Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron Conclusion.​

With the end of leave fast approaching, and the last of supplies arriving Gene was preparing for the Company to depart, but there were some the little things still left. That included some things which he personally considered fairly ridiculous.


There were still some things with the MRB, for the Highlanders and for Bardiche, but they'd be leaving soon, and there were a few other things that he was still on the hook for in terms of favors,


"I like clan fox as an idea," Bubbles protested.


"We should be called clan Raven something, Arsenal Raven" Beau protested, and then suggested with a snap of his fingers, "On my homeworld the ravens that were brought from Earth during colonization adopted to the climate by stockpiling food, and building nests that are like god damn bunkers."


Gene cleared his throat, grimacing at the conversation, and it was bad that the Free Worlder was now on board with this nonsense... but he also hadn't ... hadn't told them about 'the clans of Kerensky' either, "As annoying as Bard's rendition of Black Fox is," and despite the silly idea having been used to pester him at nearly every turn while they'd been on leave, and in particular when the Eridani weren't around. "I'm not prepared to declare Clan Fox to be a thing," It had been a long twelve months and he ignored the protest from one of the younger kilted men that Clan Fox sounded like a quite proper idea as he fished out the dossier in printed paper and handed it over to the Sandoval Duke. Gene sat back in his chair and waited.

There were the rufflings of the thick paper as Aaron Sandoval, Duke of Robinson and Field Marshal of the Draconis March smiled. He had browsed the papers and flipped them over as he read, "The order of the golden kite," He declared with pride. "I think this would be just the sort of thing Lord Nicholas," Some chancellor, or minister in the Fed Suns that Gene had had all of five minutes to talk with, "would be looking for, sure to tweak the combine's nose."

The historical abstract he had included for the briefing had been designed to maximize that. He had done what the duke had asked and provided an organization name, but also the historical backdrop included the specification that the historical golden kite had been a degree higher, and military only, to the order of merit that Takeo Kurita a distant Kurita ancestor had held. The cultural ties, the use of specific language, history, and so on were somewhat modified by the new proposed device. The golden bird would be holding a daisho in its claws underneath a Torri gate, but would be fixed on a european style shield.

The proposed designed raised a quirk of the eye from the legless duke, "Would have expected, if on were to be honest, Colonel, the Cameron Starburst. I think that would be better."

They had asked for his opinion, for his input. Gene had consciously been trying to avoid Star League iconography in the the device, or the in the proposed documentation to accompany awards. He'd made a point of neither mentioning the Star League. That was part of the whole couching of the packet.


They'd been in Fed Space, and Federated Suns employ a while by his standards at least.

After Elidere... hell technically after the Kuritans had routed on Elidere IV they had been under contract with the Davions for operations since Ander's Moon, but that didn't mean the Kuritans were going to be shy about how they felt. That would have been a problem without doubling down on it by signing on with the FedSuns for their romp through Near Terran Space over the last year... the AFFS had dropped the Hussars and Blue Star Iregulars on Altair which had to have seriously strained the Combine's forces in the near Terran area. It had all started with Elidere though.

The 19th Galedon Regulars, that was to say an entire Combine BattleMech, Regiment along with most of the supporting DCA assets had been destroyed in detail for what amounted to no cost to the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns. They hadn't been able to achieve a repeat of that degree of peerless lopsided victory, but that was less important to the fact that the AFFS in combination with other mercenaries had been able to not just take other worlds, but savage other Combine Mech Regiments.

This was the Draconis Combine March's opportunity to rub salt in the wound so to speak. Not that they really needed to... but it wasn't going to stop them from doing it... and given the enmity that existed he didn't expect them not to use the opportunity to do.

He didn't want to stick around, even though the AFFS was hoping to turn the mercenary units involved in whatever the next campaign would be, not just them but in particular the Eridani Light Horse, into what amounted to House Troops.



"Seriously what's wrong with Clan Fox?" The hunchback driver had thought it had been a good idea she'd always liked it though, and was loathe to drop the matter.

... well there were actually a number of reasons... and even discounting the sheer degree of political brown nosing it might have been interpreted as he had other reasons. He sipped at his drink and glanced at the command staff who were looking from Chang to him waiting for an answer, "It conveys the wrong sort of distinction. Evoking an order, a military honor like this may not be a formal structure but it allows a delineation in rewards that a lodge wouldn't be as good as formally conveying. This isn't a knightly order, or a warrior house the Draconis March wants to be able to provide recognition for command ability, leadership, and bravery in the field. The duke wanted a proposal he could put to New Avalon," And apparently the head of MIIO, "I expect that it will be sent off and either they'll reject it or rework it as necessary as either a Federal award or that Lord Aaron will issue as a Draconis March specific award."

... but it would have been a bigger tweak if Hanse Davion, as First Prince was the issuing party awarding people golden birds with heavy shinto symbolism and references to the Nihon Shoki. It was probably the sort of slap in the face to the combine's claims, historical and present, regarding manifest destiny that the First Prince might like to present to the Inner Sphere.

