Principles of Desolation

by Randall N Bills

  It was devastating. They'd shattered at least a third of the right leg of the vee, and the rest had lost their Triarii discipline and were in full retreat. Danai knew this was a moment to capitalize on, when the enemy was demoralized and disoriented. This was when the battle would become a rout.

  "Let's give it to 'em again," she said. "Feng, any chance of another run?"

  "Negative on that, Sao-shao," Feng reported. "Their aero units have engaged us and are pressing us hard. Repeat, they have engaged and are pressing hard."

  "Can you handle them?"

  For two words, Feng changed his tone, letting some arrogance creep in and sounding more like an actual human being. "Well, yeah," he said, as if insulted by Danai's question.

  "Good. Have fun. Roger, over and out."

  "Roger over!" Feng said cheerfully, and got back to work several hundred meters overhead.

  "Okay, we're doing this without aero. That just means you won't have to look out for misaimed bombs falling on your heads. Let's keep them on the run."

  The Capellan battalion turned and began blistering the retreating Republican units. Danai, feeling no need for restraint, ran ahead with the light 'Mechs, ready to mix it up in close quarters now that the numbers were a little more equal. She got a laser blast off, hitting a Cougar in its broad chest. It kept moving after she hit it, but she knew that at least she'd melted away a good deal of armor.

  The Cougar dropped back to assess its damage, while other 'Mechs scattered under the wilting fire from Clara and Sandra. Then, in the middle of the group, a 'Mech stepped forward to rally the troops, desperate to turn around the disorderly retreat. It fired a volley of missiles to distract Clara and Sandra, then turned to fire a gauss shot at Danai. It was a Thunderbolt, and the poise and precision of its pilot brought the surrounding troops out of their panic at the Capellan barrage. Danai couldn't see it clearly in the cloudy light and battlefield haze, but she suddenly knew that if the sun had been shining, the Thunderbolt in front of her would be gleaming.

  It was Major Anderton. Suddenly Danai had a singular focus in the battle.

  29

  Outside JifangPoCity, Aldebaran

  Republic of the Sphere

  14 October 3136

  Danai didn't know how the Republican forces would react to losing their commander, but she knew how she'd react to taking out Anderton, and that made the task worthwhile. He had a good crowd around him, but Danai could deal with that.

  She ran toward him, her triple-strength myomer giving her unholy speed for a 50-ton machine. Her feet tore up the grass below, and she watched the Thunderbolt turn toward her.

  She was already turning, moving right, but Anderton had been waiting for it. A gauss slug ripped into her left leg, tearing away armor, digging into the machinery beneath. She kept running, waiting for a limp to develop, but it didn't. The leg held. By a thread, probably, but it held.

  Behind her, Sandra plodded ahead, blasting at Anderton with everything she had, while Clara charged at the surrounding company and tried to keep them dispersed with her lasers. They got some assistance from a pair of

  Enyo tanks, keeping pace with Clara and leveling fire forward as the bigger targets drew the enemy's attention.

  Anderton moved forward, one step, two, three four five, then jump jets fired from his feet and he was in the air.

  "Keep on the grounded 'Mechs," Danai ordered Clara and Sandra. "I'll take care of our shiny friend."

  She pivoted her torso to keep eye contact on Anderton as he flew, then made her legs come around until she was walking backward, leaning back a little. She got a missile lock on Anderton and fired an LRM volley at the rapidly descending machine. He must have jammed it—most of the missiles flew wide, and the rest struck well clear of vital regions.

  The Thunderbolt had its right arm lowered as it came down, firing a gauss slug at Danai's head. Knowing that Anderton knew how to lead her, she slowed and leaned forward. She was rewarded with the sight of the slug passing harmlessly overhead.

  He was coming in for a landing three hundred meters in front of her. She charged ahead. He was too smart, though, to rush into a melee with her. He moved back, slowing her progress with gauss and missile fire. Danai steered clear of the slug, but most of the missiles hit their mark, one of them catching her already-wounded left shoulder. This time it wasn't harmless. Warning lights flashed, telling Danai her left shoulder actuator was damaged. It would move, but be less responsive than she liked.

