OPREF-4 Chpt 10

=Book 4, Chapter 10 - Full House=
==Opalescent Reflections==
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===A new challenge for old Wolf===
Dali, Tamar
Clan Wolf Occupation Zone
9 March 3058
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"I'm pretty sure this is the place I'm least useful right now," Natasha told Ulric in lieu of any greeting as she entered his office. Judging by her rumpled jumpsuit and the duffel bag she tossed into a corner of the room, she had come straight from the dropship that had brought her back from Rasalhague. "Rasalhague is a lot closer to all those ComStar enclaves along the periphery border - places we could be picking off now that we don't have to play nice with the Robes any more."
 
"The situation is a little more complicated than that," Ulric told her, gesturing towards the couch. He went to the mini-fridge and pulled out two bottles of Timbiqui Dark.
 
"You're sharing the good stuff?" Natasha exclaimed, snatching both from his hands. "We must be in trouble - get one for yourself."
 
"Thank you," he said sarcastically. "I will." There had only been four bottles of Timiqui Dark left in the fridge. Ulric made a mental note to restock, and possibly to branch out into other beers. There had to be some limit to the ducal cellars and he wasn't getting any more Timbiqui Dark shipped in - the planet was well beyond the truceline.
 
By the time Ulric had opened his own bottle, Natasha was halfway through her first. "So what is so sensitive that I had to wait to come here for you to tell me?" she demanded.
 
"Less sensitive and waiting for more information to arrive," he told her. "Tamar is reasonably central so even with half the HPGs out of action news is getting through."
 
She waved the bottle she hadn't opened yet in a 'get on with it gesture', the other bottle currently occupying her mouth.
 
"Don't open that now," Ulric warned, looking at the closed bottle. He didn't need his office sprayed with beer. "The interdiction isn't our only problem right now. We've lost other HPGs at both ends of the occupation zone and that may get worse before it gets better."
 
"Who's attacking them?" Natasha asked, setting the empty bottle aside.
 
"At the rimwards edge, units operating under the banner of the Star League." The invasion had begun with the goal of restoring the Star League and apparently the Clans had succeeded… by uniting the Inner Sphere against them. "Mercenary units hired by the FedCom hit two sites, another was attacked by a Capellan Confederation Warrior House… one orbital platform was stormed by Taurian commandos of all people."
 
"Taurians are fighting for the Star League? That's bull."
 
Ulric stared at her. "I assume that that was a joke, because I'm serious."
 
"Taurians hate the Star League."
 
"I'm with you so far, but how do the Zeerga fit in with that?"
 
"The Taurians also have a bull on their banner." Natasha said slowly, as if to a child.
 
"Oh, yes I had forgotten." He shook his head. "It's not severed communication with the worlds facing the Inner Sphere yet, but it's causing more problems and I believe it's the prelude to an attempt to take worlds back from us. Clan Ghost Bear has reported attacks on their worlds and for all that the Smoke Jaguars are staying quiet about it, they have also been hit. We are probably next."
 
Natasha tapped her fingers against the second bottle of beer. "How about the other Clans?"
 
"The Watch isn't sure about the Sharks, but they have other problems - the Hell's Horses and the Ice Hellions are launching trials of possession for their coreward occupation zone."
 
"Whoever loses, we win?"
 
"On balance," the younger (but senior) Khan observed, "I would prefer the Sharks win since the other two would likely push for invading further. But I do not care enough to intercede, even if it were not for our own problems. As for the other flank, as far as I can tell the Jade Falcons have not been attacked and the Nova Cats are being very quiet about it if they are. The Steel Vipers are so far away that we can't tell."
 
"No rumors on Strana Mechty?" Natasha cracked the lid on the beer bottle, to Ulric's horror. However, she had timed it well and the froth barely began to spill out of the neck before she took a gulp from the bottle.
 
"If so, we have no way to find out," he admitted. "Our HPG links back to the homeworlds have been cut. The last reports from Sigma Galaxy," the garrison force for the former pirate realms just beyond the edge of the Inner Sphere, "were shortly before you set out from Rasalhague. Since then there has been no response from their HPGs."
 
She scowled. "It could be a deep strike by the Inner Sphere. There are ComStar enclaves they could stage from. But there's a more likely candidate."
 
"The Zeerga," Ulric agreed. "I am beginning to wish I sabotaged their dropships when we sent them back to the homeworlds. The Clan Council would have crucified me for it back then, but the Clan as a whole would be better off."
 
