Exodus road

by Blaine Lee Pardoe

  There is still a chance. Trent switched his communication system to a secure tight-beam broadcast and locked the signal onto Jez's Warhawk at the opposite end of the village. There was a faint crackle and hiss as the commline came on, and soon Jez's voice filled his ears.

  "Status, Trent."

  "We are in position, Star Captain," he replied. "We are also on a secured channel."

  "Is there some significance in that?"

  Trent drew a long deep breath. " 'And Nicholas stood with the first gathering of Khans to draw up the tenets of what made a warrior. Wars have often killed the innocent, ruined entire societies. Not within the Clans. Wars were for warriors to wage and that innocents not suffer at the hands of trueborns.' "

  There was a pause. "The Remembrance, passage ten, verse five," she said.

  Trent was not surprised. All Clan warriors learned The Remembrance by heart as part of both their military and moral training. What did impress him was that Jez seemed unconcerned that the sacred words contradicted the action they were about to undertake. "I beseech you to abort this mission. Killing innocents is not worthy of a warrior."

  "You may be right, Trent, but heed my words. We will execute Star Colonel Moon's orders." Her voice was firm, yet Trent barely recognized the tone of his longtime foe. My quoting of The Remembrance got to her.

  "Why, Jez?"

  "We are Smoke Jaguars," she returned. "And warriors must respect the chain of command. We obey when we are ordered. Star Colonel Moon all but told me that the orders had come all the way from the top, from Khan Lincoln Osis on down. We do not challenge orders. We are warriors, and we have a blood obligation to serve the Smoke Jaguar. I do not like this any more than you, but we are different. I understand my place in the Clan. You question yours. You see yourself as something more than you are."

  Her calm and reasonable tone caught Trent off guard, for he'd expected her usual barrage of venom. She was right—he did question the authority of the Clan. But he could not help it. Something inside him told him this thing was not right. "I do not believe a warrior exists merely to follow orders. Nor do I believe that the great Kerenskys would ever condone the killing of innocents. To do this deed makes of us mindless robots. You know it is wrong just as well as I do."

  "Neg. It is my task to serve. The word of my commander is the word of the Clan, of the Smoke Jaguar itself. Our leaders think only of the good of the Clan. You fight the ways of our people. I work within the precepts of our redes and traditions. That is why I have a bloodname. And one day, I will command a Galaxy of troops. But you will remain nameless, one who is not remembered, one whose genetic legacy will never become part of the sacred gene pool to create new and better warriors."

  Trent weathered her words, despite how they bruised his spirit. "The blood of innocents is on your head, Jez."

  "So be it, Trent. If you refuse to obey, I will order the other Stars under me to open fire on you. You have your orders. You must comply."

  Before Trent could rebut, she had switched to a wide-beam communications channel that transmitted her commands to every BattleMech in the Trinary. "Warriors of the Smoke Jaguars, the residents of this town have given aid and sustenance to bandits who have attacked our Clan, killed our warriors. It is bad enough that they are bandit scum, but they are cowards to boot. They refuse to come out and fight us face to face.

  "By command of Star Colonel Paul Moon, this village is to be razed. There are to be no survivors. Every building is to be destroyed. Leave nothing alive to remind anyone that this place ever existed. Holoimages of this attack will be broadcast all over this planet so that everyone on Hyner will know the price of standing against the Smoke Jaguars. Attack now."

  Trent looked at his secondary display. His people would be waiting for a confirming order from him before they opened up. At the far end of Beaver Falls, Jez's own Star began to fire. The rumblings of missile and autocannon rounds firing shattered the morning quiet. A bright flash of light illuminated the city from behind, framing the buildings that were his own targets. Russou's Star began to fire as well, hitting the city from south of Trent's position.

  Trent wanted to attack his fellow Smoke Jaguars instead of the innocents of Beaver Falls, but knew his troops could not even if they shared the conflict that tore at his spirit. In the end, Trent knew that no group of warriors could stand against the Clan from within. No, only a lone warrior could. And this was not the time.