"So we are finally read to go back to the periphery?" Septim's question had been accompanied by a look being thrown in Bahar's direction. The fighting over the last year had been concentrated in near earth space.


"What is the word Bahar?" He asked.


"Markab is mostly stable from reports." An originally Azami world, "There are rumors the Federated Suns will move on Galatia, but it may just be rumors. Indeed it may force the Combine to reinforce the world and allow House Davion to attack elsewhere."

The fighting was an excuse... or additional justification to ferry another load of colonists far into the periphery to settle on Alamut in the Lighthouse worlds. Something he didn't put into words as he glanced to the senior JumpShip commander... well the company jumpships.


Pasha shook his head, reached up and toyed with his long grey mustache, "Admittedly it is not so glamorous but it will be down time that is sorely needed. Returning to the periphery will not be so bad will it?"

They were pulling off the front for a number of reasons not the least of which was that they'd be going to a Magistracy garrison and training contract for Raventhir... or rather that was what Raventhir was to claim. Something about Ur Cruine and the pirates was causing enough of a stir that the money was now there to see to some kind of expansion, such that Detroit was willing to spend money.

Black Jack McGirk was still running around reaving from apparently the Tortuga Dominions all the way round to the Magistracy border. That meant he was hitting the Davions, the Taurians, the Aurigans and the Canopians... as well as all the free holding worlds in between at times. The simple truth was no one had expected a pirate with... what some reports went so far as to claim was a division worth of Star League Defense Force equipment. Whether that was an exaggeration or not didn't matter, McGirk had a mountain of hardware and he was willing to rampage wherever he liked, and trash whoevers stuff he liked, and pay his men with the booty. That meant he had no shortage of bastards willing to fight for him.

"I want to talk about the conversion work being done on San Saba," To carry BattleMechs, "I've been assured that Blackwell has our order completed and we should be taking delivery on that last order soon." Things that they had paid for out Pounds paid from Elidere, and before they had cracked open the Brian Cache... but yeah, "We'll be in transit for a while and my understanding is we're taking a different route?"


"Yes, the elders have granted you overall command, our destination is the Aurigan Reach, it is a post Star League principality, founded after the succession wars began."


--
Notes: Cultural Face Slapping.

And thus we time skip through the space travel, 'are we there yet' and finally move on to the continuation of the pirate wars, which leads into the Amaris debacle, and then from there back to the Inner Sphere in early 3022, but it is currently roughly summer of 3018


I am going to attempt to have the Combine attack of 3019 on Robinson, which among other things entails Sandoval's LosTech tanks being in prepared defensive positions, Fury and Alacorns supported by regular Succession Wars fare to the combine's unpleasant surprise but if it doesn't go up as its own post it will be remarked upon in the news once we cycle back to the Inner Sphere. We might also see content from the Combine perspective, and theoretically Freddy Hammer show up. Highlander Interludes are pretty likely at some point as are of course more of the perspective of various FedSuns personnel.


Anyway we head into the pirate wars and from 3019 and the periphery conflicts last until roughly the end of 3021, and unlike Aurigan which derails HBS pretty quickly this story was intended to be something of a novelization pseudo canon for the game.

 

[Silverbullet]

Supply Depot in the foothills of the Decimus Mountains in Herotitus Southwest of New Hedron if Gene needs a resupply. It's contents are listed as up to the GM for its module in Touring the Stars:Herotitus. Planet's currently independent and run by the New Hesonists who've made the Urban centers a kin to the old Canopian Pleasure Worlds from the Star League Era, with less restraint. The rural areas are described as parochially Protestant Christian and the ignore the Urbanites mostly except to sell crops and trade at the space port. Planet's one jump from the Aurigan Worlds of Weldry and Panzyr. Also one jump from Lyreton and Lyretons three moons have Dropship yards that don't ask questions. Canonically where the Argo is repaired after Axylus.

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

Anyone else get a damn chill imagining cresting a rise in a mech to see hulled down Fury's and Alacorns? On top of 'just' Demolishers and the like? Had an Atlas get freaking deleted to something like that in MW5 lol.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Clan Raven... oof, that would have tweaked so many things. And gotten more than one laugh out of various people.

Also, given what Gene and his gang are likely to get up to, the Raven's might actually be secretly enthused about the whole thing. A member of the fabled Hegemony, who fought at the time of Kerensky, kicking the shit out of inner sphere barbarians? He's not ours, but we'll absolutely call first dibs on him and his genes (hah) thank you much!

 

[Silverbullet]

"We should be called clan Raven something, Arsenal Raven" Beau protested, and then suggested with a snap of his fingers, "On my homeworld the ravens that were brought from Earth during colonization adopted to the climate by stockpiling food, and building nests that are like god damn bunkers."

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Forgot to ask, are these interesting fauna Canonical? I couldn't find anything on Sarna that wasn't related to the Mech or Clan.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Forgot to ask, are these interesting fauna Canonical? I couldn't find anything on Sarna that wasn't related to the Mech or Clan.

