[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Aidan did not have time to watch the entire Elemental crossing. "Jade Falcons,
proceed to Robyn's Crossing," he said into his headset mike.
He led the march, with Joanna's 'Mech on one side of him, Marthe's on the
other.
"I had a strange thought," Marthe said suddenly over their private channel. "A
very strange thought."
"What?"
"It is as if the three of us, you, Joanna, and me, were back on
Ironhold cadets and training officer proceeding down a Crash Camp road."
"A very strange thought, Marthe. Best to forget it."
"I agree."
Now that Marthe had planted the seed, it was Aidan who could not shake the
image from his mind. Fortunately, Robyn's Crossing was not far away.
As Aidan had suggested to the Falcon Command Group, aerofighters were now
strafing the positions still held by
ComStar units at the wrecked bridges. From what Ai-dan's sensors
could tell him, they were doing considerable damage. That was good. With
mat support Aidan was confident enough to detach the 'Mechs of the Second
Falcon
Cluster to Plough Bridge to assist the Jade Falcon assault mere. Marine led
her troops off toward their objective at a dust-churning run.
But the Falcon Guards were still several kilometers from Robyn's
Crossing. Overhead, a Star of aerofighters had joined them, providing
some cover against ambush on the way to the bridge. Aidan thought he and his
men must be an impressive sight, more than a Cluster of BattleMechs and
Elementals charging along the riverside, battle-ready and formidable.
To Diana, in the midst of the 'Mech throng, the Falcon Guards looked like
chaos on legs. It was all she could do to keep her HeUbringer from bumping
into other 'Mechs or avoid stepping on the swift-running Elementals. And it
was all she could do to keep from being nudged toward the fearful Prezno
River. This was not being a warrior, she thought, but more like being a
techno-athlete. It took skill, yes, but it was manipulation not battle. And it
was for battle mat she longed. Except for the skirmish on Prezno Plain and
some combat during the retreat, mis campaign had not yet really given her a
taste of what it was to be a warrior.
Tukayyid was her first real war, and she thought it should be the kind of
thrill she had imagined so often since the days when the other village
youngsters had laughed and teased her for saying she would be a warrior when
she grew up. So far her military career had consisted of minor skirmishes on
backwater planets, mop-up operations, and the little war experience she had
Page 85
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
received as a Falcon Guard. She was eager to get to Robyn's crossing and some
close combat.
Perhaps it was these thoughts distracting her that made Diana's
«Mech nearly stumble. Though she quickly recovered her balance, she saw
in her peripheral vision a particularly violent stretch of Prezno River that
might have been her watery grave. No, she told herself firmly. It
would not happen that way. She had already survived one near-plunge
into the river. If she was going to die in this battle, it would not be by
drowning, but among the flames and explosions of the field, a Clan warrior
fighting alongside others of her kind.
To Mart he, the expedition along the riverside had a kind of
military beauty to it, something equivalent to the pleasure a warrior
might take in the study of a good war map or a passage from The
Remembrance. There was an aesthetic to a legion of Clan warriors going
forward toward their destiny. Here were OmniMechs, the most fearsome
BattleMechs ever created, piloted by genetically engineered warriors whose
whole lives were devoted to the way of war. Running speedily and gracefully
alongside them were the two-and-a-half-meter-tall Ele-mentals, also the
products of genetic engineering, their bodies in armored suits that made them
awesome compared to footsoldiers anywhere else in the known universe. Overhead
were magnificent aerofighters, also manned by pilots who had been genetically
bred for such tasks. The image, as she imagined it would appear to enemy
warriors who must counter the Clan attack, was pleasing, artistic.
Keeping her BattleMech abreast of Aldan's and Joanna's, Marine thought the
three of them made a fine vanguard against their ComStar foes.
To Joanna, the advance had neither strategic, aesthetic, nor emotional
significance. Like an old-time foot-soldier, she was most concerned with the
performance of duty. Were all the units in their proper places? Had the techs
loaded all the ammo before leaving the camp on Prezno Plain? Had she forgotten
something vital in the short training tune she'd bad to whip this misbegotten
crew into shape?
She wondered why she could never lose this habit of thinking like a training
officer. There were times when she felt that training was, finally, her
specialty. The Bloodname she had never won, the minor battles she
had fought, the hatred inspired in her by almost all other humans none of it
mattered when she was satisfied with her performance of duty.
Star Captain Joanna, who had never won her Blood-name, who now was among the
aging warriors, could not know that among so many soldiers, she was the ideal
Clan warrior. Clan military theorists as far back as Nicholas Kerensky himself
would have admired her total dedication. On a battlefield she carried in no
weight that could not in some way be used in the combat. Even her hatred, deep
as it can, was useful to the objectives of warfare. And in the entire Jade
Falcon Clan few warriors could build up a killing growl like Joanna.
Riding along on the side of a Gargoyle, just behind the vanguard
BattleMechs, Star Commander Selima saw the upcoming battle from an
Elemental^ point of view. Elemental training emphasized the
transitoriness of life. No
Elemental truly feared death because he or she knew mat death was
an honorable fitte for a warrior. Not that an
Elemental would seek a suicidal end in combat. No, an Elemental fought to the
last moment, never letting up, never letting a final wound stop him from
firing one more time or making one more thrust. If they embraced death, it
was only because Elemental knew that, whether it came abruptly or slowly,
sooner or later, ft was only death. Even Clan
MecfaWarriors did not quite understand the Elememals' ways. Needing to survive
to fight again another day, a Clan warrior did not quite share the same easy
acceptance of death.
Selima, a man more serene than most Etementals, had become an officer because
Page 86
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
he inspired loyalty, even among the crude and quarrelsome Elementals. Looking
about him now, at the towering 'Mechs, at the other Elementals clinging to
their own BattleMech rides, he saw the upcoming battle as merely another
moment in his life. Like all Clanspeople, Elementals were taught that it
was the great mission of the Clans to return to the Inner Sphere,
where they would conquer its worlds, and restore the glory of the Star
League. Yet the idea of the Star League, with its history and
significance, had little meaning to an Elemental. As Clan infantrymen,
Elementals simply did as they were told. They had been bred that way.
The first sign of the enemy came when an aerofighter detected a force of
ComStar BattleMechs, now detached from the bridge defense, advancing toward
the Jade Falcons. Aidan ordered some of the 'Mechs behind him to spread out,
away from the river, so that they could present a wide front.
The maneuver worked, for the Com Guards, the surfaces of their 'Mechs gleaming
even whiter in the bright light of the hot Tukayyid sun, advanced in a narrow
column. It was now almost midday, the weather hot even for Tukayyid.
Heat shimmers rose from the whole line of the 'Mechs, creating an aura around
the oncoming force.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]