Prince of Havoc

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The paired MRM launchers in the No-Dachi's shoulders disgorged fire and smoke. The rockets streaked up at the Crossbow, blasting away at its prow-shaped chest. Most destroyed armor, but at least one got through, starting a black tendril of smoke rising. The others laced into the left leg, left arm, and right flank, chipping away at armor. The left arm came up and the PPC spat cerulean lightning that coursed up the Crossbow's left leg from ankle to knee, stripping it of armor.

  The Crossbow kicked out with its right foot at the No-Dachi, catching it in the left arm. The 'Mech's flat foot slammed into the Combine 'Mech's left arm, crushing all but the last of the armor on that limb. The No-Dachi twisted around to the right, absorbing the damage from that blow, then brought its sword around and caught the Clan 'Mech behind the right knee. Armor shards flew as the blade bit deep. The Crossbow pilot tried to get the 'Mech's left foot down to maintain the machine's balance, but the heel plowed a furrow through the loam and got no purchase. The Crossbow pitched to the left and crashed to the earth.

  Mud clung to Jason Keller's Kingfisher as the 'Mech lumbered to its feet again. The branches and leaves stuck on it transformed the 'Mech into some primordial monster. The Kingfisher oriented itself again on the Daishi and fired, but Karianna knew something more than engine trouble was amiss when Keller didn't use the autocannon.

  It must have been damaged or jammed when first fired. Without it that 'Mech ceases to be much of a threat.

  Despite her assessment, the Kingfisher lit the Daishi up with its beam weapons. The touch of a large laser evaporated armor from the Daishi's right leg. The quartet of medium lasers splashed their beams across the Combine 'Mech's chest; nearly opening it up completely, as well as dissipating armor on its left breast and right arm. The Daishi pilot kept his 'Mech under control and did not so much as take a step back despite the devastation Keller's attack wrought.

  The Daishi lit back into the Kingfisher with a vengeance. The Combine 'Mech's large lasers drove green shafts into the Kingfisher's right leg and through the armor on its right flank. Flame lipped from the autocannons as they tracked shells over the right leg and into the right flank. Green steam boiled out, heralding the destruction of a heat sink, and unfired shells for the autocannon started toppling out through a hole in the armor. The quartet of medium pulse lasers compounded the damage to the right flank and finished the last of the armor on the Kingfisher's right arm. Two of them sent their energy volley against the 'Mech's broad chest, evaporating enough armor to leave the chest's protection transparently thin.

  The rising No-Dachi brought its weapons to bear on the brutalized Kingfisher. The PPC's jagged line of azure energy rippled along the 'Mech's right arm, leaving it a shriveled; smoking collection of metal rods. The MRM canisters coughed out fire and munitions, peppering the Clan 'Mech with dozens of explosions. The 'Mech's right arm vanished amid a bouquet of fiery detonations that spread to consume the Kingfisher's right flank and the last of the armor over its heart. Bits and pieces of the 'Mech frame cascaded out of its hollowed middle, and more explosions chewed into the left side of the 'Mech's chest.

  Karianna considered it a testament to Keller's skill as a pilot that his 'Mech remained upright, but she knew its combat effectiveness was nearly at an end. After this battling, even if he dies here, his progeny will be highly prized.

  The other Kingfisher laid waste to the No-Dachi. Twin PPC beams effaced all the armor from the smaller 'Mech's chest and left flank. A quartet of medium lasers stabbed out from the Kingfisher to hit the Combine 'Mech. Two of the red shafts dissolved the armor on the right leg and roasted the myomers they uncovered. The third beam flensed more armor from the 'Mech's right flank, but the fourth cored through the center of the No-Dachi's chest. Smoke belched from the SRM launcher there, then thick black smoke began to pour out. Incredibly, the No-Dachi did not go down, but started to make its way up the hillside.

  Part of Karianna wanted to disbelieve what she was seeing. She knew the Clans produced warriors superior to anything the Inner Sphere had to offer in terms of skills and abilities, talent and genetic makeup, and her warriors were acquitting themselves admirably. Though the Inner Sphere force did possess an OmniMech, one piloted by someone who clearly knew how to use it, they were standing up to an equal Clan force. All the stories she had heard, all the battle analysis she had performed had indicated that they should have broken when confronted, but here was one of them in a holed 'Mech, rushing up against them.