  The Thunderbolt was moving directly backward while Danai had to weave and change speeds to avoid fire, so despite her far superior speed she couldn't gain much ground on him. She couldn't let him keep moving backward or he'd be too deep into his lines for Danai to make a successful charge. She couldn't wait for an opportunity to arise, so when Anderton took another shot at her leg, she made her own opportunity.

  The slug hit her above her knee while she was in mid- step, and the joint froze in that position. The hip actuator still worked, leaving Danai to walk in a half-hopping motion. She immediately went into a slow retreat, her myomer doing little to increase the speed of her backward limp.

  Anderton took the bait. He didn't go into an immediate charge—he'd seen enough of Danai's long-range weapons at work to know a feeble Yen-lo-wang remained dangerous—but he stopped his retreat and moved forward, taking a diagonal path that would bring him closer to Danai without running into the teeth of her arsenal.

  Danai fixed her position and let some LRMs fly at Anderton. At least half of them made contact. Explosions sprinkled across the torso near the head, but he kept moving. She hadn't struck a critical blow.

  She would have liked to give him a heavy laser shot, but she'd been using that weapon a little too freely recently. One more shot, combined with the occasional laser bolt that managed to hit her, would put her in danger of shutdown. Danai knew Yen-lo-wang's cockpit was hot, but it didn't register with her. After all, that was how battle was supposed to feel.

  Then she had trouble. Anderton had brought friends— a Ghost, a Spider and an Ocelot—to bring her in line. Her ruse would have worked against one 'Mech, but against four she was a sitting duck. Time to move.

  The two smaller 'Mechs darted beams of energy at her as they ran forward, one to her left, the other to her right. So she moved back, dropping her affected limp for a full-speed backward run. When they turned to get a bead on her, she moved rightward, running roughly parallel to the advancing Capellan line.

  The machines pursuing her were fast, even the 50-ton Ghost, but they couldn't keep pace with her. Danai left a trail of gigantic footprints in the parched ground as she pounded along. Laser fire from her pursuers passed behind her; they hadn't adjusted to her speed yet.

  They also had failed to watch the rest of the lines. Danai knew that Sandra, reliable Sandra, would be planted in the middle of the Capellan troops, keeping an eye out for trouble and launching long-range fire at it. Sure enough, glowing rounds from Sandra's PPC flew out and caught the Spider on one of its broad, winglike structures. The force of the blow turned the machine. It was flush to Sandra now. where it met two gauss slugs in the face. The Spider fell.

  Danai veered to her left, turning her torso in an attempt to get an LRM volley off at the Ghost or Ocelot, but they were wheeling around as well, staying in her six, and she wasn't ready to turn and head directly at them yet.

  She turned a little more, moving back toward the Republic lines, making her pursuers turn and draw fire from their backs if they wanted to keep up their pursuit. They did, and a run at Capellan lines by two companies of Triarii assault tanks kept them from absorbing much damage from the rear.

  Then Danai saw Clara, and she realized she was lucky to only have 'Mechs on her tail. Clara had moved into the fray and was going after support vehicles and infantry with a vengeance, the guns at the end of her Tian- Zong's hands staying low and ripping up the ground near her, as well as any units unfortunate enough to be there. She kept moving, turning, twisting,
using a few well- aimed kicks to complement her gauss rifles and lasers. She consistently leveled blows at units just as they had her in their sights. She was a one-woman demonstration of why and how 'Mechs ruled the battlefield.

  Danai turned back to her right a little, the better to allow Clara plenty of room to continue her task, while she tried to decide how to deal with the three 'Mechs chasing her. She couldn't keep running—not only was it un-Capellan, but if she kept moving at full speed she'd leave Anderton too far behind and lose him, and she didn't want that.

  If she meant to turn, she might as well do it now, while the Ghost and Ocelot had some separation from Anderton. She made her turn wide and irregular. straightening it out or sharpening it as the Republican 'Mechs fired. She trampled the sort of path a gigantic drunken snake might leave.

  The pursuing 'Mechs had slowed as she turned, looking for a good shot. Since they were squared at her, she didn't dare charge head-on, so she kept her weaving pattern going.

