The Aurigan Renaissance [A BattleTech Isekai]

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

Oh…why do feel like there's going to be a samurai that brings up her name at some point. And we the audience will be hearing Doom music for a few minutes after that.

Also, the balls on Kurita for calling him "Demon Lord" for that.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Kurita self awareness and the coordinator taking responsibility for dastardly deeds that they did, no clearly its someone elses fault.

The following is getting spoilered

Spoiler: The different protagonist levels

EWSG, Rabid Fox, GWW, and Aurigan Renaissance protagonists relative strengths

Heron is flat out the most martially capable of the four, as in both in terms of in a mech where in game terms he's a flat zero pilot and his phantom mechwarrior is sufficient that if he wants to he can cloak his entire battalion at will, this is a step beyond what Yorinaga can do (where Yorinaga unconsciously can conceal his battalion on the move). He's a fully mature adult, so in physical fighting terms also most dangerous. (This is the distinction between Odin, and Gene were Odin is older and more physically developed than Gene or Henry Clay).

Yes he has an essence, but of the three in terms of production capability at 3025 as a benchmark. Odin has everyone beat here in terms of access to productive ability, Odin is probably the least capable mechwarrior of these four protagonists, but he's also the social kung fu guy beyond Henry, who is the runner up in terms of being able to call industrial assets up. Heron beats out Gene because Gene doesn't have the essence, but Gene is also in the good graces of multiple states major and minor. Heron has relatively good relations with the Magistracy, and obviously the Aurigan people as a whole, but that's kind of it thats stellar geography. Odin has the support of House Steiner, Henry and Gene both have support from House Davion they have strong inner sphere political power bases to call on

But in terms of strengths of assets Heron in any sort of combat is fairly monstrous of an opponent and eventually the distinction between Gene and Heron is the latter will maneuver an entire unit into contact any enemy before they realize thats a battalion of clan-tech battlemechs, Gene doesn't have that option, Gene is much more inclined to fight defensively he will manuever more, he will rely more on artillery, Odin will for the most part focus on supporting his guards, and his forces in general, and that means siccing Schmitt and Hazen on the enemy having them direct forces in contact with the enemy while he deals with upper command responsibilities. Henry is pretty hands on but he again mostly delegates staff responsibilities to the SLDF officers in his command or the RAC people for combined arms on the ground while retaining some degree of frontline capability.

But in terms of points spent and assets Heron has warships much sooner than the others do, he doesn't advertise that, but when the erineyes equivalent shows up (the thing or a sister ship that bombarded Katinka) his response is hi here is a Caspar to deal with. thats 3020s but Odin and Henry don't put their respective factions back into the warship market until later because they have different priorities

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 2.3​

The holographic image were of a series of garishly painted JumpShips. Prominent among their number were the star and crescent, and split sword motifs of the Azami sect, which put them quite a ways from the original worlds they had settled during the first exodus from Terra.


"We should track them down."

Heron weighed the response to that statement. "That seems impractical, Delaney." He informed the other man after a moment. The naval officer didn't seem particularly deterred by that observation. "They went off into the deep periphery. Given what they took with them I think we can hypothesize that they mean to find some life sustaining world in the deep rim and set up a colony off the books."

They didn't have the manpower for that even in the best of situations. Delaney was right it had the potential to be a security risk. "Even if we assume the best of intentions they'll still be out there."

"Yes, yes they will, but we don't have the resources for a wild goose chase. We can't go chasing combine deserters into the black, regardless of what they might able to tell us. Our priority at the moment is preparing the defenses, we can't spare JumpShips, the request is denied."

They moved on. The parts of the periphery that they knew what it looked like in the modern day... which worse than it had been during the the early 28th​ century... if one were being honest. Damn Amaris... but he supposed the core of human civilization had made its share of mistakes as well... the Ares conventions had meant well of course but they had been about protecting civilized combatants. One side using nukes abrogated any restrictions moral or otherwise to not retaliating... and in some cases that was just the excuse some commands had been looking for to put down less advanced societies so they could enrich themselves at their expense.

Whatever the case, no one wanted to be put in a situation where nukes came back into play, but it was late in the year 3016, and the Star League had been dead for hundreds of years, "We have to assume likewise from what we know of the Dobrev that there was a civil war between Kerensky's deserters enough that these Wolverine people split off as well." It hadn't been hard to learn about the famous interstellar mysteries like the Minnesota tribe or the Vandenburg white wings.

Never mind all of hte political important stuff that had cut through the Inner Sphere, and the Member States of the League in the time since House Kurita had inaugurated the Succession Wars. For Heron Arascid it was the tipping factor as more and more ships were 'offloaded', and personnel 'de iced'.

If they were to push forward with what originally had been on the list then sooner or later it wouldn't just be the pirate king or the Taurians it would be the modern sick man of the Inner Sphere, and they weren't ready to face the capellans. "We can reasonably infer that McGirk will prioritize the HPG stations first but we cannot assume he will ignore targets in preference to waiting." Vendetta against ComStar or not he was a pirate, he was probably after loot... and space was not a flat plane.

It was the Inner Sphere not the Inner disk after all, even if there was only so far up or down from the 0,0,0 coordinates of Terra before the logistical hurdle imposed by that distance created its own set of problems.
--
In the strictest sense the neo feudal order of human society had begun with idealism. In the division of labor and the idealism of settling new worlds that were not Earth. The practical aspects of feudalism in space continued to exist alongside various forms of selecting leadership and a myriad of beliefs but the realities of transport and communications imposed factors on emerging human societies... after all plenty of people left the nascent Terran state explicitly with the intention of getting away from Earth, and within a century or so depending on when one wanted to measure the exodus from the first generation of colonies entailed people leaving those for differences.

With almost a thousand years of common fusion power behind humanity for the most part governments could take the shape of any combination of different parts that might have struck a late 20th​ century audience as anachronistic, but the 31st​ century very little was too strange, especially in the periphery.

To that end from a political perspective, it was only the attention that the Combine was paying to the events in the Rimward Periphery that attracted attention from the other great houses. Simple distance though prevented the Combine's interest from stirring greater response from the Lyran Commonwealth, and House Marik of the Free World's League were still reeling from their recent civil war, but unlike the others House Marik was the current employer of the already renowned throughout the inner sphere the wolf dragoons mercenary corp.

The latter of whom were paying attention.

For House Davion a potential counterweight against Taurian aggression and raiding in the periphery was always an interest from within the Foreign service. The Taurians were a perennial thorn that always seemed to rear their head whenever they thought their betters were distracted by the real business of politics in the inner sphere.

It couldn't be ignored that the Combine was taking this seriously, and that was enough to warrant Federated Suns interest at the level of the office of the Prince's Champion. "This is what we know," Yvonne Davion concluded having laid out the reported estimated troop strengths of the regiments that provided the martial, and materiel skeleton to safeguard the Arsacid Marquisate in the space between the Aurigan Coalition and the Taurian Concordat.

Her initial reports, the amalgamation of information coalated by the DMI2 had assembled a picture that at first looked like that of the Wolf Dragoons. Now that did seem to be quite the case. The earliest reports dated two years earlier had misleading similarities regarding Arascid's force composition, but there was no indication of the Dragoons odd habit in the early years , and occasional reversion to a base five unit organization.

What was worse was the volume of air power in addition to the LosTech machines, and the degree of uniformity, but that wasn't what seemed to be bothering the Combine.

"Do we have diplomatic relations with the coalition?"


"We do not."

