Drop Zone Phi,

Einstein, Deep Periphery,

6^th March 3068

 

On a ridge with rocky spires, a company of mechs marched, their stances tall and proud. Sending up clouds of dust with every footstep, they made quite a din as they proceeded over the ridge onto the plains. Behind them moved a group of vehicles, both tracked and hovercraft.

They were ready for war.

They were ready for Clan Jade Falcon.

Major Ian Dorlacen had no wish to go head on with the Falcons in a fight, especially against their better technology. He had planned for a series of fades and thrusts, to frustrate them while depriving them of their usual elemental support. He had also prepared command detonated mines just over the ridge, where his mech company had just marched past.

To him, preparation was everything. With ample preparation, the battle could be won even before the first shot was fired. It was dishonorable, he admitted to himself, but he had always taken the motto ‘war to the knife’ to heart. It was no game to him, and he planned to survive till the very end, no matter what the odds.

He moved his Awesome forward, leading his company of mechs onto the green plains, where the brightness of the grass and flowers was so glaring that it threatened to blind him. He had never seen such a place of beauty in his whole life, on a dozen worlds where he had traveled. He felt it was a shame that the coming battle would probably destroy the field, and uproot the grass. The blooming flowers would be crushed under gigantic mech feet, proof of the frailness of nature compared to the might of humanity’s war machines.

In the distance, he could see the approaching Jade Falcon mechs, a binary of mechs and a binary of Elementals, Supernova Alpha of the 124th Striker Cluster, an elite outfit that was the equal of any Inner Sphere regiment. They sent up a dust cloud as they marched towars his unit’s position.

On paper, his Arch Lancers had no chance, but he reckoned that with some creative use of his vehicles and infantry, plus the mines, he could pull off yet another upset to add to his already impressive line of victories gained in the Chaos March.

But he still needed his mechs to bait the Falcons first. And his company was well equipped, though still not as upgraded as the house regulars. His Awesome with four PPCs, two upgraded Marauders, one of Steiner make, one of Davion make, and a former Liao Cataphract made up his command lance.

An upgraded Archer, a Davion style Rifleman with PPCs, a Catapult and a Crusader formed his Fire/Support lance. Able to deliver incredible amounts of firepower onto their opponents at long range, they had express orders to stay behind his command lance and give fire support. Getting in close would only hurt them, as they lacked sufficient close in weapons.

His recon lance was also as good as it got from the Chaos March. A Raven, a Javelin, a salvaged Duan Gung, and a Garm made a lance that would outmatch almost any other light recon lance in the Inner Sphere.

As the Falcons came into range, the Arch Lancers opened up with their weapons at extreme range, LRMs and PPCs scouring armor on the Falcon mechs, but hardly stopping them. His unit adhering to the rules of zellbrigen, Ian was willing to forgo the chance to take down one or two Falcon mechs for a true tactical advantage later in the battle. Of course, this was also dependent on the Clanners following their own rules of combat. So far, the Falcon commander seemed willing to play along. After all, it was to their advantage.

The Awesome's four PPCs lashed out with lightning, one of them impacting on an Uller, melting armor over its left torso.

The Falcons returned fire, their Elementals having disembarked long before, inflicting an equal amount of damage on the Lancers. Surprisingly, they did not seem to have their usual variety of long range weapons on their mechs, since the long range fire was weaker than expected. Ian figured they had expected a knife fight battle.

The elementals were already on the move, bounding fearlessly forward towards the Lancer mechs with their jump jets. According to Ian’s estimates, they would be within firing range for their SRMs in about a minute. Which gave him an opportunity to remove them from the battle, before they could even reach his mechs.

Guiding his company slowly to one flank, he hoped the Falcons would mirror their movement, leaving their elementals unsupported and alone.

True to form, the Falcons stayed with the Lancers as they dueled at long range, LRMs and PPCs blazing through the air. The elementals tried desperately to close, but the distance was too far for them. Ian had no intention of letting them get that close anyway.

Issuing quick orders to his waiting vehicles on the ridge, Ian watched as his Regulator, Myrmidon, and upgraded LB-X autocannon-equipped Gladius tanks zip past his flanks with terrifying speed to attack the elementals.

