Malicious intent

by Michael A. Stackpole

  Victor thought for a second. Ragnar's point was well taken. The incoming forces had all the components of a coalition force, but the internal jealousies and conflicts among and between them could prove a greater threat to the task force than the Jade Falcons. If I'm not careful, the whole mess could explode in my face. That would be bad for me, but worse for the rest of the Inner Sphere.

  "You're right, Ragnar, the situation is tense. I think I have a solution, but I'll have to run it by the Precentor Martial and Hohiro. If they agree, then we can present it to the others."

  Kai leaned forward. "What have you got in mind?"

  "We make the Precentor Martial the head of the task force. As you pointed out, he has the prior experience of defeating the Clans in a major series of battles. He is respected by everyone who's coming."

  Kai nodded. "So, what role do you play?"

  "Because the Kell Hounds are here under an agreement with me, and I also have the Davion Heavy Guards RCT, I have the most troops under arms coming in."

  Ragnar shook his head. "The Dragoons have three regiments and had two on the ground."

  Kai held a hand up. "I'll put the Lancers under your leadership and I'm sure Hohiro will agree to do the same with the Genyosha."

  "Thanks. That should entitle me to be second in command. It avoids a discussion of who owns Coventry—well, the Falcons own it now—or who has a moral right to command. If we present it as an Inner Sphere effort to stop Clan aggression we might be able to sidestep some of the problems."

  "It might work." Kai laughed, his gray eyes sparkling. "And if it does work, maybe we can reestablish the Star League and put you at its head."

  Victor sat back and rolled his eyes. "One Herculean task at a time, please. After we get the Falcons off Coventry, then we can spin pipe dreams to our heart's content."

  * * *

  Leitnerton Coventry

  Coventry Province, Lyran Alliance

  Ariana Winston looked the way Doc felt—tired and ready to keel over. She hit a button on the noteputer and Doc heard it beep, indicating she'd reached the end of the file. "You got a wealth of information from this Arimas. Do you trust it?"

  "Yes, ma'am." Arimas was the Hellhound pilot. Doc thought of him as the man Andy Bick might have been if Bick had been raised on steroids and cruelty.

  "As the report indicated, we used narcotics to interrogate the prisoner. What we did get out of him was corroborated by the files and disks taken from Whitting City Hall." Doc hid a yawn behind his right hand. "The Falcons have a pathological fear of being absorbed by another Clan. They're using people who have little or no practical experience at war to fill the ranks of their units. By inflating the numbers of people under arms, they think they'll appear formidable enough to scare off other Clans from attacking them."

  "Very much like a cat puffing up its fur to look more threatening." Shelly Brubaker came into Winston's office and handed Doc a cup of coffee. "In this case, though, we're talking quills instead of fur because we can and have been hurt by the puffing."

  Winston looked at her noteputer, then up again. "What's the reasoning behind all the in and out travel to this system?"

  Doc shrugged. "Arimas wasn't very clear on that, but it would appear that warriors with promise are being sent out to fill garrison units on the planets the Falcons still control."

  "Right." Shelly set her coffee cup down. "I've been trying to take the numbers we wormed out of Arimas and translate them into something useful. It looks like the Falcons have three veteran units here and five newly formed Galaxies. Two of the new ones now have enough combat experience to be considered veterans. One is still green and the other two are filled with warriors who've survived a week of fighting already."

  Ariana Winston set the noteputer down on her camp desk and shook her head. "I can't believe it. I've only got a battalion of the Eridani Light Horse left. Shelly, your Delta Regiment is down two companies and Tyrell's Gamma Regiment may still be regimental in terms of personnel, but not operational equipment. All this destruction and death so some child-warriors can play soldier and prove their Clan is tough."

  "There's more to it than that, General." Doc stared down into the steaming depths of the coffee. "The Falcons recently fought a disastrous war against the Wolves and were severely hurt. The Coventry operation is helping them recover the respect they lost. Apparently their old leaders had violated the customs and traditions of the Jade Falcons. Marthe Pryde needed to show that the Falcons could defeat the Inner Sphere's best without moving away from its traditions -and Coventry is the latest stop on their victory tour."

