Debauchery Worlds 9 (Patreon)

3 reattempts across multiple weeks later…

-VB-

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 9

-VB-

DD-5

2980.09.20

Our LDtRS (long distance tinkerRadar System) pinged off of the 41st Avalon’s AFS as they scrambled out to intercept the dropships in their droves.

Personally, we thought that it was too few a number. The 41st only sent out four wings of AFS, which was equal in number to the invading Combine’s own AFS wings on top of the point defense and anti-fighter weapons those dropships must have.

Personally, I did not expect more than half of the 41st AFS fighters to return… if we were to do nothing.

‘Sound off.’

‘Sutoer 1 Ready.’

‘Sutoer 2 Ready.’

Sutoer … or rather SuTOER was our answer to the incoming invasion.

See, one of the few things that we noticed about the history of the Inner Sphere and the ongoing Third Succession War was the fact that recycling was a must and not an option. They recycled their own destroyed equipment, their enemy’s equipment, and even civilian equipment if they needed to. Without recycling and salvaging, their main stay of combat, the battlemechs, would quickly run out in both number and quality.

The more we understood about this universe, the more we realized how every little detail we’ve observed made sense in this verse.

Which also made this counter-invasion a very big deal for the locals.

The Third Succession War was not a war of massive losses and gains. It was a slow, grinding affair that saw all sides and mercenaries tightly hold onto whatever war machines they had. To lose a battlemech was not just a major loss but a sin against nation, family, and future. Especially if you lost that mech in, let’s say, a stupid frontal charge. Or honorable if you were Combine.

So.

How did this affect us, the Legion/Marris Mercenaries, and how we intended to approach this universe?

Well… it was simple. Without exposing too much of our tinkertech, we very much intended to take advantage of the local’s hesitancy to commit to a war of attrition and lay into them with some heavy weaponry that, historically, they did build but no longer could but which wasn’t even close to what true tinkertech could do.

That’s where the SuTOERs came in. It was a simple thing, our Surface To Orbit Electromagnetic Railgun. It was not a new technology. It was not even a novel technology.

It was, however, something that very few locations had, and no one would expect a recently conquered planet to have them, never mind the fact that they were owned by mercenaries instead of the military.

“Fire.”

Two high-pitched loud whines crackled along the railguns’ barrels before two hypersonic booms erupted in the air above us as two iron-coated solid lead bullets as big as an SUV broke through the atmosphere.

Okay, so maybe it was kind of obvious that we were technologically superior to most of the local polities but this was nothing compared to what real Tinkers could achieve! We really were holding back.

-VB-

General Rachael Jamakawa

“What?” she uttered in shock from within her headquarters.

“Those are not artillery guns, general! They are gauss guns! They are gauss surface to orbit guns, general!”

“... What?”

-VB-

Sho-Sho Ranfai Wo

It happened in an instant.

One of the leftmost dropships exploded while in reverse thrust and another dropship spun out of control as something struck it.

“Report!” he shouted.

“DCS Seventh Kyoto is lost with all hands! DCS Haruhodo has breaches on multiple levels from starboard quarter to bow!” the fleet comm officer reported quickly while looking through the flashing red lights on her screen. “One of her main thrusters is completely missing, and she’s losing atmosphere too quickly!”

“What hit them?”

“We are tracking trajectory…”

“High energy signature from the planet!”

“BRACE!” Ranfai quickly turned on the comms and shouted to all dropships as soon as he heard that.

Another dropship on his screen turned completely red, and Haruhodo turned from half-red to completely red.

“Haruhodo and Chuchin lost with all hands!”

Ranfai cursed. This was a shit start to an invasion! That was already two battalions completely wiped out even before they managed to land!

“It’s a gauss cannon!”

Everyone turned to the radar officer.

The thin white man looked horrified.

“Gauss…?” Ranfai repeated in horror.

… It made sense. It made so much sense now! The sudden invasion out of nowhere! The information blackout! They somehow discovered that there were lostech buried on David II, and now that the Combine was coming back to take their rightful world back, they fought back with it! Why didn’t they…? They couldn’t. A gauss cannon capable of surface-to-orbit attack, at this range -.

