Spaceport, Georgia
Northwind
Conspiracy Occupation Zone, Federated Commonwealth
0645 Hours. 1 September 3055
The huge Mammoth class transport dropship touched down on the tarmac, dwarfing all ships nearby. Two mechs of the 1st Conspiracy regiment marched towards it to begin their inspection of its cargo.
“Hey, Joey, what do you make of this? Those cargo bay doors seem to be modified.” said one, piloting a Captivator.
“Yeah, and we weren’t scheduled this arrival until last week. Something’s fishy here.” said the other, in a Tarantula.
“Keep sharp then.” As they closed, one of the cargo bay doors began to open.
“Hey, something’s going on.”
Dropping out of the half-open bay door was a Clan Mad Cat bearing parade colors of forest green, magenta, and navy blue. It raised its left arm, twin beams of light arced out and struck the Tarantula, boring clean through it and detonating its SRM ammo. The mech exploded in a huge ball of flame.
“We are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack!” screamed the Captivator pilot into his communicator, but all he got on the other end was static.
Other bay doors opened and other mechs poured out: mostly Omnimechs like the Mad Cat. “It’s the Star Swords!”
A PPC shot from Mechlanthon’s Exile silenced him quick, but other Conspiracy mechs began to close on the Mammoth as the Swords moved to secure the tarmac.
“Take out the control tower and secure the perimeter.” ordered Joshua. Four PPC blasts from a Swords Masakari blasted through the tower’s concrete base and made it come crashing down on top of the terminal in a huge cloud of dust and smoke. Swords mechs fanned out to engage the single company of Conspirators that held the space port.
Star Swords 4th Battalion Staging Area Gamma, Georgia
0702 Hours, 1 September 3055
“Did you hear that?” said Lisa, rapping on the canopy glass of Gwen’s Assassin to make sure she got her attention.
“Explosions coming from the spaceport. Looks like attack has begun.”
“Now it’s our turn to move. Get this heap moving.”
“Hang on.” Said Gwen, pushing the throttle stick forward. The 40 ton mech lurched forward, advancing the small handful of blocks towards an old Highlander compound, one presently used by a lance of Conspiracy Star Swords.
“Doesn’t look like they’ve moved. Seems Juan was good on his word.” Said Gwen.
“I knew he would be.” Said Lisa confidently. “After all, he’s been very helpful. Not did he give us the data on O’Malley’s security, but also told us about this place. He knew we’d not be wanting to sit out the battle. Let me down here.”
Gwen brought the mech’s hand up to cradle her passenger and lower her to the earth. Surprised to see a Highlander Assassin approach their base, several of the Star Swords techs and mechwarriors looked on with curiosity.
“Lady Lisa?” said one, obviously a New Belfast native.
“I am requisitioning one of your BattleMechs. Stand aside, Sergeant.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
“You can and you will, Sergeant.” Came a voice across a loudspeaker. Behind the assembled group, a Thor powered up and stepped out of the hanger.
“Juan.” Said Lisa with satisfaction.
“I should have picked another depot for you.” Apologized Juan. “This one only holds a heavy lance. I know preference for medium class machines.”
“No matter. That Mad Cat will do nicely.”
“Sergeant, hand over your master key and allow General MacLeod to pass.”
The sergeant pulled the key off of his neckband and handed it to Lisa. Lisa headed over to power up her new mech.
“So, are you here to keep your people in line or join the fight?” asked Lisa as she put on her headset radio.
“I’d like to join the fight if I could.” Said Juan. “I’ve a score to settle with a certain Duke.”
“It’s good to have you back, Juan.”
“I’m sorry things came to this. I should have trusted you. All of you.”
“We’re all human, Juan. Everyone of us.” Said Lisa, stepping into the cockpit of the Mad Cat.
Georgia Convention Center, Government District
0650 Hours. 1 September 3055
“General, we are receiving scattered reports of skirmishes within the city.” said an aide as he dashed into one of the early morning planning sessions for the Conspiracy.
Ryan Steiner stood up. “What do you know?”
“Not much. It seems central communications are having trouble. It seems an attack force of unknown composition has hit the spaceport.”
Steiner let out his breath. “So it has begun. I need confirmation. Force composition. Location. Let’s get the troops ready to…”
The Duke did not get to finish his sentence before a machine gun went off. Duke Ryan dove to the floor as bullets chewed through his aide, splattering blood onto the battle map in front of the assembled generals. Before the attacker could send some of his deadly ammunition at them, gunfire erupted down the hall as the generals’ bodyguards rallied to aid their charges.
