|
|
Foothills Battle, The
A 'real life' battle between Mercs and forces from House Liao
by Commander Truestar |
|
The Battle of Mountain's Foot
Part One
Date of Game: May 2000
The Grind Stone
After ten days on the run they had to know it was time. The rag-tag Liao survivors still held numbers above a battalion, but some of those counted were more hollow than not. Having escaped the Angry Targets once, Sang-Shao Quan Teng had been forced to admit that facing them at all had been a mistake. And it was a mistake his people had paid for. With the loss of a company to destruction or unrepairable combat damage, he knew the road that lay before his people. They stopped, as they could, for ad-hoc repairs, but these were always hurried and uncertain. The St. Ives "beaters" were determined to keep them running until they stumbled into the next engagement. And they were maddeningly efficient at keeping him from splitting units off the main force to hide them.
But repaired and brought back after ten days, Angry Targets Commander Haas knew that Teng would notice the withdrawal of his St. Ives pursuers immediately. He knew that they would see the "clouds" clear and know it was the calm before the storm of battle. And with that in mind, and no other options, Haas ordered his people forward.
The Lay of the Land
Second Lieutenant Wardley, lately dispossessed of the 14th Air Chance, had decided it felt good to be flying again. Having been shot down over the Mining center by St. Ives guns, he knew what Warrant Officer Adora Lucilla was going through in her hospital bed. But The Targets needed everything they could get and St. Ives had repaired her Stingray after the crash. The best he could hope for was to make those Liao bastards pay... Not just for his Stingray, or for the wounds he and his fellow pilots had suffered, but for getting the Angry Targets involved in all this to begin with.
And now his sortie would lead things off. He would be able to run the southern edge of the Liao formation and try to clear the way for the Targets to move upon their foe. The ground below, foothills around some of the ever present mountains on Warlock, was broken and rose and fell, at times in 40 meter jumps. But Wardley quickly over-flew his regiment's position and acquired a constellation of red pin-lights on his HUD. Each light an enemy mech or vehicle, it was very easy to read. The enemy were arrayed in a 360 degree perimeter which told him that the Liao had no warning from which direction the hammer was falling, and it was up to him to decide where that would be.
Hammer Time
As the Angry Targets moved up along the gullies, Commander Haas had many things to do. One secondary display monitored the movement of his ground forces while another predicted the location of the enemy. And as he checked both periodically, he was also controlling his own mech's movement and acknowledging updates. But as he watched, his unit and the predicted battlefield areas slowly merged. If all went well, and when did it ever go well, the enemy would not know where the Targets were coming from until it was too late. The badlands were a harsh place to fight with the odds on many small "knife fights" if they could trap any of the Liao units. But now they were closing and the "estimated enemy display" and the "Angry Target's" display were almost one. Suddenly more than one Angry Targets pilot ducked involuntarily as a great "whoosh" penetrated even the thick armored hide of their battlemech cockpits.
It was Lieutenant Fidel "Smokey" Wardley at the controls of the Wings of Thunder Stingray and passing over at tree-top level. His call-sign was as much a play on his name from ancient Terran History as it was a play on his combat record. But even downed, he was the most successful pilot the Targets had and the Stingray was their last flying Aerofighter. Quickly Haas' secondary display filled with red pin-lights defining the enemy's real positions off Wardley's feed, and just as quickly Haas smiled, they had truly had no warning at all. Haas keyed the regiment-wide Comms channel as he saw the reflected data from Wardley's targeting system...
"Targets, this is it! Advance in two lines and shift to consolidate on available enemy positions."
With that order, the two forward sweeping lines of Angry Targets would move up and push their speed to engage the enemy. On their secondary monitors they could see the movement as the southern-most lance of Liao troops scrambled to get out from under the Stingray's guns!
Lions and Lambs
Sao-Wei Nicchan scanned the horizon with his Phoenix Hawk's scanners. Looking west, he was alerted before any of the pilots in his lance could say anything. All four of them, with a start, began scrambling their mechs in response to the radar hit. Flexing his mech's knees and jumping his PHawk into the air, Nicchan ordered his lance out of the path of the fighter even as it was bearing down on them. Two of his pilots also jumped their mechs clear but Sao-Wei Harris could not. His 45 ton Blackjack could only make 120 meters that way and he could get clear with another 30 by "running" his mech. Pumping his throttle to full out, his mech began moving to the cliffs at better than 18 meters per second!
Lieutenant Wardley watched most of the mechs move out from under his guns on his HUD as Nicchan watched Harris on his secondary display. And as Haas watched on his secondary display and Smokey moved down for the kill, Nicchan 's heart sank as Harris cried out over the lance-wide channel.
