Lethal heritage

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Marching relentlessly through the milling throng, a Smoke Jaguar in a bulky suit of powered armor lashed out right and left with his arms. Even a glancing blow crushed bodies and sent them flying deeper into the crowd. Short bursts from the laser burned swaths through the inmate population. The Gallery was so packed that none could escape, try as they might to flee, and people involuntarily filled in the bodystrewn path behind the warrior.

  Without thinking, Shin brought the laser rifle to his shoulder and triggered two shots. The bolts hit the Jaguar's head and the hump on his gray-spotted back, but failed to breach his armor. Like the cat whose skin he wore, the invader spun quickly, then bent his legs and launched himself up toward the third tier.

  The railing collapsed beneath the invader's armored bulk, but impeded him just enough to make landing awkward. He landed on all fours, but his bloody left foot slipped on the ferrocrete decking as he started to get up. The shotgun slug from Shin's rifle hit the Smoke Jaguar in the right shoulder, further unbalancing him. His arms windmilling wildly, the armored figure pitched back off the balcony.

  Before he could slip out of sight, his left hand clawed the ferrocrete like an anchor. Shin saw the gray form swing back and forth twice, building momentum, then the right elbow bit into the deck. As inexorable as the sun rising at dawn, the invader hauled himself up.

  Shin's hand dropped to the laser rifle's pulse-rate selector and dialed it all the way up. At point-blank range, he sighted in on the dark, glassy V in the middle of the figure's lumplike head. His finger squeezed the firing stud, and the sustained bolt sliced through its target. The figure, smoke curling up from its single, shattered eye-piece, jerked, then fell back. It smashed into the tier below, then whirled end over end into the waiting crowd.

  Nervous sweat misting against the inside of his faceplate,

  Shin stepped back and moved down to Cell Fifteen. Hohiro was leaning against a bunk as Shin entered. "Now what?"

  Without stopping to reply, Shin studied the cell's back wall. From the lower right-corner, he counted five cinderblocks out and five up. As he popped his power pack from the laser and snapped a new one in place, he offered the Sho-sa an explanation. "When the contractor built the prison, the yakuza put pressure on him to seriously modify the original design. Various cells, with numbers and levels determined by use of the lucky number five, had escape routes built into them. They were never used because once their secret was revealed, all would be shut down."

  The yakuza triggered a dozen laser bolts. The fivecinderblock pattern in the center of the wall dissolved into smoke and ferrocrete dust. The hole in the wall sucked much of the smoke down. Hohiro walked over to it and peered in, but carefully avoided touching any of the still-glowing rock.

  He looked back over his shoulder at Shin. "This gets us out?"

  "Yes. We climb down and take the first crosscut shaft heading north. That will dump us out in the Uramachi area. From there, the Old Man will get us aboard a fast shuttle heading up to a Scout Class JumpShip hidden in the Rings." Shin forced himself to smile. "After that, it's up to your father's people to get us home."

  Hohiro nodded and touched one of the hole's melted edges. "We can go now." More screams sounded from the Gallery. "What about them?"

  Shin's eyes narrowed. "We live to serve the Dragon. Those who escape will join the Old Man's underground army." Muscles bunched at the corners of his jaw. "Those who don't ... Well, it's up to us to see they are avenged."

  24

  Nadir Jump Point, Arcturus

  District of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth

  26 May 3050

  Kai Allard turned and tossed the small petrochem case to the next man in line as the stream of cargo continued to flow from the small shuttlecraft's cargo hold. His shoulders ached just a little, but somehow the simple repetition and physical exertion felt welcome. I hate being cooped up in a DropShip, especially a troop transport ship. Granted, all of us moving from the Viper to the Gibraltar means the ship will be overcrowded, but there will still be more room to move around than on the Overlord Class ship. "Leftenant Allard."

  Kai turned at the sound of the voice and began to smile at Leftenant-General Redburn, when the guy next in line turned and shoved the next parcel at him. The sharp edge raked across the back of Kai's right hand, gouging out a bloody gash. "Youch!" Kai caught the package in his left hand and passed it along, then took a step back and inspected the damaged hand.

  The trooper looked stricken. "Sorry, sir ..."

