Chapter 1

Myself and the team are waiting outside the door of our hanger. I told them to be relaxed, no need to impress when our employer is two days late to brief us. Goblin is sitting smoking one of his cigarettes, his eyes admiring the lines of the gyrocopter that's landed. Bulldog is attempting to clean the cards up off the floor after accidentally overturning the oil drum they were using as a table. Scarab is sat on top of a stack of ammo crates sharpening a tanto knife with a wet stone, even though I know it is already razor sharp.

The governor clambers out of his gyrocopter, flanked by two security personnel in over elaborate grey dress uniform, suitable for nothing but a parade ground. Behind them came a young man in a traditional light grey suit and necktie, glasses and a handheld palmtop. Clearly his PA.

Governor Nathaniel Desmond is exactly what I expect, a stereotypical noble aristocrat. Wearing a charcoal grey, high collared, military style uniform with red accents, snug over his rather robust stomach. His dark hair, flecked with grey was combed to the side in the latest High Clan fashion. His chest sparkled with an array of medals for various military campaigns and merits along with his symbol of governorship.

His eyes are bright and childish. Not even a hint of hard living in their gaze. Makes me wonder if he has even been to the planets his campaign badges took place on.

I walk towards the Governor as he crosses the Tarmac and approaches our compound. I'm not intimidated by his status or pretty security detail and fancy gyro. I've dealt with his type for most of my military career.

But still, for sake of the Tigerhawks already flawless reputation, I straighten my flight jacket, even though it's brown leather and old unit patches and insignia is tattered and faded. It was my father’s and the only thing I have left to remind me of him.

"Ah, you must be Captain Cruise?" Desmond says in a cheery voice, his words thick with education and upbringing, "a pleasure to meet you, a real pleasure!"

I extend my hand, which he pumps energetically as I return his smile.

"Indeed Sir, Captain Ajax Cruise of the 3rd Battalion of Tigerhawks,at your service."

My gaze quickly takes in his bodyguards in more detail, if you could call them that.

Their uniforms were Grey black and high collared as I stated before, but up close the waterfall of red braid falling over their right shoulders could be seen clearly. As could the wide scarlett belt with its small impractical pouches, dress dagger, silver cufflinks and buttons. Their trousers were neatly pressed and light weight in matching grey with a red stripe up the outer leg. Knee high black boots shone brightly in the sun as if freshly polished. And a small neat black cap with red trip completed the outfit. On it was a badge of a man with a fish tail for legs holding a three headed spear, something I later found out was called a trident.

These were the Atlanteans, and although they both looked like staff officers of brigadier generals on parade, their arm patches showed them to both be corporals. They both have Cheap auto-pistols in holsters on their belts.

I notice the governor has a holster on his belt, but his is holding an expensive needle pistol with pearl hilt. Following my gaze, the governor smiles.

"A Sea Eagle Needler.." He says, patting the gun's grip lovingly, .."custom made for me by the Irian PersArms company, only a handful like it."

"Very impressive sir, do you shoot?" I ask, knowing that martial sports are popular amongst high society types, "I imagine it performs well?".

"Of course! I have my own club at my villa." Beams The governor "we run regular tournaments among our friends, it's frightfully good fun!"

"Governor Desmond is an excellent marksman" Says the young PA over Desmond's shoulder, "winning the top prize 6 years running". Desmond bows gracefully to acknowledge this.

"Now Captain.." He begins, "oh you don't mind me calling you that do you? Or do you need to use your code names?"

Clearly he has never been in the military.

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"Captain is fine Sir or "Mantis" is my call sign but only when in the field". I reply with a smile.

"Mantis! How wonderful! How about your comrades in arms, I must meet them!"

He peers around behind me and spotting my team, starts walking into the compound. I turn and follow, noting that his security clearly weren't paying attention and scurry to keep up with the round but surprisingly quick governor.

I catch up with Governor Desmond as he is busy shaking hands with Rex, Melinda and Telon. "This is Gold Lance, Governor" I say introducing the team, "Bulldog, Scarab and Goblin"

I casually remove a golden wrist watch from Telon's jacket pocket as Desmond is marvelling at the size of Rex.

"Sorry Sir, did you drop this?" Handing it back to the cheery Governor, "You must have dropped it?.