General Atherton, commander of the 1st Conspiracy, jumped up and slammed the door shut. “Loki assassins.”
“Where there’s one…” said Steiner. “Let’s get out of here. There’s a back door that will lead you to the escape ship. We’ll compose our counter-strategy on the move.” He ushered the men out the back door and then darted in behind them.
Georgia Central
0715 Hours. 1 September 3055
Steppenwolfe moved cautiously between the skyscrapers of Georgia’s commercial district. After the 1st Conspiracy had been driven from the spaceport and into the streets, the lighter Star Swords mechs had pursued with the intention of destroying them down to the very last mech. In the somewhat chaotic pursuit, Joshua found himself separated from the other members of his lance.
“General, I have new signals approaching our position.” said Mechlanthon. “It seems the 1st Conspiracy have gained some reinforcements.”
“The rest of their regiment?”
“Yes, sir. It would seem so.”
“Any sign from the Highlanders or the Sword’s 4th?”
“Negative, sir. If they’re in the fight, they’re in reserve.”
“Good. Are the Lyran Guard and Genyosha off-loaded yet?”
“Not yet, sir.”
“Knew the good news wouldn’t last forever. We’ll have to buy them the time they need. This’ll all be for nothing if we can’t get away from the spaceport. General Messer to all Swords mechs, expand the perimeter to 1 kilometer from the spaceport. All pursuit mechs return to the spaceport. We’ve got to hold those Conspiracy mechs off.”
“Stretching the perimeter spreads us awfully thin.” commented Ryan.
“I don’t want to get trapped in there.” He paused. “If worse comes to worst, the Swords can still escape to do the job we came here to do. Victor’ll be on his own.”
“I heard that.” said Prince Victor.
“Sorry, my Prince, but....” Joshua did not get the chance to finish before Mechlanthon interrupted him.
“General, new signals closing on you fast!”
Two jungle green Battlemechs turned the corner three blocks down from Joshua: a Warhammer and a Griffin. The Conspiracy reinforcements have arrived.
Joshua launched a salvo of LRMs at the Warhammer, which peppered across the mech’s heavy armor. It responded with a pair of PPC blasts. Within the confined street, Joshua was unable to dodge and both slammed hard into Steppenwolfe. The blasts knocked the Cauldron Born off its feet and into a nearby bank.
Joshua forced his mech to its feet as the Warhammer began to close. The Griffin stayed back; It was a better long range fighter anyway. But the Griffin was soon joined by a Trebuchet and an Enforcer, no doubt the rest of the lance.
“Star Colonel, I’m in trouble.” said Joshua as the Griffin lobbed LRMs over the Warhammer’s head. Joshua slammed his feet down on the reverse throttle, backpedaling away from his opponents. The missiles struck the street and blasted the blacktop road into powder.
“Aw, come on, Colonel. Don’t tell me these rejects are giving you trouble?” said a voice; Logan.
A PPC and gauss shell slammed into the side of the Enforcer as it stepped into an intersection. Although previously undamaged, the Enforcer shuddered under the attack as the twin weapons ripped the right arm and its primary weapon from the mech. The Trebuchet turned to face the new opponent, leaving Joshua only to fight the Warhammer and Griffin.
The Nightmare stepped out onto the same street as Joshua and hammered the Trebuchet with its potent weapons. The 50 ton missile carrier disintegrated under the barrage, leaving only a pair of legs where the mech once stood. Joshua fired his twin lasers at the Warhammer, chewing through to the mech’s SRM ammunition bays. An explosion ripped through the Warhammer’s right side, knocking the mech into a building and burying it in rubble. The Griffin pilot fired his jump jets and escaped onto the next street over.
“See? No problem.” said Logan.
Joshua ignored his cocky savior's flip comments. “Logan, you take the Dark Rangers and go after the Government Center. We’ll draw off the Conspiracy regiment here.”
“Good plan, Joshua.” interjected Victor. “The Rangers are better suited for that kind of action anyway. We’ve almost got our forces off-loaded. I’m sending the mechs I have into the streets to bolster your perimeter. Tai-sa Asano is doing the same. The battle will be fought here! The Rangers will do the dirty work.”
“Whatever you say, my Prince. You heard the man. Hold the perimeter and pray Agent Bairn and Lisa got the Highlanders and Conspiracy Swords battalion out of our hair.” said Joshua.