“Incoming fighters! Four wings!”

He glanced at his terminal and saw that his fleet was still ten thousand kilometers off of the ground. There was no room for retreat.

Even if he did have room for retreat, could he allow this world to retain those lostech gauss … anti-orbital guns?

No.

Even if it meant the entire destruction of his fleet and the armies it carried, he could not. The more time the Combine gave the Davion curs, the more this world would become a fortress from which they would harass and bite at the Combine borders. He needed to destroy those lostech cannons!

“Land!” he shouted. “We can’t run, so we will destroy those gauss cannons before we leave! Land, land, land!”

He grimaced as another dropship blew before it could enter the atmosphere, and his own dropship shuddered as the broken debris struck his ship like a cloud of flies. And then it began shaking as his dropship began atmospheric entry. He watched with a grimace as even more dropships got destroyed.

But his eyes were solely on one dropship: DCS Maya. His youngest son was on that dropship.

His hands clenched tightly around the arms of his chair as the entire dropship shook violently as it fought against air resistance for a quick re-entry.

The captain of the dropship grimaced across from him.

“FULL THROTTLE!” the captain roared as he cranked up the thruster lever.

Ranfai wanted to scream as he suddenly found himself experiencing at least 4 G’s.

He glared at the shaking screen in front of him. The enemy shot his soldiers down even as they made landfall. His ASF fighters died trying to keep their fighters at bay.

And then touch down.

“Move, move, move!” he shouted as he himself jumped out of his seat and toward the mech bays, but right before he jumped out of his seat, he noted the damages he’d incurred so far.

Two-thirds of a regiment were gone even before they landed.

What a disaster.

-VB-

General Rachael Jamakawa

As much as she longed to go out on her personal Battlemaster like the good old days, Rachael had a duty to her soldiers. Her duty demanded that she made victory happen in the tactical room while her soldiers carried victory on the battlefield.

“I would have liked to know that you had such lostech with you,” she gritted at the screen showing Commander Marris’s face. “It would have made me feel better about our chances of defense.”

“I’m sorry, general,” the commander replied. “But you know how significant our railguns are.”

“I am,” she sighed. “If even one mention of it got out…”

“Sabotage.”

She took a deep breath in. “Can that railgun of yours shoot ground targets?”

“Anything not behind a city or a mountain or the curvature of the planet is within our range of fire.”

Yikes. Fucking yikes.

“However…”

“Yes?”

“I would not recommend you demand we shoot every single mech. Not only are our accuracies low for such a small target, but railguns’ barrels also have a limited number of shots before they have to be replaced. And we only have one replacement each.”

“So, at best, it is a strategic weapon on the battlefield.”

“Yes, general.”

“And your mechs? I know you have more than a lance of mechs.”

He grinned.

“We have a company.”

Jesus-.

“Will you risk them? The Combine will seek to destroy you.”

“Of course. Only fools would hold back when their homes are in danger.”

-VB-

Permission: Classified 1

Viewing: Report of Battle of David II (2980)

Written by General Rachael Jamakawa

Submitted to AFFS Archive as part of routine battle report submission

[1037]: Draconis Combine forces led by Sho-sho Ranfai Wo landed 117 kilometers southeast of Polis II.

[1050]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #3 destroyed.

[1115]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #1 destroyed.

[1135]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #4 damaged.

[1203]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #4 destroyed.

[1240]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #8 destroyed.

[1359]: First engagement. 41st Avalon Hussars’ 4th Company 3rd Battlemech Lance “Leeroys” clashed with Combine battlemech 1.9 kilometers north of their landing site. Retreated before casualties were exchanged.

[1408]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #16 destroyed.

[1420]: Combine forces began marching toward Polis II without regard for casualties.

[1430]: 41st Avalon Hussars’ 2nd Battlemech Company attacked the Combine forces from the northeast. Disruption was minimal. Friendly casualties minimal, enemy casualties unknown.

[1440]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #11 destroyed.

[1445]: Combine forces was now within 100 kilometers of the city and the spaceport.

