Six of the Valkyrie's LRMs spiraled down into the Panther with hideous effect. Like flies to an open wound, the missiles blasted through the weakened torso armor and on into the 'Mech's core. An explosion brought a wave of white heat from the Panther's chest as the missiles shattered shielding on the fusion reactor.
Baker's Jenner landed in a crouch, facing an undamaged Panther. The 'Mechs exchanged SRM volleys, but the Jenner's lower profile let the Panther's SRMs fly overhead, where they exploded against a barren hillside. Half the Jenner's SRMs hit their target, drawing first blood and shattering armor on the Panther's torso.
Four lasers stabbed out from the Jenner's wings. One carved more armor from the Kurita 'Mech's torso, while another burned an uneven line through the armor on the Panther's left leg. The final two beams lanced through the Panther's left arm, stripping it of every scrap of armor and exposing the myomer muscles.
The Kurita Panther's right arm came up and triggered a blast with its PPC. The blue jolt jerked and writhed as it scourged Jenner's chest. Gobs of molten armor flew away from the Jenner on vapor jets. As the debris cloud evaporated, it left the Jenner's chest naked and vulnerable.
Bethany Connor's Panther swung about and targeted the Kurita Panther attacking Baker's Jenner. Her PPC spat blue fire in a direct line at the enemy Panther's, wounded chest, bursting through the remaining armor as though it were paper. The beam melted all it touched, then ignited the SRMs stored in the Panther's chest.
The SRMs exploded in a staccato string of bright flashes. Like a fountain of fire, bursts of light lanced from the 'Mech's torso. A pair of brilliant detonations sent the 'Mech's naked left arm spinning past Connor's Panther. Fire roiled and swirled within the Kurita 'Mech's heart, then grew in a series of explosions that the Panther could no longer contain. In a flash of platinum fire hot enough to momentarily overwhelm Dan's scanner, the 'Mech disintegrated.
Diane McWilliams and Mary Lasker bracketed the remaining Panther and concentrated their fire upon it. As their PPC beams both savaged the 'Mech's right leg, its armor melted away like wax. Muscles snapped apart and titanium bones glowed white-hot before they dissolved into tiny droplets.
As the Kurita Panther wavered and began to fall, the paired SRM volleys from the Kell Hound's captured Panthers battered the crippled 'Mech. Explosions blossomed across its chest like a necklace of fiery flowers, twisting the big machine and knocking it to the ground.
The Kurita Panthers moved to withdraw. "We have to stop them, Kell Hounds." Dan hated the sound of his voice as he issued the order, but he knew that there was no other choice. If they get to where they can radio for help, we're finished.
Fitzhugh's Catapult launched two more flights of LRMs at the Panther it had first attacked. Over a score of missiles hammered that 'Mech, shrouding it in a cloak of fire. The broken right arm snapped clean off after a series of hideous detonations. Several missiles shredded what little armor remained on the Panther's head. Even more LRM missiles blasted away the fragments of armor shielding the 'Mech's chest, then crushed the Panther's gyro system and SRM launcher. The broken machine spun to the planet's surface.
The Kurita Panther that Salome had first attacked turned in midflight to face her Wolverine. The two 'Mechs exchanged flights of SRMs like duelists settling a vendetta. Three missiles launched from the Panther exploded against the Wolverine's left
Hank. Though they blasted away armor, the wounds appeared to be trivial.
Four of the SRMs arcing from the Wolverine's shoulder launcher struck their flying target. One exploded within the confines of the enemy Panthers chest, while the other three blasted armor from the left side of the chest, left leg, and right arm. The last missile, though it did little more than superficial damage, exploded against the PPC on the Panther's right arm. The blast forced the fearsome weapon wide of its intended target so that the blue beam it had released burned harmlessly over the Wolverine's head.
Salome's return fire struck home savagely. The autocannon's burst hit the Panther in the face, snapping its head back like a fighter hit by a punch. As the Kurita 'Mech began to roll over slowly, the Wolverine's head-mounted medium laser stabbed deep into its front torso. Oily smoke burst from the Panther as the laser melted yet more shielding from its fusion engine.
The energy beam also destroyed the Panther's gyrostabilizer. The gyro's destruction accentuated the roll begun earlier, and the 'Mech went spinning helplessly out of control. It spiraled around on ion jets as the pilot fought to control it, then slammed against a mountainside in a brilliant explosion.
