Chapter Five – Double Cross

Wilderness Zone
Styx
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
29 December 3055

“With this speed, we’re only about an hour from the capital.” Reported Logan.

“Recommend you call ahead.” Said Gwen. “They won’t sit tight after that explosion. That force’ll be on the move and I doubt it will be moving to some new staging area.”

“Agreed. They’ll launch their attack.” Replied Rohan.

Tracer fire suddenly lanced across their right side. “We’ve got company.” Said Logan.

“Get that message off.” Ordered Gwen.

Rohan looked out the window as a Warrior class VTOL slice across their aft, its class two autocannon blazing.

“A Warrior. They outgun us.”

“But don’t outrun us. Hang on.”

Logan spun the chopper, hoping to draw a bead on their pursuer, but the enemy pilot kept his distance, making shots with the Ferret’s short-range minigun impossible.

The Warrior opened fire again, raking autocannon fire across the Ferret’s fragile rotor. The small helicopter shuddered. “We’ll not take another hit like that.” Said Gwen.

“Logan to Dark Rangers. Ordering you to scramble. Enemy is likely inbound on the capital or soon will be. Please reply.” No answer was forthcoming.

“No idea if any of them can hear us.”

“Keep trying.”

Logan kept repeating the message as he maneuvered the agile Ferret in an effort to get a bead on the Warrior. The slower but more powerful gunship kept his distance.

Logan snarled and cut across the side of the slower machine, opening fire with the machine gun. Bullets ricocheted off the Warrior’s heavier armor, but Logan smiled to see them finally draw blood on their pursuer. He glanced up at the cockpit of the Warrior and spotted the surviving pilot from his conversation earlier.

The enemy pilot pulled around and opened up with a volley of short range missiles, thankfully missing the agile Ferret. “That was close.” Muttered Rohan.

“So’s this.” Said Logan, swerving around to come around the rear of the Warrior. He fired the machine gun again, slamming .50 caliber rounds into the tail of the enemy machine.

“You’d best mind that.” Said Gwen, pointing beyond Logan towards a massive cliff face dead ahead of them. Logan began to climb the chopper, giving the Warrior the chance to slip away.

Logan cleared the top of the cliff just as four short range missiles slammed into the Ferret. The Warrior had gotten behind them again. This was no minor hit. The engine of the smaller helicopter began to smoke.

“Damn, I think he got us.” Said Logan, wrestling with the controls.

“Can you put down?” asked Gwen.

“I’ll try. This is the part I didn’t practice. Crash landings.”

With that, the Ferret skidded into the dust.

---

The Warrior pilot circled overhead for several minutes, using his spotlight to scan the wreckage of the Ferret for any signs of life. Satisfied that the crash had finished the intruders, he veered off and flew away.

Gwen crawled out of the wreckage and checked herself over. She was bruised and sore, but nothing seemed to be broken or too badly damaged.

“You guys sure know how to show a girl a good time. Since we left the capital two days ago, I’ve been blown up, shot at, had the crap beaten out of me by a cybernetic monster, and now I’ve crashed in the middle of a desert.

“We try.” Said Logan, staggering free of the wreckage himself.

Rohan came next, tumbling out of the twisted hulk. “You know what they say, any landing you can walk away from…”

“Are either of you hurt?”

“Not permanently.” Muttered Rohan.

“I think I’m good, or will be once the ground stops spinning.” Said Logan, staggering about.

“That’s good news.” Said Rohan, pointing off in the distance. Light from the capital city was clearly visible on the horizon.

“Twenty, maybe thirty klicks.” Guessed Gwen. “That will take several hours on foot.”

“Then we’d best be moving, because those rebels certainly will be.” Said Rohan.

“Any idea if our message got through?”

Logan shook his head.

“All the more reason for haste. Come on.”

