Loren didn't understand why Huff should be so upset. He didn't pose any threat to the man. "What's the problem, Major? I was simply pointing out an option."
Huff must have realized that he'd overreacted and managed to catch himself. He drew in a tight-lipped breath and let it out slowly as if trying to cool his temper. "It's not just this, Jaffray. You had Mulvaney in the palm of your hand and you let her go. Some of us in the command chain think you pulled your punch, and in this case, it was a punch that could have put an end to this fight."
Suddenly Loren understood. "Major, I assure you I didn't let her go. She escaped. I didn't blow her to bits because there was a damn good chance I would have been wasted first. We had to work together. If I'd known she was going to make such a fast exit I'd have done something different." Loren heard the words come from his own mouth but didn't believe them. Deep in his heart he knew that he wouldn't have done anything differently at the murky bottom of the Tilman River.
"I think I understand," Huff said, not sounding anymore convinced than Loren was. "I can't help but think that if you'd taken her out of action, all this would be over. Now, no matter how much we try to abide by the rules of engagement, good men and women are going to end up dead."
Huff was right, but that was war—fighting and death. They were warriors and killing other warriors was what they did. They could only do their duty.
"Let's get going," Loren said. "Let's hit them hard and get this thing over with."
26
SLDF Fortress N001, "The Castle" Northwind
Draconis March, Federated Commonwealth
5 October 3057
By the next morning, Loren was in the middle of the advancing line of BattleMechs as they virtually ran up the sandy banks of the Tilman River. Despite the heat buildup that usually accompanied prolonged running, the Gallowglas's heat levels were still low. All his operative heat sinks were still active and venting away the heat, but the cockpit temperatures would soar once he began using his weapons. MechWarrior's bane was what they called heat buildup, but it was an occupational hazard that could not be avoided, only managed.
The river was wider in this region, and the current much more rapid. The rock formations that had occasionally jutted up downstream were now more common, and more menacing somehow. Perhaps it was just the tension of the pursuit, but Loren sensed that the battle to come would be even fiercer than their first engagement.
Remembering Huff's jibe, he thought back to the encounter with Mulvaney at the bottom of the deep river. Was it fear that had kept him from firing at her when they'd been entangled? Loren had never cowered from death before, but what else could have driven him to cooperate with her rather than risk his own destruction? Was it the memory of hearing about his father's death on some forgotten world in some dark, mysterious, undeclared war?
As if all that weren't bad enough, Mulvaney's escape was at cross purposes to the success of his mission. Instead of the conflict ending quickly, it was dragging out into a prolonged fight.
These gloomy thoughts were interrupted when his short-range sensors suddenly began to paint targets up ahead. Loren immediately called up the map of the river and The Castle. According to the readout the river banks narrowed to a point at the falls that guarded the entrance to the bunker. The rise was nearly fifty meters high and impassable to most 'Mechs. With the dense forest on both sides, the battle zone would be a tight funnel ending at the waterfall entrance. At the moment their foes were spread out for three kilometers on both sides of the river leading to the falls. Some of them must have already made their way into The Castle, but the 'Mechs at the end of their column were still viable targets.
One of the forward recon lance commanders, a Lieutenant Dewkovich, was the first to officially call in the target list. "Medium and heavy 'Mechs, down-range and moving away from us." Hearing those words, Loren's heart began to race with excitement. He was nervous and excited at the same time, but none of that would be revealed to the troops he was tasked with moving. "Good call, Dewkovich. This is Jaffray. Everybody home in on those signals. Everyone piloting a jump-capable 'Mech execute Case Blue."
Just ahead of him he saw the flares as three of his 'Mechs fired their jump jets, turning slightly into the deep forest. Loren followed suit, firing the jury-rigged jets on his own Gallowglas. It lurched forward slightly and Loren's body sagged into the command couch as he leaned into the force of the thrust. The Sensation he always felt at such moments raced through his body.
