Chapter One: Phantoms

The screen paused and Kael Pershaw stepped into view. He just showed his unit all the footage taken from the late Scorpion cartographer vessel. The footage precluded his briefing.

"This is the last transmission of the Red Aculeus, a cartographer vessel of Clan Goliath Scorpion." Kael Pershaw paced along the display wall of his briefing room, his prosthetics turning his step into more of a limp than a smooth walk. Nonetheless, his unit watched him intently.

Star Commander Bree spoke up first, asking the obvious. "We keep tabs on Goliath Scorpion cartographer vessels?"

Kael replied without so much as looking at her, an irritating habit he has, "The Goliath Scorpions have their seekers, which I like to keep an eye on. A few key transmissions regarding other operations make their way to my ear, yes."

"Obviously they have not identified the fighters that took them down," Thao Prentice, field commander, tried to get his unit back on topic, "but we do not have any records of any clan in that area. The Scorpions have been mapping systems around it for years, and just now hit that part. This means that whoever it is, they may have been there for a while." He sat at the center of the table, which only showed the new comers how integrated he is in his own unit. Many commanders like to separate themselves by sitting at the end or standing away altogether, to gain extra attention for themselves in front of their commanding officer, but Thao just sat forward in his chair, leaning on the table with his elbows, speaking to everyone in equal balance.

"Clan Goliath Scorpion may retaliate, but we know that they will definitely field a response," Kael added.

"The Scorpions are not known for straight up military campaigns," Bree stated, "even small responses outside their area of interest." Bree headed up the first star in Thao's command, known as simply "Alpha". As his most trusted subordinate and advisor, she was responsible for taking in most of the new recruits in the wake of the Huntress Incident. "Do we have any intel on their response as of yet?"

The skepticism in her voice was minimal, but Kael could tell she had no interest in their response or place in the upcoming assignment. "Neg, but the grapevine is open, and you will receive full details of their involvement when they mobilize."

Thao just dipped his head and pinched the bridge of his nose as he spoke up. "So these were highly trained aerospace fighters, with formations, weapons payloads, and everything. It is nice that they can fight, and Clan Goliath Scorpion may have a little fiasco on its hands, but what does this have to do with us exactly?"

Kael stopped pacing and faced Thao directly, "The communication said they appeared to be in training maneuvers. Unless this is a bandit caste with military hardware, it may be what we talked about before."

Thao perked up instantly, thoughts racing through his head like a flooding river. It looked as if he was going to speak, but stopped himself in lieu of further thought. "In that case, how do we go about this?"

Kael loaded up the planet in question on the big screen behind him. Several points were highlighted in red in the asteroid belt around the planet. The image is a computer representation of the video footage supplied by the late Red Aculeus, showing the planet to be completely covered by dense clouds, which not only hindered anyone from identifying the surface composition, but also suggests the planet to have a heavy water cycle and be densely humid. "Julian has been dispatched already. It looks like the planet's defenses were already capable, but now they are expected to be on high alert in response to the Scorpions' new knowledge of their existence."

He walked to the right of the room so they could see the progression of images and markers annotating his narration. "Julian is in a probe ship carrying his Phantom approaching the planet in question in roughly 16 hours. The probe ship will send out a low frequency surface scan to identify potential insertion points. He will then land near the suspected center of activity and run surface recon on the population and planetary defenses. Your craft will shoot our transfer signal to the surface while hiding in the asteroid belt upon your arrival, which will be caught by his receiver. Since he will not be able to respond, the signal will mark your T minus eight-hour departure point. If he does not find a way to respond within that time frame, you will take your unit via Phantoms and land at a point designated outside of the target's projected defensive grid. You will then link up with Julian with proximity trackers.

"After that you take his leads and perform a complete recon of the area, including political affiliation, military strength, social structure, and threat capacity. Five days in another probe ship will sit in the asteroid belt and await a high-powered direct communication concerning your findings.

"At that point it will be decided to either fight our way in and extract you via dropship, or have you find your own way off planet and have us escort you back. Full support elements will be on standby in a third craft further in the asteroid belt if you need them. They are your last resort." Kael stopped in the center of the wall awaiting feedback and questions.

Mechwarrior Davin spoke up in inquiry, "Why is this planet so important to us again? I mean, I know we may have things to gain by landing there first, but we have other pressing matters. Is there something we should know before landing in the dragon's teeth so to speak?"

Kael Pershaw, unsurprisingly calm in his response, waved Thao down with his hand telling him that he will enlighten the new recruit. "I have substantial reason to believe that more than one clan may reside there, and to protect our interests, I want to know what we have at stake in this. The Falcon is not ignorant, and I make sure all loose ends are tied up, permanently."

The reasoning did not seem to convince Davin, but he kept his mouth shut. Even he knew better than to ask Kael Pershaw the same question a second time.

"Now, if you are done, I want the 32nd geared and ready for departure in six hours. You have full control over what goes into your support craft, but the space in the Phantoms is limited. If you screw up on this one, you die. Simple. Dismissed." With that, Kael left the unit to its own devices.

Star Commander Bree looked over at Davin with a spark of red in her eyes, "One more question like that and I will have you on troop lockdown Mechwarrior Davin. Do you have any idea what that does to the rest of us—"

"Star Commander Bree, I am sure we can find a way to rectify Davin's actions in the upcoming trip. I want you to concentrate on your prep. And Davin, you are in a very precarious position. I would advise you to remember what our job is and what that entails."

As they left the briefing room to tend to their prep, Mechwarrior Davin approached Thao Prentice away from the others.

"Sir, I apologize for—"

"Stow it Mechwarrior. I have little patience for mistrust, which is exactly what you showed us in there. You are the first freeborn in a unit like this. Do you have any idea what kind of precedence that makes? Khan's Irregulars or not, an untrustworthy troop is dead weight in the battlefield.

"Now, I petitioned for your transfer, and I had full faith in your ability to pull the stuff off that we do on a regular basis. This unit is making history within our clan, and it is a massive privilege to be a part of it. Do not make me regret that decision."

As Thao walked away Davin just shook his head in frustration. Nothing in his life has been easy yet, and this didn't look like it was any different.

