Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Travel Interlude​

His feed was full of high definition three dimensional projections of the built up 'urban' area around the star port, The Fortress Gothic aesthetic wasn't horrible, and on the less obnoxious it wasn't well that much worse than the redecorating that the natives of Elidere had done to their Star League era civic center... he still could have done without looking at all the images of golden gilded Cameron starbursts but Kimi didn't seem hostile. They weren't planning to be here all that long... but they might need to come back.


To that end, "You believe landing the Presidio would be a mistake."


"At this stage, yes." Dante replied. "Or at least its provenance might create unwanted attention at this juncture." The AI continued. THS Presidio remained painted Hegemony colors, tartan badging of the Royal Scotts Dragoon... blood of martyrs.


That was indeed the phrase the locals swore by... like most of those who looked fondly on the notion of the Star League and that one day the SLDF might return, blood of martyrs. It didn't matter it was a dropship, a functioning implement of military operations it was a relic. Even the Highlanders, the 'Mech Battalion stationed aboard the Overlord viewed it as a sacred remnant of a long past era of distant ancestors and of a better time brought low by devilry and treachery and that it was a miracle.


Bexar had similar markings of course, but the field support ship well that was less of a problem... and even if it wasn't as visually distinct as the Presidio's profile they had already landed it as part of an initial humanitarian deployment. Outreach to the planet had been the first step, and since the planet hadn't been under attack putting the Triumph-class down first with its supplies had made more sense. If anything went wrong they could offload quickly establish an expanded defensive perimeter while a heavier mech force prepared to drop against any pirates that showed up.


... but thankfully Black Jack's pirates had made no such appearances.


Bexar's marking though had been part of what had tipped them off to how the Natives would respond. There was no indication that the Theocracy that governed the system had access to a Hegemony AI. It wasn't impossible it was just that given their behavior it didn't seem likely that there was a machine spirit involved in planetary governance, and there were not attempts electronically to respond to their presence that they could detect.


They couldn't spend the time trying to search out for any SLDF ruins on Fjaldr, never mind here, they were going to need to move on. Kimi's government was just further reason to move on. Star League installations were sacred here, which made the controversy or potential pressure from the government of the system ... gave it a different tone than it might have otherwise had with more secular governments. Given the situation they didn't need the headache, whatever was here was unlikely to be worth it, and not worth the risk of bringing in the Capellans or risking an unnecessary conflict with Black Jack if he wasn't going to already try for the world.


The issue over the history of the ships' was something they'd deal with in the least obtrusive manner possible while they waited for the drives to charge. "Our objective remains establishing a working position on Detroit, and securing ammunition to operate in response to nearby pirate incursions." He stated outlining again the basing plan that had been the working outline since they had entered the Aurigan Reach.


Get to Detroit, get the latest news from the industrial hub, and they would make adjustments on what to do from there. The Azami did still hope to split off merchant caravans to trade goods they had loaded up on from the Inner Sphere in order to prepare for the final trek out to Alamut, but also to start long term trading exchanges of goods with the worlds of the rimward periphery.


Trading that would be in danger from pirates, which meant they would need to talk to the Magistracy soon. At least in the Magistracy they were less likely to run into this particular problem... but the Hegemony's foreign office and the Star League civil affairs had never been in a position of dealing with this kind of religious fervor. Moderating historical sectarian grievances or bouts of evangelical fluctuations or other things, but this wasn't something the Star League had planned for.


Venerating the Star League was a post Star League problem, a post Hegemony problem. Gene wasn't any more sure how to respond to Kimi's specifics than Dante was other than to skirt the problem as much as possible. How exactly would these people react to Presidio? Well that could be managed... but Dante, was a living machine, a thinking centuries old machine that could remember watching the strikes comein against Hegemony defenders on Northwind.


... and of course, there was always the looming specter of the HPG recording... never mind how secular politicians would use it as a rallying cry, the Combine's leadership knew what they had don and had concealed it for those reasons never mind how religiously motivated institutions would react to collaborating in the downfall of the StarLeague during the crisis with Amaris.


They were going to have to walk a tight line around Kimi's political scene for the duration that they were here. "You will also need to begin briefing the White Shields from the 331st​."


He wasn't going to be personally needed for operations on Detroit,not really. Septim could handle that, and strictly speaking there was enough Azami leadership that Bahar could handle staff duties with the company. Beau, and Bubbles could both be tasked to running independent companies to protect Rock City and the northern continent while things were hammered out... but Dante was right moving on Alloway was the next major combat deployment.


The sleepers from Lockdale anchorage were a big factor in that, just as they were a potential concern for how the Kimi natives might react. They were flesh, and blood, just like Gene was.


Dante continued, "Their base five system is interesting, it represents in theory a unit better suited to suffering attrition if only they employed themselves in such a fashion." A lance losing one mech last 25 percent of its nominal unit strength, nominal since in the SLDF lances were typical homogenous formations outside of specialist units, or units brought in from House units. A ... one of these 'stars' with their five points could be down a mech and still be a lance; twenty percent.


That was even more so when one expanded to the 331st​Vehicle equivalents where a star was ten combat vehicles which a nice good decimal base unit. The cult of mech warrior was strong with the Kerensky exodus, maybe even stronger than it was in the Inner Sphere because from the sound of it they'd never had the technological backslide, they could still make manufacture terran technologies that had been starting to proliferate to the other member states. If Kerensky's people did come back they were going to have better technology... and probably still have warships even if obviously their population base would be smaller, but that would only matter in a war of attrition.


"I don't like how the Dragoons showed up with the equipment they did," It didn't make sense. The Imp thing seemed to have been something Kerensky's surviving son Nicholas had come up with...at least according to the 331st​ so why had Wolf's people brought them thinking they were Star League era machines. That was the appearance in that the Dragoons appeared to have expected a very different, but uniform complement of SLDF era machines but ones largely lacking 'Royal' Tech.


Yet, the machines brought by the 331st​ counter exodus, coming back into the Inner Sphere, had brought with them machines further developed from their Terran Hegemony lineage. The 'Clans' should have continued, probably continued that trend, yet Wolf and co had arrived in the inner sphere more than a decade earlier without any of the technologies that had been making their way out to the elite units of the great houses despite the Mother Doctrine.


Thankfully with an abundance of SLDF machines, and no major deployment after the return from Lockdale there had been little concern about the Federated Suns taking note of the popsicles... with any luck there would be no recordings of actions against Sybil to get out that would entail anyone noticing that the 331st​ Mechs were technologically more sophisticated than the handful of Royal machines in company inventory.


He needed a further report on those machines... and also to ascertain whether or not the pilots were accurate in their guess that the 331st​ leadership would have been trying to make for this side of the periphery... if they had actually been heading further rimward or if they had found somewhere nearer on the Canopian frontier to settle. Whatever the case the believed the McEvedy, and the Bismark had managed to get free, whether that was true or not at the very least the exodus back into the Inner Sphere had linked up and picked up artificial wombs, and stasis tubes , which suggested that whatever group had survived to the present day would have those.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Travel Interlude​

Septim watched the wrenches go about their business. The truth was he was probably going to get saddled with staff duty unless shit really hit the fan. The heavy machine had been fed stock material , and out had come a nineteen ton fusion engine. An engine that was going into the Atlas the boss had bagged at Elidere. Bubbles had already been warned that the new cooling system was comparable to the old one, but would free up a lot more weight. What that actually meant was that the Atlas would be at risk of running hotter because it was just mounting engine sinks leaving weight for more weapons. Something Chang was sure she could handle, but it was something to be aware of.


The extra firepower though was one of those things. If something came up on Bubbles while she was managing her forces ... well it was an Atlas, teach them a lesson.


They were back in the Periphery, but things had only gotten worse while they had been gone. The wrenches were going to be getting a lot of work. The plan though was still simple, flexible. Beau's Easy Company would act independent in the north providing mech based rain of lrms in support of the Company's Marauder IIs. The ones that would be staying on Detroit where they'd be able to draw on easy resupply of missiles from Rock City.


The MRB in the last year had been inundated with contract offers. It was Merc's market. Instead of worrying about having their claim get jumped by the buyer deciding to buy bigger... well Septim found that the feeling of being the bigger fish... but that feeling was tempered by the recognition of why the market was like that.


"Are you okay with the plan?"


The boss's question caught him off guard, the height difference between them had narrowed over the last year... Shepherd would probably be pretty tall when he stopped growing, but it was that he hadn't heard the other mech warrior come up over the racket. "OH the plan is fine boss. We can sit on Detroit for a quick stint," While the boss went and punched in Sybil's lights... really the contract they were offering to take up with Detroit's government would cover a couple months while the boss and the Azami moved around the surrounding area. Detroit would get a Mech Battalion to guard the planet and if a major attack came they could call the rest of the company in to give the pirates stupid enough to stick around a bad day. "You're the one going on the attack."


"That's where I'd rather be in this case." He replied, "We take that base out it prevents Black Jack from Co opting Sybil's position."


Septim could understand that, but the truth was the boss would be leaving him on Detroit to train up a lot of the new recruits they'd taken on, people they'd hired at the fair and then people they'd picked up after Dieron. Of course this wasn't how they had left the Periphery, but even then, the boss had made his return to Luxen after his I.E. Contract with on paper was a small battalion of mercs to support him... so Septim figured that was something slipping by the boss.


That expansion after they'd left the Magistracy contract had been to expand the company by adding Hammer and the largely Federated Suns tankers to the company. Most of what the boss had outlined before they had started the long flight into the Inner Sphere for the then unknown clash on Elidere had been expanding the supporting arms of the company.


Then Elidere had happened... but if they hadn't taken the lucrative contract from Abner they would have still been in a good place to have a comfortable chance to make money with the Magistracy or one of the independent planets from the ways things had played out since they had left. Now they were a lot bigger, a lot more experienced. The Company's growth meant they could afford to ask for more, especially with as much metal as they had.


Septim held his tongue. Officially speaking in most outfits he should have been senior to MacKay and Holmgren given tenure if nothing else... but it was politics. MacKay was responsible not just for the thirty odd graduates from Northwind, including the two dozen mech pilots divided between the two cadet companies of the Highlanders, he was also in charge operationally of the mechanized infantry from Northwind as well. Then there was ... there were the Rasalhague contingent. The company's expansion had other implications... it just hadn't been a good time to bring up that the savaging of the Combine on Elidere, never mind Dieron was going to get looks at the company from the other successor states.


With no response forthcoming Shepherd nodded, "We'll move onto Luxen as soon as we can though. Abner said something about Raventhir would be waiting for us," and the scuttlebutt was more than that, "I get the feeling he's got material in the effort... the Magistracy is hard up for mercenaries, and I expect that even if the Chargers could be produced that isn't going to be any time quickly."


Right ... those ruins not really ruins but what was under the ruins on Pioche, "Did she get it working?"


"We think so," He shrugged, "They're not much different than that machine," He gestured to the massive assembly that had built the fusion engine going into the Atlas Chang had taken to piloting... would be commanding her company from when they got on Detroit.


"Are we going to do something similar for the Marauder II?"


"Probably not, at least not immediately. Some of it is that Blackwell wants data reports on how they perform in combat we start putting what is LosTech into the mix it won't help them. The Marauder II is a good design, and the Davions will want battle roms as well, and we're going to need to rotate back and forth between Davion space in a few years." Blackwell hitherto had apparently not been selling the Marauder to anyone but the Wolf Dragoons but since they were in the Federated Suns that was going to change now that the AFFS had an interest in the 'mech. "In any event the view we have of Axylus is relatively clear we expect to be able to move quickly, and we're not aiming to stay on the scene for any longer than it takes to handle the objectives. We'll bring the Azami in to carry out SSE," to search, and scuttle the pirate base, as Septim understood things "and then we will rejoin the rest of the circuit. After that we will make for Luxen, and see how they've held up while we've been gone." It made things seem really simple.


Septim though was looking at how things had been the year before when he'd just been some washed up Lyran officer making his way through merc life... and now while not Markham's equal in terms of metal he was still a battalion commander in name. That was a hell of a change... would have been more of a change if not for how upside down and crazy everything had been.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars
The stopover at Detroit would be a short one for him. Long enough for the drives to charge and then to make the jump to Alloway. They were still putting the final stages of that plan. Gene adjusted the display as it populated with information, much of what was coming in was just the usual information. What he was really waiting for was any indication that the Azami had posted any new information. The Fax Machines weren't practical to reach from here to Alamut of course, but there were supposed to be a network of 'community watchmen' as they'd been described who were further in keeping an eye on things.


He was disappointed, even if he supposed it was a bit much to expect something waiting for them given how slow faster than light communication was; in the grand scheme of the diaspora that had taken mankind from its cradle. A part of him did want to return to Alamut... so see what the Azami were doing there... to get physical access to the Cairo's computer core... which of course might still be an equal disappointment. There was no way to be sure that the computer core had any useful information on the ship before the Azami had recovered it... he was curious as to the manifest.


But if those things were intact they would be intact would still be intact when he had the chance to look at them, when there weren't more pressing things to see to. The lack of a message though meant the only real news would be traders aboard JumpShips, or ComStar. ComStar's management of the SLCOMNET or what was left of it left a lot of to be desired even without Black Jack going out of his way to break the accepted norm of neutrality. Which didn't make sense, the HPG network as operated by ComStar generally didn't operate regularly in ... well live stream broadcasts even in the Inner Sphere much closer to Terra never mind out here.


There was too much violence tied up in the attacks against ComStar to just be strategic. It was also not recent. They had combed through the data they had, having nothing else better to do, and there were reports of a very attack on the HPG station in the coreward periphery that ComStar had said was only minor damage but it tracked with Black Jack's own great trek around the Inner Sphere moving around the Combine until he had reached the Rimward periphery on the other side. It seemed too much with everything else to be a coincidence. It also coincided or maybe that was coincidence with ComStar hiring more security ... but that was limited to small units of armor and infantry rarely battlemechs with them usually hinging their safety on their vaunted neutrality.


Which meant that the Precentor New Avalon had sent them up against Black Jack without the whole picture... which could be considered normal enough... except that while Black Jack was on the list, it was Kristofur Kelly on the list as well.... but well from everything they'd seen of the man's actions... killing the bastard was alright so far as Gene was concerned. ... in hindsight though there was more going on. He just wished he knew what was the cause.


There were implications but nothing concrete, people talked, the pirates talked but so much of it was swagger, bravado, and bullshit. Most of what they had where they could cut through it was still second hand word of mouth shit that had little value being more than hearsay.


His door chimed. The Highlander guards wore Golden Kite insignia denoting them as as having served with distinction on Dieron against the Sword of Light, and also technically the ISF. The awards had been one of the last things to solidify in a legal sense before they had departed Davion space. Officially speaking as a knightly order in the Inner Sphere there were two direct sanctioned methods of admittance at least in practical terms. The AFFS, and specifically the Draconis March, could award membership, or he could convey admittance into the order.


In theory the Golden Kite distinction could have been conveyed to all veterans of the Dieron campaign, or Altair for that matter. Politics came into play, the victories on both worlds had been an impressive one two punch, but as a new award moderation had been called for. Thus, the majority of awards for gallantry, and thus admission into the order had been for those who had fought directly against the Sword of Light, or those who had participated in the action to take San Martin, and the ISF archive.


Hence the number of Highland Cuirassier men admitted into the ranks despite being infantry troopers.


Akashi wore the same decoration particularly for her securing the Davion position at San Martin's ComStar station. She wore it on the uniform of a captain, and wore the insignia of a captain in the regular army.


In all likelihood the Golden Kite would mean nothing to the periphery natives, even as it was beginning to show up news footage as ComStar published BattleRom footage from the actions against BlackJack's people in the Aurigan Reach. "I understand that you are chomping at the bit for action." It wasn't a question. "My understanding though is you didn't particularly socialize well with the Aurigans. You understand that if we rotate as expected to the Magistracy, we'll be primarily training local forces and protecting a major city from pirates first?" Not mounting hunting expeditions in all likelihood even assuming they did have the information on their bases, which they didn't have... but also not that Gene was going to say it the truth was they needed time to continue to season the company especially once most of the Azami moved off deeper into the Periphery and reduced them back down to 'normal' strength.


"Hai," She replied. "Which is of course commendable, but I wish for a place in the battle line against Sybil when the force drops on Axylus." He almost expected her to try and leverage that she had been with the Company, absurd but true, longer than the Ice Cubes. He had reasons for including the Wolverine people in the operation there.


"You are a company commander Akashi," He pointed out, "You are an effective mech pilot," Aggressive... perhaps too aggressive, her temper risked getting her in over her head, "The Light Company needs you as a sally commander if we draw attention." but there was no denying that hinged on responding to an attack, not carrying the battle to the enemy, which was what she was looking for. "The moon is an unknown environment, yes the Magistracy has provided us with some information but a successful approach by stealth requires a small force making the initial advance from what we understand there are active anti aircraft emplacements and they'll be our first target along with their fire directors," And radar, "We'll be busy there and that will tie up company resources from being on Detroit." But fundamentally it was a small unit incursion, Sybil was known to have mechs and vehicles, and was dangerous by rimward periphery pirate standards but she wasn't the sort of pirate threat that would have stood out, especially before Black Jack had arrived on the scene. If anything she had probably been just big enough to be pushed out of the Tortuga dominions because she wasn't big enough to truly displace one of the bigger pirate kings for a seat at the table.


Tortuga wasn't their problem. It was too far away for them to worry about that. Detroit though had a civilian population to protect, had industry and resources that could support the company, or were at risk of being struck by Black Jack and being carried off allowing him to sustain himself, or just bribe followers with plunder to carry on carrying on.


The young BattleMech Ace was less concerned about such things. Kiyone had been brought up in the tutelage of the district military academy... but of course then the betrayal had happened ... and garrison duty was not what she 'needed' to pursue revenge against the combine and the ISF. But, that was what the company needed her to do." The majority of what we expect to do on Luxen, Black Jack has made an attempt before, we expect that he'll make another one," And they were lucky, Gene thought that they hadn't missed a '3rd ​Battle of Luxen' while they'd been in the Inner Sphere but for all the metal that Black Jack had at his disposal he was spread wide from the Free Worlds League border to the Federated Suns and was hard to pin down...and unfortunately he was probably also looking for caches to stock up and resupply his forces as well.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars: Detroit Interlude​

Gene supposed in hindsight he should have expected the planetary government to schmooze up to them on their arrival; the land rights were probably what most mercs wanted to hear. To an extent that applied to the local ComStar presence, even before they'd extended their credentials from the Precentor New Avalon, the Precentor who had officiated the judicial duel years earlier had been ecstatic at their arrival in force.


The local combine mission was probably a little less enthusiastic, but a problem for a different day... and the planetary government had been happy to allocate them free use space where they could establish space for a main base on South, and a secondary garrison on North. The main facility would let them protect the capital, and of course defend Rock City's industrial center and also the ComStar facility. All important locations were highlighted on a pool table sized holographic map projection


Not that he was ignoring the Combine legation... that would have been stupid even with as obviously pro davion as the unit as was going to be thought of. He'd been worried about that for the passage through Taurian space, among other concerns... but they had a job here... Detroit was too important of a hub world not have a presence here. Between that and the ComStar presence a fight seemed all too likely.


As for the Ice Cubes, well with months of journeying behind them they still didn't have much answers... Clan Wolverine had actually started trying to track back to the Inner Sphere before that... the clans had apparently been trying to monitor the degrading condition of the Inner Sphere as the First Succession War had raged, but there had been no real policy about the atrocities. But they also didn't know anything about the Minnesota tribe's actions after they had moved presumably rimward... just that the idea had been to keep heading in this direction.


It wasn't much to go off of, but it also wasn't really a surprise. Obviously there had probably been some kind of plan Lockdale Anchorage had been intact, and could have been used for something itwas just that... whatever the plan was had probably been derailed by the eruption of the second succession war... and the working theory was whatever passed for leadership among clan wolverine had been splintered severing command and control.


That was Dante's working theory at least. The Clans didn't seem to have any of the Hegemony's AI technology... they had had... well Kerensky had had to brute force through the SDS defending Hegemony worlds after all... but all of that was well in the past. The consensus was clear, if any kind of effort was going to be leveled looking for where the Tripitz had been going Black Jack had to be stopped, if they were going to look for the Minnesota tribe, BlackJack had to be stopped... to stop Black Jack they needed to have operating bases in the Rimward periphery and be able to destroy the pirates ability to conduct raids.


... that was where the Azami's Maguanac corp came in, they needed to act as Marine Air Ground Task Forces even though they couldn't function as true CAAN regiments... but they likely weren't going to have to that whole way. The comparative scarcity of ASF cut both ways, and JumpShips too meant they could leverage things to erode pirate strategic mobility by using the letters of marque and reprisal against the pirates jumpships. It was a legal fiction, but it gave them a legal leg to stand on for seizing the JumpShips... and the more JumpShips that they had the better their own strategic mobility... and the better off that Alamut would probably be once the pirate threat was cleared off as well.


It was part of that thinking why he was leaving Septim here commanding the presence on Detroit... he wished that there was someone he could have sent to Aquagea... but that was going to have to wait. He had woken up there alone, and the outpost castle there was going to need to be restocked as a fall back position... if not actually put back into service... but still something that was going to have to wait.


Axylus first. Grim Sybil First. Erode the pirates ability to base forces, and their strategic mobility... ideally find and fix them in place... then just drop the whole mountain on them as Beau had finished the discussion citing Fjaldr. That had been just this morning. Ur Cruine was another option... but for longer term. The Azami wanted a forward base to operate from... and there were talks about needing mining equipment, and expertise and the small security contract with Majesty Metals which had prompted them to leave two of the Luxen volunteers behind was a foot in the door so to speak... but still Axylus first.


