The speedometer reported a velocity of 112 kph when the Skulker hit a meter-tall hump in the plains. Shin wrenched the wheel left while the machine was still airborne and clung to it like a drowning man. For a second or two, the only sounds he heard were the wind and the racing of the engine.
The Skulker's nose hit the ground first with a bone-crunching jolt that flicked Shin forward against the safety straps. Instantly, sparks and smoke streaked through the cab and the headlights shorted, blinding Shin to the world outside. The aft end of the car whipped forward from the right, then the rear wheels caught broadside and the Skulker slammed into the ground on its right side.
The equipment explosions from the back were drowned out by the din as the recon tank rolled up into its own roof. The great weight crushed the domed turret, shattering the ring assembly binding it to the Skulker. As the vehicle bounced up into the air, the turret sailed off like a wobbling saucer, then the Skulker pounded down into the ground and continued to tumble.
Shin couldn't count the number of times the Skulker somersaulted. His white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel snapped it off and warped it utterly out of shape. Tooth chips ground between his molars and blood was dripping from his nose. Even so, when the Skulker finally stopped on its right side, Shin knew he'd sustained no serious injuries, and he sent a silent prayer of thanks to his ancestors for keeping death at bay.
Popping the belts loose, he crawled back and got out through the escape hatch in the tank's bottom. Still dizzy and disoriented, he ran away from the Skulker, then sank to his knees on a hilltop twenty-five meters to the west. Behind him, the Skulker exploded as the ruptured gas tank poured fuel onto the sparking equipment in the back.
In the fire's backlight, he thought he saw the tank's other crewmen, but he could not be certain. Armed only with a heavy pistol, he couldn't afford to take the chance that it was an Elemental instead, though the body parts scattered around the turret's flattened disk told him it was not the Elemental.
Daubing at the blood from his nose with his sleeve, Shin estimated his position and figured out where rendezvous point A2536 had to be. Before he could begin to head toward it, however, a mounting roar echoed over the plains. Fearing the sound more by instinct and training than sense, he dropped to one knee and looked toward the sky.
Afterburners lit up with gold cylinders of fire, the First Sword of Light's aerospace wing shot toward the east barely fifty meters above the ground. Pulsed rain of scarlet laserfire strobed through the blackness. Brilliant clouds of yellow and red fire wreathed and defined wing-mounted rocket pods. The LRMs streaked off until they became pinpoints of light that erupted into boiling balls of angry red flame.
Even as the Combine's aerospace forces pounded the Clans, Shin felt the brief taste of victory sour in his mouth. The explosions lit by inferno rockets and cluster bombs silhouetted rank upon rank of enemy 'Mechs, then the night jealously hid them again. Even without trying to guess their number, Shin knew one thing for certain: The Clans meant to take Luthien, no matter what the cost, and they had brought with them more than enough 'Mechs to do the job.
39
Mar Negro, Alyina
Trellshire, Lyran Commonwealth, Federated
Commonwealth 5 January 3052
I'm going to die if we don't get some support.
That realization came to Victor as his 'Mech's autocannon whined out a metal typhoon. The storm of projectiles sliced like a surgeon's scalpel through the knee of the enemy OmniMech. Armor shards sprayed back over the battlefield, ricocheting off the smoking hulk of Don Gilmore's Archer. The joint gave way and the falling 'Mech's stump impaled the dark earth, but still the machine did not go down.
Victor pulled his Daishi back to cover behind a granite outcropping. Because of its titanic size and dependence on lasers for primary weaponry, he'd named it Prometheus in honor of the mythic light-bringer. Glancing down at the auxiliary monitor's report on his armor status, he realized that the vulturelike Clan 'Mechs would like nothing better than to pick apart and eat his 'Mech. Next time I name my 'Mech after something that had a peaceful life—like Bambi!
Victor keyed his radio. "Zephyr One, bring the rest of your lance back toward me."
"Bill Davis is gone, Kommandant. Dave Jewell and I are it."
Victor knew the voice on the radio had to be Dennis Pesuti's. "Zephyr Two, work back to the north and east. You and Zephyr Three cover each other."
"Wilco, Tornado One."
Galen Cox's voice cut in on the frequency. "Victor, that'll leave your left flank open."
