Grave Covenant

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Then, without warning, a hail of fire erupted from the surrounding buildings. Heavy machine gun fire and an Inferno rocket had taken Carson down. Bowen immediately ordered his people forward, spraying the building to the north side of the square with his machine gun. The others followed suit and raced toward the blocky brick structure. Once inside, the walls would shield them, then they could clear the building and move through the town mopping up resistance.

  On the way to the building, Trevor hit a land mine. It exploded under his right foot with a thunderclap and pitched him high into the air. Trevor spun through a cartwheel and came down on his head and shoulders. Bowen knew that the other warrior was probably no more than dazed, but as Trevor got to his feet again, Bowen could see that he was disoriented. Trevor began to run toward the building to the west of the square.

  The crossfire from the south and the second story of the western building ripped Trevor to pieces. Chunks of his armored suit flew through the air as the bullets spun him around. Black fluid oozed through the rents in the armor, attempting to seal the wounds, but it sprayed away as bullets punched through it and through the man inside it. Trevor flopped to the ground and twitched as bullets continued to pick at him.

  Bowen forced his way into the northern building first, cutting a man in half with a burst of machine-gun fire from the weapon that underslung the armor on his left forearm. Turning to his right he then used the small laser in the right arm to turn another man into a torch. The two of them dropped behind the sandbag-shielded machine gun they had crewed. Grace and Adrienne crowded through the doorway after Bowen and immediately raced to the right and left to secure the rooms off the main chamber. Bowen heard noise from above, so he spun and raked a line of fire with his machine gun across the ceiling. He was rewarded with a scream.

  He happened to turn to the right in time to see the floor in the other room collapse beneath Adrienne's feet. Bowen realized they'd been lured into a deathtrap as she dropped from sight. Something fell from above into the hole that had taken her—he couldn't identify it, but it had been metal, at least a meter and a half on a side, and seemed fairly heavy. He felt a tremor run through the foundation as the object hit, and he knew Adrienne hadn't slowed it down even a bit.

  He snapped an order to Grace that sent the both of them out the back of the building. To get out Bowen leaped over the sandbag-fortified machine gun nest and planned to follow that with a hop through a window, but his left foot landed in the viscera of the man he'd shot, causing making him skid. As a result his leap came late and his right foot clipped the window sill. Involuntarily up-ended, Bowen somersaulted through the window and landed hard on his back.

  Luckily for him, his unceremonious exit saved his life.

  Grace landed as effortlessly as her name implied she might, and immediately scanned the alley for any signs of hostility. She started looking left, just beyond him, and came around to the right. About the same time she began to turn toward the junky hovercar plugging the alley to her right, the vehicle exploded.

  An orange nimbus surrounded her, then brightened to yellow and on to white, reducing her to a black silhouette. It struck Bowen that she had some how metamorphosed into a Nova Cat, for her armor was black except for the white blaze eating into her left shoulder.*It wasn't until her left arm came spinning out over his head that Bowen realized what was happening, and by then her silhouette had evaporated from the knees up.

  The force of the explosion lifted him lip and sent him tumbling after Grace's arm. His head slammed into a wall, then he felt himself rotating through the air. He slammed down again, hitting on one shoulder. His body whirled and he felt an ankle snap as his foot pulverized brick. He braced himself for the pain, but his power armor had already begun to pump drugs into his system, numbing the injury and boosting his stamina.

  He rolled out into a street and scrambled to his feet as best he could. He heard the pinging of rifle bullets bouncing off his armor. An occasional laser bolt stabbed out at him, but those weapons were strictly anti-personnel and were of as much concern to him as rain. The locals had clearly used their best and heaviest weapons on the ambush—the people backing them up were reduced to using lighter weapons. Though they could not kill him outright, they could report his position and delay him enough for another ambush to be set up.

  If I don't move, I'll die. He looked around for a way out, but couldn't see a clear path to freedom. The roadway was devoid of traffic north and south, but the vehicles parked along it could all have held the sort of bomb that killed Grace. He had to assume, in fact, that they did. My best bet is to move through buildings and get away from this area.

