- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
It's not really much of a spoiler. This actually a common raid somewhat. Just more specific for some groups. Although yay, new material for upgrades and maybe enough scanned material to make tons of factories modules.
Whelp this could be worse (Battletech x Zoid SI)
- Thread starter Dragonblade001
- Start date
- Crossover
It's not really much of a spoiler. This actually a common raid somewhat. Just more specific for some groups. Although yay, new material for upgrades and maybe enough scanned material to make tons of factories modules.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Well, it's true there are plenty of scraps. It going to be a little hard to get all of it, even with the Governor knowing it would be a good idea to let me have it all. As for the whole charging in with mechwarrior code of honor, well the only reason he didn't (because zoid really do well in close range) was because of Wolf. Wolf only had claws and his electric bite, sure more than powerful enough to take out mechs, but would do nothing to a dropship that will keep you away with sheer firepower.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Well, this is odd. I'm almost done with the rest of chapter 5 already. I didn't realize I could get all I wanted out this quick for a battle and action chapter. Get ready for a lot of world-building again.
- Location
- Chelsea Alabama
I am looking forward to it.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
I hope you will enjoy it when it comes out. Although it might take some time because I somehow added more world-building between the action section to explain things here and there. I really think I should have just interluded it but yeah, people reacting at the moment when a zoid attack is more impactful than outside that chapter it happens in.
Chapter 5.03: Battle Code: 0999
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He
Chapter 5.03: Battle Code: 0999
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Location: Katinka, Little Rock proper
Date: November 5, 3021, 22:15
Sergeant Lopez "Baker" Dio pushed his Sabre at max thrust to get to the next battlefield. He thought his fight was over when his ASF was too damaged to continue until that mercenary commander offered his repair services. He wheeled his Sabre behind the largest building via towing from two APCs and into a base hidden inside the mountain when he had landed.
At first, he thought he would land at a hanger and get repaired there, but instead, he found himself inside a mountain base. The place gave him the willies as he talked with the AsTech and mechanics working on his Sabre and moving one of those weird frankenmechs for his ASF. Lopez did see the leader of this area, recognizing her from the dossier for the Blitz Company. He walked up to her and saluted since she technically outranked him while working together.
"Sergeant Lopez Dio," he said as the woman saluted back in a Federated Sun's salute. "Head mechtech Cecilia Dark at your service."
"Thank you for granting me access for repairs," Lopez said as he dropped his salute and looked at the techs taking apart damaged armor and weapons.
"You're welcome. The Commander wants you back into the fight ASAP, and I agree." She replied as more mechanical arms came from the ceiling and walls to place new armor onto his Sabre. "He did inform me to give you one of these. "She took out a black noteputer the Lopez recognized as the same one given to Jef. I remember what Major said about how odd but great the device was after the defense network went down. The ability to see everything within an active combat zone and communicate between the noteputers and those marked by a holder's sensors. Was he getting one of those?
'I'm not a leader!' He thought to himself as he followed Mrs. Dark's instruction and entered the code. He knew what was next as the same message from earlier spoke through the noteputer, but that was when he noticed the strange lights constantly going over his Sabre. Lopez ignored it for now as he saw parts that seemed like medium lasers being installed so quickly that he would be back to the fight soon. Mrs. Dark had left to do something at a nearby terminal.
He decided to study what was happening out there while he was stuck here. I saw that the battle outside his location was going…decently. Even though the militia forces here were outnumbered mech-wise, the skills of the mechwarriors and tankers did manage to take down nearly all the mechs.
He checked the battle of New Dutch and flinched but smiled as his lancemates turned the tide and forced those dropships away. This gave the ground forces less to worry about, even as a green dot would vanish and a mark saying down/dead would appear. The battle there was intense but seemed to be going their way. If he helps out with the Little Rock forces, then they may be able to reach the capital to assist. The best makes this a request to his leader first. I knew he could directly talk to anyone he tapped on the noteputer, so he tried to click the fast-moving one representing Jef. It was easy since he was the only ASF fighter marked with a crown.
He waited for the Major to say anything once he connected, as Lopez knew the man would, "Who is this, and what do you want?" The voice of his lance leader came through clearly despite him being inside a mountain.
"Sir, this is Baker," Lopez replied as he watched several AsTech rushing to move one of the frankenmech outside. He had noticed the one out was labeled as heavily damaged, and it would be wise to have one ready for the warriors. "My Sabre is almost repaired, and they are strapping on a bombing ordinance for me. Do you want me to assist Little Rock and then ahead to New Dutch?"
There was a pause before a response came through, "Assist the Little Rock militia and then head to the Starport. They are taking heavy damages there. You have to keep the airspace clear enough for Little Rock's forces to reinforce them." That was when Lopez realized the location of the Starport had even less friendly units that were slowly decreasing.
"Roger that, sir," He quickly turns to the nearest AsTech to ask how much longer.
The next thing he knew, his ASF was fully repaired and armed with a single bombing ordinance they didn't have due to sabotage in New Dutch. Someone there had disarmed most of the bombs, so they weren't loaded onto the first ASF group, while the conventional fighter lance stayed behind to fix some of the more basic ones. So, where did these mercenaries get anti-dropship missiles (based on the size)? Also, how was he going to fire it? His Sabre didn't have an external hardpoint. Wait, did they weld a launcher on his ASF?
Lopez checked his watch and noticed that somehow between landing, fixing his Sabre, getting the noteputer, talking with Major Jef, and watching the light show that an hour had nearly passed. He quickly jumped into his ASF and began taxiing out of the Hanger. Lopez would have taken off from the tunnel's length, but there was a building at the end of this tunnel. While towed, he noticed the vehicles behind him pulling a large object, almost the same size as his Sabre, with APC. He didn't know what it was for, but it didn't matter as he had to hurry.
He flew his Sabre to the battlefield and prepared his three medium lasers for an alpha strike. However, he realized it wasn't needed as he watched from his zoom-in screen how the quad mech tore through the last two battlemechs. It was both awe-inspiring and scary.
The enemy Trebuchet fell like a puppet with its strings cut off from one hit. Then seeing the wolf-shaped mech tank, several lasers, and a ballistic shot to the large weapon, only to kill the Warhammer with a single shot from some kind of PPC. Finally, seeing the Wolf get the hell out of the area before the Warhammer went critical. All this fighting happen in twenty seconds.
Baker shook his head and banked hard to turn back to the Starport. They need help as he watches one of the five dots representing a mech, a Powerman in this case, going down. He throttled his ASF jets to try and reach the besieged Starport's forces.
It took him a few minutes to reach the second battlefield to see another mech go down, the last Powerman. However, before the industrialmech crashed into the ground, it unleashed dozens of rockets from it. They slammed into the Quickdraw and destroyed the cockpit. That left three enemy mechs on his sensor as he lined up his shots, starting with the lightly damaged Panther.
Locked on to his first target, Lopez fired his medium lasers. His nose and right-wing lasers struck dead on the cockpit while his left-wing weapon slammed into the mech's left torso. Lopez didn't pay any attention to the mech he just hit as he aimed at the second one. He didn't have a lock but fired anyways. Unfortunately, they also struck true, and the right arm of the Griffin GRF-1N blew off as the head lost a bit of armor.
Lopez banked the Sabre north to avoid fire from the third mech, but his vision flashed as his computer registered a light hit under his cockpit. Luckily, the SRM missed on the left and ballistic round by the right.
He was about to turn back for a second fly by when the noteputer spoke up. "Baker, go ahead and head to New Dutch. I can handle these two. After that, all forces fall back to the Spaceport. Pick up our people while you do so."
"Commander Chen," A young voice came through the noteputer. "I'll stay here and help. I can't move anyways. They kill my driver and destroy my tracks." Lopez noticed where the voice was coming from and saw another one of the frankenmech, a much larger one, surrounded by three tanks and two VTOLs. Near that group, two mechs were severely damaged and moving between trees and rocks, taking potshots at the enemy lance.
Suddenly, a green dot appeared, moving straight at the two enemy mechs at high speed. The Panther, it turns out, had died to his lasers. However, he wasn't going to leave without one more run. "Commander Chen, I'm on my last flyby before heading out to reinforce New Dutch."
"Don't bother. They are done for already," the mercenary replied when the Griffin was suddenly covered in green light beams. A giant quad mech with large spears slammed into what was left of the once-proud battlemech, knocking it into the open air before it went critical and blew up. The last enemy mech shot out a white flare for surrender. The mech shut down on his sensors, but he ignored that to stare at what he just saw.
The previous quad mech had helped his air lance against that heavy Eagle and took out the Lightning with one shot. This one managed to kill a battlemech in two hits and fling the mech into the air. Only the mercenary's call snapped him out of it and replied, "Affirmative. I'm off to New Dutch. See you there, Commander."