That went back to the previous two First Princes. Andrew and Ian. Andrew, Her cousin and of course Ian and Hanse's father During Andrew's rule there had been no guarantee that the nascent Aurigan coalition would even survive. Andrew's rule had also had other matters and the Aurigans had been far away. Ian had come to power at the very end of the 30th​ century, and his time as first prince had been focused on diplomatic talks with the Lyran Commonwealth and further combine aggression... combine aggression which had thus far defined Hanse's rule as Ian's legitimate successor.

Ian nodded, "Then we should correct that, and in that diplomatic mission we should be able to see both what they have, and also why the Combine views this emergent periphery state in the way it does." Beyond that, "Lord Arascid represents a force equivalent to roughly half of the TDF's total mech strength," Which included 3 regiments of Mercenaries on long term contracts, "He maybe a useful friend to have in the region..." Hanse Davion paused and looked around at his closest friends and advisors. "What should we expect from the combine?"

"Most of the initial response to the memorandum with effect the worlds around Luthien, the ISF chatter is high still," Yvonne remarked, "But the first ronin will most likely be the old and retired mech warriors, or the very young. Most likely we will see instructors from Sun Zhang leave their posts in the next few months and then other Combine schools..." This would really only apply to mech warriors but that was simply natural in the inner sphere at large. "Some of the chatter we're seeing suggests that Combine regulars approaching retirement will be given dispensation to go in the next several months but that is something we will have to wait to confirm."

"I saw the footage of the catapult," The battle rom footage hadn't been anything approaching a fair fight. An assault mech in few hundred meters? "Is that what we can expect?" Ardan asked.

"Most likely, the duel in question was conducted according to Combine traditions the range was agreed to, and the pilot of the Catapult had to know what he was getting into. If that is going to be the case then, most of these men are going to their deaths." She paused, "From what we understand from speaking with the remains of the manufacturers and their historical records the Nightstar was specifically built because a Marauder wasn't survivable enough in open combat against the Usurper's forces, it mounts eighteen and a half tons of armor." The only thing that came to Hanse's mind in terms of more protection was his brother's Atlas.

--
Notes: I will be trying to update Eminence in Shadow a few times before I start watching the new season so theoretically that means a couple updates this month, but probably not starting this week.

Anyway this follows on the previous segment, and ties in to current ghost who walks updates, as we move into dealing with the inner sphere response to the combine, and to a lesser extent the dragoons, while we haven't actually had Kristofur Kelly show up yet that is also forthcoming.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 2.4​

Santiago Espinosa watched the heavy machinery move. The large stamping arm driving down, and back up as it shaped the metal. He felt surprisingly little jealously at the machinery, not given what it represented. What it really represented was a flourishing of industry in the Reach, an expansion of who they were as a nation. For the Reach to be strong they needed industry, and especially, as their ancestors had proven the ability to manufacture their own weapons of war... BattleMechs had been beyond the ability of the impoverished descendants of the SLDF to construct. They had been reduced merely being able to refit and repair the machines that comprised the Aurigan patrimony passed down from the 28th​ and 29th​ centuries.

Santiago considered that very important, because he could trace his family back more than a thousand years to ancient Terra's Kingdom of Spain where his ancestors had been officers in the old territorial kingdoms on earth divided, and who had in turn been officers and, admittedly minor, nobility of the Terran Alliance and the Hegemony after.

A certain amount of pride, but he wasn't so foolish he could ignore reality... how far they had fallen, and it in particular the fallen Hegemony, the fallen star league made him prickly to any loss of momentum to the Aurigan Coalition. They were on the periphery of civilization admittedly some of his despair at their poor condition had been of late alleviated by providential developments such as this, but now he had to reconsider the possibility of rapproachment with the Concordat.

The realpolitik that had dictated accommodation with the older more established periphery state was less important now and Santiago wasn't stupid. It did make more sense to prioritize trade in the opposite direction, and pivot towards the Magistracy of Canopus... and especially if they were going to be capable of moving into heavy industry of their own, within the Aurigan Coalition especially.

--

Heron Arsacid watched the numbers swirled around him, the motes of light and data. His head hurt, and that headache was further irritated by ComStar's news service delivering news about Black Jack's piracy, but the lack of the news service's parent organization willing to do anything proactive... they didn't seem to be in any event. Then on top of that there was the Taurian problem, with Terran born officers in certain regiments rather explicitly preferring a hard nose approach and enforced separation from Taurian relations.

That wasn't practical.

He did agree there was little reason to trust the Bulls, but there weren't reasons to actively distrust the Taurians right now. The officers had a point though that the Taurian worlds of Brinton, and Girondas.

Brinton was the real problem, the real source of his headache. In part because the Taurians weren't the only issue of it. He blinked minimizing the display of augmented reality, and regarded officers of the defunct Terran Hegemony, "The reports are accurate?"

"Yes sir."

"And the Capellans have some idea?"

"We believe their intelligence is misleading, they believe its a rim world hidden army weapons cache, which is technically true." Technically true in the sense that the evidence that the CID had was that the Rim World had stockpiled WMDs on Brinton for the rebels to use in atrocity attacks against civilian zones occupied by the SLDF. Amaris and his sycophants hadn't been really looking to help the periphery but rather simply to install themselves at the top of the pyramidal order of human space, so Taurian casualties of any stripe hadn't really been a concern either.

"What are the chances if all three of us know its gotten out to other parties?"

"Realistically sir, its a wonder no one found these things before now... so I would say pretty good," The University of Volgadon graduate drawled. The consensus was to act first. Drop fast and hard on the world, damn the consequences and land before Black Jack McGirk made for Brinton, or the Taurians, or the Capellans made a move, secure the weapons and then safely destroy them.

That sounded nice.

That sounded clean.

It sounded like a good way to start a war.

They could not in any circumstance tell the Taurians the weapons were there. That would raise questions, and frankly he didn't trust them enough with what those weapons were supposed to be... and if he came in and attempt to broker a settlement for a multinational destruction of the weapons... it would advertise what the weapons were and likely start a fight over their existence, or their provenance... and the officer was correct it was a wonder they hadn't been found before hand.

"Sir?"

"Leave me, I have to consider what options are even available to us due to the geopolitical consequences." The other officers in the room looked disappointed to not be at least heard out, but his eyes were focused on the Rim World Republics badging and data of the report, and not on them. He had to wonder what would happen... but he could sort of guess Brinton would become a battlefield even if they did nothing.

Even if they did jump in destroy the weapons, and then leave, then what? The Taurians would be pissed... but most likely the Capellans on any kind of validation of the mere existence of the weapons would likely still jump the border and hit Brinton blitzing any remaining Taurian defenders or Taurian Relief Forces that had arrived in hopes of finding anything that had been missed.

That they might miss something was a very real cause for concern.

Then of course was if they acted it would likely prompt hostilities from the Taurians, and also possibly the Capellans who might assume that the 'honorable third party' intervention was a 'claim jump', modern parlance, taking advantage of the situation to abscond with league era weapons.

His desk computer chimed reminding him that he still had a meeting with the ambassador for the Magistracy of Canopus who presumably wanted a word about their own security concerns. The Precentor of Luxen had been abducted in mid broadcast ... and there was still no word if he was dead... but that was itself an issue. He didn't understand why ComStar hadn't sunk money into hiring mercenaries, but he was kind of glad they hadn't as small as the margravate was he didn't want a ComStar presence in his pentarchy of worlds.