  Kai shook his head and Andrew Redburn reassured the soldier. "Not your fault. I shouldn't have broken the rhythm of the line."

  Kai sucked at the cut, then watched as blood refilled the wound. He clapped his left hand over the back of his hand to stop the bleeding, then grinned at Andrew. "You will forgive me if I don't salute, sir?"

  Andrew nodded and draped his arm over Kai's shoulder. "I was up on the officers' deck waiting to welcome you with the rest of the Tenth Guard officers, but you weren't there. Leftenant Pelosi told me you'd come over with a cargo shuttle and were helping out. I should have known ..."

  Should have known what, sir? That I wanted to help load and unload cargo, or that I wanted to avoid shipping over in the same shuttle as Deirdre Lear? Kai shrugged. "I assumed that the faster we unload the Viper, the sooner we can be on our way toward the rim. I just wish the Gibraltar had room for our BattleMechs."

  Andrew grimaced. 'That is a desire we share. Unfortunately, the JumpShip assigned to carry the Viper blew a helium seal. Without liquid helium to supercool the Kearny-Fuchida drive, there's no way the ship can make the jump to Surcin with the rest of the armada. I wouldn't worry, though. We have more ships coming through Arcturus and their 'Mech bays will be free. Yen-lo-wang will catch up with you soon enough, but if worse comes to worse, I know of a halfdozen 'Mechs available to a promising young officer."

  Kai smiled broadly. "Thank you, sir. In that event—in any event—I'll do everything I can to justify your confidence in me.

  "Excellent." Andrew gave Kai a hearty slap on the back. "The reason I wanted to speak with you concerns your battalion's new Kommandant."

  Kai nodded. I didn't wonder that they left Kommandant Smitz behind on Skondia. He 'd already agreed to resign his commission and take over command of the Skondia Home Defense Force's Second Regiment. I wonder who will replace him? A nagging fear bubbled up into Kai's throat. "You're not going to make me his aide, are you? I mean ... I still have my lance to command, don't I?"

  Redburn chuckled softly. "You sound just like I did when they told me I was being transferred to the Kittery Training Battalion. No, you'll not lose your lance. I wanted to talk to you about your new Kommandant because I would like you to speak up for him in the informal meeting of the battalion staff. There are bound to be some doubts about him, but they are baseless. I know I can trust you with the sensitive information needed to debunk them, and I know you'll be discreet."

  Kai slowed his pace. "I don't believe you would set me up, General, but I just want to make sure what you're asking. I'm more than willing to help ease a man into his command, but I won't support an idiot who'll get us all killed. This new Kommandant is not someone who got his commission just because of his noble blood, is he?"

  "You tell me," Andrew said, watching Kai carefully. "It's Victor Steiner-Davion."

  The younger MechWarrior's jaw shot down, then snapped shut again. "Forgive me, General. I thought he was with the Twelfth Donegal Guards?"

  "He was. It's probably not much of a secret that some heavy raiding has gone on out toward the rim."

  Kai nodded, a lock of black hair slipping down onto his forehead. "That's why we're all heading out there."

  "It was heavy raiding, Kai, and Victor's unit no longer has command integrity. We believe they're still fighting a guerrilla-type action. Victor and his aide, Hauptmann Cox, escaped the world because Leftenant-General Hawksworth ordered them away."

  The younger man's eyes narrowed. "That's not the Vic
tor I know. He'd never leave." Perhaps he's changed since NAMA ...

  Andrew rubbed his right hand over his chin. "Victor is the same: Cox had to knock him out to get him offplanet. That fact, I am afraid, might count for little with the Tenth Lyran Guards when they learn that the Twelfth Donegal Guards have ceased to exist as a military unit. Morgan Hasek-Davion and I both have the utmost confidence in Victor, but we also know how spooky troops can get if they perceive their leader as an albatross."

  Kai glanced down. If Victor's work at the New Avalon Military Academy was any indication, he should be a strong leader. He'll probably make us do things we'd never have thought possible. Better yet, things the enemy won't think possible. "Sir, I've no doubt Victor will be an excellent leader for us, but I'm not sure it's me you should be talking to. Hauptmann Meisler is my company commander, and the other two Hauptmanns tend to set great store by what she says."