Mechlanthon and the Swords command lance joined up with Joshua. “We’ve got to give them an opening or the Rangers aren’t going anywhere.”
“The Conspiracy mechs are almost in weapons range.” said Victor. “Hit them. Hit them now while they’re still on the move.”
The not-so-distant sound of weapons fire told Joshua that the battle had begun. Conspiracy mechs suddenly poured into the streets near Joshua’s command lance. Over an entire company was being pushed back by the forces west of Joshua’s lance. Those would have been Ryan Smith’s Dirty Dozen.
“Nail them.” he ordered.
More concerned with the forces at their breast, the Conspirators failed to notice the single lance of Swords mechs strike their left flank.
Ryan’s Mad Cat was in the middle of the fray, blasting away with its twin PPCs. A barrage slammed into a Conspirator Thunderbolt. Joshua closed with Ryan’s target and hammered it with an autocannon barrage from his Class Ten. The burst ripped through the mech’s LRM launcher, tearing it from its mountings.
Mechlanthon fired his jump jets and rocketed over the battle and landing right beside a Conspirator Whitworth. He spun his mech around and fired his PPC. The single blast ripped clean through the lightly armored missile carrier. The wreckage was tossed backwards into Amanda’s mech, who batted it aside to get at her opponent, a Conspirator Dervish.
The battle was blatantly one-sided. The Conspiracy regiment was neither well trained nor well equipped, outfitted as they were with mostly Succession War era mechs. They were grossly outmatched by the Star Swords and their Omnimechs. Joshua knew that the Duke Ryan’s homegrown regiments had more potent upgraded mechs, including some stolen Clan designs aside from those they’d stolen from him, but they were nowhere to be seen.
The Conspirators, now routed, began to pull back rapidly. In their wake, they left nearly a full battalion of their fallen comrades. Alliance losses had been minimal. Only a handful of the enemy were even capable of retreat.
“Something smells fishy here.” said Joshua to himself. “This was too easy.”
“Press the attack.” said Victor, elated with victory.
Whatever was going on, Tai-sa Asano of the Genyosha sensed it as well. Victor should have, but he was almost drunk with victory. “Is that wise?” questioned the Kurita commander.
“I doubt it.” responded Joshua prophetically. As he feared, dozens of contacts suddenly appeared on Joshua’s radar screen.
“New contacts.” said Mechlanthon. “Almost two regiments.”
“Identify? Who are they?” said Joshua anxiously.
“I’m reading Captivators, Minutemen, and Marik designs. It’s more Conspiracy troops, probably their mercenaries and the 2nd regiment” said Amanda.
Joshua let out his breath. “Still no sign of the Highlanders?”
“Negative. I think Bairn did his job.”
“Kou Fairchild, where are you?”
“About five blocks west and two blocks north of your position, sir.” Came Kou’s response. “5th Battalion present and accounted for. We’re only down three mechs from combat losses.”
“Take your Battalion and flank the incoming Conspiracy force.”
“Roger that. We’re on the move.”
“That’ll break the line.” said Victor, reality coming back to him.
“It’s my intention to keep the Conspiracy from exploiting it. Victor, bring your 2nd Battalion up to cover their maneuver.”
“You’re spreading us thin.” said Asano.
“I intend to make us thinner.” said Joshua. “Check your ammo stores. If we don’t break their initiative now, they’ll pick us apart after our ammunition is spent. Dirty Dozen, prepare to charge.”
“Are you crazy?” said Ryan.
“We have the advantage, even in the city.” said Joshua. “And we might just intimidate them into falling back.”
“Go for it, General.” said a reassuring Logan. Joshua wondered from where the transmission originated. Logan should have been long gone by now.
Joshua brought Steppenwolfe up to a full run. Falling into line behind him were his command lance. On adjacent streets, Sword mechs began their charge. “Spread out. Maximize our contact points.” ordered Joshua. Lances broke apart to widen the line as the Swords rapidly closed the gap with the advancing Conspiracy forces.
Joshua and Mechlanthon encountered a medium lance of mercenary mechs. Mechlanthon, who’s mech was much faster, took the lead and opened fire with his SRMs into the lead mercenary mech. The Phoenix Hawk got a torso-full of missiles, but it didn’t slow that mech down. Joshua followed it up with his LRMs, smashing into the same mech. That got its attention and the impacts made the mech misstep and slide on the slick concrete street.
