Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty: Training
Kentares IV, April 3rd, 3027

“Alright Sapphire, it’s time to do that math homework.” I said to my six year old.

“But dad, you hate math.” She said exasperatedly. “I’m the one who loves numbers.”

“And you loving math doesn’t change the fact that I still need to check your work.” I ruffled the strawberry blonde’s hair. “I may not like math, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not good at it.”

“Ugh dad, I already brushed my hair today.” She whined. “Now I have to do it again.”

“Schoolwork before playing Saph, you know that.” I said as I chuckled at my daughter.

“But why doesn’t mom help me with the schoolwork?” Sapphire asked.

“Because she didn’t exactly have what we would call a normal education.” I said. “She would be good at teaching you the military things later though” I leaned over the six year old’s desk in order to check her work and answers.

“I love you Dad.” Sapphire said after a moment.

“I love you too sweetheart.” I said, giving my daughter a hug . “I love you too.”




April 4th, 3027

“Come on, you call that accuracy?” Natasha goaded her son. “I shot better than that at your age and I wasn’t even infantry!”

Four sharp cracks resounded at the range as David fired the rifle he had into four separate bulls eyes. “Is that better Mom?” David asked sarcastically. “You didn’t even appreciate the smiley face that I made for you.”

“I did like it, your grouping was just bad.” Natasha said with a smirk. “Do it in eight centimeters next time and I’ll allow it.”

“Fine,” David scoffed. “I bet the other kids in the Academy don’t have to go through this.”

“No, they have to go through worse than this,” Natasha said with a grin. “Sheppard doesn’t care who your parents are, just that you learn and do what you’re told. I’m giving you the prep course that’s recommended for parents.”

“Then why haven’t you let me touch the simulators?” David asked. “We did the neurohelmet test already and we know I can pilot a ‘mech.”

“Because no one on this planet is a ‘mech pilot first.” Natasha recited. “Everyone learns how to do infantry tasks and serves in something other than a mech even if they’re certified on a mech until they’ve proven they can do the job well.”

“No one else does it like this though.” David brought up, “They all use ‘mechs first, and the Dracs have conquered more territory than anyone else ever had before the collapse of the Capellan confederation.”

“Because this works better.” Natasha said. “Having everyone share a similar skill base gives you an appreciation for what everyone else has to go through and allows you to take input from people who aren’t “Mechwarriors”. I might be one of the best ‘mech pilots to ever live, but I got even better once I knew how effective combat vehicles were.” Natasha grinned. “And let me tell you something, a ‘mech is fun, but it doesn’t beat piloting a hovercraft around.”




April 17th, 3027

“Reverse, get us out of here!” Melissa Steiner commanded her Von Luckner crew. “That’s Kerensky’s Nightstar and if we don’t regroup with the rest of our fireteam we’re not going to be going anywhere.”

“Reversing.” The driver responded.

“I’ll have a ten second period to hit the ‘mech in” The spotter said as he ran some quick calculations in his head.

“Do it, and keep moving.” Melissa commanded before turning to her comms device. “Fireteam lead, we’re falling back, we have enemy Assault ‘Mech elements pushing us in.”

“Copy that Saber 1, we’ve got you covered if you proceed along to navpoint Charlie.” The Fireteam leader responded.

“Aye sir, we’re pulling back to Charlie now.” the Seventeen year old responded.

“Good, we’ve got fireteams Bravo and Delta moving in as backup now.”

“Kerensky is onto us.” Melissa said as the Nightstar began to move towards their tank. “And where she is, her Marauders aren’t far behind.”

“I’m backing us up as fast as I can.” The driver said.

“Spin us around then, we need to be moving faster than this or we’ll end up dead.” Melissa ordered calmly.

“But that exposes our rear armor.” The drivers stammered out.

“And if we’re careful, we can evade until we reach Charlie, but until then we need to pour on the speed.”

“Spinning us around now.” The driver finally obeyed.

“Firing now.” The gunner said as he sighted in the Nightstar. “LRMs are ineffective, using primary weapon.” The vehicle shook as a round left the chamber. “Good contact, reloading.”

“Keep us moving,” Melissa commanded, we can afford to waste the ammo, but we can’t fight if we’re rendered combat ineffective.”

“Ma’am, we’ve got one more kilometer before we reach Nav Charlie, and we’ve got a Gargoyle moving up on us fast.” The Sensors tech reported.

“Fireteam lead, we’re being chased by the Marauders, and we need a bailout otherwise we won’t make it.” Melissa said into the comms channel.

“Wait one.” The fireteam leader responded. “Intercepting now.”

Six Gauss rounds impacted the 80 ton assault mech, throwing it onto its back. “I want that thing dead and gone.” Melissa ordered the gunner. “Kneecap it or whatever you have to do, but maintain fire until it can’t get up.”

“Yes Ma’am.” The gunner grinned beneath his Mithril’s helmet. “Rendering assault ‘mech dead and gone.”

“Saber 1, pull back immediately.” The fireteam leader ordered. “You’re about to get hammered.”

“We can do this lead.” Melissa said as they began to fire into the Gargoyle, just let us have this.”

“Saber 1, you’re about to have three ‘mechs overrun your position.” The fireteam lead tried to reel Melissa’s tank crew in, but they were a little cocky and were still congratulating themselves when a Warhammer, Timber Wolf, and Summoner walked around the corner.

“Fuck,” Melissa said as the trio of ‘mechs hammered her tank until their computers said they were downed. “Well, we may have gotten a little too bloodthirsty there.”

“Ya think?” Uncle Mark said over her comms channel. “Aggression is good as long as you know when to reign it in. We’ll see you at the debrief.”




April 21st, 3027

“So 2nd years, what did we learn at this term's live fire exercise?” Sheppard asked.

“That we’re not as good as the Ducal Guard?” A cadet officer asked.

“Is that a question or a statement Cadet-Lieutenant?” Sheppard asked bluntly.

“A statement sir.” The cadet-lieutenant responded.

“No, you’re not quite up to the level of an elite overstrength combined arms regiment.” Sheppard said with a smile. “But you outnumbered them, and most of them are in their thirties to fifties, so how did you let a bunch of old people beat you youngsters?”

“Because we got too eager to push forward.” Melissa offered. “We did well in the first couple of days into the exercise, but when they started taking losses we got cocky and stopped considering effective tactics.”

“Partially correct.” Sheppard said. “How many of you fell for Hull’s lone Warhammer ambush?” He asked the assembled officers. “A lot of you right?”

“Sir, how were we to know that there was artillery with Arrow IV missiles dialed in on his position or Infantry using TAG to paint us?” A Cadet officer asked.

“You weren’t,” Sheppard shrugged. “Even veteran units have fallen for that one if you’ve read the declassified reports I give you as homework.” He chuckled a bit at the crestfallen expression. “You’re supposed to be wary of anything that looks suspicious, and if you see something like that, you either call in for backup, or you lure someone out of their position.”

“But Duke Hull’s Warhammer outranged us sir.” A cadet officer said, “And it has an AMS that would have prevented us from hitting him with our LRM carriers.”


“Did you not have artillery of your own?” Sheppard asked. “The reason we use some of the ruined cities for training purposes is to get you accustomed to the urban environments.”

“But what about potential civilians?” Another officer asked.

“Typically, we issue warnings to Civilians in any areas where there might be a potential for any sort of warfare going on. But ultimately, some civilian casualties are inevitable in war.” Sheppard shrugged. “No one likes it, but there is always a round fired that accidentally hits somewhere that it shouldn’t, or an undetonated LRM or SRM that a civilian goes to look at and collect as a souvenir that blows up in their faces. We try to limit them as much as humanly possible, but some collateral damage is inevitable in war.”

“Is that why the Succession states only pursue military targets for the most part?” Another person asked.

“For the most part yes, but if you had asked that in the peak of the first or second Succession war, that would have been a resounding no.” Sheppard shook his head. “The 1st and 2nd Succession Wars were plagued by people committing atrocities the likes we hadn’t seen before aside from the Amaris Civil war. And we didn’t see that level of atrocities again until Maximilian Liao’s orders to the Maskirovka were carried out on many planets.”

“Now, to bring us back onto the subject of the debriefing.”




April 22nd, 3027

“They’re shaping up pretty well Sheppard,” I said with a good natured grin. “They certainly suckered Winson in.”

“This is probably the second brightest batch of second years we’ve had yet.” Sheppard responded, matching my grin. “The only ones that have this group beat are Carter’s class.”

“Fucking building droppers.” I said. “I still don’t want to know how they cooked up the plastic explosives so well.”

“She majored in chemical engineering, Mark.” Sheppard grinned. “Of course she was going to be able to do something like that.”

“There’s a reason we banned her from instructing anyone under third years while she was on the training rotation.” Sheppard said smugly. “Say what you will about her, but she took combined arms to a whole new level with our instruction.”

“Yeah, and now Zoe Carter is being moved up to CO of the 1st Marksman once she’s off of her Maternity leave.” I said with a smile. “She’s come a long way from that brat we picked up on Pierce all those years ago.”

“Yes she has.” Sheppard agreed. “Now I’m sure you’re here for more than discussing those kinds of things with me.”

“Yeah, David wants to Enroll come august.” I told Sheppard, “And Katrina wants an update on Melissa.”

“Well, David is welcome to join provided he meets our standards.” Sheppard said. “And Melissa has done superbly so far, she’s risen to Cadet-Lieutenant and is earmarked for Cadet-Major and Colonel by her fourth year.”

“I did note that she has a tendency towards aggression in her maneuvers.” I said after consulting my pad for the Debriefing notes I had written down.

“Her taming that streak is the only thing holding her back.” Sheppard agreed. “Aggression is a good thing in a soldier, but it needs to be tempered and leashed properly before you can be a good officer.”

“Sometimes, you need to hold ground instead of advance.” I agreed. “But She’ll learn that over time.”


“Tell Katrina that she’s doing well, and that by the time she graduates she’ll be a good officer for the LCAF.” Sheppard said. “I’ll even pen the note myself.”

“No need for that, Sheppard.” I said with a smile. “Katrina trusts me.”

“Now, Frank is on course to graduate next year.” Sheppard said, “But he wants to go into the medical field instead of the frontlines.”

“That’s great,” I said. “I’m just glad he finally picked a field to go into.”

“Yeah, he had Erika and I worried for a bit too.” Sheppard said in response. “Just make sure he doesn’t end up with Dr. Hale as a teacher, she scares me.”

“No promises, Sheppard.” I responded, “No promises.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-One: Time Skip(2)

Kentares IV, May 25th, 3030

“The biggest thing to remember from our time here at Marksman Academy is that even though we may be going to different nations and different areas of service we can still stay connected. We have the largest group of mixed nation graduates in history, and that means something, it means that we have a real chance of making this peace last. And I think that’s probably more important than us being skilled in the ways of war. Thank you guys for making this a fun five years of learning.” Melissa said with a smile before before handing the ceremonies back over to Sheppard…
–
–

“Dad, Mom!” Melissa squeezed her parents in a big bear hug. “I’m so glad you guys made it!”

“We wouldn’t have missed this even if the entirety of the Draconis Combine were in between us.” Katrina responded with tears in her eyes. “You did fantastic.”

“Hey sis,” Elsa greeted her older sister. “Looks like I’ve got to beat your grades.”

“You can try little sis.” Melissa grinned while messing up her little sister's hair. “Where’s Adam mom?”

“He couldn’t get the time off approved.” Katrina said.

“No, he forgot to put in the leave request in time.” Arthur chimed in with a chuckle. “He just got busy and forgot, he did send some letters with us though.

“Well, I’ll read them while we’re on our way back to Tharkad.” Melissa said with a grin.

“You’re being assigned to the 4th Royal Guards under Frederick.” Katrina said. “Your uncle has been looking forward to this for the past year or so.”

“Why them?” Melissa asked. “I thought you didn’t want me anywhere near actual combat and conflict.”

“I may have had some people correct me on that issue.” Katrina glared at her husband. “Now, where are the good places to go bar crawling?” Katrina smirked. “We have a tradition to keep.”




That night…

“Come on Melissa, you can do one more shot!” Natasha Kerensky cheered her on. “You’ve got to beat your mother after all!”

Katrina and Melissa had found Natasha and a couple of others early on and had ended their bar run at the bar that was frequented the most by the Ducal Guard. Then they proceeded to try and drink each other under the table.

“She can’t keep up with me.” Katrina taunted with a smirk. “I’ve got age on her.”

“I’ve got the faster metabolism.” Melissa said as she slammed another shot down. “Your turn.”

Unfortunately for the two Steiners, Natasha had been recording the entire night, and would be using this as blackmail for years to come.

“Barkeep, just bring out the bottle.” Katrina said after they emptied the remainder of their shots at the table. “And put it on Duke Hull’s tab.”

