BattleTech - The Board Game of Armored Combat
BattleTech Player Boards => Fan Fiction => Topic started by: Cannonshop on 10 November 2019, 16:20:34
-
(in a sideline of a sideline, another bubble in the multiverse...)
October 22, 3057, Private apartments, The Triad, Tharkad...
The right honorable Archon-Princess Victoria Patricia Steiner-Davion, Lady of Tharkad visited a guest. "Elizabeth, you're sick." she says, "Kate knows it, mom knew it, I know it-half the military planners on Tharkad know it."
"It gets what you need." the younger woman-really still just a girl, paced glassy-eyed, waiting for the cocktail of pain killers and antiseizure medications to take effect. "we've got production up forty six percent at six major contractors, ammunition and weapons are arriving at the front lines instead of being diverted to criminals now. Your brother Karl's unit sent a thank-you letter to my people on Kowloon for the deliveries."
"True...but I can't let you flout the law like this, lizzie-you're too young to-"
"I'm old enough, hell, based on what I have, I'm damn near middle aged. I can't serve on the front lines, that's barred to me, but I can damned sure lean on my dad's employees to make sure we're filling bodybags with Clanners instead of Lyran boys and girls not THAT much older than me."
"that's not the problem and you know it, Liz. You shot a man in cold blood, on camera, and broadcast it."
"He was selling to the black market, your highness." Elizabeth told her calmly, her dark eyes as emotionless as a shark, "He was embezzling, he was also abusing his position, and pushed my world to the edge of open rebellion. shooting him was the right call, bullet to the head and in public, so everyone, without a doubt, would understand that he wasn't about to get away with it. There is..there can be, no limit, no hesitation, no means too far gone against the Clans. Nothing is too extreme when in opposition to genocidal evil. I think your father might agree."
"My mother would not." Victoria said, "and my mother sits Regent over the entire Federated Commonwealth."
"She lets me continue." Elizabeth stated, "Obviously my service is valuable enough, and temporary enough to stomach letting me do what must be done."
"Liz..."
"Highness, you're a good person. so is your brother Karl, heck, I kind of suspect your younger brother Peter got a bad deal over that mess on the Drac border. I know where my soul is going when I die, and I know both how and why I'm damned, but if i can help stop a greater evil, at least I'll burn knowing I made a difference."
"The treatment isn't working, is it?" Victoria asked.
"no. and it won't. They tried it generations ago, it didn't work then, it won't work now-I have limited time, Highness. I need to get back to work while I'm still able, while I still have my brain, a lot of work to make sure my people never need someone like me again."
"I'll...I'll talk to Mother about letting you leave Tharkad."
"Thank you for your help."
half an hour ago, Victoria had watched as Duchess Elizabeth Ngo of Kowloon, swore her allegiance to the Federated Commonwealth, and then collapsed before the throne in a violent seizure that left a bloody smear on the floor of the Estates General.
-
More Ngo-verse! :o :thumbsup:
-
More Ngo-verse! :o :thumbsup:
This one's a little difference, kind of stealing other ideas.
The Steiner-Davion children:
Victoria; Female, oldest Daughter of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner-Davion. (female Victor, obviously) Victoria is a compassionate, intelligent, Strategically gifted individual, and heir-apparent to her parents realm, she chafes at being held back to conduct affairs of state while her brothers are fighting to preserve not only the realm, but the whole of the Inner Sphere. This is not to say Victoria's a social general, far from it-she led the forces that relieved Coventry, and proved herself able to marshal forces and lead them into battle, however, her mother, the Regent Melissa Steiner-Davion, keeps her on a short leash with regards to military matters, it's fine for Victoria to come up with the plans, but Melissa often insists, both as mother and as her temporary superior, that she delegate the execution of those plans to others. Victoria's rumoured relationship with Hohiro Kurita (the Heir of the Draconis Combine) remains mostly a rumour in 3057, though her friendship with Omi Kurita is well documented.
Charlemagne "Karl" Morgan Steiner-Davion: oldest son, second child. Karl is an at best Average 'mechwarrior, but he's an outstanding battlefield tactician. his ambitious nature is served by his successes as a field commander on the Clan front. Karl is a very good soldier and an inspiring leader. For as long as there's a war, he is content to serve, but he has ambitions to Lead the Federated Commonwealth himself someday.
Peter Steiner-Davion: Third child, second son, the black-sheep of the family. As a fresh young officer, he was lured into an ill-advised action against the Draconis Combine, from which he barely escaped with only the threat of being cashiered from the AFFC. Peter's 'punishment' has been to coordinate with the Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery as a Military Liaison under the restored Star League, he is suspected of being involved in a relationship with Omi Kurita, a rumour that both realms have been very careful to preserve unofficially, while officially denying the link.
Yvonne Steiner-Davion: youngest of the Steiner-Davions, diplomatically gifted, a social chameleon who maybe trusts others a bit too much. Yvonne has no speaking parts in this story yet.
The Ngos:
Elizabeth Anne Ngo: Duchess of Kowloon, embarrassment to much of the Estates General in the Lyran Commonwealth State. Ruthless, sometimes derided as psychotic, or psychopathic, she is the inheritor of the largest non-Comstar industrial tooling company in the Federated Commonwealth, with assets and contracts that are valued at several times the value of her family's landhold of Kowloon itself. Her tested intelligence is somewhere past the point where AFFC's Dept. of Education can safely test, and she will be dead by the age of forty of a syndrome that nobody has been able to successfully treat in eight hundred years. Technically she is an incredibly minor duchess, a 'rabbit skinner noble' of a world with a history of popular uprisings and difficult governance. Since assuming her Ducal hold at the age of fourteen in 3052, duchess Ngo has been building an over-sized militia, flaunting many of the conventions and not a few laws while doing so, however few in the Estates General or the AFFC can argue with her results-piracy along the Mainstreet-to-Melissia corridor has dropped by over 89% since 3052, with MTM units seeing a massive influx of trained infantry, armor, and aerospace personnel in spite of a lack of proper, approved, training facilities. Readiness ratings for the Melissia Theater units have improved by over fifty percent. This has allowed Regular rated forces to be moved to counter probes and thrusts by the Clans. Duchess Ngo is medically barred from AFFC service or most military education, and is often seen as something of a comical figure by Nobles closer to the core. She is relatively unknown outside of the Federated Commonwealth.
-
Cool, thanks for the extra detail! :thumbsup:
-
3058, Kowloon, Lyran State of the Federated Commonwealth...
Duchess Ngo's 'ducal residence' would be an unendurable humiliation to most of her peers. Victoria found the Kowloonese Duchess's two story split level house in the middle of a middle-to-working-class neighborhood in the suburbs of the planetary capital to be 'quaint'. Having no room for the massive bodyguard force to set up on the quiet cul-de-sac was clearly something Liz chose by intent.
The 'old' Ducal residence, a structure dating back to when Kowloon was occupied by the Rim Worlds Republic, had been converted to the grounds of a university-there were no barracks there, either, just dorms and libraries with classrooms stocked by the best academics Ngo Industries could recruit, teaching exotic subjects like Economics, business, and engineering.
"Next time, I'm going to summon you to Tharkad for this." Victoria stated.
"Your majesty has that prerogative. Want some ijero?" Liz asked, offering a glass pitcher filled with a reddish fruit drink laced with ice-cubes. "It's good for the circulation and a local favorite."
"Sure you don't have anything stronger?" Victoria asked.
"Nah, this is strong enough, no alcohol though, I'm trying to keep my thinking clear."
"sure." Victoria accepted a glass, and Liz poured the drinks. There was a slight fruity smell, like a mix of cherry and cinammon. Victoria took a careful sip, and was pleased at the sweetness...right before being reminded why Kowloonese 'cooking' was considered something of a dare among the troops.
It snuck up, but then, it BURNED.
"What brings the Archon to my little corner of the Commonwealth, your Majesty?" Liz asked. "Have some of the bread, it damps the burn."
"hohhh...hhh..hot. Ohdeargod..." Victoria held up a finger in warning, and set the glass on the countertop, noting that it was simply polished granite, rather than the stain-resistant polylamellors currently in style on Tharkad. "Your Militia. I need them."
Liz sighed, "Your majesty, how many?"
"HOw many can you send, how many can you train?" Victoria asked, "I need all of them."
"Which one?" Elizabeth didn't argue, she simply asked, as though 'yes' were simply assumed, "And how long do I have to mobilize?"
but her question made Victoria look up from the bread as she sliced it. "which one?"
"I've got a ground forces militia, we're already tithing most of the units as they come on line." Liz explained, "and there's the Coast Guard, which I am guessing is the one you're really here to...retain. I don't think you've got enough transport dedicated to wet-naval units to support them, but...I could be wrong."
"I said all of them. I meant it." Victoria told her. "I know you've been working on the transport problem."
"Oh...the yards at boojum..."
"Yes. Those. a little hound told me you've been hiding a lot of military hardware in your local...what is it, 'maritime police agency'? Aerospace craft, dropships...and jump ships. I need them-as many as you have, as many as you can find."
"Your Majesty is well informed-the Coasties don't answer directly to me, they report to the planetary assembly." Liz said it like the standard boilerplate it was. Victoria was having none of it.
"So tell the legislature to uphold their obligations, Liz, this is serious. We're working on hitting the Clans back and we need the additional tonnage."
"I didn't say you wouldn't get them, Majesty. I know where my duty lies, I need a timeframe for how long you are going to give me to mobilize them, establish logistics to support them, adjust budgets to deal with the deployment, and how much training budget I get for making up losses."
this stopped whatever it was Victoria was going to say, and instead, "you expect losses?"
"During the Star League's civil war, Kowloon supplied the 171st Volunteer Regiment, the Coast Guard was tasked with transport, supply, and support." Elizabeth explained, "We took 300% losses during that war, meaning for every man sent, we had to replace him three times. very few survived the march on Elbar, much less Terra. You're planning to strike the Clans directly using my people, I know for a fact we're going to lose men. I need to know how much to put into replacing those men from day one, so I can work up a projection of how many more we'll need." she reached over to a stack of cookbooks, and brought out a leatherbound diary packed with loose, fragile pages, the spidery hand that wrote those pages had been dead and gone for more than two centuries.
"I won't waste them." Victoria told her.
"You don't control what the enemy does." Liz stated, "I hand my men to you, and some will die. we need the Coasties, we need them for a variety of reasons, you need them for one, and they will suffer casualties. I need to have mechanisms in place to replace those losses and to have replacements in the pipeline to your front lines, I'd appreciate if we got a bit of priority on useful information once it begins, so that the troops following can make use of lessons learned."
"I'm not hearing 'no'."
