Opalescent Reflections
House of Cards
Chapter 8
Fayettevil, Camlann
Benjamin District, Draconis Combine
6 July 3051
Sarah Weaver heard her targeting lock settle onto the Kungsarme Ostsol she was fighting and triggered both her missile launchers. The missiles cut across the intervening space, arcing slightly to track the heavy cavalry battlemech as it tried to avoid her fury.
The mechwarrior wasn't good enough to do that and about two-thirds of the missiles pulverized armor across the smaller 'mech's chest, some of them detonating inside. Coolant began to seep from the penetrations, almost like blood, but the 'mech didn't drop - the missiles hadn't been decisive.
The saKhan had held back her lasers to let the 'mech cool, but this was her fourth opponent as Beta Galaxy pushed towards Fayettevil. She only had one full salvo of missiles left, and this was unlikely to be her last battle today. The Ostsol was no faster than her Timber Wolf and she chased after it, firing first one large laser and then the other, one eye on her heat gauge.
Her caution kept the temperature from climbing into the orange, but the light blue Ostsol refused to just die, twisting to take the hits on what little intact armor it had. The pilot might only be good at running away, but at that he was gifted - and he was getting close to the ruins of what had once been some kind of industrial complex. There was enough metal there to mask him from magscan, and slipping away from her in the tangle would be possible.
Sarah hissed in frustration and then fired one of the missile launchers, emptying the magazine on the right-side of her omnimech.
The stream of missiles ground away what remained of the Ostsol's rear armor and it fell forwards, the gyro no longer in a state that the mechwarrior could keep it upright. Before it reached a forty-five degree angle, the pilot ejected, his seat hurled over the buildings and deeper into the complex. Sarah snapped one arm up to try to track it but then relaxed rather than firing. One mechwarrior was no justification for pushing her heat harder - she needed to cool off in case of…
Hammerblows smashed into the Timber Wolf, sending the 'mech staggering as Sarah fought the gyro, trying to stay upright as a new enemy emerged from the ruins.
Three Hetzer wheeled assault guns emerged from cover as Sarah was forced to bend one knee fully to give her a point of stability. It was an ambush, she realized. The Ostsol had been trying to draw her into the field of fire for the vehicles, only to fail at the last minute.
The smoke from the bores of the crude, boxy vehicles' heavy autocannon showed that they had fired and no doubt the loading mechanisms were replenishing the cannon to finish her off.
With a cry of anger, Sarah fired off her last missiles into the furthest away, not waiting for the targeting computer to get a lock, and forced the Timber Wolf into a ragged gallop towards the nearest, trying to get out of the limited transverse of its gun.
She was successful, and the Hetzer struck by her missiles also missed, but the middle vehicle managed to track her and its heavy autocannon poured fire into one of the big missile launchers suspended above the Timber Wolf's shoulder. If she'd had missiles still, they might have chainfired and gutted that side of the 'mech, but there was an unexpected advantage to having expended all of them and Sarah was able to almost ignore the hit.
Her medium lasers slashed along the flank of the nearer Hetzer, ripping into the wheels and immobilizing it. For a brief instant, despite firing them all, her temperature dropped down to green - and Sarah zeroed in on the damage done by her LRMs to the further of the tanks, before triggering both large lasers.
The salvo sent a rush of heat through the 'mech and its responsiveness fell as the myomers heated up and grew less efficient. But two laser hits was more than the assault gun's forward armor could survive. The shots bit deep and two successive explosions tore through the hull, first from the stored autocannon rounds and then from the fuel tanks. The Hetzer and its crew disappeared in a fireball.
With another Hetzer disabled and unable to turn to bring the gun around, Sarah had only to worry about a single mobile tank. She opened the throttle, circling to stay ahead of the last Hetzer's gun and waited until the temperature dropped. Then, one at a time she fired her medium lasers. The extended range weapons slashed across the rear of the Hetzer, then the pulse laser flayed open the rear.
Fearing another ambush, Sarah didn't rest, instead moving back towards where she'd last seen her command star. "All Mistweavers, be wary of combat vehicles laying ambushes in the ruins." She paused to spray fire from her machinegun at the fleeing crew of the disabled Hetzer, seeing two drop. "Do not advance without Elemental support."
