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Angle of Death, The
A new Mechwarriors experiences.
by Dragonfire1968tet |
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OPERATION: DAYBREAK,
D-DAY
"May god have mercy on my enemies, because I won't!"
-General George s. Patton Jr.
December 13, 3067
Ardennes
Deep periphery
LZ alpha
"This is Reaper to all units, kill those scouts!"
The 1st Star League Defense Force Studies and Observations Group had just had their chances for a successful mission go from 78.3% to 6.1% and no one was even shooting yet. That changed exactly 1.3 seconds later, when Reaper depressed both trigger fingers and his right index, firing his entire long range arsenal at a fleeing Jenner, sending his heat into the high yellow range and making the cockpit feel like a tin out house on Zaniah III. The head mounted clan extended range large laser carbonized a defenseless bush but the follow up shots from both arm mounted clan ERPPCs landed in the right torso, amputating the leg and stub arm on that side and disabling the mech. And the gun camera caught the whole thing.
"This is gunslinger, you wet noses leave the Wolfhound to me..."
"Reaper to gunslinger, we don't have time for this today Kup, just waste him!"
"Just lining up f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-KKKRRRZZZK shot sir..."
The middle of the sentence was drowned out by the noise from an lrm20 launch and the freed back from an ERPPC discharge, the ERPPC impaling the fleeing scout in the center of it's back, vaporizing armor and internals, but miraculously failing to do any internal damage. Of the 20 long-range missiles fired from the modified Atlas, twelve hit, eating away at the left arm and nibbling the left leg.
"There is no time goddammit! Reaper to all units concentrate fire on available targets"
At that moment, an Imp and Sirocco, both painted in a complex tiger stripe camouflage pattern, crested a hill and fired on the wolfhound. The imp fired two ERPPCs at the helpless scout, destroying the right leg, the follow-up lrm15 salvo missed completely, peppering the ground with small craters. Simultaneously the massive quad dumped two PPCs and a large pulse laser in the general direction of the WLF, but only the large pulse laser hit, due to the fact that the mech was already falling, sloughing armor off the right torso, Then, adding insult to injury an oversize phoenix hawk crested the ridgeline to the north and fired an ER large laser and a large pulse laser, both of which came within feet of the fallen mech's head.
At this point there where only two unharmed scout mechs left running for the swamp to the north east.
"Screaming Eagle to Renegade, we're the only ones here with a chance of running these guys down, so let's haul ass!"
With that, the Phoenix Hawk II and a brand new Stinger II, both bearing the colors of a unit long dead tore off after the scouts, running at top speed. McCallum, in his Stinger II "Sneak Peak" took a pot shot at what appeared to be the lance commander, piloting an Owens and carved off fully 80% of the armor on the left arm. Two seconds later a huge arrow 4 missile landed behind the Owens, lifting it in the air as if it had been kicked in the rear by a rambunctious child, but...it kept running.
"Screaming eagle to D-day, better luck next time Mac, he's still running!"
"Oh just you wait, I'll give'em something to run from!"
"They are running from you Mac, or at least your eau de toilette"
"Mister funny man"
"Duke to D-day, cut the chatter kids, I'll show you how to swat a light mech, damn amateurs"
As if to accentuate the conversation, A huge Rifleman II painted the same way as the Imp and Sirocco, shouldered it's way through a copse of jungle trees and cut loose with a cerulean barrage of ERPPC and ER large laser fire. The two left arm ERPPCs slammed into a large termite mount, behind and to the left of the fastest fleeing mech, a Cicada, turning it into what would be called modern art, if the former termite mound were displayed in upper class society, Gunnery Sergeant Paxton just called it bad luck. The center torso mounted ER large laser sent a crimson lance right between the CDA's legs, nearly vaporizing a 5 ton tortoise, which just managed to get out of the way before the Cicada fell to the ground, it's own shell shattered on the left arm and rear right torso by the other two ERPPC bolts. The force of the fall impacted the cockpit and the pilot barley managed to stay conscious. Paxton had to pay for this minor victory, however, as his mech shut down from the heat of the one sided exchange.
Up to this point, the entire engagement had only lasted six seconds and only one recon mech was still up and running. The Wolfhound however, was still struggling to stand up on only one leg. As he ran past it, Kirbey, AKA renegade fired into the crippled mech again. Both the ER large laser and large pulse laser carving into the left leg and destroying a lower leg actuator, causing the wolfhound to fail in it's attempt to stand and fell again, destroying what was left of the right torso and amputating the right arm.
Very excitedly, "that's a kill, HOORAH!" said Kirbey.
"Bravo-Zulu renegade, but we still got an Owens to run down" came the machine tinted reply from Kirbey's lance commander, McCallum, AKA Screaming Eagle.
"Now lets ge-"
KRA-BOOOOOOOM!
