly what this briefcase was.  He told me that the story of Helm was passed down from generation to generation and only a select few knew of its existence.  He was happy that I had found it and knew of my impeding wedding with you.  He also said that he was a big fan of you and your father.  He then urged me that if I thought you deserve it, I should give it to you.”
Now his curiosity was peaking and excitement building up, “what is in the briefcase?”
“I don’t know it is for you to open.”
As Carlyle open the case, he took the scroll out careful and started reading the documentation his eyes got bigger and bigger.  “Holy shit, this is a map, inventory, codes, actual hidden location of a Star League Cache of prototypes and information of research that the Star League was doing before they dissolved.  If this cache is still there, it could be a game changer for us and the universe.”
“Well, where is this Cache?” Lori asked
He looked at his new wife and called his XO, “Gather the troops and load up we are going back home.”  He got off the radio and looked into her eyes, the Cache is on Helm, I don’t recognize this configuration of mountains but it’s there and has been there for almost 300 years right under our nose.”



The End

[mchapman1970]

next book will be here in this thread starting next week.

[snakespinner]

Interesting finish, always good when comstar get's screwed. :thumbsup:

[Daryk]

Interesting story indeed!  :thumbsup:

[mchapman1970]

thanks, i appreciate you saying so...I know my writing is not the best, but I am trying
  I try to implement cannon situations and manipulate it for my own use hopefully it's not hated to much from the purist lol   I love BattleTech which we had more history on units and conflict...also more info on planets would be great. 

[DOC_Agren]

Shocking that Comstar got screwed.. 8) they are such nice people..


Major Keller what an moron, as soon as he appeared I knew his days were numbered...
Sergeant Kalmar, 8 generations removed from Lori.. didn't see that coming..

[Daryk]

Didn't see it coming either, but agreed... BRILLIANT!  :thumbsup:

[mchapman1970]

Footprints in the Inner Sphere

Chappy’s Howling Siegers


By
Matthew Chapman




Disclaimer
This story is based on my imagination, what happens in MegaMek and MekHQ, and input from others. Any names are based on fiction, and any location is based on MegaMek. The timeline takes place right before and after the SLDF exodus.  The mercenary group is complete fiction some names from BattleTech Lore have been used in this book. All battles are done in MegaMek so some chapters may take longer to write than others



Prologue
Niles
Capital Planet
Freedom Federation
Museum of Military History
June 1, 3033

General Matthew Chapman had just finished year one of the memoirs of his forefather, when his security alerted to a distinguish visitor coming his way.  Matthew heard the warrior enter the hall and without turning he said. “Welcome Colonel Wolfe, I am honored that you were able to make it to my humble nation for this momentous occasion.” Matthew then turned around to greet the man that was an alley even if they were both just mercs.
“General Chapman, it is I who is honored that you invited me to your nation to partake in this celebration.”  Colonel Jamie Wolfe said as he shook Matthew’s hand and then stood side by side looking at the Gene wall.  He started talking again after a minute of silence between them.
“We have known each other for many years, I have yet uncovered all your secrets, even with my vast network of employees.  Some parts of your past and your family’s history still remain a mystery.”
“I could say that as well about you Colonel.”
“General with our new business arrangement, and our growing friendship would you indulge me with your findings?”
Mathew looked sideways noticing that the Colonel was studying his family timeline intensely. Then started to answer him.
“Colonel my family’s corporation, assets, and network of workers throughout the known universe has been in place way before I came into power, in fact this organization has been around several hundreds of years. With that said they still have to speculate where you came from, how you have the equipment and personnel you have, and the wisdom you have for battle. I personally believe the leading theory coming out of my intelligence office, that you are descendants from the Great Exodus.  The question remains though are you here because you and your men are the last of those that left, are you are spies, or a forward deployed invasion force from those that left the Great Exodus.”
The Colonels eyes twinkled but he did not say anything at first.  Then he looked at the General.
“General I noticed that 2786 seems to be the flashpoint of when this, the organization, really started, the first commander had the same name as you, and that you look quite similar to him.”
Matthew looked at his ally, “yeah genetics are strange that way and I was named after him, in fact there are a lot of men in the Chapman lineage with the same name dating back to the 1900s.”
Colonel Wolfe looked at the father, it was the Vice Admiral that left with the great Kerensky, now Wolfe knew the missing piece of the puzzle and knew that his people needed to know as well.
“General, the secrecy of your family history has been, up till now pretty under wraps. With your family ancestry shown on the wall and the memoirs of your ancestors easily accessible, what has changed.”
“Colonel, I am not sure why the core families back in 2786 decided to keep everything a secret from the rest of the Inner Sphere, or why the merc units that operated under the Chapman family was in secret up until I took over the business.  I have yet found a good reason, but because of what has happened in the last decade specially the last three years, I find it difficult not to tell my family story.”  Matthew then turned fully so that he was facing Colonel Wolfe.  “To that, I would like to invite you and a few other top leaders that I consider allies to the Chapman Corporation Headquarters on Devils Breath”, he sighed and continue, “soon we will be renaming that planet, I have always hated that name.  I want to show my friends our factories, schools, civilian life, and of course the defenses that surround the system.”
Colonel Wolfe nodded his head and thanked Matthew for his invitation, but then the Colonel’s communicator beep signaling that it was time to leave.
“Take care my friend.” Colonel Wolfe said to Matthew as they clasp hands and forearms. “I look forward to that date at your corporations home world.”  With that he turned and walk away, and Matthew picked up the next volume of his ancestor’s memoirs starting were he left off.








Chapter One
Mercenary Office to the Governor
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
March 6, 2786

Major Matthew ‘Chappy’ Chapman sat there in an office on the other side of the hall from the governor of the planet. The office was a fairly nice one, all local wood paneling that was stained a dark rich cherry color, built in bookcase ran the length of three walls with a sofa and recliner in the middle of the room and the desk off to the side. This contract was a simple one, Relief duty for the FWL front line soldiers as they try to defend against the Steiner War Machine.  Conflicts were abundant throughout the Inner Sphere and what the experts are now calling The Succession War was swinging into full gear.  It has been almost a year since him and his closest friends formed this unit.  The unit has grown and is now a three mech company, two aero flights strong and through salvage, have enough tanks to make a company, the only problem, personnel.  Matthew was not going to hire just anyone and that was the problem.  Placing the dossiers back on the desk he decided to get up to retrieve some water out of the cooler when his aid burst into the office.
“Sir, a package just arrived for you at the ComStar station, only you can pick it up.  The tech there said it was mark Urgent and Confidential for your eyes only.  Curious, Matthew picked up his outer shirt of his uniform and said, “Ok, get the jeep I will meet you out front.”
Captain Pople was walking into the building when she ran into Matthew leaving.
“I was just coming to see if you wanted to grab lunch.”
“Sorry I can’t, I have to get to the HPG station and pick up some classified package or whatever it is.” Major Chapman said.
On his way over he hoped it was good news, but with it being classified it would not be about his wife or kids, that being said it made him nervous, who could or would send him a ‘for your eyes only’ message through the HPG.  When he pulled up to the compound a tech was already there waiting to escort him to the message.  Matthew left the jeep and went inside as they were walking through the maze of the compound the tech started to speak.
“Sir, glad you could come we have been looking for you for few months now, our information on you and your unit was limited.  A message from Vice Admiral Chapman was sent with a secure electronic package attached for you about 7 months ago.  You can download the message in here sir.” 
With that the tech opened a door to a 10x10 room with a console and a chair as the only furniture.
“Thank you” Matthew said and then he shut and locked the door.  Matthew was kind of in shock or dismay, an old message from his long-gone father, what was it, was it his father’s last-ditch attempt at getting his son to leave the inner sphere?  Taking out a hidden scanner in his briefcase Matthew scanned the room and then set up the white noise feature of his device.  Can’t be too careful these days Matthew thought.
Sitting down in the chair he saw that the message was ready he pushed played and his father’s face popped up on the screen, the amount of money his father spent on sending a video message, this must be good Matthew thought sarcastically.
“Son, I hope all is well.  I heard about the unit your formed and the battles you fought on Helm.  Even though you decided to stay on Earth I am proud of you for not being sucked into ComStar and started to fight for your ideas.  I hope this gets to you before you leave Helm, there are some things there that you might want.  In the secure package, there are a list of items that I left for you to help in your agenda.  I hope that one day you and your offspring will discover what the Chapman family has always dreamed about.  I know I never really said this too often, but I love you, miss you and remember always hold on to your family don’t be like me.”
The screen went black and then asked for a security code.
Matthew sat back in his chair and ran his hand through his dark brown hair. “What the frack” he said out loud and then thought to himself could this day get any weirder.  He assumed the code the computer was asking for was the personal code that him and his father had set up when they were both in SLDF was download, and not corrupted he open the index to the package to make sure it was all there.  After checking all the codes that his father had at the beginning and end Matthew was satisfied that all was in order. He unplugged his data port and then deleted the message from the system.  He then took a second data port out of his briefcase plugged it in and ran the security program verifying that the message was truly scrubbed.  The program was almost done when the door started to make a loud noise with the tech banging on it yelling to let him in.  Matthew saw that the program was done he retrieve the dataport and placed in the briefcase in the hidden location along with the other equipment, then unlocked the door.  The tech rushed in furious looking at Matthew and the console. 
“What did you just do? We got an alert saying the system was being hack!”
Matthew calmly looked at the tech and said.  “Did you? How odd all I did was delete the message after I read it.  All it was the Admiral saying he was proud of me and left me a gift, which I am sure you already knew that.”
The tech was taking back, “ummm no of...course …not…I mean we would never read any message that was marked ‘for your eyes only’ honest.”
Matthew looked at the tech shook his head and started to leave.
“Wait Major I need to search you.”
“No, you don’t.” Matthew said. “If you do then everything you said is a lie, I am a free citizen that has done nothing but follow the Vice Admiral orders on this last matter that he sent as an officer of the Star League Defense Force now step aside”
With that Matthew left the building and went back to base.
On the drive back he looked at his pad, three days until all the families show up from New Earth, he recently purchased a luxury liner (dropship) so that for now on all his family along with the rest of the unit’s families can travel from contract to contract. Even though that will double his travel expenses having two drop ships, it was worth it, family was important. He was also wondering what was on the package, with all the security his father placed on it, Matthew decided back at the HPG site to only view it on his non planet network computer that was only connected to the Siegers database/network. He had also noticed a drone hovering over his vehicle the minute they left the HPG Station, slightly touching the side of the briefcase he continued to look at the news feed on his pad.
The vehicle just went around the final curve and the front gate to the base was in site, he elected to go to the dropship instead of the office the governor had given him for security reasons.  There was however a problem, two dozen COMSTAR guards blocking the path into the base. Matthew’s driver came to a stop, at the same time the gate opens up and a dozen Siegers fully armed rushed out.
“Major Chapman, have your men stand down, by the order of Precentor Coulmen, I Adept Venc order you out of the vehicle with your briefcase so that I may search you for any illegal contraband.  If I find any, I will keep it and you can continue your contract.”
Matthew slowly got out of the vehicle with his briefcase and complied to the search. “Captain Bruce stand down it’s ok.” The Acolytes did not find anything on Matthew then they searched the vehicle.  While they were searching the vehicle Adept Venc walked up to Matthew and said with a snug voice. “I to was once part of the SLDF I recognized that briefcase, standard issue, and it has a secret compartment.”  The Adept ripped the briefcase away and all the Acolytes turned to look at their leader.  Venc slowly looked at the briefcase then open it to the secret compartment, and there it was a data-port. “Noooo”, was all Matthew could say as he struggled being held by two Acolytes.
“I knew it, I outsmarted you dirty merc.  “Men we got what we came here for let them go move out.”
The COMSTAR troops left in a hurry and Captain Bruce walked up to his commander and asked what that was about. Matthew looked at his friend picked up the discarded briefcase went to the vehicle to retrieve his hat turned and started walking toward the main gate he looked at Captain Bruce and said, “It was all about deception.”
Adept Venc pulled up to the HPG station and handed the Data-port to Precentor Coulmen.  “I have retrieved the item for you sir.”  Precentor thanked him and went inside to inspect the info, sure enough the data was on the drive.  He listens to the message again but this time he had a code the code that the merc imputed the first time.  After entering the code, the info of the gift was listed.  The Precentor push backed in his chair, all this cloak and dagger shit, and all that was there was an Archer and a bank account with 30 million C-bills, unbelievable he thought.
Matthew entered his office on the DropShip and turned on his anti-spying equipment then sat down at his desk. This office was not as nice as the one in the capital building, a makeshift office in the conference room of the DropShip, but it was more secure than the nicer office. Pulling out his secured Pad and inserting the data-port he made some coffee while he waited until the encryption ran its program. Someone started knocking at the door.
“Sir! Sir! Are you ok, why is your door locked, this is the aid to the governor.  I need to talk to you!”
“Just a second.” Matthew said as he reached out and closed his pad, he then opens the door, “what is it?”
“Sir the enemy has been spotted about 100 miles from our port city on the south side of the continent.”
“Yes, I know I have already dispatched a unit to aid in your forces against the enemy breakthrough, now if you will excuse me, I have matters to attend to.”
With that he shut the door to the dismay of the aid not because the Major did not open the door but an inch but because he was unable to place a new bug in the room.  The room just a few minutes ago went dead silent and now the governor will not know what the mysterious message was about.
Matthew sat down with coffee in hand made a mental note to forbid anyone that was not a Sieger on the base, and started to read the message, after an hour of reading Matthew sat back and could not believe what he just read.  His father left five caches of various equipment and supplies, the first one on Helm they already dealt with, although if he had known that was supposed to be all his he would have done things different.  The last one on the list was the biggest surprise, a planet off all maps that has advance factories and repair equipment, enough equipment to create 5 units at least and also have personnel there loyal to the Chapman family. He then started to type a secure message to his contract personnel.