  He limped his way across the street and into what had been a hole in the wall restaurant. As he moved through it, pitching over tables and lasing the stove into scrap, he tried to open a radio channel to the 19th Striker headquarters. A loud, undulating tone pierced waves of static regardless of which frequency he tried. Jammed. No wonder we did not hear from Furey.

  Bowen burst from the building and into a narrow north-south alley. He turned to the south and saw a balding, sallow-fleshed old man move into the alley mouth and raise an ancient arquebus to his shoulder. The pure audacity of the skeletal old man surprised Bowen. He knew the muzzle-loader couldn't hurt him, so he tossed a quick salute even as the man was pulling the trigger. The hammer fell, spraying sparks into the pan, then the gun went off with a huge gout of white smoke.

  The heavy ball hit Bowen square in the chest and actually knocked him back a couple of steps. A quick glance at the diagnostic display showed that his armor had not been breached, but the shot reminded Bowen that the armor was not proof against the forces of physics. Accelerate any object of sufficient mass and it will go through this armor.

  The smoke cleared, allowing Bowen to see the old man running for his life toward a building out away from the alley. Bowen gave chase, snapping off a few quick shots at the fleeing insurgent. They missed, and in a flash of red kimono, the man scampered through a doorway. Bowen considered, just for a second, rewarding the man's courage by allowing him to live, but just as quickly dismissed the idea.

  Must be the painkillers. He tried to kill me. To let him live would encourage others. He must die. Bowen sprayed two bursts of fire across the face of the building, then twisted slightly to the right and ducked his head so he could make it through the doorway with minimal loss of momentum. A moving target is harder to hit.

  As he entered the doorway, Bowen saw his quarry directly ahead of him, hunkered down behind a breastwork of sandbags. The old man wore a broad, nearly toothless grin matched by the one on the face of the little girl sitting beside him. Their obvious pleasure at seeing him surprised Bowen, but that was because he didn't immediately recognize the device at which they sat as a weapon.

  The leaf-spring of a ground vehicle had been mounted on a two-meter-long piece of ceiling joist. A twisted metal cable—a piece of high-tension wire—spanned the curve of the springs and had been drawn back into a V-shape and fastened in position by a simple latching device. Placed along the joist was a meter and a half long piece of iron rebar that had been sharpened at one end and notched at the other, so it fit the cable perfectly. The latch had a long lever connected to it and, as Bowen realized what he was looking at, the old man drove the lever down with his foot.

  Though not intended to be part of a makeshift crossbow, the leaf-spring served admirably. It cast the rebar forward with great force, enabling the metal needle to pierce Bowen's Elemental suit over the right flank. He could feel the rebar rip through him and stab out the left side of his armor, but it was the wet, meaty tearing sound that told him how gravely he had been hurt.

  He tried to fall back out into the street, but the projecting ends of the rebar caught on the door jamb and frustrated him. He stumbled forward and lased the crossbow, starting it to burn, but the people who had shot him were no longer behind it. He started to turn to find them, but his broken ankle gave way and sent him falling to th
e floor. He hit on his right side, driving the rebar yet further through him, then flopped onto his back.

  He coughed once, hard, and tasted blood in his mouth. When he looked up, he saw blood splashed over his viewport. He felt his armor pumping more drugs into him and saw a little indicator light beginning to blink, signifying that his homing beacon had been activated. But it will be jammed.

  He wanted to panic, to fight against the drugs and struggle his way out of Fuun Township, but he did not have the strength. He wanted to get up and kill all the people in the town, but he knew that would not save his life. It struck him that the people he had faced and slap in the invasion never would have dared attack him. But we have given them years to overcome their fear of us. And now we pay the price.

  Bowen glanced up and saw the old man approaching him, with a sledge-hammer raised high. The Elemental ordered his right arm to come up and incinerate the ancient one, and he was pretty certain it had, but could not be absolutely sure as his viewport shattered into shadowed fragments that smothered his consciousness forever.

