Exodus road

by Blaine Lee Pardoe

  Suddenly there was roar near the river, and she saw a gray Smoke Jaguar DropShip sweep down toward the ridgeline in the distance. In the pit of her stomach, she knew that this was not going to be easy....

  * * *

  The sleek, almost polished gray battle armor of the Elementals under Paul Moon's command dropped from the Broadsword Class DropShip and deployed on the south end of the ridge, where Trent and his command had been only a few minutes before. Elementals were usually imposing figures, but their threat seemed dramatically diminished when viewed from the cockpit of Trent's 'Mech. He was not seduced by that, however. He knew how deadly Elementals were when they swarmed a 'Mech. And he knew that Paul Moon would stop at nothing to destroy him.

  "All Stars, continue your attack," Trent commanded. "Keep the Combine forces on the run."

  "Negative!" countermanded Moon. "Beta Trinary, this is Cluster Commander Paul Moon. Star Captain Trent has been implicated in a violation of our code of honor." On the other side of the ridge the battle still raged as Beta Striker and Charlie Sweep Stars waded into the remains of the Twelfth Dieron Regulars company. Explosions and errant flashes of laser beams and PPC shots stabbed up into the air. "I order you to break off your assault against these Combine free-births and to apprehend Star Captain Trent immediately."

  Trent studied the tactical sensor feed that showed the area on his secondary display. He held the high ground on top of the ridge. Russou's force was driving back the DCMS forces, while Beta Striker Star, or what was left of it, was still advancing. That leaves only my own Star and the Colonel's as a threat. His communications system was set for a wide transmission.

  "This is Star Captain Trent. Disregard Star Colonel Moon's command. His charges are unfounded and unworthy of the warrior he claims to be. Maintain the assault on the Combine force."

  A check of his long-range sensors showed that the Colonel's Elemental Star, numbering twenty-five armored infantry, were forming a wide semi-circle around Trent's position on top of the ridge. Facing south, with the battle raging behind him, Trent knew he was being drawn into a confrontation in which he would be dramatically outnumbered. His own Alpha Star seemed stymied, unsure of how to respond.

  Moon's deep voice bellowed over the channel again, "Star Captain Trent, surrender or die."

  Trent decided to take advantage of the confusion created by Moon's arrival. "Beta Trinary, you know me. I trained you, taught you the ways of the Smoke Jaguar warrior. Paul Moon's accusations are illicit and unfounded."

  "Sir," signaled Teej from his Mad Dog. "I must follow the orders of a superior."

  Trent knew that his time was up. "Very well, Star Colonel Moon. This ends now," he said, charging the Cauldron-Born's autocannon, short-range missiles, and medium laser. Against Elementals, his powerful Gauss rifle was virtually impotent—unable to hit the small, man-size targets.

  "Attack!" Moon shouted. More than two dozen Elementals suddenly lit up on their jump jets, rising into the air and soaring toward Trent. Instead of charging down the ridge toward the assault force, he rapidly backed up his Cauldron-Born, moving down the hill to the fighting still raging below. He triggered his weapons and sprayed the Elementals just before he dropped out of line of sight with them. His laser beam cut the air horizontally like a knife, striking one of the jumping Elementals in mid-leap and severing his arm. Trent's autocannon rounds missed their mark, but the shrapnel and debris they threw up skewed the flight paths of two more Elementals. His pair of short-range missiles streaked out and went off near the lead Elemental. One missed altogether, but the other blew half the leg off the rising power-armored trooper.

  He heard a scream of agony over the wide channel and knew the voice was Paul Moon's. Trent did not see him drop, but from his angle of flight, he knew he had taken off Moon's leg at the knee joint at least.

  Trent grinned.

  "Kill him!" howled Moon as the Elementals seized the top of the ridge and opened fire with their shoulder-mounted missile packs. The armor-piercing warheads raced down the hillside at Trent from the front and flanks as he slowed his pace and turned to break to the north. He thought he might make it to the Twelfth Dieron's command post if he could punch through the base. At least fifteen of the missiles found their mark on him, blasting armor plating off the Cauldron-Born's arms, legs, and torso. Teej's Mad Dog rose to the ridge and blazed down at him with its pulse lasers, filling the air with brilliant crimson dots of light and rupturing even more of his torso armor.

