Blood on the Horizon
- Chapter 33 -[]
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Seizing the Ride[]
Date: July 5th, 3002
Location: Camadierre, Taurian Concordat
With a short click of the radio, Peterson commanded the snipers they had concealed around the ridge to begin picking off the patrols that secured the perimeter of the pirate's landing site.
"Let's move," Packer grunted at the men and women under his command, the fireteams in his squad moving through the underbrush to get closer to the Union.
"Sergeant," Jenkins motioned the man over. "The Scorpions are unmanned right now. if we take them, we can get the rest in line."
"Alpha, You're to take the tanks. Bravo, I want you to take out the technicals," Packer ordered. "Charlie, we're taking the Union, I do not want any of that firepower concentrated on us or our men."
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Union Class Dropship
The squad pushed further inside the pirate's perimeter, knowing that the rest of the platoon was moving alongside them as they finally entered the open area.
The Union had ignited some of the brush and trees when it landed, with the burnt-out husks of the plants remaining behind and giving no cover for the last few hundred meters.
Time itself seemed to slow as the squad crawled through the blackened dirt, moving as slowly as humanly possible to avoid being seen on their approach. No words were spoken, only the sound of the pirates and distant echoes of the fight between the combat vehicles and 'mechs tore into the quiet of the soldier's own breathing.
Five minutes passed, then ten, the soldiers continued crawling, breaking off into smaller groups of two and three as they moved to their different objectives, the soot and ash on their uniforms assisting with concealing their movements.
Then, they reached their destination, Packer's immediate squad stood up and rushed into the bay of the Union, their weapons barking as they pushed inside.
"Go go go!" Jenkins ordered his squad as he ran up to the side of a Scorpion, boosting his battle buddy up and onto the unnecessarily spiked twenty-five-ton tank before being pulled up after him. "Open that hatch!"
The two popped open the hatch and dove into the tank, quickly hitting the ignition switch on the ICE engine and turning the turret as it roared to life, focusing on suppressing those who were engaged with the rest of the infantry.
"Jenkins, we've secured the second Vic. Bravo's pinned down by the technicals though."
"Then we burn them," Jenkins replied, shifting the turret over to the trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on them, pulling the trigger on the ack-five and watching as the round eliminated two of the eight trucks.
"This is Lieutenant Peterson of the Marksman Mercenary Company under the direct employ of the Taurian Concordat. If you surrender now, I guarantee that you will all receive a fair trial. If you resist, we mow you down where you stand, choice is yours."
"Update our IFF," Jenkins barked. "We're not having a blue-on-blue incident today!"
"We'll be sitting ducks while I update the IFF," the other man replied.
"You let me worry about that," Jenkins fired the main cannon again as the autoloader finished slotting another round into the barrel, wiping out the rest of the technicals with help from the other captured pirate tank.
"Union's ours!" the comms device tucked into Jenkins' ear murmured. "Get the Captain on the horn, we need medics and the rest of the unit to maintain security.
"Copy that, sir," Jenkins replied. "We're mopping up the rest of the pirates out here now."
Saint Murphy always has to have a hand in things[]
Packer ran up the ramp into the loading bay of the Union, his fireteam behind him as they began eliminating pirates.
"We've got to get to the bridge ASAP," Packer fired a burst from his weapon into a pirate, blood splattering the wall behind him. "We can't let them power up the weapons or the rest of us will be wiped out."
"Sergeant, there's a Manticore parked here!"
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Manticore Heavy Tank
"Fuck," Packer exhaled. "Two of you stay put and secure that Vic, the rest of us will push up."
The two specialists detached themselves from the fireteam and locked down the heavy tank as the remaining six continued further into the DropShip.
The fireteam left the loading bay and stacked up by the door leading to the next room, a sharp nod indicated that they needed to breach and clear.
"No hostiles!" The first man reported after he'd cleared the narrow room. "Pirates and slavers!" he spat on the ground.
"Doc, you stay here." Packer pointedly didn't look at the slaves and captured civilians, knowing that if he looked at them he'd lose all sense of professionalism. "We'll come back and secure the civvies."
"Yes, Sergeant!" the medic pulled out his medbag and began immediate first aid on some of the wounded.
The rest of the dropship was barely lit and ill-maintained, with broken light fixtures and ripped-up pieces of metal where the pirates had slapdashed conduit repairs.
"Bridge is up next, sergeant," Rook reported as he stood next to the door. "Five quid says the captain's in there."
"No bet," Packer pulled out a flashbang before nodding at the other soldier. "Fire in the hole!"
The flashbang went off, nearly deafening the soldiers in the internal spaces of the Union, the pirates stumbled around the bridge as they tried to recover from the concussive force.
Rook was first in the room, and eyeballing a gaudily dressed man, he tackled him, pinning him and throwing some restraints on him before shifting his attention to the next target as the remainder of the fireteam breached the room, swiftly eliminating the bridge crew before Packer motioned for Rook to man the communications console.
"This is Lieutenant Peterson of the Marksman Mercenary Company under the direct employ of the Taurian Concordat. If you surrender now, I guarantee that you will all receive a fair trial. If you resist, we mow you down where you stand, choice is yours."
"Union's ours," Packer reported. "LT, get the captain on the horn, we need medics and the rest of the unit to maintain security!"
"Copy that Sergeant, good work. We managed to take out a lance of Condors that were acting as LRRP. The Salvage today will be sweet!"
"Yessir," Packer replied. "We've got civvies onboard. Look like captured from the pirate's last raids."
"I'll get the medics to you ASAP," Peterson sighed. "I knew this had gone too well."
"Saint Murphy always has to have a hand in things," Packer shrugged. "The good, and the bad.