Wolf's Free£ancers

Web novel by LtCol[W£]GrinnerWolf

Templar

MechWarrior Chronicles

Winds of Change
A proud Khan. A rebellious warrior. Together, they must strive against all odds to ensure the survival of their clan.
A Web novel by A Garang Wolf, copyrighted by AFAR (©AFAR 2003) (ahfaiz@nstp.com.my). Other copyrighted materials belong to their respective owners.

Synopsis:
Due to unrelenting pressure from rival clans, the Ðreaded Legion faces total annihilation. In order to survive, it must adapt to new ways and leave clan space before it is too late. However, the Ðreaded Legion can never trust Inner Sphere surats completely. Thus it must prepare for the day when it needs to draw on its reserve fighting force no one suspects exists - the Wolf's Free£ancers mercenary unit.

Chapter 1: Rebel with a cause

Chapter 2: The long journey begins

Chapter 3: A question of faith
Chapter 4: Death Comes on Swift Wings

Chapter 5: Lull before the storm

Chapter 6: The Crossover

Chapter 7: Rebirth

Chapter 8: The Gladiators

Chapter 9: Here be Pirates

Siddiq and his wingmen flew straight toward the secret Dreaded Legion outpost in the Badlands without fear of being detected electronically or visually. The space-black camouflaged DX-1s that they were flying were, after all, the most advanced stealth fighter-interceptors in all of Clan space. But such a show of bravado failed to bolster their spirits when electronic scans and visuals began confirming Dreaded Legion Intelligence's worst fears - the base had been overrun.

Communications with the secret Dreaded Legion base had been cut off a week ago, and initially, the blackout was attributed to nothing more than the result of solar flares coming from Horatio system's twin suns. But as the communications blackout persisted, Dreaded Legion Intelligence became suspicious and dispatched Stealth Wing Alpha to investigate.

"Weapons charged and ready. Just say the word, Star Captain," prompted Siddiq's second-in-command Star Commander Maliq Abizaid.

"Neg," Siddiq replied calmly. "We will only spook them."

"These pirates have no honour," Abizaid said in anger and through gritted teeth. "And ours demands blood."

"Aff," acknowledged Siddiq. "But not here, not yet."

While Siddiq and his wingmen could cripple the heavy transports and prevent them from taking off, pirates were known for resorting to acts of desperation when cornered and defeated. After all, they would never seek mercy, for they themselves gave none. Hence, Siddiq was under instructions not to risk having the pirates blow up the transports and losing much needed supplies, at least not without gaining a substantial tactical advantage in return.

"Deploy trackers," Siddiq ordered.

Each DX-1 carried an advanced stealth probe that could lock onto a target and follow that target from a respectful distance. And when it senses that the target is nearing a jump point in space, it would quickly latch onto the hull of the target and broadcast its last known coordinates, as well as probable jump destinations.

Two trackers were launched, one by Abizaid and the other by Siddiq's second wingman, Star Commander Mas'ud El-Fadhil. Each tracker was bound for one of the two heavy cargo transports docked at the Dreaded Legion secret base space pads.

"There is nothing more we can do here for now," declared Siddiq. "Let us head back to the Attica."

Back at the Light Carrier Attica's bridge, "Visuals are coming through," announced Bridge Tech 1st Class Annabelle.

"Onscreen," Darkstalker ordered. From the video feed of the heavy transports, he could not tell off-hand which pirate Clan the raiders belonged to. Their decals were too faded or defaced.

"Zoom in on that Hunchback on perimeter patrol," Voltage ordered.

Annabelle complied.

But like before, the decals on the Mech were faded and somewhat defaced.

While it did not matter at the moment which pirate clan the Dreaded Legion was facing, any bit of gatherable intelligence could come in useful later on. Dreaded Legion Intelligence could determine, for example, whether or not the raid was nothing more than a random occurrence, or a well organised attack, or whether there was more than one pirate clan to be had. Although fortified, the secret base was lightly defended, and could be overcome easily by a small group of raiders.

"My instincts tell me that something is amiss," Darkstalker commented.

"Explain," Voltage ordered.

"It is almost as if they want to be discovered," Darkstalker clarified.

"Bait?" Voltage asked.

"Aff," replied Darkstalker.

"But why would they deface their decals?" Voltage queried.

"To make the trap less obvious," Darkstalker said. "They know that we cannot attack them without losing most, if not all, of our supplies. I mean, why risk being discovered by staying longer than they should after the solar flares were gone?"

"Unless they want to be discovered," Voltage reasoned. "They wish to appear as though they do not want their identities to be discovered, but are taking their time loading cargo onto those heavy transports nonetheless."

"Now, the question is, do we take the bait?" Darkstalker observed.

"Do we have a choice?" Voltage asked. "Every clan hyper-pulse transceiver throughout Clan space would have captured the general broadcasts from Strana Mechty declaring the bounties on our clan. There is no reason to believe that which ever pirate clan we are dealing with does not or will not know of our having gone rogue. They would also have deduced that we are now scattered and weak, and have laid this trap based on that knowledge, but we have to go after them, regardless."

"If I may ask," queried newly promoted Star Admiral Alexandria. "Why must we pursue them? We stand to lose more than all that was at the base. We are on the run, my Khan. Perhaps we should just cut our losses and make our way to the Damien Asteroid Cluster and regroup with the rest of the Clan."

Hearing that, Voltage felt a pang of insult. And although he knew that Alexandria did not mean to insult him, Voltage could not help but stare down at her.

"Our supplies are low, Star Admiral," Voltage said calmly but declaring the obvious as though Alexandria had missed the point. "This is our only refuelling and replenishing stop before heading out to the Inner Sphere. While we may not lose anymore of what we have, we would be spreading our resources ultra thin when we regroup...," but before Voltage could finish, Darkstalker cut in.

"Still, the Star Admiral has a point," offered Darkstalker. "Regardless of the tactical advantages our stealth hardware affords us, our numbers are small compared to what could be waiting out there. Worst of all, our battle-group forms the core of our clan's leadership."

"Since when has that been a crutch and not an honourable distinction?" Voltage bristled.

"Forgive me my Khan," Darkstalker tendered, while taken aback. "I... never meant to insult you."

"Have we become weaklings overnight simply because we have lost our home world and other planetary holdings?" Voltage asked rhetorically. "And what message will we be giving the rest our Warriors when they find out that their Clan's Keshik ran from a fight against pirates for our much needed supplies?!"

The bridge was deathly silent.

"My Khan," Alexandria interjected, but as gently and as respectfully as she could. "We are only concerned for the survival of the Keshik."

"As am I!" Voltage shouted. "The survival of the Keshik is dependent on more than just battle survival. Our actions here can easily boost or devastate morale. And I do not intend to cause the latter by running with our tails between our legs. Is that understood?"

"Aff, my Khan," replied Darkstalker and Alexandria in unison.

"I want plans for a tactical strike within the hour," Voltage demanded as he stormed off to his ready room adjacent to the Attica's bridge.

Back at the Dreaded Legion secret base, "How long do we keep this up?" asked Lance Captain Uruthia from the cockpit of her Hunchback IIc. "And what's the point of it all again?"

"Patience, my young Captain," answered Lance Colonel Brimstone. "The point is so that those self righteous Dreaded Legion clanners get good enough visuals of us."

"Our listening posts have spotted them. We know where they are," Uruthia said with lethargy clearly in her voice. "Let's just pounce on them and be done with it all."

"Spoken like a true pirate, contraction and all," Brimstone remarked with a touch of laughter. "Alas, you are a mere Lance Captain. And matters of higher strategic importance are beyond you."

"Yeah, yeah...," Uruthia responded, bored.

Indeed, Khan Luther of the Snow Leopard clan was a master strategist and if it were not for him, the Snow Leopards would have perished a long time ago. Although they existed as pirates, they still understood the importance of resource conservation and appreciated it even more after having turned pirates.

For that matter, a freebirth like Uruthia, whose original station in life was that of a Tech in the Snow Leopard Merchant Caste, could never have become a MechWarrior had it not been for sheer necessity brought about by the brutal existence of pirate clans.

And after a Snow Leopard hunting party had stumbled upon a Dreaded Legion base containing a large cache of highly advanced weapons and equipments, Khan Luther became determined to capture Dreaded Legion warriors and Scientist caste techs who could be forced to reveal their secrets to the Snow Leopard scientists. For, success would mean the Snow Leopard clan's ability to obliterate rival pirate clans, or even the ability to wage open war against those clans that had forced the Snow Leopards into becoming pirates and to eke out a humiliating existence in the Badlands and other remote reaches of Clan space.

Unlike normal clans, pirate clans could never have planetary holdings without risking open war. But while theirs was a difficult existence, their success depended on their being able to manipulate the weaknesses of normal clans through guile and stealth, slipping through the clutches of those who would annihilate them and striking when it was least expected.

And although the war against pirates never ceased, the fact that normal clans were too focused on war with the Inner Sphere has helped in giving pirate clans enough reprieve to survive and, at times, even thrive.

More significantly, Luther yearned for the days when he had commanded great armies. For that, he would need to establish a new home world for the Snow Leopard clan, and he saw the Dreaded Legion's advanced technology as the key to doing just that.

"Transport 1 to Snow Lead, we're all loaded up and ready for takeoff, over," reported one of the heavy transport captains to Brimstone.

"This is Transport 2 to Snow Lead, loaded up and ready to go, over," reported the other heavy transport captain.

"Aff," acknowledged Brimstone. "Mount up everyone," he instructed the Mech pilots in his lance to attach their Mechs to the modified external docking clamps on the transports for immediate evacuation. "And make haste. We want to look like we are in a hurry to get out of here."

About three minutes later, the transports lifted off from the secret base's space pads and headed for one of the many jump points in the Badlands. They encountered no resistance and did not expect to anyway, albeit they suspected that, by then, they were being watched and followed.

Indeed, the stealth probes kept sending live video feed of the transports' movements, right up to the point where they attached themselves to those transports and made the subspace jump deeper into the Badlands. After that, they were no more than weak beacons for the Dreaded Legion to follow.

Back on the Attica, "SX-1 is ready and waiting," said Star Captain Abd El-Yaacub from the cockpit of the Dreaded Legion stealth fighter-interceptor prototype that has been put into service as an advanced scout. Like the DX-1, the SX-1 has all the stealth capabilities necessary for avoiding electronic and visual detection in the void of space, and was equipped with an advanced Kearny-Fuchida jump drive.

However, the SX-1 has been stripped of weapons in order maximise its speed and manoeuvrability. And its hull design has been modified and strengthened in order to allow it to achieve and sustain speeds of up to Mach 15 in atmospheric flights on M-class planets.

"SX-1, you are green for launch," said Bridge Tech 1st Class Annabelle after having received the "go" from the bridge tech manning the space traffic control console.

