LE5665 - Freebirth, page 27
Evil Twin One was rocked by Horse's fire. Red lights flashed in several places on its command console.
"We are going down fighting," Sentania shouted. "Agreed?"
"Agreed, old woman."
"Sentania Buhallin goes down fighting, Horse. Back at you, freebirth!"
At Sentania's order, Gerri triggered all the LAM's lasers. At the same time he fired an SRM, and leveled off Evil Twin One. Coming in under Horse's fire, he headed straight for the Summoner's torso, intending to sweep up at the last split second and crash into Horse's cockpit.
With any luck, Horse, both of us will go out in a blaze of glory, Sentania thought. Here's to death, freebirth!
* * *
Howell perceived quickly that both LAMs seemed to be engaged in the same maneuver. Both were in air mode and both were heading toward a standing BattleMech. One bearing down on him, one going straight for Horse. It was a sacrifice mission. The LAM coming at him would hit first. Only one of his arm lasers was currently operating. He raised the 'Mech's left arm with the intention of blowing the LAM out of the skies once and for all.
He watched it come, awaiting the good shot. It was confusing, though, that the LAM pilot was not firing his weapons and that his flight path was awkward. Very awkward.
* * *
"I cannot control this stravag thing," Geoff screamed, as Evil Twin Two first pointed nose down, then nose up, then began to shake all over.
"You are doing fine," Stenis said. "Do not try for the head or the cockpit. He may expect that. Our best shot is at the legs. Crash into the legs. Make him think you are going to fly between them. You may disable him. Not on this pass, though. Veer to the right. Now!"
Stiff with tension, Geoff obeyed Stenis' instructions. The moment was well chosen, for Howell fired again, and just missed Evil Twin Two.
* * *
Not a suicide ploy, then, Howell thought. There is no logic to this 'Mech's fight. No firing, erratic flight pattern, illogical moves. Time to finish it off.
Howell tried to reposition the left arm to take aim, but he was too late. The LAM was heading straight at him, and going into a dive. It would crash somewhere into the lower part of the WarHammer. Reacting instantly, he lowered the 'Mech's left arm and swung at the incoming LAM with a back-handed motion.
* * *
"Watch out!" Stenis shouted.
The WarHammer's arm and the autocannon barrel on the end of it seemed gigantic, and it was all coming straight at the cockpit of Evil Twin Two.
Geoff managed to raise the fuselage enough to attempt to fly over the WarHammer's arm. He almost made it, except that the 'Hammer reacted to Geoff's new maneuver, its arm raised to block the LAM's path. Geoff pushed the joystick upward and to the left. At first it looked as if Evil Twin Two would smash into the arm. Then, thanks to Geoff's quick reaction, it flew over it. The maneuver did send the LAM spinning out of control, however. The controls seemed to jump out of Geoff's hands as he tried to recover and pull the LAM out of its dive. His head slammed back against the pilot seat and his eyes glazed as Evil Twin Two continued to spiral downward.
* * *
An insect, after all, Howell thought, almost like swatting a fly!
He started to smile, then he saw that the rapidly spiraling LAM was on a direct path toward the back of the Summoner's upper torso. He would have warned Horse over the commline if there had been time.
* * *
Horse could not adjust to the incoming SRM from Sentania's 'Mech. It hit dead center, where there was already extensive damage. On his display, the red light indicating gyro damage went on. Even as it lighted, Horse felt the Summoner begin to totter. He had to struggle to regain balance.
The hit was damaging, but the gyro was still operational. Good try. Now, my turn.
He could see that the LAM was being guided to come in under his laserfire, but his weapons were scoring massive pieces off its light armor. Even before the LAM could nose up toward his cockpit, Horse could discern its goal.
No, Sentania, we won't go down together. I can blow you to pieces before that.
He was just about to fire the fatal shots, when the other LAM crashed into the Summoner's back with an impact that knocked it off its feet and sent it plunging toward the ground.
* * *
Sentania saw the big 'Mech begin to fall toward them, and she immediately ordered Geoff to point the fuselage upward and perform a beautifully executed reverse loop. The underside of the LAM nearly brushed the top of the falling Summoner but did manage to get out of the way, even though just barely.
When the craft was again level and sailing back again toward where the Summoner had stood, she saw that the prone BattleMech, still reverberating from hitting the ground, was afflicted With Evil Twin Two on its back.
* * *
Howell was stunned by the events.
But mine is the only 'Mech on this battlefield that is still intact. I guess we win the challenge, after all.
He had not yet noticed that the accelerating Evil Twin One had, without apparent interruption to its attack on the Summoner, switched to the WarHammer as its target and was barreling toward Howell's cockpit at high speed.
Howell could not adjust his position to get off a good shot, but he managed to turn the 'Mech's torso sideways so that it took the LAM's charge just below the cockpit. The crash resounded through the 'Mech and deafened Howell for a moment. He fought the controls, but could not stop the WarHammer from suddenly toppling backward.
