Lost destiny

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The brilliant blue of a PPC bolt lit the valley for a second, then darkness closed in again. Red and green light stabbed from one end of the valley to the other. The stuttering flame of an autocannon burst and the torchlight of rockets being sent skyward contributed to the hellishness of the landscape. Real lightning mocked all the artificial illumination while smoke and fog mixed into impenetrable curtains that hid the combatants from each other.

  Phelan sighted back along the lines of laser beams, shot, then ducked and dodged. Slowly but inexorably he gave ground before the company bearing down on his people. From what little he could see of them in the inky blackness, they had avoided taking major damage, but even he knew that was a slim source of hope. After days and days of battling, his Star's 'Mechs were not running at the top of form. The armor he'd lost in the fight for the pass still had not been completely replaced, so his right leg remained vulnerable.

  A thick, searing bolt of lightning hit high on the ridgeline at the far end of the valley. Its light burned tall shadows on the smoke and fog, then sank the valley into even greater darkness when it vanished. Phelan squeezed his eyes shut against the afterimage, but when he opened them again, he saw spots of light dotting the ridge. He blinked his eyes and wished his neurohelmet would allow him to rub them, then he kicked magnification into his vislight display.

  Natasha and the rest of the Cluster had arrived.

  Leaving their identification lights on, the Wolves poured a withering volley of fire down into the valley. Natasha's Dire Wolf let fly with everything it had, and beside her, Ranna's Warhawk blasted ComStar troops with twin PPC bolts. LRM impacts and explosions ripped through the valley like a string of volcanic eruptions. Red beams and blue lightning raked back and forth through the ComStar forces. Phelan saw fire sputter from the muzzles of autocannons, then seconds later, the cacophony of reports and explosions reached him.

  Phelan punched up his tactical channel. "Get set, Ax Star. We've got the back door here. Either they come through us to escape, or they drive deeper into our territory. Either way, it won't be pretty."

  * * *

  The Precentor Martial watched as the Thirteenth Wolf Guards fell on the 282nd Division's Alpha Battalion. Gamma Company, caught between Phelan's Star and the newly arrived reinforcements, faced a choice of running through a gaundet to rejoin the rest of Alpha Battalion as it pushed on through where the canyon started running west or else finding another way out. He smiled as Acolyte Durkovic started his people heading up through the gap Phelan had used to ambush the troops.

  "Good, Durkovic, good. You will force them to hunt you down." Focht keyed his line to Hettig. "How far out is the rest of the 2/82nd?"

  "ETA one minute, but outriders are picking up Clan activity."

  From his vantage point, the Precentor Martial looked up the slope at Natasha Kerensky and her Cluster. His image of her 'Mech vanished in a microsecond of static, then reformed, shifting slightly to the left as the computer shifted to the datafeed from a 'Mech that still existed. On his right, he saw the smoking ruin of a Thug.

  All around him Alpha Battalion broke and started to run. Though a veteran of a hundred battles, Focht still felt his stomach twist into knots as the Clan forces descended into the valley. He knew retreat was the only possible way to survive, and he hoped the retreat would drag Natasha's troops blindly on to where the rest of the 2/82nd could turn the tables back on them. Still, given that the 2/82nd was composed totally of green troops, he expected the Thirteenth Wolf Guards to smash through them.

  "Damn the storm, I can't put air up! Hettig, can we shift the 97247th artillery assets to this fight?"

  "Yes, sir. The range is at the edge of their capabilities, but they can drop something in."

  "Excellent. Sow the 2/82nd Alpha Batt's line of retreat with clusters. Do it now."

  "Artillery allocated."

  * * *

  Precentor Susan Litto accepted the printout, then punched the open-channel button on her intercom system. "Sector 91534, four volleys of clusters, all batteries. Make the trajectory high because we have a mountain to go over."

  "Got it," she heard Gunner Bob Rule drawl. "We have friendlies in that sector?"

  "These will take thirty seconds to get there. My guess is, one way or another, by the time they get there, the answer will be no."

