Bred for war

  The pilot was obviously struggling to keep the 'Mech upright, but the attack had taken him by surprise as much as it had hit him hard. The Shadow Hawk listed toward the left, then overcorrected to the right, crashing down on its hands and knees. The autocannon on the 'Mech's left arm gouged up a huge divot from the killing field the Bandits had prepared and prevented the 'Mech from falling entirely prostrate.

  Up and down the line, the Bandits coming in from the north took fire from Trey Battalion. BattleMechs, in the dark and distance looking much like men in armor, waved their arms to show the people in their lines that they were not the enemy. All that did was make those 'Mechs better targets, and Trey Battalion needed no encouragement to shoot up the Bandits.

  Their swift return to the south had caused a serious problem for Smithson's Chinese Bandits. Eager to get into their defenses, the faster and smaller Bandit 'Mechs had outdistanced the heavier 'Mechs in their formation. That meant the least powerful and most vulnerable 'Mechs ran into Trey Battalion first, and Trey's first volley proved devastating.

  Larry's target heaved itself up off the ground and staggered forward. Larry covered it with the crosshairs again and fired. The first PPC lashed armor from the Shadow Hawk's right arm, stripping away more than half its armor. The second PPCs azure needle pierced the remaining armor on the 'Mech's right flank and sank deep into the Shadow Hawk's chest. Glowing structural supports dropped through the gaping wound and even more fell when the Warhammer's left laser enlarged the hole.

  The Shadow Hawk pilot brought the 'Mech's left arm up and triggered his autocannon at the same time his right-arm medium laser stabbed out at Larry. The laser's scarlet bolt sliced nearly a quarter of the armor off the Warhammer's right arm, but Larry easily corrected for the loss of weight.

  The Shadow Hawk's autocannon projectiles hit the dirt plug that had caught in the barrel. Though the first depleted-uranium round had more than enough kinetic energy to blow through the plug, doing so slowed it ever so slightly. That meant the slug following it, and the one following that one all slammed together. Three rounds trying to occupy space meant for one made the autocannon's barrel burst. The expanding gases in the barrel behind the bullets jetted out of the breach in a fiery flare that spun the Shadow Hawk around like a toy and dropped it onto its right flank.

  The 'Mech's ruined side collapsed. The Shadow Hawk slowly fell onto its back, leaving its smoking right arm on the ground. The canopy of the 'Mech's cockpit exploded upward and the pilot rocketed out on his command couch. His arc was carrying him back toward King's Down, but Larry knew he'd land well short of the town and would spend the night in the jungle.

  Off in the distance, Larry saw silhouettes moving at the edge of the cleared fire zone the Bandits had created. Punching up magnification on his holographic display, he started tagging the images. With the flip of a switch he opened the frequency he shared with Phoebe. "One Lead, I have the heavies coming in. ETA two minutes."

  "Roger, Trey Lead. One has the flank."

  "Roger." Larry switched back to his battalion's tactical frequency. "Keep firing and hold steady. We're omelet chefs and the Bandits are eggs. Those Humpty-Dumptys are going to have a long walk home, and it starts right here."

  Daosha, Zurich

  Zurich People's Republic, League Liberation Zone

  As the male security officer reached for her, Cathy backed away. At the same moment the derelict suddenly staggered to his feet, then reeled forward straight at the female officer. The woman tried to get out of his way, but the drunk lurched at her and grabbed at her shoulder.

  The security woman slapped him away with her left hand. "Away, dog!"

  The bottle came up, shattering as it caught the security woman in the face. The rumpled bag tore and dark wine mixed with darker blood. Fragments of the bottle hung in the air, spinning like tops, and the rest of it went careening off into thesky like an errant missile when the man released it.

  The male security officer's eyes widened in surprise, but he reacted quickly, reaching out to grab the man in the ratty woolen coat. That was when Cathy saw the gun. The derelict's trigger finger tightened twice, instantly transforming the security guard's neck and face into gaping, bloody wounds.

