Mission 8: Escaping the Wrath

COREY

NOVEMBER 3039

Dan and Jake were waiting on the pad as Geoff and Nini disembarked from the Lancelot.  Geoff wished he could hide the news about Ben, but Dan would have to hear it.  He hugged both boys--he was still getting used to that with Jake, but he could tell that the boy and Nini both appreciated it.

"Dan," he said.  "Both of you.  We've got bad news."

Dan's eyes widened, while Jake set his jaw in understanding.  "Someone died," he said.

"Four Excaliburs were lost," said Geoff.  He looked at Dan.  "Ben Wabash was one of them.  I'm so sorry, Dan.  He was my favorite, too."

Jake shook his head sadly, but he hadn't really known Ben well.  Dan was inconsolable, which for a ten-year-old meant endless tears and wailing.  Jake went into Dan's room to try to cheer him up, but Dan drove him out angrily.  After that Nini and Jake went out for the afternoon.  Geoff waited in the living room, listening for any sign that it was dying down.

After a couple of hours, it did.  Dan went into the bathroom to wash his face, then came out, sniffling and blinking.

"What regiment did it?" he said.

Geoff sighed.  "One of McCarron's regiments.  Their Fifth."

"I'm going to fight them one day.  I'll kill four of them."

"To get them back?  That's not a good reason, Dan.  Not any more than it would be if you hurt another kid for doing something you didn't like."

"They did something evil."  Dan was beginning to sob again.

"Some people would say so.  I'd say that they did their duty, just like Ben did when he was alive.  Do you think he never killed anyone?  You think I haven't?"

Dan began crying again, and Geoff took him in his arms.  He wasn't sure he should be saying these things.  Dan was only a child.  He didn't need his head filled with the moral ambiguities of war.

"It's bad that I want to fight the Mac, isn't it?" said Dan between sobs.

"It's normal," said Geoff.  "I feel it, too.  I think a lot of the troops do.  You know what I'm going to do?"  He held Dan's shoulders so the boy could see his face.  "Our contract comes up in a couple of months.  I'm going ask the Federated Commonwealth to get us out of here, away from the Capellan border.  Then we won't have to worry about the Mac any more."

It was a snap decision, but the more he thought about it, the more it felt right.  He didn't want the Excaliburs' clashes with the Armored Cavalry to become a full-fledged feud, and he could see that beginning to happen.  If it did, more of his troops would die needlessly.  It was time to get out--maybe to the Lyran half of the Commonwealth.

It made sense, and it seemed to raise Dan's spirits.  Geoff resolved to follow through on his promise.

DECEMBER 3039

Taggart put his saber up and raised his left index finger.  "Your riposte."

Geoff shook his head.  "Come on, that was too high on my blade.  It was your beat-attack."  But Taggart had already saluted him and removed his mask.  "You're making it too easy, giving me all these free touches," said Geoff.

"If you'd rather not win, we can fence epee instead of saber," said Taggart.

"Maybe tomorrow.  Right now I'm through."  Geoff took off his own mask and unzipped his jacket, letting loose the accustomed cloud of steamy sweat.  He opened his duffel bag.  "You start packing yet?"

Taggart gazed absently out the window.  "Not yet.  I've a feeling Connie will tell me what to do and when."

Geoff nodded.  "As usual."  He let a moment's silence pass.  "I feel like I haven't heard what you think of our move to the Lyran side.  You've been a little quiet in meetings."

Taggart shrugged.  "It's pirate hunting, Geoff," he said.  "Talk about thankless work."

"I know.  But I think it's the best work we can find now.  You agree that we can't stay here, right?  Not with this thing getting worse between us and McCarron's."

"Fair enough," said Taggart.  "But we've a reputation to consider."

"I understand.  But we won't grow that reputation by sitting on a border planet with no action.  After the Dracs just kicked the Commonwealth's ass, you think Davion will want to pick another fight?  Not for a long time.  The Bandit Kings attack on a pretty regular schedule.  That means regular combat experience for our people.  Exactly what we need to turn this regiment into an elite force."

"If a war does come, though, we're going to feel rather wasted sitting it out on the Periphery."

"My hope is that our experience and our equipment will persuade them to move us to the front, if that should happen.  In the meantime, I want to keep our skills sharp."

Taggart nodded, but did not seem entirely mollified.  "Time will tell, I suppose."

