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Aaron Jarnson yawned in his massive Atlas' cockpit and with a long, rude sentence he drove the 100 tons assault down to the calm, grassy valley. His lance spread across the ridge to be able to overwatch the whole area preventing the strange attackers to slip through unnoticed. Aaron laughed in his cockpit's lonelyness as he recited the attackers communication attempt. Pirates were always considered as lunatics but these "Ghost Bears" were even more crazy...
Never before that day heared Aaron such a challenge what the Bears issued to them. They asked what forces they have and that where they wish to face with the Bear units. After close the channel the whole HQ laughed on the idiots whom they would beat hardly. They expected the same level of skills and mechs what other pirate groups showed so far and thus they expected a swift, easy victory.
A quick glance to the chronometer showed to Aaron that the first clashes would soon occur. He activated the radio to monitor the information-flow on the units' combat-channels. It took about another half minute when the first sentence occured:
'What the icy hell of Jöttünheim are these?!' and parallel with the sentence signals started to appear on Aaron's main sensor display. They were to small to be mechs and seemingly acted in groups of five. Aaron suspected some kind of infantry but his faith trembled when a sudden scream occured: 'Aaaaah! That thing survived my laser's hit! What kind of daemons are these?! Someone help me no...'
The signal of the message's source suddenly vanished what meant the mech get destroyed by the unknown enemy forces. Infantry units, what survive a medium laser hit, easily eliminated a medium Hunchback. For Aaron it were a really bad start, almost an omen. He quickly opened his lance's combat frequency but before he could say anything a strange mech appeared upon the closest hilltop. It featured a fragile stature with strange, reversed arms what towered over the mech's head. The sensors stated that it were only 20 tons but faced with the five-times heavier Atlas calmly. However the suprise continued!
The small, fragile mech pointed directly toward Aaron's Atlas then with a clear gesture it showed that awaiting Aaron to face with... Aaron could not breath by the suprise: A 20 tons light mech challenges a 100 tons Atlas?! The pilot sure utterly, damned mad!
Aaron dashed forth with his Atlas determined to slaughter the idiot down. But his fired projectiles found only the air where the light mech stood. It moved so fast that Aaron forgot to breath again. He saw already fast light mechs in combat, pirate Locusts, Fleas and even Jenners but none were so swift and agile that the crazy design he just faced.
'Odin's nightmare!' breathed coldly when checked his sensor intels what revealed him the speed of the enemy light mech. 'Over 200 kph?! That is not a mech! No mech could be THAT FAST!'
Explosions of SRMs pulled back to reality Aaron just to realise that the Atlas' main weapon, the bulky but butchering AC-20 were disabled. Aaron, seen such outstanding aiming from an impossible fast light mech, started to dispute that the Bears they faced were mere pirates from the wild Periphery. He desperately tried to follow the smaller light mech to lock his weapons but it were so swift that always slipped out from his crosshairs. Aaron desperately dumb-fired with all his LRMs and the huge Atlas trembled as the metallic arrows left their tubes...
... To hit the hillside and rip smoking craters into the dense grass. The light phantom suddenly vanished from his displays!
'Aaaaaah!' blown the desperate scream into the comm-channels and the signal of Donald's Grasshopper vanished. Aaron lost one of his lancemates and faced a mech what suddenly disappeared. He slowly started to desperate. He no longer felt himself invincible within the huge Atlas, in the king of the battlefield. The whole situation were unnatural.
The haunting light mech suddenly reappeared when dashed forth behind a hill and flooded the Atlas with laser beams. The caused damage were minimal but Aaron realised to late that it were a mere decoy. With a gracefull step to left, Aaron wondered how the pilot could done that while dashed about 200 kph speed, the light bugger got into ideal position to launch SRMs directly toward the massive head of the Atlas. And the launched missiles seemed to follow a track of blood impact accurately.
Aaron Jarnson, a veteran mechwarrior officer not knew what happened and how but suddenly found himself in the air slowly glide down with his ejection seat. His Atlas down laid on the ground with crushed head while the victorious 20 tons light ghost dashed forth toward it's next target. Aaron desperately realised they faced a force what were far superior than anything in the Inner Sphere, a force what seemed unstoppable! Witnessing how a 20 tons light beat a 100 tons assault without get a single hit were to much for Aaron.
But it were not his fault. Noone could have been prepared for the Clans, nor for the legendary Ghost Bears. And Aaron should not ever knew that he never had a chance with his skills against the far more skilled and experienced Aletha Kabrinski...
