32 kilometers north-east of Johnson Spaceport
Gamma Flight Patrol, 5,000 meters
Continent of Johnson
0129 Local,16 December 3080
Chief Warrant Officer Mikial Anderson was flying the last leg of his security circuit along with his flight when he saw it on the heads-up display of his helmet. Brilliant wide beams, almost blacking out the visuals of his headset. He and his wingman acted instinctively, turning due south to ride a shockwave, if there was one. Anderson also hit the command circuit on the communications control. “Flash, Flash, Flash!”, he shouted, “Over Twenty plus klicks north-east of FEBA. I repeat, Flash, Flash, Flash”! Anderson waited for what seemed an eternity for the acknowledgement and code on what plan to use- if one was coming.
One did and the code given was not an expected one. [Gamma leader this is base. Flash received; code is Damocles. Repeat, the Code is Damocles… Return to base immediately.]
Anderson pushed the controls to full throttle, his wingman doing the same. Ever since the Word of Blake had made orbital strikes early in the Jihad as well as their use of nukes, contingency plans were created and put into effect. One of those, Damocles, denoted an orbital strike on an enemy position by friendlies… and even with that cold comfort, he was still concerned. Because it could mean there was Non-Friendlies about and things were about to get ugly fast.
By the time he got back to base, all dropships and aerospace assets would be standing by for the command to liftoff and his flight would be refueled on landing. Once the word was given, the entire dropship command would move to a high elliptical, and then to a gravitational run as a convoy. If enemy assets appeared capable of orbital strikes the decision to make a run for the jump ships or reposition in space would then be made. This would keep the Dropships from being targeted on the ground and made it easy for multiple choices for landing zones.
By now, the ground forces would be unloading the supplies needed from the dropships and were moving into a wider perimeter, making it harder to hit a majority of the unit at once. Command had made these plans to begin automatically as soon as the flash order was received. Anderson looked at his rearview monitor, seeing the giant beams lance downward from the sky several more times at something a lot further away than he thought… and his imagination filled in the likely clouds of smoke rising out of the affected area. Jesus Christ… He thought to himself. What the fuck is that?
Hauptmann-Kommandant Pryme’s Field Quarters
29 kilometers north of Johnson Spaceport
0132 Local,16 December 3080
Whether it was not being fully asleep or some inner sense, the still-uniformed Pryme woke up reaching for the pistol he kept within arm’s reach when he slept in the field. His eyes opened and he found himself reaching for an empty spot then he looked around.
Standing before him holding his pistol out to him, butt-first, was W/O Veratoni. “You’re needed in Ops!” she said and handed him his pistol.
“I wish you’d stop doing that,” Pryme said as he took the weapon. “You know one day you’re going to sneak up on me and get shot.”
Elizabeth laughed, the first time he had heard her do so in a long time. “Like that would ever happen.”
Pryme smiled as he put on his boots. “Still… what’s going on?” He asked.
Veratoni responded, “I could tell you… but you have to see it to believe it.” The veteran warrant officer’s voice betrayed a little bit of worry. This obviously had her rattled.
Pryme remained quiet in response. He had an inkling this related to a conversation had via secure communications with Colonel Tinney. He’d been told what would be coming but with only an approximate timeline as Tinney himself was not one hundred percent sure of when. The only thing his fellow commander was certain of was that it WAS going to happen.
If this was it, this would be the first time he, or any of his unit, had ever seen something like this. If the results of the action were as bad as he had been told they could be, he hoped that this would be the only time it happened this campaign.
Getting up and holstering his pistol, he simply said, “Let’s go.”
Khon Kaen Field Command Center, Commo Section
29 kilometers north of Johnson Spaceport
0140 Local,16 December 3080
It was a short jog over to the Command Center and the first thing Pryme did was order a standdown from Code Damocles. There was nothing in space that wasn’t friendly and stressing the crews out more was not necessary. But it was nice to know the plan’s implementation worked though when it was thought for real- drills were drills and no matter how much you try, everyone knows it’s still a drill.
And except for a few hiccups over who gets priority over the loading of their equipment into unit vehicles, it did go fairly smoothly. Far smoother than he had any right to hope for… and he was not going to look a gift horse in its mouth. Do it right once when you thought it mattered tended to hint at future success when it DID matter.
