GblaRCS Chpt 59

Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star
- Chapter 59 -

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"That which is preserved in the genetic repository is never truly KIA, but is cloned again harder and stronger."

Traditional Niops Ironborn saying

---

An expected and somewhat unwelcome surprise

Space – Vicinity of Von Strang's World – 2844

While much attention tends to be paid to the armament carried by a Royalty class JumpShip, along with the multiple small craft and fighter bays which round out its ability to bring firepower to bear on an opponent, the thrust that can be generated by its engines compared to those of a regular civilian JumpShip is a factor that shouldn't be ignored.

Unlike an Invader, Merchant, or most other non-warships which can only produce about 0.1g worth of thrust from their station-keeping drives, enough to stop them falling into the gravity-well of the nearest star or planet but not nearly enough to keep up with a DropShip, a Royalty can manage a respectable 1.0g of acceleration. This meant that while the flotilla's other JumpShips had to stay behind and wait at the jump-point the NAS Dragoon's Loss joined the warship NAS São Gabriel and the assorted DropShip when they left the Lagrange point and headed for the planet, her fighter squadrons available to help fend off enemy aerospace assets that might attempt to oppose the landings and then provide air support for the ground offensive.

The Carrack, the São Gabriel led the way, not only because she was large and intimidating in a way that only a warship could be, but because unlike most SLDF designed warships she was very well equipped to deal with enemy fighters herself. The sixteen ER Large Lasers and thirty-two Large Pulse Lasers she carried to fend off attack runs by massed ASF formations would have been quite the deterrent in themselves, but when you factored in that her sixteen long-range NL35 Naval Lasers were themselves dual-purpose, anti-fighter as well as anti-ship, the São Gabriel's attitude towards aerospace fighter threats had once been irreverently described as 'Come at me Bro'.

It helped of course that she also carried a staggering forty anti-missile-systems for swatting inbound warheads, so good luck getting through those with anything but the most spectacular of missile barrages. The typically reliable trump card of aerospace fighters having to go up against Warships during the early Succession Wars, good old fashioned nuclear-tipped missiles, just didn't cut it against a ship like the Carrack which could no sell multiple inbound warheads by putting a hailstorm of AMS projectiles between the missiles and itself.

Her big guns, half-a-dozen class ten and a trio of class twenty naval autocannon were still a little on the wimpy side compared to what you might see on a battleship or cruiser, but in the land of the barely armed and basically unarmored civilian JumpShip the guy that does mount naval grade weaponry of any kind is king. The NAS São Gabriel, formerly the Dobrev, was indisputably the ruler of all she surveyed and if Von Strang's forces down on the planet who were undoubtedly tracking her by now weren't utterly horrified by her approach then they were idiots.

Titan Fighter Carrier Dropship

Adding to the two squadrons of aerospace fighters fielded by the Dragoon's Loss were the three loaded aboard the flotilla's carrier-DropShip escort, the Titan concerned itself being quite heavily armed as well. When you factored in all the additional fighters aboard other DropShips that were available, each of the five Overlord class carrying another full squadron in their ASF bays for example, they certainly didn't lack for fighter strength for this operation. Not all of the fighters were aerospace-superiority specialist types however, and those belonging to the mercenary regiments weren't nearly as advanced as those bearing the Red Cameron Star of Niops on their wings, but it wasn't like Karl Von Strang's pilots were riding souped-up SLDF royals either.

Khan Franklin Hallis, currently operating under his usual fake identity of Brigadier-General Henry 'Hal' Franklin, was confident that he had more than enough military might at his disposal to smash whatever Karl Von Strang could put up against him. In fact if he had been a little more willing to utilise orbital bombardment to soften up the fortifications around Amaris City he wouldn't have even needed the mercenary support, but this operation wasn't merely intended to achieve a military objective, it was also an opportunity to blood the kits and achieve a propaganda victory.

Smashing that damn statue of Stefan Amaris with naval autocannon just wouldn't look as good in the press as pulling it down with ropes would, that was the kind of image that would play well across much of the Inner Sphere and beyond.

