[CHAPTER 8 – "Trading Material for Position": Eaton: April, 3061]
Good as new.
My team and I stood in the mech bay, awash in the pale light of a sun that never went down at this latitude. The light shone through the door and illuminated our mechs, now fully repaired from the last melee. Once again these war machines would walk the field of battle and deal out death and destruction.
Eltanin was fixed, but was not freshly painted. The wounds could be traced by the patchwork of armor where old seams met new. Zanshin's Hatchetman now carried two axes, one slightly larger that the other. Cadence's Raven had been fine all along, but it was still missing the TAG artillery spotting laser. We'd mounted a salvaged clan medium laser in its place and Cadence was very happy with the acquisition. It boosted firepower and range tremendously. Solaria's Griffin was the only one with fresh paint, as it had needed extensive external work and the techs had gone to the extra effort to make their work look that much more complete.
"Well sir, looks like we're ready to go. So when do we move out?" rumbled Zanshin, with a grin and a raised eyebrow. He was eager, as always, to see combat.
"We have a briefing later today at 2040." I took a drag on my cigarette before continuing. "And it looks like the firebase is next on the to-do list."
He nodded and I looked at the others. They seemed ready and calm, but lacked the killer instinct and reckless abandon of their larger comrade.
"Well then, see you all at the briefing." I turned and headed for the ramp.
"Where're you going Vance?" called Solaria.
"I'm going for a walk."
The sun outside would have been setting somewhere else on planet. Here it was merely dipping low on the horizon, but the decrease in light was still enough to bring a dusk chill to the air, which was never warm here. I was glad I had my jacket on and my flak vest underneath. I walked down the ramp and flicked my cigarette to the red clay and rock. This planet is a forsaken wasteland.
After a few steps I heard steps behind me and turned to see Solaria coming up behind me.
"Mind if I tag along sir?"
"Suit yourself. I'm not planning on going far."
We set off for the mesa near us and the grade got steeper and the ground rougher as we climbed. I wanted to get a good view of the surrounding area. I had done so a number of times since we had landed here when I felt like some walking and it gave a sense of perspective to be up high like that.
Solaria and I got to talking and the conversation was mostly centered on the mission. We discussed the possible capabilities of the Warhammer for most of the climb. She was having no problem keeping up, but I suppose a girl of her size has a lot less weight to hoist up an incline like that. Even when she was several steps ahead of me on the slope I was as tall as her.
It was about thirty minutes later that we found the ground leveling off and our heart rates begin to fall slightly as we reached the plateau. Wind-blasted canyons and crimson rock surrounded us from horizon to horizon. The dropship was a small gray dot on the landscape far behind us.
"Vance, I have something to tell you."
I turned to face her thinking she was about to crack some joke and realized she was deadly serious. Her face was grave and she ran a hand through her hair before she spoke.
"Go ahead. What's on your mind?"
"Something is wrong. Very wrong. Cadence and I were recalibrating the gear on his Raven and he was dumping the comm logs and he… heard something. Someone broadcasting a report to the other mercs."
My jaw dropped. There was another insider? This could compromise my whole situation. Worse yet, how much did Solaria know? What if she knew about me? But why would she have been all alone with me if she knew I was a traitor… unless… crap.
I tensed and quickly scanned her for weapons. She wasn't carrying any and was now looking at the ground, toeing a rock absentmindedly. If she knew of my betrayal and was planning to kill me, now would've been a good time, but she failed to notice my alarm.
"It sounded like someone was offering to assassinate someone in the unit. They kept talking about 'the target' and the pay to neutralize them. We checked the voice against some other patterns but it was scrambled so much we couldn't match it to anyone. The voice was deep and modulated, unisex, so it could have been anyone. The only people who know about this are you, Cadence, and me. We know it isn't you because you were working on the mechs below us when it happened. But we suspect anyone else. It could even be Zanshin."
I was relieved, but tried not to show it. Instead I put on a concerned look and pulled out a cigarette. I sat down on a large rock and looked out towards the south while I smoked. She sat down next to me and looked down. Finally I spoke.
"Well I guess this is the way it goes in this business. You don't always know who you can trust. But now we're onto them."
"So what should we do?"
"What can we do?" I asked. "We don't have enough information to go off of. We can't throw any accusations around till we know what's going on. We'll have to wait for more clues."
"And what if the assassin strikes before we know?"
"Let's hope we figure it out before then."
We sat a while thinking. Then we started going through the mechwarriors and crew, analyzing each one. We ruled out several techs and Johann, who had also been in the bay at the time. The other mechwarriors had been with the unit the longest and when we got done with our analysis, the most likely one came up Zanshin.
"Can it be?" she asked.
"Stranger things have happened…" I mused, then frowned. "So who might the target be? The Colonel?"
"We naturally assumed so."
I glanced at my chrono. Drek. We had twenty minutes till the briefing.
"We need to get back, and we're gonna need to run. We'll talk more about this later with Cadence. We need a more analytical mind on this, and he's nothing if not analytical."
