MechWarrior-Fur Chapter 3
"Four, watch that right flank! Incoming APCs!"
"I need assistance! Suns are hitting us hard, left side. I've got a squad of Type 2s plus light armor trying to break through!"
"Eight and nine, concentrate your fire on those landing craft! Their getting too many guys on the beach."
"This is Defense Central to all Commanders. We have incoming bombers on radar. Watch the skies, they're coming in hot".
"This is Alpha Command. The Suns are breaking through, we can't hold them! We're falling back to Position Two and need assistance".
"Alpha Command this is Defense Central, that's a negative. You must hold them there".
"They're breaching our lines! We can't hold them! We can't h-", static.
"Alpha Command come in", silence. "Defense Central to all Commanders, we've lost Alpha. Intensify your fire, no other lines must break".
"This is Charlie Command, we've got those bombers hitting us hard, request fighter support immediately!"
"Negative Charlie, all fighter support is active. You'll have to make due".
"This Eagle Leader, there's too many up here! Their birds are tearing us apart. Where are they all coming from?!"
"Bravo we need you to send an attack force to Alpha. Don't let them establish a safe zone for their troops."
"Negative Defense Central, I can't spare any men. We're in the same boat over here".
"Bravo Command that's a direct order, comply!"
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It was chaos. No one could have believed it possible for the Suns to have amassed such an invasion force. Tens of thousands of troops, light and heavy armor support and a dozen Assault Echelons of Mech Suits. It didn't seem possible, unless they had been betrayed. There were many neutral nations with manufacturing capabilities that could have joined the fight, whether willingly or not. Simon alone had racked up at least seven mech kills and the gods only knew how many support vehicles and troop kills he'd made. They kept coming. For every man they dropped it seemed like two took his place.
He was in his zone. Every shot he made hit the spot he wanted. His mech had been refit to take on landing craft and mechs, his mortar double charged and two additional gauss cannons had been applied at the expense of his auto-cannons. He was running low on ammo though, and his heat sinks were near the limit. Problem was were the Sun bombers weren't letting them get their field bases in positions so that they could reload. It was the same for the rest of Dragoon Echelon. The battle had been going on for several hours and the losses were mounting. Their Commander was one of those losses, his generator taking several solid hit and overloading. The only good that came out of that was that he had been in the thick of it, and his reactor going critical had taken out two Sun Type 1 mechs and a few tanks. Other losses included Dragoons 5, 9, and 10, along with a dozen medium tanks. They'd lost their artillery support as well, whether they had been hit by bombers or ran out of shells, no one knew. They had been firing since the first craft had been sighted. But Simon kept on fighting. He knew that there was a chance he'd have to charge the enemy lines and go critical like the Commander. If he ran out of ammo and couldn't get a refit, he had no other option.
"Dragoon Leader do you copy, this is Delta Command".
"Dragoon Leader here".
"Field base is up and operational. The bombers finished their passes. Return to re-arm and re-sink".
He sighed in relief, "Copy that, Lead out". He clicked his mic to his squad channel, "This is Dragoon Leader. Our field base is up is running. Dragoons 2, 3, and 4, take first re-arm, we'll cover you".
He heard three clicks and watched as they began to pull back to the base. Even though they'd be back shortly, temporarily losing them was going to be costly.
"Everyone else, pick up the fire. Dragoons 6, 7 and 8, you guys are next. As soon as the others are back head out. 11, you and I are headed back last. Solid copy?"
He heard multiple clicks to confirm and sighed in relief. He flipped his comm unit back to Delta Command. "Command this is Dragoon Leader. What's the status on our artillery and possible air support".
"Dragoon Leader this Delta Command, one moment", there was a silence on the comm link for a short time before, "This is Delta Command. Supply lines have begun to make it through. Artillery is on it's way, begin designating fire zones for Fire Teams 1 and 2, other teams are being allocated to hitting Alpha and Charlie."
"Solid copy, what about air support?"
"Stand by Dragoon Leader".
Simon clicked his mic off, "Fucking Command".
"This is Delta Command, Dragoon Leader do you copy?"
He clicked his mic on, "I copy, what's the word?"
"Air support is a negative at this time, fighters are refueling. We took heavy losses with our birds. What we have is being prioritized to the heaviest fighting, stand by for further updates".
"Roger, Dragoon Leader out".
'Well', Simon thought. 'That's better than nothing'. He finished off his current target and took a moment to survey the field as well as his ammo and the current state of his mech. None of them were good. What used to be a popular beach for fur families was now litter with debris, spent ordnance, bodies and craters.
