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The Aurigan Renaissance [A BattleTech Isekai]
- Thread starter Imperator Pax
- Start date
These two were overlooked.
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Thank you.
4.7
New
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2019
- Messages
- 5,833
- Likes received
- 76,454
4.7
As conferences went this lacked much of the formal ceremony of the League era that had been consigned to oblivion with the death of House Cameron. The canopians being the only state represented by an ambassador no doubt put Ana Maria Centrella in something of a bind. The Margravate was a member state within the Aurigan Coalition... which was in not quite historical terms somewhat rather like the articles of confederation of America, or the north German trade union prior to the unification of Germany on ancient terra.
Lord Tamati had limited powers over the other states. The states, in typical terms, the member worlds and their ruling houses more directly were represented and agreed to free trade, and to not make war on one another... beyond that though there were few significant powers binding on the membership of the coalition. That had made it appealing to join as a trade pact, and the need of collective defense a generation previously had been another.
The coalition around House Arano's leadership had been a relatively recent thing as many people Arsacid had personally spoken to, and even more saw fit to comment upon in writing the Aurgian Coalition, and the 'Aurigan Trade Partnership' before it were post Star League, post 1st Succession War even. Such things were hastily brought forward in discussions among many many sidebars that had derailed the conference.
That was something that authors writing regarding the rimward periphery whether citizens of the inner sphere and its successor houses, or denizens of the periphery commented on. Though, as Arsacid understood it was a bias formed from the basis of many other states. States founded in the aftermath of the devastation of the first succession war rose and fell with alarming frequently, typically because they were so often established by deserters or pirates. It was also the chauvinism of age, Taurian authors were quick to speak of how old the concordat was in relation to more junior states, and the canopians frequently ignored Cassandra's piracy and coercive measures to establish the Magistracy. For that, the Aurigan Coalition were upstarts.
It was not all together unusual inhuman diplomatic history. Arsacid understood that, but it was quite surreal to be on the receiving end of, regardless of how often the Combine had liked to pretend itself the heir to an incalculably ancient tradition of the old feudal Earth... not that he had been so crass as to tell the young lady from the combine that... but truthfully he imagined more than a few of his officers were thinking quite similar thoughts.
All of these factors imposed on the proceedings a certain difficulty, and though ComStar had stated its intention was here to mediate Heron would have been lying to say he didn't think they were prioritizing their own interests over talks of Brinton, even while they trotted out the facts of the recent crisis... at least the pirates in any event. The slip by the precentor of events over the border with the Capellan Confederation were another matter that hung over the table, both because there was no capellan representative but also for the surly mistrust that ComStar had not informed either the Taurians or the Magistracy of this most recent spate of violence on the Inner Sphere' border with the rimward periphery.
"The situation on the Capellan frontier is unfortunate," Heron stated from where he stood at the head of the table, his eyes moving over the seated delegates and their aides, and functionaries, "it is not however news that should be all together surprising." Less restrained and in more jovial company would have entailed some one inevitably criticizing Liao as the sick man of the Inner Sphere... it was he supposed funny how many idioms of geopolitics that dated from before human flight had survived, where as the idioms of the interim had by and large not. He understood why, it had by the assertion of Terran will, the establishment of the hegemony, and made more feasible by the Star League that a return to a more coherent cultural empire, again to the French assertion of an 'American Empire' after the onset of the coldwar of the 20th century, that idioms and ideas had become commonplace in the inner sphere spreading lexicon of people. He settled on the ambassador, "The Aurigan Coalition is only alittle more than a century old," Such that of the Terrans whomhe had ... there were dignitaries, and doctors, and scientists who'd been born on Hegemony worlds who had lived and had careers longer than the Coalition had existed as a state, but he had no need to mention that. He had no one after all older than ComStar ... at least in terms of lives actually lived, the time in a stasis tube didn't count, "The pirates are a worsening problem I think this body can take the news from the Capellan frontier and agree to that, and agree that we should all look at our respective present holdings, and recognize that any with value are likely to attract black jack's predations." Of those gathered, it was only the Combine who really didn't need to but the Combine felt the need to be included in these proceedings, they had made that much clear even as it attracted insistent, strident even demands for commitments from ComStar regarding the latter's security. "So I will ask what options exist by which to bring Black Jack to heel?"
There was silence in the room.
He was sure that everyone had asked themselves the question before... but space was a vast place. The Combine had loudly demanded that the Azami who had fled to the periphery be treated as deserters but no one could afford to antagonize potential sources of arms against Black Jack... when the latter was so readily festooning his forces with Amaris's colors.
That certainly was a concerning trend. Heron had noticed how modern people reacted to those colors, more viscerally, more ingrained into their social psyche than his own men... but for good reason.
The precentor, the middle aged Free Worlder, was obviously torn in between wanting the commitment of forces he had been finagling all morning, as it was now approaching four in the afternoon, for to sit and defend ComStar installations... and having to consider agreeing in principle to the young lady from the Combine's solution that hunting down blackjack and cutting the head off the snake might best address the problem. Leaving aside that killing black jack would result in his captains, and officers of note would likely split apart like Alexander's successors to rampage across but they might be more manageable.
