Chapter 15

Our wait wasn't as long as we'd feared. Ten days and we were on our way. It was two jumps for us. We had the Zenith point so our drop would be longer than the Colonel's. The Air Wing knew what was expected of them and when we came out of the jump they were aboard their fighters and ready. Before the Invader knew we were there we had him covered from four different points with two ships at each of the points. Our infantry had no problem affecting the surrender. Their batteries were full so we tapped them for enough power to make the short jump to the Majoris and with the extra jump crew we had brought with us before we were out of sight on our drop they had jumped.

The fighters got bored the drop was so uneventful. When we broke atmosphere they went ahead to scout the drop site. They moved in pairs, one high and one low. They reported little activity. We had not gone in cocooned for a drop, but while we were still aloft I took the Wild Haggis out one of the drop doors. I joined the fighters in checking out the site. There was little activity. We could see many tracks from Mechs, tracked and wheeled vehicles but no one was in sight now.

The Union came in first and when half of her complement had been off loaded the other two landed. There was no real reason for the Leopard to continue with us except that they had a lot of the fuel for the fighters. We'd broken it up between the three Dropship in case one didn't make it down we'd still have fuel and munitions for the fighters. With all we had spotted we could see no signs of a Dropship. No ship, no burn marks, no long landing tracks. Nothing!

I then decreased speed to just above stall and cruised along the front of the mines. Many of the tracks led into the adit. Were they hiding inside the mines or had they removed something from the mines and returned to the drop site? This I didn't know.

"Blue 6 from Goblin 6, could you have a pair follow the tracks back and see where they go? This is a blind lead so far," I asked the Wing Leader.

"Roger Goblin 6, wilco."

As they started on that mission I checked the deployment of my people. They were all down now and most of them had deplaned. I had one Lance move towards the mines to check the tracks while a second and third set up a perimeter defense. I didn't want to get caught on the ground without some eyes out. Then coming in low and slow I pulled up sharply, shut down and used my jump jets to land as I converted from the Air mode to the Land mode. The Wild Haggis is a Phoenix Hawk LAM. A very versatile machine but some what delicate at times. I joined the Lance checking the entrances to the mines.

Inside the mine we found the remains of twenty or thirty miners. From the looks of them they had been hit by heavy machine gun fire. The type of machine guns used on a Mech. This looked more like a Pirate Raid than the usual battle put up by a House Mech Unit. Dismounting we checked through the offices of the mines. Several containers of rich, processed radioactive metals had been removed from the mine. That was the only thing that we could find of value that was missing. A sweep of the entire area hadn't turn up a single living soul. Either they'd all been killed or they thought we were more Raiders, returning for another go and were all staying hidden.

Our Liaison Officer had turned out to be a female Captain named Sheila Cummins, who had to be related to Clark. She didn't like anything we did. "Why didn't you drop on the site?" "Why are you going through the records?" "Aren't you going to bury these people?" We had fixed her up with a communicator so she could monitor all the frequencies. She didn't like it because she couldn't talk to us as well.

We saddled up and started down the road following the tracks I'd seen from the air. I was no more than in my Mech than a message came in.

"Goblin 6 from Blue 2. We have your Raiders in sight. They're about 45 klicks east of you. They're hold up in a forested area and we can't pinpoint them. From our MAG reading there is either a Company of them or a lot of light Mechs. We can circle for a bit yet and keep them pinned for you."

"Roger, Blue 2. We're enroute."

We increased our speed and moved in that direction. The distance would be just under an hour for our slower Mechs. Not knowing what we were facing we needed them as they were also our largest Mechs.

Just before we arrived in the area another Lance of fighters passed us. They took over the top cap and let the first Lance return to refuel. They were marking the spot for us very well.

"Goblin 6 from Blue 6. We got a peek at them when we replaced 2. You have a couple of Dragons, a couple of Grifs and a couple of T'Bolts. I couldn't see anything else. There should be more from our MAG readings."