BLACK EARTH, FEDERATED COMMONWEALTH

SEPTEMBER 3044

Dan had grown tall in the last year--one of those teenage spurts, Geoff supposed.  Whatever the explanation, he had a man's height now.  He'd tested into NAIS and would attend next fall.

Geoff knew he had put off the talk long enough.

Dan was coming off the wargames field with Jake Khumalo.  They'd been out practicing their piloting, Dan in the Excalibur and Jake in the Black Knight.  At fifteen, they were both still learning the basics.  But both showed great aptitude.  Geoff didn't consider himself a particularly qualified instructor, but he saw in each boy the potential for a great MechWarrior.

Even more evident was their friendship, now grown old.  They laughed together, jovially punching each other.  Like real brothers.

He stepped toward them, out of the shade.  "Hi, guys."

"Hey, Dad."

Jake grinned and saluted him.  Geoff snapped a salute back, then turned to his son.

"Dan, can we talk?"

The boy's reply was tentative.  Suspicious, perhaps.  "Sure, Dad."

He led Dan to the field's observation room and locked the door.

"What's this about?" said Dan.

Geoff took a seat.  "Family business, I guess."

"Family business is Jake's business too, you know.  He's also your son."

"This is about your mother, Dan."

"Oh."  He took a seat himself, his expression now serious.

"Yeah.  You can probably guess what this is about."

"The thing you always said you'd tell me when I grew up?"

"Right."  Geoff noticed he'd been fidgeting with a pen.  Stupid habit.  He threw the thing across the room, startling Dan.

"Dad, you don't have to--"

"I do have to, eventually.  Might as well be now."

"OK."

"Well.  Straight to the point, then.  Your mom died because she knew a secret that ComStar ROM didn't trust her to keep.  The secret is this: Thomas Marik is dead."

Dan's reaction was pretty much what Geoff expected.  "Dead?  But... he's the Captain-General."

"No.  That's some kind of stand-in, created by ComStar.  A clone, maybe?  Or maybe just a look-alike.  Your mom knew near the end, I think, but she couldn't tell me."

"Couldn't tell you?"

"It was top-secret stuff.  She wasn't supposed to tell me, and we knew the house was bugged.  The whole time she was working on that project, we knew they'd bugged the house, and God knows what else.  And if she did tell me, and they found out, we knew they'd kill us both.  But Marik is dead.  Nini and I were there with Audrey when they brought him in, after the bombing.  Trust me, he was dead."

Dan looked down at the table.  "I remember her telling me, the work she was doing was bad.  Morally wrong, she meant.  I didn't really understand."

"No.  You were six."  Geoff put a hand on Dan's shoulder, and the boy smiled a little.  "She couldn't tell me what she was doing, but she did leave something for me.  A journal, I think.  I only found it after we left Terra.  It's written in code, though.  I've tried to break it, but I can't.  Anyway, ROM knows we have it.  I think that's why they haven't had us killed.  They know that if they tried, I'd give the journal to the Davions.  They could probably break the code."

"So you have this thing hidden?"

Geoff nodded.  "There are four hard copies and one electronic one.  The electronic copy is in the Excalibur's computer, and nowhere else.  Nini, John and Gideon Braver each have a copy.  They don't tell me where they keep them.  The third copy I have hidden.  Someday I'll tell you where."

"Why don't you give it to the Davions?"

"Because it's keeping us alive.  I think.  I don't really understand why ROM hasn't tried to assassinate me, but I've threatened to spread around what I know about Audrey's project, and that seemed to work.  I don't want to rock the boat, I guess."

"I see."  Dan looked up at his dad.  "I guess this makes me a man, right?"

"Wish I had a more pleasant rite of passage for you."

"It's all right, Dad."

EREWHON, GREATER VALKYRATE

LYRAN-PERIPHERY BORDER

OCTOBER 3044

The last pirate DropShip touched off its main engine.  Captain Carla Sinclair gestured to her troops.  "Back!  Back away from the engine wash!  Get in your transports if you can."  Then she sprinted as best she could through the trees.  The Goblin tank ahead of her dropped its loading door, and her platoon-mates rushed in.  Sinclair turned the corner around the edge of the vehicle and sidestepped behind the door.  A moment later, she heard the wave of kicked-up debris pelt the tank's armor.

