Heavy Gear

Mid-Morning 9th Spring

"Now here this B company are to report to Lieutenant Machovers office immediately". Squad hurried along with everyonce else in B company to see what was up. Inside Captain Latassa and the Lieutanant were pouring over maps, checking weather reports and generaly looking like something big was happening.

The other squad's in B campany are Ranger Leslie Kolmie Strike Squad and Ranger Porter Gambarovki's Fire Support Squad. Also present was the Section NCO Emily Nordsiek, the comms guy Malcolm Nanik, Chaplin Christopher Ehmen and Private Pacs.

After a few tense minutes Sergeant Nordsiek called for attention. Those assembled were told that a Landship cruiser heading from Zagazig to Peace River via Massada had foundered in a storm some 200 klicks away. With two hundred wealthy passengers on board it would be a prime target for Rover gangs. Everyone was to assemble on the parade ground and getting ready to escort engineers and parts to the Landship.

The Squad ran to the barracks to pick up their survival bags then headed for their Gears. The Gears had been in for maintanence the last few days so techs were hurriedly tightening up bolts and finishing jobs last minute. Wittmann's Gear now sported a 71mm Rocket Pack on its right shoulder, to compliment the one on its left shoulder. It had been salvaged after the battle at Carver's Landing, [Report 01], from a Paxton Arm's Gear. he had also secured himself a Vibroknife a piece of standard kit that unusually was not part of default Tiger equipment.

The Company's three squads and assorted other personnel set up on the parade ground. The engineers and equipment were being transported in two Badger class APC's. Then on cue from the Lieutenant set out for the Landship. A large number of Northern Gears speeding through the dessert to the sound of a military march is enough to make any Solider feel proud. However after that wore off the trip became pretty boring. As they headed into the storm the Pilot's had to rely solely on sensors for information.

Eventually the Landship start to come into sensor range. Wittmann's Squad was ordered to take point. Him in turn sent Mouse up ahead. She reported back that there were several smaller vechicles surrounding the Landship. Knowing the Rover's would most likely scatter at the approach of a Gear Company the Gears moved straight in. The Landship was indeed surrounded by Rover's in Jeeps. They immediately dashed off, a few jeeps were left next to the main entrance to the ship indicating that several Rover's still remained in the ship.

The Gears pulled up next to the Entrance. Ranger Gambarovki's squad was ordered to establish a perimetre whil the other squads were to dismount. Once out of their Gears they were given Flak Vests, Infantry Helmets and the choice of Auto-Shotguns or Sub-Machine Guns. Wittmann's squad was to escort the Engineers to Engineering while Ranger Kolmie's Squad was to secure the upper decks. The Gangway was reached by climbing up 10 metres of rope left behind by the Rovers. Klun managed to fall off twice, once breaking his fall on a engineer. Eventual Wittmann and Juno hauled him up.

Once in the ship the squad secured the Reception area and waited for the engineers to board. Maps of the passengers desks were taken from reception. Eventually the nearest stairs was taken down, hoping it would eventually lead to engineering. After carefully descending one floor the sqaud entered another open area. Sounds could be heard coming from a large room that signs indicated was the restaurant. Wittmann sent Juno in to investigate. Creeping along a twisting corridor past a bar Juno came into view of the restaurant. It was full of seated passengers and six Rovers. Two of the Rovers were going around with sacks taking the walets and jewelery of the passangers.

Wittmann reported this back to the Lieutenant, wondering whether to deal with the Rover's or to continue on to Engineering. The Lieutenant being new to the job took awhile to decide but eventually ordered them to rescue the passengers, but to try not to kill anybody.

Now while highly skilled Gear Pilots the Squad had little experience of infantry combat. Wittmann therefore wanted to make sure that any firefight would not take place around passangers. Missing a Rover with an Automatic Shotgun in a crowded Restaurant could have unfortate consequences for civilians. Therefore he decided to wait for the Rovers to finish and come out. He sent Juno into the Kitchens so that when the Rovers left the restaurant he could follow them blocking any retreating and reducing the possibility of a hostage situation. Klun, Thex and Mouse were to hide behind the bar in the corridor leading from the restaurant to rest of the ship. Wittmann put himself at the end of that corridor to stop the Rovers running past the bar and gaining access to the rest of the ship. The engineers were locked in a bedroom for their own safety.

The squad settled in to there ambush positions. Juno reported that a bloodied cook was lying unconsicous/dead in the kitchen. The squad waited. Thex got bored and started poking around the bar. He managed to knock over a fork which tumbled into a sink full of glasses, KLATTTER TINKLE. The Rovers in the restuarant went deadly quite. Soon footsteps started to approach the bar. Two Rovers had been sent out to investigate the sound. As the reached the bar they started to lean over it. Wittmann further up the corridor slammed a door to distract them. The Rovers headed for the new sound. Then the three behind the bar jumped up ordering the Rovers to surrender.

One of the Rovers faced with three armed Soldiers with Shotguns started to lower his weapon. The other screamed something about not goiing back to jail and opened up with his automatic weapon. A short Bloody fire fight ensued with 50 something rounds being unleshed in a small area in 6 seconds. At the end both Rovers lay dead. Wittmann ordered the three behind the bar to duck back into cover. He then postioned himself in sight of where the next group of Rovers would come. As they came round the corner he unleashed a wild shot and rolled out of view. Again the Rovers fell into the ambush and ran straight past the bar. The ambushers jumped up and openned fire. Juno joined them circling round through the restaurant. the Rovers didn't stand a chance. They fell in a bloodied heap, only one of them pecariously clinging onto life. Klun had taken a wound to the side but it was not very serious.

