Текст книги "Warrior: En Garde"

Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine

26 May 3027

Captain von Breunig spun carelessly away from the doorway. The bullet holes in his chest traced an uneven red line from breastbone to his left shoulder. His autorifle flew from nerveless fingers and clattered against the far wall as the Captain smashed hard onto the ferrocrete floor.

Melissa jerked away from his twitching body, but the cable connecting her radio headset with the holograph console snagged. Her head snapped back, and then she, too, stumbled to the floor. The headset ripped free as Melissa fell on her right hip, crying out in pain as the holstered pistol dug sharply into her flesh.

Erik Mahler half-rose from behind the makeshift barricade securing the command post's doorway. He triggered a long blast from his autorifle, then glanced back at Melissa. "Are you hit?"

"No!"

Erik looked back as Melissa screamed and stabbed a finger at the doorway. An ISF ninja had leaped atop the barricade and now raised his katanato strike. Mahler fired at point-blank range even as the sword's blade chopped into his left shoulder. The retired Hauptmann reeled away to the right as his burst opened the ninja from navel to throat, blasting the lifeless body back over the barricade.

Another ninja, dressed in shadow and smelling of death, sprang over the barricade. He slammed the hilt of his sword into Mahler's

temple. The short, sharp blow dropped Mahler to the deck and left his moaning body in a slowly growing pool of blood. The ninja grunted with satisfaction, then turned his attention to Melissa.

He tilted his circlevision visor up and smiled with a mouth full of uneven teeth. "Ah, we find you here instead of on the Silver Eagle.That makes it so much more pleasing." He advanced and straddled her. Reaching for her long, golden hair, he smiled again. "I am so glad to meet you, Melissa Steiner. I bring you the greetings of our Coordinator."

Melissa twisted and rolled to her back. Her right hand surrounded the butt of the pistol she had not wanted to wear. She tipped the holster up and tightened her trigger-finger.

Fire and metal ate through the holster with volcanic fury. The first bullet slammed into the ninja's stomach and lifted him from his crouch. The next two shots lanced through his chest. He whirled away, seeming to brandish his katanaeven as his body met its death. The ninja sat abruptly against the glass wall overlooking the Silver Eagle.His katanaclattered to the ferrocrete beside him.

Trembling and tearful, Melissa stared at the man she had killed. The sharp scent of gunsmoke nearly masked the sticky-sweet odor of blood. Her left hand idly tried to brush blood from her sweat-soaked trousers. My God, I've killed a man.

Clovis's stinging slap across her face brought her back. "He's dead," the dwarf said grimly. "We aren't. Move it."

Shivering, Melissa looked up at him. He pointed a stubby finger at an open panel beneath the computer consoles where he worked. "Computer needs venting, Melissa, and we can escape through the tunnels. Let's go."

Melissa numbly crawled into the darkness. Clovis shoved two autorifles in after her, then—having shed his stilts—dropped to his knees and followed her into the passage. He swung around and pulled the panel shut behind them.

Melissa gave Clovis no conscious sign that she had heard his directions, but she crawled on in accordance with them. All this death and destruction because of me. Andrew and Captain von Breunig, dead because of me. Hilda Mahler is a widow because of me. The people in the fire teams—whose names I never learned—dead because of me. I haven't earned this sort of loyalty. Why?

Clovis grabbed Melissa's ankle and brought her to a stop. She turned back and looked at him. It took a moment, but she finally interpreted his wild gesturing. Together, they slid the panel above them aside.

Clovis jerked the pistol from her holster. Holding it unsteadily in his two tiny hands, the dwarf slowly stood and surveyed the room. Confident of no immediate danger, he tugged Melissa to her feet. "Clear, Archon. Don't forget the rifles."

Melissa whirled. "No. I've seen enough killing. I won't carry them."

Fury twisted the little of Clovis's face revealed in the half-light. "What in hell do you think is going on here? This isn't a holovid. This is a war!"

"Dammit, I know that." Melissa bit her lower lip to stop it from trembling, but the tremors merely transferred themselves to her whole body. Tears streaked through the dust that the short crawl had caked onto her face. "I know it's real, and I know Andrew will never be back." She turned from the dwarf. "I don't want more killing."

With more strength than Melissa could have imagined possible, Clovis gripped the shoulder of her shirt and turned her around. "I don't care what you want, and I'm fairly certain a bunch of mad Kuritans share my feelings. I'd grab the guns, but I can't even hold this damned pistol." He shook his head and looked with disgust at his stubby-fingered hands. "Great! The dream of a lifetime–a dwarf at court. And I get stuck with a pampered princess who figures us peasants owe her their lives."

