OPREF-4 Chpt 15

=Book 4, Chapter 15 - Full House=
==Opalescent Reflections==
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===Leading from the Front===
Wolf's Den, Liezen
Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
2 October 3058
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Dropships were hovering over Liezen's deserts, mech's and elementals dropping into the sand as fighters circled above them. They were all painted slate gray, only Zeerga emblems marking them as anything other than Wolves.
 
That was most likely the point, Ulric Kerensky thought as he watched. "Get me a count," he requested.
 
"Reports are coming in," Evantha told him. The elemental was clinging to the back of his Gargoyle, along with four other elementals handpicked to provide him with a staff. "There are seventeen cluster-sized drops, exact strength still being identified."
 
Ulric frowned, unable to scratch his beard due to the neurohelmet. The last intelligence before the Zeerga left the homeworlds left them with fourteen Clusters: five in each of the frontline galaxies, four in the second-line Omega Galaxy. Three additional clusters…
 
He had offered safcon, simply to keep the battle under control. The Star Admiral of his own Naval Star was confident of defeating the Zeerga warships, but less so about preventing a bombardment. If it was too hard for Radick to get her forces to grips with him, the possibility existed that she would resort to other means.
The Leviathan transports had some armament and despite - or because of - their ramshackle cargo and passenger facilities, they might be able to absorb massive amounts of firepower without losing mobility. And the Texas-class battleship Nicholas Kerensky had more armor than any other class of warship built by the Star League. Nuclear weapons had been considered, but there was no data on where the Zeerga had placed their genetic repository. If a nuke struck that, the repercussions would be a nightmare. The only precedent was annihilation, even if the circumstances were drastically different.
 
"It only took them four months to get here." he said out loud.
 
There were chuckles of contempt from the Wolves listening to the command net, although honestly it would have been at least five or six weeks before the news of his location had spread across the worlds the Zeerga had been raiding. Then at least that long to regroup and get here… today was a little later than he had estimated but not by very much.
 
The Wolf forces had responded to those raids, returning to Liezen as quickly as they could when they arrived too late. Not all of his forces were here at the sprawling Kungsarme base Ulric had taken over at his headquarters, but that was alright. That was part of the lure. Any trap needed bait.
 
"They are down. Slightly over nine hundred 'mechs, more than fifteen hundred elementals." Evantha reported.
 
Ulric wasn't sure how much of the difference between earlier estimates and the current strength were made up of fresh cadets who had never seen battle and bondsmen taken from Sigma and Theta Galaxies. Most likely Radick and Ward had blooded cadets fresh from the sibko in their earlier attacks.
 
"Khan Marialle Radick," he called out on the channel used for the limited negotiations earlier. "Welcome to the Wolf's Den. This will be our circle of equals."
 
"We stand ready," the woman known as the Death Vixen declared. "Come out and face the warriors you betrayed, Ulric."
 
"I see no reason to give up my current tactical advantage." Ulric answered.
 
"What sort of Khan cowers behind a fortified base?" challenged Vladimir Ward. One of the elementals traced the signal back to an Adder in the Cluster that was nearest to Ulric's position, while Radick had an Executioner in the next Cluster over. "You expect a few turrets to protect you from us, quineg?
 
Ulric chuckled. The Clans rarely fortified a facility. If it was lost in a trial of possession fought outside it, the weapons would do nothing anyway, so it would be a waste. "We stripped the facility of armament after we took it from the Kungsarme," he reminded them. "Otherwise they would have fallen into the hands of some insurgent. Zeerga may favor open plains but Wolves have dens. Come in and get us… Or wait out there until the supplies in your 'mechs run out."
"I should not have expected any honor from you," Radick snarled.
 
"And I never expected much intelligence from you. When you bid every warrior you could bring with you, you ceded me the choice of battlefield. You thought I would choose ground that did not favor me, quineg?"
 
Fortification was an art, and while the Clans did not favor it, Ulric had access to Inner Sphere manuals and warriors trained to appreciate it. According to Phelan and others with academy experience, the Wolf's Den was well designed. Even with the turrets stripped of their weapons, the walls and bunkers were still intact and would channel attackers into killing zones that could be fired on from sheltered firing positions from multiple angles.
 
"This will not save you." the young Khan warned.
 
"Here they come." warned Evantha.
 
