The Gladiator out-massed Loren's Black Hawk by a full forty-five tons, nearly double his 'Mech's weight. Against Greg Hector's Masakari the match would be more even, but Loren had the jump jets. He knew he should be the one to take on that big boy. His sensors told him that a Point of Elementals was next to the 'Mech, though he only caught a glimpse of them visually because of the obstructions on the surface of the station.
No matter what, they must think I'm a trueborn Smoke Jaguar, nothing less. As the technicians cleared the surface of the base, he opened a broad-band broadcast to everyone who could hear. "I am Star Colonel Loren of the Smoke Jaguars. Come forward, Nova Cats, so that I might drink your blood and toast your death at my hands."
"I am Star Commander Otis of the Nova Cats," came the response. "You use words like a freebirth whore, tossing them about like cheap trinkets worn once and cast aside. You have come to fight for JumpShip charges it is my duty to defend. Let us finish this child's play so I can get back to the business of a trueborn warrior." Loren was suddenly amused at this ritual exchange of Clan insults.
He activated the Black Hawk's HUD targeting cross hairs, which settled on the Gladiator as his weapons locked on. The 'Mech's array of armaments normally locked squarely onto the center of the enemy, but this time Loren took the autocannon off the normal lock sequence and aimed and targeted it independently. While his large and small lasers were aiming squarely at the fusion-reactor heart of the Gladiator, the deadly autocannon was aimed off to the side, at a target that simply could not be pulled up by his battle computer as a viable target.
Star Commander Otis did not falter or react to the weapons lock. Loren triggered the large pulse laser, scoring a hit that silently ripped the ferro-fibrous armor plating away from the Gladiator's torso, sending the pieces spinning off into the blackness of space. Bursts from the small laser and one of the machine guns followed, hitting the 'Mech's shoulder and right arm. Neither hit did much damage, merely peppering the plates.
Loren next thumbed the trigger for the autocannon, one of the Black Hawk's more powerful weapons, sending out a stream of shells that seemed to hit the decking some five meters from where the Gladiator began to pivot under the impact of the lasers. Loren was waiting instinctively for the deep rumble of the impacts of the shells exploding, but the vacuum offered none of that. Instead all he saw were the explosions and bright flashes of light as shrapnel riddled the area near the massive OmniMech s feet. To anyone watching, the autocannon shot looked like a clean miss.
The five Elementals nearby lifted slowly on fluttering jets of flame from their ankle jets, gracefully rising and moving toward Hector's Masakari. They obviously had one goal in mind, to swarm the sides of his OmniMech and cripple it.
"Now you become one with the stars," Star Commander Otis said, opening up with the Gladiator's heavy firepower, a brilliant flash of ruby red light from its pair of large lasers scathing across Loren's right leg and upper torso like swords of light. The Black Hawk only shuddered slightly as Loren moved it three steps forward, wading into the laser light.
There was a flash in front of him as the Gauss rifle slug from Otis's Gladiator found its mark in his left torso, burying itself deeply in his armor and internal structure. The upper torso of the Black Hawk reeled backward, but the magnetic couplers held Loren upright—just barely. He saw the story he already knew to be true: the armor of his right torso was all but gone. Another hit there would spell the end of the Trial, and possibly his life.
Instead of retreating, he charged forward. Each step was sluggish, the magnetic couplings making him feel like he was running through muck two meters thick, but he charged forward regardless. He maintained his earlier weapon systems locks and fired again. His large pulse laser spit forth a wall of red fire, hitting the upper chest and cockpit of the Gladiator just as the Nova Cat 'Mech fired. The Black Hawk's small laser rattled the right leg of the Gladiator, with no apparent effect other than pitting the thick armor there.
Loren's autocannon once again seemed destined to completely miss its target, but recoiling from the laser attack, the Nova Cat turned into the fusillade of cannon fire, which riddled its cockpit. A hit to the cockpit, even a pinhole-size breach, would kill a 'Mech pilot in a complete vacuum. Star Commander Otis had fired his weapons just at the moment of the hit, but the sudden pivot made his lasers and Gauss rifle miss their mark. Loren saw a flash of silver as the massive Gauss slug whipped past his cockpit silently, casting itself forever into space.
