Debaucherous x Division 9 (Patreon)

Commissioned

Debaucherous x Division

Chapter 9

-VB-

Mararn

3020.12.06

Captain George Reisen glanced at the baron’s clone, who sat with his helmet off. 

All of the clones wore the same uniform: a clean, mostly form-fitting, and padded spacesuit that they wore while in and out of their mechs. It was apparently supposed to keep them cool, but George didn’t see how. Most mechwarriors he was familiar with, including himself, barely wore anything except maybe a cooling vest. 

Were they Cooling Suits that the Star League used? Did the baron find them in whatever Star League facility he discovered?

He knew better than to tattle about it to anyone. Aside from the fact that he was a pirate to all of the successor states, someone like him wouldn’t survive for long if he went around selling everyone’s secrets. He wasn’t some spy with years of training. He was a good and honest pirate. 

Speaking of which…

“Hey, baron.”

“Hmm?”

“We’re about to land in about an hour. So whatever you want to do with your boys, I’d suggest getting ready for it.”

The clone, still helmetless and staring out of the dropship’s bridge at the planet below, hummed in acknowledgement but didn’t get up from the seat he’d commandeered from one of the bridge officers. 

He looked wistful. Thoughtful. Maybe even a little satisfied. After that weird moment, the baron stood up and left the bridge. 

“Hey, captain,” a nasally voice spoke up.

George turned to look at the owner of the voice. “What is it, Richie?” he asked. 

“Since when did we start selling carry services to nobles?” he asked. “To a periphery noble, no less.”

“Because that noble has Star League tech and is one of the few ports close to the Federated Suns who isn’t overcharging us for landing at his port,” he grunted back. “And besides, the baron said he was gonna distract the Fedrats for us, so we can loot to our heart’s content.”

“And then we leave the baron behind, right?” Richie asked. 

“No. If you haven’t gotten the memo yet, then let me spell it out for you. That baron has access to things that are unheard of. All of the mechwarriors he brought with him? They are all his clones. We aren’t carrying the baron himself but his clones. And if we return to port without his mechs and clones, then what the fuck do you think is going to happen?” 

“Oh. Right. The baron’s not gonna be happy.”

“Exactly. And if the baron’s not gonna take any of our loot, then being his driver ain’t a bad job.”

Richie sniffed. “If you say so, captain. So where are we hitting?” 

“We’re gonna land a bit away from the spaceport and let the baron have his run at the local defenders. While they're distracted, we’re gonna hit the port and bring back anything not nailed down. Y’all get that?”

The bridge rang out with cacophonous acknowledgements of rowdy pirates.

“Good. Then let’s strap everything down before we enter the atmosphere!” 

---

Colonel David Sottemton of the AFFS looked up at the Union dropship and the Leopard dropship burning their way into the atmosphere. 

He gritted his teeth. 

Had this been anywhere else but the Outback, aerospace fighters would have engaged and destroyed the vulnerable dropships as they were entering. 

However, this was the Outback. Not only were the local planets so poor that most couldn’t afford aerospace fighters, their militia defenses were weak as well. 

Because of this, his battalion, the 102nd Battalion of the Mararn Crucis March Militia, barely had mechs worth their weight in salt. Currently, he had two companies of infantrymen, one armored vehicle company, and one mech company. In the mech company, he had three mech lances whose average lance weight was around thirty tons, which was not good at all because most of the mechs he had were bug mechs like Locusts, Wasps, and Spiders as well as cheap mechs like Urbanmechs.

What he wouldn’t give for a pair of Marauders…

He looked back down and at the lance leaders.

“Lieutenant Josephine,” he called out to the most masculine man in the 102nd Battalion. The man saluted. “Your lance will need to take the brunt of the pirate’s attention; it is the only lance with a heavy mech. I will join your lance.”

“I will try my best with my Orion, sir,” he replied. 

He nodded. “Lieutenant Shim, you will support Lieutenant Josephine.”

Lieutenant Maria Shim, a short and lithe woman, saluted. “Understood, sir.”

“Lieutenant, Wesley-Dawn. You will stay at the spaceport.”

The aggressive man flinched before letting his tense shoulders relax as he sighed. “Understood, sir.”

He knew that Jacob Wesley-Dawn wanted to get out there and fight. However, his lance was composed of one Locust, one badly maintained Centurion, one Urbanmech, and one Wasp. It was in no condition to fight a battle out there. 

