Battletech IC #1 Part B

[Strykla]

Major Rau von der Teufel
Location: Above GSS Proving Grounds,
Planet: Outreach
Date/Time: March 17th 3067, 0121 hours

OOC

The Mercenary

Duke's armored cavalry company was starting up. It wasn't that big as numbers went; he didn't even have artillery. But in the Lyran tradition, it packed some seriously heavy firepower. There wasn't a light thing in it; let the mechs do the scouting, Duke joined the military to fight.

He was in combat gear, but that didn't stop him from bearing his Iron Cross proudly. He wore not battle armor, but more simple body armor and a heavy helmet. He was in the commander's seat of the Rommel, on the top of the turret and to the right of the gun assembly. The cupola provided reasonable protection but he had mounted a support machine gun and carried next to him an AX-22 assault rifle for a backup.

The big fusion engine started up with a scream and died down to a dull roar; he was glad for his helmet's ear protectors. The Major was not in direct command of anyone not on the ground, which annoyed him, but he was an armor commander; he didn't really know the best way to deploy air support. The Gazelle happily surprised the Major in its bulk carrying capacity, though they lacked air support, but it didn't matter. The Major had not made many hot-drops from space, but at least this was a simulated battle.

He checked his watch; quite early in the morning. The drill should start as soon as the dropship pilot started the descent. The plan was this: Land in the thick forest, with the drop zone being named LZ Alfa and a backup called LZ Foxtrot. Alfa was to the northwest and Foxtrot was to the southwest. Whence landed, the Major would lead a reconnaissance in force to the center of the grid on a dirt road through the forest, ploughing through OpFor ambushes; the objective had been designated Objective Saber, the town hall of a small OpFor-controlled city; when the 'Red' flag, held by the infantry, was safely planted on the top of the town hall, victory would be declared.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

GSS DropShip Talon, Bridge

Major Bill Fletcher reclined in his chair, calmly keeping track of his instruments as he guided the Leopard down through the atmosphere. He ran his hands through his grey hair and picked up the in-ship comm. "We are five minutes to landing, boys, get your asses ready. I don't plan on sticking around the LZ for more than five minutes, and if any of you metalheads are still aboard when I lift off you're gettin' sold to the Capellans."

He leaned forward, putting the mic back and focusing on his ship. He felt every vibration, heard every sound, saw every movement. His focus was one born of years of experience. One screw-up, one had movement, one missed time, and his ship and everyone aboard would be nothing but scrap in the forest below. Too slow, and they would be sitting ducks for any enemy defenses.

To most, to the inexperienced, what Major Bill did next would seem crazy and suicidal. He should have slowed just as he cleared the clouds. But he didn't. His years of experience had taught him that a Leopard could take a faster descent than standard doctrine suggested. While physics would put a bigger strain on the ship from a harder stop, the little girl could handle it.

Fletcher hit the thrusters, slowing the Leopard's descent, and began maneuvering her to better shake off the inertia. It gently glided in for a soft landing at the LZ.

Before she had even touched down, the crew manning the doors had them open and her marshaling Major Teufel's men out. "MOVE IT, TREADHEADS." One of them hollered. "YA DON'T GOT ALL DAY!"

[Strykla]

The Rommel's big fusion engine flooded the rest of the tank with power. The floodlights of the dropship gave everything a blue tinge; the final checklists were complete.

The dropship hit the ground with a crash despite the pilot's best efforts. The doors opened beforehand; battle armored men peeked out, watching for any enemies. Before the dropship had landed, the squads had jumped out; underneath their armor, they were protected at least from the scorching exhaust.

And when the dropship landed, the Rommel was immediately rolling. The Major, protected under mountains of armor, watched from a viewscreen being transmitted by a Hawk Moth; he had remote control of the machine gun. Next out was the Patton and two Tigers, which would secure the area for the less well-armed APCs; backing up the column was lighter armor, two Partisan AA vehicles and two prototypes of the Glory FSV. The Major's command track would lead the column, which would perform a 'thunder run' into the center of the grid, Objective Saber. It would be a rapid dash through the OpFor territory, very dangerous certainly.

No hostile fire came under the tanks rolling out of the bay, which was probably a bad thing for OpFor considering they could have set up ambush points at LZ Alfa or Foxtrot, the only viable LZs in the area, and easily brought down the dropship with the entire force. The column, however, formed up quickly; the command track would lead. From inside the tank, the Major watched it all. The company took the callsign of 'Iron'; Iron 1-1 was the command track(Iron Actual was the Major himself), Iron 1-2 was the Patton, and so on. The Rommel started moving, quickly now, at forty kph, the rest of the company following quickly.

"Achtung!" The Major heard over the radio. It was Iron 2-1, one of the Hawk Moths. "OpFor sighted on the right of the road, six hundred meters from Iron 1-1, over!"

He maneuvered the gun camera on his machine gun. He could not see any hostiles, but he fired nonetheless. The first rounds of this fight arced into a forest; of course, these were blanks. The rattling and ringing of the gun and its ejected belt and ammunition made it so real, but the barrel of the gun was affixed with a small laser, not dissimilar to the TAG though when it hit a target it simulated a kill.

"This is Iron 2-1, all hostiles on the road confirmed KIA or WIA, over."

Well, looks like the Major still had good aim.

They continued in relative peace for a while; it looks like OpFor must be conserving their strength. The three platoons of infantry in the two APCs must have been pretty bored, though there was certain to be a fight.

The real terror, however, came quickly. The Hawk Moths peeled off and went low, covering themselves with the trees; they reported on radar a formation of bombers coming in; four to be precise. They were Jump Bombers, made by Boeing, and though they carried little armament internally they, from the looks of their signatures, were heavily laden with bombs. The forest on either side was hindering their only anti-aircraft tracks, the Partisan, and though some of the bombers might be hit the column would be devastated.

But they had no fighter support! A dangerous risk, one which the Major could exploit. He got on the radio. "This is Iron Actual, break; we have sighted a flight of four planes, likely Jump Bombers, coming in at high speed at Iron Company, break; Mister Ruhr, would you be so kind as to take care of that?" Sure, they had only one fighter, but one fighter could devastate unprotected bombers. Fast they might be, but they couldn't outrun a bomber certainly. The Major was a little annoyed that Ruhr did not have a callsign and he was thus forced to call on the man by name, but at this moment all he wanted was those bombers killed before they could drop their deadly payload.