Lopez hoped his lancemates would believe what he just saw there as he headed to the central combat zone.
——————————————————————————-
Location: Katinka, Above New Dutch
Date: November 6, 3021, 00:30
Raju "Mastiff' Montgomery radioed the battlefield below from the cockpit of his Centurion (CN9-A) as his lance prepared for a hot drop. So far, he heard plenty from the open coms going off down there but still hasn't connected with any one of authority. Raju almost gave up when he found the specific frequency used by the Aurigan Coalition army. He locked his radio on the frequency and discovered it originated in the mountains near New Dutch.
The elder called his mercenary friends, "Commander Markham. I got a lock onto an Aurigan patrol under attack. We should land close enough to communicate with the patrol not to get mistaken as the enemy."
"I got that, Mastiff. My mechwarriors are ready to drop but let's not get shot down by the people we are here to help."
They flew toward the battlefield as he tried to raise the patrol he picked up. Finally, he got it in a familiar voice, "This is Captain Honda to the Aurigan Dropship. Please land behind the friendly lines where the Mackie is. They can update you on the situation and insert you into our new temporary network." One of his students was in trouble. He opens his lance coms and order, "All mechwarriors. Prepare for battle. We are landing hot. Switch to thermal vision if you have it."
He felt the Leopard quickly decelerate as they landed and the doors opened. The dropship shook from the few stray shots stuck it. His light mechs, two Locust (LCT-1V), rushed out but stopped after a garbled message came from them. It cleared up as his mech detected a sensor lock. All the ECM interference that had appeared when the doors opened vanished as he stepped out alongside a Panther. He saw the Hysteria land not far away, and its battlemechs complement of two lights and two mediums gather around the Marauder.
He saw an Enforcer in the colors of the local PDF with a missing right arm approach them. Then, Raju heard another familiar voice from the damaged battlemech. "Welcome to the battle, Mastiff. I'm Joyce Garcia, the governor's secretary and CEO of Katinka Industrial Inc."
"Sorry, we are late. Where do you need us," Raju replied as his lance waited for his command. He recognized the name as the lover of one of his older students. However, going over the past will wait until after the enemies have been beaten back or destroyed.
"Well said, master Raju," She replied before a nav marker suddenly appeared on his map. "We are trying to beat off these raiders, but they have cut off an Aurigan patrol from us. So far, we have confirmed the death of their infantry complement and the Javelin but no word on the Mechwarrior. We see the sporadic fire from the Blackjack and Hornet, but at this rate, they would be destroyed before we can break the line here."
He understood that but wanted to know more to make sure he could figure out a plan to rescue his old student. He received a coms call from Commander Markham. "Mastiff, I'm glad that the ECM interference is gone now. I just got a report from the PDF. They have managed to down several enemy mechs and tanks but can't push deeper to reach the stranded patrol lance. So they hope to make a hard strike and open a path up with us here."
"This is a risky venture," Raju said as he marched his lance to the frontlines alongside the Enforcer. "So who will be leading the charge, or will we have to cause a distraction?" The question was answered by a lance of smoking tanks retreating while several battlemechs and armed industrialmechs of the PDF charged back to the front. Even he winced at the damages all the mechs had suffered.
The PDF's Panther was missing its left arm and torso, and his sensor told him the mech was a few hits away from downing. Luckily he should be staying back with his lancemate to snipe the enemy. The Commando (COM-2D) was missing both arms and limped to the frontlines. The three Powermen had various parts gone, but all were still armed with primitive Rocket launchers. From his count, if all three fired their rockets and hit, they should be able to take out a heavy mech.
The only mech that seemed combat-ready was the Jenner (JR7-D), with only yellow damaged being reported to him. The only reason the mech was in the backline was to restock her SRM ammo.
His coms came to life again, directed less than a kilometer away from his current position. "This is Governor Chili to all forces. The coalition reinforcements have arrived. Thanks to their dropships supporting our ASF, the enemy no longer has air support. However, we shall end this now. I'm authorizing the use of our training groups. All Strikers, Bulldog, and Scorpion tanks join the battle. This is for volunteers only. If you do not feel ready, don't join the frontlines."
The old Mechwarrior thought his student was rash but saw his battle map light up with over a dozen allies from the rear. He noticed all the mechs that came with him had also stumbled slightly. Even the Locust from Mararkham's lance tripped and fell forward in surprise. Luckily the Mechwarrior reported that he was okay, just surprised. The laughter that came after was tense as everyone realized how powerful this solo planet had just revealed itself to be. Most wouldn't be able to afford this much firepower.
He managed to get to where the frontlines were and saw a badly damaged Mackie with a Urbanmech guarding in front of it. He didn't know how the trashcan managed to survive as a living shield as he watched two PPC slam right into the mech, only to return fire at one of the two Manticores that had hit it. Other shots either went wide, or the tanks, a Vedette, Bulldog, or one of the three Scorpions surrounding the governor would intercept it with their armed bodies.
He wasn't just standing around watching as his AC/10, and LRM joined in alongside the two Panthers' PPC. Markham's lance unleashed their long-ranged weapons at the same target. His shots hit an excellent spot to disarm the tank's main gun as the ballistic and missiles slammed into the enemy's turret. The bullet visibly damaged the PPC while the swarm of particles, autocannon rounds, and LRM hit it everywhere else until the tank exploded. The second tank began to retreat out with the Pike's support fire driving the bugmech back from the chase.
"Mastiff here," Raju said to his old student. "How the situation here, Shield."
The Governor responded quickly as his Mackie (MSK-9H) fired its twin PPC at the fast-moving light tank, and both slammed into its side, destroying the tank. "We managed to disable or eliminate many of the mechs and tanks they've deployed. Their entire ASF cover is gone thanks to my airlances, and the stolen militiamech were taken out by our native one."
A barrage of ballistic shots came from the enemy lines that took out two of the five VTOLs. Raju locked onto a Pike and ordered his lance to fire on it while the rest of the PDF and allied mercenary force struck at the few open targets. There were a few explosions from the enemy lines, but he could tell his mark wasn't one of them. He was about to fire again when his sensor beeped as an incoming allied ASF from the South. There was a flash of green within a second, and his target vanished.
"This is Baker of airlance alpha. Flyby attack commencing," The ASF pilot shouted over the coms as his lasers lashed out four more times before joining his brethren in the stratosphere. The fire from a few battlemechs and vehicles missed the fast-flying fighter.
"Sorry it took some time, but I'll transfer a breakdown of all the remaining enemy units left to your system now," Max slowly moved his Mackie alongside the units covering him, short two of the three Scorpion tanks. Their burning remains in the assault mech's previous position. "This is accurate to my current knowledge. Unless that grounded Mule has more units inside, these should be all that left."
Raju orders his Locust to charge down the damaged tanks alongside the PDF and Markham's units as he studies the very detailed list of enemies.
"This is detailed," Raju muttered to himself as it's a long list of what they were fighting.
The OpFor battlemech count showed one Trebuchet (TBT-5S), one Hunchback (HBK-4J), two Griffin (GRF-1N), and one Stinger (STG-3G), one Marauder (MAD-3R), and two Warhammer (WHM-6R). The enemy vehicle count was also high. Seven Scorpion light tanks, two Hunter support tanks, two Galleon light tanks, four Goblin medium tanks, a Vedette medium tank, two Sleipnir APC tanks, a Pike support vehicle, and finally, the Manticore heavy tank.
"Who did you piss off to be hit with this much force, Shield?"
"I only know the forces here should be from an ex-Vandenberg Mechanized Industries executive, but I'll have to wait to tell you my suspicion for the other forces hitting my people, Mastiff."
Another large object appeared on his sensors, but his coms went off with a gruff voice on the other end, "This is Captain Esposito of the Little Rock militia here to assist." His sentence ended with dozens of LRM and two PPC slamming into the enemy from behind, where his stranded people were.
"This is the Shippo. I'm coming in to drop off our Little Rock detachment!" Came a loud voice over the coms. A Leopard landed and quickly opened its bay doors as a Phoenix Hawk rushed out and blasted the Vedette tank with an alpha strike. That was one less tank in the fight. Another two mechs came out that his warbook couldn't identify.
Those two unknowns opened fire at the enemy light tanks and ripped them to shreds. After that, the remaining enemy Manticore fired a surrender flare. It was bright enough to make him shut off his thermals and relay on his other sensors as more and more vehicles fired off a white surrender flare.
"All forces, stop attacking those surrendering but keep your guns on them just in case," Raju heard the governor order. The weapons fire heading towards the vehicles almost instantly stopped and turned to the battlemechs. Said mechs seem blindsided by the sudden surrender. However, not all the armored vehicles surrendered as Raju was struck on the left leg by a Galleon. The light tank then raced to the battlemechs with its brother, two Hunters, and a Scorpion tank.
