SotU Chpt 30

=Chapter 30=
==State of the Union==
Camelot Region, New Avalon
Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth
19 July 3063
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The New Avalon Institute of Science was Hanse Davion's legacy to the future, more directly tied to him than even the Federated Commonwealth (which was a joint effort). There was something unfortunately symbolic in the fact that parts of it were on fire.
The Marlette CrMM were streaming through the campus, the last loyalist reserve that Searcy was aware of... but they were fresh and that was enough.
Even under this pressure, the Guards didn't break... but they were giving ground. The Davion Guards held together out of pride, the Banzai veterans perhaps for the same or perhaps for some abstruse calculation of military science as far above Searcy's head as the other references that they exchanged between themselves.
The Fifth Royal Guards clung together and fought on through sheer stubbornness that they wouldn't shame themselves or their prince by being the first to break.
We're a stupid breed, soldiers, Searcy thought to himself as he backed up - the remaining half of Baker Company maintaining formation on him - and fired into a Javelin that was overly ambitious in trying to get close enough to deliver its SRMs.
His autocannon had no more cluster ammunition but standard shells were more than enough to rip through the armour plating on the Javelin's left arm as the pilot threw it up to shield his chest. The arm was half-severed and a moment later, Searcy's ER PPC lashed out and sliced into the armour just above the limb, vaporising armour and blotting out two missile tubes.
Aiming carefully he followed up with his lasers one at at time. The first shot missed the wound, although it finished off the left arm, fusing the shoulder actuator solid. The second medium lasers carved a line right across the damage caused by the PPC.
The Javelin's head disintegrated, mechwarrior rocketing skywards in his ejection seat. A fraction of a second later the torso of the light 'Mech did the same as two tons of short-range missile warheads and propellant vented their fury from inside it.
One 'Mech down but more were coming - supported by tanks and infantry. The Dalban sensor suite of Searcy's Mackie was picking up APCs moving through the campus, sweeping it for allied hold-outs.
You're just a little too late, he thought, grateful that the 'Mech bays had been evacuated in time. More than a dozen 'Mechs had been left behind, but they'd take days to restore to service and the technical staff had made it out with their critical tooling.
A volley of LRMs arched out from behind one of the College of Chemistry buildings. too many for a single launcher - the CrMM must have a lance of LRM carriers back there.
Searcy spotted a Scarabus painting the building with it's TAG and guessed that it was transmitting targeting data back to the support elements in Albion's campus. He angled his Mackie to screen the light 'Mech from incoming fire, his gyro struggling for an instant as a Warhammer pinpointed him with both PPCs. That was going to cost him.
It was worth it though. The second volley of LRMs to rise up from behind the laboratories was replied to by at least a dozen artillery shells. The explosions were visible around and to a lesser extent through the structure.
There were no more LRMs from the position. It was unlikely that any of the thin-skinned LRM Carriers had survived, but if they did then they must be fleeing for their lives.
Abstractly, Searcy hoped that not too much damage had been done. More practically, he focused on the Warhammer and returned fire. It was out of reach for his medium lasers, but the ER PPC shot smashed along the length of one of the long Donal PPCs, the electromagnetic flux conveniently also dragging the beam of the Warhammer's second shot awry.
His autocannon shells hammered against the Warhammer's chest and it paused then ducked aside, waiting for reinforcements.
Seeing the Scarabus had fallen back, Searcy resumed the retreat. The tracked carriers hauling the last damaged tanks and 'Mechs that had been pulled out before the attack arrived were reaching the edge of Albion. It was more than time for his rear-guard to do the same.
"Crucis Actual, I need a rear-line." he instructed. Sortek's company had been in worst shape when they began the retreat, but after the last fifteen minutes that situation had been reversed - it wouldn't be long before Royal 'Mechs started to fall. Searcy's armour was paper-thin in places and he was one of the best off in Baker. Alpha's handful of survivors were split between them.
