TWENTY

Note: Finally! I am sincerely sorry for such a long wait (3 months?). As promised, here's the next installment of IK3. Originally I planned this chapter to be another "loss" chapter, but it's 2 days to Thanksgiving, so I think I'll lighten up the mood a bit. So here it goes. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

City of Lomme,
Victoria, New Avalon Combat Region,
Crucis March, Federated Suns,
March 2, 3078

Time went by faster than I realized. The Word of Blake kept my mind occupied most of the time that I forgot the fact we had been here for 4 years. I also forgot that we had been separated with the Winsome Rose for 3 years. They never looked sharper, partly because they organized themselves well against the Word of Blake, partly because they made use of the secret cache they found near Lomme. They had reinforced themselves with Star-League mechs and an additional aerospace division.

Winsome Rose Fighter Squadron:

Guardian lance
RPR-100 Rapier (Katrina Sakamoto, squadron leader)
RPR-100 Rapier (Jill Francess Manuel, second in command)
HCT-213B Hellcat II (Reynalyn Madronio)
HCT-213B Hellcat II (Melanie Saturos)

Strike Lance
STU-K5 Stuka (Bill Ward)
STU-K5 Stuka (William King)
HCT-213B Hellcat II (Aurella Estrella)
HCT-213B Hellcat II (Nanette Lacsamana)

Scout Lance
F-10 Cheetah (Rocky Usis)
F-10 Cheetah (Richard Alex Tindugan)
F-10 Cheetah (Orlando Gagarin)
F-10 Cheetah (Francisco Naval)

Escort Lance
GTHA-500 Gotha (Nestor Dizon)
GTHA-500 Gotha (Rodel Paciente)
GTHA-500 Gotha (Brian Esporlas)
GTHA-500 Gotha (Jennifer Brillantes)

Sword Lance
Jagatai Prime (Guillan Geronimo)
Jagatai Prime (Randolph De Los Santos)
Jagatai Beta ( Jefree Juaquin)
Jagatai Beta (Christian Leonard Agodon)

Travel Lance
KR-61 Long-Range Shuttle (Katrina Halili)
KR-61 Long-Range Shuttle (Yazmin Curdy)

"This is what we need," Jayne Dixon stated as he observed the aerotech lineup. "This will make a difference in the upcoming battle. I can assure you that the Word of Blake has wings of aerotech support, and they will use them to pelt us from the sky. Now we have something to counter their advance."

"Not only aerotech fighters, but infantries as well," Victor Canonizado added. "Citizens of Lomme had pledge their allegiance to Winsome Rose. They know where we stand, and they are sick of the Word of Blake too. We had supplied them with weapons, from pistols to shoulder-mounted SRMs."

"You armed the civilians?" Kyle squinted. "We are not supposed to put civilians in danger."

"They can shoot, hence they are soldiers," Rica Canonizado replied. "That's good enough for me."

"I am not comfortable with paramilitary, Commander Canonizado," Kyle pressed his concern. "They are not trained to fight the way we were. I'm afraid we'd just send them to die."

"In case you haven't fully understood our situation, Major Garret, there's no such thing as civilian anymore," Victor backed up his sister. "Everybody is responsible for his or her own life. That's the way they chose for being responsible. Lomme is, first and foremost, their city. We're just guests here."

Suddenly Victor's and Rica's comset buzzed. "Commander, we have multiple bogeys coming inbound, bearing zero-niner-five, ten clicks and closing!"

"Word of Blake battlemechs?" Victor asked.

"No, Commander, aerotechs! We're getting bombed!"

"Scramble!" Rica screeched onto her comset. "Sakamoto, take your squadron up and strip them off! Winsome Rose, on your battlestations! Our old customers are giving us a visit, and we'll give them the warmest welcome party they'll ever get!"

The frantic rushes from pilots and techs soon shape-shifted into aerospace rows on the landing pads, waiting their turns to claim their places in the sky. Blue flames danced on the nozzles, and their body doubled in length as the fighters sped up on the runways. Katrina Sakamoto's big Rapier thundered along the runway as the first of the pack, leaving trails of fire on the hard concrete.