Ulric grunted in understanding. The Zeerga formed a rough crescent around two sides of the Wolf's Den and he didn't need to see them move in, he could hear them, feel them. The rumble of hundreds of mechs moving was unmistakable. More than one galaxy deploying to a single battle was rare - the point of bidding for trials was to keep battles on this scale from happening. "Tell Phelan that it is time for him to get moving."
 
The first shots were fired over the walls of the base - mechs standing on the walls that were shielded from the hips (or sometimes shoulder) down by the mass of ferroconcrete, unleashed salvos into the advancing Zeerga, whose return fire sometimes struck home but more often hit the walls.
 
Up in the sky contrails marked the efforts of the Zeerga to get above the walls and fire down at the Wolves, only to be intercepted by their Wolf counterparts. That would leak, whoever won in the end, but that was why Ulric had every Naga he could deploy armed with anti-air missiles rather than artillery.
 
Alpha Galaxy's fire was reaping a harvest, but they were taking losses. Ulric watched and said nothing, leaving the command of each section of wall to the officers. They could see the 'mechs and elementals closing in. They knew the ranges and they could see the damage being accumulated on the ferrocrete in front of them. Much like the armor on a 'mech, the outer wall was intended to ablate attacks - not to withstand them indefinitely.
 
Before long, the trinaries started to fall back towards the second line of defenses, linking up with the bunkers where their elementals were waiting, along with the two clusters of Beta Galaxy that had returned so far… along with another surprise.
 
As the first breakthroughs took place, Ulric moved his Gargoyle forwards to join that line.
 
"My Khan," Evantha warned.
 
"I need to be there," he said simply. "We need them focused on me."
 
A cluster marked as the Third Zeerga Guards smashed directly through the damaged wall, heavy and assault mechs battering holes with their guns, hammering them wider with their limbs and emerging into the C-shape… and emerging into the open center of the bastion only to find another wall ahead of them,
 
Shots hammered into them and then the flood of medium and light 'mechs that followed, carrying the Zeegra elementals. The battle armor jumped free and swarmed forwards to try to reach the Alpha 'mechs under the covering fire. In response, Wolf Elementals opened up with their SRMs - not enough to kill their Zeerga counterparts but weakening armor and distracting them.
 
Ulric reached the corner of the firing line and opened up on the elemental force with his autocannon and SRMs. Again, he wasn't going to inflict many kills, but Elementals with compromised armor or missing limbs would struggle against their counterparts.
 
At the other corner he saw white-painted tanks doing the same, Wolf's heads painted over the ComStar badges. Missiles and autocannon swept across them as the Zeerga 'mechs saw vulnerable targets, but as Omnimechs charged towards the vehicles, lasers and PPCs from the wall crashed into their ranks, the Wolf mechwarriors of Alpha Galaxy keeping their munitions for in reserve until the range was point blank.
 
When they did open fire with that reserve of firepower, Zeerga numbers were cut in two…
 
But more of them poured through and now the black and white 'mechs were trimmed in gold. Radick's Gold Keshik.
 
Her Executioner leapt over the choke point and a Gauss Rifle cracked the turret on a Brutus.
 
"ComGuards?!" she snarled and the assault 'mech opened up on an SRM Carrier with its lasers, tearing the thin-skinned machine apart.
 
"Phi Garrison Galaxy," Ulric replied urbanely on the same channel. "Blake's Wrath - we have a large number of bondsmen from the ComGuards." Most of them were not willing to fight for Clan Wolf - but after the Zeerga destroyed a second enclave, smashing through the city to reach the HPG, a compromise had been found. Phi Galaxy would exist only for this battle, survivors repatriated to surviving enclaves when the Wolves won.
 
If the Zeerga won, then Ulric would not be able to uphold the contract, but that victory would be over Phi Galaxy's dead bodies so it hardly mattered.
 
Radick wheeled on him. "Ulric!" she challenged and the Executioner charged towards him, myomer accelerator circuitry activating to send the larger assault 'mech charging at more than eighty kilometers an hour.
"Evantha! Take over!" he shouted and backed the Gargoyle around the corner before the first salvo from Radick could crash into his armor.
 
The five Elementals leapt away from him, leaving the two Khans to duel in the narrow corridor between two armored walls.
 
