Initiation to War

by Robert N. Charrette

  Lady Shu's voice was all honey when spoke.

  "Minister, I have just heard the oddest thing." She listened for the briefest of moments before her expression soured. "What? Where is the minister?"

  The person on the other end tried to explain, but Lady Shu clearly found the explanation unsatisfactory.

  "What do you mean he is unavailable? Do you know to whom you are speaking?"

  A brief pause.

  "Very well, then. He will be available. Do you understand?"

  She slammed her hand down on the desk.

  "I don't care how sorry you are. If you don't get your superior in communication with me right away, you will be sorrier yet before this day is out."

  Lady Shu slammed the phone down in a very unladylike way and said a few choice words.

  "Something is going on," she told them. "And I don't like it."

  Veck, water still dripping from his storm gear, arrived and confirmed the lady's suspicions.

  "There's a lot of military traffic on the net. We're just getting snatches of it, but it sounds like we've got units moving toward Severagol."

  "Then the attack is real."

  "I think so," Veck agreed. "Unfortunately, nothing I heard confirmed the identity of the attackers."

  Resolve shone in Romano Shu's face. "Very well, then. Pack your bags, everyone! We'll be leaving soon. Selina, I'll be wearing my uniform. Trish, see that everyone has storm gear and do make sure this fleabag has a cover over the walk to the limousine."

  "Limousine? It won't travel cross-country," said Veck.

  "We won't be traveling cross-country for a bit, Commander. First, I have a visit to pay. I want to see Waterhouse's face when I break off the negotiations. I want to know if he's a dupe in this or part of the plot."

  "I'm going with you," Veck stated. "Kelly, Jurewicz, you're with us."

  "What about me?" Sam asked.

  "Back to the 'Mechs. You and Trahn are the cavalry if we need it."

  "I don't think that will be necessary, Commander. There's little chance of gunfire here."

  "Your pardon, my lady, but you didn't think the Duvics would attack Severagol."

  "We still don't know that they have, but I take your point. An honor guard for my visit to the distinguished representative of the Duvic Palatine seems in order."

  The trip across the city to Waterhouse's hotel had more than a few exciting moments as the vehicles skidded on slick pavement under the buffeting of the gale, but they arrived intact. Despite fears, no BattleMechs loomed out of the driving rain to stop them. The party bundled into the lobby, steaming and spraying water everywhere as they doffed their storm gear. Lady Shu formed up a phalanx of her aides and headed for the elevators. The Vigilantes were rear guard simply because they hadn't moved fast enough. As Lady Shu entered the elevator she said, "Trish, time to let Kwai know where we are."

  The aide headed for the main desk to use the building's circuits for the call.

  "Kelly, stay with her," Veck said. "Follow us up."

  The lights flickered, then dimmed, while Trish was delivering her message. It didn't seem to affect the connection, although Kelly noted that the lobby clock had stopped. He mentioned it to the clerk behind the reception desk.

  "Must be the storm," the clerk said. "It was fine a moment ago."

  By the time Kelly and Trish made it upstairs, Lady Shu was in full cry, berating the Duvic flunkies in the anteroom of the minister's suite. There were no Duvic MechWarriors in sight. The nervous, frightened aides were very reluctant to speak to the Shu people, but they clumped before the minister's private rooms, refusing to let the lady see their boss.

  "We'll worry about the niceties later," she decided. "Commander Veck, clear these people out of my way."

  There were a dozen Duvics. They were clerks, personal aides, valets, and other underlings—not a soldier or security officer among them. As the three CSVB MechWarriors advanced on them, they gave way under the mere threat of violence. Lady Shu strode to the doors and threw them open herself.

  Then she stopped in her tracks.

  Minister Aaron Waterhouse, representative of and negotiator for the Duvic Palatine, lay on the floor of his chamber. He was tangled in his dressing gown. The rich carpet beneath was stained dark, and the stain was growing like a living thing.

  Veck barged past Lady Shu. After a quick scan of the room, he knelt by the body.

  "Dead," he announced. "Murdered."

  There were gasps and outcries from the lady's attendants. She simply stared at the corpse and grew pale.