"There. Load me up." Julian Buhallin's voice instructed Star Captain Hollin to update the trajectory coordinates for the PDC loaded in a special launcher on the belly of his craft. He is piloting a deep-space vessel with a small crew with the single purpose of

delivering Julian to this planet. It has been an arduous trip after detaching from his jumpship 36 hours ago and hiding in an asteroid belt in deep orbit to avoid detection by an active aerospace patrol force. The speed of his travel put him at over 2x standard gravity (Terra), so his men are taxed out and he is barely faring any better. They jumped several times in a row, with a new jumpship waiting at the arrival point of the last to alleviate the recharge time, running a two week trip into several days. That amount of coordination was incredible in itself, let alone Kael Pershaw having Falcon or Raven jumpships already in place and willing to work for him. He had to hand it to the guy; he had pull. "I have your coordinates here. Are you sure about this? Once you are out there, there is no turning back."

Julian tightened his face up in a mix of concentration and frustration as he for the final time contemplated his destination. Lying face down in his J-6 Personal Deployment Craft, or "Phantom" as his unit grew to call it, he thumbed the button to open the comm channel up to the pilot of his delivery vessel. "Trust me, that thought has been beating around in my head for the last thirty minutes. Just get it ready."

The Phantom was a developmental craft designed for stealth drops onto planets without the crowd-pleasing show of a dropship announcing its presence. The Jade Falcon scientist caste has been working on it for years, tailoring it to correct all of the problems resulting from all the testing, and it was ready to move from the "experimental" to the "operational" phase with the flick of a switch. About the size of a large pick-up truck, the J-6 PDC is fitted with a rather cramped, single-occupancy passenger bay, two storage compartments, retro-rockets, deployable wings, guidance computers, active probe and naval sensor equipment, radar-absorbing skin, heat shields, radiation shields, oxygen refiners, human waste storage units, and the best self-destruct mechanism you could ask for. And this model had one more neat little trick to it: camouflage. A layer of iron-ferrite and other common meteoroid components was fitted to the surface to make this craft look just like a floating rock. Underneath was a grid of shaped charges used to blow the casing off to allow for wing deployment and engine usage. The only thing it was missing was the hot tub.

"This is insane," Hollin mumbled to himself as he punched in the command for coordinate lock. He was going to fire that pod from an asteroid belt at the planet ahead of him and watch it avoid the aerospace patrols entirely by just floating by like a harmless rock. To keep the guise up, Julian could not blow the casing and use any kind of navigational devices to keep him on track if the initial launch direction shifted any. Lucky for him, there is nothing in space to veer your course off except gravity from planets and satellites, which the computer put into account.

"Insane?" Julian asked, slightly amused, partially at the fact that his transport was questioning the suicidal nature of his mission and partially because it eased the tension in his own mind.

"Yes, insane. I am firing you from an asteroid belt through known hostile patrols into an atmosphere hoping you will avoid all planetary defenses so you can land safely and run amok for Kerensky-knows what reason. Insane." Hollin has been sitting here in his craft for nearly two hours patiently waiting for Julian to finish his initial assessment and launch prep. This whole time consisted of him thinking about the nature of a mission he won't know about until his debriefing.

"Well, when you put it that way, I guess it is a little… adventurous. I will bring you back a souvenir if it makes you feel any better." Almost two hours of probing the surface has wracked his brain. The most active area he could find behind that horrendous cloud cover seemed to be the most logical area to land. He did not have the motorcycle loaded into his No. 1 storage bin to make room for additional gear, so he had to make his way on foot with two bins worth of equipment to civilization and start an identity from scratch. Of course, no human, save a very strong elemental can carry two bins worth, especially on a hike. So luckily, the second one was over half filled with stabilization equipment and packaging to keep all the electronics he had from getting damaged in the drop. He had portable computers, tools for making/modifying clothing, and several other interesting items that combat units do not normally prep in their ships. It was very calculated and precise to say the least. For some reason, he would have considered it fun in his youth, but now, it is simply work.

"I started the launch sequence. You know I will be out of here as soon as you are loose," Hollin addressed Julian through the headset and gave him the last of luckily just a few concerned comments.

"I would not have it any other way. If they find me, at least you can get back and tell Kael what happened." Julian was now speaking while checking all of his status screens one last time. There were several of them arrayed in front of his face and an entire array of controls at his hands' disposal.

Hollin wanted to say something, like a parting phrase, but nothing came to mind. This guy was actually going to do it. He set aside any critical feelings and monitored the rest of the sequence until the Phantom was ejected from its launcher. No words were exchanged for the rest of the time. This Julian was far more reserved than other warriors he met in Kael Pershaw's unit. But then again, Hollin was quite the character himself. Or so he thought.

The Phantom made its way from the asteroid belt to the patrol lines in just over three hours. Since meteoroids don't just "shoot out of belts at planets", he had to play this slowly and steadily, just like a real one. Lucky for him, the patrolling craft just flew right by. It was so silent in the pod it would make most people crazy from the tension. If made, Julian had no way of defending himself other than launching himself at the planet with his rockets, and chancing any secondary defenses picking him off. No, he had to play this one cool.

After what seemed like the eternal descent toward this planet, he noticed the tilt of his craft aim for the surface. Since he could not navigate, he simply had the computer adjust for the rotation of the planet's surface and time it would take for him to drift that far. It took a total of six and a half hours before he was actually entering the planet's atmosphere.

Sensors immediately picked up a tracking unit on the surface. It was pinging him to identify his pod's trajectory and speed. While the probe was occurring he had to keep the pod in stealth mode, which means that the uneven rock surfaces making the pod look meteor-ish created some unpredictable wind resistance, making the ride extremely bumpy and rolley. He figured it was a sensor grid that would stop tracking him after confirming his innocent appearance.

Tech Marcus indifferently raised his eyebrows at his sensor screen in the relay command center of Silver City, the capitol of his home planet, Atlantis. His station was responsible for tracking the five to ten meteors that fall to Atlantis every day within its sensor grids. Since only those areas were monitored, no one really knew, or cared how many fell outside the grids. The majority of them wear away in the atmosphere before ever touching ground. Right now, one such meteor was falling rapidly through the middle atmosphere to a destination outside the city limits. Tech Garret leaned over his shoulder.