As Katrina led her squadron into the sky, a cloud of aerospace fighters descended upon Lomme. Their white paint blended well with the blue sky, like a bead of real cloud carrying rain drops, only this time they were bombs instead of water. The Word of Blake always painted their war machines white as a moniker for their purity.

Purity. Well, purity my ass.

Two squadrons of Word of Blake might be too much for Katrina to handle, so the ground troops – mechs, tanks, infantries – regrouped into pockets of aerospace batteries, ready to fill the sky with leads and fire. I lined up my mech next to Kyle's, facing the Word of Blake menace. Some infantries – Lomme inhabitants with shoulder-mounted SRMs – climbed my mechs to get a clear shot at the incoming fighters. Some populated Kyle's Mad Cat too. I could understand Kyle's concern about letting these civilians be a part of the war. But this was a matter of life and death. Anybody who could fight should fight, because it was their future they were fighting for.

Outnumbered 2 to 1, Winsome Rose's aerospace squadron did not show fear and dove straight into the Word of Blake's midst. It was not long until the first blood was spilt. Laser bolts and missiles zipped in either directions, and within minutes the sky burst into flames and fumes. Stricken fighters plummeted to the ground with long, bleeding fiery smoke from their hulls.

The groups quickly broke formations and attacked the nearest targets. Two Winsorme Rose's Hellcats gave a chase at a massive TR-15 Transgressor, sporting a Heavy PPC on each wing. The 75-ton fighter weaved left and right to shake the lighter fighters, but the Hellcats were latching onto it like a couple of ticks at the back of the beast. Laser after laser gnawed the rear armor of the Transgressor, overloading the engine with heat. When twin bolts cored the exhaust nozzles, a great fireball engulfed the 75-ton fighter. The Transgressor reeled and spun to the ground, even before it had a chance to fire its massive Heavy PPCs.

But the Word of Blake struck back hard. A white Sabutai omnifighter lined up behind one of the Hellcats and unloaded everything it had. PPCs and lasers turned the armor into metal gelatin, and the gauss slug crunched the structures unabated. The fuselage split into two parts, and the gutted Hellcat sailed down to its doom. The other Hellcat looped and rolled to escape the Sabutai, only to meet two Blakist Corsairs midway. The Corsair's lasers cut short of the Hellcat's engine. The hapless Winsome Rose erupted in brilliant flash.

Two Winsome Rose's Jagatais broke formation and took on the Blakist Corsairs, while Katrina Sakamoto went head to head with the Sabutai. Having 10 ton advantage, Katrina steadied her fighter and launched a pair of PPCs. One flew over the Sabutai's cockpit but the other flogged its wing. Broken flaps and ailerons whizzed in mid air as the 75-ton omnifighter started to capsize. Katrina held her fire, waiting for the Sabutai to regain balance, then pumped out her autocannon. The sound thundered in the sky, and the Sabutai's wing tore up to pieces.

As the omnifighter plummeted, another big aerotech fighter showed up: the mighty Riever. Hauling 100 tons of death, the flying fotress quickly fired its missiles at Katrina. The squadron leader banked hard to the left to avoid the missiles, but her 85-ton craft was not agile enough to dodge the missiles. Six warheads slammed onto the fuselage, stipping all but the very bottom layer of ferro-fibrous armor.

Katrina fought to regain balance and returned fire. Ten missiles hammered the top hull of the Riever, shredding armor like paper. Her PPCs exploited the scars, ripping the armor deeper into the structure. Smoke billowed from the hull just behind the cockpit.

But the Riever had enough skin and sufficient body weight to sustain the attack. It quickly regained control of its course and flew straight at Katrina, waiting for its monstrous AC20 to get into range. Undaunted, Katrina held her fighter straight and prepared all guns for the showdown. The two behemoths quickly reached nominal distance and both fired alpha strike at the same time, pumping leads into each other's body. The rattle of their autocannons dominated the battlefield for a quick few seconds. Fire and smoke blended into one plume as the two fighters crossed path, then quickly spun out of control. Katrina managed to pull her ejection lever just before her fighter exploded. The Riever's pilot was not that lucky.

"Guardian One is down!" somebody else screamed on the comlink. "This is Guardian Two, I'm taking over. There are too many of them! We'll hold them as long as we can."

"Let them pass, Jill," Victor replied. "Get your squadron out of there."

"Say that again?"