  Clutching at his ruined face, the security man fell to the ground, making strangled gurgling sounds. The derelict instantly spun away from him and back toward the woman. Firing his gun twice more, he hit her in the stomach and the hip. The woman fell heavily against the steps, then tumbled down to the sidewalk where she lay in an ever-expanding pool of blood.

  Acid bubbled up from Cathy's stomach, searing her throat, as the derelict turned toward her. "Please don't hurt me," she begged.

  He pulled off his cap and smiled at her through the grime of his face. "Hurt you? I don't think so. Let's go."

  Cathy's jaw dropped. "Noble? How?"

  "It's a lot to explain. But not now. We've got to go. If they're after you, they're probably after Rick Bradford and Anne Thompson, too." He fished in his pocket and tossed the joker from a deck of cards onto the woman's body.

  "How did you—?" She stared down at the bodies, confusion and exhaustion threatening to swallow her. She'd thought Noble was dead, but he wasn't. He was back and so ... so violent.

  He grabbed her left arm. "Let's go. We've got to get out of here. I can explain later."

  "But ..."

  "No buts, Cathy." He gave her a weary smile. "Look, I wasn't going to let them get you, and I'm not going to let them get our friends. Are you with me?"

  Cathy shook herself. He's just saved my life.' Pull it together, girl, and go. "Yes, yes, let's go. Let's help the others."

  "Good." Noble smiled and led her off down the street. "And after we do that, maybe we can see about the rest of the world."

  27

  Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy.

  —Winston Churchill, A Roving Commission

  Avalon City, New Avalon

  Cruris March, Federated Commonwealth

  2 October 3057

  Seated at his desk, Victor frowned at Galen. "There are revolts on Northwind, Caph, New Home, and Keid?"

  "Yes, sir. It appears that Sun-Tzu had guerrilla organizations on all those worlds. Moves were also made to set off a revolt on Epsilon Indi, but that fizzled. Tormano Liao had apparently infiltrated his nephew's organization with his own people and they refused to act. The rebellion was put down quickly." Galen shook his head. "I don't know how we missed picking up on these guerrilla activities before."

  "Don't worry about it now. Spilled milk."

  Galen looked surprised. "Are you so certain you want to let the existence of subversive enemy networks pass so easily?"

  "No, but those networks weren't established on your watch. I'm sure you're doing all you can to uncover others." Victor leaned back in his chair and smiled. "We mustn't forget that Sun-Tzu is also fomenting rebellions on worlds my sister has claimed. I don't like losing Northwind, but most of the Highlanders are stationed in her Lyran Alliance, so their defection won't hurt us much right now. We had troops on New Home, but I think it was the Thirtieth Lyran Guards RCT, and their devotion to me is questionable at best. Let them chew on Sun-Tzu's bandits for a while."

  Galen sat in the brown leather chair facing Victor's desk and frowned slightly. "If you don't mind my saying so, you're behaving very differently than during the Clan Invasion. That Victor Davion would have been hopping mad. He'd have been frantically shifting troops and directing strategy to meet the invasion. But you seem so calm. I don't understand it."

  The Prince shrugged. "I'm hamstrung by circumstances, so all the fury in the world won't do me any good. First and foremost, we can't possibly begin to predict when, where, and with how much the League or the Capellans are going to attack. Being the defender might have a tactical advantage on the ground, but on the strategic level the advantage is with the attacker. He hits where we're weak and we can't stop him. That's a fact we have to live with."

/>   Galen nodded. "True enough. We've got troops on the key industrial worlds, so we're still holding all of them saving Nanking. Smithson's Chinese Bandits' second regiment broke the militia at Xuanji. The mercenaries are mopping up, but reports suggest they also got hit fairly hard in the fighting."

  Victor opened his hands. "Ah, now there is a situation I could exploit. We know where one of the League units is, we know it's hurt, and we could deliver troops enough to crush it, but I don't have the ships I need to do it. Katherine's refusal to return my JumpShips to me is the most damaging thing she's done. I'd consider attacking her except that, one, I don't want to kill my own citizens and, two—I don't have the damned ships to get at her!"

  Galen and Victor shared a nervous laugh. "I suspect, Highness, that your sister has considered that fact."

