Nova Cat Landing Zone, Tairakana Plains,
Luthien Phest Military District, Draconis Combine
05 January 3052
0600 Hours
Star Captain Brianna piloted her Mad Dog OmniMech out of the mech bay of the DropShip Cat's Claws. It was still dark outside, but the light of dawn could be seen on the horizon. It got closer with each passing minute but was still an hour or so off.
"The light of day comes like the light of the Clans down upon these backwards people."
The air was a little chilly, inside the cockpit and out. While the fusion reactor that she sat atop would produce great amounts of heat in combat, the simple acts of moving into position on the outskirts of the landing zone would create so little heat that the heat sinks inside the belly of the Mad Dog would have no trouble quelling it.
The rendezvous point for Brianna's cluster was 200 meters outside the landing zone, to the north. She set her 'mech forward at a slow trot. Within ten minutes she had maneuvered through the maze of metal that were the many DropShips that had landed in the area and was on her way to the rendezvous point.
Following her was the rest of 3rd Trinary of the Fourth Nova Cat Guards. Being a Star Captain of one of the prestigious clusters of Alpha Galaxy, Brianna was very proud of her position and her Clan, more so than normal for a Clansman. Third Trinary was made of mostly heavy and assault OmniMechs, including one dreaded Dire Wolf assault mechs. Weighing in at 100 tons, it was by far the largest 'mech in the Trinary and one of the largest ever made.
Brianna had never been one for the Dire Wolf. She had always preferred the teeth and speed that the Mad Dog had to offer and it had thus proved to be very effective with her at the joysticks.
"Star Captain. Do we have an order to move out yet?"
"Neg, Adrian. It seems as though Star Colonel Gritas had seen fit to hold us back for now."
"We have been bid out of the fighting then, quiaff?"
"Neg, Star Commander. We have not been bid out. However, it seems that we are to be a reserve for the Smoke Jaguars if they should fail to take their objectives."
Brianna spat out the name of the Jaguars. She, like many other Nova Cats, did not desire to fight with them. They were single-minded thugs who did not care about other Clans. All they thought about was victory in the field, and their single mindedness sometimes made this difficult. However, their martial abilities are not to be taken lightly.
Minutes passed slowly as the mechs of the Fourth Nova Cat Guards waited for the order to advance. Standing like metal sentinels guarding a great treasure, the mechs glistened as the sun began to come over the horizon. The painting of the Nova Cat upon the shoulders was lit up and the fangs of each of the cats were bright.
Twenty minutes passed without any new orders. Brianna and the rest of the Fourth Guards began to get restless.
One of the young and promising warriors of Beta Star, Warrior Jason, piped up on the comm.
"Star Captain, it seems to me that Khan Furey is using his powers to keep the Nova Cats back from the battle so that his Smoke Jaguars can take all the honor."
"Warrior Jason. Khan Furey may be a Jaguar, but he is also a Clansmen. I do not like the Jaguars, but I do know that they have their powers on the field. We Nova Cats are just as deadly on the field as they are, and Khan Furey knows this. We will be sent in before the battle's end."
"Aff, Star Captain."
Brianna heard the hint of pain is Jason's voice. She knew that he was an excellent mechwarrior and that he also had much bad luck, as the spheroids would have called it. Jason was one of the better pilots in the Nova Cat touman, hence his posting to the Nova Cat's alpha galaxy.
During his trial of position, he had only dispatched one opponent when his mech suffered severe internal damage to his engine from a heavy attack from a Timber Wolf.
The sun was beginning to shine into her eyes ten minutes later. She raised her arms and stretched the muscles within them. The tension within her arms was relieved and she lowed them. Twisting her neck from one side to the other she cracked her neck to relieve the tension there.
She was readjusting her gloves when Star Colonel Gritas, commanding officer of the Fourth Guards, addressed his command over the comm.
"Star Captains of the Fourth Guards. We have been given orders from Khan Furey. We are to move out to grid B323, the Tairakana Plains. They have spotted a regiment of freebirth mechs there, apparently acting rather strangely, even for dezgra freebirths. Move out at best speed. Star Colonel Gritas out."
Brianna took the initiative when Gritas had finished.
"You heard the Colonel. Third trinary, we have been given the left flank. Break into stars and follow on the right of First trinary.