The Barkeeper just shrugged and brought out the remainder of the bottle of whiskey that the two Steiners were halfway through.

“Just for that I am not sharing Mark’s hangover cure with either of you.” Natasha told the two drunk blondes. “But, you may not like his cure anyway so it is not that much of a loss.” She shrugged.

While Natasha had drank some alcohol over the course of the night, she was the designated driver and so had remained sober.

“Hey Natasha,” Katrina slurred. “I think you’re no fun.”

“And I believe you are drunk.” Natasha stated with a smirk. “I think that you’ll find me very fun in the morning.”




May 26th, 3030

“My head.” Melissa muttered as she woke up bleary eyed, with a massive headache, and nauseous. “I won though!” She raised her fists in victory.

“No,” Her mother said from the other couch, “I think we both lost.”

“Why?” Melissa asked, and then had her question answered as the emergency lights and sirens began to flash.

“This is Natasha Kerensky, we are proceeding with our monthly unscheduled invasion drill, please make your way to your designated areas and await further instructions.”

“Dammit.” Melissa said as she stood up and held her head. “Follow me mom.”

The two Steiner Blondes made their way to the elevator they were supposed to head to in case of an actual invasion.

“Why did we think last night was a good idea?” Katrina asked.

“Because it was fun until you made fun of Aunt Nat.” Melissa retorted. “You should know by now that she always gets payback, if you wanted an easy morning you should have brought Uncle Mark on the crawl with us.”

“Fair point.” Katrina replied. “What goes into Mark’s hangover cure anyway?”

“You don’t want to know.” Melissa responded with a wide eyed look. “Let’s just say it’s the reason I’ve only been drunk once before this.”

“Does it work though?” Katrina asked/

“Yes, it’s pretty effective.” Melissa said over the sirens as the elevator began its descent into the mountain complex. “But it’ll have to wait until we get out of the estate.”

Once they reached the hidden complex underneath the mountain, a blissful silence filled the air, and they made their way to the area that their slates told them to head to.

“Surprise!” Echoed through the room as they walked in.

“Sorry about the hangover.” Mark said after the noise died down a bit. “But y’all insisted on the drinking binge and we already had this party planned with Arthur.”

“Just give me that.” Melissa told Mark as she took the cup that he was offering to her. “I won’t be happy I drank this, but if it makes the world stop moving so much then I’ll do it.” She held her nose and tipped back the spicy concoction.

“What is in that?” Katrina asked as she finished off her own cup. “I mean, it works but I’m not sure I’m going to be able to taste anything for the rest of the day.”

“Like three kinds of extremely spicy hot-sauce mixed in with an electrolyte mix and lots of water.” Mark replied with a smug grin. “If it keeps you from getting drunk again then it’s worth it, warning though, it takes a little bit to settle and I wouldn’t eat anything until it has.”




May 27th, 3030

“Here’s your graduation gift Mel.” Melissa’s uncle Mark said, “Sorry it took so long to finish it.”

“What on earth did you do to that Alacorn?” She asked as she walked around her new tank. “There’s still three gauss rifles here, but how did you get the free tonnage to add a machine gun and two lasers?”

“Well, we spent a lot of time and money refitting the extra light fusion engine over to an extra extra light fusion engine.” Mark replied with a smile. “It’s not technology we can fully reproduce on the factory scale just yet,but for single projects like this we can.”

“Anything else I should know about this beauty?” Melissa asked as she climbed onto the tank painted in the 4th Royal Guards parade colors.

“I added an extra ton of armor.” Mark replied. “And I had to clear the refits with Katrina before she would let me give it to you.”

“There’s CASE in here?!” a voice echoed from inside the tank as Melissa explored it.

“Figured you might need it with the machine gun ammo that we crammed in there.” Mark replied. “We also included two ‘mechs and another vehicle to round everything out, one more Alacorn modified in the same way so that you have a pair of them, along with one of our new Toro’s and a Marauder MAD-2T refit fresh from Taurus.”

“I thought you hadn’t fully worked out the kinks on mass producing the LBX-5.” Melissa said as she popped her head out of her tank.

“Sharpshooter didn’t work out the kinks.” Mark shrugged. “But some genius over there with TTI did figure it out, and now we purchase them by the lance.”

“Thank you Uncle Mark.” Melissa wrapped him in a massive hug. “Hopefully I don’t have to put this to use anytime soon.”

“Si vis pacem, para bellum.” Mark replied. “Better to have it and never have to use it in a war than to need it for a war and not have access to it.”

“I know what that means.” Melissa replied, “I speak more languages than you remember?”

“I remember,” He chuckled. “Let’s get everything set up for you to give this baby a test run.”

“I get to blow things up?” Melissa’s eyes lit up with glee. “Where do I sign?”

“Letting you hang out with Colonel Carter was a bad idea.” Mark shook his head. “I should’ve known better.”




May 30th, 3030

“Hey Mark,” Katrina knocked on the door frame of my office. “I need to discuss something with you.”

“I keep my door open for a reason.” I said with a smile. “What’s up?”

“I’d like to discuss a marriage proposal with you.” She responded. “You don’t have to make a decision now, but I would like to try and get Elena and David together to see if they would be compatible.”

“I can see where you came up with the idea.” I said. “But wouldn’t Jonathon Davion be a better choice to bind the two nations together?”

“I was going to see if Adam and Jennifer would be a good match in that case.” Katrina replied. “This way we have the connections through second and third children in case of people trying to claim dynasty usurpation.”

“I’ll support the plan if you can find a way to include the Taurians.” I said after a moment's consideration. “And it’s conditional on the children agreeing to it.”

“Of course it’s conditional on our children agreeing.” Katrina said with a small glare. “I already accomplished a good portion of my goals for my nation. This is just a way to help ensure that the peace lasts.”

“Alright.” I said, “Lay out the entire plan for me while I try and get Zarantha and Natasha in here, Natasha needs to be informed, and Zarantha might be able to help us tie the Taurians into this.”


Author’s note: Dana and Hanse have three children so far to explain some things. Jonathan Davion is their firstborn, with Jennifer Davion (Named after Hanse’s mother) being their second child, and Julian Davion.

 

[Bear Ribs]

“I’ll support the plan if you can find a way to include the Taurians.”

I'll agree if you can get a cat and a dog to marry...

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two: Reclamation

Tharkad, August 11th, 3030

“Nondi, did the two Marksman Regimental Combat teams make it over to the Skye region yet?” Regis asked.

“The 1st Marksman are currently inbound towards La Blon while the 2nd Marksman are at Lyons.” Nondi reported.

“Good, we’ll kick things off once the Kell Hounds and Archon Steiner are back in Lyran space.” Regis replied. “We’ve spent fifteen years working on reforms and rebuilding units, and now it’s time to see if we can push the Draconis Combine back.”

“We’ll be on our own for a decent bit of it, the Treaty is only for defensive purposes for now.” Nondi reminded Regis.

“I know that,” Regis said, “But LIC has reported that they’ve rotated more people over to the Federated Suns border and that we’ll have the greatest chance to do this than we ever have before.”

“If we manage to hit them in that window.” Nondi said, “LIC has been wrong before, and with Joshua Wolf having two regiments and working with them for the past five years worries me.”

“Didn’t the Wolf’s Dragoons go over to the Wolf Confederation?” Regis asked with a confused expression.

“Not all of them.” Nondi said, “Two of their regiments went with Jaime Wolf and his family to the Confederation, one Regiment went independent and goes by the name of Snord’s Irregulars, and the other two followed Joshua Wolf into contracts with us first, and then over to the Draconis Combine.”

“That’s right.” It clicked in Regis’s head. “Snord’s Irregulars mainly help us stir up chaos in what’s left of the Free Worlds League.”

“It is what we pay him for.” Nondi agreed. “They do good work over on that border.”

“Well, we’ll get everything together and have everything ready for when Archon Steiner gives us the go ahead.” Regis said. “We’ve got a dragon to kill.”




Rigil Kentarus, August 15th, 3030

“Melissa, it’s good to see you.” Frederick Steiner said with a broad smile. “I’ve heard good things about Marksman Academy, and I can’t wait to see how you compare to our Nagelring and Sanglamore Graduates.”

“Hopefully better,” Melissa replied, still standing at attention. “Permission to see to my lance’s removal from the Archon’s dropship sir?”

“Permission granted.” Frederick responded. “You’ll be training with your new unit for a couple of months before anything big happens. “




Kentares IV, August 10th, 3030

“Happy Birthday son.” I gave David a hug. “Are you excited for your second to last year at the Academy?”

“Yeah, we’re totally going to kick your tail in the training exercises this year.” He said with a grin. “I’m finally going to beat mom too.”

“In your dreams maybe.” Natasha replied, “That is the only way you would even be able to stand a chance.”

“And besides,” I said with a grin. “It’s the First Kentares who are on rotation for the exercises this year.”

“Crap.” David’s face paled a bit. “Packer has more people in the 1st Kentares than the entire academy since he absorbed Vincent’s Commandos”

“Which is why this year the training exercises will involve the Militia units cooperating with the Academy in order to simulate an invasion.”

“But that’s unrealistic,” David tried to point out. “The chances of someone making landfall on Kentares IV are astronomical.”

“Good word choice,” Natasha said with a smirk. “But you can’t always count on things to go your way.”

“Which is why we’re doing a simulated invasion scenario.” I said. “We’ve made Kentares as heavily guarded as possible, but it’s still one of the most tempting targets that any enemy could try and take”

“Is that the reason that you and Saph have been off world so much over the last couple of years?” David asked.

“Yes actually.” I said with a sigh. “She’s already halfway through her bachelors degree from the SLC with a double major in accounting and engineering. She’s also been helping me crunch numbers and work on getting more copies of our factories spread out so we don’t lose production here should the worst come to pass.”

“Well, I guess I know who is getting the company then.” David said wryly, as if it hadn’t been evident years ago.

“Well, she still idolizes you so I wouldn’t be worried about going penniless.” I said with a grin. “In fact, Natasha and I might even let you have a stipend.”

“Will I have to work on the farm for it again?” David asked. “I still don’t know why you keep all of those animals on the estate grounds.”

“You learned a lot of things about politics and people on the farm.” I said with a grin.

“Like what dad?” David asked sarcastically, “You’re really going to sit here and tell me that there was a lesson in all of the farm animals you made Sapphire and myself take care of?”

“Yep.” I said popping the P. “Remember how the animals didn’t always understand that you were trying to take care of them?”

“Yes,” David responded.

“That’s what people are like when they’re at their best, and when people are panicked, they act just like the cow that got loose that you had to wrangle as a kid.” I smirked, “And when you stepped in shit and had to clean it up is relevant to all of politics. Sometimes you step in shit and have to clean it up either verbally or physically, and it’s not always pretty, but it always stinks.”

“How long have you been waiting for that question?” David asked as he realized that these answers were prepared a long time ago.

“Around five years,” I said with a grin. “Sapphire asked a year ago when she stepped on a cow pie.”

“What did she do afterwards?” David asked.

“I threw it at dad.” Sapphire said as she walked into the room. “But the old man dodged it and threw me into the pig pen.”

“Age and treachery always trumps youth and skill.” I butchered the quote. “ One day, you two will be able to take your mother and I on, but today is not that day!” I laughed Maniacally.

“Get him!” Sapphire said as she charged me.

“I’m on it!” David agreed.

“That is what you think.” Natasha said as she grabbed Sapphire’s collar. “Are your chores finished?”

“No.” Sapphire mumbled. “But the animals are so stupid.” She kicked the ground.

“No doing fun stuff until the chores are done.” Natasha said sternly. “Now go finish those chores.”

“Speaking of chores.” I said as I pinned David to the ground with a deft twist. “You did help McAllister clean up the ‘mechs that you were supposed to right?”

“Maybe.” David tried to break out of the pin. “But it would have taken three days to finish!”

“Well then, I think David needs another lesson on why not to mess with Mac.” I said with a smirk. “What do you think Nat?”

“I shall call him immediately.” She pulled out her slate. “McAllister, did David finish cleaning the ‘mechs like he was supposed to? Hmm, Only half of them you say? Thank you.” She hung up.

“Do you want to deliver him, or should I?” I asked.

“You deal with the farm animals.” Natasha said, “I only help with that because you asked me to, now that our children do it I will never do it again.”

“Alright,” I chuckled. “I’ll go make sure Sapphire doesn’t get lost on the way again.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Three: Blitzkrieg

Rigil Kentarus jump point, November 18th, 3030

“4th Royal Guards, this is where we prove that us being rebuilt was not a mistake, this is where we redeem ourselves after our shameful showing in the Capellan Confederation. We are jumping straight to Dieron in order to take that world along with the 10th Skye Rangers. From there we will push further into the Combine until either God or the enemy sees fit to finally make us stop advancing. We are the Pride of the Commonwealth, and we’re going to prove that in the process of this campaign.” General Frederick Steiner said to the troops on the various dropships and jumpships that belonged to the 4th Royal Guards.