"Can't change the past," Natasha said pragmatically. "So assuming that it is them…?"
 
"It is. They attacked Star's End three days ago, and the Full Moon was unloading workers for the yards. Fortunately the Star Admiral knew his duty and jumped out without waiting to see how the fighting turned out, then sent an HPG to the nearest worlds."
"Not a good start," she said thoughtfully. "Sigma could have fought to the last or they could have flipped sides. Probably something in the middle, but that still means that the Zeerga could add a couple more Clusters of equipment to their roster. I assume they can find warriors for those cockpits - at least some of Sigma will flip sides and they seized cadets from other clans who would have passed their trials by now."
 
"Being taken as isorla is not precisely 'flipping sides'," Ulric reminded her.
 
"Either way, that's the real threat. Rasalhague is our best bet for a base in the area now," Natasha decided. "Phelan's got the place more or less under control and the Smoke Jaguars aren't likely to try and take it back with their frontline forces under attack. But Beta Galaxy won't be enough on its own to deal with the Zeerga."
Ulric nodded in agreement. "I am mobilizing Alpha and Epsilon Galaxies to rendezvous at Rasalhague," he confirmed and then raised his own half-empty bottle before she could speak up. "I will take command of the force personally. I need you to take charge of our remaining forces facing the Inner Sphere. We cannot command them from Tamar with the HPGs under attack."
 
"Beta Galaxy is my command!" she protested, rising to her feet.
 
"You are Khan first, Galaxy Commander second," Ulric told her, remaining seated rather than rise to the provocation. "Gamma and Delta Galaxies were the hardest hit by the Zeerga's formation, they are barely up to strength and they will have to be the backbone of defending the occupation zone."
 
Natasha shook her head. "I can kick the Zeerga's asses while you do that."
 
"Perhaps," he allowed. "But I think Radick and Ward would not stand and fight against you - if you are in the coreward worlds then they'll try to bypass you to get at Tamar… and at me."
 
That gave her pause. "Are you sure about that or is it guilt talking?"
 
"You know the two of them almost as well as I do, Natasha. Their anger drives them and I am the one who ordered their exile. If I go corewards to meet them then they will be eager for a confrontation, which means that for the most part they will be trying to engage me rather than driving deeper. That preserves our logistics and communications - which is all that we may have until we can contact the homeworlds again."
 
"And if I bring Delta and Gamma back to reinforce you? We can afford to lose worlds to the Inner Sphere."
 
"We could have," Ulric allowed. "But someone pushed for us to settle enclaves of our own people alongside Rasalhaguans. For all I know, our enclaves in the homeworlds are being overrun right now - all that remains of Clan Wolf may be here in the occupation zones. We cannot afford to lose those skilled workers. If there is an offensive, we may lose worlds but you must evacuate the civilians."
 
"I am not the best of strategists," Natasha warned him. "I can kick their asses on the battlefield, but the Inner Sphere has leaders who can think rings around me."
 
"I am painfully aware of that." There was a flash of annoyance in his saKhan's eyes when he did not dispute her self-depreciation. "Erik will be there, and I am sending Katya as well. I know that you can take advice. Most importantly, the Inner Sphere knows of your legend. If I command there, I am just another Khan of the Clans - perhaps a more successful one than most. But if the Black Widow is there? You have been their benchmark for generations. Even now, years after you rejoined us, every young cadet in their academies dreams of being the 'next Natasha Kerensky'."
 
"I'm not a sibkid, Ulric. You can't win me over with flattery."
 
The Khan sat back in his chair and looked at her. "You think you are no longer up to the challenge, quineg?"
 
For a moment he saw fury coil behind Natasha's eyes and then she laughed. "Damn you, Ulric. I know that you are playing me."
 
He said nothing.
 
"When I went to Rasalhague, I thought… I always planned to die fighting the Smoke Jaguars, with 'Rilla admittedly." Natasha shook her head. "We both know how that worked out."
 
"I miss her too."
 
"Alright, Khan Ulric Kerensky." Natasha Kerensky met his gaze. "I will take this mission. But I will fight it my way, with no attempts at managing me."
 