  Trent opened up again with his autocannon as another clip signaled as loaded in the firing chamber. This time the LB-X rounds tore up the top of the ridge before the Elementals could take flight. One of his attackers disappeared in a cloud of black and gray smoke and others dove for cover. Almost a half-kilometer away, Charlie and Beta Stars had pushed back the Combine 'Mechs and were turning to the south to face him. He saw one of the Elementals pull himself onto the ridge top and knew that it was Star Colonel Moon, his armored suit having sealed the severed limb and no doubt pumping sedatives to mask the pain from his stump of a leg. Normal men would have passed out in agony, but Elemental warriors and their suits were designed to allow them to fight on to death.

  "You will not get away, Trent. Not this time."

  Suddenly from all sides of the crippled Elemental, a row of BattleMechs assumed the ridge line, opening fire on Moon's Elemental Star from the rear at point-blank range. They ignored Moon and his damage. Two grappled with Teej and fell backward, out of Trent's line of sight. Reinforcements? Then he saw the 'Mechs in detail on his tactical readout. Thug, Raijin, Nexus, Black Knight, King Crab . .. and the color ... gray-white. He had seen some of the 'Mechs and the logos they bore once before, for two days on a planet called Tukayyid.

  A new voice came on line in his ear speaker. "Smoke Jaguars, this is Precentor Karl Karter of the Com Guards 308th Division, crusher of the Ghost Bears on Tukayyid and terror of the Clans. We have beaten you before, and stand ready to do so now. Withdraw, power down, or die. The choice is yours!"

  The Elementals did not waver in their assault on Trent. They rushed forward, but were no match for the Com Guard forces firing at them. Trent took four more hits from missiles as the Elementals attempted to close with him. Finally convinced that they could not reach him, they turned and mounted a counterattack on the Com Guard force. They rose into the air on their jets, lasers and machine guns blazing away as the Guards blasted back at them with lasers and missiles.

  The remains of Beta Striker Star charged into their flank on the ridgetop, and soon the entire hillside was a melee of carnage and death. The ground shook under Trent's Cauldron-Born as his short-range missiles hit one of the Elementals still coming for him. His fire cut the gray-clad warrior in half as the machine gun rounds splattered against Trent's viewport, just short of penetrating.

  Trent turned and saw the three remaining 'Mechs of Charlie Sweep Star moving slowly toward him. He recognized the lead one instantly as Russou's Mad Dog. It was pitted with black missile hits and the still-steaming scars where lasers had slashed off its armor protection. His junior officer's gait looked almost weary as the 'Mech moved toward him. Trent knew there was no way to avoid this confrontation. He accessed his battle computer terminal via the small keypad on the console and tapped in the self-destruct sequence controls.

  BattleMechs rode atop fusion reactors. Though the reactors could be breached in the midst of combat; they were equipped with a series of fail-safe devices intended to protect the reactors from exploding except under the most extreme conditions. A warrior could, however, on his own accord, self-destruct a 'Mech.

  Jaguar 'Mechs were default-coded with a ten-second delay. Once activated, the magnetic shielding that held the fusion reaction suspended would drop. The reaction of the core dropping out of alignment would release a compact nuclear explosion in an incredibly tight area, taking out the 'Mech and everything near it. Trent's carefully coded commands changed that timing, significantly .. .

  Behind hi
m came a series of explosions, but Trent ignored them. Instead he walked toward Star Commander Russou Howell, one of the few Smoke Jaguars he called friend. He heard Russou's voice, almost longingly, on a private channel. "I do not understand this."

  "You do not have to, Russou," Trent said calmly, checking the tightness of his safety harness.

  "Is what Moon said true?"

  Paul Moon's voice came over the wide-band channel to both of the warriors. "Crush him, Russou. He is a traitor to you and your Clan. Kill him!"

  Trent studied the Mad Dog as it slowly approached him. Russou's Starmates formed at his sides, waiting for him to make his move. "You will have to destroy me, Russou. You know that."

