Vengeance For The Dead
Prologue
Unknown Planet
Core-ward Periphery
07 July 3063
The team watched as the birdlike machine moved through the shadows. Fading in and out of view. The ‘hunters’ were not even aware that their prey had doubled back around on them. The Star Commander called out his observations to his mates. The two OmniMechs and two points of Elementals continued forward unawares that they were not the prey.
Star Commander Rick watched from the cockpit of his Mad Dog as he a point of his Elementals moved into the last known position of the elusive bandit. “Pay attention, this surrat is bound to stumble over his own feet any moment.” He put out alerting his fellow watch members that they were looking for an amateur.
The poor clansmen didn’t even know that their communications had been compromised. The whole operation was a setup to test out new equipment under battlefield conditions. A requirement of the scientists’ new partners. “This is Etienne, finish this.” He said and turned to the representative. “Now you will see what your resources have bought you.” He said.
The man in the fatigues simply nodded and turned to his fellows exchanging looks. Turning back, they watched as the scout’s returned to their prey. The shadowy figures darted around tripping motion and MAD scanners but failing to come up on visual and thermal viewers. The strangers watched as one of the shadowy forms halted and hunkered down. The display in the bunker lit up showing the Ice Ferret being painted by the recon ‘Mech.
On the other side of the jungle valley another recon ‘Mech did the same targeting a Mad Dog. The icon’s flashed from green to red and everyone watched from the other side of the valley as missile contrails erupted from two separate parts of the jungle and 72 missile swarmed in on each unsuspecting OmniMech.
The first warning Star Commander Rick had was the missile warning tone in his cockpit and then he saw the stream of missiles coming in on him. Cursing he looked for a position of cover and darted for a rock outcropping between him and the volley of missiles coming in on him.
“Cover, incoming missiles!” He screamed into his pickups. He watched as his Elementals scattered and the Pouncer with him darted off into the thick trees. Rick was almost to the outcropping when the first wave of missiles began hammering his ‘Mech. The pounding ripped the left arm off his Mad Dog B losing his two large lasers mounted there. Rick worked out where the volley had come from and backed out of the outcropping and loosed a flight from his LRM-20 before closing back up to the rocks.
Rick looked at his Star’s status display and noticed several of his mates were not reporting status not even destroyed. “Sound off.” He ordered.
“Point 2. Lost both arms and my reactor shielding is breached.” Reported MechWarrior Sarah. Her Ice Ferret taking half of the incoming missiles either through direct impacts or from overpressure damage from impacting the trees and ground around her ‘Mech.
“Point 3.”
“Point 4, one down.” Point Commander Jake reporting one of his Elementals was dead.
“Point 5.”
“Reform at point Epsilon.” He ordered. The rally point having been set on their nav computers before they exited the DropShip making them move back up the Valley from wince they came. “Clearly we were not briefed well for this mission. We must gain a better picture of the situation.” Rick explained as he began launching volleys of LRMs towards the launch points.
“Missile, missile, missile.” The computer called out again. This time he looked and didn’t have a chance. Both streams of missiles were arcing in on his position. He now knew he had one-hundred and forty-four missiles streaming in on his position. He caught a glimpse of movement to his left and as he heard his LRMs cycle he loosed another flight and stabbed the moving shadow with all three of his pulse lasers. The shadow shimmered and fell under the impact giving him the slightest target. Just enough for his streak launchers to lock on. He fired both of his six-packs sending twelve missiles at the little ‘Mech as it tried to stand back up from it landing on a tree. He watched as his missiles tore into the little machine just as his world exploded.
Jerrod Murry watched as the Vulture exploded and the ejection system kicked the pilot up and clear of the doomed OmniMech. He would want to speak with that MechWarrior when this was over. Should he live. The smaller trooper ‘Mechs were now spilling into the valley to hunter down the remaining two ‘Mechs and the Elementals. He had seen enough. These new ‘Mechs developed by Etienne’s people and the HRAD team assigned to this society cell worked wonders.
Jerrod knew this wasn’t the work of this specific cell though. They were not setup for weapons research. They were all geneticists. He wasn’t here to steal their secrets of the Clan breeding program. No, he was here to find out why they were running one in secret at all. What could backfire onto the Hegemony. Director Salazar needed this information as both he and the Duke were worried about the ramifications of our support for this Society should they do something that would enrage the Clan’s and use equipment that both the Society and Hegemony operate. That would point the Clans at the Hegemony. Jerrod knew the Hegemony could hold the Homeworlds but fighting the entire Inner Sphere and the Clans might be the tipping point. Especially if everyone showed up at once.
The Bandit Caste personnel brought in for this test hunted down the last of the Wolves as they raced back to their Broadsword. The DropShip was already powering up its engines as Society fighters swooped in to attack the grounded ship. The Anti-Ship missiles brought by the SAD group were already in play as the scientists’ pilots in their new Hadron fighters unleashed six of the potent missiles. Destroying the main drives on the Broadsword the ship began to settle back down on its landing gear as the last few Elemental’s and the Pouncer arrived to find their ship disabled.
“I want them.” Jerrod caught himself saying.
“Excuse me Jerrod?” Etienne asked.
“I want the survivors. All of them. They will come with me.” Jerrod said with conviction. The other people with him, all members of SAD caught on quickly enough and all gave the Scientist-General the look of hard men ready to do dirty work. “Mr. Balzac,” Jerrod said playing to his ego. “I would like to bring these Wolves with me. I feel they could be useful.”
Etienne looked hard for a moment and then looked towards the only Society military man in the room receiving a shrug. Nodding Etienne continued. “Of course, this makes it easier then killing them I supposed.”
“Keep what equipment they have. Add it to your cause. You know you will need Battle Armor and any OmniMechs you can get.” Jerrod said smiling.
“Well, I thought you would want more examples to study.” Etienne offered.
“No, I believe the tech examples you gave me will suffice.” Jerrod replied. Little did the fat scientist know, they were manufacturing them on mass now. “Thank you for the consideration. Between our joint efforts and the examples of Omni-Technology we recovered from the Inner Sphere. I believe we are going to be ok.”
“As you wish.” Etienne conceded. Now he would have to have the equipment repaired and transported to one of the caches. “What is the progress of the Alexandria?” He said catching Jerrod.
“Oh, coming along nicely. I believe you will be happy with the timetable adjustments.” Jerrod replied.
The mention of the timetable shocked him. He was afraid that something like this would come up. The Clans could almost never build a Warship on time and on budget. “Is there any concern?” Etienne inquired.
“No, I meant it when I said you could be happy with the adjustments.” Jerrod turned away from the bunker ferro-glass. “The Alexandria and the Pergamum are due to launch in six months and begin trials. I believe they will be on their way to you in the next year to eighteen months.”
That admission nearly gave Etienne a heart attack. “Eighteen months.” He repeated.
“Yes sir. Eighteen months. I think it is time for you to assemble your crews. We can meet them halfway and train them on the operations of the ships by the time we reach Sanctuary.” Jerrod offered.
It was Etienne’s turn to turn around and stare out into the jungle. He repeated it again. “Eighteen months…”
