Battletech a question of.., p.12
BattleTech: A Question of Survival, page 12
Jiyi’s mind spun with the possibilities. This was exactly what he needed, but he would need to mobilize forces quickly to take them. First, however, he had to deal with the Watch Agent. “Excellent. You have done well with your report, Watch Agent Colmari.”
Jiyi glanced at Star Captain Quinn, whose wide eyes told him she must have understood the importance of this information as well. She stepped in and reached for the Watch Agent’s noteputer. “We will have the rest of the data analyzed,” Quinn said, taking the tablet. “You have our thanks.”
Jiyi stood from his chair and looked expectantly at the Watch Agent until she got the hint to reciprocate and stood as well. Ordinarily, one of these debriefings would last much longer, but with the information he had just received, there was no time.
Confusion was clear on her face. She seemed to get the idea that she had offered him something of value, but she could not determine what. It did not matter if she understood, though. Probably better if she did not at all. That way, she could not give anything away.
“The Jade Falcons owe you a debt, Watch Agent Colmari.”
“We are all Jade Falcons.”
“Seyla,” he said as she stepped to the other side of the study’s door. “Until we see each other again, Watch Agent. Best of luck on your next dispatch.”
Jiyi shut the door and spun around, a smile on his face broader than the wingspan of his Gyrfalcon. Stepping further into the room, he waited until he heard her footsteps vanish down the hall. Then he said to Star Captain Quinn, “Muster the troops.”
“You do not really mean to—”
“We leave tonight. How many do we have ready to fight, right now?”
“There are three Trinaries at the most. And one is made up of new recruits. Those you brought and those we promoted before you left. And we will have more infantry and Elementals that you might want to bring into this battle rather than seasoned ’Mech pilots. We will need to leave at least a Trinary for defense.”
“Two Trinaries will have to do.”
“How do you expect to drop in on the Ghost Bear Fourteenth Battle Cluster and walk away with sibkos full of recruits?”
“A Trial of Possession.”
“That is not how those work, my Khan, and you know that. They will never agree.”
Jiyi folded his arms, but he felt an excitement inside him. “The future of the Jade Falcons depends on it. Allow me to work out the details. But we will make them an offer they find too good to refuse.”
“And if it does not work?”
“Then the Jade Falcons are finished anyway. Now go. Time is short, and the journey is long.”
“Yes, my Khan.” Star Captain Quinn left double-quick, following the Watch Agent’s path out the door.
Khan Jiyi Chistu stared into the crackling fire, surrounded by the books and plunder from the rest of Sudeten. What exactly could he use to entice the Ghost Bears into a Trial? He had to figure it out. Come hell or high water, those sibkos were going to be Jade Falcons before the year was over.
CHAPTER 14
FALCON’S RUN TRAINING FACILITY
OUTSKIRTS OF HAMMARR
SUDETEN
JADE FALCON OCCUPATION ZONE
07 OCTOBER 3151
“What the hell?” Star Commander Dawn said as the lights winked out on her simulator session. None of the controls responded to her moves, and the simulated ignition switch would not turn the ’Mech back over.
The door opened, and the bright light of the outer room spilled into the pod, revealing a room full of other newly minted MechWarriors from her Star standing around, wondering why the simulation had ended. Stepping out and looking around, Dawn was just as confused.
“Is this some kind of drill or something?” she asked the MechWarrior next to her, Siamion. A tall mountain of a man who had served in the infantry with her and made the jump to MechWarrior in their Trial of Position.
He just shrugged. “They have told us nothing.”
“Here it comes,” Dawn said as Star Captain Quinn stepped into the room. The assembled MechWarriors all stood up straight, waiting for an explanation.
“MechWarriors,” said Star Captain Quinn. Dawn had great difficulty divining the nature of her countenance, unable to decide if it was grim or excited. “The time has come. We are mobilizing now. You are to report to the DropShip at Hammarr Spaceport within the hour. This is a confidential mission. You will speak to no one between here and there, and you will say nothing of this mobilization, quiaff?”
