CHS2-10

==Chapter 10 - Book 2 – Chappy's Howling Siegers==
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Siegers HQ
Altais, Draconis Combine
March 30th, 2787
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Local Time: 0745 GST
Lt. Col. Chapman just receive word that the Beast of Terra had completed its mission and was two days out from being back in orbit. That would enable him to have air superiority for the rest of the campaign. Counting on that he decided to sit down and starts planning the missions. His first objective was the factory at the coastal city Carilene, this factory made all the sheet metal for the ships outer and inner hauls along with the armor. If they were lucky there would be some stock waiting to go up to the shipyard that the Siegers could liberate. First though he wanted to try and thin out some of the enemy’s forces, especially since the Lyran special forces were not due to arrive for 16 days. So, he order deep patrols that would take them a few clicks from the city to see if they could draw some forces out. For the next week his unit keep sending out two lances a day moving closer to the city and was successful to some degree pulling some of the enemy away from the city. This also served a dual purpose for intel about their city’s defenses. 
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Siegers HQ 
Altais, Draconis Combine
April 9th, 2787
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Local time: 1600 GST
The time had come Lt. Col. Chapman gathered his Commanders and told them that tomorrow at 0500 they were going to attack the city move in from the North towards the South where the factory was. Minimum damage to the actual city was to be attempted, intel showed that most of the civilians had already fled, but Matthew did not want to flatten the city just the factory. The Commanders went away with their briefing packets and met in smaller groups to discuss the overall plan and tweak the little issues to make the overall plan better. Now that the unit was over a Battalion, he knew that the Lance Commanders knew their guys better than he ever would, the same with the Company Commanders knowing the Lance Commanders under the command their command strengths and weakness. So, Matthew always gave wiggle room in the final battleplan if one of the commanders had a better idea, as long as the main objective was accomplished he did not care.
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April 9th
Local Time: 0300
The ground units moved out from the base with expectations to be at the city in two hours. The Fighters will launch from the Beast of Terra at 0500 fully loaded with bombs and should be over head by 0530. Everything was ready, and the march was on, radio silence for two hours meant that finally there was peace in the cockpit for Matthew. 
Matthew looked over the battleplans once again, this will be the first time that the Siegers will be moving into battle with four fully operational Companies. The newly minted Delta company under the command of newly promoted First Lieutenant Dionsio should prove to be an exceptional asset to the Siegers. It took a lot of convincing by Matthew for Dionsio to give up her Chief stripes, but he had plans for her and needed her to be one of the core officers in his unit. The unit was coming in from the north and northwest, Alpha and Delta companies will push from the north going due south through a lot of residential areas. Beta, Charlie Companies, and Command lance will be pushing from the west to the south. The first obstacle was the wall that surrounded the city to keep the natural predators out of the city, really no defense against Mechs or a well-armed military unit. The unit pushed through the wall with no resistance and moved gingerly through the residential area trying not to destroy buildings if possible. Alerts went off when they marched up a slight hill to find a second wall with turrets on it. They instantly started firing taking out a leg of a Bravo Company mech. The rest of the unit open fired and moved to the left. Enemy tanks and Artillery fire attacked the Siegers, they were trying to pin the Siegers. Further east Alpha and Delta encountered the same thing. With the tanks though, there was a Lance of Medium Mechs. Delta's Commander Dionsio moved her unit to the right most of the mechs under her command were lights and mediums she had her three heavies, all Riflemans, sit up on the hill and fire their AC/5 constantly at the turrets while the rest of the unit flanked the enemy tanks and mechs. Alpha Company was pinned down but was putting enough pressure on the enemy to distracted them from Delta’s movement. Taking them by surprise the flanking action was a success and Delta took care of the enemy with no problem.
