Act 2 - Bargaining[]
With A Bared Sword[]
Chapter 25[]
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The Triad, Tharkad
Donegal March, Federated Commonwealth
7 April 3056
“Your highness.” Baron Greyson Death Carlyle had been stoic when he was elevated to ruler of Glengarry, but now anger leaked past that veneer. “I have heard rumors of Glengarry. Respectfully -”
Victor cut him off with a raised hand. “I have heard those same rumors, I imagine you and your wife intend to return immediately.”
“Along with the rest of my command lancet,” the colonel of the Gray Death Legion agreed. “I have no time for court formalities.”
“That makes two of us,” the Archon-Prince agreed. “Please, accompany me.” He indicated the elevator and the end of the gallery he had called Carlyle and his wife to meet him in. “My staff are prepared to brief us all on the situation and what we will be doing about it. I would hope that the information will be useful for you.”
Lori Kalmar took her husband’s hand and he squeezed it slightly. “You are right, your highness.”
“That occasionally happens.” A double door opened and revealed Galen Cox standing inside the elevator. “I believe you’ve met my aide.”
“Of course. Leftenant General Cox,” the mercenary greeted him as the couple entered the elevator.
Galen inclined his head as Victor moved past him to occupy the corner behind him, which left him facing the couple across the elevator. An uneasy silence fell as the doors closed and Victor felt the elevator car begin to descend. “Part of your regiment is on Borghese?” he asked in confirmation.
“Second Battalion, under Major Khaled.” Grayson’s eyes were flat. “I was on the way to ComStar to order their recall when your summons arrived.” He didn’t flinch at admitting that, even though such a departure was in breach of the Legion’s responsibility in garrisoning the world.
Victor nodded. “I’ll authorize it,” he promised simply. The legalities could be settled later. This was no time for a contract dispute… or for giving orders that would be disobeyed.
The doors opened and admitted them to the small, private monorail station that linked the Triad to Mount Asgard. The train was waiting of course, a few officers already aboard. They shuffled up to the far end to give Victor and his companions privacy once they had boarded.
No sooner had they sat down than the doors hissed closed and the car began to accelerate to its top speed. Mount Asgard wasn’t far from the palace as the monorail ran, although the steep mountains made surface transit a far more difficult prospect.
“May I ask what you heard?” the prince inquired courteously.
It was Kalmar who spoke. “A flotilla arrived at the jump point and fired on one of our jumpships. They escaped and contacted ComStar, paying for a priority message to alert us.”
Victor nodded in understanding. “I suspect that Wilhelm von Bulow, the previous baron, is at the head of that force. He was stripped of his title - and military rank - but we must assume he still has supporters on Glengarry.”
“I would have appreciated some warning of that risk,” Carlyle declared.
Galen cleared his throat. “We were due to meet in two days, Colonel. Our hope was to bring you up to speed and have you back on Glengarry with your Second Battalion before trouble began. It seems that we are too late.”
“It isn’t your son in the middle of this,” the mercenary slapped.
“No Colonel,” Victor cut him short. “But we came very close to my brother being caught in the same way on Lyons. If I hadn’t coincidentally sent him to Solaris, he would have been in the midst of a similar crisis that is brewing on that world. This extends beyond Glengarry, but your home is one of my top priorities.”
Carlyle closed his eyes for a moment and seemed to draw strength from his wife’s hand, still enclosed in his own. “My apologies, but there is a difference between ‘very close’ and the reality. I sincerely hope you never find one of your family caught up in such a crisis.”
The Archon-Prince inclined his head in agreement and this time no one broke the silence until the monorail slowed and came to rest under Mount Asgard.
Victor and his party were waved hastily through security to the command center, with only a few of the guards looking sideways at the two mercenaries in their gray uniforms. Nondi Steiner was waiting for them, her face as set as stone. The Commander of the Lyran Commonwealth had not shown the slightest emotion when Victor informed her of his suspicions about her son. From what he knew, she had confided in no one about the matter. Indeed, she had barely left Mount Asgard, throwing herself into preparations for what they were now faced by.
