CHS2-7

==Chapter 7 - Book 2 – Chappy's Howling Siegers==
<<Previous Chapter - Chapter Index - Next Chapter>>
----
===Battle for Ingress - Continued===
----
Capital City
Ingress, Terran Hegemony
October 17th, 2786
----
Local Time: 1615 GST
Alpha Company
Major Bruce marched in his Warhammer forward, the rest of his company followed close behind, the idea was to try and draw the enemy out of the town and toward Alpha Company. The problem was that on the east side there was trees and a ravine that ran south/southeast. That meant Major Bruce had to move out of the ravine and push past the trees for the sentries in town to see them. The radar was worth crap in this region, and with the high temperature and geysers spitting out steam, trying to locate a mech using IR scanners was useless. 
“Siegers, we must get their attention, fire all lasers toward the town and then move back into the trees. We will continue this until they come out to play.” Major Bruce announced on the Alpha Company frequency. 
Beta Company
Major Tournier had put the company in a sprint they had to circle the town far enough away as to not be detected but close enough so that when they made their turn back to the city on the south side they would not be too long or miss the battle.
“Siegers, today we end the invasion of the First Liao Lancers, everyone stay frosty and mind your footing sprinting on this terrain can be hazardous.” Major Tournier announced on the Beta Company frequency.
Charlie Company
Major Pople loved her job, where else could you stomp around in a 100-ton robot, destroy bad guys, bring your family from planet to planet, and get paid. On top of that her best friends are fighting beside her, simply amazing. Her companies’ goal was to attack the west side and hopefully hook up with her commander.
“Siegers, we are to push through the west side of the town destroy any signs of the enemy. Today we will have victory.” Major Pople announced on the Charlie Company frequency.
Command Lance
Lt. Col Chapman looked at the overall battle and saw that his unit was moving into position. 
“Time to liberate this city and planet, take out all enemy units.” He announced on the lance’s frequency.
-----
1630 GST
Alpha Company moved up through the trees and went into the outskirts of the town, extraordinarily little resistance a few tanks and that was it. Major Bruce wondered where everyone was, the enemy was not on the East side.
Beta Company was still moving around the city using the ravine as cover, Double timing it as much as possible. Some of the heavier mechs were having a difficult time in the sand, Thankfully, Major Tournier thought, the heaviest mech in his unit was a Grasshopper which was his. He shivered thinking about an Assault 'mech running in this mess.
Charlie Company moved into the outskirts of the city on the west side and was met with four Laitese Falcon Gunships, four Edgar Light Hover Tanks, and three Sephyr Hover tanks. There were also gun turrets on top of fortified buildings.
“Charlie Company, watch out for the VTOLs and the gun turrets Delta, Echo lances take care of them. Fox lance work on the hover tanks until the rest of the unit can join you.”
Command Lance engaged eight Laitese Falcon Gunships and two lances of Gull Medium tanks. There was also radio interference, they are jamming the lance. thought Matthew, this might be a trap. His lance which was the heaviest lance in the whole unit was too busy defending against the VTOL to notice Matthew warning via lights due to the jamming..
-----
1645 GST
As the sun starts its downward path in the sky of Ingress the Capital buildings started to cast shadows on the ground giving the First Liao Lancers some illusion of cover. The Commander of the Lancers just made it to the battlefield and took over command from the young officer that was trying to mount a defense.
“Move the two mech lances to the middle of the town and attack that incoming lance from the north.” He announced.
Alpha Company was still trying to draw the enemy away from the middle but was still not successful. With the communication down Major Bruce was wondering if he should abandon his position and go find the enemy.
“Keep on trying Alpha Company we need to draw the enemy away from our commander’s position.” He announced on the company frequency.
Beta Company had almost made it to the end of the ravine, all they needed to do now was climb or jump up out into the forest and move north till they hit the south side of the city., Major Tournier thought. Maybe 15 minutes 20 at the most and they should be at the outskirts of the town.
