Tarukito nodded solemnly. "A good question. To the best of our knowledge, and according to the reports we continue to intercept from the ISF troops on site, there are no 'Mechs in enemy hands on the planetoid. The Panthers we will take in should be more than enough to handle anything we must face." He smiled and turned toward where both Yorinaga and Narimasa sat. "Tai-sa Kurita-sama and Chu-sa Asano will both unlimber their 'Mechs—a Warhammer and a Crusader—and use jump packs to drop into the base with us."
Another Tai-i, Norihide Kiso, stood up behind Kagetora. "Forgive me, Tarukito-san, but I must ask this. Why are we being dropped in if the ISF has already secured the base? It has been rumored that their twelve-hour headstart came about through a delay in the ISF channels transmitting the alert to us. Will we not lose face to appear after they have accomplished our mission?"
Tarukito stared at Norihide for a second, but Chu-sa Nari-masa Asano usurped any answer he might have given. Narimasa walked around the table to a point where the green and blue computer-construct could illuminate him. Though he smiled easily, it put no one at ease. "This rumor you have heard is not wholly true," he began. "Yes, there was some delay in transmitting the message to Nashira. This ensured that the ISF contingent from Dieron got first pass at this target. Is it not right that they have this honor? Did not their organization pierce the veil of deception that told us of the base's location and also the identity of the person we seek? Could we shame them by demanding the right to capture the prize they had located?"
Narimasa shook his head slowly and Tarukito felt shame for his resentment against the ISF forces. Narimasa laughed lightly. "Of course, we all chafed beneath the gaze of the Taishi—not because we are anything less than utterly devoted to the Dragon, but because the Taishi did not think us worthy of the responsibility we had assumed. We must not let our feelings about the late Shinzei Abe color our thinking about the rest of the ISF."
Narimasa waved a hand at the holograph. "You must recall that the Coordinator himself ordered us into battle. He could not tell Subhash Indrahar that he believed the ISF could not conquer the base, could he? There would have been a loss of face. No, he merely suggested that we should have our chance to help the ISF take the base."
Narimasa turned and nodded toward Yorinaga. "Nor could Yorinaga-sama allow our arrival to shame the ISF. If we arrived too quickly, we could have robbed them of their victory. With this thought in mind, Yorinaga-sama delayed our departure from Nashira by two hours, just so the ISF would have ample opportunity to win this battle on their own."
Tarukito turned to hide the smile beginning to tug at his mouth. By the time Narimasa had returned to his seat beside Yorinaga, Tarukito had regained control of himself. He faced the assembled soldiers of the Genyosha and directed their attention to the base's model.
"Sho-sa Nobuyori Kinoshita and I will lead the main assault. In addition to our lances, we will have Tai-i Kagetora Asai's lance and Tai-i Norihide Kiso's lance. Tai-i Masanori Shoni and his lance will have the honor of entering the base through the small bay on Chi level. In this way, we may trap the defenders between our superior forces and crush them."
With hands on hips, Tarukito surveyed his audience from one side to the other before adding a final cautionary note. "We must take care to avoid over-confidence, however, for this assault may not be as simple as it seems. Keep in mind that the planetoid's gravity will be only one-ninth that of Nashira. Never forget that the stupid man is his own greatest enemy, for he defeats himself." Then Tarukito used the pointer to bring up the lights in the room. "You are dismissed. Report to your 'Mechs and prepare for a full combat drop."
As the crowd dispersed, a courier fought through the tide of bodies and presented a slip of yellow paper to Yorinaga. The Genyosha commander read it carefully. Then he dismissed the courier with a solemn bow and reread the message. He passed it to Narimasa as Tarukito approached them.
Narimasa frowned as he read the message. Reluctantly, he handed the paper to Tarukito. "I am sorry, Tarukito-san. Your planning has been flawless."
Tarukito took the slip of paper in trembling fingers. He read it once, and then again. Bile washed up into his throat to choke him, but he forced it down and then willed himself to ignore the fire that had begun to burn in his belly. Damn them. They spoil my assault!
He whirled and stared at the red outline burning on Torii deck. He glanced back down at the message. Is it treason to hope that this message is false? Can they truly be that close to taking the command center? He faced his superiors again. "Do you think it is possible?"
Narimasa and Yorinaga exchanged a look that made both of them seem ancient. Narimasa nodded. "I believe the ISF agents are earnest in their reports."
Tarukito held out the message in one hand. "But do you think they will take the command center within the hour?"
Narimasa shrugged. "Let us go to our 'Mechs. Until we jump in, we'll not learn the answer to that question."
50
Styx
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 katana to 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 katana even as his body met its death. The ninja sat abruptly against the glass wall overlooking the Silver Eagle. His katana clattered 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 darkn
ess. 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 tanto and 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 Panther filled 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?