"Thanks, Blue 6. All Goblins from Goblin 6. The Mechs that were spotted are all missile carriers. Missiles don't work well in forests. All Goblin missile Mechs stay outside to assist when we flush them out. Cannon and Laser Mechs move in and take them."

For this engagement we were the Goblins while the Colonel and his party were the Ghosts. And to think it isn't even Halloween. Still in the Land mode I moved forward with the second Lance into the forest. It is surprising how quiet you can be in a Mech when there is little ground cover. The trees had shaded the ground and little had grown under them. The trees themselves were large with room to move between. We had to duck a bit for some of the limbs but by moving carefully we were able to get within a 300 meters of them before they spotted us. Even then all they could see was movement, no distinct outline.

There were some very young or inexperienced pilots among them as one young fool immediately fired his LRM-15 at us. They no more than cleared the missile pod than the overhanging limbs of the trees detonated the missiles. He and his Lance mates were showered with the flying shrapnel from those boomers. The shrapnel did little damage but the concussion and such startled them which upset their aim for the moment. Conn decided to return the favor to the young man and gave him two PPCs from the Warhammer he was riding. Did that Mech jockey a world of good because one of them took his head off.

J.J. had taken Adam Pascal and Jack Parker in the other two Shadow Hawks and circled north. Pete Henson in an Archer and Alister Clark in his Catapult circled south into the opening to await the flushed foe taking Lloyd Baker in a Dragon and little B.B. Gunn in her Griffin with them while the rest of us moved slowly forward. We didn't want to rush into the situation as we didn't know all the players.

Over the sounds of his AC-5 I heard J.J. "Hey Boss, they had a surprise up here for you. It was two Riflemen, two Phoenix Hawks and two Hunchbacks. I think a Hunchback has worse rear armor than a Rifleman. At least these two did. Should be two P. Hawks and a Rifleman coming your way fast. The others were tired, they're taking a nap."

I knew the kind of sleeping pill that J.J. prescribed for enemy Mech pilots. Delivered from AC-5s! "Thanks, Doc."

"My job to keep us all healthy. A Hunchback can ruin your whole day. Ta Ta."

Our two Vindicators got into a duel with their two Griffins. It was fairly even until Nancy White sidled in with her Hunchback. Doc was right, one of those can ruin your whole day. From the side she opened fire and opened them up with one shot each. AC-20s are murder. She took her time and made sure of each target before she fired.

It was at that time that I got into the fight. I had been trying to keep tabs on all of my people and had allowed the second T'Bolt to come around on my left and he tagged me with his large laser. I returned the compliment and then moved diagonally to him to keep away from his other weapons and triggered my mediums. I had four to his three. He still couldn't use his missiles and wasn't close enough to use his machine guns. We were having quite a slugfest until Sean Campbell stepped in with an Ostsol. (Sean is Tate Campbell's oldest and he handles a Mech pretty well. Tate Campbell is another old Wildcat. He used to be in charge of the Mech bays. He is again only he's under Rachel Jones now.) Sean cut loose with two large and two medium lasers. With our combined weaponry the T'Bolt was soon down. When I looked up the Rifleman and one of the P. Hawks had surrendered and the others were all down. I'm not sure who took down the two Dragons.

We made the two who had surrendered pop their hatches and then walk the two Mechs out into the open. With our handed Mechs we grabbed the downed Mechs and dragged them out into the road also. We had no sooner gotten there than two trucks pulled up and off loaded some of our infantry. They checked each of the Mechs, removing the pilots and placed them in one of the trucks. One of them was dead, one was seriously injured with three lightly wounded. The other seven were shaken up a bit but alright. They were all disarmed before loading them in the rear of one of the trucks and then allowed to bandage up their wounded friends. Doc had shut down and was caring for the seriously wounded pilot. The second truck had several techs aboard. A trick we'd learned on Tortuga. Take as many techs with you as you can. They can keep you repaired, rearmed and in the fight. They checked over the Mechs for any quick fix items and were ready to move the two surrendered Mechs out when I discovered the extent of my damage. The hits I had taken in the side must have buckled the extension mechanism. I was strictly a Land Mech now.