A series of 'affs' followed Brianna's orders and the mechs of third trinary began to move.
The seventy-five mechs of Alpha Cluster slowly began their march. They began to pick up speed until the group was moving at about fifty or sixty kilometers an hour. It was an impressive sight to see. It was almost artistic in its appearance, if not for the fact that each and every one of the machines was filled with deadly weapons and piloted by a warrior who not only had the training to use those on any enemy in their was but also the determination and mind set to do the same.
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Warrior Travis had reached the rendezvous point with out meeting any other freebirth scouts. It seemed as if all the scouts had been dispatched. His star alone had accounted for seven scout vehicle kills among the twenty-five Elementals. With their kill tally sent into field command, they awaited their next orders.
The waited, spread out to create a 30-meter wide perimeter, for command to send word to advance. They did not have to wait long before one of Khan Furey's aides to give them their message.
"Mist Star Two, this is Command. Khan Furey has assigned your Star to accompany Mist Star One and attach yourselves to Alpha Cluster, 2nd binary of the Jaguar Guards. The Jaguar Guards will then begin a march toward our main objective. Fly-by reports indicate mech movement around an area known as Basin Lake. You are to engage and destroy all enemies in the vicinity of Basin Lake and then continue onto the Imperial City. Command out."
Travis gave a quiet grunt, more to himself than anything, as a reply to the aide. He did not care for aides. They were not real warriors any more as far as he was concerned. Travis saw the job of aiding a Colonel, Galaxy Commander, or even a Khan as more of a punishment than an honor. You were a warrior, taken from the field of battle to fight in the field of politics and logistics. It was not a life for a real warrior.
Travis' Star Commander's voice broke through to Travis and brought him back to reality.
"All Points of Mist Star Two. Our rides have arrived. I want all Points to latch onto the corresponding point. We have 2nd Star to latch onto and Mist Star One has the command Star. Execute."
Wordlessly, the twenty-five troopers of Mist Star Two engaged their suit-mounted jump jets and covered the distance between them selves and their mech rides quickly. Travis jumped up one last time and attached himself to a Hellbringer, along with the four other Elementals in his Point. Closing the claws of his armor's battle claw around the in-built handhold and setting his feet into the alcoves for them, Travis hung from the right side of the OmniMechs chest. The Hellbringer, which had slowed down to allow the Elementals to jump on, now began to pick up speed. The rough ride that was riding on the outside of a mech now came into being for the Elemental passengers.
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It took a little over an hour for the Jaguar Guards to pick their way to the shores of Basin Lake. With forty-five OmniMechs, the Jaguar Guards cluster was a powerful unit. With the addition of a point of Elementals for each OmniMech, they were each a God of Destruction.
Warrior Travis, who was attached to a Hellbringer, clung to the metal beast that he rode. On the far side of the dried up lake, he could make out a line of enemy mechs. It looked to be a full regiment, standing along the opposite shore. They were not moving, just standing there. Upon seeing the enemy, the Star Colonel commanding the Jaguar Guards called for an immediate charge.
The gray and black mechs of the Jaguar Guards ran down the slight decline and into the dried up lakebed. At 500 meters, they opened up with long-range weapons. Many of the enemy mechs were hit with laser, missile, and ballistic weapons. But still they stood, unmoving, without retaliating in anyway.
"There is something wrong here," Travis thought to himself as the Hellbringer he clung to continued to run forward, firing its PPCs. "Why are they not firing, or at least maneuvering?"
The Star Colonel must have been thinking the same thing, for at 100 meters he ordered a full stop. A full star of Elementals from another unit disembarked from their mech rides and began jumping forward. They entered the ranks of enemy mechs and were lost from view.
After a few minutes, the comm crackled as the Star Commander of the Elementals that had been sent to investigate called in on the cluster channel so all could hear his words.
"These are decoy mechs," the Commander said. "I say again, these are decoys for a trap. They are nothing but savashri AgroMechs with scrap armor welded on. They are packed with explosives and the ground is littered with vibrobombs. This was meant as a trap to destroy us. The spheroids are nothing more that dezgra free--…"
The entire line of booby-trapped mechs exploded, sending bits of metal rocketing up into the morning sky. A wall of fire, some thirty feet high spread out across the bank. A hundred smaller explosions followed as the mines dispersed between the fake mechs detonated from the force of the explosion.
