LE5665 - Freebirth, page 7
"As you wish."
Sentania stood at attention and tried to remember the words of the vow. They came to her in a rush, undoubtedly in some scrambled fashion, and she spoke the vow quickly: "Jade Falcon warrior, noblest of all Clan warriors, I am in profound debt for the honor you have afforded me. The rest of my life has been granted me by your valorous act, I take note of the debt I owe you. When you require return, 1 will grant your request with dispatch. Praise the Clans."
"Praise the Clans. I acknowledge your vow and will remember it forever."
The vow completed, Sentania started to walk away. Horse said, "There should be no need for such an exchange of rede. The honor of defeating a Wolf Clan BattleMech happened to fall to me, and that is the upshot of it. That I saved you was incidental and should require no special gratitude."
"Who said I was grateful? The rede is my duty."
"I think I will never have to present a request to you."
"That may be. I know little of your freebirth customs nor how they affect honored warrior ritual."
"I am a warrior like you and—"
"Again I acknowledge my debt to you and again I must caution you against comparing yourself to trueborns. You are brave, MechWarrior Horse, and I hope that we may meet again."
"I hope so, too."
She strode off...
* * *
In the ensuing years Sentania had remembered the incident from time to time when she heard about another of the freeborn warrior's courageous exploits. From that time to now, she had not seen Horse again, nor fulfilled her vow. .
Recalling the incident, she marveled at how correct Horse's perception had been. She had, indeed, rarely taken things seriously. As a result she had risen no higher than the rank of Star Commander, even though she never performed less than valiantly in combat. She often suspected that her solahma assignment had come about in part because her attitude was considered unbecoming, or at least questionable, to her superiors.
Well, that was all coolant left on the battlefield. She had been on Huntress for nearly a decade now. The young warrior part of her life had happened to some other Sentania Buhallin, one just as reckless and frivolous as she was now.
Her reflections on past glories were interrupted by the eerie, booming, deprived-of-humanity voice that emerged from speakers located in the chest of the WarHammer IIC.
"Identify yourself, Jade Falcon warriors."
"I am Star Captain Horse," Sentania heard Horse say, then, "I serve Ravill Pryde, Cluster Commander of the Falcon Guards, but am now detached and in command of this Trinary currently undesignated by number or title. We are on our way to Strana Mechty, but wish to stop first at the Jade Falcon research station, which I understand does not interfere with Smoke Jaguar dominion over this planet. We came in under the neutrality signal, which is generally honored by all Clans. But your Smoke Jaguar fighters ignored it, diverted our DropShip from its course and attacked it, forcing this crash landing. May I have the honor of knowing who asks the question?"
"You will not merely have the honor. We will discuss matters face to face."
The speaker clicked loudly as it was shut off. Sentania slipped sideways for a better view of the Smoke Jaguar officer, who was now out of his cockpit and climbing quickly down the side of his BattleMech.
8
Black Shikari River Valley
Huntress
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Homeworlds
21 March 3059
The Smoke Jaguar leader had taken off his helmet, and Sentania recognized him immediately, due to his receding hairline and the few dark-haired strands brushed meticulously across his bald pate. Galaxy Commander Russou Howell had apparently tended to his grooming in the short time between removing his neurohelmet and exiting his cockpit.
Sentania could recognize the Smoke Jaguar commander because she had seen and talked to him during one of her clandestine trips into the Jag capital of Lootera. A natural actor, she always went in some disguise or other and was able to portray members of even the lowest Jaguar castes with ease and what her fellow solahma warriors (but not Stenis) had described as some flair.
The day she had talked with Howell, she had been disguised as a tech, dressed in one of the many uniforms she had stolen, then stashed in a hollow tree trunk in the forest just outside Lootera. Anyone getting too close might have smelled the forest on her, but Smoke Jaguars, throughout all their castes, rarely got close to each other. Forbidding types, these Jags, cold and cruel.
