InaG Chpt 14

==It's not a Gundam - Chapter 14 - The Invasion of Circinus- Book 2 -==
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
----
===Springing the Trap===
Circinus IV Orbit
Circinus, Circinus Federation 
January 3027
Two years ago I was putting down a Pirate Kingdom, facing a suspiciously well-equipped army.
 
Today history repeated itself.
 
The Circinus Federation was a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Black Warriors that were their standing military and mercenary force engaged in piracy. The farmers profited off of the raids of their neighbors and this time I had proof to nail them.
 
At the very least we were doing it more covertly. Guild ships brought us over Circinus IV's orbit. Me and the Knights of St. Cameron would go the rest of the way under our own power.
 
The greater majority of the Black Warriors were elsewhere, off to raid Lyran and Free World systems. Our partners were waiting for them. But the task of arresting President McIntyre and his inner circle would be left to us.
 
Even so Circinus IV had more mechs than planned. There were enough OZ-series Mobile Suit parts in circulation that anyone could assemble them or make their own factories. What I saw working beside dropships and worker pods were civilian workmech versions of the Leos, made on Hesperus II. I doubted they were imported. It was an inevitability when I introduced mechs that were cheap, simple, and reliable for a world in need of it.
 
For that reason I had another card to play: Generation 2.
 
The Mercurius was a defense-maximized machine with a large ballistic shield and the Planet Defensors, drones that emitted an electromagnetic field as an energy shield. It was the mech I piloted.
 
The Mercurius' brother the Vayeate wasn't a mech with a big gun, it was a big gun with a mech. It's only weapon was it's powerful particle cannon. It started at a Clan-grade ER PPC and it got worse from there as it charged up. Gluck piloted the Vayeate, preferring to be the tip of the spear.
 
Joining us wasn't the first LAM in my arsenal. But they were the first transforming ones. The Taurus transformed into a simple aerodynamic shape with little complexity. In every aspect it was a high-performance machine on land, in the air, and in space. They made up a good half of our force. The other half was waiting in the sides, waiting for the signal.
 
That being an HPG message.
 
From the Circinus IV HPG Station a message was broadcasted. To anyone hearing it it was static. To us it said it was time:
 
//The trap was sprung.\\
 
//The Black Warriors were caught red handed.\\
 
//The time to drop was now.\\
 
The majority of the Junker Dropships began to enter Circinus IV's atmosphere. Clayborne Remembered, the planetary capital, shouted back at us, demanding answers as to why the Guild wasn't asking for clearance to land as most merchants normally did.
My answer was to reveal the Ptolemaios ... originally hidden in the shadow of Circinus IV's twin moons and a cloud of ECM.
 
I felt the kick as the magnetic catapults hurled us toward pirates who had their pants down.
"General."
 
"Sir!"
 
I sent out the Planet Defensors far ahead of us. They activated with crackling lightning dancing between the circular emitters blocking the panicking and disorganized fire of the Black Warriors.
 
As the EM field failed, the Vayeate had finished charging. Gluck raised his right arm as the barrel glowed and roared. A line of pure golden light cut through the black void and buried itself into Dropships and ASFs still in their berth.
 
The Taurus joined in, filling the space between us with their own Lasers and PPCs picking off Circinian defenses one-by-one.
 
What few ASFs and Combat Pods reoriented themselves and scrambled toward us. ASFs banked and juked as they began to duel with the Taurus, many by now refitted with pronounced control surfaces to perform some of the same AMBAC maneuvers as the mechs. Dogfighting had changed the moment I used the Aries.
 
The enemy pods threw themselves at us. Almost suicidally. They rocketed towards our force without care of their safety, firing whatever guns they had on them, trying to claw at us with their pincers, and even attempting to ram us if they could. I raised my shield just as a Ball slammed into it. The pod cracked like an egg and flew off venting atmosphere.
 
Gluck was less lucky. He was being mobbed by a trio of them as he tried to wrestle free. Their pincers squeezed on the mechs as hydraulics and myomers worked to slowly crush the Vayeate's E-Carbon frame.
 
I raised my gun. What would be called a Snub-Nose PPC in BT terms, and fired. Powerful in short range, but weak at a distance, I counted on the latter when I aimed it at him. The feather-thin end of the beam cut into the exposed backs of the pods, destroying one, damaging another, and bought Gluck time to free himself. He wrestled the last two off of him and fired, outright annihilating the last of his attackers.
 
"I am in your debt, Exarch!" he shouted back.
 
"Just looking out for my men General." I replied back, "For Pirates these men are brave."
 
"Sir... I don't think they are men."
 