  "Beta Striker Star," he transmitted through his neuro-helmet mike. "Comply with the order."

  The OmniMechs of his command opened fire and began to advance toward Beaver Falls. Styx and Lior were at the head, blazing away with short-range missiles. The pair of buildings they hit collapsed instantly, sending flames billowing into the air. Trent moved forward, crossing the stream into the park as Ansel's Mad Dog came up alongside him. The Dog's two missile racks popped open and let go with a deadly salvo that slammed into a distant warehouse.

  Trent realized that he alone was not firing, and the temptation was to continue to hold his fire, but he knew that would invite an even greater loss of honor than he had risked in trying to turn Jez from the assault. Yet, some stubborn part of Trent refused to let him participate fully in this senseless destruction. Deliberately he dropped his targeting reticule onto an already destroyed structure belching flames into the early morning sky after being firestormed by Laurel's Hellbringer.

  Trent fired his weapons—all of them.

  His missiles and autocannon rounds only stoked the fire in the destroyed building. He felt a slight ripple of heat in his cockpit and heard the sound of additional ammunition cycling for another volley. He did not wait but fired again, this time imagining Jez and Star Colonel Moon in the sights of his reticule. Again an immense explosion of death and destruction blasted the gutted structure, splattering a nearby building and setting it on fire. He knew in that moment that once the storm of death had begun, there was no controlling it. Even his own efforts not to do more damage had already spread. Such is the nature of war . ..

  Suddenly he saw a blur break from the midst of the inferno the Jaguars had set off within Beaver Falls. It was a sight that made Trent sick. A group of people, probably a family, emerged from the flames and explosions and ran toward the park where Trent and his Star were positioned.

  Trent knew little of families. Trueborns were ignorant of such things, though he knew they were part of the social reality of freebirths. He might perhaps understand the concept, but the meaning was beyond his frame of reference. And yet something in his heart went out to this man, woman, and three young ones. They must have thought they had gotten free of the fires and explosions, but then they stopped in their tracks. What menaced them now were five of the giant war machines responsible for the destruction of their homes and their friends.

  They prepared to break and run but never got the chance. Lior poised his Cauldron-Born in a low hunch, preparing to fire. Trent opened his mouth to give the order to abort, but it was too late. Lior opened up with every weapon he had. Antipersonnel cannon rounds tore up the bright green sod of the park, and missiles bore in on the family. There was a brilliant flash of light, followed by a thick stream of white smoke rising up into the stark blue sky. All that remained were a crater, smoldering soil, and the memory of five people snuffed out in an instant. The image would be burned into Trent's mind for eternity.

  Lior was a member of his Star, one of his warriors. By Clan dictum, it was as if Trent himself had pulled the target interlock trigger and fired the salvo. Lior would feel no remorse. Instead he locked onto another structure, a tall one, most likely a grain silo, and began to blaze away once again.

  Trent held his fire for a moment, slowing his Timber Wolf to a slow walk as he watched the village of Beaver Falls die in front of him. Building by building, life by life, everything that made up the tiny town was disappearing off the surface of the planet. In a few decades, there would be no memory of this spot. The Smoke Jaguar command would make sure
of that.

  Those lives are on my head. Their blood is mine. Unarmed innocents. Such waste should wake Nicholas Kerensky from his grave. This was not the kind of war I was bred to fight. This is not the kind of war I was born to make.

  12

  Beta Trinary Field Operations

  180 Kilometers West of Warrenton, Hyner

  Smoke Jaguar Occupation Zone

  14 January 3055

  The portable command dome was essentially a tent with reinforced sides. With carbon-filament support rods and a hard-pressed fiber outer casing, it was designed to be raised and taken down quickly. Such was the nature of the Smoke Jaguar fighting style.