Cat and Brand caught the third Panther in a withering PPC crossfire, the turquoise energy beams slashing through the stricken 'Mech like scalpels. Cat's beam sliced all the armor from the Panther's right arm. Steaming vaporized metal, the smoking carapace dropped to the planet's ochre surface.
Ignoring the damage done by Cat's attack, Brand impaled the enemy Panther with his PPCs artificial lightning. It spitted the fusion engine and split open the remaining shielding like the shell of a nut. Fire blossomed in the Panther's stomach, then exploded outward. It bisected the 'Mech, then greedily gobbled the upper half before the plasma ball imploded and vanished in a golden flash.
"Dan, what the hell are they doing?" The urgency in Meg Lang's voice filled Dan with dread. "The other two pilots have activated their eject mechanisms. Their canopies are blown!"
Dan punched magnification and Starlight onto his forward scanner. He focused on the face of the Panther with one leg missing. He shivered and nearly vomited. Why do they do that? Damned Kurita sense of honor! What a waste.
The Kurita pilot had opened his cockpit to the outside vacuum without the benefit of a sealed suit. Dan could barely make out the blood dribbling from the warrior's nose through the viewplate
on the neurohelmet. He glanced at his own scanners and they told him that the warrior's body was rapidly cooling.
Dan swallowed hard. "They're dead. Let's move on. We don't want to get caught in the open if their DropShip cruises back to find out what happened to them."
54
Styx
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
26 May 3027
Three kilometers further on, through craters blasted into the planetoid's surface by meteors, the Kell Hounds reached the small docking bay. Set flush into the red-rock surface, the 100-meter wide square glowed yellow in the backglare of blinking directional lights. Dan's magscanner confirmed that the interlocking metal doors were structurally sound, and that energy flowed to the circuits needed to open them. "Dan."
Dan turned his Valkyrie toward where Brand's Panther knelt beside the smaller airlock meant for personnel. Though the titanium doorway appeared plainly on Dan's magscan, he could see some sort of plastic cover shrouding it on the visual scanner. "What have you got, Austin?"
The Panther raised its head. "It looks as though jump troops came through here," Brand said. "The instructions on the seal are in Japanese. With two Kurita ships in-system, that must mean that the foot soldiers were Draconian."
Dan could almost see the frown on Cat's face that would match the rumble in the MechWarrior's voice. "Jump troops sent in before 'Mechs? That means one thing."
Dan nodded. "ISF." I hope like hell the folks inside knew that they were coming. If not, we probably won't find anything alive in there.
Salome broke into the conversation. "Dan, did you notice the crest on those 'Mechs?"
Dan tried to visualize it, but could not. He punched up a replay of his combat footage, and froze the display when a crest popped into view. He magnified it and studied the simple design in the standard Kurita red circle. "I make it a black wave with stars in it. If that little boat carried up almost under the crest of the wave is to scale, that is a massive tidalwave."
"Right, that's what I have too." A nervous edge crept into Salome's voice. "I've crosschecked it against all unit designations in the Successor States. It's a blank."
That's impossible. Icy fingers
traced a line down Dan's spine. "A unit that doesn't exist and ISF troops. This is strange." He switched to the battle frequency. "Let's be careful, people. This could be nasty. There must be something inside this rock that the Draconis Combine wants very badly."
Meg Lang's Wasp knelt beside the large bay doors. She attached the radio landline to a small panel at one edge of the bay. "Dan, I've set up our remote relay so that we can communicate with the Cu from inside this rock. I've also got full operational control of the airlock and this small docking bay. Both doors work. Everything is set for us to pretend we're an incoming ship."
"Good. Salome, I'd like your Wolverine to shield Meg's Wasp and Baker's Jenner. Meg, Eddie, you two will go in last and hang back because the Panthers will eat your 'Mechs alive. Brand, I want you and Connor up front. Your Panthers may confuse the Draconians for a moment or two."
Meg keyed in a standard access code, and the massive doors slowly slid apart. The thin layer of red dust from the planetoid's surface drifted up as traces of atmosphere burst free of the airlock. The Kell Hound 'Mechs quickly stepped onto the elevator platform that had risen from the interior to the surface.
