Mission Kiamba

Mission Kiamba, by Arous Brocken, is the 14th of the German-language Classic BattleTech Novels published by FanPro. Set in 3054/3055, it seamlessly continues the story of MechWarrior George from the previous novel, Clanwächter.

Canonicity
Written in German and exclusively published in that language so far, Mission Kiamba does not meet the current criteria for Canon in the BattleTech universe. As an official product published under a valid license, it should be regarded as apocryphal.

From the back cover (translated from German)
"3055: The Doom Angels mercenaries have taken George prisoner. When they are stranded on Kiamba in the Smoke Jaguar occupation zone, their leader Thornhill takes advantage of Clan customs and lets his prisoner fight for him. However, the other Angels are less than enthusiastic at the prospect of having to go to battle together with an enemy warrior, and George himself has to learn tediously that mercenaries are no Clan warriors. George finds his ideals violated so often that he wonders if he can even have a future with these mercenaries. And yet, some of them seem to follow a honor code of their own...

Third part of the Bear Cycle."

Plot Summary
Following George's capture on Setubal where the Doom Angels battalion of the Devil's Dents mercenary regiment overran his position, the Doom Angels retreat with salvaged Clan equipment and narrowly escape during a space battle, jumping their JumpShip to a pirate point in the Kiamba system. However, an aerospace fighter was close enough to be pulled through hyperspace along with the ship, and rams it shortly after emergence. As a result, the JumpShip has to be abandoned and its two DropShips crashland in a jungle on Kiamba's second continent, totaling the Leopard-class Hellcat and damaging the Overlord-class Mephisto which henceforth serves as their impromptu base once its remote landing zone in a jungle is hidden sufficiently well.

George, desperate to retain a honorable codex and remain a member of the warrior caste, accepts bondsman status. Because of his unique background and skills he is given a captured Summoner (Thor) to pilot (possibly the same 'Mech he piloted when he was captured). This early in the Clan Invasion era, George and the mercenaries are very alien to each other due to their cultural differences, but their survival instinct and shared goal to escape from Kiamba slowly forges them together.

Stranded on Kiamba and with substantial losses in men and material, the Doom Angels hatch a devious plot to avoid capture and secure help from the locals: They pretend to have been sent by the planet's former overlords, House Kurita, to support local guerrilla fighters against the Clan Smoke Jaguar occupation. To this end, resistance cells are given small arms and civil unrest is generated to keep the Smoke Jaguar garrison occupied. George in the Summoner impersonates a Smoke Jaguar 'Mech in one staged ambush that is to demonstrate the mercenaries' resolve and seriousness and win over the guerrillas. In truth, the mercenaries regard the freedom fighters as fools and are fully prepared to ruthlessly sacrifice them to further their own escape from the planet, sending them on snipe hunts, suicide missions or outright murdering them when they become too successful and might actually become more than a distraction for the garrison. Over the next months, small victories are used to underscore the professionalism and determination of the mercenaries to the guerilla's cause, while (oftentimes orchestrated) costly defeats are blamed on poor leadership among the guerrillas to tie them more closely to the mercenaries and make them easier to control.

During one series of guerrilla attacks, a supposed distraction raid on the HPG is the real main mission: The Doom Angels manage to send an encoded message to their parent unit on Outreach, the loosely organized Devil's Dents regiment, asking for extraction. Some time later a radio buoy in the systems sends an answer, indicating that the Heaven's Sake, another Devil's Dents JumpShip, will appear a specific (very short) timeframe at a pirate jump point in ten days.

With the Mephisto restored to flight status and sufficiently refueled, the Doom Angels launch a final shell game. They claim that a DropShip transporting a "superweapon" (a Naval PPC) is inbound to support the local uprising. The heavily damaged Hellcat is used as a stand-in and, according to plan, arrives at the target continent trailing smoke and crashes in a poorly accessible jungle section short of its supposed landing site. The guerrillas are duped into moving out to secure the ostensibly valuable cargo and are thus lured into a running battle with most of the Smoke Jaguar garrison who also move out to inspect the curious crash site. At the height of the battle for the crashed DropShip, its reactor explodes, decimating guerrillas and garrison troops alike and causing the Smoke Jaguars to begin a frenzied hunt for any and all guerrilla forces in the jungle, distracting them even further.

Using the raging battle deep in the jungle (which also tied up most of the garrison forces) as cover, the Doom Angels sneak their six remaining operational BattleMechs to Kiamba City from the seaside and attack the grounded aerospace fighters, to prevent them from intercepting the Mephisto. Elsewhere, a commando raid rescues Doom Angels prisoners from Smoke Jaguar captivity. As they fight their way back out of Kiamba City, the Doom Angels find protesters against them taking to the streets because of the massive collateral damage.

With all of their remaining personnel assets pulled back together aboard the Mephisto, the decimated Doom Angels make a 2.5g boost for the pirate jump point on 29 November 3055 where they arrive after a brief battle with the remaining enemy aerospace fighters, dock with the Heaven's Sake and escape from Kiamba.

BattleMechs

 * Atlas
 * Cauldron Born
 * Fire Moth
 * Gargoyle
 * Grasshopper
 * Hankyu
 * Hellbringer (Loki)
 * Horned Owl (Peregrine)
 * Incubus
 * Javelin
 * Kit Fox (Uller)
 * Kodiak
 * Nova
 * Phantom
 * Rifleman
 * Short Bow
 * Stinger
 * Stone Rhino
 * Stormcrow
 * Summoner (Thor)
 * Timber Wolf (Mad Cat)
 * Victor
 * Warhawk (Masakari)
 * Watchman

Aerospace Fighters

 * Vandal
 * Visigoth

DropShips

 * Broadsword-class Titanklinge (mentioned)
 * Leopard-class Hellcat
 * Overlord-class Mephisto
 * Union-C

JumpShips

 * Dark Duke (unspecified class, can carry at least two DropShips)
 * Heaven's Sake (unspecified class, double-jump capability indicates L-F Battery)

Other

 * Inner Sphere Standard (Battle Armor)
 * unspecified helicopters armed with SRMs
 * Hovertrain
 * unspecified hovercraft