After his speech, Frederick looked at his aide-de-camp and nodded, giving him the signal to go ahead and start the transition. With an alarm sounding to signal that the jumpship fleet was about to change systems.

A ripple and shift in reality was all that showed that the 4th Royal Guards had appeared into the system, and the Dropships detached and began a 1g burn for the planet.




Ko, Draconis Combine, November 25th, 3030

“Somone shut that fucking artillery down!” Stone ordered as he moved away from the LZ that had been zoned by the militia Artillery that was attached to the 22nd Dieron Regulars. “Vance, where is our air support?”

“Our Stings are currently engaged with a couple of clones of some kind, they’re not quite as well armed and armored but it’ll still take time to get them over to you.” Vance reported. “We do have a company of ODST waiting on the Vengeance in orbit though.”

“Have two platoons drop on that artillery, if we don’t take it out then we’ll be easy pickings for the 22nd Dieron Regulars.” Stone said as he exchanged fire with a Draconis Combine Jenner, melting off nearly two tons of armor with his ERPPC’s.

“You good Lieutenant?” Stone asked the fireteam leader that was with him. “I thought you liked that Von Rohrs.”


“I do sir, just not quite used to the new electronics package yet.” The Lieutenant replied. “My targeting systems are faster than I’m used to.”

“Well, just stick with me and we’ll be alright.” Stone replied, “We’ll get you up to ace yet.” Stone moved his Marauder back to the LZ that they were securing and then turned to the sky as it lit up with what looked like debris falling from orbit at first glance. “Godspeed Helljumpers, Godspeed.”
–
–
“How do we go Helljumpers?” Godfrey asked his company of Orbital Drop Shock Troopers.

“We go feet first, Captain!” The company responded to Godfrey’s call.

“Damn straight,” Godfrey said as his chest filled with pride. “Our esteemed commanding officer, Colonel Stone, needs us to pull him and his men out of the fire, it seems that they can’t handle some artillery.” Godfrey scoffed. “But we, we’re going to go down in style and make sure that these bastards know who they’re messing with.”

“Aye Sir!” They responded.

“Now get into your designated pods, we’ve got some arty to kill.” Godfrey said with a grin.




Kessel, Draconis Combine, November 25th, 3030

“Trigger those explosives.” Colonel Zoe Carter commanded from her Mobile HQ. “I want the 3rd Dieron Regulars to back off from that ridge until we can move our infantry up there.”

“Yes ma’am, triggering a rockslide.” Her comms officer relayed the command. “Major Davis needs some input though ma’am.”

“Have his unit power down, we need to sucker the 12th Sun Zhang Academy Cadre in, those light machines are almost purpose built for guerilla warfare.” Carter said. “We’ll draw them in and then hit them from behind with Major Davis’ unit in order to thin them out.”

“Our Stings done with that arial battle yet?” Carter asked.

“Yes Ma’am, they’re landing for a quick rearmor and rearm now.” Came a response. “Well, get them back out there, we need the CAS.”

“ETA thirty mikes on the reskin ma’am.” The same officer reported. “They took a beating earlier.”

“Have our Artillery section standby for TAG then, we need to make sure that we’ve got our people covered while we rearm and repair the Sting gunships.”

“Yes Ma’am, having Artillery stand by.”

“Why haven’t they detonated that ridge yet?” Carter asked.

“Ma’am, they seem to be having an issue with the remote detonators.”

“Tell them they have five minutes before I come and blow up the ridge myself.”

“Yes ma’am, lighting a fire underneath them.”




Luthien, Draconis Combine, 3030

“So the Lyrans have made their move.” Takashi stated. “Have the Wolf’s Dragoons and two regiments of the Ryuken move to reinforce Dieron, and have my son Theodore and the Legions of Vega move to Kessel.” He paused in thought for a moment while sitting on his throne. “We must move some of our units away from the Davion border, but we also cannot afford to show weakness to them or we may be assailed on two sides.”

“My lord, we could retask some of the Galedon Regulars,” Subhash Indrahar observed. “Many of them are stationed along the periphery border.”

“What is this?” Takashi interrupted as he looked at the battlerom from one of his officers from the battle of Kessel.”

“My Lord, all of our intelligence points to it as being a more modern refit of the Hebi.” Subhash offered.

“They have spat in our faces twice now.” Takashi growled out. “This Duke Hull is even more of a priority target than he was before, first he revives the Gladiator to our shame, and then he brings out this!” Takashi visibly calmed himself. “While he shows honor in combat, he has shown that he cares more for victory than honor and as such he shall be treated as he desires.”

“You wish us to assassinate him?” Subhash Indrahar asked inquisitively. “My Lord, that could very well trigger the second war that we are trying to avoid.”

“It will wait,” Takashi stated coldly. “First we shall deal with the threat that the Lyrans offer, and then we will deal with the Davions.”




Skye, Lyran Commonwealth, December 28th, 3030

“Nondi,” Katrina greeted her over the live HPG transmission. “Is Operation Blitzkrieg going well?”

“Dieron is still holding out, it seems that they maintain at least three regiments at all times since the Davions managed to take it in 3020.” Nondi replied, “The other area that is holding out is Kessel, they managed to reinforce them with the 18th Dieron Regulars and the 1st Marksman are outnumbered but still doing well.”

“Ko is ours, as is Kimball II, Komephoros, Alrakis, Dromini VI, and Atria, we’re moving onto phase two and allowing the Skye Rangers off of their leash.” Nondi said with a smirk. “The 17th Skye Rangers are being told to go raiding as far into the Combine as they can logistically support and to move over to the Davion border if they can successfully accomplish it.”

“Hopefully they’ll be enough of a distraction while we secure the border in order to move further into the Combine.” Katrina replied. “I’m sending the Kell Hounds to you, make sure you put them to good use.”

“We’ll need them for garrison duty if nothing else.” Nondi responded with a yawn. “It is late Katrina, and I need some rest.”

“I understand Nondi, doing paperwork can be exhausting on the best day, casualty reports are even more so.” Katrina said with a sad smile. “Get some rest Nondi, I’ll see you again at the regular check in.”

With the final words exchanged, Nondi walked out of the private booth that the local Comstar Precentor had provided. “Once again, we thank you for your patronage, we’re wiping down the booth now, and ensured that the privacy policy was followed to the letter.”

“Good to hear.” Nondi said. “Hopefully we won’t need to do too many more of these, I hear it strains the HPG components.”

‘It does, but in limited time frames such as this one it is an acceptable level of stress, and we now manufacture replacement parts at a rate much higher than we did before.”The Precentor Smiled, “Why, the more components that we wear out, the higher my budget for research goes.”

“Oh God save me from scientists trying to get more funding.” Nondi said after she had managed to leave the Comstar HPG compound. “They’re like rats trying to get the biggest piece of cheese they can find.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Four: Hanging on
Kessel, Draconis Combine, December 25th, 3030

“Pull back into the mountains.” Colonel Carter ordered. “We can hold them off easier from a defensive position.”

“When did the 18th Dieron Regulars start using Royal tech?” Major Davis asked as he walked into the mobile HQ. “I know we’re using Clantech on a lot of our units, but we didn't expect lostech to be a thing that they were using on regular units.”

“We’re fairly sure the Helm Core data was leaked or stolen sometime around 3020.” The Intelligence Liaison spoke up. “Dunham thinks that it was a deliberate leak to the Draconis Combine from MIIO.”

“Why would they leak that though?” Davis asked. “Wouldn’t it be better to field the edge?”

“We’ve had the core for over two decades now.” Carter said, “And with the three main nations of the Defense Alliance having access to the Wolf Clan Technology core we still have the edge.” She shrugged, “We’ve started issuing Royal grade weapons and mechs to our regulars, not just our elite rated units, and the Dieron Regulars are rated as an Elite unit, along with Dexter Kingsley being one of the few COs in the DCMS that is actually good at combined arms warfare.”

“That’s actually a good point.” Davis said as the Mobile HQ fell back further into the mountains towards their fortifications. “We can still maintain the technology edge, and we had a much larger headstart on the development and repair of factories.”

“We can finish this discussion later.” Carter said. “We’ve got a heavy company beginning to push towards the LZ.”

“Back to it I guess.” Davis said with a sigh as he grabbed onto the ladder hanging down from his modified Gladiator. “I better go make sure that our people didn’t get greedy with the salvage, if they’re still out there salvaging this could lead to a massacre.”

“I’m pulling up the sat feed now.” One of the techs called out to Carter. “That’s a lot more than just a heavy company ma’am.”

“Scramble our CAS, and get the Vengeance’s in orbit on standby, we might need some ODST’s dropped in behind them in order to make sure we don’t get overrun.”

“Ma’am, we’re going to have to hold out for longer, I just got word that there are more DCMS forces at the jump point.” A tech relayed. “No confirmation, but may be another regiment or two.”

“Well, this day just keeps getting better doesn’t it.” Carter said wryly. “Start breaking out the Arrow IV artillery, I think it’s time we started taking more of these guys with us.” She stood up and got ready to leave the Mobile HQ.

“Where are you going Ma’am?” The lead staff officer asked.

“I’m getting in my Von Luckner, we’re going to need all of the firepower we can get.” Carter replied. “I can coordinate things from there.”




Ko, Lyran Commonwealth, December 28th, 3030

“We’re almost done packing up, and with the garrison forces on schedule to be landing in a couple of days we’re moving on to Altair.” Stone told his senior staff as he looked over the newly unsealed orders. “We may have our work cut out for us, the people who are supposed to be on Altair are the 18th Dieron Regulars, and we know that they are very good at their jobs.”

“We got this sir.” Major Vance chimed in. “We just can’t get cocky.”

“Well, I guess we’ll find out when we get there, it’s two jumps away from here so we’re not going to have a lot of downtime.” Stone said. “How do you think Cartis is doing over on Kessel?”

“Blowing things up and making people regret their decisions as usual.” Vance replied. “We all know that the only reason she didn’t go on to be a part of the SLC is that she enjoys blowing things up too much.”

“That she does,” Stone replied, “That she does.”




Altair, Draconis Combine January 23rd, 3031
“Well, it looks like we have a challenge ahead of us.” Joshua Wolf said as he analyzed the readouts on the forces that were burning towards the planet of Altair. “I do believe that is the 2nd Marksman, who are commanded by Colonel Robert Stone. He is a much more aggressive fighter and commander than the rest of the Marksman, and prefers to be on the offensive.”

“You have much intelligence on our enemies,” Chu-Sa Jerry Akuma said with a nod. “This will be useful in helping us exterminate the enemies of the Dragon.”

“We outnumber them,” Colonel Joshua Wolf said, “But we should not underestimate the Marksman, many are the elite units that have been broken and shattered for that very mistake.”

“Then I am exceedingly grateful that you have provided us with the means of our victory.” He gestured to the slightly smaller Elemental suits that had been developed off of the designs and specifications that Joshua Wolf had provided.

“Remain wary, we have had ten years of peace, and we do not know everything that Hull and his pet scientists may have come up with over the years.” Tai-Sho Minobu Tetsuhara reminded them. “We have not been idle ourselves after all, and is it not honorable to show ourselves worthy of fighting a force that has defied all odds before?”

“Aff.” Joshua Wolf said with a slightly mad grin. “My only regret is that Hull is not here himself for a chance to battle.”




Kentares IV, January 31st, 3031

“Come on Ian, if you don’t start moving then Sandoval is going to start looking for excuses to try and have Hanse take your place.” I told the man who was on a quick visit. “Especially after the marriage alliances that the three of us in the Alliance just agreed to.”

“We’re working on something Mark, you just need to be patient.” Ian cautioned. “I want to be out there fighting just as much as you, but we have to take these things slow sometimes.”

“Really Ian?” I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t get to talk to me about patience when you tried to commit suicide via samurai ten years ago.”

“And you are not trying to do the same now?” Ian asked me. “You are asking to invade another nation after all.”

“Because minus the ten year ceasefire that is now over they’ve literally proven that their desire is to control the entirety of the Inner Sphere.” I responded. “The only other threat I can imagine to actual peace for our time and age is the Clans, and Nat left them in a chaotic mess when she left.”

“Mark, just give me a couple of months to shift some units around.” Ian said with an exaggerated sigh. “You seem a little on edge and bloodthirsty compared to normal, what’s up?”

“Something's very wrong.” I stated calmly and with ice in my voice. “I’m not sure what is wrong, but I can feel it deep in my bones and if we don’t do something very soon then we may have some serious issues on our hands.”

“We haven’t heard anything from the Outworlds Alliance in over five years Ian.” I said. “Don’t you think that’s a bit odd for a nation that was mostly based on trade with nations?” I asked, “And, I know that Thomas Marik is fairly certain that they eliminated most of the radicals in Comstar, but the Outworlds Alliance always relied on Comstar far more than the other periphery nations, and we haven’t gotten a single HPG message from them in five years, it’s as if the entire nation went under a blackout.”