  Closing to within 150 meters, she raised her ax. She pointed herself at the Ghost, then at the Ocelot, then back, keeping them a little off balance, but not enough. Their shots were getting closer. A few wore away armor on her shield, one blast even taking off a big chunk of the lower left side. One shot from the Ocelot came in low, and Danai had to stoop Yen-lo-wang as she ran, blocking the shot with her truncated shield so it didn't pass through and hit her damaged leg. That slowed her up enough for the Republican 'Mechs to let loose with their most intense barrage yet, a blast of beams Danai had trouble seeing because they were heading straight at her. She dodged to her left, but knew she had a problem. Even if a few of these shots missed, there'd be more where they came from.

  But the enemy 'Mechs didn't fire again. Instead, both machines leaned backward in unison, reflexively looking up. Danai immediately knew what was going on. Opportunity had come around again, and she intended to grab it by the throat and make it stay awhile.

  She charged forward at full speed as Bell's Yu Huang came down from the sky, blasting death from the ends of its arms. The Ocelot was already in full retreat, but the Ghost had thoughts about getting in some shots at Bell before he fell back.

  It didn't work. Bell had selected the larger 'Mech as his primary target, and he fired three guns—two from the arms, one from the chest—at the Ghost. None of them missed. The Ghost staggered, then spun as a PPC round hit its shoulder when it was off balance. Bell's autocannon rattled off twenty rounds, peppering the Ghost across its body, but mainly in its chest. Bell kept the barrage coming until the red-and-brown metal of his opponent's chest was drowned in smoke and flame, and the Ghost fell where it stood.

  Danai ran past the toppling corpse in pursuit of the now-panicked Ocelot. It was fast, but not fast enough, and Danai caught it. She drew almost even, looked down, saw the cockpit and crushed it with the ax. The Ocelot listed to the right, then fell when a sweeping blow caught its legs, tearing them out from under it. The 'Mech fell and rolled, scattering nearby infantry who were in midfiight from Clara.

  Then there was Anderton. She admired his tenacity. He stood three hundred meters away from her, holding his ground, firing a gauss round into her shoulder- mounted laser. Lights and alarms went off, warning her of damage to her most powerful weapon. That was okay, though—she didn't plan on using it.

  At her top speed she could close on Anderton in a mere ten seconds, so she did, running at a tilt, smoke and dust swirling around her as the no-longer- immaculate Thunderbolt loomed ahead. Anderton blasted away with his lasers, breaching Danai's shield and doing further damage to her shoulder laser, but not enough to slow her. She raised her ax and watched the Thunderbolt crouch, preparing to dodge her blow.

  She lowered the ax, holding it out wide, and Anderton did what he had to—he moved to her left to avoid its wide sweep. Just what she wanted.

  She had her shield arm bent, and she thrust it out as Anderton made his dodge, moving it early to compensate for the bad actuator. She went left too, and her shield caught the Thunderbolt solidly in the chest.

  Anderton's 'Mech outweighed hers by fifteen tons, but she had speed on her side and the force of her blow knocked the Thunderbolt over. The weakened shield shattered, chunks of armor dropping on Anderton's fallen 'Mech. The blow staggered Danai too, but her own moves on the pedals coupled with the workings of Yen-lo-wang's gyros kept her upright.

  She turned as Anderton struggled to get his machine on its feet. She wasn't about to let that happen. She swung her ax again as she pivoted her torso, a giant, level blow that crashed into the LRM launcher by the Thunderbolt's head. The launcher and its ammunition went off like fireworks, explosions coming one after another, blowing through the cockpit and even doing some damage to Yen-lo-wang's arm.

  Anderton's last words, she imagined, were, "Gracious! How unpleasant!" Or something to that effect.

  Jifang PoCity

  15 October 3136

  "Where are you people going?"

  "To our DropShips, Legate."

  "To your what? Since when does a battalion retreat to its DropShips in the middle of battle?"

  Major Tyla Pruett, recipient of a recent battlefield promotion, ran her hand through the tight curls of her black hair. A few hairs stuck to her hand, pulled out near an ugly burn a little above her right ear. She shook her hand, letting them fall on the otherwise spotless floor of Legate Sophia Juk's underground command center.