"Hey, are you going to help me wire this box up or not?" Garret asked Marcus earlier to help him wire up a new power router for several of the main systems in the center. A backup has been routing everything for several days now since the original one was long due for retirement and finally malfunctioned enough to warrant a replacement.

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second," Marcus replied.

"Hmm, that's a big one, eh?" Garret asked referring to the meteor on the screen.

"Not bad considering the density of our atmosphere." Marcus sighed, "But it's not going to hit anything important, so I've got a few minutes to spare."

With that, he got up and attended Garret to the far corner with a set of tools.

Julian has never been in such physical distress in his life. The reentry was forcing his Phantom to rattle his body around like a paint shaker. The craft started barrel rolling and the G-forces inside the thing finally maxed out at eight before starting to drop again. He kept a sharp eye on his sensor reading monitors and his finger on the release lock for the rock shielding so that the moment he wasn't under the gun he could deploy his wings and level off. So far this grid was larger than he expected and he was starting to get nervous about his ability to land at such a low altitude from this speed.

He sucked up the pressure and blinked away the colors that accompanied his state of being during the traumatic drop. Suddenly, the sensor screen showed him all clear, almost one and a half thousand meters below his preferred deployment point. Instantly his finger pulled the lever that ignited the shaped charges that blew his camouflage covering off. The wings deployed and the retro-rockets, already charged to their maximum ignition power, blew full force. The jolt was violent, but reassuring to Julian, who was waiting for the chance to level his craft off.

The Phantom struggled at slowing from such a speed before hitting the ground, but it succeeded and made it horizontal in time for Julian to catch his breath before initiating landing procedures. The original designs had forced the pilot to land the craft conventionally, like an old turbine jet found on Terra back in the years when it started expanding out into space. But recent efforts have successfully installed powered mounts that tilted the retro-rockets through a wider degree of motion, so that they could act as engines for a vertical landing. The deployment was late however, and his craft hit horizontal after his pre-determined time, so he was several kilometers off of his mapped LZ. He searched the landscape looking for a suitable clearing in the dense rainforest outside the distant city, and found one almost quicker than he expected to.

After landing, the craft powered down its engines, re-routed excess power to the heat sinks, and initiated the decompression procedures that would enable Julian to enter the atmosphere that was now being tested by the external sensors. The once quiet rainforest that had been suddenly disturbed quickly regained the eerie silence so befitting of this overcast planet.

Palen Miescher had his staff assembled with the station supervisors of each facility on Atlantis patched through for a vid-conference. The topic was how to deal with the threat of discovery.

Palen addressed his people, "As we know, seventy two hours ago a Goliath Scorpion vessel discovered our location and attempted a communiqué. The aerospace training unit on maneuvers was spotted, and the on-scene commander, for reasons irrelevant now ordered the ship down. A data stream was sent from the vessel to their suspected jump-ship relaying our location. Commander Lathan?"

Commander Lathan, the officer in charge of all military training and operations on the planet Atlantis stood front and center, demanding an audience with his posture and strength of voice. His close cropped hair and immaculate uniform reminded the scientists in front of him how much pride he took in his power, even if it is second to the Scientist General here. "The Goliath Scorpion jumpship was too far for us to track without sending scout teams ahead, which we will not do. We have increased patrols and expect an investigation team, most likely armed with escort to arrive within eleven days. After the initial assessment, we can see reinforcements within another eight."

"What if they send troops in first?" a voice asked from the small audience.

He started pacing side to side as he spoke with his hands clasped behind his back. "They will not. Their military is spread evenly to protect every one of their holdings in the Kerensky Cluster. Any usage of those without proper cause makes an unwanted vulnerable spot, and the Scorpions, few enemies do they have, cannot afford to open their lines up. Especially on what looks like bandit activity.

"Make no mistake about it, we will be overrun, eventually. They will run their reconnaissance and send for reinforcements when they see the activity here. There is no hiding it. I am having all our military training units in prep for planetary defense, which will mean some extra activity to get in your way in the coming week. This is all planned out in advance, so you will get instructions shortly on how to handle every phase of our defense."

Palen stepped in, "Operation Natural Selection, scheduled for launch next year, is pushed forward to nine days. All the material at your disposal is to be used until the operation is a go. All ships will be painted up, delivery devices manufactured, teams prepped, pilots recalled, and all research files localized and stored. When we get invaded, the stuff will already be on its way over to them, and by the time they figure out what happened, it will be too late. Our mission will be completed no matter what."

Forbers, the chief scientist at station two spoke up through his holo-projection, "Nine days? Sir, the material still has to be mass produced and cultured-"

"Nine days," Palen interrupted. "Use whatever you have to get it done. If we are late, the last ten years will have been for nothing."

Palen's senior advisor, Myson, spoke up, "Has Etienne Balzac been notified yet?"

Palen lowered his head and spoke as if he got a sudden headache, "The proper channels have been accessed. The message was encoded, so if he is compromised, it is his own fault. Sadly enough, by the time he gets the stream, our plan will already be in full swing."

Myson, feeling a bit unnerved by the lack of approval from the former Jade Falcon scientist-general, trusted the judgment of his commander and mentor. He nodded and thought out the next few days in his head.

"We all knew what we were getting into here, and I for one, feel no regret whatsoever. We complete our mission, or die trying. It is the way of the Clans."

Forbers asked for clarification, "So we have at least two weeks before they show up?"

Lathan answered, his demeanor and facial expression never changing, "Aff. That is the standard mobilization, prep, launch, and travel time required, taking into account the proper channels are accessed and everything is approved. Anything sooner than that on an official manner would be nothing short of miraculous."

Julian finished unloading his gear from the still smoking Phantom in the forest clearing. The gravity here was at 1.35x standard, which means everything, including himself was heavier. The atmosphere was also extremely humid, nearly saturating his clothes with sweat instantly. The problem with colonization of planets is that there are things you cannot necessarily alter to maximize your comfort level. Those were two of them, and the third just made a noise behind him.

Looking over his shoulder at the rustling in the tree line, Julian spotted what looked like a ferret-like creature the size of your average dog. Its eyes were yellow and its fur was black, in perfect contrast to the pink mouth and dark teeth. It looked very menacing as its head poked around the tree it used as cover to watch Julian unpack.