"My Khan," Brandon Howell observed in a neutral tone. The Star Colonel of the Sixth Jaguar Dragoons had joined her command unit, having been cut off from most of his Cluster by the scattered drop of Alpha Galaxy. "The longer it takes to reach Fayettevill, the more chance that the ComGuards manage to find Khan Furey."
"I am aware," Sarah concurred as she came into view of Howell. "But your Ebon Jaguar is in barely any better condition than my 'mech and much of the Mistweavers are in the same state, quiaff?"
"Aff," Howell admitted.
In Sarah's opinion, the way that the Kungsarme's fighters had made a nonsense of their original landing plans wasn't even the first debacle of the campaign. The Diamond Sharks and Wolves had bid very conservatively, committing three galaxies each, and this had penalized their deployments - they were required to hold back as other Clans landed, possibly winning before they landed on 7 July. That was tomorrow, Sarah realized. How quickly the time had passed, even though it had been torturously slow to endure.
Fearing the same penalty would be imposed on the Smoke Jaguars so that the other four Clans could own the victory and supplant him, Leo Showers had spoken to Kincaid Furey firmly and Sarah's original bid had been slashed to only five Clusters. In particular, the aerospace forces had been cut and the result…
Well, half of Alpha Galaxy was scattered around the port city of Fayettevil and Khan Furey himself had landed inside the city, his Executioner admittedly wreaking havoc on the Kungsarme logistics by his own account until he had to abandon the damaged assault 'mech and try to exfiltrate on foot.
"I will do everything I can to save the Khan," Sarah assured Howell, less than sincerely. They would all be better off if the idiot died. "I would be fighting for Bentonvil now if I intended otherwise. But we need more time to gather what remains of your Dragoons and the other Alpha Galaxy clusters."
Not to mention little things like repairing armor or reloading their munitions, she thought, looking at the sad state of her Timber Wolf. "We need to…"
"Khan Weaver!" She recognised Jack Bowen, who ought to be commanding her Keshik but was now back with the dropships after ejecting from his Mad Dog had left him with a broken leg. "I have an urgent report."
"Make your report," she snapped.
"Observation flights from our remaining aerospace fighters report two brigade sized formations moving out of Bentonvil towards the dropships," Bowen informed her. "Tentative identification is 1st Kavalleri and 3rd Drakons and the expected time of arrival is before dawn tomorrow."
Breath hissed out of Sarah as if she'd been punched in the chest. It felt much the same. Even mixing in the elements of Alpha Galaxy, she had barely three cluster's worth of forces right now and many needed repairs before fighting a major battle. Normally she would be entirely confident to send one Cluster out to maul the Kavalleri and rely on the dropship guns to defend them from the Drakons, but now…
"Mistweaver Galaxy," she commanded. "All units rally on Point Arcadia, we are withdrawing to the west. All dropships are to make a suborbital flight to Point Babylon." The latter was the original staging area where Alpha Galaxy's dropships should have landed, in easy reach from the former location, which had been Furey's intended launching point for a push into Bentonvil. "The Kungsarme have generously left their defenses to engage us, we will let them follow us into the jungle and show them what a Smoke Jaguar does to an unwary hunter, quiaff?"
There was a succession of acknowledgements from her own Clusters and Brandon Howell's remaining subordinates. The Jaguar Grenadiers, the unit closest to Point Arcadia, were remarkably quiet though.
"SaKhan Weaver." The ilKhan's voice cut in, using a private channel.
Sarah gritted her teeth. Leo Showers had deployed alongside the Grenadiers. "IlKhan Showers."
"We have time to finish the push into Fayettevil and recover Khan Furey," he observed clinically. "Reunited, we can shatter this new force, quiaff?"
"Neg," Sarah contradicted him flatly. "The Mistweavers are on the brink of combat loss grouping. If we take the city we will be in no state to take on the units from Bentonvil. With armor repaired and ammunition restored, then we can hope to defeat them in the field and return to take the objectives."
"Taking Fayettevil would make the Smoke Jaguars the first Clan to seize an objective," he snapped.
"They would take it right back from us," Sarah snarled back. "They would! And gut my galaxy the way Furey got his torn apart! You know it!"
"If that is the price to pay," Showers began.
