Part Six - Chaos March

What if you did?

What if you lied?

What if I avenge?

Chapter 36

Castle Davion, New Avalon

Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth

8 July 3066

"Three items for final decisions, sir."

Peter pushed back his chair and gestured for Bishop Sortek to take a seat by the coffee table. His Champion (there had been a suggestion to reinstate the original title of Prime Marshal, but Peter liked the personal touch of the current version) complied, setting the document folder he'd brought on the table, then placing an open notepad on top of it. As the Archon-Prince filled two mugs with coffee, he was amused to see that the top page neatly laid out the written issue and options and hand-drawn tick boxes next to them waiting for the choices to be made. It was very secretarial, but this was a private conversation and who was to question how the uniformed head of the AFFC handled his personal notes? It clearly worked for him.

One sugar in Sortek's mug, one cream in his own. He sat down facing the Field Marshal. "Anything we haven't discussed to death already?"

"No, I think they've been chewed over repeatedly and nothing so urgent that I couldn't have sent word while you were on Galax." Bishop accepted his coffee. "Thank you sir."

"Good coffee is the least I can offer with how much if this you're handling for me." Peter was honest enough to admit that he didn't have close to the experience of high level military command to run the AFFC. He'd handled task groups he'd led in the Civil War by delegating most of the detail work to senior officers and trusting them, but learning how to run things from the capital… it rubbed in just how a junior officer he'd been when his career derailed.

As the Archon-Prince's Champion, Sortek wielded all the authority of the commander-in-chief, letting Peter pick up the job at a manageable pace alongside his civilian responsibilities. Most importantly of all, he'd managed to do so without undercutting his much younger superior.

"What's first on your list," Peter asked, although he'd read the upside down words. "The Alliance Guards?"

Bishop sipped from his mug and then nodded as he put it down. "They're not bad troops but they need their own niche. The perception that they're second-rate FedCom RCTs is almost as damaging as the doubts about their loyalty."

"I can see that. But I'm not about to write them off. Disbanding the corps would be almost as damaging, and spread disaffected soldiers across the AFFC."

"Then we need to find them a new role, sir. Jon Davion suggested taking a leaf from the Ceti Hussars' book and breaking them into smaller sub-commands."

Peter rubbed his jaw. "It's not exactly their own niche, but it's a start. I take it you think that it's the right track?"

"Yes sir. RCTs are very logistics heavy, particularly on shipping. We could do with additional smaller commands that can be moved around more easily to respond to a crisis."

"Somewhat like the Capellan March's Borderer regiments, or the Argyle Lancers."

"Exactly, sir. But an entire corps of such units."

Peter sipped his own coffee. "I see the merits, but we'd better not have them simply turn into second-rate Ceti Hussars instead of a second-rate FedCom Corps. Look at splitting them permanently into smaller formations, with each of the current RCTs forming three distinct combined arms brigades. We can look at beefing up their 'Mech, aerospace and battle armour complements and scaling back conventional armour and infantry, so we can get the maximum punch for every dropship allocated to them."

Bishop picked up his pen and ticked off one of the options. "We have some potential tables of organisation," he confirmed. "I'll get back to you on a schedule for breaking off the new commands. We may need to adjust our allocations for new equipment and personnel. Do you want to revive the First and Second Alliance Guards?"

"Let's go ahead. It's not as if they did anything offensive before Kathrina broke them up to build her Jaeger formations. If you need cadre, consider picking some transfers from the Federated Suns Armored Cavalry. A mix of their doctrine and the Ceti Hussars could be what we need."

"Next on our list is the construction of the Durandal-class." The Marshal shuffled the folders, bringing a different folder to the top of his stack. "The admiralty has finalised enough of the design that we need to commit to where they're to be built."

Peter's eyes narrowed. "I've had some thoughts there. We're looking at upgrading Panpour or New Syrtis."

"Yes, either yard will need some upgrades to manage that."

"Expensive upgrades. One moment." Peter rose and walked to his desk, checking one of the files that had been waiting for him when he got back from Galax. It was classified as need to know, and until now even Bishop Sortek hadn't needed to know. He carried it back and handed it to Bishop. "Victor still has some friends inside ComStar, enough that we knew who to talk to. We'll be upgrading both yards, but Panpour gets the contract for the Durandal."

Sortek opened the folder and scanned the contents. His eyebrows lifted. "I see. Well, they can afford to finance it. We might find that New Syrtis becomes a target if it comes out that we're building a warship for them there."

"A warship yard will always be a strategic target and George Hasek has been backing upgrades there."

"Yes." The older man paused and drank from his mug, then continued. "But the Word of Blake aren't necessarily going to be provoked by us building AFFC ships the way they will if we build this… what's a Faslane-class?"

"It's a yardship. Essentially a mobile shipyard," Peter explained. "The ComGuards have been struggling to maintain their warship fleet since they lost control of the Titan shipyards, so they've agreed to very favorable terms in exchange for us building at least one yardship for them."

"And if we build one, we can build more."

"Given how many of our warships had to fight through the latter stages of the Civil War with serious damage, the ability to move a shipyard to them and make more in-depth repairs than their crews can manage unassisted could pay off down the line. It'll be years before we have any but…" Peter trailed off.

Sortek closed the folder with a snap and reached for his pen again. "I trust you won't be offended if I say that I'm impressed. At a minimum, we save Ways and Means the cost of the upgrades to the New Syrtis shipyards and gain some valuable technical data. That's well worth the impact on jumpship production."

"Which should be minimal." Peter was amused to see the Marshal tick one box and asterisk the other. "So, what's last on the list?"

"That…" His champion looked uncomfortable. "There is some discontent within the Deneb Light Cavalry."

Peter blinked. "Which command?"

"All of them. To varying degrees."

Rubbing his jaw, Peter sat back in his seat. The Deneb Light Cavalry had served the AFFS loyally since the fall of the Star League. A lone SLDF regiment had become a powerful corps, but the last few years had not been kind of them - in fact, they'd gone from six commands to three during Peter's lifetime. "Is this about retiring the Tenth and Fifteenth's colours?" The two RCTs had fought against Peter and for his alleged sister, one of them right here on New Avalon.

"It's a factor, sir, although I don't think it's the main factor. No one really expected you to rebuild them given their last service. There was some hope that you might announce the formation of a new Fifth DLC, but that has been pushed back…"

"So what are they looking for?!" he demanded.

"There are voices within the brigade, particularly the Fourth, that are suggesting following the Eridani Light Horse and returning to the SLDF."

Peter bit back his initial response and rubbed the brow of his nose. "And not in a 'resign their commissions and walk to the nearest SLDF recruiting station' way?"

"No sir. En masse and with their hardware."

"God damn them." He met Sortek's eyes. "That would be a mess that we don't need."

"The Fourth were originally an SLDF regiment."

"I know." He shook his head. "I know. Let me think about how we -"

A chime from his desk interrupted.

"It's never just one thing." Peter went to the desk and tried not to snap. "What is it?"

"Lord Allard is here with an urgent matter, your highness."

"...send him in."

The double doors to the office swung open and admitted Quintus Allard. His eyes widened appreciatively as he saw Sortek. "Your highness, Field Marshal. I was hoping I'd catch you both."

"What's so urgent, Quintus."

The spy turned and made sure the door was closed. "The Capellans have invaded the Free Worlds League."

Peter was reaching for his coffee mug and missed, almost knocking it over. "What?! No, never mind. Stupid question. Where? With what?"

"Ohrensen Province and at least three 'Mech regiments, plus echelons of garrison and/or pacification units." Quintus paused for effect. "And at least one warship has been sent in to back them up. One of the Feng Huang-class cruisers."