Charlie Company was stalled in their push toward the commander most of the VTOL they faced were destroyed however the VTOL were successful in damaging two mechs in Hotel Lance and the hover tanks were still hiding in the shadows and taking shots when the opportunity presented itself. Major Pople moved up on a hill to try and get a better view of the landscape. She witnesses several VTOL crashing in the vicinity of where her commander’s lance should be, and saw several buildings on fire over there. She had to get over there.
Command Lance was hit hard with VTOLs, tanks, and now two mechs a Crusader and Panther. All the enemy VTOLs were down and most of the tanks destroyed but two of his lance mates were down, still alive but the mechs would not fight anymore today. That left Master Sergeant Sicak in his Thunderbolt and Matthew’s Nightstar which was missing a leg and propped up against a building.
“Sicak, move up and connect with Charlie Company.”
“Sir, I am not going to leave you.” Sicak replied to Matthew’s order
“This is a direct order most of the fighting is to the south I will be fine the mission must continue have Major Pople take command now that some of the comms are back, at least we can talk while in line of sight, now get going.” Matthew said in a sterner voice.
“Sigh, Yes Sir.” And with that Sicak turned and moved south. He was immediately hit with several AC/20 rounds taking out his mech in the process.
----
Alpha Company started to move into the city Major Bruce decided that they needed to move closer to the commander not only to protect his friend but to also get some action. The point mech was just moving past an intersection when it got hit with three laser shots destroying the mech’s right arm, the fourth laser shot missed and destroyed the windows of the adjacent building. Major Bruce scanned the area and saw three laser quad turrets a few blocks down from the intersection. 
“Beta Lance move up this street its parallel to the one Sergeant Abdul just got hit, in two blocks take a left and destroy the turrets. Sergeant Abdul report are you ok?”
Sergeant Abdul, Firebee mech stumbled back into the street Alpha Company was stopped on. “Yes, Major I am fine but as you can see my right arm is destroyed.” The Sergeant said.
Beta Lance moved up and took out the turrets without any problems. The rest of the unit moved past the intersection and continued west through town, a little slower, a bit more cautious.
Beta Company was encountering heavy resistance in the south part of the city, multiple turrets, tanks that were dug in all the streets and troopers hiding in the buildings was causing a significant problems for Major Tournier, he looked at his command board, three of his mechs were inop now but at least none of the pilots were lost.
Charlie Company was down, more than half of the company was inop or could not move anymore. Major Pople was getting frustrated the enemy was just too strong in the city, from what she could tell the First Liao Lancer had reinforcements something must of happen elsewhere she had no idea where the extra forces came from. What she did know was that her company was not going to be able to help her boss which was only fifteen blocks away.
Command Lance was down all the pilots including Lt. Col. Matthew Chapman they were all located in a blown-out building about 200 meters away from all the battle carnage, luckily most of the enemy was destroyed. All he and his other lance mates had to do was not get caught in the middle, and to try and pick off the enemy one at the time. Which is what they were in the middle of doing right now, there was a group of three enemy troopers that had just abandon their tank and was walking slowly to the south Matthew motioned Command Sergeant Major Dionsio to move in while the other two Master Sergeants circle around and attack from the front. In about a minute the three tank soldiers were dead. Matthew moved his lance back into the buildings and waited for the next victim.
The Commander of the First Liao Lancers was proud of his force even though he knew they were destined to lose. The rest of his forces showed up and he sent them to fortify the west city picket line. Unfortunately, this merc unit had surrounded his unit and slowly was squeezing his unit towards the middle of the town. Therefore, all they could do is cause as much damage as they can and hope they would go away because of the pain inflicted.
-----
'Local Time: 1715 GST
Alpha Company finally reached the last known location of the command lance. Major Bruce looked out his cockpit and saw nothing but burnt-out buildings, half destroyed buildings, destroyed tanks, and mechs. Three of the down mechs looked repairable one of them was leaning against a brunt out building and it was his commander’s mech.
