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Chapter 3 – Chappy's Howling Siegers[]
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HQ Helm Defense Force
Freeport, Helm
Free Worlds League
March 4th, 2785
Major Keeler was sitting in ops watching his staff work, for a militia they were quite efficient, and he was very proud of it.
“Sir, patrol Delta has not reported in, they are 5 hours overdue.” Lt Wallace said.
“And I am just hearing about this now!!!” the Major replied, so much for efficiency he thought, out loud he said. “Where were they patrolling Lt?”
“Lewisville on the east coast.” Replied Wallace
“Order Alpha Company and Echo Company to change their location and mover to where Delta was patrolling” he paused and looked at the map. If a patrol went missing something was up, just the day before several satellites malfunctioned, and that civilian dropship had an emergency and landed at Drango, something is defiantly wrong. Then he saw it, “Have both companies start out at Lewisville, place Alpha Company in the lowlands and Echo Company up in the hills have them move west paying attention to the riverbed, along the way.”
“Ummm yes, Sir. What are they looking for?”
The Major sighed, Ok maybe some of his men are not as smart as he thought. “We are looking for an enemy, an enemy of Mechs”
Town of Lewisville
Both the Alpha and Echo Company Commanders were interviewing the locals, most of them talk about how the enemy mechs marched out of the water and attacked the patrolling militia mechs without mercy and then left the town untouched, which left the local impress and in awe to this strange unit, whoever they were, they did take all the flatbed trucks (full of salvage) from a local transport company. All the locals seem to think that the mechs went south but that just did not jive with Captain Henson of Echo Company.
“Captain Jackson, why would the Major send us west along the riverbank if the enemy went south?”
“I am not sure, Captain Henson, either he has some other type of Intel, or it is just his gut feeling that whoever these warriors are they are after Star League depot and not the planet.”
Jackson looked up to the sky and then said, “either way they have two days head start, they are not setting off any radar or seismic alarms so they must be moving pretty slow, if we head south like the locals suggest we could catch them by this afternoon. I think if we go south for 100 kilometers, and we don’t catch up then they must have doubled back somewhere and went the riverbed way.”
“Yep, just what I was thinking we could still catch up to them in the middle of the night if they maintain the slow speed.” Henson said.
Night Camp of the Siegers
200 kilometers east of the city of Drango
Riverbed
Things was going fairly good Major Chapman thought, maybe just a little too good. So far two days after the initial battle there have been no signs of the militia, unfortunately as slow as they were moving, they still had another day to make it to the city of Drango, the city at the foothills of the mountain range that if the information provided by General Hayes is correct has the Castle Brian and the warehouses either built on mountain range or in them. The Major, knowing how Star League had operated didn’t think they would have warehouses just sitting on top of the mountains so best bet there are hidden access points to a big natural or man-made cavern.
He just got up to go see his XO to bounce off his thoughts on her to see if it made sense, when the call came that he knew would happen but hoped it would not.
“Major, this is lookout 3 sergeant Moa, I detect movement baring 2348”
“Sir, Corporal Gallegos on lookout 1 movement detection around 2848.”
The Major swapped to the all-unit channel, “Attention! Alert Alert this is not a drill! Alpha, Beta Lances go north-ish toward sector 2848 stealth scout unless contact is the enemy then attack and destroy. Command and Charlie Lance will scout south toward 2348, Delta lance hold the middle let’s be silent but if the enemy is out there destroyed them.”
The moons were hidden behind a thick cloud cover; the hills were affecting regular radar "Switching to IR” the Major announced. The Lances started to move out and Major Chapman was extremely proud of his veteran group of MechWarriors, and techs…everything was done in amazing silence the only noise was that of the mechs starting up.
Militia
Captain Jackson spotted the unit first, but before he could call over the BattleNet Captain Henson beat him to it.
“Looks like targets sector 2548 in the riverbed just like the Major said, but long-range communication is being blocked.”
“Yep” Jackson replied, “might be because of all the metal in the hills but they may be jamming us.”
“Captain Jackson if they are jamming us, how are we communicating with each other? Numnut.”
Siegers
Thank goodness they had put the jamming pods around the camp before settling down communication was still possible inside, Chapman thought. Thankfully though there was no way the enemy will be able to communicate with HQ inside the area unless they escape the battle and move 20 miles outside the Jamming picket line.
Militia
Jackson was cursing himself, guess the unit was not quite while marching or this was always a trap, no communications to the outside world and now IR shows heat buildup and the enemy splitting up, looks like half his way half toward Henson. That still has their two units out numbering the enemy by a lance each, although both his and Henson’s company were mixed units, Jackson was sure this would be a quick and easy victory for him.
Siegers—the Hills
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Warhammer Heavy 'Mech
As Beta Lance marched up the hill Captain Bruce and Sergeant Hayashi both in Warhammers walked right into a Gallant Urban Assault Tank, and a Firefly the sergeant missed on all accounts when he fired on the tank, but the captain hit the Firefly’s head with an ER PPC destroying the mech. “Splash one, eleven more to go on this side” the captain said.
Siegers—lowlands
As Major Chapman in his Nightstar and the rest of his team moved out past the riverbank he saw the enemy out in the open. The targets were just turning in their direction as if they just truly spotted the two lances coming at them at full speed. “Fire at will destroy them all” the Major proclaim through the unit comm. With that the two lances including himself fired at the enemy.
Captain Jackson within seconds knew he was a dumbass; his whole company was out in the open and his radar just lit up like ants coming out of a hiding place. “Alert enemy baring at….” It was the last thing anyone heard from Captain Jackson.
