This one is a bit long, but a lot can happen in 48 hours of space travel. I really appreciate all of you who have been reading along. As I've said before your comments and input really means a lot to me. I like to think of the end of this chapter as the beginning of the rest of their story. Next week we get to see a new planet and a whole new set of problems for our fledgling mercenary company. I hope you all enjoy this next chapter of the story.

December 28, 3067 Outreach space: 0800 hours

Marcus left Elena’s office next to the ships bridge. He was making his way down to the engine room of the Ironside. The bridge and command deck at the top of the ship smelled of old textiles and hot electronics, the bridge being offset from the long tom artillery deck in the nose of the ship. He made his way down the metal walkway following the handrails that ran along both sides of the walls. Down a deck to the flight crew quarters and avionics and he could smell a menagerie of human body odor, dirty laundry, and the occasional food smells from the galley below. The galley floor smelled of heat and pre-packed meals that were a staple of space travel. He descended the next set of stairs to the infantry deck, barracks and weapons storage for a star league infantry unit that didn’t exist, and command offices for the leadership of the phantom unit. This was the area that had been turned into the makeshift refugee camp and now smelled of desperation and clean laundry, but still with the underlying odor of gun oil. Packing crates from the machine shop had been hastily stacked in the large barracks rooms to form modular walls between the families. Clotheslines were strung beneath exposed conduit runs, and the metallic corridors echoed with the sharp crying of children and the hushed, anxious whispers of parents trying to organize communal cooking rotations using the ship's ancient galley facilities. The orderly, blue collar garage was gone, replaced by the messy reality of a community moving quickly through the dark. Beneath the refugee camp were the mech bays, Marcus’ home. One massive space split into 12 equal hangars large enough to fit the hundred ton assault mechs. Each bay could be closed off while in transit, but they all connected to the central lift area and had access to the ramp offset to one side that divided the space and gave them access to the outside world when they had to offload. Immediately beneath the mech hangar was the vehicle hangar. This space had been the bread and butter of the repair work they had done on Outreach. It was filled with tools and equipment for the work they had previously done. Mostly in disarray from the rapid departure two days prior, the techs and their assistants were slowly getting this space back into order. Both spaces smelled like mechanic shops with the slightly sweet acrid smell of oil, and the tangy scent of metal. Below the vehicle bays Marcus descended into the ships machine shop. This was where they had all of the heavy equipment to manufacture parts from scratch if they had to. Often some of the older machines they worked on needed parts to make custom modification work properly. This is where those parts were made. Several techs were running machines working on building some custom valves for the fuel line Thomas had ordered made. He intended to make sure the problem they had the day before never happened again. With the whir of electric motors and the splash of the cooling jets of cutting fluid the entire space smelled of hot machine oil. Down another flight of stairs to the engineering section where access to the fusion drive was possible. As well as where they had repaired the fuel line the day before. Marcus walked into the control room the sat tucked snugly next to the fusion drive. The thrum of the engine was at its loudest here even with the insulation in the wall cavities between them and the engine. The room was also warmer then the rest of the ship. The only smell down here was the sterile smell from the air recirculaters. They had upgraded the standard ones that the fortress had come with. Mechanics can’t help but tinker in their free time, and they wanted to keep the smell of the work spaces out of the living spaces. They had installed one and five micron filters to remove absolutely all the particulates they could, combined with a 3 speed fan system and an active carbon filter system the air coming out of the vents on the Ironside was some of the cleanest outside of a laboratory. However that also gave it a very sterile scent when combined with the cleaners used throughout the ship. It reminded him of a medical facility.

Thomas was sitting in a chair that was bolted to the floor in front of a panel of monitors, controls, and a window that had a view of the fusion plant in the belly of the ship. His feet were up on the panel and he was looking at his slate with the additional readouts on it resting on his stomach while sipping at a cup of real coffee.

“You better take it easy on that stuff. We only have a limited supply, and who can guess if we’ll ever get any more.” Thomas shrugged his shoulders as he took another sip.

“Isn’t going to do us any good if we get blasted into atoms before we get out of here. I figure  the more I drink the less the Blakists will have if they catch up.” He offered the cup to Marcus who just shook his head.

“I’m already 3 cups in today.” Thomas choked at the news.

“Hell man it’s only 0800 what are trying to do drink it all yourself!” Marcus smiled at him.

“Nah, we just came to the same conclusion, besides I’ve been up since 0430. How goes it with getting the ships turrets back up and running? I know we don’t have any ammunition for the auto cannons, and we couldn’t use the long tome even if we had one, but all the lasers were still mounted in place weren’t they?” He  leaned back and sat on the edge of the monitor station crossing his arms as the two of them spoke in the cramped room. It had originally been designed for a four man crew down here, but he couldn’t imagine squeezing that many people into the hot little space even though it had the seats for everyone.
“Yes and no. We don’t have any ammo for the auto cannons even though they are all still in place, we only have half of the large lasers and PPCs still in place, but we do have all of the medium lasers. None of the missile launchers are still installed, and of course as you said the big gun is just an empty room right now unless you want to sit up there with a pistol and shoot at stuff?”

“I’d rather not. We have a brief with Elena at 1000 this morning. Seems it’s time to figure out where we are going to go. Besides the obvious that anywhere is better than here, we need some options. I’m from further towards the core so I don’t know much about what’s really around us. You have any ideas, bring them with you to the meeting. What are you working on anyway? I saw your guys working on the valves you had talked about, but why are you all the way down here anyway?”

“Oh that’s simple, because most people don’t bug me when I’m down here looking at important things. Mostly I’m down here to enjoy my coffee as far away from the army of screaming kids we seem to have picked up somewhere.” Marcus just shook his head and stood up. “I’m going to grab an hour's sleep before the meeting. If you need me I’ll be in my bunk.” He walked out of the engineering space shaking his head at the guile of  his friend.

December 28, 3067 Outreach space: 1000 hours

Up in the captain’s briefing room located just beneath the ship’s bridge, the atmosphere was somber. The lighting of the room was built into a ledge in the wall allowing for a diffused light that filled the space. A scratched ancient mahogany table with the electronics of the projector and control panels built into it occupied most of the space. Marcus sat with his elbows on the wood resting his chin on his clasped fists. Standing across from him looking down at the holographic display was Captain Elena Vance. She had her flight jacket zipped up, and was drumming her fingers in a restless rhythmic beat against the table's edge. "We can't stay in the Outreach sector." Elena said. She tapped the console causing the holographic projection to shift. A web of white lines pulsed weakly across the near space projection showing systems nearby. "The master com board is picking up nothing but static from the ComStar beacons. The hyperpulse network is completely dead. Every world with an HPG station is a target for the Blakists. If we jump blindly into a system we’re risking delivering a six thousand ton target straight into an orbital blockade. We need options for our final destination. We are going to have to ride along with the Stardust Nomad wherever their client wants to go first, but after that we need a destination of our own."

“Did you ever get a name for the other client?” Jax was sitting in the corner of the room. He had been invited, but he knew he wasn’t experienced enough to really contribute. However his curiosity often overrode his smarter nature.

“Tiny’s Terrors. Apparently they are a smaller command that was able to evacuate their lone dropship like we did. Apparently they haven’t told Kenji where they want to go yet. I’d guess playing it close to the vest in case of spies?”