Heron wasn't actually asking for a solution. He was looking for a reason to adjourn again in order to speak to the Canopian ambassador so that they might talk about trade, and thus consider the creation of a convoy system between the Aurigan and Canopian frontiers. He understood that niceties imposed on warfare as a result of the succession war prohibited attacking JumpShips but Pirates were as outlaws not bound by such norms.
It wasn't something he intended to conceal per se. Just not advertise he was going to propose such an arrangement. Once the convoy was in place, with protective air cover and dropships, they were talking about a procession of jumpships making dozens of jumps across the periphery. There was a world in the middle already, Detroit, and there was of course the moon, and the system it was in, nearby as a sort of southern route, but there was also a 'middle passage' outline that could jump from Joppa to Bonavista... but that would entail wiping out the pirate presence on the artic world there... the original colony having collapsed as a result of the periphery wide uprising that had erupted with New Vandenburg. From Bonavista though it would be easy to jump to Cate's Hold, to Duianshire, and then to Luxen... if that was where the Canopians wanted their terminus to be. All of that would depend on the progress of bilateral talks.
The objective thought would be to make space travel safe. To deter piracy on those space lanes... and for that those space lanes, across the frontier to the Magistracy had a double edged factor. The magistracy was far enough away they had more reason to be trustworthy relative to even a liberal taurian government as seemed to be presently in power... and of course a detente and open relations with the concordat could be welcomed but they needed to actually get back to talking about whether reparations and thus a sum for civilian damages could repair relations. A topic that seemed unlikely with the talks being sidelined at every opportunity to discuss the pirates which in ComStar's own recounting had 'provoked' the raids in the first place... Arsacid however wasn't necessarily confident that they would have been more productive in talks held between the Taurians and Margravate or with the Combine insisting at a seat with the ambassador of the Canopians also here. It was better to speak of open covenants in hopes that the talks might buy them time for cooler heads to prevail, the longer the conversation at large lasted the less likely he suspected the Taurians were to make an aggressive over commitment of forces.
The objective was to play for time. and work on things slowly
--
Notes: While it will probably not getits own thread, at least any time soon, the first part of or introduction chapter of the combined universe timeline will probably debut in the junkyard thread tentatively as 'Down from the mountain'. This will remain in my Battletech snips thread because we are talking about a timeline where Clay saves Ian, so Ian remains first prince,where the Azami wake Arsacid up and we get the development of theArsacid Magravate similar to this story, and Gene wakes up on aquagea early enough to be the shooting star of luxen, before most of ghosts events play out similar.
And well there is a Rim World fleet that is used to menace civilized space before the end of the 3rdsuccession war, indeed in Mountain that is what marks the end of the3rd succession war is everyone stepping back because ofAmaris's warships appearing.
As conferences went this lacked much of the formal ceremony of the League era that had been consigned to oblivion with the death of House Cameron. The canopians being the only state represented by an ambassador no doubt put Ana Maria Centrella in something of a bind. The Margravate was a member state within the Aurigan Coalition... which was in not quite historical terms somewhat rather like the articles of confederation of America, or the north German trade union prior to the unification of Germany on ancient terra.
Lord Tamati had limited powers over the other states. The states, in typical terms, the member worlds and their ruling houses more directly were represented and agreed to free trade, and to not make war on one another... beyond that though there were few significant powers binding on the membership of the coalition. That had made it appealing to join as a trade pact, and the need of collective defense a generation previously had been another.
The coalition around House Arano's leadership had been a relatively recent thing as many people Arsacid had personally spoken to, and even more saw fit to comment upon in writing the Aurgian Coalition, and the 'Aurigan Trade Partnership' before it were post Star League, post 1st Succession War even. Such things were hastily brought forward in discussions among many many sidebars that had derailed the conference.
That was something that authors writing regarding the rimward periphery whether citizens of the inner sphere and its successor houses, or denizens of the periphery commented on. Though, as Arsacid understood it was a bias formed from the basis of many other states. States founded in the aftermath of the devastation of the first succession war rose and fell with alarming frequently, typically because they were so often established by deserters or pirates. It was also the chauvinism of age, Taurian authors were quick to speak of how old the concordat was in relation to more junior states, and the canopians frequently ignored Cassandra's piracy and coercive measures to establish the Magistracy. For that, the Aurigan Coalition were upstarts.
It was not all together unusual inhuman diplomatic history. Arsacid understood that, but it was quite surreal to be on the receiving end of, regardless of how often the Combine had liked to pretend itself the heir to an incalculably ancient tradition of the old feudal Earth... not that he had been so crass as to tell the young lady from the combine that... but truthfully he imagined more than a few of his officers were thinking quite similar thoughts.
