[center][color=fdc68a][h1]Chapter 1:
[u]Aboard the Ankhanne[/u][/h1][/color]
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[b]3034 June 28
New Skandia Geostationary Orbit
Black Eagle-class DropShip "Ankhanne"[/b]

[color=f7941d]"God, I can't believe that they didn't have a single Union class to spare..."[/color] Ulrik ushered under his breath with a disappointed look whilst making his way to the briefing room, as he passed by what must've been the dozenth exposed circuit in the hallways, the panels that once covered up the guts of the ship long since worn away or lost. The ones still in place weren't exactly in great condition either: rust had started to eat away at much of the ship's internal structures and almost no visible floor or wall surface was without a nasty scratch, bend or bulge. There was a constant buzzing sound in the air that Ulrik couldn't figure out the source of, though he was told by Chief Engineer Brynjar that it was due to the fans inside the life support system trying their best to keep up with the demand. He was told the ship had been sitting in "storage" on Vipaava, apparently damaged during the DCMS's conquest of the planet nearly 600 years ago, and repurposed into a stationary outpost and mech repair station. During those centuries that ship was inhabited more or less during the whole duration up until the end of the Third Succession War, when the DCMS finally abandoned the ship. That said, Ulrik couldn't tell which had done more damage to the ship: the garrison of Draconis troops living in it and wearing out the ship, trying to patch it up with a dwindling (or non-existent) supply of spare parts, or the decade it spent UNinhabited and left out in the wilderness. Whatever the answer was, it resulted in this FrankenShip of replacement parts and technologies that spanned nearly the entirety of human spacefaring history since the end of the Age of War. If Ulrik had any other options, he'd probably donate the ship to a museum, or make one out of it, but since this ride would have to be their home for the foreseeable future, he figured as long as they didn't leak air it was good enough for him.

Brynjar ensured him that the sorry state of affairs is due to their early departure: the to-do list for the engineers and MechTechs on the ship was long, and still had some core systems on it, but everything crucial had been fixed before they left atmosphere. He hoped that they would have time before the next assignment to fix up the ship and give it a proper cleaning: until then, this would have to do.

However, despite all her shortcomings, the Ankhanne held a few pleasant surprises for him: unlike the awfully cramped interiors of the Unions, the interior spaces here actually allowed two people to pass by each other in a corridor without having to either bump shoulders or shimmy along either wall. And it also had a conveniently large room that could be used for briefing more than half a dozen people at a time; this was the exact room that he finally stopped in front of, looking down at his tablet one more time before he finally entered.

With a quiet hiss the door slid open, and the new MechWarriors were greeted by the sight of their new commander's purposeful stride into the room, until he eventually stopped in front of a painfully dim screen on the wall and looked around the room with a stern gaze. Seated in what must've been the cheapest foldable plasteel chairs that the Republic could find were the ten new recruits, all having arrived on a Leopard not half an hour ago. Ulrik allowed himself one more quick look at all of their faces to memorize them for later, before he finally broke the silence that now stretched several long seconds.

[color=f7941d]"Let me be frank, I've always hated introductions, so let's keep the formalities brief. I'm Ulrik Mäkinen, and I'll be your new commanding officer for the foreseeable future. You may address me as "Sir" or "Commander", but I don't want to hear anyone addressing me by anything else until we've had a couple of beers together."[/color] His gruff voice echoed in the room as he stopped for a moment, letting the short pause give some more weight to his words before he sat down on the edge of the only table in the room, bringing his tablet up for a moment as she scrolled through some data about the crew. [color=f7941d]"I know most of you've been to boot camp, and some of you have even fought in [i]real[/i] battles-"[/color] Ulrik made sure to put weight on the word "real", his eyes resting on Remy and Jaromir for a second as he made some mental notes before continuing. [color=f7941d]"-but this mercenary business will come as news to a bunch of you, so let me give you a quick explanation as to how this is going to go. The contacts in the Republic that set us up with this [i]amazing[/i] ship will expect us to take care of some issues for them which they either deem too dangerous or too illegal for their regular forces. I know how that sounds; it's like being in the army, with all the restrictions and none of the benefits, but believe me, you'll be thankful you're not surrounded by a bunch of bright-eyed rookies that the Republic freshly recruited and who haven't tasted combat yet. Either way, we'll be working and living together as one unit from now on, so I expect everyone to play nice with each other. As long as we do our jobs, in a few years everyone will get a paycheck fat enough that you can grow old on some resort world near Terra if you want."[/color]