Combat! Some men wrote of it, some witnessed it, others feared it, but Loren embraced it. His body and mind seem to merge with the Gallowglas around him. It was no longer a mere machine of destruction, but an extension of his own thoughts and actions—a part of him. The Sensation was like a drug, and Loren wanted more and more of it. But it was not the killing he craved. It was the graceful art of war that enticed him.
Loren had devised Case Blue to give his task force an advantage. All the jump-capable 'Mechs would leap into the deep forest just along the banks of the river. Instead of running forward, the 'Mechs would engage the enemy, then continue to jump up and past them as soon as they had. Their mission was to stay between The Castle and the renegade BattleMechs still trying to reach it. The non-jump 'Mechs would concentrate on knocking out the rear of the Davion/Mulvaney ground force.
Huff had gone for a more conventional tactic, a rushing offensive to plow his forces through the middle of the Davions in an attempt to seize the position upriver between them and The Castle. Loren had wanted to argue the choice of tactics with Major Huff, but in the end kept quiet. Huff was not as open as MacLeod and the last thing Loren wanted was to get into another squabble with him. The best test of his plan would be the results. And if all went well, the two plans combined would smash the rear flank of the Davion line.
As he sailed in his 'Mech nearly thirty meters in the air above the river Loren saw the layout of the land in a way that no cockpit tactical display could convey. Nearly three kilometers upriver, perfectly framed by the dense green forests, were the rising white mists of the waterfalls guarding The Castle. And just as Huff had described, the slopes on either side of the falls were too steep to scale unless a 'Mech were jumping—testimony to the skill of the engineer who'd designed the fortress so many centuries ago.
Moving toward the waterfall was nearly a company's worth of BattleMechs of assorted configurations and weights. Most were near the water's edge and seemed to be ignoring their pursuers, concentrating instead on reaching the safety of the hidden bunker. Both Loren and Huff's ground forces were racing up the open terrain of the south river bank to their rear, with MacLeod providing the support and reserve. Mulvaney and Catelli's 'Mech forces were centered on the south bank, with their remaining hovercraft skirting the river for protection. Jaffray concentrated on adjusting his 'Mech's flight path slightly, letting it take him just inside the dense tree line. As the Gallowglas began its descent he signaled his ground forces.
"Jaffray to task force, fire at will!"
As he plummeted into the wall of ancient trees Loren saw the first wave of long-range missiles streaking up past his right toward the Davions. The Gallowglas landed hard into the tree line, shattering several branches as it landed, and Loren had to fight the controls to maintain balance. The gyro of the massive war machine seemed to purr inside his ears as it fought to keep the 'Mech upright. A wave of vertigo passed over him as the neurohelmet feedback fought his balancing efforts. Loren was so intoxicated by The Sensation of combat that he barely noticed the cockpit's rising temperatures, a result of his short flight. He ignored it and triggered the jump jets again, once more sending his massive 'Mech upward into the bright Northwind sky.
As the river-bank battlefield came into view down below him Loren saw that first blood had been drawn. One of the Consul Guard Griffins had apparently halted its flight and turned to face the onslaught of Loren's task force. It was firing its PPC with deadly precision at the 'Mechs charging straight at it Missile
s exploded in and around the water, but the 'Mech did not waver or try to retreat from the dangers. The Davion MechWarrior had probably positioned the Griffin in the shallow water to cool the 'Mech and was opening up with everything that he or she had. Steam rose from the heat sinks at the 'Mech's feet.
Loren glanced around and saw that his Case Blue team was airborne all around him. A series of missile volleys twisted upward through the air and past him, slamming into Fuller's Shadow Hawk and showering the treetops with armor fragments and shrapnel. Still in flight, Loren lowered his PPC and scanned for an easy target. There. A Nightsky, one of Mulvaney's Highlanders. The 'Mech was pivoting in mid-stride to fire at one of Loren's ground 'Mechs with a barrage from its large pulse laser. Loren triggered his PPC at the moment the HUD signaled a weapon's lock. But the brilliant blue bolt of energy missed the renegade Highlander 'Mech by less than a meter, sending an explosion of sand and rocks into the air. The Gallowglas began its drop all too quickly for Loren, and the cockpit was starting to feel like a sauna. Seeing no open terrain suitable for landing, he simply let the 'Mech come down on its own, which it did by crashing into a massive oak like a gladiator charging a foe. The centuries-old tree trunk was no match for the impact of the 'Mech's sheer mass. It split straight down the middle, giving Loren the necessary resistance he needed to keep the Gallowglas upright.