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Brianna felt like she had just been smacked in the chest from the sheer power of the explosion. None of the Nova Cat reinforcements had taken even minimal damage from the small metal shrapnel, but some unlucky Elementals had suffered minor armor damage from some larger pieces of flying debris.
The Star of Elementals that had been sent to investigate was no more. There had been no chance for them when the explosions had been set off. No remorse was felt for them, no grief or sadness. They died as warriors, but had unwittingly received one of the greatest dishonors that could happen to a Clan warrior. No genetic material would have survived the flames.
"Freebirths," Brianna thought. "They must have infantry spotters somewhere and decided to blow their trap early. There was no mistaking that our mechs would not have moved forward after we knew it was a trap. And they might have tuned into that wide-beam transmission."
Star colonel Gritas, commander of the 4th Nova Cat Guards, his voice full of anger at the attempted treachery, switched onto the Cluster-wide comm channel.
"The spheroids have given defeat to the Clans through the use of trickery in the past. Here they tried to do so again. We shall teach them the price of tactics only befitting the Dark Caste."
Mechs were appearing from behind where the fake ones once stood. They were painted with the same blue that the trapped ones had been. Brianna stared at their real enemy. A full regiment of spheroid troops stood waiting for the Cats and Jaguars. A full regiment worth of targets waited for Brianna.
"Show them no mercy for they deserve none," Gritas continued. "Nova Cats, charge the enemy mechs. Engage at will. The rules of Zellbrigen do not apply here for these are dishonorable troops."
Two clusters of Clan mechs began moving forward. Still over 600 meters away, the mechs of the Inner Sphere force were easily within range of the Clan weapons. Brianna, charging forward in her Mad Dog, let loose a volley of 40 LRMs and a pulse laser on a combine mech, labeled a Hatamoto-Chi by her battle computer.
Her steady hand and keen eye sent the pulse laser straight and true. Armor was melted off its chest as the laser stitched its way across, creating a visible scar. The missiles flew and many connected with the mech. The upper torso was wreathed in flames as over thirty of the missiles from Brianna's launchers found their target and blasted armor away. Her computer updated the damage to the target, and showed that some 50 of the armor on the chest of the mech had been destroyed from her salvo. The computer also showed that the shoulders, side torsos and even the head had taken damage.
All along the enemy line, mechs were taking heavy damage as the Clan mechs closed. It had only taken the two groups twenty seconds or so to close the distance between each other to just over 200 meters. The amount of ordinance in the air suddenly increased as the sphere mechs began firing back at the Clan aggressors.
The Hatamoto-Chi that Brianna had targeted charged one of its arm-mounted PPCs and returned her earlier attack. Her hits must have rattled the pilot or his computer as the shot missed at least six feet above her head.
Brianna squeezed the triggers and sent another salvo of pulse laser followed by twin missile racks toward the enemy mech. The pulse laser found chest of her target again, melting off even more armor, leaving behind just paper thin protection in comparison to what it was before the battle. Her missiles flew out of their racks afterwards, streaking at an almost level course to the Hatamoto-Chi. Only about twenty missiles found their target this time, blasting even more armor off the chest of the mech. The other missiles, devoid of a target to explode upon, flew past it and off to die somewhere behind the battle.
Black smoke poured forth from the chest of the Hatamoto-Chi after a missile had punched through what had remained of the mechs armor and damaged the mechs engine shielding. Even with the horrendous damage caused by Brianna's mech, the pilot of the Draconis mech managed to keep it upright and moving forward. The return fire from the Hatamoto consisted in only its dual SRM racks. The twelve high-explosive missiles erupted from the chest of the mechs and flew into Brianna's Mad Dog. Seven of the missiles found their mark and cratered her mech's chest and arms.
Switching over to her second weapons group, Brianna triggered all of her pulse lasers into the Draconis mech. The temperature in the cockpit rose a few degrees as the heat from all her lasers temporarily overcame the cooling capacity of her mech's heat sinks. Sweat began to form on her forehead and arms as the lasers reached out into the Hatamoto. One medium laser hit the right shoulder, turning armor into white-hot slag. The other hit the stylized head of the enemy mech, scorching the ferro-glass cockpit window. The two large pulse lasers bored straight into the chest of the mech, opening up two more large holes in the chest.
