Clarion Hill Spaceport

Robinson, Federated Commonwealth

09 November 3153, 14:11 Terran Standard Time

Two more explosions shook Major Ragu Arano-Nova’s Pillager, dangerous near misses that could have been catastrophic. Resistance to Flanagan’s Highwaymen 2^nd Battalion Charlie Company had been limited since they had landed on Robinson, but the local militia was not wanting them to take control of the spaceport on top of Clarion Hill and had pulled out all the stops. At least two full companies of armored vehicles had been positioned throughout the airfield, along with infantry hiding in pillboxes and at least a lance of ‘mechs. “Anyone has visual on that Demolisher,” asked Ragu on the radio.

Flanagan had been contracted by a group of Combine citizens to rescue civilians and dignitaries which had been stranded on Robinson since the Federated Suns had reclaimed the world in late 3149. The FedSuns military wanted to keep them as hostages and potentially ransom them. The Combine could not care less about them, and not a single thing had been done to evacuate them. The families, along with a few humanitarian groups, had put down a lot of money to see them returned to Dieron and Altair. Enough money to hire an entire battalion of the Flanagan’s Highwaymen, at least. While the bulk of the revenue for Flanagan’s Repair and Refits now came from their industrial work in the Aurigan Trade Alliance, the Highwaymen were still a highly decorated and well-regarded “semi-mercenary” unit that you could contract for these types of dangerous, humanitarian missions which involved fighting for no cause other than the survival of the average citizen of the Inner Sphere and Periphery. This kind of job also was different from the average pirate hunting job the Highwaymen did for House Arano, so it suited them well.

One gauss slug hit the side of a Scorpion light tank, flipping it over. The second one hit a Galleon dead center, stopping it in its tracks as it was closing in on O’Connell’s Javelin. Ragu was getting used to piloting his new Pillager, a reward he had gotten with his new position as Captain of Charlie cavalry company. The Highwaymen’s Wolverines, Griffins, Javelins and other fast cavalry units had started spreading out in the field, hunting down armor before they could deal more damage, in hope Bravo company had better luck escorting the convoy of civilian vehicles down the hill. That Demolisher which had popped up on sensors was also still nowhere to be seen.

Ragu scratched his nose quickly between pushing the pedals for a quick jump out of the way so he could maybe spend a minute thinking. He knew there would be resistance trying to take a spaceport for an evacuation, but this seemed excessive. While not doing the whole Clan batchall thing, they had announced to the planetary militia that they were coming to get those civilians out. Bravo and Charlie company had seen no real resistance getting to them, and some locals even provided transportation, if they would get their vehicles back afterwards and were compensated. The actual Davion forces on the planet had let them be after Alpha company met with them and did not even trade shots. This was all local planetary militia and corporate defense forces, and they weren’t fighting just to prevent a few dropships from landing and taking people off world.

“Anyone seen the Demolisher”, asked Ragu again. “Or any reason why these surats are fighting so hard?” Another explosion, a burst from a Deleon 5 on another Scorpion. Four medium lasers burned bright green towards it, cooking the armor off the turret before the bright blue light of the Pillager’s large laser decapitated it. 2 more dead for no good reason, or was there a good reason? Ragu’s sensors were scanning the entire spaceport, linking with the other cavalry machines in his unit to give him a better understanding of the situation. There were 3 dropships landed here. A civilian one, a Danais, that he knew was scheduled to leave tomorrow with a cargo of bricks, mortar and lumber, nothing special about it. There was a Davion-colored Leopard, belonging to the local garrison, which they had promised not to touch, with any damage to it having to be paid to the local Davion officer, in cash. Ragu knew he’d pocket it if they did damage it, but that was life. The last one was a Hamilcar, which had no specific marking on it to identify it as military or not. Thing is that those types of dropships are pure heavy metal carriers. Not enough cargo to be a civilian transport ship, it doesn’t have Davion marking and IFF, but it isn’t shooting at us right now. Whoever that thing belongs to is either not present or doesn’t want to attract attention.

