The Battle of the Landing Zone
The following is an account of the battle for the LZ told by Gerrison from his death bed. It was never published.
Autocannons and lasers streaked through the air ripping apart trees and mechs alike. My Centurion shuddered under a barrage from the enemy Penetrator and I fought the controls to stay upright. I steadied himself and fired back with my arm-mounted PPC and the LRMs in my torso and was rewarded by a hit. The Penetrator staggered under the PPC and LRMs but continued closing in on the defensive position I had chosen to make our stand at.
I had to buy the dropship enough time to escape.
The other three mechs of my lance targeted the Davion Heavy Guards' Victor and the other Penetrator, inflicting minimal damage on the enemy. The DHG continued marching towards my position, firing at my supporting Marshals with everything they had. Only an SRM hit, but my lance's return fire ripped into the Victor, shaking the pilot around like a rag doll. But the assault mech kept coming.
We're never going to stop them, I thought as the DHG got closer and entered physical combat range. The Penetrator I tagged earlier shuddered as the Hachetman ripped into his arm following a full barrage from one my Marshals, but I couldn't get a target lock and missed with all fire. The enemy Victor though was another matter. His Heavy Autocannon ripped through the Marshal's arm like tissue paper nearly ripping it off and rocking the Marshal backwords.
"Gerrison to all mechs. Victor is priority one target," I said, bringing the targeting reticule into position over the assault mech. "We've got to take her down."
The Hatchetman had already lined up for another attack on his targeted Penetrator, but the two Marshals joined me in firing on the enemy Victor, and the sky lit up with the fire of every mech on the battlefield. The Victor shuddered again, staying up but his target wasn't as lucky. . The rippling explosion of machine gun ammunition cooked off what had once been a Marshal. I fought my mech's controls to stay standing after weathering fire from one the Penetrators and saw in my armor diagram that I was almost out of the battle too. My center torso was completely bare of armor. I knew a losing battle when I saw one and tried to get somebody out.
"All units disengage!," I said. I remember the anguish that came with that command. It was one of the hardest commands I ever had to give to my men. "Make a break for the secondary LZ and hope the dropship can make it. We can't hold them any longer."
I knew it was too late for me though and kept firing at the enemy. The Hachetman jumped, trying to get away but was felled by DHG fire. The last thing I saw before my entire world went black was the last Marshal high tailing it out of range.