Chapter Two: Deep Secrets and Dark Truths

Extend the antenna, hit the red button, confirm the signal, pull the pin, place facing the target… Armor Crewman Fredrick was muttering the instructions to himself as he placed the last of the explosives behind a series of rocks in the center of the road. He can already hear the target convoy approaching and he knows he needs to get back to his tank before it sees him. He stops to take one last glance out over the expanse before him. The road he turned into a minefield is on the edge of one of many canyons that populate this section of Huntress, and the valley below is more of a space between plateaus. It was beautiful to one that could sit and enjoy it. But anyone caught sitting here now would be dead before the image is imprinted into their memory. And that was not Fredrick's idea of making the best of an assignment.


"You know, I never thought I would be firing at something and trying NOT to kill it."

"Hey, your job is easy. It is my job to make sure we do not get killed after you 'miss'."

The radio in each of the armor crewmen's helmets crackled to life. Gretchen Talakso's voice rung familiarity into their heads, as well as puckered their ass holes in anticipation of a near suicide plan. "Get ready. The convoy needs to go another two hundred meters before we start the fireworks. Acquire your target now and do not lose sight of him."

"Aff my commander. He will barely know we are shooting at him," the gunner replied with heavy sarcasm. The driver just snickered.

The plan was rather simple, depending on how you looked at it. Gretchen Talasko surveyed the land ahead of the convoy containing the Star Adder 'mechs that attacked her command star and the vehicle with Mechwarrior Kerry. They claimed to be reinforcements from the 212th, but she had her doubts now, though anything is possible anymore. Her orbital surveillance feed provided a near perfect tool to planning their path and the following assault. The plan was to blow chaffs all over the road along the side of the cliff face and have a tank fire at the transport vehicle to make it look like the target of a sniper ambush. When the unit diverts forces to take the tank and its unseen support element out, pre-set explosives blow the area into turmoil, sending the prisoner vehicle speeding forward into the path of the second tank, whose only job is to ram it off the road and down the side of the hill. When it stops rolling and sliding down the side that Gretchen and her crew are waiting at, they grab the prisoner and run like bandits before the Adder unit can figure out what is going on.

The probability for casualties is very high, at least in the tank crewman area. The pilots know this however, and are not afraid. They know that if they succeed, then they will gain great honor. And if they fail, then their remains will be used as ash in the new sibko vats, which is a fate better than some. It took some work for Gretchen to convince the crewmen to go along with it, but the promise for survival was solely on the crewmen themselves, which gave them a certain amount of weight in their own fate. And crusaders love a challenge.

The convoy was almost to the point of execution, but her finger had to be steady. Setting the chaffs off too soon would screw the entire mission up and place everyone in danger. No, she would be steady and patient. Almost there, just another few meters…


The convoy had traveled at least 50 kilometers by now from the site of the last engagement, where they had taken out nearly two stars of Star Adder 'mechs. The success was one to boast about, but Karl Garris was rather stern in his timetables, and Kommandant Rowinstein was not about to get chewed out for being late. He hated truancy above all things. When the chaffs went off, the members of LOKI detached to Rowinstein's command all checked their radars for enemy contact. Each of them instantly leaned of the reason chaffs were deployed as their telemetry was all jacked to hell and metal signatures were reading all around them. Target acquisition was not going to be any easy task to an untrained eye or a steady mind.

Michael's new transport vehicle bucked under the weight of the gauss slug ripping its rear end off. He was just checking the monitors for enemy contacts along with the entire convoy when it hit. The arid air took no time invading the ride like some hungry plague, but it was the sand that spit up into the enclosure that affected him most. He could hear the driver behind him updating Kommandant Rowinstein of the situation. "Sir! We have weapon's fire! Something just ripped the rear end off the vehicle!"

Another shot missed wide and destroyed the rock structure just ahead of it. At this, several 'mechs under Rowinstein's orders turned and headed past it in an attempt to silence the sniper. They traveled on the side of the road away from the drop-off, which is exactly what Gretchen wanted them to do.

She triggered the explosives Fredrick had placed not but minutes ago and crippled one Mad Dog and blew another Cauldron-Born into the wall, shaving rocks off in every direction. The Mad Dog's wreckage blocked the safe-side of the road in front of the vehicle, which just got the evasion orders from Rowinstein. The driver was to burn down the road and take cover from the angle of the sniper while the small detachment took the thing out from afar.

Explosions rocked all around the thing, sending sand and debris in through the gaping hole in the rear of the vehicle and caking the windshield every few seconds. Luckily, once it cleared the twisted pile that was once a Mad Dog, it had a nice escape cordon set up by the point 'mechs. It was a straight shot to the edge ahead and around the cor—SLAM!

The second tank under Gretchen's command beautifully executed a side-ram into the transport from behind some rocks hard enough to send it off the side of the cliff. It skidded down the steep face quickly, taking out all manner of ground foliage with it and destroying everything in its path. The tank itself fired off a gauss round at point blank range at the lead Summoner before getting a chassis full of PPC and Autocannon return fire. The driver subsequently felt it was a better option to follow the vehicle down the side of the hill, and down it went.