“AFF!” they all parroted back.
Dawn’s brow furrowed. Unless the situation was impossibly desperate, they would not send her ragtag group into a battle so soon. Yes, they had trained, and yes, they had done well in their simulations, but there were other, far more seasoned Stars of MechWarriors on Sudeten. Something must have gone wrong, and that never boded well. Now that she was in charge of a Star, she couldn’t imagine sending them into battle so green. They simply weren’t ready, which she took as a failure of her own. After all, it was her job to prepare them.
“You will be briefed aboard the DropShip,” Star Captain Quinn said. “And you will receive your ’Mech assignments onboard as well. There will be much drilling during the voyage. I expect you to not fail me. Is that understood?”
“AFF, Star Captain!” they all said.
* * *
OVERLORD-C-CLASS DROPSHIP FALCON’S SHADOW
HAMMARR SPACEPORT
JADE FALCON OCCUPATION ZONE
07 OCTOBER 3151
The crew of the DropShip had shown Dawn and the rest of their Star to their billets, where they were given instructions to leave their belongings and report to the briefing room immediately. The only belongings they had been able to take were their uniforms and any nominal personal items.
The only personal effect Dawn had to speak of was a modest necklace she had picked up after flunking her original Trial of Position, and she wore it around her neck. The merchant she purchased it from told her it was the mark of Jude, the patron saint of lost causes.
She had not removed it from her neck since.
Fortunately, Saint Jude, or divine providence, or the cosmic luck of the galaxy had put her back on the path of being a MechWarrior.
Dawn rubbed it between her thumb and forefinger for good luck. Clan Warriors—MechWarriors especially—should be careful of trusting in luck, but after losing her shot, she’d had nothing left to lose but her life. Now that she had what she wanted, she could not deny the effect, placebo or otherwise. And if this St. Jude supported her lost cause, then who was she to argue?
MechWarrior Hosteen, who had won his position alongside Dawn, sidled up to her as they moved through the bunks of their billet and through the corridors to the briefing room. He was a big man, and older than she had imagined he would be when first they had met outside of their ’Mechs. “Do you know what is going on?”
“Neg,” Dawn said. She thought she was going to be asking that same question a lot. “But it must be important if they’re taking us all.”
“Or desperate.”
“Likely both.” Dawn turned the corner and found a jagged line of MechWarriors all heading to the briefing room.
The briefing room itself was organized as a semi-circle of rows of seats facing a podium and a screen, a different kind of theater of war. There were more than enough seats for every MechWarrior an Overlord-C could carry, 45 in all, which made Dawn wonder if the DropShip was not carrying its full capacity and complement, or if they were still waiting to take on more MechWarriors. She had seen Elementals boarding, but had not seen any of them in the briefing room. Would they be briefed later in the same room, or separately elsewhere? She had not spent any time in DropShips as a MechWarrior; she was curious to find out.
Hosteen shuffled in through the row of seats and sat down beside her. Siamion sat down right in front of her. It felt good to get to know more folks as they had been training, and it felt good to feel like part of a group again. Once she had left her friends in the paramilitary, they had treated her like she was different. Their shoulders were cold, and they never seemed to have time for her, though she did not have much time to spend with them anyway, mainly because Star Captain Quinn drilled them so often, both before and after the Trials of Position. But here? She was finally part of the group she wanted to be in.
The chatter in the room grew as it filled.
Hosteen leaned in close to her. “This seems like a lot of MechWarriors all in one place.”
“Is it the whole touman?” Dawn asked.
“I would hope not. The Khan is bold, but not foolish enough to put the whole touman in one ship.”
Siamion leaned back in their chair to join their conversation. “There are still at least a few MechWarriors planet-side. At least a few Stars’ worth. It is likely and sensible that a defense is left on Sudeten.”
“We must have, I would think,” Hosteen said. “I mean, it would not do well to leave our home base and come back to find we have no home at all.”
