Scavenged Restoration 63 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFangs

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 63

-VB-

Taisa (colonel) Kiaro Hamilton gritted his teeth.

“Damn Lyrans!” he hissed.

As the commanding officer in charge of the 6th Alshain Regulars, he was in charge of defending Alshain. 

He’d been ready for them since they jumped into the system. But the milita had not been. 

So he had trained them. Readied the woefully lacking defenses of the planet. 

And now, they were just as ready as he was. Or as ready as they will be without the superior bushido mindset and philosophy guiding their movements. 

He wouldn’t be able to depend on the commoners to see this victory through. 

“Sir, they are entering the atmosphere!” 

“Send out the fighters.”

He watched the aerospace fighters roar out like dozens of myln birds who hunted animals far bigger than they were. And that’s what those boys and girls in those fighter cockpits were. Hunters. 

Kiaro watched eight dropships bleeping across the holovid and the radar screen as well as the new birds that were up on the air. 

In the past decade, his reinforcements came less with mechs and more with aerospace fighters. He knew why. 

The reintroduction of warships meant that those without it could only match the warships with high yield missiles and bombs with aerospace fighters or vulnerable fixed point orbital defense guns… which were expensive to build. 

He lacked the orbital defense guns but had plenty of aerospace fighters. However, the five wings he had with his regiment and the militia would not be enough to take down those dropships. No, their job was to damage them as much as they could.

But they must survive to continue the fight along with the rest of the ground forces. 

“Contact!” 

His thoughts snapped back to reality, and he watched as his aerospace fighter force slammed into the dropships and their screening aerospace fighters. 

Kiaro grinned as his fighters almost immediately butchered the weak Lyran fighters and began to assault the dropships directly. One Leopard took a direct hit to one of its thrusters and quickly spiraled out of control. 

A Fortress-class dropships blasted its lasers and autocannons with fury.

His fighters unleashed every missiles they had on hand at one of the Overlords… and brought it down!

Despite the absolute pride he felt as their achievement, he only allowed himself to smile and nod. “Tell them to fall back. They will have their chance again.”

They were the only aerospace pilots he had on hand. 

“I want casualty numbers!” he shouted as he left the high command. 

He would meet the Lyrans out on the field. 

---

“We lost an Overlord?!” Leutenant-General Raymond Vargus snarled. 

“One of the fighters struck the main thrusters from below, general,” his aide, reporting from inside the Fortress-class dropship, stated calmly. “It was over before they could try to get a handle on the situation.”

“... They have much more aerospace fighters than what our report suggested,” Vargus muttered to himself instead of laying it on the poor woman just relaying facts to him. 

Aerospace fighters were much less likely to survive a fight. However, this did not mean that they were useless or even less valued. Despite the fact that he was a mechwarrior himself, Vargus valued the tactical flexibility of aerospace fighters much more. His 8th Lyran Regulars, for examples, had two squadrons (12 fighters). 

“How many of our fighters are left?” he asked instead as his Atlas marched onward with his command company.

“7 fighters, general.”

7.

It wouldn’t be enough to cover them against enemy aerospace fighters, but it would be enough to cover the dropships if he ordered them to retreat. 

“Are all of the payloads already with us?” he asked instead. 

“Yes, general.”

“... Good,” he said quietly. Then he took a deep breath in… and signed his death sentence. He opened up his radio frequency to the command channel. “This is Leutenant-General Vargus. I’m glad to know that all of you trusted in me and followed me all the way here. But this is where we part ways. Aerospace fighters, from here on out, you are under the command of Colonel Lin. Colonel Lin, you will have to do what I cannot. This is my final order to you. You will take all of the dropships and the jumpships back to the commonwealth. In the coming war, they will be needed by other good men and women loyal to the commonwealth.”

“General -!” 

He overrode the colonel’s outraged and betrayed cry over the radio. “It was an honor to have had you all under my command, but your duty has not yet ended. Go. Take the dropships back home. You did everything you did because I ordered you. I want that in the official report. The rest of us here will carry out our mission or die trying.”

No one objected. 

They were all loyal sons and daughters of the commonwealth.

Less than an hour after he said that, he saw the thrusters plumes of the dropships leaving.

It was also a signal to the commanding officer on the other side of the battlefield that the Lyrans he fought were here for something other than a raid. 