He was snapped back to the fight when he began to take machine gun fire from several foot soldiers. He growled lightly at the annoyance and spared a single rocket to remove them from existence. He checked his squad tracker and saw Dragoon's 2, 3, and 4 moving up to return to fight.
"Alright, 6, 7, and 8, head back to field bases, the others are back. Skin out now".
He received a trio of clicks as the next group began to leave the field just as a flurry of cannon fire and missiles rained down on the beach to cover their fall back.
"Did you miss us?" Corran said over the com.
"Like a thorn in the footpad. We've hit a lull in the fighting right now, a lot of clean up, but keep your eyes on the sky I think their bombers are on their way again. They hit us hard while you were gone."
"Copy Lead".
Simon switched channels to his sector command, "Delta Command this is Dragoon Lead, come in".
"Delta Command here, go ahead".
"We've hit a small lull in the fighting here do you have any incoming craft on long range scanners?"
"Hold Lead, checking", a minute passed, "That's a negative Lead, I'm not getting anything on long range scanners".
A strange feeling began to well in Simon's gut. Something wasn't right but he couldn't put is trigger finger on it. They had been fighting for hours, true, but he still felt like something was wrong.
"Copy Command. Request permission to send Dragoons 6, 7, and 8 to position Alpha to help retake the beachhead there".
"Solid copy Lead, you are cleared to do so".
"Roger that, Lead out". Simon switched back to his squad's channel, "Dragoon's 6, 7, and 8, once you're out of the field bases head to position Alpha to retake to beachhead. 11, you're with me. We're headed back to rearm. All copy?"
Multiple clicks sounded in his headset as he began to turn his mech around and head out. He couldn't help but get the feeling that something bad was about to happen. They may have stopped the beach landing here, but there several other locations that had defenses set up. As he walked his suit into the Field Base and watched the automated repair and rearm sequence begin he relaxed his muscles, leaning back and closing his eyes. There was some part of him that hoped it was all over, that they had actually succeeded in stopping the invasion. He just couldn't shake that knowing feeling that there was something they were missing.
The Field Base opened up and retracted so he could exit. As he walked away he got a cut of static over his comm that made him flinch. 'Odd' he thought. He checked his rear camera and watched Dragoon 11 move into position, then zoomed in on his HUD in front of him, watching 6, 7, and 8 head to Alpha to help them clean up what all had been able to land on the beach.
"Delta Command this is Dragoon Lead, come in". Silence. "Delta Command, do you copy?" Nothing. "Delta Command, respond!".
Simon had to think fast. He opened a comm to the twins, "Corran, Horn come in".
He heard simultaneously, "What's up boss?"
"Command has gone dark, I want you two to check it out. Copy?"
He got two clicks as he opened a link to Dragoon 4, telling him rendezvous with Simon and Dragoon 11 at Position Delta-2, their fall back point in case their beachhead had been overrun.
They hadn't been at Delta-2 for two minutes before he got a frantic communique from Horn. "Lead! They've hit Command! The Suns are everywhere. We haven't been seen yet, but there's two echelons of Type 3 mechs up here and a battalion of troops. No armor. I've spotted at least four SpecOps squads as well. From the look of Command they must of been hit from the inside. How the fuck did they get these troops in behind us?"
Simon was star struck for only a second. He started flipping comm switches, opening links to everyone in his unit. "This is a Priority One command. Dragoon Squad regroup on Delta Command. Suns reported in the vicinity. Delta Command has been hit. We have reports of two mech echelons and SpecOps squads in the city. I repeat, the Suns have made it inside the city. All mechs regroup on Delta". He didn't wait for responses as he opened a direct channel to Central Command.
"Central Command this is Dragoon Lead, do you copy?"
"This is Central Command. Dragoon Lead what do you think you're doing? You know communiques are to be routed through-"
"Delta Command has been hit. It's gone. Suns have made it inside the city. We don't know how they managed but I have eyes on two Type 3 mech echelons, a battalion of ground troops, and possibly four squads of SpecOps troops in the city".
There was a silence for a moment before, "Lead how sure are you of these reports?"
"110% Command. We need to pull everyone we can from the beach to flank the enemy. There's only two targets they could after in the city. The civilian bunker, and you."
"Dragoon Lead keep your battle group at Position Delta-2 until we confirm these reports. The last we heard from the sector commands was that the beach was secure for the most part and that clean up was being executed to remove any lasting Sun forces. We find it hard to believe that there could be that large of an assault force within the city, no matter how accurate you may believe your intel to be".
