The Exiles:A New Power

First Contact Part 1:The Migrant Fleet

Hazardous Environment Combat Training Center

Operations Base "Vegas"

New Arizona

The light side of the planet of New Arizona had remained little more than a barren, irradiated desert area. The twilight, however, where neither radiation, nor darkness were great enough to pose issues, the military of the Black League had chosen its training area. Saddlebacks, upgraded Warthogs armed with higher-caliber, long-barrel 14,5mm machine guns in protected turrets and bearing enough space in the back to carry six men, plus three more and a driver at the front, rolled over the hills. Their radio crackled to life...

"Ghostmaker Six, this is Warhound One, we have LOS on you. Be advised:Hostile armor at your immediate eight o'clock." The warning of their team's tank crew came. 'Hostile Armor', in this case, did not refer to the reliable Scorpion, or even the uparmored Grizzly. No. UNSC High Command had started testing out new Hazardous Armored Combat Systems, HACS, on the field today.

The HACS Program was a duel between Nanshin Provisions Company and Ingalls Defense and their subsidiaries, Gale Dynamics, Xi Robotics and Guardian Arms on Nanshin's side and Ryuujo Combat Solutions, Vickers Electronics and Talbot Tactical on Ingalls's side. Towering armored vehicles based on the old YGGDRASIL Program appeared over the dunes to the left, quadrupedal machines armed to the teeth with some of the UNSC's newest armaments, including plasma projectors on the quadrupedal XM-220 Warhound Mech.

The XM-220 and the XM-312 HACS represented two completely different parts of the UNSC's doctrine. The Warhound itself bore most of the armament and armor of a vehicle designed for frontal assaults:Plasma projectors on its arms, quad forty millimeter auto-cannons on its shoulders and advanced targeting sensors and systems in the 'head', with the cockpit embedded deep within the belly of the mechanized beast, behind composite armor nearly three hundred millimeters' equivalent of Titanium battle plate. It was bulky and looked rudimentary, industrial.

The XM-312, meanwhile, also designated the Paladin, was an artillery and anti-tank mech built at Ingalls. It bore twin MLRS pods on its shoulder, each carrying approximately six long-range missiles based on older models out of the arsenal of Old America, back on Earth. All the missiles were guided onto target via GPS, or via Squad assist. Said MLR pods could easily be swapped out for the experimental plasma-enhanced batteries off of the old Rhino artillery tanks, or even a single 155mm artillery piece that could fire fin-stabilized Kinetic Energy Penetrators alongside Fin-stabilized HEAT Rounds and normal HE. It was also lightly armored and less mobile than its general-purpose cousin.

True to their name, as well, both mechs were CBRN-certified, able to withstand the worst environments through a combination of lead-lining, micron-calculated seals and oxygen recirculation systems. The program was an expensive, slow development, however, to the point the Admiralty and the Officers were even considering scrapping the entire thing and entrusting themselves into upgrading the Scorpions... The two companies, however, insisted and surprisingly paid out of their own pockets to prove themselves here.

"Christ, look at the size of those fuckers!" The gunner of one of the Saddlebacks commented, swinging around. He sounded far more jovial than he did scared, considering the HACSes were here only for training duty. Each vehicle was equipped with a Laser Warning Receiver and ping. 'KILL' markers for the exercise. Even the Saddlebacks had them, for obvious reasons.

The lead Saddleback's LWR pinged twice. The third was the kill mark from one of the mechs. The vehicle skidded to a halt with the driver swearing to himself. Meanwhile, the leader of the platoon of 'surviving' vehicles called out, "Behind the Dunes! AT out!" as he watched one of their men 'load' the ATGM launcher on top of their vehicle and aim it toward the enemy mechs.