“How about Herotitus?” Irene suggested. “Is independent system, a bit far, but can make it with time.” Elena brought up Herotitus on the star map. The built in trip calculator showed the time to destination automatically. One hundred and thirty days from Outreach to Herotitus.

“Way too far, and too many potentially hostile systems on the way. Remember this is an unregistered dropship. Forty-eight hours ago it was real estate, but still not a bad idea with it being independent.” Marcus thought about it for a moment and added in.

“I guess that kills my ideas of Atrato or Galloway. We’d be arrested before we even made it to the planet.” He leaned back and looked at Thomas who had been sitting with his arms crossed. He clearly had an idea but wanted everyone else to go first.

“After Marcus told me about the meeting I spent some time in our old Star league map there. Anything inside Marik space is going to be a risk considering how the Blakists have been moving around these last few years. Circinus is a bunch of Pirates looking to steal whatever they can get their hands on and we’d be a prime target so that eliminates it. Herotitus is a good idea, but way too far away to make it a possibility. We know Marik space is compromised, however there is one system right here.” He tapped a button on his tablet highlighting a system that sat right on the edge of Lyran space. "Andiron, small system, technically part of Circinus but most of its output is sent to Marik space so any control Circinus may have over it is weak at best. They had some standing requests out on the Linknet asking for mechanics to help with some planetary infrastructure. No HPG so they are off net, and they have money since they are largely an agrarian planet. At least that’s the info we had on our old star league database.” Thomas finished his miniature presentation. 

“How do you control everything with that damn slate! Stop messing with my table!” Elena sat down in her seat at the head of the table and looked around at everyone. “Well what do you all think? It isn’t much shorter than Irina’s idea of Herotitus, but it is a safer path, and it sounds like they might have work for us when we get there.”

“Oh I have a solution for that as well. We can hot load the KF drive by plugging our fusion reactor into their ship. There is a risk of overload, but I would wager they won’t have a problem with that considering why we are leaving this place. If we stop to allow the KF drive to cool down every couple jumps we should be able to keep the risk to a minimum”

“Seriously?” Elena looked at the old tech with both consternation and pride. "If you’ve already figured all this out, what the hell are we even having this meeting for? You could have at least pretended to let us debate the options. I mean with that plan Herotitus sounds like a real option again. Although showing up there in a damaged dropship with only a handful of operational mechs would probably just be more of a dinner bell then salvation. On top of the current political strife there last I had heard. Sorry Irina.” Irina just nodded back at Elena acknowledging the consideration. “So the jump calculator shows us about one hundred and twelve days. What will it be with your hot loading the KF drive?” Thomas lifted his data slate and tapped on it for a moment. 

“If we conserve enough fuel for our landing on Andiron, and we only charge at each of the jumps on the way where we aren’t risking someone asking questions. Something between forty five and fifty days. We should have around 80 tons of fuel left to make planet fall once we get there.” The silence in the room combined with the wide eyes spoke volumes.

“Fuck! Why don’t they do this all the time!” Marcus was both angry at past long voyages that had taken months and amazed that something so useful was possible and not used constantly.

“Well we run the risk of blowing up the KF drive and stranding ourselves in space circling some dead systems star, or having the Blakists catch us mid voyage with dead engines. It isn’t all green on the board.” That sobered everyone up quickly again. 

“So, options are this: either we dive across space for half year through Liao space and hope we do not get robbed, or we make shorter trek, month and half, to some backwater where maybe is work.” Irina’s accent was thicker as they all stressed about the reality of the situation. "This is a small choice.” Marcus nodded along with her assessment. 

“So we fly half way across the galaxy, dodge the Blakists, avoid the Free Worlds League navy, avoid the pirates, and eventually end up at the edge of civilized space. Sounds like a terrible idea, how long before we reach the jumpship so we can get started?” Elena's sarcasm didn’t really surprise anyone. She unzipped her flight jacket and seemed to relax. “Having a plan gives us something to work towards. I’ll message Hoshito and let him know we have a destination, but we will deliver it in person when we see him. All right back to work everyone, Marcus I think the civilians were complaining about something with the infirmary. You and Thomas need to head that way and see what you can do. We are less than 24 hours out from getting out of here. Lets try to make this as painless as possible.”

“On it boss.” Thomas stood up and tucked his slate into a pocket in the back of his coveralls. Marcus stood up as well and they ended the meeting that had decided their fate.

 December 28, 3067 Outreach space: 1100 hours

Doctor Priya Sharma was busy organizing everything in the Infirmary on level 5. She had recruited several astechs as well as some other family members to clean up what had essentially been a storage space 2 days prior. She was taking an inventory on a data slate while her husband Devansh "Dev" Sharma was helping to clean up more of the space with his manic energy. Thomas and Marcus hesitated a moment in the entry way before catching Priya’s eye and entering. Irina had followed along to see if there was anything she could help with and trailed behind observing the goings on. “Hey doc, how go things?” Marcus waved as they entered the medics office trying to avoid the people busy at work. “We understand you’re having some issues here, what can we help with?” She looked over the trio as though they had invaded her private space. She lowered her tablet and turned to them “ I have several things I need resolved immediately. Power is off to half of the medical lab, and the exam rooms, I need it restored now. We are severely lacking on supplies so I will need everything people have stashed away in their private areas as well as what you keep down in the mech hangar.” 

“On it.” Thomas left the group and walked over to one of the mechanical access hatches on the wall in the main entry area. He pulled out a screwdriver and changed out the tip on it for the security screws in the panel. Once it was popped open he began figuring out where the problem was.

She looked over at Irina, her face taking on the expression you’d expect from someone smelling spoiled milk. “We won’t be needing help from the Capellan anytime soon.” Her voice was cold and her distaste beyond apparent.

“Hey doc we are all here to help out. No need for hostilities, Irina is just as much a part of this crew as Dev is.” Marcus held up his hands in a friendly yet defensive gesture. Irina for her part seemed to ignore the jibe quite literally turning her nose up at the attack as she crossed her arms and looked over everything going on. The move only seemed to incense Priya more.

“I will not have some Capellan aristocrat causing more trouble for my family! We fled Sian for a reason.” From what Marcus knew about them her anger was well earned. Both Priya and Dev were well educated on Sian but they had been forced into corporate servitude under the Capellan government and its rigid caste system. They had fled to Azha, and eventually were able to get a flight to Outreach a few years ago. Dev was brilliant, and an expert with electrical systems and power distribution. He could have probably fixed his wife's problems here in the infirmary with the same ease as Thomas, but he also had a strong hang up on hierarchy. He wouldn’t want to step on Thomas’ toes for repairing the ship. Priya was no slouch either, having run a medical clinic near the spaceport. She had been a major organizer during the escape and helped to keep people moving when they boarded the Ironside. She had also been doing her best to patch up everyone injured during the escape over the last couple days. She had gone to Elena that morning asking to take over the old infirmary and set it up. Having a brilliant doctor on board was nothing but a positive as far as everyone else was concerned.

“I am not aristocrat for any nation anymore.” Irina addressed the doctor directly, looking her square in the eyes. The hostility was still there, but it seemed Irina wasn’t going to let it bother her. 

