Battletech a question of.., p.6
BattleTech: A Question of Survival, page 6
Alexis would be damned if it was Daniel.
If she had a problem, he usually caused it. He hated her, as he hated all the freeborns in the crèche. He shared no sense of family with those who had found other ways into the Bearclaws, and constantly tried to stop their progress. He also used every opportunity, ranging from subtle to overt, to make life more difficult for the freeborns, Alexis especially. Sometimes it would be as simple as tripping her on the way to the mess. Other times it would be angling to make her look bad in exercises, going out of his way to get her eliminated first. It infuriated him that Alexis still performed as well as she had, though, and she took great pleasure in that.
The Den Mother clearly favored him, which is why he never got in trouble. And maybe she thought this exercise would be well suited for him to gain points.
He wouldn’t get any if Alexis had anything to say about it.
The Den Mother continued, gesturing up to the rigging in the distance. “At the top of that structure is a flag. The first one who brings it to me will be awarded the five points and no more drilling for the day.”
Alexis resisted the urge to wipe the rain from her eyes, and squinted to get a better look. It was a simple outline of a structure. Two wooden beams ten meters high and about three meters apart were set into the ground. They were connected by a third beam at the top, giving the structure the look of some solidity. Three ropes dangled down from the top and the flag whipped in the wind atop a slim pole at the apex of the high beam.
“Am I understood?”
“AFF!” the entire sibko shouted.
“Then begin. May the best Bear win.”
The Star Captain stepped aside and let chaos ensue.
The field was already well-worn dirt from their exercises, and with the rain it had all turned to mud. As soon as she set the cubs at their goal, it became a mad scramble through the mud, slipping and sliding, and tearing into each other, each of them jockeying for some advantage.
All except for Alexis.
She remained at attention, not moving a millimeter.
She merely watched the bedlam. Elbows were thrown. Her sibkin growled and snarled at one another like animals. They all wanted those five points.
But Alexis watched for her opening.
“Are you seeking rest or glory?” Star Captain Ivankova asked Alexis with a sneer in her voice.
“Glory, of course. I am just waiting for the right time to strike. Slow and steady wins the race.”
The Den Mother huffed. “Just like a thief.”
Alexis ignored the slight and watched.
With her sibko in front of her, huddled into a disorderly scrum and practically killing each other to get to the ropes first, she sought an opening to make her move. By the time the first of her sibkin made it to the ropes, they had already been pulled down by the mob. A new cub made it to the rope with regularity, reaching up, trying to get enough of a grip to pull themselves out of the mess, but each time, they were yanked down and shoved back into the cold mud.
Alexis took a deep breath and began her march.
She didn’t run, and was careful not to slip in the mud. By the time she could see her kin more clearly through the rain, they were all covered in mud, head to toe. She couldn’t tell Thomasin and Sophie from any of the rest, but she had made up her mind about how to proceed.
As she got closer, Alexis sped up into a jog, still careful to keep her footing. By the time she reached the edges of the sibko, she was practically sprinting.
Planting a foot on the back of a fellow cub, she launched forward and stepped on another of her sibkin, this one even closer. Then, she leaped for the rope, a full 2 meters off the ground, higher than anyone else had made it. She grabbed on and didn’t wait to quit swinging before working to shimmy up the rope.
A roar from below sounded an awful lot like Daniel. “How dare you!”
It might have been a mistake to glance back down as she climbed, but Alexis got the distinct impression it was his back she had leaped up from. He wiped the mud from his eyes and pointed up at Alexis as she ascended.
“Pull her down!”
But every time someone grabbed one of the ropes below Alexis, they were immediately pulled back down. When it was Daniel’s turn, Alexis assumed Thomasin and Sophie wrenched him back down to the ground. Though they were both Trueborn, they did not share Daniel’s bigotry and reviled his arrogance, so they relished his defeats as much as Alexis did.
The wind and rain whipped at Alexis’ face, and she wiped cold drops from her eyes with her sleeve while still reaching up the rope. The thick jute felt harsh against her hands, it had swelled in the rain to where she heard the twist of it squeak with pressure. Reaching higher, she pulled herself up further.
Just one more meter...
The rope below her swung harshly, almost pulling her out of balance.
Glancing down, Alexis saw cub climbing up beneath her, but someone yanked them backward. They hadn’t let the rope go.
Alexis paused for a moment, waiting for some of the movement to subside, but the fight below her was so pitched now she didn’t think she would get that chance. The only thing to do was press forward. At least if she failed now, the crowd would break her fall and she would have made it further than anyone else.
Clawing her way up, Alexis gripped the top beam and flung her legs across. The beam was 30 centimeters wide, just narrow enough to make losing her balance and breaking her neck in the fall a possibility. Alexis figured that was half the point. Only one of their sibko had died in the training so far, but she had heard stories of other Clans where surviving your sibko training was remarkable.
Using the flagpole—which she found to be sturdy, cold—Alexis pulled herself to a standing position on the high beam. There was no other way for her to reach the flag otherwise. Climbing up the rope, the structure felt sturdy enough because she expected to be swinging, but in the rain and with the rumble going on beneath her feet, Alexis had not felt anything more treacherous.