"Goddamnit! Five minutes from flat ground! Why do they toy with us like this!" Kommandant Allen Rowinstein was furious. He plotted this path to knock his travel time into thirds with the risk of attack at this single bend and the bastards actually pulled something on him. He couldn't believe his luck right now. It's going to take at least a half hour to get these 'mechs down there he thought. He knew that even the jump capable ones would have a real rough time landing in the brush below to get the Archon's cousin. There was no clear landing area, aside from the swath being cut as Michael's transport slid down the side. He saw the tank following it and doubted anyone could survive its trip. Unlike the transport, the tank was rolling end over end and banking off of some rock formations. The occupants would suffer too many concussions if they did survive to be of any use ever again.

"Find that sniper and take him out! I want all units to inspect their immediate area for planted explosives and I want all the jump capable 'mechs to figure out a way down there. Michael is going to be out of reach in a minute and I am NOT losing him like the last team did!" With that he signed off and started looking around his 'mech's feet for any sign of terrain manipulation. In a minute his radar would clear up and help out a little.


The sniper tank drove like a bat out of hell from the pursuing 'mechs. It would be in LRM range as soon as it crested the hill between it and them, and then it would be toast. The driver simply found a small hill, parked the rig behind it and got the hell out. He and the gunner hiked it back in the direction of their base on foot, knowing full well that their pursuers would have the option of returning to their convoy or hunting them down. This should give them at least a five-minute head start. The odds were in their favor. Hell, the driver though, if they do not destroy my ride then we can just drive back later on. It sounded nice, but he knew it was a fat chance.


The troop transport carrying Michael Steiner finally skidded to a halt on the plain 70 meters below his convoy. He was unconscious and the driver was dead from a nasty bump on the head. It took no time for Miles Van Houten and Mechwarrior Brenton to crawl through the hole in the rear caused by the distraction gauss round and pull him out. They boarded their own vehicle in mere seconds and began heading out of the area when the Star Adder tank under Gretchen's command finally landed several hundred meters away. Looking up she saw several 'mechs from the convoy standing at the road's edge, looking out to try and see what was going on.

Gretchen ordered the driver to pull up to the tank to check on the pilot and gunner. When they approached the rig they saw blood seeping out of the entry hatch. A few knocks later with no answer and no radio contact they abandoned the thing and headed out through the most heavily wooded path possible.


"Can we track it?" Kommandant Rowinstein was trying his best to keep composure over the commline. He fears he has no way of tracking that vehicle and retrieving the one person he was sent all this way for.

"No sir. It escaped under the cover of the trees and made its way down the canyon. Without aerial recon we won't know where they went."

"Then I want several scouts dispatched now. You said you only saw one transport vehicle?"

"Yes sir. No support elements have been spotted. Just the two tanks."

"Good. Pull your fast units and have them run patterns around this area. I want them moving out in concentric circles until they find what they're looking for."

"Copy that sir." The Warrant Officer First Class issued the orders and sent the men out. Four 'mechs in all were dispatched to find the vehicle. The two 'mechs sent after the sniper tank returned and gave their report. They found the tank abandoned and destroyed it after searching the area for survivors.

This was the one location on this entire trip that they could have done this. Son of a bitch… This is one hell of a mess I'm going to have to explain to Karl. God help me…

The armored transport vehicle crawled to a halt around the bend that Gretchen Talasko picked out. As soon as they hit the canyon system the orbital surveillance system malfunctioned again. Tech Nuyen tried to fix it but failed. He said he would try again later if they change locations. The canyon walls were about 14 meters high on average, just enough to engulf an assault 'mech if it ever wondered down one of the winding paths. She planned on stretching and formulating a new plan with her prisoner in tow. Nuyen and the comm operator were rather elated at having succeeded in such a risky mission. Gretchen just chalked their enthusiasm up to them not seeing much combat before as the other members in the vehicle were rather quiet. Miles Van Houten wasted no time in approaching her. "Ma'am, could we talk in private?"

They walked a sufficient distance away before continuing. The other members were stretching, smoking, or simply walking around to get their bodies working again. Michael was still out cold in the back seat with the comm guy watching him. "I will not even begin with how concerned I am of your 'planning' today. You have consistently thrown your people into danger and almost certain death for an objective hardly worth go—"

Gretchen stopped him before he said something he was going to regret later. "Mechwarrior Kerry is the key to something large here. Members of the 212th opened fire on us outright and nearly wiped out my command! I need information Miles, and since you are not forthcoming with it, I will seek it elsewhere. Elsewhere today being that prisoner in the back of the rig," she replied pointing toward the vehicle.

"Star Colonel, with all due respect, I believe my input earlier on his retrieval would have spared the lives of several tank crewman and possibly your command. You have been reckless and impulsive. I see Kappa Galaxy and its training regimen has altered your methods of combat a little." Miles retorted with a low tone since he was hinting at her lack of honor in combat. He knew he was treading thin ice right now, but he didn't know if he was next on her list of casualties. "Do not mistaken me, I have no problem dying a warrior's death, but this is not the way to go."

"Stand fast Star Captain! Your mouth will get you in a lot of trouble very soon." She walked a little bit farther off out of frustration. Then she turned herself toward him to finish this, "I have no idea why you hate me so much, but considering the circumstances today, we came out on top. Combat is fluid, and you would have died out there today several times if you had not followed your orders." Then she got in real close for this, "You forget who defeated your clan not but a year ago. Your system is dead, and so will you be if you continue this. I am in command here for a reason; and if you ever question my methods again, I will kill you where you stand. Deal with it, this is war," she walked off while finishing this sentence, giving him no room for rebuttal, "not your pathetic soap opera."