Oh, great. Local wildlife. I HATE local wildlife. Julian's eyes opened wider when he saw four more appear around the first, totaling five altogether. They were intently following his every move with their eyes, telling him that he was a meal soon if he did not act accordingly.

Accordingly meant him pulling his silenced pistol from his holster and switching out the armor piercing rounds for tumblers. The first animal began its charge, wailing a blood curdling shriek that make Julian's bones cold. The other four were not far behind it. They were kicking up mud behind them as the wailing eerily localized itself, with no echo or carry.

Already sweating, he aimed and fired at the alpha, ready to pump four more rounds off at the others. The leader's head exploded backward as the tumbler round hit its mark. The other four animals stopped dead in their tracks almost instantly, not even investigating the corpse of their late alpha. They headed back for cover and disappeared. Heh, if THAT scared them, wait till they see this…

Their retreat signified Julian's return to his bags. Within minutes he was hiking his way toward the supposed capital city. He hit the self-destruct remote module after attaining minimal safe distance, and peered over his shoulder to make sure thing went off properly. The Phantom's self-destruct sequence initiated, first frying all electronics, navigation gear, and hard drives. Then the armor blew off and the internal structure was incinerated, leaving no traceable parts left for any unwanted enemy to track back to the Falcons. All that time and effort up in smoke, just like that.

Star Admiral Leerais Ben-Shimon of Clan Goliath Scorpion boarded his Lola III to prep his quarters and roll the flag up for departure. He just got through watching the vid-stream from the Red Aculeus. The Rho Galaxy Commander decided to send the Auriga from the Fire Wheel Battlegroup to investigate the matter. It had enough firepower to take out the projected aerospace defenses and the sensors to make a complete tactical map of the planet's surface and population centers. His job was to take a peek, and report back what was needed to subdue the threat presented.

The space marine Elementals were already in place and performing their security checks. This mission was not the most important one Leerais had been on, but he'd be damn sure not to mess it up.

Looking through the glass view port of his bridge, he settled into his command chair and stretched his fingers so they could fit into familiar controls. His pilots and navigators do the flying and communicating, but he liked to have control over the main view feed and a few other goodies. His personal screens all worked and showed the star of aerospace support in his hangers good to go. The time was close to depart, and it couldn't be a moment too soon in his opinion.

Nine days before he hit the system with the target planet. They would be long, but he knew some action awaited them when he got there. Let the engines roll…

"Hey Tyler, this book you gave me is great! I haven't read anything like it yet." Tech Marcus marveled at an Edgar Allen Poe Anthology his new friend lent him two days ago. He hasn't stopped reading it, even after he finished it. He's almost on his third run through the book now, if he were able to read it during work. "Where did you say you found it again?"

Julian looked up, playing the part of interested friend like a trained politician. It scared Thao to see him pull this stuff off so well, but it was his job after all. "Block 19. There's a small book store there that you can get stuff at. But work credit's no good there, so you're out Kerenskies or a favor."

"Block 19? That's a rough area."

"Eh, not really." Julian got into the city and immediately set up base camp in some apartment he rented with the KE (Kerenskies, un-official clan currency) he had in his bag. His new name here was Tyler, of the technician caste. After studying the infrastructure of the city, he found out that it is Clan, so the caste system is in place here, if a little out of order. Luckily, the military and scientist controlled areas followed the same documentation procedures he was used to, so the equipment in his gear allowed him to counterfeit some transfer paperwork for the new identity. After he was in, he found the tech charged with watching the atmospheric activity screens and discovered a hidden love for old Terran fiction within. A simple trip to the slums of the city turned up a classic book that even Julian could enjoy, but it served a greater purpose than simple entertainment. It gave Julian the position needed to secure his unit's drop, even at the expense of a mere tech. Now he just had to play his hand right…

"Do you have friends there or something?" Marcus asked.

Julian looked casual and shrugged his shoulders as he spoke, "Nah man, I just know my way around people. It helps if you know what you're buying, but don't worry about it. I'll show you where it is some time."

Marcus approached this new "Tyler" from Station Five, the finally properly staffed workhorse of Silver City, with a book in his hand, and things flew smoothly since. "Cool, thanks."

Julian's wristwatch lit up, it was the receiver for his unit's eight-hour launch signal. They were going to insert soon, and they were in position.

"Hey man, my break's almost over. Those fittings for the new box come in yet?" Julian was referring to the pieces needed to organize the wiring feeding into the new electrical box Marcus and Garret attempted to set up the other day.

"Yeah, they came in this morning."

"I'll be by at the end of the shift to help you wire all that up properly. It'll get me out of my section again for a while."

"Wow, you know how to set those things up too?" Marcus was still awed at Tyler's many talents.

"Yeah, half of Station Five has my name on it. Well, the half that works anyway…"

"I heard about them over there. I'm sure you're glad to be transferred finally."

"And not a moment too soon, with all this activity going on and such. I bet they're pulling their hair out over there." Julian got up to leave since this conversation lost its productive nature.

"I hear that. I'll see you later." Marcus waved his friend away and returned to his section, where, with the exception of the dense clouds that will never open up, they showed clear skies for miles.

Star Commander Bree accompanied her commander through the corridor of their transport vessel. Thao Prentice has been rather quiet the last several days, trying to prepare himself for just about any surprise imaginable one they reach the surface of this 'mystery' planet. He was now going to check the equipment bay to make sure the proper prep material was making its way into his Phantom's storage areas.

"You okay with this? Six hours left." Bree was taking this quiet moment near the end of their trip to close the gap with her commander. The trip had been lasting a while, and all the closely timed jumps did their damage to the crew, who was just barely recovering when the craft entered the asteroid belt around said planet and sent its signal.

Thao continued walking, "This has pretty much been written in stone. I know things will pan out down there."

"But you do no look it. I have seen that face before." She was keeping up with his busy pace.

Annoyed, Thao responded, "What are you, my psych analyzer?"

"I just do not like the troop organization. Brevan for the reinforcements? I know he is a capable commander, but if we lose you down there—"

"I lead from the front, you know that." He showed his usual annoyance and frustration, but he was never one to yell. "I will not let this happen without me. We have Shaine in with his troops - what are you worried about?"

