* * *
In the back of her mind Joanna wondered if Aidan Pryde would even make the jump. She thought he might send everyone else back, then buy some milliseconds for the others by staying behind. As the number of Falcon Guards lessened one by one, the remaining warriors had to keep closing ranks. This went on until only Joanna and Aidan were left.
It was time for Joanna to jump, but, uncharacteristically, she hesitated, the drillmaster disobeying the drill, to check on Aidan. He was blasting away with his medium lasers while at least a dozen ComStar warriors were shooting back without much success. The shots that did hit sent armor flying off from all over Aidan's Timber Wolf.
Then Joanna engaged her jump jets and began her leap, calling over the commline for Aidan to follow her. Glancing at her primary screen, she was almost surprised to see that he had jumped and was, according to the drill, right behind her.
On the other side, the Falcon Guards were already dispersing and making the jumps up the cliffside to gain a better position to defend the general withdrawal. Joanna requested permission to stay at the bridge with any volunteers to pick off ComStar BattleMechs as they crossed.
"Not this time," Aidan said. "We have to cover the retreat, and the retreat is retreating from us."
The Falcon Guard stand at Robyn's Crossing had allowed the Jade Falcons to make significant progress toward the waiting DropShips, but the Com Guards were not done with the Jade Falcons. When the Clan lines had retreated sufficiently from the Prezno River, the enemy brought in DropShips full of warriors and their 'Mechs.
"What are they up to now?" Joanna said. "Are we not retreating? Do they want to wipe us out completely?"
"That must be their intention," Aidan said. "We have damaged them sorely. They need their honor satisfied."
"What has honor to do with it now? The battle is over."
"It could turn, Joanna. It could turn."
"We have absorbed losses, our supplies are depleted, our—"
"But we are Jade Falcons, and we are the best of the Jade Falcons—the Falcon Guards. Marthe once said of me that I was a jade phoenix, a bird that dies only to rise again."
"I have heard of the phoenix legend, though this is the first time I have heard of it as the jade phoenix."
"That was Marthe's idea, her fanciful thought that even if I fell into the mire, I would always rise out of it on bright flames." Aidan smiled at the exaggeration, but it touched him that Marthe thought of him so. "Perhaps it is really the Jade Falcons who fit the legend best. We are a fierce Clan, and no adversity ever stops us. Perhaps we are the jade phoenix."
"I think you should volunteer for a solahma unit. You are obviously old and doddering. Phoenix? Sounds like freebirth nonsense to me."
They had no time to continue the discussion, for the newly arrived ComStar 'Mechs were now heading toward the Falcon Guards. The two sides met in a ferocious and brutal struggle. The Falcon Guards, weary and low on ammunition, their 'Mechs pitted and scarred, nevertheless held off numerous attacks and managed to keep the Com Guards from breaking through their lines until most of the Jade Falcons had been lifted off Tukayyid. Joanna was among the fiercest of the Falcon Guards, topped perhaps only by her commander, Star Colonel Aidan Pryde.
With the retreat nearly complete, it was time for the Falcon Guards to make a dash for their own DropShip, the Raptor, which had just landed in the pickup zone. Aidan, Joanna, Horse, and MechWarrior Diana stood their ground, while the others raced toward the ship. No matter how many ComStar 'Mechs littered the field, there always seemed to be more, as though they had developed some kind of amoeba 'Mech that could split in two, then again, and again, and again. Intelligence had by this time broken down (nor had Aidan heard from Kael Pershaw for some time), so no one knew where the new 'Mechs came from. Aidan supposed that DropShips were landing new ones behind the lines.
"Everyone has reached the Raptor" Joanna informed Aidan.
"So quickly?"
"There are not so many of us left, Star Colonel."
"Yes, I suppose so. All right then, all remaining BattleMechs, evacuate!"
Joanna turned her Mad Dog toward the Raptor, Diana in her Warhawk right beside her. She almost did not hear the whining sound of the missile coming at them, but her 'Mech was rocked with its explosion. A second passed before she realized that the missile had hit the Warhawk, which was now toppling over. Joanna rotated her 'Mech and started to fire at the closest ComStar 'Mechs, without any idea which was responsible for the hit against Diana's Warhawk.
