The tone he got in response to his shot warbled, which meant not all of the weapons had locked onto the same target. One pulse laser sent its ruby needles wide between the Man O'War's legs, but the others peppered the right leg. Molten armor melted a swath through the snow behind the 'Mech. The lasers sliced through the thick myomer fibers above and below the knee, leaving them dangling like worn cord.
The Man O'War's pilot managed to keep the 'Mech upright and fired again at Phelan's Nova. The PPCs missed again, but Phelan knew that had more to do with luck and his being inside their minimum range than any deficiency on the part of the Falcon pilot. The medium pulse laser in the 'Mech's left arm stitched a line of burning craters across the center of the Nova, while the other laser fire missed high and wide.
Even at this temperature, he's got to be running hot. Phelan's own indicators showed the Nova to be a bit above optimal heat levels, but he had to risk his computer shutting him down because of excessive heat. Again he centered his crosshairs on the Man O'War's body, but couldn't correct enough to target the leg again. When he got a targeting dot, he fired all his weapons and listened in vain for a tone.
His lasers swept fire across the left side of the Man O'War, evaporating armor from its arm, leg, and flank. One of the lasers even scored armor on the 'Mech's extended right arm, but none of the attacks penetrated the ferrofibrous carapace protecting the Man O'War's vital mechanisms.
Even without doing internal damage, the assault did have an effect. The lasers evaporated more than two tons of armor, causing a shift in the weight of the OmniMech's torso. As the machine continued to track to its left, following Phelan's Nova, the pilot lost control. He tried to steady the 'Mech by leaning it back to the right, but that only put pressure on the skeletal right leg. The leg buckled, the fire-blackened femur sliding forward out of the knee joint. The 'Mech wavered for a second, then collapsed in the snow, landing on its right side.
Using the momentum and speed he'd built up, Phelan pushed his Nova on into the center of the supply convoy's camp. Without slowing, he targeted the heavily laden hovertrucks and picked them apart with laser fire. In some spots, when the laser darts hit the snow-covered payloads, the cargo exploded. SRMs and LRMs had their rocket motors ignite, shooting the missiles off in all directions. Autocannon ammunition cooked off, spraying hundreds of rounds into vehicles—starting yet more conflagrations in a hideous chain reaction.
A Jade Falcon Peregrine came jetting forward from the other side of the compound, the large pulse laser in its chest spitting green energy darts at Phelan's Nova. They ripped into his 'Mech's left leg, dotting the armor with half-melted pits. The medium pulse laser in the Peregrine's right arm hit the same target, leaving the armor on the Nova's left leg a steaming ruin.
Phelan tracked the Peregrine as the 'Mech came in for a landing. Just before it touched down he got a pulse in the center of his crosshairs. The tone sounded loud and clear as he hit both trigger buttons. All six of his pulse lasers burned their way through the right side of the flying 'Mech's barrel chest and devoured the internal structures on the right side of its torso. Their energy unabated, they melted armor over the 'Mech's heart from the inside out, and with it ran the central supports in the Peregrine's chassis.
When the 'Mech's broad feet hit the ground, the torso telescoped down onto its legs. When the shoulders hit the hips, the upper half of the body rebounded up and ripped free of the structural bits on the left side. With the right arm spinning wildly off through space, the upper body slowly rotated up in the air, then landed head-down in the snow.
A Jade Falcon Vixen appeared on Phelan's left side, but before it could exploit the damage done by the Man O'War and the Peregrine, Ranna's Warhawk intervened. Ranna's two large pulse lasers laid the Vixen's left arm and leg open. The twin PPCs mounted in the Warhawk's left arm finished the last of the armor on the small 'Mech's left leg, then liquefied the ferrotitanium bones. The azure beams ate up into the left side of the 'Mech, destroying both the armor and the internal structures making up the Vixen's left flank. The left arm dropped away, and the smoking 'Mech fell to the ground a second later.
"Thanks, Ranna."
"My pleasure, even though these are solahma."