"Natasha, you took a handful of misfits and forged the Black Widow Company. Then you took the shattered survivors of the Fourth Succession War and built the Black Widow Battalion, the teeth of the Wolf's Dragoons." Ulric lifted his almost empty bottle and drained it. "Now you have five galaxies of our warriors, from the best to the worst. Impress me."
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===Naval Engagement in the Deep Dark===
Proximity Jump Point, Huntress
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Homeworlds
16 March 3058
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Tyra felt the disconcerting buzz of the jump fade and a moment later the heavy mechanical systems of the hangar door began to grind open. There were more sophisticated ways to handle what amounted to several hatches laid over each other but most of them risked failure under the electromagnetic effects of a Kearny-Fuchida drive. That wasn't acceptable when you were trying to make a combat jump, so the old ways were still used.
 
The outermost door was the simplest, a single heavy panel, and thus the slowest. Both the other redundant coverage that provided armor over the hangar's entrance were wide open before the outer door was fully recessed... and Tyra's Cor-Star was ready to go.
 
Scant heartbeats after the door locked open and the catapult hurled the fighter free of its home, driving Tyra herself deep into the acceleration couch of her cockpit. Shuttles might drift out of their hangars in a leisurely fashion, but aerospace fighters needed to out and free of the ship fast enough that they could use their fusion thrusters fast. Getting caught crawling away from a dropship - or in this case the mountainous white hull of CSS Boise - could be deadly, while firing up the thrusters inside of the hangar...
 
Well, if you didn't kill yourself then the owner of the ship would probably do it for you. Fuson thrusters were nothing to play around with.
 
This had been a good launch. Tyra saw the radar return of the Boise recede behind her but even after reaching a safe distance she still spun the Cor-Star on maneuvering thrusters before igniting the main engines. There were other fighters behind her, and even if they didn't run into her exhaust, putting it right in their eyes could lead to lethal mistakes.
 
IFF beacons began to spring to life as electronic interference cleared up, It would take a while before they were reliable though and Tyra focused on her sensors instead. Destroyer after destroyer was jumping in - the proximity point was large enough for the whole fleet but jumping all of them in at once would still be stupidly risky.
 
Another destroyer appeared in a blazing bubble of light, bringing the total up to five. One more and the entire warship squadron would be present. Boise and Anchorage were already transmitting, ordering their division mates and the squadrons of the Flying Drakons to spread out and cover the space around the proximity point.
 
Another destroyer erupted into the Huntress star system, which was everyone. Only one destroyer was out of position, which would probably get the commander a roasting by Beresick but didn't really matter. "Valkyrie squadron," Tyra ordered, "Form on me and…"
 
The brilliant light storm of another K-F drive arriving erupted and Tyra's mental headcount stuttered. There were only six destroyers in the fourth, but now there were seven! "Hostile warship!" she snarled. "I repeat, hostile warship."
 
The third division lead was bringing up her IFF, identifying herself as CSS San Francisco. Electronics still weren't enough so Tyra whipped her Cor-Star around, using maximum magnification on visual to verify the four destroyers yet to identify themselves.
 
Sighting, X-43, Y-170!" came a cry. "Essex-class destroyer!"
Tyra brought her fighter's nose to bear in the designated direction. Ahead of her, the destroyer's shape sprang into life - a gray whale of space. She could only see the edge of the Clan banner marked on the hull but she knew what it was. What other Clan would have a warship in the Huntress system? It had to be a Smoke Jaguar.
 
Then the ship rolled as it began to maneuver to fight - outnumbered six to one, the destroyer had no choice but surrender would probably not even cross its commander's mind. Then Tyra saw the patchwork repairs on the hull and her mind went back to the last time she'd seen a Smoke Jaguar warship from the outside.
 
"Valkyrie Lead to all Drakons!" Her voice was a shriek. "That's the Saber Cat!"
 
She throttled up without waiting for orders. Without issuing orders. Were any orders needed when the killer of Reykjavik was in front of them?
 
Aerospace slashed across space towards the enemy warship. She had likely been on standby and her hangar bays were opening but no fighters emerged. Likely the pilots were still scrambling into flight suits.
 
Beresick tried to command them, but no one in the six squadrons was listening. "Watch for fighters," Tyra warned over the voice of the ComStar officer. "If you're carrying a missile, you're on attack, if you're not then cover us."
 
Her Cor-Star was one of the fortunate ones that was loaded for Jaguar. Kungsarme doctrine had changed since the losses they'd taken in the early 3050s. The theory was that the fighters that had gone after the Saber Cat over Rasalhague had been too slow, that faster fighters could have got through with fewer losses and more missiles on target. The interceptors were too small to carry nuclear-tipped missiles. Heavy attack birds didn't have the thrust-to-weight demanded. But a fast mid-sized fighter like Tyra's Cor-Star was ideal.
 
