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[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter One

The Gates of Hell

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Tamar March
Federated Commonwealth
20^th November 3049


“What the hell are they?” Captain Aleksandr Wilson heard someone scream over the Militia’s command frequency. “Whatever they are, they have some serious firepower at their disposal” he thought to himself as his eyes swept over the BattleMech’s display panels.

Foxtrot lance of the Newton Grenadiers was conducting a last minute sweep in preparation for pulling off the nameless pile of rocks they had been guarding for the last six months. Then as they had cleared the outskirts of the mining area, the first signs of trouble had appeared. A single Dropship had passed within one hundred kilometres of the miners’ habitat domes, the only communication being from a Star Commander Toridan of the Jade Falcons, asking with what the planet was defended. The militia commander had told him to go to hell, at which the Commander had barked in laughter and told the militiaman to be ready to receive him. An hour later the militia ‘Mechs; a pair of ageing Centurions and a Shadowhawk, had been engaged by three unknown BattleMechs near the Northern end of the mining facility and it sounded as though the battle was not going well for them. Moving at best speed the Grenadiers made their way to aid the militia ‘Mechs and as they drew near the last area of contact, the lance had been engaged by a pair of machines like none Aleks had ever seen before; they seemed to possess far superior fire control and heat dissipation. The heat generated by the fusillade of fire in the opening engagement should have been enough to shut down any ‘Mech Aleks could think of but a quick check of the thermal display had shocked him with only a lukewarm orange hue over the heart of the enemy machine.

Using a brief lull in the fight to duck his Highlander behind a low ridgeline, Aleks looked over the damage and expendable displays, quickly taking a drink of water from a canteen secured next to the command couch; the tepid liquid sluiced down his throat and gave some relief from the furnace like temperatures in the Mech’s cockpit. He could feel his thick red hair matted with sweat below the bulky neurohelmet and shifted his shoulders to resettle the weight of the crucial device across the padded collar of his cooling vest. A surge of fluid through the vests tubing brought his body temperature down a few degrees but as always he knew it would be short felt relief. As soon as he stood the Mech back into the fight, the weapon fire and movement would send new waves of heat from the fusion driven heart below his feet to sear the air in the cockpit.

BattleMech’s are mainly bi-pedal and humanoid in design, the smallest and lightest still mass twenty tons and can field enough firepower to decimate a platoon of regular infantry in minutes. Ranging from the twenty ton light’s up to fearsome one hundred ton assault class monsters such as the Atlas, BattleMech’s use composite armour and a bewildering array of energy, ballistic and missile based weaponry to outclass anything other than another Mech on the battlefields of the 31^st Century. The general rule of thumb is that the best way to take down a BattleMech is preferably with another, bigger or better armed BattleMech. Powered by fusion reactor engines there are some that are capable of travel at over one hundred kilometres per hour and others, like ‘Culloden’, are equipped with jump jets; giving them the ability to travel almost anywhere. However the power produced by the reactors and the subsequent spikes caused by use of weapons and movement cause the interiors of the Mech’s to heat to sauna like temperatures.

MechWarrior’s; the pilots who control the walking war avatars, rely on heatsink technology to dissipate heat from the Mech’s internals and a piece of clothing called a cooling vest to stop the temperatures from killing them through heat stroke. The vest circulates the same cooling fluid that is used to control the Mech’s heat build-up through a series of small diameter tubes woven into a special protective, ballistic lined vest worn by the pilot. The Warrior also uses the most important item in the cockpit to tap his or her own sense of balance into the control systems of the Mech, the neurohelmet creates a sync between the brainwaves of the pilot and the gyroscope that the systems use to keep the war machine balanced and able to walk or run almost as fluidly as a human being.

The Highlander is a formidable BattleMech with a long and illustrious history, his own modified 732 model, christened ‘Culloden’, was a rare beast he had believed could stand up to any ‘Mech in the Inner Sphere but the wire frame auxiliary display showing his armour status highlighted just how wrong he could be. The enemy ‘Mechs highly accurate laser and ballistic fire had shredded most of his ‘Mechs frontal armour in a matter of minutes and the fact they could hit him with impunity from almost three times his own optimal range was a major factor in that. However brute force and some good luck had allowed Aleks and his lances other assault class ‘Mech, an Atlas, to close within optimal engagement distances for the majority of their weapons. Aleks studied another tactical display; set to show a topographical map of the surrounding area, praying for inspiration to reach out and tap him on the shoulder. As his eyes took in the map, a single feature stood out and the seed of an idea began to form, a bit of a Hail Mary but at that moment he would take anything he could get. Switching to a private frequency, he called out to Corporal James Hobbs in his Catapult C1 support Mech “Hobbs, do you see that cliff to the West; approximately half a kilometre?” “Gunner that’s the fall off into Dante’s Cauldron; we do not want to go there. Ambient air temperature is sitting at eighty five degrees Celsius now, the closer we go the higher it will get. I don’t want to think about trying to fight in that kind of heat, it’s hard enough as it is.” scrolling out the display to show their positions, Aleks said a silent prayer; “We don’t want to go there but we do want these raiders to go there, let’s see just how good their heat control really is” Switching back to the lance frequency he calls “Foxes, we need to work them closer to the cliff. Hobbs co-ordinate fire with Simmons and lay down some missiles on their left side. Force them to manoeuvre and find cover in that direction. Collins, we are going to do what assault ‘Mechs do best; attack!”

The surrounding area was a hodgepodge of fissures, caldera’s, lava tubes and hot water geysers; Dante’s Cauldron being a huge depression, three kilometres wide and more than one hundred metres deep at its centre. The interior filled with pools of lava seeping to the surface and deep fissures dropping off to infinity, the air in the area is toxic and Dante’s Cauldron was the main reason for that. The rare ores and minerals to be found there are the only reason for any member of the Human race to be present; the entire mining population of two hundred souls living in sealed domes twenty kilometres to the South.
As the long range missiles arced into the air, one enemy Mech did exactly as he had hoped and moved to Aleks left, the second Mech was not as fast to react as at least forty missiles expended their shaped explosive charges against the thick armoured hide of its torso. Aleks saw armoured plating shatter and spin off amongst the explosions and smoke, stepping around the ridgeline Aleks floated the targeting reticule for his arm mounted lasers over the outline of the mystery Mech. A heartbeat later the reticule changed to a golden hue, indicating a good lock and he pulled into the trigger then quickly selected the arm mounted gauss rifle on the Highlander’s other arm for a follow up shot. The pair of lasers burned their cyan beams into the enemy Mech, finding a weakened joint in some plating just above what appeared to be the cockpit. The high energy beams burned through the tear, spending little of their energies as they travelled through the breach to melt internal structures, circuitry and support systems; the most important damage being to the fusion reactors shielding. The ferrous nickel-iron gauss round arrived a split second later, travelling at hypersonic speeds, it tore through the already weakened plating; obliterating the damaged internals softened by the lasers heat. The supporting internal structure along the “spine” of the horizontal torso collapsed and as Aleks watched the entire centre line folded in on itself; in a matter of microseconds an almighty explosion erupted within the war machine as the golden fire of the fusion reactor escaped from its physical containment shield. The fireball leapt out from the weakened torso plating consuming the top two thirds of the enemy Mech and knocking the remains flat. The catastrophic demise of its partner encouraged the second Mech to move further to the left, Hobbs and Carla Simmons in their Catapult C1’s lofted another volley of long range missiles, the warheads exploding harmlessly against the rock formations it had dodged behind but reinforcing the enemy machine’s wish to keep moving to the left. Stamping on the pedal controls for his ‘Mechs jump jets, Aleks sent the Highlander soaring into the air, letting loose with a quick one-two volley from two of the arm mounted large lasers. One of the beams of energy missed wide to the right but the second lanced into the armour just behind the Mech’s canopy, where he assumed its cockpit was situated. Landing on top of the ridge, he ignited a second burst of plasma through the jump jets and hopped to the bottom of the ridge at the other side, the quick fire use of the jump jets, gauss rifle and lasers caused another spike in the power draw from the fusion reactor in the Highlanders torso and momentarily pushed the heat back into the orange band, still under control but worth watching.

As he came down on the other side of the ridgeline, Aleks second in command; Leftenant Jamie Collins moved out alongside him, his Atlas Assault class BattleMech being one of the most feared war machines in the Inner Sphere. Weighing in at one hundred tons of Duralex armour, Vlar fusion engine and a fearsome modified weapon load out of twin large lasers, a class twenty autocannon and three short range missile packs; the Atlas was designed to be the biggest and meanest Mech to ever take the field. But nothing is indestructible and Collin’s beloved ‘Brutus’ was showing the effects of the raiders impressive fire control systems; the left forearm was missing along with its large laser, neatly amputated at the elbow actuator and the pock marks of laser and ballistic strikes covered the centre torso armour plating. Aleks own Highlander was only slightly better off, thankfully having lost no weaponry but the display showing the condition of his armour leant worryingly toward a dominance of yellows and oranges; the protective plating having been melted and scored away from laser hits and the ballistic weapon in the enemies arm pods.

As the Grenadier ‘Mechs moved steadily to the right, the enemy Mech continued to edge to the left; poking up to snipe at them but steadily falling back from the continued autocannon, missile, gauss and laser fire. Then the Mech had suddenly stood fully, the silhouette strangely similar to a Catapult; with its cylindrical torso, two boxy missile pods mounted above and behind the torso like misshapen ears and holding the whole thing erect, a pair of birdlike legs; the knee joints reversed. Unlike the Catapult this machine had arms mounted below the torso ending not in hands but in bulging weapon pods that looked to have been fitted directly from a Marauder; explaining the computers constant flickering between the two Mech’s on the threat display. Whatever it was, it quickly brought its weapons to bear and bracketed Aleks with a spread of laser fire. Each arm mounted laser pulsed out at a rapid rate; five beams firing in a staccato rhythm instead of one long stream of high energy light. Then the Mech’s kinetic weapon, what Aleks believed to be a type of Gauss rifle, fired from its left hand pod, the metallic round screaming in to strike the armour plating on the centre torso; directly over the Highlander’s fusion engine. The force of the assault rocked ‘Culloden’ back on its heels, threatening to topple it onto its back; Aleks heard the gyro screaming as the Highlanders systems struggled to keep the big machine upright. Suddenly the ground around the enemy ‘Mech erupted in a flare of explosions, multiple hits rocking the machine violently as sixty long range missiles fell out of the sky onto its position. The targeting systems of their Mech’s may not be as accurate as the raiders but with that amount of munitions flying around something is going to hit. By now Collins had managed to close to within two hundred metres, not exactly optimum range but close enough; eighteen short range missiles streaked out of the launchers in the Atlas’s left torso, adding their destructive power to the barrage. Carla’s voice whooped out in celebration, as the enemy Mech went down to one knee but the celebration call died as the dust settled and the last explosions flamed out; the enemy machine shakily rising. The Mech’s armour was pitted and scored in several places but the only visible, serious damage was that the left arm hung limply and the missile pod on the same side appeared to be malfunctioning; sparks and smoke erupting from shattered and bent armour plating where the pod met the torso. The right arm swung into line with Collins’ Mech and the laser fired once more, followed by a PPC bolt and a spread of missiles from the undamaged pod. The missiles struck the big Mech all over its frontal armour, none managing to fully exploit any existing weakness but the streams of energy and highly charged particles lanced into the head of the Atlas. Sparks and manmade lightning cascaded around and away from the assault Mech, for an instance Aleks believed the big machines heavy armour had deflected the attack. Then, almost in slow motion, Aleks watched as ‘Brutus’ began to topple backward; the fact that Collins made no attempt to arrest the fall spoke volumes. A few seconds later the war machine hit the ground with a sickening noise as tons of armour were crushed by the Mech’s own weight, the vibration rolled up and through ‘Culloden’s’ legs to shake the command couch. Smoke roiled from the remains of the cockpit, a ragged gash was torn in the infamous deaths head “face” of the Atlas. Cold fury erupted in Aleks chest and he shouted out on the Lance frequency “Hobbs, Simmons nail his arse, time to show him the gates of hell” as he charged ‘Culloden’ forward, letting rip with every weapon he had. The three large lasers burned chunks of armour away from the left torso, biting into the already damaged armour and with a huge eruption of sparks the missile pod exploded away from the Mech. A series of internal explosions followed, reloads for the weapon pod cooking off as the heat from the lasers poured through the torn armour plating. Aleks followed up with a Gauss round and then another burst of lasers and another Gauss round; as fast as his weapons could recycle, he fired. The heat in the cockpit continued to rise as the weapons fire drew more and more energy from the fusion reactor and suddenly Aleks came to his senses, the temperatures in the cockpit had rapidly rose up through forty degrees Celsius. He realised that his mouth was completely dry, his vision blurred and his lungs’ screamed in agony as the heat seared its way to his very core, he could feel the cooling vest doing its job to keep his core temperature at a safe level but his body screamed for oxygen. As he let the heat indicator slowly creep back down he saw the enemy ‘Mech again disappear in a veil of explosions as another wave of missiles covered it. The warheads tore at armour already damaged by his rage fuelled assault and then the machine shuddered violently and pitched backward, taking a series of jerky steps; Aleks realised the pilot was fighting a damaged gyro and gravity to keep his machine on its feet. As it stumbles backward Aleks saw his chance; stalking Culloden forward Aleks came to within a few metres of the enemy Mech, switching to an open broadband channel, he announced in a low, rage filled voice “This is for Collins, see you in hell”. Aleks brought the Highlanders massively armoured leg up as he stepped forward and the momentum carried the ninety ton assault ‘Mech into the flailing ‘Mech in a front kick. The force of the blow sent a massive tremor up through the frame of the Highlander; threatening to spin it to the ground but with a firm grip on the controls, with the help of the screaming Gyro system Aleks brought the war machine back in line. However the enemy pilot continued to backpedal, trying to stay up but the motion only proved to be his downfall as one final step took the big machine over the edge of the cliff.

Standing for a few seconds staring into the empty space the enemy Mech had occupied, Aleks took a breath and flipped the lance frequency open “Foxes, time to get the hell out of here. Bearing 180, line abreast and keep speed to fifty kph. The Grenadiers dropship’s are waiting at the domes. Keep sharp, I doubt these two were alone.” The acknowledgements came back and the one missing reply stung him to the core, a blazing hot dagger through the heart. With one last look towards the downed Atlas, Aleks led what was left of the Fighting Foxes on a direct line toward the rest of the Grenadiers and hopefully a safe zone; with some luck they would be able to recover the big Mech and give Jamie a proper burial. As they made their way steadily toward the Grenadiers perimeter, Aleks mind wandered to the last moments of the battle, as Jamie’s Atlas fell backward in slow motion. Jamie Collins and Aleksandr Wilson had been friends for over twenty years; attending the New Avalon College of Military Science together, both graduating in the top ten per cent and being posted to the 22^nd Avalon Hussars as Heavy pilots. They had survived through border skirmishes, intelligence gathering raids and the mother of all disasters for the Hussars; the attack on Telos IV during the War of `39. Now some upstart scumbag raider dared to steal his life away on some meaningless backwater mining colony that doesn’t even have a name? What the hell is that, the universe’s idea of a bad joke? Shaking his head, Aleks realised this is the sort of thing Jamie used to scold him about; his sentimentality and looking for the higher meaning in combat. To Jamie it was all one big challenge; beat the other guy, preferably to a heap of molten scrap and do it with as much style as possible. As far as he was concerned the idea of going down in a heroic charge was the ultimate finale for the MechWarrior, a fitting end to a life of daring and heroism.

Aleks melancholy was broken by another long-time friend and member of the Fighting Foxes, Corporal James Hobbs, calling on a private channel. Although James hadn’t been with the Foxes for more than eighteen months he was another of the survivors from the 22^nd Hussars little excursion to Telos IV. “Aleks, we have to keep moving; the Colonel said he would be boosting in four hours, with or without us.” “I know Hobbs, I’m just……” Aleks begins to reply but he didn’t trust his voice not to crack “Jamie’s gone boss but he wouldn’t want us to get stranded on this rock, we need to make the rendezvous. Make a call, any call and we’ll follow” Aleks sat for a few seconds, allowing the steady motion of Culloden’s stride to sooth his mind and allow him to think straight. Switching to the Lance channel he said “Right, we have approximately twelve kilometres to go and no sign of pursuit. We aren’t exactly built for speed so let’s take it nice and steady, keep your eyes peeled for anymore raiders and let’s not miss our ride. Carla, how are you holding up?” Private Carla Simmons was the newest qualified MechWarrior of the Newton Grenadiers; only twenty standard years old and Aleks believed she was holding up well for her first time in REAL combat. “I’m…. OK boss. A little buzzed and shaky but the adrenaline is wearing off fast, I can’t believe Corporal Collins is gone….” The line went quiet and Hobbs cut in “Well we’re not and as the boss says, we need to keep our heads in the fight. Or Jamie will come back and haunt us for messing up” Aleks heard a quiet laugh from Simmons and realised it was probably the first time she had seen someone die and unfortunately it would not be the last. For him, the incessant fighting of the last eighteen years had not been kind. The list of lost friends and comrades-in-arms was long and he didn’t see an end to the turmoil of the Inner Sphere any time soon.

The rest of the transit to the landing zone had been thankfully uneventful, once they were within ten kilometres of the Dropship’s, Aleks was able to obtain a stable communication link directly with the Ops centre. Requesting a line to the Colonel, he was greeted by the usual hard, grey eyed gaze. His bald pate reflecting the overhead lighting in the Ops Centre, coveralls as always were immaculate; the Colonel’s Eagles shining on the lapels. The scar running from his right eyebrow to his chin looked fiery red; a sure sign of the pressure the commanding officer of the Newton Grenadiers was feeling. At fifty five he was not exactly a spring chicken but his five foot eight inch frame was covered in lean muscle; hard won with a strict daily exercise and training regime, low betide anyone foolish enough to take him on in the hand to hand combat ring. But at times of high stress that scar stood out in a jagged line, a warning to all that the CO was in a foul mood. The news of Jamie’s death seemed to draw him down, his shoulders sagging almost imperceptibly; the fiery red becoming paler. He looked straight at the screen, seeming to search out Aleks eyes “I’m sorry son; I know you two were close and had served together for a long time. Your father and I always held him in high regard.” With that the fierce look returned to his eyes and his shoulders straightened, the briefest moment of sentimentality was gone, “Aleksandr we need you and the Foxes back here ASAP, we lift off in less than two hours. The Grenadiers have been recalled to Bensinger; there is more to these raiders than you know. I’ll explain what I have once we’re enroute to the JumpShip, so far the “raiders” have steered clear of our LZ and appear to be concentrating on the militia. The strange thing is the Mech’s announced their presence before they attacked and that their objective was the mining facilities; they even asked what forces the militia commander would defend the mines with” “Who the hell are they Colonel?” Aleks asks “The leader who communicated with the militia commander called himself Star Commander Toridan of Epsilon Galaxy, representing the Jade Falcon Clan. The last report from the militia command post was not good, these Jade Falcons are fielding Mech’s that can outrange us, outgun us, out manoeuvre us and appear to run cooler than us. The militia is managing to hold on for now and non-essential personal and civilians are lifting off from the DropPort as we speak. There is no doubt the mining facility will be lost within a matter of hours, then the rest of this rock will be in the hands of this ‘Clan’ within the day. We need to leave Sergeant Major and SOON! Do you understand?” “Yes sir, ETA is forty five minutes” Aleks replied. Signing off the link with the Colonel, Aleks passed on the information to the rest of the Foxes “Time to move our butts’ people, in ninety minutes the Revenge will be leaving this mud ball. Let’s get the hell out of here; we’ll avenge Jamie but not today”.

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:28 PM.

[Mordale]

<S> Pug
Welcome to the Meat Grinder!

[Tank]

That sure was a nice read. Even felt in to little immersion here and there.

[xX PUG Xx]

<S> Mordale and thanks I think

Thanks Tank, this is chapter 1 of 5 so far. Chapter 6 has me stuck at the moment, I've been working on the story on and off for the last 18 months and has been re-written 3 times so far.

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 24 February 2014 - 04:20 AM.

[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter Two

The Honoured Dead

Bensinger
Tamar March
Federated Commonwealth
31^st December 3049

New Year’s Eve on yet another planet, in yet another star system and yet another memorial service for a friend that Aleks would rather been sitting having a drink and good conversation with.

The ranks of the Newton Grenadiers personnel stood in precise lines arrayed before its two Overlord class DropShips with the units twenty one BattleMech’s, some of which were rare or sported experimental conversions, stood in their lance formations behind the men and women; a gap to the left of Aleks Highlander held open for Jamie’s missing Atlas. Colonel Friend and his second in command Leftenant Colonel Graham McAlister stood before them, their faces solemn but filed with pride at the sight of their unit stretched out before them. The Colonel had stepped to the microphone at the front of the podium toward the end of the ceremony, his strong voice carrying out over the speakers “Leftenant Jamie Collins was a fine young man, a good officer and a good friend. His acts of valour will be remembered with pride and the loss of his presence will be felt with sorrow. To our fallen dead, I salute you.” Taking a step back from the microphone he snapped a precise salute and with a crack of dozens of military issue boots slapping to attention, the assembled Grenadiers had returned it. With that the Colonel turned about face and walked toward a waiting hovercar, Leftenant Colonel McAlister stood for a second with his head bowed, his lips moving in a silent personal prayer; finally his head came up, eyes looking along the ranks of the Grenadiers, with a final nod he called “Comp’ny, DISMISSED!” As the assembled ranks made a martial about face and broke ranks, Aleks heard the Leftenant Colonels’ Caledonian accented voice call his name “Captain Wilson, kin ye accompany me please?” He turned and saw the leaders of the Grenadiers four other BattleMech lances heading toward the podium. “Hobbs, I’ll be along ASAP, see to the Foxes Mech’s and make sure that numpty of an Astech, Connor, doesn’t get near Culloden. He’s too green to be trudging around in a suit of logger ‘Mech let alone a BattleMech.” With a laugh Hobbs shouted his acknowledgment and raced off toward the waiting Tech’s and Astech’s of Fox Lance’s support personnel.