  "But only a fool goes to war to prove a philosophical point."

  Shelly shook her head. "Be careful, General. That's the first step down a very slippery slope. There's no way to argue that one person's reason justifies war and someone else doesn't."

  "Colonel Brubaker, we're both mercenaries. We fight because we're paid to."

  Doc sipped his coffee, then looked up. "None of us are in any shape to talk philosophy, but the fact is that the only justifiable reason for a fight is to preserve life and freedom. Yet even that is subject to interpretation. The Jade Falcons undertook this series of raids as a means of proving their traditions strong. It's also allowed them to blood new warriors to replace those killed by the Wolves."

  The leader of the Eridani Light Horse rubbed her eyes. "I don't know about you, but I hate like hell being used as a simulator exercise that can bleed."

  "It wasn't my choice of vocations either, but we did get some back." Doc smiled at Shelly. "The attack on the Falcons' western flank definitely bloodied one of their Clusters."

  "And the Whitting raid has taken the pressure off as they try to figure out what we know and what we're going to do with that information." Shelly wrapped both hands around the barrel of her coffee mug. "So, you've seen the report, General. Any ideas?"

  "I'll have to talk things over with Colonel Tyrell and General Niemeyer, but I think our only chance of surviving is to split into smaller units and carry on a guerrilla war, as Doc did before." Ariana Winston glanced again at the noteputer. "But if we do that I'm afraid they'll use aerospace fighters to bomb and strafe us back to the Stone Age."

  Doc shook his head. "They didn't go after the Titans that way."

  Shelly gave him a gentle elbow in the ribs. "The Titan 'Mechs are too small to hit in a strafing run."

  "Yeah, but there's enough of us that you'd think they might hit some at random."

  "Let's hope the rest of us can live up to the standard your Titans have set, Doc." Winston gave him a wan smile. "With luck we can hold out until reinforcements arrive."

  "Reinforcements?" Doc sighed. "You're an optimist."

  "Hey, Doc, we were sent here to reinforce you," Shelly Brubaker put in.

  "That you were, Shelly, and that you did." Doc shrugged and raised a hand to block the first dawn rays slipping through the office window. "I'm tired and I've got a bad case of survivor guilt. Even knowing that, though, I don't think anyone is going to be stupid enough to toss more troops into this meat grinder."

  Shelly's shoulders slumped slightly. "I have a feeling you're right. Sending more troops here would mean some politician had to admit a mistake was made earlier when they didn't send enough. No pol's going to do that."

  One of the surviving Light Horse troopers tapped on the door jamb. "General, priority one message just came in over the radio." The man's smile instantly infected Doc. "We've got twelve and a half regiments incoming."

  "Theirs or ours, Johnston?"

  "Ours, General. Prince Victor is bringing them in. Ten days, give or take."

  Ariana Winston thumped the table with a bony fist. "Best news I've had since we landed." She looked up at Doc. "So, which is he, Doc? Stupid, or a politician who can admit he's wrong?"

  "Neither, General." Doc nodded solemnly. "He's a warrior and undoubtedly the best chance we've got of getting out of this in one piece."

  38

  In
bound, DropShip Barbarossa Coventry

  Coventry Province, Lyran Alliance

  12 June 3058

  As Victor looked around the crowded briefing cabin at the collection of military leaders hurtling toward Coventry, he sensed much less tension in the room than he'd expected. From the first he'd braced for opposition to everything, from designating the Precentor Martial as the leader of the expedition to his own appointment as second in command. That very little in the way of opposition actually did surface reinforced for him the gravity of the situation they all faced.

  He'd expected the group to break along the line that marked loyalty to his sister and himself. That would have put the Free Worlds League's Knights of the Inner Sphere and the Capellan Confederation's Harloc Raiders together with the Eleventh Lyran Guards in one coalition. The three Regiments of Wolf's Dragoons would nominally have been part of that group, but General Maeve Wolf, the black-haired commander of the Dragoons, had more sense than to split the force heading in to relieve her people.

