Scrap Highland Faire Alternate
[NON CANON, ALTERNATE ft Wolf Dragoons]
Scrap Highland Faire Dragoons (c)
He had considered switching mechs, but the break in action had given them time to resupply ammunition. Gene understood the machine had been built to Kerensky's impatient specificaitons given concerns about the Titan. He'd read the data packets, and that this was a prototype intended for testing, but he had reservations about the ammunition loads the machine carried... he had to weigh things
Thus, given the situation they had time to reload, and so it made sense to retain the greater striking power. Once they were through this, it would be different. They work out better solutions from battlefield data... or that's what he was telling himself silently while they stood their waiting for a response to their response to the Dragoons officers challenge to single combat.
They had eyes already on the watch to make sure none of the black and red mechs attempted to breakout and bypass them... but Gene doubted they'd try, supplementary minefields had been deployed, and then those were covered by emplaced highlander infantry with SRM launchers themselves covered by other teams with support PPCs. They had their bases covered as best as was possible.
If the black and red mechs attempted a breakout ... that would have been simpler.
He brought machine online and watched as it booted. The Highlander was broadcasting a Royal Highland Regiment signature ... which meant Campbell had taken the option. Whether it would change anything he didn't know... but he doubted it... it might mean something with regards to the parley that might come after this...
but for the time being there were other matters.
The Devastator stepped out into the morning air.
He looked at his console, and then sighed in relief as no Dragoon machine attempted to handshake his hundred ton machine. He had no idea how the Black Watch descent would resonate with the dragoons... but he could ask, "Dante?"
The AI approximated a gruff exhale, "They're stalling still. Running through their comms traffic now, their pushing things up the chain." The AI would have ordinarily been able to facilitate data traffic through a dalban but this machine lacked the more comprehensive computer systems and particularly the software, but it was kind of growing on him. "You need to secure this front, the Eridani losses are approaching ten percent." Which was steep in terms of sustainable side losses... but that wasn't the only reason, "Rotating units to fill in, and bringing the trams online should allow units to be pulled inside Northwind, and refit with units from Harlaw's depot."
"I understand." He replied to the machine spirit. "Similar situation for the other units?"
"Roughly comparable. The Heavy Guards are doing a commendable job," He was given to understand that cache material from Elidere and Robinson had been marked towards going to potentially reconstituting an Avalon Hussar to actual SLDF Hussar formation patterns... but that hadn't been completed yet. The Eridani would be the first units in the roster for rearming, barring having to rearm native 'militia' units as Dante chose to refer to Highland units that were not credentialled to HAF forces like the Black Watch. "Given their defensive position and reserves I estimate that once we have secured this front, and resupplied the Third Regimental Combat team, that we can potentially turn the entire attacking front." That went into the fact that despite probably having a qualitative edge in materiel, and possibly even a slight one in individual mechwarriors It was one Mech Regiment versus an intact RCT.
That sounded appealing. "One thing at a time Dante."
"I have TAG units on standby, and missiles on ready release."
"Good." He eased the machine into a trot. One thing at a time though. Once they counter attacked they would like be moving on direct command aiming to encircle, and destroy units quickly, or otherwise neutralize them. Find the chinks in the enemy ranks and exploit those cracks with overwhelming firepower.
Campbell's highlander reestablished contact as he decoupled from the tight beam with the AI. The Highlander's pilot seemedenthused at prospects.
The ... neutral space ... was out exposde on all sides. It was still on the river bank. The Dragoons hadn't fallen back completely, but the devestated turnpike and bridge was flat and open enough that two mechs could duel with nothing really obstructing their view of one another. As a nominal gesture of good faith both sides were keeping their armored vehicles outside of visual contact, or at least far enough back that they wouldn't be able to immediately engage.
Technically speaking there were a company of Fury and Alacorns on the MSR on ramp two klicks back just waiting for directions to drive up and deploy if this went sideways... and he expected the Dragoons had their own hovercraft in reserve waiting to do the same.