A BattleMech may be the predominant force on the battlefields of the 31^st century but without the small army of trained and skilled technicians who repair and maintain them, they would be no more useful in a battle than a large boulder. The Grenadiers MechWarrior’s number only twenty one, with a further five in training as apprentices but still a few years away from being able to pilot one competently enough to be risked in battle. However for every BattleMech there is at least one Tech and another Astech possibly two depending on the complexity of the machine. Then there are the AeroSpace fighter pilots and their support personnel and the tank crews and their support and the infantry and the DropShip crews. So when all is taken into consideration, there is almost five hundred warm bodies on the units rosters and that is without considering their families back on New Avalon. The path of a MechWarrior starts early, usually no older than twelve years of age and culminates in the testing in a live BattleMech around the age of nineteen or twenty standard years of age. Only the lucky or perhaps privileged few are able to attend military academies such as the famous Nagelring on the Lyran capital world of Tharkad or the New Avalon College of Military Science, or CMS for short, on the Federated Suns capital world of New Avalon. The vast majority of MechWarrior’s in the Inner Sphere today are products of necessity to field as many pilots as possible, with the exception of a few private or mercenary units who are able to maintain their own training regimes. The Newton Grenadiers is one of those fortunate units; founded by Colonel James Friend almost fifteen years ago, when the former Davion heavy Guard line officer accepted the task from then First Prince Ian Davion to create a small, independent but loyal mercenary unit. The aim of the unit’s existence was to give the First Prince an ace up his sleeve that he could use with some deniability and flexibility that his line units could not afford him. A decade and a half later the new First Prince, Hanse Davion was still deploying the unit in the same manner but allowing them to take on private contracts with the proviso that if he needed the Grenadiers they would be there.

The latest class of apprentice MechWarrior’s would be going through their paces on New Avalon at the Grenadiers little mountain getaway on New Scotland, the planets Northernmost continent; a cold, snowy and rugged area but thought of fondly as home for the unit as a whole. The Newton Grenadiers were supported, unofficially, by the MIIO or Ministry for Information, Intelligence and Operations; the Federated Commonwealths civilian intelligence arm, basically the spooks and spies. Officially they were a registered mercenary unit, recognised by the Mercenary Review and Bonding Commission and worked almost exclusively on House Davion and House Steiner contracts, the two major Houses of the Federated Commonwealth. The aforementioned Overlord class DropShip’s were wholly owned by the unit but a House Davion flagged JumpShip was held on retainer at a very reasonable rate, for transport of the units fighting forces to other systems. The unit as a whole was well equipped; along with the reinforced Company of BattleMech’s; they had one lance of four Manticore Heavy tanks and another of four Goblin Medium tanks. As well as three Lucifer Aerospace fighters, a pair of Karnov transport helicopters and fifty anti-Mech and Special Ops trained commandoes. Alongside the commandos there was a further two hundred PBI or Poor Bloody Infantry in Mechwarrior lingo; who in their right mind would want to be on a battlefield with nothing more than standard issue BDU’s and a laser rifle when there is two story tall, multi tonne, armoured giants stomping around with energy and ballistic weapons streaking through the air. Aleks believed you had to be a special kind of crazy for that sort of work the commandoes carried out and their commander fit the bill perfectly; Major Thomas Sanchez had a flair for pulling off missions that ninety nine per cent of the “sane” officers in the unit wouldn’t even consider. A veteran of many hard fought engagements it was rumoured Sanchez had been trained by none other than Master Sergeant Ramage of Gray Death Legion fame, whether or not it was true didn’t change the fact that if the unit had a problem that needed some creative thinking, Major Sanchez was the person you tasked to make it go away.

The five Lance Leads of the unit converged on the Company Executive officer, an air of professional ease existed in the group; between them over one hundred years of service and experience was accounted for in their small number. The hard won respect earned during those years allowed them to dispense with the usual rigid formalities of military life and simply make things work, most of the time Aleks thought to himself with a wry smile. Graham McAlister was a friend of Aleks family for longer than he had drawn breath; born on Caledonia he was blessed with a tall, powerful frame. Life as a MechWarrior had made him lean but the powerful muscular physique had not faded with his fifty five years, unlike his thinning brown hair which now receded back into a widow’s peak. The Major had grown up alongside Aleks father and when both the Wilson and McAlister families had relocated to New Avalon, the eight year olds had remained steadfast friends. Being from families of old Scottish highland descent, the young pair had inherited the Caledonian accent and found themselves targets for bullies. This only helped to reinforce their friendship and alliance as they would defend each other against all comers, until one day as teenagers they had come up against a group of older New Avalonian boys. The larger group of older boys had looked to be getting the better of them until a small, well-built boy the same age as the Caledonians had intervened, John Emerson Friend had watched for a moment or two, evaluating the chances of the boys against the numerically superior group and finally decided to help. The three boys had held their ground and soundly given the older bullies a pounding they would not soon forget, from that day on the boys had been friends. The trio had finally attended the military academy on New Avalon, training hard and using teamwork to earn commissions in the New Avalon Heavy Guard. Both James Friend and Graham McAlister had been present on and off through Aleks younger years and as a youth he had thought of them as uncles, so he could tell from the Leftenant Colonels face he had something difficult on his mind and it had him a little uncomfortable.

“Well Ladies an’ Gentlemen, am afraid we hae to sort oot the roster; Gunner’s Lance is short a body” he said in a soft voice, looking to Aleks with pain in his eyes, his Caledonian accent still strong after all these years “Sorry Aleks, I ken this is still fresh but we dinna hae a lot o’ time; we’ll be boosting fir tha JumpShip wi’in twenty four hours an’ it needs tae be sorted. The Colonel an’ I hae decided tae shake up the lances; we feel tha’ concentrating oor heaviest hitters intae a pair o’ lances wie the Mediums an’ Heavies organised tae run interference an’ provide support might be a guid way tae go if we run intae these raiders again. A’ve nae hesitation in tellin’ yae aw, it’s a real possibility. The Colonel is oan his way tae a meetin’ wie a MIIO rep’ as wae speak, I hae a funny feeling we’ll be seeing a lot mare action jist shortly” he then pointed to the CO of Able lance, Major Tanya Cole; the fifteen year veteran of the Grenadiers and fiancée to Colonel Friend was a tall, attractive blonde woman in her mid-forties. She had been with the Grenadiers from the beginning, being persuaded to resign her commission in the Deneb Light Cavalry to help Colonel Friend setup the unit alongside Leftenant Colonel McAlister, she now piloted a D variant Atlas Assault Mech. “Tanya, you’ll keep Clay Simmons in the Awesome an’ Helen Smith in the Stalker but Des Lennox‘ll transfer frae Charlie Lance wie his Warhammer” the Leftenant Colonel turned next to Captain Dale Quintt, a short, powerfully built man; his permanent tan a reminder of his roots on Trellwan. The Captain originally fought in the Trellwan militia and transferred to the Grenadiers after the Colonel spotted his talents as a Light recon pilot. “Dale yir Bravo Lance will maestly remain the same, ye work well as a short lance an’ we see nae reason tae change that. I say maestly since Graham Turner is being promoted tae Sergeant, I’ll let ye break the good news tae him yersel an’ tell him it would hae come sooner if he could keep himsel’ oot o’ trouble” McAlister looked at Aleks with a slight smile, letting him know that he had a little responsibility for keeping one of his oldest and craziest friends of out of trouble. Aleks always believed Graham to be one of, if not THE best Light pilot he had ever seen. His abilities in his customised Raven 3L have to be observed to be believed, the Raven was one of a pair liberated by the Grenadiers during a raid on a Capellan research base and his fluid control and accuracy at the insane speeds the little Mech travelled at were second to none. The Leftenant Colonel turned next to the CO of Charlie lance, Leftenant Darius Cole; Tanya Cole’s younger brother. Darius was not as attractive as his sister, well not to Aleks tastes anyway, he was however just as tall and blonde; the family resemblance between the two was strong and you would be hard pushed to miss the connection. “Darius yae’ll be keepin’ Colin Smart in the Jager an’ gaining James Hobbs an’ Carla Simmons in the Catapult’s” Aleks felt a slight twinge in his gut as he realised the remains of his Lance had just been transferred away, even though Hobbs and Simmons were the shortest serving members of the Grenadiers it was still a wrench to have them taken away so soon after Jamie’s death. His mind wandered slightly as the last part sank in and he barely heard the Leftenant Colonel telling Captain Trevor Berkley, the CO of Dog lance, that his command would remain unchanged. Aleks could feel he was being watched and looked up to see Tanya Cole and Graham McAlister watching him “Aleks, a realise this is hardest on yae; a can see it oan yir face but we want yae to reform yir Foxes as the second assault Lance. Yae already hae yourself in the Highlander, so we’ll be gaein’ yae Alisha Friend, Toni Kerensky and Doug, I trust yae’ll no’ allow ma son tae hae a free ride. Doug is still green as grass in the Stalker but he has the ability an’ wie a nudge in the right direction he’ll be fine” Twenty four year old Corporal Douglas McAlister was Graham McAlister’s’ only son and with the death of his mother at the young age of five, had been brought up in and around BattleMech’s for the majority of his life. The younger McAlister had his mother’s piercing blue eyes but shared his father’s build, height and thick brown hair. Not to mention his Caledonian accent, only slightly diluted by the influence of the rest of the unit’s mix of cultures. However he had only been given the command couch of his Stalker 3F a few months ago and so was still learning the big Assault Mech’s quirks and abilities, however the Leftenant Colonel was correct in his assessment of his sons’ abilities, with time he would be fine.

Twenty five year old Corporal Toni Kerensky was a distant descendant of the great General Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kerensky; the foremost general of the revered Star league Defence Force, who disappeared beyond the Periphery almost three hundred years ago with nearly eighty per cent of the Star League army. Toni was tall, red haired and a little hard to read at times, having a tendency to hold herself to almost impossible standards and Aleks believed he had yet to see her smile. She was however an outstanding Mech pilot and commanded what could be the most awesome BattleMech Aleks had ever laid his eyes on; an extremely rare and highly modified Rifleman II. An old anti-air and support BattleMech, the Rifleman normally weighed in at sixty tons and carried paired class five autocannons and large lasers on each side of the torso in place of arms, tied to sophisticated radar and tracking systems, the Rifleman II was a step above this. Held as an exclusive design by the Star League Royal Divisions; sporting upgraded weaponry, engine and armour over the standard Rifleman. Toni’s behemoth had been almost completely redesigned; the chassis had been enlarged and remodelled using Endosteel, which was lighter and stronger, to accommodate an extralight engine. The extra power and the weight saved had been used to fit four class five GM Whirlwind autocannons, one of these tree sized weapons was normally found slung over the carapace of a Marauder and a barrage from these fired in chain mode was like a long rolling thunder clap. Alongside the ballistic weaponry was a quartet of Medium class lasers, to help with close range fighting and the armour had also been upgraded to Ferro-fibrous plating and increased by two tons, allowing the Mech to operate as a front line brawler as comfortably as a long range support asset. The final modifications were experimental, helping to control the huge heat output from the weapons and engine during combat. The long list of changes had increased the Mech’s overall weight to nearly ninety tons but the massively powerful XL engine allowed it to move at a respectable sixty kilometres per hour. Aleks had never spoken to Toni about the subject but had often wondered where the CBill’s came from to pay for the work and materials put into her Mech; the cost of the XL engine alone would pay the wages of the entire unit for a year and more, perhaps another benefit of the Colonels ties with the MIIO or possibly of Toni’s lineage?

A small smile came to his face as Aleks thought of the third and final addition to the “Fighting Foxes”; Sergeant Alisha Friend was the only daughter of the units CO, Colonel John Friend, as such they had tried to keep their “friendship” quietly between them. Alisha had her father’s iron will and sense of loyalty but had inherited her mother’s looks, standing a shade less than five foot, the typical MechWarrior’s lithe physique and shoulder length auburn hair, highlighted with blonde streaks. Her hazel brown eyes sparkled with intelligence and a hidden mischievous side that Aleks had grown to adore. The relationship had blossomed when the pair were sent to acquire spare parts and supplies after a run in with a group of bandits almost a year ago, the long journey to find the necessary supplies had put them in each other’s company for almost three months and to both of their pleasant surprises, found they got along very well. Upon returning to the unit the pair had agreed it would be best to maintain some discretion amongst the rest of the Grenadiers but could not resist spending time with each other whenever possible. The secret seemed safe until six months later Aleks was cornered by his three closest friends; Graham Turner, Colin Smart and Jamie Simmons had gathered around him with huge grins on their faces. He could tell immediately that something had amused them and that usually meant it would be unpleasant for him, they proceeded to tell him how they had kept the pair under observation and that if it weren’t for Aleks unusual behaviour, they would never have figured it out. When Aleks had asked what they meant by “unusual” Jamie had nearly doubled over laughing as Graham explained with an innocent look on his face that Aleks was usually a grumpy so and so in the morning but when he had pulled a late shift in the command post with Alisha, he had a “spring” in his step at breakfast the following day. By this point Aleks face was bright red and he too was laughing, realising that his love life was not so secret after all. Shortly afterward the Colonel had quietly pulled him aside and made it perfectly clear in no uncertain terms that, although they were not a formal military unit and he could not “officially” ban them from seeing one another, he would remove Aleks ability to claim to be a male specimen of the human race if he were to hurt his daughter. Aleks believed there would be very little chance of that happening as he had come to realise that he was head over heels in love with Alisha; which was going to make having her under his command a real mix of pain and pleasure. He would somehow have to order her into potentially deadly situations and keep his feelings under wraps; or it could put the whole lance and possibly the whole unit in jeopardy. That sobering thought and the memory of the last time all three of his small group of close friends were together quickly brought him back to the situation at hand, Graham McAlister was obviously waiting for some sort of response from him and the rest of the lance leads were looking a little uncomfortable with the silence “No problem from me Graham, the extra fire power will be useful. What are you thinking, high mobility for pinning them and two extra-large hammers to pound them into scrap?” McAlister looked at him for a second, obviously weighing some internal equations and then replied “Aye, that pretty much sums it up. For some reason these Clanners like tae go one on one, even when outnumbered they go for the biggest meanest opponent and will fire only on that target; naebody else frae their side will touch the target unless they are hit by it. Frae whit we hae seen frae battle ROM footage an’ intelligence we picked up before leavin’ the colony, it is almost like some sort o’ honour duel” Tanya chimed in at this point “That would tie in with the act of declaring themselves and asking for the number and composition of the defenders; almost as if they are trying to match their attacking force to the defences as closely as possible” Darius stirred at his sisters comment adding “Wonder what they would do If we took the fight to them? If we came knocking on an area THEY were defending, how would they know we would not just send in overwhelming force to flatten their defenders?” “Perhaps they don’t DO defence. You know, sweep in like the barbarian hordes, take what they want and destroy everything else then leave” Aleks added “If that’s the case perhaps you’ll volunteer to return to the mining colony and see if anyone is home?” Dale Quintt responded with a grin “Only if you’re the one ringing the door bell, your little toy Mech can run faster than mine” Aleks fired back with a grin of his own. Graham McAlister cleared his throat to bring attention back to him “Well people, looks like we hae our new lance organization an’ we hav’nae lost the will tae fight. Let’s see whit the spooks hae for us when the Colonel gets back and you never know Dale, you might just hae hit the nail oan the head. Perhaps we’ll go make a house call”

As our little meeting broke up Tanya Cole stepped over and gently put a hand on Aleks shoulder, he turned to look at her and saw a sad smile on her face “I’m sorry about Jamie, Gunner, we didn’t get a chance to speak before we jumped away from the mining colony. He was a good man and a good Mech pilot, I know he’ll be missed” Aleks looked at her, mirroring her expression “He was a good friend, Tanya. I could always count on him to be there when it counted the most, he charged that damn enemy Mech to shield me…” “Stow that right now” Tanya snapped “If you think it’s your fault that Jamie is dead, you are wrong. Jamie did what any one of us would do for our each other. He protected his friend and CO while charging down one of the most formidable enemies we have ever encountered; it was an act of incredible courage and selflessness.” Aleks stood for a moment, staring off into the middle distance. In his mind he could see those last few moments of the battle again; Culloden staggered under the enemy Mech’s assault, the ground erupted around it from missile explosions and then Jamie’s Atlas strode into close contact, placing himself directly in its line of sight to Culloden. Aleks focussed back on Tanya and nodded “Your right, when I go over it in my mind, Jamie interposed himself between the enemy and I; right after I took a full force hit to the centre torso. Another volley like that could have damaged the engine shielding, he was trying to split the SOB’s fire and give me time to recover, manoeuvre for a better shot” Looking away from her steady blue eyes, Aleks voice dropped to almost a whisper “Any way you look at it, Jamie was killed protecting me whilst under my command; his death IS my responsibility. I will not disrespect his memory and his efforts by throwing away his act of valour in a fit of self-pity” Aleks looked back to Tanya and his voice became a low growl “But I swear by all that I hold dear, I WILL avenge his death on every one of these Clanners I can get my sights on”

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:28 PM.

[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter Three

Fortes Fortuna Iuvat

Bensinger, Tamar March
Federated Commonwealth
12^th April 3050

Standing in the primary bay of the Grenadier DropShip Highland Revenge, a sea of activity ebbed and flowed around Aleks; the spark and glow of welders as Tech’s carried out last minute repairs, Astech’s moved to and fro ensuring the sixteen Mech’s of Beta, Charlie, Delta and Foxtrot Lances were securely strapped into their protective gantries and cradles. All of it was a distant blur at the periphery of his vision, his attention was focussed on the new totem emblazoned high on the chest plating of his beloved Highlander. All of Foxtrot lances Mech’s had the Newton Grenadiers Company emblem; a silver shield with a stylized Cameron star in red and yellow printed on it and a broadsword slanted diagonally behind the shield, the legend Aut Pax Aut Bellum scribed below it in an arc; old Terran Latin for “Either Peace or War”. The standard unit emblem and motto were emblazoned on the left thigh and on both shoulders pauldron’s, the Roman numeral XVII for seventeen below it in white marking his personal Mech but Foxtrot lances new emblem had been painted in bright relief on the centre torso plating. The emblem held Aleks gaze, an almost comically muscled, bipedal fox with red fur and white chest with a green bird griped firmly in its clenched fist, the Jade Falcon caught by the throat in front of the snarling foxes teeth; a Fighting Fox indeed. The emblem brought a dark smile to Aleks face “I wonder what the Clanners will make of it?”, he thought to himself as the smile disappeared just as quickly as it formed; the Clanners would be on Bensinger in a matter of weeks if not days and the Grenadiers would not be here to meet them.

The last three months had been spent repairing and rearming the Grenadiers Mech’s and Armour assets for what he had assumed would be the defence of Bensinger; the eventual invasion was assured as the system was now virtually surrounded. News ROM’s and intelligence reports had trickled and then flooded in; a huge area of the Periphery from Erewhon to Porthos, a front spanning almost one hundred light years, had been attacked almost simultaneously by a technologically advanced enemy. Then in March a second wave had hit an even larger area along the Federated Commonwealth, Rasalhague Republic and Draconis Combine border worlds. The Jade Falcon Clan the Grenadiers had run into on the mining colony was one of four “Clans” involved in what looked to be the invasion of the Inner Sphere itself. The other three Clans had been identified as Wolf, Ghost Bear and Smoke Jaguar but at present only the Jade Falcons had attacked Federated Commonwealth worlds. In the past forty eight hours Colonel Friend had received an urgent warning from Colonel Scovy, the CO of Bensingers garrison unit; the 7^th Regiment of the 12^th Star Guards. Colonel Scovy had received a relay through the planets HPG; humanities method of near instant interstellar communications relied on the ancient and yet highly advanced technological wonder called a Hyper Pulse Generator. Capable of transmitting “packets” of data up to fifty light years at a time between two HPG’s, the stations used similar technology to that found on JumpShip’s to tear a hole in the fabric of space and transmit the message to the receiving station. The urgent communique had been sent to the Colonel, warning him that the Star Guards 1^st and 2^nd Regiments had been all but wiped out in the defence of their assigned garrison worlds. The few survivors of the 1^st and 2^nd Regiments had fallen back to Wotan and were advising Colonel Scovy to deny the Falcons a stand up fight; their technological advantages made conventional battle strategies a death sentence. The garrison units had been steam rolled in a little over three days and the surviving officers had suggested either pulling out to Wotan or committing to a guerrilla campaign. The Star Guards CO had told Colonel Friend he was splitting his Regiment into combat groups and spreading them across the planet, he would make Bensinger a VERY unpleasant place for the Falcons to roost. Colonel Friend had then called Graham McAlister and the five Lance Leaders into his ready room aboard the Bonny Banks and delivered the news, he was NOT going to wait on Bensinger for the attack that had to be on the way.