The gun crews aboard the Sabre Cat were faster to react than their pilots. Massive guns opened up, raking space around the destroyer. Tyra wasn't sure if the salvos were aimed at the ComStar destroyers or the inbound fighters - all were in the same direction, although the friendly destroyers were spreading out so that they could try to open fire without shooting through the Flying Drakons.
 
"Duck and weave!" Tyra ordered her squadron. The shots from the destroyer's main guns were unlikely to score hits unless the fighters were careless - but right now, she was forced to admit that the Kungsarme pilots may not be thinking all that clearly. "Watch out for escort dropships!" The Saber Cat had lacked its own anti-fighter armament, relying on its fighters and a handful of Titan dropships. But she saw no such escorts now.
 
}>"None visible!"<{ called Kapten Pedersen, whose squadron of interceptors were in the lead.
There was an explosion as one of the Flying Drakons didn't dodge fast enough, intersecting with one of the naval lasers being fired at them. The beam was enough all on its own to destroy the Shilone. Tyra felt a shiver go through her - that fighter had been little different from the one she had flown before. But that was the only casualty and then they crossed the theoretical line that was the maximum effective range of their external payloads.
 
(<"All officers,">) shouted Overste-Lojtnant Genna Lindstrom. The Flying Drakons' commander's voice was shrill. (<"We may need a second strike!">)
 
Tyra's thumb hovered over the trigger for her one missile for a long moment… and then, with herculean effort, she forced it aside and fired her lasers instead. The two extended range weapons slashed at the heavy plating of the destroyer, without visible effect.
 
Nine missiles broke free of their parent aerospace fighters, accelerating towards the Saber Cat. "Break!" Tyra ordered her squadron and yanked on the control stuck, feeling momentum drag her towards the side of the cockpit as the Cor-Star angled away from the destroyer and then began to arc around, fighting against the force it had already built up, forces that would have sent the fighter streaking past Saber Cat and off into the depths of the star system.
 
Silent flashes of light marked the detonations of the warheads. Outmassed a hundred thousand times by their target, they nonetheless struck the ship like hammer blows.
 
What emerged from the hellstorm was barely recognisable as a warship. Grey paint had been stripped away, deep crevices driven into the hull where fires blazed, fed by what remained of its atmosphere, consuming flammable materials (which might include the crew). An expanding cloud of debris surrounded the ship - hull plating, structural beams, weapons and hundreds of thousands of unrecognizable small components and fragments torn free by the detonations.
 
For a moment Saber Cat seemed dead, and then - unbelievably! - one of the engine pods lit back up. One of the massive turrets spat fire and Tyra's radar spotted massive shells blasting past the Drakons towards one of the ComStar destroyers.
 
(("What does it take!")) a voice demanded in horror.
(<"We're going in again.">) Lindstrom was less shrill now. (<"Viking squadron, get in close and mark the intact sections. Squadrons form up and go in one at a time - we don't want to shoot our bolt this time.">)
 
Tyra looked at her squadron's positions. They were all coming around on her, and their relatively powerful fighters were cutting a tighter turn than most of the others. She looked back at the Saber Cat. The patchwork armor was visible again - the crew must have rolled the ship to shield the damaged section of hull from the nukes. "Overste, Valkyrie squadron has its target."
 
}>"We didn't mark anything yet!"<{ protested Pedersen.
 
"I see where we hit it over Rasalhague," she retorted. "They haven't finished their repairs."
 
To her credit, the Flying Drakons' commander didn't hesitate. (<"Valkyrie Squadron is go. Everyone else, let them take their run. If they miss, you'll have your shots.">)
 
"Valkyrie Three and Five, you have your nukes?" she asked the two flight leads as the six Cor-Stars came out of their turn and dived towards that battered shape of the Saber Cat.
 
<<"Negative.">> Cowley admitted, sounding embarrassed.
 
<-"Got mine."-> reported Steffers.
 
So two missiles left rather than three. Tyra could have sworn at Cowley for breaking orders and firing, but there were only fourteen nukes issued for the mission so she'd already known two officers had disobeyed the order. She might have been the only Valkyrie to have one. "Your lance is point, Valkyrie Five," she said instead. "The debris out there is a problem, someone has to clear the way - open up on anything between us and that repair work."
 
