Phelan keyed his radio. "Dire Gamma, please relay to Black Widow Alpha that we have downed our bogey. Ask for a new assignment."
Switching the frequency control, he tightbeamed a message to the Ostsol across the frequencies he knew the Free Republic's troops used. "Whoever you are, you have my sincere respect. If not for a moment of inspiration, our positions would be reversed. You are now my prisoner."
The youth of the MechWarrior's voice surprised Phelan. "I may be your prisoner, but I will never surrender to you."
"Don't do anything foolish. Don't overload your engine. It won't serve anyone or anything for you to be that sort of hero."
"Oh, I don't worry. That would make it too easy on you." A fiery stubbornness entered the voice. "If I'm dead, I can't lead my people to freedom, can I?"
Before Phelan could think of a suitable reply, Dire Gamma's report buzzed into his ear. "The Colonel sends her congratulations. Satalice has been pacified. We are to regroup at the Den and prep for an inspection."
Phelan frowned. "Inspection?"
"Roger. She said the ilKhan will be reviewing us in two days, and he's bringing a very special visitor with him. The visitor is the one we're supposed to impress."
"This visitor have a name?" Phelan wanted to know.
"Not one of us, so who cares?"
"I care."
"No name, Star Commander, just a title." Dire Gamma hesitated, then sighed. "Does 'the Primus of ComStar' mean anything to you?"
44
Imperial City, Luthien
Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine
5 January 3052
Tempers flared as frustration eroded the last shreds of the Coordinator's tolerance for either his son or Shin Yodama. For Shin's part, he felt trapped in the battle between father and son, and had to fight to maintain his composure. He knew Theodore had placed him as a buffer against his father precisely because Shin could not be blackmailed by the old samurai's demands.
It is precisely because I am not part of the centuries-old samurai tradition that Takashi rails against me. Shin shrugged at the irony of the situation, then sighed with resignation as a blinking light indicated an incoming radio call on Takashi's frequency.
Shin punched the call through. "Hai."
"Will my son let us fight now? We are almost to the gates of the city we are to defend."
"My last orders were for us to remain here. I await the Kanrei's orders to attack."
A quick button-lunch cut Takashi's strangled protest off in mid-utterance. Even after Shin had issued the computer command allowing Takashi's reserve unit to bring their weapons up, they had been forbidden to engage in combat. Theodore, out with the Second Legion of Vega, continued to coordinate the Combine's response to the Clan assault. The Reserves had been shuttled from one point to another, ready to intercept any breakthrough in the Combine lines.
So far, matters had not gone as well for the Clans as feared. Though the Nova Cats and Smoke Jaguars had pushed into the hills between their landing point and the city, the maneuver had allowed the Combine's forces into their rear. With the mercenaries harassing them through the hills, the Clans' progress had become slow, and the necessity of fighting a rearguard action slowed them down even more.
Shin realized that Takashi did not understand exactly how the Clans operated. The Coordinator believed that once the Clans had committed their forces, they would not call down reinforcements. Yet, prisoner interviews had suggested that their bidding system allowed them to call down more forces if and when needed. This put Theodore in the position of having to allow the Clans to progress until his troops were in a position to utterly destroy them. As reinforcements would take approximately two hours to land, the final battle would have to be very swift or Clan reinforcements might arrive just in time to do some good.
Of course, Shin reminded himself, they could always raze the city with an orbital assault, as they did Edo on Turtle Bay. The yakuza shivered and muttered a brief prayer to his ancestors to prevent that eventuality.
Shin immediately punched the radio call on Theodore's tactical frequency into his headphones. "Hai, Kanrei."
"Yodama-san, the Nova Cats are coming your way. The Kell Hounds have regrouped into a reinforced regiment and will be coming to support your southern flank. Colonel Kell says if you want to turn the Clanners toward him, he's ready to catch anything you pitch."
"Hai, Kanrei. We will stop them."
"Good luck, Shin. We'll be coming in from the north, and Wolf's bringing up the rear. It is now or never."