With the zellbrigen still going on, theoretically speaking, the Falcons could fire upon the vehicles without breaking the rules of dueling, but that would have diverted their attention from the mechs, which they took to be their most dangerous enemies, so the tanks were free to pound the hapless elementals at long range with PPCs, Gauss rifles and autocannons. And they were succeeding all too well, taking down more than five elementals in their opening salvo.

But the Falcon mechs were also pounding Ian’s mechs hard, as they pushed strongly at the thin line formed by his company. His Awesome staggered as it was hit by a gauss slug, making his teeth clatter together painfully as he bounced around in his cockpit.

Placing his crosshairs over the Uller that had fired on him, he unleashed all four of his PPCs, going internal on all his shots and removing its deadly gauss rifle on the right arm of the clan mech he had been dueling. For the life of him, he couldn’t figure out who was mad enough to attack a mech more than forty tons heavier, even in a clan omni.

Ian panted for breath as the cockpit temperature suddenly shot up with his discharge of four PPCs. That was one heck of a lucky shot. Hmm, time to pull back now. They’re getting just a bit too close for comfort.

Glancing at his command, he was pleased to see that he has not lost any mechs yet, though several were already quite badly damaged. The downside to his emphasis on long range combat and constant maneuvering was that the Falcons had suffered very little damage as well, and were closing all the time. With their paucity of long range weapons, he feared the results of their closing with his company, as they probably had a plethora of short range armaments ready to tear his company to shreds.

He ordered. “All mechs, back off according to the plan. Prepare for the fireworks later.”

With that, his mechs began to move back as fast as they can. Several mechs even turned around, presenting rear armor to the Falcons as they fled over the ridge. It was simply planned chaos.

It was bait.

The Falcons, smelling blood, rushed forward to pursue, abandoning their elementals to the mercy of the vehicles. There would be time enough to destroy the upstart vehicles, once the mechs were dealt with!

Meanwhile, the elementals had all gone to ground, hugging the soil to avoid getting picked off by the relentless fire of the vehicles. They had no chance of getting close enough to the vehicles to hurt them, with such a vast difference in traveling speeds. The vehicles were also smart enough to stay at medium to long range for their weapons. Their patience was gradually paying off, as more than twenty elementals had already been killed, for no losses to the tanks. It was a turkey shoot.

As the Falcon mechs crested the ridge, Ian had turned his company back towards the ridge where they had just passed, his finger placed lightly over the button for detonating the mines. As the Falcons charged down with cannons blazing, he pressed down hard on the button.

All of a sudden, there were massive explosions amongst the Falcons, as the command detonated mines did their work. The Lancers did not hesitate, using combined fire to take down one badly damaged clan omni after another. The battered Falcons tried to rally, but they had taken too much damage from the mines to turn the tide.

Ian finished off the Uller that had been bugging him from the start with a dual PPC blast, blowing its legs off. A terrific explosion rumbled off to one side as a clan omni’s reactor went critical. The remaining clan mechs bunched together in a tight circle for a last stand. Everybody knew by now the battle was effectively over.

Opening a open channel to the clan mechs, Ian asked them to surrender.

“Attention Clan Jade Falcon mechs. This is Major Dorlacen. You have been surrounded by the Arch Lancers. There is no need for you to waste your lives in needless battle. You have shown great prowess in severely hurting my force.” Pile on the compliments, make them feel good.

“If not for my admittedly dishonourable tactics, I would now already be your bondsman. As it happens, your elementals are dying behind the ridge, and you have no hope of victory against my mechs. Do not squander your lives in useless battle. Live, and there will be chances later to earn glory. Fight now, and you will only die. Future generations would only look at you and say that you were useless fools who refused to take the chance to redeem themselves because of their pride.” Insult them to show our strength, then give them a chance to salvage their pride. Offer them a lifeline. Damn, but these clanners are predictable.

As he spoke, there was no movement at all from the clanners. He was sure they knew what he wanted. Their surrender.

“So, what say you? Are you willing to stand down, and live to fight another day, to regain your lost honor?”

It took a few moments before he received a reply.

“Neg! We will not surrender to dishonorable surats! Attack.”

Everything happened in a rush, as the mechs of the Lancers delivered one devastating salvo after another, downing the clanners in an orgy of fire and blood.

The clanners did not die easily, their return shots claiming three Lancer mechs. It was to no avail, however, as the Falcons succumbed to the overwhelming array of firepower directed at them. It took less than two minutes for the fighting to stop, with the utter destruction of the clan force.

