The lone JumpShip, bearing a single Broadsword-class DropShip to maintain a low profile, had double-jumped via Graham to reach the presumed safety of Zosma . During its recharge cycle, the courier avoided excessive communications with other ships at the jump point. Somehow, this diffidence aroused suspicion . A minor mercenary unit called the Toaster Ovens persuaded their chartered Mule’s crew to plot an approach (likely via bribery) . Apparently satisfied that a non-responsive ship was a valid target, the mercenaries chose to embark on what was clearly a suicidal endeavor: assault a Clan ship loaded with OmniMechs and Elemental marines with a short lance of century-old BattleMechs and two battered aerospace fighters . The results, however, were highly unexpected. Both Toaster Oven fighters were destroyed but at the cost of most of the Broadsword’s weapons and an OmniMech that had miscalculate its exit to oppose the boarding forces and gone adrift . By the time a second OmniMech could clear its bay, the three mercenary ’Mechs had dropped atop the Broadsword and engaged the DropShip’s Elementals, using magnetic clamps and harpoon tethers to secure themselves to the Broadsword’s exterior hull . The remaining OmniMechs moved to exit their bays, but the Mule’s crew performed a dockmaster’s tugboat maneuver, burning in and reversing thrust to gently crush the three Omnis against the Broadsword’s hull . When the shooting stopped, the sole surviving mercenary ’Mech, a limping, one-armed Crab, brushed the last of the Elemental contingent off its hide and stood triumphant in front of the Broadsword’s bridge . The mercenaries gathered evidence of their victory, fled the scene, and spent weeks trying to link up with a contract representative while evading identification .