  She quelled the spark of panic in her guts by dropping her golden cross hairs on the Dragon Fire. Her large lasers swept across the left side of the Combine 'Mech, coming up sharply toward its head. Armor melted over the Dragon Fire's left arm and flank, then poured in rivulets from the cockpit assembly. Heat washed up into her cockpit as she released two flights of LRMs. They blasted more armor from the 'Mech's left arm and compounded the damage to its left flank, but failed to strike the Dragon Fire's head and kill the pilot.

  Karianna did note, however, with some satisfaction, that her attack had gotten the attention of the Dragon Fire's pilot. The squat 'Mech turned its weapons on her Blood Kite. The autocannon peeled armor off her 'Mech's right hip, while the Gauss rifle bounced a shot off the Blood Kite's chest The Dragon Fire's large laser melted a nasty gash up the Kite's left forearm, causing half-melted armor to ooze down and around to drip off at the elbow. The smaller pulse lasers the Dragon Fire packed sent a flurry of red darts that nibbled armor from each of the Blood Kite's flanks.

  Keller's Kingfisher fired its large laser once more at the Daishi, this time hitting it in the right leg. A trio of medium lasers coruscated out and hit the OmniMech, but likewise only took armor off the left leg and left arm. With the chest armor in tatters, he shoots the limbs. Perhaps his line is not that strong after all.

  The charging No-Dachi fired its weapons at Keller's Kingfisher. The MRM barrage ringed the Clan 'Mech with fire, collapsing the left side of the chest. The left arm fell to the ground, then careened down the slope toward the stream. The frozen azure lightning of the No-Dachi's PPC carved up through the gaping hole in the 'Mech's left flank and arced from the frame. The Clan 'Mech shuddered, then the pristine cockpit assembly sagged back, as if the pilot were lifting the 'Mech's throat so it could be cut by the No-Dachi's sword. Before the No-Dachi could deliver that blow, the Blood Spirit 'Mech tottered, then fell backward, smashing down trees as it went.

  The other Kingfisher avenged Keller's destruction. The blue beams whiplashed the No-Dachi's arms, flaying armor from the right one and laying bare the left. The tendril of lightning playing along the left arm melted the upper set of myomer muscles controlling the arm, and ripped apart the SRM launcher in the forearm. The Kingfisher's medium lasers vaporized the Combine 'Mech's left arm, then started in on the left flank, while others stabbed deep into the unarmored chest. and, beyond Karianna's ability to comprehend, the No-Dachi did not go down, and continued up the slope.

  To the west the Battle Cobra hit the Akuma with a PPC bolt that bubbled armor off the Combine 'Mech's leg, but the inner Sphere pilot shifted his aim away from the 'Mech that had attacked him. As the demonic 'Mech's shoulder squared around to face her Blood Kite, Karianna realized she was his new target.

  The MRM launcher spat out a flight of missiles that sent a shudder through her 'Mech when they hit. Her monitor showed armor being carved off the left and right flanks, as well as the chest, then a second jolt ran through the Blood Kite. A warning siren went off and Karianna had to stagger the 'Mech back a half-step to rebalance it. Gyro hit. This cannot be happening.

  Two lasers, one in a solid beam and the other in a stuttered series of bolts, lashed the Blood Kite. The pulse laser dug into the armor on the 'Mech's right arm, while the beam slashed away at its right thigh. The Akuma's autocannon delivered another staggering shot to the Blood Kite's midline, then swarms of SRMs spiraled in at the Blood Spirit war machine. They pulverized armor all over the 'Mech, including the increasingly vulnerable centerline armor.
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  The Dragon Fire that had been her foe throughout the battle again leveled its weapons at her. The autocannon's depleted-uranium shells scarified the armor on the Blood Kite's right forearm. Yellow-green mist exploded as the Gauss rifle's ball crushed the last of the armor on the Blood Kite's left arm and destroyed a heat sink. The Dragon Fire's large laser missed to the left, with one of the two pulse lasers danced its bolts over the Clan 'Mech's right flank. The last pulse laser drilled its needles into the Blood Kite's head, shriveling yet more of the cockpit armor.

