Throughout the crater Nelson saw other bandits shooting at Wolf Clan 'Mechs. Some of the Wolves had advanced, but most had ended up like the two that charged at the Red Corsair. One core group of heavy 'Mechs was shooting back without moving, but only their beam weapons had any effect. The missiles and projectile weapons, not having been recalibrated for the lower gravity, consistently shot high.

The Red Corsair hit a button on her console. "Corsairs, pull back."

Nelson hit his intercom. "Pull back? The battle hasn't even begun."

"Unless the Wolf commander is even stupider than youcould imagine, the battle is over." She stepped her 'Mech backward into the canyon as a missile impacted against the crater walls high above her. "I am turning now. Watch our back."

Nelson used a round dial to spin the holographic view so that their rear area appeared dead-center on the display. "Covered. Both rear lasers operational. But why is the battle over?"

"The commander knows that we will pick his forces apart if he follows us into the canyons. This is not the sort of battle he bargained for. He has lost some light 'Mechs, but they can be repaired. If he presses the attack, he might lose more substantial machines andwe might even sneak in and take some of the damaged machines away from him. He could never stand to have that happen."

"It sounds like you know the Wolf commander well."

She shook her head. "Never even heard of him, but I know his type. We tricked him here. We will not get the better of him in this way again, but we will best him. He will be wondering what we are up to in the future, and that will count for a very great deal."

29

DropShip Lugh

Apex Recharge Station, Santana

Federated Commonwealth

3 August 3055

 

Khan Phelan Ward frowned at his cousin. "I think I am missing something here, Chris. Your reaction to my denying your request to send your battalion to Yeguas is grossly out of place."

"Is it?" Chris pointed to the holographic display of the Yeguas system hovering above the briefing table. "When the bandits arrived, the Wolves reported that they had showed up at a pirate point near both Cue Ball and Yeguas III. You yourself said they were going to be burning in too fast if the bandits should decide to skip out instead of letting the Wolves ground for a battle. Had you permitted, my battalion could have jumped in and kept them from getting to their JumpShip. It seems like you don't want the bandits caught after all."

Phelan said nothing and forced down his anger. When he spoke, the words came in a neutral tone, but he bit them off sharply, giving both Dan Allard and Christian Kell ample warning of his darkening mood. "First off, cousin, I did not prevent you from going. I am not in command of this operation. Colonel Allard made that decision, but he gave weight to my request to let the Thirty-first handle most of the problem. When we drew lots to see wherewe would station ourselves, they got Yeguas. Had you gotten Yeguas, I am certain the Thirty-first's request to help you would have been similarly denied."

The Wolf Clan Khan rose from his seat and stared at the other man across the table. "I do not like the implication that I am not anxious to catch these bandits. I want them destroyed more than you know."

"That is not apparent by your action, or inaction,cousin." Chris folded his arms across his chest. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing a riot of tattooed colors decorating his left forearm, but Phelan could not make out the full design. "I think you are operating from a hidden agenda that will ultimately culminate in the resumption of war between the Clans and the Inner Sphere."

Phelan shook his head vehemently. "That's ridiculous. I am here to do just the opposite."

"Are you?" Chris turned to where Dan Allard remained seated at the head of the briefing table. "Fact: the bandits are making our military units look stupid. Fact: they're using tactics against us that we used against them with great success. Fact: all that's needed to reignite the war is for a Clan unit to pass over the truce line, and these bandits are halfway there—with another Clan unit hot on their tails."

Phelan slapped his right hand flat against the table. "There is no proof the bandits are a Clan unit."

"Ha! Look at their equipment. Look at their tactics."

"If we look at equipment, Chris, the Kell Hounds are more of a Clan unit than the bandits. Unity, the Hounds have better equipment than the Thirty-first Wolf Solahma. " Phelan leaned forward and the computer painted part of the Yeguas system on his throat. "You yourself said the bandits employed Inner Sphere tactics, which makes them highly atypical of any Clan unit. I'll not deny there are Clan renegades among the bandits—and they may even be running the operation, but this pirate band is no Clan unit."

"Is not, or just that you don't want it to be?"

Chris's question caught Phelan off-guard and sent a little jolt through him. Could the Red Corsairs be Clan and on a covert mission to disrupt the truce? If so, why masquerade as bandits?Even as he pondered the question, an answer slowly formed in his mind. If the unit pretended to be bandits, they could continue their raiding spree while the rest of the Clans built up a desire to fight against the Inner Sphere again. When the unit crossed the line they could openly declare themselves Clan, fracturing the peace. The Inner Sphere would respond en masse,never believing the fake bandits had operated on their own. If, on the other hand, the bandits had come in as a straight military unit, the ilKhan could have repudiated them and forced the offending sponsor Clan to disown them or else face trouble in the form of a Grand Council.

And the Jade Falcons say the bandits originated in Wolf Clan space. If the raidersare Clan, the Wolves will be blamed and the UKhan's efforts to keep the peace will look like the most hideous betrayal of the Precentor Martial and the Inner Sphere.

Phelan shook his head. "Your question has no meaning, Chris. The bandits have not declared themselves Clan, we have no evidence they are Clan, nor has any Clan claimed them. To decide, in absence of fact, that they areClan is to complicate matters unnecessarily."

"I don't believe that is true. Look, the raids are helping promote the general impression that Victor Davion is not effective as a ruler and that he cares more about the Federated Suns than he does the Lyran Commonwealth. Ryan Steiner is gathering together a coalition able to exert considerable pressure on Victor. There is nothing that would better serve the interest of the Clans than instability in the government of the Federated Commonwealth."

"Chris, listen to yourself." Phelan sighed heavily. "With the evidence you've just presented, we should surmise that Ryan Steiner is behind the bandits because hebenefits more from their raids than even the Clans do. In fact, with the bandits making the Wolves look like morons, you'd think that would bolster up the morale of the Federated Commonwealth and its people."

"Gentlemen, I think you are ranging far afield here, and it does us no good." Dan waved both men back to their chairs. "Chris, Phelan had good reasons for denying the request. Because of the movements of the other moon around Yeguas III, the nearest pirate point you could have jumped into was two days out at a two-gee burn, and that's only if your navigator could have sold Janos on letting a ship try for that one. And even if you could have gotten in, you couldn't have jumped back out for a week after that. The safer and better site would have been four days out, but in either case, the bandits could have returned to their ship and jumped out without you ever getting a shot at them."