FuH Chapter 21

=Fighting Uphill - Chapter 21=
==Bob's Your Uncle?​==
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===Sizing Up the Situation===
18th August, 3013
Star League Field Library Facility, Helm
Free Worlds League
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"So, Robert is using Hanse Davion's task force over Oriente as a threat to get concessions from me?" Duncan asked at the end of the briefing, looking at the League map being projected from the Operations Room holotable.
"Or it's Hanse Davion using Robert as a mouthpiece." Candace added. "Our intelligence analysts can't seem to agree who's actually in charge over there."
"And if he doesn't get those concessions, Hanse will destroy Oriente's industrial base which likely means I'll lose the war." Duncan mused, thinking on that mercenary's words how Oriente was likely to be lost if he did anything but cede the Captain Generalship to Robert. "And there's nothing we can do to stop him because Oriente's transit time is so long?"
"Yes." Candace told him in a resigned tone. "It's nearly nineteen days to transit from Jump Point to planet. Hanse only has to wait a few days after a relief force jumps in and starts making transit to Oriente before invading. He'll be able to get in, destroy Oriente's industries, and get back out and running for a Jump Point before the relief force arrives unless the forces we already have on the ground can delay him far longer than I think they can. I'm hoping you have a political solution because I certainly don't see a military one."
"You certainly have a lot more faith in me than I do, Candace." Duncan replied.
"I should." Candace said sincerely. "I'm not the one who convinced Janos' entire FWLM contingent to join us instead of fight us."
"Because I challenged Uncle Janos to a duel and won." Duncan told her. "Robert's already ruled that out and..." Duncan trailed off as a thought occurred to him. "Candy, tell me about Robert. What is he really like, not what the propagandists know about him."
"Um, I'm more familiar with Hanse Davion than Robert Marik." Candace admitted. "Robert's always been a cipher to me. The Maskirovka are all convinced that he's just a fake puppet the Davion invented to give them an excuse to fight for the Captain Generalship. Your own people are more divided on whether he's a real Marik or not, but they all agree that Hanse has been more or less the one calling the shots for Robert."
"Like you have been doing for me, eh?" Duncan said with a smile to take the sting out of his words. "But I don't care if he's a real Marik, Candy. I want to know what he's like. A brave warrior? A craven coward? A dull simpleton or a genius political operator?"
"I doubt he's a simpleton if Hanse Davion trusted him out of his sight to command half their joint forces." Candace said with a slight laugh. "But it seems he's not entirely spineless given that he had the initiative to ask for a ceasefire before he could have possibly coordinated with Hanse Davion first. Also, from your talk with him, he seems like a canny political operator."
"Yet his very first message to me refused any offers for a duel before I even had the opportunity to ask." Duncan said thoughtfully. "I think I know what I have to do. It probably won't save Oriente, but it will almost certainly end this civil war... one way or another."
"What are you planning to do?" Candace asked.
"I'm going to do the same thing I did with Uncle Janos, only on a larger scale." Duncan answered.
"What if Robert has already preemptively refused to duel you?" Candace pointed out.
"My dear, Candy." Duncan said with his old confident smugness. "You're assuming he's going to have a choice in the matter." He paused and then added, "But before I call him, you and I, or rather, you as the Capellan Confederation representative and I need to work out a few details first."
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===Calling Robert===
19th August, 3013
Zanzibar, Tamarind
Free Worlds League
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"A live call in the middle of the Operations Center?" Robert Marik asked disbelievingly. "Clearly Duncan doesn't know what a budget is or the meaning of the word frugality. And why in the Operations Center instead of my officer?"
"Perhaps he's planning something big and dramatic and wants as big an audience as he can get." Duchess Therese replied. She looked at him disdainfully; Therese might be his ally now, but she made it no secret that she disliked the man. "Are you taking the call or not?"
"Fine, if the boy wants another verbal drubbing and in public this time, I'll humor him." Robert said in a haughty tone that didn't quite fit him. "At least it's not the middle of the night again."
Robert's office was right next to the Operations Center, so it was only a short work out his door and across the hall to reach it.
"So, Duncan." Robert began when Duncan's image appeared. And the image wasn't just of Duncan's head either. It was a full body hologram of Duncan lounging back in an officer chair with both feet on a desk, no a console station much like the ones in Tamarind's Operations Center. "Ready to throw in the towel and concede everything I want to me?"
"Actually, no 'Uncle' Robert." Duncan replied casually, confidently, even haughtily. "I actually wanted to make you a counteroffer."
"Duncan, you realize that if I give the word, your entire base on Oriente is toast, right?" Robert pointed out, a bit less confident himself. "And if that happens, your entire cause is doomed?"
"Oh, I'm sure it is." Duncan replied, seemingly not at all disturbed by Robert's words. "My mother is on Oriente. I'd hate to lose her. I know Hanse Davion has a reputation for avoiding atrocity, but accidents happen after all. But really Robert, for what I'm about to propose to you, it doesn't really matter if Hanse Davion destroys Oriente's industries or not."
"Oh? Do tell." Robert said as coolly as he could. Duncan couldn't possibly have some trump card on Robert, but he sounded so confident.
"Tell me Robert, have you heard what I said to Uncle Janos to get him to duel me?" Duncan asked.
"What?" Robert said thrown by the subject change. "No, I haven't."
