Chapter 5
A Rising Star
The Warden's Rest
7th August, 3022
The remaining events on that forsaken planet had gone relatively uneventfully. And months later we find ourselves headed back into the Inner Sphere, keeping to the leash the banks had on the travels of the Hysteria only as long as was convenient, while the Banks could manipulate and make arrangements with the Jumpship captains to restrain the movements of their 'investment' they couldn't do anything about my new Union, the Warden's Rest.
The 'ownership' of the Union was not however without it's problems. For one, its maintenance costs were significantly higher than the Leopard in just about every category except her engines. Control of such a powerful asset had also had the result in putting me now firmly in the position of equal partner with Markham. Across from me sat the Captain we'd hired to control her while I was planetside, I could not help but snark to myself at the irony of her name being Lotara Sarrin. We were studying the planetary scans as we orbited over Mandalas.
"I still think we made a mistake in taking this contract." I said to the screen showing Darius and Markham.
"I'm starting to think you're right Warden, the paycheck is good but... goddamned if getting involved in a religious periphery states little civil war wasn't going to be a shitshow." Markham agreed. "I made sure that the MRB had the payment in escrow before taking this job, but..." He called up several of the scans. "They're fighting in the streets of their capital, in the wilds..."
"Well, somebody is bankrolling their little revolution, well enough to afford us to come out here," Lotara said frowning, "I've studied the brief our employer said, in forty eight hours the revolutionaries are going to go to ground in the capital. During that time, they want you all to march the streets and kill anything with a gun or tank. We've got unlimited salvage on the opposing forces except for any mechs we encounter."
"Makes sense," Darius said, "The Rebels are direly under-equipped, it's why they hired us. They're going to want any enemy mechs we disable in order to build up their own unit. But I wouldn't expect anything more than lights, perhaps few mediums."
"Yes, but those salvage conditions are pretty damned hollow, we're unlikely to find anything worth salvaging. Mechs don't exactly leave a lot of tank to keep." Markham said annoyed. "If the money hadn't been a pretty good offer i'd have turned down the contract on principle."
"If the money hadn't been so good the MRB wouldn't have bothered advertising it and they'd be trying to get merc talent through the back channels." I said cocking my head. "A kill order like this is going to be ugly, city fighting always is. The Catapults are going to be a liability."
"They know what they ordered, the problem as I see it is, it's a shit-show of a periphery state, by the time we're done with the Capital, there may very well not be much left standing." Markham agreed.
Lotara nodded. "Worst part is, far as I can tell that is exactly what they want. They're getting their troops out of the way and giving us license to kill anything that moves basically. 24 hours after we drop i'd put money on them trying to move a regiment of rebel talent into the city to take it virtually uncontested. Who's going to stand up with the Knight Templar walking the streets?" Whether I wanted it or not the little band of Mercs had taken to calling my Knight 'Templar' due to its rather teutonic faceplate.
I had not helped matters when I had Yang take out the heraldric banner from storage and hang it. The Reaper Chainsword was mounted on the left arm with the Rapid Fire Battle Cannon installed on the right arm. The Carapace fitted with the Icarus array. Unlike previous outings I had the heavy stubber installed on the carapace weapon.
"So the question becomes. How are we going to do this?" Markham asked.
"I and Behemoth take the front in the Templar and Atlas. We won't go unopposed, but word will quickly begin spreading ahead of our advances. You and Glitch make a second team, make a perimeter over the north end of the city. Dekker and Medusa take the Catapults and provide long ranged fire support on targets we ID. Hellion, Warspite and Spike can take the south end. They should advance into the city at all, we don't want to compromise our lights." I manipulated a holographic map, my implanted dataspike allowing me a deeper connection with the machine.
"There are probably a lot of innocents in the city." Darius said.
"It's why I hate city fights, but bluntly, if its us or them then I choose them, if they know what they're doing they're going to be running from any gunfire. And if they aren't.... well my loadout gives me reasonable precision but the Battle Cannon is highly indiscriminate. And a prolonged fight is going to level city blocks." I shrugged.
Markham nodded. "The choice of Behemoth in the Atlas is a good one, she knows her work, but a major fight and it's going to do just as much damage." I didn't bother contradicting him. I could have gone with the Thermal Cannon and its co-axial heavy flamer. But I didn't intend to raze the city if I could help it. He cocked his head. "My only concern is that it leaves just you two deep in the city without any rapid help available."
"I'm not concerned, I believe Behemoth and I could handle anything they throw at us, more importantly, I believe that the sight of two monsters like ours is going to drive them towards the cities edges." I said, hoping I was right, it was hard to tell with zealots.
"I hope you're right, religious zealots aren't exactly sensible folk, you may just find them charging your legs while strapped up with detpacks." Markham said. I frowned at that, but shrugged it off, a common and sensible concern.
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There is an ancient saying. "No plan survives contact with the enemy."
It was almost amusing as it ran through my head in reverse, no enemy survives contact with the plan." It was a memetic brainbug that just wouldn't leave as I struggled to maintain composure. The situation on the ground had been even worse than it had looked, the Guardians of the Faith units that filled the city were confused as their enemies had evaporated, only to spot a Union descending not even an hour later on a pillar of fire.
A weak and anemic attempt at AAA leapt up to meet the Union, shrugged off by its armour as the Warden's Rest touched down. The loading ramp lowering. I was the first down the ramp. The main throughfare of the city stretched out before me, barricades every few hundred metres, burning vehicles a disturbingly frequent appearance and... most disturbing...
The leaders of the city had clearly been thrown into a religious panic. People were crucified along the main thoroughfare, and not all of them were adults. "Those bastards.. those pure unadulterated bastards." Behemoth said as she marched towards the thoroughfare.
