Текст книги "Wolf Pack"

40

We came down the ramps hot and ready, hitting the ground while the dust from the Chieftain'slanding was still rising. There were only four of us—there had been no time to fill the DropShip with its full complement without raising an alarm, so all we had were the 'Mechs still aboard from the trip to the Draconis Combine. I was in the lead machine and Grant Linkowski piloted the Colonel's Archer.Hans Vordel's Victorand Franchette's Gallowglaswere only seconds behind us. Only the four of us to meet a full regiment of the Home Guard's armor and infantry.

When we weren't immediately fired upon, I allowed myself some hope that our landing clearance had not been a subterfuge, a ploy to bring the Wolf into a trap. In the distance I could see the ranked armor through the dissipating dust. I popped my magnification up a couple of grades, and breathed a sigh of relief. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Garcia, Carmody's second, was standing in the open on the deck of his Rommel tank. Colonel Edna Grazier, armored ops chief, stood beside him. If it had been a trap, they would have been buttoned up in their vehicles.

As I throttled my Lokidown, I noticed how hard my cooling suit was working and I realized how frightened I had been.

I opened communications with a laser link, making arrangements for setting up the Colonel's headquarters. In less than an hour, the command staffs were gathered in Garcia's mobile command trailer, listening to his explanation. Working as closely as he had with his boss, Garcia had suspected that there might be trouble. He'd put his forces on alert as soon as he lost communications with Carmody back in the World. He hadn't known what to expect and our arrival had been a surprise. He had decided to play it cautious: hence the assembled forces. Once he heard our account of the escape and Carmody's death, he knew where he stood.

"Colonel Wolf, we may be a bunch of downtesters, pensioners, newbies, and sibkids, but we're gonna stand by you. There's no honor in murder. I have to admit that I didn't understand about the Trial when I heard, but I thought that you must have had something in mind. Looks like I was right. You were just doing it to smoke out the rats so everyone could see them run, weren't you?"

"You're overestimating my abilities, Joe."

"If so, I'll be the first, Colonel."

"I'll do what I can to justify your faith."

"I'm not worried, Colonel."

"Maybe you should be, Joe. Lord knows we've got a lot to worry about."

"I've got confidence in you, Colonel."

"Thanks, Joe. I appreciate that. I haven't done a lot to deserve it lately." There was an awkward silence in the trailer for a moment, then the Colonel said, "But the past is dead, and we'll be just as dead unless we get rolling. So if we can get into the ops center, we can start getting serious about showing the upstarts who really owns the Dragoons."

The Colonel and the Home Guard officers took the train from the port to the training center complex. We took the 'Mechs cross-country, which was faster than following the rail line or the highway, both of which were confined to the long shallow grade around the northern hills. We couldn't have kept up with the train anyway. During the trip I was able to establish linkage to the ops center through my Lokiand got a jump on my staff work. I was able to dump a map-update into the computer so that it was waiting for the Wolf when he arrived.

The command center at the Tetsuhara Training Facility didn't have all the sophistication of the main center at Wolf Hall, but it was superior to the Chieftain'sfacilities. The advantage of space without concern for mass allowed better support for my Lokiand provided more than adequate triple C for the forces at hand. The ground-based sensor array gave good coverage, but it was supposed to be part of a planetwide system. With the connective links cut, it wasn't operating at full efficiency, leaving holes in our coverage that bothered me. And with the satellite links down, we were also limited in the range over which we could control forces. With some work we could set up relay stations that would minimize the communications dead zones. Relay stations had some advantages; the commlasers and optical cable systems were far less vulnerable to intercept. As I finished my tour of the ops center, Grazier was reacting to the update map.

"This is all?" She looked horrified. "What happened to Yukinov?"

"Probably still on Ingersoll with the rest of Alpha Regiment," the Wolf told her.

We had learned that Kelly Yukinov was never actually on his way to Outreach, despite the intel report indicating that he would attend the fateful council meeting that had resulted in the Trial of Position. There was no doubt that Yukinov was loyal to Colonel Wolf and a report of his imminent arrival was surely meant to assure the Colonel that his partisans would have a majority in the council meeting. Those reports had been false, engineered by Captain Svados in support of Elson and Alpin's coup. I still didn't know if the Wolf had been taken in by the subterfuge or if he had some other reason for letting the council meeting take place. Could Garcia be right when he suggested that the Wolf had planned it all along? Jaime Wolf hadn't exactly denied the possibility, but he hadn't confirmed it either. Whatever Colonel Wolf's plans had been, the meeting had taken place, he had been deposed, and we were all here in the Outback because of it.

"Alpha may be behind us," the Wolf said, "But they're not here. Since we're cut off from hyperpulse generators, we can't contact them. Even if we could, the situation on Crimond makes it unlikely that they could pull out in time to affect what will be happening here."

"Could the sitreps from Crimond have been falsified, too?" Garcia asked.

