I updated the fan wiki with additional short stories and linked in one of my largest stories introducing the setting. I added the story below so fans can see how I kept Lars Magnusson alive. The Inner Sphere needs strong warriors in the coming conflict....
Operation Ursus Major
Barely out of the shower, Captain Irons rested his head against the cold bulkhead. The steam still filled the room, making it seem blurry. “We did it, we made it….” He mumbled to himself.
It was a harrowing event. Protectors from a distance, they almost failed. But, they were Rabid Foxes. Fast, quiet, and lethal. Without the surprise of the original Clan invasion, Clanners were now seen as little more than a challenge to be conquered. His severely bruised and broken ribs and green and purple leg were a testament to that. Being thrown into a brick wall, while not the first time, would obviously be something he still didn’t want to do again.
Breaking his focus on himself, her face flashed before his eyes. Fear… uncertainty… all in a second, it happened so fast, but felt so slow. He shook his head and looked toward his quarters through the hatch, not much, but the officer’s bunk would provide him some rest. Two consecutive jumps, now two days wait as the prepared jumpship needed to reach them in this system from its hidden location. His team, while to remain alert, were to get their rest. Months of a life they barely understood came to an end at one climactic moment.
With the collapse of the Republic, it felt like a vacuum raging towards Terra. Constant tension everywhere they went. In the last couple months it exploded! Everyone was at each other’s throats. It must have been this way to start the 1st Succession War!
He shook his head as he walked out towards his bunk, giving himself a final once over, drying off. Tossing on some skivvies, he collapsed onto the bunk. He turned his head to look out into the depth of space through the tiny hole in the bulkhead. He could see various shades of green from a distant nebula dotted with white stars.
Then a new face appeared in his mind… a dead one, eyes with no life behind them. His blood began boiling, almost to the point of sweating, he felt rage swell up in his mind, body, and soul. Clenching his fists and gritting his teeth… “Should not have been there!” he said abruptly, snarling.
A sudden burst from a stabilizer on the outside hull brought him back from his dark, rage fueling thoughts. He calmed as best he could. He had nothing but some painkillers. Making sure his communications and alarms were active and set correctly, he popped a couple pills and closed his eyes. As he lay there and his mind began to wander, his face slowly contorted into a snarling beast, a rage filled man prepared to kill, a single tear forming at the corner of his eye… After a few moments it went dark as his exhaustion set in and fell asleep.
------
Crowds outside were cheering, yelling, as there was no unified stance on anything. Hell, there were some there just stirring the pot, holding up signs that meant absolutely nothing, some even comical.
Captain Irons, a lowly maintenance technician was in and out of the building constantly. He knew every path by heart and could get where he needed to go in pitch black. This deep in cover and far from New Avalon, he had to be primed and ready to go; even more so because of mission problems from the very start. It had nothing to do with the mission itself but, the team was cherry picked by higher ups. All intelligent, all physically fit but… he refocused his line of thought, he needed to get his people home and today things were coming to a head, the entire purpose of his mission may be at hand.
Through the secret communications network they established all had checked in and were near their prepared positions. Sidestepping the Watch was about as hard as they suspected but, due to the vote – the team all agreed it was thought up by someone unfathomably incompetent – the chaos across the Rasalhague Dominion kept the Watch very busy.
However, regardless of the vote, in the last couple months, their focus was here, at the Capital Building – The Council. A scheming, treacherous snake had it in for someone vital to stability and a potential ally. Multiple communiques and recorded conversations were in their possession of the threats and intended outcomes.
Hearing a sudden change in the chaos outside, Irons looked up from the list of maintenance requests and out the window. His teammate, his second in command, Lieutenant Aven, was with him in the office, standing up and looking outside.
“He’s here.” Aven stated firmly, yet quietly. Even though it was just the two of them in the office, they would still be careful.
“Got it.” Irons stated before setting down the list and getting on a holoscreen to make a few selections, which doubled as orders, and sent the information.
Calmly, both gathered their equipment bags, put on some easily hidden tactical gear beneath their overalls, and headed down the maintenance corridor, one of many under the main floor of the building.
------
Passing through the hallways was second nature however, today they were approaching the rear of the chamber. Having already passed below where The Council was gathered, they would be at the rear exits in a few moments, and not a moment too soon. An alarm sounded and some medical personnel ran past them and into the chamber while they were working on an electrical panel. Closing the door behind the medics were a couple Elemental sized guards.