The stride on the Atlas was painfully slow, but it was purposeful.
My own stride began to accelerate and before she had gained even a hundred metres on me my pace was outstripping the Atlas as I keyed my vox in to the external speakers.
"To the cowards, malefactors, and traitors that have betrayed their own people and forced them to rise against you. To the sub-human theocrats who choose to build their homes upon the backs of the faithful enslaved. To the beasts and dogs who continue to serve such evil little maggots. Hear me." The warhorns blared as the external speakers blared my words loudly enough to be heard across an entire battlefield.
"I am Kane Giordino, Warden and the Knight Templar." Sporadic fire began to raise from infantry units manning the barricades as they prayed for someone to arrive and save them. "I am here, at the behest of your people, to bring judgement upon you. Under the eyes of those innocents you have strung up upon crosses I bring fire. I bring flame. I bring death."
Heavy Stubber fire ripped into the barricade. The Reaper Chainswords motors ran to full power and the screaming sound of it at a hundred decibels sent half the men cowering behind barricades into full flight, their legs pumping in terror as the weapon swung in a lateral arc. The Battle cannon fired a moment later catching a Vedette that rounded the corner, the shell blasting it apart in a spray of scything debris and shrapnel. The street devolved into a hellscape of slaughter as I laid about me at everything the machine spirit flagged as armed.
"I come for you as judgment made manifest! Upon the pale horse I ride to claim the recalcitrant souls of the vile beasts of Mandalas!" A backhanded swipe with the Reaper Chainsword cleaved a Bulldog in two as a Locust and Vindicator rounded a street corner. They were in poor repair, and left machinegun on the Locust had been 'improvised' with repairs. By which a poor bastard was sitting in a makeshift cupola with a crew-served machinegun. That was, unfortunately for the Locust, when Behemoth's Atlas caught up with my rampage and an AC20 shell wiped the face off the Locust as laser and SRM fire plunged into the Vindicator.
The infantry fled before the tirade as my words flowed like litanies of hate and judgement. One fell, wetting himself in terror, mercifully ended by a vindictive stamp of my right foot. The Vindicator backpedalled fighting to run from the engagement, instead finding itself caught between the Atlas and my Knight. Behemoth swung, smashing the Vindicator in the torso, tearing its PPC arm off, the smaller mech falling backwards in time to receive my Chainsword through the torso. Combat froze there for a moment, the infantry watching as the two monsters stood over the Vindicator, impaled on the Chainsword. The hatch on the top of its head popped open and a man began climbing out.
Sunlight poured in as I stood up the hatch of the knight opening as the Throne Mechanicum raised me up to see over the lip.
"I surren..." The mechwarrior said turning in time to see my pistol come up and the muzzle flash to be the last thing he witnessed. His head detonating as the bolt round found his skull.
The spell was broken, the infantry resumed their unchecked flight as the cockpit closed once more and I revved the blade and tore it from the impaled mech, showering the thoroughfare in shredded mech parts. "COME CLOSER SO I CAN KILL YOU PROPERLY!" I roared, the speakers blaring the rage at a volume deafening to anyone within a hundred metres of the Knight Templar. The heavy stubbers resumed their chattering as I fired after the fleeing infantrymen.
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I remembered little else of the battle within the city, the red veil descending as the machine spirits primal instincts rose to guide my intellect. Behemoth looked at me with no little bit of awe as we stood in the bunker with several of the Rebel leaders. Markham was next to me but the rest of our people were guarding this meeting.
The Rebels looked at me with equal parts awe and terror. And I couldn't blame them, though I remembered little of the battle after executing the Vindicators pilot, I had seen the battlerom footage taken by Behemoth, and while it didn't capture every moment with anything like perfect clarity it had shown that I descended on the battlefield like a whirling dervish of destruction, spouting litanies, canticles of hatred, vows of grisly death and most troubling, animalistic baying for blood occasionally.
And the sights were no less pleasant, the brutality of my assault was utterly chilling. Where infantry moved my chainsword lashed and stubbers chattered their murder to a terrified audience, vehicles that crossed my path were either torn apart or blasted to scrap by the battle cannon. The Icarus autocannons were opportunistic killers, twice killing hovercraft that attempted to move into my rear arc and get long ranged shots.
Numerous times Behemoth had difficulty even maintaining contact with me as I sprinted off to another hotspot.
A nudge from her shoulder in the ribs brought me out of my reverie.
"The Knight Templar has become something of a symbol to the people," The rebel leader said as he rested behind a holographic map, "but the government isn't defeated yet. This will only galvanise their more fanatical members. They're already speaking about an unholy demon mech..."
I snorted out loud.
"Hey don't look at me, I didn't say it... but let's be fair, you rampaged through the city cutting them down like death himself lent you a scythe all the while shouting admonishments and I think some of what you were saying was in latin..." The Rebel chuckled, "I can understand the fear, seeing the footage my people brought me, seeing the Knight Templar in person... it took me a minute to remember how to breathe."
Markham shook his head. "We understand the delicacy of the situation, but let's be less delicate for a moment. We've pushed them from the city, but the job still isn't done. You hired for a fairly prolonged campaign, and whoever is bankrolling you was putting up a fair amount of bank for it. But I doubt your benefactor's reserves of cash are infinite, so you're basically losing money having this chat face to face," Markham said annoyed, "I don't like being caught in what feels like a religious war, so if you can just give us a target, we can be on our way to stomping their faces in."
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to meet you, I know you're here for coin, but it means more than that to us... you saw what they were doing, crucifying people. But you're right of course." The passiveness of the man was surprising, a scholar turned warrior perhaps? "Let's discuss strategy