CHAPTER TWO

Plains of Red Stone

Bone Norman

Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

27 June 3071

Not even combat could raise Connor Rood’s spirits.

The rolling gait of his Kit Fox was as familiar as his skin by now, and he piloted the thirty-ton OmniMech around obstacles and over the broken ground without paying attention. His eyes took in the HUD, compared it with what the gestalt that controlled his hands and feet wanted, and reacted accordingly. Soon his attention would be required for combat, but for now Connor Rood had time to think.

Two weeks. The Lithe Kill had been stalking the Eleventh PGC for two weeks, and all they had to prove it were four destroyed OmniMechs, nineteen dead Elementals and barely a Trinary’s worth of the Jade Falcons captured or dealt with. It was perhaps the most un-Jade Falcon-like Trial he’d ever fought in, and it made him uneasy. These were the tactics of Inner Sphere guerilla fighters, or sometimes Ghost Bears. They made no sense for the honor-bound Falcons. Had he been in Star Colonel Idris’ position, he might have done the same, but he was not in the Star Colonel’s position. He was in the opposite position, and it made his head hurt.

Shaking his head, Rood punched his com panel. “Report.”

The voice of his XO, Star Captain Lira, came back instantly. “It worked, my Khan.”

Rood looked at his tactical screen. “How many?”

“Thirteen ’Mechs,” Lira said. “It is not known whether the two missing Points are Elementals, or perhaps some of the ’Mechs we have already destroyed.”

“Time?”

“Two minutes.”

“Excellent.” He keyed the microphone off and allowed himself a quiet grin.

Two weeks of cat-and-mouse—or hellion-and-falcon—had led to this moment. It had been clear to Rood and the other 200^th officers that the Falcons were refusing battle. By naming the entire continent of Hapsburg as the Circle of Equals, they could make tactical engagements wherever they wished, in whatever strength they wished, without breaking the bounds of zellbrigen. So far they had ambushed Ice Hellion Points on patrol, or led Stars into carefully-orchestrated fire zones where heavier, more powerful Jade Falcon units waited to challenge them. It had taken the better part of four days of this—of parading the saKhan himself around the countryside—to lure a significant force of Falcons out of hiding. Rood keyed a query into his battle computer and watched the results.

The thirteen Jade Falcon ’Mechs were uniformly heavier than the Ice Hellions, and Rood had only a Binary—nine other OmniMechs—with him. All nine of the Hellion ’Mechs were frontline OmniMechs, but only one of the Falcons’ machines—probably the Trinary commander—was of the same class, a sixty-five ton Hellbringer. Given the usual breakdown of forces in a provisional garrison Cluster, that might even be Idris himself. The Falcons probably believed they had the Hellions in a vise: two weeks without a major contact, and now a full Trinary, or near enough, accepting battle.

They will expect us to come rushing in, Rood knew. It was what Ice Hellions did—had always done—and not even Rood was immune to the lure of a swift, slashing attack. His MechWarriors felt the same way. He’d heard the inter-Star banter as they predicted his order to attack. But Connor Rood had not become saKhan by being a traditional Ice Hellion warrior.

He touched a second key on his com panel. “Star Captain Adam.”

The response was instantaneous. The channel was encrypted, of course, but with the appropriate ciphers there was no delay. “My Khan.”

“You are receiving?”

“Perhaps just after the first batchalls,” Adam said.

Rood smiled. Good subordinates are such a treasure. “My thought exactly, Star Captain. I do not want any of these Falcons to escape.”

“Neg, my Khan.”

Rood cut the channel. He directed his computer to signal the Jade Falcon Hellbringer. “I am Khan Connor Rood of the Ice Hellions, and I challenge the pilot of the Hellbringer to a duel of warriors.” He held the Kit Fox’s course, waiting. The range had fallen to three kilometers, far out of range for ’Mech combat, but visible and nothing to radio. A familiar voice came back a moment later.

“Khan of the fledglings,” Star Colonel Idris said. “How is your stay on Bone Norman?”

Rood smiled. He expected bravado, and he got it. The Falcons outnumbered and outmassed him; ever since the first Mackie had smashed the Merkava tanks on Terra all those centuries ago, that had been the winning formula for BattleMech combat. Idris could afford—even burdened as he was with second-line and solahma warriors—to be brave. 

