Inside the ships, the damage translated into a violent shudder that seemed as if it would never stop. A rumbling call growled through the bridge. But all the while Weapons called out the volleys. First strikes.

Second.

Third.

Then the vessels were past. They came within two kilometers of each other, at normal magnification looking like a far throw but point-blank by space-faring distances. The Union s brushed over the Emerald Talon in one last-ditch effort, and then they were past and in the clear as well.

Gravity returned as the mains lit off, and damage reports flooded the bridge, passed along from Central where Leutnant-kaptain Franklan rode herd over the worst of them. Sensors reported the better news: how much pain they had inflicted on the Jade Falcons.

“Aft Gauss bays, silenced. Portside autocannon seem out of commission. There is a hydrogen fire glowing on her port ventral… I think that’s a blowout! She’s lighted off her mains, but it looks like she’s only getting half thrust out of them. Kaptain! You sliced her engineering spaces!”

Which gave the Mjolnir a distinct advantage. Weapons continued to trade off as the ships sped apart, but with less intensity than before. That was going to change in a hurry.

“Leutnant-kaptain, your presence is required on the bridge.” The fight wasn’t over, and this crew deserved a seasoned WarShip captain. Goran had done what he could.

Though maybe he could do a little more.

“Helm, bring us around on an intercept arc. By the time Franklan arrives, I want us ready for a second pass. Angle in at her aft, and ready all weapons. Here’s where we grab the Falcons by the scruff and kick them in the ass.”

He had done his part, breaking the Falcons’ death grip on Skye.

The rest was up to Jasek.

31

Norfolk

Skye

12 December 3134

Jasek Kelswa-Steiner let a pair of wheeled Demons and a towed Long Tom artillery piece take the Norfolk Bridge.

Slogging his Templar across the river on its north side, chased by a pair of Pegasus hovercraft and a Maxim heavy hover transport from his Archon’s Shield battalion, he dropped his crosshairs on one of the converted SalvageMechs that held the opposite bank, but held his fire. Listening to the comms chatter, sensing that his full line was not quite in place, he hesitated, stalling his push forward and leaving himself open to attack. The SalvageMech’s light autocannon chipped away at his armor, striking sparks from his BattleMech’s shoulders, its chest. Earlier there had been a Shadow Hawk IIC stalking his flank, using its jumping ability to threaten Jasek’s advance forces, but it was hiding in the tree line now or had moved to another part of the wide-front battle.

Instead, a Kelswa assault tank with a hastily painted Jade Falcon crest on its side rolled forward from the cover of a stand of tall ponderosa pines to anchor the enemy position. Two Cardinal VTOL transports followed, popping over the tree line, belly flopping into a clearing where Elemental battlesuit troopers jumped free.

The Kelswa’s Gauss rifles flashed telltale blue discharges, and a pair of nickel-ferrous slugs skipped across the river. One dived beneath the water, raising a large sheet that sprayed across Jasek’s ferroglass shield. The other crushed into his right-side armor, stripping away most of his protection.

“Heavy massing south of the Norfolk Bridge,” Colonel Vandel reported, his Praetorian mobile HQ breaking onto the western shore about half a kilometer downriver from Jasek’s position.

Jasek could read by his own HUD that Joss Vandel faced a trio of Skanda light tanks and paired JES II strategic missile carriers.

Beyond his sensor range to the north, Vandel’s top kommandant, Leslie Hoarus, reported much the same. “Rangers. Elementals. Damn!” Static. “One Kinnol main battle tank with a way–too-accurate PPC.”

All up and down the river the scene was repeated as the Jade Falcons fought to repel Jasek’s forces. The Clan warriors obviously thought they had a good chance to hold off the Stormhammers.

They thought wrong.

Jasek had borrowed a page out of the Jade Falcon manual for his assault on Shipil Company’s Norfolk dockyards. He followed much the same battle plan as the Clanners had in their raiding assault on the local area before he left Skye.

DropShip grounding near the North Inlet.

A solid drive spearheading his column through a gap in the western hills.

Heavy woods along the river’s edge had broken the battle up into small-unit engagements as the Stormhammers pushed for the river, the bridge, and Norfolk, which now lay only a few kilometers away. So far, the enemy had seen only a pair of BattleMechs with perhaps slightly higher-than-average supporting forces. Heavy tanks and fast hovercraft. Artillery. VTOL support. Jasek planned to reeducate them.

It came a moment sooner than expected, with two MHI amphibious APCs and a Manticore II splashing into the river just above Jasek’s position. All three vehicles bore the clenched-gauntlet crest of the Lyran Commonwealth. The Manticore II heavy tank looked fresh off the factory floor, with its pristine armor and gleaming polish to its PPC barrel and its missile launcher. It likely was, given that Hesperus II produced the veteran fighting vehicle, and Duke Brewster had promised Jasek some of his best.

Best seemed to be a relative term as the Manticore crew couldn’t hit an Overlord at five hundred meters. Its particle cannon lashed out with brilliant firepower, exploding through a magnificent elm just beyond the Kelswa. It might have provided cover for enemy forces—Jasek gave them that.

Its missiles arced overhead but fell short. Water burst up at the river’s edge in a line of geysers. At least they got the Jade Falcons wet.

“Weapons free.” Jasek gave the command as the Kelswa slammed a Gauss slug into his chest. It staggered the eighty-five-ton machine, but did not drop it.

His thumb mashed down on the firing stud. A particle projector cannon in each arm arced new lightning at the Kelswa. Both struck the vehicle along its front, carving away armor, splashing it across the ground in large molten puddles.

The Pegasus scout craft pushed past him, throwing back long rooster tails as their drive fans kicked them up toward ninety kilometers per hour in their short sprint across the river. They guarded the Maxim, only slightly slower, which turned near the water’s edge and pulled up short. Gull wing doors flew up, and Stormhammers Gnome infantry leaped out to trade laser fire with the Clan Elementals. The Gnomes bore the brunt for several long seconds, until the MHI craft drew close enough to the opposite bank that Fenrir troopers could begin to bail over the sides and splash through the water on their own.

The quadruped battle armor made all the difference. With one squad bearing medium pulse lasers and two more backpack mounts of three small lasers, they were a serious threat at range and decimating up close and personal.

Turning their attention on one of the hovering Cardinals, the pulse laser squad blasted through its light armor. Sooty, gray smoke roiled out of its engine compartment. Both craft banked away, racing back for the Shipil dockyards. The wounded VTOL hardly made it a hundred meters before it crashed down into the trees, swallowed by the forest.

Meanwhile, both of the close-in Fenrir squads had joined Jasek’s Gnomes in routing the Elementals. The genetically engineered Clan infantry were fearsome in their own right, but they weren’t so foolish as to push a losing position against superior firepower. Bounding away on their jump jets, they gained the safety of the trees with only minor losses.