Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[PeaceMaker03]

Looks good to me, the only problem I see is the chapter is too short. Unfortunately, that is so often the case when I read food stories.
Keep up the great work.

 

[drakensis]

The change of scene was poorly shown - the line break was hidden in a normal paragraph mark, and it wasn't very clear in the text whose perspective we were seeing.

Generally speaking, the first paragraph of a scene should indicate the location or viewpoint clearly to mark that this isn't part of the previous scene and set the stage.

 

[Imperator Pax]

The Pirate Wars 4​

Red streaks with dark cores exploded in the sky too high up still for ground observers to visibly confirm that they were battlemechs without mechanic or electronic assistance but it was undeniable that that was what they were. They were the only thing that they could be. Cormordir VI was a temperate world and as the capital of the Aurigan Coalition had largely been sheltered from the strife of the periphery frontier. It was a display of military force that its residents weren't used to seeing... but they weren't used to seeing pirates up close and personal.

He eased the controls of his yoke, squinting at his displays.


The JumpJets started a series of pulses to adjust trim and altitude to bring him down along the river bank with the rest of the lance, and thus the broader company. He adjusted the Dalban's handling and brought up the Lance director to relay orders. "Sasha cut the MSR and hold that line south," That way when the DroSTs touched down they could start offload Magunac combined arms units to just roll straight forward. The Union behind them would take longer but once Baffins was on the ground they could secure for San Saba's mixed Mechs and Vehicles.

He started ticking down, counting off and watching the signals. They needed air superiority, in order to run strike missions to prevent any further pirate DropShips trying to break for orbit. He wasn't sure if slaving was Black Jack's new side hustle but after seeing the damage and footage of Aea keeping the pirates ground side was preferable. A couple of pirates had already made a break for it, and there had been one or two JumpShips that had either had charged drives or had jumped risky to leave early.

It didn't matter they had at least some of the names from breaching the pirates comms... if they showed up they could chase them later, or pass the word along to the appropriate authorities.

The problem was that while not a proper military force, a lack of discipline they were fielding League 'Mechs. Instead of cludged together franken mechs or a mix of light and mediums Black Jack's people were based around a core of medium and heavy weight mechs backed up by star league era tanks like manticores and hovercraft... and those were commanded by heavier machines under the leadership.

It certainly lent credence to the story Black Jack had lucked out finding a cache... and he might have believed that claim if he hadn't already made out some of the other Star League machines that filled out the pirates ranks... he adjusted his breathing, this could have been worse, Black Jack could have been from the clans... that would have been bad.

Gene pushed his sticks forward Jump jets making the final corrections and a moment later he was on the ground with the rest of the two dozen mechs operating a single large company. As soon as the last mechs were on the ground, a pair of Marauder IIs lumbered forward their PPCs replaced with Assault Auto Cannons to provide close element security.

Not that there was anything for them to shoot at, but it never hurt to be careful. The muddy red banks of the river's shore churned as a thousand tons of armor and guns cranked up the banks and into centuries old roadways to begin diverging with the intention of securing a beachhead for the arriving forces. Harry Callahan's lead assault mech parked on the on ramp of the MSR and stood there as they moved past. The Marauder II design, and its variants were the only machines in this element that were not explicitly Star League based machines. They had brought Catapults in place of archers specifically because the former carried jump jets as an added mobility feature. The Archers would roll off of the DroSTs to reinforce LRM carriers and and provide their long range missiles to the second wave of arrivals.

They were getting their first ground side look at what was going on on the surface of the planet. The local nobility were scrambling with their mechs to defend against the vastly larger attacking force. The local great houses, and their vassals scrambling to sally forth from manor homes with their mechs supported by locally produced combat vehicles and infantry in support.

There were a range of vehicles of indigenous designs, but the mechs were predominantly league mediums and heavy. Blackjacks, which might have brought a chuckle in any other situation, Kintaro, Catapult, Rifleman, and Marauders returned pings on long range magnameters sensors looking at their fusions engines and substantiated by their transmitted IFFs. Of course it wasn't just the local elite, and their personal guards there were other mercenaries trying to hold out, which cluttered up signal returns even more.

Gene turned his machine north up the highway as the two Highlander Assault Mechs joined him, and rearguard provided in the form of missile support from an Azami pilot in a Catapult. The Lance peeled north separating out as the company moved into the outer sprawl of Cordia city's market and residential zones.