Before encountering the Smoke Jaguars, Sentania might just as easily have characterized her own Jade Falcons as just as distant, cold, and cruel. Her people certainly were that when necessary, but Falcons also had moments of humor, camaraderie, and even some warmth. Such moments might be rare, but they were plentiful compared to the way of the Jaguar.
The day she had met this balding Smoke Jaguar warrior, she was seated at a table in that rare phenomenon, a Jaguar rec hall. This one was obviously intended for the tech caste or lower, as it was not in the Warrior Quarter of Lootera. Scientists and warriors had their own rec halls. At least she thought so.
She sipped at a Jaguar version of a drink called the fusionnaire. Jade Falcon fusionnaires are more potent than this anemic brew, she thought. It was all right with her, though, that this one had no kick. She did not want her disguise exposed through casual drunkenness.
Russou Howell strode into the rec hall with a determination characteristic of all his moves. He looked around as if his presence among techs at leisure was natural. Sentania at that moment did not know he was an officer, and there were no insignia on his fatigues. But she had no doubt of his caste. All warriors were arrogant, and rightly so.
"I will sit with you," he said brusquely. "Get me one of those—whatever it is you are having."
She resisted an impulse to tell him to get it himself, but kept her mouth shut. Maybe she was too startled by the fact that a Jaguar officer did not even recognize a fusionnaire. There was, after all, no other drink that looked like it.
She studied him surreptitiously as he downed the potent mixture, but guessed it was not his first drink of the evening. Beneath the receding hairline, she saw that he was obviously of solahma age, and that he had endured much in his time. She usually thought of older officers still active in warrior ranks as solahs. The word was her own, kept in her mind so she could own it. There were a number of words that were her sole possessions.
"You know who I am, quiaff?" Howell said, after downing an abnormally big gulp of the drink. His eyebrows were thick and dark, even against his tanned and weathered skin. They made his small eyes even more pronounced and intense.
"Neg," Sentania said. "I do not know you. I do not mingle much with warriors. I am a tech—sanitation repair."
Since she was improvising, she did not know whether the designation was accurate. She counted on the typical warrior tendency to care little about the niceties of the caste system.
"Oh," he said, taking a shorter sip. He seemed to let his tense face relax. "A worthy post indeed. I am Russou Howell."
She raised her eyebrows. He was clearly pleased by the deference in her look. Of course she had heard of Howell.
"I hope you are enjoying your refreshment, Galaxy Commander," she said. "And that my presence does not disturb you."
The movement of his lips was almost a smile. This is one bizarre Jaguar, she thought.
"Enjoy, what a strange concept," he said, almost to himself. "Perhaps I should travel among the castes more."
"You do this often?"
"What?" he said, as though the words caught him by surprise. "Ah, no. I have sometimes visited warriors in disguise and heard their thoughts spoken freely, but, well, never within the lower castes—and of course I am not now in disguise."
His words affected her in diverse ways. She was at first impressed with the strangeness of a Smoke Jaguar warrior even considering disguise, and oddly pleased by the irony of his sitting with her while she was indeed in disguise. That he visited his troops on the sly also impressed her, but she was most astonished by the idea that he would deign to move within the haunts of the lower castes.
"You wonder why I am here, quiaff?"
"Aye, Galaxy Commander." His words again took her by surprise.
"I do not know either." He took another sip, and it seemed to loosen his tongue even more. "I can tell you this, and I can tell it to you because you will not understand it. There are moments when even the most devoted Smoke Jaguar has a doubt or two, even a bitter thought.
This is one of those moments. You do not understand, quineg?"
I understand more than you think. I recognize a warrior who's become weary—weary of life, weary of his fate. A solahma, especially, can see that, Russou Howell.
"Neg," she replied.
"Good. Drink with me, Tech—?"
Sentania did not want to give him a name, and no warrior would really notice. "Aye, Galaxy Commander. I am honored."
"Get us two more."