“You’re too paranoid Mark,” Ian scoffed. “I’m sure it’s just Comstar upgrading the entire HPG system over there or something with a rational explanation.”

“I’m giving you a rational explanation Ian, rogue Comstar Radicals take over a stellar nation, rebuild their industrial might, and ally themselves with the Draconis Combine in order to start making their way back into a seat of power.” I said bluntly.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see then.” Ian waved me off. “I’m on vacation right now anyway, so shoo.”

“Mark my words Ian,” I said before I walked away. “This is going to come back to haunt you.”

–
–

“He did not listen?” Natasha asked when I arrived back at my office.

“No, he completely ignored my every concern.” I said, “I wish it were Hanse here, he at least has a good head on his shoulders for this kind of thing.”

“Hanse is also more of a cerebral person than Ian is.” Natasha reminded me. “It took the two of you years to get Ian to stay away from frontline combat, remember?”

“Yeah I know.” I sighed as I drew my wife into a hug and a kiss. “I’m just concerned, and we seem to be the only ones who are concerned about this.”

“The Taurians and Katrina took us seriously.” Natasha reminded me. “Why, they even got the Magistracy to join the trade portions of the Alliance.”

“Something is just off Natasha.” I said as I grabbed a folder that Thomas Marik had sent me a couple of years ago. “They never found Vesar Kristofur, and he was the ringleader for the radical elements, and with him being the previous head of ROM he would have the means and capabilities to take over a place like the Outworlds Alliance.”

“I know.” Natasha replied, “But you cannot do anything more right now than you already have, so let us go and see if we can maybe give Sapphire a younger sibling, no?”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five: Blood on the Horizon
Kessel, Draconis Combine, January 3rd, 3031

“Back us up!” Carter ordered her Von Luckner’s driver. “We need to get back into the cover of our artillery.”

“Aye Ma’am!” The driver responded. “Reversing now.” The tank lurched as the driver through the heavy tank into as fast a reverse as possible.

“Fire on the Archer!” Carter commanded. “That’s the only thing in our area that has the range to touch us right now.”

“Firing!” The gunner said as he pulled the trigger on his Clan Gauss Rifle and LRM20 as soon as his targeting computer gave him a lock.

“Good contact, we’ve got solid hits on the enemy Archer.” The spotter called out. “He’s backing off now.”

“Good to hear,” Carter said as she used her slate to relay commands to the rest of the 1st Marksman. “Keep us moving back to our lines, we overextended here and if the enemy takes advantage of it we’ll be cut off.”

“Colonel Carter!” Major Davis’ voice cut through on the Comms systems. “We need you back at HQ now, we’ve got a regiment of what’s called the Ryuken arriving to reinforce the forces we’re currently facing.”

“I’m on my way, we just entered the artillery envelope, and are going to be back at base in ten mikes.” Carter replied as she double checked the maps and her math.

–
–
“Ma’am, we’re outnumbered three to one right now not only in ‘mechs, but also in combat vehicles.” Davis briefed her as she walked into the mobile HQ. “The only thing keeping us in the fight right now is our Artillery, and the fact that we control the skies.” Davis then looked at the Dropships that were all equipped with automated repair bays. “Well, that and our excellent support staff.”

“We’ve all been pulling double shifts Davis,” Carter reminded him. “If I haven’t been grabbing rack time I’ve been pulling extra time in the repair bays, just like all of us are.”

“We may need to pull back Carter,” Davis cautioned. “We’re all exhausted, and we’re going to run out of ammo for the Arrow systems soon.”

“If we take off we risk being hit on our way out.” Carter stated. “And, we’ve already taken out all of the Training Cadre that was here along with half of the 3rd Dieron Regulars.”

“Zoe, we need to either get reinforced, or back off of Kessel.” Davis advised. “Because if we end up stranded here we’re going to be fighting for a very long time.”

“Have the senior officers come in for a quick discussion.” Carter said after a moment’s consideration. “I want to know what their opinions are.”




Altair, February 6th, 3031

“Pull back to rally point Charlie.” Stone commanded from his Marauder as he alternated fire with his Clan based ERPPCs, shredding a light ‘mech in the Wolf’s Dragoons Colors. “We’re going to need air support to curtail some of their more aggressive people.”

“I don’t remember Joshua Wolf being that bloodthirsty when he last visited Kentares as a guest lecturer.” Lieutenant Frank Moses said as he piloted his Clantech Von Rohrs beside Stone’s Marauder. Twisting his heavy ‘mech, Moses fired on a Catapult in the distance, pocketing its armor with his LRMs, and disrupting his electronics with the flash of man made lightning.

“Nice shots Lieutenant,” Stone said with a grin audible in his voice. “But we still need to get back to the rally point.”

“I would love to sir,” Moses responded, “But they seem to be focused on me and Fireteam Sergeant Vickers right now.”

“I think it’s because She’s in a Gladiator and you’re in a Von Rohrs.” Stone said as the Ryuken and Wolf’s Dragoons broke off and began falling back in an orderly fashion. Some of the larger ‘mechs with hands even grabbed their own ‘mechs that had fallen and began to drag them back with them rather than leave them for the Marksman to salvage.

“They do seem to be unusually focused on us.” Moses replied, “Vickers and I have more damage on us then the rest of us do.”

“Well, we’ll have to address that later,” Stone said. “For now we need to work on a new plan that doesn’t involve us being ground down by superior numbers.”

“Aye sir,” Lieutenant Moses replied. “I’ll make sure that we keep any of our Von Rohrs and Gladiators out of sight for now.”




Kentares IV, March 21st, 3031


“Mark, we need to talk.” Dunham said as he entered my office. “And you’re going to need Natasha in here.”

“What happened?” I asked, my brain immediately entering panic mode.

“Just get Natasha in here first.” Dunham said with a serious expression on his face.

“Fine,” I agreed anxiously as I grabbed my slate. “Nat, Dunham says that you need to be here in my office ASAP.”

“I am on my way!” Natasha said into her comms device. “It shall be five minutes.” She cut off her comms device.

“She was out training with the Ducal Guard and it may be a little bit before she gets here.” I told Dunham.

“Do you have any alcohol in here Mark?” Dunham asked bluntly. “You may need a couple of fingers of whiskey.”

–
–

“I am here.” Natasha said as she entered the room. “What seems to be the problem?”

“You’re going to want to sit down for this.” Dunham said before grabbing his slate. “Your daughter Sapphire is presumed dead or missing.”

“What happened?” I asked with what seemed a simple calm as I opened a drawer in my desk and withdrew a bottle of four hundred year old whiskey and two glasses. “She was supposed to be on Robinson making sure the Swordsman upgrades that we were planning were on schedule.”


“Her Sting exploded along with the King Henry V that she was docked with.” Dunham said bluntly without sparing any time. “No one is taking credit for the assassination, but some of our agents in Draconis Combine have reported that Takashi Kurita elevated your target level in the ISF, and that both you and the rest of your family were made priority targets for any cells that are along the border.”


“How did they get a bomb onto one of our escorts?” I asked as I shotgunned the whiskey. “I thought we tripled checked for that sort of thing.”

“We do Mark.” Dunham said. “But we don’t go over the outside of the Jumpships.”

“Oh,” My heart sank as I realized that Sapphire was more than likely dead, even if we didn’t have a body. “And we had the King Henry V doing cargo contracts while Sapphire was on Robinson.”

“The King Henry V’s safeties should have kicked in though.” Dunham said, “But according to the sensors of every single ship in the area, including the Aegis class cruiser that we sold to the Sandovals the safeties didn’t engage, and the Jumpship and Dropships simply disintegrated into a massive hunk of fused metal.”

Natasha just sat there unmoving, still as if a statue had replaced where my wife once was. I stood up from my chair, and moved to the sofa where she was seated. Taking her into my arms as the tears started to fall from my eyes as I realized that my baby girl wasn’t going to be coming home.

“It’s okay to cry sometimes Nat.” I said as she began to shudder in my arms, and I looked at Dunham and he quietly left us alone in my office. “So we’ll weep here in private, because there is no shame in tears.” I pulled Nat’s head up so that she could see my eyes as well. “Come here.” I pulled her tight into my chest as we both let out deep cries and sobs.

“Why?” Natasha finally asked. “Why would someone target a ten year old girl who didn’t even want to learn how to wage war?”

“Because they knew that it would hurt us, Natasha.” I said sadly. “And it worked, my heart just shattered into a million little pieces all over again just like it did the first time I lost my family.”

“We’re going to make them pay.” Natasha said as she pulled me tight. “And damn whatever Ian or Hanse say.”

“Let’s take care of the funeral and last rites first okay?” I stroked my wife’s hair as she leaned into me. “We have to prioritize and make sure that no one knows what we’re going to do until it’s too late.”

“We need to call David.” Natasha said after we had finished crying. “He needs to be informed of this.”

“I’ll have Mathis bring him over from the academy. Sheppard will understand the situation.” I replied.

“Does it always feel like this when you lose family?” Natasha asked, this being her first experience with this.

“No, most of the time you have family members older than you who die, and it makes it easier to rationalize in your own brain.” I said with a sad smile. “But the younger the family member, the harder it hits, to the point where you feel like you’re responsible for what happened even if there was nothing you could have possibly done to avert disaster.”

“Family is hard.” Natasha muttered into the shoulder that she still had her face buried in.

“But it’s always worth it.” I said as I comforted her. “Family isn’t just blood Natasha, it’s everyone who you choose to be your family, and them being blood just helps bind them that much closer sometimes.”

 

[The Whispering Monk]

ouch.

I think Kurita just signed his death warrant.

 

[Blasterbot]

ouch.

I think Kurita just signed his death warrant.

just because an enraged Natasha will be gunning for him specifically... oh wait. yeah the dragon is gonna be dead soon. between the fed suns, the lyrans, Clan Wolf, and the Marksmen the only real question is does he go full Liao and try and salt the earth so when the combine is conquered it is basically worthless.

 

[The Whispering Monk]

Possibly. Because the hidden Blakist remnant will come gunning out of the woodwork once the FS and Kurita bleed themselves dry...

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZpshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............................
"Communications link lost"

 

[MarkWarrior]

Davion Interlude: 3029

“You’re sure you want to go on a tour of the Outback Ian?” Hanse asked. “I know that it has improved a lot over the past fifteen years or so, but apart from some areas where Sharpshooter has invested heavily into mining and production there’s still not much there aside from raw materials currently.”

“We need to show them that they are just as valuable to the Federated Suns as the core production worlds.” Ian stated. “I’m appointing you as regent in my place while I go on. Now, try not to burn down the place or the Alliance while I’m gone.”

“No, I’m more worried about you burning down the Outback.” Hanse muttered. “Just be careful along the Outworlds Alliance border, with the HPGs shut down the rumor mill reads like the Spanish Inquisition.”

“I’m not worried about that Hanse!” Ian chuckled. “We’ll have plenty of escorts and anyone trying anything overt will be obliterated. Besides, I’ve been waiting for an excuse to try out the new Titan that NAIS started production on, I’ve got the prototype and it looks like a lot of fun.”

“Just be careful Ian, we don’t know how many MASK cells are still out there, or if Takashi would be willing to try something.” Hanse cautioned.

“The Kuritans are people of honor Hanse, it’s just a different kind of honor than we have.” Ian chuckled. “They’re even reasonable when you pair them up against the Liaos.”

“Many people look reasonable when you compare them to the Liaos.” Hanse said. “That;s not exactly a stunning argument in their favor and they are still our enemies, you should treat them as such before you find yourself dead on the battlefield.”

“I’m going to be fine Hanse.” Ian said before tempting Murphy. “What’s the worst that could happen while I’m gone?”




Delos IV

“Ahh, aren’t you a pretty one!” Ian greeted the courtesan that entered the hotel room that had been rented out by and for his entourage. “Shall we talk for a bit?”

The woman just nodded as she made her way closer to the First Prince. There was an almost unnatural beauty to her, as if she were perfectly made to attract Ian to her, and he found himself neatly entranced by her eyes.

“How long are you supposed to be on Delos IV?” The Courtesan asked as she unpacked her bag and brought out bottles of what looked like massage oils.

“A couple more weeks and then I’ll be heading for Woodbine to ask some questions about how the overall state of the Outback is. “Ian replied as he enjoyed the view. "We might stay longer if I find a reason to though."

“Would you lie down please?” The woman asked gently. “I like to start this off with a soothing massage.”

“Of course,” Ian responded, “Should I take my shirt off?”

“It is my job to grant you your every desire Prince Davion, so do as you wish.” The courtesan replied as Ian dressed down to his underclothes. “I’ll start on your back.”

