Binding Force

by Loren L. Coleman

  The morning brought a slightly overcast sky, little wind, and an unforgiving jungle heat. By late morning the temperature had already soared past twenty-five degrees Centigrade on the way to thirty. The air was full of moisture and the heavy, wet scent of the tropics. An uncomfortable, sticky heat, but dark clouds piling up over the western horizon promised relief in the form of heavy showers by midday.

  Terry Chan walked across the loading yard, the hot, humid air drenching her in sweat. Halfway across she caught up to and passed Company Leader Thorn Lindell, who walked along at his usual, sedate pace. Though also covered in sweat and seriously sunburned after so much time on Kaifeng, his composure was as rigid as ever. Terry admired the man’s self-discipline, but he also frightened her. One could never be sure what thoughts churned beneath that placid surface. It made someone with as many secrets to guard as Terry Chan self-conscious.

  She hurried past, eager for the shade of the warehouse.

  Ty Wu Non had spread a large map over the desk in his second-floor office. The two office chairs had been pushed out into the short hall above the stairs, while inside three of the House lance leaders were holding a private conversation right next to the air conditioner. Ty Wu Non stood in silent contemplation of the map. Terry also took to studying the map, trying to guess what her battalion commander would set forth as their plan of battle. She saw many possibilities, but she had to know for sure before contacting Karl Bartlett.

  A twinge of conscience over her loyalty to House Hiritsu pricked at her. As she had been doing for several weeks now, she promised herself that she was doing the right thing. The House would grow stronger, and some day she would lead it as Virginia York had. The vision of that day was so clear to her that she could not even imagine events turning out any other way. She would show House Hiritsu and the other Warrior Houses a strength that had been lost in recent years.

  Company Leader Lindell and one of his lance leaders were the last to arrive. Lindell shut the door behind him, then stood there, stoically, waiting for Ty Wu Non to begin the briefing.

  “I fully expect the Tarrahause defenders to deploy tomorrow,” Ty said without preamble. “Leftenant-General Cynthia Fallon has had almost twenty-four hours now to plan a response. We know she hasn’t left the city, which means that she will likely lead the assault against us herself. I don’t intend to wait here and surrender the initiative. We’ll meet them between here and Tarrahause.”

  “Why wouldn’t they deploy today, Battalion Commander?” Terry Chan asked.

  Ty Wu Non stared off in the distance, as if trying to organize his thoughts. “Leftenant-General Fallon has been publicly denouncing us for breaking the cease-fire, claiming we used hostages in Franklin and on the recharge station to intimidate her people into betraying her. It’s a touchy situation. She will wait for the cease-fire to expire, so she can claim moral superiority.”

  “Battalion Commander Non.” Raven Clearwater’s tone was soft and properly respectful as she voiced the first question. “Do we know their full strength?”

  Ty turned to Company Leader Lindell, who Terry knew had been given the assignment of ascertaining just that.

  The stone-faced warrior spoke directly to the battalion commander. “The DropShip Lao-tzu made a high-altitude pass over Tarrahause late yesterday afternoon and again this morning before the city finally put up its own air cover to crowd us off. We now believe that Fallon has brought two lances of mercenaries from Mahabohdi as well as her command lance of the Kaifeng SMM. The mercenaries could be either Ace Darwin’s WhipIts or elements of Carlton’s Brigade.”

  “Which brings their total strength to somewhere less than three companies,” Ty Wu Non concluded. “Roughly half of which are mercenary. That does not include the Von Luckner tanks, which we know are in Tarrahause. But I expect them to leave the Von Luckners behind. The armored units are perfect for urban defense and they can’t leave the city completely open.”

  “So two to three odds,” Terry calculated roughly. “With our edge in equipment and skill, that evens things out, Battalion Commander.”

  Ty Wu Non smiled thinly. “I hope to tilt those odds backing our favor, Terry Chan.” He nodded toward the map spread over his desk and everyone leaned in to watch.

