Chapter 24

Over Kilrymont Spaceport

New St Andrews IV, The Periphery

Rimward of the Circinus Federation

11 June 3077

 

               Don’t think about it.

               Don’t.  Think.  About.  It.

               Marie’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly.  She knew what she’d seen, but it refused to register in her mind.  That couldn’t have happened.  She hadn’t just heard her mother die.  Rachel must have punched out before the fighter fell apart. 

               You don’t have time for this, her father’s voice warned her.

               She swept her eyes wildly over her displays, looking for any sign of an ejection seat.  At this distance her patchwork sensor equipment couldn’t pick out little details.  A seat would disappear among all the fragments.  She zoomed in as much as she could, frantically looking for any sign of a human shape.

               MARIE.  PULL UP.

               The Blossom’s computer voice mirrored her father’s warning.  She snapped back to reality in time to yank back on the control stick, pulling out of her dive before she could plow into the ground.  She leveled off and pulled up before looking back at her screens, trying to pick out details among all the burning fragments.  She saw a bloom of what might be an ejection chute…

               I’ll take care of her, her father’s voice said in her head.  You need to focus.  The job’s not done.

               She numbly looked at her sensor displays, seeing the icons of fusion reactors.  The DropShip was on a fast descent, headed for either a hard landing or a full-on crash.  A few escape pods were shooting out of it.  She saw the Griffin dive out of the open drop door, but she could see the pilot was new to high-altitude drops.  He was firing his jump jets too fast, going through his reaction mass when he was still too high to slow his fall.  For her part, Marie could see the DropShip’s emergency maneuvering had put her off-course, sending her away from the spaceport.  Away from Bower and the rest of Meridian’s people, who would be trying to fight Caradin and the Circinans themselves.

               She banked hard, aiming for the spaceport.  She couldn’t help leaving the commline open, waiting for any sign from her mother.  The Samurai ejection seat would put out a distress signal at least, something she could home in on later…

               “That’s you, isn’t it, McCloud?”

               Caradin’s voice was eerily calm over the commline.  Marie ignored her.

               “I’m impressed, you came up with a strategy I didn’t expect.  And a whole dropship full of people?  That’s hardly the move I’d have guessed out of you.”  She paused.  “I trained you well.”

               “Shut up,” Marie bit out.  “This is nothing like what you trained me to do.”

               “Keep telling yourself that.”

               The distance to the spaceport passed in a haze around Marie.  She swept her eyes over the board, mechanically checking the readouts and status of her mech.  She’d suffered some armor damage from the fighting on the Overlord, and she’d spent quite a bit of machine gun ammo, but everything was green otherwise.  The only exception was the fuel alert blinking away on one side of the board, reminding her it was time to get to the ground, now.  She descended to low altitude and pushed the mode lever to change the Blossom to an AirMech, trying to draw out her remaining fuel as much as she could.

               “I’m guessing Wolfgang cracked,” Caradin went on.  “He told you how I’d handle defense, didn’t he?”

               A sub-screen lit up with a video feed from Fleetfoot.  Marie glanced at it to see the little Raptor was looming over a group of civilians, prisoners at the spaceport.  She saw guards shoving a familiar, squirrelly-looking man out of the line.  Coghill was roughed-up, his glasses gone and his clothes torn, but Marie still recognized him.

               “Did Wolf tell you what else I’d do?” Caradin asked, and a targeting reticule appeared over Coghill.

               “Don’t – ” Marie began, but it was already too late.  There was a flash of a laser and Coghill disappeared, disintegrating to ash in front of her.  Caradin calmly turned her targeting reticule onto the next person in line.

               Marie switched off the connection before Caradin fired again.  The knot in her stomach got tighter, feeling like she was about to explode inside.  Her teeth clenched, she switched to the Hussars’ lance channel.

               “Hoshino, are you proud of yourself?” she asked.  “Is this where you really stand?”

               “He can’t hear you, McCloud,” Caradin said tiredly.  “I had him change frequencies the second I figured out what you were up to.  And even if he could hear you, he knows where his loyalties lie.  Idealism’s fun for childrens’ stories, but in the end it comes down to who’ll take you in when no one else will have you.”

