Act 3 - Depression[]
With A Bared Sword[]
Chapter 57[]
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Leitnerton, Coventry
Donegal March, Federated Commonwealth
2 June 3058
There wasn’t much left of Leitnerton. That, unfortunately, tended to be the result of Battlemechs brawling in streets.
Victor’s Dire Wolf stalked across the debris and then stared up the slopes towards the valley road that was the best route to advance up towards the Jade Falcon’s bases of operation. It would be the very devil to fight through the narrow confines, only able to bring equal numbers against the technologically superior Clan forces.
Which was why he had no plans to do so.
“Colonel Kell,” he asked quietly. “How does it stand?”
Morgan’s red and black Archer was unscathed by any of the battle damage that marked Victor’s Dire Wolf or any of the other ‘mechs that had retaken Leitnerton. He moved the ‘mech smoothly to stand by Victor’s side. “Dan Allard confirms that they are in position,” he confirmed. “The Jade Falcon scouts found them and enough of them have survived that they should have reported back by now.”
“Good.” Victor inhaled slowly and then let the air out of his lungs. This hadn’t been cheap and it could get worse yet. Then he hit the control he’d pre-set for a very specific channel. “Khan Pryde, this is Firestorm Actual. I would like to continue our conversation from Coventry Military Academy.”
Then he sat back and waited. It would be unreasonable to think that the Jade Falcon Khan was sitting waiting for him to respond. Around him, the Seventeenth Skye Rangers continued to dig in. The Jade Falcon forces that had been pushed back from Leitnerton might be coming back in a hurry. After all, there were only two ways out of the valley they had used to reach the town and then to retreat and the other end was currently occupied by the 1st Kell Hounds regiment, one of the few Inner Sphere forces that had a significant amount of Clan technology - prizes from Luthien and other clashes with the Clans. They should also be occupying the valley mouth with enough room to use their numbers to full effect.
It didn’t take all that long for a familiar voice to reply. “Victor Davion, I presume.”
The Archon straightened in his seat. “Steiner-Davion,” he corrected. “I am uncertain why you find that so hard to grasp. After all, several distinct Clan bloodhouses share a single name as a result of kinship between their founders. I make no claim to be of the Bloodhouse Steiner, even if we may be distant kin.”
The Khan said nothing for a moment. “You were very coy with your name at the military academy. ‘Victor’ of Twycross, indeed.”
“I was there,” he pointed out. “It was even my plan, though I was not the overall commander.”
“And here?”
“My plan, my command,” Victor confirmed. “My responsibility, something you understand, quiaff?”
“Aff,” she allowed. “You have at least a small understanding of our ways. So, what do you wish?”
He checked the clocks. “You should be aware that I have most of what remains of your Mu Provisional Galaxy bottled up in a valley near Leitnerton. I have sufficient forces at either end to annihilate those warriors before you relieve them?”
“That may be your belief,” Pryde allowed. “What of it?”
Victor had to give her credit. She sounded as if she was genuinely willing to fight that out even if any outcome of that would cost her hundreds of the young warriors she was here to blood, as well as their equipment. Perhaps credit wasn’t the word. He glanced at the monitor and again saw no sign that any other Jade Falcon force could arrive in time to aid a breakout.
As best he could tell, they were not. Even if they had access to the same mine tunnels that the Kell Hounds had used to outflank Mu Galaxy, the nearest Clusters were half a day away. The rugged mountains of the Cross-Divides played no favorites.
“I offer an alternative,” he said simply. “Hegira.”
“You have not beaten me,” the Khan objected haughtily.
Victor leant forwards in his cockpit, even if she couldn’t see him. “I would say we have both achieved our goals here on Coventry.”
“And what do you know of our goals?”
He grinned savagely. She was listening! “We have taken quite a number of bondsmen. It is plain to see that many of your warriors are raw and untested. This campaign has let you test them in battle - given them a taste of what you hope for if whoever is elected as ilKhan chooses to renounce the truce won at Tukayyid.”
Pryde said nothing.