"MechWarrior Diana?" Joanna shouted. "Are you all right?"
The voice came back weak, faint. "I am—no, I am not all right. Something crashed through my cockpit. I am trapped in my seat. I cannot work the eject mechanism."
"What is wrong, Star Captain?" It was Aidan, who now stood alongside the fallen BattleMech.
"It is MechWarrior Diana, sir. She is trapped. Somehow the ejection—"
"I heard that, Star Captain. It is unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do. Our orders are to get to the Raptor immediately. Die bravely, MechWarrior."
"If I die," Diana said, her voice trembling, "I plan to die bravely."
"We leave her behind them?" Joanna asked.
"All techs have left the planet, medic or otherwise. There is no one to extricate her."
"I will extricate her," Joanna said.
"There is no time. You must not sacrifice your BattleMech for a single warrior, Star Captain Joanna. What has gotten into you? Into the Raptor!"
Joanna did not understand, never understood, what she did next. Or why she did it.
"I must tell you, Aidan Pryde, that MechWarrior Diana is the daughter of a scientist named Peri. You are her father."
"Father?" Aidan said in an odd voice.
"You were not to tell," Diana accused, but her voice seemed to fade out on the last word.
Aidan could never have explained to anyone the thoughts that went through his mind at Joanna's words. He remembered a time when he had sat by a lake considering the concept of father for a very long time. He had never really been able to understand what the word meant, or what the hated words mother or son or daughter or parent could mean to those people who assumed such roles in one another's lives.
Right now, he could imagine MechWarrior Diana in her cockpit, but what did it mean that she was his daughter? She might be a product of the liaison between him and Peri, but that was as far as he could proceed with the idea. Even all the books of his secret library, with their frequent tales of families, could not prove the meaning of what he had just been told by Joanna. He had been Aidan of the Mattlov/Pryde sibko, then Cadet Aidan; he had posed as the freeborn MechWarrior and Star Commander Jorge; he had reassumed his identity as Aidan, then won the Bloodname Pryde; had been a Clan warrior for almost two decades, had become Star Colonel Aidan Pryde of the Falcon Guards. Those were enough identities for anyone's life. How could he be anything to this MechWarrior Diana?
"Get to the DropShip, Star Captain Joanna!"
"And you?"
"You do not run a drill on my life, Joanna. Go!"
Joanna did not look back as she ran to the Raptor, nor did she think again of MechWarrior Diana for some time. She was astonished when she and her Mad Dog were taken into the Raptor and away from the now-despised planet of Tukayyid. Later, when she was honored for her role in the retreat, she scoffed, especially as the honors did not carry with them a permanent promotion back to Star Captain. But she accepted the commendations and the medals that went with them.
* * *
Elemental Star Commander Selima stood outside the Raptor, guiding the survivors from the Elemental Stars into it. The last ones had entered, with Selima taking one last look around when he saw Diana's 'Mech take the hit and crash with an impact whose tremors reached all the way to the DropShip. Characteristically, Selima did not stop for even a moment to think. He instantly began to sprint toward the fallen 'Mech, the loping sides of his battlesuit bringing him to it qu
ickly.
Climbing onto the machine, he saw the crack in the cockpit. It was a fairly narrow crack, but an Elemental battle suit could rip through it, given enough time. Stepping up to the breech, he grasped one edge with his hand and braced his foot on the other. The servos on his suit's exoskeleton began to whine and strain. The heads-up-display flashed with warnings of stress tolerances exceeded and overload conditions. Selima continued to pull. Then with a sharp crack the twisted armor gave way, and he was looking into the cockpit.
MechWarrior Diana was in her command couch, large pieces of twisted metal holding her down. One piece seemed wrapped around the ejection lever.
"MechWarrior Diana?" Selima said. There was no response. A passing light illuminated her face for a moment, and he saw her eyes were closed. Then the light went away, and he could not see her face any more.