The Newton Grenadiers were going on the offensive.

At the meeting the Colonel shared intelligence snippets he had been passed by his MIIO contacts; the Clan invasion had swept all defenders aside with terrifying ease, as of March 3050 between thirty and forty worlds had either fallen dark to HPG communication or had been confirmed invaded and conquered. In the last batch the Colonel had received word that the spooks suspected but could not prove at least some level of cooperation between ComStar and the invaders. A lack of direct contact with any conquered worlds while back channel communications had confirmed the HPG facilities on those worlds were intact and being used by the occupying forces with the aid of ComStar personnel. Only one report had confirmed that the personnel were doing so without coercion and appeared to be cooperating fully with the blessing of their superiors. This little snippet of information had unsettled many of those present and it had brought some questions to Aleks mind, if ComStar are actively helping these invaders from beyond the periphery then what is the connection between them? Have they been in contact prior to the invasion and if so, what assistance has ComStar provided them beyond communications? For an organisation that has maintained a public stance of neutrality to have their actions put in the spotlight by FedCom Intelligence made him wonder whether they are as innocent and “above” the fighting between the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere as they claim. The Colonel outlined a simple plan; the Grenadiers would jump back to the mining colony on the Periphery border, using a pirate point in the system to cut their approach time from eight days to a little over twenty four hours. The Highland Revenge and Bonny Banks would approach the colony and use the Aerospace fighters to survey the surrounding area for possible enemy units. If the odds were in their favour or the colony was not being held, the Grenadiers would use the colony as a staging base to mount raids into Jade Falcon held systems. The purpose of these raids would be to gather intelligence and if at all possible examples of Clan technology.

If the Grenadiers managed to get some payback along the way, then that was just fine too.

The constant thrum of activity started to abate as Aleks stood watching the comings and goings of the various enlisted men and women of the Unit. The repair and rearming process had been completed a few hours ago, the last tasks of the support personnel were being finished off now and within the next hour the unit would be boosting for rendezvous with the House Davion JumpShip Intrepid, which would carry them to the a charted null gravity point in the system approximately fifty thousand kilometres from the colony’s solitary moon; putting them twenty four and a half hours away from the planet at a reasonable one point two G of acceleration. The ability to transport human kind from star system to star system relied on huge but fragile JumpShip’s; massively complicated and difficult in the extreme to replace, especially with the Inner Sphere’s current state of technological decline after three centuries of almost constant warfare, JumpShip’s rely on precisely mapped areas of null gravity in the target system. These areas are generally above or below a stars North and South poles, referred to as the Nadir and Zenith jump points; however a confident and some would say crazy JumpShip Captain can use carefully plotted pirate points to cut down on the distance from the insertion point to the target planet. A very useful thing if time is a short changed commodity and surprise is an important factor. Once in the system the Grenadiers would then deploy both dropship’s and burn toward the colony. Grounding twenty kilometres from the main habitat domes, a recon patrol by the units’ helicopters and Light class Mech’s of Dale Quintts’ Bravo lance should be able to ascertain the presence, or lack of, any Clan units. If the opportunity arose, the unit would take and hold the colony; the lack of an HPG would hopefully make the summoning of reinforcements by any Clan garrison force an unlikely risk and having a base of operations behind enemy lines could prove to be invaluable. Of course the lack of an HPG would also make notifying the Colonels contacts in the MIIO know what has become of them difficult but Aleks was sure if they pulled off an intelligence coup and returned with a Lance or two of Clan Mech’s it would be a really nice surprise for them.

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
22^nd April 3050

The JumpShip arrival and burn to the colony had gone off without a hitch; the jump had arrived within eight thousand kilometres of the intended insertion point. Which may sound like a huge miss but in astronomical terms was as close to a bulls-eye as you could hope to get. The Grenadiers DropShips had then separated and set a course for the colony, the following twenty four hours had passed in a tense state of boredom; the ordinary ground pounding members of the unit unable to do more than wait. Then as the DropShips had approached the colony alert klaxons had begun to sound out, warning of an incoming pair of aerospace fighters. The Captain of the Highland Revenge had launched the units three Lucifer fighters to run interference for the DropShips as they began their deceleration burns; lowering the approach speeds to allow them to safely enter the colonies atmosphere. The lack of identity from the incoming fighters answered the question of whether the colony was defended or not; the Lucifer’s had managed to hold off the fighters long enough for both DropShips to slow to manoeuvring speeds but at the cost of one destroyed and another damaged. The two attacking fighters had taken light damage from both the Lucifer’s and the DropShips but had ceded the approach to the colony without being driven off; again the Clans impressive fire control and technological advantage had been highlighted. A strange message had come through as the fighters broke off; stating the Grenadiers had been granted “SafeCon” to the colony and that Star Captain Gryphon of the 6^th Provisional Garrison Cluster awaited their “Batchall”.

Once the DropShip’s had grounded at the preselected landing zone, the Grenadiers had deployed it’s full force of Mech’s and armour in a security perimeter, the DropShip’s defensive weaponry alone would normally be enough to secure an LZ but any MechWarrior worth their salt would never consider sitting hemmed up in a Mechbay to be “secure”. The Overlord class DropShip is a huge vessel massing nearly ten thousand tons and capable of transporting a full Battalion of thirty six BattleMech’s, fifty tons of cargo, a squadron of Aerospace fighters and the associated personnel. Overlords are dedicated Mech DropShip’s but still carry a fearsome array of weaponry, six PPCs, six large lasers and three LRM-20s, firing twenty long range missiles per salvo. Close in firepower is mostly built around its two class twenty Autocannons, with support from six class five Autocannons and twelve medium lasers. Not as powerful as a dedicated ‘assault’ class DropShip but able to haul a larger fighting force into battle and comfortably holding a small bridgehead area such as our landing zone. Conventional wisdom dictates the use of a Battalion or more of Mech’s working in unison or a Special Forces operation to neutralise a grounded DropShip but with the attendant defensive units deployed it would normally be a target any sane force Commander would prefer to avoid.

Two hours after grounding and making sure the unit was in as secure a position as possible, the commanders of the five Mech Lances, Leftenant Colonel Debra Cripps; the commander of the armour and infantry forces, Major Thomas Sanchez; the commando force commander and Debra Cripps second in command, Leftenant Colonel McAlister and Colonel Friend, gathered in the Colonels command tent; setup in the shade of the Bonny Banks. The Colonel looked around the gathered warriors his intense gaze pausing on each set of eyes for an instant, a small smile playing at his lips in contrast to the warning glow from his scar. The Colonel was fired up and Aleks could feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, wondering what was going on he looked around the gathered officers, seeing Tanya Cole staring angrily towards the Colonel. Aleks glanced towards Graham McAlister; catching his look the Major gave him a slight shake of the head warning him off. “The good Star Captain has transmitted an offer which after a lengthy discussion between Leftenant Colonel McAlister, Leftenant Colonel Cripps, Major Cole and myself, I have decided to accept.” At this Major Cole lets out a barely perceptible sigh, her eyes falling to the floor, the Colonel continued “Star Captain Gryphon has formerly offered to face myself in a contest of single combat, the two unit commanders deciding the fate of both the colony and the units involved. The Captain pilots what he has named a Timber Wolf and seeing as we have no intelligence on what the Clans call their own Mech’s, I have requested and received a description of at least the class of Mech. This Timber Wolf turns out to be a heavy class at seventy five tons and should be at a disadvantage to my own Battlemaster.” Aleks sees Trevor Berkley, commander of Dog Lance sit forward abruptly “You can’t be serious sir! Surely we outnumber the Clanners or they would be fielding their full force and attacking us this very minute, why should we handicap ourselves?” Aleks finds that he agrees with the Captain and leans forward to speak but again sees the Major shake his head. “This is a decision I have to make Captain, if I can keep the full unit out of the fight and settle it between the commanding officers then it may save lives. I am confident my Battlemaster will be more than a match for any Heavy, even a seventy five tonner; I will have armour and firepower on my side. The terms of his challenge state that none of his Mech’s will fire unless provoked, the combat will be strictly between us” Tanya raised her head and spoke in controlled tones, trying not to undermine her superiors authority “Will we at least be fielding a security force to discourage any subterfuge?” the Colonel hesitated for a second, obviously hearing the question as well as the unspoken intent Will you at least let me come with you? Colonel Friends face softened perceptibly as he looked toward his Fiancée, that hint of a smile returning for an instant “Yes Tanya, we will be going out to meet the Star Captain in Company strength. You’re own Able Lance, Dale Quintts Bravo Lance and Trevor’s Dog Lance will accompany me; the Star Captain will have his full complement of Mech’s under his command. What he has termed as a pair of “Stars”, each of which comprises a five Mech unit; the equivalent to our traditional Lance. Charlie and Fox Lance will remain with the Dropship’s and provide security, however Debbie Cripps has suggested putting out a few squads of infantry to scout out the habitat domes; while the commandoes will scout the mining facilities and if possible secure them. The repair and fabrication facilities at the mines will give us a good place to setup a base of operations once I have dealt with the Star Captain.” Aleks gave himself a second to allow the information to sink in, thinking of Leftenant Colonel Debra Cripps; the overall commander of the Grenadiers infantry forces. She has always been a little gung-ho for Aleks tastes, almost as if she had a chip on her shoulder about the elevated position of MechWarrior’s over normal ground forces. If she was pushing to get her PBI involved Aleks was sure she had ideas of her own, he would have to speak with Graham McAlister and voice his concerns but he was sure the Colonel and Leftenant Colonel would be well aware of the risks.

Aleks mind rebelled at one thought; if the Falcons only had ten Mech’s defending this place, what is to stop the Grenadiers simply fielding their full force and obliterating the Clanners from the surface? Why go along with their ideologically slanted vision of combat? From the first day he set foot in a BattleMech Aleks had always believed the best way to win a battle was quickly, the quicker the enemy was destroyed or forced to capitulate, the fewer lives would be lost. This almost quant vision of limited warfare could only prove to lengthen conflicts by allowing the opposing forces to conserve their arms and supplies, simply calling a victor and allowing the transfer of material or locations to the new owner without the need to overwhelm an enemy. Perhaps the ideals of honour in battle had been lost or at least diluted over the past three hundred years of warfare, the horrors of the Age of War and the subsequent Succession Wars were far in the past but the lessons were part of every warriors training. Nuclear and biological strikes sterilising full planets while bombardments from Warships safe in orbit, indiscriminately wiping out tens of thousands of civilians alongside military targets were frowned upon as acts of barbarism, even in a Universe that has been in a state of war for centuries. The informal “Honours of War” code used since the Third Succession War were aligned to protect technology and knowledge, as much as to protect innocent civilian life but warriors such as Aleks would try every trick in the book to end a fight before allowing it to enter a civilian area. In his mind the warriors of the Inner Sphere and especially the MechWarrior’s had a duty to protect those unable to protect themselves, modern day Knights riding to war in their armoured steeds. He would rather leave his Mech broken and its armour shattered on the battlefield than see a civilian area decimated by a fire fight.

As this final thought crossed Aleks mind he saw a similarity between the ideal behind this almost ritualised form of warfare and his own sense of duty; a way to limit the cost in civilian life and wanton destruction caused by the maxim of Total Warfare coined by Hanse Davion in the Fourth Succession War. As the meeting broke up, Aleks having heeded the Leftenant Colonels warnings and kept his mouth shut, fell in beside him as they left the tent “Sir, I would like to request Foxtrot lance be included in this ‘competition’, the extra firepower might be useful in dealing with the Clanners. Especially if the fight between the Colonel and the Star Captain doesn’t pan out the way we want” McAlister stopped and pulled Aleks a step further away from the tent “Captain, this isnae a game an’ believe me the Colonel kens it. He’s goin’ intae this thing wie his eyes wide open an’ under nae illusions the Clan Mech is probably goin’ tae be on a par wie his Battlemaster an’ possibly e’en outgunnin’ him. We hae reason tae believe it’s the same model yae faced last year.” Aleks tried to control his facial expression; realising once again he is a mere beginner in the art of war, whereas the Colonel and Leftenant Colonel have been fighting on and off for longer than he has been alive, however he was still confused why the Colonel would go into single combat if he didn’t believe he had the upper hand. “Look son, I ken yae hae the best of intentions an’ yer instincts are good in the command couch but yae hae a lot tae learn about command of a unit the size o’ the Grenadiers. Just hae faith the Colonel kens what he’s daein’, he doesnae want tae see mare death amongst oor oan numbers if he kin help it.”

Aleks felt the burn of embarrassment on his cheeks as the rebuke sunk in, his thoughts had been focussed on revenge for Jamie and his willingness to get into a fight with the Clanners had been burning hot in his chest for months now. He hadn’t stopped to consider the full implications of the Colonels decision, who would know that if the unit were to engage in an all-out fight against the garrison there would be a greater than even chance of heavy casualties. The reports and intelligence files they had seen before leaving Bensinger had highlighted the Clans huge technological advantage over standard line units from the Inner Sphere, if the garrison unit was equipped with the same technology and they had no reason to believe otherwise, then it could easily mean the destruction of the Newton Grenadiers.

Finding his voice again Aleks faced the Leftenant Colonel “I apologise Sir, I hadn’t considered the Colonels actions fully. I would still like to be closer to the fight than the dropship’s but if the decision has been made then I will follow orders. I would say that I am uneasy about the Leftenant Colonel’s motives in assigning the PBI to scout the domes; surely we don’t want to risk a provocation into a full fire fight when such a large number of our heaviest hitters are more than a dozen kilometres away?” McAlister looked past Aleks for a few seconds towards the assembled Mech’s of Able Lance, visible beyond the gigantic landing strut and open Mechbay ramp of the Bonny Banks “Naw Aleks, am no keen on it masel’ but the decision has been made. The Colonel has put his trust in the ‘Honour’ o’ the Star Captain and wants tae make sure the dropship’s are kept secure frae anyone else who may be oot here. We’re bloody close tae the Periphery and unless the Clanners hae wiped oot e’ery pirate, we still hae to be wary o’ unwelcome visitors. I’ll gie yae one piece o’ leeway, you kin ‘patrol’ the Foxes oot tae five kilometres frae the LZ; if you happened to be a little closer tae the agreed battlefield, a ‘circle of equals’ the Star Captain called it, then that wid be advantageous if things went South. Guid enough?” the Leftenant Colonel asked with a smile. “Very well Sir, I will get my Lance up to speed. We are good to go equipment wise, and will be online, ready to move out in an hour” Aleks replied, his uneasiness lessening with the addition of McAlister’s orders but still unable to shake the sense of dread that sent a shiver down his spine; the vision of a Clan Mech raising its bulging arm mounted weapons pod toward his cockpit screen flashing in his mind’s eye.

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:29 PM.

[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter Four

The Fog of War

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space.
23rd April 3050

Aleks heard the alarm klaxon sound for automatic shutdown of the fusion reactor, the heat levels pushing up past the last couple of points towards the safety limit; he reached out and slapped the override control for what seemed the hundredth time that afternoon. Other warnings and alarms clamour for his attention as Culloden reeled from yet another savage blow from a PPC; the manmade lightning melting and shredding armour over the Mech’s right shoulder plating, getting dangerously close to exposing the softer, more vulnerable internal structure and actuators. The heat inside the cockpit was stifling and the air seemed to stab long blades of pain into Aleks’ lungs as his body fought to draw what little oxygen was available from it. The continuous weapons fire over the last forty minutes had drained all but one of his ammunition bins for the Gauss rifle in the Highlander’s right arm and the long range missiles had one reload left, Aleks made a mental note to save them for the right moment. He saw that his short range missiles had a good supply left, having been unable to close range enough to make real use of them. Another blow from a large laser sliced into the Highlander’s left arm, cutting away armour over the housing protecting the lasers mounted there. The loss of nearly a half ton of armour shifted the balance of the big Assault Mech and Aleks quickly adjusted the control sticks and foot pedals to bring the war machine back into line, taking a few steps backward to bring a boulder as large as a house between himself and his latest adversary. The brief respite gave Culloden’s heatsinks precious time to bleed the excessively heated air away from the fusion reactor and weapon systems; the gauge measuring the heat build-up crept back toward the orange band and some of the alarms began to go silent and Aleks thought to himself with a dark chuckle “Well, I wanted my chance at the Falcons and here I am up to my neck in them. I should be careful what I wish for”

Five hours ago the duel between Colonel Friend and Star Captain Gryphon had begun; the Colonel using all his skill and decades of tactical knowledge to manoeuvre the Clan Mech into a short range brawl more suited to the heavier armour and shorter range weapons of his Battlemaster. Aleks had listened to the blow by blow account, relayed by Dale Quintt through the company command net. “Yes! The Colonel has landed another hit to the Clanners centre torso and that missile pod on the left hand side looks as if it’s ready to go. Come on sir, you’ve got the son of a gun!” Aleks sat in Culloden’s cockpit just over seven kilometres away; his eyes closed, trying to picture the unfolding battle. The Star Captain had chosen as the ‘Circle of Equals’ a kilometre wide gulley worn into the hard red bedrock by a long dried out river, roughly twenty kilometres from an area Aleks remembered well; Dante’s Cauldron. The ragged channel where the waterway had died was still visible as an uneven depression running in a swaggering line from the high ground to the West towards the simmering heat of Dante’s Cauldron in the North East, the ground strewn with smoothed boulders where the river had ground out a channel around tougher geological material. At first glance the terrain would have seemed best suited to the Clan Mech’s technologically superior targeting systems; few areas of cover along the centre of the gulley affording long clear lines of sight for the Star Captain to hit the Colonel from a range the Battlemaster could not reply to. However the Colonel’s Mech had a few tricks up its sleeve the Star Captain hadn’t expected; the first being an experimental ECM suite. The sophisticated Electronic Counter Measure equipment was used to jam and confuse tracking systems and effectively ‘hide’ the BattleMech from enemy target acquisition computers. Of course the word hide is perhaps a little strong when you consider the object being hidden is two and a half stories tall and shakes the ground with every eighty five ton step it takes. The supporting Mech’s from Able and Dog Lance had setup in a section of the gulley half a kilometre behind the Colonels agreed starting line, the nine Clan Mech’s hidden beyond visual range a half kilometre past the Star Captain’s starting position which was one full kilometre from the Colonel. Meanwhile the three recon Mech’s of Dale Quintts Bravo Lance had found a series of switchbacks to reach the cliff top on the Southern side of the gulley. Although technically a violation of the rules agreed by the Colonel, the ECM equipped Raven 3L’s piloted by Graham Turner and Natasha Cole, would be able to hide the three Light Mech’s from the sensors of the Clan Mech’s and were there purely to give overwatch and ensure no subterfuge on the part of the Falcons. Aleks had said a quick prayer to himself, hoping that Graham could keep himself out of trouble.

At the beginning of the fight the Star Captain had discovered the Battlemaster’s ECM and much to Dale’s surprise and grudging respect, used extraordinary skill to maintain a visual lock and hit out with long range Particle Projection Cannon fire; Aleks could visualise the blue man-made lighting of the highly charged ion streams lancing out from the big weapon pods in the Timber Wolf’s arms, striking the Colonel’s Mech well beyond the Battlemaster’s optimum range. Dale had continued his commentary as the Colonel dodged the Battlemaster first down into a deep section of the dried river bed and then out among some house and car sized boulders on the far side, trusting in the sturdy Assault Mech’s thick armour to absorb any damage long enough for him to get closer and lay out the Mech’s next surprise. As the Colonel closed to under seven hundred metres he orientated the big machines torso toward the last position of the Star Captain’s Timber Wolf, a trio of missiles streaked from the rack mounted on the Battlemaster’s left shoulder. To the Clanner this would have seemed strange; the optimum range for the unguided short range missiles were, at best, less than three hundred metres. So for the Colonel to waste precious ammunition in a futile gesture of defiance must have looked foolish, that was until the warheads on those missiles exploded against a boulder and the ground at around four hundred metres from the Colonels firing position and not with the expected flash and shrapnel of a normal warhead but with a thick puff of grey white smoke. The lighter, smaller smoke rounds built into the first three missiles in the Colonels ammunition bin had allowed a larger propellant chamber to be added, extending the range to more than a third of that normally available; thus allowing the Colonel to spread a smoke screen more than halfway to his intended victim and using the ECM suite to mask the Assault Mech’s approach, the Colonel had effectively disappeared from the Star Captains electronic and physical field of view, instantly negating the Clan Mech’s range advantage. Aleks admiration for the Colonels tactical ability shone through his smile at the clever ploy; the use of smoke screens was almost unheard of on the modern battlefield. Passive and active sensors, RADAR and LADAR systems and a bevy of vision modes available through the view screens in almost all BattleMech’s made the use of something as archaic as smoke to obscure movement on the battlefield all but useless; unless of course the fight is between two lone adversaries and one of them is able to almost completely block it’s electronic signature. “Nicely done Colonel, the old dog has a few tricks left in him” thought Aleks to himself.

