Lethal heritage

by Michael A. Stackpole

  "You!" Venom burned in her blue eyes. "Let me out of here right now!"

  "No! I need some answers, and only you can give them to me." Kai forced his own anger down. "How much time do you need to stabilize people?"

  "All of them? Twelve hours."

  Kai shook his head. "No way. Fifty percent fatalities in a triage setup. How long?"

  Her jaw dropped. "Fifty percent? That's inhuman! How could you even suggest it?"

  "I'm just being realistic."

  "You're being a monster, a heartless monster." Her eyes narrowed. "I should have expected it. It's in your blood."

  Kai stabbed a finger at her. "Stop it. Just stop it now! I don't know why you hate me and"—he hesitated—"I don't care. If Jade Falcon 'Mechs, even a lance of them, are following those infantry up here, everyone is going to be dead! Give me a realistic time figure, and I'll get you that time." As he turned away, a host of orange stick figures appeared on his magscan display and a tortured note entered his voice. "No!"

  Deirdre strained at the shoulder straps holding her in the jumpseat. "What? What is it?" Kai's face closed. "Time's up."

  Laser fire from the Toads at the mouth of the Gash burned through the air. Commonwealth soldiers clawed the ground and the 'Mechs returned fire, scattering the Jade Falcons without doing much damage. While people panicked and broke past him, Kai started the Hatchetman running toward the Gash. When the enemy infantry resumed their attack, his charging 'Mech became an obvious though elusive target.

  "Jeff, get everyone out of here!" he ordered his second in command. Kai dropped the targeting crosshairs onto a manlike outline and directed a withering stream of autocannon shells at it. He watched the shredded body reel away, then shifted his course so the Hatchetman's eleven meters obscured the team working its way up the side of the canyon. Detloff, you better find your Leftenant! I'll buy you that time, if I can ...

  Terror flooded Deirdre's voice. "What are you doing? Are you mad? Let me out of here!"

  "Wish I could, Doctor. I wish I could. Hang on." Kai stabbed both feet down against the jump jet pedals on the command couch and the 'Mech leaped up into the air. As the gee forces slammed him back down into the couch, he felt as though his stomach had been left on the ground. He watched his altimeter clicking off meter after meter on the scale, then at 30 meters up and 150 forward, he cut the jets. "Lean forward and grab your knees, Doctor. The landing will be nasty."

  He hit the jets hard at the last second, and the retroblast knocked over several of the Falcons. The Hatchetman landed solidly, bent at the knees to absorb the shock. Then, like a bear beset by wolves, it lunged forward to wreak havoc among the pack of armored figures.

  The Hatchetman's lasers swept over the invaders, making armor sizzle and run wherever they touched. The autocannon always found a target, and the sheer physical impact of the projectiles often knocked one flying warrior into another. As for the hatchet, it crushed and maimed those it did not cleave through outright as it scythed back and forth through the knotted mass of the enemy.

  Kai's initial rush pushed the invaders back into the mouth of the Gash. There, bunched together, he found them less difficult targets. With fist and foot, he crushed them and continued to batter his way through them. He scraped them from his back and shoulders against the pass's stony walls, leaving the glittering broken corpses to mark his trail.

  To Kai, a warrior born of warriors, this battle was everything he had ever trained for. Deep in his heart, he knew the moment he jumped his BattleMech into their midst that he would die. Everything he had learned about the Jade Falcons and their fantastic infantrymen told him he was doomed. He also knew that if he could stay alive long enough, he could pull the battle away from the hospital, giving his comrades a chance to escape and Detloff a chance to blow the Gash.

  Something seemed wrong, and as the battle continued to work its way, meter by meter, back through the Gash, that realization seeped into his brain. The sheer ferocity of his attack had shocked the Jade Falcons and driven them back. Though their attack had pitted and ravaged most of his armor, he had given them no chance to think or to plan or to aim. Just as his weapons attacked their bodies, his unquenchable fury attacked their spirits.

  They broke and they ran.

  The Hatchetman charged after the fleeing man-things, but Kai did not truly try to catch them. Even before his 'Mech took the last few steps to the crest of the Gash, his assessment of the battle began to take shape. You never should have done this. You risked Deirdre's life unnecessarily. You went off without thinking and nearly cost your lord an invaluable piece of military equipment! If your luck ever runs out...