“Lieutenant Colonel Chapman, where are you, please answer us.” Major Bruce said over the net in the off chance that the radio waves were no longer being jammed.
Beta Company continued to push up from the south, Major Tournier notice that the enemy was starting to thin out. When he rounded the corner, he saw for the first time the top of the capital building. Empowered by the sight he ordered his company to press even harder.
Charlie Company was done, only three mechs could move on, Major Pople decided that her and the other two working mechs would stay with the rest of the company and protect them until the communication was fully back online and she can call for an evac.
Command Lance had hand killed twelve enemy troopers now, not that Matthew was counting. He looked at the other three from his lance and wonder if he looked the same, all three of them had blood and guts on them, from shooting the enemy at close range, setting booby traps, and stabbing the enemy by sneaking up on them. Now though they were in trouble there was mech movement from the east, not knowing if they were his or the enemy they bunker down until the mechs got closer.
Beta Company pushed to the capital, the comms were finally free and clear of the jamming now and all the info about the Siegers came rushing back to Major Tournier battle computer, things were not good his company was the only one left standing but he was down two mechs. He had been calling the commander but noting up till now was getting through. The good news was that the enemy was also destroyed or surrendered so the battle was effectively over. Slowly they moved around the Capital Building and then he saw them, the command lance coming out of hiding and waving to him.
-----
Governor Office
Governor Mansion, Capital City
Ingress, Terra Hegemony
October 20th, 2786
----
Local Time 0730 GST
“Mr. Governor I am glad that you and most of the ruling officers had taken shelter and are OK.” Lt. Col. Chapman said. “I am just sorry that your city was destroyed in the process. The Liao military would not leave the city and in fact moved what forces they had to the city a few days prior to us getting here.” Lt. Col. Chapman continue to talk. “Every Liao soldier has been either killed or has already been put on transport back to Liao space without no weapons. It seems that there was spare supplies and extra equipment on their dropship, probably did not have enough manpower to use, we took the liberty of offloading all of it.”
The governor looked at the Lt. Col. and spoke. “Are you taking the equipment also, I heard that your unit took quiet a beating liberating us.”
“Yes, my unit took a beating, I can barely field a company, but I am leaving everything that was on the Liao Dropship to you. We have salvage all that we could from battle. So, after you settle on contract we will start preparing to leave. It will be several days before my unit will be ready to leave, until then we could offer crash courses in mech combat training free of charge.”
Lammack the last remaining officer from the planetary defense that the Siegers saved the first day on planet stepped out of the shadows in his new uniform and rank. “ummm Governor, if it pleases you I would be honored for any assistance the Siegers can provide.”
The Governor turned to his new Defense Leader and said. “Colonel Lammack I think I can speak for the whole planet and say that defense of this planet will be top priority so yes use the Siegers and get back to me with a list of equipment that we may need to purchase to aid in our defense.”
----
Later that day
Colonel Lammack and Lt. Col. Chapman was in a hover transport heading to the SpacePort where the Siegers Dropships and the former Liao Dropship were. They pulled up to the pads and the Colonel notice heavy activity all around the port, both Siegers troops and the local men and women moving around.
“Very busy place.” the Colonel said.
“Yeah we are still in the process of repairing, replacing our stuff, plus we are getting your inventory ready for your inspection.” Lt. Col. Chapman said.
The two officers rounded the corner, and the Colonel was taking aback, there in front of him was two lances of fully operational mechs mostly heavy class with maybe three lances of mechs that needed some serious repair. There were several dozen tanks all in need of repair on the other side as well. The Colonel turned to Lt. Col. Chapman and said. “What is all of this?”
“This my friend.” Lt. Col. Chapman said as he rose his arms and spun around. “This is all yours, the First Liao Lancers donated all this to the defense force of Ingress, they also donated all their unit’s cash to the cause, meaning we liberated all their equipment like I said earlier to the Governor and we hacked their system and transfer the amount of 52 million C-bills to the defense force.”
“What about the Siegers? You guys were hit hard.” The Colonel ask.