  * * *

  When the artillery barrage hit, the Precentor Martial saw that all but one lance of the 2/82nd Alpha had cleared Sector 91534. The artillery shells opened above the valley and distributed a liberal supply of fist-sized submunitions. As the little bomblets tumbled through the air, a plastic casing kept the titanium ball bearings studding the high-explosive in place. Already primed, the bomblets exploded on impact.

  Most went off when they hit the ground.

  Many went off when they hit a charging Clan Mad Cat dead on its nose. For one second, it looked as if the Omni-Mech had run full force into a wall of fire. Smoking, armor scales dropping like feathers from a wounded bird, the 'Mech stumbled forward, then pitched over onto its face. The second volley shrouded the 'Mech with a blazing cloak and lifted it into the air. When the smoke cleared, the Precentor Martial saw a twisted, glowing hulk where he last had seen the Mad Cat.

  The next two volleys failed to catch anyone, but did force the Wolf Guards to pull back. Quickly typing on a phantom keyboard, Focht shifted his view from Alpha Battalion's rear guard to its lead element. "We should be linking up with the rest of the division just about now ..."

  As the Wyvern supplying the Precentor Martial with videofeed came around the canyon turn, he saw Clan 'Mechs pouring through a gap and blasting straight through the rest of the 2/82nd Division. Like knights of ages past, the sheer weight of the Clan charge bore it into and beyond the ComStar lines. 'Mechs went down, bowled over, to be crushed beneath the feet of enemy and comrades alike.

  Silhouetted higher up on the canyon wall, other Clan 'Mechs supported the charge with murderous laser and LRM fire. One OmniMech, a monstrously huge Gladiator, attracted Focht's immediate attention. Typing furiously, he made the computer magnify it and clarify the image. In the backlight of a ruby energy burst, he saw the Clan's wolf-head crest and five stars emblazoned below it.

  Five stars! That 'Mech belongs to a Khan. Natasha is behind them. Is this Ulric?

  Before he could paint the Gladiator with a computer tag and relay it out to the troops, a ComStar Highlander trotted up beside the Wyvern and thrust its right arm at the Gladiator. The Clan 'Mech began a slow turn toward the new arrivals. In a burst of argent energy, the Highlander's underslung Gauss rifle sent a silver ball sizzling out.

  The Gladiator's head came around just as the ball hit it in the right cheek. Fractured armor cascaded down from the 'Mech's face, reducing it to a skeletal death's-head. The cockpit viewports shattered and blew out, then the ball tore an exit wound out through the back of the head.

  The Gladiator waved for a second, then toppled forward. It slowly rotated as it fell and landed on its head. The 'Mech's heavy bulk crushed the head and shoulders when it slammed into the ground. Even if the pilot had miraculously survived the Gauss rifle shot, the fall would have killed him.

  Somehow the Precentor Martial knew the troops under his command understood the significance of that one 'Mech's death. With a soulless abandon he would have expected from Clan troops, the remnants of Alpha Battalion charged forward and hit the Clan flank. Their attack clearly shocked the Clans and began to throw them into disarray.

  Yet as quickly as his emotions spiked to a high, they shot back down again as he saw the silhouettes of the Wolf Spiders coming through the valley. Just as he began to designate the Black Widow's 'Mech with a computer label, his video feed went to static and continued to fill his world with gray as the computer sought, in vain, to cure his blindness.

  41

  Mahler Homestead, Alyina

  Trellshire, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

  17 May 3052 (Day 17 of Operation Scorpion)

&n
bsp; Kai, clad only in MechWarrior shorts like the other Elementals wore, stood very still as Slane eyeballed him and made a minor adjustment to the armored suit. Taman and Locke grinned at him. Erik and Hilda watched the whole proceeding with keen interest, while Michaels appeared to be bored with the whole ritual. Deirdre stood behind the Mahlers and used them as a shield.

  Part of Kai wanted to reassure her as he had done the night before. Somehow, though, vanquishing phantoms was not so simple in the harsh glare of reality as it was in the afterglow of intimacy. He gave her a smile, which she forced herself to mirror bravely.

  Taman dragged the lower half of the Elemental armor over to him as Kai pulled himself up on the side of the hovertruck. He scraped the grass and dirt from his feet, then pointed his toes and lowered himself into the armored trousers. The lining, a shiny black fabric, felt warm against his legs. His feet pressed down into the split-toed boots and encountered a bit stiffer resistance there.

