Foresight (ATwT) Chpt 4

Combat Training Centre Supply Run, Sjardijin
Woodbine, Woodbine PDZ
Draconis March, Federated Suns
2nd September 3100
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Still under contract with StarCorps The Devalis’ Devils had been given a combat mission following a near demand by Anna Devalis. She’d stated rightly that her company could not be expected to continue to preform well in a combat situation without facing off against real enemies. As a result of her argument StarCorps on Crofton had allowed her company to accompany a weapons shipment to the Woodbine Combat Training Center which the Federated Suns used to train units in cohesive battle techniques. Recently the region had been plagued by a pirate band which the Federated Suns believed was based on the planet but so far had been unable to track down. The Devalis’ Devils had been accompanied by four Warhammers from StarCorps which the company was “showing off” to the AFFS hoping to encourage the state to buy more of the Mechs.
Trudging across the desert the augmented unit was arrayed around the supply convoy of eight Heavy Supply vehicles. While it was a far cry from combat duty it was better than defending a factory deep within the Federated Suns Crucis March. Anna Devalis sat in her Marauder C’s cockpit and thought about her plan of action the unit needed to find a way to break off from the convoy and deploy another of the Nova Cat’s transmitters she found it strange that was all her unit was doing, they weren’t running raiding operations behind the Federated Suns borders or leaving supplies for the Clan only leaving behind transmitters which held the information that her unit had collected to date and whatever the devices small sensor suite picked up.
“Sensor contact!” Gerald called out from his modified Excalibur BattleMech while the long extension which protruded from the right arm looked like the Mech’s original Gauss Rifle in fact it as just an extended casing which covered the Mech’s extended range particle cannon. Because her Clan warriors had no real need for money other than day to day living when they were on Crofton Anna had spent some of the unit’s money on upgrading the Mechs heat sinks to double strength as she’d done with her own Marauder C making the Excalibur, like her Mech, a far more potent fighter. 
Anna turned her BattleMech towards the contact seeing the unmistakable silhouette of a Thunderbolt BattleMech the Gauss slug that followed the image and slammed into Gerald’s Excalibur was again a signature intro from the enemy Mech. Gerald returned fire with his particle cannon which missed the sixty-five ton BattleMech immediately both Mechs traded long range missile fire with Gerald’s larger twenty-rack causing more damage to the enemy Mech as more enemy units appeared into view a pair of eighty ton Awesome BattleMechs, what her sensors believed as a modified Black Knight and a huge Atlas II. 
“Lucifer One to base, confirm contact with aggressor lance” she transmitted swapping to the shared StarCorps and Devils channel “alright Star Lance you stay beside the package we’ll fan out and take these guys on.”
“Captain, Lieutenant Dawson here our Hammers would be a good match against those assault units.” The commander of the StarCorps security lance suggested.
“Negative!” She snapped “the prize is the transports; you need to defend them.”
“Affirmative Captain, good hunting.” Dawson replied almost cheerfully like he’d offered just to have her refuse him permission.
“Devils, Chevron Four formation let’s take hit.” She said Chevron Four broke the company’s normal lancers into four groups of three they’d then arrange themselves in waves with each hitting the enemy one after the other. Anna Devalis Marauder C, the unit’s own Awesome and Thunderbolt lined up first, followed by Gerald in his Excalibur, Eric Storm’s Shadow Hawk and the captured Shadow Hawk IIC lined up next. Everardo Gout’s Hatchetman centred the third and was flanked by a Marshal and Valkyrie while the unit’s remaining three bug light Mechs a Wasp, Stinger and Locust lined up last. Anna Devalis didn’t know who had come up with the formation of Mechs but apparently it was made up of Mechs readily available in the Taurian Concordat and Federated Suns periphery either way Chevron Four would protect her lightest Mechs from the heaviest damage of the initial encounters. “Remember, no challenges we hit them hard and together.” 
Marching forwards together the Devils came across a sand dune into a maelstrom of fire as the pirates responded with the Devil’s approach with the expected combined fire approach. Fortunately, the modifications done to the Devil’s Mechs helped immeasurably with heavier hitting fire against the enemy targets. As they moved in the first three Mechs of the formation concentrated fire on one of the two Awesomes punching through its torso armor severing one of its arms. The second formation targeted the enemy Atlas with the same approach while the third struck the second Awesome while the last group of three light Mechs swarm attacked the damaged enemy Thunderbolt.