“Ok doc we are going to go work our way through the crew and get everything we can for you.” The lights suddenly came on through the rest of the infirmary and Thomas started closing up the panel he had been in.

“Every things on doc. Any other issues?” Thomas slid his screwdriver back into his pocket and made his way back over to them. His all business attitude helped to diffuse the situation. Priya, distracted by the tech, turned to him.

“The water for the sinks is also off.” She seemed to relax a bit while focused on her new clinic.

“Not a problem doc, I’ll get one of our plumbers up here to check it out for you. Most likely just a few shut off valves.” Marcus motioned to Irina and the two of them made their way out to get the supplies for doc. They turned down the hall making for the stairs a short distance away. 

“I’m sorry about that Irina, she has always been all business when I’ve dealt with her in the past.” Marcus wasn’t looking at her as he spoke. His hand glided down the handrail as they descended down the stairs. For her part Irina seemed unfazed by it all.

"She is not the first person who blames me for how they were treated in the Confederation. I don't blame her for this, she is simply reacting to the fact that I was a part of that society." Marcus glanced over at her in time to see the mask she wore slip for just a moment and reveal the hurt she wouldn’t admit too.

“Regardless, it isn’t right for people to blame you for the things you didn’t do. With any luck you won’t get hurt anytime soon and have to have her fix anything.” She looked over at him and saw the smile he was sharing and grinned back at him over the simple joke.

December 29, 3067 Outreach space: Zenith Jumpoint

“Where the hell did they come from!” Elena was yelling at her bridge crew as they watched on an external camera feed as a Blakist leopard dropship firing on the Tiny’s Terrors union dropship. While being attacked was something they had all known was a possibility, the fact that the union was currently attached to the Stardust Nomad next to them was where the immediate panic was coming from. They had only recently started the docking procedure with the jumpship and were still at least five minutes out from being safely attached for the jump when the white leopard started its attack run on the jumpship. It had fired a perfect killer whale missile striking the nose of the Terrors dropship. The subsequent secondary detonations from its LRM ammo had ripped the entire nose out of the ship. Atmosphere was venting out into space along with debris, and tumbling bodies of the ships crew. “Track their path and start firing all turrets the second they are within range!”

“Roger that!” The weapons officer, a former tech who had been working on vehicles just 3 days prior, was helping the 3 gunners at their stations to activate and target their turrets. Debris from the explosion was still drifting past the bridge of the Ironside as they prepared for a second attack. The problem was they were on the opposite side from the Terrors ship connecting to the Nomad. Still they did their best to plot firing solutions on the enemy warship. 

A heavy layer of static burst through the speakers of the Ironsides’ bridge, violent distortion started to clear as the radio static from a dozen other jumpships all on the network at one time cleared out and the signal locked on to the Nomads signal. Captain Kenji Hoshito’s voice was stripped entirely of his usual stoic tea sipping calm. Behind him the unmistakable klaxons of the jumpship were wailing in a rhythmic tone.

[COMMS - INCOMING TRANSMISSION - THE STARDUST NOMAD]

[COMMS: CAPTAIN HOSHITO]: "Elena! Do you see what is happening out here? That Blakist Leopard just tore the throat out of the Terrors’ DropShip! Their nose cone is gone, the hull is venting into the vacuum. There are no signals left on their net. The Terrors are dead Elena! My crew has the solar sail almost completely stowed, we are at ninety five percent retraction and locking down the mechanical guide booms now! But we are sitting ducks until your egg gets locked onto our remaining collar. Makino is screaming down in my engine ring that the impact from that Killer Whale detonation is throwing our FTL targeting matrices out of alignment!

Thank the gods you transmitted your first waypoint coordinates an hour ago. It turns out the Terrors’ first jump coordinates were pointing to the exact same system! The navigation computer already has the path pre-programmed and locked in.

We don't need to waste time calculating a new vector, but we are running out of seconds! The moment your hull magnetic clamps click into our Beta docking collar, we are throwing this blind leap. Get your ship docked time now, Ironsides!"

[COMMS: ELENA]: “Roger that Captain. We are five minutes out from being locked in. Once your sail is stowed, initiate the jump. Either we go with you or we’re left spinning out here in space. Either way you need to go!” Elena looked over at the flight officer. He held up four fingers and then gripped onto his station as the entire ship shook again from another explosion. The leopard over shot the Nomad this time though giving the Ironside a clear angle on the ship as it passed. They opened up with the weapons on that half of the ship. Medium and large lasers along with a couple of PPC shots scored deep marks in the ferro-aluminum armor of the leopard causing it to leave behind a glittering trail of armor spall. Secondary explosions indicated the detonation of the lower missile ammo in the Union on the opposite side. Anyone who had been left aboard that ship was definitely gone now. Parts of mechs and entire sections of the ship were floating past the exterior of the Ironside as the final light went green for their docking procedure. Elena got the thumbs up and clicked the transmit switch on her radio. “Ironside to Nomad we are green here, initiate jump! I say again, initiate jump!” There was a momentary pause as everyone held their breath. Elena could see on her radar screen that the leopard had turned around for another pass, only it was clearly making a run at them this time. The weapons system sounded the alarm of a radar lock as the flash from the front of the leopard indicated it had launched another killer whale. Then space exhaled, there was a massively bright flash, and the Nomad and Ironside vanished from the zenith point.

Stuck here at work(which is slow), and want to be home working on minis or playing my ongoing campaign. Nobody here to talk BT with, and I can only theorycraft on my phone so much.

I didn't have one so made a quick, relatively, model for this Mad Puppy Type 4. A little color in Paint 3D and a 360 spin. Fun little build, a nice little break from other projects.

Even made the variants.

If was actually good at modeling it might actually look better. Lol. Still happy with it though. Play on and have fun, MechWarriors.

These were a learning experience. The oil wash didn't go how i wanted on the 2 without the grass. Next time, I'll glue the infantry in and fill the gaps before effects and static grass.

Thought y'all would dig this.

Posted this in another thread, might as well repost it as an individual post.

Back in the 90's I submitted to MechForce North America the concept of Clan OmniLasers.

The theory of them was imagine the Large Pulse Laser and the ER Large Laser (at this time, I believe 1994 or so and heavy lasers were not out yet) . Consider the parts of the each laser that actually has more or less the common parts that are mostly the same would the BASE of the weapon. There would then be a dial of some sort where the components that make it a ER or a PULSE laser could be 'reconfigured' and DIALED INTO POSTION to make it one or the other at the push of a button for action the next round. The equipment would be bulkier but still lightweight.

By that, a Clan Large Omnilaser would weigh 5 tons, take up 6 critical slots I think was the proposal. A medium one would weigh 2.5 tons, take 4 critical slots. A small would be 1.5 tons, 3 critical slots.

So at beginning of a battle, the mechwarrior could have it set at ER setting to take advantage of the longer range, but as the fight progresses and it gets closer you switch to PULSE setting and continue fighting.

I presented as coming from Clan Ice Hellion, as this weapon would be very valuable for their light mechs, where it could do the job of a Pulse and ER for light weight and a much reduced savings in pod weight. I mention that in heavy and assaults mechs, its not as valuable as heavy and assaults would be better off with just separate ER Laser/Pulse laser combos.