“Good. Then everyone to your mechs! I want those sons of bitches stripped bare of their mechs and with a bullet hole in their heads!” His mechwarriors quickly rushed to their hangars, and he followed after them. 

As he left the officer meeting room and into the mech hangars, he found himself staring and being reminded of his ramshackle force of bug mechs and barely maintained medium mechs. 

The government at New Avalon didn’t support them. Much. The Crucis March barely saw combat, after all.

So they were given the least wanted mechs and least amount of reinforcement and support. They had to make do with what they had at all times. 

It sucked. 

With a sigh, he marched up to his personal mech, a Blackjack BJ-1, and climbed up the ladders to enter its cockpit from the rear. 

As his mech came alive, he spoke over the command channel. “We wait for the signal from our allies. Understood?!” 

---

I looked out of the eyes of five clones, who were all in their Clover mech cockpits. 

Mararn was a desert world with pockets of rivers, oasis, and small seas. Of course, people being people lived in one of three places: near a body of freshwater for the regular folks, near where they worked for the miners, and the isolated places for the hermits. 

My targets weren’t the people and their wealth, however. With how much my clones dug up from Cooperland’s crust and how much I will extract using higher tech once I get that established in large numbers, what little wealth and resources the people of the Federated Suns Outbacks had was … 

Actually, I was already richer than entire planets out here in the Outbacks. 

Mararn, for example, was not that different from Cooperland. The major difference between the two planets was the HPG station Mararn had as well as an AFFS garrison of a single mech battalion reinforcing the local planetary militia. From what the good pirate captain told me, there shouldn’t be more than a lance of heavies at most. 

As we moved toward one of the military outposts around the city, our radar pinged as the mechs found something approaching us very quickly. 

I found out what it was in less than a minute: a Locust. 

This was actually a good mech for us to encounter right off the bat, because it would be a test for whether or not Clovers could match the speed and maneuverability of the Locust. It was not in question that each of my Clovers had more firepower, so I wasn’t going to immediately shoot it down. 

But chase it around and harass the Locust? 

Perfect test for speed and maneuverability.

I had one of my clones split from the squad of five and moved to intercept the Locust. 

---

Lieutenant Conrad Josephine frowned inside the cockpit of his family’s two-century old Griffin. “Can you repeat that for me, Lieutenant Shim?” he asked. 

“The Locust I sent out to scout out the enemy is dead,” she hissed over the command comm. “Corporal John encountered the enemy mech lance. It wasn’t anything his Locust’s warbooks recognized. They proceeded to keep up with his Locust for shits and giggles before killing him!”

“Stay calm on the command channel,” Colonel Sottemton chided. “It seems then that our enemy has enough firepower in each mech to put down any of our bug mechs. No more scouting. We’ll move as lances. I will join Lieutenant Shim’s lance.”

“Copy that,” Conrad replied before frowning. 

His lance of one Grasshopper, one Griffin, one Thunderbolt, and one Wasp would be strong enough on its own even without the colonel’s Blackjack. In fact, Shim’s lance of one Shadow Hawk and two Wasps probably needed the extra long range firepower if the unknown enemy mechs could keep up with a Locust yet also possess firepower to take it out so easily. 

“There are two ways into the city from the north,” the colonel noted. “The Ogre Pass and the Yurim Bridge. Shim’s lance will take the bridge and Josephine’s lance will take the pass. Understood?”

“Acknowledged,” Conrad said before switching channels. “Alright, boys. You heard the colonel. “We’re taking the Ogre Pass. Those tops should be uneven enough for no mech to walk over them, so all we’ll have to do is hold the narrow valley. Got it?”

Three of his mechwarriors all responded with varying levels of enthusiasm before they moved to secure the site. 

---

I looked at the two ways into the city from where my clones had been dropped off. 

The first way was through a narrow bridge over a chasm.

The other was through jagged hills of what looked like eroded sandstones. Both sharp and brittle, they wouldn’t provide good enough footholds if we tried to go over them, meaning that my clones in their Clovers could only go through the bottom of the pass, which would limit their mobility and thus negate the Clovers’ second most powerful ability. 

However, the chasm was too wide for my mechs to attempt to jump over. Which meant that the bridge could be guarded by a small force and still hold it against a larger force. Those old ass stories about warriors and soldiers holding a bridge by themselves were no jokes or myths but actual facts. That’s how much of a chokepoint bridges were.

