Mercenary's Star

* * * *

Later, in the dark and near-chill of Verthandi's predawn, Lori found a favorite rock among the trees beyond the plantation clearing. The Li Plantation lay at the top of the Basin Rim, amid a straggling of jungle growth that had climbed the slopes from the Silvan Basin and spread across the Bluesward. BattleMechs, their black shapes strange under the ragged cloaks of camouflage they wore among the jungle trees, loomed against a starry sky. Verthandi-Alpha had long since set.

The dream had come again, and she had decided to walk off some of the horror's edge. Listening to chirimsims keening and shrieking in the jungle basin below, she hugged herself and closed her eyes, willing the dream's terror to fade.

She loved Grayson. She was certain of that now, but somehow, somewhere deep within, she still could not trust him. That conflict in her feelings for the young BattleMech commander were tearing her apart. She had learned to override her own fears—even her terror of fire—during battle, but she had not yet managed to come to grips with the storm of her own emotions. She had been a MechWarrior long enough to know that such a tearing of mind and will would sooner or later be fatal. The time would come when she would make a mistake, and...

The dream had put her in a black mood. Would death be so unwelcome, after all? Beyond the men and women of the Legion, she had no family. Certainly she had had no romantic relationships since her closeness with Grayson on Trellwan. Somehow, every man in the Legion knew she was the Captain's woman. She laughed aloud at that. The Captain's woman!

In the weeks since Sue Ellen's rescue, the two women had become friends. Recognizing each other's loneliness, they took comfort in one another. Lori knew that Sue Ellen's loneliness was so much worse. Her man was dead.

She opened her eyes, trying to shake off these thoughts of despair and death. In the darkness and pale starlight, it was difficult to make out who they were, but she could see a man and a woman approach the clearing from another path in the distance. It was some moments before she recognized one of the Verthandian women rescued weeks before. What was her name? Janice, was it? Walking beside her, the man had his arm around her waist.

So, if Janice Taylor had found companionship among the men of the Gray Death Legion, why couldn't she? The man had both arms around the woman now. As Lori watched them embrace, then kiss, her own loneliness became suddenly overwhelming. She wondered what Grayson was doing right now. If he were awake, would he want her to come to him?

The couple drew apart after a final kiss. Janice turned then, and started across the clearing toward what was now the women's barracks on the Li Plantation. When the man turned, Lori finally saw his face clearly, too.

It was Grayson.

He saw her at the same moment. He seemed to hesitate, then started toward her. She rose from her seat on the rock and turned to pass him.

"Lori..."

"Good evening. Captain." At that moment, she felt more mixed up than ever. Was this betrayal that she was feeling? Was it jealousy? Or was it simple anger at her own confusion and distress?

"Lori, what is it...?"

"Nothing, Captain. Nothing at all. Good night." It was all she could manage to walk back toward the womens' barracks without breaking into a run. The Captain's woman, indeed!

* * * *

Not many more weeks passed before it became clear that the Second Battle of Fox Island had been an important turning point in the war. Duke Hassid Ricol had departed for his starship the Huntress,leaving Governor General Nagumo still in command. After all, Ricol admitted, the idea of attacking Fox Island had been his own, and Nagumo had deployed the two Light Recon lances with skill and dispatch during the desperate fighting outside the University walls. The rebels had been within meters of wi

Ricol was more than willing to call the battle a victory and leave Nagumo in charge. His alternatives were either to place the incompetent Admiral Kodo in command or to remain on Verthandi himself to take charge personally, neither of which the Red Duke was prepared to do. He was scheduled for an audience with Lord Kurita himself on Luthien in another two weeks. Besides, if he took command, he would have to produce a victory. At this point, Ricol wondered privately if victory were ever going to be possible on Verthandi.

He had seen the faces of the people of Regis as they watched the passage of his entourage. The Loyalists were grim and reserved, already fearful that their Kurita allies would depart, leaving them at the mercy of the rebels. Sheer, open hatred was on the faces of the rest.

For the Combine, victory might well consist of escaping Verthandi with a whole skin.

In the wake of the fiasco at Fox Island, patrols now departed less and less frequently from Regis or the other Kurita strongholds to sweep the countryside or probe the hills for rebel supply caches. The battle at the airfield had destroyed two AeroSpace Fighters completely and the third would be crippled and useless for at least three months. The remaining fighters on Verthandi-Alpha had been loaded aboard Ricol's DropShip, along with DEST 4. If it turned out that Nagumo would be unable to pacify Verthandi, at least those valuable units would not be lost. Of course, that meant Nagumo was left without their services in tracking rebels or providing air cover.

The Kurita ‘Mechs and the Regis Blues never entered the jungle anymore. To do so invited attack and a

Within a few weeks, the Kurita presence on Verthandi had dwindled to Regis itself, a handful of mines in the southern desert, and a scattering of fire bases and supply depots guarding the principal government routes of supply and communication. What was left of the 44th Line and the Light Recon regiments remained within Regis itself, while the others were deployed in garrisons at the mines and elsewhere. At any given time, a quarter of the Kurita ‘Mechs were down and under maintenance, their pilots on leave at the base on Verthandi-Alpha. For the first time in nearly a decade, most of the countryside and smaller towns were not under the shadow of the Kurita ‘Mechs.

Nagumo dared not risk a major confrontation with the rebels, not with their numbers growing explosively every day, with rebel attacks growing fiercer and more daring with each incident. In one day alone, eight Verthandian astechs, five Regis Blues, and three

Kurita soldiers had vanished in downtown Regis in broad daylight. Their heads appeared later, artfully arranged on the steps of the University, and no one would admit having seen who'd left them.

Nagumo may have won a victory at the walls of the University, but he was begi

In the countryside, Grayson and the Gray Death continued to work informally with rebel bands, taking the best recruits and training them in anti-Mech commando tactics, then taking the best of those and training them to operate the growing army of captured Verthandian ‘Mechs. By this time, most of the old AgroMechs had either been destroyed in battle or been ca