Sarah gripped her controls so hard she thought they might shatter. "It would be for nothing! If we lose everything for a prize we cannot hold, how long do you believe you will remain ilKhan?"
The channel fell silent for a moment.
Showers voice was shaking with frustration. "Khan Furey will not stay ahead of the Rasalhague infantry for much longer. You would abandon him."
"No one warrior matters more than the Clan," Sarah replied. "We lost the first round of this, but if we lick our wounds then we have a chance still in the next. But not if we throw away our strength now."
"As IlKhan," he answered her slowly, "I fight alongside my birth-clan. It is you and Furey who lead it. I accept your decision."
Her decision. Her responsibility. Her blame… and her command. At last.
Sarah Weaver turned her Timber Wolf away from Fayettevil and away from the doomed Kincaid Furey. Today, at least the Smoke Jaguars were hers. As it should have been all along!
Galedon Island, Luthien
Diamond Shark Occupation Zone
8 July 3051
Victor had grown up with the expectation that one day his father would crush the Draconis Combine. After the reverses of the War of 3039, he had suspected that he might be left the task of finishing the work. But through the 3040s he had focused more on his education. There had been the occasional moment during conversations with those from the Draconis March that had inflamed the idea briefly, but for half his life the Federated Commonwealth had remained at peace - gradually building strength without any indication of using it.
The closest he had come to considering this was during a project at the Nagelring, planning a hypothetical invasion of Luthien, more concerned with grades than the reality.
But now here he was, making his first real combat jump - the pod rattling disconcertingly as it crashed through the atmosphere, ablating away from his grandmother's Warhammer.
With a crash, the inner panels fell away and the framework disintegrated. Below him, Victor saw the glitter of the appropriately named Silver Sea, and the dark mass of Galedon Island. Around him, more pods were bursting open to reveal his battalion, along with hundreds of infantrymen. It seemed like a never ending swarm, but he knew that there were less than four hundred of them - the First Otomo Infantry battalion, reconstituted on New Samarkand, and ten full teams of the fearsome Draconis Elite Strike Teams: the ISF's best commandos.
The altimeter continued to spin down and Victor worked at the controls, making sure he was descending feet first towards the surf. Water off the shore of the volcanic island got deep surprisingly quickly - landing too far from the shore could plunge him into depths that would crush his cockpit like an egg.
And if I miss that, the prince thought, we face the garrison.
Thousands of kilometers from the Imperial City, much of them ocean, Galedon Island had hosted a major military base dug into the slopes of Mount Galedon. It still did, but with its heavy combat units stripped to try to drive off the Diamond Sharks' invasion, the remaining garrison had been dug out by Elementals. After that point, based on its relatively intact mech hangars and isolated, defensive position, the Diamond Sharks had placed their military headquarters there. Anything up to a full Cluster of Alpha Galaxy might be stationed here.
One would think that it was the last place for the resistance to hide fugitives, but for that reason it was what they had elected to do - hiding thousands of refugees right under the eyes of the Diamond Sharks.
And yet, as lights began to flash morse code upwards, it seemed to have succeeded. The correct messages were being sent, so unless the Sharks had managed to flip the loyalties of some of House Kurita's most fanatical followers then the plan was working so far.
The jump-pack mounted to the back of Victor's Warhammer fired and there was the disconcerting feeling of being yanked upwards, when he knew that he was actually still falling - just at a slower, hopefully survivable, velocity. He could feel the seventy-ton machine shake under the strain - the Warhammer wasn't designed for this. Well, technically all 'mechs were designed for it… since it had been a standard requirement for SLDF designs. But the Warhammer frame predated that expectation and StarCorps had altered the structure to accommodate it - not included it from the beginning of the design.
The altimeter was still dropping sharply, but not quite as fast. A kilometer up and Victor could tell that he would land just short of the shore - although that was a matter of the tides. Wet sand wasn't the worst place to land. He'd been assured that the beach was stable enough.
The jump-pack's temperature was getting close to the redline, which wasn't something he wanted on the back of his Warhammer so he shut it down for a few brief seconds and then burned the last few dregs of fuel a few heartbeats before he reached the ground.
Seventy tons of battlemech slammed into the sand with a crash that slammed Victor against his restraints and made him glad he had a boxer's mouth guard to stop his teeth breaking - an old trick passed down from mechwarrior to mechwarrior.
