Resurgence Taurian Concordat Chapter 4

== Breaking the Wave ==
Section Leader Jackson looked at his squad of SASF Marines.  The mission ahead was daunting.  They all could see on the large bay holopanel that more Blakists had entered the system.  The fleet they were currently standing off with was beginning to approached the main defensive formation through the Gateway.  Most of the squad had some experience fighting, be it pirates or Federated Suns, but, the Blakists were something that had long haunted many of their ancestors.
“You men have what it takes to protect our home. If these assholes are back then they are likely everywhere, let us be the ones that break them on the first bout!” Jackson shouted as he raised his ax styled vibroblade.  His squad yelled and cheered to kill the Blakists. 
Their role was part of Meteor Shower.  Using the asteroids to their advantage, these were massive clusters of space rocks that would be sent directly into the inbound ships from the flanks, however, some were meant to carry troops, not only to crash into the enemy vessels.
When the cheering had settled down, Jackson walked to one end of the squad bay to check with the Section Leader in the adjacent bay on the situation.  The squad itself could see a holoprojection in the center of the bay that showed the enemy fleet formation entering the gap.  Various icons appeared showing weapons fire and the awaiting Taurian Fleet blocking the path out of the Gateway.  Additional Blakist vessels were trying to penetrate the barrier of asteroids through routes they had found, while probing the asteroid field. 
However, the SASF Marines were well entrenched and could easily navigate the asteroid field to follow and match the enemy locations. Most of these penetrations were lost to the hologram due to the electronic countermeasures, however, a couple ships would flash out here and there.  A couple Marines had placed bets on which formations would be wiped out first.
A crackle above sent the room silent, Jackson slamming the pommel of his ax, to make sure everyone was paying attention.
“SASF Marines, listen up, this is Marshal Collins, Meteor Shower is a go.  God speed warriors, these are the nightmare our ancestors fought and they will only have gotten worse.  Break them here, for Taurus!” she worked her way into a shout at the end of the message, which got the Marines cheering.  All of them were already strapped in to the bay on the transport asteroid.  It was hollowed out and mounted with boosters, making it very agile but it was not fast and not armed with external weapons.  The intention was to be a solid mass to impact and deploy troops. 
With a lurch, the asteroid began moving, the hologram suddenly changed the colors of many of the asteroids surrounding the Blakists trying to break through the main route.  All of these new colors began moving and accelerating toward the ships. A number of them were not troop transport oriented, some took off like a rocket, many were travelling at different speeds.  Weapons fire from the Word of Blake split between the blocking fleet and the now inbound asteroids.  A number of them were destroyed but plenty got through.
Their ride was clearly marked so they knew how close they were to their target.  It was a warship and the external sensors picked up enemy troopers on the hull, expecting boarders.  These Marines knew now that their reputation preceded them and they needed to prove it was indeed the truth. 
Multiple smaller asteroids were shown vanishing as they impacted the various ships, an aerodyne dropship blinking out of existence or an aerospace fighter vanishing. 
“Our target is twenty seconds out!  Prepare!” yelled Jackson over new, loud rumbling, clearly something was shooting at their asteroid to stop its approach.  “Anchors away!” Jackson added.
Loud thumps could be heard as they launched, motors came to life, pulling the Marines toward the warship.  Massive impacts were echoing through the large rocky shell protecting them but, then subsided just before they felt a single large vibration as their movement shifted from one direction to another. “Locking down!” Jackson shouted, loud screeching sounds echoed through as the holding gear penetrated the hull of the warship and the chains were wound back up. 
Once the chains had stopped moving and the screeching had stopped, clicking sounds rushed through the various troop bays, then the back half of the asteroid lifted away, suddenly, the squad was exposed to space as the asteroid separated above them.  All of their harnesses released and their mag boots locked them down to the metal.  It had split in such a way that the SASF Marines were able to use the asteroid like a bunker, with the separated half of it coving them from above.  Various pillars were still rising and locking in, ensuring it could not be pushed closed by any ship impacts. 
The Marines were moving through metal “trenches” to their position and their fight began.  Throwing their laser rifles onto the wall, they began opening fire as a wave of fire hit back at them from Blakists on the hull.  They were in an elevated position, giving them a good firing position until it was time to advance out from their defensive position. 
Jackson had been giving orders and angles of fire for the various teams within his squad, he looked out and saw scattered troopers returning fire to his squad.  But, what was even crazier was his glance away from his battle.  For a split second he could see aerospace fighters in countless dogfights, asteroids impacting dropships resulting in an explosion, and all weapons types firing seemingly in every direction above them in the Gateway.
He added his weapon to the firefight and caught a Blakist in the arm, ripping it off, a trail of blood floating away.  A number of Blakists had been killed and it was time to move out.  Below his squad a large section of asteroid wall separated and spread apart.  Then large metal feet emerged, each one slamming down on the hull, magnetic feet keeping the Scorpion attached. 
