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"Class, Attention." called out the cadet, near the back of the class, as Lt. Cmdr. Deathscream entered the room. All conversation stopped, and the only sound to be heard was the rapid stacatto sound of boothills clicking to attention. "As you were, class", said Deathscream, as he went to the desk at the front of the class. He was wearing his cooling vest, and mechwarrior shorts, with the smell of burnt ozone clinging to his frame. After a minuite of silence, a cadet near the back asked "Where is Cmdr. Selaih, will we not be doing any training today?" Deathscream looked up, from a pile of papers he was pulling out of the desk, and a smile lit up his craggy face as he replied "Today we will be having a history lesson, and if your lucky, thats all you will have". "Now for proper introductions, I am Lt. Cmdr Deathscream, and for those of you who dont know, I work in the Special Ops Dept." said Deathscream, as he finished with the papers on the desk. "Sir", one of the cadets said "we are here to learn to be the best Mech Jocks in the inner sphere, so why the history lesson?" "You will never be a great mech jock, untill you know not only where you are going, but where you have been." said Deathscream, as he prepared the Holoprojector. "Excuse me sir", a cadet from the front of the class said, "but we have already studied the history of the Clan Invasion and the Treaty years, what more do we need to know?" Deathscream stoped what he was doing with the holoprojector, and took a good look at his class, "Most of you probably dont remember when we were the best unit Rasalhague ever produced, or why we are now pirates, but this is information that you must have, to be successful in your field of training" "Everyone knows of the first founding of the Star League, and it's eventual demise, at the hands of the usurper Stephen Aramis, and now we also know that when the great General Kerensky left the Inner Sphere, he would one day found the civilation that would be called The Clans. Everyone also knows of the succesion wars, fought to bring back the Star League. I am here to tell you what everyone does NOT know. We were the best group of mech jocks that Rasalhague ever put on the field, and we participated in many engagements durring the succession wars. Our enemies and our friends respected our abilites, and our country loved us dearly. Then came the clans. I was there, at the start of it, and I am here to tell ya, it was the worst thing we had ever encountered. For the first few weeks of the invasion, everyone thought the clans were alien beings, as their use of battle armor, for their troopers, was unexpected and had a profound effect on those who were trying to defend themselves. Special Ops has uncovered documents that show, without a doubt, that Comstar had allied itself with them, and was reporting all weaknesses we had. Comstar also administered the worlds that the clans had taken, allowing them to continue the invasion, at a speed, we of the Inner Sphere, had never contemplated. It is true that Comstar later rebelled against the clans, and was successful in halting the invasion at Tukayid, but at a cost so high, that we of the R4D will never turn our backs to them. When the fires of war had cleared a bit, and we could finnally take stock of what was left, we dicovered that we had lost 56% of our pilots, to death, and almost 88% of our mechs. The political leadership of Rasalhague, suffering from the political fallout of a lost war, blamed the R4D for most of its losses, even though we were one of the first Inner Sphere units to gain a victory in battle against the clans. Then, we were told that Comstar would be garrisoning all of our remaining planets, for the security of the inner sphere. Needless to say, the R4D was furious with this decision. We have become pirates, according to the Inner Sphere, because we will not tolerate the Clans, or anyone that would help them. We are not pirates, we are Patriots, we do not attack the Great Houses, nor will we ever consider such actions, as long as the Houses stand firm against the clans. As for Comstar, for now, we will let them be, but we will also watch. If they ever turn on the Inner Sphere again, we will destroy them all, to the man........" Deathscream picked up the remote for the holoprojector, as he went back to the desk, "I have brought something today that may help you see how we felt, the first time we encountered the clans in combat, Battleroms from my first command", Deathscream seemed to wince, "remember well what you will see, they died so that you may live". That being said, Deathscream closed the curtains, killed the lights, and began the playback fo the Battleroms.