With the majority of the Fox Hounds' Mechs badly damaged during their campaign behind enemy lines, only three Mechs were assigned to
participate in combat operations during the raid. The Operational Lance
consisted of: A Raven piloted by Scarlett, Vik in his Valkyrie and
Ranger piloting the Assassin. The artillery park was commanded by Domino
in her Panther. Her command included the entire rear-echelon group: the
captured Thumper artillery piece, three infantry platoons, the techs
and the remaining AFV's, The remaining pilots, operating the badly
damaged Clint, Firestarter and both Javelins, formed a relay chain for
the purposes of transmitting laser coded messages from Lishka's Raven back to
the Thumper unit.
Operating within the Raven's ECM envelope, the operational lance
approached the base under cover of the Mangrove swamps, taking up an
over-watch position atop a hill. From here, they could call down
artillery fire on the fuel tanks of the DCMS Forward Operating Base.
Unphased by the presence of a strong garrison augmented by Warlord's
Samsenov and Yoshi with their Assault Lance, the Fox Hounds began
calling down artillery. Ranger directed the fire, beaming coordinates
back to Lishka via tight beam Laser. She in turn passed these
coordinates back to the Thumper via the laser relay.
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| Replica of the Bounty Hunter's Marauder |
However, no sooner had the first salvo been called in than a 75 ton Mech
was detected powering up only 180 metres from the Fox Hounds position.
Transmitting orders via laser for the relay team to fall back to the
artillery position, the operational lance led the Bounty Hunter's Marauder away from the remainder of the company. The Operational Lance
performed well in a long retorgrade engagement in which the Bounty Hunters
Marauder would be joined by a Jenner, a Spider and a Dragon. Skilled evasive manouvres through the Mangrove Swamps
allowed the Fox Hound mechs to remain operational despite having begun
the mission lightly damaged. While Ranger dueled with a Jenner and Vik
harassed the Bounty Hunter with rear attacks, the enemy Mechs
concentrated on bringing down the Raven.
Vike's
single-handed and down-right heroic assault on the Marauder combined
with re-directed artillery failed to destroy the Bounty Hunter's
Marauder and resulted in the near dismemberment of his Mech. Vike finally broke off his attack only when his LRM ammo bins were empty and his right torso destroyed by PPC fire, taking his medium laser (his last weapon) with it Even so, it's likely he would have continued to fight with melee attacks had he not been ordered to withdraw by Scarlett. She dropped her ECM to broadcast a coded message instructing
the rest of the Fox Hounds to retreat back to Davion lines. She herself
would concentrate on drawing the DCMS forces away from the Hounds in a
long chase. Thus far, the majority of attacks had been directed against her and her night irreplaceable "stealth mech".
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| Recovered Battle-Rom of Scarlett''s Raven directing artillery fire |
Mere moments later, the "Bounty Hunter's" mech exploded, destroyed by a
single salvo from yet another green-painted Marauder!. A broad-cast in
the clear announced that the real Bounty Hunter had arrived on the field
-and that he didn't appreciate cheap imitations. Hastily positioning herself (and
her Mech's recording equipment) to best effect, Lishka quickly
negotiated a new contract with the Bounty Hunter. Shortly thereafter,
the Combine forces were driven from the field in an impressive display
of gunnery skills from the Marauder pilot. While the Assassin and the
Valkyrie were able to leave the field under their own power, Lishka's
Raven was loaded aboard the Bounty Hunter's drop-ship for evacuation. A
cock-pit hit had destroyed the Mechs controls in the last seconds of the
pursuit, forcing it's pilot to eject, Battle ROM in hand, from her
Mech.
The destruction of the DCMS Fuel Supply and the successful extraction of
all remaining Fox Hounds and attached AFFS assets to Davion Lines
sealed the file on Operation Siegfried.
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