He downed the second drink rather quickly, and much too silently. As a fake tech, Sentania could not ask probing questions to try to learn the source of his strange mood. But in his eyes she read a bewilderment, like one who has suddenly begun asking questions to which there are no answers.
Then Howell said very softly, "Guilt. Can a Clan warrior feel guilt?"
"I do not know, Galaxy Commander."
"Of course you do not, Tech."
Sentania waited to hear more, but he fell into silence, then abruptly slammed his glass down, stood up and left without saying anything more.
Now, watching him glance around the field after stepping energetically off the bulky foot of his WarHammer, she was impressed at the fierce clarity in eyes that she had last seen as troubled. His walk toward Horse displayed the extreme confidence of a Clan commander.
"I am Galaxy Commander Russou Howell," he said.
"Why did your ships shoot at us?" Horse asked angrily. "We clearly broadcast the beam of neutrality, which is to be honored throughout the Clans."
"Do you think Smoke Jaguars care about anyone's beam of neutrality?" Howell said. "We have no respect for neutrality. It is weakness."
"It is the breaking of a bond, a—"
"You Jade Falcons are no strangers to the breaking of bonds, when doing so is to your advantage. And this is to our advantage. Jade Falcons have recently conducted a dishonorable skirmish against us, solahma warriors stealing insignia and then sending them back to us to flaunt their victory. The Falcons are here on Huntress only through the continued good will of the Jaguar. We cannot permit such an insult."
Horse shrugged. "I agree, even though you say the perpetrators were from my Clan. Such an action is foolish and not particularly honorable, even though it may be understandable as—"
"Then you agree that punishment is due. That is why you and your force must bear the brunt of our vengeance."
"Your vengeance. For a raid performed by Falcon Eyrie troops? We were not even here then. You must have noticed, since you shot us down, that my Trinary and I have only just arrived on Huntress."
"You are Jade Falcon, quiaff?"
"Aff."
"And equally answerable for any dishonorable deed done by any member of your Clan."
"No honorable warrior covers up the misdeeds of others, no matter what their Clan."
"Let us not split hairs. I would not dispute this matter even with a trueborn, but I recognize the markings of the freeborn caste on your uniform—and, for that matter, on the uniforms of your warriors. I do not see any trueborns present even. So, you see, I need not even deal with you, although I will, since you are at least a warrior. Star Captain Horse, I require vengeance on the Jade Falcons. Your enslavement is my vengeance."
"Enslavement? That is—"
"Sufficient to satisfy my vengeance. You earn the punishment for your puny Clan's gnatlike antics. I have recently handed down an edict that my warriors are free to deal with Jade Falcons any way they like. No truce, no bargaining. I will not attack Falcon Eyrie, but I will not tolerate attacks on Smoke Jaguars. The Falcons are on Huntress only because the Jaguar tolerates them."
Horse surged forward to attack Howell. A pair of warriors stopped his progress and held him back.
"Do not bother to fight, Star Captain," Howell said. "You have no rights here. You see now, do you not, that by forbidding you entry to Huntress and by attacking you for trespassing into our territory, I have merely obeyed my own edict by downing your DropShip. If you recall, we did send out a message that you could not enter our skies, right after you initiated your beam of neutrality, quiaff?"
"I did not captain the DropShip."
"Bring out the DropShip captain to testify!" Howell shouted to the nearest Smoke Jaguar officer.
"Do not even attempt it," Horse said. "She was knocked unconscious when we crashed. It is serious. She may have a concussion or even skull fracture. She is being attended to."
"All right then. Star Captain Horse, you violated our ban against your entry into our space. We forbade the landing your DropShip captain requested and you came on. We had no choice but to fire on you, quiaff?"
"Neg. That is twisted logic. We were merely on our way to our own outpost on Huntress. We would have passed over your territory only momentarily. Your attack on us was vicious and unwarranted, and your tale of reprisal is a mockery! There are agreements among all the Clans that—"
"Stop! No Jade Falcon can judge a Smoke Jaguar. You do not tell us what we must do. Much less what we can do. We have treated you fairly, stravag freebirth!"
