Battletech a question of.., p.31
BattleTech: A Question of Survival, page 31
The last two cadets seemed different than the others. Their patches were torn off their sleeves and the edges of their uniforms were frayed. They looked resolute, sure, but beneath that veneer was obvious fright.
“I am Star Commander Dawn,” she offered to them as she led them to their bunk. “What are your names?”
“I am Alexis,” the one in front said with a tinge of exasperation and even more exhaustion.
The other did not seem to want to speak.
“This is Sophie,” Alexis said.
“Is everything all correct with both of you?”
“It has been a long day.”
“Aff. But I can assure you that it is over—”
The lights overhead sputtered, and the DropShip rocked, as if impacted with missiles near their quarters. All three of them looked up, expecting the whole thing to cave in.
“Do not worry,” Dawn said, reassuring herself as much as the cadets. “These Overlord-Cs are sturdier than you can imagine. It will take quite a bit of time for them to punch through.”
Alexis nodded.
“Here you are.” Dawn hit the button that slid open the door. The room was cramped. Barely enough room to maneuver, and two well-made bunks on the other side.
The one named Sophie went in first and climbed immediately to the top. Alexis lingered there in the doorway.
“It will not be so bad, little one,” Dawn said, trying to be reassuring. “The Khan is not what you have heard of the Jade Falcons. And you will have a good home now. You are Jade Falcon.”
Alexis looked down to her shoes and her eyes glassed over. She did an excellent job of hiding her tears. “I just wanted a family. This wasn’t supposed to…”
Dawn tilted her head like a curious robin looking for a worm, considering the empty space where Alexis’ patch should have been. “Did something else happen today?”
“Aff,” Alexis said, and her tears came closer to the front.
“They think Warriors are machines with no emotions, and they try to train us that way, but that is not how humans work, no matter how much they have tampered with our genes.”
“I am freeborn,” the girl said, almost in tears at her sputtering confession.
“All the same,” Dawn said softly. “You will do fine. And if you need anything, come see me. You have friends here. Stick close to them. It does not have to be lonely.”
The girl, Alexis, considered her words and her features softened. Dawn’s word had given her heart. “Where is Thomasin?”
“I do not know who that is.”
“He was a cadet that came here with me. He spit at the Khan, and they dragged him away with another, Daniel.”
“Do not worry. I do not believe the Khan is the sort to resort to capital punishment. Especially not of children, and doubly so knowing the stress and shock you are all under.”
“Will you find out? And look out for them?”
“You have my word.”
“Truly?”
“My word is my bond, little one.”
Without another word, the girl threw herself forward, embracing Dawn. Dawn had not expected that, nor was she quite equipped to know what to do when the girl buried her face in Dawn’s shoulder.
Awkwardly, but with as much warmth as she could muster, Dawn put her arms around the girl and patted her on the back. “It will be okay. I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“It is nothing. Just be sure to be at the briefing. After we break orbit, the Khan wishes to address you all. You will be there, quiaff?”
“Aff,” Alexis said, sniffling into Dawn’s shoulder. “We will be there.”
They separated, and Dawn backed up a step and put her hand on the button to close the door, but before she did, she looked at both girls once more in turn, smiling warmly to each of them. “I know this is scary, but I promise you are safe and in a good place.”
“Thank you,” Alexis said, as though she had never received such a kindness.
“You are Jade Falcons. And I will see you at the briefing.” Dawn engaged the door, which slid shut quickly.
* * *
JORGENSSON-TSENG SPACEPORT
ANTIMONY
QUARELL
RASALHAGUE DOMINION
08 NOVEMBER 3151
From the command couch of her Kuma, Star Captain Allison Rand used her heavy large laser to melt right through the cockpit of the last Jade Falcon ’Mech, a Turkina that had given far too good of a fight. The green-and-gunmetal Turkina crumpled into a mess of melting armor and myomer at odd angles.