Team,
Here is a list of three planets that we need to get to or as close as possible.  I would like to get a contract to the actual planets, we can take contracts in between to save on cost of travel and gather more experience. There is a fourth planet that I am looking at too after some research I will identify the planet to you.  They are listed in order; this is top priority, but we also need to be careful about letting others know that we want to be at these planets so tell our office at New Earth to be tactful.  Thanks for all you do.
1. Ingress -- terra hegemony
2. Balletine – Federated Suns
3. Bad News – Draconis Combine
Major Chapman
_______________________________________________________
He then sent a message to his XO

Captain Pople
I have something that the spouse support unit can start doing as soon as they have landed and gotten comfortable.  I need them to start intel on the planet Ingress.
Thanks, Major Chapman.

He did not dare give anyone the location of the fourth planet over any electronic message system.  Since that location was out on the fringes of the other side of the inner sphere.
A knock at the door and then a voice.  “Matthew its Bruce”
Matthew got up and let his friend in.
“What was all that about at the gate.” Bruce said while sitting down.
“Deception Ethan, deception, my father left an encrypted message for me seven months ago.  I can only assume that COMSTAR has been trying to hack the message from day one.  After I imputed the first code and listen to the message, I downloaded the whole message and then used a data-port security program to scrub the data from their system.  When I left, I notice a drone following us and I assumed, correctly I might add, that they were going to cut us off and searched me.  So, with a slight of hand, I had the briefcase download the file to the data-port that had the security program on it and then the original data-port went into a secret compartment in the floorboard of the vehicle.  The data-port that the Adept has now is misinformation, because when they open it with the first code it will erase all the data except for two lines.  First line was an Archer dad gave me and the second was a line of credit he had set up for us.  Come over here Ethan and see what father really gave us, you will not believe it.”





Office of General Hayes
Hilton Head Island
South Carolina, Terra
COMSTSAR Headquarters

Almost a year has passed since she dealt with Matthew Chapman and his little merc unit.  She was, up to now, just following their escapades, but here lately they were starting to get the attention of the COMSTAR civilian leaders.  Hayes threw the file down on her desk, got up to stretch and get coffee. Chapman, she thought what is going on, she rubbed her temple and carried her cup back to her desk.  The last report she had, showed that his father sent him a secure message, one in which no one could hack into and then when they released it to see if they could read it while Matthew read it, he did not, he just downloaded and then hacked a cleaner into the system that deleted everything about him and the message, because the one that the Precentor said they retrieve was bogus and she knew it, even if those other idiots did not.  What was so important, she had to know, a plan formed in her mind, she needed someone inside his merc unit either a new guy or one that is already in place.  She sat down and started to bring up files of spies that could infiltrate Chapman’s merry band of friends.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Two
Base HQ
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
March 12, 2786
Matthew was looking over the reports from the last engagements with the enemy, the 6th Hesperus Guards the invaders, and the planet defenses have been locked in battles across the planet for a several months before Matthew and his unit showed up.  Which was fine since both sides were exhausted by now, most of the battles were just mere skirmishes.  Matthew looked at the deployment table Charlie lance was up 300 miles north to defend a town, his command lance and Alpha Lance was going to leave later in the day to stop a Hesperus Guards breakthrough of the Forward Base located in the west. Matthew jumped a little when the door slammed open.
“Matthew what is the meaning of this” Captain Pople said.
Matthew looked at the small group that came with her, two of the three closest advisors and friends, and his wife which oversaw all civilian workers for the unit.
“What do you mean…Captain” Matthew said as he looked at everyone with his eyes resting on his wife.
“These orders for contracts, why are you trying to force contracts for specific planets eventually moving us all the way over to the other side of the known universe.  Most of us are from Terra, I thought we were going to stay around that region of space.” His wife said.
Matthew shook his head up and down, “mmmm yeah, I know, that was the idea until this came. I have changed my mind and have now changed the direction that the Siegers will be going.  This is a military matter, so I ask that everyone leaves except for the captain, all the civilians need to know is that this is for the best interest for the unit.”  Matthew then moved around his desk and asked for everyone to leave except for Pople, locked the door, and flipped a switch in his hand which made the room secure. He then held up the data port with his father’s message
“Look” Matthew started to say, “this is very top secret and not to be talked about outside this room, when Dalton gets back with Charlie Lance, I will back brief him.  The situation has change, we were all part of the SLDF, and I know we all still feel the pull to have the SLDF here and calm all these little wars that have started.  I also know it has been hard on us playing the mercenary role, which is the role we are to play for maybe the rest of our lives.  But there may be a chance to build this unit into something special, and eventually have a permanent base off of all star maps, protecting our families.”  Matthew raised his hand when it looked like Pople was going to talk back. “Meaning, the last planet that I have not released yet on that list, has a secure base with a few thousand workers and a few more civilians, industrial platform, mech factories, and the planet is food and energy self-sustaining as of 8 months ago when my father made this message.  These people pledge loyalty to my father and said that they will wait for me to pledge loyalty to me.  Now it is going to take maybe years before we get there, so I have sent an envoy to them to notify them that we are coming.  This DataPort has the message my father sent me come over here and see what Father left us.  Right now, only you, Bruce and soon Dalton will know exactly what we are going to do.” 
Pople watched the video and had a hard time believing it, “Your father the man that killed most of my friends during friendly fire in the Amazon is just giving you all this equipment?” 
Matthew looked at his best friend and said, “I know I can hardly believe it myself, now if you will excuse me, I need to get my lance ready to head out.”
The group stared at Captain Pople as she left the office obviously still not happy because no answers were given. Matthew took hold of his wife and moved her into the office. Shutting the door and turned around, Diana could tell he was very mad by the look in his eyes and the color change in them.
“What the hell was that Diana?”  “What was that an attempt of, an intervention, an attempt at bringing me down, I am the commander why are they and you questioning my decisions?”
“No” Diana said “It was nothing like that, how could you think that?  They were just concern with the secrecy.  You have been withdrawn the last few days and this memo has got people talking”
Matthew looked at a report laying on top of his desk, the report was a secret communique from an ex-girlfriend that still worked in the military arm of COMSTAR and decided not to share.
“I have reasons to be secret we are a merc unit out here alone without any government or big donor backing. I am the commander and if I have secrets, it is best I keep them for the good of the unit.”
He looked at his wife and kissed her on the forehead “I got to get going talk to you after the battle.”


FOB Stonewall
Helliots City
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
March 24, 2786
Captain Pople was looking at the drone images, nothing in all the quadrants but the battle was fate, all communication outside of the city had been jammed so the enemy was coming.  With the jamming Captain Pople had no idea when her commander was coming with his command lance, they left HQ about 4 hours after she did so it should be soon unless the enemy sprung a trap.  A few minutes later her drone picked up the enemy south/southwest from the city which was opposite of the base that was set up in the north part of the city.
“Listen up Alpha Lance we have enemy inbound south/southwest our back up has not shown yet, and our allies are on the other side of town, time to get to work keep them out of the town.”
The enemy burst through the tree line and Captain Pople realized her mistake instantly, she underestimated how many units they had, while in the trees the drone only recognized half of the enemy.  Her four mechs against twelve heavy tanks and six light mechs meant that her unit was out matched.
Eight minutes later three enemy tanks were broken and on fire with the crews inside, another tank’s left side was gone but the crew escape.  Captain Pople was crippled with a missing left leg and sergeant Moa was missing both legs with his mech’s head down in the dirt, but he was ok.  The other two mechs had some damage but were still operational.  That is when Major Chapman and his lance popped out of the town on the south side going at full speed and firing at the enemy.  She noted that none of the allies had shown up to help.
Major Chapman and his lance were running at full speed trying to link up with Alpha Lance ever since the jamming started.  When they exited the main part of the city and saw the battle, he ordered his team to fire even if they were not in range in hopes to relieve some pressure on Captain Pople and her people.
Running at full speed was making it hard to hit the enemy so Major Chapman ordered the unit to slow, pick a target and kill them.  Matthew took out two more enemy tanks when two AC20 hit his left side straight on virtually taking all his armor off his left arm, leg, and torso including taking some armor of his head.  Sparks flew out of a console, smoke started to fill the cockpit.  The smoke was getting two thick to see or breath, damage report showed some engine damage and heat sinks destroyed so he powered down and left the cockpit.  A few minutes later the last enemy mech was crippled beyond fighting capability.

Base HQ
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
March 25, 2786
Major Chapman looked at the damage report, almost all his unit was moderately damage.  He needed about two weeks of repair to be able to field a company, right now he had a lance and even then, some would have damage.  The only good news he saw was the deployment report, there was absolutely no sign of the enemy anywhere, looks like they are bunkered down some where doing repairs too, which was fine with Matthew. 


Base HQ
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
Conference room
June 3,2786
All the command staff was there sitting around the conference room table, they just spent the last four hours re-organizing the unit.  In the eighteen months the unit had grown from barely a company strong to almost a Battalion strength with support units.  Major Chapman looked around the room, there was one last action that he needed to accomplish.
“There is just one more item to take care of, Dalton, Ethan, Haleigh get up here to the front now.” Matthew waited until his three closest friends and MechWarrior came up to the front of the table. “With the creation of three companies, and being that we are just Mercenaries, there is no precedent for this, so I am just going to do it.  I hereby promote all three of you to Major effective immediately.”  “With this I will be giving myself the rank of Lt. Col only so that the outside world will see a military structure, we all know that within this conference room we are all equals and will be treated as such.  Even though as the leader of this organization there will be times that I will call for secrecy, and not all details will be release to the unit or even to y’all but know that there will always be a reason for that secrecy mainly because we will always be in a host nation, and there are ears everywhere.”  With that he gave the three soldiers their new rank saluted them, shook their hands, and started clapping.  He then started to wonder where his most trusted agent was at this moment…

Yance I (Agador)
Terran Hegemony
Recharge Station
Space Lounge
6 June 2786
Grace Hartikainen was sitting in a booth on the far side of the club nursing a rum and the local soft drink.  She was thinking of how she came to this place, and why she was here.  Recently promoted to Lieutenant as a mech tech for the Howling Siegers she was proud of the uniform, but now she was in civilian clothes looking like a woman waiting for trouble.  Still as she waited, her mind drifted to the first time she met Matthew Chapman.
17 years ago
A young blonde hair female was starting to cry a little bit while the chief was yelling at her.
“Look trooper I don’t care who you are what you were or how you got into the best unit in the SLDF you do not deviate from known procedures, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!!!”
“But Chief, I just”
“No, trooper, no there is no but.”
Just then a young confident MechWarrior came out of the lift and was coming straight for them, instantly everyone knew who the Lance Commander of Beta Lance, 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion, 151st Division was, Lieutenant Matthew Chapman callsign Chappy.
“What seems to the problem Chief?”
“This little no-it-all seems to have some high ideas about how to tinker with your mech, sir.”
“Ah,” Matthew said shook his head and said, “Chief, this Private was actually handpicked by me, she was at the top of her class, won several awards for inventions that baffle her professors.  I pulled a lot of strings to get her here and even though I appreciated you training her in all things military I don’t want her creativity stifle.”  Matthew looked at Grace and then said, “If you have an idea how to improve something, I want you to make a report and send it to me and the chief and then,” Matthew looked at the Chief, “I will want a report on her improvement based on your years of experience, I will then make a decision on what course of action to implement.  Now since this is the first day why don’t you verbally tell me the procedure you want to do tell me the upside, downside, and any other issues this upgrade might do.”
From that time forward even if he said no to a project she wanted to do, he had won her, she would follow him to hell, and in fact where he went, she did to, for 17 years she has been the only one to touch his mech besides him, until now that is, 300 light years away in a lounge waiting.  Matthew had been in contact with the people his father had placed throughout the universe and they in return had been in contact with the main base that her commander wanted as his own.  She got to the lounge three hours early to scout the place out and to blend with the crowd, about an hour before the meeting an alarm wailed throughout the station.

