There was a low rumble, almost like an echo of distant thunder. She instinctively checked her sensors but saw nothing. Twisting the torso of her Templar, she saw threads of smoke rising over the rooftops of the nearest buildings. It could just be a fire in the city, but she knew differently. Those fires came from the bridges over the Rouge River.
"Rat Squad, this is Mongoose," she said as her fingers worked the tactical display controls, fine-tuning them for resolution. "Sit rep."
The sound of gunfire blasted into the earpiece of her neurohelmet and she quickly turned down the volume. Rat Squad was nothing more than six troopers equipped as combat engineers. They were half the city away from the LZ, and could not be supported if they needed help. The background noise told her that they were under attack from an autocannon. That meant tanks or 'Mechs. Something was already going wrong.
Damn.
"Rat One achieved the objective and is heading this way," came a voice through the muffled blasts. "Rat Two has taken out one bridge but has encountered opposition on number two target. Falcons are moving forward jump-capable units and have secured a bridgehead on our side of the river."
She paused. There was nothing she could do from where she was; they both knew it. "I will detach a relief force and send it your way, Rat Two."
There was a swirling hiss of static in response and the muffled, breathy voice of Rat Two coming back online. "Negative, Mongoose. We will complete our objectives. Let Captain Boyne know—" There was a pause. In her mind she could see the battle, see the tiny three-man squad running for cover. "—Let him know that we honored our oath—to the man." The comm channel cut off.
Those men were going to die. She could hear that in Rat Two's voice. It was relaxed, calm, resolved. She didn't know the oath of which the soldier was speaking, but she knew the sound of men preparing to sacrifice themselves. "Alpha Lance," she said smoothly, pulling up the tactical diagram of the bridges and roadways Rat Squad was covering. "Rat Squad reports enemy contact on our side of the river. Fan out to the coordinates I am sending you and prepare to fight a delaying action."
* * *
Greene's Maxim rocked from the blast that hit just in front of the APC. The hovercraft swung wildly toward the sidewalk and took out a newsstand, or maybe a phone booth—Greene wasn't sure and didn't care. Their attacker was a Jade Falcon Loki that now stood right in front of the three-story research facility.
Captain Paulis moved forward in his Griffin and opened fire. The wave of autocannon slugs from the modified Griffin hit the right side of the Loki, furrowing nasty gashes in the armor-plating on the torso and arm. The Loki twisted at the torso as if it had been punched. It lurched from the impact, and a laser barrage from its primary weapon missed Paulis. Instead, the coherent light hit the building just past Paulis. showering the area with a hard rain of jagged glass and chunks of brick.
"Gunner, armor-piercing!" Greene barked. The APC was not designed for close-in fighting, but it still had teeth. A green light flickered on the board—the rounds were loaded and locked. "Target that Loki and fire for effect."
The hover APC recoiled as the turret let loose a blast of ammunition. The Loki's right arm took the brunt of the stream of shells. The battered arm suddenly seemed to lose power, dropping down and becoming limp. It swung lifelessly at the side of the 'Mech. The Jade Falcon MechWarrior seemed unfazed by the damage. Instead of moving out of the line of fire, which would have been a sane reaction, he broke into a run and charged forward.
For a fraction of a second, Greene was taken aback by this tactic. Then he reminded himself that these were, after all. Clan warriors. No, strike that. These were Jade Falcons—arguably the toughest of the Clans. He toyed with deploying the squad in the back of the APC to provide cover, but he knew he would need them when they penetrated the research facility. Instead, he juked hard to the left, turning the APC down a side street to get out of the line of fire. I'll just swing around and hit its flank as it passes.
He heard Paulis fire as he banked around. Then the Loki lumbered into view, and he was stunned by what he saw. Two squads of Fidelis and Republic troops assigned to his team charged straight at the Loki. Some of the men held their positions and fired their assault weapons at the three-story-tall 'Mech. The other power- armored troops fired their jump jets and headed straight into the Loki's path.
