I went for a very different story, a sheriff on Claybrooke between the Andurien crisis and the deployment of Kristen Marik's Krushers to hold the planet.
A large ditch by railroad tracks in the middle of a sea of grass.
Claybrooke
FWL frontier, bordering the Capellans and Canopians
Late July 3045
Nothing about this world is easy. The days are long, years longer; summers are hell, yet every year hell freezes over and we all crave hell's heat. The worst part is the smell of cow crap that permeates everything. But, those cows are the biggest cash crop on the planet, so we can only complain so much. If the politicians in Sheridan would get over themselves maybe we could start mining our two moons and start growing our economy. Leave it to a bunch of cowboy politicians to stick to their guns and be unable to figure out some kind of deal. Hard to really blame them though, a decade ago their job was to stymie the FWL appointed "governor (dictator), which they did exceptionally well. You can't really blame a dog for only knowing one trick, they only know what you teach them.
Still, listening to them crow about their roles in the Army of the Resistance is just downright irritating. When we were fighting the Andurien occupation force, most of them did exactly what they do best: be rich and do nothing. We did all the work and they take all the glory. Now they make even more money selling our "frontier" goods from the brave "folk" who didn't even need FWL to help throw off the Andurien yolk. Does any of that extra money get passed along to the hard working people of Claybrooke? No, of course not. Ok, I kinda like that last part. I don't mind if they brag about us not needing the League. Just so long as they don't provoke them into sending an "governing" force, or worse: the 8th Orloff Genadiers who will flatten a town to kill some pirates.
"Uh... sir, I think I see something coming. About eh... 1,000m out... 280 degrees west by north west." His scout's report snapped Jim Bishop out of the political ramblings in his head. "Rodriguez, bring your men to the west embankment of the ditch! Spencer! Jackson! Turn your dadgum vehicles on!"
Their forces were light by most battle standards, but that was probably Jim's fault. He was a sheriff with a big mouth and a disdain for politicians (who incidentally, controlled the budget for his militia-esque police force.) Consequently, when Jim petitioned for a battlemech to help guard the trainlines, he was expecting a Spider or a Firestarter with a few quick vehicles. If he was lucky, maybe he would get an Assasin. Needless to say, speaking your mind to your bosses has draw backs: they gave him an Urbanmech decorated like a police car and two Hover APCs. Literally, the slowest mech in their price range with two vehicles that only had machine guns. And he was expected to cover miles of open plains.
Making the best with what he was given, Bishop retrofitted his Urbie to have a bit more "reach" on the open plains and trained his men in the art of the ambush. They were actually remarkably successful. In fact, rumors where that he could smell bandits coming from miles away (even through the odor of cow dung.) He knew where they were going to be, and even if they could run away that dang Urbie would track them. Thus the mech garnered the nickname "K-9." Bishop liked it, the reputation made his job easier.
But this summer had seen a sharp uptick in train robberies. Rumors were that these bandits were organized. They were certainly efficient, as evidenced by the lack of witnesses thus far. Jim was a bit disconcerted that he had not found them until now. How had they hidden so well? His men were well trained to avoid killing the bandits if possible, better to arrest them and make an example of them. But this group seemed more efficient than those he had tracked before. Could his posse stand up to these ghost-like bandits? They didn't have much of an option. He knew that if he couldn't stop these bandit raids, the chances were high that a contingent of the 8th Orloff Grenadiers might get redeployed here. He didn't want to deal with the civilian death toll they would assuredly leave in their wake.
Sergeant Spencer shattered Bishop's train of thought "sir, I don't have any contacts on my radar." They had upgraded the sensors in Spencer's APC, so they should have radar contact by now. "Alberts, you still have visual?" Bishop barked at his forward scout. "Roger, sir!" the scout answered, "700m out, it looks like two mechs... kinda triangly" "Power down!" Bishop yelled.
He had not seen a Raven, but he did not know of any other triangle shaped mechs carrying an ecm suite. "Who has covert battlemechs working on Claybrooke?" he thought to himself. The sheriff began barking out orders, "Alberts, when the mechs get within 150 meters of us, holler! Spencer, Jackson stay powered down until the fighting starts, then fan out! Rodriguez, get the SRMs up front and fire on Alberts' signal!" He was not confident they could win this, but he was gambling that these mechs were not supposed to engage the enemy.
The waiting was hard, but his men knew what they were doing. When Alberts gave the signal, all hell broke loose. The SRMs from the infantry legged one of the Ravens. Jim Bishop peaked his K-9 over lip of the ditch and began ripping into the its side torso. The remaining mech began running north, but then turned and opened fire on his comrade. The second Raven's alpha was enough to destroy his crippled ally, likely destroying any evidence they could have gained about who sent these mechs. As the second Raven turned to flee, sheriff Bishop bellowed, "do not pursue!"
Given the circumstances, the battle went well: only two died and four wounded while they had brought down a state-of-the-art battlemech. But, Jim Bishop knew that news about this encounter could be disastrous. It could provoke the League to send a new "governor" or worse they could send the 8th in to clean things up. "Ladies, gents" Bishop began "salvage what you can from that mech and then destroy the rest before the train arrives. We will not mention this to anybody. Am I clear?" A chorus of "yes sir!" answered him. "We don't need the League to get involved and muck everything up! We can take care of ourselves! Now hurry up, that train is only fifty minutes out!
Edited by Cato Zilks, 10 March 2017 - 03:19 PM.
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