RITZA ACADEMY
LIEGEDEN, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
7 APRIL 3150
2240 HOURS
I have no idea what I’m doing. Why am I doing this? What the hell did I get myself into? I’m going to get everyone killed. Jasper’s thoughts ran rampant as he crept across the darkened campus toward his sister’s dorm room. He almost turned back. Almost, but his courage got the better of him, and he set his face and path despite the fear and doubt.
He and Nadine were meeting to form a real plan of attack for tonight. Not just the plan—the thought experiment—he’d told Delany and Claire to get them to go along with it. What if Nadine laughed in his face? “Get ’em!” wasn’t going to cut it, and both of them knew it.
She told him she’d have her local expert there to tell him about the terrain and what the best plan for the infantry was. As they’d said before, the ’Mechs were cover for the breakout and escape. The whole thing should take only about ten minutes of chaos and seventy minutes of fleeing to the academy. He hoped.
The question was, how many of them would make it back? Was Noah correct? Right now, he hoped Noah was as wrong as could be.
Jasper climbed the fire escape to Nadine’s room. She had the window open for him. “Finally,” she muttered. He climbed in and saw that she wasn’t alone.
Leaning against the door was a familiar-looking, skinny teen about 1.8 meters tall, with light brown hair and eyes. His generic gangly look of a teenager who had yet to grow into his frame was broken by the faint scar under his left eye. He ducked his head at Jasper and waved. “Hullo. I’m Henry Cobb.”
Something clicked into place. “Chess champion two years running? Youngest in Ritza’s history?”
Henry grinned. “That’s me. My love of chess and math helped me get into the academy. I’m going to be an artillery specialist when I graduate.” His face darkened. “If graduation’s still on the table.”
“It is if I have anything to say about it.” Nadine beckoned the two of them close.
Henry hesitated, glancing at Jasper.
Nadine rolled her eyes. “He’s not my chaperone. He’s my brother. And I’m not gonna bite, even if you ask nicely. I’m taken.”
Jasper chuckled as Henry flushed, but the two of them stood behind Nadine at her computer.
“Right. Here’s the spaceport map. Circled in red is where our people are being held. Circled in green are the three ’Mech bays.” Nadine pointed to the different spots on the screen. “We’re going to have a lance of academy ’Mechs create a distraction while we break our people out and get them to their ’Mechs.” She looked over her shoulder at Henry. “I’ve got thoughts on how to do this, but I want to hear what you think we should do.”
Henry peered at the screen with his head canted to one side. He gestured to Nadine’s seat. “Can I?”
She got up and let him take her place. Then she and Jasper stood in silence behind him as he moved the map around then zoomed out to look at the roads into the spaceport. Nadine leaned over his shoulder and pointed to a spot just outside the spaceport. “There’s a barrier stopping all traffic here.”
“Okay.” Henry tilted his head this way and that as he stared at the screen.
Jasper stifled a smile at the other boy’s renewed blush and wondered if Nadine was doing it to him on purpose. Then he lost his smile. They were planning for war. This wasn’t a time for flirting. If Nadine had been a guy, there wouldn’t have been a question. He mentally shook himself for reading into a situation that didn’t exist. I’m trying to distract myself, he thought. Stop it. Focus on what’s important.
Henry nodded to no one. “All right. I think I’ve got it. This is what I’d do. We have a lance of ’Mechs, two tanks, and two armored cars. There should be eight or ten ’Mechs in the bays. That leaves enough room in the vehicles to evac anyone who isn’t in a ’Mech. The best way to do this is have the ’Mechs go in the front, doing whatever distraction they’re going to do, while we go in the back.”
Nadine furrowed her brow. “There’s no road in the back.”
“Not on this map, there isn’t. But I know for a fact that there are at least three dirt roads leading to the back of the spaceport, and there’s a couple moveable sections of fence.” He drew them out in bright blue lines on the map, then he looked over his shoulder at her. “It’s for when big cargo has to come or go and it’s easier to not jam up the main spaceport road. I’ve seen it done dozens of times. Helped a couple of times myself, too.”
Jasper blinked at him. “Wait, what? How?”
“My dad works there.”
Jasper exchanged a confused glance with Nadine, who looked more confused by his confusion that anything else. “But…you’re Sponsored by House Vengalil! How is your father here?”
