The wind was her lover; it cascaded all over her body as Natasha Kerensky rode it downwards towards the desert sands below. The howl of the intense forces that the airstreams carried blew into her ears and nearly made her deaf. It was only a few minutes ago that she jackknifed her body and dove through the desert sky as she heard the loud crash when the Space Beagle finally buckled and fell into pieces towards the ground; she had barely got out. After putting on her goggles that came with the emergency escape kit, The Black Widow readjusted the strap on her parasail and activated it. The rectangular chute opened up above her and began to slow down her fall as she used the specially designed straps to maneuver herself towards the crater where she saw the Monarch class DropShip crash.
As Dominic Durant came out of the blown-out airlock and onto the DropShip's wing, he started looking around to assess the situation. A number of survivors just stood at the base of the Amerigo's massive fuselage, still stunned and mentally numbed from what had happened in the past fifteen minutes. A few of the more seasoned delegates and bodyguards were helping the DropShip crew take out supplies from the opened cargo hold and he could see that Captain Janice De Llandes was supervising the unloading. Judging from the things that they were taking out it was obvious that the crew was concentrating on items that were essential to the elements of survival: namely food, clothing and shelter. Good, the crew knew what it was doing.
Looking out over the horizon as he slung the laser rifle over his shoulder, Dominic noticed that while the world that they had crashed upon was capable of supporting life, he did not see any signs of it. The moon was apparently an arid, desert-like planet. Despite the fact that there were still clouds of dust in the air, the relentless heat of the sun began to make him sweat. Dominic could see that from beyond the crater lip, there were barren hills and mountains to their north and endless sand dunes everywhere else. The desert conditions would make their survival all the more harder for a multitude of reasons. The first was that the extreme sunlight and heat would require them all to consume more water than they could carry. The second concern was that there was non-existent vegetation and very few landmarks that meant that they would be hard-pressed to find cover and concealment against the enemy and it also would make land navigation very difficult. Without any cover, even a small force would spot them all very easily and there would be nowhere to hide. The third reason was that no one would ever know they were here: their JumpShip was destroyed and Polyphemos was classified as an uninhabited star system. As he jumped down from the edge of the massive, heart-shaped wing onto the sandy base below, Dominic began to work out a plan of action. Their chances were slim, but at least they still had some time, limited though it was.
After walking out onto the DropShip wing with a long rectangular wooden box, Chifune Kishikawa knelt down and placed it in front of her. The top was made of polished mahogany with carved Sanskrit writing on it. The Otomo officer knew that the box's contents were originally slated to be a gift for a special bodyguard when they got to the Tharkad Conference but she needed it now. Carefully removing the top of the box, Chifune took out the myomer-enhanced recoil suppressor and began to rapidly assemble the myriad parts. Within less than thirty seconds she had a fully functional Minolta 9000 sniper rifle. There were six fully loaded magazines inside the box and she slapped one in and cocked the bolt. As Chifune began to sight the scope, she noticed a rectangular parachute make its way towards the survivors on the ground. As she focused the rifle to the target, Chifune let out a smile and then safetied the weapon.
Natasha managed to land on her feet as she disengaged the chute's harness and trotted over to where the stunned survivors were. The Black Widow knew from training and experience that they not only needed to get organized, but they needed to get into the right mental attitude now as well or all would be lost.
Dominic, Carlos Sanz and Captain Janice De Llandes were joined in with John Palatine, Baroness Mishai Singh, Count Seiji Oshiwara, Madrissa Monika Lee and Duke Rudiger Steiner. With the exception of Palatine, it was a meeting of the heads of the delegation. Natasha walked over to where they were and got a hearty handshake from all with the exception of Rudiger Steiner.
"Captain Kerensky, I am so glad you made it out alive." Sanz smiled meekly.
"Thank you, Mr. Sanz," The Black Widow replied, "but we are not out of this yet."
