TBntG-3 Chpt 48

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 48 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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===Twilight of the Dragon: 2 - Battle===
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====Psychological Warfare====
Luthien, Draconis Combine
Victor Steiner-Davion strode into the fight, along with the rest of the mechs of his unit. The BDS had put tank traps and pit traps down, and so the first wave would be powered infantry and mechs, with the vehicles following behind once the engineers had cleared lanes.
 
They would have come with the main body, but at this point, there was no need to risk more vulnerable vehicles on a break out. 
 
For the first few miles, the opposition was light. A few Kuritan units had tried to form up and go after the landing zones, and you could see their fate on the horizon as beams stabbed down from the orbiting fleet. 
 
(("Fire support mission, grid square 20-3."))
 
))"Confirm, toast and roast on the way…"((
 
))"Lincoln, stand by for fire mission…"((
 
(("Target destroyed…"))
 
The chatter of the support channel filled his ear, and Victor kept track of it. Half of a mechwarrior's training was learning how to do the things that a vehicle might have a crew of up to five to do, after all. It was improved by his helmet and cockpit. The helmet was based on SLDF designs, and was lighter and more responsive, while the smaller screens that had been state of the art only 15 years ago were replaced by the simple expedient of a set of VR goggles that sat on Victor's face, letting him looking around like he was the mech.
 
Even in his position, Victor chuckled. NAIS, Comstar and the Taurians had all been left with egg on their face on that one. Millions of C-bills trying to build "transparent cockpits" and a Canopian video game company taking advantage of the new technology had innocently wandered into the cutthroat world of weapon tech… and because they didn't know that such systems were "impossible" they'd made it work. 
 
And made a very nice sum in C-bills. 
 
"Alert, we have mechs and light infantry breaking cover!" 
 
Also expected. The BDS had to have noticed the fact that the invaders were reluctant to simply burn cities. 
 
"Light and medium mechs," Victor said. "Light infantry…" His voice hardened. "One of the militia regiments." Not that any of his men required that news. The town they were approaching was boiling with civilian cars, trucks, even motor bikes, some of them actually waving banners as they erupted from the mass, the 'mechs, and tanks advancing behind them.
 
A quick check with the drone feed confirmed it. He could see young faces, some with vest armor that was more suited to a security guard than a soldier, primitive helmets that wouldn't have been out of place on Earth before space flight, and rifles. A few SRMs but…
 
They didn't have much training. An SRM unit had to be trained, trained to work in unison, trapping a mech in web of fire at close range. 
 
Some of these people were actually firing them off as they approached, still out of range. 
 
"Confirm, they have little in the way of CBERN gear."
 
"Initiating Plan Rave." 
 
Victor didn't have anything to deal with Plan Rave. His autocannon was gone, replaced by an advanced gauss gun, and his job was to engage the mechs—and any leakers from the mob.
 
Behind him the first missiles soared, exploding with popping sounds, releasing pink mist. Then what little cohesion the human wave had died. Some turned around and were shot by the blocking forces behind them, some charged with desperation. 
 
The Black Dragons had brought back the terror of chemical weapons—now the UMC would use it. The pink coloring was only a special effect to make it plain what was happening. The true gas was GZ-12, "Upchuk" a crowd control gas developed by the Terran Alliance. In one percent of people, it would result in permanent nerve damage or death, but compared to the death toll of letting them get within attack range of a division of mechs…
 
Then, stabbing through the clouds of gas came lasers from selected mechs, tuned just below permanent eye damage (for the most part), but agonizing to look at. Regular troops had respirators and polarized goggles… But many of these didn't. 
 
Lastly, angry burros trotted in front of the mechs, some being shot but others starting up their noise…
 
CHEOPS 
 
CHEOPS
 
CHEOPS…
 
A word that few would understand, and the psychologists with Comstar had agreed, that would make it more terrifying than anything more common. The fact that the fusion powered speakers were just below the level of permanent ear damage didn't hurt either.
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====Advancing through Hell====
A lot were going to die, Victor knew. There was no way around that on the battlefield. But the point was… 
 
We're not just casually killing them. The easy thing to do would have been to sweep the field with ortillery and LRM fire. But they weren't. 
 