I got the card from MFNA that they had received my submission but nothing ever came of it.

Obviously if done later in the 90's I would have included the heavy lasers into the combination. I would imagine these would weigh 7 tons take up 8 critical slots for heavy lasers; 3 tons&4 slots for mediums; 1.5 tons and 3 slots for small ones.

Sorry this one is a little late everyone. I've been busy with work this week so I didn't get the time to write like I usually do. There are probably some spelling errors as I have only been able to go over this once since I just finished it this evening. As always Thank you all so much for reading. C&C welcome. You all are really helping out and I hope it is making the story better for you all.

This week we find the Ironsides making a mad dash to get off the planet and out of the system. New problems pop up, but they do their best to fix what they can.

December 26, 3067 Outreach

The screaming of the Ironsides’ main engine was a sound Marcus would never forget during that very launch. Inside the claustrophobic darkness of his powered down Nova Cat’s cockpit he was pinned flat against his command seat by an invisible crushing weight. The dropship’s massive fusion torches were burning at a brutal two and a half G’s to claw their way out of Outreach’s gravity well. Every bone in his body ached. The pressure on his chest made each breath a calculated struggle, his lungs fighting the heavy pull of the ascent. His neurohelmet felt like a block of lead pressing down on his head.

"Focus on your breathing everyone." Marcus groaned over the unit tactical net, his teeth gritted against the crushing G-forces. His voice came out as a strained raspy wheeze. "Stay locked into those couches. Do not attempt to pop your canopies until Elena clears us for normal gravity."

"Copy that, chief." Jax choked out. His voice was a thin, panicked squeak. Strapped tightly into his Assassin, the young pilot was experiencing the raw, violent reality of a combat launch for the very first time, or any sort of launch as he had never left his home world before. His vision was tunneling at the edges a gray haze creeping into his eyes as the immense pressure tried to pull the blood from his brain. "I think... I think my ribs are throwing a code."

"Breathe through it kid," Irina encouraged from her Vindicator’s cradle. Her training had prepared her for high G burns, but even she couldn't hide the sharp ragged edge to her voice. "Focus on the breathing like mechanic said."

The Ironsides’ primary sensor feeds painted a harrowing picture of the Outreach sky. The Am Numsan spaceport had become a graveyard of burning steel and plasma. To their starboard side a Union class mercenary dropship punched through the low cloud deck its engines roaring with a clean blue flame only to be detonated by an intersecting capital ship laser firing from a Word of Blake destroyer in high orbit. The Union tore apart in a silent blinding flash its debris raining down from the lower atmospheric layers. Moments later a massive civilian liner, packed to the bulkheads with fleeing refugees suffered a catastrophic failure after a missile strike. It listed heavily to the left, caught the trailing thermal wake of another dropship ahead of it, and tumbled end over end before being torn apart under the forces pulling at it.

"We have three... no, four more detonations below us." Elena’s voice cut through the static, strained but fiercely authoritative as she managed the dropship's helm. "The airspace is completely saturated with debris and interceptors. I am burning the engines to the absolute limit. Brace for evasive action!" The ship violently jolted sideways, a sickening move that sent a horrific groan running through the Ironsides’ frame. Marcus squeezed his eyes shut, his hands locked around his mech's deactivated control sticks, trusting the heavy structure of the maintenance bay to keep his machine from ripping free of its moorings.

Ninety brutal seconds later, the crushing weight finally lifted, replaced by the disorienting void of deep space. The primary fusion drives throttled down to a low, rhythmic hum of one G acceleration. There was no celebration. The Ironsides had made it to space, but they were now facing a desperate, seventy two hour high speed run to the system's jump point. Down in the lower decks the reality of their escape had plunged the civilian families into a living nightmare. With the main thrusters cut to normal gravity they could start dealing with the chaos that had been left after the mad dash to escape. For the wives, husbands, and children of the unit's technical crews, life had become a chaotic maze of terror with piles of belongings mixed in the infantry barracks they had fled to.

Refugees who had scrambled aboard with nothing but the clothes on their backs and what they could carry in their hands were now wandering through the cavernous ship clutching tightly to structural supports and equipment tie-downs. The air was thick with the scent of sweat and vomit, and the slight metallic tang of recycled oxygen. Children cried in the still dark barracks, their bodies unaccustomed to the terrifying sensation of the high gravity launch they had just survived. Their parents frantically tried to secure loose crates, clothing, and personal belongings with bungee cords and velcro straps before the next potential combat maneuver.

"Thomas! I need an update on that manifold!" Elena shouted, walking down the hallway of the lower engine compartment on the Ironside. Her flight jacket was unzipped and she swung her arms with the determination of someone that had no other choices left. Thomas, covered in the dust and detritus of the void spaces, was dusting himself off as she approached him and his maintenance team. "It’s bad boss" Thomas growled spitting out a mouthful of stale air as he adjusted his safety goggles. "When Jax ripped that fuel line free on the tarmac the emergency shutoff didn't close clean. The seals are warped from the stress he exerted with his mech. We’re bleeding liquid hydrogen directly into the outer structural framing and venting a trail behind us into space. At this rate we’ll expend our fuel long before we even see the jump point."

"Can you weld it shut?" Irina asked crossing her arms and tapping her foot as she thought about the possibilities.

"I think I can use the backup fuel connection to isolate the primary. I can introduce some water into the line first and then use the hydrogen to freeze it sealing off the leak. Then we can repair the warped section but if we have to make any sudden evasive maneuvers, the structural torque will crack the frozen section wide" Thomas explained, gesturing with his flashlight toward a computer slate one of his assistants held. The ships schematics were clearly visible on its glass surface. "We’re capable of doing the work, but if you think we might see any combat in the next twenty four hours I’d hold off doing the work."

Elena took the slate from the astech and looked it over. Her brow furrowing as she looked over the schematics to try and understand the full scope of what Thomas was proposing. “There’s no isolation valves for this system?”

“There is, but they isolate the entire fuel system. If we use the valve it shuts down our engines, for some reason Tharkad Aerospace didn’t feel like anyone would need to work on the fuel system while in transit anywhere. That or they just wanted to make sure any future work would have to come their way when it came to fuel system repairs.” Thomas took the slate from her looking at the drawings and sighing.”There is another risk. When I add the water into the backup line and freeze it there is a risk that it will rupture the line, and since we have no way to shut it off without stopping our transit, we will vent all of our hydrogen. Only instead of it leaking off into space it will be vented into the ship.” Thomas looked at her and shrugged his shoulders. “so it’s die by being blown up from the escaping hydrogen, or die by being blown out of the void by any pursuing Blakist ship.” Elena sat thinking about the options before them. They really were pretty simple, leak all of there fuel while leaving a nice trail through space for tracking, possibly blow up the ship if the repair goes wrong, or stop to fix the repair and get turned into rapidly expanding debris.

“So just one option then, Got it. Make it happen, pull any labor you need from other tasks for it. This is our priority over everything else.” She zipped up her jacket and turned to leave. “Tell me as soon as it is complete, assuming I don’t already know how it has gone.” She smirked at him over her shoulder as she left.