McCallum was cut off by McConnel's second arrow 4 strike, which was right on target, causing massive, if scattered damage to the harried light omni.
"Now THAT'S more like it!" cried McConnel over the open Comm, much to everyone's displeasure, as it sounded like he was yelling right in their ears.
"DAMMIT! Would a little Comm discipline be too much to ask?! I'll gonna hafta whip that into you on our next exercise, and I'm talkin whip!" where as the last bit of yelling had caused everyone to wince, this shouted tirade caused most of them to cringe. It came from 1st SLDF-SOG's Regimental Sergeant Major, Victor Slaughter. Everyone knew he meant it.
By this time the Cicada had succeeded in standing, an ERPPC shot from the claw-like right arm of Reaper's Marauder II knocked it down for good and the foggy pilot passed out.
From the mass of SOG support vehicles raced three Hover jeeps, speeding out to collect prisoners. Kirbey and McCallum continued to race after the Owens. McCallum unleashed his entire arsenal of an ER large and 3 standard medium lasers in a blinding red and green light show, but only managed to connect with one medium laser on the right arm of the running Owens, it was enough, because 5 hesitant steps later the Owens shut down and surrendered.
The entire engagement lasted exactly 15.4 seconds or so 1st lieutenant Aaron told her CO later the next evening after the mechs had escorted the support vehicles to a secure and hidden canyon to the south west. It took her an hour and a half to work up the courage to ask him, but finally she did.
Hesitantly, she regarded the scar-faced visage of the man whose call sign was Reaper, "how's it feel to be home sir?"
Slowly, Colonel Beowulf Ezekiel Savage answered, "Ask me again when we own it..." then "brings back a lot of memories".
The unit had landed at 0300 hrs local time, by the time it got settled in hidden canyon it was 2300 the next night. Time for a speech, a short one. Colonel Savage paged Regimental Sergeant Major Slaughter on his wrist comm.
"Victor, assemble the troops, I need to make a speech."
"Already done sir, we're wait'n on you."
It was creepy how well one person could know another after spending so much time with them in various sundry military units in the innersphere and beyond, even before he activated the wrist comm Savage knew what Slaughter would say. So he strapped on his gunbelt over his combat suit and went to find this ersatz parade. It did not take long, boxed in between two Prime movers and the Mobile refit vehicle and surrounded by the 17 mechs of his unit. Even in combat, coolant and flak suits, and coolant vests, they made for a sharp parade. There was even an lrm20 rack still in it's shipping container for use as a podium.
He was spotted immediately by Major Kup his 2IC and chaplain.
"CADRE, ATTEN-HUT!" followed by the boom of over 200 boots hitting the ground all at once.
Now it was his turn, Savage hated his drill voice.
"CADRE, STAND AT EASE!" another 200 boots stomping as one. "CADRE, STAND EASY! Relax"
Backlit by the soft glow of the tech's worklights, he was silhouetted. Were they facing professional troops on Ardennes, this would worry him, but these bandit-mercs barely patrolled and there was not a single sniper among them. Aggressive interrogation of the two live prisoners (the other two were shot escaping) revealed that they were unable to get a message off, to warn the other forces on planet.
I am not worthy of these men and women, how could anyone be? Thought Savage as he mounted the lrm rack. Of the 800 volunteers they had picked up on outreach, only these 234 remained, only 17 of them mechwarriors. Few had been willing to undergo the difficult training they required; fewer still could complete it. He had recruited from amongst the dispossessed for mech warriors, every one of them. Even the techs had to learn marksmanship, survival and hand to hand combat. And they were still training. He could see the sweat and bruises on the men and women who had been doing hand to hand combat drills with Slaughter only an hour ago.
"You did well today, all of you, some among you even drew your first blood with the unit. Well done. Today was easy, if unexpected, from here on it gets harder, we are facing 4-5 times our number on planet... I cannot promise you will all survive or that we will even survive as a unit. Even if we are slaughtered to a man, we will live on, our names will live forever, alongside the names of those who tried, fought and perished fighting for a good cause... But I believe we will survive. Once we take Ardennes, liberate it's people, it will become our base, our home and we can begin to become self-sufficient. For our enemies however I CAN promise death, defeat, and damnation for their crimes. Not all these men and women are evil, that is why we are taking prisoners. After the campaign, when we hold the planet, and after we weed out the unacceptables..." every one knew exactly what unacceptables were and what company policy was regarding them. 65 of the volunteers had been 'unacceptable', murderers, rapists, and child molesters, ECT. Some units acted like the old terran French foreign legion providing sanctuary in battle and new lives for these people. 1st SLDF-SOG had a much simpler solution; they were killed, in a manner, which was equal in pain to their crimes. Evisceration was standard for rapists, molesters and animal abusers. "...The others will be given the chance to join the training cadre. This planet has or will have everything we need, it will be our home, and no pissant royalty or his rouge son and his mercs and pirates are gonna stop us. Remember our motto; No pity...No remorse...No fear...No warning... and this as well, it was the motto of the Iron Rangers, my old unit, this used to be their world...hold the line...keep the faith...soldier on."
