It wasn’t lost on him that his Stormhammers were doing more falling back than racing forward. And from what Joss Vandel’s command staff had gleaned from reports by Tara Campbell and Anastasia Kerensky, they were seeing much the same as they tried to hold the allied flanks. Precious kilometers were lost with each burning vehicle, every life spent.
Even without reports from his senior officers, Jasek knew the Jade Falcons had pushed forward stronger forces than anything the Stormhammers had seen in the last week. Seven days over which Jasek basically slept in his MechWarrior togs, rising to fight, finding time in which to review losses, and then grabbing a few hours’ rest before the next alert.
He’d called for help from Tara Campbell, and she’d sent him what she could, he knew. But it hadn’t been enough. Not with the thin spread of men and materiel trying to safeguard Miliano, Second Bristol, Norfolk, and a half dozen other important sites.
And with the allied defenders holding on by their fingernails, Malvina Hazen had obviously chosen to push her people for all they were worth.
This could be the day, he decided, eyeing the toggle on his communications board.
As a new threat pushed back against the Stormhammers, Jasek’s Templar rocked beneath a blistering attack of laser and autocannon fire. Sidestepping into some red cedars, shearing away thick tree limbs with wet greenstick fractures, he dodged away from the worst of the damage. A few new pits and pockmarks covered his BattleMech’s arms and shoulders. An angry red weal slashed across its left hip.
A Gyrfalcon had slashed in with Skanda light tanks and a hoverbike squad as escorts. They held the narrow valley between two hillsides, cutting off Jasek from the lance he’d pushed up the opposite slope. Two JES strategic missile carriers and a Hasek MCV, and a Maxim with Gnome armored infantry.
“Reverse track, Epsilon-four,” Jasek ordered his wayward crew. He alternated his left and right particle cannon, holding his heat curve to tolerable levels. “Push back to the south and regroup at grid four-two-five.”
“Landgrave. There’s a ’Mech in our way.”
“It won’t be there long,” Jasek promised. And hoped he could deliver.
Skating along the edge of the tree line, Jasek used his particle cannon to grab the Jade Falcons’ attention. If it had been Noritomo Helmer in the Gyrfalcon, his job would have been much easier. Helmer had to be spoiling for a rematch after Chaffee. But this ’Mech had darker green paint and the blue eyes painted on its chest that he had come to recognize as an emblem of Malvina Hazen’s warriors. Jasek would have to convince this one to follow.
The PPC shots he whipped over two hoverbikes did the trick. As the open-air vehicles tumbled into death rolls, the Clan Gyrfalcon leaped forward on jump jets to suddenly set itself between Jasek and its own support force.
Its paired weapons, extended-range lasers over ultra-class autocannon, chewed up the forest surrounding Jasek. One stream of angry bullets hammered into his shoulder, spoiling his aim as he tried to flail more of his artificial lightning among the Skandas.
A Kelswa assault tank rolled into the valley behind the Gyrfalcon, brought up to plug the gap.
“Hold, damn it. Epsilon, hold.”
Frustration and more than a little concern chewed at his confidence as he spent another PPC against the Gyrfalcon. Not only did the assault tank make it impossible to recover his trapped people, it had come up from the east where Joss Vandel was supposedly holding forward of Jasek’s position. Supposedly.
Now a pair of Skadi swift attack VTOLs chased in behind the Kelswa. The armored helicopters buzzed up the opposite slope, discovered Jasek’s armored lance, and began hammering down at them with heavy autocannon and lasers.
Recognizing the immediate danger, Jasek’s Hauberk infantry broke cover and swarmed toward the Gyrfalcon. Missiles chopped out from their backpack launchers. Their light arms flashed ruby darts at the fifty-five-ton ’Mech. It bought the Stormhammers’ leader a few seconds’ distraction. He dropped his crosshairs over the Kelswa, reaching at long range with both PPCs at once. His targeting computer made the shot possible, adjusting automatically for the deflection angle. Ionized particles cascaded into twin streams of energy, snaking down the hillside and carving deep wounds into the Kelswa’s thick armor.
It was like waving a red cape in front of a bull. The Kelswa’s turret swiveled around, and twin pulses of bluish energy punched out two Gauss slugs that smashed in near Jasek’s position. One blew a cedar’s trunk into kindling, toppling the majestic tree which fell near Jasek’s right side with a ground-shaking crash. The other Gauss slug dug into the ground right at the Templar’s feet, spraying dirt clods high enough to patter against Jasek’s cockpit shield.
The Gyrfalcon followed up with more autocannon fire, walking a hailstorm of slugs from Jasek’s left knee to his shoulder. Its lasers had already driven the Hauberks back, into the forest.
Jasek retreated deeper into the autumn camouflage as well, teeth grinding together as his trapped unit called for help. He toggled for one of his private command circuits. “Colonel Vandel! If you aren’t holding in sector eighteen, regain control now.”
No response. Joss Vandel had to have his own plate full.
He saw just how full a moment later. Pushing back farther as the Clan MechWarrior chased up to the forest edge with weapons blazing, Jasek crested the hill and was able to look down into three different valleys where his Stormhammers fought to hold off the Jade Falcon offensive. The forested cover bought Jasek time. Seconds only, but enough to measure how the battle was progressing.
Not well.
On his right, the Archon’s Shield had all but surrendered initiative to a long column led by a Shrike and two converted SalvageMechs. To the left, Tamara Duke bridged the gap between Jasek’s position and the balance of Colonel Petrucci’s Lyran Rangers. Tamara was trading a great deal to hold that position. Jasek counted four… five… six vehicles burning on her side of the battlefield. Half that among the Falcon lines.
He already knew what lay in front of him.
He sensed the pressure building along the entire front. Messages that made it over his command circuits were short and often frantic. From his vantage point, he saw tall pillars of flame lancing skyward as missile barrages spread destruction in indiscriminate patterns. Autocannon chopped at the air, and jewel-bright colors flashed as laser fire mixed among the brilliant lightning strikes of particle cannon. And it was starting to look a little too one-sided.
“Shield!” Jasek called again for Joss Vandel. “Push those Falcons back. We have forces trapped on the back side of”—he checked his tactical-map display—“hill four-three-alpha.”
“Landgrave,” Vandel finally reported in. “The Highlanders and Hiram Brewster’s Guard have folded back on our far eastern flank. I’m getting pressure from two sides now.”
It wasn’t an excuse. Jasek could see that his senior colonel was throwing units forward again, trying to cut off the Gyrfalcon’s position from further reinforcement. But it was a warning. There wasn’t enough left to the Archon’s Shield to stand up against the Falcons for much longer. They were spread too thin from so many hours of feints, stands, and forced retreats. As were all the Stormhammers. Spread thin and spending themselves to meet wave after wave of well-coordinated assaults.
It was a hard call to make. The hardest he’d been pushed to yet for Skye.
“Artillery, lay down staggered fire at grid four-two-four. Three by three,” he ordered, calling for sets of triple strikes. “Then give our people sixty seconds to clear the area before you hammer that valley with anything you can. Epsilon-four. You know what you have to do.”