...there was Classic Battletech,
Hoi,
For some time I've had a Samsung Galaxy 2 tablet to use at work. Now as it goes with these things, I am allowed to take it home as well. For quite some time I have not seen the use of these far-too- small-for-my-fingers doodahs apart from the two things I need them for at work. Recently I have downloaded a whole load of Battletech novels and use the tablet as an e-reader. Boy has thát been fun!
That reminded me about the fact that I wrote some battletech batreps a while ago in the form of a background story and thought I'd put it up here just for the fun of it.
So here we go:
Carnagy Hospital
Town of Geraldton, Karomer
Melissia theatre
Lyran Alliance
2 September 3067
Star
Captain Ilse was content, her operation was going as planned. Her binary of
Clan Diamond Shark battlemechs had been given the task of evacuating 2 MASH
units laden with downed and wounded mech pilots and a bank of genetic material
stored in a specially converted Mobile HQ vehicle. At the moment the vehicles
were still empty and coming in from the South towards the Hospital to load
their cargo and sneak away to the CDS LZ’s further North-East. The Star Captain
had deployed her Beta Star in the town itself to protect the hospital and had
kept her own Alpha Star back in the vale North of the city to provide a mobile
reserve where needed.
The area
had been reasonably quiet after the initial fighting between the Lyran Alliance
and Clan Jade Falcon had moved on further to the Western half of this continent
of Karomer. Nevertheless some activity of Jade Falcon forces had been picked up
by orbital satellites and therefore Ilse kept an eye on her radar screen. While
the Star Commander of Beta Star was in the process of relaying his statrep her
vigilance paid off as she noticed 5 bleeping points on the radar screen from
the corner of her eye. “Hold that Star Commander! Check your radar scans and
tell me what you see.” She barked at her subordinate. “Multiple targets
incoming from the South Star Captain” the man answered. “IFF identifies them as
a Star of Jade Falcons. You want my star to intercept quaff?” Ilse checked the screen
again and toggled to a wider area scan to see whether there were more bogeys
inbound but one star it appeared to remain. “Aff Star Commander keep them away
from our objective.” She wanted to add something but a blinking light on her
comms array caught her attention there was a call coming in over the open
frequency, probably the Falcon Commander’s batchall.
“This is Star Commander Orpheus of Alpha Beak
1, Iota Cluster of Clan Jade Falcon; I hereby challenge the Commander of the
Clan Diamond Shark Binary for a Trial of Possession concerning the Genetic
Material you are about to transport. State with what forces you are willing to
defend.” It took
Star Captain Ilse a while to identify from which mech the batchall was coming
and great was her surprise when she learned it was from a hellfire second line
mech in the point of the Jade Falcon formation. “This is Star Captain Ilse of
Alpha Star of Prime Binary of the 39th Strike Cluster. If Clan Jade
Falcon feels it can defeat our valiant forces with just one star and a
commander in a second line mech I do not feel bound by honour to do any
bidding. You insult our prowess so you can feel the full force of our wrath or
crawl back in the patchy nest you fell out off! We do not feel bound by this
challenge at all! Therefore we do not recognise this Trial of Possession you
call it.” The line remained silent for a few more seconds then the enemy
commander’s voice sounded wearily, almost annoyed over the link “Very well Star
Captain, you are not the first one to deny the force of the Hellfire mech and be fooled by the fact
that it is not the chassis that makes a fighter great but the warrior’s
capabilities. We will attack with all our available forces. Bargained bad and
done.”
“Star Commander Orpheus to Alpha Beak 1:
engage!” Orpheus throttled his mech into a running gait and scanned for his
first viable target of the day. An enemy
Gargoyle was picked up by the IFF and he moved his reticule over the
mech until it gained a target lock and he fired off a salvo of LRM’s. One of
the flights flew widely over the humanoid mech but the other two flights
peppered the mech’s surface all over shredding armour where they hit but doing
no real serious damage, around him his Star engaged the enemy with the fury he
knew would make this battle a Jade Falcon victory. His plan was simple: he and
his Star would draw away the Diamond Shark force defending the city and
hospital while Alpha Talon 2 would make a combat drop right in the middle of
the town in order to destroy the hospital and capture the transports. The
remaining Diamond Shark Star would hopefully be too far away to intercept Alpha
Talon 2 before the job was done but it remained a bit of gamble, one he was
willing to take. Alpha Talon was mostly made up of unblooded warriors that
badly needed to gain some experience if they were to prove useful in the next
faze of the Clan Invasion of the Lyran Alliance. His objectives were threefold:
destroy the hospital and deny it’s facilities to either the Lyrans and the
Diamond Sharks, capture the genetic material for the Falcon breeding programs and
destroy as much of the enemy force, he was sure he would succeed in accomplishing
this.