  Cresting the mountain gap, his mouth went bone dry. "Blake's blood! It's all over."

  Seated behind him, Deirdre peered down into the gap at the same moment. Her voice sank into a little-girl's whisper. "Oh, God, what have you done?"

  Below them, marching upward in two orderly columns, came a full regiment of Jade Falcon BattleMechs. A few of them showed signs of combat, but only in the blistering of paint on the muzzle of a laser or the soot stains near an autocannon's ejection port. The few remaining infantrymen dashed between the legs of their larger brethren, and in a couple of cases, their armor seemed to meld itself to the BattleMechs.

  Kai unconsciously started his battlecomputer scanning the machines below. He saw matches for the configurations Victor had labeled as Loki and Thor flash by, but dozens of other designs appeared on his auxiliary monitor without identifiers. A small counter up in the monitor's corner kept track of the number of 'Mechs scanned and stopped at forty-five.

  It might as well be forty-five hundred for all I can do against them. I hope like hell Detloff is in position. Kai switched his scanners over to vislight and boosted magnification on the area where the Sergeant and his men should have been to blow the pass. Oh no! Instead of Lyran soldiers, he saw two Toads. One of them raised a broken body in a Commonwealth uniform and defiantly tossed it down to the floor of the gap.

  With the magnification on his scanner, Kai saw enough to identify the body as Detloff's. I killed him. I killed him and his men. It's all over, isn't it? There is no way I can win ... As that thought drifted through his head, it dragged along a memory he had almost forgotten. He considered the course of action it counseled, then nodded slightly to himself.

  "Doctor, please do exactly as I ask when I ask you to do it." He flipped two switches on his command console. One filled the cockpit with a red glow and the second slid back a panel on the right arm of his command couch. Sliding up and locking into place, an illuminated blue button rested beneath his fingers. "Do you see that panel by your right knee?"

  She nodded, then asked in a small voice, "Do you mean the one labeled 'Magnetic Containment Circuitry'?"

  Kai nodded once. "Open that panel please. When I tell you to, pull each and every circuit board as fast as you can. There will be sparks and smoke and a siren, but just keep pulling. Don't worry about damaging them. Just get them out of there."

  He punched a button on the communications board, setting up a widebeam broadcast to those below. He lowered his voice into a growl and infused his words with a confidence and arrogance he did not feel. "I am Kai Allard-Liao. I am a killer of men."

  He opened the Hatchetman's arms wide. "This pass is mine to ward. I offer those who wish to challenge me a warrior's death, but I beg an indulgence of those who would accept my offer. Your smaller companions have forced me to exhaust my autocannon ammunition and they destroyed one of my lasers." He brought the 'Mech's hands together to grip the hatchet's haft. "I have only this club with which to defend myself. I will kill you all, alone or in groups."

  He snapped off his mike line to the outside. "Get ready, Doctor."

  Deirdre stared at him incredulously. "They'll kill us. I thought you wanted to surrender."

  Kai's voice came hard and even. "I will do whatever it takes to survive, but I also have obligations and duties to perform. Sergeant Detloff and his people die
d because I ordered them into dangerous territory to blow the gap. If I surrender, if I do nothing, these super-'Mechs will sweep through, destroy the refugees fleeing from the hospital area, and then will fall on our lines from the rear."

  His voice softened slightly, but its intensity did not diminish. "I regret getting you into this. I don't expect you to understand why all this is happening, but I want you to know it's the only way. Before this is over, my hands will be stained with more blood, but better their blood on my hands, then the blood of my friends on theirs."

  The radio crackled with a reply to his message. "I am Star Colonel Adler Malthus in command of the Falcon Guards." A 'Mech of the style the computer labeled as a Thor stepped forward from the Guards' line. It raised both of its handless arms above its blocky head and crossed the muzzles of its autocannon and PPC. A second or two later, all the other 'Mechs in the company mimicked the gesture, then again aped their leader as he brought the Thor's arms back down. "We salute you, Kai Allard-Liao, and assure you that your bravery will live long in the hearts and minds of your conquerors."

  Kai laughed lightly as he reopened his comlink. "And I assure you, the memory of your valor will become a story known far and wide through the Successor States." Shutting down the line, he turned to Deirdre. "When he gets within arm's-reach, start pulling—now, Doctor, do it now!"

