With Stanley and her crew safely
back in our hands, it was time to move on the Sanguine Reapers. They had to
know that we were coming by now; after all, we’d just broken into their
headquarters, rescued their hostages, attacked their men and crippled one of
their ‘Mechs. Either the Reapers would be digging in and preparing for the
worst, or they would be trying to make a quick escape. The former would mean
that we’d have the chance to fulfill our contract, even if it would also mean a
bloody fight in the process. And the latter would mean it was a huge waste of
time on our part.
A quick sub-orbital hop put our
ships down as close as we dare get without risking coming under fire or being
swarmed straight out the door. The area around the spaceport presented its own
hazards beyond just enemy fire, however; the air was still tainted with the
fallout from the spaceport’s destruction. Added to that, there was every chance
that the Reapers could have sown the area with mines or have spotters and
remote sensors watching our advance.
 |
| Andiron spaceport ruins |
The spaceport itself presented its
own challenge. Much of the massive twenty-five meter high wall around it was
still standing, even if it had collapsed in places. The first order of business
would be to get through knowing full well that the Reapers would be lurking on
the other side. There were several gaps that we could use to get in, and it was
just as likely that they would be waiting for us to try.
Our plan then was to open with an
artillery barrage, then leapfrog the light and medium ‘Mechs over the wall,
supported by the Air Cav. They would drop Battle Armour in the enemy’s rear
echelon and hopefully disrupt whatever plans they would have waiting for us on
the other side.
It did not go as planned. The enemy
weren’t just content to let us come to them and instead had their own plans. Almost
immediately, we came under fire from both Arrow and Thunderbolt missiles,
guided by unseen spotters. Our first round of Artillery didn’t go off well
either, with the shots scattering; one round hit Will head-on, while Maria very
nearly got taken out by friendly fire (and resulted in the command channel being
filled with lots of very angry Spanish).
The Reapers weren’t going to remain
bottled up either. As soon as our first jump-capable ‘Mechs went over the wall,
they sent several back to try and disrupt our advance. At the same time, a
swarm of Hovercraft came billowing out of an underground access, wheeling
around to attack our formation from the back. This had an initially mixed
result or them; they did some damage, but the heaviest of their raiders, an Ostroc, went down hard when I put a trio
of SRMs into its face.
Our ‘Mechs breached the wall,
tangling it up with theirs. And then everything went to hell.
A stray Artillery shell hit
Katrya’s Lamprey just as she was dropping
of Sergeant Rathiki’s squad. While her VTOL was damaged, it was still
operation. Unfortunately, Rathiki and his entire squad were killed in the
strike. Almost immediately, the command channel vegetated into chaos as Maria
started flinging accusations at Captain Dae-Hoon and violently insulting him in
Spanish. Katrya also decided to add to the mix with a lot of choice Ukrainian
insults. In the meantime, I have four men dead and was trying to win a battle.
Things got worse when Takahashi breached
the wall, only to have a half-dozen pirate ‘Mechs open fire on his Akuma at once. He soaked up over a
hundred and fifty rockets, autocannon shells, missiles, PPCs and lasers, which
stripped all the armour off the front of his ‘Mech in seconds. Amazingly
enough, he remained standing, but was forced to pull back immediately.
 |
| Matthais Kaine's Thanatos |
While our two Hawk Moths were trying
to shut down their artillery support, Our first wave were dealing with a mess
of Medium ‘Mechs and concealed tanks (including an ambush from a Medium Laser
carrier). Lee and I pushed through, following the hole that Takahshi had opened
up, breaking up their dug-in formation. My Mad
Cat wound up going toe to toe with Kaine’s Thanatos, and it was hard to say who got the worse deal straight
off. Lee added to the fire, crippling an Archer
that Takahashi had already ripped huge chunks off.
Fortunately, the Pirate hovercraft
proved to be a lot less of a threat then they had hoped. Three of them were destroyed
or immoblised in short order, with the forth, a Tamerlane, ending up ramming
into the walls at over two hundred kicks per. The Battle Armour squad that had
immobilised Martin’s Centurion and
gotten us into this situation in the first place proved to be less effective
here; they wound up being marooned far from the rest of the battle with little
ability to contribute.
