Bred for war

by Michael A. Stackpole

  He waited, then looked at every one of them in turn. Each nodded—the most enthusiastic being Fox and the least Carol Bradford. Noble knew he could count on Carol, but he decided to give her tasks that made use of her administrative skills but kept her in the background when all hell broke loose.

  "Good," he smiled, leaning forward onto the table. "This is what we're going to do: in nine days, we'll attack the Zhongdade Armory."

  "What? You can't do that. That's suicide." Ken Fox shook his head. "I know it's got all those weapons, but we'll never get any of that out. It's an impossible target."

  "Nothing is an impossible target." Noble kept his voice low, but his words were edged with excitement. "It's true that the Armory is as impossible a target as, say, hitting a DropShip. Both have an incredible amount of firepower to defend themselves."

  Fox frowned. "So why are we going to hit it?"

  Noble smiled. "What if we don't want the weapons stored there? What if we decide just to deny those weapons to ZPCadre?"

  Rick Bradford's eyes lit up. "You mean we blow the Armory up?"

  "With the amount of weapons and explosives stored there, an explosion would take out the whole street. ZPCadre has appropriated the area to house their troops, so civilian casualties shouldn't be a real factor." He looked around for reactions and questions. When none came he continued. "I think I have a way to deliver the bomb while minimizing risk to us."

  Ken Fox furrowed his brows. "Getting enough explosives to take the Armory down isn't going to be easy."

  Noble shook his head. 'Trust me. Just find me a garden center and a place to purchase gasoline and I can produce all the explosives we need." As Fox started to speak again, Noble held a hand up. "A second thing we're going to have to do is start working through a cell system. That means two things. The first is that I'll be giving each of you assignments that you cannot reveal to anyone else. No one— especially not to the rest of us. That way, it won't blow the whole plan should any one of us get caught.

  "Second, we're going to have to start recruiting more people. Our new plans are going to take more of us than we have now. I'll be trying to draw in folks like Jacko Diamond. You four look for people you can trust, people you've known for a while. Just watch them and when you have a likely candidate, I'll help you bring him or her in. Understood?"

  Everyone nodded.

  "Good. One last thing: in the event any of us gets captured, the rest of us should walk away. We can't pull off a rescue if we're running blind. We'll back off, then find a way to get you out. Everyone got it? Walk away, rescue another day."

  Cathy looked up at him. "Xu Ning never tried to rescue any of his people that the government caught."

  "That's because he's an animal." Noble tapped the table with a fist. "And it's the same reason I won't let him have any of you for any longer than necessary."

  Director's Palace Daosha, Zurich,

  Zurich People's Republic, League Liberation Zone

  Xu Ning patted the corners of his mouth with his starched linen napkin, then sipped the last of his Mont-chartre Bourgogne Blanc '43. Governor Campbell had such excellent taste in wines. When I try the '39, I'll have to pour some into the urn with his ashes. Returning his crystal wine glass to the table, he looked over at his dining companion. "So, Colonel, you were saying that it's no surprise that my Security Committee has been unable to find these insurgents?"

  Burr, obviously a patrician trying to descend to the level of someone who had upset the social order, slid his half-finished plate toward the center of the table, then pressed his napkin down in the newly vacant place. "I merely meant that you, as the leader of a successfully waged guerrilla campaign, must appreciate the difficulty of trying to ferret out the members of a covert and irregular force. Though I believe the evidence indicates that a Davion agent must be head of the operation, he is clearly using your methods against you."

  Ning smiled politely, accepting the man's condescension. "We had speculated, poor Werner and I, that this Dancing Joker might be an agent sent to infiltrate our organization— perhaps even without the knowledge of the local constabulary—and capture us."

  "The same constabulary that could not catch you, Mr. Director, will never catch the Dancing Joker. I know you have inserted your own people into the constabulary and subordinated the organization to your Security Committee, but incompetence will out."

  Ning raised a slender-fingered hand and waved his man servant into the dining room. "You may clear this. Coffee, Colonel? And dessert?"

  "Please."