Over the coms, a voice was heard through the white noise. "This is Captain Gleen of the Gleen's Armored Calvary and acting commander of its ground forces. We are willing to negotiate a retreat for my people. I repeat. We of the Gleen's Armored Calvary are willing to negotiate."
"Mastiff," the coms answer the governor's call. "Can you take over the battlefield in my place?"
"I have no issue, son. Deal with those men and women accordingly," He responded as he announced through his coms to all nearby. "This is Mastiff taking over battlefield command. All forces continue fighting against those raiders who haven't issued the white flag."
"Guano. Stubble. Pontoon. Follow me and the escorts to the negotiation table," the governor said to his nearby forces when a surrendered Scorpion tank went up in flames from a Griffin's PPC. "We need to protect them from their former allies. Zeta company, rendezvous with us at this position. Ronin, Joyce, lead the Powerman here under Mastiff's command," On the open frequency, he shouted as he transmitted a navmarker, "Gleen's Armored Calvary. Head to this location as fast as possible. Drop any ammo you have and power down your weapons now. In return, we will protect you until our negotiations are completed."
"We agree. Everyone gun it to the safe zone." All the surrendered vehicles raced to the nav location, dropping any ammo they had, while the PDF forces around Governor Chili focused shots at any mech or vehicle that attacked. They scored two hits as a Hunter suffered a directed strike of four from mechs turning it into slag, and a Griffin lost its right arm to the Centurion's AC/10.
He decided that this could no longer go on and announced himself to the OpFor to make them focus on him. "This is Captain Raju Montgomery of the Aurigan Royal Guards to the raiders of Katinka. I will give you all one chance to stop attacking this planet and leave or face the wrath of the Aurigan Coalition."
"This is my answer, you freaking pirate nation," shouted a man from the Warhammer as it shot its PPC at him. This was followed by several other mechs firing their long-range firepower on him. He dodged the PPCs, ducked under an AC/5 by disabling the gyro for a second, and blocked some lasers with his arm shield before unleashing an alpha strike on the Stinger, who was about to fire his twin lasers. Markham's lance slammed into the second Warhammer, Griffin, and Marauder while their joint bugmech team chased after the vehicles. His Panther had stopped responding after he saw the Warhammer in front of him miss him with its twin PPCs. He hoped it was a miss and not a fake-out to hit his lancemate behind him.
"For the Aurigan Coalition!" Shouted a voice on the available frequency as a heavily damaged Blackjack and Hornet appeared from the mountains and fired their lasers at the Trebuchet, followed by the two unknown mechs unleashing their weapon on it.
Raju could see the four of the five green beams of light slam right into the cockpit of the Trebuchet. Little Yuki ended the MechWarrior's life with a perfect headshot. The rest of the shots tore through the legs of the battlemech. "What a waste," He said aloud as he knocked the Warhammer back with his LRMs, medium lasers, and his second to last round of AC/10.
It became a close-range battle as he got within the punching range of the Warhammer. He ducked and weaved through the few shots the mech used, but only the machine guns managed to hit his Centurion. Raju's skilled piloting allowed him to dodge even the small lasers at near-zero range while punching the enemy Warhammer, tearing into the armor and weapons.
It was a long battle as mechs everywhere on the field slugged it out. Some of the PDFs mechs had to retreat from taking too much damage. It was only thanks to his men and Markham that no one died.
Then his system told him of damage to his back as the last Galleon tank managed to rake his back with laser fire. However, it didn't last as dozens upon dozens of rockets slammed into it from one of the three Powerman, who was now on the retreat. At the same time, the rest of the New Dutch militia forces engaged with the remaining vehicles. Mainly damaging them but none were confirmed killed besides the Galleon.
"Sensei, watch out!" He heard little Yuki shout, and he realized he had missed one enemy, the Griffin that he had disarmed. His computer warned him of an enemy behind him and above him. It seems like the Mechwarrior was desperate enough to try a DFA on him. This was the worst time as he couldn't take his focus from the Warhammer he was fighting or suffer a direct hit from that class twenty autocannon.
"Don't worry, Captain Honda, he will be safe," came a voice he didn't recognize outside of him being young. He did hear the weird frankenmech say something but that was drowned out by the giant beam of plasma flying right above him. His computer systems nearly went berserk before the light show ended. It was then that Mastiff realized that shot had disintegrated the jumping Griffin.
"Let me repeat the offer given by Captain Montgomery. This is Commander Chen of the Blitz mercenary company employed by Katinka. You have one chance to surrender or die."
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Location: Katinka, New Dutch temporary surrender camp
Date: November 6, 3021, 02:00
Lieutenant Ciel Faux thought her life was over as her commander had surrendered to the 'Taurian rebels.' When Colonel Ben Gleen initially told everyone of the contract, he made sure to tell them that it felt off, but the money was good. After all, a five-million C-Bills contract (after converting from Bulls) was a big payday. It was also to suppress a pirate-led rebellion on an old Taurian colony planet. This would be a significant contract to improve their standing while distancing themselves from their previous leader and the rumors of how he would do anything for money.
So they left New Vandenberg on the Invader-class jumpship with mech support from their contractor. They even received a few new tanks at a discount for accepting the contract. But, of course, the commander did negotiate their standard 'you fool us, we abandon you' in the agreement. If New Vandenberg Industrial wanted us to attack a 'rebel' planet instead of the Taurian government, something was going on. They would not be part of a war between nations as the planet was close to the Aurigan Coalition.
They expected an easy payday, given how often they had taken down pirates in the Hyades Cluster. Hell, they even had another mercenary company that joined them on the way to the planet. They gave their employer the contract number and passcode in case of extra support. They met no resistance when they reached the ground. That is what should have warned them something was wrong. Then, a Capellan dropship dropped straight to the planet without any hesitation, which her Colonel took as a good sign to go in but not to shoot until shot at first.
They were misinformed of who their OpFor was. They could barely contact their ASF fighters when they arrived on the ground due to the ECM. Then, the first patrol they ran into was a patrol from the Aurigan Coalition. A trade federation that Gleen had announced to everyone would be an excellent nation to rest and restock in as they barely had conflicts. That was when things went south as the two Leopard began firing at the coalition forces before they could establish any communication with the patrol.
This contract went FUBAR as they were struck by conventional fighters, tanks, and battlemechs. There were some signs of typical Periphery patchwork mechs out there as well. Then it became even more dangerous as no one would contact the OpFor, but they could with them. The planetary governor himself, who piloted the museum piece of an assault mech, stated whom they were attacking. However, the ECM prevented direct contact with the man, and their allies stopped them from trying to solve this peacefully.
She lost lancemates and friends as they tried to fight a defensive battle until the boss came back as he left his XO in command. Then, the SNAFU (still an embarrassing name for a ship) took off into space to try and contact ComStar through one of the satellites to try and talk a ceasefire. She wasn't sure how successful that was when the Leopards followed it and left them the Mule as their base of operation.
Sure, they were holding out with their additional hires until multiple battlemechs showed out of nowhere and wrecked their lines. Ciel was both glad and scared when the field commander finally came up with a way to talk with the OpFor. They fired a white flare into the air to signal the enemy that they wanted to talk via surrendering. Now that they knew their opponents followed the standard rules of engagement, ECM notwithstanding. Maybe they could end this before more people were killed for no reason.
That was when their mech support and a few tankers turned against them. Now Ciel was surrounded by the former OpFor as she watched the light show in the darkness. She wasn't in her Pike with its installed night vision to see what was happening. Her infantry helmet with said targeting system was confiscated when they surrendered. At least on the plus side, that handsome man they rescued turned out to be a sergeant apart of the patrol the Leopards attacked and vouched for her company's integrity. She watched the XO desperately tell the man everything that led up to this point. Such as the ECM that prevented them from contacting anyone outside of short-range radio.
Like all the other junior officers and enlisted, she watched the ongoing battle behind the hastily placed fence. She wanted those bastards to burn for tricking them as, just like everyone else here learned, their employer had been arrested, and they were working with criminals. Not security forces or other mercenaries.
She observed what she could through what the energy weapons would reveal. She saw that Donut had been somewhat avenged when the Griffin killed him and his crew lost its main gun.
She saw the Mechwarrior of that super durable Urbanmech setting something up with the PDF's Vedette tank crew while everyone watched the ongoing battle. Whatever they were setting up had the XO there, so she ignored it.
"I hope the Aurigan win this fight," Corporal Simon said as talk with his crewmate. "They are a reasonable lot."
Are you sure about that? We just killed some of their people during this raid," Private Grif cried out. He made sense as most people aren't generous to people killing them. Sure it wasn't on purpose, and to them, it was self-defense, but the laws are clear. Attacking a governmental force is usually a crime, no matter what nation it was.
