It is the year 3028, mankind is beginning the Fourth Succession War, the fourth attempt of the rival houses of the Inner Sphere to slaughter each other for dominance of the human race among the stars. War once scorched whole planets from orbit with warships it has long forgotten how to build, but now, in the tattered remnants of its lost technology, war is waged by battlemechs, ten to a hundred tons of fusion powered killing machines piloted by elite mechwarriors determine the fate of individual planets. Least of the great houses is House Liao, having lost most of its mech producing factories, it is limited to producing a few mecha, most notably the Vindicator to face more and better machines piloted by their many enemies. Those who pilot the Vindicator are neither famous nor feared, yet, they are hard to kill. This is the story of those who chose not to die as expected.