At a distance of two hundred meters Loren tipped his 'Mech forward, bowing slightly as he ignited his jump jets. In a gravity situation the jets would carry him a distance of only one hundred-fifty meters. Killing the power to his magnetic coupling, he took off like a bullet, unrestrained by the pull of gravity. With no jumping limit, the Black Hawk shot forward at an incredible speed, straight at the Gladiator still trying to recover from the attack.
Star Commander Otis tried to move out of his flight path, but Loren was able to easily adjust the thrust of the jets to compensate. In mere seconds the image of the massive Clan 'Mech filled his viewscreen and he collided with it.
The impact did moderate damage to both of them, but knocked the Gladiator free of the station. As Loren bounced back, drifting slightly away from his target, he saw that his attack had the desired effect. The Nova Cat warrior was no longer standing on the station but was adrift, moving quickly away from the station, as was Loren's own Black Hawk. His target image showed that the Gladiator's center torso had taken most of the damage, but it was so thick with ferro-fibrous armor that it would take more.
At point-blank range he opened up with his machine guns, autocannon, and small laser, aiming at the right leg of the Nova Cat 'Mech. The machine-gun fire pushed them even further apart as Otis attempted to determine just how seriously he'd been damaged. While the guns and the small laser did only marginal damage to the limb, the autocannon tore massive gouges in the Gladiator's already mauled right leg. Loren saw gobbets of silvery liquid spilling into space, drifting between them as the two 'Mechs moved further apart under the assault. The jump jets! I've hit one of his jets!
Before Otis could react, Loren reached over to the controls Mitch had set up, the ones that would provide power to his myomer tether cable. As he applied a slight charge, the cable tightened, its long slack gone in an instant. It snapped like a rubber band, not hard, but enough to pull him backward!— down toward the recharge station.
"Always fast to the fight, my Jaguar friend," taunted the voice of Star Commander Otis. "I too have a tether and a way back," he said as Loren quickly returned to the base, using his jump jets to soften his landing. He stared up and saw the Gladiator's severed and charred tether pass by him, its end shredded and frayed. The burn marks from his autocannon round bursts showed as the tether whizzed past his own Black Hawk. There was a long pause, and he imagined Star Commander Otis frantically attempting to send a charge to his tether, only to see it contract toward him with no tie whatsoever to the recharge station.
"The battle is over for you," Loren said. "I am a Smoke Jaguar and I rarely miss my aim." His autocannon bursts, the ones that seemed to miss their mark, had done just what he wanted.
"Damn you!" Otis cursed, firing his lasers wildly down toward the Black Hawk. The 'Mech was hopelessly out of range, though, the distance increasing with each second. A flash comm signal came into Loren's neurohelmet, a voice he identified as Kerndon's. "Star Colonel Loren, your Star-mate needs aid," he said, playing his part. Loren immediately pivoted and looked over at Gregory Hector.
As the Lieutenant's Masakari came into view, Loren saw the last of the Elementals adjust its flight and join the others on the surface of the 'Mech. All five were using their huge claws to pull off armor plating apparently already damaged by a barrage of short-range missiles from their shoulder packs. The eerie glow from those holes told Loren time was running out for his Lieutenant.
One of the Elementals barely hung on to the swinging right ar
m of Hector's Masakari. The Elemental was missing his power claw, which had apparently been severed by a shot from Hector earlier in the fight. Another of the armored infantry, clinging to the right leg, had burn marks all over him from close hits from lasers. The Nova Cat Elementals, however, were very good and clung tenaciously to Hector's OmniMech.
"I could use some help, sir," Hector said, obviously using everything he had just to keep the Elementals at bay—a losing proposition at best.
"Go with the plan, Lieutenant. They're all over you."
"Sir..."
"No talk, just do it," Loren commanded.
"I've always hated physics," Hector muttered. Loren watched as the magnetic couplings on the Masakari disengaged, shutting off so the 'Mech could move without being held to the station. The huge knee actuators on the Masakari bent way down as it virtually squatted over one of the Elementals who was firing at the armor between the legs of the 'Mech, burning away a wide swath of plate in the process. Then, without warning, the Masakari jumped up, snapping the knee actuators as fast as they would go and pushing off with the feet.
