Operation Blindside[]
“Colonel Zondervan, we are being hailed by a Steiner dropship inbound for our LZ. There is a Leutnant General that is absolutely livid.” Stated Captain Carnahan.
“What the hell is his problem? The mission is going extremely well. These Jade Falcons have nothing on us.” Eli Zondervan rolled his eyes. He thought to himself that the mission literally could not be going better.
“Your guess is as good as mine, sir. We do have contact en route, looks like the Falcons are headed here and fast.” Carnahan added.
“Solid copy, get the Battlemechs powered up!” Zondervan shouted as he moved out of the command tent.
It only took a few minutes and a fast climb for each of his Mechwarriors to be mounted up. It looked like a full binary of Falcons were en route, we was bringing a full company. His Zeus took a massive step forward, clods of dirt fell as the foot was carried through the air and the three lances formed up on him. The company increased up to running speed to meet the Falcons head on.
After receiving confirmation blips on his HUD and saw that the formation was solid he reached out to the Falcon Star Captain.
“Star Captain, this is Colonel Zondervan, you are moving fast, will you be issuing a challenge?”
“Neg, freebirth. Your dezgra actions of attacking while our forces are off world withholds any honorable treatment of the likes of you. Your pitiful company of Inner Sphere machines will stand no chance against this binary.”
With that the line died and the first lasers and LRMs began exchanging between the two forces. The Colonel’s LRMs arched high, alongside others, eventually hitting his target and the ground around it. With only a couple hundred kilometers between the forces, the open channel went loud to all of the battling parties.
“All Mechwarriors stand down! This is Leutnant General Steiner and this battle must cease!”
All of the Battlemechs about to collide in a savage brawl slowed to a walk and a second later a full lance of Atlas Battlemechs hot dropped dead center of the two forces with a massive dropship descending a couple hundred meters off, clearly ready to deploy more combatants.
“By order of the Archon, this fighting is to cease, Rock Brigade you are in violation of your contract and subject to my opinion of disciplinary action.” Steiner borderline yelled into the open comms.
“With all due respect, what the hell are you talking about?!” the Colonel shouted back.
“Out of interest, my binary will stand down at this position, all communications between you both will remain open, we will not be taken as fools to be slaughtered if there is treachery here.” The Star Captain added, his binary taking cover in various terrain near their position.
“Yes, Star Captain, we will maintain open comms, Colonel Zondervan, walk your Zeus to my Atlas at once and open your canopy.”
The Zeus marched forward, Zondervan even made the machine appear like it approached in a defiant rage. Then, just two meters from the Atlas, his opened his hatch and looked at the waiting Leutnant General, standing with his arms crossed.
“Why is your mercenary unit on Graceland?!” shouted the Leutnant.
“For the damn contract we signed, why the hell else would we be here?!” shouted Zondervan in return.
“You do not have authority or orders to be on this world, you have abandoned your post and the Mercenary Commission has been notified; your unit contract with House Steiner is all but forfeit.”
“I am beginning to wonder if you are an imposter, Leutnant, our liaison gave us this mission contract the second it became available.” He threw a data crystal to the Leutnant, who barely caught it, surprised at the insubordinate throw.
“Watch yourself Colonel, you are on the thinnest of ice.” With that the Leutnant turned and entered the Atlas’ cockpit. “What the….” He could be heard audibly saying. Based on the tone and length of his time in the cockpit another individual was clearly being spoken to on private comms.
Returning to the lowered canopy the Leutnant was fuming. “Well, it appears you are correct, this is an actual mission contract issued to you, however it was not issued by House Steiner or the Lyran Commonwealth, even though it states it was.”
“So, where does this leave us Leutnant General?” Zondervan asked in an irritated manner.
“The Rock Brigade is to immediately pack up and depart Graceland and return to Kandersteg.” He changed his tone from that of an assertive officer, to a diplomat. “Star Captain, as you have just heard, these troops are not supposed to be here. With respect, I offer my sincerest apologies and ask for safcon for the Rock Brigade.”
