CHS2-13

==Chapter 13 - Book 2 – Chappy's Howling Siegers==
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===Defense of the Factories===
Siegers HQ
Hesperus II, Lyran Commonwealth
June 15th, 2787
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Local Time: 1430 GST
The Lyran Fleet was still struggling with the Kurita Fleet and had let some of their dropship slip past the defenses. The Eleventh Hesperus Guards was defending the planet, but even with that Lyran Command had asked the Siegers to help with the defense of the planet. A Kurita company of mechs was able to break thru the line that the Guards had established. The Kurita forces heading to the factories, Siegers were task to stop them before they did damage to any of the factories. Delta Company was sent to a small village just north of the industrial complex to stop the enemy.
 
First Lieutenant Dionsio was in charge of Delta Company she split her unit into each lance, Lima Lance which was her heavy class 'mechs moved from the south around the west side of the town. 
Julio Lance was the Delta’s light lance and moved from the south around the east side of the town. The command lance comprises of medium 'mechs moved into the city in search of the enemy. The Siegers moved up through and around the village not finding the enemy, but Kurita unit was still northeast of the city and when they saw the Siegers light lance all twelve enemy mechs moved toward them. Dionsio and her lance snuck through the city and surprised the Kurita mechs as they engaged the light lance. Private Grigor piloting a Firestarter jumped over the distracted Kurita Stalker and Hammerhands and turned up the heat on both mechs. While Second Lieutenant Nkanen piloting the Black Knight from Lima Lance burst from the trees on the west side of the village and laid down a barrage of lasers into the torso of the Hammerhands. Private Rosacega moved up and tried to finish the Hammerhands when a Kurita Crusader lit up her mech causing an engine breach in which she had to eject.
Private Munene was in the dreadful UrbanMech. He was constantly made fun of, and his trash can 'mech but today he was the man. He pushed through two buildings and ended up behind an Von Rohrs and with his AC10 he was able to make quick work of that mech saving his commander. Delta Company had successfully moved their Lima lance to where they were firing on the backside of the Kurita forces, Julio Lance was still distracting most of the enemy and Delta’s lance came out of the town almost perfectly on Kurita’s right flank, because of this maneuver Kurita’s forces had lost seven of their twelve Battlemechs and started to retreat. Lieutenant Dionsio orders was to keep them from the industrial complex and push them back, not to pursue and destroy so she let them retreat.
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Siegers HQ
December 30th, 2787
Local Time: 1100 GST
It has been almost a month since Kurita showed up and about three weeks since COMSTAR left with the General and his wife, Matthew thought. Lyran High Command had used his unit a couple of times but for the most part their defenses were more than adequate on the ground. In space though it was back and forth game of cat and mouse neither side really getting an upper hand. The Beast of Terra was scheduled to be back today, Matthew had no way to contact them prior to today so he was waiting for them to enter the system to update them. 
Matthew’s com system beep showing that he had an incoming message dutifully he sat up straighter and smoothed his uniform.
Admiral Luther Weisskopf appeared on the screen. 
“Colonel Chapman it is good to see you again.”
“Admiral good to see you, surprise you have called what can I do for you, Sir?”
“I understand that your warship is due to be back soon?”
Matthew looked at the Admiral, “Yes, sir it is due back any day now. With the space battle going on I am surprised you have kept tabs on my ship or have time to talk to me.”
The Admiral actually looked uneasy and said. “Our fleet is on verge of collapse, but we believe so is theirs. I was hoping that I could get you to engage the enemy, surprise them while we make a final push on them.”
“Of course, sir” a beep from another communicator showed that the ship just appeared. “In fact, sir the ship just emerge I can have them here in 18 days.”
“Excellent Colonel Chapman we will draw up the battleplans and forward them to you.”
With that he disappeared and Matthew went to communicate the change of plans for his fleet.
