Chapter 2

As Captain Reno turned his Sai with a lazy turn into the final leg of his patrol, he yawned and tried to stretch his long legs within the close confines of the aerospace fighter's cockpit.

He had been assigned this dreary patrol flight from the 3rd Luna aerospace facility towards the periphery of the Terra system when he lost in an ancient game called checkers with his squadron mates.

There had been some exciting moments when some inbound DC and Steiner freighters failed to respond to his challenges in time. As a result, interceptions of these vessels were made and punitive charges were put on the errant captains.

In boredom, some of them were given warning shots fired across the bow. In one instance, Reno actually put a shot from his Sai's nose-mounted ER-PPC into the vessel's hull, causing air to vent from the damaged section.

As he shot through the last leg of the patrol, he reported an all-clear message in his communique to Luna Command and informed ATC (Aerospace Tactical Command) of his return flight.

Approaching the 3rd Luna aerospace facility, as he started going through the final landing checklist, his radio crackled to life.

"Saber One, Check Six!"

As Reno turned back, looking beyond his lancemate's Sai, he noticed a rapidly blooming orange sphere of light approximately 5000 clicks from his current location.

What in Terra...

As quickly as the sphere appeared, it faded into obscurity.

He was brought out of his distracted state when his Sai radar beeped incessantly, bleeding red with more than 200 individual targets marked as unknown, potentially hostile.

How could an alien vessel with accompanying fighters appear in a ball of orange energy?

"Saber Lance, proceed to identify and engage unknown vessel and fighters," ordered Command.

Yeah, a Sai lance against more than 3 wings of unknown fighters and an unknown, possibly combat-ready vessel.

"Acknowledged, Command. Saber Two, let's go," Reno replied weakly.

"Saber Lance, Luna Wing is being scrambled as we speak. Luna Base has also been informed and the Fleet at Titan is also powering up, so hang on," Command added in a wry voice.

As Reno's lance cautiously approached the vessel with his onboard computer starting to process the inflight data, he noticed that that the wedge-shaped alien vessel was being attacked by strange ovoid-shaped fighters that had accompanied its appearance from the orange sphere.

The other fighters that were defending the vessel somehow looked vaguely familiar...

His wingmate, Trellis disappeared in a ball of fire as twin lancelets of energy shot out from one of the ovoid-shaped fighters struck the Sai fighter.

Trellis!

-----

"The aliens just blew each other up!"

"Quit the chatter, Gold Six!"

"Gold Squad, take out the aliens on the starboard side of the lady," ordered Skull Leader.

"Roger that, Skull One! Gold Squad, follow me!"

As Roy turned off his earpiece, he considered the two incoming alien fighters carefully – they didn't seem to be eager to join in the fight and one had been blown up by the first alien invaders. He surmised that the remaining alien fighter wasn't a threat at this time and decided to concentrate on the remaining alien invaders first.

"Skull Leader, we are detecting energy buildup around Luna and Earth. It seems like we're going to get reinforcements!" shouted Vanessa excitedly.

Roy winced as he thought; we don't have any fighters on Luna…

-----

"My lord! They conducted a space fold!"

"Impossible! How could a fold be conducted within planetary gravity?" Breetai wondered in amazement.

"Sensors indicate residual protocolture remains in the immediate fold vicinity but there are no signs of the fortress anywhere in this system," replied Exedore as he continued keying into the vast data terminal, "However, there seems to be something strange about the fold that had been made. The manifestations of the fold are inconsistent with those made from our own vessels."

"Could this be due to tampering by the traitor Zor?"

"Perhaps. I recommend that we continue to orbit the planet so that we might glean further clues on where the fortress had folded to."

"Agreed."

Chapter Commentaries *spoilers*

An S-4 Sai is a medium 40-ton aerospace fighter equipped with a nose-mounted ER-PPC and SRM-6s in each wing. It packs a nasty punch but due to its small size, armor is somehow lacking. Sources state that it is a DCMS design and was manufactured in Schuyler in large numbers sometime during the 3040s until Clan Smoke Jaguar annexed the planet that it was manufactured in 3050. The clan version S-4C was even a greater threat with a clan ER-PPC and twin Streak-4s.

According to Wikipedia, Terra in the Battletech universe has colonies on Venus and Mars, with an orbital factory near Titan. So I'd assumed with such advanced colonisation techniques, Luna would able to house at least a sizeable force of aerospace fighters to repulse any potential threat to Terra.

At this point, ComStar is in control of the Terra system. But given their close relationship with DC, it is not surprising that DCMS were accorded certain privileges (such as patrolling the Terra system on behalf on ComStar) in Terra.

Any feedback on this is much appreciated.