"This is trickier than anything we have done before. I just need to know that you are solid on everything. The last few months have been hard on you, loosing so many people on Huntress—"

"People die, especially in our line of work. I get choked up once and I never hear the end of it."

They rounded another corner and stopped in front of the equipment bay. Bree continued while he paused and turned to face her. "Maybe you care about your men too much."

Thao paused at that one. Compassion was not an admirable trait in a clan commander, especially one whose compassion may intrude on a mission, which, in Thao's line of work, could spell disaster for much more than his unit. "Maybe I do, but that keeps them sharp. I run the unit the way I want to run it, and I do not want this to be some loose-knit coagulation of troops trying to get transferred and screwing each other over to do so. Have you seen how well they have been getting along lately? I have not seen a circle of equals in over two weeks, and the last one was over who was paying for drinks. This is a good thing Bree, quiaff? Why do you hate it?"

"Because I see how you take it all. When is the last time we coupled?"

Thao sighed. He really did not want to think about these things. "Please, do not bring that up. It is nothing against you—"

"Exactly! You do not have to say that. You can tell me that I was not good enough for you or I am ugly or whatever, but you feel the need to make right for everything you do with everyone involved."

"Bree, I want to—" Bree put her finger on his lips, noting that she knows he is not like this due to any inefficiency on her part. She just wanted him to take a moment and think about what she said.

"I am just looking out for you. Keep it together down there, but let it all go when it is over. Please, for all of us. I am there if you need me." Bree moved to let him open the bay door.

Thao opened the door to find Point Commander Shaine quickly standing at attention and calling a full "Atten-hut!" for the other elementals in his point to perk up to.

Thao responded in kind with a courteous nod, "Carry on."

He walked past Shaine to check a computer screen readout of the gear to be placed into his Phantom by his tech. The gear issued was standardized, but of course, the way he ran his unit, each member was allowed to customize what they brought, as long as they could clear it with their star commander. For this particular mission, he was taking his command star, Alpha, which Bree lead, and a point of his support strider, headed up by Point Commander Shaine. On a cold-drop, as they call it when landing on a planet with no intel on the inhabitants/conditions, like this one, Thao thought it a good idea to have several elementals on-board. Though numbering only five and lacking the battle armor they are known for, their close quarters battle experience and massive size/strength/speed make them invaluable for the muscle needed in such situations.

Thao spoke a few words to his tech, who was preparing his Phantom and turned to leave everyone to their own devices. This is when he noticed Shaine still facing him, moving slightly to obscure the view of what was behind him from Thao. The scene was almost childish to anyone paying attention.

"Shaine," Thao started.

"Sir," he replied.

"What is behind you?"

He replied as he slowly moved to show Thao his prize, "Oh, this? Uhh…"

Behind him sat the clan upgraded version of the Man-Pack Particle Cannon, a mini-PPC normally used by two troops due to its weight and need for a battery charger. Clan elementals, with their genetically altered physique could easily handle one with the hydraulic harness by themselves, making them extremely dangerous to most armor and even battlemechs if need be. This was not a small, or quiet weapon by any means however.

"Oh, for Kerensky's sake… What part of "low profile" operation was lost in translation?"

Shaine perked up to reply, with his chest out, almost as if to make a reporting statement. "We do not know what they have down there. They may have heavy 'mechs or tanks for all we know, and I for one want to make sure we can hold our own if it gets thick."

Thao was unimpressed, shown by his raised eyebrows, "You are seriously going to bring that thing?"

Shaine nodded nervously, "With your permission… of course."

Thao, still half-thinking this was a joke, laughed it off. "Hah! Fine, but the only gear you sacrifice for space is your own. That includes rations and clothing. If you smell too bad for company, then you are stuck doing security the whole time."

Shaine replied as Thao turned to leave, "Fine with me."

Yale, the largest man in Shaine's unit, second to the commander himself, overhearing the conversation, perked excitedly at the new prospect, "Well, in that case…"

Yale grabbed his custom made heavy support machine gun, which had five barrels and fired 20mm high velocity, heavy hollow-point, carbon-tipped rounds at one of three selectable speeds. The belt-feed mechanism was the best clan techs could devise and has only a handful of recorded jams. A good gunner can conserve ammo by adding accuracy to his activities with the external camera assisted targeting display in his helmet's view-piece.

Thao turned at the sound of the gun's ammo jingling. "Oh man, this is going to suck," he convinced himself as he turned his head back to the hallway and forced himself to stop worrying about the implications of landing a small army on a wet rock.

Bree stayed behind with the other men in the bay. "Shaine, keep it tight, okay?"

"Aff. I have it covered." Shaine turned to Yale, "Yale, pack extra deodorant with your ammo."

Yale's reply faded as Thao moved further down the hallway, "Son of a bitch…" Halfway down he heard his communicator chirp. It was the communications tech, with Julian's return message.

Thao entered the comm bay when the comm tech stood at attention. "Sir! I have the return message from our inside agent."

"At ease," Thao ordered, partially annoyed at the fact that the people outside his unit do not know that he doesn't care for traditional customs and courtesies. "What have we got?"

Thao listened to the message, which was an encoded, typed one sent via satellite transmitter on the main continent. How Julian gained access to this Thao had no idea, but it was not his job to worry about such details, it is only his job to exploit the results. The message was all he expected it to be, with short, precise details on the planet's atmosphere, political affiliation, planetary defense protocol, landing coordinates, and a launch time. The part he was interested in came in three comments. The first, said to "wear red", whatever that meant. The second was a wildlife alert, which was always a pain in the ass when dropping onto new planets. The third was the generic clan affiliation code. This meant that it had a clan society, but no particular one claimed ownership. This was mildly confusing, but these messages normally were. Too much info, if intercepted and decoded by the enemy, would spell disaster for the Nighthawks, so Thao grew to rely on Julian's judgment in these situations.

He moved the departure time up an hour and a half, gave the navigator the coordinates for initial launch, and ordered his unit to don red shirts. Then he popped his neck and moved onto the pilot's bay to see the view of the planet he was about to invade.

