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Stuart’s Spartans: Devil’s Wrath Part 1
Follow Jacob Olsen, XO of Stuart's Spartans Mercenary Company. Venture with them as both man and machine are tested in the fires of battle on the most dangerous mission to date for the Spartans. Will they survive the wrath of the FWL?
by AidanPryde |
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It was quite an impressive sight to see the mixed mercenary battalion taking up positions. All in all there were four units hired to comprise this strike-force. Of course there was Stuart’s Spartans, but there was also a company of medium and heavy jump-capable mechs from the Shadow Lancers, a company of battlemechs and two lances of tanks and hovercraft from the Restless Souls mercenary battalion, and two lances of mechs from the Arcani Guards. This combined firepower gave the mercenary command a battalion of battlemechs and an under-strength battalion of armor.
Last minute orders were issued and two columns departed the DZ for their respective objectives. Stuart’s Spartans were to head to the west with their mechs and armor to check the mining facilities in that direction and to secure the town of Bakersfield. The Shadow Lancers were to take their company and head southeast towards a small city and its accompanying militia base 100 klicks away. Restless Souls were tasked to head north-northwest with their mechs and one lance of armor to secure a metalwork factory on a mining base compound approximately 50 klicks into the foothills. The Arcani Guard remained behind with a lance of Restless Soul armor and the lance (2) of aerospace fighters and the squadron (6) of Nightshade VTOLs brought by the Lancers to guard the dropships and act as a mobile reserve if the need arose.
The Spartans were over 20 klicks from the dropships and there had been no sign of resistance so far. There were no signs of mechs, vehicles, even civilian vehicles…while some of the other pilots might think this was becoming a cakewalk, Jacob was nervous. The Free Worlders had had over 6, almost 7, months to rearm themselves and dig in. Also, it had been a six day burn to get planet-side and it shouldn’t have been difficult to guess where the landing zones were going to be. While the Southern Hemisphere was less important than the cities and spaceports in the north, it was still necessary to hold to retain possession of Devil’s Rock. Since there was no reported aerospace assets planet-side, there should have been some signs of a recon team scouting the DZ and intended routes…it’s not as if there was doubt what the primary targets would be if an assault were to take place.
30 klicks from the dropships, two mining facilities checked, and a grand total of nothing. The mines were abandoned and it was clear that there had been no human activity for at least a few weeks. The Spartans still had another two mines to scout and then Bakersfield to capture and occupy. Shannon ‘Raven’ Blackwood and her Lightning Lance found the next mine to be the same as the first two with no signs of life or that anyone had been in the area for the past few weeks. However, the fourth mine (a strip mine), the one closest to Bakersfield, did have fresh tracks and recent activity in it, but visual and Magnetic Scans couldn’t turn up anything solid.
“Skipper, Caboose. The Scimitars report visual on a medium lance in 3rd Guards colors hauling ass towards Bakersfield from the north” came the sudden call over comms. “Roger that Caboose. Let’s roll Spartans. Form up and get moving” replied Frank. At this point the company was only 6 klicks from town, so within moments the column eased itself over the last hill and Jacob found himself looking down over a kilometer wide valley of fields that ended just before reaching the hillside town of Bakersfield. It looked like there was activity on the hilltop though, and in Jacob’s mind that could mean anything. “Skipper, it’s open field ‘til we hit the town. That lance will beat us to it and I think there’s activity on the hilltop, but magnification isn’t helping any” said Ice.
“Gotcha, Ice. Alright Spartans, Marathon formation and advance at the walk. Caboose, see if your Scimitars can get close enough to tell what’s on that hill, but don’t risk’em yet” ordered Skipper. With these orders, the Spartans quickly took up a formation pioneered by the ancient Athenians nearly 3500 years before. Lightning Lance and the Alacorn Mk VI and Challenger X tanks of Beast Lance took up the center of the line. Meanwhile Thunder Lance split to take the ends with Skipper and Mobius on the left with their Nightstar and Caesar while Ice and Grogg covered the right with their Devastator and Cestus. In this line they started to advance over the field as the company’s Scimitar hovercraft came scurrying back to the line chased by a pair of Cicada battlemechs.
At 40 tons each, the pair of Cicadas was severely outclassed by the line they were closing in on, but they were equal to the Scimitars in speed and superior in firepower. Already the Hover Tanks had scorch marks from hits by the Cicadas’ medium lasers. The Free World pilots were sloppy, however. At 130kph, the tanks and chasing mechs had closed to within 700 meters of the advancing Spartans and showed total focus on their targets. One of the mechs finally got lucky and put a pair of UAC5 rounds into the engine compartment of one of the Scimitars, causing it to lose lift and take a nose-dive into the field. Ice flipped on his comms “Alright lady and gents, target is on the left. Volley on my mark. And MARK!” With that word, the Cicada on the left disintegrated into a nuclear fireball as it was struck by 10 Gauss Slugs, 4 PPCs, and an assortment of lasers. A bit of overkill in Ice’s opinion, but it certainly put down a mech with minimal effort.