The eighty-five-ton Masakari took off from the bottom of the recharge station like a rocket. Its mass gave it incredible momentum, and the Elementals were caught off guard by the sudden movement, breaking off their attacks just so they could assess their plight. Loren watched the trip upward in amazement, keeping his eyes on the myomer tether line that was rapidly unwinding as Greg Hector and his unwilling stowaways continued their flight. The line seemed to be intact.
As Hector and his "guests" reached the end of the line, Loren knew that the Elementals would be concentrating on maintaining their hand-holds. The ploy would not be obvious, not until the last moment. Then, as Greg had pointed out, physics would take over. He applied a powerful electrical burst to his myomer tether cable just before the peak of the trip up and outward.
A trickle of power to the myomer tether had brought Loren back to the station at approximately the same distance. The amount of power Lieutenant Hector had applied made the thick myomer cable contract to a hundredth of its length. The sudden contraction violently jerked the Masakari back to the base at a faster speed than it had left with.
The result to the Elementals was obvious as well. The outward momentum of the massive Masakari was passed to them as it suddenly stopped and began to rapidly return to the recharge station. The jerking motion, while violent for Lieutenant Hector in the cockpit of his 'Mech, was devastating to the Elementals.
The results were instantaneous. Three of the power-suited infantry lost their grips simultaneously, continuing outward into space on the original jump path of the Masakari. A fourth's clawlike hand snapped, and a millisecond later he spun wildly into two of his comrades. Spinning madly, it would take hours for them to use their boots to adjust their flight paths enough to even start back to the recharge station. Physics had come through.
Lieutenant Hector's OmniMech raced downward, with one Elemental crawling up the surface of his chest, clinging lest it end up in the same predicament as its comrades. The snapping of the tether had not been clean, and the Masakari spun slightly as it plummeted toward the station. Loren saw the legs of the Elemental outstretched as it refused to let go. The Masakari hit the exterior hard and bounced slightly upward, a whiff of oxygen or other gas spilling off.
As he stood, Loren saw the remains of the last Elemental, the Nova Cat that had refused to release its grip. It had been on the Masakari's center torso when Lieutenant Hector collided with the station, sandwiched between the two masses as they crashed together. The Elemental's chest and head were flattened as he drifted away from the Masakari. There was a slight stain of blood on the Masakari"s mauled armor where the head of the Nova Cat had been. The power-armored trooper's legs were crossed when the impact occurred, and were mashed together like those of a plastic toy soldier that had melted in the hot sun, flattened beyond recognition.
Loren opened his broad communications channel. "Star Commander Edward of the Nova Cats, this is Star Colonel Loren of the Smoke Jaguars. Your forces have been defeated by superior skills and tactics. Once more we have seen who is the true bearer of the Kerensky heritage. Send your free-birth technicians to recover your dead and those who are drifting to their death. Our JumpShip's sails are deployed, and you can begin beaming us the two charges we have won.
"On this day, the Jaguar has beaten you. Remember this and tell the others in your Clan that we have come, stalking those who would stand in the way of our destiny."
Loren knew that one thing remained. He would cut Kerndon's first bondcord. The bondsman had more than proven his loyalty in helping pull this off.
25
Isthmus of Bannockburn
Wayside V (Wildcat)
Deep Periphery
9 July 3058
Cat Stirling looked around the portable command dome and observed the tired, tense expressions of her command staff. They'd reached the Isthmus of Bannockburn, but there still had not been a peep from the Jaguars. Major Craig had dark circles under his eyes. Captain Lovat, her intelligence officer, looked edgy as he tilted his head from side to side to stretch his neck muscles. Sho-sa Parkensen stood defiantly cross-armed at the back of the group near the tall form of Major Blakadar. Blackie was leaning against the field dome's shaped carbon rod as if it were a solid wall, not a collapsible tent that could be broken down and stuffed into the back of a cockpit for storage.