Now, in this situation, most commanders would choose to take the valley pass because a bridge like the one I was facing would be easy to defend by defenders with long range attacks, but would cause only minimal damage if intel about local defenders were correct. If the information wasn’t correct, then my Clovers might get bombarded by a lot of mechs.

And most commanders would be right to choose that, too.

But unlike most other mechs, my mechs had weapons that had both range and firepower. 

So the open nature of a bridge? 

It was to my advantage. 

---

“What are those?” Colonel Sottemton muttered to himself as he looked out at the white mechs that had appeared over on the other side of the bridge. 

He looked down and noticed that his Blackjack’s warbooks couldn’t identify the enemy’s mechs. 

“They’re too uniform to be frankenmech of some kind,” he hummed. “A new periphery mech design?” he muttered to himself before snorting. 

That was unlikely. It took megacorporations years to design a new mech, test it out, and work out the kinks. Periphery hicks and pirates couldn’t just “make” a new mech.

Whatever they were, they were his enemies, evidenced by their killing of a good corporal, so they needed to die. 

“Opening fire,” he said as he raised his Blackjack’s two AC/2’s and began to fire. 

---

I made my clones tank the hits…

And wow.

I kind of understood why AC/2’s were looked down on so much. 

They barely did any damage against my armor. I had my shields off to check if they would do something but … apparently not.

I mean, if they got a bunch of them together and fired together, then it might be a bit of a problem, but just one mech firing at my Clovers from this distance? 

Was this truly how weak the defenses were in the Outback?  

Like… seriously? This was even worse than the periphery.

With just a thought, I had my clones raise up the Clovers’ guns.

And opened fire. 

---

Sottemton knew they were fucked the moment Lieutenant Shim’s Centurion blew up after taking less than five rounds. Each round caused explosions almost equal to that of an AC/10 while also penetrating deep into the armor. How else could they have cored the Centurion with just five strikes? 

His Blackjack took one hit, and that was enough for his left torso to blow up. 

“Enemy is at the bridge!” he shouted over the comms. “I repeat, the enemy is at the bridge! They have extremely high long-range firepower!” 

The Wasps didn’t even get to fire back with their Medium Lasers and SRM-2’s. They maneuvered, trying to find cover, but their light frames took just two hits to give up and outright explode.

Then they were onto him.

He felt the second strike.

He was trying to comprehend the damage when the third and fourth came. 

And by then, it was too late for him.

His mech’s magazines lit on fire and exploded.

---

By the time Lieutenant Josephine made it to the bridge, the enemy had already crossed over. 

He glared across the screen at the five identical mechs. 

They looked like someone saw how humanoid Wasps were and decided they could be even more humanoid. Except the designer also decided that a dog-like head was the way to go.

They were also just at the edge of his Large Laser range. 

“Open fire!” he shouted, and his entire lance let loose. 

The Thunderbolt’s Large Laser and LRM-15. His own Griffin’s Large Laser and LRM-10. The Grasshopper’s Large Lasers and LRM-5. All of them screamed across the space between their two forces and struck the white mechs.

And promptly stopped before actually hitting the mechs. LRMs exploded and Large Lasers burned harmlessly against translucent, interlocked hexagonal panels that just … floated in the air around the mechs. 

Then the mechs pulled up their guns. Those looked like rifles as if they were infantrymen.

When they opened fire, Corporal Hessen’s Wasp immediately disconnected. Both the Grasshopper and Thunderbolt’s armors went from green to yellow in an instant on Josephine’s screens, and his own Griffin’s armor struck red immediately as mech-shaking explosions erupted all around him like he was getting hit by an artillery strike and not some rifle bullets! 

He growled as he fired again, but the white mechs moved fast. There was something attached to the back of their feet that moved for them. His eyes widened as he saw wheels! 

And that allowed them to glide around the dry ground like they were wheeled vehicles while maintaining their firing stance. 

The Grasshopper keeled forward as one of its legs blew out at the hip and then the Thunderbolt crashed backward with its cockpit letting off black smoke. 

And then his Griffin lurched forward as something struck and cored him through the weak back armor. 

He screamed in pain, frustration, heat, and anger as his mech keeled forward … and crashed into the ground. 

-VB-

3020.12.06: 

FedSuns) Mararn is raided by a combined pirate force. The defending mech battalion is wiped to a man and the supporting infantry and armored combat vehicle regiments are also wiped out. Confirmed sightings of a new light mech, designated Raider. 

