Le5224 wolf pack, p.29
LE5224 - Wolf Pack, page 29
Once he'd knocked back half the coffee, he sprawled beside the fire, his nonchalance belying the import of his words.
"Back in the World they tapped a patch into Chandra's commo. Report of a JumpShip convoy appearing insystem two days ago. There are DropShips on the way in. Zeta Battalion."
"Zeta!"
"Unity! That's good news," Circoni said. "We could use Jamison's assault 'Mechs."
"Fancher's freakos better look to their butts," Grant was saying when suddenly the camp speakers began to howl.
"Bandit!" was the cry that went up, but the news was too late; the Stingray was already diving on the camp.
The incoming aerojock must not have been sure who we were; he didn't start firing until he was halfway through the first pass over the camp. When he finally decided to shoot, his lasers sliced furrows into the ground and anything else that got in their way. Wind created by the Stingray's passage ripped through the camp, and the sonic boom knocked several people off their feet, including me. But I was up and running again while the Stingray climbed for altitude before another pass.
To get to my 'Mech, I had to run among the pads set up for the VTOL fighters. The fighters were only Guardian atmospheric craft, but I knew that the aerojock would consider them prime targets because they had the best chance of meeting him on his own terms.
Cursing the luck that put the pads between me and my 'Mech, I continued to run as fast as I could.
Dust billowed from beneath one of the Guardian fighters. The pilot must have been ready for a night patrol if he could scramble that quickly. Hot air and sound buffeted me as the fighter took off. He wouldn't have much chance against the Stingray, but on the ground, he'd have none at all.
I couldn't hear a thing over the roar of his jets, but the wild arm-waving of the people in front of me was warning enough. I hugged dirt. A crackling particle beam dug through the ground a few steps ahead of me.
Laser bolts clawed into the fighters still sitting on their pads, one ruby beam cutting into a fuel tank and igniting it. The aircraft vanished in a trio of explosions and a ball of fire. In minutes the night was a scene from hell as the flames lit the rising smoke.
The Guardian intercepted the Stingray as it came around for a third pass, but our fighter's cannon was pathetically unable to track the fast-moving aerospace fighter. The Stingray's PPC and lasers flickered briefly and the Guardian disintegrated.
But its pilot had bought us some time.
I scrambled up the ladder to the cockpit of my 'Mech. The LokVs fusion reactor was on damped idle. The risk of being spotted was high, but the danger of being caught with cold engines was worse. I was glad I'd decided to chance it. I popped the dampers and prayed as the engine pumped power to the machine.
My computer acquired the Stingray as it swooped in for its next pass. Lasers flickering from its wings and blue lightning erupting from its nose, the aerospace fighter roared across the camp, explosions erupting as it passed. It was obscured briefly by the rising cloud from an obliterated ammo dump, but then I had my sights on it. The seven-centimeter Blackwell lasers glowed, sending their scarlet energy to crisscross behind the Stingray's forward-port canard wing. I thought my shot had missed, but the forward speed of the fighter was so great that it swept through the pulse of my lasers. Shrapnel littered our camp as armor peeled away from the fighter's main wing.
The Stingray wobbled as it screamed away into the darkness.
I hoped we had seen the last of it, but my radar screen showed it banking around for another pass. My cockpit was full of sound. Warriors firing up their 'Mechs. Ground troopers screaming for vectors to aim their antiair. Calls for medics and firefighting equipment. I watched the aerojock maneuver on my screen.
I thought he'd come around the heavy column of snioke from the ammo dump, but he came through it instead. My lasers raked empty sky. He was a better shot, pummeling my Loki, which rocked as coherent light savaged its armored shell.
Other 'Mechs and some of the antiair emplacements fired at the Stingray. Some hit, but the fighter's armor held. When he finally roared away into the night, heading south, my radar told me that he wouldn't be back. I passed the word over the battlegroup channel as two friendly fighters streaked across the perimeter of our encampment.
"Those are ours, folks. The bird's going to have to burn it if he's not going to smoke." I didn't know if our aerospace boys would catch him, but I hoped so. The Stingray's pilot had done more than enough damage. "Now, everybody saddle up. We're going to have ground forces moving on us soon. The big bad bird squawked."