She radioed the mission's 'Mech commander--Taggart, this time.  "Last one's in the air, sir."

"Aye, Captain.  And a fine job you did out there."

Sinclair snorted dismissively.  "That might've been the worst-equipped infantry outfit I've ever fought.  I thought Redjack Ryan's troops were supposed to be pretty good."

"What say we get those aid packs passed around and clear out?"

"Roger that."  She turned to her troops.  "Karnov's coming in at the village.  We're moving."  She went up to the turret to direct the tank commander.

Even for a Periphery shantytown, this village was in bad shape.  A lot of the dwellings looked to be made of cardboard.  At least the climate in this region was warm in the summer months.  Get a little further from the equator and Erewhon became damn near uninhabitable.  In Star League times there had been some terafforming here, but it had long since lost hold, accompanied by a major population die-off.  There was simply no way to evacuate a wrecked colony like this, given the expense of DropShip transport and the rarity of JumpShips.

Sinclair's soldiers spread out through the center of town, with her HQ squad helping to direct down the Karnov.  The heavy tilt-rotor VTOL kicked up a dust cloud that felt almost as punishing as the one from the DropShip.  As the rotors spun down, the Excalibur infantry began unloading packages of food and medicine.

A crowd had gathered.  "Line up, folks," said Sinclair.  "There'll be one pack per person.  Our way of showing that Ryan and Morgraine don't really rule here, no matter what they tell you."

That got some funny looks from the crowd--which was, come to think of it, a funny-looking crowd in the first place.  The women were wearing full-body covering robes which looked like they were made of burlap, with bizarre face-hiding hoods.  Only the men came forward to unload the boxes.

Sinclair tapped one guy on the shoulder.  "Hey."  The Periphery man turned toward her, but kept his gaze down at the ground.  "What's up with the clothes on the girls?" said Sinclair.  "Isn't this the feminist utopia of the Greater Valkyrate?"

"The Lord has commanded that men's ways be kept separate from women's," said the man.

"The lord?  You mean Ryan?"

"The Lord of the Expanse, my lady."

BLACK EARTH

"Apparently Erewhon was conquered away from the Valkyrate by some religious nut calling himself the Lord of the Expanse," said Sinclair.  "Those were his troops we scared off, not Redjack Ryan's."

Geoff raised his eyebrows and glanced across the table at Taggart.  It all sounded so bizarre.  "And he's making the women wear veils?"

"That's the least of it," said Sinclair.  "They're enforcing chastity, too.  And with collective punishment.  If a given village isn't 'virtuous' enough, they'll stomp around indiscriminately with 'Mechs, wrecking a few random buildings as an example.  They showed me a couple of crushed houses."

"We can't let this stand, obviously.  You said they weren't much good at fighting?"

"The infantry were absolute shit, sir.  Worst troops I've ever faced."

"'Mech pilots were none too good, either," added Taggart.  "And their equipment was a bit rubbish, too.  A few were missing arms, even before we went to work on them."

"In that case, I don't see much reason for caution.  There aren't too many habitable planets the Lord could be using for a base, and it doesn't sound as if he has the tech to maintain a space colony.  We'll leave behind a decent garrison--maybe one 'Mech battalion--and have the rest of the regiment fitted out for recon in force.  Once we find these cultists, we destroy their ability to make war.  John, put a proposal together for review by our Commonwealth liaison."

DROPSHIP LANCELOT

UNCHARTED SYSTEM

DECEMBER 3044

"Those are the ships we chased off on Ehrewon," said Taggart.  "These landing facilities look fairly permanent.  I'd say we're looking at home base."

"It's funny," said Geoff.  "That Leopard is in awful condition, but the Union doesn't look so bad.  It's dirty, but I don't see a lot of patched-over damage."

"More recently stolen, maybe?"

"Yeah, maybe."  Geoff scrolled across the map.  “This looks like a good landing site.  I don’t expect strong resistance, based on our orbital surveys.  We’ll land the DropShips here and take one ‘Mech battalion at their camp.”

Carla Sinclair spoke from the comm screen.  “What about my troops?” Sinclair and her infantry were orbiting in three K-1 Dropshuttles.

“It’s not good terrain for the Goblin tanks,” Geoff said.  “You’ll have to land here.”  He highlighted a different site on the map.  “Stay in reserve there until we’ve neutralized the enemy ‘Mechs.”

