Vlad echoed Marthe's words in a low voice. "Khan Pryde has it right. An incompetent leader will lose as easily with a Cluster as he will a Binary. A superior leader will win no matter the forces he's given. Each of us should prepare a Binary and choose wherever it is we wish to defend."
Taney stared hard at Vlad. "Is this it, then? You would have us cripple ourselves when we face the greatest threat to the Clans we have yet known?"
Vlad laughed. "It strikes me, Asa Taney, that this is the only threat the Ice Hellions have faced since before the Invasion. If I fear for the Clans, it is because of your participation, not the size of your contribution to our effort."
"You will pay for your temerity, Khan Ward."
"Will I?" Vlad narrowed his eyes. "I have fought against the Inner Sphere and defeated them, Ice Hellion. Once you have done the same, then you can come to me and talk of payment. Until that time, your bluster does not frighten me. If you survive your next battle, come see me."
Osis slammed a fist against his desk. "Enough of this squabbling—you are worse than a sibko. Determine your forces and submit them to Kael Pershaw. He will communicate them to our enemies. Prepare yourselves and your people for this battle. We cannot afford to lose."
6
Star League Expeditionary Force Headquarters
Nicholas' Ford, Strana Mechty
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
19 April 3060
Victor closed his eyes against the burning and craned his head back. His shoulders felt like stone and the top of his skull seemed to have a massive weight on it, pressing down on his brain. He opened his eyes again and let the world swim back into focus. In the center of the tent, in the middle of the U-shaped conglomeration of long tables where his advisors sat, a holographic representation of Strana Mechty's southern continent burned. On it a series of eight stars blinked, each one indicating a battlefield chosen by the defending Clans.
"Thank you all for coming back here. I know we're all short on sleep, but I'm interested in your analysis of the data we've been sent. We have to figure out how much we're going to send against them and who is going to take on what force."
The Precentor Martial leaned forward at his place on the far end of the U's right arm. "It appears, with only a couple of exceptions, that we are facing a Binary of 'Mechs from each participating Clan. The Ice Hellions have added a Point of aerospace fighters, but I suspect that is because one of their Khans, Asa Taney, is a pilot. Hell's Horses have included a Star of armor in their force, in place of a Star of 'Mechs. I suspect it is less because they are contemptuous of us than that they have a tradition of employing armor."
"And a company of twelve of our 'Mechs pretty much matches the ten 'Mechs they have in a Binary, right?"
Focht nodded at Victor. "Correct. Given the information we have here, we can match their firepower fairly closely— even taking into account the new 'Mechs we've never seen in combat before. The datafiles are revealing, but I see no true surprises."
Kai frowned. "It looks as if the Smoke Jaguars shorted themselves a BattleMech and substituted a Point of Elementals."
Victor scratched at the back of his neck. "Osis is an Elemental. It makes sense."
"Highness, if you will permit me, please, I wish to make a request." The woman seated at Focht's left hand glanced at Victor with fiery green eyes. "I would ask that you allow the Free Rasalhague Republic's Third Drakøns to fight the Wolves. No other Clan did so much to destroy our nation."
"I appreciate your desire to face the Wolves, Overstg Dahlstrom, but we cannot pick and choose partners as if this were a dance."
Joan Dahlstrom's head came up. "But you will fight the Smoke Jaguars, will you not? It will be you, our commander, against the ilKhan?"
Hohiro Kurita frowned at her. "Is there someone who has a better claim on the Smoke Jaguars than Victor?"
Dahlstrom: nodded adamantly. "I would think you do, Kurita-san. You were made prisoner by them, Luthien was attacked by them, and they carved their empire out of your nation."
Hohiro smiled easily as his voice came low and confident. "Hai, all these things are true; but here, I am not Hohiro Kurita of the Draconis Combine. Here, I am Hohiro Kurita of the Star League Expeditionary Force. If I let my personal desires interfere with my duty, I let the same forces that brought us here tear us apart. We are a united force, each of us playing our parts. I ask for no favors and expect none."
Joan Dahlstrom chewed her lower lip for a moment, then nodded. "I stand corrected. Please, Highness, ignore my previous request. Use my people where you will."
