RITZA ACADEMY
LIEGEDEN, EMPORIA
FEDERATED SUNS
8 APRIL 3150
0213 HOURS
Jasper watched the chaos of the ’Mech bay from his Ostsol’s command couch. As soon as he was cleared to exit the ’Mech, he climbed out and tried to make sense of what was going on. It seemed like the entire academy was awake, and all of the adults were shouting orders at each other. People ran in every direction. The most prevalent wrongness in the scene was the lack of Vale in the middle of it.
After a moment, the chaos resolved itself into some semblance of order. Sergeant Crusett ordered ground crew about, making room for the influx of ’Mechs. Another set of technicians was already crawling all over the Ostsol and Griffin, looking at the damage. The BattleMaster stood in the Watchman’s spot, and Jasper’s heart stuttered.
Claire is dead.
Dead. She wouldn’t let Delany come by herself. Claire had joined the operation because Delany had believed in him, and she had died before he could help her.
He looked for Delany and spotted her walking toward the rest of the cadets who had gone on the rescue mission. They all stood in a clump just outside the bay, out of the way but waiting on Dame Emma’s pleasure. The cadets welcomed Delany with open arms and smiles, hugging her. He wondered if they would do the same for him.
Jasper headed down the scaffold, pressing himself to one side as the ground crew sprinted up it. Not one adult acknowledged him. No smiles. No congratulations. Just focused on the job. There was a grim sense of something. He couldn’t tell what. Was it the loss of the Watchman? Was it Lady Shannon’s death? Was it the fact that the cadets had risen up when the adults would not?
We saved you, he thought with sudden, rising fury. We saved all of you.
He walked with purpose from the ’Mech to the group of cadets. His steps slowed as he approached them, unsure of what his reception would be. He didn’t have to worry. They also opened their arms to him. Delany pulled him into the group, and Nadine hugged him tight.
“We did it,” she whispered. “We saved them.”
“We did,” he whispered back. “We saved them all.”
Nadine held him at arm’s length. “Not all. Most.” She had fresh tears on her face. “I’m sorry about Claire. I didn’t know.”
Jasper pressed his lips together to capture the sudden sob that wanted to erupt. He looked at the rest. “Who was in the Vedette?”
Lyric answered. “Harper Estbury and Pontus Wolke.”
“I’m sorry.” Really seeing Lyric for the first time, Jasper blinked and asked. “Holy crap, are you okay?”
“It’s not my blood.” She shrugged.
Jasper looked at each of them in turn. Not one of them had come away from the battle unscathed. Henry Cobb looked the best with a bruise under his eye. His driver, Benjamin Delamere, had a cut on his cheek and was bleeding from the shoulder. Meeri Panula had an eye swollen shut and a long, shallow wound on her neck. Victor Ross was favoring one leg. James Radcliff had buttons missing from his fatigue shirt and blood leaking down his left side. Lyric had bruises and cuts under the blood. Nadine had dried blood streaking both sides of her face and a cut above her right eye still seeped. Even Delany had a massive bruise in the middle of her forehead.
Jasper looked down at himself. He had bruises on his arms he didn’t remember getting.
“We’ll go to the infirmary after Dame Emma has that word she wanted,” Nadine said. “But we’re all okay.”
Jasper blinked a couple of times, his eyes wet. “Those of us that are still alive.”
“Harper,” Lyric said. “She was…amazing. She was as good a shot as Cobb.”
Cobb nodded. “My only real competition.”
“Pontus.” Victor rubbed at his face. “He made the worst puns.”
Benjamin laughed, then looked shocked. “Sorry.”
Nadine tried to smile. “But he did. So bad. They were the absolute worst.”
“They always made me laugh.” Benjamin turned away, rubbing at his face.
Delany and Jasper looked at each other. “Claire. She had your back. If you were one of hers, she would go to the mat for you.” Delany squeezed Jasper’s arm.
“Even if she didn’t like you, if you were hers for a mission, that was it. You knew you could trust her.” Jasper looked over Delany’s shoulder at Nadine. “She’s dead. And I thought I’d lost you, too.”
