BattleTech: Ghost Bear's Lament Part Two by Jr. Steven Mohan

Author:Jr. Steven Mohan [Steven Mohan, Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2012-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Holth Forest, Outside Luk

Tukayyid, ComStar Intervention District, Free Rasalhague Republic

12 May 3052

Sweat poured down Star Captain Richard Bekker’s face as he pushed his Executioner as hard as it would go with MASC engaged. Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry amped up his speed—but at significant risk. His ’Mech’s actuators were not designed for that kind of stress.

Ten meters ahead, a maple tree blocked his path. Without thinking he twisted right, dropped his machine’s left arm, and pulled into his primary triggers. His autocannon smashed the tree into splinters. He danced around the maple’s shattered stump, careful not to add any unnecessary stress to his already overtaxed knee joints, and plunged forward.

Richard did not care about spending autocannon shells on a tree or the terrible racket he sent rippling out through the forest, he did not even care about the possibility of seriously damaging his ’Mech.

All that mattered now was speed.

He smashed through another line of trees and stepped into a clearing, a parcel of land twenty meters square in which every tree had been felled, a field of stumps mixed in with saplings no taller than his Executioner’s knee. The planet’s natives apparently did not clear-cut their forests, but harvested patches of trees, leaving the rest to grow.

Disengaging his MASC, Richard walked forward, testing the actuators in his ‘Mech’s knees. As far as he could tell, they were undamaged.

He reached across his board, dialing up the all-unit tactical channel. “Assault Right Alpha One in position.”

Beta Galaxy Commander Tseng answered at once, her voice crisp. “Acknowledged, Assault Right. You will hold the southern approach at all costs.”

At all costs, a reminder that he was to defend his position with everything he had—up and including his life. “As ordered, Galaxy Commander.”

Richard glanced down at his thermal screen and watched a river of light trace its way across the display; each emerald-bright star a ’Mech’s fusion reactor. He dropped a map overlay over the thermal picture. The diagram showed the stream of BattleMechs moving west to east across Tie Road, a narrow strip of dirt that joined two major north-south roads, West Logging Road and Holth Main Road.

What Richard was watching was the headlong flight of Clan Ghost Bear’s Beta and Delta Galaxies. The Clan’s khans had called it a redeployment.

But Richard knew a retreat when he saw it.

The Seventh Bear Guards had won the honor of holding the door open for the withdrawing galaxies.

The 49th Supernova Striker Trinary had raced up the logging road ahead of Beta and Delta, taking position north of Tie Road, protecting the retreating forces’ left flank. Forced to yield the logging road to Beta and Delta, the Seventh’s heavies had punched through the forest. On the left, the 100th Assault Trinary was pushed out to the west, further protection against a ComStar division believed to be to the northwest. On the right, the 213th Assault Trinary, augmented by the Trinary Command, had been stationed a couple hundred meters south of Tie Road to protect the retreating galaxies’ right flank.

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