Since the end of the civil war, we have discovered numerous accounting errors in the tables of equipment and personnel. While some of that is undoubtedly due to the vagaries of combat and war over a period of 5 years, many of the losses could not even be accounted for by combat, since it was clear that thy did not take part in the fighting.

Four warships, about 600 nuclear and biological warheads from various facilities, and almost 5 RCTs worth of mechs and vehicles were found missing and not destroyed by our investigators.

This team suggests that every effort be made to uncover the whereabouts of these weapons of war.

-Excerpt from classified DMI report 32464JDZ-23156, dated 14^th September 3067

 

The one lesson learnt from observing the civil war was the sheer intensity of modern combat, a far cry even from the days of the old Star League Defense Force under General Kerensky. With centuries of history to draw on, commanders were often encouraged to seize the initiative at any cost, and more importantly, they often had the means to do so, with the proliferation of advanced construction techniques like extra light engines and endo steel, and the advent of extended range technology.

The fluid nature of mobile combat meant that only the quickest thinkers could thrive in command. The plodding top heavy style once favored by the House militaries four decades ago evolved into the nimble and responsive delegation command style that was seen in the civil war. Junior officers had more responsibility than ever, while senior officers had to be even more aware of the locations and plans of their subordinates.

It was to prove good training for the jihad.

-The Nature of War, Jonathon Hanson

 

Avalon City, New Avalon,

Crucis March, Federated Suns

19^th August 3068

 

Duke Derrick Ferguson drummed his fingers impatiently on the armrest of his chair. Not for the first time, he wondered where he had gone wrong in the upbringing of his daughter.

Frank Meronac was a fine man, even he admitted that. But he was not of noble birth, and that was all Derrick needed to scratch his name off the substantial list of suitors. Now Jacques, on the other hand, was a baron, and even better, was a rising star in the Federated Suns military.

And what possibilities that might bring…

There was a rapping on his door.

“Come in,” the Duke ordered. It was getting late, and he needed to get this over with as quickly as possible. The room was lit with soft light, and Ferguson was preparing to go to sleep after he had settled this matter.

Jacques Viler entered with a tray of tea. “My lord, here’re some refreshments.” Jacques placed the tray on a nearby table.

Ferguson nodded, “Thank you. Have a seat.” He gestured to a seat facing him.

Jacques took the seat, than asked, “What was it you wanted to see me about?”

“It should come as no surprise to you, but again, it’s about Clarice.” Ferguson coughed slightly, then picked up a cup of tea. “You should know that Meronac is still seeing her, even after your ‘advice’ a few days ago.”

“Yes, I know. But Frank is a stubborn man, and it seems his prior experiences have made him even more so.”

“I don’t care.” Ferguson stated firmly. “I just don’t want him near my daughter any longer.”

“But sir…”

“Hear me out. Since we cannot convince Meronac, how about we convince Clarice instead?”

Jacques was horrified. “Sir, you cannot be suggesting that…”

Derrick smiled. “No, of course not. You misunderstand me. There’re always alternatives, and here’s one that’ll convince Clarice to do as I tell her without her getting hurt in any way. Indeed, I want her away from Avalon City and near my estates on Rostock instead, since that’ll quite limit her chances of getting near Meronac. I won’t have my future descendents have commoner blood in them.”

Ferguson stood up. “Soon, Jacques, soon I shall win over enough nobles to re-establish the Periphery March, and with me as its Minister and Duke! Clarice shall be my heir, and I’ll not have her marrying a low born swamp rat from Lackland, even if it is my personal fiefdom!”

He leaned over to look at Jacques. “You, on the other hand, would be a worthy choice. Your military record speaks for itself,” Ferguson smiled inwardly as he noticed Jacques puffing himself up with pride, “and I am sure you will go even further in the future. But I need Clarice to leave Avalon City now.”

Jacques shook his head. “Clarice will never agree to leaving Avalon City.”

“Oh, she will,” Ferguson said with confidence, “I’ve already placed my men in place. Here’s what you need to do…”

Jacques leaned forward, and smiled as the Duke outlined his plan.

 

Clarice hummed to herself as she walked away from Frank’s apartment block. It had been quite a nice night they had after work. Frank had brought her out for a movie, then they had a good time having supper at a small café. She hoped she didn’t eat too much.

The two of them had been highly tempted to have her stay longer in his apartment, but Frank was adamant that she leave because his wounds had not completely healed yet. She also suspected he was still a bit leery of what Jacques might do if she stayed in his apartment overnight.

Not to mention what her father might do…

She sighed. Problems like these were the toughest to deal with. She loved her father very much despite everything he did. Her father was hard but fair, but he just couldn’t think straight when it came to Frank. Frank wasn’t any less a man for being a low born commoner, and it wasn’t his fault anyway. He was on his way to being a warrior, and could even be quite successful.

Oh, she knew her father was only trying to protect her, but she was no longer a child, but a full grown woman capable of making her own choices. And she had chosen Frank.

The lights on the streets glowed dimly as she walked back to her own apartment, a short distance away.

The screech of rubber tires on the road behind her attracted her attention. She turned around, only for the car to suddenly pull up beside her. To her surprise, Jacques Viler jumped out of the car and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Clarice screamed. She tried to kick herself away, but Jacques managed to bundle her into the car regardless. The door shut behind her, and the car started to move off.

Clarice looked around frantically for a way out, while Jacques tried to calm her down.

“Clarice, relax!” Jacques was saying, but Clarice didn’t care. If Jacques thought he could get her with this method, he was sorely mistaken.

She asked, “What do you want with me?”

Jacques explained patiently, “Nothing really, except I want you to see something first.”

Clarice felt the car stop, then the window beside her seat came down with a whirring sound. She realized that they were just below Frank’s apartment.

And smoke was coming out of Frank’s apartment. The dull flicker of yellow light from the apartment could only mean one thing.

She turned to look at Jacques, horrified beyond words. “Jacques, what have you done?”

Jacques shrugged. “Nothing much. We poured several gallons of kerosene mixed with chloroform and other volatile fuels in front of his door, then lit it up. I think we managed to get enough into his flat to set the things inside alight. If he isn’t knocked out by the fumes, he might have a chance.”

“You’re mad!” Clarice reached for the door handle, trying to open it, but it refused to budge. “Let me out!” She had to get help for Frank!

Jacques continued speaking quietly and calmly. “You see, Clarice, we also managed to cut the phone lines to his flat. Sure, he might get his own mobile phone, but it won’t be easy. If help doesn’t arrive soon…” Jacques drew a line across his throat.

“What do you want?” Clarice asked, fear clutching her heart in its painful grasp. She could feel the tears in her eyes. Frank was dying up there!

“Stay away from Frank, Clarice.” Jacques ordered. “Go to your father’s estates on Rostock, and stay there for good. Leave Meronac as long as he is still on New Avalon. Cut off all communications with him even when he goes offworld. Tell him that you’ll no longer see him. Then we’ll let you call for help. In fact, we’ll even do it for you.”

“Did my father put you up to this?” Clarice shouted accusingly. She was beginning to panic. How could Jacques do this? And Frank could be dying right now!

Jacques shook his head. “No, it was my idea. But your father might have approved anyway. So what’s your decision? Time’s running out.” He took a look at his watch, as though taunting her with the fact that she had to make a decision soon.

Clarice took one look at the apartment above, the tears now running down her face. There was no other choice. For Frank to live, she’ll have to give up their love. She hated herself for having no other choice, she hated Jacques for this ploy. How could he sink so low? Why couldn’t she be just a little bit stronger and stand up to him?

She realized that she couldn’t. Neither could Frank. In the eyes of people like Jacques, they were just tools to be manipulated, items to be possessed. The idea of free will was a joke.

She sobbed, “I agree, damn you! I agree! Get help now, please!”

Jacques nodded slowly. “You see, it’s as easy as that.” He nodded to the driver, then reached over to pat a sobbing Clarice on her hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of you.”

The sound of sirens was heard in the neighborhood several minutes later, but the car was already gone.

 

Frank shook his head in disbelief as he sat on the chair in the police station. Was it his imagination, or was his luck particularly bad this past year?

He had been barely hanging onto consciousness when the fire brigade had managed to break down his door and get him out. His apartment had been wrecked, though he supposed he should be grateful he did not have any valuables in there.

Hell, with his financial condition, what could he possibly have in the way of possessions? The Night Gyr sitting in the spaceport was the only valuable thing he really owned, and there was no way he was giving that up!

“Mister Meronac, this looks like a deliberate case of arson. Is there anyone you might have offended over the past few months?” The police officer was asking.

Well, I could mention Jacques, but who’ll believe me? Frank groaned silently. He lied through his teeth, “I didn’t offend anybody.”

The officer raised a bushy eyebrow. “You sure? According to the records on you, you’re a registered mechwarrior and a mercenary. Sure there isn’t anything you want to tell us?”

Frank pasted a smile on his face. “No, I’m sure it’s all just a big misunderstanding.”

The officer nodded, though his face showed that he certainly wasn’t convinced by Frank’s act. No matter. It wasn’t his problem to handle.