Savage then jumped off the lrm rack, walked over to where Kup was standing.
"Shall we inspect the troops old friend?"
"I think they'd like that..." in the rough, yet quiet rumble that was Kup's voice.
Over the next 2 hours they walked up and down the ranks, stopping and talking with each man and woman. When they got to the very last rank they found the two prisoners from the LZ. Both looked young and fresh from the simulators, save the mud and grime typical of combat troops. When savage approached them, the blond one spoke first.
"Um...sir...what qualifies you as 'unacceptable'?" he spoke like a beaten man, which he was, that would make training much easier.
Kup answered "don't you worry none sonny...if you hafta ask, you'll be fine." Looking over at the shave-headed bearded one, who was looking defiantly at the ground. "Oh don't you worry, YOU won't have to serve...we'll sort you out." The bearded mechwarrior's expression darkened slightly.
Kup and Savage finished their inspection and went back to the front of the parade.
"Keep'n em sharp you old gunslinger, keep it up."
"Thank you sir, permission to dismiss the troops?"
"Granted."
"CADRE, DIS-MISSED!" They saluted as one and turned to the right and marched off the parade ground.
As they walked away, 1LT Aaron joined them and Savage remarked to no one inparticular;
"I remember reading in one of galaxy commander Horus' books that long ago it was accepted that down hill loyalty did not even exist and a fighting man's only loyalty was to his superiors and screw the men under him, that's what made things like trench warfare and forlorn hopes possible."
Rather dreamily Kup replied; "I can't imagine what that would be like. Most units in the DCMS and CCAF are like that, they get it drilled into them in those stupid brothels they call officers training centers."
"Aaron" said Savage, all philosophizing over.
"Yes sir" like she'd been startled
"Pass it around to all the mechwarriors, get a good night's sleep, tomorrow is gonna be a busy day getting all the kit ready in time for ops.
"Salright sir, us old farts have trouble staying up anyhow."
"Alright dismissed, I'm gonna get some shut eye and Aaron?"
"Yes sir?"
"Forget that stupid paper work, I'll need you bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow to handle the briefing, got it?"
"Yes sir!"
"Alright listen up!" came the booming voice that was connected to the scarred visage of Colonel savage as he addressed the combat troops of the Studies and Observations Group.
"Here's the plan, Kup you'll take Horsemen, minus me of course to this position, 15 clicks south-south west of new Quang Tri city," he used a laser pointer to indicate a bend in a seasonally dry river bed, hidden by over hanging trees. "and will wait for the signal from my task force."
"You will then move 23 clicks down stream until you reach the Red River, which runs through the city, almost to the munitions plant. Once you reach the river..." he released a deep sigh, this was not going to be popular. "as I was saying, you will then enter the river and proceed under water... " He was interrupted as the announcement was met with groans and gripes, as was to be expected.
"ROOM!" bellowed the Regimental Sergeant Major.
Those being briefed in the tent came to the stance of sitting attention known as 'room', while Kup and Slaughter came to regular attention.
"Thanks sarge." Said the smiling colonel to the grizzled senior NCO. "As you were, but with out the noise." He said to the mechwarriors gathered for the mission, who returned to amore relaxed pose.
"Welcome sir."
It was 0143-hrs local time, December 15, 3067.
"As I was saying...you will exit the river, and by the way, not only are there no maritime patrols to speak of but there is not an active probe in the entire city, so you'll be undetected until you exit the river at these two points, here," in a residential district. "and here." Virtually at the gates of the munitions factory.
"Now, the fun part," He said with a death's head grin. "You will then proceed to destroy the factory and city garrisons."
"That's the second part of this little party. It'll be a mission worthy of you're skill."
"Now, the first part, well, it won't be so fair..." he eyed the room, every one was waiting for what he would say.
"As you know, this unit was designed primarily for the covert assault role, with the secondary specialty being insurgency and counter insurgency. This will be good practice for guerilla warfare. We're gonna hit the convoy coming out of the city, but far enough out as to be out of comm range. Although we were unable to get precise intel regarding the forces inside the city, we know that the forces defending the convoy will consist of one word of Blake level 2 recon unit and one of the duke's tank lances, plus what ever other generic convoy escorts they were able to throw together. Easy pickings."
"Assignments, Eltee..." Referring to Lieutenant Aaron.
"Yes sir." As she got up from the HQ team chairs that were situated behind the podium, which was, itself another LRM rack.
"Assigned to task force Street Fighter, Major Kup commanding..."
"Excuse me Eltee, if I may?" always forgetting something
"Sure thing sir."