Alexis smiled as she grabbed the small plastic flag clipped to the top. She raised it over her head in victory, letting it flap in the wind for a moment before stuffing it into her pocket.
Turning around and looking down at the mess beneath her and the field of mud beyond leading to the Den Mother, Alexis felt a stone drop in her stomach.
She got the flag, sure, but that was only half the task. She still had to get it back to the Star Captain. And not a single person below, fighting for the flag in the first place, was going to make that easy on her.
Doing rough calculations in her head, Alexis formed a plan and sure as hell hoped it would work.
The three ropes leading up to the top were now dangling free. Kneeling down and keeping a hand on the flagpole, Alexis reached out and gripped the center rope beneath her. It remained taut as the melee continued beneath her and the rest of the cubs did their best to keep the rope gripped in their hands, but she pulled on it as hard as she could.
As soon as the rope had enough slack to yank, she jerked up hard.
Someone down there must have realized what she was doing, because the shouting got more intense and another cub clambered halfway up the rope to her right, and no one seemed to be stopping them.
Letting go of the flagpole, Alexis pulled the rest of the rope up as quickly as she could with both hands. Other cubs jumped to reach it as it flew upward, but they couldn’t catch it fast enough.
Alexis turned her back to the Den Mother and arranged the rope so she could make a jump for it, eying the cub coming up the other line fast.
“Now or never,” she told herself.
She found the spot of rope at about the right length, gripped tight, looping the rough cord around her hands, and leaping into space. Pushing off the structure, Alexis aimed for as wide an arc as she could before the force of gravity brought her swinging back toward the shouting sibko. They prepared to intercept her, muddied arms raised, but her feet were above the level of their heads as she flew by. Their heads whipped back to see her let go of the rope at the apex of her swing.
Alexis’ arms pinwheeled as she struggled to right herself in mid-air and her legs started pumping, trying to absorb the momentum of her leap. Her feet slid forward and her heart jumped. If they caught her, they would tear her apart, and she would lose the flag, the points, the glory, and the right to gloat over the Trueborns.
Righting herself, even on the slippery ground, Alexis ignored the calls to violence behind her and launched into as much of a sprint as she could, given the sticky nature of the field of mud.
It was too late for the rest.
Alexis neared the Den Mother and reached into her pocket for the flag—but she couldn’t feel it.
Panic hit her and she dug deeper into her pocket. She realized it was probably still there, she just couldn’t feel her fingers in the frigid rain.
She would need to find it if she wanted to win. The mob of the rest of the sibko barreled toward her like an assault ’Mech on a mission of destruction.
The Den Mother had reproach writ large on her face, standing there in the rain, waiting for Alexis to produce something.
“It is here!” Alexis said, careful to enunciate each word. Contracting words with her sibkin felt acceptable, but she’d never dream of doing it in front of the Star Captain. That would be a supreme sign of disrespect and Alexis couldn’t afford to lose the points, even though she was about to gain five more. “I promise.”
“One would think you would be better at picking your own pocket,” the Den Mother said.
Alexis suppressed a growl and finally found the flag, whipped it from her pocket, and presented it to the Den Mother.
“Here you are, Star Captain,” she said, smiling wide. “As requested.”
“Very well.” Star Captain Ivankova snatched the flag from Alexis’ hands, regarded it as though it were a piece of contraband, and raised a hand to the oncoming freight train of sibkin.
“It is finished! To attention!” she shouted, stopping their forward momentum. They pulled themselves apart and fell in.
Alexis looked the least muddied of the assembly and she worked hard to keep her irrepressible grin from showing, lest she get into trouble.
“Like a thief, Alexis has won the challenge, the points, and the glory, but victory is victory. She will clean up and report to her bunk. The rest of you, report to the gymnasium for laps. Now.”
There were groans, but Alexis couldn’t help but feel pleased with herself as the others passed her by, heading to the gym.
It wasn’t until a brutish, muddy hand shoved Alexis from behind that the smile left her face. She was too busy falling face-first into the mud.
The arrogant laugh emanating from behind her could only belong to one person.
Daniel.
Like the Ghost Bear she hoped to be, Alexis roared and picked herself back up, ready to destroy him.
“Alexis,” the Den Mother bellowed. “Before me, now.”
“Aff,” she said begrudgingly, turning her back on Daniel and heading over to the Star Captain.
“Daniel,” the Den Mother said, “to the gymnasium.”
“Aff,” he said, and left the Den Mother and cub to stand there in the rain.
“Alexis, you did well. You earned your five points.”
“That is all?” Alexis seethed. She could have called for a Circle of Equals, but she had a sneaking suspicion Star Captain Ivankova would have put a stop to that anyway. For a woman who preached so much about family and the ideals of the Ghost Bears and the Dominion, she made her disdain for Alexis well-known.
“That is all,” the Den Mother sneered. “Now go.”
“Aff.”
And Alexis went.
CHAPTER 8
FELDSPAR
QUARELL
RASALHAGUE DOMINION
08 SEPTEMBER 3151
Feldspar was as out of the way as a city on Quarell could be. Nestled in a low valley and surrounded by hills, a road led out of it in each direction. The tiny airport could not accommodate space vehicles or DropShips. The feldspar mines in the surrounding hills had dried up ages ago, and the only people who remained did so out of habit.