  Star Captain Jez Howell stood under the built-in light in the center of the dome. In front of her, near the center of the dome, was the portable field communicator. Trent and Russou entered and stood facing her, the brief-case sized device between them.

  "Watch," Jez said without so much as a preface, then activated the unit with a hand-held remote device. The gray screen of the communicator changed to crisp images of what had once been a building. All that remained was the rough outline of the structure and a massive pile of rubble belching smoke into the sky. In the midst of the debris were laborers and members of the scientist caste moving about with handheld scanners, shovels, and gear.

  "What you see is all that remains of Charlie Binary's Alpha Assault Star. They were asleep in their barracks when a truckload of explosives went off outside their compound. A message delivered to planetary command by the local media indicates that the Kat Killer Five was behind the assault."

  Russou stared at the image. "There have been a rash of graffiti markings—a K-squared with a Roman numeral five—all through my patrol area. Support for these guerrillas seems to be growing rather than waning, Star Captain."

  Jez nodded, her expression grim. "Star Colonel Moon ordered the razing of the city of Kimota yesterday. This action will help destroy support for these Kat Killer Fives."

  Trent only shook his head. More senseless deaths. The time has come to end this game—a game we are obviously beginning to lose.

  Jez noticed the gesture. "You have something to say, Star Captain Trent, quiaff?"

  "Aff, Star Captain. That action will only add fuel to the resistance ignited by what we did at Beaver Falls."

  "You have another suggestion perhaps, quiaff? Maybe you could offer one that does not show disrespect to your superior officers."

  "I was raised to take the fight to warriors, Star Captain Jez," Trent said. And so were you, but you seem to have forgotten. "The leaders of these guerrillas are military men and women, even if we regard them as mere bandits. They are carrying out this campaign of resistance with precision, and thus far our campaign of retaliation has only strengthened their cause. But even this resistance operation must deal with military realities."

  Trent reached down and slid a small circular optical disk into the field communicator. The image of the blasted building disappeared and was replaced with a map of the region that showed all the terrain features in their real-life colors and detail. That included the city of Warrenton, location of the Jaguar planetary command, and its environs for three hundred kilometers in all directions. The roadways were long gray lines, cities and villages appearing as dull red dots along them.

  "We have been trying to solve the problem with brute force, but I believe the key is locating their BattleMechs. These bandits are Mech Warriors. Find their 'Mechs and you find them. Even better, deprive them of their BattleMechs and cripple them once and for all. Without their war machines, they are merely a handful of men and women against the greatest of all the Clans."

  "Trent, you are talking like a cadet. We have already considered such a plan. We have investigated all probable locations where the bandits might have concealed their BattleMechs, but without success."

  Trent allowed himself a thin grin. "I have read those reports, Star Captain. But I have also been reading up on Hyner. Our own records reveal the possible existence of an old Star League base on this world, though it has never been found."

  He reached over and took the remote control from Jez's hand and aimed it at the field communicator. The map image changed slightly. In addition to the red lights showing the locations of town and villages, a single yellow light came on between their current field camp position and Warrenton. It flashed like a warning.

  "You are speaking in riddles, Trent," Jez said. "Is this where you think the Kat Killers are hiding, quiaff?"'

  "Affirmative. I believe it is a strong possibility," Trent said.

  Jez's eyes widened at the sight. She fairly grabbed the control away from him and then adjusted the image scale, making the map much larger. "This is nothing but a foul swamp. How could they go there undetected? We would have seen their 'Mechs on our fly-overs."

  Trent pointed to the map on the pop-up screen of the communicator. "There was a methane processing plant in that location during the time of the Star League. It provided a third of the power used by Hyner before it was destroyed during the Succession Wars that followed the collapse of the League."

  "So, we are talking about ancient ruins, quiaff?"'

