Blood on the Horizon
- Chapter 65 -[]
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Never Saw them Coming[]
Date: February 5th, 3007
Location: Tybalt, Capellan Confederation
"Shit," Trang and Tarkovsky heard Cosca mutter before his Phoenix Hawk disappeared on their sensors and IFFs.
Then, Trang heard something knock on his cockpit door, and he paused. Glancing up at the top of his cockpit glass, he finally realized what had happened to the others.
"Well… Fuck."
One hour prior to the previous events…
"The layout is a bit different from what we originally used for training," Peterson looked around at the platoons of power armored infantry. "But the plan remains the same. Mathis, you're in charge of securing the command staff, the rest of you, make sure that the Barracks is secured. I'll ensure that the motor pool is seized and that the power's cut off."
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Maxim APC Hovercraft (newer variant pictured)
As the Captain finished speaking the Maxims slowed down and settled down into the trees and forest a few dozen kilometers outside of the base. The infantry would be walking it in.
But instead of the usual grumbling that occurred whenever a ruck march was due, the soldiers simply shouldered their packs and began the trek towards the local garrison. Mithril made the usual struggle and pain of walking a ruck almost a breeze. With the ability to handle heavier loads without burdening the soldiers when ti came time for an operation like this.
And all of this meant that Lothar's Fusiliers wouldn't know what had happened until it was all over.
Futile Resistance[]
The walls of the garrison were manned by local militia, and the searchlights were supplemented by night vision goggles and several other vision devices.
The only problem with this was that the Mithril suits were thermally insulated, and the Marksman had been training for this sort of scenario for the last six months. So the infantry and Recon teams made their way over the walls and began to subdue the men that were patrolling the perimeter. Peterson and the rest moved under complete comms silence as a lance and two individual 'Mechs began to head through the north and south gates.
With a sharp hand gesture, two fireteams broke off to follow the lance and a third to follow the duo.
Peterson stuck to the shadows and the teams with him began to split off to secure the motor pool while his immediate fireteam and him went towards the local power plant.
The fusion generator that powered the base had a simple shutdown procedure, and given the Marksman wanted to seize the base, they needed the power intact.
The fireteam stacked up on the doorway, a flashbang was thrown in, and the team moved in. They silenced the technicians with quick nonlethal options and cuffed, gagged, and secured them.
"Shut it down. Peterson ordered Rook.
"Yes, sir." the technical expert nodded, his fingers flying over the keys of the terminal keyboard and entering the shutdown commands.
With the last few keystrokes, the fusion plant shut down and red emergency lights flickered on in the critical areas of the base. But that didn't save Lothar's Fusiliers.
"Someone get the generator back on!" Major Vaultaine ordered, pulling a holster on over her 'Mechwarrior shorts and slinging a carbine over her cooling vest. "Everyone else, with me. We're under attack and we need to get into our 'Mechs.
Vaultaine and her command lance headed out of the door only to be met with the point of a rifle.
"Major," a gruff voice greeted her. "Stand down and you and your staff and soldiers will be treated well. Fight, and we'll ensure that you don't get the chance to strike back."
She looked around at the group of men and women surrounding her, the helmets blocking any identifying features aside from a gold and black stylized 'M' with an arrow running through it.
"Stand down," she ordered as she held her hands out. "We'll cooperate."
"Peterson," Mathis spoke into his radio. "Command staff is secured."
"Good work, once we take out the patrolling 'Mechs I'll throw the power back on and get the Major over here."
An interview with a defeated Commander[]
Eight hours later…
"Major Vaultaine," I greeted the Capellan CO.
"Major Mark Hull of the Marksman, I presume," she crossed her arms and glared at me.
"Aye," I nodded at her. "That's me."
"What do you want?" She asked.
I simply sat in the chair opposite her and considered the officer in front of me.
"I want to know if you have any authority over the local militia units," I said after a few minutes. "I've tried to keep the casualties low so far. And I don't want to have to see the entire militia slaughtered."
She sat in silence for a minute before sighing.
"I don't have authority over the militia," she replied. "I have some sway over them, but I cannot order them to stand down."
"Alright," I stood up. "You and the rest of your soldiers are going to be treated as Prisoners of War in accordance with the Ares Conventions. I don't hold to them as law, but I will use them as a guideline for how to treat you and those who are under your command. If you decide to act foolishly, then there will be consequences.
I left the room and exchanged nods with Sheppard.
"No information?" He asked.
"We already have the name of the militia CO. We're going to call for them to surrender," I grabbed a cup of coffee that my XO offered to me. "We secured their dropships, right?"
"Yes," Sheppard replied. "I assume you have a plan?"
"Not really," I shrugged. "We need to get people into the 'Mechs and vehicles that we captured from the Fusiliers. We just doubled our overall capabilities, and we need to be able to take advantage of that if the Capellans retaliate."
"We've got the people for it," Sheppard agreed, "But our infantry will be a bit short until we recruit more."
"Get the techs to wipe the security and start restoring the captured kit," I ordered. "The techs are going to be busy, and Peterson and I are going to be trying to convince the local militia to surrender."
"Good luck." Sheppard shuddered. "The Capellans are fanatics, and until they've had a few years of another nation deprogramming them."
"I've seen the statistics," I replied. "After a decade the production, quality of life, and general population is about ten times what it was before. But we don't have a decade to do that here."
"Like I said," Sheppard slapped me on the back. "Good luck getting them to surrender. And see if we can get a message to our Mercenary Liaison. The FedSuns can send over a relief force to take over and deal with any insurgency forces."
"Right," I sipped at my coffee. "I'll see what we can do."
I sighed and leaned over the table, looking at the same holomap that the Vaultaine had earlier.
"There's a lot of work to do," I straightened up. "Let's get to it."