Maybe ComStar had some internal argument about who to hire, maybe they wanted some really big name unit to do their dirty work and they just weren't interested in taking some job of indeterminate length in the periphery ... maybe there was some other feature or combinations of factors or actors involved in the mess... but ComStar was being reactive, and failing to protect its assets and that simply couldn't go on forever if it was true that Black Jack was making a habit of making an example of torturing senior Comstar adepts for the cameras, which from the rumors and the news going around was precisely what the pirate king was doing.

He hit the key, "Inform Lady Centrella that my schedule is free to see her now, and then clear the rest of my schedule for the day." He ordered the Lieutenant Junior Grade, naval, manning the front office. The motes of light in the mean time reappeared shaping into the suits of playing cards for him to contemplate.

--
Anna Marie Centrella returned to her apartments in Coromodir city's diplomatic megaplex that housed the Magistracy's embassy with less than she had wanted, but still reasonably satisfied with her progress in terms of negotiations.

The documents from the Magistracy's intelligence services were ancient. They had been dug out of secret archives sheltered from the ravages of the successor wars and carefully protected some enterprising muckraker had coined the nickname 'war breed' for the most elite of 'mech warriors during the hidden war, as Combine and Terran pilots had saddled up to one another.

To the periphery it had just been another case of Inner Sphere Hypocrisy until those pilots had begun arriving in the periphery as expressions of Terran, and then Star League authority, because the SLDF had deployed Terran and Combine pilots side by side against rebel forces.

All the same she pressed play on the battle rom...

... and recoiled as the flashes of gunfire started and the perspective camera shaking. The Marauder and its lance mates had dropped from orbit, the classic feet first into hell attack of SLDF elites and had begun engaging Hidden Army forces, the rom was dated 2766 a few months into the New Vandenburg revolts. The Straios who had composed the report had identified that the Command Company arriving were the HQ element, each lance supported by two heavy weight ASF, of a Terran Special Operations Force Regiment... and in this case the Marauder in question was piloted by Colonel Arsacid.

Not that they had a still image from the campaign. The SOF Regiment had landed in force, and annihilated hundreds of Rim World and Taurian machines gathered as part of a nominal Hidden Army division fighting in the rebellion with the aid of, clearing the way for arriving SLDF regular units.

The image of the Colonel in question was from the occupation of the Magistracy's capital in the same year. He didn't look any different in the three dimensional rotating hologram of the Magestrix's palace than when she had met him this afternoon. Tall, clean shaven aquiline features eyes that were appropriate for a dangerous avian.

... and that was the detail that was concerning. The data, well she knew she wasn't the first it had been sent. It had only come to her after first being evaluated by the modern Magistracy's intelligence and foreign service in an attempt to decide on what to do. The Aurgians were one thing, they were descendants of SLDF personnel, or at least a number of their noble houses were and their nobility... but that didn't seem to be the case.

One of the reports further down in the packet indicated significant certainty that the drops against Grim Sybil's pirate warren and action on that desolate moon had been an SLDF conducted operation with SLDF numbers involved for the unit in question.

Arsacid in just the war in the periphery had a kill count to warrant the moniker and the ridiculous absurd poetry the combine had concocted for him of demon king. There were excerpts of it in the report not the least of which was the Combine's official minister to the Magistracy wasn't nearly as discrete as the man thought he was.

 

[Arimai]

reapproachment

Click to shrink...

Rapprochement

bulls

Click to shrink...

Bulls, capitalized as it is a name.

free to see here now

Click to shrink...

Free to see her now

JG lieutenant

Click to shrink...

Either use the full title or acronym, don't use parts of both. LTJG or Lieutenant Junior Grade

three D

Click to shrink...

Same problem as above. 3D, Three Dimensional

The data, wasn't had not been sent to her

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Confused wording here, as though the character is having a stroke or Mal Seizure

combine

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Combine. Capitalize every instance of this name.

demon king

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Demon King also needs to be capitalized.

 

[Concorian]

yep if santiago performs a coup in this timeline i cant imagine the taurians getting involved like they did with a SLDF SOF unit standing there in the background.

 

[Imperator Pax]

2.5​

Kamea's mother had outlined why rapprochement with the Taurians had been considered desirable, détente certainly was still desirable... but even to just last year they were in a different position. It seemed like if Serena was making that point then Victoria was hearing it even more so from her father, Kamea's uncle.

That had unintended consequences since while rapprochement had been considered critical to Aurigan Foreign Relations, the coalition government particularly the five worlds of the Arsacid Margravate that had taken shape viewed the situation as more stable now. 3017's political calendar was more ... angled at improving foreign relations with the canopians, and watching carefully at what the great houses of the Inner Sphere did.

"This is so boring." Victoria complained in a harsh whisper... it hadn't helped that uncle Santiago had taken here to see the Thunderbolt factory that was going to be the new heart of Coromodir VI's industrial center, or at least the new pride of the capital. The battlemech factory overshadowed the discussions of trade, and cajoling, and favor trading that made society function.

"I know," Kamea agreed trying to whisper back... but her father had assured her that the committee on foreign relations was arguably the most important thing that the Coalition had.

House Paratas was the hold out. Not necessarily because of dislike of the Canopians, but out of concern it would worsen the situation with the Taurians as a by product. The argument being that they were moving too fast. That a sudden pivot would just further agitate the Taurians.

There was a snort from Minister Shakwat , a harsh and unladylike gesture from the woman who was at least the age of Kamea's grandmother. The admission of the Margravate, the five contiguous worlds plus Tarragona, were represented by a proxy represenative for Arsacid in his chief minister. She was the most regular presence of the new worlds of the coalition since 'demon king of the sixth heaven', which Kamea thought was a ridiculous over the top absurdly grandiose thing to call someone you didn't like but it was what the Combine's representative called Heron Arsacid instead of his name.... which Kamea thought was stupid.

The Taurian representative though had been particularly quiet of late, since the confrontation between the combine mechwarrior ... the guy in the catapult and Arsacid's Nightstar... which had been over and done with in the first exchange.

Minister Shawkat stood up, "I suppose then that Lord Parata's suggestion is we greet the pirates with hugs and smiles yes?" Uncle Santiago bit down a snort of laughter as her mother glared at her brother in disapproval, "After all we wouldn't want to offend them rashly. What nonsense is this, that peaceful, open trade between two polities is a concern for a third, especially when the trade doesn't even go through the third state. It is trade which is the life blood of stable governments, open and free trade, and the flow of commerce which facilitates healthy relationships."

Calling out the Prime Minister of Tyrlon aside Shawkat turned her address of the council into a topic on economic liberalism and a thousand years of economic theory dating back to before humans had even invented flying machines... and it wasn't really interesting. Trade sounded great, it really did and there had been shortage of lectures growing up about how important the Aurigan Trade pact had been or how important the JumpShip assets of the founding families, and the maintenance yards were to Aurigan prosperity.

More trade was supposed to equal more growth, but she recognized it was probably more complicated than that.
--
The holographic image rotated, a sixty five ton tank built around a gauss rifle and a Magna 260 engine.

"I don't believe that the Aurigans can produce this sir."

"No, I don't imagine they can either," Heron replied, but that wasn't the point, the Pershing was for all intents and purposes a Star League tech Rommel Gauss, with different electronics suite, "here," The Engineering officer slotted the chips into the free spaces of the projector, "Those on the other hand," The Patton and Rommel tanks while fusion powered were something that the Aurigans could using the Thunderbolt engine plant presumably produce. "Those should discourage this pirate from making any ambitious attacks against the world." He wished he could, internally at least be more confident about that the statement being true... the truth was there was no real way to discourage Black Jack from attacking except by killing the pirates, "We want the Aurigans to begin production of a fighter, but I'll leave that to you captain."