Horse struggled within the grasp of his captors. Russou Howell turned slightly. One of his Star Commanders emerged from a hole in the side of the DropShip.
"There are BattleMechs inside," the Jaguar reported, her loud voice carrying across the clearing. "A full Trinary's worth."
Howell turned back toward Horse. "A Trinary? See? I was right to forbid you landing here. Obviously you have come to Huntress to attack us. Another reason why we are not obligated to obey your neutrality beam—your false symbol of neutrality. These 'Mechs show you intended an act of war, and the rules and customs of war apply."
"You cannot make that assumption. We are here in peace. We were not even taking the 'Mechs to Falcon Eyrie. They would have remained in the DropShip."
"You lie, freebirth Horse," Howell spat out. "I am Galaxy Commander Russou Howell, and I claim your BattleMechs, your warriors, and all else we choose from your ship of deceit. Your invasion of our territory has failed and—"
"You have no right to, to confiscate. According to Clan—"
"Silence!" Howell yelled.
Sentania had moved to a spot from which she could view Howell better. He now stood at full attention as he bellowed, "Jade Falcon, you may not claim any rights here. To speak truly, I need your BattleMechs, no matter what their condition or their age, and I have no qualms about confiscating them in response to an act of war."
Horse struggled against his captors. "By Clan custom, you may not do this. First, you must allow me to contest you in a Trial of—"
"You cannot demand a Trial of anything, Star Captain Horse, although you show an admirable audacity in even suggesting it."
"The Clans—"
"Silence!" Russou barked. "This is not a matter of Clan custom, particularly when it involves freebirth scum. Know this well, Star Captain Horse, as freebirths you and your people have no rights here. Smoke Jaguars do not, like the Jade Falcons, allow freebirths within their warrior ranks. From this moment on you are Prisoner Horse, and you and your entire Trinary have no rights but those few accorded prisoners within our Clan. Do not even try to resist."
Howell made an expansive gesture toward the edge of the forest, from which a fully armed contingent of Elemental warriors appeared and started marching forward. Howell ordered the Elemental Star Commander to take charge of the prisoners and march them back to Lootera.
To the Star Commander who had searched the DropShip, he gave the command to start collecting the BattleMechs and take them to the repair bay for examination. He allowed the DropShip crew to stay with their ship and begin repairs on it. They would be allowed free passage off Huntress if they managed to get their ship working again.
Sentania watched Horse carefully. He clearly wanted to kill Howell, but he was smart enough to recognize odds that were against him. When he was released, instead of going toward Howell, he wheeled around and began to tend the wounds of his fallen comrades.
For the next few minutes, Sentania had to dodge around the area, keeping out of the way of discovery.
When Horse's Trinary and its support techs were all finally assembled, they were led out of the clearing by the Elementals. On an impulse that she could not rationally justify, Sentania slipped from the forest and inserted herself into the ranks of the prisoners. None of the guards noticed her. She had no worry. She knew she could escape again. No Smoke Jaguar facility could hold Sentania Buhallin.
9
Warrior Quarter
Lootera, Huntress
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
21 March 3059
After being forced to travel two hours on foot, Horse and his unit were brought by their Jaguar guards to the Lootera city limits, which they entered through an impressive, free-standing arch that served as a kind of ceremonial city gate. There, they were met once more by Howell, who came to officially greet his new captives. He ordered everyone but Horse taken to the detention center, then led Horse over to a hovercar.
Whisked through the city of Lootera, Horse observed the streets through which they passed with great curiosity. He caught glimpses of a river as the car passed along smoothly. From what he could ascertain, the river bordered one side of the city. After going a short distance, they turned into a sector with a distinctly different feel from what he had seen so far. Horse guessed by the suddenly weighty look of the architecture that this was the Warrior Quarter.
