Strange. The Colonel was in the hospital, still recovering from the amputation of his arm. Had one of the Techs powered up the machine in an attempt to rush the commando defenses?
The door hissed open behind him. He turned, a puzzled scowl forming on his face. "What do you..."
He stopped, open-mouthed. The girl who stood there held a stun pistol in one hand, a long, keen-bladed combat dagger in the other. She stepped past the senseless forms of the two bodyguards, her face an expressionless mask. She wore a form-hugging black outfit and combat harness, and her face was smeared with black camouflage paint.
"Who the devil are you?" he demanded with a scowl, though she looked familiar somehow. "Do I know you?"
"Don't mind me. General," she said. There was a strange light in her eyes, a touch of wildness. "I'm just one of the things you... usedonce."
"Now wait a minute. Put that thing down! Look, I've got money. I can make you..."
She continued speaking, her voice honey-sweet. "You really should be more careful of your toys. General. Sometimes they can turn on you, just when you're least expecting it."
She had stepped closer. Desperate now, he grabbed for the stunner in her hand. Her fighter pilot's reflexes proved faster, and her finger tightened on the trigger.
She had reset the stunner for a light charge after she'd used it to dispatch the guards outside. Nagumo was quite conscious when she tied him to his chair, conscious and fully aware of what was happening. His stunned nervous system simply had no control over his muscles.
For some time after, he couldn't even muster the muscular control that his throat and diaphragm needed to scream.
* * * *
Moments later, the Gray Death BattleMechs plunged into the slanting, early morning light in the courtyard. Khaled, the last one through the tunnel, reported that enemy ‘Mechs had been breaking into the factory compound just as his borrowed Shadow Hawkhad ducked into the passageway entrance.
They were surprised at the sight of the Marauderstanding there among the battle-haggard commandos, but Ramage was explaining as they stepped through into the light. Lori used a lightweight line to haul a combat transceiver up into the cockpit of the captured ‘Mech.
"Good morning, Sergeant! What's the situation?" she asked, once the unit was in place, clipped to her ear with the thin pick-up extended in front of her lips.
"Lori! It's good to have you back!"
"It's very good to be back." Her voice was unsteady, and the adrenalin pumped into her system at the sight of that inferno launcher still had her trembling. She kept her voice light, though, hoping Ramage wouldn't notice. She knew that Grayson already had, but she didn't mind that. "I'm relaying for the Captain," she continued. "What's happening?"
"They boxed us. They swung something like a company of ‘Mechs around outside and caught our people against the factory wall. Now they're out there and we're in here...and I expect something to be coming through that main gate, too, any minute now."
She paused to relay the information to Grayson, then reopened the channel. "O.K., Sergeant. Orders from the chief. Get clear of the tunnel. We'll take care of that. You all deploy to cover the main gate. Clay? McCall? Khaled? You all copy that?"
There was a chorus of assents. The Marauder,its canopy still hanging open, made its way toward the archway through which the Gray Death BattleMechs had just emerged. A short way into the shadows, a ramp opened, leading down one level. Beyond that, the tunnel entrance yawned, twelve meters tall and ten meters wide to accommodate the lumbering AgroMechs that had passed that way in more peaceful times.
Lori looked back at Grayson, hunched forward in the control seat.
"Careful of the control panel, Lori," he said. "Remember, our eject system is armed. One touch, and...whoosh!"
She glanced up at the cracked gray plaster of the ceiling, half a meter above the autocannon extending just over their heads.
"Just watch what buttons you push," she replied.
"Hold it...quiet a moment." He appeared to be straining at the darkness, listening.
"They're coming," he said at last. "Slow and cautious, but they're coming. It's a good thing there's no way to make a twenty-ton metal monster silent. I can hear a BattleMech's leg joint down that tunnel creaking and popping like a rusty old door."
Lori could hear the sounds, too, a far-off, hollow echo of metal scraping against ferrocrete. The Marauderpositioned itself close beside the mouth of the tunnel.
"Okay, Lori. When it goes down, I want youdown, flat to the deck. With the canopy open, we won't have any protection from the dazzle or the UV bleed from the PPCs."
Her eyes widened. "You're going to unleash those things in here?"
"None other. Theywon't be expecting it, either.”
“That's one way to look at it."
A long moment crawled past. Then Grayson spoke quietly. "Right, Lori. Dig yourself a hole in the deck."
Somewhere on that alien control panel there was a switch for the Marauder'sfloodlights, twin lenses under the canopy chin that could have bathed the black tunnel with the radiance of a sunny day. There was no time to find that switch right now. Instead, Grayson waited until he guessed the enemy ‘Mechs would be close, then stepped across the tunnel entrance.
The particle projection cannons mounted in each of the Marauder'sforearm heavy weapon mounts had been charged for several minutes already. He triggered the right'arm cannon first, squinting through the dark visor of his helmet with one eye only, the other squeezed tightly shut.
Man-made lightning glared with intolerable brilliance, starkly illuminating the clustered band of BattleMechs in blue-white radiance. For the split second of its existence, the beam of charged particles burned low across the left torso of the Centurionthat led the pack. The beam snapped off, plunging the tunnel back into darkness again, leaving the eyes and optic systems of the Kurita ‘Mech pilots momentarily dazzled by the PPC's glare.
Grayson opened his left eye, the one he had held closed, and peering into the darkness. Then he squeezed the eye shut again. His right eye still danced and watered with the green and purple disks planted there by the beam's brilliant discharge, but had cleared enough for him to place his second shot The Marauder'sleft arm fired, and again lightning seared through the narrow tunnel. The shot was higher this time and more toward the center. It caught the Centurionsquarely in the chest LRMs in the ‘Mech's chest pack rocketed into the startled darkness, trailing fire. Explosions sent fireworks flashing down the length of the tunnel, lighting up the company of ‘Mechs in sharp relief.
The Marauderdischarged both arm lasers in a quick one-two shot that scattered burning fragments of armor through the passageway. A Phoenix Hawkbehind the Centurionalso opened fire with its heavy laser, but the bolt went wide, scoring the ferrocrete wall across the passageway from the Marauder.
Both PPCs fired again. One bolt caught the Phoenix Hawk,shearing away an arm in flaming chunks of debris. The other drilled the Centurionhigh in the torso a second time. The unfortunate Centurionpitched backward, flame and molten gobbets of metal and plastic spewing from a gaping crater in its chest.
The Marauderstepped back away from the tunnel mouth. Bolts spit and burned from the tunnel mouth, followed by a pair of missiles that exploded against the far wall. Smoke was pouring from the tunnel opening now, and something burning in the passageway lit the darkness.