It made sense to Star Colonel Emilio Hall why Feldspar had been voted to become the site of the war games, but logic would not make much difference to those living there. The land had been bought up by the government all around the town, and the neighboring towns as well. They’d all been evacuated over the last few years for some industrial initiative that had been voted on and accepted, but Feldspar had been the lone holdout. They didn’t want to leave their home. Why would they want to be evacuated and displaced?
The mayor had been pleading his case for the last half-decade, and was committed to slowing the process, but the war games had accelerated the timetable.
It would show the locals the proper respect to discuss things with them in advance and let them know the Dominion military was there to help them evacuate the area.
The hover car bearing Emilio pulled up in front of the house of the mayor, the largest residence in the town. At one point, Feldspar had been home to as many as twenty thousand people, mostly miners, and the mayor’s mansion had been built by one of the original founders of the town. It was streamlined series of modern boxes and lots of windows. For a town that mined rocks, that much glass certainly made a statement.
“Here we are, Star Colonel,” the driver said through the intercom between the cab and the passenger compartment.
“Splendid.” Emilio got out of the hover car and found no one outside to greet him. Another statement, this one intentional.
He decided he wouldn’t simply stand there and wait for a greeting. The walk was longer than it looked, as it was on a slight incline, and led to a set of five stairs that came to the box of a first level.
Looking through the glass of the front window, Emilio saw the mayor sitting in a high-backed chair in the front room, facing away from the front door and keeping his view fixed out the window. He must have been eighty years old if he was a day, with a shock of tight white curls that contrasted brightly with his dark skin. Through the door, Emilio heard a chime announcing his arrival.
“Come in,” the man said loud enough for Emilio to hear through the glass.
Emilio opened the hulking wooden door and stepped across the threshold, taking off his cap as he did so. The front room was decorated for official receptions. The mayor had created a welcoming atmosphere, with warm colors and lush, velvet drapes. The old wood floor looked well-loved and recently polished.
“Star Colonel, please forgive me for not standing,” the mayor said, making no effort to turn around and regard Emilio. Then, he gestured to the matching high-backed chair across the low table from him. A vase atop it sprouted fresh cut flowers that added a pleasant scent to the room. “Please, feel free to sit.”
“Of course.” Emilio took the graciously offered seat in the plush chair. He was not accustomed to the comfort, and wondered if this was how every far-flung city on Quarell lived.
Before Emilio could start, the mayor raised a hand. “Would you like anything to drink? Coffee? Tea, perhaps?”
“Coffee would be fine.”
The mayor tapped a few buttons on the arm of his chair before folding his hands in front of him. They were bony and frail, but as he clasped them, Emilio saw strength in them, too.
“Mayor Stelfreeze, I understand you wished to see me about the evacuation.”
“Aff. That is what you say, yes?”
“Aff. Indeed.”
“Good. Because I would like to be respectful in my request.” The mayor’s eyes, milky with age, had a ferocity to them Hall could respect as well. “I respect the Dominion. I respect the Ghost Bears. And I respect what they do for us.”
“I am sure you do. But I also ask, respectfully, that you no longer hold up the evacuation.”
At that, the mayor leaned forward. “I do not respect the vote to hold your war games here. Nor did I respect the vote to displace us in the first place, some five years ago.”
The Star Colonel took in a breath, ready to respond, but an aide arrived with a tray of steaming coffee, delivering a mug to the Star Colonel and the mayor both.
The cup felt warm in Emilio’s hands as he sipped, finding the coffee to be quite good. A surprise, to be sure.
“We grow it here,” said the mayor. “In the hills. After the mines dried up, coffee became our trade.”
“It is very good.”
“I am glad that you enjoy it. There may not be much of it left.”
“Mayor Stelfreeze, I would like to assure you that the Dominion has already committed to relocating your people to New Feldspar. It is more than half-built, and nearly ready for you. It is just not safe for you all to stay here while we have the cross-training exercises scheduled.”
“I am sure you will all do your best and the cross-training will be a success, and the next generation of Ghost Bears will defend the Dominion as true Warriors.”
“Aff.”
“Then I would like to call for a Trial of Refusal.”
The words hung in the air between them and Emilio deflated, wishing things had not come to this. But this was about their very way of life and their homes. If he had learned anything about civilians, it was that they did not like being displaced.
“That is your right,” he said finally. This was part of the integration of the Ghost Bears and the Rasalhague Dominion: civilians could call for Trials of Refusal against political decisions they disagreed with. It happened so rarely, though, that Emilio had not thought it would happen here.
But that spark of life in the old man’s eyes should have prepared him for it. “The vote was split eighty-twenty,” Stelfreeze said, “so I propose the Dominion forces field four ’Mechs to our one. And the field of battle would be Lime Kiln Gulch, beyond the foothills of our abandoned mines.”
“And you have a champion in mind?”
“Aff,” the old man said as though he had been a Clanner all his life. “I propose that you be our champion.”
