BattleTech Legends: Sword of Sedition: A Dark Age Novel by Loren L. Coleman

Author:Loren L. Coleman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs

18

“Paladin Victor Steiner-Davion has been known for many things in his life, but primarily as a patriot and a true citizen of the Inner Sphere entire. Whatever his faults, whatever his methods, I am confident he meant nothing but the best for the Republic. And what the Senate says be damned!”

Prince Harrison Davion, Terra, 18 April 3135

RHINE RIVER

BASEL, TERRA

PREFECTURE X, THE REPUBLIC OF THE SPHERE

19 APRIL 3135

Conner Rhys-Monroe stalked his Rifleman across what was left of Basel’s southernmost bridge over the Rhein, following the one hoverbike that was all he had left of his personal lance. They’d been caught halfway across by overlapping artillery barrages, pinned down inside a hellish nightmare of flame and shrapnel and twisted steel. He’d seen an APC ripped apart from a direct hit, sides bulging as a shell gutted the interior. A Legionnaire had disappeared through a sudden rent in the paved surface, swallowed by the deep waters far, far below.

Now the fire-scorched bridge structure groaned and buckled under his BattleMech’s 60 tons. It shifted on a broken support column, shaking him with a small quake as he labored through each careful step. Pieces of superstructure crashed down around him. One girder smashed into his shoulder, crushing armor and clanging down his side in sharp, angry peals.

Conner swallowed dryly, his hands sweat-slick on his controls.

“Striker Team—is Able-three.” His comms system crackled to life with a clear, strong voice broken up by a wash of static that could only be caused by particle cannon discharge. “We have gained the northern bank. Two down, one dead. Pressed—the river.”

Conner carefully edged around another gaping hole in the bridge’s paved surface, coming close to the western side. “Copy that,” he said. But his team wasn’t out of this yet.

Below, skimming over the Rhein, were a number of Republic hovercraft dancing across the wide waters. Two Regulators hammered down the river’s course, strafing the northern shore with their Gauss rifles. A pair of Fulcrum heavy hovertanks trusted their gunners less and their armor more. They trailed lazily back and forth, working over the loyalists’ entrenched positions with scarlet lances of laser fire and flight after flight of long-range missiles.

Conner saw a few loyalists making for relative safety in the nearby stretch of the Schwarzwald—Germany’s landmark Black Forest. Sir Cray Stansill limped his battered Griffin after a JI-100 recovery vehicle. A Hasek APC guarded his flank, surrounded by a half-dozen Infiltrator armored infantry. Two Po heavy tanks trailed behind, one slapping at the ground with a stretch of broken tread.

The forces Conner had rescued at the request of Senator Derius. Safe enough.

Battered and busted up, the Legionnaire that had fallen earlier struggled up from the river’s deeper waters near the northern bank. Its autocannon broke the surface first, looking like the deadly snout of some dark river beast, then the cockpit and shoulders of the tall BattleMech.

It waded up onto the bank, climbing for safety, protected by a pair of Schrek PPC carriers that kept up blazing salvos against the river-born targets.

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