Blood legacy

by Michael A. Stackpole

  "Kai, no! Kai!"

  Both 'Mechs vanished from sight. If not for the smoke in the air and the crippled 'Mech slumped on the bluff, there was nothing left to suggest the Centurion had ever existed.

  Hot tears burning his cheeks, Victor pivoted his 'Mech on its maimed leg. Pulse lasers lashed out at the Clanners coming through the jungle and Victor kept his fingers on the triggers, heedless of the waves of heat roasting him in the cockpit. Beside him, Galen's Crusader added its power to the assault. Caution thrown to the winds, it was as though their sorrow and rage translated directly into their attacks and drove the Clanners back.

  One by one, the computer shut down Victor's weapons as the heat they generated cooked circuits. He saw lights go out on his status board, but sent more missiles and laser beams to hold the Clansmen at bay. Fpr a half-second, Victor imag-' ined he had stepped into one of those legends where a 'Mech fights of its own accord, regardless of what the machinery and instruments indicate. Then, as he heard voices buzzing in his ears, he realized others had joined them.

  "Icestorm Deuce here, Tornado One. We've got your back door. Pull out."

  Victor glanced at his holographic display and saw the crescent-shaped bite taken out of the bluff's edge. "Negative, Icestorm Two. We've got a man down in the water. Kai Allard went off the cliff. We have to get him."

  "Tornado One, they've got reinforcements on the way." Down-loaded telemetry from a spy satellite filled Victor's auxiliary monitor. The computer showed a company's worth of Clan 'Mechs on a direct line for their sector. "They know you're here, Highness. They want you. You have to leave. Leftenant Allard ordered us to get you out of here, no matter what."

  "No! We have to find Kai!"

  "Victor, look at your monitor!" Galen's voice was full of dread, yet Victor could not ignore its urgency. "Look, Victor. There's no rescue beacon from Kai's 'Mech. There's no ID beacon. The shelf goes down a full kilometer here. He's gone. Don't let his sacrifice be a waste."

  Victor hammered his fist into the radio panel, shorting it out. Teeth clenched to trap the scream growing in his chest, he began to limp the Prometheus back. As he worked his way along the bluff trail, he searched for any sign at all where Kai had gone under the water, but not even a ripple marked the grave of his friend.

  40

  Tairakana Plains, Luthien

  Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

  5 January 3052

  Sweat soaking his clothes, Shin Yodama continued to push himself as he ran toward the coordinates he'd been given before the Skulker exploded. By the time he was within sight of the small outpost that was his goal, the air strikes had met with stiff resistance and the burning wreckage of aerospace fighters littered the dark battlefield. He had approached two of the crash sites, but the intensity of the inferno had kept him back. He knew no one or nothing could have survived, but the debris gave him no clue as to which side the craft belonged.

  He had wanted to stop when the ache in his side first began, and then again when it felt like a knife had been shoved deep and twisting into his guts. Whenever he did slow down to look back, the silhouettes of the pursuing 'Mechs grew even larger as they came on. Like demons from some childhood nightmare, the Clan 'Mechs lumbered forward despite the firepower hammering them. As hard as he ran to escape them, he could never lose sight of them.

  The first sign Shin had of A2536 was a nervous young trooper half-hidden behind a fallen tree. "Halt or I'll shoot!" The excitement in the youth's voice made Shin certain he'd carry out his threat, but the wavering of his gun barrel told the yakuza he need not fear for his life.

  He raised his hands. "I am Sho-sa Shin Yodama. Who is in charge here?"

  The trooper jerked his head toward a low hill. "Chu-i Ashai. I'll take you to him."

  Rounding the hill, Shin discovered that this forward observation post was nothing more than two soldiers, their leader, and a pair of scanning binoculars mounted on a tripod, radioing data back to headquarters. Ashai looked intelligent and eager. Probably a military academy recruit who'd graduated early, Shin concluded. His two young companions carried their automatic rifles awkwardly enough to convince Shin that they, too, must be very new to the warrior's life.

  "Chi-i Ashai, we have to report back to headquarters."