Frank got up from the chair to see Eddie and Lorik walk up to him. It wasn’t very late in the night, but it wasn’t exactly early either. Midnight was just ten minutes away.

“What happened?” Lorik asked, his booming voice drawing the stares of the policemen.

Frank shook his head, grabbed one of Eddie’s arms, and started pulling him in the direction of the exit. “I’m not sure, but I can’t tell you here. Let’s go out, and we’ll talk.”

They squeezed into Eddie’s car, and Frank asked, “Eddie, can you send me to Clarice’s home? I lost my mobile phone, and I haven’t been able to get into contact with her even from the station.”

“You’re worried something’s happened.” Eddie stated the obvious. “And you think it’s Jacques.”

“Yeah.” Frank answered grimly. “But I’ve got no proof. I’m just worried about Clarice.”

“I think she can take care of herself.” Eddie said.

“Just in case, and besides, I need a place to stay, and your apartment is already too cramped with Lorik around.”

Frank took Eddie’s silence as acquiescence to his points.

It was a long ride to Clarice’s own apartment, since it was pretty far away from the police station he had been taken to, and Frank sighed in relief when he saw the lights in her apartment were on.

“Thanks Eddie. I’m going on up myself. It’s getting late. I think you guys should head on back home.” Frank opened the car doors and hopped out. “I think I’ll crash at Clarice’s place.”

“Ahhh,” Eddie grinned, “Taking advantage of your misfortune?”

Frank shrugged, “I really need a place to stay overnight.” He closed the door, and slapped the top of the car lightly. “Thanks for the lift, Eddie. Good night guys. Bye!”

Eddie and Lorik waved back as they drove off. Frank turned and started for the block.

The first thing he noticed were the workers moving things out of the block onto several vans in the apartments own car lot. In the middle of the night.

Frank looked closer. Wait a minute, these are Clarice’s stuff! He ran up to a worker and asked, “Excuse me, but which apartment are these from?”

The worker, a burly man in his forties, replied, “Level 7, apartment H.”

Frank’s heart sank at the words. It was indeed Clarice’s apartment. What was going on? If she was moving out, why now? Why didn’t she tell him? His head was spinning a bit at the turn of events. This was definitely not a good night for him.

Frank took the lift up, along with several movers, getting more nervous by the moment. He stepped out of the lift, only to see a grim Jacques Viler supervising what seemed to be the last batch of furniture.

“Jacques?” Frank’s stomach was churning in its customary way whenever he was near Jacques. “What’s going on? Where’s Clarice?”

The target of his questions paid him no heed for several long seconds, instead giving some instructions to the workers. He turned to Frank only after he had finished giving the last of his orders.

“What did you say, Meronac?” Jacques asked sardonically.

Calm down, Frank. You don’t want to get into a fight, Frank told himself. He spoke, “What’s going on? Where’s Clarice?”

“Clarice,” Jacques said firmly, “is no longer your business. She’s moving to her father’s estate on Rostock. I suggest you stay away from her.”

Frank couldn’t believe his ears. “What? Where is she? I need to talk to her!” He started to walk past Jacques into the apartment.

Jacques let him pass, before he said, “She’s not here. She’s already on a plane to Rostock.”

Unable to find her in the apartment, Frank, for the first time in his life in Jacques’ presence, let his anger show on his face. “Let me talk to her!” He stared at Jacques, trying to intimidate the other man.

Unimpressed, Jacques raised an eyebrow. “You sure? Fine.” Jacques took out a mobile phone, and pressed a button. He held it out for Frank.

Frank held it up to his ear. “Hello?”

“Frank?” Clarice’s voice came over the phone.

“Clarice, where are you?” Frank asked desperately.

“I’m… I’m on a flight to Rostock.”

She sounds broken up. Frank tried to ignore the chill gripping his heart. “Clarice, what happened? Please tell me! Come back, please!” He ran to an open balcony, hoping to catch a glimpse of her plane in the night sky.

“I’m sorry,” he heard a sob from her, “I’m sorry, Frank. This can’t work out between us. It’ll never work. I’m so sorry. Please forget me. Goodbye.” She hung up.

Frank gripped the mobile phone tightly in his hand, unable to believe what he had just heard. No, dammit! She had to be forced into this. I know it!

He spun around to look at Jacques. “What did you do?” He demanded again in a yell, “What did you do?”

“What? She dumped you?” Jacques smiled. “Should have done that a long time ago. Good riddance, Meronac.”

“Tell me, damn you!” Frank stepped forward with a fist swinging around at Jacques, but Jacques casually blocked it before sending his other hand in a blow into Frank’s body.

Frank fell back from the force of the blow, and choked several times, trying to get some air back into his lungs.

“Stay away from her, Meronac.” Jacques started to walk off with the last of the furniture movers, into the lift. “She doesn’t need your type around. Go shack up with a whore from the street. It suits you. Good night, loser.” The lift doors closed.

Leaving Frank alone with his thoughts, sitting on the corridor. Why can’t I beat him? Damn it, why? Why did she have to leave? Why did this have to happen to me? Why am I so fucking useless? Why? Why? Why?

Frank clenched his fists. No way he was giving Clarice up so easily. There was something he could do. It’ll probably bring the house down on him, but he couldn’t care less.

He’d make Jacques Viler regret his actions.

 

Frank ran towards the hangar where his Night Gyr was stored, his mind in a whirl. He’ll take the mech into Avalon City and force Jacques at gun point to return Clarice to him. Then the two of them will take off. He’ll bring her to Outreach, and damn the consequences. He’ll probably also have to arrange for some way for his parents on Lackland to leave, but he decided he’ll worry about that later.

Frank knew he wasn’t making much sense, even to himself, but he couldn’t give a damn by this point. They had forced his hand, and by God, they were going to pay!

The Night Gyr was in good condition, since Frank was able to hire a technician and a small security crew to keep it in good condition and also to prevent it from being stolen. Added to the spaceport’s own security force, the Night Gyr was in safe hands. He flashed his ID to the security personnel standing guard in a small booth equipped with video feeds just outside the hangar, and they nodded to let him pass. Thankfully, none of them questioned why he was checking on his mech in the very early morning.

They will, Frank thought, once I get into the cockpit.

He opened a side door in the hangar, and groped around for the hangar lights for a moment before he found them. He switched on the lights, and whistled for the umpteenth time as he looked at the gleaming shape of his Omnimech. It was painted in the black with white accents pattern of the MIB, the stark contrast of the colors making the mech stand out anywhere.

After the latest simulation on Outreach, Frank had reconfigured his mech slightly. While the right arm still held a gauss rifle, the left arm now held a large pulse laser. Four medium lasers and an extended range large laser completed the direct fire armament, while an ATM nine rack provided missile firepower at all ranges. He had also plugged in a few extra double heat sinks to handle the heat buildup, though the mech still ran a bit too hot at times. Hot enough to cook him.

And if he needed to avoid getting cooked, he would need to suit up.

Frank reached into a nearby closet for his mechwarrior combat suit. He had splurged a great deal of his remaining meager savings on a suit since he had seen their effectiveness on Einstein, and it had been one of his better purchases.

He changed into the suit quickly, and tossed his clothes onto a nearby workbench. The guards watching the cameras should have gotten the hint by now, and would be scrambling to stop him.

Frank zipped up his suit as he walked up to the ladder leading to the Gyr’s cockpit. Just as he started climbing, a guard ran in through the same side door he had used.

“Hey, what’re you doing?” The guard asked.

Even though Frank owned the mech, using a battlemech on New Avalon was not allowed unless in the presence of select AFFS personnel. The guards were as much for the security of the Night Gyr as they were for the security of New Avalon itself.

Frank said nonchalantly, “I’m taking this baby out for a spin.”

The guard drew his sidearm. “I can’t let you do that sir!”

Frank threw the man a forced grin, “Hey, it’s just for a little while. Wouldn’t hurt.” Meanwhile, a part of his mind counted the number of rungs left to the cockpit. Almost there now.

“Sir! Stop where you are, or I’ll shoot!” The guard shouted out in warning, and he raised his sidearm, a slug pistol.

Frank did not wait, propelling himself past the last few rungs into the open cockpit through the hatch. He slammed the hatch shut just moments before the first shots started banging off the thick armor of the Night Gyr’s head section. The guard stopped shooting, obviously knowing that his pistol had no chance of getting through the Night Gyr’s armor.

Glancing down at the guard shouting excitedly into his commset, Frank had no doubt he was calling for backup. Mech support, probably. He could see the guard through the plexiglass on the front of the Night Gyr, and the guard could also see him right back.

He planned to be away before the spaceport patrols arrived.

Frank ran through the startup sequence of the Night Gyr. He regretted having to push the engine through a cold start, but it could not be helped.

Just as the mech reported full readiness, there was a sudden explosion from outside the hangar, stunning both guard and mechwarrior.

Frank stared at the guard, and the guard stared right back at him for a few seconds, before Frank took his hands off his triggers and held them up in confusion for the guard to see. Wasn’t me! It wasn’t me! Frank waved his arms in denial.

The guard held his headset to his ear, while holding up an upraised palm towards Frank, as though asking him to wait. Frank saw the guard nod several times, before he turned back to the Night Gyr.