"Aff, launching...," said El-Yaacub as the SX-1 blasted off from the Attica launch bay.

"Good hunting and God speed," she added.

"Eh? Which one? Your God or mine?" El-Yaacub responded playfully.

"Tsk, we all believe in the same One God, Star Captain," clarified Annabelle. "We just pray to the One God differently," she added.

"Aff," acknowledged El-Yaacub. "See you when I get back, Annabelle. And keep the coffee hot and our chess board ready."

"Aff, Star Captain," Annabelle replied.

Usually, the free intermingling between warriors and techs was looked upon with disdain, but bridge techs of the Scientist caste were a step above all other techs. Although they were not pseudo-warriors of the Warrior caste, they functioned pretty much like pseudo-warriors. So, they were accepted as such.

However, El-Yaacub and Annabelle had gone beyond camaraderie. They were lovers. And each time El-Yaacub went out on a covert mission, her heart would skip a beat.

All her life, Annabelle had dreamed of being in a love affair with a warrior. Now that she had found that one warrior who was willing to love her back, she was afraid of losing him constantly.

If that were not maddening enough, to make things worse, if ever they were found out, El-Yaacub would be stripped of his rank and she would lose her position as a bridge tech. And they would be forced to go their separate ways.

There had been close shaves.

Thus were the ways of the caste system. Although the lines between castes were often blurry, some lines were never crossed without grave consequences.

Fifteen minutes into his flight, El-Yaacub had reached within 10,000km of the once-secret Dreaded Legion base. The SX-1 was flying well in access of 250,000Kph and was still building up speed.

And if not for the experimental inertial dampeners that was installed in all of the Dreaded Legion's stealth aerospace fighters, El-Yaacub would be pressed down into his cockpit seat by up to 2Gs. But with the inertial dampeners turned on, he felt almost like he was floating in a free fall.

Five minutes later, he was nearing the jump point taken by the fleeing pirate transports. Switching the SX-1 thrusters to full reverse, El-Yaacub was thrown forward immediately.

Although the SX-1's inertial dampeners compensated for such a violent manoeuvre, El-Yaacub's seatbelt straps dug deeply into his flesh nonetheless. At least he did not blackout.

He then double-checked the jump coordinates obtained from the tracker probes on the heads-down display, made minute course corrections via the auto-pilot panel and braced for the jump through subspace. At such a high speed, the subspace effect of his jump could be seen as more than just a flash, since the shockwave sent ripples that bent light similar to the way a pebble, when thrown into a pond, would disturb the water's surface with ringlets.

More crucially for El-Yaacub, the effect was felt right to the very core of his being. It was like his heart was being wrenched right through his ribcage.

But just before the ordeal became unbearable, just before El-Yaacub felt like screaming his lungs out, it was over. And fortunately for him, he was one of the few elite Dreaded Legion pilots whose physiological make-up allowed for such a terrible ordeal - most pilots would have died of haemorrhages in the brain or internal organs if they were to attempt such a high risk manoeuvre.

Of course, El-Yaacub was not entirely immune to the risk of extreme subspace jump fatality. In fact, he could have very well found himself reappearing in the core of a star or have his atoms scattered across a galaxy because of the miniaturised Kearny-Fuchida drive's inability to properly compensate for the violent re-entry into real space.

But violent re-entry was exactly what was needed to counter mines that could have been placed at and around the re-entry point of a subspace jump. For, the re-entry shockwaves would push the mines aside and cause them to detonate harmlessly.

And detonate they did, raising the alarm on a hidden Snow Leopard clan listening post nearby.

"Something came through the jump-point!" exclaimed a Snow Leopard tech manning the sensor console in the listening post's cramped operations room. "But...," he hesitated in mid-sentence.

"But what?" asked the Tech manning the communications console.

"Sensors aren't picking up anything more," he finished off. “It’s like the jump ship vanished.”

"Could it be a sensor malfunction? Did the mines blow up by themselves?" asked the communications Tech.

"Negative. Readings show a massive energy spike not unlike a jump ship coming through a jump point," said the sensor Tech. "You'd better call it in."

But by the time they sent their message through, El-Yaacub's SX-1 was halfway to its target and accelerating still.

Meanwhile, at the Snow Leopard main base, Khan Luther waited patiently in his ready room for the latest news on the Dreaded Legion. Although he had very little time to work with, he managed to lay out his plans to the letter. All he had to do after that was wait for events to unfold as he had envisioned them.

Based on the general broadcast-warning from Strana Mechty of the Dreaded Legion's advanced stealth aerospace assets as well as samples of the mysterious supplies taken from the secret Dreaded Legion base, it was highly probable that an advanced stealth fighter or scout would be sent to investigate the whereabouts of the heavy transports that had shipped the Dreaded Legion supplies deeper into the Badlands. And if so, Luther had set an appropriate trap just for that.

Quickly, Luther went over his plans once again in his mind to see whether he could still improvise on them, but before he had the chance to think things through properly, there was a knock on his ready room door.

"Come," Luther commanded calmly.

The door opened and in came Luther's second-in-command Galaxy Commander Thorne. Although Thorne had lost his left arm and right leg in the Snow Leopard's last great battle against the clans in a trial of annihilation, like Luther, Thorne was a master strategist. While he could no longer pilot a Mech, he was still a valuable asset to Luther.

Seeing Throne hobble into his room on a crutch, Luther renewed, mentally and in his heart, his promise to obtain the necessary resources for Throne's cybernetic replacement arm and leg.

"We have a visitor," Thorne said without preamble. "Probably an advanced stealth scout."

"Are we certain?" Luther asked.

"Aff," replied Throne. "We detected no debris to indicate that a ship had come through Delta Jump Point and was destroyed by our mines cluster. In fact, our scans detected nothing coming through at all, save a massive energy spike similar to a light carrier."

"Aff," concurred Luther. "It was one of their advanced scouts travelling at ultra high speeds."

"I have put the Leopard's Den on full alert, but instructed that the disrupter cannon towers be powered down and left on standby," added Thorne.

Luther nodded his approval.

The Leopard's Den was one of the Snow Leopard's bases. Like most of the others, it was located in a hollowed asteroid that was ideal for hiding ships from sensor sweeps. There, the Dreaded Legion advanced scout would be ensnared and retrieved for in-depth study, and its pilot would be tortured for all the valuable information he or she might have.

"And the game begins in earnest," Luther added.

Five minutes later, El-Yaacub's SX-1 came within 10,000km of the Leopard's Den. He had already reversed the ship's thrusters in order to cut its speed by more than half and still the asteroid kept coming closer at a seemingly alarming rate.

Calmly, El-Yaacub increased the SX-1's thrusters to full power, and he did it with such practiced ease that he barely noticed the seat-belt straps digging into his flesh again. For, his mind was occupied with the asteroid's possible defences.

From the SX-1 scans, the asteroid appeared to be a solid mass and yet the faint pulse coming from the trackers showed the asteroid to be hollow; that the trackers were located somewhere within the asteroid and not on its surface. That could only mean that the heavy transports were docked inside the asteroid.

And so, El-Yaacub would have to look for an entrance large enough for a heavy transport to fit through.

But before he went in closer to the asteroid, he launched a hyper-pulse relay satellite from the SX-1's tiny cargo compartment. As soon as it was released, the tiny satellite deployed its dish and went on standby.

After checking his instrumentation to see that the satellite had been properly deployed, El-Yaacub turned his attention toward the asteroid and approached it cautiously. And surprisingly enough, he did not have to go very far to find the entrance to the bowels of the asteroid, for it was hidden in plain sight.

From afar, the entrance appeared as nothing more than a shallow indentation. And it was only when the SX-1 was within 1000km did El-Yaacub see an opening hidden in the shadows.

He goosed his throttle to close the distance between the SX-1 and the entrance quicker and within seconds the SX-1 was within 150km of the entrance. At that distance, the entrance's dimensions could be appreciated more properly via visual scans. And what appeared as a tiny shadow or even a speck now loomed large enough to fit five heavy transports in one go.

At 1km distance, El-Yaacub cut all power to his main engines and used manoeuvring thrusters only to approach the entrance. This was meant to further reduce his stealth ship's electronic signature to little more than a speck.

Scans from the SX-1 sensor array did not reveal any sophisticated detection device that would sound off due to an intruder's presence. At the same time, the high-metallic content of the section of the asteroid where the hollowed out portion of the asteroid was located made internal scans impossible from outside. Also, since he was not receiving any live video feeds and accurate telemetry readings from the stealth probes attached to the freighters, El-Yaacub concluded that he had no choice but to go in for scans and, if necessary, visual confirmation.

Steeling himself, he switched on the video cameras located on the nose and wing tips of the SX-1 and manoeuvred the stealth ship slowly through the giant entrance and made ready to turn his tiny ship around in order to escape, should it be detected. But nothing eventful happened, or at least nothing he could detect.

Unbeknownst to him, the SX-1 had triggered off a decidedly low-tech intruder detection system consisting of nothing more than a mash of low powered lasers and mirrors. Ordinarily, the mash functioned as a counter for keeping tabs on the entry and exit of ships, and when the SX-1 passed through, it registered it as a ship going in. And that was all that was needed to alert the Snow Leopards of the stealth ship's presence.

El-Yaacub's heart began to race as the SX-1 proceeded further into the asteroid. And when it came to a fork, he slowed it to a standstill and checked his heads-down display for the location of the trackers.

The fork on the right looked to be the narrower passage and yet the trackers were shown as being located through there. El-Yaacub could feel the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand, as his instincts told him that it was a trap. However, he had no choice but to go in and find out first hand. So, he throttled his stealth ship forward and proceeded into the right-side passage, as slowly and as carefully as he could.

As the SX-1 went deeper, El-Yaacub became more convinced that it was a trap, since the passage was getting narrower and more crooked. No heavy freighter captain would want to negotiate such a tortuous passage and risk damaging his ship.

When the passage ended suddenly with a dead-end and with no heavy freighter in sight, El-Yaacub turned the SX-1 around quickly and went the way he came at the highest possible speed. Yes, it was a trap, and as though to confirm it beyond doubt, the SX-1 sensors registered multiple power-spikes of the sort generated by weapons turrets coming alive.

El-Yaacub's heart sank as the sensors counted over 20 weapons turrets from his current position to the fork and God knows how many more there would be from that point on. And just when he thought that the SX-1 would benefit from the cover of darkness, the passage lit up so brightly that he had to squint his eyes and pull down the sunshield on his helmet.

The weapons turrets began firing pulse beams of the sort El-Yaacub had never seen or heard of before. They were silvery in colour and emitted a distortion effect similar to PPCs even without making contact with the SX-1.

He did not want to find out what kind of debilitating effects a direct hit would have on the SX-1 first hand. So, he wove around his stealth ship as erratically as he could in the tight confines of the passage.