  The junior officer nodded curtly. "Hai, Sho-sa. There is a Skulker due here soon to take us back. It's been forward ..."

  Shin shook his head. "I was in that Skulker. It isn't coming." Shin held out his hand. "Give me your radio."

  Color drained from Ashai's face. "I cannot. The microphone went out on our unit." He pointed up at the place on the hill where they had set up the visual scanner. "We were directed to leave this unit in place because they're still getting visual."

  "Good." Shin ran up the hill as fast as his weary legs would take him. Reaching the summit, he positioned himself before the scanning binoculars. He waited until the device's motors whirred the lenses into focus on him, then quickly made a series of hand signals. He went through the sequence twice more, praying that at least one of the yakuza comtechs would be on duty.

  As he stepped back out of the line-of-sight, the binoculars autofocused out at the advancing Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs. Their paint scheme showed circlets of black dots against a gray background, mimicking the coat of the animal that gave them their name. The dust and smoke they left behind in the bloody light of dawn blotted out everything to the rear of their lines. So heavily did the smoke hang in the still morning air that Shin imagined the Clan commander had arranged it less to obscure his troops than to warn them that they must go on, for no retreat was possible.

  Shin saw aerospace fighters twist through martial acrobatics in the sky, then occasionally dive at their ground-bound enemies. More than one aircraft made it through the hail of ground fire to destroy a 'Mech, but Shin did not see that the attacks made the least difference.

  To the west, facing the dawning sun, rank upon rank of Combine BattleMechs appeared to oppose the invaders. The crimson 'Mechs of the First Sword of Light occupied the center of the Combine line. The Otomo, their royal blue 'Mechs arrayed in staggered ranks, made up the northern flank. The two Genyosha regiments had been deployed as the southern flank. The black and silver 'Mechs of their Second Regiment stood at a forty-five degree angle to the main body of Combine troops, giving the southern edge a hook to drive the Clan in toward the center.

  Using their advantage of range, the Clan warriors engaged the Kurita units at long distance. Shin realized immediately . that the Clans had abandoned their tactic of one warrior trying to engage another warrior in single combat. They concentrated their fire on individual targets, hitting hardest the 'Mechs equipped for LRM barrages. They kept coming as they fired, ever so slowly closing to a range at which the Combine's 'Mechs could effectively return fire.

  The discipline of his comrades amazed Shin. No one moved or broke formation. It was maddening for Shin to watch them from afar as they stood there, taking barrage after barrage, but it had to be a thousand times worse for those in the BattleMechs. Even though the attacks mainly peeled off armor, Shin knew he would have been hard pressed to remain in his place. Even so, rigid adherence to Theodore's plan was the key to victory, and that knowledge would have kept him doing his utmost to hold and wait.

  Ashai joined Shin atop the hill. "Look, Sho-sa, the Otomo are hurt."

  A quick glance confirmed Ashai's observation. The long-range attacks had devastated the Otomo ranks. A dozen 'Mechs were down and many others looked fit for nothing but salvage. Even before the battle had been fully joined, the Combine's northern flank had started to crumble.

  Shin noted that he and Ashai were not alone in observing the collapse of the Otomo. Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs surged forward. The Otomo stood furthest away from Imperial City, and the charge redirected the attack off its original line. The Smoke Jaguars broke into a gallop, increasing their speed as the Otomo's return fire came spottily and poorly aimed.

  Ashai couldn't keep the fear
from his voice. 'They shoot like old women! It is a wonder they don't run!"

  Shin smiled. "Watch, Chu-i. Watch and learn."

  The swiftest of the Smoke Jaguar 'Mechs punched through the Otomo line. Their lead element had made it to the third and final rank of Otomo 'Mechs when the first Clanner hit a vibrabomb. In a flash of fire and steel that blew away the lower half of his right leg, it stumbled and went down, bowling over an Archer.

  The Archer exploded. Shrapnel sprayed down in a forward arc that lifted the downed Clan 'Mech off its chest and blasted away its left arm. Like a string of firecrackers, the other Otomo 'Mechs started to explode as well. From back to front, each of the blue war machines detonated. The thin armor over the chests of the 'Mechs burst outward, showering the enemy with a hail of death.

