November 23, 2919
Clan Wolf Territory
The sentry dropped, two smoking holes in his helmet dripping fluids both gray and red. Star Commander Morgatha McEvedy pointed at the outpost, a silent signal to move up. The objective was to disable the sensor control room to allow the 'Mechs to raid the base with minimal resistance.
The Elementals' next obstacle was the pair of guards at the entrance to the security shack. The Star Commander spoke into her sub-vocal communicator. "3…2…1." The guards went down in a hail of laser fire. Morgatha pointed to two of her starmates and then at the ground. Keep watch. She directed two more to remove the bodies and the rest to follow her inside. Eight minutes later, Morgatha's Point Second, Talitha, finished wiring the last charge. "Let's move."
A moment later, a massive gout of fire shot out of the door of the security building as the extensive sensor monitoring equipment housed within went up in smoke and flames.
זאבון זולל
"To the glory of the McEvedy line. May it never falter," rang the toast in the mess hall.
"No. To the glory of Clan Wolverine. May it be ever eternal."
"Star Commander McEvedy, please report to the battlearmor bay for refitting. Now."
After the infiltration, her Star had suited up and taken part in the main raid. Morgatha's armor had been dealt a few blows and needed to be repaired. Now, the techs needed to ensure that their repairs would not hamper her in combat. Battlearmor technology was still rather new to the Wolverines, and mistakes happened.
"Have fun, boys." The Star Commander got up and walked over to the Lion's main elevator and rode down to the cargo deck. Fifteen minutes later, the last piece of her Wolverine Elemental armor was slid into place and her HUD activated. Immediately, she noticed a detail out of place. "A PPC? What happened to my rifle?"
"Its venting system took a hit. Another shot and it would have exploded. We didn't have any replacements, so we swapped it out for the PPC for the time being. Y'know, just in case we get boarded and you need to fight them off."
"Flattering. Still, you make a valid point." The five-minute jump-warning klaxon blared. "Make it quick."
The two-minute warning blared as the techs finished their adjustments. "We're going to have to strap you into your armor's berth."
"Savashri," Morgatha grumbled as she walked over to the cavity where her armor would be stored. The techs quickly locked ferro-fibrous "straps" around her arms, chest, and legs.
That done, they rushed to secure themselves to their jump seats. "5." Morgatha gritted her teeth. "4…3…2…1." There was a familiar lurch felt throughout her body. Stars exploded across her vision from the wave of nausea that followed as her stomach felt as though it was trying to tear itself apart.
Then came the shriek of shearing metal, and the Elemental knew something had gone horribly wrong.
The ship's Diagnostic Interface computer began announcing the problem. "Warning. Unsafe atmospheric entry. Internal damage detected. Reactor breach detected. Fires detected on decks one through seven." The synthesized female voice rambled on.
It came to a screeching halt as the ship smashed into the ground. The ferro-fibrous fastenings snapped, sending Morgatha careening across the bay. When she hit the far wall, the impact teamed up with her nausea to send her over the threshold into unconsciousness.
זאבון זולל
Her HUD told her that seventeen minutes had passed before she awoke. A quick scan showed that her armor was scratched and scuffed, and her visor was cracked, but the suit was overall intact and still environmentally sealed. She stood as tall as she could and assessed her surroundings. The bay had collapsed in such a way as to leave just a couple of spots that were nearly free of large debris. She had been launched into the only one large enough for a suit of Elemental armor to fit.
"I never get that lucky. Never." A moan snapped her out of her disbelief, and she got to work. The heavy, myomer-powered claw allowed Morgatha to rend and remove every fallen strut in her way.
All totaled, little more than half a dozen techs had survived. If the gaping hole in the ceiling of the bay was any indicator, she was the only survivor out of her Trinary, and the 'Mech Trinary had fared even worse. "Savashri. Stay here. I will try to see where we have wrecked."
She ignited her jump jets just long enough to reach the command deck. As she feared, there were no survivors, most consumed by the blaze. The reactor had shut down after the breach, so the navigational computer was also off-line. Sighing, she walked over to the hull breach and studied the landscape, but it provided no clues.
