A Bonfire of Worlds

by Steven Mohan Jr.

  Khan Ward stepped onto the beach, careful to avoid a patch of smoky glass where stray laser fire had melted the sand. There were no BattleMechs or vehicles anywhere. Alaric had seen to it that all salvage had been removed from the field before the Khan arrived.

  He had been scrupulously accurate in his after action report. Still, it was one thing to read about something and quite another to see it—a point hammered home to him by his mother.

  Finally, the Khan turned to Alaric. "Why did you retake this world?"

  "I desired it," said Alaric simply. "I am Clan."

  Seth Ward shook his head. "So arrogant. We are not Jade Falcons."

  Alaric bowed his head. "I request surkai, my Khan," he said, naming the Clan right of forgiveness. "I meant no disrespect." He hesitated. "And I am not Malvina Hazen."

  Khan Ward studied him for a long moment. "Desire is a sufficient reason to compel a warrior to action. But if you are to one day win a Bloodname and become saKhan you must learn to think more rigorously, quiaff."

  SaKhan. It is not the position of the junior khan I aspire to, thought Alaric. But all he said was, "Aff."

  "Good," said Khan Ward. "A khan cannot always afford a warrior's vanity."

  "After the Wolf Hunters took this world, it was garrisoned by planetary militia," said Alaric reasonably. "I knew there would be little risk. And it has some strategic value. Our new Wolf Empire needs the metal production to support our weapons factories."

  "You knew we planned to call a truce with the Lyrans." Khan Ward shook his head. "It was your idea."

  "All the better reason to take it now—before the truce. So we would not have to take it later when the Lyrans are stronger."

  Khan Ward studied him for a long moment. "As atonement for your arrogance, I order you to present me with a plan to integrate our new holdings into Clan Wolf. From this task may you learn humility."

  Alaric bowed his head. "As ordered, my Khan."

  With that Khan Ward turned and walked away. For a moment, Alaric watched him go. The task the Khan had set for him had been intended as a punishment, since it was something not normally assigned to a warrior. But he would learn much from this exercise. And when the Wolf Empire was ready to resume its invasion of the Lyran Commonwealth, he would know it.

  He had lied to his Khan. He did not retake Hyde for its limited strategic value. He took it to erase the stain on his honor handed to him on this world.

  But when he had arrived, he had discovered his second conquest of Hyde had not changed anything. It did not change the fact he had been defeated by Anastasia Kerensky.

  Twice.

  He had won glory and power and maybe even love. But Alaric looked up into the purple heavens, at the Lyran stars sprinkled across Hyde's sky.

  And found he wanted more.

  The Effects of Predation

  Predation is an essential part of the natural world. The winnowing of the weak by the strong is necessary to the survival of both predator and prey species. Such is true in the affairs of humanity, too, the strong must take from the weak for the good of all. Of course, with humans it is not always clear which is which.

  —Khan Seth Ward of Clan Wolf, Announcing the Formation of the Wolf Empire, 1 January 3142

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Overlord-class DropShip Bec de Corbin

  Zenith Jump Point

  Arcturus, Donegal Military Province

  Lyran Commonwealth

  12 June 3142

  Beckett Malthus did not believe in Christ or Allah or Jehovah or Shiva. He did not worship any Spheroid God. Like most Clanners, he believed Spheroids clung to religion out of weakness and fear. But as he watched Malvina Hazen sit in a web chair holding Cynthy in her lap and brushing the girl's long blond hair, he could not help thinking that if there was a God, he was certainly going to Hell.

  Malthus had once served Khan Jana Pryde, but when she found it expedient to cast him aside, he had allied himself with Malvina Hazen, using the young ristar as a blade to cut Jana for her betrayal. By the time he realized just how dangerous that blade was, it was too late.

  Now the blade wielded him.

  Which was how he had ended up midwifing the rule of the most monstrous bloodfoul in Clan history. If that had not earned Malthus a trip to Hell, he did not know what would.

  And with his luck, he and Malvina would have adjoining cells.