There was no threat on his scope, so he hit the controls to detach the empty jump-pack and then opened the visor of his neurohelmet and worked the mouth guard out of his mouth and tucked it away in a plastic bag. "This is Red Leader, sound off status."
"Red Two. Minor leg damage."
"Red Three. Dragging Red Two ashore," Matti chimed in.
"Don't exaggerate, love," Rudi brushed the matter off. "It's just a busted ankle."
"Red Four. I drifted north, almost on top of the home team," Juniper reported. Fortunately Trellshire Heavy Industries built the Rifleman, so the one destroyed on Twycross had been easily replaced. "They're shooting at me!" she added with a yelp that sounded more alarmed than fearful.
Victor cursed and started striding up the beach, water splashing around the Warhammer's feet. "Situation, Red Four."
"Just small arms!" The Rifleman wasn't well armored by almost any standard, but it could at least take that. "Stop that, you buggers! I'm friendly!"
Victor snapped onto the command channel. "Chu-sa Kinnison, we have a situation."
"I see it, your highness. We count fifteen 'mechs inbound along the road to the north-west."
"Not that, one of my 'mechs is under fire from what looks like the people we're here to pick up."
The Otomo officer was far too professional to curse but Victor thought that he wanted it. "I will handle it, your highness. If you would take care of the Diamond Sharks, please?"
"Red Five, Red Nine, are your lances intact?" Victor demanded.
"Red Five confirms," Kai said quietly.
"Red Nine, I'm down one 'mech - came in too far south." Havel sounded frustrated. "Reynolds punched out in time, but he's having to swim ashore. We have a beacon."
"Understood." At least the mechwarrior was alive, even if his Commando would be missed. "Blue Leader, Gold Leader, we have a 'mech trinary inbound on the road to the north-west. Blue Company move up and act as blockers along the road, Gold Company I want you south of the road, catch them in a crossfire." Ideally, Victor wanted to move Red Company up north of the road, but there was no time… and he needed to command the battalion first, rather than throwing himself into the fight. "Red Company will form the reserve."
There was a flood of confirmations and then Kai ordered: "Red Company, form up on Red Four's location."
Flanked by the two Thunderbolts, one limping, Victor obediently marched in Juniper's direction. Leading the battalion meant that this was technically no longer his company, even if Kai had decided to command from second lance and leave the call signs as they were. Victor took it as his friend's silent protest of a promotion he'd claimed not to deserve, and let the lanky mechwarrior have that point.
By the time they reached Juniper's Rifleman, the only sign that she'd come under fire were some scuffed sections of her armor.
"Is everything alright?" Victor asked as he moved up next to the last member of his lance.
"Better than Twycross, sir," the woman replied.
Down on the ground, four men were doing everything short of trying to hide their rifles behind their backs to pretend that they hadn't been the ones shooting at Juniper. The post didn't seem to impress a woman who, from her body language, was chewing them out good and proper.
She looked up and glanced at the 'mechs and then back to her men, clearly dismissing the 'mechs as not an immediate concern. That moment was long enough for Victor to realize that he was looking at Omiko Kurita. She was dressed plainly, in hiking boots, leggings and a windbreaker. At first he thought that she had a rifle hung across her back but then realized it was a long, cylindrical document case, the sort art students might use to carry their work around in.
Looking back towards the north-west, Victor saw the first LRMs begin to fire. Fifteen Clan Mechs against the twenty-four Lyran Guards might not sound like much, but the AFFC had lost with that sort of numerical advantage before. "Lady Kurita," he requested on his loudspeakers. "Do you have any information on the garrison?" They'd come in under radio silence so there had been no way to get current intelligence.
Omi turned sharply towards his 'mech and he thought she might have mouthed his name incredulously. Then she folded her arms. "I do, hauptmann," she called.
Victor opened the canopy of his cockpit and hit the controls to extend the rope ladder used for entering in the field. "If you could join me please."
There was a short exchange between Omi and one of the men, neither seeming impressed with the others decision and then the young woman caught the bottom of the ladder and started scaling it quickly.
The flash of a PPC against the morning's darkness lit up the sky as she reached the cockpit and stared at Victor. "What in the world are you doing here?"