Henry stared at Jasper as if he were speaking another language. “Patroned by House Vengalil. I was born here. I’ve got two little brothers at home. And my mom.” He peered at Jasper. “Wait, you’ve been here how long and don’t know what Patroned means?”
“Uh, Sponsored?” It was Jasper who turned bright red now.
A light went on in Nadine’s eyes. “Oh, wow. I guess there aren’t any Patroned in the MechWarrior side of things.”
“Huh.” Henry shrugged. “I suppose not. You have to have a certain aptitude and inborn talent to be a good MechWarrior. Or you have to be trained from a young age. No. Patroned doesn’t mean Sponsored. If you’re good enough to get into the academy and you don’t have the money, you have to get a noble house to pay for your education. It ain’t cheap. But if you’re good enough, you can petition the noble houses for patronage. If you qualify and can prove your family can’t afford to send you here, one of the houses will pick you up. But it also means you owe them.” He shrugged again. “When I graduate, if they have a job opening, or a preference on where I go, I listen…just like you Sponsored.”
Jasper shook his head in wonderment. “I always assumed Patroned was the same as Sponsored.”
“You know what they say…ass, you, me.”
“Sorry.” He paused. “Do the Blooded have a nickname for you guys?”
Henry’s answer was short and full of loathing. “Peasants.”
“Damn. I can’t decide if that’s better or worse than ‘strays.’” As soon as he spoke, Jasper realized it was the wrong thing to say. Henry didn’t respond. He just stared at the computer screen. His anger was as plain as his clenched fists.
Jasper hadn’t meant to upset Henry. He also didn’t know how to get out of the train wreck of a conversation he’d led them into. He glanced at Nadine for help.
Nadine tapped Henry’s shoulder. “Lemme have my seat back.” As she took her chair, Henry retreated to the door again. She stared at the screen. “So, we go together for about forty minutes, then the cars split off on these three roads…”
“My ’Mech can keep the group of us mostly hidden from electronic eyes until we get to the spaceport. As long as everyone stays within 180 meters of me. If they pick us up at that point, the ECM should be able to hide where we’re coming from. Or, at least, they’ll only pick up the vehicles when they split off.” Jasper peered at the spots Nadine indicated. Each turnoff from the road was no more than a couple klicks apart, and they all joined back up again near the spaceport. “It shouldn’t be hard to surprise them, since the vehicles will be coming from both sides of the ’port, and it won’t look like a convoy.”
Henry straightened, his words quick and certain. “The armored cars should go together. The tanks should split up. I can have maps ready for each driver. And I should probably be in one of the cars with the bolas because I can calculate trajectory on the fly.” He focused on Jasper. “What’s your distraction going to look like?”
“Practice rounds and lasers. We have limited live ammo. We’ll have it if we need it.” Jasper felt better having something to contribute. “We’ll pull any response toward the main spaceport entrance. We’re also going to destroy any sensor and comm equipment we can.”
Henry shoved his hands in his fatigue pants pockets. “I have a suggestion.”
“Yeah?”
“Those ’Mechs of yours. They can do pinpoint destruction?”
Jasper nodded. “If we have a target, sure.”
“The radar dishes and sensor arrays…don’t destroy that equipment. Just cut the power lines in a couple of places. That will make it so they can’t see us come back here. They won’t be looking for us on the way into the spaceport, but you can bet they’re gonna want to know where we go. When we come back here, we don’t want them to know that.” Henry shrugged. “At least, not immediately. It won’t take long to follow the heat signatures…”
“My Ostsol will mask them for part of the way. At least, that’s the plan. Then the bays will shield the thermal imaging somewhat. They’re heat-dissipated into the ground. I know the bays also shield light amplification and radar. Magnetic anomaly scans shouldn’t give us away. If they bring in other sensors, we could be in trouble. It’s a good idea though. I know what the radar dishes look like, but what about the sensor array?” Jasper rubbed his hands together. “And the communications grid? If we can disable all of that, it might give us a chance.”
“Point of order.” Nadine raised a finger. “Don’t we want that equipment working when we take over the spaceport again? How much damage are the ’Mechs going to do to the power lines?”