Dominic patted her on the shoulder. "Any others from the Beagle?" He asked.
"No." The Black Widow replied glumly.
"Sorry to hear that." Dominic replied.
"Major Durant, you are the most senior SLDF officer here." Mandrissa Monika Lee said. Her bright green robes had been tousled from the rough landing. "Who or what attacked us?"
"Milady, I believe that it was the Word Of Blake." Dominic said.
"Word of Blake? Ridiculous." Duke Rudiger Steiner said. "How could you tell? You didn't even bother to negotiate with them."
Dominic let the obvious insult go. He had other, more pressing worries. "The enemy DropShip's paint scheme was consistent with WOB militia units. Although their military is similar in appearance to that of ComStar, I see no reason why ComStar would want to attack us. I also checked the comm. recordings that we partially intercepted after the second nuke attack; although there was plenty of static, one of the enemy aerospace pilots quoted Jerome Blake, that is consistent with WOB psychological profiles."
"Oh really? And why would WOB want to hold us hostage?" Rudiger Steiner was still skeptical. That the Lyran Duke was also testing the current leadership of the survivors was obvious.
"That, we don't know about yet." Sanz answered.
"You don't know because you never gave them a chance to negotiate!" Duke Steiner hollered. "If we had complied with their demands, we would be alright now!"
"You don't know that!" John Palatine shouted back at the surprised Duke. "We are in an uninhabited system, we could be killed here without anyone knowing!" He kept arguing with Rudiger Steiner until Baroness Mishai Singh placed a restraining hand on his forearm that signaled him to be quiet. After realizing his mistake, Palatine walked off to join the crew in unloading more supplies from the crashed ship.
"Insolent pup." Duke Steiner growled.
"He may be young, but he had a point." Natasha said as all eyes fell on her. "What matters is we made our decision and now they will be coming in to finish the job. We must get moving as soon as possible."
"Where to?" Sanz asked. "We are in a desert planet and no chance for any cover. We'll all be spotted in the air and wiped out in seconds." He lamented.
"We still have time." Natasha answered. "The crash of the Amerigo threw up some dust storms that will partially cover us but not for long. We need to head out towards the mountains; as I came down I noticed that the sides of the peaks were very steep, 'Mechs and vehicles would be hard-pressed to get at us up there."
"Is that the best choice?" De Llandes asked, hoping there were other, much easier alternatives. It looked like several days walk to just to reach the base of the mountains, not to mention the fact that they probably did not have enough supplies to make it.
"It's the only choice." The Black Widow answered. "And we need to decide the chain of command right now. I nominate Major Durant as leader."
"I second that." Sanz said. "All those in favor?"
Everyone present agreed except Rudiger Steiner. "I cannot understand why Major Durant should be in charge here." He said brusquely.
"He is the most senior military officer we have." Count Seiji Oshiwara said.
"My dear Count," Duke Steiner shot back, "I happen to hold the rank of Leutnant-General in the Lyran Alliance Armed Forces, that makes me the most senior officer here." He was making his bid for absolute control now.
"That's a position for Social Generals, it's not a combat rank." Baroness Singh said. "And since we are all delegates belonging to the Star League, this falls under SLDF command parameters and Major Durant is the most senior SLDF officer we have here."
"Well, if that is what you decide," Duke Steiner fumed, "then my delegation is withdrawing from this group!"
"You cannot do that, we must all stick together!" Sanz argued.
"Watch me!" Duke Steiner shouted back. "I have had enough of the incompetent leadership of this group. It was because of you all that we are in this mess!"
"Please Duke Steiner," Count Oshiwara pleaded, "we must present a united front. Stay with us."
"No!" Rudiger Steiner's mind was made up. " I am taking my team with me and anyone else who prefers my leadership over the rest of you fools. We are going to meet up with the Blakists and negotiate a way out of this."
"Damn you and your ego!" Dominic fumed. He had had enough. "You're gonna get us all killed!"
