Resurgence - Abbeville Mission 2
Mission 2
Everyone knew they were coming for the city, it was only a matter of time. Lieutenant Rander’s report from the Refinery was brutal, his Black Knight barely standing when it began repairs. His lancemate’s Longbow had one or two LRM salvos remaining from the parting shots. While they did significant damage, the Blakists were just too overwhelming.
Cottonport’s wall was the next hope of defense. The gate had been sealed up tight. However, there were still civilians fleeing to the city, in hopes they might be able to evacuate with the Nomad Republic defenders. There were various gaps in the wall where frequent heavy machinery would pass through and was used for other economic purposes. Each wall ended at a lake, then began again on the other side. It was useful for handling Periphery pirate raids so the garrison forces could create chokepoints.
With the evacuation taking place, the garrison was being used to set up defensive positions throughout the city and escort civilians to the spaceport, those who wanted to escape anyway. Battalion Commander Knight Joy deployed Lieutenant Charlotte Vogel’s reinforced lance to the Bravo gap. Her lance had been designed to be a fast attack lance that supported a central anchor unit. Sgt. Aquino’s Atlas III was the anchor.
Since the initial reports of the refinery battle outcome, construction equipment was being used to scoop dirt up and create a defensive position. Setting up in position, the Atlas III utilized some trees near the wall as cover. Taking cover behind the wall, both Valiants and the LT’s Phoenix Hawk stood by to sally forth and engage the attackers. Vogel decided to keep the Cougar back for a surprise later in the fight.
“LT, I have contact, we have a full Level II spread out and on approach. Looks like an Exterminator and Valkyrie wide on the left flank, can’t tell if they are going for the gate.”
“Roger that, Sergeant, I am going to come out and provide some additional fire.”
She advanced her Phoenix Hawk forward and took some cover, finding an open shot at the Blakist Blue Flame on the right flank. She could see a volley of missiles off to her left as the Atlas III opened up with the HAG 30 and Streak LRM 20. Rapid bursts of the HAG echoed across the battlefield, the sounds bouncing off the walls behind them.
On her Phoenix Hawk’s right she could see the enemy Shadow Hawk and Blue Flame approaching. Getting aggressive, she took her Phoenix Hawk forward, taking cover in a cluster of trees. Using her jump jets she rode the pillars of flame down and into the treeline. Pressing to the edge of the trees her medium lasers melted gouges in the Shadow Hawk’s armor, both the mechs kicking each other.
On the left flank, the Exterminator ran forward at maximum speed thanks to a MASC system, trying to flank the Atlas III. However, it found out quickly that the two Valiants were watching the Atlas’ back. Both charged out, firing away with their lasers. As the Atlas III added its weapons to the Valiant’s fire, the Exterminator lost its footing, slamming into the ground.
Even with the mech falling down, the Nomad Republic MechWarriors were not going to have an easy time. The Blakist Level II continued to increase the pressure. Having more mechs overall, their four smaller mechs were nearly breaking into the Nomad lines while the two larger mechs were providing supporting fire.
Trying to gain some distance the Nomad Phoenix Hawk launched into the air, landing in some trees closer to the Atlas III. While the two Valiants split up and started shifting towards the center of the battle lines. One continued to harass the now standing Exterminator, while the other swung around to aid the Phoenix Hawk.
Sgt. Aquino began opening fire from his defensive position, a flight of missiles slamming into the Exterminator, while his HAG 30 unleashed its deadly wave of slugs. He could then see most of the Blakist’s fire slamming into the LT’s Phoenix Hawk, as it stopped moving. As seconds ticked by, he realized the horrific truth. The Phoenix Hawk fell on its back, the cockpit completely burned away.
“No!” shouted one of the Valiant pilots, both Mechwarriors rushing her position. Both were younger Corporals and hadn’t yet experienced a loss of their own unit commander yet. However, the Sergeant was a veteran from the Battle for Terra and witnessed the clan atrocities in Geneva from the orbital bombardments. This was not the first time he would find himself in sudden command.
“Corporals, pull back now! Get that Cougar in here for support fire, we need you now!” shouted Aquino over the lance channel.
His HUD flashed three confirmation blips as the Cougar went to active sensors and full power. Realigning the Atlas III, he prepared to cover the two Valiants. As they began backpedaling, a volley of Blakist mech fire tore into the front Valiant, ripping apart the fusion engine, the light mech falling to the ground.
“Dammit, grab him and let’s go! Cougar, when you come around that wall, hit that Valkyrie taking to the air! Right flank!” Aquino shouted as he unleashed a hellish barrage on the Blue Flame, tearing into the body of the quad mech.