Julian leaned up against a wall in the relay command center in Silver City. Not but an hour ago he helped tech Marcus wire up a new feed box for a large portion of the circuits in the room. Unbeknownst to Marcus, Julian crossed several of his companion's wires and shaved enough insulation off of them for the electrical fire to ignite when he needed it to. The fittings for the particular wires were lose enough for him to pull the shaved ones together and start the thing off from the inside. It was primitive, but effective. Julian looked at his watch and found only ten seconds left until he had to distract everyone in the room, especially Marcus. The scene was calm so far, and it was almost a shame to disrupt a bunch of techs just doing their daily job so they could get home to their companions.

Oh well, he thought as he pulled the lead wire just enough to hear the crackle that he was waiting for. Instantly the box blew open as a small electrical fire started inside, blowing several fuses and blackening out many secondary screens in the room. The people responding, including Julian playing the part of 'Tyler', scrambled around to get a hold of the situation. The fire alarm went off to compound the noise present.

"Get the extinguisher and the rubber gloves, now!" commanded Garret, still filling in for his absent supervisor. People moved, including Marcus, who was in the hallway getting the extinguisher. Several people rushed around in Julian's view as he finally spotted Thao's fifteen Phantoms moving across the surveillance monitor unattended by Marcus. Their blips were moving south along the main city's sensor net. In moments, they would drop into the tree line, making them invisible again.

Julian grabbed the extinguisher from an oncoming Marcus to pull the pin for him while he got his gloves on. "What was it!" Marcus demanded over the roar of people and activity.

"Don't know! Could be one of the leads! I hope the command circuitry isn't fried!" Julian responded with the sense of purpose expected in a concerned tech. In moments, the fire was put out and Julian breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Thao get the unit past the sensors. All was clear on his end. The siren took another 20 seconds or so to shut off, and after that, it was nothing but explaining to commanding officers and repair work. A long night awaited those stationed there.

Julian would buy Marcus a drink later to make up for it. After all, the guy wasn't that bad.

Thao's troops dropped in without incident. "Sit rep, now," he ordered into his comm unit.

"Bree here, my unit is all accounted for."

"Shaine here, my men are good. Unloading our cargo now."

"Oh man… I think that ration pack is coming uggghhhhh!"

Thao just laughed at the poor elemental. These guys could crush a skull in one punch if they wanted to, yet keeping lunch down was not one of their special powers.

It only took minutes to unpack the stuff, one bin worth of gear and the motorcycle. The coordinates were on the bikes and Thao lead the charge out of there. They rode out in the best formation they could keep in the forest to spot any response from the planetary defenses. He didn't know if Julian succeeded or not, and he never took chances. Once in range, he loaded up Julian's locator signal and aimed for pay dirt.

Forbers loaded up the new information for the last two successful phenotypes into his computer. The information was to be uploaded to a data-disc and sent on the delivery ship to its destination. His hand shivered suddenly before he put the disc in. The memories of his work here weighed heavily on him. Years of failed experiments stared him in the eyes, boys and men that trusted him with their lives arrayed in observation cubes, writhing in pain, on the brink of insanity. Every one of them stared at him, crying for help, or death. Either was beyond his control.

Two generations it took to get it right, he thought. He picked up an old Terran book a while ago that spoke of a divine being that made everything, and decided all. He had friends back on his home planet that worshiped this being, and they called him God. Being a scientist, he had no place in his work for an all-powerful God, but they believed in him. In fact, they dedicated several hours a week in homage to this God. They believed that he created man, and that he alone has the right to give man life.

Of course, clan scientists have been splicing genes from extraordinary warriors to exploit certain traits for centuries and no negative 'divine' repercussions have befallen them. At least in Forbers' mind, the failure of the Clans in their crusade was not a divine punishment, but lack of foresight and devotion. He shared the belief of all the scientists here, all of them that set forth to succeed where the clans fell short.

He put the disc into the computer to begin the upload. The entire purpose of his being here was about to be fulfilled. That would make most men proud, but Forbers, he just wept inside. Humanity was starting to grow on him, in ways he would rather forget about. If there was a God, Forbers knew that his crime was too great to forgive. Two generations, all suffered for this. I had better be right in the end.

Thao finally saw the city's lights over the horizon. It rained the entire trip, and continued to as they approached their destination. He had a feeling it was going to be raining pretty much the whole time they were here due to the atmosphere. There were no stars due to the thick cloud cover. In fact, the clouds were so low that several of the city's buildings were shrouded in mist, and the lights themselves made the area above it glow an eerie orange.

The group broke formation in favor of better ground since their traveling speed more than doubled once they hit a road leading up to the city. It looked like the inhabitants here tried to clear the forest out along the boarder of the city limits, but failed. The tree line is too thick, so the road is the only way they can approach and make their way into the highway system. They made it not but seven clicks before the weight turbulence of a Bashkir omnifighter nearly swept Thao's bike over. The thing came up fast behind them and immediately spotlighted the lead bike and hit its megaphone.

"Pull over immediately and identify yourselves."

Aww crap, Thao thought to himself. The road was empty so far, which should have told him that the city was on some sort of security lock down. A five-lane highway isn't usually empty at this time in the evening. "Nighthawks, group up into your units and stay moving, I have to figure this out."

The Bashkir continued to keep pace with them, its noise becoming a constant among the riders. "Again, pull over and provide identification. This is your last warning." Thao noticed in his mirror one of the medium lasers on the bottom of the craft swiveling to aim at him. He inhaled deeply and swerved to the right as a large laser came at him from ahead and nearly blew him right off his ride!

"Sir! Two Kit Foxes on our twelve, and they are opening fire!" Bree told him exactly what he needed to hear. "I want three units to keep moving, and speed up! Close the distance between us and the omnis! I need three people to prep flash grenades and light them off when I give the word." His plan was near suicidal, but what wasn't in his daily life?

The lasers continued to come in at them, barely missing on several occasions, accompanied by the omnifighter's support. The Bashkir fired off its Streak SRM 2 at him, which he avoided by swerving even closer to the tree line. If he got caught in there at this speed, he'd be toast before he could scream. The road was not getting any dryer as he sped up even more to the Omnis ahead. And that's when Samme was hit.