His focus turned to the mechs. The 'corner' where his presumable opponent would enter the area from had an Archer and Crusader waiting on their side of the ring. The Archer was the Wolf Dragoons version, but it was no surprise the Crusader, according to Campbell's Highlander, was an SLDF machine.
Minutes ticked by.
He turned the comms on, and issued almost word for word the challenge formulated by Hegemony Command for getting Ronins to come out and play. The formula wasn't perfect, and even in the 27
th century hadn't been a perfect solution to getting Combine ronin to come out, but it at least got the Dragoons attention.
There was a palpable tension that seemed to shift through their ranks.
Dante's laser comm paired as Campbell swallowed on the other line, "Think you just poked the bear."
"That challenge went across their comms, Colonel." Dante remarked, suggesting that the Dragoons were actively dickering across their chain of command, or at least in conference.
There was a snippet of intercepted feed piped through as a fusion signature bloomed on his display as a warhammer powered up. The seventy tonner should have been in a museum it was a painstakingly pristine machine that could very well have just come out of the cache in Harlaw behind their own lines. The black machine's pilot continued to snap irritably in russian at her fellows, and Gene blinked.
"Data suggests the machine is stock."
So barring a custom job of paint nothing stood out... right down to the ammunition storage lacking safeties that was to say cell based reactive armor storage. Gene bit his tongue to avoid questioning her choice of bringing that mech as the red head's face filled the screen to accept the challenge and make introductions.
He was not going to suggest she switch something heavier, and her certainly was not going to offer to swap over to his Marauder. Though it was a tempting taunt all the same... he wasn't going to do it.
"We are agreed." There was about a half klick between them. A roundabout with shattere centotaph in the space of the road. He stopped the mech and waited at his end as the Warhammer moved past the shuffling corner mates. Gene looked at the other mechs on the dragoon side.
He would have preferred if they had killed the Stalker but well it was fine, he understood that visibility had been more and that they'd had other priorities to hit. They would see how this went, and find out how this day was going to go.
Warning lights flashed on as the Warhammer's TTS went active, and probably in the red head's cockpit similar warnings flashed as the Star League era and long discontinued TTS of the Devastator came online. Gene breathed as the data resolved. He was beyond effective medium range, they'd disperse too much to effectively burn through the already suberb ablative qualities of armor... but he didn't need them. He stacked the ferric tungsten slugs within a foot of one another in the hostile mech's center torso just as it started to move lateral, her Donal PPCs firing, his own of the same model fired a hair after and nearly finished the job of nearly coring out the Warhammer's internal structure as the sparks radiated like spiderwebs across the structure.
Kerensky for her credit actually managed to keep the machine from swan diving out of control as well as staying upright, but it should have been obvious from just the feel impact never mind whatever her hud was telling her was that this was over. The engine was gone, or if it wasn't was barely sputtering.
He flipped the comms to system wide, "MechWarrior saf-." He didn't get to finish the instructions to turn the reactor off.
Targetting systems alarms went active again, and that was all he got as the two annhilators in Zeta colors plastered the area around him with fire from their AC 10s. If these had been League armed Annhilators firing cluster the LBX probably would have delivered some damage home. His face set eyes reflecting almost amber mead in the cockpit lights across the frequency as the actuators on the Devastor moved independent of one another. The arms adjusted.
The vaguely dinosaur like heads exploded as gauss rifles roared.
Dante had already taken the initiative, he could somewhat make out over the pounding of blood in his ears, to issue roll forward orders to the armor company and the fury's to start painting off targets by the numbers.
Target 1 the Zeta Stalker still missing an arm from this morning.
Gauss rifles snarled and hundreds of lrms cycled into the air from Highlander BattleMechs.
--
Brevet General Kerston had ordered men to their deaths before. He sat forward in his headquarters hands folded watching the holographic display. Here in his headquarters clutching rosary esque the starleague starburst on a chain, here and not in his mech.
For the moment they were waiting to see what was going to happen.