  "I've already had a word with Rachel and she promises to keep an open mind on the matter. She recalled that you'd known Victor at NAMA and said it would be an honor to have one of the officers who defeated the La Mancha scenario in her command and the other as her CO." Andrew's smile broadened as Kai blushed. "In my days at Warriors Hall on New Syrtis, I would have strangled either or both of you for doing so well."

  I know I should feel complimented, but my victory skewed the curve on that test, putting Wendy on the alternate list for the Davion Heavy Guards. He shook his head. "To call what I did a victory is to pervert the word and take away from Victor's solution to the problem."

  Andrew folded his arms across his chest. "Surrounded by four heavier 'Mechs and managing to destroy three of them is certainly a victory in that no-win situation. What you did hadn't been done before and it worked."

  The Leftenant frowned. "It worked, but only for a little while. Instead of shooting first, I ran. I knew the Phoenix Hawk I'd chosen for the test could outdistance the 'Mechs the computer controlled. I just strung them out and picked them off one by one. In my last fight, that's when the computer ganged up on me. I got cocky. I should have pulled out and found another way to split up those last two 'Mechs." As he spoke, Kai pounded his right fist into his left hand and started the cut on the back of bis hand bleeding again. "Victor's solution destroyed the enemy BattleMechs and got him out of there safe and sound. Even though I punched out successfully, I would have still been at the mercy of that last Quickdraw."

  He sucked at the cut again, then looked up at Redburn. "I ran. No one had ever done that before because no one had ever been afraid in that test before."

  The General smiled benignly and shook his head. "You really don't understand your gift, do you? Everyone goes into that test terrified, the same as you. You alone recognized your fear and found a way to beat it, and beat the scenario. People who start shooting when faced with overwhelming odds do not have long or particularly noteworthy careers. Of you, on the other hand, I expect great things."

  Andrew glanced at Kai's hand. "Why don't you go get that patched up in sick bay, then meet me up in what passes for the officer's lounge on this monster. Marshal HasekDavion mentioned he would be sending a message to Prince Hanse and suggested you might want to put in something for your father. He also extends an invitation for you to dine with us this evening."

  "Yes, sir," Kai said, saluting crisply. "My pleasure."

  ***

  Kai showed the gash on his hand to the orderly just inside the sick bay's hatchway. "It's really nothing."

  The young man shook his head. "Best to be sure." He pointed back toward a hatchway leading deeper into the ship's hospital. "Just go through there and sit in Alpha Berth. The doctor will be with you in a minute."

  The Mech Warrior crossed the small antechamber and hopped up onto the examination table, his hand smearing a bloodstain on the white paper that covered the table. Kai looked down at the cut on his hand and gently probed it with his index finger, which started some new blood oozing.

  "Think we'll need morphine?"

  At the icy tone of voice, Kai straightened up. "No, Dr. Lear."

  None too gently, she picked up his right hand and examined it. "The cut's not bad, but your hands are filthy." She picked up his left hand and looked at the black dust coating it. "Using this hand to stop the bleeding is about as safe as cauterizing a shaving cut with a laser rifle."

  "Well, Doctor, I saw no need to wash my hands before getting cut, and I came down here immediately afterward." He tried to get her to smile with one of his own, but it didn't work.

  "Well, then, I guess the rumors about you are true—you are special. Imagine being able to get dirty and injured up on the officers' deck. I thought that impossible."

  "I wouldn't know." Kai slid forward and off the table. "I got cut down in the cargo bay unloading luggage and supplies from the Viper." He pulled his hand from hers. "The damned case that cut me was probably yours."

  She cocked her head and frowned. "You were where?"

  The MechWarrior matched her cold stare. "I was down in the cargo bay unloading the supply shuttle. I flew over here from the Viper in it." He looked away. "I wanted to stay away from the other shuttle to prevent having a 'scene' with you."

  Deirdre took his right hand again, this time more gently, and directed him to a sink fitted with a transparent plastic hood. "Foot pedal controls the waterflow. Use the stuff in the green bottle there and wash the cut well."

