"Battle One and Three, watch the perimeter. Battle Two, salvage anything you can in the 'Mech bay. Rig it for external transport if possible. Munitions and armor have first priority.
"Recon Two, patrol outside the gate. Keep the Beagle wide open and let me know if anything comes close. If it looks even vaguely hostile, shoot.
"Command Two, Pursuit One, dismount and clear out the command post. We move out in thirty minutes, people, so hop to it." Watching the flames completely engulf the barracks, Rose suddenly felt sick. Although the building's exterior was of metal and stone, the interior burned readily.
"I'm sorry about your personal gear," he said to his people. It was a hollow statement and Rose knew it, but what else was there to say? Everything the Black Thorns owned had been in the barracks and now it was completely destroyed.
Watching the flames, Rose realized that he had made a terrible mistake. He should have known how impossible it would be to divert the attack on the DropShip, and kept part of his command back at the base. Now the base was destroyed and his warriors left only with the clothes on their backs and the 'Mechs beneath their feet. Considering the recent trail of events he told himself that their current predicament was entirely his fault.
Anger boiled inside him and threatened to erupt when Rose looked back at Rachel McCloud's unconscious form. He gritted his teeth and forced the anger into a new form. Fury turned to resolve, Rose vowing silently never to let such a debacle happen again. He would put the protection of his command above all other concerns, even the contract. He shook himself back into the real world feeling as though the vow were etched on his heart and mind.
"Twenty-nine minutes left, Thorns, and then we're on our own. Make the cleanup quick." Rose locked the Charger in place and climbed down the 'Mech, the cockpit's emergency medkit hanging from his shoulder. First he would see to Rachel, then evacuate the city, then figure out how the Thorns might survive the mess they were in.
Once the unit had some breathing room they'd decide how to avenge themselves on the terrorists who'd stolen the Bristol and destroyed the compound. Rose could hardly wait for that moment to come.
26
Houston, Borghese
14 June 3055
The camera swung closer as the speaker glanced down at his few notes. Salander Morgain had always believed that if you could look the camera in the eye and speak with confidence, everything would work out fine. In truth, he knew things didn't always work out as planned, but so far he'd been lucky. He looked once more at the notes Crenshaw's staff had put together for him and slipped them under the podium.
To his right he could see Crenshaw cover his face in annoyance, but Morgain only smiled and looked up at the camera. His timing was perfect. The active light on the top of the camera winked to red and the lens caught the entire movement. It gave him a look of deep concern that the audience could immediately identify, even if most didn't understand the meaning of it.
"Fellow residents of Borghese, my name is Salander Morgain." He had decided to start with a humble introduction; crowds really liked that. "Tonight I would like to take a moment from your busy lives to address a topic of deep concern to us all: the Clans." Morgain kept his voice very neutral. He did not want his auditors to draw any conclusions, yet.
"Ever since the first day of their arrival in the Inner Sphere, these strangers from beyond have been a constant source of dread and foreboding." Morgain allowed his voice to rise in volume and pitch. "Their weapons, their technology, and their fighting tactics swept entire planets clean of defending forces with an almost contemptuous ease." His voice softened, dropping almost to a whisper. "I know because I was on several of those planets and watched my lancemates die as we fought a losing battle." He shook his head, eyes down. When he looked back up at the camera, he had a new light in his eyes.
"When I returned to Borghese, I was hoping to leave the violence of the military life behind. I hoped to live in peace on the planet of my birthplace. But now I know that is not to be.
"From where we stand at this moment, the Clan JumpShips are only two weeks away. Two weeks." Again he shook his head. "In spite of this, the Federated Commonwealth chooses not to defend our world. Their regimental combat teams are deployed all around us, but for Borghese—" Morgain paused and held out his hands— "there is nothing.
"So what do we do?" Morgain looked directly at the camera. "In the military, they taught us that there are only three things to do when you face an enemy.