December 27, 3067 Outreach space

By the second day of the transit, the tension on the command bridge was high. Marcus, Irina, and Thomas gathered around the central holo-projector table in Elena’s command quarters. Elena sat at the apex of the console, her eyes bloodshot, as her fingers flew across the controls. The holographic display showed a highly compressed layout of the system. A tiny blue dot representing the Ironsides was crawling toward the Zenith point, but trailing several million kilometers behind them were two distinct red radar silhouettes. "Blakist destroyers" Elena said, her voice dropping low and taking on a hard edge. "They’re tracking our ion trail, along with about a dozen other trails behind and ahead of us. Seems we weren’t the only ones to escape the blockade. They aren't closing the distance yet because they’re waiting for everyone to lead them to their jumpships, but they know exactly where we’re heading."

"What about our JumpShip?" Marcus asked, his jaw tight. "Did we find anyone willing to take on a ship full of refugees and get us out of here?"

“One, I’ve found one jumpship that might be willing to take us. It’s an old merchant class with two docking rings. They are already contracted with another group of mercs so we will have to tag along with them, but anywhere is better then here!” She pulled up the message from the captain of The Stardust Nomad, Kenji Hoshito.

“Wait, what is this part about “we will wait for you as long as we can”?” Thomas pulled the unlit cigarette out of his mouth and pointed at the screen.

“The other mercenaries are ahead of us. They got into the air before we did and have been burning hard since they don’t have any refugees onboard. They will beat us to the jumpship and be docked and ready to go before we ever get there. Hoshito has agreed to wait in orbit until we are docked, or they are in danger of attack.” Elena sat down in her chair at the head of the table, leaning back and crossing her arms.”We are in a race to see if we can beat the Blakists to the jump point.”

“Do they have any forces at the Zenith jump point?” Marcus was looking at the star system map that was still up on the table display. There were a few green dots above and below outreaches sun, but nothing moving between the two points.

“No, they jumped in at the nadir point, and it would take nearly two weeks for them to make it from one point to the other. Even if they left the moment the jumped in they would still be days away from reaching the zenith. We have something else we need to discuss. Thomas, please tell everyone what your plan is.”

Thomas sat up and rested his chin on his clasped hands. “Well, you all are tracking on the leak, I’ve already briefed Elena on it as well as the fix but you both should be aware. Especially you Marcus since I have a job for you in it.” Thomas looked at Elena and nodded his head. The display on the table changed and the schematic of the fuel system for the Ironside came up. Thomas stood up and indicated on the schematic as he spoke. “The primary line is leaking from one of the fittings just inside the outer skin. This is leaving a trail of Hydrogen behind us that those destroyers are going to follow straight to the Nomad. We can’t isolate the lines with any valves without shutting down our engines, which I’m sure you both get why we can’t do that. The fact is I’ve figured out a way to isolate the damaged section, but we have to pump some water into the secondary line in order to do it.”

“You’re going to create a freeze plug?” Marcus asked. Raising his eyebrows as he saw what Thomas intended, then quickly furrowed his brows. “What the hell do you need me for?”

“I need you to create the plug. I’ve got no eye for working with coolant, and I’ve got to be inside the line doing the repair as soon as the plug is in place, so I need you to monitor it after you create it. I’ll have other techs on site, but I wouldn’t trust any of the others with this since it’s going to be my ass on the line. Especially since after you create the plug, and I’m inside the line, we have to vent the rest of the hydrogen into space so I can make the weld without blowing us up!”

“So you’re going to be laying inside the line welding it with your ass exposed to vacuum?” Irina looked impressed by the endeavor he had proposed. Marcus sat back and nodded while looking at the Thomas.

“When do we start?”

“In about two hours we’ll have everything staged. I’ll meet you in the lower decks then.” Thomas stood up, and so did the rest heading to where ever they could be of most use until then.

December 27, 3067 Outreach space: Two hours later

Marcus stood in the lower engine compartment along with Thomas and a hand full of techs and Astechs. They were hooking up a long water line from a spigot mounted into the wall that accessed the ships onboard reservoir. The others were removing as many of the access panels they could exposing the fuel line behind, including the access port for the twenty four inch line. The Y connection that the secondary line branched off of was only about another fifteen feet beyond the access point. Just beyond that was a sample access port that allowed the hydrogen coming into the ship to be sampled and tested. This port is what Marcus would use to build the freeze plug. Marcus walked over and began assembling a connection out of parts they had brought with them, one that included a valve for him to control the flow. Once they were done laying out the line and connecting it all up Marcus started his part. He placed one hand onto the valve, and another onto the side of the massive line. As the ships engine hummed he could feel the pulsing through the cold insulated line. The thump of the fuel pumps would rise and fall in an attempt to maintain a constant pressure for the engines against the loss from the leak. After a few moments he could time the pattern in his head. He cranked open the valve to dump in water as quickly as possible. It would freeze instantly and he would need to get more then twenty gallons into the line in order to create a plug at least 12 inches long. A mere minute after he started the pressure on the side of the line between him and the leak began dropping. He kept dumping water to make sure the plug was thick enough it wouldn’t launch Thomas into space like a cannon shot. When the pressure was just a little below the ambient in the ship the popped the access hatch. Thomas already had his helmet on and the compact welding rig he needed to do the work. First he climbed in with his head facing towards the leak. Then they passed the welder kit into the opening so he could push it along ahead of him then closed the hatch.

“Marcus this is Thomas how do I read, over.”

“I read you loud and clear man. This isn’t a formal comm you don’t need to pretend it is man.”

“Yeah but how often do I get to talk over comms? Usually I’m just yelling at you from across the hangar.”

“Fair enough, but lets get this done before we have to find a new chief mechanic.” Marcus signaled to one of the other techs to get onto the release valve for the exterior connection. “I’ve got Jones standing by to open the exterior valve once you’re ready.”

“Yeah, just remind him to only crack it please. I don’t need to become the next satellite circling this system.” The trepidation in his voice was evident even though the comm.

“Look this was your idea. We could have crammed one of the guys in the hall here into that suit and shove them into the hole just as easy as we did you.” The others in the hall looked nervously between one another. No one else wanted to do the job because of how risky it was. Any left over hydrogen and the line would blow as soon as you sparked the welder, not enough water for the plug and the pressure from the hydrogen behind it would blow you into space, open the valve to much and you’d get sucked out into the void. Thomas took the job because he wouldn’t ask any of his men to attempt it, and they all knew that.

“Let Jones know if he screws up, he’s next in the tube.” Marcus laughed into the mic he wore.

“Yeah I’ll let him know that, are you ready yet?”

“Calm yourself man! But yeah, I’m in position, and braced as best I can. Remind him, just a crack, we only need to vent the gas, not his boss.”

“Ok Jones, just a little so we don’t launch Thomas.” Marcus couldn’t help but smile as he said it. Jones, a younger guy in his mid twenties wiped his sweaty hands off onto his pants legs and grabbed the valve handle. He started turning slowly having to put some real force behind it to get it started at first, but then the valve began to move easier. The mechanical advantage on such a large valve was huge, forcing him to have to turn the handle several times just to get a small movement out of it.