  "I do not want to."

  "You have no choice. This is how this must end," Trent said, wrapping his hand on the locking toggle for his ejection system as he heard a blast of autocannon fire to his rear. It was the Com Guards advancing down the ridge toward him, fighting Star Commander Alexandra's Star in close-quarters combat.

  There was a pause during which Trent wondered how Russou would react. Then he saw the Mad Dog's weapons pods come up as Russou ordered his Star to attack Trent with everything they had just as the Com Guards rushed to Trent's side. The initial barrage was weathered by his remaining armor as he staggered back under the shuddering impacts of the weapons. Fighting the wave of heat that spiked in his cockpit, Trent struggled with the controls and balance as the Cauldron-Born swayed under volley.

  He raised his Gauss rifle in front of him and tilted his 'Mech backward slightly, pointing it at an angle back toward the ridge. Enemy fire ripped the weapons pod off at the elbow joint, tossing it into what was left of his legs as lasers and missiles ate away at the 'Mech's myomer muscles and ferro-titanium internal structure. His secondary display switched to show him the damage as the 'Mech died around him.

  He fired the autocannon in his other arm in a steady stream into the sod in front of him, sending up a massive explosion of dirt and grass between him and Russou's Jaguars. The ComStar King Crab moved to his flank eighty meters away and blasted at Russou, but missed. The red warning indicators on his Cauldron-Born flared in front of him as Trent braced himself.

  This is where I die in the eyes of my former Clan. This is where I become a dead traitor. He keyed the self-destruct sequence and reached to hit the ejection control. A burst of laser fire tore at the heart of his 'Mech as the reactor went critical. There was a blast of cool Maldonado morning air. Then there was an explosion. A brilliant flash almost as bright as the sun rising in the sky. Trent closed his eyes and his vision seemed to tunnel as he passed out into a darkness that was warm, wet, and comforting.

  36

  Precentor Martial's Guest Quarters,

  Whitting Conference

  Tharkad City

  Tharkad, Lyran Alliance

  14 November 3058

  Trent stood at parade rest between the two Com Guard bodyguards, as if an unspoken order still held him at bay. His warrior's gray jumpsuit had been cleaned, but still had a worn look about it. It was the same clothing he had worn for most of the journey from Maldonado to Tharkad. Judith stood at his side, silent and yet he could read her nervousness. She had been sequestered away from him for days at a time, obviously being interrogated and debriefed.

  Though he had been unconscious during the end of the battle along the Shenandoah River, he knew how it had turned out. The explosion of his Cauldron-Born had been sudden and rapid, the low-level EMP from the blast overloading the sensors of many of the surrounding 'Mechs. Russou and a handful of Omnis had managed to get clear, but what they saw was Trent's honorable death.

  Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht, infamous among the Clans as commander of the Com Guards, entered the room by the far door. Trent studied him curiously. The other man's appearance was striking, with his stark white hair and a black eye patch over one eye. The lined, leathery look of his face betrayed not only his age but years of exposure to wind and weather. Focht walked over to his desk and gestured for Trent to have a seat.

  Trent went to the chair and sat down slowly, its leather creaking as he did. Anastasius Focht, the man who had orchestrated the greatest defeat the Clans had ever known, sat facing him.

  The room itself was spartan in appearance, with only one bulletproof window, simple wooden furnishings, and a deep blue carpet. So unassuming was it that Trent forgot for a moment where he was, seated in a room on the capitol world of the Lyran Alliance. From what he understood, the leaders of the Inner Sphere had gathered on this world for a kind of grand council. That was why Focht was here.

  "I am Anastasius Focht," the man said in a deep tone. He gestured to an aide standing beside him. "This is Precentor Klaus Hettig, another veteran of Tukayyid."

  Trent nodded to each of them. "I am Star Captain Trent, formerly of Clan Smoke Jaguar."

  Focht cast a quick glance at Judith, then back at Trent. "My aides tell me you have information to offer ComStar. Information that would be of interest to us ..."