"What do you think?" He asked finally speaking up, looking up from the headache inducing volume of paperwork that he had had to deal with, to the company's official executive officer.


Bahar's dark eyes looked away from the strategic industrial area on North, the hologram wasn't going to go anywhere, "The magistracy has questions for the company," The Canopians had a mission of their own on Detroit... the Taurians did as well of course even though both periphery powers had their share of irredentists who thought Detroit should actually be considered their own world..."We're roughly a hundred thirty light years from Luxen, which is our planned return." In part because Luxen was one of the best worlds to make the route to the Alexandrian worlds... an oregon trail in space after a fashion, but he withheld that comment as Bahar continued, "There are many volunteers from the community whatever interest which was enjoined among the young mechwarriors simply to be mercenaries has been greatly exceeded by older men looking at those who have adopted the badging and colors of the rimworld."


"Yeah, I'm aware." He paused, "And speaking of Luxen we're going to have to talk to Lady Raventhir, and for that matter IE. If there is some Rim Wolrd Army depot out there we're going to have to find it, or Black Jack can just fall back to it to lick his wounds."


"If there is an heir to Amaris alive-"


"And there is that," He agreed darkly, "Dante what do you think?"


"Such a political position is obviously one in opposition to our objectives, Axylus first though." The Hegemony AI replied, caution and age guiding, "A revived Rim World may or may not have popular support, but if he has assumed a position of leadership, we must cut the head off thesnake if we are able." The AI was a little more restrained today... the briefing to which had issued out to the nominal Regimental Combat Team after they had affirmed the report had basically gone out as 'kill amaris dead' for all intents and purposes.. but much of that was just a reiteration of old data specs for RWR machines and their equipment. An RCT had died here after all... he couldn't forget that, and there had been the surprise of Fjaldr.


They were expecting more rim world equipment... the troopers needed to know what they would be going up against. The orders themselves well that was something else. "We'll have to brief the locals about what they're likely to encounter if there is a push," The PDF had gotten more funding since they left, but most were poor bloody infantry men and some tanks. The bulldog was a fine tank to be sure, but Septim would be here with the BattleMechs if things went bad.


"I am presently revising a more generalized briefing for both the local authorities, as well as to inform the civilian populace of what might they expect," The Highland AI answered, "butgiven the comparatively primitive conditions my expectations are limited." Detroit hadn't been prepared for a raid, yes it was a commercial hub, but it wasn't one with a strong military and the ability to move civilians to safety was limited... and certainly not something that could be done quickly. Any fighting risked civilian casualties, that was always true, but, "We will need to confine the enemy to landing zones where possible... but we should always be wary of potential pirate sympathizers, or supporters in the civilian populace." That was always going to be a concern. The population of Detroit wasn't precisely large, but industry was limited but itwas enough that inflow and outflow of resources made it hard to keep track of arrivals who might be forward observers for raiders.


The government of Detroit and its business interests were basically making the contract worthwhile by compensating them withmaterial and goods in place of trying to furnish them with the c-bills for paying the contract in full... and ComStar was also chipping in. The local precentor really was scared to death of Kelly. The plan was to reassure the man... and the public at large by having Hammer and Colonel Khan from the local PDF make a general assembly of armor around the Ann Arbor space port in a few hours. There would be public relations statements that would go out before then but the main thrust of the hearts and minds campaign to elicit support would come from Dante as more of the Hammers offloaded and protective positions were established.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars​

He didn't immediately respond to the report, and everyone waited for him to respond, "The pirates aren't confused by our force structure?" Gene asked surprised at the conclusion reached by analytics.


"Not their leadership."


That didn't make sense, which was of course the next thing to come out of Septim's mouth. The benign explanation didn't seem to meet the facts they had. That explanation would have been simply that Black Jack's lieutenants and people associated with the pirate king simply made the accurate assumption that they had found a cache of their own.


That was true.


"The prevailing assumption from interrogation, or the details that have slipped out," The tattooed Azami officer remarked, "Is that we have a patron capable of supplying us with such equipment." Which in the context of the succession wars didn't make sense... or at least from commonly publicly known details didn't make. The Great Houses didn't have the kind of reserves of materiel to commit to such a program. Black Jack's people knew they had Star League Machines, knew they had SLDF machines. "However while we departed Aurigan space with some idea of their provenance, and their response to our own, we had not had time to fully process the computer cores, and roms of the salvage." That included salvage work from the initial engagement on the Aurigan capital, and part of it was volume...


The battle rom was dated more than a decade earlier. The machines on the opposing force including what air support they had were in factory white, and lacked properly configured IFF to indicate who they belonged to... and, and they were amateurs behind the yokes of the machines. At least the BattleMech pilots were, up in the sky the ASF pilots seemed to be doing better, but it wasn't enough.


The attacking force, the force attacking the pirates on some where a couple of jumps off from the Lyran border blundered into a box cavern to attack the pirates head on. Royal Machines were good, but technology could only carry weight for stupid tactical decisions so far. Not far enough, as it happened to make the difference in this case.


Gene felt a headache coming on. He'd give Dante time to process all of this, but it seemed pretty self evident that someone had given green mechwarriors royal tech to fight pirates. Was that what BlackJack assumed ... or his people assumed was going on here? The Clans would have had Royal Tech and factory fresh machines... but that seemed unlikely. That wouldn't have made sense, and the Rom dated to before the arrival of the Dragoons in Davion Space, before they had reached the Inner Sphere. Besides that, the Dragoons had arrived with cohesive unit tactics, and configured equipment that broadcast their formation data. The Dragoons had been a prepared military unit in other words... "Someone gave these people Hegemony Machines to attack the pirates, and they got slaughtered fighting experienced pilots." He stated.


"Yes." Was the simple terse acknowledgement from the AI.


"Septim, continue training while you are here on Detroit." He told the Lyran glancing to his left, "I don't plan to remain on Axlyus longer than I need to be." The attack plan was simple take out the generators and radar systems, engage any battlemechs or combat vehicles protecting those installations and then land Marines to wipe out the nest. If they were lucky they'd take JumpShips and DropSHips as marque file the paperwork of claim when they returned, but it wasn't nearly the priority of eliminating the nest. "If something comes up though and local authorities are impatient or have questions, or if the local diplomatic body," Which included the Combine legation, "You can take point on that."


The truth was the salvage time... well Fjaldr had added to the work load, but the Azami had their hands full. The ship registries were being done here to establish legal ownership, but the seizures particularly of the vital FtL capable carrying ships were something he was dividing with the Azami... Alamut was far away from here, the Alexandrian worlds were far and any carrying capacity that could be spared might insure that the Azami colony could thrive. He understood that... but also given the situation the Azami would need the mobility if they turned towards the fight... even if he personally could have done without phrases like 'sword of the prophet' going around. What was more important would be that the JumpShips would cease being pirate vessels and become trade ships, and good for the periphery.


That might have seemed idealistic given the situation but it was something at least. They could try and put it truly into practice once Black Jack had been dealt with, but that assumed they could kill the pirate king... and that had also been before Fjaldr. "Maybe the Rom isn't comprehensive, but I didn't see any Rim World markings in it."


"No sir, we have scoured all of the oldest footage." There was a glance sideways towards the holographic projection that was Dante's 'seat at the table', "The appearance of Amaris symbols appears comparatively recently, an appearance within the last few years."


"Aye," The AI agreed attenuating strands of light brightening. It was an affectation, it was just designed to reassure people not used to communicating with the AI. Gene personally felt it was unnecessary, but it was such a small thing it didn't matter, "Only after they arrived in the Rimward Periphery I have reviewed the so called second battle of Luxen, in anticipation of having to fight a third. We will have our work cut out for us, but the adoption of Rimworld republic markings does indeed appear to be a recent development. It is not nothing," He remarked definitively, coldly, "But we cannot," Cannae, "Be sure why it was chosen if and only very recently this Kelly bastard has started to talk to the scum about a new Rimworld republic."


Axlyus first though. Eliminate the threat closest to Detroit. "SoI should tell Khan, and the planetary government?"


"Once we're in the final stages of deployment. You can let them know before we jump,"


Septim nodded, "The MRB, ComStar?"


"Given we're expecting to exercise PNA," the Precentor New Avalon's, "Dispensation and the letters of marque issued to lay claim to what we take, yes you can tell them at the same time. Tell the Canopians as well, we're operating partially off of," Well more than partially, "intelligence from Lady Centrella,"The ambassador to the Aurigans, "And Sybil is on the Canopian frontier... but only as we're preparing to jump."


"I wish I were in position to monitor HPG transmissions going out."


Theoretically Dante could have remained behind... but no, they were planning to take the Ice Cubes into combat, and Dante wanted a front row seat to the action, wanted to monitor communications in live situation, wanted to be there. Given that on top of that they needed the Eisenhower to achieve local airspace control ... well that was another reason as well.


"You don't think ComStar would warn them?" The Merlin pilot questioned


"No, and given the network I doubt any warning could go out," He felt paranoid, but a fax machine wasn't impossible but that was why they were waiting before disclosing the information... besides Septim would be here commanding ground forces. "We're disclosing the action out of an abundance of caution, right now we're concentrated enough that there are enough people if we move suddenly people will want answers." They needed, they were going to need to get back to Luxen. Once the Azami civilians were safely far out in the deep periphery they would have a lot more freedom of action, but he also didn't want to advertise that they'd be separating from their dependents for concern of a preemptive attack.


"There is one other thing," Dante spoke up, as the Rom footage from 'north' of the Lyran border rewound. "Whoever these whites are, their aircraft are a high probability match for those that scuttled the Tripitz, and I imagine given the fragmentary electronic communication data we have," Radio barking back and forth between the mechwarrior officer... what passed for officers in pirate bands, and sensors aboard command posts, "so would their jumpships. Its not conclusive, but its certainly coincidental." There were nods.


The Command as a whole had been briefed about the Tripitz... about how it had been found in Taurian space and the mystery of the Vandenburg White Wings. The details of the ship had not been disclosed. There were officers who had been told, but the Tripitz slipping the Republican blockade of Terra had not been discussed. Tripitz was just a lost warship from the Star League... and for now that needed to stay that way. As it was the Battle Roms from Fjaldr were already hitting the media, those disclosures going wide, Mercenary against Pirate would have been typical fare without ...without other context. Dante was drafting public relations statements and shaping media disclosures to the public based on the Star League era playbook of the Hegemony... and it was working.


Hammer's protest was still there, but the armor component would have plenty of mechs to form the front force of battle... if something happened while he was on Axlyus. That was the thing though, Hammer had been briefed on what Kelly... on who Kelly claimed to be working on behalf of... and a courier was back on the way to New Avalon... they had been able to do that much... they had sent a message to New Avalon via HPG that Dante had compiled to have uploaded but the limits on transmission and the condition meant it had made just as much sense to send world to New Avalon... and the Highlander Officers had also been insistent that a message go to Northwind... if the Azami hadn't been withdrawing to Alamut they would have been equally focused on a message to their wider community, but any message would have to go out from New Avalon, and be distributed from there.


That meant months of waiting to hear back. They'd have been busy, done a lot by the time they heard back.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Axlyus Drop 1
Gene had spent the short pre transit window of time before Dante went to sleep, in his little shielded egg, going over what IE had told them they knew, comparing what they had from the ice cubes who'd been in deep freeze in Lockdale Anchorage, but the truth was it was too little to really make much difference. It was just enough to be a pain in the neck, and had no bearing on the action that they were about to take.


Dropping on Axlyus was an operational pivot. The jump was going to be a sharp jolt.


Given the pressure that Black Jack was exerting on smaller weaker pirates it was only a matter of time before Axlyus became a bigger problem than it already was for the locals. It was better to nip this in the bud now. While the rest of the Company, or its majority, were on Detroit they'd start looking for options to expand, to hire on. He wasn't expecting Septim to pull off a miracle... they might have better luck on Luxen when they got back there but he wasn't really holding his breath for that either.


They might be able to pick up a few people, but the mercenary trade was in high demand on the frontier with Black Jack running rampant, and from the MRB themselves everyone was looking, and paying better with high demand. Septim had orders to hire on, to train, to network to do whatever might actually lead to a safer planet and operating environment for the company. That included temporary subcontracting out, and having volunteers from the Exodus fleet doing other things... other in the sense of beyond just mech warriors doing the business of piloting a giant stompy robot.


Gene looked up from the holographic projection to the combine native, "Your normal mech, is in many respects a battlemaster in miniature," And he had no problem with customized machines, "Are you going to be fine piloting a Marauder II for this operation?" He paused, "Is that going to be a problem?"


"Not in the slightest." She replied.


He reoriented the display towards her, "This is from Magistracy Intelligence," He gestured to the pockmarked moon's surface, it really could have been any moon but it was Axlyus's surface, "The MIC didn't know what this was.. unfortunately Dante and I do know what it is. It is a large star league dropship, its the Argo. Our principle combat objective has not changed, the White Shields are going to to go in there and we will suppress the air defense guns, but the situation for the Azami is to force the DropShip, and make an evaluation of its condition. Can you coordinate a combined arms task force?"


"Hai."


"Axlyus is an unforgiving place, our objective is to strike hard and fast. As much as we need the intelligence from prisoners, don't take unnecessary risks." If any JumpShips were present... if any pirates showed up while they were active... those assholes were going to have a bad time because they were going into this with the gloves already off.
--
The red interior light muted the displays in front of him as the Hi Rez processed the data inputs from across the formation. They were fairly sure that it shouldn't be a problem. On Dieron there had been concerns going into it about the software managing to interface with post-star league systems built as the succession wars had gone on. Those concerns had proven to be faulty, but as a precaution there had been steps taken. This would be the first real test of that though.


The clans had established Brian Caches of their own on settling in the coreward periphery. Not for the same reasons as the Hegemony, but because they had needed to stock machines away in long term storage as they tried to eke out an existence. They hadn't been planned as a dedicated colonization initiative even with all of the high technology taken from the Hegemony... and so they had put things away.


It was about manpower concerns. The exodus had begun developing on existing Hegemony prototypes, continuing to work on experimental systems and technologies. That had lead to refits of existing SLDF and Royal Machines, and also the development of new machines.Presumably, that had been part of the reason for the Combine's trouncing on Lee for an enemy running completely radio silent...except of course the details for the liberation of the gulag just had limited information... and Gene was fairly sure that while the 331st​might have used SLDF tactics like lances with their pair of ASF supports, what he doubted had been involved were wholly unique mechs.


Or maybe they had attacked with some number of limited new production designs. It didn't really matter he supposed. The combine had gone in for round two of the succession wars not long after and while the Minnesota tribe was a well known urban legend their trail had gone cold. The White Shields being able to tell them about the plan to go long ways Rimward didn't help, the raid the combine gulags... there was probably more to that... it suggested that the clans had at least something more substantive was known other than the league collapsed... but that was going to be hard to prove.


He sure as fuck wasn't going to just go running up to the wolf dragoons when they got back to the Inner Sphere... whenever that was going to be. Dante was right though they would have to get back, and contributing to, or outright killing Black Jack and getting him off the backs of the rimward periphery should at least win them the goodwill to base for when they started searching for wherever the Tripitz had been trying to go.


That was a long term objective though, they had to put resources in place to plan for that. The Camerons if they were out there, would still be out there ... if there was a hegemony in exile there was, if there wasn't it wasn't going to change anything either way to buildup.


Kill the pirates first.


His data display linked the last elements into the system. The telemetry from the satellite was a real time view of the pirate base. Dante speculated that the low gravity environment of the moon, and x band, and thermal telemetry returns on the hull suggested that the argo could be lifted off. Possibly in a short frame of time. The fusion reactor seemed to be operational and if the drive could be lit then they could get the DropShip off... and they could go from there.


The bigger question was whether or not the mobile dropship collar system was functional. There were a lot of questions, "Are we certain about this Dante?"


"The Argo appears to be structurally sound, enough that we should be able to recover it. I would mark it a priority to do so with it right in front of us." The truth was the AI had already done that basically... but there was little point contesting it. "Expunging the pirates from it is the same as our existing objective," The argo was the dropship at the heart of the complex... which raised other questions about the facilities on the barren moon, but so much of it was ramshackle what might have been buried underneath it was hardly a priority at this stage. He was sitting in his Marauder waiting for the go ahead to move.


The real good news was that Sybil was largely talk and not much substance. There had been no active air patrols, but that wasn't a surprise.


She'd booked it from tortuga and their grand dame murderess extraordinaire... or whatever the crazy lady's title was... a while back. She probably wasn't Black Jack's biggest fan, but she was still working for him ... that had to be addressed.


... and they were here. "Fusion signatures?"


"Still limited. I project only an understrength battlemech company we have a marked numerical advantage and the element of surprise." Dante's voice attenuated over the direct laser com.


The plan was simple converge and neutralize the air defense network... and then let the marines do their job in the close in quarters fighting. Axylus had no real defining natural features...if you had seen one barely habitable moon you'd seen most of them. Axylus had no radiation warnings attached to it that was nice... but it was only man made structures that were the concern, "What about their Materiel?"


"Our reports from Coromdir are limited, Sybil participated in a minor capacity, but there were no other JumpShips in place when we arrived." ... and if any showed up, they were in for a nasty surprise... but they weren't expecting that to really happen. It wasn't impossible, but the objective was to spike the existing base... running off with the derelict and demoing the rest of the facility would suffice. Assuming Sybil wasn't present. "Medium and Light BattleMechs, Sybil has perhaps a few Heavy 'mechs across her entire force, but if she isn't present then they are likely absent... black Jack appears to have been stingy with providing her with Star League Machines. There is no indication of Rim World activity here.
--
Notes: I'm not sure how I'm going to treat the House Aranosourcebook for the argo's multi dropship collars, because personally Ithink its dumb and pointless to not allow any 'gain' like that, sowhat we may see is allowing the argo to carry additional dropships ,but it may not be directly talked about further for a minute.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Axylus Drop 2​

Akashi Kiyone had completed the basic familiarization course with the Marauder II Assault BattleMech on Northwind. That course had been modelled on courses developed by the Terran Hegemony, and the Star League Defense Forces of the 27th​ and 28th​Centuries. It also reflected that the Marauder II was a post Star League BattleMech. She was comfortable with the slim heads up display system projected to her neuro helmet from the Hi Rez II system. It suited her better than that of the traditional Marauder.


The Blackwell corporation's multi-linq communications suite worked as advertised.


The paper work that had accompanied the course had included aboiler plate statement that further training would be carried out on a date to be determined on Northwind when the company returned. Thus for the majority for the company that had been the sole experience with the Marauder II '4A' series based on the 3D iteration 75 ton Marauder.


The piece shit of moon was every bit as charming as she expected for one infested with pirates. Her sensors were tracking bits of debris, metal detritus that had accumulated over a couple of centuries as dropships had lost parts and presumably the pirates had fought amongst themselves... and probably all of that just accidents that had left the remains of machinery on the barren surface that splayed out before her.


Had the Star League continued to exist the lava tubes beneath the surface of the moon could have supported entire cities... but that would have required the periphery to be safe enough for colonists, and expansion... and all of that and the money for such ventures had gone out the window when Amaris had attacked. Benjamin as a district had a long and storied history.


Ronin and Gunslingers had clashed.


Such had been beyond her considerations. Shepherd had been the most obvious path forward, the Azami had been betrayed by the Combine... treachery was something that had to be repaid in blood...and cold flame or not that was the promise that there was a revenge. She couldn't have stayed with the Azami, for however many centuries her family had been friends, and brothers in arms the elders had made clear that they had a duty to withdraw to make for the periphery...and couldn't adequately articulate to her what such a distant flight could accomplish.


Not when the Dragon had suffered such a serious set back on Elidere... and even if she might have been eventually worn down by talk of a 'long game' then there had been seeing what the Gunslinger Colonel was already preparing. The Azami were talking about building the industries to rebuild old machines, battlemechs that had been in service for century, and the truth was Akashi could have cared less. The talk about building DropShips like the DroSTs the Azami used or building simple triumphs... she didn't care. Not when on the opposite side of the unit the Highlanders were talking about a sweeping scottish rising with star league mechs sooner rather than later. Why shouldn't they be doing that, going that direction? The combine had been beat on Dieron, Elidere and Altair in the span of a year. Her family's sole surviving retainer had been right that she needed to improve as a mech warrior, and complete her education as an officer, but -


"Look alive people," a calm voice remarked on her regimental command frequency.


The command to alertness came with an unpacked navigation chart, that provided them a view a view with firing angles onto the area around the radar tower. Like most lunar construction projects whoever had originally settled this planet had found it easy to settle down in ancient impact craters from a much more active time. Axlyus had been struck by a very large object 'a few million years ago' according to Dante. Dinosaur killer large, but a better a moon like axlyus than it making its way further in system and striking a life bearing world.


The result was a nice very large crater with high rings one side within which had been walled off by very slapdash construction over the last century. There was older construction, but Akashi understood that the updated targeting package had made the decision that themassive dropship that the pirates had built or expanded their space slum around was now a priority.


It was one thing to see the images from a ship's telemetry at distance.


Akashi pushed the sticks on her mech forward, careful and mindful that she was in a moon's reduced gravity and that her gyro wasn't liking it. It wouldn't be an issue, she told herself. Her Light Company had the mission objective of taking the generators out that would blind the pirates to the arrival of forces from space. The briefing packet suggested that in theory the enemy might have comparable numbers to her force of mechs, but they also would be supported by turrets and vehicles... and they were pirates dirty tricks weren't out of the question.


