Kerrigan's Cove
Labrea System
Third Quarter, 3039
The night held a gloom future for the five surviving members of Llana's Breakers. The cold,
damp wind burrowed its way into their refuge, the far edge of the forest. Kusga trees creaked
and moaned, their elastic branches surrendering to the evening's powerful gusts. Small creatures
scampered here and there, leaving the five Mechwarriors shaken and troubled. A fine mist of
weak acid rain blanketed the open prairies just north of the Kusga grove. Hindering sight and
smell, the fine precipitation clouded the team's flashtorch views with a bright white wall of
reflection, all the while producing toxic fumes wherever drops struck the exposed ores rich to the
area.
Michelle Wright shivered, recalling instances of the previous night's disastrous battle, the battle in
which Commander Llana had finally fallen. It seemed almost surreal, that replay of Llana's Mech
literally crumbling under the force of a tremendous fusion explosion. The command lance had
suffered unbelievably in that explosion. A total of six Mechwarriors had been robbed of life. All
four Mechwarriors of the command lance were dead. The head analyst and Llana herself had
been lost in an instant. After that, the Breakers just had well given up.
Taking advantage of the freak incident, the enemy pirate forces had run rampant across the
battlefield. Spotting slower heavy Mechs for artillery bombardment, the pirates had efficiently
removed the Breakers of their firepower. Scout lances scattered instantly. Though most
escaped the actual battlefield, enemy pursuits destroyed several of those that fled. Survivors had
signalled one another to meet near Baq's Arch. The strange but natural land formation was
several kilometers away. After 21 hours, only five had arrived.
What had gone wrong? Michelle pondered. Her only explanation was not a positive one. She
could only imagine every mercenary's worst nightmare...employer betrayal. All mercenaries
knew of Initial Pursuit, the small mercenary unit hired decades ago by the Outworlds Alliance.
The Alliance had considered the company sized unit disposable. Pursuit's intelligence corps
were well known for fools, and therefore exploited regardless of the consequences. Initial
Pursuit met their end while working to weaken one of the Alliance's inside problems. The
Alliance's thorn, self proclaimed nobles whom had rejected Alliance standards, overwhelmed
Initial Pursuit to hunt them down like wolverines on an arctic hare. Survivors had met a more
gruesome death. Public executions were intent on shoving the mercenary effort back into the
Alliance's face.
Looking into the dark blue glow of the chemo-heater, Michelle struggled to face the
consequences of her grave situation. Her surviving teammates were of no comfort. Each held
their own battle with this new reality. Rubbing her numb fingers against her stiff overcoat, she
contemplated options. "We must band together if we are going to survive." Michelle thought
frantically. She decided to propose her own plan of escaping this situation to the others.
"Guys," she said in a weak whisper. She struggled to find her voice, "Guys we have to get the
hell out of here. It's not good enough to hide from these bastards." Michelle looked to John.
"The ship is here. They won't leave the ship. They won't leave here."
John Cadbury, a 47 year old medium-class Mech pilot, looked into Michelle's eyes, "You are
right Michelle. We do have to leave here. It's terrible to say, but I think the only way out of
here is by capturing a pirate dropship." John looked to the other three Mechwarriors for other
ideas, but the group held their tongues. He gently prompted them to speak, "Any ideas folks?"
Among the three, only Tom Wilkins was willing to add. "Yeah I 'pect your right bot that." Tom
shook his head sadly. "but that's iposimble."
Tom's strange slur only added to Michelle's discomfort. She had always felt strange listening to
Tom. The man had a way of looking in one's eye that just grabbed attention. Michelle felt
goosebumps raising along her forearms. She shivered once again.
Suddenly the wind came up, blowing nearby Kusga leaves about the team's camp. A low howl
could be heard, like a terran wolf crying through the night in search of its lost pup. A second
breeze brought stinging mist to Michelle's exposed face and hands. The scattered leaves flew
past the campsite, flying south deep into the forest's dark enclosure. Michelle turned and looked
to the north. The white wall of mist seemed closer yet in the weak beam of her flashtorch. She
gripped the torch in her left hand with immense strength in an attempt to relieve some tension.