Within a few minutes after he arrived, the remaining Command staff gathered within a side area and were standing around a table waiting for him. They then began watching a group of large screen monitors that showed satellite and drone images of the area hit by the orbital strike.
One screen replayed the actual incident, the full recording of the orbital strike and its volleys. All of the command staff watched with awe and for some, a touch of fear, as the skies lit up again and again in the recording.
Giant columns of smoke rose and there were flashes within it from fiery secondary explosions. Eyes then turned to the other monitors which showed in real time the results as sunlight began to make its presence known, the area being some four hours ahead of them.
Devastation covered the target zones, the ground charred and smoking in places. The few trees left standing were nothing more than burning black skeletons in areas that could be seen through the dense smoke. There were a few dropships that were still grounded, their hulls turned into twisted broken charred structures and strewn about were small piles of melted slag- some of which had enough parts left to show that they had once been battlemech or vehicles.
Everyone in the room realized that anyone caught in the open was vaporized without even knowing what hit them; at least one hoped. As they watched, Veratoni said in a quiet voice, “I’ve never seen anything like that… Nothing that destroys an area that big.”
A voice sounded amongst them, about as quiet. “I’ve seen bigger.”
All eyes turned to Charlotte Rowanberg. “Well, I have”, she replied defensively, thinking of where she had been some two months ago. She still hadn’t gotten over that, even if the greatest carnage had happened long before she was born. The scars on the planet were still evident, even now.
Kommandant Spector gasped, “Where?!?”
Rowanberg smiled and it was a somewhat sad one. “Lori, after the staff meeting is over how about we find some coffee and have a little chat. I’ll tell you a tale of a place called Barbados… In exchange, you can tell me how you beat a bunch of clan warriors out of a dropship full of supplies, techs and laborers.”
Spector smiled back. “Done!”
Rowanberg looked directly at Warrant Officer Veratoni. The fact that that she was aware of her exact location caught the Legion warrant totally by surprise- and it showed on her face too. “You’re welcome to come along too.”
Just then, the Kommandant spoke. “I have got to get us one of those,” Pryme said out loud. He then realized that all eyes were now on him. “What?” He then smiled, “Khon Kaen absolutely does.”
Behind him, the trio of Spector, Rowanberg and Veratoni had stepped away and were huddled together speaking to each other in hushed whispers as Charlotte appeared to be giving some of the details requested. Pryme had been told about the old remains of the warships on the surface of the Wolverine world… and he was fairly sure that is what she had referred to. Even knowing of it, it was hard to believe…
In any event, If he didn’t know any better he’d have thought there was a conspiracy in progress. Well, well, Pryme thought. There seems to be more to this Rowanberg than I thought.
As his Officers returned to their commands once the news of the strikes were distributed to them and the trio moved their conversation elsewhere in the command center, Pryme sat at a small field desk and reviewed the reports of the last twenty-four hours.
The reports from noteputers containing information from various units showed that there had been a probing encounter amongst the recon units from both sides. It was the difference in styles that made the difference. The Grey Bolts had a recon unit made of medium and light battlemechs- very traditional.
The Legions pursuit lance consisted of what was jokingly called a “Steiner Recon Lance”, four Charger assault mechs, not the 1A1 but a variant now being built on Khon Kaen designated the CGR 2A3, one of several variants within the Legion’s ranks.
Built originally for militia troops, the battlemech showed surprising promise. With a standard chassis, the mech now mounted a 400 extra-light engine keeping the battlemech at its original speed profile. With the weight savings, the weapons systems were updated. All the standard small lasers were removed, and an extended range small laser replaced the one in the right arm. Two large pulse lasers were added, one in each side torso and a nine shot multi-missile system was mounted in the left arm. To ensure that the pilot could get to the optimum weapons range in the shortest amount of time, a supercharger was added to the engine.
Finally, to provide as much protection as possible eleven and one-half tons of ferro-fibrous armor sheathed the body. All this while making the 2A3 resemble the 1A1 as much as possible. A Grey Bolt Shadow Hawk probing the perimeter and a Legion 2A3 model Charger on patrol in the area ran into each other.
The Shadow hawk pilot, moved quickly to close to optimum range for his weapons in believing that he was dealing with a 1A1 model. The Charger pilot continued to close the distance as the Shadow hawk pilot found his range and began firing.
