Dan chewed his lower lip. "I think they will be. Did you see Justin's reaction? He just stood there, rock still, and glared at the Prince while all hell broke loose around him. He took absolutely no notice of nobles and Mech Warriors fighting over plates, cake flying everywhere, and the ComStar Acolytes trying to calm things down. Justin raised his champagne glass in that steel hand of his and waited for the Prince to return the salute. When the Prince did so, they both drank and then Justin crushed his glass..."

Morgan narrowed his dark eyes. "Very bad blood there. You may well be right to suggest that Liao's forces will be well-organized if Justin has any say in the matter. I actually think Hanse Davion has more to fear from him than he does from Max Liao."

Dan nodded, then deflected the conversation away from thoughts of his brother. "What is really happening out there, Colonel, if I may ask?"

Morgan half-closed his eyes. "If things are going according to plan, Davion forces have landed—or will soon be landing—on nine different Liao worlds. The initial invasion hits all the worlds on the Tikonov-Sarna border ..."

Dan dredged a map out of his memory. "At the narrow point, choking Tikonov off from the rest of the Capellan Confederation?"

Morgan nodded. "The Federated Suns had their troops gathered up for the Galahad exercises, but launched deep into Liao space. They grossly outnumber and outclass the troops they're going against, but nothing is certain in war." Morgan pressed his lips together into a thin, grim line. "That said, Liao troops would have to fight far better than they have in the past to avoid being overwhelmed."

Dan frowned. "Won't Kurita attack the Federated Suns to help Liao?"

Morgan opened his hands. "Wolf's Dragoons left the Draconis Combine in a hostile fashion. Lots of troops got ripped up in the Galedon Military District, and Wolf's set his people up to hammer any and all comers House Kurita wants to send to him. The war's gotten personal there . . . It's less House Davion versus House Kurita than it is Jaime Wolf versus the Draconis Combine."

The mercenary Captain winced. "The Draconis March is larger than just the Galedon Military District. The Combine could attack down and shut off the Terran corridor."

Morgan shook his head. "No time. Lyran forces hit all along the border. The Combine had been moving troops toward the Galedon District to shore up their defenses, so the attack will catch them with their zubondown. The LCAF slammed Marfik hard and, with any luck, caught Theodore Kurita in their trap. Eliminate the Coordinator's heir, and internal struggles could rip the Combine apart."

"So, what does all this mean for the Kell Hounds? What are we going to do?"

Morgan smiled grimly. "I've sent word to Salome to bring the regiment to Thorin, and Katrina is lending us DropShips and a JumpShip to do it. Then we wait."

Dan shifted uneasily in his chair. He already knew the answer to his question, but he had to hear the answer from Morgan's lips. "Wait for what?"

Morgan Kell looked away, as though seeing far away, down some corridor in time. "We wait for someone to determine which is the Genyoshahomeworld, and then we bring the war home to Yorinaga Kurita."

43

New Avalon

Cruris March, Federated Suns

25 September 3028

The air hung heavy in the underground command center known as the Fox's Den. Acrid with the scent of nervous sweat and filled with tension, it defied all attempts of the air conditioning system to do more than swirl into a turgid breeze. Hardly anyone looked up when Prince Hanse Davion appeared in the darkened doorway, while those who did merely nodded, too weary for more. Studying the tired faces, the Prince smiled to himself. Here, now, we are equals, and that familiarity pleases me in this setting. Here I need men and women who will tell me the truth, not courtiers who will falsify reality to gain their own ends.

An orderly handed the Prince a wireless headset. He slipped it onto his head, then adjusted the microphone to hover just at the corner of his mouth. Radio chatter filled the earphone clapped against his right ear, but by lightly touching the back of the ear piece, he cut the volume to little more than a light whisper.

Moving through the darkened command post built deep beneath his palace, the Prince approached the holographic wartable through a crowd of milling bodies. Surrounding the rectangular room and extending down into the massive amphitheatre to his left were giant computer screens that displayed scrolling lines of data or recorded battlefield vids assembled from the 'Mechs fighting light years away.

The Prince saw Quintus Allard hunched over the wartable. The holograph's phosphorescent greens and reds overlaid Quintus's face like a topographical map, etching dark valleys onto the Minister's face.

Quintus looked up as Hanse reached the table's edge. The Minister greeted the Prince with a smile and a nod, then pointed to the battle unfolding on the massive wartable. "It worked, my Prince. Redfield's Renegades landed successfully in the Liao family estate on Liao. It placed them directly behind the Capellan Hussars. The word we have now is that the Hussars have left the world."

Hanse Davion nodded. "Excellent. Liao surprised us by having the Hussars on the world, and we return the favor by having the Renegades pull off a dangerous assault." The Prince tapped two fingers against his chin. "We shall reward Redfield and his people for their effort." Hanse narrowed his eyes. "Have you discovered how the Hussars happened to be on Liao without our knowledge?"

A sour expression washed over Quintus's face. "It turns out a clerk in the Quartermaster Corps had been collecting pay for a halfdozen phantom troopers. He delayed recording the Hussars' shift in station until he could clean up his files, which is why our people didn't spot the move initially. Our agents on Liao knew the Hussars performed exercises there each summer, so they routed their reports via the normal channels. We'd expected the Hussars to end up on Liao, but we thought it would be later. Without the payroll confirmation, we just didn't have them on-planet yet."

Hanse nodded. "They got offworld?"

Quintus nodded. "And they took one battalion from the House LuSann unit and one badly damaged battalion from the Confederation Reserve Cavalry's First Regiment. That unit, for all intents and purposes, is destroyed. The officer corps and command structure is gone."

The Prince touched a glowing stud on the table's edge. The holographic projection changed away from the battles on Liao to a representation of the planet Aldebaran. "Any more trouble here?"

Quintus shook his head. "House Ijori got a company and a half off the world. Since their departure, trouble has dropped to a minimum. The Fourth Guards have a good handle on things, and per your instructions, have opened a number of temporary relief centers for refugees. The Fourth Deneb Light Cavalry has regrouped and is ready for the next wave of strikes."

Quintus typed a short command into a computer console off to his right. "Liao got one battalion of the First Ariana Fusiliers off Algol and one and a half battalions of New Hessen's First Irregulars regiment off New Hessen." He looked up with a grim smile. "Liao's salvaged two weakened regiments from the garrison forces on nine worlds. We've been hurt in a couple of places, but we're still strong. In fact, the units scheduled for participation in the next wave of attacks are virtually intact."