"I see it, lead." Without the additional mass of their missiles, Cowley and his wingman opened up their throttles and moved ahead. Their lasers flashed out, Tyra's combat computers marking lines to indicate the beams' paths even though in reality they would be invisible until they intersected with something. Flashes of light over the target area made it clear that that was happening.
 
The Saber Cat started to roll slowly, moving the patch out of view - but it was slow going, probably due to damaged thrusters.
 
(A part of Tyra's mind suggested that the ship was so little threat now that it could be left to the ComGuards to finish off. That thought was shoved aside almost immediately.)
 
<-"Losing sight of the target."-> Steffers warned.
 
"We're going to overshoot and fire on our exit vector," Tyra ordered. "Do a one-eighty on my mark."
 
The blackened wreck grew larger and larger, Valkyrie Five and Six flying past it already. Tyra waited until the balance of Valkyrie squadron were almost on top of it before she gave the order. "Three two one mark!"
 
Cutting her main fusion thruster, she dropped her acceleration to nothing and maneuvering thrusters fired, spinning the Cor-Star on its center of mass. Further from the destroyer, it might have used the moment in which the fighters could not evade to fire accurately with one of its remaining weapons. Ironically, the closer she was, the safer Tyra was for this.
 
A second later and the four Valkyrie squadron fighters were past the Sabre Cat, flying backwards. Tyra could see the mass of plating covering damaged structural beams and local penetrations from the nuke that had hit the ship all those years away. She centered her crosshairs on it and brought her thumb down on the trigger.
 
"Break, break," she ordered and the squadron scattered, turning and firing up their thrusters to get clear.
 
Even as Tyra did so, she kept one eye on the camera that looked aft. She saw both missiles strike the partially repaired hull and for a moment nothing seemed to happen.
 
Then Saber Cat tore in two as for a brief moment two suns erupted inside the center of the hull.
 
(<"Good kill! Good kill!">) the Overste-Lojtnant cried out.
 
//"Good kill indeed,"\\ Alain Beresick cut into the channel. //"Now, if the Drakons would please return to providing my ships with cover, I believe it's time to call in the transports."\\ He sounded only mildly reproving, although Tyra suspected that Lindstrom would be getting her ass chewed by the command team of the task force as soon as they were back together.
 
Somehow, she had trouble caring.
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===Dire News===
Mako Mountain Range, Vinton
Kerensky Cluster, Clan Homeworlds
19 March 3058
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Sarah Weaver's Iron Cheetah shrugged off hits from the Thresher's full firepower. The Diamond Shark 'mech was towards the bottom end of the heavy weight scale while her new 'mech was at the apex of assault omnimechs, making it a mismatch - but the Thresher had chosen to engage her so that was not her fault.
 
Dropping her crosshairs over the Thresher's chest she dropped a PPC out of the firing circuit to control her heat and let the smaller 'mech have it with everything else.
The heavy 'mech was battered backwards by the impact of her Gauss Rifle and the other PPC. Then her pulse lasers cut away even more of the armor and the LRMs spread explosions across the entire front of the Thresher.
 
To his credit, the Diamond Shark managed to stay upright, twisting his 'mech to cover the armor breaches with his left shoulder, but that made it hard for him to fire back at Sarah.
A pair of medium lasers scraped away some more of her own armor before Sarah sidestepped the Iron Cheetah, moving faster than the other mechwarrior expected, and introduced the gaping holes to her PPCs and missiles. A surge of heat went through her cockpit but to her frustration, the Thresher toppled backwards as particle bolts pulverized its interiors and almost her entire flight of LRMs slammed into the cockpit face.
 
The warrior had possessed daring, she would have taken him as a bondsman. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option.
 
Looking around, the force that had contested her advance was gone. There were only so many routes through the Mako Mountains, which was why they had become the border between her Clan's enclaves and those captured by the Diamond Sharks: the passes had broken the momentum of Ian Hawker's advance.
 
"Push through to the end of the pass," she ordered the Cluster she was fighting with. "Then the rest of the galaxy will move through for their own chance at glory."
 
The 'mech's comm unit pinged to indicate someone was trying to reach Sarah. She scowled and stepped the Iron Cheetah off the road, allowing the cluster to move past her. The Star Colonel should be able to manage the rest of this - if not, it was better to find out now.
 
"What is it?" she demanded, accepting the call.
 
