LE5739 - Falcon Rising, page 24
"I noticed," Horse said. "Welcome to the beach, Joanna."
"Do not give me any of your freeborn tone, Horse."
"Joanna. Diana here. How many left in the Guards?"
"Cannot say. We were separated by the Viper wedge. My Star is intact. Ravill Pryde is the only other Guard with us, except for you and whoever is with you."
"My Star is not intact." After Diana's bloodname victory she had fought a Trial of Position to earn the rank of Star Commander, a command Ravill Pryde had awarded her without enthusiasm out of a need to fill a position. "Three of us, and some other stragglers from a number of units. Horse has the only other intact unit."
"Intact or not, it does not look good for us. We have no place to go."
"Not so, Joanna," Horse said. "There is the sea."
"You want to take your 'Mech into that, you are welcome to it. Your cockpit would be ripped open within minutes. You might survive out there, Horse, you swim well. Others of us do not."
"Agreed. I have seen you swim. An efficient crawl stroke, I admit, but not enough for you to survive out in that roiling sea. Then, there's your age to consider. You just don't have—"
"Shut up, Horse. I would survive. I am meaner than you."
"You're meaner than everybody, Jo—"
"Would you two stop bickering!" Diana shouted. "You are like married freeborn villagers after too many years together, you—"
She was drowned out by the protesting screams from both warriors. When that subsided, Diana said, "Anyway, these Vipers are streaming through the gate."
Ravill Pryde shouted a few instructions through the comm-line and somehow the Jade Falcons, however dispersed they had been, formed up into a formidable fighting unit.
As the Viper 'Mechs neared, Ravill's voice echoed in everyone's ears. "It would seem you were right, Horse. Those are 'Mechs of the Triasch Keshik."
Different voices exploded onto the commline. Why were they fighting the command Keshik? And if they were fighting the Keshik, would not the Khan of Steel Viper be facing them himself?
"Shut up, freebirths!" Ravill shouted. "If I had the answers, I would tell you. All I know is that we are facing the command Keshik of the Steel Vipers and they wish a fight. I, for one, am going to give them that fight!"
It was an agonizingly slow fight. The mist interfered with line of sight and, with battle-inflicted damage to their 'Mechs, pilots tended to hold back until they found the rare clear target. A couple of 'Mechs from opposing sides even crashed into one another, and each had to struggle comically to keep upright. In neither case was the pilot able to take advantage of the situation to land a telling shot on the other's 'Mech.
* * *
Horse was startled to hear a familiar enemy voice on the commline. "Star Captain Horse—and how poisonous that title is on my tongue—I want you for myself."
"Ivan Sinclair, is it?"
Horse deliberately did not address Sinclair as Star Colonel. Omitting the rank was insulting from the lips of any warrior, but Horse knew that Sinclair would be seething at a freeborn deliberately refusing to speak it.
"Yes, it is Star Colonel Ivan Sinclair, and you will not be able to use any of your freebirth tricks on me this time. We have our own private war to resolve, with no one else around. Meet me two kilometers to the north. There is an outcropping of rock there that stretches out over the sea. I intend to kill you this time. Do you accept the challenge, Star Captain Horse?"
Somehow the way he used the rank sounded abusive.
"Let us settle the battle here first, Sinclair. I will not desert my companions just for—"
"Kill him, Horse," Joanna interrupted. "You have to fight him now. Go where he says."
"I agree, Horse," Diana chimed in. "Go."
"Very well, Sinclair. I will follow you there."
"I trust you to maintain Clan honor and not take a shot at my back, Star Captain."
As Horse left the present engagement, he was shocked that so many Vipers seemed to be pouring out of the beach gate and heading toward the Falcons formed up near the tumultuous shore.
* * *
A gentle slope led up to the outcropping, which was narrow and stretched, it seemed, a long way over the sea. It was a good choice for a showdown, Horse decided. Neither 'Mech could maneuver much to left and right, and it could be fatal to use jump jets to come down behind your opponent, especially since the outcropping got narrower beyond where Sinclair's Stormcrow now stood.