"Sir." There was a pause, "About the Canopians sir?"

"Discussions are still ongoing with regards to a foreign aid mission."

It was the awkward feeling, the quiet about how they were supposed to look at things. Earth had reverted to having nation states rather than a unified planetary government. The HPG network was in tatters...

The Hegemony was gone. Kerensky had fled with the fleet.

That was the ... the work of a growing network of amateur histiographers going through what they could piece together of how the Star League had gone to hell... and it lead them to the unfortunate nagging idea of being the Hegemony in Exile... which so far as Arsacid was concerned didn't work... the Hegemony had worked because it was the cradle of humanity and the oldest most developed colonies with the industry and scientific infrastructure and centralized control that went with that.

They were a successor state to the Hegemony at best, a post star league state like the Aurigan trade association that had had formed the modern Coalition and no amount of magic changed that. He also knew there were Star League facilities throughout the periphery... and there was the issue of the Vandenburg White Wings as well. They needed a functional defensive plan moving forward, before they could do anything else. "With regards to air assets, I'll need time."

He refrained from rebutting that they didn't have time. There was a limit on fusion engine production... you need fusion engines for ASF, and BattleMechs. You could downtech tanks to run off of the venerable internal combustion engine, but that disgusted him to an almost irrational idea... and speaking of fusion power there was a report on the canopians on his desk that'd only found the time to get half way through before other matters had dragged his attention away from it. "You wanted to talk about the canopians, then."

The naval officer gave a sharp nod, "yes sir. With regards to Canopus and Dunianshire, They're disaster sites, I wrote you the report on the... they still burn coal for gods sake,"

"I was told the Canopian education-"

"They're, this is the periphery sir their education system is abysmal. It shouldn't even be called school. Some of them learn in log cabins..." The engineer fell silent his brain finally catching up to his runaway mouth, "I apologize sir. That was out of line... but the conditions on the ground in hte present,"

"Things have fallen significantly from the Star League, we can blame Amaris for that, but the Rim World is dead and rotted." He replied, "And the truth be told I am given to understand there has been a significant decline in the conditions of the Inner Sphere." There was no home to go back to, and while he hoped that that log cabin crack was just a periphery tall tale... a joke, hopefully hyperbole, fusion power something that they could export out, but they could in no way afford to have Hegemony officers, or other ranks fall into the habit of making cracks about how backwards the periphery was regardless of what degree of truth there was in the observation. "To that end, I do not want to hear the words civilizing mission, am I understood?"

"Yes sir. It won't happen again."

--
Notes: Shorter than I had planned, which will probably be a similar case when I post dogs of war's opening for EWSG but an update. We will get more with Kamea and Victoria, particularly regarding some of the other houses and Aurigan politics as well as particularly the Magistracy as we move into the next chapter.

Anyway, due to relatives deciding to show up a day earlier, I am expecting to update AH tomorrow to save me a headache, and nominally update Viltrumite come friday ah saturday, ghost sunday, pathfinder monday, rabid fox tuesday, ideally EWSG.

 

[Bofors40mm]

I mean the SLDF operated a lot of ICE tanks. Bulldogs, the Weapons Carriers, maxims, condors, LVT-4s, Ballistas, Galleons, Goblins, ect.
The list of all SLDF tanks for your reference.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:SLDF_Combat_Vehicles

 

[Imperator Pax]

I mean the SLDF operated a lot of ICE tanks. Bulldogs, the Weapons Carriers, maxims, condors, LVT-4s, Ballistas, Galleons, Goblins, ect.
The list of all SLDF tanks for your reference.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:SLDF_Combat_Vehicles

Click to shrink...

Absolutely, and we will see plenty of bulldogs and maxims for example, though in the later case the Maxim-C will end up replacing the normal maxims in frontline service once production of clan tech starts the comment on 'the venerable internal combustion engine' was personal sentiment from a mech jock not necessarily reflective of using the ICE in general.

 

[Imperator Pax]

2.6 [Chapter 2 Conclusion]​

His expression was numb. A bland acceptance of the information in front of him.

Numbers ... resources... the floating tab of inventory, and commands. It was from his essence he could direct commands across the variety of units, and their garisons... in short he could circumvent the distance of space where they had built facilities for appropriate units.

Heron drummed his fingers as the 'lights' in the display changed. He had no way of knowing that the disposed of ground mobile HPG which provided the funds that he was pouring back into the essence to build the scotts unit up to strength would end up in the possession of Aldo Lestrade... and even if he had known he wouldn't have cared about that.

... well about that particular ground mobile HPG. Given some of the others... well that was a different story, but it was just and example of information that had he had it, he might have been a bit more cautious.... or maybe not. The truth was, with the HPG network in the condition it was in, and limited information about the state of the inner sphere the real consequences were not readily apparent.

He wasn't exactly clear on why ComStar had not rebuilt more of the network, why capability had degraded so... and he hadn't considered how badly they would react. Or how the former member states would react to HPGs of a mobile sort being up for grabs would react... but in the waning months of 3016... that crisis was still a ways off... and he had another one much, much more immediate to contend with. The 'HPG Crisis' of the Inner Sphere would not be his problem.

The holographic display.... the one unrelated to his essence, was a news clip frozen showing another defaced former SLDF mech. Another khaki machine with the grinning death's head scrawled over the shoulder the problem was it was an eighty ton Spartan.

A machine that most certainly shouldn't have been stored away in some brian's depot. It was absurd to think that.... and somehow Black Jack had gotten his hands on them... and other instances of Royal technology. Technology denied or restricted to the member states... not that it hadn't stopped them from beginning to produce some systems aimed at being restricted. The improved cooling technologies like DHS... the Combine had gotten ahold of Marauders... but there was a difference between then.... and now when the state of technology had fallen so far and yet this lunatic was running around.

It was that that really made the decision.

Some of it was a visceral emotional reaction with his gut... maybe it was irrational. Would, would the pirate even go after the weapons, he was making a mess of things but ... but he couldn't take the chance that it would be so simple as Black Jack dismissing the opportunity. Besides, they had no way of knowing no one else seem to be aware of the nature of the weapons on Brinton... it was a crisis.

... and one with a very narrow window of time... so he'd order the scotts into action... they would deal with the WMDs make a public statement about the objectives of the raid.. and if there was fallout there was fallout. Much as he didn't like they needed to deal with this, and they needed to deal with it imminently... as it was... the obviously former SLDF machines being painted with graffiti like sprawls of paint of rim world images pissed a lot of the men under his command off... and well they were pirates and slavers on top of that. There could be nothing but loathing, and disgust elicited from officers, and the ranks, and the civilian populace.

... and that was something Heron hadn't been readily thinking about, the civilian populace, including the demobilized SLDF personnel were now a consideration in the political discourse of a nascent periphery state... that being the march, and that was going to have repercussions on inside the Aurigan Reach as a whole... probably sooner than he might have liked.

He had made the comment that the Rim World was dead and rotted not too long ago... and... and it certainly didn't feel like that with the string of crimes against humanity being perpetrated by pirates wearing their colors. Brinton wasn't that far though. Two jumps from Katinka. The Royal Scotts Dragoon Guards would drop hard and fast.

The Battle of Brinton, when news of it did break was to be a case of confusion. The multi sided conflict ended up involving a sizable number of combatants. The Taurian defenders, the nominally Aurigan attackers, mercenaries, pirates... the Capellans even got in on the action... It was ComStar's precentor fearing for his life at the hands of Black Jack's pirates who made the situation even more confusing.