  Veck ignored all that.

  "Where are Crawford and Namihito?"

  He shouted his question at the cowering Duvic functionaries, but no one had an answer for him.

  "Not good," he concluded.

  "It's going to get worse," Lady Shu predicted.

  Everyone looked where she pointed. Clutched in the dead man's hands was a scrap of yellow-trimmed burgundy fabric in the exact shades of the County Shu livery colors.

  22

  Dori

  Arousian Region, Epsilon Eridani

  Chaos March

  25 February 3062

  Trish whispered in Romano Shu's ear, "The police have arrived, my lady. They have questions."

  "Let them get in line."

  Kelly looked at the two plainclothes officers in the doorway who were talking with the deceased minister's aides and trying to make sense of their excited babble. "How did they get here so fast?"

  "Maybe they're just hotel security," JJ suggested.

  "Even if that's all they are, they got here pretty quick." Kelly moved to the window, intending to see if there were any police cruisers on the street below. Fleeting reflections on nearby buildings indicated that vehicles with emergency lights were approaching, but so far none were parked in front of the hotel. As he pondered the situation, a lightning flash showed him something more ominous: a BattleMech moving several blocks over. The chunky humanoid shape was too big to be a Commando, so it wasn't Sam. Too big, too, to be the 48th's Panther.

  It had to be the Enforcer or Clint belonging to Crawford's unit. He called Veck over and told the commander what he'd seen. Veck didn't waste any time trying to confirm Kelly's sighting.

  "It's a set-up!" Unceremoniously, he grabbed Lady Shu's arm and started hustling her towards the door. "We've got to get you out of here. Now!"

  The officers at the door objected to anyone leaving, and a hot argument ensued about noble license, diplomatic privilege, and the law. Kelly whispered his intent to JJ and got the lady's staff moving past the knot of disagreement and down the hall to the elevators. It was their good fortune that the "police" didn't notice until they'd gotten the last of the aides out of the suite. Lady Shu caught on quickly and turned her argument into a debating retreat. A shove from Veck removed one officer's restraining hand from the elevator door long enough for the doors to slide shut, but not before a last hurled threat of arrest and prosecution for leaving the scene of a crime joined them in the car for the ride to the lobby.

  "They'll be adding assaulting an officer to the charges against you, Commander," predicted Romano Shu.

  "I expect they will," Veck said calmly. "It won't mean anything if they don't catch me. Somebody has put a good bit of planning and arranging into this morning's affair. Best we can do to screw it up is to not cooperate. The truth will come out eventually. We need to make sure we're around to help it along."

  "I fear that the commander is right." Kelly guessed that Lady Shu was speaking more for the benefit of her aides than herself. "Right now time and distance are our best allies. Getting wrapped up in legal coils is not to our benefit. We have to get out of this town and give the county's lawyers a chance to go to work. Commander Veck, I hope you have a plan to ensure that we remain at liberty."

  "I'm working on it. The first thing we have to do is get out of this hotel without using lethal force on any of the supposedly neutral local authorities. If we're fast enough, and if
the goons upstairs can't get a call through to have us cut off, we have a chance."

  As it turned out the local police hadn't yet arrived. Kelly knew it wouldn't be long before they did. At Veck's sharp orders, he and JJ chivvied the civilians across the lobby and into their storm gear at the double quick. The MechWarriors' drawn sidearms discouraged any interference from the hotel staff. As they were cramming everyone back into the limousine, one of the aides balked and pointed.

  "The police, my lady!" he shrieked.

  "In!" Veck manhandled the aide to help him along.

  But the man was right. The first cruiser, no more than its lights visible in the storm's gloom, had turned on to the street fronting the hotel. It was still blocks away, moving slowly, careful of the tempest. Apparently, no word had come down for them to hurry. Whether that was due to luck or the storm, Kelly didn't care. He figured that they might still get away before the oncoming police realized who they were. Then he caught a flaw in Veck's plan.

  "The driver's still in the hotel."

  "Then you drive," Veck said as he helped Lady Shu into the vehicle.