All of these factors imposed on the proceedings a certain difficulty, and though ComStar had stated its intention was here to mediate Heron would have been lying to say he didn't think they were prioritizing their own interests over talks of Brinton, even while they trotted out the facts of the recent crisis... at least the pirates in any event. The slip by the precentor of events over the border with the Capellan Confederation were another matter that hung over the table, both because there was no capellan representative but also for the surly mistrust that ComStar had not informed either the Taurians or the Magistracy of this most recent spate of violence on the Inner Sphere' border with the rimward periphery.
"The situation on the Capellan frontier is unfortunate," Heron stated from where he stood at the head of the table, his eyes moving over the seated delegates and their aides, and functionaries, "it is not however news that should be all together surprising." Less restrained and in more jovial company would have entailed some one inevitably criticizing Liao as the sick man of the Inner Sphere... it was he supposed funny how many idioms of geopolitics that dated from before human flight had survived, where as the idioms of the interim had by and large not. He understood why, it had by the assertion of Terran will, the establishment of the hegemony, and made more feasible by the Star League that a return to a more coherent cultural empire, again to the French assertion of an 'American Empire' after the onset of the coldwar of the 20th century, that idioms and ideas had become commonplace in the inner sphere spreading lexicon of people. He settled on the ambassador, "The Aurigan Coalition is only alittle more than a century old," Such that of the Terrans whomhe had ... there were dignitaries, and doctors, and scientists who'd been born on Hegemony worlds who had lived and had careers longer than the Coalition had existed as a state, but he had no need to mention that. He had no one after all older than ComStar ... at least in terms of lives actually lived, the time in a stasis tube didn't count, "The pirates are a worsening problem I think this body can take the news from the Capellan frontier and agree to that, and agree that we should all look at our respective present holdings, and recognize that any with value are likely to attract black jack's predations." Of those gathered, it was only the Combine who really didn't need to but the Combine felt the need to be included in these proceedings, they had made that much clear even as it attracted insistent, strident even demands for commitments from ComStar regarding the latter's security. "So I will ask what options exist by which to bring Black Jack to heel?"
There was silence in the room.
He was sure that everyone had asked themselves the question before... but space was a vast place. The Combine had loudly demanded that the Azami who had fled to the periphery be treated as deserters but no one could afford to antagonize potential sources of arms against Black Jack... when the latter was so readily festooning his forces with Amaris's colors.
That certainly was a concerning trend. Heron had noticed how modern people reacted to those colors, more viscerally, more ingrained into their social psyche than his own men... but for good reason.
The precentor, the middle aged Free Worlder, was obviously torn in between wanting the commitment of forces he had been finagling all morning, as it was now approaching four in the afternoon, for to sit and defend ComStar installations... and having to consider agreeing in principle to the young lady from the Combine's solution that hunting down blackjack and cutting the head off the snake might best address the problem. Leaving aside that killing black jack would result in his captains, and officers of note would likely split apart like Alexander's successors to rampage across but they might be more manageable.
Heron wasn't actually asking for a solution. He was looking for a reason to adjourn again in order to speak to the Canopian ambassador so that they might talk about trade, and thus consider the creation of a convoy system between the Aurigan and Canopian frontiers. He understood that niceties imposed on warfare as a result of the succession war prohibited attacking JumpShips but Pirates were as outlaws not bound by such norms.
It wasn't something he intended to conceal per se. Just not advertise he was going to propose such an arrangement. Once the convoy was in place, with protective air cover and dropships, they were talking about a procession of jumpships making dozens of jumps across the periphery. There was a world in the middle already, Detroit, and there was of course the moon, and the system it was in, nearby as a sort of southern route, but there was also a 'middle passage' outline that could jump from Joppa to Bonavista... but that would entail wiping out the pirate presence on the artic world there... the original colony having collapsed as a result of the periphery wide uprising that had erupted with New Vandenburg. From Bonavista though it would be easy to jump to Cate's Hold, to Duianshire, and then to Luxen... if that was where the Canopians wanted their terminus to be. All of that would depend on the progress of bilateral talks.
The objective thought would be to make space travel safe. To deter piracy on those space lanes... and for that those space lanes, across the frontier to the Magistracy had a double edged factor. The magistracy was far enough away they had more reason to be trustworthy relative to even a liberal taurian government as seemed to be presently in power... and of course a detente and open relations with the concordat could be welcomed but they needed to actually get back to talking about whether reparations and thus a sum for civilian damages could repair relations. A topic that seemed unlikely with the talks being sidelined at every opportunity to discuss the pirates which in ComStar's own recounting had 'provoked' the raids in the first place... Arsacid however wasn't necessarily confident that they would have been more productive in talks held between the Taurians and Margravate or with the Combine insisting at a seat with the ambassador of the Canopians also here. It was better to speak of open covenants in hopes that the talks might buy them time for cooler heads to prevail, the longer the conversation at large lasted the less likely he suspected the Taurians were to make an aggressive over commitment of forces.