  36

  Mitsuhama Ridge, Schuyler

  Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone

  13 August 3059

  As the aerospace fighters completed the second and final strafing run, Victor throttled up his bird-legged Daishi Omni-Mech and started into the shadowy switchback defile leading to the top of Mitsuhama Ridge. Though not the swiftest of the Tenth Lyran Guard 'Mechs, the lumbering behemoth he had named Prometheus packed a hefty punch and could take a lot of damage. It was equipped with Clan technology and had been a gift to him a long time ago so he could meet Clan foes on even footing.

  At Alyina and Teniente it kept me safe while allowing me to kill Clanners. Though he knew that being the first one up the defile would make him a target, Victor was curiously without fear. The Clan line had to be breached and the Fourth Jaguar Regulars had devoted a Trinary to defending this weak point on the ridge. To the east and west the Heavy Guards RCT and First Genyosha threatened the Fourth's flanks, pinning them in place, so it was up to the Tenth to break the Clan center and send them scurrying away.

  The other unit on Schuyler, the Twelfth Jaguar Regulars, had broken at Olasin Fjord under relentless pressure from the Fourth Wolf Guards, First St. Ives Lancers, and the Com Guard 91st Division. Though the Clan units were both mere garrison Clusters, and therefore supplied with a mix of first- and second-line 'Mechs, the Twelfth had fought well and the Fourth had stiffened its resistance when they reached the ridge.

  The Daishi came around the switchback and saw a humanoid 'Mech rise from cover to shoot at him. His computer tagged it a Grendel, a medium-sized 'Mech that packed some firepower but was hardly the sort of opponent that could stop the Daishi. Unless he gets very lucky.

  The Grendel brought its left arm up and fired the medium lasers built on the back of the forearm. One of the ruby beams flashed wide to the left, but the other hit the Daishi over the left arm, frying armor. The Grendel's right arm came around, with a large laser's green beam flashing out. It caught Victor's 'Mech over the left breast. Withered armor dropped in steaming puddles to the ground. The medium laser built into the crest of the Grendel's head also stabbed toward the Daishi. Its fury evaporated armor on the Omni-Mech's right arm, giving it a molten scar that matched the one on the left arm.

  Without conscious thought, Victor dropped his 'Mech's cross hairs on the Grendel's outline, simultaneously bringing the trio of large pulse lasers in the right arm and the Gauss rifle mounted in the left to bear. The pulse lasers all hit, picking apart armor on the Grendel's left arm, right leg, and right flank. Through the melted armor vapor shot the silvery slug from the Gauss rifle. It hit the Grendel in the right arm, shivering off all the armor on that limb and denting its ferro-titanium bones.

  Somehow the Clan pilot kept his 'Mech standing despite the pounding it had taken. The Grendel again brought its weapons around to fire at the Daishi. Two of the medium lasers ablated armor from the left flank of Victor's Omni-Mech. The ruby beam from the Grendel's head burned armor from his. left arm, while the large laser's emerald beam carved armor from the Daishi's right leg.

  Renny Sanderlin's Penetrator came up behind Victor's Daishi and used the pulse lasers mounted in the 'Mech's torso to savage the Grendel. One of the beams missed, but the rest all scored on the medium 'Mech. The first ate away the Grendel's right arm, destroying the large and small lasers built into it. Two others boiled armor off the 'Mech's flanks. The one that cored into the right flank finished the last of the armor on that side and liquefied the short-range missile launcher housed there. The last two melted armor over the Grendel's heart and even drilled through to damage it internally. The black smoke pouring from the center and right side of its chest suggested hits to the engine.

  Victor ignored the Grendel as it crashed to the ground and instead targeted the Shadow Cat that fired at him from further up the defile. Its armor already showed scarring from the strafing runs, making it even more vulnerable to the Daishi than it might have been otherwise. The Shadow Cat matched the Grendel in size and rough armor protection, though it was not as heavily armed. With the damage the Daishi had already taken, it was possible the smaller 'Mech could hurt him, but unlikely that it could put him out of the battle.

