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−	The crash leaves a few injured, but the squad survives. Buzzy (injured but mobile), Jared, and Ethan head off to scout and prepare an ambush for any incoming Blakist forces, leaving Grace to treat the unconscious Luella and Franz. In the middle of her work, as her squadmates start to regain consciousness, she is caught by surprise by a [[Protectorate Militia]] soldier, Yuri. Efforts to bluff and seduce her way out fail, and Yuri notifies his commander.
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−	The only option is to fight. In a desperate moment, under pressure, Grace starts shooting. She and Luella incapacitate Yuri, though Grace takes a shot to the arm.
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−	The pacifist doctor realizes what she has done and tries to provide first aid and comfort. It is no use. The squad must leave dying Yuri behind, and reinforcements are unlikely to save him. Luella provides a little comfort to Grace, sharing the responsibility for having killed a man.
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'''''The Fires of Hell''''' is a nine-part short story published in ''[[A Time of War]]'' as intro fiction for the book's individual chapters. Seven authors wrote individual parts, forming a full continuous story of a [[3076]] reconnaissance mission on [[Rochelle]] by Recon Squad Four of [[Stone's Lament]]. ==Plot summary== ===Gathering Players=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Gathering Players | author = [[Ben H. Rome]] | pages = 6 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 5 June [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} At Fort Defiance on [[Hesperus II]], Recon Squad Four of [[Stone's Lament]] gathers for orders. Captain [[Jared Travis]]'s squad is not at its best. Its old members, [[Busby Matvey|Busby "Buzzy" Matvey]], old veteran [[Ethan Naoko]], and Doctor [[Grace Luther]], struggle with the losses the squad sustained on Hesperus, where two of its soldiers died protecting [[House Hogarth]]'s strategically insignificant summer home's art. They have been replaced with two newcomers: Lyran noble [[Luella Hildebrand]], the squad's new executive officer, and inexperienced wannabe MechWarrior [[Franz Logan]]. In the lead-up to their briefing, Jared challenges Luella to prove she's earned her position, and Franz accidentally spills raspberry juice on a redheaded MechWarrior, one he finds attractive. Said MechWarrior, Franz discovers at the briefing, is General [[Belle Lee]]. She has a mission for Recon Squad Four. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===The Calm Before=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = The Calm Before | author = [[Kevin Killiany]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 12-13 June [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} On the DropShip ''[[David (Individual Leopard CV-class DropShip)|David]]'', on the way to the pirate jump point to [[Rochelle]], Recon Squad Four prepares for the mission. The task is clear: land just below the Arctic circle, observe and scout en route to a Blakist installation, examine the installation, neutralize it if necessary for Rochelle's liberation, and send the intelligence to the [[Stone's Coalition|Coalition]] fleet. Rochelle is a dangerous place, polluted into hostility over centuries. All squad members take personalized drugs to survive the hazardous environment. While receiving her meds, Luella learns a Squad Four internal secret: Grace is a pacifist, staunchly unwilling to kill. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===The Mission Begins=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = The Mission Begins | author = [[Steven Mohan, Jr.]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 3 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} For a moment, everything seems to go according to plan. Dropped on Rochelle in a [[Mark VII Landing Craft]] piloted by Buzzy, the squad descends through an electrified snowstorm that should hide their presence. Then a Blakist ''[[Shiva]]'' finds them. Buzzy shoots the fighter down, but the fighter's presence means the intended landing zone isn't safe - an undiscovered enemy base is likely near, and the ''Shiva'''s disappearance will attract attention. A short search off track, into a forest, reveals an airstrip. Finding a safe landing zone proves harder. Battered by a wave of missiles from within the forest, the Landing Craft begins to plummet, and all Buzzy can do is try to save what he can. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===Securing the LZ=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Securing the LZ | author = [[Paul Sjardijn]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 3 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} <div style="clear:both"></div> ===Recon=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Recon | author = [[Kevin Killiany]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 5 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} Pushing forward with their injured, the squad spots a Blakist defensive patrol, which leads to them finding a small militia cache. There is a vehicle tent with unknown equipment, possibly including a BattleMech. Also present is a [[Manei Domini]] ''[[Malak]]'', clearly not part of the local militia. Luella pushes forward through meter-high brush, armed with a silenced firearm provided by Ethan, intending to hotwire a vehicle. She instead discovers why the brush is meter-high: it was cut down to that height. The squad is being ambushed. