Part XLVII - Section 2 of 2----------
"I do not know if any of the rest of you have noticed" John Fletcher of the Hell's Horses spoke up. "But it appears that the various armies of the Great Houses seem to have forgotten how to properly conduct combined-arms warfare" he observed professionally. "It is certainly possible that I am extrapolating too far based upon limited data, but the only time we see mention of tank and infantry formations being used is when there are not enough battlemech regiments available to undertake a particular task."
"Much of what we know comes from open-source intelligence, newspapers, rumour and the like" Raymond Sainze of the Fire Mandrills noted. "Battlemechs are 'sexy' in media terms, mention of them is likely to attract more interest so they are likely to be disproportionately featured in accounts of battles."
Fletcher shrugged. "You may be right" he conceded, "however I took note of a mention of the mercenary brigade known as the Crater Cobras, an appellation they seemingly earned because they were deemed mere 'crater makers' by a critic due to their heavy employment of artillery during combat operations" he continued. "The fact that their heavy use of artillery was itself seemingly so noteworthy makes me wonder how rarely it must be encountered."
"Mercenaries are cowards, hungry for profit and loathe to risk their lives" Ellie Kinnison said dismissively. "To criticise them for bombarding their foe from tens of kilometres away rather than facing them honourably makes perfect sense to me" she said. Her Steel Vipers actually paid more attention to the effective employment of ground forces other than battlemechs than any clan other than the Hell's Horses themselves, the Viper infantry arm in particular being unusually large and chock full of those that had failed to make the grade in a clan where the standards for qualification as a mechwarrior was unusually high, but even they regarded artillery with distaste.
John Fletcher looked at Kinnison askance. Whether artillery gave you the warm fuzzies or not, failing to give the great killer of the battlefield its due respect was foolhardy. The clans might 'play fair' in trials but the Great Houses most certainly would not. "The Crater Cobras are our lost brethren, formed from several former SLDF units that chose to stay behind rather than join the Exodus" he pointed out. "Their original commanding officer was Lieutenant-General Alexander Baldwin who,
unlike certain people, earned his spurs fighting Amaris in an actual
full-scale war where combined-arms-operations were the norm" he replied, the dig at Kinnison having been too young to fight Amaris like he had obvious to all. "It is more than possible that the reason why they earned their nickname is because Baldwin still followed SLDF doctrine while commanding his brigade, employing his artillery to support his infantry, tank and battlemech units as he was trained to do" Fletcher continued. "The point I am making, which
should be obvious, is that the armed forces of the Inner Sphere
have forgotten the lesson."
"Which is a good thing" Elizabeth Hazen realised. Like Fletcher she was old-school SLDF by background, both of them were fast approaching their hundredth birthday and were starting to look it despite the anti-agathic treatments of their youth, living hard lives had aged them.
"Which is a good thing" Fletcher confirmed. "Battles where artillery is used less frequently greatly favour the clan way of war, it plays to our strengths. The skill of our warriors and the greater effective ranges of our new autocannon and direct-energy-weapons" he noted. "Incoming high explosive fired from beyond the horizon cares little for your skill or courage, it only cares if you are present in the grid square it was aimed at when it arrives" he said, expression very much one of a man who had been stuck in a trench while a battery of howitzers showed great interest in shuffling him away from both the location itself and his mortal coil.
"Coincidentally, while reading the reports I too made note of that particular mercenary command, admittedly at first because I could not help but approve of their choice of name, crater-making notwithstanding" Rafe Kardaan of the Cloud Cobras spoke up smiling, his choice of words triggering some polite laughter from the other khans. "It is worth consideration that these 'Crater Cobras' as well as being former SLDF include the Cameron Star on their unit insignia which indicates to me that despite choosing not to join the Exodus they still bear some admirable allegiance to the Star League" he said. "Although they chose to become mercenaries I have to wonder if that was only because they did not believe that any of the Great Houses were deserving of their fealty?" he added.