On one level, it was reassuring that his aunt had not elected to follow through with her resignation, for Morgan Hasek-Davion was needed to take direct control over the forces facing the Clans and had left for the forward command center a week previously. On another… Nondi Steiner was not known for passivity. There was something boiling beneath the surface and Victor dreaded to think what would happen when it could no longer be restrained.
“Marshal, I trust that your ever-efficient staff can tell me what we’re looking at,” Victor greeted her.
His aunt said nothing, simply turning to one of her aides and making a chopping gesture with one arm. He touched a control and the main display lit up, showing the Isle of Skye and markers for loyal units… and the reported positions of units that were not.
“A little over forty-eight hours ago,” the officer reported, indicating the capital of the region, “Duchess Margaret Aten made a broadcast announcing her abdication in favor of her second daughter, Sarah. While she wasn’t visibly coerced, her escort were members of the Tenth Skye Rangers rather than her usual personal bodyguards. Since she passed over her firstborn daughter Ilsa, we assume that this was effectively a coup.”
Victor grimaced. “Sarah is as effective as a paper towel,” he growled. “And she’s married to my cousin Richard, I think we know who will be giving orders.” He gave Nondi an apologetic look that she didn’t pay any attention to.
“Moving from there, at least four Battlemech regiments of what are dubbed the Skye Guards have moved to secure key positions through the Isle of Skye,” the aide continued. “In addition to Skye itself, they have been sighted on Lyons, Summer and Glengarry.”
Carlyle stepped forwards: “What composition are we looking at?”
The aide glanced at Victor who gave him the nod to answer the question.
“We believe cadres from the Tenth Skye Rangers and the Lyons Skye March Militia have been used to prepare Free Skye volunteers who fill out the ranks. Their manpower is likely a mix of dispossessed veterans, militiamen and trainees from within their movement. Their equipment seems to lean more heavily towards Davion designs than I would have expected… and they have a number of refitted or new ‘mechs.”
Galen spoke up for the benefit of the staff. “An estimated two hundred and thirty battlemechs from factories in the Federated Suns State Command are believed to have disappeared from shipments sent through the Terran Corridor over the last thirty months. Investigations hadn’t confirmed exactly who was taking them yet, but now we know.”
The junior aide nodded gratefully. “Thank you, sir. A number of conventional regiments in the Skye March were already flagged as undependable due to Free Skye membership within their ranks. Unfortunately, most of those have either flipped or are currently in disarray as rival factions fight for dominance. The Skye Guards can be assumed to have at least equal strength in tanks and infantry to their Battlemech numbers.”
The thought of what he could have done with another two or three combined arms brigades went through Victor’s head but that wasn’t helpful right now. “Where is Ryan Steiner right now?”
“The Duke of Porrima remains on Solaris as of last report,” another officer informed them. “However, his son Robert is married to Aten’s youngest daughter Hermione and both have been seen with the new duchess.”
“One foot in each camp,” Galen concluded, looking over at Victor.
“Yes. He will let this boil over and then step in as a peacemaker, trying to undercut me,” the Archon-Prince concluded, not caring who heard him. “He hasn’t had a new idea since Thirty-Six. Well, I won’t play his game. Have the Solaris VII police notified to detain him for suspicion of involvement in the missing weapons shipments.”
“That might play into his hands,” his friend warned.
“Yes, but it also keeps him from taking any direct hand in resolving this,” Victor told him. “The wheels of justice can grind very slowly. Any political credit he gets if I have to release him eventually will be far less than he’d get for ‘brilliantly’ negotiating an end to this. And perhaps we’ll get lucky and he’ll be stupid enough to bolt.”
Galen gave up on the issue and turned to give the necessary instructions while Victor stepped closer to the holo display. “Brief me on Glengarry first,” he ordered, for the benefit of Carlyle and Kalmar.
“The Glengarry Militia appear to have been compromised,” a kommandant declared, taking control of the display and focusing in on the star system in question. “After Wilhelm Bulow arrived with six jumpships and the Fourth Skye Guards, Governor Roger DeVries ordered them to detain the leaders of the Gray Death Legion,” she reported.
