<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
Chapter 98 - A Long Journey[]
25 June 2788
Terra (Terran Hegemony)
At 0600 every HPG station in the Inner Sphere went silent. Across Terra, troops were on the move swiftly securing the important locations. In South America, the "rebellious" 79th and 123rd Mechanized Infantry Divisions were swiftly defeated by the 13th Royal Infantry Division who had infiltrated their bases in the dark of night. Their equipment under guard, the captured troops were swiftly moved to several "detention" camps and held under guard. More troops were securing the rest of the system.
At 8pm, Major General Lauren Hayes arrived at the main "detention" camp and was met with jeers and quite a few angry comments from the detained troops of the 79th and 123rd Mechanized Infantry. She had Major General Cynthia Olsen and Major General Michael Levanth commanders 79th and 123rd respectively brought to where she was waiting. Once inside and seated she had the guards leave and secure the room.
"Sorry it had to go down this way, but I just could not stomach inflicting casualties on what I consider family. It is not what I wanted or had planned. Our plan fell apart when Blake caught wind of all of your moaning and bitching about Operation Silver Shield. He is watching too closely and I could not get away to warn either of you. I had to move fast. All of your families are safe and unharmed, they will be leaving with you. That part of the plan has not changed, if you are all still willing that is. Right now, Blake is getting reports of heavy fighting down here and that I am here overseeing the fight to subdue both of your commands. Lieutenant General Mattice and his 13th Royal Infantry Division was kind enough to help me with the sudden change in plans.
Tomorrow morning Blake will be informed that the fighting is over, but equipment losses were higher than expected, on both sides. Again, General Mattice and the 13th are assisting us, seems they lost two Regiments of Battlemechs during the fighting due to the difficult terrain and your knowledge of the terrain. He will rebuild using your equipment. I cannot send you all on your way without a way to defend yourself on arrival. All of your side arms and small arms will leave with you. I cannot hide more than that, so you will have to make due. Seven converted Jumbo Dropships and a Mammoth Dropship will be taking you to your new home. Plus, you will be traveling on a Comstar transport so no one will mess with you, not one of the Houses anyway. I am sure both of you have questions so ask them." Major General Lauren Hayes said
.png){kind=link}
Mammoth Class Cargo DropShip
"You should have found a way to get some kind of word to us, Lauren, a lot of good troops could have gotten hurt." Major General Olsen replied
"But that didn't happen so you both will have to move on from hurt feelings. I said I am sorry." Major General Hayes said
"What are you going to do with all our equipment? Destroy it? That is a massive waste. You cannot just show up with two complete Division sets of equipment." Major General Levanth asked
"That is true and one problem that has eluded an easy answer. Ideas?" Major General Hayes asked
"We load that Mammoth with what the 13th Royal is giving us and maybe another two Regiments of Battlemechs, some Armor. We got some good machines I would like to take with us. We worked hard to trim down our supply tail and really hate the thought of some Hodge podge collection of machines again." Major General Levanth replied
Major General Lauren Hayes walked to the door and whispered to one of the guards posted before closing the door again. "Let's see what the 13th Royal Infantry is donating first shall we." It took fifteen minutes before Major General Evan Mattice was let into the room and the door closed.
"Sorry about the rude awakening. General Hayes, you wanted to see me?" Major General Mattice asked
"What got destroyed taking down the 79th and 123rd?" Major General Hayes asked
"I am sad to report that the 13th Royal Infantry Division lost a total of 216 Battlemechs. Four Battalions of Talons, one Battalion of Mongoose and one Battalion of Hermes. We had only the finest machines unfortunately they could not use their speed in the dense jungle which made them victims of close combat with larger machines." Major General Mattice said
"That is a damned shame. Well, now that you know what the 13th lost, what did the 79th and 123rd lose as total losses?" Major General Hayes asked
"Engaging at close range those fragile XL engines always seems to trigger an explosion which really makes salvage difficult." Major General Olsen paused as she thought for a second "The 79th lost our full Regiment of Thugs, all total losses."
"How about the 123rd?" Major General Hayes asked
Major General Levanth was quiet for several minutes before saying "The 123rd seems to have lost a full Regiment of Phoenix Hawk twos ambushing the 13th Royal in the jungle."
"Yeah it is. Okay, at least you can tell General Mitchell you didn't arrive completely empty handed. Why the frown General Mattice?" Major General Hayes asked
"I really wanted those Thugs." Major General Mattice replied
"I would have just taken them away from you later. Infantry Divisions get light Battlemechs and you know it." Major General Hayes said
"Lauren, you know that if you changed just a few things we could still complete part of the original plan." Major General Olsen said
"Like what and in what way?" Major General Hayes asked
"We can still hit Caph on our way out. With both of our units we could loot Caph big time." Major General Olsen replied
"I cannot take the chance on either of your commands being identified, plus the Jumpship is expected back here. I have to make sure Blake does not have a reason to hunt everyone down and looting Caph after you were disarmed would damn sure give him a reason. He would probably assign Toyama the task and I damn sure don't trust him at all. You both take your commands to General Mitchell, I think he is doing some good work out there. But he also has to survive Imbrial, that is the 112th Royal Hussars assignment, to extract his unit. I firmly believe the AFFS is hanging them out to dry with no support. I don't even want the AFFS to know about either of you, but I will make sure they know you are coming and where to meet up with you. I cannot send you directly to where I suspect Mitchell will pack and move to in those ships." Major General Hayes said
"You know the situation better than either of us. Thank you for the extra equipment." Major General Levanth replied
"Then get back to the compound, when this is all over with you will be loading up the troops and families. Evan, see to getting all the equipment stowed onboard the Mammoth please. I will see all of you in the morning. I should go make a report to Blake." Major General Hayes said
Organization of a SLDF Infantry Division[1][2][3]
Mechanized Infantry Division
Division HQ
1 Battalion Medium BattleMechs
1 Battalion/squadron Dropships
1st Brigade
1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment
2nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment
3rd Mechanized Infantry Regiment
2nd Brigade
1st Mechanized Infantry Regiment
2nd Mechanized Infantry Regiment
3rd Mechanized Infantry Regiment
3rd Brigade
1st Mech Regiment
2nd Mech Regiment
3rd Mech Regiment
Support Units
Aerospace Brigade/GAW
1 Aerospace Fighter Regiment/GAW
1 Atmospheric Transport Regiment
1 Atmospheric Aircraft Regiment
(Note: Written descriptions indicate there should be attached combat engineers, but none appear on the TO&E chart)
Armored Brigade
1st Tracked Armor Regiment
2nd Tracked Armor Regiment
1st Tracked Anti-Aircraft Armor Regiment
Artillery Brigade
1st Tracked Artillery Battalion
2nd Tracked Artillery Battalion
1st Heavy Tracked Artillery Battalion
Reconnaissance Battalion
1st LAM Company
2nd LAM Company
3rd LAM Company
1st Heavy Tracked Armor Reconnaissance Company
1st Tracked Armor Reconnaissance Company
Engineering Battalion
1st CBT Company
2nd CBT Company
3rd CBT Company
Communication Battalion
1st COM Company
2nd COM Company
3rd COM Company
Security Battalion
1st MP Company
2nd MP Company
3rd MP Company
- Note
- A regiment consists of typically 180 BattleMechs or combat vehicles.