She ordered the unit to follow her lead through the direct laser communication.


The Argo was massive. Its outline lay dominating the crater surrounded by the cobbled together pirate shanty town sprawling across the area.
--
Gene adjusted his avionics controls looking to see if either Radar tower's outputs gave any indication that they knew about them, had any inkling about how bad things were about to get. He wasn't really focused on the derelict... if something happened on that front he expected Dante to tell him. "Harry, what can I do for you?" He asked the ice cube in the Marauder II as the other pilot's face appeared.


"We are in position commander."


"Good," He had already known that because of the machine returns relaying through Dante aboard the Eisenhower, "Hold tight there until their turrets are taken off line." The plan was pretty simple they were going to leap frog position to position. Once Ronin and her Light Company executed the break through they'd pivot in and smash any responders letting the White Shields capitalize on the surprise.


The turrets didn't really worry him. They were mech scale weapons of course. They were dangerous but they couldn't move, and their articulation wasn't great... and of course they were dependent on exterior provided power. Take the generators out and the didn't have the ability to shoot. On a moon like Axlyus using auto-cannons while possible wasn't great for mechanics to keep guns working in optimal conditions... especially if you had dropships landing and dusting off with thrusters blasting moon dust and detritus hitting turrets.


If this had been a moon with full atmosphere they could have had manually controlled turrets to fire, but he doubted the pirates were that confident in their personal protective equipment to operate any slug throwers in direct fire mode. Ronin pushed her Marauder II forward... she had originally wanted a slot in the command company by replacing the Azami lieutenant operating a standard catapult. That wouldn't necessarily have been a good operational fit... but then they'd finished evaluating Axlyus as a target... and it made more sense to bring her light company along.


Missouri was the official name, what it had been registered as when they had arrived at Northwind from Lockdale, of the Star LordJumpShip. Still, as it had been ensconced amongst an exodus fleet of azami jumpships never mind the seizures from the pirates in the Aurigan Reach it had not attracted the same amount of attention as it might otherwise garnered. The Davions had probably noticed the Eisenhower but hadn't commented on the large aerodyne... they had paid attention to the heavily automated cargo carriers but only because they had landed at Northwind...


Harry was getting impatient to launch his part of the thrust, but not so impatient that Gene found the need to tell him to be patient. Eisenhower updated the telemetry as the Light Company tracked masking their advance through the terrain features, until they finally fired their jump jets to take them up onto the ridgeline. That was why they had brought the Marauder IIs in numbers. There was a nice avenue of approach that could take them directly to a firing position on the generators as well as the radar towers it was an excellent vantage point.


As soon as the weapon returns flashed in his thermals he looked at the hologram of the other pilot, "Alright Callahan go knock on their door."


The other ice cube nodded perfunctorily and began issuing orders to his at strength company moving them into motion as the Marauder IIs opened fire on vulnerable sensor platforms and power generation facilities. An LTV 400 fusion engine powering a series of medium laser turrets exploding in a shower of sparks and blue white man made lightning on his screen even as the other mechs began to move.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Axlyus Part 3: Dante Interlude
Dante monitored the movements with inhuman consideration for every piece of data that made its way back to the Eisenhower. He would have liked having direct communications with his counterpart responsible for Lockdale anchorage, but he had enough responsibilities in front of him... and at the moment that was the movement of the battalion assembled.


They overmatched the pirates. Sybil had perhaps a mech company of her own locally, they were prepared for that, but this was in effect a live fire training exercise... against real enemies yes, but not the same as fighting the Combine... or those who would wear the colors of the Rim World Republic.


The turrets which might have been a problem with they had been better concentrated... in the vein of a Castle, were spread out and poorly protected. They simply lacked the armor to withstand fire from even light battlemechs... but they looked impressive, and ringed the sprawl of ramshackle buildings... and it was likely the impression they gave rather than facts that deterred pirates, or the local territorial authorities from hitherto attacking Sybil.


This wasn't, he understood, like the situation at Fjaldr where the Aurigans actually exercised governing power in addition to laying claim to the system. Even in the Aurigans case it had been a mess to organize the political capital to hire the mercenaries originally planned to attack the clans on Fjaldr. Then there was the complexity of the anti aircraft guns, and radar installations. Most likely those had been here since the Star League era, whether they were originally SLDF or constructed by a territorial power they didn't mesh with the details of a ramshackle pirate band... they had been here long before Sybil's arrival. Once they were gone though they would evict the pirates, and prevent the ruins from being appropriated... at least easily, by any other would be bandit kingdoms looking to establish themselves on Axlyus.


Without the benefit of an, rather a strong one, atmosphere the PPCs transmissions were visible. If the pirates had had better sensors they could have surely detected the jump event that had brought them within striking distance. Even now, a small faction of his processing power a lesser portion of his attention was allocated to monitoring the Aerospace and small craft channels. The assault wings would carry vacuum rated armored suit clad marines to Axlyus once enemy ground defenses were eliminated the azami volunteers were prepared for amore aggressive incursion but Colonel Hamza's suggestion bordered on recklessness.


Whether or not the Argo could answer the questions they had was debatable. There was little reason to think given its departure time that the Argo would have the location of any successors to House Cameron, but Dante was sure that with appropriate credentials the ship's drives would yield a more complete picture of the Hegemony's operational status in the rimward periphery and that might in turn given them locations to Hegemony resources, and outposts.


Something to point them in the right direction.


It was in that which a greater portion of his processing power was allocated.


He had no ability to readily monitor the Azami. The community had long maintained a network of couriers, and money lending that had often vexed the Combine authorities, as well as as that of the Hegemony. Such practices had their root long before human spaceflight, and the exodus beyond Earth's gravity well. The Azami had always been a martial people. Shepherd's Maguanac corp called to a much older tradition, and while the Azami had never reached fame as private soldiers as the Scotch-Irish diaspora from Earth had made the status of highland troopers it was still a a mater of historical precedence.


That made some of Dante's work remitting publications outwards for outside consumption. Not that he was entirely convinced the Taurians took such statements at face value. Dante had been glad, perhaps as glad as Shepherd to depart peacefully from modern Taurian space. They were lucky that the slowness of HPG transmission of news to the Periphery worked in their favor... that for the majority of Taurian officials news of Elidere was unlikely to circulate wildly. ... but the Taurian foreign service could have hardly have missed save by that slow speed, and even then there were limits to that delay, the news of Dieron changing hands. That clearly also had had repercussions for ComStar.... and that was another matter.


There was a flurry of electronic information as another data packet unfurled into his regimental data and battle space mapping software. It detailed a series of common, to the periphery of the modern day especially, armored vehicles pushing through the lunar landscape into a direct engagement of 'mechs on the hilly surface of the moon. Hardly a challenge for the company of 'mechs with weapons, and machines that were equal or functionally improved versions of theStar League.


Dante was focused more on those friendly machines than on the bulldog and scorpion tanks they were engaging. The Technology of the early clans had no doubt matured in the following of nearly two centuries... which made the Dragoons appearance with unimproved, or for that matter reduced machines a concerning subterfuge. He didn't like it, and he thought his humans on Northwind were a bit too optimistic of what distant shared fraternity the clans of Kerensky's exodus might bare.... in the absence of the Hegemony's government his duty was to guide and advise... which meant protecting what slim fragments remained... and that meant securing the Argo in the short term and strengthening forces against more near enemies.


The scorpion was a light tank, and poorly prepared for being attacked even on the front by the Highlander in control of the formation. That was itself a reminder that at least in the early 29th​century Kerensky's exodus had not been so far removed from its roots even if it had also had its share of prominent marauders and other command battlemechs... like the Orion.


At least so far as the Ice Cubes of Lockdale knew none of their fellows had brought with them any of the Imp Command Assault BattleMechs that the Dragoons had arrived with in 3005. They had however known what they were, and that they had been a design created at the behest of Nicholas Keresnky at time when the exodus had been building Brian caches to story the thousands of machines that they had departed the Inner Sphere with. Even with just the machines from the brian caches that Kerensky's exodus had deposited machines into that would have been a marked sufficient materiel advantage against most combine defenders just before the start of the 2nd​Succession War.


Another burst of data tracking the vehicles continued approach, and advance into incoming hostile fire. Not that they had much choice. Axlus didn't have proper roads so much as pathways centuries of treaded vehicles and wheel moon buggies had graded out as the paths of least resistances... and the hills provided a good view point overlooking.


The Light Company had destroyed the generators providing power to the defensive turrets of course, which further weakened the pirate's ability to cover their own positions. It denied them any ... if unlikely... targeting data manned turrets might have been able to relay to missile tanks capable of firing indirectly. That and Akashi's force was likely no longer the pressing pirate concern with the White Shields having announced their presence.


"They are aware of your arrival." Dante remarked over the principle command channel. "I have increasing volume of chatter within the pirate's communications."


"They're using radio?" The young colonel replied.


"Yes, I expect fusion signatures to start appearing on scopes shortly, followed by Sybil herself taking the field. That would be advantageous." He couldn't physically nod of course, but he signaled an acknowledgement which for all intents and purposes the digital equivalent at the response that Shepherd would watch for fusion signatures, in the mean time, "There are a number of other vehicle signatures, but as of yet no sign of airpower."


"I take it the flyboys are getting impatient?"


"Aye," Dante replied.


"Air Defenses are down," He stated no doubt having double checked his local returns looking for any unpleasant surprises, "We will deal with those other tanks, I'll direct Akashi to move around the crash site."


The AI was already laying the update flight vectors for the air units, "Understood."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Axlus Drop Part 4
He couldn't hear the explosion of the tank as its ammunition cooked off but it registered on his sensors. "What is it Dante?" Shepherd questioned, working on maneuvering his Marauder carefully around the debris that crowded the rise which would let him overlook the battlefield. His avionics package was tracking the Rapier, and small craft that were burning down towards the crash sight. The Argo had clearly not impacted the lunar surface under thrust... it might have been a rough landing, but there was no signs it had been an actual crash. That raised questions, particularly if they could even relight the fusion drive, but the more of the dropship's hull he could see ...the more reassured he was that it could be recovered.


Could they do it today? Well that was a better question.


The White Shields constituted what was effectively a reinforced Company built around a base five system, which seemed to have been continued in its use by the Dragoons at times. To that end he'd made it clear that while the ice cubes could operate as they deemed fit here if they were going to remain with the unit given their SLDF skill level he had every intention of operating them instead as individual lances, and as a part of a command lance unit.


They hadn't ended up rushing into that before leaving Davion Space.


So here they were.


He blinked at the software's abrupt spasm of tables, heat chart information, ranging information and so on the filled the display. The technical information wasn't, well in the safety of a briefing room or an administrative center would have been one thing, but he wasn't sure what he was looking at otherwise. "What is this?" Obviously besides something that the AI thought was important. "They're running hot, but they were also on a rock in space that most people would have lazily described as airless so that was to be expected. Any Royal Technology system or Hegemony derived energy weapon tended to run warm in exchange for a greater range thus letting the enemy be kept at bay.


The wireframe diagram manifested. Energy weapon. Laser. Medium Laser.


The Extended Range concept as a weapon system wasn't new to the Hegemony. Both of his own Marauders mounted Hellstar ER versions that dated to the last decade of the Hegemony. The extended range large laser model had existed in the Hegemony since the early 27th​century, so Gene could understand why an Extended Range Medium Laser might be developed, or had been in development at the time of the Amaris crisis.


Certainly given time as a concept the Hegemony would have gotten around to it ... eventually. After all the Combine liked engagements at range between ronin and they had been the near peer opponent of choice.


If you could increase the range, why not increase the damage output. That would have given time, and the Davion crisis still in recent memory been the Hegemony's next step. For the Clans nascent as they had been during the pacification of the Pentagon Worlds these weapons had largely been footnotes in that 'Operation Klondike'. Hereon this backwater move it was unlikely they would attract attention, any after action reports that might reach even general unit circulation were unlikely to focus on weapon usage. The ice cubes left behind at the anchorage had no mechs which in name would have attracted any attention... nothing like the Imp that had been obvious from the beginning. The 331st​ had been a Hegemony Division, with the expected number of mechs... or at least what they brought with them were machines that would have better reflected common league era units.


So on that front, the extended range PPCs or the Marauder, and the Gauss Rifle range of a Highlander were such that frankly the pirates didn't have a reason to care. At long range they just knew they were taking incoming fire. Once the company engaged its pirate equivalent in the shadow of the mammoth DropShip resting its belly on the surface of the moon , it turned into a knife fight which was where all the heat on the thermals had come from as bothsides had turned around corners and fired wildly as shapes moved.


Gene navigated the Marauder along the ridgeline bringing his hull around to adjust as his targeting sensors processed the incoming. An Ostroc, in poor condition even before the fight, had attempted to get close before the gray white Marauder down below in the depression had opened up with its enhanced medium lasers in addition to its ER PPCs.


He would have ordinarily paid more attention to the, enemy, heavy battlemech but it didn't matter. The Ostroc was old yes, but it and the other machines that had sortied to fight them hadn't been prepared to face the incursion... not without their armor. Gene tapped his fingers on the console as the AI continued to speak. Back to the same old topics;

"It still doesn't explain why the Dragoons came into the Inner Sphere," In 3005, "With what they had."Hoplites, okay sure, but the Azami actually had working Gladiators in with their own Exodus fleet so he couldn't exactly hold that against them.


"An answer we are unlikely to gain without speaking to them... but we can both guess what it is." The Highland AI replied, "Especially given what these ones have told us of why they left the Clans behind." Not just that, there talk about Klondike had itself been a red flag. The Wolverines should have probably bolted then given its underpinnings... but he could no more change that than he could change the Amaris crisis.


The AI decided to change topic, as the aircraft made their final approach. Gene queued his throat mike, directing his laser comm's beam onto the company commander, "Captain, Marines are one mike out. Clear that landing zone for them." From where he was he had no line of sight on the battered remains of Sybil's personal lance.


It wouldn't matter per se. If the White Shields couldn't the Rapiers vectoring ahead of the slowing assault boats laden with heavily armed marines could just go in for guns if they needed to. As a commander he could have accepted that outcome, though he would have preferred that given their numbers, and the leverage if the ground combat arm had accomplished its mission... but it also seemed true that the White Shields had been trained up expecting to have combined arms support... which in contrast to how the Company normally deployed they didn't for this operation... even Gene personally felt a little off balance by not having his tanks available to him, but he was doing his best not to show it.


He received a gruff response from the Marauder as the machine accelerated to follow through. The pilot... who was close if not a little older, discounting the ice naps, than he was had floored the Marauder. The White Shields ranking officer was aggressive full forward throttle and opening up with his weapons... if this were a sustained engagement it would have overheated the DHS in short order, but the damage he was putting out blasted through the cover and concealment of the ferrocrete dome.


Even if Sybil turned to face the charging Heavy BattleMech it wouldn't have mattered. The rest of the heavy star was converging and at least one mech had direct line of sight because there were LRMs going vertical launch now.


The fusion signatures of the remaining opposing force started to wink out as the roundels on the wings of the heavy aircraft became visible to his Marauder's display. Gene surveyed his surroundings, another check of the area around him looking for any remaining threats ... but only the dull hum of the Argo's fusion reactor remained as a backdrop to the forest of friendly reactor icons on his HUD. That meant leaving things to the marines to take control and main engineering and then they would see if they could get the big bucket of bolts up and off the surface.


... and besides, as for the Clan's improvements on Hegemony weapons, well he had months to digest the damage and range outputs...before he had to consider talking to House Davion... since by that point most likely the Dragoons would have already been told about what had happened in the last days of the Star League... and House Kurita's treachery. A problem for another day, they needed to wrap up here, see what information the Argo could give them, and then move on to the Magistracy... and hope Septim hadn't been thrown into a major campaign on Detroit.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Interlude
Short ... well was accurate, she wasn't that short per se but whenever she saw her appearance on the tri-vid holographic media there were always taller people around. Always. Just like there had always been taller people in school. It had been part of her lot in life. Being famous did nothing to change her height.


She was on the holoscreens a lot now... it was awkward but her family hadn't been exactly wealthy. A commission wasn't cheap and the book deal had been too good to pass up.. and then it had exploded...which was even more embarrassing. The first book wasn't even a real romance novel and was the closest most accurate accounting of the events that had become known as the First Battle of Luxen... but it also had the much more catchy title.

Short had found herself becoming something of an armchair historian, chronicler as best, as accurately as she could the whole affair. She wanted people to remember the soldiers who had died, tothe extent she had lobbied and spoken for the establishment of a public memorial for the Luxen defenders. The planetary government hadvoted against that proposal, by slim margins, on budgetary grounds last year.


It had seemed like the best use of her little smidgen of fame, and moderate wealth.


Today's holo screen report had been a sudden breaking news report that had resulted in her publicist calling her in the morning immediately to talk about a new project to build on her existing publications. The books which had become the craze of society of allages and social classes were about to get another shot in the arm, because the local media outlet had just received 'big news', the latest round of footage from the Rimward Periphery... along with reports from customs and immigration that they had arriving guests to go along with the footage... but what that footage was, Short hadn't seen it yet just that it would effect her sales, and probably all the derivative works.


'The Shooting Star She Saw'. TS4 had been an immediate bestseller. She had included recollections of the entire campaign, but what people really latched on to were the heroics... or that had been her impression recounting the first battle of Luxen and its reception. To the point that some of her own sisters in arms had considered trying, if not seriously for breaking out into the mercenary trade... no one one she had known had ended up doing that because the Luxen Volunteers had been so hard up for personnel and for metal as well but it had taken cajoling.


... and threats ... not real threats but social pressure that the government on Canopus wouldn't have been happy if people sold their commissions at this stage to be mercenaries. That had probably dissuaded Lady Raventhir from hiring women from the volunteers even as she'd been looking for mercenaries. That was what it amounted to in the public eye as Raventhir fished around... that was how she had, freshly confirmed to the rank of captain, met Anastasia Volkov... who was taller than she was.


She'd been groggy this morning to try and deal with the excited babble. Lady Raventhir's summons had come into her terminal with the expectation that she report along with the other officers of note to Force Major Seghal for an emergency briefing on a day that she would have otherwise been free to enjoy time to herself... which realistically she wouldn't have because of her publicist but she had to figure that was because whatever the start of this was must have been something that could be transmitted from the JumpShips and that a fast boat courier had got into contact with Lady Raventhir after.


That was her guess as to why she was currently sitting next to the BattleMaster pilot... who at least looked equally out of place at this meeting which seemed more the important people of Luxen High Society than it was the planetary defense commission.


"If you haven't seen the morning news, then this is what its about," Someone she didn't recognize, but that wasn't anything new... one of the other changes was the rapid rotation of MIM personnel. The woman had an accent from somewhere else, somewhere that wasn't Luxen and wasn't Canopus... maybe New Abilene, and without any waiting the woman for the guests to settle activated the room's large holographic projector.


Short watched the orbital drop on Coromodir with rapt attention. She understood the academics of what she was looking at... not just the technical complexities of the maneuver but also the execution of the maneuver. The scale of the maneuver probably hadn't been rivaled since the downfall of the Star League at least in this part of the rim world periphery.


Volkov's second in command, a short Swedenese man named Hathaway, leaned overexcitedly having recognized what he was watching as well. It was thefirst time she'd seen the chain smoker so animated, but the woman whohad spoken up was already projecting the force arrangement. The MRB data rom was dated officially July of 3018... many months ago.


The two battalions of BattleMechs had apparently fought on Dieron which had caused a flurry of other whispers through the room. The highlander tartan wolf and sword, the dark blue and crossed pikes of the second were joined a more familiar icon from the MRB files. The red lion rampant on a field of gold was so Davion in character. The unit had only joined Shepherd after Luxen, they hadn't had a place in her book, or any of the subsequent ones, but Fiona had taken note of their place in Shepherd's Company.


One of her fellow pilots elbowed her in the ribs. The other vindicator pilots the other veterans of the second battle of Luxen were chattering. Chattering away as the orbital assault descended on the capital of the Aurigan Coalition... a much larger repeat of the first battle of luxen, against a much larger more committed enemy. The pirates were so much better equipped than either enemy during the battles of Luxen.


The battle recording suddenly asserted itself through the room's speaker system even as the order of battle continued to populate. The voice was slightly older, a little deeper than she remembered but familiar all the same. "This is Colonel Gene Shepherd, my Regimental Combat Team has made planet fall-" the recording cutoff as one of the pirates interrupted into a vulgar tirade as the government of the Aurigan coalition and the Magistracy's ambassador to the coalition had listened to the broadcast, as it was recorded for posterity for the room that Captain Fiona Short of the Luxen Dragoons was listening to now months later.


That wasn't bluster either, whether the veterans of the Luxen campaign, actions on Pioche either with Shepherd or those after he had left, the original mercenary force strength had been well known... Shepherd's Company as it had been incorporated had been a combined arms battalion the bulk of which had been the maguanac unit of armor for much of its weight. The post Davion campaign force was... Fiona couldn't exaggerate by describing it as massive. The existing forces had all grown, and whole new formations added to the overall command.


There was a pause as the force the recording continued to play and a heavy set merchant ambled forward with somewhat rheumy eyes he wasn't the sort of person who might have attracted much attention at all. He had to be Doctor Abner's age at least, the Azami smiled to the assembled mechwarriors, "As I have told Lady Raventhir, that the congregation, and brotherhood of heroes who rode to aid Coromodir, and assist the noble Aurigans in their time against Black Jack's outlaws should arrive in a few months here at Luxen."