"No it won't. You and I are going to hit the Clanners from the flank as those two draw diem up. Our field of combat narrows as we get near the bluffs. We can hold them, at least long enough to get some help. Relay those orders to the rest of our company."
Caution echoed through Galen's reply. "Victor, you know as well as I do that the Clans are herding us in that direction. We can't fall for whatever they're planning."
"Dammit, Galen, don't do this to me." Victor ground his teeth in anger. "It'll buy us some time. I'm going to see if Regimental has any support they can give us."
"Roger, Tornado One. I just want to be sure you understand the risks. As long as you do, I know you'll find a way out of it."
"Got it, Squall One. And thanks." Victor punched up the Regimental Support frequency, but all he got was dead air. Switching over to the secondary frequency, he got an earful of Babel. It sounded like hundreds of voices all pleading for the very things he wanted to request. Suddenly eerie static blasted through the speakers and one less voice demanded help.
"This is Tornado One in Sector 2660.1 need fire support."
"Request logged, Tornado One." The operator sounded fatigued and hopeless.
"Regimental, what can you give me?"
"Be advised, Tornado One, that we have no resources for you at this time."
Victor worked his Omni back, then melted armor from a Clan MadCat with two well-placed laser bolts from his 'Mech's arm-mounted large lasers. 'The situation here is a bit desperate, Regimental. I need support in 2660, now!"
"Things are desperate all over, Tornado One! The enemy has 2750 and 2650. If they push through to 2550, you're cut off—the whole peninsula is gone. We're holding the line, but we need everything we have."
"Good. We're coming in through 2560." Victor knew mat the loss of sector 2550 would cut him off from the Drop-Ships meant to evacuate his people should the tide of battle continue in its current disastrous direction. "Give me some cover and we can help out."
"Request logged, Tornado One."
Victor saw Dennis Pesuti's Victor reel backward, armor steaming off its left flank. 'That's not a request, Regimental. That's an order!"
"Who in hell do you mink you are?" The comtech's voice came back hot. "Clear the frequency, you idiot!"
Victor pounded his fist into the padded arm of the command couch. "I am Prince Victor Ian Davion, dammit! I own this goddamned army and my men are dying out here. Unless you want to explain to my father why I went the same way, you'll lay down a diamond pattern of artillery-deployed mines. Alternate with cluster rounds. Do it now! These coordinates. We'll be gone by the time they get here."
Fear rocketed through the comtech's voice. "Wilco immediately, Tornado One. Downloading coordinates now to Longbomb. Longbomb, mix ADMs with clusters. We've got to save the Prince's ass."
Victor reopened the link to his men. "Storm Company, hurry back on a heading of oh-four-five degrees, repeat oh-four-five degrees. Squall One, you can play rear guard. We're making for sector 2550."
He never heard the various acknowledgements of his order, and refused to look as the secondary monitor toted up the identities of the warriors calling in. At the start of the battle, his battalion had filled three full columns on the screen. Now he could see out the corner of his eye that the list had dropped to less than one column. He didn't know if those left behind were alive or dead, and he'd just called down an artillery strike to obl
iterate anything left in his sector.
The Clansmen seemed happy to let him and his men flee. Victor fought to present his enemies as poor a target as possible as he retreated, but none took the opportunity to make any potshots. He knew the Clans preferred one on one battling, which Victor admired, but he had no desire to play their game.
Pressed against his flesh, he felt Omi's gift where he'd sewn it inside his cooling vest. He thought of all the samurai tales he'd ever heard, most telling of the hero dying gallantly in defense of a pass or bridge while his lord escaped. God help me, Omi, I don't want to play the Kurita game, either.
He shook his head. That was exactly the way Prince Ian Davion, the uncle for whom he was named, had died more than a third of a century before. Victor hoped that sharing the man's name did not mean he would share his fate. Great heroic traditions I've got all around.
He fingered the jade amulet Kai had given him. This marks a legend I'd much rather relive.
Without warning, the first of the artillery barrages hit home. What had been a mottled green and gray landscape with spindly trees and majestic palms vanished in a sheet of flame. The cluster munitions sowed the area with countless little bomblets that battered and blasted the Clan warriors. As he shut his eyes against the intensity of the explosion, Victor saw one 'Mech reduced to a silhouetted skeleton that immediately collapsed in on itself.
