This is the Inner Sphere-thousands of planet colonized by humankind. Once it was united under the great Star League, but for over three hundred years it has been consumed by savage wars by the leaders of the Successor Houses who all seek the throne of the long-lost Star League. Humankind has blasted itself back into a primitive state of affairs, each planet barely connected by JumpShips and a communications network run by a pseudo-religious order. And yet the wars continue.

Stagnant in warfare, mankind has but one obsession: The BattleMech. These multi-ton war machines represent millions of C-Bills in investment. If the Inner Sphere is a collection of feudal societies, BattleMechs and their pilots are the knights. Walking astride the battlefield, conventional weapons cannot damage them, but even the smallest of their weapons is capable of laying waste to swathes of terrain. The battlefield had seen nothing like it before that fateful day in 2439 when the first 'Mech walked and the battlefield has seen nothing like it ever since.

Now it is 3028, on the eve of invasion of Tikonov. The First Covington Volunteers have been drafted from the Vagrant Schools and prisons of the desert planet of Covington. They have been sent to Tikonov as part of the greater offensive against the Capellan Confederation. They have been sent to conquer the planet in the name of First Prince Hanse Davion and his new bride. And they will not be denied.