  "All in?"

  Kai nodded at Taman. "The leg adjustments are perfect. I don't have that binding feeling at my left knee like yesterday. Waist pressure collar, clear." While making this announcement, he pressed down on a latch that loosened a band of metal running around the rim of the suit. "Correct."

  Locke and Slane next slotted the armor suit's arms through either half of the chest piece. Locke approached first and let Kai slip his left arm into its metal sleeve. At the end, Kai felt a glove with a thumb and two finger slots. Slipping two fingers each into their parts, he felt a tightness at the first joint around all three glove parts. By moving his fingers and thumb, he saw the triple claw on the end of that arm move.

  That brought a grin to his face. "Claw operational."

  "Check." Taman looked up from where he was inspecting the fit of the left chestpiece into the waist collar. "Kai, review firing procedure for the machine gun."

  The MechWarrior nodded. "When the weapon has been armed, I point at the target with my index and middle fingers. Once I have a target lock or when I want to fire, I make a fist with my thumb hooked under my last two fingers. Same thing goes for the laser in my right arm."

  Kai worked through the instructions as he spoke them. The obvious wisdom of the system made him smile. Simply pointing at the target automatically swung the weapons into line, and point-shooting was a technique that had been used for eons to teach infantrymen how to aim without thinking. The unnatural hand position made accidental discharges extremely rare.

  Slane let Kai put his arm down into the right sleeve, then worked to hook the two halves of the torso armor together at the overlapping seam in the back. The metal halves of the torso armor rose up to cover his shoulders and even gave him a high collar that protected everything up to the tips of his ears. The same black fabric pressed in on his chest, and the suit reminded him of the various diving outfits he'd worn from time to time.

  Kai looked up at Taman. "I'm glad to have you here to help me put this armor on. It must be difficult to get equipped during an emergency or if you are alone."

  Malthus shook his head. "Normally the chest assembly is already together and just lowered onto the waist. If really pressed and very tired, an Elemental can lay the whole thing out on the ground and wriggle down into it. We are only helping to ensure a good fit. How does it feel?"

  Kai thought for a second, then nodded. "Great. Best fit yet. It doesn't feel as bulky as earlier in the week."

  Locke approached with the head and chest piece, but Deirdre split the Mahlers and laid her hand on Locke's forearm. "Give me just a minute?"

  Malthus nodded and Kai stiff-legged a half-turn away from the others. "What do you think?"

  Her blue eyes flicked down. "I think you have the flesh to match your heart of steel."

  Her somber tone caught him by surprise. "Deirdre, I have no heart of steel when it comes to you. I love you."

  She nodded, then reached out and ran her hand over the part of his chest the armor left exposed. "I know you do, and I love you. I also know ..." Her voice failed her.

  "What?" He started to take her in his arms, but his metal limbs moved with a mechanical blockiness that frightened them both. "What?"

  Deirdre forced a smile onto her lips and wiped away the lone tear from her cheek. "I know you are the finest warrior on this planet. I know you will not die." She stood on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss, then turned and walked away.

  Kai reached out after her, then shuddered as the metal claws on his left arm ripped through his image of her. Hilda Mahler put her arm around Deirdre's shoulders and led her away into the house. Meanwhile, Erik approached bearing the headpiece for Kai's armor.

  "Women never like to see their men go off to war, ja!"

  Kai nodded. "Any suggestions for me in that department?"

  "Understand it. Expect anger mixed with joy and relief when you return." Erik lifted the head and chest assembly and Kai bowed forward. "She is a strong woman, Herr Allard, and you need each other. Be careful that your strengths do not destroy one another."

  "Thank you."

  As the last piece of armor fitted down into place, the waist collar snapped back into position, tightening down to seal the suit. Kai heard a low hum as the black fabric slowly pressed itself solidly against his body. While the interior of the suit molded into a warm, snug fit, the underside of the boots became more solid and resized themselves to accommodate his smaller feet.