The fire evaporated like an illusion, leaving the killing ground a blackened field pitted with smoking holes. Tattered 'Mechs began to move in the thick mist like zombies rising from their graves. One stumbled forward, and in a bright flash, lost a leg to a mine. The 'Mech toppled onto its side, but its companions kept coming.
Victor worked Prometheus east toward the coastline. Once there, he knew they would have a chance to link up with the rest of the Tenth Lyran Guards. The thought that the Jade Falcons were herding them toward that area niggled at the back of his mind. It meant the possibility of a trap or that the regiment had stopped the rest of the Falcons before they could trap the first battalion in a pocket.
As his ragged company reached the wooded plateau, Victor began to feel a bit safer. Directly east, only thirty meters from where he stood, the plateau broke off as though a big knife had sliced it away. Twenty meters below, the Mar Negro's dark waters pounded against the shore that marked the edge of the continental shelf.
The palm tree to his left burst into flames as a Jade Falcon's pulse laser laced it with,kilojoules of energy. Victor whipped the crosshairs for both his large lasers onto the blocky outline of the Clan 'Mech. The dot in the center of each pulsed once and he stabbed his thumbs down on the firing button. The coruscating red beams converged on the MadCafs right weapons pod, shearing it off at the wrist.
"Move them back, Galen. We're still being pressed." He used his trio of pulse lasers to lay down hazing fire. The lasers ignited the foliage they hit, creating a screen of fire between Victor and the advancing Clansmen, but that didn't slow the enemy at all. They kept coming and Victor sensed a change in the way they attacked.
Two of the vulture-like Hagetaka 'Mechs broke through the blazing barrier and thrust their arms at his Omni. Autocannons with pulse lasers riding sidecar made up their arm-mounted weaponry and it was all concentrated on Victor. The autocannons nibbled tiny chips of armor from the Daishfs chest, then the pulse lasers cauterized the wounds by dripping molten armor over them.
Prometheus stumbled backward as Victor fought against the impact of the autocannon shots and the loss of balance caused by losing more than a ton of armor. That didn't keep him from realizing that the Falcons had worked together to hurt him. If they were willing to do that at this point in the battle, Victor reasoned, they were either desperate or the Clanners had been suckering them all along. Given the panic at Regimental HQ, we must be dead!
Galen's Crusader stepped forward to put itself between Victor and the Clanners. Its leg-mounted SRM launchers sent a dozen missiles corkscrewing in at one Hagetaka. They peppered the Clan 'Mech's jutting torso and right arm with a double handful of detonations that knocked the war machine back into the burning foliage. Its right arm hanging limp and useless, the 'Mech turned to engage them again.
Victor punched up the Regimental frequency again, but this time all he got was buzzing static. Ignoring precautions, he set his radio to broadcast across all the tactical frequencies. "This is Tornado One in sector 2560. We need any help we can get."
He thought he heard a reply, but the thundering detonations of a long-range missile against his Daishi's head set his cars ringing and drowned out the voice. Spinning to his left,
Victor cut loose with the autocannon. It caught a MadCat dead center and dumped it unceremoniously on its back.
Both he and Galen withdrew as quickly as they could. Already Victor saw on his scanner that the rest of his battalion had made it to the narrows, where they could hold off the Clanners. Heading away as quickly as possible, with Galen close on his heels, he reached a clearing where a granite fang separated a narrow trail from the plateau. The other 'Meelis had already strung themselves out along the path by the time he and Galen broke from the jungle.
Home free! Turning back to lay down cover for Galen, Victor allowed himself a smile. "We made it."
A panicked scream from one of the Mech Warriors was Victor's only warning of the ambush. Shooting up to the level of the plateau, five OmniMechs with auxiliary jump jet packs strapped to their hulls leaped up from the Mar Negro. Water coursed off them and seaweed hung from the arms and legs of the 'Mechs, making them look like monsters from the bottom of the sea.
