NoonWizards MountainsPnet BckstoneFive Kilometres Outside Former Pirate Base

  A rge, silver egg-shaped dropship plunged through the atmosphere, escorted by half a dozen aerospace fighters of various designs. It fred its massive engines, slowing its descent as it made a pass over the entire 'Circle of Equals' that would be the battlefield for the fate of pnet Bckstone. It touched down at the very edge of the circle, shutting down its engines while deploying its ramps and opening all three of its massive bay doors.

  Mech after mech stepped out of the machine, all painted with a distinctive silver paint, their numbers seemingly endless. Clinging to the sides of several of the mechs were squads of Elementals, the Wolves power armoured infantry. Genetically bred to be towering walls of muscle, the men and women who piloted these suits were experts in close-range combat with battlemechs, the suits augmenting their already inhuman strength by a factor of fifty*.

  After several minutes, the final mech disembarked the Overlord-C dropship, easily the rgest mech in the Silver Keshik. Looking vaguely like an ancient samurai warrior, the 95-ton Executioner-B (See A/N at bottom) stopped at the top of the ramp and surveyed the assembled battlemechs of Beta Gaxy that stood before it.

  "Fellow Wolves! Bear witness and rejoice! For today, we take the first blood of Operation REVIVAL!" saKahn Garth Radick spoke from inside the Executioner. He had ended up needing to outbid his men, fully believing they were being slightly too cautious. Caution was good, but these Innersphere mechs were old, inferior models compared to their Omnimechs.

  Also, they all kept at least some aerospace assets in their bids, considering an unknown VTOL a potential danger. He cut air support out of his bid entirely, making up for it with the Vulture in his command star. If they were fighting in caves, high-speed aircraft would be unable to support them. The wall of missiles that a mech could rain down on enemy aircraft would make even a high-speed fighter question its prospects of survival when making a strafing run on their ground forces.

  In fact, other than the Vulture, most of the binary he was taking with him into the Circle of Equals was set up for short to mid-range combat. Seven mechs and twenty elementals were his bid, though that did include two assault mechs. Even with surprises these warriors had no doubt cooked up, he was confident he would not need to call in reinforcements.

  The rest of the mechs present were all Star Commanders or higher ranks within Beta Gaxy, here to watch the battle unfold but not to engage. That would only change if these Freebirth Guards had lied about their numbers or broken the rules of the Trial; then they would be close at hand to pounce on the offending dezgra.

  "Bravo Star, move out! Alpha Star, form on me. We will follow behind at speed." He ordered, sending his lighter mechs and elementals forward.

  Two 45-ton Ice Ferret-B's and two 35-ton Adder-C's rushed towards the battlefield, each carrying five elementals with them. According to their intel, the combined firepower of that force alone should be more than sufficient to deal with most pnetary forces they would find out here in the periphery.

  He stepped his mech down from the ramp and followed in their tracks, his second in command following nearby in his 80-ton Gargoyle-C and the Vulture bringing up the rear.

  The wolves were now on the hunt.

  A few minutes ter, the saKahn's radio fred to life, a message coming in from the Bravo Star commander.

  "saKahn Garth Radick. No enemy mechs have been spotted yet; however, as expected, the mineral deposits in this region are causing issues with our sensors. I have tested it on one of my Stars mechs, and we seem to have a reduced target acquisition range for our fire control systems."

  "Very good, Star Commander." He replied, having already noticed the same thing.

  These Freebirth at least had the foresight to try to even the odds against them. It is curious, though, how they seem to know so much about our ways. No matter. Once we defeat them, we will find out how they learned about us. If it turns out that it was a traitor, I will personally execute them.

  "Proceed to objective Alpha. Investigate those two Union dropships; I want to know if they are hiding forces inside of them." He ordered, then closed the channel.

  He was confused when they had not moved them out of the battlefield, but having been surprised back when he was a young pup by enemies hiding within derelict dropships, he didn't pn on moving past them until they were cleared.

  A few more minutes passed before another message came in. This time, it was from the Charlie Star Commander, the leader of the elementals that he had attached to Bravo Star. Like most Elementals, she was very simple and direct, speaking her mind whenever she chose to. Granted, when you were 2.4 metres (8ft) tall and made a ferrocrete wall look soft, there were not many who would be willing to check her attitude.