"Damn." That was a powerful vessel, a Capellan rival to their own Avalon-class cruisers - perhaps even to the Mjolnir-class battlecruisers that were finally entering service. The Capellan warship fleet was small but it was of a high quality. "You're sure?"

"The Second St Ives Lancers are one of the regiments. We've maintained some contacts with members of the regiment who remember we were their allies until Kathrina's reign."

Sortek shook his head. "Does the League have anything substantial there to stop him? That region isn't aligned with any of the forming factions."

"Two brigades of federal forces to stiffen the militia, one more or less neutral and the other leaning towards Corinne Marik. She has a destroyer there too, but FWLS Schrack is a refitted SLDF vessel. It won't last long against a Feng Huang."

Peter nodded in understanding. He wasn't a naval officer but he'd been briefed in. The old SLDF had built its warships to operate as part of large battlegroups, each filling a specialised role. However, almost no one could field entire squadrons of warship any more and such vessels, fighting alone, fared poorly against more modern generalised designs. "Then Sun-Tzu can take the Ohrenson-Zion salient and then carry on into what's left of the Chaos March or the Silver Hawks."

"We'll have to increase readiness for the units operating in the Chaos March," warned Sortek. "Our detachments acting as peacekeepers in the Silver Hawks Coalition don't have warship support though."

"No, whatever Corinne Marik claims about one of our cruisers being there." There was one Avalon-class cruiser that was unaccounted for, he reminded himself. If her spies had seen the Lucien Davion then it might be a clue at last to where the so-called 'Archon-Princess' was, but so far Isis hadn't been able to validate that.

"And the Hawks have no warships of their own," confirmed Quintus.

"The First Lord has been talking with the Blakists about the interned FWLN warships," Peter thought out loud. "They've dropped hints that they'd be willing to hand most of them out to the factions but their price was retaining some for their own fleet. We may have to accept that or see Capellan bases threatening the Terran corridor."

Chapter 37

Hyppo, Augustine

Silver Hawks Coalition, Free Worlds League

24 July 3066

"I caught your speech," Isis told her cousin when they were in private. "Not bad."

"Who are you comparing me to? Victor Steiner-Davion?"

She shook her head. "I was thinking it reminded me more of some of grandfather's public appearances."

Alys winced, as she well should. Janos Marik hadn't been incapable of swaying a crowd, but he was more remembered for his embittered old age than the youthful charisma that had turned the League around during the 2990s.

"On his better days," Isis clarified, letting the other Marik off the hook a little. "Admitting a mistake gracefully is always challenging but you came off about as well as we could have expected."

"Thanks." Alys removed her beret, twisted it slightly and put it back on at a less dapper but probably more comfortable angle. "I don't imagine Marshal Van Creveld will be happy with me though. Even once we repair our salvage and get our wounded through the hospital, we're down a lot of men and equipment for nothing."

"Not entirely nothing. Even if the exact target was wrong, you've showed that the Coalition will mobilise if we're attacked." Isis patted her arm. "And you tied up the First Free Worlds Guards for weeks. That's quite an achievement for our soldiers to boast of. Corinne may call it a victory but in all but the tactical sense your campaign has cost her far more than it has cost us."

She watched her cousin process that and then the soldier shook her head. "That might be right in the long term, but right now I can still see our casualty lists… and whoever really hit our worlds got away with it."

"For now." Isis didn't think the chances of find out who the actual raiders were was great unless they tried this again, but at least now they could be on guard. "But right now your troops need R&R. And that includes you."

"I got plenty of rest on the dropship," claimed Alys, but she didn't meet Isis' eyes.

"Writing letters all night to the families of the fallen?" The flinch told Isis that she'd nailed it. "I'm not saying don't but that doesn't count as rest and we both know it."

"You're unfairly good at that."

"I damn well should be by now." Isis shook her head. "Come on, Alys. It's not just your troops that need a break."

"At least with the Star League's peacekeepers here, we probably won't need to take the lead if there's a raid here…"

"Indeed. And Brigadier Steiner will be most unhappy if you don't give his Skye Rangers a chance to show off." Isis lowered her voice confidingly, although no one else was in earshot. "He's a lot like Victor like that. Never happier than when he's in the field."

"Do you know him well? He used to lead Victor's Tenth Lyran Guards, didn't he?"

"He did, but the Revenants weren't fighting alongside Victor while I was with his staff. We met on Tharkad but only in passing."

"So are you here to get better acquainted with him or is Galen back?"

Isis shook her head. "Really, that's the best you can do?"

"Well you do seem to have a type."

Galen has little in common with Sun-Tzu, Isis thought. And what would that have to do with Reinhart? The man was nice enough but a Steiner marriage would be politically disastrous right now and she didn't even know him that well. "I'm here to rendezvous with Galen once he gets here from Irian."

"Is that what you call it?" At least Alys was smiling a little.

She shook her head. "I'm going to visit worlds facing the Chaos March. With the news from Ohrenson, our neighbours in that direction are feeling nervous. Hopefully my presence and Galen's will convince Sun-Tzu not to push harder. And if that doesn't work, we'll have the Lucky Thirteenth along."

"I was going to say, a kind word only goes so far." Alys' smile slipped a little. "And while the Thirteenth are good, they'll be outnumbered if Liao keeps going."

"There are troops already stationed there. Given that it's the Capellans, I think they'll be glad of any support they can get." She spread her hands. "We have to try. Our entire mission statement is to protect the League's worlds against outsiders. That isn't limited to the Lyrans. And we've had another invitation as well."

"Who from?"

"The Saiph Triumvirate."

Alys blinked. "You're going into the Chaos March?"

Saiph, Tall Trees and New Canton had been border worlds between the Sarna March and the Free Worlds League. When the March collapsed in the face of invasion back in 3057, Count Ledo Balatine of New Canton had rallied the three worlds against pro-Liao insurgents and carved out a tiny pocket realm for himself immediately corewards of Zion province, which in turn was corewards of Ohrenson.

"Saiph is fairly peaceful, at least so far. But if Ohrenson falls - which seems probable - then Zion is next and after that Count Balatine will be facing Capellan troops on his border. It's in his interests to form a common front - at least in the short term."

"You're sure Ohrenson will be lost?"

Isis grimaced. "The Schrack was destroyed defending Ohrenson's orbitals. The Capellans haven't used orbital bombardment yet but they have the option, as well as local superiority."

"And you're heading into the war zone?"

"You did your job, Alys. Now I need to do mine." She smiled thinly. "At least no one expects me to do any of the fighting."

Alys shook her head slightly. "And you're sure this won't cause any conflict with the Federated Commonwealth."

Isis shrugged her shoulders. "I don't imagine that they'll be pleased if the Saiph Triumvirate has our protection, but the Archon-Prince will accept it because it's better for him than the Capellans controlling those worlds, and he's more focused on taking control of worlds that are relatively soft targets. Retaking Count Balatine's domain would require an all-out invasion rather than sending small detachments and supplies to aid existing pro-FedCom factions."

Actually, she suspected that Peter Steiner-Davion was using the small conflicts as live-fire training exercise for units had been battered during his civil war. Rotating a company of troops in to tip the balance in his favour while only doing so where the odds would heavily favour the AFFC detachment cost him very little in the long run and allowed inexperienced replacements to learn practical lessons that mere simulations and exercises would not. Granted, they'd still not be experienced in what they might face against true peer opponents, but it was still an improvement on never seeing action at all.

"There's very little chance of encountering the AFFC," she continued. "And if we do, it's vanishingly unlikely they'd be a match for the Lucky Thirteenth in numbers. A full combined arms brigade is more than I'd consider taking with me if it wasn't for the fact that we might run into the Capellans."

