Falcon Guard

Aidan said he would see Marthe tonight in her quarters and signaled off.

The second call was from Kael Pershaw, in his Specter."I second Star Colonel Marthe Pryde's congratulations. Indeed, you are both to be praised for your victories. From what I can see of the area around Robyn's Crossing, those parts not obscured by the smoke and dust of battle, your ragtag Falcon Guards have laid low a good number of ComStar 'Mechs. I commend you again, Aidan Pryde. Supply vehicles are now heading toward your position. A supply depot will be set up on your side while the bridge is being built. You have done well, Star Colonel. I now envision the scientists accepting the contribution of your genes."

"For wi

"More than a skirmish, Aidan Pryde. More than a skirmish. But you are not done yet. Soon you will attack Olalla. The Jade Falcons have a wonderful opportunity here. The other Clans, those that landed before the Jade Falcons, have not done well. Thus does it fall to us to recapture honor for all the Clans. Perhaps we can even become the ilClan."

"I would like to contribute to the Jade Falcons wi

"You will, Aidan Pryde, you will. Continue to follow your own instincts. Listen to none other. Do not even listen to me."

"Hard to achieve that, since you invade my cockpit with your ruminations."

"I will attempt to stay silent. And I like that word, ruminations. You have gained something from all those books you hide away, Aidan Pryde."

"How do you know about the books, Kael Pershaw?"

But there was finally silence in the cockpit.

33

The engineers worked furiously. The discovery of myomer several centuries before had considerably simplified the task of throwing up an emergency tactical bridge that was also easy to deconstruct and move to a different location. The light and flexible bridge pontoons could be carried easily to a location in sections, and then co

The pontoons were assembled on the Clan side, in forty-meter sections. Each section was maneuvered out and linked to the end of the bridge as it stretched its way across the river.

The difficulty the engineers encountered was in keeping the linked pontoons in place in the turbulent river. Cables of every size and shape were strung to anchor the bridge and its sections. More cables were used to steady and maneuver the new sections to the end bridge. The shattered buttments of the old bridge, trees, BattleMechs, Elementals, and even simple techs were used to steady the floating sections.

Watching edgily from the Falcon Guard side of the river, Diana thought the sight somewhat comical, but also irritating because she was so anxious for it to be done so they could resume real combat. The fighting so far had intoxicated her. As in all addictions, she wanted more of it. Not later, not even soon, but now. She realized she was like a child at some village game, but did not care. All her dreams and expectations of the warrior life were being fulfilled in this Tukayyid campaign, and she was impatient with such unexceptional tasks as providing cover for bridge-building.

Diana's fingers tapped nervously on her joystick. Intelligence reports detected no ComStar activity anywhere near Robyn's Crossing, though the enemy had carried out some hit-and-run attacks at Plough Bridge. Marthe Pryde's BattleMechs and Elementals had easily beaten them back. Intelligence suggested that the Com Guards had pulled back into Olalla and Humptulips, ready to defend the objective cities against an expected onslaught. Well, of course, Diana thought. What else but an onslaught? After getting this far, the Jade Falcons were not about to cease being their usual fierce, merciless, and brutal selves.

When the fourth section of the bridge had been completed, all its pieces interlocked, all its sections tested by the fastidious engineer commander, the pontoons were hauled out into river. One pontoon slipped off its cable and went roaring down the river, bouncing on its surface like a child's balloon on a rush of air.

The cables were now attached to hooks on the bottom of a VTOL, which dragged them across the river to the other side. Several engineers were dropped from the vehicle to the bank, where, using battlesuited Elementals and a Viperto clutch the cables, the pontoons were positioned at this end while the opposite end of the bridge began to reach across the river toward the section on which assembly was continuing.

As the newest piece of the bridge was being maneuvered into place, a sudden shift in the river currents made one pontoon surge up, and the new section of the bridge buckled. The engineer in charge slipped to the edge of the bridge piece and nearly fell into the river. Grabbing a cable, he held on for dear life as the bridge piece teetered and seemed about to drop into the river.

Watching all this on her primary screen, which squeezed together the details of the scene to give a wider survey of it, Diana saw an Elemental break away from the pontoon cable that was his assignment. Shucking off his body armor with remarkable quickness, the now-naked Elemental ran toward the river bank. She saw that it was the Elemental she knew, Star Commander Selima.

* * *

Selima had studied the bridge-building with a scholar's detachment. It was just this curiosity about how anybody did anything that had helped him rise rapidly through the Elemental ranks to officer status.

When the disaster on the bridge occurred, Selima did not take time to think. That was not in his nature. A Clansman needed help. Warrior or tech, it did not matter. He let go the cable.

He ran toward the riverbank, the slight breeze off the river acting like a cooling vest on his skin. When almost there, he saw the engineer's grasp on the cable slip as the bridge piece shifted. The man slipped further down the cable and nearly fell off. The fall slid him away from the outstretched hands of would-be rescuers on the bridge itself.

It was just as Selima reached the riverbank that the man lost his grip on the bridge cable for the final time. Screaming, he fell into the chasm, landing first on the side of a pontoon, then falling away into the frenzied waters.

Selima dived into the river, his long body arched into a perfect swan dive. He entered the water with the smoothness of an athlete. Remaining underwater, he swam easily for several meters before surfacing near the pontoons. The people on the bridge gestured and pointed toward the spot where the engineer was last seen, his head emerging above water for the third time.

With quick strokes, Selima swam to that area, then dove underwater again. Using his keen eyesight, he sca

Fighting the underwater current with his tremendous strength, Selima reached the drowning man with swift, even strokes. Irrational resistance from the victim would be no problem for he was now unconscious. Grabbing him under the shoulders and holding one hand over the man's nose and mouth to reduce the swallowing of water, Selima used his powerful right arm to stroke upward toward the surface. Letting out his own breath shallowly, he felt the river try to push him back. But he overcame its resistance as easily as he might overcome an enemy infantryman.