Meg detached the landline from the exterior access port and snapped it into a similar connection on the elevator floor. She started the elevator moving downward, then closed the doors over their heads. In the darkness and silence of the airlock's vacuum, the Kell Hounds descended.
Dan shivered unconsciously. "Meg, how about some lights?"
"No can do, Dan. Styx Mining was a frugal company. Why waste them in an elevator shaft? I am bringing the atmosphere back up, though." The elevator began to slow and Meg laughed. "Ground floor. Lamps, lingerie, and angry Kuritans."
Bethany Connor laughed, too. "Lamps? Now I know what to do with the next Panther I see."
Dan swallowed as the elevator stopped. "O.K. Can the chatter. Connor and Brand are point. Fitzhugh, Baker, and Lang are rearguard. Open the doors, Meg."
The interior airlock doors opened slowly. Connor and Brand dropped their Panthers into low crouches, thrusting the snouts of their PPCs through the widening crack. Not a word passed between the two MechWarriors, but each covered a different arc of the room.
"Clear, Dan."
"Roger. Head out and secure the hallway."
In response to the order, Brand slipped through the half-opened doors. He covered the large, 'Mech-scale doorway in the wall to the right. Bethany Connor trotted her 'Mech behind Brand's, then took up a position where she could cover the doorway more fully. Brand closed to the doorway and peeked his Panther's head around the corner.
"Clear again, Dan."
Dan stepped his Valkyrie from the elevator. "Go down the corridor no more than two hundred meters. You do remember enough Japanese to answer some basic questions if you meet a force before we can come up, don't you?"
"Hai, Allard-sama."
"Cute. Get going."
Brand's Panther vanished into the corridor, with Connor's 'Mech following closely. Cat Wilson took up Brand's old position next to the door, and Salome's Wolverine backed him up. The other Panthers, piloted by Diane McWilliams and Mary Lasker, formed up behind Dan's Valkyrie. The Catapult, Jenner, and Wasp still stood in the elevator.
Dan waved Cat and Salome forward with his 'Mech's left hand, then started to follow them. McWilliams and Lasker took up defensive positions near the doorway, then drifted into the corridor behind the Valkyrie.
Brand's voice exploded into Dan's neurohelmet. "Son of a bitch! Dan, get down here. Fast!"
"Austin, what is it?"
The Lieutenant's laugh carried utter disbelief. "This you've got to see."
Dan frowned. "This is not the place for jokes, Lieutenant. What is it."
"I'm not joking, sir. The Captain wouldn't believe me if I told him."
This better be good, or your ass is in a sling, Brand. Dan squeezed his Valkyrie past the Wolverine and quickly marched to where Brand's Panther had dropped to one knee. Further up the corridor, crouched just this side of an intersection, Connor covered the converging hallways. Dan waved his left hand, and Cat brought his Panther up to match Connor's at the other side of the corridor.
Dan caught his first glimpse of them over Brand's shoulder. "Oh, my God!" he muttered, switching over to the command frequency. "Salome, we have trouble."
"What?"
"Not what. Who." Dan now understood the disbelief in Brand's radio message. "We've just found a dwarf, a MechWarrior, and the Archon-Designate of the Lyran Commonwealth!"
* * *
Dan shifted his radio from Tac-2 to the battle channel that all the Kell Hounds shared. "O.K., this is the plan." Dan swallowed hard as he looked at the different 'Mechs standing around the docking bay. He turned his Valkyrie's head toward the Wasp and Jenner.
"Meg, you and Eddie will take the Archon-Designate, Leftenant Redburn, and Clovis to the surface. Stay hidden. The Mac is coming in for you. After the rest of us leave here, switch over to Tac-2 and Patrick will give you instructions for pickup."
Both 'Mech pilots acknowledged the instructions, then Dan continued with the briefing. "The rest of us are going to buy the Mac the time it needs to get away with Melissa Steiner. The Cu-camulus has already started moving away as fast as she can, and the Mac will catch up once it takes our passengers aboard. The Cu will have worked up two days' worth of charge—which is more than we had getting here—and will jump our guests out to some Fed star."
Cat Wilson's bass voice thundered through Dan's neuro-helmet. "The aero wing will screen the Mac, right?"