Moving too fast as he hit the hill's edge, Harris' mech had lost its footing and he slid off the edge of the cliff and fell to the terrain 30 meters below. But even as he did so, he fell just beneath the twin-traced lines of fire raining down from the passing Stingray. And even as he noted his junior pilot's fall, Nicchan and his other pilots were joining in on the counter-air fire rising up to ward off the Angry Targets Stingray.
Unable to see what was happening but knowing his pilot was still in the air, Haas ordered a sit-rep and, as he rode out the buffeting fire that ate almost two tons of armor off the Stingray's nose, Smokey reported one enemy down due to pilot error and no enemies damaged due to fire. It was up to the ground forces now as Wardley needed to bring his fighter back up and circle around.
Once more into the sights...
And now, with Wardley burning for flight altitude, the fastest elements of the Angry Targets were picking up Nicchan's lance on their own. The Liao forces had moved deeper into the cut and harsh terrain of the badlands after their first blood-letting ten days before. Spread in a line, the faster Angry Targets mechs would pour down gullies onto enemy formations, hopefully keeping them from organizing. Then, the rest of the Angry Targets would pour in on a broad based front and look for groups of mechs separated in the confusion. In the lead, Lieutenant Deva Bartley drew his 18th "Pale Horses" in support of the 19th "Ghostriders" on their East. Behind that line, the Maxims of the 31st Mechanized Infantry Company rode ready with LRMs in fire support, their infantry cargo ready to deploy. To their east, the heavier units of the regiment were beginning the consolidation onto their path while on the far East point of the Target's line, the combined assault mechs of the Urban Assault, Jagermeisters and Romanov's Rabbelrousers were taking to the heights to rain fire down on the cut terrain.
Now, for the south-most Liao formations, it was a race. Could Nicchan's people get out in time? Could Harris even get his mech up and run? Or would the on-rushing ten Targets units wash over the fleeing four Liao? As the bulk of the Angry Target's heavier guns met no resistance from the retreating Liao ground forces, the western flank was about to see a pile up. Sao-Wei Harris was moving his Blackjack as fast as he could, but could see the Targets mechs moving quickly up on him. Sao-Wei Nicchan had not completely pulled out his lance but kept them far enough back that they could escape when the inevitable happened. For Nicchan there really was no question. Harris' mech was too slow and would never out run the Jenners, Wolfhounds and lighter mechs that chased him. But as they closed, Harris might inflict damage which Nicchan and his people could compound with more fire. Knowing that the enemy mechs were light, it would not take much damage to "convince" the mercenaries to pull back. And that would allow Harris' personal sacrifice to have meaning as the Angry Targets saw their assault blunted once again, and the Liao survivors would slip away again. In addition, Nicchan had been alerted that Sao-Wei Ghousa's lance was moving in to support his retreat. This was a retreat after all, and not a rout.
In the meantime, Lancer Commander Haas led his heavy elements moving over the broken terrain as the Angry Targets main line slowly inched up the pressure. Moving up on so wide a front allowed for the best use of all the Target's longer ranged weapons while the smaller faster units moved up into key scouting or harassment positions. As they moved, Liao artillery owned the field. Lucky drops had already damaged several of the heaviest mechs in the Angry Targets TO+E and not just armor either. The Gods of Warlock surely held a cold place in hell from which they guided in the Liao shells and shrapnel. No less than three of those monstrous assault mechs, two 80 ton Awesomes and a 100 ton King Crab, had suffered significant damage to their cockpits. The pilots had been bounced around and abused by the damage and as well, the 10th "Urban Assault" were having communications problems due to the damage to half their mechs.
Commander Haas could see reports from Lt. Commander Sutherland in her 50 ton Phoenix Hawk LAM. She had lead the three LAM lance, the "Black Sheep", up the west flank with the 12th's modified LAM making number four after the loss of one Black Sheep. They were on hand to assist if the Pale Riders and Ghostriders got in trouble. On a secondary channel reserved for Lancer commanders only, Haas could hear Second Lieutenant "Jelly" Jelal of the 40th speculating on the enemy movement. Jelal had noticed that, while almost every other mech in the Liao force was trying to withdraw from the Targets, a lone 35 ton Raven was moving up into the same gully that the crippled Liao Blackjack was retreating down. Soon the Raven would link up with the Blackjack and its lancemates. But the Raven was just another light mech which could not stand up against the damage that the 18th and 19th could pour out.
The one thing that caused concern was the fact that the Raven battlemech design was outfitted with laser guidance packages known as "TAG". "Target Acquisition Gear" allowed a forward mech to "paint" a foe for indirect fire of semi-guided missiles. But so far, the Liao had only shown the ability to fire unguided shells from their three 65 ton Arrow IV mounting Catapults. Haas knew that if they had guided missiles loaded as well as dumb, this fight was gonna get exciting.