               Marie killed the connection again.  In the distance she saw the icons for the Charger and the Raptor split up and run into the cover of the trees outside the spaceport.  Marie banked towards the Raptor. 

               She closed in on Fleetfoot’s signature, waiting for the targeting system to register it as in range.  The second her targeting reticule turned green, she squeezed the trigger.  The Blossom’s large laser flashed, stabbing a red beam into the forest.  Not even waiting to see if she’d hit, she followed up with the medium lasers, their green beams joining the large’s red one.  She focused on the spot she’d aimed for, looking for any sign of a solid hit, only to catch herself at the last second and pull up before she plowed into the trees.  The Blossom’s feet took off the topmost branches of a few trees before she leveled off.  As Marie tried to regain control of the AirMech’s flight, laser beams stabbed out of the trees at her, raking over her arms and legs.

               Still ticking.  Good, Marie thought.  You don’t get to die that easy.

               She banked around in a hard turn, coming around for another pass.  She could barely see the Raptor as it moved through the trees underneath her, but the Blossom’s sensors could pick out the other ‘Mech’s signature easily enough, and she opened fire again.  Lasers crisscrossed in midair as Caradin returned fire.  Marie’s eyes momentarily flickered to the wire frame image – it was yellow in a few places, but so far she was holding up.  Meanwhile Fleetfoot was living up to its name, zipping between trees and making itself a very difficult moving target.  Combined with the difficulty of flying the Blossom, the most Marie could manage was to aim in Caradin’s general direction and hope to get lucky.  It was tempting to slow down and hover over the trees, at least taking her own wild movement out of the equation.  She kept herself from doing that, though; slowing down would also make her an easier target, and she didn’t have the tree cover Caradin was taking full advantage of. 

               “Hold still!” she shouted, firing again into the woods.  A large tree exploded under her laser fire, but the lithe form of the Raptor darted out of sight again.  Before she could line up another shot the lock-on alert blared.  She turned into a clumsy roll as SRMs launched up at her.  They missed, barely, but they were followed with more laser beams.  Marie grit her teeth together; apparently Caradin’s lasers were extended-range models, taking away the slim range advantage the Blossom’s large laser should have offered.

               “I can do this all day,” Caradin warned.  “What’s your game?  Think you can keep up with me?”

               “You’re going to run out of trees eventually!” Marie shot back.  She swooped around to approach Caradin’s position, trying another awkward strafing run with an AirMech that wasn’t half as agile as a full aerospace fighter.  She tried firing her lasers, but every shot went wide.  She cursed her bad luck and lack of skill; weeks and weeks of training with this machine, and she could still barely shoot straight.  Having a jury-rigged fire control certainly wasn’t helping.

               The fuel alert was getting obnoxiously persistent; even as an AirMech she couldn’t stay airborne much longer.  She managed one more pass before she admitted to herself it was time to land.  She came in some distance from Fleetfoot, buying her time to convert to a BattleMech without being interrupted.

               As the seams closed back up on the Blossom’s armor Marie pushed the throttle up, moving in on Fleetfoot.  At least now they were both trying to aim through the trees, but landing had taken away her extra mobility, costing her another one of her scant few advantages.  Now she was stuck facing an opponent that was faster, better armed, and more accurate than her.  On the other hand Marie only had to get lucky once; Fleetfoot’s armor was so light, a single hit from the Blossom’s large laser could cripple it.  Her best bet was to close to short range and hope her own armor held out until she could get a good shot in.

               Lasers stabbed through the woods, trees exploding as both pilots jockeyed for a clean shot.  Before long the Blossom’s hull was covered in scars, and for her part there was no indication Marie had even hit once.  Around them fires were popping up left and right, ignited by the coruscating beams. 

               Marie’s cockpit was sweltering.  Firing her lasers as fast as they could cycle was taxing the Blossom to her limit.  Sweat was dripping into Marie’s eyes, making it even harder to line up a shot on the nimble Raptor.  Fleetfoot was staying maddingly cool while it harassed her.  Even as Marie tried to blink away the sweat Caradin fired again, forcing her to keep moving at full-tilt just to keep from getting hit.  The Blossom was moving sluggishly as she struggled to bleed off the excess heat.  Even so Marie kept pushing in, trying to close the distance and force Caradin off-balance.