  "No doubt. We could try to shift mercenaries around to try to cover things, but very few of them have the necessary JumpShip and DropShip assets either. Group W, the Legion of the Rising Sun, Wolf's Dragoons, and the Kell Hounds all have the transport, but they're either too far away—or pledged to neutrality—so I can't use them. Besides, in this fight, I'm not sure I want to."

  "Why not?"

  Victor exhaled slowly. "Thomas has been very conservative in his assaults. He hit the six old League worlds where we had troops, and though he captured two without a fight, he hasn't reassigned those units to launch new attacks."

  "To the best of our knowledge."

  "True—and with Word of Blake taking over communications on the conquered worlds, our 'best knowledge' is pretty weak. But he's used mercenaries to support Sun-Tzu's revolutions. I may be reading him incorrectly—and this whole war is confirmation that I haven't read him right before—but I don't think he's going to push his own Free Worlds troops beyond the borders of what was once the League. If he has to, he can always pass his mercenary contracts over to Sun-Tzu, turning the war into us versus the Capellans. He sues for peace, has the Capellan Confederation back as a buffer between us, and he's won an incredible victory. Thomas set his sights on limited gains, executed a war to obtain them, and succeeded. He'll be stronger than ever at home—which would justify the Word of Blake declaring him Primus in Exile.

  Victor frowned. "But, this is all speculation, and worth exactly nothing. Is there any good news?"

  "I have JumpShips available to move the Third Royal Regimental Combat Team to Northwind. With everything in such an uproar, we might be able to get that world back."

  "Good. Do it. What else?"

  "On Woodstock the Reserve Militia crushed the first regiment of Smithson's Chinese Bandits. They're mopping up the small remaining bands of resistance now, and Woodstock should be back in the fold inside a week."

  "How badly was the Militia torn up?"

  "They apparently escaped with surprisingly modest damage. Out of a hundred twenty-five BattleMechs only thirty-five are down with damage, but they expect to return to full strength by salvaging Bandit 'Mechs. Most of the Militia's pilots survived the battle. Two of their officers were in the Tenth Lyran Guards with you, so they've got some experienced leadership there."

  That softened Victor's frown. "Who's commanding?"

  "Kommandant Phoebe Derden is the unit commander and Hauptmann Larry Acuff is the Third Battalion's leader."

  "I remember Derden. She had four kills on Teniente. And Acuff, wasn't he one of Kai's stable on Solaris? What's he doing on Woodstock?"

  "He was visiting family. He's still in the Reserves, so he got activated when things began going to hell."

  The Prince clapped his hands in applause. "Well, send them a congratulatory message over my signature. Tell them that we've very proud of their success." Then he laughed, but it was a sound of frustration. "And tell them that the other half of Smithson's Chinese Bandits is waiting for them on Nanking, anytime they can get over there to clean that up, too."

  Galen smiled. "Oh, they'll love that. Want me to make a note to move them to Nanking when we get ships in the area?"

  "By all means—they earned it. We'll send them in with the First Davion Guards and the First Kathil Ulhans. They'll be part of the task force taking the world. It'll make them happy and won't get too many of them shot up. Who would have thought a militia would beat up the Bandits?"

  "Miracles do happen."

  Victor's eyes narrowed. "Speaking of which, have we learned the identity of whoever did the blood test on our Joshua?"

  "Not yet, but we're still checking."

  "What's taking so long?"

  "The New Avalon Criminal Investigations Bureau has been investigating the connection between organized crime and the cartage firm that hauls medical waste from the NAIS. They're claiming we shouldn't be working on domestic crime, even if it does tie in with espionage."

  The Prince's nostrils flared as his temper began to boil. "You tell Director Harrison that his career at the CIB is perilously close to over. He'll tell you that he can't be fired and you can tell him I said he can sue the government and that I guarantee the case won't be heard until his grandchildren are the age he is now. He's to cooperate fully with this investigation."

  Galen smiled. "Ah, Prince Victor has returned."

  "Then I want you to have Harrison get hold of Christopher Wobbe."

