TLR Chpt 21

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==Chapter 21 - The Lucky RegimentHelmfast==
Helmfast
Helm, Free Worlds League
14th April, 30271400 Hours Local Time
Captain Ramage was standing in what had been the center of the fortified building, he could see that from where he had stood a small group of mechs had fired into the surrounding structures with lasers and flamers. He could barely imagine what would lead men to such savagery, whilst a Kuritan might do such a thing the Free World League was supposed to be civilized.
To one side a Phoenix Hawk and an Archer were using their feet and hands to clear the rubble from a spot in which they had been able to hear noises from deep within the rubble. It left him with a heavy heart, time was limited, and there were undoubtedly others buried alive in the rubble in other spots. Triage meant they were going to clear a path to the cellars first, which was the most likely place for multiple survivors, and where the noises were coming from. He doubted they would have time for more than that, this was a dangerously exposed operation as it was.
 
So far they had encountered eleven survivors of the militia, apparently a few more were still in hiding with no intention picking up arms again. He couldn't blame those in hiding, and those who had returned appeared motivated solely by a near suicidal desire for revenge. They didn't have a happy tale, at the start a delegation from the Marik infantry had been executed on the spot when they approached under a flag of truce. From there it quickly become ugly, the militia had attempted hit and run attacks from the nearby woods, whilst the garrison fought to the last. It had been futile, the attacking tanks and mechs had steadily bombarded the Helmfast to rubble and then strode into the midst of the structure flattening the remains and trying to burn out any survivors.
 
Around the remains he could see the patrolling 'mechs of the Marauders, the route had been completely quiet, it seemed the Marik force really had pulled back to Durandel. There was however no reason they had to be fought there, Edmund had indicated that whilst engaging isolated enemy units was an objective, it was something he would prefer to do once Grayson's mech company was fully operational.
 
He saw a Marauder approaching, unlike some units there was no way to tell who was in it from the paint scheme. It came to a stop near him and the canopy opened up, Victoria's face appeared.
 
"Hey, Captain Ramage."
 
He shouted back "How can we help?"
 
"We're keeping transmissions to a minimum, sorry about this." That was okay, people always had their reasons. And he knew Edmund had been attempting to keep half his force hidden, he had form on that front, apparently ambush and shooting the legs off mechs were his preferred tactics. Grayson Carlyle had his own tricks, the pair of them would have made a good team had things gone to plan.
 
"Bit of a problem, we just got word those Marik boys are moving en masse from Durandel, the boss thinks they mean business." Ramage suspected Edmund was okay with that, the rescue mission was evidently a suitable bait and the cloud cover made orbital reconnaissance unreliable today. On the other hand 'en masse' wasn't ideal, even with high quality 'mechs he suspected Edmund preferred numerical superiority.
 
"Their strength?"
 
"Battalion plus, looks like all of them." Ramage look down and cursed, they were almost there on the digging. That would be a bit more than Edmund would have chosen take on, on the other hand what his opponents might not yet have realized was that Edmund didn't need to repair damage, they just wanted to get the Mechwarrior back to the cache in one piece.
 
"How long do I have?"
 
"We'll need the mechs back in about twenty minutes, I'm really sorry, you need to be ready to move as soon after that as you can manage." They were close he could see it, and he was desperate to avoid leaving the survivors buried.
 
"Understood."
----
Ten minutes later
The first person to emerge from the hole was wearing the uniform of a member of the 18th Marik Militia, or at least that was what Ramage suspected it was under a thin layer of dust. Someone handed him a water bottle, he swirled it around in his mouth before spitting it all out.Then he gulped deeply.
 
"Captain Ramage?" There was desperate hope in his voice.
 
"It's me."
 
"Are we safe?"
 
Captain Ramage pondered how to answer that one given the danger. "We only have a little time to evacuate survivors."
 
"There are more of us down below." With that and a salute the soldier headed back into the darkness.
 
He called after him. "Tell them to hurry, the people who did this are coming back." He looked at one his sergeants. "Prep the skimmers and get a section over here to help."
 
He heard the soldier shouting down what he recollected was once the corridor that led into the basement. There were footsteps and young voices and the sight of torch beams illuminating a path. He pulled an illumination stick from chest webbing and threw it in just beyond the entry point, in the dim yellow glow he could see the rubble on the dusty floor and the set of footprints in the grey dust from the soldier.
 
A female soldier appeared, almost as dusty as the other one but sporting the stripes of a corporal. She was leading a small child by one hand and had her rifle slung over her shoulder whilst the other hand held a torch. "Thank God, Captain, thank God." She spoke quietly and looked around at her changed surroundings. Despite what was probably horror at the realization of the scale of the destruction she maintained a calm exterior, he suspected that calmness was all that had kept the other buried survivors going.
 
Women and young children emerged behind her, then a group of what must have been the youngest school group led by a young lady he recognized as one of the teachers. With a sinking feeling he realized the parents were all likely buried in the rubble around them. The cellar down there was not all that large, he could envisage that a decision must have been hastily made to send the most vulnerable down there.
 
Several more soldiers brought up the tail end of the survivors, they were looking around warily, probably unsure who they could still trust. Who could blame them after they had been attacked by their own.
 
One of the women looked tearfully at him. "Where was the Legion? we kept thinking you were coming for us." The eyes were accusing him of dereliction, he wanted to tell her they had been in a desperate fight of their own, only he couldn't see how she would ever accept that answer.
----
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