Mercenary's Star

"Excellent, Strike One! Is there resistance?"

The leader looked down at a sprawled form on the ground and nudged it with his boot. It was a young woman, scantily clad and very dead.

"Negative, Colonel. No resistance.”

“And their ‘Mechs?"

"I have a report that our scouts have found the caves. The ‘Mechs are unma

"Understood. We are on the road, on schedule. We'll be there in three hours."

"Confirmed, three hours. Strike One out."

Three hours. That meant the BattleMech company led by Colonel Kevlavic himself was on its way down the main road from Basin Rim and already past the area ravaged in the battle only two days before.

Someone screamed as the silent twin swords of blazer fire struck him down. Farther off, the dull thump of a fuel depot igniting startled the night-calling wildlife into silence.

Three hours? He looked down again at the rebel's body by his feet. By that time, things at the rebel base would be well in hand.

23

The rebel column had stopped for the night. Even along the broadest and firmest plantation trails and roads that crisscrossed beneath the trees, travel in the jungle was difficult, at best. The dark added little to their chances of concealing something as big, hot, and loud as a small army of BattleMechs when the enemy arsenal included infrared sca

Restless, unable to sleep, Grayson heated water for coffee in a small brass pot over one of the power plant coolant ducts in the narrow engineering access space high in the Shadow Hawk'sthorax. He spent much of the night watching the Hawk'ssca

What was Nagumo doing? What was he pla

Once during his vigil, Grayson thought he detected a brief faint glow, a dim, false dawn in the cloud bellies above the treetops to the east. When the light quickly faded, he decided that it had been a figment of his own exhaustion.

Before it was fully light, the rebel band had breakfasted on ca

Only a short while, though. Success depended on the rebel ‘Mech force moving quickly and far afield, striking the Kurita garrisons wherever they were weak and lax in their watchfulness. To stop meant that the enemy could close in on them with fingers of steel, trapping them, crushing them.

He urged tired men and worn machines to a faster pace through an unforgiving jungle. Lori was in the lead in the light and swift-footed Locust.They were still five kilometers from camp when her voice came across the command circuit "Boss! I've got a reading ahead! Man-sized, heading this way!"

Grayson's brow furrowed in puzzlement There should be no sentries so far to the west of Fox Island. He acknowledged and steered the Hawkup the trail until it stood alongside the Locust.His own sca

Yorulius' eyes fluttered open. "Don't...go back," he said, his voice a hoarse croak. "They'rethere..."

"Who? Who's there?"

"Dracos..."

Grayson went cold inside. "Jaleg! What happened? Tell us!"

"Drac...commandos. Parachutes. They landed right on top of us. Never knew...never knew they were there. The... ‘Mechs, they came through later."

'"Mechs? Kurita BattleMechs?"

He nodded, the effort costing him blood and strength. "They're still there... waiting... for you

The medic ran his hands across Yorulis' body. "Where'd they hit you, Mech Warrior?"

Yorulis laughed, a ragged, gagging sound, and tried to mop at the blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. "Where didn't they get me?"

Grayson pursed his lips. He was no medic, but he knew that Yorulis didn't have a chance outside a well-stocked hospital, which they weren't likely to find out here. As blood welled from holes high in the man's chest, the medtech began slapping them with small plastic patches. Those holes sucked and bubbled with each breath Yorulis took.

"How many ‘Mechs?" Grayson asked gently. The medic looked up at Grayson as though about to protest, but Grayson silenced him with a shake of his head and repeated the question. "How many ‘Mechs, Jaleg?"

"Don't... know. Comp'ny maybe. Maybe more." He tossed his head back and forth. "Don't go back there. They're... laying for you. Must've waited to get word that you were out raiding their outposts... then moved... fast. They got all the ‘Mechs you left there. And the Techs. Herded them off South... somewhere..."

The full scope of the disaster was only now becoming clear to Grayson. Without their base, without Techs...

"Couldn't get to a ‘Mech," the wounded ‘MechWarrior contintied. "Never had a chance. They got the Council too. Captain. Rounded 'em up and marched 'em off. Don't know what happened to them."

"Ericksson?"

"Don't know. Don't...know. Didn't see him. I...snuck out. but a Phoenix Hawkspotted me, opened up with its machine guns. I guess they figured they killed me, because they stopped shooting after the third time I fell down." He started coughing then, and the blood flowed faster, soaking the medtech's patches. "I...guess maybe they were right."