Mercenary's Star by William H. Keith

Author:William H. Keith [Keith, William H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-04-12T14:58:24+00:00

20

Tollen Brasednewic shifted the 5mm laser rifle nervously in his arms. He was crouched at Grayson's side in the dense underbrush of the slope above the road across the Basin Rim. "They're coming,"he said, eyes fixed on the lower ground.

"I hear them," Grayson said, cradling a TK assault rifle salvaged from the Phobos after the landing. He checked the 100-round magazine cassette fitted into the weapon's stock, but did not look in the direction of the sound that was beginning to penetrate the rustle of wind and the shrieks of aviforms in the jungle canopy. "You'd better give the signal."

The merging of rebels with mercenaries into a single combat unit was a touchy business. Technically, Brasednewic held the militia rank of Colonel, outranking Grayson's rank of Captain. In actuality, the two shared command, but Grayson was well aware that the red-bearded rebel resented having to take some orders from an offworlder. After all, the rebels had been fighting their Kurita occupier for ten years. What could offworld mercenaries teach them about war?

Brasednewic pulled out a palm-sized transceiver, flicked it on, and pressed a sender switch three times in quick succession. Kurita commo operators might hear the brief burst of carrier-wave static or the three rapid clicks, but it would carry no information for them, might not even be noticed. To the rebel and mercenary troops hiding in the jungle, the signal carried message aplenty. They’re coming. Be ready!

The dull creak and clank of an approaching heavy ‘Mech was louder now, mingled with the shrill keening of hovercraft. Grayson moved the TK around to the side of his body on its web sling and brought the electronic binoculars hanging from his neck up to his eyes. The road a hundred meters further up the slope was empty, but he had the scanner turned on a patch of ground farther down, not far from where he and Tollen were hiding. Nothing showed. No sign of digging revealed what they had done to the road.

When the lead vehicle came into view, it proved to be not a ‘Mech, but a two-man scout hovercraft fitted with the antennae loops and magnetic gear of a mine detector. As it skimmed centimeters above the road, the craft's electronic sensors could probe the ground surface for metal, could probe the air itself for the lingering effluvium of various chemical explosives. From a safe distance, its sensors could detect mines buried on the road. These could be marked, disarmed, or exploded ahead of the advancing column of BattleMechs.

A hundred meters behind the hovercraft came the ‘Mechs. In the lead were a Stinger and the odd, forward-jutting shape of a 35-ton JR1-D Jenner. Behind them were more hovercraft, open-topped and crowded with brown-garbed Kurita soldiers. Behind them were two more ‘Mechs, a TBT-5N Trebuchet and a Centurion, both 50 tonners.

The mine detector slowed as it came almost opposite Grayson's and Brasednewic's position. Had its sniffers detected explosives? Or perhaps it caught the scent of the rebel troops who had passed that way only moments before.

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