So far everything was going to plan, Hallis considered with satisfaction, studying one of the satellite photos taken of the planet Johnson's mission had obtained before heading down to the mech bays of the Lee class DropShip he was aboard to join the rest of his command lance. The mercenary must be one hell of a skillful liar and had definitely earned himself a bonus, although it was a little annoying losing that wager to Jax Benedict. Hallis had been sure Johnson was going to get rumbled, put up against a wall and shot as a spy, but he reasoned the excellent HUMINT the mercenary had gathered was worth having to hand over the hundred bucks.

Situated to the north of the capital the 'Plain of the Rim Worlds Republic' as the locals called it represented an ideal landing zone, so ideal that Hallis was concerned it might be heavily mined and he had requested one of Colonel Johnson's reconnaissance teams quietly check it out to make sure while scouting the approaches to the city. If they didn't send an all-clear signal in response to a coded transmission the DropShip would utilize one of the alternate LZ's further out instead, which would involve a much longer hike to reach the objective, but it was better than the alternative.

Just looking at the satellite photos it was obvious the whole city was ringed by bunkers, likely containing anti-tank guns as well as machine gun nests. Clearly the Von Strang's had spent the last half-century digging in like a Carnwath Tick and Hallis could only begin to imagine just how deeply entrenched they would be after a few more generations of obsessively paranoid fortification.

The city's innate geography favored defense too, steep valleys that created lots of potential chokepoints and narrow canyons that could be utilized for flanking counter-attacks by locals that knew their own terrain better than any foreigner could, even one with much better overhead images of the area than anyone had a right to expect.

The canyons were a particular bitch because they would limit the effectiveness of artillery and air-support, and for that matter there were patches of forest mixed in with the farmland that could conceal even more hidden gun batteries.

All things considered, Hallis would have much preferred being the man in charge of defending Amaris City than attacking it, or at least he would have if the place was blessed with a less offensive name. It was a jar of pickles that would require a considerable amount of effort to open, unless you were okay with just smashing the thing into pieces with a sledgehammer, or rather an orbital strike, but then if it was easy then it wouldn't have been quite as worthwhile hauling his sorry ass all the way here.

If nothing else this represented an excellent opportunity for mechwarriors of the Zeta, Eta and Iota generations, who made up the bulk of the ground forces deployed on this operation, to finally see the elephant and for the Gamma's like his son Frederick to command troops in battle, not just in an exercise. The old soldiers of the 295th were aging out fast and it was just lucky that the clan's breeding program had been kicked into high-gear in 2819 turning out plenty of warm bodies to stuff into Battlemech and aerospace fighter cockpits two decades down the line.

They were as well-trained as they could be, unsurprising given just how young they had been when they began to be molded into soldiers, and thanks to not being old enough to be infected by Old Nick's weird ideas of honorable single combat by the Secession they were consummate team-players who operated as a cohesive unit and who were taught to concentrate their fire on a single target and who thought 'playing fair' was for ****** idiots.

They should perform well, they were after all literally bred for war and the scores in their performance evaluations bore out the faith Sarah McEvedy had placed in her genetic engineers who were widely regarded as among the very best the clans had to offer, but until their baptism in fire that was all just theoretical.

It wasn't so much that Hallis was concerned they would be cowardly or inept once the fight started, but like many others he still wasn't quite certain that without experienced, normal soldiers to keep them in line they might be a little too aggressive and insufficiently measured and cautious. Good soldiers know when not to fight and don't keep throwing themselves at positions just because they don't want to accept an uncomfortable truth that they aren't unbeatable.

Deluding themselves they were unbeatable was certainly not something you could accuse the aerospace fighter pilots serving Baron Karl Von Strang of when they outright refused his order to engage the inbound fleet before the warship could enter orbit. Fearing that the Carrack would simply bombard the capital into submission Von Strang ordered that his fighters head up to intercept the enemy before it was in a position to do so only to be told flatly that he was asking them to commit suicide and that they would just be throwing their lives away pointlessly.