  "What about the driver?"

  "He's local. We leave him. We roll now." Veck shocked Kelly into motion with another, "Now!"

  Kelly threw himself into the driver's seat and slammed the door. His action killed the overhead light and he promptly lost track of the controls. "Interior lights," he called, hoping that the vehicle's systems included a housekeeping computer. It did. A soft glow filled the driver's compartment, more than enough for him to find and identify controls. With a lurch, he got them rolling.

  "Maybe I should drive," JJ said.

  "Maybe you should just shut up." Kelly had too much to deal with to add JJ's smart remarks. "Be useful. See if they're stopping."

  JJ cursed. "Lights didn't stop. They're following."

  Kelly checked for himself. It looked like the police cruiser was picking up speed.

  "Lose him," Veck ordered.

  Kelly wondered how. The stretch limousine wasn't made for a high speed chase, and it certainly wouldn't take any tight cornering. Given the weather conditions, fancy maneuvers could be suicidal, seeing the road was hard enough. With the city in effective blackout, most of the light was what a vehicle threw out for itself, and that didn't go far. He was keeping tabs on the pursuit by its flashing lights. And there, perhaps, was the way.

  Kelly killed the limo's lights, guided it to what he hoped was the center of the roadway, and accelerated. The limo did have power, and he didn't spare it. With luck, the cops behind them would presume that he'd gone dark to hide which way he turned. Certainly no one would just keep driving straight ahead when pursued by a faster vehicle.

  If they were really lucky, they wouldn't ram something in the dark.

  Kelly divided his attention between keeping the limo moving straight and steady down the wide boulevard, watching the rearview screen, and praying for deliverance. The police cruiser didn't take the first turn. To Kelly's relief and amazement, they took the next left. According to the limo's map screen, that would head them in the general direction of the hotel where the Lady Shu's embassy had been staying.

  Kelly slowed to an only slightly insane speed for the conditions and snapped the lights back on. None too soon. He corrected the vehicle's course away from the curb they'd been approaching tangentially.

  "What now?" Kelly looked at Veck in the rearview mirror. "We can't go back to our hotel; they'll have someone waiting."

  "I never intended to go back," Lady Shu declared. "We go to the 'Mech park, to which I already sent the transport crew. Once there, we fire up the vehicles, and we leave this place."

  "The transport moves out as soon as it's hot," Veck agreed. "I'll be escorting it, and Lady Shu rides in my jumpseat."

  "I want to stay with my people."

  "I want you inside the best armor we've got. It stinks, but I do anything else and the count will have my head. I'm not taking complaints on this. You got them, you give them to the count when I deliver you. Till then, you're a passenger. Got it?"

  The lady's lack of response made it clear that she understood, but her expression promised Veck a bleak future. He didn't seem to notice.

  "Kelly, Jurewicz, the rest of the lance is rearguard. You screen our exit. Buy us some time if necessary, but minimal contact with hostile forces."

  "You sure one 'Mech's enough to guard the lady?" asked Kelly, as he turned a corner and came into sight of the 'Mech park. The sight of the giant machines standing stolid and uncaring in the driving' rain raised his hopes, but didn't totally allay his fears. "If they come after you, you won't be able to fight them alone."

  "The whole lance isn't enough, but we've got to play the hand we've been dealt. Maximum force to the rearguard; there's too much hostile tonnage out there for anything else. Kelly, it's your job to see that I get the lady out. Soon as you think we're clear, you cut and run. Head for Severagol unless you get other direction from headquarters. If the Duvics are attacking, the major will want all 'Mech forces to concentrate there. Got it?"

  "Got it, sir."

  An anxious Sam was waiting for them as they piled out of the limousine. "Slug says he thinks some of the Duvic 'Mechs are on the prowl."

  "Old news," commented JJ. He filled her in on what had happened at Waterhouse's hotel before heading for his Javelin. Sam was ready to mount her own 'Mech, but Kelly held her back. Surely they had a few minutes for him to let her know how glad he was to see her again. Their clinch was interrupted as Veck slapped his shoulder.

