Bred for war

by Michael A. Stackpole

  The Falcon BattleMechs, now without air cover, came in anyway. They had the high ground, but the ridge was too far away for them to engage the Wolves down in the valley. Oriega started his troops heading down in a line, but the steep slope forced the 'Mechs to pack together as they descended. While some did use their jump jets to get down quickly and in good order, the ridge mostly served to split the force and let the Wolves pick them apart. And, unfortunately for the Falcons, a slope that is difficult to descend is often even tougher to ascend.

  Phelan winced as the holographic display sent parts of an exploding Falcon Daishi flying at his face. "The Falcons are down to a Star and a half of 'Mechs."

  "Those eight will die shortly. Their fighter have abandoned them and their Elementals have run. It was not unexpected."

  "You lost half your fighters and half your Elementals." Phelan moved around in the tank so that he stood like the Colossus of Rhodes, with one foot on either side of the dry riverbed. "From here it looks like you'll come out of this with about four Stars of 'Mechs."

  "That may be, but I've lost only five of my Mech-Warriors. That's one Star's worth out of a dozen Stars in the Cluster." Natasha nodded confidently. "Most of these fighters were pups who had never seen real combat. This, Phelan, is how we sharpen the teeth of or pups. I can repair 'Mechs and have them ready to go again, but turning a green kid into a veteran warrior is not so easy."

  Two Wolf 'Mechs, a squat Adder and a notorious Timber Wolf, combined to savage a Falcon Gladiator. Red laser darts from the pulse lasers in the Timber Wolf's left breast stormed over the humanoid Gladiator's right arm. Ferro-fibrous armor bubbled off as greasy vapor, exposing the twisted myomer fibers and ferrotitanium bones making up the limb. The artificial myomer muscles contracted, swinging the quartet of lasers mounted in that arm toward the Timber Wolf.

  The Adder's twin particle projection cannons each sent an azure bolt of lightning in at the Gladiator. One blue beam of accelerated particles scourged smoking armor from the Gladiator's torso while the second bit into the naked arm. It sliced myomers apart, leaving the ends whipping back and forth or twitching. The beam's energy filled the ferrotitanium bones with enough energy to change it from a dull silver to an incandescent white before the metal vaporized, cleanly amputating the Gladiator's arm.

  Natasha stabbed a finger at the Gladiator as if her intervention in the holotank could somehow finish it off. "There, Phelan, that's a lesson our people have learned, but the Jade Falcons have not. The Falcons still cherish the idea of individual combat. That might have been fine in the day of the samurai of ancient Japan, but it has no place on the battlefields of the thirty-first century."

  Phelan shook his head. "It had no place on the battlefield of ancient Japan, either. Though the typhoon known as the Divine Wind destroyed most of the Mongol invasion fleet, some of Kubla Khan's troops did land. When they faced samurai, one lone samurai would ride out and announce his lineage, then challenge a Mongol to combat. The whole company of Mongols would feather him with arrows— killing the samurai on the spot. The samurai had won a moral victory, but he was still dead."

  The elder Khan smiled at him. "Very good, Phelan. The Jade Falcons made the mistake of assuming that we would prefer engaging the military of the Inner Sphere to fighting our own fellow Clansmen. No doubt they take our Refusal as ill-mannered and dishonorable, but they will be dead."

  "I have no doubt, Natasha, that the Jade Falcons were as surprised as I was to learn that you and Ulric had managed to shift all of our front-line units around into these two spearheads without anyone noticing." While he had been spending his time preparing a defense of the ilKhan, the other two Khans had gone about planning the offensive against the Jade Falcons. Even though their plans were brilliant, and they had given him the special role Ulric had promised, Phelan felt left out because they had not consulted him. By the time they revealed the plan, the Clan's various Galaxies had been formed and task forces given assignments. Phelan realized his input probably would not have changed things much, but he still would have wished to participate in the decision-making.

  Get over it Phelan, you know they told you what you needed to know when you needed to know it. "That said, you can't be thinking the other fights are going to be as easy as this."