  Victor tightened his fingers on the triggers of his cockpit joysticks. Even as the Shadow Cat's arm-mounted large lasers hit the Daishi, Victor's laser assault withered the left arm away to a vapor cloud. The Gauss rifle shattered the armor on the right arm and crushed the shoulder joint. The other two pulse lasers scattered a hail of energy darts over the Shadow Cat's left leg and right flank, burning away enough armor that the pilot could not accommodate the sudden shifting of the 'Mech's weight. The Shadow Cat whirled to the ground, jamming itself between the defile's wall and a large dolmen.

  The Shadow Cat's attack on the Daishi had been effective. Both large lasers played their green beams across the 'Mech's chest. One scored the armor over the big 'Mech's heart, while the other sliced through the rest of the armor on the left side of its chest. That latter beam even fried some internal support structures, threatening the SRM launcher, but did nothing to stop the Daishi from functioning fully.

  A brilliant silver light filled the defile as Renny jumped his Penetrator ahead of Victor's Daishi. "Let me run interference for you, Victor. We're almost at the top."

  Victor bit back a curse. Renny's right, I'm hurt. Renny Sanderlin had been Victor's roommate in his last year at the Nagelring, and a good friend from before that. The big man had always been ready to back Victor up or shield him from danger. "Roger, Renny, I've got your back."

  At the crest of the ridge a huge OmniMech with scarred armor stepped forward to bar their passage. The heavily built, humanoid Man o' War stood only ten meters tall, but there in the pass, skylined as it was, it looked to Victor the way Goliath must have to David. The Smoke Jaguar 'Mech's handless arms came up, with the barrels of two particle projection cannons forming the right forearm and a quartet of laser muzzles blossoming at the wrist of the left arm. The OmniMech was a formidable foe, but Victor knew it would fall precisely because it had to fall.

  The Man o' War fired first. The artificial lightning of the first PPC beam devoured armor on the right side of the Penetrator's chest, and the second coruscating blue beam dissolved armor in the middle of its chest. The scarlet needles of the medium laser in the left arm nibbled away at the armor on the FedCom 'Mech's left leg, leaving armor damaged but no breaches opened in it.

  Renny fired back, again hitting with five of the six pulse lasers mounted in his 'Mech's torso. Two boiled armor off the 'Mech's left arm. A hail of ruby needles from one peppered the armor on the Clan 'Mech's left leg. Another strobing beam blistered armor on the Omni's right arm, while the final one misted armor over the middle of the 'Mech's broad chest.

  Victor swung his cross hairs over and centered the Man o' War on them. A shower of green energy darts splashed armor from the Clan 'Mech's left arm and tor
so, but the third large pulse laser and the Gauss rifle caused the most trouble when they hit the 'Mech's already wounded right arm. The Gauss rifle's projectile pulverized all but the last of the armor on that arm and the pulse laser evaporated what was left. The unspent energy bolts skewered the shoulder, freezing the arm in place, then exploded one of the two PPCs mounted in the forearm.

  Despite the battering the Man o' War was taking, the Smoke Jaguar pilot kept his machine up and firing. The two medium lasers mounted in the left arm incinerated armor on the Penetrator's right arm and left flank. The PPCs azure beam missed because the frozen shoulder joint limited its ability to track Renny's 'Mech. The large pulse laser drilled into the 'Mech's right flank, vaporizing the last of the armor and disintegrating one of the pulse lasers housed therein, even as it flashed back in defiance.

  Renny's pulse lasers all hit. The trio firing low flensed armor from the OmniMech's legs, while another pair lit up the center of the 'Mech's chest. The last one did the most damage, though, as it burned away the rest of the Man o' War's right arm, eliminating the last PPC, and sending the fire-blackened ruins of the limb crashing to the ground.

  Victor's attack continued the Smoke Jaguar's demise. One pulse laser roasted the armor on the 'Mech's chest while a second vaporized the last of the armor on the left arm and began to cook the myomer fibers and ferro-titanium bones. The third pulse laser denuded the right leg of armor and snapped the leg's upper actuator, leaving the broken ends of the manmade muscle twitching. Through the gap opened by the loss of that muscle sped the Gauss rifle ball. It caught the Man o' War's femur in the middle and blasted through it.