This would have ordinarily been as scenic as Luxen's environs were... somewhere not used to the threat of pirates, and who ordinarily their civilian or at least ruling authorities had things in good order, but today they didn't. Today it was just another battlefield in the succession wars.


His instrument panel was processing data from the regimental software. He'd become familiar on the way out... with what had happened or at least some of it. The Ice Cubes couldn't explain what had informed the decision to attack Richmond but it didn't change the fact that they had wanted to drop IFFs off... which was stupid, not the least of which was even assuming the unit had the coordination to operate for short periods of time there were too many other variables. "Bahar, how are things looking?"


"Not well, this is a great deal of star league equipment."


Yeah he had known that. It was kind of stating the obvious, but it had been an almost clinical detail when they had been up in space. Now it was different. Now they were ground side, even if they weren't actually in contact... yet. "Be careful then," He replied... but just because they had Star League weapons didn't mean they were the SLDF or the Rim World Armies. There was little rhyme or reason to some of the groups .. and given the way the pirates had disgorged out of their DropShips he suspected they had probably stolen the DropShips, and that there was some secret or internal otherwise informal chain of command. These men were fighting for a cause, but they were also fighting for plunder, just they weren't fighting for a nation state. "We're going to see a lot of vertical traverse the fortress here looks like they cut the top of the mountain off before they started building." He observed. The Aurigans were they were fighting to defend their homes against the bandits at their door step. "I am going to see if we cant open communications again, Hanzo take point."


He received a quick affirmative before the other Highlander's jump jets flared.. Given the propensity of civilian housing... of close in urban fighting, they had to forgo inferno missiles, couldn't risk the potential civilian casualties to errant fires.


"This is Colonel Gene Shepherd, my Regimental Combat Team has made planet fall-" The radio squealed as a Hegemony built machine paired in and cut him off.


"FUCK YOU YOU INNER BASTARD! You wanna go? Come on then!" The pilot on the other end didn't have a face... which suggested either it was intentional or something was broke or not working correctly, but the asshole sounded drunk.


Gene rolled his eyes, and swapped channels to the command ship in orbit, something that shouldn't be interceptable "Dante, I need you to get in contact, and establish a link with the local planetary authorities, preferably without the pirates shouting profanity over the comms. If you can't get a hold of them reliably see if you can get a stead uplink to Commander Markham," but ... well there was no telling what the condition of Markham's Marauder's avionics package was like... so that was the second best option.


"Failing that do you wish to try and establish contact with the HPG station?"


"Yes, failing that ring them and ask if they have any secure lines of communication with local defending forces."

"I understand." The AI replied from the command deck of the Eisenhower. A command packet unfurled showing the offload points for the rest of the units, where they would need to deploy their chain of command and control units to get around existing electronic countermeasures, and natural terrain features and so forth... and and routes to assault into Coromodir city and... the time table that the AI expected they needed to adhere to.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Honestly if i was a pirate and I heard the words RCT that you know has a lot of ASFs and given where they are.....I'd probably think that I've been annoying enough to the Davions for them to send a Deneb Lght Calvary Unit to end me. Which could work to Gene's advantage. After all DLC units are usually on the lighter end of things for most of their mechs and AFVs and are often light on artillery as well and so the pirates might close expecting their average higher mass and better tech to carry the day. Which is the last thing they should do but they're pirates with a lot of lostech gear.
If they where smart they'd have sold that stuff to a great house for a planet and lived like kings for the rest of their lives.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Part 5​

He pushed the accelerator down bringing his machine forward of the four mechs. They were keeping the catapult in the back. It was there for them to paint targets, and throw missiles if it came to it. Mostly so that Hanzo, and Bahar could focus on their Gauss Rifles, but if it came to it the Highlanders could slather on additional missiles as they advanced.


"Alright good news is San Saba is in the atmosphere now." That meant Alacorns and Furys rolling out of the Triumph-class ship as soon as she could open her doors. Those Nirasaki computers made coordinating between tank and BattleMech units ... well it made a world of difference. Presidio, and Overlord had had dropped their Mech Battalions with the second wave of insertion... which admittedly he had not been entirely sure that was the best use of Bardiche, but it was boots on the ground sooner...


The Hegemony had pioneered the mech scale parachute system to allow machines that didn't have JumpJets to make descent... but if they had had more time it would have been a preference to drop all jump jet capable mechs. "I have eyes on, no less than a dozen mechs with Rim World Icongraphy, Colonel." Major Sorbel announced from within his Highlander. "And I've got sharks on no shortage of these tanks that the cadets are hitting."