A Gauss rifle projectile smashed into Prometheus' right ankle. It crushed the joint, and when Victor tried to steady the toppling 'Mech, the clawlike foot sheared off. The shock of the ankle hitting the ground jolted Victor, but he successfully fought gravity and wrestled the 'Mech upright. He fired back with his lasers, sending melted armor bleeding down his tormentor's torso, but another 'Mech's autocannon burst to his left shoulder spun him to the ground.
Sparks shot from his control console and the light blinked out on one of the torso-mounted pulse lasers. More fire from the 'Mechs strafed his stricken Omni. They kept him enough off-balance that he could not aim well. When he tried to regain his feet, he went down instead like a punch-drunk fighter.
As much as Victor wanted to demand help from the other warriors, he saw they were in the same deep trouble. With all the holes in its armor, Galen's Crusader looked like a worm-gnawed corpse. Out on the bluff, the other members of Storm Company were sitting ducks for the newly arrived Clan 'Mechs. Though they fought back, their battered condition and lack of ammunition made their defense a piteous mockery of the power the enemy 'Mechs displayed.
Victor keyed his radio. "Storm Company, disengage. Just run for it. Galen, go." He pulled Prometheus into a low crouch. "Go on. I'll cover you."
"No! I won't do it, Victor."
"Go, Hauptmann Cox. That's an order."
"Then discipline me in hell, because I'm not leaving."
The Crusader got the granite fang between it and the ocean-going 'Mechs. Galen blasted away at the 'Mechs coming in from the mainland. Steam rose from fractured heat sinks as he launched volley after volley of missiles. The barrels of the Crusader's arm-mounted machine guns glowed red as they relentlessly sprayed the enemy.
In his crouch, Victor presented a more difficult target for the Clanners. His large lasers punched through armor and started internal explosions on one of the five flying 'Mechs. It started to descend, but its loss did not help him at all. Instead of chasing the remnants of Storm company, the other four 'Mechs turned their attention to Victor. As they jetted toward the ground, Victor thought of his uncle Ian who had also died trying to buy escape for his men.
"Thanks, Galen. I never wanted to die alone."
"Me neither, Highness. Me neither."
"Here they come."
Even as Victor dropped his sights on the lead Clanner and tightened down on all his triggers, h
e saw a flash of mottled green atop the fang. Coming faster than Victor had ever seen any 'Mech run, a battle-scarred Centurion burst into the fray. Without slowing at all, it thrust its right-arm Gauss rifle at a Clan 'Mech. In an electrical flash, a silver ball coursed from the muzzle, hitting dead-on target.
It nailed an enemy 'Mech in what would have been its right ear and crushed the cockpit. The 'Mech spun, its arms pummeling the 'Mech hovering next to it. Both war machines tipped in mid-air and started to somersault backward over the ocean. The dead 'Mech did a swan dive and rocketed down into the dark waters. Fighting to retain control, its companion completed the somersault, but had fallen too far 10 land on the plateau. Its jets carried it forward and smashed it into the bluffs.
Stunned, Victor breathed, "My God, that's Yen-lo-wang"
The subsequent explosion of their comrade's 'Mech made landing difficult for the other two Clansmen. One flew through the fireball and touched down, but by that time the Centurion had leaped down from the fang and sprinted toward the landing site. Coming in low and fast, Yen-lo-wang held the fingers of its left hand hooked like claws. In a passing strike, it raked its fingers across the Clan 'Mech's belly, then filled the wound with laserfire from the forearm-mounted pulse lasers.
Its speed unabated, the Centurion continued its dash along the edge of the bluff. The last Clan 'Mech landed in a cloud of smoke left by its ill-fated companion. The Clan pilot had just started to turn toward the other Clan 'Mech, which was collapsing around its ruined middle, when Yen-lo-wang hit it at full speed. Victor saw armor buckle as the Centurion's shoulder slammed square into the enemy 'Mech's chest.
Beneath the combined weight of the two war engines, the edge of the bluff crumbled. Victor reached out as though the arms of his Prometheus could somehow stop the disaster. The Clan 'Mech wrapped its arms around Yen-lo-wang, and both 'Mechs stood poised on the edge of the cliff. Victor screamed for Kai to push the Clanner away and save himself, but with a singlemindedness bordering on obsession, Yen-lo-wang's legs kept pumping, pulverizing the bluff's lip into gravel, and carrying the last threat to Hanse Davion's heir away.