Nadine pulled him into another tight hug. “You didn’t. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere.” He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to keep the tears locked away, and didn’t say anything. She petted his hair like she’d done when he was much younger. “It’s going to be okay. We’ve made it. No matter what else happens.”
“Ah, shit,” Delany said. “Heads up. Yaxley’s coming, and he looks like he’s gonna tear us a new one.”
That dried Jasper’s unshed tears in a hurry. His heart sped up, and his fists clenched. Sir Michael was the one who had shut the door in his face, and Jasper had directly disobeyed the professor. All he could think was, You wouldn’t act, so I had to. I don’t regret it. I’ll never regret it.
As one, the cadets moved into a loose formation of two groups in two rows. On one side, Delany and Jasper stood next to each other. On the other side stood Lyric, Nadine, and James in the front with Henry, Benjamin, Meeri, and Victor in the back. They’d automatically sorted themselves by seniority.
Delany gave Jasper a wink just as Sir Michael shouted, “Cadets! What in the hell do you think you were doing?” He stopped in front of the students, ignoring the salutes Delany and Nadine gave as the senior cadets for each group. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” He leaned in toward Jasper, but before he could say more, another strident voice cut across the din of the ’Mech bay and the maths professor’s barely begun dressing down.
“Sir Michael!”
There was no “at attention” in the moment that Dame Emma made her presence known. Every cadet in the area looked over at the small, round woman. Then they all made certain to get their attention back on what they’d been doing. The battle-torn cadets all snapped to attention, fatigue gone, fear returned. Dame Emma was not a professor to have angry at you.
Sir Michael whirled at the sound of his name. With an effort, he calmed himself, swallowing the tirade he was about to unleash on the cadets. “Dame Emma, I’m glad to see you back and well.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry I need to interrupt your lecture. However, I asked these cadets to stay behind for a reason. I’ll send them to the infirmary afterward…unless what you have to say can’t keep until tomorrow.”
For the first time, Sir Michael actually looked at the cadets and their current state of being. He eyed the blood, cuts, bruises, and shook his head. “No, Dame Emma. I’m sure what you have to say is more important.”
“We’ll talk after this, if you don’t mind?”
“Of course. I’ll be in my office.” He nodded to the swarthy man next to her. “Captain Gabrielli.”
The tall infantry captain returned the nod. “Sir Michael.”
After one last look between Dame Emma and the cadets, Sir Michael strode off. Jasper couldn’t help but feel a fierce joy. Take that, you coward! His joy faded as he saw the look on the dame and captain’s faces.
“Roux, ten demerits. Hair out of regs. What do you think this is, a family dinner?”
Jasper jerked at Captain Gabrielli’s words, then realized the infantry captain was yelling at his sister.
“Sir, no, sir! I was in a fight with the enemy.”
“Either you need to cut your hair off or you need to learn how to pin it for combat. Long hair is a handhold for the enemy.” Captain Gabrielli turned from her. “Radcliff, ten demerits. Uniform out of regs. What did you do with your missing buttons?”
“Sir, I shoved them down the enemy’s throat, sir!”
Every cadet fought to keep the smile off their faces. The captain was not amused. “All of you, ten demerits, uniforms out of regs. You look like you’ve been wallowing in mud.”
“Sir, yes, sir!” they responded as one.
“Mateo, that will do.” Dame Emma pursed her lips as she focused on the cadets. “We have a problem. Every single one of you disobeyed a direct order. You were to remain on campus during the lockdown. Every single one of you took academy equipment with…some permission,” she allowed, “and damaged or destroyed all of it. How you got the ground crews to go along, I will never understand. All of you messed up. This is unacceptable.” While she spent most of her time focused on her MechWarrior cadets, she included the infantry cadets as well.
“But, Dame Emma,” Henry Cobb blurted, “we won. We rescued the captives.”
Jasper knew this for the mistake it was.
She zeroed in on the youngest cadet there. “How’d that work out for Cadet Estbury? Cadet Wolke? Cadet Vasseur?” She glanced up and down the rows of cadets. “What about Sir Robert Corbin or Lady Shannon Vogel? They’re dead. All of them. They would be alive if this stunt hadn’t happened tonight.”
Jasper fought to keep the scowl off his face. They were going to execute the Vogels today. We saved them, he howled in his mind.