Beta and Charlie company was pushing forward though the second line of defense with only light damage to most of the 'mechs, Matthew and his command lance led the two companies through the makeshift wall destroying all turrets and tanks that they engaged. All four companies moved further south passing all the residential areas and into the commercial/business section of the city. That’s where most of the Combine 'Mech lances decided to make their stand, which was not saying much, only five lances mostly medium but in good condition. Matthew ordered his unit to spread out in hopes that the Combine forces would have to spread out and not be able to concentrate their weapon fire and it worked the ratio was almost a lance verse a company. Even though the enemy had the home field advantage they were still out manned, out gunned, and soon dead. With that it was a clear shot to the factory facilities. Matthew ordered the warehouses to be raided for any parts that the Siegers could use and then burned all the buildings down in compound making sure that the fire did not spread outside of the target area. The casualties were light eight mechs damage one lost completely and two pilots dead.
After the fire dwindled down Matthew had them put the fire completely out and then set up the new HQ there, with the surrounding area completely burned to the ground, the airport on the eastside, and the city in a location relative to the rest of the factories that basically puts it in the middle for travel time, it made since to move the HQ here. Initial Intel showed that there was not much resistance on the ground, so seeing five plus mech squadrons had Matthew considering that the Intel was wrong. He was walking around the area watching his troops set up the temporary tents until the portable buildings were taken down and brought here from the old base, when a smug man on the edge of the secure area was angerly discussing something with one of the perimeter guards. Matthew got on the radio and asked what the civilian wanted the guard came back and said he was the assistant to the mayor of the city and the mayor demands a meeting with the commander. After checking with maintenance on the status of his office, he radio back and said for the mayor to be here in forty-five minutes.
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Forty-Five minutes later
The Mayor of Carilene was escorted into a tent, how unsavory to be meeting in a tent in the middle of a burnt factory which was all but cleared out. One thing the mayor thought, was that these mercs whoever they are, were efficient. He walked up to the outer flap of the “door” and notice the unit emblem, half man half wolf, again he had no idea who these mercs were. Walking through and up to the next flap of the “inner door” he steps through and saw a well-lit room with a nice rug on the floor a big table to the left with charts and figurines on it. To the right was a couch and in the middle off to the back of the tent was a desk. A man stood up in a what the mayor recognized as dress blues for this unit. Completely white uniform with a high and tight collar. He had lots of ribbons and medals on his uniform and a yellow rope on his left shoulder. The man moved around the desk and offered his hand to the mayor.
“Mr. Mayor, it is nice to meet you. I am Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Chapman, most people call me Chappy though. Please have a seat would you care for a beverage?” Said as Matthew pointed towards the couch.
The mayor looked at this well dress officer and realized that this was not an ordinary scum mercenary, he had to be prior Star League. He sat down and looked at the commander.
“What can I do for you, Mr. Mayor” Matthew said
“Well you can get out of my city and off my planet”, he told him
“I am under contract and as soon as that has been honored, we will be leaving. Until then I promise to keep our footprint to the minimum.”
Matthew brought over the glass of water for the mayor then sat down.
The mayor looked at Matthew and shook his head.
“Your unit is different than other mercenaries I have encountered, I noticed that your unit took extra precautions in the residential area.”
“Yes, and I am sorry for the loss of buildings in the commercial part of the town, I would have prefer just to fight outside the city or here at the factory which was the target of this mission. Like I said before my unit’s footprint will be kept to a minimum.”
The mayor looked at the commander as if gathering his thoughts.
“What are you doing here? What is your unit called?”
Matthew looked at the mayor and stood up.
“I cannot tell you why we are here or who employed us, our unit’s name is Chappy's Howling Siegers, the founders of the unit including myself were part of the 151st Royal BattleMech Division under the Commander Major-General Hayes.”
Matthew motion for the mayor to get up and start walking to the door.
“I have a lot of planning to do so if there is nothing else I need to take my leave from you. I cannot promise that buildings and civilians will not be hurt during this time, due to not having control of your masters’ desires for battle. I will though tell you that anytime I can fight the combine outside of a city during this time, I will.”
With that, he escorted the mayor to the guard outside his tent.
“Please escort the mayor back to his transportation, he is leaving the base.”
Matthew went back to his desk to finalize the plans for OPERATION HARVEST sadden that it has come to this. He sent the packet to those players that will be involved through the Siegers secure net. He sat back in his chair and decided that it was time to get out of the monkey suit and back into battle gear. 