When the SX-1 reached the fork, El-Yaacub's heart sank even further. For, the SX-1's sensors registered more than a hundred pulse weapons or disrupter turrets from the fork all the way to the entrance. No amount of fancy flying would avoid a hit, and so he kicked in the SX-1's afterburners and made for the exit as fast as the SX-1's engines would permit.

And for a while, it seemed to be working. The disrupter turrets had trouble tracking and shooting at the SX-1.

But just as the stealth ship was about to make it all the way out, there was a brilliant flash at the mouth of the entrance to the asteroid. It was the effect of over fifty disrupter turrets lining the mouth of the entrance firing all at once.

The SX-1 received multiple hits as it flew through the mash of disrupter turret fire and immediately suffered catastrophic system wide failures. And that was not all; the disrupters caused powerful static discharges to course through El-Yaacub's body, shocking and burning him as they went along.

And in a display of sheer haplessness, the SX-1 began tumbling end-over-end, while El-Yaacub screamed in agony.

When the static discharges subsided, back-up generators kicked in. But the power they generated was not enough to get the SX-1 back to the jump-point or, for that matter, anywhere any time soon.

Bringing up the SX-1 backup sensor array, El-Yaacub detected five bogies headed his way. Quickly, he manually jettisoned the SX-1's reconnaissance module and shut his eyes to calm himself. For, the end was near.

He renewed his oath to the Almighty by saying aloud, "There is no God but the One God," and then prayed, "Oh God, keep my Anna safe, keep my Anna warm. Please God, please...."

El-Yaacub then readied himself for the inevitable. Reaching for the self-destruct safety cover, he flipped it open to reveal the manual self-destruct lever.

He then rested his hand on the lever and waited. When the bogies were about 150m from the SX-1, El-Yaacub pulled on the lever causing the SX-1 to blow up with a brilliant flash, taking him and a few of the bogies along in the explosion.

Back at the Snow Leopard main base, "My Khan," said Thorne, as he hobbled into Luther's ready room with his crutch. "Our attempt to retrieve the advanced scout failed."

"Indeed, as I had anticipated we would," responded Luther. But it was a good try and we have denied the Dreaded Legion the continued use of one of its advanced technology hardware."

"But we lost two tugboats. And a fighter escort was severely damaged as well," reported Thorne further.

"Small price to pay in our renewed war with the Dreaded Legion," said Luther, brushing the Snow Leopard's losses aside.

Hobbling back toward the entrance to Luther's ready room, Thorne reached for the opened door and closed it tight. He then turned around to face Luther and said, "In hindsight, Luther, we should have just blown the advanced scout up into tiny little pieces." It was a mild rebuke of the sort Thorne would only make in private. "We cannot always count on the disrupters to knock pilots unconscious."

"Tsk, but imagine if they did. The salvage would have been invaluable," Luther countered. "To mention nothing of the pilot...."

Thorne squinted his eyes and frowned, as though amazed to hear Luther saying those things. Then, his darkened expression cleared as though a sudden realisation had allowed him to achieve clarity of mind. When he spoke, he said, "I hope...," but then stopped short, as though he thought better than to speak too freely.

"You hope what, Thorne?" asked Luther.

"I hope you are not letting vengeance get in the way of our plans," Thorne pressed on.

"Do not worry, old friend," assured Luther. "If there is one thing I have learned from a pirate's life, vengeance is purely incidental."

But that was not entirely true. Although Luther was loathed to admit it, his soul burned to get even with Voltage for his hand in making the Snow Leopards outcasts in what used to be their own territory.

Indeed, the Badlands used to belong to the Snow Leopards and for a far longer period than it did to the Dreaded Legion. And for centuries, the Snow Leopards had been battling pirates in the Badlands. Ironically, they were now pirates themselves, but they still ruled the Badlands as though they were the asteroid cluster's true masters.

Of course, they were careful to avoid direct confrontations with the Dreaded Legion in the past, but having received news of the Dreaded Legion's fall from grace, Luther had been eager to widen the Snow Leopards' hold on the Badlands. It would be a while before the Black Mamba clan consolidated its territory, after all. But more importantly for Luther, he wanted to spill Dreaded Legion blood one last time before the fleeing clan disappeared entirely.

"Time to bring the level of our little conflict with the Dreaded Legion one notch higher," said Luther.

"Luther, I mean no disrespect," Thorne began saying, as a prelude to making his case to Luther, yet again, that the Snow Leopards should just quit while it was still way ahead in the game. "The supplies that we managed to steal from the Dreaded Legion are more than what we could scrounge from rival pirate clans and from raiding passing merchant ships in an entire year."

"But half of them, we do not even know how to re-deploy," said Luther, repeating the argument he had made in justifying his plans for a full scale attack on the Dreaded Legion.

"Not yet," countered Thorne, as a prelude to repeating his own counter argument. "Give our scientists...."

"I know, I know," Luther cut Thorne off. "Give our scientists time to figure them out. In a few years, we should be able to reverse engineer many, if not all, of the advanced hardware we have stolen. But do you not remember how it was like back when we were still a bona fide clan? We took every opportunity to advance our clan by meeting challenges head on; not by pussy-footing around like... like a bunch of pirates."

"But we are what we are, Luther," placated Thorne and in a resigned sort of way.

"Tsk, aff, we are pirates, but Warriors like you and I are more than pirates as well," said Luther, knowing all to well that it would win Thorne over completely. "Much more than pirates," Luther affirmed further. Although they were both close, Luther knew how to keep his "friend" on a leash. He would reserve certain complements for special occasions, just to ensure that he could demolish all opposition to his plans.

Thorne straightened his posture as best as he could while still leaning on his crutch. Luther's reference to Thorne as an able bodied Warrior in spite of his crippling disabilities swelled his pride and helped him recover some of his self-esteem which had been steadily flagging over the years.

"Aff, my Khan," said Thorne. "I will follow your lead to the very end."

"Thank you, Thorne," responded Luther on cue. "And I will make you whole again," he added, affirming the promise he made to Thorne a while back. "And you will accept the rank of saKhan, regardless," Luther sugar-coated further.

"I might, if and when we triumph over the Dreaded Legion," responded Thorne.

Back on the Attica, "Star Admiral, we have lost contact with the SX-1," said Annabelle as she moved away from the communications console and over to the electronic sensors console. Annabelle was the Duty Chief Tech on the bridge and it was her task to collate all the information coming from all the main consoles on the bridge to help senior bridge officers make crucial decisions based on incoming data. "And...," said Annabelle but stopped in mid sentence, seemingly shocked beyond comprehension.

"And what, Duty Chief Annabelle?" asked Alexandria.

Annabelle did not respond.

"Tech 1st Class Annabelle!" Alexandria called out, raising her voice.

"I'm... I am sorry, Star Admiral," Annabelle responded with her back to the Star Admiral. Quickly, she wiped her tears away and turned to face Alexandria. "We are picking up a distress beacon, specifically from the SX-1 reconnaissance module," Annabelle continued in her usual professional manner.

"We have lost the SX-1," said Alexandria aloud, stating the obvious. "I will notify the Khan personally," Alexandria continued but then hesitated when she noticed something different about Annabelle. "Are you alright, Annabelle?"

"I am... fine, Star Admiral," Annabelle answered with a nervous smile. "I am just a little under the weather."

"Well, report to the infirmary at once," said Alexandria. "There is a vicious flu bug going around this ship and I want my best bridge officers in top form when all hell breaks loose."

"Aff, Star Admiral," responded Annabelle. "Tech 1st Class Jason, please take over."

"Aff, Duty Chief Annabelle," Jason replied. "Are... you... OK?" he asked, mouthing the words without letting his voice be heard.

Annabelle nodded sombrely. She was on the verge of tears again and needed to get off the Attica's bridge immediately. The universe, as she knew it, had come to an end and it felt as if the air was pressing down on her chest.

The moment she got off the bridge, she burst into tears and quickened her pace as best as she could in null gravity while saying repeatedly, "Oh! God. No...." Her utter sadness was mingled with so much frustration and hate that she felt like killing herself. So, she headed toward the nearest airlock.

Upon reaching it, she opened the airlock door, entered the darkened airlock chamber and sealed the door behind her. But just as she was about to start the airlock cycling process, she hesitated and broke down completely.

Back in Voltage's ready room, Voltage had called for a conference of senior officers after being told of the fate of the SX-1 by Alexandria, and was waiting eagerly for everyone to arrive. "Where did we go wrong?" Voltage asked Alexandria in the meanwhile.

"I would not even hazard a guess, my Khan," Alexandria replied. "Not until we retrieve the SX-1's reconnaissance module.

Voltage knew that to be too true, but felt that he needed to speak his thoughts allowed to one of his most trusted senior officers just to ease the tension in the air.

About a minute later, Voltage's ready room door chimed.

"Come," Voltage commanded using the door's intercom unit.

SaKhan Dig and Darkstalker entered, followed by Siddiq, Elemental Star Colonel Dawood Hauser and newly promoted Star Commander Juan. Juan was not yet a senior officer, but his outstanding performance thus far as a Dreaded Legion rising star merited his presence in the meeting.

"Warriors," Voltage began without preamble. "We are at an impasse. We sent in one of our most advanced stealth ships and lost it. There is no question that we have to pursue our quarries to their very lair now. What matters is how." Turning to Siddiq, Voltage asked, "What could have caused the destruction of the SX-1, Star Captain? Could it have been pilot error?"

"Neg, my Khan," answered Siddiq. "Although we do not have the data to confirm it at this time, I gladly put both my honour and reputation at stake when I say that Star Captain Abd El-Yaacub did not die because of his own incompetence. I recruited him and trained him myself. I know just how excellent a pilot he is... was, enough to be sure that he did all that he could have. I would be more inclined to believe that it was equipment failure that did him in or...."

"Or...?" Voltage prompted.

"Or he caused the SX-1 to self-destruct as a last desperate act," continued Siddiq.

Voltage had considered those possibilities also, and instinctively knew that Siddiq was right on all counts of his explanation. After a moment's consideration, "Alright, this is how I want us to proceed," Voltage continued. "Star Colonel Hauser, you are the commander for this mission. Your primary task is to retrieve the reconnaissance module and assess the strategic worth of its contents. Then, I want you to decide on the viability of an intelligence gathering raid on wherever the two heavy freighters were last kept. At the very least, I want us to mete out some retribution. But keep our losses to a bare minimum."

"Aff, my Khan," said the Elemental Star Colonel in his grating baritone voice. "They shall be done."

"Star Captain Siddiq," Voltage said, moving on. "I want Stealth Wing Alpha to provide aerospace fighter cover. And Haroon, I know that you are the more experienced mission commander compared to Dawood, but Dawood's Elementals will be the ones conducting the raid primarily and whether the raid is a go or not should be entirely on his say so."