"I'm pretty sure. Sarge had me talk with that Urbie Mechwarrior earlier, and I found that we couldn't reach them because of their temporary network. However, when that Captain of the Aurigan Royal Guard showed up, they managed to get the man who supplied them the new network to allow coms chatter between our forces and theirs."
She thought that was interesting as the few junior officers also heard what the man said. So they might get some leeway for this. That was when a bright blue beam lit the battlefield up. One of the officers shouted out. "It took out that bastard!"
Blinking the spots out of her eyes, she noticed the legs of a battle mech being lit up by floodlight from one of those bugmechs. That is when the fighting has paused.
That was when a voice came from the setup that the Urbie pilot had been working on. "Let me repeat the offer given by Captain Montgomery. This is Commander Chen of the Blitz mercenary company employed by Katinka. You have one chance to surrender or die." The fury in the man's voice put a chill up her spine.
No one on their end could see what fired that shot, but the fact that everyone could now hear the coms on both sides of the battle made the dread worse. After all, it was near impossible to see anything in the darkness where the energy shot came from. The Aurigan battlemechs began fighting again against their former allies. However, she could tell they were regrouping and slowly backing up here.
"Son, are you sure you want to take these remaining battlemechs yourself?" The voice of Mastiff came through the speaker. A solo Mechwarrior wanted to take on the remaining battlemechs, which were three heavies and one medium to her count.
"I do. We don't need to risk anyone else to deal with these raiders. Also, these damn guys are the reason my Guntank crew died. They will pay for that with their lives if they don't surrender now."
"You think we would surrender to some jump-up pirate nation? Think again." Came the voice the that smug Marauder's warrior. She recognized him since he always made fun of her people, especially the Scorpion crews.
"Come on," She whispered as she hoped the crazy Mechwarrior would kill that smug bastard. She saw from the window of a PPC being fired before several beams of laser lights. Whatever that mech shot at missed as a wave of green beam slammed into the Marauder, now visible due to the lasers' light. A sudden glow of blue appeared at the wreck of a battlemech before the area lit up from the core, going critical.
She couldn't see the mech that caused it, but the remaining battlemechs began firing while turning at something. She thought something long past the barely visible Warhammer, the one missing a PPC and SRM before she saw the flames of over a dozen missiles slammed into it back. An explosion revealed that it was now missing its right torso. It was then that the Mechwarrior ejected, and the battlemech crashed into the ground.
"Where is that bastard? How the hell did he kill Wash that quick?" A panic voice called out. She could feel the fear in the man's voice that even the people around her thought.
"Watch your back, fool, or do you want to end up like Sophia," a cold voice berated the man. If Ceil remembered correctly was the XO of the group from the Mule. She should be the one in the Warhammer, then. "I got him." An alpha strike came out of the Warhammer, and the PPCs and lasers hit something as a flash of a mech appeared before being drowned out by another wave of green beams. The silhouette from this distance was distinctly quad style. Whatever it was, it shrugged off twin hits of PPCs and a barrage of four lasers.
This time the second Warhammer went critical, and a shout from the final Mechwarrior was filled with despair, "EMMA!" There was a specific light of an ejection happening before the mech blew and revealed the armless Griffin firing its LRMs at something that moved faster than it could turn and move. "GOD DAMN YOU, DIE!"
The Griffin jumped over something that passed under it at high speed, the jumpjets revealing a boxy, turret-like object on the back and two long cylinders(?).
"You first," came the voice of the frightening Mechwarrior. There was a loud screech of metal on metal before a flare from the down Mule lit up the sky. Two metal spears from the bottom pierced the Griffin. The dead battlemech's shadow hid the mech responsible for its death. Then both vanished at a blurred speed into a patch of trees, followed by a loud mechanical howl.
The two-person crew of the Scorpion tank next to her spoke up. Simon said, "Well, aren't you glad we surrendered now, Grif?" "Ah, shut up, Simon."
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AN: Head up, edit chapter 5.02 for missing stuff I somehow lost between 5.01 and 5.02. Also, if someone was keeping count on the New Dutch battlefield, it sounded like a lot.
Also, if anyone played the HBS Battletech game, you would recognize the MC backstory from the game here if you pick soldier as what your character does when they turn sixteen.
On the New Dutch battlefield, both Leopard were modified to hold six mechs each. Then there were extra mechs inside the Mule that was not seen before, so outside the intel from New Vandenberg. So it was 20 total. The Mules have large storage hauls and could hold more mechs than a Union (this holds 12 mechs normally). Technically if one looks at the 3075 pocket warship version, it has a bay that could hold up to 354 tons of whatever and a second bay that could hold ASF (six of them). This is a military version with military-grade weapons taking up space. A civilian one with its original specs has bay one with 3,000 tons of storage space and a second bay with 5200 tons of space. Theoretically, a modified Mule could hold a lot of mechs or combat vehicles. So explains the extra lights tanks beside the Goblins.
The extra tanks were unregistered (not updated) ones belonging to the Gleen's armored Calvary. The four enemy Sabre belong to Gleen's Armored Calvary. If one looks into Gleen's AC, then it would be twelve Scorpion tanks, two Galleon Light tanks (total of 14 light instead of 15 as not updating MRB info is a thing), one Goblin Tank, five Vedette tanks, five Sleipnir APC tanks (a total of 11 mediums), three Pike Support vehicles (which really should be tanks), two Manticores heavy tanks and five Vargr APC tanks (a total of 10 heavies). A total of thirty-five combat vehicles on the ground and four ASF. An ordinary Triumph can hold forty-five heavy vehicles, eight light vehicles, and four infantry platoons. Take what you will from this info,
At least the Capellans and the unknown who attack the Spaceport follow regular, no mod roles (somewhat for the Union).
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Location: Katinka, Little Rock proper
Date: November 5, 3021, 22:15
Sergeant Lopez "Baker" Dio pushed his Sabre at max thrust to get to the next battlefield. He thought his fight was over when his ASF was too damaged to continue until that mercenary commander offered his repair services. He wheeled his Sabre behind the largest building via towing from two APCs and into a base hidden inside the mountain when he had landed.
At first, he thought he would land at a hanger and get repaired there, but instead, he found himself inside a mountain base. The place gave him the willies as he talked with the AsTech and mechanics working on his Sabre and moving one of those weird frankenmechs for his ASF. Lopez did see the leader of this area, recognizing her from the dossier for the Blitz Company. He walked up to her and saluted since she technically outranked him while working together.
"Sergeant Lopez Dio," he said as the woman saluted back in a Federated Sun's salute. "Head mechtech Cecilia Dark at your service."
"Thank you for granting me access for repairs," Lopez said as he dropped his salute and looked at the techs taking apart damaged armor and weapons.
"You're welcome. The Commander wants you back into the fight ASAP, and I agree." She replied as more mechanical arms came from the ceiling and walls to place new armor onto his Sabre. "He did inform me to give you one of these. "She took out a black noteputer the Lopez recognized as the same one given to Jef. I remember what Major said about how odd but great the device was after the defense network went down. The ability to see everything within an active combat zone and communicate between the noteputers and those marked by a holder's sensors. Was he getting one of those?
'I'm not a leader!' He thought to himself as he followed Mrs. Dark's instruction and entered the code. He knew what was next as the same message from earlier spoke through the noteputer, but that was when he noticed the strange lights constantly going over his Sabre. Lopez ignored it for now as he saw parts that seemed like medium lasers being installed so quickly that he would be back to the fight soon. Mrs. Dark had left to do something at a nearby terminal.
He decided to study what was happening out there while he was stuck here. I saw that the battle outside his location was going…decently. Even though the militia forces here were outnumbered mech-wise, the skills of the mechwarriors and tankers did manage to take down nearly all the mechs.
He checked the battle of New Dutch and flinched but smiled as his lancemates turned the tide and forced those dropships away. This gave the ground forces less to worry about, even as a green dot would vanish and a mark saying down/dead would appear. The battle there was intense but seemed to be going their way. If he helps out with the Little Rock forces, then they may be able to reach the capital to assist. The best makes this a request to his leader first. I knew he could directly talk to anyone he tapped on the noteputer, so he tried to click the fast-moving one representing Jef. It was easy since he was the only ASF fighter marked with a crown.
He waited for the Major to say anything once he connected, as Lopez knew the man would, "Who is this, and what do you want?" The voice of his lance leader came through clearly despite him being inside a mountain.
"Sir, this is Baker," Lopez replied as he watched several AsTech rushing to move one of the frankenmech outside. He had noticed the one out was labeled as heavily damaged, and it would be wise to have one ready for the warriors. "My Sabre is almost repaired, and they are strapping on a bombing ordinance for me. Do you want me to assist Little Rock and then ahead to New Dutch?"