The Hatamoto began to lean to the left as it ran forward. Within three giant steps, the machine stumbled and crashed into the ground hard. Dirt was thrown up all around the mech as it skidded to a halt. Armor was torn off the chest and right arm of the mech. It lay there, motionless.
"Scratch one freebirth," Brianna said as she moved her crosshairs off the fallen corpse of the mech and continued on.
All around her, the combined forces of the Nova Cats and Smoke Jaguars were decimating the forces of the combine. With ninety Clan mechs with Elemental support, there was no chance for this regiment of defenders with just over 100 mechs. Draconis mechs were falling like flies up and down the line, while the occasional Clan mech was disabled in the fighting.
Brianna stalked about the field inside the line of Clan mechs slowly moving toward the main objective. She took notice of an enemy mech, tagged a Warhammer by her computer.
Squeezing the triggers, she sent her last missiles towards the mech, along with a large pulse laser. The pulse laser hit the Warhammer on the right shoulder, melting through what little remained of its armor there. The missiles did not fare as well, only about half of them actually striking their target while the others ripped up the ground some ten feet in front of the mechs feet.
The Warhammer turned to face its aggressor, raising both of its arms toward Brianna's Mad Dog. Each arm, ending in the barrel of a particle projection cannon, carried one of the most devastating weapons a mech could carry. Blue man-made lightning burst forth from each arm and connected with the Clan mech. One blue streak ravaged the armor on the Mad Dog's right leg while the other slammed into the left torso, just below the missile rack. The torso was swung to the left a few feet from the sheer force of the impact.
Looking at her armor readout, she was down to 20 armor on her left torso.
"Another PPC there and he will be through my armor," she thought.
Brianna triggered both her large lasers at the Warhammer. One stitched its way across the mechs left leg, sending melted armor to scorch the ground beneath the mech. The other connected with the right shoulder again, easily melting through the armor and began working on the myomer bundles and internal structure of the mech. The mechs right arm came loose and fell to the ground; the myomer and internal structure damaged to the point where they could no longer hold the arm to the rest of the mech.
The Warhammer fired its remaining PPC at Brianna, hitting the right arm just above the elbow joint. Brianna's targeting was thrown off by the hit, sending one of her large lasers wide to burn the ground to the side of the Warhammer. The other found its target and melted armor off the chest of the mech.
Brianna set her mech forward to close the distance between the Warhammer and her own Mad Dog. Another PPC blast from the Warhammer made her dance her mech to the side to dodge it. She was about to squeeze the triggers on her large lasers again when an explosion followed by the sensation of weightlessness found her. The Mad Dog hit the ground hard. When she looked, she saw the still-dark sky above her. She had stepped on an unexploded mine and had fallen due to the sudden damage. She checked her damage report monitor, most of the armor on the left leg was gone, but no actuator damage. She began rolling her mech so as to get it on its chest, so it could push itself up. But the shadow of another mech made her freeze. The Warhammer she had been sparring with loomed over her cockpit. It did not raise its weapon, but instead lifted one of its legs. The bottom of the foot was held over her cockpit. She stared at it, waiting for it. She did not fear death; instead she accepted it.
The mechs foot began descending when a silver blur connected with the Warhammer, which fell backwards, away from the Mad Dog. Quickly, Brianna got her mech to its feet. Looking at the Warhammer, she saw that the head had caved in. This damage could only be attributed to a gauss slug connecting with the cockpit.
"We cannot have one of the Nova Cat's best Star Captains killed by a mine and a freebirth," a voice said over the trinary channel. Brianna recognized the voice and the slight hint of remorse that went with the mention of her rank.
"Your marksman skills are only increased by the advanced targeting computer in your Warhawk, Warrior Jason. I will be sure to mention this to the Star Colonel after we have taken Luthien."
"Thank you Star Captain. It seems that two more regiments of spheroid troops have made an appearance. The Jaguar Guards have been forced to a halt against the first regiment. They are calling for reinforcements and aerospace fighters for strafing runs."
"The Jaguars have bitten off more then they can chew. Well, we must get back into the fray before we become nothing more than slag and spare parts."
"Aff, Star Captain."