Marris) The raid on Maran was a success. Clovers proved their worth and utterly wrecked mechs that were so much higher than their own tonnage. Twin Red Lancers pirates were also happy with their loot haul and were eager to transport both my Clovers and my salvage back for a small cost of one of the light mech salvages. I let him have all of the Wasp salvages for this run’s payment and cooperation for future raids into the Federated Suns. At least until I start making my own ships. 

-VB-

“Wait, what? There’s two Clover Packs here?! Why the fuck didn’t you tell me this?! You know my company doesn’t have enough firepower or armor to take them on! This is a clear violation of MRB rules! I’m pulling out! Fuck you!” 

-words spoken by a leader of a company-sized and medium-weight mercenary company to their AFFS liaison before they openly broadcasted their neutrality and intention to leave the planet due to standard contract and MRB rule violation. MRB, upon learning about the deliberate enemy miscount and false identification, approved of the withdrawal.

“There’s something on my mech! I can’t see! I can’t see! What the fuck-?! Get it off m-!”

-last words of a clanner mechwarrior. When the smoke-chaff cleared, their Timber Wolf’s cockpit was shown to have been eviscerated by high thermal weapons and what looked like handprints on multiple surfaces of the mech.

“House Marris is an honorless cur. However, they are an honorless cur that is a plague upon the Davions. And for that, we are glad.”

-Chancellor Maximillian Liao when interviewed on the actions of House Marris’s raids on the Federated Suns, 3025, which resulted in two Davion jumpships getting destroyed.

---

Clover CLV-1

Tonnage: 20 tons max

Dimensions: 7 meters tall, 4 meters wide, 5 meters long

Class: Light

Purpose: Scout/Flank

Defense: 2 ton standard armor, 1 ton hard armor, 1 ton “6 ton” energy shield (4 tons total)

Engine: MTW 180

Targeting: MIA Auto-Aim-Assist

Heat Sinks: 5 singles

Speed: 115 KPH

Attachables:

2x Landspinners (feet)

2x EYE Drones (no weapon)/4x Explosive Suicide Drones

2x Extra Arms

Armament:

1x 75mm Mech Assault Rifle (MAR) (HEP ammo) [hits like an AC/2 but has 120 rpm]

1x back mounted and detachable SRM-4’s

1x Plasma Dagger

The first ever mech designed and produced by House Marris via their Marris Industries on Cooperland, Clover CLV-1 is designed with multiple Far Periphery technologies that exceed the technologies developed during the Star League, including the energy shield module. It is known to be an unnerving mech to look at for most people familiar with battlemechs, because Clovers do not have the rigid corners found in most mechs and almost look too organic.

Between the energy shields defense and the handheld Armament, the infamous MIA 75mm MAR, it gained a reputation on Federated Suns worlds as a “mech killer” for being able to kill any and all light and mediums mechs it encountered and outmaneuvering if not outright crippling heavy mechs it fought. Its cruise speed of 95 kph also meant that only fast but ill-equipped light mechs like Locusts could chase them down. 

Often seen working in groups of five instead of the traditional four in a mech lance, Clovers fight in a wolf pack, engaging in quick hit-and-runs and guerilla ambushes, despite the fact that Clovers possess more firepower than most medium mechs. The Federated Suns and the AFFS have yet to find a viable counter to the Clover Packs except mass artillery strikes or a five-to-one tonnage advantage in the field. 

They are also impossible to ambush as at least one of the five Clovers in a Clover Pack always has two EYE Drones, nearly impossible to detect long range detection drones flying high in the sky. Being no more than a meter long and wide, these drones are near impossible to hit without dedicated anti-air missiles. With a detection range of nearly fifty kilometer radius in open terrain and ten kilometers in rough terrain, Clover Packs are always aware of their surroundings, even if they seem like they aren't. Their worst terrain is the urban, and have been noted to avoid urban combat if at all possible. Clover pilots also seem to loathe fighting Urbanmechs and Hunchbacks in urban combat as such encounters are usually the only time that Inner Sphere mechs can successfully destroy Clovers with the least amount of hassle. However, Inner Sphere commanders also don't like this type of engagement as such engagements usually destroys the energy shield module for salvage, something that the Inner Sphere fails to reverse engineer to this day.