  At the first explosion, Shin hit the ground and pulled Ashai down with him. "Theodore refitted industrial 'Mechs with armor to make them look like BattleMechs, then loaded them with explosives. A new variation on the old Trojan horse strategy. Instead of letting them take the horse into their castle, we had to lure them to our herd, but it worked nonetheless."

  Into the chaos marking where the false Otomo regiment had stood, the real Otomo Mech Warriors and the Second Legion of Vega charged. Their sudden appearance from the hills beyond the Kurita line clearly shocked the Smoke Jaguars. Their whole line had to stop to regain its drive toward the Kurita center. As they sought to regroup to do this, the Combine's line let loose with all the long-range weaponry it had.

  What the attacks lacked in organization, they made up for in intensity. Individual Clan 'Mechs fell here and there, but the damage was far more widespread than that. Scant few of the mottled gray paint jobs escaped without revision. On the northern flank, where the Legion and Otomo blasted into the Jaguar's wing, the sheer force of their assault routed the Clansmen. As they began to push the Jaguar formation back in on itself, Shin could imagine the Genyosha doing the same on the other flank.

  The thunderous flutter of a helicopter's rotor alerted Shin and made him roll over onto his back. A Combine copter touched down roughly a hundred meters back behind the line of hills, and he and the scout team ran gleefully to the streamlined craft. Once they had boarded it and were strapped in, the pilot got the chopper airborne again.

  He kept the craft low, but when they bounced up over hills, Shin got another look at the battlefield. The Jaguar formation had been compressed into a wedge shape. The point of the wedge had engaged the First Sword, and the flanks were being hard-pressed by the other Combine units. Still, despite having given ground early and having suffered losses to the Otomo trap, the Clans had consolidated their position.

  Just then, Shin thought he saw something in the smoke behind the Clan lines, but a hill cut off his view. It took him a precious ten seconds to convince the pilot to pull up his craft, and then the man did so only reluctantly. As the copter came up, the battlefield again came into view, but it no longer looked as it had only seconds before.

  The movement Shin had caught in the smoke had been the charge of the Nova Cats. Their 'Mechs were black as death except for the brilliant blue star pattern in their center chests. Funnelling through the middle of the Jaguar wedge, their troops had sliced straight through the point of the wedge. Their charge carried them through the First Sword's line almost as though it were not there. The Jaguars split their wedge in half, forming up in parallel lines, then began to drive the Combine troops toward the east. At the same time, Clan aerospace fighters swooped in low to strafe observation posts.

  Shin pulled the headset and mike away from the co-pilot and put it on. The screeching static of jammed radio frequencies drilled into his head. "Hanson," he said, noticing the pilot's name on his jumpsuit, "take this chopper directly to headquarters in Imperial City, now!"

  "I have orders."

  "To hell with your orders. The Clans are breaking through. If we don't let the Kanrei know what's going on,

  Imperial City is lost. And the whole of Luthien with it."

  41

  Consulate of the St. Ives Compact, New Avalon

  Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth

  5 January 3052

  "No, Candace, I don't think you're silly to be worried about Kai." Coming up behind her, he rested his hand on her right shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. "After all, he is a warrior stationed in a war zone."

  Candace glanced up at Justin's reflection in the mirror of her vanity table. "We have been together too long, my dear, for me to not hear the hesitation in your voice."

  Justin smiled and bowed his head. "You know, had you not been inclined to seek a diplomatic solution to the differences between the Capellan Confederation and the Federated Suns so long ago, I do believe you could have turned me against Hanse Davion."

  Candace reached up and pulled his hand into her own. "Are you not worried for our son?"

  "Of course I am."

  "See."

  "But he's with the best forces we have. He's in a 'Mech equipped with the latest technology. And he's probably the finest Mech Warrior who ever strapped himself into a cockpit." Justin disengaged his hand from hers and walked across the suite to his dresser. "To be quite frank," he went on, "I worry more about Victor Davion and his apparent disregard for his own safety. Yes, we all cheered the 'Fighting Prince' during the battle for Twycross, but poor Hanse's heart was in his throat the whole time. I'm certain Hanse watches Victor go into battle and remembers his brother Ian's death."