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They came from my buddy's ATOW game, I don't think they're canonical I'll ask him, but i'm pretty sure they're something he made up. [but I'm also not super familiar with Free Worlds league planetary ecology and there are all sorts of strange alien fauna in BT]

 

[Imperator Pax]

Anyone else get a damn chill imagining cresting a rise in a mech to see hulled down Fury's and Alacorns? On top of 'just' Demolishers and the like? Had an Atlas get freaking deleted to something like that in MW5 lol.

Click to shrink...

Combine: We are going to attack Robinson also we think they've got a bunch of lostech from an SLDF battlemech division depot we can steal dragon dragon dragon

Mile wide defensive front with a career tanker with telepathy and basically C3 equipped tanks running command and control this won't be bad for mechwarrior ego

 

[Bofors40mm]

When fighting massed high quality armor the first rule as a mechjock is to if possible use terrain they can't easily get through to flank them and either bypass them to hit the objective or their support facilites/dropships and/or hit them at a angle where they can't mass their firepower or from several angles at once

Or failing that artillery and air strike spam their postion before mopping up. Ideally do both.

This depends on local circumstances of course.

 

[Imperator Pax]

When fighting massed high quality armor the first rule as a mechjock is to if possible use terrain they can't easily get through to flank them and either bypass them to hit the objective or their support facilites/dropships and/or hit them at a angle where they can't mass their firepower or from several angles at once

Or failing that artillery and air strike spam their postion before mopping up. Ideally do both.

This depends on local circumstances of course.

Click to shrink...

1st sucession war lesson "Battlemechs? Artillery on call."

 

[Bofors40mm]

1st sucession war lesson "Battlemechs? Artillery on call."

Click to shrink...

There's a reason why BT artillery companies are basically the size of what a lot of modern artillery battalions are in gun count. Or at least well over half the way there depending on which organization of artillery your looking at in the modern day.
Albeit as always with artillery the real limit is ammo and the assorted parts life of the guns. Which is especially true in the post early succession war BT. Mind you on a world like Robinson I imagine the PDF/milita and the AFFS have a lot of spare parts and ammo stockpiled. Among a lot of other fun toys for the Ground Pounders.

 

[MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot]

the Centurion is not actually a Star League era mech. Its from the first succession war so technically Gene's computer shouldn't have identified it, but thats fine, oops.

Click to shrink...

That's OK; my brain always mixes up "Centurion" and "Crusader" anyway, so I was just picturing Mr. Thick Legs with all those vulnerable ammo storage locations.

 

[MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot]

The second Pheonix Hawk landed within range of its large laser

Click to shrink...

So, two things jumped out at me... firstly is that you never once spelled PhOEnix correctly, in any of the chapters I've read. You love using them, which I also love because they're great mechs, but that spelling bugged me each time and after about 15-20 times I thought I'd mention it.

Secondly, by the battle of Ann Arbor the MC has been in about 10-15 fights, and he's never once been hit by so much as a single LRM or machine gun, never once had any problems piloting a FLYING 75-ton mech across difficult terrain, never once had heat problems despite spamming dual PPC fire, and never once missed a shot. Not only does he hit every time, but 95% of the time he hits the body part he wants to and about 50% of the time he hits the crit spot he wants to. I get having an OP MC, but this is ridiculous. You could've given him a Phoenix Hawk, or even a Wasp or Stinger, and he'd still be just as invincible the way you've written him. Does he ever get threatened in any way, or do anything less than perfectly? I've liked Battletech since it first came out, in boardgame, computer, and book/fic formats, but without threat it's a bit hollow.

 

[Imperator Pax]

So, two things jumped out at me... firstly is that you never once spelled PhOEnix correctly, in any of the chapters I've read. You love using them, which I also love because they're great mechs, but that spelling bugged me each time and after about 15-20 times I thought I'd mention it.

Secondly, by the battle of Ann Arbor the MC has been in about 10-15 fights, and he's never once been hit by so much as a single LRM or machine gun, never once had any problems piloting a FLYING 75-ton mech across difficult terrain, never once had heat problems despite spamming dual PPC fire, and never once missed a shot. Not only does he hit every time, but 95% of the time he hits the body part he wants to and about 50% of the time he hits the crit spot he wants to. I get having an OP MC, but this is ridiculous. You could've given him a Phoenix Hawk, or even a Wasp or Stinger, and he'd still be just as invincible the way you've written him. Does he ever get threatened in any way, or do anything less than perfectly? I've liked Battletech since it first came out, in boardgame, computer, and book/fic formats, but without threat it's a bit hollow.

Click to shrink...

The Phoenix Hawk thing there is no excuse for that https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Phoenix_Hawk its something that regularly fucks me up

As to the second, thats a fair take. The issue between cinematic and lore BT and table top is Phantom Mechwarriors, and for that matter other Ki users are blatantly superhuman pilots, this goes back to the eighties aesthetic where in performance terms they're anime pilots and be reflective of that, I will be honest. in a mech Gene most serious competition is are McAllister and Kell, who are friendly pilots and opposing forces Subhash, and Yorinaga but those fights are all in the 3020s. the best way to deal with a phantom mechwarrior is artillery, or failing that melee combat and this latter one is somewhat alluded to in one of the teasers where both pilots immediately go to close quarters.