Looking up to the Jade Falcon DropShip, Allison knew her Trinary and extra Star could not bring an Overlord-C class ship down on their own, but with her fighters attacking and the VaultShip being pursued, anything they could bring to bear was going to help.
The Overlord-C could hold three Trinaries, so the DropShip would likely repel that many in an attack. And it had the armor to allow it to turtle for hours if it needed to. But if the Ghost Bears could get a DropShip of their own in the air to keep the Falcon DropShip docked…
“Press the attack!” she said into her radio.
Looking down at her display and on her wraparound viewscreen, she saw the Ninety-Sixth coalesce into a tight formation and approach the DropShip to find positions to continue the offensive. In the air, she saw the DropShip lasers flash in the distance, and then a Ghost Bear aerospace fighter erupted into fireball and fell to the ground in a blazing heap.
Another got shot out of the sky and nearly hit the DropShip itself.
“We cannot let them get away!” she shouted, anger shooting the words out of her throat.
As she traversed across the spaceport’s landing surface, Allison thought of every cadet aboard that DropShip and what they must have been facing. It could not have been an easy prospect to believe that their superiors had simply given them away.
She hoped the attack would give them hope that perhaps they would keep their lives. She hoped that they could rescue them if possible, and wanted them to know that the Ghost Bears were coming, and they might not have to die as Jade Falcons after all.
But that was when the DropShip’s engines ignited and it lifted up from its blast pit, heading toward the sky.
“Hurry!” she called out. “We can still hit it from the ground!”
She planted her Kuma’s feet into the ground and fired her heavy large laser again, flashing cyan, bright but almost invisible against the Quarellian sky. From her sides, the smoke trails of a dozen salvos of long-range missiles twisted up the horizon, all aiming for the DropShip. Their explosions peppered one by one across its thick carapace, barely denting it at all.
It would take so much more than they had to stop it.
She switched her radio channel to engage their command center. “Kodiak Point, this is Star Captain Allison Rand. Send everything we have at that DropShip. We cannot lose it.”
“Star Captain Rand,” the control center from Kodiak Point responded, “they have chewed the OmniFighters to pieces.”
They only had ten fighters in the Star, and by her rough visual count, there were only a few left. “Scramble more from the Delta Fighter Trinary.”
“Star Captain, they are in the next hemisphere, and the DropShip will be beyond orbit by the time they can make it here.”
“Send them anyway!”
“Aff, Star Captain.”
As the DropShip got further and further away, out of range of her Trinary’s weapons, all she could think of were the cadets aboard the ship and what horrors would await them.
“Stravag!” she shouted, smashing her fist against her command console.
CHAPTER 36
OVERLORD-C-CLASS DROPSHIP FALCON’S SHADOW
QUARELL SYSTEM
RASALHAGUE DOMINION
08 NOVEMBER 3151
Alexis tried to find a place in the back of the briefing room where they had been directed once the battle was over and they were out of range of any potential Ghost Bear rescue. She held Sophie’s hand the entire time.
Worry burned inside her, and as they waited for the Khan to address them, she looked around for Thomasin and Daniel. She wanted to know they were safe. That feeling for Thomasin felt natural, but feeling that for Daniel shocked her. She was truly saddened to see neither of them in the room. Even in trouble, she thought they might have been required to be at the briefing.
The din of her sibkin and the captured Jade Falcon bondsmen grew louder. They all grew impatient waiting for their new Khan, but Alexis did not see Thomasin anywhere.
Nor did she see Daniel.
She could not be sure, but she did not see a few she might have recognized from other sibkos that they had spent the last month competing against. This was definitely not everyone. Others must have been in trouble with the new Khan, too.
“I do not see Thomasin,” Sophie said, whispering softly in Alexis’ ear.
“Me, neither.”
“Do you think he’s okay?”
“I hope so. Star Commander Dawn said she would make sure he was. And I got a good feeling from her.”