Styx City
Styx
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
30 December 3055

“Talk to me, Doc. What do you have?” said Cowboy as his hands flashed over switches and buttons, working to get his ponderous 95-ton monster to life. He smiled as he watched Doc’s Ryoken advance out of the Pegasus’ bay. “He may not be the best mech pilot the galaxy has ever seen, but no one understands the workings of these machines better. I’ve never been able to power up a mech from cold start as fast as he can.”

“Multiple bogeys inbound on the city.” Replied Doc. “Mostly vehicles and infantry. Mechs holding to the rear. I guess they want to use the tanks to soften us up first.”

“Alright.” Said Cowboy calmly as his mech hummed to life. “Let’s move out. Dark Rangers, form a perimeter around the power plant. I don’t want anything getting through.”

Cowboy shoved his throttle forward and set his giant machine off on a run towards the power plant, which stood as a menacing shadow in the dawn light. He scanned his tactical monitor and saw what Doc had; multiple vehicles moving in a direct line towards the power plant.

“I’ve got your flank.” Said Doc. That went without saying. Doc rarely strayed far from Cowboy in any battle. After a pause, “I wish Logan was here.”

“Nothing we can do about that now, Doc. If he can make it back, he’ll be here.”

Cowboy took his machine off the tarmac of the spaceport and into the civilian neighborhood that bordered it. His tactical showed that several vehicles had broken off from the main thrust, determined to cut the Dark Rangers off before they could establish their perimeter.

“Grayson, Kai, whatever it takes, get around these guys. Doc and I will hold them here.”

“Roger that.” Came the gruff reply from Grayson.

Cowboy continued his advance. His thumbs passed gingerly over the firing studs for his weapons, ready for action. Suddenly, his radio cackled to life. “Cowboy, we just got back.” It was Logan, who sounded tired and quite out of breath.

“Never thought I’d find a time when I’d be glad to hear your voice.” Teased Cowboy.

“Just shut up.” Snarled Logan impatiently. “Just hold them off as long as you can.”

“Roger.” Replied Cowboy, ignoring Logan’s obviously foul mood. “Wonder what he’s been through.” He thought to himself as he watched Doc pull away to go down an adjacent block.

Cowboy turned the corner around a shopping center and smiled. Running down the street next to the plaza were four light Scorpion tanks in rebel colors. All four spun their turrets to draw a bead on his Banshee. Cowboy replied by dropping his targeting reticule onto the first.

The tanks fired first, their autocannons roaring to life. Cowboy felt the thump of the impacts as the 20mm shells rattled off his heavy armor. But he ignored it as he squeezed the trigger for his gauss rifle. The heavy metal slug fired and cored through the first tank, blowing it to bits.

Without hesitation, Cowboy walked the reticule up each tank in turn. His twin Clan technology PPCs took out the second and third Scorpion in turn. His Streak SRM pounded the last, but it weathered the impacts and immediately retreated backwards down the street.

A flash of laser fire finished it off as it reached the intersection. Doc’s Ryoken marched up and gave the crippled vehicle an indignant kick as he walked past.

“More to come.” Said Doc.

“No doubt.” Said Cowboy. “Let’s rejoin the others.”

As Cowboy headed north down the street, an LRM volley slammed into his mech’s leg. Cowboy turned and spotted a rebel Rommel tank coming down the street towards him. Grateful that the enemy tank was not yet in range to use its Class 20 autocannon, he returned fire with his PPC and gauss rifle. But caught off guard as he was, Cowboy’s aim was off and his shots missed.

“Bogey at 10 o’clock.” Warned Cowboy.

The Rommel closed the gap as Doc moved up behind Cowboy. Its autocannon roared to life as it entered range and the heavy depleted uranium shells tore into the Banshee’s torso. Unlike the light cannon on the Scorpions, this was no pop gun and the Banshee staggered under the impacts. Cowboy snarled and worked the control sticks to keep his machine upright. He dropped his targeting reticule onto the tank and opened fire with his PPCs.

Behind him, Doc also opened fire on the tank. Between the two of them, even the powerful Rommel was no match and the tank was left a burning hulk in seconds.