Is this reflective of RAW in table top no, because I am working off lore predominantly off of the early stuff. I don't think, personally that Beas's decision to cut that stuff was a good idea, but I disagree with a lot of stuff that came out Beas's tenure that being said if you don't like that and in all honesty this thread probably needs the OP protag tag or something similar, I wish I could give you recomendations for a more mortal protagonist that updated regularly but I can't think of anything that regularly updates or that doesn't seem dead.

 

[MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot]

the best way to deal with a phantom mechwarrior is artillery

Click to shrink...

Except even artillery can't seem to touch MC... so far anyway.

I wish I could give you recomendations for a more mortal protagonist that updated regularly but I can't think of anything that regularly updates or that doesn't seem dead.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, it does seem that people love starting Battletech stories but not going very far with them. It seems ripe for crossovers, too, with any number of giant-robot animes.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Except even artillery can't seem to touch MC... so far anyway.



Yeah, it does seem that people love starting Battletech stories but not going very far with them. It seems ripe for crossovers, too, with any number of giant-robot animes.

Click to shrink...

Need more artillery available and in range to do dear grid square.

 

[Sogen]

Except even artillery can't seem to touch MC... so far anyway.



Yeah, it does seem that people love starting Battletech stories but not going very far with them. It seems ripe for crossovers, too, with any number of giant-robot animes.

Click to shrink...

In fairness to Pax, none of Gene's enemies have really gone with artillery, then again, so far he's been up against pirates, who can't really afford good artillery, and Dracs, who prefer banzai charges. Maybe Gene's upcoming adventures in the Reach will pit him against enemies more likely to drop high explosive on a given problem than try to get close and stomp it.

 

[Imperator Pax]

The Pirate Wars​

The trip out from the Federated Suns had been one thing, they were taking a different route out than they had done coming in... which he hadn't expected to be an issue. Moving away from the Terran corridor meant a drop off, and then a pretty substantive shift in tone in News coverage. He hadn't made anything of it at first... but a month out from the periphery border well that had changed, but even that had been a gross understatement.


The near earth traffic barely covered the periphery. He could understand that. The MRB data package as they got closer though painted a very different picture... but the news remained painfully curated... and then they had gotten to the border and they'd started getting chatter from the other side. By the point they had gotten that close the Precentor New Avalon had bought up a mess of air time, in terms of both advertising, and pressuring the notionally independent but comstar supported MRB to encourage mercenaries to please kindly kill that pirate bastard.


The Precentor for New Avalon had already approached them in his capacity as being the senior tech priest for the entirety of the Fed Suns, and for good reason Black Jack, presumably sortieing from somewhere out of the Tortuga domains had jumped the border with the Fed Suns last year and carried on with the burning and maiming and reaving of usual pirates, but also had burned down one of the HPG stations that was the prerogative of Vandal's position. They had already known that... it was just that from the sound of the last few months, what the periphery side news were calling the 'Pirate Wars' he'd been getting worse. That was to be the situation they had to enter the scene stage right.


Gene looked at the simulator reports from across the fleet. Seventeen jumps then over they were over the border... and they'd jumped over the border in Taurian space... jumping to Vandeburg. They'd stayed at the Nadir Jump point to charge their drives, and that was really when things had ended up going off. The traffic closer to the periphery had been one thing... watching it happen was another.


"I don't see what we could have done different," He remarked finally to the combined air staff, "am I missing something?"


There was a pause a dozen ASF pilots started scrambling to get a word in edge wise.


Pasha cleared his throat. "No commander, we had no indication that we needed to have pilots on alert status especially after the journey. It would have made the Taurians more uncomfortable than they were."


He nodded. The truth was it had caught him by surprise. He'd been anxious to get away from New Vandenburg too... and they hadn't been on alert. A mistake. He'd been going stir crazy from the sixteen previous jumps, simulator time and pull ups on the grav deck's gym didn't scratch the itch, and we'd barely been able to stir the week they'd been in Taurian space... so he'd been glad when they'd cleared for jump, and made it to what was Aurigan space...


... and then it had turned.


They had made the jump from New Vandenburg to the Aurigan world of Aea, the bull's claims not withstanding. The jump over the border into Aurigan space should have been uneventful except that the tiny little world of Aea had been savaged by Black Jack's pirates earlier in the month... and one thing had lead to another. It wasn't Black Jack's first raid into the reach, the Aurgians had been having pirate problems the same as everyone else the last couple of years but relative to overall population the Aea's damage was extreme... and had involved hordes of captives apparently being crammed into cargo holds at gunpoint by Black Jack's pirates.


That had been about when they had showed up, after most of the cutting was done. The pirates had been at a non standard point, and it had taken entirely too long to get the air wing up and active there were just too many birds needing to be launched.


"Alright what do we do we do better next time?" He asked.


