NEW EXETER SPACEPORT
EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
8 APRIL 3150
0107 HOURS
“Heishi Desoto, you missed your report-in.”
That voice was the sound of Vale’s death unless he could get to the main floor in time. Even if he did, it probably meant his life anyway. Despite having completed his primary mission, he shook his head. Unacceptable. I still have a job to do.
Vale opened the door and looked out. It was a coin toss on which stairwell to take. He paused. No, it wasn’t. The studio he wanted was on the far left. The left stairwell it was.
“Heishi Desoto…John, if you’ve fallen asleep again, I swear to the nine hells you’ll regret it.”
Vale stopped at the elevator and hit the button. It was empty when it opened. He pressed every button from bottom to top. Now that they knew Private Desoto wasn’t at his post, guile became as important as stealth. Still, drawing the patrols from the stairwells toward the elevator was chancy at best.
Distraction begun, he sprinted to the left-hand stairwell door and cracked it open. Nothing. After slipping in and closing the door behind, he listened for the sounds of movement, breathing—anything that would tell him he wasn’t alone. As far as he could sense, he was. Despite his wish to be silent, his pounding steps still echoed against the concrete stairs. There was nothing to do for it except move fast.
As fast as his wounded side would allow him.
Pausing on the landing above the first-floor stairwell door, Vale caught his breath and heard movement. The enemy comm came to life.
“Desoto’s dead in the stairwell. There’s blood on the fourth floor. Satou is missing. A fourth-floor door has a broken lock.”
“Intruder alert. Move! We’ll find out what they were doing after we have them.”
There was nowhere for Vale to hide. If two soldiers opened the stairwell door, he was done for. He prepared himself anyway. He would fight until he was dead. Better to keep his secrets than have them tortured or drugged out of him.
Only one soldier emerged through the door below: a woman with her pistol at the ready.
Vale leaped down the ten stairs in one-and-a-half bounds and crashed into the smaller enemy, knocking her into the wall. She lost her pistol, but struck him hard in the throat with a clenched fist and followed it with a thumb in the eye. The pain was enormous. He saw red—literally and figuratively.
He stabbed her multiple times in the torso, side, and chest until she stopped fighting. His left eye throbbed and bled. His side did the same. But the enemy was down, and now he had a second pistol and a machine gun. It might be enough to hold them off while he got the message out.
Machine gun in hand, he opened the stairwell door and rained hell on the soldier who turned from the elevator toward him.
“Zachary’s three buildings over, and he’s hurt.” Lady Shannon pointed through the smoke toward a smaller admin building to the east. “They had me visit him to demoralize us. To let me see what they’d done to him and to let him see me ‘one last time’ before our executions.”
Nadine shook her head. “That’s not going to happen.” Taking the lead, she looked around. Smoke, the smell of burned metal and rubber, cries for help and pain. This was the war she remembered in the nightmare that still haunted her dreams. Even though it’d been years, this was Hoff. This was something she knew how to handle.
“You said we needed a vehicle.” She pointed to a jeep. It was tiny compared to everything else around it.
The three of them sprinted for it. Sir Robert shifted to the front as they closed in, reaching for the driver’s door. He reeled back as a soldier they hadn’t seen within the jeep fired on them. Both Lady Shannon and Nadine returned fire with pistol and machine gun. Lady Shannon’s shot killed the soldier.
Sir Robert pulled himself to his feet, cursing in pain. He limped, bleeding from just above his left hip. “I’ll drive. You ride shotgun.”
Lady Shannon shook her head. “No. In the jeep.”
Nadine looked between the two adults and moved to the passenger-side door, keeping a lookout for enemies. She fired multiple bursts at the movement coming toward them. All three unarmored soldiers collapsed to the ground.
“Get in,” Lady Shannon commanded as she took the wheel.
Weapons fire followed them as they sped across the tarmac toward the building where the baron was being held. Nadine leaned out one side of the jeep while Sir Robert leaned out the other. Both of them fired at any moving target they saw, clearing the way.