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Longbow Heavy 'Mech
Master Sergeant Dionsio was the first to record a kill, which was too bad for the light hover tank that got in her way. A militia Stinger tried to do some damage to her, but she just ignored it and went after a Falcon 4N standing off to the side.
Corporal Sakei in her Longbow fired all 50 LRMs at a single mech, from her display it showed up as a Mongoose-66, out of those 50 missiles 37 hit the Mongoose destroying the right leg left arm and the head, killing the pilot Captain Jackson.
The Stinger that attacked Dionsio never stood the change when Major Chapman aimed both Gauss Rifles at it and destroyed the Stinger.
Siegers—the Hills
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Crusader Heavy 'Mech
With the trees on the hill and no moons it was dark well almost dark bright flashes of laser and LRM explosions was almost blinding at times. Glancing blows on the enemy mechs was frustrating Captain Bruce, one of his troops Corporal Akiaten in her Lancelot gave out a scream on the net “Spider down yeeepppiieeee I destroyed it.” A militia Archer and Crusader launched all their weapons and missed, leading Captain Bruce to think that this militia was really green. Each side was getting closer until Sergeant Kizza in his Guillotine was able to reach out with a foot hitting the Crusader in the shoulder causing the arm to fly off, with that violent exchange the Crusader fell knocking out the pilot. Sergeant Kizza moved his Guillotine over the down mech and looked for the next target. Finding a Prowler, he did an alpha strike all weapons hit the front of the vehicle destroying it.
Siegers—lowlands
The Militia tried to form up after their commander went silent, some of the warriors saw what happen others did not Lt. Grimes decided to take over command. “Unit this is Beta Lance commander follow me, we need to retreat, sorry but the three tanks that are immobile cover our exit, your families will be rewarded.” As soon as the Lt. was finished his left arm was blown off from an AC/5, SRM 6 and medium laser from Dionsio. When Lt. Grimes finally got up from that onslaught, he turned his mech to where the weapon fire came from to deliver his own attack when all he saw was the Wolverine II in his face kicking him. The kick pushed him to the ground causing an engine explosion.
Siegers—the Hills
Captain Bruce placed his sites on an enemy Guillotine stripping it of all its armor on the right arm and chest. The militia kept firing but just was not hitting or when they did, they were glancing blows Captain Bruce was pleased with how the battle was going for him and his fellow lance mates “Come on people time to put this militia in the ground finish them off.” With that Sergeant Kizza fired an alpha shot to the Archer that was trying to hide behind a hill, somehow Kizza was able to get behind him taking out his right leg as the Archer was falling then the pilot was able to get a few shots off, getting a lucky hit on Kizza’s head he shook of the initial shock and saw that all his armor for the head was gone. Well, he had better be careful now on he thought.
Siegers—lowlands
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Packrat Scout Vehicle
By now both units were in punching range Major Chapman fired his PPC and two medium lasers into a LTV-4 Hover Tank destroying it as he stepped over the burning hulk, he fired his Gauss weapons at a Packrat destroying it right away. Soon all the enemy mechs and tanks were burning or disabled the battle was over.
Siegers—the Hills
It soon became clear that the Siegers had the upper hand three more heavy tanks were crushed as the full strength of two veteran lance came to bare. Sergeant Hayashi in her Warhammer lashed out at another Crusader coming around the tree line that for some unknown reason exposed itself to the Warhammer. Sergeant Hayashi open fire with a PPC shot to the left torso which hit the Machine Gun Ammo, causing an explosion, and ripping off the left arm which went flying. She followed that up with over half of her LRM 15 round hitting the same spot the shock wave and heat from the explosion killed the pilot and putting the mech out of commission. Sergeant Kizza was following Hayashi up and around the hill as she was killing that Crusader Kizza notice an Archer sneaking around the tree line about 20 meters to the left, Kizza thought what was a good wingman supposed to do? Protect, so he alpha strike the Archer. Kizza fired a large laser 4 medium laser all which hit various parts of the Archers chest then the SRM6 penetrating enough due to the exposed parts of the chest and causing the LRM 20 ammo to explode destroying the mech. At the same time Kizza was firing his weapons, the Archer, was firing his at Kizza, both LRM 10 missed but the two medium lasers got Kizza in the left arm. With the fall of the Archer none of the militia was left standing.
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Archer Heavy 'Mech
Dawn the next day
After first light the Major looked at how much more salvage that they have, hopefully the Dropship past customs and is sitting at the small space port at Drango, because they were able to capture a Griffin, Guillotine, Crusader, Falcon, and a Mongoose. While winning the battle so decisively was a good thing, whoever sent those two companies will be missing them and soon.
“Siegers, it is time to move out best top speed of the slowest unit we need to bug out now.”
HQ Militia
Freeport
Major Keeler was drumming his fingers, after the initial report of the two companies going back to the riverbed and heading east it was dead silence. How big of force was this enemy. Captain Jackson report that the town people had said anywhere from 14 to 20 Battlemechs, because they were simple folk it was probably just 12 'Mechs Jackson had said. Maybe he was wrong, two companies should have been able to take care of one company. Unless that one company was all elite, but the unit patch on the mechs did not register on any of the local networks. Major Keeler put out a feeler to the Capital planet to see if they were a new merc unit but no word yet. The major looked at his TO&E things are bad now, down to three companies two of those are just tanks, plus a battalion of infantry. This enemy is trying to hide from the militia, they are not trying to conquer the planet, so they must be after the warehouse full of Star League equipment. He must stop them at all costs.