Orpheus split his force in two and started
towards the city’s outskirts. His radar showed that the division of his star
had drawn the Sharks into splitting up as well and coming for him rather then
stay in the vicinity of the Hospital compound. If he could hold them here long
enough for Alpha Talon to reach their target his victory would be almost a
foregone thing. Apart from the enemy Gargoyle , who had clearly been deployed
as outpost, the IFF showed a Cauldron Born, Stormcrow, Summoner and a Phantom
comprising the enemy star; a decent mix of armour and firepower. The fight now
really began and the skies were lit up by the green and red of lasers and
black smoke, made by the impact of missiles being swapped by both sides. While
he had ordered his Star to honour Clan tradition and fight one on one, Star
Commander Orpheus noticed that the enemy Star Commander had no such scruples: the
Gargoyle, Cauldron Born and Stormcrow all targeted his Hellfire with almost
their full arsenal and if it hadn’t been for the terrain in which he found some
cover he would have faced a lot of damage this early in the battle. “Star
Commander Tyne for Star Commander Orpheus, Alpha Talon 2 is on target and will
commence combat drop in 3 from now.” The transmission snapped Orpheus from the
battle raging around him and he cleared his throat to answer “Aff Star
Commander. We have the enemy star pinned down in the town’s outskirts make the
drop and carry the day in honour of the Falcon!” With that he poured another
salvo of his LRM’s into the Gargoyle followed up by his Heavy Large Laser and a
shot from his Heavy Medium Laser destroying most of his adversaries left arm.
Star
Captain Ilse watched from the cockpit of her Timberwolf as the Jade Falcon star
engaged her Beta Star among the buildings of the outskirts away from the
hospital. The transports were now at the hospital and feverishly loading the
wounded and genetic material before the Falcons could break through. Then
another beeping from her radar screen attracted Ilse’s attention. “No this
cannot be!” she exclaimed within the confines of her cockpit. The screen showed
what clearly was another Jade Falcon star making a combat drop right in the
middle of the town and very near the hospital she was ordered to protect! “Star
Commander Ilse to Alpha Star: make speed for the town centre and engage the new
enemy star.” Several affs confirmed her troopers readiness to engage the enemy
and forward her forces surged, into the very thing she was bred for: BATTLE! Meanwhile the
combat drop wasn’t wholly going right for the Falcons, one Timberwolf dropping
from the dropship clearly had a jump jet failure, as the pilot spiralled down
and hit a Mad Dog from the first Falcon star entering the city. Both mechs
disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke only to appear mostly undamaged form
their abrupt contact minutes later. A Falcon Ice Ferret landed on top of a
building close to the hospital which was clearly not the LZ it had intended to
land on but the pilot seemed not to much affected with his bad luck and
commenced firing on the hospital right away.
Two of the
transports had meanwhile loaded up and departed from the hospital compound and
Ilse sent a Stormcrow and Summoner from her star to escort them from the city
safely. Her IFF now relayed the chassis of the new inbound Falcons and revealed
there to be a Warhawk, Summoner, Timberwolf, Ice Ferret and a Blood Asp, the
latter clearly salvage from a battle with Clan Blood Spirit in earlier battles.
Because Beta Star had opened up a free-for-all by concentrating on the enemy
Star Commander, the town centre soon changed into a rubble strewn battlefield, filled
with energy discharges and other ordnance flying around. Severall of Beta
Star’s mechs had found their way back to the Hospital and engaged the dropped
enemy mechs in order to give the last MASH unit time to get away from the
hospital, which was taking serious damage from the Falcon shooting. One Falcon
Mad Dog, with just one arm left, targeted it’s solely surviving weapon (a gauss
rifle) at the hospital before being destroyed by two Beta Star mechs.