But Cowboy then realized his impulsive error. Having used his PPCs only a few seconds before to finish the Scorpions, his mech was already running hot. Another volley spiked the heat and his engine alarm blared in his cockpit: Emergency shutdown.

“Shit! No!” Cowboy slammed his hand down on the override, trying to keep the mech from shutting down to vent its waste heat, but it was too late. The cockpit went dark as the engine shut off. Off-balance, the 95 ton monster crashed down onto the pavement.

Cowboy slammed forward against his restraining straps. He let out a yell of frustration and embarrassment. “Stupid rookie mistake! I’m better than this.”

Doc moved forward to cover for his disabled friend. As he did, a Zhukov heavy tank turned the corner and opened fire with its Class 10 autocannon. The heavy shells missed Doc’s mech and Doc returned fire.

“Come on, Cowboy, get up. If the rest of this tank lance shows up, I’m in trouble.” Said Doc aloud. In a shutdown machine, Cowboy could not hear his plea.

His words proved prophetic as a second Zhukov appeared. This one was more accurate and its cannon fire tore across the legs of Doc’s Ryoken. The armor was battered but held.

Cowboy’s machine quickly vented its waste heat and Cowboy was grateful to hear the hum of his engine as it automatically restarted. He brought the Banshee back to its feet and moved south down a side street, headed for the one Zhukov. Doc headed after the other.

The Zhukov’s focused their fire on the monstrous Banshee, ignoring for the moment Doc’s Ryoken. Four Class 10 autocannon were a threat to any mech, even one as powerful as a Banshee, and the gunners did not miss. With his armor shredded by the heavy fire, Cowboy struggled to keep his mech upright against the impacts. But even with his skill, it was simply too much. The Banshee went down once more onto the pavement. Doc cried out in dismay as his friend’s powerful mech crashed to the earth.

“Do I have to rescue you two newbies again?” came a voice. Logan!

Flaming gel from Logan’s inferno missiles washed over the lead Zhukov, baking the tank where it sat on the street. Lasers from Rohan’s mech, a Crab salvaged on Northwind to replace the one he’d lost there, lashed into the armor of the second. It turned away from Cowboy to face the new threat and Doc opened fire. His gauss rifle shot struck home on the tank’s flank, opening a huge fissure in its armor.

“Cutting it a little close, wouldn’t you say?” commented Doc.

“Best we could do.” Said Gwen. Her Linebacker moved up along side Cowboy’s crippled machine, firing its PPCs at the remaining Zhukov. With four Battlemechs firing upon it, the tank blew apart. “Believe me when I tell you we’ve been through hell to get here.”

“I believe you.” Said Doc. “That’s three tanks down. One more in that lance.”

“Alright, let’s find that poor bastard.” Said Logan.

Gwen scanned her tactical monitor as Rohan and Logan pulled their machines search for the last rebel vehicle. “Guys, the Highlanders are moving.”

“About time.” Said Logan.

“They’re not headed our way. Their course takes them directly into the city.”

“They outnumber us, so they can force us to choose between the power plant and the city itself. Damn them.” Snarled Rohan in frustration.

“Where the hell are the planet’s defenders?” replied Logan also with frustration in his voice. “It’s not like we’re being paid to help the government here.”

Gwen switched over her communicator to a wide-beam frequency. “Dark Rangers to militia command. Styx Capital and main power plant under heavy attack. This is your battle, not ours. Where are you?”

There was no answer.

“No reply from anyone remotely official.” Said Gwen to the others. “My guess is they’ve already subverted the planetary militia. That might explain the heavy tanks, since we didn’t see anything remotely like a Zhukov or Rommel at the rebel base.”

“Then this battle is lost.” Grumbled Logan.

“And they won’t hostage the power plant if they already control the government.” Deduced Rohan.

“Then the power plant is the diversion.” Said Logan. “Logan to all Dark Rangers! Withdraw to the city. The power plant is not the real target.”

Gwen spun her mech around and shoved the throttle forward. “Gwen!” barked Logan. “Where are you going?”