Not that the existing Aurigan Reach situation hadn't already been confusing enough. Precentor Kepler's ability to live broadcast the events on Brinton V was able to reach Mechdur. It was able to reach Zanzibar. It was able to broadcast footage to New Vandenburg. All of that was to have consequences, not the least of which was it provided a front row vantage of a conflict no one expected, it allowed real time view to citizens ... but it was their governments that really took notice of the conflict on Brinton in the early months of 3017 consumed the attention of the participants as well as their neighbors... even though with the limits of HPG technology, the network and JumpShips ferrying news by the time fighting was over word had gotten out.

Even though the Magistracy of Canopus, the Free Worlds League, and Federated Suns didn't participate in the fighting on Brinton V they found themselves with a vested interest in its outcome, and the discussions that emerged from it... and in the fact that a precentor of a periphery world was able to broadcast in such a way that the panicked transmission could go out across the range of HPG stations in reach, and make live streaming of the news during a crisis.

The fact that ComStar refused to make this service available, or when it was available through certain stations it was for an exorbitant upcharge... only created other problems down the road... even if strictly speaking the fighting on Brinton was a contributing factor to Successor State awareness and dislike of the status of the HPG network, and its services.

Atrocities after all were already a known factor of the succession wars, of wars between successor states of the star league... even though the motivations of Black Jack's pirates which had begun in a simple quest for revenge had metamorphesized into something worse over the course of what history would record as the pirate wars. In the mean time his attention largely turned back to the matter of the expansion of tank, and infantry equipment production to defend worlds that normally could only rely on militia troops to defend their scattered settlements.
--
Notes: Frankly this probably should have been attached to 2.5, and its a bit short but it directly feeds into the start of chapter 3.

 

[kharn]

I have always wondered about ftl comms inefficiency in battletech. Isnt it exorbitantly expensive because of gravity making it hard to make that wormhole in hpg cores? Multiple fusion plants spread around in massive complex so that thery can create short antigravity event and that pulse through ftl? Why dont they make a space station so that they can do it without gravity making it harder? same as jumpships needing to be in zenith and Nadine points away from gravity zones

 

[Imperator Pax]

I have always wondered about ftl comms inefficiency in battletech. Isnt it exorbitantly expensive because of gravity making it hard to make that wormhole in hpg cores? Multiple fusion plants spread around in massive complex so that thery can create short antigravity event and that pulse through ftl? Why dont they make a space station so that they can do it without gravity making it harder? same as jumpships needing to be in zenith and Nadine points away from gravity zones

Click to shrink...

I cannot effectively field a canonical explanation.

Both the Terran Hegemony's official SLCOMNET and its hidden network and the Clans all had space based HPG networks as well as of course they and COMSTAR and the Word Of Blake had mobile hpg spaceships both dropships i.e. pueblo class as well as jump ships and warships

 

[LokiTheDarkGod]

Isnt it exorbitantly expensive because of gravity making it hard to make that wormhole in hpg cores?

Click to shrink...

I imagine that Comstar has artificially inflated the 'value' of data transmission and as such the value of the C-bill by limiting data transmission and it would also reduce strain on the equipment if used less or at lower intensity.

 

[Imperator Pax]

I imagine that Comstar has artificially inflated the 'value' of data transmission and as such the value of the C-bill by limiting data transmission and it would also reduce strain on the equipment if used less or at lower intensity.

Click to shrink...

Also yes this almost certain canonical as well. Like Comstar's network is canonically less capable than the Hegemony era SLCOMNET but also yeah the robes play games with the currency exchange

 

[Bofors40mm]

To be fair they have to pay for refiting all those warships plus building 3 frigates and 4 yardships among other hiden expenses somehow.

Plus rebuilding terra and a lot of the HPG network wasn't cheap

 

[PeaceMaker03]

Less HPG traffic: Easier to read the mail when you have a week to do it and break ciphers etc.
More expensive to use HPG, then only important items are sent via HPG, and less garbage to filter out.

 

[kharn]

Ah that explains so mutch about hpg shenanigans. Would be a big hit on cpmstars eye if Steiners and davions spread out those precursor ftl comm black boxes to absolutely everywhere. That size alone would make them easier and way cheaper to maintain comms in inner sphere although slower than hpg if chained and no videos

 

[Limedalek]

Ah that explains so mutch about hpg shenanigans. Would be a big hit on cpmstars eye if Steiners and davions spread out those precursor ftl comm black boxes to absolutely everywhere. That size alone would make them easier and way cheaper to maintain comms in inner sphere although slower than hpg if chained and no videos

Click to shrink...

You have to use those sparingly or they will end up jamming each other.

 

[kharn]

You have to use those sparingly or they will end up jamming each other.

Click to shrink...

They do? Didnt even cross my mind but now its pretty obvious when i think about it. Too many messages in the same channel through sphere would definitely glog everything up.

 

[Limedalek]

They do? Didnt even cross my mind but now its pretty obvious when i think about it. Too many messages in the same channel through sphere would definitely glog everything up.

Click to shrink...

It happens in canon following the destruction of most of the HPG network at the start of the Dark age era of Battletech

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 3.1
3017 The Periphery​

Massing ninety tons the Highlander was powered by a common General Motors 270, the ten ton heavier Pillager ran off an extralight version of the very common VLAR 300 series. It allowed the two 26th​ century assault mechs to keep pace with one another and both carried jump jets for added mobility. It allowed them to move fast in engagement with foes and stand off at range.

The machines all carried their standard SLDF era load outs and bore SLDF camo schemes.

He couldn't hear the Gauss Rifles.

Heron sat in his office apprised of the proceedings without the need of an HPG or Fax Machine through his essence. It wasn't the same as being in the cockpit, or leading from the front but he could authorize objectives and direct movement. The troopers on the ground, and those in the air were feeding him information he could base those decisions.

In terms of strategic operations he was not dependent on local communication resources and thus the enemy could not jam or intercept his orders. That was critical in a situation such as the one they found themselves embroiled in.

It was like an RTS game... if one where he was trying to manage planet scale and the orbital conflict at the same time. The Taurians weren't taking this well... and they were behind schedule. The jump to Brinton had presumably come in from the Capellan world of Larsha but they couldn't be sure, but whatever the case this was turning into a four way with the pirates present as well.

A four way free for all... civilian strapped in the middle and WMDs the prize for winning.

He drummed his fingers on the table, "This Kepler? He managed to get a message out?"

"Yes sir," The Pilot in the command mech replied in a scottish brogue, jovial despite his unit's engagement with multiple enemies, "Apparently he's scared out of his wits of this Kommando Kelly fella." The Royal Scotts Dragoon Battalion commander declared. "We've got them checked in a ridgeline with our Fury's running Air Defense, but from his maneuvering he knows something about hte Rim World bunkers here."

He nodded. That update was information that he already knew, but that the ComStar's biggest concern was the pirate leader... was personally the pirate leader was an interesting detail. He regretted that the Capellans had managed to launch as well. That was a problem. The Capellan incursion, and their leadership suggested a mix of arrogance, greed, and desperation that were always an unflattering combination... a part of him was glad that their position in the Rimward periphery did not place him wherea Combine incursion was likely.

