BattleTech Legends: Endgame by Loren L. Coleman

Author:Loren L. Coleman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2016-07-05T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Find a way to always turn failure into a new opportunity, and you can conquer the galaxy. It sounds simple enough, until you realize that there are others out there with the same potential.

—Cause and Effect, Avalon Press, 3067

Rockland, Tikonov

Capellan March

Federated Suns

7 September 3066

No ordinary conference room could have held the congress of officers and tactical staff that Victor Steiner-Davion had assembled to plan the final assault on New Avalon. To accommodate them, he ended up commandeering the Rockland Base sports complex. His aides set out eight long tables in one of the gymnasiums, seven to seat a delegation from each allied command plus one more for Victor’s personal staff. Plenty of room was left between each table for some measure of privacy, but the excited buzz of conversation echoed in the cavernous space and made the assembly feel much closer.

Victor stood over his table, arms braced against the star chart spread across its surface but staring out over the gathering. These people were drawn together and united behind him, behind the single purpose of removing Katherine from power. Even the latecomers, Colonel Warner Doles and his Blackwind Lancers, had found instant acceptance among a majority of the allied commands. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Kai Allard-Liao publicly vouched for them despite the official censure handed down from Sian. Kai had even requested that his reserved “chair” be placed at the Lancers’ table, though he spent most of his time standing around the maps with Victor and Yvonne and a cadre of senior officers.

“Drifting off?” Kai asked, pulling Victor back to the local planning session.

Victor shook his head. “Just remembering the last time we pulled together such an assortment of forces. You and I, Hohiro, Anastasius Focht...”

“On Wolcott,” Kai said. “When we were planning who would go after the retreating Jaguars to the aid of Task Force Serpent.”

“A lot of good men didn’t come back from that campaign.” Victor remembered saying farewell to Omi Kurita, wondering if he would be coming back to her, never thinking how much harder it would be on the person left behind.

Tiaret also leaned over the table, bracing her arms across from Victor’s. “Victor Steiner-Davion,” she said, awarding him all three names, “I think you should remind yourself how many fewer warriors would be alive today if the Smoke Jaguars had succeeded in breaking the Tukayyid truce.”

“Or had simply waited for it to expire in ‘67,” Kai said. “In fact, we’re still looking at that problem from Clan Wolf.”

Victor knew the arguments. They were the same ones that had convinced him to oppose Katherine in the first place. “Leaving my sister in power is no longer an option,” he agreed, then tapped a knuckle on a golden star at the center of the chart. “New Avalon in the New Year.”

It was their newest rallying cry, coined recently by Yvonne in a public statement concerning Peter’s organized assault against Tharkad. She had walked a fine line, endorsing their brother’s actions on Victor’s behalf but never conceding the possibility that Peter might give up the throne after.

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