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Two full regiments and the remnants of a third now stood between the two Clan clusters and victory at the Basin Lake. The first regiment to engage the Clan forces, the Otomo, was very badly damaged, with over 50 of their mechs non-operational. The other two regiments, the 1st Sword of Light and 2nd Legion of Vega, were both at 100 operational level. Formed up in a wide crescent on the bank of the dried up lakebed, the three regiments stood to oppose the Clan forces.
The Otomo, much of what remained of it still under a vicious assault by the Smoke Jaguars and Nova Cats, was losing troops quickly. Two more Clan clusters, one from the Nova Cats and the other from the Smoke Jaguars arrived within twenty minutes. By this time, the Otomo were down to less than thirty mechs remaining operational. They were desperately trying to pull back, but the other two regiments were unwittingly blocking them in. If they parted, then the Clan forces could push through the hole and break through the blockade. But if they fought and pushed back with their wall of mechs, then the Otomo would be annihilated. It was a predicament of the highest order.
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Warrior Travis leaped on the fallen Thunderbolt. Having just come under a vicious assault by a Jaguar Gargoyle, the mech had fallen and now came under the vicious attack by the armored infantry of the Clans, the dreaded Elementals.
Travis landed on the mech's chest and jumped again. This time he landed on the mech's head, the ferro-glass window of the cockpit straining under the weight of a falling Elemental. Travis kneeled down to look inside. The pilot was straining at the straps that held him in, desperately trying to undo them. Then the mechwarrior saw the Elemental that stood on his mechs head. A look of utter terror came over his face.
Travis grinned to himself before punching the ferro-glass with his battle claw. It shook with the force of the blow but did not crack or break. Again, another hit and the window shook again. A third hit a deep crack appeared in the glass. A forth hit and the window shattered inward, bits of glass raining down on the mechwarrior inside. Travis reached in and grabbed the man's neck with his battle claw and twisted it violently. A satisfying crack sounded and the man fell limp, his neck broken.
He straightened up and jumped off the side of the mech's head. Searching for a new target, he saw that the blue mechs of the Otomo were doing their best to pull back. The crimson mechs of the 1st Sword of Light and the black and silver of the 2nd Legion of Vega were almost a solid wall though, and the slower mechs of the Otomo were forced back down with the quickly moving wall of the other two regiments.
Three Clan clusters, both Nova Cat and one Smoke Jaguar charged the two regiments between them and the Imperial City. One Smoke Jaguar cluster, however, was pulling back. Travis could not see why the Jaguar Guards, for that was the cluster that was retreating, was still very much a battle-worthy cluster, having only lost about a Star's worth of mechs. Then he saw why. Two more regiments were charging from the south and southeast, squeezing the Clan forces in a vice. The freebirths hoped to trap the Clan mechs and slowly crush them between their four regiments.
Two fighters streaked overhead, flying straight for the Jaguar Guards line. Travis watched for a moment at the aerospace fighters closed with their targets. But the fighters did not fire upon the Jaguars. The two fighters rained death and destruction upon the front line of the two new regiments. Two mechs exploded and a third fell. The confusion caused by the first two allowed six more fighters that had streaked after them, make their runs and devastate more mechs without being fired upon. It seemed that the Clans of Kerensky had won the battle for control of the air of Luthien.
Travis could not continue to watch the battle unfold, however. He was part of the battle and was bred for it. His job was to win, not watch. He turned to the two advancing regiments of the 1st Sword of Light and 2nd Legion of Vega and began jumping towards them. He had already taken four mechs out of the battle completely. He had no mercy for warriors that could not keep their machines upright.
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Star Commander Dillon laughed aloud and pulled back the joystick of his Sabutai fighter, sending the fighter into a climb back into the clear air above the field of battle that lay below him.
The sudden attack by the eight Smoke Jaguar fighters had disrupted the enemy mechs.
"Sound off Claws. What did you computers report the damage as?"
Dillon liked to keep track of the number of kills his star made. Personally, he had destroyed five enemy fighters and two battlemechs. His star accounted for another thirteen fighters, and with this latest strafing attack, six more mech kills, minus the kills of the two pilots that had been lost fighting for air superiority with the freebirth pilots.
He tried to concentrate on his piloting and the reports of the pilots in his command. It was not the easiest thing to do, but he did it anyway. Overall, his star had taken only minor armor damage.
