THE GREAT CELESTIAL THREAT

  Sun-Tzu shook his head. I can't afford to lose control. Ever. Can't you see that?

  Isis stopped kneading his shoulders, stepped around and perched herself against the corner of his desk. "So what do you intend to do about Kai?"

  Kill him, if I can, Sun-Tzu answered silently. Kai would forever be the greatest threat to his position as Chancellor, despite any self-avowed denial that he did not want the Celestial Throne. Neutralize him, if I cannot.

  "I'll think of something," was all he said. If I am to regain control of this war, I will have to.

  Isis smiled....

  BATTLETECH

  LE5753

  THE KILLING FIELDS

  Book Two of The Capellan Solution

  LOREN L. COLEMAN

  ROC

  Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A. Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

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  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

  First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

  First Printing, August 1999 10 98765432 1

  Copyright ©FASA Corporation, 1999 All rights reserved

  Series Editor: Donna Ippolito

  Mechanical Drawings: Duane Loose and the FASA art department Cover art by Bruce Jensen

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  BATTLETECH, FASA, and the distinctive BATTLETECH and FASA logos are trademarks of the FASA Corporation, 1100 W. Cermak, Suite B305, Chicago, IL 60608.

  Printed in the United States of America

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

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  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."

  This book is dedicated to my editor at FASA, Donna Ippolito. For her patience and support.

  Acknowledgments

  The list keeps on growing. Without the following people, The Capellan Solution would either not have happened or not turned out so well as it has.

  Jim LeMonds, for those first classes. My parents, who remain two of my best supporters. The Orlando Group, with a big "welcome back" to Ray Sainz and thanks to Russell Loveday for the chem/bio/rad details (blame him).

  Mike Stackpole, who continues to be a good friend and advisor. Always, Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, without whom I'd have given up too early.

  The FAS A BattleTech team of Bryan Nystul and Randall Bills. Jordan Weisman and Ross Babcock, for creating such a fun universe in which to play. Chris Hartford, Chris Hussey, Chris Trossen—for their comments. Annalise Raziq, for her Internet assistance. Donna Ippolito, my editor at FASA, who lets me get away with murder—literally, that is.

  BattleTech fans Maurice Fitzgerald and Warner Doles, who contributed to charity for their appearances. Samuel Fang, for his help with Chinese terminology. Group W and Khorsakov's Cossacks, for the loan of their units. Robert Kyde, for miniatures support.

  My agent, Don Maass, and his staff.

  My family—Heather, Talon, Conner, and Alexia. For putting up with me through this project, and the next.

  Prologue

  Ho-lu Lowlands, Denbar

  Xin Sheng Commonality, Capellan Confederation

  21 February 3062

  The blue-white arc of particle projection cannon fire snaked into the thick stand of trees and sliced low into a large elm. Moisture in the wood flashed to steam, splintering the bole in its rush to expand. The energy stream ate up the splinters and carved deeper, cutting through to scorch earth on the far side even as the majestic tree began to topple.

  Sitting ten meters off the ground in the cockpit of his new Emperor assault BattleMech placed Major Warner Doles nearly at a height with the tops of the trees. Certainly he out-massed them. The falling elm brushed against the BattleMech, branches snapping off with rifle-shot echoes and leaving smears of green moss against the Emperor's dull bronze finish. The ninety-ton machine barely shook, its widespread stance keeping it firmly rooted to the ground while the equilibrium feedback from the major's neurohelmet dealt automatically and easily with the light tremor. Major Doles noted the event but otherwise paid it little heed. BattleMechs, war machines built mostly along humanoid lines, heavily armed and armored, had reigned supreme on the battlefields for well over three hundred years. Nature couldn't compete. And in an assault-class machine especially, about the only thing a MechWarrior had to be concerned with was another BattleMech.

  Dragging his targeting reticle over a distant stand of trees, mostly elm and cypress so close to Denbar's Huai Bayou, the major searched his head's up display and also through the ferroglass cockpit viewscreen for a target. The Emperor's targeting system apparently found something among the trees and hanging moss that his own vision missed, the reticle flashing the alternating red and gold pattern of a partial weapons lock. He returned fire with twin large lasers, not surprised to see the ruby streams miss wide. A few more scattered bolts of gemcolored laser fire flashed between the trees as his Blackwind Lancers and equally hidden members of the Third Confederation Reserves sniped at each other.

  We only need to buy a few more seconds, he thought, dismissing the errant laser fire as he gauged the final moments of his battle plan. Keep them pinned down. He knew that the Third Reserves had nowhere to go; outnumbered, their backs to the bayou and his Lancers pressing in on three sides. They simply waited for the final charge and watched for a miracle. A position not wholly unlike that of the St. Ives Compact.

  Doles swallowed against a suddenly rancid taste. Now there was a thought he could have lived without, at least for a little while longer.