"The Eridani Light Horse continue to fly the Cameron Star also, I believe" Colleen Schmidt said, pursing her lips as she considered what the khan of the Cloud Cobras had said.
"Indeed" Kardaan responded, nodding. "I realise that my clan is slightly unusual in paying as much attention to base political considerations as we do, but given that there
does still seem to be a degree of loyalty to the Star League remaining in the Inner Sphere, a number of those loyalists being under arms, might we not consider reaching out to them when the time comes to launch our crusade, quiaff?"
"Aff" Schmidt concurred. "I would not wish to slay those that still fight under the banner of the Cameron Star unless I had to."
"Me neither, but I was actually thinking more in terms of swaying them to our cause" Kardaan explained his thinking on the matter.
James McKenna scratched his chin looking thoughtful. "Although it ended badly, and I confess I am not sure how much of the blame for that rests with me, my Snow Ravens would not have so easily dealt with the Empire of Hidalgo as we did on Circe during Operation Klondike if the forces of the Kerensky Dominion, who still professed loyalty to their former commander, had not fought by our side" he said. "Even if we were only able to get the likes of the Crater Cobras and the Eridani Light Horse to stand aside it would be of help in our campaign, even more so if they joined our cause to reestablish the Star League" he suggested.
"Given our gross numerical advantage I can only agree" ilKhan Kerensky interjected. "We should find time to discuss this further and I would also suggest that when we send our next intelligence-gathering mission to the Inner Sphere we instruct our operatives to gather as much information of former SLDF units that
did not formally sign up with one of the House armies as possible without them risking being captured and identified. If there is one thing that we do not need it is the Traitor Lords being given the opportunity to prepare for our crusade. Even with the element of surprise the scale of the undertaking is daunting to contemplate" he said, frowning for a moment before suddenly smiling. "On a somewhat related matter, learning the fate of the 295th Division came as something of a pleasant surprise, and I would personally hope that we could avoid crossing swords with them also. They were one of the units that fought in the Battle of Moscow in 2777, an event that I think you can all understand is dear to my heart" he said honestly. He vaguely recalled his mother mentioning once that she had been introduced to a 'General Romanova' by his father after the battle, the officer's family name being something that had caught her attention for obvious reasons. Apparently the officer was unable to speak Russian, something which had disappointed Katyusha Kerensky somewhat, but still for a direct descendant of the Tsar's themselves to command a division involved in the liberation of Moscow was portentous she thought.
"The 295th fought their way from Apollo all the way to Terra, it was a shame they were left behind during the Exodus, though in their particular case it seems to have been largely by accident not choice" Colleen Schmitt commented. "I was also pleased to hear that, finding themselves stranded in the Inner Sphere, instead of abandoning their duty they decided to establish themselves on a Star League colony to protect it from the predations of others" she said. "Incidentally, do we know much more of this 'Niops Association' than is mentioned in the report, quiaff?" she asked hopefully.
"Aff' Nicholas Kerensky confirmed. "As well as being a self-sufficient colony of the Terran Hegemony established for astronomical research, a study of old files in the SLDF databases indicated some connection between the Niops Association and the XXXIV Corps which had been stationed in the periphery bordering region of the Free Worlds League before the Amaris War" he said. "Niops provided logistical support to the XXXIV Corps, supplying technologically advanced spare parts that would have otherwise had to come all the way from the Hegemony itself" the ilKhan continued. "It seems that a manufacturing base sophisticated enough to maintain cutting-edge Hegemony astronomical sensors and the like was also up to the task of producing short production runs of late Star League military equipment including that only in the possession of Royal formations at the time."
"Which explains nicely how they were able to keep the war machines of the 295th operational in the years since" Elizabeth Hazen remarked. "I was wondering about that. In fact it even vaguely crossed my mind that the Chalcas Clan might somehow be involved, what with the rumours of Niops still operating equipment regarded as 'lostech' elsewhere in the Inner Sphere" she added.