Joshua didn’t miss a beat to open up on the next mech in line, firing his autocannon. The Highlander Blackjack returned fire with its twin heavy lasers. Both volleys hit and one ton of armor was destroyed. Joshua snarled, but was pleased he now piloted a heavy mech instead of a medium. Any of the Galileos would be in much worse shape than the Cauldron Born by now.
Joshua pushed down on the accelerator, bringing his mech to a run and firing his lasers into the Blackjack. Beside him, the Phoenix Hawk came back to its feet and fired one of its heavy lasers into Mechlanthon’s Grendel. Joshua gritted his teeth and swerved his mech to one side. The Cauldron Born struck the Phoenix Hawk in a glancing collision, only slightly slowing its run. But it had the effect Joshua wanted. The Phoenix Hawk was unbalanced and fell back down.
What it had cost him though was the room to maneuver. The Blackjack had drawn a bead on him now and was about to fire another volley of lasers.
“Oh no, you don’t.” said Mechlanthon. His use of a contraction was far less surprising than the PPC blast that ripped though the left arm of the Blackjack, blowing it off. It was uncharacteristic of Mechlanthon to assist a warrior he respected in a one-on-one duel.
Joshua cut loose with the autocannon again into the damaged Blackjack at point blank range. The shells ripped through the mech’s center armor and blasted into the Blackjack’s gyro, crippling it. It crashed over backwards as Joshua looked up to face the next two mechs.
They were a pair of Vulcans, deadly city fighters. But in this stand-up fight, they were no more potent than any other medium mech. Joshua lunged Steppenwolfe forward. Three pulse lasers arced over his mech’s surface; A fourth narrowly missed only to scorch the building behind him. A computer alarm sounded off, warning Joshua that his armor had been breached in several places. His mech’s extra stamina was now gone.
Mechlanthon stepped up, firing his SRM pack into the twin mechs. He followed that up with a PPC blast. Lightly armored, the first Vulcan lost a leg and the adjacent arm in that barrage. The mech crashed to the street.
Freed of having to fight two opponents, Joshua fired a pulse from the large laser into his Vulcan. Unable to take even one hit from such a potent weapon, the Vulcan staggered back, heavily damaged. It turned to run, but Mechlanthon finished it with a PPC to the back.
Joshua glanced down at his radar screen. The charge had worked. Fifth battalion’s flanking maneuver had just begun and the Conspiracy forces were falling back, disoriented and frightened. Unfortunately, this had been a costly maneuver. Joshua knew that the enemy had taken down a few of the Swords before being forced to withdraw.
“Ammo check.” said Joshua. He scanned over his own stores. The final pulse laser attack from the Vulcans had scrapped his LRM launcher, making its nearly full ammunition complement useless. His autocannon was down to only 3 bursts.
“My SRM is almost empty.” said Mechlanthon.
“Let’s hope it’s enough.” Said Joshua. “They know they’re backed into a corner. That’s why Duke Ryan threw the kitchen sink at us.”
---
A little more than a kilometer away, Logan and the Dark Rangers were marching through the burning city streets of Exiletown. The fighting in this part of the city had been particularly fierce, as the Genyosha regiments clashed with the elite of the Conspiracy. To Logan’s surprise and dismay, most of the mech carcasses that littered the streets were of Kurita mechs. Had the Swords not flanked Ryan Steiner’s bodyguards, it was quite likely the 2nd Conspiracy regiment would have pushed through to the spaceport.
By now, all the Alliance ground forces were active. The aerospace support would be off-loading next and it was vital that the lines hold until they were also finished. But Logan and company were not here to ensure the perimeter remained intact. They were hunting an old friend.
“You know, we shouldn’t be doing this. General Messer....” said Kai.
“I know what he wanted.” said Logan. “But I suspect some of our old friends have already taken care of their generals for us. We didn’t spend three months on this rock without learning just how tenacious our rebel friends can be.”
“You put a lot of faith in Nathan.” asked Rohan.
“This whole operation was carefully planned. You’ve heard the chatter. The Highlanders have mostly stood down and are not engaging us. Do you honestly think Bairn’d stop at that?”
“Careful, boss.” said Abel, Christian’s son. “I’ve got an enemy mech two blocks ahead.”
“Just one?”
“It seems to be a Thor, sir. A Clan design. Wait, its IFF transponder signal is Star Swords”
“Must be an equipment malfunction. We’re too deep into the city for there to be Swords mechs about.”
