CHAPTER 3: THE LORDS OF WAR

Hodges: "Clanners, Clanners! Repeat we have inbound Clan 'Mechs!"

Barclay: "Well whaddaya want me to do about it!"

Hodges: "Just thought you should know so you can start running"-comm. transmissions between Lieutenants Hodges and Barclay during a Clan attack.

SUNDANCE

200 KILOMETERS WEST OF BURNINGHAM

ALBUQUERQUE

Dave Lewis heard the rhythmic pounding as he shouldered the vat of water from Albuquerque's water mine. Albuquerque was a miniature Sundance, going down the drain. It had once been a semi-prosperous mining town where everyone was either a farmer or a miner, or later worked at the airstrip. Unfortunately the water mine that had been the source of Albuquerque's income had dried up several years ago and now all that was left of the town was the mine, a meeting hall and about a dozen shanties, shacks and sheds built out of scavenged steel sheets and wood. The mine itself was little more than a hole in the ground with about five small towers at various points along the hole's walls, each tower had a small crane on it. Around the hole were a few offices and a couple of water towers. In the distance was the old hangar where the town had stored its two government-granted shuttles. The roof had collapsed last year taking one of the shuttles with it and the other one had broken down recently. Not that the runway was in any state to be used, it was little more than a wide line of crumbled concrete chunks.

The rumbling grew louder as Dave lugged the barrel of water to the massive water tanks, past what was left of the wood and wire fence. Then the source of the rumbling cleared the rise, 'Mechs! Five of the running in line, Dave didn't know much about 'Mechs but he did know about the Clans (Or as much as rumours could be counted as knowledge). The Clan 'Mechs thundered through the town, crushing several houses and earning the anger of old Nestor, who stepped out of his house and emptied a dozen shotgun shells on the Clanners. Horrifyingly, one of the huge bird-like 'Mechs turned and blasted Nestor's house with its Laser, the blast burned Nestor to a pile of ash with it. "You bastards! You shit-eating bastard Clanner sons-of-bitches!" Dave roared, for all the good it would do. The Clan 'Mechs continued on their way.

HPG STATION

It was absolute chaos at the HPG Station, people and vehicles were bustling everywhere, preparing to defend the base. The steel haired Commander Ian Larson sprinted down the corridor, made a right and arrived inside the massive HPG Station itself, also where Command was located. Organized chaos was the order of the day with people bustling everywhere and orders yelled back and forth. The entire base was gearing up for the attack and bringing the clusters of AC, Calliope and LRM Turrets online. The sat-com arrays in space showed a Star of Vultures inbound, Shadow Cats and Stormcrows were moving across the planet targeting outlying defense posts. The Northwind LDV had already engaged two Stars of Mediums and the Southspire LDV were being wiped out by a Binary of Mad Cats. Fortunately the HPG Station's defenses were probably capable of taking out the incoming Vultures and reinforcements were on their way...

BURNINGHAM

General McGuire sprinted out from his second cousin's home in a small residential district in Burningham as the warning sirens wailed across the city, he dived into his two-seater 1972 Aston Martin, lovingly preserved in the home of a collector who he'd save back in 3043 when he'd been a lot younger. But now McGuire didn't have time for memories he started the ancient vintage car and it purred beautifully, McGuire put the car into gear and pealed out into the dusty streets in full throttle. The Aston Martin roared to its considerable top speed as McGuire tore towards the base, just then a Clan Dropship roared overhead weapons blazing. A split second later a colossal blast roared up from the base, McGuire drove faster. When he arrived the base was nothing but a smoking crater filled with wreckage and burned bodies. The entire Administration Block, Barracks and Command Centre were gone. Twisted metal and jagged walls rose from the blasted ruins and the few survivors staggered about seemingly oblivious to the moans and cries for help. Maguire had no time for this, the Aston Martin roared through the wreckage dodging the survivors who groped out for the vintage. At last Maguire found his office, which was mercifully undamaged, the only building still standing in the compound. He pulled up and leapt out leaving the door open and the keys still in the ignition, Maguire knew he would regret it but there weren't many places one could hide a 1972 Aston Martin on Sundance and he had more important issues. Maguire ran in through the office to his desk and grabbed the comm. Unit; it was dead. "Shit!" Maguire snapped he wasn't a man given over to profanity but this wan certainly a situation that warranted it. He glanced out the window towards the Mech Hangar, it didn't seem to badly damaged from here so Maguire made a snap decision to check it out, maybe a Mech or two had survived the colossal explosion. He jumped back in the Aston Martin and stamped down on the accelerator just as the ominous sight of a colossal Clan Dropship roared overhead and stopped. Hovering above the base it slowly descended, ramps opening as it did so and the shapes of Battlemechs easily recognizable. The Dropship touched down and disgorged about ten Clan 'Mechs along with at least thirty power armoured Elementals. For a moment everyone stared at each other, then the Clanners opened fire...