  “The Jinxiang River runs more or less southwest from Lake Ch’u Yuan, linking Tarrahause with us at Port Terminal Four South.” He traced a finger along the map to indicate the stretch he was referring to. “There’s a road that runs along the river—they probably call it a highway—that the Kaifeng SMM is sure to use. The road is bordered to the southeast all the way by a levee and the Jinxiang. Along the other side there’s little except rice paddies, flat open ground where an approaching BattleMech would be visible from kilometers away. Little, that is, except for here.” He tapped five green splotches.

  “These are belts of raw jungle. Kaifeng keeps them partly as windbreaks and partly to prevent a complete destabilization of the native Kaifeng ecology. They also form natural bottlenecks where they run close to the road. They should make Fallon very nervous, since they put a blind spot on her right flank. We will hit her here”—he stabbed a finger down on one of the areas—“at the fourth bottleneck. Only we’ll hit along her left flank.”

  “From the river?” Jill McDaniels asked.

  “Exactly. We will submerge our BattleMechs in the Jinxiang and rig floaters for communications. Hidden infantry will alert us when their main body is just opposite our position, and we’ll come up over the levee and smash them. We’ll use prearranged targets for concentrated fire. With a bit of luck, we’ll break them in the first few moments.” Ty Wu Non continued to study the map, nodding to himself as if confirming the Tightness of his plan. “Comments or questions, anyone?” When no one spoke, he looked to Company Leader Lindell. “Thorn?”

  “I like it,” Lindell said, though by his tone and expression no one could have guessed his feelings one way or another. “It’s simple, yet effective. I don’t like complicated plans. They’re too easily fouled.”

  When no one else spoke, Ty Wu Non held up a computer disk. “These are the plans. I want someone to take them to the transmitter room, encode and upload them to the Lao-tzu for relay to Company Leader James. I want his input. I also want him standing by to lend immediate assistance. This could be the deciding engagement for Kaifeng, and I want all contingencies covered.”

  Terry Chan had remained silent through most of the short briefing, as had most of the others. Ty Wu Non had come up with a good, solid plan, and the whole time she listened, all she could think of was how was she going to communicate it to Karl Bartlett. Now here Ty Wu Non was handing her the device she needed. “I’ll handle the upload, Battalion Commander.”

  For the briefest second, Terry Chan thought she caught the flash of strong emotion behind Ty Wu Non’s eyes. A sadness? Regret? But then it was gone and he held the disk out to her.

  “Everyone else brief your lances. We’ll reconvene planning at thirteen hundred this afternoon. Any questions or comments can be addressed then. And Terry—.” He paused as if to say something, then changed his mind. “Don’t be too long. I want your lance briefed within the hour so they have time to study the mission.”

  She smiled. “More than enough time, Battalion Commander.”

  * * *

  Ty Wu Non did not want to ground his DropShips in unsecured territory, so the Lao-tzu was currently in orbit above them while the other two ships waited in Franklin and Beijing. But the forces in Tarrahause still needed to maintain communications, so he’d ordered the technicians to bring in a powerful transmitter and receiver. These were now set up in the port terminal administrative office.

  The duty technician was quickly relieved and the door locked behind him. The four components of the large transmitter system were still strapped onto their transport, which looked more like a hospital stretcher than a carry-cart. The main unit had two maintenance doors in the back held by a single screw each, making for quick and easy repair. Terr
y quickly opened one of them. She replaced one of the radio crystals inside with one from her pocket. That altered a low-priority channel to a special frequency monitored by Karl Bartlett or one of his trusted technicians. It was very unlikely that another Hiritsu unit would notice that the station was currently off-line on that one frequency, or if they did, that they would think it worthy of reporting.

  Terry Chan reached for the keyboard and quickly typed some instructions. Then she loaded the disk. One copy, encoded and uploaded to the Lao-tzu. She earmarked it for immediate relay to Company Leader Jason James in Beijing. Then she dialed in the new frequency.

  She paused, looking over the message on the small screen. It occurred to her that with the extra lance recently added to the forces in Tarrahause, there were a lot of duplicated ’Mech designs. She decided to add a more detailed list of the five so-called friendly BattleMechs, the ones the Kaifeng SMM were supposed to avoid firing on if possible. She included any variation in weapons configuration or, if necessary, paint schemes. Anything to differentiate between a valid target and her associates. Five warriors, all with a similar vision of what House Hiritsu could be.