  "Carl, bring the dessert and the Domaine Fiedade Beaumes-de-Venise 3050. And the Colonel will want an ashtray for his cigar."

  The servant cleared their plates and the Colonel offered Xu Ning a cigar, but he politely declined. "I never acquired the habit. Tobacco was not easy to obtain while on the ran, and the scent of smoke carries incredibly far, as you know, in a jungle. We learned to avoid patrols by sniffing them out."

  Burr chuckled throatily. "More proof of the constabulary's idiocy."

  "So, then, you are of the opinion that my ability to survive in the field was due to the incompetence of the constabulary, not due to my own skill at evading them?"

  "Please, Mr. Director, do not interpret my remarks as any criticism of the feat of survival you accomplished. It was quite incredible, but an organized force could have found you out."

  "Your Black Cobras, for example?"

  "We've done counter-insurgency operations, yes, but not in an urban area."

  "So finding the Dancing Joker would be beyond you?"

  Burr smiled and sat back as the servant returned with dessert. "Finding the Dancing Joker would not be beyond me, but it is well outside my mission profile. The Black Cobras are here to secure this planet, defend it, and defend ourselves. The Dancing Joker is no threat to us, I am afraid."

  Xu Ning sipped the wine and nodded to Carl to pour for the Colonel. "But the Dancing Joker could become a threat to you, yes?"

  "Only if he increases the size of his organization." Burr paused as he tipped one of the candles to provide him a flame to light his cigar. "Of course, in doing that, he'll provide you the opening you need to get him."

  Xu Ning chose to ignore the splotches of cooling wax splattered over the mahogany table's surface. "You believe he will recruit people with questionable loyalties?"

  "His natural allies are the criminal element and the merchant class, neither of which likes your control over the economy. Luckily for you, members of each can be bought."

  "So, I need an insurgent mercenary?"

  Burr lowered his cigar and his voice at the same time. "Mr. Director, mercenaries are professionals who are paid to provide a service. What you want is a greedy amateur willing to sell his soul for a few thousand C-bills."

  "I see the distinction, Colonel, and I shall heed your advice." Xu Ning savored more of his dessert wine. "Tomorrow I shall start shopping for an informant and see whether, once and for all, I can remove this thorn from my side and reshape Zurich to my will."

  35

  The unknown is the governing condition of war.

  —Ferdinand Foch, Principles of War

  JumpShip Werewolf, Morges

  Tamar Domains, Lyran Alliance

  20 November 3057

  Phelan Ward adjusted the headset and brought the microphone up to his mouth. "Say again, Morges System Control."

  A tired little man stared up at Phelan from the monitor in the Werewolf's communications center. "This is Morges System Control, Tamar Domains. Your ship's transponder has no code recognized in the Lyran Alliance. Please identify yourself and state your reason for being here."

  Phelan blinked. Tamar Domains? Lyran Alliance? What the hell is going on? Did we jump into another universe? Since splitting from Natasha's task force a month and a half earlier, the Werewolf had double-jumped through the Steel Viper system of Antares and then to an uninhabited star system still within the Jade Falcon Zone. There the JumpShips in his task fo
rce had unfurled their solar sails and recharged their Kearney-Fuchida jump coils and their lithium fusion batteries, enabling them to make another double jump.

  Though the plan was for Phelan to bring his force into Morges, he'd debated abandoning it to strike immediately for Wotan. While the ships were recharging, he'd made battle plans, run simulations, and refined his strategies until he was sure he could beat Chistu and his Clusters. A dozen times he almost issued orders that would have put his force on war footing as it made for Wotan.

  What stopped him was the canister Natasha had given him. Of the nine JumpShips in his flotilla, only three carried combat troops. The rest contained support personnel from the other castes within the Wolf Clan. His force was a holographic slice of the Wolf Clan, the cutting from which it could grow again.

  His responsibility for them warred with his desire to crush the Jade Falcons. He wanted to rush off and join Natasha and Ulric in the battle that would decide the fate of the Clans. Both knew that tendency in him, a rebellious streak that could send him into a mad dash toward Wotan.

