- The Lucky Regiment -[]
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
- Chapter 27 -
ComStar enters the fray[]
The front lines
A Marik Mobile headquarters unit
Helm, Free Worlds League
7th March, 3027
11:00 Hrs local time
General Kleider zoomed out on the three dimensional map of the battle space, he believed he had reached the same conclusion as his enemies, the combination of hills valleys and marshes meant there were three land based approaches and of course the air.
Of the land based routes he was confident that one was militarily hopeless, one quite slow and the other likely to be the fall back route for the two companies of mechs skirmishing on the plains. The air route had a lot of appeal conceptually, ruined only by the periodic presence of mobile lostech Arrow IV batteries, in their absence he would have already have put cut off groups in the passes.
His opponents were fighting a classic delaying action, fighting at range and giving ground when pressed, yet making it clear that any unsupported advance would lead to a counterattack. They could probably keep that going for a day, it was a day he knew he might not have to spare. The growing number of DropShips meant the Captain-General or House Steiner were increasingly likely to intervene, and the Duke was applying a great deal of pressure.
The Comstar contingents's commanding officer had proposed a solution soon after the initial landing, his infantry were equipped with top of the line kit, and could infiltrate, find and destroy the lightly protected Arrow launchers. Which was in fact what they had just done, several crosses on the map marked the destruction of two launchers, and with those gone his Leopard class dropship ships and transport helicopters were going in following the distraction of a dozen empty drop pods.
One of his junior officers was listening in on the command net that linked his mobile command centre to the orbital surveillance team and to the company commanders. "Launches detected, I say again launches detected." All attention in the room focused on the young officer.
The General was quick to respond "At the pods?"
"Too early to tell, Sir." A new launch site had now been marked, clearly they had missed one. It wasn't surprising, hiding things from orbit was a key skill for any defending force.
Thirty seconds passed, then the holographic display started marking missile impacts on the drop pods. Soon only four pods were left, but although expensive a drop pod was almost certainly less valuable than a Lostech missile. The drop ships and helicopters continued their low level flight path towards their LZ. The Grey Death Legion were trying to cover too much space to have a chance of getting a shot off at them.
"Thirty seconds." The helicopters were now lagging far behind but the dropships were about to reach the landing spot, one that was being watched by several of his special forces teams.
"They have landed, the mechs are disembarking now." Eight heavy Comstar mechs would be walking out of the two dropships, a concentrated force that would leave the Grey Death Legion in a quandary as they faced being attacked from the rear and cut off from their exit route.
The Comstar officer smiled, his force was now in play and the Grey Death Legion faced trying to fight their way past whilst being pursued. The General looked over at him. "Nice work Major, an impressive insertion." There was a graceful nod. The ComStar force was well trained, but this was likely their first experience of combat.
"Sir, it looks like you have generated a response."
"What are we seeing?" One of his command crew had a live orbital feed of the enemy field base. He looked over at him.
"They are already loading a lance into their Leopard dropship, looks like a pair of assaults and a couple of heavies." The General was impressed, they had a short decision making cycle, a little too short in fact. "The other one must be already loaded as it is preparing to take off."
"Major you will need to send a second pair of lances in, have them standing by for the return of the DropShips." There was a crisp nod, speed was now essential, he had still the initiative but his opponent had clearly decided a vertical envelopment was likely and had planned to counter one. As with many situations it was resolvable with the application of more force.
"Sir, Sir, there is movement in orbit."
There were a number of DropShips up there now, many from independent traders, and quite probably carried a few spies. It would certainly explain how the Marauders and Grey Death Legion had been able to respond so quickly to his forces movements. Good weather unfortunately seemed to help both sides.
"Well?" He looked over the young officer.
"Several Dropships appear to be entering the atmosphere."
The Comstar Landing Zone
11:30 hrs local time
Acolyte Franz Halder steered his seventy ton Warhammer out of the darkness of the Leopard dropship and into the light. As he strode onto the hard ground his eyes adjusted to the sunlight, even with the benefits of his helmet eye shades it was still noticeable. The aerial photos he seen showed a mix of trees and fields, where he was standing didn't really match that. He could tell they were on hard ground, probably with rock just below the soil, it was the sort of spot that could weight of a dropship. Away from the grass and rock strewn landing area there were a mix of trees and large lumps of rock, good cover for him and his lance.
