- The Lucky Regiment -[]
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- Chapter 25 -
The Second Invasion of Helm[]
High Orbit
Helm, Free Worlds League
2nd March, 3027
09:00 Hrs
Emilio watched the General and the 'Major' walk into the Duke's stateroom. General Kleider was very much the Duke's man, and a figure he hoped would do better than Colonel Langsdorf. This expedition was now in a worse position than it would have been if Langsdorf hadn't landed, which said it all in Emilio's view. The 'Major' was one of the growing number of trained Mechwarriors in the covert service of ComStar. A few light regiments and militia formations officially created for the protection of Terra hid the existence of a far larger military.
The Duke forced a smile, it was very much forced as the Duke and the crews of all the dropships had experienced a bumpy few hours after the task force discovered a distant ship was taking pot shots at them with a Gauss rifle. Thanks to the sophisticated sensors on the ComStar owned dropships it was easy to avoid the periodic shots, but that meant regular evasive maneuvers and the wearing of pressure suits for the crew and passengers. At this point landing on the surface of Helm had to be incredibly appealing to even the most cowardly.
"Welcome General, I take it you have a working plan?"
"Yes, I'll take you through it your Grace." The tough looking general was the physical opposite of the Duke, tall, rugged and handsome looking. He had the appearance of a proper soldier in all respects and was clearly capable of arduous exercise, unlike someone else in the room. The General unrolled a map embedded in a plastic sheet and fastened it to the Duke's desk, it was covered with markings focused around the few important features near the spaceport and the Cache. The edge of the vast ruins of Freeport were on the sheet as were a few current settlements and the increasingly difficult terrain around the Helm Cache.
"Here is the spaceport, here is where the cache is. The terrain gets rough around the cache, and the 'rebels' have placed Anti-aircraft assets at key points in between." He tapped his finger on to the spaceport to make his point. "We need this as our main supply point and from there will clear a route to the cache."
The Duke studied the map "Can we not land closer?" He pointed with a podgy finger at several sites marked as suitable for dropships. "You would cut off any of his forces operating near the spaceport."
"We have identified multiple Arrow IV systems, they could intercept a dropship or drop pods. We will actually need to land the first wave some distance from the spaceport and secure a wide perimeter before we can even use the spaceport." He then pointed to some military looking markings on the map. "Near the cache they also have a partisan battery, assuming those are the original design it would be foolish trying to land in close proximity or even use large missiles there." The weapon names meant nothing to him, but he assumed they were dangerous.
Time was not on their side and Emilio could see the Duke was uncomfortable. "How long before we secure the objective?"
"Day one will start with a landing using drop pods, the spaceport area will be secured within twenty four hours." The General pointed to a series of arrows. "Day two will see us securing a route towards the cache, depending on the progress we will be making an assault on day three or four."
"That is worryingly slow."
"Colonel Langsdorf was forced out by the presence of long range artillery, we have to secure a perimeter before we can land our forces. If we start losing dropships the operation will quickly collapse, and the information from our allies suggests the Marauders are quite willing to target them." The General glanced over at the ComStar officer dressed as Marik Major.
"Remember at some point SAFE will be sent here to investigate the Grey Death Legion's crimes, we really don't want there to be any of their survivors on Helm when that happens." The Duke voice had icy clarity to it, as it should given the danger they were in.
Near the Spaceport
Helm, Free Worlds League
4th March, 3027
11:00 hrs local time
Colonel Langsdorf landed twenty miles to the south of the spaceport with an uncomfortable thud as the drop pod finished its deceleration and met the ground. The sides of the pod were flung open by the explosive release system and he began his second invasion of Helm. Unlike the last it was contested, several pods in other companies had come under fire and one of the Leopard dropships had aborted its approach after being spooked by an air defense radar lock.
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Leopard Class Mech Carrier Dropship landing
As the dust settled and his freshly repaired Warhammer strode forwards he noticed he had landed in the ivy covered remains of an old single story building, based on what looked pieces of shelving it was probably once some sort of shop. He towered over its roofline and the remains of the weak structure collapsed in clouds of dust as he walked through it.
He looked at the status updates from his company, they were all showing green, which meant nobody's pod had failed. Most were close to their target landing point, and his map display was showing no sign of hostile activity.
"Zero, this is Eagle one, I confirm the Eagle has landed."
"Zero acknowledges, you are to proceed to clear sector three." That meant the area east of the spaceport, in theory empty. In practice nobody could say for sure given the cloudy periods since his forced evacuation. It wasn't really a vote of confidence in his talents that he had been tasked with the easiest job.
"Eagle one copies, out"
He took the 'mech down an overgrown street, the ruined buildings and vine covered traffic lights a reminder of the inhumanity of Minoru Kurita. The last time he had landed he realized he had been numb to his situation owing to the brutality of his orders, now he was resigned to the fact there would be a reckoning, either a court martial or given the scale of the opposition, death in battle. All that was left was to ensure that his actions were professional enough that his regiment could live on.
The command net was largely quiet for the first half hour, mostly status updates as company commands reported in their various successful landings. A faulty drop pod was the only piece of bad news, and the few stuck mechs in bad ground were easy enough to deal with.
"Eagle One this is Zero, message over."
"Eagle One receiving."
"Sierra three two has just landed in a minefield, they are redeploying to your sector, ETA two zero minutes, Eagle company is to secure an LZ for them."
"Eagle one acknowledges, will find and secure an LZ and report the location." He wasn't sure which unit supposed to be on the dropship, but that message told him it was going to be a long day.