Resurgence Taurian Concordat Chapter 3
Running Through
Accelerating, calculations already confirming the remaining asteroid attacks would not be critical, the Elephant began to drag the column forward. Two of the three flank positions were already destroyed by the swarming aerospace waves. The remaining two flank positions were being swarmed now and the Elephant was battling the two ahead.
Dropship fire was very limited due to the asteroids blocking line of sight, and avoiding friendly fire on the aggressively swarming fighters. Already five of the twelve fighters had been destroyed, further enraging Koppel as these losses were too high – stacked on top of a dead Union and aerodyne dropship somewhere in the asteroid field.
As the Word of Blake column got closer to the end of the Asteroid field, the asteroids were much larger, meaning potentially more deadly traps. Koppel had long since sent the signal that this route was no good back to the Precentor so no other forces attempted it.
Both the forward defensive positions had taken cover behind a larger asteroid after heavy volleys of fire with the Elephant and another flank position had been destroyed, with the remaining one on the flank taking cover. In a bit of a shock, the aerodyne ship, bleeding atmosphere, its side compartments open, flew past the column’s path. The bridge crew could see it leaving bodies and even a pair of mechs in their path.
“Keep your resolve brethren! These periphery vermin know not what they are about to bring onto themselves! Blake’s justice will be swift!” Koppel shouted firmly over the column’s channel.
All seven of the remaining fighters rejoined the column by now, the fighters weaving between a couple dozen bodies; some Taurian, some Blakist. One fighter slammed into a Taurian, tearing the dead trooper in half. Because of the limited room, the Elephant aimed to go directly through the dozen bodies in its path, happy to see more dead SASF Marines than expected…. Until the sirens went off.
“Blake damn them!” an angry Koppel shouted, as now there were red dots all around the Elephant, including two active Battlemechs! A flash caught his eye as a Shade fighter rocketed by, spinning wildly. A pair of SASF troopers were attached to it, cutting it apart, then it banked hard, around an asteroid and out of sight.
A Legacy and a Lightray both powered up, coming to life just before impact, where both plunged their metal hands into the hull, securing a grip. Magnetic boots on the floating SASF Marines secured them to the Elephant’s hull. As all the little pings could be heard from the boots smacking into the ship, it surged forward, although, there was an explosion behind it.
“Sir! The aerodyne dropship was just steered into the Union behind us! Both erupted! Both ships behind it are under heavy fire and their path forward is blocked from the debris, they are holding!” shouted an Adept from the crew.
“Dammit!” Koppel shouted. “Crew, get our anti-boarding teams in place and prepare to fight these heathens in close combat!”
Switching to the column frequency, “Captains! Get those ships moving now! You are dead if you stop!” Koppel ordered. But there was no response. As he evaluated his console readings, he discovered there was interference, an electronic countermeasure field! Using the rear facing cameras, he could see the asteroids themselves were closing in around the two ships, both firing wildly to try to open a hole. Three of the aerospace fighters were even trapped inside, he watched as one clipped an asteroid, then cartwheeled, ripping up the side of a dropship.
“Get us out of here!” Koppel shouted to the bridge crew.
Looking at his console again, the Legacy was just a couple dozen meters below the bottom of the Ferroglass on the Elephant’s nose. Koppel could see SASF Marines running up the edges of the Ferroglass for the bridge.
By now, his robes were drenched in sweat, he threw off his hood. His head was a mix of metal and human, where he had metal plating over the back of his neck. No hair was present on his head but rather than a bald surface, it was patched with electronics and plates of metal.
“Sir, they are planting charges!” shouted an adept on the bridge.
“Fire everything that could glance the two mechs, get our anti-boarding teams on the hull now!” Koppel shouted back. He looked forward to see just a couple hundred meters until they were out of the asteroid field. He was so close!
“Yes, sir! All of the SASF Marines are detaching though!” responded the Adept.
He looked down at the console and saw the red dots drifting off the hull and disappearing as the electronic countermeasures the SASF deployed somewhere were still interfering with the instruments.
Once the dots were all gone, small explosions began tearing armor off around the Ferroglass starting at the top. Cracks were forming around the glass as they continued to detonate. Koppel watched the detonations from top to bottom. When the explosions reached the bottom corners, cracks all along the sides, some extending towards the center of the glass, a Legacy was looking directly into the bridge with the Lightray on the starboard side. Koppel’s eyes went wide.
Both torso cannons on the Legacy began flashing fire as autocannon slugs began slamming into the Ferroglass at point blank range while the Lightray’s Large Pulse Laser began melting holes. Thuds echoed sharply through the bridge as the whistle of venting atmosphere and rushing air got louder and louder. Some personnel got up and ran for the hatch to leave the bridge, others panicked and froze in place. The closest couple of personnel were caught in the initial pull of the venting atmosphere, the lucky ones, they were sprayed with shattered glass and shrapnel, killing them instantly.
Then the Ferroglass blew out, shattering around the Legacy holding onto the hull just below. Koppel was thrown forward, in a split second he and some of the others slammed directly into the Legacy, crushing nearly all the bones in their bodies as they were sucked into space. Others that missed the Legacy were struggling for the couple of seconds before they froze or their bodies ruptured in the vacuum.