She frowned at him from the screen.  “I think I speak for the troops when I say we’d prefer a piece of the action.”

“Noted, Captain.  But I like to keep a plan simple when I have the advantage.  Without a rendezvous before the attack, there’s fewer moving parts where something can go wrong.”

Sinclair nodded grudgingly.  Geoff turned to John Taggart.  “Ready to take out the trash, John?”

 The self-styled Lord’s Men were just as incompetent and ill-equipped as advertised.  They fled from their base and the Excaliburs pursued them downhill, toward a river that Geoff knew from orbital scans was fairly deep.  The enemy was trapped.

 The riverbank was visible now in the near distance.  Geoff stopped for a moment and angled his Gauss rifle to take the arm off a rickety Valkyrie.  Then his missile warning sounded.  As LRMs impacted on the Excalibur, Geoff looked around, puzzled, to see where they could be coming from.  The Valkyrie’s launcher was already disabled, and he’d thought that was the last pirate ‘Mech with LRMS.

Then he saw motion in the river.  The water frothed furiously as large forms broke the surface, many of them at once.  BattleMechs.  A water ambush?

Geoff heard the familiar crack of a shell going hypersonic, and his magnetic anomaly sensor registered the firing of one Gauss rifle, then another.  Periphery raiders with Gauss weapons?  Then he zoomed in enough to make out the lead ‘Mech rising from the water.

Taggart’s voice came over the comm.  “Geoff, what is that thing?”

“A Pillager.”  Geoff couldn’t believe his eyes.  “One of the rarest Star League ‘Mechs.”  Even the Com Guard only had a handful.

Pirates deploying a Pillager?  And beside it, Geoff saw a Black Knight step forward.  From the range its PPC was firing at, it had to be the SLDF Royal variant.

“Blake’s Wrath,” Geoff said.  “John, this has to be Blake’s Wrath.  ComStar special forces.”  The ‘Mechs were unmarked, painted in a neutral gray—but who else would have access to this sort of tech?  He switched channels, transmitting to the Ovlerlord DropShip Lancelot at the landing site.  “Captain, relay an emergency alert to the JumpShip and begin unloading the reserve ‘Mechs.”

“An alert just came in from the JumpShip, Colonel.  They’ve come under attack from aerospace fighters.  The fighters didn’t ask for surrender, just opened fire.  They had to jump out of the system or be destroyed.”  Sounds of commotion came over the channel.  “Sir, we’re under attack!”

“It’s a Com Guard ambush,” said Geoff.  He switched to an open channel.  “All Excaliburs, withdraw.  If you can’t retreat, surrender.”

Taggart’s battalion ran for the deep woods.  ‘Mech after ‘Mech fell to the massed firepower of the ambushers.  Another transmission came in from the DropShips: “They’ve holed our main hull, Colonel.  And the other ships.  We can’t lift off without losing structural integrity.”

“Surrender,” said Geoff.  “That’s an order.  All MechWarriors, disengage if you can and rendezvous at the infantry landing site.  Hopefully they didn’t track the dropshuttles on the way down.”

Geoff’s Excalibur was one of the last ‘Mechs to stagger into the infantry camp.  He surveyed the other survivors despondently.  “Is this all?”  Barely more than a company had made it.  He was relieved to see John Taggart’s Alliance and Anita Chu Lai’s Marauder among the surviving ‘Mechs.  At least some of his best warriors had escaped.  He also counted himself lucky that all of the ‘Mechs looked at most only lightly damaged, and most had escaped enemy fire entirely.

He dismounted and found Sinclair, who was already conferring with Taggart and Chu Lai.  “Colonel,” she said.  “Thank God.”

“The sentiment is much appreciated, Captain.  Now let’s see if we can find a way out of this situation.”  He tried to project at least some confidence to his officers.  “I don’t think lifting off in the dropshuttles is an option.  Camelot had to jump out of the system.  We’d have nowhere safe to go.”

“Do the pirates have a JumpShip?” said Chu Lai.

“We’ve been watching the air using the K1’s passive sensors,” Sinclair answered.  “The Lord’s Men’s DropShips lifted off just before you all started arriving.”

“The Union and the Leopard?  Only those two?”

She nodded.