Melissa grabbed the front of Clovis's shirt in a deathgrip. "Don't ever say that! I don't deserve any of this!" She released him and covered her tear-streaked face with both hands. "Why must people die for me?"

She felt Clovis's hand on her shoulder again, but it did not pull her around. His voice became softer. "I forget. You're just a kid. Listen, the reason we're fighting, the reason von Breunig and Redburn and the others died for you is not because of what you are. Nobody, outside of fairy tales, puts his life on the line for blond locks and long legs. That's not why we're fighting."

Melissa's hands fell from her face. She turned back and looked into Clovis's brown eyes. "Why, then? Why are you fighting?"

The dwarf shrugged. "We're fighting for the future. Everyone has to hope, somehow, that his life will change things for the better. Granted that the Kuritans view that a lot differently than we do, but those ninjas and the 'Mechs coming in want to change things, too.

"You represent the future. We're not fighting for, over, or about you, really. We're fighting so that our vision of the future, of which you are a part, will win out over their vision of the future. If you die here, lots of dreams will die with you."

Melissa glanced down at the guns lying on the tunnel floor. "But I don't know if I could shoot anyone ever again."

Clovis flipped her pistol around and offered it to her. "If you're not willing to fight for the future, who will be?" Clovis stared ahead while he spoke, as though gazing light years into the distance. "Besides, you and I have a duty to protect the Commonwealth. The Draconians are after us here, but it was someone inside the Commonwealth who arranged your kidnapping. We've got to get out of here to prevent them from gaining any benefit from this little bit of treachery."

Though tears streamed from her eyes and her face wore a stricken expression, Melissa reached down to pick up the autorifles. Standing aside slightly, she let the dwarf take the lead.

Clovis climbed from the hole and crossed to the doorway. Melissa followed. Cautiously, they crept from the room and worked their way down the hall. Traveling away from the command center, they quickly reached an engineering stairwell leading down to Echo level.

Clovis smiled. "As I remember it, Viscount Monahan used to berth his small boat back by the small docking bay. He used it to travel to some of the other asteroids that the company mined in this system. Unless the ISF ninjas have destroyed it, we can use the boat to hide on another of the asteroids."

Melissa nodded and made her way down the stairs. Then she covered Clovis as he worked his way down. Finally, at the bottom of the stairwell, Melissa checked the outside corridor, then signaled all-clear.

As she stepped from the doorway, all she caught was a slight blur of motion as a ninja clinging to the wall above the doorway dropped onto her. He encircled her neck with a thick arm and kicked her rifle away. Though she made to grab the pistol on her right hip, the commando numbed her arm with a chop from his right hand, then flipped her roughly against the wall. Stars exploded before Melissa's eyes as her head smacked into the ferro-crete. Through the flashing lights, she saw the ninja scissor his legs and spill Clovis to the ground. In one smooth motion, the ninja drew his katana.He raised it up beside his right ear, as Clovis raised one hand to ward off the coming blow.

"No!" she said sharply, with all the power and authority she could summon. "I am Melissa Steiner. Do not kill him." The ninja, used to taking orders, stiffened, then turned. He lowered the blade, then bowed deeply. "I am honored, Archon-Designate." He pointed back to the stairwell. "You will follow me to my Commander."

She saw something tug at the commando's left shoulder and begin to spin him about even before she heard the shot. Without conscious thought, her right hand reached for and drew her pistol. As the commando looked back down the hallway and clawed for the carbine hanging down at his hip, Melissa shoved the automatic pistol into his stomach and jerked the trigger.

The ninja danced backward into a twisted heap of blood and limbs. The dying man's hands clutched at his stomach and he cried out, but Melissa felt no pity or remorse. A cold rage, a rage directed against the people and events that had forced her to kill him, filled her. Perhaps now I have begun to earn what will become mine. Before I can accept responsibility for others, I must take responsibility for myself.This time, no mocking laughter taunted her from the depths of her being.

Keeping her pistol trained on the dead ninja, Melissa glanced back in the direction from which the original shot had come. Slumped, tattered and torn, against a wall, Leftenant Andrew Redburn slowly lowered his rifle. His dark green tunic had been all but torn from the left side of his body, with only a ragged strip of bloodsoaked cloth linking cuff and shoulder on his left arm. His trousers had fared little better, and some of the burned patches still smoldered. Redburn coughed wetly, and dropped to one knee.