"Ah SH--!" screamed over the radio link as Samme's bike was hit by an LBX AC-5 cluster round. The Kit Foxes moved into a better firing position and marked their range for the autocannons. It was only going to get harder from here.

Davin instinctually slowed and swerved his bike around to retrieve Samme, expertly avoiding several of his comrades as they flew past him toward the firing Kit Foxes. "I've gotcha man, hold in there!"

"Oh man does his grammar go to pot in a firefight?" Bree commented as she rode on.

"Stay focused!" ordered Thao. "Pull the flash bangs now and throw them behind you! Cover your eyes until they go off!" He prayed the disorientation that goes with them would not screw with their equilibrium. The helmets they donned had sonic protection measures in them, but all was chaotic in combat, and nothing could be relied on 100.

The three members, including Thao threw their flash bangs behind them as the Kit Foxes got a missile lock. The explosion was phenomenal. A flash of white light completely threw the pilots of both Kit Foxes and the Bashkir off track while they zoomed in to track their targets. Thao successfully lead his unit through the legs of the 'mechs as they decided to stop constantly swerving side to side to avoid getting hit by oncoming fire. Everyone made it through except for Davin and Samme.

"Davin! Sitrep!"

Thao's headset lit up, "I have Samme here, and the fighter followed you into the city. It's clear sailing for me, but I don't know where to link up with you guys."

"Keep going and we will figure this out later. I cannot stop with this omni on my back—" SMASH! Another SRM crashed behind him, reminding him that he is still moments from death any second now. "Bree! Take your men left and clear this area. Shaine, your men come with mine and we make our way right, through downtown!"

The group split up and weaved through the streets, increasing the distance between them and the angry Kit Foxes. Thao's group made it five blocks before he stopped his group to destroy the bikes, tear the red clothes off, and continue on foot to avoid detection. The Bashkir lost them after just one block, but was still searching. This had to be done quickly. Why all this action over some bikers, he wondered.

They stopped, ditched the bikes, popped incendiary grenades into each of them and threw their red shirts on top to destroy all their evidence. The explosion would be seen, even from within this closed parking lot, so Thao immediately led them near a building that they could group up in. On his way there, the bikes went up, and he saw about ten men running through the fire after them. These must be the ground responders.

"Inside!" he ordered. Yale got inside first and unpacked his machine gun. Things were going to get real violent real fast.

Moving away from the new explosions behind her, Bree and her unit continued along on their bikes for four more blocks before the last thing she ever expected to see just landed in the road ahead of her.

A Centaur protomech stood there, gun aimed right at her bike when the reality of the fast moving situation settled in. "MOVE!" was her only command as she hit evasive action. The micro laser missed her and took out a vehicle behind her and her men. The thing seared right through the windshield and rear window, continuing to singe another car behind it.

Three Rocs landed nearby, two on rooftops and another one near the original Centaur. They blocked off traffic and Bree saw the roads lock up, people running from their cars to cover. This was pandemonium.

Several missiles rained down on them, blowing pieces of road and sidewalk all over, which only added to the resistance caused by the heavy rain. She moved her bike to the right to avoid the latest volley, to which the new Roc on the ground responded in kind. It drew its main weapon up right as she kicked the front tire of her motorcycle up to ramp over a parked car. She flew right over the laser, which blew through a building behind her. Landing behind the Roc, she continued until the block to her right opened up, luckily right before the wall of stopped traffic. Her unit followed her to the right, having to slow down to make the turn.

One of her men skidded violently toward a parked car, and he had to jump off his bike before it hit. He skidded on the ground up to the crashed bike, which was imbedded in the car at this point. His comrade slowed to pick him up as several micro laser beams damaged the road around him. He got his friend as two SRMs nailed the crashed bike, destroying it in one hit. He sped off, fishtailing for nearly twenty meters before gripping the road. The two Rocs on the rooftops jump jetted over to intercept.

Yale opened up a devastating volley of machine gun fire into the oncoming men. They scattered, but three of them took the brunt of the fire, their bodies ripping into pieces instantly under the hailstorm of bullets. Yale had to duck back however, because the remaining seven men pulled their own rifles up and started return fire. Yale fell back to join the rest of his group further inside the lobby, where Thao pointed at the door leading to the basement parking garage.

Shaine effortlessly kicked the door in and started filing the men in ahead of him. The seven men stormed the windows of the lobby, firing wildly as they approached. Yale opened up another ripping salvo and caught another two men, turning them into pâté. Shaine and Thao gunned down two more from cover behind the concrete fountain. Thao ordered the retreat and the three of them moved through the basement door right as the wall around it exploded into a million fragments under the weight of oncoming fire. Yale dropped his gun so he could run faster and threw a fragmentation grenade through the doorway behind them, catching most of their pursuers since they had no time to block the door shut. The men filed into the parking garage where the lead man was cutting open a sewage duct with his mini-torch.

Yale, farthest back, yelled ahead to inform his commander that he was going to deal with the new figure, the first one to emerge from the smoke and debris filled doorway while they got out of there. "I will catch up with you!" he yelled as the new body literally jumped the forty meters and closed his distance with near impossible speed. Surprised at his opponent's opening move, Yale did not effectively block the first punch thrown, but just barely dodged it. The man's fist ate right through the concrete corner of a support column like it was styrofoam and he continued to swing. Yale avoided another aggressive barrage as one of the man's kicks actually knocked a car sideways.

Thao just stared in awe as this person displayed strength and speed beyond any human he has ever known. Yale seemed to gain the upper hand with a joint lock, and then a break. The man's arm was caught and Yale expertly broke his wrist, then elbow, then fluidly turned and ripped his shoulder out of socket. The man, visibly showing no pain, threw his arm back into place, and slowly made a fist, signifying that his arm was still in combat condition.

"Impossible…" Thao muttered as the man resumed his attack against Yale, who was awestruck at his adversary's recovery. One flat hand caught Yale in the chest, throwing the elemental back ten feet and into a brick wall, imprinting a silhouette of his body in the surface. On his trip back to he ground, the man punched Yale in the thigh, instantly breaking his femur and possibly his pelvic joint at the same time. Yale hit the ground hard and spit blood onto the floor.

