9
Chapter 8
-VB-
A-2
2980.08.22
Three weeks ago, our company was making headway into setting up the germanium mine. Before we could truly get started, the governor-general called us and alerted us to a sizable Draconis Combine dropships and jumpships appearing at one of the jump points. She expected that we would have a maximum of three weeks before they would land.
We were expected to fight.
Last time, we faced three battalions. This time, they were sending three regiments worth with twenty dropships.
This. This was a serious invasion and one that we weren't sure if we would be able to survive if we took it lightly. Even if we pulled out all of our tinkertech, the sheer numerical disadvantage would see us die like how the better-armed American soldiers faced the stick-carrying Chinese conscripts during the latter half of the Korean War.
To that end, we recalled everyone in the field back to our compound and began to prepare ourselves.
Three weeks was a long time for a Tinker to come up with something. With seventy Tinkers, we just needed the raw resources.
-VB-
General Rachael Jamakawa
2980.09.01
There were two weeks left before the enemy dropships landed, and her soldiers worked the best they could to prepare Polis and David II against the overwhelming might of the Draconis Combine.
It was also obvious why the snakes had sent twenty dropships for their counter-invasion; when a near regiment strength of combined arms lost an invasion within a week, either the Federated Suns was lying about the strength of their invasion or their elites landed to sweep the board.
Whether it was the former or latter, the only answer the Combine could give was three full regiments to wash the dishonor of losing a world so quickly and to eliminate the elite battalion that did exactly that.
This was a problem for her.
She didn't have a battalion of elite mechwarriors but was definitely still going to be on the receiving end of the Combine's shrieking rage anyways. She could have dealt with the invasion on a more conventional ground if she wasn't fighting three full fucking regiments with a barely operational regiment!
But if she knew that the enemy was coming after her, then she could prepare her troops and the city. She might even be able to turn the outer edges of the city and main avenues into killing fields.
"... making a trap, huh?" she muttered to herself.
That was an idea she could go with.
But before that, she needed to know what the mercenaries were doing to prepare for the invasion.
-VB-
Captain Anderson
2980.09.02
"So you're here to see what exactly we're doing?" Commander Marris asked.
"Yes, commander. I understand that this may come off as disrespectful, but you weren't a mercenary commander or a mech…warrior until just two months ago. The general, as such, feels a little uncertain as to your capabilities in a planetary theater of war where your initial equipment is limited."
The commander merely raised an eyebrow. "Well, I'll show you around."
Michael blinked. Just like that? Most mercenary commanders would be hesitant to show anything about their operations when it wasn't an MRB-backed inspection.
He followed the commander out of the commander's office and back out into the mercenary compound. It had changed rapidly in the past month.
For one, the residential buildings had expanded in number, quality, and size; most buildings stood at over ten floors now, weren't made out of pre-fab but sturdier concrete and bricks, and looked more occupied than most of the city outside.
In fact, the population density of the mercenary compound with its factories, warehouses, and residential buildings looked to be higher than the city at a first glance.
"Ah, yes, the civilians. Many of them came to us when they saw that we had a reliable source of food. Even if it was tasteless at first. Had to solve that food issue after the recruiter hired the hundredth person out of pity."
"... I'm sorry but that sounds like a security risk."
Commander Marris nodded. "It is. That's why every single person has been warned that if they are found where they are not supposed to be, then there is a very high chance that they will be shot on sight."
Michael didn't know what to say to that.
"Aside from murdering people being bad and illegal, I don't know what to say to that," he replied. "Even if it is on private property and done to prevent military espionage and sabotage."
Commander Marris just smiled. "Well, if such cases happen, then I will be sure to not report any."
"You're colder than you look, aren't you?"
"Considering that I was also the one who approved of those pity case recruitments…?"
"Point." He paused and then cleared his throat. "... Might I ask something?"
