Vault-Tec Meets BattleTech

War. War never changes.

Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage.

In the year 2766, after millennia of armed conflict, the destructive nature of man could sustain itself no longer. Stefan Amaris led a coup to take control of the STAR LEAGUE plunging the INNER SPHERE into chaos.

But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the civil war was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. Five SUCCESSOR STATES fought for dominance and control of the remains of the LEAGUE.

Now, in the year 3067, a new player enters the war. The WORD OF BLAKE is starting its holy war for control of known space. The ALLIED MERCENARY COMMAND on Outreach is the first line of defense against WOB aggression. That line is about to fall; because war, war never changes.

Sam Roberts made one last check of his equipment. Gray Death Scout Armor, repaired and recharged; CHECK. Intek laser rifle; CHECK. Reserve power packs; CHECK. Sternsnacht Python sidearm; CHECK. 4 magazines; CHECK. Survival kit; CHECK. Solar Recharger; CHECK. Medical Kit; CHECK. Everything was ready to go for his long range patrol and headhunting mission. He would be taking the fight to the Wobbies now. He had lost friends in the first battle of Outreach and Task Force Vengeance, and he was looking forward to the opportunity to get some payback.

Since the initial landings, the AMC had been able to hold the Blakists back, and it looked like a victory might be possible; but the Wobbies still held positions in orbit, so resupply was impossible without breaking the blockade. After Mars, there was a reluctance to commit WarShips to fight against WOB ships, so that was unlikely to happen any time soon. The AMC would have to make do with what they had, as mercenaries had done for the centuries since the fall of the Star League.

Sam was about to link up with the rest of the battle armor troopers who had been scraped together from remnants of destroyed units or independents to form their patrol when a siren screamed through the air. It was a siren that every warfighter hoped never to hear. The Wobbies had decided that defeat was not an option and were launching nuclear weapons to destroy the defenders. There were no defenses constructed to survive nuclear attack in the camp, the very idea that nuclear weapons would be used was almost unthinkable, it was simply not done in this day and age. Too much risk of collateral damage to important infrastructure. But the Wobbies weren't here to capture technology or factories, they were here to destroy those on Outreach who would resist them.

There was no hope of survival for those in ground zero, all that could be done was to set their affairs in order with whatever higher being they believed in. Samuel's last thought was a regret that he wouldn't live to take the fight to Terra. There was a flash of brilliant light and Samuel B. Roberts and thousands of other soldiers vanished from the face of the universe in nuclear fire.

Sam slowly regained consciousness. He was surprised at that turn of events, expecting to have been vaporized by the nuclear detonation. He wondered if he was in the afterlife, but when he felt the soreness in his muscles he decided if he were in Heaven he would feel much better and in hell he would feel much worse. Now convinced that he was among the living, he realized that he was being dragged.

"We going to eat good tonight. Big man have lots of meat!" Growled a low voice.

"Big man big because of suit. Inside suit not big man. Not lots of meat."

Sam opened his eyes. There were two, big, green, talking, Gorillas dragging him away; apparently to be dinner. Sam decided he'd be damned if he survived a nuke just to be grilled for dinner. He looked around at his surroundings trying not to alert his captors that he was conscious. The ground had an unhealthy yellow and gray color. There were ruins all around him that appeared to have been abandoned for decades. The gorillas were dragging him toward a semi-intact building with tents setup in front of it. He took stock of his equipment. It seemed that the green giants had yet to strip him down. All of his weapons and equipment seemed to still be attached to him. Sam came to the conclusion that wherever these monsters wanted to take him was a place he didn't want to go.

Sam slid his sidearm out of its holster and aimed at the back of the gorilla on the right, where he thought its heart should be if it were anything like a human. He fired two shots there and one more at the back of the monster's head all in a span of less than a second. All of his shots hit their mark and the gorilla fell over dead. The other one turned towards him and roared before pulling a large piece of wood with nails hammered through as spikes and wielding it as a weapon. Sam was about to fire on the second monster when a shot rang out from behind him and a bullet struck the gorilla in the hand causing it to drop its weapon, then a second shot hit it in the chest causing it to stagger back, and a third hit it in the head finally putting the abomination down for good.

Sam turned around to see a woman in a blue jumpsuit with 101 printed in bold yellow characters on the front and leather reinforcements on the joints and right shoulder, holding a bolt action rifle at the ready.

"I'm not going to have to shoot you too am I?" she asked.

"No, I don't think so. Say, can you tell me where I am?"