Gretchen returned to the APC to find everyone gone except the gunner and Mechwarrior Brenton. Brenton looked rather concerned past her at Star Captain Van Houten. She didn't even bother asking him in this state. She knows he served under Van Houten while still in Clan Burrock, and those two carry some kind of undying loyalty. She did ask the gunner where Mechwarrior Kerry was.

"He woke up and had to relieve himself ma'am. Lawrence went with him to supervise or whatever. He figured you wouldn't want him out on his own."

"Do not get lazy just because we are out here alone," she barked at him, showing off how pissed she is at the moment. For some reason, even something as simple as dealing with contractions in one's speech was enough to light her up right now. "Of course I do not want him out on his own. Is Lawrence armed?"

"Yes ma'am. He took a rifle from the munitions locker in the back. I think they went that way," he said pointing to some four-meter high rocks in the distance. There was enough of them to create a small labyrinth with openings, pockets, and cover.

"You think? Why would he take him all the way out there? Do any of you have a clue?" She stormed off toward the rocks in search of her hard won prisoner. God help whoever got in her way.


The rocks arrayed around formed a kind of circular enclosed room with several spaces providing ways in and out. It was a natural formation, but this planet had its little coincidences like that. In the cleared space about ten meters wide lay the bleeding corpse of Armor Crewman Lawrence. The driver of her vehicle kneeled over the lifeless victim and stared at him with indifferent eyes. Michael was nowhere to be found and the subtlety that appeared to be Lawrence's fate only angered Gretchen more.

She stopped when taking all of this in, wondering if the driver was a traitor as well; in on whatever the 212th troops were up to. She attempted to study the driver, who appeared unarmed. In fact, the rifle Lawrence supposedly took with him was nowhere to be found, presumably in the hands of Michael when he ran off. The scenarios were racing through Gretchen's mind like a holo-vid on fast-forward, trying to figure out how this went about. What interrupted her train of thought was the driver slowly turning his head in her direction; his eyes still indifferent, like he was contemplating something of far more importance when compared to any minor detail here.

Tech Nuyen suddenly appeared with a rifle and Michael behind him. Michael was still in restraints and Nuyen just stopped at the edge of the opening, waiting for the driver to acknowledge his presence. Gretchen looked over at Nuyen, "Tech Nuyen, what happened here?"

"Well ma'am, the driver of your armored car here murdered Lawrence in cold blood while trying to help Mechwarrior Kerry escape. I found the prisoner running and brought him back here to check his story out." Nuyen looked up at the driver now with narrow eyes while still speaking to Gretchen, "It appears that he was right. I will settle this Star Colonel."

With that he threw his rifle a few feet away onto the dusty ground and pulled a knife from his tool belt. He stripped off what was left of his gear and took several steps forward toward the calm recipient awaiting him in the center of the now improvised arena. The driver looked up at Nuyen with cold eyes and produced a Teflon coated combat knife from a sheath in one of his cargo pockets. In fact, upon further inspection, Gretchen realized that this was more of an assassin's knife than anything else. That alone for some reason infuriated her. The clans have steered away from assassinations and subterfuge in lieu of honorable combat, where victory goes to the superior warrior. The tech's courageousness and apparent loyalty to his fallen comrade intrigued Gretchen, who realized that they had only known each other for a day, and even belonged to different castes.

Gretchen unholstered her service pistol and held it on Mechwarrior Kerry to make sure he did not take advantage of this opportunity for escape. As soon as she got his attention, the fighting began. Nuyen held his knife with a loose hand in a jabbing fashion and was very fluid in his handling. The driver on the other hand, held his knife in reverse and moved with a confidence that defied any armor crewman. He was definitely skilled at this, and his crouching sidestep was further proof that this was not the man he seemed to be.

The battle itself was furious. Nuyen was aggressive with his knife, constantly going in for blood while the driver mainly maneuvered and blocked with his open hand, waiting for the perfect opening. They danced around for half a minute with no one gaining the upper hand until Nuyen drew first blood by grazing the driver's chest with the edge of his blade. The driver positioned himself with the graze to kick the inside of Nuyen's left leg. When he slightly buckled and hesitated due to the unexpected blow, the driver followed up with an elbow strike to Nuyen's chin and stabbed him in the left shoulder with the knife still reversed. The driver pulled his blade out as quickly as he inserted it and was instantly on the defensive again as Nuyen skillfully drove his opponent away with a flurry of jabs and slashes.

Nuyen took the offensive and again slashed the driver's chest, drawing much more blood this time. He followed up with a leg sweep that was avoided and the driver retaliated by head butting Nuyen hard enough to make him stammer. When the driver moved in for the killing blow Nuyen quickly maneuvered to trip him in such a way that he landed face-up on the ground, his head slamming into a rock in the process.

The sounds of scuffling stopped and Nuyen looked at his defeated opponent while a small amount of blood started spreading out from under his head. He was dead from the impact, lying limp and lifeless.

Gretchen approached Nuyen to congratulate him on a skillful victory. "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

Nuyen remained silent and looked over at Michael in the distance, who also began his descent in toward the scene.

"Nuyen?" Gretchen repeated, wondering why he was not responding.

