The barrage flayed Grant's Archer,the main target of the attack, but my Lokicaught many of the shots that missed Grant. Alarms shrieking of failing systems, the Lokibegan to topple. The ammunition explosion that vaporized the Archerpicked my machine up and tossed it away. I don't remember my Lokihitting the ground.
49
The night march had been long, but accomplished with surprising ease. But afterward Dechan Fraser still could not sleep. He was tired and needed rest, but his tent was so stifling and confining that he got up to walk among the sleeping BattleMechs. In the gray light of predawn, the plain should have been quiet. Instead the million soft sounds of a MechWarrior camp buzzed, clanked, rattled, scraped, hummed, and hissed around him. It was almost as if the 'Mechs stirred restlessly in their sleep, but it was only the tech crews tending to the machines after their long march.
Dechan was staring at the sky, pondering the coming day, when a bright flash—like a shooting star but stationary—caught his attention. It was no natural phenomenon; he'd seen enough combat to know that. Making for the command center, he resisted the urge to run, as though hurrying would add too much weight to what might already be a portent.
Dechan had the tech on duty patch him through to Gamma Regiment's headquarters. When Parella finally came on the line, he didn't bother with politeness.
"What's happened?"
"Chandra's taken down a satellite," the scratchy-voiced Parella told him gruffly. "Ours or theirs?"
"What a stupid question. Since Khan Alpin wants us to play along and be nice to Chandra, it sure wasn't ours. The transmission was beamed to somewhere in Orange Sector."
Somewhere out beyond their lines, presumably directly to Wolf. Dechan's stomach churned. "Any idea what it was about?"
"We are nosy today. What's the matter? Can't wait for the morning briefing?"
"It would be nice to have some warning if we're going to be walking into more of Wolf's traps."
"And it'd be nice if Wolf laid down and died, but he ain't going to do that unless we help him along. That's what we bought you for, mere. Now you just go get your folks ready to roll."
"Let me talk to Alpin."
"That's Khan Alpin to you and he's busy," Parella snarled. "Just do your job."
The line went dead. The commtech tried but was unable to reestablish contact, though she assured Dechan that the line had not been cut. Dechan's stomach began to churn. It was never good when headquarters wouldn't talk to you. Walking to the mess tent, he began to wonder if Elson had been holding Kappa Battalion back so that he could use it up it in the grand finale. He spent two hours trying to convince his stomach to hold down some oatmeal so the acid would have something to work on, but he had no more success with that than the commtech had in raising Parella again.
The mess tent was half-full with other, more successful, diners when Alpin made a general broadcast.
"This is the morning when all we have worked for will come to pass," Khan Alpin began. "Wolf's force is on the ropes. Early this morning Zeta Battalion arrived onplanet in support of the rightful succession. Jaime Wolf and his followers are doomed. Already the forces blocking our progress in Green Sector are in retreat. Already the lead elements of Gamma Regiment are moving into position for the final assault.
"Soon you will be moving out." Groans and complaints filled the tent. Kappa had been promised a day's rest. "I know it is much to ask, but I also know you are warriors and so will understand. We must rise to this effort and strike now. We must strike hard and fast. I expect no less from the warriors of Kappa Battalion. I will meet you on the other side and we will walk the honor road together.
"Seyla!"
There was a courier waiting for Dechan with a sealed packet of orders when the broadcast ended. The last mouthful of oatmeal went down hard, plummeting into his stomach to sit like a lump of lead as he read the orders.
Dechan saw immediately what his unit had been saved for. Gamma Regiment was to open a breach in Wolf's line, then wheel right. As they advanced, a gap between Gamma's left flank and Epsilon's right would appear. Kappa was to move through that gap, flanking the enemy Battlegroup M. Once past the forward battle area, they were to race for the Tetsuhara Proving Grounds and occupy its command center before Wolf's forces could retreat there.
Tetsuhara Proving Ground. Tetsuhara.The name was back to haunt him. Outreach wasn't cold like Misery, but their objective would provide its own misery. The proving ground was full of automated defenses, and Dechan was sure Wolf would have them operating. The place would be a maze of booby traps. Those defenses might have been designed simply to test warriors, but he was sure they were also capable of lethal force. Even the promised artillery support of Fire Support Battalion wouldn't make it much easier, if they ever got such support. Kappa Battalion was being assigned a mission of unusual lethality.
So much for Elson's promises of a place in the Dragoons. Maybe in the Dragoons' cemetery.
Then again, maybe this was the Elemental's way of making Dechan and his warriors prove that they were truly Dragoon material, that they were strong enough for what Elson had in mind. Taking the proving ground wouldn't be easy, but it would be a vital stroke. If they could take the control center before Wolf's forces got there, the campaign would be over quickly. The proving ground control complex was the last defensible position for an organized force. Without it, Wolf would have to surrender or go guerrilla. If he took the latter course, his bid to retake control of the Dragoons was finished. Dragoon custom demanded that challenges to Trials be fought as stand-up combats.
Dechan shoved aside his concerns in the work of getting the battalion ready to roll.
Despite his fears, the initial advance met with little resistance, because Wolf's forces were far too busy elsewhere. The arrival of Zeta Battalion on Alpin's side had shifted the balance. Jamison was even claiming that they had killed Jaime Wolf, but the cohesiveness of the enemy forces put the lie to that. Though reeling from the hammer blows of Beta and Gamma Regiments' assaults, Wolf's troops were pulling back in good order. The only place Alpin's forces weren't advancing was in Blue Sector, where Epsilon Regiment was still in place. The Kuritans had blunted Epsilon's attack, taking minimal losses.
Nichole pulled Epsilon back to its jump-off position, ceasing offensive operations and informing the commanders of the attacking forces that the battle plan had been transmitted to Wolf. Dechan failed to get through to Alpin or Elson for confirmation, but Alpin responded to Nichole's assertion with a commanders-only broadcast admitting that the satellite destruction earlier that morning had been Fleet Captain Chandra delivering on her promise to eliminate any satellites used by the combatants. He pointed out Beta's and Gamma's success, but never actually denied Nichole's statement about the battle plan having been given away. Dechan took the failure to deny it as an admission that Nichole was right, at least partially.
But despite the intelligence coup by Jaime Wolf's partisans, Alpin's attack was proceeding well. The enemy was falling back on two fronts, converging on the Tetsuhara Proving Ground. The proving ground was where Jaime Wolf had put spine into the lords of the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere. There, with staged tests and contests, he had shown them and their gullible children how to stand up to the fierce warriors of the marauding Clans. For Wolf, the proving ground had been the place where the Inner Sphere's answer to the Clan invasion had begun. Unless Wolf had some surprises in store, it would be the place where his answer to Alpin and Elson ended.