  Natasha shook her head grimly. "No, of course not. I had a full unit, albeit a green one, going against a garrison unit. That's like taking my old Black Widows company against some raggedy militia unit. The Falcons were taken by surprise, but they were supposed to be. They'll be shifting units around to deal with us, but they're at a disadvantage because they have to protect everything, whereas we only have to attack targets we want to hit."

  "Case in point: Dompaire. The Falcons have no garrison there."

  Natasha smiled coldly. "But they do on Sudaten. More garrison units, but two full Clusters. I shall enjoy bidding against you for the honor of taking the world."

  "That's the problem with you seasoned warriors, Khan Natasha—no grasp of reality." Phelan winked at her as the last Jade Falcon BattleMech crashed to the ground in the holotank. "I will win that bid, which means you'll get no enjoyment out of it at all."

  DropShip Lair, Assault Orbit Zoetermeer

  Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

  Star Captain Vladimir of the Eleventh Wolf Guards brought himself to attention as the cabin door slid shut behind him. "You sent for me, Star Colonel?"

  "I did, Vlad. At ease."

  Vlad's posture did not relax, nor did the severe expression on his face soften. Though most of the other Wolves in Task Force Delta still addressed Ulric as "ilKhan," Vlad refused to do so. The Grand Council had stripped him of his title and, because the Wolves already had two Khans, the only rank Ulric could claim was Star Colonel. "How may I be of service, sir?"

  The older man smiled at him with a casual air that angered Vlad, but Ulric gave no sign of noticing the flush starting to burn the tips of Vlad's ears. "You may be of service, Star Captain, by remembering you are a Wolf before you are a Crusader."

  "Star Colonel, I remember that I am a Clansman before I am a Wolf."

  Ulric rose from behind his desk, his blue eyes tightening. "Your tone is insubordinate and your statement is treasonous. I would watch that, were I you. We are under martial law and entering a theater of war. I could have you executed."

  "But you will not."

  "No, I will not." Ulric gestured toward Vlad. "You have permission to speak freely. Air your grievances against me."

  Vlad shook his head. "I bear you no ill will, Star Colonel. You have done nothing to me."

  "No?" Ulric again smiled, but this time his expression was not neutral, only cruel. "You are aware that I prevented House Ward from holding a Trial of Bloodright for Conal Ward's Bloodname. Of course, very few people would want that Bloodline, soiled as it is, but you hunger after it, quiaff?"

  Vlad ground his teeth. "I knew you had asked that no Trial of Bloodright be held for that name and that Khan Phelan, acting as the leader of House Ward, agreed with you." He knew he should say nothing more, but the hatred boiling inside him eroded his discretion. "It is not surprising that Conal Ward's murderer would agree to further dishonor Conal's Bloodright by leaving it uncontested."

  Ulric arched an eyebrow. "Murderer? Conal Ward died in a Circle of Equals. He was not murdered."

  "He was unarmed and Phelan shot him."

  "He is lucky that Khan Phelan granted him so simple a sentence for his crimes."

  Conal was not criminal. He was doing what had to be done for us to remain true to what we are. "As Khan Phelan's report on the whole Red Corsair mission has been classified to the level of Khans and above, I will have to assume you are telling the truth."

  "Yes you will, Star Captain." Ulric blue eyes sparked like charging coils. "You take it as an affront that I have assumed personal command of Delta Galaxy, the Galaxy Conal Ward used to command."

  "I do not take issue with that. It is the transfers in this unit that I question,
especially as they came without request by the individual Mech Warriors moving into or out of the unit."

  "And, requests like your, to transfer out, were specifically denied." Ulric opened his arms. "I thought you would appreciate a Galaxy full of your Crusader companions. I thought being of like minds concerning the future of the Clans would give you a cohesion that other units lack."

  "It would, sir, and might yet still." Vlad frowned sharply. "I have noted that the youngest of our soldiers have been transferred en masse to units headed by Khan Phelan and Khan Natasha."

  "Younger warriors have much to learn."

  "And we do not, quiaff?"

  "Aff. You need learn only one thing."

  Vlad's head came up. "And that is, sir?"

  "Solon's maxim: Learn to obey before you command."

  "I do not know what you mean, sir."

  "That's why you're here."

  "I might remind the Star Colonel that using debased language to speak with me is not necessary."

