Decision at Thunder Rift

Ramage was still there, waiting.

"We're going to have to retreat, Sergeant. Retreat or give it up now."

Ramage looked uncertain. "What about the Lieutenant?"

"He's dead, or he would've been here by now."

"Sarge!" That cry burst onto the com frequency, interrupting them. It was a scout Ramage had posted on the ridge with binoculars and a radio. "Sarge, they're coming again! All of them!"

Their men and machines turned to face the ravine once more. Somehow, Lori found the willpower to drive the Locustinto position, to squat the machine down in firing position. The first LRMs came arching over from the bottom of the slope, bursting behind and in front of them and among the rocks and cliffs on either side.

"Hold your fire, people," she cautioned on the general combat circuit. How many could still hear her? "Save it till you can make it count."

Then the enemy rushed up the hill, the Marauderthat had killed Garik in the lead. Lori opened fire on that machine, hitting it again and again! Smoke trailed now from a crater in the Marauder'sflank, and the autoca

An HVWC on Lori's right took a direct hit from a Wolverine'sturret laser, and a reload pack of SRMs erupted with a flash and a blast that disintegrated the hovercraft. Two soldiers crouching nearby were jerked forward by the explosion and lay broken and still behind the earthworks. The rest of the Lancer troops held their ground, using their shoulder-fired missile launchers and hand flamers to deadly effect Three tracked vehicles were already in flames, their crews dead, and the Shadow Hawkwas down with a crippled right leg.

But the others kept coming, but very slowly, as though forcing their way against a hurricane blast. The roar of exploding warheads blended with the steady drumming of the waterfall at the Lancers' backs.

Laser hits savaged the Stinger,blasting away external ante

"Yarin! Get down!"

But the Stingerwas advancing, its pilot oblivious to Lori's commands.

Maybe his radio's gone, she thought. Or he's panicked. Then it hit her that this might be his way of facing defeat She had been thinking of retreat or surrender. But he...

The Stingertook a PPC hit full in its chest. As though time were frozen, Lori's mind held the image of Yarin's 'Mech crashing backward, arms spread, into the water.

But for three surviving weapons carriers and a handful of men crouched behind the shallow earthworks and laser-charred boulders, her Locustwas alone now. She kept firing, but the Marauderwas almost on her now. Range 60 meters... now 40... now 20...

Just as the attacking 'Mechs drew together at the Rift's entrance, explosions ripped into them. In a moment, the enemy's ranks were in chaos as missiles arced down from the green-tinged sky with blast after blast that echoed and re-echoed from the faces of the Rift walls.

Ramage was standing on the engine cover of his hovercraft, waving his TK wildly. Lori caught his shouts through her external mikes. "The Lieutenant! It's the Lieutenant!"

Then she saw the Shadow Hawk.Though scarred, battered, and scored by laser burns, it was undeniably Grayson's 'Mech scrambling along the ridge to the east of the ravine. From that angle, LRMs came whistling down among the Duke's 'Mechs, but could not pass beyond and into the cavern mouth. The opening to the Rift was momentarily curtained off by hurtling earth and gravel, and the deafening blasts drowned out even the roar of the waterfall.

Three missiles caught the Marauderon the back and side, opening wider the gashes already torn into the armor plate. Its right arm now lay twisted and smoking on the cavern's sandy floor.

The Marauderturned then, almost sadly. It fired with its surviving PPC and laser at Grayson's Shadow Hawk,but it missed. With that, it began a shambling run back down the ridge, black smoke fuming from its hull. The surviving Combine 'Mechs broke then, each hurrying down the slope to safety, pursued by a dozen crawlers and disorganized bands of soldiers. At the top of the ridge, the Lancers began standing, slowy, dazedly, while the remaining Combine troops dropped their weapons and raised their hands in surrender. But Lori only had eyes for Grayson's scarred Shadow Hawklimping to the crest of the ridge.

37

At the jump point, energies flowed through the JumpShip's drive core, focused, then discharged in a space-twisting field that created something very close to a small, temporary black hole. In that instant, the Invidioussimply vanished moments ahead of the arrival of DropShips from the enemy warship.

Aboard the Invidious,Tor felt the familiar crushing sensation, experienced that flash of momentary blindness as the void yawned around him, swallowing the ship in its eerie roar. The wan and distant disk of Trell, the myriad stars beyond dwindled into red, vanished into infrared, then were wiped away as if they'd never been. To be replaced by the arc-brilliant, fiercely radiating point of blue-white splendor that was their target star.

Tor found himself laughing helplessly in his relief and joy, while Varney pounded him on his back. They had made it!

* * * *

Claydon stood in the marbled corridor outside the Palace Reception Hall. He unhooked the holster strap on his Stetta automatic heavy pistol, and waited.

As senior Tech for the Guards 'Mech unit, he'd been assigned to Captain Nolem's personal staff. The desertion of many of the old Lancers perso

But Claydon's thoughts were not concerned with 'Mechs now, nor with the battle raging north of the city at the spaceport, and beyond, at Thunder Rift. Like Grayson, he, too, craved revenge.

Claydon blamed Grayson for his father's death in the fire that had also destroyed their home. If it hadn't been for the young Commonwealther, Berenir would not have made the visor call that must have alerted someone in the government to Berenir's pro-Commonwealth loyalties. That someone had had co

Though it had been Grayson Carlyle's raid on the port that had freed him, Claydon's grief and bitterness made him refuse the offer to join the Lancers. When Lieutenant Nolem approached him after the Lancers' disastrous raid on the Castle, Claydon accepted the offer to tech for the new Lancers. The unit was being regrouped under his own command, Nolem said, and would be transferred to a Guards regiment. The fact that he was Berenir's son carried little weight with Nolem. It was clear that Claydon had no love for Grayson Carlyle. Besides, Tech-trained perso

During his tour of duty with Nolem, Claydon actually spent more time going through the computer logs and com records in the Palace and at the Guards HQ than with 'Mechs. Tech Sergeant Riviera had been a master of computer programming and searches, and he'd passed that mastery on to his astech protege. By the time Claydon met Grayson again in the Palace corridor, he'd uncovered much of what he'd wanted to know.