Victor gave her a reassuring smile. "Thank you, Overstg, for being so cooperative. I hope we can get through the decisions here smoothly so we have time to plan for our attacks. I have some thoughts, and if you will permit me, I'd like to have your feedback on them. Jerry, bring up the Wolves, please."
Jerrard Cranston hit a button on his noteputer, and the display shifted to show an area with a few rolling hills, but otherwise clear terrain. "This is the Kawlm District the Wolves want to defend."
Victor pointed a hand at the display. "As you can see, it is very open and favors their extended-range weapons. What I would like to do is throw a fast force against them, one they've not seen before, and one that can chew them up. Kai, I was thinking you might build a company out of your St. Ives Lancers to take them."
Kai's gray eyes sparkled. "You want me to go after the Wolves?"
"Truth be told, I want you to go after Vlad Ward. Because the Lancers haven't fought the Wolves before, I bet he'll underestimate you. Frankly, this fight is also going to be more freewheeling than most."
Kai shrugged. "Can't be anything I haven't seen on Solaris."
"That's my thinking." Victor hesitated. The Wolves were likely to be one of the toughest units in the field. Here I am sending a good friend out to die. "Are you willing to take the assignment?"
"Victor, if you think this is where my people and I will serve best, we'll be there." A bit of a smirk tightened the corner Kai's mouth. "You remember, back on Arc-Royal, Phelan and I shot each other out in a simulator battle? Phelan had some run-ins with this Vlad. I don't mind finding out how good he really is."
"Let's hope he's not as good as Phelan was." Victor looked next at Hohiro. "Jerry, bring up the Neegdye area."
The image changed from rolling plains to a broken landscape with brush-choked ravines and forests of twisted trees. "Hohiro, this is the area the Blood Spirits have chosen to defend. It's really a maze of ravines and hills, with lots of forest. It completely negates their range advantage, so I don't know why they picked it. Your First Genyosha Regiment is very good at adapting to new situations. I'd like to have you take the Blood Spirits."
Hohiro nodded confidently, "I am reminded of a story of feudal Japan in which a bandit was known for fighting with a kusart-gama—a sickle with a weighted chain attached to the haft. He would ensnare his foes with the chain, then finish them with the blade. Many samurai tried to end his career, but he defeated them all until one wise man engaged him in a bamboo stand. If the Blood Spirits wish to be so foolish as to limit themselves, we will be happy to destroy them."
"Good. They are yours, then."
The next terrain image flashed to life. The holograph showed a mountainous region with a lake in its center. Victor couldn't tell if he was looking at the broken-down remains of an old volcano, or just a mountain that had been savaged by millennia of weather, but outcroppings of rock and boulders dotted the landscape.
"This is Zhaloba Mountain, which the Jade Falcons will defend. We know their troops are pretty sharp, thanks to the training they got on Coventry. The personnel records appended to the Falcon data indicated that all the warriors they will deploy against us did serve on Coventry, including Martha Pryde. I want a crack unit to go after them. I was thinking, Precentor Martial, of using elements of your 394th Division."
Focht nodded. "I will inform Precentor Harvison to prepare his people."
B
efore Victor could continue the briefing, shouting arose from outside the tent housing him and his staff. The flap slid open and Tiaret stooped to poke her head in. "Forgive me, Highness, but there is a situation you may want to address here. You, and the Precentor Martial."
Victor looked at Focht and sighed. "Okay, we'll be back in a moment or two. Anastasius, after you."
The two men filed from the tent and followed Tiaret through the SLDF encampment. She led them to the makeshift detention center and swung the door open. Victor stepped in first and saw three men seated on a bench, two rather calm and the third very agitated. Four security officers with stun batons stood around them.
Victor frowned. "We're not going to have trouble here, are we?"
The two calm men shook their heads. The third man, who wore a ComStar uniform, frowned, then shook his head, Victor vaguely remembered having seen the man in the Precentor Martial's company, but he couldn't recall his name.