I climbed out of the LAM and signaled one of the techs to take it back for repairs and moved over to the Rifleman. It had surrendered before it had taken any hits at all. I was preparing to climb into it when Sean came over. Using his external speakers he said, "Colonel, let me have that one and you take my Ostsol. It didn't get hit, the T'Bolt was concentrating on you. I always wanted to try a Rifleman."

Before we could make the swap Captain Cummins was there wanting to know why we were delaying. "You should be moving after them. This can't be all that attacked the mines. You're letting them get away by wasting time here."

"Captain, for your information this is a combat not a political problem. Might I suggest you stay out of the way and keep quiet." She wasn't very happy with me.

I like the Ostsol better than the Rifleman so I agreed. I climbed into it and set about making it mine. There is always a moment of vertigo when you first activate a new Mech and adjust the oscillations of the old brain wave pattern to match your own. It only took moments to do and I was once again ready to resume the chase. The Ostsol is 10 tons heavier than my LAM, is a little better armed and armored but can't jump and of course can't fly.

Again I requested two of the fighters to follow the tracks back in the direction we were going and again they complied. Four fighters were on the ground fully armed and fueled, two were in the air flying top cap over the Dropships and two were scouting for us. With the fire power of the Dropships themselves, added to the three Lances of Mechs that I had left behind I was pretty sure my base was secure. Now just to follow up on the Mechs ahead of us.

We moved along at the top cruising speed of our heaviest Mechs. We had the fighters flying ahead with a Lance of two P. Hawks and two S. Hawks scouting ahead also. Just before night fall we came to a long open space. With the fighters checking for hidden mines (heavy MAG readings) and the scouts checking for ambushes also we set up camp. I had already radioed back to the ships to have them move up to us. When they did they had already stopped and picked up the downed Mechs from our earlier fight. My LAM had a new extension drive motor and replaced armor. It looked crappy with the unpainted armor but was ready to fly. We rotated turns in the Dropships to have armor and munitions replaced and have repaired any other mechanical problem that had arisen. There is always something if nothing more that a sticky relay switch. Having the time now they also sprayed the Rifleman with a coat of primer and painted on Phantom insignias so even in the heat of battle everyone would know it was NOT an enemy Mech now. And of course we changed the IFF to our frequency.

We tried but couldn't raise the Colonel. If we had thought about it we could have dropped communications satellites as we came in. They would have relayed the messages and we could have stayed in touch. Next time.

Just as the sun was coming up we saddled up. Thirty-two of us started forward and twelve stayed behind. I placed Heidi Steiner in charge of the three Lances. She wasn't too happy about staying behind but realized that the next day they'd be back with us and accepted it well. They'd been able to fight yesterday, now it was someone else's turn.

I pulled Clark to one side just before we left. "Clark I still don't like you and my promise still holds but you know how to fight and more important when to fight. You still have your Lance. You screw it up and the last thing in this lifetime you will hear is loud bangs. I will open your back up and let your missiles take you to Hell where you belong. Clear?" He nodded.

He didn't like it but he nodded. I'm not sure if I was still pissed at him or if I was taking my frustration with Cummins out on him. That woman could drive a saint to drink.

The fighters again took off to provide both top cover for the Dropships and scouting reports for us. Again letting the slowest Mech set the pace we continued to put klicks behind us. By midmorning we had gone nearly 135 klicks when we got a report from the fighters.

"Boss, we got traffic ahead. Looks like two companies of Mechs with vehicles. Can we attack?"

"Blue 4 from Goblin 6, what is their position? What sized Mechs are they and how many vehicles? You know how to make a proper report, do so!"