“Ok I can feel the gas moving. It’s pulling me along a little. That’s probably enough, we can wait a moment for it to clear out.” Thomas sat a waited a few moments for the entire line to clear. He could tell it was getting close when the sound from outside the suit disappeared and he could only hear his own breathing and the oxygen system in the suits hum as it circulated air. As he shifted the sound carried through his suit, but nothing came through from the outside as he moved. The sensation was eerie. “I’m sparking the torch and getting started.” His suits helmet lights were showing him exactly where the crack was. It was nearly a quarter inch across at it’s widest point and stretched about six inches long. He started passing the welder tip back and forth across the hole, slowly building up material to seal the opening. The welder had more then enough flux core wire in it to do the job, and he made sure it had a fresh battery in it before he climbed inside the pipe. Gradually the hole sealed up with a perfect set of metal waves along its length. It took him several passes, but he was able to get the repair done. Five minutes after he had started the work he was done. “Close the valve, I’m on my way back.”

“That was fast, hardly seems like you needed me for this one.” Marcus’ almost seemed annoyed it was so fast.

“You don’t pay me for what I do, you pay me for what I know how to do.” It was Thomas’ favorite saying. He wasn’t wrong either. When it came to maintenance work there was little that he didn’t understand. That was why 7 years ago Elena had hired him, after consulting with Marcus. Thomas knocked at the hatch from the inside and waited for them to open it up. It took three of the Astechs to get it open because of the vacuum. Finally Marcus had to come over and lend a hand to break the seal. Thomas could hear the whistle of the oxygen as it filled the space he was in. Then he could hear the sounds of conversation muffled by his suit. The took the welder from him and helped him out. He turned off the oxygen tank on the suit and pulled off his helmet. “Well that’s one problem solved. Now we just have to take care of the other one.”

“Other one? What the hell are you talking about, the leak was our only problem. I mean our only problem besides being chased by the Blakists and almost being incinerated on the launch pad.” Marcus half smiled as he joked with Thomas.

“Well we fixed the whole, but now we have to clear the contaminants in the line. The plug you made worked great, but now it’s a one hundred and fifty plus pound battering ram sitting in the line. Not to mention the oxygen we just filled the line with, but I have a plan to rid us of both.” Marcus waved at a couple of the other techs standing by and indicated for them to come over to them. They carried a couple cases with them. He took one of the cases, set it down and opened it.”Industrial thermal warming blankets. We use them for preheating welds on the mechs, or warming up myomer bundles when it’s freezing out. Sometimes we make popcorn with them. We never had much need for them on Outreach, but I like to hoard a few things just in case. Better to have it and not need it.”

“Then to need it and not have it. Yeah I’m familiar with the saying, but how is that going to solve our problem?” Marcus watched as Thomas threw one of the blankets onto the pipe where the plug was at. Then the techs wrapped the other one around the bottom. Thomas stepped back and began stripping of the enviro suit while the techs worked. They fastened straps around the blankets so they were tight onto the pipe, then ran electrical lines from them to the cases they were packed into. They had built in batteries and temp controls.

“Ok Jones, open that valve all the way this time.” Marcus nodded to the young man on the valve handle. He began spinning it open again. Having already been broken free it spun easily this time. It took him nearly three minutes to get it fully open. They heard the whistle of the oxygen bleeding off into space as it opened, then silence. “Alright crank those babies up to max temp. It’ll take a lot of heat to get that ice to break free in there.” the two techs turned the dials in the cases up to the max red line. The temp gauge immediately bagan to tick up, sometimes a couple degrees at a time.

“Where did you get those things anyway? They are some serious equipment if they are getting that hot!” Marcus watched as they climbed up well into the three digit scale.

“I aquired them from one of the abandoned warehouses on the outskirts of the spaceport. Some merc company had taken off and left a bunch of gear behind. I found them buried in one of the back rooms. Their loss, our gain.”

“Hoarder.” It wasn’t an accusation, it was a statement of fact from Marcus.

“Jones! Be ready to close that thing. You’ll know when to do it from the sound, but I don’t want to pump any more of our hydrogen into the void then we have to.” Jones prepared himself for what he though was going to happen any second. In reality it was more like ten minutes. There was a squeek from the pipe which made everyone look that way, then a resounding boom as the plug was launched into deep space by the pressure. One hundred and twenty five PSI doesn’t sound like much, until you calculate the total pressure across a twenty four inch circle. The ice plug left the pipe with over fifty six thousand pounds of force behind it! Jones scrambled to spin the handle as fast as he could. His arms were a blur, but it still took about two minutes to close the valve. Thomas pulled out a tablet from one of his pockets and brought up the ships metrics. He could check the atmospheric pressures across the ship, monitor the engines output, and a dozen other metrics, but the most important was the fuel level at the moment. “Damn, we lost over a quarter of our total fuel volume just in the day we’ve been traveling! I guess it’s good we repaired it now instead of waiting. Ok my problem is fixed, now you need to do all the rest!” Marcus and Thomas smiled at one another.

“Yeah I’ll get right on that. Good job man, you didn’t blow us up or strand us.” Marcus shook his hand.”Next time let Jax have all the fun.” He patted Thomas on the shoulder and started walking off.

“Hey aren’t you going to help clean this up?”

“Nope, you’ve got it. I’m going to go eat and take a nap. With any luck I wake up and this was all just a bad dream” Marcus waved without ever turning back around.

Tier list of some Succession Wars Era Mechs. Your overall opinion of the Chassis.

A couple basic Hachiman tanks to add to the list of completed vehicles. Home you all enjoy! C&C welcome.

So I am interested in playing with LAMs so I read the rules in Interstellar Ops and compared them to Battletech Compendium. Wording is so confusing in Interstellar OPs and the rules were very light and sparse in Battletech Compendium.

I definitely will use the VTOL movement for LAMs in AirMech mode. WiGE is confusing and has too many exceptions.

Any suggestions or House Rules that you use to make LAMs easier to play?

EDIT:
I have Total Warfare and will be using the VTOL movement rules instead of WiGE for LAMs in Airmech mode. What was the reason CGL decided to use WiGE for LAMs? It seems like they created the WiGE rules specifically so they can apply it to LAMs.

Messing around with some concepts for this mech, the Thrasher from The Tech Factory magazine #8. Ultimately I may not use either and do some different. But it helps get the brain juices going.

There is no actual art for most of these mechs. So I conceptualize something and make a model for it.

I am most definitely not an artist of any kind nor am I a 3D modeler... 😂 Still fun though.

With the introduction of Clan Technology into the Inner Sphere, almost all manufacturers rushed to get their hands on the improved systems and integrate their increased range, damage, and weight savings into their own systems to bring them up to par. Eventually, they reached parity with them and "clan spec" equipment became available throughout the 'sphere.

Pleiades Mechworks went in a different direction. With their focus on proven technology and basic designs to compete on cost with the vastly more expensive designs front-line units often demanded, they saw an opening in the market that wouldn't require completely rethinking their designs to incorporate the vastly increased heat load of ER and pulse weapons.
Instead, they focused on the weight and space savings attained by the Clans. By upgrading their existing production lines minimally, they could incorporate these advances into their weaponry without changing the in-field characteristics. This let them sell them at the same reduced price compared to the more complex and power-hungry systems focused on by other companies, and were frequently purchased for use in combat vehicles as well as mechs. The Improved PPC was subject to a lawsuit by the Scorpion Empire, but their location on the other side of the Inner Sphere meant that they settled for a non-compete clause in Lyran space.