"Sure," the commander replied as they walked around the corner toward what looked like an entrance to underground facilities. It was basically a large garage with a downward slope inside it, and there were people moving vehicles in and out of the place.
"What is it that you and your company seek to do? Aside from making money, of course."
The commander hummed as he led Michael down to what the captain could now see was the first level of vehicle and mech bay. The large vehicle elevator at the back was especially impressive in how smoothly it moved while bringing up a …
"I am not familiar with that mech," he hummed and glanced at the commander.
"We mixed and matched some of the parts together and then gave it a new armored chassis," he replied with a shrug.
"And the feet attachments?"
"Those are meant for horizontal movement. We're calling them landspinners for now."
"And they improve speed for your mechs?"
"Oh, for sure! Our modified Trebuchet weighs in at around 60 tons and can speed up to 100 kilometers per hour."
Michael wanted to ask if that was a joke. A normal Trebuchet weighed in at 50 tons on average with an average top speed of 86 kilometers per hour. Increasing both the mass and speed of a mech was … not impossible. It was, however, very unlikely.
… wasn't that what he thought when he first saw their modified Locust? This must be just another ridiculous modification like that. It looked like a Trebuchet, yes, but there were significant changes that were very clear. LRM-15 launchers that Trebuchet was very well known were missing in this modified mech. Instead of a pair of LRM-15 launchers, armor plates sat on the chest… and just now a pair of arms extended out from the back and to the front with guns attached to them.
It didn't quite look like a Trebuchet anymore with an additional pair of arms and the lack of its infamous LRM-15 chest weak points. Those additional arms also carried machineguns, which made this version of the Trebuchet extremely well guarded against anything in its weight class and below as well as infantry. It didn't need to use its 3 lasers to fend off the infantry, which gave it more flexibility in combat.
"It's not good for uneven terrain, though," the commander hummed. "But since most of the fighting will be around the city and the plains here, it won't matter."
Michael nodded. That was true. Most of David II was undeveloped, and what few developed areas were mostly around the spaceport.
"Well, it seems like you are extremely well prepared," he told him.
"This is just the start of our preparations, though."
Michael tried not to sigh. Of course, the mercenaries had something else up their sleeves. "What else do you have, then?"
The commander grinned.
"Have you heard of MACs?"
-VB-
Sho-Sho (Major General) Ranfai Wo
2980.09.02
Though he did not need to, Ranfai sat within his personal mech, a Griffin-1DS medium mech handed down from mechwarrior to mechwarrior in his family for four generations. He sat here and meditated because he was unsure of how to win this counter-invasion.
The entire Davino invasion was an information black hole.
They arrived in five dropships, a respectable force for an invasion. They landed, and exchanged deaths with the honorable defenders for a week.
And silence. In that silence, Davion took control over Polis and then David II.
More silence. No spies made it alive on David II. No message from loyalists ever made it elsewhere.
An information black hole. Not even merchants had things to say other than the very basic information.
Finally, the dragon could not wait anymore and began a counter-invasion to wash away the dishonor of losing a planet in under a week. The Coordinator gave him the honor and gave him three regiments to see it done.
It had to be enough because even if the Davions did their best to reinforce this world, they would have two regiments at max.
If he lost three regiments here to a mere two?
Forget dishonor. His family would pay the price for his failure.
… There was no option for him here but to succeed, and with three regiments, he would win it.
It wasn't like they had some sort of super mercenaries like Eridani Light Horse that got smuggled in here without anyone noticing. Even if the Combine's information network on the ground was lacking, they still had their eyes on the usual jump routes.
Yes, he would win.
The real question, he realized, was whether he would win with light or heavy casualties.
Chapter 9
-VB-
DD-5
2980.09.20
Our LDtRS (long distance tinkerRadar System) pinged off of the 41st Avalon's AFS as they scrambled out to intercept the dropships in their droves.
Personally, we thought that it was too few a number. The 41st only sent out four wings of AFS, which was equal in number to the invading Combine's own AFS wings on top of the point defense and anti-fighter weapons those dropships must have.