With that Nuyen turned and stabbed Gretchen Talasko in the side with his knife and kicked her backward hard into the ground. She dropped her pistol in the fall and just looked up at Nuyen as he peered over her, looking into her eyes with a change of demeanor. He was cold and wanting of death. Something was definitely wrong in her mind and it was reeling from the possibilities while trying to comprehend her own impending mortality.

"I am not tech Nuyen. He died this morning with the same blade that's in your side."

She just looked at him with a confused expression. What is going on? Who is this? "Why?" was the only thing to escape her mouth. The blood spread from her wound through her shirt and was now saturating her uniform. It was dark, suggesting a wound to the liver, or right around it.

"I don't have the luxury of explaining it all to you, but in short…" he plucked the knife from her side, which only agitated the wound more and increased the pace of the blood escaping her body. He lifted the knife high, preparing for the killing blow to her head, "…Archon Katrina Steiner sends her regards."

At that his eyes went wide as he was kicked from behind in the tailbone. A hand seamlessly slipped around his face and the black assassin's knife slipped around the other side and opened Nuyen's throat like a scythe sliding through wheat. The amount of blood produced was sickening as it splattered all over Gretchen and the ground around her. The body of her would-be killer was flung away effortlessly by the driver of her APC that was thought dead only moments ago. He bent down to pick up the pistol she dropped and turned in time to expertly shoot Michael through his left knee as he attempted to run away.

Michael landed in a heap, writhing and groaning as he struggled to grab his gaping leg wound but failed due to his restraints.

The driver just looked at an even more confused and now lightheaded Gretchen Talasko and said calmly, "I am Julian Buhallin, a bloodnamed warrior of Clan Jade Falcon. The body behind me belongs to a Lyran spy who infiltrated your unit to bring his friend back home."

With that she passed out.


When Gretchen woke up she found herself in the APC. She had gauss and bandages around her stomach wound and a bottle of water next to her. Looking around she found Michael tied to one of the seats with gauss filling the knee cavity blown out earlier and Julian talking to Miles, Mechwarrior Brenton, and the gunner near the front of the vehicle. She called out to Miles, who approached her and helped her sit up.

Julian just sat on the consol beside Michael and got comfortable. "Glad to see you are awake. You lost a lot of blood out there, but the vehicle's med kit was enough to save you."

"So you are Jade Falcon, quiaff?"

"Aff. I apologize for the deception, but I knew that the chance for a Lyran operative making it into your unit was pretty high, and I did not want to lose dear Michael here." He looked over at Michael as he said that, giving a face that only agitated Michael further than his physical displacement had.

"Miles, have you gathered what is going on? I want some answers, and I want them now," she demanded with that command tone she was so known for.

"Actually, we were waiting for you to wake up. I did not want to repeat myself," Julian replied. Miles looked over at Julian with a hint of disdain on his face, but he stowed his lip, preferring to listen for the upcoming answers that have been long in coming.

Julian began his small presentation in a casual tone. It seemed like this rather emotionless man was enjoying himself as he enlightened everyone to the giant jigsaw puzzle this day has turned into. "You are looking at Michael Yorick Steiner: cousin to Archon Katrina Steiner and covert ops extraordinaire. Michael here was half of a two-man crew sent undercover to Strana Mechty to infiltrate my clan's ranks and hack into our command computer network to download our troop status and deployment patterns. The entire Jade Falcon military was an open book to them."

"How did he know how to get to Strana Mechty and do all that?" Gretchen asked.

"Speculation suggests that Katrina Steiner has a high ranking contact within the clans who likes to exchange 'favors' with her. Nothing has been confirmed yet."

"I see. What is he doing here?"

"Well, the guards caught him at the end of his download and killed his accomplice. Michael here somehow escaped and began running. I am part of the unit dispatched to capture him. He got this Jade Falcon uniform from somewhere and consorted with members of the bandit caste for survival."

"Hence the prosthetic arm."

"Exactly." Julian turned his head to look at Michael. "You want to tell her about your friends or should I?"

Michael remained silent.

Julian just smiled a satisfactory smirk as he continued. "The people who nearly killed your command unit were really members of LOKI, the premier insurgency unit in the Lyran Intelligence network. They are also the ones who took re-furbished 'mechs from our Coventry campaign and fabricated codexes and uniforms to pose as a Jade Falcon second-line cluster. The people who approached your camp to take Michael prisoner were in cahoots with the Adder unit that shot you down. They were all Lyran spies."

All this was hard to absorb. Julian was rattling this all off like it was common knowledge and not a big deal. The mere thought of this insanity was like listening to an old Terran fairy tale of giants and magic bean stalks. "How do you expect me to believe all this? How could Inner Sphere barbarians infiltrate the clan home worlds and make this kind of mess?" she inquired. The shock and skepticism in her voice was rather apparent.

"The Inner Sphere knows how to fight the low war, they have been doing it for centuries. The clans are still years behind them. Katrina wanted her cousin back, so her unit is here to make sure the information he has is put to good use. This is what they do."

"So who were the ambushers outside my camp?"

"I can not disclose that information here, but I can tell you in private if you wish."

"Okay, so one final question then…" She narrowed her eyes when asking this, expecting an answer that would give her permission to kill him. "What happened to the driver of this vehicle?"

Julian smiled, "He is probably looking for an ice pack to tie to his head right now."