The Jade Falcon pilot, confined by the narrow corridor of the streets, slowed to assess his situation. That pause was a mistake. Sir Greene saw sparks of small- arms fire from the ground troops flickering across the Loki's cockpit glass. The Fidelis troops, in their jump- jet-equipped Kage armor, didn't waste time firing, but instead latched onto the Jade Falcon 'Mech with their mechanical claws and swarmed up the battered war machine.
The Loki pilot slammed his 'Mech into the side of a building, crushing one of the armored troops. A sickening red smear ran down the side of the 'Mech as he torso-twisted in an attempt to shake the other Fidelis free. They held firm. Greene wanted to fire but couldn't without risking hitting his own troops. The Fidelis troopers scurried up the BattleMech to the head. He saw a flash and knew it was the blast of a satchel charge. The cockpit of the Loki seemed to flare orange inside. Black smoke billowed out. The Loki suddenly stopped moving.
The troopers jetted away from the 'Mech as it fell forward. It plowed into the ferrocrete roadway, tearing up huge chunks of the road and radiating cracks in every direction. A water main shattered and a hydrant broke off; it was like a rainstorm had settled over the intersection.
Greene's squads landed next to the downed BattleMech. One of the Fidelis surveyed the side torso where the bloody smear of a fallen comrade remained, a red- brown blur that had once been a man. He ignited his flamer. hosing down the stained area. The move caught Sir Greene off guard. What the hell is that all about?
Even before he had finished his thought, he saw two of the troopers pull out the limp body of the Jade Falcon Mech Warrior, who was either dead or so near death that it was a moot point. As he watched, a Fidelis warrior pulled out a huge knife and cut off the head of the MechWarrior. The head, complete with the neurohel- met, rolled a full eight meters before rocking to a slow stop.
"Did you see that, sir?" The voice of Captain Paulis sounded in his headset.
"Yes, I did."
"What are you going to do about it, Major?"
He licked his lips and stared ahead. Switching to a broad channel for all his team to hear, he spoke in his best command voice. "Move out and secure the perimeter of the objective." He toggled to a command frequency. "Mongoose, this is Strike Team Dagger. We ran into some opposition, but are at the objective."
"Roger that. Dagger One," Lady Synd's voice replied. "We are being pressed from the west. No word yet from our friends to the east. Will keep you posted."
No word from Boyne? Greene wasn't concerned. Boyne had proven himself in training to be fully capable of dealing with difficult situations.
* * *
Teuber called in from his perch with pure military precision. "Captain Boyne, we have a Jade Falcon attack force moving down the John Cabin toward us. You have three minutes before they are on us. Multiple targets— BattleMechs and support vehicles. I am feeding tactical data to all units." Boyne adjusted his comm unit to clear up the background static from the arm-mounted control unit.
"Affirmative, Teuber. Stay in place until we blow, give us a damage assessment, then link up."
"I will not fail."
Boyne knew he would not. From where he stood in the lobby, Boyne surveyed the chaos roiling around the base of the hospital. Hundreds of people were milling around, looking up for smoke. The fire department and police had arrived, and he had ordered them to evacuate the patients. They were dumbfounded by his request. They were not military .. . not Fidelis; they simply didn't understand the need to follow orders.
A nurse came up to him and patted his shoulder armor. "You're The Republic. Have you come to take out the Falcons?"
"You mus
t leave, now," he answered through the external speakers on his battle armor.
"You have come to save us?" the nurse demanded, stunned as he pushed her through the lobby doors to the outside.
"This is just a raid. You are in danger. You must leave," he urged, pushing her hard. A fireman grabbed the nurse and pulled her away as she leaned back toward him, back toward the hospital.
"You can't do this. They'll kill us for this. That's what they do. They'll make us pay." He could see the terror in her eyes. He knew she was right, but did not respond. His faceplate hid the expression on his face.
Using a series of eye-blink combinations, be checked his HUD display. His troops were clear of the building. He had a green light from Braddock on the other side of the John Cabin Parkway—the signal that he was ready to go.