  Then a holographic display materialized between Kai's face and the V-shaped viewport. Besides the normal 360-degree view of the world truncated into 160 degrees, he saw twin lines of boxes running above and below the display. As he glanced at the one labeled IR, it flashed for a second, then the holographic display shifted to infrared mode. He looked at vislight to bring it back to normal, then glanced at the box labeled Taccom.

  "Suit checks, all systems go," he reported. "This voice-operated radio is good, but don't you have trouble with folks chattering nervously?"

  Malthus frowned at him. "If a warrior were given to such a habit, he would be removed from the unit. Elementals are not given to idle chatter."

  "Right. Sorry about that." Kai smiled and saw Malthus' expression ease.

  The suit, Kai knew, was a marvel of technology the like of which the Inner Sphere had never seen. In the suit he could lift approximately 500 kilograms on a normal one-gravity world. The claw could generate 30 ksc of pressure, more than enough to strip armor off a 'Mech and a good ten times that required to shatter bone. His running speed increased marginally despite the added weight, and his ability to jump was doubled in terms of distance. He knew the suit also had jump jets, but Malthus had disabled them because Kai had not had time to train in their use.

  Locke snapped his own helmet on. "Kai, remember that once your arm your weapons, you may fire them at will using the hand position you mentioned earlier. You can disarm your weapons through the glance system, but the machine gun is always live while you remain in a suit whose weapons are armed."

  "Just in case I run into something I did not expect?"

  "Correct. If your armor is breached or if you are injured, the suit will initiate drug therapy to combat shock and to kill the pain. The suit itself will seal the wound and start a distress signal that will enable us to home in on you. That homing signal is different than the one keyed by the Initiate Alert box on your display. The latter is only for use in emergencies."

  Kai smiled and started moving the limbs around to reacquaint himself with their feel. With power to the suit, they moved smoothly and fluidly. He started walking toward where the other Elementals camouflaged in green and gray were climbing into the back of the hovercraft. He drew close enough to see Malthus' eyes sparkling through his viewport.

  "Thank you, Taman, for this honor."

  The Elemental rested his claw on Kai's shoulder. "Now you know what it feels like to be a real warrior. Let us go rescue our friends and give our enemies no quarter."

  The joy of driving a hovertruck, Gus Michaels maintained, was tha
t its being an air-cushion vehicle meant they did not have to travel over conventional roads. Almost from the start, Kai noticed that their chauffeur seemed to take perverse delight in sailing the hovertruck over the most rutty terrain, but he marveled at the suit's ability to absorb the shocks that rattled the truck and sent the cable coils resting on the Gauss rifle flying.

  Whereas Dove Costoso was north and inland from Mar Negro and the Mahler homestead, Valigia lay along the coast 400 kilometers to the west. Had Taman not forbidden it, Kai believed Michaels would have opted for a skate across the Mar Negro and entry into the city through the port sector. Though the hovertruck could easily have skimmed the waves, the possible loss of the Gauss rifle in case of a fan failure forced them to travel overland.

  Conventional wisdom had put Valigia four hours distant, but their truck made it in just over three. They cruised into the city unchallenged and unchecked. Michaels, paying strict attention to the traffic laws, drove the hovertruck through the whitewashed brick city with a minimum of delay.

  He nosed the truck into an alley across from the front gate of the ComStar fortress. "ComStar central, as ordered." Michaels looked back through the open window into the cargo area. "Shall I leave the meter running?"

  "You stay put!" Malthus commanded him. "Team, arm your weapons."

  Kai glanced at the Arm Weapons box. The holographic display melted down into an outline of his armor suit. He glanced at the left arm and brought the machine gun online. As he activated the small laser that capped the right arm, he thought about his father and. the weapon built into his left arm. I hope I do as well with this as you did with yours, Father.

  He smiled as that old feeling of self-doubt failed to materialize. "Armed and ready, Star Captain."

  "Deploy."

  Kai hopped out of the track and took up a position at its aft end. He scanned the top of the ComStar fortress walls, but saw no one atop the massively thick pile of stone blocks. The guardhouses at the corners of the walls looked idle. Overhead, thick power cables ran from the street over the wall and into the compound just above the eight-meter-high iron doors blocking the arched gateway. A huge broadcasting tower stood in the middle of the compound, and a red light slowly blinked on and off at its apex.