  Chan also possessed a crystal that would let her communicate with Leftenant-General Cynthia Fallon, but she’d realized days ago that Fallon would never sell out the way Bartlett had. The general might play the waiting game they had started together, but only someone as driven as Bartlett would go along with using SMM ’Mechs and pilots to fake a Hiritsu attack on his own people in Tarrahause two days ago. Bartlett would blunder in, thinking he could control whatever situation developed and in doing so would clear away the last obstacles within House Hiritsu as well as unknowingly condemn Kaifeng. The next assault, she thought. After Ty Wu Non was safely out of the way, Terry would feed Bartlett some false information and then would walk him straight into an ambush. And if Fallon could be brought along, the entire assault would be over that much sooner. She double-checked her message and hit the Transmit key.

  Nothing happened.

  Terry stabbed the key again. And again. The message sat there on the screen, the Ready-to-Transmit light flashed, the key depressed easily—and still nothing.

  Then the door opened behind her.

  Terry Chan’s right hand dropped to the Sunbeam laser pistol she kept holstered at her right side in place of the standard Nakjama as she spun around in the chair. Ty Wu Non stood in the door, his face tightly set against any show of emotion. Aris Sung stood just behind him.

  “It won’t send, Terry,” Ty Wu Non said tonelessly. “Not unless you’re on a main channel. And you won’t be able to switch back now.”

  Terry stared at Aris Sung and realized what had happened. He had modified the transmitter, just as he had on the recharge station. They had allowed her access to the room just so she could condemn herself. Then she remembered the list she’d typed in for Bartlett. She’d also condemned her associates! Hand still on the butt of her pistol, she searched her mind furiously for a way out. She couldn’t find one.

  Aris was ready with some of her options. “You could try to destroy the transmitter,” he said. “But if you look to your left you’ll see a cable that feeds to an auxiliary memory unit in the next room. We have everything on disk.”

  “I could shoot you, Aris Sung.” Even as she said it, it sounded hollow and petty in her own ears. It was over, and inside she knew it.

  “You have never raised your hand, directly, against another warrior of the House,” Aris reminded her. “Do you really wish to start now?”

  In all honesty, no, she didn’t. “Then why are we having this conversation?” She was stalling now, trying to figure out what they had in mind. Something, obviously, or there would be infantrymen here to take her into custody or just put her against a wall to be shot.

  “Surrender your sidearm, Terry Chan.” Ty Wu Non’s voice was hard. “Move away from the transmitter and let Aris in there. Do that, and you will have your chance at redemption.”

  Terry wanted to laugh, but the moment weighed too heavily on her for laughter. “Redemption? You expect me to believe you would let me live?”

  “Did I say live?” Ty Wu Non shook his head. “I said you could redeem yourself. You can die a warrior of House Hiritsu, remembered for your courage and dedication. Or you can die in disgrace here and now. That choice is yours.”

  There was no choice to make. From the moment they walked in, she’d understood that it was over for her. But to be stripped of her honor and shot as a traitor, that she could not bear to think of. She wondered suddenly if she’d ever really thought about what she might lose in all this.

  Terry stood, slowly, and offered Ty Wu Non her Sunbeam, butt first. Ty and Aris Sung stepped fully into the room and closed the door behind them. Aris slid into the seat she had vacated and began to read through her message. “What do you have in mind, Battalion Commander?”

  Ty explained while Aris continued to scan through the message and work intermittently on the transmitter. Chan listened intently, offering responses only when directly asked. In one case Aris answered for her. Ty Wu Non had asked how many others were involved, to which Aris responded, “Four. I can identify them from their ’Mech descriptions in the message.”

  There had been five ’Mechs. Had she miss-keyed the message or forgotten one? If so, she wasn’t about to tell them. Let the missing person carry the dream further, if able. As for the others, well, Ty Wu Non’s offer was generous, considering the circumstances. And in a way it gave them something they wanted—the opportunity to show everyone what a House warrior could be. Perhaps not on the scale they’d imagined, but it was now the only chance left to them.

  She agreed to the terms.

  Battalion Commander Non looked to Aris. “Do you have the transmitter ready?”