Receiving a report from his vehicle company, Ian was further delighted to have wiped out an two whole elemental stars without losing a single vehicle. His joy was tempered by the fact that many good warriors had died needlessly, especially those of the Falcons.

Is their hate so strong, their pride worth so much, that they would rather die uselessly than to give up and fight another day? What’s a life worth to them? Damn! I should have tried another way. He shook his head inside his cockpit. Well, at least we got some good salvage out of this. How can anyone wage war the way they do?

Turning his mech around in time to see the arrival of the salvage crews, he hoped that there were some survivors among the Falcons.

 

Twenty minutes later, at the foot of the Battle's Bane, as he dismounted from his mech, his chief tech Pascal Thome sauntered up with a report.

“Good news, Boss. The salvage boys say Giggs, Panis, and Rashid are alive. Dean looks like he might lose his legs, though. We’re getting a preserving sleeve on it ASAP. We’ve got about ten elementals alive, and two clan mech jockeys. They’re all on their way  back on a salvage truck.”

“Even better news is that some of the clan mechs are recoverable. We’ve stripped those which are too damaged to repair, but there's a Mad Cat in relatively good condition, a Puma missing an arm, and a Fire Falcon with only its gyro gone. We should be able to get them fully operational in no time."

Ian mused over the information for a while, then asked, "The clan jocks, are they injured?"

"Nope. They're in good condition, though their mood is sure in a funk right now! It took our boys quite a lot of med patches to get them, ahem, under control. The elementals were more cooperative. Good for them, at least."

Ian asked, "How's the rest of the fights going?"

"Not good. The gang got some licks in, but overall, I'd say we're on the losing end. Out of ten challenges today, we only got three, including your victory. The group off the Nile won, but no surprise there. Rasouf's Rangers also won their fight, but she sez they're now more spare parts than combat machines."

Ian thought it was pretty good news, considering their limitations. "Three wins ain't so bad. At the very least, it means that the Falcons have lost at least command integrity for three binaries or trinaries. I can't imagine their leaders being too happy about that. Even better, none of the losing groups had the 'devices'. God knows what the Falcons would have made of them."

"Devices', as the machines which are the keys to the alien base situated somewhere on the planet. Before the batchall, the mercs had agreed to let only the better units safeguard the precious machines. Keeping them out of Falcon hands was high priority.

"But we have to assume they now know about the technology and its origins…"

"Not a problem. It's impossible to keep them in the dark anyway. There's simply too many ways for them to find out. The 'devices', they're the ones that really matter. The Falcons can't figure out how to use them if they don't have them."

"Hey, we have them, but we can't figure them out either!"

There was a pregnant pause, as Ian looked sternly at Pascal.

"Well, you and the rest of the tech boys had better figure them out soon! I've got a feeling we're gonna need an additional edge before this whole thing is over."

Walking away from the mech bay, Ian suddenly turned around, as he thought of an idea.

"Pascal, where are the clan troops now? I've got a few questions for them."

 

As Ian entered the makeshift brig of the dropship, he was greeted by a burly tech who was guarding the prisoners.

Not prisoners, bondsmen, Ian mentally corrected himself, as he returned the greeting.

Gesturing to the tech to open the door of the room where all the prisoners are, Ian stepped through cautiously.

Almost immediately, he was confronted by several walls of sheer muscle. Finding a superbly sculpted torso in front of his face, he craned his neck upwards to look the owner of the torso in the eye.

The face he found was cold and intense, with torrents of hate in the eyes. Staring into the other's eyes for long moments, he mentally willed his body to remain still, instead of obeying the dictates of his common sense, which was to retreat immediately from the room and come back with reinforcements later. The anger and rage in the room towards was a palpable force.

But he forced himself to stay in place and stare back. By not running, he was showing the Falcons that he was as much a warrior as they are. Different, perhaps, in his interpretation of honor, but a soldier of courage nonetheless. Angry as they were, they had to admire his bravery.

The face he was engaged in a staring contest suddenly broke into a tired smile. The eyes lost their anger, and the massive elemental suddenly shot out an arm and clapped Ian on the back, staggering him. Much of the tension in the room suddenly dissipated as well.

