Adventures in Babysitting (BattleTech)

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"All enemy Mechs are down. Repeat: all enemy Mechs are down," she called over the comm. "Let's get the salvage teams out. Looks like we just doubled ourselves."

 

Back at their camp, Kat and her lance helped escort the two prisoners and salvage teams to and from the base. The techs immediately pounced on the Clan Mechs to learn about the advanced weaponry and technology.

Kat had an interrogation room set up along with holding cells for the Clansmen she held. The commander, a woman, fought everyone and was placed shackled in a guarded cell. The other Clansmen, a man, went peaceably where guided and gave no arguments.

Kat had him brought to a small room with a table and chairs inside, motioning to the guards to be ready. "Have a name, soldier?" she asked, leaning her folded arms across the tabletop.

The Clansman sat rigidly in his chair and kept his gaze on Kat. "I am called Paul and I am a former bondsman of Clan Jade Falcon." His mouth curved in a wry smile. "Now I am your bondsman. I pledge myself to serve you and your Clan, on my rede."

She gave him a funny look of confusion. "I'm not part of any clan, Paul. Besides, why would you want to be part of your enemy? You should be acting more like your friend: fighting tooth and nail."

"Jayne Anderson does this because of how she was treated. You fought without honor. You attacked us as a group instead of one-on-one combat." Paul closed his eyes, murmuring under his breath what sounded like a prayer. "I am willing to be a bondsman because I have seen that some Inner Sphere people, such as yourself, can fight with honor when asked."

Snapping her fingers, she yelped, "You were in that big-nosed Mech that ran away!"

"I did not 'run'," he growled. "The Trial of Possession was between you and Bers. I had no place except as witness. And my Mech is called a Cougar, not Big-Nosed."

"What are the names of the other ones?" Kat grew excited with this information. "What were their loadouts? What kind of weapon was that blue-arcy-lightning gun?"

"You have two Cougars, two Kit Foxes and a Black Lanner, if all survived your unwarranted attack." She rolled her eyes as he spoke. "I must congratulate you on a good capture of a star of Jade Falcon Mechs. You will need them when the rest of the cluster strikes this planet."

Kat's blood went cold at Paul's words. This wasn't just a poking at defenses. This was an all-out invasion of the Sphere by the Clans.

 

Moving quickly and efficiently, Kat gave orders for everyone to get their stuff and get to the spaceport. The Simon, Alex and Ben gave her looks of confusion. "Our contract is void as of yesterday," she told them. "There's nothing here to guard anymore. If anyone here wants to stay, you can." She made certain not only her lancemates heard, but the techs, too. "Mechwarriors can keep their own Mechs, but any of the five salvaged today are property of Claws of the Cat merc company. You want to stay and have the Clans fulfill your death wish, you can do so with your own stuff and not mine.

"I'm taking myself and anyone who wants to the spaceport. We're leaving ASAP. Someone in the Sphere needs to know what happened here." Kat waited for people to make their decisions.

 

Alex was in his wanzer in a few moments, stomping after the boss. Laying low was fine, but he wasn;t going to die here. Time to scarper, before these guys' buddies showed up, large as life and twice as ugly.