BattleTech: A Rock and a Hard Place (A Gray Death Legion Novel) by William H. Keith
Author:William H. Keith [Keith, William H.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2021-09-19T00:00:00+00:00
CHAPTER
THIRTEEN
OVERLORD-CLASS DROPSHIP JUNO
OUTSIDE RED ALPHA
VALDIS I
1705 HOURS, 8 AUGUST 3028
âNo, Major,â the anonymous voice on the other end of the radio link told her. âWe will not open our doors. Why should we?â
Lori Kalmar had been considering her options. The fact of the matter was there were no good options hereâ¦but at least sheâd come up with a plan of action.
More or less.
âAs you can see,â she replied, keeping her voice even, âweâve moved our DropShip close to your cargo gateâ¦close enough to turn our lasers and particle cannons on it. I donât think those doors will last long against that. Howeverâ¦it would be bad for business if your facility suffered extensive damage. Iâm giving you the opportunity to avoid that.â
The Juno was sitting on the plain outside Red Alpha now, less than three hundred meters from the gate. The Reapers had made extensive flyovers of the entire base, mapping the layout, and Kalmar was fairly sure now of what she was dealing with.
Red Alpha consisted of four connected domes, a huge one at the center a kilometer across, the other three smaller, like encircling satellites, tucked in next to their primary. The dome Juno now facedâthe one from which the various Kurita âMechs had emerged during the battleâwould be cargo processing and warehousing. DropShips touched down on the broad plains outside to offload their cargo and take on ore from the mining facility.
That meant there would be tanked water insideâreaction mass for the DropShips, which would be near-dry after the run in from Wheel Station.
And water was what Juno would need to get back to Wheel.
But they appeared to be at an impasse.
âMajor,â the voice said, âneed I remind you of the Ares Convention? Article V in particular. âNo attack may be made against any civilian target, for any reason.ââ
âAfter that dust-up out here,â Kalmar replied, âI have serious questions about just how civilian a target your base actually might be. Still, I donât intend to breach your main city dome.â She paused for dramatic effect. âNot unless I have toâ¦â
âYou wouldnât dare!â
âTry me.â
âLookâ¦the big dome is our city centerâ¦a target explicitly off-limits according to the Convention!â
âPermit me, sir, to refresh your memory concerning the Ares Conventionâ¦may I? âNo battle shall be waged in an urban area except under extreme circumstances.â That means Iâm allowed to attack if I feel I have to. But the fact of the matter is that I donât intend to enter your city center at allâ¦unless you force me to do so. âExtreme circumstancesâ would seem to offer me a loophole. And thereâs more. The next sentence talks about causing as little collateral damage as possible, âif the military objective lies in a city center.ââ
âAll of Red Alpha is a civilian target! You may notââ
ââCivilian targets shall be deemed to include such life-supporting equipment as water and air purifiers, agricultural assets, or any other item that enables a planetâs population to continue their existence,â she continued. Do you need this outlaying dome to continue
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