  Wu Kang Kuo, commander of the Harloc Raiders, had gone beyond neutral to being supportive of Victor's suggestions. Wu also spent a lot of time speaking with Kai, which had surprised Victor until Jerrard Cranston reminded him that Kai had fought and defeated Wu's son in some matches on Solaris. Victor assumed there was some debt of honor there, which could only help things along.

  Equally surprising was the position taken by Paul Masters, commander of the Knights of the Inner Sphere. He remained more neutral than Wu, but did enter debates on the side of unity. His only real concern involved direct command of the forces. While allowing that he respected Victor's experience, he didn't want to be placed in a position where Victor would be assigning dangerous missions to his unit, lest it look like the Prince was trying to pay back the Knights for their role in the recent invasion of Victor's Sarna March. That seemed logical to everyone involved, so the Knights were attached to the Dragoons, for the purposes of command.

  The only true obstructionist proved to be the Eleventh Guards' Marshal Sharon Byran. Because Coventry was a Lyran Alliance world, she argued that, as the Archon's representative, she should be given a commanding role in the planning and execution of the expedition. She quickly alienated the mercenaries by implying that their commitment was suspect because they were being paid to fight. Colonel Dan Allard had pointed out that the Eleventh Lyran Guards had fled from the fight with the Free Worlds League and suggested that if the task force planned to retreat before a shot was fired, she would be consulted for her expertise in the matter. That shut her down, but Victor could tell she was still smoldering inside.

  The Precentor Martial stood at the far end of the black table. "This is our last informational session before contact with the Falcons on Coventry. This first contact will be by radio only—we expect a challenge in which the Jade Falcons tell us how many units they will use to defend the planet against our force. Those of you who've fought against the Clans previously are familiar with this procedure. The Clans treat bargaining over the size and power of forces to be used in combat as something of a sacrament."

  Focht pointed to Ragnar. "As you know, a large portion of Clan Wolf has defected from the Clans and is in residence on Arc-Royal. Khan Phelan Kell sent Ragnar to assist us in analysis and bargaining with the Jade Falcons. Prince Victor and I have complete trust in Ragnar. Bargaining will be our first engagement with the Jade Falcons, and a successful negotiation will be the first step on the road to defeating them."

  Dan Allard levered himself away from the bulkhead he'd been leaning against and raised a hand. "Will some units get bargained out of the fight? If so, by what protocol will you decide which those are to be?"

  Maeve Wolf glanced at the Kell Hound. "Dan, are you worried, as am I, about having your unit pieced out?"

  "Exactly."

  Victor held his hands up. "Unit cohesion is something we're going to keep, trust me. Maeve, you've got people already on the ground, so you'll be bid away only in the event that the bidding goes so low that we're talking a token combat. We don't expect that, but I've learned enough from Ragnar so far to know that we can't be sure exactly what we'll run into.

  "Dan, as to your question, the protocol is simple: We've divided the assembled forces into two groups. The first group are those units with a tangential interest in the outcome here. I say that not to devalue your participation—and I know everyone in the Inner Sphere has a stake here—but it seemed the best way to break things down. The units in this force are the First Genyosha, the Kell Hounds, the Knights of the Inner Sphere, the Harloc Raiders, and the First St. Ives Lancers. If we bargain down units, they'll be selected by lot from this group for exclusion—and the Hounds will only be out if we're pulling two regiments."

  The logic of the choices didn't seem to upset anyone in the room. Victor had hoped to retain the Genyosha and St. Ives Lancers in what he saw as the core group because their recent training on Tukayyid would make them invaluable in fighting the Falcons. Even so, the Precentor Martial had made an excellent case for the need to weight the exclusionary group in favor of units Victor had brought with him because the core group would be similarly weighted. The Dragoons, the Davion Heavy Guards, and the Com Guard Invader Galaxy could all be seen as residing in Victor's camp. The Eleventh Lyran Guards remained the only force loyal to Katherine that would be involved in the fighting. Even if the Harloc Raiders and the Knights of the Inner Sphere were added to the core force by random selection, the weight of the troops involved would still favor Victor.