The close quarters favored neither of the pair of 'mechs - the towering Executioner was hard to miss at this range and it was equipped with large, slow-cycling weapons intended to reach out and slay targets at long distances. Ulric's Gargoyle was more compact but its primary armament was SRMs and LB 5-X autocannon, both of which were excellent for targeting vehicles and elementals, but less good against the thick armor of an omnimech. The small laser in the chest was the weapon that did the most pinpoint damage.
 
Ulric was well used to this though and had his own ways of employing the weapons against 'mechs. As both mechwarriors tried to use the limited traverse available to them to avoid fire, he focused his crosshairs on the upper body of the Executioner. Volleys of SRMs and cluster munitions blasted against the upper chest and shoulders of the larger assault 'mech, some of each pattern striking at the skullface and shaking the cockpit behind it.
 
The taller and wider omnimech had less ability to dodge and Radick would be bounced against her restraints by every impact. No one could take that forever - sooner or later either she or the delicate electronics would suffer for it.
 
In the meantime, her own gunnery was little less precise. Gargoyles were common enough in the Wolf touman that she must have had a good idea of their strengths and their weaknesses. In this case, it was that the weapons were almost all mounted in the arms.
 
The Zeerga's second salvo ripped open the armor across the right arm of the Gargoyle and the second smashed the elbow and the cabling that let Ulric connect to the weapons there.
 
Raising the arm that held the other half of his arsenal, the graying Khan pointed it like a lance at the Executioner's cockpit and fired everything, but a sudden impact knocked the arm to the side at the last instant and both missiles and cannon shells astray - engaging her MASC, Radick had closed just close enough to bat at his arm with the muzzle of her gauss rifle.
 
A second later the Executioner's twin lasers fired squarely in the center chest of the Gargoyle, cerulean beams of energy shaving away two thirds of the armor plating in instants.
 
Ulric swept his one remaining arm around, keeping the Gauss Rifle from being brought to bear on the weak spot, but Radick was ready for him and her jump jets flared to life.
 
Ninety-five tons of Battlemech arced up into the air and one massive foot crashed into the compromised armor plating, the knee barely missing the snout of the wolf-like head Ulric had had retrofitted years ago.
 
<{"Armor-breach!"}> the automated system warned. <{"Reactor damage. Shielding compromised."}>
 
Ulric had been sent staggering, barely keeping the Gargoyle on its feet. He spun the 'mech through ninety-degrees to cover the damaged chest with the right shoulder as Radick settled her Executioner smoothly onto the ground behind him.
 
Before he could bring the guns around, the Zeerga 'mech unleashed everything it had and alarms went off as the right side of the chest was ripped apart.
 
A new alarm shrilled and he had barely enough time to brace himself before the ejection seat tore the entire head of his 'mech free, hurling it skyward as the reactor containment failed and superheated air exploded out of the Gargoyle's chest.
 
As the Gargoyle's severed head rocketed up into the sky, Ulric had a brief bird's eye view of the battlefield. Unlike a normal ejection, he had his sensors with him and the screen in front of him dutifully updated with new data.
 
He saw the green carets of the Wolf forces in the Den were riven into pockets. Red markers showed Zeerga forces flowing through breaches in the lines, taking flanking shots that winnowed them further, but driving deeper and deeper into the Wolf's Den.
 
But they were in stars, binaries and trinaries, most often depleted by casualties and battle damage - not formed clusters of troops. Not, in short, like the fresh forces of Epsilon Galaxy who were moving out of the hangars and barracks they'd been hidden in to avoid being spotted by Zeerga dropships and aerospace fighters. Guided by reports from technicians monitoring the network of redundant sensors that would let the Wolves move confidently through the chaos of what was essentially street-fighting.
 
And nor were they in the good order of Phelan Ward's Theta Galaxy, who were flowing out sally ports from tunnels that exited the fort kilometers outside of the obvious perimeter. A position that put them right in the rear of the Zeerga's rear guard… who were mostly focused on trying to get into the fortifications as fast as they could - fortifications they had compromised to the point they'd be little use in keeping the mass of second-line warriors and Rasalhague volunteers from following them.
 
Then the cockpit began to descend and Ulric clutched his seat in anticipation of the landing.
 
As programmed, the thrusters expended their last fuel in the seconds before impact, softening it. It was better than a normal parachute landing but he was flung against the restraints in much the way he would have if his Gargoyle had fallen. Still, he was alive.
 
