Dropship Nile,
Drop Zone Alpha,
Einstein, Deep Periphery
10th March 3068
“Well, Frank, what is this brilliant plan of yours?” A skeptical Forsen Mandela asked as he folded his arms above his not-so-unsubstantial girth.
Frank winced at the merchant’s tone of sarcasm. “Descartin says he can get authorization from the Galaxy Commander to allow us to relocate. Remember that I’ve told you that our survival may depend on getting the ‘key’ machines. If we can get to the other merc units, we may be able to give, or at the very least, sell them the spare machines we have, and incidentally, gather the other key machines.”
“And how does that help us in the long run, huh?” Forsen jutted out his jaw stubbornly.
Frank forced himself to remain calm and focused. “If we could get into the alien base, we could bunker down in there and thumb our noses at the Falcons. It may also be a useful bargaining chip for us to get back to the Inner Sphere. And resupplying the other mercs will force the Falcons to use up their assets in dealing with them. Right now, we have the extra mechs, but no drivers for them. They might have the opposite problem.”
“And this clanner thinks he can help us?” Forsen glanced suspiciously at Descartin, who was standing impassively at one side, hands behind his back in the classic ‘at ease’ position.
The other warriors present on the bridge of the Nile were Deserk, Kily and Yoshino, lounging around trying not to look bored as Frank tried to sell the merchant his latest idea.
“Give him a chance, okay?” Frank persisted, “He’s already helped us back in that last fight. What else could he do to make things worse?”
Forsen bent his head slightly, as though considering the offer. “Alright. But I want him to try to get offworld authorization as well.”
“Bargained well and done.” Descartin said as he relaxed his stance and walked up next to Frank. “Open your communications now.”
Forsen gestured to the tech manning the communications console, as the other mercs gathered excitedly around.
“Linking to the Falcon Warship, boss.” The tech reported as he steadied the link. “Ok, the line’s open, you can speak.”
“Attention, Jade Falcon Warship, this is Star Captain Descartin Winters of Clan Goliath Scorpion. I wish to talk to your Galaxy Commander Lizabet Danforth.”
The response did not take long. “This is Lizabet Danforth. What slimy arachnid dares to oppose the talons of the Jade Falcon? Have you any sense of honor, collaborating with dezgra mercenaries?”
“I have honor enough to deal with you and yours, Galaxy Commander. What I do with them is my business, which is none of your concern. I have come to discuss something on behalf of the mercenaries, concerning the movement of their dropships.”
“Oh, so they have finally realized the futility of their position, and wish to bargain for passage offworld? They may do so, but only as our bondsmen.”
Descartin shot Forsen a look that said volumes about Forsen’s chances of getting escaping the planet. He then continued, “Neg. They do not wish to obtain passage offworld, but they do wish to move around the planet to support their comrades.
“They can do so, provided they can fight off my aerospace forces.”
“You are not being fair here, Galaxy Commander. They have no aerospace assets, and to use their dropships for combat is suicidal and foolhardy, considering that they have to transport their battlemechs as well. You will gain more honor if you can defeat them on the ground on level terms, not by attacking merchant dropships with clan fighters that are better than anything else humanity has!”
“You have a point there, Descartin Winters. But I would like to know what, if anything, they intend to do with this new freedom.”
“The warriors of the dropship Nile plan to rendezvous with Rasouf’s Rangers at site Epsilon. I will accompany them in my search for Star League artifacts.”
“Very well, I shall allow you to travel across the planet. In fact, I now allow all of the mercs to do so, but with one condition. We must be informed of all movement. Any movement off planet will be severely dealt with, and I assure you that even if all the dropships try to escape at the same time, none of them will succeed. I have more than just Warships and fighters available to me. In fact, I have two Noruff class assault dropships more than willing to destroy your ships if they attempt something foolish.”
“Bargained well and done. Winters out.” Descartin drew a line across his throat, signaling the tech to cut the link.
Frank, who had been listening to the exchange with trepidation, finally let out a sigh of relief. This did not go unnoticed by Kily. “Hey, Frank, why so nervous?”
“You realize that if we couldn’t get to the Rangers, we could only wait to fight off ever more Falcons here? We’ve been surviving more on luck than anything else, and this has got to change. Hooking up with the other mercs will be the first step to consolidating our forces. It’ll also force the Falcons into choosing whether to engage the bigger merc groups first, or the smaller ones. We’ve been losing too many of our smaller groups to the Falcons in the small unit engagements.”
