3. A Close Call Nadir Jump Point, The Rack, Uncharted System, 24th August, 3068 Space distorted, stars wavered and disappeared and the heavily modified, Quixote Class frigate Indefatigable exited from hyperspace. Three Starlifter class dropships and a single Overlord class vessel hitched a ride on her retrofitted docking collars. Less than a thousand kilometres away, the Essex class destroyer Odin made a similar entrance – in space travel terms, a near miss. The spatial distortion caused by hyperspace travel, commonly referred to as the “jump wave”, sent shockwaves through the Indy’s hull, causing minor outbreaks of alarm and confusion throughout the ship. “Jesus Christ! Red Alert - all hands to battle stations! Weps, ID that ship – until you do, treat it as a possible hostile”. Precentor Juliet Arden, the Indy’s commanding officer rattled all this off even before her navigation officer could report the other ship’s appearance. Klaxons began sounding throughout the ship and the normal lighting was replaced by the eerie red glow of the battle lights. “Ma'am, the War Book says she’s the Odin – an Essex class destroyer belonging to the Outer Colonies”. “What the hell are the OCDF doing out here?” Arden wondered, her heart rate beginning to return to normal. “Okay, go to Status Amber – keep all hands on standby. Comms, hail them. I want to know their intentions and what the hell they think they’re playing at, jumping in so close behind us”. She frowned at the viewscreen as she paced up and down, waiting for the link to be established. “Ma'am, we’ve got the Odin’s CO on visual”. The screen was filled with the image of the Odin’s bridge. Standing in the foreground was a surprisingly young-looking woman, whose uniform nevertheless marked her as the ship’s captain. “This is Captain Elizabeth Gideon of the OCS Odin”. Although her face showed little in the way of emotion, her voice betrayed a certain amount of nervousness. “Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?” Arden’s eyes narrowed slightly and she registered with some disappointment that the Odin’s skipper was both younger and prettier than she was. Still, she probably had the edge when it came to military experience. “I’m Precentor Juliet Arden, commander of the Coalition ship Indefatigable and I’d like to know why you thought it was a good idea to jump in system, almost right on top of us. Your sensors must have picked up our entry IR signature, surely?” Gideon’s face coloured slightly. “My apologies, Precentor Arden, but we’re running a little short-handed at the moment and don’t have a jump-qualified navigator, so I performed the calculations myself. It’s not something I’ve had to do for a while, but I judged the safety margins to be adequate”. Arden frowned. “Well, you managed to scare the hell out of me and my crew. We were ready to open fire until we ID’d you”. Gideon looked genuinely shocked. “You weren’t expecting us?” “Should we have been?” “Negotiations between our respective governments have been ongoing for the last week. It was agreed that the OCDF would deploy a unit to Pain, to act as an auxiliary force, during the Coalition's operation against these pirates. You were not informed of this?” Arden made a face. “This is all news to me...although I can't say I'm entirely surprised. There are holes in our command loop like you wouldn’t believe”. Gideon nodded sympathetically. “So, now we're here, how may we assist you?” “That depends...what are you carrying?” “Well, we’ve got elements of the Pathfinders with us – they’re a heavily armed, highly mobile recon unit. They could scout the landing area and find favourable battlegrounds. They could even help put a dent in the pirate forces for you”. “I’ll patch you through to Precentor Bainbridge. He’s leading the mission and will have the best idea how to use them”. Later, in her quarters, Arden received a call from the bridge. The comms officer sounded apologetic at having disturbed her. “Ma’am, I have a call from Captain Gideon of the Odin, requesting to speak to you. Shall I put her through?” Arden saved and closed down her logbook. “Go ahead”. The face of the OCDF captain appeared on her computer screen. “Precentor Arden – I hope this isn’t inconvenient”. “Not at all – what’s on your mind?”. "Well, Precentor..." "Please...call me Juliet when we're speaking privately". “Thank you, Juliet. Please call me Elizabeth. I just wanted to inform you that Precentor Bainbridge decided that since you want to make your first strike against the pirate stronghold on The Rack, the Pathfinders would be best employed in scouting the First Extractors' base on Pain. We’ll be jumping out of system in the next two hours, once your Tactical Officer has uploaded the probe data to us. We’ll have to recharge once we’re there, so maybe we’ll have a chance to talk again after you’ve taught those scumbags a lesson here”. Gideon looked away from the camera, seeming uncomfortable. “What’s the matter Elizabeth?” “Well...its about my…um…infringement when we arrived in system…I was just wondering if you were planning on filing an official complaint?” She looked rather worried now. “Its just that I’m two months into my first tour of duty and…” Arden was reminded of herself during her first command and decided to cut the younger skipper some slack. “Don’t worry about it…I may well have done the same thing in your shoes. No real damage was done…just get someone to check your calculations next time”. Gideon looked relieved and smiled broadly at Arden. “Thank you Precentor Arden...I'll be sure to”.

