Part 641: Political Vote 21
Political Vote Advanced WarningMore of them.
A chill breeze sent the flaps of Frederick Steiners command tent fluttering. The familiar sound of canvas and the sheer familiarity of campaigning was almost peaceful, after a fashion. Frederick Steiner was no stranger to camping in the field, and that morning hed thought nothing short of a Clan attack would be able to rouse him from his contentment. The campaign had been going well, the first wave of their counterattack had already seized three worlds from the shockingly-unprepared Steel Vipers.
The missive he still held in his left had had shocked him out of any sense of satisfaction hed started the day with. The representatives from Saeder-Krupp hadnt lied. After a weeks analysis the only conclusion the LIC had come to was that the information theyd included in todays intelligence briefing was all legitimate. The initial Clan invasion had begun with only four Clans, each fighting with a mere two Galaxiesa formation hed come to understand matched the strength of roughly three or four regiments. It had only taken two of those Clans to cut a swath from the Periphery to Skye. Now there were more of them on the wayat least seven morea teeming horde to the Clans initial surgical strike. That theyd grown frustrated at the other Clans lack of progress and had been infuriated by the Steel Vipers claim of complete success hardly seemed to matter. And now, Frederick was committed to a counter-invasion that would let these newcomers roll up his flank and destroy the entirety of the LCAF en masse.
Even four months advanced warning hardly felt sufficient. He needed to end his counterattack, to focus his troops on a periphery defense to keep this new Clan force from sweeping through key worlds like Coventry, and Tharkad. The Estates General wouldnt understand, they were already furious hed stripped so many worlds of their defenders. The only thing that would satisfy them now was success, if he faltered theyd be on him faster than a pack of hungry Godan.
How did one insure the survival of a nation in the face of short-sighted greed? Damn that Aldo Lestrade, hed been cursed since the day theyd first met. Frederick would have been happy serving Katrina Steiner as General of the Armies. Moving battalions and regiments around and pitting his tactical acumen against some Draconis Combine warlord or the Clans was the only thing Frederick truly wanted to do. The soldier in him knew what he needed to do to win, and the general in him knew how to make those fights happen, but playing politician had crippled his ability to create the battles that might have saved the Commonwealth when the Clans first invaded three years ago.
It was one thing to know how and where to fight, it was another thing entirely to convince an entire nation to let you. Witch she might have been, but if shed still been here Katrina Steiner would have been just the buffer he would have needed. She knew how to do more than simply get her wayshed known how to convince others that her way was what theyd really wanted all along. He saw now that Duke Lestrade had engineered this from the start: hed wanted Frederick to fail, so that Skye would have a chance to secede. Well, Lestrade may have laughed, but the last laugh had been on him: his son had acted first, and allied with the Clans. Frederick was out of goodwill to spend, Lestrade had burned it all.
The only other bargaining chip he still had at his disposal was fear.
Political Vote
A) What should Archon Frederick Steiner do?
1) Continue the invasion, damn the military consequences.
2) End the invasion immediately and redeploy the LCAF to oppose the Second Crusade, damn the political consequences.
3) Release the news of the second Clan invasion to the entire Lyran Commonwealth to frighten the nobility back in line, damn the economic consequences.
4) Forge an alliance with Task Force Serpent to oppose the Second Crusade, damn the pride of the Lyran Commonwealth.
5) Step down as Archon in favor of someone more politically savvy, take advantage of the confusion to redeploy the LCAF to better oppose Second Crusade, damn Duke Lestrade and my own hubris.
6) Release the news of the second Clan invasion to the entire Inner Sphere.