Battle of Yorii, Part 4

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Yorii, Wolf Empire

Trial for Terra, Day 9

General Max Ergen stood on the head of his new customized Doloire OmniMech, binoculars in hand. Most soldiers would find just sit in their ‘Mech and maximize the zoom on the viewscreen and patch in the satellite network. General Ergen had learned over time that the analog feeling of looking at things with his own eyes calmed him. The fact he also towered over most people by at least a head, even the mighty ilKhan of the ilClan, allowed him to have the proverbial “high ground” here. His earpiece brought the voice of Colonel Book, patched through from the other end of the continent. “So yeah, basically, I ain’t got no armor support anymore. The few vehicles we still have are so banged up we’d be better to scrap them for parts.” In the cool morning air, Max shrugged and sniffed: “But you are telling me that most of your ‘Mech force is combat ready?”

He had already seen the figures, but he wanted to hear it from the former police officer. “Well, I wouldn’t say that. With repairs and salvage, I think I can get about three quarter of my people up and running by the end of the week.” Without seeing his face, Max could still imagine Sorell Book crunching the numbers on a calculator and piles of papers. He was also a mostly analogue man, just like him. Ergen had selected the leadership of his new First Army Group to be as reliable and as rough as he could. One couldn’t tell from the looks on Book’s face, or his girth, but the man was a monster in terms of doing as much work as possible in the shortest amount of time to have more time to relax.

A flying tiger-raptor screeched above Ergen, hitting itself on the protective net that had been put up over the camp. I wonder how many Hell’s Horses are going to get killed by these, he thought. The First Army Group had spent a pretty penny to a local company to buy those electrified nets with sonic scramblers on them. Outside of idiot soldiers wanting to play hero and hunt one or another species of tiger-raptor, nobody had been injured by the beasts.

The earpiece ringed again, this time a message from his head of intelligence, former Ghost Knight David Zhuo. “Hello sir. I believe you are looking at the area right now, I just want to warn you to put on your protective glasses.” General Ergen quickly flipped the shading the binoculars on. Two large dropships were making landfall down the line, shooting lasers and autocannon slugs as they went, clearing the way. “Delta Galaxy, 82^nd Mechanized Cavalry. They relocated from Ishizo yesterday, flying sub-orbital to avoid the Ra Callum in orbit. Burned a whole lot of fuel to do so, just so they can try to ambush us.” Zhuo had already given him a briefing on the various forces in presence. The Horses had pulled back a lot of their air coverage to protect their command units and Alpha Keshik. Even repositioning using dropships like this could have spelled disaster for them if the Wolves air coverage had been thicker, but they did not expect the First Army Group to have heavy ASF support.

David Zhuo’s Wolverine was in position, 50 kilometers out of the dropship landing zone. His “scout company” was going to cause a stir and pull the 82^nd out. The whole gimmick here was to let Angelou’s raiders to come in before the Horses were ready and just nab as much materiel from them as possible. It was not that the First Army Group was poorly equipped at this point, but they needed to deny Star Colonel Waylon Mehta any opportunity to gain the upper hand. While the command of the First Army Group had been the bait to get him here, Zhuo was going to be the bait to have his vanguard leave their post.

Light ‘Mechs and cavalry mediums made up his company, people with nothing to lose anymore. The First Army Group had given much to the Republic before it fell, now they were ready to give it to the New Star League, just so that others would not have to live through the same tragedies they did. Speaking of the Star League, all the ‘Mechs in his unit would have been common sight 500 years ago as well. Wolverines, Griffins, Shadow Hawks, a Stinger and a Wasp. Maybe not Lieutenant Jacinto’s Conjurer, but everyone knew it was what the Clanners called the Wolverine nowadays. Crunching through jungle, they were closing on their target, satellite updates giving them an idea of where the enemy Overlord and Union dropship were. They couldn’t get too close to the dropships, because they would shred whatever armor his ‘Mechs had. They had just landed, their troops were getting out, and that’s who they wanted to pull away.

“Contact, 1.6 ahead,” the dull voice of Sergeant Gabsley said. Even at that range, the Hell’s Horses ‘Mech had started shooting at Gabsley, who ducked his Wasp away to the side. The IFF system recognized a Shadow Cat. With a gauss rifle, it could have destroyed the Wasp in a single shot… if it had taken the time to think about it. The rest of Zhuo’s company fanned out and took position in various rock outcroppings, behind massive trees and even in the middle of a swamp. More blips popped on the sensors, a full trinary which David expected had won the honor of fighting first against the First Army Group.