  Candace turned in her chair and pointed at him with a black eyeliner pencil. "You are correct that Victor is impulsive, but Galen Cox and Kai are there to calm him down. And to protect him, too. But who protects those who guard the Prince?"

  Justin scooped up two cufflinks from the top of the dresser and returned to her side. Holding them out, he smiled sheepishly. "Could you?"

  "Getting old, my love, or does your arm need new batteries?"

  The diabolical glint in her eyes sparked a laugh from him. "Neither old nor in need of new batteries am I, Duchess. Cufflinks never were easy for me, even when both my hands matched." Justin stood rigid as she dutifully fastened the cufflinks. "And if my lady requires a show of my youthful vigor, might I boldly suggest she invent a way for us to leave this reception as early as possible."

  In a melodramatic pose, Candace pressed the back of her right hand to her forehead and sighed, "Oh my, seduced by the Champion of Solaris ..."

  Justin shook his head. "I've not been Solaris' Champion for a long time."

  "What is it they say—once a champion, always a champion?"

  "And for that, you will always have my heart." He pulled her to her feet and kissed her then held her tightly. "Trust me, my love. Kai will be back with us soon."

  Releasing her, he glanced at his chronometer. "Damn, we're already running late." Justin turned to where he had tossed his black jacket on the bed. "I hate charity functions. Were it not for your company, I'd much prefer spending the evening in the war room reviewing reports."

  Until the laser bolt hit Candace Liao on the left side of her chest and spun her to the floor, Justin had believed them alone in their suite. Mercifully, his wife fell on the other side of the bed, leaving only the sight of the hem of her evening gown and the black leather heels she'd chosen for the reception. The puff of white smoke curling up like a vaporous mushroom and the acrid scent of burned wool scoured away the scent of her perfume that he so loved.

  Laser pistol in hand, the assassin stepped from the closet where he'd been hiding. He looked at Candace, then up at Justin and smiled. "Romano wanted her to die first, to be sure you knew you'd failed to save her."

  As the black-clad murderer swung the pistol in line with Justin, the Intelligence Secretary dodged to the right. His black metal left hand snapped back as far as it would go. Something tugged at the underside of the wrist, popping the cufflink free of the white shirt. With a fluidity born of years of practice, Justin thrust his left arm toward the assassin and willed its ma
chinery to work.

  The wrist-laser's green beam struck the assassin full in the chest. It cored a hole through him and flashed-burned a dark circle on the mirrored panel behind. The light reflected up to strike the crystal chandelier, but the forest of rainbows it unraveled were harmless. Yet fast as Justin's strike was, the assassin managed to tighten his finger on the trigger of his laser pistol before he fell.

  Searing agony grabbed Justin by the throat as the ruby beam burned into his neck. He staggered forward a few steps, then dropped to his knees beside his wife. His right hand clutched at his neck and found it slippery with warm fluid. He glanced down and watched blood drench his white sleeve. Despite the pain radiating out from the wound, Justin forced his right hand harder against it, fighting to stop the precious fluid from leaking out between his slicked fingers.

  With the clarity of mind that only imminent death could bring, Justin knew he had to sound an alarm. Yet the visiphone on the bedside table might as well have been two light years away from where he knelt. The consulate's soundproof walls made screaming futile.

  A wave of nausea passed over him, then spots began to form before his eyes. Knowing he had no time to spare, Justin raised his left arm and pointed it upward. He triggered the wrist laser and slashed a black scar across the ceiling. He kept it moving for the three seconds until the beam died, then he slumped over, exhausted.

  Until he felt the cool water spraying down onto his face from the fire sprinklers, Justin did not know whether his desperate attempt to summon help had succeeded. He never heard the alarm that had to be blaring, for it was not his own welfare that concerned him. He reached out to Candace to give her hand a reassuring squeeze, then the room, and the whole world with it, vanished from his sight.