Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven: Fighting Retreat

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven: Fighting Retreat

November 30th, 3032

"Tai-Sa Izuzu, they are breaking through our perimeter lines." A major reported as the Tai-Sa moved his Cyclops around the rear of the battlefield.

"Continue to fall back to the spaceport as planned." Izuzu ordered. "deLatereau and myself are covering our retreat, we may be leaving, but we shall leave our enemies broken at our feet as we do so." He turned to the restored command console in his Cyclops and continued to coordinate the 15th Dieron Regulars as they began to fall back to the spaceport. Most of the critical infrastructure had already been loaded up, as well as any spare ammunition.

"Izuzu," deLatereau's voice came across the command circuit. "I have the Bombardiers ready and waiting for fire missions."

"I will coordinate the fire support missions." Izuzu responded. "I take it the lance has the missiles ready to go?"

"Affirmative." the other Tai-Sa responded. "I have taken fairly severe damage, and am falling back to the spaceport in order to ensure that as many of us are able to escape the Davions as possible."

"I will maintain our position as long as necessary." Izuzu replied.

"Copy that, we leave as soon as our dropships are loaded up, make sure that you are on one of them, Tai-Sa."

"Keep moving people." David commanded his fireteam as he moved forward in his Crockett. "We've got to keep up the pressure."

"Copy that." Scooter replied as he walked his Crab forwards, exchanging fire with an enemy Jenner, melting armor off of the lighter machine.

"Captain, one of the missile's just stuck to my

"Scatter!" David ordered as a flurry of LRMs began to come down around his fireteam. "I really hope that those were standard LRMs." He muttered as waves of missiles began to come down around his fireteam and others scattered throughout the city.

"They're a mix of Swarm and Thunder missiles, captain!" Scooter reported as he narrowly avoided one of the smaller missiles. "As long as that Narc beacon is active she's going to be a sitting duck."

"Looks like the 8th and 15th Dieron Regulars got all of the fun toys." David snarked. "First ninja 'mechs, now artillery 'mechs, I wonder what else they have up their sleeves."

"No clue Captain, but we've got too many mines around us to move properly." the Von Luckner tank commander reported. "We're effectively trapped here until we can get teams out to clear out the ordnance."

"Narc beacon is expired Captain." Hammer reported, her Toro finally stepping out from underneath the building that she had taken shelter underneath. "We're clear of any narc capable missiles for now."

"But now, we're effectively trapped until we get some demo crews in to bail us out." David sighed. "I hope that they're not swinging around in order to finish us off."

"Command, this is Captain Kerensky, we're pinned down and unable to advance due to enemy minefields, please advise." David went up his chain of command.

"I hear you Kerensky, we've got a lot of reports saying the same thing, our advance has currently stopped until we get our engineers to clear out the mines, remain on standby until we have the time to clear out the minefields."

"Copy that Major, standing by." David responded. "We'll hold here until engineers are available."

"Looks like we're stuck here for now." David told his fireteam. "Dig in, and get ready for a counterattack, the last thing we need is to be hammered while we're here."

"Yes sir." Scooter and the rest of the fireteam responded. "Getting ready for enemy attacks."

"Everyone, make sure that you're clear!" Duke Hull's voice came over every channel. "We've got enemy dropships taking off, and Aerospace fighters launching in order to cover them! Keep your heads down and make sure that you're not visible from the skies."

"Where'd they dig up more aerospace fighters from?" Blaze asked as he turned his Stuka towards the stars, making an effort to reach the enemy dropships before they made it out of his range.

"Must have dug some of them out of storage, I'm seeing some really old Centurions and Hellcats here, along with even some Samurai." Edge responded. "Is that a Typhoon?!"

"Yeah, that's a Typhoon, looks like they're digging into the deep reserves in order to make sure that they make it off of this rock." Blaze said. "We've got orders for force preservation, which means that if you take armor damage, you pull back."

"Copy that lead." The rest of the aerospace fighters responded as they began to burn towards the enemy dropships and fighters.

"We've got two Leopards disengaging, they're moving directly at us in order to stall us." Edge reported. "Looks like they're offering fire support for their own aerospace fighters."