Volkov's second in command leaned forward, "Ana, they're coming here? They're coming here?" He repeated excitedly, "Did you see," He asked rhetorically, "what they did on Coromodir?" She wasn't even sure that Lieutenant Hathaway could have before today found the Aurigan capital on a star map... she wasn't actually sure she could have found their capital on a map quickly, but that was something she planned to remedy after they were cut loose... she had a lot of ready to catch up on and figure out what all had changed in the last year since most likely if they were watching MRB confirmed battle roms then the information had been updated

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen Dragoons Interlude Part 2
Miranda Raventhir would have preferred greater control over the news, but she also accepted that was probably an unreasonable wish. The 'Second Battle of Luxen' the first actual incursion by BlackJack's pirates onto Luxen had occurred in the latter half of the summer of 3016. She would have preferred if the mercenaries small as they were would have remained available but there was wealthy, and then there were immense financial resources that her father and the organization he belonged to could afford to manage... and for all she knew looking at the reports this all could have been planned years in advance, though she doubted it. Raventhir didn't consider herself paranoid, though she did understand that the Azami had fled to the periphery looking for safety from some internal schism within the Combine but she hadn't been told about until later.


A fraction of the Azami apparently had hoped that given their dire straits that they might be able to locate some ancient Hegemony ruin and wake the sleepers within. To wake Hegemony soldiers and tell them what they had discovered about the Coordinator's conduct in the last years of the Star League... and it was she supposed plausible that that was what had happened with Shepherd. Someone had woke the young ace from a stasis tube... but there were details there that didn't quite line up with what she understood of the situation. It would have been better to have had Shepherd stick around even without knowing the truth.


Still having a Hegemony Gunslinger on call would have made her life much easier these last two years. She had made do with the resources her wealth allowed her access to, and that had meant scrounging for more mercenaries, but trustworthy ones had always been the trick in the trade. Still whatever had played out on Elidere had obviously been worth the money... Shepherd's Company had been shipped into the Inner Sphere being paid for the transit costs that entailed...which was to say effectively they had been paid twice for it since the Company owned its own JumpShips, and arrived on the Davion border in time to bushwhack an entire Combine Regiment.


The killing on Elidere ... a massed combined arms assault of his battlemechs and armor had resulted in the appellation of the Walking Death... among a host of other florid nicknames. That had only been the beginning of Shepherd's Company's tenure with House Davion.


It had been the following campaigning season, for the year 3018, which had included the battle of Dieron. That had marked the invasion and conquest of the planet by the Federated Suns. The MRB hadn't had the time to post that information back to the periphery, back to Luxen despite it being or perhaps because it was a six month journey one way from the Terran core of the Inner Sphere and the magistracy's rimward frontier.


She hated that. That such news had only arrived from a free trader now in the late fall of the year 3019 just as the massing exodus fleet was preparing was probably less than a month away from arriving at Luxen or would be if they were coming straight here. The Azami merchant who had arrived with the news broadcasts was carrying ROMs for what passed for a news service in the Aurigan Coalition, which was to say a state sponsored broadcasting corporation. The local MRB office for the Aurigan capital had signed and documented the most recent information. Apparently the Regimental Combat Team hadn't been overly worried about the Aurigan's ability to pay since they were being offered a bounty... really a king's ransom from the Precentor of New Avalon for actions taken against Black Jack.


The letters from the Precentor of New Avalon had authorized Shepherd's Company to take legal possession of Black Jack's vessels, and other material goods as bounty in reprisal for the pirates acts against civilized space. On the surface the letters of marque were not a novel development, but they gave Shepherd's Company the ability the legal resources to register seized vessels and material under the MRB ineffectively overnight turn around, and it gave him legal protection authorized by one of ComStar's first circuit on top of the bounty in c-bills for pirates killed or captured... and Shepherd reportedly did seem to be making an effort to arrest and capture pirates where that was available.


The Azami merchant bowed slightly, a repeat of the gesture he had made during their formal introduction at the star port, "I have the honor of being permitted to open dialogue ahead of our fellows arrival."


"Do you know when that will be?" Raventhir responded, not quite curtly, but from what she gathered at least the massed fleet of jumpships was unlikely to just appear over Luxen and cause a panic... at least she hoped that wouldn't be the case. It wouldn't matter what markings they bore, the sudden arrival of that much mass at zenith or nadir carrying so many military dropships would be mistaken for an invasion force by the public. Luxen had been menaced by far smaller numbers in 3016 and the people might panic before the images solidified and distributed out to the public at large.


"In the new year, Colonel Shepherd means to lay waste to the pirate base on Axlyus and make a circuit around Detroit denying them staging grounds," Which was of course good news but she doubted, given the news out of the Aurigan Reach that any pirate band up to and including Black Jack himself would be looking to directly engage a full scale regimental combat team... and she could only imagine the contents of the report the straios on her staff would be sending to Canopus proper based on what the Azami had carried in terms of spoken, as well as recorded roms of battle against the pirates. "Many of these men have chosen to wear the colors of the satan Amaris, and it is thus they must be driven far from the boundaries of civilization if not killed outright." The man spread his hands broadly that only emphasized the stretched skin around arthritic digits.


"Good," Was the partially drunken slur from the robed ComStar figure, 'Friar Tuck' was also a portly man, though many years younger, "killing all of them would be for the best." He remarked straightening. "I took the copy of Precentor NewAvalon's letter to Precentor Luxen..." She had seen the letter of introduction... not that it was really needed. The cover sheet of introduction was formality... what was more important was the bounty on the pirates, and even more so than that that Shepherd had been provided legal sanction to seize and take ownership of pirate materiel... including their space borne assets jumpships, and dropships. Something to which Friar Tuck proceeded to outline, a bit unnecessarily for her.


She supposed that Tuck's statement could have been taken to reassure the representative from Luxen's planetary government that Shepherd's presence was unlikely to bankrupt the planet. A veteran battalion of highlanders would have been an unthinkable expense only a decade earlier on the eve of Black Jack's arrival in the rimward periphery. "Should we expect the entirety of the RCT?" She settled for asking the merchant instead. "And if so when?


The man spread his hands a little wider, and sighed wizendly, "I would not say no, but the community must visit many of our distant cousins. Perhaps one of the other Regiments," He remarked. "Many of the warriors will be required for our own protective duties," There was a pun there on the legal name of the company, "Given however Luxen's importance we could hardly make excuses to leave you without protection."


It was more than that. The last stint Shepherd's Company had worked for her, and the Magistracy more broadly had brought with it access to their own JumpShips. That had been invaluable, not just because it had allowed them to carry the expedition to Pioche in the first place but it had also bolstered trade missions she had wanted to support during a time of uncertainty. JumpShip captains were uncertain of their safety with Black Jack running around, and that had driven rates up in the periphery for fear that pirates would attack them. Even a temporary influx of available carrying capacity would be good for the region, and for the Magistracy more broadly.


She could live with all of that. The Magestrix, and the MIM, would have been more than a little alarmed if she had had the ability to retain the entirety of the mercenary army. In practice, in the legal fiction of such things she was shouldering part of the burden. House Raventhir would pay the lion's share of the bond for the contract but Luxen's planetary government would be involved.


That still didn't mean her resources were infinite. Luxen could in theory make more compromises if the planetary government chose to. The MIM was going to scrutinize whatever they did, there would be criticism if she went too far, or if Luxen's government didn't go far enough. Not for the first time Raventhir wondered exactly what the drunk priest representing the MRB here actually knew as the man shuffled through his sheaf of papers. "Well," He coughed slightly, "we should talk about what assets would be available. I can draw up recommended market rates of course."


She frowned. The truth was that ComStar's compounds had been largely content to rely on hires of vehicles, and infantry to protect their little enclaves... but that had been enough to protect them from minor disturbances not Black Jack's predations. She wouldn't have been surprised if the Precentor Luxen did more than just ask the planetary government to consider ComStar's station here for needing additional protection... or if Olaf Fredericksen didn't decide to make a personal appeal when Shepherd's Company arrived in force... at least this wasn't likely to turn into a bidding war. "We would like an expansion of our previous contracts," Raventhir found herself saying almost mechanically... she had planned to lead into this.


"Of course, the fleet and the support personnel," The Merchant smiled a portion of the old gentleman slipped, in favor of calculating buisnessman, "I can give you estimates on available carrying capacity, and where our techs stand." Just as her office had already been furnished with estimates of various goods from the Inner Sphere that the Azami had brought to trade already. "As I understand it you have received a company of Merlins."


"Yes, and we have a number of Cicadas that we were hoping to modify along lines you may be already familiar with." To make the best use of what resources that they had available. It had been something they had discussed anyway... they just the Luxen Dragoons as a skeleton formation simply didn't have the personnel necessary to do the work, and Majesty Metals while it expressed interest similarly declaimed having the resources for such at this time.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Interlude Pirate Wars Davion II
Alexandria was exhausted, but she could legitimately lay claim to participating in the battle on the line rather than as a staff officer. There were fresh stencils from enemy mechs that she could say were her work. Robinson was safe; the Kuritan positions enveloped and overwhelmed. House Sandoval had had generations to prepare their world for a serious combine attack, and Lord Aaron's ancestors had used that time well. The Combine had mounted repeated sorties , sometimes against defenses that Lord Aaron had already withdrawn from , to the extent that she couldn't understand what the Combine leadership hoped to accomplish by this action. Waste lives, the Prince's Champion had suggested.


Hellcats secured from the Brian Cache that had been located here were being kept in reserve as the air situation had stabilized, but if the Combine had hoped to pillage and loot SLDF stockpiles that objective had been put aside by the opportunity to fight the Draconis March Brigade those pilots and contributions the DMM had assembled for the Dieron and Altair campaigns. They had plowed into fortresses of steel and prepared armor.


It might have lacked the mobility of Shepherd's movements, but Lord Aaron had greater numbers, and knew the terrain like the back of his hand. His understanding of the whole situation around him seemed almost prescient at times... but she supposed if she were ever put into a situation of defending her House's patrimony of Kestrel that she would be half as a good at least.


The most recent conflict showed that the Combine was prepared to commit to reckless offensives to show that they still had the will to fight... a will that had never been in question to their hereditary enemies... but the Combine seemed determined to leave no doubt. As if this attack weren't enough, her latest report from New Avalon, made possible by the HPG live transmission from the capital, had included confirmation of the Combine's Arkab Legions moving to raid the Free Worlds League... but she could make sense of that. She had been on Dieron after all, though there had been no explanation for how the Coordinator had found out about their conclusions.


The HPG network with which Combine facilitated her live communications with New Avalon from Robinson seemed likely an answer... but of course ComStar proclaimed its neutrality. That it was beyond their remit to interfere in the mail and messages of their clients. She thought it absurd, but it was the simplest of answers some combine spy had managed to pay the sums necessary for a direct transmission to Luthien and relay that not only had House Davion's invasion of a district capital succeeded they had taken the provincial archive intact... and the work put in to catalog that.


She wouldn't have been surprised if they might have the digital copies of the archive, the searchable database. That was what her mentor the Duchess of Victoria had warned her about, that most likely the Combine's penetration had gone that far. There was nothing they could do about it, and the archive was the Combine's own so it wasn't as if they hadn't, shouldn't have access to the information in any event. It was just the ISF was supposed to protect the Combine from internal security threats it was in their name after all.


It had nothing to do with the attack on Robinson she decided tiredly slumping into the chair of a waiting room within the fortress. She was looking forward to returning to New Avalon. That would entail still more work though. Her latest report form New Avalon had included the estimated travel itinerary of where Shepherd's Company should have been by this point in the periphery, assuming they had stuck to the schedule. The Precentor New Avalon Huthrin Vandal had stated that he had encouraged his fellow precentors to ask their local MRB offices to pass along quickly any updates of the war with the pirates. The Precentor New Avalon was very eager, perhaps as much as they were for news of the conflict. From what Alexandria understood each pirate dead was by itself a sizable bounty... which meant ComStar would be paying a lot of money, and Vandal had given Shepherd the rights to seized jumpships, which would add to the capacity he had.


"Uh, Ma'am." Brevet Lieutenant Sutton was still a slim small figure, his uniform seeming outsized, the missile boat pilot was still officially a cadet at Robinson Battle Academy, but he had been at Dieron, and before that on Elidere, which had meant when the Combine had arrived he'd retaken his place with the brigade and had seen action. "The Colonel," Meaning the Duke of Robinson, "has asked for you to join the other officers in the war room."


She had been expecting that. She would be glad when she returned to New Avalon, but for the moment she was here, and she had responsibilities here. The walk was a short one, she outpaced unintentionally the lieutenant, she more than knew her way around the AFFS command center that was the Ranger's garrison. Bard was already there of course, the transition to the Highlander had suited the Ranger well.


Inside the men waited a holographic recording of battle demonstrating one part of the defense's conclusion.


And, in that the defenders of Robinson had played pipes and drums in the turning of the enemy flank, as massed armor had advanced to roll up the Combine salient cutting their formation from their dropships. That itself would make for footage that the DMM and AFFS High Command would insure played heavily in the news media for the public at large to watch. That was going to be a continuing them going forward, increasingly reiterating such commitment. "I want this sent to Northwind, immediately. "Lord Aaron told his second in command. The Ranger's officer nodded. Bard Cameron flashed a cheeky smile to with his acknowledgement.


It was a reminder to Alexandria that there was a disagreement between the Field Marshal of the Draconis March and the Prince's Champion... and that the First Prince hadn't yet weighed in. Both Field Marshals distrusted the Field Marshal of the Capellan March, and his ability to watch his sector. That was, basically now public knowledge, it was a minor scandal to New Avalon but too much of the capitals gossip was, were the victories that had begun in April of 3017 when the Galedon Regulars had been devastated under a similar Highland March.


Though Shepherd had departed for the periphery the lasting impression made on Elidere, and continued forward by the actions on Dieron, and the seizure with alacrity of San Martin reverberated through the news. That too had been punctuated by pipes, and drums march. A tradition heavily associated with the highlanders, and it thus was concerned that it would draw attention to Northwind, not necessarily from the Combine, though that was possible, but from the Capellan March.


As it was Alexandria hoped that the victory here, and with the Combine reportedly sending the Arkab legion to raid the Free Worlds League would mean the coordinator had no reserves to mount further offensives against the border worlds, or strike at Dieron, or Altair, or indeed Northwind. Lord Aaron Sandoval, duke of Robinson nodded at the Arkab Legion being brought up, "Shepherd left with many Azami, the Combine going hunting for birds might seem foolish on our end but they might not think it wise to send the Legion if they might then switch sides." The ISF did attach political officers, but if the Legion did mutiny... if say Shepherd revealed the betrayal of his own people to Amaris by the Combine, then it was likely to stop a Legion incursion in its track... but not say, the Sword of Light.

... at least she assumed that might have been the thinking... but the Combine could hardly have planned the offensive knowing Shepherd was now deep in the Rimward periphery with the exodus, or at least not have known for sure that was how things were going to be.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Detroit
Gene pressed the acknowledgement of the receipt. The Argo was a hot mess. A lived in mess. It had probably also been a vanity project... a demonstration of how oblivious the league had been. He was going to be glad when they returned to Detroit, but they were going to have to over the ship with a fine tooth comb... but the fusion drive worked, and it was safely docked. They wouldn't have any personnel aboard the secured Argo when they made the Jump to depart the system. It was just safely berthed and shut down. That was enough for the time being at least.

They'd figure out an answer to where they could even dock the ship when they could. He really didn't want to keep it docked aboard a jumpshp until they could make back for Davion Space, he hoped they had another option than Lockdale. There was a lot of work that would need to be done, and he just didn't know enough about the Magistracy's ship crafting capabilities to plan for their assistance.


It was going to be something to leave to engineers... and as much as Dante wanted to issue orders that until the ship was safe, and insured structurally sound it needed to be picked over. The Argo was a remnant of the Star League... was a relic of the Star League rather. That went back to needing to go over the ship carefully. In the mean time, he had other things to do, and would worry about the Argo after, the Company had other business to contend with... which the centuries old hegemony AI seemed to deem less critical as the waveform manifested, "I read the summary." he told the thinking machine, even though his acknowledgement of the receipt should have been processed by the AI.


"Given the condition of the collar system we might be able to mount a leopard aboard." Gene nodded, "The ASF bays will need to be worked on an overhauled. Launching and recovering would be hazardous in the present conditions." No surprise there, and the condition of small craft spaces were little better.


"I was under the impression there was a second collar point?"


There was a gruff noise from the AI's speaker on his desk, "non functional due to age. We will need to repair the power system in order to bring the mechanical facilities and automation back on." The Argo had never been intended for much in the way of armor, which had arguably be a failing found in things like the Overlord as well. "The drive system needs an extensive overhaul before we will be able to maintain regular power."


"Its amazing there is power at all."


"The Argo was built with secondary fusion reactors, "That was hard to miss from the rear photographs, the trio of drive exhausts , but that feature was fairly standard on other DropShips, certainly given the hundred thousand tons the Argo displaced on a starship metric Galax's shipwrights had learned something from the Behemoth's first go around the shipyard."


"It is feasible to repair the ship, is there a yard?"


"In the periphery perhaps not, withdrawing to the Inner Sphere is likely our only option for a full scale overhaul."Lockdale, but that wasn't really news. "There is one other matter, the Mech Bays appear to be configured for a base six configuration, spread across three bays."


"The Argo can't land on planets," He pointed out unnecessarily, "It would have made more more sense to carry 18fighters in their place," But no, for whatever reason the Argo seemingly built by some mad schizophrenic carried extensive facilities for machines of BattleMechs, heavily automated systems the black box facilities of the machine shop were complex... bringing them back on line would have been a boon... and yet to have built the Argo with them would have been a grandiose vanity There was no explanation for that.
--
His office on Detroit was a small ferrocrete block house like most of the buildings that had been built. It was functionally undistinguishable save for the signs out front. It was a boring building without much in the way of creature comforts... but hardly a priority since they werne't sure how long they would even be staying on the planet. Septim double checked the manifest, but it was still correct. There were no faults with it... and he would have been happier he supposed if it didn't feel like he was just rubber stamping the merchants work. The boss had left him in command of the Company'score Regiment... but in truth that entailed having to contend with Holmgren and the grizzled old scot responsible for still other units, and then Hammer too... as if that weren't enough then there were the regiments of the combat team formed and their supporting forces. Both Azami colonels could readily appeal to the elders of their community, and the boss wasn't here to put a stop to that.


They were supposed to be holding position. Insuring Detroit couldn't be threatened, on guard against pirate incursion and so forth. The Azami regiments were looking for action, which was true of Bardiche and Claymore. It was true of Bubbles for that matter, the Atlas driver since she had moved to piloting that for the command responsibilities of it was likewise another voice advocating that they push the situation.


They were supposed to stay put, and watch the merchants. It wasn't glamorous, and after the long haul in the Aurigan campaign had been an oasis of action for the stir crazy warriors after the desert...and that had been a description thrown around. There were no moral quandaries to worry about, see pirates, kill pirates.


The situation was complicated by the psychotic killers running around in fucking Rim World colors, but even for that Septim could say it made things weirder but didn't' change things. It was Fjaldr, not Coromdir that had really stirred up the hornets. The boss had shot down the rim job assault mech... but what they hadn't told the Aurigans as the techs had been pulling the mech apart was that it was broadcast Rim World Army identification... they had told the Aurigans that there was an Amaris on the pirates side... maybe not their main leader but there ... in the leadership.


That couldn't be anything but bad.


Not that showing at Aea there hadn't been bad, he didn't envy the Aurigans their problems with the Taurians at all. There were a lot of recriminations being thrown around there... but there hadn't been anything anyone really could have done to stop the pirates from leaving. Blaming the other side for it wasn't going to fix it, and didn't change the fact that the pirates were out there. For that much Septim was glad to be out of the Aurigan Reach, and away from the Taurian frontier... but Detroit was important enough to have a Combine Legation and the minister for trade well, the situation would have been a mess even without the pirates, would have been a mess even if they hadn't shown up with the Exodus fleet to protect. Detroit's media was all over the news from the Inner Sphere... and of course with Azami merchant convoys having already left Detroit the news would now be proceeding their arrival anywhere else.


That would be a change. He knew the flow of news could be slow but his brief stint home over the border home had been skeptical about things. There was a chime that stirred him, "Come." He ordered reflexively.


"We have mass activity at Zenith, I'd say they're back." The baritone voice declared. The other Alexander, the free worlder was no relation, had command of the independent fire support company of 1st​ Battalion, which really meant he was part of a functionally very large headquarters force. The boss had mentioned wanting to reorganize the Regiment's table but there was too much other stuff always going on... and they didn't have breathing room for it. "The flyboys with the fleet are just making sure, but given the mass readings from the pulse I'd say its them."


But policy still dictated that they should issue orders to the formation. "I'll ring Hammer," Septim reached for the phone and dialed the armor officer. The friesland officer probably wasn't especially happy babysitting the locals though readily excepted that if things dropped into the pot it would be the Regiment which did the real fighting, and accepted that.
--

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars


The devastation of the succession wars had revitalized the mercenary trade. The mercenary companies of the late third millennium were both a response to the attempts to realign the star league under a new ruling house, and a response to the manpower needs caused by the devastation. And so going into the 4th​ millennium, the3000s there was a wide ranging number of professional soldiers for hire by those with money.

ComStar was responsible as the bonding authority of mercenaries through the MRB. It had as a result a number of responsibilities such as minimizing the uncertainty already too frequent in the business of war. The MRB held the contracts, often had a hand in negotiating the terms for both sides, and in theory was there to insure fair dealing... but that too often depended on the authorities involved.