Another teammate walked by, who worked in the cafeteria, she was small and petite, even more so than a Clan Aerospace fighter pilot, similar in stature to the other females on the team. Keeping up appearances, she acted like she didn’t even notice the maintenance crew.
Suddenly the doors burst open, the medical staff flying down the hallway, two other Elemental sized guards following closely behind. Neither of the two maintenance workers even looked up. To not look suspicious, Irons gave a shake of his head and tapped Aven on the shoulder. Pointing to the holopanel he said, “Looks like the short is down the hall, couple doors past medical. Pack this stuff up and meet me down there.” Irons stood and began walking with purpose but not too rushed to be suspicious, after getting a nod from Aven. Punching buttons to look like he was working on the device, he didn’t even look up.
However, the entire team was now converging. They had to work fast, the nanotech was good but, time was limited based on physiology. Walking through the hall, making a handful of turns, he walked past the two guards outside medical, giving them a respectful acknowledgement and entering a service corridor.
Quickly he turned his device to the camera that had been positioned months ago, tested a single time but; never used, to not risk being picked up by the Watch in their sweeps. There was a body on a gurney, fresh blood on his chest, still pulsing out. The techs were administering drugs, likely sedatives to allow him to die peacefully.
However, like a flash, Irons emerged as Aven came around the corner, their silent weapons fire hit each of the guards in the throats from sleeve covered, arm mounted weapons, they collapsed to the ground on their knees, grasping their throats. With small vibroblades both Irons and Aven, finished the job, slicing all the way through, severing their spinal cords. Both quickly dragged the corpses into the maintenance corridor and into a cove with some boxes. Using a thin sheet with mimetic tech, they covered the bodies, looking like some stacked crates; behind the prepared crates in the cove. Luckily there was minimal blood splatter as the vibroblades cauterized the flesh.
Coming back around the corner, they found the door cracked open, two female teammates inside. All the medical staff was unconscious and the two of them were administering the nanotech. Aven cleaned up the splatters of blood. Any facility cameras were already set on a loop by Larkson and Tieta, the two girls currently saving the man’s life.
The multiple empty syringes of nanotech were dumped back into their kits, they were hauling everything out. As the men watched the doorway, the ladies continued to give the nanotech instruction on their holopanels. Sealing the gouge in his heart muscle and helping reroute blood, the nanotech brought him back to stable.
His eyes went wide, gasping for air as he grabbed one of the girl’s arms, his bloodshot eyes and brow gave a confused look.
“Julian, your ally, awaits you.” Tieta quietly whispered to him. He seemed to relax at the statement, the nanotech now introducing sedatives to ensure if the medical staff was poisoning him, it wouldn’t work and that he would remain unconscious.
“Irons, we are ready to move”, Larkson stated.
He returned a nod. Then the building alarm went off after a sudden rumble. Red lights came on down through the hall. Keeping the door closed, they could hear the stomping of a reaction team run by. Right on time… Some extremely disgruntled joiners happily accepted good pay to time a riot and breach the building with some homemade explosives.
Looking out to see it was clear, the team began moving down the corridor, calmly but, like before, with purpose and deceitfully using their holopanels and feigning nervousness and fear to other staff they passed by. Another of the thin cloths covered the gurney, making it look like a pallet jack wheeling some crates. The loading bay was their destination.
------
Four workers were unloading the truck. It was right on time to be leaving. The faux pallet jack was wheeling into the rear by Larkson and Irons. Tieta took the driver’s seat with Aven beside her. Starting to hack the truck, the four loading dock workers began back loading some crates to hide Irons and Larkson.
But then, a couple Elementals burst through the loading bay door. “There!” one shouted.
A spattering of bullets slammed into some crates, one round catching the side of Adrei’s face. All four took cover. Two of the Unarmored Elementals charged into the crates and were immediately set upon by the team of four. Adrei and Mendes took one. Taylor and Kerr took the other.
Climbing over a couple boxes, leaving Larkson to tend to Lars, Irons surprised the Elemental with the rifle still shouldered. His arm pistol fired off the final three rounds as he leapt past the fighting troopers. Two rounds caught the Elemental’s right arm, causing him to drop the rifle. Using his shoulder, Irons crashed into the giant man’s chest, sending both to the ground.