Sarah watched the brutal massacre from her hiding place in the somewhat still standing Mech hangar. She wasn't a soldier, had little combat training and the only weapon she had was a laser pistol that she kept in her room. She looked for a way out as five Elementals headed towards the hangar and spotted a small cargo skiff piled high with supplies. Natasha ran to it and started up the vehicle, it rose up, spluttered and crashed to the ground, she jumped out and looked for another escape route when everything went black...

"We have a prisoner Commander"

"Excellent"

"No sign of Kasparov"

"Find him and bring him to me, alive"

OUTPOST 43

The Powell touched down on the landing pad at Outpost 43, a small, walled base on the edge of the Great Desert, the massive sea of sand that sprawled across all three continents. As the massive, much abused Union Class touched down it blew a wall of dirt across the entire base. Outpost 43 served as a Dropship base and nothing more, it was a 500 square metre concrete pad, cracked from many years of abuse that was occupied by a landing pad surrounded by a gantry, office and several small tanks. Two fenced off fuel tanks sat behind the gantry, one's roof had fallen in and the fuel pipes were cracked and broken. About thirty buildings of various shapes and sizes occupied the rest of the base. A Command Centre, Air Control Tower, radio station, Satcom uplink and several garages, barracks and armouries rounded out the building complement. Defending the base was about a dozen Heavy Laser and LRM Turrets backed up by a similar number of light jeeps, a couple of Centipedes and the commander's Vedette. Vassily noted all of this with disdain as he walked the Sunslayer down off the Powell. The base personnel had probably never seen a Battlemech in their entire lives and now stood gawping as eight of them marched through the base and clustered just beyond the walls. Vassily popped the canopy, climbed up on his Mech's back and enjoyed the view from ten metres up while he waited for the rest of the LDV to arrive...

…Vassily jolted awake to the sound of gunfire and sat up, all around him a battle had suddenly materialized. Impossibly a Star of Mad Cats were dueling with the seven 'Mechs Vassily had arrived with. How the hell did they get so close? Vassily decided to worry about that later as he slid into his 'Mech's cockpit and fired her up. The moment he fired up a Vulture materialized out of thin air in front of him and a message crackled on his comm.

"Freebirth scum, I offer you Hegira, withdraw now and I will let you live"

"Like hell I will you fucking Cannister-Mopper!" Vassily shouted. Without warning he fired both his RACs. The fusillade of high-explosive shells ripped into the flimsy Clan Heavy. The Vulture despite mounting a fearsome number of LRMs was fairly poorly armoured for a Heavy 'Mech, let alone a Clan heavy 'Mech. The barrage smashed the Vulture and caused internal explosions to ripple across its body. The Heavy went critical and was vapourized by its own reactor in a blinding explosion. Suddenly two more Vultures appeared and fired their LRM20s. Vassily pushed down on his controls and the Sunslayer ducked, a move he'd been perfecting in his down time. Most of the missiles missed but five slammed against the top of his 'Mech, wrecking one Grenade Launcher and smashing craters in his plate steel armour. His 'Mech stood and returned fire, sweeping one Vulture with a barrage of RAC fire and a blast from his Medium Laser. The Clan 'Mech staggered back with thirty smoking craters in its armour. Vassily used the opportunity to hit it with a barrage of his own LRMs, the missiles blew away the Vulture's right arm and rendered its right missiles pod useless. Without warning Vassily was slammed against his restraints by a powerful barrage of Pulse Laser fire. His own 'Mech staggered sideways as dozens of glowing craters were melted in his armour. Vassily managed to turn the 'Mech's torso enough to get of a burst of RAC fire that ripped into the Vulture's hip. Something sparked and the bird-like 'Mech staggered. That gave Vassily the opportunity to bring both his RACs to bear and return his own barrage. The stream of RAC shells first blew the right arm off then caused an explosion in the left pod that wrecked the 'Mech's arm as well. Vassily opened up a comm. channel to the ruined Vulture "Clanner, you have been defeated, I offer you Hegira, run now or die"

"You will die for your insolence Freebirther!" Was the bellowed reply. The Vulture pilot made a suicidal maneuver: he tried to charge Vassily, who dispatched him with a casual barrage of RAC fire.

Again, two Vulture materialized from thin air one either side of Vassily's 'Mech. As both fired their LRMs Vassily ducked again before remembering with a surge of horror something his old Drill Sergeant had taught him: No trick works twice on the Clans. Almost eighty LRMs hit his 'Mech, demolishing both its arms and missile pods and sending almost every remaining section critical. The force slammed Vassily's head against the side of his cockpit and the whole world suddenly went black…