(Battletech/Doctor Who) Operation: Revival

Cursed Legacy - 3

53 kilometers east of Detroit Lake
Cascade Mountains
Washington
North America
30th March, 3052

Vlad was exhausted.

He had been sleeping only when sleep threatened to overtake him in the command couch of his Red Wolf. In the last three days he had accumulated no more than seven hours of sleep in total.

To Vlad even that was too much.

He knew he was close to his prey. He had almost walked right into the ComGuard column heading south a day and a half ago. He had been dozing in the cockpit of his small war machine instead of paying attention to his sensors.

The ComGuard force was far too big for him to consider taking on with his lone ProtoMech so he had quickly turned around and moved out of any scout forces sensor range.

Something had told Vlad, though, that his prey was not amongst these ComGuard forces. They weren't alert enough to be escorting such an important cargo as the Doctor, nor would he be allowed to remain behind. He was just too important. That left only one solution.

The Doctor was ahead of the column.

Vlad had raced onwards through the trees and over foothills in his search. He was relentless and it had finally paid off. There, at the very edge of his sensor range, was a lone blip. There was the Doctor.

A wave of adrenaline brought him back to full alertness as he raced the Red Wolf forwards and to the east of the radar blip, always keeping it on the edge of his scope. He knew that no Inner Sphere machine could match the range of his sensors so felt quite safe from detection as he skirted around his prey until he was ahead of them, directly along their path of traverse.

When he was certain he had achieved a perfect position Vlad powered down his machines fusion engine to minimal levels and switched his sensors over to passive mode. Then he waited.

* * * *

The wheeled APC struggled getting through and across the rough terrain around the Cascade ranges. It had been slower going than Justin had feared it would and he knew that if they were caught in this terrain they were done for.

Several times he had considered abandoning the vehicle but its armour and turret mounted machine guns convinced him that the protection was worth the delays. Still he hated the thought of being cooped up in this rat trap should they stumble across hostiles.

The Doctor however seemed completely unconcerned by their lack of speed. He spent his time either sleeping (at least, he appeared to be sleeping) or scribbling notes and drawings on a small paper notebook.

Justin had, once, tried to get a glimpse of what the Doctor was scribbling but he had quickly snapped the notebook shut with a stern look in Justin's direction.

"Someone once warned me against spoilers. I tend to agree with them."

Justin, chastised, had sat back down with a grumble.

"Sir," it was the Driver, "we're not too far from Detroit Lake. Should we detour off that way to replenish our water supplies?"

"No, keep moving. We've got enough to last us another..." Justin was suddenly cut off by the wailing of an alarm.

"Contact! We have a contact at ten o'clock moving in fast. It's a hostile, Sir, war book confirms a Red Wolf ProtoMech. Looks to be alone."

"Damn it!" Justin cursed. "Stop the carrier! Everybody out and into cover!" thenslightly quieter, "Doctor, you stay with me."

The APC lurched to a halt and the large infantry bay door at the rear began its descent. Before it had touched the ground the small infantry squad was disembarking along with Justin who was closely followed by his charge.

Finding a place that would give sufficient cover from a ProtoMech was going to be more than difficult in this wooded terrain so Justin simply found the densest clump of foliage he could and he and the Doctor crouched down in it.

About twenty seconds later the ProtoMech strode into sight ten meters in front of the APC. A single burst from its arm mounted energy weapon sloughed armour from the front of the vehicle and ate into the front wheels, ensuring that the APC would be going nowhere.

The click of external speakers coming to life sounded through the woods. "I am Vlad Ward, lately of the Clan Wolf. You will give me the Doctor or be destroyed."

A few meters away a ComGuard soldier stepped out from behind a large tree with a man-portable SRM launcher swinging up to his shoulder. The Red Wolf swung and discharged its weapon once again just as a tongue of flame ejected from the back of the launcher. There was a huge explosion as the beam of energy exploded the missile in its tube, followed by a groan of wood and a crash as the tree fell to the ground. Of the soldier there was no trace.

"This is your last warning. I will kill every one of you if I have to but I WILL be taking the Doctor back to present him to my Khan."

Before Justin even realized what he was doing the Doctor stood up and stepped out of the foliage he was hiding in.

"Your Khan, Vlad Ward? You can take me but it will not be back to your Khan. Your Khan is dead."

Vlad laughed. "You lie, Doctor. Ulric Kerensky lives."

The Doctors voice lowered but, somehow, everyone could hear every word as clearly as if he were standing beside them.

"The man you know as Ulric Kerensky is gone, Vlad. All that is left of him is the body that now serves as the host for Fenric. You know this, don't you? You've seen it."

There was a brief few seconds of silence then the whir of actuators as the weapon arm of the Red Wolf moved, pointing directly at the Doctor.

Inside his cockpit tears were streaming down Vlad's face. Ulric was right, I am no Wolf. Wolves do not shed tears! What has happened to you, Ulric? His mind echoed with the Doctor's words. Host for Fenric.

What did that even mean, Vlad did not know. The Doctor was trying to trick him, to confuse him, but he would not be fooled.

An image passed through his mind then, the image of Ulric standing in the ruined reception area, his eyes ablaze with evil and his fingers ablaze with energy, energy that reached out to Vlad and that could easily have killed him there and then. What has happened to you, Ulric?

On his heads-up-display the targeting reticule hovered over the form of the Doctor, pulsing the gold of a target lock. Vlad's finger was tense on the trigger. He could end this all now. He could strike the Doctor down with a lance of energy from the hand of his machine, just like...

Ulric.

There was a sudden clarity in his mind. Him, Vlad Ward, sitting inside his machine, controlling it just as there was something, this Fenric that the Doctor spoke of, sitting inside Ulric and controlling him. Vlad realized then what had to be done.

The Doctor stared into the dark muzzle of the weapon waiting for the blast that would never come. With a whine of actuators the Red Wolf's arm lowered.

"Can you help him, Doctor?" came Vlad's voice from the speakers. "Can you bring Ulric back?"

The Doctor stared up at the war machine with sadness and pity in his eyes. "No, I'm sorry, Vlad. I can't bring Ulric back but we can save the honour of Clan Wolf, if you will help me?"

There was another pause as Vlad thought about what the Doctor had said.

"If the man cannot be saved, if all that is left is his name and his memory... then that is what we must save."