SotU3 Chpt 9

=Chapter 9=
==State of the Union - Book 3==
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Port Lawrence, Coventry
Coventry Province, Federated Commonwealth
July 15th, 3067
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Conner’s Wolfhound tore down the wooded mountain slope, a pair of Clan Jade Falcon Kit Foxes giving chase. There was very little difference in ground speed between the three ‘Mechs, but the two Clan OmniMechs had a sharp edge in firepower.
“Just coming up on the cut.” he snapped.
“We’ll be ready, sir.” Sergeant Max Hunter managed to sound slightly reproving.
Which was fair, Conner admitted. Playing bait wasn’t something he’d recommend for a battalion commander, but the Jade Falcon landings had left penny packets of troops scattered across the continent and General Bortmann had dispersed the Eighth Deneb Light Cavalry to try to pick off those that were vulnerable and pinpoint those that would need more attention.
As the largest ‘Mech in his command lance, Conner had nominated himself to draw the two Clan OmniMechs in. The penetrated armor behind his Wolfhound’s left shoulder was a reminder that he had been taking quite a chance. Fortunately none of the systems inside seemed to have been damaged, but they could have been if he’d been a little less fortunate.
He twisted his Wolfhound to one side as he saw one of the Kit Foxes pause to steady its right arm. Sure enough, the blur of a supersonic projectile whipped past his ‘Mech with the sharp crack of its passage.
That would have been nasty if it had hit him. It had done a number on the tree that it hit instead.
“Five.” Conner murmured. “Four.” The trees were thinning slightly, while it looked like natural forest, this part of the hills around Port Lawrence was actually extensive tree farming, supplying the paper mills and timber industry of the city.
He saw a fold in the ground and braced himself for it just in time, the Wolfhound skidding down the short slope and dropping four meters in an instant. Bending the legs absorbed the impact and tracer fire from the other Kit Fox’s autocannon laced the air above him.
He drew out the word: “Three.” The drop had slowed Conner, even if it had probably saved him from taking a direct hit from the salvo. He pushed the Wolfhound to its limits as he made for the open space ahead where full-grown trees had been removed, replaced with saplings that were barely visible from the height of his cockpit.
“Two.” The last trees were ahead of him and, on instinct, he twisted the torso of his ‘Mech around. A Clan laser struck the Wolfhound’s up-flung left arm. The limb went amber and red on his damage display. It wasn’t out of action entirely, but that one hit had compromised armor all along it as the laser pulse had pulverized armor and partially severed two myomer bundles.
He didn’t say ‘one’ as he burst into the open. Eager to catch him out of cover, the two Kit Foxes bounded after him and then the sky lit up as more than a hundred and fifty LRMs rained down on the pair.
In addition to the two Valkyries in his lance, Conner had four Vali fire support vehicles in his force. The lightly-armored vehicles were parked on a road out of sight of the Clan ‘Mechs, but they were the ‘discount’ model that carried LRM packs instead of the original Arrow IV artillery launchers. It was more than enough for this.
While the Kit Foxes had formidable speed and armament, not even Clan tech could change the fact that they were relatively small ‘Mechs, and couldn’t carry all that much protection. The mechwarriors twisted and turned to try to avoid the bombardment; but, without the trees to screen them, they were exposed and more than half the missiles struck home, blasting apart armor across their upper torsos and shoulders.
Conner spun his Wolfhound on its heel and centered his crosshairs upon the shoulder of the nearer Kit Fox. The three medium lasers spat bolts of light that completed wrecking the joint and the limb went limp, reducing the once dangerous Gauss Rifle to a dead-weight dragging and slowing the ‘Mech.
Adjusting slightly he tried to take out the other shoulder with his large laser, but the Jade Falcon was back on guard and managed to move aside, returning fire with the lasers in the Kit Fox’s remaining arm.
Most of a ton of armor on the Wolfhound ablated under the lasers’ pulses, but at least it was his thicker frontal protection.
A moment later, Hunter’s Commando came into view - it still looked odd to Conner, with the Wolfhound-style head marking it as new production with a full-head ejection system. A full spread of short-range missiles punished the Kit Fox and it staggered before falling forwards and sloughing nose-first into the ground.
Before it could rise again, Hunter and Conner both fired their arm-mounted lasers into the left shoulder, depriving the ‘Mech of its remaining armament.
More LRMs hammered down on the second Kit Fox and something found the ammunition bin for the autocannon. Half of the ‘Mech disappeared in an explosion and, when the smoke cleared, the ‘Mech was only upright because its remaining arm was pressed against the forest-floor, supporting it.
Despite facing the full firepower of Conner’s entire force, the ‘Mechwarrior still struggled to get the Kit Fox back upright so they could bring the other arm’s weapons into play. Some people might have called it brave - Conner just thought it was a waste of effort. “Cease bombardment.” he ordered as he and Hunter systematically crippled the ‘Mech’s limbs with their lasers. “And send infantry for the prisoners.”
He didn’t have any of the Eighth’s limited supply of Battle Armor, but the platoon of mechanized infantry should be sufficient to handle a couple of Clan mechwarriors. If they weren’t then he might have to rethink the implausibility of the Immortal Warrior series and that didn’t bear thinking about.