"It would be feasible to have pilots on alert, but it does not change that launching them safely would require the detaching of the DropShips, and it would be unsafe to have the fighters in the launch." He paused, 'ah yes, the other safety risk in munitions we would want energy weapons only for the first launch, that limits our options." No one disagreed with the senior most JumpShip captain, and pasha flipped through to another sheet. "Our Altair," The Azami Eagle variant, "The Rapiers carrying only the particle projector cannons, but not many other options I am afraid."


"How many jumps do we have?" There was nothing they could do here after all. Black Jack's people had made a mess of things, and then gotten the hell out of dodge before the birds could launch but what a mess it was.


"Four," Pasha replied, "We will finish charging the drives, we will jump to Katinka, on to Gangtok then Guldra and finally we will reach the capital of the Aurigan reach," The coalition had not existed during the Star League. "You will like Cormodir VI it is a nice world."
--
"All hands General Quarters, General Quarters this is not a drill, all hands battle stations." Those were the words echoing through the speakers of the DropShip, and presumably through the mass of other ships... the majority of which were carrying civilian refugees


Gene pushed onto the CIC, "Get us detached, launch Eisenhower, Hedwig and Braunfelds as well, we need air cover. Do we have a picture yet?"


"Not presently, they have limited air cover, but they're not moving to intercept us."


Septim pushed up the ladder and landed on the deck zipping up and SLDF pattern jumpsuit, "We'll have time boss."


"Yeah, the fighter jocks are raring to get at 'em."


But as they had identified they needed to prep. "Give me battle line."


It took a minute for the network connect. The holographic display activated as the mobile ai core housing the Northwind native AI parsed connections, "Connection stabilized,"


"This is Colonel Gene Shepherd, we have entered the system during an ongoing pirate raid the aerospace assets are to deploy as previously planned, we're unclear on the situation you should expect electronic intelligence packages to identify priority targets but our immediate objective is for the 588th​ to defend the civilian fleet. Task Force 1 will move to secure a landing on the planet's surface," Coromodir VI the planet currently being attacked and the site of the system's HPG uplink that was under attack.


He handed off to Dante, a separate channel connected him to Pasha, and then also to the ground leadership staff... which meant Bardiche, and Claymore's officers, and the armor and infantry forces... and given what Aea had looked like when Black Jack was done the medical staff. They needed to secure a ground position to bring in the field hospital about the Triumph that had been left under Northwind.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well I really doubt black jack has artillery or at least since artillery with him even if he got some from the comguards it's not likely he has the means to restock Ammo and spare parts for it and it's not exactly useful in raiding stuff.

So time for gene to once again kick ass and take names in that devastator. Which honestly might not be a dedicated command mech but as a 100 ton assault mech thats basically a sniper I figure it's probably closer to one than your average mech would be. Honestly the SL variant might very well be one but the later fedcom variants couldn't be due to the electronics being different. Given the other 100 ton designs kerensky wrote the specs for that we actually know what the quirks for them are were command mechs its not implausible.

Also alas for him kamea and Victoria are close enough to their majorities that once again he's likely to have noblewomen wanting him or at least being betrothed to him. Good luck with that old chap.

 

[Sogen]

Well I really doubt black jack has artillery or at least since artillery with him even if he got some from the comguards it's not likely he has the means to restock Ammo and spare parts for it and it's not exactly useful in raiding stuff.

So time for gene to once again kick ass and take names in that devastator. Which honestly might not be a dedicated command mech but as a 100 ton assault mech thats basically a sniper I figure it's probably closer to one than your average mech would be. Honestly the SL variant might very well be one but the later fedcom variants couldn't be due to the electronics being different. Given the other 100 ton designs kerensky wrote the specs for that we actually know what the quirks for them are were command mechs its not implausible.

Also alas for him kamea and Victoria are close enough to their majorities that once again he's likely to have noblewomen wanting him or at least being betrothed to him. Good luck with that old chap.

Click to shrink...

The problem with Assault Mechs when trying to intercept raiders is that unless you can get between the raiders and their dropships and force them to come to you the Assault Mechs just move too slowly. Heavies and mediums would be the optimal loadout here.

 

[Bofors40mm]

The problem with Assault Mechs when trying to intercept raiders is that unless you can get between the raiders and their dropships and force them to come to you the Assault Mechs just move too slowly. Heavies and mediums would be the optimal loadout here.

Click to shrink...

That's what combat drops are for my goof sir

 

[georgiaboy1966]

The urgency is correct but the response is wrong. You are 8.54 days travel from Coromodir VI. If you have ships with LF batteries, a jump to the Solar Lagrange points would be quicker. With the number of moons C VI has, the Lunar jump points will be short, unstable points measured in hours to minutes.

So LF jumps to capture pirate jump ships should be first, along with LF jump to get fighters closer flight times mesured in hours instead of days.

 

[MonkeyNinja d'PirateRobot]

"That's the five minute mark." Six hundred seconds.

Click to shrink...