For the mercenaries there was always the fear of being bilked of their pay or shot down by their employers looking to avoid paying in full. There were other concerns, of active malicious usage of their lives, or being faced with some great name or social general who played at soldiering with real lives on the line.

ComStar held the contract, and also served as escrow for the funds to keep mercenaries in the field, which was an additional service not necessarily a standard one, but one used frequently by contracted soldiers. ComStar also facilitated the purchasing of replacement materiel, and hiring on new soldiers, and the berths to ship men across the stars. For which the MRB was complemented with compensation from the hiring or purchasing party, and sometimes by the sellers and hirees as well.

It behooved ComStar's MRB to make sure that both sides kept up their ends of the contract, and while those fees for services were taken with grumbling most of the time it saved men's lives. Friesland had raised a mercenary force and then had tried to double cross them. They had gotten out of it, without being declared bandits for just how badly Trump had screwed up his part of it, that there was no way for the government of the planet to escape censure... but it had told Hammer enough to load up his surviving troopers and get out of the Federated Suns.


Not all of those professional soldiers had the means to build a BattleMech force. Mechs were expensive to the point of pricelessness. Hammer's blue eyes narrowed at the local bulldogs which were fine enough tanks if they weren't still parade colors to reassure the poof industrialists. The bright garish colors would only draw enemy fire. It was why Hammer appreciated Shepherd's insistence that all camouflage be applied to the units. That applied to the Azami light horse regiments supporting them even though only part of those 'mech units were deployed on Detroit. The Light Mechs were scouting and harassing forces and also intended to paint forces hostile to the Regiment for the air power to remove.

At the time they had been planning for the Elidere contract... the down time while in transit to Elidere they had been in talks to purchase Partisans or some other tanks and hire on troopers to man them when they stopped over for the Highland Faire after the contract finished. Then the Elidere campaign had happened. People with money and connections had bought up whatever was available, so Shepherd had made good plans by putting tanks from Star League depots into storage and allocated money to hire new troopers on.


There was still decent money in the Periphery for men who knew their trade but hadn't forgotten his homeworld's betrayal... and some of his originals among the white mice had been leery to go back to the Suns even if it had been the Draconis March. Elidere had mostly assuaged the men that they wouldn't be tried to gotten back at. He'd still watched for the spooks keeping an eye on them, but Robinson had had a tanker for planetary ruler and even without Elidere under their belt tankers would have enjoyed a bit more respect than normal... with participation holding 1st​ Battalion 19th​Galedon in the pot they had dropped into then they hadn't needed to buy drinks at the hotel bar.

It had been a refreshing change of circumstance.

Detroit, coming back to Rock City had driven home how much the situation had changed. Hammer had been trying for the last few years to keep the unit afloat. That hadn't been easy when they'd been cut off from Friesland, and because of that had only limited contact with back home. Alois Hammer watched the Fury tank's communications suite brighten to life. The tank was a product of the finest minds of the earth that had been, of Terra's golden age. The Hegemony Tank though not as fleet as the blowers favored by old Earth was still capable of managing the company's actions with ease, such was the processing power of its computers. Hammer almost believed the scuttlebutt that the things could think on their own.

The stellar plane of the system appeared which told him enough even without the company's communication line ringing. The lyran's voice was easy going... not that he'd ever said so but Alois had always thought Septim Alexander was a little too laid back even if he made a good relations officer with the contracting authorities. "We have mass activity at the jump point, given its size pretty sure its the boss jumping back in, but procedure is to-" Hammer was already ordering the tankers to do what they were supposed to be doing if anything significant showed up at the Jump points in system so he didn't really need the Lyran telling him his business.

Even as they were still waiting for the painfully slow minutes it took to resolve images from the jump point Hammer was already insuring that his artillery were carefully prepared, and that the trailers full of ammunition were ready to be moved with the howitzers if this was a fight. The warning, and briefing in the event of contact with Black Jack's core force. The instructions were fairly simple his tanks were to form a cordon and prevent a breakout, and if Hammer deemed it to be sufficient he was to order the steel rain onto the invading position's head. There was afire release authorization for the LosTech Chapparals among other artillery just in case the pirates were able to be bottled up near their landing site.

The planning systems were arranged on color coded 'cases'.

Hammer didn't expect Case 'Black' and 'Red' would be necessary but the senior officers of the company were prepared for a scenario where it might. Case Black was a nightmare scenario, based around what might happen if this Amaris pretender had the same kind of support to swing a hidden army force enough to fight their RCT, it was based on lessons learned by the SLDF the last time and RCT had found itself on the back foot on Detroit. It was also the reason why they had accepted only limited native support in building their fortifications on North. Case Red only slightly more optimistic was if they became entangled in a fight with a near peer force or 'honorable third party' getting involved. The Capellans, Taurians, or the Combine's anomalous presence out this way... but Hammer understood that if push came to shove his flanking force had the artillery command since the assumption was that most of the force engaged at the front would be the Azami.

Somewhere on the open channel someone breathed a sigh of relief. Two fast moving heavy dropships had detached, another large aerodyne joined them filling the system with electronic traffic. To standard warbooks of the Star League era they registered as two pentagons and a Titan class.

To his IFF beamed down from the satellites they had put in orbit they registered in Terran White as Braunfelds, Hedgwig, and Eisenhower. Other returns populated confirm the detaching of dropships, and lighting fusion drives to ships of Shepherd's Company even if most of them were Azami crewed.

Hammer checked his displays groundside. They were going to have to reassure the poofs that things were okay. Detroit was too important a position to leave undefended and they had put in orders for more ammunition in the expectation that there would be fighting.

The view screen feed which had predominated his attention before the signals from orbit had been piped into his main display returned to the forefront. The local militia bulldogs had halted on their movements. Some of them were now stuck on the highway, others blocking intersections. The civilians watching the parade had all frozen up... which was bloody typical. Someone must have told them of the arrival at the zenith jump point of the jumpships, but not waited for positive identification. Hammer expected that there were would be clogged roads as dusk approached as some people made the choice hurry up and beat the rush by fleeing into the countryside before fast burning dropships could arrive to menace the planet.

... with their ground cars laden with most of their belongings headed out for the bush.

--
There was still something of a panic ongoing even as the task force returned to the embrace of the planet's gravity well. The planetary officials as he'd been warned during transit first by his local officers, and then as messages to his inbound dropship told him enough. The Precentor Detroit was a very nervous man, understandable given the number of horrifically murdered colleagues he'd experienced of late... apparently after escaping over the border into Capellan space the mad man Kristofur Kelly had not only raided a spate of Capellan worlds, he had done so by liberally pillaging escoriciating Inner Sphere institutions with both mech scale flamers and rhetoric that borrowed heavily from the Rim World Republic. His blood letting had focused on ComStar personnel of course, but also on Capellan nobility as well as the schools and institutions of learning that existed on the worlds he had hit. That was an escalation, and a significant one.

Civilian casualties according to estimates for the raids launched after Fjaldr up until a week ago had now climbed into the millions of dead. That might have seemed high but Kelly had had not compunction of poisoning water supplies , or destroying water purification systems on worlds on the frontier of the Inner Sphere. Then there were also the captives who had been marched off world into presumable slavery as well.

MacIntyre had suggested that it was possible that Kelly would proceed to jump the border to the Free Worlds League next escaping Capellan space, but that was hardly reassuring. The Precentor Detroit didn't have the credentials or materiel wealth that his nominal counterpart on New Avalon did, instead what Detroit had done was to beg the PNA in a live broadcast for support before the First Circuit. For additional funding, so that more bounties might be issued, and that the existing 'Level II' gendarmes to which ComStar nominally relied on for their local security be expanded that they could hire full time mercenaries.

Gene had little intention of garrisoning Detroit for long. The longer they stayed here the longer they risked a fight with the combine. On the other hand he did want to secure a supply base on Aquagea just a precautionary measure. He was tempted to scrap that though it was four jumps, as much as he wanted to contribute material back to the Outpost Castle there and perhaps even post a small scratch force he needed to get the Azami Exodus fleet underway and out deeper into the black. The Azami trade caravan, the merchants who had been planning to remain behind and remain the eyes and ears of the community had planned to follow the standard merchant route to where the border of the FWL and Magistracy met. That detachment would officially be on long term mercenary contract with a prominent azami merchant house a legal fiction to support those units as part of the Company to the MRB. Even that was a recent expansion of the plan.

There was however another route possible that would save them time.

Cate's Hold had held an SLDF base ashad Brixtana just over the Magistracy border, both were a jump frompastoral new abilene, a jump from Bonavista... a world which Precentor Detroit had recommend as their next target because it was apirate base preying on merchant shipping. Bonavista was a jump fromJoppa and thus if they could strike it wipe it out and then move overthe Magistracy border from there would shorten their travel time...and Gene knew he had antsy mechwarriors looking for the next fight.From a strategic stand point though, it was a reminder that theyneeded better starcharts. Relying on merchant charts which hadallowed worlds to fall off because they didn't do enough business orhad passed away and star league charts which were hopelessly out ofdate meant going in blind to systems.

Still the Azami elders had demanded for a bigger role in pirate operations, so if they still wanted it, then there was one right there while he stocked aquagea with war materiel. First though he needed to talk to Detroit's government, and hte Precentor, and then read his staff into the latest developments... then go talk to the elders as well.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Detroit
The Eisenhower's allotment of rooms was spacious, comfortable. It made an excellent meeting place for his assembled commanders ahead of the planned meeting groundside with the rest of the command. Gene settled into the chair as the attenuating hologram wave form of Dante signalled he reviewed the footage sent up from the ground station. "Who gave the order for the unit to be bushwhacked, after the unit recovered the incriminating holovid that we're all privy to?"


"I do not know." Tai-sa Bey replied. The honesty was refreshing, and the lack of bluster more so. It was annoying that the colonel didn't know who had ordered the attack that had gotten all of this rolling, but at least, Gene appreciated he wasn't being lied to. "That is the problem, the order was abrupt."


Probably because of the combine command chain, but also, "Because House Kurita was being blackmailed by the footage?" He assumed it was in the past tense in any event, but the whole affair stank to high heaven.


"The coordinator conspired with the Satan Amaris, but we only learned that after the attack was botched."


"Yes," Gene replied, "But who was trying to do the black mail, who benefitted from holding that information over the Combine?"


"ComStar." Dante replied interrupting the conversation.


"Is he right?" Gene asked.


"Yes. There was communication. We simply, we originally believed that the communications were simply a matter as intermediary."


Dante interrupted again, "It is possible that it was a rogue action, did you know there are data markers left over in the archive footage." The AI really wasn't asking a question because he continued on immediately, "The transmission is a copy from a central archive on Terra," specifically one in North America, "but the date of the copy is from 3005." When the galaxy had changed irrevocably when the Dragoons had arrived... but the dates didn't line up. The copy had been made before the Dragoons reported arrival.


That put a kibosh on the light horse officer's initial theory about the date. "It also doesn't make sense that they'd wait that long, when did things get out?"


"Before the Sword of Light left to," Do, "battle on Halstead Station." Ardeth replied, "The decision to flee had been hasty, and then the Coordinator chose to meet Prince Hanse in battle in defense of Mallory's World, and that battle distracted any pursuit I think."


Gene got up to pace, and then nodded, "We don't know enough about the situation... and yes Dante is right ComStar's archives probably has no shortage of black mail material. The ISF commissar, "Not the man's official title of course, "On Elidere with the19th​ had an HPG command stick, it was preconfigured with the battle roms of the 19th's fight up until then."


"Do you have it in your possession?"


"No, it was turned over to Davion intelligence, ComStar didn't realize what it was until they got the device active and pulled the data from it, but the Precentor New Avalon was pretty furious by all accounts." Gene replied to the other colonel's question, "Anyway the long story short, is I think there is a lot going on that we don't get... the copy from the archive was pulled after attacks on ComStar stations in the former Rim World on modern the Combine-Lyran border. I'm speculating but I think that the Coordinator was going to be blackmailed to attack Black Jack... but then the Dragoons showed up."


"Do you believe so sir?"


"Its just a guess, but also ComStar underwent a change in leadership, a change in head priest if you will. I guess there was a scandal, but one they kept under wraps..." He blew out a breath, "Anyway, I just wanted to read you in on where we stand Colonel Bey, we're going down into the Gravity Well tomorrow and make plans on where to go from there." In the mean time... Dante had put together an exhaustive report that Gene was only half way through on the footage from what Kelly had gotten up to on the Capellan frontier.


That was material he needed to finish before the Eisenhower descended tomorrow.
--
Bubbles had not taken the news, or the footage of damage reports from Kelly's foray into Capellan space well. They had expected that but she hadn't been purposefully excluded from the briefing the day before... that had explicitly been about the Azami and the Combine. As for the fighting in Capellan space current estimates from the fighting put Kelly's Commandoes at an over strength possibly square battalion with a sizable baggage train. Plenty of infantry and hovercraft that were of similar models as they'd encountered on Fjaldr. It seemed likely the bastard had been the one to find that cache of old machines.


Gene would have liked to have been able to do more than reiterate the objective. The mission did take priority. If they found Kelly,then yes obviously they'd put paid to that, the bastard deserved it but, "We should probably accept that Kelly had plans to go back to Capellan space. It was bad luck we didn't catch him on the ground at Fjaldr," He declared trying to keep an even tone. "We need to continue to eliminate places like Fjaldr." Eliminating Grim Sybil's base on Axylus could be said to do that, "I'm going to put together a following task force to hit other pirate bases and clear them out, but we are not a making a return to the Inner Sphere until the Exodite fleet is safely departed our charge." That was the objective of the company. The Precentor New Avalon had asked for Kelly Dead or Alive and they might in the face of this go for it...but not without more information, and a more permanent basing. "We're going to Luxen in the short run, and given ur Cruine and Duianshire we will probably need to stage forces there as well." They were likely going to be tempting targets for pirates looking for material gain.


The Magistracy and the industrialists were in agreement about looking to protect those planets, and their investments. They'd discuss such arrangements further though only in more concrete terms once they reached Luxen, and once the Azami were safely away. A point that he had needed to make repeatedly. The Precentor Detroit continued to lobby for whatever parts of his time the robe could manage to gather, and was even as Gene sat surrounded by his staff twiddling his thumbs no doubt behind the safety of the fortifications erected by Azami industrial mechs and pioneers.


Those fighting positions were reinforced by Badger and Bandit vehicles supplied to the company as part of the last order from Blackwell as part of the payment from the Davion contracts. There were plans to continue to patronize Blackwell for parts and supplies and vehicles but Dante, and Gene would have been lying to deny that they hoped to locate Brian Caches, and stockpiles meant to support the regiment, and expand its force... which was the next topic on the agenda.


He was really hoping that the Azami didn't start dueling, as was the popular rumor, for assigning allotments to the 'active' portion of the force. Garrison duty was he allowed boring, but Alamut far out in the black needed protection.


"A battalion, is a formidable force in this day and age." The older of the two Azami regimental commanders observed, speaking over Colonel Bey "indeed for the Capellans, and their limited numbers it must be of grave concern to face machines of the Star League on their periphery frontier, and in such numbers." The chancellor of the Cappellan Confederation ... 'the celestial wisdom' was going to have to do something, but the question was what. Then perhaps more brazenly, "you will require many warriors."


There were looks around the table, "My understanding Colonel was that House Alavi would potentially be retaining one of the Light Horse Regiments," But that Elders hadn't actually said which one yet, and the idea of giving up such a large portion of the forces that had originally intended to protect the colony hadn't been planned. Then there was the air component as well, much of the 588th​as it had been established was going to defend Alamut. The Air Wing's technicians and personnel hopefully able to restore more of the mothballed JumpShip fleet left by the Alexandrians , and maybe able to bring Jump Yard facilities online though those were optimistic views by the Azami, in part bolstered by confidence in god's providence.


"After the new year," The older man replied, "In the mean time as you said there must be strikes against the pirates who assail merchants and a good offense is the best defense."


"There are pirate havens which need to be neutralized, if House Alavi wants to operate from Detroit that's one thing, but its wholly another if they intend to base from the Aurigan Reach."If it was the latter then they needed to start preparing to move forces back in that direction... and such that Gene understood, the Azami themselves were unsure of where they wanted to base from, and had been divided even before moving into the now active war zone of the rimward periphery. Before assholes started running around in RimWorld colors... that had pushed demand for more of a response, a demand that only had increased as word had swept through as men pulled apart the Rampage.


Kelly piloted an Orion. Whatever publications he was issuing now were not the same as using Rim World mechs. Kelly's Commandoes were active in Capellan space but the battle roms Precentor Detroit had shown them showed nothing but machines that had come from SLDF depots. It was a detail that was nagging him, because the machines were pristine. Prevailing theory was that Kelly had been provided or located an SLDF depot... but that seemed almost too easy, too simplistic an answer given the man's rampaging across space near and far. "Could we potentially pull such data from his Orion?"


"We would have to find them first, and then take his machine from him." The Azami officer replied to his colleague to a round of grim chuckling that moved through the room.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Destroit
Gene could feel the palpable difference with Khan on the streets of the up town district of Detroit's capital. The local militia commander was doing a better job being composed and not showing his concern with the situation than the average corporate worker and manager on the street. People were still going to coffee shops but so much of Detroit's population were dependent on caffeine to do their jobs even the threat of invasion would have stopped that, but it didn't change the atmosphere.


Kelly hitting across Capellan space was... was bad news to say the least. What bothered him more about the news was the lingering question of whether or not the Capellans would stay on their side of the border or if they would send troops after Black Jack... but the answer to that question was unlikely to be forthcoming... even if ComStar passed the news to the public as soon as they learned of it, which he doubted would be the case.


That was going to get annoying because people were scared now, and they were getting antsy on top of being nervous. Gene didn't disparage that, as Kelly was intentionally engaging in terror attacks and it was clearly working. There was no reason to deny that, "We're going to try and hit pirate bases we know exist, deny them basing options, but Kelly," And black jack... and all of the ones below him, and the situation was complex, "has no such base we've identified." He personally suspected that the Azami were going to be disappointed if their choice of targets didn't have rampaging fiends with rimworld gear to fight, but he wasn't expecting them to just trip over them...


"You still plan to move on to the Magistracy."


"I do," That wasn't going to change. There could be no changing that plan since the Magistracy was now the agreed upon deparature point into the far rimward periphery given the situation. Once the Azami Exodus fleet was away, was on its way to Alamut, then things would change... but the MRB had already responded with tentative offers of employment from House Raventhir with bonds supported from a Lyran banking consortium that was almost certainly represented Doctor Abner's or his colleagues. That bond was important because IE had paid very well for the Company travelling into the Inner Sphere regardless of what Elidere had unfolded into as a contract... but right now mercenaries were far more in demand than there was supply and the market rates for any good sized mercenary unit in good stand were far higher than they had been before they had departed the periphery.


If Gene held out for a better offer he could probably get it from the Magistracy's federal authorities... but that would have almost certainly meant being involved in a whole new kettle of political fish. Also, if he were so inclined holding out for a better offer would almost certainly price out individual independent worlds like Detroit. Detroit just didn't have the money for it if they weren't going to be selling off big parcels of land.


That was less appealing for the company for composition reasons. The Azami wanted to take the fight to black jack now. The Highlanders weren't much different, but both them and predominantly swedenese who comprised Bardiche were in the longer term looking to return to the Inner Sphere... and to fighting against the Combine.


There was little here Detroit could offer that couldn't be gotten elsewhere, and few places in the periphery could promise them riches ufficent to change that. "Most of my men," Gene continued, "Want to fight the pirates." That meant he didn't need to pay them exorbitantly... in fact he had made a pointed effort as they had moved into the Inner Sphere to begin paying at ranks and for time in grade.... even though that had been based off of magnuanac pay scales already in place with the original Azami contingent. "There is going to be an azami presence here." Which Khan had probably been told about, "There may even be eventually an Azami settlement around the fort," He stated pushing forward with the conversation, but Khan had more pressing issues... and it was actually in hindsight a wonder he had waited this long.


"Major Alexander," Septim, "informed the planetary council that the pirates claim to represent a new rim world republic under House Amaris."


"Yes, Kristofur Kelly claims to represent an Amaris pretender." He replied, and he had come to terms that in telling the Azami, and the Highlanders and the whole wider command even though he was obliged to do so to inform his civilian authorities of relevant details... that decision had all but insured that such was going to actively get out to the broader public at large first in the periphery and then across known space. The Azami had been adamant about relaying such news, and the Highlanders getting a message off to Northwind. The conspicuous use of Rim World design, something at appeared to be increasing as Kelly mounted ever more brazen raids in capellan space was attracting attention, "His political rhetoric its the Rim World talking points, but he does not represent a territorial state. He's," Kelly, "leading an armed terrorist group." And then pivoted to the matter at hand, because there was no point in talking about that the Azami couriers had probably already gone out with the merchants, and it wouldn't have surprised him if copies of the HPG recording were alright out in the wild now, "The Azami merchants intend to stay on, and realistically that could be a problem with the Combine Legation."


Colonel Khan nodded. The planetary council might have liked trade with the Inner Sphere but the likely response at least for the near future would be to tell the Legation to politely pound sand... maybe even less politely if an ethnically Azami battalion actually ended up fighting any pirate incursion. It was more than just money right now, it was the security threat posed by the pirates, "The Azami are preparing to depart the system. I mean on an expedition."