"The official answer is that the battalion that was supposed to be sent got stuck on the other side of the Draconis Rift," Victor told her and indicated the tiny jumpseat behind his own. He'd really rather she was behind a 'mech's armor right now. "The possibility that your brother thinks it'll be a grand political gesture of unity in the face of the Clans, or is just matchmaking hasn't crossed my mind at all."
Omi climbed inside. "I see I have a lot to talk about with both of you. The garrison though - it's currently the Twenty-Seventh Cruiser Cluster. Forty-five mechs with a third of them on duty at any time - I imagine that's them now."
A 'mech exploded in the distance and Victor didn't think it was one of the Diamond Sharks.
"Over three hundred infantry, around seventy of their elementals - I believe they're still understrength," Omi continued. "Eighteen or twenty aerospace fighters, but you shouldn't need to worry about them, we collapsed the hangar entrances from Mount Galedon - it'll take hours to get them out."
"Good work." The plan had called for the resistance to prevent the local fighters from being used, so it was nice to know that had worked.
"It won't take forever for them to call in fighters from elsewhere on Luthien," Omi added. "Their Galaxy Commander is in the base now and he's not a man who puts his ego ahead of his duty. He wasn't in his quarters when we broke into them, unfortunately."
"You broke into the personal quarters of the Diamond Sharks' garrison commander?" Victor exclaimed. He checked the tactical display and saw that Blue and Gold companies were being forced back - more critically, a gap was forming between them that might let the Clanners through - and it would be at least another fifteen minutes before the dropships landed - after dropping the 'mechs and infantry they'd overshot Galedon Island and were making their way back. "Hold that thought. Red Five, we're going to need to plug that gap."
"Confirmed, Red Leader. There's some high ground in grid 17-2," Kai responded. "Move your lance up there to hit them as soon as they try to get through. Red Nine, you're with me. We'll pen them up in the killing zone."
A nice simple plan, whipped up on the spur of the moment, Victor thought. And Kai doubted he'd be able to cope with running a company. "Confirmed, Red Five."
Omi gripped the back of his seat as Victor started the Warhammer moving. "If you are the leader, why is he giving orders?" she asked.
"It's his company, but my battalion." He grinned slightly, although he knew she couldn't see him. "I'm a Kommandant now, not a Hauptmann."
"Con-gratu-lations," Omi offered as she struggled with the straps. "Minoru must be jealous."
"He might be," Victor replied, thinking about the paperwork and meetings he'd escaped by taking this mission. It must be vastly worse for the Coordinator. "But if so, he hid it well."
The lance reached the little hill just as a pair of Dragons smashed through the defensive line, the two heavy 'mechs loping over what was left of Greg Sheppard's Shadow Hawk. For a moment, Victor was bemused - did the DCMS have 'mechs on the field? - but then he realized that this must be salvage.
"The one on the left first," he ordered and fired both his PPCs. Heat surged through the cockpit and he remembered that Omi had no cooling vest as the air warmed around them. Both particle bolts slammed into the Dragon, smashing plating across its left arm and and side of the chest. A moment later, Juniper opened with her new Rifleman's extended range PPCs.
Despite the pounding it was taking, the Dragon kept coming even after Matti's Thunderbolt opened up with LRMs and the clantech large laser fitted to the right arm.
"What are these things made of? It shouldn't be that tough!" Juniper exclaimed.
The Dragons returned fire, rapid fire pulse lasers stripping layers of armor off the Warhammer and the Rifleman, each picking their own target. If the increased durability wasn't clue enough, the lasers marked that these weren't standard Dragons.
Two more clan 'mechs burst through the line - a battered Mad Dog and what Victor thought at first might be a Thunderbolt or Summoner. The warbook called it a Thresher.
Rudi's Thunderbolt limped up over the crest of the hill and the four of them hammered fire into the Clan Dragon, stripping away more armor and finally the thermal bloom of a breach to the reactor shielding forced the Clanner into shut down.
Rudi and Matti were taking fire from the new arrivals, but dropping the first Dragon had taken some pressure off Victor. "Take the Mad Dog!" he ordered, and dropped one PPC out of his salvo to spare Omi some of the stifling heat.