The other Cicada, noticing the expanding ball of debris and atoms that used to be his lancemate, quickly decided to do the honorable deed and run away as fast as possible. Normally Ice would have had no problem letting the pilot get away, but a contract is a contract, and resistance needed to be eliminated. Ice lined up the shot and put a Gauss slug high up on the other Cicada’s back, sending the mech face first into the ground. Skipper then proceeded to walk his Nightstar over and stand on the Cicada’s legs, crushing them and making sure the mech wasn’t going anywhere. “Caboose, leave the Challenger here and guard the salvage…I mean prisoner…If he moves or fights, slag his cockpit” called Skipper. “Roger that boss man, consider it done” came the reply.
All the sudden Ice’s cockpit was filled with the warning tones of incoming missiles and his Devastator was rocking from impacts. “Pair of Lineholders and a pair of LRM Tracks on top of the hill” called Grogg. “This is Skipper. All Spartan units close to the town and break off by pairs. Get those mechs and tracks before they get us out here. Meet you at the top. Mobius, you’re with me.” Fortunately for the Spartans, Bakersfield was a small town of no more than a thousand, so routes of movement through town, though few in number, were short. The streets in Bakersfield could only hold a pair of mechs at best and they followed the various contours of the hill, limiting line of sight and movement, turning a hilltop assault into an urban brawl for the brief time it would take to clear the buildings.
As the Spartans hit the town under a rain of missiles, Ice and Grogg broke off to take one of the larger streets through town. “Ice, I’ll take point” he called. Almost immediately they hit a roadside ambush and had to bring down the buildings to eliminate the infantry within. About half way through the town, there came a tremendous explosion to Ice and Grogg’s left. “What the bloody hell was that!?” came a shout from Mobius. Raven quickly piped up “The twins found an SRM carrier nestled in a cul-de-sac and decided to start a bonfire.” Ice just shook his head. Leave it to the Jones twins in their Firestarters to make a scene.
Grogg and Ice had made it about halfway through the town when they came to a bottleneck in the road. The path up the hill was too narrow to safely accommodate two large battlemechs. Ice told Grogg to keep going on the current road and turned his Devastator to resume his accent a few blocks over. Continuing his way slowly up the steep grade, Ice suddenly found his mech rocking with explosions and having to drop to a knee to avoid falling over into an apartment complex. Swinging his torso around to the right, Ice saw a 70 ton Typhoon Urban Assault Vehicle hiding behind a building.
Firing off his four medium lasers and a PPC, scorching the Marik tank’s turret, Ice tried to get back on both feet but only got partway up before falling back to a knee under a torrent of 30 SRMs, pulse lasers, and an LBX 20. Growling in frustration, Ice fired off his medium lasers again, scoring the armor of the wheeled tank. With a loud crack, both of Ice’s Gauss Rifles fired their supersonic projectiles at the target not more than 50 meters distant. One of the shots crashed into the body of the tank, punching through to wreak havoc inside the vehicle, while the second shot glanced off the turret and crashed into an office building further down the alley. The Typhoon retaliated with another volley of missiles, pocking the torso armor of its 100 ton opponent, and shot off another cluster round from its LBX, tearing gashes into the left torso of the Devastator. Ice was now thoroughly pissed and with a shout fired off both PPCs and all four lasers and gasped for air at the sudden blast of scalding air from a taxed reactor. One of the PPC shots and three of the lasers burned holes into the turret while one of the lasers missed high. The other PPC, however, hit a reloading SRM pack, detonating the missiles and causing a chain detonation of the launchers, shredding the missile launchers as well as the interior of the tank as the ammunition supply cooked off.
“You alright there Ice?” came a call from Grogg as he rounded the corner a hundred meters up the road. “Just fine…thanks for the assist” replied Ice with a tint of sarcasm as he managed to pull his dented mech back into a standing position. “Marik must really want this place bad, I didn’t think that those new Typhoons were ‘expendable’ so soon off the factory line” laughed Grogg as he took a glimpse at the burning wreckage. “Yeah, I didn’t think that Marik would have his grubby little hands on any of these yet either, but I wish that we could afford one.” “I hear that boss. Now let’s get moving or Skipper is going to beat everyone to the top and hog all the fun and explosions for himself, ha-ha.”