  Ulric laughed and clapped his hands together. "You surprise me, Vlad. I had not thought you could do that. This might prove to be an interesting venture after all."

  "And what might that be, sir?"

  "Getting you killed."

  Getting me killed. Vlad blinked with surprise. "But you could have me executed whenever you wished, Star Colonel. Accuse me of treason and have me shot."

  "No, I think not, Vlad." The white-haired Wolf lowered himself into his chair again. "You want to know why I have assembled a task force peopled almost entirely with Crusaders? You gave me the idea. The Red Corsair, in her raids on the Inner Sphere, captured a number of MechWarriors. She forced one of them to go to war against his own people. She coerced him into acting against his nation with promises that she would free his comrades.

  "By setting Crusaders against Crusaders, I will destroy you."

  Vlad swallowed hard. "Now you are the one uttering treason."

  "Am I? Can you show me anything about Crusaders or Wardens anywhere in the writings of Nicholas Kerensky or any other great leader of the Clans? Can you show me where it says they intended for one philosophy to be dominant over another? Can you show me how those philosophies are tied to the way of the Clans or our continued existence?"

  "You are foolish, Star Colonel Kerensky, to believe that destroying the Crusaders among the Wolves and the Jade Falcons will destroy the desire to conquer the Inner Sphere. We are but six Clans in occupied territories. There are eleven more, and they too have Crusaders among them."

  Again Ulric opened his hands like the doors of a treacherous pitfall. "Have you forgotten how we Wolves earned the right to be among the Clans who invaded the Inner Sphere? We bargained for our positions. We fought those other Clans. We are the best the Clans have to offer. The others might come, but they will not be the juggernaut we were. Some have still not recovered from the battles they lost in trying to compete for a place in the invasion. You expect them to be able to finish the task, quineg?"

  Vlad's own images of the other Clans, the ones left behind in the den worlds, were as full of contempt as Ulric's voice in speaking of them. "Perhaps you speak true about that, but not about the willingness of Crusaders to destroy other Crusaders."

  "I think not."

  "It is an unwise general who does not know his troops."

  "Oh, I know my troops, Vlad. I know them very well. Think of the Jade Falcons." Leaning forward, Ulric snapped his fingers. "There, the sneer on your face tells me how you feel about them. They may be your philosophical kin, but they are inflexible to the point of being brittle when challenged. You may hate Khan Phelan, and you have been defeated by him in personal and 'Mech combat, but at least he was adopted into our Clan. The warriors of the Inner Sphere who have defeated the Jade Falcons were not even as fine as Khan Phelan. The Falcons are not the best of the Clans."

  Vlad frowned, as if that would banish his discomfort at Ulric's words. Ulric was right. He had always thought the Jade Falcons were too much like their totem animal, a preening creature with a piercingly loud scream but yet so very fragile. When the Wolves wanted to accustom their younger warriors to combat, they would send them against the Falcons. When they wanted to test warriors in a real fight, they pitched them at the Smoke Jaguars or Ghost Bears.

  Ulric slowly nodded his head. "I can see it in your eyes, Vlad, as I have seen it in the eyes of all my warriors. Crusaders the Falcons may be, but the only way we will lose to them is if we surrender. Crusader you may be, but no Wolf will surrender to a Falcon. We would rather die than do that."

  Vlad nodded solemnly. "You speak true."

  "I know. I am a Wolf, and I am your commander, and so you will follow me into war with the Jade Falcons." Ulric sat back. "And even if we all should die, what a glorious death it will be."

  25

  The steady operations of war against a regular and disciplined army can only be successfully conducted by a force of the same kind.

  -Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist, 1787, XXV

  Sian

  Sian Commonalty, Capellan Confederation

  26 September 3057

  Seated behind the desk at which Justin Allard had once plotted the betrayal of the Capellan Confederation, Capellan Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao permitted himself a smile. "Thirty years ago this was the cradle of destruction. Now it has whelped our revenge." He nearly laughed aloud, almost wishing the ghosts that inhabited the room were yet alive to see his triumph. Almost but not quite, for he knew, better than anyone else, that did Justin Allard and Hanse Davion still live, they would very likely have anticipated and blunted his action.