Shaine grabbed Thao by his shoulders and pulled him back through the sewage opening the rest of his unit escaped through. He could not believe it himself, a man half Yale's size completely obliterating an elemental in several hits, but this was not the time to freeze up. If the rest of his unit was compromised, the mission was lost. Thao struggled to return to Yale and save him somehow, but was underpowered against Shaine, who pushed him the rest of the way down the passage to the rest of his men. The last site he saw was Yale under the man, who had his arms up and clasped together, preparing for the killing blow. The bone crushing impact resonated through the parking garage and through the sewer passage and made Thao's blood run cold. But he had enough adrenaline to keep his focus now, which was the proper escape from that abomination.

He lead his men through nearly a kilometer of tunnel before returning to the surface, where they simply walked onto the street and attempted to blend in with the civilian population. It was tense, but eventually, it worked.

Bree was still in the thick of it. The Rocs pursuing her lit up her driving lane with several medium laser barrages, all narrowly missing and nailing the surrounding vehicles. So far, she counted no civilian casualties, which put her mind at ease, just slightly. She sped further and spotted a traffic tunnel extending from one section of highway to lead… somewhere. She really did not care at this point. She gave the order and her unit turned toward the entrance. Two Centaurs appeared behind her and positioned themselves on top of two parked cars for a straight line of fire with their LRMs before launching six at them. The missiles streaked at them, increasing their speed as they moved along. Time seemed to stand still as the pedestrians of Silver City looked in awe at the destruction going on around them. The missiles hit the inside walls of the tunnel and the asphalt before it, so narrowly missing the motorcycles that the bikes themselves skipped forward from the blast.

The smoke created gave them the cover they needed to get out of range of the protomechs and navigate the highway tunnel system. A kilometer down, they dismounted their bikes and commandeered a truck to pack their gear in and drive out into the city without the omnifighter picking their outfit up again.

Davin continued his trek into the city unscathed, as all the attention was taken away from his single cycle. Once in, he and Samme dismounted, grabbed their gear, blew the bike, and made way on foot further into the city. They wandered into a rather detestable part of town, which was fine with Davin, who had no luck raising Bree on his comlink. The city must have had an extensive communication network, because it was blotting out his short-range signal.

After a few kilometers, Samme decided he needed to get his leg taken care of. Just then, they saw a transport truck with several protomechs on board fly past them with its lights and sirens on, so they knew the heat was on. Davin's gamble was to get a room at a local hotel and provide medical attention to his comrade. He paid for the room with his packed KE and secured the place in record time. He was fortunate to find such a place, as clan held worlds had assigned living quarters and residential areas. This was defiantly the part of society any clan pretended didn't exist.

A watch schedule was planned out between the two men and they kept watch the whole night while the other one slept. Samme was first hesitant about working alone with a freebirth, but circumstances gave him no option.

Davin entered the room, secured the door and windows, and unpacked his bags. He felt the sheath of his katana as he unraveled the cloth around it from the base with a delicate touch. The embodiment of his mentor lay in this blade, a blade he had earned through years of dedication and loyalty.

Samme saw the sight and couldn't help but wonder what this freebirth was doing with a sword. It was not standard issue, and he hasn't seen a sword in combat a single time throughout his tenure as clan infantry. "What is that doing in your gear?"

Davin, smoothly transitioning from the deep thought of his sensei in his village, and the countless nights he spent in his basement learning the art of kenjutsu away from the prying eyes of the ever-so-restrictive warriors disgraced with pulling police and security duty to Samme in response to his question. "It is something special to me, okay?"

"Fine. Do you even know how to use that thing?"

"Want to find out?" Davin kept his face cool and turned it to look Samme in the eye. This sword embodied power, and that power was his responsibility to control. It was a great feeling.

"Not really. I just want some food and sleep. You get first watch."

Davin did not show his disgust for the trueborn that seemingly took command over him with no apparent reason or regard to who saved whom two hours ago. He just placed his katana next to his bed and finished with his bags.

Thirty minutes later, Bree and Thao linked up through radio correspondence and followed Thao's tracker to a small café on the north side of the city. The team waited outside the building, splitting up into two groups: one to cover the street corner in case of police interdiction, and the other in the alley to keep watch for a rear attack.

Thao alone entered the café, and was relieved to find Julian at a small table by himself with his feet up reading a book.

"This has been the worst night of my life," Thao started as Julian lowered his book and observed his soaking wet friend. Julian slid the other seat out in a silent offering. Thao took it gladly and looked around. The café was a peaceful place, full of civilians socializing and not paying much attention to the miserable aura around Thao.

Julian put his book down, still looking irritatingly calm. "What's the count?"

Thao remembered that civilians still use contractions, and it was something he would have to try out to keep his 'cover'. He was not used to this like Julian was. "I lost three coming in. They are pumping some real firepower at mere motorcyclists."

"The city is on lockdown. No traffic in or out without military permission. All training units have been recalled it looks like, and they are apparently using maximum force in keeping this city tight. I didn't know until after I sent my invite. I'm glad the rest of you made it." Julian leaned in closer so everyone around couldn't pick up their conversation.

"Maximum force? They have…" Thao stopped, not wanting to draw attention to himself, because he felt like exploding right now. "What is this place?"

Julian sat back in his chair, still speaking softly, but not drawing any attention to himself. In fact, he almost smiled. This dark hair strung down past his chin and a thick goatee made him look very different from the last time Thao saw him. Apparently this is the look he chose to blend in with. "I count five clans here, and the scientist caste runs things, not the warriors."

"What? How can that be?" Thao interjected.

"This is a different… society here. The scientists set it up in their image and rewrote the laws as they saw fit. There is some kind of grand agenda going on that's in full swing right now, that's why you came up against such stiff resistance."

"Okay, so which clan is in charge?"

"That's the funny part, it is pretty equaled out. Though you will find this interesting: the five clans are the Falcons, Ravens, Hellions, Jaguars, and Burrocks."

"What! What universe did I land in?" Thao was on the verge of laughing and crying at the same time.

Julian leaned in for the closer, "This is what Kael Pershaw feared most. The scientist conspiracy we caught onto in our clan? It's big, and it's all right here. We were just the beginning."