---

Tai-sa Hamilton stared at the video feed of the Lyran dropships leaving. 

He quickly changed his radio frequency to the command channel. “This is Taisa Hamilton. I need sitrep on the Lyrans. Their dropships just left, over.”

“This is Tai-i (captain) Gyu-Min Han of the 624th Mech Lance! We are pinned down by a Lyran company and cannot move from our position. We are four clicks south of the capital city, over!” 

“This is Sho-sa (major) David Kyominato of the 625th Mech Lance! I can confirm that Tai-i Han is pinned down! I am half click north of his position. I am also pinned down by the same company!” 

A whole company was left behind -?!

“This is Tai-i Tyikitti of the Alshain Militia. Tai-sa, we have a Lyran mech company charging towards the capital city, over!” 

Two-?

Then his eyes hardened. 

“So, the Lyrans finally learned something from us, didn’t they?” he grunted before pushing down on the send button. “This is Tai-sa Hamilton. 624 and 625, you must hold the Lyran company there! 61st Mech Company, you are with me! We will intercept the fools who thought they could target our factories so easily! 63rd Squadron, run interference on the Lyran company charging at the capital city! Militia, dig in and keep them pinned the moment you see them, over!” 

---

“Took them long enough to realize what we’re doing,” General Vargus snorted at the head of his mech company. “Colonel Khan, we report.”

Colonel Khan was in the charge of the 3rd Mixed Battalion, the currently only non-engaged battalion out of the three Vargus had under his command. 

“We have split according to the plan and are on our way to the designated targets.”

“Good. We will continue to draw fire. Report if you are engaged or have completed your mission.”

“Yes, general.”

His Atlas continued to run along with the rest of his mechs through the light brown steppe plains surrounding Alshain’s capital city… when he got a report. 

“General, enemy fighters closing in from our east.”

“Shoot them down when they’re in range,” he grunted and glanced over, turning his Atlas slightly to see where they were coming from. His naked eyes couldn’t see them, but his mech could with its cameras and data feed from other mechs in the company. 

Unfortunately for the snakes, he had been prepared for this. While his dropships hadn’t been as protected, his mechs were. 

See, he knew that the way he had been attacked so harshly by the aerospace fighters meant that they would expect the same when they came after him. After all, he had lost a lot of his fighters when they were entering the atmosphere while the Combine must have more fighters. In their eyes, they saw mech companies and battalions without aerospace fighters to counter their fighters. Which meant that they had air superiority and needed to use it as much as possible.

And so… the trap had been set. 

From within the core of his company, half a dozen Rifleman emerged, armed and loaded with flak rounds. 

Captain Daniels, who was in charge of the Reinforced AA Rifleman Lance, grunted over the radio. “Engaging.”

A dozen autocannons and large lasers mercilessly ripped through Alshain’s slightly green skies and slammed into the clueless fighters who had thought that they were as vulnerable as the dropships had been. 

Instantly, a pair of aerospace fighters burned and fell down as their wings were torn away.

And when the fighters got close, AMS built into not just the Riflemans but also other heavy mechs in the company roared to life. 

Bombers and fighters alike got lit up in the skies and flew away. Most did not make it and crashed into the ground. 

Vargus grinned. “Now, that’s how you play them!” he laughed as he charged toward the capital city… and broke through the first line of defense. 

---

“What?!” Hamilton hissed out. 

Two-thirds of the aerospace fighters he had left after the orbital engagement had been shot down by an overwhelming firepower from anti-air mechs that the Lyrans had kept hidden during all engagements so far. 

“They deceived me,” he hissed, not changing the “me” to “us.” It was his orders that saw the fighters engaging the Lyrans. He should have waited a bit longer to see what the Lyrans had on hand instead of rushing at them like a fool! 

And now, they were at the edge of the capital city, breaking through the weak militia’s defensive formation.

And he was stuck out here fighting the two other companies that they had not expected to encounter. 

His Dragon belched fire as it shot its LRMs and autocannons while he kept the Medium Laser on hold. 

His target, a Lyran Phoenix Hawk, crumpled as it took too many hits.

But from the shadow of its tall form came out a pair of Commandos that immediately shot their SRMs at him. 