Frank toggled on the external pickups, as well as the speaker system, so that he could communicate with the guard. The sound of more explosions outside could be heard very clearly.

A battle was going on.

The guard started shouting, “The spaceport is under attack by unknown mechs! They’re attacking the spaceport patrols!”

“Yeah,” Frank said, “But where does that leave me?”

“Are you in cahoots with them?”

Frank blinked. “Excuse me, I’m not exactly being very hostile here!”

“Well, for all I know, you could be a deep plant to attack from the inside!”

“Hey, if I really was working for the attackers, would I be sitting here arguing with you?”

The guard paused for a while, rubbing his chin while thinking, before admitting, “Good point.”

“I’m getting out of here!” Frank didn’t know what exactly was going on, but he had no wish to be wandering around in a battle without several inches of hardened mech alloy between him and any incoming attacks.

Besides, the Night Gyr was powered up, and he could use the attack as a cover to get Jacques instead…

Oh no… Frank groaned. Jacques would probably be in his own mech once he got news of the attack. And that in turn would mean he had little chance of getting Jacques to return Clarice to him.

What the heck, he’ll get out of the hangar and see what’s going on instead.

Frank toggled for his laser weaponry, and triggered his lasers at the flimsy hangar doors, while the guard ducked out of the way. The doors melted under the caress of the energy beams, forming a pool of metal on the ground as the Night Gyr started moving out of the hangar.

Even though the spaceport was a very big place, especially with all the hangars and extra runways for intercontinental aerospace flights, Frank could see the glow from the distance of fire and explosions.

Stay here, go to the city and hunt down Jacques, or find out what’s going on here? Frank clutched his triggers tightly, unable to make a decision. If only the situation wasn’t so damn confusing!

Then a blue and gold painted Jackal appeared, and fired at him with its PPC.

The bolt passed to the left of the Night Gyr, and Frank reflexively fired back with his full ranged armament of a gauss rifle and two large lasers. There was a slight jerk from the mech as the gauss slug left the barrel.

The Jackal staggered as the gauss slug slammed into it’s shoulder, sending a shower of metal chips raining on the ground, while the pulse laser played over its legs. The extended range laser missed high. The light mech staggered from the hits, and limped away back into the cover of several buildings.

“Attention, Night Gyr!” The call came over the open channel, “Identify yourself!”

Frank noticed a Sentry missing an arm marching from another direction, painted in the colors of the Davion Guard.

Unwilling to trust his eyes, since false colors could always be used, Frank kept his hands on his triggers, moving his targeting sights onto the Sentry. One false move, buddy, and you get it.

Frank answered the previous question, “Frank Meronac, Mercs in Black. I’m visiting my friends.”

“A merc with a clan omnimech?”

“Yeah, what’s it to you?” Frank rolled his tongue around in his mouth nervously, while trying to gauge the other man’s sincerity. “And who are you?”

“Lieutenant Julio Winward, Davion Guard. We just got bushwhacked by what seems to be the Fifth Fed Com. They landed in an Union, and waited until our patrols passed by before suddenly cutting loose with their dropship’s weapons. Damn near wiped us out. I managed to get a reinforced lance out, but they’re coming with us with two lances each of mechs and vehicles. I guess their infantry is securing the rest of the spaceport.” Despite his words, the man’s tone was calm, as though he was discussing the weather instead of a battle for his life.

“So what do you want?” Frank asked. Julio seemed to be telling the truth, and the battered state of his mech was also quite convincing.

“Simple. You’re a merc, and I’m willing to hire you now to help us defend the spaceport. Full repair and ammo reimbursement. 20,000 C-bills. How about it?”

That was already quite a deal, but Frank also knew that the defenders were in desperate straits. He decided to press his luck. “Raise it to 30,000 C-bills, or I’ll signal to the Fifth Fed Com I’m sitting this out.” By right, as part of the MIB, he wasn’t supposed to offer individual contracting, but Frank figured this was a special case.

“Fine. 30,000 C-bills.” Julio agreed easily. “Deal?”

“Deal.” Frank made sure he had recorded the exchange on his systems. It was one of the first things he was taught in the OMTC. “So what next?”

The Sentry started to move, and Frank followed it into a cluster of buildings. Julio started briefing Frank, “The bogeys fanned out from the dropship in a sweep pattern. They don’t seem to be straying far from the Union, and we don’t have enough firepower to take the dropship. What we can do is to hunt down the mechs and vehicles, leaving them with only the area controlled by the dropship’s guns. Also…” Julio suddenly paused. “Wait one.”

They pressed on, while the fighting seemed to have reached a lull. Julio came back on, “Blake’s Blood! The Fifth Fed Com just landed more than a battalion into Avalon City!”

Frank wasn’t stupid, and he understood immediately. “They need to secure the spaceport for their ticket offworld. That’s why they attacked here first.”

“That’s right. Okay, this is going to be tricky. We need to hit the spaceport elements here hard enough so that they are tied up here and not able to head into the city for support. That means we have to take down at least two lances down. Think you can cut it, merc?”

“Cover my back, and we’ll see.” Frank licked his lips nervously. This was going to be a long night. “Let’s hunt for that Jackal first.”

“Watch out, they operate in two mech elements,” Julio warned.

“Roger that.” Frank glanced at his radar screen. “Picking up two bogeys, approaching fast at 4 o’clock!”

“I see them.” Julio spun his Sentry around, as the two emerged from the building cluster.

Frank saw the Jackal from the first exchange of fire, accompanied by a Javelin. The enemy mechs charged straight at Julio’s Sentry, firing off their weapons and ignoring his Night Gyr. They were obviously trying to put down the more damaged opponent first.

Julio ducked his mech back into the buildings for protection, while Frank fired at the Jackal. His large pulse laser pounded the mech mercilessly, while his medium lasers all missed. The Jackal and the Javelin continued to close in at top speed, and Frank started the Night Gyr walking backwards.

“Those light mechs are getting brave here!” Frank called out.

“I know. Don’t worry, they can’t do much to that beast of yours.” Julio started to snipe with his PPC from within the building cluster.

“That wasn’t very comforting!” Frank yelled as the Jackal closed to a mere hundred meters.

The Jackal fired its shoulder mounted PPC at Frank, the static discharge from the back of the PPC barrel silhouetting the mech in blue actinic light.

The bolt splashed on the Night Gyr’s right arm, and Frank replied with a full barrage of lasers, followed by a dose of standard ATM missile fire. Half the lasers hit, opening up the Jackal’s innards for the ATMs to take advantage of. The missiles tore into the Jackal, and the light mech collapsed in the midst of its run as its engine died under the barrage, sliding to the ground in a pile of metal wreckage.

Frank gasped as the heat in his cockpit spiked, and he had to slam down hurriedly on several shutdown override switches to prevent the Gyr from becoming a sitting duck.

The Javelin didn’t flinch from the loss of its companion, and came on bravely. It sprayed a swarm of missiles at the Night Gyr, while enduring fire from Julio’s Sentry. The PPC flensed off armor on the Javelin, but it was hardly slowed by the damage.

Frank rode out the missile impacts, then triggered his jump jets at exactly the same moment as the Javelin. What the heck? Frank thought as he pressed on his foot pedals.

The two mechs floated up into the sky almost side by side, and Frank frantically pushed one of his side jets to spin the Night Gyr to face the Javelin, which was already firing another salvo of missiles at him, which all missed. He fired his pulse laser at the apex of his flight, and luckily struck the Javelin on its head.

Due to his impromptu turn in mad air, Frank was barely able to keep the Night Gyr upright when it landed, sliding on its feet to an uneasy halt just centimeters away from crashing into a storehouse. The Javelin was unluckier, clattering into a building as it landed in a cloud of cement and flying metal. Frank figured his shot had rattled the enemy mechwarrior.

Julio charged at the Javelin, firing off the array of weapons in his left arm, the PPC and several machine guns. The Sentry sprayed the Javelin relentlessly with the machine guns, while Frank added his own lasers to the barrage. The Javelin tried to extricate itself from its surroundings, but eventually collapsed under the weight of their combined fire.

“Two down.” Frank crowed in satisfaction.

“Head for the main terminal.” Julio ordered. “My boys are trying to hold them off. If we hurry, we might be able to catch them from the rear.”

“I’m taking point.” Frank punched up the magnification on a side display.

The two mechs ran for the main terminal, which was almost 3 kilometers away. A cracking of static over the frequency channel did not bode well for the remaining members of the spaceport garrison.

Without warning, the Night Gyr’s sensors screamed of a missile lock. Shit! Frank thought he saw a Trebuchet on the magnification screen.

“Incoming!” Julio yelled as a flight of thirty missiles rained on them.

Frank stomped on his foot pedals, lifting the Night Gyr in an attempt to fly above the missile trajectory before they were able to adjust for the Night Gyr’s flight.

Some of the missiles were able to adjust in time, while the others smashed into the ferrocrete ground of the spaceport in a series of loud explosions.

Julio had not been targeted, and he quickened his pace, trying to draw in nearer to the Trebuchet within the LRM’s minimum range.