Personally, I did not expect more than half of the 41st AFS fighters to return… if we were to do nothing.
'Sound off.'
'Sutoer 1 Ready.'
'Sutoer 2 Ready.'
Sutoer … or rather SuTOER was our answer to the incoming invasion.
See, one of the few things that we noticed about the history of the Inner Sphere and the ongoing Third Succession War was the fact that recycling was a must and not an option. They recycled their own destroyed equipment, their enemy's equipment, and even civilian equipment if they needed to. Without recycling and salvaging, their main stay of combat, the battlemechs, would quickly run out in both number and quality.
The more we understood about this universe, the more we realized how every little detail we've observed made sense in this verse.
Which also made this counter-invasion a very big deal for the locals.
The Third Succession War was not a war of massive losses and gains. It was a slow, grinding affair that saw all sides and mercenaries tightly hold onto whatever war machines they had. To lose a battlemech was not just a major loss but a sin against nation, family, and future. Especially if you lost that mech in, let's say, a stupid frontal charge. Or honorable if you were Combine.
So.
How did this affect us, the Legion/Marris Mercenaries, and how we intended to approach this universe?
Well… it was simple. Without exposing too much of our tinkertech, we very much intended to take advantage of the local's hesitancy to commit to a war of attrition and lay into them with some heavy weaponry that, historically, they did build but no longer could but which wasn't even close to what true tinkertech could do.
That's where the SuTOERs came in. It was a simple thing, our Surface To Orbit Electromagnetic Railgun. It was not a new technology. It was not even a novel technology.
It was, however, something that very few locations had, and no one would expect a recently conquered planet to have them, never mind the fact that they were owned by mercenaries instead of the military.
"Fire."
Two high-pitched loud whines crackled along the railguns' barrels before two hypersonic booms erupted in the air above us as two iron-coated solid lead bullets as big as an SUV broke through the atmosphere.
Okay, so maybe it was kind of obvious that we were technologically superior to most of the local polities but this was nothing compared to what real Tinkers could achieve! We really were holding back.
-VB-
General Rachael Jamakawa
"What?" she uttered in shock from within her headquarters.
"Those are not artillery guns, general! They are gauss guns! They are gauss surface to orbit guns, general!"
"... What?"
-VB-
Sho-Sho Ranfai Wo
It happened in an instant.
One of the leftmost dropships exploded while in reverse thrust and another dropship spun out of control as something struck it.
"Report!" he shouted.
"DCS Seventh Kyoto is lost with all hands! DCS Haruhodo has breaches on multiple levels from starboard quarter to bow!" the fleet comm officer reported quickly while looking through the flashing red lights on her screen. "One of her main thrusters is completely missing, and she's losing atmosphere too quickly!"
"What hit them?"
"We are tracking trajectory…"
"High energy signature from the planet!"
"BRACE!" Ranfai quickly turned on the comms and shouted to all dropships as soon as he heard that.
Another dropship on his screen turned completely red, and Haruhodo turned from half-red to completely red.
"Haruhodo and Chuchin lost with all hands!"
Ranfai cursed. This was a shit start to an invasion! That was already two battalions completely wiped out even before they managed to land!
"It's a gauss cannon!"
Everyone turned to the radar officer.
The thin white man looked horrified.
"Gauss…?" Ranfai repeated in horror.
… It made sense. It made so much sense now! The sudden invasion out of nowhere! The information blackout! They somehow discovered that there were lostech buried on David II, and now that the Combine was coming back to take their rightful world back, they fought back with it! Why didn't they…? They couldn't. A gauss cannon capable of surface-to-orbit attack, at this range -.
"Incoming fighters! Four wings!"
He glanced at his terminal and saw that his fleet was still ten thousand kilometers off of the ground. There was no room for retreat.
Even if he did have room for retreat, could he allow this world to retain those lostech gauss … anti-orbital guns?