In whole, four squads and four Scorpion 1BRs were boarding this vessel and were breaking into four directions.  Jackson’s squad was meant to breach the mech hangar. “Forward!” shouted Jackson, his battle ax pointed outward as he leapt over the edge, gliding toward the ship. The Scorpion was making good time, hitting ship weapons that did not have the range of motion to aim back at the quad Battlemech. 
As his squad was vaulting over, a pair of troopers were caught in a barrage of missiles from a passing aerospace fighter, their suits and bodies blown to pieces.  However, the Scorpion Mechwarrior was pushing back the defending troopers, getting its own kills. 
“Push forward Delta Squad!” he shouted again, leading the charge.  It was always in the back of SASF trooper’s minds of who would get a physical weapon kill first.  They were given some liberty on physical weapon design as long as it functioned as a vibroblade and could actually kill.  Jackson took a quick glance to see the belligerent ‘tard that had a shovel shaped axe head and grinned.
Alpha Squad was en route to the bridge while Bravo and Charlie secured their ride off the ship and formed a perimeter around the asteroid.  Those two squads were hitting weapons batteries to reduce outbound fire as well. Some probing attempts would be made by four man teams to plant explosives.
Using some protruding ship sections as cover the teams rushed up one by one, while the Scorpion pinned down the enemy troopers and attacked a weapons battery.  Jackson led first team around a half disabled weapons battery.  It was firing massive beams of energy into aerospace and dropships of the Taurian navy.  A mix of enemy battle armor and infantry waited for them.  Thankfully, no more than two battle armor and neither were demon series, Jackson quickly thought.
He cut an infantryman in half with his laser, then used his suit boosters to lunge at an Inner Sphere battle armor trooper. Attempting to shield himself, the larger trooper raised his arms however, using momentum, the vibroblade cut the trooper’s arm off at the elbow.  He reeled as his arm floated away, blood oozing into space. 
Shifting back to lunge at Jackson, the Inner Sphere battle armor collided with him, both tumbling as they attempted to reattach to the hull.  Jackson’s team moved together to engage the rest of the troops that had been taking cover. The SASF reputation preceding him, quickly, he righted himself to get a shot on the battle armor and carved a hole through the back, causing the flailing body to freeze still and float away.
He hit his boosters and returned to the hull, gravity boots attaching.  Providing some support fire, his team took out the cluster of troops. 
“Section Leader Jackson, glad to see you didn’t float away, my Scorpion is on the move up to your position, I was able to take care of that weapon battery.  Both of your other teams are bounding up, we have the enemy falling back.”
“Solid copy!  Keep on pushing, we will be to the hangar soon enough!” replied Jackson, he reviewed his HUD to find one of his Marines were down, as well as three others between the other two teams.  Just a dozen meters and they would be to their objective.
“Section Leader Jackson!” shouted Section Leader Lark over the comms.
“Send it!”
“We can’t access the bridge, they put up the blast shield, falling back to our ride.  We have disabled a number of the weapon emplacements up here, we are down to 50% and the Scorpion is gone, blasted off by a fighter.”
“Roger that, we are almost to the hangar, Jackson out.”
As they continued their approach, engaging the few troops still defending, they noticed that the hangar was already open. Jackson paused as a large metallic hand emerged, driving down into the hull to find a gripping point. 
A second later a large shape began emerging. Two massive autocannon tri-barrels rose into view, spines came out of the center of the machine, running down its back, and its torso had the nightmarish appearance of a Celestial. All of the Taurian’s eyes went wide at the sight of a brand new Battlemech. 
The tri-barrels began spinning as the Taurians all moved for any cover they could get.  Attempting to draw attention, the Scorpion blasted it with a PPC.  However, the SASF Marines were the target.  Dozens of rounds were ricocheting off the hull, one by one, four Marines were blasted apart. 
“Delta squad!  Stay in cover!”  Jackson shouted as the Scorpion took the lead, stepping over the covered Marines. Only five of the squad were left, briefly popping up to fire on the remaining enemy infantry scattered near the open hangar.  Wave after wave of SRMs and PPCs carpeted the area of the hull near the attacking Celestial. The next RAC volley was aimed for the Scorpion.  While only 15 tons lighter than the 70 ton Celestial, the twin Autocannons at point blank range were savage. 
Armor turned shrapnel exploded off the mech, then immediately fell away along the ship’s path of travel.  Ducking back to cover, Jackson evaluated his situation again and checked back on their ride off this ship.  Multiple strafing runs had been committed to that area. 
A brief glint of light off armor caught his eye, shifting his eyes from the asteroid they rode in on, he saw a huge metal object flying his way…. Bravo Scorpion had been blown apart, its feet no longer powered to magnetize to the ship!