Taking one last look at the ISF commando, Melissa dashed down the hallway, with Clovis close behind. "Andrew! You're alive! Thank God!" She reached out and touched the side of his face. Her hand came away wet from the blood trickling from his ears.

Andrew coughed again and winced. A droplet of blood leaked from the right corner of his mouth. "Yeah, well, that's the idea, isn't it."

Clovis stared at him. "How badly are you hit?"

Andrew shrugged. "Busted some ribs and popped my eardrums in an explosion. I can't hear too well, and I think my right lung is punctured. It only hurts when I breathe. Of course, this beats what happened to the guy sitting on my legs at the time. He shielded me from the blast."

Melissa forced herself to smile. "Clovis knows of a boat back by the small docking bay. Can you walk?"

Andrew nodded and levered himself to his feet. "Hell, for a chance to escape this rock, I'll dance if I have to!" Melissa tried to put his left arm around her shoulder to help support him, but he shook his head. "You need your hands free to handle one of the rifles. With any luck, the guy you shot was the only man posted on this level." Andrew pointed at the dead ninja. "Clovis, grab his little pig-sticker. You need something."

The dwarf grabbed the tantoand led the way down the hall. The trio proceeded carefully. Despite the fact that Melissa had fallen prey to the ninja's earlier trap, both men looked to her for direction. Honoring their trust, she studied each stretch of the corridor and silently pointed out what she saw as hazards.

The trio picked their way cautiously through the remnants of a long, running battle. When they reached the spot where Andrew's fire team had died in an explosion, the stench of blood and burning flesh overwhelmed Melissa. She fell to her knees and vomited, but refused help when both men tried to lift her to her feet. I will redeem the sacrifice of these lives,she vowed silently. I will make the plotters pay . . .

As they moved further down the battle-scarred corridors, nothing further interfered with their swift progress. Melissa even found herself smiling as they reached the corridor to the smaller docking bay. "This is it, gentlemen." She signaled Andrew to assume her position, and started to sprint across the corridor. Halfway there, she slowed, then stopped.

Andrew stepped out beside her, and his rifle clattered to the ferrocrete floor as soon as hers did. Clovis peeked around the corner, then sagged against the wall. He shook his oversized head. "So close ... so close."

The trio raised their hands in the universal sign of capitulation.

A Pantherfilled the path before them. With a gracious bow from the waist, the 'Mech and its pilot accepted their unconditional surrender.

BOOK 4

51

A2341CA

Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine

26 May 3027

Dan threw up his hands. "Am I the only one who sees this thing as insane?" He looked around the oval conference table, but none of the Kell Hound executive staff would meet his gaze. "Yes, jumping us into Kurita space was a brilliant bit of planning. They'd never expect it. Do you know why? It's utterly mad, that's why." Why can't the rest of you see that?

The hatch into the narrow, dimly lit conference room hissed open. Pale and drawn, Patrick Kell strode uneasily into the room and gently lowered himself into a chair at Dan's left. Because Patrick was not wearing a shirt, everyone could see the massive bandages covering the puncture wound on his left side. The faintest hint of pink in the center of a bandage indicated that the wound still leaked.

Patrick smiled, then nodded his head to Captain Vandermeer at the far end of the table. "Well done, Janos."

Dan twitched as though the praise for the Captain had stung him. He shook his head and Patrick Kell reached over with his right hand to pat the MechWarrior on the arm. "Calm yourself, Dan. There is method in our madness." Kell winced with pain, then raised his left hand to quiet concerned inquiries. "It hurt more when they shaved my chest to tape these bandages on. Thank God the Kuritans use sharp swords."

He looked around the room and met the combined gaze of his subordinates. "Janos and I hatched this plan after the physicians sewed me up. Desperate situations require desperate measures. What I will reveal to you now must be held in strictest confidence." Kell waited for everyone to nod agreement before he continued.

"Janos's people intercepted messages from the incoming Kurita ships to their forces on the ground. When the incoming attackers learned of the action around our base, they demanded confirmation of our destruction." He narrowed his eyes for emphasis. "They didn't want troop positions or strength estimates. They just wanted to know we were dead!"

"Payback," Cat mumbled.

Kell nodded solemnly. "That's it exactly."

Richard O'Cieran frowned. "If they want us dead, this little trick isn't going to do anything. They'll backtrack and find us here. Hell, we're close enough to Dieron for scout ships to flood this and any other uncolonized star in the area." The jump troop commander nodded at Dan. "Dan's right, we've dodged lasers and waltzed into PPC fire."

Salome Ward nodded sympathetically. "It'll take a week for us to recharge the K-F drive .. ."