Deserk entered the conversation. “Frank’s right. In the smaller unit battles, losses to the Falcons were much less than in the bigger ones. Losses in armor and weapons is nothing compared to the loss of entire mechs in engagements that involve more than ten mechs on all sides. By getting together, we can hurt the Falcons more.”
Frank turned to Forsen, “Send the word out to the other groups.”
Dropship Battle’s Bane,
Drop Zone Phi,
Einstein, Deep Periphery
Ian could not believe his ears. “Deserk, you’re sure of this?” He asked.
“Aff.” Came the reply. “Authorization just came from Rho Galaxy command, straight from Lizabet Danforth’s mouth. Only condition is that we must inform them first. We think they might be letting us group together, so as to defeat us more easily.”
“No more second guessing. My Lancers have a battle tomorrow. If we survive, we’re heading for Winslet’s Warriors. We should’ve engaged in large groups from the very start, not let ourselves get chewed up piecemeal. Anything else?”
“There is one more thing. You have one of the key machines, right?”
“Yup. What do you want me to do?” From Deserk’s tone, Ian knew something was up.
“Get to Karen, and get her key machine. After that, contact us, and we’ll tell you where to go next. We have several possibilities for the location of the hidden base, but Frank wants to get all the machines together before seeking out the base.”
“But one machines has been taken by the Falcons… And the last one we have not accounted for yet is with the Ragged Ones. They’ve been out of communications for several days now. Nobody, not even the Falcons, know where they are. They fought a binary to a draw, then abandoned their dropship and disappeared in the jungle. That was their last report before they disappeared.”
Deserk uttered a curse softly. “Freebirth. This is just great. How are we going to find these last two machines?”
“We will come to that when we’re ready. Right now, let’s just do what we can. I’ll contact you as soon as I get the machine from Karen. And tell Frank I wish him the best of luck. He’ll need it.”
“I’ll pass it on. Good luck to you too. Deserk out.”
Warship Blue Aerie, In Orbit,
Einstein, Deep Periphery
Valten Folkner stared at Lizabet Danforth. He was trying to control his anger. Unsuccessfully.
“What in the Kerensky’s name were you thinking when you gave them aerospace access?” He shouted. “They might be able to take advantage of this by organizing all their dropships into a group capable of punching through our blockade!”
Lizabet remained icily calm in the face of Valten’s anger. “Which they will not. They will not leave until they have found the other Star League base on the planet. I allowed them movement because it suits my purposes.”
At Valten’s puzzled look, she continued. “The information we have gathered from our victories thus far had been either lacking in the pertinent data, or had been corrupted by time. There is a base yet unfound, and it seems that a certain set of machines are required to gain access to it. So far, we have only one of the six machines, and the mercenaries have the other five.”
Valten did not take long to realize her plan. “And now you allow them atmospheric movement because you want them to find and open the base first.”
“Find, yes. Open, no. I intend to have forces shadowing the Dragoon group, ready to issue a challenge once they have found the base.”
Valten clapped his hands. “Brilliant. But would it not be better if we could defeat the mercenaries first?”
Lizabet snorted. “They have managed to fight off some of our best units in previous battles. What makes you so assured of a victory in future battles? No, we will simply whittle them slowly with more battles, before overwhelming them when they find the hidden base. I can take the loss of some honour. These are dezgra mercs after all. Another consideration is information on the location of the base, which is completely lacking from the archives we have captured. Possibly only the mercs know the location, so I will not want to take the risk of losing the information by having them die in combat.”
“They could have stored it in their computers…” Valten pointed out.
Shaking her head, Lizabet said, “Unlikely. It does not matter now anyway. We will find the hidden base, thanks to them, and maybe set up a permanent station here. The other mercenary units will probably band together for mutual protection. It will avail them little. The fighting of the previous days has given the younger warriors a taste of real combat against the Inner Sphere, and they will be more prepared for their freebirth tricks now. It is time to let them have a taste of larger unit action. This ‘training’ will come in useful when we renew the invasion.”
She paused. “And how about the missing jumpships?”
“We are still working on it.” Valten answered immediately, having anticipated the question. “We have narrowed down the possible pirate points, but there are still more than forty possibilities. It will still take at least a week before we are able to track them down.”
“See? Once we have captured their jumpships, it would not matter if they are able to travel off planet. We can hunt their dropships down at our own leisure. No, this campaign will be decided on the ground, between mechwarriors and elementals, the way it should be.”