"Of course not." Liz stated, "I told you last year on Tharkad-extremism in opposition to evil is no vice, moderation in opposition to evil is no virtue. The book-the one Kell wrote, and the book by their founder? that's pure evil, it can't be allowed any more than a razorblade in a melon, it must be opposed without hesitation...but that doesn't mean being stupid about it. My university is fine for teaching soft subjects, but we need a proper Academy here."
"Tit for tat?"
"It serves the Realm, your purposes, and mine." Elizabeth stated, "DMI gets facilities and a pool of good recruits, we get a financial draw that isn't tied to my businesses, the Realm gets an academy on the peripheral edge, above the truce line but in a place undesirable to our enemies. win-win-win."
"You're still barred to enlistment." Victoria stated, "I will make certain you can't get into there."
"I'm fine with that." Liz told her, "I serve where I CAN, and do what I must for the realm, as a loyal vassal to my liege."
"How many regiments can you form right now?" Victoria asked.
"More than I can reasonably transport." Elizabeth answered, "of the ones that can reasonably be expected to deploy...say...in the next thirty to ninety days? zero Battlemech regiments-we have about a battalion that is marginally competent, but I can send you five regiments of infantry and two tank regiments immediately, plus a regimental-equivalent aerospace force with organic jumpship transport. give me six months, and I can have a light division for you."
Victoria almost choked on her toast. "That many??"
"Kowloon has a population of one billion, at two percent of the gross domestic product pre-taxes devoted to the defense budget, and keeping in mind our limitations as far as qualified 'mech trainers, we can support an armed force, using 3025 standard technologies, of twenty one conventional divisions, not including wet-naval forces or space craft. we can only deploy five regiments of that unless or until I get the licensing for the necessary shipyards and vessel designs-remember, I can't pirate designs by my major customers at Alarion or Galax."
"but...how-"
"standardization." Liz stated, "Efficiencies of scale, and mass-production. once you know what needs to go in, you can project how many come out. I'd appreciate it if you don't strip us down to the point of not having sufficient hands to do the work, but in six months time, I can give you a deployable division. Faster if you can find me a source of 'mechwarriors."
"but not pilots."
"Pilots we got." Liz stated, "Dropship, jumpship navigators, fighter and small craft, those are easy. we don't have 'mechwarriors and we don't have the ability to train or field the new battle-suit technologies, but I have a license deal with Defiance for the Patton along with a few other designs and some bright kids who have ideas on what else can be mounted on that platform..."
"You have a year, Duchess Ngo." Victoria told her, "from today. one year. I want that division. You will get your school."
"As you command." Liz stated, "More?" she offered the decanter.
"Please...it's...unique. have you considered exporting it?"
-
oooojhh
-
:) nice story! I am looking forward to more.
-
Da Nang Spaceport, Kowloon, 3061
There are no parades today. The reunified Star League has successfully 'refused' the Clan invasion vote, driving the Smoke Jaguars out of the Draconis Combine entirely, and defeating the combined might of the Clans of Kerensky at Huntress.
But there are no parades scheduled for today. Tomorrow, perhaps.
Today, there are the dead. Elizabeth walked along the ferrocrete tarmac, as honor-guards and stevedores unloaded the profit from her venture with the Archon Princess.
each pallet was engineered, designed to interlock. Each pallet holds a stack of boxes-Two meters by one meter by one meter.
Many of those boxes are empty, but each one is given the appropriate respect, brought out of the dropship's hold, taken from the cargo rack, checked and verified, and then packaged with the Flag of the Federated Commonwealth.
Thousands of them, representing sons, and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sent to fight in a foreign war, brought home at their own expense in defiance of the common practice of virtually every Great House, because families deserve the right to get their lost ones back.
Elizabeth came here, every day, since the boxes started coming home, because she ordered them to go, rammed it through the elected legislature she worked so hard before to build up.
Across the facility, twelve months ago, living men and women were loading onto ships, some of those people were here, in these boxes.
Tomorrow, the living survivors would be arriving. Liz sighed as she laid a hand on the lid of a casket bound for Ia Drang province. Tomorrow, there will be parades.
She nods to a Chaplain's Mate, and continues to oversee the unloading of her people's remains.
-
In this setting, Operation: Serpent went off much like it did in the prime timeline. The major differences being that Lyran State casualties were a lot higher thanks to there being less political wrangling about commitments and objectives, and Karl did not have the same 'gift' for strategy that prime-timeline Victor did. AFFC forces under his command achieved their objectives-but at a gruelling cost as Karl Steiner-Davion employed mass battle attacks instead of equally effective, but more subtle means.
In the end, the forces that proceeded to Serpent were the survivors of a campaign rooted in attrition. When they hit the Clans, it was with that kind of mentality, absorbing tens of thousands of losses, casualties in the range of five to one, but as observed by one Khan, "They lose five men for every warrior they defeat-but they bring six men for every warrior we field..."
Famous elite units did better than this, of course, but THIS time, Serpent had a much longer 'tail', thanks to a constant replenishment of men and materiel brought by ships slammed together at shipyards from Melissia to Kaumberg, and with those supplies, came fresh troops from Arluna, and Kowloon, Mississaugua, Main Street, New Capetown, and hundreds of other worlds, to fill in the holes where men and women died.
For their part, the Clans never faced industrial war before, and their records, the records of their founders, only examined this in the context of a distant past, before Battlemechs even. Psychologically, the Clans, especially in the Homeworlds, were unprepared for an enemy who just keeps coming, sometimes overwhelming defenders with weight of bodies, a swarm of army-ants taking down an ox.
at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. The cost to the Clans was almost as horrific, but in some ways, it was far, far worse. Ideals like 'Glory' and 'Honor' were ground into the mud by the boots of a counter-invader who did not stop, did not pause, did not retreat or hesitate. Killing one brought three more.
the darkest revelation, for the assembled Khans, came with a statement during the brief negotiation prior to the actual trial of refusal.
"Two percent of our industrial output. less than that of our available, trained manpower." Karl Steiner-Davion boasted, "You're running out of ammunition, we have more on the way, you're struggling to repair your units, we have spares and replacements at-will...this far from our home. think very carefully about that, because I don't want you to accept the offer Focht is making. We can drown you without bringing out any of the really interesting toys."
in the end, pragmatic leadership prevailed, and the Grand Council of the Clans of Kerensky chose a limited trial of refusal, over Marshall Steiner-Davion's offer of a trial of annihilation.
Historians will argue whether the choice of accepting a Trial of Refusal with negotiated terms was truly in anyone's best interest. they can argue those points until the stars burn out. what is, in this universe, is that only Elite-rated units were allowed to take part in the actual trial.
Thus, the result was largely the same as it was/would be in the prime timeline.
-
Very nice. Send a bullet, not a man... or both...
-
Star League Council meeting, Tukayyiid, December 11, 3064...
"..we need to discuss limits on naval building programs." First Lord Sun Tzu Liao pronounced firmly, "Your own program was certainly important to the victory over the Clans, Victoria, but why have you not reduced it in light of our peace? your naval expansion is only matched by that of the Mariks!"
"What naval expansion?" Victoria asked sweetly, eyeing the other assembled lords of the Star League, "The Lyran Commonwealth Navy's force structure is within treaty guidelines, we have yet to begin construction of Cruiser level assets above three hundred fifty thousand tons volume, every state in attendance has a greater number of higher end capital ships than we do, even counting the salvage from Operations Bulldog and Serpent."
"It's your so-called 'coast guard', Vicky. it makes them nervous." Hohiro Kurita observed, "Frankly, were relations worse between our realms, it would make me nervous."
"The Coast Guard is a reserve formation, mostly civilian in function, and it isn't even under direct administration by the Federated Commonwealth!" she scoffed, "We provide partial funding and certification, but it's paid for by member worlds directly. Mein gott, gentlemen, lady, the bulk of the vessels are merchant classes!"
"Ahmmm..." Sun Tzu wave a hand over his panel, and a decidedly NOT civilian vessel appeared. "Case in point, the Groves Engineering Sampan class, short ranged jump drive, older technology, loosely based on the pre-dreadnought type 51, but she's packing as many capital missiles as a proper corvette..." he waves again, the image shifts, "The ACME engineering 'Zerstoren' light corvette, I think you even sent a few of these with our forces to the Clan Homeworlds...and both Alarion and Galax are turning out at least two Fox class vessels every six months."
"They are civilian patrol vessels. The Zerstoren class is a rough analogue to the Free Worlds League's Zechetinu class."
"I don't have a problem with them, if you were cranking out equivalents to the Atreus I might. But we're all concerned about this naval expansion for one reason." Thomas Marik noted, "They're in civilian hands. these are capital grade weapons of war in the hands of a loosely organized civilian agency with little to no direct oversight. have I surmised the First Lord's position on this sufficiently?"
"aptly." Sun Tzu stated. "your yards are turning out capital-grade weapons with little to no oversight. We want to maintain this armistice, but the largest producer and user of these ships, is one of your lower nobles, a woman without so much as a day in uniformed service...and she's known to be...unstable?"
Elizabeth Ngo appears on the holotable at a gesture from Liao, as she looked in 3054, condemning the vote to accept the Wolf Exiles. the recording freezes.
"You need to put a leash on your pet psychotic before she does something to provoke another conflict."
"And what would the First Lord suggest?" Victoria asked.
"Nationalize her assets? possibly force her into medical treatment? Intelligence suggests she has a truly titanic addiction to narcotics, hardly someone safe to be leaving dangerous weapons to."
"I won't do that." Victoria said it firmly, "I refuse to do that to a citizen of my realm, Liz is a vital asset to the ongoing support of operations against Clan Jade Falcon, and she was critical in developing and designing the logistics network that allowed most of you to bring victory home to your peoples. I know about her...weaknesses and her strengths."
"you could always draft her and that impromptu navy she's building." Thomas suggested, "being placed under military discipline and oversight would be a sufficient curb on any rogue impulses by my lights."
Kurita nodded, while Sun Tzu looked thoughtful. "the Star League must maintain a front of unity." he said, "Until the Clans are evicted from Star League territory. Draft them all, place some at the disposal of the reformed SLDF's naval branch under...it's Beresick, isn't it?" He looked to Primus with a raised eyebrow.
Victoria felt the room slipping out of her hands. I hate to do this, but I'm starting to think they deserve her. "fine, I will draft the order when I return to Tharkad."
Later that week, while in transit to Tharkad, news of the Jade Falcon incursion reached the Archon-Princess. severe blows sent to strike a number of Lyran worlds had been turned back on the attackers, and while the Falcons landed on Kowloon, they lost a warship and the survivors were being detained.