“Oh, that feels good.” Ian yawned as she massaged his back. “I like that massage oil too, it kinda numbs the back a little bit and makes me feel a little sleepy.”

“It’s a special brand I buy from a supplier in the Outworlds Alliance by the name of Kristofur.” She responded after spending a long time massaging the muscles in his back. “It makes all of the nobles that come through not feel anything when I do this.” She said as Ian groaned and stopped moving. He was too numbed to react or do anything when she brought out a sedative that had been concealed in her hair stick. “Now, be a good First Prince and make sure that this all sinks in, you’re going to be here for an awful long while.




Somewhere in the Outworlds Alliance…

“How is the Narco Interrogation going?” Vesar Kristofur asked the team he had put together. “I expect results soon.”

“Well sir, we’ve already had our people working on making sure the double is the same down to the DNA structure, but if we push too hard then it will kill both the First Prince, and the Double we’ve spent so much time on.”

“I understand that.” Vesar replied. “But we have a limited window here, and we have to make this subtle enough that by the time Hull or anyone else realizes there is a problem that it’s too late.”

“Sir, the double is only going to last for a minimum of three years due to strain on various parts of his internal organs, so if we want to make sure that this works we may have to really dig into the First Prince’s brain.”

“We’ll step up the interrogation.” Vesar said, “Now I have to make sure that our allies of convenience are cooperating.”

“Kurita-San.” Vesar bowed as he greeted Marcus Kurita. “I take it Coordinator Takashi Kurita was pleased with us filling in the gaps on the core that the Davions tried to mislead you with?”

“Indeed,” Marcus Kurita replied. “Now, while we have been able to restore production in many factories amongst our worlds, you have still not informed me of your plan to place me on the Coordinators chair.”

“Patience my friend, these things take time.” Vesar said to the man. “Besides, wouldn’t it be better for you if both your cousin and nephew were unable to handle what might be coming and then you swoop in with better technology and strategy than the both of them to save the day.”

“Potentially, but unless we start to see results soon, my friends among the Black Dragon Society will start to get anxious.” Marcus replied. “And I have still not seen how you intend to handle Duke Hull, he sits there across the border mocking us and everything we have tried.”

“Don’t worry,” Vesar smirked, “With the ISF assets that you have helped us gain access to we have been able to make inroads into our plans for dealing with Hull and his group.”

“And I see that your plan for gaining the Wolf’s Dragoons Loyalty worked out as planned.” Marcus said coldly. “Having two extra regiments of Elite Warriors dedicated to training allowed us to focus on getting some of our troops back up to full strength in the meantime, and to also raise these new units that Takashi Has named the Ryuken.”

“Joshua Wolf was easy to manipulate,” Vesar gave a small wave and a smirk. “The man believes that Hull stole the love of his life from him, and both Love and Hate are powerful motivators to ensure that someone comes to a war.” Vesar then swirled his drink in his glass. “Joshua Wolf needed some help, but now firmly believes that Hull is his rival in taking Natasha Kerensky’s love and affection.” He smiled to himself. “And that the only way to win her over is to kill him and all of his “Inferior” offspring.”

“That is madness on the same level as Maximilian.” Marcus Kurita said. “A wise man steers clear of those sorts of things.”

“Don’t worry about it, everything is going to plan, everything.”




New Avalon

“Ian, good to see you back home.” Hanse greeted his brother. “I’ve been working on some of the long term logistics and strategies for the Draconis Combine when the ceasefire is up, would you like to review them?”

“There is no need to go over them.” Ian said with a smile, “I trust that Takashi will not be the one to first break this ceasefire, and so we shall not move a single soldier until he first makes a move.”

“But Ian, we’ve got everything set up already, and given the War Games we’ve had over the last few years we’ve never been better prepared to do this.” Hanse argued.

“My word is final Hanse.” Ian said, “We will not be the ones to break the ceasefire first.”


“I hope you’re right about this Ian,” Hanse said. “Because if you’re wrong it’ll be hell to pay.”

“Now, I don’t know about you Hanse, but I need a vacation after all of that.” Ian said with a laugh. “I’m going to take a small vacation on Kentares IV for a little while, Hull won’t mind after all.”

“I don’t know Ian,” Hanse said. “Hull hasn’t exactly been happy with you since the duel on Proserpina, and you staying there might just make him angry.”

“He’ll do as I say.” Ian patted Hanse on the back. “We were friends for a while after all.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Word of Blake Interlude 3020-3030

“We need to ensure the preservation of Blessed Blake’s teachings.” Vesar told the other radical Comstar members with him. “The ones who are in power now may have forgotten why we began our crusade, but we have not.”

Vesar paused to take a breath. “I prepared for this eventuality though, and sent thousands of us ahead in preparation for this moment. The Outworlds Alliance is a small place without much industry, but I have been preparing for this day since we were torn by the Schism and have already gotten production started on various worlds in that interstellar nation.”

“Primus, what is our overall plan?” One of the adepts with him on the dropship asked.

“We are going to set into motion the beginnings of the end for the Federated Suns and anyone else who would seek to displace us from our holy task.” Vesar said. “As Precentor Rom I had access to many classified projects as well as where intelligence assets that we know of were being used by the Successor States. We shall begin with setting the Capellan Confederation against the Federated Suns in a vengeance that has never been spoken of before.”

“We have assets in Maskirovka?” An acolyte from the Capellan Confederation asked. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“I would tell you,” Vesar smiled. “But then I would have to kill you because there is no such thing as a kept secret.”

“Understood.” The Acolyte gulped.

“I’m not making a threat.” Vesar chuckled. “Why would I kill or threaten fellow followers of the Word of Blake? I am supposed to be leading us into victory, and I cannot do that without all of you here.”




3021
“You promise that this will aid us in ensuring that the Draconis Combine doesn’t invade?” President Neil Avellar asked. “They’ve been steadily moving forces to and from the border since the legendary duel that resulted in ten years of peace.”

“I am not only certain of it,” Vesar smiled warmly. “I guarantee it, and to sweeten the deal, we’re going to be helping Mountain Wolf Battlemechs perfect the Merlin and get the Night Hawk back into production.”

“We are not a war loving people, Vesar.” President Avellar said. “We seek to remain at peace for as long as possible and to restore our nation to the way it once was.”

“Don’t worry President, peace across the Inner Sphere is my ultimate goal as well.” Vesar smiled, “As it is with everyone who I brought with me in my self imposed exile from Comstar.”

“Well, we’ve been getting some learning centers from an interstellar company called Sharpshooter.” Avellar said. “Would you happen to know anything about that?”

“Just let them do their thing, they may be a long term plot by the Davions to pull exactly what they did with the Taurian Concordat all those centuries ago.” Vesar cautioned, “But as long as they are doing the good work of Blake then we shall leave them in peace.”

“Good,” Avellar smiled. “Their hospitals have been an exceptional aid to many of our worlds.”




3022

“I told you that we would be getting production back up.” Vesar told President Avellar. “You had nothing to worry about.”

“No, I believed you, it’s just hard to believe hard numbers like this at first glance.” Avellar replied. “There’s enough production here to completely outfit our units with fresh machines in five years.”

“That is the ultimate goal is it not?” Vesar said charismatically. “To speak softly and yet carry a big enough stick to force the barbarians away.”

“I don’t think that’s quite how the quote goes.” Avellar said after a moment's thought. “But I don’t remember the original well enough to truly correct you.”




3023

“Primus, we’ve managed to insert two men and a couple of women into the First Prince’s bodyguard detail, the MASK cell that was prepping for OPERATION DOPPELGANGER was able to assist in getting everything established and prepared as per your instructions.”

“Good,” Vesar said. “We’ll have to make sure that they remain dark until we are ready for them to move, it may be years before we have everything prepared on our end though.”

“Good techniques take time sir, isn’t that what you always say?”

“Yes, I do say that.” Vesar agreed. “Now you need to get back to New Avalon and ensure that the MASK cell doesn’t receive any communications from the Liao’s until I am ready to make use of them.”

“Yes Primus.” The Adept replied. “The Will of Blake be done.”

“The Will of Blake will be done indeed.” Vesar echoed.




3025

“Why should we cut off the Federated Suns, won’t this Alliance be a good thing for the Inner Sphere?” Avellar asked his most trusted advisor Vesar Kristofur.

“Nay,” Vesar shook his head. “It is nothing but the Star League come again, and soon enough you will see as they attempt to seize power from various nations and invade.”

“But what about this I’m hearing about nukes being used on Northwind and several other places?” Avellar asked.

“Just propaganda that the Davions are using to justify their little Triumvirate being able to invade and take out the Liao’s as a proper dynasty and House Lord.” Vesar cautioned. “And we’re not going to cut them off entirely, we’re going to maintain trade, but we can close their embassy and ensure that their intelligence agencies are not able to breach your nation anymore.”

“Alright,” Avellar said. “I’ll begin to bring everything together to start cutting communications with the Davions, but I want your word that this won’t come back and backfire on me.”

“I swear by Blake that I am attempting to do what is best for everyone.” Vesar said seriously as he placed his hand over his heart. “Trust me my friend, have I not increased the ability of your nation to defend itself over these past five years? Have you not been able to increase your strength to that of before the Succession Wars began? Have some faith in your friend and trust that he is here to truly help you and your nation thrive in these troubled times.”




3026

“This is the last one?” Vesar asked the Adept as he looked down at the bound woman on the other side of the glass from him.

“Yes Primus, this is the last identifiable MIIO agent that we were able to locate and capture.” The adept replied.

“Did any of them escape?” Vesar asked.

“No sir, as far as we know there aren’t any foreign intelligence agents remaining in the Outworlds Alliance barring those that we left in place to report things as going normally.” The Adept replied.

“That is good to hear.” Vesar said. “Begin her interrogation, she may have some intelligence we can use.” He turned and walked away.
–
–
“Did we locate the Amaris Cache that was left behind?” Vesar asked one of the few Explorer Corps members that had left with him.

“Yes, two full divisions were left behind by the Amaris people as part of the Secret Army here.” The adept replied. “We have begun outfitting our units with upgraded variants of the technology there and will be helping the Outworlds Alliance and Marcus Kurita get everything prepared for use.”


“We’re going to be looking for the factories that were being used to outfit the units here, because knowing Amaris, there’s a high chance that there are several hidden around here.” The Explorer Corps Adept responded. “We did bring our star charts with us, so we’ll see if there’s anything we put down of note for the Outworlds Alliance.”

“Good.” Vesar said. “We’ll need everything we can get our hands on.”




3028

“Another one?” Vesar asked as they brought another MIIO agent down to the interrogation room. “That’s the fifth one this year.” He scoffed. “You’d think they’d have learned by now.”

“Why haven’t the Davions done anything yet?” An Adept asked. “You would think that they would have intervened militarily due to us taking their agents out.”

“If a nation responded by invading a nation that took out their spies they would have no proper justification.” Vesar said with a smirk. “And the current First Prince and his family along with the Lyrans are people who think they are principled, they won’t intervene militarily without fabricating some sort of reason first.”

–
–

“You lied to me, Vesar.” President Neil Avellar said as he entered the office that Vesar had been using for years now. “There really were Nukes that went off all over the Capellan Confederation and it wasn’t because of the Federated Suns finding a reason to invade.”

“It’s a shame that you found out like this.” Vesar said coldly as he fired a whisper quiet suppressed handgun at Neil Avellar. “You were such a useful puppet that it was almost too easy to get the ones who wanted to rebel into positions of power.” He shrugged while talking to the corpse. “You see President Avellar, I’ve been subverting you by feeding your people, instead of them following you, they knew that I was the real power that was helping to protect and feed them, that I was the one to begin to bring their standard of living back up, and that is where you screwed up.”

“Not going to say anything?” Vesar asked humorously. “I’ll use your children as little puppets in order to maintain the illusion, but in another couple of years it won’t matter all that much.”




3029
“You got the itinerary?” Vesar asked the agent that had just arrived from New Avalon.

“I did, the best option for infiltration would be Delos IV.” The WoB agent responded. “That’s when the agents that we inserted will be on duty and it will be easier to get a swap done.”

“What is the time window?” Vesar asked.

“Ian is scheduled two weeks of R&R while on Delos IV, and that’ll be the time we can make the swap, but it’ll have to be done in the week that our agents are in the rotation, I recommend you use someone that our people will recognize one of ours but will still pass the background checks.”

“I have just the honey trap for our First Prince.” Vesar chuckled to himself. “I’ll send the signal for the MASK cell to begin swapping the DNA samples by the time the swap is done.”

“Yes sir, we’ll get everything done.”




3030

“You’ll never get away with this!” Ian yelled at the top of his lungs as he struggled against his restraints, causing them to chafe and break skin. “Hull and Hanse will make sure that I’ll be rescued!”

“There’s no need to yell Ian Davion.” Vesar smiled. “I’m right here next to you.”