And pragmatically, finding out that you had a chance of surviving if you surrendered might see more units choose to surrender. 
 
He advanced with the rest. A panther was firing on the front rank, but Victor had it in his sights and opened fire. Two shots and it went down, one leg smashed. Return fire was scattered, some lances working together, other's showing they'd never trained together. 
A little ways down the line, there was a tremendous explosion, a Marauder flying back, the Kuritan infantry splashing away from the decaton grenade. 
 
But only one.
 
Thank you, Sis. Katrina and the other units in Gun Control had kept most of those weapons from ever leaving their factories. 
 
"They're breaking, focus on the minders." 
 
Not part of Victor's job, but as he kept track of the enemy mechs, he watched. The troops were breaking, running, or just frozen in terror, and from behind them, other units opened fire on their own troops.
 
BDS political troops, and they had done the one thing that the UMC needed them to do—marked themselves out as units that were equipped with modern kit, even BA, who weren't vulnerable to Plan Rave. 
 
Which meant that they were now targets for every assigned anti-infantry unit on the field. 
 
"Mech forces advance!" Victor moved forward, keeping track of his battalion. "Jake, this isn't a raid, you're getting too far out in front."
 
<<"Roger, commander.">>
 
Always gotta watch the light mech jocks. 
 
"Fourth regiment has taken the bridges." Good. Fourth Regiment was mostly Taurian infantry, and they'd been tasked with ensuring the Dracs couldn't blow the bridges. Sure mechs could take the river and the engineering corps could throw up a bridge, but it would take time. 
Victor felt his mech shudder as a Dragon's PPC gouged at the torso. The mech opened fire with its LRM rack, but they scattered, and then it was hit by Victor's gauss round—and two PPC's from other mechs. It returned fire and for a brief moment stood defiant, before an ammo explosion brought its defiance to an end. 
 
Tch. The pilot shouldn't have stood and fought. The smart thing to do would have been to duck back into the town.
 
Thank you for the no-retreat orders. All over Luthien, units that should have retreated were letting themselves be destroyed or pocketed. 
 
Advancing, Victor kept track of the infantry around him, armored forms moving up and shooting any resistance or taking others into custody. The abortive infantry assault was a mass of puking and writhing people on the ground, save for the ones who had been shot or blown up, usually because they kept advancing. With most of their blocking forces gone, others were running for the dubious safety of the town, flinging their weapons away. 
 
Not all. Victor passed a crashed SUV, still with some sports stickers on it. He moved a little to the side, no sense tempting someone for a last glorious attack, but as he passed, the people around it made no move to attack. They looked younger then he was, teens at the most. One girl was squatting down behind the SUV, hands clamped over her ears, mouth open in an inaudible scream. Behind her, two others were frantically hugging each other, a girl with long golden hair, and a boy. 
 
But Victor had other duties. He designated a pillbox, and moments later, artillery wiped it from the earth. The status board showed most of his mechs were at yellow or better. 
 
They spread their fire. Sloppy.
 
Or they were depending on their meat shields. 
 
"All units hold and prepare to support the assault." 
 
Victor nodded, and as the first unit held, fresh infantry units went streaming in. Not just line units—the urban assault units were one of the few fields where the UMC had found a use for heavy and assault BA. Angry Burros and other drones led the way, but a city was no place for mechs. Victor and his unit would withdraw, repair, and be readied for the next offensive.
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*;Although in a few cases, the Kuritan militia units did real damage, in most cases, these units, mostly young, untrained, unequipped for the modern battlefield, and either terrified of the guns behind them, or hopped up on indoctrination (or drugs) that made them charge the guns in front of them, proved to do little more than increase the butcher's bill.Plan Rave tended to lead to the units breaking, and more importantly, allowing the UMC and Clan forces to engage and destroy the blocking and political units behind them.Units handled by Plan Rave generally broke before closing, and suffered no more than 5 to fifteen percent killed with up to forty percent injured. In the few cases where Plan Rave was impossible to use, deaths in the militia units approached fifty percent, with a few cases exceeding ninety percent.From: Lost Generation: Child Soldiers, and the Last Days of the Combine. - Harvard Press, 3110
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Book 3 - 48