"Okay. We have enough fuel for one more attack run. Make your heading, 1-6-0 degrees. Pair up and prepare for you attack runs. Have at them!"
The eight fighters banked hard to make another strafing run on the Draconis mechs. With the attack by the Jaguar Guards, most of the enemy mechs did not notice the fighters heading to attack them. Gauss slugs, depleted uranium shells, lasers, and missiles streaked from overhead and slammed down into the Combine line. Many mechs were hit from in the attack, suffering major damage.
Dillon watched the chaos erupt from behind him in his aft facing camera as he flew away. More explosions erupted from the line as at least five more Draconis mechs exploded when their ammunition bins were hit. A few more mechs lost limbs or fell down, missing armor. At least one caught a heavy round to the head, and it fell face first into the ground.
"Jaguar's Claws, make heading 2-3-0 degrees and head for home. We will rendezvous with the Prowler for refuel and reload and then come back for more."
The other seven pilots acknowledged his order and turned their fighters to head back to their DropShip.
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The battle against the two Draconis regiments between the Clans and the Imperial city was fierce. The remaining Otomo mechs had either been destroyed or fled through their own lines. The remaining two regiments were suffering major casualties, while the Clan clusters were only taking moderate damage by comparison.
Star Captain Brianna stepped over the corpse of a fallen Dragon that she had just dispatched. Steam lifted off the mech from around the holes and scorch marks created by her lasers. The battle was going very well for the Clans. Of the approximate 130 Clan mechs, about 100 were still operational, as far as Brianna could tell. The Draconis mechs, however, were falling like flies to the Clan forces.
She walked her distinct looking mech forward. The Spheroids called her mech the Vulture. She had done some miniscule research on the vulture and had been appalled. The vulture was not a predator, but a scavenger, preying off the already dead corpses of other creature's food. Brianna did not find for the remains of others meals; rather, she found her own prey.
She spotted a new target. Standing just 150 meters away, a Draconis Panther was standing behind a fallen comrade as cover, firing away with its PPC.
"Such a light and fragile mech to send into a bloodbath, she thought. "They must be more desperate to defeat us here than we thought."
Brianna moved her crosshairs onto the figure of the Panther's chest that was exposed over the fallen battlemech it was using for cover. The pilot of the Panther kept his mech still, aiming up shots on some unknown target away from Brianna. She squeezed the triggers and sent the pulses of her two large lasers into the Panther. One of the lasers burned marks into the mech's chest, melting off most of the armor there. The other scorched up and down the mechs right arm, turning armor into slag and revealing the Panther's internal structure there.
The Panther was thrown off balance by the attack and staggered back, the PPC bolt it let loose with as it came under fire flying well off any target. Regaining its feet, the mech fired with four SRMs from the chest launcher.
Three of the missiles found their mark, slamming into Brianna's Mad Dog and smashing armor on her chest and both legs. Before Brianna could fire again, the Panther jumped into the air, and landed some 150 meters farther away. Brianna, whose mech was barely walking forward, kicked her Mad Dog into a run to catch up with the fleeing mech.
Brianna thought she noticed something amiss. The Panther was not the only mech retreating as fast as possible. All along the line, Draconis mechs were beginning a retreat. The center of the Draconis line had been breached, and almost a full trinary of mechs was pushing through the gap in the enemy line. The Clan forces began pushing against the line even harder, forcing the Combine mechs to fall into a full retreat.
Brianna followed suit and set her mech into a full run. She triggered pulses of lasers at any mech that presented itself as a target. A Draconis Champion fell under a combined assault, only to be destroyed at close range by a Smoke Jaguar Dire Wolf. The Smoke Jaguars and Nova Cats were charging as one, firing as one.
The Draconis Combine was retreating from the Tairakana Plains. The battle there was over, and the Clans were victorious. The battle for Luthien, however, was far from over.
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Authors note: My humblest of apologies for taking so long to write this chapter. I have not had all the time I wish I could have and I keep getting stuck. I will attempt to write chapter 4 and get it up soon, but with driving tests and school coming up, I don't know how much time I will really be able to dedicate to my writing or how long it will be before it is up. As always, please review. I like reading them and I like to talk about my writing to those who read it. Have a nice day.