"Central Command, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disobey that order". He cut the link immediately after as he saw his remaining men en route to Delta Command. He opened up channels to his men and said, "Central Command doesn't believe the reports so it looks like we're on our own for now. There's only two targets in the city worth hitting and I don't plan on letting either get scratched. We are disobeying direct orders by engaging the enemy, anyone who wants to move to Delta-2, do so now. Otherwise, form up on me. Time to go nova on these bitches".
As Simon began to move out and into the city, the remainder of Dragoon Squad was on his tail, forming up. The hunt was on.
"2 and 3, take point. Lead us to 'em".
A simultaneous "Copy" came over Simon's headset, filled with static.
"Squad hold!"
Every mech stopped, confused muzzles all around. "Sir, what's up?"
"I'm getting static. Keep your eyes peeled for a jammer station. If there's one in the area we'll have to switch to line of sight communications. Keep your heads on a swivel. Move out".
They split into two squads and began to move into the suspected enemy camp. As Simon had thought, he had lost contact with the second squad as soon as they had split up. 'The God's damn these jammers' he thought. As they moved they kept their scans to a minimum. They didn't want to risk being discovered until they had found the Suns mechs.
As they walked into a crossroads, Simon rotated his mech to the left and caught sight of an enemy patrol. 'Bingo'.
"I've got a visual on enemy patrol. A pair of Type 2s, a Type 3, a mobile jammer, and at least 25 foot troops plus change, how copy?"
Simon received a series of clicks from his squad. They maneuvered into the crossroads so that each would have a line of fire on the enemy.
"Mark your targets", he watched on his HUD as each mech and the station had a different colored box appear around it, designating each squad member's intended target. "Lock on". Each box flashed once and turned red. "Fire at will". Auto-cannon rounds, missiles, and gauss shells flew down the street towards their targets. The mobile jammer rocked and sparked but was still intact. One Type 2 went critical, taking at least five infantry with him and damaging the Type 3, which had lost it's left arm. The other Type 2 lost power, it's main generator taking a few AC rounds, and it's right leg was barley hanging on, a gauss shell nearly severing it. Firepower continued to rain down the street into the remaining two mechs and the jammer. Simon watched as Dragoon 4 blew the treads off of the jammer, stopping it dead in it's tracks. Simon took that opportunity to use the mortar he'd had recharged and launched two blasts without waiting for the computer to give proper firing solutions. He fired a burst of five missiles at the Type 3's right leg, two of them finding their mark and severing the leg the rest of the way. He looked back to the jammer to see one of the shots miss the target, but land in the middle of a dozen troops, their bodies melting into goop. The second shot was a direct hit however, and the super-heated plasma began to melt through the outer shielding.
"That jammer's been reinforced. 2 and 3, hit your jumpers and put a couple of missiles into the hole I burned".
"Copy lead", the twins replied, hitting their jets in unison. As they neared the targets, Simon and Dragoon 4 moved up to finish off any infantry. Simon watched at least a dozen missiles fire from the twins' mechs and soar through the hole he'd created in the roof of the mobile jammer, and smiled as a series of smaller detonations lead up to the big one as the thing exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere.
"Good job squad, but stay alert. There's probably plenty more where those came from".
It wasn't long until Simon started to eat his words as his sensors began to pick up multiple mech quick starts. His next radar ping picked up at least half a dozen new contacts.
"One of these days, I'm going to learn to keep my mouth shut", he flicked on his comm, "I've got more contacts, at least half a dozen. Squad 2, move to intercept those contacts. 2, 3 and 4, you're on me. We need to find where they set up their forward base. Move out".
Simon led his group off, further into the city, checking his rear camera one last time as the others moved off. He always had a bad feeling when sending off his men and not being with them. He'd already lost three of his own men, and their beachhead Sector Commander had sacrificed himself. That was too many men in one day to lose. In fact, it was too many period. He'd never lost a man under his command and he knew that once this was over, he was going to need a long break, or else he was going to break.
He flicked on his comm for his squad, "Alright guys form up on me. We're heading further into the city. It sounds cliche, but we're heading to City Hall. It's the most defensible building."
He received three clicks for confirmation and shut off his comm. They needed to end this. Depending on how well dug in the Suns were, what kind of fire power they had, and how long they'd been there, this could be a bitch of a fight. If they'd been in there long to relay coordinates for targets of interests back to the island they'd taken over, they could lose a lot of the city fast. He was hoping that Central Command was smart enough to at least post some guys at the city's power plant. Without it, the refugee shelters would lose power and would open for attack. That scared him more than anything.
He double checked to make sure his comm was off before mumbling, "Don't worry Khris. I won't let anything happen to you. This will all be over soon."