"Sorry 6, one Company of Mediums and the second is Heavy to Assault. Looks like about a dozen tracked vehicles, not, I say again, NOT armor. Fourteen wheeled and eight to ten hover. They are moving at your speed and are about 25 klicks ahead of you."

"Blue 4, alert your ready flight. One pair to come to assist. You have permission to target Mechs only, repeat Mechs only."

"6, I copy one flight to assist and target is Mechs only. Tallyho."

"All Goblins from 6. Increase speed. Air has two Companies plus vehicles spotted ahead. J.J. lead the Scout group forward."

Instead of answering they merely increased their speed. J.J. took his usual Scout Lance with him and his speed increased even more than ours.

Just minutes after we increased our speed a pair of fighters streaked passed overhead. They were moving out and I wanted to be with them as I was back in my LAM but it was more important that I stay with my troops. We continued to move down the road and soon could make out smoke on the horizon. As we got closer the smoke increased and when we topped a rise we could see the remains of the column ahead of us. There had been soldiers in most of the vehicles as they had taken cover away from the vehicles and were trying to return fire on the fighters. Several shoulder fired missiles were being launched and machine guns had been set up to fire on them also. As we topped the rise they started to run. Just then J.J. and his Scout Lance topped another rise in front of them. Instead of following the road, J.J. had taken his Lance straight at the last turn. He had been parallel to them when they decided to run. A couple of bursts from the heavy machine guns on the P. Hawks and they decided to quit. Many of the Mechs were down and all the vehicles had stopped. Seeing that the fighters had not been firing on the vehicles they stayed where they were so as not to give the fighters an excuse to shoot them.

We cut our speed and moved in more cautiously, checking for traps and other endangerments. Upon our arrival the remaining Mechs gave up. With the fighters and the eight Lances of Mechs that had appeared they were vastly out numbered. Between the 34 vehicles there were a couple of hundred soldiers. We were going to need help so I had one of the fighters call the Dropships forward. It took just under an hour for them to get to us. While we were waiting we had the soldiers move forward, place their weapons, duty belts etc. in the back of a vehicle and move to a neutral position. When the ships arrived our infantry used hand held mags and waved them over each person before loading them aboard the Union. Several of the Mechs from our earlier battle were already aboard so it was starting to get crowded. Aboard the Union they had locked off the heavy elevator, blocked the stairs and kept the prisoners in the lower bay while the upper bay had machine guns set up to cover all of them.

While our infantry was doing this our techs were checking out the battlefield for anything they could recover. Several of the Mechs could be moved, not fast but moved. These were taken aboard the Buccaneer and lashed down for transit. Parts were removed from those too badly damaged to retrieve right now and the vehicles were checked. All of the wheeled vehicles and half of the tracked vehicles were loaded with the processed metals from the mines. Thank goodness they were in shielded containers. All of the weapons except what the techs wanted to keep were loaded aboard the Leopard. As we prepared to leave several of the techs mounted up in the hovercraft to follow along behind us. That was the reason for arming themselves. They had even donned body armor taken from some of the soldiers to give themselves more protection.

As our infantry was sorting out the last of the prisoners we continued on our way. The four fighters that had taken part in the strafing attacks on the Mechs were being refueled and those that needed it rearmed. The other four were up in the air doing their job. Again with our slowest Mech setting the pace we headed towards the capitol city. We had already accounted for a Battalion. It was unknown what the strength of Mechs were on this planet but we should have accounted for at least a third. We had figured on two Battalions or a Regiment at the most. If that was the case there were eighteen more Lances of Mechs somewhere. If they were all in the capitol city then the Colonel needed us there Now! With only fourteen Lances he was outnumbered.

By nightfall we had traveled another three hundred klicks making better than eight hundred kilometers from our drop point. Again when the Dropships arrived the techs swarmed over the Mechs making sure they were ready for the next day. I just hope the techs were taking the opportunity to get some sleep during the day because they were up much of the night checking our battle beasts.