Stirling looked around at the ten-meter-diameter gray dome and wondered how many times she had used it on various campaigns—and how many times she would continue to use it. Too many memories here, and I keep hauling it with me battle after battle.
Most edgy of all was newly promoted Major Fuller. To him these command-level meetings were all new, and he had no idea what her or anyone else's expectations were.
"We're in position and are holding the straits," Stirling said. "The Jaguars should've been on top of us yesterday. What's the latest scouting report, Intel?"
Lovat spoke up quickly. "Lewis's scouts have spotted them. They seem to be holding position on their side of the isthmus."
"Digging in, I'll bet," Craig put in.
Captain Lovat shook his head. "That isn't their style. If they were using normal Jaguar tactics, they should've rushed in on top of us. For some reason they're holding back."
"Take advantage," Sho-sa Parkensen prodded from the back of the field dome. "Drive into their forces now before she can implement an assault against us."
Stirling shook her head. "That may be just what this Star Colonel Roberta wants us to do. Before I jump in, I want to know why she's waiting."
Captain Lovat stepped forward. "Sir, if I may. We still have a number of satellites in orbit that the Jaguars have not yet detected. Our passive information hasn't told us anything. I can use one of our active satellites to get a scan of the entire region."
"But once you turn it on, won't they just take it out?" Major Fuller asked.
Lovat nodded. "Yes, but if we get the data we need, the loss will be acceptable.'
Stirling nodded. "Make it happen, Captain," she ordered. "Reconvene here in two hours. Keep your forces at full alert in the meantime." She walked with them to the dome entrance and looked off into the distance. The steep rock walls of the narrow, canyon-like isthmus loomed off to her right. To the left she saw, in the distance, the shelf of the New Scotland continent edged by a dark green sky as clouds rolled in. To the right, the continent of New Northwind, capped with its own thin layer of clouds. A stiff cool breeze swept the area as she studied the battle site. Somewhere out there is my enemy. Roberta's up to something. And as soon as I know what it is, I'm going to make her rue the day she ever crawled out of that damn little Clan test tube.
* * *
"We were able to run the satellite for about twenty-five minutes before their destroyer picked it up and knocked it out," Captain Lovat said as the officers gathered around the dome's portable holographic projector. "The good news is t
hat I think I know why our Star Colonel has been holding back for the past two days or so."
He activated the projector system, and the holographic map of the isthmus came to life. The positions of the Fusiliers were shown as blue icons while the 'Mechs and Elementals of the 101st's Bloodied Claws appeared as red images, with only a short rock-strewn distance between them. Colonel Stirling leaned over the projector, studying every centimeter of it. "I'm missing whatever you're seeing, Captain."
The isthmus was some twenty meters wide, essentially a canyon running east and west. The floor of the canyon was strewn with massive rock formations. To the west, the Fusiliers were huddled in behind the jagged rock outcroppings. To the east, the Smoke Jaguars were doing the same. Framing the canyon, the continents rose upward into the nearly airless void.
"Backing out the image now, sir," Lovat said. He pressed the control on the map, and the image shrank, bringing more of the region into view. Each time he pressed it, the map got smaller in size, but made more of Wayside V visible. Suddenly, there was another red image on the map, somewhat southeast of the isthmus.
'There she is," Lovat said, aiming his hand-held pointer at the red dot. As he did, the map zoomed in again, this time showing the icons for 'Mechs and Elementals that made up the red dots of light.
"Well, well," Colonel Stirling said, smiling for the first time in several days. "What have we got here?"
"Assault Omnis, a full Star," Kurt Blakadar said. "And two Points of Elementals to boot." He turned to Captain Lovat. "What's the accuracy of this data?"
"Ninety-five percent," he returned flatly. "Accurate enough..."
"She's sent them around, probably over the continent just like we were planning to do, but further to the east, that's why it took so long," Colonel Stirling said. "Star Colonel Roberta is holding off until they're in position on our southwest flank. This force is coming around to hit us from behind, taking the long way to get there. That's why they're biding time in the isthmus. She's planning to hit us from the north with her main body, and from the south with this little surprise."
Impetus of War Page 18