  Aris nodded.

  “Then send the message to Tarrahause. Just as she entered it.”

  “Send the message?” Terry frowned her confusion.

  “Tell her, Aris,” Ty said.

  Aris turned to her. “We never planned to use that strategy,” he said with a curt laugh. “But we want Bartlett and Fallon to think so.”

  28

  Jinxiang River Road

  Tarrahause District, Kaifeng

  Sarna Supremacy, Chaos March

  27 July 3058

  The Kaifeng SMM had deployed a full lance of light ’Mechs nearly a kilometer forward as advance scouts, a mixture of regular forces and mercenary. They passed along the edge of the jungle, walking the Jinxiang River Road in single file. One BattleMech, a mercenary Mercury bringing up the rear, paused to scan the jungle, but it was only a cursory inspection using standard sensors. The jungle was out of range for the ’Mech’s Beagle Active Probe, and the pilot evidenced no desire to leave the easy traveling surface of the road.

  After all, they knew where and when the attack was going to take place. Didn’t they?

  But Aris’ plan was to mislead the Kaifeng force into believing the attack would come later and then hit them early with a classic feint strategy. By Ty Wu Non’s map, the place where House Hiritsu waited in ambush was actually the third bottleneck between Tarrahause and Port Terminal Five South, not the fourth. The jungle grew to within three hundred meters of the road at this point, the intervening land covered with low-lying, broad-leafed plants.

  Over half the Hiritsu force was hiding back inside the dark jungle foliage, their fusion reactors dampened against detection by enemy sensors. It had taken them over an hour to reach their position, pushing through the dense jungle, and another before the usual wild shrilling of birds returned. Over the other side of the levee—submerged in the Jinxiang as per the original plan—Terry Chan and her small cabal of conspirators awaited his signal.

  Terry Chan. Lance Leader Jill McDaniels. Brion Lee, one of Raven’s warriors. Kevin Larsen, a lance leader under Thorn Lindell. Four wayward sons and daughters of the House, yet so much depended on them. If they didn’t hold up their end of the plan… But Aris promised
him they would, and Ty Wu Non had accepted his assurances. Aris knew how to read people, and besides, Ty saw no other way to save the situation without letting the entire story out. Aris was right that the shock to House Hiritsu might well be irreparable. No, it was this way, or not at all.

  It twinged his self-esteem just a little, though, to place the fate of House Hiritsu in Aris Sung’s hands. Ty had still not fully accepted the young warrior, though he was trying. Aris was his son now, or at least he would be when Sun-Tzu confirmed Ty as the next House Master. A leader of a Warrior House had no business carrying grudges, especially if it was going to prejudice him against recognizing good advice. He hoped that trusting Aris Sung with planning this offensive would be Ty’s last step to purging the old jealousies and hatreds.

  As long as it succeeded, that is.

  Through a carefully arranged break in the vine-strung trees, Ty Wu Non watched as the scouts disappeared beyond a curve in the road and the main body of the Kaifeng defenders appeared from around the northeast bend. An Atlas led the parade, its death’s head mask surveying the country with its chilling grin. It was one of the largest assault ’Mechs, and Ty was sure it must be Leftenant-General Fallon’s machine. Thirty meters behind her walked—Ty would almost say strutted—a BJ-O Blackjack OmniMech. Major Karl Bartlett. His targeting computer on standby, Ty Wu Non identified as many ’Mechs as he could through field binox.

  The range at which the scouts preceded the main body gave Ty an idea. He dialed in an auxiliary channel on his commline. This channel bypassed the transmitting circuitry and ran directly through a line the House infantrymen had strung between all the waiting ’Mechs. When the action began, the line would tear away, but for now it gave them secure communications.

  “They’re coming right at us, warriors. Stand ready. Support Three and Auxiliary Two,” he called to the two missile-boat BattleMechs in hiding with him. “Those scouts will come flying back around that corner in a hurry once the fireworks start. Drop a welcome for them just this side of the bend. Two full volleys each.” He checked the position of the enemy ’Mechs. The lead unit was just passing his position. “Tactical command is passing to Company Leader Aris Sung. Go ahead, Aris.”