"Remember to cover your wingmates, pair up and let's all go home." Blaze said as he moved his Stuka in to target the first Leopard. "I want dropper choppers on the Leopards and everyone else focused on the aerospace fighters."

Blaze artfully moved out of the way a brace of enemy fire, moving at an angle "upward" in order to avoid the enemy targeting him properly. Edge stayed on his wing, and both of them opened fire on the lead Leopard as soon as they were in range. Both his and Edge's ERPPCs and slug rounds of the LB-20Xs that their Stukas converged, causing armor to melt and be torn from the dropship.

"The rest of the enemy droppers are getting away!" Archer spoke up. "They pushed to 2gs in order to make sure that we can't catch them in time."

The squadron flipped around, and tried to move in order to make another pass at the Leopard dropships. The four Stukaschained their fire together, and watched as the fusion engine of the first Leopardslowed down and began to stop firing altogether.

"Leopard one is down, I need the dropper choppers to focus on Leopard two and make sure that it's out of commission."

"The enemy Aerospace assets are fleeing." A different Squadron commander reported.

"Let them go." Blaze ordered. "No need for more blood to be shed for now."

New Avalon, December 10th, 3032

"Al Na'ir was taken a week ago." Yvonne Davion reported. "We're just now receiving the reports though."

"Good, we've recovered everything that was taken during the Succession Wars and pushed the borders back a great deal." Hanse said as he sat at Ian's, now his desk. "We're going to be spending quite a bit of time on rooting out the ISF teams that were left behind though." Hanse muttered as he looked at his map. "We're going to need some of our forces in the Capellan March to shift over to help with policing until we can start getting things settled down." Hanse told Yvonne. "And this will be a good chance for Morgan to prove himself as well."

"What are we going to be doing about Hull though?" Yvonne asked, having been briefed on the duplicate Ian and what exactly Hull had pulled off when he hit Luthien and New Samarkand.

"We're going to have to find a suitable reward for him." Hanse said with a small smirk on his face. "I was thinking of reviving the Terran March, Sandoval will be busy administrating the new worlds that have been added to the Draconis March, this will elevate Hull, and give Sandoval some breathing room in having to ensure that some of the worlds are properly garrisoned."

"He's not going to like losing one of his most prominent sources of 'mechs and vehicles like that." Yvonne said as she analyzed the plan put together by Hanse.

"We're going to be expanding production across the entirety of the Suns over the next decade or so, assuming that another war doesn't come out of nowhere. I'm going to be subsidizing Davion Lycomb to begin building some factories in the Draconis March."

"Not Sharpshooter?" Yvonne asked.

"Sharpshooter is currently stretched incredibly thin, Hull told me that he wouldn't be able to expand any production areas for another two decades aside from what he is currently working on. He's working on upgrading all of his current factories and yards converted to building and using lostech in his 'mechs and combat vehicles, but it's going to take time to get there." Hanse responded. "Also, we have a direct hand in Davion Lycomb, and we know that they'll produce what we need them to. So I'm going to be assisting them in expanding production in coordination with NAIS in order to speed things up."

"Sounds like you have everything figured out then." Yvonne said with a shrug.

"All of our allies are investing and expanding their own production markets." Hanse shrugged. "We just need the right push in order to match them." He glanced at the dot that represented St. Ives on his map of the Inner Sphere. "Romano has started production of the Pillager and Emperor thanks to the engineers that both the SLC and NAIS lent her, so we've got more assault 'mechs coming our way once the kinks are worked out of the restored lines."

"It is always surprising to me the way that the Liao's turned out." Yvonne said as she poured a small glass of whiskey. "Romano and Tormano are both model citizens of the Federated Suns right now, whereas Candace seems to be continuously changing between lucidity and insanity since the fall of the Capcon."

"Romano and MIIO are keeping a very close eye on her, the last thing we need is for her to completely go off the deep end the way that her father did." Hanse replied with a saddened look on his face. "Either way, we've got other concerns." He shifted his paperwork over and grabbed the folder that was tied to the investigation of Ian's death and replacement. "What have we managed to find out?"