Using the smoke as cover and still able to keep a solid lock on the Timber Wolf; the Colonel stalked through the gulley, dodging around and between boulders, crossing down once more into the riverbed and up the other side; finally coming to a mere two hundred and twenty metres from the big Clan Heavy. Dale let out a celebratory yell as the Colonel fired his PPC as he emerged from the smoke just over two hundred metres away from the Clan Mech, catching the Star Captain with his torso twisted almost ninety degrees to the right. The manmade lightning bolt struck the Clan Mech on the dorsal armour, melting and shattering a huge gouge from the thick plating. The kinetic force of the unexpected blow and the sudden shift in balance from the loss of nearly a ton of armour threatened to topple the Timber Wolf to the ground but in a show of extreme piloting skill, the Star Captain maintained the war machines balance with a quick side step and extension of the left arm pod out to the side. Using the momentum of the side step, he then pivoted the Mech on its front foot and rotated the torso to face its antagonist. Firing a quick shot from the Timber Wolf’s extended range small laser and striking the Battlemaster on the right arm, the Star Captain rode out the follow up strike from the Colonels six medium lasers. Fired from extreme range and knocked off aim by the glancing blow from the Clanners own small laser, the beams splayed a little wildly and only three contacted solidly with the Heavy Mech’s left leg and along the rounded side torso; leaving scorched gouges in the armour as the mega joule beams of light melted the protective plating to rivulets that dropped steaming to the ground. The blows forced the Star Captain to back pedal, looking to gain a little ground and bring fresh armour to bear against the Colonels weapons; the Colonel meanwhile continued to advance, pushing the advantage of his tactical surprise to the full. Gaining another dozen metres, the Battlemaster’s PPC lit off again; this time scoring a solid hit against the Clan Mech’s forward jutting centre torso just below the armoured cockpit screen. The left side of the Battlemaster disappeared in a cloud of exhaust smoke as six short range missiles leapt from their rack, this time there was no harmless smoke rounds in the nosecones of the rockets; five of the six unguided weapons struck the Timber Wolf, one ploughing into the already damaged plating just below the boxy left hand missile rack. The others tore open fresh armour on and around the Clan Mech’s legs, the loss of armour again threatening to spill the war machine to the ground. A pair of medium lasers followed on into the Star Captains centre torso, burrowing a deep score into the already damaged plating. “Yes!” came Dale Quintts call over the command net “….you’ve got the son of a gun” “If this is the best the Clans have to offer, what the hell is going on in the rest of the Inner Sphere? The Colonel is ripping this Clanner to pieces!” Aleks thought to himself strapped tightly into the Highlanders command couch. “What the hell!” Aleks heard Graham Turners voice call over the command net; even with the distortion caused by the electronic reproduction, Aleks recognized the anger and fear in his friends voice. “All commands this is Bravo Two, I have unidentified infantry one hundred and fifty metres from my position. At least I think they’re infantry but they are huge and wearing some sort of power armour. I’m taking fire, repeat I’m tak….” And with that the transmission from Turners Raven stopped, the friendly blue triangle blinked once on Aleks tactical display and went out. Immediately Aleks reached forward grabbing the joysticks and throttle controls, dialling for full power from the fusion reactor buried in the guts of his Highlander “All Foxes, on me. It sounds as though the Clanners are not as honourable as the Colonel had hoped” Aleks calls out over the Lance communication net. “Captain yae’ll hawd yer position, repeat do not engage” came the voice of Graham McAlister over the Company command net “Bravo lance is pullin’ back, Sergeant Turner had his comm’s unit knocked out by a single missile and we hae received a signal frae the Jade Falcons that this wis a warnin’. They’ll no’ tolerate tactical information bein’ relayed tae the Colonel by oor scouts.” “What the hell are they talking about the Colonel is ripping their Star Captain to shreds and Bravo Lance has had nothing to do with that! If this is their idea of honourable action, then let’s dispense with the pleasantries and put them out of their misery” Aleks retorted, immediately cursing himself for shooting his mouth of to the Leftenant Colonel over the Company network. “Captain, yae will control yersel’ an’ obey orders” the Leftenant Colonels tone left no doubt as to his anger at the outburst and Aleks quickly took a breath to calm himself, pulling the power controls of his Mech back to a hot idle “Yes sir” was the only reply he trusted himself to give. A flashing light on the communication panel alerted Aleks to a private channel being opened; flicking a switch he opened the channel and was surprised to hear the voice of Tanya Cole come over the headset built into his Neurohelmet “Aleks you had better get a grip of yourself, I realise that could have been a different reason for Graham’s break in communication. My heart skipped a beat when I heard it but you have to bury the fear of loss or it will tear you…” the line went silent for a second then he heard Tanya’s voice quietly, as though she were talking to herself “…. Oh my God, Aleks get here, NOW!” the last word shouted in a tone Aleks had never heard Leftenant Tanya Cole use in the ten years he had known her, fear.

Distracted by the mystery infantry units and subsequently being pulled back, the Grenadiers scout Mech’s had not seen the Colonel stalk his Battlemaster to within one hundred and fifty metres of the Clan Timber Wolf. Exchanging barrages of PPC and laser fire with the seventy ton OmniMech, the eighty five ton Assault ‘Mech absorbing the hits and giving better than it received; the battle seemed all but won. However as the range closed to just over one hundred and forty metres, both Mech pilots choosing to ignore any pretence of using cover to shield themselves, the Star Captain opened up with both missile racks from what can only be described as point blank range. Now the range had closed below the lower limit of the ECM suites effective range, the Star Captain had gained a solid lock with his own targeting systems painting the Battlemaster for the guided Streak equipped missiles housed in the boxy racks above and behind the Timber Wolf’s torso. Streak missiles use data fed from the tracking equipment built into the ‘Mech to obtain a “hard” lock on the target, effectively guiding the missiles into explode their deadly, shaped explosive charges against the target ‘Mech’s armour. Although still relatively thick in many places four of the guided munitions dove in and found weakened joins in the plating over the Battlemaster’s upper left torso, just below the short range missile rack. The explosive charges shattered the remaining armour and poured heat and shrapnel through the gap to expend their energy against internal support structure and more devastatingly the ammunition feed system for the weapon. The heat cooked off the missiles in the reload rack, setting the warheads off and in a series of sympathetic explosions the entire left side of the big Assault Mech was torn apart from the inside. The left arm spun off to collide with the ground almost twenty metres away and pieces of armour plating were sent out as high speed shrapnel, several larger sections catching the Timber Wolf around its already damaged centre and side torso. The physical impact knocking the Heavy Mech back a few steps and tearing open a few sections of the plating but the damage seemed insubstantial in comparison to the battered and abused wreck of the Battlemaster that spun to the ground with a sickening noise as tons of armour and internal structures were crushed by their own weight, the Colonel having no chance to counter the massive shift in weight and balance of his war machine. The propellant in five of the missiles already loaded, lit off with the heat and concussion of the explosions and just as the full side torso began to come apart, they launched out of their tubes. Two of them spent their explosive charges against the unfortunate Star Captain’s Timber Wolf, the first catching the damaged supports for the left hand missile pod; destroying them and sending the pod spinning to the ground a dozen metres away. The second finding the damaged plating on the Timber Wolf’s side torso, punching shrapnel and pieces of plating through to damage the containment shield for the fusion reactor. The last three hurtled high into the air on a ballistic track falling to ground almost five hundred metres away. In a cruel twist of fate, the three “short” range missiles found the lightest Clan Mech of the Star Captains two accompanying Stars. The Locust IIc, the Clan designed descendant of one of the most prolific Mech designs of the Inner Sphere, shared its distant relatives long, thin back canted legs and apparently their inherent weakness. When all three missiles fell out of the sky, their propellant exhausted, they struck the unlucky Clan Mech at the weakest point of its legs; the hip joint actuator housing. Although the missiles no longer were being propelled, the ballistic track had allowed them to gather speed on their descent, the force of the impact from the first missile caved in the protective housing; exposing the fragile actuators that controlled the movement of the limb. The explosion of the warhead and the follow on impacts from the other two missiles completely crushed the housing, the actuators inside and severed the myomer bundles that were connected to them. Without the myomers, the Mech’s equivalent of its muscles and the actuators destroyed, there was nothing to control the limb and it simply ceased to support the Mech’s weight. With a howl of rage the Clan warrior rode his Mech to ground, the sickening crunch of crushed armour finally drowning him out. The Clan warriors surged forward, believing the dezgra Inner Sphere warriors; a Clan curse for a dishonourable act or person, had chosen to break the terms of the Circle of Equals and enter into a “Melee” or free for all. Coming out of their cover to find only the Colonel’s Battlemaster, struggling to rise from its knees, missing its left arm and the internals exposed all along that side. Not more than seventy metres from the wrecked Assault Mech was the Star Captain’s Timber Wolf, the cracking of the containment shield had allowed a huge escape of heat into the already sweltering Mech; causing a cascade effect and setting off the ammunition reloads for the Streak launchers. Luckily for the Star Captain, most of the explosive force was vented out of the Mech through cleverly designed channels built into the ammunition bins; called a CASE system. Unluckily for him, the resulting jet effect of the explosion escaping through those channels and the massive shift in weight span the Timber Wolf to the ground with such force that the collision further cracked the already damaged containment around the reactor. At the sight of the downed war machine, two the Clan Mech’s both strangely similar to the ancient, yet solid Hunchback started toward the Colonel. Being of the same Star unit as the pilot of the Locust IIc, the Clan warriors took it upon themselves to dispense justice on the unworthy Inner Sphere scum that had betrayed the honour granted by a Circle of Equals with a Trueborn Clan warrior, both having only a momentary spark of respect for him downing the Star Captain. The Clans tenets of warfare allow for single combat between individuals, usually the commanders of opposing forces and known as a Trial of Possession, to decide the victor of a battle and in the case of the mining colony the ownership of a planet without unleashing full scale warfare with the risk of damaging or destroying the very thing the forces are fighting for. In these cases any additional forces must hold outside the ‘Circle of Equals’ and not interfere with the Trial, thus the actions of Bravo Lance had sparked the flames of anger among the Clan warriors; many of whom did not believe the Inner Sphere warriors deserved the honour. The attack and disabling of the Locust had been the final straw and they needed no further proof of the dishonour of the Stravag, Inner Sphere scum.

This was the scene Tanya Cole saw unfold before her, her Fiancé’s almost completely disabled BattleMech struggling to come to its feet and unable to defend itself while two fresh Clan Mech’s approached, their intentions all too clear. Throttling her one hundred Atlas D Assault Mech into a lumbering advance; the behemoth capable of only fifty five kilometres per hour, Captain Tanya Cole knew instinctively that she would not make it in time to help the Colonel, the only hope lay in the speedy Light Mech’s of Dale Quintts Lance. Switching to the Company Command Net, the Captain began to call out orders; praying it would be enough “Bravo Lance, you need to get to the Colonel’s position NOW! His Battlemaster is severely damaged and a fresh pair of Mech’s appears to be engaging him, it looks as though the duel has been abandoned. Able and Dog Lance move to engage, fire as you gain weapons range. Aleks, I need you here as quick as you can manage; I’m going to need the firepower of Foxtrot” a chorus of acknowledgements rang out; Aleks noticed the tinge of desperation to Tanya’s voice and quickly passed the orders to the rest of the Foxes. Selecting a private circuit, he signalled Alisha Friend “Aleks, my father….. We’re too far away, if Tanya can’t hold them…. I, I don’t want him to die” Aleks’ heart plummeted at the words; despite the electronic reproduction he could hear the anguish in her voice. Mustering himself, Aleks replied in as light a tone as he could manage “Tanya will rip the Clanners apart before we get there and your father has got through worse than this. We’re about ten minutes away at our best speed, so let’s get moving; we don’t want to miss the fun”, “OK Aleks but….. Oh god” Alisha replies in a quiet voice.

“If we can’t save him, we sure as hell will avenge him” Aleks thought to himself.

In the Battlemaster’s cockpit Colonel John Friend looked at the various displays and instantly knew the truth; his BattleMech was dying. The violent internal explosions having destroyed almost all of the war machines heat sinks, warnings klaxons screamed for his attention and text warnings float across the screens; rhyming off the various systems, weapons and equipment that had been damaged or destroyed. The big Mech’s complete left side had been ravaged by the ammunition cooking off and in a matter of seconds the Assault Mech’s fearsome arsenal had been reduced to the single extended range PPC in the right arm, which he was using to help bring the Battlemaster to its feet and a pair of functioning medium lasers in the right torso.. As the tattered war machine struggled to an upright position the Colonel swept his gaze across the tactical radar display, looking for the Star Captain and that damnable Timber Wolf. If he made it through this, the Colonel would have to try and salvage the Mech young Aleks Wilson had pushed into the Cauldron; if it was still there and they could save it, the firepower in that Heavy would be a formidable addition to the Grenadiers. In that instant the Colonel spotted the Timber Wolf lying flat out on its back a mere one hundred metres away and as far as he could tell the Mech was shut down. The damage to its torso and weapon pods was evident through the view screen but a quick check on the thermal display showed a huge plume of heat escaping through the rent in the savaged side torso, indicating a damaged containment shield around the fusion reactor; the Star Captain must have shut down just in time to prevent a meltdown. The next thing that grabbed his attention was an additional pair of red targets on the display, quickly selecting one he hesitated for an instant as he brought the Battlemaster around to face these new threats, trying his best to shield the damaged left side. As they came into view the Colonel saw that the two Mech’s looked almost identical to the Inner Sphere Hunchback but with one huge difference. The principal model of the Hunchback had a single class twenty autocannon mounted in a boxy housing over the right shoulder; this Clan model appeared to have one over each shoulder. As three foot long flames erupted from those four ballistic ports, heralding the departure of high explosive rounds; Colonel John Friend said to himself “God help me”, feeling fear for the first time that day.

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:30 PM.

[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter Five

The Darkness before the Dawn

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
25^th April 3050

Aleks sat in a perch, high in the gantries of the primary bay aboard the Highland Revenge, contemplating the cost of that word; revenge. Looking down into the Mechbay he could easily pick out the empty cradles that would not be filled anytime soon and too many of those spaces had an accompanying empty bunk in the cabins above him in the Dropship. Men and women he had lived and fought alongside for a decade, some he cared deeply for were dead or badly injured and all at the hands of the damned Jade Falcons. Looking down at the dressings covering the blisters on his hands, wrists and arms where the fire had licked at his bare skin, the physical pain only just blotting out the anguish he felt inside. Aleks’ feelings ran a roller coaster in his gut, fluctuating from cold, hard rage to blinding despair. In the space of twenty four hours the Grenadiers had been reduced from a fearsome Mercenary unit, fielding more than a Battalion worth of Mech’s, over two hundred infantry and a pair of armour Lances to having just five fully functional machines and perhaps another three or four which could be repaired in short order. The armour and infantry had been virtually untouched, only the commando’s losing some of their number to those giant, armoured infantry the Clanners were fielding. That the Falcons no longer controlled the mining colony was of little comfort and the fact only five of their MechWarrior’s had survived the battles also held little meaning for Aleks. Looking down at Culloden, Aleks took in the damage up the right arm; the housing for the big Gauss rifle was crumpled and burned where depleted uranium tipped autocannon rounds had ripped into it gutting the rifle and overloading the capacitors. Upon their destruction the stored energy was released back into the BattleMech and the resulting backwash of uncontrolled energy through the electrical systems had almost knocked him unconscious with the feedback through his Neurohelmet. His eyes followed the trail of destruction up past the shoulder armour, or more accurately where the armour was supposed to be, the Tech’s were cutting it away in preparation for removing the full arm; the hope was they could salvage another Gauss rifle from amongst the Clan tech and that it would be compatible with the Highlander, otherwise they would have to jury rig an autocannon in its place. The full frontal plating across the chest and the distinctive “hooded” head of the Highlander was scored, burned and pock marked with laser and missile hits; at the last report the frontal armour of his Assault class Mech had been reduced by almost eighty per cent and would have to be completely stripped and replaced. Staring at the wreck of his beloved Highlander, Aleks reluctantly moved his gaze along the next three cradles, the first two holding badly damaged but repairable Mechs. Focussing on the last one, the emptiness of the cradle consumed him and as he sat there, his vision slowly became blurred; the tears that had been scratching at the back of his eyes finally being given release.







Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
23^rd April 3050, thirty hours earlier

Aleks heard Tanya Coles voice ring out over the private channel, tinged with fear “Aleks, where are you?” checking the tactical display Aleks replied “Foxtrot is two clicks out Tanya; we’ll be there in less than three minutes.” Switching to the Lance channel he called to the other three ‘Mech’s of the Fighting Foxes “We need to hustle people, the Colonel got out but the Clanners are tearing into Able and Dog. The Major needs us ASAP, push to your best speed and don’t worry about stringing out.” He listened as the three warriors’ chimed their reply, Alisha’s voice made Aleks’ thoughts turn to the Colonel and how lucky he had been.

As the Clan designed Hunchback IIC’s started firing, Colonel Friend used every last ounce of skill he had and spun the battered Battlemaster, bringing the damaged left side fully away from the hammering autocannons. He swung the right arm mounted PPC up into line with the nearest Clan ‘Mech, the Colonel waited for what seemed a very long second as the Battlemaster’s target acquisition system attempted to lock onto the enemy machine. As the floating crosshairs on the Colonels display turned to a golden hue, he pulled through the trigger and an azure whip of charged ion particles lashed out in a stream of manmade lightning. To the Colonels surprise the single stream lanced straight through the side torso armour of the Clan ‘Mech, the plating shattering and spinning off in all directions while the thermal display showed a huge bloom of heat; indicating a breached engine shield. As the Colonel watched incredulously, the Clan ‘Mech erupted from within as first autocannon ammunition cooked off from the massive increase in temperature. Then as the red and yellow flames of the exploding munitions was consumed by the golden fire of the overloading fusion reactor, the ravenous chain reaction consumed the Mech itself, it’s ammunition and its pilot until a pair of burnt and twisted legs were left, the arms spinning off in cartwheels. The force of the exploding ‘Mech knocked its partner to the ground, the left arm being ripped off at the shoulder actuator. In testament to the Clan warriors tenacity and skill, the ‘Mech immediately began an attempt to rise, using its right arm to lever itself onto its knees but the Colonel quickly overcame his shock at the ease of destroying the first enemy and lined up a shot; with precision, he neatly amputated the right arm just above the elbow actuator, sending the damaged ‘Mech crashing to its chest.

As he had noticed, the Clan designed ‘Mech’s sported not one but two class twenty autocannons over each shoulder but what he could not have known was that to allow the mounting of such a fearsome pair of weapons the Clan designers had stripped the armour to almost the bare minimum to maintain structural integrity. In a society that holds their genetically engineered warriors as the pinnacle of their caste based philosophy, the Clan warriors posted to garrison duty are either Freeborn warriors; born of what Inner Sphere society would regard as `normal` biological parentage or Trueborn warriors, the genetically engineered progeny of the original founders of the Clan system, that have lived past the point where they are deemed likely to garner positions of command and are generally looking to die in honour with the hope that their genetic legacy will live on if their last battle is noteworthy. As such the garrison forces were normally equipped with older, second line designs or more recently with captured Inner Sphere designs. The Hunchback IIc was exclusively assigned to these units and almost as exclusively piloted by ‘aging’ Trueborn warriors looking to have one last glorious battle.