Flashpoint
As suddenly as the blink of an eye, speculation ended in fire. In evacuating his people, Sang-Shao Quan Teng had made one huge mistake. He knew he needed to get his people out and chose the most open method available. With eyes that searched and watched the every move of his people as well as the enemy he pushed them out into the widest of the crags, that led north and away from their foe. But the Angry Targets too were watching and he was so wrapped in his on plans that he forgot that. The Angry Targets too were planning and he did not compensate for that. The gunner, Warrant Officer Alden Isabella, aboard the sniper armed 12th Wings of Thunder modified Planetlifter was aiming, and Teng was not watching where they were shooting...
One huge explosion ripped up over the rocky crags as The arty carrying Planetlifter dropped a round into the enemy's midst. At first, Warrant Officer Lars Hannibal had seen that the round was shot wide of its intended mark. But the round hit and was quickly followed by twin secondary explosions, wreathed in the billowing black smoke and harsh orange flame of burning fuel! Hannibal could hardly believe their luck when they had spent much of the last engagement vs these troops trying to peg down their damn supply trucks.
Readouts indicated that not one but two of the trucks had been in the kill zone! And based on those explosions, they were not getting out. At the same time, Lieutenants Bartley and Clyburn had worked out a plan. The slower moving 19th Ghostriders would sweep straight up with the support of the Maxims of the 31 mechanized Infantry in an attempt to finish off the crippled Blackjack they'd been pounding. Meanwhile, the 18th Pale Riders would swing their Jenners around and attempt to take down the approaching Raven before it could commit to any mischief. Unfortunately, as they made their plan real, no one caught the instantaneous ripple of doppler reflection from the Liao rear.
Firing like the spewing mouth of hell, the guns of the 19th and 31st fed fire into the tortured armor, myomar muscles and ferro-aluminum bones of the Blackjack's left side. The mech again teetered as it lost its left arm and more, but it still refused to fall! And as this latest attempt to take down the Liao mech failed, Lieutenant Bartley led his people in a fast dash and tight "snap turn" that put them dead on the Raven's right side. But the Raven's pilot had seen them coming and had turned his mech at the hip...
And even as Bartley's fingers closed on his triggers, taking advantage of the frozen environment of Warlock to bleed off all the heat his mech could make...
Even as he gave the orders for his two junior mechwarriors to unload into the Raven...
Even as the LAM's of the Black Sheep lance watched in horrified fascination...
Bartley heard the howl of warnings fill his cockpit, followed by the whoosh of diving missiles!
Over the Target's comms channel, First Lieutenant Charles VonFeilitzsch of the First Targets Mech Company was heard to almost whisper, "Quoth the Raven.....Arrow IV".
The Raven was chewed hard by the fire put out by the three Jenners and it had been knocked off its perch onto the ground, shedding even more armor. Having lost almost two tons of armor, the pilot was thrown but he would be able to get his ride up again. Warrant Officer Washington Piper, Bartley's #2 pilot, had eaten fire from the Liao lance that had been supporting the damaged Blackjack as well as two mechs from a supporting lance that had moved up to assist the Liao units in their retreat. Badly damaged, he could see that they had burned through his armor in several places. But his Jenner was still standing.
Second Lieutenant Deva Bartley hung in his harness, face bloodied and upside-down in the red-lit cave of his cockpit. The only lighting came from distressed alarms shining from his control displays. As the smoke and shrapnel of the three explosions was clearing, his mech could be seen by the others. Sprawled where it had been thrown like a rag doll, its right arm and side gone, its center mass ripped open and its scarred but undamaged engine casing and partially destroyed Gyro housing exposed to the elements. Bartley knew it was bad. From the dizziness he felt from neuro-feedback he knew he still had "some" of the gyro left and he knew he had to get the hell out of there!
Suddenly the whole west flank had changed. The Black Sheep would likely have to move in to help the Ghostriders hold the flank as Piper and Bartley pulled out under the guns of Warrant Officer Aleron Galton, who's Jenner had not drawn any fire at all in the exchange. In addition, the free-firing way that the gunners of the 31st had "hosed down" the enemy positions with their LRM's had the senior vehicle commander, Warrant Officer Saville O'Belia, shouting "Light Long" over the comms channel. This was the pre-arranged code that indicated the Maxims were down to one third their load of LRM ammo or less! With the Black Sheep and the Ghostriders, the Maxims could move up and press with their SRM's but their long range was getting shorter than a "single digit midget".
Here ends the play that occurred in May of 2000. this battle will be picked up at this point on 10 June 2000.
Commander Truestar |
|
|
|
|
| Next page >>> |
| Page :
1 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