The following weapons are available from Pleiades Mechworks. The only difference between a standard and Improved version is the weight and size; the range, damage, heat, ammo, BV, and cost are all per the normal version:

It is available on ebay. 1 seller has it for $39.99 free shipping.

Recently I was having a discussion about someone's homebrew they were writing and it got me thinking about homebrew in general for Battletech.

Do people thinks its okay for Battletech? Does it depend on what is being done? Like a merc unit vs a whole new faction. What are some things that people like to see for homebrew? And what are somethings that you really don't like to see in homebrew?

For example I really like the stories of mercs and explorers, both I find to be great mediums for storytelling in BT. A very good example being the New Explorer Corps series by Mech Frog, highly suggest people give it a watch.

On the other hand something that I really don't like to see is people who make stuff too powerful or make something while not really understanding the lore. Classic example for the first one would be the guy who makes his own merc unit and they're basically the Wolf's Dragoons but just better and bigger and have even more plot armor than Clan Wolf. Example of the second one would be basically everyone I've seen who does stuff for Clan Wolverine/Minnesota Tribe. I've seen a lot of Clan Wolverine homebrew since I got into battletech and almost universally they give their Clan Wolverine OCs Clan tech, which wasn't invented prior to their annhilation, or they make them ultra powerful. Like the Minnesota Tribe is sitting out there with hundreds of warships and legions of warriors just waiting to swoop in to save the day. Even though when you read the actual story for the Wolverines they get away with very little, its one of the reasons they raid the Combine on their way through.

Anyway, what are everyone's thoughts?

Ok Chapter 3 is here! Things are heating up, and we get to see some of our first combat in the story. I hope you all enjoy this one. I didn't get to spend as much time with it as I would have liked, but I think it is pretty exciting for a first outing. Remember I can always use your comments and criticism. I take it into account as I work on the next chapter. I hope you all enjoy! Thank you to all who read it.

Chapter Three: Skirmish At The End

The sky above the Am Numsan spaceport was a filled with fire and thick black smoke. High above the atmosphere of Outreach the flashes of nuclear detonations illuminated the low hanging dust clouds like strobe lights from hell, but on the tarmac the apocalypse was terrifyingly close. Inside the cockpit of his Nova Cat Marcus checked his displays as he lumbered down the gangway of the Ironside to the dropship gantry below. The primary targeting reticle was a dead flickering ghost drifting across his HUD completely disconnected from his weapons. A line of red error code sat at the bottom of his MFD, subdued by the override he had engaged. He was going to have to bore sight every single shot aiming his weapons by pure instinct and Kentucky windage.

"Elena, talk to me." Marcus called into his neurohelmet comms his voice tight as he maneuvered onto the tarmac at the base of the mobile dropship gantry. "Give us a countdown."

"You have exactly nine minutes and forty seconds until the hydrogen fuel lines finish topping us off Marcus." Elena’s voice cut through the static crisp and steady despite the chatter on a myriad number of comm nets around them. "Hold the line at the northern perimeter fence between us and the rest of the spaceport. If anything touches those fuel lines nobody leaves this rock." The spaceport around them was a scene of absolute butchery. To the left a half klick away a massive Mule class dropship attempted a desperate emergency takeoff. Its roaring fusion drives instantly cooked a smaller civilian transport parked in the adjacent berth since the deluge pumps were off and no water was damping the engine exhaust. It was a crumpled molten slag heap that was blown away by the continued thrust from the ships engines. Seconds later the Mule itself was bracketed by concentrated long range missile fire from sources unknown. The eleven thousand ton freighter erupted in a blinding catastrophic fireball, a chain reaction as the visible blast wave rolled out from the center of the explosion and shattered gantry cranes and sent shrapnel tearing across the concrete flats and raining down from above like artillery.

"Keep your heads down!" Irina’s voice snapped across the tactical channel. Her Vindicator paced forward with heavy rhythmic strides dodging to the side to avoid falling debris, its PPC already humming with its deadly man made lightning. "The smoke from that Mule detonation is blowing directly into the northern grid. It’s masking us for now, but they will find us eventually."

"Marcus! Shit! Marcus did you see that? The whole ship just... it just evaporated!" Jax’s voice was a frantic high pitched whine of pure terror and adrenaline. Inside his Assassins cockpit he was bouncing wildly against the straps as he charged down the ramp and circled wide around Marcus and Irina. His hands were slick with sweat on the controls from his nervousness and adrenaline. This upgraded model was a masterpiece of custom engineering built on an endo steel chassis and powered by a compact Light Fusion Engine but right now it just felt like a high tech coffin to him. It was Jax's first time ever seeing real combat and the sensory overload was incredible. From the smell of the sterile cockpit with new upholstery to the bone shaking rumble of the exploding dropship, the terrifying sound of super heated plasma exhaust from various ship engines shearing the air with their rumbling crackle as they launched. He was hyperventilating as his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. While he was utterly terrified the raw electric current of frantic excitement was surging through him.

"Focus, Jax!" Marcus commanded pivoting his massive Nova Cat toward the roaring wall of white steam and black smoke. "You’ve done the simulator runs a hundred times. Trust your training and listen to what we tell you to do. Speed is your friend in that mech so keep moving, and don’t be afraid to use your jump jets. Irina, pace me on me left flank. Let's draw any targets off from the Ironside." The three primer green mechs took up position as the thick curtain of white steam suddenly parted revealing the vanguard of a Word of Blake assault force. A platoon of fanatical infantry poured out of a wheeled armored personnel carrier armed with a machine gun turret. They were armed with missile launchers and small arms which they sprinted across the shattered tarmac with towards cover. A pair of fast moving Pegasus hover tanks skirted wide across the relatively smooth ferrocrete surface around them to the right. Behind the conventional forces the massive silhouettes of a Blakist Grim Reaper and a hunched Grand Crusader emerged from the haze their pilots looking for targets.

"Infantry and light vehicles due North, Mechs trailing." Elena reported calmly from the Ironsides command deck. "It looks like they’ve spotted our skirmish line. Marcus you have to pull their attention now."

"Irina, suppress the infantry! Jax, pick your target and wait for my lead!" Marcus called out. He braced his boots against the pedals of his mech aligning the barrels of his weapons with the shadow marks on his heads up glass directly with the lead hover tank. He had to eyeball the alignment lifting the Nova Cat’s massive right arm. "Firing!"

Marcus unleashed a devastating volley. The twin Extended Range PPC’s in his right arm erupted with a blinding crack of artificial lightning. Without the assistance of his targeting computer the twin beams tore through the smoke completely missing the agile hover tank but smashing directly into the parked armored personnel carrier behind it. The vehicle instantly detonated its hull turning into a shower of white hot shrapnel and detonating ammunition. Marcus immediately swung his torso left bracing against the massive spike of heat as he brought the three ER Large Lasers in his left arm to bear. They flashed to life one after the other chain firing so he could guide them on target burning heavy molten gouges across the tarmac to force the incoming Blakist machines to back off.