"I understand, Leigh," responded Siddiq. "I am not in the least bit slighted."

Voltage nodded appreciatively.

"Star Commander Juan," Voltage said, moving on again. "I do not know what we are going up against. And for that reason, I want your Snipers Elite Auxiliary Unit to back Star Colonel Hauser and his Elementals using our experimental stealth Kit Foxes."

Hearing that, Juan's eyes lit up in excitement and anticipation. "Aff, my Khan," he said. "Thank you for the honour and distinction."

"Do not thank me yet, Star Commander," Voltage replied. "The Kit Foxes are untested. I may be sending you and the rest of the Auxies to your untimely deaths."

Juan appeared to consider Voltage's words carefully, but when he spoke, his confidence and determination was unwavering. "Have faith, my Khan," Juan assured.

"Aff," Voltage responded and nodded, impressed by Juan's cool confidence.

"Does anyone else have any input?" Voltage then asked.

Everyone else shook their heads in mute reply.

"Good hunting, Warriors," said Voltage.

"Good hunting, my Khan," everyone responded in customary fashion.

Half an hour later, the raiding party was prepped and ready to fly. Siddiq's Stealth Wing Alpha was first to take off, followed by Hauser's Elemental stealth assault transport which detached its hulking bulk from a primary docking port beneath the Attica. Juan and the rest of his Auxies were in their experimental Kit Foxes which were docked on the outside of the Elemental Stealth Assault transport; there were six Kit Foxes in all.

Opening a com channel to his Warriors, Juan said, "Better get some sleep. It is going to be a long journey and there is nothing much for us to do but wait."

"Aff, Star Commander," replied the rest of the Auxies in unison.

Unlike El-Yaacub's super fast trip, the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders' trip would be a much slower one considering the bulk or mass of the Elemental stealth assault transport. Although Siddiq's Stealth Wing Alpha could fly on ahead of them, there was little point in doing so; at least not before the Elemental transport was close enough to the jump-point that would take them all deeper into the badlands.

Back at the darkened airlock, Annabelle had stopped crying, but continued to sob uncontrollably and was all curled up like a child in null-gravity. She felt weak after her long hard cry but she could think a little more clearly now.

No, she would not kill herself or least not yet. She was not afraid to die, but somehow, she felt like she owed it to El-Yaacub to continue living.

Were the situation reversed, she knew that she would pray for his safety before dying, and as the minutes passed she became more certain the he would have done the same thing for her. She would not be honouring his love and affection if she were to take her own life.

However, as the minutes passed, El-Yaacub felt more distant to her. Although she could still see his smiling face and his loving eyes vividly in her mind, he was quickly turning into a mere memory. The warmth in her heart that she felt when he was alive was fading.

No longer could she reach out for him with her mind, and be comforted by the thought that he was alive and well. For, El-Yaacub was never coming back.

Drained of tears as she was, she began to cry again.

More minutes passed and the temptation to take her life returned. How could she bear to live without him? He was her life. She had lived and even thrived for him, more than for herself. What was the point of it all, now that he was gone?

Slowly, Annabelle straightened herself and planted her feet back onto the Attica's deck plating. Looking at the airlock cycling panel with blurry eyes, she tentatively reached for it with a hand and then reached for it with determination. But just before she could initiate the airlock cycling process, the airlock chamber door mechanism clanked and the door opened to reveal the silvery silhouette of a female med-tech. It was Deborah, Annabelle's best friend and confidant.

"Oh, Anna," Deborah said gently, as she stepped into the airlock to embrace Annabelle. What little light shone on Deborah's face revealed the deep sympathy she felt for her.

Annabelle returned Deborah's affection by hugging her tightly. She began crying hard again, partly because she was grateful for Deborah's timely intervention, and mostly because she now had a shoulder to cry on.

More minutes passed, and those minutes counted to more than half an hour, until finally, Annabelle's tears ceased and her sobbing lessened.

"How did you know... where to find... me?" Annabelle asked, in between sobs.

"I had a hunch," Deborah replied, her voice soft and soothing.

"How did... you know?" Annabelle asked, in reference to El-Yaacub's death.

"Jason told me," Deborah answered. "And he said I should go looking for you before you did something we'd all regret."

"Please, Deb, what do I do? What do... I do?" Annabelle asked on the verge of panic and tears again.

"Anything you want to," Deborah said, as her own eyes glistened with tears. "Anything, except take your own life," she added and then kissed Annabelle's forehead, and hugged her tightly.

More minutes passed, and then Annabelle said, "I want his... child. I want... a piece of him... to be with me for the rest of my... life." She was sobbing hard again and was beginning to cry.

Cupping Annabelle's face gently with the palms of her hands, Deborah said, "And I'll help you," with determination clearly on her gentle face and in her eyes. "By God, I'll help you, no matter what it takes."

And with that, Deborah took Annabelle's hand in hers and led her out of the airlock chamber. Slowly, they both walked toward the infirmary, ignoring the curios looks of a few techs and warriors they passed by.

"The flu-bug must really be bad...," one of the Warriors could be heard as saying.

Upon reaching the infirmary, Deborah tucked Annabelle into one of the many vacant medical beds and strapped her down gently. She then walked over to the sedatives cabinet and prepared a mild concoction for Annabelle.

"This will help you sleep for a few hours, Anna," Deborah said as she inserted the sedative into a hypodermis spray injector. She then walked over to Annabelle, injected the serum and reassured her further by saying, "When you wake up, and start feeling sad again, I'm just a com-buzz away. Call for me and I'll be by your side."

"Thank you, Deb," said Annabelle, looking sad but appreciative.

Reaching over the infirmary bed, Deborah then dimmed the lights over Annabelle and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Sleep. Rest," she added in her gentlest manner. "Tomorrow will hurt like no other, but it's a brand new day and you will get your wish. I promise."

The fast acting sedative's effects could already be seen by then. Annabelle was quickly drifting off to sleep, and although she wanted to cry some more, she felt too tired to even try.

Seeing that Annabelle was fast asleep, Deborah reached for her com-pen in her sleeve pocket and buzzed Med-tech 2nd Class Andrew who was on genetic repository supervisor duty over at the Dreaded Legion super cargo carrier Grumman.

"Hey Deb, what's up, girl?" Andrew said, responding to her call.

"Hi there, Andy," said Deb in her usual friendly manner. "I... I need a favour."

"Ha! Ha!" Andrew laughed out loud in a way that bordered on evil. "What did I say? Some day you'd need my help. And here you are asking for it."

Deborah rolled her eyes in disgust.

Andrew was an overweight tech with an overblown sense of self-importance and he was the sort that could not get along with most people; he just would not try hard enough. But when it came to Deborah, he was especially friendly.

Deborah had always suspected that he had a thing for her, and so, she made it plain that she already had a boyfriend. Andrew would, of course, deny that he had any special feelings for her, but he would always single Deborah out for extra-friendly treatment, which would make her nervous each time it happened. And she made a promise to herself never to ever turn to Andrew for help, for fear that things might take a turn for the worse, and even told him, in not so many words, that he would be the last person she turned to for help.

But here she was, asking for his help.

"I guess you're the last person," Deborah said.

"So, what can I do for you?" Andrew asked.

"I need something... from the repository," Deborah said.

"Is that all?" Andrew asked in mocked surprised. "Just send me the approval papers online and I'll send it over to you."

"Uhh... it's not like that," Deborah said.

"Ohh.... I see...," Andrew remarked, as though realisation dawned upon him just then. Of course, he knew what she was getting at all along. "Well, this is most irregular. I don't think I should be doing anything illegal or...."

"Andy, will you help me or not?" Deborah asked impatiently, cutting Andrew off.

"That depends," said Andrew.

"You want something in return," Deborah guessed aloud.

"Yes," responded Andrew.

"What is it?" Deborah asked, while she prepared herself for a dreadful answer.

"You know what I want," Andrew said. "Make sure you wear something sexy underneath," he added and then disconnected.

Deborah's eyes widened in shock. Although in her heart, she expected Andrew to make such demands, the notion of selling her body was revoltingly filthy to her, nonetheless. Unfortunately, there was really no one else she could turn to for the kind of help she required. There were other techs whom she considered her dear friends, and who might be willing to help her, but the implications on them were so grave that she did not want any of them to have to suffer, too, in the end.

There was also the possibility that her friends might report on her intentions just so that they could stop her from making a terrible mistake. For, the fact of the matter was, anyone caught trafficking warrior DNA would be summarily tried and made to suffer a painfully slow death, as the crime was a veritable sacrilege. 'Better a lesser punishment than that', they would say.

Still, many techs with questionable ethics would indulge in DNA-trafficking, in order to gain loads of credits from non-Warrior caste clients - especially rich Merchant caste clients - looking to ensure that their lineages were strengthened by warrior seeds, among other things. Apparently, Andrew was one of those techs. And the fact that he had a thing for Deborah was "convenient".

Several hours later, Annabelle woke up. It was a restful sleep and she was grateful for it. But no sooner did she undo the strap that stopped her from sitting up on the infirmary bed, she was, again, hit by the realisation that El-Yaacub was dead. Covering her face with her hands, she began to cry.

"Ana," Med-Tech 1st Class Jennifer called out gently as she came by Annabelle's bedside and embraced her. "We're all sorry to hear about El-Yaacub. If there is anything we can do...."

"I'm ok," said Annabelle while regaining her composure as best as she could when she realised that there could be other people in the infirmary or passing by the infirmary - the wrong group of people - who would become suspicious of the extent of her relationship with El-Yaacub. Quickly, she wiped her tears away and undid the last few straps that were holding her down on the infirmary bed.

"Where's Deb?" she then asked.

"Deb went off duty a few hours ago," answered Jennifer. "But she told me to ask you to wait for her in her quarters till she got back."

"Got back from where?" asked Deb.

"Emm... she didn't say," Jennifer replied.

"Alright, thanks," said Deb, as she got up to leave.

A few minutes later, Annabelle was at Deborah's quarters. The door was not locked. So, Annabelle went in and tried to make herself at home. Thoughts of suicide were slowly creeping back to the fore as despair began to set in again, and Annabelle knew that she would be unable to resist the urge to take her life if she did not busy her mind with something else. So, she began looking around for something important to do. For the life of her, everything seemed utterly banal that she felt like screaming at the top of her lungs in desperation.

But before she could, the door to the quarters slid open and in came Deborah looking stressed and disturbed. Her hair appeared dishevelled, her Med-Tech uniform was torn at the front along the zipper and she had bruises on her face as well as neck.

"Deb?" Annabelle asked in surprise.

Deborah looked like she wanted to cry but she held her tears back and smiled a sad smile at Annabelle instead.

"What happened? Who did this to you?" Annabelle asked further when she realised that Deborah could have been raped.