"Yes," I told him. "But it's unlikely. FedCom news media report Clan presence and that means combat."

"So we can't count on Alpha," Grazier said glumly.

"But neither will they be arrayed against us. Like Alpha, the Dragoon forces offplanet are engaged. They will be unable to affect anything in the immediate future. On either side. We can only count on what we've got here in the Outback to deal with Alpin's forces onplanet."

"And in orbit," Garcia grumbled.

"That doesn't look to be an issue," the Colonel said.

"What?"

"While we were on our way here, Ham Atwyl and his wingman peeled off for high orbit. They rendezvoused with the cache fleet. Ham's plan was to explain the situation. He seemed to think he could bring them around to our side or at least keep them out of any combat, and he seems to have had some success. Half an hour ago, Fleet Captain Chandra made a broadcast. She's declared the fleet neutral in any conflict. Gobi Station and all orbital and deep-space assets in system are included in this neutrality."

"Including satellites?" Grazier asked.

"Yes. All orbital scans are being withheld. Chandra says they will eliminate or disable any satellites used for unauthorized transmissions. The wording of Chandra's statement seems to omit any aerospace assets currently grounded. However, she is urging any disputants, her word, to minimize damage to Dragoon aerospace assets by minimizing use."

"What's Ham doing now?" Cythene Martel asked. As captain of the Chieftain,she was a part of Atwyl's command.

"Nothing. They've cited him as a participant and interned him for the duration of the dispute. Chandra has taken over the Aerospace Command till then." The Wolf shrugged. "Looks like the Fleet Captain is playing for a bigger role for aerospace in Dragoon hierarchy, whichever side comes out on top."

"So they're trying to force a strictly planetary struggle," Garcia said.

"You weren't listening," Martel said. "Nothing was said about anything sitting on the ground or anything that might come in. Specifically, there was no mention of action at atmospheric interface, am I right, Colonel Wolf?"

"You are. We can still expect DropShips and aerospace fighters operating on transorbital trajectories."

"But no bombardments from the warships?" Garcia asked.

"It is possible that if the Fleet Captain sees an advantage tilting to one side, she might drop her neutrality in favor of ending up on the winning side," Wolf said. "But that is a problem for the future. We have more pressing ones at present. There are most of three regiments on Outreach. All units of Beta and Gamma are present, and from the performance of their commanders, I think we can be sure that Beta and Gamma regiments will be solidly behind Alpin."

"What about Epsilon?" Grazier asked. Her hangdog look showed she expected an unpleasant answer.

"Only about half onplanet," I replied, "but Colonel Nichole's absence from the Trial meeting implies that she and her command favor Wolf."

"That's officers, Cameron," Grazier said. "What about the troops?"

"Dragoons are trained as a group and brigaded according to compatibility. It gives the regiments their character. Leaders promoted from within naturally have the group's personality. An officer posted to a regiment from another will strive to reflect his new regiment's character, that is, if he wants to keep the loyalty and respect of his troops. As a result, the troops tend to follow the leader's opinions as well as their orders." I thought I sounded like an academy lecturer, and Grazier's sour look confirmed it.

"I think we know where Epsilon's infantry stands, since they're Elson's boys and girls. You think the rest of Epsilon'll fight for you, Colonel?" she asked.

"If they can." No one thought it necessary to point out that Epsilon, like Beta and Gamma, was still in the World. It would be difficult for a single loyal regiment to take on two.

"If Elson doesn't have Nichole eliminated the way he tried to do with the Colonel," Garcia said.

"I don't think that's likely," said the Colonel. "Assassination is a tool of the dark, and this is in the light now. He wouldn't be able to disavow the action very easily, and he can't afford the dishonor."

"Then we need to establish contact with Nichole," Grazier said.

"As soon as we can," the Wolf agreed. "There are no other BattleMech units onplanet except for a few training units among the Home Guard. As Brian said, the combat units are pretty homogeneous, but the Home Guard is more of a mixture. Joe, what's your best evaluation of the Guard's leanings?"

Garcia looked a little uncomfortable when everyone focused on him. He ran his hand through his hair and ended the pass massaging his neck. "Mixture's a good way of putting it. I'd say the Guard is split. We're not getting a lot of info out of the World, but it looks like most of the units that didn't get sent out here are holding for Alpin as the legitimate head of the Dragoons. If Alpin and his cronies shipped the rest of the Guard out here to get your partisans out of the way, they've shown themselves to be fallible. We had a number of desertions when I broadcast your arrival. Tenth and Twelfth brigades, Viking Company, and three or four of the sibkos have pulled out of bivouac and are headed toward the Fortress complex. They're not talking, but we can assume they hold for the other side. That's a quarter of the Guard BattleMechs going out there."

"The Fortress complex," I said, letting a question into my tone. I'd seen the designation on the map, but I'd never been there."