"Oh yes! Silly me! Thank you Captain Mantis". He says taking the watch from me.

The PA, who I later find out is called Brodes, rolls his eyes.

"Mr Desmond, Sir, would you like me to inform the Captain of what we require of him?" Brode prompts helpfully.

"I was just getting to that Brodes!" The Governor snaps, and produces a holo disc from one of the pouches around his waist.

"I presume Captain Mantis has a holoterminal, as you didn't bring ours Brodes?" He says knowingly.

Brodes lowers his eyes.

"We have one Governor, right this way" I say and lead our little group into the hanger.

My lance stays outside. Knowing better than to intrude unless I invite them. It's not that I don't want them to hear the brief, I just don't want Rex to ask dumb questions, Melinda to point out the flaws in the plan and for Telon to steal anymore of the Governor's jewelry.

I walk over to our makeshift operations table, a pair of ammo crates with a micron holo projector sat on top.

Nathaniel Desmond however is not with me. He is staring astonished at the row of Battlemechs arrayed in his warehouse. Melinda's Hitman is the closest and over shadows our Ops room, which is light with low glow lamps.

"Is that a Commando..?" He says eagerly.

"A Hitman I believe Sir" Chirps in Brodes helpful.

"Ah yes, of course! I haven't seen one of those for a while! Splendid machines".

I flick on the projector and adjust the lights. "May I have the holo disc Governor and we can get this started?" My patience is starting to run thin.

He passes the holo disk, I flip up the projector lid, slap the disk in and snap the lid closed. The projector hums, and a trio of optical lasers spin. Within seconds spears of light form an image or Kenaar IV appears.

The governor's approaches the hologram, his face suddenly becomes serious, all pretence of a bumbling fool seems to have disappeared. He begins to explain the situation on Kenaar IV, and what he needs us to do.

So the NSSC is led by a man called Osiris Jamal III, a childhood friend of Desmond now turned competitor. The Desmondian Shipping owns rights to the largest portion of sea and coral reef on the planet. The dispute is over a huge portion of the ocean that is unclaimed by anyone, and the huge coral reef that was recently discovered there. The NSSC and Desmondian's Shipping have both been harvesting the new reef, but recently the NSSC have gotten protective of the extra profit they have been making, and suddenly Desmondian Ships have been sinking in their harbours, or being attacked by pirates in the neutral ocean.

"Don't your Atlanteans protect your ships?" I ask.

"They do try," Desmond says, glaring at the two guards that accompany them.

They avert their eyes sheepishly

"Their training seems..lacking I'm afraid" he continues.

I could see where this was going.

"So Governor, what exactly have you hired us to do?"

Brodes recognises his cue from the look the Governor gives him and steps forward, producing a datapad from his pocket.

"Governor Desmond would like you and your team to train his Atlantean Security division whilst protecting his assets from further NSSC attacks and sabotage. We suspect they plan something bigger and bolder in the near future."

I take the datapad, which turns out to be full of recon data from the NSSC's main base on the Island of Ishkaa, 50km away.

"How did you get this Intel?"I ask, knowing full well that an organisation this big must have a lot of assets both public and covert.

"I have a number of Kestrel Reconnaissance Drones which I have had monitoring their activity over the last few weeks, ever since we lost the two haulers in the docks." The Governor says proudly.

"I never thought they would be so bold as to attack my company on our ground."

I was still stunned by the fact he had military Clan tech Drones. Using stealth shielding and high speed flight, the Kestrel was used by Clan Jade falcon prior to their invasion of the inner sphere. Most were destroyed, as they were too hard to maintain, despite their usefulness. If Governor Nathaniel Desmond had this kind of technology available to him, and funds to keep it running, for a trade dispute, he would pay handsomely for our help I'm sure.

"Sir, you have a deal. But one question, why did you request Mechwarriors specifically?"

The Governor smiles, shakes my hand and highlights a spot on the holoprojector. It zooms into an image of the NSSC base, where a short thermal video begins to play. The image shows a shipping hauler being loaded, nothing out of the ordinary, then a large heat signature walks from one of the hangers and onto the ship. It looks like a man, but the men are just small specks of thermal next to it.

"Shit" I exclaim.

It's a battlemech.