Yance I (Agador)
Terran Hegemony
Recharge Station
Command Section
6 June 2786
“Sir, unidentified ship just jumped in system and is moving this way!!!”
Another tech turned toward the commander. “Sir they are hailing us.”
“Patch it through” the commander said
A woman clearly military appeared on the monitor.
“This is ‘The Beast of Terra’ Lieutenant Commander Phung at your service, we are not here to attack, nor will we be here that long.  We have a passenger that we need to pick up and then we will be on our way. Please prepare for my command shuttle to dock.”  With that the screen went blank.
“What the hell! How dare she, comm patch us through to the Hegemony command circuit.”
The comm tech looked at the commander, “they are jamming us, and a shuttle just left their bay.  Scanning ‘The Beast of Terra’…it’s a Samarkand Carrier this ship can carry up to 72 fighters along with 12 assault craft, there are no dropships attached to it though.  She is a warship looks like SLDF model where they got that or who owns it, is a mystery sir.”
30 minutes later
The alarms had stopped 29 minutes ago with an all clear/false alarm call.  Grace was starting to get bored with only 5 minutes left until the schedule meeting time she was starting to think that she was being stood up.  Then it happens, a tall, gorgeous women in a well-defined and well tailor uniform of unknown material and insignia showed up at the front of the club with two bodyguards in her wake.  Grace stood up and locked eyes with the woman, with that the woman made a bee line to her and thrust out her hand, “Lieutenant Commander Phung, at your service if you follow me, we will go onboard our ship and discuss the assets.”
Grace looked a little confused, “assets, wait, going to your ship, what ship, I thought we were going to talk here, explain please.”
“The ship is not really mine I command it and if it pleases Major Chapman, I will continue to command it under his direction.  I really don’t want to talk here we need to be in a more secure area to much is at stake.”
Grace boarded the shuttle, settle in and then felt the left off and leaving the artificial gravity of the station.  When the shuttle took a left turn, she saw the ship, she could not believe it, the 151st was bed down on a similar ship a few years ago during the civil war.  As they got closer, she noticed the name of the ship and tears started to fill her eyes, this was the ship they were on during the war. 
“Beast of Terra, this is shuttle 1121 Commander Phung here requesting authorization for landing.”  The commander heard sniffling and turned her head back to Grace, “yes, it is the exact same ship and not a re-name, Admiral Chapman knew this would mean something to his son, so he left it for him.”
Grace looked at the commander like she just grew a second head, “wouldn’t the Admiral get into trouble with General Kerensky having a missing ship?”
The Commander just shook her head, “a lot of things from all commands went missing during the exodus, lots of equipment was left behind, and people like us and also people like the Siegers were left behind too.”  “As you can see, we don’t have any DropShips and even though we have 72 fighters all, but a squadron is mothball, we have a lot of merchandise back home on the Devils Breath just not enough people to operate them.”
“Devils Breath?” Grace ask, “Is that the secret planet that the Major told me about?”
“Yes” the commander then turned back around to start the landing procedures.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Three
Base HQ
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
Governor’s Observation Lounge
July 1, 2786

The Governor of the planet was standing with Lt. Col Chapman at the observation window watching the DropShip off in the distance take off and reach altitude.  He then glanced at Chapman and said,
“Well done, I don’t think we could have pushed those Lyran Bastards off our planet if it wasn’t for you all. I will have the bank transfer the rest of the payment to you today, only if you stay for a few more weeks to verify that they have reached the Jump Point and have left.”
Matthew looked at the governor, “Of course sir, once the Lyrans broadcast that they were leaving the system after my warship appeared in orbit, I started to make arrangements.  We are not leaving until the end of the month to get everyone moved and situated on the ship.”
“Yes, very surprising and fortunate that a warship showed up.  Tell me how you got your hands on that.”
“Sir, I am a son of an Admiral in the SLDF there are many things that I can still get my hands on, the Siegers have many more surprises trust me on that.”  With that Lt. Col. Chapman walked out of the observation room to oversee his unit deployment.

Siegers Temporary HQ

Matthew just got the communique he had wanted and now he could truly make plans to leave, and with that warship he can do so without depending on anyone.  For a few months now, he had been eyeing the boarder of the Capellan Confederation and what was left of the Terran Hegemony looking for a planet that he could volunteer the Siegers for to get close to the planet Ingress.  His directives to his contract office as of yet had not yielded anything worthwhile. Several planets had fallen in the last few months and as of this yesterday three more planets were being invaded, and then this morning a call went out from a fourth planet, Ingress sent a message, that the enemy just jumped in system.  So, Matthew instantly sent a message offering assistance and hoped that they could last until mid-September.  The communique that he read now said, hurry we will fight until you get here.  Calling his XO and his new Fleet Commander, he told them the next destination and then told the Fleet Commander to meet him ASAP so that they could hash out all the details of his plan.  Also, he had yet to meet her and if the report from Lieutenant Hartikainen was accurate, he needed to see for himself where the fleet commander loyalty was.
A few minutes later a knock at the door and Matthew said enter, it was the new Fleet Commander, long flowing brown hair, piercing blue eyes and a figure that was very pleasing to the eye.  She gave him a crisp salute and reported in.
Matthew stared at her for a second and then said.
“I am not sure if I understand your position or not, were you part of my father’s team, or were you just some random person that he picked out to give me.”
“Sir, my loyalty is to the Chapman Family.”
“But I never knew you. So how can that be Phung?”
“Sir, I was a secret, I was your father’s faithful mistress and now I am your servant till the end.”
Taken back by what he just heard Matthew had to think carefully at the next thing to say.  “Ok well did you know all the plans that my father had both for me and the items he stashed throughout the universe.”
“Yes sir, here let me show you what the planet that is now yours has to offer.”  And with that she approached him sat next to him on the couch.  Took his hand and slipped a data chip into his hand.
The door open and Diana burst in “What’s going on here?”
“Nothing, the Commander was giving me some information.” Matthew said with a confused look on his face.  “Why are you here?”
“Because I heard how pretty this woman was and that you two were in a closed meeting, should have known since you two were holding hands when I showed up.”
Matthew held up the data chip, “You are being stupid she was giving me the information on this; I don’t have time for these childish games get out of my office.”
Diana turned a stormed out of the office, Matthew looked at the fleet commander, “Sorry about that I don’t know what has gotten into my wife, lately she has been distant and now she is showing jealousy over nothing.”  He then looked at the locked drawer where a report about his wife sat.  “We have a nine, ten, and fourteen-year-old together they are going to be the future of the unit, I need to hold this family together until they are strong enough.”
 
HPG Facility
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
Front gate
July 1, 2786
A stranger walked up to the front gate and looked at the COMSTAR guard.  He looked at the stranger with disgust all he saw was a dirty face, dirty coat what he thought was just a beggar.  “Be gone from here, you are not welcome at this facility.”
The stranger looked up, “I am Adept Morris, I need to make a transmission to Terra.”
The guard scanned the database for the person’s name, “My database shows you no longer active.”
The stranger looked at the guard straight in the eyes, “I have been undercover now let me inside or suffer punishment from General Hayes.”
The guard transported the stranger to one of the communication rooms and left.  Allowing the stranger to put in the secret code and address of the individual she wanted to communicate with.

General Hayes Office
General Hayes was on her way out the door for a dinner date which was going to be a business meeting when her communication suite started to beep.  She made her way to the computer and recognized the code even though it was an old one, one she thought was long dead. 
“Adept Morris, I thought you was dead how could you allow me to believe that since at one time we were lovers.”
“General, I am no longer that girl, I have been traveling with a merc unit that its leader was under your command back during the SLDF days.”
General Hayes could not believe her good fortune.  “Would this be Matthew Chapman?”
The other person shook her head yes
General Hayes then asked, “will you come back to me and COMSTAR since I am part of them now and do some information gathering for me on his unit.”
“Yeah, I think I can do that now, I will get back to you in about 90 days with a full report, Morris out.”
As the stranger walked out of the facility the guard wonder who it was, she could not even tell whether the person was a boy or girl.
Morris rounded the corner and went to the public restroom to change from the beggar outfit to a uniform, she had to get prepped for the trip to the next mission, during that voyage she will investigate everything, there was a lot of things that Matthew kept to himself, more and more secrets the longer he was in command, and she did not like that. His personality was changing in her opinion if he was not stopped and/or and intervention was not accomplished, she was afraid he would start thinking of himself as a god or king and take everyone down with him.


Base HQ
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
Lt. Col Chapman Office

The communication device beeped, “Chapman here.”
“Sir, this is security, we followed the subject as requested. She headed to the HPG facility spent about 20 minutes there and then came back to the base.”
“Thank you, sergeant keep this, between you and I, Chapman out.”
Matthew sat back in his chair and looked over at his 9-year-old playing with model mechs and wonder what she was doing at the HPG facility for 20 minutes.

Star Port
New Munich (Capital)
Continent Adelaide
Planet Giausar
Gate 3
Dropship Wolves Trap
July 7, 2786

Lt. Col. Chapman stood next to the governor and shook his hand.
“Sir, it was an honor to protect your people I hope that you can now focus on building your defenses so that you can fend for yourselves. Hopefully, because of the recent activity the Marik regime will send you some support.”
“Thank you, Colonel, I have been pleasantly surprised by your unit’s performance and have noted that in my official report to the MRBC.”
“The Siegers appreciate that, have a safe life.”  With that Matthew turned and went to his dropship waiting to take off.  The other dropship Wolf’s Desire which was full of all the civilians and most of the food supplies had lifted off a few minutes ago. He was glad that they would get a favorable report since the next mission he had alternative motive that may conflict with the defense of the planet.  There were two SLDF caches on Ingress and a dropship forgotten in the mountains, if that dropship could be captured and repaired, he could expand his unit.  The ammo, armor, and (P)al gear would be a great addition also.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Four   
Warship The Beast of Terra
Ingress System
September 22, 2786

Lt. Col Chapman sat on the bridge when the warship finished the jump to Zenith point of the Ingress Solar System.  Immediately the charging station hailed them asking them for identification.  With the hull clean of all markings and no identification codes being passed, the black steel massive Samarkand Carrier moved forward toward the planet, jamming the charging station from notify their masters.

Terran Hegemony makeshift base
the foothills of the Eastern Heights
Planet Ingress
September 22, 2786

Captain Lammack did not know how much more his unit could take, he was the last officer, with only ten working mechs and a few tanks.  They had taken refuge in an old mining town and hid most of the equipment down the mining shaft.  With no parts, no ammo, no water he figured they were doom.  The Eastern Heights loomed over them in the West, with the Garming Shore to the East they were trapped.  He thought about surrendering but rumors persist about how Capellan’s treated their prisoners.  Then like an immediate answer to prayer a big boom was heard along with shaking of the ground.  Lammack ran outside of his tent to see a small dark circle appear in the sky, but it was getting bigger every minute.  Some of his troops were running screaming that the Capellan’s had brought reinforcements, others were just running.  One such private had binoculars around his neck.
“Trooper let me see those.” As he pointed toward the trooper’s chest.
“Sure here, we will all be dead soon.”