               She caught a brief glimpse of Caradin’s ‘Mech curving around a gentle hill.  She glanced at the heat gauge, already well into the red, but knew she couldn’t afford to let an opportunity slip away.  She hit her jump jets, bounding after Caradin. 

               The jets let her avoid all the hassle of dodging between trees, giving her a momentary speed advantage over Fleetfoot.  The Blossom came down hard in front of the Raptor, so close she could almost reach out and touch it.  Marie squeezed her triggers, firing everything she had.  Most of her shots went over the smaller ‘Mech’s head, but one of the medium lasers managed to carve a line into Fleetfoot’s chest armor.  She even saw sparks around the cockpit as a lucky scattering of machine gun rounds ricocheted off the ‘Mech’s head.  Fleetfoot swayed under the hits, but Caradin kept control.

               Flames burst from Fleetfoot’s back panels as jets fired inside of its hull.  The little ‘Mech shot up into the air, leaping back from the Blossom.  At the same time it launched a pair of SRMs from a launcher at its hip.  Marie could not dodge before they burst in front of her, coating the Blossom with flaming gel.

               The combination of her jumping and weapons fire, along with the Inferno rounds, pushed the Blossom past her limits.  Screens began shorting out as the Blossom’s heat alerts screamed.

               “Warning, heat levels critical.  Emergency shutdown imminent,” the computer announced.  Marie took her eyes off the displays to frantically pound on the control board.  She managed to hit the emergency override and keep the Blossom from shutting down, but it was still so hot in the cockpit that Marie swore she could feel her skin burning.

               Her mind raced.  She hadn’t had a plan when she’d come in to attack, she’d just wanted to take Caradin out as quickly as possible.  She’d thought she could stay in the air, but that was out now.  She’d thought she could at least pin Fleetfoot down; Raptors didn’t normally come with jump jets.  It seemed Caradin had anticipated that, giving her little ‘Mech just enough mobility to stay ahead of the Blossom.  The Inferno launcher was just an extra complication on top of it all.

               “I don’t have to beat you, you know,” Caradin said over the comm.  “The way you’re going, you’ll either shut down or explode your own ammo.  So what’ll it be?  Want to see how this ends?”

               Marie’s eyes flickered to her heat gauge, still trembling in the red.  She knew Caradin had a point, she couldn’t afford to keep going like this.  But she also couldn’t just give up now.  She could see the damage on Fleetfoot’s hull – she’d landed a few hits at least.  Caradin had to be sweating too, it was why she was trying to taunt Marie into giving up.

               “Try me,” Marie sent back.  “I bet you break before I do.”

 

               On top of the hill where it had landed, Fleetfoot planted its feet.  “Suit yourself.  I thought you’d want to save the McClouds.  But who knows, maybe the galaxy is better off without your family.”

               Marie’s vision went red as Fleetfoot charged at her, moving into point-blank range and firing its Inferno launcher again.  The missiles left the Blossom’s whole upper body was on fire.  Swearing, Marie tried to aim at the charging Raptor, but did not squeeze the triggers.  Her heat was so critical, firing anything would either shut down the reactor or explode her ammo.  Caradin had to know that, and was taking advantage of it to move in so close that her own lasers wouldn’t miss.

               Marie shifted her tactics and turned the Blossom in place, clenching her left fist.  She braced for an attack, but Caradin didn’t shoot.  Not having the time to question why, she shifted her weight at the last moment and drove her massive left fist towards the charging ‘Mech.

               The Raptor ducked, dipping down on its birdlike legs and slipping under Marie’s punch.  The Blossom overbalanced, stumbling as Fleetfoot dashed past her.  And then Caradin fired.

               The Raptor’s arms each held a medium and small laser in an under-over arrangement; as Caradin shot past, the arms swung up and around to aim perfectly behind the ‘Mech, leveling all four lasers at Marie’s hindquarters.  Marie realized what was happening a split-second too late as the lasers flashed into the Blossom’s lightly-armored back.