“Relaxing,” Rood replied. “Some of the avian life is irksome, but nothing we cannot deal with.” His console lit up as the rest of his Binary signaled their own challenges. If they held to zellbrigen, three of the Falcons would have to wait until one of their number fell to enter combat.

If they hold to zellbrigen.

“Perhaps I should send you back to Hector,” Idris said. “Unless you would prefer rather to remain here as my bondsman, and learn of Bone Norman’s fiercest predators?”

“Well-bargained, Star Colonel,” Rood said. He keyed the lock into his targeting computer. “You will make a very talented Ice Hellion, I think.”

“A middling Jade Falcon is your best hope, I fear, Khan Rood,” Idris said. Then he cut the channel.

Rood’s smile turned into a grin.      

Finally.

As the PPCs in the Hellbringer’s bulky forearms charged, Idris regarded the Ice Hellion line. The Hellion Khan’s Kit Fox was in the vanguard, of course, and the other OmniMechs were all the lighter, faster machines that Clan favored. Two of them were their namesake Hellion ’Mechs. One idiot in a dainty Fire Moth was even charging toward Baxter’s plodding Matador, as if speed would protect him against that ’Mech’s incredible arsenal of close-in weaponry. Idris stifled the reflexive sneer that came with his dismissive mental snort of Hellions, but there was still something off in his head.

I expected to be more displeased, he realized. I am very likely about to lose all that I’ve gained in the Jade Falcon Clan. Unlike so many of his peers, Idris prided himself on his pragmatism,. He was about to face a Khan of one of the Clans in that Khan’s chosen arena—in flatlands large enough to give the Ice Hellions room to run their little toy ’Mechs around. Even if his plan worked, it was likely that Khan Rood would disable his ’Mech before the trap could be sprung.

Idris surprised himself. If that happens, and I am taken bondsman, he told himself, at least I will be spared the Trials of Grievance over my tactics.

He touched a control on the Hellbringer’s com console and then directed his attention toward the Kit Fox charging across the blue-hued fields. The rakish grin that appeared on his face would have been familiar to a crocodile on Terra.

Think of the honor if I win.

The range fell below a kilometer. Connor Rood opened the encrypted com channel again. “After the first kill, Star Captain Adam,” he said.

“Aff, my Khan.”

Rood closed the channel and gripped his controls. His Kit Fox’s configuration was based on the F model; like all OmniMechs, his ’Mech could have much of its weapons and equipment switched out between battles, making repair and rearmament quite simple. Unlike the standard BattleMech, which mounted only one platform of weapons for its entire deployment, OmniMechs offered unprecedented flexibility. The same ’Mech that carried a brace of long-range missiles to bombard a city’s defenses could mount a fearsome battery of machine guns the next day to clear the city itself.

Today Rood’s Kit Fox carried the usual main weapon for the F configuration, a hyper-assault Gauss rifle. Although only the smallest caliber of HAGs, Rood’s was an old and familiar companion. The difference between Rood’s Kit Fox and other F models was that where they usually carried a pair of medium pulse lasers, Rood had replaced them with four extended-range medium lasers. Although they were less accurate, they presented nearly double the damage potential.

To a Clan that routinely used lighter, less well-armed machines to attack heavier Clans, more powerful damage was as much lifeblood as speed.

Rood held his targeting reticle steady over the Hellbringer’s gently-rolling gait, waiting. The crosshairs flickered green for an instant and he mashed the trigger beneath his index finger down. The Kit Fox rocked as the HAG’s many small capacitors discharged, firing a stream of small hypersonic slugs rather than the large, single slug Gauss weapons traditionally used. Recoil pushed the ’Mech around a little—the masses were small, but there were a lot of them and they were going really fast—but Rood was long used to that. He held the trigger down until the entire capacitor ring was discharged.

The Hellbringer fired a moment later, both the big particle projector cannons in its arms. Idris must have been distracted by the glittering, sparking impacts raking across his ’Mech, because both slugs of relativistic ions missed. Rood smiled and watched the reload indicator charge the HAG’s capacitors for another shot.

His throttle stayed at its forward stop. The Kit Fox never slowed.

