Chapter 2

  Lyran Guard Forward Operating Base – Kesterly

  Aur

  Lyran Alliance

  12 February 3075

  Starlight from the night sky above illuminated the heavy tractor trailers as they rolled towards the Lyran Guard base. Three hundred meters from the gate they rumbled past a Dart BattleMech looming over the road. The huge machine swept its sensors over them, clearing them to continue on.

  “Checkpoint One clear,” the lead truck driver announced over their private comm channel. “Proceeding to Checkpoint Two.”

  “Acknowledged,” Janos replied. “Wraith Team, status?”

  “Past outer wall,” a low voice responded over a subdermal mic.

  “Proceed with caution. I am almost in position,” Janos replied. “Doberman group, wait for my signal.”

  “Roger,” Ash confirmed.

  The trucks pulled up to the base’s main gate. A pair of guards stepped out, cradling rifles and coming up to the trucks to check their credentials.

  Inside the back of one truck, nestled between crates and equipment, Eden sat in her Eivlys, right next to team leader Ash in his Roc ProtoMech. Just a few hours ago these trucks had been a Lyran supply delivery. The Shadow Division had intercepted them on the road, efficiently killing the drivers and guards before moving Bkist hardware into the trucks and continuing on to the base. Now Eden was waiting in the back and fighting down the growing panic in her stomach. The trucks had been hastily refit with ECM devices to spoof the Lyrans’ sensors so the ProtoMechs would read as a scheduled supply delivery. If any of those devices failed before she was in position, she was dead.

  A few hours ago the Precentor had deployed a pair of the Shadow Division’s drone fighters over the Edasich Motors factory a hundred klicks away. The drones were not armed, but they didn’t need to be; the Bkists had been conducting raids on targets around the hemisphere for two weeks now. Frustrated with the attacks, the Lyrans couldn’t ignore a pair of unidentified aircraft flying over the pnet’s primary industry. They would have deployed a chunk of their forces to reinforce the factory, while the ones left behind would be raw and tired from two weeks of being on constant alert.

  Seizing the Lyran base would break the Guards’ backs, giving the Bkists more freedom to operate on the pnet. Everything was going according to pn so far. The team of Wraith infiltrators were going in first, protected by their cutting-edge stealth gear. The Dobermans would be the first combat units on the ground once the attack began –

  – The transport APC rocked as it rumbled over the rough terrain. Cd in her heavy body armor and white-knuckling her rifle, she tried not to shake with fear. Months of basic training followed by JumpShip transit, all to be surrounded by unfamiliar faces and stuck on a pnet she couldn’t remember the name of.

  She self-consciously moved her hand back and forth to check her depth perception. They had promised her a new eye as soon as she proved herself. A few deployments, simple garrison and support missions, that was all she needed to earn her reward. The Master provided for the loyal, she’d been told. Maybe it was all bunk, but it was still a better deal than she’d get working in clubs or shooting raunchy trideos –

  – “Hey.”

  She blinked, becoming aware of a private comm channel that had opened. A quick ID check showed it was Raven talking to her.

  “What are you doing?” she hissed at him.

  “I was assigned to this op, I’m up in the cab. Something about keeping track of the equipment, which I guess includes you,” he whispered back. “Your brain activity’s going all over the pce. You all right?”

  “I am fine. Do not distract me,” she replied.

  He was quiet for a blissful few seconds before she heard him chuckle.

  “I still can’t get over it. Never thought I’d see Diamond out here with these people.”

  Rage boiled up in her. “Listen to me carefully: that person does not exist anymore,” she icily replied. “You will not talk about that person while you are serving this unit, and you will not use that name to refer to me. Do not burden a servant of Bke with their praeteritum.”

  “If that’s what you want.”

  The truck was slowing down again. From outside Eden could hear the boots of soldiers walking by.

  “Gate is cleared. Approaching Checkpoint Three,” the driver announced. Eden felt a chill as her whole team tensed, bracing like runners at the starting line. She hastily closed the channel with Raven.

  “Wraith team, status?” Janos asked.

  “Breached Ops building. Guard silenced. Proceeding inside…” the Wraith leader replied. “We – ”

  The voice cut off as the line filled with gunfire and shouting, followed by the loud pops of grenades. Eden felt a disturbing stillness in her heart; she was not connected to the Wraiths as she was to her team, but she could still imagine the bullets hitting her own chest –

  – She could hear the echoes of gunfire in the distance as her ptoon marched down the street. She stayed in formation, though her field kit was crushingly heavy on her small body.

  A popping noise was their only warning before the lead soldier in their column fell over. She barely had time to dive for cover before grenades fell down among them.

  Their formation broke. Orders were shouted. Guns chattered. Enemy soldiers appeared, first a few, then many. Then a gigantic BattleMech stomped into view –

  – “…ploy! Doberman group, deploy immediately!” Janos was ordering.

  Explosive charges inside the truck detonated, splitting the trailer open like an egg. Ash leapt out onto the base tarmac, while three other Canis Domini ProtoMechs were hopping off the second truck. Eden hastily stoked her reactor up to full activity and jumped off the trailer to follow them.

  Daisy and Fox in their Ghouls were opening fire on the base buildings. Guards in combat armor were already responding, screaming for backup while they fired on the ProtoMechs with their assault rifles. Yet their calls went unanswered by the silenced Ops center, and their bullets deflected harmlessly off of the Dobermans’ thick metal skins.