  The woman leaned forward and whispered something in the girl's ear. Cynthy giggled. They sat facing the ferroglass port that made up the wardroom's outer bulkhead.

  Malthus had positioned himself as far from them as he could without obscuring his view. He stood behind the table where the ship's officer took their meals, his boot anchored in a steel loop, watching as his ship hovered near the Olympus-class charging station that commanded the system's zenith jump point. A cloud of JumpShips and DropShips surrounded the station, most having arrived with agricultural equipment or readying to depart with food.

  By Malvina's explicit order, their departures were cancelled.

  She had ordered all jumpers and DropShips to power down and surrender to the Jade Falcon armada.

  As Malthus watched, a DropShip, a Mule, drifted away from the station.

  Ten seconds later a light chime sounded and a voice over the intercom circuit reported: "One of the DropShips is running, Chingis Khan."

  "Launch fighters," ordered Malvina, "but do not destroy her. Fire on her engines only. The Mule is to be captured whole, her crew taken alive. As soon as she is disabled, board her and bring her back to the charging station."

  "As ordered, Chingis Khan," answered the bridge officer.

  Malthus let out a breath he had not realized he had been holding. Malvina's orders were uncharacteristically generous. Normally she did not tolerate disobedience of any kind. The Mule's crew was quite lucky Malvina did not decide to just blow them out of the sky, which would have been a decision more typical of her usual problem solving approach.

  "I do not understand," said Malthus.

  "What is it you do not understand?" Malvina asked, not looking up from the girl's silken blond hair. "My orders regarding the war—or the DropShip?"

  "Let us start with the war," said Malthus. "If the true objective is to reach Terra before the Wolves, why waste time and energy attacking the Lyran Commonwealth? Why not use the desant as a base to drive toward Prefecture Ten?"

  Desant was the name for the Jade Falcon incursion into the region of Skye. It was an ancient Russian word that meant descent, an allusion to a paratroop assault.

  "The Mule is secured, Chingis Khan. Elementals boarding her now."

  "Very well," said Malvina. This time she did turn to look at Malthus. "The desant is an orphan, cut off from our Occupation Zone and subject to harassment from the Lyrans and the Republic." She shook her head. "We must join the desant to our territory. But that means taking a swath of worlds in the Donegal Military Province, something the Lyrans will never stand for unless—"

  "Unless we first cut off their heads."

  Malvina smiled broadly. "A most apt metaphor, Khan Malthus." She turned back to the little girl's hair.

  "Chingis Khan, a message from the boarding party," said the bridge officer.

  "Go ahead," said Malvina.

  Now another voice emerged from the intercom. "Chingis Khan, this is Star Captain Roy. We have secured the DropShip as ordered. The count is thirty-four, nineteen crew, and fifteen passengers."

  "Proceed, Star Captain."

  "As ordered, Chingis Khan."

  Proceed? Malthus felt a chill wriggle down his spine. What did that mean? It could not be good. He watched the Mule slowly drift back to its original station, using a single working engine.

  "We still suffer from the after-effects of the rending," said Malthus trying another approach.

  "Which is why I enlisted the help of Clan Hell's Horses."

  "But would it not make more sense to delay until—" "Until when?" Malvina raisedone white-blond eyebrow
. "Until the Wolves take Terra?" She shook her head. "Throughout the history of the Clans, two have always stood above all others: Wolf and Jade Falcon, competing for the right to lead the Clans into the future. Now the Wolves stand on the edge of taking Terra and we must stop them."

  Malthus opened his mouth. And then closed it again.

  Whatever Malvina might say, her attack on the Lyrans was motivated by one simple reality: she wanted to fight. There was no aspect of Malvina's life not governed by violence, including sex. She coupled with her warriors to bind them more tightly to her. She coupled as an act of conquest, there was no tenderness in Malvina's touch.

  Only war.

  Malthus believed she would fight the whole universe single- handed if she could.

  This need for blood was where Malvina's horrific Mongol doctrine had come from, the use of ostentatious violence to quickly bend her enemies to her will. He might as well argue against a hurricane as argue for restraint.

