“I'm not going to go away because you ignore me,” Wolf said when Minobu did not respond. “Your lord can't hold you responsible for failing.”
“Can he not?”
“It wasn't your fault,” Wolf insisted. “You played by the rules and were beaten. There's no dishonor in that.”
Minobu continued to stare at the ceiling. What could he say? In Wolf's world, the attempt was enough, and partial success was often acceptable. Wolf did not understand that a samurai either succeeded or failed. There were no half-measures.
Frustrated at the lack of response, Wolf sighed, rubbing the stubble on his jaw. “Look,” he said. “You didn't have a chance. You played by the rules, but we didn't. You fell for our gambit with the duels and charged right on cue when we played that PantherJock dirty. Even that trick wasn't good enough to stop you.
“While you were following our apparent lead in not using aerospace forces, we were setting you up. We didn't want any interference with our recon satellites in orbit. They were our secret advantage. While you groped like a blind man, we knew where your troops were every minute. And you stilldamn near beat us.”
Minobu listened to Wolf's confession without interruption, disturbed by Wolf's unrelenting presentation of Minobu's difficulties and near triumph over them. Wolf had fought according to his own rules of war and maintained his own honor. His confession of not fighting by Minobu's rules changed nothing. The fact was that Minobu had not succeeded at his lord's task. And if he had succeeded, he would have brought to ruin both his friend and that friend's cherished, and almost certainly wrongly accused, Dragoons. Such a success would have been too much for Minobu.
To make things worse, many brave ‘MechWarriors on both sides had died uselessly, for neither side had achieved its avowed goal. The Kuritans had failed to destroy Wolf's Dragoons, and the mercenaries were still a functional entity.
The Dragoons had exacted a high price in blood and had scattered the Draconians, but had not been able to completely destroy the forces arrayed against them. It was true that the Twenty-first Galedon had been mauled and the Seventeenth Galedon Regulars had probably been shattered beyond recovery. The Eighth Sword of Light had survived well, however, and almost half the Ryuken ‘MechWarriors would fight again. All the survivors were now hardened veterans, forged into tempered steel by those who had fought to destroy them.
The Dragoons themselves had been mauled. Though losses varied according to the intensity of combat each regiment and independent unit had seen, some casualties ran as high as 60 percent. Despite their losses, the mercenaries managed to retain cohesion and had been able to hold the battlefield. Material losses could be replaced, but trained veterans could not. Wolf's Dragoons would no longer be able to maintain their exclusive recruitment policies if they wished to field their full forces. Still, they had won their battle for survival. Several JumpShips had already left the system, taking Dragoons to join their dependents.
When Wolf lapsed into silence, Minobu heaved himself up into a sitting position, ignoring the protest of his muscles. The sudden shift narrowed his vision into a dark-edged tunnel and made him light-headed, but his voice was steady. “Why are you telling me this?”
“I'm trying to make you see that your lord should be proud of you. You've done more than any man could be expected to do.”
“Yet I failed.”
Wolf huffed. “Unity, you're a stubborn man!”
“Tenacious is a better word,” Minobu corrected mildly. “I have lived my life trying to be a virtuous man. The Dragon admires tenacity, and the code of the samurai upholds it as well. Therefore, I have tried to cultivate it. I am loyal to the code.”
Wolf started to shake his head, then stopped. A crafty look appeared on his face. “The code values loyalty above all, doesn't it?”
“You know it does.”
“Don't you know your lord betrayed you before you had a chance to fail him?”
Michi's indrawn breath did not distract Minobu, who looked directly into Wolf's gray eyes. Reaching out with his kifor the truth in the mercenary's words, he felt the glow of conviction around the tough core of Wolf's deeper being.
“It wasn't the Dragoons who held up Torisobo and his Sworders,” Wolf said, pausing to let that sink in. “They were under orders from Samsonov to hold back and let the Ryuken get mauled. After we had kicked each other to pieces, they were supposed to step in and clean up the mess. Any inconvenient survivors, of either side, would have found themselves on the business end of a PPC.” Wolf shook his head sadly.
“It sounds crazy, but it's true. That old bastard is insane.”
Minobu knew that Samsonov was doing foolish things, but he had never thought of the Warlord as insane.
“We overran the Sword of Light headquarters before they scampered offplanet with tails between their legs,” Wolf said. “Among the captured documents were Samsonov's orders. I can show them to you.”
Minobu shook his head.
“So, you see Samsonov never meant to have a force waiting to ambush us from space. He was out there in the dark all right, but not in this system. He and his troops had other business—they were chasing our families. The big, brave Warlord wanted to kill our civilians. Not exactly the actions of an honorable man, are they? Like Akuma before him, he seems to have believed that attacking our non-combatants would distract us and weaken our resolve. He's a fool as well as cowardly betrayer.
“Samsonov is the dishonored one,” Wolf concluded. “Your lord betrayed you, failed you. Hebroke the bonds of loyalty.”
Wolf's plea was plain in his face. He was fighting to change Minobu's mind and desperately wanted to sway him from his chosen path.
Minobu could not see how he could give Wolf what he wanted and still maintain his own honor. Nothing that any other man had done could lessen his own responsibility.
Minobu stood shakily, and Michi leaped to his feet to steady him. As soon as he felt stable, Minobu removed Michi's hand from his arm. Drawing himself up, he said, “Samsonov is not the lord whom I failed.”
Wolf's disappointment was clear, but so was his determination. “He was following Takashi Kurita's orders to betray you.”
Wolf's accusation was a serious one. If the ultimate lord of all Kurita samurai had ordered dishonorable behavior, if he had himself broken the bond of loyalty, the situation would be changed. Under certain circumstances a lord who ordered his samurai to improper behavior justified rebellion against himself. Minobu drew a deep breath, ribs paining him as he did so. He let half of it out before speaking.
“Do you have proof?”
“I don't need it.” Wolf's response was quick, full of certainty.
“I do.”
The slim hopes that Wolf had raised were dashed. Even the true belief of an honored and honorable friend was not enough on which to base rebellion. Minobu stepped to the wall and leaned against it, far more tired than his brief physical exertion could justify.
Wolf hung his head and rubbed his exhaustion-smudged eyes. “Look. You don't have to do this. Give up your allegiance to House Kurita. Join us. I'll make you a place in the Dragoons.”
The offer did not surprise Minobu. Rather, it confirmed the goodness he knew dwelt in his friend's heart. Much as he wanted to accept, Minobu could not. “I understand and appreciate your offer. You must try to understand why I cannot accept it.
“From the day I saved your life on Quentin, I was responsible for you. What you did, I was accountable for. Whatever karma you earned became part of my karmic debt.
“Thus, I am responsible for all the Kurita forces your Dragoons have destroyed.”
Wolf opened his mouth to object, but Minobu shook his head.
“The Dragoons were the heart of the Combine forces in the Galedon District. Now you will be taking them away. That alone would weaken our border defense,” Minobu continued. “Our battles here on Misery have gutted the Regular troops that defend the Galedon border, leaving it nearly unguarded and open to our enemies. I am responsible for this terrible blow to House Kurita.