"You can run." Morgain flashed a smile for the first time in his speech. "Unfortunately, for Borghese, that is not possible.
"You can fight." The smile disappeared in a heartbeat. "Again, I am afraid that is not possible. If we had even the slightest chance of success, I would lead the battle personally, but I believe the effort would be futile. The Clans are too powerful. Abandoned by the Federats, we cannot hope to stand against them.
"That leaves only the third option: surrender." Morgain gripped the podium and slowed the pace of his speech. "It is not a word to be spoken lightly. In all my military career, I have never surrendered, and until recently, I never dreamed that I would even contemplate it. My mind was changed, however, by a counselor wiser than me who asked a simple question. 'You would fight, but at what cost?' What could I say?
"Could say that I would fight until the planet I loved was destroyed by the ruthless invaders? That I would fight while thousands died in a conflict they had no chance of winning? Could I fight again and witness the horrors I saw at Kobe and Thun visited on my home?" Morgain paused, evidently exhausted by the intensity of his emotions.
"I could not. I cannot fight against the Clans, should they come to Borghese, and I wholeheartedly urge you to share my belief in nonresistance.
"I have—"
Rose hit the stop button on the replay unit and glanced at Zenos Cooke. The two men were sitting in Cooke's upland retreat, though Rose knew the location would not be safe for much longer. While Rose was conferring with the Council chairman, the rest of the Black Thorns were keeping watch around the villa. The two men had been viewing the official recording of the afternoon's Council meeting, which included a broadcast of Salander Morgain's address. Despite Cooke's protests, the Council had voted to let Morgain speak to the people in an effort to calm their fears about the Clans. Cooke had been forced to endure the carefully orchestrated spectacle and now watched it again in the same mood of despair.
"I take it that he goes on for a while longer in a similar vein?" asked Rose. Cooke nodded grimly. It had been two days since the attack on the Black Thorns' compound and neither man had slept much. Rose looked like he was handling the strain. Cooke did not.
"With Morgain in their corner, the Preservationists should be able to swing public opinion to their side. They won't fight the Clans now, no matter what I say or do."
"What about us?" Rose tried to keep the question neutral, but concern and a touch of fear crept into his voice.
"You want to hear it from him?" Cooke indicated the frozen image of Salander Morgain on the screen. Rose shook his head.
"The condensed version goes like this," Cooke said. "You are a menace to the planet and the people. Nobody knows why you destroyed your compound or killed the protesters, but you did. If you cannot be persuaded to turn yourselves in to the proper authorities, Morgain and company are going to come after you, probably backed by the militia."
Rose wanted to laugh, but the situation was too serious. He was afraid the official story would read something like Cooke had outlined.
"A roving patrol chanced upon the compound as you left, but there were no survivors among the protesters you killed. They tracked you to the northwest, but were too lightly armed to engage. They lost your trail when you crossed the Garrison River north of Houston."
That had been Angus' idea. The Thorns had waded into the wide, but shallow, river and walked almost twenty kilometers upstream in the dead of the night.
When they finally left the river they
were well away from civilization. They'd been on the move ever since, dodging towns and people for the last two days. Despite the risk of Crenshaw and his cronies thinking to look for them at Cooke's villa, Angus and Ajax had slowly led the group there at Rose's insistence. Rose was glad he did. Without support from Cooke, the Thorns were isolated from the rest of the world.
"What about the Bristol!" Rose knew he wouldn't like the answer, but he needed to know.
Cooke sighed. "The Bristol lifted without clearance from the spaceport under the command of Captain McCloud. Since she was not cleared for debarkation and had not paid for either her cargo or her port charges, she has been declared a pirate."
"Was she reported to the Federated Commonwealth?"
"I don't know. I assume so, but that is really a matter for the port master. Something like that would probably never come to the attention of the Council."
"Then we've got something to work with." Cooke looked at Rose as though he were crazy.