However, there are instances when a Clover can be found operating by itself. When encountering such a specimen, AFFS mechwarriors are advised to run at all cost because 95% of the time, what they have encountered is not the standard Clover CLV-1 but the upgraded and highly lethal Clover CLV-1B, the Four Armed Crawler. CLV-1B are known for three things: crawling on the ground on their hands and feet like an animal, two extra arms attached at their shoulders which they use to wield their weapons while crawling, and being an ambush predator. While slightly slower than the original CLV-1 at 80 kph, CLV-1B overcomes this by being able to climb over jagged mountains, skyscrapers, and even submerging underwater. This turns every lake and river into a potential ambush point, every skyscraper a rooftop jump off point, and mountains a non-existent barrier. What’s worse is the fact that House Marris also produce smoke-chaff rockets for their Clover’s SRM, and CLV-1B takes advantage of this to the extreme by equipping only plasma daggers and smoke SRMs. A pair of smoke-chaff rockets can cover two acres for up to ten minutes, and they would rush in low like a monster before jumping the biggest target they can find. Then they would stab the cockpit with the plasma daggers until the pilot dies or the cockpit itself is so disconnected from the mech that the pilot may as well be dead. Then they would jump off like a monkey and go after another mech. Finally, they would scurry off before the smoke-chaff runs out of fumes, and would be gone by the time their victims visually confirmed their losses. Combined with EYE Drones that allow CLV-1B to see their targets from afar, they have been sometimes called the Stalking Clover.

When a Stalking Clover operates in tandem with a Clover Pack, their enemies are forced to hide in their bases and fortified positions. In rough terrain, the Stalking Crawler would pick off its opposition one by one. In open terrain, high firepower Clover Packs would devastate anything less than a Steiner Scout Lance. Sometimes, a Stalking Crawler would pretend to ambush their prey with smoke-chaff, forcing their enemies to tighten their formation to prevent getting picked off one by one in the smoke-chaff, only for a Clover Pack to emerge from the tree lines and ridges to put down a devastating HEP full-auto into the now tightened formation. The only known solution to a Stalking Clover-Clover Pack combo is a grid annihilating artillery strike with a bait mech lance’s position. 

But even then, the Inner Sphere and AFFS knows that this is not a long term solution. Because according to the rumors, House Marris, in their Cooperland factory, produces each Clover-1 and Clover 1B at under half a million C-Bills. Further rumor has it that House Marris possesses a vertically integrated factory with fully automated mining, refining, and manufacturing capabilities, meaning that even the half a million per mech cost could be a ruse in and of itself. 

---

Clover LCLV-2

Tonnage: 20 tons max

Dimensions: 6 meters tall, 3.5 meters wide, 4.5 meters long

Class: Light

Purpose: Scout/Escort

Defense: 6 ton standard armor

Engine: MTW 140

Targeting: MIA Auto-Aim-Assist Lite

Heat Sinks: 10 singles

Speed: 100 KPH

Armament:

2x Medium Laser

1x Machinegun (0.5 ton of ammo)

Clover LCLV-2, or Lesser Clover-2, is the export model of the Clover CLV-1 that House Marris sells to basically anyone who wants to buy them as long as they are not affiliated directly or indirectly to the Federated Suns. It is an inferior model in all ways compared to the original Clover. It has a heavier and weaker frame, equips only standard armor and weapons, possesses crippled aiming software, moves slower, lacks additional attachments, and lacks the weapons that made Clover-1 so dangerous to fight against. 

However, it is still a 20 ton light mech that can match most light mech speeds, possess more firepower than a Locust, and has more armor than Locust. Most importantly, it has slightly lower price than the Locust while having the same ubiquity in the mech market. Because of this, four groups have been both enamored and known for their use of Clover LCLV-2: the militia of the Taurian Concordat, mechwarriors of the Capellan Confederation, mercenaries of Outworlds Alliance, and the pirates of Tortuga Dominion. This has a lot to do with the proximity of these nations to Cooperland, the system owned and fortified by House Marris. This proximity allowed them to buy out as many LCLV-2 as House Marris sells. 

The Taurian Concordat has become well known for their use of LCLV-2, particularly as a hit-and-run saboteur. They replace one Medium Laser, the Machinegun, and one ton of armor for an SRM-4 and its ammunition. This allows the rather sturdy light mech to weave in and out of the terrain while unloading missiles at any convoys and supply depots. Missions that would kill Locusts would often see LCLV-2 return very scratched up but alive nonetheless.