Activating his external speakers, he barked out a command. "This building is going to collapse. Run away! Get clear!" He waved his massive arms in the air.
Panic set in.
Good.
He jogged across the street and checked again. His people were clear. Boyne transmitted to his entire team at once. "We are clear. Stand by for blast." Clear as we can hope to be.
Teuber called in from his perch. "Sir, Jade Falcons are closing fast. Contact in thirty seconds."
He toggled the detonation code into the comm unit on his arm. There was a rumble, a roar, and a massive blast of concrete dust filled the air.
Price of Service 1
Training Center Opal
Bernardo
Former Prefecture VI
Fortress Republic (+739 days)
Damien Redburn stepped in front of the holotable, deliberately using the backdrop of planets hovering in midair for dramatic effect. "Gentlemen, we are ready."
There was a pause, then Ghost Knight Jeremy Chin spoke up. "About time," he said sarcastically. "Sir." Frustration rang in his voice. Redburn had sent the two knights only a handful of messages over the past two years, and they were always the same: "Stand by for further orders." They knew the basic concept of their mission, but none of the details. Now, two years since their meeting on New Earth, Redburn had shown up at the training facility where they had been isolated with their troops. Chin had seemed on edge since they had received word of the former exarch's arrival in-system.
Hunter "Hunt" Mannheim winced at the younger knight's words. In all his years of service to The Republic, he had never met a peer knight who demonstrated the arrogance and consistently childish behavior of Jeremy Chin. At first, he assumed it was just how the younger man dealt with pressure, a release from the long months of training they had endured. Then the practical jokes had started.
His bed had been short-sheeted, which he found slightly funny the first time. When it began happening once a week, it became annoying. There was no question that Chin was the culprit; the regular Republic troops respected Sir Mannheim too much to consistently prank him, and the Fidelis simply lacked interest in spending their time and energy on such frivolous activities. By far the worst incident had taken place during a training debriefing. Chin had programmed the holotable display to show a fake three-dimensional image of Jessica Marik—naked. It went beyond embarrassing, but even the normally reserved Fidelis officers had laughed.
Hunter jumped in before Paladin Redburn was forced to respond to Chin's rudeness.
"I believe what Sir Chin is trying to say is that we are looking forward to beginning our assignment."
Redburn nodded. "I understand," he said, and gave the ghost knight a faint grin. "We had to wait for the right circumstances to come together. I believe we have arrived at the optimal conditions, and so the time has come for us to strike."
"Sir," Sir Chin pressed. "When we met two years ago I thought it was pretty clear that Devlin Stone had picked our target himself. So why all of this sitting and waiting?"
Redburn sat. "The problem is that a lot of the orders Stone left for us regarding the Fortress plan were pretty cryptic, written to address vague circumstances or conditions that he predicted but we just didn't see coming. There are many precise instructions, but many more passages that Exarch Levin and I had to interpret."
"Ah, a Nostradamus for the modern age."
Hunter glared at the ghost knight. "You should watch what you say about Devlin Stone, Sir Chin," he said, emphasizing the knight's title in a low, dangerous voice. Chin kept his next comment to himself, obviously used to this particular tone in Mannheim's voice and how to respond to it. The tension of the past two years was clear in the relationship of the two knights.
Redburn ignored the exchange and continued. "Recent events have created conditions we consider the right ones to activate your mission. As you know, the Oriente Protectorate has been flexing its muscles throughout the old Free Worlds League. They had hoped to leverage the Capellan Confederation to apply pressure on the Duchy of Andurien. The Capellans apparently had plans of their own. The net effect is that the balance of power along the border of the Confederation and the old Free Worlds League seems to be shifting. Stone's notes on your target indicate that in such circumstances, we would need to destabilize it."
Hunter sat up straight in his chair. "Sir, we have trained for nearly every conceivable mission type while waiting here on Bernardo. We're ready—more than ready."