"Yes, there are pirate bases used to raid Canopian, andCapellan bound free traders and worlds along the trade route, I'm sending Colonel Bey to clear them out." Gene replied... and while the younger of the two Azami colonels were off doing that House Alavi would be here cementing their position, and he would be preparing to jump to Aquagea... which had other newer connotations due to the proximity to the Capellan border. "You are not going to be left to fend for yourself there will be a continued bolstering security presence that will assist in defending Detroit, that is planned to include a Company of BattleMechs and supporting units here," Meaning in the vicinity of the main star port as well as the planetary HPG station... which was a concession to Precentor Detroit, and the planetary government, but most of Azami were going to be at the fort on North. Facilities which Gene really had not had the time to tour, but he didn't have time for that... he just didn't. It was the post shipping off deployment that he needed to discuss with Khan. That was the real focus of this working lunch. He needed to outline to Khan what the company responsibilities were in terms of the Battalion of troops that would be on Detroit, and in particular what military assets were available in the event of an attack. "House Alavi, the merchants that's really between the government here, and them, I know Hammer has been busy the last couple of months, and that the militia would probably benefit from having more time to dig in,"


"We have to defend the city we live in, not the one we actually want to fight in." Khan replied,


That was the simple truth. Jinking and ducking through streets was something the defender had to focus on, but civil defense authorities were going to have to contend with pirates being less considerate of civilian homes and businesses. "If we can eliminate the pirates in the near vicinity, and new ones can be prevented from replacing them that will increase the security of the planet," and might encourage more investment into Detroit, but he couldn't make that kind of promise

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Leaving Detroit had been a relief. They had managed to avoid a major battle, but they had spent an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid having conversations aimed at delaying their departure in favor of staying on longer. Not just from local business interests, or civilian planetary officials, but also from ComStar. There was also the risk that the longer they stayed the chance of their travel plans would get out.


They could hope to obfuscate their movements on the basis of trade, but the local pirate presence was going to notice after hitting Sybil... so that meant capitalizing while they had the momentum... it also meant ascertaining the conditions on other worlds. That included making inquiries about conditions in Capellan space... which was what he intended to post Bubbles to asking about on behalf of the company and nominally 'coordinating' with local authorities over the border. That coordination though meant real coordination with not just Azami merchants who were going to look for opportunities to trade, but also ComStar to rely on information and validating their credentials... that meant that they'd be down her portion of the unit. She was going to take the two veterans of the ur Cruinne contract with her along with a handful of the recruits they had picked up from Davion space, but would also be looking to potentially hire on troops.


Given Capellan sensibilities she wasn't too optimistic about finding good mechwarriors, but the situation in the frontier regions was bad. They were hoping for good luck, but preparing for little to no cooperation. In the mean time the Azami elders had ultimately made their decision. That decision established what resources, which commands of the corp would be available.


The Azami though had pushed through a memorial acknowledging that protecting the colony of Alamut had to be the accepted priority. It wasn't a popular decision with most, but one of the elders had clearly put his foot down on the matter. That at least meant they could move forward... it had meant a delay. The elders had accompanied the force away from Detroit, so that would set them back a few weeks in total... but a decision had been reached.


"We're going to begin division of forces as planned," But Aquagea was a stop over... "The locals have a mining industry particularly for Germanium," Which was why the Azami were officially here, "However it bares stating, that in 2765 there was an SLDF regular garrison in addition to the garrison for the 3rd​ Sian Dragoons," who had been "serving as a QRF in the near rimward periphery ahead of the New Vandenburg rebellion," Gene remarked as a holographic display of the map spread out, "In the present day Aquagea is poor and underdeveloped the neighboring world of Zathras is to be considered hostile, planetary militias are nominally under the command of the capital but in practice are lead by regional sheriffs and gentry."

Gene had no interest in recapping forthe unit command the whole story of waking up.

He was going to move the Highlander formation and Eisenhower directly down to the Outpost castle while Soren and Ardeth landed near by. They were going to make contact with the locals and then while the Azami asked about buying Germanium, and potentially other options they were going to look about various parts and ruins. Truthfully they might get lucky, Aquagea's people had been fixing up things from their 'big part' during the second succession war.

"the Taurians invaded the planet that year in concert with the Amaris Dragoons." Dante observed, immediately causing a stir among the assembled officers, "SLDF taskforce losses were significant as a result of the nuclear attacks on the fleet." And the outbreak of the succession wars had done the locals no favors, but it had really been the losses of the 2nd​War which had finally driven the borders of the inner sphere backwards and left Aquagea to fend for itself... but that had been true for so many worlds, and not just Cappellan worlds as the inner sphere's borders and the periphery states had shrunk inwards.

The change in territorial borders was beyond their concern... but they were going to need bases of operation... but Dante was reluctant to give Chang a full time independent command despite her place in the chain of command in part because it might convey the wrong signal to the capellans, and also because Chang had experience with the original mission to Luxen...they were going to need experienced trainers for this... 'Luxen Dragoons' project of Lady Raventhir's.

There were other concerns. Majesty Metals was like any big company. It wanted to keep costs down and while Aquagea did probably need foreign capital and direct investments ur Cruinne's report suggested that given the situation …Majesty Metals probably was not the corp to try and entice. "We're going to touch down, and assemble positions to base from, the locals at Via Cabellero are friendly enough and their salvage and mech workspace should be enough to support any presence we leave back here."

The current plan was for Bey to clear any pirate havens on the way into the magistracy, and that they would be able to traverse a circuit similar in course to the one that had originally taken the scratch company to Luxen years earlier... but part o the concealed driving need to return to Aquagea was the outpost castle and its AI.

Something that hadn't been disclosed yet to operational elements... but the Ancient Company of Claymore would be briefed when they landed. From a recovery perspective they were going to see if any Star League era Capellan facilities were intact, and the Azami were going to land to see if anything from the SLDF regulars were intact... and they would hopefully be able to going to them and get some semblance of the defensive works back online. The Aquagea mission was also going to be aimed at trying to muster the local militia so that they had some kind of fighting chance against a pirate incursion, and to dissuade their neighbors from trying anything.

One of the Azami captains spoke up, "Given the number of worlds abandoned we will have little warning if Kelly moves this direction from Capellan space."

"All the more reason we reach out and talk with the local authorities... given what he's up to," Bubbles declared, but the truth was the nearest actual Capellan governor was on the world of New Roland... which was where Bubbles detachment would be heading back from Aquagea, in this case jumping to Segarica and then to New Roland... but they were trying to do a lot. They knew Kelly had jumped the Aurigan border and hit Ward, and from the last reports from ComStar had pushed further into the Inner Sphere, but Gene frankly doubted even with a battalion of 'mechs Kelly could afford to push too deeply into the Confederation. "The atrocities he's committing."

Gene did wonder how ComStar's broadcasting service in the Capellan Confederation was telling things... from what he had pieced together ComStar had been reluctant to let live communications go out... except when it directly involved their own assets ... "We also aware that Kelly is hitting ComSTar jumpships used for mail services," The so called class D service... which was either new or news that hadn't reached the Precentor New Avalon... which was a potential legal issue since well... they'd yet to actually retake any such JumpShip and frankly had no idea how that would go.
--
Notes: Sorry I lost power last night (and it only came back on in the last hour) while preparing this update, next time we will touch down on Aquagea and cover the expanded strength of the Company including the two Azami BattleMech Regiments particularly from the perspective of the locals, which is why we're not doing that here.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea


There had been nothing like it in his lifetime... and for that matter anyone else's on Aquagea. Yan ran his head over his bald head... the pirates had been passing them by...they'd been lucky. Just lucky, Yan figured he didn't take any of this providence stuff the preacher man who'd been making the rounds about how the Star League would come back seriously.

He had figured that their luck would run out. That seemed to be what was going on, and Yan was resigned to a fight that would be hard, but still had to be fought. Yan took along drag from the cigar from within the cockpit of his BattleMaster ignoring the wailing of the town's emergency klaxon, and the busses trying to get the most vulnerable of townsfolk out of the way.

There was a reverberating hum through the cockpit as the reactor came online, bringing his consoles into a wash of blues, and greens and reds before they steadied out into readable displays, or colored indicator lights.

There were only the barest threads of contact that Via Cabellero had in terms of communication with the authorities down in Leone. The thrashing that the Zathras gun thugs had been given a few years earlier shook things up, mostly cause it meant they had been busy. A handful of 'mechs out here in the periphery was plenty to say one was the biggest stick on the planet...

The BattleMaster's computer came to life, showing him what was making its way through the planetary atmosphere. A full on planetary invasion force. The planet probably hadn't seen anything like for two hundred years since the Star League had fallen. To that end, Yan could have done without Hank getting on the radio and hollering about lights coming on in the ruins and saying stuff he didn't understand.

What he understood were the number of signatures.... and the relative size of ship that each fusion drive was pushing towards his home.

Hank Bremman's folks had grown up in the hills and the old SLDF ruins that were a few miles from his family's homestead had been stripped clean of most stuff, but it was still a big sturdy building, with good winches and some tooling. That the Mariks hadn't tore out the radar was he guessed a lucky breakeven if Hank couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Sheriff."

"I heard you Hank, you tell me what you see." He told the fifteen year old junior that normally ran around with Boyd, and Charlie and that lot of young guns.

"Well,-"

"I think its busted." Darrylcut in, "He's piping the feed into my 'mech, and its says we have a Star League Regiment'" He clipped the word, "Combat Team under Terran Command coming down. Got all kind of computers and stuff places down here, and up there talking, but it don't make any kind of sense."

Yan put the cigar down in the ash tray of his mech, "We have a what, now?" It took too long in Yan's opinion for the computer in his mech to talk with the computer up in the mountains... and then the video piped in. The gray white hulls of the aircraft would have been hard to see in the distance of the sky. He had remembered the complaints about trying to shoot aircraft when the Zathras air wing had tried to go in for guns.

The ASF were divided into two groups, escorting a division of dropships. One group bird shaped like bigger jet fighters, and the other the egg shape of spheroid droppers like the familiar Union or the common Mule.

Emblazoned on every gray white hull though was a Cameron starburst, and at the front of a hammer head shaped dropper was THS Eisenhower... and no sooner had it come into view on the frame was Hank Bremman coming over the line saying they had radio.

"Via Cabellero air traffic controller, this is Colonel Gene Shepherd, my RCT is on guide beacons as follows," The boy's voice was almost mechanical as he rattled off landing points that coincided with what his computer was piping.
--
The Eisenhower was currently decelerating as it approached the planet's gravity well, and the border of the atmosphere. He had had no one to make reports to. There had been no one to tell about waking up alone on Aquagea... yes the status of the outpost castle on the planet had been relevant enough to relay to Tristan on Elidere, but it had not been until the trip back to Northwind to even consider the exodus of people from Lone Star... and even then that had been the 29th​ century and it was now the 31st​.

Gene stared at the outdated map, "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

It had been a rhetorical question. Dante continued to go on that given their available evidence the attacks, and the destruction wreaked might have been a coincidence, certainly while the Finmark province had been a regional sub unit apart of the Rim world republic there was not in at least a cursory search of available material indication it was host to revanchists longing for Amaris. Black Jack had attacked worlds like Lost though.

"Moving on," He stated into his throat mike so that the officers on the bridge in this conversation could hear him, because while that was concerning, "I think the Terran exile population came from Lone Star in the 2830s..."Which at the time had meant nothing to him, he'd just been going off the shipping logs, which hadn't provided much in the was of political affiliation, but there had been news clippings from which had used to parse things... it was by no means definitive... "That material needs to be combed through."

There was a glint of hope in the White Shield's expression as they moved towards the edge of the atmosphere. "Our people would have made every effort to save Terran citizens from House Kurita."

Gene would have liked if that were true, but it seemed optimistic. "I don't discount that as a possibility." He remarked conversationally, but Dante was quick to point out that while not impossible a correctly configured Royal Division frequency could do as they were doing now, and thus could have landed at the castle outpost... the castle outpost where Gene had been in stasis. "When we get on planet," He continued ignoring the Northwind AI's interruption, "We will split off a civil affairs team and go looking through public records from what I remember when I was here last time is that a lot of the settlers have pretty comprehensive ancestry books." The family registry weren't necessarily going to be perfect evidence, but it might tell them something... and they would be a hell of a lot less invasive than asking to run the populace through blood tests even if they had had a comprehensive service registry... which of course they didn't. Asking about Star League dog tags was likewise going to be another thing that ... you just didn't do. Gene might not have fancied himself the most socially adept soldier but he understood that that kind of asking around was a bridge too far.

It did make some sense he allowed that if the 331st's command had realized what was happening then evacuating the survivors well they would blend in better as refugees fleeing the Inner Sphere for the periphery and it was doubtful they would have gotten out. It might well have explained the hardware as well.

"We are approaching optimal transmit range." From what he remembered of conversations, the locals had only limited space telemetry, but by this point there was no denying they'd have seen this many fusion fusion signatures. "I am picking up returns near the LX Army garrison."

"There is air traffic control?" Gene questioned. 25 Tons of Germanium was a lot he allowed, and value but not necessarily build a star port and if via Caballero was exporting that much Germanium, to allow for a port, then it was wonder the pirates hadn't beat them here. "Can you achieve LasCom then?"

"One moment."

The original plan had been to transmit wide band from orbit and just radio down that they were coming in, and were not hostile. He had planned to visit the town, but they had planned to land in the wastes beyond the settlement hours deep into the scrub where the castle outpost was.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Aquagea was a temperate world in places, there were plenty of high mesas and valleys but the Capellan mining industry which had been the forefront of the planetary economy during the star league. It was a period for which Gene didn't know enough of, to really comment on...and yet there were members of the command who expected him to know.


As it was the offloaded Azami industrial mechs were busy setting up gaibon nets to hold sand and rock as they scraped paths and widened existing trails. Similar work had been done on North, but the climate, the patterns of rainfall, temperature variation and humidity... they were different but that was only a speed bump for the engineers. The camps were spreading out, tents popping up in all directions around where the civilian laden DropShips had touched down. The Azami had made the long trip out with children, and families. He had known that as a fact but the long journey had failedto adequately prepare him for the prospeect of the familes in sizefleeing the Combine.


What made it worse was that the Azami flight was only partial. There were still plenty in long colonized worlds... the Azami had been much more inclined to settling worlds and had taken to the stars leaving Earth behind. There were rumors making their way through the Exodus fleet that Gene really didn't want to have to address, and those ran the scope of ... well everything... but an Amaris pretender was one of them.


It had he understood only been a matter of time. He couldn't have kept it secret for very long.... but at least it hadn't broken out while they had been at Kimi. It was actually a wonder that they'd kept things under control this long... there were other factors.


The Azami had adopted the Dictum Honorium in its 5th​edition form after the McAlister branch of the Kurita had ousted the Van Rohrs branch from power. Therefore in the face of a surviving 1st​Edition copy ... there were Azami elders who had memorized the 5th​Edition version and could expound differences between the version of the text their ancestors had sworn to uphold to the Keeper of House Honor, and the modern painfully long six volume edition.


Gene had all of these thoughts as he adjusted the trim on the Marauder's course bringing him up a ridge. There had been a hydroelectric dam at one point. It had altered the natural concourse of a powerful long river that made the rio grande on old earth look small... and when after centuries of being dammed up, that dam had been destroyed... the results had been predictably catastrophic. What was ironic was that the dam hadn't been destroyed by the Taurians or the RWA who had been supporting them... no it had survived the war against Amaris... just not the succession wars that had follwed afterTerra had been liberated.


He eased back on the throttle bringing the machine up to the crest of the ridge. The derelict towers had once strung hundreds miles worth of power cables... those had long been stripped by weather blown away by the biggest seasonal dust storms... but the skeletal towers remained. The truth was he didn't care about those... they weren't important. Not today anyway. They were old pieces of civil infrastructure from a bygone era. They were a reminder of what was gone, but their civil infrastructure nature was also what eliminated them from consideration as his avionics package mapped the crest.


The Black Horse had the correct data plugged in... in that it knew where to look... but the landscaped had changed the trees had grownup... there were changes in the terrain. He flipped broadcast... and got nothing. Not that he was surprised, "Dante, I'm not getting anything." Which on the plus side meant that in theory there was no air defense, something that might squawk off and spray the Ike as it came down with ground based fire.


"Aye." The AI responded, "Broadcasting..."Silence for a moment. "nothing."


"Explanation?"


"There should be a ground control radar for the Outpost itself."


"Tristian's fort was heavily reduced in capability." Heo bserved... then paused, "I've got fusion signatures coming up, One BattleMaster, Two Centurions... hold on, One Wolverine." Gene paused at the mass of electronic noise the four machines generated. He rubbed his head, "Still nothing?"


"No signals," Dante ran a simulation through the comms channel putting forward his best guess was a landslide the better part of a century earlier had reshaped most of the face. Which meant digging... lots of digging... and probably for no real gain. An Outpost Castle wasn't the same sprawl as a Castle Brian... sure Outposts were supposed to be the most modern of Castles but they also reflected the Hegemony's strategic belief that conflicts were increasingly moving towards low intensity brushfire conflicts where intelligence gathering and quick rapid movements by special operations forces were going to be how fights were handled. AN Outpost Castle shared features with Brians but weren't as well defended, had much smaller killing fields, and far fewer turrets. It might not be worth it to try and dig down into the mountain side to try and access buried communication bunkers or or checks for turret remains... not when most of the defenses had probably been destroyed in the fighting of the late '60s. "Broadcasting for landing clearance... now."


The doors of the Castle Opened skyward, which suggested that the facility could receive it just couldn't transmit directly... areminder that it had been probably two hundred years. The Outpost had been built only to accommodate Aerodyne DropShips... an oddity considering that the late Star League had been moving to increasingly large Spheroid Droppers ... but the castle could accommodate the Titan easily. Just it couldn't accommodate to the two Overlord DropShips they were going to put down near Via Cabellero.


Bardiche was going to act as the principle screening force. Eisenhower was too laden with supplies that they were going to put in the castle stockpile to adequately carry the Highlanders so Claymore, and the Mechanized Infantry Component would be offloading behind Bardiche. That would not only allow the Scotts Cuirassiers time to move their Badger and Bandits off, it would let them potentially configure those vehicles if there was forward warning about a Pirate Threat... and if such a threat appeared they should have had plenty of time to scramble the rest of the unit.


"Dante what can you tell me about the Centurion?" The AI had after all been in the Inner Sphere. There was a gruff noise from the other end of the line, giving him enough warning of the incoming procurement lecture. Like the Grasshopper and the Jenner and some other 'mechs that had been designed during the last years of the Star League the Centurion had only become famous in the Succession Wars. Companies were still building new Centurion factories, but it and the machine had emerged as the Davion workhorse mech of the latter half of the 1st​ Succession War. Corean would likely have gotten the same treatment as the Jenner or the Dragon had by the SLDF establishment had the Centurion been ready... but the machines that Terran exiles, remnants or refugees had brought had likely been made in the gap between the first and second succession war or maybe towards the end of the followed decade as the 2nd​ had mounted in intensity.


The auto cannon would never have passed for the Star League Defense Force... but the AFFS had been in dire straits and the 29th​century's conflict had been built upon all the existing losses of the war which had destroyed the hegemony. Someone around the middle of the 29th​ century had managed to get away from the fracas of the 2nd​ Succession War.


Gene adjusted his Marauder's torso twist nose out towards the approaching lance... slowly weighing whether his priority needed to be the planned check in at the outpost castle or making in person contact with the town's militia. Given the offloading civilians, the children being allowed to transit down from orbit to have real gravity, it wasn't a hard choice.

--
Notes: Yes, Corean built the Centurion debutted the centurion in 2801 I'm expositing fluff that isn't strictly Canon

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
He watched the data relays, and lights on his console.

The diagnostic on his 'Black Horse' Marauder's computer core had been an afterthought really. Dante ascribed the issues of confusion and memory loss of his first firefight as typical of extended duration stasis tube use. The issue was in the hand shake exchange with the Via Caballero Outpost Castle and its incomplete warbook data, which extended beyond the fall of the Star League but had not been updated to reflect the latest standards... incomplete was the best description therefore for the data upload.

That was the problem.

They had come out here, and since coming back out to the periphery found more and more things to ask questions about… he supposed the most benign answer was that that in the 2840s or so the planetary data networks must have been more intact, and it had allowed some updates to filter back. It meant less right now… he would have liked, Dante would have liked to have access to the log data, but that would mean being in the Castle proper. There was a scheduled check in from the dropships Kennedy, and Johnson... which were their legal registered names

Gene let out a breath, reached out adjusted the comms suite, sending a tight beam laser comm connection the highlander a mile down the embankment, "MacIntyre."

"Colonel?"

"I'm moving to meet the local militia." He'd sent Septim, and Chang down to the planetary capital's starport along with part of the second Azami. Hammer had wanted to deploy across the river plain, but that would looked too much like they were going to offload to cut the rail juncture that was really the capital's only direct link to Via... but it really would have been the best place to offload their artillery. It also would have been an ideal place for an invasion force to put down...which was another reason that Alois wanted to have control of it while they were here... and he had a point control of any former Star League positions was great but not taking the obvious position would attract more attention to those. "Dante should be able to handle authentication and handshakes, let me know if things look like they're are going to be a problem."

"Aye."

His Marauder pushed forward. The Sam Houston was back behind the line, the truth was he expected to need to reorient his dropships at least a few times even without a fight breaking out. Move Bardiche, shuffle the Azami up and down given the need for civilian populations to be given to enjoy time in the planetary gravity well... there was a lot to do.