Her cousin looked away for a moment and then sighed. "You're the diplomat, cuz. But I have a bad feeling about this."

"Well, you'll not be going anywhere for a little while," Isis told her. "So once you've had a rest, you can think of some contingencies in case I'm wrong and you need to mount a rescue party for me."

Chapter 38

Dropship Tourmaline Desert, Zenith Point

Bernardo, Free Worlds League

7 August 3066

The concept of senior leadership retreating to a private room for discussion over a game probably conjured the idea of gambling with a deck of cards covered with a thin patina of grease that still carried the tobacco fumes from thousands of cigarettes being smoked around them in the past.

It would probably disappoint those with such an image in mind to see us now, Isis thought as she clipped two little dropships on magnets to a metal board that was clipped to the fold out table of her stateroom, securing her a critical connection for her strategy to work out.

Dropship and jumpship crews spent a lot of time in transit and they weren't working all the time. That left them in need of a lot for entertainment. In this case that included a locker full of board games she and Galen had dug out for social time with the other passengers, some of them involved in their mission and others just going in the same direction.

Colonel Reissing had worried incessantly but Isis figured that you never knew who might turn out to be a useful connection in the future. Besides, it meant meeting new people who might have something to talk about. As a result, the Colonel had joined them whenever he could and been good enough company that she'd invited him along even today when it would otherwise be just her and Galen. As much as she enjoyed Galen's company, some variety was also good.

Given that the game they were playing involved strategy, pattern-matching and luck, Isis would have expected Reissing to do better but so far he was struggling to connect two disparate travel networks across the stylised map of the Free Worlds League that made up the board. If he failed then not only would he miss the points for any objectives that required the link, he could even be penalised.

Galen reached over and placed not one but six jumpships on the board. That was worth fifteen points! "Have you played this before?" she asked suspiciously.

"I've spent literally years on dropships and jumpships with Victor. Sometimes even he ran out of work and had to resort to games for entertainment. I think I've played everything even remotely strategic on half the AFFC jumpship fleet by this point."

"But have you," she pointed at him, "Played this," her finger moved to the game board. "Before?"

"Well, the set I played had a map of the Federated Suns, but the rules were the same." He paused. "I've only two pieces left, so this is the final round by the way."

"Argh!"

Neither Isis nor Lloyd Reissing could beat what turned out to be a very substantial lead by the Tamar native, and by mutual consent the two of them started packing up the game once the final score was known.

Galen was gracious in his victory and raised the subject that had been avoided during the game. "Given the news from Ohrenson, do you think that it's realistic to visit Zion or will you be aborting the rest of the tour, Isis?"

She looked down at the board she was folding. The salient formed by the two provinces appeared but none of the routes led into it. The game's original edition had been published before the worlds were part of the Free Worlds League, and while the map on the board had been updated cosmetically, the provinces weren't part of the gameplay.

That lack of importance seemed to be the opinion of Thomas Halas - while he had about a third of his forces on the Capellan border, his strategic reserves were moving towards his two rivals in what looked like the beginning of a major offensive against one or both of them.

Unsurprisingly, Kirc Cameron-Jones wasn't paying the slightest attention to the invasion either. As far as Isis could tell, his interests began and ended with dominating the core regions of the League… border worlds could go hang.

That left Corinne Marik and the regiments based in the region were all at least notionally affiliated with her, but they were also halfway across the Free Worlds League from her centre of power. With the best will in the world, it would be hard for her to resupply or reinforce them.

"Even if she commits her warships, I'm not sure they'll arrive in time for the remaining defenders," she said at last. The defenders had started as two brigades of the Marik Militia and one of the Free Worlds Legionnaires. What information had filtered back to Bernardo - where the Tenth Marik Militia had been stationed before they headed for the sound of the guns, and where their dependants were still waiting - currently the numbers were even less favourable. "And given the Regulan threat to her shipyards at Ionus, I can't see her doing that."

"It might be easier if we were on better terms with her," mentioned Reissing. "If the Silver Hawks guaranteed supply lines for her, it could even be the start of a combined effort against Liao."

"That milk has already been spilt." And Isis had to wonder now if Sun-Tzu had been behind the raids that had sparked the fighting on Marik. Either way, it had worked out well for him.

Galen shrugged and took the board off her, laying it out again. "Which doesn't change the question. Do you plan to go there?" he tapped the worlds of Zion province. "Or for that matter, here?" His finger moved over into the featureless green of the Capellan Confederation (as the map claimed, though the region was now the Chaos March), the approximate location of Saiph.

Reissing cupped his hands. "My instinct is to go and support the sister regiments of my command," he admitted. "But even with four brigades, we'd be badly outnumbered."

Isis nodded slowly. "The latest news from Saiph has it that they've hired three regiments of mercenaries. If we could convince them to form a combined front, what would that do to the odds."

The two soldiers exchanged looks. "Seven brigades… six to all practical purposes, given the losses. I think the First Militia is in terrible shape," Galen noted. That was the brigade that had been closest to the invasion when it began and they'd been hit hard, retreated and then been hit again. "It would give us a parity with the ground forces that Sun-Tzu has committed, but he can call in reinforcements… and then there are the warships."

Isis nodded. "I've put as much pressure as I can on the contacts I've made with the Word of Blake, but even if they gave back all the warships that are interned, we'd have to crew and support them. I've no idea what state they're in."

"Battle damage while they made for Gibson and Terra," Galen listed on his fingers. "Internal damage if the crews fought over the decisions. Any systems stripped by the Word - or even just taken apart so they could look at them."

Reissing winced. "That's a worst case scenario. And the ships have crews."

"About a third of them have been repatriated to various combatants, and another third are wearing the colours of the Word of Blake Militia now," Isis told him. It seemed she had better insight than he did into the Blakist situation now - which would make sense. The - call them what they were - spies watching Reissing had shown him backing off from his previous flirtation with the movement rather than see his loyalties be put further in doubt.

"So even if they were returned they might not be any use," he realised.

Isis nodded and picked up the board. "How long do you think it'll be before Ohrenson and Kyrkbacken are untenable?"

"Honestly, they're doing well not to have given them up already. I'd expect the fighting to be in Zion province by next month," Galen told her.

"Then going there now wouldn't help very much," she decided. "Instead we'll head directly for Saiph and see if they're willing to form an alliance against the Capellans. I'll send a message back to Marshal van Creveld and see if we can get any other reinforcements. Perhaps if we can deploy additional fighter wings and assault dropship squadrons it might make Sun-Tzu unwilling to risk his warships. He only has a small fleet of them."

Of course, he'd been willing to risk one unsupported over Sarna, she remembered. At the time he'd said that warships he couldn't use weren't worth the investment made in them. But now he was facing a much higher risk of conflict with the Federated Commonwealth…

Am I putting my escort at risk on the basis of wishful thinking? She shook her head slightly. "If we don't stop Sun-Tzu somehow, he'll keep coming," Isis declared firmly. "Galen, I know the chances are slim but please ask the Commanding General if he can arrange for any warships to be sent under SLDF colours."

Chapter 39

Hyppo, Augustine

Silver Hawks Coalition, Free Worlds League

19 August 3066

Reinhart had gotten used to Alys Marik visiting his headquarters for one reason or the other. Not only were they both commanding military forces on the same world (and her regiment had been fighting for their life against his nation only a few years before), Alys was also the ruler of the world.

However, those visits were usually scheduled in advance so he was surprised when his aide interrupted a meeting with his cousin Sabine to report that Colonel Marik was outside.