The Charger caught the Shadow hawk pilot by complete surprise when he hit his supercharger and immediately closed their seperation gap to ninety meters. From there he fired his short-range multi-missiles, and twin large pulse lasers. Immediately after firing, the Charger pilot followed the standard engagement protocols for danger close encounters.
After the one-sided battle ended, he allowed the now dismounted Shadow hawk pilot to retreat to friendly lines.
Smiling to himself over the report, Pryme reviewed his three-fold plan. Step One was keep the Grey Bolts bottled up in place so they could take no action anywhere on Centaurus which seemed to be working. Also, part of Step one was to hold them in place until the location of the dropships was discovered and this was proving elusive.
If they were at this location, the Grey Bolts would have long since attempted to boost off planet unless they knew they really couldn’t go anywhere. Still, finding them was kind of a priority, for reasons.
Step Two, where kills would cause others to fight to the death, sending torn up units back to base would tear down the morale of others. With the results of that Charger vs Shadow hawk encounter, it appeared that was in process. Especially since there had been a few other similar encounters along with that one.
Finally, the third reason was made possible by the first two; for as the Grey Bolts grew weaker with each minor skirmish, it would become easier in a final battle if it was needed. Pryme was no fool; the Grey Bolts had to know they were cut off and the realization was going to eat at them. And anything that saps morale can and often did affect fighting ability.
If they were Combine troops, that could be troublesome as DCMS sorts tended to become rather fierce when they expected to die. Thankfully, these guys were led by a Lyran Alliance-trained officer… and there were advantages to knowing that.
Khon Kaen Field Command Center, Commo Section
31 kilometers north of Johnson Spaceport
0501 Local, 16 December 3080
The secondary staff meeting was brief. Much of the planning had already been done in advance and this was more or less a review of unit status and a finalizing of any changes in plans.
The only major change was that 4th Company would lead the assault and 2nd Company would act as the secondary assault unit along with the Regimental Artillery Lance.
The Commanders Team, Executives Officers Team and the Security and Liaison’s Lance would move into positions along with the 2nd. Hauptmann-Kommandant Pryme also sent out Code Word Daedalus. Even as the assault units moved to the line of departure, all of the legion’s dropships would boost into a high elliptical orbit as a squadron, to be protected by the 2 squadrons of aerospace fighters, 18 space fighters and 2 pocket warships of the legion.
Added to this was a loan of sorts; one of the Wolverine warships, the Denali, was being detailed to ride herd. He had messaged Tinney about it when it occurred to him to check on their availability… and he’d been told the loan would happen. Denali was not at full capacity- the damage from the space battle ten days previous still showed on the vessel… but her guns worked, and she’d sell herself dearly to protect the Legion craft.
99th Pursuit Squadron would remain in atmosphere to act as overhead cover. Alpha Company of the 25th (an augmented company mix of battlearmor, battlemechs and armor) would be a part of the mobile reserve. 1st Infantry Maniple of the 361st Cohort, an infantry unit in heavy combat armor transported by BRL 1A1 Brawler battlemechs, would also be a mobile reserve.
If the Grey Bolts were indeed hiding within these bunkers, it would be the job of Alpha Company to breach them and secure the entrance while the infantry of the 1st Infantry Maniple took control, to capture or kill any occupants.
The remainder of Secops Cohort, The Close Assault Group, 25th Battle Groups Beta Company and the former members of Comstar that were being adopted into the unit, would secure the Spaceport and the Legions rear areas. It was a good battle plan and it was now time to put up or shut up. With end of the meeting, Pryme rose from his seat and headed for his battlemech.
**
Some two hours later, Hauptmann-Kommandant Pryme looked around the area from the cockpit of his modified ZEU-9S2 Zeus battlemech. The extended large laser was replaced with four standard medium lasers, two in each torso and a head mounted small pulse laser. To his left flank was Kommandant Spectors VTR 10S Victor.
Lori’s voice came over the comms. [Commander Is the word given?]
Pryme took a deep breath, feeling the weight of death and destruction yet to come. Then he looked ahead, “Kommandant, the word is given. Move out!”
On his vid screens, he could see the blips of the Strike Battalion moving into position and through the external monitors, he could hear the whoosh of Arrow IV missiles being launched, heralds to the Battalions approach.
The Push was here, and the Grey Bolts would either meet his forces in battle or they would hide in the bunkers intel had said they were sure they were at. And if they hid, well, it would be the Job of the 1st to flush them out.
Musings of a Gamer 