“Aff,” Dawn said. “I am positive the Khan is doing what is best. It is just that with the situation we are in, what is best might not always be what is wise.” She looked down at her MechWarrior jumpsuit—the standard Falcon uniform in emerald-green, with short sleeves, accentuated by black knee-high boots—and wondered about the wisdom of her own promotion. Definitely best. She also hoped it was wise.
Star Captain Quinn entered the briefing room with a noteputer, moved purposefully across the presentation area, and set it on the podium. The Jade Falcon crest, the emerald falcon with a sword in its talons, appeared on the screen behind her as she fiddled with the connection between the noteputer and the presentation monitor.
Star Captain Quinn looked up at those assembled with a face as cold as the Ice Hellion Plateau and the chatter in the room dropped as fast as the temperature in that arctic waste. Dawn got the hint and kept her mouth shut.
When the hush consumed the room entirely, the Star Captain scanned the room, looking deeply into each one of the MechWarriors there. A shiver ran down Dawn’s back when Quinn met her eyes.
“Jade Falcons,” Star Captain Quinn said finally. “You are here not because you are the best.”
Dawn tilted her head and furrowed her brow. That did not sound like the usual sort of pep talk.
“You are here,” the Star Captain continued, “because you are the best we have. The Jade Falcons have lost everything but us. And so we might not be the best in this moment, but we have to rise to the occasion. And we must do it fast. The survival of Clan Jade Falcon depends on it. Are you ready?”
“AFF!” the room bellowed like thunder.
“You have been selected for an impossible mission deep into territory that harbors no love for Jade Falcons. And we will win!”
“AFF!” they all said again. Dawn felt the word rumble in her chest. The coldness within her was replaced with an unusual warmth. Something she had not felt in a long time. At least not since the Clan had fallen apart.
Star Captain Quinn looked down at the chronometer on her wrist. “This ship leaves at the top of the hour, and we will be ready to meet anything that we find on the other side. Now, I will turn you over to your Khan, Jiyi Chistu.”
Dawn looked over to the other side of the screen; she had not even noticed the Khan standing there. His arms were folded, and he had a grim countenance. He slowly walked to the podium.
“Jade Falcons,” he said, looking up at all of them. “We have a momentous task in front of us. I would not say it is impossible, though it might seem so to some. Star Captain Quinn has not led you astray in her characterization of the job ahead. You must know that she is my right hand. My left, Merchant Factor Jodine, remains behind on Sudeten to defend our base of operations. Though she bears the rank of Star Captain, Quinn has proved herself time and again. Once we are through this trial, I have no doubt she will earn her Bloodname when we focus again on such things. And though she has not been voted to the rank, at this moment, Star Captain Quinn is the closest thing to a saKhan the Jade Falcons have. I expect you all to treat her accordingly, quiaff?”
“AFF!” Dawn shouted with the other thirty or so MechWarriors in the room. But she could not have heard him right. Was a Merchant Factor really commanding Clan defenses? The Khan had sandwiched that bit of information in between two other important statements.
Did he hope we would not notice?
Before Dawn could think too much about the unorthodox practice of elevating members of the merchant caste and compare that to her own situation, the Khan continued his rallying speech.
“What have we have mustered you for? That must be the question at the top of your minds. The answer is this: we will be partaking in a Trial of Possession for a number of sibko cadets. Scores of them. A hundred or more, if we succeed as brilliantly as I assume we will. We will replenish our ranks and make the Jade Falcons strong once more. Over the coming weeks, I will train you to fight like you have never fought before. Our enemy is the Ghost Bears. The Fourteenth Battle Cluster, to be specific. And they will not be easily defeated.”
There was a low murmur in the room, and Dawn shared their confused curiosity. Would they still be Jade Falcons if half of them had been raised as Ghost Bears? That could change the face of the Clan forever.
The Khan continued, “We cannot meet them as Jade Falcons have traditionally taken the battlefield. We will do something new and altogether surprising. And, in exchange, we will bring home with us the next generation of Jade Falcons who will help us elevate our Clan back to the prominent position where it belongs. Our journey will take weeks. And, at the end of the journey, you will all become experts in a new kind of combat, one that leaves behind the Mongol Doctrine and the way Jade Falcons have traditionally swooped in and destroyed everything in sight. The Ghost Bears will be expecting that, so we will fight against them in a way they have never faced before, tailored to play into both their biases and instincts.”