They were perfectly willing to go up and try to intercept the enemy DropShip once they separated from their warship escort in order to land, but that Carrack would have eaten their aerospace fighters alive even if it didn't have heavy fighter support of its own, which it did.

Ensconced in the command center of his underground bunker, to Von Strang's credit he didn't rant about disloyalty or throw a fit when his pilots refused the order, his military advisors arguing that they actually made a valid point about the pointless waste of good men and machines following the order would have meant. He did however make a mental note to consider purging his aerospace force later on, quietly hoping to himself that there was actually going to be a later, helpfully saving his reserves of ranting energy for his lengthy response to a demand for him to surrender that arrived shortly thereafter from the enemy commander.

Rich in invective, clearly heartfelt, surprisingly cogent and in parts almost inspiring even, Karl Von Strang's epic retort to Franklin Hallis over the radio became the stuff of legend, although partly that was due to the fact that about seven minutes into his speech he was interrupted by Hallis asking him to repeat the last section because he had missed it while away from the radio visiting the ship's head.

According to Hallis later he had only been expecting a curt refusal, and if he'd known beforehand that Von Strang was going to respond with a monologue worthy of a Shakespearian villain he would have taken a leak before issuing his ultimatum.

That could however have just been an excuse. Anyone that had known Hallis for a while tended to pick up on his occasional tendency to troll, both to put his opponent off-balance and for his personal amusement. Indeed according to his best friend, saKhan Ebon, the Khan was known to cackle quietly to himself when he came up with a new idea on how to annoy one of the Great Houses or, even better, yank ComStar's chain.

Karl Von Strang's coherence dropped off considerably after the interruption, he was clearly incensed beyond the point that he could properly express himself in mere words.

After the second interruption by Hallis, the one where he asked, "So just to be sure. You're saying you're not surrendering?" Karl Von Strang told him to go ****** himself and then abruptly ended the transmission.

As the small armada of DropShips entered the atmosphere, leaving the São Gabriel and the Dragoon's Loss in orbit, Karl Von Strang's military aerospace assets finally made their appearance, heading up to intercept the inbound spacecraft once the Carrack was no longer in line-of-sight and she couldn't support the DropShip at long range with her naval lasers.

Vulcan Heavy Fighter

The Vulcan heavy fighters, a mainstay of the Rim Worlds Republic, making up the bulk of Von Strang's fighter strength had been expected. The rest of the ASFs scrambled in defense of the planet being a mixed bag of Sparrowhawk, and Sabre lights along with half a squadron of Lucifer mediums that were themselves enough of a potential threat to the DropShip that they were singled out for special attention.

They were all older types, and barely upgraded over the years if at all, but even an aging design that might itself be a couple of hundred years old could still kill you so they were still treated with the respect they deserved and a numerically superior force of more modern aerospace fighters were vectored to meet them before they could get in range of the DropShip.

One unexpected and somewhat unwelcome surprise was that Von Strang's fighters were leading a pair of old Aquarius surface-to-orbit escort craft, effectively greatly oversized and heavily armored aerospace fighters that massed some two hundred tons and carried commensurate firepower. Far too ungainly to dogfight against even the most lumbering of ASFs, and largely phased out of service well over a century ago as a result, they were nonetheless still a threat to DropShip despite their advanced dotage. Singled out to be dealt with as a matter of priority before they could close, a full squadron of Rapier heavy fighters escorted by Tomahawk dogfighters was vectored in on them immediately as a massive furball of an aerial battle ensued.

Tomahawk Aerospace Fighter

The Rapier had been a favorite of Clan Wolverine and a type they operated in such numbers that they had developed their own version back while still living in the Clan Homeworlds, an upgrade of the already excellent RPR-100b 'Royal' model. Although punchy, and well armored, the upgraded Rapier was not however the most agile of fighters which was why it was being accompanied by the Tomahawk, itself also heavily upgraded to beyond SLDF Royal specs. and

Finally, and seeing action for the first time in Niops service, a squadron of Stingray medium fighters entered the fray and the deeper into the atmosphere that the battle raged the more they got to strut their stuff as they weaved around engaging targets of opportunity.

