"What do I do when I get down to the finalists?"

Galen Cox shook his head. "That question is precisely why uneasy rests the head that wears the crown."

28

Cue Ball, Moon orbiting Yeguas III

Federated Commonwealth

30 July 3055

The stark contrast between the chalky white dust of the canyon and the black vault overhead struck Nelson Geist as the difference between life and death itself. The Red Corsair's JumpShip had entered the Yeguas system at a pirate point close to the third planet. Waiting for them at the system's apex jump point was the Thirty-first Wolf Solahma.

The Wolves immediately issued a combat challenge to the raiders, which the Red Corsair just as promptly accepted. She offered to meet them on Cue Ball, but told them that if they didn't make it there within six days, their window to stop her was closed, because she was leaving then.

The jump point where the Wolves had been waiting was seven and a half days out at a normal one gravity burn. The Wolves pushed their acceleration to two gravities, thereby shaving two days off the transit time. Nelson was with the Red Corsair when she got the report, and he thought she would be displeased because it meant she would finally have to face the Wolves.

"Hardly, Nelson," she purred. "I look forward to fighting the Wolves. The Clans send scum to fight bandits, and I will bloody their scum for them."

The Red Corsair grounded her BattleMechs on Cue Ball and took advantage of the waiting time to give her troops a chance to become accustomed to the reduced gravity. With far less mass than a normal world, Cue Ball had .47 standard gravities. BattleMechs could move faster and jump further, but their ability to stop and turn was also affected. In the exercises she conducted, the Red Corsair had Nelson backseating her and she turned fire control over to him while she mastered the delicacies of movement on the airless moon.

Leaving her bandits on the lunar surface, the Red Corsair had sent her DropShips in at Yeguas. Radioing ahead, she told the world's government that she would not feel the need to attack if they would send shuttles out with "tribute." What she asked for was fairly conservative and consisted mostly of food and inexpensive baubles. The government decided in very short order that paying the tribute would do fine, probably believing they would get it back after the Wolves trashed the bandits.

Waiting in the high gunnery seat of the BattleMaster,Nelson watched on his auxiliary monitor as two Wolf Clan DropShips grounded and began to disgorge BattleMechs. "It looks like three Trinaries of fifteen 'Mechs each and a command Star. That's fifty to our seventy-five. Their commander must be insane."

The Red Corsair shook her head. "Not at all. He holds us in contempt. He will pay." She started her Battle-Masterwalking down to the mouth of the canyon that opened into the vast crater where the Wolves had deployed. According to her plan, the other bandits should be all around them, making similar approaches through the cracks in the crater's walls.

The image on Nelson's auxiliary screen showed the Wolves deploying in attack groups and moving forward in a haphazard way. "I don't understand. . . . They should be good troops." A light laugh from the Red Corsair made him realize suddenly why the Wolves looked and moved so oddly. "Coming in at two gees' acceleration, compensating for the reduced gravity is even more difficult here. The contrast is even greater because of the fatigue from coming in that fast."

"Very good, Nelson." The Red Corsair hit a button on her console and a holographic display with a gold crosshairs in the middle materialized in front of him. "Fire control is yours."

"Do my friends go free if I kill Wolves?"

"No, but neither do they die if we do." Her voice sank to a throaty whisper as she worked the BattleMasteraround a corner. "You have no love for the Clans and I have no love for the Wolves. We are allies in this fight."

Nelson hesitated an instant, then nodded. "Fire control accepted."

"Get ready." She stepped the BattleMasterinto the mouth of the canyon and raised both arms above the 'Mech's head. Opening a broadbeam radio channel, she offered the Wolves a challenge of her own. "Welcome, you freebirth whelps of a mangy bitch cur. It is time to show you why you are fit for nothing but bandit bait."

Her words had an immediate effect on the Clanners, and Nelson knew that the Wolves had lost the battle even before the first shot was fired. Two light 'Mechs thrust forward, one arcing into the dark sky on twin jump jets. The 'Mech looked like a Stinger,hardly a threat. The other one, which the onboard computer identified as a Hermes,struck him as more dangerous, so he covered it with the BattleMaster'stargeting crosshairs.

It was in trouble even before he shot at it. The pilot, unused to the light gravity, had pushed the 'Mech to full throttle. The 'Mech's speed built faster than normal, taking it from a steady, pumping gait to long, leaping strides that dangerously unbalanced the BattleMech. The Hermespilot lost control of the war machine as it came down in a small field of boulders.

Nelson had managed to keep tracking it and began to punch the BattleMaster'sfiring studs without remorse. The first PPC bolt clawed its way through the Hermes'right chest, taking with it all the structural supports in that side of the 'Mech's torso. The second PPC bolt speared the 'Mech's right arm. The Hermesshed armor on the limb like dead skin, then the arm itself withered away to white fire and black smoke.

The PPC bolts actually contained enough energy to slow the Hermesand straighten it up for a second. They started it twisting back around to the right, then its legs ran out from under it. The 'Mech flew ahead, legs first and bent at the knees, with its left hand clawing at the stars. A boulder sheared its shins off. The torso hit hard, then bounded up above the planet's surface, trailing the dust that the hole in its chest had scooped out. It hit again and rolled into a house-sized rock, then bounced off and lay dented and dead, staring at the stars.

As the Stingerstarted to come down, Nelson shifted his aim up to where it intersected with the 'Mech's gentle trajectory. If the pilot had been smart, he would have hit his jets again and changed course, but he did not. Nelson figured that the pilot, unnerved by how far he had actually flown in one jump, wanted nothing better than to be grounded again. We aim to please.

One PPC bolt missed high, but the other hit the Stingerin the right knee. The azure lightning stabbed straight through the joint, exploding armor and amputating the lower half of the leg. The lesser portion of the limb started to spin backward while the Stingerbegan a slow, rolling somersault.

Nelson next hit the Stingerwith the BattleMaster'scenter-mounted large pulse laser. The green energy darts peppered the Stinger'storso and actually stopped the forward roll. The laser fire blasted away all the armor over the 'Mech's heart and melted away some internal supports, but it failed to put the 'Mech out of commission.

But Nelson had allies in inertia and the moon itself. As the Stingerslammed into the ground on the right side of its chest, the medium laser in its right hand flew up and away in pieces. The 'Mech itself, with armor shards dropping away like scales from a lizard, rebounded from the collision and almost became upright again. The pilot, had he remained alive or conscious after the landing, might have been able to stabilize the 'Mech and brace it against the dolmen into which it had sailed. As it was, the 'Mech smacked straight up against the huge rock, then both rock and machine wavered and fell down, toppling onto their backs like mirror images.