"Hah! I had hoped that it would be a true warrior who had defeated us, with real courage instead of the pansies we had expected of mercenary scum. I was glad to see that I was correct in my assessment." The big man announced.

Resisting the urge to rub his sore back, Ian gave him a smile in return. "I hadn't expected to get any sympathy anyway. Thanks for the vote of confidence. I came here to ask you troopers a few questions, as well as inquire as to your willingness to join my unit as warriors. Sure, we're mercs. But like all things in the galaxy, there's good mercs, and there's bad mercs. I assure you, we're on the side of the angels. We fight for money, we use dirty tricks, but we'll never wage war on civilians, nor seek to cause destruction without a damn good reason."

"That will depend on how you present your unit to us. The despicable behavior of the Greenhaven Gestapo had been drilled into us such that we automatically assume the worst of all mercenaries. Right now, we are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt."

"Thanks again, I think. Oh, I am Ian Dorlacen, CO of the Arch Lancers."

"And I am Drenner, formerly Star Commander of Bravo Star, Supernova Alpha of the 124th Stiker Cluster. I am the highest ranking officer to have survived the battle." He spoke without pride or shame, simply stating the facts.

"I have a few questions for you guys right now, if you don't mind my asking."

"We will try to answer them as best as we can. We are, after all, your bondsmen."

"How did your clan get here?"

"We jumped into the system on a jumpship, how else could we have gotten here?"

Ian slammed his palm against his forehead once, chiding himself silently for his stupidity, then continued. "Uhh, more exactly, how did you guys know about this system?"

"Ahhh, so that is what you meant just now. I am only a star commander, so I will not be honest if I said I knew all the details. In fact, none of us below the rank of star captain were told of the importance of this world, save that we are here for a very important mission that concerns the fate of our clan."

"So you don't know what's on this rock?"

"Not exactly." Drenner gave a wicked smile. "While command may be able to keep much of the details from us, in any military, only one thing travels faster than orders."

Ian did not have to think twice about that. "Rumors."

"Indeed. Well, to cut a long story short, I heard this from a tech who had a former colleague with a relative who was a scientist who was involved in the initial discovery. It turns out that there was a timed message in a data pack from a Brian Cache left over from the days of the Great Father. In it was contained wondrous information and scientific knowledge from the Star League, some of which was even beyond that of the clans. The coordinates of this world was also contained within, and Khan Pryde felt that chances were quite good that the planet would have even more such information."

"So, in short, it was a time capsule, right?"

Confusion showed on Drenner's face, "What is a time capsule?"

"A time capsule is a packet of information or data kept by people so that future generations may be able to come across it in the future and find out how things were like in older times."

"That is interesting. But it is time we asked you the same question of how you found this planet."

Ian quickly gave them the brief version of events that had led the motley band of mercenaries to Einstein. He then described the battle between the mercs and the Spidercrabs, as well as the subsequent discovery of Star League bases. He was careful not to mention the aliens, though. He was not sure how the clanners would take the news.

"So there are indeed Star League bases on this world. Our journey here might not be a waste of time after all!" A elemental exclaimed.

"But do any of you find it highly suspicious that all of us, both clan and inner sphere, would have stumbled onto this world at the same time?" Ian asked.

"You are right, it seems. Coincidence, I think not. Someone, or something, wants us all here for some nefarious purpose?"

"Who, indeed." Ian was now thinking furiously. Aliens, would be his first guess. But to what end? And why?

He shuddered. It was going to be a long campaign. Too many factors, too many possibilities now. He'll just take things one step at a time.

 

Ian stepped out of the brig after another ten minutes, followed by the clanners, all with a bondcord on their arms, in a considerably better mood than before.

The clan warriors had agreed to join the Lancers as support personnel first. If they liked what they saw, they would be immediately accepted into their new 'clan' as warriors, pending Ian's approval. Even Drenner had wanted to see more of the Lancers before he would make a decision. It was, in essence, a modified version of the clan bondsmen system.

Pascal approached Ian as he was getting the various clanners to their new rooms on the dropship and their tasks.

"Uh, boss?"

"Yeah?"

"We've just received a message from Rho Galaxy Command. They said they're sending more troops down after us, after the third day of battle. This time, it'll be a full Supernova Trinary."

Ian groaned. "Oh shit." He felt like slamming his head against a wall.