  "We're no longer in the middle of battle," she said. "That battle ended yesterday."

  "I'll say it did," Sophia said, even more irate with this tall woman than she had been with the late Major Anderton. "It ended with you fleeing into my city in a rout. But the fight for Jifang Po is just beginning."

  "For you, perhaps. Our work here is finished. We are to return to New Canton."

  "What?" Sophia thought about standing on a chair so she could stare at Pruett eye to eye. "When did those orders come down?"

  "I'm not at liberty to say."

  "You're not at liberty to say? Who the hell do you think I am? I'm commanding the defense of this planet—there's nothing you're not at liberty to say to me.

  "Nevertheless."

  Sophia took a step back, hands on her hips. "Do you even have an order?" she asked. "Or are you scarpering because you got beaten so badly yesterday?"

  Pruett then did something Sophia had not seen Anderton do in the year he'd spent on Aldebaran. She got angry. A rush of blood gave a reddish tinge to the dark cast of her face, and she leaned over Sophia like a tree looming over a squirrel.

  "We are not scarpering! We are not fleeing! We have no more battalion! Do you understand that? We are in tatters! We have no choice!"

  Pruett's anger had an oddly calming effect on Sophia. "What do you expect me to do when you're gone?"

  Pruett's answer came in more level tones. "That's up to you. My responsibility is to my unit right now, and committing it to battle would be condemning every soldier in it to death. I'm sorry. Legate Juk. The Triarii are done here." She offered Sophia a quick salute, but did not wait for it to be returned.

  Sophia sank into her command chair as if firm hands were pressing her down. By all accounts she had heard, Pruett might well have been right about the damage experienced by the Triarii battalion. The Capellans had been ruthless, pursuing the routed Republicans right to the borders of Jifang Po, dismantling any 'Mechs unlucky enough to stumble on the way. When the battle started, the combined defending force had outnumbered the Capellans by more than two to one. If the battle recommenced—and given the fact that the Capellans were even now moving through Jifang Po's outskirts, that seemed quite likely—the odds would be exactly reversed. And not many of the surviving troops were of a mind to take on the Capellans again.

  But she no longer had a decision in the matter. Once

  Pruett had made her choice (if, indeed, she even had one), Sophia was left with one course of action.

  The weight on her back grew even heavier. She was about to write her nam
e in Aldebarian history books in a very unwelcome way.

  30

  Jifang PoCity, Aldebaran

  Capellan Confederation

  30 October 3136

  The meeting was a formality. Her troops had already laid down their arms. The news had already been broadcast across the planet. For all intents and purposes, Aldebaran was once again a part of the Capellan Confederation. But for some reason, the savagery of the recent battle could only be officially ended with the niceties of words and protocol, and that was what Legate Juk had to endure now.

  She stood in front of the governor's mansion, watching dark clouds build on the horizon. Maybe it would finally rain, she thought. Finally tamp down some of the endless dust the battle had kicked up, finally wash some blood back into the earth.

  Governor Sampson stood next to her. a morose figure. He did not seem anxious to become a Capellan. He had been in government so long he might not have- known how to do anything else, but he was not about to serve as part of a Capellan administration, even if they would let him. She expected him to be on a DropShip heading for someplace, anyplace else, as soon as tomorrow.

  Part of her had expected the Capellan commander to walk up to the mansion in her 'Mech. the fearsome ax- wielding machine she had heard so much about, and do a little victory dance on the lawn, but instead a series of ordinary transports arrived at the mansion's circular driveway, and a large number of uniformed personnel climbed out. Most of them formed into three long lines in front of the vehicles, but a dozen or so of them marched forward.

  Four of them, three women and a man, were in dress uniforms, black capes flowing behind them as they walked stiffly. One man wore civilian clothing and carried a noteputer. The others wore field uniforms, proudly displaying the Liao green accents on their sleeves.

  One woman, barely taller than Sophia but lithe and leaner, walked ahead of the others. She removed her helmet as she approached, and long black hair fell to her waist. Her eyes were green, and they seemed to absorb her surroundings while remaining fixed ahead. She had all the confidence of a victorious warrior, which, Sophia thought, was only fitting.