“I am glad one of us did. She is a Falcon, Alexis.”
“So are you now, Sophie.”
Sophie harrumphed and settled deeper into her seat.
Everyone went silent when the Khan finally entered the room. He marched in with purpose, wearing a Jade Falcon officer’s uniform, but instead of a tie, his collar remained open. He seemed more casual than she would have guessed, but his countenance was grim, and he strode to the podium with purpose. Behind him, the large screen showed nothing but an illuminated Jade Falcon logo on a green field.
Gripping both sides of the lectern, the Khan looked out over the sibkos and right into Alexis with his sea-storm eyes. She found a softness there she did not expect. His exterior was exactly what she would have imagined from a Jade Falcon: unkempt, barely shaved, trademark eye scar. But there was something soulful about him that Alexis found inspiring. Charming, even.
She wanted to listen to him.
At least she could hear what he had to say, and then decide whether or not he was worth spitting on. Thomasin had not given him that chance.
“Cadets,” he said finally. His voice sounded more likable in person rather than over the radio, threatening to steal them all. “I know all of you did not expect to wake up this morning Ghost Bears and go to sleep as Jade Falcons. It would not have been my first choice if I were you, either. I know some among your sibkin have decided they would rather die trying to escape than wear the green of Clan Jade Falcon. You will notice they are not here with you now.”
She never thought Daniel and Thomasin would have agreed on anything, but she supposed that this was the one topic they were bound to find common ground and build a new sibkinship.
“I do not blame them. In fact, I admire them for their spirit. They will be joining you soon, as long as they are able to behave and embrace their new future. For them, and even for the rest of you, I understand your resentment. You had no intention of being here.”
The Khan cast his gaze across the sibkos. As his eyes passed over Alexis, a shiver crept up her back.
He continued. “Which of you called the Trial of Refusal on behalf of each of you?”
Alexis shrank, her shoulders hunched, and she looked down at her feet.
To their credit, none of her sibkin pointed her out. She could not be sure how the Khan would react to such insubordination.
“It is okay,” the Khan said. “No harm will come to you for admitting the truth. Which one of you is Alexis?”
Sheepishly, Alexis raised a hand. “I am, my Khan.”
Those last words were so difficult to say, especially as she braced for his anger.
Instead, he beamed. “Alexis?”
“Aff.”
“Cadet Alexis, your spirit is admirable and the very spirit we need injected into our renewed Jade Falcons. You have my respect and admiration.”
This level of praise and acceptance from the Khan of her new Clan made Alexis’ head swim. But it also rippled through her chest like a balm.
“I promise you,” the Khan continued, “all of you—that you will have a better future as a Jade Falcon than you would have had as a Ghost Bear. None of you are Warriors yet. You would have had a chance to wash out or fail your Trial of Position and end up in a lower caste. That will not happen with you in the Jade Falcons. You will be Warriors, even if you fail your Trial. Granted, you might end up in the infantry at that point, but you will fight and have a chance at glory.”
The Khan looked across the room and managed to find Alexis’ eyes again. She did not know how to accept his words or praise.
He seemed to lock eyes with everyone in the room and she wondered if the others felt the same. Were they simply guarding against his promises? Or believing them?
“The Ghost Bears are a fine Clan,” he said matter-of-factly, “but there are many, many Ghost Bears and few battles they fought. How many Ghost Bears shine bright enough to earn a place in the histories? How many stand out as Warriors? How many battles do Ghost Bears even fight these days? They sit fattened for winter in decades of hibernation. The odds of you being remembered as a Ghost Bear are infinitesimal. But as a Jade Falcon? We have so many fights ahead that you will unquestionably be bathed in glory.”
Someone down in the front row actually gasped at this pronouncement. Alexis could not tell if it was in excitement or disbelief. Possibly both.
Sophie squeezed Alexis’s hand tighter, and could practically feel her competing doses of excitement and anxious energy.