  And they also knew me well enough to know I'd not abandon the responsibility they saddled me with. He smiled to himself. I hope, after all this, you both can tell me how unnecessary it was.

  His silence prompted the man from Morges System Control to become quite insistent. "You must identify yourself and your business here. If you do not, you will be considered hostile. We will respond in kind."

  Phelan slowly shook his head. "I don't think you want to do anything rash."

  "Tell that to the aerospace fighters that scramble to shoot you down."

  Phelan took a deep breath. When his fleet had left the uninhabited system and jumped into the Morges system, they'd come in far out on the orbital disk, at a point where a gas giant hid them from observation by Morges System Control, from that vantage point they had noticed considerable activity going toward and away from the planet. The only group they had been able to positively identify was a Jade Falcon task force, but it left again after recharging its JumpShips. Soon after its departure, more ships arrived and headed in toward the planet.

  He had hoped that the troops arriving after the Falcons showed up would leave again, but they did not, which left him with a difficult decision. He had chosen Morges for two reasons. The first was that its austral polar continent was uninhabited and, at the tail end of the year, locked in a winter of nonstop blizzards and temperatures that would freeze a man after about ten steps. If he had to fight Falcons, and he knew he would, he wanted to defend that spot—both to minimize civilian casualties and to let the Falcons know his people were playing for keeps.

  The second reason was a bit more practical. Morges, despite being on the Jade Falcon border, was only lightly defended. It had no strategic industries or assets. Two battalions of the Fourth Skye Rangers had been assigned to protect it because it was part of the holdings owned by the Duchess of Skye. One battalion of the Twentieth Arcturan Guards RCT brought the garrison up to a full regiment in strength, but the Guards were green and the Rangers' allegiance had been to Ryan Steiner. With his death, their resolve to defend this world so far from their homes would surely have waned.

  Or not. Phelan stared back at the man in system control. "You can be a hero today, if you wish. Save your fighters. Keep them on the ground." He turned and nodded to the navigator at his station. "Light us up."

  At his command, all six of the DropShips connected to the McKenna Class fighting JumpShip turned on their identify Friend/Foe transponders. In addition, the navigator switched the Werewolf's transponder from one found on commercial haulers to that of a WarShip.

  Phelan looked at the shocked space-traffic controller. "And, yes, there are more of us out here. I am Khan Phelan Ward of the Wolf Clan. I require the use of your austral continent. I will use it, but before you make any Rangers or Guards die defending a lot of ice, I suggest you send a message to Prince Victor Davion. He will grant me permission to make planetfall there."

  The controller's head came up at the mention of Victor's name and a sneer twisted his lips. "Citizens of the Lyran Alliance take no orders from Victor Davion. We've fought you Clanners before." The man's flesh tightened around his eyes. "You're going to want to be bidding your force, aren't you?"

  Phelan nodded slowly. "You understand our customs."

  "And I'm not alone. I'm transferring you to Planetary Defense."

  The screen went blank for a moment or two. Phelan turned from the monitor and looked at Ranna. "Tell all Cluster commanders that we'll be fighting our way in. They should prep bids for engaging two Clusters of the defenders."

  "Planetary Defense here, incoming Clan unit. Identify yourself."

  Phelan started as he recognized the voice. He turned back to the screen and smiled. "This is the prodigal son. Will you welcome me home?"

  Morgan Kell nodded his head slowly. "If you're seeking a haven, we will welcome you."

  "We are, but those who come after us will be fighting."

  "I know. They were here looking for you earlier, or so I was told." Morgan smiled slowly. "Internal politics?"

  "Lyran Alliance?" Phelan shook his head. "Some things I do not want to broadcast."

  "Understood." Phelan's father laughed. "We'll speak when you get down."

  Liao Palace, Sian

  Capellan Confederation

  Sun-Tzu Liao reached into the holographic display of worlds hovering above his desk and squeezed Keid as if it were an annoying gnat. The star remained displayed there on the back of his thumbnail, but his moment of anger evaporated as the pressure on his fingers built painfully. He shook his fingers out, a snarl on his face.