A quick check of his secondary monitor told him where the opposing forces stood. From the looks of it a handful had stopped and were attempting a holding action so that the rest could make a break for The Castle. Further downriver Huff's mad rush was forcing 'Mech engagements at point-blank range. From what Loren could make of the data on the monitor, Huff's force had not managed to penetrate the opposition as intended. Matters were getting worse as several hovercraft, Savannah Masters and Pegasuses, came sweeping in from the river and down on Huff's flank.
If they were lucky MacLeod would arrive soon enough to reinforce their thrust. Either way, Loren's force was cutting off the enemy's approach to The Castle. We make a stand there and this all might be over in a matter of a few well placed shots.
The next jump was rockier from the start. As soon as the Gallowglas rose above the tree tops the 'Mech took a peppering of laser fire from the rear, flank, and front. Many of the brilliant bursts of light missed, but several hit their mark, boiling off his 'Mech's thinner rear armor. As the sweat rolled down his arms the secondary monitor showed him the pockmarked damage of the random hits on an outline of his 'Mech displayed in green and brown on the monitor. Nothing deep and penetrating yet, but the battle was still young.
As Loren cleared the tree line he continued looking for a target and noticed the renegade Highlander Nightsky moving upriver parallel to his flight path. The Nightsky pilot must have spotted him at the same instant that Loren began his own target lock. Both BattleMechs seemed to slowly twist and aim their weapons at each other as the weapons lock warning siren began to blare in Loren's cockpit. In response he adjusted the flight of his 'Mech to keep it moving towards the riverbank again. Carefully this time, taking the time to aim, he locked his PPC and large lasers on the Nightsky.
The renegade 'Mech fired first. The red bursts of laser energy blasted through the sky like tracers, quickly tracking into Loren's flight path. He didn't try to dodge the shots or avoid them, but let the 'Mech's armor do its job. As the burst seared into the torso of the Gallowglas, Loren felt a sparkle of heat in his head from feedback to the neurohelmet. Then came a ringing sound that made him reel for a moment with dizziness, something he could not risk while in mid-flight. For a fleeting moment, vertigo swept through him again. Loren held back the bile rising in his throat with the wave of nausea from the feedback, and checked his weapons lock. Satisfied that the Nightsky was still a viable target, he triggered his PPC and twin Sunglow large lasers.
The Gallowglas tugged in its flight trajectory as the laser shots sought their target below him. A wave of heat blasted Loren's skin as the lasers unleashed their damage, stabbing like spears into the Nightsky's right torso. The armor blasted away from the torso, severing myomer muscle bundles that sprung free from within, followed by a billow of white smoke as the lubricant inside burned. The PPC shot slammed into the elbow joint of the Nightsky's right arm in a blast of arcing electrical and particle discharge. The impact of the weapons twisted the running path of the 'Mech, spinning it towards the water and sending it stumbling forward and down. It was far from destroyed, but Loren knew from experience that it would take several minutes for the pilot to get his 'Mech upright and in the fight again.
He touched down in a small glade and almost immediately leaped skyward again. Only two dozen meters away Jake Fuller's 'Mech landed and re-launched upward as well. Loren saw that the end of the next jump would place him at the base of the falls. No more river bank on either side. Just a sheer wall of rock and flowing water.
Loren's finely honed tactical senses, the product of years of training and experience, quickly assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the terrain and the firepower, movement and defense capabilities of both his force and the enemy. It wasn't even conscious thought, but instinctive, like a wolf stalking its prey. Here we will make our stand.