"Understood." Shin shut that frequency off and shifted to the Dragon's Claws frequency. "The Nova Cats are ours. The Kell Hounds will be coming in from the south and the rest of our forces will come from the north. We are to turn the Cats toward the Hounds." '
Takashi's voice overrode Shin's. "Follow me, comrades. We will show these invaders how true samurai fight."
"No!" Shin let all his fury at Takashi's abuse of power flood the frequency. "Listen to me. We cannot and should not forget tradition, but suicidal assaults will not stop the Clans. We are a hammer, and the Kell Hounds are an anvil."
"I am samurai, Shin Yodama." The Coordinator's voice seethed with righteous fury. "My code demands I fulfill the dictates of honor."
"Your code also calls for the fulfillment of duty. Let your honor be assuaged by attending to your duty to your son and the Combine. Otherwise, go down in history as the man who lost Luthien."
Shin's right hand hovered over the command console keypad he would use to type in the destruct code for Takashi's Grand Dragon. Though he tried to will his fingers to stop trembling, they would not. He had no fear of being unable to punch in and send the code if necessary, but he wanted to give Takashi every chance to avoid such a fate.
"This is not finished here, Shin Yodama."
"I understand, Coordinator. As I said before, you may command my death later." Shin saw movement on his holographic display and looked up to find Nova Cat 'Mechs beginning to enter the Kadoguchi Valley below Imperial City. "Now is the time to stop the invaders."
Takashi gave his men a sacred mission. "We are the Kamikaze that swept the Mongols from the shores of Japan nearly two millennia ago!"
With grim determination, Shin started the Phoenix Hawk in a lurching run that became smooth, swift, and powerful in a dozen steps. The BattleMech reached its top speed of 97.2 kph within 100 meters from its starting point, with each jarring step pounding meter-deep holes into the turf. Behind him, like a wolf leading its pack, came Takashi and the Dragon's Claws.
Centered at the top of Shin's display was the distance to the Clan 'Mechs. Numbers blurred as the distance spun down. The golden crosshairs that designated targets for his weapons bounced up and down wildly, making it virtually impossible to get an accurate shot at that distance and speed. Even so, Shin played with the joysticks on each arm of his command couch to try to keep them on target. Occasionally he got a gold dot, confirming a target lock, but at such extended range, he did not fire.
Because he was coming in at high speed, he knew the Clans would have almost as much trouble targeting him. In the four seconds it took his Phoenix Hawk to cross from extreme Clan range to the outer fringe of his own weaponry's effective range, only one Nova Cat successfully launched on him. An LRM rack sent a score of missiles burning across the battlefield, but less than half acquired and hit their target. Those that did blew almost all the armor from the Phoenix Hawk's right arm. The detonations shook the 'Mech and threatened to unbalance it, but Shin compensated to keep it upright and running.
Another eight seconds brought him to a comfortable range for his weapons. He flicked fire control for all weapons to the crosshairs adjusted by his right-hand joystick. He centered it on the outline of the Hagetaka whose missiles had hit him. His large laser missed high, but both the Phoenix Hawk's medium lasers drilled through a rent in the Hagetaka's armor. They filled its right shoulder with fire and subsidiary explosions pumped black smoke out the ri
ght arm's autocannon muzzle. The limb twisted, then hung limp like a flag on a still day.
Crossing the last 100 meters, the Phoenix Hawk suffered damage from two other Clan 'Mechs, but the attacks only chipped away at armor. In a last-minute adjustment, Shin altered his course just enough to drift toward the Hagetaka's right side. He lowered the Phoenix Hawk's left shoulder and barreled full force into the birdlike BattleMech.
The collision bounced Shin forward into the command couch's restraining straps. Metal screeched as the Phoenix Hawk's left shoulder pounded into the Hagetaka's right shoulder. The sheer mass of both war machines ground the ferro-ceramic armor on their hides to dust, while the impact of the attack itself snapped the Hagetaka's arm off at the shoulder. The Phoenix Hawk slid on past the empty shoulder socket and hit the 'Mech's hip where it joined the forward-hunched torso.