  Keid's revolution had gone very well. In fact it had gone better than he'd expected because he had not been using terrorist tactics there to create unrest in the population or to undermine their confidence in the government. Roland Carpenter, his agent on planet, had exploited a combination of religious fervor and moral outrage at Victor's murder of Joshua Marik to spark resentment against the local government. Revelations about the planetary Duke's affair with un-deraged twins who had ties to a known agent of the Draconis Combine had toppled his government and Carpenter been acclaimed as a leader who could defend the world against corruption from within and assault from without.

  The whole thing had gone so well that Thomas had rejected entreaties to reinforce the world with mercenaries. Sun-Tzu would have pressed him, but the invasion was going so well enough in terms of his conquests that complaining would have seemed ungracious and mistrustful. The fact that Thomas had suggested that Sun-Tzu foot the bill for any mercenaries he wanted to move to defend his holdings revealed him how quickly Thomas would abandon him. That further convinced Sun-Tzu to ease back on his demands.

  After all, they were winning and Victor Davion had done almost nothing to defend his worlds. Because of that, Sun-Tzu told himself that what he had taken, he would keep.

  Then Roland Carpenter disappeared from Keid without a trace. A loyalist Steiner counter-revolution put the Duke's daughter on the throne from which her father had been torn. She swore fealty to Katrina Steiner and granted amnesty to those who had risen against her father. Sun-Tzu's agents, however, she ruthlessly hunted down, wiping out more than half the cells. Not only had he lost Keid in one brutal week, but he had also lost his means of contesting it.

  Sun-Tzu pressed his hands together, palm to palm, as he sat back in the chair. "I have let Thomas Marik turn my reconquered worlds into a buffer zone between his realm and the Federated Commonwealth. It is in Thomas' interest to let me consolidate those holdings, but beyond that he will not support me. What I want and what he deems sufficient are widely divergent, but what I have now is better than what I had before. I must work within these constraints to further my ends without destroying my alliance with Thomas."

  Of the worlds within the League Liberation Zone, only Nanking had an active Davion presence. The messages coming from Smithson's Bandits indicated they could hold out
against the Militia force sent from Woodstock to dislodge them, but reinforcements would be necessary to destroy the Militia. Sun-Tzu wanted Nanking because of its manufacturing capabilities, but snapping up the undefended worlds in the liberation zone had a higher priority. The stalemate could stand until Victor moved to reinforce his own worlds and counter the invasion.

  "In this seat, Justin Xiang Allard engineered the loss of all those worlds. In this seat, I engineer their return to the Capellan Confederation." He patted the arms of the chair. "Once I have accomplished that much, I can do more and see how much magic this chair has left in it."

  The Great Gash, Twycross

  Steel Viper Occupation Zone

  Even insulated from the stinging spray of sand and gravel by her Dire Wolf's cockpit canopy, Natasha shuddered when she looked at the Great Gash. "This is the place."

  Marco Hall's voice crackled with storm-wrought static through her neurohelmet's speakers. "Yes, this is the place where the Falcon Guards were destroyed."

  "That, too." The rocky scarlet cliff-faces rose up some two hundred meters over the floor of the mountain pass. The canyon had once been deeper and more narrow, but it was now carpeted with a layer of the pulverized stone that had tumbled down from the Gash's walls in the last great battle here. Drilled and sown with explosives, the Gash had been blown by Kai Allard-Liao—to prevent Jade Falcon troops from reaching the Plain of Curtains down below. In detonating the explosives, Kai had destroyed an entire front-line 'Mech Cluster and saved Prince Victor and the Kell Hounds from death.

  Natasha had still been in the Inner Sphere when news of that spectacular victory was broadcast. Though she'd spent nearly fifty years away from the Clans as a member of Wolf's Dragoons and had all but forgotten the alliances and enmities of the her former life, word of the Jade Falcons' humihating defeat had made her smile. Before coming to the Inner Sphere, one of her greatest victories had been at the Falcon Guards' expense, so their defeat at the hands of a single Inner Sphere MechWarrior seemed somehow appropriate.