"Case Blue 'Mechs aim for the embankment. Dig in and fire on the 'Mechs we passed," he commanded. Loren scanned downriver and saw that his force was faring somewhat better than Huff's. Apparendy his jumping tactics had thrown his side of the river into some disarray from which the Davions were only now beginning to emerge. From what his sensors told him Huff's problems against the Davions were about to come to an end as the advance 'Mechs of Colonel MacLeod's forces had begun to arrive, nearly doubling the firepower at Huff's disposal. That placed Loren's smaller force at The Castle, wedging the Davion/Mulvaney 'Mech's between them and the rest of MacLeod's Regiment.
The Case Blue 'Mechs landed along a hundred-meter stretch of the narrowing banks. Scanning the falls that fronted The Castle, Loren detected no activity or sign that the fortress was manned or active. Was it possible that none of the Davion/Mulvaney troops had been able to reach the complex? No. But there wasn't time to think about what had happened to the rest of the enemy force, there was only time to press their attack.
The enemy 'Mechs that had been in full retreat to The Castle suddenly began to rush forward, realizing that Loren and his small group were in position to stop them. They preferred to take on Loren's task force over digging in and facing the sheer firepower of Huff's and MacLeod's. Jaffray had just begun to transmit orders when the first long-range missiles began to shower in on him and the rest of Case Blue.
"Case Blue, fire at will. Advance towards them. Any stragglers that make a break for the center of the river are considered primary targets!" he ordered, at the same moment letting go with his PPC at an approaching renegade Warmhammer. Loren knew that if the Davion/Mulvaneys managed to make it into the river they'd be able to get into The Castle through its submerged entrance.
Fuller's Shadow Hawk advanced several meters and leveled its autocannon downriver. It discharged a steady stream of shells at several 'Mechs, eventually settling on an approaching Rifleman as its primary target. The shells exploded across the 'Mech, blowing one of its large lasers off in the process.
Then a renegade Penetrator fired its extended-range large lasers at one of Loren's people, hitting a Griffin in the left leg. The leg blew off to the back, leaving a stub of internal support and loose myomer bundling hanging where the limb had once been. The Griffin hobbled diagonally toward the water, its pilot eventually managing to regain his sense of balance. Impressed with the Highlander warrior's skills, Loren congratulated him or her by targeting the Penetrator with his own large lasers, sending his shots low into its legs. Even in the heat of battle Colonel MacLeod's rules of engagement had to be respected.
Loren fully expected the renegades and their Davion allies to charge into his ranks. It would reduce the effectiveness of his own force's firepower while at the same time get them further from MacLeod's
and Huff's slowly advancing wall of 'Mechs and death. Loren was ready to have his own force pull back to deny them the close quarters combat they sought when suddenly he saw the approaching enemy 'Mechs halt their advance, digging in and firing at both Huff's and Loren's forces.
"Loren," signaled Fuller as he let go another wave of fire from his autocannon. "What in the hell are they up to?"
Jaffray didn't answer, but locked his medium pulse lasers onto the Nightsky that had returned to the battle. It's as if they don't care about getting into The Castle. But why? He loosed another volley of fire at the Nightsky, slamming its mauled arm with one of his lasers, missing altogether with the other. As the hatchet-arm of the Nightsky dropped off, sizzling into the cool waters of the river, the answer dawned on Loren. They aren't rushing to take The Castle because they already have. As he concentrated his sensors on the waterfall only 125 meters behind him, several magnetic disturbances appeared halfway up the falls.
Fusion reactors! Suddenly instead of the Case Blue force being the anvil and Huff acting as the hammer, the tables were turned. 'Mechs on The Castle's armored ledge were taking positions to attack his force from behind. Not this time, Chastity. You've placed my mission in jeopardy since my arrival. Now is the time to bring the fight home. Not this time ...
"Case Blue, we have 'Mechs to the rear in The Castle. Charge the ground forces in front of us!" Loren pulled the throttle full back, and his massive machine lunged forward as the rest of his 'Mechs began to realize their predicament.
"Sir," Fuller broke in, "rushing into a stone wall isn't exactly what I'd call sane."
"There's no place for sanity here," Loren returned.
27
SLDF Fortress N001, "The Castle" Northwind
Draconis March, Federated Commonwealth
Highlander Gambit Page 23