But now Colonel Bernard couldn't make sense of the developments which had taken place today. His detachment of mechs and ground personnel were stationed at Ft. Arada which was located on a tall hill just on the southern edge of the city named Kreiger. The largest city on Robinson, Kreiger held a huge civilian population. Bernard knew, once the reports from the advance elements came in of TBC on planet, Kreiger would be a juicy target for their murderous hordes.

He had ordered all his heavy and medium mechs to the north edge of the city to confront the incoming enemy. The comlink messages he received from the battlefield were not comforting. It seemed the defensive line was overrun in three different locations. Only a third of his defending mechs and attack vehicles were still operational by the time the general withdrawal order was given to fall back to the fort and prepare to defend it and its' Comstar station. Some of his mechwarriors and infantry refused to withdraw and chose to defend the city to the end, which was totally understandable since many of the garrison had family and friends in Kreiger. It was all in vain however, the city fell to TBC at 0936 and he hadn't received a single comlink message from his forces there since.

But that was five hours ago and as of yet not a single enemy had appeared at the bottom of the hill to challenge the remainder of his Corps. They were very well defended here. Six heavy dual pulse laser turret towers dotted the perimeter of the fort's eighty foot tall armored walls. Three hundred heavy infantry stood guard at the main gates along with the remaining Battlemechs and tanks which now numbered just under twenty. Many large groups of civilians who fled the city before the invaders advance now resided deep in the bowels of the fort's lower levels, battered, hungry and weary. The distress call to HQ had been going out for nearly two hours now with no response.

"Where in hell are you?" Bernard muttered to himself as he peered into the observation monitor from the single camera pointed down the hill toward Kreiger. He could see several large fires had sprung up around the city, but as for movement of enemy forces on the southern edge of the city among the line of buildings, he saw nothing. The southern edge of Kreiger was just at the bottom of the hill, on which Ft. Arada stood, a mere two hundred meters away. The absence of the enemy's appearance was strange to say the least.

Lieutenant Johnson appeared on his comlink holoscreen. "Sir. All reinforcements have been in place on the walls for more than five hours now. Permission to relieve most of the personnel and set up duty watches for continued surveillance of the area. It doesn't seem like they're coming, Sir."

Colonel Bernard shook his head and looked up at the screen. "Oh they're coming Lieutenant. You can count on that. You keep those men in place understood? I don't want to be caught off guard when they do."

Johnson seemed to want to voice a rebuttal but did not. With a tired look coming across his face he said. "Yes Sir." It was more of a mumble really and then the video went gray.

Colonel Bernard waited. He could feel weariness creeping over his bones like a shadow. He rested his head in his hands and closed his eyes. All too soon, he dozed off. Suddenly he was awake. How long he had slept was unknown to him at first, he looked at the clock on his console. 1640. He had slept for over 20 minutes. "Damn." He was still a bit disoriented from his accidental slumber. Then he realized he had been awakened by the pulsing buzz of the general alarm. He shot out of his chair and slammed the comlink switch. "Lieutenant Johnson!! Report immediately!"

Johnson's face appeared in the monitor. "Sir! In the southern quadrant! Red mechs have been spotted moving toward the hill clearing, Sir!" Then the colonel heard something else over the intercom of the comlink station, athough it was very faint.

On the monitor the lieutenant looked away for a moment and into his binovids, focusing them on the advancing enemy. After a second or so they fell from his eyes, as if his arms had turned to jelly. He froze. For the first time Bernard saw Johnson, a seasoned veteran of countless battles and one the colonel respected, actually freeze in place, like some invisible hand had grabbed his body and held it motionless. Johnson's face went ashen with a look of shock at what he was seeing. Colonel Bernard could hear others off-screen yelling, mostly screams or exclamations. "My God!".."Holy Sh*t!!"...."You Bastards!!" and countless others and something else...it was clearer now then before.....it was music.

He had been told by others back at HQ the Bloody Clans called it their "Death Song". Songs of a vulgar, vengeful nature that they would play on the external speakers of their battlemechs as they marched into battle or into the bloody carnage they wreaked on civilian populations. Like death's own herald it would warn foes and populace alike that the Bloody Clans were coming...and bringing with them annihilation to all.

Bernard screamed into the microphone. "Johnson!! Open fire!! Open fire do you hear me!?!"

Johnson looked blankly back at the colonel, regaining a bit of his senses but still visibly shaken. "Sir, I think you better come up here." Then the screen went gray as the lieutenant disconnected the link. Colonel Bernard was on his feet and running for the stairway that led up to ground level and to the wall defenses. "What the hell is happening here?!" he thought to himself as he reached the corridor and slammed the internal lockpad of the stairway. "Why doesn't he order them to fire dammit?!" The door slid open and the music from above flooded in. The words were very clear.

"I AM THE ASTRO FREAK! A DEMOLITION STYLE HELL AMERICAN FREAK! I AM THE CRAWLING DEAD - A PHANTOM IN A BOX -A SHADOW IN YOUR HEAD!"