He refrained from correcting the lance commander that they weren't 'cadets' anymore. It wasn't the time, and Sorbel probably didn't intend to be condescending.... but it was a habit he was going to have to break. "Anything else?"


"I think the graffiti is recent."


"Excuse me?"


"The markings I think the markings are new, I had my computer run the footage from Aea, I didn't get near this many hits."


"You got hits from Aea?" That was news to him, "Hold, Dante, Sorbel says he matched Rim World markers from Aea, can you go through that footage, and compare it to what we're seeing here?"


"Affirmative."


Sorbel waited on the line, and then showed a mech on Aea with its flamers going, but on the shoulder was a chalice with dice in it. "Its not conclusive, but this from Amaris's house hold guards according to the warbook."


"Sorbel secure your sector, and keep me apprised if there is anything else." He clicked off. It could be coincidence, but they didn't have time to make a mountain out of it, but... this whole situation didn't add up... and maybe Sorbel was on to something. He swapped channels, transferring to orbital link, "Dante I need you to plug data into a map."


"I have already done that," The AI replied, "There is no evident reasoning for the actions we're observing. We likely lack key details if there is some over arching operational objective."


Black Jack had attacked ComStar stations in the coreward Periphery near the Lyran border a decade ago... but then he'd disappeared and trekked around the Combine and had made his way to the Tortuga domains... why couldn't this asshole have decided to just go run around on his murder spree in the Draconis Combine's periphery frontier, but he'd come a long way out to the Rimward Periphery, and was now their problem.
--
Dante traced the progress of the Highland Battalion as it crossed the table lands that surounded the Aurigan capital... most of the plateaus were large enough to allow a couple of mechs to get atop of but their large flat sides made getting up there difficult, and the places where ancient river flow had eroded the area had created a tactically hazardous area of limited visibility at sea level.


The AI was monitoring the other largely unsecured, or inadequately secured, transmissions. The Aurigans were defending their capital, and their infantry were largely mechanized, and dug in along defensive lines that had originally been built to resist many of the same designs the pirates were using... and the pirates were not SLDF armor and mech officers.


The Aurigans would he estimated be able to hold as the forces cleared the rough topographical disruption... but what he had yet been able to do was confirm that the Aurigans would cooperate ... there were too many machines using star league era equipment, broadcasting purporting to be SLDF machines.


Sorbel's data packet had been cataloged, and it wasn't impossible that this was merely adoption by opportunists... or there were lingering pro rim world sentiment and this was some revanchist reactionary sentiment. Whatever the case, whatever the machines were painted as it didn't matter in this instance. The Highland Battalion needed to secure a route west and around the Aurigan capital to be able to safely advance on the starport, that would allow them to roll forward hovercraft first, and then progressively heavier vehicles to relieve the facility... and to bring in medical relief aid to the civilian populace.


It was.... ironically everything the SLDF mission in the periphery was supposed to be... it was just the League was dead without the Hegemony, and without House Cameron.


--




Cormordir or at least the capital region was more topographically excited than Luxen but they had broad similarities... but then that was typical of most planets choosing to settle near the coast or in River valleys, or both.

He parsed through the incoming data of what they knew. They were already sure McGirk wasn't here in person but all the same it was a very brazen attack to launch on an actual periphery state, well one that could actually be called a state, but that hadn't stopped him with the Taurians either apparently. The Aurigans had emerged after the fall of the Star League and built themselves into a reasonably sized periphery power... and maybe that was the reason either McGirk or one of his lieutenants was thinking maybe it was time to follow the example of the Marian Hegemony...

... but whatever their motives there was no indication of the bandit king being here in person...

Even if Black Jack had been here... he wasn't sure that it would have solved the problem. It was clear this was only a fragment of the horde ravaging the frontier of human space, and if Black Jack died here there would be be less ... and if history was anything to go on.... guidance and the groups would splinter and in the short term there would be chaotic unpredictable spikes in violence. That wasn't to say they wouldn't have gone after him... just that cutting the head off the snake wasn't a sure shot to fixing the problem. It wouldn't magic away the danger that he posed or that his supporters posed to people living out here.

... and among those problems his Dalban was already flagging signatures forward. There was a running gun battle north of a cut, where the road pushed up into the hillside. He was glad that even though they had done painfully little to change any of the electronics signatures put out by their mechs, Black Jack's band of cutthroats had at least painted their stolen machines.

The MMI finished inputting the map's terrain data into the navigation system, and the jump jets fired taking him down off the embankment and into the roundabout below.