Just walking made Gretchen wish she were still asleep. The pain of movement was much, and she did not want to re-open a wound that really should get professional medical attention. Despite the pain though, she wanted the answer to the biggest mystery in her head right now. She and Julian walked a good hundred meters or so from the vehicle before stopping to talk. It was night now as she had been out for quite a few hours. The arid air was starting to cool off and she welcomed the change. Julian was indifferent to the temperature like he was with her mood.

"Okay, we are in private now. Who are you and who are those men that ambushed the Falcon unit outside my camp?" A thick air of agitation was still showing through her words.

"I told you, that was a Lyran unit in disguise. The people who attacked them were the 32nd Special Operations Unit of the Jade Falcon Watch. We are the premier covert ops unit for the clan and carry out all manner of intelligence gathering and infiltrations."

"The clans wield no such weapon! It is absurd to think that the most conservative of all the clans would lower itself to assassins and thieves!" She was appalled at the idea of such dishonorable tactics used by any descendent of Kerensky.

"Would you keep your voice down please? It does kind of echo in here." She noticed Julian relaxing more and more as he was alone with her.

"Look," he began, trying to keep his voice calm, "I am just telling you what you asked me to. I am under orders not to reveal anything about who I work for. I am telling you this because I think you are a capable leader and might be able to help us."

"Help you? How could I do that?"

"Well, you do command the men guarding the prisoner in there," he pointed back at the vehicle. "I could kill you all and run off with Michael now, taking my chances with LOKI on my own…"

"Okay, okay, I get your point. I just… covert ops?" She was still struggling to comprehend it all.

"Yes," Julian sighed. "We were in the Inner Sphere pulling some recon of the Exiled Wolf Clan when this happened. Next thing we knew, we were on the first trip back to the home worlds. I know it is a large pill to swallow, but LOKI is here to kill anyone who gets in the way of its objective, and right now that includes you."

"What if I just let him go?"

"Then I would truly feel sorry for you. Not only would Khan Marthe Pryde have it in for the Lyran Alliance, but Clan Star Adder as well. Do you really want that kind of hell wreaked on your people?"

"You will have to do better than that," she spoke, confident as ever.

"Okay, then do it to avenge your command unit. Ten pilots in your trinary alone were killed by LOKI, not including whoever owned those 'mechs they were using previously."

"You mean…"

"Covert ops is a dirty world Star Colonel. Never put anything past them. At least my unit still observes the concept of Honor."

"Honor in posing as a warrior in another clan and faking death in a knife fight?"

"Hey, at least I did not kill you when I had the chance."

He let that sit for a moment. Gretchen knew that he was well within his power to kill her and leave her unit for death at the hands of LOKI a few hours ago. The mere fact that he told her all that he had may put him in danger. She had finally heard enough.

"All right," she said. "I am going to get word to Galaxy Commander Carlos Hutchinson and get reinforcements in here. Then I will help you sort through this mess of yours under one condition."

"Name it."

Gretchen's eyes narrowed and her voice lowered to set the mood appropriately. "I get a chance at revenge against the Lyrans who tried to make a fool of my clan and stain it with their impurities."

"Well bargained and done Star Colonel Gretchen Talasko."

"Well bargained and done."


They departed for a communications relay station after two hours. Gretchen kept watch while the other troops slept since she just recently woke up. Julian Buhallin stayed up with her, though conversation stayed to a minimum. When the timer rang, they were off with Mechwarrior Brenton driving and Michael drugged up due to his knee injury. The trip was not more than forty minutes in when the LOKI recon 'mech assigned by Kommandant Rowinstein caught the tracks of the armored transport. Under the rising sun it followed them, casting a long shadow over the canyon as it approached. It was just a matter of minutes before contact was made. And after that, it was seconds before their world once again erupted into chaos.

"Uhh, Star Colonel?" Armor Crewman Adrian manned the gun on the rear of the vehicle. The sensor pod lit up with a single blip, and each pulse of the radar sent back a reading showing the blip moving. It was closing in, fast.

"Yes Adrian?"

"We have possible enemy contact approaching from the rear. It is still outside the canyon." He shouted his answer back without turning his head from the direction of the enemy.

"Brenton, keep this thing in the canyon and step it up a notch. I want to see if it knows where we are."

"Ma'am, it knows. It is kicking rocks over the cliff wall right now!" Adrian took his aim and fired several rounds of his duel Ultra 2 Autocannons at the thing. The sun helped obscure his vision enough to send the shots astray. Lucky for them, the canyon wall was still high enough to cause trouble for the 'mech if it wanted to get close enough to shoot down at them.

Gretchen hurried to the portside view port to witness an Adder's upper torso bobbing along the cliff-face above them. Rocks and pebbles were rolling over the edge from its feet as it tried to get close enough to peer into the canyon but stay up on the surface.

The gunner let off multiple bursts of Autocannon fire at the 'mech, all missing to some degree. Gretchen wasn't sure if he was trying to hit it or deter it from getting too close to the edge. After the third burst, the 'mech disappeared. Telemetry still showed it in the area and heading quickly past them along the edge. Gretchen consulted the orbital surveillance monitor to find the system still malfunctioning.