The objective was to play for time. and work on things slowly
--
Notes: While it will probably not getits own thread, at least any time soon, the first part of or introduction chapter of the combined universe timeline will probably debut in the junkyard thread tentatively as 'Down from the mountain'. This will remain in my Battletech snips thread because we are talking about a timeline where Clay saves Ian, so Ian remains first prince,where the Azami wake Arsacid up and we get the development of theArsacid Magravate similar to this story, and Gene wakes up on aquagea early enough to be the shooting star of luxen, before most of ghosts events play out similar.
And well there is a Rim World fleet that is used to menace civilized space before the end of the 3rdsuccession war, indeed in Mountain that is what marks the end of the3rd succession war is everyone stepping back because ofAmaris's warships appearing.
5.1
New
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2019
- Messages
- 5,833
- Likes received
- 76,454
5.1
Arsacid kept a watchful eye on the reports notification, but it remained without any indication that something had changed. He supposed he wouldn't until he stopped expecting it. As host it was likely only a matter of time before one of the delegates tried to open bilateral talks... which was exactly what he wanted to push forward with the Canopians. Then of course on top of that there were all of the usual day to day issues of being on Katinka.
Delaney was doing the best he could, but again it was always, "We don't have the personnel," Then after a moment, "With all due respect sir, the Hegemony's fall back plan was always optimistic," But that was the tendency towards plans for desperate measures, they were often a bit mad." Falling back into the periphery , starting new colonies the manpower requirements were vastly underestimated." The texan continued, "And even if can find out the fall back positions from that derelict which I'm not sure I can get fully operational, but at least the data core looks intact, we still won't have the personnel assuming all of them succeeded."
This was a private aside meeting, and the man was right. The Hegemony had had wildly optimistic about their chances... which was why Heron hadn't been trying to make a completely new Hegemony, they weren't the Hegemony, "I am aware that is unlikely the personnel never reached their stasis tubes, but that isn't what I asked you."
"Yes sir." He replied taking a breath, and a moment to play with his stetsin, "I can have troops rotated on schedule, the care package is easy."
"Luxen from what I'm told has one of the Canopians remaining universities," He replied, "We're not starting from scratch. The objective is to expand the magistracy's civilian services," In an ideal world precipitously, but what they really needed was to buttress the Canopians so that they could secure a flank of sorts. "I'm going to tentatively agree with Shawkat's proposal... I don't imagine we will get any of the larger units to fall back into the periphery," But there were more than a handful of units who traced their lineage back to the SLDF... and frankly the money in c-bills didn't really concern him. "Our objective is to try and stabilize the region at large."
Delaney shook his head head, "You saw it with Fjaldr Colonel and that was right in our backyard the periphery. There is no authority sufficient on most planets to stop pirates on something as big as a planet, and if they've got moons the resources just aren't there... and Luxen is a long way off sir to be trying to establish schools."
But the truth was the mission schools were being done for other motives than just international good will. It was true they had set up children's creches as part of the first infrastructure of the margravate but by establishing schools in places that needed them now they could train up teachers and get them real world experience with the world as it was now for when it came time to rotate them back to the worlds here to run formal school for an expected post decanting population boom, "We're going to run a similar program closer at home on Tarragona, and have similar schools elsewhere for the populations that were already here."
"It can be done sir, but it won't be easy."
"You don't believe the Canopians will go for it?"
"I don't think they have a choice but to agree, but that could breed its own share of resentment. Pulling the Highlanders off Katinka a gamble as well, shipping themto the magistracy could be misinterpreted to the Taurians. The bulls could do something stupid if they think we're stood down, I've heard that Ostegaard kid talk," Delaney leaned back, "He's never had a real fight in his life, and he's rearing for one."
"He's one young officer, I'm sure there are plenty like him," He told him not to sweat it too much, "Just keep him away from Pike, the last thing I need is one of my MechWarriors deciding to put the Taurian Military Attache in a triangle choke."
"Shit, Colonel, I'd pay good money to watch the Lieutenant put that boy on the deck." His expression darkened, and the engineer grumbled, "I know, you might have sir been better off sending the lieutenant to the Canopians."
"And why would that be?" Heron shook his head. "Besides I'm considering posting Pike to Artru the drone BattleMech program there is something of apriority."
Delaney continued to play with his hat, "Yeah, I talked to Locura, and read the files, they were expecting a batch worth from Terra, some baby faced Major was due in..." His voice pitched, "you know the Taurians nuked Malvern Hill, and parts of the 11th Fleet over Aquagea with most of the regiment aboard... but they managed to get a signal off."
Parts of the command had already been engaged on the surface of the Capellan world at the time, he had also read the reports. "And if we are lucky the survivors managed to get to the stasis tubes on Aquagea." He replied as evenly as he could manage given the discussion's somber turn even as Delaney's volume increased, "But the Taurians who participated in the rebellion are long dead. I cannot and will not prosecute the re opening of hostilities with the Taurians over the events of the last one."
The engineer nodded, "But the plan is to make nice with the Canopians so we only have to look one way...what about the Azami, they're still out there, the Combine wouldn't have brought them up if they weren't scared. Something is going on, an Azami combat element just lights out for the periphery with their dependents... I don't buy it. Something went bad wrong and they made a run for it..."