Howell hit the eject button, but it jammed. He could not escape. But maybe the pilot of the LAM crashing into him would also die in the crash. What did she say her name was, that solahma?
37
Bagera Forest
Huntress
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Homeworlds
9 May 3059
"Sentania Buhallin."
She was sure Howell eould barely see who was peering in through the cockpit glass at him, but he recognized her voice.
"You? After that crash, in that light craft, you should be dead," he said.
"Right. I should be. We ejected, my aeropilot and I, at the last second, felt like the last nanosecond. Got wrapped up in the flames and smoke from the explosion and damn near burned to death. For now, I can claim a good suntan."
"What are you doing?"
Sentania looked briefly over her shoulder at the Summoner. Horse was trying to get the BattleMech to function, but it looked as if the weight of the Evil Twin Two on its back and some malfunctions within the 'Mech were giving him difficulty. He looked surely done, but he was Horse and she could not count on that.
"Galaxy Commander Russou Howell," she said, looking back down at the Smoke Jaguar wrapped in cockpit wreckage. "I have challenged you, successfully executed the challenge, and request your submission."
Howell growled his response. "Kill me first."
"If I have to, but I would prefer for you to act rationally. If you wish, we may fight to the end in hand-to-hand combat."
Howell seemed willing, but when he tried to move, intense pain made him grimace.
"As I thought," Sentania said, "your arm is broken. It looked it. Any other injuries?"
"Something is pinning this leg," he said. "I cannot move."
"It is irrelevant, then, for me to say submit or die, quiaff?"
"All right," he said weakly. "Submit. But, when I recover, Sent—"
"You may have your own opportunity for challenge. Now, with the challenge fulfilled, I will help you out of that wreckage. Then we will see how the others made out."
Before starting to remove pieces of metal from the cockpit in order to free Howell, she glanced again at the Summoner. Horse had raised it to its knees. It was a good thing she had talked Howell into submission. If Horse had managed to get the Summoner upright, he could have claimed the win and, ironically, remained a Smoke Jaguar.
Turning back to work at the wreckage, she saw quickly that its tangle was too complicated. Howell could not be extracted from it.
"There are some things even I cannot do," Sentania said. "We will have to get help."
As she jumped off the WarHammer, the two warriors who Howell had left behind came running up to the 'Mech. Sentania told them the fight was over, and they should attend to their commander.
Walking toward the Summoner, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Peri and Stenis lifting the apparently unconscious Geoff from the remains of Evil Twin Two and descending from the Summoner to the ground.
* * *
When Sentania signaled to him that Howell had submitted and the battle was ended, Horse stopped trying to get the Summoner upright. First hanging from the cockpit hatch opening, men dropping to the ground, he landed on his feet and ran over to Sentania, who told him the parts of the battle he had not seen and of her confrontation with Howell.
"You are a Jade Falcon again, Horse."
"For a moment there, I was certain of being a Smoke Jaguar forever."
"For a moment there, probably the same moment, I would have agreed."-
"What now?"
"That pair of warriors Howell ordered out of these 'Mechs are contacting one of Howell's other 'Mechs via commline, to come with the equipment to extract him. There was too much heavy stuff on top of him for us to get him out of the wreckage. I expect we better get out of here before they arrive. They might be in a bad mood. Howell is, certainly. I know a way out through the forest. It is a long walk, but we are too vulnerable on the open road. We could contact someone at Falcon Eyrie, but the communication systems in both LAMs are out."
"All right. I just have one more thing to accomplish."
Horse started walking toward the fallen WarHammer. Sentania followed.
* * *
"So, Peri Watson, what do you think of your precious Land-Air 'Mechs now?" Stenis asked with heavy sarcasm.
"Well, the test worked, that much is for sure," she said. "We have successfully proven that LAMs are too dangerous to use in combat situations. The two-pilot concept depends on the abilities of the pilots to work together—a major obstacle for Jade Falcon warriors. We are too aggressive, too independent. The bidding system allows for some use of strategy, but success in battle tends to depend on individual efforts. The LAM itself is too erratic. Shifting from mode to mode seems to be its advantage, but it is more likely its downfall. It simply puts too much stress on the 'Mech itself."
"You seem too negative. We won the engagement, after all."
Stenis' comment drew a huge laugh from Peri. "Talk about winning a battle but losing the war," she said. "We won because some kind of fate was on our side today. The Summoner and WarHammer, the losers if you want to call them that, need repair, but they will fight again. However, the Evil Twins are unsalvageable rubble. A tainted victory, at the very least, Stenis."
"Your report about the LAMs?"
"I will recommend that the project be totally scrapped, especially since Land-Air 'Mechs are outmoded in all their other roles. I consider the grand experiment to be ended and will inform my superiors of its failure. I will also recommend that the whole project be purged from the Falcon Eyrie database, so that no one will ever be able to capture data on it. The remaining experimental LAMs can be shipped out for whatever disposal is deemed necessary. Or we may have to dismantle them here, for parts or some other use. At any rate, Falcon Eyrie will get a new project and, with any luck, I will be reassigned elsewhere. Besides, there is another—"
"Another what?"