Suddenly the vehicle bucked from incoming fire on its port side. The clang of the cluster munitions used rocked the transport in several locations, disorienting the passengers inside. Okay, Gretchen thought to herself. This tells me one thing already. That was a cluster round from an LBX Autocannon, which means that 'mech is an alternate B configuration. It would probably be moot to keep firing at us with that thing, so it will probably start using the medium lasers next. She sped to the front of the transport to find Brenton at the wheel expertly driving the thing through several shallow curves and turns in the canyon. "Brenton, we need to stay erratic! Keep away from the walls, it has cluster munitions it can use to make rock debris a serious problem right now."

"Aff commander. The station is only 22 clicks away, but that 'mech has the height advantage. This is going to be rough."

Suddenly the Adder appeared on the cliff-face ahead of them and fired off both of its medium lasers at them simultaneously. Brenton reacted quickly and dodged right, forcing the shots to generate large dirt pockets behind them. Adrian attempted counter fire, but the jerking of the vehicle made his shots stray off again. It so helps to have an actual armor crewman drive one of these things… he kept thinking to himself. The Adder fired again, this time one shot hitting the top of the vehicle and the other hitting the wall behind them. "Stravag!" Brenton shouted as he shot the vehicle left to keep him out of the Adder's crosshairs. They were almost under the Adder now as it had not moved since it appeared, taking its time steadying its guns.

One more shot from its Autocannon did the trick. The gun itself was close enough that the cluster munitions would be fairly concentrated as they hit the vehicle. Adrian's gunner area was penetrated by multiple flak shells, pounding his station into useless scrap and perforating him in several places. Well, there goes our defenses, Gretchen thought as the Adder turned and started to follow them as they passed it in the canyon below.

Julian calmly removed Adrian from the gunner's station and laid him into one of the transport seats. He then proceeded to open the munitions locker and started packing items into his vest and pockets.

"What are you doing?" Gretchen asked with come concern.

There was no reply as Julian packed three rings of grenades around his waist, a laser rifle around his back, slung the rocket launcher around one shoulder and three rockets (in a pack) around the other one. He then picked up one of the two satchel charges from inside the locker, a single incendiary grenade, and proceeded to the med kit station where he picked up the super adhesive. It was used to instantly close bleeding wounds on the battlefield in lieu of gauss, and several techs had found many good uses for it outside the realm of medicine.

Gretchen walked up to him to listen to what he had to say when he pushed her aside and opened the side door of the vehicle. He grabbed the overhead support beam and somehow, despite the weight around his body now, acrobatically jumped out the side and over the edge using his hands as a swing so he landed face down on the roof of the vehicle. Gretchen yelled up to him, "I hope you know what you are doing!" and then closed the door to keep the debris out and the people in.


Julian loaded one rocket into the launcher and propped himself up on the roof of the transport so he was pointing behind it. He aimed carefully at the spot the Adder would most likely next show up and covered the trigger of the launcher with a relaxed finger. When the Adder showed itself, gearing for another laser barrage, Julian fired his rocket. The Adder saw this and did not move to evade since it would mess its laser shot up if it did. After all, the anti-armor rocket was not enough to disable an omnimech in one shot anyway. The lasers fired off before the rocket hit. One again hit the wall next to the vehicle, forcing Julian to take cover from incoming rock debris while the other one hit the back of the vehicle, causing it to jump slightly. The armor in the rear was nearly gone as Julian could now see pieces of it litter the canyon floor behind them. The rocket hit the right leg of the 'mech, blackening some of the armor around the joint. If any useful damage was inflicted, Julian could not see it from here.

He began to load the second rocket when the vehicle suddenly turned a corner. The shift in weight accompanied by a small bump due to the rocky ground knocked the rocket loose from his hands. It rolled off the vehicle and skidded across the canyon floor. The third one loaded correctly and Julian took careful aim once again at the location the Adder would most likely show up next. Right when the 'mech's upper torso was exposed, Julian fired the last rocket at the top of the cliff-face, right under where the foot of the 'mech would be. The hit was successful as the ground under the incoming Adder's foot gave way and dropped the 'mech into the canyon onto its side! The crashing noise was echoed through the vein-like canyon system of twists and turns, and dust instantly rose around the machine to mask its recovery.

With this, Julian ditched the launcher and started plucking the release locks from the first grenade string he had. When the last one was gone, he threw it to the left side of the canyon and pulled his second string out. When the recovered Adder finally made way around to see him, walking through the canyon with an elite mechwarrior's grace, the grenades went off, shooting all manner of rocks and debris right into the machine. It was not injured, but it did throw the thing off course for a few moments. Julian armed the second string and threw it to the same side just as the vehicle rounded another bend. The effect was the same on the 'mech, who was constantly veering right to avoid the debris. Julian plucked a single grenade from the third string to keep for later as he started priming the rest. It was ready to go when Julian looked quickly behind him to confirm his timing. He threw the grenades to the same side of the canyon again before the next bend to the right, and when the vehicle rounded, jumped off.

He landed in a very painful yet somewhat graceful roll, but luckily most of his baggage has been discarded at this point. He started running for the rocky face of the inside wall bending in and providing him cover from the incoming Adder as the third string of grenades went off around the corner. He coated the burst side of the satchel charge with the adhesive and opened the small trigger panel before leaping onto the cliff wall and climbing to knee-level for the 'mech.