He pointed toward one adrift pod. The fact that it was empty didn't concern me. It was the fact that it was the one that just rammed me ... and the control sticks were moving on their own.
 
"...Drones." I muttered.
 
Where did they get them?
 
As the battle in space progressed the tide proved to be in our favor. My men were better trained and better equipped. But we still took losses. The drones were relentless. Our relief force would jump in tomorrow if everything went as planned.
 
"General Gluck secure the prisoners and orbit ... I have questions I want to ask McIntyre..."
----
===Strong Counter-Attack===
Outside of Clayborne Remembered (Planetary Capital)
Circinus IV
Circinus System, Circinus Federation 
January 3027
Just like space the landing was more contested than expected; because for every pirate was a squad of drones to back him.
 
The Serpents, the fourth member of 'Generation 2', had leapt off of their Droppers and hit the ground on jump jets and parachutes.
In BT Terms they were equipped with RAC/2s, Arrow IVs Artillery Missiles, SRMs, and Clan ER PPCs. There was enough firepower there to make any Lance pause.
 
But they were fighting twice their number.
 
AC, LRM, SRM, and Laser Carriers spilled out of warehouses, some clearly with no driver, to fight them. Neo-Titanium armor was strong but it could not survive something straight out of the Battle of Kursk.
 
The Ptolemaios joined the fight sweeping away columns of drones with it's GN PPCs. Taurus mobile suits in their flightmodes joined in strafing runs to carve a deadly line between the Junker and Circinian forces.
 
I jumped off my flagship and into the middle of the landing zone. The ground force commander rushed forward to meet me as other DropShips began to land.
 
"Exarch. Good to see you! We almost got overrun!"
 
"Talk to me Barrett."
 
"McIntyre ran. His army ran with him. The Capital is ours but we don't have the manpower to sit on it. Before he left he sent these toys after us."
 
As the Droppers landed they did so in a circle, just like the Wagon Train on Alphard. Their guns joined in the defense while their mechbays opened, sending out the last and heaviest of our mechs: The Tierens.
 
They were few but they were a powerful asset. The Artillery Tierens swiftly anchored themselves and began to shell distant targets while the AA Tierens watched the skies and swatted away what enemy missiles and shells that were too close for comfort.
 
"Where did he go?"
 
"The locals call it Camp Amber. It's a former SLDF base."
 
Camp Amber. My memory was fuzzy. But I remembered it as an underground labyrinth that gave the SLDF more than enough trouble when they had to root out Rimworld troops during the Amaris Civil War. This could be bad. Really bad.
 
"What else did they say?"
 
"The Mayor only gave us rumors. Something about a stockpile that wasn't there before."
 
"Stockpile..."
 
Maybe it was Comstar. Maybe it was someone else. Maybe McIntyre was lucky and got his hands on a fleet of weapon carriers or something worse. It mattered little. House McIntyre needed to go.
 
Suddenly a voice shouted over the noise of war, "INCOMING!"
 
I could feel the plodding of heavy feet. Even inside my mech. A LOT of heavy feet. In the smoke, fire, and darkness I could see lances of Leos marching in lockstep while behind them were Battlemechs carrying the wheel and skull of Circinus.
 
"Quikcell garbage." Barrett mumbled, looking at the shoddy mobile suits stomping toward us, "Even for Leos they make them cheap."
 
As far as copies go, the things were supposed to be price competitive with their own Scorpion tanks.
 
Aries crested over the hill, not our own, joined by many more gunships. The way they moved was just like the Leos, far too synchronized to be human.
 
If it was any consolation I was glad we weren't facing models made by Defiance or VMI.
 
"Quantity has a quality all it's own." I explained, "Get your men ready ... this is going to get ugly...."
 
I said so as I glared at my computer display. A sea of red blips converging from all around us.
 
"We're outnumbered three to one..." Barrett growled.
The Tierens braced, the Serpents reloaded, the Taurus above us turned to face the coming horde.
 
" ....So it is a fair fight."
 
We dug in as my display read more and more red blips by the minute. My grimace was audible as I saw other blips rise high up and out the atmosphere. I trusted Gluck as much as he trusted me.
 
I gripped my controls as I formulated a way to get my men out of this. A drone army was not something I accounted for. But I would be damned to leave my people behind.
 
Tieren guns roared as shells rained down on the approaching swarm. The Serpents swept the Leo lines with gatling gun fire. Taurus LAMs danced with twice their number.
 
Just one day. It was all we needed...
----
==Chapter Notes==
*; Author's Chapter Note: Book 2 start. Well, more an intro.
----
<<Next Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
Chapter 14