There was a curse from Carlyle. “I sponsored DeVries myself! His daughter is one of my cadets!”
Victor’s heart went out to the man. He was learning what the Archon-Prince had had to after he took the throne that betrayal could only come from those you had extended your trust to.
“The arrests did not go smoothly,” the woman continued. “We believe that a number of officers were detained and a rescue attempt was launched by the rest of the Legion. There are unconfirmed reports of fatalities, but as best we can tell the Legion managed to extract the bulk of their forces and are in the field. It’s unlikely that they can stop the Skye Guards from landing, but as long as they maintain a force-in-being, Von Bulow won’t have complete control of the planet.”
The Archon-Prince turned to Carlyle. “Can your troops hold out?” he asked bluntly. “I can give you more troops than your battalion on Borghese, but it will take time for any relief to arrive.”
The baron closed his eyes in thought for a moment. “DelVillar is a fine leader,” he said at last. “And if he… if he didn’t make it, McCall would. Either one of them could rally the Legion, and the fact they managed to pull out rather than trying to retake the capital now means that they know they need to play the long game.” He nodded. “Yes, they will hold on. Not forever, but they can last long enough.”
Nondi Steiner spoke up suddenly. “Are any of the other Skye Rangers making moves to support the uprising?”
“There is no movement from the Twenty-Second or Seventeenth,” the first officer confirmed. “The Tenth remains divided at this time.”
“The Fourth?”
The man shook his head. “No reports, which may mean they have turned their coats entirely or that they are simply cut off.”
“Don’t be naive,” the Marshal chastised him. “The Fourth are Richard’s pets. Have the Jumpships assigned to support the other Rangers recalled.”
Victor’s head turned. “Cancel that,” he said quietly. “The Seventeenth are too exposed on Barcelona. If we strip their Jumpships they’d be cut off in the event the Jade Falcons take a swing. Even the risk of that could be enough to push them into siding with Richard’s forces.”
“And leaving them the means to get to Skye?” his aunt demanded. “For all you know, he already has them under control.”
“The Seventeenth and Twenty-Second Skye Rangers are a long way from home,” Victor told her. “By the time they get to Skye, we can have this mopped up. Is there any move on Hesperus II?” The factories there were the largest in the Inner Sphere and they had never fallen to outside attack. That didn’t mean that they couldn’t be subverted though and if Richard had those then Victor would need to be the first conquer the thus far invincible defenses.
To his relief the answer was no.
“Alright, our priority is to relieve Glengarry and Skye,” he decided. “What do we have?”
“The Third Royal Guards are in motion but takes so many dropships to move an RCT that we can’t rush them via a command circuit,” the kommandant who had reported on Glengarry told him. “Stirling’s Fusiliers are more mobile and I assume that the Grey Death’s Second Battalion is available.”
Victor nodded. “Good. Direct the Fusiliers and the Gray Death to a rallying point near Skye where Baron Caryle and his command lance can rendezvous.” He turned to the mercenaries. “Once Glengarry is secure, we can use it as a staging area to clean up smaller insurrections on the worlds around it - that gives us a clean road to Skye.”
“And Skye?” asked Galen, returning from his errand.
“I’ll do what Richard would never expect,” the Archon-Prince decided. “There are two RCTs on Hesperus II - one of them can reinforce the loyalists on Skye and try to rescue Margaret Aten.”
“That’s the most critical world short of Tharkad,” warned Nondi darkly.
Not to mention New Avalon? Victor thought wryly. “That’s why he won’t expect it.” He looked at the map. “It would be politically untenable to leave the Third Davion Guards as the garrison though, so they’d better go. Order the Fourteenth Lyran Guards to move from Ford to replace them - by the time anyone knows that we’ve drawn down the Hesperus garrison, they’ll be back up to strength and the Royal Guards will arrive.”
“It’s audacious,” Nondi declared, leaning in over the table. Then she looked up sharply. “What are you waiting for?” she demanded of her officers. “The Archon-Prince has given his orders! Carry them out!”