Tukayyid City Spaceport,

Tukayyid,

Free Rasalhague Republic.

Cairo's trigger fingers gripped the controls tightly, his eyes darting from side to side, trying to work out where the next attack would come from: the confirmed Clan forces to the North, or the Lance of unknown Mech's heading in from the South. Alarms started going off, both in Cairo's mind and on the Templar's control panel, as the two remaining Some Jaguar DropShip's took to the air, struggling to manoeuvre effectively this close to the planets surface. The Spheroid Union-C struggled to maintain it's upright position, while the Carrier forced to use its transit drive to maintain altitude at such low speeds. The smaller craft opened fire at the Lance closing from the south, adding weight to the chances of them being friendly to the Irregulars. Cairo was willing to except the possibility, but without a trace of doubt: was the Smoke Jaguar commander willing to fire on his own men to get them close enough to take the Irregulars from the rear.

A voice crackled over the radio, "Major Cairo, this is Capt. Piecemaker, Shadow Company, please respond!" Cairo glanced at his communications console: the transmission was coming from an Awesome in the Lance approaching from the south. Cairo gritted his teeth: back on Huntress, Piecemaker had treated him like a fool because he was from the Periphery. He smiled slightly, remembering that he now out-ranked the other MechWarrior, "Welcome to the party, Captain. I'm sure glad you could make it: us boys from the Periphery couldn't fight our way out of a wet paper bag without you fine gentlemen from the Inner Sphere to help us. Tell me: what end of the Autocannon do I point at the bad guys again?"

Piecemaker sounded less than happy, "I'm sure that you know exactly what your doing sir, but I was ordered here to assist you in holding back the Jaguars until the rest of Shadow Company deals with the two Star's still lose in the main part of the base." Cairo swore under his breath, "How the HELL did you stop the Clanners here the first time? What did you do: put something in their drinking water?" Cairo span his Mech round suddenly, firing the ER-PPC and 3 Medium Pulse Lasers in the Templar's right arm at a Smoke Jaguar Bombardier, coring out it's left torso, and driving the heat levels in his cockpit well into the red, "I mean, these guy's are good and all, but you had the outnumbered and beaten. You all but wiped out the Smoke Jaguars, but here they are, large as life, ripping the shit out of what little remain of my command!"

The Carrier fired a final volley before pulling back from the fight, twin Gauss Slugs ripping into Cairo's Mech, tearing the left arm from it's socket, sending the LB 20-X to the ground. It took all of Cairo's skill to stop the 85-tone Mech from falling the ground, and he was forced to walk it into a wall to keep it upright. Cairo wiped the sweat from his eyes and slammed a hand down on the shutdown override, stopping the Mech from shutting its self down. He switched radio frequencies, "This is Highball calling DropShip Broken Hammer: get over here and teach this bastard a lessen!" A bright light in the eastern sky followed a half garbled reply, signalling the launch of the Overlord-C DropShip from the Spaceport.

The metal leviathan made it's way across the sky; it's drive flairs turning night into day. A volley of laser and missile fire shot out from the Broken Hammer, reaching out to the Smoke Jaguar DropShip's. The Carrier pulled back, swinging away from the larger vessel, leaving the Union-C to fight it out with its bigger cousin. Like WarShip's of the bygone age of sale, the two vessels traded broadsides as they hung less than 200-meters above the ground, slowly rotating to bring fresh weapons and armour to bear on their opponents.

Cairo took a moment to consider the view. It was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen: Beautiful and deadly at the same time.

The battle on the ground brought Cairo back to reality with a thump, "Capt. Piecemaker, move your Mech's to the left flank and help hold the Jaguars back: we have to keep them from getting to close to us long enough for the Natures Wrath to get into position. If we can do that, it's game over." Piecemaker acknowledge, moving his Awesome towards his assigned zone, followed by the other Mech's in his lance: a Timber Wolf, a Thanatos, and a Wolfhound with ComStar markings.

Cairo lit up his Jump Jets, lifting his battered Templar up and into the thick of the fighting.

To Be Continued