Looking to the ground, she noticed leftover Kusga leaves that had somehow cemented
themselves to the ground, unmoved by the cold gusts of wet air. Scrunching her nose in
confusion, Michelle turned back to the campsite once Jack Kirby began to speak.
Jack was an average joker. Though he was normally good humored and fishing for laughs, his
personality had been lost along with the rest of Llana's Breakers. He knew not how to carry
himself, nor did it occur to him that he might try to comfort his teammates. Jack now mumbled,
"My Javelin's left arm is missing. I don't think I'll be much help in combat without that large laser.
I doubt we can pull off taking a dropship when my Mech is 50% combat efficient."
John looked to Jack. "Jack you don't worry about that. We can pull off this takeover if we have
to, even without our Mechs. We'll see to it that we're off this planet with or without our
machines." John always called his Mech his machine. "Besides Jack," John spoke, just as he
was interrupted by a loud rustling noise.
A soft squeak came from behind Michelle to the north. The high pitched noise startled everyone.
With flashtorches pointed north, John continued, "We don't worry about that now, Jack. I think
we should all get back in our Mechs. Being unfamiliar with the locals, its safest we get in our
machines."
As the group gathered their gear quickly, another squeak was heard. This time the sound was
much closer, but the squeak softer. Michelle grabbed her fanny pack and began to run towards
her Mech. The Mechs were 10 meters away, deeper into the forest and powered down to
protect against the event of an enemy patrol.
Suddenly the forest floor in front of Michelle came to life. Individual leaves began bounding out
of the pile, hopping like terran grasshoppers to land upon the Mechwarriors. Grasping one of
the rubbery creatures, Michelle pulled it off and threw it to the ground. The creature's back
became an incandescent green as it hit the soft earth. Those still attached to her glowed much
the same. Michelle heard another squeak. This time the source was very close.
Turning to the north, she watched her teammates as they pulled "leaves" off one another while
John struggled to retrieve his slugthrower from his backpack. Then she saw them.
One of the creatures emitted a fourth squeak. Its large grey form trampled through the white
mist, followed by six others. They seemed to be large insects, about 1 meter in height with
elongated bodies and six legs. The front legs were raised off the ground, with angled claws
coming down from hinged joints that looked like sickles sharpened for harvest. Their backs
appeared to have dense hair with mottled grey to black markings. The pack leader ran directly
towards Rex Harris, whom was covered with the green glowing creatures. It knocked him over
after running into his legs, then crawled on top of his body. It appeared to be dancing as Rex
screamed for help. The green leaf creatures stopped glowing and leapt off of Rex, landing near
his body and resuming their disguise as leaves.
Michelle screamed. She had never seen animals like these before. Her firearm, now less than 4
meters away, seemed impossible to reach. She was now so covered with the glowing "leaves"
that she could hardly support her own weight. She walked slowly, resembling a zombie,
struggling not to fall over. Her arms felt like great weights. Suddenly she heard a shot. John had
retrieved his slugthrower.
Rather than turn back, Michelle continued foward, taking step after step carefully. The green
creatures did not hurt her, but they so thickly covered her body she could barely bend at her
joints. Another shot fired out behind her, followed by a loud hiss. What is happening!?
Another shot, and another. More hissing.
"Maybe John is killing them."
Suddenly the leafy creatures jumped off from her body. Michelle leapt to her Mech's right foot,
where her gyrojet pistol rested atop the Hatchetman's metallic boot. She turned around, pointing
the weapon wildly at anything she saw moving. The forest canopy was filled with movement,
loud hisses coming from up in the darkness. What seemed like eyes glinted in the black upper
branches. Michelle fired. A glint of silver flashed upon her target. She fired again. Once again,
another flash in the darkness.
Suddenly a large mass fell from the canopy just meters in front of her. It landed amid her fallen
friends. At once she noticed John's body and screamed, "No!" His corpse lay only meters
away. He had apparently fallen after receiving a gunshot to the neck.
Michelle looked up again to the forest canopy, seeing several "eyes" in the darkness. She
looked back down to the floor, where her gyrojet-slewn victim had fallen. It was an enemy
pirate infantryman, sporting a jump-capable exoskeleton. She looked up into the canopy again.
Leading her target, one of the "eyes", Michelle fired her gyrojet pistol just as the eye flashed
back at her. It was the last time Michelle Wright fired a weapon.