There was a pause before a response came through, "Assist the Little Rock militia and then head to the Starport. They are taking heavy damages there. You have to keep the airspace clear enough for Little Rock's forces to reinforce them." That was when Lopez realized the location of the Starport had even less friendly units that were slowly decreasing.
"Roger that, sir," He quickly turns to the nearest AsTech to ask how much longer.
The next thing he knew, his ASF was fully repaired and armed with a single bombing ordinance they didn't have due to sabotage in New Dutch. Someone there had disarmed most of the bombs, so they weren't loaded onto the first ASF group, while the conventional fighter lance stayed behind to fix some of the more basic ones. So, where did these mercenaries get anti-dropship missiles (based on the size)? Also, how was he going to fire it? His Sabre didn't have an external hardpoint. Wait, did they weld a launcher on his ASF?
Lopez checked his watch and noticed that somehow between landing, fixing his Sabre, getting the noteputer, talking with Major Jef, and watching the light show that an hour had nearly passed. He quickly jumped into his ASF and began taxiing out of the Hanger. Lopez would have taken off from the tunnel's length, but there was a building at the end of this tunnel. While towed, he noticed the vehicles behind him pulling a large object, almost the same size as his Sabre, with APC. He didn't know what it was for, but it didn't matter as he had to hurry.
He flew his Sabre to the battlefield and prepared his three medium lasers for an alpha strike. However, he realized it wasn't needed as he watched from his zoom-in screen how the quad mech tore through the last two battlemechs. It was both awe-inspiring and scary.
The enemy Trebuchet fell like a puppet with its strings cut off from one hit. Then seeing the wolf-shaped mech tank, several lasers, and a ballistic shot to the large weapon, only to kill the Warhammer with a single shot from some kind of PPC. Finally, seeing the Wolf get the hell out of the area before the Warhammer went critical. All this fighting happen in twenty seconds.
Baker shook his head and banked hard to turn back to the Starport. They need help as he watches one of the five dots representing a mech, a Powerman in this case, going down. He throttled his ASF jets to try and reach the besieged Starport's forces.
It took him a few minutes to reach the second battlefield to see another mech go down, the last Powerman. However, before the industrialmech crashed into the ground, it unleashed dozens of rockets from it. They slammed into the Quickdraw and destroyed the cockpit. That left three enemy mechs on his sensor as he lined up his shots, starting with the lightly damaged Panther.
Locked on to his first target, Lopez fired his medium lasers. His nose and right-wing lasers struck dead on the cockpit while his left-wing weapon slammed into the mech's left torso. Lopez didn't pay any attention to the mech he just hit as he aimed at the second one. He didn't have a lock but fired anyways. Unfortunately, they also struck true, and the right arm of the Griffin GRF-1N blew off as the head lost a bit of armor.
Lopez banked the Sabre north to avoid fire from the third mech, but his vision flashed as his computer registered a light hit under his cockpit. Luckily, the SRM missed on the left and ballistic round by the right.
He was about to turn back for a second fly by when the noteputer spoke up. "Baker, go ahead and head to New Dutch. I can handle these two. After that, all forces fall back to the Spaceport. Pick up our people while you do so."
"Commander Chen," A young voice came through the noteputer. "I'll stay here and help. I can't move anyways. They kill my driver and destroy my tracks." Lopez noticed where the voice was coming from and saw another one of the frankenmech, a much larger one, surrounded by three tanks and two VTOLs. Near that group, two mechs were severely damaged and moving between trees and rocks, taking potshots at the enemy lance.
Suddenly, a green dot appeared, moving straight at the two enemy mechs at high speed. The Panther, it turns out, had died to his lasers. However, he wasn't going to leave without one more run. "Commander Chen, I'm on my last flyby before heading out to reinforce New Dutch."
"Don't bother. They are done for already," the mercenary replied when the Griffin was suddenly covered in green light beams. A giant quad mech with large spears slammed into what was left of the once-proud battlemech, knocking it into the open air before it went critical and blew up. The last enemy mech shot out a white flare for surrender. The mech shut down on his sensors, but he ignored that to stare at what he just saw.
The previous quad mech had helped his air lance against that heavy Eagle and took out the Lightning with one shot. This one managed to kill a battlemech in two hits and fling the mech into the air. Only the mercenary's call snapped him out of it and replied, "Affirmative. I'm off to New Dutch. See you there, Commander."
Lopez hoped his lancemates would believe what he just saw there as he headed to the central combat zone.
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Location: Katinka, Above New Dutch
Date: November 6, 3021, 00:30
Raju "Mastiff' Montgomery radioed the battlefield below from the cockpit of his Centurion (CN9-A) as his lance prepared for a hot drop. So far, he heard plenty from the open coms going off down there but still hasn't connected with any one of authority. Raju almost gave up when he found the specific frequency used by the Aurigan Coalition army. He locked his radio on the frequency and discovered it originated in the mountains near New Dutch.
The elder called his mercenary friends, "Commander Markham. I got a lock onto an Aurigan patrol under attack. We should land close enough to communicate with the patrol not to get mistaken as the enemy."
"I got that, Mastiff. My mechwarriors are ready to drop but let's not get shot down by the people we are here to help."
They flew toward the battlefield as he tried to raise the patrol he picked up. Finally, he got it in a familiar voice, "This is Captain Honda to the Aurigan Dropship. Please land behind the friendly lines where the Mackie is. They can update you on the situation and insert you into our new temporary network." One of his students was in trouble. He opens his lance coms and order, "All mechwarriors. Prepare for battle. We are landing hot. Switch to thermal vision if you have it."
He felt the Leopard quickly decelerate as they landed and the doors opened. The dropship shook from the few stray shots stuck it. His light mechs, two Locust (LCT-1V), rushed out but stopped after a garbled message came from them. It cleared up as his mech detected a sensor lock. All the ECM interference that had appeared when the doors opened vanished as he stepped out alongside a Panther. He saw the Hysteria land not far away, and its battlemechs complement of two lights and two mediums gather around the Marauder.
He saw an Enforcer in the colors of the local PDF with a missing right arm approach them. Then, Raju heard another familiar voice from the damaged battlemech. "Welcome to the battle, Mastiff. I'm Joyce Garcia, the governor's secretary and CEO of Katinka Industrial Inc."
"Sorry, we are late. Where do you need us," Raju replied as his lance waited for his command. He recognized the name as the lover of one of his older students. However, going over the past will wait until after the enemies have been beaten back or destroyed.
"Well said, master Raju," She replied before a nav marker suddenly appeared on his map. "We are trying to beat off these raiders, but they have cut off an Aurigan patrol from us. So far, we have confirmed the death of their infantry complement and the Javelin but no word on the Mechwarrior. We see the sporadic fire from the Blackjack and Hornet, but at this rate, they would be destroyed before we can break the line here."
He understood that but wanted to know more to make sure he could figure out a plan to rescue his old student. He received a coms call from Commander Markham. "Mastiff, I'm glad that the ECM interference is gone now. I just got a report from the PDF. They have managed to down several enemy mechs and tanks but can't push deeper to reach the stranded patrol lance. So they hope to make a hard strike and open a path up with us here."
"This is a risky venture," Raju said as he marched his lance to the frontlines alongside the Enforcer. "So who will be leading the charge, or will we have to cause a distraction?" The question was answered by a lance of smoking tanks retreating while several battlemechs and armed industrialmechs of the PDF charged back to the front. Even he winced at the damages all the mechs had suffered.
The PDF's Panther was missing its left arm and torso, and his sensor told him the mech was a few hits away from downing. Luckily he should be staying back with his lancemate to snipe the enemy. The Commando (COM-2D) was missing both arms and limped to the frontlines. The three Powermen had various parts gone, but all were still armed with primitive Rocket launchers. From his count, if all three fired their rockets and hit, they should be able to take out a heavy mech.
The only mech that seemed combat-ready was the Jenner (JR7-D), with only yellow damaged being reported to him. The only reason the mech was in the backline was to restock her SRM ammo.
His coms came to life again, directed less than a kilometer away from his current position. "This is Governor Chili to all forces. The coalition reinforcements have arrived. Thanks to their dropships supporting our ASF, the enemy no longer has air support. However, we shall end this now. I'm authorizing the use of our training groups. All Strikers, Bulldog, and Scorpion tanks join the battle. This is for volunteers only. If you do not feel ready, don't join the frontlines."
The old Mechwarrior thought his student was rash but saw his battle map light up with over a dozen allies from the rear. He noticed all the mechs that came with him had also stumbled slightly. Even the Locust from Mararkham's lance tripped and fell forward in surprise. Luckily the Mechwarrior reported that he was okay, just surprised. The laughter that came after was tense as everyone realized how powerful this solo planet had just revealed itself to be. Most wouldn't be able to afford this much firepower.