  It was one of the reasons he found the relationship between Malvina and the girl so unsettling. There was no obvious sign of violence between them. Malthus did not understand.

  He glanced out the viewport and thought he saw a hatch opening on the retrieved Mule. "What is happening?"

  Malvina just smiled.

  Malthus frowned. He stepped forward and tapped the fer- roglass surface, bringing up a touch screen. A few more taps and the "raw" view through the port was replaced with feed from a telescope trained on the Mule.

  He watched a pair of armored Elementals step to the edge of an open airlock. Between them they carried a person in coveralls.

  No spacesuit.

  The Elementals gently pushed the doomed man at the station. For a little while the man thrashed, his arms and legs pumping furiously. After a minute or two they stopped.

  The new corpse gently drifted toward the charging station.

  By the time Malthus looked back at the Mule the Elementals were back with another struggling crewman. The count is thirty-four. Malthus's mouth tasted dry.

  Once on a pretty spring day on Skye, Malthus had seen Spheroid children folding newspapers into the shape of boats and launching them across a pond, laughing as their silly makeshift toys drifted slowly across the blue water. That was what the Elementals looked like to Malthus, sending their silly makeshift toys drifting slowly across the black of space.

  He turned around to look at Malvina, still brushing the girl's hair. "It occurs to me that only the captain of the Mule disobeyed you. The crew, certainly the passengers, should not be held responsible for the action of their commander, quiaff?"

  Malvina shrugged. "Thirty-four makes a far better demonstration than one."

  "Of course," Malthus whispered, trying to keep the horror out of his voice.

  Malvina pushed Cynthy out of her lap. "If you will excuse me, Bee."

  "Yes, Chingis Khan," Malthus croaked.

  The little girl had not said a single thing during the entire conversation, but just before she turned to leave she flashed Malthus and insouciant smile and winked at him.

  Malthus's breath caught. He watched the two monsters drift out of the wardroom.

  And then he turned to watch the Elementals hurl another struggling victim out of the airlock. Malthus watched all thirty- four people die.

  Certain the whole time that he was going to Hell.

  The Royal Palace, Tharkad City

  Tharkad, Donegal Military Province

  Lyran Commonwealth

  22 June 3142

  Trillian felt the shock like a blow to her gut. For a moment she could not speak, could not even think. She thought she had been ready for it, but to step into Melissa's office and see that traitor sitting behind her cousin's desk-

  She felt the mask slipping from her face, felt her lips curl, her jaw lock, cold rage washing over her. She had always been such an accomplished politician. To lose her control now, here—

  Vedet smiled at her. "Trillian Steiner. I am so glad to see you. Do you have everything you need? I am sorry I haven't had the chance to visit you. Tell me of your accommodations. Are they adequate?"

  Something stilled her tongue. The only reason Melissa and I aren't already dead is he doesn't know exactly where the military's holding us. He's fishing for information. The thought sent a chill wriggling down her spine. This was the most dangerous meeting of her political career. She would have to be very careful.

  She drew a deep breath. "You're new at this, Duke Vedet, so I'll give you a pointer. Concern for prisoners' accommodations is well below the station of an archon."

  Vedet sighed. "You don't trust me. How disappointing."

  "But not, I trust, surprising."

  "I could have called this meeting with Melissa, but I had hoped you would be more ... reasonable."

  "I have always found the Archon to be perfectly reasonable," said Trillian tightly.

  He leaned forward across the desk. "All right," he said coldly, "we'll do this the hard way. I am the Archon. I have just saved the Commonwealth from Melissa's disastrous alliance with the Wolves. The people see me as a hero, the merchants are back to business, and the military is willing to deal with me." "Loki is still loyal to Melissa," Trillian shot back.

  "Perhaps," admitted Vedet, "but the rest of the Lyran Intelligence Corps isn't. She always dealt with Loki directly, rather than going through the LIC proper, and that ruffled feathers. I gather there's some kind of shadow war going on now. When it's over, the most partisan members of the intelligence services will be dead, and those left will support whoever's left standing. That will be me."

  Trillian stared at him, unable to punch a hole in his arguments and hating herself for it. "What do you want?" she finally said.