Unfortunately, by the time Ice and Grogg made it to the top of the hill most of the action was over. One of the LRM tracks lay spread around the hilltop as little pieces of shrapnel while the crew of the second sat outside their machine under the guns of Raven’s and Frog’s mechs. Of the two Lineholders, the one closest to Ice was a standing pillar of flame, the pilot obviously cooked to a crisp inside the cockpit, and the other lay unmoving on its back.
“Well what took you guys so long? We dang near sent the twins out looking for you” called Skipper over comms. “Sorry for taking so long Skip. I stumbled across a nasty little Marik surprise by the apartments” replied Ice. “You guys couldn’t have saved any fun for us?” “Nope!” came the merry reply from the twins.
“Alright smartasses, hush up” called Skipper. “Twins, keep an eye on the prisoners. Raven, Frog, 3 klick perimeter sweep. I want to know who’s in the area, what direction they’re in, and guesstimates on strength. Check in every 10 minutes. Grogg, Mobius, sentry positions on the earthworks. Caboose, get that Challenger and Scimitar back on our salvage but get your lazy arse up here a.s.a.p. Ice, center and dismount; it’s time for a huddle. Grogg, you’re in charge for the moment.” A chorus of affirmatives came back over comms, sending mechs and vehicles into motion.
Ice and Skipper brought their assault-mechs to the center of the hilltop, put them in standby, and dismounted. “What’s on your mind Frank? You have that tone to your voice” called Jake as he climbed down from the cockpit. “Eh, there’s probably too much on my mind right now Jake. Called in to mercenary command that we achieved our objectives. We’re to hold the town to draw in any Marik forces that might be in the area. The amount of c-bills this town generates from the local mines is too much to leave it in our hands” replied Frank.
“There’s something else, isn’t there?” “Yeah, there is, cousin. The RCT has hit unexpectedly high resistance around Forrest City. Reports are they’ve seen mechs and vehicles in unit colors other than the 3rd Free Worlds Guards, but they haven’t been able to identify the color scheme or any unit markings. That means there’s at least one other unit on planet…and I don’t like it.”
Frank continued, “The Souls are still securing the plant to the north. Apparently they hit some militia resistance and are still conducting mop-ups. The Lancers had to detour around some swamps so they likely won’t get to their objective ‘til morning. Command is sending us our dropship as soon as all the objectives are secure and then they’re pulling the Arcani Guard up north to help the RCT folks, so we’ll be on our own.”
“Well,” replied Jacob, “if we’re to hold any piece of land, I’d rather it be this piece. I mean look at it! Decent sized river to the west, flood plain for at least a few hundred meters in every direction around the hill, almost a kilometer if you are looking east. Next closest hills to the north and south are shorter and a good 300 to 400 meters from the base of this one. We are sitting on a 300 meter tall fortress with a big enough clearing to land a dropship on top of it! If they’re going to come in any sizable force, they’re going to have to come from the east over the plain and through the town…not exactly the most ideal terrain to cover when you have weapon fire raining down on you the whole time. We were just lucky that it was a small force that wasn’t as prepared as they could have been, otherwise Dani and her techs would hurt more of us for messing up our mechs.”
“Very true Jake. You know Dani is going to hurt you bad for making her replace that torso armor. But you’re right, they could have been more prepared. As is we’re lucky that they had started to dig in up here. But at least they were generous enough to give us a fully operational LRM carrier. And with the crazy techs we have, we might even be able to scavenge one of those Lineholders. Nice mechs those Lineholders. Just released at the beginning of the year if memory serves; getting one of those working would be a good haul.”
“Hey boss, Raven’s on the mic for you” said Grogg over his external speakers. “Jake, you take this one, I gotta go take a piss.” “You go and do that” laughed Jake. Climbing back up to his cockpit, Jake put his neurohelmet back on and keyed up Raven’s frequency. “Raven, Ice here. What’s the report?” “Ice, we’re about 4 and a half klicks north northeast of town. I have a landing site for two dropships within the past few weeks, you can still smell the burnt vegetation. Might be a few other landings but they’d be a few months old…it’s hard to tell. The fresh landings mark at least a company of mechs and vehicles. There are a lot of tracks in the area so there’s no way to guess just how many, but I can see footprints for at least 3 heavy or assault class mechs.” “Roger Raven. Continue on patrol, but keep an extra eye out. If they’re still local they’re not going to take well to anyone finding their tracks. Finish up quick and get back to the hill.” Jacob quickly climbed back down to the ground and ran over to Frank. “Skip, you’re not going to like this…..” |
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