Setting the tablet down he crossed his arms, he'd examine each member in the room a bit more purposefully this time, trying to familiarize himself a bit more with how they each reacted to the meeting. Then, he let out a small sigh and rubbed his eyes for a moment before finally getting back up and walking around the table. Ulrik had a few more things to say, but after some deliberation he figured it was best he got to briefing the crew. He never was any good at pep talks, no need to make this more awkward than it was. [color=f7941d]"Alright, I think that's enough with the pleasantries. We're sailing out earlier than expected, so we'll have to do proper introductions later. I know it's not ideal to start our time together as a unit in a hurry, but my contacts in the Republic didn't take "no" for an answer on this one, so think of it as the price for getting started. If nobody has any objections, I'll get the mission briefing started so we can get done with this as quickly as possible." [/color]

The commander turned around and after tapping on the screen of his tablet a few times, the screen behind him buzzed and slightly increased in brightness before it began to display the image of small moon with a thin atmosphere orbiting a brightly colored gas giant. As he did so, the floor beneath them shook, and the unmistakable rattle of a ship docking filled the air around them. [color=f7941d]"Those were the docking clamps that of our JumpShip. We're joining up with a supply fleet headed back to Rasalhague, and they agreed to drop us off near Lamar. I know most of you aren't familiar with the system, and that's for a good reason."[/color] He took a step back to give the pilots a clear look at the screen before he pointed at the small moon. [color=f7941d]"This here is Lamar IV-B, the biggest moon of the gas giant Lamar IV. It was once inhabited, and had a Lyran presence for a few hundred years before it met the fate of many worlds during the First Succession War, and a nuclear strike rendered it uninhabitable. Ever since then it has been largely abandoned, but recently reports of unmarked vessels raiding nearby systems for supplies has surfaced, and the Republic intelligence office marked this planet as the likely base of operations of whatever group is behind said raids. Pirates, more than likely, but it does sound like the kind of mission after which we go "there wasn't supposed to be much resistance", so we can all enjoy a mess of a first mission together."[/color]

Tapping the tablet one more time, the screen switched display, and began to display topographic information of the planet, with a large red circle near the edge of one of the craters that littered the surface. [color=f7941d]"Ever since the nuclear strike, the atmosphere has been reduced to a level where rogue elements of the gas giant's asteroid belt keep peppering the surface. The highest form of native life is some lychen that managed to adapt, but expect to fight in hostile conditions. We have limited intel on the exact strength and number of enemy forces, but we do know that this highlighted area is most likely the location of the hostile base. Recon drone reported seeing a few shuttles entering atmosphere, but interference from the gas giant made it impossible to pinpoint where they landed. So, we'll have to improvise once we arrive."[/color] A few more taps, and the image of the moon faded away before being replaced by a few blurry images of vehicles and 'mechs that bore nothing but a reddish-white camoflague all over their chassis. [color=f7941d]"And these are our mystery forces. As you can tell, we're expecting light resistance: mostly APCs and IFVs, but we've spotted the same lance of Locusts and Cicadas twice now. Hopefully that's all they have, and we might be able to scare them out of Republic space without having to fire a single shot. I wouldn't count on it though: if they have the hardware to raid nearby systems, they could have heavier vehicles in storage. Let's hope it's nothing more than a band of pirates that got their hands on a K-F engine from some derelict JumpShip." [/color]

Ulrik was waiting for his pilots to memorize the info that he had given them, when the silence of the room was briefly interrupted by the loud blaring of klaxons. It only lasted a few seconds before subsiding, and he would shake his head as he looked down at his datapad to send the relevant information to the personal devices of each pilot. Then he placed the device down on the table and looked up at his pilots with the slightest hint of a smile. [color=f7941d]"That's our 5 minute warning for the jump, so let's wrap this up quickly. It sounds like whoever these people are, the Republic wants us to get rid of them ASAP, otherwise we'd have for a proper briefing. If anyone has any questions regarding the assignment, now's the time to ask them. Everything else can wait until after you've gotten yourself familiar with your new 'Mechs."[/color] With that he finally relaxed the muscles in his body that he didn't even know were tense during this quick briefing, and he waited on the input of his crew.

[@Letter Bee][@Psyker Landshark][@Forsythe][@AndyC][@Smike][@Abstract Proxy][@QJT][@Starlance]