His pace quickened as he bolted up the stairs, skipping steps two and three at a time. "Lieutenant Johnson! Fire!" Bernard roared, although he knew it was fruitless as his voice could not be heard over the music booming from outside the walls. It was loud and relentless...it was angry and evil.

"SAY ACID SUICIDE FREEDOM OF THE BLAST READ THE F*CKER LIES - SCRATCH OFF THE BROKEN SKIN - TEAR INTO MY HEART MAKE ME DO IT AGAIN YEAH!"

He made it to the top of the stairs and tripped on the last one, sprawling across the landing and sliding up against the exit door.

"YEAH!!.....YEAH!!!"

Bernard recovered and banged through the door that led to the courtyard area. He ran full speed for the nearest wall stairs which went up at a steep angle to the top defense battery level.

"MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN! MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN! MORE HUMAN THAN
HUMAN! MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN!"

He looked up at the Corps soldiers on the wall and those manning the laser arrays. To his total astonishment they were all just standing there!! Some he could see were vomiting, some were on their hands and knees, some even sobbing like children! "What the hell are you doing!?" he screamed. As he reached the top of the wall, he saw Lieutenant Johnson standing at the top of the stairs waiting for him. The music was almost deafening now. Colonel Bernard was trembling with astonishment, anger, fear, multiple emotions battering his will all at once, with hundreds of questions in his head. "Johnson! What?..." Bernard paused and caught his breath. "What in hell are you doing?" he said as he turned and looked down the north face of the hill.

There at the bottom, two hundred meters away, stood a single blood red HCT-3F Hatchetman. Colonel Bernard could see the huge armored weapon in its right hand, in its left it also held something but, because of the distance, he could not quite make it out. It was flanked on both sides by ten crimson red MAD-3R Marauders, five on each side, twenty-five to thirty meters apart. They looked odd to him as he squinted at the shapes through the afternoon suns' glare. The Marauders' legs and arms were easily seen and looked normal but the entire torso and head areas had something draped over them like a huge, thick, rippling blanket the ends of which hung loosely over the right and left sides like a tattered shroud. Only the eyes and fanged smile of the blue black demon face painted on all TBC mechs were exposed. And still the music played on.

"-INTO A PSYCHIC WAR I TEAR MY SOUL APART AND I EAT IT SOME MORE! YEAH!"

Bernard turned back to Johnson and opened his mouth to shout orders. Johnson, his face still blank, almost calm now, held out his binovids to the colonel with a steady hand and looked into his commander's eyes. The eye contact was enough for Bernard to realize something was terribly wrong. Without a word he took the binovids and held them to his eyes and scanned the enemy mechs in a wide sweep. Now...all at once... he understood why it took so long for the Bloody Clans to get here, why the weapon arrays on the fort walls remained silent, why his troops were so bewildered, why his heart seemed to dive head-long into his stomach.

What at first seemed to be an indistinct blanket over each of the red Marauders was now all too clear in the binovids. It wasn't a blanket at all. It was an attached skin. A skin comprised of naked civilians, the people of Kreiger. Men, women, old and young, even children. He could see the manacles on their wrists and ankles which were welded to the duro-steel armor plating of the blood red mechs. The ones at the bottoms of the mechs were only attached at the wrists, leaving their naked, battered bodies swaying back and forth in the dusty wind.

But that was not what plunged Bernard's soul into the deepest depths of horror, the kind of terror rarely felt by adults, who think they can make sense of the universe in their puny minds and tell themselves it's alright. What shattered Colonel Francis Bernard of House Davion to his core was the fact that most of the people welded to those mechs were alive....they were alive and they were screaming. He could see their mouths open in silent wails through the binovids. Unheard, for the music was far too loud to hear anything else.

The Hatchetman raised its left hand above its head. It was holding a civilian in its armored fist. The Colonel recognized him. It was Jacob Randel, the mayor of Kreiger. Suddenly a countless number of yellow Locusts appeared between each of the flanking Marauders, they stopped, poised as if waiting for a signal. The arms of the Marauders lifted up into firing positions simultaneously.

The Colonel dropped the binovids from trembling hands and stumbled forward against the fortress wall. "Oh God...oh God please no. Sweet God!!" he croaked, tears of anguish streaming down his cheeks.

"I AM THE NEXUS ONE I WANT MORE LIFE F*CKER I AIN'T DONE - YEAH!! MORE HUMAN THAN HUMAN!!........"

The Hatchetman swung its arm down with furious force, releasing the mayor and throwing him to the ground below. Like a ripe melon he seemed to collapse in on himself in a heap of gore. With that, all at once, like unholy creatures from the abyss of darkness, the crimson Marauders of the Bloody Clans and the yellow Locusts of the Swarm surged forward in a wave of blinding steel and fiery doom...... up the grassy hill of Arada.