Mercenary's Star

"Don't mind me. General," she said. There was a strange light in her eyes, a touch of wildness. "I'm just one of the things you... usedonce."

"Now wait a minute. Put that thing down! Look, I've got money. I can make you..."

She continued speaking, her voice honey-sweet. "You really should be more careful of your toys. General. Sometimes they can turn on you, just when you're least expecting it."

She had stepped closer. Desperate now, he grabbed for the stu

She had reset the stu

For some time after, he couldn't even muster the muscular control that his throat and diaphragm needed to scream.

* * * *

Moments later, the Gray Death BattleMechs plunged into the slanting, early morning light in the courtyard. Khaled, the last one through the tu

They were surprised at the sight of the Marauderstanding there among the battle-haggard commandos, but Ramage was explaining as they stepped through into the light. Lori used a lightweight line to haul a combat transceiver up into the cockpit of the captured ‘Mech.

"Good morning, Sergeant! What's the situation?" she asked, once the unit was in place, clipped to her ear with the thin pick-up extended in front of her lips.

"Lori! It's good to have you back!"

"It's very good to be back." Her voice was unsteady, and the adrenalin pumped into her system at the sight of that inferno launcher still had her trembling. She kept her voice light, though, hoping Ramage wouldn't notice. She knew that Grayson already had, but she didn't mind that. "I'm relaying for the Captain," she continued. "What's happening?"

"They boxed us. They swung something like a company of ‘Mechs around outside and caught our people against the factory wall. Now they're out there and we're in here...and I expect something to be coming through that main gate, too, any minute now."

She paused to relay the information to Grayson, then reopened the cha

There was a chorus of assents. The Marauder,its canopy still hanging open, made its way toward the archway through which the Gray Death BattleMechs had just emerged. A short way into the shadows, a ramp opened, leading down one level. Beyond that, the tu

Lori looked back at Grayson, hunched forward in the control seat.

"Careful of the control panel, Lori," he said. "Remember, our eject system is armed. One touch, and...whoosh!"

She glanced up at the cracked gray plaster of the ceiling, half a meter above the autoca

"Just watch what buttons you push," she replied.

"Hold it...quiet a moment." He appeared to be straining at the darkness, listening.

"They're coming," he said at last. "Slow and cautious, but they're coming. It's a good thing there's no way to make a twenty-ton metal monster silent. I can hear a BattleMech's leg joint down that tu

Lori could hear the sounds, too, a far-off, hollow echo of metal scraping against ferrocrete. The Marauderpositioned itself close beside the mouth of the tu

"Okay, Lori. When it goes down, I want youdown, flat to the deck. With the canopy open, we won't have any protection from the dazzle or the UV bleed from the PPCs."

Her eyes widened. "You're going to unleash those things in here?"

"None other. Theywon't be expecting it, either.”

“That's one way to look at it."

A long moment crawled past. Then Grayson spoke quietly. "Right, Lori. Dig yourself a hole in the deck."

Somewhere on that alien control panel there was a switch for the Marauder'sfloodlights, twin lenses under the canopy chin that could have bathed the black tu

The particle projection ca

Man-made lightning glared with intolerable brilliance, starkly illuminating the clustered band of BattleMechs in blue-white radiance. For the split second of its existence, the beam of charged particles burned low across the left torso of the Centurionthat led the pack. The beam snapped off, plunging the tu

Grayson opened his left eye, the one he had held closed, and peering into the darkness. Then he squeezed the eye shut again. His right eye still danced and watered with the green and purple disks planted there by the beam's brilliant discharge, but had cleared enough for him to place his second shot The Marauder'sleft arm fired, and again lightning seared through the narrow tu

The Marauderdischarged both arm lasers in a quick one-two shot that scattered burning fragments of armor through the passageway. A Phoenix Hawkbehind the Centurionalso opened fire with its heavy laser, but the bolt went wide, scoring the ferrocrete wall across the passageway from the Marauder.

Both PPCs fired again. One bolt caught the Phoenix Hawk,shearing away an arm in flaming chunks of debris. The other drilled the Centurionhigh in the torso a second time. The unfortunate Centurionpitched backward, flame and molten gobbets of metal and plastic spewing from a gaping crater in its chest.

The Marauderstepped back away from the tu

Grayson swung the Marauder'sright arm into the tu

Lori rolled over on the Marauder'sdeck and looked up at him. "Gray! Ramage is calling! They're coming through the front gate!"