Storm Before the Silence
Streets of Fire
- From official report of Star Commander j.g. Fallonis
"The trouble erupted shortly after
the break-out at the prison known as Kurushiiyama. A heavily armed band of locals had
staged a prison break to free the young heir to the Draconis Combine, who was imprisoned
there. The whole city of Edo seemed to erupt with that one action. Rioting broke out on
every street. Our Star Commander ordered us to use our 'Mechs to force the civilians into
some semblance of order, but it was too late for that. First, they began to throw rocks,
then Molotov cocktails. When some unarmored civilians hit Star Commander Tallis' 'Mech
with their SRMs, we finally lost our patience.
"We started down an alley in pursuit of our attackers, not suspecting a
trap. On both sides of us heavy support weapons moved into position. Then my Fire Moth
must have hit a tunnel, because the next moment I was on the ground, leaving only Star
Commander Tallis' Ice Ferret ahead of me in the street.
"As I struggled to get my Fire
Moth back upright, the mass of civilians opened up on him from all sides. Weapons
fire seemed to blaze from every window, while the people screaming in the street suddenly
turned their blasted inferno rockets on both the Star Commander and me. He responded as I
would have, destroying one of the buildings, which showered the street with bricks and
debris as it toppled. His act also brought down another hail of fire from other buildings.
As I righted my 'Mech, three SRMs struck its back. I turned to fire at my attackers, but
saw only dozens of panicked civilians rushing by in the streets. In frustration I fired to
scatter them, only to be hit myself by a shot from a laser cannon.
"Turning to learn how Star Commander Tallis was faring, I saw only his
downed Ice Ferret in the street, swarming with a dozen or so civilians. They
pulled him from the cockpit and beat him to death with sticks and clubs. It is not a death
deserving of a warrior.
"The next day we were ordered out of
Edo, leaving the civilians to believe they had beaten us. Our flagship, The Veiled
Huntress, then let loose a long and continuous bombardment, reducing Edo and its
people to a cinder."
Turtle Bay, City of Edo, 11 May
3050
During the initial wave of the Clan
Invasion, Clan Smoke Jaguar struck the world of Turtle Bay. In the fierce fighting that
accompanied the Jaguars' landing, the invaders captured Hohiro Kurita, young heir to the
Draconis Combine. They were not aware of his identity, however, and merely sent him to the
massive fortress/prison of Kurushiiyama along with the other prisoners.
In a daring raid a local yakuza team managed to penetrate the prison and liberate the young Prince. This action was coordinated with a massive civilian uprising, fomented to provide cover for Hohiro's escape as well as to bring a guerrilla war home to the Smoke Jaguars. The rioting in the streets of Edo lasted almost five days. Armed with weapons smuggled in by the local yakuza, the civilians turned every street into an inferno of ambush and death.
The Smoke Jaguars had never encountered civilian unrest on the scale they witnessed in Edo. It was as though unseen, ghostlike foes stalked their 'Mechs and Elementals. The city's vast sewer-tunnel network made it almost impossible to corner their opposition. Each time a Clansman turned to attack, he came once again under fire himself. To Clanspeople, a civil rebellion like that on Edo is considered dishonorable. Indeed, the Smoke Jaguar Khan deemed that only a Trial of Annihilation could bring the rioters to their senses.
The Jaguars pulled all their troops out
of Edo on May 12. At sunrise the next day, their massive flagship fired a long, steady
bombardment that leveled Edo, effectively wiping it off the map. Only a handful of people
survived to tell the story of Edo's destruction by Clan Smoke Jaguar.