“What? Are you going to tell me your master plan?” Ian asked.

“No,” Vesar smiled. “In fact, you soon won’t be awake for any of this,” He turned to the two burly men beside him. “Hold him down and administer the sedative.”

“Make sure you get a sample, if we want our backup to work then we’re going to need to preserve it for artificial insemination before we kill him.”

“Give us a day to extract it.” Victoria smiled viciously. “Then he can die.”
–
–

“Goodbye First Prince Davion.” Vesar chuckled cruelly as he raised his pistol and squeezed the trigger. “It wasn’t a pleasure knowing you.”

 

[Blasterbot]

well that is a twist. on the one hand hull will likely ask forgiveness over permission. especially if he and his wife get blue balled here. on the other since we have a plant who will try and drive a wedge here he might us it as an opportunity to try and declare Hull as a rogue agent and not have the fed suns back him up from retaliation. Hanse, the Lyrans, and Clan Wolf will likely disagree.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six: Revenge?
January 8th, 3021

“Good impact Ma’am!” The gunner and spotter called out. “The Battlemaster is down for the count.”

“Good work, mark it for a salvage team to come check on later.” She ordered, “We need to move our fireteam to assist Alpha Battalion.”

“Moving at maximum speed, aye ma’am.” The driver responded. “Are we sure that we’re going to make it through this ma’am?”

“We’re the 1st Marksman corporal, we’re all that and a bag of chips!” Carter laughed. “We’ve already managed to take out the light and medium enemies we were up against, and have still maintained most of our machines.” Carter’s grin was a little bloodthirsty. “And we’ve still got ammunition for the artillery, as long as we’re able to maintain our edge, we can hold out and win this.”

“Yes Ma’am!” The tank crew replied.

“Colonel Carter!” Came over Colonel Zoe Carter’s personal comms channel. “We’ve got an officer here offering a temporary ceasefire. What do you want me to do?”

“Hold tight Major Davis,” Carter replied. “We’re about ten mikes out.”
–
–
“You have fought well.” Came a voice over the open comms channel. “But you will fall beneath the might of the Dragon.”

“I’m sorry Tai-Sho Kingsley,” Carter replied with snark in her voice. “I can’t quite hear you over the sounds of your two destroyed battlemech regiments.”

“You are excellent warriors.” Kingsley replied. “But it will not be enough to save you, I believe that you are nearing the end of your ability to maintain a defensive position against myself and the Ryuken-San.”

“Well, you’ll just have to try us and see exactly how much we’ve got left in reserve won’t you?” Carter asked with a smirk. “I would have already left if I thought that we couldn’t win this.”

“Fine then, your men’s lives are on your own head.” Tai-Sho Kingsley replied. “You have one day to reconsider before we come back in force.”

–
–
“We have a day to repair and rest.” Carter told her people. “Let's make sure that we get our heaviest equipment back in the fight, and everyone needs at least eight to twelve hours of bedrest. I fully expect the ISF to try something.”

“Good call Ma’am.” Major Davis said to his CO. “We’re going to have to hold out for longer before reinforcements get here”

“Reinforcements?” Carter asked. “I don’t need reinforcements, we’re going to handle them all on our own.”




Kentares IV, March 30th, 3031

“Please tell me we have everything ready?” I asked Sheppard and Packer. “I’ve got the Ducal Estate acting like Natasha and I have come down with the latest variant of the flu and that we won’t be able to meet with anyone.”

“Commodore Frye is ready and waiting with the fleet.” Sheppard said. “And both the 1st and 2nd Kentares Guard are just waiting for confirmation to lift off and make for the Age of Discovery and Manassas, along with the Vanguard.” (Texas Class Battleship that we restored)

“Did Jewel manage the refits yet?” I asked, not quite remembering reading any of those reports.

“Yes, the Manassas and Age of Discovery have AMS systems in place now, but we don’t have time to refit the Vanguard in time before you head out.” Sheppard said. “Godspeed Mark, and make sure that they pay for this.”

“We’re going to make the Kuritans wish that they hadn’t crossed the line here.” I said, “Keep an eye on Ian for me, something feels off.”

“Will do Mark, will do.” Sheppard replied as he snapped together for a salute. “You’re bringing the Ducal Guard with you?”

“Everything except for the 3rd Kentares and the Militia are coming with us.” I said. Returning his salute. “Hold down the fort for me.”

“Yes sir!” Sheppard replied. “I still think you should send a message to Hanse though.”

“I already did.” I said, “It’s on its way with Rook as we speak.”

“Good to hear.” Sheppard said. “Good to hear, maybe he can retask some assets to help cover Kentares while you’re gone.”

–
–

“We got our course plotted in?” I asked Frye. “I made a list of the Dead worlds I used when bringing the Manassas through the Combine and Federated Suns the first time.”

“We’re using quite a lot of the systems that you used the first time.” Frye said as she showed me the general path that we were going to take. “I can’t believe that you were within ten light years of Luthien thirty years ago.” She shook her head.

“I was an idiot who was just figuring out how to make a jumpship work in the first place thirty years ago, Frye.” I said with a sigh. “Not that I’m much better at it now.”

“You did fine,” Frye said with a smile. “Not everyone is cut out for advanced physics and calculations like that.”

“I don’t want to have to do that again.” I agreed, “I prefer reading and writing over math anyway.”

“I think we all know that by now.” She laughed. “Now, we’ve got a bunch of jumps to make if we’re going to pull this off properly, so strap yourself in and get ready to go.”




New Avalon, June 25th, 3031

“Rook, Dunham” Hanse greeted the tech specialist and chief intelligence operatives of Hull’s group. “I didn’t expect you and Dunham to be here, shouldn’t the two of you be on Kentares IV helping Mark and Natasha?”

“Yes, but we were sent with some important intel for you.” Dunham said as he handed over a slate. “There’s a six digit code that I’ll input for you.” He input the correct code and opened the file that Hanse was supposed to see.

“Good,” Hanse said as he looked over at the operational plans that Hull had sent to him. “I expected something like this to happen, and I’m hoping that Mark and Nat pull it off.” He flipped through. “I’ll send Duke Sandoval a small memo to have the Draconis March forces prepped, and have Duchess Romano Senn-Liao’s house forces ready to move as well.”

“Morgan will be moving with the Davion Heavy Guards to reinforce Kentares while the majority of your forces are gone.” Hanse said. “Here’s the written confirmation to give to Yvonne for authorization.”

“We’ll make sure to get it all done sir.” Rook said. “We brought David Alexander here for safety as well, Mark was hoping that your security umbrella was better than our own given the fact that Sapphire just died.”

“He graduated from the Marksman academy right?” Hanse asked.

“Yes, he did indeed.” Rook replied.

“Good, he’ll join my bodyguard detail until further notice.” Hanse said. “If you’ll have him meet with Allard, he’ll get everything set up.”

“We’ll set it up.” Dunham replied. “Thank you for your assistance Hanse.”

“It’s always a pleasure to interact with competent people.” Hanse smiled. “And Mark doesn’t really handle idiots well.”

“That’s very true sir.” Rook laughed. “Very true indeed.”




Kentares IV, June 30th, 3031

“Are you ready for your yearly Qualification sir?” The Fireteam Sergeant in charge of the ‘mech range asked. “We’ve got everything set up and ready for you to run through, we’ll start off with the simple scenarios, and move the difficulty up as we go.”

“Sounds like fun!” Ian said with a chuckle as he responded through the communications systems. “I’m going to walk it to the range and then go weapons hot.”

“Sounds like a plan sir, please follow the designated path until you reach the target area.” The Sergeant replied.

“I’m at the designated area,” Ian responded. “Flipping the master arm switch on now.” He relayed. As soon as he flipped the switch, he started convulsing and seizing up. “Need help!” he called as loud as he could through the still open channel as he rocked back against the chair.

“We need a medical team for the First Prince!” The sergeant called as he raced to the Titan. Triggering the jump jets built into his Mithril he flew up onto the shoulder of the assault ‘mech before he moved to the hatch. Grabbing on, he yanked, but the hatch was reinforced and he couldn’t get it open.

“I need a breaching charge!” He called out to the militia fireteam training in mech takedowns.

“Aye sergeant!” They responded and one of them flew up with a ‘mech breaching charge in his hands. “I’ve got this.” The militiaman set up the charge and both of the men braced as he set it off.
“Thanks Private, I’ll make sure to note you down.” The Fireteam Sergeant said as he pulled the remnants of the pilot hatch off of the ‘mech and reached the First Prince. Yanking the Neurohelmet off of Ian, the Sergeant began to run through the basic medical training that all of the soldiers on Kentares were given.

“I’ve got a pulse, and he’s still breathing, but there’s no response.” The Sergeant muttered to himself. “He’s actually unconscious, and not just asleep.” He said as he gave the man a sternum rub with his armored knuckles. “Potential brain injury.” He said as he grabbed the Neurohelmet. “We'll have to take this in for analysis to the Argo.”

“You called for a medical team?” He heard the voice through the open cockpit door.

“Yeah, I’m jumping down with the First Prince now!” He called back through his external speakers. “I’ve also got the neurohelmet that I believe caused this.”

“Bring it all down,” The medical team lead called out. “We’ve got a Sting inbound for immediate transfer to the Argo.”

The Sergeant leapt down and used the built in jump jets on his Mithril to slow the fall. “He’s still got a pulse and is breathing, but otherwise he’s unresponsive.”

“I’ll relay all of this to Dr. Hale.” The medical team lead said. “You did good work.”

“Thanks, so much for a relaxing job.” The Fireteam Sergeant snarked. “I thought this was supposed to be my retirement job and instead I get stuck doing shit like this.”

“You’ll live old timer.” The Medical team leader replied. “You’ll live.”

 

[The Whispering Monk]

“Primus, we’ve managed to insert two men and a couple of women into the First Prince’s bodyguard detail, the MASK cell that was prepping for OPERATION DOPPELGANGER was able to assist in getting everything established and prepared as per your instructions.”

I've NEVER been a fan of the magical ability ROM has to gain assets wherever the crap they want. It's the one thing that completely loses my sense of immersion in BattleTech. The other part is getting an extraction done on the 1st Prince. He's travelling with at least a Battalion of Security...some of the best in the IS.

Those critiques aside, interesting turn to attack the behemoth.

 

[MarkWarrior]

I've NEVER been a fan of the magical ability ROM has to gain assets wherever the crap they want. It's the one thing that completely loses my sense of immersion in BattleTech. The other part is getting an extraction done on the 1st Prince. He's travelling with at least a Battalion of Security...some of the best in the IS.

Those critiques aside, interesting turn to attack the behemoth.

In this case they actually had these assets planted for 5 years or more in deep cover. So I’m not going to be hand waving as much as I possibly could.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Gambling
Kessel, January 21st, 3031

“Pull back!” Carter commanded the fireteam that was leading the Ryuken into a trap. “Make it look just like how we practiced.”

The 1st Marksman RCT began to fall back in what looked like a full retreat. But was really a carefully practiced tactic that Carter had drilled them in relentlessly over the past few years and only put into practice now. Once the Ryuken had taken the bait and were stretched out Carter’s men and women acted. As one, they turned around and coordinated fire on the heaviest of the Ryuken units, bringing down the Assaults and heavies with superior firepower. While the long range units were targeting the Heavy and Assault ‘mechs, anything with short range weapons tore the lighter units that were now unsupported to shreds.

“That’s right you Motherfuckers! Run!” Major Davis said over open comms as the remaining half of the two Battalions of Ryuken-San fled the field.

“That was good work, people!” Carter said as she coordinated with the other battalions that were fighting off the 18th Dieron Regulars. “I’m having the salvage teams come out now, and our Stings are about to initiate their bombing run.”

“You heard the lady! Move with a purpose!’ Davis repeated. “Ma’am, I’ll hold down the fort here while you go make sure that Kingsley has to fall back into the bombing area.”

“Solid copy Davis,” Carter replied “Be wary though, I’m sure the Ryuken will be looking for payback.”

“They can try!” Davis laughed. “I’ve got this covered Colonel.”

–
–

“They’re falling back Colonel!” One of the Other Battalion Majors reported. “We’ve got confirmation that we’re in the clear for now.”

“That’s good news, have our Mithril scouts keep an eye on when they RTB.” Carter said. “The minute they get back our Stings are lifting off for Grid Square removal.”

“Aye Ma’am.” The major responded. “I’ll have our best scout fireteam working on it.”

“Good work Major,” Carter said as she transitioned her comms system to a private channel. “You’ve been holding off the best of Kingsley’s forces and you’ve done a fucking fantastic job, when we get back to Kentares I’m putting in for you to get a promotion.”

“Just doing my job ma’am, I don’t need a promotion.” The major replied as they finally reached their LZ. “I’m gonna grab some rack time, I’m sure I’ll be needed back out there soon enough.” The Major parked her Grasshopper in an automated repair bay and got out by scaling down her ladder. “I know guys, and I’d normally help with the work, but I’m more apt to drop than to be able to help.” She told the techs and they nodded in understanding.