Five minutes is 300 seconds. Ten minutes is 600.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Black Jack: *Has SLDF mechs*

Gene: And I fucking took exception to that.

And it does appear that violence is in the offing. Exceeeeellent.

 

[Imperator Pax]

The Pirate Wars Part 2​

Coromdir VI was just shy two billion inhabitants, a good sized population for a periphery planet, especially given a system with more than one habitable worlds... Coromidr V in this case. Coromodir V though didn't have an HPG station, so it seemed like the pirates weren't interested in it right now. That was atypical of pirates, but what it meant for them was they, the pirates, weren't splitting their forces between two worlds.


Thus they weren't splitting their forces... well they were after a fact... but not necessarily in the way that would be assumed. "How long?"


"We can't be sure," Pasha's image flickered. Mathematical computations illuminated the holographic globe. The fusion engines powering the ships were moving them into was what effectively a noose. Coromdir was too busy astrologically to turn this into a conflict where wither side had a feasible chance for tactical mobility. They'd get there when they did. "The pirate ships may have their drives charged by this point."


The pirates were at the opposite jump point, they hadn't jumped in to a pirate point do to the moons. It was why Dante's recommendation was to just go down there and pump those DropShips full of Gauss slugs and call it a day. They weren't armed, and in the era of the Star League they would have been expendable .


The Azami wanted to execute a naval boarding action, which Dante was willing to concur with since he had other questions that electronic intercepts weren't going to provide. "How long have the pirates been ground side?"


"Long enough that they have offloaded tanks."


Footage showed Bulldogs, which was one thing, but also Demons, which was a whole other potential problem. "Any Alacorns?"


"No, we have not observed any from the traffic at least." Whether planetary media was accurate was was debatable but if the news choppers were capable of showing footage from sixty plus ton tanks it was doubtful they'd have missed alacorns, "But we have, other problems," Pasha remarked there was the echoing sound of key strokes, and a Spartan N2 appeared. It was correct in terms of equipment, but even more so than the machine making little sense in being here were the black and red paint streaks across its torso as the field, "This is not the only machine to bear the mark of the Rim World Republic."


The screaming shark maw was isolated in the feed. Some of the machines were still in standard SLDF paint, some weren't... but, "How long have they been on planet? Best guess?" He asked


"Less than seventy two hours."


"So they touched down more than a day, before we jumped in?"


"To my best estimates, yes that is correct."


But much more than that it seemed, "Those fortifications how intact are they?" He asked.


Dante rapidly punched up long range telemetry, "The original surface to orbit guns were destroyed by SLDF forces fighting against Amaris's forces, they were not reconstructed. There appear to be turrets active on the surface, protecting parts of the original fortification, the inhabitants appear to have modified and reconstructed a network of other guard posts." A highlighted route ran the length of the main highway. "They are slowing the hostiles down," The highland ai drawled before highlighting a second route along the river bed. "The local defense forces are maintaining some limited air cover and have their mechanized infantry in these foothills here. I estimate that the locals might be able to force the enemy into close quarters, but that a sustained attack is being massed within the next four to seven days."


"The HPG station?"


"Given their forces that appears to be their aim." Dante pushed up a variety of forces that were in the fight. The locals didn't have much per se, they were lucky they had what they did but this was their capital, "The Mercenary forces are centered around Markham's Marauders but they've suffered at least ten percent attrition of their forces, since hostilities began."


--
There were limits to what they could do. The planet's control network was intact, and even if it hadn't been there were enough digital signals and other telemetry to guide them in, but the hard burn in, flip and deceleration was a skill set, and fuel intensive.


They were going to burn a lot of fuel doing this. Not just the dropships, and the aircraft. That had the potential to be expensive in upkeep terms, but if these were as they appeared to from Black Jack's they were going to be looking at a potentially hefty payout in bounty from the office of the New Avalon.


Even without that, given the situation he'd have authorized the attack. The other ice cube sat down. "They could be going after something here."


"I had considered that, yes." He replied, flipping through a series of large BattleMech designs they had identified, "They have Star League Defense forces machines, that guillotine fits an extended range PPC," ... and, "We may see a repeat of what they did on Aea attempts to seize the station and take the personnel there." Dante was ambivalent to ComStar... Gene wasn't sure where the Woleverine popsicles fell on them... it hadn't been discussed... he was regretting that oversight given what was going on now, "Our priority is rescuing civilians."


"Understood."


He didn't brook the issue... which was probably a good thing, "Any issues using the Marauder II?"


"There will be no issues, orbital insertion?"


A hot drop, "Its the only option." That meant that a number of the mechs in free fall would be Azami pilots. He saw Bahar rap on the glass. "I'm honestly hoping that they send whatever they have for air cover up to get mulched by the rapiers."


This whole thing was suspicious, the situation on Aea had been a mess. The planet hadn't made a lot of sense anyway... but it definitely highlighted that ComStar was being targeted specifically.


Bahar stuck her head in, "If those dropships manage to take off there is a chance they will have slaves onboard. The images, also, of the sharks... and totenkopf are making their way around."