"I cannot talk about that with you."
"After what we just went through, you do not trust me?"
"I did not mean that, I meant—"
Stenis whirled around and walked away, to join Sentania and Horse, who were heading for the WarHammer. All three climbed toward the cockpit. Peri sighed and followed them.
* * *
"You are still Smoke Jaguar, Horse. All I saw on your part was cowardice."
Hearing those words, Horse wanted to climb into the WarHammer cockpit and start pummeling the injured Galaxy Commander.
"You submitted," Horse said. "The Falcons fulfilled the challenge."
"And what credit do you claim, coward? Did you actually defeat even one of these infernal LAMs?"
"I do not have to explain anything to you. Sentania admits she would have been blown up if the other LAM had not crashed into me."
"Small excuse for cowardice."
"You stravag—if you had forced that LAM out of position and blown it out of the skies, as you should have, it would not have been sent spinning into the Summoner's back. If anyone lost the battle, it was you in that action. What honor does that bring you, Russou Howell?"
Howell's anger suddenly seemed to drain away. "None," he said finally. "You are right. We were beaten fair and square, if not in an orthodox fashion with orthodox 'Mechs. I will have to live with that. If I was not trapped in here, with one arm and probably two legs useless, we could fight this out."
"Perhaps some other day. But I intend to return to my Clan, to the Jade Falcons."
"You will never be anything more than a freebirth."
Horse let out a loud guffaw, the laugh that had given him his name. "They will get you out of this cockpit soon, but I must bid you farewell now, Russou Howell."
Horse and the others started off the 'Mech, then Horse turned back.
"Oh, and there is one more thing, Galaxy Commander," he said, leaning down to get closer to Howell's face. "It was I who killed the Keeper of the Jaguar kin."
Howell screamed in rage and began flailing his arms desperately, trying to free himself from the wreckage. Horse slipped away from the cockpit opening.
"It is not over yet, Horse!" Howell snouted.
By now, Horse was swallowed up by the trees and never heard a word Howell said.
Epilogue
It is unusual in anybody's universe for people to get what they want. But occasionally they do, although sometimes in costly ways.
* * *
Horse and Sentania, both preferring the outdoors to the dark and sometimes unpleasantly cavernous Falcon Eyrie interiors, often sat outside for long discussions, occasionally enduring the fierce storms that passed briefly over the station. Since warriors were there mainly to defend a normally indefensible area, there was not much for them to do on Falcon Eyrie except wait for the next DropShip that would take them away from the world of Huntress.
One afternoon, the two of them were sitting on a mossy spot near the main station. The silence between them was rare, but Horse barely noticed. He was thinking how good it was to be back among Jade Falcons, even if they were mostly solahmas and this was an otherwise unremarkable scientific outpost perched on the homeworld of another Clan.
Early on, he, Sentania, and Stenis had bid goodbye to the departing Peri Watson. That had happened after the arrival of the last DropShip.
"You have to go?" Sentania had asked Peri.
"Yes. Etienne Balzac has decreed it. He does not care much for me, and I suppose he has some other depressing backwater assignment in mind—in some deeper backwater, so to speak."
They all knew the other reason for her departure, how ever. Sentania had informed Peri of what she and Horse had discovered in the Smoke Jaguar genetic repository Peri was furious to learn that the Jags had a copy of Aidan Pryde's genetic legacy and might be experimenting with it, developing some revolting combinations of Aidan Pryde and Smoke Jaguar genes. She had taken the copy of Aidan's genetic legacy lodged at Falcon Eyrie and secreted it in one of the equipment cases leaving Huntress with her. She wanted to know more about it, perhaps to confront Etienne Balzac and discover what kind of genetic meddling was going on among the scientists of the two Clans. She knew that these secret experiments were not rightful, and that no good could come of it. It was unClanlike, and someone had to stand for the way of the Clans, even among the scientist caste. She would do that.
The remaining three LAMs were also loaded onto the DropShip, which would carry them to some other unknown fate. The geneticists and the naturalists were overjoyed to see the doomed vehicles go. More of the station's resources would now turn toward their work.
Roshak was happy, too. The change in program meant more attention to falconry. He asked for falcons with even more skills than Jade Rogue.
"Peri had a little LAM," Stenis said, "and now it is gone."
Peri stared at Stenis quizzically, trying to work out his sarcasm. It seemed to her that he made even less sense these days than ever before. What happened to the lucidity he had shown during the battle at Bagera Forest?
After saying their goodbyes, Sentania and Stenis had walked away, still arguing with each other. Peri smiled after them, then turned to Horse.
"Goodbye then, Horse. I am very glad we met."
"Will you see Diana on Ironhold?"
"I will try, if I can find her there."