Redburn nodded once. "I believe you are. I am now able to tell you that your target planet is Kwamashu." He turned to the holographic display and manipulated the controls. The map showed the Duchy of Andurien, a blinking golden dot indicating the world of Kwamashu. The display zoomed in.
Kwamashu was a green and blue world with a few dull tan areas of desert. The planet had three large continents and two smaller ones, one of which was a desert. Most of the cities, only a few of them sizable, clustered on the large continents. Millions of people called Kwamashu home. The Duchy of Andurien considered it a relatively self-sufficient world. Not exactly a gem in the crown, but a world whose vast and varied industry helped keep the Duchy a viable entity. Especially now that much of that industry was converting to the production of military goods.
Hunter wet his lips. Action at last.
"Your mission specifics," Redburn continued, "are outlined in this briefing. JumpShips await your departure orders." He handed a datacube to each of the knights. "You both have unique orders associated with this mission. These orders will not be easy to fulfill, but I trust that you won't let down The Republic."
Sir Mannheim said nothing for a moment, focused on the cube in his hands. The Republic. The meaning of those words had changed since he had met with Redburn and the other knights on New Earth. A coordinated effort was unfolding outside of Fortress Republic to ensure the continued existence of The Republic, and it was finally his turn to contribute. He had heard many unsettling rumors of assassinations, coups and even revolutions supposedly perpetrated by Knights of the Sphere. The definition of being a knight may have changed for some, but not for me.
"We won't let you down—or The Republic."
"Don't promise so quickly," Redburn warned. "The exarch and I have sorted through the options and are left with no choice but to ask you to start a war.
"Of all the missions we have initiated since Fortress Republic was established, I have been looking forward to this one least of all. Sir Mannheim, Sir Chin will help you analyze the data, choose the appropriate target and devise a plan of action. His training as a ghost knight allows us to trust his discretion in this operation, and you must honor his orders as well as your own."
Hunter glanced over at Chin. His usual cheerful, boyish expression seemed to have faded in the last minute of conversation. He suddenly looked deadly serious and years older.
Mannheim said slowly, "I, too, have been dreading that this would be our mission."
"I know you won't fail me. I trust you to do what is right." With those words, Redburn rose to his feet. "The time has come to put all your training to the test."
Hunter nodded and rose to his feet to salute th
e paladin. So this is what The Republic has become.
* * *
"You're the intelligence expert. What do you suggest?"
Chin rubbed the datacube he had carried with him since meeting with Damien Redburn two years earlier. Mannheim had noticed in the many months they'd been together that the cube was always in the younger knight's pocket or in his hand. He treated it like a talisman; his regard for it bordered on obsessive. His sudden silence now was uncharacteristic, but Mannheim had long ago chosen not to try to figure him out. The ghost knight touched the holotable controls and a small dot on the west coast of one continent pulsed red. He launched abruptly into his plan. "The best way to start a war is to give one side or another a good reason to fight. The best place to make this happen on Kwamashu is the city of Breezewood." He pointed to the pulsing light. "We'll stage a disaster in an old part of town dominated by an industrial complex abandoned after the Jihad. We will lure in the Oriente Protectorate with false information that the facility is a military threat. When they come, we'll blow up the entire complex. With proper media manipulation, we can convince the citizens of Kwamashu and the government of the Protectorate that the Duchy is arming itself for a military incursion. We'll feed the Duchy false reports of casualties from the Protectorate strike that leveled their complex, and they'll want revenge. Both sides will come at each other never suspecting third-party intervention—us."
Hunter ran his hand over his brush-cut hair. "I assume you've considered that we can't just show up on this world as ourselves."
"Really? You think that's important?" His voice was filled with fake surprise. "Geez, Hunt, this is my line of work. I'll go in early and pose as a Duchy liaison telling them that a secret team is coming in to set up a 'Mech assembly facility in the old complex. Your force will have to disguise itself as a Duchy of Andurien unit being sent in to provide additional security. That will buy us the freedom to wire the entire complex for a spectacular mock disaster once the fighting breaks out."
Surrender Your Dreams Page 9
