Fire at Will

by Blaine Lee Pardoe

  “Sir,” Schnell said nervously. “This is an unusual request. We usually allow the news people to use their best judgment.”

  The duke grinned, but not unkindly. “Trust me, Leutnant. And another thing—get our crews out here to clean up this battle site. Nothing will make a local population dig in their heels like a constant reminder of defeat. Get it buried and disposed of.”

  “Yes, sir.” Schnell saluted.

  “And, Leutnant?”

  “Sir?”

  He turned and pointed to the fallen VTOL, the one he had taken down. “Start with that wreck behind the hill.”

  9

  LCAF Staging Base Boelcke

  Cavanaugh II

  Bolan Military Province, Lyran Commonwealth

  3 September 3137

  Trillian Steiner sat with Klaus Wehner in her ad hoc office, studying the reports from the Lyran Intelligence Corps. Klaus continued to be a godsend. He had organized the data on the first wave of targets and summarized the reports in a succinct manner. She found battle-damage assessments and action reports boring, especially when they were intermixed with intelligence and military data and the countless statistics compiled from battleroms and sensor feeds. Digesting just a single battle could be a daunting task. Klaus made it easier for her by pulling out the details that were of interest to her or worthy of note.

  The office she had adopted as her own was just down the hall from the communications center in Boelcke Base. As JumpShips arrived in-system and transmitted their reports, Klaus compiled the data for her review. Lacking a fully functioning HPG network, this method was the best way to stay on top of what was happening. Duke Vedet had managed to seize the newly operational HPG on Millungera and had already transmitted reports of his success as well as uploaded a wealth of communications traffic detailing the status of Operation Hammerfall. He would be poring over the data with his staff, sorting through the enormous amount of information for slivers of truth and useful intel. Will we arrive at the same conclusions?

  Doubtful.

  Trillian knew the Lyran high command would be performing the same task. She intended to let them do their job with as little interference as possible at this point, other than making sure she was kept up to date on all information. She had a few angles of her own to pursue: there were the classified plans for joint operations with Clan Wolf; there was the expected friction between Duke Vedet and the command staff to manipulate; and there was the Steiner name to use to its best advantage.

  She knew that the high command was deliberately withholding some information from the duke. She heard them whispering “figurehead” when his name was mentioned, and she could practically feel the resentment over his assignment as nominal head of the invasion. Some of this was sour grapes: Vedet was expertly manipulating the media from the field, effectively diminishing the operational role of other commanders who had expected to gain prestige from the long-planned incursion into former Free Worlds League territory. She appreciated the simplicity of not having to ask them to keep Vedet ignorant of some elements of the operation.

  She also appreciated that her name carried weight with high command, especially with the archon’s personal endorsement. She understood that, far from resenting her involvement, most of them felt grateful that she was on the front lines of negotiating peace with the Byzantine governments of the former League. “Better her than me,” they said.

  Her final ace was currently tipping his chair against the wall at one side of her desk, scanning the noteputer logs compiled by Klaus. Roderick Frost came to her office once a day for this meeting—a review of the status of the war, a chance for her most trusted people to evaluate and discuss the situation. Roderick offered a good balance to Klaus. Both men were loyal, but Roderick was family. He was motivated to help her by bonds of blood that, in her opinion (and experience) , always trumped an oath or even personal loyalty. And as a field officer, he sometimes saw things that even Klaus missed. She valued both their perspectives.

  She slid the noteputer across the desk to Roderick and rubbed her eyes. “Tell me, Klaus,” she said, trying to scrub the weariness from her face with her hands, “you’ve been looking at the same reports I have. What do you think?”

  “About what, Lady Steiner?”

  “Let’s start with the situation in the Mark-Stewart Commonwealth.”

  Klaus paused for a moment, and she knew he was organizing his thoughts before he spoke. It was one of the traits she most liked about him. “I would say that they have outperformed their neighbors in the Duchy. So far, they have been surprisingly well prepared for each one of our attacks. While they have lost every encounter, the fighting in that region is costing us many more casualties than we had anticipated.”

  She nodded, arching her spine and then slumping back in her seat. “The Silver Hawk Irregulars are proving to be quite troublesome.”

  Her aide nodded. “They are not fighting according to a doctrine I would have expected. Anson Marik seems to be committing them to action, forcing us to spend resources, then breaking them off and abandoning the field.”

  “Those who fight and run away,” she added, “live to fight another day.”

  “It’s more than that,” Roderick interjected. He rarely spoke during these meetings, so his volunteering an opinion now spoke volumes even before he began his analysis. “No offense, Klaus,” he said, “but there is more going on here than any of us has taken into account. Anson Marik is using the Silver Hawks as irregular forces in the true sense of the word. He is using them to demonstrate to his people that every citizen can fight back against our invasion forces.”

  “And?”

  “On the one hand, the Silver Hawk Irregulars possess a certain mystique in the Free Worlds League. Anson is playing on their reputation to take advantage of the idea they represent, because he knows that you can’t fight and defeat an idea. On the other hand, the Irregulars have never been friendly to the captain-general, and given Marik’s ambition to become the next captain-general, it seems odd that he would choose to reform that particular unit.”