“Looks like you took a battering there, Kommandant.” Hunter still seemed displeased.
“The armor took the worst of it.” Conner told him. While his technician would probably complain as well, it was a small price to pay for taking out a couple of ‘Mechs. “Hold positions while I check in with command.”
The arrival of the Tharkad warship squadron at a proximity point had eased concerns of the populace considerably, but the professional military officers had known that the odds were still not favorable. Fortunately the six warships had not arrived alone. Between them, the four corvettes and two cruisers had thirty-two dropship collars and they’d only needed two of them for tankers to refill their hydrogen stores after using their reactors to charge their lithium fusion batteries on the way. The other collars had been loaded with heavily armed assault dropships.
As Conner brought up the overall situation he was cleared for, he saw that the orbital space was still contested, but two Jade Falcon cruisers seemed to be trying to crawl away from the FCS Alistair Marsden-Steiner. It wasn’t surprising, the two Aegis-class warships had taken multiple nuclear strikes from the Immortal Spirit before the Blakist cruiser had been destroyed and weren’t in a good shape. 
The fight above Coventry wasn’t using nuclear warheads - they were well within the seventy-five thousand kilometers that custom declared was the closest such weapons should be used to a planet and no one wanted to provoke the Falcons further. The other Clan warships were outnumbered three to four with the corvette FCS Alarion having fallen back around the planet to carry out repairs - and while almost half of the assault dropships escorting the warships had been destroyed, they’d cost the Falcons far more than their number in aerospace fighters, and forced the Clanners to drop ‘Mechs and elementals across the planet rather than in a concentrated landing zone.
Looking at the planetary map, Conner saw that scout reports suggested that the bulk of the Jade Falcon’s surviving transports had made it to the town of Whitting, not too far from Port St. William and Coventry Metal Works but well away from the Eighth Deneb Light Cavalry who were based near Coventry Military Academy. Punching the controls, he contacted the RCT command staff. “Command, this is Kommandant Sortek. We’ve picked up the two ‘Mechs reported. That should clear this sector.”
There was a pause before anyone responded. “Kommandant, this is General Bortmann. We’re pulling the Second Battalion back for a transorbital hop to reinforce the Fourteenth Guards in containing the main landings near Whitting. That means Colonel Watson may need your ‘Mechs for additional support in those sectors.”
Conner checked the map. Colonel Watson commanded one of the regiments of light armor and had been based out of McKenzey, about a hundred kilometers to the north. “Understood, sir, I’ll move the elements in my area of operations northwards and contact the Colonel for instructions.”
“Confirmed, Kommandant. And don’t use yourself as bait again.”
He flushed. “Yes, Sir.”
The older officer sounded amused. “Once is acceptable to show you’ve got the chops, laddie. But just once. You’re -” A rush of sound - loud voices, not saying anything Conner could make out - cut off her words.
“Sir?” Conner checked his comms. There was no jamming or interference he could pick up.
The sound died down. “Really?” the general asked, voice low as if speaking to someone else. “Well… that’s good.” Then her volume rose again. “Good news for the troops, Kommandant. The Falcons are down another warship - there are escape pods leaving their last cruiser. FCS Coventry is claiming the kill. It’s worse down here than if the local soccer team had a win…”
Conner hid a laugh. Things couldn’t be going that badly then. “I’ll pass that on too.”
“Yes, the Coventry natives couldn’t be prouder. Bortmann out.”
He shook his head, careful of the wires connecting his neurohelmet to the rest of the cockpit, and switched back to local comms. “Do we have those clanners in custody? Colonel Watson’s tanks need some support further north.”
“We have, sir.” Hunter’s voice was disgusted. “But look at them!”
Conner glanced around and then focused his camera down on where two Mechwarriors in the green piloting suits of the Jade Falcons were being checked for weapons by the infantry men. For a moment he thought it was his camera, or the shock of defeat making the man and woman look vulnerable… but when he moved closer, the fresh faces and slightly gawky postures showed his first impressions were right.
“Are they even out of their teens?” he asked incredulously.
“I don’t think so.”
The Kommandant thought back to 3064 and the rumors that had trickled back to Tharkad after the fighting against the Falcons then. Conner hadn’t even been in the AFFC the last time that the Jade Falcons had fought on Coventry, back in 3058. “I heard speculation that the Jade Falcons had lost a painful number of their younger warriors on Twycross three years ago.” he said slowly. “And that their newer OmniMech numbers had taken the brunt of the fighting.”
The Kit Fox was a common sight among the Jade Falcons, he thought. But it wasn’t a new design - usually the young and ambitious in light Stars would have had the more modern Cougar or Fire Falcon. “It’s at least possible they’ve been graduating warriors younger to make up for those losses… and perhaps drawing on ‘Mechs that would otherwise be getting handed down to secondline service.”
“You think they’re on the ropes?” asked Hunter, the man’s voice betraying a healthy degree of skepticism.
“No… but they may not be as strong as they want us to think.” Conner answered thoughtfully. “I’ll pass this back up to command, it may be important.”
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