Even if they had still been painted in SLDF camouflage he doubted it would have stopped him from dropping down behind the sixty ton Champion and delivering his opening alpha strike into the machine, and also the BattleMaster beside it. His Dalban processed the other jump jet signatures of the others even as his Marauder stepped over the shattered cockpit of the LosTech warmachine.

Gauss rifles cycled hitting a nearby seventy ton pirate Guillotine, and an already mangled Sentinel exploded as it met incoming missiles from one of the Aurgian Catapults that wasn't above taking advantage of the situation. "Suppress those vehicles." He ordered finally keying his mike.

A Highlander wasn't exactly the fastest thing, the venerable and standard Hegemony design topped out at fifty four KPH, but when a ninety ton LosTech Command mech decides to floor it in the direction of your tanks and hovercraft... very few people responded with the poise and dignity that they might in training. One of the former SLDF Manticores managed to reverse before Hanzo brought the Highlander's foot up, which only served to cause him to kick the offending tread head rather than stomp on the tracked warmachine.

The added leverage pushed the already backpedalling sixty ton tank through a safety barrier onto the red muddy shoulder of the road and where it promptly peeled through and slid down the hundred foot embankment sending the several hundred year old tank to rest on its side at the bottom of the hill. There were a variety of reasons they were deploying the beachhead force without Inferno missiles loaded in the hoppers for their SRMs but the principle reason was the close contact nature of contesting Cordia City and thus the civilian population caught in the open by the pirates.

... otherwise Gene would have been perfectly happy cooking the slavers in their tin cans and calling it a day, but preventing pointless civilian death even accidental civilian casualties outweighed the tactical utility of incendiary weapons against some of the under cooled designs they were running into.

 

[Wargamer08]

The added leverage pushed the already backpedalling eighty ton tank through

Click to shrink...

Manticores are 60 tons.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well that manticore might be Salvageable all things considered even if the pirate Crew probably is at best terribly injured.
Honestly all this kit is probably much more likely to be recovered given the Aurigans have a major repair facility in system. That might result in some interesting discussions with the aranos about salvage among other things when the shooting stops

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 6​

The blue and black painted hover tank was trying to get back, to get away. It knew it was too close to try and open with its PPC, and maybe it was out of missiles already so the only option was to get further out.


Bahar brought her Highlander forward wasted little time as her short range missile launcher hissed expelling propellant fumes before the rocket motors caught and started moving the payload towards the enemy. HEDP riddled down below catching a lighter tank as it peeled backwards into the storefront of some building.

His Dalban had a holographic progress bar up as it unpacked the navigation. The Starport was under attack... obviously, the local salvage and 'mech works was defended but was facing less in the way of a challenge than he would have expected from normal pirates... but then Black Jack seemed anything but normal.

The other question that appeared wasn't so much why VI, it was the capital after all, but why not V which housed a significant chunk of the planet's industry? It did appear as if Black Jack was prioritizing the HPG station. In order to reach the old ministry of communications facility they would need to clear the blocking force out from the star port... the downside of course was Markam's Marauders probably couldn't stop them. Not if the Demons his Dalban was identifying as rolling down the coastal road were in fact armed with Gauss rifles.

Their furies and alacorns were en route but it was going to take time for them to roll off even with the speedy deployment capabilities of the DroSTs. A handful of digital count downs tracked the estimated time for the waves to get through the atmosphere and touch down... but that would only be estimations on how soon they could touch down. It was more likely to be a minimum threshold of long it was going to take, and certainly not the maximum.

A chime sounded an incoming Mech with a Lyran pilot at the helm. The IFF resolved as Aurigan, though the computer didn't exactly know what an Aurigan was. The Dalban quickly resolved the Lyran's mech as customized Centurion, probably rebuilt in the Periphery to be as close to factory spec as was practical. A second Aurigan mech, a Wolverine, following along the Cormorant road.

Those mechs were coming north, but wouldn't have gotten close enough to have made contact with Callahan or Sasha's screen lances along the MSR. They'd probably already been in the city, or in the urban outskirts of the planetary capital.

... and then the come chatter started, even as the sky was streaked with an increasing number of meteors descending from orbit that as they descended resolved into the aerodyne dropships, with spheroids of heavier mass becoming more apparent as they descended.

Apparently the Lyran was the head of the local Royal Guard, if he were going to guess from just the colors the mechs were painted given his Centurion matched the paint scheme of Kintaro, while the Wolverine matched the paint job of the Catapult the local noble houses were either directly related from a common ancestor or intermarried... or both.