               Marie screamed in frustration and fear as alarm klaxons sounded through the cockpit, and parts of her wireframe immediately flickered red, signaling internal damage. 

               “Critical hit, Large Laser,” the computer warned.  Marie’s heart sank as she saw the Lushann large laser wink out on her control board.

               Swearing luridly, she forced the Blossom to twist at her waist, bringing the left arm weapons pod up to aim at Fleetfoot.  Unfortunately the Blossom was still moving slowly from her accumulated heat, and Marie couldn’t move the arm fast enough to track Fleetfoot before it disappeared into the woods again. 

               “Didn’t know about that trick, did you?” Caradin taunted.  “It’s not just the Rifleman that can flip its arms.”

               Marie thought quickly.  The large laser might be offline, but her arm weapons were still live.  She considered falling back, take a moment to bleed off the heat and refocus herself, but she shook her head at the thought.  If she backed off, it would give Caradin a chance to slip away.  The loss of the big laser would cool her off enough.  She had to keep up the pressure.

               She hit the jump jets again to try and pursue Fleetfoot, but the Blossom barely got off the ground before another alert rang out.  The jump jets cut out in midair, leaving her suddenly plummeting to the ground.  Marie managed to land on her feet, but the impact still staggered her and set off alerts of leg damage.  The Blossom stumbled and caught herself on a tree, barely managing to stay upright.

               Marie’s eyes flickered over to the fuel gauge – it was empty.  The Blossom used her aerospace fuel as jump jet reaction mass.  It barely used any fuel to do so, but when the tank was virtually empty to begin with, even a single jump could drain her dry.  She at least counted herself lucky she’d been keeping her jump arc low.

               She caught her balance and stood up away from the tree.  They’d moved to a lighter part of the forest, so she could at least see Fleetfoot through the foliage. 

               “That was a good trick with the aerofighters, I’ll give you that,” Caradin said.  “But it wasn’t enough.  Deadfall just let me know they managed a hard landing a dozen klicks from here.  They might need a couple hours to clean themselves up, but then they’re back on schedule.  So tell me, what’s the rest of this plan?”

               “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Marie shot back.  The heat gauge was dropping painfully slow.  If she could keep Caradin talking for just a minute, she could cool off…

               Even as she thought this, one of Caradin’s medium lasers hit the Blossom’s head squarely dead-center.  Marie screamed as the viewscreen whited out, blinding her momentarily, and alarm klaxons sounded all through the cockpit.  She fired her own lasers again, making sure Caradin knew she wasn’t out of the fight, but she hit nothing but air.

               “All right, McCloud,” Caradin’s voice said over the commline, cold and even.  “You want my recommendation?  Run away.”

               “Are you really that scared of me?” Marie asked.

               “It’s called professional courtesy.  You impressed me, congratulations.  But all you’ve done is slow me down.  Time to accept you’ve lost.”

               “I’m not out yet.”

               Caradin sighed.  “You aren’t watching the whole field, McCloud.  Didn’t you realize we’re not the only ones out here?  I was just giving him time to catch up.”

               Blinking away afterimages from the laser strike, Marie looked down at the sensors to see another blip had appeared some time ago.  It registered as an assault mech; her heart sank as she realized what it was.

               Hoshino had put his Charger’s landspeed to good use.  He must have floored it to keep up with the two of them in their game of cat-and-mouse.  As Marie looked back up at the main display, she saw the Katamari coming into view over a ridge, putting himself into optimum LRM range. 

               The Charger was a problem; its armor could shrug off anything the Blossom could throw at it, and it had bigger guns than her to boot.  Meanwhile Fleetfoot was peeking out from the woods at her, stepping into view as Caradin was emboldened by the appearance of the much heavier ‘Mech.

               “If you start running now you might get away,” Caradin said.  “I’ve got a mess to clean up, and frankly you’re not worth the effort.  Cut your losses.”

               Marie took a step towards her.  Thoughts of running were gone.  “I won’t give you the satisfaction,” she hissed.