All the guards were down by the time they reached the door. A volley of missiles had struck the building just beyond, and Nadine could see enemy ’Mechs with lights on. Over her comm she called, “Enemy ’Mechs powering up. Once everyone’s in ’Mechs or the Goblin, get over here to the east and keep them from following us. We’re getting Baron Vogel.”
Henry Cobb’s voice came back. “Yes, ma’am. Emporia personnel almost in position.”
Nadine didn’t have time to enjoy the swelling pride she felt. She shoved it aside on her way out of the jeep, covering Lady Shannon and Sir Robert. The professor moved slower than she liked, but she couldn’t find it in her to urge him to hurry up.
Her respect killed him.
The history and manners professor was struck from behind as a Combine soldier sprayed the area with bullets. Lady Shannon and Nadine dove for cover behind the jeep and returned fire. Part of her wanted to scream her pain. Part of her wanted to yell at Sir Robert for dying on her. She did neither. “Milady, how many guards did they have on him?”
The baroness shook her head. “I don’t know. Not many. He was too hurt to put up much of a fight. They were going to leave him alone in the dark, to spend his final night ‘contemplating his failures.’”
“Can you rescue him on your own?”
She shook her head again. “I could get to him, but I’ll need to carry him out. I need cover for that.”
Nadine laid down suppression fire. “Hayton, report,” she commed.
“Buttoned up, ma’am. Vedettes are covering our ’Mechs, but that’s almost done.”
“I need cover. Now.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ve got a Goblin full of MechWarriors with weapons. Where?”
“Admin building to the east.” Nadine fired again, keeping the closing enemy soldiers diving for cover.
“On our way.”
Thirty seconds later, they heard the Goblin coming. The troop transport roared with weapons fire as it barreled through soldiers and debris. When they stopped, the area was clear of visible enemies.
“Thank you, Hayton. Going in to get the baron. Keep us covered.”
Lyric’s answer was a couple of flash-bangs that made their eyes water and ears ring, but they had the cover they needed to get into the building.
This time, Lady Shannon led the way.
With shots fired, there was no more time for stealth or guile. Vale ran to the studio door. It was unlocked. He entered and locked it behind him. Then he pulled and pushed a heavy desk in front to block the way. With luck, the soldiers would do a hallway sweep before they cleared each floor, room by room.
He looked around for something else to wedge against the door. The studio suite, by design, had thick walls and no windows to the outside. Multiple smaller soundproof rooms with recording equipment sat on either side of the main room with a holovid sound stage at the back. Computer stations sat in a semicircle, with stations facing each of the sound booths and the sound stage they controlled.
One of the heavy studio lights was the best he could come up with. He wedged one end of the expensive piece of equipment against the door and the other end into the floor. He kicked the floor end until it was stuck. Vale looked at the blocked and locked door. It wasn’t much, but it was the best he could do right now.
He moved to the sound stage’s workstation. Days before, they had used this equipment to send an emergency video and text broadcast from the Vogels to all of Emporia. It was still set up to send another set of messages. He couldn’t do text and video at the same time. He was only one man.
Text first, he decided. It will take longer for those invading bastards to realize what I’ve done. Then video.
As he began to type, he hoped his death wouldn’t be televised.
The sound of doors being opened on the main floor heralded the end of his grace period. He read then reread the text part of the emergency message. It was as good as he could get. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he plowed over all the “Are you sure you want to do this?” messages. “Yes! Do it.”
He hit the final enter command.
In response, both comms on his person blared the three sharp emergency-broadcast notes. He’d forgotten that the emergency broadcast system read the text-based message over active comms. He yanked the earpiece out and turned off both comms. He knew what he’d said. Now the whole world would.
At least those with comms and radios.
He flipped a couple of switches and lit up the holovid sound stage. Then, he punched the emergency broadcast button. While there were no screens in here to react, he knew they would be sounding across the world with the same three blaring warning notes they’d used since time immemorial to say they’d better sit up and listen.