"McCloud was at our base when the Bristol blasted off. She's spent most of the last forty-eight hours unconscious in the back of Hawg's Zeus. She was wounded in the attack on the compound. We couldn't very well leave her, and Hawg's cockpit had the most space.
"The theft of the Bristol must have something to do with Crenshaw and the Preservationists. Assuming that's true, they can't very well report the DropShip as a pirate, or else every F-C ship in the area would be gunning for it. That ship is on a mission and it has to be able to travel. Any idea where it went?"
Cooke shook his head. "It made a non-standard arc in the general direction of the Borghese nadir jump point, then suddenly took off at a ninety-degree angle to its previous course and disappeared."
"Pirate jump point."
Cooke nodded. "The JumpShip was probably already waiting." Pirate points, as they were called, were sometimes used as alternate entry points into a system but only by the most skilled or the most desperate JumpShip captains. They significantly decreased a DropShip's travel time to and from a JumpShip, but use of these points was dangerous in the extreme. Not only were they difficult to calculate, but the slightest miscalculation in the jump through hyperspace could literally tear the JumpShip and DropShip apart during the instantaneous transfer across light years of space.
"But if you can force their hand, we might be able to slow down their plan, whatever it is. Force them to report the theft and see what happens. My guess is that they won't let that happen."
Cooke rubbed the stubble of his chin, reminding Rose that he too needed a shave. He shook off the urge to scratch his own neck as Cooke considered the plan.
"I think I can apply some pressure," Cooke said thoughtfully. "I've still got some pull as chairman and I might as well use it before it totally slips away. Crenshaw has been gobbling up everything he can get his hands on." Rose's communicator beeped four times, cutting Cooke off.
Rose stood abruptly. "Company's on the way. I've got about twenty minutes to get away from here so I'll say good night."
Cooke stood and extended a hand. "This could be our last meeting, Rose. I'll keep doing what I can, but my support base is eroding fast. They can't replace me as the Chairman, but they can supplant me as a political force. That means Crenshaw will be calling the shots.
"Good luck with Morgain and his gang. He's got a reputation to protect, so I don't imagine he'll pull any punches." Rose nodded and took the man's offered hand.
"Count on me to be careful."
"Where will you go?"
Rose smiled and shrugged. "I don't know yet. I've managed to download the recon maps Hawg and I made over the last few months, so we'll try to figure out something from there." Rose didn't sound optimistic, but both men knew the Black Thorns' best chances lay in reaching the sparsely populated wilderness of the continent's northwest.
"Good luck, Captain. I know it doesn't help now, but I'm sorry I got you into this mess."
Rose nodded and headed for the door. He had similar sentiments toward the other members of his command. As he reached the door, he decided that only one of them should have to shoulder that responsibility.
"Don't worry about us, Mister Chairman. We'll pull out of this. Your contract was honorably offered and honorably accepted. You're not to blame for what's happened." He didn't have to mention who was; they both knew well enough who was responsible for their current grief.
Without waiting for a reply, Rose left the room. His only hope was that Cooke would somehow manage to provide them some measure of help while Rose led the Thorns into hiding. Without that, he wasn't sure what chances they had for survival.
27
The Cedars, Borghese
14 July 3055
Rose led the rest of the Thorns into what passed for wilderness on Borghese, the flatlands gradually giving way to the winding rivers and the cedar forests that gave the area its name. Rose mentally thanked the original settlers for having transplanted the Terran trees that had thrived on the rich Borghese soil, growing virtually unchecked for centuries.
The first two weeks were relatively uneventful. They moved only at night and camped during the day under the cover of the cedars. Food was plentiful because they'd managed to salvage several weeks' rations from the emergency stores of the base repair bay. Rose had no idea why the items had been stored there, but he was glad for the mistake.
McCloud traveled in the 'Mechs of different warriors, but never with Rose. She had not taken the news of the Bristol's hijacking very well, drawing the same conclusion as Rose; there'd been a traitor among her crew. By week's end she and Rose were on speaking terms again, but not quite friendly. Rose thought it natural that she should blame him for the loss of her ship. He'd promised, after all, to protect it.
