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And then something went terribly wrong
Plans rarely survive contact with the enemy.
by Enigma |
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06 June 3032
Just last month, elements of the 1st Crucis Lancers were dispatched in support of their regiment to destroy several heavily entrenched Long Tom batteries, defended by nearly a battalion of conventional armor.
The plan was to go like this...
One medium strike lance, commanded by Sergeant Tuscany would drop directly onto the site from orbit and attempt to spot for friendly artillery, or to disable the anti-aircraft batteries at the location and call in an airstrike. A second, larger force, commanded by Leftenant Goodsnake would scale the side of the plateau and attempt to punch through the conventional resistance, opening an extraction corridor for the strike team.
It sounded like a good plan. The direct orbital drop had been discussed at the academy, and the unit commander felt the risks associated with this maneuver were worth the potential "quick-kill" that would be gained if it went as planned.
At precisely 16:00 hours local time, the assault / extraction force had moved to it's first waypoint and Leftenant Goodsnake gave the green light for the mech drop.
The first mech to drop was Sergeant Tuscany, the ranking NCO in the unit, who, at almost 3 years, had been with the Lancers the longest of any member of her Company. No one will perhaps ever know what went wrong with that drop, but Sargent Tuscany's Blue Dervish came down like a comet and exploded into the side of a rocky outcropping.
Then Corporal Waters came down in his Phoenix Hawk, just meters from the first impact crater. Another critical failure on the part of this new mechwarrior destroyed him and his machine as well.
Corporal Kline, in his Phoenix Hawk decided to execute the dreaded Death from Above on one of the primary targets. Successful, he climbed out of the crater to find the conventional forces scattered by such an aggressive onslaught, the battlemechs falling like artillery fire had caused a great deal of confusion among the defenders.
Sergeant Christian also came down successfully in his Enforcer. With the Phoenix Hawk and the Enforcer together, the strike team was able to take the hill and force the armor units defending it to retreat.
Meanwhile the assault team moving up the plateau was pinned down by the overwhelming force of armor units, and was unsuccessful at breaking through. Clever use of LRM fire support saved the team from certain defeat. Two mechs in the unit, Leftenant Goodsnake's Centurion and Sergeant Wentz's Hunchback were isolated and surrounded by two lances of J. Edgar, Condor and Pegasus hovertanks supported by a lance of Hunter's. Both Pilots ejected and were lost to the enemy who kept the field at the end of the day.
In a bold move, however, Corporal Nault, in his Jenner dashed directly through the defending forces and was able to destroy the remaining Long Tom battery. Leaderless and shaken, (but victorious) the battered remnants of Alpha Company were forced to hurry back to their extraction point.
Memorial services for the mechwarrior's killed in the attack were held last Saturday, in a small formal ceremony near the Precision Weapons Factory.
The Battalion Commander of the 1st was quoted by sources as saying, "All's well that ends well, I guess." Later, when confronted by his apparent lack of concern for his lost men, the decorated Major replied, "Damn you civilian reporters! War is a series of gambles... Some people at the table will walk away winners and some will be losers, I guess a few of our good pilots were losers, but we fulfilled our mission and kept you in business for another day..."
-From the Tancredi Gazette |
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