[Abe Sargent]

October 22 – A large force is moving towards Kressly. The companies have been sent away, so it looks like we have a battalion of mechs moving in. They may be screwed. Shadow Company is currently patrolling Kressly. In addition to having a mech company constantly on patrol, Kressly has a garrison we maintain – its Tank Second Battalion. They start to warm up while Shadow moves into the gap.

Meanwhile, Ted tells Defender Company, patrolling HQ, to head out and help with Cinq and Butler warming up to guard HQ along with our garrison. He also puts out a call to all 3rd and 4th year students to move to their assigned mech. In an emergency, such as a raid, we press our cadets into service. This is done all over the IS, such as Sun Zhang Cadres, NAIS Cadres, and more. We actually rotate our cadets into mechs for patrols and such when we are light on companies on planet but we have four on planet.

Arrow Company is warming up for use as well. In a few minutes, we’ll have air support.

Shadow Company snipes at the incoming units, but then is forced to back away under the onslaught. They aren’t coming in as lances or companies, but just one big mass of mechs. Shadow is joined by Rank Second Battalion and they set up a defense.

As the enemy rolls in, long range weapons fire can be heard. PPCs and ER Large Lasers destroy a few tanks, but they keep their fire away from the elite Shadow Company pilots with their very good mechs. A Shrek PPC Carrier sheers off the head of an Apollo.

In a minute, a few vehicles are destroyed or running out of ammo, and they push in. Meanwhile, in comes Arrow Company’s first six fighters ,and they strafe the rear of their unit and hit seven mechs, destroying one and legging another. One of their Griffins ignites and explodes.

Shadow’s Elementals have destroyed a Locust, and our Lancelot has lost its LA. Col. Humphries is about another minute away, but by then, they will have pushed too much in and probably broken us. Braham orders a retreat and Arrow covers with fire on the ground.

Suddenly, 5 fighters of the enemy dart in and start firing at Arrow Company, and now Arrow has to focus on them. In a split - second , one of Arrow’s Corsairs is destroyed. Meanwhile, a few more tanks have fallen. An SRM Carrier waiting until they closed has destroyed the gyro of an enemy Crusader and it falls. PPC fire engulfs their Scorpion and its RT is destroyed, with a leg on the ground. They keep pushing as one big mass ,and we’ve lost our cover fire for the retreat. Did they keep their fighters in reserve until we retreated?

In fly some additional assets Ted sent. 2 Warrior VTOLs and a few Ferrets are flying in and nipping about. A Ferret is taken out. They destroy the LT of our PXH and it shuts down due to its XL Engine. The Talon is legged and loses a left arm. We eject it. They keep coming. Two more of their mechs fall to explosions and we destroy the CT of a Goliath but it’s not enough.

Half of our tanks are destroyed, and some, like the LRM Carriers are out of ammo and retreated. As Defender Company arrives, we get an invigoration of energy. Men, mechs, and metal have arrived. We stop falling back. After another minute, we are holding our ground on a ridge. Then Arrow Company has won the air and we have air support and just like that, we move to go on the offensive. Three more tanks are gone, and the Lancelot loses it s other arm and pulls back. It doesn’t matter we have this.

Within ten minutes, they turn to flee before more units arrive to support us. The Guardians have arrived, joined by VTOLS, fighters, mechs, infantry and vehicles. Our combined forces wins the day, and they retreat to the radius around a powerful Overlord. Ted makes a decision. That is big enough for 36 mechs and 6 fighters – exactly what we saw. He sends out Cinq and Butler, and ordered the cadets in Mechs and our garrison assembled. He heads out in his Stalker, leaving behind 24 mechs in the garrison plus the cadets in another 16 machines.

We want that Overlord.

Every single military unit that we can get out there, we do. Savannah Masters come in. Infantry is on transports and heading over.

Their remaining mechs are starting to load up, while others are on guard. They clearly don’t expect us to move in under the DropShip’s radius and attack. The combination of the DropShip’s weapons and their own could turn the tide of battle again.

In order to get them o slow down their debarkation, Izumo orders Arrow to strafe the opening. We lose two fighters but the rest manage to push them back. Cinq and Butler are almost here.

We push in and start exchanging fire with the mechs. Izumo orders everybody to stay in a certain arc, so it can only train some weapons on us. While Shadow and Defender force them to keep mechs out, Cinq and Butler buy the extra time needed to arrive. Meanwhile, our fighters arrive for another pass, and a Guardian plus another fighter are destroyed.

The other two companies arrives and push in very fast. He orders everybody to charge in to close combat. The Savannah Masters, VTOLs and infantry transports nip in and shoot and nip back out.

The Overlord has to unload the mechs that already loaded in order to have a chance, and it’s just too much.

We destroy the right side of the Overlord, and then overwhelm and destroy the battalion of mechs.