47
In the week since the Stingray had caught us off-guard, we did a lot of skirmishing with Gamma Regiment. Per Colonel Wolf's plan, we were trading ground for time, trying to bloody Alpin's forces as much as possible, while minimizing our own losses. We'd been laying a lot of ambushes and were getting very good at it.
Now we were deployed in and around Silone Lake. Hidden underwater, I waited and watched.
My Loki wasn't hot, but" the other 'Mechs in the detachment were sure to be. They were old tech and had been in battle while I had been waiting in the lake. They wouldn't be a lot of help till they'd had a chance to let their heat sinks vent for a while.
The video feed from the pickup floating above me came through the optical-fiber line. The quality of the image wasn't great, but it served to show me the 'Mechs approaching the lake. Most cut to their left and raced along the beach. A Vindicator and two Wasps fired their jump jets and sailed over the water. The 'Mechs were pretty badly beat up.
A Fenris, the first of their pursuers, came over, the rise. The OmniMech was moving flat out, and rapidly closing the distance separating it from its prey. I let it go. There would be more.
Two Blackhawks were next and I would have taken them, but they fired their jets and sailed high above the lake. The detachment would have to handle them as best they could. Although I was unhappy that all three of the Omnis we had identified with Ansell's company were still operating, I was pleased to see that they had also taken a beating.
Another half-dozen 'Mechs came into sight, the rest of Ansell's company. I was relieved to see that they were older designs; our limited intelligence hadn't told us what sort of replacements Gamma Regiment was getting. The charging 'Mechs moved in the tight formation we had come to expect from the warriors of Gamma Regiment, especially those under Major An-sell. Keeping their spacing required some of the 'Mechs to enter the lake; there wasn't enough space for them on the beach.
It was time to trip the switch for the Loki's jump jets, which sent me and my 'Mech boiling out of the lake in a cloud of steam. The spy cable ripped away as I rose, but I didn't need it anymore. As soon as the Loki's arms cleared the water, I triggered both the big lasers at the most massive of the hostile 'Mechs. It was a tricky shot, but nothing for which my targeting computer couldn't compensate. Twin scarlet beams sliced into the rear of a Marauder, cutting in beneath the port heat sink. The carapace of the Marauder erupted in a chain of explosions that blew the left arm out in an arcing trajectory. Even before the seventy-five-ton 'Mech had collapsed to the ground, I moved on to another target.
Grant's Archer rose from its crouching position in the depths of the lake like some leviathan seeking prey. The armored covers for the twenty missile launchers opened like jaws as the Archer vomited forth a double salvo of long-range missiles. Grant held the big machine steady under the vibrations of the ripple launch, improving his chances of hits. Forty missiles screamed toward a sixty-five-ton Axman that was the deadliest in-fighter of the enemy company. The 'Mech rocked under the impact, then toppled in slow motion, arms flailing as the pilot struggled to reassert control. The missiles that missed banked in a tangle of contrails, each searching for a secondary target. Flashes from impacts on the two 'Mechs nearest the falling Axman told me that the swarm warheads had been a good choice for this ambush.
I landed uphill from the beach along the tree line where the dense woods would mask my silhouette. Dodging among the smaller trees at the edge, I swiveled the LokVs torso back to keep the firing arcs of both arm-mounts on target- Whenever I could, I put a shot into the Axman struggling in the mud at the lake's edge.
Our Vindicator and Wasps were back as per the plan, their return sparking confusion among Ansell's jocks. Their formation broke, but they didn't run.
The pinging of the Loki's antimissile system warned me I had incoming missiles. A glance at the threat-assessment screen pinpointed a Sentinel as the launch platform. A standard Sentinel carried only short-range missiles. I modified my fifing pattern to compensate for the heat the antimissile system would generate and prayed that it would catch them all. The AM ammo bar shrank and I felt none of the sharp raps of SRM impacts. The antimissile system was not good against the Sentinels autocannon. Shells pocked the front of the Loki, ripping shards off armor in a vain attempt to reach my 'Mech's inner structure.