Frank compensated for the few missile hits easily, and followed Julio’s lead. The Trebuchet did not seem worried about Julio, and the reason became apparent a few moments later as a Hatchetman appeared from nowhere to plant its namesake weapon into the Sentry, burying the weapon deep into the Sentry’s torso.

The Sentry almost fell from the impact of the Hatchetman’s attack, but Julio suddenly grabbed the Hatchetman with the left arm of his Sentry, and triggered his jump jets.

The crazy maneuver sent both mechs crashing to the ground even as the Trebuchet let loose with another salvo of missiles, this time at the Sentry, apparently not worried about its lancemate. Frank aimed carefully, and fired his gauss rifle and several lasers at the Hatchetman.

As the Trebuchet’s missiles rained down on and around the two struggling battlemechs, Frank watched with a sickening feeling in his stomach as the center of the Sentry suddenly started to glow on his IR scans. His shots had smashed into the Hatchetman, but it did not seem to distressed as it swung its axe around for another swipe at the Sentry. It needn’t have bothered.

“Argh!” Julio screamed over the comms, nearly deafening Frank with his death cry. The glow from the Sentry intensified into a nova hot blaze.

The Sentry’s fusion engine failed catastrophically, and the ensuing explosion engulfed the Hatchetman as well, leaving the two mechs in a twisted and mangled pile of metal. It would take the salvage teams days to sort out the two mechs.

Frank shut out the man’s death from his mind. There was still the Trebuchet.

The Trebuchet looked to be in poor shape, its armor already in tatters. Frank fired off his ATMs at the medium mech. The Trebuchet squared off against his Night Gyr, replying with its own LRMs.

The missiles passed each other in mid flight, even as Frank followed up with another dose of energy from his large pulse laser. The Trebuchet tottered from the blows, while only a few of its missiles hit Frank.

The Trebuchet tried to move back, but Frank pumped several laser beams at it, one of which snapped the Trebuchet’s legs off at the knee. Frank ran the Night Gyr up and stomped on one arm of the Trebuchet, squashing it into ruin even as he fed it several more pulses from his lasers. The Trebuchet remained still on the tarmac. That’s for Julio.

Frank moved for the terminal at top speed, while toggling through the channels Julio had given him for communicating with friendly units. “This is Gyr One, calling spaceport garrison. This is Gyr One, calling spaceport garrison.” The lack of a response bothered him.

Don’t tell me they’re all dead, Frank thought despairingly. “C’mon, somebody please respond!”

There was a crackling of static, before he heard a female voice reply, “This is Corporal Elinor Pion. Who is that on our line?”

Frank sighed in relief, before replying, “This is Frank Meronac in a Night Gyr. I’m a merc, and I just got hired by your Lieutenant Julio. He gave me this line to contact you guys.”

“So where’s Julio?” Frank thought he could hear the sound of autocannon fire in the background, which matched the sounds he was hearing from his cockpit. He was getting close.

“He bought it fighting a Hatchetman a kilometer back. What’s your status?” He swung his Night Gyr round another building. Only a few tens of meters left to go, and he urged the mech faster.

“We’ve got two mechs and two tanks left, and we’re being pinned down by 3 mechs and 3 vehicles. The PBIs are holding their own, but they won’t be able to hold if we get taken down. We’re not gonna hold for long!”

“Don’t worry about that,” Frank said, “The odds just got a lot more even.” There was just one more building between him and the main terminal, which was itself a wart on the open tarmac.

He stomped on his pedals, jumping the Night Gyr over the building and getting a clear view of the battlefield. He noticed a Demolisher tank lurking in ambush around a corner for him, which he had foiled by jumping instead rounding the building.

Frank grinned humorlessly. He had anticipated that move, though apparently the Fifth Fed Com didn’t.

Or maybe they did, as a Wolfhound blasted him with its array of lasers, scarring armor on his arm. Frank ignored the Wolfhound, and fired at the Demolisher instead. It was the most dangerous threat on the battlefield by dint of its tonnage and the two massive autocannons.

The gauss slug dug deep into the turret of the tank, and his pulse laser burned furrows in the tank’s sloped armor before his ATMs slammed into the hapless vehicle. The high explosive ammunition of the ATMs inflicted massive amounts of damage, and the Demolisher erupted as a missile managed to hit its ammunition stores.

His appearance and the loss of the Demolisher seemed to have shaken the attackers’ confidence, but they kept their nerve. There was the Wolfhound, a Bushwacker, and a Blackjack for the Fifth Fed Com, supported by two Goblin infantry fighting vehicles, moving resolutely in response to his attack.

The Davion Guards had a Spector, a Centurion, a Myrmidon medium tank, and a battered Drillson heavy hovertank, moving amongst the massive cargo and baggage crates piled up around the main terminal.

“Odds are even, Corporal Pion! Charge! Now or never!” Frank ordered in what he hoped was his strongest voice as he lit up a Goblin tank with his ATMs on his landing, followed by a barrage of laser fire, while the three mechs of the Fifth Fed Com were drawing beads on him.

They fired, but their aim were thrown off as the Davion Guard surged to the attack, abandoning their cover for the open ground. The Centurion’s autocannon roared nonstop as it tore into the Wolfhound, ripping apart its torso in a shower of metal shards. The Spector sent its lasers at the Blackjack, while the tanks concentrated fire on the Bushwacker, causing it to lurch drunkenly to one side.

That left Frank to face the firepower of the two Goblin tanks, and Frank found that more preferable than facing any of the enemy mechs as he stood his ground, destroying the Goblin damaged by his ATMs with his lasers before turning his guns on the other Goblin. It did not last long either, already damaged by the long battle with the Davion Guard.

He turned the Night Gyr to assist the Guards, again relying on his lasers to tear apart the Wolfhound. Combat Loss Groupings, or in earlier times, the N-Squared Law, was definitely in their favor now, and the Davion Guards pressed their advantage ruthlessly.

The Bushwacker went down next, under the combined firepower of the tanks and the mechs, while the Spector finished off the Blackjack with an audacious death from above maneuver.

“Thanks merc,” Corporal Pion said breathlessly as her Spector struggled to extricate itself from the remnants of the Blackjack. “But we‘ve got more problems.”

“The dropships?” Frank asked. “No way I’m getting paid enough to go up against them.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” The Spector finally to walk away from the Blackjack. “The dropships can wait. What I want to do is to take our mechs and head into the city.”

Frank couldn’t believe her. “What about the infantry here?”

“Our tanks can help mop them up. It’s the city I’m worried about. The Fifth Fed Com went in with more than two full battalions of mixed forces, and the troops we have there are definitely outnumbered.”

Frank worked his fingers around his triggers, trying to loosen the tension in his joints. “My contract with Julio only stipulated that I help defend the spaceport.”

“Okay then, how much more for accompanying us into the city?” Pion’s voice was full of disgust, which Frank tried hard to ignore.

“40,000 C-bills, full repair and reload reimbursement.” Frank checked his ammo loads. His sparing use of his gauss rifle and the ATM had been a good idea, since he had suspected that it would be a long night from the very start.

Frank could almost hear the grinding of teeth from Pion before she replied, “Okay, you’ll get your money. Let’s move out.”

 

Major Eddie Tyler shoved his control sticks desperately to the side as he avoided a deadly barrage of particle bolts from a Schrek PPC carrier. “This is Albion One-One, can somebody give me a hand here?”

“Heads up, Major,” A beat-up Stealth jumped past and unleashed a barrage of inferno rounds into the Schrek, burning the tank and immolating the crew inside. “Nothing kills tanks faster than some good ole hot rockets!”

Eddie grinned in response, moments before he spotted a mech moving silently in the shadow of a building. “Watch out!” He shouted in vain.

It was too late, as a barrage of autocannon rounds smashed into the Stealth. The volatile inferno ammunition exploded, turning the Stealth into a massive fireball, sending tongues of burning mech everywhere, and lighting up the immediate vicinity.

“Fuck!” Eddie shouted in rage as his Falconer faced off with the enemy Cataphract, firing off his ER PPC and gauss rifle.

Shortly after the attack on the spaceport, the members of the 1^st Davion Guards, 1^st Battalion, which was all they had covering Avalon City, had been roused from their sleep and sent to full alert status. Before they could sally forth to help defend the spaceport, some dropships had flown over and dropped more than two battalions worth of mechs and vehicles into the heart of Avalon City.

They had identified their attackers as the Fifth Fed Com, and that had sent chills up everybody’s spines, as the Fifth Fed Com was an infamous unit that had used tactical nukes during the civil war, and disappeared from Marlette later on in the war.

Nobody wanted to think of the consequences should the Fifth Fed Com unleash one of their nukes on Avalon City.

As a result, his battalion had been forced into a do-or-die battle in the city, trying to eliminate every last member of the Fifth before they had any second ideas about not using their nukes. However, that also meant that the skill advantage of the Davion Guard did not count as much in the tight confines of the city. Oh, to be sure, there was also another reforming company of the Crucis Lancers present, but they were also being pressed hard.