"It seems more the case that Niops never
lost the ability to manufacture Star League equipment, rather than having it reintroduced thanks to someone like the cursed Calchas arrive at their doorstep a few decades after the 295th did" Kerensky replied. "Being able to manufacture and maintain your own HPG network might seem like some kind of dark sorcery to those living in the technologically regressed Successor States, but before the Traitor Lords burned much of the rest of the Hegemony in nuclear fire knowing how an ERPPC works would not incur accusations of witchcraft' he said sardonically. "I also doubt that the Chalcas Clan would like the Niops Association flag, to my eye their Red Cameron Star resembles the Clan Daggerstar a little too much for them to embrace it" he joked.
Stephen McKenna chuckled for a moment before becoming more serious and professional again "The 295th did have warships assigned to them, which included the destroyers mentioned in the report as being operated by Niops, although I have seen no mention of the
Potemkin class cruiser that we know General Romanov had at her command at the time of the Exodus" he said. "I wonder if Niops has been keeping her existence a secret, something to surprise the Free Worlds League with if House Marik casts envious eyes in their direction?" he suggested.
"It would be sensible to keep an ace up their sleeve given what the loathsome Mariks did to Brownsville and New Dallas" Kerensky agreed with the theory. "The mention of Niops boasting of the size of their nuclear deterrent indicates they are aware of the threat they are under."
"We should not be surprised perhaps that a planet full of astrophysicists and SLDF military personnel who served against Amaris is
somewhat knowledgeable regarding both the theory of nuclear fusion and its practical application to warfare" Raymond Sainze wryly observed. "Given that we know the 295th are on Niops and still apparently a cohesive unit I wonder if the SLDF divisions that aligned with Jerome Blake and took control of Terra are still mobilised and battle-ready as well?"
"Our intelligence regarding the current situation on Terra and Comstar generally is sparse unfortunately" the ilKhan replied regretfully. "Airing on the side of caution we must assume that the eight divisions that my father left under the command of General Lauren Hayes, those that joined the cause of Jerome Blake, are still capable of taking the field, even if by now they lack a strong core of veterans to stiffen their ranks" he said. "Given what was happening to the other worlds of the Terran Hegemony I have to assume that ComStar is not stupid enough to have demobilised."
"It is possible they have warships too" Stephen McKenna warned. "The Titan Shipyards survived the Amaris War after all, and if it suits this Niops Association to keep a secret capital ship in reserve just in case then the same would be true for ComStar" he said. "They might conceivably have even begun to rebuild the SDS system" he added with an involuntary grimace. As a naval officer who had commanded warships during the liberation of the Terran Hegemony during the Amaris War his nightmares were haunted by M-5
Caspar warships and M-3
Pentagon drones.
Since talking up the potential difficulty of the task of 'liberating' the Inner Sphere very much suited Nicholas Kerensky he was only too happy to entertain such a notion and he steered the conversation over the next few minutes along those lines. Even
without warships and murderous artificial intelligences opposing the clans, he then warned, their achieving uncontested dominance of the high ground of space was still in doubt because of the sheer number of aerospace fighters and armed dropships that could be thrown at them, many loaded down with nuclear-tipped ordnance.
With broad agreement from the Grand Council that the time was not yet right to contemplate launching their crusade to save the Inner Sphere from itself and restore the Star League the ilKhan proposed two votes. The first vote was whether or not they should send another reconnaissance mission to the Inner Sphere in five years or leave it for a full decade, with Kerensky advocating the latter arguing that the clan's ongoing military buildup would not bear fruit for at least a decade anyway, the so-called Second Succession War was highly unlikely to end anytime soon, and that every time they sent people back they unnecessarily risked exposure.
Nicholas Kerensky won the first vote by a comfortable margin, with only the lunatic fringe, which included his lover unfortunately, dissenting.