  "saKahn, there is a problem." She said without preamble. "My Elementals were about to breach the doors, but there is an official-looking notice written on the outside of them."

  "What is it, Star Commander?"

  "One moment. Sending you the camera feed."

  An image came up on one of the monitors in his mech, presumably from one of the Elemental's helmet cameras. They were standing in front of the bay door of one of the dropships. A rge sign had been riveted to the door, bright yellow with bck lettering, with several hazard symbols at the bottom, ranging from explosive to radioactive.

  CAUTION!

  KEEP BACK

  THESE DROPSHIPS BELONGED TO THE PIRATES KNOWN AS RYAN'S REBELS.

  THEY HAD BEEN SEALED BY THEM AND ARE SUSPECTED TO BE RIGGED WITH EXPLOSIVES.

  THE BLACKSTONE GUARD URGES YOU TO KEEP YOUR DISTANCE UNTIL EXPERTS CAN BE BROUGHT IN TO DISARM ANY TRAPS THE PIRATES HAVE LEFT BEHIND.

  IF YOU CHOOSE TO REMAIN, THE PLANET OF BLACKSTONE AND THE BLACKSTONE GUARDS WILL NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES THAT MAY OCCUR.

  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

  THE BLACKSTONE GUARD

  "Hmmm." The saKhan mused, drumming his fingers on his armrest. This was unexpected. If it was true, then they should probably back off, but this, this seemed too convenient. Why would these pirates have left ships all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? And conveniently right in the middle of their Circle of Equals? Was this some trick these Bckstone Guards had cooked up to hide their mechs?

  "Your orders?" the Star Commander asked, forgetting once again to address him by his title. That little annoyance did it for him. If it were a trick, then they would expose these Freebirths before they could spring their trap. If it wasn't a trick, well, he would be short a few of these hulks with the brains of a surat.

  "Have your Elementals break them open, Star Commander. It could be a trick, and they may have mechs hiding inside them. Quiaff?"

  "Aff."

  He continued to watch the camera feed out of the corner of his eye as he piloted his mech towards the dropships. Ten of the Elementals started cutting into the doors, their sers and power armour quickly opening them up like tin cans. As the door was finally broken into, the camera feed went dead, and a fsh of light caused the ferrogss in his cockpit to bck out for a moment.

  When it became transparent again, two huge fireballs could be seen in the distance, billowing upwards like twin mushroom clouds. A shockwave hit his mech a moment ter, washing over the heavy machine and causing it to shake slightly.

  "Bravo Star, report!" He bellowed into his mic.

  Stravag! What in the name of Kerensky was that!

  *SHHHICCTICK*

  "Bravo Star! Report!"

  "Are you sure they won't consider this dishonourable?" John asked Mia as they watched the aftermath of the explosions through the camera feed. Two of the mechs and nearly a dozen of those Elementals, as she had called them, had disappeared in the ball of fire that all the mining explosives they had packed into those two ships created. The remaining two mechs and their passengers had been far enough back that they were just knocked to the ground or sent flying away from the epicentre.

  "If you tell them you rigged it, then yes, they would. However, you made it clear that it was Ryan's Rebels who had left it rigged to explode, and you did not have the people able to disarm the trap." She said, smiling a little. "You see, we have all these rules to be honourable in combat. However, a crafty commander will bend the rules whenever they can to gain an advantage. As long as it is not discovered that you acted dishonourably, then it is as if that dishonour did not happen. At least between different Cns, we do tend to hate each other to various degrees. The Steel Vipers have no major issues with Cn Wolf, but if it were the Jade Falcons, we would do anything possible to see them fail."

  "Pusible deniability?"

  "You understand. Honour is a tricky subject with the Cns. Right now, their commander will be fuming at losing part of his touman, his forces, without having a single shot fired. It would be seen as something dishonourable. However, his rage will not be targeted at the Guards, at least not directly. Now is the time for the next phase of the operation. Are you ready, John Wayne?"

  "I am just the side show here, not the stars. They should be up right about... now."

  "Wolfpup in the Ice Ferret, I am Mechwarrior Freddy Beard, of the Bckstone Guards, a Sohma unit. I am piloting the lone Marauder in this Circle of Equals. I hereby invoke the ritual of... Zell-bridgen? and challenge you to a duel of warriors. In this solemn matter, let no one interfere!" Freddy called out on an open channel, reading from a note he had hastily scrawled down from Mia's advice. He still had no bloody idea what this was about, but apparently, if he did this, he and that mech would duel one-on-one. As long as no one else shot the other mech, he wouldn't have to worry about being swarmed.