"No, staying with you will get us killed, Major. I am going my own way and that is final." With that, Duke Steiner called his entire team of delegates and they began to form up as one group.
"Let them go, Major." Natasha said as Duke Steiner began asking anyone who wanted to go with him to form up with his team. "Good riddance I say."
"We could have used some of them." Dominic lamented as he saw that half of the laser rifles he had issued were with the Lyrans. Being the largest contingent compared to all the other factions within the delegations, they would lose a substantial amount of firepower and men. Several crewmembers also sided with Duke Steiner as the Lyrans began to move out towards the south of the crater lip.
"Stupid, egotistical bastards." De Llandes cursed.
Sanz and the others turned their heads over to Dominic. They placed all their lives in his hands now. "What do you want us to do now, Major?"
"Gather up what supplies we can. We are moving out now." Dominic inhaled deeply. "We head north, towards the mountains."
Chief Moses Malone ran his muscular black arms along the sides of the crates he had just opened. He was a veteran ship's engineer who served alongside Captain De Llandes for more than two decades. The burly black man was sad to walk away from the Amerigo; he felt that it was his child since he had invested so much loving care in maintaining it all these years. Hoping no one would see, he placed a small kiss on the outer fuselage before starting off to go with the others. Just as he picked up a large rucksack filled with water canisters, he saw Captain Natasha Kerensky walk towards him.
"Chief Engineer?" The Black Widow asked.
"Yes, Ma'am. What can I do for you?" Malone replied.
"Know anything about ultralight construction?" She asked.
"Yes, Ma'am."
"You think that with all the materials we have here, we can construct something that can fly?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"In that case," Natasha said, "I need your help, then."
As the Union class Dropship made its way towards the moon's upper atmosphere, the internal gravity of the ship was twice normal standard but the men and women inside were in such superb shape that they hardly noticed it. A meeting was being held in the briefing room as they strapped on their cooling vests.
"What's the status of the other DropShips?" Brandon St. Jamais asked his Executive Officer.
"Both the Triumph and the Fury have successfully detached from the Zarathustra and are on their way." Adept Amon Goth answered. "They both should make planetfall in six standard hours." The Executive Officer of the unit was a veteran MechWarrior who started out as a member of Blake's Wrath, the Special Forces unit of ComStar and had his trial by fire in the hellish battles of Tukayyid. After the schism, Goth rose up quickly through the ranks of the newly formed Light of Mankind and played a crucial role in the successful Blakist takeover of Terra. Tall, well built and with a shaved head, Goth also had a massive blue tattoo on his face that ancient Maori warriors prized. Needless to say, the others feared and respected him.
"Have them land in where our site is." Brandon ordered. "Have we got the general coordinates from Adept Vosanovic?"
"Yes, Precentor." Goth said. "Shouldn't we just use tactical nukes against them?"
"No, I have changed my mind." Brandon said. "We will try to capture them if possible now. I want that datadisk."
"What if they try to hide it in the planet somewhere?" A female member of the Light of Mankind asked.
"They will not." Brandon explained. "The datadisk will only be of use to our enemies if they are able to present it in time at the Tharkad Conference. The Capellan agent would probably keep it close by."
Amon Goth listened to his hand communicator, then looked up at Brandon. "The other DropShips have signaled an affirmative to the coordinates. Should we use paradrops for our 'Mechs?"
"No." Brandon said. "We will disembark from the Union when it lands, less chances of accidents. Anyway, the delegates won't have anything other than a few side arms with which to fight us with. We will land close to where their suspected crash site would be. I also want the Triumph to unload the helicopter gunships and the aerospotter units first; the sooner we have aerial surveillance up, the better."
"Adept Cornelius will not like that," Amon Goth said, "he would insist on getting his Purifiers active first, he is obsessed with them."
"The Purifiers will have to wait. We have a lot of ground to cover as far as spotting those delegates. Once we find them, we fix them." Brandon decided.