  The St. Ives Compact had once been a Capellan Commonality until splitting off from the Confederation during the Fourth Succession War thirty years prior. The war against Houses Davion and Steiner left the Capellan Confederation in shambles, too weak to prevent the loss of the Compact. So Candace Liao had ruled her small state in relative peace, separate from the madness that had later reigned in her sister Romano's larger realm and sharing only the common Asian heritage of their family and national culture. Later, under the relative stability Romano's son Sun-Tzu finally brought to the realm, the Compact again began to worry over the possibility of Confederation aggression.

  The Compact realized those fears soon enough. Barely two years ago—Doles could hardly believe it so recent— Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao, then also First Lord of the resurrected Star League, announced his intention to tour the Confederation-Compact border. Doles had been executive officer of the Blackwind Lancers' second battalion, serving under Major Tricia Smithson. Her near-fanatical hatred of Sun-Tzu had only been intensified by the Chancellor's repeated slurs against the Compact and the pro-Confederation fervor raised by his tour. Smithson had jumped the border with her battalion in an attempt to remove what she considered the final threat to the Compact's sovereignty.

  An event that might be entered into the Compact's history as the beginning of the end, Doles thought, his grip on the Emperor's control sticks knuckle-white. Despite what was shaping up to be a victory here, he knew the Compact was not faring well in its fight to remain a free and independent state.

  Sun-Tzu Liao's entire tour had been a setup, the Capellan Chancellor looking for any pretext or provocation to bring forces against the St. Ives Compact and so reclaim the territory for his Confederation. The first wave came in as "Star League peacekeepers" occupying six Compact worlds, with a second and third wave already in motion. In hindsight, few people no longer doubted that Sun-Tzu would have found or engineered some excuse. But the belated rationale helped Doles and his warriors not at all. None could forget the capture of Smithson by House Hiritsu forces, followed closely by Duchess Liao's condemnation of the Lancers and their return to the Compact in disgrace. Black days for the Lancers. Bad karma.

  But the gods, if they existed, took pity on the Lancers. Or perhaps they are not yet tired of the amusement we provide. The very speed that had helped the Confederation establish a solid presence in the Compact also allowed the remnants of the Lancers' second battalion to slip away and begin a resistance effort on Denbar. Militia armor and BattleMechs were quickly supplemented with captured machines. Duchess Liao's daughter Cassandra, a fine MechWarrior in her own right, made contact then and began irregular supply runs. Usually the supplies consisted of salvage from the guerrilla campaign her St. Ives Lancers were waging against the occupation forces. Occasionally she smuggled in brand new equipment, like the Emperor that was Doles' current BattleMech.

  And so the war continued. A civil
war, delayed three decades but finally being waged as days melded into weeks and then weeks became months. Doles often wondered when it would end, and how, but then doubted he would live to see it.

  As if summoned by the thought, a quick burst of static sounded over the comm set built into his neurohelmet before the filters cut in and dampened it.

  "Major, we're set," a voice made tinny and distant by transmission whispered in his ear. Captain Samuel Fang, his exec, reporting that the final units had moved into place to box the Third Confederation Reserve against Huai Bayou.

  "Wo dong le." Understood. Major Doles punched up an increased magnification on one of his auxiliary screens, focusing in on the heavy stand of trees hiding the Third Reserves to the east of him. Now we see how confident they are. "First units, forward," he commanded.

  From screening cover north and south of his position two BattleMech lances broke from the treeline at a full run, heading into the no man's land that separated the opposing forces. Two Wraiths led the southern charge, Free Worlds League machines captured by Cassandra Allard-Liao on Indicass and delivered to his Lancers. A Nightsky led out the northern lance. If the Third has any real fight left to them, or if there is more than the single company I think we have trapped, they'll break cover to meet the charge.

  Response from the Reserves was quick, but lacking in commitment. A small flurry of brightly colored streams and pulses flew out from the woods down-range, the machines remaining in the cover of the trees. A single PPC arced out with its manmade lightning to score against the lead Wraith, the coruscating stream of energy particles sloughing away armor from the Wraith's right side. Autocannon tracers sparked briefly in flight, one set marking the stream of depleted uranium slugs that chewed into the Nightsky's right leg.

  Then an older Catapult design broke cover long enough to launch a single spread of missiles at the second Wraith, paying for its temerity when no less than a dozen Lancer BattleMechs opened up from their places of concealment to slice away the remaining armor protecting its torso. Three converging streams of autocannon fire ripped across the Catapult's open chest, probing deep and chewing away engine shielding as well as cutting free its gyro. As if his Lancers had reached in and pulled the still-beating heart from some monster of fable, the Catapult took two faltering steps and crashed to the ground.

  Doles overrode his warrior's cheers and comments by cutting in the master circuit on his comm panel. There was still work to do—a battle to be won.

  "All units, advance," he ordered, throttling the Emperor into what passed for running speed among assault 'Mechs.

  At roughly fifty-five kilometers per hour, Doles knew his machine set no speed records but crossed a battlefield quickly enough. His first step snapped more branches off the fallen elm and brought ninety tons down on its thick bole, crushing it. The tree shifted slightly, throwing a quick hitch into his second step, but the bulky neurohelmet he wore fed his own sense of equilibrium down into the massive gyro that kept so much metal upright and moving.