Reluctantly, I abandoned my attack on the Axman in order to deal with the Sentinels more immediate threat. I triggered the left-arm laser and watched its beam boil away the last arrnor remaining on the Sentinel's right thigh. Sparks leapt from the wound and the Sentinel's pilot shifted liis machine's course to the right to shield the exposed area. Trailing smoke, he raced past me along the beach. I tried another shot, hoping to take him down, but the heat levels in my
Loki were rising and affecting the targeting systems. I missed.
Grant had the Axman covered. Slogging ashore, the Archer swiveled back and gave him another double dose. Explosions blossomed across the Axman's right arm and chest, shredding ferro-fibrous armor and opening craters to the vulnerable innards. The missiles that had failed to target the stricken 'Mech screamed around it, seeking in vain for other targets.
"Ken's down! Somebody help him!"
The call was on the command channel. Ken Shia-matsu was piloting a Dervish, the heaviest of the machines in our decoy element. If he was down, they were in trouble.
A laser cut across my Loki's leg as I tried to assess the situation. I lost armor, but there was no warning of a breach. I snapped a shot in return, but with all the steam and smoke, I didn't know what I'd fired at, let alone whether I'd hit.
Wu's Vindicator was landing from a jump on my right. It hit ground poorly, its right leg collapsing under it. An enemy Jenner came through a smoke bank a hundred meters away, ripping at the fallen Vindicator with a quartet of lasers. The beams gnawed armor, then broke through to vaporize the myomer pseudo-muscle that moved the machine's foamed titanium bones. The Vindicator was out of the fight.
We'd done damage. The Marauder was a definite kill and the Axman a probable, but we had too many down.
"Break off! Break off!"
The hostiles continued their fire as we retreated, but they used only energy weapons. Fed by the fusion reactor that powered a BattleMech, such weapons had inexhaustible ammunition supplies. Ansell's jocks did not use their other weapons and that worried me. Typically, they would have dumped everything they had in hopes of taking down a few more of us, but they were saving their ammo for something.
At least they didn't follow us. Maybe they were afraid of another trap. Or maybe they were finally learning respect.
* * *
Iota Battalion's losses were being made for by more down-and-out mercs eager for a chance at the Dragoon name. Dechan doubted that they had heard what happened to their predecessors; Elson had a tight rein on the news that got back to the World. Iota's jocks soon found out why there had been openings.
Spider's Web Battalion had shifted away from Fancher's line of advance through Green Sector, to be replaced by another force of BattleMechs that some reports claimed was led by Jaime Wolf himself. The shift made Alpin and Elson reconsider their plans. Svados' intel people predicted that Jaime Wolf was lairing somewhere in Red Sector, but the famous blue and gold Archer had been seen among the enemy 'Mechs in Green Sector.
No matter who was leading Wolf's forces, they were effective. Their tricks and traps were taking a toll, and not just on the front-line troops of Iota Battalion and Beta Regiment. The morale of the rest of the forces was hit hard as well. What was supposed to have been a lightning campaign had been bogged down for too long. Wolf, for all he was on the defensive, had stolen the initiative. The so-called hunters were dancing to his tune.
Hunters.
The nickname had come into use when we'd learned that the rebels had taken to calling themselves the Wolf Pack. Dechan supposed they'd adopted the name as a show of loyalty to Jaime Wolf. Dechan didn't think it coincidental that the name simultaneously flouted their rejection of Alpin. Referring to the forces under Alpin as hunters had started in Beta Regiment. The Khan legitimized it when he put a bounty on his grandfather's head.
That bounty excited a lot of the mercs. They talked about hunting Wolf themselves, but their talk was as disjointed as their tactics. They couldn't agree on anything, each one trying to outdo the others. Elson had really scraped up the dregs.
Dechan had heard similar talk among some of his own Kappa Battalion. He cut it off whenever it started, going so far as to prohibit the topic from staff conferences. But he knew he couldn't keep a lid on it forever. Now that word was out that Wolf himself was leading the forces of our opposition, even relatively disciplined mercs like the Chevaliers were feeling the lure of a lucrative bounty.