“To buy us time.”

---

Gwen pushed her mech to its limits to close the gap between the outer suburbs and the center of the city. She knew that if the rebels controlled the militia, they would soon overwhelm the Dark Rangers. The last thing they needed was to ransom their own freedom from a faction that had hired O’Malley and his troops. By the time they did that, O’Malley would be well beyond their reach.

O’Malley’s two mech companies were splitting up to secure various points of the city. She recognized the pattern. They were forming a perimeter around a central point, but as Gwen watched her tactical monitor, she was surprised to note that the central point of the circle was not the main government complex. It was the ISF Building.

“Why secure that before anything else? It would make better sense to take the capital complex, to capture any civic leaders who would be opposed to this coup so to prevent them from causing trouble later.” Gwen thought. “Maybe to find out who those loyalists are. The ISF data files would certainly have that information, but it still makes more sense to secure the bodies before securing the data. Unless…”

A laser strike pulled her away from her thoughts. She looked away from the tactical monitor and immediately spotted a pair of old Locust scout mechs bearing down on her from a side street. She had reached the Highlander perimeter.

Gwen shoved her throttle forward and dashed down the street at nearly top speed. The Highlander scout lance spread out to intercept her. As she cleared the corner of a large office building, she twisted her mech, dropped her targeting reticule onto one of the Locusts and fired. The heavy Clan PPC disintegrated the Highlander mech’s left leg and send the small scout mech crashing into the pavement.

Without missing a beat, she veered down a side street to the right, watching as the remaining three mechs moved to intercept her. One of the advantages of her Linebacker was its speed. Few heavy mechs could match it and it was very much the equal of her Highlander pursuers in speed.

Even so, the confined area of the city streets allowed a Highlander Phoenix Hawk to jump into point blank range. Gwen twisted again and opened fire, holding back a PPC to conserve heat. Her anti-personnel machine guns raked across the Phoenix Hawk, doing only minor damage, but her second PPC missed and slammed into the building.

Gwen let her pace take her past the Phoenix Hawk to another intersection. She pulled to the left to go down another side street when she spotted the second Highlander Locust closing. She squeezed the trigger on her PPC and watched with satisfaction as the entire right side of the 20 ton mech exploded from the particle beam.

Gwen kept her throttle up as she finished her turn, moving quickly past the crippled Locust as the Phoenix Hawk resumed its pursuit. Despite its heavy damage, the Locust pilot was not finished yet, and he spun around to pursue her as well.

“Unwise.” Thought Gwen to herself, swinging her mech’s arm backwards to bring the PPC to bear again. But her shot went wide this time, scorching across a nearby building. The Locust’s single medium laser flashed over her head, unable to strike home against Gwen’s speedy Clan machine.

Gwen swung another left turn again, smiling as she wondered if her pursuers would follow her in circles. Off to her left, she saw the Phoenix Hawk jet into the air again. “Guess not.”

The Phoenix Hawk came down right behind her, with a full view of her vulnerable back armor. She brought her left arm around and fired at him, ripping into his mech with PPC and both machine guns. But he gave as good as he got and Gwen felt her mech shudder as laser and machine gun fire shredded her back armor.

Still, the lighter Phoenix Hawk came out the worse for it. The PPC had struck dead center and nearly cored through his engine and gyro. Badly damaged, the mech went crashing down to the pavement. Gwen saw her opportunity and slammed her throttle back to bring her mech to a screeching halt. The Linebacker nearly pitched forward on the slippery pavement, but she kept her feet and spun around to finish the Phoenix Hawk.

Gwen squeezed the triggers for both her PPCs. She didn’t bother to look down at the crippled mech at her feet, knowing that in its condition, it would not survive. Instead she scanned the horizon for the rest of the lance. She had yet to encounter one of the enemy lance, and she wondered where he might be.