As fast as he was going, the range fell quickly, but Rood still took time to glance at the others of his Binary. All of his warriors had challenged one of the Jade Falcons, and all had charged with him, but not all of them were in range. Only he and Star Captain Lira had fired, but Lira had done better than her Khan. Her target, a verdigris-colored Horned Owl, was collapsed on the blue grass, its cockpit crushed by her Shadow Cat’s Gauss rifle. A Falcon Pinion, one of the three ’Mechs who hadn’t been previously challenged, immediately leapt forward to challenge her.

A tone sounded in Rood’s helmet. The HAG was reloaded. He cut the Kit Fox to the left, dodging around a stand of sloop-branched werewillows. The long-limbed trees were eight or nine meters tall, but their branches spread almost thirty meters wide and were nearly impenetrable by a ’Mech’s sensors. The heavy metals in the leaves blocked IR and other scans, and they glowed like a large, diffuse magnetic mass in magres imagers. With any luck, he could trick Idris into blasting the trees with his PPC instead of the Kit Fox’s thin armor. As the Kit Fox cleared the werewillow, he cranked it’s torso around to bear on the Hellbringer.

Idris fired before Rood could, again thrashing the landscape with his PPCs, but missing the speeding Kit Fox. Rood’s snarled cheer was unheard beneath the slam-crack of the HAG-20 firing and the thunder of the ’Mech’s feet on a rock outcropping. He was content to let Idris waste the landscape while he poked holes in the Hellbringer’s famously-thin armor, but it would be more difficult to keep the PPCs missing once he closed to range. His lasers would cut deeply, but the Hellbringer had lasers of its own, and missiles besides. That was a losing proposition.

“We are moving, my Khan,” a voice said. Rood blinked. It was Adam. His eyes went automatically to the tactical screen, but the Ice Hellion Trinary was too far away still. “A minute or two and we will be there.”

“Aff,” he bit out. The restraints that held him against his command couch bit into his shoulder through his cooling suit’s cloth as he leaned the Kit Fox as far over as he dared, making a tight turn. The HAG console pinged again as it reloaded, but the Hellbringer was hidden behind the bulk of the werewillow Rood crouched behind in a half-skid, half-stop. He blinked at a precise point on his HUD and a new channel opened.

“Star Captain Lira,” he said.

“My Khan.” Lira’s voice was flustered. Her easy victory over the Horned Owl was one thing—apparently the Pinion was giving her more of a challenge. There was a squelch of static as she fired her Gauss rifle. 

“When you see Star Captain Adam’s units on your HUD, you will initiate the melee.”

“Aff, my Khan.”

Rood closed the channel. He was taking a gamble, but the situation was untenable. He’d been trapped here on Bone Norman for two weeks already. The new Hellion Trinary had not been part of the initial bid, but by opening the melee—by firing on a target not adopted under zellbrigen—much of the rules of dueling could be discarded. And if one of my Hellions wants to face me in a Trial of Grievance for abrogating so much honor, Rood told himself, so be it. Victory is more important than my honor.

He let the Kit Fox rise enough for his sensors to get a peek over the werewillow, searching for Idris and his Hellbringer. A red caret appeared on his HUD a half-instant before a PPC annihilated much of the tree between them. The explosion pushed the Kit Fox into a lurch that Rood used to duck the OmniMech into a run. He cranked the torso over again, but couldn’t get the heavy Falcon ’Mech in his sights.

He’d considered opening the melee himself. It was difficult to ask another warrior to do something so anathema to the Clan way of thinking, but Lira—like so many of his chosen officers—had the same pragmatic streak as he did. She would do as she was ordered, because she saw beyond this battle. If the Hellions were to succeed in Khan Montose’s plan to wrest away enough worlds to form an Ice Hellion invasion corridor, they needed to move swiftly. Being trapped on Bone Norman for two weeks against a savashri garrison Cluster was not moving quickly.

Lira would do her part, and preserve the public honor of the Khan of the Ice Hellions. If they lost, Rood could scapegoat her; he and Lira both were intelligent enough to know he would. The way forward required victory from both of them.

And Connor Rood would do his part.

He turned the Kit Fox toward Idris’ Hellbringer.