Bahar's highlander initiated a Laser Comm connection separate from the radio channels. "The Wolverine, and Kintaro are both registering SLDF era codecs."

"I noticed the Kintaro." He admitted, but even if it meant something it wasn't a priority at the moment... this whole place raised too many questions as it was, but the first priority was dealing with the invaders. They could figure out why there were anomalous mech signatures when people weren't shooting at them. As it was his Dalban was cataloging a list of anomalies that was already proving to be a headache in itself... but they had more pressing issues "Incoming." He intoned flagging another inbound Champion its way tearing down one of the streets of the Market District.

He didn't respond to the Azami piloting the Catapult making the quip that Black Jack had the devils own luck when it came to cache finds. Now wasn't the time, but he wasn't wrong... and it certainly seemed like McGirk had no shortage of men he could throw into the fray.
--
The Triumph class Dropships were safely down. Their doors were open, and the first arriving forces of heavy vehicles were beginning to disgorge. Fury command tanks were starting to form the digital network the overlapping series of inputs that would guide forces arriving into position with the BattleMech forces already engaged against the enemy.


It also meant that there were plenty of warning as the speedy little J Edgar's rushed towards the landing sights and the handful of BattleMechs posted on the MSR. Whatever they had expected it probably had not included hundred ton Marauder II BattleMechs never mind the Gauss rifle equipped battle tanks.


Running off a 145 rating Fusion Engine the J. Edgar were relying on speed to close... the highway being what it was, that was to say a straight line of ferrocrete built up and off the ground meant the hover tanks were travelling right down on them.


Complex command and control software came online, and the first of several tartan badged Alacorns opened fire. At twenty five tons with mostly short range weapons it was a turkey shoot, the pirates light cavalry force had been peeled off to find out, which was what had happened when they had advanced towards the LZ.


"Hammer Lead, to all units, lets roll out." The tanks would move forward, and then the infantry crammed into the Blackwell industry light vehicles would follow on even though they were faster.
--
A spider skidded out, the quadruped was the first of the new arrivals followed by its heavier friends with Hanzo pivoting to face an Ostroc and leaving him the apparent lance leader a seventy five ton Orion.


The first few shots went wide. The rounds pummeled a brownstone behind him, as the other command 'mech came forward. The pirates were starting to respond to their intervention. They realized that if they didn't facilitate a breakout... or otherwise reassert control of the situation they'd lose momentum... losing momentum in a fight meant being at risk to a coordinated counter offensive against superior numbers...


... and probably their own DropShips would likely try to leave without them, saving their own hide rather than risk being captured by arriving forces.


The new arrivals were in more Star League era mechs. He didn't recognize the exact model of Orion, the Machine's data code was scrambled... other than the asshole piloting it had added more SRMs at some point, and pulled the LRM launcher to compensate.... and apparently had the arm cannon reinforced so that he was comfortable throwing a punch with it.

The Enemy Machine waded over the corner its arm gun checking the shoulder of his own mech.


There was a stream of profanity over the channel as the Orion opened up... though he was nearly drowned out by the roar of fusion engines overhead.


The few dozen ASF had moved off, to turn and burn away from the Aurigan Reach's capital city of Cordia City. They were low enough that mech avionics could read the underside of their wings featuring either a symmetrical starburst roundel in gray and white or with an asymmetrical starburst with crossed sabers. The descending dropships, the final wave coming with medical relief and additional personnel, mirrored the divide with gray and green paint schemes.

The Marauder's Ferro fibrous was coated in a fine sheen of plaster dust, and ash, but outside of some minor SRM contacts his systems returned positive system checks. Gene wasn't particularly worried, but he had taken note that the Aurigans seemed to have a lot of Mechs and Vehicles for a minor Periphery kingdom... unless of course that was because they were all defending the capital... which might have explained the defenses.

He resisted the urge to simply mute the particularly swear happy pirate captain currently cursing up a storm to anyone who was listening to the open channel. And it was an open channel, it may as well have been planet wide even anyone with even the most basic receiver system could probably pick up the snarling bastard swearing... but the pirate was also backed into a corner.


The Orion's hoppers must have cycled as its dual srm launchers at this range connecting, and sending alarm notifications through his system, but on the other hand the other seventy five tonner was close enough to touch. The ER PPC in his right gauntlet bloomed severing power cables and feed systems for the torso pin feeding two missile launchers. It didn't cook the ammo bins off but the launchers abruptly clicked as the hoppers failed to cycle for the third time.