A bright light attracted the Major’s attention. Wallace’s Griffin had taken a hard hit, and he was pulling out as quickly as he could. Finally, that Demolisher had shown up. Slamming the jump pedals down and putting the throttle at full, Ragu’s ‘mech lept up too quickly for a 100-ton machine, but his aim remained clear. Two gauss slugs, one ricochetting off the Demolisher shell, one making a clean impact, while the large laser melted off a bit of the side armor. The assault tank turned its turret, but at that range, there was no way the 185mm shells would make contact on a jumping battlemech. A PPC rocked the front armor of the 80-ton tank, courtesy of Wallace’s machine who was still retreating. Nkeme’s Wolverine let out a stream of 120mm shell from his Whirlwind AC/5, adding to the damage. The turret turned again to face the Wolverine, and fired its paired 185mm guns, making Nkeme stumble, but the Wolverine kept its composure and moved behind a building for cover. Two more gauss slugs, both hitting the side of the ‘mechkiller tank, Ragu keeping his distance so that the massive main guns could not hit him easily, or at all. Another burst of 6 120mm shells from the Wolverine, which popped out its arm and took a pot shot, a lucky hit causing the whole Demolisher to shake. Zaidane must have had a death wish, rushing his Javelin towards the damaged tank side, releasing 8 short range missiles along with the green light of its medium lasers, but this time, something made the Demolisher more than shake. A second after the missiles hit their target, the turret assembly went flying as the 185mm shells detonated from their magazine. Ragu let out a sigh of relief and looked at the general situation again.

The rest of the armor in the spaceport were no match for a full company of rugged battlemech pilots. Galleons, Scorpions and Harassers, mostly, the few Hetzers already having been taken out at a distance by the medium cavalry ‘mechs. The enemy commander did not answer hails still, and his men looked like they were willing to fight to the last, which was perplexing. This was not the behavior of local militia or corporate security forces. Founder and Blake, even Clan warriors would start asking to be taken bondsmen or something at this point. More medium lasers coming from Galleons, more Gauss slugs silencing them forever. Ammunition was starting to be a concern, but then again, a single kick from the Pillager could easily destroy any of those light tanks. Ragu’s attention turned back to the Hamilcar. No movement, no heat signature. Either that thing was abandoned or something odd was going on. The Davion dropship kept broadcasting its IFF as Neutral, the Highwaymen happily ignoring it. A Harasser tried its luck against the Pillager’s back armor, shaking Ragu a bit before Zaidane took the hovertank out with precision missile fire. Were they fighting drones? Even the craziest Blakist renegade in the periphery wasn’t willing to die fighting like this, outclassed and outgunned.

Another 5 minutes passed before the battle was over, the last of the local defender pillbox silenced by a Wolverine stepping on it. Ragu was disgusted at how violent that whole thing had been, and how many lives had been sacrificed, for what? To let a group of dropships land to evacuate civilians, or was there something more? Bravo company, along with a dozen of buses and a few pickup trucks, breached the spaceport perimeter as the glowing engine of the humanitarian dropships started shining up in the sky. He had to check out the Hamilcar at this point.

Clarion Hill Spaceport, unidentified Dropship

Robinson, Federated Commonwealth

09 November 3153, 15:33 Terran Standard Time

Evacuation was going as quickly as it could in a spaceport covered in carcasses of armored vehicles. Ragu had climbed out of this machine to direct traffic at first, but now he was helping the sappers investigate the unknown dropship. His golden-brown hair was almost the same color as his caramel skin, which he understood was a mix of his house Arano and Nova Cat background. It didn’t even need any gene editing to have that strange hair color, and his inability to grow a beard, a Friend had told him. His genetic material could create very unusual combinations, but it also meant he would be a great warrior. At least, genetically speaking. He would have preferred to be a freeborn like most of his company, but the Aurigan Genetic Survival Program was a necessity and fully endorsed by Flanagan’s Repair and Refits. His adoptive parents couldn’t conceive anyways and had been happy to take care of him with the grant money from the government. His younger sister was from a different genepool, and while she was also Trueborn, she had decided to go into nursing rather than go into the military. Ragu was very proud of her, and she was perfectly suited for that role. Huang Zhe, Captain of Bravo Company, came up to him with a man he could not identify, wearing a Davion flight uniform. Zhe was of Capellan origin, but his family had been Aurigan since the Jihad, and he did have to fight some stereotypes to climb up the ranks, but he was a incredibly competent communicator, knowing 8 languages.