Waiting for the feeds to pipe in... and when the screen changed the exchange was brief. Kerston had seen a mech core another one something like that before. Assault Autocannons were of course a known thing. He was sure that at close range a King Crab or the Marauder II... instead of being engaged fighting an invasion right now... should still have been the subject of the argument to call Stormlord or Stormsword since there was already a stormhammer
Then everything went wrong, and right.
The Warhammer did go silent on scopes. Whether because the pilot had shut it off, or if the engine had simply given up... but the firing by Zeta into the now concluded duel kicked up a massive of debris and dirt, and mud. The subsequent return fire silenced the two interjecting mechs, but a general free for all had already resumed as tartan painted mechs opened and Marauder IIs from both parties surged fowrad to meet.
Kerston stood up and put his hand on the table pressing the starburst deep into his palm, "All units, to action." The 3
rd Regimental Combat Team of the Star League Defense Forces, the vaunted Eridani light horse obeyed the relayed command and resumed the battle that had paused a few hours earlier to allow both sides time to stop and collect their wounded, and dead.
--
Field Marshal Yvonne Davion, the Prince's Champion stood surounded by Davion officials, statesmen and nobility from Crucis, and Draconis Marches. This was not hte battle they had prepared for. Those damned purple birds had managed to nearly cock everything up, if only by sheer bumbling incompetence... this very well had the potential to be disaster.
At least if that lunatic from the snakes had been right about thinking that the sudden traffic was from the Combine they would have been harming the real enemy. Instead they had taken, fought a pointless battle in defense against House Mariks, and it was against mercenaries so it wasn't as if the Free Worlds League had lost precious regular troops in this.
"Your grace we have Colonel Wolf on the line."
"Thank you Jeffries." She replied nodding... but didn't immediately move to take the line. Disccusions had been carried out through back channels. Through the MRB. If the Dragoons had been normal mercenaries she might have considered that it wsa just them covering their ass so to speak against any potential backlash. She wasn't sure though that was really the case that they were dealing with.
The hologram connected. "Field Marshal Davion." She had always thought Jaime Wolf had been a little young for his position, she had thought that when the Dragoons had first appeared over Delos with their immense volume... the great number of fully laden JumpShips, it was one more incongruity to add to the long list of the mystery that was the wolf dragoons appearing out of no where.
"Colonel Wolf." She returned evenly. She was cognizant of course that the Dragoons had a regiment in reserve. She also suspected that the Highlanders and Eridani and their other incongruity had some ace of their own... beyond mechwarrior skills... that was a thought... seeing if they couldn't manage to set up Yorinaga Kurita to die... but she pushed that idea away. "You've created something of a mess of things."
The accusation rolled off his back like water off a duck. Jaime Wolf wasn't the least bit bothered by the perils of his profession, and frankly she was annoyed, but this was House Marik's fault, the Dragoons were simply the instrument. "We can avoid wasting more lives."
Field Marshal Yvonne Davion glanced to the haggard old kilted man. He was well into his eighties, "Yes, we can do that. I am prepared to offer you a general cessation of battle, and permit your withdrawl, terms to be discussed in person. You are to keep your current positions, and take no further offensive action, and you and a select party may advance to meet with us."
ComStar was going to mediate the legal side of things... but the Dragoons origins... the Highlanders wanted words, the blue star irregulars wanted words, and well... talking would be preferable to further wasting their strength. She'd be damned if they didn't get to salvage some replacement equipment... seeing as she doubted the Dragoons would do the sensible thing and switch sides and volunteer to go charging off against House Kurita.
--
Scotts Cursassiers, Highlander Mech Infantry in this case, stood in the background of the other end of the screen processing thelast of the debris from what had been Zeta battalion. They were also cataloging POWs, taking names and rendering medical aid as well.
Abner heartily smacked his shoulder, "Yes, that was splendidly done. I shall, I cannot wait to show Mister Ford the footage. Yes, a very impressive showing, I cannot imagine a finer demonstration." Not the least of which was because Abner hoped that the devastator ould be put into production at long last.
... he wondered if ... given Kersenky's involvement in the program if the Dragoons... if the Clans of Kerensky had taken Devastators with them, if they had the technical data package for the machines... either way the Dragoons hadn't demonstrated them.