With his vibroblade he attempted to severe the damaged right arm but, the Elemental’s left arm, had Irons’ leg. Even laying flat on the ground and with one arm, the Elemental pressed up with a leg to gain momentum and threw Irons at the wall. The wind was knocked out of him. However, as he took a second to force air back into his lungs, standing up, he could see that he at least detached the Elemental’s right bicep. Blood was pooling on the loading dock and streaming down the hulking arm and sleeve of his enemy’s professional attire.
A sudden shriek could be heard to his right, glancing over, Irons could see Kerr, laying over a crate edge backwards, her head hanging off of it in a sickening angle. Her neck was clearly broken, head dangling lifelessly, one eye barely open, staring off into nothingness, the other wide open and entirely rolled back. Her blonde hair was no longer in the tight bun, hanging down and slowly turning more and more red until blood streamed down it to the dock. Savage fighting continued behind the crates.
Fueling his determination and rage he got away from the wall, not even fully recovered from having the wind knocked out of him. He threw out his arms and brought them up into a fighting stance. “Dezgra”, he defiantly told the Elemental.
Even with just the one arm working, the hulking man charged Irons, throwing a huge fist. Dodging the fist, Irons dipped low, slicing halfway through the Elemental’s quad muscles. Barely catching himself on the wall, the Elemental turned, trying to grab Irons. Missing again, Irons began laying haymakers into the Elemental’s chest. Irons knew how to punch, and the feeling of broken ribs in the Elemental’s chest spurred him to keep hitting, his small blade would get stuck in the intact ribs.
Finally getting his massive hand on Irons’ shoulder, he barely had the strength to swing him into the wall one more time but, it resulted in the Elemental collapsing into unconsciousness. Not nearly as hard a hit as before, it shook Irons but, he was instantly looking to the rest of his team.
By now it was 1v1s and not going well. Adrei’s leg was snapped in half and he was crumpled in the back of the truck, blood was all over the wall where he had hit and the crates he was slumped against.
Coming around the crates on the dock he could see that Mendes had at least been able to get on his opponent’s back, forcing the Elemental to the ground. But he only got there in time to see Taylor take a colossal fist to the chest, it was almost as wide as her. She slammed into the ground, rolling to her stomach, just a couple meters away as Irons lunged forward.
She looked at him, gasping for air, reaching for him, when in slow motion, a massive military boot hit the back of her head, making her go face down, then her head rupturing, turning to red goo as she was crushed beneath the boot, her body stiffening for a second, then going entirely limp.
Irons ran his vibroblade directly into the chest of the Elemental that just executed Taylor, feeling it get stuck in his ribs. Face to face now, he could see the man had a broken nose, was missing teeth, an ear, and an eye but he still had his raw strength. He grasped around Irons in a bear hug, attempting to crush him. Seeing spots, Irons could not move or escape as he could no longer inhale and heard his already bruised ribs breaking from the force.
A sudden silent whistle brought him relief. He looked back at the Elemental’s face to see two holes where the eyes were. Slowly, the corpse released him and collapsed. Mendes expended his final arm mounted rounds into the monstrous man’s eye sockets.
He could hear the truck engine start and blast three times on the horn, Tieta and Aven had hacked into the truck to power it up and communicate with the next batch of paid off rioters by the very loud horn. He reached down and picked up Taylor’s torso, bringing her inside the truck. Mendes brought Kerr in as well and moved to help Irons, however, he waved Mendes to check Adrei first.
The rear hatch slammed down and the truck surged forward. Larkson confirmed that she was still handling the nanotech and Lars Magnusson was still in stable condition. She also confirmed that everything was in place for the Prince’s message to reach the Alpha Galaxy Star Colonels as well as the Council chamber footage to reach the populace.
Irons closed his eyes and focused on just breathing, considering he wasn’t breathing for half that fight. But, he heard a bunch of yelling and screaming alongside cars honking as they moved onto the highway toward the spaceport and their prepared vessel, seemingly without delay as the truck didn’t slow at all. Paying off the protestors to block the highway was a very good idea.
------
“Good evening Rasalhagians, I am Tabby Lorik, and we have breaking footage of the chaos outside of the Council chamber today.”
The screen switched over to the smoke from the explosion at the building, a VTOL circling above the crowd as she continued talking.