Jackson pulled himself to the hull as the silent, massive machine flew right over him.  He lifted up his head to see a horrible cacophony of events.  Bravo Scorpion slammed into Delta Scorpion and got wedged between the hull and its chassis.  It began sliding toward the hangar.  Seemingly in a panic, the Bravo Mechwarrior blew his hatch, barely enough room to get out and activated his mag boots.  Just as he made it to the hull, Delta Scorpion’s feet detached and both machines continued hurdling down the side of the hull. 
Both of them were tangled up, like one mass, and before the Celestial could move, both Scorpions slammed into it, sending all three to the ‘bottom’ of the hangar, the Celestial, still half inside, hanging out halfway, limp while the two quad mechs veered off into the darkness of space. 
“Now Delta!  Plan B!”  He began moving at best speed, the four remaining Marines right on his flanks. As one, they crossed open hull, full of gouges from the Battlemechs and their collisions, their weapons focusing on the last couple troopers. 
As they approached the edge of the hangar opening, they peaked over the edge and a wave of weapons fire came their way. Pulling back, the other four took position covering the perimeter, should any more enemy troopers show up or pop up from inside the hangar. 
Jackson began assembling a sensor beacon and attaching it to the hull. 
“This is unbelievable.” He could hear another trooper say on the squad channel. 
All around them in the vastness of space the dogfights continued, a pair of fighters flew right over them, banking hard to avoid incoming fire.  As later waves of Meteor Shower were activating, more asteroids were slamming into Blakist vessels.  Some of the larger ships could take the hits but others would be pierced through or crushed. 
Clearly, the speed of the warship had slowed, looking in the direction of travel, the Taurian fleet was ahead.  The flanks of those ships firing off wave after wave of weapons.  Over and over impacts were shattering armor on the noses of the inbound Blakists. 
“Sensor is set!” shouted Jackson as he stood. “Fire into the hangar to suppress them and then fall back to our ride!”
All five troopers threw their guns over the side, firing all over the hangar.  Some shots were made in return but clearly, many of the defenders had taken cover. However, as they began to turn and fall back, the Celestial began moving.  Where it was limp, hanging half out of the hangar, it began to sit up, looking in their general direction.  One of the RAC tri-barrels were gone, as well as an arm. 
“Move now, spread out!”  All five troopers began to move as fast as their mag boots would let them. 
Just a second later, slugs began impacting the hull around them, one Marine took a hit directly to the back, his body exploding, then being sucked back toward the hangar and back into space. 
The remaining four were able to reach a disabled weapons array and take cover, moving while concealed behind it. 
“Jackson!  How are we looking?!”  came the voice of one of the asteroid’s crew. 
“En route, prepare to go, the sensor is set!”
By now though, what Jackson didn’t realize is that the Celestial had fully emerged from the hangar opening.  A wave of lasers speared the hull around the troopers, one of them screamed into the channel as his arm was sliced off.  The suit’s seal was able to keep him from instantly dying but if he could make it, would need immediate medical attention. 
Jackson’s HUD show the mech following them was having a walking issue as well, the impact on the hangar’s deck must have damaged something in the hips. 
Each of the Marines moved into a column to enter the asteroid after breaking cover, all of the other troopers and the remaining Scorpion had already embarked.  The injured trooper entered first, then a laser hit the second trooper, slicing through the leg that was attached to the hull.  He screamed, his body flailing as he drifted away from the ship. 
Next was Jackson and then the final trooper. The hatch slammed closed behind him and he could hear the screeching echoing through the asteroid as the drills and anchors released or pulled away from the ship’s hull, the raised section of the asteroid had already lowered and resecured.  Then, they were free, moving on their own power. 
The hologram began showing the ship and the blinking beacon.  A wave of bombers came on-screen.  Three fighters approached the ship laterally.  Following the beacon, ordinance released and flew toward the hangar. Each of the explosives entered the hangar, the screen changed to a live feed, showing the fighters bank and pull away, firing on a new target.  Then the hangar exploded outwards. 
Explosions continued to burst out of the open hangar door. Then another door blew off. Finally, the hull itself separated. The boosters on the rear of the ship went dark as they fell away from the main part of the hull.  Behind the boosters, and as the main section of hull continued forward under momentum, a field of broken Battlemechs and bodies began to stretch out and float away. 
Unexpectedly, a massive wave of fire hit the dying hull from Taurian ships, causing it to start tumbling towards the asteroid field, hitting multiple rocks and shredding itself. 
Only three of his squad survived.  Overall less than 50% of their entire unit returned with only one of four Battlemechs.  While they were planting the sensor, the Bravo Scorpion Mechwarrior had been able to return to the asteroid.  Their role in this battle was over.  The medic was seeing to the trooper that lost an arm.  And the remaining uninjured trooper sat, slumped in a corner seat, his vibroblade shaped like the spade of a shovel, held firmly in his grasp, covered in drying blood.
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Category:Resurgence
Chapter 4