"Very well. Good work, men. You may leave us alone with your charges here. Tiaret, you can stay." Victor let the guards slip past him, then turned to the two older gentlemen. "I'm Victor Davion. I would have to guess you are Nova Cats."
Both of them stood. "I am Severen Leroux and this is Lucian Cams. We are the Nova Cat Khans."
Victor blinked. "I, ah, I didn't think the Clans allowed so venerable individuals to hold power."
"All of the Clans are not the same, Victor." Leroux half closed his eyes. "The Nova Cats, as you already know, are different. You have seen that in how we have dealt with the Star League reborn."
The Prince nodded slowly. The Nova Cats had held worlds that once belonged to the Draconis Combine and had recently entered into negotiations with the Combine concerning those worlds. Though Victor did not understand everything concerning the Nova Cats, he had been told they tended to believe in portents and omens, and acted accordingly. One of the Khans had seen a vision that suggested resistance against the Star League was wrong, so the Nova Cat units had come over to the Inner Sphere with scarcely more than a shot being fired.
"What can I do for you?"
Before Leroux could answer, the third man shot to his feet. "They want you to do for them the thing I was promised and have been denied."
Victor turned to look at him, ignoring the scars that twisted the side of the man's face. "Something you were promised? Refresh my memory."
"I am Trent. I was a Smoke Jaguar. I gave you the Exodus Road." The man's voice came low and full of frustration. "If not for me, you'd not be here, none of you. I gave you the route to Huntress in return for the Precentor Martial's promise of a command so I could show the Smoke Jaguars the error of their ways. He promised I would be able to fight the people who have betrayed the Kerensky vision."
Trent glanced at the Nova Cats. "I was walking through the camp and I came across these two. They said you were deciding who would fight against the Clans, and that I did not figure into your considerations."
Victor met the man's incendiary gaze without flinching. "How they determined that fact, I don't know, but it is a fact. They were right. You don't figure into my considerations."
Color drained from Trent's face. He turned to the Precentor Martial. "But you promised."
Focht nodded. "I did."
Victor spitted Trent with a merciless stare. "And his most persuasive arguments will not prevail because your considerations and his considerations are not my considerations. My considerations are directed at stopping a war that has affected the lives of trillions of people. Your petty vendetta means nothing to me. I've just told the representatives of nations that I'm not going to let them pick and choose which Clans they will fight just because they feel they owe them or were wronged by them.
"I apologize to the Precentor Martial for voiding this promise he made tor you, but I do not apologize for denying you what you want. You sold your people out. You say it is because they have strayed from Kerensky's vision, but the reason does not matter to me. Did you not look around on Huntress? You were there. Did you not see what you'd done? Isn't that enough? Is killing someone yourself so important now?"
"Yes."
"Then you have my pity."
"You don't understand what it is to be Clan, to be a warrior."
"No, Mr. Trent," Victor said, pointing a quivering finger at him, "you don't understand that the Clan way is finished. You've been avenged—your Smoke Jaguars have been taught a lesson from which they will never recover. It's over for you, too."
The Prince watched anger and frustration color the man's face. He felt sorry for Trent in some ways. The man had an agenda that he clearly saw as important, but in comparison to the forces that were driving the expedition to Strana Mechty and the gravity of the outcome, his wishes were inconsequential. Moreover, he'd betrayed his own people and, no matter what his provocation or reasons, Victor knew he could never trust him. Traitors have no friends because they have proven capable of turning on friends.
Severen Leroux laid a hand on Victor's shoulder. "Prince Victor, please. Khan Cams and I have come on a mission of importance. We have a Binary that will—that must—fight with you against the Clans. We must fight the Ice Hellions. If we are not there at the Lyod Glacier to oppose them, disaster will result and you will never know peace."
Victor rubbed a hand across his brow. "Did you just miss what I told him?"
"No, Prince Victor, I heard it all. It has no bearing on this situation." Severen Leroux frowned. "This is the way it will be, the way it must be. I have seen it. This is the choice you must make if you want peace to last. If we do not fight the Ice Hellions, they will defeat your forces and the war will continue unabated."