  Vedet sat back and folded his hands on Melissa's beautiful desk. "I want to consolidate my rule. I ask you to publicly pledge your loyalty to me."

  Suddenly it occurred to her what this was really about. Melissa's Wolf policy had cut deeply into her support, but that didn't automatically translate into love for Vedet—a lot of people might like to see some other Steiner on the throne.

  Like her?

  "I'll release you and I'll guarantee Melissa's life," said Vedet

  "But not her freedom."

  Vedet shrugged. "You're a politician, Trillian. Skilled in making the best deal you can get, nein?"

  "And if I won't agree?"

  "Then I'll have Melissa killed." He said it matter-of-factly like he was talking about shutting off the light before he left the room. How had this Hurensohn become Archon?

  "You can't," said Trillian, "the LCAF won't let you."

  Vedet smiled. "I didn't say today." He shook his head. "I won't be on probation forever. I beat the Wolves. Soon the Commonwealth will return to prosperity. Perhaps we will even reclaim some of our lost planets from Alaric Wolf. For all these reasons people will accept me as the true Archon. But my biggest advantage is time. After awhile, people will simply get used to me."

  He stood and came around the desk, towering over her, crowding her. She took a step back.

  "When that day comes, Trillian," he whispered, "I will kill Melissa. Unless you help me now."

  Trillian stared up at Vedet. Could she trade Melissa's life for her throne? And what right did she have to make this decision for her cousin? For the whole Steiner line?

  But he'll kill Melissa.

  Trillian opened her mouth.

  Just as there was a rap at the door.

  Irritation flashed across Vedet's dark face. He turned and leaned back, touching an intercom button on the desk. "Not now."

  But the door opened anyway. Leutnant-General Maurer stepped into the room, his face chalk white.

  "General," said Vedet, his voice cold, "I told you—"

  Maurer cut him off. "Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Hell's Horses are attacking in force. They've launched three major axes of attack: Melissia; towards Coventry, through Sargasso, Santana, and Zanderij; and a third prong through Donegal Province t
o link the JFOZ to their Skye holdings."

  Vedet's face went slack with shock, his mouth hanging open, his eyes wide and staring.

  Trillian felt a broad smile stretch across her face. "I am afraid I'm going to have to say no to your kind offer, Duke Vedet." Her smile widened a notch. "But please do give Malvina Hazen our warmest regards."

  The Great Desert

  Jade Falcon-Occupied Apostica

  Donegal Military Province

  Lyran Commonwealth

  23 June 3142

  Malvina Hazen looked up into the lavender sky as a shooting star traced a diamond white trail in the sky, falling up. Another DropShip shaping orbit as it rendezvoused with a fleeing JumpShip. She watched the shooting star hurtle towards the sky's zenith.

  Cynthy had told her it was an Inner Sphere custom to make a wish upon a falling star, so Malvina did. She wished the DropShip's crew Godspeed. She wished that they would escape and herald her coming, spreading her message far and wide.

  Such was the way of the Mongol doctrine.

  Sweat stung her eyes. Malvina wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. It was hot on Apostica, pushing thirty Celsius even at twenty hundred hours. Despite the way the sweat burned her eyes, dried her mouth, and irritated her stumps of flesh where they met her artificial limbs, she was still glad of it.

  The absence of sweat was one of the signs of heat stroke.

  She had lost five warriors to heat stroke in the last week, Jade Falcons too hard-headed to admit they were in trouble, men and women who had died in their cockpits as the planet's heat burned the life right out of them.

  A dozen more had lived, but were under intensive medical care. They were just as lost to her as their brothers and sisters—at least for now.

  Malvina would not make that same mistake, which was why Black Rose stood behind her, the Shrike a still sentinel in the warm night, a chain-link ladder lowered from its cockpit.

  She would make the terrorist come to her.

  And just like that, he did. She saw the blinking running lights of a captured Hasek Mechanized Combat Vehicle. The Hasek arced toward her, finally grinding to a stop some twenty meters away, halogen-bright headlights trained on her.