"There is still work to be done."
They needed to go ahead, just as a precaution pull Eridani units out of the line, rearm them just in case talks fell through and the Dragoons went back on the offensive. He knew Kerston wanted the Light Horses of the Blue Star Irregulars refit as well, since the brevet general expected they could be trusted and of course given the situation.
A full rearmanent of entire units would mean opening up an intact cache for a BattleMech Division... and they hadn't found one of those. They had Mechanized Infantry Division resources which included Hegemony battlemechs and that was what they were going to make do without of Harlaw. They didn't have the time to repair using spare parts or refit with new weapons.
"And speaking of that," Campbell said glancing around, "we're gonna be late if we don't get moving." The Highlander added unnecessarily... statement of the obvious... especially since they were supposed to be carting Dragoon officers captured along to Northwind, which he wasn't especially thrilled with.
Soldiers obeyed orders, lawful ones, from higher command. Field Marshal Davion said to bring them along... probably they were going to be exchanged but she hadn't explicitly said that. Given the succession wars it was probable they might be ransomed in a knightly fashion, but he didn't know.
It didn't help that by the time they had arrived at Northwind castle it had started raining again, and on top of Dante informing him he had anti personnel drones standing by the AI's radar forecast was calling for snow and high winds. The temperature certainly didn't seem to agree with the countess of Kestrel even in spite of being seated by one of the castles roaring fireplaces.
Gene shrugged off the dress coat as quickly as he could. The castle was well past warm by his standards. "Now what?"
Campbell shrugged, "The clan elders hope to speak with Colonel wolf... but on the other hand they did invade the planet...what did she call it a blood house?" He trailed off, and to be fair the post adrenaline dump come down probably wasn't easy
... Gene had cheated and wolfed down a high caffeine ration packet to ward off that crash, "Blood Name. Kerensky."
True Born. Words that meant very little other than some idea of descent to Campbell. He doubted that Kerensky's boasting had ultimately been intentional, or at least not done with forethought behind it, but it was something else.
The words didn't come as Alexandria Cunningham made her way over. "Well that's another victory," She remarked sipping at glass of mulled wine.
"Its a little early for laurel wreaths and victory arches." He rejoined,
She scoffed and snorted, "I believe I'm supposed to be the cynic colonel... certainly with all this chattering from the media people clamoring about spurs, and blackguards as if this were a holo drama."
The dramatization very likely was intentional though to coax a specific reaction from the public, or he hoped the talk was for propaganda sake. They had other things to deal with than the talking heads in the media. They had their part to play and he had his. They danced around the conversation's edge, but the truth was there wasn't much new. Alexandria knew something was going on, and that there were more Eridani troopers around Castle Northwind but she didn't ask.
Of course if they started redeploying with Star League equipment... there were going to be questions asked... but they would only have to do that if the Dragoons attacked... and he considered that unlikely while the Dragoon leadership were here.
He paused to pet the one of the clan wolf hounds that was wandering around, which allowed him to survey the gallery landing as the Dragoon delegation arrived. "Alright they're here."
Campbell shifted, and excused himself, presumably to go harry his eldest kinsmen over their wanting explanations about whatever far flung stars out in the black Kerensky had fled to. He doubted Campbell was going to get it... he hadn't missed that as soon as Zeta had failed in their gambit's contingency... that was to say trying to bushwhack him once it was clear a duel wasn't going to go do it and opened up... they'd also tried to hit Campbell's highlander.
Of course they had only tried after the free for all had opened... admittedly Colonel Jamison probably hadn't expected to lose two Assault mechs in the first seconds of the engagement, and those Annihilators going down had probably wrecked the firing order. Then couple that with firing into superior numbers, and armor moving to where they could engage and paint them over the lakeside had probably been hard to plan around or for. He hadn't actually questioned Jamison, the Zeta Colonel's jaw had been broken during his punch out from his stalker... and frankly the man was lucky he hadn't drowned even in the relatively shallow river. Some dragoon pilots hadn't been as lucky when they'd been knocked out of action in the before dawn portion of today's action.