Within moments of the Clan Hunchback falling back to the ground both Able and Dog lances moved into covering positions around the Colonels battered Battlemaster, Tanya opening a channel to the units’ commanding officer and her fiancé “John we are on a discreet channel, are you OK?” to her relief the Colonels’ voice came back loud and strong “Yes Tanya I’m fine, it’s good to hear your voice” a pause, then “I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through that.” The slight edge to the Colonels voice at the last part betrayed his emotions to Tanya. She visually surveyed the damage to the Assault ‘Mech; sparks and coolant spraying from exposed circuitry and burst heatsinks, the innumerable scorch and impact marks of energy and autocannon hits and the smoking ruin of the entire left side. She silently said a prayer to whatever higher power decided to spare the life of her fiancé that day, then called over the open channel “Well let’s get you out of here, your Mech looks as though a strong gust of wind would be the end of it, are you still mobile?” “It may look like hell Tanya but the old slugger will get me home” was the reply. But as the Colonel started his Battlemaster shakily forward, the command circuit crackled open, the voice of Dale Quintt breaking in “All units, enemy contact. Looks like the Falcons are not letting this go; I have six ‘Mechs of varying weights and an intermittent contact of at least five of those armoured infantry. The ‘Mechs are closing from the North West and the infantry appear to be heading around your position to the East. Tanya, get the Colonel out of there; I would say you have ninety seconds at the most”

Tanya called out orders in a string of rapid fire sentences, pushing Trevor Berkley’s Dog Lance out to buy them some time and hopefully pick off an enemy or two. The scouts of Bravo Lance were ordered to get eyes on the infantry and make sure they couldn’t turn the flank of the Grenadiers force. Finally Clay Simmons in his Awesome was detailed to escort the Colonel away from the area, under great protest from the Colonel, who argued that Tanya would need the extra firepower of the powerful Assault class ‘Mech. Tanya overrode his objections, telling him sternly over their private channel that what she “needed” was for him to be out of here so she could concentrate on doing her job. Upon hearing this, the Colonel had relented, picked up his escort and moved out at best speed towards the DropShips and away from the developing battle. He called out one last message to his fiancée “Be careful Tanya these Clanners are tough as hell, I want you back to the DropShips in one piece. I…. I love you” Tanya heard the trace of fear in the Colonels voice, clamping down the urge to turn and follow him, she replied “I love you too John, don’t worry about me. Just get yourself back to the landing zone in one piece, I’ll see you later”

With a last glance at the Colonels departing ‘Mech, Tanya turned her Atlas to face the oncoming Clan Mechs. Dog Lance had raced forward around a tight turn in the gulley and was out of Tanya’s line of sight, Trevor Berkley began feeding intelligence back through the Grenadiers comms net, giving Tanya an idea of what was going on further into the gulley. From what she could see, it was not going well “Trevor pull back NOW, you are going to get overrun. Able has formed a firing line back around the bend, fall back in pairs and move through our line and form up on our left flank” The wide area that had been the battleground for the Trial of Possession gave way to a series of narrower twists and turns to the North West, where the bulk of the Clan ‘Mechs had setup awaiting the outcome of the Trial. Now with the destruction of their commanders ‘Mech and a further three of their number, they surged forward with little regard for being outnumbered. Tanya watched as the symbol indicating Stuart McGregor’s Griffin blink twice and then disappeared and over the Command circuit she heard Trevor call out “McGregor is gone, one of the Falcons punched through his cockpit with a PPC. Tanya, be ready to cover us these guys are right on our heels. I count six ‘Mechs and I only recognise four of them but all modified, a Victor, a Shadowhawk and a pair of Archers. The other two are similar to the one the Colonel took down” True to his word, Tanya saw first Andrei Bely in his Trebuchet run out of the gulley mouth at a sprint followed a few seconds later by the Hunchback of Graham Carter. Both Mechs showed signs of rough treatment, the Hunchback 4SP trailing twisted and burnt myomer where its lower right arm was missing. Then Trevor Barkley’s Centurion came into her view; walking backward at a steady pace, firing off carefully aimed one-two shots from his medium lasers. Tanya could see that the hardy Medium class ‘Mech had borne the brunt of the retreat; its right leg armour was almost completely stripped, trailing black oily smoke from several large holes in the thigh plating and around the side torso the internal foamed titanium structure was clearly visible. Sparks cascaded from a severed electrical circuit in the right arm, which hung limply at the ‘Mechs side, making the class ten autocannon mounted there useless and cutting its firepower by seventy five per cent. As his two Lance mates cleared through Tanya’s firing line a flurry of twenty missiles leapt towards the Centurion from a hidden assailant. The Centurion twisted its torso to the right, bringing up its right arm with its shield to absorb as many of the incoming warheads as possible and as the warheads exploded against the ‘Mech a series of blows rained into the arm and side from a rapid fire autocannon. As the assault petered off Trevor attempted to turn his stricken ‘Mech and get clear but as he started to move toward Tanya’s line a savage series of blows hit his machine from the rear. For a long moment the Centurion was back lit by the orange and blue glow of exploding autocannon rounds and the electrical discharge of PPC fire. Staggering forward from the force of the blows Trevor attempted to hold the stumbling Mech upright and then with one final flash of cyan and blue light, a large laser and a pair of PPCs speared through the rear of the Centurions head. The ferroglass shield that made up the faceplate exploded outward in a shower of sparks and a ball flame, Trevor’s body being instantly incinerated by the energy and heat released into the cockpit. As the Centurion dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, the first Clan ‘Mech came into view.

Tanya felt a cold stab of fear as the ‘Mech came around the corner of the gulley, a Clan OmniMech named a Warhawk. Striding on thick back canted legs with huge three toed, clawed feet and a thick flat carapace above the forward jutting torso; the maw of four PPCs swung toward Tanya’s Atlas. “What the hell is that thing?” Tanya thought to herself “Able Lance primary target is the monster with the quad PPC’s, take that thing out NOW!” On cue the three remaining Assault class ‘Mechs joined their fire on the fearsome looking Clan ‘Mech, PPC whips from Des Lennox’ Warhammer melted armour along the torso, just forward of the left arm shoulder joint. The paired large lasers and twenty long range missiles reached out toward the Clan ‘Mech from Helen Smith’s Stalker, one of the lasers burning a long score across the left leg armour and the other running across the front jutting torso and across the small ferroglass screen of the cockpit. Finally Tanya added her class twenty autocannon and a flight of twenty long range missiles to the volley of weapons fire, the missiles joining Helen Smith’s to explode in a wave over the back and sides of the thick armoured carapace above the Clan ‘Mechs torso. A few of the explosive warheads struck the shoulder mounted missile pod, armour plating spinning of in razor sharp shards leaving craters dug into the thick protection. In a few places multiple warheads struck at the same spot, firstly shattering the armour and then exploding through to the internal structure and support systems, one of which was the housing for the complex gyroscopic stabilizer. The housing holding the fast spinning device was cracked by one such explosion throwing a hitch into the momentum, which in turn caused the gyro to spin even further out of alignment and in a cascade of cause and effect the crack amplified the imbalance, which created a widening of the crack to the point of structural failure; all in the space of a few seconds. The death knell for the important device was sounded by the Clan warrior herself, allowing the fearsome Warhawk to settle back on its reverse jointed legs, she aligned all four of the ‘Mechs extended range PPC’s and let leash with all of their fury. The sudden force of the ‘Mech being pushed back in recoil automatically initiated the ‘Mechs systems to call on the already compromised gyro and in attempting to rebalance itself assured its own destruction. The gyro casing finally shearing all the way through allowing the internal rings to simply obliterate themselves on the casing and spread out in a huge shower of high speed shrapnel, severing circuitry, coolant pipes and severely damaging the fusion engines physical shielding. Before the Clan warrior was able to do anything to prevent it, the automated safety systems slide dampening fields around the fusion core; extinguishing the power output to the ‘Mech and completely immobilising it.

Unfortunately as quickly as this all occurred, it did not happen fast enough for Corporal Des Lennox. The single volley of PPC fire assisted by the Clan ‘Mechs highly sophisticated targeting computer, speared his Warhammer Heavy class ‘Mech. One of the azure whips struck into its left knee joint, the blow fusing the joint mid stride; as the damaged limb came back to the ground the Mech found itself unable to straighten out the limb, causing it to stumble forward. That single blow sealed the fate of the Corporal, in the space of a heart beat the cockpit was lowered two metres closer to the ground and directly into the line of the remaining three PPC streams. The converging ion streams hit the ferroglass screen in front of Des Lennox, giving him enough time to let out a scream of agony as the air in the cockpit was superheated and then mercifully the huge amount of energy burst through the protective shielding, instantly incinerating his body. The scream had been broadcast across an open frequency, a Clan warrior decided to seize on an opportunity to inflict a psychological wound “The Freebirth scum die with no honour, screaming like a Surat caught by the tail” Tanya quickly recovered her wits, ensuring she was still on the secure command channel she called “Able and Dog pour fire into the next ‘Mech, we take apart every one of these animals!” By now the Falcon refitted Archers had rounded the corner of the gulley and had opened up instantly with their long range missiles, forty of the projectiles lanced into the air on plumes of exhaust temporarily hiding the ‘Mechs in a black and grey ball of smoke. Every Grenadier ‘Mech in range spat return fire into the hazy smoke, illuminating it in yellows, reds, blues and greens; the combined fire quickly shredding the pair of Inner Sphere designs before they were able to fire a second volley of missiles. As the impromptu smoke screen cleared Tanya watched carefully for signs of either ‘Mech moving to continue combat but quickly realised neither were in a fit state to do so; the ammunition bins having been breached on both by the huge amount of fire concentrated on them, causing a series of internal explosions which gutted the ‘Mechs. “Sound off” Tanya called over the command channel, the replies came in but fell three short and Dale Quintts voice came over the channel “Helen Smith is down but is out of her ‘Mech, I’ve picked her up. Graham Carter’s Hunchback took the full force of those missiles, there’s nothing left of him or his ‘Mech……and Tanya, I’m sorry….” The cold shard of fear that Tanya had felt upon seeing the first Clan ‘Mech suddenly erupted into an overwhelming flood, filling her entire core “Oh God no, Natasha? Dale, please no!” a silence hung for what seemed an eternity then Tanya heard Dale reply “I’m so sorry Tanya, we ran off those armoured infantry but three of them leapt onto the back of her Raven with JumpJets. Tanya….. They cut into her cockpit with claws and lasers….. there was nothing we could do in time, I’m sorry” Tanya Coles daughter was dead, torn to pieces by these Clan monsters only a few hundred metres away from her mother and she hadn’t even heard her call for help, at that thought Tanya’s heart died and with a howl of anguished despair she started her one hundred ton Assault ‘Mech straight for the narrow gulley entrance. Dale watched as the Atlas lumbered forward drunkenly, the sudden movement over the rocky ground causing the big ‘Mech to sway, the Major obviously not fully in control “Tanya what are you doing? Get back; there are still at least a dozen of those infantry and another three Mechs out there. You’re blocking our line of fire! Tanya!” as the Atlas reached the turn into the gulley a series of bright explosions rocked the big Mech, the thick armour plating across the chest and right torso was shredded by autocannon rounds, short and long range missiles and then the silver blur of a Gauss round smashed into the big class twenty autocannon mounted in the Assault ‘Mechs torso. The kinetic force of the impact crumpled the open muzzle of the weapon, splitting it nearly in two and the supersonic shockwave passed on into the weapon itself shattering the casing of a shell as it was loaded into the breach. The propellant and explosive tip ignited inside the breach, causing a cascading series of explosions up into the ammunition bin; the force literally ripping out the right torso weapon and hurling it towards the hidden assailants. As the explosions continued unabated through the inside of the ‘Mech, the right arm was sent spinning off into the gulley wall fifty metres away; crashing with a shower of sparks as armour plating was crushed against the stone wall. The huge forces released inside the Atlas caused it to spin uncontrolled to the ground, Tanya unable to fight the Mechs fall due to being impaled by a section of foamed titanium bone from the chest cavity of her ‘Mech lancing into and through her command chair. Her dead hands still clutching the controls as the Atlas finally crashed to the ground with a sickening groan and ear splitting crunch as tons of armour were crushed beneath the ‘Mechs own weight.

Less than a kilometre away Aleks heard the scream of rage and despair from Tanya; followed by the curse and call for retreat from Dale Quintt “What the hell’s going on Dale? We’re nearly there, forty seconds out” a brief silence followed by a squelch of static told him Dale had switched to a secure channel “Aleks we’re on discreet, Tanya is dead. She charged the gulley by herself, whatever is around that corner was waiting and…..and they annihilated her. We are down to two Lights and a heavily damaged Medium; those last three ‘Mechs took down an Atlas in one salvo. We’re pulling back to you, be ready.” Aleks sat stunned for an instant, Tanya Cole, Trevor Berkley, Stuart McGregor, Natasha Cole, Des Lennox and Graham Carter all dead? What the hell? “Aleks, do you read me? We are nearly at your position” suddenly Aleks heard the warning tone of an enemy lock on and quickly snapped out of his stupor. Running his eyes over the displays he saw three large contacts directly ahead and perhaps half a dozen small, fast moving ones angling off to the right. The three friendly blue triangles marking Dale Quintts small force of survivors was only a couple of hundred metres away, Aleks quickly ordered the Lance into a firing line to provide covering fire. But as they aligned themselves toward the threat, a pair of Jade Falcon heavy aerospace fighters attacked from out of nowhere. Having clung just fifty metres above the ground, the fighters had used the lower ground level of the gulley to mask their approach until virtually the last second; popping up and unleashing autocannon, laser and missile fire on the unsuspecting Grenadier ‘Mechs. Aleks Highlander suffered a series of devastating hits to the right arm, the powerful Gauss rifle being shattered by a few lucky strikes past the shielding armour plates. Aleks world whited out as a backlash of electrical current spiked through the Mechs circuitry, pulling a scream from his throat as white hot pain lanced through his temples. As his world slowly came back into focus he realised that his Lance mates had engaged the first Clan ‘Mech, working as a team the three Mechs had combined fire to take apart the Clan Shadowhawk which lay in smoking ruin not three hundred metres from Aleks. The fearsome looking Hellbringer, another Jade Falcon Omnimech, shouldered the falling Shadowhawk aside and laid into the three Grenadier ‘Mechs with extended range large and medium lasers, an Ultra class five autocannon and a spread of long range missiles. The wildly spread weapons fire did nothing more than chip and burn a series of armour plates on each of them and finally draw the anger of the three ‘Mechs pilots in return. The concentrated reprisal was devastating, ripping the legs and one arm from the hapless Omnimech, which in any one on one fight would have held a huge advantage against each of the Inner Sphere designs but with the odds stacked firmly against it and with the fury fuelled rage of the Grenadier pilots; the OmniMech simple didn’t stand a chance. The three finally turned their attention to the last Mech, the Victor, which had maintained a steady tempo of fire against Alisha Friends Warhammer, Aleks watched the silver blur of a Gauss round scream into the centre torso of the big Mech. Alisha allowed her ride to step back and twist at the waist to compensate for the dramatic shift in weight as a ton of armour was crushed beneath the kinetic force of the hit, then just as quickly realigned and fired her chest mounted PPC’s back at her attacker. The Victor did not fare as well in the exchange, both PPC’s hit the right side torso and were joined by lasers and short range missiles from Aleks own Highlander and a long rolling series of explosions walked their way from the right leg up to and across the centre torso from Toni Kerensky’s quad mounted autocannons. The massive volley melted and shattered the armour over those sections and all along the right arm, which was sent spinning off in a wave of explosions. The Clan warrior rode out the savage blows and bracketed Aleks with a pair of Medium lasers and a spread of short range missiles, the lasers finding a breach in the protective plating on the left arm. Warning lights flashed on in the cockpit, indicating the loss of a laser and two heat sinks being ruptured; Aleks cursed as another volley of short range missiles struck Culloden on the right torso, several warheads hitting the protective cowl on the head. Aleks own head swam from the noise of the impacts, his ears ringing and the ‘Mech shaking violently as the explosions rocked him around in the command chair. Then he was suddenly shoved violently to the side and amongst the din he heard Alisha’s voice over the command channel shout “Look out Aleks!” followed by a high pitched noise as the ferroglass screen in front of Aleks face cracked from the top right corner half way to the middle.

As Aleks view was blocked by the explosions the Clan aerospace fighters had returned, firing another spread of missiles and autocannon shells along the Grenadier line. This time the missiles did not have explosive warheads, as the they came to a few metres from their targets the warhead cones popped open and discharged a gel type substance which clung to anything it came in contact with. A secondary charge then ignited the gel which burned sufficiently hot enough to raise the internal temperature of a ‘Mech to the point of shutting down the fusion reactor, in many cases the unfortunate warrior on the receiving end would be literally boiled alive inside the cockpit. Luckily for Aleks, Alisha had seen the incoming missiles and realised he was stunned from the hits to the Highlanders head. Shoulder charging Culloden, she managed to push Aleks Mech almost out of the line of fire but in doing so the force had twisted the upper torso, pushing the frame of the ferroglass cockpit screen out of line and cracking the screen itself. A small amount of the burning gel struck the screen just past the crack; Aleks was stunned by how close he had come to having the liquid enter the cockpit. Then Aleks realised someone was screaming over the command channel “Alisha... Oh God!” Aleks turned Culloden towards the fallen form of Alisha Friends Warhammer, the area around the cockpit and over the torso alight with flame; a series of cracks evident across the armour and the cockpit screen. In pushing Aleks larger ‘Mech out of the way, Alisha’s own had suffered the same structural damage as the Highlander and then bore the full brunt of the incoming autocannon and inferno rounds. Several of the shells struck across the frontal armour and the exposed cockpit screen, rending the plating open at several seams; the flaming Inferno gel flowing past the breaches to set alight the internals of the ‘Mech. Aleks ignored the rising temperature of his own cockpit, releasing his restraining harness and pulling the emergency egress handle on the access panel at the rear of the Highlanders cockpit. He quickly unfurled the chain link ladder from its armoured cupola, burning his hands on the superheated metal and clambered down as quickly as he could. Dropping the last two metres, he bent his knees as he struck the ground but lost his balance as his exhausted body failed to react in time to his thoughts. Rolling painfully to his feet he stumbled and ran towards the inferno engulfed Warhammer, as he closed to within a few feet of the ‘Mech a sudden gust of wind blew a long tongue of flame towards him. Instinctively Aleks threw up his arms to protect himself and his bare skin blistered from the incredible heat, at that moment he knew; Alisha was dead.

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:36 PM.

[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter Six

A New Day, a New Trial

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
24^th April 3050

The vibration of booted feet coming along the walkway behind Aleks interrupted another rerun of the previous day’s catastrophic events in his head; feeling decidedly inhospitable, he refused to look up at the newcomer. “Hidin’ up here isnnae gonnae bring any o’ them back laddie” the deep gravelly voice of Graham McAlister called out, the Leftenant Colonels Scottish burr coming out strong with the emotion the survivors of the battle were all feeling. “I’m not hiding, Sir. I simply thought it best to stay out of everyone’s way for a while” Aleks replied quickly, his own voice betraying the tumult of pain and anguish he was feeling “Aleks a’m no yer enemy. Hell, a’m as close tae kin as yae hae on this rock. The Grenadiers are aw hurtin’ son, we took one hell o’a poundin’ yesterday an’ well…. we may no’ survive this as a combat unit” Aleks head snapped around to stare at the Leftenant Colonels face, a look of disbelief on his face. McAlister simply looked back at him, a mixture of pity, grief and resignation etched into his features “The Colonel and Darius Cole are in pieces o’er the loss o’ Alisha, Tanya and Natasha. I realise yer hurtin’ o’er Alisha but tha Colonel has lost almost his entire family in tha space o’a day, add that tae tha other losses an’ John Friend is in a very dark place right noo. I’ve kent him fir longer than yi’ve bin alive an’ he has his oan way o’ dealin’ wie things, when yer dad died it hit both o’ us hard an’ it took him weeks tae work his way through it but I git the feeling tha two o’ ye need tae talk. The auld man sees ye like a son, he promised yer dad he’d look oot fir ye but right noo I ken he needs ye tae remind him what he has left tae live fir.” Aleks turned back to look at Culloden, the Highlander seeming to stare back at him, the energy and impact damage to the cockpit screen and armoured cowling looking like tears creeping down from the ‘Mechs face. The high pitch squeal as one of the studs securing an armour plate over the Highlanders shoulder gave way under the Techs burning torch echoed in Aleks mind, sounding all too much like a scream of pain. With a shudder he turned to face the Leftenant Colonel “Alright but I’m not sure if asking me to raise his spirits is the right thing to do. The Grenadiers and I have something in common, I’m not sure if I have any fight left in me.” Getting to his feet Aleks looked to McAlister and suddenly realised he looked like hell, the stress of the last thirty hours and the massive losses suffered by the unit had drawn the normally vibrant and outgoing Caledonian in on himself. With a sigh McAlister reached out a large hand and placed it on Aleks shoulder “Look laddie this isnae tha first time ye’ve lost someone ye care aboot, war is cruel an’ kens nae pity. In yer heart ye accepted that tha first time ye fired a’ an enemy ‘Mech, we will git through this, bit we hae tae remin’ oorsel’s tha reason we’re oot here da’in this. Nae longer is this aboot fightin’ Dracs or Capellans fir a piece o’ production real estate or computer chip, these Clans ar’nae here tae smash an’ grab. This is a fill scale invasion o’ tha Inner Sphere an’ tha ability tae choose oor destiny is at stake, right noo tha armies o’ tha Great Houses are aw reelin’ frae a punch that came oot o’ nowhere. Tha only chance we hae a’ staving off tha frontline Clan units is tae gather awe tha information we kin get oor han’s oan and git it back tae oor lines. We managed tae stop this garrison unit but in tha process we hae lost most o’ oor aen combat power” pointing with his free hand McAlister looked out beyond the open Mechbay doors “Oot there is salvageable Clan tech, hell some o’ tha infantry and the Clan technicians we hae captured are willing tae work wie us as somethin’ they caw Bondsmen. If we kin refit wie their level o’ technology or a mix o’ Inner Sphere an’ Clan tech, imagine whit we kid dae tae help drive back tha Clans frae tha worlds they hae taken.” Aleks gaze followed the Leftenant Colonels pointed hand out past the cradles below and down the ramp, in his mind he could see the battered hulk of the monstrous Warhawk, still standing idle where its safety protocols had immobilised it. The last Clan ’Mech had been disabled with a cockpit strike from Toni Kerensky’s Rifleman; the hammering autocannons had breached the armoured shielding and amputated the Clan warriors left arm, the blood loss and shock knocking her unconscious. The warrior still lived and had vowed to be held as Bondswomen to Toni; the concept of Bonds men and women being similar to being held in thrall or servitude, eventually earning their freedom through acts of honour or valour but the whole idea made Aleks slightly uncomfortable.