"My apologies, my Khan." Star Commodore Erica Canto seemed to be sweating nervously. There was a reason she was assigned to the Osis' Pride rather than a more offensive warship - she was too cautious by nature. "The news is important - and dire."
 
"Spit it out then!"
 
Canto lowered her head submissively. "Huntress has been invaded."
 
A chill went through Sarah. She had brought the bulk of the true warriors with her for the attack on Vinton, leaving solahma and training units behind. "Who dares?" Most of the Clans were too focused on the Inner Sphere for them to have forces available for such a strike. "The Coyotes? The Blood Spirits."
 
"It is spheroids, my khan."
 
"Impossible! They have no idea where the homeworlds even are!"
 
"The facts would seem otherwise." Then Canto raised her head and met Sarah's gaze. "The report says there was no batchall, only a claim that they acted on behalf of the Star League."
 
The sheer audacity took Sarah's breath away. The Clans were the Star League! All that was true and worthy that remained. The Inner Sphere was the pit of corruption left by it's fall, a place that had to be cleansed by fire and steel in order to rebuild. And they claimed… They DARED to defile the honor of the Star League?!
 
Hands trembling with rage, she turned to the Star Commodore's screen. "Tell me everything." Perhaps this was a deceit of some kind - dark caste, perhaps? That would be shameful but better by far than the Spheroids bringing their vileness to the sacred refuge of the homeworlds.
 
"They used the proximity form between Huntress and its star," Canto reported. "The picket there was destroyed - the glare of the star made that less than obvious. It was several hours before the lack of contact was noted."
 
Sarah hissed at the laxness. "They did not think to report?"
 
"It was the Saber Cat," Canto reminded her. "No one cares what that ship does, and their crew was badly understrength."
 
That ship, again? Still, this would presumably be the last she heard of it. "And then."
 
"The Space Defense System engaged." The Star Commodore shrugged. "Safcon was not requested, and it would be unthinkable to extend it in any case."
 
"Agreed, but your initial words say that it was not enough."
 
Canto's face was grim. "Our warships are in the Inner Sphere or patrolling our supply lines. With the loss of the Saber Cat, Osis' Pride is the last we have in the homeworlds. The fixed defenses are intended to buy time for a response, not to fight unassisted against a naval star. Six warships were enough to clear the orbital platforms and engage the surface batteries with their weapons. The report says some damage was done in response but not enough to keep them from clearing the bases covering half of Jaguar Prime."
 
"Orbital fire…" They had used that on Huntress. Sarah could not help but remember the scar left on Reykjavik. Yes, the Inner Sphere would not hesitate to do to the Jaguars what had been done to them. "How bad is it?"
 
"It seems they targeted bases that were away from the cities," the younger woman said with some relief. "Losses are mostly material, but it freed them to land between Myer and Pahn."
 
Large, industrial cities… and in striking range of Lootera and the primary genetic repository under Mount Szabo. Blood drained from Sarah's face. "And their strength?"
 
"Besides five or six warships?" Canto shrugged helplessly. "The loss of satellites limits the information. But the Inner Sphere's warships strength is limited, if they have sent so many then this must be a major operation so…"
 
"I understand." A full invasion force, aimed at crippling Clan Smoke Jaguar.
 
Sarah looked down the pass. Towards the almost defenseless enclaves that had been within her grasp just a few minutes ago. She could still take them… but if Huntress was lost then full control of Vinton would… well, it would be better than nothing but small consolation. The capital held fully half of the Clan's industry and workers, Vinton was more than an outpost, but there was no way that reclaiming the lost half of the world would make up for losing Huntress.
 
"Prepare your ship for return to Huntress," the khan ordered tonelessly. "Omega Galaxy will be needed there."
"We are several jumps away from Huntress."
 
"I am fully aware of that, Star Commodore! You understand your orders, quiaff?"
 
"Aff," a chastened Canto responded, then cut the channel.
 
Sarah considered how to break the news to her warriors. Their spirits were high, but they had not been tempered yet. Sudden bad news could devastate their morale…
 
Finally, she reached for the comm unit. Better to contact the drop-port behind them, start arrangements for their departure. Sarah could see her reflection in the glass of her cockpit and if she announced anything now, it would not go well. She needed to get back on balance first.
 
"Put me through to -" But there was nothing but static.
 
The Khan frowned, checked the frequency. This was the correct one, and if her equipment was at fault, how could she have spoken to Canto? She changed to an alternative wavelength. "This is Khan Sarah Weaver -" No reply, just more static.
 