The disgust in her voice struck a chord in Phelan. Solahma units were suitable for chasing bandits, nothing more. Angeline Mattlov had made a big mistake in entrusting her supplies to their protection. The Fourth Wolf Guards ripped through them faster than they would have any Inner Sphere line unit. More important, the Fourth Wolf Guards' losses could be tallied in armor plates.
Ranna's Warhawk prodded one overturned hovertruck with its arm, and uncovered the cargo. "Phelan, Mattlov was having them bring up energy weapons for her OmniMechs."
"Yes!" Phelan smiled broadly as the Fourth Wolf Guards line swept past him in pursuit of the fleeing Jade Falcons. "She's seen her mistake, and we stopped her from getting weapons that don't need ammunition."
"My Khan, your language has deteriorated disgracefully."
"Thank you for reminding me, Star Captain. It shall not happen again."
"You expect me to believe that, quineg?"
Phelan laughed. "If any of this stuff is recoverable, let's haul it off. If we can't, destroy it all."
"As you wish, my Khan." Phelan heard Ranna sigh over the line. "Angeline Mattlov will never make this mistake again."
"Remember, Ranna, it is up to us to make certain she never has the chance to make this mistake again. That is what Natasha and Ulric wanted us to do—and believe me, we will because I'd rather be haunted by a million Jade Falcons than the shades of either one of them."
48
The military value of a partisan's work is not measured by the amount of property destroyed or the number of men killed or captured, but in the number he keeps watching.
—John Singieton Mosby, War Reminiscences
Daosha, Zurich
Zurich People's Republic, Capellan Confederation
20 December 3057
Waiting in the cold, Cathy Hanney shivered, but her shivering was not solely because of the weather. The position she and Fabian Wilson had taken up on the hillside overlooking the northern approach to the Jihuaide Chumai power station was exposed to the wind, and the early winter breezes did cut like a knife. Even so, she thought she could have endured them without suffering had other conditions been more comforting.
She did not like being saddled with Fabian Wilson on his rookie mission. She'd sensed from the meeting in the restaurant that things might not work out well, and she'd tried to communicate her foreboding to Noble, but when talk turned to missions, Noble disappeared and the Dancing Joker took over. Where Noble would have been sympathetic, the Dancing Joker was resolute, reminding her that if she could successfully train Fabian, their future missions would be easier and more secure.
The only way Fabian will make a mission secure is through having his tongue ripped out. Cathy knew, from long years of dealing with people in traumatic situations, that Fabian's chatter came from nerves, but it bothered her. And it distracted her, the last thing she needed while trying to lodk out for Noble and the others.
Wilson, squatting at the base of a wind-twisted pine tree, shook his head. "You know, Cath, I gotta tell you, I never figured Noble for the secret agent type, you know? I mean, when old Foxie brought him to me to buy a computer, I said to myself, I said, This is a school teacher. Quiet, unassuming, bookish. I bet he wants to write action novels so he can live out the adventurous life he never had.' I was wrong, but I'm man enough to admit that."
"That's big of you, Fabian." Cathy intended her tone to be cutting, but Fabian seemed not to notice the sarcasm. "We should be listening."
"What, like my whispers are going to drown out the approach of 'Mechs? Listen, Cath, I drove a loading 'Mech in my warehouse days. Walking earthquakes. Trust me, if the Cobras are slithering our way, we'll know it."
Cathy looked at her chronometer, then keyed her radio. "Polaris clear." She kn
ew there would be no reply. The insertion teams would be running under radio silence until the action started—which should be any time about now. Cathy would have given her right arm for just one word from Noble, but she realized he'd be in full Dancing Joker mode at this point, and even torture couldn't have made him to speak with her.
"So, Cath,when did you first find out Noble was a Davion agent?"
Cathy dropped to her haunches. "Look, I don't know that for certain. That's point one. Point two: you know that operational security means I can't talk to you about him. The more you know, the more you put him in danger. Just like I don't know where you and your wife and Fox are being stashed, so you can't know about Noble without jeopardizing him."
"Hey, hey, take it easy. I was just making conversation."
"You should be listening."
"Sorry. Look, I can understand you want to be protective of him. I mean, you feel for him what I feel for my wife, right?"