The Captain took them and looked up toward the now medium size dark circle and saw lots of little things jumping out of it.  “Mechs” was all he said.  The captain kept staring trying to find a emblem or some kind of identify mark.  Then he saw it, it was the mark of the mercs that was supposed to come and help the government keep the planet.  He kept staring he counted 36 mechs no 40 mechs doing an assault drop, these guys are crazy he thought.

Wolves Trap
Colossus Dropship
Hanger
Chapman’s Cockpit
September 22, 2786

The green light was given to start the assault drop, a risky maneuver under the best circumstances, with mountains to the west and the sea to the east this was going to be tight.  Intel showed what was left of the planetary forces was in a small mining town, they were unaware of the two companies of Capellan forces that was five klicks away.
“We have the green light GO GO GO! Enemy is North of the militia camp once you land, form up, move out, and engage.” With that Matthew turned off his comm and jump.  His battle computer was taking stock of the whole map which he had an advantage because he was still several hundred feet in the air.  His assault jetpack engage and he landed safely in the designated spot, in fact all his men landed with no problems, even the greenies (aka rookies).

Five clicks away from the assault drop.

Captain Bryna Berridge heard the loud boom a few seconds later her combat computer started lighting up with bogey radar returns, not knowing if her command decided not to trust her and send extra help or it was something else.  She got her answer when the dropship open fired on her position. “Lancers take cover enemy at our heads coming down fast.” She announced into the comm.

Militia base

Captain Lammack was truly turned on, to see this precision all the mechs jumped all the mechs landed in almost perfect formation while their dropship rained fire on the enemy troops, troops the Captain reminded himself he did not know about until he saw where the mechs were landing.  Not only that but immediately after the mechs landed they took off toward the enemy firing.  Yes, he was definitely turned on.

Capellan Forces

They were in disarray dropship firing on them and now 40 enemy mechs advancing toward her two companies, scratch that she already lost 5 mechs.  Her troops started to break she couldn’t believe it, only around 5 minutes had pass since the enemy mechs landed.
“Lancers stand your ground Capellans do not run” she announce.
“F that commander I am out”……static on the other side.
She was pissed what the hell is wrong, a big light flashed in front of her, it was the last thing she ever saw.
Lt. Col Chapman saw that the battle was almost over and gave battle command to his XO, him and the command lance then turned to march to the militia command to talk to whoever was in charge.

Militia camp

Captain Lammack stood in front of the massive Nightstar mech which had a black paint job and an emblem of a half man half wolf on it, waiting for the pilot to vacate the mech seemed to take forever. Finally the cockpit open and a man came down on a ladder took his helmet off and walked up to the Captain.
“Captain, I am Lt. Col Chapman commander of the Chappy’s Howling Siegers, we answered your call, we got here as fast we could.”
“Colonel, I am Captain Lammack the last officer left of what used to be the 982 Royal Striker Regiment, most of the regiment is either COMSTAR or dead, the battalion here was the last remnant of the past, now I only have ten mechs and a couple of tanks left.”
Matthew looked at the Captain and shrug his shoulders.  “Well, I have a full battalion plus support and a warship in high orbit.  So let’s kick the enemy off your planet so I can get paid.”
“Colonel where are you going to set up your FBO?”
Matthew looked at the mountains and new that one of his objectives was up there waiting for him.  “Captain right here will do quite nicely for now.”

[Daryk]

One quick note: you jam receivers, not transmitters.

[mchapman1970]

meh

I thought about replying with a long story of examples (from movies and books) of why I did what I did but I am not it's just a story.  BattleTech as a whole is not technically correct about night combat, weapons range, technology in general.  Sorry. Thanks for the feedback I will fix it and try to remember to be more technical, something I am still trying to work on in my writing.  Thanks have a great day.

[Daryk]

No worries... people get that wrong in real life too.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Five   
Warship The Beast of Terra
Ingress High Orbit
September 29, 2786

Lieutenant Commander Phung was sitting in the command chair, it has been a week since placing her ship into high orbit.  This is the part she always hated, the wait while the mech jocks play soldier, her and her crew kept the peace in space.
“Commander, I think I found it.” The data sensor tech said.
“Put it up on the main screen Lieutenant.” Phung responded.
“Yes Ma’am, look at that depression in the forest, here I will highlight the area.”
Commander Phung looked at the image she wanted to be sure before she passed the info to the Colonel Chapman.  “Can we get a better imaginary?”
“Standby, commander.”  The image sharpen up a little but zoomed in significantly and she could see it the faint outline of a dropship.
“Good job Lieutenant you found it, patch me to the commander.”

FOB
Makeshift commander’s office
Dropship ‘Wolves Trap’

Lt. Col Chapman just got off the comm with the fleet commander, he then paged his inner circle to the office.  After everyone entered, he placed a scrambler on the table and turned it on. Major Bruce looked at his best friend and commander. “One day you will tell us why you are so paranoid here lately.”
“Yes, one day you will find out, but just know the people here in this room I trust with everything.  So, let me tell you the objectives I have along with fulfilling the contract.  First objective is to find a long-lost dropship that my father left for us.”   Everyone looked at Matthew, he had told them before that there were planets that had stuff on it but not what the stuff was, this was the first time he revealed details to everyone and not his two best friends since that initial meeting.  Matthew continued with his brief.  “This dropship no doubt has some damage, and the forest has overgrown ship, but it’s another Colossus which will help for future operations.  The bad news is there seems to be a contingency of Capellan forces close to it, and we don’t have any intel if they know about the Dropship.  The second objective is hidden in the tunnels under the city that the Capellan forces have made their base and new Capital of the planet.  We have had two minor battles with them since landing and their fighting skills are less than optimal.  With that in mind we should have them on the run by the end of October.  You might be wondering what kind of treasure awaits us, well truthfully, I do not really know the details, just that there will be ammo, armor, and mothball PA(L) suits, which I think will be enough to field a regiment once we get the troops for it.  I need this info not to leave this room, we have a spy in our mist and that is why I have been very secretive, and I must limit her access to sensitive information for now.”
Captain Bruce looked at Matthew. “Why don’t we just kick her out of the unit, better yet just kill her for treason.”
“We cannot do that Ethan, I don’t have proof yet that she is spying on us and, the spy has a family, children are involved.” Matthew said with lots of sorrow in his voice.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Six   
Foothills 30 miles from Militia Base
Ingress
September 30, 2786

Twenty-Eight mechs from the Siegers were lying in wait off in a gorge, while Lt. Col Chapman, Major Bruce, and Major Tournier were up on top of the hill hiding in some underbrush looking down at the enemy’s camp through their rangefinder binocular, zooming to 100x magnification Matthew was able to see the eyes of the enemy along with whatever equipment they might have.  Major Bruce broke out his IR Scanner to verify the troops strength by counting the heat signatures throughout the camp.  Major Bruce put down the scanner.  “I count about 40 people down there.” Lt. Col Chapman turned to him.  “I show about 8 mechs, 10 heavy tracked tanks.  Let us get back to our mechs and move out we must take care of them before we can look for the DropShip.”  Once in his cockpit Chapman switch to the BattleNet so that all can hear the plan.  “Siegers listen up I want Alpha Company to circle around the left flank and then Beta Company to circle around the right flank.  My command lance will push forward in the middle, with any luck they will move all their forces against the command lance and then they will be out in the open instead of hiding in the trees.”

A few minutes later…
Sao-wei Tung commander of the Capellan scouting party was bored.  He hated scouting, especially when there was nothing out here but mountains and trees.  He kept racking his brain trying to figure out why he was put on this detail, the real battle, the real enemy was 30 clicks away.  Why were not they not attacking the enemy, from the last intel report he received, the planet’s military was all but destroyed, his commander had sent a force to wipe them out but then they lost communication with HQ.  His communication specialist said that ever since what looked like an asteroid broke through the outer layers of the atmosphere the other day that radiation was causing natural jamming. Tung did not think that was an asteroid, even so he was bored, Tung had opened his cockpit and was just chunking rocks he had collected trying to hit the barrel about 20 meters away, when a message came in from his picket line.  “Sao-wei, we are under a……”
What the F, Tung thought he looked toward the picket line only to see a bright laser coming straight to him, which cut his head off and destroyed the mech’s cockpit.

Command Lance

Lt. Col Chapman and his lance mates broke through to the clearing and steamed rolled over the pathetic picket line, Chapman saw at his maximum range of his PPC a MechWarrior with his cockpit open, so he took that guy out.  Chaos was throughout the Capellan’s camp by the time Alpha and Beta company out flanked them several enemy mechs were already destroyed.  The enemy tanks tried to form up and put up some resistance and was successful in damaging several mechs in alpha company, but every mech survived and no pilot seriously hurt.  At the end of the day the Capellans were not ready, they were undiscipline and were easy prey for the Siegers, this time.  After the last mech was dispatch with prejudice, Chapman took stock of the mountain range.  There was no noticeable area that a dropship could have been, up till now his father’s information had been correct, why was he doubting his father’s intentions the minute something does not go right.  His thoughts then turned to his wife, what was she doing, why was she behaving so strangely toward him? So many emotions were going through him and stomping around in a mech is probably not the best time to think about personal stuff.  “Ok Siegers, since there is no enemy contact, we will split into lance formation and do a grid-by-grid search.  We know the Dropship is here thanks to the intel from orbit now we must find a way to the Dropship.”  Thirty minutes later after stomping around Charlie Lance broke the silence. “Colonel this is Charlie Lance I think we have found something over here.”
“Roger we will be over in eight micks.” Chapman replied.
When the command lance arrived at the location Matthew took stock at what he was looking at.  Charlie Lance was at the foot of a cliff but what was more interesting was those two cockpits where open with the pilots nowhere to be found. So, he looked at the sensors and notice an anomality sitting in between the Charlie lance.  When he looked with his eyes all he saw was a cliff with some type of ivy climbing it.  Matthew opened his cockpit and rummage through his footlocker to the left of his controls, to find his IR Scanner, only because in the last battle his IR Radar on his mech was damage.  When he turned it on, he noticed a cooler indication right where the anomality was identify in his other sensors.
“Lieutenant Coultrip what’s your location.” Lt. Col Chapman said in the radio.  “Lieutenant where are you?”
“Sir, her and the Warrant Officer went into the divide that is covered by the ivy.  We have not heard anything from them since, that was about three micks ago.” Command Sergeant Moa announced.
“TOC, this is the CO, Charlie CO has entered a no comm area.  I am following her be advise.” Chapman said of the unit comm channel.
“Roger that CO, we will monitor.”
Matthew opened his cockpit, took off his helmet, and checked his handgun (Nambu Pistol) for ammo.  He was about to leave the cockpit when he had a second thought and grabbed his Ebony Assault Rifle. “Command Sergeant if I am not back in ten micks or you don’t hear from me notify TOC, set a picket line and bring in the Tactical unit.” 
“Yes Commander.” Sergeant Dionsio said.
 Climbing down the mech he took a straight path toward the opening moving the ivy to the side he turned his flashlight on and saw that it was a very long and narrow passage, slowly he walked keeping his senses at their highest alert.  Three micks had passed when he thought he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, turning his flashlight off for a second, he confirmed that there was a light whether it was the end or one of his troopers’ flashlights he did not know, the closer he got he was sure it was an opening.  When he finally made it to the end, he almost fell, the opening open all right, right into a 3-foot ledge with the cliff dropping another 3000 meters.  Matthew looked up and saw the cliff continue up for maybe a good three to four thousand meters.  Looking left to right he noticed a slight curve, so this had to be a volcano type of natural phenomena.  What was the real surprise was a Colossus Dropship right in the middle with some external damage.  Matthew looked closer and saw a personal hatch open with rope leading from it to the ledge of the cliff some 30 meters away.  He also was able to establish contact with his missing personnel.
“Commander, almost all systems are intact, it looks like we will just need to do some minor repair according to the ships logs.”
“Thanks Lieutenant let’s get out of this place and bring in the techs.”

