"It is good to have an end
to journey towards, but it is the journey that matters, in the end."
Ursula Le Guin
Prologue - Horizon
0542 Hours, January 5 3051
Waseda Hills, Luthien
Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine
Shin Barley gazed at the morning sky of the planet known
as the Black Pearl, unable to tear himself away from the blazing sight for more
than a few seconds.
Crimson.
Even with the tinges of orange and yellow from the
choking smog of the planet, the sky was blood red. I suppose the Dracs think
that's a good omen, Shin pondered grimly as he visually scanned the 'Mechs in
his lance. But within moments he was staring back at the sky.
Regular scout chatter over the comms suddenly died down
as individual MechWarriors made impromptu reports of their own. Overhead,
streaks of fire glinted in the morning sun, burning towards the Tairakana Plains
and ever higher.
Shin, already staring at the haunting sky of Luthien,
was one of the few who saw the first visible casualties of the aerobattle; a
Clan fighter fell to the predations of two Kuritan Slayers, twisting the
advanced machine into a burning shower of debris. A subdued cheer was raised by
the mercenaries, but as the aerobattle moved on, the comm lines were once again
dominated by scouts and their constant reports of enemy strength and movement.
Mere specks now, even with the magnification equipment
afforded to a modern soldier, none of the mercenaries saw the two celebrated
Slayers break off unmolested from the swirling melee and angle towards the known
landing zones of the Clanners and slam into a wall of fire from a Nova Cat
trinary. From champions to statistics in heartbeats.
Moving his lance on the most defensible terrain he could
spot, Barley kept an eye out for the other lances in the company.
Dresden's fire support lance was well behind them and Arroyo's command lance was
forming a line alongside them. Captain Magda Arroyo trusted in her lance
commanders, keeping silent as her Lieutenants issued orders to their lances,
taking the best positions as they hunkered down for the storm.
The distant thunder of weapons fire shook the settling
complacency out of the mercenaries. Fragmented reports of massive Clan losses
from a single trap were punctuated by reports of renewed pushes as the Combine
forces grudgingly gave ground.
On and on it went for hours. The Combine regiments
hurled themselves time and time again against the Clanners and each time the
Smoke Jaguars and Nova Cats regrouped and pushed forward. The rumbling thunder
was rolling ever nearer.
Shin was in the middle of another systems check for his
entire lance for the umpteenth time when the comm lines exploded. The 1st Sword
of Light, Otomo, 2nd Legion of Vega, and the Genyosha had been overrun. Glancing
at his chronometer, Shin cursed in admiration. 1102 hours… They started when?
0815? Blake strike me down if I ever mock a Sna—Kuritan again.
Orders were passed to again keep radio chatter down as
advanced scouts radioed in the Clan advance. Pockets of resistance were being
swept aside as the shattered DCMS regiments made the Clanners pay for every
footfall towards the
Imperial City.
His lance stationed in the fringes of the left flank,
Shin could do nothing but wait. He found himself staring back up at the red hued
sky and wondered solemnly, Who was it that wrote 'As above, so below... into
the fires we go'?
***
1237 hours, January 5 3051
Waseda Hills, Luthien
Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine
Shin pushed his old Enforcer ENF-4R forward,
working the pedals in its cockpit furiously as he danced between swirls of LRMs.
A few missiles clanged against his machine, but not enough faze the grizzled
Barley. Smoke obscured his vision, but it wasn't not enough to hide his prey; a
battered Vulture OmniMech dragging its shattered right leg behind it.
Frustrated by its relentless hunter, the Clan 'Mech
fired pulses from one of its double barrelled arms, piercing the smoke with
coherent light. Armour evaporated from the Enforcer's left torso and Shin fought
against, and then rode the force of so much armour being lost and continued
forward.
Bringing his own laser to bear, Shin let loose a silent
whoop as the beam hit home, severing the Vulture's right arm and leaving
the double-barrelled limb clanging on the ground. Already fighting the crippling
of one leg, the loss of the arm strained the pilot's capabilities even further.