I suspect I feel for him more than you're capable of feeling for your wife. "Right." Something snapped in the woods off to her right. "Shhh. What was that?"
"I didn't hear nothing."
Some surprise, that. Cathy slid her hand into her parka and took hold of the machine pistol holstered beneath her left armpit. But before she could draw it, she heard Fabian cock his pistol and then felt the heavy pressure of the muzzle against the back of her head.
"Don't even think it. Your wool cap won't stop a bullet."
"What are you doing? Are you mad?"
"No," his voice announced from behind her, "just playing for the side that will win. Come on in, she's neutralized."
Her thumb snapped the safety down on her pistol. Before Fabian could puzzle out the significance of the muffled click from inside her parka, she'd pulled the trigger. Burning nylon and smoking goose-down jetted out toward Fabian as the three-shot-burst blew through her parka and hit him in the stomach and chest. The muzzle flame burned her armpit as recoil made the pistol rise.
Behind her, the bullets' impact picked Fabian up and started to spin him around. His finger tightened on the trigger, but his pistol had shifted away from her head enough that the shot missed. Still the muzzle blast peppered the left side of her face with burning powder and the report deafened her. Worst of all, the bright flash of light blinded her. Trying to cut to her right to flee, she slammed straight into a tree.
Rebounding, Cathy tried to draw her machine pistol, but the cocking lever caught on the inside of her coat. She felt herself begin to fall, then a sharp blow to the right side of her face snapped her head around. She dropped to the ground as if her bones had evaporated. A heavy weight pounced on her chest, then she felt the sights of a gun cutting into the flesh beneath her chin.
Through the ringing in her ears she heard someone say, "Viper Team One, north secured. Go in."
Those words bored through the shock in her mind. Fabian betrayed us. The Black Cobras are here. They'll kill everyone, including Noble. I failed to warn him. It's all my fault.
Even as she began to sink into despair, a brilliant light illuminated the night sky and outlined the silhouette of the trooper sitting on her chest. She knew it was an explosion even before she heard the faint report. North, north.. The only target there is the Cobra base at Kaishiling! The Dancing Joker hit there instead of here. That's the end of Xu Ning's third power base!
Cathy wanted to laugh aloud, but the weight of the trooper sitting on her chest made it impossible for her to draw in enough of a breath to do so. She settled for a smile. You've done it, Noble. I know you'll come for me, and when you do, we'll topple this Xu Ning together.
49
Loyalty is the marrow of honor.
—Paul von Hindenburg, Out of My Life
Tharkad City, Tharkad
District of Donegal, Lyran Alliance
20 December 3057
Katrina Steiner, wearing a white knit dress under an ice-blue woolen jacket, smiled as her secretary ushered the visitor into her private office. "I am so pleased you were able to come to Tharkad."
The short, stocky man returned her smile and bowed his graying head in her direction. "I am honored by your willingness to see me."
"I agreed to see you if the token your representative brought me was impressive enough." Katrina reached down and lifted the bronze mask from the blotter of her desk. "Being presented the death mask of the man who took Keid from me did indeed impress me, Tormano Liao."
The older man shrugged. "I have, over the years, developed assets to match those of my nephew and his mother before him. I regret that doing so may have necessitated sending agents to worlds of the Federated Commonwealth, but the migration of my people to worlds outside the Capellan Confederation over the last three decades made that a natural expansion of my interests."
"Please, Mandrinn Liao, be seated." Katrina sat behind her desk and set the serene mask of Roland Carpenter's face on the counter of her desk. "I was correct in assuming this was a death mask?"
Tormano nodded slowly. "Mr. Carpenter was greatly enamored of power and resisted being removed from it."
"And the counter-revolution?"
"Ah, that was a native product. It would have been uncovered early on, but I had infiltrated agents into Carpenter's government and they happened to be in charge of counter-insurgency. Once Carpenter left office, installing the Duchess was simple."
The Archon rested her elbows on the blotter and steepled her fingers. "And you have many agents in the Sarna March?"
"Had, Duchess. As you know, over the last eighteen months my resources have been severely reduced."
"You mean since Kai deposed you as the leader of the Free Capella Movement."