"I do not know what firepower you have left, Horse," Sinclair said quietly. "I propose that we simply go at it, to the finish. I hope to send you to the sea below."
"You begin, Sinclair. Take your best shot."
Sinclair was ready and fired his laser, tearing armor off the torso and legs of Horse's Summoner. Horse responded in kind and, for several minutes, the mist that threatened to engulf them was streaked with bursts of red. The colors were distorted by the mist and, to an onlooker, might have seemed like some abstract picture of a 'Mech battle, with unreal stabs of light discharging between oddly painted BattleMechs.
The two were evenly matched. For every hit Sinclair scored, Horse sent him one back. This lasted until Sinclair's laserfire disabled the Summoner's right arm. Horse frantically tried to fire the lasers, small and medium, on that arm, but nothing happened.
Out of some complicated Viper custom, Sinclair halted the attack, apparently to savor his victory.
"I will allow you to retreat, Star Captain," Sinclair said over the commline, with an oily edge to his voice.
"You said this was a fight to the death."
"I hate to admit it, but you are a tough opponent, Horse, and I am willing to—"
"Stravag! I will not accept mercy from you, Sinclair."
"So be it."
The only weapon remaining to Horse was the Summoner's left-arm autocannon, and an earlier weapons check had indicated it was running into problems with ammunition, as was common with this particular configuration, so he had held it back during the battle. Nothing else was active now. Since Horse had not used the autocannon recently, he was sure Sinclair assumed he was out of ammo long ago, even as he steadied his aim now to administer the final barrage, the one that could conceivably send Horse to a watery death.
Horse almost surreptitiously adjusted the aim of the Summoner's left arm. There was no time to do any more. He fired the last burst of shells left in it.
Time slowed down so much that, at first, he thought the burst had gone awry. Then the explosion on the front of Sinclair's cockpit showed that Horse's last-ditch shot had succeeded. A moment later Sinclair, to Horse's surprise, crawled out of the cockpit wreckage. The way he made his way down the outer rungs of the 'Mech surface showed that he was not much the worse for wear.
Horse sighed. A systems check showed that the Summoner must have been hit by a final shot that he had not felt, and had been itself disabled. He shut off all other systems, and then also left his cockpit to make his way down his own 'Mech. In the area between the two 'Mechs the warriors met. Sinclair stared at Horse, disgust in his eyes. Horse countered with a half-smile, as sardonic as he could make it.
"You are crafty, Star Captain, I will give you that."
"I, too, honor your abilities, Star Colonel Sinclair."
"I was not particularly honoring you, you son of a bitch!"
Sinclair swung at Horse and caught him on the side of face. He was wearing the thin metallic gloves that some warriors favored and so the blow stung.
But Horse had known stronger blows in his time, and he had reacted quickly. They were two exhausted warriors, and their fistfight had no skill to it. Each just hit the other as hard as he could, and the other struck back. Sometimes one of them managed a combination, and sometimes they just fell into a clinch in each other's arms. Sinclair muttered curses about Horse's freebirth status in those moments.
When neither could fight further, they left their 'Mechs on the outcropping. Later, it was discovered that both 'Mechs had been blown over by the violence of subsequent winds or perhaps some more tremors. The Stormcrow apparently fell into the sea and was washed away, but Horse's Summoner was discovered on its back in the shallow offshore waters.
They walked back up the beach without speaking, each steering well clear of the other. However, the one in the lead at any given moment tended to look back to make sure the other was not sneaking up to attack.
Before they reached the others, Sinclair shouted to Horse, "We will meet again, freebirth!"
And, frustratingly for Sinclair, Horse did not respond.
35
Daemon Beach, near the city of Daemon
WaldorffV
Jade Falcon-Steel Viper Occupation Zone
1 July 3061
The mist, the tremors, and the 'Mechs winding down all played a part in the Battle of Daemon Beach, as it would come to be known. The heavy mist made visuals difficult, although most Mech Warriors depended little on visuals, relying on their instruments and computer displays. Still, once in a while it was useful to get an accurate, or even distorted physical image. However, all the warriors whose 'Mechs were still standing—and, if standing, still operable—realized that night was coming on and the visuals would be too unreliable. A further obstacle in this disrupted battle was trying to avoid the 'Mechs that had fallen, most of which were being buried by sand. The sand was treacherous enough to 'Mech footing. Having to stumble over their fellow 'Mechs was an added insult.