“That’s not enough capacity to carry the Blake’s Blood force.  There must have been at least a Level III—at least a battalion.  There has to be a separate Com Guard base on the planet with their ships.  We find that base and we beat them there.  Our plan has to be something like that.”

Taggart shook his head grimly.  “Tell me how we’re not buggered, Geoff.  Please.”

Geoff turned his gaze toward Sinclair’s infantry, standing guard next to their Goblin fighting vehicles.  “They’d have attacked here if they knew about the dropshuttles’ landing.  So they must not know.  That means they don’t have satellites or scout ships in orbit.  Probably knew that would tip us off to the ambush.  Anyway, they don’t know we have a large force of infantry.  Perhaps that can be our advantage.”

Geoff passed his binoculars to Carla Sinclair.  “Looks like they’ve loaded the ‘Mechs we damaged onto their Overlord for repairs.  That’s almost half their force.”

“Why?” she said.  “It didn’t sound like we inflicted that much damage.”

“They have all the time in the world,” Geoff said.  “We have no ships.  They know we’re not going anywhere.  And the repairs will be simple overnight work, mostly just armor patching.  Tomorrow they’ll have fresh ‘Mechs against our damaged ones and they can send out search parties at will.  Or just wait for us to come to them.”

“All right.  So how do we beat that strategy?”

“With you and your people.  They don’t know we have infantry on the planet.  They’ll be expecting a ‘Mech attack.”  Geoff took back the binoculars, trained them on a large tent complex and tagged it on the viewfinder.  He handed them back to Carla and watched as the binoculars directed her to look at the same structure.

“This has to be where they’re holding the Excalibur prisoners,” said Dan.  “Including our DropShip crews.”

“But you said the ships are disabled.”

“Ours are.  But not theirs.  Not the Com Guard ships.”  Geoff pointed her toward the enemy DropShips.  “They have an Overlord and a Fortress.  The ramps will be lightly guarded, because they don’t know we have infantry.  You split your company into three platoons.  One to break our crews out of that holding tent, one to take the Overlord, one to take the Fortress. 

“Those ships have powerful arsenals.  Once you’ve captured them, and our people are at the controls, we’ll attack their perimeter with our remaining ‘Mechs.  They’re expecting that.  But at the exact same time, we open fire on their defending forces with the captured DropShips.”

“And meanwhile half their ‘Mechs are still loaded on the ships for repairs.”  She lowered the binoculars and nodded.  “Not bad, Colonel.”

“Can you pull it off?”

“Honest answer?”  She pursed her lips.  “I’d give it fifty-fifty odds.”

“I didn’t know you were such an optimist, Carla,” said Geoff.  “All right.  In seventy minutes, the planet’s rotation will put their JumpShip on the dark side where signals from here can’t reach it.  Luckily for us, that’s also midnight.  You have an hour to brief and position your platoons.”

Sinclair counted down with her fingers, three-two-one-go.  Then she pulled the manual release on the pressure door to the ComStar Overlord’s bridge.

The pops of her troops’ suppressed assault rifles instantly replaced the silence, followed quickly by the panicked screams of the Com Guard crew.  Sinclair edged around the door herself to join the attack.  She offered no surrender to the enemy crew, just aimed and fired, one after another.  This was no time to take prisoners, especially not with an enemy who’d attacked so brutally.

The radio in her ear buzzed and filled with voices.  The Excalibur DropShip crews were on the ramp.  She heaved the body of a Com Guard crewman away from the main weapons console.

She transmitted to Geoff Kenner.  “One minute, Colonel.  Our crew is onboard.  Get ready to start your attack.”

.

SCENARIO 8: ESCAPING THE WRATH

PLAYER: Excaliburs

ENEMY: ComGuard

OBJECTIVE: Eliminate all enemy units.  Kenner's Excalibur, Taggart's Alliance and Chu Lai's Marauder must survive.

NOTE: Kenner has the Sniper advantage (his range penalties are halved).  Chu Lai has the Forest Ranger advantage (her MP penalties for entering woods hexes are reduced by 1 and she is harder to hit while in woods).

NOTE: By default, this mission is set to play with Individual Initiative rules to speed up the very large battle.  This means you don't get to choose which order to move/attack with your units.  To turn this option off, when you begin the scenario choose the RPG Related tab from the View/Edit Game Options menu and turn off Individual Initiative.