Dechan doubted that Wolf was present in Green Sector. It wasn't that his troops weren't well-led; they were. It was just that he was sure Alpin would never have left to spearhead Parella's force in Red Sector if he'd believed that Jaime Wolf was here in Green. Then again, Elson hadn't left, even when Gamma Regiment moved to relieve Beta and started pushing past the ground Beta had gained. When it came down to it, you never knew who was in the BattleMech till you checked the cockpit.
Carter tossed aside the flap of Dechan's tent.
"We've got orders."
"Elson or Alpin?"
"Elson."
"A briefing in ten."
Carter nodded. Reaching up, he tugged the flap and let it drop closed. Dechan listened to him crunch across the gravel, passing among the other tents and rousing the officers as he went.
So far, Kappa Battalion had been held back from the fighting. Dechan had taken it as a sign that Elson had something special in mind for them. If Elson was abandoning the facade of working through Alpin, the decision point was coming soon.
* * *
Michi knew he was being followed, but he had no time to do anything about it. He walked down Lafayette Avenue among the midday crowds. There were too many eyes here for his pursuers to pose a threat, but that was a temporary condition. Soon he would have to leave the avenue. They might try to take him then, if they knew; or they might wait, if they only suspected. He could not tell their numbers. If there were too many, and they did know, they might take him.
He turned off the avenue.
Once around the corner, he began to run.
He had covered two blocks by the time he heard the curses telling him that the pursuers had turned the corner. They would run now, too.
He was fortunate that he did not have far to go. They were younger, more fit for running. He heard their footfalls growing ever closer.
The ComStar acolyte was startled when Michi burst through the door—too startled to stop him, which was good. He heard the woman shouting for guards as he ran down the corridor to the inner court. The guards arrived in time to stumble into Michi's pursuers; he heard the scuffle start as the door closed behind him.
He was the only disturbance in the peace of the garden as he raced across it. But only for a moment. Shouts shattered the tranquillity; the ComStar guards had only been able to delay the pursuers. It was to be expected; the guards were not prepared and the pursuers were professionals.
Michi ran along the row of small cottages. He reached the one he sought and, without pause, he turned his last stride into a kick. The door flew open, bouncing off the wall and returning to strike him as he moved through the opening.
The air inside was warmer than that of the garden, the only light streaming in from the open doorway. The only furnishings were a chair, a bed, and a night-stand that held a computer work station. The bed was occupied.
The man grabbed a gun from behind the computer monitor, rolled off the bed, and took aim at Michi. In sync with the flash of recognition in the man's eyes, Michi tossed him the silver cylinder.
"GO!" he ordered.
Stanford Blake caught the cylinder with his free hand, then shouted, "Look out!"
Michi wheeled, drawing his sword and striking all in one smooth motion. The keen blade sliced the pursuer in half at the waist. Major Sean Eric Kevin looked surprised as he died.
Blake fired through Kevin's fountaining blood, dropping the second man.
There were more running across the garden.
"Go," Michi said again as he closed the door. "Now!"
Blake nodded curtly. He stuffed the cylinder into his waistband and pulled open the back door. "Thanks," he said as he bolted through. Michi watched him run across the garden. The house would shield him from the pursuers' sight once he left the direct line between the front and back doors. Michi swung the front door closed, then stooped and took the pistol from Kevin's holster. He stepped against the wall beside the door, well away from the frame.
He waited.
They were cautious, perhaps believing him trapped. He hoped that they would stay cautious; every second they wasted was useful. He knew they would not wait long, however. If they had suspected before, he had confirmed their fears.
A fusillade of shots splintered holes in the door and the wall on either side of it. Michi was moving forward as the door slammed open, this time dropping free from its abused hinges. He cut at the first commando as the man came through, the sword biting deep into his arm. Screaming, the man twisted away, ripping the sword grip from Michi's hand. Two shots dropped the second commando, but another one came crashing through the front window as her companion died. Forced back by fire from the two still outside, Michi was unable to halt the woman as she rolled to her feet and sprang through the open back door.