The Hagetaka started to spin to the ground when the Coordinator's Grand Dragon hit it at top speed. Arms pumping like a sprinter, the Grand Dragon slammed into the Hagetaka, broadsiding it. The heavy 'Mech scythed through the Clan 'Mech's torso, popping the head and cockpit free to tumble across the ground.
Without the cockpit computers to monitor it, the Hagetaka's fusion engine raged uncontrolled. A shimmering, silvery ball of boiling plasma shot like a comet from between the 'Mech's shoulders. Like a wraith leaving its body behind, its tendrils swiped at the Grand Dragon, but the Takashi's charge had already carried him beyond its vengeful grasp. The energy-ghost imploded, leaving the Hagetaka's lifeless husk smoldering on the ground.
Shin regained control of his 'Mech the instant it slipped beyond the Clan's initial line. He slowed his headlong rush because he had more than enough targets in the midst of the growing Clan formation. In addition, his task was to force the Nova Cats back into the Kell Hounds, and that would only happen if his force could form a line and drive the Clans before them.
A quick look at his holographic display told Shin that the shock attack had succeeded in penetrating the Clan line along a wide front. Clan 'Mechs were already falling back as Combine 'Mechs swept around him to consolidate the Reserve Regiment's position. The center battalion concentrated its fire in an arc that supported the northern flank.
"Yodama," Takashi radioed urgently, "I am bringing the center battalion around to stop them."
Shin glanced at his tactical map. "If you do that, we'll get their full attention. If they get through us, they have a direct shot at Imperial City."
"But if I let them flank us, they will strike at the city."
"The Kell Hounds' Crescent Hawk Company has our flank, Coordinator."
"Do they? I see no sign of them."
"They're there." Shin crossed his fingers. "They're there."
Venom filled Takashi's voice. "If they are not, I will slay you myself."
"If the Hounds aren't there, you'll have to fight the Clans for that honor, Takashi. I know my duty! I will do it!"
As the central battalion drifted to the south, the Clans increased their retreat, letting themselves get beyond the Combine warriors' effective range. The Reserves moved quickly and the Clans used their missiles sparingly, so the moving truce resulted in few casualties among the Kurita forces and fewer among the Clansmen. Even so, with the chase, the Clans managed to string out Shin's forces further than he would have liked. He slowed pursuit to consolidate his troops, and Takashi immediately rebuked him for letting the Clans slip around the southern edge of their line.
"You are a fool, yakuza, and a coward. As is my son for trusting you and your kind."
Shin saw a light flash on his command console. Save the rhetoric for the historians, Takashi. It's time for warriors to earn their pay. Shin keyed a command that downloaded tactical maps to all his 'Mechs. As a unit, they pressed forward as though initiating a second charge into the Clan lines.
As the Nova Cats readied themselves for the assault, the reformed Kell Hound Regiment came up and over the hills to the Cats' rear. They fell on the southernmost elements of the Clan force like a wave engulfing a sand castle. It seemed to Shin that the Clansmen were not so much surprised as overwhelmed. Unlike the way he had seen the Kell Hounds fight earlier, they did not hold back to fight at range. Instead they closed quickly, lasers and PPCs savaging targets at point-blank range.
The southern movement of the Nova Cats stopped abruptly as the Clansmen sought to regroup. From the north, Shin saw the arrival of the Second Legion of Vega and remnants of the Otomo and First Sword of Light regiments. As they formed a wall to cut off the Clans from their line of retreat, the Reserve's northern battalion closed ranks with the center battalion to strengthen its position. Scouts from the Clans headed directly east, up the hills to the ridgeline lying between them and their landing zone, but those 'Mechs quickly retreated as elements of Wolf's Dragoons took the heights.
Shin knew what could come next and worked his way to the front of the Reserve position. The Clans determined that the Reserve unit was the weakest side of the box trapping them. With a desperation born of knowledge that defeat was certain, the Nova Cats turned and charged the Reserves even as the other three sides of the Combine formation fell upon them.
"Brace for it," Takashi shouted. "Now we're the anvil!"