"Roger." Conner Sortek sounded steady. "Alpha Four, hold where you are. You're the left flank, I have the right. The rest of you spread out between us."
Searcy waited, stepping backwards three times to give them time. A flicker of white in the NAIS buildings warned him the brief lull was about to end. "Baker company, about turn!" he snapped. "Reform behind Crucis Company!"
Matching action to word, he snapped the Mackie around crisply and forced every ounce of speed the lumbering beast had out of it.
Surprised, the first shots of a resumed ComGuards attack splashed the ground behind the retreating 'Mechs.
"Command, we're pulling back." Searcy reported as he reached Sortek's position and dug in one of the Mackie's heels to turn just as sharply. He was the first to reach the line and counted off the 'Mechs arriving. One, two, four... the fifth of his companions fell just short as a Grim Reaper ripped open its rear with its large lasers and then exploited the breach with its LRM launcher.
Heat bloomed from the fallen Mackie and the pilot punched out, the angle of the cockpit hurling him up and over the new defensive line.
"We're under heavy pressure." Searcy opened fire on the Grim Reaper. His PPC burned through one of the armor skirts over its hips and his autocannon chewed up over the missile launcher in the right chest. A moment later, cluster rounds blew into the rents, half-spinning the 'Mech around and he saw the shot came from Catherine Steiner-Davion's Mackie - she must have been hoarding the rounds. "Can you give us supporting fire?"
"We can do better than that." There was triumph in the voice of the operations officer. "Just look up."
Searcy spared a glance upwards, saw nothing and dropped his crosshairs onto a one-armed Falconer in New Avalon CrMM colors that was trying to cover the ComGuards' Grim Reaper. He snapped the shot into one of the jump-jet housings that flared up above and behind the cockpit, then glanced up again.
He was in time to see parachutes bloom outwards. "Airdrop?"
"The best sort." the operator declared.
Catherine's Mackie raised its autocannon skywards and for a moment he was afraid she was going to fire on the new arrivals. Instead she transmitted in the clear: "Crush them now, Giant Robo!"
Apt, if totally confusing. But that was the mysterious Steiner-Daivon in a nutshell.
The attackers had also seen what was coming down. They split between trying to press harder, to fall back and to fire on the troops dropping from the sky.
A Salamander Assault 'Mech in the red-white-and-blue of the Davion Guards didn't even wait to land before it fired off a volley of LRMs. The missiles rained down on the Grim Reaper among those that had tried to fire upwards and it fell to the ground, white paint blackened by the explosive warheads where it still had armor at all!
The Falconer was no more fortunate. The Mechwarrior had seen the writing on the wall and was bounding backwards towards the NAIS campus when a Gunslinger blasted free of its harness and literally rammed it out of the sky.
The two BattleMechs, with a combined mass of a hundred and sixty tons slammed to the earth with the Falconer on the bottom and both its hips snapped.
Apparently undaunted, the Gunslinger rolled to its feet and as more 'Mechs and infantry landed around it it both gauss rifles fired, the barely visible supersonic slugs caroming off a ComGuards Rhino Tank that had been pushing up behind the 'Mechs and suddenly found itself caught in the open by a superior force.
More tanks swarmed out from Albion, Rommel and Patton battle tanks from the defense perimeter now unleashed to reinforce the troops being landed.
"All units," a sharp voice rang out. "this is General Jon Davion. Advance on NAIS before the loyalist can reorganize."
Searcy didn't wait for any further instructions, he moved his 'Mech sideways to prevent Catherine from pushing her Mackie forwards into this advance. "You're in the second line, Your Highness." he insisted.
"I didn't think Davions got special treatment on the battlefield." she observed tartly, although she halted her Mackie in place.
"It's not special treatment." Conner Sortek told her. "We're in no state to spearhead this push. Half our armor is gone and most of us need a reload." And not to mention that the entire First Battalion of the Fifth Royal Guards was currently less than a company in strength.
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