He managed to get to where the frontlines were and saw a badly damaged Mackie with a Urbanmech guarding in front of it. He didn't know how the trashcan managed to survive as a living shield as he watched two PPC slam right into the mech, only to return fire at one of the two Manticores that had hit it. Other shots either went wide, or the tanks, a Vedette, Bulldog, or one of the three Scorpions surrounding the governor would intercept it with their armed bodies.
He wasn't just standing around watching as his AC/10, and LRM joined in alongside the two Panthers' PPC. Markham's lance unleashed their long-ranged weapons at the same target. His shots hit an excellent spot to disarm the tank's main gun as the ballistic and missiles slammed into the enemy's turret. The bullet visibly damaged the PPC while the swarm of particles, autocannon rounds, and LRM hit it everywhere else until the tank exploded. The second tank began to retreat out with the Pike's support fire driving the bugmech back from the chase.
"Mastiff here," Raju said to his old student. "How the situation here, Shield."
The Governor responded quickly as his Mackie (MSK-9H) fired its twin PPC at the fast-moving light tank, and both slammed into its side, destroying the tank. "We managed to disable or eliminate many of the mechs and tanks they've deployed. Their entire ASF cover is gone thanks to my airlances, and the stolen militiamech were taken out by our native one."
A barrage of ballistic shots came from the enemy lines that took out two of the five VTOLs. Raju locked onto a Pike and ordered his lance to fire on it while the rest of the PDF and allied mercenary force struck at the few open targets. There were a few explosions from the enemy lines, but he could tell his mark wasn't one of them. He was about to fire again when his sensor beeped as an incoming allied ASF from the South. There was a flash of green within a second, and his target vanished.
"This is Baker of airlance alpha. Flyby attack commencing," The ASF pilot shouted over the coms as his lasers lashed out four more times before joining his brethren in the stratosphere. The fire from a few battlemechs and vehicles missed the fast-flying fighter.
"Sorry it took some time, but I'll transfer a breakdown of all the remaining enemy units left to your system now," Max slowly moved his Mackie alongside the units covering him, short two of the three Scorpion tanks. Their burning remains in the assault mech's previous position. "This is accurate to my current knowledge. Unless that grounded Mule has more units inside, these should be all that left."
Raju orders his Locust to charge down the damaged tanks alongside the PDF and Markham's units as he studies the very detailed list of enemies.
"This is detailed," Raju muttered to himself as it's a long list of what they were fighting.
The OpFor battlemech count showed one Trebuchet (TBT-5S), one Hunchback (HBK-4J), two Griffin (GRF-1N), and one Stinger (STG-3G), one Marauder (MAD-3R), and two Warhammer (WHM-6R). The enemy vehicle count was also high. Seven Scorpion light tanks, two Hunter support tanks, two Galleon light tanks, four Goblin medium tanks, a Vedette medium tank, two Sleipnir APC tanks, a Pike support vehicle, and finally, the Manticore heavy tank.
"Who did you piss off to be hit with this much force, Shield?"
"I only know the forces here should be from an ex-Vandenberg Mechanized Industries executive, but I'll have to wait to tell you my suspicion for the other forces hitting my people, Mastiff."
Another large object appeared on his sensors, but his coms went off with a gruff voice on the other end, "This is Captain Esposito of the Little Rock militia here to assist." His sentence ended with dozens of LRM and two PPC slamming into the enemy from behind, where his stranded people were.
"This is the Shippo. I'm coming in to drop off our Little Rock detachment!" Came a loud voice over the coms. A Leopard landed and quickly opened its bay doors as a Phoenix Hawk rushed out and blasted the Vedette tank with an alpha strike. That was one less tank in the fight. Another two mechs came out that his warbook couldn't identify.
Those two unknowns opened fire at the enemy light tanks and ripped them to shreds. After that, the remaining enemy Manticore fired a surrender flare. It was bright enough to make him shut off his thermals and relay on his other sensors as more and more vehicles fired off a white surrender flare.
"All forces, stop attacking those surrendering but keep your guns on them just in case," Raju heard the governor order. The weapons fire heading towards the vehicles almost instantly stopped and turned to the battlemechs. Said mechs seem blindsided by the sudden surrender. However, not all the armored vehicles surrendered as Raju was struck on the left leg by a Galleon. The light tank then raced to the battlemechs with its brother, two Hunters, and a Scorpion tank.
Over the coms, a voice was heard through the white noise. "This is Captain Gleen of the Gleen's Armored Calvary and acting commander of its ground forces. We are willing to negotiate a retreat for my people. I repeat. We of the Gleen's Armored Calvary are willing to negotiate."
"Mastiff," the coms answer the governor's call. "Can you take over the battlefield in my place?"
"I have no issue, son. Deal with those men and women accordingly," He responded as he announced through his coms to all nearby. "This is Mastiff taking over battlefield command. All forces continue fighting against those raiders who haven't issued the white flag."
"Guano. Stubble. Pontoon. Follow me and the escorts to the negotiation table," the governor said to his nearby forces when a surrendered Scorpion tank went up in flames from a Griffin's PPC. "We need to protect them from their former allies. Zeta company, rendezvous with us at this position. Ronin, Joyce, lead the Powerman here under Mastiff's command," On the open frequency, he shouted as he transmitted a navmarker, "Gleen's Armored Calvary. Head to this location as fast as possible. Drop any ammo you have and power down your weapons now. In return, we will protect you until our negotiations are completed."
"We agree. Everyone gun it to the safe zone." All the surrendered vehicles raced to the nav location, dropping any ammo they had, while the PDF forces around Governor Chili focused shots at any mech or vehicle that attacked. They scored two hits as a Hunter suffered a directed strike of four from mechs turning it into slag, and a Griffin lost its right arm to the Centurion's AC/10.
He decided that this could no longer go on and announced himself to the OpFor to make them focus on him. "This is Captain Raju Montgomery of the Aurigan Royal Guards to the raiders of Katinka. I will give you all one chance to stop attacking this planet and leave or face the wrath of the Aurigan Coalition."
"This is my answer, you freaking pirate nation," shouted a man from the Warhammer as it shot its PPC at him. This was followed by several other mechs firing their long-range firepower on him. He dodged the PPCs, ducked under an AC/5 by disabling the gyro for a second, and blocked some lasers with his arm shield before unleashing an alpha strike on the Stinger, who was about to fire his twin lasers. Markham's lance slammed into the second Warhammer, Griffin, and Marauder while their joint bugmech team chased after the vehicles. His Panther had stopped responding after he saw the Warhammer in front of him miss him with its twin PPCs. He hoped it was a miss and not a fake-out to hit his lancemate behind him.
"For the Aurigan Coalition!" Shouted a voice on the available frequency as a heavily damaged Blackjack and Hornet appeared from the mountains and fired their lasers at the Trebuchet, followed by the two unknown mechs unleashing their weapon on it.
Raju could see the four of the five green beams of light slam right into the cockpit of the Trebuchet. Little Yuki ended the MechWarrior's life with a perfect headshot. The rest of the shots tore through the legs of the battlemech. "What a waste," He said aloud as he knocked the Warhammer back with his LRMs, medium lasers, and his second to last round of AC/10.
It became a close-range battle as he got within the punching range of the Warhammer. He ducked and weaved through the few shots the mech used, but only the machine guns managed to hit his Centurion. Raju's skilled piloting allowed him to dodge even the small lasers at near-zero range while punching the enemy Warhammer, tearing into the armor and weapons.
It was a long battle as mechs everywhere on the field slugged it out. Some of the PDFs mechs had to retreat from taking too much damage. It was only thanks to his men and Markham that no one died.
Then his system told him of damage to his back as the last Galleon tank managed to rake his back with laser fire. However, it didn't last as dozens upon dozens of rockets slammed into it from one of the three Powerman, who was now on the retreat. At the same time, the rest of the New Dutch militia forces engaged with the remaining vehicles. Mainly damaging them but none were confirmed killed besides the Galleon.
"Sensei, watch out!" He heard little Yuki shout, and he realized he had missed one enemy, the Griffin that he had disarmed. His computer warned him of an enemy behind him and above him. It seems like the Mechwarrior was desperate enough to try a DFA on him. This was the worst time as he couldn't take his focus from the Warhammer he was fighting or suffer a direct hit from that class twenty autocannon.
"Don't worry, Captain Honda, he will be safe," came a voice he didn't recognize outside of him being young. He did hear the weird frankenmech say something but that was drowned out by the giant beam of plasma flying right above him. His computer systems nearly went berserk before the light show ended. It was then that Mastiff realized that shot had disintegrated the jumping Griffin.
