TBntG-3 Chpt 18

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 18 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Katherine's No Good, Very Bad Day==
Katherine rubbed her cast. It itched, and even the best equipment couldn't heal a compound fracture overnight. Or a busted rib. 
 
"My dear, you must understand that while your father has assisted you in… finding a position, I am in command, both of the 'mech unit and the… supporting units." 
 
The CO of the raid, who hadn't even bothered to talk to her CO. 
 
Who had spent the time till what was supposed to be a short, simple raid, blooding the regiment without risking a full scale battle, having dinner with the other nobles, and then unveiled his secret plan, literally a day before the drop.
 
Which was a drop directly on top of one of the Clan BA fabrication centers, where his top-heavy mech unit would shatter the clans, take a major factory and give him the honor needed to become a high official.
 
Besides, these were second line clanners, not at all like the first line clanners, even including periphery scum, and they'd break the moment the first dropships deployed their troops. 
 
The frakking moron didn't even make it to the ground! He was broadcasting an inspirational speech, when the Clans had decided that the Overlord broadcasting on every frequency was probably the ship they needed to kill, and had killed it, and since the "plan" was off the cuff to begin with and planning for failure was a losers game, they didn't have any fall back plan.
 
And the Clan defense had been something right out of the SLDF flexible response manuals that she had read. Artillery and rocket batteries nailing the drop zone and landing area, high speed BA units mounted on hovercraft zipping around, while the small detachment of Clan Battlemechs on site had taken advantage of the confusion to keep local superiority, hitting their own confused 'mech units with two and three to one superiority. 
 
It had been a nightmare. Katherine, who had graduated as squad leader, and expected this to be a relatively safe way to get a combat badge, had been promoted to platoon leader and then five minutes later, courtesy of a Clan head hunting unit, company leader. Katherine had fallen back on what her Father would have done and gave orders that sounded like she knew what was happening…
 
And then the second in command, the man promoted by the word of the now dead "general" panicked and ordered all units to retreat and that the dropships wouldn't wait for stragglers.
 
The retreat was a nightmare, and somehow Katherine ended up in charge of the armored unit, who had lost their commander, covering the mechs that weren't pausing to cover them.
 
And then, to add to the problem, the nodal force that the Clan OZ had popped in, a Sarmakand Class Aerospace carrier and escorts. 
 
By the time they got to the landing zone, the only way she managed to get everyone on board was to leave the tanks, leave the APCs, chucking grenades in them and even leave some of the BA behind. The TDF air wing managed to convince the Clan commander to let them go, mainly by acting like a rabid badger and making what looked like WMD runs on the carrier—with fighters that had dry magazines and nearly dry fuel, but whoever was in charge over there wasn't going to press it. 
 
Which was the rule of thumb for the OZ. Their people evidently considered the mission more important than glorious death. 
 
By the time they got back to base, a regiment that had lost 80 percent of its equipment and 30 percent of its troops, and whose morale was well and truly shattered, the new commander was managing to blame everyone but his deceased and heroic Lyran general.
 
Trading on influence was a dangerous game. You could get tagged as someone who needed to trade on influence, but sometimes…
 
Katherine had written furious letters to her mother, her father, along with an official report to the UMC liason, and General Cheng, and attached every bit of recorded data she could, and then waited. 
 
Not long, because the second in command was interviewed by some LIC people and then… promoted. 
 
To Terra. Some place in Utah, wherever that was. 
 
Katherine had nearly trashed the room. Someone lost the better part of a regiment, and he knows enough important people that we can't get rid of him. So they have to promote him to some out of the way position where he'll be safe while I'm—
 
Doing the job the leftenent should have done. The apartment complex was a little run down, kids running about and staring as Katherine and the chaplain got out of the car. They had been notified of course, but if possible, it was customary that a member of the unit meet the family. Diplomat was handling another family because they just didn't have time for one person to do everyone even with those families on this world—not when they were going to be shipped out tomorrow to Terra. 
 
Everyone else would work as cadre, and Katherine would do the same, only now, she got to go to OCS, or the abbreviated version and nobody had even asked her. She assumed the letter had pissed off General Cheng. 
 
Not that she would say no. Katherine couldn't imagine any world where she would be worse than the idiot who had helped her get a wound badge, combat commendation, and combat stripe. And more importantly, if Katherine didn't take it some other group of poor SOB's might find some social general who never bothered to show up for briefings commanding them.
 
Stupid, inbred… heh. Like me. Or Victor, but Victor might have come up with the win or die plan, but he would have told everyone about it, planned for failure and when everything went wrong, Victor would have been holding the rear, not running for safety.
 
But can a system survive if it's always depending on being lucky enough to get people like Victor in charge when you need them?
 
Then they were at the door, and the chaplain knocked on them. Katherine took a deep breath. She knew what to say at a speech or news conference, but this was different. 
 
Your son fought bravely. He had, for the forty seconds he'd survived on the ground, sent into the teeth of a Clan occupational unit by a fool's orders.
 
He didn't suffer. No, you didn't. Not when a large laser vaporized the top of your body in a millisecond.
 
And the door opened and Katherine looked over the room. At the rear, there was a little shrine with a folded Lyran flag and the official letter from the Archon (printed out with a robotic pen signature because the Archon couldn't spend half the way writing condolance letters), and a young girl with the same blond hair Trooper Jenson had sported peeking out from the rear. The mother (Divorced, currently sole caregiver), stared out at Katherine.
 
"Hello, Ma'am, I'm Leftenant Steiner-Davion."
"Come in, come in!"
Katherine would have preferred a platoon of angry Elementals, but this was part of the job. She went in.
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Book 3 - 18