The last
transport sped away due North with screaming tires as the escorting Summoner and
Stormcrow together with Beta Star mechs ganged up on an enemy Warhawk. Star
Captain Ilse cursed Beta Commander for opening up the free-for-all but she
couldn’t help that now. Luckily she had most of the second Falcon star bunched
up in the town unable to follow the transports while the first Falcon star
commanded by this Star Commander Orpheus was still tied up in the outskirts.
Together with a Huntsmen and a mad Dog of Alpha Star she made to cut the latter
off. Before she entered the town’s Northern outskirts however, she encountered
the very enemy she was hunting on the rolling fields enclosing Geraldton. An
enemy Timberwolf and Black Lanner blocked her way. This fight was turning very
nasty indeed!
This was
not going according to plan, Star Commander Orpheus thought. Alpha Talon’s drop
had been less then easy; while all mechs had landed more or less on location
some had minor damage as a result of an unlucky collision. He had lost only a
Mad Dog and it’s pilot had ejected safely after tying up two of the enemy
mechs. Orpheus had noticed the enemy Star Captain entering the fight dividing
her force, her plan was obvious to him. She had sent one part of her star to
support the force fighting to defend the transports and hospital and had come
with her remaining forces to cut him and his star off from the fighting. He
switched to his star’s frequency. “Star Commander Orpheus to Mechwarriors Grace
and Deirdre, I need you to hold those incoming Sharks up as long as possible.
Do whatever it takes to keep them from cutting us off from Alpha Talon,
meanwhile I will try to link up understood quaff?” the replies followed
immediately “Aff commander, Mechwarrior
Deirdre here, I will engage the enemy
Commander in a duel, this will tie her up smartly quaff?” Orpheus smiled to
himself, while the Sharks had shamelessly opened the free-for-all they would
not deny a direct challenge and that would indeed keep them from being useful
to their forces in the town. “Aff Deirdre good thinking! Mechwarrior Grace
engage the enemy Huntsman in a duel too. May the Falcon guide your aim! Make
Aidan Pryde proud of you!” both women answered with a steady ‘seyla’ and headed
out towards the enemy and their duels.
Orpheus was
meanwhile entering the town and the site of carnage. “Star Commander Tyne, what
is your status?” he asked “My star is
doing well in holding off the enemy but the transports are heading off due
North. Shall I pursue?” Orpheus checked his screen “Neg Star
Commander you are too far away. Sent in your faster mechs. Part of Alpha Beak
has engaged the enemy escort force in duels and they may also be able to get to
the transports after ending their trials. Tie down those enemy mechs near you
and destroy the hospital.” No reply came back and as Orpheus entered the
hospital compound he knew why; Tyne’s Warhawk
had been surrounded by enemy mechs and had been damaged badly a PPC shot taking
out most of his comm gear. Four enemy mechs focussed on the Warhawk and Orpheus
had to shield his eyes when the Warhawk’s armour finally buckled under the
attacks and blew apart. Shortly before the engine shielding was breached and
the fusion reactor blew up the Warhawk’s cockpit was blasted free from the
dying machine and sent Star Commander Tyne flying beyond the battle’s confines.
“Freebirth!” Orpheus cursed, this was not at all what he had hoped for. In a
rage he targeted the back armour of the Shark Cauldron Born that had helped
destroy the Warhawk and in an orgy of laser and LRM fire he blew the mech to
smithereens it’s pilot escaping like Tyne had
done. ‘You will be scrubbing my mech’s legs as a bondsman soon” Orpheus greeted
the pilot as his chute opened up and the man disappeared behind some factory
buildings. His tactical feeds showed that his force was slowly pushing the
diamond Sharks North and out of the town. Just then the hospital collapsed in a
giant dust cloud and with a sound like thunder reverberating round his cockpit.