The Prince closed his eyes. Two years earlier he would have dismissed the story of a vision with a skeptical laugh. But in the last two years he had seen the Nova Cats embrace the Star League because of one of these visions. And I visited my dead father and told him I would find my own way in the world He knew he had no business accepting their offer, believing in their vision, but the conviction in Severen's voice sank through him. The fact that the Nova Cat Khans had not seemed surprised at the revelation that Trent had betrayed the Clans did not escape him, adding weight to their argument.
He glanced at the Precentor Martial. "We've trusted them in the Inner Sphere and proudly added their troops to the Star League Defense Force. Do we trust them now?"
The Precentor Martial thought for a moment, then nodded. "If joining us is what they believe stands between war and peace, I am willing to have them fight on our side."
Victor nodded, then turned to the Nova Cat Khans. "I accept your service. You will oppose the Ice Hellions."
"What? Do you know no honor, Victor Davion?" Trent took a half-step forward, his clawed hands reaching to Victor's throat. Before Victor could react, or Tiaret could grab Trent, Severen Leroux lashed out with an open-handed slap that spun Trent to the ground. The elder Nova Cat Khan landed on the man's chest, driving the wind out of him, and grabbed Trent's right wrist. Around it he twisted a cord he'd drawn from his pocket,
"There, Trent, you are now my bondsman. You belong to the Nova Cats." Leroux straightened up and let the cord slip from the man's wrist. "I now accept you as a warrior in our Clan. If you wish, you may join us in fighting the Ice Hellions."
Trent coughed and rubbed at the red mark on his cheek. "Ice Hellions? I will fight them for you."
"Good. Go to my Alpha Galaxy headquarters. They are waiting for you." Leroux glanced at the Precentor Martial. "You have no objections?"
"He will fight well for you." Focht helped Trent to his feet. "Go, Trent. You have what you wanted now. Finish what you started."
Trent left the tent, and Victor turned to Leroux. "So a traitor does have a friend. You didn't have to do that."
"His role in this was foreseen as well." The older man smiled. "He will only know peace when he dies as a warrior."
Victor smiled. "I've heard that said of a lot of us."
"Yes, but some will ha
ve that release denied them." Leroux's mouth twisted into a quizzical smile. "Trent will have his release. It was really the only way for him. To know the future can have value when disaster can be averted, but knowing when someone will die, and making it possible, that is wearying."
Lucien Cams patted Leroux on the shoulder. "It is his burden to see too much, and mine to see too little. What I do see is this: the Nova Cats pledge themselves to the Star League, We will devote a Binary to this fight, then the rest will be for you to command, Victor. When you use them, use them wisely."
The Prince shivered. "I will ever and always do so."
Cams nodded. "We know. That is the other reason I came. You will fare well, Victor Davion. Yours will not be a life without pain or adversity, but perseverance is your strength. Remember that always and the promise of your name will be fulfilled."
7
ComStar Command Center, Zhaloba Mountain
Strana Mechty
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Space
23 April 3060
With his head encased in the Interactive Construct Reality helmet in the command center at the foot of Zhaloba Mountain, Anastasius Focht felt entombed. The ICR suit he wore kept him snug and even a bit warm, as if he were in the cockpit of a BattleMech. As the feed came in from the computer to which his ICR gear was attached, the world brightened and above him a wheel of images slowly spun.
Reaching up with his right hand, which appeared ungloved in the simulation environment, he pulled the wheel down and let it spin around him until he found the image he wanted. He selected it and it expanded, filling the blue expanse that had surrounded him. In an instant the datafeed from Precentor, Harvison's Black Knight appeared. The gyrostabilizers connected to the camera-mount kept the image surprisingly still as the 'Mech lumbered toward Zhaloba Mountain.
The visual of the battlefield that Focht had seen in the briefing room was an aerial shot taken from the east. Had he been looking at it now, he could have made out the dozen ComStar 'Mechs making their way across the last hillside to the foot of the mountain. Coming in from the west was really the only way to approach the objective, a point Focht was fairly certain had not been lost on Marthe Pryde. ComStar would be attacking up-slope in an effort to dislodge the Jade Falcons, and that was not going to be an easy battle.
Prince of Havoc Page 5