The Lyran pilot was fairly efficient at recognizing patterns at this point and remained along the right wall to minimize the debris slamming into his 'mech from the grenades. He really wondered what the clanners hoped to accomplish with these measly munitions, but his was not to question. His was to inform Rowinstein of the location of their prize. Rounding the corner he finished relaying the coordinates to his commander and missed the figure jumping from the very near cliff wall onto his 'mech's leg. What tipped him off that something was wrong was the absence of that pesky clanner on the top of the vehicle ahead that was throwing the grenades all over the place. Where the hell…he thought as events quickly unfolded outside that would determine his fate.

Julian hit the leg hard and struggled to keep a grip for as long as he needed. The reverse-leg design of certain omnimechs made it easier to hold on to if you are on the thigh portion, which he just barely made. After cramming the charge into the gouge in the knee joint's armor he made previously with that rocket, he jumped clear as hard as he could behind it hoping to make that large rock ahead for cover before the charge went off.

He did.

The charge ate right into the internal structure of the leg and blew the working components of the joint right to hell. The Adder instantly collapsed to its right, smashing into the canyon wall before descending to the ground with an ear splitting screech signifying the metal sliding on rock.

The Lyran pilot just sat in his cockpit dumfounded. He had no clue what had happened, only that if the top of his 'mech were not wedged between the canyon floor and a rocky wall, he could attempt to raise it again. But that was proving difficult, albeit, impossible. "Sir! Sir! My 'mech has been disabled! I don't know how, but I'm stuck here in this damn canyon and Michael is getting away! That clanner, I think he…" the pilot started turning his head around to visibly display his concern, "I think he's around here. I mean, I think he took my leg out after jumping off the transport!"

"What? That's crazy! Listen, stay put and I will have a team there pronto. Just keep your bearing and get ready for pickup when the troops arrive." Rowinstein was directly handling the situation from his end.

The pilot heard a rapping at his cockpit window. He snapped his head around to see Julian standing there, tapping the glass with the butt of his rifle. "Copy that sir," the pilot replied. "Over and out."

Julian jerked his head in a motion telling the pilot to exit his 'mech and get out there. The Lyran promptly refused, cussing all sorts of obscenities at the clanner. It's not that Julian was particularly scary, it was just his demeanor: he stood calmly outside the cockpit and peered in at him like a cat stares into a birdcage and studies its prey.

Julian made a move to the cockpit hatch and left the view of the window for a moment. The Lyran, deciding his pistol was no match for the rifle the clanner had outside, and confident in his teammates making it there soon, wedged the hatch shut with some support rods that were hooked into his seat.

With that he saw Julian again standing outside. The clanner just shrugged indifference and moved lower down the 'mech, again out of sight of the pilot. Julian fired his laser rifle into a series of bolts and recesses to blow a maintenance access panel just below the cockpit open. About eight shots did it. He then pulled the release lock of his saved fragmentation grenade and rolled it inside, closed the panel door, and walked back to the front of the 'mech.

The explosion slightly shook the 'mech and rocked the cockpit. There was no ammunition in the area to be affected by it, and the pilot knew that his cockpit was well armored, though the sound was deafening from inside there. Showing defiance to the clanner outside, the Lyran just laughed and yelled at him. His plan didn't work and he wanted to see some kind of emotion from the guy. But Julian showed none, he just stood there with the same cold expression he had before. He produced a second grenade and started walking toward the maintenance panel again. The panel was blown out and blackened from the previous grenade, which only gave Julian more space to plant the second one. He peered into the hole momentarily to confirm what he had hoped, and then pulled the lock and rolled it in.

The pilot heard a rattle with the second one and looked down at the bottom corner of his cockpit to find a small hole that was blown open with the last grenade. It couldn't have been any larger than his fist. What alarmed him was the fact that the second grenade landed right in front of the hole, showing enough to make the Lyran's blood run cold. It was colored red, which was the universal color of an incendiary grenade.

Julian turned his back and started to walk away from the downed 'mech as the firebomb went off, flash cooking the pilot inside. The sound was muffled and he heard no screams, yet Julian did not look back to confirm his kill, because he has been doing this for so long that he simply felt it around him when life was extinguished. Call it a gift, call it a curse, he just called it progress.

After walking several hundred meters down the canyon, he saw the Star Adder transport vehicle waiting for him. I guess I made some friends today after all he thought.


"I think he's around here. I mean, I think he took my leg out after jumping off the transport!"

"Oh yeah, that is him." Thao Prentice just finished listening to the last radio transmission intercepted from Rowinstein's recon units. Since the coordinates were sent over electronically via an encrypted signal it would take some time to get a fix on them. As good as the Night Hawks were, LOKI was using a decryption code it must have installed locally on every 'mech it commandeered to prevent the kind of activity Thao was trying now. He just sighed and sat back, looking over the maps he has of this sector of the continent.

"There," he said, sending the image to all of his units' cockpit monitors. "That is the only canyon system complex enough to give that much hell to a LOKI pilot." He was sure of it, as all the other systems were too shallow or short for the kind of pursuit the Lyran mechwarrior described. "You know the drill, Alpha in front: forward wedge. Do not enter the canyon upon approach. I will update everyone later when we get there."

