Airships, What could possibly go wrong?

Overview
"Do you hear that?"


A rustle of leaves as the wind passes through, the chirp and hoots of living things in the woods, the crackle of a camp fire.


"I don't hear anything Sarge."


"Exactly, and that's all we heard before the attack. It was our third day on Paq, The first day we had tried to enter the city, The second day we had run, and on the third day we were hiding trying to figure out what to do. I guess we didn't hide well enough. You can't hear one of their airships coming, and we weren't exactly using radar to advertise our presence. The next thing you know the fire and screaming starts. A sudden flash and an area a hundred meters across exploded into the night. Anyone caught in the open was as good as dead. Mechs at least could absorb the fire for awhile. But that wasn't the worst part. It was the time between shots. We were all frantically loading back into the dropship, but every minute another blast would lance out from the heavens, spearing into or near the dropship. The ship would ring like a bell every time is was struck. Klaxons and emergency lights were creating a crazy strobe light effect across the landing crater. And as the Mech bay's doors closed, that's when I saw it. The bodies falling from the sky."

"You've got to be shitting me Sarge. What kind of hokey ghost story are you trying to pull?"

"Live and Learn son. Live and Learn." Said the Sergent as he took another swig of his beer.

Battle History
"Holy shit. He wasn't kidding."

The newly minted Lieutenant continued reading the dossier for his lance sergeant James Austin, Formerly a Reich Ranger Storm Leader. Forced to surrender when a Rodeo corvette intercepted his units raid in transit. Refused repatriation due to finding a new wife as a POW. Joined IPD's 1st due to divorce. Transferred to IPD's 13th for Merit. By rights he should of been leading the entire company if not the battalion. The lieutenant was beginning to wonder what trick of the fairy god mother department had somehow seen him assigned to this unit.

More importantly Sergent Austin's service record contained a summary of actions from his time as a Ranger. Including the Paq raid. The stories from the camp fire had seemed too unreal to be true, perhaps a form of hazing to scare the new guy, but with this file... He was quite afraid to find out what the company cook's story about fighting a flying mountain would bring up.

Paq, a shortened form of Peace and Quiet; as unwieldy a name as could be imagined, had been a Sixth Reich trade partner. They had gone silent, and the rangers had been sent in. With no response from the planet they had burned in and landed outside the capital. Minor damage could be seen with repairs clearly underway. Traffic was light, but people could clearly be seen going about their business. Light tanks dotted the landscape, and overhead Airships patrolled. It wasn't exactly a threatening scene, but something was definitely off. As the Ranger column entered the suburbs they sent fire teams to check for inhabitants of the houses. The first house that answered waved frantically for them to go away. With good reason, that was when the first Laser strike came down from an airship vaporizing the house, it's inhabitants,and the fire team at the door. The rangers spread out and began back peddling back towards their dropships. The Fighters on CAP swooped in destroying the offending airship without fuss or bother. They proceeded to tear through half a dozen airships before they were blotted from the sky in a flurry of heavy guided missiles. But they had cleared they sky's of airships first. Unfortunately for the rangers incoming missile traces were combining with detection pings of heavier combat vehicles closing in. Their dropship had to displace to avoid the incoming barrage. The rangers spent the next night and day breaking contact from pursuing ground vehicles. All seemed well until another flight of Ariships closed on their hiding space. There was footage of the bodies.

Capabilities
The Autobot Warden was first encountered on Paq by 6th Reich Forces. The unexpected presence of autobots and the heretofore undocumented Warden Airship, as it was called by human survivors, caused major problems for the Reich's campaign to free the planet. Their initial scouting element was bounced off planet, and they sustained unexpected losses when massed fire proved capable of destroying ships in low orbit during the campaign to liberate the planet. Losses were so heavy that Reich commanders requested help from regional IPD forces. Overcoming their distrust of IPD "Impurity" in the face of a clearly non-human threat.


The main point of the Warden's success was a massive system equivalent to a Sub Capital Laser. Capable of servicing both ground targets and targets in space, this system allowed Wardens a massive footprint of control. Predominantly this foot was placed on the neck of the local populace insuring compliance with autobot directives. But as the Reich demonstrated Enough airships can control the low orbitals.


Secondary systems of interest include the drone command an control systems. Wardens are capable of controlling 5 other drones each. Normally this means they operate in groups of six insuring a constant network of drone consciousness in the sky, but alternative Skynets are not uncommon. A Guardian ECM equivalent system hardens the network.


The system that ground commanders tend to find the most emotionally disturbing is the infantry compartment and the Machine guns. The Trio of rear mounted Machine guns are located Inside the infantry bay, being unable to fire unless the bay doors are open. This is obviously a design consideration intended to control autobot "Infantry" The real problem is that Wardens often will unload their infantry at altitude. Without Parachutes. The Machine Guns are required to help make that happen. The best guess as to why the autobots preform this murderous act is a flaw in their programing. They know that dropping Infantry on the enemy is a useful tactic, and know exactly when the best time to do so is. But the concept of issuing jump gear to their infantry seems to be missing. Instead they built in systems to control their human slaves.

Deployment
The Lieutenant sat his room nursing a drink. Beer unfortunately, he needed something much stronger. He sat thinking about the purpose of last nights camp fire. Sure it was a meet and great. Get to know the people in his new unit, break the ice, start forming the bonds necessary in a small unit. But every single one of them had told him a story. A story that seemed like just another spooky story, intended to elicit shock and and relief that nothing like that could possibly be true. Every Last Single One of Them Had Been True. Fighting killer robots was only the first. The stories had gotten more far out as the night went on. Flying mountains that ate people. Hidden Solar systems found in folds of hyperspace controlled by rats. The Guy who had help eat a planetary Emperor. A battle against things worst then clones. Each and every story had seemed far out, and then there had been a collaborating file explaining exactly what the heart of those stories were. Lieutenant Elvis Presley, from Graceland, sat drinking his drink and wondering if he could leave the outfit.