351 Side Story Chapter 3

With their primary target dead, the Bright Lance mercenaries headed for safety.

They were stretched out in a line across three hills, two rivers, a plain and a gorge. At the safest end, the Hedgehog Heavy Mech slowly turned to lunker back towards the Asred patrol zone. Behind it, Captain Lance in the Acrobat quickly caught up to escort it safely. Next in the line was the Goshawk Sniper, which quickly descended on their position and joined up.

Farther back, two Skirmishers were still running away from several Pawns. Last of all one Light Scout sneaked through dangerous territory trying its best not to draw attention to itself as it retreated.

Beeps announced an incoming transmission. Grand Master Ay'eni was calling. "Captain Lance! That was a job well done! Well done indeed!"

Captain Lance went straight to the point. "Did you know it was a Lordling?"

"Uh… not exactly. We had suspicions, but it didn't matter, so…"

"Didn't matter?! We have a Baroness out for our blood, and she's not stopping for anything!"

"With that in mind, Captain Lance, please divert your course to avoid our defense zone. We'll send a dropship to pick you up from the eastern mountains."

"Divert…?! Blast it, Ay'eni, if that Baroness catches up…"

"We'll throw in a sizeable bonus."

"What kind of bonus is worth…"

"Triple your original mission's pay."

Captain Lance fell silent. They had been offered fifty thousand credits for this last job. Tripling that… one hundred and fifty thousand Tau credits was enough to buy a whole new Light Mech. It was good money for a mission in which they sustained zero losses.

But that was assuming they could maintain that. Running off to the East Mountains meant quadrupling their retreat route. It was obvious that the Quarin intended to use the Bright Lance Mercenaries as bait to draw the Baroness away from their precious mana vein. If the Baroness could simply bypass the vein and continue her rampage south past them, they could continue to mine the vein indefinitely, until the next overwhelming threat loomed.

Paying an extra hundred thousand credits for that seemed like a very small price to pay.

"Two hundred thousand!" Captain Lance gritted his teeth and negotiated for a better bonus. "On top of the original payment!"

"Fine." Ay'erin didn't even wince. The chase to the East Mountains would take the mercenaries and the Mitigok an entire day. That meant at the very least, they would gain an extra day of mining. Their gains in a single day of mining could easily reached the value of a million credits. Furthermore, this move could potentially allow them to keep mining for a week, maybe even more!

Assuming, that is, that the Bright Lance Mercenaries were wiped out in the process. If that happened, the Baroness might very well just turn around and head straight back toward the mana vein…

[Bright Lance Mercenaries…!] the voice hissed directly in his mind. It came out of nowhere. It was everywhere. Lance stumbled, the Star Wizard reeling as it imitated his actions in holographic interface. There in the cockpit surrounded by coherent light projecting an image of the acrobat around him as he floated in a control sphere formed of forcefields, Lance raised his hand to rub his head. Out on the open field, the Star Wizard likewise raised a hand to its head.

"So much for psi-shielding…" Lance grunted, as ripples of mocking anger flooded the land and sky.

Again, that tremor, this time closer. Everyone felt it, everyone knew what it was. It wasn't some Knight jumping around nearby. This level of psionic strength could only be…

"Captain Lance! The Princess is after us!" the Scout yelped.

There was no need to ask which one. It was definitely the same one they mistook for a Duchess before. Back then, thinking it was still evolving and in cocoon form, they thought they could rush it, push through its defensive fields, and then finish it off with mini-nukes.

It turned out that they were an entire stage of evolution off the mark. This wasn't some rising Baroness beginning her attempt to evolve into a Duchess. This was a mature Duchess already on the verge of emerging a Princess, and the process was almost completed. They should have guessed when they found the defensive fields surprisingly strong, but they pushed through and nuked her anyway…

That, of course, was why she was now chasing them halfway across the planet, and neither hell nor high water could bar her path.

"Could the Baroness have told her she saw us?" the Sniper ask.

"You think?!" the Artillery pilot was the most nervous of them all, sitting in the slowest mech they had.

Incoming transmission. Ay'eni called. "Lance! What did you do? The Baroness turned around! She's coming straight for us!"

"It's the Princess! She's after us!" Lance explained grimly. "Get out of here! Get out while you still can!"

"But…" Ay'eni struggled between greed and survival for a long three seconds. "Fine! Take care of yourselves! We're pulling out! Everybody, pack up and prepare for departure!"

"There's no time! Get out NOW!" Lance barked. "We can't risk the Carrier!"

"Blast it!" Ay'eni slammed his fist on his armrest. "Helm! Take us into high orbit! Right now! We'll have to bring everyone else back on dropships!"

By then, the Skirmishers had caught up to Lance, leaving only the Scout trying to catch up to them. They were within sight of the East Mountain, but even as they ran, tremor after tremor grew stronger.

"She's getting closer!" the Artillery pilot gulped, desperately wishing his mech could move faster.

"I see her!" the Scout behind them yelped. "Sending you video!"

On screen, Lance saw a tiny dot zip up into the sky, and then drop down again, much nearer and more visible than before. It landed and the image shook.

"Oh, scrap." Lance glanced at his map feed. The Scout was already nearby, which meant that the Princess was almost on top of them too. "Asred! Asred, we need evac, NOW!"

Ay'eni responded. "I've already diverted the dropship directly to your current position. It should be there in fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes?! We don't even have five!" Lance barked. "If we don't get evac in the next two minutes, we're all going to die!"

There was a short silence. Then, "Which next of kin do you want me to send your personal belongings to?"

"Ay'eni!" Lance howled.

"Fine! I'll set down a beacon for a rendezvous! You have two minutes to reach it and evac!" Ay'eni growled. "Let it never be said that we Quarin treat our hirelings as worthless!"

A beacon appeared on his map.

Sniper groaned. "Scrap. It's too far. We're not going to make it."

"At least… not all of us are going to make it." Artillery said in a deathly tone.

"That's it. We're cutting our losses. Artillery, eject. Home in your ejection pod straight for the Asred or the Beacon. Either way works." Lance gave up on the Heavy at that point. "Can everyone else make it?"

"Probably." Skirmisher 1 hesitated.

"Skirmishers, head straight for it. Don't stop for anything. Just run." The two Skirmishers had a good chance of getting away. They were outfitted for mobility, after all. "Scout? Can you make it?"

"I think so, yeah. But the Princess… she's going to catch up before we get there. You know that."

Lance gritted his teeth. "Not if I draw her away first. I can eject later…"

"NO!" four voices exclaimed at the same time.

"Boss, don't! Leave it to me! I'll draw her away and eject later." Scout offered.

"I can't ask you to do that. It's my responsibility…"

"Forget responsibility! Boss, you're in the only truly valuable piece of hardware we have left! We're all counting on the payday that's coming when we sell that Acrobat! We have to get it back safely, no matter what!"

Lance paused. Then, "Sniper, can you come and take over the Acrobat?"

"What?!"

"I have an idea."