She nodded and stood up, stretching her arms high and arching as she stretched, catlike. I tossed my cigarette to the ground and stood as well, loosening my jacket and putting my gloves back on. We started off at a jog. Going down was easy and exhilarating compared to the hike up. I kept turning the situation over in my mind, hoping to uncover some new clue. It was all in vain though, as I just didn't have enough information to draw a good conclusion. I could guess and be paranoid, or I could do my job. On the other hand, paranoia was beginning to become a way of life for me. Or was it just this mission, this place? Screw it. I ran on.
Soon the dropship loomed before us. We bounded up the ramp and into the lift, drawing curious looks from a few techs. Some of them were smirking and I saw one shake his head and hand over some cash to Johann. I shot them a raised eyebrow as the lift doors closed. Solaria pushed a button for the level of the briefing room. We'd be about five minutes late probably. Not so late that we would get reprimanded I hoped, since this unit wasn't exactly into formality.
We entered the briefing room, and luckily the briefing hadn't started and people were still milling about, so our entrance was mostly unnoticed, except by Cadence, who gave me a knowing look. I nodded slowly and purposefully to let him know that I knew of their discovery and took my seat at the table. A few minutes later the Colonel entered with Alvaria and took his place. The room naturally quieted in his presence and the lights dimmed at his command.
"Hopefully this will be the last op on this rock for you people. We have two bits of recon that Kurato has transmitted to us as of this morning. First off, he has scouted the firebase and found it to be held by a lance of mixed mechs. None of the mechs match the descriptions of the mercs, so we're fairly certain they are all green resistance members, and not the seasoned vets we've seen recently."
That was good news, as there was a substantial reward for control of that firebase.
"The other piece of news is that we have located their dropship. It took to the air late last night and Kurato tracked it. It had been located here…"
At this he directed us to the jungle near the capital, whereupon Terrance and I exchanged knowing glances. He gave me a slight smirk before looking back to the holo.
"…but is now located here."
Now the area highlighted was a deep canyon in the salt flats north of the capital. It was barren land, almost completely flat, with a dry hot climate. Looks like the inside of a gun barrel. .
"Why they moved their dropship is not clear at this point, but we wouldn't have found it otherwise, so we're not looking this gift horse in the mouth. This puts them out of easy reinforcing range of the firebase and leaves it open to an assault. The quickest they could get there after we hit it is seven hours later. We plan to move in at cruising speed from the northwest, strike hard and neutralize the defenders, then let our infantry control the structure and activate the turrets. Johann, you'll need to accompany them to rig any quick repairs to the fire control system."
"Capturing this firebase is worth more than three million cred to us, and we have full salvage rights on the defenders."
Eyebrows shot up around the room. Very good pay, and the salvage would be nice. Diane looked especially happy about it. This one was a big opportunity.
"Following the capture of the firebase we will move on the enemy mercs. Maybe if we're lucky we'll get to use the firebase against them. At any rate, this will be the end of their lackeys they've been using as shields against us."
The discussion then turned to the actual physical structure of the base, the defenses, and the tactics involved in assaulting a walled and turreted compound. It was interesting, really, that what was basically a castle built after the military style of old Terra could still have a battlefield inpact in the 31st century. Of course, the castles of yore didn't have cannons on them that could sling an explosive projectile the size of a bull twenty-some kilometers with accuracy.
"Alright. We have a long hike ahead of us, so we need to get down to our mechs. Any questions? No? Good. I'll be company command on this op and Huntress will be Lance Commander for Alpha. Eagle lance with stay here to protect the Poseidon. I want one of you ready to launch at a moments notice if we need backup as well. Diane, you and Johann are gonna ride in the APCs with the infantry. Maybe we'll get you a mech there if all goes well."
Colonel Grenadine turned his aged and lined face around the room and looked each of us in the eye, then stood and turned off the hologram projector.
"All right then, let's move out."
Shortly we were all in our mechs and negotiating our way out of the mech bay. It felt good to be in the command couch again. Everything was in good running order, but the left shoulder felt a little tight. The cold air meant the mechs were running cooler than usual and as such, somewhat better. Outside of the dropship we formed up into an overlarge formation with Alpha in point and Bravo bringing up the rear.
"Cadence, I want you ahead looking out for anything out of the ordinary."
"Copy that Bravo leader" he called back, and shot off ahead of the echelon.
"Grenadine here, I want you all on passive sensors. Initiate visual scanning and don't forget to watch the skies."
The mechs lumbered forward. I watched Sara's Uziel kick up dust just behind Terrance's Shadow Hawk and Kellie's Thunderbolt. Huntress was in the lead in her modified Catapult, now with an LRM-20 in place of the fake Arrow-IV system and some extra lasers. Colonel Grenadine, in his Warhammer, was behind Alpha but in front of Solaria, Zanshin, and me.
The range to the firebase was still over 700 kilometers. We were making good time, but it was still a long distance for a column of mechs to travel. Had we been able to spend the time talking, it could have been fun. However, as we were focused on visual scanning and maintaining radio silence, the march was a real chore.