  "I'm not certain the head of the NACIB is on speaking terms with the Godfather of New Avalon."

  "Well, if Harrison can't reach Wobbe, then he does deserve to be sacked. You have him tell Wobbe that Wobbe's son Thorinn is going to be moved from the country club prison where we put him for his little confidence games to a prison on a very cold moon orbiting Perdido or Nagel or some other world so far away you can't even see the star it orbits from here. If Wobbe's organization had anything to do with this and Wobbe doesn't comes clean now, he'd better appeal to my sister for asylum because New Avalon will become very unfriendly to him."

  "Consider it done," Galen said. "And to think I thought there'd be no fun in this job."

  The Prince shook his head. "There is, but not often enough."

  While Galen made notes on his noteputer, Victor thought about Galen's comment that the old fire had returned. Being fiery was easy when it came to the domestic situation, because the necessary actions were obvious. There were things that had to be done and it made him angry that they weren't being done.

  The war, on the other hand, was not as clear-cut. Besides not knowing where Marik's forces would strike next, and not having the ships to move troops to counter those strikes, something else bothered Victor. He couldn't put a finger on it, but it left him ill at ease.

  Before he could further analyze any of this, Galen looked up and unknowingly interrupted him. "Another bit of good news is that the Jenkins woman has turned the corner . She'll have to remain in intensive care for a bit, but she's regained consciousness. It looks as if she'll recover, with therapy of course. She'll probably need a hip replacement once she's more stable, but Dr. Allard and her team are ready to do the job."

  Pushing his dark thoughts aside, Victor smiled. "Good. She's to have anything she needs. We've taken care of her medical and living expenses, correct?"

  "Yes, sir, she'll be able to pick her life up where she left off. There's been a groundswell of support for her. Even a trust fund set up through donations."

  "Cut the red tape and make it all tax-deductible."

  "Yes, sir."

  "Anything else?"

  "One more thing, Highness." Galen glanced at his noteputer and back up. "Just got a note here that the Draconis Combine ambassador would like to speak with you."

  "Any idea why?"

  Galen shook his head. "Not really, but I saw the abstract of an analysis of Combine media reports about the Lyran Alliance that suggests Theodore Kurita might be worried about the militarization of the worlds in the Lyons thumb. With Katrina claiming Northwind, it could look as if she might try a drive to take Dieron."

  "That's not good." Because of Victor's relationship with Omi and the pact Hanse Davion had
made with her father, the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine had agreed to suspend hostilities until the Clans were no longer a threat to the two realms. Victor would not have minded seeing Katherine have trouble governing the worlds in the thumb that bulged into Combine space, but if war should break out between Katherine and the Kuritas on the Combine border, he would be forced to intervene against Theodore.

  "I can't give Theodore Kurita my blessing to invade the Lyran Alliance." The Prince thought for a moment, then smiled. "However, I could suggest to Theodore, through Omi, that if the Combine wanted to arrange with ComStar to station 'peacekeeping' troops on those worlds, I would not object. In fact, given that Katherine mouths a pacifist line, neither should my sister."

  "It could backfire."

  "Not if the troops used as peacekeepers come off their border with us. That relieves pressure on me and frees up more troops to move into the Sarna March." Victor massaged his temples, hoping to chase away the first hints of a headache. "I think that's the best I can do right now. Do you agree?"

  "It will frustrate your sister while reassuring the Combine." Galen made another note on the device in his lap. 'There might be a better solution somewhere, but this is workable for now."

  "I agree, but if there's a better solution I can't figure it out." The Prince shrugged. "Probably something simple, something I'm overlooking. I think I'm finally reading Thomas accurately, but my track record on that doesn't inspire confidence."

  "You'll see what you're missing soon enough."

  "I hope you're right, Galen. I don't even want to think about what will happen if you're not."

  Wotan

  Jade Falcon Occupation Zone

  Khan Vandervahn Chistu of the Jade Falcons slowly paced around the column of figures the computer was projecting inside his holotank. The image moved with him, keeping the data readable as he walked. Another commander might have hoped vainly that the numbers would somehow change as they shifted position, denying the disaster they reported.