Terrified sheep were fleeing, attempting to find salvation from the terrifying ordeal of a dropship descending from the heavens, they were in for a rough day.
He heard the voice of his lance leader on the radio net. "Number off, Blue lance."
"Two here."
"Three ready."
Then it was his turn. "Four ready." It was his first taste of action after four years of training on simulators and in the various training areas across Terra. He was younger than the others, but only their lance leader had actually seen combat, so age didn't matter much.
"Form up on me, we're moving to join Red and Yellow lances in a blocking position." As the lance leader spoke waypoints started appearing on Franz's HUD. There was a rumble in the background and the dropship took off, in his peripheral vision he was aware of its rapid ascent out of sight.
.png){kind=link}
VTOL firing it's nose autocannon
It took ten minutes to close the distance with the other lances, by which time he saw his first LRM fired in anger. An Archer in Red Lance was engaging a distant target, and soon the fire was returned. A pair of Marik attack helicopters moved overhead, but before contributing to the action one was brought down by hostile autocannon fire, the second broke of its attack run.
It wasn't long before he was filling in gap in the larger formation and as the defence became confused, he found himself trading shots with a pair of Marauders. He followed his training and used trees and the ground as cover as best he could, it was a long ranged fight and unlike in the simulated fights he soon found the combination of moving at speed on rocky ground and firing accurately was surprisingly hard.
The lance leader's voice crackled on the comms system. "Blue three and four watch your three o'clock." He dodged a PPC blast as he moved past a tree, the ancient fir tree shattered from the energy impact. Autocannon rounds thudded into his torso, chipping off bits of the armor. He rotated to assess the new threat and saw a pair of Phoenix Hawks landing behind a rock formation, his rotation was too slow to get a shot off, but he marked the spot for later.
.png){kind=link}
Rifleman Heavy 'Mech
"Drones overhead, am engaging." That was Blue two, a fellow adept from Central Europe, he had been through the training program a year earlier. He piloted a customized Rifleman, a design seen as slightly weak mech in terms of armor, but one well suited to anti air duties.It carried a mix of AC2s and ER Lasers, along with better armor and heat sinks than the more 'modern' variants.
"Targets down." His HUD showed two red flying markers disappear.It was at that moment that his missile alarms went off in his 'mech, a red indicator flashed and six new small red icons appeared on the HUD. Perhaps Hans in Rifleman could have targeted them, but it would now be too late as his weapons would be reloading.
His training kicked in and he instantly changed course, there was no sudden impact and he looked around to see spinning objects landing around him. Whatever had flown overhead had hopefully been destroyed.Then there was blast on his shoulder and the 'mech shook slightly, a moment later there was an explosion under the mech's foot, one he felt in the cockpit. He realized at that moment it was some sort of mine, as the damage meant his footing was suddenly unstable, he tottered for a moment before righting and slowing himself with a couple of steps.Unfortunately the following step had a similar result, and the damage indicator switched to red on the foot regions for both legs.
"Blue Leader this is Blue Four, mines, I say again mines." His training said he should use jump jets, and failing that clear a path with his weapons. He had no jump jets, and was now stuck stationary in a battlefield as he started desperately raking the ground with machine gun fire to clear a safe path.
"I know, they are air dropped, clear a path and close with the enemy." That was an entirely logical strategy from his lance commander, but he knew it was too late for him. The destruction of his 'mech started with a salvo of LRMs and was followed up by PPC impacts on his right side.
Accepting his fate he turned and engaged the nearest Marauder with his PPCs, determined to attract enough attention to give his lance mates time to extract themselves.
Front line
15:00 hrs Local Time
Grayson Carlyle felt dirty looking at the Draconis Combine mechs. He only had himself to blame though, in agreeing to trade battlefield support for a respectable quantity of loot he had made an ally of the man who had helped cause his parents death.