Valten saluted her. “And with you in charge, our victory is inevitable.”
Dropship Nile,
Drop Zone Alpha,
Einstein, Deep Periphery
“Ready for lift, Sir!” A tech called out to Forsen Mandela as Frank walked onto the bridge.
Forsen looked over to the young mechcommander. “Ready, Frank?”
Frank checked his seat straps once, before he said, “It’s your call. How about Descartin?”
“The Bleeding Past is also ready for lift. You’re sure about the clanners following us?” Forsen was still unsure about the benefits of having clanners with their expedition, even if the Dragoons had vouched for them.
“Definitely. These are good clanners, or so I’ve been told by Deserk, and he hasn’t steered me wrong yet.” Frank said. Forsen had the distinct impression that Frank had his own doubts as well, but he decided that bringing that up at this point was less than useless.
He nodded. “Okay. Engines at full power! Activate thrusters!” Forsen barked out as the bridge crew scrambled to obey his orders.
A deep rumbling could be felt beneath their feet, as the powerful fusion engines of the Overlord-class dropship prepared to unleash their nuclear fire, harnessed by the technology of man to provide near limitless power.
“Go!” As soon as the words were uttered, a roar could be heard as the Nile blasted off into the sky, followed closely by an aerodyne Broadsword.
Drop Zone Epsilon,
Einstein, Deep Periphery
Captain Hamirah Rasouf of Rasouf’s Rangers cursed softly in fluent Arabic as Lieutenant Benny Greaves, her second in command, came up with the latest piece of news, which she was sure was going to be bad.
His face showed delight though, confusing her for an instant. “Captain, we have just received great news! The mercs off the Nile have managed to get permission from the Falcons to move around the planet, and are heading here right now!”
Her face immediately lost its sour disposition. “Right now? How soon till they get here? And how did that happen?”
“About an hour. As to how they did it, I have no idea. We can ask them when they arrive.” He look at Hamirah in a querying manner. “Uhm, what do you think they want?”
“Isn’t it obvious? They want our key machine. But they have to give us something good in return if they want it. Nothing goes for free, especially when it involves us.”
“Good thinking, boss lady.” Benny had high respect for his commander, increased when she had managed to beat off the attacking binary of Falcon mechs with only their two lances of mechs and one lance of tanks. The Falcons officially lost, ceding the field to the mercs, but none of the four dropped Falcon mechs were salvageable, while the mercs had lost all their vehicles and four mechs. The remaining mechs were also badly damaged, but the techs had already fixed them up as best as they can.
That left four pilots cooling their heels, the Rangers lucky enough not to lose any mechwarriors. They were further given a long reprieve by the Falcons, obviously judging them no longer a viable threat or challenge. Hopefully, the incoming mercs would have spare mechs for the Rangers, which would make them no longer dependent on the clanners’ generosity for their continued survival.
Almost precisely an hour later, two huge shapes appeared in the skies. It did not take them long as land, as landing spots had already been marked out carefully by the Rangers. The Overlord-class Nile swung over and touched down vertically, its landing struts extending to absorb the impact of thousand of tons of steel hitting the ground.
The Broadsword class Bleeding Past, being shaped like a plane, landed differently, its landing gear extended as it bumped to a stop on a impromptu landing strip cleared of trees, courtesy of some quick lumberjacking by the mechs of the Rangers.
It could have used its vertical thrusters, but that approach used more fuel, and Hamirah knew that hydrogen refueling was not exactly easy to come by in the Periphery.
She glinted as sunlight was reflected off the hull of the Overlord, casting bright rays over the landing site. A whirring sound was heard as a bay door slowly opened, the ramp extending to the ground like a moat drawbridge.
The first person she saw was also the one she least expected.
The first thing Frank noticed as the bay door came down was a massive Stalker behind the welcoming committee of the Rangers. Somehow, it looked familiar to him.
As the door went down further, he saw the Rangers, seemingly none the worse for wear after their run in with the Jade Falcons.
Even before the ramp had touched the ground, he walked forward, eager to talk to their commander, a smile on his face.
He had barely taken two steps off the ramp before he was socked by a roundhouse thrown by a Arab woman in a faded green and brown uniform.
The uniform of the AFFC during the Civil War, with unit patches for the Sirdar CMM.
A small man in a jumpsuit sprang forward, holding back the furious woman by her shoulders as Kily quickly interposed himself between the woman and Frank, who was lying on the ground clutching his jaw.