For the Orion's driver it didn't matter his right arm had already been coming across as a mech scale haymaker to punctuate his diatribe over the line.


His regimental data feed knew better than to distract him while his machine was in melee but he was still cognizant of the data update.


The Orion attempt to connect as his Marauder's close range weapons came on line clusters of medium lasers opening into vulnerabilities in the other machine's exposed torso armor. Tristian's overhaul of the Marauder he had woken up with on Aquagea, his black horse finished the job dumping its SRM2s into the opposing machine's VLAR 300.

There was an abrupt stall as time lapsed enough for the fusion engine to go into emergency shut down, and power failed to the motive system. One leg locked, and the machine tilted, and crashed down bathing the street in plaster, and concrete dust.


The damage to the Ferro Fibrous front glacis of his torso wouldn't just buff out... but they had replacement panels... it would just mean down time. He pivoted the machine around coming to swing his left PPC onto the downed Spider first, and then the Ostroc, he didn't end up needing to note the heat warning as a gauss slug from Bahar punched sideways through the mech's torso causing the formerly royal machine to topple sideways.

 

[Ryven Razgriz]

You know I wouldn't be surprised if they did have a lot more than advertised... if this was during or after the HBS game that is, I mean take into account just how much fucking metal your mercenary company downed and salvaged throughout the Aurigan Civil War and yeah, that is a whole lot of hardware, the kind normally seen in House Armies even if not the same quality.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Found a typo. It's Furys not Furies.

Those are two very very different things

 

[Sogen]

Wow, so that pirate Orion is the first to actually tag Gene with more than a stray shot from an LRM volley.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Wow, so that pirate Orion is the first to actually tag Gene with more than a stray shot from an LRM volley.

Click to shrink...

Short range missiles, and this generally how you fight PMs get close and SRM for days

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 7​

He had just finished acknowledging the damage reports projected by the command battlemech's internal diagnostics, when a fresh round of alerts populated. Regimental comms flared another warning about Fusion signatures. This time a little more insistent this time as the notifications weren't being muted by combat.

At least one Union was trying to make a break for it, and there were rumblings from some of the other pirate drop ships that suggested they were about to try to rabbit with or without their ground personnel and with or without whatever booty they had come for. Some, was not all there were still pirates making attacks on the locals... and they were still too organized for his liking.

"Commander," Dante remarked from orbit, piping in a feed between two command mechs... one theirs one the pirates as the two mech jocks argued... well argued was... maybe not the correct term...

He took a breath, enshrined inside of his seventy five ton marauder as one of the other popsicles in the unit apparently had had enough and started over the line and was in a tirade with one of the pirates still coordinating the advance into Cordia city. They didn't need this.

He hit a switch on the upper console initiating a broadcast override. Regimental Command systems linked into the other command mechs on the ground, including also the offloaded Fury tanks. The holographic map began to change as data flowed into Star League era battle network systems ground side as well as in orbit.


The enemy mech's pilot kept cursing up a storm.

There was a supersonic boom, and then a second as wing of eighty plus ton Rapier in slate gray colors turned back into a supersonic attack run barreling down on the transmitting, enemy, mech's coordinates, and going for guns. Guided in by a live transmission and carefully measured trace by dozens of command units multiple assault auto cannon rounds and PPCs blasted the already damaged BattleMaster into little more than a smoking crater and scrap on a hillside overlooking the star port.

The FedSun natives banked high and wobbled their wings as the computer updated their ammo situation and they jetted off again. He looked at the data feed that pegged the destroyed BattleMaster as a -1C... just another question they didn't have answers to.

A brian cache shouldn't have had access to the kind of, the volume of specific machines that Black Jack had demonstrated... the only plausible explanation would have been he had found a castle brian that had been fully stocked...

It wasn't impossible that such existed, not even impossible in the periphery but if he had found one in the periphery why wouldn't he have just used it as his permanent lair, why had he come all the way around the reach of known space from Lyran, the Combine, Davion, the Concordant and here, why had he also sent a probe at Luxen? It didn't make sense.

A handshake signaled, and Yusuf's image appeared in a hologram, "Commander, I have informed the local ComStar adept that the Precentor New Avalon sends his regards, and also what we know of the situation on Aea. I have also begun the process of confirming our initial list of the pirates we suspect managed to successfully flee, however that is also why I'm calling."