The AFFC garrison commander's report noted that Liz had been involved in the fighting, using a damn submarine to lure the Falcons' warship close, then nuclear missiles to bring it down over one of the oceans. "she was even wounded..?"
Victoria penned the order herself.
"TO: Ngo, Elizabeth Anne, Duchess of Kowloon
FROM: Steiner-Davion, Victoria, Archon-Princess of the Federated Commonwealth
RE:
Due to exigencies of national emergency, under the Universal Conscription Act and by my authority as Archon Princess, you are hereby summoned to Donegal to be inducted into AFFC/Naval service at the rank of Rear Admiral of the Coast Guards. I will be waiting for you there. To be exceedingly clear here, this is a political appointment, but I fully expect you to observe the Laws of War and the Regulations of the Armed Services. DO NOT embarrass me. Bring a contingent of the 171st and your 1st and 2nd Squadrons, they're drafted too.
Victoria Steiner-Davion."
-
Oh dear. Lizzie is not going to be happy about this. Oh, she'll go, but she'll bitch and moan all the way.
-
As long as a nuke isn't part of her bitching and moaning, Victoria won't mind, I suspect...
-
Well, now I see what you wanted the budget warship for.
-
Donegal, 35 days later...
Elizabeth Ngo was younger, by a considerable margin, than Victoria, or even Yvonne.
she somehow managed to look older than the Archon Princess herself. the cane didn't help, or the tracery of scars on one side of her face. "Reporting as directed, Highness." The woman with her was unfamiliar, dressed out in a black-and dark-blue uniform topped by a white cap, like Liz. The 'dress uniform' of Kowloon's Coast Guard Militia, there was a crest on both uniforms, showing a black-and-white aquatic animal. Orcinus Orca. the Killer whale
"You made it at all, that's a start. why the Leutnant's bars, Liz, I told you-"
"I'm not qualified." Elizabeth stated blandly, "She is, this is Commodore Alicia Li, my...the closest thing to normal organizational doctrine is, she's my CNO, I brought her along as someone who actually is qualified."
"Qualified?" Victoria asked, "I don't remember seeing you before."
"I have." Karl's voice boomed from just to Victoria's left. "Bona-fides here, she extracted my unit off Tamar during the Wolf invasion. That was a dropship and you were AFFC."
"It was 3052 and I was serving my five." Li said, "Marshall, sir."
Victoria hadn't really wanted Karl here, but he was here.
Liz leaned on her cane a little harder, "Pics don't do you justice, sir." she says.
"Li, you're qualified, why is your duchess out of uniform?" Victoria asked, seizing control of the situation.
"Your highness, Elizabeth is qualifed as a politician, she's an excellent boss, what she isn't, is properly or adequately trained as an officer-and that's in spite of the efforts of both myself, and Colonel Mosovich. I wouldn't rate her higher than O-2 in the field, though she's got O-6 qualifications in staff work...though I admit, I was shocked when she passed the Nuclear Ordnance Technician courses and she'd be a decent Gunner's Mate three."
"Three??"
"YOu missed the first shot over the Western sea, if you hadn't had a couple spares, you'd be sunk and we'd be occupied." Li said primly.
"Snitches get stitches, Commodore. I know where the needle and thread are." Elizabeth growled. "They weren't supposed to know about that until-"
"I think they're both out of uniform." Karl suggested, "Unless you're really planning to make this a 'thing', Vicky."
"It's a thing, and I'm making it. She can't serve in the AFFC's regular forces thanks to her medical, but a new service doesn't have that feature-no laws restricting service in a wet-naval service, with aerospace and land components."
"And she's still out of uniform." Karl said with a wide grin. "You mentioned that, and now I see it. Leutnant's bars? with a Fleet Captain as her adjutant? completely wrong."
"I'm not field-qualified, and Li has already outlined the gaps in my capability." Liz said smoothly.
"and the Archon Princess is having none of it. Li, did you bring-?"
"Right here." Li pulled a leatherette case from her uniform's pocket.
"Give." Victoria extended a hand. Li complied.
"Which way is up on these?"
"two legs down, one up. it was based on 20th century north american ranks." Li explained, "We found the system simpler to apply than Lyran or Fedcom regular ranks, and since the agency was technically civilian..."
"I think it's distinctive enough, though it's going to get looks from the other Star League component commands." Karl said it confidently.
Victoria referenced Li's rank pins, then the Leutnant's bars on Elizabeth's collar, before replacing said Leutnant's bars with one star on each. "Like so?"
"yes Highness." Li said helpfully.
"You said she has the 'office' part of officer down cold?"
"Absolutely cold." Li said assuredly, "There are Nagelring knockers who can't draft reports half as clear as Elizabeth can, and she gets things MOVING."
"Good enough. Formally then... the Coast Guard is a supplement to the Inspector-General, Logistics, and Provost departments in peacetime, I expect to see many reports cross my desk...or Karl's desk at Mount Asgard. Now, I do require your operating regulations and structure to be codified for the executive order that is being filed, Li. I assume that's why Liz brought you."
"Aye ma'am."
"get to it, submit order of battle and TO&E documents to Marshall Karl Steiner-Davion as my regent here in the Lyran state. Elizabeth, I want your proposal for expanding Coast Guard operational range across the entire Federated Commonwealth, that's manpower, equipment and budgets, along with a plan to finance it that doesn't rupture the economy. you have three weeks to put together a team to examine the regional needs, requirements and an over-all budget with a viable plan for implementation-I want a focus on anti-piracy, search-and-rescue, and customs enforcement, keep in mind it will be examined also by our allies in the Star League as part of a proposal looking past the end of the Clan crisis."
"YOu want me to plan something that big?" Liz scoffed.
"You think big. I want to use that. make your layout something that can be shaped to size as needed without breaking it."
-
Heh... Sun Tzu has NO idea what he's created...
-
Broken Wheel zone, Federated Suns portion of the Federated Commonwealth, October 19, 3065...
Commander Bianh Vu Dao tugged her uniform jacket tight over her skinsuit, checked her shore-gear one more time. Coast Guard B-14, the KCGS James Qua had been detailed to survey the piracy problem on the peripheral edge of the Federated Suns state. Her reports were nearly complete, because the root problems were already well documented.
Too many abandoned systems between inhabited ones, too little money, and the inhabited systems were in a state of nearly permanent economic crisis.
"We're being hailed by the dirtyfeet, mum." Radioman 1st Class Rhodes 633 announced.
"Watch the rockjack slang, Rhodey." she warned, "These people are notoriously sensitive to implied insults."
Cutter 14 was a Sampan class, more heavily armed than most of the combat dropships in the area, and far more durable than any civilian standard jumpship, but no match for a dedicated defense force of fighters on her own. worse still, the Tender for her Patrol of four cutters was at least a fifteen light year jump away, and aside from a dropship with fighters, virtually helpless.
The AFFC Claymore class assault dropship on screen, was locally crewed by the nephew of a planetary noble. On her report to Admiral Ngo, she reminded herself to mention the need to do something about the rampant nepotism in the local defenses.
The two ships reached a point where an umbilical can be extended from the personnel locks, and she watched as the AFFC crewmen struggled with this most basic operation. "They're either used to just linking on collars, or they only leave the ship when she's grounded." Streeter 43, her XO, noted.
"They're dirtyfeet. cut 'm a break, you'd have the same problem changing a tyre on one gee." Rhodes noted.
"Engines and thrusters on that dropper are running hot, like she's short coolant, and I'm picking up H2O and oxy traces from some of the hatches, looks like they need a couple weeks in the yard, or to not treat their seals like crap."
"Streeter, take two Bosun's mates and help your hosts get their damn umbilical erected." Bianh finally snapped, "We don't have all Finagling day."
"Problems, mum?"
"I'm wondering how in the name of Chuck these guys can do customs inspections, much less health-and-safety." Bianh finally voiced her feelings, "They're not prepared for deep space duty in the slightest. I'm also wondering what I did wrong to get tasked to help these guys become at least remotely competent. Weren't the Feddies a major naval power at some point?"
"they're not jacks, they're not even Belters, Mum." Rhodes reminded her. "The Feddies don't have the talent pool we do for the Guard, or the traditions."
"We can fix that...there we go." the lights came up green. the inflatable airlock-to-airlock umbilical corridor was operational. "Let's go meet our counterparts."
-
I'm really liking this so far. Trying to actually build something instead of everyone smashing away... that's a good feeling.
-
New Avalon, same time...
'...so answer a bet for me, Admiral." General Peter Steiner-Davion of the SLDF dropped into the only comfortable chair in Elizabeth's office.
she sighed. "If I must, General, though You might get better answers from Commodore Li." she didn't even look up from the reports on her desk.
"How did a world like Kowloon, end up with so many trained jumpship navigators and enough pilots to staff that oversize militia you were hiding, and why did you hide it in a police agency?" he wasn't being hostile, but the question, in Elizabeth's opinion, was rude, something only to be tolerated because of his superior rank in the joint command.
she looked up, "Li told you to mind your own business." she stated.
The third child of the Steiner-Davion family nodded. "She did, followed by a string of that bastardized Viet more than half of your people speak when they don't think we're watching."
"She was within her rights, and I won't be to tell you...but it's not really a big secret or a big mystery, you should be able to find out from public sources." Elizabeth reached into her desk, and produced a pack of cigarettes and a row of pill bottles.
"Could you give me a summary that doesn't violate some obscure secret?" he pressed.
"Cabinet on the left, bring out the square bottle with the reddish-brown clear-and two glasses. if I'm going to give you a history class, I want a drink, and I've decided to stop drinking alone." she answered, "by the way, how's the Fiancee? you two made the beast of two backs yet?"
he turned dark crimson, but passed the bottle and the glasses to the desk. Liz uncapped it, and poured, his expression telling her all she needed to know. She gave him a thumbs-up, "Good work soldier...see, public sources...kowloon's history, early colonial expansion, and the war with the Rim Worlds. We have them because we have a population that doesn't live their lives at the bottom of a gravity well, it's dead ass simple-more than half the materials Ngo industries uses, are pulled from asteroid belts, cometary halo, and so on. who do you think mines that stuff, prospects for it, and would need their own, non-military, non-draft-vulnerable, jumpships, hmm?"
"I...I don't follow."
"Everyone else disposed of their 'primitive' jumpships." Liz explained, "because just about everyone preferred to abandon space travel and asteroid mining for planetary surfaces where things like pregnancy are kept normal by nice, earthlike gravity...but Kowloon's not exactly the safest place, right? and remember we were a first-wave colony caused by a stellar accident that dumped the original colonists in a binary system with broken ships-it was adapt or die time, diggit? this was before marsden, or McKenna, old Terran Alliance days-and my ancestors had a lot of reasons not to want to associate with the communists, or to trust a 'united earth government' that betrayed the Israelis and allowed the Sabra Genocides. some of those ships were crewed by Sol-Belters who were sympathetic, where do you think they went?"