Removing his neurohelmet, Ulric disconnected his mechwarrior suit from the plugs that connected coolant lines and medical sensors to the cockpit's systems. He knew roughly where he was, it shouldn't be hard to get into a bunker or one of the underground passages. The Wolf's Den was as much dug into the ground as it was built upon it.
 
Opening the hatch, Ulric was about to exit when a sixth sense alerted him to throw himself backwards, dragging the canopy closed again. A moment later, machine gun fire hammered into the Gargoyle's decapitated head and it was all the Khan could do to dog the hatch before the impacts shook it open.
He stared up and saw the towering shape of Marialle Radick's Executioner, distinctive with the scarred armor around and on the deathshead face, looming over him.
 
"Khan Ulric," her voice rang out. "You cannot escape me."
 
Reaching down to the comm panel, Ulric activated the loudspeakers. "You have the firepower to have finished me, Khan Radick." The machine guns had damaged the canopy, but the Executioner's lasers could have penetrated easily. The gauss rifle would have torn it apart completely. "What do you want?"
 
Radick laughed cruelly. "I am not offering you your life, Ulric. Just a chance to make amends. Accept defeat and renounce the creation of the Zeerga. As one clan, there is no more need for Wolf to kill Wolf. Do this, and I will not move to reave your bloodright, nor to purge your bloodline."
 
"You may not," he said doubtfully. Radick might not, but Vladimir Ward was likely less forgiving and he must have considerable support to be her saKhan.
 
"As the winner of this battle, I will not be overruled," she told him proudly. "I will lead the Wolves to greatness - once you are out of the way. Why mar that for the sake of petty vengeance?"
 
Where was this foresight when you forced my hand, he wondered. "My radio isn't powered by a fusion reactor any more," he warned her. "I will need you to reduce power to your ECM or the signal may not get through."
 
Radick's voice was triumphant. "Understood." He could hear the background sounds of her adjusting her controls. "You are clear to address our Clan."
 
Ulric set his comms to general broadcast. "This is Khan Ulric Kerensky," he announced clearly. "I hereby transfer command to Galaxy Commander Phelan Ward."
 
Marialle Radick screamed in rage and the frequency was drowned in static as she went to maximum jamming. She knew perfectly well what Ulric meant by appointing an abtakha former-mercenary to take over the lead in the battle. It meant no compromise.
 
Looking up through the cracked glass of his canopy, Ulric saw the foot of her Executioner descending.
 
"You lose," he whispered, with his last breath of air.
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===Tale of a fatal Mutiny===
Hilton Head, North America
Terra, Sol System
15 November 3058
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Despite the fact she'd never been more than a few light-hours from an active HPG station during her trip to the Outworlds Alliance, Wei had a stack of paperwork waiting for her when she got back to Terra. Some of it was too sensitive to be sent out by HPG when anyone might pick up and decipher the side-scatter at the receiving stations. Some of it just wasn't considered important enough.
 
Her staff had done the usual fine job of organizing it into batches of descending urgency, interspersed with less urgent but more interesting material so that she didn't take a sudden urge to run out of her office, dive into the Atlantic and swim for freedom. (This was probably for the best as Wei didn't claim to be a strong enough swimmer to reach the mainland, much less the far side of the Atlantic).
 
"I'm sorry to interrupt," Serebryakov told her, opening the door to Wei's working office - which was adjacent to the formal office that lacked the functional shelves of reference material, extra screens and stacks of inboxes and outboxes. "Precentor Martial Focht asked if you could meet with him."
 
"Remotely or in person?" Wei asked, setting down a report on recruitment figures from the Free Worlds League.
 
"He's outside."
 
She tossed the report back into the inbox. "Send him in."
 
The door opened wider and Anastasius Focht entered. "Thank you for seeing me, Primus."
 
"If you're being this formal, it can't be good news," Wei groaned. "Take some weight off your feet, Nasty."
 
The Precentor Martial sighed as he sat down. "Unfortunately you are correct."
 
"How much alcohol will it merit."
 
"Maybe a small beer."
 
Wei sniffed and opened a cooler on the side of the office, passing him a sealed can from his preferred brewery on Summer. She cracked open a miniature of plum brandy for herself and emptied it into a shot glass. "Alright, who are we drinking damnation upon?"
 