“So why are we wasting time on some random dropship, Rags,” Zhe asked in the secret tongue of the Traveler’s. “Whoever those guys we fought to get here were protecting this thing”, the Maori-Trueborn replied. “Nothing else here of any value, and unless there’s someone we haven’t identified in that convoy which someone REALLY wanted dead.” The Davion officer cleared his throat and looked confusedly between the two men. “Who’s your new friend,” asked Ragu, in English. “Jeshua Sandoval, Captain of the Trinity’s Sword’, the officer replied.

• Sandoval, eh?
• Distant relation to the one you are thinking about, I’m afraid. Just a humble spacer.
• How’s your ship? I expect my men didn’t cause damage?
• Nothing major, and your techs are already working on fixing it, and they told me they are happy to do so. Accidents happen in these types of battles.
• Any idea who that Hamilcar belongs to?
• It was here when we got here two weeks ago from Bueller Prime spaceport. We were supposed to wait for a patrol to come here to bring them back at the end of the week.
• Any idea why it would be that well defended?
• Blake’s blood, nothing is worth protecting that much!

A sapper managed to disarm the dropship’s door, popping the thing open. Three infantrymen took point while their two backup slowly followed suit. Ragu and Zhe both drew their pistols, and even Sandoval armed a taser gauntlet. The Davion man is scared, thought Ragu. He’s not lying saying he has no clue what that ship is holding. The airlock corridor was empty, but everyone remained on their toes, peaking at every corner while a bomb-sniffer slowly pinged around. Climbing a ladder, a sapper gave the go command and people slowly followed. The tension was palpable, but not a shot was fired as the whole team reached the bridge, which was as empty as the rest of the ship. “I was expecting a whole lot of people having taken cyanide pills,” started Ragu, “so this is a relief.” Zhe nodded and added “Yeah, I am tired of fighting those Blakists down on the Rim. Looks like we are dealing with someone else here.” Still, nobody had seen any marking, or even anything written down. Nothing that could even remotely identify the ship, its owner or operator. “Let’s go check the mech berths,” said Ragu.

They had expected them to be empty, of course, but as the airlock opened, the sappers and the mechwarriors let out a collective gasp. The smell of fresh ozone, paint and ‘mech grease filled the air as 8 brand new battlemech laid on 45’ degree beds. Still, not a living soul in sight. “Private Barha,” said Ragu in a commanding tone, “go to the Theseus and get the second officer and the second crew. We’re getting this ship off the ground before we leave.” “8 mechs,” said began. “They sacrificed two vehicle companies here trying to protect those, and a mech company attacking my Bravos.”

• Not just any ‘mechs, but brand-new ones. This one still has the caution tape on the guns.
• A Prefect and a Peacekeeper, Republican machines. Shouldn’t be getting any brand new of those right now…
• Well, not just that, look at the next two.
• Founder and Blake… That’s a Toyama and a Legacy. Nobody building those anymore. Still, those are brand new, the cockpits aren’t even popped open.
• Then we have a Mad Cat and a Jade Phoenix.
• Probably a Mark IV, but yeah, those are two fancy clan machines, from two different sides… with no relation with the other 4 things we just saw.
• No clue what those last two are, looks like some medium and an assault of some kind, but nothing I have ever seen.
• The big one’s a Ymir. The Prof gave a lecture on those things when talking about early battlemechs. A few of them had been built during the Jihad, but that thing is no retrotech conversion…

The Davion captain shaked his head. “Look, I have no clue what any of this is. We got here at the start of the week waiting for a local patrol. This has nothing to do with me.” Ragu laughed for a second and clapped his large hand on the Federated officer’s shoulder. “I know, mate. Something smells fishy, but it doesn’t smell well-cooked under the sun, if you know what I mean.”

• I think I do?
• This isn’t a Federated Suns ship. Those aren’t federated suns machine, or anything I could easily identify. This whole hold smells like…
• False flag city, right? I mean, if I were wanting to cause trouble, I’d get machines that are easily identifiable from various groups, and drop them somewhere, stir trouble and get people to start beating each other senseless.
• You’re smart for a Federated Suns officer. This is even further than I was going to go, but what you’re saying makes sense. You guys might want to start investigating this.
• I’ll report that to our chief of staff. Especially since Robinson is still on the front line in our fight against the Combine.
• No Combine or Federated machines here though. Whoever wanted to start something, it wasn’t meant to be started here, and whoever they hired to do the job are beyond just fanatical, they’re utterly mad.

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