Chapter Twelve
- Book 5 – Chappy's Howling Siegers[]
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Fatigue of the Campaign[]
Camp Doom, Chento Mountain Towers Region
Dieron, Draconis Combine
April 4th, 3031
1535 Dieron Standard Time
Lt. Col. Matthew Chapman's perspective in his Atlas''
For five days the enemy harassed the base with artillery, none of the supply VTOLs have made it through the blockade. His father’s forces were tied down in the Parsonage Region about 200 kilometers due east of the Camp Doom. The supply of armor and missiles had gone dry yesterday so only mechs with lasers were up front. At the second wall. Matthew shook his head disappointed, the outer wall had to be abandoned two days ago the enemy finally breached it, with limited firepower and manpower all the Chapman’s kids pulled back to the secondary wall. Half the length of the outer wall and still having fully functioning turrets with the dropships weapons in range now made it difficult for the Dieron Regulars to advance especially with most of their 'mechs destroyed. Communications out into orbit and space were still iffy due to all the radiation. There had been static mixed with a hint of transmission for the better part of the morning but nothing that was coherent. Matthew looked at the drone feed when it filtered in, the enemy was in worse shape than they were.
12th Dieron Regulars Base Camp
Tai-shu Kurita looked at his troops broken, destroyed, the only thing he really had left was his company of artillery which fired fifty rounds every two hours. Other than that, maybe a company of mechs and tank if that, could be fielded. The rest of the forces were all tied up defending towns or the capital, his unit was the only one on the attack and they did not have enough men to attack.
Lights Out[]
Chento Mountain Towers Region Midnight
The region was completely black, Camp Doom had lost power yesterday, and the only illumination was the stars in the cloudless night sky. The picket line for the Dieron Regulars had fallen asleep, silent was their artillery for the night, quiet was the animal life in the forest so the guards fell asleep. Sneaking in the tall weeds and grass was a team of five MechWarriors from the Federation who had lost their mechs in the last week. Moving closer to the sleeping guards they came up and slit their throats at once in unison, and then whispered in the radio back to base that alpha group met their objectives. A second call by another team of five, one klick away notified the base that beta group met their objectives. During this time two companies of mechs with all external lights off slowly moved in the field taking a step every few minutes to avoid detection the action took most of the night. The two five-man teams moved closer to the enemy’s camp picking of an enemy trooper one at the time that were just in the wrong spot at the wrong time reliving themselves. The sky was starting to get lighter sunrise will be soon, Matthew thought he had been moving his mech beside his siblings for half the night, slowly, and could see the fires of the camp. His two teams of warriors were about 30 meters from the main camp. Matthew went across the battle net to remind everyone where the ground guys were before the surprise attack.
The Cure for Boredom[]
12th Dieron Regulars Base Camp
Tai-shu Kurita woke up restless and got out of his cot. Looking out to this planet’s north seeing the stars and how the future daybreak was starting to creep into the night sky, he sighed and shook his head while he walked toward the head. The closer he got to the dug-out latrine the more the hair stood up on the back of his neck. Something was wrong, it was too quiet, he stopped even though he needed to use the latrine he wanted to listen, slowly spinning in place he listened and looked out into the empty spaces, then he saw it, movement. Shit, those are mechs out there he turned to run towards the night watch to sound the alarm when two men, no take that back one man one woman jumped out of the low-lying ditch and cut his throat. The commander of the 12th Dieron Regulars looked surprised; he knew what was happening, he was bleeding out but how that surprised him, because he never saw them until the end. Falling to his knees his attackers had already moved on, he was tired and stopped trying to keep the blood from flowing out of his neck. His hands dropped to the ground, and he finally fell flat on his face, his last thought was he still needed to pee.
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Archer Heavy 'Mech
Chu-sa Takano sat in her Archer looking out to this planet’s East. Bored she sighed, always hating the night shift simply because she could not sleep during the day she shifted in her seat, that is when she saw something move out there. Turning on IR sensors she started scanning the area, nothing but black nothingness, then it happened again, and her computer finally caught the movement also. Mechs and they are close she flipped on the battle net to warn the Regiment. She rose to full stance mode from the haul down mode she was in, and all hell broke loose. Lasers shot out from the blackness of night hitting mechs that were manned and not manned. Takano no longer bored starting firing her missiles blindly into the night, nothing was being locked onto by the targeting system, she could not understand, then she saw more movement to her left. She followed the movement she thought she saw but no tracking from her machine. “This does not make since, what is going on.”
The rest of the unit was finally firing back into the blackness, but the lasers kept coming in from the night, a night in which was fleeing from the sun as it started to creep up the sky. She then saw the enemy, and she knew that this was the end of 12th Dieron Regulars. Within fifteen minutes all the Dieron Regulars were destroyed, Matthew was surveying the battle site when a big boom sounded from the atmosphere. Matthew tracked the dropships, and the ID came back as the Wolf’s Dragoons, dad’s reinforcements had finally arrived. Their Dropships landed out in the fields beyond the base. The hanger doors opened and the first mech out of the mech bays was none other than Jamie Wolf.
Unexpected Relief Force[]
<<“Federation, this is the Alpha Regiment of the Wolf’s Dragoons, Colonel Wolf here. We are here to back you up, but it looks like you have taken care of the enemy. So now we are here to relieve you. I would like to meet the Chapman Kids and get a firsthand account of what transpired these last few days.”>> Matthew switched on the overall net.
“Colonel Wolf, on behalf of my siblings’ units, we stand relieved. If you follow us into what’s left of the base, we would be happy to tell you everything you want to know. Over some Dieron wine that we found.”
With that what was left of the four units moved toward the base with the Wolf’s Dragoons in tow. The three Chapman kids and Jamie Wolf exited their mechs and went into the kitchen area sat down drank wine and the Children of General Chapman told their tale to one of the greatest leaders in the inner sphere. After about an hour Jamie sat back, shook his head, and spoke. “The Chapman stock is strong, to stand your ground with about five and a half companies of mechs and five squadrons of fighters against a reinforce regiment of mechs two regiments of armor and a regiment of infantry took some balls. Even with the enemy making a fatal error of sending units in waves it was still incredible.” He sat for a second and then pulled out his radio. “XO send all teams to salvage, salvage everything, give everything to the Federation troops and have our techs help them rebuild.”
The Chapman Children looked at Colonel Wolf then Cheyenne said. “Sir, you honor us with this gesture I will make sure my father knows of your generosity so that he may pay you back.”
Colonel Wolf replied. “Captain, the honor is all mine. I have heard stories of the Chapman legacy seen holovids about you and your father’s success in battle. Seeing the aftermath of your battle was terrifying, you can simply pay me back by marching with us in four days to the next area of conquest. With my techs and your techs, we should get most of your unit up to speed. I will keep two companies here with some support units to continue with the repairs and protect the wounded.”