He was almost done changing when his attendant burst in. “Sir, the Lyran detachment has arrived, and all the companies have left for their missions except for Alpha.”
“Thank you Sergeant escort the commander of the Lyran Detachment here when he is ready.”
Matthew looked out to the company of Lyran mechs all mediums all in black ops colors with no indication that they were Lyran regular forces. The commander exited his Hunchback and greeted the Matthew’s attendant and made a bee line to his tent.
The Lyran Commander enter Matthew’s tent and stuck out his hand as if they were equals, “Hauptmann Erwin Vale here to help you with your task at hand.”
Matthew looked at the Hauptmann and turned around to walk back to his desk leaving the young officer’s hand hanging. Then looking at the officer side glance, “I do not appreciate lack of military bearing, I am the commander of this operation you are here to support you will salute me and show the respect of a commanding officer whether it is here in private or in public.”
Picking up a pad Matthew tossed it to the Hauptmann.
“Here are your first set of orders, scout south of here for 100 miles there is a factory down there somewhere do not engage or destroy just recon and bring the info back to me, you are dismissed.” 
With that Matthew turned his back to the Hauptmann, discipline will be established no matter what, even his best friends show rank respect in public.
With this assignment it left the base being defended by three lances Bravo Lance of Alpha Company was still being repaired, so they were down the way at the space port on board the dropship being worked on. A few hours past, Matthew’s attendant appeared at the door.
“Sir, we have tried to reach you, there is enemy movement towards the city. There indications show there are five tank lances and one mech lance.”
“Alert Alpha Company and my Lance! We will move out now and meet them before they reach the city.”
With three Mech Lances out in the open, the five tank lances did not stand a chance even with the one 'mech lance. While the enemy was completely destroyed there was some damage to the Siegers. They lost two mechs completely and one MechWarrior was in surgery fighting for his life. The biggest win though was no civilians were hurt and not one building was touch. They were marching back to the base when Matthew got word that the recon drones where ready for deployment, he gave the recon team the go ahead and hoped that these drones would give them a better idea of the enemy force here on planet. The thirty drones will take three to six days to map the whole planet. With radar resistance metal they were almost nearly impossible to spot. Also, he ordered surveillance cams to be placed on the picket line that was 5 miles out of the city that way if the enemy decided to come again they will be better warned.
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Temporary HQ
Siegers Prime Base
Altair
May 1st, 2787
All Company Commanders and the Liaison of the Lyran Commonwealth was at the meeting, after several weeks of mapping the planet, gathering intel, and repairing the mechs that were damage they were ready to hit the other two factories simultaneously so that the enemy could not reinforce one if it was attacked. The plan was to send Alpha & Beta companies, and the Lyran force to the factory located 300 miles north via the dropship Wolves Trap and then Charlie and Delta Companies would attack the factory 450 miles south via the dropship Conquering Wolves the command lance along with the 4th Battalion Armor Force plus the Aerospace Force would guard the base from any counterattack that would happen.
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DropShip Wolves Trap
20 miles from target
30,000 feet altitude 
North Factory
Major Ethan Bruce was in command of the mission, they were supposed to combat drop right on top of the factory and destroy it. There was a large force of tanks and security mechs on site, but the main goal was the destruction of the factory and all the buildings associated with it. They were supposed to time the attack with the other force down south, if all goes well there would be one factory left and it was on the other side of the planet.
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DropShip Conquering Wolves
10 miles from target
40,000 feet altitude
South Factory
Major Haleigh Pople was in command of the mission to the south due to the mountain range they will have to drop a few miles away from the facility and move up a steep road. Intel showed two companies of security mechs a slue of turrets and three squadrons of VTOLs. The Major was not really worried about this mission though, she was more concern about OPERATION HARVEST and what it would mean to the unit and to her best friend, the commander.