Stingray Aerospace Fighter

With its forward-swept wings and canards the Stingray was already renown for its superiority over other fighters in an atmospheric turning dogfight, being noticeably nimbler than you would typically expect from a sixty-ton airframe. By yanking out the original 240 Standard Fusion Engine for a more powerful 300 Extralight one the engineers at the Niops Skunkworks had given the fighter the extra thrust it needed to really get best use out of its inherent agility however and the new Stingray F-90N was regarded as a dream to fly by its enthusiastic pilots.

With its speed and agility making it difficult to close on if it didn't want you to, and with an Improved Enhanced ERPPC in the nose and an ER Large Laser in each wing providing plenty of long-range firepower, during training exercises back in the skies of Niops VII the F-90N had proven to be an absolute nightmare for anything its own mass or heavier to deal with.

As they took on Vulcan and Lucifer ASFs for over Von Strang's World this proved to be the case in reality as well, even if the more numerous Tomahawk fighters ended up racking up the most kills between them.

As the fighter pilots of the SLDF took on the outnumbered, outgunned, not to mention generally less skilful enemy pilots in their various machines, the DropShip they were protected continued on. Heading towards their intended landing zone unmolested, they began broadcasting the now traditional battle anthem of the Niops Association on multiple frequencies and with plenty of wattage.

"Oh we'll rally round the flag, boys, we'll rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom
And we'll rally from the sphere, we'll gather from the rim,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom

The Star League forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah!
Down with Amaris, up with the star
While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again,
Shouting the battle cry of freedom"

---

Being serendaded by the Invaders

Amaris City – Von Strang's World – 2844

Below them down in his bunker in the capital, Karl Von Strang listened to the singing coming from the speakers in his command center. "I hope they can fight better than they can sing because if not this isn't going to be nearly as glorious a victory" he joked as the old popular tune from the Amaris War rang from the speakers, popular outside the Rim Worlds Republic anyway. Thinking that a little bravado on his part suited the current situation, and having shaken off his anger from having been mocked by his opponent, Von Strang was trying to assert his authority. "Assuming that this isn't Kerensky's people returning to finish the job, which seems unlikely at this point after so many years, I believe it behooves us to accept their declaration as to their identity and that we should operate under the premise that we're being invaded by a mob of star-gazing weirdos that think they're the Star League" he said in a calm, measured tone of voice that greatly belied his internal thoughts on the matter.

"It looks like they're landing on the Plain of the Rim Worlds Republic, presumably intending on actually assaulting the city from the ground rather than trying to bombard us into submission from orbit, that's a fight we can win" the second-in-command of the Guard Division, a Taxiarchos or Brigadier-General, suggested to the baron optimistically. "We've fully mobilized the reserves and manned the bunkers and pill-boxes defending the approaches to the capital as best we can, but as you know we've dug more holes and poured more concrete than we actually have soldiers to make proper use of them. Moreover the fortifications aren't fully complete in certain sections, so there are potential weaknesses in our lines that we'll need to keep an eye on and be ready to react accordingly if they break" he advised professionally. "We have a company of tanks in reserve we can use to plug the gap if needed. Employed correctly in the appropriate terrain a Burke is not something even the heaviest of BattleMechs wants to encounter."

Von Strang nodded, contemplating the capital's defenses. A lack of available manpower for construction projects, one exacerbated by the need to release the bulk of the labor force twice each year for planting and harvest season, meant it could take several decades to finish some of the more extensive and ambitious fortifications originally planned for the capital. "Fortunately they don't know which fortifications are fully manned and which are not which means they'll have to waste an awful lot of time, effort and ammunition trying to blast their way into bunkers they could have just walked around" he replied, smiling as he put on a display of confidence. "Get on the field telephones and make sure that the militia know that the crew of any anti-tank gun that brings down a mech will be richly rewarded, perhaps even raised to the landowner class of the lower aristocracy" he instructed his subordinates.