Jasper looked between Henry and Nadine. “Do you really think we’re going to get control of the spaceport?”
Henry shook his head. “I don’t think so, but we might. If we need a spaceport, we should go to one of the other ones…assuming they aren’t on lockdown.”
Jasper smiled. “Ass. You. Me.”
“Exactly.” Henry gestured to Nadine. “To address your point…if we do recapture the spaceport again, we’ll just have the power lines to fix. It won’t be hard. It’ll just take time. Time is what we need to get away. In the meantime, blind and deafen them.”
The two boys watched Nadine think. She glanced between them and the map a couple of times. “All right. Henry, get the maps ready. We’ll travel as a group until the tanks and armored cars need to peel off. The vehicles will meet in the back of the spaceport and wait for the ’Mechs to do their thing.”
“Okay.” Henry cracked the door and looked out. “I’ll see ya’ll in the ’Mech bay at 2330 with maps in hand.” He disappeared out the door.
Jasper waited until the door clicked. Then he listened to make sure no one was there. When he turned back to his sister, he saw he had her full attention.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He didn’t ask how she knew something was wrong. She knew him better than anyone else in the universe. It was why they could read each other so well. “I don’t have a full lance for tonight. I could only get two others to go with me.” He hung his head.
“Who?”
“Delany and Claire. Noah wouldn’t come.”
She breathed in and out through her nose. It was a delaying tactic and gave her time to think. “As far as I know, Claire and Delany are really good. Did Noah tell you why he won’t help?”
Jasper nodded. “After his performance in this afternoon’s simulation, he doesn’t think he’s good enough. Also, I think he’s scared.”
“Scared keeps you alive.”
“Then I ought to live forever.” Jasper rubbed his face. “What am I doing?”
She stood and gave him a quick, fierce hug. “You’re doing your duty to Emporia and House Vogel. And don’t worry about Noah not being there. That means you’ll have a truncated lance like always. This will be like a simulation. You chose Claire and Delany for a reason, and I don’t think they’ll let you down.” She held him at arm’s length. “What about Noah? Can he keep his mouth shut?”
Jasper nodded. “Yeah. Said he’d cover for me if they did bed check. And he’ll keep watch. Get the medics involved when we get back. If we need them. He knows how to round up people to help. Especially with the hostages. We don’t know what kind of shape they’ll be in.”
“He should probably talk with a couple of the ground crew and techs after we leave. See what they need.”
Jasper gazed at her. “He said everything I was too scared to say. What if we fail?”
“We’re not going to fail. If we do, we know we did our best for our Sponsors and the planet that gave us a home and a purpose. But we’re not going to fail.”
“People are going to die.”
Nadine looked away. “People are already dying.”
“But it’ll be my fault.”
She shook her head. “No. It’ll be mine. I’m the one who insisted on doing this. I’m the one everyone is looking to. If we fail—if people die—this is on me. You’re following orders.”
A ghost of a smile returned. “Aren’t the MechWarriors supposed to be in charge?”
“If this were a MechWarrior-centric mission, perhaps. I suppose. But this is an infantry-based rescue mission, I’m in charge. Got it? So no more doubts. We do our duty. You follow my orders.” She glanced at the clock. “Get a move on. I’ve got to go talk to Vale and make sure the vehicles are ready.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Jasper saluted.
It was supposed to be a playful gesture, but it turned into something more: a promise to do his best. At this point, Nadine was his commanding officer. His heart swelled as she returned the salute with the seriousness the situation called for, then nodded to the window. There was no more time for play or doubts. They both had jobs to do.
His hurried walk in the dark was a journey from cadet to soldier in Jasper’s mind. Yes, he was scared. Yes, he had doubts. Serious doubts. Noah’s refusal to help had shaken him as much as it had bolstered him. Noah’s fear, his reasons, no longer upset Jasper. Part of him understood and was even grateful that he wasn’t the only one afraid. In the end though, Jasper knew Noah would regret not coming tonight.
Even that thought was left by the wayside in the dark. He had a job to do. He needed to keep his people alive and distract the enemy from the rescue mission. They had a solid plan and surprise on their side. They had to succeed. Any other thought was banished.
Within renewed confidence and sense of purpose, Jasper forgot the main truth of war: no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.