"It doesn't... it doesn't matter," said Deborah, while first appearing hesitant and then resigned. "It's done."

"What's done?" asked Annabelle, perplexed. "Deb, talk to me."

But Deborah didn't reply. She walked into the refresher and slipped her torn Med-Tech uniform off her body to reveal ripped undergarments, bite marks and other bruises.

"Oh my God!" Annabelle exclaimed. "I'll kill the son-of-a-bitch who did this to you. Just tell me who it is, Deb, and I swear...."

"It doesn't matter," Deborah cut her off. "He'll get his comeuppance soon enough."

"What?" Annabelle asked, confused. "I don't understand."

Turning around to face Annabelle, Deborah looked her in the eyes and said, "In order to retrieve El-Yaacub's semen from the clan's genetic repository, I had to... make a trade."

"No," said Annabelle, on the verge of tears. "No, no, no, no," she repeated while shaking her head in despair.

"Shhh," pacified Deborah gently as she walked up to Annabelle and embraced her. "It's okay. Really, it is."

"Why, Deb? Why?" asked Annabelle, her eyes filled with tears. "I didn't ask for this to happen."

"It was something I had to do," Deborah replied. "For you and for me."

That made Annabelle even more confused, and seeing it, Deborah added, "Remember all those times you asked me about my relationship with Ruolfo and I was evasive? And you thought that I didn't trust you enough to confide in you. It wasn't a question of trust. It was a question of duty, of obligation, of hope... and, ultimately, fear.

"I haven't seen Ruolfo in over a year. Whatever message I send to him must go through Legion Intelligence first. Most of the time, it doesn't get through. Likewise, I would hardly get whatever Ruolfo sends me."

"Legion Intelligence?" asked Annabelle, surprised.

"You see," Deborah explained further, "just when I had found true love, I lost him. Ruolfo and I happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time. We were caught in a bungled covert operation. And due to the 'overly sensitive' nature of the operation, Ruolfo and I were sworn to secrecy under the threat of death. To make things worse, we were separated and forbidden to communicate with each other, save through proper Intelligence channels. I'm not even suppose to tell anyone about this, since I have to go through a lie-detector test once in three weeks.

"I don't know if I'll ever see Ruolfo again, or if he would still feel the same way about me - people change, things change. But I'd do anything to get him back, or keep a piece of him with me... but I can't."

That last piece of revelation helped Annabelle put most of the pieces together. She now understood why Deborah would go to great lengths to help her.

"Oh, Deb. All this feels so wrong," Annabelle said in a weak, hapless manner. "I don't think we both had the time to think all this through properly. The consequences...."

"The consequences be damned!" Deborah raised her voice in anger. "I'm tired of having to cower in fear while I serve the Dreaded Legion. I'm tired of the Legion taking what I deem precious from me bit by bit. I want to fight back, and this is the only way I know how - by helping a true friend in need."

"I...," Annabelle began to say, but paused in hesitation. "I don't know what to say," said Annabelle, confused.

"You now have something to live for, Anna, and I have something worth dying for," said Deborah. "Let's make the best of what we have."

Several hundred thousand kilometres away, the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders were nearing the jump-point that would take them deep into uncharted pirate territory. Siddiq's Stealth Wing Alpha preceded the rest of the raiders by accelerating to sub-light speed and entering the jump-point one at a time as violently as possible. Their combined shockwaves could be seen as huge ripples that bent and reflected light. And those shockwaves were carried through to the other side of the jump-point, knocking out space mines freshly laid by the Snow Leopard mine layers.

Again, the alarm was raised on the hidden Snow Leopard clan listening post nearby. And Khan Luther was duly notified of the presence of Dreaded Legion stealth raiders. But Luther did not scramble an intercept force because it would be at a severe disadvantage due to the Dreaded Legion's advanced stealth technology. Instead, Luther would allow the stealth raiders to roll on through. He had other ways of dealing with them.

Surely enough, all of the Dreaded Legion's stealth raiders arrived virtually unchallenged. And the SX-1 reconnaissance module was retrieved without incident. The data on the module was corrupted mostly, but whatever data that was retrievable revealed the existence of a new type of weapon that appeared to have been responsible for debilitating the SX-1. Thus the retrieval of that weapon for further study became a primary objective as well.

Unfortunately, when Star Colonel Hauser's stealth Elemental force, backed by the Auxies, launched its raid against the Leopard's Den, it found nothing but empty repair bays, decompressed control stations and crew quarters, as well as dismantled weapons turrets. It was as though the whole base had been evacuated at lightning speed. In truth, Snow Leopard scientists had designed the disrupter weapons turrets to be highly mobile, in that the whole gun section of a turret could be lifted off quickly for use at other locations on a base or stored in specially designed transports that would house the gun-section of the turrets. And the only things that were set up for the ambush of the SX-1 at Leopard's Den were the turrets, each of which had an independent power source that was similar to a small BattleMech engine.

Curious enough for the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders, throughout their raid, the stealth probes attached to the missing heavy transports were undetectable. It was only when the raid was concluded that faint signals from those probes were picked up.

"It is another trap," observed Siddiq from the cockpit of his DX-1. "Although sensor readouts are negative, we can be sure that they are observing us. They waited till we concluded our raid before allowing the stealth probes' signals to get through to us again."

"I concur," said Hauser from the bridge of the stealth Elemental assault transport. "But we have no choice. We have to follow the probes, and rely on stealth as well as guile to regain the upper hand."

"Agreed," said Siddiq. "I will send two-flight to scout ahead."

"Aff, make it so, Star Captain," said Hauser.

Siddiq signed off with a curt nod and relayed the order for two of the DX-1s on his wing, grouped as Two Flight, to scout ahead. A moment later, Two Flight pulled away at high speed, and amazingly, without the use of afterburners.

Meanwhile, back at the Snow Leopard clan War Room, "Our stealth probes show a black hulking mass moving away from Leopard's Den," reported Thorne.

"Excellent," remarked Luther. "Estimated time of arrival?"

"Unknown," Thorne replied. "Our probes could not match the transport's amazing acceleration rate - that thing looks enormous but flies almost as fast as a standard heavy bomber. And once outside of visual range, our probes lost all contact with the stealth transport."

"Hmmm.... Did our Scientist General not mention something in his report on the captured supplies about what appeared to be components for inertial dampeners?" Luther wondered allowed. "We will have to simply be on our toes from now on."

"My Khan, have a look at this," said Thorne, calling Luther over to a display that relayed the video feed from one of the Snow Leopard stealth probes. Rewinding the video feed several minutes' worth and freezing it, the display showed Kit Foxes with space black camouflage. On the sides of the display were technical readouts that were mostly gibberish owing to the fact that the probes could not take accurate sensor readings or had made terribly erroneous ones.

"Aff, I suspected as much," said Luther. "Advanced stealth scout Mechs for getting behind enemy lines quickly or into an enemy base, wreaking havoc and confusion, and then getting out relatively unscathed. You cannot hit what you cannot see or lock on to."

"That is not all," said Thorne, as he zoomed in on the Kit Foxes. "Look at those protrusions."

"My, my," said Luther, impressed. "No wonder they look strange: Elementals in advanced stealth amour riding piggyback. I want a full lock-down of the base and place Elementals on every possible points of entry."

"Aff, locking down now," said Thorne as he signalled to the War Room Duty Chief Tech to hit the lock-down switch.

A fraction of a second later, klaxons could be heard blaring throughout the entire Snow Leopard pirate base.

"Elementals are already in position," Thorne confirmed further. "I took the liberty of giving out the order well in advance."

"Very good, Thorne," said Luther. While he appeared calm, someone close to him would have detected mild signs of discomfort of the sort that said he was worried; someone like Thorne. And noticing that Thorne was looking at him intently, a light smile tugged at a corner of his lips. "I had hoped that the Dreaded Legion's advanced stealth technology would not filter down to the level of Elementals. But such is inevitable. Now, no fortified base will ever be safe from penetration by Elementals." Noticing the discomfort his observations had caused some of his officers and War Room techs, Luther added, "But it is nothing for us to be overly concerned about. We will simply have to make sure none of them gets through to the War Room."

A few hours later, the stealth assault force arrived at the Snow Leopard clan home base, which was located on an asteroid the size of a small moon. It was densely packed with metals and radio active materials, and was not only a good place to hide in but also a good place to set up a mining colony as well as industrial facilities. As to why the Snow Leopards would want to bring the Dreaded Legion here to their home base befuddled the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders. Clearly, they would have to proceed with extreme caution, because it was no doubt a place for a major trap to be sprung. But proceed, they must, nonetheless.

Having identified the location of the base using the signals transmitted by the DX-1 stealth probes attached to the heavy pirate transports, the Elemental stealth assault transport landed and unloaded its cargo of Elementals and Mechs several kilometres away. Siddiq's Stealth Wing Alpha continued to keep a close watch, ready to pounce on unsuspecting pirate aerospace assets and ground targets on a moment's notice.

"Elementals mounted and ready," said Hauser in his grating baritone voice over the Dreaded Legion coms.

"Aff," acknowledged Juan. "Auxies, move out. Maintain tight formation and keep your speed up. At the first sign of trouble, break formation and scatter, and regroup at nav point Delta."

Not that the reminder was necessary, since, like Juan, the rest of the Auxies were highly talented MechWarriors with photographic memory, which meant that they seldom made mistakes or forgot, albeit they were not as good as Juan. But in a tense pre-battle situation, it was always good for the warriors to hear the calm voice of their commander.

"Aff, Star Commander," they replied.

The armour on the Kit Foxes were Stage II stealth armour. Although it was lighter than Stage I armour which afforded little or no protection against energy weapons, Stage II stealth armour was almost as strong as ferro-fibrous armour, but its stealth value was less than perfect compared to Stage I armour. It would allow some amount of electronic and other signals to escape intermittently, which meant that a sensor tech with enough experience and specialised equipments would be able to detect the presence of the Dreaded Legion's stealth Kit Foxes. The same applied to stealth Elemental suits equipped with Stage II stealth amour.

Although the risk of detection was significant, the benefits gained from stronger stealth armour far outweighed it. The stealth Kit Foxes and Elementals would be able to stay a lot longer in a fire fight. And there was always the element of surprise to count on, not to mention the fact that the Snow Leopards were inexperienced in dealing with stealth Mechs and Elementals.

Surely enough, the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders managed to reach the outer perimeter of the Snow Leopard main base without being detected. They even ran right pass several auto-cannon and pulse laser turrets at full speed without raising an alarm.

It was only when they detected the presence of pirate Mechs patrolling the perimeter that they slowed to a halt and hunkered down. When the pirate Mechs were out of visual range, the stealth raiders moved out and came within striking distance of what appeared to be the main entrance to the pirate base.