No.
Even if it meant the entire destruction of his fleet and the armies it carried, he could not. The more time the Combine gave the Davion curs, the more this world would become a fortress from which they would harass and bite at the Combine borders. He needed to destroy those lostech cannons!
"Land!" he shouted. "We can't run, so we will destroy those gauss cannons before we leave! Land, land, land!"
He grimaced as another dropship blew before it could enter the atmosphere, and his own dropship shuddered as the broken debris struck his ship like a cloud of flies. And then it began shaking as his dropship began atmospheric entry. He watched with a grimace as even more dropships got destroyed.
But his eyes were solely on one dropship: DCS Maya. His youngest son was on that dropship.
His hands clenched tightly around the arms of his chair as the entire dropship shook violently as it fought against air resistance for a quick re-entry.
The captain of the dropship grimaced across from him.
"FULL THROTTLE!" the captain roared as he cranked up the thruster lever.
Ranfai wanted to scream as he suddenly found himself experiencing at least 4 G's.
He glared at the shaking screen in front of him. The enemy shot his soldiers down even as they made landfall. His ASF fighters died trying to keep their fighters at bay.
And then touch down.
"Move, move, move!" he shouted as he himself jumped out of his seat and toward the mech bays, but right before he jumped out of his seat, he noted the damages he'd incurred so far.
Two-thirds of a regiment were gone even before they landed.
What a disaster.
-VB-
General Rachael Jamakawa
As much as she longed to go out on her personal Battlemaster like the good old days, Rachael had a duty to her soldiers. Her duty demanded that she made victory happen in the tactical room while her soldiers carried victory on the battlefield.
"I would have liked to know that you had such lostech with you," she gritted at the screen showing Commander Marris's face. "It would have made me feel better about our chances of defense."
"I'm sorry, general," the commander replied. "But you know how significant our railguns are."
"I am," she sighed. "If even one mention of it got out…"
"Sabotage."
She took a deep breath in. "Can that railgun of yours shoot ground targets?"
"Anything not behind a city or a mountain or the curvature of the planet is within our range of fire."
Yikes. Fucking yikes.
"However…"
"Yes?"
"I would not recommend you demand we shoot every single mech. Not only are our accuracies low for such a small target, but railguns' barrels also have a limited number of shots before they have to be replaced. And we only have one replacement each."
"So, at best, it is a strategic weapon on the battlefield."
"Yes, general."
"And your mechs? I know you have more than a lance of mechs."
He grinned.
"We have a company."
Jesus-.
"Will you risk them? The Combine will seek to destroy you."
"Of course. Only fools would hold back when their homes are in danger."
-VB-
Permission: Classified 1
Viewing: Report of Battle of David II (2980)
Written by General Rachael Jamakawa
Submitted to AFFS Archive as part of routine battle report submission
[1037]: Draconis Combine forces led by Sho-sho Ranfai Wo landed 117 kilometers southeast of Polis II.
[1050]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #3 destroyed.
[1115]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #1 destroyed.
[1135]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #4 damaged.
[1203]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #4 destroyed.
[1240]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #8 destroyed.
[1359]: First engagement. 41st Avalon Hussars' 4th Company 3rd Battlemech Lance "Leeroys" clashed with Combine battlemech 1.9 kilometers north of their landing site. Retreated before casualties were exchanged.
[1408]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #16 destroyed.
[1420]: Combine forces began marching toward Polis II without regard for casualties.
[1430]: 41st Avalon Hussars' 2nd Battlemech Company attacked the Combine forces from the northeast. Disruption was minimal. Friendly casualties minimal, enemy casualties unknown.
[1440]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #11 destroyed.
[1445]: Combine forces was now within 100 kilometers of the city and the spaceport.
[1500]: A platoon of Marris Mercenary battlemechs engaged the Combine forces from the southwest. The Combine turned to engage the Marris mercenaries in full force. Marris mechs retreated and Combine mechs gave chase.