  The Thor marched forward like a butcher at a slaughterhouse. It raised the PPC that made up its right forearm for a blow that would crush the Hatchetman, but Kai sidestepped the attack. He brought the hatchet up into the Thor's right armpit. For. a half-second, Kai thought the resulting shower of sparks merely the reflection of those filling the rear of the cockpit, but armor raining down showed how much damage he had truly done. Son of a bitch, this thing really works.

  Instantly, a hollow voice reminded him of how inappropriate self-confidence had doomed him in the Academy's La Manchia scenario. Behind him, Deirdre shouted "Clear!" and a wave of heat turned the closed cockpit into a blast furnace. His right hand slammed down on the blue button, then he crossed his fingers and prayed.

  The Thor had raised both its arms and clapped them together to crush the Hatchetman's head between them like some bloated mosquito. Argent fire encircled the 'Mech's neck before the Thor's heavy limbs could converge, then the whole cockpit assembly popped upward like a springloaded piece from a child's toy. Secondary rockets ignited, their golden spear of flame impaling the Thor's squat head, and shot the Hatchetman's head halfway to the shoulders of the Great Gash.

  Down below, no longer contained by the magnetic fields that had been destroyed when Deirdre lobotomized the control computer, the Hatchetman's fusion engine exploded. Searing white plasma shot from every joint, then melted through the 'Mech's tattered armor flesh. It engulfed and swallowed the Thor's arms, then the roiling energy storm convulsed and tore itself apart in a hideous elemental explosion.

  The tremendous Shockwave touched off the pentaglycerine buried deep in the Gash's walls. Every twenty meters up and out from the detonation's epicenter, smaller bursts sprayed rock and fire across the canyon. Each wave of explosions triggered the next in a staccato succession that pelted the Falcon Guards with stone shards. Even as the Hatchetman's head rose through the Gash itself, the racing thunderstrikes buffeted the armored shell. One huge chunk of rock smashed into the cockpit viewport, cracking the glass and peppering Kai's bare thighs with crystalline needles.

  Suddenly the explosions stopped and their echoes faded. Kai, seeing the Gash's crack-riddled walls still standing tall, feared the pentaglycerine had failed its task. Yet, as he tried to think of a way to redirect the escape pod at the walls to crash into them and start a chain reaction, a deep, terrible roar rose up to fill the debris-littered mountain pass. A few pieces of rock at the tallest point leaned forward and slowly fell, tumbling end over end toward the ground. More followed, then the canyon walls buckled in the middle and rock flowed like water to fill and obliterate the Great Gash.

  Jump-capable BattleMechs leaped toward the sky, but huge plates of black rock smashed them back down to the earth. Boulders careened through the canyon, scattering 'Mechs like toys before a child's tantrum. Jagged-edged dolmen sliced through 'Mechs like knives, then themselves were blown into fragments and dust by the resulting fusion-engine explosions. Thick black clouds choked what had once been the only pass through the mountains and settled like a black shroud over the Falcon Guards' mass grave.

  Horrified by the sight, and shaken at having caused it, Kai shut off the screens where his scanners were toting up, 'Mech by broken 'Mech, the damage done. Oblivious to the pain in his bloodstreaked legs and conscious of only the sobbing sounds behind him, he waited for the pod's rocket motor to burn out, then popped the parachute and looked for a landing spot as far away as possible from the Great Gash.

  37

  Plain of Curtains, Twycross

  Tamar March, Lyran Commonwealth

  10 September 3050

  The invaders own the Gash! That realization sent a jolt of adrenaline through Victor's system. Vowing silently that the weeks of planning on Sudeten would not be in vain, he banished defeat from his mind.

  He put out a quick call to Colonel Allard. "Colonel, please don't pull me out." With his left hand, Victor typed a request for information into his tactical computer and watched the data scrolling up his primary monitor. "Commit the Excelsior, the Triumph, the Catamount, and the Lugh to Sector 0227. Have them hold the Falcons as long as they can."

  Shock and surprise filled Milstein's voice as he overrode the frequency. "Colonel, those are the DropShips committed to evacuating our troops. The Excelsior is meant solely to pull Victor out of here. I can't allow any other use of those ships!"