  Four more lances surged forward, paced by the Emperor and bearing straight in on the Third Reserves' position. Two lances fielded only three 'Mechs, short one machine each due to previous battlefield losses. The faster lances running ahead now angled out to bracket the eastern stand of woods, in preparation for curling in at the back of the Reserves and effectively boxing them.

  With the Lancer force exposed and the Third still in hiding, the Confederation force possessed a slight tactical advantage that Warner Doles believed negated by his superior strategic position, or at least would be very soon. Still, the Reserves used what they had. No enemy MechWarrior repeated the Catapult's mistake and broke cover, instead pouring intense fire into the Lancer formations from concealment. One Lancer Wraith stumbled to the ground, its left leg amputated at the knee by laser fire, then the light lances were around the edge of the treeline and making for the rear. A furious assault combination of autocannon, lasers, and a PPC gutted a Lancer Blackjack, its fusion engine releasing a fireball that disintegrated the medium-weight machine. Its pilot ejected safely, but a vicious Confederation warrior turned his lasers skyward, burning the Lancer MechWarrior and his parafoil to a cinder.

  With no time to mourn his lost warrior as the Emperor gained the eastern treeline, Doles knocked smaller trees aside in search of targets. A wash of moss smeared against his viewscreen, but not so much that he couldn't see the enemy Vindicator looming before him. The Emperor shrugged off the PPC discharge leveled at it while its own large lasers cut deep into the smaller BattleMech's right side and leg. Fragmenting slugs from the Emperor's twin LB-X class autocannon scoured off more armor, and a few fragments searched out flaws and gaping wounds in the armor. The Vindicator fell under the barrage, and a savage kick from the Emperor caved in its torso.

  Doles left it behind, broken and out of the battle.

  He continued to wade forward through foliage and weapons fire, at times fighting alongside one of his warriors, then beset by two of the struggling Third Confederation Reserves before the tide of battle swept him into another dense maze of massive tree limbs and hanging moss, which he tore down with gargantuan hands. Heat levels in the cockpit slowly crept higher as the fusion plant driving the Battle-Mech continued spiking in order to meet the constant demand for power. Sweat runneled from his brow and down his arms and legs.

  The Emperor's sensors screamed out a warning only an instant before two Gauss slugs tore into the 'Mech's right side, rocking it onto one foot and nearly sending it down to the moist earth. Warner Doles wrenched against his control sticks, manipulating the wide-bore barrels that made up the Emperor's arms to help balance himself. If not for a nearby cypress that caught his 'Mech's shoulder, he likely would have gone down.

  A Pillager shouldered its way through a light stand of fir trees and into Doles' rear right quarter, firing its powerful Gauss rifles. An impressive assault machine produced by the Compact, it was no doubt salvage from a previous battle. This was no 'Mech for a company commander either. Could we have run a battalion or even the regimental command company to ground?

  Two more of the heavy Gauss slugs streaked across the short distance in silvery blurs, slamming into the Emperor's right arm and left leg even as Doles returned fire with everything at his disposal. His lasers chewed ruby light deep into the Pillager's arms and torso. Autocannon spat out twin streams of depleted-uranium ammunition, one stream careening off the shoulder and into the side of the Pillager's head but not penetrating the armor to anything vital.

  Both machines sagged back under the respective onslaughts, but neither succumbed to gravity and so another trade of hellish weapons fire ensued. In the near-scorching atmosphere that flooded his cockpit, Doles' breathing came in ragged gasps. He selected cluster munitions for his LB-X autocannon, hoping to force the breach he'd carved into the Pillager's head. Around them the battle continued, with smaller 'Mechs occasionally nipping in for a strike that was mostly ignored by the monolithic assault machines. With over thirty tons of armor between them, both Doles and his opponent could absorb an incredible amount of damage. But in the next trade only one of the Pillager's Gauss rifles fired. Depleted of ammo, now both rifles fell silent as the Reserves warrior relied on other weaponry. For Doles, whose ammunition load was much fresher, that made the battle only a matter of time.

  It was a laser shot, not his clusters, that finally worked its way past the armor protecting the Pillager's head and decapitated the assault 'Mech.

  Gasping for breath as his heat levels dropped, Warner Doles first noticed the clusters of Blackwind Lancer 'Mechs on his HUD. They were all around him, with no enemy unit to be seen. Staring out through the green-smeared viewscreen, he turned the Emperor in a slow circle. He spotted almost every one of his Lancers visually, through great gaping holes and pathways that other 'Mechs had ripped into the woods. The devastation stretched for hundreds of meters in any direction, and was not limited to vegetation. The hulks of downed 'Mechs could be seen as well, some in pieces and some still burning after fusion engine overloads, the flames scorching nearby trees but not yet setting them ablaze. Impossible to tell which had been his people and which the enemy, though by rough count he couldn't have lost more than three or four warriors while the Third Confederation Reserve had lost a dozen at least.