--
Field Marshal Davion didn't come to collect them in person. There were groomsmen for that sort of thing, but eventually the red jackets had come around to collect them. There was still the possibility whoever was in charge of Beta could order an attack but that would have been kind of obvious... and Beta still hadn't deployed to the planet yet... and it was a little late for that since unlike the others they hadn't hard burned to the planet.
If the Dragoons did try something the commanding officers of the Davion Heavy Guards, New Avalon Hussars, and Blue Star Irregulars were all still with their units. They would in theory be able to respond.
As the meeting began though that seemed unlikely. Wolf, and his fellow officers had been allowed to congregate... because gentlemen ... Jamison apparently could communicate via sign language... but Kerensky was the one who was filling them in on intelligence. It was frustrating but not really surprising.
He hoped that the Field Marshal was right that this more finalization of details. Gene wasn't entirely thrilled that the immediate priority wasn't to get the dragoons off world as quickly as possible... preferably sans if not all of their mechs sans enough war materiel to make them combat ineffective in the short term
They wanted till the MRB representative had been shown out, and then they dropped the bombshell...the Field Marshall was probably exaggerating her own certainty... she certainly made it seem like they had more proof. "And we have it on good authority that Star League protocol wouldn't have had Army depots store, what is it three Starlords, two monoliths, and how many other JumpShips registered to your command?" After all the Dragoons had first shown up over Delos in 3005, shown up first in the Federated Suns. It didn't matter that the rest of the Dragoon space lift wasn't here... that presumably there were units stationed on whatever garrison world the Mariks had provided along with that block box space station.
Gene didn't know how stupid the Dragoons ... the clans must have assumed the successor states were but really it was a little insulting. Especially given Wolf's visual tell that flitted there as the game seemed to be up.
"Because we were told about the first of your succession wars... we were told about Kentares."
There was a harsh silence that fell at the Colonel of Gamma Regiment. Gene wasn't sure if she was lying or not... did it matter? It was entirely possible the clans during that period could have captured fleeing jumpships trying to get out before the great die of interstellar travel as the nukes flew.
There was a thump beside him, and Gene whirred in his seat as Brevet General Kerston slammed his hands on the table having risen from his seat "And you did nothing, just left the Inner Sphere to fight house Kurita in spite of knowing he collaborated with Amaris? That the combine fed SLDF positions to the enemy!" All eyees fell on the towering font of rage the old general had become.
If Wilhelmina Korsht had expected her knowledge of the Inner Sphere tearing itself apart and the decision to stay away then to get them out of it... well that had well and truly backfired on them. Gene slowly slid his seat back, and managed to keep from blurting out an expletive... because the room had for a second time in under a minute turned deathly quiet.
The thing was... from their expressions the Dragoons hadn't known... but then that wasn't a surprise... Kerensky hadn't killed Kurita on Terra, hadn't used the Fleet to burn the Combine to ash and ruin... and he might not have even taken a copy of the recording with him... but
... Jerome Blake's copy had likely remained in ComStar's archive after they replaced the ministry of communication... and wasn't that another lovely can of worms to potentially have to deal with down the road.
... then the silence broke as demands for explanations exploded all around the room. Idly looking into his cup, Gene was regretting not having accepted a scotch from the highlanders in favor of hot tea.
--
Notes: Obviously again to reiterate despite taking place over a span of less than three days in this draft if this were cannon instead of being roughly ten K this would be roughly thirty thousand words with actual scenes dealing with the company's regular officers on top of others. We would actually be covering the other Davion Units more focused expanded dragoon scenes, an actual expounding that Zeta's normal strategy is what it is in canon. Clan shit. Other stuff... and probably among that the reiteration is that Kerston by the time of the conference is mentally and physically drained, because well in the course of January 3018 he's been put through a lot, and Kerston has been Brevet General of the Eridani for almost twenty years.
Anyway... we will resume the main canon timeline with the Combine rebels arrival next week.