Sure enough, a Firestarter emerged from behind a nearby building and rushed towards Gwen’s machine. Gwen stood her ground and savaged the light mech with her weapons. Much like the two Locusts, the 35-ton Firestarter simply did not have the armor to weather a barrage from Gwen’s heavy Clan-technology weaponry. The Firestarter crashed on top of the destroyed Phoenix Hawk and Gwen finished the mauled mech with a swift kick.

Now only the badly damaged pair of Locusts remained. Gwen checked her tactical. As she had suspected, the light scouts were only meant to slow her down, but the Highlanders may have been taken a bit aback by how little time they had cost her. Not wanting to leave an enemy, even a heavily damaged one, at her back, Gwen moved to finish off the pair.

The first one was still lying on the street where Gwen had amputated its leg. She chose to ignore this one; it was no threat. The other, while minus much of its right side, could still move and pursue her. She felt her mech shake as its medium laser scorched across the armor of her right arm. She turned her mech to pursue, but the Locust was already moving away at high speed.

“Hit and fade.” Mused Gwen. “Force me to run out what little time I have before the rest of them get here. Damn you. But you’ve got to come back to me somehow…”

Gwen yanked on her control sticks hard and pulled her mech down an alley. As predicted, the alley led to the very street the Locust was using to move behind her again. She emerged onto the street less than 30 meters from the Locust. A full barrage of her weapons finished him.

Satisfied that all her opponents were defeated, Gwen now turned her attention back to her original objective, the ISF building. The Highlander perimeter was narrowing fast, but she still had a few seconds to get to ground before another Highlander unit intercepted her. She dashed up the street towards the ISF building.

The building where the Rangers had met with Narataki was a non-descript brick building, of a design popular in the pre-spaceflight days of the early 20th century. Gwen approached with some caution. Her tactical showed only a few civilian cars in the area.

“One of those is not what it appears to be.” She deduced. She yanked on her control sticks and brought her mech to a stop next to a steel-and-glass skyscraper maybe a block from the ISF building. She immediately powered down, essentially making her mech invisible to her pursuers.

“Time to find an alternate means of transportation.” She mused as she popped her canopy. She reached behind her into her cockpit’s storage locker and fetched her jumpsuit and a grapple gun. She hurriedly dressed into the jump suit and then took aim with the grapple gun on the building next to her. A squeeze of the trigger and in a few short seconds, Gwen was being winched up towards the roof.

After pulling herself up, she ran across the building’s roof top to the other side. As she hoped, Gwen now looked down on the roof of the ISF building across the street, probably 50 meters away. She could now confirm what her tactical had showed her; a number of civilian cars were clustered near the front door in a haphazard pattern. They had probably delivered some manner of commando team, sent to retrieve whatever data O’Malley wanted from this place.

Gwen did not think about how outnumbered she might be once she got inside. She hoisted up her grapple gun again and took aim. She fired a zip line across to the ISF building and smiled when she heard the reassuring thud as the grapple anchored itself in the brick of the opposite building.  Setting down her grapple gun, she quickly anchored it and then slid down the wire to the roof of the ISF building.

Upon touching down, she quickly drew her blaster and scanned about. There were no guards on the roof, which Gwen noted as odd. She knew that entry into the ISF building from here would not be easy. There were no windows within two stories of the top of building and the roof access door would be soundly and securely locked to prevent her entry. Despite that, the door was her only option. She headed over to it and looked at the access keypad.

When Gwen had been stationed on Styx, she had been told the access codes for entry and egress from any ISF facility on the planet. But that was years ago now and Gwen doubted highly that her old codes would still work. Rather than attempt to guess at a code, she thought “Well, if O’Malley’s people are downstairs already, setting an alarm off up here isn’t going to matter.” With that, she pointed her blaster at the lock and fired.

The miniature PPC bolt made short work of the steel bolt that held the door secure. Gwen yanked the door open and dashed down the stairs quickly. She guessed they would be in the primary records room, wherever that was, looking for data on the loyalty of the planetary leadership.