Dan shook his head. "This is a K8 star, not a G. It'll take just over 199 hours, but we're not at the optimum recharging point, and we've not unfurled the solar collector yet. That adds another five hours to deploy and recover."

Major Fitzpatrick looked at Janos, who nodded slowly. With a frown, Fitzpatrick turned to Kell. "Forgive me, Patrick, but spending a week and a half here will get us killed."

"I know." Patrick leaned back and another wave of pain twisted his features. "We're going to try something dangerous. It's as likely to kill us as all the Kuritans who are after us, but it's also got a higher margin of success. Janos, please explain."

The Cucamulus'sCaptain stood and pressed a button to dim the lights. He slid a panel at his end of the table toward himself, then flipped it to reveal a computer keyboard. He slid the keyboard back into place and typed in a command. Hovering above the center of the table, a holographic diagram of the Cucamulusglowed to life.

"You all know that it is the Kearny-Fuchida drive that allows us to travel so rapidly between stars. And you know, too, that the K-F drive can translocate us up to thirty light years from our current location. Those drives require an incredible amount of power to rip a hole in the fabric of space, and then project the ship through to its destination."

Janos typed another command into the computer linked to the keyboard, and the image shifted. A chart appeared and slowly rotated so that everyone at the table could read it easily. "As Dan has pointed out—doubtless because he had to memorize such material while at the New Avalon Military Academy—A2341CA is a K Class star. Were we positioned at the optimum charging point, it would take us just over 195 hours to power the drives. Adding two hours to deploy and three to recover the solar collector, we would be here more than eight days."

Dan shook his head. Eight days if we were in the right position, which we're not.He swallowed but said nothing aloud. I haven't had such a feeling of doom since Morgan Kell broke up the regiment eleven years ago. Hell, the Defection was a simulator battle compared to this mess.

Janos smiled uneasily. "The reason it takes so long to charge a Kearny-Fuchida drive is not because of the amount of energy needed to fuel the equipment." His fingers flew across the keys and a series of equations flashed up. "We could actually do it in sixteen hours."

Fitzpatrick laughed. "Now we're cooking with magnetic induction."

Janos shook his head. "Not exactly, Seamus. The K-F drive is a delicate instrument. The charge must be fed into it slowly. 'Hot-loading' an engine causes damage on the molecular level, or so some whiz kids at the New Avalon Institute of Science believe."

Dan frowned. "They don't know?"

Janos shook his head quickly. "No. A couple of people have reported successfully 'hot-loading' their engines, but no one can prove it. Other attempts have, apparently, been utter failures."

Salome shivered. "What happened to the ships?"

"We don't know," Janos said with a shrug.

Patrick Kell leaned forward. "We do know, however, that it's possible to use our in-system engine to power up the K-F drive."

Cat smiled slyly. "So we'll jump-start our K-F drive and leave here before it is 'theoretically' possible for us to be gone. The Draconians will be left assuming we died in a misjump."

Patrick nodded slowly. "There it is."

Dan shook his head. "I don't like it. If we try this, we arelikely to die in a misjump." He turned to Janos. "What happens if the K-F drive just quits? Can we fix it?"

"I doubt it." The Captain sat down. "The Cucamulusis more than 300 years old, and has worked—if the translations of the early Kurita logs are correct—like a charm since its maiden voyage. All the while this ship has been hopping between stars, no one has rediscovered what makes the K-F drive tick. If it goes, we stay here."

Fitzpatrick leaned back. "Until Kurita comes for us."

Patrick nodded. "Right again. What I want is for all of you to put your people to work. Seamus, your Techs and aerojocks are to make sure our fighters are ready to deploy at a moment's notice. If a Kurita ship arrives—and if they've got Janos's knowledge of non-standard jump points—we'll need them ready to go. Salome, I want all 'Mechs fully operational, and as many of those captured Panthersworking as possible. I want anyone without a jump-capable 'Mech checked out on a Panther."

Patrick turned to the jump troop commander. "Rick, I need your troops looking sharp. Have them check out all their equipment, especially anything they need to go outside a ship."

Dan narrowed his eyes. "It sounds as though you expect trouble."

Patrick pursed his lips. "First of all, Dan, I don't want a bunch of people running around thinking they're going to die when we jump out of here. No one is to know about our plan to leave quickly. Granted, few folks know enough about the K-F drives to be worried, but I don't want an undercurrent of fatalism sapping morale. Giving everyone something to do will keep them too busy to speculate about our plans. All they'll know is that we're getting out of here."