On the other hand the Duke had promised to support his claims of his regiment's innocence regarding Sirius V and was happy to ship a portion of the Grey Death Legions' share to Solaris. How far the Duke could be trusted was far from clear, but an extra company of mechs was worth a great deal when one was outnumbered. The lives of friends in the present had to count for more than the ghosts of the past, his parents would have respected that.
The Marik forces had landed a reinforced company of Star League era heavy mechs in his rear, a match for most comparable Inner Sphere forces, and these were backed up by several fighters and helicopters.It was at that this point that the Duke's intervention along with the ungentlemanly tactics of Edmund had proved essential. That fanatical Marik company was now gone, having fought to the last, refusing to even eject. Although brave they had lacked the finesse he would have expected from what should have been an elite unit.
He watched as another Arrow missile streaked overhead, these were of a design that ought to be banned, instead of targeting individual mechs they dropped payloads of mines. The pursuing Marik force had been weakened by them as they approached and now their line of withdrawal was being targeted.
The Draconis Combine Duke had committed a company of 'mechs and a light tank company. The light tanks had all been destroyed, it was another demonstration that galleons were affordable and that was about it. The mechs had performed somewhat better, largely because they had two Star League era Highlanders and a pair of Marauders backing them up.
"Grey One, this is Sunray, we are sending in another lance one thousand meters to your rear, same as last time, ETA five minutes."That was Edmund, his DropShip had been shuttling tanks and mechs around to keep the pressure on the Marik force. It turned out that whilst he was a decent enough field commander he was actually more effective working remotely.
"Grey One acknowledges, will keep the area clear."
"Sunray out."
He looked at his display, he was down seven mechs of his original force of twenty, but that starting force had been heavily augmented over the day. Eight of of the Marauders' first company were still in action but only five of Duke Ricol's force were combat worthy. Enemy losses were substantial enough that Duke Ricol who was still in orbit was struggling to find enemy concentrations for them to finish off. Duke Irian, a man who had apparently once boasted of his similarities to Napoleon had met his Waterloo.
He looked back up and out of his canopy, the smoke of burning forestry blocks had created a grey haze. Whilst numerous destroyed vehicles and mechs lay scattered across the landscape showing the extent of the largest engagement he had ever experienced. In the distance he watched an ejection pod shooting upwards, then the mech below was suddenly wreathed in the fire of secondary explosions. The death of an army was a terrible sight to behold, but at least it wasn't his own.
The route back to the Spaceport
19:00 hrs Local Time
Emilio Rachan sat against a tree stump in the undergrowth with two Marik signalers, one tending his wounds as all they watched the Command vehicle burn. The General, or what was left of him was still inside, hence there was a disconcerting smell of burnt meat. They had been lucky, the rest of the occupants had died when the large but lightly armored vehicle struck a mine. The three of them had tumbled out of the back shocked and in his case briefly unaware of the pieces of metal embedded his arm and shoulder, the adrenaline had then worn off leaving him in very significant pain.
.png){kind=link}
Stinger Light 'Mech
The armored car they had hoped to catch a lift from had also fallen victim to the same minefield leaving just the Stinger mech that had been escorting them. The mech had pulled back, its pilot understandably fearful of also stepping on a mine. Help was promised, but he doubted the multiple vehicle engines they could hear were from a friendly unit. All the conversations inside had focused on how few friendly units were left and how to manage the catastrophic rout.
"Sorry Sir, it's not a design I recognize." As one tended to his wounds the other had been keeping watch. He turned to look at grimaced at the shooting pain it caused, a pair of camouflaged APCs were approaching and a Marauder was coming up behind seemingly staring at him.
The light was fading, and in the dusk he watched as several squads disembarked. They quickly fanned out in all directions with half a dozen cautiously approaching them. Their rifles were in the ready position and several were holding back with weapons pointed in his direction.
The two Marik soldiers threw their weapons to one side. "Interesting, Sir, they must only be anti-vehicle mines." It was just Emilio's luck to be stuck with a pair of signalers rather than commandos, instead of carrying him to safety they had evidently decided to let the enemy do the heavy lifting.
Emilio knew he should avoid capture at all costs, but he was feeling strangely mellow from the injected painkiller, and realized he couldn't bring himself to do much of anything.