Their shots hammered into the Omnimech, but Juniper's Rifleman staggered and dropped to one knee - she was still taking a battering from the Dragon as it added LRMs to its salvos.
Then Kai arrived, the remaining eight 'mechs of the company having flanked the hill. Bear Havel's three light 'mechs raced in to swarm the Mad Dog, lasers and missiles clawing into it from every direction. On the other side, Kai led a charge into the Thresher. While the three Phoenix Hawks distracted the heavy 'mech, Kai cut around behind it and opened up on the rear armor, firing lasers and missiles.
Victor had never regretted pulling strings to have the Conjurer held back from shipments back to be studied. There had been several of them on Twycross, and while parts keep it going would have to be salvaged for now, while it lasted the clan battlemech gave Kai another edge besides his skill.
The Thresher's flank blew apart as Kai's Streak SRMs exploited the breach caused by his lasers.
Without needing any instructions, Matti and Rudi shifted their focus onto the last Dragon, stepping forwards with Victor to bring secondary weapons to bear. Eight medium lasers slashed across the armor plating, followed by SRMs and even machine gun fire as the three 'mechs closed in.
Behind them, Juniper's Rifleman lurched upright and then glowed on the infrared sensors as the mechwarrior unleashed an alpha strike.
Even with advanced heatsinks, the combination of two PPCs and four lasers was enough to shut Juniper's 'mech down almost instantly, but the salvo tore the right arm off the Dragon, depriving it of the large laser that replaced the autocannon - or perhaps the PPC if this had started out as a Grand Dragon.
Victor brought one of his arms around and drove the long, heavy PPC into the center of the chest, crushing the missile launcher. Then he twisted, raising the PPC in the other arm high before swinging it down on the cockpit.
The cockpit roof crushed inwards and armor-glass panels around it cracked. The Dragon collapsed, suggesting the mechwarrior within had been killed or at least stunned. Without human input, the Dragon was unable to remain balanced and fell flat.
The Mad Dog and the Thresher had been finished off, Victor saw. He checked the wider battle and saw that Blue and Gold company had managed to close up again, forming a single line of seventeen 'mechs pushing back only seven Diamond Shark.
Suddenly, perhaps on orders from elsewhere, the Clan mechs began to pull back - still firing but no longer trying to advance.
"You said there are another thirty 'mechs here?" Victor asked.
"Yes," she gasped. "Their warriors may not be ready to use them."
"Blue Leader," he ordered the commander of the least damaged of the two companies - nine 'mechs strong. "Push after them up to the ten kilometer line. Gold Leader, pull your 'mechs back, I want you in reserve if they have another force on their way."
Up in the sky, the light of the dropship engines was visible.
"Are those your dropships?" Omi asked him.
"They are," he confirmed. "How quickly can your people get here?"
"We commandeered buses and trucks last night," she told him. "Give me twenty minutes and we'll have four thousand people ready to board." She paused. "They have been through a lot."
"So have you," Victor pointed out. Her brother a year ago, then her parents and grandfather here.
Omi didn't reply immediately. He looked back and saw her wiping her eyes. "I can grieve when we are safe," she told him. "Only then."
Their eyes met, and then Victor looked away, embarrassed. She'd been on the run for months, trying to hold a rag tag group of refugees together on nerve alone. Of course she had not dared to show weakness.
He felt Omi's fingers brush his shoulder. "Thank you," she whispered. Then, louder. "May I use your comms?"
Victor nodded and saw her reach forward to plug in a headset she must have brought forwards. In a stream of japanese, she began calling in the ground convoy as the dropships began to loom large above the island.
Mount Galedon, Luthien
Diamond Shark Occupation Zone
9 July 3051
The command center was dim, lit as much by the screens as it was by cunning indirect lighting. At the center of several concentric circles of consoles - some vacant, others manned by Diamond Shark technicians - a raised platform allowed the commander to oversee what was going on.
That rather assumed an excellent understanding of what was being done at each workstation. Ace Enders would readily admit that he lacked that.
Of course, there was a long queue of people willing to make that claim before he could.
"This is your fault, Galaxy Commander," Freya Eriksen accused. The Star Captain ought to be leading her binary to prevent the two dropships from taking off, and she was dressed for the cockpit… but the damage to the complex systems that should move the aerospace fighters from the hangar to the surface wouldn't be repaired until at least midnight. "It was your choice to trust bondsmen. And look what it accomplished!"