He was already going to dislike the conversation he would have to have with the Canopians. The Duchess Raventhir, and the wider Centrella dynasty had every reason to watch so many children of the Hegemony lost out of time... for good an ill. This incursion, and its delays as a result of enemy action... were going to force him to undertake things that the Earth that was wouldn't approve. The Mother Doctrine was irrelevant now, the periphery needed schools, DOME would have to be reconstituted as best as was feasible and the Rimward periphery made livable as they cleaned up after Black Jack's rampages. "Tell me about Kelly's actions?"

There were only really broad strokes total. Kelly was probably himself a competent pilot... but didn't fight as if he had ever been a professional soldier... he was apirate he might not have ever been a solider... from his movements he had a goal in mind, and was intelligent... and there was the lingering concern that he was a fanatic... but what really all they did know well that was limited, "He knows about the bunkers...and while I haven't seen it myself we suspect that he must have some kind of Rim World tech, probably cipher keys to try and get them open, but I definitely think he's got a map, and probably a good one. I can stop him Colonel, that's not a problem, but I've the bulls and the Capellans going on as well."

New Vandeburg was a jump away.

This conversation was going on in real-time.

He mulled a display of a JumpShip and its carried contents waiting for an order, "Do you need reinforcements to complete the mission?"

"No sir. I have things under control, once we've safely finished the charges, we're sure we can clear the hazard of the bunkers. My Dragoons will keep the enemy off the engineers until the work is done, sir." The other man replied.

Heron hoped that was not empty bravado. "Publicly disclose what you are doing to the populace. To everyone on World," He ordered, "This is a humanitarian intervention aimed at preventing a catastrophe, affirm the provenance of those weapons, and make sure everyone there knows it."

"Sir we are a Hegemony Special Operations Force operating in a Territorial State that is actively shooting at us."

"And I will send you reinforcements if you need them, but your mission is to prevent a disaster, whether that is to the civilian population of the planet or to the population centers that other people might use those weapons against." He blew out a breath, "So you haven't seen any incidence," He remarked changing the subject and guiding the conversation away from an argument from his man on the ground... "Of Rim World machines?"


He wanted to avoid the argument, because if it came to it... the benefit of this RTS like display was that he could order a force to jump into the lagrangian 'pirate' point with precision... bringing an entirely fresh force into orbit... but to do so... would show the Taurians... and the Capellan sand demonstrate to everyone else watching the kind of force they were dealing with... but then again that implication was already there. ComStar's Precentor on the scene, had turned his station to live broadcast as the fighting had echoed... the man had panicked in hopesof receiving help against black jack's local commander... which given Kelly's apparent fondness for using flamers against civilians and in particular members of the man's order... wasn't so unreasonable.

"Machines? No sir. We've got plenty of reports of 'mechs slathered with paint, but I suspect that they came out of a cache. They're all in good condition, but they're ours. Its not like the other guys are greenies, but nothing we can't deal We can deal with them, especially with our airpower."

Heron nodded blinking slowly in acknowledgement as he processed his own thoughts and dictated instructions through the mind machine interface of his circlet. "I have forces prepared, and a window of calculations prepped to jump into lagrangian points, if the situation detiorates we will drop feet first into hell to come get you. Neutralize those weapons, and makeall best efforts to protect the civilian populace from the pirates, and make sure everyone knows what you are doing."

... and well when this footage did make it back to the Inner Sphere... well that was a matter for another day... and well when that day came it would for the Dragoons and the Eridani to ask questions about what was going.

As for his statement to the Highlander, there were no objections.
--
Notes: a short update.

 

[stads]

nice chapter thx for writing it
good to see this alive again

 

[kharn]

Thanks for writing this! Fukken pirates ruining the day again. But hey its free loot?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 3.2​

The fighting on Brinton would take time to resolve itself. A part of him wanted to simply make the jump into the pirate point personally... but that had been discussed and was out of the question ... it was feasible but not practical... it didn't establish a good pattern to lead by... but neither did jumping the border whatever their good intentions. The Taurians were going to be furious regardless ... and it was going make any kind of conversation with the capellans that came out of this fraught in other ways. They needing to be realistic about the situation, and the truth was everything was a mess.

That was the realistic outcome of all of this. The destruction of the WMDs could be accomplished but in all likelihood no one on the opposing sides would believe that was all of the lost weapons. There was a chance that the Capellans would try and bully the Taurians off the planet, if they could, that the pirates would mount another raid in force after they left.

... and what if they were right? Then there would b e a catastrophe.

... or at least a larger one, but if they had succeeded then it was just the Taurians and Capellans fighting over another periphery world. One too close to too many other worlds. Brinton was what was called a hub world. That was to say, that in Brinton's case you could jump from Brinton to a dozen plus worlds that had been colonized. Conquering Brinton would have been a bridge too far... they didn't have the economic might of the hegemony to draw on and launching a war of conquest was not the objective.

As it was Arsacid had his hands full beyond just the local precentor on Brinton panicking and make sure that everyone had a front row seat to the chaos. There was so much else to do... so much else to do. "Can it be repaired?"

"Yes," The gray haired engineer nodded, much more comfortable with this question than with his earlier, months earlier analysis of the Dire Wolf, "we should be able to expand production for both."

The Griffin was a venerable old mech. The Aurigans original colonial settlers had probably arrived in the 26th​, or late 25th​ century so they hadn't necessarily built the first colonies with BattleMechs... and the original settlers in the Reach were not the same political founders as their eventual assimilation into more modern polities, never mind the contemporary coalition. The Griffin though had been old by the time of the New Vandenburg Revolt... the latter too painfully fresh to most of the men... something he had taken increasing notice as operations on Brinton had circulated around his staff.

The Dragon was not... but that went to the present leadership of the Aurigans and their descent from the SLDF. House Kurita had for most likely reasons of vanity wanted to produce a BattleMech for trials by the SLDF and so there was a black box factory way out here in the Rimward periphery that the quartermaster corps had used to keep units supplied at the front...or what had been the front.

There was nothing wrong with the Imperator-A class 5 Auto cannon that the machine carried. It was a good choice. Two tons of ammunition for it, plus the LRM 10 gave the Dragon respectable enough firepower. If however those lines had been under Arsacids control simplifying down to refitting the Dragon with a PPC would have been the next step. Getting as much parts commonality in place was still something he would probably recommend even if House Karosas brindled at his suggestion... but it would have helped the Coalition as a whole.

If it was ignored that was fine. He had too many other things he needed to see to in the interim. As he had told Tamati months earlier the Thunderbolt was a fine mech, and they had since begun production of the Archer before actions had begun onBrinton. He had five worlds that were all at least in near proximity to one another that he was directly responsible for even without the conflict on the door step, and Aea was the world they had both made the jump from, and from where reinforcements could be deployed ifthings escalated. Artru had the benefit of its own AI, and CID outpost Castle defending it wasn't a concern given the resources there. At least in the short term, Aea and Qalzi were too close tothe Taurian border but they had known that from the beginning... theywere still mulling the question of remobilization but the truth was he needed a stable political base to work from.... even before Brinton that had been the priority for the year.

There was a chime that tore his attention away from the holographic map, as well as the engineer with whom he'd been speaking to regarding other matters, an interruption that could only indicate bad news. The patched in ComStar News service broadcast was clearly in answer to, or directly related to the Brinton conflict, but it was coming from Girondas another Taurian world a jump away.

Part of Black Jack's modus operandi was to support lesser pirates... he probably didn't give them much choice, but they had to prove their bona fides in attacks on ComStar installations. This also prevented them, if they weren't by previous actions from potentially leaving the pirates after... there was obviously a certain degree of violence that Black Jack was expecting dished out. Violence that mad men like Kelly clearly had no compunctions against... and there was nothing they could do for Girondas.

