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==Chapter 1 - Best Served Cold==
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Gamma Trinary Ammo Dump, 332nd Garrison Cluster 
Ming-Na Plains, Tarnby, Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone
May 7, 3050
"Are you reading this, quiaff?" Star Commander Bartleby asked.
"Aff, Star Commander," MechWarrior DeLuma replied.  "MagRes confirms unknown forces moving on our position, slow speed."
Bartleby nodded, though he knew the others in his Star couldn't see it.  "Foxtrot Star, form up and move out.  Let us see who has made the mistake of paying us a visit."
As the second-line scout Star moved through the open plain broken up only by the odd clump of trees, the incoming sensor readings grew more detailed.  He soon knew he was facing a Star of 'Mechs, assault-class from the look of it, and a Star of vehicles, half kept far back enough as to be irrelevant in the battle.  Bartleby snorted to himself in contempt.  BattleMechs had rendered conventional vehicles obsolete, no matter the insistence of those Hell's Horses idiots to the contrary.
Bartleby opened his comms.  "This is Star Commander Bartleby of Clan Smoke Jaguar to unidentified forces.  Identify yourselves and state your intentions."
Static crackled for a moment before a light, feminine voice responded.  "He asks a pertinent question, Star Captain."
"That he does, Star Commander.  But should we answer him, query negative?"
"Negative, Star Captain, I do not think that we should."
Bartleby stared at his comm panel, blinking in disbelief.  Were they bantering?  On an open channel?
"I think we should answer," a third voice chimed in.  "They are but Smoke Jaguars, they will never figure it out for themselves, query affirmative?"
"Affirmative, they are Smoke Jaguars," the opposing Star Captain said again.  "and what are we?"
"WOLVERINES!"
The cry echoed from the pits of the stomachs of not just the enemy MechWarriors, but the crew of the vehicles, and others from where Bartleby could not ascertain.  Were he given to believing such things, he would have said they boiled up from the pits of Hell.
Even so, the word sent a cold shiver of paralyzing fear up the Smoke Jaguar's spine.  "No," he whispered.  "Great Founder, no."
He was so shocked he forgot to stop transmitting.
"Oh, affirmative, Star Commander," the Wolverine Star Captain replied, all mirth vanished from her voice.  In its place was an icy rage, cold and hard as death itself.  "Lies and treachery made of us a nightmare, your nightmare.  And now the nightmare comes for you."
At first, the last part of her transmission seemed to be subject to interference, but as it persisted past her words, Star Commander Bartleby realized the truth of the high-pitched whine.  Artillery missiles arced over the approaching enemies, exploding around Bartleby's scout Star, shattering nearby trees and sending vicious shrapnel scything through the air.  MechWarrior Sandusky's Jenner IIC was savaged by a near miss, functional but terribly vulnerable.
"Orders, sir?  Star Commander, your orders?"
But Bartleby could only stare in mute horror as a thing that should not be came rushing towards him and his Warriors.  His last sight was of the Wolverine emblem, with its crossed clawmark background, grinning evilly at him.
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