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===Heavy Artillery=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Heavy Artillery | author = [[Jason Hardy]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 5 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} The fight for the Blakist cache rages on. Franz and now-injured Buzzy dodge away from enemy attention and hide out in the hollow of a massive [[yorkwood]] tree, where Franz quickly treats his injuries and leaves him. Traversing the tangled forest, Franz finds the Blakist forces have caught Jared, Ethan, and Luella, all now on their knees. After quickly checking and coordinating with Buzzy, Franz puts a plan into action: he slips into the cache's vehicle tent and, with a choice between an [[Ontos]] and a ''[[Griffin]]'', steals the BattleMech. At last, Franz pilots a BattleMech. It takes time to adjust to piloting the ''Griffin'', made all the more difficult by a hostile ''Malak''. Franz struggles in the duel, rarely getting a shot in against a far more skilled opponent, but luck saves him: a yorkwood crashes onto the ''Malak'', felling Franz's foe. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===Journey=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Journey | author = [[Ken' Horner]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 8 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} Three days later, as the squad struggles to travel through the marshy Awalla Fens, frustration grows. To tamp down on bickering, at Ethan's suggestion, Jared orders a break to rest for a few minutes. Right as Franz moves to fill his canteen with polluted swamp water, Ethan stops him and directs him to a source of potable, if distasteful, water: [[yumba]] trees. The team moves on, sharing stories along the way, until, as night falls, they reach a small island of dry ground to sleep on. During the night, when on watch, Franz and Ethan spot a [[Swamp Tiger|swamp tiger]], which the squad fights off. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===Storming the Objective=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Storming the Objective | author = [[Jim Rapkins]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 11 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} Finally, Recon Squad Four reaches its target: what seemed an ordinary warehouse near the former [[MediQuick Services]] headquarters. The building is unusual, unusually intact, unusually clean, unusually uniformly fenced, and unusually guarded. It is camouflaged, to an extent: the rust on the abnormally strong fence is fake. Worse, the building is surrounded by traps - buried flashbang launchers set off by contact plates. Stunned and having alerted the guards, the squad rushes into combat. The pair of guards seem to die, and the team returns to breaking in, burning through the fence. Inside, slowly working their way through, they are interrupted by a Manei Domini - one of the guards they thought they dealt with - and engage in battle. The cyborg severely injures Franz and grabs and kills Buzzy before exploding, not due to its suicide charges, but due to Grace's AT rocket. The facility's purpose becomes clear when its central room is examined: a [[Space Defense System]] tracking center, tracking the Coalition fleet. <div style="clear:both"></div> ===Burnout=== {{InfoBoxStory | image = | name = Burnout | author = [[Ben H. Rome]] | pages = 4 | type = Short story | product = A Time of War | illustrations = | era = [[Jihad era]] | timeline = 17 July [[3076]] | scrollable timeline = [[Start date::]][[End date::]] }} The final part of the story cuts back and forth between Recon Squad Four dealing with the SDS and the squad recovering on the DropShip ''[[Tharkad Summer]]''. On Rochelle, Grace's quick work barely saves Franz's life, and Luella overloads the facility's systems, taking down the power grid that powers the entire SDS. This allows the Coalition fleet to successfully attack with minimal casualties, even with the Blakists enabling their backup generators. On the ''Tharkad Summer'', Franz recovers in the medical bay, everyone starts to work through the pain of losing Buzzy, and the squad is given a new task by Belle Lee: deal with a Blakist-backed corporation in the capital of Rochelle that refused to disarm. <div style="clear:both"></div> ==Featured characters== * [[Busby Matvey]] * [[Luella Hildebrand]] * [[Ethan Naoko]] * [[Jared Travis]] * [[Franz Logan]] * [[Grace Luther]] * [[Belle Lee]] * Yuri * [[Edwin Garcia]] * Jenny (mentioned) * [[Devlin Stone]] (mentioned) * Lieutenant Jamison (either Richie or Donald) (mentioned) * Richie (mentioned) * Donald (mentioned) * General [[Thomas Hogarth]] (mentioned) * [[Alys Rousset-Marik]] (mentioned) * Kirk McCall (mentioned, dubious existence) ==Featured BattleTech== ===BattleMechs=== * ''[[Victor]]'' * ''[[Phoenix Hawk]]'' * ''[[Malak]]'' * ''[[Griffin]]'' * ''[[Stinger]]'' (mentioned) * ''[[Panther]]'' (mentioned) ===DropShips=== * ''[[Excalibur (DropShip class)|Excalibur]]''-class (''[[Duquesne]]'') * ''[[Leopard CV]]''-class (''[[David (Individual Leopard CV-class DropShip)|David]]'') * ''[[Overlord]]''-class (''[[Tharkad Summer]]'') ===JumpShips=== * ''[[Scout (JumpShip class)|Scout]]''-class ===Aerospace Fighters=== * ''[[Shiva]]'' ===Combat Vehicles=== * [[Ontos]] * [[Demolisher]] * [[Warrior (Combat Vehicle)]] (mentioned) * [[Von Luckner]] (mentioned) ===Other Vehicles=== * [[Mark IV Landing Craft]] * [[Mark VII Landing Craft]] * [[Defiance E-Class Ground Tug]] ==Featured units== * [[Stone's Lament]] ==Featured species== * [[Yorkwood]] * [[Yumba]] * [[Swamp Tiger]] ==Featured places== * [[Hesperus]] * [[Rochelle]] * [[Coventry]] (mentioned) * [[Kittery]] (mentioned) * [[Tharkad]] (mentioned) * [[Proserpina]] (mentioned) * [[Vega]] (mentioned) * [[Thraxa]] (mentioned) * [[Skye]] (mentioned) * [[Caph]] (mentioned) * [[Robinson]] (mentioned) * [[Breed]] (mentioned) * [[Mississauga]] (mentioned) * [[Callison]] (mentioned) * [[Kalidasa]] (mentioned) [[Category:Short Stories]] [[Category:Works by Ben H. Rome]] [[Category:Works by Kevin Killiany]] [[Category:Works by Steven Mohan Jr.]] [[Category:Works by Paul Sjardijn]] [[Category:Works by Jason M. Hardy]] [[Category:Works by Ken' Horner]] [[Category:Works by Jim Rapkins]]

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