Honor, Valor, Ambition, and The Way of The Clan Chapter 6, a mechwarrior/battletech fanfic

Chapter VI

"All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope."

~ Winston Churchill

Butte Hold Orbit, Greater Valkyrate,
July 26, 3049

"Tomahawk inbound! Watch your six!"

Marissa slammed her joystick to the left, just before twin laser bolts struck the void where she was a moment ago. Her Spad made a furious left turn, snaking between murderous laser bolts from two Tomahawk aerofighters, as she held her breath. The shots were getting closer and closer, and Marissa had to use every single trick she had to dodge their shots.

"These guys are veterans!" she panted on her comset. "I can't shake them off! Seth, where are you?"

"I'm running low on afterburner!" Seth replied briskly. He himself was trying to run away from another Tomahawk that had been latching on to him since the beginning of the engagement. "I have my hands tied, Marissa!"

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it all to hell!" Marissa grimaced. A series of medium lasers peppered her tail, and one burnt a slab of armor. She heard the warning, and she acknowledged the fact that her rear armor was almost nonexistent. One more medium laser shot could disable her Spad, or worse, destroyed it completely. And there were two hungry Tomahawks locking on her, waiting and wanting it to happen.

Marissa made a mental note to kill the pirate's tactical officer if she ever got out of this predicament. Early on, the pirate ship intercepted a communication between some local Butte Hold communities with an outside convoy. Where exactly the screw-up happened, nobody could tell, but the pirate thought that it was a lightly-guarded supply convoy. Everybody expected to see a big payday with minimal effort. But when Marissa took her squadron to intercept it, it was anything but an easy prey. The convoy consisted of 3 ST-46 with two wings of veteran Free Worlds Tomahawk aerofighters as their escort. The pirates fought their heart and soul to destroy the escort, but it was fairly obvious that the Tomahawk pilots were front-line warriors. They wiped out half of Marissa's squadron within the first 5 minutes of the engagement, and the remaining pirates were lucky to be alive so far.

"Thach Weave! Turn hard right and find me!" suddenly Seth found an idea. "I'll shoot your Tomahawks, you shoot mine!"

Seth's plan sounded iffy, but Marissa didn't have time to second-guess anything. She yanked her joystick hard to the right. Her Spad rolled half a turn, and the Tomahawks mimicked her maneuver, still firing their lasers at her. Marissa engaged her afterburner, forcing her Spad to turn even tighter. Her radar picked up two other fighters on her right flank. The closest one was Seth, mirroring her maneuver, while the other one was another Tomahawk trying to get a clear shot at Seth's engine. Soon enough, she was head to head with Seth, and with a quick flick she flinched, letting Seth pass a mere centimeter from her aerofighter. As Seth passed, she had a clear shot at the Tomahawk that had been chasing Seth since the beginning of the fight.

"Eat this, Free World freak!" Marissa howled and hit her alpha strike button. Her PPC slammed onto the Tomahawk's fuselage, carving a bad gash. Her lasers came a second later, drilling the wound deeper into the engine. Fire belched from under the wing, and the Tomahawk spun out of control, forcing its pilot to eject.

Meanwhile, Seth went face to face with two Tomahawks aiming their guns at Marissa's rear flank. He poured his firepower at one of the Tomahawks, breaching its wing with a surgical PPC shot. The Tomahawk veered off course and cartwheeled into deep space, while its wingman chose to break contact and regroup with the remaining Tomahawk.

"Holy Mother - shit - sonofa - ass!" Marissa panted on her cockpit. "Seth, you're a genius!"

"It's not my idea, Marissa," Seth chuckled as his Spad formed up on Marissa's. "A guy named Jimmy Thach invented it more than a millenium ago. That's why it's called the Thach Weave."

"Show off!" Marissa replied under her breath. "So what now? We still have 2 Tomahawks to deal with." She stole a glance at the three ST-46 shuttles that were preparing atmospheric entry. "If we lose those shuttlecrafts, all of these will be for nothing."

"Let's split," Seth suggested. "I'll handle the Tomahawks. You deal with the shuttles."

"I'm not leaving you alone with those Free Worlds bastards!"

"Fine. Then let's take on the Tomahawks. But like you said, it will be for nothing."

Marissa wished there were an easy way to do it. Seth was good, really good, but there was no way he could handle the two veteran Tomahawks. He needed her, and she needed him. But beating the Tomahawks bore only little value for the pirates. The ST-46 crafts might carry wealth beyond her imagination. They were the price of beating the Tomahawks. After everything she sacrificed, it would make no sense to just let them go.

"Fine! We'll do it your way!" Marissa conceded. She broke off formation, turning toward the three shuttlecrafts, while Seth continued to chase the remaining two Tomahawks. "Be careful, and don't try to be a hero. I don't want to lose you."

"Likewise, Princess," Seth replied, then engaged his afterburner.