The Vulture staggered once and almost regained its footing.
Almost.
To Shin's right, a Shadow Hawk nudged the
situation past the edge of the pilot's skill with a full alpha strike. Missiles
and autocannon shells hammered the OmniMech, forcing it down as if a hand of
fire and smoke were swatting it to the ground.
Shin didn't bother to look for a command couch, not that
he would've been able to see one in the grey inferno they had raised. Instead,
he moved his Enforcer forward and kicked off the Vulture's twisted
right leg just in time to see a flash in his communications panel.
He knew without reading the message what the orders
were. Fall back. Regroup. Reload. Wait. Signalling to his force to form
on him, a rag-tag reinforced lance of mercenaries and Kuritans, Shin counted up
the 'Mechs and noticed one missing. Scanning the immediate area across all bands
a BattleMech can, the fate of the missing Dragoon dawned on him at the sight of
his XO's Shadow Hawk crushing the Vulture's cockpit with its
armoured heel.
Sonuvabitch…
It took a few seconds to get the Shadow Hawk
pilot to stop kicking, not that Shin tried hard to, but it took more to get its
pilot to start moving again. The force of seven 'Mechs, now five mercenaries and
two Kuritans, traced a path back to the nearest repair silo. No one dared to
speak as they walked past the corpses of broken gods, each offering their own
silent prayers and curses for every fallen 'Mech.
Shin paused briefly at the site of his lance's first
stand, along with the Dragoon company he was attached to. Sylvia Arroyo fought a
magnificent defensive battle, but she was, in the end, outmaneuvered by the Clan
'Mechs that poured out from the Tairakana Plains in an unceasing wave.
A flanking action made by a lance of 2nd Legion of Vega
survivors siphoned off enough pressure for his lance to push through and link up
with them but Dresden's lance of twin Archers and Griffins refused
to budge; the GRF-1Ns could've made it, Shin was sure, but that would
have meant leaving the two Archers behind and that meant that it wasn't
an option.
The lance died as they fought, side by side in a line
abreast formation in a fighting withdrawal until, apparently, they were
surrounded. It was with bitterness that Shin used their graves as a landmark to
turn west into a small valley hiding a small Mobile Field Base.
"Close up the distances people, I don't want anyone
getting lost in this haze."
Expecting little enemy contact this far behind enemy
lines, in between the remnants of the Combine line and far from the centre of
the mercenary lines, Shin didn't react fast enough to the sudden presence of a
Clan OmniMech that had earned itself the reputation for tenacity in the hours of
fighting on Luthien.
The Nobori-nin's left arm spat fire, sending
shells tearing through the tatters of armour on the Enforcer's right arm.
Shin's own autocannon managed to survive intact, but the lower actuator was
shattered, sending his return fire churning nothing but dirt and debris.
Snapping off a quick shot with his laser, Shin drew a
gash into the Nobori-nin's scarred right flank, sending droplets of
armour into the ground. Shouts from his lancemates went unheeded as he continued
his duel until a massive explosion to his left forced him to take notice. All
Shin saw were the legs of a 'Mech planted firmly into the ground, spewing smoke
where a BattleMech once was.
Barley's mind barely registered the loss of Lisa Frye,
his own XO, but it sickened him that he was more worried about the loss of the
SHD-2H as more contacts blipped onto his radar screen. It's a friggin'
Trinary…
Working the panel of his comm suite with his left hand,
Shin danced around the banner-bearing 'Mech until he finished stringing together
a warning. RepSilo 071. NC Trinary.
I just hope there's someone left to take the message,
Shin thought humourlessly as another explosion washed over his 'Mech. A
smile crept up into his face as both he and the Nobori-nin pilot paused and
stared at a Grand Dragon standing defiantly over the smouldering remains
of a Thor. He grinned even wider as he recognized the 'Mech belonging to
that of an old friend.
His partner had enough of the delay and sent another
burst of of autocannon fire to accompany a missile salvo already in the air.