Selima never stopped to speculate on possibilities. He just went to work, using his great strength to pull away pieces of metal that might be removed without further injuring the pilot.
As he reached for the neurohelmet, the BattleMech was rocked by another hit, apparently in the lower torso. Selima noticed an odd odor. Not being a MechWarrior, he could not know what it was, but he was able to sense danger in many ways, including through the sense of smell.
"Who is that in there?" boomed an amplified voice outside the Warhawk. Selima immediately recognized the voice of Star Colonel Aidan Pryde coming through his external speakers.
Quickly, Selima followed Aidan's instructions and identified himself.
"Star Commander Selima, report the situation inside the cockpit as simply as you can."
"The pilot is trapped in her seat. I have removed some of the constraints. I can remove the others, I believe."
"Is MechWarrior Diana still alive then?"
"Yes, sir."
"Continue, Star Commander—"
Aidan could not finish the sentence because suddenly he was fending off an attack from a trio of ComStar BattleMechs. Selima could hear him firing, and he caught his breath when he heard a missile explode against some part of the Timber Wolfs surface.
Delicately, he lifted the neurohelmet off Diana's head. Her black hair spilled out as her head dropped back. He lifted her head and examined the rest of the cockpit seat. Keeping hold of her head with his right hand, he worked at the twisted metal with his left. For a moment, it looked as though the metal was too interlocked to come loose, then suddenly the whole mass of it freed up enough for Selima to slide Diana's body slowly upward and out of the cockpit seat.
It felt as if she were all right, with no major bones broken. Holding her against his side with his right arm, her feet dangling down to his knees, he used his left hand to widen the canopy crack sufficiently to get both of them out.
As he was squeezing them through, Diana said suddenly, "Selima?"
"Be quiet," he told her.
"My . . . father ... I mean ..."
"Quiet. Do not try to speak now."
When they came out of the cockpit, Selima looked up and saw that Star Colonel Aidan Pryde was taking on several ComStar BattleMechs at once. Some of them had come around to block his path to the Raptor, while all were firing on him at will. He was rotating his 'Mech's torso back and forth, getting off shots every which way at the enemy.
"Take her to the Raptor, Star Commander Selima," Aidan's voice roared out of the external speakers.
Selima responded immediately, activating his jump pack and sailing for the DropShip with MechWarrior Diana cradled in his arms.
Selima was praised among Elementals for his rescue of the Clan warrior, but received no commendations or medals. Even those MechWarriors who knew of his name and his deed soon forgot all about him. Except for one MechWarrior. Diana never forgot him.
* * *
As soon as her 'Mech took the missile hit, Diana blanked out, coming to only long enough to hear the exchange between Joanna and Aidan. She tried to protest, but could not focus her speech coherently. What had possessed Joanna to tell Aidan Pryde who she was? The next moment she was dreaming that Aidan was in her village, living with Peri. Diana was a small child, so small she did not seem capable of speech. She wanted to talk to her father, but she could not speak. She could not even make a coherent noise. He spoke to her. She saw his mouth move, but she could not hear what he was saying. She was sitting on a rug. He reached toward her to pick her up, and suddenly she was looking at the visored face of Elemental Star Commander Selima. He was in her cockpit. What was an Elemental doing in her cockpit? They were not allowed there, were they? She could not move. In the darkness Selima's high cheekbones seemed more pronounced. He did not see her looking at him. Her eyes closed again.
In the new dream, Selima was talking with Aidan. Selima said that he wished to be Diana's father and asked Aidan to declare him her father. Aidan refused. Aidan said she was not his daughter, but he would not allow anyone else to have her for a daughter either. She screamed that she had to have a father somewhere, did she not? He said no. He said she was a trueborn, like him. Trueborns did not have parents. They were true-borns and they were warriors, he said. For some reason, his words made her feel good.
She woke up again and saw that Selima had carried her out of the cockpit. She heard her father's voice ordering Selima to take her to the DropShip. She tried to talk, to shout to her father that he need not accept her as his daughter. But her voice was gone and she was drifting back into sleep.