  Trent slowly pulled out the optical disk onto which he had dumped the data from his wristcomp. As he did, the bodyguards leaned forward, hands massaging their weapons, perhaps fearing that he had somehow smuggled in a weapon. Focht took the disk and slid it into the small holovid unit built into the desk and pressed a control stud. There was a flicker of light as the holoviewer came to life, projecting the image of a world hovering in the space between the two men. The planet spun slowly, its principal cities dots of red light on the surface.

  "There is no need for bodyguards," Trent said. "On my honor, I do not pose a threat to you or those around you."

  Focht said nothing but simply gestured to his guards. They stepped outside, though everyone in the room knew they would be just on the other side of the door. Trent waited until they were gone, then began to speak. "Precentor Martial Focht, I present to you Huntress, homeworld of the Smoke Jaguar Clan. In this datafile you will find everything I was able to obtain regarding the defense of that world."

  "Huntress," Focht said, staring at the glowing holoimage. "Impressive. But it is merely a point of light somewhere in the sky. Which point of light, we do not know."

  "That is the reason for our meeting, and why it is of such import. I also bring with me the path to this world, the Exodus Road, the route taken by Aleksandr Kerensky and the Exodus Fleet when they left the Inner Sphere forever."

  Focht's one good eye continued to hold Trent with its fixed stare, as if he found the words hard to believe.

  "I also bring with me the current placement of the Smoke Jaguar units posted in the Inner Sphere," Trent went on. "In short, I present you the whole of Clan Smoke Jaguar, everything needed to bring them to their knees."

  Focht nodded slowly, and when he spoke, his tone was musing, almost as if he was talking to himself. "Huntress. It all began there, didn't it? It began when our own Explorer Corps ship stumbled onto the world years ago. While exploring the stars we spawned the very invasion that might have destroyed us."

  Trent was not exactly sure what Focht meant by that, but it did not concern him right now. "This information is encrypted, Precentor Martial, and I have the only cipher. Any attempt to extract the data stored on that disk would result in the information being irrevocably purged."

  "This information, I assume, has a price attached to it. I know you do not want our money. No Clansman values coin. What do you want then, Star Captain Trent?"

  Trent sat back in his chair and paused to give weight to what he was about to say. "In exchange for everything I know of the Smoke Jaguars, I ask for a command to call my own."

  "Command?"

  Trent's tone went from formal to impassioned. "I am a warrior, but my own people consider me past my prime, of no value. But I know differently." He cast a quick glance at Judith still standing nearby. "I am one who has been genetically bred for war, trained to lead others into battle. Being a warrior is all I am, all I will ever be. I want to know that I might one day lead others
into battle again."

  Focht said nothing for a moment, then turned to Precentor Hettig at his side. Hettig whispered something to Focht that Trent could not hear. Focht pondered whatever his aide had said, then turned back to Trent.

  "You must forgive me Star Captain. But you come here, having been rescued by our own Com Guards, promising me the unimaginable. You offer me the beating heart of the most brutal of our Clan foes. You bring me this information at a time when I can use it most. But, frankly, Star Captain I must mistrust this offer. Why should I believe you?"

  The words caught Trent off guard, and his face tingled with heat. "I am more than thirty years old. As my bondsman, your former warrior, will attest, my people would have discarded me. As I sit here facing you, they think of me as dead. I was a tool, forged by the leaders of the Jaguar Clan to obey and serve mindlessly. What independence they could not crush out of me, they tried to destroy through ridicule and ostracization. And yet, Precentor, I did not succumb. I survived instead."

  Precentor Hettig cut him off with a snort. "Yet you come here willing to turn against your people. A Clansman willing to turn traitor? That is hard to believe."

  "Neg," Trent snapped back. "It was my own Clan that betrayed me years ago when they began to betray the vision of Nicholas Kerensky. Each day they mock his spirit, defy what he saw as our true destiny. The leaders play politics among themselves and favor those who learn the rules. They do not make honorable combat, but take innocent lives with impunity. This is my only chance to set matters right." My only chance to cleanse the blood of innocents from my hands.

  Focht also sat back with a sigh. "Politics is always the foe of true warriors," he said. "That is something we both understand, Star Captain." Trent waited, sure that the Precentor Martial was going to say more.