We’re
away from Shasta and not a moment too soon for a number of different reasons.
Things
with the Red Mountain tribe (Clan, whatever) were not going well, to say the
least. Ever since we armed them they had been pushing us for more action, but
not against the Wolves. Rather, they wanted us to focus on their rivals, hoping
that we’d stomp all over their villages with our BattleMechs. I’d managed to
hold off on that for some time, but it reached the point where I was running
out of excuses. That the chief was looking to hitch me up with his son didn’t
help any, I mean, yes, he looked great without a shirt, but the last thing I
want is to be tied to a specific planet’s ugly politics. Besides, I’m spoken
for.
We
found an exit after a fashion courtesy of a disaffected Wolf adoptee. Velkon
Dumeitscu was a Shasta native who joined up with the Wolves. Only things didn’t
work out as he’d hoped and, after two battles with us, he’d found himself locked
up. We liberated him and a couple of other members of his Star during a raid,
and he was willing to cut us a deal. If we gave him a ‘Mech and a place in our
forces, even if only temporarily, he’d give us the location of Star Colonel
Kendra Tutuola.
I have
to admit, it was too good to pass up. Taking out Tutuola would unquestionably fulfil
our contract assignment of “disrupting the Wolf forces on Shasta.” Not only
would we be decapitating their already demoralised and fragile command structure,
but we would also be taking out Mu Galaxy’s only Bloodnamed Star Colonel. That
could have further, long-term repercussions across the entire Galaxy. And it
meant that I would be within contract to then get off-world and away from
insane tribal politics.
Dumeitscu
pointed us at a compound on the outskirts of Redding where Tutuola had located
her command centre. Honouring our side of the deal was easy enough, given the amount
of Wolf ‘Mechs we’d salvaged (Even if those were AMSC salvage first...). We set
him up with a Marauder that we’d been
able to get working again which was attached as an auxiliary to my lance.
Sadly, most of the men we liberated with him were too badly injured to be
combat effective, but even one ‘Mech would be a useful addition.
As we
were going in to a densely populated area, I opted not to use artillery. Mass civilian
casualties from indiscriminate fire would not look good. I have to admit that
once we committed to the battle, I was tempted to reverse that decision and
have the ship’s guns open up. After we’d killed off over a Trinary of her already
understrength cluster, Tutuola had opted to consolidate her forces in key
locations. This meant that we walked into a full binary of tanks, supported by
a star each of Battle Armour and ‘Mechs, leaving us somewhat outnumbered. Added
to that, they were heavily dug in, using the buildings for cover.
But we
were committed, and our only option was to fight. If I pulled back now, we were
not going to have a second shot at this. And despite their numbers and advantageous
situation, my men were better equipped and more experienced. This was what made
all the difference to the battle. We managed to kill or cripple a number of
their vehicles relatively quickly, causing their formation to break up as they
had to leave stragglers behind. Katrya’s air cav and Maria’s Battle Armour did
a great job of harassing the enemy, plucking off units from their flanks or
rear.
Unfortunately,
Tutuola was using what advantages she had. She had several Battle Armour points
dug into buildings and firing from cover; this included heavy and assault
suits, which resulted in lethal SRM barrages. After some initial losses, she
pulled her remaining tanks into a pile, allowing them to coordinate fire and
basically forcing us to walk into a wall of shells and missiles. She had a few
Hovers continue to harass our flanks, although these proved to be less
effective than our VTOLs.
They
took their toll; I don’t think a single one of our ‘Mechs escaped without heavy
damage. Nikola’s Carronade was
disabled by a Phalanx point, Shona’s Pixie
was running around with a massive hole in its reactor shielding, I’d lost an
arm and a number of others were on the verge of coming apart. And then things
took an ugly turn. I got a signal from our chartered ship reporting that a Wolf
Jumpship had entered the system via a pirate point and had immediately detached
its own transports.
This
was, of course, very bad. While they were still days away, it meant that our window
for an escape was suddenly dramatically narrowing. The closer the Wolf
reinforcements got to us, the sooner they could deploy their own fighters to
cut us off. This meant that we needed to end his battle fast, take what we
could and then get the hell away.
Zhen
made a massive contribution towards this goal when he poured infernos onto the
building that Tutuola’s Warg point was hiding in. This flushed her out into the
open and under our guns. We quickly disabled a R10 IFV that was clearly called
in to pick her up before turning our guns on her. Even then, she proved to be
hard to kill, with the Wargs taking a lot of damage to shut down, in the end,
it was Shona who took Tutuola down by kicking her suit and sending it back into
the burning building she’d just escaped.
With
the Star Colonel down, the remnants of her force did their best to retreat. I
admit that we did kind of let them go, rather than risk losing more ‘Mechs
while dragging out the battle. We did manage to pull a fair amount of salvage,
however. While most of it was trashed tanks that were only good for parts, we
pulled out a one-legged Wolverine and
a nearly intact but decapitated Cronus.
And we also were able to recover Nikola’s Carronade
with him more or less unharmed.
And
with that, we were off. We tore away from Shasta as fast as we could, just as
the Wolves were burning towards it. While we did track a change in their
course, it wasn’t enough for them to intercept us, allowing us to make a clean
escape. I can only presume that they headed straight for the planet to deal
with the mess that we left behind. The 19th has lost its leader, several of its
officers and, by our best estimation, half its already depleted strength. Added
to this, we captured or destroyed a number of supply dumps which will hamper
their ability to rebuild. Finally, they’re going to be dealing with an armed
uprising, which will keep them busy. The Empire have been trying to avoid traditional
heavy-handed Clan tactics, which really wouldn’t work well with a former Free
Worlds planet anyway. How they’re going to deal with the Red Rock remains to be
seen.
For
now, we’re headed to our next destination and stage two of this contract. While
pirate hunting is not glamourous work, it’s going to be a bit of a pleasant
break after Shasta. Well, unless the local politics turn out to be completely insane
there as well which, with a Free Worlds planet, is a distinct possibility.
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