  Karianna cried out involuntarily as the ruby light spiked the heat in her cockpit, and the dread she had tried to smother earlier started her stomach acid burbling up into her throat. No, I am Blood Spirit. I do not know fear.

  Then the Daishi brought its weapons up and focused them on the Blood Kite. One of the autocannons hammered through the last of the armor on the right flank, splashing a heat sink.

  The other blew armor scales from the right leg. The paired large lasers drove their beams through the flimsy armor left on the chest and the gaping hole on the right flank, melting yet more of the Blood Kite's frame. The Daishi's four pulse lasers plastered their energy over the Blood Kite's chest, disintegrating what little of the 'Mech's right flank that still existed. The Blood Kite's right arm fell away, carrying with it heat sinks and missile launchers.

  The singular shock of losing the right side of the 'Mech unbalanced the whole machine. Karianna fought her controls, trying to keep the Blood Kite on its feet and fighting, but with the damaged gyro, there was no way she could accomplish that feat. The 'Mech stumbled back, then careened to the right and flopped over onto its front. It slid down the hill, mud washing up over the cockpit, entombing Khan Karianna Schmitt in a hot dark hole where she would have lots of time to consider how truly badly she had underestimated the warriors of the Inner Sphere.

  14

  Bloody Basin, Lechenka District

  Strana Mechty

  Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space

  23 April 3060

  Off to Victor's right, Danai Centrella's Falconer struggled to regain its feet. Only as the 'Mech sagged to the ground again did Victor realize that she had taken a shot to the gyro, giving her the same control over the machine that a drunk has over his own body. Armor plates popped off the Falconer's left leg and arm as it went down. A second unsuccessful attempt did even more damage to the armor.

  The Masakari righted itself and brought its weapons to bear on the stricken Falconer. Victor started turning Prometheus around, bringing the Clan 'Mech into his forward firing arc, but he couldn't shoot fast enough to stop the Clanner from getting his own shots off. A trio of PPC beams lashed out, flaying the downed 'Mech. One hellish blue bolt melted the Falconer's left arm completely away, while another stabbed through the remaining armor over the 'Mech's breast, earning a belching gout of night-black smoke.

  The third beam linked the Masakari's right arm with the Falconer's head. Cobalt energy tentacles wrapped themselves around the cockpit, then sank black lines through melting armor. Sheets of ferro-ceramics dissolved like sand in a stream, and in their wake Victor could see nothing. In a heartbeat, all of Danai Centrella's heartbeats had been stilled forever.

  Victor went cold inside. He'd not known Danai at all well—they had barely spoken with each other before she came to him with her request to fight against the Smoke Jaguars. He could recall her bright amber eyes, her full mouth and the smile it displayed when he granted her request. Both of them had known they could die in the battle, but neither of them would acknowledge that the risk was that great. We trick ourselves into believing we are immortal because to think anything less would make us run screaming at the thought of combat.

  The golden cross hairs on his display centered themselves over the Masakari, and Victor tugged his triggers tight to the joystick. The Gauss rifle drove its ball through the last of the midline armor and bounced it around, smashing internal Structures. One pulse laser delivered its needles in the Gauss slug's wake, tearing away at the engine's shielding. The other two pulse lasers blistered the last of the armor over the left flank and likewise melted bits of the engine's shielding.

  Two flights of SRM Streak missiles spiraled in at the Masakari. A half-dozen sowed explosions over the left side of the 'Mech, tearing at the myomer muscles in the naked left arm and scoring the armor over the 'Mech's left hip. Almost as many poured through the gaping hole in the Masakari's chest and shredded the last of the skeleton there. The cockpit flipped forward as the; arms collapsed in and the whole 'Mech sagged to the left, its slagged middle oozing out over the ground like quicksilver.

  Cranston's Devastator targeted the lone Nova on the northern flank. The twin Gauss rifles flashed, sending both their projectiles ripping into and through the Clan 'Mech's chest. A PPC bolt cored in there after them, liquefying what little they had left intact. The cockpit faceplate exploded outward as the pilot ejected, then the fusion engine's uncontrolled reaction blossomed. In a brilliantly incandescent ball of plasma, the upper half of the Clan 'Mech vanished, leaving two intact legs tumbling across the red rocks.

