His blizzards shot through the apparent gap the assault mechs had made, they had barely made it past the first few warehouses when Anthony, the leader of the Blizzards, came over the company's channel, "Pop the doors, everyone out slow down to 40KPH so they can jump."
Novek was quick on the come back though and Anton could hear the roar in the background of his jumpjets already, "Fuck slowing down, just open the doors, use your jets to slow yourselves boys and girls and roll when you hit if you have to."
Anton did not even have time to consider the danger of such a call, and anyway Novek knew the suits better than he did so he just had to hope everyone was limited to just scrapes from jumping out of APCs at such high speeds. He could still ensure the safety of the men who risked their lives to deliver the cargo into the urban zone though, "Anton get out of there the same way you came in. it is still open and fall back to LRM range don't risk your necks and be ready to act as medivac."
"Roger that," there was a hint of worry in his voice, naturally Anthony never liked to leave behind his cargo but as always knew they were better off on their own.
On the eastern flank with the open terrain it seems the Allavar had deployed mercenaries more intent upon long ranged combat to try and bleed the Penoy forces as they approached but the Penoy mercs sent forth were the armor heavy forces and without the command and control functions of a dedicated regiment the piece meal fire seemed to allow the line to flex more than it normally would. This was letting the eastern flank begin to actually gain ground overall while the center forces were encountering fierce resistance from harassing forces which had slowed them to a crawl and western forces were slowed by terrain and pockets of infantry dug in at every defensible spot available.
Pushing forward with his mech in a full run Anton let lose with his medium lasers at long and extended ranges he felt the heat shoot up in his reactor as it fed energy to the lasers but he refused to waste ammo at targets he would have to walk shells across for marginal damage. Return fire was light as mechs brawled all around as the second echelon impacted the already intense melee going on across the fringe of the industrial sector. Pursuing down the route the damaged Wyvern had gone he saw no signs of it's passing. He was not that big a fan of it since the Hammerhands was not well known for it's rear armor, "Novek, attempt to link up with me as I push in."
"Roger that, I will send one squad out ahead and one behind, I am coming to you," Novek was showing his chops as why he was XO again thinking ahead where his CO thought too much of the now.
Bringing his mech down to a walk Anton began plotting a course to try and push into the rear of the enemy center formation. If he could get some enemy officers or a supply depot he knew there would be a hefty bonus involved. The visions of C-bills dancing in his head came crashing down as he was blinded by sudden light. His armor frame lit up as well showing armor being scorched off all over his mech. After the light faded enough and his cockpit had polarized he saw what had hit him, a sneaky Hunchback 4P hiding in an alley and sliced armor all over the left side of his mech. It had put out insane energy for it's size and yet while extremely hot was far from overheated thanks to liberal heatsinks. There were a few problems for the HBK-4P had though was that firing side on the Hammerhands was a smaller target, he hd been firing without his computer aiming for him to stay hidden, Anton's Hammerhands was well armored so stayed standing, and most importantly firing all those lasers at once meant Anton now had a few seconds to act freely while the Hunchback as stuck in an alley with nowhere to go.
Turning his Hammerhands to face the mech that had dared to scorch away so much of his armor Anton switched from caseless to armor piercing. The enemy was backing up down the alley but still had a ways to go and was sure as hell not going to make it. Opening up with both barrels his Hammerhands could not fit down the alley so instead he just stood at it's mouth walking shells across his enemy. The autocannons pulled up and to the left, the armor piercing shells punching through the HBK with almost every shell shredding internals. As it came up toward the shoulder a few rounds even over penetrated the increasingly softened armor. The Hunchback fired back but fewer than half of the remaining lasers fired and one exploded as it misfired dropping the mechs right arm to the pavement and barely eve glancing the Hammerhands. Just as he was prepared to key up the missiles he heard the Hunchback's death knell come over the comms.
Novek, blaring music on an open channel came flying over rofftops leaping almost blindly down to land on the savaged right torso of the hunchback his squadmates only a few steps behind. They began to use their small lasers and claws to shred through the armor. Knowing himself beaten thoroughly the Hunchback pilot ejected sending his cockpit flying away from them and his mech careening to the ground, Novek and his squad already leaping off to latch onto one of the buildings the medium mech had used to mask itself.
"Marking position for later salvage, Novek, you got anything else we can play with?" Anton could almost feel the bloodlust smile Novek had plastered on his face as the hardened warrior responded.
"Got a catapult up ahead, direct fir shit, either cannons or gauss, not sure which. Was going to send a squad of my boys to take care of it but they might not mind you backing them up if you can fit it into your schedule."
They fell into the usual banter with ease, the beginning of battle was always the most nerve wracking and now that thing were properly joined it was easier for them all to feel properly at ease even if they were fully on edge due to the combat raging all about them.
Striding forward he called for a sitrep from the tanks rolling up behind them, "Yin, how is your shit fairing?"
"Okay for us, people do not want to fuck with this convoy," There was some crackling in the background he knew as consistent with PPC discharge, he could not tell if it was from inbound enemies or outbound from the myrmidons.
"Alright, tell me when you reach the limits, we will keep advancing until we find something we need you to roll over."
"Copy that, hopefully they have a nice battalion or two to hold you long enough for us." They were all getting into the mood now, the behemoths were sitting ducks moving slowly across the open terrain towards the factories and warehouses but they were heavily armored and had escorts plus their own LRMs to dissuade people and range while most living beings knew not to close with a behemoth.
Walking his mech down the street he hugged the buildings not wanting to expose himself to the Catpult Novek had mentioned earlier. The IFF tags on his HUD showed all 12 bttlearmor suits stacked up nearby surrounding a building that he guessed the enemy Catapult had taken up residence upon. Anton smirked, he had a nice edge most mechs in his weight class lacked. Starting to run his mech forward he hit his jump jets launching himself about 50 meters into the air aiming his autocannons at where he assumed the Catapult would be while also going over it's aim point. This plan half worked as the Catapult was quickly attempting to change it's aim point and follow his mech but while he had assumed t was on the building the battle armor had been on it turned out it had been behind it using the front building for cover. They both let loose at each other the Catapult's PPCs glancing the leg armor of his mech while armor piercing shells rained down on the top of the Catapult. At first he wondered why it did not lift off to escape him as he landed on the building just in front of it, feeling the roof flex beneath him. Then he remembered the K2 which his computer indicated the Catapult was lacked jumpjets and so had been forced to use smaller buildings as stairs in effect to get here, something it could not now do. Unleashing more shells onto the top of the Catapult while it's PPCs cycled he easily shrugged off the minor fire from it's macheguns though the pair of medium lasers did further worry his armor. It was all moot though then all 12 suits of battle armor left from their hiding places and swarmed the stricken catapult tearing through the damage top and inflicting new harm on the heavy mech. Once more the pilot ejected not willing to risk the battle armor tearing open the cockpit as well.
They were getting into the second line now, there would be more units set out to slow the advance or outright smash lighter enemies but for him at least it was likely easier moving now. At least until the enemy reinforcements showed up which were inevitable and based on his chrono just a few minutes out. He would need to move fast to not get caught in a heavy sweep. As he strode forward he received another tight beam communication, "Anton, Yin, he are in the city, advancing double line on your location."
It was going to be a surprisingly good day he thought advancing as the battle armor leapt about him.