Soon there were only five Jade Falcon 'Mechs still in the fray. Diana in her Nova, Joanna in her Summoner, Ravill in his Timber Wolf, and two warriors from the Khan's Irregulars,
Star Commander Pegeen in a Hellbringer and another named Bello, who fought admirably in his Black Lanner.
Twice as many Vipers were attacking the Falcons from the front and sides and gradually began to close in on them. Their crossfire made it all the more difficult for the Falcons to react.
"Retreat two steps and edge in closer together," cried Ravill Pryde—who was, after all, the ranking officer.
"There's only the damn sea in back of us!" Joanna shouted.
"That is where we will make our stand," Ravill said.
The Falcon warriors, so used to one-on-one engagements, still were not accustomed to the tactics of these Viper warriors. With the ritual courtesies of Clan combat no longer in force, brutal annihilation was the goal.
The Jade Falcon 'Mechs grouped together, the roaring sea behind them, ten Viper BattleMechs in front of them. One false step and they would plunge off the high terrace into the sea.
Suddenly an unfamiliar masculine voice came over the commline. "Your bodies will be drowned in the sea, freebirths! Did you Falcons really believe you could get away with assigning freebirths to command units and to earn bloodname honors? Star Colonel Ivan Sinclair is disposing of the freebirth Falcon Star Captain Horse right now, and I intend to eliminate the warrior in your midst who has desecrated the Aidan Pryde bloodname!"
The sheer menace in the voice sent a shiver of fear down Diana's spine.
"Who are you and by what right do you attempt to chastise the Falcons?" Diana defiantly shot back, suppressing the fear.
"Aye, stravag!" Ravill's yell drowned out Diana's next retort. "Freebirth she may be, but you have no right. We are Jade Falcon and you—"
"I have the right that every warrior of Kerensky has; that of might. I am here to prove that this freebirth does not have the right to the bloodname she has defiled. A Trial of Refusal is the battle I wage here. As for who I am, should it not be obvious?" Khan Perigard Zalman laughed as the Viper 'Mechs suddenly launched a new barrage of laser and missile fire.
* * *
While Diana was still reeling from the sudden news that the Khan of the Steel Vipers had come specifically to kill her, the lucky shot came against Joanna.
She never even knew which 'Mech had made the hit—a hip strike by an SRM that sent her Summoner spinning sideways. Another shot that would have done minimal damage to the 'Mech's torso sheared off large chunks of armor and ripped off a piece of the cockpit shield. Cold air rushed in on Joanna. Her restraining belt kept her in the seat, even though she felt the seat itself begin to dislodge itself from its moorings.
The Summoner began to lose balance. Its jump jets had been ruined by earlier hits. She had to abandon the 'Mech. It was teetering on the edge of the high sand terrace as she carefully released the restraining belt, noted quickly that her sensors were going haywire, felt the sting of sand and mist rushing in through the cockpit hole, heard faintly Diana's screaming voice on the commline, and struggled toward the hatch.
* * *
Pegeen and Bello had worked out a crossfire pattern that confused the Viper BattleMechs in their sector of the skirmish. In moments they had downed two of the opposing 'Mechs but at some cost. A Nova fell heavily right in front of them, landing at the feet of Bello's Black Lanner.
Pegeen, whose Hellbringer was closest to the sand terrace, felt the result of the impact first. The Hellbringer's feet seemed to tilt backward, and she realized the edge of the terrace was collapsing. She struggled to take a step forward, but the step brought the 'Mech foot down on the shoulder of the fallen Hunchback, and Pegeen could not get good footing. As the sand shifted toward the sea and the edge of the terrace crumbled, the Hellbringer fell forward, raising an enormous cloud of sand. As she struggled to keep her 'Mech from falling into the sea, Pegeen was vaguely aware of Diana's voice shouting to both Joanna and her over the commline.