Walking with as much decorum as he could muster in his bloody coveralls and bruised, bleeding face, he stepped in front of the camera. At first, he didn’t know what to say. Then he repeated a version of what he’d just typed out for the streaming banner emergency broadcast.
“I am Sergeant Major Vale Auger. Now is the time for Emporia to stand and fight against the Draconis Combine. I am but one man, and I have already thwarted a battalion of the enemy to get here, into the heart of New Exeter, through their curfew and patrols, to take this building.”
He glanced at the locked door as the pounding started. He pulled his machine gun into a readied position. “As I speak, the Ritza Academy cadets have already freed Baron Zachary Vogel and Baroness Shannon Vogel from the Dragon’s talons. Children and cadets have defeated the enemy. Think of what you could do. Now is the time to fight. There will be no more peaceful ‘going along to get along.’ They’ve been killing us bit by bit, but they haven’t gotten their teeth deep into us yet. Now is the time to fight back.”
Vale had no idea if the cadets had succeeded or not. What was important was that the people of Emporia believed it, and were bolstered by the knowledge. “I am one man and I may not survive, but with your action, Emporia will. Don’t wait for orders from on high. Fight and resist now! If you don’t, there won’t be a tomorrow to try.”
Gunfire erupted, breaking the lock on the door. As a face appeared in the small hole, Vale fired a couple of measured bursts. “Emporia, now is the time to fight. Follow the cadets’ lead. Rise up together and do what you must do.”
He took a breath and fired again. Then the lights went out. They had cut the power to the building. In the darkness, with limited ammo, Vale glanced skyward. “Let this be enough. Please.”
The admin building was dark. If guards were here, they remained hidden. Walking with quick, quiet steps, Nadine and Lady Shannon moved through the building. No one was here…except for the final hallway. Bullets peppered their area as soon as they stepped out into the open. Two soldiers at the far end fired pistols at them.
Lady Shannon motioned for Nadine to go high; she would go low. She raised one, two, three fingers and moved.
Nadine stepped out from around the corner and sprayed the hallway. Lady Shannon ducked around the corner and shot at their knees.
In the hypertime that is combat, Nadine saw the bullet coming for her head. She twitched, but wasn’t fast enough. The bullet tore through her hair, burning her scalp as it almost did its intended job. Even though the two soldiers were down, she continued firing until the machine gun emptied.
Lady Shannon shook her by the shoulder. “They’re dead. Stop. You’re out.”
Nadine reached for another magazine on her belt and found none. She checked her other weapons—two pistols, both magazines partially gone. As she did so, she and the baroness walked down the hallway. Nadine tossed the empty machine gun aside, then grabbed the dead soldiers’ pistols and ammo. Lady Shannon broke down the door to the storeroom-turned-cell.
Lord Zachary lay on a cot. Light from the hallway revealed just how bad he was doing. Blood seeped from his right side. His face, neck, and part of his exposed chest were covered in purple bruises. His pale skin had the gray undertone of a man who’d lost too much blood.
Despite this, he sat up at the sight of his wife and one of his Sponsored cadets. The motion came with a gasp and a groan.
“Should we carry him out on the cot?” Nadine asked.
Both Vogels shook their head. Lady Shannon bent to help her husband. “You need your hands free for your weapons. I’ll support him.”
“The Estburys?” Lord Zachary asked as he got to his feet.
Nadine shook her head. “I don’t know. I didn’t see them with the rest.” She looked to Lady Shannon for more information.
“The Estburys have been under interrogation this whole time. They…the Snakes…discovered much about Emporia we were trying to hide.”
Lord Zachary groaned as he moved. “We need to save them.”
Vale’s lesson of acceptable losses came back with the force of a truck. Nadine swallowed her fear, her disgust, her pain, then asked. “Where are they?”
The baron shook his head.
“Do you know if they’re still alive?” Nadine cleared the hallway before they left the cell.
Again he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“No. I’m sorry. No. You’re more important. We have to get you and Lady Shannon out. Now. I already broke the plan to come look for you.” Nadine didn’t look at either of them. She hated herself and knew Harper would hate her, too, for condemning her parents without more than a brief thought.