An image appeared. A jumpship with a familiar icon... one he hadn't seen recently, but still one he was unlikely to forget. A blue shark breaching maw open. "We have identified with some certainty the number of pirates involved and can say with certainty that Black Jack must be collaborating with the Tortuga dominions either as member of the pirate kingdom or at least as an associate or ally."

Gene nodded slowly, wondering if the Tortugas had willingly decided to use Rim World iconography... but then remembered their current leader was some one who had declared herself 'Dame murderess extraordinaire' so maybe it was a style choice for fear points.

Yusuf threw in a couple of orbital telemetry pictures of House Arano's seat complete with enhanced images of the defunct surface to orbital emplacements that had been destroyed during the fallout of New Vandenburg... which was certainly a relief that such installations weren't around. "Is there anything else?"

"I am afraid not." Then it was time to meet the locals. "... I will have support personnel ready to render repairs as quickly as possible, should I prepare your other Marauder, or the Devastator as a precaution?"
--
Ninety minutes later he had changed machines, and advanced into the defensive cordon of the old fortress.

Even a dozen parked mechs the rotunda had plenty of space more as if they expected an entire battalion of mechs to watch the local theater put on Othello, or maybe something by Garibaldi. Then again... he supposed that even it hadn't been intended the surrounding adopted well to the pomp and ceremony of noble houses that depend far more on their battlemechs than the great houses of the Inner sphere.


The white Marauder crouched hull down in front of the massive edifice of an era long gone. It was fine but still had managed to be covered in the grime of war, but at least it was free of the orbital drop, of buildings burning and blown up around the machine, and the sandblasting from SRMs that had gotten close... the black was going to be in the shop for at least a week not counting other jobs as they ran the diagnostics to make sure nothing was messed up internally.


Gene watched the awkward mingling of personnel.


The most obvious standouts were the mechwarriors. The Aurigan tankers wore coveralls in the style of SLDF units assigned to the Periphery command c.2765 for a temperate climate as the coalition capital was. They were obvious modern manufacture markets, but any MRB shop carried close enough all one needed to do was add the appropriate local patches, and it was a match. The infantry wore temperate SLDF style uniforms of recent manufacture as well. The specific camo pattern was different than their own but didn't raise really any eyebrows.

The Mechwarriors though. It was emblematic of feudal trappings especially the ones not wearing neural helmets. There was a clear pronouncement of whose mechwarriors were whose. The local houses had their own colors, their own heraldry, and that heraldry was reflected in the Aurgian leadership present.


He looked at the deer and the sea horse, and moved on to other matters. "Bahar?"


"I'm sorry I didn't spend any amount of time in the reach last time." She paused to consider the matter, "Pasha visited House Karosas for trade, but Coromdir V and VI are ruled by Houses Espinosa, and Arano respectively."


The details fell into place, "I'm assuming that's the Ibex and Seahorses then." He remarked, a Highland jogged up, saluted and reported that the badgers and bandits and their dismounts were dug in to shelter out against any remaining hold overs. "The last thing we need to deal with is for the Navy to their bit." But the air wing was out in force, and the Azami had managed to sneak up on the pirates to deploy a Star League era security over ride to the jump ship computers before pumping not quite pajama clad ninjas into the ships to deal with the problem of the pirates aboard... "Any reason to think they might not appreciate us sticking around for a few weeks?" Or however long it took for the Azami to pick through the JumpShips they had boarded... which was something he needed to address, there were too many Azami elders to keep track of... not with as many families crammed into ships fleeing the combine.


There was a snarl from the airspace above them as cargo DropShips came down. "The engineers, and technical personnel." And the recovery vehicles, where they could start putting out fires, and clearing debris so that the Bexar's medical personnel could start expanding the field hospital apparatus.


The Azami had repainted some of their Jenner 7A and Locusts back into SLDF Regular temperate camo. A lance of the light mechs were coming from a sector patrol, and heavily outweighed by the Bardiche contingent moving in the opposite direction.


A man in his early fifties wearing a red pilot suit... House Arano's colors gene surmised, "Are you in charge here?" He called out.


"I'm Colonel Gene Shepherd, I'm commanding the RCT." A designation that been agreed on mostly to explain their inflated size with the number of Azami in the ranks and... the plethora of Star League mechs and tanks.


"Look a little heavy to be the Eridani Light Horse," and probably too young went without saying, but" I'm Raju Montgomery Captain Aurigan Royal Guard." Didn't voice the latter... after the '1st​ regiment' the core of the RCT was functionally a Dragoon Mech regiment in its current composition, especially in the standards of the modern day... though the Azami troops landing were more in line with lighter forces ala the Deneb or the 3rd​ RCT. "What brings you to our little slice of the periphery friend?"