Rianna monitored the civilian airwaves as the mercenaries camped by day and when they moved through The Cedars at night. She confirmed that the Thorns were being hunted by the militia and Morgain's lance, but that their pursuers were still more than a hundred kilometers away from the mercenaries' current position. The political infighting in the Council was headline news, with matters going from bad to worse for Cooke. The Bristol and her crew were quickly forgotten as the hunt for the Black Thorns went on, leaving Rose to guess what Cooke was up to.
Angus and Ajax listened to the military bands, but they were silent. Despite several fly-overs by Ripper VTOLs, Rose was confident that most of the search vehicles had by-passed them, and it seemed reasonable to assume that they could continue in hiding until they heard how effective any efforts by Cooke had been. The next morning, however, their position was spotted.
Just before dawn, the unit was crossing one of the meandering rivers so common in the area. Coming out in the open increased their chances of discovery, but the unit couldn't afford to be penned in by the water. They were often forced out from the cover of the trees to make crossings. None of the rivers were particularly deep, and so one crossing point was as good as another. This day, Angus and Ajax were on one side of the river and the rest of the unit on the other. Sending three beeps across the comm line, Ajax signaled that the Beagle active probe found nothing in the area.
Badicus' Shadow Hawk waded in first, followed closely by Esmeralda in her Warhammer. Just as Hawg's Zeus stepped off the bank, however, a hovercraft came shooting up the river. The high-pitched whine of the fans announced the craft only an instant before it broke around a bend. Running down the center of the river, it headed straight toward Badicus.
Standing hip-deep in the current, the Shadow Hawk turned to face the craft. One giant hand came up, and Rose was sure Badicus was about to fire. The hover pilot was not going to make the shot easy, however. As he jammed the controls hard to the left, the craft came sliding backward toward the Shadow Hawk. The pitch of the fans changed abruptly and the craft settled suddenly in the water, killing all momentum. As the back end of the craft bit into the water, the front end reared up, threatening to tip the craft on its back. Then, after a moment's pause, it crashed back into the ri
ver amid a giant spray of water. As the craft settled, the driver reengaged the fans and took the hovercraft once more down the river.
Rose doubted Badicus was a good enough shot to hit the craft on its inbound course. The sudden stop had caught Rose by surprise as it must have Badicus as well. When the hovercraft turned, Rose expected the warrior to shoot, but the Shadow Hawk simply stood watching it go. Although Rose and the rest of the unit could see the hovercraft, Badicus was the only one in the river and thus the only pilot with any chance of hitting the small vehicle. Instead of firing, Badicus had let the craft escape. Rose sat in shock.
The sight of Ajax trying to run the vehicle down snapped Rose out of his stupor. But even the Raven couldn't catch the speedy hovercraft. No one had spoken during the entire incident and Rose realized they were still obeying radio silence. He keyed the commlink.
"All right, Thorns, what was that?"
"Ground Hawk, Mark Two."
"You sure about that, Badicus?" Rose was furious at the man for having let the hover get away, and he let his voice reveal it.
"Yes, sir. The Mark Two is an unarmed recon craft. It's constructed of polymers and heavily shielded, that's why Ajax couldn't detect it."
Rose ground his teeth. The pilot was undoubtedly relaying their current position to the entire militia. It was time to get out of the area. "Pursuit Lance, get us out of here. I don't care where, but we've got to put as much distance as possible between us and this spot in the next two hours.
"Battle Two, meet me on Comm Three." Rose switched to channel three and secured the line. He now had a private link to O'Shea. He wasn't really concerned about the other Thorns listening in, but he wanted to chew Badicus out in complete privacy. When Badicus reported in, his anger turned cold.
"You've got one chance to tell me why you put the entire unit in danger, O'Shea. One chance to justify the trust I put in you, so you'd better make it good."
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