TBntG-3 Chpt 28

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 28 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Planning Operations: Terra==
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===Unorthodox Plan===
Terra, Sol - ComStar Space
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"Attack the Combine?" Chancellor Candace Liao frowned. "They have not yet attacked us…"
 
"They have claimed the First Lordship." Will gestured. "Additionally, they specifically included people who have tried to resign from the game."
 
"The first strikes," General Cheng said, "have killed between one hundred fifty and two hundred million people." 
 
"So many?" Archoon Melissa Steiner-Davion murmured. 
 
"A fourth strike." Mary shook her head. "The Clans weren't able to keep the strike off. But we also know that they've been executing prisoners and…" She touched a button. "Information from some ROM agents on Luthien."
 
The image was of a school. In front there were teachers, kneeling as officers walked up behind them and fired into their skulls. 
 
Not just teachers. 
 
"A school for former unproductives and merchant castes who the current government believes are too big for their britches." Will quietly said. "Not the only one. They're using this delay to purge every level of their government. It will hurt their combat readiness…"
 
"But nukes change the equation." First Prince Hanse Davion said from where he was sitting, a robe around his shoulders. Mary glanced at him, and then at the medical attendant, visible in the hologram. His recovery was going slow and he'd lost weight. 
 
And this worry isn't helping. 
 
"Yes, sir," Mary said. 
 
"It'd be nice if someone would revolt." Captain-General Duggan Marik muttered. 
 
"For a thousand years, the Combine has stood for obedience." Melissa shook her head. "Change comes from above, not below."
 
"And if examples need to be made…" Will touched another button. "Someone decided that if it was too hard to simply move in with cops…" the image was taken from a personal camera. 
 
A street, people laying on it, bodies contorted, faces frozen in a rictus of agony. It paused for a moment on a woman, her toddler crushed against her body by her own muscle spasms. 
 
"Looks like somebody's been looking into the SLDF chemwar files." 
 
"Monsters..." Candace muttered. 
 
When a graduate of the Capallen school says that—Be fair. She's done a great deal to move beyond those years, Mary. 
 
"Even during the Massacre on Kenteres, there was no mass revolt. Some hid, some refused, some transmitted evidence, but Jinjiro was in the middle of an army that could have removed him at any time. Even those who hate…" Hanse shook his head. "They may kill themselves, but I don't think we can expect any major revolt, especially since most of those who would have avenged Theodore were with him…"
 
Caught between the hammer of enraged clans, and the anvil of the Black Dragons. They were getting survivors, still coming in, but the trickle was being choked off. 
 
"It's a matter of when, not if, they turn on us," Hanse finally said. 
 
"Yes. And the UMC includes provisions for all measures that will assist in the conflict against the Clans, and I move that restoring the legitimate government of the Combine counts." Will looked around.
 
"What government would that be?" Mary asked.
 
"General?" Duggan raised his eyebrows. 
 
"There is no legitimate government," Mary said. "You can get that the Black Dragons are killing everyone with any ties to the old government, Hohiro is still unconscious…" She shook her head. "How is Victor? My last report was that he'd live but his arm…"
 
"They weren't able to save the arm, but he'll live. We may be able to clone a new one." 
 
"Good." Mary took a deep breath. "But to continue, we can defeat the Black Dragons, but what then?"
 
"Are you certain you can defeat them?" Candace asked.
 
"Yes, Chancellor, I am." Mary gestured at the screen. "The UMC, even with the losses due to defections, still outnumbers the Combine forces, which have suffered their own issues. Not counting defensive forces, the three corps we were preparing for Operation Sledgehammer well outnumber any forces they can muster in a reasonable time frame. Couple that with the fratricide among both politically unreliable officers and those individuals who came from "unworthy" social groups, and the DCMS is likely going to have immense problems in operational planning and battlefield tactics." She paused. "The Black Dragons as far as we can tell, adore the "old way" of doing things, and the old way is the suicidal way on a modern battlefield." She sighed. "And that doesn't include the fact that the Clans appear to be moving at the very least, Frederick's Corps, likely backed up with a number of other Clan Units."
 
Which may not be as useful as they think. Some unit had deployed right from the Clan Homeworlds, using a Jumpship chain and according to ROM and UMCI (United Military Command Intelligence), had more or less charged right onto a Combine world and, while they'd won, it pretty much defined Pyhrric Victory. The few units of the OZ forces that had arrived, along with Ghost Bear and Wolf units were launching much more modest attacks, focusing on "bite and hold" tactics. Every other intelligence report indicated that the majority of the Clan units were shoring up their defenses, reintegrating the units withdrawn from Tharkad and New Avalon and setting up a truly massive logistics network.
 
I suppose I should be thankful. If not for the Black Dragons, our own offensive would be running into that. Mixed with that was annoyance. Mary didn't like slaughter, but Frederick had been the beit noire of the UMC, and she had been looking forward to showing he had feet of clay. 
 
"So we can win, but after this?" She gestured at the scene of murder on the street, and the executions in front of the school. "People are going to be angry, people are going to be very angry, and you can bet that at least some of the Black Dragons, when they realize they're losing, will try to join in with the mobs howling for their deaths, and avoid justice that way, while pointing the mobs at the wrong targets. A failed state on the borders of the Federated Commonwealth and Clan OZ…" 
 
Nobody here was an idiot. Mary didn't have to draw diagrams.
 
"You want us to conquer the Combine?"
 