“Meh, don’t worry about us Colonel our Dropships are full and the storage bays on the Beast of Terra are full of spare parts, we will be fine.” Lt. Col. Chapman said as he thought about what happen two days ago.
----
Tunnels under the Capital City
October 18th, 2786
----
Local Time: 1730GST
Nearly twenty-four hours had passed since the liberation of the capital city was complete. Lt. Col. Chapman had several teams underground in the tunnels looking for the Cache that his father had left. He was in the middle of drinking the local coffee brew when one of his teams found a vault with the Chapman family crest on the door and a cipher lock. It took Matthew several minutes to travel to the location, once there, he inputted the family code, and the doors open. Inside was a one hundred thousand square foot warehouse full of armor, weapons, supplies, spare parts, and PA(L) enough for a Battalion.
“Wow, that is a lot of equipment, boss” Command Sergeant Major Dionsio said.
“Yeah, it is we may not be able to take it all, Dionsio lets start shuttling the spare parts up to the ship fill up the cargo bays up after we load our fresh food supplies I want to be ready to go within a week.” Matthew said.
Present time
“Colonel, I don’t want to come back to help defend this planet again, but I will if you call. With any luck, your Governor is serious about the defense of this planet, and more equipment will be bought. Now if you excuse me, we just accepted our next contract, and we must prep for liftoff.”
----
===New Contracts===
----
WarShip, Beast of Terra
High Orbit
Ingress, Terran Hegemony
October 21st, 2786
----
Local Time: 0830 GST
Lieutenant Abelone Bach callsign Abby was at the front of the room, the command personnel just filed in and was getting situated. Lt. Col. Chapman filed in with the rest of the staff and sat down at the head of the table, the other commanders notice that and started to quiet down and stared at her in anticipation of the brief. Abby was the senior admin personnel, and she was about to brief the organization about local intel, the next contract, and any intel they had on that next contract.
“Welcome Siegers to the post contract brief slash new contract brief before we get into the post contract brief though I would like to introduce the new contract details that way you can make an inform decision about equipment and manning. 
Our next contract is on the planet Rocky, the local government has hired us to quail a rebellion of local warlords. There is no intel if any of the major factions are supplying equipment or men, just that half of the planetary militia and personnel have gone missing, more than likely part of the rebellion. We should net over 10 million in C-Bills plus we have an 80 percent salvage right. 
The Government wants us to end this rebellion quick and as painful to the rebels as possible the contract length is for five months, but they would be happy if it ended sooner than later. I will show more detail maps and intel later but first our commander would like to start the post contract detail, Sir?” With that she sat down, and Lt. Col Chapman continued with the brief.
----
WarShip, Beast of Terra
High Orbit
Rocky, Terran Hegemony
January 25th, 2787
Defeating the rebels took a month and a half, about a month more than Lt. Col. Chapman had wanted it to take. 
It was successful though and that meant five contracts were successful and all got good reviews by the employers. So, he was happy. The unit was growing too fast though, at least in equipment, they needed a place to lay low for a few months and hire some quality pilots. Matthew was looking at all the contracts request out there and none really look interesting. The war across the universe was heating up, planets on the boarder were being hit hard, with no one strong enough to prevent the major factions from fighting he was afraid that this fighting could last for an exceptionally long time. Matthew put the pad of contracts down and looked at the repair report, he was still down a company but most of those 'mechs will be operational within the next week. Personnel wise no one was in trouble with local law enforcement but, there were no good candidates for hire on Rocky. 
His son though was growing in strength and wisdom in the simulator now, the test a few months ago showed he was to be a MechWarrior, with that Frank had gone all in. He wanted to be like his dad, against his mother’s wished too. Speaking of mother. Matthew had no idea what to do with his wife. He had to isolated her on all classified information, but it seems like she still was able to obtain battle movement documents and shared with the enemy. Meaning, in the last battle for the capital she told them his plan, fortunately his unit was able to overcome it, but Matthew came close to losing his life as did his lance mates. There was a knock on the door a few moments later. “Come in.” The door open and Lieutenant Majaev walked in and closed the door. Majaev was the officer in charge of the HR dept. and head of security she was 5’10 dirty blonde well-built female and tough as nails. She looked at Matthew and said, “We have a problem” and then sat down.
