WCGW Chpt 118

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==Chapter 118 - What Could Go Wrong==
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11 May 3043
Wokha (Former Outworlds System)
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The outnumbered pirate Aerospace Fighters based on the planet's surface came up to resist the incoming invasion force, but they were completely outmatched and outnumbered by overwhelming force from the 183rd Independent Aerowing and SaRI Aerowing. In less than an hour, all the pirate fighters were destroyed, several having been chased back into the atmosphere where they fled before being destroyed. The ground invasion fleet of Dropships entered a polar orbit while the Intrusive, SaRI's Intruder Class Assault Dropship, used it's sensor package to scan the planet's surface. By the end of the day, they had a firm lock on the pirate base. Colonel Bradley Andrews ordered the invasion to begin.
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12 May 3043
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The Arcadians grounded both loaned Overlord Dropships 50 kilometers from the pirate base on a broad flat plain. Once they had secured the landing zone, they brought down their Mule Cargo Dropship, which carried their third Battalion. He was in no hurry and waited for everything to get unloaded since their landing zone was under no immediate threat. Colonel Mitchell brought SaRI's forces down into the landing zone to take over security of the site as Colonel Andrews led the Arcadians out. He kept the pirate base under close observation by high orbiting Aerospace fighters.
As The Arcadians closed on the pirate base, the pirates began deploying to meet the invaders. But this was hampered as Colonel Andrews called down Aerospace fighters to start hitting the deploying pirates. Lieutenant Colonel Franklin Noble led the SaRI Aerospace Wing down to soften up the pirate force. Like most Aerospace pilots, he hated air to ground combat, it was just too dangerous. He lined up on some pirate Battlemechs and let loose with everything his Samurai SL-26 had, he smiled as several staggered under the hits. He toggled off his bomb load as he pulled back hard on the stick. The bomb load landed among the pirate Battlemechs, downing one for good. He craned his head to keep track of the rest of his Wing as they continued their own attacks, and he took up an overwatch position. 
Alpha Squadron had remained slick, with no external ordnance carried, their RPR-101 Rapiers already carried a fearsome load of three PPCs, which they could fire all day long. A pirate Shadow Hawk caught all three PPCs from the first Rapiers into the fray and went down hard. By the time the SaRI Wing broke off to refuel, the pirates had already lost 13 Battlemechs and many more damaged. But they were not in the clear as the 183rd Aerowing took over, announcing their presence with multiple bomb runs followed by repeated strikes and strafing attacks.
The Arcadians kept up their advance on the pirate forces until they could finally begin adding their own firepower to that of the attacking Aerospace fighters. The pirate force was only a medium weight unit and The Arcadians had them greatly out massed and outnumbered. Retreat by the pirates was complicated by the nonstop Aerospace presence, any attempt to cut and run was met with ferocious air attacks. While the Arcadians dealt with the pirate Battlemechs, word went out that the pirate's armor unit was sweeping wide and headed for the landing zone.
Lieutenant Colonel James Woodall deployed his Battlemech Battalion to prevent the pirates access to the landing zone while Captain Julio Cortez led his company of Drillson Hover Tanks out to meet the pirates. Both companies of Manticores were in a staggered formation to catch any leakers before they reached the landing zone. Opening fire at long range, the SaRI Drillsons maintained a distance that prevented the pirate hover tanks from returning fire at all. Mainly Pegasus Hover Tanks, they quickly tired of the constant long-range firing and shifted towards the SaRI Battlemech Battalion. The first volley of SRMs fired confirmed every [Mechwarrior]]s worst fear, they were armed with Infernos. While most of the missiles missed, enough hit the leading Wolfhounds, that normally would be a major issue, was just enough to piss off whoever they hit with the burning goo. As the Wolfhounds returned fire, though somewhat limited, the double heat sinks recently installed worked their magic.
As the PHX-3S Phoenix Hawks entered the fray, their Large Pulse Lasers and AMS began really taking a toll on the pirate hover tanks. But they could not get them all and the speeding Pegasus Hover tanks finally reached the STC-2C Striker Assault Battlemechs, three of the Pegasus rippled their massed SRMs into a single Striker, leaving it a massive pyre. The intense heat detonating the onboard ammunition in a massive explosion. The pilot was ejected only to be covered in the burning inferno gel. Another Striker met the same fate, its heat sinks having no prayer of preventing an explosion from onboard ammunition. Three more Striker were destroyed by the flaming infernos.
Only two Pegasus reached the landing zone proper and managed to fire a single volley each before being destroyed themselves, but those volleys struck true and one of the SaRI Engineering Vehicles was destroyed along with 22 of the former slave miners, turned engineers. Part of the volley destroyed a Sherpa cargo truck and Sherpa Tanker, the resulting fiery explosion killed another 18 of the support troops and injuring 29 more.
As dark fell over Wokha, the pirate force, what was left of it had withdrawn into the small city proper. Both Colonel Mitchell and Colonel Andrews agreed that it would be better to clear the city during daylight hours.
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13 May 3043
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Dawn found the SaRI Infantry Battalion slowly advancing behind their Turhan APC/Tanks with Battlemechs from SaRI's Battlemech Battalion in support. Colonel Andrews and The Arcadians had finished surrounding the small city during the night, cutting off any escape of any pirates left. City fighting had suddenly become a huge ordeal with the some of the Mechwarriors in SaRI, even Lieutenant Colonel James Woodall, had literally refused to do battle inside the city itself.
"I cannot obey the order, Colonel. Nor will I order the former members of the First Davion Guards to assault the city itself. I am sorry, but it is literally hard wired into our DNA to never fight in a city." Lieutenant Colonel Woodall said
"Refresh my memory, how many former First Davion Guards do we have?" Colonel David Mitchell asked
"Four Mechwarrior, including myself, at least half the tankers and maybe 2 platoons of infantry. We will fight in any other setting you ask us to, but never inside a city. I will resign before I do so, as will the other former First Davion Guards." Lieutenant Colonel Woodall said
"Colonel Woodall, pull the other First Davion Guards back and secure the landing zone. We will deal with this when this is all wrapped up. But any that pilot a Phoenix Hawk are to turn that over to another, those jump jets will be vital in that city." Colonel Mitchell ordered
"Very well sir. We will assume security of the landing zone." Lieutenant Colonel Woodall said
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17 May 3043
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It had taken four days to secure the small city by the SaRI Infantry Battalion, several parts of the city were still burning. They tried as hard as they could to keep civilian casualties to a minimum, even giving the civilians a two-hour window each day to cross the lines to safety. A single Battalion was just not enough troops to take any city easily, a small town yes, but this was an actual city, complete with multi story buildings. When the fighting finally ended, the SaRI Infantry Battalion had suffered 41 KIA and 121 WIA, a further 2,365 civilians had been killed and another 3,409 wounded. A good quarter of the city had been rendered uninhabitable by the fighting. Most of the civilians had been killed or injured as the pirates used them as human shields during the fighting. The pirate inside the city had been virtually eliminated with only 13 taken prisoner. It was a very costly fight for everyone.
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