Initial scans showed that there was a smaller entrance to the right; maybe a service entrance. And there was one topside, probably for freighters and aerospace fighters. No doubt, these entrances were all heavily guarded.

But the scans also showed that there was a tiny entrance on the extreme left side; a maintenance personnel entrance, probably. Unfortunately, the scanners on the stealth Elemental assault transport could not penetrate deep enough to know where it lead to. Nonetheless, Houser believed that, once inside, he and his lance mates could find their way to the freighters using the beacons as direction finders.

"Waiting on your orders, Star Colonel," said Juan.

As planned, Beta lance and Auxies 1 and 2 would engage the front entrance, while Gamma lance and Auxies 3 and 4 engaged the right side entrance. Theta lance and Auxies 5 and 6 would engage the topside entrance, while Alpha lance engaged the extreme left side entrance.

"Estimated commencement time, 10 minutes," said Houser. "Any last minute query?"

No one posed any.

"Move out," Houser ordered.

Swiftly and with practiced ease, all of the stealth raiders moved with purpose.

"Alpha Elemental 1 to Stealth Wing 1," said Houser, hailing Siddiq.

"Stealth Wing 1 here," responded Siddiq.

"Where are you?" Houser asked.

"Directly above the base," replied Siddiq.

"Aff," acknowledged Houser. Although he could not see or electronically detect Siddiq's Stealth Wing Alpha, he knew that the Dreaded Legion stealth fighter-interceptors were already in place and, as they were listening on coms, required no directions from him. "Make them regret bringing us here to one of their lairs."

"Aff," Siddiq responded with cool confidence and determination.

Several minutes later, everyone was in place. Houser gave the go-ahead and the diversionary attacks began.

"Galaxy Commander," a communications tech called out from his console in the Snow Leopard War Room. "Reports are streaming in on attacks from three sides."

"Confirmed," said the sensor tech from his console.

"Onscreen," Thorne commanded, and the War Room main view screen lit up to show the base schematics in wire-frame format and live footage from all the various observation cameras that had visuals of the attacks.

"Why have our auto defence turrets not engaged?" asked Thorne.

"They are unable to achieve target lock," responded another tech manning the base defence weapons console.

"Galaxy Commander," the sensor tech called out in alarm. "Our main base doors are down to 50 percent armour, hanger bay doors are down to 60 percent armour and service bay doors are breached."

"Scramble base defenders," ordered Thorne. "We have no choice but to flush out the enemy."

"Aff," replied the Snow Leopard base security chief, who then relayed the order accordingly.

"Here they come," said Juan over the Dreaded Legion coms. "Fire and fade, Auxies. Keep moving."

"Topside! Topside! Executioner, topside!" Auxies 5 called out over the coms.

"Aff," responded Siddiq. "The Executioner is as good as dead," Siddiq added, as he swooped down on the Executioner with his wingman Star Commander Abizaid in tow. Pulling out from his steep dive, Siddiq levelled his DX-1 enough to allow him to turn his stealth fighter-interceptor laterally in mid-flight and fired off all six of his ERPPCs at the Executioner's centre torso, smashing and boiling off most of the enemy Mech's centre torso armour. And before the Executioner could recover, Abizaid, who duplicated Siddiq's manoeuvre exactly, fired off all six of his ERPPCs, finishing off the Executioner.

"Nice shot," commented Siddiq, as he pulled up and away.

"Neg," responded Abizaid, as he did a small victory roll while pulling up and away. "It was a cheap shot. The Executioner had no chance whatsoever, but I would not have it any other way."

"Aff," acknowledged Siddiq understandingly and with a touch of sinister glee. It was more than what the pirates deserved, they both felt.

"Enemy aerospace fighters have launched and are in the 'air'," announced Star Commander El-Fadhil.

"Aff," acknowledged Siddiq. "Finish them off quickly, Two Flight."

"On it," replied El-Fadhil as he and his wingman accelerated their stealth fighter-interceptors toward the pirate aerospace fighters.

"Direwolf! Direwolf! Main entrance!" Juan called out.

"Three Flight, support main entrance assault," ordered Siddiq.

"Way ahead of you," replied Star Commander Mukhtar, leader of Three Flight, as he took out the lumbering Direwolf with 6 ERPPCs to the head. "Good bye, Direwolf."

"Well done," Houser commented under his breath, careful not to let his voice activation mic pick up his comment. There was enough chatter on the Dreaded Legion general coms without him adding his own to it.

Switching over to the Alpha Lance com channel, Houser said, "I detect only two Elementals behind that blast door. But my readings are sketchy."

"Aff, Star Colonel," responded Lance Commander Shaqeel. "I detect only two as well. The third has moved off."

"Our diversionary attacks appear to be working," commented Houser. "On my mark, take out the ultra-AC turret covering the blast door."

And with that, Houser and his elementals aimed their arm mounted ER small pulse lasers and shoulder mounted anti-personnel gauss rifles at the auto-AC turret. Although individually, the Elemental weapons would do little damage against a thickly armoured gun turret, the concentration of weapons mounted on four Elementals would be enough to take it out in a few Alpha strikes.

"Mark!" Houser sounded off, and they all began firing at the ultra-AC turret.

The gun turret did not respond, as its targeting computer did not register any enemy target on its sensors. And in less than 10 seconds, it was turned into a pile of smouldering twisted metal pieces.

The pirate Elementals behind the blast door appeared confused and uncertain of how to respond. Their sketchy bio-sensor scans painted them as red, giant, fuzzy clowns, or at least that was how they appeared on Houser's heads down display when he glanced at it.

"Alpha 3, blast charges," ordered Houser. "We will provide cover fire."

"Aff," responded Elemental warrior Sorrel as he unclipped four disc shaped charges from his thighs. He then stepped into the open and flung them, one after another at the blast door. And as the door was coated with ferro-fibrous armour, the charges latched themselves effortlessly upon contact.

"Clear!" shouted Sorrel, as he stepped behind cover again. And a split second later, the charges blew. The blast door blew inward at first and then outward because the hard vacuum of space caused the section protected by the blast door to decompress violently, but the effect was rather short-lived.

The blast door blew out to reveal a small airlock, and the inner airlock door still held. But then, it opened suddenly, causing more atmosphere to be vented into the cold hard vacuum of space. And not surprisingly, out came sustained weapons fire as well.

True to the aggressive nature of Elementals, the Snow Leopard Elementals guarding the airlock sought to regain the initiative by firing their weapons into the black of space. But since they were doing it blindly, they were hitting nothing and merely exposing themselves. With cool confidence, Houser lined up his anti-personnel gauss rifle sight on one of the Snow Leopard Elementals, zoomed in on the enemy warrior's faceplate, and fired. The Snow Leopard Elemental was thrown back and writhed in pain, and then laid motionless.

Seeing the demise of his partner, the other Snow Leopard Elemental retreated further back and, shortly after, disappeared from sensors.

"Go! Go! Go!" ordered Houser. And quickly, his warriors moved in, with Houser bringing up the rear.

Sorrel was point-man, and as he entered the busted airlock, he braced himself for being hit by enemy fire, and leapt for the nearest cover. Crouching into a squat position, he then checked his sensors once again for enemy presence. His sensor readings confirmed that the airlock led into a storage cum service chamber of sorts and there was no enemy target within weapons or sensor range.

"Clear!" Sorrel shouted his 'go-ahead' for the rest of his lance to came through the airlock, while he remained squatted and ready to lay down cover fire.

When everyone had entered, Houser ordered, "Now, lock onto the stealth beacon."

"Bearing 325 from our position," confirmed Shaqeel.

"Aff," Houser acknowledged. "Move out."

But before any of them could, they felt and heard faintly a clanking sound vibrating through the deck plating and up through their Elemental suits, at about the same time the second Snow Leopard Elemental guarding the storage chamber airlock reappeared on sensors. And at once, their heightened senses, honed by years of intense training, told them that it was an anti-Elemental heavy grenade that was thrown down by the Snow Leopard Elemental. So, Houser and is Elementals dived for cover as quickly as hulking Elementals could.

The explosion was muted by the hard vacuum of space but the flying shrapnel and shockwave from the exploded heavy grenade were devastating nonetheless. They had ripped off part of the front and side portions of the stealth armour on Shaqeel's and Elemental warrior Sujak's suits, leaving them exposed to and detectable by normal sensors. Fortunately enough, their basic underlay armour standard on all Elemental suits was not breached.

"Sound off! Sound off!" Houser ordered.

"Sorrel here."

"Sujak here."

"Shaqeel here."

"Damage status?" Houser inquired.

"All green," Sorrel reported.

"Red on front and side," reported Shaqeel.

"Red and blinking on side; front is red," reported Sujak.

Just then, more pirate Elementals started to appear on sensors, while the Elemental responsible for throwing down the heavy grenade had disappeared once again. No doubt, he had shut down his suit so that he would not be easily detected. But that also made him blind to flanking attacks.

"Fan out and nail that Surat excrement," Houser ordered through gritted teeth.

Unfortunately, Houser and his lance mates could only take a few flanking steps before the door to the storage chamber blew inward, followed by a torrent of decompressed air that forced them to take several steps back and behind cover again.

"They are going to rush us," Houser said while firing his weapons through the blown out storage chamber entrance. His Elementals added their own fire power to his in order to prevent enemy Elementals from rushing into the storage chamber.

Just then, the pirate Elemental in the storage chamber who had shut his suit down, reactivated it and stepped into the open quickly in order to shoot at Sujak and Shaqeel. But before he could fire his weapons, he was knocked back by the impact of concentrated fire coming from Houser and his elementals. And he fell limp like a rag doll encased in a heavy shell, as he was killed almost instantly by a gauss slug to the faceplate.

Houser and his lance mates turned their attention once again to the blown out storage chamber entrance, laying down cover fire while careful to avoid being hit by return fire.

"Sorrel, cut through the wall on the left," ordered Houser. "I will do the same on the right. They are bunched together in the corridor outside. Hit them from the side as soon as you get outside."

"Aff, Star Colonel," responded Sorrel, as he adjusted the power level on his arm mounted ER small pulse laser weapon in order to turn it into a more efficient cutting tool and began cutting through the left wall of the storage chamber.

Air began seeping into the chamber as Sorrel breached the other side. And the same occurred when Houser breached the right wall of the storage chamber with his ER small pulse laser.

Less than a minute later, both Houser and Sorrel were through. Although their actions sounded off alarms, their presence in the compartments adjacent to the storage chamber were undetectable by the enemy, if only for a short while. Quickly, they rushed to the pressure doors in their respective rooms, unsealed them, kicked them open and lobbed disc shaped charges in the direction of the enemy Elementals who were laying siege on the storage chamber. And since the discs were set to explode on contact, they blew as soon as they landed on the deck plating, crates, and enemy Elementals.