"Are you making friends with her?" Sabine was visiting in her role as the senior officer among the peacekeepers stationed in the Silver Hawks Coalition - outranking Tai-sa Nelson of the Second Genyosha; Colonel Nichole of the Wolf Dragoons' Epsilon Regiment; and, of course, Reinhart himself. It was an added responsibility on top of her already being absurdly young to command a Regimental Combat Team - and she was rising to the challenge in ways that made him envious… and occasionally outright jealous. He wasn't proud of those moments, but pretending he didn't have them wouldn't make it so.

With a shrug he nodded to the aide to admit the commander of the Krushers. "We're on better terms than I feared given her last XO apparently decided to wage a one-man war against the Commonwealth."

Sabine's grey eyes narrowed. "Bernstein?"

"Yes."

Alys Marik hadn't been with the Krushers when they were all but shattered on Arcadia, but she still had an edge of distrust in her dealings with Reinhart and - as far as he knew - other AFFC officers. It had been their brother officers that had fought and killed Kristen Marik and her two elder children. On the field of battle, as far as anyone knew, not that it probably mattered. The Krushers had been under contract to the Lyran Alliance and had fought faithfully under that contract until a particularly bigoted officer had decided the facts that a Marik led them and had dared protest his orders to bombard Coventry Military Academy made the Krushers his enemy.

It hadn't worked out well for Colonel Walker, but the Krushers had paid a much heavier price.

That edge was gone though as she entered his office. "Brigadier General Steiner." She paused on seeing Sabine. "General Steiner."

"Colonel Marik." Reinhart rose to his feet and they exchanged salutes.

"May I enquire if you've been keeping up on the Capellan invasion?"

"It's of some interest," he admitted. "Please take a seat. Has there been a new development? It's possible some news hasn't reached us yet."

She accepted the seat. "The attack on Ohrenson wasn't a diversion but it did draw our attention from a second wave of troops moving in. Zion Province has been hit hard and the Tenth Marik Militia is withdrawing rather than get trapped behind a blockade backed by one or more Capellan warships."

Sabine muttered something in German. Reinhart hoped that Alys didn't understand it, because she might take it as a criticism of the FWLM when he was fairly sure his cousin meant Chancellor Liao. "Is your cousin safe?" he asked, hoping that Alys would focus on him.

"She made the decision that Zion Province wouldn't hold," Alys told them. "So after visiting Berenson, she chose to go right to the final planned visit - Saiph."

The two AFFC officers exchanged looks. "Has Saiph been attacked yet?"

"So far as I know, no. Probably it will take a few weeks for the Capellans to consolidate and bring in garrison forces to secure their gains. But once they do, Sun-Tzu has momentum on his side. He'll be looking at moving either against us, or Saiph, or both."

"Saiph has the Dismal Disinherited under contract," volunteered Sabine. "Three regiments of mercs - good mercs. They won't lose easily."

Reinhart nodded. "But if Sun-Tzu repeats the tactics he used against the Sarna Supremacy - and it would be consistent with how he's handled Ohrenson and Zion - then he can use his warship advantage to blockade planets and pin forces down, then hit each in turn with overwhelming forces. How many additional regiments does he have from the attack on Zion?"

"Three additional 'Mech regiments." Alys shook her head. "Two of McCarron's and a mercenary regiment - Lockhardt's Ironsides. That brings him up to seven regiments to spearhead his attack. Even if Isis added the Thirteenth and the Tenth to the defense, those aren't good odds."

"The Tenth Marik Militia? I thought that they favoured Corinne, wouldn't they pull back into the League if they can't hold out?"

"I would have thought so, but with Oriente guarding their border and our own relations… poor, Isis claimed she had information that they intended to swing through the Chaos March and negotiate passage across the Coaltion once they were clear of the Capellans. And Saiph is a logical place for them to go."

Sabine groaned. "You're telling me that the Coalition's foreign minister, who is also Sun-Tzu's former fiancee, is now right in the path of his advance and the forces available to defend those worlds are mostly mercs and local militias, plus her bodyguards and a regiment that's already been mauled and likely sees Isis as a traitor?"

"Essentially, yes."

Reinhart rubbed his own forehead. "I take it our deployments may need to be shuffled if Marshal van Creveld is moving more regiments to that border." The Silver Hawk's main focus so far had been interior industrial worlds and coverage of the border with the Federated Commonwealth. The five Star League units were the bulk of the forces facing Corrine Marik's positions and Halas' Protectorate allies, leaving the Capellans a distant third in priorities so far. "Particularly if Count Balatine agrees to a treaty with the Coalition."

"At the moment there aren't going to be any further deployments." Alys' face was tight. "The Eagle Regiment is already moved out to Bernardo to rebuild and the Marshal has refused to send any further forces into the region unless the Capellans strike at our current defensive perimeter."

"Excluding Saiph?"

She nodded grimly. "If they sign up, she's only willing to station the Lucky Thirteenth there. I can't even take the Krushers there - even if I had permission, my dropships and jumpships have been yanked 'temporarily'."

Reinhart's cousin tilted her head. "Trust issues after how you went after Marik."

"I didn't go rogue in that operation, it was fully authorised." The young Colonel looked aggrieved at the suggestion. "But if Sun-Tzu manages to capture Isis, he'd have considerable leverage. He might even be able to use her as a figurehead for a campaign to seize the captain-generalcy. That would tear the Coalition apart internally and I wouldn't be surprised if Thomas Halas felt he had to invade us preemptively, while Corinne and Kirc Cameron-Jones are still fighting each other."

The Regulans had secured Atreus and their Prince had issued further declarations that he was the rightful Captain-General. Surprising no one, the effect on his rivals had been negligible, forcing him to commit his forces further. His next target after Atreus had been the nearby system of Ionus, one of the League's major shipyards, and it had proven to be a much tougher nut to crack. Rather than throw her forces piecemeal into the battle for Atreus, it appeared that Corinne Marik had predicted this attack and concentrated her reserves there. The result was a meat-grinder that showed every sign of tying up the Regulan Hussars' main mobile elements for the foreseeable future - unless Cameron-Jones gave up and withdrew.

Reinhart wouldn't have bet a single kroner on the Prince of Regulus backing down - after all, a kroner was still a valid coin for the next few years, despite the speed with which the Archon-Prince's new currency was being rolled out. "Are you asking us to send forces to support Saiph?" he asked. "That's considerably beyond our remit."

"It's kind of a grey area," Sabine sounded less opposed. "We're assigned as peacekeepers for the Silver Hawks Coalition. If the Saiph Triumvirate were to join the Coalition, then our responsibilities would extend to them."

She wasn't wrong, but: "If they do, yes. But that requires both Count Balatine's agreement and - what sort of validation does the Silver Hawks Coalition have for new members?" Reinhart hadn't actually looked into that.

"Previously it was a unanimous vote of all the members," Alys told him. "But that's not really workable with the way it's been expanded. Until a new provision is agreed, the Foreign Minister can sign treaties with plenipotentiary authority. So as soon as Isis gets him to the negotiating table…"

"Yes." The AFFC general confirmed. "Unless he decides he's better off making a deal with Sun-Tzu. But setting that aside, the other issue is the Capellan warships. Whatever Corinne Marik might think, I don't have an Avalon-class cruiser in my hip pocket. Unless you can scare up one or more warships, sending reinforcements into the Triumvirate could be opening them up to being slaughtered before they can even reach the surface of a planet."

Alys nodded. "So, if the Triumvirate joins the Coalition and if we can provide warship support, you'd be prepared to commit forces to a relief force?"

"In that case, I'd be willing to lead one myself," Sabine agreed.

"I'll see what I can do."