[1500]: A platoon of Marris Mercenary battlemechs engaged the Combine forces from the southwest. The Combine turned to engage the Marris mercenaries in full force. Marris mechs retreated and Combine mechs gave chase.

[1503]: Marris mercs sprung a trap, a full company of their mechs ambushed the pursuers. Armed with [Redacted], they made quick work of the enemies before retreating. Estimated number of Combine mech casualties: 15 battlemechs destroyed, 8 disabled.

[1505]: [Redacted]. Combine dropship #5 destroyed.

[1530]: Combine restarted march toward Polis. Trajectory suggested they were aiming for the [Redacted].

[1500]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered moderate damage. Estimated casualties: 4 battlemechs destroyed.

[1510]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered light damage. Estimated casualties: 2 battlemechs.

[1530]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered no damage.

[1600]: [Redacted]. Combine convoy suffered no damage. Marris mercenaries ambushed them from southwest while 41st Avalon Hussars struck from the northeast in a pincer move.

---

Captain Anderson

2980.09.20.1505

88 kilometers southwest of Polis

He took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.

Commander Alan Marris was a mad bastard and so was his general for going along with his plan.

Using one-of-a-kind anti-orbital guns as bait?

Madness.

The plan was simple: wait for them to cross the Norman Hills, a hilly and muddy area between the Tamalin Forest to the north and the Barcelona Mountain Range to the south. Once they were crossing the muddy hills, they would ambush them in a pincer move.

It was a good plan. He just hated the fact that the lostech anti-orbital guns were at risk. Sure, they weren’t the Federated Suns’ property and that of mercenaries, but AFFS would surely keep these mercenaries on retinue if only to keep the lostech from being used against them.

It was a guaranteed way of getting employment, yet Marris decided to risk it.

It was not the action or the thoughts of a mercenary commander.

“Alright, it’s going to happen soon now, boys and girls,” Colonel Daniel Kim grunted across the battalion comms. “You know your mission. We go in. We hit them hard. And then we pull out.”

Michael watched the Combine convoy on his radar, now loosely spread out to avoid being reamed by the anti-orbital gun-turned artillery.

He took a deep breath in.

‘Let’s just hope I don’t get downed like last time.’

“What the fuck are they doing?!”

Jolting, he looked up at the radar and s-.

Marris’s mercs just broke cover and charged at the Combine mechs, firing their guns as they moved.

And they moved quickly. Their light mechs moved too fast for Combine light mechs to feasibly counter. Their medium mechs moved like bug mechs. Their heavies moved faster than any mediums.

“Hold!” the colonel shouted across the comms. “If the glory hounds want first blood, then let them be the Combine’s focus. Hold!”

Michael gritted his teeth. They weren’t glory hounds. Glory hounds didn’t offer up their biggest, most invaluable lostech for the sake of defense.

He watched as the majority of the Combine battlemechs turned, sluggishly compared to Marris and his mecs, and began firing back.

“Now!”

He broke from his cover along with the rest of his battalion and fired upon the Combine fucks below.

Their gunfire didn’t initially draw the attention of the Combine mechwarriors for a moment.

But then it did.

Despite their disadvantageous position, the Combine mechwarriors did not panic and quickly reorganized into their formations in groups of four.

That’s when it came.

Michael saw a flash of white to his right, and a blink later, that flash was streaking across his vision and to his left. Two groups of Combine battlemechs that had been in the way of the streaking light as well as the numerous soldiers and armored vehicles in between suddenly disappeared.

Vaporized.

Michael swore that he would change out the filter on his battlemech as soon as he got back to base.

The anti-orbital gauss attack sent the Combine forces into disarray as they suddenly found a huge hole at the center of their formation.

The mercenaries were quick to take advantage of this and drove right in with their landspinners.

And from the center of their formation, they tore into the Combine formation.

---

[1605]: [Redacted]. Friendly casualties: 6 battlemechs. Enemy casualties: 19 battlemechs, ~1,000 infantry, ~40 armored vehicles.