Taking it all in, Dawn could not quite believe what she heard. By the sound of murmurs around her, it seemed the other MechWarriors shared her incredulity. Did he just say the entire Ghost Bear Fourteenth Battle Cluster?
It did not make sense. How would they, a couple of Trinaries at best, take on one of the most elite Clusters of the Ghost Bear touman?
“I would not ask you to do this,” the Khan continued, “if it were not of the utmost importance and vital to the survival of the Jade Falcons. We have a plan, and it will work, so long as we all work together.”
The Khan’s eyes softened, even the one damaged by the scar, and the right side of his mouth hooked into a sly grin. “We are Jade Falcons, are we not? In the words of one of our earliest Khans, Patricia Bailey, it is ‘our great destiny to see Clan Jade Falcon thrive, to see it live beyond us all, and to do that, sometimes our trajectory bends below us like the path of the Eden Serpents we hunt.’ And if that is not a call for us to bend our traditional paths to hunt the prey we seek, I do not know what is. Khan Bailey meant that our traditions and our most closely held beliefs can change, too. For if they do not, there will be no Jade Falcons left to rid the Inner Sphere of the Eden Serpents that look to take everything from us, quiaff?”
“AFF!” they all roared. Even Dawn, feeling a thrill of excitement and swell of emotion radiate from the room and the Khan’s words.
When the room quieted again, the Khan lowered his tone and leaned in as though he were about to tell them all a great secret. “We will be victorious. And it will be together that we do so. Your strength is my strength. My strength is the strength of the Jade Falcons. But that victory will take much work. Are you willing to do that work?”
They had to survive. If the Jade Falcons did not make it through this Trial, what else did Dawn have left? “Aff!” Dawn said again, along with everyone else who wanted to see a future for the Jade Falcons.
This time, she meant it more than she ever had before.
“Then go to, my Falcons. Strap in and stay strong. We leave immediately for the Rasalhague Dominion.”
CHAPTER 15
LYKOURGOS ARENA
ANTIMONY
QUARELL
RASALHAGUE DOMINION
10 OCTOBER 3151
Alexis stood on the field of the Lykourgos Arena alongside her sibkin, surrounded by other Ghost Bear cadets from Quarell and elsewhere, watching the monitors overhead for a closer look at the proceedings. The cameras were trained on the dais at the end of the arena and the stadium was filled with onlookers, Clan and native alike. Most were from Quarell, but others had traveled with their local sibkos to support and cheer on their comrades.
Everyone wanted to watch a good competition and root for their home team.
She tried not to think about how easy it would be to get away with so much sneaky wealth redistribution in a crowd that size and so loud and distracted. Maybe she knew some of the kids in the crowd out there doing just that. But that life was behind her now. She had to look ahead.
Alexis kept still, trying not to look around too much, but the surroundings really were awe-inspiring. The screens hanging above the arena were the biggest she had ever seen. Streamers and bunting hung overhead, all in the standard Ghost Bear colors: primarily blues, blacks, and whites, but with many other accent colors.
Above and behind the dais was the biggest of the banners with the Ghost Bear emblem emblazoned across it: a screaming ghost bear, surrounded in a circle by six swooshes of its clawed arms, all set on a black field with the entire image ringed in a gold. It was supposed to represent their unity, and Alexis wanted so badly for it to mean that for her. It had for a time, but now it all just felt so…superficial.
“Welcome, sibko cadets, to the Quarell Cross-Training Exercises and War Games of 3151.” Star Colonel Emilio Hall stood at the podium on the dais to make his remarks. Since he was the highest-ranking Ghost Bear on Quarell, the duties must have fallen to him to play host. His dark, curly hair was practically tame, and his brown face looked freshly shaved. Alexis thought of him as some sort of distant grandfather in her growing Ghost Bear family.