Reinhart sighed inwardly. On the one hand, he could understand Sabine's eagerness to see action - particularly against the Capellans after how they'd handled the Sarna March and then St Ives. But if the AFFC and and CCAF started shooting at each other, it could spark an actual war. "We'd better at least warn the Archon-Prince and the Commanding General about this," he cautioned the two women.

They both adopted innocent looks. "Of course," agreed Alys.

"Naturally," Sabine told him. "Perhaps they can even rein the Chancellor in diplomatically."

I'd have better luck betting on Cameron-Jones pulling his troops off Ionus, he thought.

Chapter 40

Saunders, Saiph

Saiph Triumvirate, Chaos March

12 September 3066

Like any border world, Saiph had been littered over the years with more bunkers than the local militia knew what to do with. Even so, they were beginning to strain under the demand of containing a brigade and a half of the Marik Militia (who most of the populace still saw as the enemy that had lurked a single jump away for most of a century) as well as the Third Dismal Disinherited.

"No offense," the colonel of the latter regiment told Isis. "My name aside, General Krieger would have my guts for garters if I let a FWLM officer take command of us. I know we're all on the same side here, but there are contractual issues and it looks too much like a landgrab."

"It is a landgrab," Count Balatine told him. "But one I've agreed with. I hired your regiments."

"Yes sir, but the command rights issue is tricky. If one of your officers is in charge, that's all well and good. But Colonel Reissing answers to one of my distant cousins and Colonel Meyer answers to another…" The mercenary bore the name John Marik-Johns. Isis would have had to look it up to map the exact relationship but they were very distant relatives.

"I'm more than happy to answer to the Duchess of Irian," Cindy Meyer muttered. "At least she's here with reinforcements, which is more than a certain so-called Captain-General managed. Any so-called Captain-General." The colonel of the Tenth Marik Militia was taking the losses her brigade had suffered fighting clear of Ohrensen rather hard.

Marik-Johns shrugged. "I'm grateful for that, both personally and professionally. Without your troops we'd be much worse trouble than we are already. But if the MRBC decides we're playing silly games regarding our authorities, the general will express his discontent with a rusty knife."

Isis didn't think that he meant that literally. She hoped so, anyway. The Dismal Disinherited were a storied unit who could trace their history to SLDF regiments that had served the Capellans briefly as regular forces during the First Succession War before mutinying and beginning a centuries long career as mercenaries in service of both the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth. She was fairly sure they were more professional than to use rusty knives as a disciplinary measure.

"May I suggest a compromise," she offered. "The SLDF has been deployed as peacekeepers to protect the worlds of the Silver Hawks Coalition, and as of the treaty that Count Balatine and I both signed yesterday, the Triumvirate are part of the Coalition. Would anyone object to taking orders from Colonel Cox?"

The eyes of those present shifted towards Galen, who had been sitting quietly to one side. He gave Isis a slightly reproving look, as if they hadn't discussed this in advance. "The senior SLDF officer in the Coalition has accepted in principle that our area of operations does include worlds joining the Silver Hawks after our arrival." He didn't mention that actual deployment of SLDF forces was conditional on warships that neither they nor the Coalition had available.

Lloyd Reissing shrugged. "I have no issue with that."

"Well, your reputation does rather go ahead of you," agreed Colonel Meyer. She looked over to Colonel Marik-Johns. "How about you?"

He considered. "Well, I have seen the vids of your brief career as a Solaris gladiator."

Galen covered his face. "I'm never going to live that down, am I. It was just the one match."

"It was a very impressive match." Marik-Johns grinned. "I think General Krieger will forgive any impropriety. Particularly if I can get him your signature."

"As long as it's on official orders, not just an autograph."

Isis hid a sigh of relief. She didn't have any delusions that she could take charge of a military operation. She'd be at best a figurehead if she tried, at worst a detriment. But Galen was sufficiently well-known that no one doubted his capability, and as a member of the SLDF he was officially neutral.

"The first thing we need to consider is emissions control," Galen began. "If the Capellans can identify our command centres they may well deploy orbital fire and -"

There was a knock on the door and then it opened before anyone could give permission. Count Balatine looked up sharply. "What is it, Julia?"

The woman who had entered was middle-aged and dressed professionally. Probably a civilian on the Count's staff, Isis guessed. Although not one that she'd met. "Traffic control reports a major jump signature. Emergence within…" She checked her watch. "Three minutes."

The sound of intakes of breath and chairs moving was cut across by Galen. "Did traffic control say where the emergence was? And do they have a tonnage estimate?"

She nodded sharply. "It's at the pirate point. And upwards of a megaton."

"Less than three hours to land a dropship from there," Colonel Marik-Johns noted quietly. He'd obviously been thinking about it. "Even if we wanted to pull out, we'd be hard pressed to on that timescale."

"I trust that that isn't your plan, Colonel Cox?"

Galen turned to the Count and smiled confidently. "No sir, it is not. However, I believe it would be best for the two of us to go to traffic control while other officers report to their regiments. A megaton rating almost assures us that a warship is inbound so we'll want our troops mobile. Strict emissions control, colonels. Landline communication or directed laser com via satellites while we still have them."

To Isis surprise, Reissing, Meyer and Marik-Johns all accepted these instructions without question. Then again, three hours wasn't an awful lot of time so perhaps they were simply more concerned with getting to their headquarters before the Capellans arrived. Since she didn't have a 'Mech or a headquarters to report to, she followed the two men and Julia to the elevator.

It took them more than three minutes to reach traffic control, having to change elevators since the one used to access the military headquarters bunker attached to the drop-port wasn't directly linked to the port's actual operations. Probably for good reason. Julia had only gone as far as the turn off to the Count's offices, confirming that she was one of his staff, which was probably for the best because traffic control was crowded.

"Alright, alright." Balatine raised his voice. "We've all known this was coming and we all have a lot to do. Anyone with duties to take care of, clear the room and get back to them. It's more important than rubber-necking."

With evident reluctance, workers began filing past them back towards the exit. Balatine might not be the most diplomatic person that Isis had ever met, but he had a force of personality that at least partly explained how he'd managed to turn invasion and uprisings into a vest-pocket empire with little more forces at his disposal than some third-tier mercenary commands could field. The Dismal Disinherited had been hired on later.

"Thank you, my lord." A harried, balding man in his shirtsleeves turned from watching the displays and dipped his head slightly to the Count. "It was getting a bit much."

"You're doing your job well," Balatine assured him. "I expect the same of them. Can you give me any update? I gather that the jumpships have arrived?"

"Yes sir." The manager led them to a console. "We're matching mass and electronic signatures to our database and there are dropships sending us direct visuals to clean up and match to military records."

"The reported tonnage suggested at least one warship?" Isis kept her voice level.

"Uh, yes ma'am."

"Permit me to introduce Duchess Isis Marik," the count clarified her identity. "Any warship will be a problem but do we know how many?"

The traffic manager nodded. "Just one so far, but there are two other jumpships with it - big ones. We think…"

"Confirmation on two Star Lord-class vessels, sir."

"Thank you, Murchison. That means we're probably looking at a dozen military transports being carried. The warship might have more, or it might have assault dropships to add to the escort."

Most military dropships carried something between a company and a battalion, Isis recalled. That meant that the small flotilla could be carrying anything from a single regiment to the equivalent of both the Lucky Thirteenth and the Tenth Marik Militia combined. "That seems a little light for invading Saiph."

"It's probably just the first wave," Galen told her. "I'd imagine three jumpships is pushing the upper limits for safe transits through this proximity point?"

"Correct." The manager seemed impressed. "The jumpships will need to clear the area on their maneuvering thrusters before it's safe for another ship to arrive. Call it an hour at least."