A racing Masakari hit the Phoenix Hawk with a shoulder square into the middle of the Hawk's chest. Sparks exploded through Shin's cockpit as his 'Mech folded up around the 'Mech's shoulder, then flew backward. Shin dangled from the restraining straps, then slammed down into the command chair when the Phoenix Hawk smashed into the ground. Realizing that remaining on the ground was to die, Shin arched his back and used the 'Mech's momentum to help it roll around so he could more easily get it up on its feet.
He knew completing such an acrobatic move was impossible, but he would have settled for a shift from supine to prone positions. What he got, however, was entirely different than what he wanted or could have imagined. As the Phoenix Hawk started to roll, its legs thrust between those of a running Clan Daishi. The Clan 'Mech's pumping legs shattered those of the Phoenix Hawk and sent it spinning off on its back like a turtle sliding across ice on its shell.
Feeling like a pilot in a centrifuge, Shin knew such violent motion threatened to snap his safety belts and leave him splattered against the interior of his cockpit. Shin reached out with the 'Mech's left arm, skidding the Phoenix Hawk to a stop. He brought the 'Mech up into a sitting position, but before he could make any sense of the surrounding chaos, a Nova Cat 'Mech stamped down with a cloven hoof, destroying the Phoenix Hawk's right hand and large laser.
The loss of the support dropped the Phoenix Hawk flat on its back. Shin fumbled as he reached for the ejection switch, but stopped before he triggered it. The Daishi's upraised foot eclipsed the sky and Shin saw the exact spot he would hit if he punched out.
It's done.
Electric blue light filled his cockpit and the crackling static that accompanied a blast from a particle projection cannon filled his headphones. The foot's dark shadow wavered then vanished as the Daishi pitched over onto its back. A momentary glance showed smoke trailing from the melted ruin of its head, and the shoulder-mounted LRM canister exploded when the 'Mech hit the ground.
Shin rolled the Phoenix Hawk over onto its right side and obtained a three-point stance on thick stumps and a wrist stub. His 'Mech hunched over like a chimp, Shin lifted the 'Mech's left arm, ready to use the machine gun and medium laser mounted there. Scanning his holographic display for a target, Shin tasted blood dripping down from his nose.
Behind his 'Mech he saw a Grand Dragon. It showed battle wear and broken armor, but the crest over its right breast had survived. The gold dragon against a field of red, jaws agape and ready to devour enemies, told him who piloted that craft and who had saved him.
"Why, Takashi, why?"
"I may hate you and your kind, Shin Yodama, but you are a citizen of the Combine. No one or nothing will stop me from doing my duty to protect the people of my realm."
"So it is with the res
t of us, Coordinator. Our tactics might be different, but our goals are the same." Shin licked the blood from his lips. "So if you'd be so kind as to lure some Nova Cats over here, we can both do our duty."
45
DropShip Barbarossa, Outbound
Alyina, Jade Falcon Occupation Zone (Trellshire, Federated Commonwealth)
6 January 3052
Victor barely glanced up at Galen as the junior officer entered the lounge area. He saw the light reflect in rainbow spears from the surface of a holodisk, but attached no importance to it. Seeing Galen order the other officers out of the room, he realized the disk was more than data uploaded from headquarters on the planet they were abandoning. The grim look on Galen's face broke through Victor's distracted state enough that he guessed he would be called upon to do something.
Settled deep in a chair, with knees drawn up to his chest, Victor clutched the dark woolen blanket closer around himself. "It can wait, Galen."
Galen's eyes glittered like unforgiving chips of ice. "I am afraid it cannot, Kommandant." The scorn in his voice as he addressed Victor by rank stung the Prince, yet the pain felt very distant. 'This holodisk was inscribed because of a Priority Alpha message transmitted by ComStar. It is for you, Eyes Only."
Galen held out the disk, but Victor shook his head. "That means it's from or about my father. I don't want to see it now."
Disgusted, Galen stuffed the disk into the viewer built into the DropShip's bulkhead and swiveled Victor's chair around to face it. "The message was urgent and your father entrusted it to ComStar. Given the current circumstances, you know that means it's very important. Let me know when you're done viewing and I'll come back and have it destroyed."