“It’s no error, Captain.” Said a voice. “This is Kommandant Juan Miranda of the Star Swords 4th Battalion. I’m here to join your hunt.”
“You were supposed to stand down, Kommandant.”
“As I’ve said to others, I’ve got a score to settle. Duke Ryan is in the area. Be mindful.”
At that very moment, pulse lasers raked across the buildings, tearing two large furrows in the armor of Juan’s Thor.
“Backstabber!” snarled Duke Ryan. “I should have known not to trust one of O’Malley’s lackeys.”
Logan marched up and passed Juan as he tried to get his mech out of the line of fire. A full company of enemy mechs was bearing down on them, all brand new designs and led by a single Grand Titan. Ryan Steiner and his command company had arrived.
“You may have won the war, fools. But at least I’ll get the satisfaction of taking you with me.” taunted Ryan Steiner. The pilot of his Grand Titan drove the point home by cutting loose into The Nightmare with his LRM launchers.
Steiner and his pilot followed up the attack with another pulse laser attack. At moment, the rest of the company smashed into the bulk of the Dark Rangers. A huge melee erupted.
After their losses on Northwind, the Rangers had only managed to fill a handful of their open positions. They were understrength by three mechs, despite Juan’s surprise arrival. Steiner’s forces were of equal skill, but were slightly better equipped and outnumbered Logan’s men.
With Steiner was one of the stolen Balrog Omnimechs the Conspiracy owned. Armed with a brutal combination of laser cannon and a targeting computer, it waded in among the fray, its heavy armor making nearly invulnerable to all the weapons fire. It trained its sights on Rohan’s Mantis and fired a full barrage. Laser after laser ripped through the Mantis’s light armor like it was paper, destroying vital systems. Rohan, fearing for his life, punched his eject button and rocketed into the sky. The Mantis exploded beneath him in a huge fireball.
Logan swore and backed up to cover Rohan as his parachute deployed. The Balrog had other plans as Cowboy brought his Banshee to bear on the Balrog. Far more evenly matched, Cowboy’s mech hammered the Balrog with twin PPCs and a gauss cannon. That hurt it.
Logan’s distraction gave the Grand Titan enough time to pummel The Nightmare once more with a volley of pulse lasers and missiles. Unfortunately for Steiner, his mech’s weapons were almost too diverse. No one weapon had the punch to seriously hurt Logan’s mech. To keep up with the damage Logan’s Clan-based weapons could inflict, Steiner’s pilot had to push his mech to its limits. And his heat level had begun to rise.
Meanwhile, Doc and the rest were tackling with the bulk of the Conspiracy force. Doc’s Ryoken was taking a beating but the former technician was giving as good as he got. He’d modified the mech to carry a configuration similar to the one General Messer had preferred on Galileo III: a gauss cannon and medium lasers for support. Without the Galileo III’s advanced targeting computer, the configuration was not quite as potent, but it made up for it with increased firepower in the form of a Streak SRM rack.
Doc had moved his mech alongside Juan’s Thor and the two of them were holding the line against wave after wave of Thunders, Captivators, and Minutemen. Behind those mechs, the lethal missile carriers called Apollos rained LRMs down on the hapless Rangers. A blast from a Conspiracy Thunder’s Class 20 autocannon brought down Grayson’s Shadow Hawk, but Doc doughnutted the mech with a gauss shot a few seconds later. The Thunder went up in a huge fireball, severely damaging the building next to it.
Doc suddenly became aware that all the firepower being released was seriously damaging the nearby buildings. The Thunder’s destruction seemed to spell the doom of that office building and it began to sway. “All Rangers, pull back!” screamed Doc, backpedaling his Ryoken out of harm’s way. Juan fired his Thor’s jump jets as the building came down into the street. It crushed a Conspiracy Minuteman that couldn’t get out of the way in time and raised a huge cloud of dust the blanketed the battlefield.
Masked by the dust cloud, Cowboy pulled back from the Balrog. Badly damaged, his Banshee had lost both of its PPCs to a lucky hit from the Balrog’s twin heavy lasers. With his gauss rifle now empty, Cowboy found himself robbed of most of his firepower. But the Balrog was almost in as bad a shape. A few lucky hits from Cowboy’s gauss had all but crushed one of the demonic mech’s jump nacelles, making it impossible for the mech to jump.