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Wolves Trap
Major Bruce was waiting for the combat drop light to turn green; he always hated the wait and the drop was worse since that was the only time he ever felt vulnerable. Finally, the light turned green the doors open the two companies started jumping out of the dropship, into a world of laser fire missile explosions and pure chaos. Major Bruce landed on top of the main building and started to take out the turrets that were attacking his warriors. Several of his troops landed on the ground and started to destroy the buildings. Two other mechs landed next to Major Bruce and was sniping at the enemy that was trying to take out their friends.
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Conquering Wolves
Major Pople and the two companies landed without any issues and started the steep climb up to the facility. The slope of the mountain was greater than the drone intel indicated and even though it was a road that they were moving on the grade of the slope was 15% so the mechs were struggling. In a hundred meters there was a leveling off, they would regroup and make the final push to the facility from there. Her alarms went off at almost the same time the ground in front of her exploded. Another round of explosions at her feet the ground was moving, “Siegers double time they are trying to take the road out!! Find out where those missiles are coming from.”
Both companies tried to move faster even though they were already pushing their mechs as it was.
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North Factory
Major Bruce took aim at the next security guard mech, this was like shooting fish in a pond, no challenge at all. Moving closer to the edge of the seven-story building to get a better angle exposed him to a barrage of missile fire that he did not expect. Most hit the building and his lower legs, causing the roof to collapse with him falling into the building the impact pushed him through the floor and into level six, still the momentum caused the mech to break through to the next level finally the mech rested on the fourth level one leg hang over the side just dangling swaying back and forth from the motion of falling three stories.
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South Factory
The Siegers located a couple of squads of men with SRM 2 that was firing at the ground. A couple of PPC shots later from Major Pople and that was the end of the threat. Unfortunately, they lost 3 mechs down the raven that was created when the ground gave way, luckily though they are salvageable, and the warriors survived. Major Pople knew now that the enemy knew they were coming so she told her troops to keep their heads on a swivel and moved as fast and as safe as possible. Quickly they moved up the mountain and made it to the plateau which also meant that enemy fire started from the facility.
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North Factory
Major Bruce slowly woke up, to static on the radio and all the electronics flashing off and on. He tasted copper substance in his mouth, the fog slowly lifted, and he realized it was his blood from a head wound, apply pressure to it he looked at his consoles, then his comm equipment. He must of falling farther then he thought his mech was in bad condition. Bruce pulled the comm equipment and receded it, powered it back on and got a signal. Major Dalton Tournier had taken over the mission, good Bruce thought Tournier was a close friend and excellent commander. He tried to talk but found that his voice was gone. He tried to get his mech to move, at least sit up but nothing would respond.
All the buildings but one was destroyed all the enemy had been destroyed. Tournier looked up at his friend’s mech on the fourth floor of the remaining building.
“Sir, no radio contact with Major Bruce. There no movement, to much interference from the steel around him to pick up any movement or noise in the cockpit. We will need to call for VTOL support if we jump a light mech up there the whole building could collapse, frankly I am surprised it hasn’t yet.”
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South Factory
Major Pople two companies were pinned down most of the mechs were plastered against the mountain to stay out of the range of the turrets. Major Pople had enough so she called back to HQ to order an air strike.
Within thirty minutes two squadrons of aerospace fighter flew overhead rushed past her position and bombed the factory. They then flew around for another pass this time firing lasers and missiles targeting the turrets that were not yet destroyed. Major Pople had her unit move out of cover and rush the facility. Within a few moments it was over, and the factory was burning to the ground.
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North Factory
Major Bruce woke up, he had no idea how long he had been out. His situation was still the same, only there was no weapon fire or any combat noises outside. He tried the radio, nothing. Did they leave him thinking he was dead? Then he heard the thump thump of a VTOL he looked out the cockpit and saw the VTOL come into view and hover over him. From the silhouette he could tell it was a Karnov, cable dropped from the VTOL, and he could see troops rappel down and land on his mech. One was looking into the cockpit and Bruce gave a thumbs up.
“Sir, this is Red 4 I just landed on his mech the Major is alive and gave me a thumbs up.”
The other troopers attached the cables to the mech and then rappel down to the ground. The VTOL then slowly lifted the mech off the platform it was on and brought it to the ground.
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Book 2 - 010