“Star Captain, the hospital is down! Do you
want us to remain here and destroy the Falcons or retreat with the transports
quineg?” Star
Captain Ilse had no time for her subordinate’s indecisiveness she was facing an
enemy Timberwolf in a direct duel. The Falcon mechwarrior had arrogantly challenged her and a Falcon Black
Lanner pilot had equally arrogantly challenged the Huntsman pilot that was
accompanying her. While Beta Commander’s dishonour might be putting a smut on
the victory the Sharks would surely claim here, Ilse would not stoop so low and
would keep herself up to the Clan tradition of honourable combat. The duels
were really evenly matched and this irked her beyond annoyance. The incoming
messages from the Beta Star’s commander didn’t make her any happier as well. “Star Captain Ilse! I have lost more then
half my force and the hospital is down we cannot hold this city any more! We
will retreat!” Ilse tried to control her anger and keep her cool. A burst of
her heavy lasers destroyed the Falcon’s Gauss rifle and put the mech out of
balance, while the Falcon Pilot tried to steady her mech Ilse contacted Beta
Commander “Neg Star Commander, you will not retreat! What about the transports
are the transports safe?” the reply was immediate “Aff Captain! They are en route to the Silver Fin. I will escort them
there.” Ilse was glad that Beta
Commander had regained his composure and was thinking clearly again, she would
have to face this man in a circle of equals for his behaviour here though, since
it reflected badly on her command and the way she had handled this battle. As
Beta Star was down to two heavily damaged mechs they could do no good here
anyway and they would indeed be of more use escorting the transports to the
Silver Fin. The Silver Fin was the dropship waiting to carry her task force back
to the Diamond Shark base of operations in the Melissia Theatre. “Very well
Star Commander, Star Captain Ilse over and out!”
Star
Commander Orpheus’comms crackled and the voice of Mechwarrior Deirdre came over
the link “Star Commander the transports
are leaving our reach do you want me to break the duel and kill them quaff?”
Orpheus took the tactical display into consideration and answered her “Neg
Deirdre. The transports are too far beyond our reach but we have destroyed the
hospital and most of the Diamond Sharks Beta Star. We should now make sure we
gain our secondary target of destroying the enemy force wholesale.” Without
listening to her reaction Orpheus switched comms to the channel Alpha Talon was
using. “Star Commander Orpheus to Alpha Talon, destroy as many enemy mechs as
possible. Try to drive them to my position at nav point gamma.” Most of Alpha
Talon’s pilots acknowledged his order and soon he had formed part of his binary
up in a firing line to receive the Diamond Sharks that the remainder of his
force was driving before them. Now let us end this little brawl, Orpheus mused. “Mechwarrior
Deirdre break your duel and target the Stormcrow coming right on your 3
o’clock. Mechwarriors Yesukai and Toke target that Stormcrow as well.
Mechwarrior Grace you will remain in duel with the Huntsman. The rest of you
target the enemy Summoner with me! We will end this stain on Karomer here
forever!” While most of the pilots confirmed his commands grimly, mechwarrior
Grace contacted him on a closed channel “Star
Commander this is not a very honourable way to deal with these Diamond Sharks
Quineg?” Orpheus understood her reaction but had his answer ready “and how
would you call the opening moves of this battle made by the Diamond Sharks then,
mechwarrior Grace? Would you call targeting an enemy commander with 3 mechs at
once honourable?” Her answer came while Orpheus was strafing the Shark
Summoner with his heavy large laser and burning off tons of armour of the mechs right leg making the Summoner
loose balance and topple over on it’s front. “Neg commander you are right of course. I will comply” Orpheus
smiled yet again…
Star
Captain Ilse could not find any curse to shoot at the Falcons who had now
cowardly ganged up on her remaining forces and had goaded two of her Star’s
mechs to run the gauntlet in order to get to her position. She opened up the link to her binary’s general frequency
“Star Captain Ilse to all Clan Diamond Shark Forces, we have safe guarded the
transports and kept the Falcons from gaining the genetic material. They now
cowardly broke tradition and so I see now shame in making a tactical withdrawal
to the Silver Fin. Alpha Star Disengage!” Immediately after sending the order
she opened the open channel “Clan Jade Falcon Forces, this is Star Captain Ilse;
you have shamed yourselves by breaching the sanctity of a duel between two clan
warriors we do not recognise you as an honourable enemy as a result. While we leave
you the field you can consider yourselves on the loosing side of this Trial of
Possession! May the Great Kerensky forgive your sins.”