“It’s alright Major, we’re getting more regular ruck time than you have been.” The lead tech said. “Go grab some rest, we’ll have her reskinned as soon as we can.”

“Thanks Sarge,” The major replied. “I’ll be back in five hours to help out.”

“Take eight hours of rest Ma’am, you’ve earned it.” The tech replied.

–
–

“We have confirmation that the Ryuken and 18th Dieron Regulars are back at base.” Carter told the Sting crews. “We know that they may have some Alamo’s or other missiles prepped to try and knock you out of the sky, but I know that you can handle this.” Carter stated. “I’m hoping the AMS systems are able to help, but just in case you don’t come back, I want you to know that it was a pleasure being your commanding officer.”

“Colonel,” The lead Sting pilot said, “With all due respect, we wouldn’t have volunteered for this if we didn’t think there was a pretty good chance of survival, we’re coming back, so make sure that the light is left on, because we’ll be back home soon enough.”

“Alright then hotshot!” Carter replied with a savage grin. “I’ll see you back here after you're done removing them from the surface of Kessel.”

–
–

“Man, that's a beautiful sight.” Colonel Zoe Carter said as she used the multizoom feature on her Binoculars to look at the base being leveled by the bombs dropping on them. “Explosions are a woman's best friend.”

“I thought that was diamonds Colonel.” Major Davis chimed in behind her. “That is a lot of explosives.” He said as he observed the massive chain of explosions happening over the basecamp the enemies were using and the surrounding areas.

“Nah, explosions are better, and diamonds are everywhere, I don’t know why they were all the rage a thousand years ago. Besides, an explosion of this magnitude will produce quite a few diamonds.” She shrugged. “We’re going to have to move in and see about clean up and helping out the survivors, not that I think there are any after that..” She gestured at the bombed out husk. “I would have done this sooner, but I thought we could handle them without going to this extreme.”

“We held out until our artillery was out of ammunition Colonel, I’m not sure what else we could have done to ensure victory here.” Major Davis replied.

“We’ll find out in the debrief,” Carter replied as she lowered her binoculars. “Get the staff together, we need to get a plan together.”




Luthien, June 30th, 3026 (Same time Doppel!Ian is dying from complications via Neurohelmet)

“Alright, we just jumped in at a pirate point that lessened our trip from ten days to three and change, you know the plan, so let's snap to it.”

“Yes sir,” Godbolt, Packer, Hazen and Paige responded.

“Paige, I want as many of the Excaliburs and Triumphs that we can take before you have the Vanguard take out the shipyards.” I told her. “We’ve got enough collards to take ten or so Dropships, but I’m not sure how many of them are near finished.”

“Want us to load up on spare parts as well sir?” Paige asked. “Me and my Marines have been waiting for you to let us off of the leash again.”

“Go have fun and remember, pillage, then burn.” I reminded her. “Not the other way around.”

“Yes sir,” She grinned. “I’ll grab what we can.”

“Good woman,” I said before turning to the other three COs. “The rest of you know your jobs, Hazen, we’re going to be bait until we either win or get reinforced by Packer and Godbolt finishing their objectives.”

“Good thing we are the best then.” Mathis said. “I’ve been waiting to use this.” He grabbed a case behind him and opened it to unveil a massive two handed vibrosword. “They want to use swords, well I’ll show them swords.”

“What’re you going to do with that thing Mathis?” I asked with a chuckle.

“Take Subhash Indrahar’s head off.” Mathis said bluntly. “He’s either here or on New Samarkand, and I’ve been waiting for this sort of thing for years now.”

“Just let Nat have the first crack at Takashi.” I told him. “If you get him first she might kill you.”

“I’m staying well out of her way.” Mathis said before he looked me in the eye with a serious expression. “Are you sure that you don’t want to upgrade to an Assault Mech boss? No one would think any less of you.”

“I’m sure Mathis.” I gave him a solid slug in his armored shoulder. “I’ve driven a Warhammer for so long that I don’t feel quite at home in any other machine anymore.”

“Have you located Takashi yet?” Natasha asked as she strode into the room, her Mithril painted a shade of black with streaks of red that matched her hair. “My Nightstar is waiting to challenge him.”

“Nat, we just got into the system and we’re going to have to wait until we get to the planet before you can challenge him.” I told my wife. “You just have to wait for three days.”

“Then you are going to face me in the sims until the last twenty-four hours.” Natasha told me with fire in her eyes. “We need to prepare for everything on Luthien to be thrown at us, and you are still piloting that squishy Warhammer.”

“It’s what I know Nat.” I shrugged. “I’ve never used anything else aside from it and why try to change what works?”

“You need more dodging practice.” She grabbed my arm and dragged me to the sims. “Let us prepare you for the fight of our lives.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: The Void
Luthien, July 1st, 3031

“This is Blaze, signify ready status and get into formation, we’ve got a lot of enemy bogies inbound.” Commanded his wing as he moved his Clantech Stuka into the lead position. “Everyone follow your designated COs lead, and stay with your wingmen, we’re up against the very best that the Combine has to offer.”

“Copy that Lead!” Came the responses.

“You got the command console set up?” Blaze asked his Copilot who was in charge of helping coordinate the battle in the void while Blaze was taking enemy pilots down. “Because this is going to be the biggest Aerospace battle in centuries.”

“I’m all green here, just keep us in the fight.” Blaze’s Copilot answered.

“Remember that if you’ve taken too much damage to fall back into the cover of the Stings,” Blaze reminded the group of over a hundred aerospace Fighters. “That’s part of what they’re here for, and if you need to rearm, fall back to the Vanguard.”

“Here they come!” A voice called on the comms channel. “We got lots of enemy fighters and at least three to four Achilles Dropships as well as what looks like some Sting knockoffs.”

“Stay on your wingman’s wing and remember to follow your squadron leaders.” Blaze said as he accelerated his Stuka in order to engage the enemy faster. “We’ve got to keep the Warships clear until we make it to Luthien.”

It took a solid fifteen minutes before any of the enemy aerospace assets reached weapons range, but once they did, the superior range of the Kentares Guard weapons showed its worth by shredding lighter aerospace fighters before they even got within the range of their own weapons.

Squeezing his triggers at extreme range, Blaze watched as a Sholagar disintegrated underneath the twin ERPPCs he hit it with before switching to the Slayer that was coming in fast behind it, firing his remaining two ERPPCs, he also triggered his LB-20X at a range that his old AC/20 would not have hit, causing the Slayer pilot to spin out of control and impact their wingman.

Then the battlefield in the void erupted into a chaotic furball, with Blaze flipping his Stuka around in order to stay on the tail of an enemy fighter while the Copilot began to give commands to the forces that were under their command.

“This is Hitman lead, we’re making a run on the lead Achilles.” Came through the comms. “Be aware, we noticed that some of the fighters had anti Warship missiles underneath their fuselage.” He warned.

“Copy that,” Blaze responded as he destroyed another Sholagar. “All units, priority tasking on fighters carrying anti Warship missiles.”




Kentares IV, July 1st, 3031

“This is strange.” Dr. Hale said as she looked at the results before her. “Franklin, come take a look at this.” She held out her slate to the doctor that was going to be replacing her when she retired.

“He’s still alive with brain damage like this?” Franklin asked incredulously.

“You’re not looking at the big picture.” Dr. Janet Hale said as she navigated to the specific area she wanted to show him. “First off, First Prince Ian Davion has internal scars from the surgery we did a couple of decades ago to make his spine funcional again, this one does not.” She put the slate into a machine that used her tri-vid to project what she was navigating to. “And, we still have the blood samples we took when we operated on the First Prince as well.”

“Whoever is in there doesn’t have any of the recorded scarring.” Franklin said as he looked at the results. “And, that blood doesn’t match what we have on file.”

“Also,” Dr. Hale brought up another section of the medical file. “There’s been an extreme amount of reconstructive surgery done on this patient's face and body in order to force a perfect match with Ian Davion.”

“But if this isn’t Ian Davion,” Dr. Franklin asked. “Then where is he?”

“This isn’t Ian Davion, but there are still Davion DNA markers here.” Hale said as she showed him. “Possibly a first cousin of some kind. But whatever the case may be, we have definitive proof that this isn’t First Prince Ian Davion.”

“We’ll need to send this with Dunham over to Hanse Davion.” Franklin said as soon as he wrapped his head around what exactly Dr. Hale was saying. “And we need to send the body with him as well.”

“We may need to have Jones do it sooner than that.” Dr. Hale said. “Some news channels are already accusing Hull of having the First Prince assassinated for not launching an attack on the Draconis Combine.”

“But the Duke had been gone for months before this happened.” Franklin said. “Why would they think that?”

“Because to many people, it doesn’t matter if it’s actually the truth or not.” Dr. Hale said as she began packing things up. “Everyone on Kentares IV will believe the truth because they know Hull, Hanse Davion and other nobles that have personally interacted with Hull will believe the truth. No one else is going to believe the truth no matter how much we proclaim it unless we can provide absolute proof that Hull didn't order the assassination.”


“Proof that we have!” Franklin said.

“Not for long if we don’t get it to New Avalon.” Dr. Hale responded. “If I were someone who was trying to bring down the Federated Suns, I would engineer a civil war by doing something similar to this. So we have a limited window here, and if we are not extremely careful, everyone we know and love could die.”

“Where are you going Dr. Hale?” Franklin asked.

“I’d tell you Franklin, but I don’t know if you can be trusted.” Hale said as she knocked him unconscious with a swift blow to the head. “I avoided any areas that might cause brain damage, but you won’t enjoy the headache that comes later.”

She packed up the remainder of her supplies and essentials before contacting Dunham's 2IC. “Jones, we need to pack up the First Prince and get moving to New Avalon, we may have a lot of issues coming our way if we don’t do this immediately.”

“Give me five minutes to scramble a Pueblo.” Jones said. “And then we’ll be on our way to the Argo.”

“Copy.” Hale responded as she wheeled the body of the duplicate First Prince into the small craft bay. “I’ll be in a shuttle hidden in the shadow of the moon.”

“Roger,” Jones said. “We’re en route now.”

“Good.” Hale closed her slate before prepping the shuttle for launch. “This is Dr. Hale to traffic control, “I’m taking my personal shuttle for a bit of a joyride, that last surgery was killer.”

“Roger that Doctor.” The Traffic controller responded. “I’m depressurizing the bay now, have a nice flight.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Landing
Luthien, July 3rd, 3031

“We’ve cleared out most of the enemy aerospace assets aside from those that managed to fall back to the planet.” Blaze briefed me. “We lost about a third of our fighters, but most of the people were recoverable.”

“Good,” I told Blaze. “Pilots are expensive, we can replace their fighters over time, but the training and experience is what’s harder to replace.”

“We’ve got about fifty or so prisoners that we rescued from the void.” Blaze said somberly. “The rest either didn’t eject, or deliberately killed themselves rather than be captured.”

“At least they’re not the Capellans.” I told Blaze as I patted him on the shoulder before turning to the matter at hand. “We’re going to be setting down here while the 1st and 2nd Kentares Guard go into their designated areas. “They get first priority for the Sting tasking, but we may need Wardog and some aerospace available for CAS.”

“You can count on us.” Blaze replied, “Just make sure there’s enough space here for a runway if necessary.” He pointed at the LZ. “There’s a field over there that might work.”

“We’ll have to be careful.” I agreed. “Takashi may have the field and LZ mined so we’ll be taking things slow.” I sighed as I went over my operation plans. “Go get some rack time Blaze.” I said with a shrug. “It’ll be another couple hours before we drop.”




BBP industries, July 3rd, 3031

“Pack up what we can.” Paige commanded as her Marines went through and started loading spare parts into the cargo bay of the Age of Discovery. “We’ve got three of these things to finish when we get back to Kentares.”

“Five Excalibur dropships isn’t a bad haul Ma’am.” Jenkins said to Paige. “Even if only one of them is finished.”

“We can finish them on Kentares, and Hull might need the extra lift depending on what happens down there.” She pointed at the world in the distance. “Their Dropship collars and drives are intact, and we’re taking what we can to finish them before we destroy the shipyards here.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Jenkins replied. “I’ve got the prisoners secured on the Manassas and we’ll make sure to hold onto them.”

“Commodore Frye!” Paige said as she got a wild idea in her head. “What’s the status on the Narukami that’s in orbit?”

“It looks like it needs a dry dock.” Frye answered. “But we can probably have the Age of Discovery tow it out to the jump point.”

“Good, because I think that we should bring it with us.” Paige said with a mad grin. “I know it’ll cost a lot to repair, but it’ll be the ultimate slap in the face if we manage to repair it and use it when we leave.”