"You've done enough. Break contact with enemy units. We'll take them from here."

The Winsome Rose squadron did a good job, taking down about a third of the Word of Blake air power. But they had sacrificed half of their personnel, and asking them to peel more Blakists off the sky would be too much. We might need them later. History stated that air power was the key to victory in many wars.

"Get your guns hot and ready," Kyle took command of the ground defenders. "Fire on my mark!"

As the Winsome Rose squadron broke off, the Word of Blake regrouped and came toward Lomme. The faster fighters led the swarm, grouping into a large wedge formation like the tip of a spear. The slower, heavier fighters followed behind, but I could see holes in their formation. The Winsome Rose squadron did a terrific job by going after the heavier fighters. The loss of the big guns would make our job much easier.

"Hold!" Kyle yelled as the lighter fighters started strafing the ground troops. Missiles and long-range ballistics chafed the mechs, tore into the armor of tanks, and wiped out half of the infantries that scattered around the city. Two warheads slammed into my right shoulder. The impact did not affect me much, but half a dozen troops fell off my mech. Some went down in pieces, gutted by the two explosions and shrapnel from chipped armor.

"Now! Fire at will!" Kyle screamed, and barrages of return fire lit up the sky. Missiles and cannon rounds blended with laser and PPC bolts into a cobweb of fire, stabbing the Word of Blake fighters from underneath. The light fighters did not stand a chance against the fire wall. One by one they plummeted in fury, slamming into buildings and hard-plastered streets. Some fighters escaped the mechs and tanks by taking erratic maneuvers, but the infantries got them with shoulder-mounted SRMs. None survived the barrages.

Then the heavy fighters came.

The brunt of the fire shifted toward the heavy fighters, but they had enough armor and body weight to walk through the fire. They strafed the ground units, trying to alleviate the pressure. Several medium tanks and light mechs staggered under the onslaught, and the defense formation started to break. Some Blakist fighters also hammered the buildings, forcing the infantries to crawl out of the burning structures.

My targetting reticule was set against an incoming Sabutai when a Kirghiz-B glided toward my rear flank, trying to wreak havoc among Alison's lance. It was the biggest Clan omnifighter, the Dire Wolf of the sky. A Wolverine emblem was painted across the traditional Word of Blake white scheme. Alison's missile power hit it like a wave, but the 100-ton omnifighter kept flying, as if the missiles did not do anything to it.

"Malthus!" I yelled as I shifted my target at the big plane. I could've called Evee or Kyle for assistance, but I thought David Malthus would have been grittier in killing a Wolverine. My lasers found its left wing, burning a ton of armor, but failed to do damage. The loss of mass, however, threw its aim. The Kirghiz leaned on its left, passing Alison's lance harmlessly, then sped up to take another pass. Alison's lance threw everything at the big plane, but like a Dire Wolf, it absorbed all enemy firepower and continued on its path.

"See it!" David's reply came in loud and clear. "They should've kept hiding like cowards that they are!" Forty missiles leapt and greeted the Kirghiz, hammering the left wing where my lasers made a mark a second ago. Pieces of broken aileron rained down the street as the Kirghiz quaked. Black smoke twirled from the aileron, but the Kirghiz still flew.

My lasers were out of range by now, and I was just about to start running when a trace of gauss slug whizzed and ripped the Kirghiz left wing apart. The 100-ton fighter quickly overturned to the left and spiralled down into a building. A massive explosion brought the building down, and cloud of debris filled the void where the building was a second ago.

"Wolverine scum," I heard Rica fizzled over the comlink. "They shouldn't come here!"

The Blake fighters completed the pass. Their firepower wiped out half of the medium tanks and put the infantries in total disarray. But no battlemech had been downed, only scratches and moderate damages on some of the lighter ones. The Winsome Rose squadron had absorbed some of the Blakist firepower, so they could not pull off the necessary strike to cripple the defender's main force – the battlemechs.

"Get ready," Kyle rallied the defenders as the Blakists turned for another pass. "I want them out this time. Give them everything you've got! No Blake's fighter may leave Lomme alive! This city belongs to us!"

The rhythmical rattles of autocannons mixed with battlecries throughout the comlink. Pillars of lasers and particle bolts filled up the sky, interspersed with missile and ballistic tracers. The Blakes, worn out by the first barrage, started taking critical hits. Intermittent explosions illuminated the sky, and omnifighters fell like burning raindrops.