Tormano nodded stiffly. "He has taken over many of the functions I had in that role, but he has not replaced me entirely. He abandoned my intelligence network, but over the last six months he has been less than vigilant in preventing me from renewing contacts. Even so, with my limited resources, I have been able to act in only one or two places. Keid was one, Zurich another."
Katrina arched an eyebrow at him. "The Dancing Joker is your agent?"
"No, though I wish he were. My agent works under the name of Jacko Diamond. He is not as successful as the Dancing Joker, but my organization is in a position to exploit any gains he makes."
"I see." The Archon folded her hands together and rested them lightly on the desktop. "So, now you come to me to ask for help in funding your operations?"
Tormano smiled slowly, as if he were indulging a child, and that frightened Katrina for a moment. "That would be one of the outcomes I would hope for from this meeting."
"Yes? Then, perhaps it is time you informed me of the purpose of your visit here."
"Indeed, Archon, I would very much like to do so." Tormano unbuttoned his double-breasted jacket and slid forward in the tall leather chair until he sat perched on the edge of the seat. "I have been watching you with great interest ever since we met on Solaris, Duchess. Yes, I was impressed with your beauty, but even more than that, your ability to manipulate people captured my attention. It is something every politician must learn, though many never succeed. Yet it is a skill you understand instinctively. You know how to persuade people to do what you want almost without effort."
Tormano's head dipped every so slightly. "This ability would make you unassailable except for—"
"Except for what?"
"Your youth, your immaturity and, most of all, your lack of vision."
Katrina's face flushed and she started to speak, but Tormano held a hand up.
"Indulge me, Archon, for what I say is not meant to inflame you, but to show you how I would be able to help you. Because of your youth, you lack a full understanding of the traditions and rivalries that are the mainspring driving the Inner Sphere. Victor does, but this is because his military training instilled in him the history of his nation and his regiment.
"And when I speak of immaturity, I refer to a penchant for impulsiveness. When Sun-Tzu took
Keid and Northwind from you, you saw that as an attack on you. Yet it was obviously meant as a test of Thomas' resolve to expand the war. Thomas refused to take the bait and you complained to him and to the Kell Hounds before I could offer you my services."
"I see." Katrina bit her words off angrily. "And my lack of vision?"
"I have heard rumors to the effect that you plan to release JumpShips to your brother without any concession for their return. Though it is true this gives the public appearance of benign neutrality for the Lyran Alliance, you, your brother, and I are under no illusions about the depth and permanence of the division between your realms. Were it not necessary to maintain a link to provide a legitimate claim by each of you upon the other's realm, you would have made a clean break of it. You are separate nations now, and a nation will not prosper unless it wins a prize from other nations for its actions."
Tormano smiled as he opened his arms. "The Steiners have traditionally been admired as great merchants. You should be selling those ships back to Victor, and slowly, as well, so he never has a number sufficient to cause you trouble with them."
"I see." Katrina's anger almost prevented her from assessing the wisdom of Tormano's words. The fact that he pointed out the flaws in her performance heightened her anger, and that made her lash out. "So, you, a noble whose holdings were reduced to one estate and a scattering of loyal minions, a noble who has never ruled a state for even as much as a minute, you would have yourself installed as my advisor? Either you are here on behalf of my brother to betray me as Justin Allard did your father, or you are even more insane that your dead sister and her daughter combined."
Tormano's face remained impassive despite the savage attack. "The chance that you would judge me so harshly was not unanticipated. Let me ask you, though, to think on the fates of the leaders of your father's time. Takashi Kurita is dead. Janos Marik is dead, and Thomas is only alive today because ComStar worked to resurrect him for a year and a half. Katrina Steiner, your namesake, is dead. Your father is dead. Your mother is dead and, yes, my father and my sister Romano are dead. However, my sister Candace has ruled over Saint Ives since before your mother was born. And I, a landless noble, have survived decades of meddling in and of the internal politics of the Capellan Confederation without being killed. Let me assure you, that is no mean accomplishment in and of itself. If the Liaos are anything, we are survivors, and your realm, trapped between the Clans and the Free Worlds League, needs to be a survivor as well."