Wittmann marched into the restaurant smoking shotgun in hand and informed the passengers that 'Everything is OK now, the Northern Guard are here'. The passengers leaped up in applause and the band recognising the regiment started playing the Blue Angle's Regimental Music. The Squad basked in the glory for a while then informing a staff member to block off access to the blood soaked corridor headed back to the Engineers. Juno also spent a few minutes patching up Klun and the wounded Rover.

With directions from a staff member the sqaud with Engineers in tow soon reached Engineering. The Ships own Engineering staff were lying unconcious, a burn mark similar to that left by a gas grenade was visible on the floor. The Engineers got to work. Wittmann soon started to feel useless so leaving the injured Klun and the pain in the ass Mouse to guard them, headed with the others to search the lower decks.

They started by dropping to the very bottom of the ship. Here they found the cargo bay. It was pretty full but the bay doors were half open. Quick thinking Juno found a cargo manifest in the office and worked out that five cases of Machine Parts were missing. The containers had been loaded in Zagazig by Unizersal Exports and were bound for Pease River. Now Pease River is the largest manufacturer on the Planet so why wouldn't the make their own machine parts? Not terrible suspicious, but why were these the only things missing?

Radioing back to the Lieutenant revealed that the most other Rovers in the ship had been dealt with, However Senior Corporal Arnie Loverdi had taken a serious hit and was touch and go. After sweeping through the other lower decks Wittmann went back to the Engineers for a report. The Ships Computers had been completely wiped. Also security camers footage had been deleted. Apart from that everything was ok. Basically the ship had been sabotaged. Later as the ships engineers woke up they found out that the computers had been wiped by a virus. However the computers are carefully checked every half hour, so someone must have gasses the engineers and then loaded the virus. Seeing as nobody onboard was missing there must have been a traitor on the crew or amoungst the passangers.

Leaving the Engineers to work unguarded the squad returned to the restaurant for food and aclaim. The cook had only been unconcious so the eating was good. Lieutanant Mackovers called Wittmann to tell him that tracks had been found leading form the cargo doors. Cursing himself for blindly asuming that the storm would have removed all traces the squad ran out to Gear up. They then found the tracks and started to follow them. The tracks were growing faint in the storm but not two long later Mouse reported a sensor blip.

It turned out to be a Long Runner Flat bed (truck) carrying a large container moving very slowly through the storm. It appeared to be damaged in some fashion and must have fallen behind. Warning the squad the he wanted the crew alive Wittamann moved in Ordering the truck to pull over. It pathetically attempted to avaoid his approach. Then someone stuck an anti-gear missile out the passenger door and took a shot at him. Wittamann dived out of the way and fired in a single round as a warning. The resulting spary of blood probably meant the end of the pasenger. Wittamann approached and tore off the passenger tore. The driver was inside braced against his door aiming a missile straight at Wittamann's Gear's Head. Somehow the missile failed to arm in time and bounced off. Thex responded by heading round the truck ripping off the drivers door and splatting the driver. So much for someone to question.

The bodies kinda looked like Rovers and the missile launchers were the same make and model as those used by the Rover Leader the Dessert Fox [Report 1]. Wittamann left Thex to guard that truck, with a sever wring ti run at any serious threat. He also confiscated his vibroknife to quell Thex's desire for dueling heroics. Then the rest of the squad followed on the tracks of the other trucks. Unfortunatley the tracks soon disappeared onto rocky round and now amout of direction guessing or active sensor scans revealed anything new.

Returning to the captured truck Juno opened up the container for a quick look. It contained a Jager. Now a Jager is the standard Gear of the south. So what was one doing being shipped from the North to Pease River? Deciding to use Klun's Grizzly to tow the container back to the Landship, the squad ripped off the cockpit and all other unnecessary parts to reduce weight. Once back in the cargo bay Wittamann properly opened up the container. It was a brand new standard Jager. Not even a fancy variant that might have been stolen for research. Conspiracy theories started to float through his mind. One that cropped to mind was the the whole thing was part of a northern PR mission. By building Jagers and secretly shipping them to Rovers it would look like the South was arming the evil Rovers. Thereby making the South look bad. Two many possible options to make up ones mind though.

The Lieutenant now gave the squad an official break. The headed off to partake in the luxury of the ship. This started with dinner, where they were joined by Sister Melissa Noble. She turned out to be the Regiment's Colonel's Bond Twin. She was instrumental in having the Blue Angels stationed at Massada. Wittamann started to watch his language and left the talking to the ex-Chaplin Juno. After food Wittamann experimented with the Jaccuzi and Swimming Pool. Terranova being a water poor world he had never seen these before. Thex watched some Jo-Gear movies and must of the others ate and drank. At this point the Landship was back in working order. All the Gears were loaded on, and it started to float off to Massada. A bit of a party got going in the Restaurant, dampened somewhat by the knowledge that the wounded Corporal would most likely never walk again.

Back in Massada the Jager was shipped back to base and everyone after debriefing, all went to the barracks for some much needed shut eye. Over the next few days the squad was assigned to searching people entering into Massada. More tense, unpopular out of Gear duty. From there they picked up the street sentiment that there being posted at a neutral passifist city was getting more and more unpopular. Rumours of Rovers being brutally gunned down on the Landship were not helping matters. Over the next fortnight Wittmann unofficaly learnt that the investigation into the whole Jager incident was being quietened down from on high. Whether this was good or bad he could not decide. Added stress for some was that the 1st of Summer would bring the Regimental Ball and they would have to find someone to ask.