With that the Night Hawks departed for their comrade. Julian was a friend of Thao's as they have served in the same unit for most of their careers. Kael Pershaw pulls people for the Night Hawks early in their career to form the needed skills early and make capable veterans to teach the new generations. While Thao was innovative and outgoing, Julian was very introverted and quiet. Thao has to keep reminding himself when inviting his friend out for fussionaires that Julian sees dredges of war that the rest of the unit is spared, and uses many people when he is under cover to help him achieve his goals. Those people are usually enemies though, and end up dead most of the time. Even an enemy comrade is hard to lose after a while because a human being can only betray so many people before detaching himself from his friends. It becomes hard do disassociate your friends from your 'useful contacts' sometimes, and isolation is the natural way to cope with it. But what is a man without his friends? When you see the stuff Julian does every day, you know he needs you, even if he acts like he doesn't. So Thao will always stick his neck out for him and minimize the conflict when addressing the rest of the unit. They are like a family, but every family has its complications, and no family, at least in Thao's mind, had the complications of a conservative clan's special operations unit. One whose job regularly threatens to violate the code of honor that all of its members were raised under. We are coming for you Julian, just as always.


Gretchen and her makeshift unit finally made it to the communications relay station. They departed the vehicle and entered the single access room with the programming computers and decoders. The station was not large, but it could fit several people in its maintenance room, and had room of the roof for a few as well.

Inside, Mechwarrior Brenton tried to raise the comm., but failed. The signal was not getting through.

"All this way with technology and what have we ended up with on Huntress? The freeborn Smoke Jaguars have yet to produce anything useful." The tone in Gretchen's voice did not show the irritation she was known for as of late, but a more 'I told you so' kind of demeanor.

"You can't stop us. The Colonel is on his way now, and he doesn't ever lose." Michael inhaled heavily as the drugs were starting to wear off but still inhibiting his speech and motor skills. "Ever…"

Gretchen asked Brenton, "Well, what is the problem? Is the station out or are we still jammed?"

Brenton answered in an inquisitive tone, "What could possibly jam us out here?"

"Heh…" Michael chirped, then began laughing in a drunken manner.

"What is his problem now?" Miles inquired.

"The drugs are starting to wear off, but I may have miscalculated the dose, so he might be intoxicated for a while," Julian answered.

"A while?" Miles Van Houten sighed his disapproval and shook his head.

"A while now!" Michael shouted. "You are so screwed. Hehehaha."

Brenton looked back at his commanding officer after going through some system checks, "Well, after checking it out, it does look like we are jammed; but it has to be local. There are not any canyons around to mess this up."

A short silence followed; the only noise was Michael laughing in the corner.

All of a sudden Gretchen looked up with a serious thought in her mind. She glared at Michael who instantly shut up and looked like he was accused of something. "What…?" was his only response.

"You and Nuyen are on the same team. He came in and fixed the signal before…" She moved in close to Michael and put her hand on his wounded knee. "What did he do?"

"What, you think I'm gonna talk after what you did to my knee! Piss off!" he replied, spit shooting out at several words due to his drunken state. She had to hand it to him; he still wasn't giving answers, even after she jammed her thumb into his knee. He screamed a little and looked at her with eyes that burned of pure hatred. "You will die today… you… filthy clanners…"

"Talk about lack of composure…" Miles stated while referring to Michael's sudden hostility.

"It is some good stuff. They use it to tranquilize Hell's Horses," Julian explained.

"Wow, we had that in our med kit?"

"Neg, I always keep some on m…"

"Brenton! Search the APC for a portable jammer and disable it. You two, I could give a rat's ass about the tranquilizer; get me what you can from that comm. unit." Gretchen got up and watched the two men start working the unit. Within two minutes Miles accessed a collection of sound files.

"Ma'am, we found all the previous transmissions sent through here in the last few days."

After some thought she said, "Look for anything to Epsilon Command."

The speakers started their thing and a distress message to Epsilon Command rang through the room. "Epsilon Command, this is Star Colonel Maeko Guidice with the 13th Adder Assault Cluster. The 212th's depot in sector 14 was destroyed. A trinary of omnimechs are gone and the entire command staff is laying in a line on the ground with a bullet wound through each of their heads."

"Kerensky help us…" Gretchen said in shock and horror.

Just then Mechwarrior Brenton re-entered the station with a destroyed mini-jammer in his hand. His face was white. "Ma'am, I found the jammer and took it out as you ordered. The orbital feed came back instantly… and the Star Adder units that attacked our command stars are on their way here. I count thirteen of their 'mechs inbound. And…"

"Yes, make it quick," Gretchen ordered, not wanting to miss the rest of the transmission.

"They linked up with that Jade Falcon—err… LOKI unit in the Falcon 'mechs that came to our outpost earlier. It is all one big attack mass."

Gretchen put her hand up to silence Brenton as the transmission hit the critical part she was waiting for.

"And Galaxy Commander Hutchinson, the underground storage compound was compromised… and we count one missing."

Gretchen's mind raced to catch up with the evolving situation. "What is it?" Miles inquired, curious about the changing expressions on her face.

She knew something the rest of them didn't. She knew information that only Cluster Commanders and above are given privy to. "That was a secret nuclear munitions storage depot."

The gravity of the situation slowly settled into Van Houten's head as Julian spoke up. "If the Lyrans cannot have Michael, then no one can. And if they blow up all evidence of them being here before word gets out, then it looks like the Jade Falcons rolled in there, executed a trinary, and lit a nuke off, wiping out…"

"Yes…" was Gretchen's only response, showing that she had just reached the same conclusion.

"That would be…" Miles again trailed off as the consequences played through for him.

"That would be an act of war," Gretchen finished for him.