“Albion One-One, this is Camelot One.” Eddie’s neurohelmet crackled with an incoming transmission. Camelot One was the designation given to the CO of the Crucis Lancers present, Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Viler. “Drop your battalion back three blocks. Your position is too exposed. The enemy is drawing you into a pincer.”
No matter what his personal feelings towards Jacques, colored by the constant tussle between Jacques and Frank for Clarice, Eddie knew Jacques was all business in battle, and one of the finest mechwarriors he had ever met. If there was a way to win this fight, Jacques would be the one to find it. Besides, Jacques had seniority on him, and thus held overall command of the Davion forces until Duke Tancred Sandoval or some other higher up arrived on the scene. Precentor Martial Victor Steiner-Davion, according to all reports, was being forced to stay where he was at the NAIS for his safety instead of marching out in his Daishi to help, since nukes might be unleashed in the fight for the city.

“Roger that, Camelot One.” Eddie answered, while exchanging a final volley of fire with the Cataphract. He noted with grim satisfaction that the heavy mech was left hobbling from his accurate PPC fire, which he had used to hit the legs repeatedly. He toggled over to the battalion channel, “Sword Bat, drop back three blocks to Galliard Street.” The Falconer marched back towards the designated rally point.

Eddie counted with dismay the replies to his command, as a secondary display toted up the remaining members of his battalion. The three full strength companies he had started out with had been reduced by a full company, though they had also given a good accounting of themselves in the merciless close quarters fighting, taking down far more enemy machines than they had lost. It was small consolation to Eddie.

What is the Fifth thinking? Eddie wondered. What do they hope to accomplish with this attack? What the hell do they want? He knew the top brass at HQ had been trying to contact the rogue unit, but none of their requests had been answered.

“Sir,” One of his company commanders informed him, “The enemy is pressing us back in!”

Eddie only needed a glance at his radar to see the hostile units crowding back into his outnumbered battalion.

“Alright, Sword Bat, time to play chicken. Split into pairs and just stay alive.” Eddie switched to the command channel. “Camelot One, they’re feeling brave over here.” He could see the Cataphract coming back for a second round.

“Understood.” Jacques replied almost immediately, though Eddie could hear that Jacques was having his own problems from the sound of missile explosions. “Hold your line while we sweep in from the flanks. If you can’t hold out long enough for us, holler, then pull back.”

“Gotcha.” Eddie licked sweat off the area around his mouth. The precious moisture was salty, but after almost an hour of constant combat, Eddie didn’t care. His XO, Captain Rosalind Cassara, was hopefully listening in from her Cestus. If he bought the farm, she’d have to lead the battalion.

The Cataphract stepped out from behind an apartment black, and Eddie sent another of his precious gauss slugs and a particle beam at it. The shots hammered into the heavy mech, but it spat back with its own array of autocannons. The medium class ultra autocannon shaved armor off the Falconer’s legs, while the LBX shotgun autocannon sprayed a rain of metal at him.

Eddie walked the Falconer in closer to the ‘Phract, into range of his medium lasers. Several years ago during the civil war, Eddie’s mech had undergone several drastic changes. The medium lasers had been replaced by the extended range variety, while the myomers had been swapped out for triple strength fibers, which lent the Falconer incredible close combat potential when running hot.

He fired his extended range medium lasers once they were in range, along with his PPC. He needed to get the Falconer hot, and this was the fastest way.

The Cataphract leaned forward to counteract the loss of mass from its front as the energy beams played over its torso, while replying with its LBX cannon, again peppering damage all over the Falconer. Eddie noted that it did not fire its ultra autocannon. Perhaps it had run out of ammo, he thought, which was quite possible, considering that he knew he had only a ton of gauss ammo left himself.

The heat from his weapons fire washed over him, but Eddie ignored the uneasy feeling of sweat on his skin as he jumped the Falconer right next to the Cataphract.

The ‘Phract had charged forward fearlessly. It obviously didn’t know Eddie’s Falconer was a modified version, and it kicked out with a leg even as Eddie swung his mech’s stubby arms at the ‘Phract, while firing his lasers at point blank range.

The tremendous power provided by the triple strength myomers enabled the Falconer to literally crush the armor on the Cataphract, which spun to the ground from the incredible impact of the Falconer’s punches.

Eddie kicked out with the Falconer at the fallen heavy mech, and the kick caved in the head section of the Cataphract. Eddie had little mercy for the butchers of Axton and Marlette, and he would shed no tears for the death of the members of the Fifth Fed Com.

“Bogeys at 2 o’clock!” Cassara yelled for attention.

Eddie saw the two approaching enemy mechs, and he cursed bitterly. A Penetrator and a Nightsky. Both close in combat designs, and the hatchet on the Nightsky neatly countered the advantages of his triple strength myomer.

Hoping to take down the more fragile Nightsky, Eddie fired his gauss rifle at it, but the jump capable mech ducked behind a building. If it used its jump jets to get around, there was no way he was going to avoid getting hit with a swipe or two from its hatchet.

“Albion One-Two,” he shouted for Rosalind, “watch for that Nightsky! I’ll take the Penetrator!” He didn’t wait for Rosalind to reply, trusting her to do her job.

The Penetrator attacked with its lasers, scouring armor off the Falconer. Eddie kept the Falconer at a distance from the Penetrator, wary of the barrage of medium pulse lasers it was capable of. His own armor was getting a bit threadbare from all the action, and couldn’t hold up for much longer.

He fired back with his medium lasers, saving his gauss rifle and ER PPC for a knockout punch. The lasers liquefied alloy on the Penetrator, sending molten rivulets down the mech’s sides, but it was hardly deterred, its fresh armor apparent to any observer.

Cassara’s voice came in, “Sir, you’re within striking range of the Nightsky!”

Eddie pulled his mech back, but the Nightsky chose that same moment to rocket up from behind a building, and headed straight for his Falconer.

Eddie stomped on his own foot pedals, leaping the Falconer into the air on fiery trails of plasma, trying to avoid the Nightsky.

The Nightsky pilot seemed to throw caution to the wind. Instead of using the last of his jump thrust to cushion his landing, he went straight for Eddie’s mech, the hatchet raised high for a blow.

The Nightsky smashed into the Falconer in a bone-jarring collision in midair, even as its hatchet chopped into Eddie’s mech. The entangled mechs fell to the ground in a heap, while Eddie tried desperately to regain control of his mech.

He slammed into his command crouch as the Falconer landed heavily on its right, crumpling the last of his armor on that side. The Nightsky amazingly managed to stay on its feet, but was sent reeling back as Cassara fired at it with her gauss rifle and large lasers. She in turn was attacked by the Penetrator, advancing quickly to take advantage of the two on one situation while the Falconer laid on the ground.

Eddie’s head swam for a while, his breath knocked out of him by the fall. He could sense the menacing presence of the Nightsky nearby, about to swing its hatchet down onto his cockpit.

He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, and slammed his throttles, hoping for a lucky hit on the Nightsky. He managed to look at his displays in time to see the Nightsky evading the clumsy flail of his Falconer, raising its hatchet high for a fatal blow.

“Here comes the cavalry!” Somebody shouted. All of a sudden, the Nightsky was covered in explosions from missile fire. Really big explosions. Bigger than even the explosions from short ranged missiles. The Nightsky flopped back as its engine shut down from excessive damage.

Eddie glanced at his side screens, only to see a black colored Night Gyr approach, along with a Spector and Centurion in the colors of the Davion Guard.

“What’s going on?” Somebody asked, and Eddie thought he was still in a daze when his brain placed the voice as belonging to Frank. Nah, can’t be, he insisted to himself, and went back to getting the Falconer upright.

The Penetrator, which had been charging forward, suddenly found itself outnumbered four to one. It started backpedaling for dear life, only for the defending forces to pour on the fire. Even Eddie managed to lever the Falconer up enough for him to contribute a particle bolt to the cause.

The Penetrator never stood a chance, not against three heavies, a medium, and a light mech. Fire belched from a side rent in its squat torso as the engine failed from the punishing bombardment.

Eddie slowly got the Falconer to its feet. “Okay troops, report.” He ordered.

The Spector stood before his mech, as though reporting for duty like a cadet at an academy. “Albion One-One, this is Corporal Elinor Pion from the spaceport. We managed to fight off the attacking forces, and proceeded here to help out.”

“You managed to beat off the enemy forces from the spaceport?” Eddie asked incredulously.

“Uh, roger that, sir. Actually, we had help.” The Spector raised a hand in the direction of the black Night Gyr. “This merc appeared to give us a hand. We had to promise him a few things though.”

“Which is entirely fair, corporal.” The same voice Eddie had heard earlier spoke again. It sounded suspiciously like Frank.

Eddie resisted the temptation to release his grip on the triggers and rub his eyes. He realized the events of the night were finally getting to him. “Okay, this is the first piece of good news I’ve had in a while. So what’s your name and unit, merc?”

“Frank Meronac, MIB.” Eddie nearly choked on his saliva.

“Frank? What the fuck are you doing here?” Eddie literally shouted.

“Eddie?” The surprise on Frank’s side was also quite clear. “Uh oops. Heh, guess you finally found out what mech I jockey nowadays, huh?” Frank’s voice was strangely nervous.