Jumping the border to a second Taurian planet would have almost certainly push the Taurians to a war regardless... the action on Brinton might well be setting them up for that anyway... and hence his previous concerns about Aea, and Qalzi. Had the Star League still existed it would have been different, even if it was the Taurians they were talking about, stopping the pirates would have been justified under laws that legally bound the territorial states... but those laws were no longer in effect, the Star League was gone... and so all ComStar was really doing, by broadcasting it was showing how nasty and brutish the periphery was.

"Turn it off," He stopped, "and turn it over to the analysts, if there is anything we can learn then we will deal with it..." which wasn't true Heron knew... dealing with was something that wasn't ... going to be so easy. The pieces they had just didn't add up. The grievance that Black Jack had had with the toaster worshippers was an anomaly, never mind the sudden or seemingly sudden abundance of Rim World Republic iconography. Things were degenerating, threatening to degenerate further, "Now what else can we do?"

The engineer shook his head, "Without the broader Reach," the 'astrological region' or at least the coalition as a whole, "making a commitment to defense spending, not much we can do. The best that I think we could accomplish is to restore what DOME couldn't do on Coromdir in hopes of deterring an invasion. Most of the hard work is done, and its just a matter of fitting weapons with the fortresses in friendly hands that would bean option... but," In order to do more, to be better prepared, "the Coalition would have to approve a larger budget. If they were willing to do that, while I accept it would not be to the Colonel's liking, more cheap ICE powered tanks and mech infantry would be the best solution." Even then that was a build up that would take years ... but if it was going to show results needed to be started.

Arscacid nodded without much fuss. There was no point contesting the statement. The Coalition needed manpower. They couldn't trust the Taurians. More so than the Aurigans no one in his command, no one in the Margravate was going to trust the Taurians... not after New Vandenberg... they were two centuries more than two centuries out of time, and while these weren't the same Taurians there were still too many questions, too many open wounds...and still too much damage in the periphery from the uprising, from the Rim World and the SLDF coming to blows. "So my best option is to either direct Shawkat to lobby for that or to go myself." He replied. "Is there anything else?"

"We're still processing what we found on Fjaldr," And on that front the Intelligence personnel attached to the Light Horse Regiment really thought they had managed to dodge a bullet by hitting hard and fast there, before the clans on Fjaldr could really start to get mobilized... but that had still been a near thing... Fjaldr could have been a lot messier than it had been if they had waited... but there had still been equipment there in the hands of the pirates that they shouldn't have had. "Its old tech to be sure, reunification wars some of it, but some of it was probably Rim World equipment."

 

[kharn]

Amaris strikes back! Might have to reread this. Somehow missed how clans appeared in here.

 

[Bofors40mm]

I could have sworn the dragon rocked a AC-5 not a AC-10

 

[Imperator Pax]

I could have sworn the dragon rocked a AC-5 not a AC-10

Click to shrink...

Youre correct, that was my bad

 

[Bofors40mm]

Youre correct, that was my bad

Click to shrink...

makes the dragon a lot worse as a design.

 

[Imperator Pax]

3.3​

House Karosas was what after a fact passed for academics among the great families of the Aurigan Reach, and the Coalition. They were the 'tech people' after a fashion. Which was a whole other matter... they were on the frontier of space... and even before these beginning these succession wars well...

All of it went back to the beginning. There had been some people who had enthusiastically talked about science, and progress and quotes like 'The Earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot eternally live in a cradle.' had been readily banded about but the truth was that the great migration of relatively inexpensive flight from earth and later early core worlds had been different. There were high minded academics looking for the exploration of pure scientific topics quoting men like Tsiolkovsky to justify exploration for the sake of exploration and for pure sciences' sake There had been research chemists eager to study new worlds.

More than all of those though were those looking to flee earth and to throw back things to harken back to earlier ideas. People who fled earth willingly forsaking the flowering of Terran and human scientific technology, or who established new worlds that simply weren't capable of supporting industrial resources to build fusion engines or the like. Across many frontier worlds they brought cattle, they returned to inefficient forms of animal labor to built rustic lives on their new homes.

That had been true of the through the centuries to the founding of new worlds even into the star league and on frontier worlds were there could be factories that loaded up their goods on unpaved worlds into ox and horse drawn wagons to take to ports; space or air transport, or the age old standby of water. And, there were even more worlds were the absence of self powered machines meant that similar measures were used to bring goods too and from star ports. Men and draft animals, scenes like that were so common it had blended in on footage of the periphery in the 28th​century.

He didn't know why it vexed him from time to time seeing it so frequently. It had nothing to do with the conflict on Brinton, but everything to do with life in the periphery. It was a facet of life. It was how people lived, a choice their ancestors had made centuries ago, and that continued to be a practical choice by how to eke out a hardscrabble life far from the successor states. Though he supposed, maybe the people on Brinton didn't feel they were quite far enough from the Inner Sphere, at least given the circumstances.

It was lucky worlds that had railways, even though as Delaney had noted so many of those still burned coal in order to power the trains, or burned coal dug out of the ground to generate electricity which wasn't much better. It was however a fact of life.

The men filed into the room and the door shut. "You're not going to like it." The young CIDofficer remarked in his characteristic New Dallas drawl putting his Stetson on the table. They had had the conversation months earlier that the numbers just weren't there, that remobilization simply wasn't feasible. "Our best option is to harden Aea's defenses in anticipation of a Taurian counter. If New Vandenburg moves."

That was the problem.

Tit for tat would have been well established political exchange between member states maybe there would have been some attempt at plausible deniability but the problem was when you weren't dealing with cut and dry and political actors. The Taurians weren't likely to just settle for saving face ... and any incursion from new vandenburg would prompt ... a knee jerk reaction from the rank and file troopers. The only nominally good news was that the analysts considered it very unlikely that the Taurians strike out against somewhere else. Attacking Katinka would have been something even the Bulls recognized would be suicidal.

"Are you sure of that?"

"The Taurian ambassador is aware that we have six battlemech regiments, and that the besides the Striker regiment we could have the Light Horse can be split into three regiments from its battalions. We've talked about that enough with the Aurigans." The neo texan replied finger moving around the rim of the hat, "Aea has a regiment there full time, once the Dragoons are back on Katinka even if they swung for the fences it'd be for nothing."

The mumbling around the table of Hegemony born officers though was obviously, ultimately the same question. Were the Taurians rational enough, calm enough to make the recognition. "There must be something else?"

"Karosas has friends... Azami friends asking around. A lot of Azami friends, its too much to be a coincidence. They know about the dragon machine."

"You're sure?"

"Yes."

The automated production facility for the dragon was a very interesting thing of course. The problem was its location so close to the capellan border. "Expectations?"


The stetson moved slightly on the table surface, "None. The Combine legation to the periphery is acting squirrely... we know they're expecting some bunch of modern day ronins to show up. The problem is that that has davion chatter allover the place. We're going to get questions."

Shawkat was pointedly absent. She was on coromdir filling his place on the coalition council and they were too far. Katinka to Gangtok, to Guldra. They were going to inevitably get questions from the Coalition council as well... and then of course the Canopians on the opposite side, and for that matter there was still the pirate question, "What do you think?"

"I don't think the Azami are acting as cut outs for the Order of Five Pillars, the ISF, or directly for the keeper of house honor. Karasos is what passes for an archaeologist its just the things he digs up are from the Star League... the problem from the intercepts is that we were what he was looking for, what the Azami are looking for."