The white-haired man gave her a mildly reproving look and cracked the can open. "To the brave soldiers of the Alshain Avengers, who deserved better officers."
 
"Dammit." Wei raised glass. "May they rest in peace. What happened?"
 
"It is not officially being called mutiny, but all three regiments decided that rather than attack Altenmarkt as ordered, they would take their JumpShips and make for Alshain itself."
 
Wei frowned. "They're a few jumps apart, aren't they?"
 
Focht nodded. "But without HPGs no one expected immediate responses. Their commander left a sealed message advising of his intentions, to be opened fifteen days after they jumped out. By that point it was too late to stop them."
 
Alshain had been a district capital of the Combine since the formation of the Free Rasalhague Republic, and before that it had been the functional capital of Rasalhague District due to distrust of the Rasalhague people in recent generations. The Alshain Avengers were all that remained of the old Alshain District Regulars and wanting to reclaim their homeworld wasn't beyond understanding.
 
"I don't recall that the DCMS treats mutineers well," the Primus said after a moment. "Of course, it is only mutiny if one fails."
 
"Generally, yes. Unfortunately it's worse than them just failing. Altenmarkt was one of the first Rasalhague worlds being targeted for relief by Task Force Ruby. Leaving the garrison there endangers the advance and General Mansdottir is fit to be tied."
 
"It's a slap to his face right after he was pressured to accept the Republic falling back under Combine 'protection'," Wei agreed. "How badly did the Smoke Jaguars beat the Avengers." Alshain was the Smoke Jaguar headquarters in the Inner Sphere
 
Focht shook his head. "They didn't."
 
"I don't care how enigmatic you are, you don't get another beer until you finish that one."
 
Narrowing his one eye, he drained the can. "The Ghost Bears are the ones who crushed the Avengers."
 
Wei blinked. "The Ghost Bears are helping the Smoke Jaguars?" So far as she was aware there was no love lost between the two.
 
"No, the Avengers apparently stumbled into a three-sided fight with both Clans. The Bears seem to be launching their own invasion of the Smoke Jaguars. So far we don't know why, but it's not the only world that has changed hands. The Avengers finding out is one of the few pieces of good news."
 
She sat back in her chair, drink half-forgotten in her hands. "Would that suggest that the Bears are weakening their defenses facing the Combine?"
 
"It would, but the Avenger's mutiny will make rallying support for renewing operations there an up-hill struggle." Focht tossed the empty can into Wei's wastepaper basket. "I'm no politician, but there is considerable ill-feeling. Mitchell Avellar has already retracted his offer to send aerospace forces to aid in the attack on Galedon, since he now feels he can't be sure that they'd be properly supported."
 
"How badly will that hurt the Combine?"
 
 "It's not good. If the Sharks deploy a warship there, it could leave the entire attack force cut off since the Combine has none of their own."
 
"And I'm not keen on hazarding some of ours either."
 
Focht spread his hands. "Task Force Ruby is also down three brigades, a major blow."
 
"And correct me if I'm wrong, but Alshain is on one of the few reliable routes corewards?"
 
"That's one of the reasons that it was judged to be the furthest points we could consider advancing to before this happened," the Precentor Martial agreed. "In that regard it may not be a huge blow to Ruby's operations but there is the risk of the Bears trying to take liberated worlds from the Combine."
 
"And the most likely reinforcements are from the troops about to hit Clan Wolf. Spectacular."
 
"You understand completely. To go back to your earlier question, less than a regiment of the Alshain Avengers escaped on their dropships - out of three mech regiments and six conventional. I have no specifics but it is likely the officers elected to fight and die rather than face the Coordinator's wrath. To all practical purposes, the entire force is a loss. Survivors will likely be folded into other units if they make it back safely."
 
Wei narrowed her eyes. "And how did we hear about this?"
 
"Official DCMS traffic from the HPG station on Chandler. How the data got there is a good question."
 
"Their mysterious FTL comms," Wei murmured. "The First Circuit will go spare. I suppose it is possible that we are misunderstanding and JumpShips carried the news…"
 
"We have not confirmed that they have their own HPGs or an alternative, but it is increasingly suspicious," Focht agreed. "DRUM will have to make a report soon."
 