"Oh..okay...how does that work out though-Kowloon was under Rim Worlds domination for three hundred years."
"Kowloon was occupied. How in hell do you think we kept our cultural identity? everyone focused on the planet." Liz laughed, and took a handful of pills, slammed them, and followed it with a chaser of distilled alcohol. "we were able to resist the ****** rimjobs for so long, because they couldn't ever quite get ahold of us all. they couldn't even effectively cut us off, and they couldn't erase our history or our culture, because they couldn't find it."
"and you still have a population of these...belters-"
"Rockjacks." Liz told him, "The proper term is Rockjacks. yeah, we have them. There are Belter and Rockjack concentrations in most of the inner sphere, we just happen to have kept in touch with ours, and they keep in touch with each other by whatever arcane means they came up with. They're not everyone in the Guard, but they're the trainers, teachers, and leaders in the Guard, especially in the Blackwater squadrons. Li served in the LCAF back in the day, Fourth war, diggit? and she served with the extraction force at Tamar, trying to get my brother out, but it was dirtyfeet bureaucrats who slowed her down so he died there-she made orbital insertion six hours after he was gone."
"Oh...I'm..."
"she brought his body home." Liz told him, "Li's good people, smart, and if she says something isn't your business, it likely isn't. everything I know about running a military is either her, or Mosovich teaching me. Dad was a gloryhound. Battles can be won by gloryhounds, but it takes details and preparation to win wars."
he regarded her, then scoffed. "Submariner badge, nuclear technician trained, gunnery medal with cluster and kill mark. You're something of a glory hound yourself." he sipped his drink, and winced. "dear god what is this?"
"Vodka and ijero juice." she tells him, "The spice gives it a decent burn."
"I guess...you used a nuclear armed submarine to kill a Clan Warship."
"correction, I used a concentrated attack from above employing fighter craft and kinetic impactors, along with a lot of psychology, an open ocean, and five nuclear missiles from a submarine to kill one warship." Liz stated, "Details. it wasn't heroic, it was pragmatic, and I initially refused the medal."
"Kinetic Impactors?"
"Strap a fusion propulsion unit to a rock with a simple guidance system and a cheap computer buried near the center, start it burning into the system at three gees on a course, in this case, a course that will drag it across the ionosphere at escape velocity. repeat a few dozen times, and give it a fighter escort when it's good and ****** fast. They had to come in low to use Orbom, and I challenged their warship jockey specifically on ground you can't land a 'mech on, because it's under two kilometers of salty, mineral-rich seawater, and to shake a 'mech all i'd have to do, is crash-dive the boat. they detected the impactors late, but it was covering fire that he didn't dare try to surface out of, so he hugged the Troposphere, which made ranging his ass from one hundred meters depth a breeze-My leg and my arm got ****** up because of the overpressure from his crash-it turned a twelve thousand tons of nuclear sub into an aircraft for about forty seconds and knocked my ass out for thirty minutes. the crew of my boat won that engagement and kept us alive, I was bleeding in sick-bay with a hairline fracture in my skull and a severe concussion...and don't tell the Clanners, but that sub was barely able to make port, and completely beyond repair-we used the remains of it for raw materials for the next generation of models."
"what about these...kinetic impactors?" he asked.
"Plenty of room to cut power and turn them around." Liz explained, "that much high-quality ore is not something you waste, and neither are that many shuttle-grade engines...but I had a good read on how the Clanners would react, how to lure them to a predictable location, and what the orbitals look like, thanks to Alicia Li and Bianh Vu Dao, and the Clanners were like everybody else-they focused on the planet, instead of the system." she topped her drink off and offered him another. Peter accepted gingerly. "See, everyone forgets things-things like, if a Pirate can't land, he can't raid, if he can't leave after a raid, he can't get money for what he took. once I removed my father's...'regent', I kept this in mind, especially in the context of the invaders. as big as I grew our ground force militia, it was nothing compared to what I spent wooing the Rockjacks and expanding the Coast Guard. my submarine was a relic hidden away by ancestors that lost the invasion by the Rim Worlds Republic, we rebuilt it, but part of the reason we couldn't salvage the goddam thing, is that the steels were too ancient after sitting in a dry bunker off Golden Lake for five hundred years. the only reason we had nuclear cores, was that it was too damn expensive for the Rimjobs to remove and replace every municipal power-plant on the planet with fusion units or solar, and we kept the technology for Uranium Enrichment for 'civil infrastructure'."
Peter shook his head, "marvelous." he said, "i'm not sure I believe all of that, but marvelous."
Liz gave him a smirk, "I do lay it down thick, don't I? Here..." she reached behind her, and pulled a few slim volumes from her media shelf, "Light reading, General. Tran Truk Ngo's war-diary from the Amaris conflict, a couple of condensed histories of Kowloon, and the Coventry Military Academy's chapter on my homeworld...light reading."
he laughed, but he took the volumes. "Will you need these back?"
"I've got the original of my ancestor's war diaries, the others are books I have hardcopy of. Enjoy it, but not so much your lady-love feels abandoned, hey?"
-
Ijero-literally "Kowloon Cherry" named by an early colonist surveyor originating from japan. The Ijero has a taste somewhere between plum, and Oh-my-gawd-it's-hot, with a scoville rating suitable for the removal of varnish. The Ijero is an excellent source of digestible Magnesium and Potassium, while it concentrates heavier metals in the hull of the seed, particularly Manganese and lead. it was one of teh first native plants the colonists found to be safe to eat, and is considered a dietary staple, mainly due to the juice, flesh, and leaves of the plant being relatively free of the omnipresent dangerous toxicity of the planet's native biome. The plant itself is a "Runner-vine' analogue similar to Southwestern Live Oak native to the desert southwestern areas of the North American continent. Leaves are boiled for tea, then used to strain heavy metals out of unfiltered waters, and stands of Ijero tend to mark 'safe to drink' springs and other areas. the wood is intensely poisonous and loaded with oxides of metals including Iridium, and Strontium.
Adaptation and dietary habits have permitted the Kowloonese to survive their world, even to the point of having a measurable tolerance for pollutants that other populations in human space lack. The trade off for this, is a measurably shorter lifespan for natives of Kowloon, with an average age of death of just over Sixty years of age. Immigrants are encouraged to obtain filtration systems before arrival, or to stick to Urban areas served by municipal filtration plants. The levels on average won't kill you quickly, but sustained living on the planet, will reduce your projected lifespan.
-
very interesting
Does the Star League Council, understand what and who Elizabeth Ngo, and they thought drafting her would make it safer... ;D :D
-
Peter at least has the sense to listen...
-
Quick question: how exactly is Ngo pronounced?
Because in my head I read it as "No-Go", but I'm pretty sure that's wrong.
-
If it's like Nguyen (a common name in our Vietnamese communities) the ''g'' is silent. It would sound as ''No''.
-
If it's like Nguyen (a common name in our Vietnamese communities) the ''g'' is silent. It would sound as ''No''.
So, if she was to get a medical degree or PhD, she'd be.... Dr. No?
I'll see myself out...
-
The ripples continue...
Newell Colony, joint colonization area between the Taurian Concordat, and the Magistracy of Canopus, December 11, 3065...
Commander Anh Cu'ong smiled to her host. "I really think your system of Colonial Marshalls shows sincere promise, you guys are the best I've seen since being sent this way. I'm sure the Admiral will recommend support from the Star League's council, or at least, some joint operations. You guys get it."
Marshall Tinsley gaped at her, "you're not serious?" he asked, "I've got a handful of officers and we're using hand-me-down gear with shortages, covering hundreds of worlds..."
"Yeah, but you get what the job is." she emphasized, "People like us, you and me, we're here to serve the public. Your Officer on Watchmeade, he impressed me a lot, using his 'mech to help repair public buildings-not just fighting, but serving their public. I really think we can work together on this piracy problem, solve it, fix things so that it's just...better out here. I'm sure Admiral Ngo will agree-your guys are here to serve the public, not some gray-face bureaucrat or inbred lord. MY people, we dig that idea."
"So...you'll help?" he asked.
"****** yes we're going to help you! now about how long ago did the raiders hit you, and what's their average time between attacks?"
he expressed some confusion, so Anh broke out her knowledge. "it takes a Scout class about a week to recharge her drive in a system like this, with a maximum range of thirty lights in a sphere, and those guys, they weren't geared up with PLS equipment, so we can assume either a functional station, or habitable planet is their base... it has to be close enough to somewhere they can sell your folks, so that means trade of some kind, legit money flowing in, diggit?"
"I dig that, we have some suspect areas, but I can't leave my post..."
"That's why we're here. I'm commanding a patrol of four Cutters, we can conduct the search along a four axis rotation, reduce things quick with survey data and jump-ranges. We find them, your guys do the pinch, sound good?"
"and you don't want pay or loyalty or-"
"This is my job, Marshal, the Coast Guard's primary duty is law enforcement and public service, since this isn't our jurisdiction, we help you, your people make the collar. The only 'exchange' I need, is everything you can give me about these ****** slavers, and maybe you can intercede with your Judiciary types to get us warrants of recognition so we can serve you better."
he looked her over suspiciously, "WHY? why are you offering this?"
"because it's what I do, it's why I joined the Guard, it's why I spent the two years of space training to transition from brown-water fleet to black-water. We go after criminals and we work with local authority to do so, because it's the calling, right? My family, they're half Elldees, half jewish, I came up through the Guard's OCB-that's the bureau formed to fight organized crime. going after slavers? that's like my heritage. I'd do it for free if I had the gear, but I get to be paid."
"We've heard stories about Kowloon..." he said. "Impalements..."
"Hey, that's OUR law at home, here, it's YOUR law that carries weight. I'm no homicidal maniac with an orbital gun, you have a problem, we're here to help solve it, but it has to solve your way or it's just subbing one problem for another. we'll help you find these guys, we'll help you take them down, but in the end phase, it's YOUR home, your rules, your rights, and your laws, and we are duty and oath bound to respect those-I mean, my buddy Eileen, her patrol's currently training to work with the Cappellans on similar issues, and their system is about eighteen billlion times more ****** up than I think you can even imagine, but we can't impose our rules on them, and I won't impose them on you-we're here to help, beginning, middle, and end, we're helping because my duchess wants us to, because we want to, and because it's the right thing to do."
He sighed, "Loxley, get the files." he coughed a little as the respirator next to his bed hummed. his deputy nodded and left the hospital room.