  "I've used a Zero-G sink before, Doctor." Kai squeezed some of the gelatinous green scrubbing compound onto his left palm, then added water and rubbed until foam covered his hands. The foam had started out as greenish-white, but most of it had taken on an ashy tint. Kai rinsed his hands. Even before Deirdre could direct him to do it, he soaped them up again. He took special care to clean the cut, then rinsed and presented his dripping hands to her for inspection. "Do they pass?"

  She bit back her first answer, then nodded. She opened a cabinet beside the sink and pulled out a pump-spray bottle filled with a vile yellow liquid. It moved in the clear container with a viscosity somewhere between water and spit. "This will sting."

  "Of course."

  "Touché Leftenant." She hit the sprayer's trigger and coated the back of his hand with the mustard-colored disinfectant. Kai's hand jerked involuntarily, but she held on and gave it another spray. "I'm sorry. This will help seal the wound. It's not bad enough to require staples." She looked at it more closely. "I think I'll use a butterfly bandage to draw it together. That, or—" she glanced up at him, her voice sympathetic—"you could have a small scar after it heals."

  Confusion ran through Kai's mind. I don't understand how there's so much anger in your voice one moment, only to have it vanish the next. You hate me for some reason, but your role as a medic overrides that personal feeling. "A bandage will be good. If nothing else, it will remind me to be more careful."

  "A good idea at any time." She replaced the bottle in the cabinet and pulled out a small, barbell-shaped bandage. Freeing it from the backing, she stretched it across the center of the cut, then pressed the ends down. The elastic material contracted, tugging the edges of the cut closer to each other. "How did it happen?"

  Kai shrugged. "I was helping pass stuff down a line and got distracted by General Redburn."

  Deirdre's blue eyes flickered. "Hobnobbing with the brass, eh?"

  The MechWarrior stiffened. "No. He sought me out. General Redburn had something he wanted to tell me."

  She smiled coyly. "But he is an old family friend, isn't he?"

  Does she have some antipathy toward nobles, after all? Kai nodded, feeling uncomfortably like he was stepping into a trap. "He served with my father before the Fourth War."

  Deirdre Lear's eyes hardened and Kai read anger and pain in them. Her coldness toward me has something to do with the war, or perhaps, my father. Didn't Andrew say her father had been a MechWarrior who died when she was young? She's not that much older than me, so she probably lost him in the war. Who knows?

  He started to te
ll her he was sorry about her loss, but something stopped him. Don't. You don't know anything about her father. A horrible thought struck him. Her father might have died in the assault on Sarna—whose defense some say my father planned. Wait. Try to learn about her background. If you say anything right now, it will only make things worse.

  He bowed his head. "Thank you for attending my wound."

  "Be more careful in the future," she said, all compassion gone. "I don't want to see you in my hospital again."

  25

  Black Pearl Base, Sudeten

  Tamar March, Lyran Commonwealth

  15 June 3050

  Unsuspecting, the Thor moved across the holovid screen from the left, snow and thin ribbons of ice glittering from its head and shoulders as it traveled through the blizzard. Tendrils of steam drifted up from the fire-blackened shell of the LRM launcher on the Thor's left shoulder and other half-melted scars on its body. Where wind-whipped snow actually fell against the myomer muscle exposed on the Thor's right arm, arcing sparks converted to vapor as the muscle flexed and moved the PPC side to side in a vain search for prey.

  Suddenly, the snow exploded up around the 'Mech's legs. Black dirt and shards of armor sprayed into the air to stain the virgin snow as the buried mine savaged the Thor's legs. The giant 'Mech staggered and dropped to one knee. All around it, snow-encrusted Donegal 'Mechs encircled their foe and poured SRM and laser fire into the Thor. Under the hideous barrage, the heavy 'Mech tottered and went down ...

  Victor Steiner-Davion looked up from the holovid view screen as Galen Cox dropped into the seat across the aisle from him. "What is it?" He fastened his seatbelt and shoulder restraints, then jerked his hedd toward the shuttlecraft's nose. "The crew wanted to make sure you're buckled in. We'll be landing in about five minutes." He glanced at the images marching across the holovid screen built into the bulkhead in front of Victor's seat. "Do you think there's more you can learn from that?"