"I'll be braced." Wei looked down at the glass in her hand and drank half of what remained. "There are FWLM and AFFC troops due to move out of the OWA to cover the Combine border, this may affect that… perhaps not the FWL troops - Marik wants the Kurita vote too much when it comes to pushing for the FedCom to lose its second vote. On the other hand, it gives leverage to Hanse Davion…"
 
Focht shrugged. "It would make some sense to send the First FedCom to reinforce the salient created by Task Force Ruby," he allowed. "I'm not sure about the politics of it."
 
"The threat might be enough to sway the Kurita vote - but I'm not actually sure it matters enough to the Steiner-Davions," Wei observed. "Votes may be equal in theory, but the Federated Commonwealth can't help but have disproportionate influence within the Star League Council. If they are pushed too hard and withdraw then it would be hard for the new Star League to survive."
 
"You think that that will matter more than Marik's pressure on the scales?"
 
"I don't know," the Primus allowed. "Marik may also be convinced to leave a second vote to the Federated Commonwealth if he can get an agreement that his House has the sole right to represent the Free Worlds League on the Star League Council." The balance of power between House Marik and Parliament had tipped towards the former through the Succession Wars, but there were many in the latter who saw an end to the Succession Wars and the formation of a new Star League as leaving cracks in the constitutional basis of the Captain-General's authority.
 
Focht adjusted his eyepatch. "Is that our problem?"
 
"I don't know. If things go well, it doesn't really affect us directly. If they don't then it will be everyone's problem."
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===Building a Client Base===
Motor City, Pesht
Diamond Shark Dominion
13 December 3058
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The damage done to Motor City during the invasion had been made good. It had been around eight years, so Ace supposed it would have been something of a problem if the streets were still marked by the occasional fallen 'mech. The palace where he had fought Ian Hawker had been repurposed and was now the property of a film studio, with the city's administration relocated to a new building erected on a street that had seen some of the fiercest fighting.
 
Ace had seen the building work begun on previous visits. He hadn't realized until returning there that there was a bronze statue of him to one side of the main entrance. It was an odd feeling to realize that people no longer saw him as just a former-bandit made good - not that he had any direct hand in banditry, having been too young at the time - but as a figure to look up to.
 
The rooms that held the Khan's working space were on the inner ring, looking out over a garden that was fully encircled by the building. A fountain in the middle sprayed water over another statue, this one of a leaping Diamond Shark, making it glisten in the sunlight.
 
It felt awkward to sit in Barbara Sennet's own chair, so Ace leant upon the desk as the holographic display spun up - first with the Diamond Sharks totem beast and then with the face of the khan.
 
The dusky woman had a medical dressing along the left side of her face, and her hair had been cropped short on that side of her head. She looked at him coolly and then over at the desk. //"Sit down, Galaxy Commander."\\
Ace looked over at the chair and then went around the desk to sit gingerly in her place.
 
//"You took a real risk of not having enough forces on Irece."\\ Sennet told him. //"However, your judgment was sound. We have word from New Samarkand and the DCMS are attacking Galedon V in sufficient force that the rest of Epsilon Galaxy is needed."\\
 
"Just Galedon V?" Ace asked curiously.
 
//"The forces committed seem limited. Star Colonel Labov's estimation is no more than ten regiments of battlemechs and three times that in conventional forces. With elements of four galaxies available there is no immediate cause for concern,"\\ Sennet told him. She reached up to scratch at the bandage, stopping herself at the last minute. //"Has Ellison Enders' report on his negotiations with ComStar reached you?"\\
 
"It caught up with me on Luthien."
 
//"Good."\\ The Khan's eyes narrowed. //"She seems willing to negotiate regarding restoring HPG services if we can strike the right bargain."\\
 
Ace nodded. "I have the same impression, but the price may not be one that we want to pay. We would be better off without ComStar's presence…"
 
//"In the abstract, I agree. It may not be practical."\\ Sennet paused. //"The enclaves along the border have not officially lifted the interdiction but they are clearly still active and have been willing to share information about the movements of the Hellons and Horses."\\
 
"At what price?"
 
//"So far, none."\\
 
Which meant that the price had yet to be paid, Ace understood. There would be one. "Was the information useful?"
 