Reluctantly, "Delta Daggers, that's you O'Hara... are pulling double duty on this one. You will not have to be in two places at once, but it'll be tight, you are assigned to both task force J.E.B. Stuart and task force Street Fighter. As I said, it'll be tight, but your mobility should allow it. Any problems with that Sergeant?" "Just one, sir, it's minor" O'Hara replied in her standard confident tone. "I'm sure my daggers can pull it off, it'll be tight, but..."
"But?"
"Me and the lads, we're kinda nervous about taking the factory..."
"How'd you know you were going to be taking the factory?" asked Savage, rather surprised.
"Well sir, I knew it was a possibility, and we talked it over, what if they do the human shield thing, or blow the factory?"
Good command potential that one and a good question too, it sure bugged the hell out of me.
"The factory is too valuable to blow, and besides that kind of job would take a lot of explosives to do and they just don't have the bombs or the expertise, a munitions factory is harder to blow than you'd think...." Now came the crappy part, savage knew that sonny boy would not hesitate to sink so low as to use civilians as shields and on the burn in system, he'd thought a lot about it.
"That's why your entering the city under water, the 'human shield thing' is well within our enemy's moral comfort zone, but it takes time and infantry to set up and if we can surprise them, they won't have either. Good question though."
O'Hara blushed, her last unit had been the young guard, a merc unit "ruled" by General (funny since it was only 2 lances and a demi-company) Napoleon the 4th. A man as stupid as he was fat, who knew nothing of strategy, tactics or leadership and upheld a pompous policy of his "officers" treating the "ranks" like shoe scrapings, his only good trait being that he slept a lot and rarely ventured onto a battle field except to micro manage. Of course this was all academic since he was dead, his neck snapped by Paxton when the pompous whale tried to rape a SOG tech.
"Sorry to interrupt Eltee, this is your briefing now, I'm just here to answer questions. Continue"
"As I was saying before I was interrupted...sir..." she accentuated the 'sir' with a comical look of contempt that sent the tent into a fit, savage thought he even saw Kup and slaughter giggle.
"Delta Daggers and Angry Gods, along with Colonel Savage commanding are assigned to task force J.E.B. Stuart. The planing session will be at 1730, after dinner mess, in this tent. The jump off time will depend on where and when you intend to ambush the convoy." She paused, calling up information from her computer like brain.
"Task force Street Fighter under command of Major Kup, will include the Delta Daggers and the remainder of the Horsemen. Planning session will begin right after the planning for J.E.B. Stuart. Your go time will depend on when the first mission finishes." She took a drink from her canteen, before continuing.
"Killer Angels will run aggressive patrols, in this general area of operations, the two of you" referring two McCallum and Kirbey. "Can do your planning anywhere you want and are to begin operations at 0130 tomorrow. You're dismissed." SOG's two acting recon pilots immediately got up and left to plan, check their mechs and sleep.
She turned towards her CO, who was reclining precariously in a fold up chair. "Any thing you'd like to add sir?"
Narrowly avoiding an embarrassing chair related injury. "Nope that covers it Eltee, good briefing." Now addressing the entire tent, "any questions for myself or the other staff?" no one said anything, by now they could all smell the food being prepared next door in the mess tents, Anything not important enough to delay breakfast, could be delt with in the planning sessions.
"Alright then let's eat!"
"ROOM!" bellowed Kup "CADRE, DIS-MISSED!"
17 mechwarriors, in order of lowest to highest rank, with Savage last, left the tent to eat, check equipment, sleep, plan and then go to war. On his way to the mess tent, Captain Percell approached Savage.
"What the hell is this sir!?" the irate third in command kept his voice just loud enough to let Savage know he was pissed and quiet enough to not broadcast it to those within ear shot. "We get new intel on our burn in system that there are wobblies on planet and you said I'd get a shot at them. Here they are and I'm going city busting."
"You'll get your chance Danny."
"They killed my family sir!...I swore on the mass grave that they bulldozed my parents in that I'd kill them all! And you said you'd give me the chance! Is this some kind of don't let it get personal crap or..."
Barely a whisper. "Now you listen and you listen good troop...this is not some white knight crap about revenge getting the better of you. YOU know it can kill you faster than a fusion breach, but I also know it can help you fight harder, better and give you a much better, more persistent reason to live than anything else." He paused, collecting himself.
"I assigned you to the city because they need you, they need your firepower, they need your skill as a pilot and they need you to take that factory if Kup goes down...when the time comes, you will have your chance. The HPG is guarded by a much larger WOB force than the convoy, you'll get it there."
"Okay sir, but I just want one more guarantee."
"And that is?"
"If I get greased...you'll kill the scum for me."
"Done, now lets go eat!"
"I'm sorry about that sir... it's just..."
"I know Danny, we'll get 'em don't worry." |
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