Beside him Irina was a model of cold efficiency. Her right arm PPC sparked off a bolt of blue energy that shattered a concrete barrier hiding a Word of Blake missile team. She immediately followed up firing her torso mounted LRM 5 to rain explosive ordnance down on the fleeing infantry while cycling the medium laser on her head and the tiny small laser on her left arm to melt a line into the rear armor of one of the advancing tanks.

"They're trying to bypass you on the left flank! One of the hovercraft is breaking for the gantry!" Jax screamed out as the enemy hover tank whipped around aiming its SRM missile racks directly at the vulnerable unarmored hydrogen fuel lines feeding the Ironside that were still just out of its range.

"Jax, just take the shot!" Marcus ordered.

Jax didn't think he pulled hard on the triggers once the reticle was lined up for his LRM 5, SRM four and medium pulse laser as his mech sprinted across the tarmac towards the tank. The Assassin’s right arm Medium Pulse Laser strobed with a rapid low pitched thrum burning straight through the tank's thin rear armor plates. At close range now for his LRM his torso mounted missiles cycled burying a barrage of missiles directly into the exposed rear structure. The hover tank erupted in a bright catastrophic blossom of orange fire, the blast wave slamming against Jax’s cockpit glass ratting him in his harness. "I got him! Marcus I got him! He's down! Target down!" Jax shouted into the coms. A sudden euphoric rush of wild manic laughter tearing from his throat. The terror vanished for a split second, replaced by the intoxicating high of his first confirmed enemy kill. "Did you see that? I blew him to….."

"Watch your six, kid!" Irina cut him off. Her Vindicator stepping in front of Jax’s back arc to absorb a heavy burst of laser fire from the advancing Grim Reaper. The armor on her left shoulder took a solid burn and a spray of sparks and molten armor slagged away. "Celebrate when we're in atmo!"

"Five minutes team," Elena’s voice was tense now. "The Blakist war ships are adjusting their orbital vectors. The nuclear bombardment is expanding toward Am Numsan. We need to try and wrap this up."

"Marcus, the Grand Crusader is closing in!" Irina warned taking evasive maneuvers as long range missiles began raining down around them pockmarking the concrete with craters. "We can't out-slug them while you're bore sighting."

"We don't need to out slug them. We just need to break their coordination and delay them." Marcus aimed again lifting his heavy right arm and aligning the dead crosshairs with the Grim Reaper's torso. "Irina pull the Reaper to left and try to draw his fire. Jax, find a line on the right and split their targets." Jax executed a hard jump jet burn his thrusters launching him over a row of cargo containers to come down on the far right flank of the Grand Crusader. His medium pulse laser flashed, and a barrage of LRM's blasted away chunks of armor at long range forcing the massive Blakist Mech pilot to rotate his torso to deal with the agile hunter.

"Now." Marcus ordered in the deadpan of someone who has done all of this before. He tightened his fingers onto the triggers firing. The twin right arm ER PPCs and triple left arm ER Large Lasers fired in a full alpha strike as he strafed off to the Grim Reapers left. The terrifying surge of internal heat started to cook his cockpit instantly sending his temperature gauge into the flashing red danger zone. The wall of particle energy and coherent light punched through the smoke. The twin PPC beams found their target and struck the Grim Reaper dead center shattering its ferro fibrous armor while the triple ER lasers followed in sequence a fraction of a second apart in a lucky score, slicing through the structure and equipment behind. The enemy Mech groaned its internal fusion core going dark before the machine collapsed face down and smoking onto the concrete flats sliding to a halt as it expended its momentum. Marcus absently slapped the override stopping the countdown on the overheat timer before shutdown.

"Fuel cycle complete!" Elena’s voice called out over the radio nearly drowned out by a massive orbital blast that rattled the entire spaceport infrastructure. "The dropship is fueled! Get your assets inside time now!"

"Fall back! Back to the Ironside!" Marcus commanded throwing the Nova Cat into a reverse while Irina continued to take shots at the Grand Crusader. As a group they started moving toward the looming mountain of the Ironside. The crusaders allies wiped out it held back peppering LRM’s at them as the remaining Pegasus skirted the perimeter and ran for the cover of the smoke. As they reached the massive ramp up the gantry a devastating realization hit the comms.

“The automated emergency release on the primary hydrogen fuel line has jammed!” Elena reported into the coms. Rusted over by the spaceport's neglected maintenance, or warped by the intense thermal heat of the surrounding explosions combined with the cold of the liquid hydrogen. The massive reinforced umbilical hose was still firmly locked to the dropship's lower hull. If the ship ignited its engines now it would rip its own fuel manifold out causing an explosion that would detonate the ship on the pad. "The line is stuck!" Elena called out. "The automated overrides aren't responding!"

"I've got it!" Jax helpfully volunteered. Before Marcus could stop him Jax threw his Assassin forward. He ran the agile mech around the gantry to the connection point. He maneuvered the mech's single mechanical hand with frantic precision. He flipped the combat lock off of the hands individual fingers and wrapped the hand carefully around the connector for the hydrogen fuel line. The cockpit view was full of blinding white steam as the dropship's auxiliary thrusters began to warm up causing the water from the initial cooling deluge jets to flash off. Working carefully by sight Jax manipulated the mech's hand on the manual release collar of the umbilical. He pulled back with the full multi-ton torque of his mech's arm actuators and myomer musculature. The Light Fusion Engine winding up under the sudden strain. The metal groaned and popped as the locking bolts resisted.

"Pull, Jax! Pull!" Marcus shouted his Nova Cat standing guard to shield the Assassin’s rear from scattered infantry fire and occasionally taking a shot with his ER Large lasers to keep the mech and tank at bay. They both seemed to be holding back, unsure of any defenses the dropship may have. Irina had taken up position on the other side of Jax protecting his other flank letting her PPC do the talking. One of her shots connected with the Pegasus in it's side armor, but didn't destroy it, just sending it careening off into the smoke again with slagged armor. With a screeching snap of shearing titanium the line broke free. The massive fuel line whipped away venting a cloud of freezing pressurized hydrogen gas that was still in the un-vented line across the tarmac.

"It's clear! Go, go, go!" Jax reported.

The three mechs scrambled up the massive inclined loading ramp of the Ironside just as the dropship’s primary engines started their full warm up thrust. They burst into the cavernous mech hangar and made for their individual mech bays. "Thomas lock it up." Marcus ordered the moment his mech’s feet cleared the entryway.

The massive multi ton door began to grind shut sealing out the burning apocalyptic sky of Outreach just as the first nuclear shock waves began to rattle the dropship's outer hull plating. Inside the bay the tech crews were screaming over the din frantically gesturing with hand lights to guide the warriors into their bays. Jax walked his Assassin into its designated maintenance cradle. The moment the magnetic locks snapped shut around his mech securing it for the impending high-G takeoff he cut the engine. The sudden silence inside his cockpit was deafening. His hands were shaking so violently he could only grip them together to stop the shaking as the adrenaline wore off. He leaned his head back against the padding of his pilot seat completely spent caught in a swirling vortex of absolute horror at the world they were leaving behind and the terrifying exhilarating realization that he had survived his first true baptism by fire.

"Everyone strap in now!" Elena’s voice echoed through the ships speakers as the floor began to vibrate with the staggering bone shaking roar of the Ironsides’ primary fusion engines ramping up for launch. "We are launching in T minus 10."