Logan also took advantage of the cloud, not to give ground, but to take it. He closed on the Titan’s last position, hoping to give the damaged assault mech a lethal volley at point blank range. As the dust cleared, Logan discovered to his dismay that Steiner had moved away. A dozen warning alarms went off in The Nightmare’s cockpit as lasers tore into the soft back armor of the Awesome. Steiner may have been no mechwarrior, but the soldier piloting his mech knew his stuff. Logan had been outsmarted.
“Critical hit: Engine. Critical hit: Gyro. Critical hit: ER PPC. Criti....” chimed his computer before it shorted out.
With its gyro damaged, The Nightmare fell forward onto the pavement. Impact with the ground crushed the mech’s heavy pulse laser in its housing, robbing the mech of two of its three heavy weapons. All that remained was the gauss rifle and the SRM launcher. The SRM launcher was loaded, as always, with inferno rounds. On the ground, he was nearly helpless and the Titan was closing for the kill.
As Cowboy cleared the dust cloud, the Balrog charged out of nowhere to slam into his Banshee. The impact knocked the 95 ton mech into a nearby building. The weakened building collapsed on top of the Banshee, pinning it under tons of rubble.
The Balrog turned to face another target only to get a blast of SRMs in the face from Doc’s Ryoken. Blinded for a brief second, it staggered backwards into another building. As it crushed mortar, glass, and steel with its huge bulk, Juan hammered it with the last of his autocannon shells. The gun clicked dry just as the last of the Balrog’s heavy chest armor fell away into the street. Seeing his opening, Doc fired his lasers, drilling through the massive mech’s chest and destroying its gyro. Crippled, the Balrog fell forward into the street.
Not far away, Steiner’s mechwarrior was about to press his advantage when his computer chimed in with a warning of its own. “Heat level critical: Shutdown sequence initiated.”
“NO!” swore Steiner. He reached up and smacked the pilot on the head, a pointless gesture of frustration as the pilot’s neurohelmet more than softened the blow. As he watched his mech’s systems turn themselves off one by one, he also watched Logan slowly bring his nearly crippled mech back to its feet. Logan turned and saw the motionless Titan, looking down on him as if in elated triumph.
“Why doesn’t he finish me?” said Logan to himself. Without his sensors, he couldn’t determine why the Titan was doing nothing. It did not take him long however to deduce what had happened.
Logan swung the gauss rifle around to point at the chin of the Titan. The head of the Titan exploded, rocketing Steiner away just as Logan fired. The gauss shell finished off what the ejection rockets didn’t, killing the mech’s elite pilot, but Steiner was free and clear.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” snarled Logan, dropping another crosshair onto the ejection pod.
As Steiner’s parachute deployed, Logan triggered a volley from his SRM system. The inferno round detonated about 10 meters short of Steiner’s parachute, spraying the area with white hot liquid. Logan smiled and imagined the scream as Duke Ryan Steiner, the great leader of the Conspiracy, was incinerated. The parachute burned away in less than a second and his body dropped to the ground, smashing into powdery ash as it hit.
Logan slapped his radio transmit switch, hoping the device still worked. “Logan to all mechs: The Duke is dead. I repeat, Duke Ryan Steiner is dead.”
“General Messer here. Can anyone confirm that report?”
“Roger, General.” Said Doc. “Report confirmed. Logan nailed him with an inferno round.”
Blocks away, Joshua smiled. Logan had transmitted his message across an open frequency. Everyone, Conspiracy or Ally, had heard the news.
Steiner’s bodyguard company, who had witnessed their leader’s brutal death, were the first to show the signs of what would soon spread across the Conspiracy forces. Demoralized, their coordinated and efficient attacks began to falter. That momentary break was all that Doc and Juan needed to rally the remaining Rangers and drive off their enemies.
“Doc to General Messer reporting in. This area is secure.”
“Go ahead, Doc. What happened?”
“We encountered a company of the 1st Conspiracy. We’re in bad shape. Logan, Cowboy, Rohan, and Grayson are down. Logan’s alive. The rest are status unknown.”
“Withdraw to the dropships. I’m sending a company of Swords to cover your area.”