Wolves Trap
Colossus Dropship
CIC
October 5th, 2786

Lietenant Nimeiri commander of the Wolves Trap sat in his chair waiting for an update.  A few days ago, Lt. Col Chapman order him to send his whole tech team to some unknown location to fix some stupid DropShip, he also sent Nimeiri second in command there along with a few flight deck personnel.  His second in command was going to be given command of that dropship, a ship that had been derelict for several years.  According to the Howlers BattleNet most repairs were finish and they were going to move it to here, so that the rest of repairs can be accomplished in the open and not have the constraints of the volcano walls or the steam from the heat.  They were supposed to of been here fifteen minutes ago, no word, no radio chatter, nothing.  Was it wrong of him to hope that it blew up?  He had been the only dropship since the creation of the Siegers that carry Lt. Col. Chapman so he was a little jealous that the unit wanted a second dropship.  He then saw the ship; it was coming straight down like it had come from orbit and not across the mountain range.
“Wolves Trap, come in Wolves Trap this is the newly christen Conquering Wolves on vector for landing how copy?”
“Conquering Wolves this is Wolves Trap we read you loud and clear and you are cleared to land at the designated coordinates.”
Damn Nimeiri thought, well now the competition of who will get the command staff begins.  Nimeiri turned to his new XO and said.  “Lieutenant Levada, we will need to do a complete make over on the command deck level that includes the conference room and the living quarters asap.”
He then watched as another Colossus touched down about 1000 meters from his Colossus, great he thought, now we will be known as the twins.

Wolves Trap
Colossus Dropship
Conference Room
October 6th, 2786
0700GST

The Senior staff sat around the table waiting for their commander to enter the room, Major Bruce thought to himself if he did not know better the commander did this on purpose to get people to jump at his will.  He thought about the conversation he had with the commander’s wife the night before.  With the ground battles going on it was still unsafe for the civilians; therefore, they were still in their luxury dropship attached to the Warship orbiting the planet. The conversation was via Sat Link.
Last night
2300

Major Bruce was almost asleep when his intercom started buzzing, half asleep he pick up and was surprise by the person on the other side of the Sat Link.
“Ethan, its Diana don’t hang up I need to talk to you.”
“Diana why is the commander’s wife calling me at this hour”
“I am worried about Matthew and since you are his best friend I wanted to talk to you.”
“Actually Diana I am a good friend his best and closest friend is Haleigh I am sure she is awake.”
“Ethan I don’t want to talk to that woman she is an enabler, I think the power has gone to Matthew’s head and I think that he thinks he is god now.”
Ethan just stared at the Sat Link not believing this, that she would be so bold as to try and this, not knowing what was going on he had to play it cool.
“What do you mean Diana what’s going on?”
“He is different, Ethan he is not talking to me about the missions, about what is going on in the unit, he has shut me out completely.  Then there is this whole demanding to go to certain planets making a path to somewhere on the other side of the universe, why? What is he planning? Does he require you to worship him now?”  Major Bruce just looked at her and shook his head.
“Mrs. Chapman, I don’t know what the hell you are talking about.  He is our commander if he decided to invade Terra, we would do it, he is not god nor does he think he is, if he has not told you the mission then I am not going to, you as the wife have no clearance until he gives you clearance.”  He tried to put the sternness voice he could muster on that last statement then continued.  “I do not know what is going on between you two, but you better fix it before the divide hurts him, you, the children, and our unit.”  With that he severed the link and went to bed.  Diana though was furious she threw the monitor across the room, waking up the oldest child Frank. “what’s wrong mommy” Diana got up and started to walk out of the quarters she had to clear her mind.  When she opened the door one of the biggest soldiers, she had ever seen towered over her. 
“Ma’am due to some safety concerns over the engines the captain has order a guard to protect you and the children, please stay in your quarters until I receive the all clear.”  With that he shut the door on her, she stood there stunned and then she started to worry what was truly going on.  She looked at her destroyed terminal, realizing that now she was stuck here with no way to message anyone.

Wolves Trap
Colossus Dropship
Conference Room
October 6th, 2786
0705GST

Lt. Col. Chapman walked into the conference room the chief was about to call the room to attention, but Matthew put a stop to that telling everyone that it was not necessary because they were truly all equals in the room.  Then Matthew pulled out a white noise generator and turned it on.  “Ok let’s get down to business, I have re-vetted all of you and now I can share the complete plan, strategy, and future operations of this unit, as the unit grows, we will add to this core group, right now the nine of you will be the main families that will hold all the secrets of this unit, with 3 more families that will be added later.  Of course, we will have generations of other families but only the core will know everything about this unit, its history, and any other endeavor we set in motion.  So, let’s start with why I had to re-vetted ya’ll…”

Duster Pass
50 miles west of Capital
October 17th, 2786

Lt. Col. Chapman sat under a tree drinking water, this tree was huge and provided ample shading, one of many in this Pass between two mountain ranges, this will be the last stop before his unit moved against the First Liao Lancers fortress which was built in the capital’s city limits so he was putting the shade to good use by reading intel reports.  He started to think about his oldest kid, Frank the boy turned 14 yesterday and will be starting the simulators next month to assess his natural ability in the cockpit of a mech, tank, and plane whichever one Frank excels at will be his path in this unit if Frank decided to follow in his dads footsteps, deep in thought he did not hear his closest friend approach from behind.
“Hey boss what’s going on in that head of yours.” Major Pople said.
“Matthew turned around. “Kids, thinking about my kids.  Frank starts simulations tomorrow, and I am down here.  Looking over intel reports of the Lancers and background info on my wife that I never knew about.”
Major Pople looked at her commander and best friend with pity in her eyes.  “I know this is difficult I just cannot believe it, is there a way to verify before you make any rash decisions?”
Matthew looked at her, “yes I am already planning on a test, two test actually.”

Capital City
outskirts
October 17, 2786
1600 GST

The Siegers were here in full force, all three Companies, the Command Lance, and a squadron of Aerospace fighters.  The enemy had a strong showing too, in fact the enemy commander had pulled all their units back into the Capital in a last-ditch effort to stop the Siegers. Five tank Lances, three mech lances, two companies of infantry, a lance of industrial mechs, and ten-gun turrets.  Most of the civilians had left the city already so the streets were deserted.  Matthew split the unit into four groups Alpha Company under the command of Major Bruce was supposed to feint the east of the town.  Beta Company under the command of Major Tournier was supposed to do an Indirect approach moving south on the east side of the city engaging in a running battle then penetrating on the south side.  Charlie Company under the command of Major Pople was supposed to do a Turning movement by flanking the city on the west side and then cutting back into the city to meet up with the command lance.  Speaking of the command lance Matthew was going to take his lance through the city starting in the northwest side and move into the middle where the capital building was.  The lance had air support and with any luck they would only have to deal with the turrets.  At least that was the plan.  Plans sometime go wrong.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Seven   
Capital City
Ingress
October 17, 2786
1615 GST

Alpha Company
Major Bruce marched in his Warhammer forward, the rest of his company followed close behind, the idea was to try and draw the enemy out of the town and toward Alpha Company.  The problem was that on the east side there was trees and a ravine that ran south/southeast.  That meant Major Bruce had to move out of the ravine and push past the trees for the sentries in town to see them.  The radar was worth crap in this region, and with the high temperature and geysers spitting out steam, trying to locate a mech using IR scanners was useless.
“Siegers, we must get their attention, fire all lasers toward the town and then move back into the trees.  We will continue this until they come out to play.” Major Bruce announced on the Alpha Company frequency.

Beta Company
Major Tournier had put the company in a sprint they had to circle the town far enough away as to not be detected but close enough so that when they made their turn back to the city on the south side they would not be too long or miss the battle.
“Siegers, today we end the invasion of the First Liao Lancers, everyone stay frosty and mind your footing sprinting on this terrain can be hazardous.” Major Tournier announced on the Beta Company frequency.

Charlie Company
Major Pople loved her job, where else could you stomp around in a 100-ton robot, destroy bad guys, bring your family from planet to planet, and get paid. On top of that her best friends are fighting beside her, simply amazing.  Her companies’ goal was to attack the west side and hopefully hook up with her commander.
“Siegers, we are to push through the west side of the town destroy any signs of the enemy.  Today we will have victory.”  Major Pople announced on the Charlie Company frequency.

Command Lance
Lt. Col Chapman looked at the overall battle and saw that his unit was moving into position.
“Time to liberate this city and planet, take out all enemy units.” He announced on the lance’s frequency.

Capital City
Ingress
October 17, 2786
1630 GST

Alpha Company moved up through the trees and went into the outskirts of the town, extraordinarily little resistance a few tanks and that was it.  Major Bruce wondered where everyone was, the enemy was not on the East side.
Beta Company was still moving around the city using the ravine as cover, Double timing it as much as possible.  Some of the heavier mechs were having a difficult time in the sand, Thankfully, Major Tournier thought, the heaviest mech in his unit was a Grasshopper which was his.  He shivered thinking about an Assault mech running in this mess.

Charlie Company moved into the outskirts of the city on the west side and was met with four Laitese Falcon Gunships, four Edgar Light Hover Tanks, and three Sephyr Hover tanks.  There were also gun turrets on top of fortified buildings.
“Charlie Company watch out for the VTOLs and the gun turrets Delta, Echo lance take care of them.  Fox lance work on the hover tanks until the rest of the unit can join you.”

Command Lance engaged eight Laitese Falcon Gunships and two lances of Gull Medium tanks.  There was also radio interference, they are jamming the lance thought Matthew, this might be a trap.  His lance which was the heaviest lance in the whole unit was too busy defending against the VTOL to notice Matthew warning via lights due to the jamming.

Capital City
Ingress
October 17, 2786
1645 GST

As the sun starts its downward path in the sky of Ingress the Capital buildings started to cast shadows on the ground giving the First Liao Lancers some illusion of cover.  The Commander of the Lancers just made it to the battlefield and took over command from the young officer that was trying to mount a defense. 
“Move the two mech lances to the middle of the town and attack that incoming lance from the north.” He announced.
Alpha Company was still trying to draw the enemy away from the middle but was still not successful.  With the communication down Major Bruce was wondering if he should abandon his position and go find the enemy. 
“Keep on trying Alpha Company we need to draw the enemy away from our commander’s position.” He announced on the company frequency.

Beta Company had almost made it to the end of the ravine, all they needed to do now was climb or jump up out into the forest and move north till they hit the south side of the city.  Major Tournier thought maybe 15 minutes 20 at the most and they should be at the outskirts of the town.

Charlie Company was stalled in their push toward the commander most of the VTOL they faced were destroyed however the VTOL were successful in damaging two mechs in Hotel Lance and the hover tanks were still hiding in the shadows and taking shots when the opportunity presented itself.  Major Pople moved up on a hill to try and get a better view of the landscape.  She witnesses several VTOL crashing in the vicinity of where her commander’s lance should be, and saw several buildings on fire over there.  She had to get over there.

Command Lance was hit hard with VTOLs, tanks, and now two mechs a Crusader and Panther.  All the enemy VTOLs were down and most of the tanks destroyed but two of his lance mates were down, still alive but the mechs would not fight anymore today.  That left Master Sergeant Sicak in his Thunderbolt and Matthew’s Nightstar which was missing a leg and propped up against a building.
“Sicak, move up and connect with Charlie Company.”
“Sir, I am not going to leave you.” Sicak replied to Matthew’s order
“This is a direct order most of the fighting is to the south I will be fine the mission must continue have Major Pople take command now that some of the comms are back, at least we can talk while in line of sight, now get going.”  Matthew said in a sterner voice.
“Sigh, yes sir.” And with that Sicak turned and moved south.  He was immediately hit with several AC/20 rounds taking out his mech in the process.

Capital City
Ingress
October 17, 2786
1700 GST

Alpha Company started to move into the city Major Bruce decided that they needed to move closer to the commander not only to protect his friend but to also get some action.  The point mech was just moving past an intersection when it got hit with three laser shots destroying the mech’s right arm, the fourth laser shot missed and destroyed the windows of the adjacent building.  Major Bruce scanned the area and saw three laser quad turrets a few blocks down from the intersection. 

“Beta Lance move up this street its parallel to the one Sergeant Abdul just got hit, in two blocks take a left and destroy the turrets.  Sergeant Abdul report are you ok.”
Sergeant Abdul, Firebee mech stumbled back into the street Alpha Company was stopped on. “Yes, Major I am fine but as you can see my right arm is destroyed.” The Sergeant said.
Beta Lance moved up and took out the turrets without any problems. The rest of the unit moved past the intersection and continued west through town, a little slower, a bit more cautious.

Beta Company was encountering heavy resistance in the south part of the city, multiple turrets, tanks that were dug in all the streets and troopers hiding in the buildings was causing a significate problems for Major Tournier, he looked at his command board, three of his mechs were inop now but at least none of the pilots were lost.