In the cold hard vacuum of space, the explosions were muted. But the devastation could be seen clearly in the aftermath. There were broken bodies with missing limbs or whole body parts. And where the disc shape charges landed on the deck plating were small craters. So powerful were the relatively small experimental explosive charges that they took out a full star and a half's worth of pirate Elementals.

"We have to move quickly before reinforcements arrive," Houser said over the coms.

"Aff," acknowledged Shaqeel. "Sujak and I will provide the necessary diversion."

"Aff," responded Houser, appreciative of the fact that he need not issue the order. "Die well my young friends," Houser added, knowing that Shaqeel's and Sujak's chances of survival were worse than slim.

"You honour us, Star Colonel, by calling us your friends," Shaqeel replied. And with that, he and Sujak took off in the direction which led them away from the stealth beacons.

"On your six, Star Colonel," Sorrel said as he came up to Houser.

"This way," Houser ordered as he moved off in the direction of the beacons.

Back in the Snow Leopard War Room, "Galaxy Commander!" the Snow Leopard Chief Tech called out in alarm. "We have lost all contact with Gamma and Theta star. And sensors have detected two intruders headed in the general direction of the War Room."

"Call up reinforcements to intercept," said Thorne to his Security Chief. "Have our units engaged in repelling the diversionary attacks to fall back. Re-engage only when there is a clear target of opportunity."

"Aff, Galaxy Commander," responded the Security Chief.

"Are they really mad enough to attack the War Room?" Luther asked rhetorically.

"They are determined," Thorne said. "Our last report confirmed the presence of at least four stealth Elementals, two of them with severely damaged amour. And they took out two stars' worth of Elementals."

"Well, let us make the bait more attractive and bolster the War Room defences at the same time," Luther ordered.

"Aff, my Khan," said Thorne.

Several moments later, "This is too easy," Houser said as he extracted his suit's retractable claws from the torso of a fallen enemy Elemental with a hard pull.

"Aff," Sorrel concurred. "It is as if they want us to succeed."

"Well, let us take any advantage we can get, even if it leads us to a trap," Houser said as he began running again toward the massive Snow Leopard hanger bay.

A few minor battles later, Houser and Sorrel managed to reach the hanger bay control centre. Having cleared it out of enemy warriors and techs, Sorrel began working on the control centre computer terminals with his suit's onboard computer which had been adapted specifically to suit Sorrel's other expertise - data infiltration and extraction or, in ancient Terran parlance, "hacking".

"We are in!" Sorrel announced excitedly, and just in time too. Enemy Mechs guarding the top-side entrance were coming back in and they appeared intent on blowing Houser and Sorrel out from the control centre.

"And we have control of the internal defence turrets!" Sorrel said, as he pointed to a different terminal from which the turrets could be controlled manually.

Quickly, Houser took control of the terminal and began firing off the internal defence turrets at incoming pirate Mechs.

"By Kerensky!" Houser exclaimed as the saw first hand the debilitating effects of disrupter turrets on Mechs. He also hunched reflexively as a gauss slug smashed barely a meter away from the heavily armoured control centre view port.

Tuning back into the general coms channel for the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders, Houser called out, "This is Alpha Elemental 1, we have control of the hanger bay internal defence turrets. Assistance is required. Evac in 10 minutes. I repeat, evac in ten minutes."

"This is Auxies 5, coming in to assist."

"Auxies 1 to Alpha Elemental 1," Juan chimed in. "Is retrieval not possible, Star Colonel?"

"Neg," Houser replied. "A heavy freighter is sitting pretty in the hanger bay. But it is nothing more than a giant mouse trap. Whatever is in that thing is not worth taking. Data retrieval is in progress. We will download whatever we can get and withdraw."

"Understood," said Juan.

"I cannot get in further," said Sorrel, frustrated. "The encryption algorithms are much too complicated to crack in such a short time."

"Do we have technical data on the disrupters?" Houser asked.

"Neg," replied Sorrel. "But we do have enough to know for certain that this place is more than just a base. It is the Snow Leopard clan's home base."

"Snow Leopard?!" Houser asked in surprise. "I thought they died out a decade ago. No wonder they were so determined to get at us."

"Auxies 5 and 6 here. Ready and waiting."

"Acknowledged," Houser responded over the general coms. "Cover us."

Turning to Sorrel, Houser signalled for them to leave.

"Let us head for the freighter," Houser said. "If we cannot have the contents of the freighter, neither should the Snow Leopards."

Several moments later, Houser and Sorrel were riding piggyback on Auxies 5's stealth Kit Fox. And as soon as they all left the hanger bay, it was engulfed in fiery explosions. For, Houser and Sorrel had caused the heavy freighter reactor core to go critical. And the supplies it carried, including munitions, blew up in a flash.

The shockwave could be felt all he way back to the Snow Leopard War Room.

"Well, that did not work," Thorne said, commenting on the obvious, but careful to bite back any further recriminations against Luther.

"The game is not over yet," Luther said with a touch of anger in his voice and general demeanour. "They may be thinking like pirates now, but I know Voltage. His failure to retrieve his supplies will egg him on to launch a full scale attack, now that they know this is our home base. That arrogant, pride-filled freebirth will find it simply irresistible."

After a short pause, Luther continued, "And when they show up, we will crush them with the full might of our forces." He said it more for the benefit of his warriors and techs in the War Room than for himself. For, he was already quite convinced of the inevitability of the Snow Leopard's victory.

"We have killed two of their best Elemental warriors," Luther added. "And if they had more stealth raiders, they would have overwhelmed us already. Neg, the outcome of the final battle will be determined using conventional warfare tactics. We will crush them all!"

"Seyla!!" those in the War Room said aloud with pride and determination.

Out on the grounds near the main entrance to Snow Leopard home base, Lance Captain Uruthia thought she saw the familiar flash of jump jets at a distance, except that the bogeys with the jump jets were moving too quickly to be jump-capable Mechs.

"I have contact," Uruthia said excitedly. "Bearing 320, possibly 400 metres out from my position. I'm engaging."

"Neg," countered Lance Colonel Brimstone. "Belay that and form up on me."

"Damn it! They'll get away if we don't act now," Uruthia lashed back.

"Then let them get away," Brimstone countered.

"I have visual confirmation!" Uruthia said. "I'm going for it. You can either back me up or run like a coward, Brimstone."

"How dare you!" Brimstone shot back.

"Yeah, I dare, especially when I know I can get me a stealth Kit Fox, no thanks to you," Uruthia said, coyly. "And the Khan will thank me when he could have thanked you."

Just then, the enemy target came within range of Uruthia's disrupter weapons, which was slightly more than 150 metres. And she fired, and scored a direct hit.

Two of the stealth Elementals who had just got onto the stealth Kit Fox for a piggyback ride fell to the ground and began writhing in pain. And while the stealth Kit Fox did not shut down, it started faltering and began to lose speed.

Eight seconds later, Uruthia's disrupters finished cycling, but just as she pulled the trigger, her aim was knocked off by an LBX10 shot to the rear of her Kit Fox, followed by the slamming of dumb-fire SRM4s.

"What the hell?" Uruthia wondered allowed.

"That is the last time you insult me on open coms, you freebirth!" Brimstone shouted.

Uruthia torso twisted her Mech quickly while manoeuvring sharply away in an attempt to locate Brimstone visually. Both of them had shut down their radars and targeting computers entirely in order to avoid detection, but clearly, Brimstone had her in his gun sights since her Mech rocked again because of hits from an LBX10 and SRMs, again to the rear.

"Cut it out, Brimstone!" Uruthia shouted desperately.

"You think you are better than me?!" Brimstone shouted back. "You freebirth pseudo-warrior!" he spewed further, while tearing the rear of Uruthia's Kit Fox with more missiles.

But before he could follow up with another LBX10 shot to the rear, Uruthia's Kit Fox was hit by streak short range missiles (SSRM) on her right flank. The stealth Kit Fox Uruthia had tried to disable earlier appeared to have recovered the functions of its weapons system. Although it still looked sluggish, it followed through with heavy medium laser fire, ripping off the dual disrupters housed in the right arm of Uruthia's Kit Fox, effectively denying her any real means to defend herself.

And just then, Brimstone's onboard computer warned him of enemy missile lock, and a fraction of a second later, his Kit Fox rocked as a result of being hit from the side by SSRM and heavy medium lasers. Another stealth Kit Fox had arrived on the scene.

"Oh my God! Help me, Lance Colonel," Uruthia pleaded.

Seeing that he was now outgunned, Brimstone veered his Kit Fox away from Uruthia and headed back to the main entrance of the Snow Leopard home base.

"You are on your own, Lance Captain," Brimstone said, with an over exaggerated emphasis on Uruthia's rank. "You stupid freebirth. Did you think we could take on that stealth Kit Fox without backup? You did not consider the whereabouts of its backup did you?"

"Bloody murder!" Uruthia shouted as she wove her Mech desperately in an evasive pattern, in a futile attempt to avoid being hit by enemy weapons fire.

"Neg," countered Brimstone. "You were as good as dead. I merely hastened your fate." And with that, Brimstone cut off communications, and he veered just in time to avoid being hit by multiple ERPPC fire that appeared to have come from nowhere.

Uruthia considered her options quickly. She could eject to safety, but her insubordinate behaviour would not help her win any reprieve for losing her Mech so stupidly in combat. If she were to survive her escape pod ordeal, she would still be put in front of a firing squad and shot.

But before she could think further, her Kit Fox took a tumble from being legged. As it slid to a stop, she considered rocking her Mech back onto its feet, but it would have been pointless. Her fate was sealed.

A moment later, Uruthia heard the eerie sounds of elementals landing heavily on her Mech. Slowly, they began tearing away at her Mech's armour with their pincer-like claws, until they breached the shell that protected her cockpit from the cold hard vacuum of space.

Uruthia began to see red spots before her eyes as the air pressure in her cockpit dropped quickly. She had difficulty breathing as the air became really thin. Mercifully, she passed out before the stealth Elementals managed to rip open her cockpit entirely and drive her through with evil looking Elemental claws.

"That was a close one," said Juan, as his stealth Kit Fox recovered 93 percent of its onboard systems.

"My apologies for arriving late on the scene, Star Commander," Juan's wingman, Lance Colonel Augustus, tendered.

"No apologies necessary, Augustus," Juan replied. "We were all doing what we were supposed to, give or take a few minor miscalculations. Besides, now we know what it is like to go up against a fast attack Mech armed with Mech disrupter weapons."

"Aff," acknowledged Augustus.

"The other enemy Kit Fox managed to retreat into its base, Star Commander," said Siddiq as he circled slowly over Juan, Augustus and the stealth Elementals of Beta lance.

"I appreciate the backup, Star Captain," said Juan with a smile. "I do not think we would encounter more enemy Mechs after this. See you back at our rendezvous point.

