As the Firestarterstruck the pavement, one of the canisters clustered around its right shoulder ruptured. The liquid inside erupted in a fiery paroxysm that engulfed the entire upper body of the 'Mech.

Fuhito was appalled. Those canisters usually carried extra coolant, necessary to protect the machine's actuators as the fusion heat of the reactor was channeled from the engine to the arm-mounted flamers. Instead, this 'Mech had carried incendiary chemicals that it could project as a clinging mass of fire to cripple and burn any enemy, including another BattleMech. A fiery death was the deep-seated fear of every Mech Warrior, a terror born in the sweatbox cockpits where they piloted their nuclear-hearted monsters. This man had wished that death for his opponents; now he roasted in his own cockpit, a victim of his own desire.

The loss of their giant guardian took the heart out of the remaining Lyran troops, who were waving a white rag from a door.

Fuhito left acceptance of their surrender to his sergeant. He stood watching the conflagration of the Firestarter,thinking dark thoughts, when Ninyu materialized out of the darkness behind him.

"Well timed, Tetsuhara- kun. You suckered him into position like it was some parade-ground exercise. It's almost as much your kill as mine."

Fuhito turned to him, feeling heat that did not come from the burning 'Mech. "No MechWarrior should die that way."

Ninyu shrugged. "He was a Lyran."

"He was a human being. Have you no heart?"

"My heart belongs to the Dragon. It holds no sympathy for those who stand against the Dragon." Ninyu's stare was as hard as his words. "Let's go. The hovercraft have arrived. All hands are needed at the warehouses."

Fuhito followed the black-clad man, mind numb.

The following hours of labor only numbed him more. As a MechWarrior, he was able to handle one of the industrial exoskeletons, and that put him in constant demand all along the waterfront. He was too busy to think.

Periodically throughout the day, Fuhito observed as Tomoe fielded supply requests from Steiner units, assuring anxious officers that their requisitions were being processed and that supplies were on their way. In point of fact, the Kuritans were taking those supplies for themselves.

The volume of Lyran demands indicated that Theodore's attacks were well underway. Combine forces were striking all along the front, hitting them hard and diverting attention from Cochus. As the day wore on, the Kuritan supply-raiders worked harder. They pushed themselves beyond fatigue, unsure of how much time they had. Every case of supplies would be vital to the continued resistance on Vega.

The cargo ships that had followed the hovercraft finished loading at dusk, the hovercraft themselves held in reserve for the expected arrival of Steiner troops. Fuhito had a few moments' rest as the last ship wallowed from the pier and before the first hovercraft could be brought in to be crammed with all it could carry.

It was late night, with only a dozen hovercraft left to load, when the scouts reported a detachment of Lyran tanks and infantry carriers headed for Cochus. Some Steiner officer had finally decided to look into why his supplies had never shown up.

Tomoe supervised the last, rushed loading, ordering Fuhito aboard with his exoskeleton before she took her own onto a hovercraft. Turbines whined to full power, lifting the craft for their run out of the bay and down the coast to Nevcason. The Combine raiders had nearly stripped the supply camp.

The flotilla was nearing the headland of the bay when a lance of Scorpionsarrived on the beach. As the light tanks halted and fired a few rounds at the rapidly vanishing hovercraft, Fuhito found the strength to raise the exoskeleton claw and wave goodbye.

31

Edge of the Sea of Tears, South Nantuo, Vega

Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine

30 October 3028

The Dervishloomed out of the blowing sand. Ruby death pulsed from its blocky forearms and 60mm demons screamed from its bloated chest. The thunder of its steps was lost in the howling wind that seemed to carry half of the Sea of Tears through the sky.

Half-blinded and choking on the dust, Leutnant-Colonel Brian Kincaid stumbled out of the path of the behemoth just barely before one of the 'Mech's massive feet demolished the work shack he had just left.

Trying to shield his face with one hand, he wrestled his sand goggles into place with the other. Eyes still stinging and watering from the abuse, Kincaid was able to discern a wall of the hut still standing, its door slamming violently in the wind. He fought his way to the lee side and grabbed one of the filter masks still hanging undisturbed on the remains of the wall.

He was trying to remember the layout of the base, but without much success. The airfield was already socked in when his battalion command lance had pulled in for repairs. There had been little to see in the rising storm. He knew that the shack was somewhere south of the terminal building near where he'd parked his Zeus,but the confusion of the sudden Kurita attack and the raging sandstorm had disoriented him.

Flashing fire split the darkness that ruled the storm's depths. Tracer rounds from a heavy-caliber autocannon sought out a target, finding the terminal buildings. Vitryl and masonry exploded free to be taken up by the roaring gale.

The originator of the barrage, a Combine JagerMech,appeared briefly through the swirling sand. Kincaid watched helplessly as a pair of Steiner ground troopers struggled to bring their missile launcher to bear on the 'Mech, only to be vaporized under a pair of coherent light pulses from the machine's lasers.

The storm's whimsy shielded the Kuritan, cloaking the JagerMechmore effectively than it did the four or five other shadowy shapes that clumped past the ruins of the shack where Kincaid crouched, hugging the still-standing wall, knowing the crumbling masonry was no protection against the enemy BattleMechs. Kincaid cursed his helplessness. He was in command of two-thirds of the Third Lyran Guards BattleMech regiment, as well as half a dozen conventional regiments, but he was separated from his Zeusand out of communication with his command. Carrying only his M & G service automatic, there was nothing he could do to stop the rampaging Kuritans.

The wind began to drop suddenly, heralding the passage of the storm's eye over the base. Visibility improved, but in every direction, the horizon remained invisible behind walls of airborne sand. Thick clouds still boiled overhead. In the gray twilight, Kincaid could see the appalling destruction the Snakes had already wreaked in their sudden raid.

Caught by surprise, the Lyran vehicles and 'Mechs had been destroyed where they stood. Barracks and service buildings were a shambles, many completely flattened. His back to the sheltering wall, Kincaid looked across the field at the Combine attackers.

Two lances of Kurita 'Mechs stood scattered about the tarmac. Sand-crusted lubricant fluid oozed from their joints and dripped sizzling to the paved surface. Their weapons were mostly silent, pilots venting heat to bring the machines' temperatures down to safer levels, but machine guns and the occasional autocannon cut down any Steiner troops gutsy enough to face the marauders.

A shrill hooting emanated from a sand-colored Pantherwhose chest was emblazoned with a kabuto-helmeted feline. Kincaid recognized the grouping of the sounds as a battle code, a rally cry. Answering hoots came from the northeast. Kincaid looked over the upper edge of his wall in time to see another lance of Combine 'Mechs crash through the hangar area, destroying those buildings as thoroughly as a man scuffing through a child's cardboard castle.