Galen frowned. "I'm half-tempted to risk asking for an aerospace engagement, but the Capellans have competent officers so I have to assume that they've loaded themselves with aerospace fighters and combat dropships for the first wave."

Murchison looked up. "Sir, the warship doesn't match anything we have for the Capellans. They only operate Feng Huang cruisers and Impavido destroyers, but this is too small for the first and too large for the second."

Isis and Galen exchanged looks. Perhaps the Capellan warship programme had build more vessels than was widely known? Or they'd salvaged a wreck somewhere. Centuries of warfare had left no small number of abandoned vessels that hadn't been considered worth the effort at the time but now, with ship-building still recovering, standards for that were rather lower.

"Show me what you have." Galen leant over Murchison's shoulder.

"It's not great, but this is our best visual." The man brought an image up on the screen.

There was something familiar about it, Isis thought. "Can you rotate it through one hundred and eighty degrees?" Murchison complied and in its new orientation, the likeness was easier for her to identify.

"It can't be!" Galen exclaimed.

Isis reached over and tapped the screen. "It's an Avalon-class, or a very good copy. I spent months on the Melissa Davion with Victor. If there's any warship I'm likely to recognise then it's this class."

"What does that mean?" Balatine put his hands on his hips. "That's a Commonwealth design. Is this a Federated Commonwealth invasion?"

Isis didn't know. Of all the things she'd expected, this wasn't it. "Have you challenged them?" she asked.

"No, ma'am. Er, your grace," the manager corrected himself. "We didn't want to identify ourselves as a target so we're just sending pinpoint signals to civilian traffic to get them clear."

Isis gestured to one of the dropships that had brought the Lucky Thirteenth to Saiph. The Fortress-class ship was clearly visible out of the windows of traffic control. "Reroute it through my ship there. Whoever it is, they'll know that there are military dropships here as soon as they take off." Dispersing the dropships so they couldn't be taken out early was so basic that even she knew it.

The manager looked to Balatine, who in turn looked to Galen. "Colonel Cox is in command of our combined defense forces," the Count declared.

"Do it." Galen glared at the image of the cruiser. "Even if we can't trust what they say, how they say it should give a lot away."

"Signal sent," someone confirmed a moment later.

They watched in silence as reports came in of dropships breaking away from the jumpships. At least five Overlord-class ships - each likely carrying a 'Mech battalion and a squadron of aerospace fighters. Those numbers would be challenging for the aerowings Isis had brought with her and she wasn't sure offhand what the Third Dismal Disinherited had in terms of aerospace over.

"Colonel Cox?"

Galen looked to the manager. "Yes?"

"We have a signal from the warship." The man swallowed. "Sang-shao Lucas Tolek informs us he's commanding a peacekeeping brigade of Capellan and Commonwealth forces. They're here to disarm and pacify the Marik, mercenary and insurgent forces on Saiph."

"Capellan and Commonwealth forces in a single task force?" Isis asked incredulously.

"Tolek…" Galen checked on his comm. "I know that name… Second St Ives Lancers, he took over recently. Kai's sister is with them. Did he say who else he's bringing in?"

"No."

Murchison cleared his throat. "The warship is pinging an IFF signal we can read, Colonel Cox. It's identifying itself as the FCS Alexander Davion."

Galen drove his fist down against Murchison's console. "The Alexander just got out of repairs at Delavan," he muttered. "Last update I had from the SLDF said it was shaking down a new crew. There's no way Peter would send it into a crisis, much less subordinate it to a Capellan commanding officer. Not without warning us."

"Well where else would an Avalon-class come from?" demanded Balatine.

"There's one ship of the class unaccounted for," Isis reminded the men. "We need to get an HPG message out - I think we've just found the missing FCS Lucien Davion."

Chapter 41

Castle Davion, New Avalon

Crucis March, Federated Commonwealth

29 October 3066

"The Capellan ambassador is still stone-walling us," Duke Felsner reported grimly. "He says that to the best of his government's knowledge, the warship joined their peacekeeping force with Star League and Federated Commonwealth credentials so they didn't question it."

"What utter bullshit!" Peter snarled. "There's no possible way that the Liaos would accept one of our warships without crying up a storm about it being anywhere near their borders. The Lucien must be there with a Capellan crew and that means Kathrina went to him for shelter."

Quintus was calmer. "It could possibly be a third party conspiring with the Capellans, sire. There were unsubstantiated reports of one of our cruisers being seen in the League previously. I agree that Chancellor Liao must be involved but he may not be the sole or even leading agent behind this."

The Archon-Prince glowered at the spymaster until Catherine leant forwards to catch her brother's attention. "Do we have anything in range to intervene?"

Peter sighed heavily. "Not readily. Covenant is up near New Syrtis and the actual Alexander Davion is the wrong side of Kathil to get to Saiph. I could send a couple of corvettes but that might be what they want - a trap to chew up part of our fleet."

"I thought we had four times the fleet that the Capellans had," Felsner enquired delicately.

"Yes, but not on the border with them. Between covering our key systems and maintaining patrols on our other borders we're still spread too thin."

Garek Davion leant forwards. "If they do attack our ships it would be an act of war."

"I begin to see why Victor found this job so thankless" Peter muttered. "I refrain from jumping on the Free Worlds League and then Serge Bernstein decides that he's going to launch a one-man war against us."

The widowed mechwarrior had hit three worlds in Bolan Province so far, although he'd been careful to avoid any of the frontline garrisons. That had been made easier by the drawdown of regiments there - with both Tamarind and the Silver Hawks eager to avoid provoking an opportunistic invasion he'd been shuffling troops out of Bolan and replacing them with more units for Victor to work with. Of course, that meant that his brother now had less to work with in hunting Bernstein's raiders down.

"If it turns into more than a one-man war then it could threat the new factories on Bolan."

"I'm sure Quintus will warn us if the Silver Hawks or Tamarind start mobilising for that," Peter responded to Bishop's warning. "And we do have a strategic reserve for that level of situation."

"Which is more than we had a few years ago," added Catherine positively.

For a moment, Peter looked back at where things had been when he first sat in this room. The war had still been raging on many worlds. Something like a quarter of the available warships had been damaged to the point of not being fit for service and most of the major regional leaders had barely been willing to talk to him. Maybe Catherine had a point - things had been much worse back then.

"Looking at the positive side, at least we have a lead now. Following that up is Quintus' job, Duke Felsner. I'd appreciate it if you can focus on our relations with the governments on Tamarind and Dieudonne. At the moment they're a very useful buffer against the civil war inside the League and that doesn't seem likely to end well. We'll give them what support we can, including recognising the Saiph Triumvirate's decision to join them."

"And if they decide to follow Andurien's example and seek full independence?" asked Felsner cautiously.

Peter rubbed his jaw. "We got along very well with St Ives and still do get on fairly well with Rasalhague, until Kathrina decided to discard our alliances for no good reason. If I want to expand the Commonwealth then there are no shortage of places I can do so where it would be much less costly. I'd be quite content if more of our borders were covered by states on the friendly side of neutral, so we can focus our military efforts against the others."

Unspoken was that the Intelligence Secretariat was expending some low key effort keeping Oriente, Regulus and Marik-Stewart at each other's throat. Nothing that was officially espionage, mostly simply encouraging the media to slant polls and news reports in ways that suggested that each of the claimants had plenty of support in their own provinces but very little outside of them. Destabilizing the Free Worlds League had been Lyran policy for eight hundred years and Federal policy since the 3020s so it was business as usual, even if it made Peter feel vaguely dirty for using the same techniques Kathrina had used to oust Yvonne less than a decade before.