The second vote was on whether the Grand Council should in future once again have the saKhan of each clan attend as well as the khan, as had been the norm before the Wolverine Secession. After Franklin Hallis had blown the original Great Hall to rubble via orbital bombardment a concern that the man might well come back one day and do it
again had led to a decision that having all the Khans and saKhans in one place was a bad idea in terms of ensuring continuity of government after a decapitation strike.
The second vote was tighter, but seeing as how they had heard nothing of the Chalcas Clan in a decade and a half and Strana Mechty was much better protected now anyway the majority voted to go back to the old way of doing things.
Kerensky took note of the fact that Jason Karrige of the Widowmakers, who had spoken little throughout the rest of the proceedings, had become quite animated when the name of Franklin Hallis was said aloud in the context of the vote. Nicholas Kerensky could not help but conclude from the man's demeanour that he still lay awake at night fretting that Hallis was going to sneak into his room just before dawn, cut his balls off and then gut him like a fish.
That was certainly how Kerensky himself daydreamed about getting rid of the man at least. If not for Karrige's scheming the whole business with Sarah McEvedy might have turned out very much differently. The death toll would have certainly been much lower, the ilKhan wanted to break the Wolverines, make an example of them to encourage the others, not nuke their capital city in a massively excessive false-flag operation.
As the years went by Nicholas Kerensky occasionally wished he could turn back the clock and pick Clan Widowmaker to be the one he made an example of, citing their underhanded back-stabbing and plotting as being even more in opposition to the basic principles of clan society than McEvedy and her loosening of the caste system.
Karrige was definitely up to something, Kerensky knew, using his saKhan's ties to his own brother who served as the saKhan of the Ghost Bears to weave together an alliance to rival the one Clan Wolf had with the Coyotes.
The prospect was almost as disconcerting as the way Clan Mongoose and the Snow Ravens were seemingly falling into each other's arms, with the Cloud Cobras and Burrocks also starting to align themselves into that new power-block.
If the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere were not such monsters providing a unifying foe to rally against the clans might have even been facing a major schism, and his position as ilKhan itself beemn under threat. As it was Nicholas Kerensky could only breathe a sigh of relief and offer thanks for the likes of Jinjiro Kurita for making him look so damn good by comparison.
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Note from the Author:Clan society is not developing as it did in canon. Power-blocks are forming and becoming deeper (the Mongoose/Snow Raven axis being the one which is most suspicious of Nicholas Kerensky with the politically adept Clan Cloud Cobra moving their way) and if not for the horrible news still reaching them from the Inner Sphere the clans would not be near as unified as they still are. Kerensky does not have the untrammeled power and authority he had before the successful Wolverine Secession but had gained some figurehead status as someone to rally behind when contemplating a crusade to 'restore civilisation' in the Inner Sphere.
In cannon the supposedly annihilated Clan Wolverine were referred to by the clans as the 'Not-Named' with saying their actual name out loud a strong taboo which would cause great offence. Here saying 'Wolverine' will not get you physically assaulted, but a clanner in the vicinity might spit on the ground when they hear the name and it is considered more polite, or politically correct, to call them the 'Chalcas Clan', with 'chalcas', or challenging the caste system, being greatly frowned upon in clan culture.
The clans are far weaker militarily here than the were in the 31st Century when they launched their campaign against the Inner Sphere in canon, simultaneously the Successor States are stronger in 2840 than they were in 3040 and there are still plenty of veterans around that fought in the Amaris War that they understand logistics and strategic depth. Most of them would like to go back and paste the 'Traitor Lords', being rather angry about all the billions of deaths back home, and its not just those of the Warrior Caste who support military action, but they know fulll-well that they'd lose if they did.
Clan Cloud Cobra having a particular soft spot for the Crater Cobras mercenary brigade seems appropriate (the clans do like their totem animals), the fact that the Crater Cobras are made up of former SLDF units and still feature the Cameron Star on their insignia makes that easier to justify. On the subject of insignia the Clan's Daggerstar really isn't that far removed from the Red Cameron star being used by Niops.
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