Power suddenly surged back into the Hellbringer and it lurched forward. Joanna thought she might lose control, but with quick deft movements she manipulated some switches and levers to steady her ’Mech. She felt the ’Mech gradually picking up speed, as if finally responding to her growled urgings.
The pilot of the Stormcrow clearly had the Summoner in his sights, as more red bolts hit their targets and further weakened the Summoner’s armor. Joanna could see Lyonor silhouetted in her cockpit, and she could visualize the determination on Lyonor’s face as she responded to the Stormcrow’s assault with her PPCs. Aiming toward the legs of the Stormcrow, her shots caused heavy damage to the left leg, sending the Stormcrow staggering. It slowed down and its feet hit the ground at odd angles, reminding Joanna of the limp of a staggering drunk.
The storm got worse. The wind whipped the rain around the trio of ’Mechs, making them sway almost as much as a well-placed laser burst might have done.
Now the Hellbringer was racing along as fast as it had formerly been slow. Joanna struggled with her controls. Something in the Hellbringer’s leg actuators needed adjustment. She vowed that, as soon as the battle was over, she would get her tech on it right away to restore the equilibrium.
The Hellbringer was now closer than the Summoner to the Stormcrow. She could ambush it and down it before its pilot knew what hit him. Taking aim with her right arm PPC, she trembled slightly with anticipation as she neared the point at which, as her judgment indicated, she could release a barrage that would surely prove fatal to the Stormcrow.
Just before she took the shot, she felt the left side of her Hellbringer suddenly dip and go sideways. It was a moment before she realized it was falling and her PPC attack, instead of targeting the center of the Stormcrow was merely adding to the damage on the Ghost Bear ’Mech’s leg.
What happened before and after she crashed, she only sorted out later, when she learned that her Hellbringer had indeed stumbled, and where else? On one of those damned holes left behind by the archaeologists. It was a fairly shallow one that the Hellbringer’s left leg plunged into. Someone told her that the leg came down so hard at the bottom of the hole that it unearthed some strange metal artifacts, but Joanna saw the story was clearly legend and gave no credit to it.
The Hellbringer staggered in reaction to the stumble. Joanna nearly steadied it but, as she tried to lift the left leg out of the hole, it stumbled again, on the lip of the hole. Frantically working controls, she could not bring the Hellbringer under her control and realized that the ’Mech might go down: savashri! As she attempted to raise the Hellbringer’s arm and target other areas of the Stormcrow, she refused to eject and vowed to stay with her ’Mech all the way to the ground.
This last stumble finally threw the leg’s actuators completely offline and an alarm in Joanna’s control panel showed the leg malfunctioning, shutting down. A strong push forward with the ’Mech’s other leg dragged the damaged leg along for a step but the right leg began to slide sideways in the mass of mud caused by the heavy storm. The Hellbringer pitched forward, out of control. Joanna struggled to will the ’Mech upright, but the Hellbringer began to collapse. Rocking the throttle full foward, Joanna got another good push from the right leg, thrusting the ’Mech further ahead.
As she was told later, Joanna’s barrage as her ’Mech fell, both her shots to the leg and those on the Stormcrow torso, set the Ghost Bear ’Mech up for Lyonor’s final attack, which sent the Stormcrow reeling forward. It should have landed on top of the downed Mad Dog, at the Summoner’s feet, again reenacting the traditional heroic picture of one ’Mech defeating another.
But it did not work out that way.
The Hellbringer, in spite of its collapsing legs, had been advancing at a stunning speed, and now hurtled onward, even as it fell. One Jade Falcon pilot, who observed it, told Joanna that her ’Mech seemed to turn into a missile as it shot forward, its arc propelling it ahead on its own flight, a flight that sent it crashing into the Summoner.
Lyonor should not have died. It was just two ’Mechs crashing into each other, something that happened often enough in BattleMech combat. It was just a desperate final burst from the Stormcrow’s lasers that penetrated Lyonor’s already damaged cockpit as the two ’Mechs fell. It was just a damned combination of chance events that sent the red laser burst through Lyonor’s chest and then, if she had any life left in her, crushed her as the pair of machines fell into a shattering and shattered pile.
Lyonor should not have died. It was not logical. Joanna’s Hellbringer should not have stumbled. It should not have even touched the Stormcrow. The Stormcrow should just have fallen into the traditional warrior tableau of battle. The Summoner, by all the rules of chance, should not have been in the falling Stormcrow’s path.
But it happened. It all happened. And Lyonor would never fight for the Bloodname she craved.
• • •
Afterward, the storm over, Joanna oversaw Lyonor’s body being extracted from her Summoner. She knew from the onset that Lyonor was dead. Her face was peaceful, as if satisfied she had died bravely. The scar on her cheek was so faint now, Joanna could barely discern it.
Joanna watched the body being carried away. My mistake, she thought, if I had been late to the fight, Lyonor would be alive. Then she seemed to hear Lyonor’s voice in her mind, saying, Not your mistake. We fight, we die. Is that not what is meant by the Way of the Clans?
Every muscle of Joanna’s body ached from
