Act 2 - Bargaining[]
With A Bared Sword[]
Chapter 44[]
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
Yang-ku, Nanking
Sarna March, Federated Commonwealth
19 December 3057
Field Marshal David Sandoval looked like hell. Bandages still covered much of his face, and the cast around his left arm was too light to hide the fact that half of that hand was gone. He returned Kate’s salute with the other hand, wincing slightly at raising his arm, and then lowered his hand back to the controls of his wheelchair.
“Don’t get too excited, your highness,” he said, and there was a twinkle in his eye. “I know I look like I’ve made a perfect recovery, but I’m afraid my topknot hasn’t grown back in yet. It will be a few more weeks before the doctors sign off on my taking on even administrative duties.”
Kate couldn’t help but return the smile. David Sandoval might look a lot like his brother, but he had an easy charm that she admired. He, like her, had grown up as the spare rather than the heir, and on his occasional visits to New Avalon, they had got along well. “I can barely tell,” she lied.
“I look far better than some of my staff,” Sandoval replied, and the mask slipped - there was anger beneath the smile. “Not to mention quite a number of other senior officers. We owe Sun-Tzu Liao Chancellor Liao a reckoning.”
“I don’t disagree,” Kate acknowledged. “It will take some time, but we will not forget.”
The Field Marshal nodded heavily, and she could see the fatigue now. See the lack of energy. She had seen recovering patients at NAIS and while she was no doctor, she had some idea of how long it would take to recover from such severe injuries. Weeks meant at least a month, maybe more than one.
“I wanted to thank you,” he continued. “I am not surprised that you stepped up - you are a Steiner-Davion. But I am grateful. I think it is important to say that. My men needed leadership, and you provided it.”
“It was the least I could do.”
Sandoval shook his head. “You could have returned to New Avalon, led the efforts from there as the viceroy and that would have been just your duty. You went beyond that. Let no one say you are a lesser officer than your brother was.”
Kate shook her head. “I fought in one battle and did little enough.”
“You saw to it that we have won others,” he disagreed. “And you extracted units that might otherwise have been lost. Leading attacks, whether you take the field or not, is harder than holding troops together in a retreat. Without you we could have lost a dozen commands I could list. Instead, I hear they are here and at other rallying points - refitting, getting replacement soldiers. I have not been able to visit them, but I still know their commanders and I can read their mood from the reports the doctors let me read. They are ready to fight - we have not lost yet.”
That was putting a brave face on it, in Kate’s opinion. Perhaps he had to though.
Rather than disagreeing, she gestured at the wall. “It’s chaos.”
“War always is,” Sandoval told her. He looked at the map on the wall, the worlds it had been his responsibility to defend. Kate knew what he was seeing.
Sarna itself was lost - not even to the Capellans. The Kaifeng SMM had rallied to a local governor with much the same idea Pierre Benton had tried on Epsilon Eridani. Reinforced by cadets from the academy on Sarna and now by mercenaries, the Sarna Supremacy claimed three worlds now, along with the name of the pre-Capellan Confederation realm that had governed worlds from Campertown to Goshen. The new realm wasn’t a tenth that, not yet - and she was sure that Sun-Tzu Liao had no more intention than she did of allowing that. But the Chancellor was in a position to do something about it, while the mighty Federated Commonwealth was not.
“We haven’t seen something like this since the Fourth Succession War,” the Field Marshal considered. “Perhaps not even then - Janos Marik pulling out of the Terran corridor is the parallel I was thinking of, but we were able to take hold of those worlds. “If the Capellans could do that, they would be - and the number of unaligned worlds right now means that they can’t.”
“That’s what I’m advised,” Kate confirmed. “His people on Outreach and even Galatea are trying to hire up mercs to let him push harder but a lot of the small units are being signed up with new governments. Harlech’s Hiring Hall was insane.”
Sandoval looked over at her. “You went there?”
She shook her head. “Not personally. I spent all my time there convincing Maeve Wolf that the Dragoons are required to hold Outreach as part of the Federated Commonwealth and that going independent would invalidate their claim.”
“I have nothing but admiration for your ability to persuade her of that,” the wounded Marshal admitted. “The Dragoons have always been… difficult. And walking away with two regiments under contract even then.”