Marissa pushed her throttle to maximum, bringing her Spad dashing full speed at the three ST-46 shuttlecrafts. The shuttles tried evasive maneuvers, but they knew it was for vain. Soon Marissa came within 500 meters from the shuttle convoy and, lining up her PPC with the middle ST-46, she hailed the convoy.

"This is Marissa Valentin. By this time you should have known my reputation. Your escorts have been eliminated. You have 2 minutes to turn off your engines and surrender your transports to me. If my demand is not met, I will destroy your ships and give you no quarters. Consider your situation wisely before you decide something."

"Don't shoot," somebody from the other end replied. "My name is Proctor Mark Lorin. There are children on board. We don't have anything of value except me. Take me, and let the children go."

Children on board. Children on board. Suddenly Marissa was taken back 16 years where she saw her father the last time before he was robbed from her life. Her hand shook, and she let go of her trigger, thinking what evil she could've done if she didn't establish communication link before started shooting blindly. Her breaths turned ragged, and it took her a while to compose herself.

"Mark Lorin," she said with trembling voice. "Do you have children?"

"Boren and Timothy are with me now. Michael is at home in Free Worlds since he's just 1 year old."

Marissa closed her eyes, sobbing, soaking her jumpsuit with her tears. She was one click away from doing the same thing that the pirate leader did to her. She almost became the very thing she hated the most, and for that, she thought she could grab her gun and blow her brain out right there, right then. Anger, shame, fear, all blended into a maelstrom of emotion that paralyzed her for several minutes. She just sat there doing nothing.

"Miss Valentin?" Mark Lorin's voice boomed. "Are you letting us go?"

"On one condition," Marissa composed herself. "I let you go now. I will wait until you leave this hellhole and return to Free Worlds. You will take me with you to Free Wolds. If you don't agree, or if you try anything, I will destroy your convoy."

"I am the proctor of a military sanctuary deep in Free Worlds space," Mark Lorin responded. "I have full authority to give you an asylum in my realm. But why should I believe the words of a pirate? What guarantee I have that you won't just shoot at us?"

"Because you have no choice," Marissa acted tough, although her sniffeling was audible enough to make Mark Lorin suspicious. "Do it on my term, and you'll live. Cheat, and I'll destroy everything."

"Very well, pirate," Mark Lorin replied. "I will leave Butte Hold system two weeks from now. I will not stop for you. You will have to find me. I will note the escorts to let you pass. We will jump together to Bensinger. A Free World corvette will be waiting for us there. You will have to surrender your aerofighter. But in any way you will be harmed, if you keep your end of the bargain."

"Deal," Marissa forced a smile. "Now go in peace."

"Thank you," Mark Lorin replied. "I will see you around."

The ST-46 continued their path down to Butte Hold. Marissa turned her aerofighter and sped toward Seth, who had been holding on against the two Tomahawk veterans. She sneaked behind one Tomahawk and fired her PPC as soon as she got into range. The Tomahawk rolled to evade her attack, lifting some pressure off Seth's rear flank.

"Seth, disengage the Tomahawks! This is too much! We're pulling out!"

"Did you get the transports?"

"No."

"What?" Seth looped in a train of white smoke, leaving the two Tomahawks behind. "What happened?"

"Maintain radio silence!" Marissa snarled curtly. "Get back to base. We have enough for one day."

But as she expected, Seth couldn't keep quiet. As soon as they left the Tomahawks, he reestablished communication line. "You never missed, Marissa. You've been in worse situation than this and you pulled off admirably. Those were just 3 unarmed transports. What really happened there?"

"I struck a deal with them," Marissa explained. "I let them go. In return, they'll take me to Free Worlds."

Seth went quiet for a full minute, then burst into panic. "What the hell are you thinking? How are you going to explain to the leader that you're leaving? How could you trust the Mariks? What if they use you to trap us? And where do you think you can go with a bounty on your head?"

"I don't know, and I don't care," Marissa closed her eyes. "But Seth, this is not the life I want. I'm doing it because I don't have a choice. Now I have a chance to leave it, and I'm taking it."

"Do you think I like my life?" Seth roared. "I was whipped every single day for almost 10 years, until I showed them I could drive an aerofighter the way they couldn't. But I didn't make a deal with random guys. There's too much uncertainty."

"If you hate your life, then come with me," Marissa said gently. "I think there's room for another one."

"Marissa, you're not listening. What if the Mariks lied to you?"

"Then I'll just turn against Infinite Bound," Marissa sighed exasperately. "I may destroy it. I may die as a fool. I don't care anymore. I am not living this life more than I need to." She paused for some time, then asked. "So, are you coming with me or not?"

"If the leader finds out about this, it'll be a living hell for us," Seth grumbled. "You've never been there, Marissa. I have, and I don't want to go there anymore."

"Then we will not speak of this again. When the time comes, you just follow my order. Do not talk, do not do anything stupid, just follow me. I will take care of the rest."

"One final question," Seth commented. "Do you seriously want me to come with you?"

Marissa smiled. "Just imagine what we can do together as free men."

"I love you, girl," Seth whispered. "I really do."