  The missile and laser barrages that had so devastated the Cauldron-Born now pounded the last two Stormcrow to the north. The Rakshasas took down the Stormcrow Victor had hit previously, while the Longbows combined to attack the previously untouched Smoke Jaguar. At the closer-in range, their fire became far more accurate, wreathing the Stormcrow with strings of explosions. The Clan 'Mech careened around as each wave pummeled it and the lasers skewered it, then it finally crashed to the ground and lay there a smoking rain. The Rakshasas transfixed the Stormcrow with their large and pulse lasers, boring through torso and flank armor, then carving up the 'Mech's insides. It crashed down on its chest and rolled, coming to rest upside down with its feet leaning against a slender red pillar of stone.

  Off to the south Applegarth's Penetrator and the two Jackals had mauled the Hankyus. One Jackal had lost an arm and the other looked beat-up, but the withering fire from the Penetrator had blown the middle out of one Clan 'Mech and cut one of the legs out from under one of the others. The Jackals had apparently hounded the third and dropped it, because it lay on the ground smoking from the back.

  Victor turned his Daishi toward where Osis stood and started off across the battlefield. He saw the Smoke Jaguar Elementals moving to intercept him. "General Redburn, I have elementals incoming. Would you mind scattering them?" another salvo from the missile 'Mechs ripped across the landscape. Victor saw litde armored figures silhouetted against the explosions or tossed about. Some of them landed hard and lay still, while others just disintegrated. Some got back up, their armor broken, but their spirit still intact. Those who were still able came toward his 'Mech in long bounding strides.

  From his vantage point high in the Daishi, with the rest of his unit closing in, the Elemental's looked like toy soldiers waiting to be battered aside by the feet of children. He refused to let himself think of them that way. They are living people, and they deserve a chance at continuing their lives.

  Victor flipped his communications gear over to the Daishi's external speakers. "Stop now and you won't be killed."

  The Elementals kept coming. One of them launched the two SRMs in his backpack, but the OmniMech's anti-missile system blasted them out of the air.

  "Stop now." Victor let the edge in his voice soften. "The battle is over. Please. You are no longer Smoke Jaguars. Accept it. Stop now." applegarth fired both his large lasers along a line between the Elementals and Prometheus, slowing their advance. Victor drove the Daishi forward, opening its arms wide. The Elementals backed out of his way, parting for him, and let him lumber toward where the ilKhan waited.

  Osis leaped down from his watchtower and landed awkwardly, clearly favoring his left leg. He limped down the slope toward the Daishi, then stopped with his arms held wide. "Is this how you come to face me, Victor Davion? You have stolen our technology, aped our ways, and now you come to squash me like a bug you've di
scovered in your garden? Is that what this comes to?"

  Victor blinked. "How did you expect it to end? The Clans lived in isolation for three hundred years, refining combat and military technology while the Inner Sphere nearly blasted itself back to the Stone Age. Then you decided it was time for your return, for you to reclaim a birthright your ancestors had willingly abandoned. What did you think you would do? Take Terra and send us all eviction notices? Did you think we wouldn't fight back?"

  "Not only are you stupid, Victor, but you are vulgar."

  "Oh, yes, indeed, vulgar because I use contractions. Vulgar because I don't fight a war the way you would like it fought." Victor's nostrils flared. "Vulgar because I find you to be silly and hidebound and a people who have divorced themselves from mortality and warfare."

  Osis extended the claw on his battle armor's left hand and snapped it shut. "You talk of mortality and warfare, but you know nothing of it really. I am Lincoln Osis. I can. trace my bloodline back to Charissa Osis, one of those who left the Inner Sphere with General Kerensky. Her daughter, Terrisa, fought with Nicholas Kerensky and established the Clans. From her loins have come warriors and Khans who have brought glory to the Smoke Jaguars. We are a line renowned among the Clans for our courage. Generation upon generation we improve. Leo Showers' sire was an Osis, and Leo Showers was the ilKhan who initiated our return." a seam appeared around the chest plate and neck on Osis' armor. He reached up with the claw and pried the helmet and front panel of the armored suit loose. It dropped onto the ground before him, revealing the ilKhan's head and well-muscled ebon chest.