Georgia Central
1 September 3055. 0825 Hours
Word quickly spread through the 1st Conspiracy that Steiner was dead. Without their leader, it quickly became a situation of every man for himself. Convinced they would be defeated and then tried as traitors, the former FedCom soldiers that made up the bulk of the Conspiracy army fled their positions en masse. Mercenary units, never famous for their loyalty, did likewise. The Conspiracy lines soon collapsed under a furious attack by the Genyosha and Victor’s Lyran Guard. Rather than face further harm to their own capital city, the Highlanders entered the fray, but not on the side of the Conspiracy. They had been waiting outside the city limits and now prevented any Conspiracy forces from escaping into the wild. Trapped, the remaining Conspirators surrendered.
With their enemies in retreat, the Alliance forces gained a needed break to rest and rearm, even if only for a few hours. Joshua, however, had no such break. Juan had joined up with the Swords and had told Joshua that Lisa and Gwen were headed for O’Malley’s manor. Joshua then ordered his mech reloaded.
“This is unwise.” Said Mechlanthon. “If you open fire on a Highlander unit, even if it is O’Malley, you could bring them into the fray against us.”
"We've seen a handful of Highlander mechs among the Conspiracy forces. Not all of them chose to obey the order to stand down." interjected Daisaku.
“Regardless, that monster has my son!” said Joshua forcefully. “And my wife and best friend are heading right towards him. I will not stand idly by while the both of them rush headlong into danger.”
“General…”
“You don’t have a child of your own, Mechlanthon. I don’t expect you to understand.”
Joshua drew his sword to inspect it. Mechlanthon realized that it was a new blade.
“That is new. When did you get that?”
“It was time.” Said Joshua. “I forged this before we departed.” The sword was exquisite. Unlike Anduril, this weapon was single-edged, its blade having the porous appearance of compressed endo-steel. The hilt was wrapped in red and black cloth, similar to the hilt of a Japanese katana. The crosspiece bore the emblem of Clan Wolverine. “This is the same design as my father’s sword.” He said. “And of the Khan’s before him, reaching all the way back to Rebecca Laidir.”
“The sword of the Wolverines. You have recreated it.”
“I have and its first test will be to bathe in the blood of Richard O’Malley.”
“Good luck, Joshua.”
---
Joshua moved Steppenwolfe out of the demolished sections of the city around the spaceport into those areas battle had not yet touched. With his high speed, Joshua watched as the Dark Rangers and his other allies slowly dropped off of his radar. As he progressed though the city, he spotted Highlander signals ahead.
The cease-fire with the Highlanders was still very tentative. Contact had not been established with Nathan to determine the conditions of his agreement with them. As Mechlanthon had highlighted, advancing further into the city might threaten the peace, but Joshua was more than willing to take the chance.
“Hopefully, they’ll not think much of me.” Said Joshua to himself. But as he feared, a small group of mechs broke off from the rest to check him out.
“They’re in for a surprise.” Said Joshua as he told his computer to target the lead mech. It registered as a Panther, a light scout mech. Joshua cycled though the other approaching mechs, finding the other three to be two Wasps and a Hermes II medium mech.
“A scout lance, just as I suspected.” Said Joshua, somewhat annoyed. Too fast for Joshua to outrun easily, they didn’t pose much of a threat by themselves, but they could signal for reinforcements that Joshua would have trouble dealing with.
Joshua held his course, making his way towards O’Malley manor on the far side of the city. He was still a good 25 kilometers distant, and Joshua did not want to have to fight his way through all 25. The Panther turned the corner a couple of blocks ahead and drew a bead on him with its primary weapon, a PPC.
Joshua cut loose with his lasers, saving his autocannon shells for meaner opponents, before the Panther could fire. Both lasers sheared though the mech’s right arm, cutting off the PPC and leaving the light Panther virtually weaponless. It pulled back away, realizing it has bitten off more than it could chew. Joshua let it go, but the real damage had been done. Two more mechs broke off from the main group of Highlanders and made their way towards Joshua. Joshua knew they would be a bit tougher.
“Time to put you though your paces.” Said Joshua to his mech. He pushed the throttle forward and the mech moved up to its maximum speed of 86 kph. At that speed, Joshua could outrun most any mech that outgunned him. Fortunately for him, the enemy attack force could not keep up, but by now, Steppenwolfe had gained its own reputation to match that of either of the Galileo’s. That meant the O’Malleys would know he was coming.
“Captain O’Malley, we have identified the enemy mech as a Cauldron Born. It bears Star Swords markings.” said the Panther pilot, limping back to the main Highlander force.
“It is him. Let him pass. I’ll deal with him.” Came Richard’s voice in response.
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