That made Eddie extremely wary. “Wait a minute. If you were in a mech, and I’m not disputing that it isn’t yours, then what were you doing at the spaceport at this hour?”

The reply came back rather slowly, which Eddie had half expected. “Uh, I was just checking up on my mech. Can’t I?”

The pieces finally clicked into place for Eddie. He slapped a gloved hand on his neurohelmet. “Don’t tell me, it had something to do with Clarice and the fire.”

The uneasy cough from Frank told him all he needed to know.

Eddie sighed in exasperation. “Never mind. I don’t want to know. I don’t need to know. Pretend I heard nothing. The same goes for all of you guys and gals listening in.”

He switched to his business tone. “All right, down to the task at hand. Frank, you stick with me. That beast of yours is going to come in handy. Corporal Pion, I want your two mech element to seek out Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Viler of the Crucis Lancers, somewhere on Fleet Avenue. Assist in any way you can. Cassara, you’ll still with me. Let’s move out.”

 

Frank was still trying to get used to Eddie being in charge when a sudden call came over the open channel.

It came while they were engaged with another group of enemy mechs and vehicles. Two medium mechs and two vehicles that were putting up stiff resistance on Apple Drive.

Captain Cassara had led the way with her Cestus, while Frank followed close behind, supplying a steady barrage of ATM missiles and laser beams. Eddie brought up the rear, his battered Falconer being shielded from the worst of the battle by Frank’s Night Gyr.

The two tanks went down quickly under the furious firepower of the mechs, while the mechs, an Enforcer and a Blackjack, were sent in headlong retreat. They were about to pursue when the call came in, and told them that an already bad situation just got even worse.

“All units, this is Jackson Davion. Enemy forces, about a company of mechs in strength, have just entered the grounds of the NAIS. Chances are high they are hunting the Precentor Martial. All units capable of responding, please proceed to the NAIS ASAP.” The call was repeated again, but Frank tuned it out.

He stared numbly at his secondary screens. Just as they were getting the upper hand in the battle for the city…

A diversion, his mind rationalized, all a big diversion. The attack on the spaceport, the attack on the city. Those were simply diversions to draw off the bulk of the defenders away from the real targets, either Precentor Martial Victor Steiner-Davion or Yvonne Davion.

Frank ruled out Yvonne. If they had wanted to go after Yvonne, they would have dropped on the Royal Palace, not the NAIS. That left Victor Davion.

“All units, this is Camelot One!” Frank grimaced as he heard Jacques Viler’s voice. “I want all currently unengaged units to report, immediately! Give me your weight class and condition!”

Eddie spoke first, “This is Albion One-One. I have three heavy mechs, one yellow, two green.”

Frank raised an eyebrow. The Cestus was in better shape than the Falconer, but not by much, while his own Night Gyr had been through a lot already. The armor on the arms was almost gone. Three yellow condition mechs would be a fairer indication.

Several other units replied as well, but Frank could hear that most of them were in bad shape. He thought he could actually pity Jacques for being placed in such a position of such heavy responsibility.

Jacqques seemed to have made his choices. “Albion One-One, bring your unit over to the spaceport. Albion Three-Five, Albion Two-Six, you too. The rest of you, report to Albion Two-One for retaking the city.”

“Excuse me, but shouldn’t we be heading for the NAIS instead?” Eddie asked.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Jacques answered confidently. “We’re going to hitch a ride on a dropship.”

Frank nodded despite himself. If they headed for the NAIS, they would be restricted to the speed of their slowest mechs, which could very easily be fifty kilometers per hour for an assault mech. By heading for a dropship instead, they could actually reach the NAIS in a shorter time. It was a very good idea.

But there was a slight problem.

“Uh, Eddie?” He asked.

“Yeah?”

“My contract with Corporal Pion was only for defending the city. If I’m to join you guys to save the Prince…”

“Ah, frak. Consider this a favor to me, okay? I’ll owe you big. Really. This is important, Frank. Who knows, you might even get something from Yvonne! Title, land, blah, blah, blah.”

Frank rolled his eyes. “Okay, okay. Just remember, you owe me!” If only there was some way he could leverage this into a title…

Frank shook away those thoughts. First things first. He only hoped they would make it in time. The Night Gyr continued running for the spaceport.

 

Victor Steiner-Davion hopped Prometheus to one side to avoid a swarm of enemy missile fire as he fought back with his array of lasers, the energy beams whipping across a massive Atlas, sending it staggering back with heavy damage on the torso and arms.

In hindsight, he would have been better off if he had marched his Daishi into Avalon City to assist in the battle for the city, instead of being trapped on the grounds of the NAIS by an entire heavy/assault company.

The enemy company had dropped into the NAIS from a hovering Union-class dropship, while he had been following the battle for the city from the cockpit of his Daishi. Galen Cox and two more Com Guard mechwarriors had also mounted their machines, ready to move out. If not for that, Victor was sure he would have been a smear on the ground already, as the Fifth Fed Com company had targeted his residential suite the moment they had dropped in.

Beside him, Galen Cox fought on in his Devastator, exchanging gauss slugs with a Gunslinger. One of the two Com Guard warriors had already fallen, although Rudolph Shakov’s Exterminator was apparently still making a pest of itself, even when surrounded by several heavy and assault mechs.

Still, they had not taken down any enemy mechs yet, and Victor knew it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed. But he refused to go so easily. Not if he had anything to say about it.

A Quickdraw jumped into close range, and Victor took the opportunity to press on the trigger for his super heavy ultra class autocannon. The Quickdraw had fired with its array of lasers and missiles, chipping away more of Prometheus’ armor, but with Victor’s deadly aim and steady hand on his autocannon, the replying shells tore the heavy mech apart.

One down, Victor noted. Eleven more to go.

A gauss slug dug deep into Prometheus’ leg, and Victor struggled to keep the mech upright from the impact as a volley of shots followed it in.

Victor recovered in time to send his Daishi in a half hop, half run for the meager cover of a small clump of trees, while the attacks tracked along the path of his run.

Galen tried to cover him, but his Devastator was sent to its knees by a salvo of missiles from a Longbow. Victor gritted his teeth. Is this how it all ends? He thought to himself. Alone, cut off from my friends, my family? My men dying around me? As always, he was half tempted to just give up, to let his enemies kill him, and join his beloved Omi in the afterlife.

But he was a Davion, and he would never give up his life without a good fight first. Omi would also expect him to fight as hard as he could for his life before surrendering it. And there was young Kitsune…

Death would have to wait for him to see his son with his own eyes first before claiming his life.

Victor led the mechs of the Fifth Fed Com on a merry chase on the campus of the NAIS, aware that Galen and Rudolph were barely hanging on in their mechs. He knew he was the main target anyway, and Victor resolved to keep his friends alive for as long as possible by leading away the enemy units.

A Banshee finally managed to corner him, firing with its PPCs and gauss rifle. Victor shrugged off the blows, firing back with a storm of energy bolts that tore into the Banshee, but which left him vulnerable to attack from the rest of his enemies.

A series of missile and gauss hits sent Victor reeling, but he refused to go down, replying with his autocannon and missiles back at his foes. He pressed down on the stubs for his pulse lasers, pulling the barrels from side to side as he washed them over the enemies closing in.

Then the Longbow suddenly exploded. The Banshee was next to suffer under a hideous hail of autocannon fire, lurching from side to side as it tried to evade the storm of shells from somewhere behind it.

Victor grinned as he saw Tancred Sandoval’s Templar march up behind the enemy company, its RAC barrels a brilliant glare of flame as it continued blazing away at the enemy machines.

“Welcome to the show, Tancred,” Victor said thankfully, while firing at the Banshee, which finally went down with a cored torso.

“Sorry for taking so long, but I had to convince Yvonne before she allowed me to come. And I’m all you’re getting for the next few minutes.”

“Don’t be too sure, my Duke.” A voice broke in, which Victor recognized as belonging to Jacques Viler of the Crucis Lancers. “This is Camelot One, and I’ve got six mechs about to drop right on top of the NAIS. Just give us some cover on the way down.”

“Got it,” Victor went all out with Prometheus’ weapons, which savaged the enemy unit and sent them flinching momentarily. Victor knew he was driving the Daishi close to the red line, but he didn’t have a choice by this point. The heat in his cockpit threatened to overcome him, but he focused his concentration on the battle, driving the concerns of his immediate surroundings from his mind. He barely noticed the return fire on his Daishi, instead firing his weapons with single-minded attentiveness.

Two Leopard class dropships flew by overhead, almost skimming the top of the NAIS buildings, and Victor could see the mechs stepping out from the dropship bays and dropping to the ground.

The Daishi was hit hard again, and this time Victor was unable to keep it upright as the mech landed hard. Blinking yellow lights on his console warned of armor breaches all over the omnimech, while a bank of red lights told of actuator damage to Prometheus.

The enemy mechs tried to get at him, but they were firmly rebuffed by the newly arrived mechs, many of which did not look to be in good condition themselves. It looked to be a matter of time before the reinforcements were crushed themselves.

Victor gently coaxed Prometheus, trying to get it to stand up. If he had to die, he’d do it on his feet.