“She’s right,” Lady Shannon said.
It didn’t make Nadine feel any better.
As they got to the outside door, they saw Draconis Combine ’Mechs on the move. “Shit,” she muttered. “Plan: you two get in the back of the jeep. I drive and give the retreat call.” She opened the door. “Go!”
“Comms are down,” Claire confirmed. “All targets down. Had to take out a transformer.”
“Acknowledged.” Jasper fired on the Wolverine with his PPC, keeping an eye on his ’Mech’s heat level. He had to be careful to make sure he didn’t overdo it. He’d wanted to go after the Quasimodo, but his sensors spiked, showing the ’Mech’s Blue Shield Particle Field Damper active. He needed to wait for it to go down before he could do any real damage, and a minute’s worth of laser fire would kill his heat sinks.
“I’ve got incoming. Small. Looks like battle armor.” It was Claire again. “Think I got one.”
Jasper blinked. They hadn’t yet trained to fight opponents in battle armor. He’d heard of swarm tactics like this, but it’d sounded crazy to him. A suicide mission. It was like kicking puppies. Wasn’t it?
“Shit, I’m hit. They’re on me. Can’t shake them off!” Over comms, the ’Mech’s collision alarms screamed and mixed with the high note of Claire’s panicked voice.
“Jump over here, Vasseur. Come to me.” It was the only thing Jasper could think of.
“Can’t! They’re all over me. Vibroblades and machine guns. One’s on my canopy! I can’t shake them off! I can’t!
Delany broke in. “Claire, hold on. You can pull them off. I’m on my way.”
Jasper turned away from the enemy lance, seeking Claire with his sensors. She was about halfway between the spaceport communications building and their location. “Eject, Claire. Eject and get to the infantry.”
Claire’s answer of “Ejecting…” morphed into the sound of a scream and tearing metal. Then machine gun fire ended in silence.
“I have them in sight. They…they killed her. She never had a chance to eject.” Delany’s usually calm voice shook with fear and fury. “They’re targeting me now. Jumping to you.”
This wasn’t like the simulations. All at once, clarity descended, and the reality of what they were doing hit Jasper hard. Until this moment, it wasn’t actually real. But Claire wasn’t coming back. He marked Claire’s Watchman as an enemy to keep control of their communications. It was all he could think to do as he moved toward Delany’s destination. Jasper made sure to keep the enemy ’Mechs within his 180-meter ECM zone.
The Griffin fired lasers on one of the Kishi battlesuits, burning it to slag. The three remaining Kishi returned fire with heavy machine guns, dealing only light damage across Delany’s ’Mech. The Griffin jumped again, targeting and killing a second Kishi—this time with a single missile. “They’re still coming. Why are they still coming?”
“Because they’ve tasted blood.” Jasper had no idea where the words came from. He shook as he fired on the two remaining commandos who dodged the laser fire with ease and released a swarm attack on the Griffin. They followed the attack with a leap; both of them landed on the medium ’Mech. One on front, one on the side.
The robotic hand of Delany’s ’Mech grabbed at one of the Kishi commandos. She succeeded, pulling the battle armored trooper off her. With a snarl Jasper heard her over the comms, she slammed the soldier to the ground and stomped on him before he could recover. The soldier died as eight hundred kilos of his own battlesuit crushed against him.
Jasper moved in, using the Ostsol to grab the last Kishi from the Griffin’s back before it could slice into the ’Mech’s armor with its vibroblade. As he was about to repeat Delany’s toss-and-stomp maneuver, something struck him hard from the side.
The impact of the ferrous nickel-iron slug nearly knocked him over.
Jasper turned.
The Quasimodo was on the ground, and the Hatamoto was on the move, firing again. This time the assault ’Mech unloaded everything…its Gauss rifle and medium-range missiles at the Ostsol, and its lasers at the Goblin.
Jasper hauled off and threw the Kishi at the Hatamoto as hard as he could, scoring a direct hit.