  "Damp it down. We've got work to do." Veck headed for his Vindicator, Lady Shu in tow. "Fire up the tin men. Lock and load."

  Kelly and Sam ran for their machines. The scramble up the ladder almost ended his MechWarrior career when his foot slipped on a slick rung. A quick grab arrested his fall, but earned him a wrenched shoulder. He climbed more carefully after that. He reached the cockpit, entered his password while settling in, and began the start-up sequence.

  The other 'Mechs were vague, blurry shapes in the storm, save for Veck's Vindicator standing beside his Commando. Kelly could see the commander helping a rain-drenched Lady Shu into the cockpit. She was now their mission. The political assignment had soured, and the honor guard had become bodyguards as the mission went military. No Warrior House pilot could have asked for a more clear cut, honorable task. No 'Mech combat soldier could have asked for a more romantic one. Kelly found himself floating in an odd mixture of satisfaction, calm, and trembling terror.

  As the machines were warming to full operating capacity, Veck sketched his minimalist plan for Sam and Slug. With no new data, there wasn't any way to refine it, but now everyone had the same grasp of the situation. Once Veck got the ready from everyone, he started his 'Mech into a trot.

  "Good luck, 'Jocks," he called as the transport swung behind him. 'Mech and ground vehicle vanished from sight behind the storm's veil. BattleMech sensors tracked them somewhat farther, before losing them in the clutter. Moments after the Vindicator faded from their screens, a new blip appeared. This one set off alarms.

  "Bandit closing on us," Slug announced. That much everyone knew, but his Raven's Beagle suite offered him additional data. "It's the Pillager."

  "He got his buddies with him?" asked JJ.

  "Don't wish for trouble," Sam adjured. "He's bad enough by himself."

  "Magnetic field spiking!" Slug cut in. "He's loading the gauss!"

  "Time to move." Kelly put his Commando into motion on reflex. His eyes snapped to the local map on his screen. They needed a rally point. There! "Boxly Park. In five. Move, move, move!"

  'Mechs scrambled like a covey of bushquail spooked by a hunting dog. It wasn't coordinated. It wasn't pretty. But it must have worked. The Pillager didn't fire, having lost its targets.

  Kelly suddenly realized that he had taken on his first unit command.

  He also realized that they were a forlorn hope—in the worst sense—if they tangled with that hundred
-ton monster.

  Slug confirmed that the Pillager was trying to follow them.

  23

  Dori

  Arousian Region, Epsilon Eridani

  Chaos March

  25 February 3062

  The Vigilantes reassembled in Boxly Park. Sam was already there when Kelly arrived. Slug and JJ came in together, late but intact. Slug reported spotting the Clint and the Enforcer a dozen blocks to the west and moving north. The hostile 'Mechs had been going slowly, so his guess was that they were searching.

  "But they're not headed after Veck. That suggests that they don't know where we are or what we're up to," Kelly concluded. "That's good."

  "The Kuritans are unaccounted for," Sam reminded him.

  "And they could be on Veck's trail. I know, I know. We've got the Pillager on our tail, and the rest of Crawford's people are stumbling around the city. If we can confirm that the Kuritans are looking for us and not Veck, our job will be half done.

  "Survival is the key, people. We don't have to beat the Doofvics today. They out-gun and out-mass us, but we're faster than most everything they have, and we have Slug's electronics to help us out. So we let them see us, then we scoot."

  "We could gang up on one of their lights if we can get it alone," Sam suggested. "Get in a few good shots and let those Doofvics know they've poked a hornet's nest."

  "Not our mission. I think drawing them east and south would be best. Once we get them following us, we work to spread them out enough that we can pick our point, cut through them, and break away. Till then we work in pairs. Sam, you're with me. And we don't get separated too far. Commo is too chancy in a city and the storm isn't making it better."

  "Where do we start, boss?" asked JJ.

  "We head for the 48th's vehicle park. That'll put plenty of distance between us and the Pillager even if he figures out that we're going that way."

  "What about the Kuritans?"

  "It should be safe. They'll be out looking for us. Now let's get moving before our hundred-ton friend lumbers his way here."