"Let me repeat the offer given by Captain Montgomery. This is Commander Chen of the Blitz mercenary company employed by Katinka. You have one chance to surrender or die."
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Location: Katinka, New Dutch temporary surrender camp
Date: November 6, 3021, 02:00
Lieutenant Ciel Faux thought her life was over as her commander had surrendered to the 'Taurian rebels.' When Colonel Ben Gleen initially told everyone of the contract, he made sure to tell them that it felt off, but the money was good. After all, a five-million C-Bills contract (after converting from Bulls) was a big payday. It was also to suppress a pirate-led rebellion on an old Taurian colony planet. This would be a significant contract to improve their standing while distancing themselves from their previous leader and the rumors of how he would do anything for money.
So they left New Vandenberg on the Invader-class jumpship with mech support from their contractor. They even received a few new tanks at a discount for accepting the contract. But, of course, the commander did negotiate their standard 'you fool us, we abandon you' in the agreement. If New Vandenberg Industrial wanted us to attack a 'rebel' planet instead of the Taurian government, something was going on. They would not be part of a war between nations as the planet was close to the Aurigan Coalition.
They expected an easy payday, given how often they had taken down pirates in the Hyades Cluster. Hell, they even had another mercenary company that joined them on the way to the planet. They gave their employer the contract number and passcode in case of extra support. They met no resistance when they reached the ground. That is what should have warned them something was wrong. Then, a Capellan dropship dropped straight to the planet without any hesitation, which her Colonel took as a good sign to go in but not to shoot until shot at first.
They were misinformed of who their OpFor was. They could barely contact their ASF fighters when they arrived on the ground due to the ECM. Then, the first patrol they ran into was a patrol from the Aurigan Coalition. A trade federation that Gleen had announced to everyone would be an excellent nation to rest and restock in as they barely had conflicts. That was when things went south as the two Leopard began firing at the coalition forces before they could establish any communication with the patrol.
This contract went FUBAR as they were struck by conventional fighters, tanks, and battlemechs. There were some signs of typical Periphery patchwork mechs out there as well. Then it became even more dangerous as no one would contact the OpFor, but they could with them. The planetary governor himself, who piloted the museum piece of an assault mech, stated whom they were attacking. However, the ECM prevented direct contact with the man, and their allies stopped them from trying to solve this peacefully.
She lost lancemates and friends as they tried to fight a defensive battle until the boss came back as he left his XO in command. Then, the SNAFU (still an embarrassing name for a ship) took off into space to try and contact ComStar through one of the satellites to try and talk a ceasefire. She wasn't sure how successful that was when the Leopards followed it and left them the Mule as their base of operation.
Sure, they were holding out with their additional hires until multiple battlemechs showed out of nowhere and wrecked their lines. Ciel was both glad and scared when the field commander finally came up with a way to talk with the OpFor. They fired a white flare into the air to signal the enemy that they wanted to talk via surrendering. Now that they knew their opponents followed the standard rules of engagement, ECM notwithstanding. Maybe they could end this before more people were killed for no reason.
That was when their mech support and a few tankers turned against them. Now Ciel was surrounded by the former OpFor as she watched the light show in the darkness. She wasn't in her Pike with its installed night vision to see what was happening. Her infantry helmet with said targeting system was confiscated when they surrendered. At least on the plus side, that handsome man they rescued turned out to be a sergeant apart of the patrol the Leopards attacked and vouched for her company's integrity. She watched the XO desperately tell the man everything that led up to this point. Such as the ECM that prevented them from contacting anyone outside of short-range radio.
Like all the other junior officers and enlisted, she watched the ongoing battle behind the hastily placed fence. She wanted those bastards to burn for tricking them as, just like everyone else here learned, their employer had been arrested, and they were working with criminals. Not security forces or other mercenaries.
She observed what she could through what the energy weapons would reveal. She saw that Donut had been somewhat avenged when the Griffin killed him and his crew lost its main gun.
She saw the Mechwarrior of that super durable Urbanmech setting something up with the PDF's Vedette tank crew while everyone watched the ongoing battle. Whatever they were setting up had the XO there, so she ignored it.
"I hope the Aurigan win this fight," Corporal Simon said as talk with his crewmate. "They are a reasonable lot."
Are you sure about that? We just killed some of their people during this raid," Private Grif cried out. He made sense as most people aren't generous to people killing them. Sure it wasn't on purpose, and to them, it was self-defense, but the laws are clear. Attacking a governmental force is usually a crime, no matter what nation it was.
"I'm pretty sure. Sarge had me talk with that Urbie Mechwarrior earlier, and I found that we couldn't reach them because of their temporary network. However, when that Captain of the Aurigan Royal Guard showed up, they managed to get the man who supplied them the new network to allow coms chatter between our forces and theirs."
She thought that was interesting as the few junior officers also heard what the man said. So they might get some leeway for this. That was when a bright blue beam lit the battlefield up. One of the officers shouted out. "It took out that bastard!"
Blinking the spots out of her eyes, she noticed the legs of a battle mech being lit up by floodlight from one of those bugmechs. That is when the fighting has paused.
That was when a voice came from the setup that the Urbie pilot had been working on. "Let me repeat the offer given by Captain Montgomery. This is Commander Chen of the Blitz mercenary company employed by Katinka. You have one chance to surrender or die." The fury in the man's voice put a chill up her spine.
No one on their end could see what fired that shot, but the fact that everyone could now hear the coms on both sides of the battle made the dread worse. After all, it was near impossible to see anything in the darkness where the energy shot came from. The Aurigan battlemechs began fighting again against their former allies. However, she could tell they were regrouping and slowly backing up here.
"Son, are you sure you want to take these remaining battlemechs yourself?" The voice of Mastiff came through the speaker. A solo Mechwarrior wanted to take on the remaining battlemechs, which were three heavies and one medium to her count.
"I do. We don't need to risk anyone else to deal with these raiders. Also, these damn guys are the reason my Guntank crew died. They will pay for that with their lives if they don't surrender now."
"You think we would surrender to some jump-up pirate nation? Think again." Came the voice the that smug Marauder's warrior. She recognized him since he always made fun of her people, especially the Scorpion crews.
"Come on," She whispered as she hoped the crazy Mechwarrior would kill that smug bastard. She saw from the window of a PPC being fired before several beams of laser lights. Whatever that mech shot at missed as a wave of green beam slammed into the Marauder, now visible due to the lasers' light. A sudden glow of blue appeared at the wreck of a battlemech before the area lit up from the core, going critical.
She couldn't see the mech that caused it, but the remaining battlemechs began firing while turning at something. She thought something long past the barely visible Warhammer, the one missing a PPC and SRM before she saw the flames of over a dozen missiles slammed into it back. An explosion revealed that it was now missing its right torso. It was then that the Mechwarrior ejected, and the battlemech crashed into the ground.
"Where is that bastard? How the hell did he kill Wash that quick?" A panic voice called out. She could feel the fear in the man's voice that even the people around her thought.
"Watch your back, fool, or do you want to end up like Sophia," a cold voice berated the man. If Ceil remembered correctly was the XO of the group from the Mule. She should be the one in the Warhammer, then. "I got him." An alpha strike came out of the Warhammer, and the PPCs and lasers hit something as a flash of a mech appeared before being drowned out by another wave of green beams. The silhouette from this distance was distinctly quad style. Whatever it was, it shrugged off twin hits of PPCs and a barrage of four lasers.
This time the second Warhammer went critical, and a shout from the final Mechwarrior was filled with despair, "EMMA!" There was a specific light of an ejection happening before the mech blew and revealed the armless Griffin firing its LRMs at something that moved faster than it could turn and move. "GOD DAMN YOU, DIE!"
The Griffin jumped over something that passed under it at high speed, the jumpjets revealing a boxy, turret-like object on the back and two long cylinders(?).
"You first," came the voice of the frightening Mechwarrior. There was a loud screech of metal on metal before a flare from the down Mule lit up the sky. Two metal spears from the bottom pierced the Griffin. The dead battlemech's shadow hid the mech responsible for its death. Then both vanished at a blurred speed into a patch of trees, followed by a loud mechanical howl.
The two-person crew of the Scorpion tank next to her spoke up. Simon said, "Well, aren't you glad we surrendered now, Grif?" "Ah, shut up, Simon."
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AN: Head up, edit chapter 5.02 for missing stuff I somehow lost between 5.01 and 5.02. Also, if someone was keeping count on the New Dutch battlefield, it sounded like a lot.
Also, if anyone played the HBS Battletech game, you would recognize the MC backstory from the game here if you pick soldier as what your character does when they turn sixteen.