The moment they exploded into roaring infernos, he knew he had to back off. He quickly backpedaled as his disciplined lance took position to fill in the gap left behind his now burning mech.

“General, Lyrans have breached into the city! They’re heading for the Panther factory!” 

He growled. “Concentrate fire on the heavy and assault mechs!” he roared over. “624 and 625, where are you -?!”

The battlefield collapsed into a frenzy as the numerically inferior Lyrans threw their two companies against his four. They died, but they made his soldiers of the Dragon pay dearly for each loss. 

SNAP.

He turned toward his left and almost froze out of shock.

A Lyran mechwarrior in a Hunchback had punched through the defensive lines. 

And it was gunning for him with its AC/20.

He whirled around, ignored his still burning mech, and fired everything he had at the madman.

“DIE DIE DIE!” he roared as his autocannon staccato’ed and lasers cut swathes from the Hunchback’s frame. 

It persisted. It turned this way and that, trying to spread the damage around as it ran up.

Then it was upon him.

Where it fell down when his autocannon shattered its right knee. 

Hamilton wasted no time lifting his feet up and smashing the Hunchback’s cockpit. His heart blasted away inside his chest, and he grimaced at how close he’d come to dying. To a fucking Hunchback of all things! 

He looked around and saw that his soldiers were finishing up, actually. Good! They needed to protect the factory.

---

Vargus grunted. 

His Atlas was missing its left hand from a particularly bad punch. He was really out of form if this was how bad he was! 

“We’re almost there!” he cheered over the radio. 

He felt… free. 

After this, he would not have to deal with the incessant paperwork. No more dealing with nobles. No more burdens. 

Just a final mission for his home and his people.

He wondered if his subordinates felt the same way about this. 

His screen beeped, and he saw it. 

The Panther factory was right up ahead. 

“General, this is Colonel Khan.”

“Colonel, how is it going?”

“We’ve arrived at our objectives. Our bombs have been armed. I just wanted to say that it was an honor serving beside you, sir.”

He chuckled. “Let’s have a toast when we arrive in hell, yeah?”

“Of course.”

The radio cut off… 

And a nuclear blast blossomed on the horizon. 

Vargus let out a maniacal laugh.

“This is our final ride, my soldiers! Let the Combine see the rage of Lyran soldiers! Let them hear our screams and tremble in fear! Let them face us when we have nothing to lose!” he roared over the radio as his men and women began to die one by one. He saw Captain Daniels and his Rifleman fall to an AC/10. He saw Lieutenant Jones block a Combine Atlas with his Charger and die for it. But even as they shed their dead, his charge ran ever closer to the factory. 

“Let them never forget what happens when Lyrans fight to the bitter end!”

With but a single push of his button, he armed the nuke hidden inside his mech. 

Just as he crashed through the thick metal gates, he pressed it down.

“ALL FOR THE LYRAN COMMONWEALTH!” 

And let go.

---

White. 

Hamilton stumbled, and his mech stumbled with him as his entire cockpit got blasted with the blinding light. Even with the glasses and visors he wore, the light had punched through them hard enough to make him see nothing but white for a solid minute. 

And when his vision slowly returned…

He looked up in horror at the nuclear mushroom rising up from the capital city. 

A dozen more followed. 

“No no no no no no…” he muttered out loud. 

Then another detonated no more than two clicks south of his position.

The shockwave swept him and his unit up. 

-VB-

ComStar News Network: Lyran raiders on Alshain die in a nuclear strike! It is unknown if the nuclear bombs belong to the DCMS or were brought there by the Lyrans!

Thakrad Times: Rogue Elements of the 8th Lyran Regulars are swept up in Combine nuclear strike to deny loss of factory! 

New Avalon News: First Nuclear Strike of the 31st Century! Who was behind it? Could it be the Lyrans or the snakes who have used them at every opportunity? 

Benjamin Broadcast: Lyran Perfidy! A Raid turned into Nuclear Kamikaze!

Atreus Media: The Draconis Combine declares that the nuclear strike constituted a declaration of war! 

Marik March Messenger: Captain-General Thomas Marik declares for our allies in the Draconis Combine! 

Regulan News Network: Declaration of War! The Lyrans and the Combine break Eight Years of Peace! The Capellan Confederation is Oddly Silent?