 

Frank was amazed at the sheer madness and fury of the battle as the scratch force Jacques had desperately assembled slammed into the Fifth FC company.

Jacques’ own Nightstar was badly pitted and gouged, but it carried the fight into the midst of the enemy, heedless of the damage it was taking. It fired its gauss rifles continuously, all guns blazing as it waded into the enemy formation.

Jacques had been furious for all of two seconds when Frank had turned up at the spaceport, before grudgingly accepting his presence. “One more mech, one more warrior as fodder,” he had said then.

It wasn’t as though any of them had a choice in the matter.

And if the battle thus far had been brutal, this must surely be the endgame climax. Facing the relatively fresher mechs of the Fifth Fed Com, Jacques exhorted his weary troops onward, leading by personal example.

Even Eddie seemed to have gone berserk, his Falconer slamming into a Caesar and punching wildly with its arms. The Caesar replied with gauss shots at point blank range, and its PPC barrel clubbed the Falconer around the torso in desperation.

The Fifth Fed Com had replied in the same vein, and physical attacks now seemed to be the order of the moment as assault and heavy mechs went toe to toe with one another.

Frank fired off the last of his ATMs at an Atlas, then braced himself as the Atlas fired back with its full arsenal. The Night Gyr shook like a doll from the impacts, and Frank swallowed hard as he saw the red lights on his console begin to blink on.

The Atlas came on determinedly, its massive fists clenched and ready to bash Frank into snail snot. There was no room left to maneuver, but he still had his jump jets.

Frank flew over the Atlas, moments before it could reach him with its hands. There was no way in the world he was going to stand up to a punching match with a mech 25 tons heavier.

He spun the Gyr around in time to catch another salvo from the Atlas. The Gyr staggered back, while Frank fired back with his gauss rifle, noting with dismay that he had only two shots left for the gauss.

An explosion to his left signaled the death of a friendly unit, and Frank stumbled back from the onrushing Atlas, which had turned around and seemed intent on using his Gyr as a punching bag. He didn’t walk back far enough, as the death head of the Atlas zoomed large in his sights.

Frank went for an alpha strike with his remaining weapons, his ATM rack having run empty already. The Atlas staggered as the beams punched into its internals, and Frank could see the missile rack tubes in the torso turn into slag from the impact of his lasers.

Then the Atlas swung a big fist at him.

Frank flinched in his seat, trying to press himself deeper into his command couch when the metal fist filled his front view. He found himself screaming as the front of his cockpit was literally crushed, the console crumpling and moving towards him from the force of the impact.

Shards of glass and metal flew from the front of his shattered cockpit, spraying him in a shower of broken shrapnel. Frank gasped in pain as he found the thin slivers cutting through his combat suit, nicking him on his throat, arms and legs. Several more clattered off the visor of his neurohelmet. Spots on his suit started to leak bright green fluid from where the slivers had cut the coolant lines.

The Night Gyr fell back from the force of the punch, and Frank simply pressed hard on his triggers, trying to put down the Atlas before it could finish him off.

The Atlas stumbled, obviously also heavily damaged by his shots, but Frank could see that it was preparing for a coup de grace as it aimed its gauss barrel at his broken cockpit.

Then a gauss slug suddenly flew from its center torso from the back. The Atlas seemed just as stunned as Frank was, before twisting down and crashing to the ground like a gunfighter shot from the back.

Frank felt the ground shudder as the Atlas toppled right beside his fallen Night Gyr. He managed to lift the Night Gyr to its feet, and saw Jacques’ Nightstar, missing an arm and almost all of its armor, standing over the wreck of an Awesome.

“I don’t like you, Meronac, but I’ll be damned if I let anyone under my command get killed on my watch if I can help it.” Jacques sounded tired and angry at the same time.

Frank did not reply, instead firing his gauss rifle and large lasers in the direction of the Nightstar, missing Jacques by a meter before slamming into an Axman that had been trying to sneak up on the Crucis Lancer. The Axman, which had been trying to get close in enough to use its hatchet on the Nightstar, was pushed back from the impact of Frank’s weapons, spoiling its attack.

“That’s all the thanks you’re gonna get, Jacques,” Frank said as Jacques turned his Nightstar around, the two of them concentrating fire on the Axman. “Let’s finish this.”

“Agreed.”

The Axman tried to fight back, but somebody had destroyed its autocannon earlier, and it was no match for an assault and a clan heavy. It took all of 30 seconds for Frank and Jacques to batter through to its engine, with Frank finishing it off with a laser spearing right through its chest.

Somehow, Galen Cox had managed to reenter the fray, his Devastator firmly turning the tide in favor of the defenders. The Prince’s Daishi was missing its arms, but still on its feet and firing with its large lasers at extreme range, while Duke Sandoval’s Templar was missing a leg and propping itself up on one corner and sniping with its RACs.

There was only a demi-lance of the Fifth Fed Com left, and everybody knew it was over. The enemy mechs were too far away from Victor’s Daishi to take it down, and pressed hard between the Devastator and Jacques’ remaining units.

Eddie’s Falconer limped over as he regrouped with Frank and Jacques, the three of them all that was left of the reinforcing task force.

While Cox fought with an enemy War Dog, Jacques threw the three of them at the barely damaged Pillager adorned with the markings of a general.

“It’s Annette Leyland,” commented Eddie. “Let’s take her down!”

Frank triggered his last gauss round, the slug punching into the Pillager. However, his lasers all missed, as the image of the Pillager suddenly seemed to waver in his sights.

“Watch out, that’s a stealth Pillager!” Jacques warned as the Pillager struck back with its gauss rifles. The gauss slugs smashed into the tottering Nightstar, and Frank found himself with mixed feelings as he moved his mech around to help cover his ally.

“Get in close, the stealth system doesn’t work at close range!” Eddie shouted as his Falconer took to the skies on its jumpjets, landing near the Pillager, which promptly turned its gauss rifles on Eddie, severing the arms from the Falconer.

Unable to compensate for the loss of so much structure, Eddie fell to the ground. Frank triggered his lasers in a blistering attack, trying to divert its attention away from Eddie. The Pillager was starting to feel the effects of their attacks now, armor blow torching from Frank’s attack. Jacques donated another gauss slug to the cause, along with a burst from his remaining pulse laser.

The Pillager turned towards Frank’s Night Gyr, and Frank could feel his guts wrenching themselves in fear as it sent its gauss slugs at him, hammering the Gyr. The already stifling heat in the cockpit suddenly rose up another notch, and Frank grimaced as he realized that his engine had just lost some of its shielding. Smoke was beginning to issue from the ruined circuitry in the cockpit.

Eddie wasn’t out of the fight though, somehow climbing to its feet and blasting the Pillager with its medium lasers.

The Pillager turned back to Eddie, leaving the other two mechs to close in. Frank charged at the Pillager, gambling on the shock value of his attack to win time for Jacques to out down Leyland. “Cover me, Jacques, and be ready.” Frank yelled out.

“Understood,” Jacques grimly replied.

The Pillager did not seem to have noticed his attack as it fired at Eddie’s dying Falconer. The gauss slugs punched through to the Falconer’s core, and Frank saw Eddie eject from the Falconer in a burst of smoke and fire from the cockpit.

Then he slammed the Night Gyr into the Pillager, lowering a shoulder of the Gyr into the broad curved chest of the Pillager. The two mechs went down, with the Night Gyr on top of the Pillager.

Sirens warned of further damage to the Night Gyr, but Frank ignored them as he fired his lasers right into the Pillager. The Pillager replied with its gauss rifles mounted in its torso, and the groan of stressed metal from below him told Frank that his mech did not like that one bit.

A massive clawed hand from the Pillager stabbed into the Night Gyr in its side. Frank responded with a fist at the Pillager.

The Pillager managed to get both arms under the Night Gyr, and pushed Frank off with a heave of screeching metal. Frank found himself flopping to the ground in a spinning motion, even as the Pillager stood up, just in time to get caught in a crossfire from Cox and Jacques, the gauss slugs crushing the last of its armor on the torso.

Then a burst of laser fire from Prometheus stabbed into the Pillager, lancing into its center and puncturing the engine. The Pillager stood very still for long moments, before its center began to glow white hot.

“Get out of there!” Jacques shouted.

Frank stumbled the Night Gyr to its feet and lurched away barely seconds before the ensuing fusion explosion wiped out the Pillager and everything around it in a 100 meter radius.

 

A hour later, Frank found himself sitting exhaustedly on a couch in the Princess Regent’s office, along with a disheveled Eddie with one arm in a sling, and a bleary eyed Jacques with his head bandaged by swathes of gauze. They sat side by side, slightly shell shocked from the events of the night.

Frank himself had endured several minutes on a surgery table, having shrapnel plucked out from the various spots where the thin slivers of glass had pierced his skin. The wounds were covered with a fast sealing liquid adhesive that was an analog of bandages.

All three of them sipped slowly from their bottles of energy drink on the small table in front of them. They were so tired that they could not even talk to each other. Frank and Jacques, in  particular, did not even bother in engage in their usual mutual baiting. Frank didn’t even have the strength to demand from Jacques Clarice’s location.