[1610]: Half of the Combine convoy succeeded in breaking through the ambush, splitting their forces into Force A and Force B.

[1615]: [Redacted]. Combine Force A suffered light damage. Casualty estimate: 2 battlemechs.

[1630]: Combine Force B’s battlemechs all disabled or destroyed. Infantry and armored battalions surrendered.

[1640]: [Redacted]. Combine Force A suffered heavy damage. Casualty estimate: 7 battlemechs.

[1645]: Marris Mercenary reserve company “Roof Campers” (mixed battlemech/infantry) ambushed Combine Force A at 78 kilometers south-southwest of Polis.

---

Sho-Sho Ranfai Wo

This invasion … was a mistake.

They achieved nothing and lost everything.

His soldiers hadn’t even arrived within fifty kilometers of the city, a distance that most medium mechs would have reached in under an hour if not half. A light mech could cross that kind of distance easily even with rough terrain.

But ambush after ambush slowed them down. Unending gauss attacks from beyond the horizon took down dropship after dropship, mech lance after mech lance. He now had less than a third of what he originally started out with. The other third was fighting the ambush ten clicks behind him.

Thankfully, they were now in a valley with hills and mountains perpendicular to the direction of the fire  that kept that lostech gauss gun from bombarding them

But now, he himself had come face to face with another ambush.

Standing between his army and the end of the river valley was another force of those odd mechs that his computer could not recognize. Painted in white and red, they reminded him of the red cross of the medics if it wasn’t for how the white was the highlight of these mechs, not the base color.

It was not a set of colors he recognized from any of the Federated Suns’ regiments.

A mercenary band? They were also the ones that initiated the previous ambush.

“Who are you?” he demanded.

“Commander Alan Marris,” the lead mech replied. “Of the Marris Mercenaries.”

Ranfai wanted to spit.

Mercenaries?! He was being stopped by mercenaries in a battle that would decide the fate of decades of war?!

“Attack!” he roared. There was no time for formation. No time for maneuvers. The longer they stayed here, the more forces the Davion dogs would array against them. Each second was a chance they were losing in taking out the lostech gauss guns!

And then he watched for a moment as every single mech on the other side pulled out a gauss rifle and fired them at his soldiers and mechwarriors.

There was nowhere to dodge in this rugged landscape with only grass, a single shallow riverlet, and mountains to the side.

They were trapped.

All of this had been a trap!

How did they know he would land in the southwest? How did they know where his forces would be?

How? How?! HOW?!

“HOW?!” he roared -.

His last sight in this life was a blazing white gauss shot heading straight for his cockpit.

---

[1650]: Combine Force A neutralized. Friendly casualties: 6 battlemechs, 2 infantry platoons. Enemy casualties: 28 battlemechs (total).

Total Friendly Casualties: 18 battlemechs destroyed at minimum, 2 infantry platoons.

Total Enemy Casualties: 8 dropships destroyed, 12 dropships captured, 122 battlemechs destroyed or disabled, ~11 infantry companies, ~4 armored companies.

Final Battle Conclusion: Overwhelming Victory

… Logging out.

---

First Prince Andrew Davion

2980.10.30

This was the second time David II had come to his attention this year, and it was once more heralding an overwhelming victory for the Federated Suns against the Draconis Combine.

As for what caused so many dropship destruction…

He accessed another file, this one sent through a courier. The file’s second page showed an image of the ground-based naval gauss rifle which never existed on David II before.

No, this was a gauss rifle that had been built on-site by none other than the mercenaries who first showed up on David II with lostech anti-mech infantry guns.

Andrew hummed. He had been right to pursue a contract with them, and would continue to hold it as long as he could. After all, those same mercenaries sold the naval gauss rifles they built at only fifteen million C-Bills each. Even if his scientist and engineers couldn’t reverse-engineer it, they were still naval gauss rifles that would now defend a planet right on the Combine’s border.

Better yet, those same mercenaries were sure to make more for themselves, and he would be right there, first in line, to buy as many of them as possible, if not all of their products.

And, less importantly, the same courier that brought this file also brought a brochure for him to peruse.