Charlie Company was down, more than half of the company was inop or could not move anymore.  Major Pople was getting frustrated the enemy was just too strong in the city, from what she could tell the First Liao Lancer had reinforcements something must of happen elsewhere she had no idea where the extra forces came from.  What she did know was that her company was not going to be able to help her boss which was only fifteen blocks away.

Command Lance was down all the pilots including Lt. Col. Matthew Chapman they were all located in a blown-out building about 200 meters away from all the battle carnage, luckily most of the enemy was destroyed.  All he and his other lance mates had to do was not get caught in the middle, and to try and pick off the enemy one at the time.  Which is what they were in the middle of doing right now, there was a group of three enemy troopers that had just abandon their tank and was walking slowly to the south Matthew motioned Command Sergeant Major Dionsio to move in while the other two Master Sergeants circle around and attack from the front.  In about a minute the three tank soldiers were dead.  Matthew moved his lance back into the buildings and waited for the next victim.

 The Commander of the First Liao Lancers was proud of his force even though he knew they were destined to lose.  The rest of his forces showed up and he sent them to fortify the west city picket line.  Unfortunately, this merc unit had surrounded his unit and slowly was squeezing his unit towards the middle of the town.  Therefore, all they could do is cause as much damage as they can and hope they would go away because of the pain inflicted.

Capital City
Ingress
October 17, 2786
1715 GST

Alpha Company finally reached the last known location of the command lance.  Major Bruce looked out his cockpit and saw nothing but burnt-out buildings, half destroyed buildings, destroyed tanks, and mechs.  Three of the down mechs looked repairable one of them was leaning against a brunt out building and it was his commander’s mech. 
“Lieutenant Colonel Chapman where are you, please answer us.” Major Bruce said over the net in the off chance that the radio waves were no longer being jammed.

Beta Company continued to push up from the south, Major Tournier notice that the enemy was starting to thin out. When he rounded the corner, he saw for the first time the top of the capital building.  Empowered by the sight he ordered his company to press even harder.

Charlie Company was done, only three mechs could move on, Major Pople decided that her and the other two working mechs would stay with the rest of the company and protect them until the communication was fully back online and she can call for an evac.
Command Lance had hand killed twelve enemy troopers now, not that Matthew was counting.  He looked at the other three from his lance and wonder if he looked the same, all three of them had blood and guts on them, from shooting the enemy at close range, setting booby traps, and stabbing the enemy by sneaking up on them.  Now though they were in trouble there was mech movement from the east, not knowing if they were his or the enemy they bunker down until the mechs got closer.

Beta Company pushed to the capital, the comms were finally free and clear of the jamming now and all the info about the Siegers came rushing back to Major Tournier battle computer, things were not good his company was the only one left standing but he was down two mechs.  He had been calling the commander but noting up till now was getting through. The good news was that the enemy was also destroyed or surrendered so the battle was effectively over.  Slowly they moved around the Capital Building and then he saw them, the command lance coming out of hiding and waving to him.

Capital City
Ingress
Governor Mansion
Governor Office
October 20, 2786
0730 GST

“Mr. Governor I am glad that you and most of the ruling officers had taken shelter and are ok.” Lt. Col. Chapman said.  “I am just sorry that your city was destroyed in the process. The Liao military would not leave the city and in fact moved what forces they had to the city a few days prior to us getting here.” Lt. Col. Chapman continue to talk.  “Every Liao soldier has been either killed or has already been put on transport back to Liao space without no weapons.  It seems that there was spare supplies and extra equipment on their dropship, probably did not have enough manpower to use, we took the liberty of offloading all of it.”
The governor looked at the Lt. Col. and spoke. “Are you taking the equipment also, I heard that your unit took quiet a beating liberating us.”
“Yes, my unit took a beating, I can barely field a company, but I am leaving everything that was on the Liao Dropship to you.  We have salvage all that we could from battle.  So, after you settle on contract we will start preparing to leave.  It will be several days before my unit will be ready to leave, until then we could offer crash courses in mech combat training free of charge.”
Lammack the last remaining officer from the planetary defense that the Siegers saved the first day on planet stepped out of the shadows in his new uniform and rank. “ummm Governor, if it pleases you I would be honored for any assistance the Siegers can provide.”
The Governor turned to his new Defense Leader and said. “Colonel Lammack I think I can speak for the whole planet and say that defense of this planet will be top priority so yes use the Siegers and get back to me with a list of equipment that we may need to purchase to aid in our defense.”

Later that day

Colonel Lammack and Lt. Col. Chapman was in a hover transport heading to the SpacePort where the Siegers Dropships and the former Liao Dropship were.  They pulled up to the pads and the Colonel notice heavy activity all around the port, both Siegers troops and the local men and women moving around.
“Very busy place” the Colonel said.
“Yeah we are still in the process of repairing, replacing our stuff, plus we are getting your inventory ready for your inspection.” Lt. Col. Chapman said.
The two officers rounded the corner, and the Colonel was taking aback, there in front of him was two lances of fully operational mechs mostly heavy class with maybe three lances of mechs that needed some serious repair.  There were several dozen tanks all in need of repair on the other side as well. The Colonel turned to Lt. Col. Chapman and said.  “What is all of this?”
“This my friend.” Lt. Col.  Chapman said as he rose his arms and spun around. “This is all yours, the First Liao Lancers donated all this to the defense force of Ingress, they also donated all their unit’s cash to the cause, meaning we liberated all their equipment like I said earlier to the Governor and we hacked their system and transfer the amount of 52 million C-bills to the defense force.”
“What about the Siegers? You guys were hit hard.” The Colonel ask.
“Meh, don’t worry about us Colonel our dropships are full and the storage bays on the Beast of Terra are full of spare parts, we will be fine.” Lt. Col.  Chapman said as he thought about what happen two days ago.

Capital City
Ingress
Tunnels under the City
October 18, 2786
1730 GST

Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since the liberation of the capital city was complete.  Lt. Col.  Chapman had several teams underground in the tunnels looking for the Cache that his father had left.  He was in the middle of drinking the local coffee brew when one of his teams found a vault with the Chapman family crest on the door and a cipher lock.  It took Matthew several minutes to travel to the location, once there, he inputted the family code, and the doors open.  Inside was a one hundred thousand square foot warehouse full of amor, weapons, supplies, spare parts, and PA(L) enough for a Battalion.
“Wow, that is a lot of equipment boss” Command Sergeant Major Dionsio said.
“Yeah, it is we may not be able to take it all, Dionsio lets start shuttling the spare parts up to the ship fill up the cargo bays up after we load our fresh food supplies I want to be ready to go within a week.” Matthew said.

Present time

“Colonel, I don’t want to come back to help defend this planet again, but I will if you call.  With any luck, your Governor is serious about the defense of this planet, and more equipment will be bought.  Now if you excuse me, we just accepted our next contract, and we must prep for liftoff.”


High Orbit
Ingress
Conference room
Beast of Terra
October 21, 2786
0830 GST

Lieutenant Abelone Bach callsign Abby was at the front of the room, the command personnel just filed in and was getting situated. Lt. Col. Chapman filed in with the rest of the staff and sat down at the head of the table, the other commanders notice that and started to quiet down and stared at her in anticipation of the brief.  Abby was the senior admin personnel, and she was about to brief the organization about local intel, the next contract, and any intel they had on that next contract.
“Welcome Siegers to the post contract brief slash new contract brief before we get into the post contract brief though I would like to introduce the new contract details that way you can make an inform decision about equipment and manning.  Our next contract is on the planet Rocky, the local government has hired us to quail a rebellion of local warlords.  There is no intel if any of the major factions are supplying equipment or men, just that half of the planetary militia and personnel have gone missing, more than likely part of the rebellion.  We should net over 10 million in C-Bills plus we have an 80 percent salvage right.  The Government wants us to end this rebellion quick and as painful to the rebels as possible the contract length is for five months, but they would be happy if it ended sooner than later.  I will show more detail maps and intel later but first our commander would like to start the post contract detail, Sir?”  With that she sat down, and Lt. Col Chapman continued with the brief.

Rocky
High Orbit
Command Bridge
Beast of Terra
25 January 2787
1430 GST

Defeating the rebels took a month and a half, about a month more than Lt. Col. Chapman had wanted it to take.  It was successful though and that meant five contracts were successful and all got good reviews by the employers. So, he was happy.  The unit was growing too fast though, at least in equipment, they needed a place to lay low for a few months and hire some quality pilots.  Matthew was looking at all the contracts request out there and none really look interesting. The war across the universe was heating up, planets on the boarder were being hit hard, with no one strong enough to prevent the major factions from fighting he was afraid that this fighting could last for an exceptionally long time.  Matthew put the pad of contracts down and looked at the repair report, he was still down a company but most of those mechs will be operational within the next week. Personnel wise no one was in trouble with local law enforcement but, there were no good candidates for hire on Rocky.  His son though was growing in strength and wisdom in the simulator now, the test a few months ago showed he was to be a MechWarrior, with that Frank had gone all in.  He wanted to be like his dad, against his mother’s wished too.  Speaking of mother. Matthew had no idea what to do with his wife.  He had to isolated her on all classified information, but it seems like she still was able to obtain battle movement documents and shared with the enemy.  Meaning, in the last battle for the capital she told them his plan, fortunately his unit was able to overcome it, but Matthew came close to losing his life as did his lance mates.  There was a knock on the door a few moments later. “Come in.” The door open and Lieutenant Majaev walked in and closed the door.  Majaev was the officer in charge of the HR dept. and head of security she was 5’10 dirty blonde well-built female and tough as nails. She looked at Matthew and said, “we have a problem” and then sat down.

Thirty minutes later

Lieutenant Majaev got up to leave and before she opened the door she turned around with a sad look and said that she was sorry for what was going to happen and the left.  Matthew sat back in his chair and looked at the Lieutenant’s new mission OPERATION HARVEST his wife’s callsign was Raspberry so the code name for the operation made some sense he supposed.  Even though they suspected his wife of being a traitor they needed real proof and OPERATION HARVEST was going to give them that proof.

Rocky
High Orbit
Command Bridge
Beast of Terra
26 January 2787
0950 GST

Lt. Col Matthew Chapman was sitting at his station as the ship orbited the planet below.  He was going through a new batch of contract offers, none of which was really appealing, the government approved his request for R/R but limited the amount of personnel that could be on planet at the same time, three-day R/R were issued, and he had to split his unit into three groups, so nine days total which would help the local economy.   The alarm sounded and the helmsman shouted out that a fleet had emerge from FTL at Zenith station and were hailing us.  Commander Phung asked for the alarm to be silence then open communication, video came into existence on the other side of the video feed was a high pompous ass admiral of the Lyran Commonwealth.
“Hello, I am Admiral Luther Weisskopf, commander of the Hesperan naval defense the Archon herself has asked me to contact you to offer a special contract.”
Matthew’s interest peaked this could be the first contract from a real faction.
“You have come a long way to talk to us, how can the Howling Siegers help the Lyran Commonwealth Admiral?”
“Answer me this first, commander of the Siegers, what is your strength.”
Matthew thought about this for a second, and whether to tell the truth about his unit’s strength.  “Admiral we are a Battalion plus strong.”
The Admiral sat back in his chair and stroke his chin, thinking for a few minutes.  “Ok, I am sending you over plans for OPERATION BANSEE I want your force along with a special Lyran force to invade the planet Altair, there is a Shipyard that I want destroyed along with the factories that make the parts for the JumpShips.  There are some mining facilities on a few planets in system that if destroyed would earn you a bonus.  If all objectives are met, you could earn a little over 30 million C-bills after expenses.  Will you except the contract?”
Matthew looked at the file that was just transferred over, “This will take some time to go through Admiral, but we will do it and destroy all the enemy forces on the planet if you allow for one more concession.”
The Admiral looked complex. “What type of concession?”
I would ask to have two months R/R at Hesperus II for refit and upgrade of our unit.  For the bonus if we destroy the mining facilities and take out all the enemy in the solar system so that your unit can take control, I would request six heavy mechs from the inventory at Hesperus.
The Admiral stared at the Siegers Commander and started to tap his finger on the table loud enough that Matthew could hear it.  Matthew started to doubt the importance of this planet and maybe he had overplayed his hand when the Admiral slapped his hand on the desk and said, “Ok Lt. Col Chapman it’s a deal I will send over the revise paperwork and file it with the appropriate agencies. I will say that if you pull off everything you said you can, it will be some kind of miracle, I don’t doubt your unit’s skill I just don’t think your unit is big enough for this type of operation.  Good luck to you.”  With that the Admiral signed off.
Two days later
Matthew was going over the mission report and details, when his expected guess knocked at the door of his office/room on board the Beast of Terra.
“Come in”
“Lieutenant Commander Phung reporting as order.”  She looked around at the stateroom, slightly bigger than hers she noticed that it was spotless, nothing out of place the only thing on the Lt. Col. Chapman’s desk was a paper folder with files in it and a computer pad.
“Commander please have a seat, I want to go over some of the planning details with you and have you asses the strengths of the enemy and the viability of the battleplans.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Eight
Altais
Zenith
February 28, 2787
0545 GST