Star
Captain Ilse’s message amused Orpheus he switched open the channel to riposte:
“This is Star Commander Orpheus, you may think of us of loosing this Trial but
let us sum up the facts: you have succeeded in getting your transports away but
in the process you have lost half your force, the hospital and you are leaving
the field in our hands. Our objective was to destroy the hospital which we did,
destroy your force which we did also accomplish and to gain genetic material
which in a way we also did since we captured four of your warriors as bondsmen.
Rest assured that in good time their genetic material will be enhanced by our
techs for the benefit of our breeding
program. On the face of honour: you did not recognise our honour from the start
of this engagement Star Captain Ilse, so why should I care for your deluded
sense of what Honour is anyway!?” he decided to end his taunt with a quote from
the Remembrance:
“And battle
though you surely will;
Your, defeat is never much in doubt
However strong your resistance, still
You will die hearing our victorious shout!”
Battle Cruiser “The
Falcon’s Cry”
In Orbit, Karomer
Melissia theatre
Lyran Alliance
30 September 3067
“Excuse me
Star Colonel?” Star Colonel Sly Hazen turned from his view of the planet of
Karomer through the bridge's aft viewing port. “What is it Captain?” The captain
of the Falcon’s Cry handed him a data slide with a frown on his face “The first
reports of the fighting from the eastern continent sir. It took longer as usual,
due to the destruction of the Geraldton HPG facility. We had to reroute all
messages via comm. satellites.” Without looking at the captain the Star Colonel
accessed the data slide, things were hanging in the balance. The invasion of
Karomer; and indeed of the Lyran
Alliance was all part of Kahn Pryde’s grand scheme of rebuilding the Jade
Falcon forces to a pre Refusal War footage. The fighting on the invaded planets
served to sharpen the green troops’ beaks and talons. Thát part was going
well…the part of actually holding on to conquered territory was a different
matter altogether. The backwater planet of Karomer had proved to be garrisoned
by some hardened IS units amongst which were some Mercenaries that were giving
Hazen’s forces a bloody nose.
Just a
couple of weeks ago a lance of assault mechs had ambled straight through the
frontlines and into a star of Second Line mechs and driven those to flight.
Hardline Falcon officers would frown on such display of shame but the Refusal
War had changed much and Hazen shared his Kahn‘s views on how to rebuilt the
Falcon’s strength. Besides what could you expect from Freebirth second liners?
Fact was he needed the pilots and mechs. No reinforcements could be expected to
be sent to him and the deadline for leaving Karomer was drawing near, yet he had
to hold on until the Jade Falcon Forces that had penetrated further into Lyran
space had retreated past his position. Hazen and his Galaxy functioned as the
backdoor back to the Falcon’s OZ.
The data
slide proved to be the report of Star Commander Tyne, commander of Alpha Talon
2, the unit tasked with defending the Geraldton HPG station. Clearly they
failed; they had lost 3 mechs (all pilots ejected safely and made their way
back to Falcon lines) and had downed 3 enemy mechs but the interesting part of
the report was that the enemy lance contained a, previously unknown, chassis. The
enemy’s markings had shown them to be from the mercenary unit identified as the
Devonshire Devils, the chassis seemed to be prototypes of some sort. One
Devonshire Mech had been left standing on the field awaiting the extraction of
his downed comrades and the removal of the experimental designs by salvage and
S&R teams. Alpha Talon’s pilots had been rescued by Mechwarrior Suzie in
her Stormcrow who, due to loosing all her weapons in the fight, had to quite
the field early and had appropriated a transport with which she could pick up
her star mates. After seeing their mechs destroyed. Special mention was due to
Star Commander Tyne for killing two enemy mechs and to Mechwarrior Yesukai who
jumped his Summoner on top of an Argus killing the mech, and almost blasting
the remaining Awesome variant to bits getting his chassis destroyed from under
him. Hazen hoped to get hold of some of these prototypes if they crossed his
path again in the future. Word was that Clan Diamond Shark had been leaking
Clan tech to the IS and he hoped to prove their betrayal by capturing mechs
equipped with that Clan tech. Maybe these Devonshire Devils were in on the
Diamond Shark deal…
Cheers Sander
Listening to: "Industrial Silence" by Madrugada
For 2013 I would like to do more Army Showcases. Since I have recently photographed most of my, still unfinished, Classic Battletech armies I thought I'd put them up.
