Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Eight: The Liberation of Haynesville
Haynesville, July 20th, 3035
"You sure you want to keep that Chainsaw mounted on your new Black Knight?" Dan asked Exciter as he limped around the hastily repaired militia vehicles and mechs.
"I'm sure," the Lyran nobleman smiled. "It served me well, and it'd be a shame to leave such a potentially useful weapon behind. Besides, dropping the damaged Large laser freed up enough weight for it to be feasible, and it gave me a better cooling loop."
"We're still bringing the industrialmechs along," Dan reminded Exciter. "They're a part of our militia forces now."
"Good, because that Lumberjack would scare off an Atlas at close range," Exciter grinned. "It's a short-range beast!"
"Good thing too, otherwise the tunnel situation could have ended differently," Dan replied as he limped back over to the new tank he was using as an HQ. "I'll be coordinating our offensive from our remaining Hunter light support tank."
"You sure you don't want to ride in the Jump seat of my Black Knight?" Exciter asked. "It's built to coordinate a whole company after all."
"I don't ride in or use 'mechs if at all possible," Dan stated firmly. "I'll stick to my tanks and combat vehicles for now."
"It's your loss," Exciter shrugged before he began to climb up into the heavy mech. "Patch things through to me if we run into any issues though."
"Wilco," Dan replied as he began to climb into the Hunter. "Let's move out, it's time we kick these bastards off of our world."
"Oorah!" The militia responded enthusiastically.
"Where are the enemy mechs?" Exciter asked as he maneuvered his Black Knightthrough the main city's streets. "LT, I don't have any enemies on my scopes."
"Our VTOL isn't seeing anything either," Dan replied as he coordinated the slightly overstrength company. "It looks like there's a big crowd over near the Governor's mansion though."
"Heading that way," Exciter responded as Sergeant Smith's Orion and the rest of the mechs followed him down the roadway.
"Damn!" Exciter said as he looked at the light poles leading up to the mansion. "I don't think we're going to have to worry about the invaders anymore."
"Why? What do you see?" Dan asked as his Hunter began to move through the city at a decent pace.
"They've caught and hung all of the invaders that they could catch," Exciter replied. "They've strung them up on the light poles and it looks like they have the dropship crews too."
"I see some of the bodies now," Dan replied. "Let me do the talking, I'd hate for things to go south for us."
The massive crowd of people that were gathered in front of the Governor's mansion all collectively turned to look at the Hunter and the eight mechs that were painted in the closest thing they still had to militia parade colors.
Lieutenant Dan popped the seal on the tank and poked his head out cautiously, not wanting to startle the civilian populace. But he need not have worried, as soon as he appeared out of the support tank the crowd started clapping and cheering, showing that they knew who the remaining militia was.
"Lieutenant Dan Rawley?" What appeared to be the leader of the mob asked as he stepped out of the crowd.
"Yessir, that's me," Dan replied as he leaned against the tank to give his burnt legs a chance to rest. "I've got some good men and women still with me."
"What you and your people did was nothing short of a miracle!" The leader said with tears streaming down his face. "They didn't expect the Wolf's Dragoons to lose, and when they did…"
"They panicked," Dan replied. "Allowing you and the city to get rid of them."
"Scum!" The leader spat on the ground. "They thought that just because we used to be a part of the Outworlds Alliance that we would roll over! We may not like war, but we are always prepared to defend our homes and family."
"That's good news, but I hope that you managed to capture everything that they brought with them intact, we may need it," Dan replied. "But we can worry about that in a little bit, can I see the office of the enemy commanding officer? It may have important information on who we are dealing with."
"Sure, we've got to start cleanup anyway," the mob leader replied. "And let the militia know that we're providing the food tonight."
"I'll get right on that," Dan replied as he climbed back into the Hunter. "I've still got a job to do after all."
Class B HPG station, Haynesville, July 29th, 3035
"Was that the last of them?" The local Comstar Precentor asked as the militia cleared out the rest of the WoB forces that had prevented the HPG from sending out any transmissions.
"Yes Precentor, that was the last of them," Exciter replied as he slung his rifle back onto his back and lit up a cigar. "We need to know how soon the HPG can send a transmission back to New Avalon."
"Give me and my staff twenty-four hours," the precentor replied. "And we'll be waiving any potential charges."
"That's good to hear," Adam Steiner said as he puffed on his cigar. "We'll be back tomorrow."
"It could take a week for return transmission to be received," the Precentor cautioned. "But we'll do our best to expedite things."
"Like I said," Adam Steiner chuckled. "We'll be back tomorrow."
The young Lyran simply continued smoking his cigar in peace for a little while. Enjoying the lack of gunfire and stress that came with having been underneath the stress of fighting for the last few months.
"Don't rest for too long," Sergeant Smith cautioned as he entered the courtyard. "We've still got repairs to finish on our salvage and new people to train up."
"The work is never done," Adam chuckled. "Let's get back to it then, those mechs won't fix themselves."
Author's note: The Sharpshooter page has been updated with the factories from the Sack of Luthien and the Sack of Samarkand. I'm also about to be putting some designs that Achernar had been working on bringing back in the BOTH 'verse.