She passed the first door, labeled Archives in Japanese, and was surprised to hear muffled voices behind. Unsure that those voices belonged to intruders or ISF employees, she decided to investigate. She turned and walked back the few steps and tried the door. It was locked, but this lock was a more simple mechanical lock that Gwen easily picked.

She opened the door slowly and quietly and slipped into the room. The room was as she expected: filled with large shelves with hardcopy documents interspersed with large computer data banks filled with multi-terabyte hard drives. Gwen stopped briefly to think about the sheer amount of data the ISF collected on the people of the Styx and it gave her pause. “Police state indeed.” She said to herself.

The voices from the other side of the room drew her back to the moment at hand. She could now hear them clearly and recognized that they were speaking English, not Japanese. While they could still be ISF operatives of some sort, the likelihood of that just minimized. These were some of O’Malley’s people. But what were they snooping around for here?

“Found it. Personnel file #32761.” Said a voice.

“And where is she now?” said another, a woman. Her accent was clearly High class Northwind. “Excellent. Get me a print out.”

Gwen moved closer, using the sound of the shuffling pages on the printer to mask her approach. She peaked around a computer cabinet and saw two people at a computer terminal. Both were wearing Highlander uniforms. The seated one leaned back, as if satisfied by a job well done. The standing woman was hovering over a nearby laser printer as it shuffled out page after page.

“There not after loyalty data on the planetary government. They’re looking for a specific individual.” Gwen deduced. “Let’s find out who.” She raised her blaster. Which one to shoot first? Gwen was pretty certain she could take them both very quickly, so she decided on the easier first shot: the seated Highlander.

She squeezed the trigger and the blaster fired. The PPC bolt blasted through the office chair into the Highlander’s back. He let off a brief cry of pain before the superhot plasma fried his spine and lungs in an instant. He never stood a chance.

Fast as lightning, Gwen turned her weapon on the other and fired again. But she had underestimated the second Highlander’s quickness. This time, the blaster bolt hit empty air. The Highlander had ducked and was now crawling for cover.

“Damn.” Swore Gwen aloud. Gwen stepped out from behind cover to finish her.

Suddenly, Gwen spotted movement in the corner of her eye. Instinctively, she darted back to her cover. Fortunate for her. Bullets ricocheted off the metal computer cabinet as two additional Highlanders appeared near the elevator. Gwen cursed herself for failing to check to see if there were any more besides the two at the terminal.

Gwen popped around and fired her blaster, but these two were too good to let her have an easy shot. The woman used the distraction to snatch up her printed documents and make for the elevator. The two newcomers kept up a steady stream of fire from their submachine guns, keeping Gwen pinned down. They backed into the elevator after the woman and the doors closed.

Gwen moved forward, eyes always on the elevator on the off chance they would come back to finish her off. She moved over to the computer terminal and shoved the corpse out of the chair. On the monitor, she could still see what they had been searching for; the surprise of her attack had prevented them from shutting off the terminal and hiding their tracks.

It was a personnel file for a retired ISF agent. Gwen recognized the name immediately: Keiko Yamada, her old DEST trainer.

“What would O’Malley want with her personnel file?” Gwen mused aloud. He scanned down. The file was thorough, having within it education data, birthplace, family information, as well as her assignments over the years. Gwen paused at the latter and spotted one of the earliest entries.

• Combat Operative – Attached 5th Sword of Light – Northwind Assault – 12/3028 – 3/3029

“Logan said O’Malley was settling scores, but wasn’t for the Conspiracy.” She thought to herself. “It was for himself. Yamada gave the order for the suicide teams on Northwind. She’s the one that killed O’Malley’s wife.”

---

“Your grace!” called Captain Christopher over the comm channel.

“Yes, John.” Replied Baron Ian, scanning about from the cockpit of his Victor.

“Celine has the package. Also rebel forces report the city is mostly secure at this time.”

“Define mostly.” Said Ian warily.

“The militia has either converted or surrendered, but the Dark Rangers remain at large.”

Ian nodded. “Send Lieutenant Ramius’s lance. Destroy their dropship.”

“Roger.”