"I don't suppose that we have any good news?" asked Garek a little plaintively.

"Well, I think Catherine owes me ten sovereigns," Peter joked and then pretended to wince as his sister leant over and punched his bicep. "What, you can't still think that it's Clan Wolf?"

"It could be!" she pouted. "It would certainly pay off for them if we're busy fighting the Capellans next year."

"It would, but do you really think they could pull that off," he asked her.

Quintus shook his head, smiling slightly. "The Wolf's Watch isn't entirely inept and and the Jade Falcons did try a false-flag operation at one point, but that didn't go well for them. I'm not sure Khan Ward would be willing to try something like this."

"That's why it would work!" Catherine whined. Then she straightened in her seat. "And if Kathrina is planning this, Vlad Ward might well go along with it."

Peter sighed. The worst thing was, she might be onto something. He didn't think so, but she'd been right about so much else. Unspoken were her visions, as not everyone was cleared for those. "Alright, I won't take your money… yet."

There were chuckles around the table and Peter tapped it with his knuckle. "More seriously, I do have one more piece of news." He fixed a grim expression on his face. "Yvonne sent an HPG message by priority and it arrived yesterday."

Everyone settled down and looked at him, waiting for the next shoe to drop.

He couldn't keep the facade up and cracked a smile. "Relax, people. It's good news. Tancred Sandoval proposed to her. When the court returns to Tharkad at the end of the year, we'll have to add preparing a royal wedding to our agenda."

Felsner's chuckle cut through the approving comments. "Quintus?"

The head of the Intelligence secretariat reached into his jacket, pulled out a billfold and extracted a ten sovereign note, sliding it across the table to the diplomat.

"You didn't see this coming?" Peter asked in amusement.

"I thought he'd wait for Christmas," Quintus sighed. "Have they set a date?"

"Not definitively," Peter told him. "But given that so many people will want to attend a ceremony like that, she suggested November next year - when everyone's on Tharkad for the Fourth Whitting Conference."

Felsner slipped the bank note Quintus had given him into his pocket but brought out a handful of change. He dropped two half sovereigns on the table and then pushed them over to the spymaster.

"Only one sovereign?" asked Garek in amusement.

"I would have won another ten if they wanted to get it over and done rather than match Hanse and Melissa's guest list," Felsner harrumphed.

Chapter 42

Saunders, Saiph

Saiph Triumvirate, Chaos March

3 December 3066

A Blackjack in the colours of the St Ives Lancers was covering for a platoon of Fa Shih battle armour as they disembarked around the entrance to the bunker complex.

Galen fired the gauss rifle built into the right arm of his Tempest and the slug crashed into the smaller 'Mech's right arm. He'd hoped to take the limb off and if it was an older model then it might have succeeded. Unfortunately, his sensors finally manage to confirm that this was the newer Omnimech version - slightly heavier and carrying more armour.

Even so, the shot shattered armour plating and actually bent the barrel of the autocannon that made up much of the Blackjack's right arm.

The pilot was good. He backpedalled towards the cover of half a dropship hangar, the Blackjack's torso swivelling turret-like on the 'Mech's waist joint in order to bring the other autocannon to bear. Two lasers flickered, slashing lines across the barrel-chest of the Tempest. Then the autocannon flashed - Galen ducked and only one of the sub-munitions scored a hit, high on the Tempest's flared shoulders - and the Blackjack whipped back around, using the damaged arm to cover against more fire.

This might be one of the mechwarriors who'd made the long trip to Huntress as part of Operation Serpent. A veteran of the revived SLDF's greatest triumph.

Galen continued to ignore him and lashed out at the cluster of Fa Shih, lasers hacking away at them and cutting more deeply into their armour plating than the weapons would on a much larger target like a 'Mech. He triggered his short range missiles and in the interval between their departure from the box-launcher on the Tempest's hip and the impacts he could see one of the armored troopers lying helpless on the floor, a leg cut away by one of the laser pulses.

The missiles hit, a smattering of explosions that was followed by a much larger blast. Galen blinked and then remembered that the Fa Shih carried mines in dispensers mounted on their backs. One must have taken an SRM in the exact spot to trigger sympathetic detonation - one of the suits was reduced to little more than a pair of smoking boots by the detonation.

The Blackjack closed in, firing again with lasers and it's one remaining autocannon. Galen ignored it for a moment - his armour was mostly intact and he might not get another chance. Kicking out, one of the cloven feet of his 'Mech crashed against one of the Fa Shih and sent it crashing against what was left of the control tower with brutal force.

He was getting used to the Tempest - at first he'd missed the LRM racks of his preferred Crusader but this wasn't bad at all. And it was probably for the best, as he'd hate to tell Isis that he didn't like the 'Mech she'd outright given to him as a gift.

Speaking of whom… "Isis, battle armour is coming down from near the control tower," he warned. "You need to get clear."

"I'm…" There was the stutter of an auto-rifle kicking out a short burst. "...working on that. They're not our only problem." Her words were punctuated by a grenade going off far too close to her microphone.

The other Fa Shih were going for cover, firing on him as best they could. Galen wouldn't get any more soft targets, but half the platoon weren't heading down to the bunkers. He brought his 'Mech around towards the Blackjack and held his fire just an instant as the omnimech was shifting to bring its guns to bear again.

They fired at the same moment and at this range neither was likely to miss.

Lasers scoured away at the armoured skirt across the Tempest's hips and Galen gritted his teeth as one of the sub-munitions hammering in after them struck his canopy, scarring it behind the holographic heads-up display.

Galen had aimed for the left torso, and had hit home with both the pulse laser and the gauss rifle. The torso mounts had been a fraction slower and carved away paint and outer armour layers from the centre and right chest of the Blackjack. But that didn't matter, because the shots to the left chest had dug deep in and struck the ammunition stored there.

The canopy of the Blackjack exploded, hurling the mechwarrior away as what was left of its munitions blew up, tearing the side off the reactor shielding. The 'Mech collapsed only a few seconds later, reactor scramming and the gyro either wrecked or just shutting down. There must have not been all that much ammunition left or Galen wouldn't have been surprised to see the medium 'Mech torn in two.

"Isis! Are you okay?"

She was panting. "Just… running… we're through to the bottom of the exit. Do we have transport at point gamma?"

"If we don't, I'll carry you," Galen promised, running the Tempest in the proper direction, which had the benefit of also taking him away from the harassing fire from the Capellan battle armour.

Point gamma was a secondary exit for the complex. There was no further hope of holding the drop port against the Capellan offensive. What was left of the Tenth Marik Militia was being forced to withdraw under covering fire from Saiph's planetary guards - who had themselves been carrying repairs and reorganisation under the Militia's protection only three days previously.

The good news was that with the St Ives Lancers pressing them here, Galen thought, the pressure was off the Dismal Disinherited and the Lucky Thirteenth. Both units had needed the respite after pincering a thrust by one of McCarron's regiments. The Big Mac had refused to break and instead fought their way out ferociously, inflicting losses on Reissing and Marik-Johns' regiments almost equal to those they suffered escaping the pocket.

Galen glanced upwards. They might have broken, he thought. It was close, but with that blasted cruiser in the orbitals we couldn't maintain enough concentration to overwhelm them. The resulting running fight had been… frustrating.

Only a pair of Marik Militia armoured personnel carriers had reached point gamma by the time that Galen did, but a moment later a headquarters truck and mobile hospital screeched to a halt near the stairwell.

"Colonel Meyer?" he enquired, seeing the Tenth's commander emerge from the former to help carry Count Balatine to the latter vehicle. Isis was half-dragging the much larger man, who was bleeding from a head wound.

