Resurgence - Knights of Olde
Undredal, Filtvelt
August 3152
On final approach to Filtvelt, Grand Knight William Dirac watches from the bridge of the Overlord dropship, Enlightened. A pair of Leopard Pocket Warships and the Overlord’s six fighters escort it to the atmosphere and are about to begin breaching it. “All ship personnel, prepare for rotation, we are beginning our descent.” Is heard from the ship’s Captain as the rumbling and vibrations begin.
An orange wave begins forming around the ship and the rest of the aircraft in the formation. Once inverted, the Grand Knight turns and moves to exit the bridge, it is time to mount up and aid their allies against the treacherous Periphery March of the Federated Suns. It will be good to take some gear from them, far too many times they’ve acted untouchable.
However, any day he can mount up in his Battlemaster 4S is a day he is happy. As he moves through the ship, he can feel the atmospheric vibrations give way and only the rumble of the engines remained, at least until some volleys of enemy weapons fire hit the hull. They knew there will be airborne attackers, it was good to have such a strong layer of defense outside. Reaching the hangar, he can see the various Battlemech cockpits lit up, his Brothers ready for battle. He walks to the center of the hangar, looks around at them all, then approaches his Battlemaster. Firmly seated and strapped in, the war machine comes to life. His HUD is given a direct feed from the bridge and he can see they are less than one minute until touchdown.
Undredal’s spaceport is their landing site. The situation had deteriorated severely since the call for aid went out. While the Federated Suns mercenaries are hitting from the North, Tortuga Dominion pirates are hitting from the South, although reports showed they are more raiding than anything. However, the Filtvelt military elements had been penned in.
The spaceport is a final stronghold that encompasses the inactive HPG, the Capital grounds, and the Spaceport. The West Coast is to their backs and the Brotherhood of Randis rode in on a mighty beast to slay the sellswords and pirates. “All personnel, touchdown in 10 seconds!” shouts from every speaker and headset on the Enlightened.
Each second ticks away until the massive feet of the dropship hit the tarmac outside and the engines begin their slow rumble to calm. Each of the vessel’s bay doors slid open. First out is going to be the Skirmish Lance of Alpha Company, followed by another twenty Battlemechs, then combat vehicles, artillery, and Battle Armor. It is a good day to fight, with a good purpose.
When it was his turn, the Grand Knight guides his Battlemaster and Command Lance onto the tarmac, his Nav Points already placed. Looking around to take in the situation at hand, he can see the tarmac is riddled with holes from artillery and mortars from previous fighting. Multiple Battlemechs are laying in heaps, some still smoking next to the Mech hangar, where techs are scrambling over a powered down Mech. Then, there are the bunkers, numerous defensive emplacements strewn about as a final defensive position near the gate and around the Union dropships around the spaceport.
Looking at the top of the walls, he can see waves of missiles arching in the distance, the battle is raging on. In the skies above, the Leopards and aerospace fighters are having it out, luckily, no casualties yet. God willing, everyone could go home.
“Forward men!” he shouts, bringing his Battlemaster up into a full 60 KPH run. It is time to cut down the enemies of the Brotherhood’s ally.
-----
Peering out of the command bunker, Prime Minister of the Filtvelt Coalition John Gardiner watches the massive vessel land, his face showing hope for the first time in days. Since Field Marshal Huey Alford was struck down, the 2nd Filtvelt Citizen’s Militia was constantly losing ground. These may just be Federated Suns mercenaries but, they were well supplied mercenaries.
Of course, once the Tortuga Pirates landed and began ransacking the opposite side of the city, all they could do was hole up and hope the Brotherhood would arrive in time. Having already briefed the Grand Knight on approach, the Brotherhood surges out of the dropship like in an old Terran medieval flick when help arrives. A group of knights ready to tear through the attackers at the last second to save the day. Gardiner knew he could trust that the Grand Knight was well prepared with a plan.
After a fast lance of Battlemechs quickly ran out of the dropship, there was the Grand Knight’s Battlemaster marching down the ramp, taking in the appearance of the base. Then additional bay doors opened around the dropship, tracked, wheeled, and hover vehicles pouring out of the Overlord. Vedette Medium Tanks, Bulldogs, JES Missile Carriers, and finally, some artillery vehicles. The Battlemaster led its lance out the gates and headed North for the HPG.
Alpha Battalion simply did not mess around. The Prime Minister can see groups of his exhausted, injured troops near the base entrance cheering on their allies. Now, with the sides much more even, it is time to get to work. Gardiner had the entirety of his command staff join up to take in the battlefield at the bunker’s holotable. With the Overlord’s height to see over the spaceport walls, what remained of the Filtvelt aerospace, and the Brotherhood Fighters, the situation is clearer than it had been in days.
Updates from the Brotherhood mechs show them spreading out along the lines of the 2nd Citizen’s Militia to reinforce. The Filtvelt Coalition troops were no match for the two companies of Battlemechs mixed with armor this mid-size merc unit attacked with. To stretch even more thin to try to deal with the raiding pirates was a nightmare.
Thunder began to echo through the tarmac as the Long Tom Artillery began to let loose. It was requested that the city be preserved as best as possible but, a mass evacuation had already been performed. Those that didn’t flee into the wilderness were in the population bunkers under the city or in the spaceport, ready to load into the Unions if they had to. Finally, the battle lines were becoming more even.
---
“Brothers, on line with me, push them back from the HPG Compound!” Dirac’s Battlemaster unleashes a barrage of lasers into the Jagermech that is standing in his path on his way to the far side of the old structure. Prime Minister Gardiner mentioned these mercs had pretty much gone straight after it. Although, it didn’t make sense why as the HPGs hadn’t worked since Gray Monday.
His Command Lance made up of an Orion, Thunderbolt, and Catapult join him from their firing positions as they begin pressing the mercenaries more viciously. They are moving North to get past the HPG before they turn East. A few salvos more from the lance and the Jagermech collapses, falling into a building as they pass by, taking aim at a mercenary Warhammer.
“New coordinates, Lord Knight Ashe, I need artillery fire to carpet the East side of the HPG with shells, we need to shatter these mercs, they are trying to keep us from cutting them off from it.” Dirac orders the 3rd Company Commander, in charge of the Long Toms. Seconds later, loud booms could be heard from the spaceport, followed by whistling, then explosions of dirt and ferrocrete a hundred meters ahead, and trailing East down a large street.
The Warhammer they had been firing on was no more as pieces lay strewn about the intersection they reached. Explosions continued on down the road to the East that the mercenaries had been hunkering down in. “Excellent work Brother! Continue assisting the others for now!” the Grand Knight called back over the Battalion channel. All four mechs pushed forward and into the now destroyed intersection. Clearing the immediate North, West, and East avenues, there were no mercenaries in that immediate location. All around them on the street corners, the buildings had collapsed under the barrage.
Dirac is able to see that the HPG to the West is secure now. No enemy forces showed themselves as far as his lance could tell looking toward the ocean. They now turned their attention to the bulk of the mercenary force East of them. With the landing of the Brotherhood, the mercenaries centralized themselves to maximize the number of weapons on individual targets. It was unfortunate but, Dirac can already see on his HUD that two of his Mechwarriors were already dead in that more intense fighting along the main battle lines.
Like a Commander would wave his sword forward, he extended his Battlemaster’s Gauss Rifle forward and charged to the East down the street that was absolutely demolished by the artillery strike.