“Stop!” Deserk shouted as mercenaries from both sides quickly stepped into one another’s faces, their fists raised and ready for a fight. “Everybody stop!” He shouted in vain as he moved to Frank’s side.
Frank was seeing plenty of stars as he tried to block out the pain from his aching chin. He staggered to his feet, helped up by Deserk.
The woman was shouting insults and curses at Frank in some strange language, lapsing into English at certain points.
Then he heard, “Meronac, you caused the death of my company on Sirdar! You butcher!”
So that was what it was all about. She had fought for the ‘other side’ in the civil war. Memories, many of them bad, flooded into his mind.
“Everyone stand down!” Frank shouted in the most commanding voice he could muster, which did not seem like much to him.
Amazingly, the mercs off the Nile managed to lower their raised fists, and move away from the Rangers, defusing a potentially explosive situation.
The small man holding back the cursing woman shouted at his fellow mercs, ordering them to stand down as well.
“Get back! Get back! Where’re your manners, boys?” He scolded.
By now, the woman’s anger had subsided, but her eyes still burned with hate. Coherent now, she shook off the man holding her, and walked up to Frank.
“You caused my disgrace. Caused my unit’s defeat. Frank Meronac, the Hero of Sirdar.” She said, her tone low and threatening. ”Have you come to gloat?”
“No. Heck, I don’t even know what I’ve done to deserve this sort of welcome!” Frank replied.
“Obviously you don’t. To the Hero of Sirdar, the Sirdar CMM are nothing, right? Scarcely worth the bother to even be remembered.” She continued in a sarcastic tone.
The other mercs were gathered around the two commanders, trying to make sense of her words.
“I was in a Stalker that day, defending one of our forward key supply dumps. And suddenly there was this Dart appearing out of nowhere and blowing up our supplies.”
Frank suddenly realized what she was talking about. She was the Stalker pilot at the supply depot, defending it against his accidental discovery. The destruction of the supplies could not really be directly attributed to him, but more to sheer blind luck and the vagaries of warfare. Without a doubt, that had been the turning point of the campaign.
“Because of the destruction of our supplies, my entire company was wiped out by your artillery.” Hamirah shook her fist in front of Frank’s face. “And because of that, I spent five years in a POW camp, constantly ridiculed for my failure against a light mech piloted by someone who wasn’t even a mechwarrior!”
“And that’s my fault?” Frank asked in a weary tone. “It was war. Civil war. No quarter asked or given. I was just doing my duty.”
“Duty? Oh yeah, you were only a doctor, right? So what were you doing in a mech? Trying to stitch men together with mech fingers?”
“Damn it. I didn’t even know what I was doing more than half the time, let alone what else could happen. Blame yourself for what happened. You were the one who fired the shot that went into the crates, not me!”
Hamirah let out a scream of rage, and lunged at Frank before being pulled back by two Rangers. The small man stepped up, and nervously spoke to Frank.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know this would happen. Captain Hamirah never told us her past before forming the Rangers. She’ll settle down in a while, I hope. Can we talk inside your mech bay? I also want to look at what mechs you have available that you can spare us.”
“Sure.” Frank flicked a thumb back to the dropship. “Come on. Anything to get away from her.” He shuddered as he saw the almost frothing Captain Rasouf.
“We need your mechs.” Benny said. “End of request.”
“And we need your key machine. Fair exchange, quiaff?” Descartin Winters replied. He had joined them in the mech bay of the Nile along with Yoshino Ihara shortly after they had landed. He had not witnessed the fracas involving the Rangers’ CO, but he had been told all the same.
“So that’s what we’ll do, it’s that simple.” Kily said. “Isn’t it?” He looked around. He saw only doubtful faces.
“It’s not that simple. I don’t think Captain Rasouf would exchange the key machine willingly, even for our spare mechs. Not with me here.” Frank said sourly. “I’m sorry for this. How the heck was I supposed to know?”
“Exactly. You weren’t. Not your fault, Frank.” Deserk turned to Benny. “Lieutenant Greaves, can you persuade your captain to agree to the exchange? It’s for the greater good of us all.”
“I dunno, but I’ll try.” Benny had a doubtful look on his face, which Frank completely understood.
Suddenly, Forsen’s voice came over the PA system.
“Frank, Deserk, the sensor pickets of the Rangers have picked up a trinary of clan mechs heading our way.” Forsen sounded nervous. “Mostly heavies, from the looks of things. You guys better get in gear, ASAP!”