  Victor refused to surrender. "If we don't commit them, they won't have anything to pick up."

  "Colonel Allard, countermand this order," Milstein hissed. "You are his superior officer. I don't know who he thinks he is, but he is not his father!"

  Victor snarled furiously. "You idiot! I'm not trying to be my father." I'm trying to be something more. "This is our only chance to salvage this operation."

  The static created by laserfire popped through Victor's neurohelmet as Daniel Allard spoke. "Can it, gentlemen. There's a fight going on here. Milstein, commit the ships."

  "Colonel Allard, I must remind you that my duty is to ensure that the Prince's son be safe."

  Dan's voice came back cold and hard. "Then I suggest you get your ass in a 'Mech and get the hell down here, because all your radio calls are doing is distracting my officer. Have the DropShips hold 0227."

  Victor studied the tactical map of the area that Dan shot over to his 'Mech. In an instant, he confirmed the soundness of what the mercenary leader had already decided on for strategy. Dan had selected one of Kai's contingency plans for the assault. He punched a button that sent the map data to Galen and the rest of the Guards. This just might work.

  Over the tactical frequency, Dan's voice was strong and confident. "Akira, pull your right flank back and push the left flank forward. We have to commit the Second Regiment to turn the whole Clan formation."

  "Got it. We'll wheel the Clans back into the opening to the Gash so their reinforcements will have to fight their way past their own people to get at us. Did you copy that, Scott?"

  "Roger. I drop down to cap the valley and roll up their edges. ETA, ten minutes and counting down, now!"

  "Good, Victor, I'm committing the Tenth Lyran to shore up Akira's right flank."

  Victor felt the sour fear of being left out drain away. "Roger. What about the Ninth F-C?"

  "Three-quarters of an hour until they step free of the storm. We can't contact them until then. I don't like it, but we have to do this by ourselves."

  Victor nodded grimly. "They can be our ace in the hole if the DropShips don't stop the Falcons at the Gash."

  "Let's hope we don't need them," Dan said.

  "Roger ... and Colonel, thanks for the chance."

&nbs
p; A low chuckle echoed through Victor's neurohelmet. "Just don't get your butt shot off, Victor! The paperwork would kill me."

  "Wilco, Colonel. Davion out." Victor switched to the

  Lyran Guards' tactical frequency. "Alpha Battalion on me. Kommandants, bring Bravo and Charlie up to form our center and left flank respectively. Charlie, you'll be cheek to cheek with the Hounds' First Regiment. We hit, then give ground slowly to allow the Hounds to pull back to the west Give better than you get and we'll all survive this."

  Standing fourteen meters tall and with an autocannon muzzle where its right forearm should have been, Davion's Victor strode down from the hills and led the Tenth Lyran Guards into the mouth of hell. Sand curtains swirled like veils in some exotic dance, hiding some things and providing tantalizing glimpses of others. Wondering what dangers lurked within the boiling sandstorm, Victor barely heard the rasp of sand against his 'Mech's face.

  The first Jade Falcon appeared on his right as if by magic. The Shadow Hawk had already marched halfway past when its pilot noticed Victor and began to bring his 'Mech about. Victor raised the assault 'Mech's right arm and stabbed the autocannon muzzle toward the Shadow Hawk's square faceplate. The muzzle flash erased the image of the 'Mech's head from Victor's sight, and the depleted-uranium shells blowing through it matched form to image. The decapitated Shadow Hawk dropped backward and vanished within the black folds of a sand curtain.

  All around him, Victor witnessed brutal slices of the battle. A Lyran Quickdraw, its right arm dangling by the twisted cord of a myomer muscle, stumbled past him. Like a wild animal on a blood trail, the pursuing Falcon Rifleman clomped through the battlefield, its sensor wing whirling madly to collect whatever data it could. It stopped and turned its weapons on Victor, twin autocannon pumping shells into his 'Mech's chest.

  The Victor's battlecomputer redrew its own outline on the auxiliary monitor, adding glowing yellow spots to represent the damage. Davion ignored it and dropped his targeting crosshairs onto the Rifleman's blocky body. The autocannon's high-speed whine filled the cockpit as a stream of projectiles shredded the Falcon's right-shoulder armor. Sparks and flames shot out of the joint in blues and greens, and the arm ceased to move, frozen as it pointed straight ahead.