The Clan warriors ‘Mech would be mobile again with relatively simple repairs, providing a fearsome addition to the depleted Grenadier ‘Mech force. It would however take time to reprogram the ‘Mechs systems to accept another pilot and more still for that pilot to become accustomed to the new ‘Mech. With enough time the Grenadiers could repair and refit twelve, possibly fourteen ‘Mechs depending on the ability to use cockpits from the damaged ‘Mechs out there to replace that of Trevor Barkley’s’ Centurion and Des Lennox’s Warhammer. It was likely that the cockpit from Helen Smith’s Stalker could be used once it was recovered to the Dropship, the damage inflicted on the assault ‘Mechs legs and stubby arms was too serious to repair in the field and would require a full strip and rebuild of many components. Helen would probably be given first shout at the Warhawk once it was mobile, the slightly heavier Clan ‘Mech more than a fair trade for a Stalker. The estimates on Aleks own Highlander being operational, varied from twenty four to fifty hours, depending on what happened with the Gauss rifle. From snippets of conversations drifting up from the Mechbay, Aleks knew the Astech’s were excited about some of the electronics in the Warhawk and Hellbringer, if it was as sophisticated as they were saying it could be impossible for them to replicate without full scale production facilities. As powerful as they were the ‘Mechs would have to be protected and if possible smuggled back to a Federated Commonwealth held world, thus allowing technicians and scientists a look at the advancements made by their Clan counterparts over the last three centuries. Aleks mulled all this over and came to two separate conclusions, the first being he didn’t really care about the technological breakthroughs the Clans had made beyond those that he could use against them. The second was that he didn’t really believe the Clans would ever go away completely, he had seen the ferocity they had unleashed and the fact that the ‘Mechs they had fought here were second line and not the prime examples the frontline units had at their disposal sent a shiver up his spine.

As Aleks turned back towards him, McAlister saw something new in his eyes; a fire seemed to burn from within him. For a moment Graham McAlister saw something else, a reminder of someone he had not seen in over twenty years; Aleks father. Pointing down at the furious activity around the damaged ‘Mechs below, Aleks voice came as a low growl, growing with intensity as he spoke “Very well, I will not allow is for all of this destruction to be for nothing, we have lost too much…too many. I will fight tooth and nail to the very last breath as a Grenadier and I believe you would too Graham. If we can hurt the Clanners before that happens, good but I agree we need to get as much of this tech back to a friendly world as possible.” Turning to grip the railing with both hands, Aleks stares out of the Mechbay door “I think I want to speak to the Colonel and then have a word with our guest, Star Captain Gryphon. I believe the good Captain may be able to help us achieve that goal.”


Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
25^th April 3050

Colonel John Emerson Friend sat in his darkened quarters aboard the Grenadier DropShip Bonny Banks, he was unsure how long he had been here but he knew that the last thing he wanted was to face anyone. His usually strong, straight backed frame was slouched over, the grief and despair he felt inside seeming to sap his strength and gnaw away at his very soul. One word kept running over his lips and echoing in his mind; WHY? Why did the Clans have to attack now? Why did he choose to try and re-take this worthless piece of rock in the middle of nowhere? Why had he agreed to that damnable challenge? Why did Tanya and Alisha have to die? Why? Why? Why?

The incessant chiming of the doors communication panel finally dragged him to his feet, the flicker of anger at the impudence of whoever thought to disturb him putting some warmth in his soul. Taking a moment to straighten his jumpsuit and splash some water on his face, the Colonel brought the light level in the cabin up and shouted “Come” with barely concealed anger in his voice. As the door opened the Colonel turned to find Aleks Wilson standing in the doorway, something in his stance and facial expression transported him back two decades; the memory of Aleks father standing in their shared cabin about to give him a verbal lashing sprung to his mind. As suddenly as the image appeared it vanished, replaced by the younger Wilson looking at him with almost the same level of anger as his father had shown. “I said your Company needs you, Sir. You have a lot people who are hurt and more who don’t know what is happening, they need to at least see you down there. See the old man walking among them; give them a focal point to keep them going. Otherwise the Grenadiers are finished and this whole mess will have been for nothing, SIR!” Colonel Friend blinked, the spark of anger glowing a little hotter, not at the manner in which a junior officer had spoken to his commanding officer but at his own self-pity. Aleks’ bandage wrapped arms caught the Colonels attention, the vague memory of Graham McAlister reporting that the man had risked burning himself to try and get to Alisha came to him. Suddenly the realisation that he was not the only one to have suffered a loss burned through the cloud that had enveloped his consciousness for the past two days, like a slap to the face he saw that everyone in his command had lost someone. The Grenadiers were after all a large family, most of the units’ members having served together for the best part of a decade, if not longer. Those that had family back on New Avalon often had close friends in the unit as god parents for their children and it was not unusual for large gatherings during holidays if the unit was not on deployment. How many of those children had lost parents or uncles or aunts in the last two days? Looking to his desk, the Colonel realised that he had not even read the reports brought by Graham McAlister, let alone began writing condolence letters to the families.

Aleks watched the war of emotions flicker across the Colonels face, he recognised the turmoil he had felt over the last forty eight hours and that still threatened to burst forth at any second; only the low, slow burning rage in his core kept it in check. As the Colonel glanced over toward his desk, Aleks saw one last flash of something, perhaps pain, cross the Colonels face before he turned back to face Aleks. Just as he was about to speak again the Colonel raised his hand to quiet him, in a low steely voice he began “Let me speak Aleks, before you say something you’ll regret.” A small twitch at the sides of his mouth let Aleks know he held no ill will for the tone of voice Aleks had used “You looked like your father standing there. You have no idea how much you remind me of him, or how much I miss him, especially at times like this. He had a unique way of looking at life and more than once slapped me around the back of the head when I needed it, which is not an invitation.” The ghost of a smile returned for an instant only to be replaced with a look of sorrow. The Colonel reached up and ran a thumb over one of the silver Eagles attached to his jumpsuits collar “I thank you for the wakeup call Aleks and I believe you are right, it’s time for me to act as though I deserve these eagles and see to my command. I’m not the only one to have suffered over the last two days and at least my pain is emotional.” A small sense of relief washed through Aleks, although not close to the man he had known for most of his life, the Colonel at least showed signs of being able to handle the fall out of this disastrous conflict. Pointing to the noteputers on the Colonels desk Aleks spoke “Those have the facts and figures on what, who, we have lost and gained but they are only words and figures. Right now I would respectfully suggest walking through the bays and tents, as I said, we have a lot of people who need some sense of direction. The NCO’s and junior officers are doing their best but I think right now everyone just needs to see you, to know that the Grenadiers are going to make it through this and at least get home.” The Colonel looked into Aleks eyes and he could see some his commanding officers will, perhaps tempered by recent events but at least showing the promise of a return. “Thank you Aleks, I believe your father and mother would have been proud of the man you have become and I know I’m proud to have you serve with me. I had best clean up before making my rounds, I may not feel the part right now but I should at least look the part” reaching out the Colonel offered his right, which Aleks grasped and shook firmly before taking a step back, smoothly coming to attention and bringing his arm up in a precise military salute. Colonel Friend mirrored the movement and snapped his own salute in reply, a nod of thanks bringing the encounter to an end. Aleks turned about face and left the cabin, a feeling of relief and accomplishment giving way to that of expectation and anticipation. It was time to visit Star Captain Gryphon/

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
25^th April 3050

Aboard the DropShip Bonny Banks, Aleks stood looking at the manacled form of Star Captain Gryphon; he was a powerfully built man, heavily layered muscle covered his shoulders and chest. What surprised Aleks most was the relative youth of the Clan warrior; the scars he carried on his left arm and one prominent ragged line along the left side of his shaven head from above the eyebrow to just behind the ear, all added to make the man look older but on closer inspection he realised that the Star Captain was perhaps no older than himself perhaps even a few years younger than his own thirty six standard years. To his credit, the man held the Colonels gaze with unwavering brown eyes, back held straight and with no notice paid to the obvious role of prisoner he found himself in. For what seemed like many minutes Aleks simply stood there, calmly observing the prisoner and silently wondering if the Star Captain would speak first or wait for the Colonel to begin. With a nod the Colonel indicated the restraints around the Star Captains wrists “If I’m to believe what you’ve told our security people, those aren’t necessary. However before I cut you lose, I would like you to explain this concept of Bondsman that you have offered to submit to.” A look passed over Gryphons face, Aleks thought he saw something between contempt and anguish and then it was gone, replaced by a mask of solemn acceptance “Among the Clans we can claim defeated opponents as Bondsmen, allowing them to be assimilated into the triumphant Clan. As the one who defeated me, I am now bonded by you Colonel James. If you so wish, I will serve as a labourer and will work to earn my promotion back to field duty. However as a former unit commander of the Jade Falcon Clan, I believe I may be of more use to you as an aide and with time I would hope to earn an honourable death on the battlefield against your enemies. This would be the best I could hope for now that I have been defeated and captured by mercenaries” the last word said in such a way that there could be no doubt as to the Star Captains disdain for the Grenadiers profession. The Colonel sat for a moment, obviously struggling with the concept that a captured soldier would simply switch sides, even to work willingly as a labourer for what is essentially an enemy force was an alien concept for any member of an Inner Sphere military unit. Most personnel would see it as their duty to attempt escape at the earliest opportunity, to allow them to return to their “side” and continue the fight. It appeared that alongside their limited warfare ‘Batchall’ system to conserve materiel and technology, the Clans also conserved personnel by integrating them into the victors’ ranks. Meanwhile promises of being able to one day earn the ability to re-enter field operations allowed the ‘Bondsman’ to work toward a goal. “I’ll be honest Star Captain; I find it hard to believe that you would willingly help us against your former Clan. I think most of our personnel would agree with me there, I think they’ll probably walk around with side arms at the ready if you’re in the vicinity.” Aleks noticed the pained look cross the Star Captains face once more; it appeared to be something to do with the Colonels speech that he was finding uncomfortable. He made a mental note to find out more; right now it was unimportant beyond being a sign of weakness on the Star Captains part.

A knock at the door drew both the Colonels and Aleks attention, the Colonel called “Enter” and a junior Tech appeared with his face flushed “Sorry to intrude Colonel but Leftenant Colonel McAlister sent this and requested you reply in person” the Tech held out a yellow message slip and the Colonel took it with a curious look; why not contact him via the ships intercom? As the Colonel read it, Aleks saw the scar begin to glow red and his shoulders tighten. Without looking at him, the Colonel held the slip out to Aleks and addressed the Star Captain “A matter has arisen that requires my attendance, our talk will have to wait.” An arrogant smile played across the Star Captains lips “I do not suppose I have anywhere to go just yet. However I believe your choices for a response may be limited.” Looking to the piece of paper in Aleks’ hand “If that signifies what I believe it to, I may be willing to aid in your departure from this place. As your Bondsman, I will swear oath of fealty to you and to fight for the departure of your personnel. I ask only to be allowed to meet an end befitting a warrior.” Reading the slip as he followed Colonel Friend from the room, Aleks felt his mouth go dry; a broadband transmission had been picked up moments before a distress call had come through from the JumpShip. The transmission was in the form of a text only message “To the forces currently holding the mining facility in this system, I am Star Captain Tristan of the 6^th Provisional Garrison Cluster. With what do you defend this facility?” As he finished reading the message, he looked up to see Colonel Friend watching him “Well this time, I’m looking for some advice”, glancing over his shoulder Aleks thought for a moment before turning to answer “I think you may need to take it from Star Captain Gryphon sir. The Grenadiers are severely bloodied, if the incoming force is similar to what we have already faced I’m not sure if we can win” pausing for a moment, Aleks thought over the events of the past few days and the ritualistic style which the Jade Falcons appeared to approach combat with. “I am wondering if there is a way that we could use the Jade Falcons own honour code against them. I’m not suggesting a one on one duel against their commander but perhaps some limited trial, we are not really interested in holding this facility beyond using it as a staging point but the Falcons don’t know that. Can we use that to our advantage?” The Colonel had been watching Aleks with a thoughtful expression; the last comment changed that to a smile “I believe Bondsman Gryphon has already guessed at our willingness to hold onto this insignificant ball of rock. I think you may be right and that he may be our way off this rock without any more of my Grenadiers shedding blood.”

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
4^th May 3050

The remains of the BattleMech lay just slightly off centre from the smoking crater but Aleks could tell that it was the source of its creation. Grass and scrub bushes twenty metres away were ablaze from the intense heat of the exploding Fusion engine, the ravenous energy of the power plant had burst free of its confines; consuming the torso and cockpit of the ‘Mech in a golden flare of light. Roughly fifty metres from the crater lay a second ‘Mech, this one a Clan designed OmniMech; its entire right side was shredded. The explosion ripping free its right arm as well as the lower leg from the knee actuator down; the huge blow had spun it to the ground and left it sprawled out like a discarded child’s toy. Sparks and smoke played from large rents in the torso armour, indicating an electrical fire running free inside the wrecked war machine.

Aleks surveyed the images displayed on a secondary display screen and thought to himself “Thank you Star Captain, you were as good as your word. I just hope your former comrades are as honourable”. All around him the Grenadiers ‘Mech force, or what was left of them, waited; the tension was so thick you could reach out and touch it. Eight BattleMechs were arrayed to either side of his Highlander, Colonel Friend’s new machine somehow suited his persona; the freshly repaired Warhawk OmniMech looked squat and powerful, added a huge amount of firepower to the Grenadiers forces. Aleks own BattleMech sported a new weapons configuration thanks to salvaged Clan weaponry and hard work from a team of Grenadier Techs. The skilled workers had accomplished an amazing feat of integrating three Clan extended range large lasers into the housings vacated by the damaged energy weapons in the Highlanders right arm. The precious Gauss rifle mounted in the left arm had likewise been replace with a Clan version and in the process the Techs had discovered the Clan designed weaponry had freed up some weight and space in the assault class ‘Mech. Unfortunately the sophisticated Clan targeting computer was something they had been unable to get into the Highlander and they believed the inherent differences between Clan and Inner Sphere technologies meant that it would be almost impossible to do so; but the MasterTech who had admitted this added the almost with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. For now he would have to rely on old fashioned gunnery skill and luck. To combat the increased heat levels of the Clan weaponry, the ‘Techs had been forced to remove the short range missile launcher and its’ ammunition reloads from the Highlanders left torso. They promised that with enough time and equipment they would be able to replicate the Clan designed heatsinks but would perhaps have to downgrade the long range launcher to accommodate them. Aleks marvelled at what had been accomplished inside sixty hours and wondered what they could achieve in a fully equipped ‘Mech repair bay and with no time constraints hanging over them. MasterTech Connors seemed to be in his element, sifting through the new Clan technology and thinking up ways to incorporate it into existing systems and finding ways to replicate or improve it.

The two Lances of tanks and what was left of the infantry both armoured and not, were dug in under the guns of the DropShips. If it did turn into a fire fight at least the remaining Grenadier ‘Mechs constituted some very powerful machines and the DropShips should be able to hold long enough to at least evacuate some of the Unit. Dale Quintt and Graham Turner were out there somewhere too, feeding visuals back to the unit, trying to stay hidden in their scout ‘Mechs; if the gambit the Colonel and Bondsman Gryphon had come up with failed, they would need all the warning they could get. Aleks heard the broadband channel crackle open, listened as the Jade Falcon Galaxy Commander started to speak and closed his eyes; he noticed a cramp had begun in his hands as they tightly gripped the controls. A breath he hadn’t realised he was holding escaped past his lips in a rush and the Highlanders arms twitched as he peeled his hands away from the joysticks. Just as he began to breathe easy the broadband communication channel squelched with static and the voice of the Star Captain came through; the tone of disdain and arrogance was hard to miss “Colonel James of the Newton Grenadiers your Bondsman has fought well as any Trueborn Clan warrior would and has gained a warriors end. I would honour the Batchall for the withdrawal of your Dropship and its occupants.” Aleks heard the Colonel begin to reply but he was cut off as the Star Captain continued in his arrogant tone “However as you are a mercenary, I find it hard to allow you to withdraw still possessing equipment that clearly does not belong to you. As you have been honourable to this point and adhered to our traditions, I will allow you this chance to gain the spoils in honourable combat” For a moment only the crackle and pop of static filled the open channel before Aleks heard Colonel Friend begin to talk in a tone he could only describe as a growl “You accuse us of dishonourable conduct, then attempt to contrive a means of denying that which was already agreed. This ‘equipment’ was won in combat between the Grenadiers and the garrison forces on this colony. Seventeen members of my Unit, two of whom are members of my family, are dead at the hands of you arrogant animals.” For a few heartbeats the channel went quiet once more before the Colonels’ voice came back “Star Captain Tristan, if you want your damn Clan equipment back, you can come and take it, if you dare”

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:37 PM.

[xX PUG Xx]

Chapter Seven

The Dogs of War

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
4^th May 3050

“Bargained poorly and done” Aleks heard the reply and watched as the line of four Jade Falcon ‘Mechs began to move; his updated target computer identified a Kingfisher Omnimech directly across from his own Highlander, signifying an enemy target lock. He watched as it raised one arm, pointed at his ‘Mech and made a gesture akin to waving him forward, at the same moment a light on his communications panel began to blink. Aleks realised the Clan Omni’ was beaming a line of sight laser signal to him; clicking the frequency open he heard a female voice with the same arrogant tone that seemed so common among these Clan warriors “I am MechWarrior Cara, a Trueborn Jade Falcon Clan warrior of the 6^th Garrison Cluster and I pilot a Kingfisher OmniMech. I challenge the Inner Sphere Surat that pilots the venerable Highlander BattleMech before me. Come little one and meet your fate, let us see if you are worthy of calling yourself a warrior!” Aleks sat stunned for a heartbeat, he was being challenged directly and as far as he could see the rest of the Jade Falcons were doing the same along the line. Reality struck home as a pair of what looked like medium lasers lanced out from the Omnis’ left arm to strike the Highlander on the right arm, scoring from a distance that medium lasers had no right to do any damage from. However the flicker from green to yellowish green on one section of the upper arm’s armour in his damage schematic put the truth to that opinion.

Aleks quickly sidestepped the Highlander as a brilliant bolt of PPC fire ripped through the space the ‘Mech had been standing a moment before, as he did so he brought an arm up to fire a volley with the salvaged Clan large laser arrangement. But before he could attain a target lock a second PPC bolt and another pair of lasers struck the Highlander, manmade lightning hit high on the left torso and the lasers scored steaming gouges across the right thigh plating. Armour fragmented and scattered to the ground under the impact of the charge particle bolt, streaks of electrical energy arced out across the big ‘Mechs chest plating but the armour remained thick, a quick twist of the controls allowed Aleks to bring the Highlander under control as the loss of armour shifted the ‘Mechs balance. The caress of the lasers barely registered but Aleks knew that given time they would begin to eat through his protection “So I had better do something about it” he thought to himself. Tying his full weapon loadout to the Highlanders primary Target Interlock Circuit, he floated the crosshairs over the outline of the broad chested OmniMech, waited a heartbeat for them to turn golden with a solid lock and fired a full alpha strike. The Techs had warned Aleks that the new configuration would be very demanding on his heatsinks and it would be necessary to allow time between shots to bleed heat from the ’Mech, however they had only hinted at the increase in firepower. The salvaged Clan weaponry appeared to have significantly more damage potential but the differences in technology had made it exceptionally difficult to integrate the weapon systems properly into the Highlander, meaning the weapons accuracy was only as good as the Grenadier ‘Mechs ancient targeting systems.

The silver basketball sized blur of the Gauss round streaked in to strike the shin of the Kingfishers right leg, shivering a ton of armour from the heavily protected limb but failing to break through to the internal structure. The trio of extended range large lasers burned wild furrows into and across the broad, squared right shoulder pauldron and into the heavy set square “head” of the OmniMech, one narrowly missing the cockpit screen. Gigajoules of focussed energy turned armour to steaming droplets as yet another ton of plating melted from the Omni’ and in that moment Aleks saw the first signs of significant damage. A puff of green coolant shot out from a rent in the armour over the right torso as one of the lasers burrowed through the protection over a heatsink. Within a few seconds the final component of the Highlanders offensive firepower arrived, a flight of ten long range missiles streaked in to shatter yet more armour over the assault class OmniMech. A pair missed cleanly, striking the ground behind the Clan ‘Mech but three struck the right leg, further shedding armour there. The final five spent their explosive warheads against the Omnis’ left arm, centre torso and right torso, where a puff of greasy green smoke signalled the death of yet another heat sink. Aleks watched in awe as the Highlanders targeting computer updated its estimate of the Clan Omnis’ damage schematic, the only area to remain fully armoured was its left leg, the worst hit area showing a bright red over the right torso and shoulder area. Everywhere else, including the cockpit, varied from yellows to oranges; indicating a staggering loss of armour from one volley of weapons fire.

His moment of glory was short lived however, as a pair of cerulean PPC bolts struck deep into the chest of his Highlander, the kinetic force of the blow staggering the big ‘Mech back a step as almost two tons of protection was smashed and melted away. The assault was followed by two lasers from the Kingfishers centre torso and one from each of the Omnis’ arm mounted weapons, the torso mounted weapons struck low across both of the Highlanders legs; leaving glowing scars across the shin plating. The arm mounted lasers guided in on the damage caused to the centre torso of Aleks ‘Mech but a timely twist of the assault ‘Mechs torso deflected the damage to the left torso and arm. Aleks checked his heat scale and realised he would not be able to repeat his full alpha strike; he would have to choose which weapons to use and when. Quickly scanning the displays, he noted that the Kingfisher was showing significantly hotter on the thermal scan than he had seen other Clan ‘Mechs “Perhaps the loss of those heatsinks has put a real kink in her heat dissipation, she is running a lot of energy weapons”. Angling the assault ‘Mech back toward the left, Aleks lined up the Gauss rifle with the Kingfishers right chest; waited a heartbeat for the lock, then fired. Again the silver blur of the round streaked toward the Clan ‘Mech and Aleks watched as the Clan warrior copied his own manoeuvre, twisting the assault ‘Mech to the right and bringing the damaged right torso away from the line of fire. The Gauss round struck into the gap between the Kingfishers left arm and shoulder plating; after severely damaging the upper arm the slug finally came to rest jammed in the joint itself, reducing the limbs mobility and pulling a scream of rage from the Clan warrior. Aleks heard a stream of what must have been curses using words he did not fully understand but the implications were clear in the tone.