Salome cleared her voice. "I don't think that was Dan's question, Patrick. Have you and Janos decided where we're going, and do you expect trouble when we get there?"

Kell nodded. He looked toward Janos, but the Captain shook his head and pointed at a blue light flashing on his keyboard. "I must report to the bridge. I'll let you know what is happening."

"Very well." Patrick waited for the hatch to slide shut behind Vandermeer before he continued. "We're going to appear in a system that is little more than an asteroid belt. It was home to a mining company until the firm collapsed a year ago. Wayland Smith, whom some of you may remember from his time with us before the ... Well, he conned a great deal of money from the Kurita authorities using this played-out system as collateral. Since then, certain people have moved in ..."

Dan smiled. "From the way you say 'certain people,' I hear echoes of the word Heimdall." Dan shook his head as the other officers nodded or smiled. Because he'd grown up in the Federated Suns, and because of his father's work as a Rat-catcher, he had never understood this romantic attachment that the others felt for this outlaw group. He shook his head. "I should have known."

"We'll make a good Lyran out of you yet, Dan," Salome said with a laugh.

"Janos says that one of his 'pirate points' is near the main base, which will put us at one gravity hour out from the base. I expect no trouble, but I want everyone ready."

The officers nodded in unison. "How long do we have to recharge?" O'Cieran's question focused everyone's attention on Patrick.

"Janos said we'd run a 28 percent failure risk if we took twenty-five hours to power, and we've already got three under our belts." He winced and opened his hands. "The odds get better if we wait longer. Worse, if we don't."

The image of Janos's head and torso replaced the holographic image of formulae and tables. "Patrick."

Kell punched the button on a small commlink at his position on the table. "Go ahead."

"A Kurita ship has arrived at the nadir point. She's released one InvaderClass DropShip, and it's coming fast."

"ETA?"

"Twenty-one hours."

Kell nodded sagely. "That gives us nineteen hours to power the K-F drive. What does that make our odds?" Janos grimaced. "Worse, Patrick. Much worse."

* * *

Lieutenant Austin Brand disengaged his hands from Meg Lang's as they both snapped to attention and saluted. "Afternoon, Captain."

Dan's head came up, and his vision cleared. They'd been sitting beneath an apple tree on the Cucamulus'sstarboard agrodome. Locked deep in thought, Dan had not noticed Meg and Brand as he approached. He smiled now to see them together, then his brows furrowed. "Why aren't you down on the Nuadagetting your 'Mechs ready?"

Meg smiled. "My Waspis perfectly checked out, and Austin's Commandois on the Lugh."

Dan frowned at Austin Brand. "Lieutenant, I thought I ordered you checked out on one of the Panthers."

Brand nodded. "Done, Dan. Jackson gave me the PantherI walked into the Nuada,and so I needed only a fraction of the time others took to 'imprint.' Don't forget, the Pantheris a simpler machine than my Commando,even with the jump jets. My 'Mech is nestled in the Nuada'sdrop bays between your Valand Meg's Wasp."

Dan nodded distractedly. "All twelve bays are filled?"

Brand nodded and ticked the 'Mechs off on his fingers as he spoke. "You, Meg, Eddie, and I make one lance. Major Ward's Wolverineand Fitzhugh's Catapultare there. McWilliams and Lasker have been assigned to Panthersto even that lance out."

Dan wrinkled his nose with distaste and turned away. He grasped the thick branch of a gapel tree, then turned to face his people again. "That only gives us eight 'Mechs for the drop. I don't like it."

Meg looked at Austin, concern on her face. "Jackson and Jones have two more Panthersoperational. Bethany Connor and Cat are being imprinted on them. That gives us ten."

Dan looked up. "What about the Victor!"

Austin shook his head. "It's still on the Mac,and still imprinted for Colonel Kell. No one else here could pilot it anyway."

Dan nodded. "Well, get back to your 'Mechs. We'll be leaving soon, and Patrick wants us ready to drop when we arrive."

Meg frowned. "Hot zone?"

Dan chuckled. "This isKurita space."

Meg nodded. "Silly question."

"Yeah," said Brand. "Well, I have one that's not so silly." His eyes narrowed. "How can we charge a JumpShip so quickly, especially when the solar collector hasn't even been deployed?"

Dan's head came up, and anger frosted his words. "Don't think about it, Lieutenant. You're not being paid to think. When you get to be a Captain, then you can think. Dismissed."

As his two subordinates left, Dan ground his teeth. "And when they pay you to think," he murmured to himself, "that's when you wish you didn't have to . . ."