  “What are the military implications?”

  “As long as he doesn’t commit them in force, but rather orders them to hit us, bleed us and run away, he creates hope with the people of his realm.”

  “Sooner or later he will have to commit them in force,” Wehner pointed out.

  Roderick’s face showed that he disagreed with that statement. “Not necessarily. He can spread them out, a lance or two each on a number of worlds. As their reputation grows, people will have more confidence in them and what they represent. Reports already indicate that Marik is using the Silver Hawk Irregulars to mount a resistance movement.” He pulled a noteputer out of the stack and slid it across the desk to Trillian. She picked it up. The small screen showed an image spray-painted on the side of a building. There were pockmarks on the wall near the image but it was clear: a silver eagle outlined in purple. The attached report described an attack on a Lyran checkpoint on Gallatin, a world that had already fallen in the Lyran campaign.

  Roderick explained his logic. “This account was buried in the reports submitted by the garrison forces. I almost overlooked it. They have been hit a few times—bombings, sniper attacks and so on. This symbol, the logo of the Silver Hawks, always appears in some public area near the attacks. The same thing has occurred on Uhura, and we are not even finished with operations on that world. The same pattern of activities, the same symbol.” His casual tone could not detract from how important this information might be.

  “Interesting,” Colonel Wehner said, leaning over the desk to look at the noteputer. “I would consider it too early to call this a true pattern, but I must admit that I’m a little ashamed at missing these two incidents. By your leave, milady, I will take this tidbit to the intelligence officer of the day. They may have overlooked it as well.”

  Trillian nodded and he rose, bowing slightly to her, then stepped out of her office. She remained silent until the door
closed behind him. “Roderick, that was a brilliant bit of analysis.”

  Color bloomed in his cheeks. She hadn’t realized that flattery embarrassed him. “He’s right—it’s too early to say there’s a real pattern emerging. But I do think my call on how Anson is deploying the Silver Hawk Irregulars is right.”

  “How did you spot it?” she asked. He was young, and had been publicly painted as incompetent; yet he was able to spot something that men who saw themselves as his superiors had missed. But then, that was Roderick. Even members of the family had underestimated him for years, and still did—but she saw no need to make that mistake. She deliberately had chosen Roderick for her scheme to offset the actions of Vedet Brewster; Roderick would be her shield to parry any political blows that the duke sought to inflict on her.

  She could see from his face that he understood where the question was coming from; confidence and trust shone from his eyes. “I spent a lot of time with my grandfather as a child. Did you know that he preferred to be addressed as General?”

  She nodded without interrupting. He needs to talk this out.

  “He had more hands-on experience with the Jade Falcons than almost anyone else in the Commonwealth. They took his home world from him. He was consistently passed up for leadership roles by the command staff. He saw the Steiner name as a weight around his neck, Trill. . . . Those are his words, not mine.”

  “He was one of the best archons we’ve had, at a time when we needed a great leader,” Trillian said, proud of her great-uncle. And Adam Steiner had proven himself to be much more than a good general. When the time came, he became a great leader of the Commonwealth.

  “He told me that he hated being remembered as archon. He wanted to be remembered as a good military leader, not for his ability to negotiate politics. But he taught me an important lesson. Some officers bury their head when it comes to the political implications of their actions. They ignore that aspect, leaving it for the diplomats to deal with. Grandpa warned me that was a mistake. He made sure I understood that every military action had some political impact.

  “When I look at reports like these, I remember what he taught me. I look for patterns. In this case, I think I can see what Anson Marik is planning. If I’m right, it is going to be hard for us to engage and take down the Irregulars. He needs them to inspire his people, give them a reason and hope to fight.”

  She suppressed a smile. He’s got a unique and valuable military mind . . . and his superiors wanted him permanently denied a command position. “I’m glad to hear that you study the politics of situations, Roderick. I may have a puzzle for you. I heard from Melissa today. She’s concerned about the advances that Duke Vedet is making.”

  The young officer nodded. “The duke is a formidable presence, and has been succeeding pretty dramatically. This war is far from over, but the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey is not strong enough to hold him or us back. Melissa is right to be worried about him.”

  “What would you do to keep him in check?”

  He paused. “I would overtax him. Take away some resources, force him to slow down. He’s not trained on the logistics it takes to wage war. He’s used to fighting battles across a table in a boardroom. He’s chosen to put himself on the front lines in order to suck up some personal glory, which is good for the press back home but it doesn’t help him coordinate an operation of this scale. The high command has taken up some of the slack, but so far this has been manageable. Give him a few more things to worry about and he might just get overwhelmed.”

  She smiled. “Precisely my thought. We have a contingency or two in place to accomplish just that. The first of these is an operation in Skye.”

  “You’re planning on taking on the Jade Falcons?” He sat straight up as if he were ready to bolt out the door to his BattleMech.

  “No, no, opening another front like that would create problems that none of us wants. Our plan is to hit worlds that the Jade Falcons haven’t taken yet. It allows us to take on the role of ‘liberator’ while denying the duke the use of some troops, particularly the Royal regiments in the reserve. What do you think?”