Later, after her citations, she thought back to that moment and wished that her voice had not, like her BattleMech, been disabled.
* * *
Star Colonel Aidan Pryde noticed with some amusement that neither his primary screen nor his secondary one showed any information. The effect, in this dark Tukayyidan night, was something like pillow-fighting in the dark. He was shooting off clusters, launching missiles, firing pulsing beams at targets that were only shadows in his viewport. Perhaps Horse had been right about this Timber Wolf. Perhaps it was jinxed. Something in it always seemed to be going off track or not functioning at all.
"You cannot get back to the Raptor, Aidan Pryde," Kael Pershaw said. "Why in the name of the Kerenskys did you delay? Just to allow time for one Elemental to rescue one MechWarrior? It makes no sense to me."
"Remain puzzled, Kael Pershaw."
Aidan wondered if he were really hearing Kael Pershaw or whether the voice was in his mind. It must be the real thing. No one would want to imagine Kael Pershaw.
What would Pershaw say if he knew that the rescued MechWarrior was Aidan's daughter? Kael Pershaw, after all, was one of the most virulent haters of freeborns.
Aidan had learned that back on Glory Station when he had endured Pershaw's trenchant and devastating insults against all freeborns.
The two of them might even have a long argument about how the rescue was not the way of the Clan. Aidan might have to explain about the jade phoenix. He might have to say that the rescue was another incarnation of the rise from the flames, this time with Diana being given the chance.
All Aidan Pryde knew was that he was satisfied about the MechWarrior's rescue. That was enough. There was no time now to consider anything else.
When a cluster of missiles exploded against the Timber Wolfs right leg, he felt it shift a bit. When he tried to make the leg move, it did not respond. What did it matter? There was nowhere he could go.
He wondered how much ammunition he had left.
"To your right, Aidan Pryde, fifteen degrees," Kael Pershaw said. Aidan fired.
"Good. A head hit. That one is down. It was a Rifleman. Now, twenty-five degrees the opposite direction. Launch a missile salvo. Good. Direct hit. You hit one in the torso, the other near the cockpit. I think it is going down."
A blast of heat rushed over him like wave. The targeting system for his right-arm weapons shorted out, then the one for his left. He was out of missiles. Another hit on his legs made the surface of his Timber Wolf seem to shudder. But it did not fall.
&nb
sp; Kael Pershaw's voice had stopped. Aidan discovered that the small laser in his left torso still worked. He kept firing it. Outside the viewport there was a huge flash. He had hit something.
There was no way he could come out of this battle alive. The flames would envelop him again. For one of the few times in his life, he laughed. Firing blindly, he laughed again when he felt the reverberations of a nearby ComStar BattleMech exploding. Another blast, and another 'Mech went down.
His death could not be fearful, he thought. Was he not, as Marthe had said, the jade phoenix?
Epilogue
"Joanna, when you told my father the truth about me— why did you do it?"
"I am not sure. I could not let the moment pass. Perhaps I have grown so old that my judgment is impaired."
"I would not say that. I mean, look at the way you whipped the Falcon Guards into shape, then ran the unit with so much precision during the Tukayyid battles."
"I did my duty, Diana."
"More than that. What of all the commendations you won?"
"Meaningless. We lost the battle, did we not? We must now accept a disgusting fifteen-year truce period, playing the part of mere occupation troops on the worlds we conquered instead of advancing victoriously toward Terra."
"All true, but the Falcon Guards distinguished themselves on Tukayyid."
"And most died, too."
"Yes, but no one can say the Jade Falcons did not fight well. Except for Clans Wolf and Ghost Bear, all the others lost their fights. Our campaign was at least judged a draw."
"A draw is a loss for the Clans, especially since Clan Wolf was victorious. And I am no better off now than before. They have demoted me back to Star Commander."
"And what about the honors awarded my father?"
Star Commander Joanna paused for a moment. "Yes," she said, "They were impressive. Very impressive indeed."
Falcon Guard Page 21