“Northwind was good practice. I hate to blame father for this but some of the deals he struck are coming back to haunt us.”
Sandoval smiled sadly. “Hindsight is always easier. I wasn’t part of the planning then, but I doubt that this situation was considered at the time. Every generation inherits what they see as obvious oversights by the last. Hanse - or even Ian, I suspect - likely had to wonder why their father and grandfather had spent so much time building up relations with the Free Worlds League when the Lyran alliance was so rewarding as an alternative.”
“Victor’s eventual children will no doubt wonder what we were thinking.”
“Yes, I promise that they will. That’s life, I’m afraid.”
Kate had to wonder how long it would be before Victor moved on from his feelings for Omi Kurita. His plans to lead the reinforcements put him at risk, but she had a feeling it might lead to him reconnecting to soldiers his own age. Perhaps he’d meet someone more politically acceptable. The only women in his age bracket at Tharkad were husband-hunters and there were few things the Inner Sphere’s most eligible bachelor found less appealing than young women chasing the consort’s crown.
“I realize you’re not ready to take over, but I would appreciate your opinion on my immediate plans,” she said, taking up a pointer. Sandoval would have to take over those plans, so if he didn’t agree then she would be well advised to change them now.
He backed up his wheelchair and turned for a slightly better view. “I would be pleased to.”
“With the loss of Corey, we don’t really have any rallying points in the Palos operational area,” Kate began. The rimwards end of the Sarna March, the one closest to the Capellan March. Palos itself was somewhere in the morass of independent worlds, some of them still fighting over who the planetary government would be. “The Sarna Supremacy’s position makes them a bulwark that’s complicating Capellan logistics in trying to take worlds between Sarna and Bell.”
Bell was part of the Capellan March but she’d had to pull regiments back there for stable and secure basing. “Right now, the region is a three-way contest between ourselves, the Capellans and Sarna. We’re not going to win it, but the longer it goes on, the better our position will be. We don’t just have to take over the governments, the Zhanzeng de Guang, their imitators and their rivals using the same tactics that are the biggest problem.”
Kate indicated three worlds near Bell. “We’ve got a hold on Jonathan, Footfall and Highspire - not perfect, but the tide is in our favor.” Then she traced a line. “If we can do the same for Shipka, St. Andre and Shenshi then we have something resembling a defensive line to halt Capellan efforts into the Chesterton and Tikonov regions.”
“Resembling,” Sandoval said with a hint of bitterness.
She nodded. “There’s no real lines in space, but having those worlds strongly held will make for bases that Sun-Tzu can’t ignore. New Aragon will need to serve as our staging area for operations there - and for the worlds behind that line. We can’t ignore them, but as long as they don’t become bases for Capellan’s to bypass our defenses they’re a lower priority.”
“Diplomacy may work,” the Marshal suggested. “Find factions there that remain loyal and send them supplies and support - even a company of ‘mechs might be able to tip the balance there in favor.”
Kate nodded, then indicated two more worlds. “Gan Singh and Styk have formed a defensive pact, the Styk Commonality. I’d love to take Styk and its ‘mech factories but the best I can say right now is that they’re a brake upon the Capellans and the Mariks.” She paused and then added: “Unless Thomas Marik turns to diplomacy himself.”
“Offering them provincial status?” asked Sandoval. At her nod, he reached up with another wince and ran his one intact hand over his scalp. “It depends how threatened they feel. And the same for Saiph, I suppose?” Another little cluster of worlds who had banded together.
“Liao will want them all,” she said. “Marik may not wish to offend his future son-in-law. And then there is our biggest concern.” Kate used the pointer to indicate the world that shared its name with the ruling house of the Capellan Confederation.”
“Liao,” Sandoval recognized, his voice a growl. “Do you believe we can reclaim it?”
“Seven of the Warrior Houses landed there,” Kate replied. “It’s not impossible, but we would need a large force and for now we need our troops elsewhere. Before I even consider it, we have to worry about Zurich - there’s a force of the Crater Cobras there supporting a Zhanzeng de Guang-backed government. They are sending support to Nanking, where we are in a better position.”
“I agree with you in principle,” the Marshal agreed. “Secure defensive positions and we can hopefully clear out the worlds behind them once we don’t have to worry about losing what we already hold. Once the Archon-Prince arrives, we will have more forces to work with.”