Two aerospace fighters shrieked past. Her warbook said they were a seventy-three percent match for Avars, seventeen percent match for Stingrays, and a ten percent match as Deathstalkers. Their overall body shape was that of an Avar, but their wings were swept forward as with the latter two designs.
Realizing that there would be ground forces following the aerospace units, Morgatha dropped down to one of the external doors of the battlearmor bay. She dug her claw into the outer plating, feathering her jets to avoid tearing away her handhold, and swung her armored boots into the door. Again and again she kicked the stubborn entryway for several minutes. Finally, it gave way, and the Elemental slipped inside and pulled it the rest of the way.
She reached down and wrenched open the hatch that hid the emergency escape slide. It automatically inflated and reached for the planet's surface. The Star Commander groaned when the ramp stopped a meter and a half short of the ground. "All right. This is how it's going to happen. Each time I say 'go,' one of you will slide down, and I will ease you the remaining meter to the ground." She jetted down to the surface without waiting for a reply and got into position. "Go!"
The process went smoothly for the first four techs. As the fifth started the slide, one of them shouted, "Star Commander!"
Morgatha helped the current tech smoothly reach the dirt and looked for the source of the concern. A lance of armored personnel carriers crested a ridge little more than a quarter-klick away from the crash site. One of them stopped near the top and disgorged a half-dozen infantry who spread out around the vehicle and leveled long rifles at the Clanners. The other three troop carriers continued their approach. "How many techs are left?"
"Two."
"Get them and go! Go!" But it was too late to leave. The APCs accelerated to over ninety five kilometers per hour and formed a semi-circle with their troops, cutting off all escape routes. That was when the Elemental's eyes widened as humanity's fiction became her reality. None of the infantrymen were human. The three-fingered hands and two-toed feet made that clear enough.
A quick tactical assessment told Morgatha of the futility of trying to fight their way clear. She might be able to damage or even cripple one of the vehicles or scatter one squad, but the rest would tear the Clansmen and –women to shreds in seconds.
The epitome of Clan honor was to die in combat, but there was no dishonor in avoiding an unnecessary battle. The Star Commander lowered her arms.
One of the aliens stepped forward and removed his helmet, allowing the humans their first view of extraterrestrial, sapient life. He had a flat face where the nose below the bridge was just two triangular holes. There was a blue patch on each cheek with perfect symmetry. His upper lip overlapped his bottom lip and two mandibles bracketed his lower jaw, within which there were numerous sharp, cone-shaped teeth. Jutting back from the top of his skull were three decimeter-long spines. As expected, he shouted at them in a language they couldn't understand.
"I do not know what you say." Morgatha used the monosyllabic vocabulary to maximize the slim chance that he could understand her.
In a set of surprisingly human gestures, the alien placed his palm against his face, pointed at the Elemental, beckoned, and pointed at himself.
"You want us to follow you?"
He nodded.
"And if we refuse?"
Every alien rifle trained on the humans.
"Fair enough."
זאבון זולל
Three hours later, Morgatha sat at a table in what could only be described as an interrogation room. The ceiling light barely illuminated anything beyond the table, save the shotgun-wielding guard in the opposite corner.
A door slid open to admit another alien, this one with darker skin and red face-paint. He was wearing clothing instead of armor; it revealed that the hump on the aliens' backs was part of their physiology and not, as the Elemental had assumed, a power cell for their armor.
"I am Primarch Fedorian." He spoke slowly and with more enunciation than was necessary, but at least he spoke English.
"Star Commander Morgatha McEvedy. As you know my language, I'll assume you can arrange transport to get me and my techs home."
Fedorian sighed. "I fear it will not be that simple. From what your techs told me, you have been moved more than seven hundred thirty years back in time, and no group you know exists."
The Elemental was silent for a moment, processing this information. Then she uttered one of the only words that was appropriate to her situation. "Fuck."