If this was the Inner Sphere, she would suspect jamming… but would anyone in the Clans use such a tactic? Perhaps. But then again, the drop port was Smoke Jaguar territory. Who would be between them to use jammers. No, this must be some freak weather condition.
 
With a stab of her finger she opened the channel to Osis' Pryde. It only took a moment to issue a new command via the comms officer: Canto was to also alert the drop port of Sarah's imminent return and of the need to ready dropships to carry Omega Galaxy up to orbit.
 
After a moment to calm herself further, Sarah opened a channel to the last of Omega Galaxy's clusters. "Star Colonel Weaver!"
 
"My Khan," the young warrior yelped. "We are making best speed through the pass."
 
Which probably meant that his force had been delayed. "Never mind that. We are moving our logistical train back to the dropships rather than bringing them through the mountains. Escort them back to the drop port." In the narrow pass, she would need halt and then reverse course unit by unit or they would jam up.
 
"We can make better speed, we will not slow you down!" the Star Colonel offered hastily.
 
"This has nothing to do with that," Sarah hissed. "Do as I say! Or must I come back and replace you?" The warrior might be of her bloodhouse, but it was clear he had far to go before he was a credit to it.
 
"Neg, I will obey!"
 
Sarah cut the channel and estimated that it would take at least five minutes for word to spread through the cluster of the new orders. And then the many trucks carrying support for the galaxy would have to reverse as well, she could not expect the laborers driving them to respond sharply…
 
She regretted now not using the dropships from the start, but if problems had arisen in the mountains there were few landing sites for them and those would be predictable. The Diamond Sharks would love to take advantage of her exposing dropships to attack like that.
 
Another ping from her console - it was Canto again. "This had better be good news," Sarah snapped. "Quiaff?"
 
"Neg," Canto was slumping slightly in her seat. "Diamond Shark dropships are executing a sub-orbital hop behind you. Predicted pathing takes them to landing sites around the main drop port."
 
"How long do we have! Why did you not see them before!"
 
"They crossed the horizon as we spoke earlier, my khan. They will land within minutes." A pause. "And they number more than your own transports."
 
That many? Where had they come from? Who was aboard them?
 
Canto looked aside and then shook her head. "We are receiving a batchall!"
 
"Relay it!"
 
The image of Canto was wiped away and a new face replaced it - one that Weaver knew all too well from Grand Council meetings. Bikendi Vewas was one of the few Khans among the invading Clans who, like her, remained in the homeworlds.
 
//"Rejoice, warriors of Clan Smoke Jaguar!"\\ the Diamond Shark saKhan called out. //"You have come here fearing that you would face only a garrison that could offer you little glory, yet we offer you the opportunity to carve your deeds into the Remembrance. Since you have brought your newest galaxy to lay claim to one half of Vinton, it is only fair for us to bring our best to lay claim to the other! Beta Galaxy offers challenge for possession of all these enclaves! Let the greater predator devour the weaker!"\\
 
"Stravag!" Sarah screamed. "Beta Galaxy is in the Inner Sphere! We have reports of them! The lying rat is offering a false batchall!"
 
Canto reappeared on the screen. "Our sensors have identified the dropships as those assigned to the Diamond Shark's Beta Galaxy," she warned. "Is it possible the reports are wrong?"
 
The Khan was breathing heavily.
 
She had no choice but to withdraw. Huntress needed her forces. But that would not just end her campaign, it left her unable to defend the rest of Vinton.
 
For a moment she considered ordering Canto to swat the dropships from the sky with the guns of the Osis' Pride - but that would force the troop cruiser into a low orbit where she would be vulnerable to attack by the Diamond Sharks' aerospace fighters - by standard Diamond Shark doctrine, Beta Galaxy would have a hundred and twenty omnifighters to add to those of the garrison. And losing Osis' Pride would mean there was nothing available to ferry her forces home, or to face the Spheroid warships in battle.
 
"Get our dropships out of there," Sarah said dully. Then she slammed her fist onto the comm console as she realized she'd just ordered her logistics trucks to turn and drive in the direction of the Diamond Sharks. "Direct them to the far side of the pass, we will need to load there."
 
This defeat, this humiliation…
 
With a roar, Sarah jerked her crosshairs up into the sky and unleashed every iota of the Iron Cheetah's firepower out of pure rage. Sound and fury… without effect.
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