BattleTech: Operation: Ice Storm (Part Two) by Jason Schmetzer

Author:Jason Schmetzer
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2012-08-22T05:00:00+00:00

Overlord C-class DropShip Rapacious

Somerset

Clan Ice Hellion Occupation Zone

28 January 3072

The DropShip’s drive fired with a muted thump, and the sensation of gravity returned. Connor Rood waited until it felt normal and steady before he set his mug down, peeling the plastic cover off and tossing it aside.

Across the table, in one of Rapacious’ small wardrooms, Star Captain Idris smiled. “First you insist Rapacious tool around the jump point under acceleration, so your techs can work under gravity, and then you halt the ship’s drive to catch a shuttle?” he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “You will give Star Captain Ephraim Cage fits, Khan Rood.”

“You mean his nattering?”

“Nattering?” Idris chuckled. “This is how you dismiss the counsel of your senior DropShip captain? Nattering?” He leaned back, crossing his arms. “Thank the Founder I am but a lowly Binary commander,” he said, “and therefore unworthy to give the great khan advice. But surely the argument against wasting reaction mass, as well as wear and strain on the engines, must be taken into consideration.”

Rood grinned, but his attention was on the hatch. The docking port he’d ordered the shuttle to wasn’t far from this wardroom, and the crewmen on duty there had orders—

The hatch slid open and a slender, small-boned woman stepped through. She glanced at Idris, but snapped to attention in front of Rood. “My Khan.”

“Star Captain Vandal Hildenrath,” he said, gesturing to Idris, “Star Captain Idris, of the Eleventh Battle Binary.” He waited until the two had exchanged grins, then pointed. “Sit, Star Captain.”

Hildenrath sit slowly, one seat around the table from Idris and across from Rood. Her hands were clasped on the table in front of her, but her eyes met his evenly. In his mind Rood nodded, impressed. A woman who’s afraid to meet my eyes is afraid of something. This woman has nothing to fear from me. But to get to the matters at hand…

“Derf,” he said.

“My Trinary captured the world with little difficulty,” she said. Rood waited, letting her decide how to tell the story, but he was already impressed. Her Trinary had captured the world, she’d said. Not I had captured the world.

“Three weeks later, a small Falcon force from their Alpha Galaxy challenged me to a Trial of Possession for the world. We defeated the Trial with moderate losses, and…” she stopped as Rood held up a hand.

“Isorla?”

“Only enough to replace our losses,” Hildenrath said.

“You killed the rest in the Trial?” Idris blurted.

She looked at him. “Neg. We killed only two of the Jade Falcons, with a third in the medicos’ hands.”

Rood frowned. “Why did you not take the rest bondsmen?”

The Star Captain shrugged. “They were barely out of the sibko,” she said. “They would not have made decent warriors.”

Rood’s frown deepened. “Star Captain, I ordered every Ice Hellion Cluster to take every bondsman possible. We need numbers more than anything else, so far from home. Why did you not follow my orders?”

“I received no such orders, my Khan.”

Rood blinked.

“In fact, Khan Montose specifically ordered us against taking bondsmen from the Falcons’ Alpha Galaxy.

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