By now the Highlanders cockpit was a raging inferno, the air seamed to sear the moisture from Aleks throat as his lungs attempted to suck oxygen from the scorching air. Sweat stung at the burns on his hands and arms; however the pain, along with the cooling vest, was helping to keep him conscious. The ‘Mechs life support systems had kicked into high gear the second the last of the missiles left their launchers and as each weapon system drew power to deliver their devastating firepower, the demands placed on the ‘Mechs Fusion driven heart multiplied exponentially; creating more and more heat. The heat sinks built into the Highlander had been designed to cope with the power draw and subsequent heat produced by the ancient Star League era weaponry but they now struggled to contain the excess build-up caused by the advanced Clan weaponry. An alarm shrilled for Aleks attention, accompanied by the sultry female voice of the on-board computer warning of high temperature and imminent shutdown, Aleks quickly slapped the emergency override buying him a few precious seconds to allow the heatsinks to catch up without shutting down and immobilising the Highlander.

Stalking his war machine further to the left in an attempt to track around for another strike at the Omnis’ right torso, Aleks chose to fire only his Gauss rifle in the hopes that the weapon would not spike his heat beyond the safety threshold. The silver blur of the hypersonic round struck the right arm of the Kingfisher, sending armour spraying out in a fan of fragments and spinning the Omni’ a step to the left. The strike came just as the Clan warrior attempted to turn in the same direction and served to overbalance her machine, the full weight of the machine was balanced on its huge right foot and the kinetic force of the projectile simply span the ‘Mech around and sent it falling backwards to crash against a large boulder. The impact shattered armour across the broad back of the Omni’ and twisted weakened support structures in the right torso, yet another heatsink exploded under the stress of the impact and an electrical fire began in the upper arm. As the warrior scrabbled to right her machine, Aleks noted that the right arm now hung limp, the weapons pointed uselessly at the ground.

“Stravag, Inner Sphere surat! You will pay for your insolence with your life!!!” Came the scream over the still open comm. frequency and Aleks smiled through now heat cracked lips “Come and take it, if you can Clanner!” he retorted and with a quick check of his heat scale, sent a flight of missiles toward the struggling Clan ‘Mech. Before they reached their target, the Kingfisher brought its left arm slowly around to point at the Highlander firing the PPC and laser in tandem, the energy bolt struck the Grenadier ‘Mech on the right torso; further degrading the protection there. The laser dug into the plating over the centre torso, the armour melting away in droplets to strike the ground at the Highlanders feet. A shiver ran through the machine and for an instant Aleks feared a gyro hit but gripping the controls tightly he managed to bring the machine back under control, lining up the right arm with the still struggling Clan ‘Mech. As he waited for the crosshairs to confirm a lock, Aleks watched as five of his long range missiles exploded against the remaining armour over the Kingfishers right torso. The eruption of a black plume of smoke from a breach in the armour promised an engine hit and a quick look at the thermal display showed the Clan ‘Mechs heat spiking to an almost pure white. Before any thought of mercy ran through his mind the image of an Atlas falling to the ground with a hole in its ‘deaths head’ won the race to the fore of his conscious and Aleks pulled into the trigger for the large lasers. Firing only two of the weapons, Aleks adjusted the beams as they contact the limp right arm and tracked the concentrated energy across and into the breached right torso. A golden light erupted from the hole in the Kingfishers armour as the Fusion engine escaped the confines of its shielding; the ravenous energy consumed the OmniMech from the inside out and mercifully cut short the scream of terror from Jade Falcon MechWarrior Cara.

As the light faded from the explosion, Aleks glanced at the tactical display and was distraught by what he saw; of the eight other Grenadier ‘Mechs, only four were still active. The Colonels’ commandeered Dire Wolf was in a pitched battle with what was marked on his display as a Hellbringer, although both ‘Mechs were heavily damaged; the Colonel appeared to hold the advantage. The crumpled remains of four other Grenadier ‘Mechs were strewn around the battlefield, Colin Smarts Jagermech and James Hobbs Catapult were both down but thankfully Aleks could see the pair running to cover on the far side of the Colonels’ fight, into a shallow gulley a few hundred metres away. Carla Simmons had not been as fortunate; her own Catapult looked as though the cockpit had been ripped from the ‘Mechs torso, a stream of black smoke passing through the remains of the screen spoke of a fire inside. However a one legged Clan OmniMech lying less than one hundred metres from the hulk showed she had at least given a good account of herself, the target computer tagging the ‘Mech as a Summoner; a somewhat powerful looking heavy class ‘Mech. Aleks scanned the battlefield looking to see who else was missing but stopped as the Highlander came face to face with what the target computer tagged a Conjurer, although to Aleks it was reminiscent of a Wolverine medium class ‘Mech from the Inner Sphere. The communication panels light began to blink once more and Aleks thought “Again?” while opening the channel “I am Star Captain Julius and I claim a Trial of Grievance against the Highlander pilot. We have met once before not far from this very spot, I had the honour of piloting a Timberwolf when the Jade Falcons claimed this mining colony for the Keshik.” Aleks instantly brought both arms to bear on the Clan BattleMech; this was the Clanner that had killed Jamie, alive and still fighting. His thoughts blinded by rage, Aleks fired every weapon in an alpha strike, his voice roaring across the open comm. channel in a blood curdling battle cry. The Gauss rifle round crossed the distance between the two machines in the blink of an eye and connected with the left flank of the smaller ‘Mech, smashing away almost the entire sum total of protection afforded there. The trio of large lasers lashed out across the Conjurers left and centre torsos, melting away the already preciously thin protection on the OmniMechs’ flank. These assaults were closely followed a few seconds later by the single volley of ten LRMs’, the explosive warheads erupting across the Conjurers right arm, shoulder and cockpit assembly. The heat scale instantly shot up past the first safety cut-out and the Highlanders safety protocols banked the Fusion reactor, sliding shielding into place to prevent a breach and allow the heatsinks to bring the runaway temperature back under control; freezing the assault ‘Mech in place, a sitting duck for any return fire.

As this happened, Star Captain Julius fired his own weapons; the paired extended range medium lasers and single large pulse laser joined to melt what little protection remained on the Highlanders lower left arm. The beams of brilliant yellow and blue pulsing light cored into the now thin armour, setting it to stream to the gulley’s dusty floor, once passed the protective plating they spent the last of their energy against the foamed titanium ‘bone’ of the limb. The metal blackened and then split across a supporting frame, followed by a sickening crack as the heat tortured metal finally succumbed; the arm falling to join the droplets of armour. Once more the assault ‘Mechs main weapon was destroyed but this time the loss of electrical power as the Fusion engine shut down meant no charge was stored in the Gauss rifles capacitors, saving Aleks from a second, possibly fatal back lash of neural feedback. Luckily for Aleks, the Highlander shut down before the Clan ‘Mechs targeting system was able to obtain a full lock for the sophisticated Streak equipped short range missile system, denying the Star Captains repeated attempts to fire the weapon. As the Clan warrior waited for his weapon systems to recycle he began talking over an open frequency, his arrogant tone transmitted for both sides to hear “I cannot believe this Inner Sphere Surat before me has bested not one but two Jade Falcon warriors. Yet here he stands, his BattleMech shut down from a heat overload, a mistake any hatchling knows to avoid. I will reach into your cockpit with my weapons and sear you from existence, the genetic material of your lineage will be purged from the universe by the Falcons finest” all of this went unheard by Aleks, his communication system still offline but the movement of the ‘Mech and the careful alignment of the Conjurers weapons with his cockpit screen left him in no doubt as to the Clan warriors intent. Suddenly a shadow loomed above and to the right of his still frozen machine, followed by the glaring light of plasma fuelled JumpJets.

The Star Captain froze as the monster dropped out of the sky towards him, disbelief and horror crowding his features as the ninety ton Highlander slammed into the already mangled left torso. The manoeuvre known to Inner Sphere pilots as Death From Above or perhaps more appropriately a Highlander Burial, was highly risky but one that the designers of the Star League era ‘Mech had fully embraced with the redesign and strengthening of the assault ‘Mechs legs. The force of ninety tons colliding with the already weakened Conjurer proved to be nothing short of spectacular, the full left side of the Clan ‘Mech simply disintegrated as armour shattered and spalled away into nothing but tiny flakes. The inner structure of the OmniMech collapsed and heat sinks ruptured, sending coolant spraying out in a fan and the screeched of stressed metal was audible even through the sealed environment of Aleks cockpit. Over the Grenadiers communications channel he would have heard the unmistakable tones of Leftenant Colonel Graham McAlister “Take tha’ ya wee Sassenach beastie!!”, as the Highlander twisted its torso away and then swung to back hand the collapsing ‘Mech. Aleks shook himself out of the momentary fuzz of awe at the manoeuvre and began the process of restarting his ‘Mech. Steadily he worked through the protocols; each system running a series of quick checks and as the final diagnostic ran to completion Aleks noticed the Conjurer begin to stir and attempt to rise. Instinctively he swung the Highlanders remaining arm mounted weapons up to point directly at the Clan ‘Mechs cockpit screen. It instantly froze and he could see the silhouette of the Star Captain through the polarized ferroglass, opening a broadband frequency Aleks addressed the pilot of the prostrate ‘Mech “Stand down Star Captain, I have no wish to kill you”, “You are dezgra, you Surat!! You have violated the honourable terms of Zellbrigen, as we have already seen of other Inner Sphere bandits; you have no honour in combat. I will not accept defeat from the likes of you and your kind!” At that the Conjurer again began to rise and as it reached its knees, the remaining right arm swung around to bring the large pulse laser into line with Aleks badly damaged machine. “Don’t do it man, for the love of……” then the Highlander piloted by McAlister took two steps and swung its massive, armoured leg forward; smashing into and through the cockpit of the Clan ‘Mech.

“Ye cannae hesitate like tha’ son, yer gonnae get yersel’ killed” Aleks heard the words over the command channel but didn’t respond, his full attention was focussed on the remains of the Conjurer and specifically the gaping hole once occupied by another human being. Sitting there, he suddenly began to feel tired, so very tired. All around him was death and destruction; he had lost the woman he loved and one of his oldest and closest friends to these marauding Clanners, how many others had died on planets all along the Periphery and the outer territories of the Great Houses? When would it all stop, how many would be enough? “Aleks are ye aw’ right, kin ye hear me?” The Leftenant Colonels voice finally made it through Aleks fug but he still felt the drain of his epitome “I’m here sir, we need to pull back”. The other Highlander paused, its movement mimicking that of a stunned, bewildered man “We need tae fight oor way clear lad, the Falcons ar’nae gonnae let us walk away” Aleks scanned the tactical display and looked around at what he could see of the battlefield, most of his view was obscured by smoke but what he could see cut him to his soul.

The Grenadiers were decimated.

Chapter Eight

The Dying of the Light

Unnamed mining colony
Periphery border
10 Light years from Bensinger system
Jade Falcon occupied space
4^th May 3050

Of the nine Grenadier machines to enter the shallow bowl shaped valley, only four remained upright and although the armour on the Colonels Warhawk looked to be more of a memory than fact, at that moment he was still in the fight. Toni Kerensky’s Rifleman was stood behind a low hillock, using it as an earthen revetment; the quad autocannons spewing a near constant stream of high explosive shells into another Conjurer Clan ‘Mech. The effect of the explosions on the Clan warrior was obvious in the lack of accuracy in the machines return fire; none of which came close to striking the Grenadier ‘Mech. Aleks own Highlander was in only slightly better condition than the Colonel’s captured OmniMech but Graham McAlister’s Highlander seemed to be almost untouched.

Aleks watched as Colonel Friends Warhawk staggered under a rolling series of autocannon shells from his opponent, his Highlanders’ targeting computer tagging it as a Dire Wolf. The explosive shells stitched their way across the OmniMechs’ torso and tore through already mangled armour around the left shoulder joint, the arm exploded away from the ‘Mech and span in a lazy circle to strike the ground twenty metres away. The force of the shells striking the ‘Mech had unbalanced it and the loss of the limb proved to be too much for the Colonel to counteract; the Warhawk span and seemed to pause for a second before crashing to the ground. From just over four hundred metres away Aleks saw the thick protective canopy of the cockpit strike a large boulder, the armoured screen flexed and for a heartbeat fought to defeat the combined weight and momentum of the eighty five ton ‘Mech. Just as quickly as the hope formed in Aleks mind the screen shattered and the shards of the protective screen lanced into the cockpit.

The hiss of static over the Grenadiers command channel cleared for a moment and then Aleks heard the Colonels voice come through “Graham… y.. you’re in charge nnnggh! *cough* I’m messed u… messed up bad in here. G..get them out of here…. Wh.. whoevers left… get them home….” “Hawd tight John, we’re comin’ fir ye….” McAlister replied but was cut off with a pained seared roar from the Colonel “DAMMIT GRAHAM, I’M ALREADY DEAD. GET OUT OF HERE…. Ge..get out, get ou……” The last words of the transmission were nothing but a whisper and then there was silence. Nearly six hundred metres away the monstrous Dire Wolf began to turn towards the two Grenadier ‘Mechs and Aleks started his own ‘Mech forward, expecting McAlister to continue towards the Colonels downed Warhawk but the other Highlander reached out one massive arm and blocked his movement. “Ye heard him lad an’ ye heard what a’ did, he’s dead… wae need tae get oot o’ here” Aleks felt as though something snapped inside him, a raging fire suddenly engulfed his entire consciousness as visions of Alisha, Jamie Collins, John Friend, Tanya Cole, Natasha Cole, Trevor Berkley, Graham Carter and Stuart McGregor ran through his mind. Instead of the miasma of despair and self-pity he had felt a few minutes before, Aleks felt only rage; a white hot emotion directed purely at these Clan monsters and all the pain and damage they had dealt to his life. In a heartbeat Aleks brought up the Highlanders remaining arm, tied all three extended range lasers to the same trigger and lined up the targeting reticule with the forward jutting cockpit screen of the Clan assault class OmniMech. As the targeting system confirmed a lock, the reticule burned a golden glow on the display screen and Aleks pulled into the trigger, then watched as all three energy streams burned into and then through the already thin protection; inside the cockpit the Clan MechWarrior let out an inhuman scream as gigajoules of energy began to burn through the view screen. Like a puppet with its strings cut, the OmniMech stumbled forward and crashed to the ground; the vibration of one hundred tonnes falling uncontrolled vibrated up through the legs of the surrounding ‘Mechs and all paused for a stunned heartbeat. That was for the Grenadiers, thought Aleks to himself and over the Grenadiers command channel he said “Toni, Graham, pull back to the South and setup a perimeter. We need to salvage who or what we can and then we get the hell out of here.” Graham McAlister replied “Aye right enough lad; Dale, are yae an’ Graham oot there?” a moment of concern for the pair of scout ‘Mech pilots gripped Aleks but then he heard the familiar Caledonian tones of Graham Turner “Sorry guys, we were a wee bit busy there. Oor wee armoured infantry beasties made an appearance and were harassing the DropShips but we’ve chased them off.” Then Dale Quintts’ deep Latin accented voice chimed in “We’ve been monitoring the battle, what’s your call Graham?” The channel went quiet for a minute while Graham thought “Wae’re gettin’ oot o’ here, am nae sure how much mare the Clanners hae. Get the ‘copters oot here tae pick up any survivors, wae’ll hawd a perimeter fir an hour an’ then we pack up an’ leave this hellhole fir good” and Qunitt replied “Roger that Colonel, see you soon”.


Grenadier DropShip Bonny Banks
Nadir point
Uninhabited star system
Periphery border
40 Light years from Bensinger system, Coreward of the Inner Sphere
Jade Falcon occupied space
18^th June 3050

Less than two months had passed since the battle on the mining colony and Aleks had spent countless hours scouring the salvaged battleroms, every sliver of information that could be gleaned was precious. At least that was what he kept telling himself when he would watch a member of the Grenadiers, a member of his family, die at the hands of the Jade Falcons. The name and face of every one of those individuals was seared into his memory and he swore that he would fight the Falcons to his very last breath.

The Grenadiers had managed to salvage a fair amount of Clan weaponry as well as a few OmniMechs from the battlefield on the mining colony, the remaining Jade Falcon forces had amounted to several of the armour suited Elementals and AeroSpace fighters and Colonel McAlister had received a text only message from a departing Clan DropShip, stating their withdrawal and honouring of the Trial of Possession. A couple of days later word came through from the JumpShip that they had been released and that the Clan JumpShip had departed but a message had been left to be relayed to the Commanding Officer of the Newton Grenadiers; all of Clan Jade Falcon will learn of the Grenadiers actions and they shall be on the hunt. The remaining Grenadier command staff had discussed a return to friendly territory as quickly as possible, the information they had gathered highlighted a distinct difference between the initial garrison defenders and the second wave of Clan warriors that had almost destroyed the Grenadiers. A captured Elemental named Brant, now a Bondsman to Thomas Sanchez, explained that the first unit had consisted of Solahma warriors; men and women that were either Freeborn or had lived beyond their usefulness and were considered too old to be successful warriors. Aleks had thought back to Star Captain Gryphon and the fact he appeared no older and perhaps even younger than himself, how could a MechWarrior so young be considered past his prime? Most warriors of note in the Inner Sphere, especially those in command positions, were in their late forties to early fifties. First Prince Hanse Davion of the Federated Commonwealth and Morgan Kell, the co-founder of the legendary mercenary company the Kell Hounds, were both in their sixties and considered tactical geniuses. Theodore Kurita, the military leader of the Draconis Combine, was in his fifties and grudgingly Aleks admitted he too was an exemplary tactician and MechWarrior. The thought that these great men could have been put out to pasture twenty or thirty years ago boggled Aleks mind, what system could the Clans possibly conceive where a lifetime of experience and knowledge would be discarded.

This was one of many questions running through Aleks mind but the one he kept coming back to was how do we hurt them? How do we strike back at the Jade Falcons? On the fourth day in the lifeless system awaiting the JumpShip to recharge its complex jump drive engines and another session of scouring the information available, the answer appeared from the least likely of places. Aleks was staring unseeing at another rerun of the footage from Colonel Friend’s battle with Star Captain Gryphon, when the proximity alarm klaxon began to wail throughout the DropShip. Who the hell could have found us here? Thought Aleks, as he scrambled out of his seat and propelled himself toward the door to his shared cabin. As he reached it, the door slide open and Doug McAlister nearly barrelled into him in the zero gravity. Both MechWarriors arrested their forward momentum by grabbing handholds at the outside edges of the doorframe and the son of the de facto leader of the Newton Grenadiers, offering an embarrassed smile as an apology, said “We hae company Aleks, a JumpShip jist appeared right next door. Yae’d better git tae the bridge.” With nodded thanks, Aleks slide past him into the corridor and used the handhold outside the door to change his trajectory. With a firm push, he propelled himself down the corridor with the confidence inspired by many years of travelling aboard DropShips in zero gravity. As he approached the lift shaft that would take him to the bridge, Aleks expertly caught a handhold and spun himself to point his feet at the fast approaching “wall” just past the lift door. With a flex of the knees and hand on a grab handle outside the lift door, Aleks slowed and then stopped his momentum and then orientated his feet to the corridors “floor”. Aleks waited impatiently for the lift car to arrive, slid inside and punched an access code into the security panel, the doors slid shut and the car powered its way to the bridge level. Immediately upon leaving the car Aleks knew something strange was happening, hearing the calm even tones of Thomas Mulvanny, the Captain of the Bonny Banks, replying to a message. Spotting Graham McAlister standing behind the command chair of the Captain, with a gentle push away from the lift doors Aleks gracefully slide alongside the somewhat haggard looking Caledonian “What’s happening Graham?” he asked in a quiet voice but apparently not quite discreet enough for Mulvanny’s tastes Aleks realised as the fiery haired Captain turned and glared at him. On board the Banks there was only one boss while she was in space and the only person Thomas Mulvanny would allow to override him was Commander Patricia Lockhart of the Valiant Pride, the House Davion JumpShip that the Banks was currently attached to. Motioning for Aleks to be quiet with an angry swat of his hand, Mulvanny continued with his message “I say again this Captain Thomas Mulvanny of the 1^st Newton Grenadiers, please identify yourself and state your intentions.”

Looking past the Captain at the repeater screens, Aleks saw the outline of what the computers identified as a Tramp class JumpShip. However he noted that the designation had a -X? after the word “Tramp”, signifying that the configuration and mass did not show up in the DropShips “Warbook” systems. The Captain turned to Graham McAlister and said in his Irish accented voice “Well now we wait Colonel, it’ll take two and a half minutes for them to receive the message. Give them another three or four to decide what to tell us and reply, then another two and half minutes for the return signal to reach us. So in nine minutes we’re either on the receiving end of some enemy weapons fire or we have some new friends.”