The standing Valiant reached down, the pilot of the downed one jumping into the hand protected by the small shield and once he gave the thumbs up, the mech took off. Behind it the Blakist mechs continued closing in. It ran past the Atlas III as another wave of missiles and HAG slugs slammed into the aggressive Shadow Hawk that had circled around. An explosion blew out the side torso of the Shadow Hawk as an ammo bin ruptured while the HAG rounds were impacting. Falling to the ground, the medium mech's XL fusion engine powering down from the damage.
In a stroke of luck, as the Exterminator attempted to follow the Valiant, something went severely wrong with the mech’s movement as the legs quivered, then the mech fell to the ground. There were shards of armor and sparks flying out of one of the mech’s hips. With that, the Sergeant knew something had to have gone wrong with the mech’s MASC system.
As the Valiant flew by the Atlas III, the Cougar emerged from cover, blasting the landing Valkyrie on the wall. In an instant, the aggressive Blakist mech lost layers of armor, and with the fallen armor, the mech fell to the wall as clearly the Large Pulse Lasers penetrated the center torso and leg. The Cougar pilot was not quite ready for the return fire. With the Blakist’s consistent use of C3, the Nomad Mechwarriors were not well prepared yet for it as they didn’t have the experience.
A wave of fire that in most cases would have had less impacts, slammed into the Cougar, impacting a hip, sending the light mech to the ground. The Valkyrie’s computer on the wall was just a few meters outside the ECM bubble of the Atlas III and was able to provide data to the larger mechs in the back.
“We have to call it,” Aquino said in frustration, his Atlas III backpedaling out of the treeline, knocking a few of them over. “Get your Valiant over to pick him up, I will continue to lay down suppressing fire! Watch out for that Blue Flame!”
The Quad mech came barreling through the gap in the wall, the Atlas III taking aim and unleashing on it. While it was moving fast, clearly the armor had taken significant damage and Aquino’s Atlas added to it. But, then matters continued to get worse as the Valiant took some huge hits, its fusion engine going offline, falling to the ground. It had just reached down and picked up the Cougar’s pilot.
“Sergeant! My Valiant’s engine took hits! It’s down!”
“You gotta be kidding me! All three of you sprint to my Atlas, now!” Aquino shouted.
All three Mechwarriors jumped out of the Valiant’s wreck. Luckily, the Valiant’s fist had been closed and locked around the two stranded pilots. The impact on the ground shook them up but, they were alive. The hatch blew off the fallen Valiant and he dropped to the ground. All three ran as fast as they could, stripping off their cooling vests, running with nothing but combat boots, some form fitting Mechwarrior shorts, a belt, and holstered sidearm.
Ahead of them, Aquino’s gigantic Atlas was backing up in their direction. The mech squatted, its left hand reaching toward the ground, the knuckles hitting the ground, the fingers acting like benches. Each Mechwarrior climbed onto a separate finger, shouting they were set into the lance comms channel. Holding on tight, they had to just bear the roar as a wave of the Atlas’ LRMs and a HAG salvo unleashed on a Blakist target.
“Hold on, gents!” shouted Aquino as the hand lifted. They scurried into the palm as it rotated, the fingers locking together to form a barrier around them.
Then the Atlas III turned. That last spread of fire pushed back the Blue Flame and gave Aquino the chance to break contact. As fast as a 100 ton mech could, he pressed it into a full sprint. It turned left and ran into cover behind the wall before turning again and continuing to sprint into the cover of buildings. He only had to get a couple of blocks in before reaching the closest defensive position. At the very least, that last salvo killed the Valkyrie that was prone on top of the wall.
As the thunder of a running 100 ton mech echoed between the buildings, Aquino learned that the other Nomad defenders had similar outcomes at other attack points. Only one position had been able to hold back the Blakists. Minutes later he crossed into a defensive position and squatted his Atlas to place the other Mechwarriors on the ground so they could be seen by some medics.
He looked down on them from above and made sure to tell them, “Gents, you did fine, that C3 shit hasn’t been seen in quantities like this since the Jihad. I will be making sure to report this to command. Lady Joy will need to use this info to adjust our deployments.” All three gave him a quick salute as they medics swarmed them.
Turns out that one had a broken arm from his mech’s fall and another broke an ankle from the jarring run of the Atlas. All three were a bit bruised up from the run as well but, they were alive. However, now the Nomads were angry from these losses and they had the city fighting to their advantage. While they were not here to hold the world, they would make the Blakist advance pay in blood for every meter of pavement. Every second, minute, and hour would count to evacuate as many civilians as possible.