Bloodname

At Blood Swamp she slipped down the slope and into the murky blackness. Once there, she fitted a pair of MAD goggles over her head and looked around. The magnetic anomaly detector was short-range, but in Blood Swamp tended to be more accurate than any installed in a BattleMech. The device also made it easier to travel on foot through the swamp.

Moving quickly and adeptly, Lanja went about a kilometer before discovering the two downed Clan 'Mechs. Their pilots had abandoned the machines, which lay now in swamp water, a pair of drowned giants. Beyond them, however, were faint but clear heat tracings left behind by another BattleMech. The heat signature led in a clear line deeper into the swamp.

For the next half-hour Lanja followed the signature, which got stronger as she swiftly proceeded. Suddenly Lanja was in a small clearing that her sca

Ru

Suddenly she heard the unmistakable sounds of 'Mechs using their hands to clear a path through trees up ahead. She knew she would be seeing the unit soon. Taking off the sca

Passing under a high tree, she heard a rustle in the branches overhead. Before she could even look up, she felt the air change as something descended swiftly toward her. She reached for her laser pistol, the only weapon she had, but not fast enough. In that instant, the tree puma landed heavily on her, forcing Lanja down into stagnant, murky water.

15

It was a pity that the pilots in their 'Mechs and the Elemental with her MAD goggles depended so much on external devices. More reliance on their own eyes, on what the real world offered to their view, and they might have found Joa

"We could try to get out on foot," Nomad said.

"Are you joking? In your condition, you can barely make headway on flat ground."

"Leave me behind."

"I would do that gladly. However, I have no means of navigating, I do not know what the dangers and pitfalls are, and I would prefer not to abandon a valuable BattleMech because its foot is stuck in something, especially when all available equipment is needed for the current combat."

"Then why aren't you trying to pull the foot out?"

"What do you think I was doing? I think it got stuck when it sank into the muck or whatever is down there. It seems to be tangled in something."

"What?"

"If I knew that, I would have said so."

The light inside the cockpit flickered, but did not go out. Joa

"It is that filthy freebirth, Aidan, who is responsible for our being stranded here. He deliberately left us here so that he could reassume command. I will kill him, first chance I get."

"How? There is no Circle of Equals here. I heard him tell you that. And you, Star Captain Joa

"Do not be so sure. I may practice on you."

Recognizing the threat in her voice, Nomad lapsed into silence. She might not kill him, but he knew from experience that she could do significant damage. With his arms already throbbing, he needed no new pain.

After a long period of quiet, interrupted only by odd whoops and other raucous sounds rising like spectral invasions from the swamp, Joa

"Are you going to try to pull the foot out again?"

"No, I am going down there and disentangle it."

"Out there? In the dark?"

"I have a lantern."

Nomad did not know what to say. On the one hand, he admired Joa

It was not worth wasting his breath. Joa

All he could see was the wavering and flickering light from Joa

* * *

At one point Joa

Touching the side of the tree made her shout out an oath she had not spoken since her days as a training officer at Crash Camp on Ironhold. Composing herself and trying to get a new grip on the rope, she recalled the last time she had cursed so thoroughly, disgusted to recall that this bunghole Aidan was co

Steadying herself and the rope as well as she could, Joa

Reaching bottom, Joa