Importing the tooling and machinery needed to domestically produce simple, relatively cheap but still far from ineffective anti-tank guns from Fredotto had been one of his father's better ideas. They were truly primitive in operation, basic breechloading rifled cannon that would not have seemed out of place during the World Wars of twentieth-century Terra, but despite that they still threw a big enough projectile at a high enough velocity to represent a non-trivial threat to modern tanks and Battlemechs. Getting smacked by a 120mm shell from an obsolescent field-gun might be something an assault mech could shrug off, but most Battlemechs were smaller than that and it wouldn't just be one shell heading their way. The bunkers holding the anti-tank guns were positioned in such a way that they had overlapping fields of fire and they were constructed well enough that they couldn't be easily knocked out.

Typically the way to deal with pillboxes and the like if you couldn't crack them open at a distance was to send in something heavily armored mounting an AC/20 to blow it all to hell at point-blank range, something you were welcome to try on Von Strang's World because the approaches to the gun positions were usually mined.

Every year or so some peasant, probably drunk, wandered into one of the minefields and blew themselves up. This was considered an egregious waste of perfectly good landmines and the peasant's family were naturally billed for the replacement, any protestations that the person concerned couldn't read and wouldn't have been able to read the warning signs telling them to keep away being ignored.

Keeping the laborer class illiterate and ignorant was far too beneficial to the Baron generally for him to concern himself with the occasional prole who strolled into a minefield, got mangled by heavy machinery or was poisoned because they couldn't read the label on something.

Karl Von Strang pursed his lips. "Add to the directive regarding rewards being given to those that show valor that those cowards who abandon their posts instead will be put up against a wall and shot" he ordered after a few moment's contemplation of the matter. "Though not before their sons are scourged and gelded in front of them and their wives and daughters will be branded and sent to work in the brothels" he added.

"That should certainly motivate them to put in their maximum effort" the Taxiarchos replied appreciatively. He had served the previous baron as well and the current head of the Von Strang dynasty was very much a chip off the old block. "Might I further suggest that any man who gets close enough to hit an enemy mech with a shoulder-launched SRM be awarded even more money or land, with that reward going to his surviving family if he is killed afterwards" he advised. "Men in bunkers firing cannon at targets a kilometer or more away might expect to live to tell the tale, men firing inferno rounds at a mech they can almost reach out and touch don't so the reward conditions need to be adjusted on that basis to be effective."

"I agree, see to it that our infantry platoons are so informed" Von Strang concurred with the man's thinking on the matter. "Even if they get through our outer defense lines we'll turn this city into a charnel house for their men and machines" he said with more confidence than he felt. "Urban warfare is the arena where mechs go to die." he declared. "Make sure that the Guard Division is ready to launch a full-scale counter-attack at the opportune time. If we hit them at the right moment we can smash them utterly and send what's left of them back to Niops in pieces."

BattleMaster Assault 'Mech

Karl Von Strang straightened up, striking a pose. "Have my Battlemaster readied for combat" he now ordered imperiously. "When the time comes I will take the field personally against the pitiful remnants of the SLDF that purport to be the inheritors of the mantle of the Terran Hegemony and the Star League, leading from the front as my illustrious forebear Gunthar did at the Battle of La Guardia."

Diplomatically nobody present saw fit to mention that Gunthar Von Strang had in fact been killed in action leading his 18th Amaris Chasseurs at the battle of La Guardia Spaceport back in 2779. All his fanaticism and self-belief had proved no match for the superior numbers and better equipment of the 146th Royal Battlemech Division he went up against that day. Not that the 146th had offered him any opportunity to do otherwise than die at the controls of his mech, after what 'Vampire Von Strang' had done neither he nor his men were going to be given much of a chance to surrender.

They also wisely didn't mention that the reason why Gunthar Von Strang and his regiment were at La Guardia that day in the first place was that they were desperately trying to flee the planet, realising that the war was lost and Von Strang's loyalty to Stefan Amaris didn't extend to dying with him. Gunthar wasn't really craven so much as he wasn't nearly fanatical enough to fight to the last for a lost cause and in that regard he would have very likely considered later generations of Von Strang's to be somewhat touched in the head.

