Chapter 23
-VB-
What did it mean for someone to be strong?
In Armstrong's humble opinion, the question itself provided a false perspective. Instead of asking for the degree of strength, it should have begun with the types of strength before asking if someone with a specific type of strength or strengths possessed what degree of them.
Armstrong liked to think that he had a few types of strength.
He knew that he was a goddamn good mechwarrior. As he aged, he only got more experience and tricks, not less. So what if his back was starting to hurt? He was still young, relatively speaking.
He knew that he was a decent administrator. There were dedicated logisticians among Eridani Light Horse's roster, but he did his part as well and managed to do just fine.
He knew that he was a good leader of soldiers, men and women alike.
But today, he felt like he lost one of those strengths. After the grievous loss he had led his people through, he couldn't in his right mind call himself a strong leader anymore. He was a foolish man who trusted someone who's track record in the war so far had been mixed, whose intelligence agency had been thoroughly curb stomped by their rival, and blindly attacked the capital world of an interstellar nation with only five regiments.
No.
If he had to do so again, then he wouldn't accept the task unless he had five divisions with him, and even then, he would still be hard pressed to take the task.
After all, he hadn't encountered a single bomb-strapped suicidal militia on Sian like the reports from other Capellan worlds on the frontline. With more people and material available to them, Sian would have become hell on earth even if he had five divisions of mechs, armored vehicles, artillery, ASF, and infantry. He would need something close to fifteen divisions, three warships, and an entire fleet to resupply everything everywhere everywhen.
Just to hold Sian.
No.
He was a fool. Worse, he had been fooled. So perhaps he will act foolish one last time not for his sake but for his people. It wasn't like he would remain the Brevet General of the Eridani Light Horse for too long, and like many lame duck leaders across the Inner Sphere, he would have his one final act.
He waited inside the flag jumpship's command center with a screen on one side of the room for long distance virtual presentation and attendance.
It's been two months since he had surrendered on Sian, and the remnants of his people were moving through the Federated Suns. New Avalon was a pit stop for them before they went back home, so that Nathan could talk to the First Prince.
And there was a very good reason why he insisted on a live meeting. His dropship was already slowing down before they reached the halfway point between New Avalon and its sun; they were only here to talk in real time, not land on New Avalon. The same could not be said about the Lyrans under General Steiner. They were all in prison and everything surrendered to the Capellans.
At the very least, the Capellans agreed to provide any and all medical help for the injured, housing and food while they were imprisoned, and no harassment for the imprisoned.
It was frankly the best deal the Lyrans could have accepted since the only other offer on the table had been "die under our artillery."
And then the live call was accepted.
"First Prince Hanse Davion."
The aforementioned man paused in whatever he had been about to say, stymied right off the bat as soon as the communication opened up.
"I am disappointed in you."
The First Prince didn't react to that but Nathan could see the man's eyes growing hard.
"I understand that you are not in a good position. Critical worlds have not been taken and the war itself has ground to a stalemate. I understand that you needed a solution to get the war moving again. I understand that you are working with what you have and that the burden of leadership is crushing down upon you with all of the expectations that come with it."
This was the only mercy he would give the First Prince.
"But failure after failure, your military intelligence has been found wanting. You did not reveal this to me. You gave me intel from the same agency that failed to accurately estimate the defenses of Tikonov and Styk. Yet still, I took it and rolled with it along with the support provided to me by the Archon. But having seen the DMI's incompetence, I went out of my way to double their estimates of what they saw as Sian's defenses and thought this raid doable because three mech regiment equivalent against my five would have been in our favor.
"But still my forces were overwhelmed. We didn't even make it to the capital city. The moment we were entering atmosphere, we were assaulted by half a thousand atmospheric fighters and tenth as many aerospace fighters. On the ground we were pounded by regiments of artillery and heavy aerial bombers too high up in the sky for Rifleman, other mechs, and our dropships to reach and untouchable because nearly all of my aerospace fighters died just to keep our dropships intact. My people has had over half of a kiloton of munition dropped on them. Their heavy mech regiment, the one that your intelligence noted down as being medium weight, possessed gauss rifles that utterly shredded us at long range. If it wasn't for my heavy assault battalion soaking up most of the fire, the rest of my units would have died, unable to even return fire.
"Your intelligence failed to find out about the experimental mech regiment and their capabilities. They ambushed the Lyrans with less than a few hundred meters between them because they could not be found with sensors. Cataphract wasn't their only new mech on top of that.
"Because of their failures, I lost half of my dropships, a quarter of my mechs, and more than a hundred mechwarriors.
