Chapter 32

Blackstone was a world of three-hundred-fifty-thousand people. A hilly world, not quite mountainous outside of one area where the Darnin Hills and the Tyrnan Highlands met just to the northeast of the Planetary Capital of Onyx City. Much of the world's wealth came from various minerals mined from the Gritstone and Basalt hills and bluffs that dotted much of the main continent. What wasn't mining was some level of basic manufacturing, textiles, glue, and leather goods from the various flocks of Blackstone Sheep roving about the hills, metal ingots, and ballistic munitions. There were relatively few freshwater lakes or rivers, a water shortage that was ameliorated thanks to the industrial harvesting of ice from the polar ice caps.

It was the first stop of Task Force Red Bull under my direct command. Seven Regiments and two Aerospace Flotillas descended on the Blackstone System, ready to fight. This attack was being launched at the same time as the assault on Placida by Task Force White Field, comprised of Six Regiments and one Aerospace Flotilla under the command of General Jorgensen. The idea was to pre-empt any attack on the Grand Duchy by the Oberon Confederation with an invasion of our own and hopefully, catch the Oberon Confederation off guard. Judging from the state of the in-system defenses, that had definitely happened.

Instead of a proper Aerospace Flotilla to defend the system, they had two Achilles-class Dropships and a single Vengeance-class fighter carrier, plus its complement of forty Aerospace Fighters. Granted the fighters were heavier than normal for the Coreward Periphery, being Draconis Combine Shilone-class Medium Fighters. The pilots were better too, as I watched the first Gauss Rifle shots from our Fleet's Vulcan Heavy Fighters go out. Some of the Shilones seemed to have anticipated the shots from extreme range because they managed to dodge some of the Gauss Rifle fire. Shilones janked to the side, pulled up, or dove down, finely honed reflexes of veteran pilots sparing them from destruction.

As both sides closed further, more Gauss Rifle Fire was exchanged, though this time, enemy LRM Fire retorted back. As the enemy began to whittle down our own fighters some, I couldn't help but admire their skill. Commodore Clarke, though, seemed perturbed by what the enemy pilots were showing, frowning from the Command Chair aboard the Pentagon Two-class Assault Dropship, Tyrfing. She clearly wasn't pleased, even though we had six and a half times the Enemy's number of Aerospace Fighters, even though we had only deployed a bit over two and a half times their numbers. I couldn't blame her, as I felt the same way. Nobody wanted to win this on attrition, after all.

"We've become predictable. It appears that our standard tactics are no longer the war-winners they once were." Spoke up Commodore Clarke.

"They must have trained for a workaround. Those LRM Launchers don't normally have that range. I wonder, can we scan their dropships for any signals going to and from them to their Aerospace Fighters?" I questioned.

"You think they've slaved their targeting computers to the sensors on the Dropships?" Queried Commodore Clarke.

"Dropship sensors are more powerful by necessity. It would give them the extra range to hit back." I shrugged.

"That would leave them confused and sensor blind if the Dropship went down. It's not normally done." Pointed out Commodore Clarke.

"His Grace is right. I just had my Sensor Officer scan the Enemy Dropships. There's a steady amount of signals beaming from all three dropships to the Aerospace Fighters." Came the voice of Commodore Juliusz Mickiewicz of Third Flotilla over the Comms.

"All three? I suppose the redundancy helps." I mused.

"Plus the Shilones and the skilled, veteran, pilots mean the Dragon's hand is in this." Mused Commodore Clarke.

"Agreed. Still, we have a firepower and numbers advantage. If we can bring the Dropships to battle, we should be able to win this without further losses. They've skirted the edge of the engagement zone so far. I can detach some ships to hit them?" Offered Commodore Mickiewicz.

"Do it. Commodore Clarke, can we support our fighters?" I questioned.

"We can. If nothing else, we can break up the enemy formations, even if they can dodge." Answered Commodore Clarke.

"Then do so. I want this wrapped up as soon as practical." I ordered. As the Flotillas hastened to obey, I couldn't help but wonder just what other surprises the Dragon and his trainers had in store for us.

As the remainder of the battle unfolded, our losses began to mount. By the time we had swept the enemy from space, we had lost twenty-seven out of one-hundred-four deployed fighters, roughly twenty-six percent of the two wings deployed. We had also lost a pair of Achilles Two-class Assault Dropships to well-coordinated bracketing fire from the Enemy Achilles-class Dropships as they protected the Vengeance-class Fighter Carrier. Though we didn't know it yet, it would prove a sign of things to come in this campaign.

Search and rescue operations lasted for a full hour. Most of the people we recovered wound up being our own pilots who had bailed out, or spacers from the crippled Achilles Two-class Assault Dropships. We did manage to pick up a number of ejected enemy pilots, along with a few life pods of enemy spacers. Most were locals from the Blackstone Guards, but some were Combine Personnel assigned to the Periphery as a condition of Hendrik Grimm's fealty to the Dragon. Questioning the Combine prisoners proved futile, but the Blackstone Guards proved more amenable to talking once it became apparent that lenient treatment was on offer.