The battle was over, and the Fifth Fed Com had been wiped out to the last man. Oh, to be sure, there were prisoners, but they were few in number. The enemy dropships had lifted off soon after, and jumped away from the system on an unidentified Star Lord jumpship.

Jacques and Eddie had seen a shortlist of the casualty reports, and Frank could almost see their hair turning white from the bad news. He remembered his own shock and horror upon seeing the list of the dead and wounded after the final battle on Einstein.

They were supposed to be waiting for a debrief by the Princess-Regent herself, but Frank wondered why he was called up at all. He was just a hired merc. Sure, he knew Yvonne and Tancred personally, but this was an entirely different setting.

The door to the office opened, and Yvonne walked in with Tancred, followed by Victor Davion and Galen Cox.

In the presence of such luminaries, the three warriors stood up. Jacques and Eddie saluted smartly, Eddie using his good arm, while Frank bowed politely.

“Sit, gentlemen,” Yvonne ordered. The men pulled up chairs so that all of them could be seated around the table.

“All right, so what do we know?” Yvonne asked.

Galen answered first. “At or around midnight, elements of the Fifth Fed Com landed in the Union class Scepter on the Lucien Davion spaceport. At 0100 hrs, they attacked, and almost seized the spaceport.”

He continued, “At 0110 hrs, about a battalion of mechs and two combat commands made a combat drop into Avalon City. We could not be sure of their intentions, though their drives for the Royal Palace and the government sector forced us to oppose them.”

“At 0200 hours, an assault company dropped into the NAIS. At last for this we can be sure they were hunting for you, Victor.”

Victor Davion nodded. It was the first time Frank was seeing him in person, and while the former prince of the Federated Commonwealth was as short as the stories often described him, he also possessed an aura of steel that was unmatched in the room, even by Tancred Sandoval.

“So they were hunting me, but any ideas on who might have sent them?” Victor asked. “Somebody had to be harboring them, providing support.”

Tancred answered him, “There are the usual suspects. Remaining Katherine loyalists would be my guess. Though there is another possible faction at work.”

“The Word of Blake.” Victor said dourly. “It would fit into their modus operandi. A strike, without anybody the wiser after the fact.”

“Could be the Capellan Confederation,” Jacques pointed out. “They fought hard. Very hard. Almost fanatical.”

Now that Jacques had mentioned it, Frank remembered the Trebuchet and the various running battles he had seen. The Fifth Fed Com had fought with a desperate strength that had almost overwhelmed the defenders.

“Maybe.” Galen admitted, “But right now, all we have are possible suspects. It’s pointless to play guessing games over who it could be when we can just investigate and find out for sure.”

Everyone present nodded in agreement.

Frank cleared his throat, “Uh, forgive me for asking this, but why were Jacques, Eddie, and me asked here?

Yvonne replied, “Frank, the battle tonight was won only because of the three of you, and you saved the life of my brother. In recognition of your courage and devotion to the Federated Suns, I will award all three of you the Silver Sunburst.”

Frank blinked. “Excuse me, but I thought I did negotiate a contract? How is that courage and devotion?”

Yvonne grinned, “Frank, be honest. Would you really have sat out the fight?”

Frank lowered his eyes to the table.

Yvonne continued to speak, “No, you would have helped out, contract or no contract. And that final action at the NAIS was taken without a contract. I think you deserved a reward in addition to the money.”

“Thank you, your highness,” Frank said. “So, what now?”

Tancred said, “Colonel Viler, Major Tyler, please go check on your men. Frank, you stay here. There’re a few things we want to talk to you about.”

Frank tried to ignore the inquiring stares of Jacques and Eddie as they left the office, leaving him under the eyes of four of the most important people in the Inner Sphere.

“What’s going on?” Frank asked nervously.

Victor got up and sat down directly opposite him. “I’ll cut to the chase. There’s something I want you to do.”

Frank raised an eyebrow. “And that might be?”

“What Galen said just now is very true. We need to find out who’s behind the attack. My bet is on the Word of Blake, but intel on them is very sparse. We don’t even know what the Word of Blake has been up to, or where they’ve been getting their mech units. We need somebody to go to Terra to find out what exactly the Word of Blake is doing there.”

“Hold on, you’re not suggesting that I be the one to go, are you?”

Victor nodded solemnly. “Yes, I want you to go to Terra.”

Frank let his mouth hang agape for a moment before he asked, “Then why me? You have dozens of operatives from MIIO and ROM. Get them instead!”

Galen spoke now. “We can’t. Operational security has obviously been compromised, and tonight’s attack was only one more symptom of the problem. Instead of giving orders through our intelligence department, where they might get intercepted, you’re going to answer directly to us. All you’ll need is a new identity, which means a minimal paper trail.”

“Okay, that tells me why you can’t use your own agents. But still, why me specifically?”

Victor answered him this time. “One, you’re loyal, or at least you’re loyal to your friends. Two, you’re a good mechwarrior. Not the best, I know, but your actions tonight convinced me you’ve what it takes. Three, you need to find out about the pyramid in the eye, and I can tell you that you’ll probably find the answers on Terra.”

“How did you know about the eye in the pyramid?” Frank glared at Tancred and Yvonne, but they simply shrugged in response.

“Don’t blame them, Meronac.” Victor said, “I’ve kept an eye on you since you arrived on New Avalon. The Illuminati, the organization of the symbol, is an ancient order. I suspect it might have ties to the Word of Blake and Comstar. But the only way to know for sure is for somebody to find them.”

Frank sighed. “So you’ve given me three reasons why I should be the one to go. How about the most important one. What’s in it for me?” Frank stared at Victor coldly.

Yvonne answered for Victor, “Frank, if you succeed in your mission, I’ll grant you a noble title. I can spin it as an important service to the Federated Suns. And then you’ll be free to get Clarice to marry you.”

“Oh yeah?” Frank said bitterly. “All of you seemed to have planned this out very well, haven’t you? Very well,” he nodded, “Since you had put in so much effort to get me to go to Terra, I guess I can’t disappoint you. I only need a few favors.”

“Name them,” Yvonne said.

He turned to Yvonne. “Your Highness, please help me keep an eye on Clarice. I want to see her when I get back. She’s on Rostock, I think, probably her father’s estates. I want to know if she truly wanted to break up with me, or if she had been forced into it.” He wanted to see Clarice one last time before he left, but if she didn’t even want to see him, then not even the Princess Regent could help him on this. So he settled for finding out her change of heart instead. It sounded trivial, but Frank didn’t care.

“That’s easy,” Yvonne agreed, “You have my word on this.”

“Also, I want Ian Calderon and Descartin Winters to be informed of my whereabouts.” If anything happened to him, Frank wanted his sworn brothers to know who was responsible.

“That’ll be more difficult to accomplish. But we’ll find a way.” Yvonne folded her hands on her lap. “Any more requests?”

Frank smirked. “Make sure my Night Gyr is in good shape when I return. So when do I leave?”

Victor nodded to Galen, who stood and motioned for Frank to follow him. “Right now.”

 

Duke Derrick Ferguson looked at his computer screen. Interesting, he thought.

A person matching Frank Meronac’s vital statistics had suddenly appeared in the citizenry database. Derrick was glad he had implanted the mole program in the planetary database, just in case he had ever needed it. The mole program would pick out people with specific characteristics and present their data to Ferguson. Right now, he stared at the data on one William Horry.

Hmm… going to Terra, eh? Derrick grinned in satisfaction. Well, I can make sure you’ll not trouble Clarice any more, Frank Meronac. And if you do survive, well, I’ll be more than willing to grant Clarice to you.

He smiled, and reached for a phone.

 

Geneva, Terra,

Chaos March,

20^th August 3068

 

Adept(actually Demi-Precentor, but the Word of Blake doesn’t officially recognize the rank) Squidwarth stared at the class A priority message from their agents on New Avalon. It informed ROM of an enemy agent posing as a tourist to infiltrate into Terra and contact members of the guerilla resistance.

The name of the tourist was William Horry, though his real name was Frank Meronac.

Adept Squidwarth swallowed hard. As a secret high ranking member of the Illuminati, he knew the importance of Frank Meronac. It wouldn’t do for the man to be killed by the… overly enthusiastic methods of the ROM interrogators, since that was the standard procedure for enemy spies.

Squidwarth could not change the fact of the man’s arrest, since an ‘Arrest on Sight’ order had already been issued to the transit space stations at the zenith and nadir points. What he could do was to modify what came after the arrest.

He pulled up the list of things to do to the man, and changed the primary orders from ‘Dig Everything Out’ to ‘Turn to the Cause’, the mildest form of incarceration. He also deleted Meronac’s real identity, and made a few other changes. When the ROM security agents capture Meronac, they would believe they were capturing a possible Unfinished Book religious subversive by the name of William Horry, and then put him through the Word of Blake’s ‘special program’.

Some operation to break Meronac out would have to be arranged, of course, but Squidwarth would leave that to his superiors. They’ll probably arrange for the poor dupes in the resistance groups to do the job.

And as far as Squidwarth was concerned, that was the end of his involvement in the affair for the time being.

 

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