Ace stared at her and then smirked, even though he didn't feel any satisfaction. "Aff, Star Captain. That is my responsibility. If you wish to challenge me to a Trial of Grievance, you may do so. Although…" He paused. "You may wish to recall how that worked for everyone who has tried that."
"Do you think I fear you?"
"I am curious to find out." Then he turned away, looking at the other consoles. "You are concerned about those three. Perhaps even about me. But have you considered the hundreds of other bondsmen? Those who have, as far as we know, not taken such actions?"
"We cannot trust them."
"We have no choice to trust them," Ace told her, not looking back. "We cannot control dozens of planets with populations dwarfing our own. Our only choice to succeed here is to convince at least a minority of those living there to act on our behalf. These three are just the first of the occasions we will be betrayed - but if we cease to trust, then we will fail and everything our Clan has done since the vote to invade means nothing. Think about that. And if you have a better idea, tell me. Or tell Khan Sennet. But for now we have work to do."
He heard Eriksen swallow. And then there was a crash as she kicked a chair over, causing some of the technicians to turn around to check the source.
Ace gestured for them to ignore it and keep working.
"I may well do that," the pilot said threateningly.
"In the meantime, take charge of interrogating the traitors," he ordered. "They got through chemical interrogation when they were vetted, see how they managed it. If we can learn something from this then it is not a total loss."
Eriksen nodded. "I will do so."
"And make sure you send a direct report to -"
"Sir!" a technician shouted, "the dropships are taking off,"
"Dammit!" Ace snapped. "Get me Star Commander Val." Then he turned back to the pilot. "Send the report to Khan Sennet. If I am wrong, I will admit it."
She nodded quietly and backed up.
"Sir, we have the Star Commander," a comms tech reported.
Ace picked up a microphone on his podium. "Val, this is Ace." The other young freebirth had been first to get out there after the active watch Trinary moved out - her Star should be nearest of those rushing to intercept the raiders.
"Galaxy Commander," she reported. "We arrived too late."
"Understood. Give me an initial report."
"We linked up with Gamma Trinary's survivors and moved on the landing site," Val told him. "By the time we were in weapons range of the dropships, their thrusters were hot. We managed to land a few hits but once they gained altitude..."
"Yes, the inability of battlemechs to chase dropships is noted," Ace concurred drily. "What are you seeing on the site."
The freeborn officer paused in thought. "There are seven damaged Spheroid battlemechs, but none of ours. And… at least a hundred civilian vehicles. Trucks and buses."
"I doubt they brought those," Ace mused. "You mentioned spheroid 'mechs? What about our own losses. There would be eight of them."
"I see no sign of them."
"Captured then," he concluded. One more blow to rebuilding Alpha Galaxy. Not a huge one, but… "And the mechwarriors?"
"I see nothing, sir, I… one moment."
Ace arched an eyebrow and muted his microphone. "Can the Twenty-First's aerospace fighters make it in time to intercept the dropships?" he asked. The Twenty-Seventh's fighters were penned up in their hangar and unfortunately the next nearest fighters, those of the Thirty-Ninth Striker Cluster, had been engaged in surveillance flights checking for cargo ships that had gone missing with metal being shipped to rebuild the infrastructure damaged in the fighting more than half a year ago.
"No sir. It's close, but the only way they could catch up would be to burn so much fuel that…"
Ace cut the report off. "I accept your assessment. Don't have them break off until they have to - one thing we are not short of is hydrogen and the enemy might do something stupid."
"Ace," Val returned to the channel. "The bodies of two of our mechwarriors have been left, bagged up for burial. And the 'mechs are not DCMS."
Ace unmuted himself. "Are you sure?"
"The markings are those of the Lyran Guards. Possibly one of the units the Jade Falcons have fought."
"Bizarre," he admitted. "Does anything else stand out to you?"
"Nothing so far," Val admitted.
"Keep looking for now. I do not know what they were doing here, but it must be important." Ace cut the channel and set down the microphone. Then he recovered the seat that Eriksen had kicked, righted it and sat down to think.