Knowing that their numbers declined in alarming rate, the Word of Blake regrouped and focused on light mechs. PPC bolts mowed the streets where light and medium mechs stood, and this maneuver proved to be effective. Light mechs were not designed to withstand PPC, so in quick succession mech parts started flying at different directions.

Alison's lance shared the same fate.

Already lost two lancemates, Alison zigzagged through the laser and missile rain, but one unfortunate gauss slug hammered her left leg. Her Assassin, scarred and shot up, churned to the side before tumbling down in front of a building. Alison tried to get up, but a Shilone rained down its missiles upon her. Scream of terror reverberated on the comlink as the white wide-winged Shilone dove for the kill, like a falcon gunning for its paralyzed prey.

"Eev! Alison's down!" I throttled my mech to a sprint while firing my lasers, hoping to bug the Shilone away. I tried my best to shoot the cockpit, but I could only hit its hull. I knew how much Alison meant to Evee, and I could imagine the phychological damage if Evee had to lose her. But it seemed innevitable. My lasers did only little scuff mark to the Shilone, while my LBX cannons were still out of range.

The gun nozzles of the Shilone started to flicker when a wave of missiles bludgeoned it from behind. The Shilone lost its balance and weaved to the side. It tried to pull up, but there was not enough space between it and the building ahead. The aerotech fighter rammed the building full force, breaching its wings in the process. The building went down, burying what was left of the Word of Blake fighter.

"Get your hands of her!" I heard Evee screamed as her Longbow rushed to the pile of debris. She hoisted her arms and blasted the downed building, with the Shilone trapped underneath. Dust and smoke blended into one gigantic mushroom, and one second later, a fireball blossomed from the center of the pile.

"Alison, are you alright?" I tried to establish comlink with the smitten girl. When I received no answer, I turned to Evee, "Stay with her. The Word of Blake squadron is falling down. It'll be over soon."

"Copy that," Evee's voice was mixed with fear and disquiet. "Thanks for saving her life. You know what she means to me."

"I know," I walked away from the scene. "I hope we were not too late for her."

The rest of the aerotech fighters regrouped and attacked tanks and light mechs, but Kyle led the defenders to intensify the battery. Soon there were not a lot of fighters left, and the remaining fighters chose to limp away from Lomme, conceding their mission failed.

But when they thought they would go home and fight another day, they were mistaken. Winsome Rose squadron came up and met them, blazing with vengeance. The Blakist fighters were so worn out that they could not fight off the Winsome Rose. It took them only one pass to bring the remaining Blakists down the sky in flames.

"Matigas kita! I told you to stay away from them!" Rica blurted, annoyed.

"Itaga mo sa batto, kabayan, you won't rid of me that easy," Jill Manuel replied in sheer cockiness. "That's for Katrina and comrades that died today. Sumalangit nawa ang kanyang kaluluwa. Returning to base, Commander. Guardian Two out."

The comlink exploded with cheers and pumped-up battlecries, releasing pent-up adrenaline that had been boiling inside the veins for the last 30 minutes. Surviving infantries shot rounds to the air, and children poured into the scorching streets. Some mechs raised their hands in the air, a couple of them even shot lasers to the sky. Fighting morale soared through the roof over the fact that they had just beaten Manei Domini and Wolverine Clan. I doubted that these aerotech fighters were Manei Domini. But Manei Domini or not, it didn't matter. We beat Word of Blake here at Lomme, and we would beat them again should they come back.

I went back to Alison's fall site and exited my mech. Evee and some civilians extracted Alison from her mangled Assassin. She was in bad condition, covered in bruises and blisters, but nonetheless alive. Her lips shook hard as if she was praying, and she clenched Evee's hand like a vise.

"I will not leave you," Evee whispered. "Hang in there, soldier. I will not leave you."

Paramedics came and give her morphine. Alison's eyes rolled up, then her body relaxed. As the paramedics hauled her in a stretcher, Evee looked at me with relieve and gratitude. I did not need her to say it, so I put my hand in her shoulder and said, "You did it, not me. You saved her life."

A small sigh escaped her lips as she smiled.