“The Rock Brigade is acting on illegal orders and has caused a vast amount of damage to the forces I had to defend this world. I require a full lance of Battlemechs as compensation and to ensure safcon.”
“A full lance is an absurdly high cost for us leaving you in control of this world when, with my command, we could easily take it from your grasp. I will offer you two heavy Battlemechs as compensation and for safcon for the Rock Brigade.”
“Bargained well and done Leutnant Steiner, I will be standing by when it is time to discuss the Battlemechs.” The Star Captain said. He began to walk his binary up towards the meeting between the Atlas and Zeus, out of their concealed positions.
All Zondervan could think of was the loss of the payday and now he had to forfeit two heavy Battlemechs! The Leutnant climbed back into the Atlas’ cockpit and sealed the hatch. Since the machine did not move, it seemed he was handling something.
Climbing back into the Zeus’ cockpit, he let out a warcry for being screwed in so many ways while their unit had made such a name for themselves. A distant flash caught the corner of his eye, not from the direction of the clanner’s base.
He squinted but couldn’t quite tell what, if anything it was, maybe a news helicopter? Who knows. “Captain, let’s get back and pack up ASAP so we can get some rest on the flight to the jumpship. This is a shitshow.”
“Roger, sir, you seeing that in the distance? It’s moving our direction?”
“I figured it to be a news helicopter, that dropship was going to attract a lot of attention.” Zondervan replied.
However, he had no idea how wrong he was. The object picked up speed, aiming directly for the Atlas’ position. All of the Battlemechs of the two forces were within 300 meters.
“MISSILE!” shouted someone over the comms. All of the Battlemechs turned in unison, then a giant flash.
It hit the ground right at the feet of the Leutnant’s Atlas. In a split second the Battlemech was vaporized; along with the rest of his lance, then the Rock Brigade and the Clan Binary. Forces deploying from the dropship were also thrown through the air, if not outright destroyed as the blast surged into an open hangar door, vaporizing any crew inside. With such force, the dropship was torn apart from the inside out as armor panels were torn and thrown hundreds of meters, followed by the systems going critical and the dropship exploding.
Back at camp, everyone was silent as they heard the initial explosion, many of which’s ears were bleeding, some were blinded by the flash and screaming. Then the first shockwave hit. Anything weighing less than a few tons was thrown like a ragdoll. If it wasn’t 100% casualties from the shockwave, it was going to be from the radiation.
In a split second, at least 25 Battlemechs, a dropship, and hundreds of support personnel were snuffed out.
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“Demi-Precentor, impact is successful. Visuals of the impact site are coming up on your holopanel now.” Stated an adept.
“Excellent.” She looked over the images and could see the crater from the impact. While it wasn’t the largest in her arsenal, it did exactly what it was meant to. A mercenary unit was cleared from the board, a bastard clan unit was wiped out, and a high ranked officer was removed from the Lyran forces. This was a glaring success to this step of Precentor ROM’s plan.
Blindside was how he was going to embroil everyone in war. Where able, deep cover agents would ensure a unit would deploy onto another nation’s world to fight. This could be mercenary or a House unit. The fighting would begin and either when an intermediary arrived or at the most opportune time in the opinion of the world’s Demi-Precentor, they were to wipe out the forces.
Considering the Mongol Doctrine of the Jade Falcons, this would be an easy sell to push the remaining Falcons that were not on Terra into a full scale war with the Lyrans. While this was her first execution of the plan, she already heard word of other Demi-Precentors having success with their various versions of it in the Wolf Empire, Free World’s League, and Hell’s Horses.
The cataclysmic event of Sian sent the Capellans into a mad frenzy attacking the Free World’s League and Federated Suns. It also helped that there were units being given false orders on all three of those nation’s sides to invade and begin fighting.
“Captain, we are prepared to leave, our work here is done.” She turned and told him.
“At once Demi-Precentor, all personnel to stations; prepare for liftoff sequence!” the Captain shouted to the bridge staff.