4. On The Rack 10km north of pirate base, Perdition, Tantalus, The Rack, 24th August, 3068 The quartet of dropships burned through The Rack’s thin atmosphere. To an untrained observer on the ground, their drive flares and the atmospheric friction generated by their passage, made them look like a slow-moving meteor shower. Inside half an hour, the three Starlifter craft and the Overlord touched down on a low, rocky plateau, whose gently sloping sides led down onto the sandy, scrubland that was a common feature of this part of the planet. The BCAF 110th Division, more commonly known as the Britannia Guards, swiftly disembarked from the trio of dropships and formed up into their component Level III units. The Guard mechs were decked out in the Coalition desert camo scheme of sandy brown, with reddish-brown, dark brown and white flecks and black tiger stripes. The unit insignia, which featured a white silhouette of Tower Bridge in the raised position, with a sword, blade up between the two open halves, set on a royal blue shield, adorned the torsos and legs. Staring out of his Valiant’s cockpit viewport, Precentor III Philip Bainbridge surveyed the terrain, noting with some satisfaction that it matched what they’d seen on the reconnaissance probe recording. Just over a kilometre away, almost directly ahead of them was the canyon they expected the pirates to emerge from. Stretching away for several kilometres on either side was a range of low hills. Although they were easily traversed in a battlemech, they would slow down an attack and make the pirate mechs easy targets. No, the canyon is the most direct line of attack…and the one they’ll most likely take, the commander thought to himself. Pirates aren’t generally given to subtlety. He set his radio to the regimental command frequency. “This is Broadsword to all units, commence deployment”. Behind him, Level III Alpha formed up in line with the distant gully. III Bravo and III Gamma moved out east and west respectively, until they were out of sensor range, hidden by the plateaux and rock formations that dotted the landscape. High above the dusty plain, Adept Cressida Davis guided her Red Kite LAM in racetrack patterns above the drop zone. Her eyes flicked between the view outside the cockpit canopy and the monitors displaying the readouts from her mech’s sensor suite. From her lofty position she caught intermittent glimpses of the settlement and the pirate base, but she was relying on her radar, MagRes, or EM sensors to detect any inbound hostiles. PLG-3Z Pillager Black Rhino, Devil’s Canyon, Perdition, Tantalus, The Rack “General” Springer Macready brought his 100-ton assault mech to a stop at the entrance to the canyon. He scanned its steeply sloping walls anxiously, alert for the possibility of an ambush. He activated his external mikes and scanned his sensor readouts, looking for any sign of the intruders. Macready had been a mere Lieutenant when he’d left the employ of the Circinus Federation, but he figured if Hopper Morrison, who’d been his company commander, could set himself up as a king, then a four star rank was the least he deserved. Damn Morrison to hell! He thought furiously. He couldn’t remember how many times he’d argued for a listening post to be set up on the moon, to give them advance warning of visitors, welcome or otherwise. The Extractors could certainly afford to invest in satellite and surveillance technology, but Hopper had just laughed at the idea that anyone in their right mind would attack them here. Instead, news of their unexpected guests had arrived from a panicked lookout, who’d almost wrecked his scout vehicle in his haste to get back to the compound, having tried to call in, only to find the Hummer’s radio was broken. He shook his head. This was no way to run an army. While individual mech pilots tended to keep their machines in good order, using their share of whatever spoils the Extractors took from their raids, everyone else was left to fend for themselves. It was small things like this that could prove costly in the end. He shook his head again to clear his thoughts and focus his mind on the mission. He had a whole regiment of mechs at his disposal to make sure whoever it was had the balls to invade their turf, would pay dearly. He checked his radio was set to the regimental command channel. “Extractors, advance!” Macready slowly throttled his Pillager up to its top speed and heard a great thundering sound through his external microphones as the rest of the regiment began moving again. He wasn’t happy about having his entire command bunched up in the canyon, but it was either that or spend hours trekking round the hills, during which time the enemy could have plunged straight through Devil’s Canyon and be headed for the base. Adept Davis was just completing another sweep over the Guards’ drop zone, when her threat indicator began beeping urgently. Overlaying her radar display onto a digital map of the terrain, she saw a large number of red blips, which had to be the leading elements of the Second Extractors, emerging from the mouth of the canyon ahead. She wasted no time in calling it on. “Raptor One to Alpha Command, contact at Zero One Zero, one thousand metres!” “Copy that, Raptor One, Alpha is moving”, came the response. Davis recognised the voice as belonging to Demi-Precentor Kiera O’Reilly, the Guards’ executive officer. O’Reilly switched her radio to a private channel with Precentor Bainbridge. “Sir…?” “I heard. Looks like its game time”. He switched his radio to the command channel. “Okay Al, time for your boys and girls to put on a show”. Demi-Precentor Alan Osborne smiled at that. “Roger that, sir. We’ll make sure it’s a good one”. Switching to his Level III's command frequency, he ordered his troops to move forward. “Cardsharp to all Tigers, disperse by unit and begin a slow advance to nav point Bravo”. In response, III Alpha, nicknamed the Siberian Tigers, formed up into six Level II units of half a dozen mechs each, dispersed in a pre-planned formation across the plain and began moving on the pirates’ position. Behind them, the Cavaliers' Bravo Company began to disembark from the dropship Prairie Hunter, forming up into lances and following at a discreet distance.