Four klicks west from the Houston another predominantly Azami combat team was based out of a similarly equipped DroST IIA. The DroST were an ancient class of DropShips massing 5300 tons and capable in their Azami configuration of landing a mixed battalion given their utility they should have been more common. Out massing the leopard by more than double, the DroST provided his foreward most elements the options to operate against a variety of challenges... and the only major ammunition concern were the missile launchers aboard which meant it largely supported the Azami's desire to be supply chain independent as much as possible. Gene suspected that the first DropShips that Alamut constructed would be a design that had taken flight under the Terran Hegemony, which he supposed must have been some kind of historical irony... or homage

The combat team was the first of three, its spread out BattleMech complement pulling double duty as the Light Company under Kiyone Akashi who had an Azami XO responsible for the armor complement aboard Hood, McCulloch and Ross. The air wing was entirely Azami constituting the assault boats, and six Azami maintained and piloted Eagles. It was the most recent approved change over, and recognized that breaking with what they had told the Davions when they had left Northwind... there would be a very significant Azami with the Company going forward. An update they would probably include with the official paper work from the MRB to the courier they were planning to send off to Northwind, and Davion space just as soon as they were settled here.

That change also entailed plans to bring rationalization to the units of the company as much as possible, which meant really when you got down to it... lostech prospecting or scavenging. They were already rearming pilots who had established their qualifications on Northwind with Marauder II BattleMechs simply because they were in storage.

That pushed the weight balance of the force heavier than he had planned but the Blackwell industries machines were what he could spare to do what he needed in terms of rationalizing the labor, and maintenance requirements of the units. They wouldn't be able to do that for an entire regiment worth of mechs unless they found a regular army brian cache or castle brian, which of course just pushed Dante to suggest returning to the Inner Sphere... and that was likely to draw vastly more attention than he wanted to need.

The Nagayan Castle Brian Complex was in the Free Worlds League. A planet called Helm... Minoru Kurita had thrown a nuclear temper tantrum when he'd been unable to access the Quartermaster Corps stockpile and been unable to get anything. Kurita had been on the wrong side of Terra... Gene mused as he brought the machine down aware that his friend and foe tracker was monitoring both his own lance as well as the movements of Kiyone's Marauder II far out on his flank.

MacIntyre hadn't said anything to the junior officer. She was being groomed for command, and part of that was that for whatever reason whatever her father had done had earned the Azami's trust which meant she was one of the few options for command... and frankly the only option short of putting Bahar in command... as the latter has actually refused the post. Kiyone was willing to take the command.

He decided after a second that Kiyone's course adjustment wasn't likely to present a problem given the plodding pace she was keeping her hundred tonner at. He adjusted his comms suite, "BattleMaster"

"Gene, holy shit." The radio call had been on an open frequency, even if it hadn't the lance was probably networked in, "Hey man."

"I noticed you rebuilt the train station, and people have moved in." The change didn't meaningfully alter the rail course. It was mostly a rebuilding effort, and from the looks of it most of the construction had scavenged what was left behind by older buildings and the newest buildings were very new.

"Yeah,"

The Centurion's transmission went silent, and the BattleMaster's pilot spoke up. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but uh-"

"Its a regimental combat team, we're loaded for bear." He replied, "You want me to tell you why in person, or you want me to tell you now?"

The answer wasn't firm, "I take it is must be bad."

"Kristofur Kelly claims he's supporting a descendant of House Amaris's efforts to restore the Rim World Republic, and to break the hold of the tyrannical Inner Sphere by any means necessary... which apparently includes enslaving people, and burning others at the stake." Gene replied in a deadpan dropping the veritable verbal bombshell, "and that's only part of the problems on my plate."

"Yeah maybe we ought to have this conversation face to face." The old man's voice on the other end of the radio broadcast replied, which was ultimately Gene's preference for having this sort of talk. They moved their mechs down slowly towards the hub which Zathras had been looking for, and had held the weapons and material that had helped the town start down the path they were on. "Alright, before we get onto this talk, you need to know that since you've been gone we've had our share of weird preachers." The succession war had been hard on everyone, Periphery and Inner Sphere alike and while the authorities had mixed feelings itinerant street preaching far predated human space flight. "It all started a few months after we got back from Detroit, a fella showed up in a homespun robe talking about the Light of the Star League..." And Yan from within the cockpit of his BattleMaster did not expect a much cleaner reaction to a spawn of Amaris than was usually received by the Azami getting the news. Darryl's interruption from within his Centurion that quirky or not kind of liked the guy was put to one side while they moved. "Its a little hard to miss your light show up... or those starbursts on your side."

Again Darryl interjected into the conversation that as it was the kid they had in the radar station had probably sent a runner down to the town... which Yan had agreed with but hadn't wanted to spook the town either... which was going to be doubly important given they were coming. The town hadn't changed much in the intervening years. It had gotten a little bigger... there were newer machines and from the looks of it the germanium from the depot had fueled an expansion of the mines letting them expand production without foreign capital investment that might have otherwise come with strings attached... and even though it wasn't the most regular trade Aquagea was now exporting Germanium off world. Germanium was important but the most important thing it was used for were in goods that weren't produced in the same volume as they had when Aquagea had been a Capellan world. The Cores of JumpShips … well JumpShips themselves were now much more limited...but Germanium was used for other things, and its production overall had declined over the course of the succession war.

What Aquagea had enjoyed, perhaps because it lacked an HPG station or hitherto no real ComStar presence besides a 'class d' mail line had been peace. The exception had been their neighbor's attempt at exerting influence and power. Zathras having seceded from the Magistracy had no HPG station either, which meant it also was enjoying the lack of attention from BlackJack McGirk and his pirates... where less ideologically motived pirates would have pursued the opportunity for easier plunder.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Septim had checked in that everything was all clear. Apparently something in the local news must have tickled him though, something had happened in a conversation with their long absentpilots that had been on ur Cruine that he and Bubbles found extremely funny. They hadn't elaborated, and frankly whatever it was could wait until he was done.


The only real difference in the crowd where that likehe had grown, most of the people who had been teenagers had gotten a little taller, and more muscular over the intervening years. The adults all still looked pretty much the same... but that was in the people. They all largely still had the tanned natural tans of high sun, and wind... the town did look better. There was more activity, but then again he hadn't really spent much time in the town during normal frames... and actually given the buses maybe this wasn't so normal.


"I take it this is because of us?"


Yan who had also dismounted from his mech paused...they had at least silenced the emergency alert system, "Yeah..."He trailed off in a slow low voice.


"I understand." Gene replied, and he did. The initial detection of the Azami Exodus Fleet as it arrived at Northwind had prompted a snap mobilization out of concern that it was a combine invasion... but House Kurita had been only the top of the list of potential threats. Northwind was on the Capellan border as well... and it wouldn't have been impossible that House Marik might have decided to do something reckless either in the name of prestige. It wasn't his prerogative to consider the political ramifications...it wasn't his job. If they did go after Nagayan then, they were probably going to piss the FWL leadership off... but rebuilding originally SLDF RCTs to strength … was something they needed to, "My regimental combat team has been working our way this way since we reached the periphery." He and the BattleMaster pilot made small talk over that. "I'm the ranking colonel of the 'mech Regiments, that's why I hold overall command." Which was a courtesy that the Azami hadn't necessarily had to make, but in the original view the plan had been to get out into the deep periphery and away to Alamut, "The Company is going to head back to Luxen once we clear out the pirates in the vicinity, that way they don't have bases to raid our merchants."


"Yeah, we heard about Luxen a couple months after it played out... that was before that lady published her book," Gene didn't know what he was talking about, "And then after BlackJack's pirates showed up, well we were on a run to Detroit with more Germanium so ComStar's news broadcast was all over the big screens." And of course by the time that had gotten out to the Media, they'd already been making the trek from star system to star system that would eventually culminate in Elidere.


The campaigns of Elidere, and then the Davion Contract were unknown to the periphery. Or at least they had been as the news moved slowly. When they had reached the Aurigan Reach the authorities there whether state or the local MRB office hadn't even gotten word, so it was no surprise that a world with no real ComStar presence hadn't heard of the change in border worlds in House Davion's favor.


But even though historically Aquagea had been a partof the Capellan Confederation the Federated Suns were far away, and House Kurita further still. They were too far away, and thus largely removed from the severity and enmity that categorized public consensus of the Draconis March. Aquagea's older generation were till favorably disposed to the Idea at least, or the historical memory of the Capellan Confederation and held some lingering grievance with House Marik's Free Worlds League but culturally as one time part of the Inner Sphere were also largely favorably predisopsed over all towards a fondness for the Star League.... "You're kidding me," The sheriff laughed, "Well the preacher will be happy to hear that."


"How so?"


"See, my grand father fought against House Marik, and there were folks who told us what Kurita been doing. We may live out in the sticks but we'd heard about Kentares, but we had our own problems. Too busy trying to drive the purple chickens out. Grand pappy always said he sure missed the star league," Yan paused, "Not that I really can reckon how," The sheriff was old by local standards with adult grand children of his own, including one who was in line most likely to take over piloting of the BattleMaster the sheriff had taken from the underground warehouse, "But then I've been in this job thirty five years this past November, and Papa was sheriff for at least as long."


Even so, Gene suspect was Yan's grandfather actually missed was the Star League that had existed in his own Grandfather's day, or maybe his father, "You said the preacher would be happy to hear about the border change."


"Yep, sure will. Listen to him talk well that's what the preacher says that House Kurita brought everything down … as if they were the ones whose killed off the Camerons," Yan shook his head, "I mean we've had people like, there are people up in the mountains the fellas who ran up into the hills to fight the Mariks never came back down with everything busted up like it was, but he's been off world, and," And the Church of St Cameron was less critical of House Marik … and Gene really didn't want to consider the implications... even though that did potentially fall in his wheel house... of how and what reactions might be, "What?"


Gene weighed his options, "This doesn't need to get out," Even though realistically he wasn't sure who it would get out too per se, and if keeping it a secret was even feasible, "The reigning Coordinator collaborated with Amaris... and from what we presently understand his sister and the ..." He didn't have a good word for it, shook his head, "there was opposition and they began warning the SLDF under Kerensky."


"Guess it didn't do a lot of good there. Everythingthat came after," No, Minoru Kurita had been KIA-ed only onKentares after Kerensky had left for the northern periphery. Yan fiddled with the cigar tube he'd been twiddling from his fieldjacket, "Actually, if you wouldn't mind I need a favor before we doany kind of public talking. Everyone will be glad to see you, but itis a lot of metal... and I'd like if it everyone calmed down a bit, ya know." He paused closing the cap of the case instead of taking it out, "What about these merchant folks, you said something about Germanium?"

"House Alavi is with us, they're looking to buy Germanium..." But the problem Gene recognized was that they had plenty of c-bills but that wasn't likely to be useful on an independent world with no direct ties to ComStar or larger markets, "They have JumpShips but I don't know what they have to trade, in goods."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
–
The workshop was... a mess. There was no way to describe it otherwise its was just parts, and oil and tools... but Darryl looked proud of the work he had done on his centurion's paintjob and its equipment. He'd apparently managed to splice the cores of the two dismounted Phostech Medium lasers together.


He was interested in the project, but Yan had also insisted they not immediately make themselves known to town. Yan had gone back to his 'office' and was hoping to dissuade 'the preacher' from getting the town any more excited until he had had the chance to talk to everyone, especially the mayor of Via Cabellero and some of the bigger ranchers and the mine owners.


As for the Centurion it had been stripped down in the warehouse, but otherwise centurion was in surprisingly good condition. The only immediate oddity was in the torso where... something had replaced the two medium lasers... they looked like medium lasers but rather than just singular weapons it was... putting off more heat, but that was understandable. It was like someone had mated together two Medium lasers without including any kind of extra internal cooling. Twice the punch twice the heat, in a single ton weapon system.

Ordinarily a centurion's two PhosTec Medium Lasers were split front and back instead the locals had some how cobbled the two weapons together. Two third of a ton of standard grade armor could be blasted through ... it was true it didn't have the range of a PPC but Darryl's cobbling had generated a weapon that didn't produce anywhere near the waste heat of a PPCeither.

No one would have thought that this development would become the defining weapon of new brawler mechs used by what would become the Via Caballero rangers.

"They're pretty cool aren't they?" The pimply faced tech asked in the local twang of english, a twang that he couldn't particularly say he missed.

"I don't have this model Medium laser." But he could provide Martel and certainly Magna equivalents, "If you think this could be replicated."

"Hell I don't see why not, its the cores of the laser where most the work is done. I'm sure there are some differences, but I got this to work alright after a couple weeks." He blew out a breath, "Now you give me just a couple of minutes I'll got show you what it does. You can go up top," He indicated the ladder, "give you a good view of it."

When one got down to it there were differences in individual weapons. Whether this could be replicated or not of if Darryl had somehow found some magical exploit, they'd have to see. Ultimately Myomer, heat sinks and armor were largely interchangeable. What made a mech a mech was the Chassis. That was the skeleton of the mech and the internal components.

The eventual Canopian Centurions, deeply ironic since the Marians would move to produce a truly retrotech totem mech Centurion, would be built under license from the Federated Commonwealth as part of a technology sharing agreement but would be a variant on the AL. Given existing Magistracy weapons production that variant would carry a PPC in place of a large laser and thus run a bit hotter.

Simply put with no reliable locally built trade options it was easier to field two Holly LRM launchers and standardize the parts used. Even by the time trade with the Duchy of Andurien became feasible it was a simpler more capable solution to product demand. As for Darryl's medium laser combo they would prove remarkably effective though wouldn't enter production until well after the current threat of Black Jack McGirk had been putdown.

Aquagea simply didn't have the population base. It could support mech refit yards certainly, but battlemech production was simply beyond the local population's ability to provide for...especially given the focus on supplying germanium to market and the growing agriculture sector with new irrigation and drought resistant plants. It would only be much later, towards the end of the following decade that the Aurgians would begin production of Griffins and Dragons and even these would initially be built largely using imported weapons from the Canopians so the eventual supply of AC 10sand LRM 10s never were readily available in enough numbers to convince them to switch back to the original version of the Centurion.

This stop was about other things though. Whatever interest a specialist weapon was, lucky, today was more about stopping at Aquagea to deal with problems in the region. Aquagea had already been having problems with its neighbor of Zathras, which wasn't that stable. Gene looked over the scrub country his ears picked up the rumblings of the machinery as the bay doors opened as the tinkerer took his 'mech out. "If Black Jack is going over the border into the Free Worlds League, we can be reasonably sure he's probably jumping over the Capellan border as well." Given previous attacks on the Fed Sun that seemed pretty likely scenario given what they knew... but it wasn't what he was really concerned about, "If ComStar's footage," That they had picked up from their stopover on Detroit was accurate about what happened. "Was accurate BlackJack has been hiring on... I have to question how much control he really has." Or if the rest of the pirates nests in Tortuga and wherever else the vermin lived were going along with itbecause he had the biggest big stick of any of them in terms of mech forces at his disposal.

As it was no one hit by the pirates was having a good time. This was no longer about raiding and pillaging. Oh that was going on, but the rate of atrocities being committed was increasing with little rhyme or reason.

Not that they'd been a professional military force to start with but increasingly FireStarter and other mechs had been deployed in a clearly organized terror campaign over the border with the League targeting civilians who clearly weren't a threat before they had bugged out.

That kind of behavior just went beyond the pale.

"That's not all is it?"

He blew a breath out, and glanced to the mongoose pilot, "The attack on," Probably managed by jumping to Viribium first, "Claybrooke showed a Rampage. Eighty Five tons, now to be sure the Rim Worlds republic exported these to the Taurians, and for that matter anyone with interest but certainly all the territorial states had them before 2765. It isn't insane to think that one might have survived...but it was in Amaris colors. That strikes me as very unusual. "Admittedly it was the only mech he had seen in 'correct' colors, there had been other mechs using shark iconography but nothing recorded in the roms had been put up that suggested anything some asshole pirate decided hey I'm going to paint my mech in how it would have been the Amaris Fusiliers in the 28th century.

It could be nothing... but it was an outlier that did stand out in the footage. It also broke with Black Jack's known habits... he hadn't repainted of his mechs in that kind of parade job. He didn't seem to have a parade use at all. He seemed to have liked black and red. He liked skeletons and devils, skulls and crossbones but even that wasn't uniform.

The mech stood out because atypical compared to everything else in the video.

After a moment of contemplation, Bahar answered, "Somewhere like Pioche perhaps. Many worlds were lost when the Star League fell, and more were abandoned over the long darkness of the succession wars, could he have found another hidden rim world outpost. These could also be the ones who attacked the Aurigans,"

"No, I considered that possibility. The JumpShips are different and the machines, I went back through the Aurigans roms there is no indication of non SLDF mechs. The attack on Cormodir seems to have been core units of McGirks force... these seem different." Whether it was or not, it didn't change the fact that McGirk was rampaging across the rimward frontier. Whether it was directed or he just let his subordinates run rampant the truth was the pirate wars of the late third succession war era were to effect everyone in the rimward to some degree or another. This was to include the three states of the Inner Sphere, and the major , and minor periphery powers. McGirk was ultimately a raider, a bandit maybe a warlord at best in terms of administration, threatening and extorting whatever world he temporarily occupied, but he wasn't staying anywhere for long periods of time. No one could say where the Orion pilot was, just where he had been, and some times not even then. McGirk attacked with his host and moved on rather. There was no pirate nest to go attack like there had been at Fjladr.

Establishing a land hold on Aquagea put them on a planet where they could deploy forces... and certainly since Aquagea mined Germanium... and the Alamutian Azami needed Germanium, or would need Germanium in the long term it made sense to have a presence here. "We'll see what the thrust into the League yields... if we can catch them on this side of the border, so much the better." As it was the rumor from the League side was the Duchy of Andurien was not happy about the situation and there were concerns that in addition to black jack that the Capellans might try and take advantage of any Marik weakness. "What do we know about what happened on Claybrooke?"

"We know that they didn't destroy the HPG station there." Bahar paused, "That is a break from how McGirk has been acting."

He nodded. That was true. He hadn't considered that, but the survival of the HPG station was a break, previous to this attacks on worlds with an HPG station aimed at hitting COMSTAR so that they couldn't beam word out that delayed knowledge of, or would delay knowledge of pirate activity. Precentor New Avalon had cited the loss of the HPG station on the davion side of the border as reason for his office to issue bounties on the pirates... even though it had been very clear that Huthrin Vandal had wanted to act against McGirk before this.

Financial conservatism within ComStar's higher ups made a certain degree of sense, but had a gnawing suspicion that there was more to it. Where had Black Jack gotten his material in the first place... how had he managed to operate as long as he had? "McGirk's behavior before that still didn't make sense." He replied, and then stopped talking as the Centurion trundled into view in the backend of the junk yard. The machine raised a hand and waved to the 'observation tower', and Gene wouldn't have been surprised if there were beers in the box fridge underneath the awning next to him.

Bahar nodded to the machine, "You said the locals did not fight against Zathras."


"They didn't have 'mechs when I was here last time, and I honestly just thought the Zathras people were pirates." He replied in a way excusing his rush to get in his Marauder and into the fight... "But they seemed to have come a long way," In just a couple of years. "Should we expect anything, the sheriff seemed... concerned."


"The Church of the Saints Cameron are uncommon in the lands of the Dragon... I suppose that in light of what we know now that the Dragon would have had good reason to dissuade their presence in his realm."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
The preacher's name was Reins Mercer. It was a strange name, Yan allowed, but it was strange times. The preacher wore a hand woven shaw over his shoulders, which the Sheriff were asked was incongruous with the uniform and high boots the man wore underneath the cloak. Those like the man's hands were meticulously clean. Mercer's blue eyes were hard...a familiar kind of hard, that of men who had seen far too much of the world.


Yan knew that look... and he expected a problem. The young gunslinger had had a similar look when he'd come out of his heavy BattleMech, Shepherd knew his trade, and young as he was didn't seem to care much at all about religion... which was likely to bring a problem. Especially from the sound of everything he'd overheard about this 'davion contract' that they had just gotten off of, before heading back into the periphery.


He hadn't gotten the whole story... not yet, he figured that would come out the longer they stuck around, especially if there was business to be done. It would have helped though if the young un hadn't gone flapping his gums about what the computers up in the hills said about what was coming down in approach to via Cabellero's surrounding countryside. The sheriff looked at the carefully cleaned uniform shirt, and the starburst that hung from the chain around the man's neck... and then the pistol holstered there beside a knife. "Reverend". He greeted, "I need to talk to you, and need to be on the same page." Yan was willing to excuse that, "Shepherd is a little on the brusque side, he don't truck much for small talk, but he's driven," He was almost all business all the time.


Hank shuffled. The young un threw a look at the holographic display being projected into the middle of the room. The bit of lostech had come out of the same bunker they'd found their mechs in... it had taken some finagling... mostly done by the kids to get the machinery to talk to one another... which was why Darryl's Centurion was tied into the network.


The star field back drop was awash with ships. That wasn't news. His BattleMaster had known that, the telescopes had shown him that. The difference was in the details. "What's the matter son?"


"Uhm... so I," He gestured to the holograms... and Reins looked like he was about to interrupt. "The computer registers 2 DCMS units have come down. One Terran Regiment, and a whole mess of armor Sheriff."


That was an understatement. "Not just armor. Those are Fury tanks, gauss rifles." The Reverend stated plainly as if that should mean something to all of them, but it meant nothing to Yan other than it was an impressive four letter word. Fury.


"There are a lot of them, reverend." Hank remarked half mumbled.


"They're air defense tanks." Reins remarked, "They're networked together to mass fire on incoming aircraft." Yan didn't bother pointing out that they didn't have any aircraft... on the other hand via Cabellero had almost twenty battlemechs to call on... more than the capital of the planet usually had on hand at any given time unless the local hidalgos were in from the surrounding ranches.