Poor bastards had no idea what they were walking into. As soon as they got into range, volleys of inferno missiles started flying from the cavalry company’s launchers, setting the whole jungle on fire. Yelps of tiger-raptors responded to it, the wildlife fleeing for their dear life as fire started devouring their habitat. A Hell’s Horses pilot in a Piranha must have panicked and started blasting his micro pulse lasers across the landscape, setting more things on fire. Captain David Zhuo did not expect the kick the converted ER PPC gave instead of the standard snub-nose PPC in his Wolverine gun mount. Clan weaponry was something else.

The shot went wide, apparently taking out a flying lizard, but it was the signal for the rest of the company to engage. The puncturing staccato of Raphael’s rotary autocannon was coupled with Davis’s long-range missiles. The Piranha started walking backwards from the impacts, right into fire, before something detonated in it. Even if the pilot ejected, he would likely die before landing. The Hell’s Horses replied by destroying the Stinger and crippling David’s lancemate’s Griffin. Whoever had decided to put all the weapons on the same side of a that ‘Mech probably had been fired for it a long time ago, but he should be fired again, thought the captain.

Forty more seconds went by. The forest around the Hell’s Horses forces was now a raging inferno of petroleum gel and highly combustible Yorii flora. David Zhuo had finally gotten a hang of how to use his ER PPC, pounding away at the Shadow Cat which didn’t know where to look anymore. You have a bleeding Active Probe, you should know where… He then remembered his own intelligence briefing. They have removed most of their electronic warfare equipment to make room for more ammo. They know they are going in target rich environment, so they will optimize their potential firepower. The good news was that those extra gauss rifle footballs would not blow up in that heat, unlike the ultra-autocannon ammo from his partner’s Stormcrow, taking out its entire right side.

Stuck in a medium ‘Mech brawl, David’s unit was getting severely damaged even following the successful ambush. Jamison’s crippled Griffin had charged in to just punch whatever he could, being stopped by an Adder’s concussive force from pair particle weapons. Trideos loved showing PPCs as “blue manmade lightning”, but what really stopped a ‘Mech movement was the near-lightspeed accelerated particles slamming into the armor plates. The rest was just a side-effect. Sitting on top of an ER Medium Laser was not the most comfortable thing, but it was probably the most accurate weapon David Zhuo had. The green energy dug a deep hole on the side of the Adder before a bright neon green beam added to it, coming from the Wasp’s new Heavy Medium Laser.

Down 4, 6 kills. Things weren’t looking good for the ambushers, but after a minute and a half of fighting, he knew Captain Angelou was well on her way with her commandos to capture the Union dropship. “Tango 1-1, this is Sierra 2-1. Do you have Charlie in sight?” Flyboys and their love for always using code rather than saying what they meant. “Lots and lots of Charlies here, Sierra 2-1. Get your ass over here!” A pair of Schrack and a second pair of Simurgh came diving in from orbit, all expectations of safety completely having gone out the window. Clanners had learned that the Inner Sphere ASF pilots were the craziest bastards in the known universe during the invasion. A hundred years had not changed things.

David Zhuo had expected the Star Captain they were facing to be piloting the biggest ‘Mech of the lot, an Ebon Jaguar. Four heavy gauss rifle slugs crunched him from above, sinking the machine up to the canopy into mud from the strength of the impact. This was followed by a hellstorm of lasers and 88mm shells from the aerospace fighter pilots, scattering the remainder of the trinary even more. They could retreat towards the wall of flame, or they could advance towards the remaining ambushers. Most of them were Clan warriors. They advanced. One of them, in a Ice Ferret, retreated, only to be destroyed by two flights of long-range missiles from Sierra 3-1 and his Chippewa. The entire Sierra flight had come down like avenging angels, destroying everything they could.

Pulling back with what he had left, David Zhuo smiled. He was not the best pilot in the First Army Group, but this time he proved for sure he was one of the one with the most gumption. The Union dropship was lifting off in the back whatever defender it had taken out by the commandos. The Overlord couldn’t follow it or shoot it down, because it would risk getting destroyed by the unexpected heavy aircraft coverage of the First Army Group. The Horses would have 2 Trinaries left to face 2 companies of BattleMechs, the air wing and a battalion of armor led by Max Ergen, which were careening down the jungle towards their landing site.

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