Apparently, there was another Regiment waiting for us down on the planet. The Blackstone Guards Second Regiment hadn't gone with the first to Oberon Six in preparation for their upcoming invasion. Apparently, Hendrik Grimm was only five days away from launching his own assault on Zertarum to try and split the Grand Duchy in two and isolate New Ålborg. Minister Simowitz had mentioned that confidence was high in an invasion soon, but I hadn't realized how close we'd been cutting it with the timing. Thankfully, I'd subscribed to the old maxim in this case. When in doubt, attack. It had given me a bit of an opportunity.

Further interrogation revealed that of the fifteen regiments that Hendrik Grimm had at his disposal, only twelve were on Oberon right now. One was here, one was on Ferris, and one was holding down recently-conquered Santander's World. Everywhere else was deemed safe enough or loyal enough that they only had militia and police units there to defend or keep the peace.

As it was, we had roughly a two-week window before we could expect a counterattack, owing to the fourteen-day time lag between Oberon Six and either of the stable jump points. And that was if Hendrik Grimm launched what he'd gathered right away instead of waiting for everything to be ready in five days as planned. It was far more likely that he'd hold his units back until he had a strategic plan rather than feed them into a counterattack ad-hoc like that. It was possible that a quick enough attack could allow us to seize Blackstone and Placida before moving on Oberon Six before Hendrik Grimm even began his counterattack. Mind you, the fighting on Oberon Six would be hellacious, as we'd be facing twelve regiments, at least half of which would be Combine Veterans posing as advisors and volunteers.

As that was the case, I was determined to make the most of it. I wanted Blackstone Secured and us to be ready by the time the enemy arrived. After three hours of search, rescue, and interrogations, I sent a message via K-class Transmitter to General Jorgensen and Task Force White Field on Placida detailing the information and my updated plans for the assault on Oberon Six, along with orders to secure Placida as swiftly as possible and to send me a message via K-class Transmitter once he had done so. That way, we could coordinate the upcoming attack, since it was likely to be the hardest fighting we had faced so far. Once that was done, I made my way over to my mech and prepared for landing on Blackstone with the Grand Ducal Guards.

We would commence landings and surface operations three hours later. There wasn't much else we could do for search and rescue at that point, after all, and speed was of the essence for our attack. We would wind up landing west of the town of Copperfield in the Darnin Hills and almost immediately begin coming under fire. The Second Blackstone Guards Regiment had apparently been waiting for us along with the majority of the Planetary Militia. As I stepped out of the dropship in my Crimson Highlander, I wound up taking an autocannon slug to the right shoulder from an Atlas that badly damaged the armor plating there before I avoided the follow-on burst with a jump-jet assisted leap, allowing my Command Lance to stave off the attempt to flank me by a trio of Dragon Heavy Mechs while I attacked the Atlas.

As I soared through the air, I responded by letting loose with my Gauss Rifle and Ultra Autocannon, targeting that same Atlas. My concentrated fire splintered off armor plating and I landed on the Atlas, knocking it down in a textbook Highlander Burial. It toppled to the ground before punching me away with a strike of its left fist, shattering off the armor plate it had damaged previously and sending my Highlander stumbling back. I righted myself and just barely managed to turn in time to avoid the Atlas' right arm-mounted medium laser in my damaged shoulder. Instead, the beam scored into the armor plating on the front of my torso.

I lifted off with my jump jets, firing my Ultra Autocannon back at the Atlas as it tried to lever itself back upright. Armor-piercing rounds smashed through the weakened armor and riddled the cockpit, killing the pilot inside as I got my first kill of the campaign so far. I ducked back behind the advancing line of Rampages that had just stepped off the dropships, silently cursing myself for wanting to be part of the first wave off the dropships. I stuck to long-range support for the rest of the battle. My Gauss Rifle claimed a kill on a Dragon and I took two Locusts trying to edge around the battle to our left flank with my Ultra Autocannon, but as the rest of Second Regiment landed, alongside the Mech Battalion of Third Regiment, the enemy began to pull back.

We lost a pair of Dragoons, five combat vehicles of varying types, and two rampages destroyed or damaged badly enough to require repairs in the automated mechbays of our Flotillas. Fortunately, my Highlander just required the replacement of a couple of the armor plates, which could be done in a few hours. Still, that was thirteen percent of First Regiment's Mechs and Combat Vehicles destroyed or damaged enough to require dedicated repair time just to take the landing zone.

As we pushed toward Copperfield some six hours later, I could only hope that wouldn't be indicative of the rest of the campaign. . .

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AN: The next chapter is already up on my Patreon, so check the link in the threadmarked post if you guys feel like throwing me a couple bucks to get chapters in advance. Everyone who does is super appreciated and I can't thank my patrons enough.

So yeah, turns out, the Oberon Confederation is gonna be a hard nut to crack. Even with various advantages in tech, numbers, and timing, the Combine Advisors that were sent pretty much figured that the place where the Lyrans had gotten their newest Aerospace Fighters and Combat Vehicles from likely had a technical edge. They trained specifically to fight an opponent who could outrange and outgun them.

If you think it's bad now, wait until the fighting reaches Oberon Six. That's going to be a real fight, something that'll make everyone take notice of the Periphery. Fortunately for Jozef, he's been planning to fight the Clans eventually, so he should be able to come out the victor here. The question is ultimately going to be one of cost. After all, what good is becoming the undisputed master of the Coreward Periphery if you destroy your forces doing so?

At any rate, the next chapter will be the push on Copperfield.

Stay tuned. . .