BattleTech: The Animated Series (1994)

Nicolai Malthus of The Clan conquers Summerset, whose forces are led by Commander Andrew Steiner. Nicolai clearly states his goal in the opening scnes: ""Soon all the planets of the Inner Sphere will belong to The Clan."" Meanwhile at the training camp at Kiely fails her test needed to pilot a Battle Mech; Major Adam Steiner the instructor. Adam's philosophies on war tactics are different than his assistant Cero, who believes in tradion and honor in battle. Adam learns that his brother was defeated at Summerset. He uses the fact that he is a distant cousin to the throne of the Inner Sphere lead a small expiditionary force to liberate Summerset and gather information about the unknown invaders. There is a catch though...with a fullscale invation by these mysterious invaders, he will need to find his own ship. Franklin Sakamoto is a smuggler from the Draconis Combine who is tricked into a raid by Captain Miles Hawkins. The ship is comandeered and it looks as though Sakamoto and his cre

Adam Steiner goes to Dustball to recruit mech pilots. The only one they find is Volten Rayder. Tybus makes a deal with Kristen Redmond to hand over the planet in exchange for the ability to continue in his smuggling. Tybus also controls Volten Rayder while he pays off his fathers debt. Volten is sent to the clan trap engineered by Tybus. He and Dustball's 5 mechs are defeated, but The 1st Sumerset Strikers come to the rescue just in time. Kristen Redmond is angered and thinks Tybus double crossed her. She retreats to return with reinforcements. Tybus places Ryder and the other strikers in prison. There they meet a FedCom spy who knows that Andrew Steiner is alive. The prisoners escape and try to retrieve their mechs. As the clans reinforcements begin attacking Dustball, Stiener convinces Tybus to let them go to save Dustball. Volten convinces Adam to give him the rank of Captain and joins the Strikers. The clan mechs engage the Sumerset Strikers and as they are on the verge of

We see Nocholai conquering another planet in the introductory scenes. Adam Steiner leads his forces to train at a holographic training facility on Romulus. Cero thinks this is a waste of time and disagrees with Adam. The Clan mechs invade, and the Sumerset Strikers are attacked by Toad elementals. The strikers defeat these only to be met by three clan mechs led by Nicholai. Adam challenges Nicholai 1 on 1, and quickly axes a mountain to cause an avalanche. The clan mechs must fire at the falling rocks and the Strikers escape. This infurates Nicholai. The dropship is captured by the clan, but Sakamoto discuises the weapons so it looks like an innocent trade dropship. The Somerset Strikers attack the clan forces. They seem to have won a small vicotry and pull out. During the retreat Cero attempts to save some loose humans. His mech is obliterated by the clan mechs. He fires his escape pod and is captured by Nicholai Malthus, though Adam leaves Romulus believing that Cero is dead.

The show begins with the ruined world of Romulus. Nicholai finds Cero, chooses to take him as his bondsman due to his nobble birth. He also believes the planet to be conquered and wants to move to other worlds. Stiener and his strikers are in the tunnels, low on ammo and in need of repair. They meet up with the remains of the Romulus malitia. They plan to hit an ammo depot. The mechs move through the tunnels, and upon exiting they meet five toads. They enter the tunnels again and come up with a plan. Nicholai tries to brainwash Cero and gain information about his affiliation. Sakamoto and the crew of the dropship take control of their captors and escape. The mechs lead the toads into the tunnels, split up, and lead the toads to an abandoned mech on self destruct.

Stiener holds a funeral for Cyro. Meanwhile, Cyro wakes up in a clan prison. He escapes, only to be captured by Nicholai. Adam decides that gathering intelligence about the clan is the best plan of action. He plans to steal a few mechs from the clan. High winds cause the dropship and Kylee's banshee to land roughly. Adam and company manages to find an entrance to the clan base and sneak out with three Toad personal armor suits.

The Strikers encounter a stray Mech warrior who turns out to be Prince Victor Steiner-Davion, heir to the Federated Commonwealth throne. But an attempt on the Prince's life points to Sakamoto as the assassin.

As the Strikers test out their adaptations of the stolen Toad technology, Sakamoto's acceptance into the team is hampered by constant hazing from Val and Kylie. Meanwhile, Nicolai and Kristen battle over the slave Ciro.

A captured Clan warrior tells Steiner that Ciro is still alive, but that a prisoner exchange can't happen unless there is a duel of honor.

Franklin, Val, Kylie and Patch go to investigate a possible lost Star League base that could contain useful technology.

Adam and the Strikers go to the planet Apollo to check out a lead on a group of resistance fighters led by Adam's brother Andrew, but all they find is a Clan ambush.

When Captain Frestadt sabotages the DropShip Kwaidan and kidnaps Sakamoto, Franklin is amazed to discover that he's the long-lost heir to the Draconis empire.

The Strikers finally arrive at the captive planet Somerset, where they infiltrate the main military academy, now turned into a concentration camp for the re-education of the populace.

Malthus returns to Somerset with an invasion force that nearly succeeds in destroying the Strikers until Steiner challenges Malthus to a duel for possession of the planet.

This is a clip show of the first 5 episodes. It comprises of Adam explaining his encounters with the Clan, and requesting more suplies. Nicholi must answer for the stolen elemental suits to Galaxy Comander Christu.