"Aff," acknowledged Siddiq. "Outstanding performance, Star Commander."

"Thank you, Star Captain," Juan replied, appreciatively. "And you too, as always."

Siddiq merely smiled and flew off to regroup with the rest of his Stealth Wing Alpha.

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Attica, "My Khan," Darkstalker called out to Voltage. "It would appear that our stealth raiders have achieved a reasonable degree of success. Data is coming in right now."

"Onscreen," said Voltage as he took a few nominal steps closer to the Attica's main display screen.

The data, in its unabbreviated form, was filled with superfluous contents, but the hidden gems were not difficult to spot.

"Our nemesis has arisen from the dead," said Voltage, after seeing the Snow Leopard seal attached to a few official electronic documents.

"Or rather, the Snow Leopard clan did not die as we expected," countered Darkstalker. "According to the manifest that we just looked at, the Snow Leopards appear to be thriving in the Badlands."

"It was theirs to begin with," remarked Voltage. "And judging by the impressive supply manifest, we might have even raided their home base."

"Aff," concurred Darkstalker. "My thoughts exactly, my Khan."

Turning to the Duty Chief, Voltage instructed, "Inform the good Star Colonel Houser that I want a full debriefing once he returns."

"At once, my Khan," the Duty Chief replied.

Eighteen hours later, Hauser and the rest of the commanders of the Dreaded Legion stealth raiders were convened in a debriefing session before Voltage, saKhan Dig, Alexandria and Darkstalker.

"I had no choice but to destroy the heavy freighter," reiterated Hauser. "They would not let us have it without exacting a heavy price. So, we should not let them have it either."

"Aff," agreed Voltage. "It was a good call."

"My stealth raiders are fully rested and ready for re-engagement should you wish it, my Khan," said Hauser. "But as you can see from Star Commander Juan's report of his encounter with a fast attack Mech armed with Mech disrupters, our potential battlefield losses and casualties would be significantly more than nominal if we were to engage them in open battle."

Dig nodded in agreement. So did Alexandria and Darkstalker.

"Nonetheless, we are, as always, at your disposal," said Hauser. "And I believe that I speak for every stealth raider when I say, we would only be too happy to get back into the fray."

And with that, Voltage looked each of the stealth raider commanders directly in the eyes. And what he saw was conviction, confidence and fierce determination in Hauser, Siddiq and Juan.

"I appreciate your candour, Dawood," Voltage began. "Truly I do. Hence, there will be no more Dreaded Legion lives lost here in the Badlands. Our work is done. Now, go and recuperate further, my warriors. You have all done well. Mourn our fallen brethren and celebrate our victory as appropriate. Dismissed."

And with that, Hauser, Siddiq and Juan rose to attention, turned and left the senior officers conference room.

When the conference room door had closed behind them, Dig asked, "So, what is next, Leigh?"

"You leave that to me," said Voltage. He then turned to Alexandria and said, "In the meanwhile, Star Admiral, take our battle group out of the Badlands. It is about time with rendezvoused with the rest of the clan in the Damien Asteroid cluster."

"Aff, my Khan," said Alexandria, as she rose to attention, and then she left the room.

"You are dismissed, Star Colonel," Voltage said to Darkstalker.

"My Khan," Darkstalker acknowledged with a nod, after which he too rose to attention and then left.

"Oh, you are not dismissing me," Dig said while wagging his index finger at Voltage in "no-no" fashion.

Voltage smiled and said, "I would not even dream of it, Adam." He then brought up his wrist computer and spoke, "Duty Chief, I want a simultaneous HPG communication link patched through to Khan Selvarajan of the Black Mamba clan. I will be in my ready room. Patch it through there as soon as she is ready to speak with me."

"At once, my Khan," replied the Duty Chief Tech over the coms.

"Your trump card," Dig remarked.

"Of course," Voltage said with a smile.

Half an hour later, a link was established. Respectfully, Voltage stood in front of the holo-vid display and waited for Selvarajan's facsimile to appear. As the Black Mamba symbol was replaced by her fierce but strikingly beautiful face, Voltage felt his heart race involuntarily. Although he was determined to keep his expression stoic, he knew she would see through him easily enough. And the fact that her expression did not soften as it usually would upon seeing him threatened to unbalance him even more.

"Larissa," Voltage said and nodded in greeting.

About four seconds later, "Leigh," Selvarajan replied in acknowledgment.

"I...," Voltage began to say but was promptly cut off.

"Do you have any idea what this looks like?" Selvarajan warned.

For Voltage, that explained why she did not mellow as she usually would when seeing him. Her warning also told him that he should keep his emotions for her in check as well, as it was likely that their link was being monitored by Black Mamba intelligence.

"I understand," Voltage acknowledged. "I assure you that what I have to offer would be beneficial to both our clans and all of Clan space."

"And what would that be?" Selvarajan asked. "Your surrender?"

Voltage nearly laughed at the remark. Selvarajan's sarcastic wit always managed to make him laugh in the past, but this time round, he was not sure that she was actually joking.

"Neg," Voltage pressed on. "Something far better than my head on a stake." After a moment's pause, Voltage continued while pacing his ready room by saying, "I suspect that you are now under fire for appearing to let me get away rather easily, quiaff?"

Four seconds later, "That is none of your concern," Selvarajan replied, coldly. But indirectly, her answer was in the affirmative.

"And I am sure the Clans are demanding that you track the Dreaded Legion down and exterminate it," Voltage pressed on. "They place you solely responsible for allowing the Dreaded Legion - for allowing me - to roam free with relative impunity. In truth, enemies of the Black Mamba hope to wither you down pretty much by forcing you to stretch Black Mamba resources thin."

Selvarajan said nothing to affirm or deny Voltage's assertions. But that was enough for Voltage to know that he was on the money.

"Huh!" Voltage snorted aloud. "To think that the Clans consider themselves superior to the Inner Sphere surats is laughable, especially when you all can be far more despicable in your political machinations."

Voltage's remark clearly showed that he considered the Dreaded Legion as superior to the Clans. But while he knew that his insult was also perceived as being directed at the Black Mamba clan, he hoped that Selvarajan would not be slighted, since it was necessary for keeping up appearances.

"I am far less interested in what you think of the Clans than in what you have to offer. So, let us stop wasting each other's time," Selvarajan bit back.

"Indeed," Voltage acknowledged. "You need a victory strong enough to show that you are achieving outstanding results in you on-going war against a clan that has gone rogue. I mean to give you that victory."

"Tsk! Enemies of the Black Mamba do not want us to crush the Dreaded Legion, as you so clearly put it," Selvarajan began her counter point. "They have had access to our reports sent to the Clan arbiters regarding your use of advanced stealth assets. They want the Black Mamba to be weakened, if not destroyed, by the Dreaded Legion. Unless we can crush you using the weight of numbers, we have very little chance for victory. They would see it as a set up; that the Black Mamba clan is your cohort."

"What if I can offer you the next best thing?" Voltage asked. "While it will not be the Dreaded Legion that you crush, you will not only remove a thorn in your side but also gain extraordinary new weapons technologies and samples of the Dreaded Legion stealth armour technology."

Selvarajan appeared intrigued enough to have a change in composure. Her general demeanour was one which Voltage had come to treasure whenever both he and Selvarajan were discussing battle tactics. It was the look of trust and camaraderie. "Are you referring to one of the pirate clans?" Selvarajan asked.

"Aff," replied Voltage. "But not just any pirate clan. I offer you the chance to bring your forces to bear on the Snow Leopard clan. In fact, I am offering you the head of Khan Luther and the chance to claim disrupter weapons technologies for yourselves."

"Luther? He still lives?" asked Selvarajan, surprised. "Disrupter weapons?"

"Well, my stealth raiders did not get the opportunity to confirm Luther's whereabouts for a fact," Voltage said. "But our encounters with the Snow Leopards had all the elements that showed him to be the hand behind them, or at the very least an astute student of Luther - deception, misdirection.... And yes, disrupter weapons took out one of my advanced stealth reconnaissance ships and its pilot. And they nearly took out another advanced stealth asset of mine as well."

Selvarajan appeared to be considering Voltage's words carefully, since the silence that followed began to stretch. "And what do you gain from this 'exchange' exactly?" Selvarajan asked finally.

"Well, obviously, reprieve, revenge, among other things," Voltage answered. And just so that she knew that his feelings for her were clear and true, he just had to throw caution to the wind and said the following. "Also, please consider it as a form of gratitude, and peace offering."

Selvarajan appeared to be taken aback by that last remark.

"Before you bite my head off for saying that, I want you to consider this," Voltage pre-empted. "The Clans are indeed superior to the Inner Sphere forces in many ways. And it is likely that the Clans will take Terra, especially now that the Crusader efforts are being spearheaded by Clan Jade Falcon and, to a lesser degree, Clan Wolf.

"Of course, I have no love lost for the Clans as they exist today, and certainly I could not feel any less strongly about the Inner Sphere. But my forces will be in Inner Sphere space and, should you require a 'neutral' ally, you will know whom to turn to," Voltage explained further. "This I offer you."

And just then, Selvarajan wore an expression Voltage longed to see. It was the look of affection, pure and freely given.

"I will... convene a council of warriors to... to discuss your offers," Selvarajan stammered.

"Aff," Voltage acknowledge. "I await your decision eagerly."

"And Leigh," Selvarajan added quickly. "The assassin was under orders from Pratabhan. The Servant of Siva's logs we recovered from the ship's 'black box' clearly showed that she had sent a tight beam communication to the Black Mamba operative just before it went down. I can only guess why."

"I know why," Voltage said, and just then, their thoughts connected. Pratabhan had always known about Voltage's special relationship with Selvarajan. Ordering the Black Mamba operative to assassinate Voltage was not only a way to attack the Dreaded Legion's leadership at its core, but also a way of lashing out at Selvarajan.

"Thank you for the information," said Voltage appreciatively. Although it had very little strategic value, it showed that Selvarajan cared enough about how Voltage felt for her to want to share it with him.

Several weeks later, a large battle group is detected as headed for the Snow Leopard home base. The Snow Leopards brought all their forces to bear and were prepared to overwhelm what they thought was the Dreaded Legion. To their shock, they found themselves confronting the Black Mamba clan. And it was not just one battle group that they had to contend with, but three.

The Snow Leopards were quickly out-manoeuvred, out-gunned and overwhelmed. Disrupter weapons technologies passed over to the Black Mamba clan, but Khan Luther and Galaxy Commander Thorne were nowhere to be found. Black Mamba intelligence surmised that they both ran from the battle as soon as they realised that defeat was inevitable but, while they had made good their escape, the Snow Leopard clan was finished and would not be able rear its ugly head ever again.

Chapter 10: The Good Fight

Chapter 11: Price of Freedom

Chapter 12: Heart and Soul

Chapter 13: End Game