  Roderick mulled it over for a second. “Sounds good. Is he aware of the Skye plans?”

  “Well, we included them in the operational briefing,” Trillian replied. “But whether he paid any attention to them is a big question. Even if he looked at that part of the plan, he has no idea that the archon is about to make them active.”

  Roderick chuckled. “That should piss him off.”

  “That’s the plan. And we’ve actually got a few other surprises planned that only a handful of officers are aware of—plans that could change the entire face of this war.” She slid the small desktop holoviewer from the corner of the desk to the center. Roderick’s eyes were fixed on it. “Obviously, what I’m going to show you is for your eyes and ears only. I trust you implicitly, and I believe it will be to our advantage for you to know what else is in play.”

  She snapped the data cube into place and turned on the unit. A small image of Archon Melissa Steiner flickered to life. She was wearing a smart dark blue business suit and was obviously recording from her office. She didn’t move or speak until Trillian pressed her thumb to the security pad and leaned forward so her retina could be scanned. A small red line passed over her face, grabbing the scan, validating the data cube.

  The archon moved about her office, pacing slowly. “Trillian, from the initial reports I have seen, it appears that the first wave has been quite successful, especially in the Duchy of Tamarind-Abbey. I extend to you my congratulations and thanks.”

  She paused in front of her massive desk. “I am sending you this message because of disturbing evidence that has been sent to me earlier today. Our operatives on Arc-Royal and agents in the Clan Occupation Zone have indicated that Clan Wolf has apparently disappeared. Their garrison units are simply melting away on the front line. This may be an indication that they are fulfilling our bargain, but we still have not received any word from them of their planned military operations. I am letting you know this, per our discussions, so you can plan and act accordingly.

  “Neither of us planned on this turn of events. There is no point in speculating about the implications of this, but we may wish to operate as if the Wolves will not be striking at the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth according to the timetable we discussed.” Her voice was grave. “While our plans did not rely on the Wolf attacks, we had hoped that they would fulfill their end of the bargain.”

  “Take care, Trillian. Please pass on my best wishes to Roderick as well. I have complete confidence in both of you.” With those words the holographic image faded away. Trillian turned off the unit and looked at her cousin. Roderick’s face was more serious than before, and he was frowning.

  “You two made a deal with Clan Wolf?” he said in a tone that just missed being accusatory.

  “Yes.” She wanted to explain more, to tell him what Melissa had been thinking. It took a lot of restraint to hold back. Roderick was smart. He had put the interests of the Lyran Commonwealth ahead of his personal interests before; would he do it again?

  “The Clans are not to be toyed with.”

  “We’re not toying with them,” she said. “This is serious. Enlisting Clan Wolf’s aid ensures the success our people expect.”

  “Generations of House Steiner have faced down the Clans. I’m not telling you anything you don’t know, Trill. You and Melissa are playing a dangerous game. The Clans don’t just disappear. Something has happened—or something has changed. Either way, the rules of the game are now different.” He was not judging her, he was just stating facts. If he ever wants to give up a career in the military, he could be a powerful asset in the Diplomatic Corps.

  “Their disappearing right now is unexpected, I’ll grant you, but negotiating with them was a gamble worth taking.”

  He cocked his head slowly to the right. “Was it? For all you know, the Wolves have lied to you from the start. Right now they could be working with
our enemies against us. The Clans are treacherous. They have honor, but they are willing to redefine honor to fit their needs.”

  When she had first seen the message from Melissa, she had to admit that the thought of betrayal had crossed her mind. At the time of their meeting, she had believed that Patrik Fetladral was being honest with her, but now she wondered. Roderick had simply given voice to what she had already contemplated in the back of her mind. “It doesn’t matter now,” she said flatly.

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  Trillian smiled. “There’s nothing we can do one way or another at this point. All we can do is issue the orders to commit some of our reserves to the strikes in Skye. Whatever the Wolves are doing, we can’t control it. We simply have to take them at their word.”

  Roderick opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but was unable to form the words. Slowly he closed his jaw, then flashed her the grin she had known her entire life. “You know, you’re right. There is nothing we can do about the Wolves. What we can do, however, is give Duke Vedet a few new ulcers.”

  “You surprise me. I thought you didn’t like politics.”

  Roderick grinned broadly, with a confidence she hadn’t seen until this meeting. “This isn’t politics— this is family. What you and Melissa have cooked up, that’s up to you. But Duke Vedet obviously has his eye on the throne. That seat belongs to the Steiners . . . not the Brewsters. That makes him fair game as far as I’m concerned.”

  Occupation Headquarters, Governor’s Palace

  Lancaster, Millungera

  Occupied Territory, Lyran Commonwealth

  Six Days Later

  “That bitch,” he said, staring at the image of Trillian Steiner on his holoviewer. Duke Vedet had watched the recording three times, and three times he swore. He wasn’t as mad at Trillian Steiner as he was at himself. He had underestimated her—no, he had underestimated the archon. Melissa is more crafty than I gave her credit for. It’s a mistake I won’t make again.