  "In a manner of speaking. From what I have learned in the databases, these facilities had massive piping systems, many large enough to conceal numerous BattleMechs. Given its isolation and proximity to the sightings of the Kat Killer 'Mechs, it would be a logical hiding place. If any of that complex is even remotely intact, it is the only area in the region large enough to hide them."

  Jez studied the map. "And our forces have not searched this area, quiaff?"

  "Affirmative. From what I could find in the database of missions, it was not on the search list because it could be surveyed from the air."

  "Then we attack them to pay them back for what they have done to our warriors." Jez's voice rang with lust for battle.

  "Neg, Jez. If we are to take them we must be like the stalking Jaguar," Trent said. "Look at that terrain. It is tight fighting, and even though it is only bandits we hunt, good warriors will die trying to destroy them. Those swamps are a quagmire, and these Kat Killers have probably booby-trapped and rigged the waters for yet other ambushes."

  "We lay a trap for them, quiaff?"

  "Aff. We tempt them with something they will not be able to resist. A target so rich and so within reach that the temptation to strike will be too great. And since we know where they will be coming from, we will pounce and crush them once and for all."

  Jez looked at Trent, but her expression revealed nothing. "And what, pray, would tempt them so strongly?"

  "To protect our assets, we will begin to set up smaller field-ammunition and weapons storage dumps. A convoy headed for one of these can be diverted to the roadway that runs near the swamp. These guerrillas are bound to be low on expendables, and they will not be able to resist the temptation to seize supplies passing within easy reach. To make sure, we will spread word of the contents of the convoy through the lower castes. By letting word out in the nearby towns like Chinn and New Bethesda where we have already seen graffiti in support of the guerrillas, the news is bound to reach them."

  "All of that time with your bondsman has taught you to think like these Inner Sphere scum," Jez said, her tone sarcastic. "But you may have something here. I will pass it on to command. Perhaps you will yet redeem yourself in the eyes of our commander."

  * * *

  The image of Star Colonel Paul Moon crossed its arms in defiant thought as Jez consulted with him via the field communicator. "As you can see, Star Colonel," she said, "I believe I have located these bandits, and the plan I propose offers the perfect bait to lure them out into the open." She did not mention that the idea had come from Trent, and she did not intend to. In Jez's mind, his actions were hers. He reported to her, after all...

  "Indeed. There are some risks. You can use only a minimal number of 'Mechs in such an operation. Use of a large force would risk exposing your presence."

  "Unders
tood, Star Colonel. I plan to lead Alpha Star myself."

  "Neg, Star Captain. This mission lacks honor. Warriors do not stoop to trickery, to the cowardly use of ambush tactics. You may accompany it if you wish, but it should be led by Star Captain Trent."

  "Trent?"

  Paul Moon's image grinned slyly. "Aff. Perhaps these bandits will rid me of him once and for all. And, if they do not send him home to the Kerenskys, at least we will not soil the honor of good warriors with this task."

  "As you command, Star Colonel," Jez said, bowing her head slightly in respect.

  "You are to be commended for this, Jez. Thanks to you, the Jaguars may yet be rid of these so-called Kat Killers."

  * * *

  Judith was about to enter her field tent when she saw Trent approaching. It had been a long day, and though she longed for a night's sleep, she knew she must always be at the service of her bondsmaster.

  "You are out late, Star Captain," she said.

  Trent smiled almost oddly. "My searches for the Star League weapons cache have thus far been fruitless, but my discovery of the methane production facility has paid off." Judith and he had spoken several times about his efforts to locate the ancient Star League base called a Castle Brian. "I now have the information needed to put an end to these Kat Killers."

  "Will this be another retaliation like those of Beaver Falls or Kimota?" she asked, but she could not mask the bitterness in her voice.

  "Now that you are a bondsman and a member of Clan Smoke Jaguar, you know that a warrior must follow orders, Judith. Any orders, all orders, whatever orders are given. I was there at Beaver Falls. I made whatever protest was possible. In the end, I still had to do my duty."

  "What about honor?" Judith asked.