“I will be honest with you all,” said the Khan. “You might have heard many stories of the Jade Falcons. Many of them may even have been true once. But the Jade Falcons are changing. Some might say drastically. We adapt to survive, and in this, we are family now. We will not be caught quarreling among ourselves, as you saw the Ghost Bears do. Some of these changes will benefit you all, my new cadets. The future leaders of Clan Jade Falcon are very likely sitting in this room right now. The best among you will win that honor.”
Alexis’ sibkin practically oohed and aahed at that prospect.
“How many of you are freeborn?” he asked finally.
A half-dozen hands in the room raised. Alexis was surprised to find herself confident enough to raise her own hand as well. Sophie had nudged it up on its way for her, but it was raised nonetheless.
“You. Cadet Alexis. You have the spark that makes this a certainty.” The Khan pointed right at Alexis. “What was your last name before joining the Ghost Bears?”
Alexis barely found her voice. “Zarnofsky.”
“How would you like to see Zarnofsky elevated to a Bloodname for the Jade Falcons? Prove yourself worthy, and a new branch of our family tree shall begin. You will become a legend, because you will be the first of your line.” The Khan looked around the room to the rest of the freeborns with their hands raised. “That would make you all legends.”
They lowered their hands—Alexis a bit slower than the rest.
“Welcome to the Jade Falcons, Alexis Zarnofsky. And all of you. This is your new family, and I promise we will take care of each other.”
Alexis soaked his words up like a sponge.
It was everything she had ever wanted to hear a leader say.
Squeezing Sophie’s hand, Alexis took in a deep breath and smiled. Perhaps she would like being a Jade Falcon after all.
For the first time in a long time, Alexis felt like she was home.
EPILOGUE
ANTIMONY
QUARELL
RASALHAGUE DOMINION
21 NOVEMBER 3151
From the command couch of her Kuma, Star Captain Allison Rand listened to the local news stations. Unrest and riots in the streets of Antimony. Of Tholos. Of Silver Summit and Paralia. From the Pig Iron Plains to the hills of Emporio. Even in the smaller towns of West Enterprise and New Santorini.
She pushed her ’Mech forward, marching step by step to the Prime Minister’s residence.
Prime Minister Erika Gulbrand, a prominent refuser, had locked herself in the governor’s mansion. From there, she had broadcast a message to the people of Quarell, telling them there would be no revote, nor would there be a recount. The vote was final and, apparently, so was the ilKhan’s decision if they did not find a way to formalize a unanimous vote or a unilateral decision from the Prime Minister and the Ghost Bear Khans.
As the ranking Ghost Bear in the military on Quarell, and an ardent joiner, Allison Rand had decided to lead the coup to remove Gulbrand and fix the vote so that the Ghost Bears and the new Star League could once again be whole.
Turning the corner, she saw Star Captain Ahmed in his Kodiak, guarding the official residence. Many of the Ninety-Sixth had been traitors and refusers. When it became apparent what was happening, they had left with their ’Mechs and created a resistance against the joiners.
“Ahmed,” Rand said on an open radio signal. “I am still disappointed by your decision to abandon your post in betrayal.”
“I am defending the sanctity of the Ghost Bears and the sanctity of the democratic process of the Rasalhague Dominion, Star Captain. As well as the wishes of the ilKhan. You must stand down.”
“Clan Ghost Bear does not recognize you as anything but a traitor. Stand down, or we will attack.”
“I do not wish to fight, Star Captain,” Ahmed said. Lying, most likely.
“Do not test me, Ahmed.”
“I do not aim to test. We are protecting the duly elected civilian government of this planet. We will not attack first, merely retaliate for any hostile actions.”
Allison had a choice to make, as did so many Dominion citizens across every world in Rasalhague.
She took a deep breath…
Steeled herself…
And pushed her Kuma forward into the fight.
* * *
HAMMARR SPACEPORT
HAMMARR
SUDETEN