* * *
Ravill Pryde knew that he could not last much longer. He had expended his ammunition and used his lasers recklessly. The heat of his Timber Wolf was just short of the dangerous shut-down level, which did not matter much since he did not have much fight left to offer anyway. Additionally, although he hated Diana for a freebirth and for her taking of a bloodname, he was incensed that the Steel Viper Khan had dared to censure the Falcons.
Instead of being cautious, he resolved to charge forward against the Viper 'Mechs directly in front of him and do whatever damage he could with his remaining firepower. He did not bother to inform anyone of his intentions, but merely set the Timber Wolf into a run. Although heat had robbed his 'Mech of most of its speed, his Timber Wolf still managed a shambling trot, and Ravill took advantage of the surprise he was causing to do severe damage to a Crossbow in his path. He narrowly passed the Viper 'Mech, which was now giving off clouds of smoke. One of Ravill's hits had been severe, maybe vital.
Past the line of Viper 'Mechs, Ravill saw that his heat levels had risen further, but he thought he could make one more run back toward the sea, to unload the rest of his firepower. He had to go toward the city gate in order to make the arc of the turn on the treacherous sand.
He was aware of Diana's voice on the commline, but his concentration on the combat was so fierce, none of what she said registered. However, he could not help but register the aftershock that came as he resumed his assault on the Vipers.
* * *
Diana did not know which way to turn her Nova, what with Pegeen's Hellbringer sliding toward the turbulent sea on her left, Joanna's Summoner falling sideways on the edge of the sand terrace on her right, and Ravill making his insane charge in front of her. Bello could not help Pegeen, for his Black Lanner was involved in a violent exchange of fire with a Stormcrow. Diana felt responsible for them all. Hers was the only 'Mech in good maneuvering position, and her skills kept the Nova fighting off the Viper assaults.
Even the aftershock did not especially faze her, as she maintained balance and, more importantly, a clear perspective on all the disaster going on around her.
* * *
Pegeen raised her Hellbringer's arms to dig into the sand and stop its backward slide. The heavy weight of the PPCs at the end of each arm dug deep ruts into the sand that stopped the 'Mech's slide toward watery disaster. The Hellbringer came to a halt with its legs dangling precariously over the edge of the sand terrace and all of its controls coming to the same kind of halt.
"Are you all right, Pegeen?" Bello shouted over the commline. At least the commline was working.
"I am fine. Down, but fine. You?"
"I have about a half-minute of combat left in me. But I just finished off a Stormcrow."
Pegeen was about to reply, but the aftershock caused her Hellbringer to shift and slide a bit further, and she decided she better get out of the cockpit.
* * *
Joanna pulled at the hatch lever. It did not even give. It was jammed shut. Cursing, she whirled around and began to crawl, upward, to the hole the Viper 'Mech had made in the cockpit shield. At the same time the aftershock made her Summoner give up the ghost and begin to fall, making her struggle to climb more difficult. She used the pilot seat to thrust herself upward. Standing on its back, she reached for the ragged edge of the hole in the cockpit. Painful sand seemed to pit her face.
Grabbing the edge of the hole, bloodying her hands, she pulled herself upward.
* * *
Ravill Pryde might have made it back through the Viper line, but a warrior in a Crossbow was ready for him and made a direct missile hit on Ravill's already ravaged center torso, and disabled the Timber Wolf completely. The aftershock finished it off, and the 'Mech fell awkwardly to the sand. Ravill sensed a pair of Viper 'Mechs moving toward him for the kill.
* * *
On her main screen Diana watched Joanna's Summoner fall off the edge of the sand terrace and plunge, left side first, toward the roaring surf below. There was nothing she could do.
Joanna always said she wanted to die in battle.
Turning back to the fighting, she saw Ravill Pryde's Timber Wolf land on the sand with what would have been a loud crashing sound, if she could have heard it over the sounds of combat, the sea, the storm, the falling debris in the city, and the diminishing rumble of the aftershock.