Suddenly, the video changed to the Council chamber itself, all the members in the circular room, Hjalmer Miraborg screaming at a rigid and powerful looking Lars Magnusson in the center of them all. A tiny man, compared to the trueborn warrior he foolishly belittled while physically looking up at him.
“You have failed as a Ghost Bear and as a Galaxy Commander, the Touman is subject to our directives. You will not decide the punishment, I demand a Trial of Grievance.”
Clear as day, Lars gave a quizzical look, looking to Khan Bekker, who looked just as shocked. While his head was turned, Miraborg stabbed Lars in the chest with a blade. All the Ghost Bears present were about to surge forward when armed guards entered the chamber. Hjalmer pressed the dagger deeper, forcing Lars to the ground, bleeding profusely from his chest.
“Stand down!” Shouted Hjalmer. We will join the Star League and we will not let one failed warrior stand in our way. If any of you Clanners even think of attacking the Rasalhagians in this chamber, you will be gunned down. All this fighting will end and the Deniers will get in line!”
A door burst open and a medical team rushed in.
The feed cut off. Tabby looked at the screen wide-eyed, her mouth agape. “I… I am sorry everyone at home, that shocked me… I don’t know….” Suddenly the screen went blank, reading ‘Technical difficulties, we will be right back!’
------
By the time, their dropship reached orbit, military vessels were already firing on each other. Only civilian vessel IFFs were spared, like their ship. Irons was sitting as comfortable as he could, the dropship reaching 2G’s. He was writing up his report while it was fresh in his mind.
The unholy berating he gave over the forced inclusion of Taylor and Kerr was the first time he would correspond with a higher officer in such a severe manner. They were forced into this mission as a pet project for the Colonel. Adrei was severely beaten but, he was alive. Those two women were slaughtered for the political points that corrupt Colonel was trying to achieve.
Irons would pull a number of strings to ensure he had an audience with the Prince himself. Had that been the two powerhouses he had no doubt about bringing along? The whole team might have come back alive. Those young ladies would never get to be mothers or brides. Taylor was engaged to an officer he knew personally, that man loved her. Kerr was expecting her boyfriend to propose when she got home.
Lives shattered for no reason and Irons was going to shatter everyone who caused this to happen. ****** politics should never dictate military action.
------
“Star Colonel, I am Prince Julian Davion of the Federated Suns. By now, my Rabid Foxes have completed a vital mission for both our realms. We are hurt badly. Even before the Dragon’s Tongue ransacked New Avalon our forces were decimated. The only reason you have this message is because my Rabid Foxes have saved a great friend and ally of mine. For months my team has known that Hjalmer Miraborg intended to kill Lars Magnusson.”
“Today they have enacted Operation Ursus Major to save his life. Their goal is to return to Federated Suns space where he can recover at a top secret location on a top secret world. If you can provide any assistance by deploying Alpha Galaxy elements to engage all elements loyal to Miraborg for at least the next 12 hours, as well as keeping this message for your eyes only, you are welcome to rendezvous at Waycross. There will be more than adequate defenses at the planet should any treachery come to pass.”
“Clearly, the Ghost Bear has snakes in its lair, I will consult with Galaxy Commander Magnusson when he arrives and I sincerely hope to see his warriors at his back.”
------
Looking at Lars Magnusson asleep in the medical bay was rough as at least six of Irons’ ribs were broken and the rest were severely bruised but, at least he had finally been able to shower. At the very least Lars looked peaceful under Tieta’s watchful eye. Irons briefly considered trying to copy the epic Mohawk style haircut Lars had. He chuckled at the thought, smiling and thinking back on the escape from Rasalhague.
A full 2G’s to the jumpship was hell on everyone. No one could do much more than sleep unless doing something entirely miserable. All systems were shut down in the ship to keep at maximum velocity. Mendes, a glutton for punishment was lifting heavy in the gym somehow. A few crew members and some of the team drew entertainment from watching as he almost died under his usual warm up weight.
Jump warning alarms sounded for everyone to prep for jumping in less than 1 minute. Irons walked over to the round window to look out at the stars again. Suddenly, a massive vessel flashed into view. The six legs surrounding the head of a Ghost Bear stared him right in the face. Next to it was a Ghost Bear with a gold burst behind it and golden leaves wrapped around it. His own ship’s jump sequence began its countdown.
Irons grinned again, “Looks like we finally have a Prince worth a damn”, he said aloud, then space folded around him.
