Colonel Bill Jackson, Sniper Team/Division Commander (Hog Boss), and Naval Captain Martha Franklin of the troop assault carrier Tripoli and Task Force Commander, slowly walk the beach hand in hand. They're inspecting the beach defenses located at the Republic base on Planet H-252 (Hell). A cool brisk wind swept across the beach from the ocean carrying with it the promise of the oncoming storm. The wind driven waves pounded into the flat beach throwing a white misty spray into the air. The azure blue sky held only wispy strands of clouds rapidly moving west. Heavy hover lifters moved around the beach for miles depositing massive plasticrete barriers. The mech units will use the plasticrete barriers for cover when the Cartel Submersible Beach Assault Hover Craft (SBAHC-700) begin their attack. Bill turns to Martha with a sad smile. "Martha, we're in for the fight of our lives. The Warlords, Pirates and Marxists have put together an enormous assault force. Those massive mobile rail cannons and special munitions they have can kill a lot of our troops if we let them get too close. The SBAHC-700s making a beach landing will tie down some of our mobile rail guns and reserve mechs. We're going to depend on your orbital team and those captured torpedoes to turn the tide here. We should get plenty of warning as to when and where the SBAHC-700s are going to land. The engineers have seeded the waters 5 miles out with remote sensor and anomaly detection buoys. This should give your team time to get the torpedoes on target. Once the anomaly detection buoys sense a SBAHC-700 it will relay the data to other buoys and track the machine's progress. The buoys will continue to stream the data and build an accurate tactical map." Martha stopped walking and turned to face Bill. "You know Chief Bronson, my gunnery specialist, will move mountains by hand if necessary to protect you and our troops. I do worry about you though, you always seem to get yourself into the middle of gunfights. My team will deliver the torpedoes to the specified locations in time to save our troops, that's my promise." Bill smiled sincerely at the love of his life. Bill places his arm over Martha's shoulder and draws her tight to his body as they continue their walk. The Mechs began arriving to inspect the defenses being placed by the engineers. The Mechs are massive bipedal heavily armored walking tanks controlled by a single operator. Mechs stand 12 feet high with heavy weapons mounted on each arm. The weapons are varied according to the mission of the machine from massive plasma cannons, rail guns, flame throwers and heavy machine guns. The two shoulders hide small missile racks that deploy and lock onto aircraft or ground targets with high explosive penetrator warheads. One Mech is waving its arms wildly. Bill initiates his tactical comm unit in his onboard implants and listens to the conversation. "Hey, engineers what the hell is this? You want us to stand at the water's edge and greet a pack of SBAHC-700s? Move the barriers back to the edge of the dunes. This will give us a much greater field of fire. And what the hell is that?" The Mech points to a rail gun revetment. "That's a rail gun revetment Gunny Robinson," came a response from the lead engineer. "Why hell, you got that revetment close enough for the gun crew to throw rocks. Get those revetments back at least another 500 yards behind the dunes so they can act as an over watch for us Mechs." "Hey Bedlam are you aggravating the engineers again?" says an unidentified voice. "Is that the great and powerful Executioner addressing me?" Bedlam responds in a snarky tone. "You little jarhead runt you better watch how you speak to me," snapped Executioner. "You're a big oaf and I'll talk to you as I please. Now do some work and help get these emplacements in good order," Bedlam replied. "Who died and made you the boss around here?