But they couldn't go chasing -,"Delaney we don't have time for it, and I'm not going to senselessly bait the Combine into a problem for us. Finish unpacking that data core about those installations, we're going to need to consolidate, if Black Jack is pulling material out of caches I'm going to need senior personnel on those recovery missions."
The Stetson came to a rest on the man's finger, "Boss, you know there are going to be SLDF facilities in the Magistracy... and probably rimward of the concordat. If we poke around its going to be a problem. The Protector might accept that yeah Brinton was a disaster waiting to happen, and if those bioweapons had gotten lose there is not telling how many people would have died, but SLDF depots are going to have material."
"And they might have Terransoldiers." He paused, "Our objective is to recover those sites, and the material and anyone in stasis." Heron glanced at his message indicator, still nothing, "Well at least there hasn't been a fight out there, Delaney I recognize we have a manpower problem... and recognize that the Aurigans have a porous frontier...but we have to worry about the Capellans, who still haven't deigned to join us at this table. I need that settlement with the Taurians to get reached.so its one less thing I have to worry about."
"Kerensky's exodus sir?"
"That too." He replied standing up, and reaching for the hitherto mug of coffee, it was now cold but he downed the rest of it quickly, "Come on, we'll worry about these wolf people when we have to, just keep scrounging over that Dire Wolf mech, and the machinery from the Taragonna site."
"And the other AI?"
"If not for the pirate problem I'd prioritize it as a fall back position on the rimward, for now tell mother bear we're working on it. This conference though might last another week," Longer if the delays about broader action kept forcing adjournments.
--
Notes: For those of interest check out the BattleTech Junkyard thread.
Arsacid kept a watchful eye on the reports notification, but it remained without any indication that something had changed. He supposed he wouldn't until he stopped expecting it. As host it was likely only a matter of time before one of the delegates tried to open bilateral talks... which was exactly what he wanted to push forward with the Canopians. Then of course on top of that there were all of the usual day to day issues of being on Katinka.
Delaney was doing the best he could, but again it was always, "We don't have the personnel," Then after a moment, "With all due respect sir, the Hegemony's fall back plan was always optimistic," But that was the tendency towards plans for desperate measures, they were often a bit mad." Falling back into the periphery , starting new colonies the manpower requirements were vastly underestimated." The texan continued, "And even if can find out the fall back positions from that derelict which I'm not sure I can get fully operational, but at least the data core looks intact, we still won't have the personnel assuming all of them succeeded."
This was a private aside meeting, and the man was right. The Hegemony had had wildly optimistic about their chances... which was why Heron hadn't been trying to make a completely new Hegemony, they weren't the Hegemony, "I am aware that is unlikely the personnel never reached their stasis tubes, but that isn't what I asked you."
"Yes sir." He replied taking a breath, and a moment to play with his stetsin, "I can have troops rotated on schedule, the care package is easy."
"Luxen from what I'm told has one of the Canopians remaining universities," He replied, "We're not starting from scratch. The objective is to expand the magistracy's civilian services," In an ideal world precipitously, but what they really needed was to buttress the Canopians so that they could secure a flank of sorts. "I'm going to tentatively agree with Shawkat's proposal... I don't imagine we will get any of the larger units to fall back into the periphery," But there were more than a handful of units who traced their lineage back to the SLDF... and frankly the money in c-bills didn't really concern him. "Our objective is to try and stabilize the region at large."
Delaney shook his head head, "You saw it with Fjaldr Colonel and that was right in our backyard the periphery. There is no authority sufficient on most planets to stop pirates on something as big as a planet, and if they've got moons the resources just aren't there... and Luxen is a long way off sir to be trying to establish schools."
But the truth was the mission schools were being done for other motives than just international good will. It was true they had set up children's creches as part of the first infrastructure of the margravate but by establishing schools in places that needed them now they could train up teachers and get them real world experience with the world as it was now for when it came time to rotate them back to the worlds here to run formal school for an expected post decanting population boom, "We're going to run a similar program closer at home on Tarragona, and have similar schools elsewhere for the populations that were already here."
"It can be done sir, but it won't be easy."
"You don't believe the Canopians will go for it?"
"I don't think they have a choice but to agree, but that could breed its own share of resentment. Pulling the Highlanders off Katinka a gamble as well, shipping themto the magistracy could be misinterpreted to the Taurians. The bulls could do something stupid if they think we're stood down, I've heard that Ostegaard kid talk," Delaney leaned back, "He's never had a real fight in his life, and he's rearing for one."
"He's one young officer, I'm sure there are plenty like him," He told him not to sweat it too much, "Just keep him away from Pike, the last thing I need is one of my MechWarriors deciding to put the Taurian Military Attache in a triangle choke."
"Shit, Colonel, I'd pay good money to watch the Lieutenant put that boy on the deck." His expression darkened, and the engineer grumbled, "I know, you might have sir been better off sending the lieutenant to the Canopians."