"We're going to help make this right for your folks." Anh said firmly, "You just gotta get healthy again."
-
Wait, did she get Coast Guard nationalized or transferred to the Star League????
-
A Commander with 4 Cutters? I'd think she'd more likely be a Commodore with a flotilla like that in that time and place...
-
Unleashing an organization on the entire inner sphere that cares about the people it's sworn to protect rather than perpetuating centuries old pissing contests? Blasphemous!
Next there'll be human decency, Davions and Taurians living together, mass hysteria!
-
Mass hysteria indeed! :D
-
A Commander with 4 Cutters? I'd think she'd more likely be a Commodore with a flotilla like that in that time and place...
In a regular navy, probably, or at very least she'd be a Captain (as in "O" rank, not role.)
however, one of the limits I put on the Ngoverse; Kowloon's units tend to be rank-deflated. for Ground forces this meant that there were whole Companies commanded by Leutnants, for the Coast Guard, there's exactly ONE "Admiral" rank personnel, cutters are commanded by Lieutenants, Patrols by Commanders, and Squadrons by Captains.
A "Patrol" is four cutters.
remember your manpower levels are very low-these are below the 100k tonnage, 'primitive jump' ships (Ignore the LF battery doubling the actual effective range here), with crew sizes in the at-or-below 50 range for the Sampan class. Effectively they've got more in common with a swift boat squadron or PBR unit. The larger vessels like Zerstoren get helmed by actual Captains (O-6), but only because of the size of the manpower complement and the corresponding higher priority in the Reserve system-those mostly went straight to SLN/AFFC-N when the Archon grabbed the Service.
The Kowloonese 'cutter' system is derived more from dropship duty, with an accompanying level of rank, and it ends up working out as being like WW2 era submarine service in actual function. Four cutters plus one support vessel or 'tender' (Usually Merchant or Tramp class) is One Patrol. Four Patrols makes one Squadron.
for example, the 14th BW (Black Water-comes from space duty):
Patrol A:
Cutter 1
Cutter 2
Cutter 3
Cutter 4
Support Vessel 5
Hull markings are Squadron/Patrol/Cutter as follows:
14/A/01. 14 being the Squadron, A being Patrol, the final digit being the hull number itself.
a note about Coast Guard Jurisdictions:
Within the Lyran state they ran pretty loose with the term, but since being regularized AND assigned to support Star League 'stability operations' (a means really to keep Liz from restarting the war with the Clans on the Jade Falcon front or doing something else unspeakable), firm limits on Coast Guard Jurisdictions have been implemented, particularly in the space around recognized or member states. Traditionally, the Kowloon Coast Guard's jurisdiction was "Within 150 Kilometers of any navigable medium similar to water or sea". thus, "Black Water". in practice this let the Coast Guard effectively claim operational jurisdiction on Kowloon itself (the surface is within 100 Kilometers of orbit), however the roles were used to more efficiently approach this.
Coast Guard's main branches:
Brown Water: this was, prior to the last decade in THIS verse, the largest portion of the service, conducting riverine patrol, law enforcement, firefighting and search-and-rescue as well as acting as a cross-jurisdiction police agency on Kowloon itself. (also at times delivering the mail, providing emergency transportation/medical services and other grab-bag applications.) In peacetime the Brownwater squadrons act a bit like 'state police' agencies mixed with a bit of civil service and rural fire department.
Blue Water: Oceanic operations, including Polar and submarine. Blue Water is treated at a step to Black-water assigments for Enlisted personnel, blue water also conducts survey and some basic ecological monitoring, but is best known to AFFC for operating combat submarines, aircraft carriers, and surface support combatants. The Blue Water squadrons handle most of the island chains in the Eastern and Western oceans, as well as maintaining the Air Bases on the south polar continent and providing personnel and maintenance for many of the telescope and radiotelescope systems left over from the Rim Worlds occupation.
Marine: effectively Naval Infantry, the Marine component is spread out, acting in a variety of roles, Coast Guard Marines recieve training in relevant disciplines depending on assignment, but are at base, riflemen and commando operations specialists first. during Peacetime, Marines are the smallest component of the Coast Guard, during wartime, they become the largest. 5% of Marine Candidates die in training on average before getting the coveted title of "Marine" with the attendant white cap and cutlass.
OCB: Organized Crime Bureau. This sub-branch was first formulated during Allesandro Steiner's reign in the late 3rd Succession War, and represents Kowloon's answer to the need for an intelligence agency focused on counter-piracy operations. OCB focuses primarily on what are 'low priority' issues for Loki or Lohengrin, such as identifying Black Marketeers who deal in slaves, contraband, or fencing stolen technologies taken by pirates. The OCB has a 'special crimes unit' focused on identification and elimination of Serial killers who cross into or out of Kowloonese territory. Most of what OCB does, is done with a surprising lack of violence. OCB's actual manpower and budget were 'black' on the Kowloon ledgers prior to nationalization, and post-nationalization, it remains a single-line-item with some oversight by Lohengrin and MIIO.
Black Water: space operations and spaceborne operations. The Blackwater Squadrons have had the longest continuous operational history in the Coast Guard, functioning even when Kowloon itself was under Rim Worlds Occupation and indigenous policing agencies were illegal. this portion of the agency experienced the second-largest expansion of any branch under Elizabeth Ngo's ducal reign, including but not limited to formal shipyards, public recognition, and a manpower expansion not seen since the planet's brief period of post-Rim-worlds independence during the Star League Civil war. (It is truly amazing what you can get away with when Melissa gives you a tax break under emergency conditions!) in the universe of Victoria Ian Steiner-Davion (this version) the Black Water branch has expanded some ten times its last highest point, siring 'sister services' on a number of Lyran worlds. One salutary impact of this, has been a check on piracy along the Lyran periphery, with an attendant reduction in predation. This isn't a coincidence. it's hard to conduct piracy when you can't get or keep ships to transport your merry band of raiding slavers.
Programs on the Lyran Periphery that recieved Victoria's seal of approval include the "Health and Safety" project, which provides for both contraband searches, and 'maintenance chits' redeemable at government yards for small operators who would otherwise have to rely on the Black market to keep their ships flying. this measure alone, instituted shortly after Elizabeth's infamous crucifiction by impalement of 23 members of Hopper Morrison's gang, reduced pirate operations from nearly a daily occurrance along the former Rim Worlds front, to something remarkably rare.
Submitting to a health and Safety inspection gives a temporary amnesty for any possession of stolen property-but not slaves or kidnapped civilians, meaning that smugglers who submit to a tech inspection have little to no reason to run unless they're carrying hostages. This amnesty is good for one incident, after which, if caught again, legal measures will be employed. For slavers, it's a bit different. They get to breath vacuum upon being caught, no exceptions. Stolen property is generally returned to owners if it can be properly routed in those cases, when it can not, it is sold at auction. (Ships confiscated in this manner are either reconditioned and sold, or scrapped, depending on evaluated repair and maintenance cost.) The upshot of this, has been that hauling pirates and slavers has been rendered to the 'unprofitable' side of the risk/reward ledger in zones where the Coast Guard is operating.
Note; for stubborn types who refuse, there are the 14cm lasers and capital missile emplacements on cutters. These are significantly more powerful than most dropship ordnance and the crews are both disciplined, and trained. In addition, a cadre of Marines is often aboard to conduct boarding actions, and they are likewise extensively drilled and trained for boarding actions and seizure. basically, unless you're a ship belonging to a recognized navy? you will be boarded, you will be inspected, stolen property will be confiscated and if you're an indie, you will get a repair chit, some technical aid, and directions (or escort) to the nearest Yard for repairs. Unless you're dealing in unwilling people, in which case you will be spaced and a prize crew will bring your ship to port.
Notable also: ships going "missing" have dropped significantly thanks to the "Health and Safety" program, and many shoestring/borderline operators have been able to squeak back into legitimate freight and hauling business due to this system, preventing many jumpship owner/operators from NEEDING to seek illegal business. The general impact has seen a 75% drop in piracy along the Lyran border, with secondary drops noted along the Free Worlds zones close to the Lyran state, due to the decline in haulers willing to transport Pirates, bandits, and slavers.
Coast Guard Directive 15, Dated 3064/12/22 states that cooperation with local authorities of member states is to be pursued in all cases. criminals and fugitives arrested in the territorial zones of Star League Member states, Provisional Members, or Recognized states, are to be rendered to local authority for prosecution, along with any and all evidence of crimes, Warrants of Arrest, Warrants of Detention, or credible evidence of criminal activity to include Slaving. (this countermands Order 3 and Ducal order 11). In the event such authorities are unavailable, suspects are to be given a shipboard trial under Directives 3 and 11. Disposal of perpetrators convicted will be conducted per Coast Guard Regulation 24, and proceedings are to be documented for review upon making port.
Perpetrators disposed of under Regulation 24 are to be recovered upon confirmation of life sign termination, and stored for medical review if possible. if storage is not possible, see Regulation 24a. Slavers caught ground side on unclaimed or extraterritorial planets (See definition 19, 20, and 22 of the Star League Declaration of 3052) are to be tried fairly, and if found guilty, Elbar protocols are considered appropriate (Provided sufficient wood can be secured for the stakes), recording and retention of both Trial and execution are to be submitted to the nearest local recognized legal authorities. For perpetrators willing to cooperate in a larger or more extensive investigation, see Directive 13, or Coast Guard Regulation 4 (Humane treatment of Prisoners that are cooperative.)
-
More notes...
Shore duty: Shore duty is a requirement in the Coast Guard, with Blackwater personnel required to spend a minimum of 198 hours per Terran year on a planetary surface under a minimum of .98 atmosphere's pressure (no more than 1.1) in an unsuited condition to prevent Finagle's Lament, a psychological variation of Astrophobia in which the sufferer experiences intense feelings of discomfort from being planet-bound. Shore duty may be deferred up to 3 years with the approval of medical personnel, or in the case of a waiver for personnel who already suffer from the disorder. Notably, this disorder is more commonly encountered among Rockjack personnel.
Waivers are typically issued to jump navigation specialists, though other specialties do have some recorded instances, these are comparatively rarer situations. See your Patrol or Squadron's Medical Officer if you think you may be suffering from Finagle's Lament. mild cases can be treated with anti-anxiety medication.
-
Makes sense! And very interesting details! :thumbsup:
On the second post, do you mean "variation of agoraphobia"?
-
Makes sense! And very interesting details! :thumbsup:
On the second post, do you mean "variation of agoraphobia"?
actually, Astrophobia is a real phobia, and is a variation on Agoraphobia. I couldn't find a proper technical term for fear of being trapped on a planetary surface, however.