Shin ducked his Enforcer underneath the streaming missiles and gritted
his teeth as he walked right into the Nobori-nin's trap.
The two 'Mechs sailed past each other as they rose on
plumes of fire. Another salvo from Shin's autocannon tore the 'Mech's right arm,
but not before the shell's pierced the Nobori-nin's metal hide to find a
half-empty ammunition bay in its left torso. The force of the explosion rocked
the OmniMech as it vented fire and shrapnel behind it, but the Clan 'warrior
didn't even stagger as he raised his Nobori-nin's triple-barrelled right
arm.
The Clan 'Mech's right shoulder was the last thing Shin
saw as the arm erupted in light and washed over his ENF-4R. Warning
klaxons drowned his consciousness as he felt his 'Mech buckle under the
fusillade. The numbers '119' was burnt in his mind's eye as he slipped into
darkness.
Shin didn't see his old friend charge to his rescue, a
scene with which he had become accustomed to years ago, belching fire and light
from his 'Mech to rush at his fallen side. The Grand Dragon defied all
that stood before him, but though his will was great, the metal was weak. When
he awoke, night had already settled and he was already in a hospital bed.
A bed beside him lay his old friend. Damaged. Bruised.
Breathing. Barely.
Still grinning like an idiot.
The instruments around him started whirring and beeping.
Nurses, stained with long hours of work, started calling for a doctor as Shin
noticed his old friend's eyes were losing their steel blue-green edge.
Shin felt it was as good a time as any. "You just had to
be a hero, didn't you Hiro?"
The sound of a good friend's laughter graced Shin's ears
one last time."
***
"In a world where duty is a mountain and death is but a
feather, I fear we have created a mountain of feathers."
Gunji no Kanrei Theodore Kurita (after the Battle of
Luthien) Memoirs of a Samurai, New Samarkand Press, 3072
0345 hours, January 6 3051
Near the Imperial Palace, Luthien
Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine
"Today, we bury our dead. For that is all that we can do
now. We, who have served beside them, have fought with them, have embraced them
as not only comrades, but as friends, we are the ones that must not forget. Not
the civilians who watched from afar, nor the students who will study this
Battle. No, they do not
know the price that was paid for Luthien's freedom. The divine willing, they
shall never know it."
"We bury our comrades, here on the soil they fought to
protect and I ensure you all that all those within the Dragon's embrace will
honour them for all time. Yet, my comrades and my friends, they will not be the
last to die in this war. We have struck a blow that has sent these invaders
reeling, yet it is not fatal. Before the end of this war, we may yet have to
gather in a meeting like this." Solemnly, Theodore Kurita stepped down from the
small podium in front of hundreds of mercenaries and samurai and walked towards
a serenel lake.
Holding a hand made paper crane in his hands, the Kanrei
knelt and gently placed the crane on the water. Those gathered followed
Theodore's lead and placed their own hand made cranes onto the lake. One crane
for one dead.
So many cranes… brooded Theodore as he stifled
some macabre hope that perhaps there were overlaps and there may be two or more
cranes for one person.
They stood there, on the bank of a hidden lake used for
centuries by Kuritan children as a water-playground – a place of innocence – and
silently mourned the lost. Tears fell from the eyes of many, as many from
normally-stoic samurai as well from the gaijin mercenaries, yet Theodore knew he
could not join them. He could not show weakness in front of so many.
As the ceremony ended, a servant approached the Kanrei
and spoke a simple message, "He did not survive, Theodore-sama." Sighing
greatly, the man-who-should-be-Coordinator took a simple piece of paper, folded
it delicately and gingerly held it as he walked back towards the lake.
Many of the gathered warriors were already on their way
to leave when they saw the Kanrei returning with another crane. Some warriors
could no longer contain their grief and an outpouring of muffled sobs and
quickly wiped-away tears followed in Theodore's wake.
Rest, my friend Hiro. You are in exceptional company.
Go to her and let your children be my worry; you have done more than enough.
With that offered prayer and promise, the Kanrei felt
tears moistening his cheeks.
Theodore made no move to dry them.