Thirty minutes later
Lieutenant Majaev got up to leave and before she opened the door she turned around with a sad look and said that she was sorry for what was going to happen and the left. Matthew sat back in his chair and looked at the Lieutenant’s new mission OPERATION HARVEST his wife’s callsign was Raspberry so the code name for the operation made some sense he supposed. Even though they suspected his wife of being a traitor they needed real proof and OPERATION HARVEST was going to give them that proof.
----
WarShip, Beast of Terra
Command Bridge
High Orbit
Rocky, Terran Hegemony
January 26th, 2787
----
Local Time: 0950 GST
Lt. Col Matthew Chapman was sitting at his station as the ship orbited the planet below. He was going through a new batch of contract offers, none of which was really appealing, the government approved his request for R/R but limited the amount of personnel that could be on planet at the same time, three-day R/R were issued, and he had to split his unit into three groups, so nine days total which would help the local economy. The alarm sounded and the helmsman shouted out that a fleet had emerge from FTL at Zenith station and were hailing us. Commander Phung asked for the alarm to be silence then open communication, video came into existence on the other side of the video feed was a high pompous ass admiral of the Lyran Commonwealth.
“Hello, I am Admiral Luther Weisskopf, commander of the Hesperan naval defense the Archon herself has asked me to contact you to offer a special contract.”
Matthew’s interest peaked this could be the first contract from a real faction.
“You have come a long way to talk to us, how can the Howling Siegers help the Lyran Commonwealth Admiral?”
“Answer me this first, commander of the Siegers, what is your strength.”
Matthew thought about this for a second, and whether to tell the truth about his unit’s strength. “Admiral we are a Battalion plus strong.”
The Admiral sat back in his chair and stroke his chin, thinking for a few minutes. “Ok, I am sending you over plans for OPERATION BANSEE I want your force along with a special Lyran force to invade the planet Altair, there is a Shipyard that I want destroyed along with the factories that make the parts for the JumpShips. There are some mining facilities on a few planets in system that if destroyed would earn you a bonus. If all objectives are met, you could earn a little over 30 million C-bills after expenses. Will you except the contract?”
Matthew looked at the file that was just transferred over, “This will take some time to go through Admiral, but we will do it and destroy all the enemy forces on the planet if you allow for one more concession.”
The Admiral looked complex. “What type of concession?”
"I would ask to have two months R/R at Hesperus II for refit and upgrade of our unit. For the bonus if we destroy the mining facilities and take out all the enemy in the solar system so that your unit can take control, I would request six heavy mechs from the inventory at Hesperus.", Matthew quested
The Admiral stared at the Siegers Commander and started to tap his finger on the table loud enough that Matthew could hear it. Matthew started to doubt the importance of this planet and maybe he had overplayed his hand when the Admiral slapped his hand on the desk and said, “Ok Lt. Col Chapman it’s a deal I will send over the revise paperwork and file it with the appropriate agencies. I will say that if you pull off everything you said you can, it will be some kind of miracle, I don’t doubt your unit’s skill I just don’t think your unit is big enough for this type of operation. Good luck to you.” With that the Admiral signed off.
-----
Two days later
Matthew was going over the mission report and details, when his expected guess knocked at the door of his office/room on board the Beast of Terra.
“Come in”“Lieutenant Commander Phung reporting as order.” She looked around at the stateroom, slightly bigger than hers she noticed that it was spotless, nothing out of place the only thing on the Lt. Col. Chapman’s desk was a paper folder with files in it and a computer pad.
“Commander, please have a seat. I want to go over some of the planning details with you and have you asses the strengths of the enemy and the viability of the battle plans.
-----
<<Previous Chapter - Chapter Index - Next Chapter>>
Book 2 - 07