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===Fleet Engagement - Hesperus II High Orbit=== 
Kurita Fleet
DCS Kee Lung
January 18, 2788
Local Time: 0300 GST
Tai-sho Pederson the master mind of Operation BROKEN BLADE had success at Skondia just months earlier, but his intel was wrong for Hesperus, they had not expected such a large fleet here and the resistance has been tough. The space battle has been going on for a month now, both sides playing cat and mouse. The Lyran fleet had come out of hiding from the other side of the planet earlier today and now both sides were exchanging broadside fire. To him it looked like that this could be the final battle. The Lyran commander was not running away this time, which was curious. All pushes to the planet had been stopped except for one in which two regiments were able to make planetfall. Unfortunately, there was heavy resistance on the ground not only from Lyran defenses but a merc unit that happen to be planet side for whatever reason. A lot of his ships were damage but so was the Lyran fleet, eventually something will break, and this will be finally over.
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Lyran Fleet
LCS Indomitable
Admiral Luther Weisskopf hoped that the back-and-forth attacks had weaken the Kurita Fleet and that the Siegers show up soon. 
This ongoing space battle had lasted for almost a month. What started off as an even battle based on numbers, His fleet had consisted of 100 warships mostly dropships, but he did have six Tharkad Battlecruisers, Kurita had shown up with 115 warships and like him they were mostly dropships, but they did have about 15 capital warships. 
Now today the Admiral’s fleet was 39 warships no fighters and most warships were damage.
The Kurita fleet showed up and had 67 warships with a dozen fighters. The Admiral was starting to doubt his plan, second guessing the Siegers ability specially since they only had two warships and 36 fighters but, they were fresh and had no battle damage. He hoped it would be the difference, if not the planet would be lost.
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Kurita Fleet
DCS Kee Lung, CIC
January 18, 2788
Local Time: 0400 GST
Tai-sho Pederson just saw a Commonwealth Class Light Cruiser explode from his ship’s weapons, ammo explosion took out half the side leaving the ship without power and adrift. 
After an hour of this back and forth the Lyran Fleet was still holding strong, several of their dropships were destroyed. 
Now this light cruiser, but all the Battlecruisers were still operational, how be it significantly damage. The sister ship DCS Su Ao was destroyed a few moments ago and Pederson childhood friend, the captain of the Su Ao was presumed dead. Several of his dropships were destroyed, but his fleet still had an upper hand. He ordered his fleet to push in and break the Lyrans.
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Lyran Fleet
LCS Indomitable, CIC
Admiral Luther Weisskopf looked across his fleet and saw nothing but destruction. So far, all his Battlecruisers were still functional, but several were badly hurt. 
Even when the Siegers show up there may not be a fleet left to save. He ordered his ship to roll and present the undamaged side to the enemy and to continue firing. The comm officer broke in, “Sir message from The Beast of Terra, they have engaged the enemy.” 
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Samarkad Class Aerospace Carrier, The Beast of Terra
CIC
“Fire all weapons Launch all assets lets show these bastards what a real Naval Ship can do!” Lieutenant Commander Phung said to the Siegers Fleet. The Siegers Fleet consisted of her Samarkand Carrier which at this moment carried 50 active fighters, and a Nightwing Surveillance Ship, and the four dropships. The dropships were planet side and their standard jumpship which had no weapons sat at the charging station primed to jump if the enemy tried to attack them. The Fighters continue to launch one squadron at a time every 3 minutes all eight squadrons and one flight was out and making runs on the enemy capital ships within 30 minutes.
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Kurita Fleet
DCS Kee Lung, CIC
Local Time: 0445 GST
The attack from behind had taken Tai-sho Pederson by surprise. They had identified as the merc unit, how does a merc unit have warships and how they ran silent, one simple answer they had to of been former SLDF crew and ship. He was impressed with how so many fighters were launching off the Siegers' carrier when his own was still having trouble launching all of theirs. The Kee Lung was hit several times and the ship started to tilt losing the center of balance. Pederson orders a couple of Baron Class Destroyers to focus on the new fleet and watched a few more Lyran light cruisers break apart. 
A Tharkad Battlecruiser moved up and started firing at his ship, hitting the Kee Lung over and over again with Naval PPC and a NAC/30 the ship structural integrity failed, and the ship was gone. With Pederson gone and the XO killed earlier in the other Destroyer, command was transferred to a junior officer but highest ranking in the fleet Dai-I Monica Yego. 