"Priority is to land and establish a beach head letting the marines try and board those JumpShips is about all we can do on that front." He replied. The Azami had brought a lot of potential air power with them. Hence its temporary reformulation into the 588th​ on paper... but that wasn't strictly the only reason.


Black jack's pirates didn't act normal. Were they looking for something more on Coromdir.... no there were a couple of mules but nothing that suggested work crews. They were going to have to drop down in between, preferably near the city, but they couldn't use the space port.


The last thing they wanted was to be shot at by the defenders after all. That was the messy part. They knew Markham... but that had been now a couple years. They'd been in the Inner Sphere for a while when you got down to it, they had made it through the critical years as a mercenary company, but they couldn't rely on those empheemeral contacts.


The same reason they had wanted air cover even though there was only a limited possibility that they might run into a challenge... but of course any threat to civilian dropships was something they couldn't permit...


"We're going to hot drop onto the planet," He reiterated, "We're going to land clear a site for a beach head bring in what we can over the proceeding several days. We want to keep them away from their dropships."


"Uh,"


"What?"


Beau shifted his bulk slightly, "Boss, we aren't dealing with the Davions here. These are pirates with Star League gear, and really nice stuff too... it isn't like with the Canopians either."


"He's saying we're going to have a problem with the locals boss." The other Alexander remarked.


Gene bit down a groan of frustration. "We will deal with that after we're on the planet on force." When they had been with the Canopians the unit had been too small, and there had been too little cargo space to readily get into conttest over gear... and given Alamut even if they didn't have the personnel the Azami colonists would probably want the machines for their own defense.
--
Notes: This is going up as is, I had planned to expand further on the first arc of the pirate wars, which will still be going on, since the Coromdir engagement as originally detailed in the Arano introduction was abridged for the sake of being a teaser. There will be expansion of that of course, including the ... teaser 'for amaris's sake' that I never got around to actually posting where in the assumption is that the relief force is in ComStar employ.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well I suppose last of the OG SLDF and a gunslinger at that would have problems with the locals who largely like the SLDF's memory. Probably just not in the way the rest of them are thinking. Especially given all the stories Kamea and Victoria probably have been told at this point about the noble Mechwarriors of the SLDF from what we know of HBS canon. And here Gene comes in literally basically doing that in modern times.

 

[Arimai]

deacceleration

Click to shrink...

Deceleration. I hope they find proof of the pirates being Comstar agents.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Deceleration. I hope they find proof of the pirates being Comstar agents.

Click to shrink...

I mean yes, but also the pirates are assuming the Company are ComStar coming to try and finish the job from Trisha finally.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Deceleration. I hope they find proof of the pirates being Comstar agents.

Click to shrink...

I mean the proof at this point is basically the word of pirates and the kit they got. Which literally could have come from any old SLDF cache

 

[Imperator Pax]

The Pirate Wars 3​

--
The traffic, either quality or content, from the ground wasn't great. One wing of the pirate's invasion force had launched an aggressive, if largely unsupported attack into ... 'the merchant quarter' apparently they didn't have a complete picture but either it was a premature attack with other forces holding in reserve or that they were letting him draw the enemy in... it could be internal pirate politics... but it was only part of the picture they could see...


Gene blinked softly in his helmet, the night vision preserving interior lighting active within his cockpit. The Aurigans were having the same pirate problems as everyone else... they hadn't arrived soon enough to interdict Aea... and the carrying off of the populace as they'd been herded into cargo bays at gun point by the pirates.


"It is not good," The old JumpShip Captain remarked unnecessarily. Pasha's image flickered as the connection relayed through the Eisenhower's command deck modulated, and Gene blinked.


"I'm sorry could one of you repeat that."


"The ambassador from the Magistracy of Canopus has just accused her Taurian counterpart of providing aid to the attacking pirates."


He did kind of want to know if there was any validity to that or if this was just a case of two interstellar powers throwing shade at one another... but if it were true... well he didn't exactly want to risk any plans managing to reach the pirate, unlikely as that was given the present situation.


The conversation fell short as feeds updated from further out. Within the lethal war machine under the red night vision preserving lights his computer screens were filled with incoming regimental wide data. The assault DropShips Hedwig and Braunfelds were presently clearing high orbit airspace ahead of the landing formation's advance. They'd be landing in nominally speaking three waves. The airwaves were overwhelmed with distress calls from anyone with a transmitter it seemed as the pirates went blasting through civilian areas to try and get around defensive hard points thrown up by the locals. The Aurigans were doing their best, but besides their government, and merchants, and and civilians ComStar and the local MRB office was screaming for help.

They meant to oblige. He reached to the side panel and swapped channels to 2nd​ Battalion, "Bardiche, comms check?" At confirmation that the Battalion aboard the overlord Presidio were prepared for hitting the atmosphere in several minutes, he switched channels to ring the Highlanders 'Mech battalion aboard Hidalgo and confirmed their readiness. The two large Dropships would be following down with San Saba. He switched channels again. The DroSTs and the Baffins would beat the two of them down, with Baffins lighting a secure guide beacon to guide the larger ships down... but they would be feet first into hell. Nominal 1st​ showed a flurry of identifying markers from various BattleMechs including their signal for readiness to drop.