"And why would that be?" Heron shook his head. "Besides I'm considering posting Pike to Artru the drone BattleMech program there is something of apriority."
Delaney continued to play with his hat, "Yeah, I talked to Locura, and read the files, they were expecting a batch worth from Terra, some baby faced Major was due in..." His voice pitched, "you know the Taurians nuked Malvern Hill, and parts of the 11th Fleet over Aquagea with most of the regiment aboard... but they managed to get a signal off."
Parts of the command had already been engaged on the surface of the Capellan world at the time, he had also read the reports. "And if we are lucky the survivors managed to get to the stasis tubes on Aquagea." He replied as evenly as he could manage given the discussion's somber turn even as Delaney's volume increased, "But the Taurians who participated in the rebellion are long dead. I cannot and will not prosecute the re opening of hostilities with the Taurians over the events of the last one."
The engineer nodded, "But the plan is to make nice with the Canopians so we only have to look one way...what about the Azami, they're still out there, the Combine wouldn't have brought them up if they weren't scared. Something is going on, an Azami combat element just lights out for the periphery with their dependents... I don't buy it. Something went bad wrong and they made a run for it..."
But they couldn't go chasing -,"Delaney we don't have time for it, and I'm not going to senselessly bait the Combine into a problem for us. Finish unpacking that data core about those installations, we're going to need to consolidate, if Black Jack is pulling material out of caches I'm going to need senior personnel on those recovery missions."
The Stetson came to a rest on the man's finger, "Boss, you know there are going to be SLDF facilities in the Magistracy... and probably rimward of the concordat. If we poke around its going to be a problem. The Protector might accept that yeah Brinton was a disaster waiting to happen, and if those bioweapons had gotten lose there is not telling how many people would have died, but SLDF depots are going to have material."
"And they might have Terransoldiers." He paused, "Our objective is to recover those sites, and the material and anyone in stasis." Heron glanced at his message indicator, still nothing, "Well at least there hasn't been a fight out there, Delaney I recognize we have a manpower problem... and recognize that the Aurigans have a porous frontier...but we have to worry about the Capellans, who still haven't deigned to join us at this table. I need that settlement with the Taurians to get reached.so its one less thing I have to worry about."
"Kerensky's exodus sir?"
"That too." He replied standing up, and reaching for the hitherto mug of coffee, it was now cold but he downed the rest of it quickly, "Come on, we'll worry about these wolf people when we have to, just keep scrounging over that Dire Wolf mech, and the machinery from the Taragonna site."
"And the other AI?"
"If not for the pirate problem I'd prioritize it as a fall back position on the rimward, for now tell mother bear we're working on it. This conference though might last another week," Longer if the delays about broader action kept forcing adjournments.
--
Notes: For those of interest check out the BattleTech Junkyard thread.
BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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The never ending pull for manpower, especially without the support of the Hegemony and SLDF has got to be a shock to the system for the new March.
5.2
New
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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5.2
It was just another morning. There was nothing special about it as talks remained stuck in an unproductive, but at least not counter productive holding pattern. A week was looking optimistic as most focus had turned to the latest news of atrocities from the Inner Sphere.
Delaney expected that he could have the data core processed faster with Erineyes help, but that included being sure there were no remaining safety features in the data before... the Argo as a ship had been sent off right before things had dropped into the pot and so they needed to take precautions. It was also far from his only job, like most of the Terran officers he was responsible for several different groups of men and women all handling the burgeoning colonies.
The operational directorate for the Margravate was built along the lines of the Terran Hegemony and was staffed by a mix of regular military intelligence and CID personnel. Officially Arsacid himself had been sheep dipped to CID and that was part of the reason he had likely remained in command of a special operations capable regiment rather than a rotation back to Earth to assume a leadership and policy role... a role that he might have been able to impact policy under Kerensky... and of course a staff position on Earth might have meant being caught during the crisis... like the command capital ship officers of note.
"So, what are the chances that the Vandenburg White Wings are our people?"
Heron snorted, and Delaney glanced at the captain who asked the question, "Slim to none." The Texan replied, "Their IFFs weren't properly configured, and before you suggest that that could be obfuscation we considered that." It was true that they had considered it possible been but it didn't add up. The ship scuttling didn't add up... and if not for where the ship had gone down and the mess that Brinton had made maybe it would been worth trying to chance the gravity well with drones... but "the Trips lost." Delaney remarked plainly to the other man.
Tripitz had been sunk by concerted airpower in the gravity well of a gas giant. "Tripitz may have accessed the SLCOMNET but there is very little of the network left." The naval officer remarked downturn of mood tinging his voice, "Some of that appears to be from intentional scuttling. Possibly when Kerensky pulled out of the concordat but that's just speculation at this point. We'd need to find one intact enough to have a data uplink..." and they weren't likely to be that lucky.