  Paul Masters rubbed a hand along his jaw. "So, when will we know if we're going home?"

  Focht smiled confidently. "It will be a while yet."

  "But the Falcons should be making contact soon. We have two more days before planetfall. Surely your selection will be made by then because your plans will have to be in place. If not, a contested landing could spell disaster."

  Victor nodded. "It could, but it won't."

  Sharon Byran stared daggers at him. "Overconfidence isn't a good trait in a warrior."

  "Neither is a tendency to jump to conclusions." Victor folded his arms across his chest. "The Jade Falcons are the most tradition-minded of the Clans. In general the Clans tend not to contest landing zones. Whether they will or not is something we'll learn when they contact us for the preliminary bidding."

  "But it's their choice to defend against our landing."

  "True, but they won't attack until the bidding is done." Victor let the hint of a smile tug at the corners of his mouth. "The Jade Falcons have a tradition of granting the right of safcon to their enemies—guaranteeing free access to a battlefield where the fight will take place. According to Ragnar, this right was even granted to the Wolf force that attacked Wotin in the recent war between the Wolves and the Falcons. We shall avail ourselves of this tradition of theirs."

  Byran's eyes sharpened. "And if they deny it?"

  Ragnar stood at Focht's right hand. "They will not."

  "How can you be certain?" Byran's anger twisted her features. "They would be stupid to let us land uncontested."

  "They are the Jade Falcons, Marshal Byran. They value tradition and form more than logic. Losing does not frighten them as much as breaking with their own rigid code of conduct. Safcon allows warriors to enter a battlefield unharmed, hegira allows them to leave—there are hundreds of such rights and traditions to which the Jade Falcons enslave themselves. They are not unlike the warriors of the Combine and their code of bushido."

  Byran turned toward Victor. "If you trust this Clan claptrap, I assume your Heavy Guards will be the first unit to ground?"

  "Gladly."

  "But that's not the way it will be." Anastasius Focht's voice dropped in register and his gray eye gleamed with fire. "The Falcons threaten the truce that ComStar won. The Com Guards will go in first."

  Byran shook her head. "You'll bleed just as easily as any FedCom."

  "Since it was Com Guard blood that won the truce, Marshal Byran, I see no sin i
n having Com Guard blood maintain it." The Precentor Martial looked from her to a small red light that pulsed at his end of the table. "Prince Victor, if you and Ragnar would be so kind as to join me. It is time we invoke safcon and begin the reconquest of Coventry."

  Turkina Keshik Headquarters, Port St. William

  Coventry

  Rosendo Hazen admired how lithe and proud Marthe Pryde looked standing there in the middle of the holotank. Her long dark hair fell over the shoulders of her cooling vest like a silken veil. The long expanse of flesh exposed between the tops of her boots and the hem of her 'Mech shorts might, at any other time, have been distracting, not to say inviting. Even more attractive was her intelligence. Indeed, since beauty and intelligence were both survival traits, it stood to reason that they should converge. In Marthe, both traits had combined with a vengeance. Underestimating her intelligence would be as deadly as misinterpreting her stance and attire. Certainly the Inner Sphere's people will he over matched.

  The smoke-gray walls of the holotank lightened slightly. What appeared to be the bust of a man appeared in the air before Marthe. Old, with a shock of white hair and a patch covering a missing eye, he regarded her without expression. "I am Anastasius Focht, Precentor Martial of ComStar, commander of the Com Guards and victor of Tukayyid. I apologize for appearing to you in so limited a capacity, but I do not have access to a holotank or its equivalent."

  Marthe nodded indulgently. "I am Khan Marthe Pryde, warrior of the Jade Falcons and leader of this expeditionary force. I welcome you to Coventry, though I would have thought you would be concerned with the events of Terra more than the events here."

  "Terra stands well behind the Tukayyid line, while Coventry sits astride it. I find it preferable to oppose your desire to possess Terra by fighting you before you reach it. The Blakist sect disputes this wisdom. My concern is preserving the truce won on Tukayyid."