[1503]: Marris mercs sprung a trap, a full company of their mechs ambushed the pursuers. Armed with [Redacted], they made quick work of the enemies before retreating. Estimated number of Combine mech casualties: 15 battlemechs destroyed, 8 disabled.
[1505]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #5 destroyed.
[1530]: Combine restarted march toward Polis. Trajectory suggested they were aiming for the [Redacted].
[1500]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered moderate damage. Estimated casualties: 4 battlemechs destroyed.
[1510]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered light damage. Estimated casualties: 2 battlemechs.
[1530]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered no damage.
[1600]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered no damage. Marris mercenaries ambushed them from southwest while 41st Avalon Hussars struck from the northeast in a pincer move.
---
Captain Anderson
2980.09.20.1505
88 kilometers southwest of Polis
He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.
Commander Alan Marris was a mad bastard and so was his general for going along with his plan.
Using one-of-a-kind anti-orbital guns as bait?
Madness.
The plan was simple: wait for them to cross the Norman Hills, a hilly and muddy area between the Tamalin Forest to the north and the Barcelona Mountain Range to the south. Once they were crossing the muddy hills, they would ambush them in a pincer move.
It was a good plan. He just hated the fact that the lostech anti-orbital guns were at risk. Sure, they weren't the Federated Suns' property and that of mercenaries, but AFFS would surely keep these mercenaries on retinue if only to keep the lostech from being used against them.
It was a guaranteed way of getting employment, yet Marris decided to risk it.
It was not the action or the thoughts of a mercenary commander.
"Alright, it's going to happen soon now, boys and girls," Colonel Daniel Kim grunted across the battalion comms. "You know your mission. We go in. We hit them hard. And then we pull out."
Michael watched the Combine convoy on his radar, now loosely spread out to avoid being reamed by the anti-orbital gun-turned artillery.
He took a deep breath in.
'Let's just hope I don't get downed like last time.'
"What the fuck are they doing?!"
Jolting, he looked up at the radar and s-.
Marris's mercs just broke cover and charged at the Combine mechs, firing their guns as they moved.
And they moved quickly. Their light mechs moved too fast for Combine light mechs to feasibly counter. Their medium mechs moved like bug mechs. Their heavies moved faster than any mediums.
"Hold!" the colonel shouted across the comms. "If the glory hounds want first blood, then let them be the Combine's focus. Hold!"
Michael gritted his teeth. They weren't glory hounds. Glory hounds didn't offer up their biggest, most invaluable lostech for the sake of defense.
He watched as the majority of the Combine battlemechs turned, sluggishly compared to Marris and his mecs, and began firing back.
"Now!"
He broke from his cover along with the rest of his battalion and fired upon the Combine fucks below.
Their gunfire didn't initially draw the attention of the Combine mechwarriors for a moment.
But then it did.
Despite their disadvantageous position, the Combine mechwarriors did not panic and quickly reorganized into their formations in groups of four.
That's when it came.
Michael saw a flash of white to his right, and a blink later, that flash was streaking across his vision and to his left. Two groups of Combine battlemechs that had been in the way of the streaking light as well as the numerous soldiers and armored vehicles in between suddenly disappeared.
Vaporized.
Michael swore that he would change out the filter on his battlemech as soon as he got back to base.
The anti-orbital gauss attack sent the Combine forces into disarray as they suddenly found a huge hole at the center of their formation.
The mercenaries were quick to take advantage of this and drove right in with their landspinners.
And from the center of their formation, they tore into the Combine formation.
---
[1605]: [Redacted]. Friendly casualties: 6 battlemechs. Enemy casualties: 19 battlemechs, ~1,000 infantry, ~40 armored vehicles.
[1610]: Half of the Combine convoy succeeded in breaking through the ambush, splitting their forces into Force A and Force B.