The operations directorate was staying silent on the possibility of Triptiz having made the run from Terra to the rimward periphery and then not made it to Kerensky. There was speculation but Heron was afflicted with a trepidation of actually asking what might have been the reason....any communications that had been logged in the database for the Tripitz had probably not survived. They might be able to push through a remote access search but the chances were slim, Heron had been told that that as unlikely to yield much, especially since for the time being the margravate was not actively looking for any surviving satellites in deep space.
A chime sounded, "Delaney keep an eye on the guests."
"The magistracy?"
"We will see how that goes," He replied. Ambassador Centrella had retired early yesterday to her guest house with her staff... and presumably to speak with her attaché from MIC, the Canopian intelligence service but that was unlikely to generate as much of a problem as having trouble with the other visitors. They were still waiting for a number to come up for Brinton... but that might well take weeks especially if ComStar's representative wanted to continue to bandy around security commitments and other ComStar business in place of discussions of Brinton. It was frustrating but part of him accepted that an international multi state settlement was less likely to be reneged on short of full blown war.... and if ComSTar wouldn't well he had an alternative possibility
"Do you want me to move forward on the contingency?"
There had been protests to demobilizing more pilots but without access to the broader Hegemon's resources....or the Star league they were going to be short people. The people who had come out of stasis tubes had a hard time acclimating to that. "Yes." Heron replied turning to leave Delaney and the staff as he made his way back into the access corridor which return him to the main government complex of Katinka's capital.
His pace was unhurried. There was no point in rushing. He didn't at present have the resources to do as much as he would have liked, and that would have been true even without the Brinton crisis having complicated things... but crisis occasionally presented opportunities that most might overlook. As long as things didn't worsen he could afford to bring this out over the weeks, but he didn't have a reason to draw it out either.
The official government center let him conduct business publicly, and it allowed the government center to advertise what the margravate strived for, and was building towards. He could only hope that helped to build a favorable impression with the Magistracy, and its ambassador. The cafe spaces were less florid than he imagined the magistracy's upper class venues were. That wasn't to say form what he'd seen of the Coalition, Coromodir liked its vistas and its bright colors. Too much of his recollections of the Magistracy had been tarred by the seemingly vapid condition of the well to do of the aristocracy. Even those impression while based on what his own eyes had been able to see in 2766 had also been impacted by pre war impressions, pre war reports of the disparity in how the Canopians carried on, and even popular media.
An impression that continued even into modern media on the stereotypes of nations. Over the course of time, of the two plus centuries that had passed them by as they had slept, all the member states of the old star league had changed... and while he wasn't going to publicly repudiate the Mother Doctrine basic humanitarian technologies like water purification and atmospheric stabilization systems could be put out there to make worlds easier to live on, industrial machinery for mining ventures in the reach of space between the Magistracy and Coalition borders ... potentially joint investment of capital if not necessarily colonial ventures were all sorts of efforts that wouldn't require him to involve the Coalition's council to bring about a tedious parliamentary procedure to vote on like authorizing the ACM to act federally against pirate havens... especially the pirate havens distant from the Aurigan Reach as had been the case for criticism for the expedition that had dropped on Axylus. That criticism had been non binding of course, and he hoped potentially earned some good will from Canopus, but it remained something the council had grumbling misgivings about on Coromodir.
But for those complaints the he supposed 'anti war' or 'federalist' faction agitated with, their own position left with nothing to do but to complain as his troops were used as he deemed fit. The coalition's federal powers were weak and carefully safeguarded member states as mostly independent worlds from federal overreach. Heron Arsacid was prepared to exploit those latitudes for trading in particular where he could, and also providing military aid to the Canopians if they could reach an agreement. That meant examining whether something could be meaningfully done about Luxen's position on the rimward frontier, and the world sneer it.
"Ambassador Centrella, am I to understand your government has empowered you to negotiate a settlement," there was already an existing treaty of peace trade and friendship between the Coalition and the Magistracy so there was no need for such formalities... and since ComStar's representative seemed less than inclined to focus on the issue of reparations it made sense to approach a nominally neutral third party periphery state to make recommendations on such monetary costs as civilian damages might amount to.
It was just another morning. There was nothing special about it as talks remained stuck in an unproductive, but at least not counter productive holding pattern. A week was looking optimistic as most focus had turned to the latest news of atrocities from the Inner Sphere.
Delaney expected that he could have the data core processed faster with Erineyes help, but that included being sure there were no remaining safety features in the data before... the Argo as a ship had been sent off right before things had dropped into the pot and so they needed to take precautions. It was also far from his only job, like most of the Terran officers he was responsible for several different groups of men and women all handling the burgeoning colonies.
The operational directorate for the Margravate was built along the lines of the Terran Hegemony and was staffed by a mix of regular military intelligence and CID personnel. Officially Arsacid himself had been sheep dipped to CID and that was part of the reason he had likely remained in command of a special operations capable regiment rather than a rotation back to Earth to assume a leadership and policy role... a role that he might have been able to impact policy under Kerensky... and of course a staff position on Earth might have meant being caught during the crisis... like the command capital ship officers of note.
"So, what are the chances that the Vandenburg White Wings are our people?"