Chu-i Orinosuke Kondo had just settled at his station, another boring day at the Charging Station Zenith area.  The war between fractions was growing and Kondo noted that everyone is getting involved now.  He was torn, while he enjoyed the peace and quiet of this planet since it was a few jumps away from the battleground planets, he did want to prove himself in battle.  The key he guessed would be to get off this charging station and onto a warship.  He was starting to daydream about being in command of a warship when the alerts started, quickly he snapped back to focus and yelled out.  “Sir! Unidentified ship coming out of Interdiction in three, two, one!”
A big warship flashed into existence, the surface was painted in black most of the lights was out or covered Kondo notice except for a light shining on an emblem of a half man half wolf.
“Sir! Samarkand Carrier Block I warship looks like it has three, no four dropships attached to it.  Our database shows it is capable of carrying 72 fighters and has 22 weapon bays of various types.” Kondo announced from his seat.
Sho-sho Llya Valyalko commander of the charging station looked at the info and knew if this was an enemy they were doomed. “Launch all fighters and get me HQ.” Valyalko said.
“Fighters are launching, but comms is being jammed.” Kondo said.
“The warship as ill attentions towards us, prepare to be boarder.” The commander announced which was the last command he ever gave.
Bridge

Beast of Terra
Warship
Chappy’s Howling Siegers

SG Lieutenant Nikolian was sitting at the sensor station on the bridge when the warship came out of FTL jump about 1900 meters from the charging station.
“Commander, charging station off our port bow, looks like they are launching fighters from a docked Dropship.”
The Commander looked over toward Lt. Colonel Chapman and Chapman said. “The contract said destruction of all military assets, they are attacking so I defer to your space battle expertise do what you think is best I will back your play.”
Hearing that from her boss that he trusts her, made her kind of blush, “Green, Black, White Squadrons launch, weapon control take out the Dropship and the Charging station.”
Within seconds the charging station started to spit out oxygen with fires lighting up inside the station and extinguishing once it exit into space.  The whole station started to spin slowly and tilted upward until it cracked almost perfect down the middle for that one second you could see the enemy floating out of the station like little stick figures then the station blew up leaving nothing but debris. The massive warship weapons then focus on the enemy fighters and dropship, along with the First Strike Wing it took another 17 minutes to destroy them.  Leaving the Siegers, a clear path to their next target the shipyard and ship dock.

Asteria Terminal
Space Dock
In orbit between the planet Mitchell’s Ship and Merrill
March 4, 2787

It’s been 4 days since the Space Port lost communication with the Zenith Charging station, it had happen before, usually just a malfunction in the relay.  Just in case though, the commander of the Space Dock/Port put his troops on red alert.  He had a compliment of two lances of Mechs that could fight on top of the station and about 20 turrets all quad lasers and missiles.  The Commander looked over his board, right now out of the six dry space docks he had three had JumpShips that just arrived from the Izumi Shipyard and were waiting on the final paint job and crews to take them to the buyers. Then he had a warship, a Nightwing Surveillance ship that was badly damage and currently being repaired.  Other than that, he had a cargo dropship which was offloading supplies, and two squadrons of fighters.
An alert started and he looked at the sensors, A warship with two dropships dropping and three no four squadrons of fighters.  “Red Alert this is not a drill man your battle stations we need to get the JumpShips out of here.” The commander announced to the base.  Looking at the sensors he noticed something else assault shuttles, damn them they were going to board the station, he must prepare.

The green light was given Matthew’s forces started the assault drop on the Space Dock.  They had to destroy all the turrets and BattleMechs before they can secure the outside of the facility and secure the JumpShips and that warship. There were a dozen assault craft also making their way down here that will penetrate the facility so that 60 marines can take over the inside.  The key today was destroying the enemy fighting capacity and save the dock until the Siegers capture the ships and repair them, then the dock will be destroyed.
The command lance landed right in the middle on the aft part of the station Matthew directed the unit to move up and was immediately met with resistance in form of four turrets all quad lasers. Alpha Company landed to the left and encountered BattleMechs and turrets.  Beta Company landed to the right and immediately was engaged with the enemy.  Charlie Company landed just behind the Command Company and moved up to help them with the enemy.  The turrets were proving to be hard to destroyed, they were on raised platforms that were heavily armor.  More enemy mechs were moving up forming up a formidable defensive line.  The fighters above were busy with enemy fighters you could see the laser shots from both sides as each force was trying to gain an upper hand.  The assault crafts had penetrated the base outer wall and the marines split up, half was on the way to the command bridge the other half was going to the control systems where all the computers that run the station were located. Captain Max Ting led Marine One, they were tasked to take control of the bridge and all other vital areas in the command deck. His team had entered on deck 14 and had moved up to deck 12 without much resistance. Deck 11 though proved to be where the station security decided to make a stand.  Captain Ting was down 4 marines, the first four that entered the deck to clear it, now they were pinned down by a barricade and a force of unknown size and strength.  Captain Antar Kadhi was the other Marine Commander who was task to take the powerhouse, and the main computer core.  From deck 14 they moved down till deck 19 which the main computer core was located.  Auto security and a security detail was keeping his troops at bay, five marines were lost in the initial ambush.  Somehow, they had to break the station security.

Commander Phung hated this type of space battle, she had within her power a warship capable of destroying the space dock within a few minutes, but here she was sitting off to the side because for now they needed the dock intact, and they could not afford a stray weapon from the Beast of Terra to hit the station.  The fighters were all most finished with the Kurita fighters in which they will RTB and load bombs that can attack the turrets and enemy mechs without hurting the space dock too much, the wait is what gets her.  Then again not having to worry about getting her ship blown up was an advantage so she settled into her seat and watch the battle unfold.

Matthew hadn’t fought in space in his mech since the Amaris Civil War and only a handful of his troops had.  The enemy though had trained for this, and it showed.  Matthew had a battalion, and the enemy had a few lances and about twenty turrets yet, his forces were boughed down.  Pushing forward Matthew had thought the enemy was about to break but all they did was readjust and moved back to the next line of turrets.  The sensors from his warship showed that there was activity on the ships in dock, they had to get there before they could untether and leave the area.  He ordered his warship to move to the dock ships and try to block their exit point.  Seven of his mechs were inop luckily, they were behind the current line and the Beast of Terra was able to send rescue teams to save pilot and mech.  Quickly Matthew ordered Charlie Company to push to the right to reinforce Beta Company and overrun the enemy’s left flank. Meanwhile he moved what was left of his command lance over to Alpha Company and set up a feint trying to draw the enemy mechs towards him.  The Beast of Terra slowly moved to the other side of the dock like a lumbering whale moving in a sea of mud.  One of the JumpShip activated their engines and was able to move out, clearing the mooring and slowly started to move away, by the time the Beast of Terra was over the docking area the one JumpShip was out of range but the other two JumpShips and the small Warship were still in the docks.  Meanwhile the Marines had taken over 90 percent of the dock yard and was getting ready to assault the main bridge, each team was down 50 percent, but they were marines and marines never quit.  Most of the Kurita troops were killed and the rest of the workers were all under lock and key at the dinner hall, which allowed for most of the Marines to combine forces for the assault on the bridge.  Captain Ting was the last command officer left, he turned to his 3 remaining lieutenants and 46 marines they were all looking at him for orders.

Meanwhile

The Siegers were almost at their goal, thanks to the fighters dropping bombs on the turrets, two lances were able to break through the enemy line and rush the moorings, preventing the other three ships from leaving.  Unfortunately, this left their six vulnerable to a counterattack which the remaining Kurita mechs tried to take advantage of, by moving in behind them.  Matthew had lost both mech legs but was able to drag himself to a spot in which he had a good target solution on the enemy that was advancing on his troops.  Firing constantly, he damaged several of the enemy mechs causing them to slow their advance.  A few turned to face the enemy shooting their backs, Matthew soon saw the problem with that, he could not move and was a sitting duck, prepared to die he continued to fire.

Matthew heard screaming across the units BattleNet. “NOOOOO” was all he heard then a massive amount of fire barraged the enemy mechs taking them all down.  What was left of Alpha Company rushed by Matthew ending the enemy chance of taking down the Siegers Commander.
Captain Ting ordered the breach of the outer door to the command bridge and sent the first squad into the smoke filled room, there was no weapon exchanged, worried Ting bust through and saw what the first squad saw, everyone was dead.  Captain Ting had heard about the Kurita honor but to see 20 individuals commit suicide because the station was capture was just unreal to him.

30 minutes later

The Space Dock was secured and inventoried. The remaining Kurita personal that was captured was still secured in the mess hall, in the cargo bays there was various equipment that was being transferred right now to the Beast of Terra.  They captured three ships, two were scout JumpShips and one was a Nightwing Surveillance warship The two JumpShips just needed a paint job which they can do when the unit goes to Hesperus, and the WarShip needed repairs but if he did not put it in a battle, it was space worthy.  With that being said, they put a skeleton crew for all three ships and pushed out of the dock so that the Beast of Terra was able to destroy it.  Lieutenant Commander Phung order the Beast of Terra to move out and up to get a better firing solution on the Space Dock, rotating so that the starboard and bow weapons had a firing solution the Beast of Terra open fire and destroyed the dock.  Quickly the big WarShip moved out heading toward the ShipYard.  Phung looked at her board and announced. Silver Squadron Launch and set up a CAP for the fleet staying here.”

The plan was for the Beast of Terra with her two full strike wings of fighters to attack and destroy the ShipYard while the DropShips, captured JumpShips and Warship sit stationary out here repairing what they can.  Therefore, Lieutenant Colonel Chapman had transferred to the Nightwing Surveillance Warship leaving Lieutenant Commander Phung alone and in full command of the attack fleet.

[mchapman1970]

Chapter Nine
Altais
Siegers HQ
March 20, 2787
0845 GST

Lieutenant Colonel Chapman looked over the scouting reports.  Since landing on the planet 13 days ago there has been no challenge, no declaration, everything has been complete quiet.  Chapman was waiting on word from two of his troops that landed here two months ago, and with the Beast of Terra moving on toward the mining facilities on the other planets in the system, the planet all but ignored his battalion of mechs sitting on the south continent.
“Sir!  A jeep approaches from the north they have signal its our guys!”  said the guard over the net.  Finally, Chapman thought, we will get news about their mission.

A month ago…

Two females stepped off the ramp of the dropship onto the dry land of the Starport in the coastal city of Carilene.  This city was supposed to be a prime spot for vacationers around the system and even in neighboring star systems.  The beaches where clean the water clear and the temperature was always warm and pleasant.  So, no one thought anything when the two females walked out of the Starport without any luggage but what was on them.  These two females though where part of the Siegers both with a rank of Gunnery and both with special skills of bomb making.  Their mission was to destroy the HPG site so that no alerts were made to the surrounding systems when the Siegers attacked.  Malama looked at Ramla and said, “let’s go site seeing before we do anything else.”  Ramla looked at Malama and just nodded, off they went to site see which included staking out the HPG site.  The two girls pretended to be interested in the local architectural and local cuisine.  With the way they were dress, flirty, and happy no one paid attention except for the young men.  Ramla and Malama looked as if they could be sisters both had long dark hair that flew in the air when they spined both had blue eyes and their figures were very athletic.  There was a hotel with a room available across the street from the HPG defense perimeter and lucky for them had the view that overlooked the whole compound.  They did not have a lot of time so that first night they went to the local bars that were rumored to have soldiers drinking and COMSTAR personnel.  The first and second night were a bust but the third night Ramla hooked a corporal that was one of the gate guards, and when she introduced Malama and that they were a couple looking for one male to have fun with, how could he resist.  They took him back to their hotel room as he looked out of the window, he commented on how weird this is overlooking his job site, that is when Malama slid a needle into his arm without him noticing knocking him out instantly.  They then took his credentials and used their equipment to copy it perfectly, they copied his keys and made a digital imprint of his eyes and fingers so that they can make contacts and artificial fingerprints.  Ramla and Malama had never been inside a COMSTAR facility, so they were not taking changes.  Then to make the night complete they striped the corporal naked and got naked themselves and went to sleep with luck he would think he had an amazing night, and it was the alcohol fault that he could not remember.  The next morning their plan worked, and he went back to his home a confused but happy man.  After he left, they uncovered all their equipment and started working on a plan.  They had about two weeks before the unit would show up at the charging station.