[1615]: [Redacted]. Combine Force A suffered light damage. Casualty estimate: 2 battlemechs.
[1630]: Combine Force B's battlemechs all disabled or destroyed. Infantry and armored battalions surrendered.
[1640]: [Redacted]. Combine Force A suffered heavy damage. Casualty estimate: 7 battlemechs.
[1645]: Marris Mercenary reserve company "Roof Campers" (mixed battlemech/infantry) ambushed Combine Force A at 78 kilometers south-southwest of Polis.
---
Sho-Sho Ranfai Wo
This invasion … was a mistake.
They achieved nothing and lost everything.
His soldiers hadn't even arrived within fifty kilometers of the city, a distance that most medium mechs would have reached in under an hour if not half. A light mech could cross that kind of distance easily even with rough terrain.
But ambush after ambush slowed them down. Unending gauss attacks from beyond the horizon took down dropship after dropship, mech lance after mech lance. He now had less than a third of what he originally started out with. The other third was fighting the ambush ten clicks behind him.
Thankfully, they were now in a valley with hills and mountains perpendicular to the direction of the fire that kept that lostech gauss gun from bombarding them
But now, he himself had come face to face with another ambush.
Standing between his army and the end of the river valley was another force of those odd mechs that his computer could not recognize. Painted in white and red, they reminded him of the red cross of the medics if it wasn't for how the white was the highlight of these mechs, not the base color.
It was not a set of colors he recognized from any of the Federated Suns' regiments.
A mercenary band? They were also the ones that initiated the previous ambush.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Commander Alan Marris," the lead mech replied. "Of the Marris Mercenaries."
Ranfai wanted to spit.
Mercenaries?! He was being stopped by mercenaries in a battle that would decide the fate of decades of war?!
"Attack!" he roared. There was no time for formation. No time for maneuvers. The longer they stayed here, the more forces the Davion dogs would array against them. Each second was a chance they were losing in taking out the lostech gauss guns!
And then he watched for a moment as every single mech on the other side pulled out a gauss rifle and fired them at his soldiers and mechwarriors.
There was nowhere to dodge in this rugged landscape with only grass, a single shallow riverlet, and mountains to the side.
They were trapped.
All of this had been a trap!
How did they know he would land in the southwest? How did they know where his forces would be?
How? How?! HOW?!
"HOW?!" he roared -.
His last sight in this life was a blazing white gauss shot heading straight for his cockpit.
---
[1650]: Combine Force A neutralized. Friendly casualties: 6 battlemechs, 2 infantry platoons. Enemy casualties: 28 battlemechs (total).
Total Friendly Casualties: 18 battlemechs destroyed at minimum, 2 infantry platoons.
Total Enemy Casualties: 8 dropships destroyed, 12 dropships captured, 122 battlemechs destroyed or disabled, ~11 infantry companies, ~4 armored companies.
Final Battle Conclusion: Overwhelming Victory
… Logging out.
---
First Prince Andrew Davion
2980.10.30
This was the second time David II had come to his attention this year, and it was once more heralding an overwhelming victory for the Federated Suns against the Draconis Combine.
As for what caused so many dropship destruction…
He accessed another file, this one sent through a courier. The file's second page showed an image of the ground-based naval gauss rifle which never existed on David II before.
No, this was a gauss rifle that had been built on-site by none other than the mercenaries who first showed up on David II with lostech anti-mech infantry guns.
Andrew hummed. He had been right to pursue a contract with them, and would continue to hold it as long as he could. After all, those same mercenaries sold the naval gauss rifles they built at only fifteen million C-Bills each. Even if his scientist and engineers couldn't reverse-engineer it, they were still naval gauss rifles that would now defend a planet right on the Combine's border.
Better yet, those same mercenaries were sure to make more for themselves, and he would be right there, first in line, to buy as many of them as possible, if not all of their products.
And, less importantly, the same courier that brought this file also brought a brochure for him to peruse