After three hours, the Colonel called a break and we got a chance to rest. I didn't eat anything though. Gregor had taught me that it was not good to eat before combat, since a full stomach complicates an intestinal wound. Besides, with my medipack keeping me stimmed up, I felt alert and eager, and the drugs were more potent on an empty stomach.
The others stayed in their cockpits where it was warm, but I popped my seal and let the air vent. It was cold outside. The sun was dipped to its lowest point, more than one-third below the horizon. The light playing off the atmosphere and mountains was rather eerie. Crimson and purpled, the jagged rocks cast long shadows over the wind-carved dunes.
I surveyed our team as I downed some water. Besides the food and water the Grenadiers had stowed in my mech, I had my own supply in the back of the cockpit. On a planet like this, you can't afford to run out of water. You can sweat to death in a mech in the heat of combat if not hydrated, and that is no way to die.
Of all the mechs, only Cadence's was moving. He pivoted and took a few steps south, then turned to face me, paced back, and stared southwards. I looked and saw nothing. Then I noticed his communications dish tracking. He must've been scanning for signals.
I dropped back inside and strapped in before I noticed what was out of the ordinary. My main terminal read text I normally did not see.
% CADENCE HERE. THIS LINE IS SECURE. SOLARIA TOLD YOU?
I smirked. Leave it up to him to find a way to make a message pop up on my main HUD. The little mechmonkey had probably wired something into my cockpit. I paused for a moment, then decided to try keying in my response on the diagnostic keyboard.
"Test test test. Yes."
I was amused to see the words appear on my terminal, and Cadence respond quickly.
"Got any ideas? I haven't intercepted any additional comm chatter."
I drummed my fingers on the console. No, I didn't have any ideas. The highest likelihood was Zanshin. But the really odd part was that whoever it was had had plenty of great chances to betray us earlier, but for some reason now was the time they chose to act. Suddenly, and idea struck me.
"When was the comm intercept? Did it happen roughly the same time as the enemy dropship taking to the skies?"
I keyed my thoughts and transmitted to Cadence. His response was a few minutes in the making, during which I sat very impatiently.
"Interesting. The comm burst preceded the dropship launch by about one hour."
Just then the other mechs started moving, coming to life, bringing death to our conversation. But now we had a clue. If the two were related, then we might be able to learn who was the traitor based on why the dropship moved, or why the dropship moved based on who was the traitor. I typed back to Cadence.
"Continue speculating. It's time to move.
"Affirmative. I'll tell Solaria."
Cadence was really proving to be quite the useful soldier in more ways than his dossier suggested. Sure, he didn't excel at all-out combat like Zanshin, but he was a thinker and a technology whiz, and any tactician like me knows that technology and smarts beats raw skill in the long run.
The Colonel's Warhammer signaled with its fist, calling us into formation. We continued our march across the darkened and bloodied landscape, winding our way around the stone outcroppings. Hour after hour passed uneventfully as the sun began to come fully into view again, shortening the shadows with each passing moment.
When the Colonel called the second halt to our hike, I was eager to resume the conversation. I brought up the command console and began typing as I worked on my water ration.
"Guys, the union class dropship they have would take a little under one hour to power up and prep for launch. I conclude that the communication you intercepted prompted the launch."
As first I was worried that the message hadn't been sent or that Cadence had lost his connection to my mech and had started retyping it when I got a response from him.
"I agree. But why would assassinating someone cause them to move a dropship and land it again? That doesn't make sense." He was right. It didn't make any sense at all. I unconsciously reached behind me and popped my cockpit seal so I could light up and returned to the keyboard with a lit cigarette hanging from my lips.
"What exactly did they say in the message?" I typed back. I had to wait for about a minute before he responded. I secretly hoped the rest of the team had to dismount and urinate so Cadence and I would have more time.
"It said: Data on objective is accurate, proceed with the plan. Will neutralize target at first opportunity as contracted. You know the consequences if you fail to live up to your end of the deal."
What the bloody hell? I sat for a long while with brows furrowed in frustration. What plan? As far as I had been told the planetary revolution had intended to support the Steiners in the FedComm Civil War, so the only logical objective was to simply seize control of the planet. Unless they were talking about the Governor, or perhaps the Duke. The Governor's family? The Duke's family? Were they heirs to more than the planet? What did heirs and heiresses matter if you had military control?
I finished my cigarette and flicked it out the hatch as the other mechs started to move again. Still no progress, but at least I had some more data to chew on so my mind wouldn't run in circles for the next two or three hours.
The sun was now getting high enough to properly call it morning, so I typed Cadence a good morning message, which he responded to with a confusing series of symbols. I didn't have time to decipher them and got Eltanin moving for what would hopefully be the final leg of our journey.
Somewhere ahead loomed a fortress of stone and metal and it was worth good money to claim it as our own. Three million c-bills for control of an archaic outpost from the pre-succession-wars era. Only later would I appreciate the irony of the sum.