As a child just before Kerensky's Exodus the then very young Franklin Hallis had personally seen some of the devastation wrought upon parts of North America by the 18th Amaris Chasseurs, though to be honest he barely remembered following his father through the streets of some of the towns then being rebuilt after 'Vampire Von Strang' looted and pillaged his way through the Northeastern United States. He did recall somehow getting it into his head that Von Strang had been an actual vampire, probably because of how often it was mentioned that the man was a 'bloodthirsty monster', and he had therefore assumed at the time that one of the 146th must have driven a wooden stake through his heart to kill him, because a PPC bolt just wouldn't have done it.

Cyclop Assault 'Mech

Looking back now it was a little embarrassing, even if he had just been a kid, but as he had climbed earlier into the cockpit of the Cyclops Assault Battlemech secured in one of the mech bays of the Lee Hallis decided that the codename for the landing was certainly on-point.

"This is Brigadier General Franklin to all units. Van Helsing is a go. I repeat, Van Helsing is a go" he announced as soon as the singing ended, glad to know they couldn't all see the grin plastered all over his face because of the codename for the operation. "You all know your assigned tasks and objectives. We will secure the LZ and then prepare to begin our advance on the city" he said, flicking a series of switches to boot up the Tacticon B-2000 battlecomputer which was what made the CP-10-Z Cyclops so special.

As the holographic display in his cockpit powered up, the B-2000 automatically networking with every system it could contact via secured encrypted signal, Hallis could only imagine how annoyed General Romanov must be that the first time they got to actually use this thing in anger, not merely in a training exercise on Reykjanes Island, it wasn't her sat in the cockpit. She had been the one pushing hard for the thing to be hand-built as a one-off at considerable expense, and it had taken a while to persuade the bean counters that it was well worth the money and resources.

Commanding a brigade-sized unit from the cockpit of your Battlemech, leading your troops into battle personally, might seem like some kind of romantic ideal for a 'Fighting General', but in reality it was a nightmare in terms of maintaining proper C3I (Command, Control, Communication and Intelligence). Merely keeping track of everything going on during a battle could quickly cause information overload even if you were only sat in a command vehicle at the rear, not in the cockpit of a mech which might itself be under fire.

If you were in a CP-10-Z Cyclops, however then the very advanced, and naturally also very expensive, Tacticon B-2000 battle computer handled a lot of the work for you. It automatically prioritized incoming data and analysed the developing tactical situation to not only present it to you clearly and efficiently via the holographic display but it also made sure it wouldn't swamp you with useless information at the same time. Previous battlefield management systems which were attempted had notoriously either bombarded the man or woman in the cockpit with unnecessary detail, or they had failed to inform them of critical tactical developments.

The Tacticon B-2000 had its origins in the research into artificial intelligence which had also eventually led to the various drone fighters and warships of the Terran Hegemony's SDS network. It wasn't actually self-aware as such, but it was nonetheless inarguable intelligent by certain frames of reference and it could even learn to some extent. It wasn't just using complex algorithms to sort data and then present it to the wetware located in the skull of the human sat in the cockpit, it actually considered the tactical situation and based upon that analysis it automatically flagged up things it decided the human needed to know.

At the moment the computer was telling Hallis nothing that he didn't know already however, the Lee was still a few minutes from landing, it would set down just ahead of the Fortress belonging to the Blackhearts, and the other DropShips should land shortly thereafter.

Fortress Class Assault DropShip

The modified Lee and the smaller Fortress carried the most armor and mounted the most firepower of all of the DropShip, said armament including a pair of Arrow IV missile launchers on the former and a hefty Long Tom artillery piece mounted on the latter. As such the two craft that landed first could have likely secured the LZ all on their own, but once the five Overlord battalion transports set down nearby, followed by the Dictator, Triumph and the pair of Intruder class DropShip, it would have taken a full brigade with appropriate levels of air support to even attempt to push them back off the planet.

