Chapter 8

City of Bervalla,
Callone VI, Federated Suns,
September 12, 3078

Bervalla, a medium-sized town emblematic with the liberty movement during the civil war era, had turned into a safe haven for the remnants of the 8th Syrtis Fusiliers. About one-third of the regiment survived the drop and the jungle ambush by the Roughriders. The survivors, however, were only 20 percent effective. Most of their weapons were lost, and the battlemechs were stripped to their titanium structures. Just like Rocher's Uziel.

That was where Austin Merriam came in. He organized local tech shops and part vendors to lend their hands for the Fusiliers. He also invited law inforcements and militia groups to join forces, fortifying Bervalla from possible attack by the Roughriders while the Fusiliers were undergoing repair and reload.

"Who's this Austin guy?" Rocher asked as he and Meiko oversaw his Uziel under intensive care of Bervalla's technicians. "Why is he doing this?"

"Guilt, maybe," Meiko replied halfheartedly. "It is widely known that he and Rebecca Ghalan were engaged, and the fact that Rebecca caused all this misery may drive him to help out the Fusiliers. Or, he may be doing it just because it's the right thing to do. He was a strong supporter of the liberty party during the civil war. It hurt his legacy for he was the heir of a mafia family who benefit much from the old regime, but he did it anyway."

"Good will doesn't exist," Rocher let out a wry chuckle. "He must've gained something from this movement. You just don't' know it."

"Not everything is based on politics," Meiko puffed. "Some people just have strong sense of duty, and I believe Austin is one of them."

"Just like you are?" Rocher teased. "Where did you stand during the civil war?"

Meiko drew a deep breath before responding, "I didn't have an allegiance until Callone VI became a Davion world and Governor Butler was appointed regent of Federated Suns. There were two regimes before that, and they were equally corrupt. So, to answer your question, nothing. I was glad everything was over and we had a new beginning…until this happened." She sighed audibly, then turned to Rocher. "What about you? What are you doing here, far away from home, meddling with power shifts in a world barely significant for the Federated Suns?"

"I am a soldier of the Armed Forces of The Federated Suns. I go wherever they want me to go."

"So you let somebody else decide your life, and you accuse Austin of having his own agenda?"

"I have made my life decision," Rocher snapped. This Meiko girl, though young, proved to be more than an eye candy. "I gave up my secular ambition to become the military arm of the Federated Suns. Unlike you civilians, I have no political motives. I fight, kill, and die to serve the Federated Suns."

"Then what does it make you?" Meiko replied in a taunting manner. "A robot. A robot doesn't have political motives. It goes wherever his master wants it to go. Everything he does was to do its master's will. It lives and dies just because its master wants it to live and die."

Rocher was ready to battle Meiko over his philosophies, but a shrilling sound blasted through the entire city. Technicians screamed and ran around the base camp. Infantry barked orders and assumed positions with shoulder-mounted RPG and heat-seeking missiles. Civilians poured out to the streets from buildings, running and screaming toward some bunkers with increasing urgency.

"What's happening?" Rocher said, although somehow he already knew the answer.

"Air raid! We're being bombed!" Meiko yelled. "I have to escort the Butler girls to safety! Good luck!"

As fast as Rocher could he scrambled his mech, got into the cockpit and started the engine. The Uziel was still powering up when half a dozen Mechbusters screamed in the sky, dropping incendiary bombs near the base camp where battlemechs were being repaired. Rocher fired his jets, catapulting his mech into the air, seconds before two incendiary bombs exploded at the void where his mech perched seconds before. The heat from the explosions turned his heat level several notches, even though he hadn't fired a single round.

"This is Captain Luca! Defensive formation and take up arms!" somebody tried to take control of the situation over the comlink. "Bring them down! Bring them down!"

The Fusiliers quickly raised thick anti-aircraft volleys. Mechbusters after Mechbusters burst and spiraled down to the ground, creating ground-shattering explosions as they plummeted. But more Mechbusters arrived and, slipping through the ballistic hail, turned the base camp into an inferno, which reduced the effectivity of the battlemechs.

Rocher was fighting against the heat when the building next to him exploded. The shockwave almost toppled his mech, and the debris blasted his canopy so hard he thought his head was hammered by bricks. As he teetered, another massive explosion ripped through a tight Fusiliers formation, breaching arms and legs of several mechs.

"That's no incendiary bomb!" Rocher cried out as he fought to regain balance. "That's an artillery piece! We're being bombarded by artillery units!" He realized the impossibility of his hypothesis, but at the same time the fact was so overwhelming that he could only cringed with disgust. The Hansen's Roughriders, in an attempt to wipe out the remaining Fusiliers, commenced saturated bombing and artillery bombardment on the city of Bervalla, disregarding the lives of the non-combatants.

"Move out and defilade! Find an exit of the city!" Captain Luca screamed again, and the bulk of the Fusiliers started moving in staggered formation, firing wildly at the inbounding Mechbusters. Half of the city had set ablaze, and the heat wave stormed the Fusiliers mechs, turning them sluggish and inaccurate. Artillery rounds continued to mutilate the Fusiliers mechs, stripping them from their primary weapons and their counter-attack capability.

"To the woods!" Captain Luca screamed as they reached the outskirt of Bervalla. "Set up defensive position and…"

Suddenly a quartet of PPC slammed into Captain Luca's Axman, incinerating armor and titanium bits. The Axman jerked backward, swaying its arms wildly when a hail of missiles exploded on its torso. Multiple orange flashes burst as the Axman bled oil, smoke and fire sparks. Five consecutive explosions ripped the entire torso apart, and the 65-ton mech disintegrated under the heavy assault of Hansen's Roughriders ground units.

Rocher inspected his radar and saw that the Hansen's Roughriders battlemechs and armors had barricaded the outskirt of Bervalla, and now poured their firepower to the fleeing Fusiliers. The Fusiliers mechs were trapped inside the city where bombers and artillery units rained down their high-explosives. The swiftness and ferocity of the attack turned the Fusiliers numb; no one knew what to do to get out of the situation. Cries and prays filled the comlink as the Fusiliers mechs tumbled one after another as the mercenaries continued their assault on Bervalla.

Just as Rocher thought he didn't have a chance, his comset crackled. "Rocher! Rocher, are you alive?" Meiko screamed. "Bervalla is about to fall! Get out as soon as possible!"

"Where are you?" Rocher moved from building to building, trying to find cover. "We are trapped, and the Roughriders are chewing up my men!"

"Austin Merriam found a safe passage out! Go to the south-east and find Austin in a Blackjack! He'll take you to a rendezvous point! Fly fast, Rocher, fly fast!"

"Got it!" Rocher gunned his jets and switched all power to his myomers. The Uziel swooshed past burning buildings and charred hulks on the streets. Explosions burst left and right, and the shock wave pushed the 50-tonner around, but Rocher's adeptness behind the cockpit saved the Uziel from certain death. He continued his course, zigzagging between towering bonfires, until his radar caught the heat signature of a Blackjack and a few other mechs. None of them was from the Fusiliers.

"Austin? This is Subaltern Rocher from 8th Sytris Fusiliers," Rocher called Austin. "Meiko sent me."

"I can find a way out," Austin replied without changing his course. "Just follow me, no questions asked."

Asking questions was the last on Rocher's list right now. He just tagged on the small entourage to snake its way around Bervalla, farther and farther away from downtown, until everybody got out safely.