Not that the Reapers were willing
to give up and die by any means. They knew that they were going to be taken
back to Tamarind for show trials and executions, and they weren’t about to let
that happen. They instead pressed in closer, with a Tetsudo indiscriminately
firing Arrows into packed battles. Katry’s aircav (barring her own damaged Lamprey)
were trying to put them down, which meant that they weren’t able to help at the
frontline of the battle.
I was still trying to stop her and
Maria from killing Dae-Hoon when Takahashi decided to have his turn at
disobeying orders and continue to advance despite his Akuma being stripped of its remaining armour. Instead his ‘Mech
stumbled on a piece of loose rubble and fell, detonating its ammo in the
process. Yes, we lost our heaviest ‘Mech to an accident. Takahashi ejected, but
was instead confronted by a pirate Infantry platoon; however, before they could
capture him, Will roasted them with Infernos.
The destruction of the Akuma did embolden the Pirates for a
moment, but it was short lived. Kaine drove his Thanatos straight at my Mad
Cat, managing to tear huge slabs of amrour off with his autocannon. This
also got him in a crossfire between me, Lee and Randy, which took his ‘Mech
down fast. Their second, in a Hercules, joined
it moments later.
That was enough to break their
morale, with the remaining pirates trying to escape under the cover of Arrow
missiles. Several of my men got rather overzealous in their pursuit, which lead
to Bruce losing his Scarabus when he
ran out ahead of the rest of our pack. Shona suffered a similarly embarrassing
fall when the Tetsudo blasted out the building underneath her Phoenix Hawk, resulting in her crashing
to the ground and ruining one of her legs.
Our dogged pursuit did pay off.
Only three Reaper ‘Mechs escaped; a Wasp,
a Phoenix Hawk and a near-trashed
Commando; a single Thunderbolt
Carrier, a pike tank and a squad of Battle Armour joined them. They didn’t even
try to make for their dropships (Which we later found out were grounded and not
ready to depart anyway) and instead bolted into the desert.
So while not completely wiped out,
the Reapers are spent as a force. More importantly, to the terms of our
contract, they are no longer a threat. The few survivors have no way to get
off-planet, and represent only a minimal threat. They’ll probably wander into
the desert and try to hook up with (Or be absorbed by) some other band. The
biggest prize, of course, was being able to capture Kaine alive. Maria caught
him as he was trying to hide in the ruins.
We lost two ‘Mechs and almost all
of the others are damaged to some degree. Fortunately our personell losses were
limited to only the four Battlearmour troopers of Sergeant Rathiki’s squad. The
upshot is that we were able to walk off with a lot of salvage, including a
mostly intact Buccaneer that Bruce
claimed as a replacement for his Scarabus.
We still need to get Takahashi a replacement ‘Mech, but if nothing else,
Kaine’s Thanatos is repairable (with
a lot of work). We also recovered Stanley’s Savoir, much to her relief. Between
that and all the salvage from the Chasseurs and their Dropships, we actually didn’t
do too badly.
This did leave one big problem.
While what happened to Sergeant Rathiki’s squad was an accident, neither Maria nor
Katrya were happy with Dae-Hoon. I wasn’t either, given that he openly tried to
undermine me, blaming me for Stanley’s capture. A lot of it went back to the
fact that I was always, in his eyes, the acting commander until; my father got
back (Which I have my doubts will ever happen). I originally kept him on because
there was a block of personnel loyal to my father over me, but over the years,
almost all of them have left the unit, one way or another.
And so, after a lot of
consideration, I gave him his marching orders, effective as soon as e return to
Galatea. I know that he’s still got some supporters in among his Artillery
Lance, so we’re likely to lose at least a couple of crews, but I think it will
be a massive improvement to the unit’s morale as a whole. I’ll have to shop
around for a new artillery commander and some crews (With vehicles, of course)
and there is going to be some reorganization involved. Maria has been named as
captain pro term of Bravo Company; whether
it’s permanent depends on who I can find.
In the meantime, Maria is arranging
a memorial service for Sergeant Rathiki and his men, which I suspect will be
followed by a lot of heavy drinking.
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