"This goes against the basic contract between employers and their mercenaries. No, between leaders and the people they are responsible to. Hanse, after multiple failures from your agency, you still passed off their incompetent work to me and my people and that led to our deaths.
"What do you have to say in your defense?"
---
When the call began, Hanse was prepared to reassure the brevet general as much as possible. Hell, he was prepared to go so far as to offer replacement and priority purchasing rights for everything he lost.
But as the general laid into him with the calm serenity of a man who'd gone beyond his rage, gone beyond the point of no return, Hanse felt the world constricting around him, if only briefly.
Depending on what he said right now, he realized, he could lose the Eridani Light Horse.
Eridani Light Horse who were not just a powerful mercenary company but seen in the eyes of so many among his people as the validation that the last true remnants of the Star League supported them.
This was no longer about assuaging a pissed off general and his mercenary company.
This was about to become a political bomb that would ruin his name and that of his family for decades to come.
One wrong move would mean his children will have to suffer for his mistakes.
Thank God that this was a private call, because if it hadn't been, then he wouldn't even be able to salvage this.
"I'm sorry."
Armstrong didn't say anything. He waited for Hanse to speak more.
"The war has been going horribly. I needed a win, and when I compared the reported defenses on Sian with New Avalon's own defenses, I saw that five mech regiments would have been enough. I allowed myself to … only see what I wanted to see, not what I needed to see."
"... You're telling me that if I and the Lyrans wanted to turn traitors, then we could have killed you on New Avalon with just our five regiments?"
Hanse grimaced. "Yes. There's only one mech regiment on New Avalon right now along with two mixed infantry, armored, and air force regiment."
Armstrong took a deep breath in and let it out. "The war's fucked for you, isn't it? You're going to claim victory but it isn't anything but, isn't it?"
Hnase almost gritted his teeth but stopped himself. His shoulders relaxed… no, it loosened as the reality of his situation set in.
"... No. The Capellans won, even if they'll lose more worlds than we did."
Armstrong didn't saything for a while.
"I expect compensation for this clusterfuck. I lost half of my dropships, Hanse. That was the cost for us to leave unmolested after striking at the heart of their confederation. If Mad Max had still been in charge, then both Lyrans and I would be in a torture chamber somewhere, if not dead in a ditch." A pause. "You really should have tried to look for a compromise with Chancellor William. You wouldn't be in this situation at least and we could be fighting the Draconis Combine instead."
Hanse felt the grimace even before he registered it. "Maybe. No one had a measure on him before this war."
Armstrong snorted. "Hanse, the Eridani Light Horse will not participate any more during this war. I expect those replacements."
A statement, not a question or suggestion.
"Okay."
There was nothing more to be said. Hanse was just happy he managed to, somehow, keep them from leaving him altogether after a debacle like Sian.
And then the news about Kathil Shipyards being hit by Maskirovka and having dropships and jumpships stolen right underneath his nose drove him to trash his office.
-VB-
Katrina raged silently within her mind as she listened to the news.
A complete annihilation? Her own family member captured and imprisoned while the Eridani Light Horse were allowed to retreat?
She took a short breath in and let it out just as quickly without letting her face change. To show weakness now in front of her "political rivals" would mean giving them ammunition when they already had plenty from this debacle.
"Get me in contact with the First Prince," she ordered one of her secretary by pointing at them. "I need to know exactly who died and lived on that world," she pointed to the next. "I need a recalculation of how Skye Theater will go from here without the two regiments I expected to send to them next. And someone get me the representatives from the mech factory companies."
This war was a mistake from the start to finish.
She should have heeded William's request for peace more. Should have… should have… should have…
Too many should have's in her fucking life.
-VB-
I sat by myself in the my palace office with my chair tilted back to laying position and a damp towel over my eyes.
I could feel it.
The war was more or less over.
With the victories at Sian, Tikonov, and Styk, the Davion advances hadn't been just halted; there were signs of reverals.
Just a few days before the raid on Sian, Menkar, Jonathan, and Foochow in the Capella Commonality had been captured by the Davions, but in the weeks following Sian, we recaptured them. Reports also streamed in from the remaining Tikonov worlds that a counter-offensive was starting under Ridzik to recapture several worlds near Tikonov and Styk.
My spies in the Commonwealth also spoke about how the Combine and the League took bites out of their borders. Hell, they might actually succeed in reaching the goal I set before the Federated Commonwealth called for peace.
Neither the Steiners or Davions had the means for another push without ruining their nations, and neither did the League and the Combine have the organizational means to push deeper into the now better fortified Commonwealth.
Yes… the war was over. All I had to do was wait for the call for peace.