The final checks came with the tingling of an adrenaline spike the likes of which he hadn't felt in what seemed like a life time. Then the gantries shuffled the pod to the door and it was out.

The Azami Exodus fleet comprised enough of an air wing that there was a combined CAP patrol, including their own, of over a hundred ASF... if the Aurigans hadn't already been under attack the wave of the nominally identified '588th Air Regiment' probably have been heart attack inducing by itself as the 85 ton Star League era Rapier comprising the core of one of the reigment's wings started making contact with the remaining drop ships and pirate asf still floating around after the gun pass from the two M3's gauss rifles.

The drop pod showed an augmented feed, a cluster of stars nearby as small maneuvering thrusters pushed the pods into formation preparing for the edge of the atmosphere as a display counted down. He was grateful for the air cover even if it was a largely temporary volume of air power, the Azami had one whole wing guarding the fleet of Jumpships and there was a good chance their small craft were going to drive off or capture via marines the remaining pirate JumpShips at the Nadir Jump Point.

Laser Comms fluttered. He might have expected Bahar or one of the other pilots in the detachment but Hedgwig started uploading inbound data transits. The movements, and communications of units that she had observed from where the assault DropShip was and what would be relevant in a Hegemony Orbital Insertion drop looking to achieve a foothold.

He acknowledged the machine spirit's data and rested his hands against the yoke as the first planetary forces of gravity and air resistance began to be felt. Hedwig wasn't happy about the enemy having SLDF mechs...

... he could agree with 'her'... but he had to watch the temperature and other gauges indicated condition, and they were starting to pick up. In a couple of seconds he'd lose most of his external communications entering a communications blackout while he navigated the atmosphere. About fifteen minutes where the descending mechs would be crossing the upper atmosphere until they deployed their shoots, or fired jump jets to slow and land on terra firma.

... and of course in that same time period the first portion of their own air wing would be following down with them. It was a less of a just in case thing, and more to clear any remaining enemy air assets or failing that keeping them disorganized enough that when the rest of the wing descended from orbit they'd have air superiority.

For Cormodir this was probably the first orbital drop the planet had seen since Cordia City had been retaken from Amaris's 'secret army' two and a half centuries earlier. It looked like things had been rebuilt significantly sometime in the 29th century, but Gene paid little mind to that anomaly as the interference picked up and the gee forces acting on the pod descending picked up.
--
Down below on the planet's surface, and with the pirates with their Star League era, and built machines they too were taking stock of their changing situation... if only because the warning systems weren't letting them ignore it.

The klaxons were deafening, "For Amaris's Sake shut that fucking thing off!" it took the better part of a minute to get the air raid warnings to clear, and the last of the alarms on the comm's channel to finally stop deafening the lot of them. His Battlemaster didn't appreciate clearing the alert, but all of the sudden there were other problems as the battle computer started throwing up data returns. "Oh fuck."


"What the fuck is this shit?" The Spartan Pilot grumbled over the channel.


It wasn't a serious question. "Its ComStar, its got to be those robed back stabbing fuckers." Another man agreed.


"No way," A higher pitched voice from rat faced man snapped. "I know you bastards weren't there when we trashed those sons of bitches but they were green as grass. These sons of bitches are mercenaries. I don't give a shit what the stupid computer says they are or what they're doing. The boss said to kill those two timing traitors so stop bitching." The line went quiet, as Schneider's face disappeared from the feed and his battlemech crashed through a building and into the road on the other side.


His Battlemaster mutedly noted the machine was opening fire, but was still not putting it up to the fore of the display like it had been doing. This had already not started off as as easy as some of the other errands they'd run, they were having to attack up country, and there were lots of fighting positions aimed down out at them.


He rubbed the sweat trying to avoid getting grease in his eyes and went back to hen pecking the keys, the feed from space was bad. Really bad. Maybe, maybe ComStar had hired some mercs... it wasn't like they could just walk into the MRB and ask all normal like for access to the hiring database anymore. The aircraft looked white, those were what the bastards had used back on Trish', but that didn't mean shit... and these had marks on the wings... but his fucking computer was saying these Hegemony troops in action, and the crazy bastards were definitely about to drop from orbit even without the computers screaming about some Royal Division coming to pound their assholes without lube he could have figured that out just looking at the radar.


The problem was that the bastards weren't looking like green recruits, Schneider might have been an ugly curr but he probably wasn't wrong... and there was a lot of air up there more than what Avellar's government could, or would, throw up for most worlds back home... if these assholes weren't the robes... then they were probably getting paid for by them... and it was a wonder it had taken the inner bastards this long...

--
Notes: This was supposed to go up twelve hours ago, and I just never hit post despite thinking I did.

 

[Bofors40mm]

looks good. also with that much airpower the pirates probably have no chance to escape and are about to discover what happens when its CAS o clock with strike ASF