Foothills southeast of Tharkad-city,

Tharkad, Donegal Province,
Lyran Alliance

"Well this IS fun!" Cairo lamented as he walked is Mech along another narrow valley unable to see more than 100-meters due to the winding nature of the rivers that had shaped the landscape over tens of thousands of years. The iron-rich ground made radio contact sporadic at best, and an approaching storm-system filled the satellite-communication system with static.

"Tell me again why we get these missions?" Patrick Clearwater moved his Atlas up next to Cairo's Templar as the first heavy drops on rain started to fall, "There are at lest a dozen units more suited to this sort of mission."

"It probably has something to do with a senior member of ComStar considering us 'expendable'." Cairo double-checked his scanner, "Ok, I just got a blip 2-cliks west."

"I got it too." Jack Cameron reported from his position on the ridge over looking the valley, "Defiantly not natural. I think we've found our DropShip. It's a big one too."

"Ok, Patrick, you take you're lance down the left flank, Jack stay on the right. I'll go right down the middle. Rix, Xander, take point." There was a flash as the two Elementals on Cairo's shoulders and landed gracefully as possible in the mud below. They soon disappeared into the lengthening shadows. The two other Mech's in Cairo's command lance took place behind his Templar as they slowly made their way along the valley towards the distant DropShip.

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"We have found the DropShip sir." Rix's voice came over the encrypted com-system, "It appears to be an Overlord-C with Clan Wolf markings."

"Clan Wolf or Clan Wolf-in-Exile?" Cairo asked, getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Clan Wolf sir." Rix confirmed, "They have already unloaded a full Trinary of OmniMech's."

"Ok, pull back." Cairo slowly walked his way up the ridge overlooking the LZ, leaving the sensor dead-zone it created, "This is Colonel Steven Cairo of the ComsGuards to Clan Wolf DropShip: identify yourself and state your purpose." Lightning eliminated the scene: 15 front-line OmniMech's turned to face Cairo.

The response came in the form of an ER-PPC blast from a turret on the side of the DropShip, slamming into the left arm of Cairo's Templar, stripping a tone of armour.

Cairo's feet slammed down on the foot-pedals, igniting his Jump Jets and sending him back down the way he had come. His Mech landed heavily, and the ground gave way, sending his Mech sliding down the side of the slope, until it finally fell facedown in the mud. A barrage of LRM's struck the crest of the slope, threatening the start a landslide.

"I think we got hostiles!" Cairo called out as he carefully brought his Templar to its feet in the mud, "Patrick, Jack, pull back: there isn't a damb thing we can do against a hostile DropShip with just 11 Mech's."

Cairo activated his ECM suite just as the first Clan Wolf Mech poked its head over the crest of the hill. Cairo's crosshairs flicked between gold and red, reporting a partial lock. The Mech, a Shadow Cat, fired a Gauss round down at Cairo, missing his left arm by less than a meter.

"Yep, we got hostiles." Cairo gritted his teeth ad pulled his primary trigger. An azure beam of ionised energy leapt from his left-arm ER-PPC and struck the Shadow Cat in the right torso, followed by as stream of depleted-uranium rounds from his Ultra Autocannon that traced a line of damage from the lighter Mech's left hip to cockpit. The last two rounds found the Plexiglas canopy and turned the cockpit into a charnel house.

"Rix, Xander: try and make your way back to communications range." Cairo started to walk his Mech back as more Mech's crested the hill, "Tell central we got a new problem…"

To Be Continued…