She was not prepared for this type of responsibility; half of the fleet was destroyed in almost two hours of fighting; she knew the enemy fleet was hurting too, however her Destroyer was not set up to take command and most of her bridge crew was hurt or dead. So, she did what the only thing that came to her mind and called for a combat withdraw.
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Lyran Fleet
LCS Indomitable, CIC
Admiral Luther Weisskopf was grateful that the Siegers finally showed up, but his fleet was all but destroyed. Most of his Dropships were destroyed, four of the six Battlecruiser were a drift still with power but will need to be towed back to the space dock to be repaired. Most of the light cruisers were badly damage, although two of them was pushing forward and took out a couple of the enemy destroyers. He ordered those ships capable of moving to protect the ships that could not, there was no retreating, and leaving thousands of fellow warriors to die in space. He had his navigator move the ship closer and in front of the other ships drifting, the enemy though started to act different, and started to move off. 
Hauptmann-Kommandant Theissen of the Light cruiser Weissenburg called and said that he believed he just took out their Admiral cause the enemy fleet is retreating soon after his crew destroyed a destroyer. The Admiral watched as the enemy did seem to be disengaging and pulling out moving outbound of the solar system.
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High Orbit 
Hesperus II
January 18, 2788
1300 GST
Admiral Weisskopf was sitting in the command chair of a shuttle craft. There was a slight clang noise from the release of the craft from his flagship, then nothing silence in space was just that silence. The shuttle moved slowly around his ship, and he was able to survey the amount of damage done. The shuttle then moved vertical towards the Siegers Warship, the Beast of Terra, which gave the Admiral a view of two Battlecruisers that were in worse shape than his flagship. 
He shook his head and looked at the report his XO handed him prior to leaving the Indomitable, the battle was still going on planet side but with the Kurita Fleet leaving the enemy should surrender soon. 
His fleet though, last month before the first shot was fired, he had a little over one hundred ships under his command, now he had forty-three with twenty-one of those needing space dock to become operational again. Some good news though they were able to capture several of the enemy ships and will be able to either salvage them for parts or refurbish them and add them to the fleet. Which is why he was headed over to the Siegers warship to share the report. The shuttle made another sharp turn to avoid some battle damage and the Admiral got his first look at the Siegers warship with the naked eye, all black with most of the windows either tinted or blacked out the only light that was shining was that of the spotlight on their unit’s symbol. Alongside their carrier was the other warship in their possession of the CHS Wolfwind, a Nightwing Class surveillance warship. For a merc unit it was an impressive sight, the pilot took the shuttle into the recovery bay and landed with a thud. The pressure equalized and then he was able to leave the shuttle. The Admiral stepped out of the air lock and was greeted by the commander of the ship Lieutenant Commander Phung. “Sir its an honor to have you aboard my ship, please follow me to the conference room.”
They moved through the ship, the Admiral took stock and recognized some of the fixtures and designs. This was not just a merc ship. “Commander, I have been around a long time and have been on SLDF warships, this was a SLDF vessel wasn’t it?”
“Good eye Admiral, yes this was a SLDF and most of us are prior SLDF members that choose not to go with the General and yet chose not to become COMSTAR. The previous commander of this vessel transported some of the 151st Royal Guards during the civil war, which was the unit our Colonel Chapman was a company commander.”
They entered the conference room, and all sat down around the large rectangle table.
“Now, Admiral, Colonel Chapman is still on the ground helping out in the defense of your planet, he as authorized me to be the voice of the Siegers at this meeting.” Commander Phung said and then she slid the Admiral a plastic-film that showed the authority.
“He has put high trust in you, Commander. After the actions of your organization, I decided to give the Siegers a bonus if you are willing and able to accept.” The Admiral then slid over a CompPad toward her, Commander Phung took it on it was a list of capital ships, three in fact, two ships, were beyond repair but would make some good salvage the third intrigued her, a Baron Destroyer with armor and engine damage, but repairable.
“Admiral, this is very generous, it might take us awhile to fully staff it but we gladly accept your bonus.”
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Book 2 - 013