//"It was accurate,"\\ Sennet admitted. //"The Horse's main supply base was on Bjarred, now it is ours and they failed to reclaim it."\\
 
That was excellent news. "Dependence on ComStar is a critical weakness we cannot afford, but tolerance of them need not be dependence."
 
//"Agreed. I see no reason to restore the HPG stations we now control, but once we have our own HPGs network fully active their enclaves have less strategic importance - they are mostly on the fringes of our space."\\ Sennet paused. //"And they may be a useful interface with the Inner Sphere in the future. I think few of the other Clans delude themselves that they can conquer the Inner Sphere now."\\
 
Ace felt the corners of his lips curl up. "Not even the Ice Hellions and Hells Horses?"
 
//"I believe they are seeing the error of their ways."\\ The Khan looked serious. //"I believe ComStar's aid indicates that they would prefer not to have more Clans with a foothold in the Inner Sphere."\\
 
"There are some unconfirmed reports from the Wolves that support that." Ace offered.
 
//"That has not reached me."\\ she noted, looking intrigued.
 
Ace opened the desk's workstation. "I will send the files, but it is rumored that ComGuards units fought alongside the Wolves against the Zeegra."
 
//"The Zeegra most likely offended them as much as they did everyone. Your point stands though. I believe that most of the Clan Council would not object to leaving the enclaves in place, so long as ComStar is no longer in a position to sever our communications."\\
 
"I tend to agree." The Diamond Sharks were used to having enclaves of other Clans on their worlds anyway - Ace's homeworld had been divided between the Sharks and the Burrocks all his life, at least until the absorption had made it a solely Diamond Shark territory. ComStar enclaves wouldn't be too much of a complication.
 
Sennet nodded sharply. //"And speaking of the council, there is the matter of the vote."\\
 
Ace didn't have to ask which vote. "Have the counts been collated?"
 
//"Not all of them, unfortunately."\\ She pursed her lips. //"There is something of a pattern."\\
 
"That doesn't sound like a clear outcome."
 
//"The homeworld votes are solidly in favor of Diamond Shark overall."\\ the Khan reported. //"However, the votes on Priori, Vinton and Albion were all fairly close. It didn't change the outcome since the worlds are lightly populated…"\\
 
"Albion is the old Burrock capital," Ace noted. "Possibly they see it as being Burrocks under another name, although that's not the goal. I am not sure about the other two."
 
//"You are rather popular on Priori,"\\ Sennet told him drily. //"Founder knows why. As for Vinton, the civilian castes are excited about liberalizing from Smoke Jaguar norms and see the Sea Fox proposals as more steps away from that. We had to hold another round of votes for the new enclaves - you heard that we control the whole world now, quiaff?"\\
"Neg." Ace shook his head. "We took advantage of the attack on Huntress."
//"Not precisely, but that was the effect."\\ Then the Khan grew more serious. //"There is a significant Diamond Shark minority vote on most of the worlds I have visited."\\
 
"Meaning a Sea Fox majority," Ace clarified. "I am not sure I would have said the minority vote was significant on worlds around New Samarkand. Perhaps more so here and on Luthien."
 
//"The population of the Inner Sphere vastly outnumbers that of the homeworlds,"\\ Sennet pointed out. "A decision forced on the homeworlds by our new conquests will be problematic."\\
 
Ace spread his hands helplessly. "As would ignoring their votes."
 
//"This remains your fault,"\\ she told him. //"The Smoke Jaguar threat is negated?"\\
 
"They have no further presence on this side of the Rasalhague Rift. Reports from beyond it suggest they are disintegrating - there have been four Khans elected since Showers' death and none lasted more than a month."
 
Sennet smiled with grim satisfaction. //"Then leave Nagasawa in charge - he has done well - and bring a galaxy of whatever troops can be spared towards Albiero. See if you can come up with a clever solution to the vote's outcome while you are at it. I will have more specific orders when you get there, but I believe with a little more pressure we can bring Fletcher and Taney to terms."\\
 
"Bargaining from a position of strength." Ace said with a smile.
 
//"Correct. But do not go too far - unlike the Smoke Jaguars, they may be future customers. We have few enough allies among the Clans."\\ Her lips parted and revealed teeth as white as a shark's hungry grin. //"There are other places they can carve out enclaves in the Inner Sphere… and if that leaves them dependent on us then so much the better."\\
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