Henry shrank under Dame Emma’s harsh words.
“But you’re alive. As is Lord Vogel. As are two dozen other people.” The words burst out of Nadine before she added. “With respect, Dame Emma.”
“Cadet Roux,” Captain Gabrielli warned.
“She has a point.” Dame Emma said. “We are alive. For now. But what about tomorrow, when the angry Draconis Combine comes knocking on our door looking for revenge for the coup you managed?” She turned to Delany and Jasper. “What defensive plans did you set up? None. You think those invading bastards are going to sit on their haunches just licking their wounds and leaving us alone? No. We have maybe twelve hours before they come storming in here, looking to recapture what you took from them. Then they’re going to capture all of you and either kill you, enslave you, or brainwash you, making you one of their own.”
“Never,” Lyric muttered a little too loud.
Dame Emma whirled on the cadet. “Never? Most likely you’re killed on the spot and she…” Dame Emma pointed at Nadine, “is made an example of. She’ll either be publicly executed or forced into pretend service in order to save his life.” She pointed at Jasper. “And you’d do it, too. Wouldn’t you, Cadet Roux? To save your brother’s life, you’d lie to the whole world?” She jabbed her finger at Jasper again.
Nadine didn’t answer. With her eyes wide, she looked like the professor had gut-punched her. She furrowed her brow and shook her head in a feeble attempt to deny the dame’s words.
“But we won,” Henry repeated, confused and almost crying. “The bola and harpoons worked. We took down two ’Mechs.”
“And let the enemy know of the weapon and how it works,” Captain Gabrielli said. “Not to mention losing one of three outfitted Vedettes. You can bet those enemy ’Mechs won’t be ignoring our ground tanks and armored cars again. That was a hard-won Pyrrhic victory, Cadet Cobb.”
Dame Emma raised a lecturing hand. “The problem here…one of the problems, cadets, is that the Ritza Academy is not a fortified location. It has the bones of one. Once it was a siege home for the Ritza family before they donated it to become an academy, but it’s not easily defensible against ’Mechs or infantry. It doesn’t even have its border wall anymore.” She gestured around them. “You cannot make assault plans without making defensive plans. You cannot ignore the follow-through. That is what you all did.”
“No,” Jasper said. He couldn’t let whatever was about to happen fall on Delany’s shoulders. He stepped up and took responsibility for their actions. “Not all of us. Just me and Nadine. This was our plan.”
“I was the one in charge,” Nadine added. “If there’s to be any punishment for our rescue operation, it should go down on me.”
“On us,” Jasper said.
Dame Emma rubbed her temples. “Stop. Both of you. There will be a reckoning, but the academy won’t determine what it will be, or against whom, until after Sergeant Major Auger returns from his apparently successful mission. Until then, Cadets Menard and Roux, you will report to me in the morning for a full debrief.” She glanced at Captain Gabrielli.
The captain picked up the thread. “Cadets Hayton and Roux will report to me for debrief. The rest of you will report to Sergeant Placket.”
Dame Emma gazed at them for a long, silent moment then shook her head. “Dismissed. Go to the infirmary. All of you.”
She turned to the captain and muttered something to him. Jasper only caught the name “Michael” in whatever she said.
Next to him, Delany muttered, “You’re welcome. It was a pleasure to save your life.” She had a sour look on her face.
Jasper shrugged and turned toward the rest of the infantry. “Do—”
“Cadet Roux! Both of you!” The hard voice cut across Jasper’s interrupted question.
Nadine’s and Jasper’s heads snapped around at the call. It was Sergeant Placket. She strode with a fast walk toward the clumped cadets.
“Ah, hell,” Nadine muttered. “Now what?”
“Both of you, come with me,” the sergeant said.
“To where?” Dame Emma’s voice was the kind of polite that said the sergeant better have a good answer. “I just gave them orders…”
Jasper and Nadine exchanged a confused glance. They hadn’t realized the dame was still there. They watched, fascinated as did the other cadets, at the professor’s apparent protective streak.
Sergeant Placket saluted both the captain and Dame Emma. “Baron Vogel would like to see both Jasper and Nadine Roux. Tonight. Now. He said it could not wait.”