  Guards exploded under a hail of nickel-ferrous slugs from Daisy’s AP Gauss Rifle, while Eden began firing missiles out of the uncher on her shoulder. Each warhead exploded into thick yellow smoke, quickly swallowing up half the base in a haze as she fired again and again. Her vision quickly adjusted for the smoke, digital outlines of buildings and guards appearing as the Dobermans’ sensor data was shared with all Bkist units.

  “Contact, Uziel BattleMech,” Ash’s voice reported over the general comm channel. “Dart confirmed as well. Both located outside base wall.”

  “I am moving to respond, and Adept Vassilev is inbound. Continue operations,” Janos ordered.

  Between the ProtoMechs’ weapons, Eden’s smoke, and Daisy’s ECM suite, the Dobermans quickly turned the base into chaos. Eden had just begun to think things would go smoothly when the brilliant blue beam of a PPC fsh-melted a spot on the tarmac right next to her. She looked up to see a giant descending from the sky. The hulking form of an Uziel had leapt over the base wall, coming down on the fmes of its jump jets as the barrel of its extended-range PPC glowed with heat.

  “Alert, Uziel is engaging us!” Ash warned.

  Janos said something about needing to keep the ‘Mech busy, but Eden could barely hear him over the rush of adrenaline. The Dobermans were quickly falling back from the Uziel, towering over them at twice their height. Eden hastily switched the ammunition in her missile uncher and fired. The missiles exploded just before impact, lighting up the night as the Uziel’s chest and shoulders were covered with fming Inferno gel.

  To the MechWarrior’s credit he kept his head cool even with his ‘Mech abze. The Uziel turned towards her, blossoms of light fshing from its machine guns and missiles firing from the uncher over its cockpit. Eden shielded herself with her heavy arms, feeling the impacts like knives stabbing into her.

  She frantically shot another trio of Inferno missiles up at the Uziel, but the ‘Mech stomped towards her undeterred, wreathed in fme like a nightmare. Its arms came up to fire a PPC into her. If the missiles had stung, the energy beam hitting her chest felt like she was burning alive.

  Before the Uziel could fire again it suddenly staggered forwards, the CRACK of a sonic boom filling the air as something smmed into its shoulder. Eden looked past the Uziel to spot an angur BattleMech two hundred meters away and closing quickly. Her system pinged it as a Deva OmniMech.

  “Acolyte, disengage,” Janos ordered from the Deva. “Resume your duties, cover your teammates.”

  Eden snapped an acknowledgement and moved away from the Uziel, which was already shifting its attention to the new threat. Fox was quickly at her side, scanning her to see how badly she was damaged.

  The air hummed with the bdes of a Karnov heavy VTOL overhead, fast-dropping heavily armored infantry into the base. Meanwhile the Uziel took a Gauss slug to the chest, sending it staggering backwards. Eden flinched, barely avoiding being crushed as the ‘Mech toppled over to crash onto its side. Fox pounced onto it, firing his ser into the fallen ‘Mech’s cockpit over and over.

  “Wraith team, is Ops secure?” Janos asked over the general channel.

  There was silence for a moment. “I am…unable to continue,” a voice weakly replied. “There may be…some Frails left…in Ops,” it said between bored breaths.

  “Understood. Bke’s Blessing be upon you, Adept.”

  “Praise be to – ” the voice began, cutting off as Janos triggered a final function in the Wraiths’ impnts. Suddenly the Ops building rocked with explosions –

  – She was sitting on the curb, staring bnkly into the middle distance. Her gun y forgotten at her side, and her uniform was spattered with blood. At some point her arm had been bandaged up, but she had no memory of when it had happened.

  The street was littered with wreckage, bodies, and blood. A BattleMech carrying Bkist colors stood nearby, casting a shadow over her in the setting sun. A dder from its cockpit was allowing its MechWarrior to descend to the ground. He was a tall man, cd in a cooling suit that had the stripes of an Adept on the breast. He came over to kneel down in front of her.

  “You were the survivor?” he asked. She just numbly sat there, unable to process his words. She flinched as he touched her chin; his hand was cold, and she could feel the vibrations of micro-servos in his fingers.

  “You are a strong one,” he commented appraisingly. “Rejoice, for Bke has revealed a hint of His pn for you today. In His wisdom, He allowed you to live.” Again, she remained silent. “I foresee great things for you, Acolyte. The courage that carried you through this day…Bke will give you the strength you need to stand tall, if you accept Him into your soul.”

  Eden’s arms moved on their own, taking his hand. He squeezed her encouragingly, as she held his hand to her face and finally broke down sobbing –

  – “Dobermans, regroup. Support Tau units on the ground.”

  Eden dazedly acknowledged the order, though her voice disappeared into the chatter. Her comms beeped with the private channel with Raven.

  “Hey, keep it together there,” Raven whispered. “You’re past the tough part, the base is secure. Go to the base’s ‘Mech bay. You can stand in pce there and look scary. Should give you a few minutes to catch your breath.”

  “Y…yes,” she mumbled. “Thank you.”

  She lumbered towards the ‘Mech bay, slowly pushing out the noise of activity around her and waiting for it to be over.

  *End Chapter 2*

  Thanks for reading!

  This story first appeared in Magistracy Monthly's September 2025 volume. Go check out Magistracy Monthly, it's a really good BattleTech fan zine: https:///magestrixriley/posts

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