“You also need to show your strength. The Refusal War was a… dirty affair. Your predecessors as Khans did not win much glory for Clan Jade Falcon. And you’ve pushed almost as far into the Inner Sphere now as you did in 3050. Clan Jade Falcons talons have clearly not dulled in the last eight years.”
“And what have you achieved, Archon?” the Khan demanded.
“We’ve stopped you,” he said quietly, but with certainty. “Not driven you back, that I will admit. But we have managed what the Federated Commonwealth could not do back then: fought you to a standstill. Even worse for you, every world we lost in this campaign has been retaken.”
That had been a shell game, covering the shuffling of personnel between commands as Jackson Davion purged AFFS units of Lyrans and replaced them with Suns-born soldiers who preferred not to remain with their previous regiments. It was only after Victor’s current command had been delivered to Coventry that it had been possible to look at moving units to take on the garrisons left behind by the Jade Falcons.
“You have amassed enough forces that we need go no further to wet our talons,” Pryde confirmed after a moment. “But that hardly leaves us in need of being granted hegira.”
Victor thought of Galen Cox, currently in a hospital in the rear area and awaiting transport back to Tharkad. The hospital was a busy one. “I am sure that if the universe was restricted to your Clan and to my own realm you would be entirely happy to make Coventry an eternal war zone, sating your warriors’ lust for glory,” he told her. “But we both have other enemies and the Wolves are on the prowl.”
“You are well informed,” she growled.
“The confirmation was welcome,” he admitted. Not all of the Wolves who had remained behind were Crusaders and some were keeping communication channels open with Phelan’s exiles. Reading between some of the lines made it clear that the new Khan was planning operations to test his reforged forces in battle hitting both of their neighboring invasion corridors. The Ghost Bears could look after themselves, but the supplies and replacement warriors needed by the Jade Falcon garrisons were currently here on Coventry.
Marthe Pryde hissed in frustration. “I was on Alyina,” she admitted, “When our forces almost trapped you. It is irksome to find the situation reversed.”
Victor hadn’t been aware of that, but he didn’t see that it mattered. “Is there really anything more for you to gain here?” he asked reasonably.
“To retreat with an enemy in front of us would be disgraceful,” the Khan asserted. “And to accept your offer would be to accept defeat.”
“If you would prefer to continue fighting as the Wolves tear your occupation corridor to shreds, I can hardly insist,” Victor told her bluntly. “Of course, if that is your choice then I will have Colonel Kell’s forces close in upon your Mu Galaxy and you will be in the same position but with about three less Clusters of troops by the end of today.”
“...Kell?” she asked quizzically. “Is he of the same kinship as the former saKhan of the Wolves?”
“Colonel Morgan Kell is his father.”
“Ah, the one with the accursed stealth system on his Battlemech. We have been trying to capture that ‘mech for over a week now.”
Victor hadn’t known that, but it did explain the string of Jade Falcon bondsmen that the Kell Hounds had handed off to the custody of his provosts before entering the mine tunnels. “Yes. I have some respect for Phelan Kell but compared to his father, he is something of a disappointment.”
“Was he also on Twycross?” inquired Khan Pryde.
“No, but he did deploy on Luthien.”
“An impressive codex,” she admitted. “But yours is not without its achievements either, Victor Steiner-Davion. If we were to capture you, it might almost be worth entering you to try to win the bloodname of your kinsmen.”
“If you captured me, you would arouse a foe more formidable than I think you understand,” he told her. Arthur was his viceroy but Kate was his heir and if she was left with both halves of the Federated Commonwealth after everything they’d just been through, she would probably stop at nothing to drag him back.
The Jade Falcon grunted. “For now, I suppose, we do not need to add another enemy. Very well, Archon. I will accept your offer. For now, this world is yours. By our law, both sides are to return any bondsmen taken. If you open the route to Leitnerton, I will have our convoyed there within… forty-eight hours should be sufficient time.”
“That is acceptable,” Victor agreed, trying not to sound too gloating. “I will have our own bondsmen gathered here in the same timeframe. Please inform Mu Galaxy that the route for their withdrawal will be cleared within sixty minutes, although they should remain within the marked boundaries of the road.”
“Or be fired upon?” challenged Pryde.
“No, but it would take more than an hour to clear the minefields.” he told her.