"Do you have a name?"

"Dara, he's O5P or was we think he skipped the combine and is either in the periphery or heading this way."

"Why?" Arsacid regretted asking the question. The New Dallas native had warned him walking in that he wasn't going to like this conversation. The hologram on the table shifted. Kerra McAllister wore the insignia of a Combine Colonel a non descript uniform of the Sword of the Light. The irony being that it was the same cut of uniform that would prompt a Davion sniper to take the shot that killed her half brother on Kentares.

... according to the records though that they had sourced Kerra had cut her own throat several years before... the alternative having been to attempt a coup d'etat against her brother's actions... of course by that point a war was already inevitable. "One more thing... before we start that," The New Dallas man paused... "We've already discussed things got messy after Kerensky cut and run... well that's an understatement. I think the O5P left instructions for what to happen if the Hegemony's failsafe protocols were activated, if we started going into stasis tubes... I think the Azami were looking to wake us up... but I believe Dara was looking for you personally."

Arsacid cocked his head at the younger officer, that was concerning, "Any particular reason for that supposition?"

"There was an attempt by the Coordinator's court to pressure Minoru Kurita into supporting the SLDF, Minoru refused, and continued to refuse even as information of what Amaris was doing reached the public... and then," and then less publicly that Amaris was putting pressure on the Combine for more support. We think he gave it to them... and we think that was the reason why those combine deserters came out here. I think they're chasing a Hegemony bolt hold... they may be trying to make all the way to the california nebula." But that was still an assumption. It wasn't proof, there was a lot of supposition based on limited hard data.

 

[Imperator Pax]

3.4​

There was a world of difference, no pun intended between Artru and its nearest inhabited neighbors. Brinton had been a Taurian administrative center during the time of the Star League, but the rebellion had devastated the eleven worlds in its orbit... and no one considered it coincidental that the administrative center had also held a rim world bio weapons stockpile. The people living on Brinton didn't deserve to die because of that... but destroying those weapons, keeping them from falling into pirates hands was critical.

The contents of those lockers could not be allowed into pirate hands... or Taurian hands... or capellan hands. The objective was their safe destruction... and then to bring their people home, back over hte border.

They could keep saying that until they were blue in the face... and it wasn't going to change that there was still going to be political fallout.

Arsacid accepted that. He didn't have a choice but to accept that.

The Terran AI on Artru hated the Taurians. The Locura hated the Taurians, what was worse was the AIwas apparently the first AI who could readily make jumps through FtL awake without needing a crew, or at least a full one. Or maybe for the tests Locura had just been lucky... it didn't matter the AI's warship body had been damaged beyond repair and the core relocated here to Artru along with the cached equipment of an SOF Regiment.

What only contributed to Locura's malice was that doctrine had been to move pilots and personnel and have equipment on standby in most cases so that there was a smaller footprint. That you could just open up a cache issue men new machinesand send them into the fight. The Taurians had killed Locura's regiment in space, dozens of light years away in a fight that the mechwarriors hadn't been able to do anything about.

And the AI had seethed about it for centuries. Seethed about it and had had standing orders to preserve the secrecy of the complex and had tried its level best to enforce the Hegemony Shadow Command's authorization of bands of no fly zones on Artru. For good reason Artru was a wealthy world in terms of mineral wealth... it was unpleasantly cold on the surface and subject to extreme windstorms across areas, but the Hegemony had wanted to use it as a forward base for operations further in the Rimward periphery. There had been an SLCOMNET facility here, which had barely managed to avoid a Taurian nuke in the fall of 2765 during the revolt, but ComStar had maintained a presence and seemed...unfortunately to have been continuing to run their explorer corps through the station in the system.

Arsacid didn't care for that but it did help explain the situation some.

"I am not authorizing a further engagement with the Taurians." He told the AI. Not at this time in any event.

The Locura's digital wave form rippled in protest. Artru was unlikely to be attacked. He noted the protest, but reiterated his reasoning to the AI. The Taurians just didn't have a good reason to target the planet for a retaliatory raid... which still didn't make it impossible. The AI was hoping for that, that the Bulls would be irrational. Cold dispassionate logic was not what drove the focus of domestic public opinion or of the governments which ruled over them.

If he was what remained of the Hegemony then that made Artru and the other marcher worlds Hegemony worlds. Beholden to the laws, and conduct expected of the Hegemony, and that was a heavy burden, would have been a heavy burden even if they hadn't been out here on the frontier of human space. Then again...the Hegemony was gone... the Inner Sphere according to reports could only produce a handful of JumpShips a year... even during the star league the production of JumpShips had been the great bottleneck to interstellar trade regardless of the longevity of ships. That longevity was probably the only reason that interstellar trade still continued to exist, continued to bring prosperity to worlds.

That should have been the priority. It was why Artru had been important to the interests of the hegemony of the rimward periphery and was important to them now. Artru was a source for germanium, germanium that would feed katinka's shipyards. Artru had also nominally been a part of the Brinton Union the administrative unit that Brinton had been the capital of.

It was thereby, the map from 2750, the AI had a perfectly 'reasonable' justification for why the Taurians might launch an incursion against Artru... even though it was according to dispassionate logic 'stupid' and 'rash'.

The Taurians could bawk loudly with revanchist rhetoric of lost territories to their home constituencies, and thump their chests to agitate for war... and it was clear to Arsacid that was precisely what the AI hoped the Bulls would do.

The conversation... or whatever one wanted to call the flurry of images, and sound bites, and other information as the door chimed signaling the entry of another officer into the Castle Outpost's inner sanctum. Nautlius's Command Center was functionally identical to its sibling on Katinka, the difference was that the space defense systems on Artru were in much better condition... in that the surface to orbital batteries had survived the Taurian uprising. Katinka's had not, the SLDF facility had only barely survived the mass driver strike by the combined rebel fleet... unlike Artru Katinka was better suited to colonization and resettlement being larger and capable of supporting its own natural agriculture across a largely terran biosphere.

"It appears you are needed back."

"It would seem so," He stated in reply to the AI's statement, "That Artru was nominally claimed by the Brinton Union, is a valid historical detail. Taurian revanchism," Arsacid stated in a flat tone, "Is indeed a problem. I will take such under consideration, and once resources are available begin the process of bringing your defenses back up to strength." He could hardly tell the AI he planned to use the essence to recycle for example the lance worth of royal spiders and some of the other equipment for their bv and replace them with new machines that would also provide pilots.

If it wouldn't have attracted too much attention he might have considered recycling all of the stored metal immediately and going from there... but the truth was he could already guess that Katinka probably had guests from ComStar potentially even the Capellans regarding actions on Brinton of course the Founder's council on Coromodir, and potentially also the Magistracy's representative... there were downsides to a JumpShip circuit.

"You have put your finger in the Taurians eye," The AI continued, "And of course there is the Magistracy's accusation that they are supporting the pirates."

An accusation that they could not substantiate. It was highly doubtful that Ambassador Centrella was lying when she had relayed the claim... but for the AI it didn't care if the support Black Jack was receiving was from private taurian citizens supporting Black Jack McGirk's pirates... especially not now that there were a plethora of sightings of rim world republic symbols in the man's ranks. It seemed unlikely, regardless of how callous the Taurians were that they would have sent Brinton's defenders into action on Brinton against Pirates their government was supporting given that if they wanted the weapons then they could have made a move on them them much sooner and in a much more safe fashion. To that end he expected Locura was hoping the Taurians were really that stupid, but it was probably not the case.