Karl Von Strang not actually having said brigade to throw at the landing zone it was safe to assume that the LZ now belonged firmly to the SLDF, and as Battlemechs started to pour out of the various ships to establish a perimeter Franklin Hallis monitored the smoothness of the deployment with satisfaction. The holographic map being projected in front of him by the B-2000 showed where each lance was heading to, and he was happy to see that the kits had deployed from the DropShip just as quickly and cleanly in a real op as they did in training missions.

As the DropShip had descended through the atmosphere and decelerated for landing they had begun launching their own aerospace fighters, some of them additional air-superiority craft scrambled to reinforce those previously launched from the Royalty and the Titan above which were still keeping the enemy fighters away, but the majority being ground-attack or strike specialists that would be employed to try and break through the enemy lines.

If the sneak-suited reconnaissance teams from the Blackhearts had achieved all their assigned mission objectives they should have mapped the locations of enemy strong points and then spent the last couple of days, or rather nights, making their way right up close to the capital ready to mark priority targets. Just because the Niops people were loathe to utilise orbital strikes that didn't mean they weren't going to use all the other fancy tricks available in their repertoire to make this fight as unfair as possible which had required loaning the Blackhearts some lostech.

While the DropShip were still unloading, getting all the tanks and self-propelled artillery off the Triumph was not a quick process by any means, the first aircraft in a squadron of Stuka heavy fighters bearing the Red Cameron Star of Niops, its big wings laden down with external ordinance making the hundred-ton machines even more sluggish than usual, hurtled overhead at low altitude heading straight towards the city at high subsonic speed.

Stuka Class Heavy Fighter

Too busy dealing with their existing problem, that being all the SLDF pilots in air superiority fighters currently trying to kill them and succeeding all too often, Von Strang's own aerospace pilots paid little heed to the Stuka as it carried out its strike mission.

About ten kilometers out from Amaris City the Stuka sharply pitched up its nose and while climbing hard released one of the one-ton bombs it was carrying on its external hardpoints, pitching the bomb forward like an underarm throw.

Toss bombing was an age-old means for aircraft to deliver explosives from a safe, or at least safer distance than normal, one that the Successor States still employed regularly themselves in an era where long-range rocket-powered guided missiles were either lostech or too expensive for regular use.

It was also a notoriously inaccurate means of delivering ordinance at range because the Great Houses could no longer manufacture the TAG systems to allow laser-guidance for the bombs on their way back down either.

Hiding in a bush a few hundred meters from an oversized pillbox with the muzzle of a large-caliber anti-tank gun sticking out of it a sergeant from the Blackhearts, a woman that was badly in need of a hot meal and a hot shower by this point, aimed her bulky Infantry TAG designator at the bunker and when her radio received a pre-arranged coded signal she pressed the trigger. Even dissembled into several pieces so her entire squad could carry it between them humping the damn thing along with them had been a pain-in-the-ass ever since they parachuted in weeks ago and she really hoped it was going to be worth it.

Battlemechs have electronic systems that tell them that they've just been hit by a TAG and where from, concrete bunkers constructed out in the periphery by a society that is even less technologically sophisticated than that of the Great Houses, themselves scientifically regressed from the heyday of the Star League, do not.

Thus it was that the first thing the militia inside the bunker knew about the one-ton laser-guided bomb arcing its way through the air towards them was when it landed right on top of them.

The bomb itself was designed to penetrate a certain distance before exploding, this meant that the bomb casing was made of pretty thick steel and along with the seeker head and guidance fins meant that only around half the mass of the bomb was actually explosive filler.

Still, a half ton of high explosives makes one hell of a bang and the sergeant from the Blackhearts was glad she had remembered to put in her ear-plugs earlier as the bunker burst open in a deafening boom and pieces of concrete, steel and gun-crew were sent skyward in all directions.

She was also glad her sneaksuit was armored, the helmet especially so, when all that crap started raining back down again over a wide area shortly thereafter.

It was now abundantly clear why she had been told not to try and show off and sneak up closer through the minefield that lay before the bunker before using the TAG. "Holy crap" she swore looking at what was left of the smoking, shattered remains of the thing.