On the New Dutch battlefield, both Leopard were modified to hold six mechs each. Then there were extra mechs inside the Mule that was not seen before, so outside the intel from New Vandenberg. So it was 20 total. The Mules have large storage hauls and could hold more mechs than a Union (this holds 12 mechs normally). Technically if one looks at the 3075 pocket warship version, it has a bay that could hold up to 354 tons of whatever and a second bay that could hold ASF (six of them). This is a military version with military-grade weapons taking up space. A civilian one with its original specs has bay one with 3,000 tons of storage space and a second bay with 5200 tons of space. Theoretically, a modified Mule could hold a lot of mechs or combat vehicles. So explains the extra lights tanks beside the Goblins.
The extra tanks were unregistered (not updated) ones belonging to the Gleen's armored Calvary. The four enemy Sabre belong to Gleen's Armored Calvary. If one looks into Gleen's AC, then it would be twelve Scorpion tanks, two Galleon Light tanks (total of 14 light instead of 15 as not updating MRB info is a thing), one Goblin Tank, five Vedette tanks, five Sleipnir APC tanks (a total of 11 mediums), three Pike Support vehicles (which really should be tanks), two Manticores heavy tanks and five Vargr APC tanks (a total of 10 heavies). A total of thirty-five combat vehicles on the ground and four ASF. An ordinary Triumph can hold forty-five heavy vehicles, eight light vehicles, and four infantry platoons. Take what you will from this info,
At least the Capellans and the unknown who attack the Spaceport follow regular, no mod roles (somewhat for the Union).
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SNAFU? I wonder what was the logic behind that name.
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Before I answer this what did you think it means. The name I mean.
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As a complete guess, that something will always go not according to plan when they are involved. Fits how the term snafu is usually used.
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Well the original military one is "Status normal: all fucked up." So in this case they are used to things going sideways that they named their ship that.
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That is both sad and amusing. I can see why she wouldn't like the name. At least it isn't Snafutron or Snafuinator.
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At least it not that.
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Yep and it messy. Although still possible to get something out of it.
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Okay, update on the interlude I'm working on. I'm at 6k words and not even halfway through the outline I got. So yeah, probably no update this week.
Glad to have this sort of progress report. Thank you.
Here Spidey!
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Here is an Omake from one of my readers on SB. Enjoy! Did some minor edits.
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Stomper glaring out of his Atlas cockpit as he tried to spot the unknown unit reported as the light and pair of mediums of his lance tried to flush it from hiding... then his mech lurched as the gyro screamed. Cursing loudly he fought to keep his mech upright he hit his lance comm "I am having major stability issues I think it's my Gyro..."
"What?! It can't be I just did service..." Lacy growled from the lance's Shadow Hawk its map icon breaking off and heading towards his location "Stomper, there is a spider on your back..."
"There is no reactor on my scopes... and really not the time to tease me about..." Stomper started after a quick glance and gritting his teeth at the memory of the amusement his lance had been having over his reaction to finding one of the creeping horrors in his cockpit during his first test on getting the mess of salvage collected over 10 years to reassemble.
"NO, YOU REALLY..."
Stomper didn't hear any more as a large pillar came over his mech's left shoulder to rest on its upper chest then another came over the right then something out of his nightmares pulled itself into view...
****
Michael Chen stood on the hill and blink rubbed his eyes and looked again then looked at his organoid who was staring wide-eyed at the sight of an Atlas completely flipping out with the missing Cannon Spider radiating amusement on its back.
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Stomper glaring out of his Atlas cockpit as he tried to spot the unknown unit reported as the light and pair of mediums of his lance tried to flush it from hiding... then his mech lurched as the gyro screamed. Cursing loudly he fought to keep his mech upright he hit his lance comm "I am having major stability issues I think it's my Gyro..."
"What?! It can't be I just did service..." Lacy growled from the lance's Shadow Hawk its map icon breaking off and heading towards his location "Stomper, there is a spider on your back..."
"There is no reactor on my scopes... and really not the time to tease me about..." Stomper started after a quick glance and gritting his teeth at the memory of the amusement his lance had been having over his reaction to finding one of the creeping horrors in his cockpit during his first test on getting the mess of salvage collected over 10 years to reassemble.
"NO, YOU REALLY..."
Stomper didn't hear any more as a large pillar came over his mech's left shoulder to rest on its upper chest then another came over the right then something out of his nightmares pulled itself into view...
****
Michael Chen stood on the hill and blink rubbed his eyes and looked again then looked at his organoid who was staring wide-eyed at the sight of an Atlas completely flipping out with the missing Cannon Spider radiating amusement on its back.
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On one hand they might consider it lost tech if they don't believe the whole alien angle. On the other hand, if they figure it take an actual 10-50 years for a zoid to naturally grow up, well lol. Of course they might just blame it as a failed product left to roam.
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From their perspective Zoids might as well be alien lost tech. It is not that hard to slot planet Zi into things even without the timeline jump not to mention Zi no longer exists and hasn't for a few centuries. Pretty sure that there will be a few people mentally kicking themselves over that. Though the inner sphere might also come to the conclusion that the priority of the Ancient Zoidiants wasn't mass production. It is hard to deny how far superior Zoids are as planet based walkers.
On a different note I am curious as to how you choose which zoids are born. Is it with digital dice or something? There are so many zoids that I didn't know existed like the cannon spider.
On a different note I am curious as to how you choose which zoids are born. Is it with digital dice or something? There are so many zoids that I didn't know existed like the cannon spider.
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Some of it was physical dice and others are pre-planned.
The cannon spider might or might not become canon in my story depending on how things go during the 3025-3027 section. After all it take time to grow a Zoid, with some exceptions.
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Well let's hope everything goes well for the cannon spider. I do think that at at least one aerial, one underwater, and one burrowing zoid will be needed soon. Let's hope the dice favors us on that front.
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All I can say is read the upcoming interlude carefully. You might have to look up some names here and there to figure out what I mean. Also dang it still got like 5-6 more sections to write out and it already a 13k beast of a chapter
Guntank-P (GTP-001P)
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Well still working on the Interlude. Finally working on the last two sections after fusing a few of them.
So as a thing, I'll post a new mech TRO, for now, that will show up in the next actual chapter.
So as a thing, I'll post a new mech TRO, for now, that will show up in the next actual chapter.
Code:
Guntank-P GTP-001P
Mass: 90 tons
Chassis: Buster/Bulldog
Power Plant: Zi RE 360
Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph
Maximum Speed: 64.8 kph
Jump Jets: none
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Moby armor
Armament:
4 Small Laser
4 Medium Laser
2 LRM 10
Manufacturer: Katinka Industrial Inc
Primary Factory: Katinka
Communication System: Neil 6000
Targeting & Tracking System: Prototype Pack Linker
Introduction Year: 3021
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 7,814,860 C-bills
Overview
A remodel of the original Guntank prototype. It was designed to support from a distance before closing in for mid and close-range battles. Its primary purpose is to draw the enemy fire to allow infantry and lighter vehicles to strike the enemy.
Capabilities
It does not need a Gyro allowing for more armor to replace the lost weight. It can drive even faster on roads but has mountain ranges and uneven terrain problems. The new experimental Reggel Engine has the power of a 360 fusion engine but runs cooler and produces much less heat.
Deployment
It saw its first deployment during the initial coup of the Aurigan Coalition, where it stood beside several royal guard units. It held out against several battlemechs and armor vehicles until reinforcements arrived.
Type: Guntank-P
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Introductory)
Tonnage: 90
Battle Value: 1,561
Equipment Mass
Internal Structure 9
Engine 360 Zi RE 25
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sink 22 12
Gyro -
Cockpit 3
Armor Factor 272 21
Internal Armor
Structure Value
Head 3 9
Center Torso 29 39
Center Torso (rear) 19
R/L Torso 19 27
R/L Torso (rear) 11
R/L Arm 15 26/27
Tank - 113
Right Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Left Arm Actuators: Shoulder, Upper Arm, Lower Arm, Hand
Weapons
and Ammo Location Critical Heat Tonnage
2 Small Laser CT 2 1 1.0
4 Heat Sink RT 4 - 4.0
LRM 10 Ammo (12) RT 1 - 1.0
LRM 10 Ammo (12) RT 1 - 1.0
LRM 10 RT 2 4 5.0
Small Laser RT 1 1 0.5
LRM 10 LT 2 4 5.0
4 Heat Sink LT 4 - 4.0
4 Medium Laser LT 4 3 4.0
Small Laser HD 1 1 0.5
Reggel fuel TB 1 - 1.0
Notes from Mechtech Yang V.: "Who the hell came up with this idea? Sure it is interesting, but it fails the main purpose of a walking mech. At least this one can slug it out with an assault mech to protect what is behind it. However, there is a large flaw of its tank part being its weakness."
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