-
actually, Astrophobia is a real phobia, and is a variation on Agoraphobia. I couldn't find a proper technical term for fear of being trapped on a planetary surface, however.
How about "Sidereophobia" - "fear of planets"?
-
KCGS Nueva Pueblo, Somewhere near Sarna, 3065...
"Commander Minh, a Moment?" They were docked at 11th Squadron's tender, and Nicole had managed to avoid most of the meet-and-greets so far by the luck of being the beta patrol's leader and having lots of Office-type officer work.
Her luck, quite apparently, was out. "What can I do for you, Adept...Martin, is it?"
"Nicky, it's me." Joseph Martin stated. "You know I knew."
"I have no idea what you're talking about, Adept, this is the first time I've ever seen you." she answered coldly. the poise she'd learned during officer training at Spider Moon had its uses. Hiding the roiling panic she felt, was one. "I would certainly remember meeting a Terran, especially a member of the Word of Blake, before now. You must have me confused with someone else."
he stared at her open-mouthed, then closed his mouth. "of course, Commander. I must be mistaken. you just look so much like someone I...lost. many years ago."
"I'm not her." she tells him, "I'm very sorry for your loss. now if you will excuse me, I have considerable work to be doing."
with that, she pushed off down the connecting umbilical to her boat. Sithers was on watch as she made her way to the command deck. "Who was the bohunk in the robes?" her XO asked.
"Nobody...not now." Nicole stated, "have we got those consumable stocks inventoried?"
"Ready to ship, mum." Sithers stated, "No, seriously, who was that guy?"
"Adept III Joseph Paul Martin, unless he changed his middle name." Nicole said, "Metis Belter from Martinside in the Sol system, not affiliated with Free Stars unless he suddenly replaced his forebrain with one that isn't a closet fascist."
"So you do know him!"
"I left that part of my life behind before I surrendered the Juliana to the Coast Guard in '62." Nicole stated, "before I emigrated to Kowloon, and no, I don't want to talk about it."
"Family?"
"I said I don't want to talk about it. Leave it drift. we've got a six week transit through the Sarna March sector to link up with Free Worlds Fleet elements and I don't want to chart through Terran space if we can avoid it."
"It could be three weeks if you did." Sithers reminded her.
"Yeah, but I don't want to visit the place, and we don't have a burning need to do so." she reached over to a bridge stores cabinet and pulled out a bubble-bottle of Juice and a density enhanced sandwich. "you are too ****** perceptive anyway, Seether. just leave it drift, 'kay? less time we spend crossing their territory the happier everyone is going to be."
"You plotting the jumps in your head already, huh?"
Nicole snorted, "I'm distracted, you've got first plots."
-
This is great, thanks for continuing!
-
I suppose even Belters could fall for propaganda...
-
I suppose even Belters could fall for propaganda...
Belters are human, humans fall for all sorts of things.
-
New Avalon...
"No, I think you should." Elizabeth noted, "Let's look this over rationally. in 3058, the Word of Blake took Terra from Comstar, securing most of the HPG network's main hubs and the bulk of the archived technical information. They're buddy-buddy with the Cappellan Confederation, and doing tech support and upgrade for the Free Worlds League. They've also replaced Comstar with the Taurians and made inroads with the other periphery states. From a business perspective, having two providers for any essential service means you can get them to bid, which lowers costs, but politically, the Word of Blake is on the outs because officially, everyone lined up with Comstar."
"Where are you going with this?" Victoria asked.
"Okay, hear me out, they want to join the Star League too, right? so yeah, co-sponsor them-it gives everyone a viable alternative and keeps pressure on Comstar to provide good service...it also gives the Council the chance to see what's behind the walls." Liz's eyes twitched, and she licked her lips before continuing, "Legitimate access instead o-o-of.." she paused.
"New medicine's not working?" Victoria asked.
Elizabeth made a negating gesture, "Not working. I'm going to have to submit my resignation soon. anyway, if they're included they become...invested...less trouble if they get hurt dumping the ore cart. K-k-keeps t-th-thi-thinggss ssssstttable..."
The technical head of the Coast Guard collapsed to the floor, thrashing and then, screaming.
Victoria rode out the younger woman's seizure, but a Coastie Corpsman nearby started a stopwatch.
Five minutes.
"Check her over." Victoria said dully. every time she'd witnessed this it didn't get better, or easier, but she found she could control the urge to rush in.
"h-ow long.?" Elizabeth groaned when the thrashing ended.
"Five minutes. can you continue?"
Liz sat up with help. "I think I sprained something, but yeah, this is important. we have to keep it stable. You do, on the Council, stability gets everyone one more day to undo three hundred years of destructive wars, economic collapses, and lost knowledge. It means getting in bed with absolute monsters, but it's necessary. rational people can't influence them, if they're locked out and bunkered up."
"And we need the forces against the Clans." Victoria finished for her, "Isn't that right?"
"It would be nice." Liz acknowledged, "to have the fleets they mothballed and the knowledge they've got, and we don't get either one if they're kept out until they've radicalized further. Look at the Clans if you want to see what we do NOT want to happen here. Bring 'em into the Club, and the Club has a ******' chance of influencing them, and access to what they bring to the table. Play them against Comstar for the communications contracts, and if they're both in the club, they have to play nicer. It worked on me, it will work on them."
-
"The perfect is the mortal enemy of good enough." Victoria argued later.
Karl, her brother, flushed with frustration, "Vicky, the very idea is insane. it's TOO insane to work!"
"She's a genius."
"And her idea is absolutely nuts, kookolander crazy insane ten pallets short of a load, missing a gyroscope nuts. Even in the impossible event you got a majority on the Star League council, it's playing with fire. Sis, I know she's your friend, and she sure as heck has made a difference for us on the Clan front, we're holding when we had no reasonable way to hold and winning most of our confrontations, but this? inviting the Word of Blake into the Star League as a member? is absolute insanity, if you do this, we'll lose the support from the Com Guard units, we'll lose Focht War College, hell, we might even face renewed problems from the other Great Houses."
a thought seemed to strike him, "She's not being influenced by them, is she?" he asked.
"If she is, it's a hell of a trick and I want to learn how." Victoria noted, "For future reference, mind.
"Will we have to...will she be a problem if you tell her no?" he asked.
"I don't think so." Victoria sighed, "Lizzie is many things, but she's not one to betray us, unlike Bobby Kelswa Steiner, she's adaptable. God, I wish mom was here to deal with this."
"Mom wouldn't be in this position to begin with." Karl stated, "She wasn't exactly winning them over after what dad pulled on the Marik heir, you moved mountains when you talked them down, Vicky, I couldn't have done that."
"you were ass-deep in the Clan front and fighting for all of our lives, Karl. You didn't have the time to come back and help clean up Dad's mess...but you probably would have been...more adept with Tom Marik than I was, maybe you wouldn't have lost so much territory If I had been on the front, and YOU had been here."
Karl shook his head. "No, Vicky, you've got a magic I never had, you can get people to be reasonable. The best I ever managed to do was intimidate them into conceding...you're going to do it, aren't you?"
"Her logic's solid, Karl...or it sounded solid to me-in between the seizures and through the haze of drugs she's on...I was hoping you had an alternative line of logic, something I can use to counter her argument."
Karl sighed, "I don't. I'm sorry big sis...as insane, as unworkable as her plan is, it still makes sense to do it, and that irks me in ways I can't even describe...hey, on a lighter note, how's the love-life? You're going to need heirs, I'm not exactly a great option for picking up if you kick it of old age, and my Adjutant tells me it's more fun to be the Uncle than the Dad anyway."
Victoria sighed. "Not so good. Hohiro's fantastic, but his father has objections and so would both halves of the realm. David got tired of waiting and got married...and Sun Tzu would be even more controversial than Hohiro, if he wasn't more interested in boys."
"So, look-you're the Archon Princess, Vicky, you don't have to marry for politics..let me rephrase that, you don't have to marry someone of equal standing, you are allowed to date, you know...if...there re rumors, Vicky."
"Rumors?"
"About you and your...pet." he said it delicately. "You're not a in a-I mean, If you were I'd be totally okay with it. we can find other means..."
"NO!! god no. Liz is asexual, at least I think she is. she's not into girls any more than I am, in fact I might go so far as to say she's repulsed by the idea of those kind of relations at all, not for everyone else, okay? but for her. I think she'd be horrified at the idea more than..."
Karl chuckled. "I was just checking. Look, if you want, I'll do some scouting in the SLDF Regiments, see if there's a guy there i think can keep up with you, you just gotta promise to give him a chance if I find him, okay?"
"Just a chance?"
"It's gotta be more than convenience or politics, sis. I'm going to keep an eye out for someone i think will do you right and that you'll actually like. Mom's not here, Dad's not here, Aunt Nondi's losing her marbles so she's no help...so I guess I hafta get with Yvonne and Pete and we make it a family project to find you a man you can be happy with, if you don't have time to find one of your own."
-
"The role of Government has been debated for millenia, not merely centuries. How much power to invest, in however many people, to what means and what ends has been one of the great debates of human history. Periodically, in human history, we alternate between wide-spread government, and dictatorships. The fear of anarchy leading to totalitarian monarchies that cause a rising anger and rejection of totalitarian statuses for anarchic, often leading to worse dictatorial systems than existed previously. The most difficult type of governance to maintain, is that of the Republican form, particularly the Democratic republican form. Inevitably, as people do, the population stops paying attention to who they put in charge, leading to yet another form of dictatorship. Whether it's Military dictatorship, Civilian Bureaucrat corruption, or Kakocracy, or Monarchial systems with their dynastic struggles, avoiding the question leads to absolute rule, and with it, absolute corruption. I have seen this personally, so have most of you here tonight. It's the problem of providing good government, in a way that it will continue to be good government if, or when, we finally retire or return to the dust from which all life is made.
"I've made my best try at helping to mitigate some of the worst of it, from within the system, because only a stable system CAN be changed in a way that benefits the public. Revolution does not work for this, it leads to totalitarian local warlords and economic, social and cultural collapse. I have done what I am able, but, I'm dying now. Doctors have confirmed my lifespan is measured not in years or decades, but in weeks to months.