  He was at the mouth of the cave, the cn mech just outside the maximum range of his autocannon. Well, maximum if he wasn't targeting it manually.

  "I am Star Commander Medi of Cn Wolf! I will accept your challenge if you allow my Point (1 mech/aerospace unit or 5 Elementals) of Elementals to join me, as your mech far outweighs my own."

  Umm, now what? She didn't tell me what to do if they had a counteroffer.

  "If you're afraid of an old man in a beat-up mech that much, then by all means, bring them with you. More honour for me, wolfpup." He replied, improvising. He thumbed the trigger of his autocannon, the three-round burst of 120mm shells clipping one of the Elementals on the mech's shoulder, sending it flying. Surprisingly, it stood up and jumped back up on the mech's shoulder, damaged but still moving.

  Damn, tough little bastards. This is going to be tougher than I thought.

  He started to back away into the cave, carefully aiming his PPCs as the much faster mech loped into range. The other mech followed close behind, the one that Mia called a Uller. Jack, the Quickdraw pilot, would have to deal with that one.

  He fired off his PPCs one after the other, connecting with the other mech's torso, dealing a decent amount of damage, but neither shot broke through the lighter mech's armour. Surprisingly, the ser in its arm shed out at him, cutting a deep gouge in his mech's arm.

  How did a ser hit me from that distance?

  Still, if they were going to keep duelling at this range, he knew he would be fine. But that mech had ten angry-looking missile tubes, not to mention its passengers in power armour, who could take a direct hit from his autocannon and still function. He fired another burst of his autocannon, somehow hitting the same Elemental again. It flew back and stopped moving this time. He nodded at that, but his jaw dropped when an incredibly rge woman stood up from the wreckage of the power armour.

  The hell? Are they fucking some sort of giant amazons or something?

  He shook his head, focusing back on the fight at hand. She was of no danger to his mech now, while this stupid mech would be inside the range of his PPCs and autocannon shortly.

  "Anytime now, Johnny boy."

  "saKahn! We have engaged two enemy mechs. One Marauder, One Quickdraw. Both pilots have invoked Zellbrigen, which we accepted along with our Elementals. We are inside the cave now. It is just a massive cavern with a few prefab structures. It opens up into a valley on the other side. There are two tunnels here as well."

  "Any sign of the other mechs, Star Commander?" The saKahn said, his command Star just arriving at the smoking wrecks of the dropships now.

  "Not yet, saKahn."

  "Very well, we will be there shortly."

  "Yes, my- Stravag. Everything just went dark!"

  "What? What do you mean?"

  "I can't see anything! My viewport, my screens, anything. I am blind- *Schheetick*"

  "Star Commander! Come in! Anyone from Bravo Star, respond!" saKahn shouted into his mic yet again. He had just reestablished comms with his unit, and now it was down again.

  What is going on in there?

  A few minutes ter, his comms lit up again, this time from one of the Elementals.

  "saKahn, this is Charlie three. Both of our mechs are disabled. We are still engaged with the two heavy mechs. We should have them down shortly."

  "Where is your Star Commander?" He barked at the man.

  "Her suit was destroyed by the Marauder earlier. One moment, saKahn, I almost have this Marauders cockpit ripped open. Ahh there! Wow, this man is really old, but he has some warriors spirit! He is shooting at me with a revolver of all things and ughing. Do you want him captured or dead, saKhan?"

  "They decred they are a sohma unit. Let the man die in battle as a warrior should."

  "Yes, saKhan. It will be so."

  The sound of a ser went off, signalling the end of the duel.

  "And for the kill, I promote you to Star Commander of Charlie Star. Serve with honour warrior."

  "Yes, my saKhan."

  I should probably have learned his name first. No matter, he is just an Elemental. They die more often than not.

  * - Not exactly accurate. Sarnia.net doesn’t say exactly how much stronger the armour makes the Elemental, but with the cw on the suit able to generate 30 kg/cm2 of pressure and allowing the Elementals to literally rip armour ptes off a mech, they have to be bloody strong, right?

  Juia_Darkcrest