The infiltration of the base had crippled aerospace response, allowing the raid, but it could not have been the point of the raid. The attack on his quarters… he would have died if he had not been visiting Val, and it was possible that could have been a goal. It would be a morale benefit to the Combine, he had made himself somewhat notorious… but of course it also did not need the dropships to arrive.
The trucks and buses Val had found… that had to be the key. Someone or something must have arrived - from somewhere on Galedon Island itself - to board the dropships. This was not a raid, this was a recovery.
But who or what? Nothing had been taken from his quarters except the swords he had carried since Turtle Bay. And the trucks would not be needed for just two swords.
"Signal the dropships," he ordered quietly. "See if they are willing to talk to me."
The commtech looked confused in the dim light. "Sir?"
"Do it. It costs nothing at this point." Ace leant back in the seat and contemplated the ceiling. He had no other card to play, but perhaps he could at least get some greater insight into what was happening.
After several minutes, the commtech turned around. "Sir, we have made contact with a Chu-sa Kinnison." The commtech was a Diamond Shark, but he had been here long enough to pronounce the DCMS rank clearly. "He is routed to your station."
"Good work." Ace lifted the microphone. "Chu-sa Kinnison. This is Galaxy Commander Enders. My congratulations on a smoothly executed raid."
The speakers crackled and then, in an accented voice: "I do not believe that the Ender of Takashi Kurita is offering mere congratulations, Galaxy Commander. You have a point, I suggest you get to it."
Ace rolled forwards, leaning over the microphone. "Straight to the heart then. My aerospace forces advise that it is just barely within their capacity to intercept you. Possibly they will do enough damage to let us prevent you from escaping, but I confess it is also possible that I will sacrifice a not insignificant portion of my aerospace forces to do so. I offer you a bargain."
Kinnison's voice snapped with anger. "I do not bargain with -" He broke off and Ace thought he heard another voice faintly. Then, fractionally more calmly: "I see no harm in hearing your offer."
"I have a question," Ace told him. "Mere curiosity. Answer it, and I will call back my fighters."
"What question is this?"
"One of your people took two swords from my quarters. I do not expect their return, but I am curious as to the reason."
The next response did not come from Kinnison. It was a woman's voice, someone young Ace thought. His own age, more or less. "The answer to your question, Galaxy Commander, is this: the swords were not yours. They belonged to my brother, and they belong with his family. Not decorating your walls as a trophy."
Ace frowned. "I have never seen them as trophies." A sister of the man he had helped commit suicide, of Hohiro Kurita? His eyes widened. So the Coordinator's missing granddaughter was not with her other brother on New Samarkand, as he had assumed. "A reminder, yes. But your brother's death was no victory." He shook his head. So that was what this was about: a rescue mission. Why a Steiner unit was involved in rescuing a Kurita was interesting, but he had only bargained for one answer. "If the swords give you comfort, I can live without them."
"As if you had a choice," she replied sharply. For a moment he thought that she had ended the conversation, but then the Kurita asked: "You say it was no victory - what did you think of my brother?"
"I would say… a challenge that I failed," Ace admitted. "He had potential. I do not think his honor was typical of your people or mine, but if persuaded he could have been a worthy Diamond Shark. I did not manage that - it was a waste that he died."
"I do not believe my brother would ever have served your Clan. But yes. His death was a waste of everything he could have been." Omiko Kurita made a sound that was half sob and half snarl. "He was worth ten of you."
"Ah. Well perhaps his death was worthwhile then." Ace shook his head. "Farewell, Omiko Kurita. I will not miss your presence here on Luthien."
"Oh, you missed me for seven months," Kurita riposted and this time she did cut the channel.
Ace rubbed his face. If she had been behind the resistance, then her absence might cut back on the trouble they were making for the occupation. Supplies destroyed. Warriors murdered - and civilians trying to set up the Diamond Shark's administration had not been spared. Alpha Galaxy's slow recovery was due to more than the prioritization of supplies to the other three Galaxies.
If the fighting on Camlann led to heavy losses, he doubted the Clans' advance would be able to continue for months. Ace had little definite idea about the state of the other Clans but he doubted they were much better off than the Diamond Sharks - and in some cases, they might be worse off.
"Tell the fighters to break off," he ordered tiredly. "We lost this one."