The Duty of the Civil Service, is to be apolitical, and to serve the public good. More to the point, it is to serve the public well. This sometimes means misinterpretation or outright defiance of the very sovereign authorities that control our appointment, or in the case of some regions of the Star League, have the ability to snuff our lives at will. This does not invalidate that duty. WE must uphold the laws, and more importantly, the principles upon which our respective states are founded, with the understanding that only in a stable society, can positive changes be carried out. it is largely a thankless task to do so, and none of you here, will likely ever be applauded for your work, and let me be clear here, you should not want it. If you are being congratulated for the kind of work we do, then something dirty is in the works that will render it without value, will poison your results. nevertheless, we MUST try. Peace, Prosperity, and Progress must happen, or your children, your children's children, generations down beyond you, will curse you for your moral cowardice. Take a good look at the scars of the Star League Civil War, look hard at the cancer that grew from Kerensky's abandonment of his duty to the public, the Clans, a jumped up bandit kingdom living on the stolen treasures of a better era, seeking to impose their own ideal on all of humanity. This is the danger we all face, that our posterity faces."
"For Government to be of value, it must first function at all, but immediately beyond that, it must serve the general public above all other considerations. Whether this is as fire-fighters, or law-enforcers, health inspectors or sewer technicians, the first role of any legitimate government is not to make the ruling class happy, but to assure they have something worth ruling at all, that they are not ruling over a wasteland littered with vanity projects and uncontrolled waste, that there is peace, there is harmony, and that there is common justice. the separation from banditry and government is a fine distinction in the end-one is truly parasitic, the other, is a symbiote that provides a stable environment for the average person to thrive within. I yeild my place to my successor, and wish you all the best."
-Elizabeth Ngo's resignation speech before the graduating class of NAIS, 3068.
Star league Council meeting, Orestes, FRR, July 7, 3068...
"Why did you let that one go?" Sun Tzu Liao commented after the clip ended.
"Pardon?" Victoria asked. "I'm not sure I understand your question, Chancellor."
"How in the hell..no, why did you let her retire? That is exactly what...I couldn't write that speech, I want it, I want a copy...how did you let that fire-eater get loose?"
"She's dying, Sun-Tzu." Victoria stated, "She wanted to go home to do it. there's no cure and her treatments are failing to mitigate the pain she's in. if the new treatments had worked, i would have pressed her to take up the Exchequer post."
"If they'd worked, you'd have a hard time keeping her to yourself." the Cappellan noted, "or not. she's not easily bought or you wouldn't have allowed her to continue where she was. Candace, at least, would love that thinking she's got, and it's more in line with OUR society than yours...do I have your support on the Territorial States issue?"
"Of course, if I have your support on the nominations I intend."
"You know you do, Victoria. I can't believe it, in some ways. Your security is incorruptible yet..."
"you've tried?"
"Of course I tried!" He scoffs, "absolutely tried, why would I deny it? just like I know you, and Thomas, and everyone at this meeting have tried with varying levels of success to penetrate mine!" he smiles, "My spymaster is absolutely infuriated to be second best to anyone. it's a point of national pride, you know."
"We aren't going to war again." Victoria stated, "Regardless of what the Hasek-Davion line wants. This new Star League is too critical for us all."
"Oh, on that, I'm glad we're in agreement." the Chancellor said, "It is much, much better to be at peace, facing an external enemy, than to be tearing out our guts over dynastic struggles. what do you intend to ask of our new members?"
"I honestly don't know yet." Victoria answered. "one third of the Federated Commonwealth is still occupied by the Clans, sixty percent of Free Rassalhague as well...but those won't be issues for the Taurians or the Canopians, but we do need to do something as a unified body."
"I'm going to nominate you for first lord as soon as Magnusson's term is up."
"Why?"
"Because you won't be free to invade the Cappellan Confederation if you're responsible on that level, of course." he tells her, adding "Your vassals won't either, and Shraplen will second it for the same reason on behalf of the Taurian Concordat. if you're tied up fighting the Clans, you're not settling old grudges or starting new ones-or at least, that's what I told the man to sell him on the idea."
"but why nominate me, what's in it for you?"
"She learns...you'll owe me a favor." he tells her, "One of significance, leverage, something I can use to my own people's benefit-and possibly yours as well. Like it or not, betraying that isn't in your nature, Victoria, and I fully and openly intend to exploit the hell out of that nature-what your friend Elizabeth said, it's how you think, and why I'm willing to keep working with you to make this farce a success."
-
The Ngoverse is too fluid to pull together in a novel format, which is a crying shame. I'm loving how this branch is going ...
-
The Ngoverse is too fluid to pull together in a novel format, which is a crying shame. I'm loving how this branch is going ...
This was actually inspired (in part) by someone else's take on a 'verse where Victor was Victoria (the sister). I rooted it in the later version of the Ngoverse (the most recent version) with some callbacks to earlier iterations, but with some significant changes.
obviously, big sister Victoria would still be the heir apparent, but by changing Katherine to Karl, I got to thinking about how their relationship would be different, because katy would be different-so Karl went off to war, while Victoria largely had to run the store, first as Melissa's helper, and then, as the proprietor. Both went military because in this version, our Katherine Analogue was a male and it's expected, (See: Peter and Yvonne) while Victoria had to go military at first because it's required to inherit.
the conclusion I came to, was that "Karl" would be a doting brother for the same reason that Katherine despised Victor-the satisfaction of dominant urges and the inherent sexism of Inner Sphere society-the very things that made Kathy go krazy are the things that make Karl almost a 'Knight' (due to their underlying natures, Katherine wasn't evil, she was thwarted and she was spoiled. Karl would be neither.) Their natures also inform how they interacted with Elizabeth.
Victor couldn't be a close ally to Liz, but Victoria can be-and be a check ON Liz. Victor's great ability in the novels, is selecting and recruiting subordinates. He's not the great strategist, he's fundamentally a good leader, a delegator rather than being a strong actor. Victoria, of course, is MORE of that, much more, a better deal maker and consensus builder than Katherine was, because she's not struggling against imagined enemies the way Katherine necessarily did, while Karl is a good "Front line" leader, with strong grasp of tactics, because that energy was wasted on Katherine as political maneuvering with no long-term understanding. IOW Karl is a fantastic 'fix this problem right now' man, but not a long-term planner in the sense of, say, Focht. They're both, by the simple fact of oppositing their gender, in the place they really needed to be the whole time (but couldn't due to the need for conflict in the main timelines.)
Their differences go further though, than just gender swapping.
Karl's a good tactician, but he's got Kathy's ruthless streak-he's willing to spend blood Victor wouldn't to achieve a mission, and he's willing to step past boundaries that prime-Victor would never ever, touch. Thus making him a bit of a Patton-type general compared to Victor's Bradley-esque persona.
Victoria is every bit as talented in her way as a politician, as Katherine, but she's got morals and a sense of Noblesse-Oblige that Katherine did not have. She's also got a longer view and a willingness to compromise that Kate didn't have, and of course, she isn't struggling to usurp someone above her, so she's marginally free of the corruptive influences that Katherine embraced. Though not entirely. Liz Ngo is Victoria's "Tormano" in terms of political strategy, which actually works to amplify Victoria's virtues by way of Victoria having to control Liz.
and Liz is more comfortable with Victoria's control, because the Steiner-Davion heir listens, and has the same charisma-only in female form, with better political education due to spending more time with mom and the people who actually make the realm run. This of course, is problematic in a setting made for and about warfare-which is probably the biggest reason it wasn't the take that made it to print (and explains prime Victor's often mud-headed actions and thoughts-he was in the wrong role the entire time.)
a few notes for the completionists out there...
Victoria: Looks like the best features of her mother and father, crammed onto a petite frame. Essentially Victor-as-a-girl, of course.
Karl: Six feet six inches tall, built like a powerhouse, with a blonde crew-cut. This guy looks like a recruiting poster even with 35 hours of combat grime on his face. Women swoon at the sight of him. Karl is extremely protective of his sisters, and often tries (less than successfully) to mentor his younger brother Peter. While he is far from being the political naif that Prime Victor is, he's less interested in politics, than he is in winning battles. war has fed his cravings for glory endlessly, and peacetime is his time to prepare for the next one, and that's the limits of his actual interest in politics right there-he tends to ONLY be interested in issues that impact his ability to win wars against his sister's enemies, thogh he is absolutely a monarchist in leanings and very concerned about the application of Salic Laws when it comes to making sure there is an heir to his sister, he doesn't want to be stuck with 'that job'-at least, not when he can express his superiority by attacking the Clans, or planning to attack the Clans. Karl dreams of the day he can claim to be the liberator of the Tamar Pact, scourge of the Clans, and Protector of the Archon-Princess.
That is his 'bag', his 'thing'. to that end, he does everything in his power to make sure Victoria can do what needs to be done, including doing things behind her back to make her job easier.
okay, there is a LITTLE bit of conniving there, and a lot of people who might have challenged Victoria's policies or her reign itself have found themselves waking up dead, or disappearing without a trace...
-
Heh, sounds like Karl found the Rabid Fox/Loki speed dial button... ^-^
-
I've always like your characters; there's depth to them.
-
Nha Tranh, Kowloon, Elizabeth House, 6 AM.
"No regrets?" he asked.
"No ties, no strings, no regrets." she stretched out, catlike, and yawned. "Kind of surprised, you don't have this kind of rep. mmm...want some ca'phe before you report in?"
"Absolutely." he tells her, "Founders, is it really zero six hundred?" she walked without a limp for him, bare as she was when she was born, raven hair streaked with silver.
"Aou yes...your men are going to be wondering where you went, and what you were up to." she looked over her shoulder and winked.
"Let them wonder. I'm glad I accepted the job now." he tells her, "We almost didn't, especially knowing how you feel about the Clans."
she pours. "You haven't been 'Clan' troops since almost before I was born though." she purrs, "Totally gone native, even...your ancestors would be scandalized."
He laughs and pulls his underpants on. "I'm really surprised though, I saw your performance in front of the Estates General in 3054, Liz, the knife speech."
"One of my better ones." she hands him a steaming cup of Kowloonese coffee, and sits on a wicker-and-cloth chair, legs folded and sipping. "I'm still proud of that one, even though the press wanted me crucified for giving it...ah...one of the small benefits...I can still feel you from last night. you were magnificent, Jaime. best I've ever had. better than I ever imagined."
"That's not hard, Liz, you were still...intact. what changed your mind?"
"I'm lonely, you were bored, we hit it off, and I only have to worry about Kowloon now." she tells him, "I decided if I'm going to risk it, I might as well do it with one of Patrick's childhood heroes, and Kell wasn't available, wouldn't be willing...I was surprised you were, even after we sat talking for twelve hours."
"It'll be alright as long as it doesn't get back to my daughter, she might have some objections." he smirks, "Younger woman and all that."
"I'm dead in five years, Jaime, if I'm very lucky, I make it five more years before everything decays and kills me. that makes me middle-aged at best, just two oldsters who had a fling, right? no regrets?"
"None here." he confirmed, then stopped. "Liz, you might still want to be checked out, we didn't exactly use protection and it's been a long time since I needed a booster shot for my...that is, I might not be shooting blanks."