The colonel was wearing a headset, letting her reply easily. "The other two transports got caught by a Capellan recon lance. We have enough room in my truck to make up the capacity, and it'll be easier to stay in touch."

"I'll be playing escort," he advised. "My command lance is patching up holes in the guards company."

Isis finally handed the count off to the medics and Galen heard a muffled request. The content was obvious when Meyer removed her headset and handed over to the Duchess.

"Galen, have we heard anything from the HPG?"

"Nothing." The HPG station had been victim to a terrorist attack three days after the Capellans landed. The Capellans denied involvement, claiming that it was simply a sign of the 'endemic violence' taking place on Saiph. ComStar had neither confirmed nor denied it - probably because the 'peacekeepers' had moved in to secure the HPG until new ComGuards security and operating personnel could arrive.

If anyone could prove it was Sun-Tzu Liao behind it, he might find his entire realm under interdict… but the evidence would have to be rock solid or the Word of Blake would be hesitant to defend the neutrality of their rival's HPG stations, even if it was one of the very few ideas the two organisations usually supported each other on. And Capellan espionage was usually pretty good even when they didn't have an essentially free hand to clean up after themselves.

He heard Isis sigh and when he looked down at her, she was shaking her head. Then she looked up at his cockpit, shading her eyes with one hand. "Tell me honestly, how much longer can we keep this up?"

Galen dropped the Tempest to one knee and opened his cockpit. "If you want to discuss that, let's do it on the move. There's room for you in my cockpit."

Isis made heavy weather of climbing the ladder - he was reminded again that she wasn't a mechwarrior - and when she reached the hatch, she got stuck climbing through it. Only once she unstrapped the rifle across her back was she able to slide through it, fumbling her way around him to the tiny seat crammed in behind the command couch. If he hadn't been wearing his neurohelmet, he might have appreciated more the way she had to wriggle her hips past his head.

He retracted the ladder once she was inside, and closed the hatch while she was strapping herself in. Down below, the wounded had been moved to the mobile hospital truck and everyone else was mounted up in the other vehicles. Meyer's voice crackled over the radio. "Standard nav points, Colonel Cox. Are we still following Lambda-Omicron-Nu?"

"Confirmed, colonel. Lambda-Omicron-Nu." Those nav points would hopefully still be a secure route back out of Saunders and eventually to one of the cities still holding out. There was a crackle on his comms and he realised that Isis had found a headset and plugged herself in. "I'll keep you updated," he continued and cut the external channel.

"I take it that your answer isn't a good one," Isis asked after a moment of silence.

Galen brought the Tempest upright. "I'd say we have about a month more."

She considered that. "I see. Our losses haven't been that high, so I assume that it's a matter of space and supplies?"

Isis had clearly picked up more than most people realised from her time with Victor, he noted as he began moving alongside the road that the little convoy was following. "We've been playing for time, but it's left us being pushed back by the enemy's greater numbers. And while we haven't reached the end of our ability to repair our 'Mechs, it's not out of sight. Throw in that we're running out of territory to concede for more time…"

"Then we'll have to fight harder for what we have left, and losses will mount," she said tightly. "And without the HPG we can't even let anyone know we're running out of time."

"That's about the size of…" He paused as his sensor suite reported movement. "Damn!"

Isis tightened her straps. "Whatever it is, deal with it. I can air my fears later."

If there is a later, he thought and disabled the automatic ejection system as he wheeled the Tempest away from the road. I wish that this thing had a full-head ejection system.

In a recent letter from Victor he'd heard that Catherine Steiner-Davion had pushed Coventry and Corean to refit their Commando and Valkyrie production lines to fit Wolfhound-style heads to the light 'mechs, increasing survivability if the mechwarrior had to eject. It was one of those ideas that seemed obvious, but it had always cost too much in time and money to implement. Clearly Peter was prepared to pay both prices, which said good things about the AFFC's readiness. The Free Worlds League didn't use them though so if he ejected the system would roast Isis in the process of throwing him clear and he wasn't okay with that.

"Colonel Meyer," he warned. "I'm picking up heat and movement from the right. Looks like a pair of 'Mechs and three tanks - one of Liao's combined arms demi-companies. Heavies, I think."

"We'll pick it up," the Marik Militia officer responded crisply. "If you can buy us time, it'd be appreciated. If not, get out with the Duchess. We really can't afford to lose both her and Count Balatine."

Galen moved the Tempest up the slope of the ridge that sheltered the road from the drop-port's main expanse - a safety precaution that was now serving a military purpose. His heart sank as he saw that both the 'Mechs were Thunders - Capellan heavies just as modern as his own Tempest, trading firepower for larger engines. There was no way he would be able to outrun them - and the trio of Po heavy tanks more than made up for any advantage his extra weapons would have given him over just one of them.

"I'm going to need to get you onto one of the APCs," he told Isis, backing down and hoping that he hadn't been spotted by the enemy force. They must know he was in the area, their sensors should be as good as his, but they might not have the exact location. "And we don't have time to stop… I really hate to complain about this thing, but it doesn't have any hands, which would make this easier."

"That sounds absurdly dangerous," Isis replied flatly and he heard her start to unstrap herself. "I assume every other option is worse."

"I wouldn't like my odds if we were up against a backwater militia, and the St Ives Lancers are pretty damn good." He kicked the Tempest into a run back towards the road. "All I can do is play for time and you're too valuable to lose."

"This is no time for romantic gestures," he heard her say into his ear. "What about reinforcements? Or somewhere to go to ground?"

"We're one step from a rout, I can't pull anyone away." Galen saw the little convoy up ahead. "And do you see any cover?" The drop-port was on the edge of the city and they were moving away from it. None of the buildings here were large enough to hide a 'Mech - some of them would have been hard-pressed to hide a large ground-car.

He was about to open the hatch when he saw the icons marking the approximate position of the Capellans begin to pull away. "What… they're not following us."

Isis slumped back into her seat.

"Cox!"

Galen refocused on his surroundings again. "I read you Colonel Meyers."

"We're getting a signal from orbit!" she all but shouted. "The Crappies must be picking it up too because they're pulling back."

Orbit? "Could you have someone relay it?" he requested.

Without further ado, a new voice entered the channel. A familiar voice, he realised. A woman, with the slight but recognisable accent of a native of Gallery, the ancestral homeworld of House Steiner.

"-peat," the woman announced in ringing tones. "This is General Sabine Steiner of the Star League peacekeeping forces, aboard the FWLS Corinth. I am offering the Capellan forces currently falsely claiming Star League sanction twenty-four hours to depart Saiph, after which my task force will treat them as hostile. This deadline does not apply to the false-flagged warship in orbit, which has until our guns' range to surrender unconditionally. This is your only warning."

"Corinth is a Thera-class carrier," Isis reminded him. "It's one of the ships that was interned by the Word of Blake. How did it get here?"

"I don't know but I'm not complaining."

"Nor am I," Meyer agreed, reminding the pair that she was still on the channel. "We're trying to get… what's that?"

Galen brought his 'Mech to a stop, waiting for the news.

"Colonel Reissing just got in touch," Meyer reported after two tense moments. "He's managed to establish contact with the Corinth and verify General Steiner's presence. He says she has the Corinth and two other warships, the spearhead of a relief force - enough to take the orbitals and pin the Capellans in place unless they get away. The enemy cruiser is already boosting for the outer system, not even waiting for the ground forces."

"Then…" Isis sounded hesitant. "I don't want to jump to conclusions, but did we just win?"

"Unless someone is mad enough to fight on, yes, we won," Galen confirmed. It looked as if his first actual major command would not be a last stand.