"A war-game area," Grazier said. "It's for assault scenarios. If they get in there, it'll cost the devil to winkle them out."

"Have we still got command linkage to the Fortress, Brian?" Colonel Wolf asked.

I checked. "The computer is still accepting our pass-codes."

"Good. Order the computer locked down, priority alpha-omega-omega-three. That'll keep them from the arsenal and shut down the simulated defenses. If they want to hold it, they'll have to do it themselves."

"Still a tough nut," Grazier observed.

"With any luck, they'll just sit tight. If Elson didn't trust them enough to keep them in Harlech, he may not trust them to fight for him."

"He may not need them," Garcia said. "Colonel, is there going to be any help from outside?"

At the Wolf's nod, I answered. "At last report, Delta Regiment and Zeta Battalion were heavily engaged. They'd have to pull out, breaking contract, to get involved. Colonel Paxon has always been a strong supporter of the Colonel, as has Jamison. However, Paxon's record suggests that he won't voluntarily break contract, so we can forget about Delta. Jamison's anybody's guess. He'd be living up to Zeta tradition if he headed home."

"That would be a blessing; we could use Zeta's firepower. A battalion of assault 'Mechs is something the bad guys couldn't ignore. And if Zeta pulled out of the contract, Paxon'd be hanging with too few forces to complete the ticket. Maybe he'd break contract then," Grazier said. "On the other hand, FedCom might just let them all go if you asked, Jaime. We'd owe them, but with Delta and Zeta, we'd have enough to force the rebels down."

The Wolf shook his head. "We can't afford to owe the Federated Commonwealth at this point. They're already implying we owe them a lot. If we accepted help from them, we'd end up like the Horsemen."

Mention of the Eridani Light Horse touched all the oldsters present. The Horsemen were fine soldiers and believers in the ancient Star League virtues, who had slowly been absorbed into House Davion's military. Officially, they were still mercs, but their contract was so long-term that it left them little leeway to move around or pick assignments. Colonel Wolf had fought hard to keep the Dragoons independent, to keep them from that kind of domination. It seemed he'd rather face dissolution than have the Dragoons become a House-controlled mercenary unit like the Eridani Light Horse.

"All right," Grazier said. "So we can't count on them. What about Spider's Web Battalion? They were Mac's guys. Won't they side with us?"

"There's been no reliable contact with them for days," I said. "Every report for the last week or so has come through Captain Svados. MacKenzie's second was John Clavell; he's a strong antiClanner, but he was injured last month. Gremmer was next in line; he's a Nova Cat adoptee. The battalion's loyalty and cohesiveness are unclear. Remember, Alpin is Mac's son; loyalty to the family could go either way. The only thing we know for sure is that we don't know where they are."

"Maybe Elson had them taken out," Grazier suggested.

"Stanford Blake would know," Martel said.

I gave her a hard look. I knew that I wasn't Stan, but I wasn't an intelligence officer either. "Stan gave us everything he could before we left Harlech. Svados has been hamstringing his operation for months. If he were here, he'd tell you the same thing."

'And where is he?"

"I wish we knew," the Colonel said. "He insisted on staying in the capital. He said he could be more valuable there."

"A spy in the enemy camp? Not when he's so well known as your man, Jaime. He won't get anything but shot." Grazier sighed. "Too bad. I liked him."

The Wolf glowered at Grazier, who appeared not to notice. Garcia did, and tried to shift the mood into something more positive.

"What about the Kuritans, Colonel? They came to join up with you, specifically, didn't they?"

"Some of them did. But as a fighting force, they're a wild card. Since they haven't been formally inducted, it's likely they'll sit it out. It would be the wiser course for them."

A priority call cut in to the flow of traffic on the commo net. I passed it on at once.

"Colonel, command center reports a DropShip overflight of Orange Sector."

The Wolf's hand snapped down to the map-table console and the picture dissolved, to be replaced by a command-sector representation of the continent. Orange Sector, one of the four color-coded divisions of the Outback, was a wide wedge stretching away from the Tetsuhara Proving Grounds to the east. The terrain was rough, mostly badlands. Farther away the land started sloping down toward the sea in a rocky desert that was bounded by a range of mountains that met the sea in a crazy maze of islands. Orange Sector was an unlikely avenue for a major assault by the usurpers; supply lines to the World would be more complicated than those running through any of the other three sectors.

"Vector," the Colonel demanded.

"Came in from the north, then cut west," I said, simultaneously routing the datafeed to the map-table. "Now moving on over the mountains and out of range."

Martel offered a suggestion. "Recon flight?"

"Negative," I said with the authority of a new report. "Multiple contacts on downward vectors. They've laid eggs. We've got BattleMechs coming in, estimated two to three companies."

"Scramble the 'Mechs," the Wolf ordered. "Half the armor to form a second line, Joe. The rest, and the infantry, stay in position. If we can, we've got to meet them before they organize."