Twelve days later the plan was a go, tonight Ramla was going to be the overwatch and Malama was going to penetrate the compound set the explosive and get out.  Timing was everything, the Siegers should be jumping into the system tomorrow so destroying the HPG must happen tonight.
Ramla was able to pass through the main gates thanks to the uniform and kind of looking like the girl that used to be in that uniform.  She slid into the main hall trying to maintain a professional presence in what she could only describe as pure panic inside her brain.  Not really knowing fully the floor plans she had to figure it out while looking like she knew where she was going.  Finally, she found a map of the facility on one of the walls in the central meeting place and she quickly made her way to the machine room.  A few minutes later she was in front of the secure door, this was the moment of truth whether the seduction and all the time producing fake id and other security measures worked.  She placed her eye that had the contact in it up to the optical scanner and then placed her finger on the fingerprint scanner and hoped for the best.  It took a few minutes, and she was about to turn around and leave when the door open.  With a sigh of relief, she entered. No one outside of COMSTAR had seen the inner workings of a HPG and now looking at the massive room with all the equipment, hoses, and pipes throughout she was doubting her ability to knock the communication device offline.  She got startle out of her aww when she heard voices.  Shit, she thought to herself there are workers in the room, so she made a quick move to hide behind some equipment while the workers walked to the door and exit the room.  Sighing she cautiously moved further into the room keeping an eye out for anymore COMSTAR people, when she was satisfied that no one else was around she took the equipment out of the hiding places in her uniform. She went from a five-foot ten-inch 190lbs woman to a five foot seven inches and 150 lbs. thankful to have all the equipment off her she sighed. Moving in an orderly and efficient manner she placed all the bombs in strategic areas within the room, plus the support beams for good measure.  Setting the timer for 5 minutes was cutting it close but she had to make sure the bombs went off before being detected even if it meant her death.  Slowly opening the door to the walkway, she discovered no one was around so she slipped out and walked in a fast but casual pace to the exit.  A man walked by and gave her a hard look and continued to walk away.  She was almost to the door to freedom with one minute and 30 seconds left till the explosion when she heard a man’s voice.
“Charpentier, hold up I want to talk to you! Charpentier are you listening to me stop!” 
She reached the door and open it, 30 seconds left.
“Security, stop her she is not Charpentier she is an imposter!”
The whole facility went into lock down fortunately she had already opened the door before that and step through closing it as the security detail rush the door only to find it lock.
“Control Central open lock 122.34 now, authorization Becket, Alpha, Alpha, Omega.”
By the time Control Central cycled the power to the door and opened it whoever was the imposter, was gone and then the bombs went off destroying the room completely causing the support beams to buckle and the other five stories collapsed.  When the explosion happen the door blew out and a ball of fire went down the corridor pushing the security guard that just got the exit door open out 10 feet from the building the right side of his body burnt to the muscle.


Altais
Siegers HQ
March 20, 2787
0900 GST

Gunnery Malama Maipoina and Gunnery Ramla Rumaliza stayed at attention after their brief to Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Chapman.  Matthew sat there looking at the report on his pad tapping his stylus on the table, Malama and Ramla did a side glanced at each other nervous sweat started to form on their foreheads.  Not knowing if the silence was good or bad, they stayed at attention.  Finally, after what felt like hours but only was five minutes Matthew placed his stylus down and told the two to go at ease.  Relaxing just a little bit the two Gunnery Sergeants were still wondering what their commander was thinking about.  Finally, Matthew stood up and said.
“Congrats on the mission, you accomplished everything I asked you to do, there has been no signal out of the system, no communications between the planets, and they have not attacked us, our recon shows that the planet government is in disarray and the military is stagnate.  That will change of course, and we need to start attacking sites to weaken their forces before they can regroup.”
Matthew moved around his desk and stood face to face with the two.
“I am putting both of you up for the Order of the Sword, of course since I am doing it the medals will be approve my secretary will get with you with timing for the ceremony.”
Matthew then saluted them, a unexpected but honoring gestor when your commanding officer saluted you, both Gunnery Sergeants snaped back to attention and offered the return crisp salute. “Thank you, sir.” They both said together.

Meanwhile

The planet Merrill was 1.6 AU away from Altair which meant it took a little over 3 days at full speed to reach.  Hopefully the HPG and all other communication were down and the Beast of Terra would insert itself into orbit destroying the mining facility from high orbit both from missile batteries and the two squadrons of fighters that will launch in a few minutes.
Lieutenant Commander checked the clock it was time.
“Navigator prepare for insertion.” She then turned on the internal communication system.  “Brown and Purple Squadron you are cleared to launch remember every building and piece of equipment must be destroyed, give us coordinates for missile support, Phung out.”
Within thirty minutes the facility was destroyed not one building or piece of equipment was functional, most of the miners were dead the rest will be without environmental support since the atmosphere was toxic.  Therefore, Phung sent a K-1 DropShuttle guided by the automatic system with equipment and food stuff to last a few months, by then there should be rescue party.  Unfortunately, she had elsewhere to be. Another planet with a mining facility, the ore that’s extracted from the planet Cummings was used for the building of the JumpShips with the air toxic the mining facility was mostly underground. Which means that her space marines will have to penetrate the facility set charges to ensure total destruction of the infrastructure.  With a six-day travel at top speed her team will be prepared. 

Six Days Later
Orbit Insertion
Planet Cummings

The Crew of Beast of Terra was in high spirits, in order to travel to Cummings, they passed the main planet Altair and received word about the successful mission of destroying the HPG.  That’s why there were no reinforcements, Phung looked at the schematics of the mining facility that ground penetrating radar was showing now and knew this would be easy for her marines, if there was no resistance.  The alarm went off, “Commander multiple bogies are leaving the orbital platform and heading this way in attack formation, looks like maybe three squadrons.” Phung weapons officer said.
“Launch all fighters, close all ports, set to condition battle throughout the ship.  We must take care of these fighters and the orbital weapons platform that they launch from before we take care of the facility.” Phung announced.
Captain Stewart Brown Squadron Commander and highest-ranking pilot at this moment launched in a Seydiltz and oriented himself toward the weapon platform. “Brown Squadron you are with me, we are to penetrate their defenses and destroy the platform.  Purple and Red Squadron move to CAP position and make sure the enemy fighters are destroyed.”
Purple squadron moved to the right of Brown Squadron and push forward to engage the enemy; Red Squadron did the same only to the left.  With the two squadrons pushing forward and Brown Squadron hanging back the enemy had no choice but to engage the Siegers Squadrons, which allowed for Brown Squadron to move against the weapon platform in high orbit.  Purple Squadron was short of a commanding officer so Command Sergeant Major Pielgrzym in charge, a 25 year old veteran of the Star League he had turned down multiple attempts at making him an officer. Taking his squadron to the right and at full throttle they engaged the enemy.  Fighting in space is much different then fighting on a planet with an atmosphere.  With no gravity there was no G-force with no G-force also comes the concept of continual motion, meaning that once you go forward at 700kph you will always go 700kph until one of three things, one you hit another spaceship, two you get trap in some kind of gravity interference, or three you turn your ship and fire the thruster.  That is what him and his squadron did, as they flipped their ships, they fired up their boosters that way they could be right behind the enemy when they pass.  Unfortunately, the enemy did the same so that when the 12 ships pass each other they were head-to-head.  Laser and missiles shot out there was only time for one maybe two fire solutions before they passed again. At which case each pilot called their target and split the formation up. Red Squadron did almost the same maneuver, but they were heavy fighters therefore had more weapons after Red Squadron and the enemy did their maneuver three of the enemy fighters were destroyed. Meanwhile Brown Squadron was able to get to the orbital platform hitting it while trying not to be hit by the capital weapons it had. Moving in a clocklike motion Brown Squadron moved around the station dodging weapon fire while firing themselves. It was like a dance with multiple partners weaving in and out of lasers and missiles intimately a beautiful partnership as if the whole thing was choregraphed perfectly.  Within a few minutes most of the weapon bays were destroyed and three of the Brown Squadron were too damage to fight but were slowly drifting away from the battle. The weapon platform started to break up, “Brown Squadron our job is complete, let’s see if the other squadrons need our help”
Red Squadron moved slowly around the battlefield finishing off their targets only one fighter was damaged enough that it RTB. Purple Squadron due to its light fighters were faster but also more vulnerable, the only fighter left in the battle was the Command Sergeant Major, the rest of his squadron was intact just out of the action and being rescued by SARS.

Lieutenant Commander Phung recalled the fighters so that they could be loaded with bombs in order to take out the AA before the marines go down and penetrate the underground facility.  The Beast of Terra entered orbit of the planet, the heavy fighters of Red Squadron were loaded and waiting for the green light for launch. First Lieutenant Engen looked over the overlay of the targets and the topographical layout of the area, everything looked good to go, there was four AA turrets that his five fighters/bombers had to take out without themselves being blown out of the sky. The green light was given, and they launch, the atmosphere was choppy and for a few moments they all lost key instruments, the Lieutenant knew they would be ok.
“Red Squadron continue straight down there are no mountains once we clear the cloud cover, we will re-orient ourselves and then attack.”
The five fighters pushed through the cloud cover only to receive flax from the AA turrets. Still too far away for any effectiveness, Red Squadron systems came back online, and the targets lined up for the bombing run.  Some of the flax hit the Lieutenants left wing but he was still operational, but his wing mate took one in the cockpit, causing the fighter to spiral down and blow up on impact of the ground. Now down to four fighters they reached the intendant targets two of them were perfect hits blowing them and causing a hole in the ground the other two turrets were damage but still operational.
“Squadron we will have to circle back and fire our lasers and missiles low flying below their arch, and we should finish this with the next pass”
The fighters move slowly circling the perimeter flying low about 50 meters off the deck. Lining up for the attack run they flew under the AA ability to target them therefore destroying the turrets and then climbing to a higher orbit.  The lieutenant called the Beast of Terra to notify them that it was safe for the transports to make their way to the facility.

Captain Ting was sitting in the transport waiting for the call to embark to the planet. Typically, him and his men don’t see much action, but this is the second time that his unit has been put on the front lines, all in space because well they are space marines.  This will be different though attacking a facility deep underground. The green light was given, and they launch. The five DropShuttles moved out of bay and started their decent to the planet leaving the exosphere the thermosphere was smooth riding, it wasn’t until the craft entered the Mesosphere, where small debris started to hit the ship causing it to rock slightly.  The rough turbulence wasn’t until the stratosphere here there were strong solar currents that pushed the small craft back and forth, even entering the last layer of the atmosphere the clouds were so thick, and the winds interference was causing all the systems to malfunction as what was the case with the fighters.  The pilots kept on target though and was right on top of the facility when they final emerged from the clouds. The marines dropped onto the only part of the facility on the surface in their protective gear since the atmosphere was toxic and breached it, causing massive decompression within the facility.  Unprepared for a breach or enemy troops the personnel inside the facility succumb to lack of air and the toxic air that was moving through the tunnels.  This made the job for the marines easier, and they spread out 2 by 2 to set the bombs that will destroy all the equipment.  Within 40 minutes all the marines were out of the facility and back on the shuttles without firing a shot.  Once the shuttles made it to a safe altitude Captain Ting flip the switch and the whole facility was destroyed the only thing noticeable from the air was a five-mile concave of the earth creating what appear to be a crater.

[cklammer]

Five mile diameter? What did Captain Ting's people use? Thermobarics or nukes?