Note to self: No more political decision making scenes.
She let the old mocking smile show. “I grant that the Regal Death is a far smaller state than most, and forced to trade the service of those assets it does hold for certain necessities - but if the Khan is so foolish as to doubt my loyalty to it, he is courteously invited to come and test my skills and resolve for himself.” Beat. “If he thinks he’s hard enough.”
The entire chamber exploded, ringing with the sound of angry shouts as almost half the other Khans came onto their feet in sheer outrage.
The rest were laughing. The Hell’s Horse was apparently not well-liked.
When order was - finally - restored to the meeting, one of the two crow-masked Khans addressed Vera. “Your substantive argument, then, is that your contacts with these lucrewarriors do not represent an interference with the rights and duties of the warrior caste, nor of the Martial Code handed down from Nicholas Kerensky’s wisdom, because you have not granted them presence in our councils beyond the class of called witnesses under which this most courageous soldier has appeared, nor bloodright, nor even of the holy privilege of bearing arms in service of the Clan, because those arms they bear are carried not for the glory and benefit of Clan Ghost Bear, or other potential contractors, but for the sake of their own trothkin among their unit, which has dealt with the Clan entire as another Clan would.
“Well enough and good, so far as it goes, provided that they have not presumed to deal on that ground as equals-”
Connie shook her head. “Scale alone would prohibit that,” she denied.
“-thank you, Warrior - however, and,” humor bubbled in the voice, “without wishing to question the honor of those currently present, to what degree can we rely upon honorable behavior from these new allies of yours, Vera Tseng? Within our own number, we may gauge each other’s honor, know the weight of the word of our brother Clansmen, but we know little of how much honor has survived in the Inner Sphere in the centuries we have stood apart, and but little of their history that we may judge it rightly. In taking these lucrewarriors as your allies, you link your honor to theirs - and through you, that of the Clans entire.”
“Honor?” one of the Smoke Jaguar Khans came to his feet, roaring like the big cat his mask depicted. “You dare profane the word by applying it to these backstabbing filth, these-”
An electronic control muted his projection. The Oathkeeper, who had triggered that control, spoke into the resulting pellucid silence. “The Honored Khan is out of order.”
The Raven looked at Vera. “That you trust the honor of this one’s kin I do not doubt, nor but that you have reason. I would be remiss if I did not judge those reason for myself.”
“Speaking of my own experience, I have seen mercenary forces use artillery and ambush - as the Wolves did in raiding Arcadia before the Blitzkrieg departed for the Inner Sphere. I have seen them use massed fire - as the Ice Hellions did, defending upon Hector.”
Vera smiled, coldly. “I have not seen them initiate combat in an inhabited city, as the Jade Falcons did on Persistence, nor fired on evacuating civilians to force their defending warriors to accept a suicidal clash as was done on Here. I have not seen them level entire towns in the tantrum of a spoiled child when their enemy failed to accept destruction, as the Smoke Jaguars have done on Virentofa.”
“I refuse to accept that this is even a matter for discussion, and I refuse to accept these blasphemous insults,” hissed one of the Jade Falcon Khans, and Vera turned her smile on him.
“Your challenge is accepted,” she said sweetly, and Connie had a hard time containing her amusement at the way his body language reflected sudden consternation and alarm. “I will fight Augmented; fortunately, we are both assigned to the front line and will be able to face each other directly.”
That started a rising commotion that the Oathkeeper cut off with a bellow. “Enough! I will sanction no more interruptions in this sacred space!”
Vera bowed her head in submission, then went on. “Additionally, Comstar, an organization which we already trust for the majority of our intelligence-gathering and civil administration tasks within Operation Revival’s area of operations, serves as the primary neutral arbitrator of mercenary contracts and disputes for the entire Inner Sphere. As part of that, they keep detailed records of each mercenary group’s capabilities and reliability; allowing us to ensure that only those groups which have already demonstrated impeccable trustworthiness are involved in the honor of the Clans.
“Finally, I do not propose to deploy contracted forces in a manner where there would be risk of their showing up the frontline forces of more laggard clans than the Ghost Bear-”
A wolf-headed figure gave her an ironic salute; the Jaguar and Falcon Khans glared.
“-but in place of Provisional Garrison Clusters.”
“Which you did not bring,” one wag said.
“Which my honored Khan did not feel would be required, correct,” Vera acknowledged. “Having discovered more honor among Mercenary warriors than my training and historical education had led me to expect, and, Consuela having offered the idea as my only alternative to accepting her bondsref and losing access to the most skilled mech pilot anyone in my command Keshik had ever seen, I judged the course I took as the least wasteful solution to several combined problems.”
Another of the khans leaned forward and spoke to Connie directly. “How skilled a pilot are you, then, Mechwarrior?”
Connie turned and gave him a bow. “I would say I am about as good a pilot as the Galaxy Commander is a gunner - and, I grant, about as good a gunner as she is a pilot.”
No one actually laughed at the joke, but the temperature of the room seemed to thaw a bit, enough for actual negotiation and discussion to start happening. Behind her professional mask, Connie thought that the perverse lust for her babies was actually more than a bit disturbing, but if it kept the council from ordering Vera to betray her deal with the unit, she’d take it.
In the end, the council voted - by a margin of only one vote - not to censure Clan Ghost Bear for hiring outsiders to reinforce its defensive garrisons, although, as Connie had quietly expected, getting that took an agreement that no further hiring would take place.
As the holograms faded and the lights of the actual compartment aboard Dieron’s Run came back up, Connie slumped out of her parade rest and let her breath whoosh out of her lungs in a titanic sigh. “Man, I hate politics,” she said.
Vera took her headdress off and ran a hand through sweaty, recently-re-dyed hair. “You will hear no disagreement from me,” she said. “We owe saKhan Crow a debt, as well. That vote would have gone against us without his management.”
“Think he’d like a fruit basket?”
Vera laughed, and smiled up at Connie in a way that introduced an unfamiliar flutter to her chest. “SaKhan DelVillar arranged his support, so that would perhaps not be appropriate, although he is reputed to be fond of brandy. How many units accepted before the freeze?”
Connie didn’t even need to check her notes. “Going into the meeting, we had equivalent to about twenty-four armor and vertol regiments, about the same in jump and mechanized infantry, and a bit over eight battlemech regiments. Plus whoever’s got a message waiting in my queue. You do not want to know what the extra early-cancellation payoffs run to, though.”
“‘To make war,’” Vera said, quoting from a book Connie had given her, “‘Three things are needed. Money, money, and yet more money.’ Treasure can be replaced; time cannot. Thank you, Consuela.”
Connie almost, almost made a joke about that being what she was paid for - but she knew that Vera would have taken it as a personal rejection. “You’re welcome,” she said instead.