"I want plans drawn up for an occupation to restore civil government and prevent a repeat of this." 
 
"General Cheng, the people of the Combine would see that as an attempt to destroy…" Candace fell silent as Will cleared his throat. 
 
"Here's the thing. If you have a dangerous dog, you have a few choices." Will looked at the others. "You can kill it. Which is what will happen if we can't stop the Combine's current rulers, because nobody is gonna tolerate nukes. You can try to convince it to play nice. Or you can let it keep running around biting people." He sighed. "Remember who kicked off the First Succession War. Hohiro, if he wakes up, doesn't have the people to take over again. So…yeah. From the view point of the old Combine, we are talking about destroying them. The question is, what do we want to rise in their place."
 
"The Capellan Confederation will protest and refuse to cooperate in any attempt to transfer worlds to other powers under the cover of peacekeeping operations."
 
"As will the Concordat." Edward said. He'd said little, staring at the visions of nightmare. "Especially since we have some of the blame for that. Those weapons were in the cores I delivered to the Sphere."
 
"And they have saved far more people." Melissa shook her head. "If we worry what monsters might do, we should have turned our back on fire." 
 
"Very well. I suggest we adopt the same procedure used for the Police Zone. As each world is purified of the Black Dragon's influence, we can establish space superiority, and ensure that they can't hurt anyone else," Mary said. "Then we can provide assistance in restoring civil society, while…" She shrugged. "Same time frame as the Police Zone? Ten years and a referendum on where they are going to go?"
 
"Sounds good," Will said. "But first we have to kill their space born forces and…"
 
"I have plans," Mary said. "I'm mainly worried about attacks on Clan occupied worlds, since they clearly don't care about civilian casualties."
 
"So do I. That's why I think we should tell them about Project Peekaboo."
 
Mary blinked. "The jump tracking systems? Primus, have you gone insane? That's the Holy Grail! It's…" 
 
"A system that could give them warning before the Clans blow a world or two off the map? Yes, but if we just spring it on them, they might not move fast enough. You can tell Frederick at your meeting." 
 
"What meeting?" Mary said, her voice flat.
 
"The one I'm in the process of arranging." Will smiled. Then he lost his smile. "It's not just the people outside the Combine. We can't wait. They're slaughtering their own people." 
 
"Saving the Combine," Hanse muttered. "That's not something I thought I would do." 
"You aren't." Will looked around. "Since nobody here is going to be offended, I'll say we're here to save the people. I wouldn't piss on the Combine to put it out." 
 
"If that's the plan, I have some operational planning to do," Mary said. 
 
When the room was dark she rounded on Will. "Peekaboo? You could have told me about that."
 
"I didn't think to bother you." 
 
"No wonder your staff looks like they're ten years older."
 
"Now you know how poor Myndo felt." Will paused. "And I have an ulterior motive."
 
"Which is?"
 
"We don't have to tell them how long or how many scan units we have. If the Clans think we know where all their hidden bases are… It might motivate them to be reasonable when this is all over." 
 
"Optimistic." 
 
"Maybe. But you lot proved all of Blake's fears about what man would do with technology wrong… So, who knows." 
 
"Right. I have to get to some planning. If we're launching a war, we need to keep them off balance, and I want something ready to go when I meet with the Clan forces."
 
"Very well."
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===Assembling the Troops===
"Are you ready to go Walkabout, Colonel Wolf?" Mary asked. They were in her office, some images of home, and a few of the photos she'd taken of other worlds on the walls. 
 
"What are our orders?", Wolf asks
 
"The Black Dragons see you in the same way a Taurian patriot sees Amos Forlough. You were the thing that started the creation of non-standard regiments, that publicly humiliated Takashi, leading to his unmanful embrace of non-Kuritan ideologies and the coddling of his son…etc, etc…" 
 
"And?"
 
"I'm sending you in on a raiding mission. Make noise. Make lots of noise. Mock them. I want them to start chasing you instead of thinking about genocide strikes on other worlds."
 
"We don't have our fleet—that was provided to Comstar."
 
"I have one for you." Mary called up an image. "Our first heavy ships are coming up, and that includes some Fast Carrier units."
New Syrtis Aerospace carriers?"
 
"Also New Avalon class fast cruisers. We've managed to get some fast escorts. Taurian ships. All of them equipped with the fast charge system that I was going to use to help smash the Clans." 
thumb|Avalon Class Cruiser
"You sound annoyed."
 
"I'd like it, if just once in my life, something went as planned." Mary shook her head. "Regardless. Go in, make noise. You'll get more detailed plans, and of course you'll have an HPG so we can update you, but for this I want them distracted. Actual damage is secondary. You'll also have some more support—two mech-infantry regiments. Try to keep them alive, Captain Katherine Steiner-Davion's parents will thank you."
 
"Why send her?"
 
"That regiment has the best readiness numbers and it's available. I asked Hanse and Melissa." She sighed. "I guess they want their daughter to speak to them again, so they both declined to pull strings to give me an excuse—Hanse specifically told me not to."
 
"Who is in command?"
 
"Ground operations? You." Mary told aging Colonel
 
"I'll be working with a combined Davion-Taurian naval force." Jaime Wolf shook his head. "You realize…"
 
"Oh, they're better. Not a single brawl during training. Well not one that resulted in court martials, at least. But given the headache you gave me, consider this payback." Mary informed him.
 
The older man shook his head and laughed. "Bargained well and done. My people will be ready."
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Book 3 - 28