  Victor's big mistake, Sun-Tzu concluded, had been in viewing the Clans as his greatest enemy. It made sense, of course, because Victor had fought against the Clans, had almost lost his life against them. Then he'd been too distracted by political unrest within the Lyran districts of the Federated Commonwealth—culminating in his sister's repudiation of him and the creation of the Lyran Alliance. Distracted enough that Victor had not been ready for the Free Worlds/Capellan invasion against him.

  As battle reports scrolled up the screen of the antique terminal on his desk, Sun-Tzu shifted his shoulders uncomfortably, but not in reaction to the data he was reading. It was universally wonderful. His commanders had used regiments to confront lone Davion battalions and trios of regiments to oppose single regiments of Federated Commonwealth troops. It was the same three-to-one advantage the Capellan forces had learned to hate when Hanse Davion had used it against them decades before. Victor's focus on protecting the Clan front, and then his need to pull troops for use in quelling the rebellion in his Lyran districts had left the Sarna March woefully undermanned.

  The use of overwhelming force had been successful beyond Sun-Tzu's conservative dreams, he had launched nine planetary assaults in his invasion zone, all of which had resulted in Capellan victories. On eight other worlds he had stepped up his revolutionary activity to the point where his forces were engaging Davion garrison troops in hit-and-run attacks that did no real damage, but did seriously fatigue the Davion soldiers. After his regiments had secured their initial targets, then began the second wave of attacks, the weary Davion defenders were easier prey than before.

  Up in the Zurich Theater, things had gone equally well. Thomas had supplied mercenaries to support local rebellions. The only Liao units being used up there were the Warrior House battalions that dropped as a single unit onto the planet Liao to liberate it from the Davions. The planetary militia had revolted and deposed the Davion governor. The Liao dynasty's home world again belonged to the Capellan Confederation.

  But for all this, Sun-Tzu's spirit did not rest easy. He'd not been surprised by how well the invasion was going but by the competence and drive Thomas had shown in organizing the assaults. In the time it took Sun-Tzu to travel from Atreus to Sian, Thomas had sent him plans for the invasion that were complete down to the least detail. The sham of the supposed rift between them had been abandoned. Thomas
had wanted Sun-Tzu on Sian so the assault would look like a concerted effort on the part of both nations to recover occupied territory the Davions had taken almost three decades before. Moreover, with Sun-Tzu on Sian, his troops would not view him as a puppet being directed by Thomas or vice versa.

  Thomas' quick and forceful leadership was responsible for the successes they now enjoyed, but it had taken Sun-Tzu completely by surprise. He had always considered the Captain-General to be as meek as he was idealistic. Even the creation of the Knights of the Inner Sphere had seemed to him more an attempt to show the Inner Sphere that idealism and war could be wed, that warriors could rise to a high code of conduct. It was Thomas' attempt to reintroduce chivalry to the Inner Sphere—though Sun-Tzu thought chivalry as much a myth as the much-vaunted nobility of the ancient Star League.

  Sun-Tzu's computer beeped twice, alerting him to two messages that demanded his attention. The first was a response of sorts to his declaration of the planet Outreach as an independent barony of the Capellan Confederation, which he granted to the mercenary Wolf's Dragoons in perpetuity. The Dragoons, according to a spokesman, appreciated Sun-Tzu's ratification of the grant originally made them by Hanse Davion. The message also said that the Dragoons would maintain their major focus against the Clans, and that they would only involve themselves in the current conflict if attacked.

  The Chancellor frowned. He had hoped, in vain, that the Dragoons might show some gratitude by sending at least one regiment to smash a Davion unit. It was true that Victor was still their employer, but Sun-Tzu believed the Dragoons' refusal to help was intended to punish his own audacity.

  The second message, a terse and short "Continue as planned" from Thomas, proved more disappointing than the Dragoons' ingratitude. Because of the invasion's initial successes, Sun-Tzu had pushed for an accelerated attack schedule, but Thomas balked. Had Marik agreed, it would have made him look like just one more greedy leader intent on reestablishing the old Star League with himself on the throne. Sooner or later Sun-Tzu could have taken advantage of that.