"Security coverage for the exodite fleet at the jump point, and we have a standing offer from the Precentor New Avalon on hunting Black Jack McGirk's pirates where we find them." He replied.

 

[Bofors40mm]

To clarify the raiper is 85 tons not 80.
Also how did any pirates get past that ASF swarm?

 

[Imperator Pax]

To clarify the raiper is 85 tons not 80

Click to shrink...

yes, I changed it to eighty plus ... specifying they were their canonical weight just looked weird it sitll doesn't not look weird, but I run into the same issue when referring to the abrams I might change it again

 

[Bofors40mm]

So...I suspect most of the escaping pirates died to that ASF swarm right?
Or were they too busy providing CAS/escorting in the dropships

 

[Imperator Pax]

So...I suspect most of the escaping pirates died to that ASF swarm right?
Or were they too busy providing CAS/escorting in the dropships

Click to shrink...

Anyone trying to lift off, got blitz by Star League Air. Hedwig and Braunfelds are M3 Drones they kill shit gud once anything makes its to orbit. It also saves me the trouble of having to write air scenes

 

[georgiaboy1966]

Anyone trying to lift off, got blitz by Star League Air. Hedwig and Braunfelds are M3 Drones they kill shit gud once anything makes its to orbit. It also saves me the trouble of having to write air scenes

Click to shrink...

For safety reasons, anything that can lift off from ground should be allowed to reach orbit so when You have their engines shut down or shot out, then they will not crash back into the planet.

 

[georgiaboy1966]

Since the Jump ships that brought the pirates are part of the attack, they all should be confiscated and part of them given to the Aurigans.

 

[Imperator Pax]

For safety reasons, anything that can lift off from ground should be allowed to reach orbit so when You have their engines shut down or shot out, then they will not crash back into the planet.

Click to shrink...

P1: "Hell yeah we made it to orbit, huh we're being hailed."

P2: "Who the fuck is talking to us."

"This is the THS Braunfelds pursuant to Article 103 of the Star League Memorandum on State, and Collective Security governing the Inner Sphere and Territorial States you are under arrest on charges of piracy, power down your fusion Drive and stand too to be boarded..."

P2: "Fuck You!"

"...Non compliance will result in being fired upon."

Gauss Rifles.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Any captured drop or jump ships from this battle?

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

P1: "Hell yeah we made it to orbit, huh we're being hailed."

P2: "Who the fuck is talking to us."

"This is the THS Braunfelds pursuant to Article 103 of the Star League Memorandum on State, and Collective Security governing the Inner Sphere and Territorial States you are under arrest on charges of piracy, power down your fusion Drive and stand too to be boarded..."

P2: "Fuck You!"

"...Non compliance will result in being fired upon."

Gauss Rifles.

Click to shrink...

Arguing with any type of naval firepower, space bound or not, is grounds for immediate removal of life privilege's. That much stupid simply cannot be allowed to exist.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Any captured drop or jump ships from this battle?

Click to shrink...

Yes we will get to that

 

[Bofors40mm]

Yes we will get to that

Click to shrink...

Well that's going to be what the the Aranos want the most by far but are the thing they have the least legal claim to try to claim as salvage.

 

[Arimai]

Any captured drop or jump ships from this battle?

Click to shrink...

All of them. The Exodite Fleet jumped right on top of them

 

[Andrew1993]

As they say in battletech, possession is 9/10s of the law, aurigians might get a quarter if theyr lucky and gene is generous

 

[Bofors40mm]

As they say in battletech, possession is 9/10s of the law, aurigians might get a quarter if theyr lucky and gene is generous

Click to shrink...

The ground salvage is where things will probably get spicy

 

[SGlenn]

I've just started reading this and I'm wondering what's the name of his group. I might have lost is but the never say it by name or anything.

 

[Imperator Pax]

I've just started reading this and I'm wondering what's the name of his group. I might have lost is but the never say it by name or anything.

Click to shrink...

Shepherd's Company, it comes up from time to time but admin stuff requiring it is so infrequent its easy to miss when its mentioned

 

[Bofors40mm]

Shepherd's Company, it comes up from time to time but admin stuff requiring it is so infrequent its easy to miss when its mentioned

Click to shrink...

Not the best name for a merc unit all things considered.

Then again so long as it's a scary and effective merc unit you could probably get away with almost anything as a unit name in BT