BattleTech: By Blood Betrayed by Blaine Lee Pardoe & Mel Odom

Author:Blaine Lee Pardoe & Mel Odom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2011-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

The next hour passed quickly as the repair crews and militia moved in and began the cleanup effort. The Aces had taken relatively minor damage. Jeremy Lewis’ Hermes II had been downed by the Timber Wolf in a matter of seconds of engagement at the spaceport proper. Lewis had survived but been injured while punching out of his cockpit. Five of the pirates had been dropped, though none had been as fortunate as Lewis. All were either dead or dying by the time they were recovered. The Aces infantry lost eight men, and the militia even more.

Harley stood at the foot of his Sentinel and surveyed the damage to the towering machine. Gone was most of the camouflage paint, either scraped clean or burned off by weapons fire. The knee actuator was totally exposed and looked like a human’s broken knee bone, only this one dripped a black ooze from the wound. He was surprised at how much damage the ‘Mech had taken, as well as how suddenly weak he felt.

A sound on the tarmac behind him made him turn to see who it was. Approaching him were Lieutenant Hawke and another man, who by his rank insignia alone could only be Major Jerry Able. Harley managed a quick salute, which the Major returned.

“Not too shabby for your first time in a shooting battle,” Hawke said. “From the initial reports I got from the Major and from Sergeant Lewis, it sounds like you handled yourself admirably.”

“I did what I had to sir,” Harley said, embarrassed by the praise.

“I wanted to formally introduce you to Major Able,” she said, gesturing to the Major at her side. “Major, this is Private Harley Rassor.”

The major shook Harley’s hand firmly. “You did a good job up there. Your father and brother would be proud.” The mention of his father and Ben seemed to add to the weight Harley felt on his tired shoulders.

“Your brother was a good MechWarrior, Private Rassor, and this unit will take some time to recover from his loss. You and your family have my sympathies.”

“Thank you, sir. I was surprised to see you after hearing your communication that you wouldn’t be Able to send any units.”

The major smiled and cast a knowing glance at Lieutenant Hawke. She answered for him. “The communications code the major used in his message indicated that he assumed the land-line communications had been compromised. So everything he said was essentially a lie to throw off whoever might be listening in. In the end it was a pretty good move.”

“So there is a traitor in the unit,” Harley said, more to himself than his commanding officers.

Able nodded once and slowly. “There’s a rat somewhere. Lieutenant Hershorn of our intel unit is double-checking everything, but this is twice we’ve been outfoxed. This time, however, we were Able to turn the tables on them.”

“Did they get away?”

Able nodded again. “Their DropShips were spotted by Gilbert’s Lucifer heading toward the jump point. They left, but they did their damage,” he said, waving his arm at the debris and burned pallets of goods left behind by the attack.

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