"Correct. That keeps it safe from any Kurita Panthers roaming the surface. The DropShip heading back to the Kurita jumpers can't turn around in time to reach the Cu before it jumps. The only interference comes from the ship that dropped the Panthers we destroyed on the surface."
Austin Brand spoke with chilling finality. "And it won't take the Cu unless it has some military forces—the Panthers Clovis says it dropped into the big bay."
Dan shrugged and sighed. "That's it, folks. We've got to hold the Kuritans long enough for the Archon-Designate's escape to become a mathematical certainty." Which means that the Kurita force will pound us into plum sauce, if Clovis's computer projection is correct. Dan realized that the same thought would also be occurring to the others in his command, but no one voiced the gloomy prediction.
"Captain Allard, this is Leftenant Redburn." Pain and anger threaded Redburn's words, but his utter fatigue dominated them. "Let me out of this Jenner. I've got some fighting left to do."
Dan laughed. "Sorry, Leftenant. I've got my orders. Kell Hound Company policy. No pilots at less than 100 percent allowed into combat." Dan focused on the Wasp. "And if you're listening, your Highness, we will not leave you or Clovis here, either. Colonel Kell was quite clear in his orders."
Dan walked his Valkyrie toward the doorway. Because the battle scanners gave him full, 360-degree vision, he saw Brand's Panther reach out and touch hands with Meg Lang's Wasp. For your sake, Meg, I hope that your grandmother was wrong in making you promise never to love a MechWarrior. I have a feeling this battle is going to be rougher on the survivors than it is on those who die.
Dan's Valkyrie led the remaining Kell Hounds deeper into the planetoid. Cat Wilson formed himself up as Dan's partner. Diane McWilliams and Mary Lasker hung together right behind the Valkyrie. Brand and Salome Ward, with their vastly different 'Mechs, formed the third fire team. Fitzhugh in his Catapult and Bethany Connor in a Panther formed the column's rearguard.
Dan studied a schematic that Clovis had pulled from the base's computer and pumped into the Valkyrie. It showed the docking bay where the Silver Eagle and the Bifrost hung suspended by invisible magnetic threads. The massive area extended two levels and featured over two dozen 'Mech-sized corridors converging on it. The Kell Hounds would have ample holes from which to attack, and an equal number through which to retreat. Dan smiled. We can do some damage before—
A loud, screeching signal howled
into his neurohelmet for a second or two before the computer cleaned it up. "Hello! Hello!" The voice, which Dan had never heard before, hesitated with the words and almost succumbed to converting the Ls into Rs. A Kuritan!
Dan did not reply. With the Valkyrie's arms, he motioned to his people to spread, and they quickly moved into the positions he designated. Dan marched his Valkyrie past Cat's crouching Panther, and continued a bit further on down the corridor. On ahead, through a brightly lit archway, he knew he'd see the large docking bay.
Again the voice burst into his ears. "Hello? We know you are out there. I am Sho-sa ... So sorry, that's Major Tarukito Niiro. I am the tactical commander for this operation. You will reply. Yes, please?"
Dan typed furiously on his console keyboard. He shot a tight-beamed message back to Cat, with instructions to pass it on to the other Kell Hounds. The messages designated the points where he wanted each Kell Hound stationed, and the amount of time he allowed for each one to obtain his firestation. Now to buy us that time.
"Hai, Sho-sa Niiro Tarukito-san. Konnichi wa." Dan smiled to himself. "I and my regiment are here. What can I do for you?”
“Excuse me, but to whom am I speaking?”
“Captain Daniel Allard."
Tarukito's voice came back, almost apologetic. "And your regiment is. . . ?"
"Unimportant, Sho-sa, but large enough to destroy any command you have." Dan inched the Valkyrie a bit further down the corridor. "As I asked before, what can I do for you?"
"You can surrender to us the Archon-Designate, Melissa Arthur Steiner."
Dan felt chills down his spine. He forced levity into his voice to put off the Kurita Sho-sa. "I am afraid that I haven't the least idea what you're talking about."
"That is a pity." The Draconian sounded truly sorry. "Please, Captain Allard, continue down the corridor. Consider yourself under a flag of truce. You have my word." Tarukito's voice lightened. "I call your bluff, Captain."