The effect of this wave approach was two-fold first as her Command group had taken a volley of fire from the enemy units the second missed out on the initial hit which allowed them to heavily damage both the first Awesome and the Atlas while also minimizing the damage. Unfortunately, when the third group of three moved into position they bore the brunt of another volley of fire and the Marshal took most of the damage with the Mech exploding into a thousand pieces as it was hit by almost every type of Mech made weapon ever devised. Particle cannons, lasers, autocannons and missiles tore into the medium BattleMech ending its battle and its pilot’s life.
The Marshals sacrifice did allow Everardo Gout’s Hatchetman to close on the enemy units and swing its massive Hatchet striking the enemy Black Knight high on the chest. Out of the corner of her eye Anna watched as the Black Knight’s right hand seemed to disappear revealing a blade which immediately plunged into the Hatchetman’s chest. Everardo triggered his Mech’s torso mounted autocannon tearing into the Black Knight’s torso knocking the bigger Mech back off the forty-five-ton Mech unfortunately all that did was expose the Hatchetman to the Black Knight’s long range weapons.
Anna’s initial target was destroyed she twisted the Marauder’s torso and hit the Black Knight with a pair of pulse laser blasts but it wasn’t enough almost in slow motion the Black Knight seemed to look at her before hitting the Hatchetman with a particle cannon, autocannon and an assortment of lasers. Anna could imagine the heat build up would be massive onboard the Black Knight but right now she couldn’t care about the effect it was having on the pilot instead all she could see was the destruction it wrought on the Hatchetman. In almost a carbon copy as the Marshal’s death the medium Mech was torn to pieces by the assortment of weapons fire that tore into its chassis she did see Everardo eject from his Mech so there was hope they could recover him in the future.
“They are pulling back!” Eric storm called out as Anna put another salvo of weapons fire into the enemy Black Knight as it turned fully towards her, she could see the unmistakable opal and sword insignia of the Word of Blake on the Mech’s thigh.
“I thought we were done with your kind!” She shouted angrily not realizing she was transmitting over an open channel.” Surprisingly the Black Knight stood upright at her words.
“There will always be Whispers of our order” a reply came almost as a whisper as Anna’s Marauder C was struck by an assault autocannon that came from the right of the Mech. The autocannon bore into her Mech’s left knee actuator causing it to explode under the stream of weapons fire. She fought the seventy-five-ton BattleMech as it stumbled then fell forwards. Moments seemed to pass in slow motion as Anna continued to try and fight the fall, but it was a losing battle, moments later the Marauder C slammed into the ground. She heard metal smash as her Mech impacted on the sands of Woodbine.
Vulnerable on the ground she scrambled to recover her footing which was a laborious task with a smashed knee actuator. She watched on her screens and sensors as the Black Knight stepped closer oblivious to the fighting occurring around them, Anna triggered the overhead autocannon in a vain attempt to strike the enemy Mech but from a prone position the shot missed overhead. The Black Knight stopped above her and used its blade to swipe the autocannon cleanly off her Mech with a single blow Anna was thrown around the cockpit as seven of her Mech’s seventy-five tons were ripped from its hull. She then felt the thud of the blade touch her cockpit; she knew the Black Knight could kill her from this position but the pilot had kept his transmission line open. “Not today MechWarrior.” He said again almost in a whisper before withdrawing as Anna struggled to get her crippled BattleMech back onto its feet even as the remaining three enemy Mechs continued to fire on her unit from long range.
Surveying the battlefield, she saw that they had destroyed one of the Awesomes and the Thunderbolt but had lost the Hatchetman, Marshal, Locust and Valkyrie with three of the Mechs looking like they had burnt out cockpits meaning she’d lost people today. Pulling their people back together the Devils turned back towards the convoy to find she’d been right to leave the Warhammers in position a lance of Flagstaff III Hovertanks had engaged the convoy in the Devil’s absence. While all four light vehicles had been destroyed, they’d caused damage to each of the Warhammers with inferno munitions and damaged two of the transport vehicles before being destroyed leaving the convoy stranded in position for several hours before relief could attend. She didn’t know who had attacked them but vowed to one day track them down and kill them.
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*Notes: Flagstaff III Hovertanks appears in the Fan made TRO, Technical Readout: 3063.
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