Grenadier DropShip Bonny Banks
Nadir point
Uninhabited star system
Periphery border
40 Light years from Bensinger system, Coreward of the Inner Sphere
Jade Falcon occupied space
19^th June 3050


Aleks looked along the line of three new arrivals, the small shuttle behind them guarded by two very large and well equipped marines, their assault rifles held at port-arms. Two of the uniforms were olive drab in colour with a half jacket covering a shirt of the same colour and the third uniform was blue with red highlights, all three wore knee high leather boots over trousers and Aleks could see a stylized Cameron Star on the left shoulder with the number 331 embroidered below on each of their jackets. For a moment he struggled to place the uniform and then remembered seeing something similar in a history lesson many years before at the NAIS academy, they were very close to the uniform worn by the Star League Defence Force. His attention fell on the third person in line and stayed there for longer than would normally be appropriate, not only because her uniform was different in detail from the others but also because she was strikingly beautiful. He realised she too was looking at him with the hint of a smile gently turning the corners of her lips, Aleks quickly looked away feeling slightly confused by his reaction so soon after losing Alisha, a school boy flush of embarrassment colouring his cheeks. The rank officer of the three came to attention; a little under six foot tall with dark brown hair and intelligent blue eyes that were wrinkled at the edges from squinting in bright sunlight, a sign of many hours spent outdoors, the sad turn of his mouth also hinted at a heavy burden in his life. A surgical dressing covered his left hand and continued up under the loose sleeve of his shirt, the hint of bandaging around his shoulder could be seen through the uniform and Aleks wondered if the officer had gained his injuries in a similar fashion to his own.

The man snapped a sharp salute as Leftenant Colonel McAlister stepped forward, caught mid stride by the unexpected honour, Graham McAlister straightened and returned the salute, then held out his right hand “Welcome aboard Major Bremman, I admit we’re a wee bit surprised tae run intae another Merc unit oot here and in a back water system wie nae planets at that.” He said in a curious voice but lacking in any hostility toward the man. The dark haired officer took the offered hand and gave a firm, respectful handshake, his face breaking into a lopsided grin and replied with a Germanic accented voice “To be honest, we were a little ‘surprised’ ourselves when we jumped in to find another JumpShip here. Our first thought was that we had stumbled onto another Clan unit, we’ve been running from the Wolves for some time now and somehow they have been able to catch up to us every once in a while. That said, we haven’t seen them for three jumps now, so hopefully we’ve given them the slip.” McAlister looked over his shoulder at Aleks briefly and turned back toward the Captain “This is my second in command, Major Aleksandr Wilson.” Aleks took a step forward and then paused as McAlister’s words registered, Major Wilson, trying his best to cover his surprise he reached out a hand to the Major. Again the offered hand was given a firm shake and the Major smiled knowingly “Good to meet you, you look as though you’ve seen a bit of rough action, I know the feeling.” he said indicating both Aleks and his own bandaged hands. The smile disappeared from Aleks face as he replied in a cold, flat voice “Courtesy of the Jade Falcons, we’ve been in and out of action with them since November. I’m one of the lucky ones.” Catching the tone Bremman looked back toward McAlister for a second before he released Aleks hand and indicated his two companions. “This is Lieutenant Tomas Artemev and Master Sergeant Arianne Sobral, Tomas is my operations officer and Arianne heads up the units’ security and infantry units. I formally present the command staff of the Hennesy Hammers or what’s left of us at least.” Handshakes and nods were exchanged all around; Arianne Sobral again caught Aleks attention with here piercing crystal blue eyes, a strange contrast to her pale brown skin colour, hinting at African or Mediterranean ancestry from Terra. Standing equal in height to Aleks at around one hundred and ninety centimetres and with shoulder length auburn hair, the well-tailored uniform accented the narrow waist-wide shouldered physique of an athlete. Aleks had no doubt that the rank of Master Sergeant had been hard earned, she moved with a powerful and lithe grace that reminded Aleks of a large hunting feline from ancient Terra he had seen in a tri-vid many years ago, a dangerous predator not to be dismissed because of gender. She smiled easily at Aleks, her full lips parting to show a row of perfect white teeth and again he felt a conflicting tumult of emotions. Managing to return the smile he said in a friendly tone “Good to meet you Master Sergeant, I notice your uniforms as well as ranks are reminiscent of the SLDF. I don’t believe I’ve heard of your unit before, what worlds are you based out of?” Aleks thought he saw a brief glimmer of something in her eyes, a momentary darkening of her smile but it quickly passed and she replied in a silken voice “It’s a pleasure to meet you too Major and you’re a sharp one. The Hammers have been around for a while but we’re currently ‘in between employers’ The Wolf Clan chased us out of the Periphery and have been snapping at our heals for the last seven months” As she replied Aleks noticed Major Bremman holding a few paces away trying not to look as though he were listening, as Aleks shifted a pace to the side the Major realised he had been noticed and stepped over to place a hand on Arianne’s shoulder, cutting in “The Hammers don’t have a home planet anymore, we originated out in the Periphery but were forced from our homes by an old enemy. Now we do our best to provide security for those that request it and we like to think of ourselves as an old school unit, we style our doctrine and attire after the SLDF. Trying to uphold the ideals and honours of the Star League as best we can, while trying to keep our butts in one piece” A sadness passed across the Master Sergeants face and Aleks saw a familiar haunted look darken her features for a moment, a look he had seen reflected in the mirror every morning for the last two months. “That is a high set of standards to hold yourselves to, I fear many in the Inner Sphere have lost sight of those ideals and would probably struggle to recognise what the Star League stood for after three hundred years” he replied as he turned his attention back to Major Bremman. The Major smiled woefully “Unfortunately with each year that passes it gets harder and harder, when we take losses from our original cadre and replacements are recruited I sometimes fear we risk sacrificing those ideals for expediency and convenience” Aleks had the feeling there was something more, a nagging shadow of a memory in the corner of his mind but he could not pull it to the fore. Just then Graham McAlister entered the conversation, clearing his throat to gather the attention of everyone “Gentlemen and lady if yae’ll follow tha young Corporal here, he’ll show yae tae the conf’rence room oan the command level. I think wae need tae hae a sit doon and talk aboot where we stand an’ whit we plan tae dae aboot it.”

As the trio of visiting officers followed the young NCO out of the hanger, Graham McAlister turned to Aleks “Well whit dae yae think o’ oor visitors?” Aleks watched the retreating form of Master Sergeant Arianne Sobral caught for a moment contemplating the attraction he felt, both to her physically and to the hint of a shared turmoil, glimpsed for the briefest of moments in her eyes. Aleks turned to face the Colonel and realised the big Caledonian had a grin baring his teeth and a silent laugh shacking his body, shaking his head Aleks replied “They are an interesting group, did you noticed the uniforms too? Also the reference to the Star League and the 331 badge on the shoulder?” looking at him for second before replying, McAlister chuckled “Aye lad, that I did. Ma history is a wee bit sketchy but a’m sure the 331^st was one o’ the units that left wie Kerensky, a bit o’ a coincidence that these folk turn up jist after the Clans invade?” Aleks turned to face McAlister giving himself a few seconds to think about that, his many discussions with the captured Clan personnel had brought about the shocking revelation that these marauding invaders were the descendants of the great Star League Defence Force army that had left the Inner Sphere three hundred years earlier under the leadership of the Inner Spheres greatest General, Aleksandr Kerensky.

At the end of the 28^th Century the greatest government the Inner Sphere had ever known had collapsed into anarchy with the assassination of the entire ruling family. In the years following this calamity the other ruling Houses had jostled to replace the slain Cameron family and claim the title of First Lord of the Star League. Foreseeing the coming war and not wishing the Inner Spheres largest army to be drawn into the carnage, General Aleksandr Kerensky had conceived the Exodus. Taking over eighty per cent of the Star League Defence Force, its’ equipment, warships, armour, BattleMechs and personnel numbering over six million, he had passed beyond the borders of the Inner Sphere. Vague reports existed of the massive fleet being last seen in the Gutara system in November of 2784 before disappearing, presumably into the vast unexplored reaches beyond the Periphery.

The thought that the Hennesy Hammers could be infiltrators would not have surprised Aleks when thinking of an Inner Sphere adversary, however all but one of his dealings with the Clans had shown a high regard for honour and honesty. “Do you think we have just let the wolf in amongst the hens?” a short laugh escaped McAlister,, accompanied by a lop sided grin he replied “Am no sure lad but I think wae need tae find oot and oor three guests ‘ill hae some questions tae answer before the days oot. If they are Clanners they’ll find that the farm dog has a nasty bite o’ his oan”.

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 07 November 2014 - 04:41 PM.

[xX PUG Xx]

​I'm not sure if this should be the last chapter as I originally intended this to be a backstory for a Dark Age Era story. Therefore it was only intended to explain how a group of characters came to be linked together in the Classic/Clan Invasion Era.

Admittedly I haven't spent too much time proof reading this one due to RL concerns but I wanted to get it up and get some feedback. So feel free to critique it and let rip, any constructive criticism is welcome.

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Chapter Nine

Enemy of my enemy

Grenadier DropShip Bonny Banks
Nadir point, uninhabited star system, Periphery border
40 Light years from Bensinger system, Coreward of the Inner Sphere
Jade Falcon occupied space
20^th June 3050

Aleks couldn’t help but stare at the hooded figure standing across from himself, Graham McAlister and Toni Kerensky, if the monk-like apparel hadn’t made it obvious enough the verigraphed noteputer, one of the most secure forms of message delivery available, had made the identity of the man’s employer glaringly obvious. The real mystery was not what a ComStar Acolyte was doing travelling with an almost defunct mercenary unit but more how in heaven did he know that Toni Kerensky was here in this system? ‘If the last seven months have been a living hell, the last twenty four hours have certainly been surreal’ Aleks thought to himself as he sized up the Acolyte, the man’s hands seemed to be so thin as to be emaciated and the monks habit seemed to hang off of his slender frame. The brief glimpse he had gotten of his face and head before the Acolyte had returned the hood to its covering position had shown his lack of hair and Aleks would have placed him in his seventies.

For centuries ComStar had maintained a public stance of neutrality throughout the many wars and conflagrations tearing through the Inner Sphere after the collapse of the Star League. Started by then Minister for Communication, Jerome Blake, the organisation had diligently protected the vital Hyper Pulse Generator network that allowed near instant communications between worlds up to fifty light years apart. Seizing the Sol system and Terra as a neutral territory, ComStar spent the years after the Star Leagues collapse rebuilding the HPG network across the Inner Sphere and secretly securing any traces of technology from the Leagues era; holding it back in the belief that one day Humankind would have need of the guiding light of ComStar to bring it back out of the darkness. With the only means of fast interstellar communication in their hands, ComStar could effectively cut off the flow of information between worlds; crippling trade and the ability of the ruling Houses to govern their far removed holdings. The risk of censure and the honest evaluation that the HPG network was both irreplaceable and necessary for the effective governing of systems removed by hundreds of light years from their higher government had been enough to maintain ComStars position. As the near constant conflict over the years slowly ground away at the infrastructure of the Inner Sphere the ability to replace such technological marvels had been all but lost, to the point that mysticism had risen around their operation and function. ComStars’ leadership promoted this so much so that the organisation almost revered Jerome Blake and his writings as that of a prophet and some general members of the public privately wondered at the lengths such people would go to protect their beliefs. Many members of ComStar were born, lived and died never having been beyond the Sol system or one of its many ComStar facilities, their life and energies spent in servitude to the higher belief that Jerome Blake or the “Blessed Blake” had foreseen the emergence of Humankind from the dark ages of warfare into another Golden Age. In the circles of the rulers of the Inner Sphere, this religious fervour and the subtle interference in their affairs had been duly noted; rulers such as Hanse Davion of the Federated Commonwealth had been known to circumvent and sometimes downright defy the rulings of ComStars’ ruling council, the First Circuit.

To the common man or woman ComStar were capable of almost magical or miraculous acts with their ability to send messages across the stars but to someone in the position Aleks found the remains of the Grenadiers in, their motives appeared at least a little suspicious. Firstly how had ComStar known the unit would be in this region of the Inner Sphere unless it was spying on the communications going to and from MIIO or had they been following them? The second and to some degree what interested Aleks more, was why did this monk appear to have travelled all the way out to the Periphery with a verigraphed message solely for Toni Kerensky? He watched as Toni accepted the noteputer and allowed the handheld device to take a sample of her DNA, confirming her identity and displaying the message on a small screen for her to view; Aleks saw the colour drain from the young woman’s face. She seemed to take a deep steadying breath while apparently reading the message for a second time before finally looking at the Acolyte as let the hand holding the noteputer fall to her side in a gesture of reluctant submission “You are aware of the contents of the message?” she asked the ComStar man, who replied only with a nod of his hooded head “When must this happen?” she asked, a slight edge to her voice “I am not privy to the exact details of all that must happen but I am aware you must do this at once. Major Bremman and his people will transport you” pointing to the noteputer, he continued “you must make all haste for that location”. Toni stood still, staring hard at the hooded figure, finally she held out the noteputer to Graham McAlister. The Acolyte visibly jerked as she did so, calling out “You must not, these are outsiders! They must not learn of this or who you are!” as McAlister took the device Toni calmly turned to him as she replied to the Acolyte “These people are as much my…‘family’ as any of you are, if my ‘father’ does not understand that then we may be far more different than he fears” addressing McAlister before finally releasing the device to his hand, she pointed to the three Hennessey Hammer officers and said “These are, in general terms, my family. It will take some time to explain everything and there will be many things I will be unable to fully disclose. However I have fought, bled, mourned and laughed with the Grenadiers and I have come to think of you too as my family, as part of my Clan.” At the last word Aleks tensed, hearing the distinct way she pronounced it he suddenly felt on edge. In a heartbeat his hand moved toward his sidearm but before he could withdraw the weapon from its holster Graham McAlister held out his big hand and shook his head “Stow that lad, if they wanted a fight they wid nae hae came aboard or alone fur that matter. Let’s hear her oot. Who are ye then lassie and whit ‘family’ are ye frae?” a pained look crossed Toni’s face, a conflict of hurt and embarrassment “I am and always will be your friend Colonel McAlister and you too Aleks, my name truly is Antonia Kerensky. However I am not from the world of Murchison, my family line are homed on Ma…” at this the Acolyte screamed “No!” and lunged to grab Toni by the shoulder but the MechWarrior was far faster and stronger than the frail man, she span out of his path and deflected his hands away with a smooth swat of her open palms across his forearms. As his momentum in the low gravity and Toni’s defensive move sent him sprawling forward, Aleks and Graham McAlister drew their weapons and a trio of Grenadier infantry burst into the room, their assault rifles covering the three “mercenary” officers and the Acolyte now face first on the floor and slowly floating toward the far wall.

To their credit the three Hennesy officers made no move and simply stood watching impassively as the Acolyte finally reached the far wall and began to right himself using a handrail. Major Bremman raised a hand in a sign of surrender and said “I apologise for our ComStar friends enthusiastic but misplaced actions. If Galaxy Commander Kerensky has decided to reveal her identity to you, then neither this man nor any of us have the right to deny her” turning to face Toni he continued “However I will remind you that I will have to report all that has occurred to the Khan, security and secrecy is all that has allowed our people to survive for this long. I must ask if you are certain of this course of action.” Alex noted the sudden change in the Majors speech, it sounded more formal and the Germanic lilt had almost disappeared; a chill ran down his spine when he realised he had heard the style of speech before in his conversations with Gryphon and Brant. Toni turned to take in the Colonel and Alex before nodding and replying “Yes I am sure, until now anyone of the Grenadiers would have been willing to go through hell for each other” an uncertain look came over her face as she continued “at least I hope that has not changed Colonel, I promise I will explain all and I hopefully have a way for us to fight back against the invaders. If that message is an indication of the Khans will, we may yet see the Star League reborn but not in the way the Clans envision it”. The Acolyte had silently been watching the exchange with a look of pure fury on his face but then cut into the conversation “You blaspheme girl, only the Word of the Blessed Blake can return the worlds of humankind to the Golden Age! ComStar will be the instrument of that resurrection and your kind were given haven to help us to that end! Has the isolation on that planet so addled the thinking of your kin to believe that they have such influence, such power?” Toni stiffened at the Acolytes outburst, her face growing pale but her cheeks glowing red; for a moment Aleks thought the fury with which the ComStar representative had ploughed into his tirade had embarrassed the young MechWarrior into silence until he noticed a slight tremor in her arms and realised Toni had her fists bunched so tightly that she had squeezed the colour from her knuckles. With a visible effort she relaxed her hands and fixed the small man with a stare that could have frozen a star “My kin, as you put it, have been instrumental in allowing the Word of Blake to be heard. ComStar may have provided my kin with a haven but what has been returned in kind has far outstripped that generosity and do not think they have been idle while in their solitude on the red planet. Do not forget who we were and still are, if you think we have lost our claws your little order will be most unpleasantly surprised. Your warriors may have been our trainees however they are but a shadow of their teachers; you and your masters do not wish to try our resilience or mastery of the skills we have taught you.” The Acolyte shied away from the strength in the young woman’s voice, paling visibly as each word was drilled into him with the pressure of a jackhammer. As the rebuttal concluded the three Hammers officers looked to each other and mouthed the word “Seyla”, Aleks caught the exchange but could not place the word and turned to see if McAlister had noticed it; a slight nod of his head confirmed he had.

Aleks and Graham had stood watching the exchange in silence, Aleks was particularly struck by the change in Toni; gone was the uncertain and sometimes sullen young MechWarrior. In her place was a fiercely resolute and empowered woman, Aleks could sense the strength of conviction in her bearing. He could see the Acolyte must have sensed it too as he seemed to wilt under her fierce stare; allowing the hood to hide his pale features, he stepped back against the far wall. Not sure what was happening Aleks took a moment to consider the possibilities; that Toni and the three Mercenary officers were not exactly who they appeared to be was apparent but what this meant for the remains of the Grenadiers was a mystery. Looking from McAlister to Kerensky, Aleks cleared his throat before addressing the former Grenadier Corporal “OK Toni so what’s going and why shouldn’t I have the Sergeant and his men place you all under arrest? The only thing that has stayed an out of hand action is your history with the Grenadiers, you’ve earned the right to explain yourself” the young woman turned to ward Aleks and blinked several times, the effort to rein in her anger at the ComStar representative visibly drained her and he could see the rage dim in her eyes. “I am truly sorry, you both must believe me when I say I would never betray the Grenadiers or the trust you have placed in me for so long. As you no doubt have gathered Bremman, Artemev, Sobral and myself are what you would call ‘of the Clans’; however we are not associated with those that now prosecute an invasion against the Inner Sphere. Our people left the as part of Aleksandr Kerensky’s Operation Exodus almost three hundred years ago and helped to found a number of barely habitable planets beyond the Deep Periphery. However through treachery, perhaps a few ill-conceived choices and a cruel turn of fate, the descendants of those SLDF soldiers returned to the Inner Sphere and came into contact with ComStar or one of their branches. They agreed to be taken in and sheltered by the organisation in return for training and sharing some of their more advanced technologies, what most of the Inner Sphere regards as LosTech has, in most military cases, been surpassed by the Clans who were spared from the ravages of the Successor Wars. It now appears at least some of the remaining Clans have launched Operation Revival; a long planned conquest of the Inner Sphere to re-establish the Star League and bring all of the Houses to heel.” Toni paused, seemingly unsure where to go with the admission “Don’t hold back Corporal, I still don’t see a reason to spare you all from a trip to the brig. We may be depleted in manpower but I’m pretty sure we could Commander Lockhart wouldn’t hesitate to let the Banks and the Revenge deal with the Tramp JumpShip out there if she knew who they were” at that both the Hennesey officers and ComStar Acolyte started, the motion of five guns tracking them stilled their motion quickly but the rage on Bremmans face was apparent “We have come here in good faith and in the hope of retrieving one of our own without the need for violence, we could have intimidated with a show of force as soon as we emerged; I can guarantee our JumpShip has more offensive and defensive firepower than your two DropShips can handle. Tell me; were you able to identify the model beyond its basic tag? Did the mass index match with that classification?” he asked with a hint of a smile turning his lips, flicking a quick glance at McAlister he continued “We are not here to fight and if Galaxy Commander Kerensky deems you to be trustworthy and has granted you SafeCon to meet with the Council, then so shall it be. All the forces aboard the Wild Hunt are at her command and we three are to serve as her staff officers.” McAlister holstered his sidearm, indicating Aleks should stand down too before looking along the trio of Hennesey officers; searching each face for signs of treachery. Finally he looked to Toni Kerensky, the tall Caledonians eyes narrowed slightly as he recognised the defiance in the young woman’s stance before finally giving a nod of acceptance “Very well lassie, ye have ma attention but ye ken well how I’ll deal wie ye if ye betray us. A’m no sure whit ye expect o’ us when we meet this Council but ma main concern is fir the welfare o’ the Grenadiers, every decision A make frae now oan will reflect that, agreed?” Kerensky visibly relaxed; her stance shifted slightly allowing her ramrod back and shoulders to ease and a relieved smile crept onto her face, with a nod she replied “Thank you Colonel, please believe me when I tell you my family can offer you and the Grenadiers much of what you need, the least of which being a safe place to rest our…your people, repair your equipment and plan for the future against the rest of the Clans.”

Turning to take in the officers at her side she continued “Believe me when I say Clan Wolverine has no friends amongst these invaders and I think the Council will be willing to help in any way possible to fight back against them. We have a long journey ahead of us, we will be travelling to where it all began; the Sol system.”

Edited by xX PUG Xx, 11 April 2015 - 06:34 AM.