“I’ll take a company of Marines over.” Frye said with a chuckle in her voice. “If we can get the reactors and jump sail activated then it may be possible to pull something similar to what we did at Ross.”

“Good, I think Hull will be willing to spend the money on it.” Paige said. “Assuming that everything goes well down on Luthien that is.”

“I’ll start working on getting everything set up.” Commodore Frye told Colonel Paige. “We’re going to need to make sure that we have those Excaliburs loaded up before we attempt this though.”




Luthien

“We’ve just cleared the landing zone General.” A staff officer reported to Packer. “This is the closest we could land to the Arisaka Munitions Complex.”

“We’re two hundred and fifty kilometers away.” Packer said bluntly. “I wouldn’t exactly call this close to the munitions complex.”

“It’s the best we could do and not get hit by any Alamo missiles on our way down.” the staff officer reported.

“I know son, I’m just giving you a hard time.” Packer said as walked to the ‘mech bay. “We’re going to have quite the fight on our hands.”

“Yes sir, I think the 7th Sword of Light is stationed here, along with a lot of militia units.”

“Good thing we brought a lot of extra ammunition and armor then.” Packer shrugged. “We may be outnumbered, but our skill gap isn’t that great, and we’ve got better technology.”

–
–

“We’re going to use two of our vehicle regiments to handle the 7th SoL.” Packer said as he surveyed the battlefield. “We’ve got Arrow IV systems on standby for TAG whenever you have infantry in position, use whatever you need to in order to make sure that the 7th isn’t able to flank us.” He told his XO. “The VTOLS are available for tasking as scouts and we’ve got half of the Stings here for CAS.”

“Our Battlemech regiment along with the other Vehicle regiment will be focused on making sure that the militia is kept pinned down until we finish off the 7th Sword of Light.” Packer told the staff. “Don’t be afraid to call for air support or for Artillery, we’re not going to give the dracs the satisfaction of us playing by the same rules that they do.”

“If we aren’t able to seize the Luthien Armor Works facility here, we may have to use our Stings to bombard it, and I’d rather have the factories to take with us back to Kentares then not. Copy?” Packer finished. “Now get to your positions, I think the 7th are going to try and hit us hard and fast.”





“Have our Partisans on standby, we’ve got incoming conventional aircraft headed our way.” General Godbolt commanded her troops as her Alacorn moved across the ground with its fireteam. “We’re up against the 1st Sword of Light here people, we need to be very cautious because we don’t know what exactly Luthien has here to back them up. I’m expecting the militia units to be bigger and badder than the ones we would find on any other world.”

“Aye Ma’am.” Came the responses. “Conventional aircraft engaged and neutralized.”

“That’s good to hear, we’ve got plenty of enemies to engage, so Battalion commanders, pick your targets and follow what your regiment CO tells you to do.”

“I’ve got a Charger in my sights ma’am.” The spotter said.

“Take the shot.” The Alacorn’s commander ordered. “We need to make sure that it doesn’t get close enough to hit us with its fists.”

Three rapid “thumps” sounded as the trio of Clan Gauss Rifles ripped through the air towards the assault mech. When they impacted, the Charger jolted backwards as armor crumpled and it’s right arm was completely shorn off. With a quick reload the Alacorn fired its trio of Gauss Rifles again, taking the Charger out before shifting to a Jenner and making the lighter ‘mech back off.


“Ahh,” The gunner crowed. “Why are you leaving? I thought you wanted more!” He fired again after his guns were reloaded and grinned as the Jenner fell to the ground.

“Easy on the bloodlust Corporal.” The Alacorn’s commander said. “We’ve got a hell of a campaign ahead of us.”





“Takashi Kurita!” Natasha Kerensky hailed on an open channel. “Come out and face me you coward! You did not have the courage to face me or my family in open combat and so you had her killed!” Her Nightstar itself seemed to shake with barely restrained rage.

“You say that and yet you come here to raid my home!” Takashi’s voice came back in response as an entire lance of Grand Dragon’s walked out backed by the rest of the Otomo.

“If you believe that this is merely a raid you are sorely mistaken.” I said as I made my appearance with the rest of Natasha’s Clan Marauders. “We are here to ensure that your dynasty is no longer able to lead an interstellar nation. The Kuritan Dynasty has come to an end.”

“Duke Hull,” Takashi said coldly. “I should have known that you would have the audacity to attack a Throneworld.”

“I take refuge in the audacity Coordinator.” I chuckled. “Now, this is your last chance to surrender before we grind you into dust.” I said. “The rest of my forces are even now making sure that Luthien is unable to manufacture machines of War after we depart here.”

“I will end you and your pitiful life Hull.” Takashi stated. “You are nothing more than a peasant whom the Davions took pity on and raised out of the dust, and I shall return you to the dust.”

“We shall see about that Coordinator.” Natasha said. “All I see before me is a coward who is unwilling to face justice for his crimes.”

“I am the Coordinator,” Takashi said coldly in response. “I am the law.”

“Then we shall see you on the battlefield.” Natasha said. “In three days time we will see who is really a coward or not.”

“What are you doing Natasha?” I asked on a private channel.

“Ensuring that no matter what happens we get our revenge.” She said coldly. “He must respond to my challenge, and then we shall clean up the remains from his ‘mech and display it as a trophy for all to see.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty: Battlefield 3031
July 5th, 3031

“General, the Militia are falling back into pre-set defenses.” An officer in the mobile HQ reported. “The Colonel is asking for CAS to clear the path before he advances.”

“Have two Stings go provide support.” Packer responded. “Colonel Barnes, we need you to get into your ‘mech now.” He looked at the line where a company of 7th Sword of Light ‘mechs had broken through. “We’re about to get hammered.”

“1st Regiment, what happened?” Packer asked the CO of that regiment.

“Sir, it’s a company of fast mediums and lights, they broke through before we could take the shot and are pushing for our CIC hard, this is an attempt to take you off of the board sir.” The Colonel reported.

“I figured that.” Packer said as he moved different forces in position and rotated some out for repairs. “Just make sure to clean up the last two Battalions that they have left.”

“We’re backing them into a corner now sir.” The officer in charge of the units facing the 7th Sword of Light responded. “We’ll take care of it.”

“General, you may want to get into your Rampage.” An officer relayed. “Those weren’t mediums, they’re a new Dragon and they’re moving fast supported by some Jenners.”

“Moving.” Packer said as he left the Mobile HQ in order to scramble up the drop ladder from his Rampage. Closing his hatch, he connected his Mithril to the ‘mech and climbed into the secondary command chair and ordered the pilot to power everything up.

“This is Kilo Golf 1, I need everything synced up to the command console here.” He told the staff in the mobile HQ.

“Copy that General, syncing everything up now.” They responded. “Sixty seconds until completion.”

The pilot of the Rampage began to move the Assault ‘mech forward at a steady jog until it joined up with the other two fireteams that were in place guarding the Command and Control center.

“Do you need us to fall back and assist?” The CO of the units currently handling the militia asked.

“Negative Colonel, we’ve got everything well in hand here.” Packer replied as he continued coordinating the destruction of the 7th SoL and the militia units supporting them.

“Targets are lased.” A Mithril fireteam leader relayed to the Arrow IV artillery systems in place. “You’ve got solid confirmation on targets.”

“Firing Arrows now.” The artillery Battalion responded. “We’ve got four targets lased and neutralized, reloading.”

“Pick your targets, and keep them away from the HQ.” Packer ordered. “We’re winning this, it’ll
just take us some time, time we won’t have if they kill our HQ staff members.”

The Rampage pilot moved carefully out of the way of a PPC shot and let his AMS systems take care of the LRMs that the Grand Dragons were firing at him, triggering his Gauss rifle and LB-10X at the same time he was able to cause the heavy ‘mech to stumble. Engaging his MASC systems, the pilot moved forward at a pace of eighty-six KPH and lashed out with his fist and ER medium lasers to complete the fall of the Grand Dragon while the rest of the fireteam made short work of the other heavy and light mechs with concentrated fire.

“Good work people,” Packer said from his command chair while looking at the battlefield as a whole. “But we aren’t finished just yet.”

–
–

“That’s not powered armor!” One of the Mithril clad infantry yelled as a much larger suit of armor made an appearance on the battlefield.

“No, it looks like a version of the Elementals fielded by the Wolf’s Dragoons,” A Platoon lieutenant responded. “Gang up on it, I want three Mithril to an Elemental.” The Lieutenant commed his company CO. “Captain, we’ve got Elementals on the battlefield.”

“You’re not the only ones reporting that Lieutenant.” The captain replied. “It looks like they have one Elemental for every five regular infantry, so dedicate fireteams to taking on the Elementals while we focus on taking the Luthien Armor Works facilities here MPPCs are working to short out their electronics long enough for us to use the Small Lasers built into the arms of the Mithril (B) suits to finish killing them.”

“Copy that sir, we’ll get it done.” The Lieutenant replied and then relayed the instructions. “Fireteam Alpha, I want you to focus on the Elementals, the rest of you are to finish cleaning out the standard infantry, I don’t want us to be taken out by a lucky ‘mech grade mine or explosive.”

“Aye sir!” They responded and moved out.”




Luthien, July 5th, 3031

“What a Clusterfuck.” Godbolt muttered under her breath as she looked at what was left of the 1st Sword of Light. “Suicide, really?” She asked as she looked at the human being that while alive had been known as Rentoshi. “We got close and you just laid down and died?” She knelt by the dead man and shook her head.

“I want these bodies cleared out, we’re taking the Daimyo as salvage to replace our own Mobile HQ.” She gestured towards the vehicle in question. “I suspect you’ll find much of what we did out here.”

“Ma’am, we have reports of the enemy Sword of Light Mechwarriors attempting suicide charged against our vehicles and ‘mechs one their own are downed.” A senior officer reported. “None of our forces have been hurt yet, but some of our infantry are concerned, the enemy suicide bombers are all packing ‘mech grade explosives and they don’t want to get caught in an explosion.”

“I’ll order our people to aim for headshots.” Godbolt sighed. “The Militia are falling back into the city though, and we’ve got access to the electronics factories and what Luthien Armor Works facilities are here as well.”


“Have everything triple checked for traps?” The officer asked as Godbolt began to climb back into her Alacorn.

“Yes, and anything we can’t bring with us I want a scan of, we can replace components, but we’re not leaving anything more than small arms manufacturing when we leave here.” She said before she closed the tank hatch. “Lieutenant, go get us rearmed and armored, we need to go man the lines against the militia units.”

“Yes Ma’am.” The tank commander responded. “You heard the lady, get us back to our repair facilities.”




Imperial City, Luthien, July 6th, 3031

“This is not a duel, Coordinator.” Natasha said as she stood in the empty field. “This is where you meet your demise.”

There was no response, just silence as the Otomo and Ducal Guard stood facing each other before Natasha fired her twin Gauss Rifles and ERPPC at an enemy Heavy ‘mech and watched it fall to the ground as the pilot lost their balance and fell to the ground.

I immediately moved my Warhammer forward at a run, ready to bring the enemy before me low, only to be greeted by an Orion.

“Your opponent is me.” A voice said over an open channel as the Orion fired a Gauss round that crumpled some of the armor in my center torso. “As your wife is my father’s opponent.”

“Then I pray that you survive this Kurita-San.” I replied. “Because your father will not.” I shifted my Warhammer out of the way of the PPC shot that was sent my way and let my AMS system handle the SRMs before opening fire with one of my PPCs, and narrowly avoiding another Gauss round that was fired at my ‘mech.

Swiftly moving out of range of everything but the Gauss rifle that the Orion had I began to alternate fire with my PPCs, being careful to watch my heat as I backed up while melting armor off of the slightly heavier machine. When his Orion was beginning to slow down I moved back into range of my lasers, and gave my Warhammer the opportunity to cool down before I used my brace of lasers to breach the center torso.
“Kurita-San, I am not a barbarian, surrender and I shall allow you and your family to live as long as you swear to never take up arms against my family or nation again.” I said as I brought my ERPPC up near his cockpit.

“I am afraid that I cannot do that, it would bring dishonor to my children and wife .” Theodore replied as he ejected from his crippled machine of war.

“I want someone tracking that escape pod and chute, we need to capture Theodore alive if at all possible.” I commanded.

Meanwhile, Natasha was playing with the Coordinator, toying with his Grand Dragon while peeling his armor off pieces at a time with her PPC and Medium Lasers.

Only after a flash of light in the atmosphere did Natasha end the farce that this fight was by crippling Takashi’s Grand Dragon and firing her Lasers into his cockpit.

“This is Mathis, orbital drop on the Imperial Palace is underway.” A comms signal crackled but made it through into our systems.

“That was perfect timing, Mathis.” I said, “We’re cleaning up the Otomo now.”

Author's Note/Edit: The flash of light was from Mathis and co entering the atmosphere, not because of any nukes. Just letting y'all know.