"I told Uncle Janos that the fight for the Captain-Generalship was between him and me. And you and Anton of course, but you two weren't there." Duncan told him. "I told him that if we got hundreds, even thousands of our countrymen killed in battle with each other just to support our ambitions, then neither of us deserved to be Captain General. Take a look around you, Robert and tell me how many of your people agree with that sentiment."
Robert looked around, and saw far too many who did, including Duchess Therese.
"For thirteen years, the brave soldiers of the FWLM have tried to avoid engaging each other in direct combat with each other." Duncan continued. "That was until the day I led them directly against Janos Marik and his FWLM forces. I did that, Robert, because I wanted to see if we were really one people still or if thirteen years of war had truly broken us. Well, I'm happy to say that we're still one people."
"So, now I intend to repeat that little experiment, Robert, only this time with you." Duncan told him. "I know that most of the Dropships in Hanse Davion's fleet are his own. Which means most of the forces you took to Tamarind are your share of the FWLM. So I'm going to gather up every FWLM soldier, mech, fighter, vehicle, Dropship, and even Warship that will follow me, and then head straight to wherever you happen to be at the moment and challenge you to a duel. And just to make sure there's nothing to muddy the experiment, I won't be bringing along any of my Capellan allies."
There was a muffled but distinctly feminine "WHAT?" from somewhere on Duncan's end of the communications channel.
"Senior Colonel Candace Liao has assured me that the Capellan Confederation will be more than happy to watch our Lyran border for us while I conduct my experiment, Robert." Duncan continued, raising a hand to silence whoever had spoken. Duncan brought his feet off the console and leaned forward in his seat staring directly at Robert. "So make no mistake, Robert? If you refuse to duel me, then I will come for you anyway. Only with every FWLM man and woman at my back and with every military asset. I have and then we'll see how many men and women in our uniform are going to be willing to defend a craven coward who hides behind them and uses them as shields to save his own miserable life."
"Then who knows? Maybe they will defend you." Duncan said, intense burning passion in his eyes boring right into Robert's skull. "Maybe they'll even kill me before I can get to you. But I do know two things will result if that happens, 'Uncle' Robert. The first is that one way or another, this civil war will finally end. And secondly, Parliament will sooner elect a turnip to be Captain General than you."
Duncan sat back in his chair.
"So what's it going to be, 'Uncle' Robert?" Duncan asked. "Shall we end this war here and now? Or do I need to pay you a personal visit first?"
"I'll, ah, need to think about your offer." Robert replied nervously. "Talk to my advisors. Maybe meditate and pray to Blake..."
"Oh, no no no, Robert." Duncan interrupted him. "You're going to decide here and now. Wolf's Dragoons have this fascinating cultural quirk that they call 'Trials', little contests where they determine who is more fit to lead their units and whatnot. Well, consider this a Trial of Character, Robert. What kind of man are you really? Are you a coward who hides behind others? Are you going to be an honorable man and duel me? Or are you going to save the lives of your people and your own by conceding the Captain Generalship here and now? Who are you really?"
"I.." Robert looked around, seeing little support coming from every quarter. He knew what decision they wanted him to make. Even the few AFFS officers present were giving him the stink eye. Robert's mission from Comstar was to prolong the war for as long as possible, but if Duncan followed through with his threat – and he certainly looked like he was going to – then one way or another, the war was going to end. And even if Duncan did die trying to reach Robert, Robert would likely piss off so many people fending Duncan off that Robert was unlikely to live long enough to see if Parliament really would elect a turnip as Captain General before him. So if his mission was doomed anyway, then the only way to get out of this with a whole skin was...
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===Starting Over===
20th August, 3013
High Orbit, Oriente
Free Worlds League
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Hanse Davion stared at the printout of the message from Robert Marik. This time, it had actually been properly addressed to Hanse, had the proper Priority and security protocols safeguarding it, was properly encrypted with all the right embedded codes proving their origin, and had been delivered with no hiccups by Comstar delaying its arrival.
Robert Marik had completely surrendered to Duncan Marik, and the only concession was that Robert be allowed to quietly retire from public life and go into obscurity. And Hanse Davion had direct orders from his brother Ian, First Prince of the Federated Suns if that were to happen.
"Commodore Mbutu." Hanse called.
"Yes, Your Highness?" Mbutu responded.
"You told me that our fleet and Oriente had fairly even force levels in space." Hanse began. "If the FWLM Dropships in our fleet were taken from us and added to the defenders, could we still retain a stalemate in space long enough to insert ground forces and destroy Oriente's industries?"
"Possibly," Mbutu said slowly. "but I doubt it."
"Damn." Hanse said mildly, crumpling the message in his hand. He didn't even ask if just killing those FWLM Dropships by surprise would help even things out; killing people who thought you were still their ally would be extremely dishonorable. "Signal the fleet. We're leaving. Tell the FWLM Dropships they can stay if they want. I'm pretty sure they got this message too."
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===Laughter on Sian===
21st August, 3013
'Forbidden City, Sian
Capellan Confederation
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Chancellor Maximilian Liao laughed uproariously after receiving the update from Oriente.
"I don't know how Candace did it, Romano," Maximilian chortled when his laughter died down enough for him to speak coherently, "but not only has she won the Free Worlds League, she has defeated the Fox himself and driven him from Oriente!"
"But Candace didn't do anything, Father." Romano pointed out plaintively. "The reports all agree: it was Duncan Marik alone that got Robert to concede."
"Romano, I've told you before. Duncan is but a simpleton, an idiot that Candace manipulates to her will," Maximilian scolded. "Everything he has done is clearly done at her bidding!"
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