She then started swearing more vociferously as a few pieces of falling debris landed in the minefield, triggering a few of the mines into a series of ragged additional explosions that left the ground covered in craters.

Shaking it off once things calmed back down the sergeant hefted up the TAG designator and keeping as low as she could began crawling backwards away, using the terrain and plant cover as best she could. As she did so the sound of another large explosion a couple of kilometers to the west indicated that one of the other two squads issued with one of the TAG units must have marked a second bunker for destruction.

Since dropping a one-ton bomb on less well protected targets was overkill, and laser-guided bombs were expensive, orders were to only designate targets that were actually worth it. Johnson had joked to his people before they paradropped that anyone tagging small pillboxes with nothing but a machine gun or a SRM launcher in them for an air-strike would have the cost of the bomb deducted from their pay, so while the Blackhearts had successfully mapped the location of dozens of strong-points situated in concentric rings around the capital only a minority were going to receive the same treatment.

Cheap tube artillery, direct-fire weaponry, and if necessary flamers could deal with the rest.

As the mixed brigade of SLDF and mercenary units continued to form up on the Plain of the Rim Worlds Republic in preparation for their advance on Amaris City the Stuka squadron continued a rolling series of toss-bombing runs, the Blackheart commandos marking the targets hoping like hell the accuracy of the laser-guided-bombs wasn't exaggerated because TAG gear only let you be so far away from what you wanted blown to hell.

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High above, weaving vapor trails left behind by pilots fighting for their lives, an increasing number of those loyal to Karl Von Strang failing in that objective, almost looked surreal especially when the beams of directed-energy-weapons passing through them momentarily lit up the trails.

Despite trying to stay focused on her job, and therefore attempting to wholly ignore the aerial battle raging far above, the wreckage of an Aquarius spiralling downwards, smoking and aflame with pieces sheering off momentarily caught the eye of Jennifer McEvedy from within her BattleMech cockpit as she made ready to lead a company into action for the first time. The first of sibko Gamma to be promoted to captain, and that was despite her name not because of it because everyone had such unfairly high expectations for her, Jennifer hoped like hell she wasn't going to screw this up because if she did then she was sure that Sarah's very angry ghost would appear and firmly shove her ethereal foot up her clone's ass.

Jennifer shook it off and went back to checking on the kits under her command. The Iota's in particular still seemed like children to her despite being into their twenties by now and the notion of getting any of them killed because she screwed up horrified her.

Well maybe not Annissa. If that little twerp called her 'Mom' instead of 'Ma'am' one more time then the McEvedy bloodname was going to be down one mechwarrior Jennifer decided, growling to herself as Khan Hallis ordered the advance to begin.

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Chapter Notes

• Notes from the Author

  Compared to a lot of the warships used by the Star League navy a Carrack is very good at dealing with enemy fighters (and inbound missiles). Even it's Naval Lasers (which reach out a long way and hit a lot harder than the one carried by aerospace fighters or battlemechs) can be used to swat down aerospace fighters if required.
  
  Amaris City on Von Strang's World isn't quite as well fortified as it was in canon when Clan Jade Falcon took it (with more difficulty than they expected, to their chagrin they ended up having to use artillery to do so) in 3049 but even with two centuries less time to dig in the city is still a tough nut to crack. The use of infantry-portable TAG gear to mark targets, including for laser-guided-bombs (LGB's) dropped by aerospace fighters, was something common during the Star League era, but TAG became lostech in the Inner Sphere in 2835 so this kind of toss-bombing with LGB's is a pretty fancy tactic for the era.
  
  The CP-10-Z Cyclops assault mech with its advanced B-2000 Battle computer is another piece of lostech. It was mentioned way back in Part 29 (set in 2835) that General Romanov wanted to her her hands on a few as a force-multiplier and though it took a while the Niops SLDF now has their first in active service.
  
  Karl Von Strang's Vulcan, Sabre and Sparrowhawk aerospace fighters are no match for the heavily upgraded machines being thrown at them here, and while an Aquarius is nothing to be taken lightly it's badly outdated. Remember, if you're offering your enemy fair fight then you're doing it wrong.
  

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