BattleTech: Threads Of Ambition by Loren L. Coleman

Author:Loren L. Coleman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2011-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Home Guard Staging Grounds

Hazlet, Nashuar

St. Ives Compact

19 December 3060

Operating under his previous rank and handling the controls of a J. Edgar light hovertank, Lance Sergeant Maurice Fitzgerald led his reconnaissance “prowler” lance out of the Hazlet base’s vehicle bay. The J. Edgar was an older vehicle, and despite the spit and polish applied, it smelled of rancid sweat left behind in the stained padding by previous drivers over its fifty years of operating history. Well armored, however, the tank could stand up to a BattleMech—for a few minutes anyway. One reason Fitz had chosen it.

Two Harassers followed to his left and right rear quarters, while a new Centipede scout brought up the rear to complete a standard diamond formation. When the Centipede cleared the threshold, Fitz opened up a comm channel. “Prowler Recon has cleared bays,” he radioed in to his company CO.

“Prowler Recon, cleared for independent operation. Good hunting.”

Fitzgerald opened the throttles, cruising the hovertank up to one hundred kilometers per hour over the light snow-covered ground. The winter twilight was far too cheery to suit him, with bright stars beginning to peak through in the clear, dimming skies. And somewhere out there, was the Lyran Alliance occupation force they were under orders to locate and observe.

And avoid, if any attempts were made to enforce Sun-Tzu Liao’s stand-down order. All six border worlds were now under Star League “protection,” with a declaration of martial law and an order to disarm. To defuse the possibility of further hostilities and allow the region to slowly regain control of itself. Or so the official press release read.

Fitz, among the rest of the Home Guard, bought into that as much as Duchess Liao obviously did, meaning not at all. All Compact units were under direct orders to conduct peaceful noncompliance, a tactic that had stalemated the situation so far.

Sliding through the wide open gate in the cyclone fencing, all that surrounded the Home Guard base of operations in Hazlet, Fitz came around on a north-northeast heading. The presence of new units crept in along the forward edge of his head’s up tactical display, blue circles with BattleMech coding attached. It was the Home Guard ‘Mech company, out on another practice run.

Finger-joints aching from his crushing grip on the controls, Fitzgerald resisted the urge to swing eastward and slip around the patrolling company. None of them knew what reassignment he’d chosen. Having been a member of the Mech Warrior company, even if only as a trainee, he knew that his small armor force was beneath the notice of the pilots strapped into those cockpits.

The BattleMechs, ranging up to ten meters tall, broke the horizon with their bulky, humanoid forms. There was the Phoenix Hawk, Nevarr’s ‘Mech, leading the formation. Fitzgerald wasn’t sure exactly who piloted what ‘Mech in the regular company, though he’d heard that Danielle had picked up the Blackjack he’d trained in and that both Choya and, surprisingly, Cameron had made the selection board.

He bit down on his lip, drawing blood. Your own fault, he reminded himself.

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