Heron snorted, and Delaney glanced at the captain who asked the question, "Slim to none." The Texan replied, "Their IFFs weren't properly configured, and before you suggest that that could be obfuscation we considered that." It was true that they had considered it possible been but it didn't add up. The ship scuttling didn't add up... and if not for where the ship had gone down and the mess that Brinton had made maybe it would been worth trying to chance the gravity well with drones... but "the Trips lost." Delaney remarked plainly to the other man.
Tripitz had been sunk by concerted airpower in the gravity well of a gas giant. "Tripitz may have accessed the SLCOMNET but there is very little of the network left." The naval officer remarked downturn of mood tinging his voice, "Some of that appears to be from intentional scuttling. Possibly when Kerensky pulled out of the concordat but that's just speculation at this point. We'd need to find one intact enough to have a data uplink..." and they weren't likely to be that lucky.
The operations directorate was staying silent on the possibility of Triptiz having made the run from Terra to the rimward periphery and then not made it to Kerensky. There was speculation but Heron was afflicted with a trepidation of actually asking what might have been the reason....any communications that had been logged in the database for the Tripitz had probably not survived. They might be able to push through a remote access search but the chances were slim, Heron had been told that that as unlikely to yield much, especially since for the time being the margravate was not actively looking for any surviving satellites in deep space.
A chime sounded, "Delaney keep an eye on the guests."
"The magistracy?"
"We will see how that goes," He replied. Ambassador Centrella had retired early yesterday to her guest house with her staff... and presumably to speak with her attaché from MIC, the Canopian intelligence service but that was unlikely to generate as much of a problem as having trouble with the other visitors. They were still waiting for a number to come up for Brinton... but that might well take weeks especially if ComStar's representative wanted to continue to bandy around security commitments and other ComStar business in place of discussions of Brinton. It was frustrating but part of him accepted that an international multi state settlement was less likely to be reneged on short of full blown war.... and if ComSTar wouldn't well he had an alternative possibility
"Do you want me to move forward on the contingency?"
There had been protests to demobilizing more pilots but without access to the broader Hegemon's resources....or the Star league they were going to be short people. The people who had come out of stasis tubes had a hard time acclimating to that. "Yes." Heron replied turning to leave Delaney and the staff as he made his way back into the access corridor which return him to the main government complex of Katinka's capital.
His pace was unhurried. There was no point in rushing. He didn't at present have the resources to do as much as he would have liked, and that would have been true even without the Brinton crisis having complicated things... but crisis occasionally presented opportunities that most might overlook. As long as things didn't worsen he could afford to bring this out over the weeks, but he didn't have a reason to draw it out either.
The official government center let him conduct business publicly, and it allowed the government center to advertise what the margravate strived for, and was building towards. He could only hope that helped to build a favorable impression with the Magistracy, and its ambassador. The cafe spaces were less florid than he imagined the magistracy's upper class venues were. That wasn't to say form what he'd seen of the Coalition, Coromodir liked its vistas and its bright colors. Too much of his recollections of the Magistracy had been tarred by the seemingly vapid condition of the well to do of the aristocracy. Even those impression while based on what his own eyes had been able to see in 2766 had also been impacted by pre war impressions, pre war reports of the disparity in how the Canopians carried on, and even popular media.
An impression that continued even into modern media on the stereotypes of nations. Over the course of time, of the two plus centuries that had passed them by as they had slept, all the member states of the old star league had changed... and while he wasn't going to publicly repudiate the Mother Doctrine basic humanitarian technologies like water purification and atmospheric stabilization systems could be put out there to make worlds easier to live on, industrial machinery for mining ventures in the reach of space between the Magistracy and Coalition borders ... potentially joint investment of capital if not necessarily colonial ventures were all sorts of efforts that wouldn't require him to involve the Coalition's council to bring about a tedious parliamentary procedure to vote on like authorizing the ACM to act federally against pirate havens... especially the pirate havens distant from the Aurigan Reach as had been the case for criticism for the expedition that had dropped on Axylus. That criticism had been non binding of course, and he hoped potentially earned some good will from Canopus, but it remained something the council had grumbling misgivings about on Coromodir.
But for those complaints the he supposed 'anti war' or 'federalist' faction agitated with, their own position left with nothing to do but to complain as his troops were used as he deemed fit. The coalition's federal powers were weak and carefully safeguarded member states as mostly independent worlds from federal overreach. Heron Arsacid was prepared to exploit those latitudes for trading in particular where he could, and also providing military aid to the Canopians if they could reach an agreement. That meant examining whether something could be meaningfully done about Luxen's position on the rimward frontier, and the world sneer it.
"Ambassador Centrella, am I to understand your government has empowered you to negotiate a settlement," there was already an existing treaty of peace trade and friendship between the Coalition and the Magistracy so there was no need for such formalities... and since ComStar's representative seemed less than inclined to focus on the issue of reparations it made sense to approach a nominally neutral third party periphery state to make recommendations on such monetary costs as civilian damages might amount to.