Shepherd had them outnumbered substantively if he meant to fight... which he hadn't said he was... but Yan had figured that if you were going to take a planet... those were the numbers where it wouldn't have been hard. "You telling me he expects a fight."


"Terran officers always expect fights, sheriff."


Yan figured he was right, Shepherd had picked a fight with the Zathras goons... and then when Canopus come asking for help for Luxen had dropped down from space against better numbers. There was something though about the Reverend's gaze which... suggested to Yan that the man thought Yan knew something. Yan had been sheriff though long enough to know that trick, and knew also to pick on details, "What do you mean by that Reverend?"


--
Gene watched Darryl dismount from the Centurion. He was impressed... but realistic. The PhosTechs weren't in inventory... and there was no guarantee that Darryl's weapon could be replicated... or exactly how durable the kludge together 'blaster' was. That Darryl had called it a blaster just underscored that it was exactly the kind of experimenting that he doubted anyone in the Hegemony R&D would have done... not the least of which was Darryl had gone for firepower and not range.


The way his Centurion had chewed through targets ... well two medium lasers normally burned through the same amount of standard armor plate as a PPC. Nothing Darryl had done had touched that range advantage, but it also probably hadn't mattered to Darryl. "Did you notice their machinery?" He asked, because while a lot of it was kludged together, bailing wire and duct tape there were other pieces that weren't the things you could buy on Detroit... the computers especially


"I did." Bahar replied. "And the SLDF landing pad wasn't active when you were here last time."


"That's correct." He replied to his XO. When she asked what he was thinking, he tilted his head, and looked around, the truth was he doubted it was anything in particular that he had done at least not directly... "I wouldn't b e surprised if after they came back from Detroit if they didn't start looking around for LosTech." One of the townsfolk had asked if he was a LosTech prospector so maybe there had been people before Zathras who had shown up looking for buried, lost treasure. "They found something," and maybe that had lead to other finds. "Some of their equipment came out a cache squirreled away by Terrans from Lone Star, fleeing the Combine." She glanced away. He felt no regret for not staying... the cold logistics were that he was unlikely to have been able to do much here, especially in comparison to everything they had accomplished. "Yan says there are about a million people in the entire territory." Not the town but the sprawl of just millions and millions of acres stretching across the landscape. Territory was a vast nebulous blob of land... which was why the planetary capital had been willing to talk about land hold rights after Zathras had been driven off, "I don't know if we need to worry so much about pirates, but I am some what curious about the Canopian opinion of Zathras and how that might effect things."


"The locals have put together a rather potent little militia." She observed, "If the mechwarrior can make more of those weapons they could be fitted on the fusion powered mining trucks." Aquagea didn't have the resources to build more fusion engines... but they seemed to be able to do the maintenance... Darryl had said something about having experience on a Nissan 200 engine the last time he'd been on the planet, "That would be potent against any mech that came too close."


"Its an idea." He acknowledged. "I want to look around more, I have questions, but Alavi needs to talk to them about Germanium, and we need to get ready for Kate's Hold."


"Do you believe many from Lone Star escaped here?"


"I have no idea Bahar." Just as he wasn't willing to speculate how many if any of the refugees who might have made it here might have been from the Minnesota tribe... even more so since he had the White Shields wanting him to let him go ask, and he was going to have to explain to Doctor Abner at some point what ... who had been in stasis at Lockdale... except then he'd have to explain Lockdale and its AI and ... and it was a mess.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Gene stepped away from the partially stripped AC 5 in the hangar workshop as the noise dimmed from the Mech as it lowered down. It was a 120mm Whirlwind... it had been dismounted from a Wolverine not a Marauder. The thought struck himthat it was strange that GM had had problems with the Marauder'soverhead mount feeding when the Wolverine's Whirlwind was designed tobe jettisoned and had no such issues. He marveled briefly at it, and then left the issue to rest.


Darryl wiped sweat from his brow, and tossed the dirty rag onto a tool box. "So, like I don't mean to pry or nothing Gene... but why bother come back this dust ball. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but we lucked out not having fights start up after we got back from Detroit. Its been quiet"


Though he didn't mean it that way, Gene recognized that their presence could be misconstrued as bringing trouble back here. "We need Germanium Darryl... and frankly Aquagea mines Germanium... the pirates may not come here, but that is no excuse not to be ready if someone does come looking for a fight. You can walk softly if you carry a big stick."


"You're not planning to stick around?"


"Going back to Luxen, most of those civilians," He gestured vaguely towards the distant river valley and the dropships still visible coming down from orbit, "Are going out into the deep periphery. That will keep them out of the fray," He didn't try and explain to Darryl any more than that. Darryl didn't need to know, nor for that matter did Aquagea need to have explained the reasons that the combine would probably chase the Azami exodites. There was enough going on in the rimward periphery, that more of an explanation probably wasn't necessary. "We just came back in from Detroit, we'll spend probably about a year with the Magistracy of Canopus before heading back into the Inner Sphere." That was for a variety of reasons... "McGirk was targeting HPG stations, Kelly continues that trends, but our best guess is that he's branching out," Or that Command and Control was starting to splintering.


"I don't see how anybody would think wearing the devil's own colors, and then expecting good folks to sign up with them..." Darryl paused, "You really believe them when this Kelly guy says they've got an Amaris on their team?"


"We pulled a Rampage with the correct electronic information for him to be telling the truth. How, why, who knows but its plausible that Amaris managed to squirrel an heir away, That there is some Hidden Army Depot," or possibly depots, "Out there. If that's the case then we will probably find out soon enough."


"To be honest Gene, it don't seem like having ComStar on Aquagea is all that good of an idea... painting a bull's-eye on us... but that'd be for the hidalgos in Leon," The planetary capital, "To say."


"I've talked to ComStar, up until this point their guards were just some infantry and vehicles and that was fine."


Darryl paused, "As much money as they have to make, shouldn't they have more than that though, and ComStar handles stuff for Mercenaries, shouldn't they just hire more guys, get guys with 'mechs. You need those to fight other mechs, if some son of a bitch is running around burning their priests you'd think," The wrench paused, and glanced to his own Mech the centurion crouched.


"Terra is a long way away, " Gene replied, because it was the only explanation he could think of that made sense. The bounty system didn't seem to be working. Too many outfits were either committed to long term contracts, or not desperate enough to tangle with Black Jack.


And Darryl wasn't wrong to respond with how many years it had been, "I'd like to go with you, see the galaxy, but you're right, the bandits could come. While your here could you show us how to fight them off, if Zathras comes back?"


"We can do that." Gene replied. ViaCabellero had land lines, a buried set of deep cables. Gene didn't know how old they were but the phones the actual cradles and the keypads were ancient. They had the ancient dynamo cranks to provide local power... the sort he instinctively associated with fail safes for communication in DropShips not really what one would have thought of in a town... but so much of Via Cabellero as a town was recycled material. It hadn't been so obvious last time he was here, "Don't get in bed with Majesty Metals Darryl, I don't like what the guys we left to watch their backs told me about how the company operates..."Not that Jowett and Andrew had been asked to do anything too shady...Majesty had been pushing people off land on ur Cruinne, and the local miner's union was probably going to try and fight back... and that was a conflict Gene wanted no part of.


"Corporates always try and swindle you, unless they're scared of you. Soft handed fellas probably too scared of you cause you kill 'mechs left right center all day." He shrugged, "I saw the ROMs from Luxen." he glanced to Bahar,"Yours too Miss. I would like to learn. The old folks grew up expecting that the Free World League might come back, but the purple chickens haven't yet... then Zathras showed up. I didn't know what to do. I grew up hearing the old folks talk about how all the families came together, and whooped the invaders... lot of those families died when the dam burst though."


Gene had never gotten a history book, academic accounting of what the succession war had looked like here on Aquagea. He wasn't so concerned about the struggle between the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation. Especially not that historical conflict, maybe the more modern war between the two, but he wasn't operating for either polity nor in their space, "We can talk with Chang when she gets up from Leon, but there was something," Since Darryl had brought up the families who had fought back, "I did want to ask about."


"Bout that place we found, the places we found after."


"I think, and I said this when we found it...it that that was left behind by people who fled what was the Terran Hegemony."


"Because of the combine," Darryl acknowledged, disclosing that his centurion had been built in the latter half of the 2820s, and then the land line phone started ringing, a tinny tone accompanied by the light beside the set flashing. "Ah, that's probably the sheriff." Gene shared a look with his XO.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Gene watched as his forces moved into their position.


"God, that's a lot of metal." Darryl breathed out in shock.

One of the lead machines raised a hand in a mech scale salute. "Highlanders." a new voice, a man's voice that Gene didn't recognize remarked.


He turned to regard the speaker. Underneath a homespun cloak a uniform peaked out, at the collar were the pins of a SLDF Chaplain. He gave an uncharacteristic groan of exasperation, the sheriff had said a lot about their preacher... and a lot of it just sounded absurd, droll, and nothing he wanted to pay much mind to. On the other hand, the man was right, "Highlanders," He agreed. "I shouldn't surprised you were the guys who made it to the stasis tubes."


The older man regarded him, and Gene felt his hackles raise, "LX Corp suffered against the betrayer's minions. I am sorry for your dead colonel, but your parents died defending the light of civilization, the orders to fall back were done to keep that fire alive. Do you believe the pirates when they say they're fighting for Amaris?"


"Some of them." Gene replied through gritted teeth, "Kelly was probably barking up the wrong tree in the Reach, most of them were there for the money, McGirk seems to be fighting over some grudge with ComStar." He stopped, and took a breath, ignored the looks that the sheriff was giving the chaplain "Given the claim I don't think Kelly is lying," It was a stupid thing to try and lie about, and then there was the hardware issues cropping up, and why there was RimWorld equipment turning up, being reported as well.


"How long will you be staying?"


"A couple of weeks, trade negotiations and the 2nd​Light Horse Regiment are off hunting pirates. So we'll be here a few weeks at the minimum." Darryl at this piped up with the discussion about training.


"These people need to know how to defend themselves." Mercer stated.


No one pointed out that before they had mechs it had just been men in light vehicles with auto rifles. Hardly enough to run off a serious pirate incursion. … "From what I've seen you've started,"


Yan shrugged, caught up in between of the situation. "Preacher, you came up from Leon," the planetary capital in the south, "Are there any, is there any chance the SLDF left anything behind down there?"


"In terms of 'mechs?" Reins Mercer shook his head, "No Sheriff, most of LX Corps facilities after fighting the Taurians and Rim World were caught in the middle of the Free Worlds League and Capellans fight over the planet." Yan cursed, but the chaplain continued, "A part of an old Terran division resettled here though, and brought machines with them along with what the people fleeing Lone Star were able to bring."


That was important Gene figured since it did confirm their suspicions, hopes, but also, "Is there anyone else who made it to stasis tubes?"


"I'm the last one I should have been woken up at the turn of the century. The people who settled on Aquagea had left the Combine with what they could bring with them, the damage done to the regular facilities here meant some chose to move further into the Periphery, while others would chose to fight for their new home." It made sense he supposed, they'd been surprised by the remains of the old stations being up and running when they had arrived in system, "For the same reasons they did not bring much in the way of hardware."


Gene accepted, "Lets get down to business then. Chang will be coming in from Leon," Via a hop aboard a DropShip, "we'll be here for a couple of weeks, and we can attempt to run through any of your pilots who want the training in lance or even company wide drills. There is no ComStar presence on the planet so Black Jack may continue to pass you by."


In reply to the optisim the sheriff tilted his head, "Or he might not, I know what Germanium costs Gene, we've been talking about buying arms from Detroit on the way back, but people don't sell battlemechs and its one thing to drive a mining truck a tank is a different story." The bald man replied, "And mercenaries are scarce pickings even with the money we have."


"Leon bought those tanks off of quickcell,"Darryl quipped. The planetary capital had bought Scorpions, and Bulldogs as part of the expansion of the planetary defense budget. It was the right move probably, they had done that or started talking about after Zathras had invaded, and then had committed once BlackJack had really started getting active, or maybe even because of more local changes, or further apart … the first battle of Luxen. "That was a start in the right direction I thought."


Gene looked around the room, "That would be a question for the planetary government,"


"Yan nodded, and you made the offer to us, suppose if you made the offer to Leon you'd have to charge for it," He scratched his head, "we've got a mishmash of 'mechs," He jerked his finger to Darryl, "When this knucklehead of a wrench isn't foolin' with his own Centurion he spends his time keeping the other ones fixed up. We have a haul Germanium coming up we were going to take to market we've just been waiting for the chance to have a JumpShip take us to Detroit."
–
Gene thumped back against the couch of his Marauder's cockpit, flashing motes dancing across his command software's holographic spaces. All greens and blues, he blew out a breath. "Outside of time in the stasis tube, I put the chaplain at sixty or seventy. Maybe older..." Now that he thought about it he wasn't sure who was older Reins or the sheriff, "and I've yet to see his Mech."


"Older that guy looks barely into his thirties. I know you guys were built different," Septim paused from within the cockpit of his Merlin as the door in the side of the mesa opened, "Holy shit." The Highlanders were already in place. MacIntyre's Machine was waiting inside the door for them, and waved them forward using the Assault 'mechs hand. "But for real?"


"At least, Terran medicine is strong." Gene quipped, "if he was with LX Corp here when the Taurians came in -"


"The Taurians used nukes." Septim interrupted.


"Only on the ships in orbit." Gene replied, "I don't think they managed to get close enough to use nuclear weapons on the planet, "I can't say anything about Leon, but the Rim World hit Via Caballero because there was a mixed force up this way. From the sound of it, -" He radio squelched as one of the White Shields tapped in. The Marauder II's feed transferred to the surrounding mountain side. "What am I looking at?"


"A weapons cache."


"Excuse me?"


"After the fighting they gathered up most of their weapons and stored them here," The warrior in the assault mech paused, "I expect that they only found this the hard way by looking in the general area, which was how we found it." The magnification expanded. The locals had needed to fell trees, bringing in heavy equipment to clear the brush and dirt, surrounding countryside... and it was an ugly blockhouse like structure. It would have been easy to miss if not for the town militia was still sort of using it, "They need better defenses, the pirates would be able to find it."


Gene grunted to put it on the list... but the truth was he doubted that was the only reason the White Shields had called him up. The man was hoping that even if they weren't mechwarriors whatever Terrans had come in here had been his own distant relations. His computer squawked as the AI of the Facility integrated his Dalban comms system into the secured local conversation that Dante and MacIntyre were connected to, and his Marauder, and Septim's Merlin moved into the Outpost Castle. "We'll start training in the morning." Which wasn't far off at this point if they were going to be up at 0430, "We won't have time to try and run it like we did Luxen, I don't know what they'll be willing to trade for, but if Alavi starts selling them weapons in exchange for Germanium the planetary government is probably going to complain."


Which of course went into what passed for governance in the periphery. He thought about the conversation he had had with Mercer, and about all the stasis tubes that had been within the Fotress Dieron... and how many people here might havepieces of, heirlooms of grandparents or great grandparents. "Could register them with the MRB, say they're mercenaries working for the mining consortium, or the stock association here. It'd be fiction, but it'd be legal fiction boss. We' have to take them to Detroit for that boss, and no offense they'd need a better name Shepherd's Company." He accepted the ribbing from the Lyran, and he wasn't wrong that was an option.

"They're going to need air cover of some kind."

"No offense boss but we need more air cover."

Gene eased his Marauder forward entering the castle's inner doors and the outer ones closed behind them, "Partisan tanks would work as well." He admitted.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Given its position, given the Alavi were going to want to stick around... they might be able to justify leaving a small detachment of ASF, but they would have to be Azami Eagles, the Altair... maybe some of their Sabres... but those would be Azami assets.


Gene suspected that once upon a time the 'Junkyard' had been some kind of Capellan industrial shop... that had through age, and changes in demand sprawled out as pieces of machinery were left to sit in the arid desert. The Free Worlds League had probably blown up any of the heavier industry, but the desert preserved hulls, and pieces of metal, and since then Via Cabellero's inhabitants had drug things out from the sands. Gene was still a little leery about the risk of unexploded ordinance but as far as a muster area went, everyone knew where it was.


Centurion, Hunchback. Wolverine. DervishShadowHawk. Then there were the couple of heavier mechs. "What doyou think?" He asked the Azami man who had walked up to join him.


"They are in good condition, but of all makes, from many manufacturers." The man replied, "The handful of centurions I think came from House Davion's defense against the Dragon, but their warehouse has spare parts. At least one of the Hawks was built by Magistracy of Canopus, probably to fight the SLDF." Haqim spread his hands, "How it ended up here, I cannot say. The Wolverines some are from the Star League, one of the Hunchbacks was originally built Winter, but another was from House Marik's invasion force. If you mean to rationalize the force... you have your work cut out for you."


Gene nodded. "Do you have the tally?" The man extended his hand offering over a piece of waxy waterproof paper from a notebook. The Hunchbacks were in the lead by headcount. Centurions were represented but were all within a few years of each other represented by early production. A much wider gap existed for the other machines. If the master chief was correct then, at least four states had contributed to the pool of Hunchbacks. That wasn't really a surprise given the machine had been sold throughout was sold throughout the Inner Sphere and Periphery. On the one hand... well on the one hand they had enough to make a Lance of Hunchbacks, Bubbles could work with that probably pretty easily. "Lets start with hunchbacks then, get with Darryl and see if we can try and fit them all with the same weapons. I'll talk to Bubbles about setting their pilots aside."


"All of the hunchback pilots?"


"Yes." He replied. The senior non com excused himself. There were no Vindicators on Aquagea, or rather the only ones on the planet were down in Leon. None that he was aware of dated to before the Marik occupation. For the same reason, while there probably were hulks of lighter mechs there weren't any up here. Leon reportedly had a couple of them around, but instead of desperately trying to buy Stingers, or Hermes or whatever might been available had sunk money on Quickcell tanks which had been for sale in Rock City. "If they can buy tanks what do you recommend?"


Alois Hammer had been silent up until then, "More of what the planetary government bought. If your driving concern is logistics and keeping machines running." The armor officer replied, "I'd keep the locals away from our Bandits, or Fury tanks. That preacher is talking up the latter," And those wouldn't fit with what Aquagea needed, never mind what was available, and they could afford. "The locals have more experience with fusion engines than I would have expected," So if the objective was to keep long term costs down, a fusion powered tank really needed to carry energy weapons that didn't need ammunition. In terms of internal combustion designs though, "LRM carriers could provide them with a mobile rocket battery if they could keep them fed and away from whoever they're fighting."


Hammer had a point particularly in not expecting the local 'rubes' away from SLDF cache material. Aquagea was looking at defending the town, the rail line, the mines, but they weren't going to be doing expeditionary warfare as they were envisioned. These were largely twenty year olds looking to protect their homes and families. This wasn't Luxen. They weren't trying to build a formal military structure, or train enlisted and officers of a state military to fight pirates. "Get with the Azami technicians about the fusion power plant." That was their strong point after all, they didn't like being reliant on long supply trains, "If we have to expand the armor we're going to have to buy what's available. We can use this to feel out what's plausible." The conversation died as the hover trucks approached, their blowers coming to vertical and cutting thrust to let them sit there... that meant it was time to talk about what all they had to work with, with the people who actually had to use the equipment.


Gene knew that the Azami had been working with things on Detroit, whether anything was ready, was another story. The Azami would have people here though even after the bulk of the command transferred to Canopian space. He also knew the White Shields Company was pushing to be moved up here. Bardiche under Soren wanted to be involved in 'whatever' this was, and to a less extent that was true also of the Light Company under Akashi. In short of his independent commands only Easy Company under Beau really wasn't objecting to being posted to Leon.


These had not been complaints prior to planet fall. It had only been as Claymore and Curassier had dispersed down that the attention by leadership had begun to manifest. Gene also knew that Hammer wanted a more concrete schedule on going back to the Inner Sphere because in his reasoning the company's association with House Davion's victories on Dieron, and the victory on Elidere were going to attract attention from the other states...and not just recriminations from the Combine though that should also be in the forefront.


The Combine would have been looking to even up just for Dieron. Gene suspected the combine had been pushed onto the back foot but that that the combine was also liable to irrationally strike out over helping the Azami flee out into the Periphery. Not that that was a recent conclusion, but they were out here in the middle of this.


Gene walked forward, and Hammer followed. He had met some of these people. Others were new faces, people from further out in the countryside who while probably had heard of Zathras's attack while it was happening hadn't been able to see it, and might not have come into town until all the scrap had been dragged to the junkyard. Even then, even after the discovery of the underground warehouse most of these people didn't yet have their mechs yet.


Chang was going to speak to them, and anyone else who would listen about responsibilities, duty to one's home, and family. That they were going to learn how to fight back as a community. Via Cabellero wasn't a city... more like a big town but that was at least probably mark of the hardness of the succession wars. The time after the League had fallen.


Hammer seeming to read his expression nodded, confirming he too felt that the locals didn't have the manpower, and on top of that, Germanium mining and a false sense of security could lead to a boom in the region, bring people in from Detroit... maybe elsewhere, but new people could lead to social anxieties and then on top of that, there was still Zathras. Zathras was the threat that worried the townsfolk more so than the pirates ... Black Jack's lot anyway.


"Could always go punch their lights out, sir."


"Why would I want to do that?"


"Zathras has bounty on you, after you stopped their invasion force a few years ago. You destroyed a company of BattleMechs, two ASF, seized the DropShip." Hammer replied. "Frankly if I were them I'd be worried the Company staging here was prelude to you leading an invasion of their so called Empire."