               “Look at you, actually bloodthirsty,” Caradin jeered.  The Charger came up next to her, forming a solid metal block alongside her Raptor.  It raised its powerful arms, the laser on one and the barrel fist on the other making an intimidating display.  “That’s always how it starts, you know.  Ideals and innocence don’t get to survive in this job.  Watch yourself, another year and you’ll be sitting over here with me.” 

               “I’m nothing like you!” Marie snapped.

               “Sure you are.  You just don’t want to admit it.  I always saw potential in you.  I’ve just helped draw it out.  And now you’re right where I was, once upon a time.  It’s just you and your ‘Mech, standing there all alone.  No family left to go home to.  No one has your back.  Now you really have to ask yourself, what do you want your life to be?  You want to stand up for principles no one else gives a damn about?  Die on a backwater and get forgotten, just like everyone other idealist?”

               Marie blinked back tears and glared at her.  Her heat had fallen a little bit; she lifted her arm to aim at the Raptor, but Caradin responded by leveling her own arms at the Blossom.  Next to her the Katamari also adjusted its aim.

               “It doesn’t have to be like that.  All you need to do is walk away,” Caradin said softly.  “You’re not making anything better, you know.  There’ll be other pirates.  All you’re doing is throwing your life away.  Is that how you want your family line to go out?”

               Marie’s finger trembled on the trigger.  She could take the shot.  Maybe she’d hit, maybe she wouldn’t.  But the counterattack would almost certainly kill her.  Caradin’s warning rang in her skull.  I’m all that’s left, she thought.

               “Or you could be smart, like I know you can be.  You could see that I’m just doing what it takes to get by in the galaxy, just like everyone else,” Caradin said.  She paused, letting Marie think on that.  “You know I want what’s best for my people.  I could still teach you a thing or two.”

               “…What are you saying?” Marie asked.

               “I’m saying you’re still a Hussar,” Caradin answered.  “And if you’re smart enough to see the situation you’re in, maybe you’d take the chance to join a family that can actually look out for you.  I’d let you come over here, and together we could figure out – ”

               Whatever else she had to say was suddenly cut off, as the Charger turned and slammed its fist straight into the Raptor’s cockpit.

               The effect was immediate; the smaller ‘Mech’s head crumpled like a can, flattened under the giant studded club.  Caradin didn’t even have time to realize what was happening before she was crushed.

               Marie stopped breathing.  The Katamari held its pose there a moment, holding Fleetfoot upright like some sort of freakish doll before it released the ‘Mech, letting it crash unceremoniously to the ground.  As the Raptor lay there motionless, Marie gasped a breath.

               The Katamari looked down at Fleetfoot, then up at the Blossom.  Then it slowly lowered itself down to one knee, bowing its head towards her.

               Marie looked at the scene in disbelief, having to remind herself to take another breath.  She hesitantly pushed the throttle up, slowly approaching the Katamari.

               “Hoshino?”  she asked over the commline.  “That is you, right?”

               “…yes,” came his voice, uncharacteristically sullen.

               Her hands twitched on the control sticks, tentatively keeping the crosshairs on the Katamari’s chest.  “Not that I’m complaining, but…can I ask why?”

               “I heard a voice of reason,” he answered.  “She wants to speak with you, as well.”

               Marie’s brow furrowed in confusion.  The Blossom’s sensors picked up a hiss of decompression as the Katamari’s cockpit hatch cycled open.  Her breath caught again as Rachel McCloud stepped out onto the ‘Mech’s broad shoulder.

 

*End Chapter 24*

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Battletech and Mechwarrior are the property of Catalyst Game Labs.

 

Rachel McCloud, the Bristol, Marie Rose (Sr.) and the Black Thorns are creations of James Long, who among other things wrote Main Event and DRT for the Battletech universe.

 

Image of Fleetfoot comes from SU-SMD: https://www.reddit.com/user/SU-SMD/.

 

A gallery of images from this story is compiled on my Ko-Fi page.  Donations are not required, but they are appreciated, and help me pay the artists to make more images for this story.  (Thanks Eadbald, Ageless Games, Umbrawar, and Gladius!)

 

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Audio version of this story is available at https://lucendacier.podbean.com/ , and on Apple podcasts.

 

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