Baptism of Fire

Introduction

by William Webb

Situation: Periphery border
Oberon Confederation, Federated Commonwealth, Free Republic of Rasalhague, Draconis Combine...

May, 3050:

The entire border is under attack! Reports are varied, wild and frenzied. They don't make much sense. Aliens. Unusual designs. Ruthless invaders. Evacuations. Mass hysteria. Help! Entire planets laid waste! Major Houses under attack from Beyond! This is a small sampling of the many stories and rumors coming out of the front.

There is little information to be had. What information there is, is not confirmed or validated. Its just all the information there is. This letter was released by the family of Ishmael Jones. It was received on a Tekcom Battle Recorder which somehow made its way back. Mechwarrior Jones was serving with the 42nd Light Regiment called the Crimson Knights, a mercenary unit formed a few years after the Fourth Succession War. Colonel Horatio "Crimson" Kelly had stationed one of his battalions on the agricultural planet of Winfield to beef up General Davis Winfield's forces in response to increased activity out in the Periphery. The rest of Col Kelly's command has yet to be heard from. The Colonel is said to have survived the attack on Winfield, but his whereabouts are not presently known. Attempts to contact him have been unsuccessful. Battle Technology surmises that he is being debriefed in depth somewhere on Luthien in an attempt by the Draconis Combine General Staff to understand just what his unit did encounter on the planet.

Mechwarrior Jones' letter is mildly hysterical, but he eventually settles down to give a fair account of the events on Winfield. An interesting point which should be noted is that a Major Jake T Ryker, Senior Executive Officer in the Crimson Knights, was reported seen on Persistance, after the attack there. He was reported missing on Oberon V1 over five years ago, and is currently undergoing debriefing along with Col Kelly. We look forward to the release of any information by either of these two officers.

Here is the account of Mechwarrior Jones:

Baptism of Fire


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