Chapter 1

"Star Captain! Four more signatures on scope! I have a visual on a full lance of assault 'Mechs," cried Karlou.

"Stay calm!" Randi barked. "Do not lose sight of our objective."

"By Kerensky… Where are they coming from?!" cried Meena. The MechWarrior slammed on her jumpjets and landed only meters from an enemy Marauder. She blew a hole through the BattleMech's torso using her twin LBXs and cantered off to engage a new target.

"Meena, form on me! It is imperative that we protect the prototype," Randi ordered. "All units, on my mark, alpha strike my target!"

"But, Star Captain," said another Warrior, "we cannot engage the same target. The Zellbriegen states that--"

"I know what it states, MechWarrior Davine! Now do as I say, or so help me, I will have your hide on my wall tomorrow!"

"Aff, Star Captain!" Davine replied.

"Three… two… one! Open fire!"

Upon her order, every 'Mech in the star let loose its full weapons payload upon an Atlas in the middle of the battlefield. The Atlas stumbled back and fell to the ground, as everything from lasers and LBXs to an Artemis IV ripped through the deadly foe. On its way down, the giant humanoid machine caught the side of a nearby Clint and pulled it to the ground, as well.

"Next target!" Randi cried, as she lowered her crosshairs over an enemy Dire Wolf. "Davine, Meena, attack my target. Karlou, Ira, watch our six!"

Several cries of "Aff!" resounded over the comm.

Randi charged at the Dire Wolf, throwing everything she had at it. The fearsome assault chassis was of Clan design, but its pilot was no Clansman.

Randi muttered several curses upon the freebirths who dared to try and steal the prototype from them. Their tactics had been nothing short of guerrilla warfare-- something she had not expected of a regular unit. She had seen Bandits who fought with more honor than these stravags of the InnerSphere.

"If they wish to fight like dogs, then they will die like dogs," Randi growled. She slammed on the throttle of her Timber Wolf and ran full-tilt at the enemy lance-leader. She opened fire with all of her missiles and sent a fiery rain of LRMs down on the top of the 'Mech's sloping torso. It returned her fury with a volley of autocannon fire. Randi winced, as she heard the shells rip through the left side of Nyx's torso. She had no time for these games.

Randi hit her jumpjets and rose up into the air. As soon as she was directly over the sluggish enemy assault 'Mech, she killed the fuel to her jumpjets and fell onto the Dire Wolf with a metallic crash. As the Dire Wolf began to sink to the ground, no doubt pilot-less after Randi's attack, she rose up on her jumpjets again and landed about 20 meters to the right.

"Star Captain!" cried Ira suddenly. "I--"

"Ira? …Ira, respond!" Randi glanced down at her radar scope. Ira's signature had disappeared from the screen. "Karlou, what happened?!" she demanded.

"Another lance ambushed us!" cried Karlou. "I managed to evade their fire. Ira was… He was killed."

Randi felt the heat of rage flowing through her every vein. "Echo Star… you have my permission to use melee tactics. Do whatever you must, just destroy them!" She took a deep breath of the hot, bloody air. "Kill all these freebirth dogs!"

"Randi? Hey, wake up!" Fred hissed, as he jostled her shoulder.

She jerked awake and clocked him in the jaw on reflex. Her eyes popped open an instant later, and her mouth jerked into a frantic shape. "I-I am sorry! I did not mean to--"

Fred rubbed his sore jaw and shook his head. "Don't worry about it. I'll just remember not to do that again…" he said. "Listen, we're going to land in about an hour."

The Clan ex-pat rubbed some sleep out of her eyes and looked around. "But.. I thought we were only halfway to get to Outreach."

"Who said anything about Outreach? We're landing on Solaris," he explained. "Look, I got in a little over my head the last few months with some of these contracts. I'm not in debt, but at the moment I don't have the funds to hire any more personnel or maintain more 'Mechs. I know you're probably not too happy about the games, but just think of it as one big training exercise with cash prizes. Besides, we wouldn't want to run into the Scimitars in Hiring Hall, would we?"

Randi's first impulse was to simply quit. 'Fighting in the Solaris games? This is what I was hoping to avoid!' After a moment's thought, she sighed and nodded, realizing she would be stranded if she did not remain with Fred. "Very well. I have little choice, yes?"

"I'm not going to make you enter the competition," Fred said. "If you do enter, I'll handle the details and make sure your 'Mech gets repaired after each match. How's that?"

"Alright…"

"Hey, we shouldn't have any problems. It's the beginning of the season, so the arenas will be filled with green pilots. You could eat those kids for breakfast. Then we take our winnings, pick up some equipment and pilots on Outreach, and start taking contracts."

The plan seemed sound enough, but she still felt unsure. Once the dropship left, she would be stuck on Solaris with this man. Fernando Acosta seemed like a trustworthy soul, but so had Maro. Thinking about him again brought tears bubbling up under the surface. In truth, she wanted to cry but the lingering instincts from her first life refused to allow it.

'I just wish I could have done something… I could not even find Jen.' She wondered if the rest of Scimitars ever found out who their real enemy was. Despite what they'd done, she found that she missed them. Now she had no idea what was going to become of her. Her intuition told her that Fred spoke the truth when he said that their stay on the gaming world was a temporary one. Logically, there was no way she could be sure of his plans. There was also a chance that some unforeseen event could trap them here. 'I just want to go home.'

Fred sat down beside her. "Homesick?"

"How did you…? No, I do not have a home anymore," she replied, shaking her head. "When do the games start?"

"I've already entered for myself. Unfortunately, we're out of parts for your Mad Cat, so you'll have to take the old Bushwhacker. That's probably a better choice for the bloodpits, anyway."

"The what?"

"Okay…" Randi said aloud to no one, "this is… different. Different, but okay." She scanned the weapons at her disposal once more. An AC/10, two LRM-5s, two relatively worthless machine guns, and a large laser. It was not at all like Nyx, and piloting the beast reminded her vaguely of a Clan Mad Dog for reasons she did not understand.

'No, no. Vulture,' she reminded herself. There were still a few minutes before the match began, and she found herself strangely nervous. She was not at all worried about the fight itself though she wasn't cocky, either. Something about being down in the bloodpit just made her feel cornered. She took a deep breath to calm herself and mentally repeated the information Fred had given her. 'I just have to make the kill, not do the damage. It seems so dishonorable, but he knows more about these fights than I do. I guess I have to take his word for it.'

"Go get 'em, Randi!" Her comm crackled to life with Acosta's voice. "You'll do fine."

"Af-- I mean, thanks."

Her radio went silent and the gates raised. A moment later, the starting horn blared and the battle began.