"No worries." she sighed. "nothing to be concerned about. nobody gets it their first time...but I'll get checked out by a corpsman or a doctor, we don't want any blessed accidents, do we?"
He pulled his pants on, buckled the belt, and looked at her, "I wouldn't say no to another go...soon?"
She smiles. "For a legend? we'll see, I'm sure you have all the girls chasing you could ever want."
she shrugs into a robe, and makes them breakfast. they eat, they laugh, he gives her a kiss on the forehead before leaving.
10:30 AM Nha Tranh time, Coast Guard Base New Saigon, northern coast, south continent, Kowloon...
"What?"
"I said, the ova are fertilized. you're pregnant. Two viables." Dr. Mai Huyn is the chief medical officer for the Kowloon Coast Guard, and Elizabeth's official ducal physician.
"That's not possible, we did it one time."
"what can I say? you're going to need to change your medication regimen, unless you want to opt for a surrogate...and this also means-"
"It means I have LESS time. I know how Cholmann's works. jesus, I give in once, just one time, Mai! Statistically-god dammit. i won't be there to raise them!"
"You'll need to contact the father." Mai tells her, "Unless you want me to assign an Adjutant to the task?"
"No...I'll take care of it."
"We could always terminate, your body might return to its original timeframe-"
"Mai, I'm catholic and not one of those New Avalon heretics, no, I can't just have them scraped out of my womb! it's just...inconvenient that it has to happen NOW. Schedule the pre-natal care, and find me a surrogate in case we have to transplant them because I got too far gone. as of right now, my children are higher priority than I am, and I'll sign a ducal order to that effect if you or anyone else thinks they can blanch me on this."
-
A surrogate is probably a sounder decision.
-
A surrogate is probably a sounder decision.
well, this was ripped from the headlines of the FC'62 game. at the time, it was kind of a joke, and we even did a dice roll for it. First time with a man, and it's a famous, older man who looks like Sean Connery (Jaime Wolf's art back in the day looked inspired by Sean Connery) and is old enough to be her GRANDFATHER.
and...
she gets pregnant. not sure if I got the tone the right level of hilarious here, or if it's more 'pheelz' or just flat. dunno. I know I was hoping to giggle when I set about dropping it here, but the expected giggle fit didn't happen. I guess I'm not as puerile as I used to be.
-
I don't know which is more of a shock, Liz getting knock up by Jamie or that Sunny boy is into boys.
Shocking I say!
-
well, this was ripped from the headlines of the FC'62 game. at the time, it was kind of a joke, and we even did a dice roll for it. First time with a man, and it's a famous, older man who looks like Sean Connery (Jaime Wolf's art back in the day looked inspired by Sean Connery) and is old enough to be her GRANDFATHER.
and...
she gets pregnant. not sure if I got the tone the right level of hilarious here, or if it's more 'pheelz' or just flat. dunno. I know I was hoping to giggle when I set about dropping it here, but the expected giggle fit didn't happen. I guess I'm not as puerile as I used to be.
Um ...Jaime has access to Wolf Dragoon medicine. That means Iron Wombs. Nice little outpatient procedure, and you can go about your business while the foetus develops (hey, you can even record body and voice samples ala Honor Harrington to get the whole ‘hearing mummy while in the womb’ effect).
-
I don't know which is more of a shock, Liz getting knock up by Jamie or that Sunny boy is into boys.
Shocking I say!
My fan view has been that on some worlds in the Inner Sphere, the Duke and Duchess having very separate social lives after continuing the dynasty, is politely ignored. Dynastic societies have a much different understanding of marriage than ours does.
And yes, this is good to see again. I do like Karl as de facto Prime Marshal/Archon-Prince's Champion.
-
well, this was ripped from the headlines of the FC'62 game. at the time, it was kind of a joke, and we even did a dice roll for it. First time with a man, and it's a famous, older man who looks like Sean Connery (Jaime Wolf's art back in the day looked inspired by Sean Connery) and is old enough to be her GRANDFATHER.
and...
she gets pregnant. not sure if I got the tone the right level of hilarious here, or if it's more 'pheelz' or just flat. dunno. I know I was hoping to giggle when I set about dropping it here, but the expected giggle fit didn't happen. I guess I'm not as puerile as I used to be.
I do remember that game...
-
Um ...Jaime has access to Wolf Dragoon medicine. That means Iron Wombs. Nice little outpatient procedure, and you can go about your business while the foetus develops (hey, you can even record body and voice samples ala Honor Harrington to get the whole ‘hearing mummy while in the womb’ effect).
With how Kowloonese feel about the Clan eugenics program? These are people who fought Clan Battlesuits with small-arms and bayonets rather than be subjugated by ‘Nicky Kerensky’s Space Nazis’. A surrogate is an organic person, meaning their bearing the children to term in Liz’s stead is an act of human generosity and would actively appeal to Kowloon and its mores; an Iron Womb would all but make the heirs ‘Tank-born’ themselves, and they would never in a million years be accepted by the ’Loonies as ‘their own’, much less fit to rule over Kowloon.
-
With how Kowloonese feel about the Clan eugenics program? These are people who fought Clan Battlesuits with small-arms and bayonets rather than be subjugated by ‘Nicky Kerensky’s Space Nazis’. A surrogate is an organic person, meaning their bearing the children to term in Liz’s stead is an act of human generosity and would actively appeal to Kowloon and its mores; an Iron Womb would all but make the heirs ‘Tank-born’ themselves, and they would never in a million years be accepted by the ’Loonies as ‘their own’, much less fit to rule over Kowloon.
I’m talking about the physical tech, not the bug nuts eugenics program. But yeah, I suppose that’d be a PR issue.
-
Tharkad...
"sweet jesus, even Elizabeth is having kids before I have!" Victoria stopped, "What did he do? was there coercion? the Liz Ngo I know is terrified of sex..."
"She claimed it was mutually consensual, and the examination record showed none of the telltale bruising from forced penetration, her system was...well, none of the drugs IN her system would work for a roofie." Kuriatis explained.
Karl patiently examined a painting of an ancestor while the Archon Princess reacted to the news.
"How is this going to impact our relationship with Wolf's Dragoons?" he finally interjected.
"Well, their legal team is already researching local and national laws regarding child custody and inheritance, General Maeve Wolf has registered a request to investigate and see if Duchess Ngo used any sort of coercion, and MRBC is threatening to look into this as a possible contract breach by one or both parties, the Examiners have already boarded ship from Outreach to interview the..ah...witnesses." the DMI man stated.
His Loki counterpart cleared her throat, "We don't expect them to find evidence of anything more than a post-retirement fling, Highness, though with...unfortunate consequences for the mother."
"Unfortunate?" Karl asked. "HOW unfortunate?"
"She's effectively cut her projected lifespan from five years to somewhere in the range of eighteen months-Cholmann's syndrome accelerates in phase two radically in the presence of the hormones associated with pregnancy, and Liz is carrying twins." Victoria stated, "Fraternal Twins."
"That will certainly confuse inheritance issues." Karl noted, "Ngo Industries is sufficiently valuable to the realm that someone is going to have to run it in her absence, as in someone who won't loot it and run it into the ground, someone capable and loyal. has she named a successor yet?"
"They aren't publicly traded, so a hostile takeover would have to be directly from a creditor, and nationalization requires an Archon's order for a company of that size that isn't publicly traded." the financial officer from Lohengrin brought in for the brief noted. "We haven't found anyone she owes money to."
Victoria laughed. "for ******'s sake of course you haven't. 'Ngo Industries Credit Union' is in-house financing, she loans other people money! I remember she had a loan out from the Central Bank here on Tharkad back in '59 or '60, she scraped and counted every millphennig and had it paid off in two years at three percent interest, and she termed that 'usurious' rates! They're overcapitalized to a degree that if tehy had shareholders at all, those shareholders would be screaming at the courts to break the company up for a bloody enormous one-time payday."
"What was the loan for?" Karl inquired, "I was on teh front..."
"She was liquidating solid assets to build the ships she was using to get supplies to you, Karl, it cost her so much she had to take out a twenty two billion kroner loan to make deadline on the expanded facility orbiting Boojum, and she absolutely would NOT deal with Comstar for financing-they actually moved the physical money by ship from Coventry and Tharkad to Kowloon, and moved the repayment back the same way. she very nearly gave me a heart-attack when she explained the operation. we had to print special bills just to make the cargo dropship portable."
"Where are these...special bills now?" he asked.
"When she brought them back, I had the money re-entered into the system digitally, and then had the special bills burnt...I kept one as a souvenir." here, Victoria reached into her brassiere in a most unlady like fashion, and produced a slightly crumpled note.
20,000,000 Kroner.
"oh my god...is that-?"
"Grandma's face, yes. the reverse is a picture from the Star League era." she turned it over, "It was our little joke. Grandma, the last truly 'great' Archon before the Federated Commonwealth on the face, and Lizzie's ancestor Tranh Truk Ngo, the impaler at Elbar...and I guarantee, if this were made widespread and public, the collector value of the note would exceed the face value just based on rarity." Victoria sighed, "For Liz to do something this reckless?"
"She planned it, maybe the Dragoons aren't off their nut to question how 'consensual' that liaison was." Karl finished, "or...and hear me out here. I have a different theory."
"Which is?" Victoria folded the very rare piece of currency and replaced it in her bra.
"She was desperate, lonely, and feeling disconnected." he said it firmly. "She's a builder, Vicky, you told me that yourself. Liz Ngo loves big projects and she loves working them to death, and we gave her a huge project, bigger than rebuilding her family's landhold, bigger than expanding her company...and then, she had to retire before she finished-I've seen it with soldiers and officers we've had to forcibly retire, you've seen it with Aunt Nondi, you know I'm right about this."
Victoria glanced at Kuriatis. "I think I agree with your brother, Highness. I've seen it happen, like a long-time abstainer going to a bar right after leaving the service, or my mom, getting sick of her diet and indulging in chocolate cake, which with her diabetes is like playing russian roulette with a revolver that only has six chambers and is loaded with four bullets. Media is filled with the glory of love, sex is something that sells to the masses, and she's a human being, celibate for pretty much her entire life because of exactly what finally happened."
"Five rounds in a six shot magnum and she didn't hit the empty...god, this is going to be a mess...when did this turn into a holonovel soap opera again?"
"What do you want done?" Karl asked.
Victoria closed her eyes, "I want...our relationship with Wolf's Dragoons preserved, I want Ngo Industries to continue to be an asset to the Federated Commonwealth, I want..." she opened her eyes. "I want my friend cured, and if she can't be cured, I want to be able to assure that her heir or heirs are loyal supporters of the Federated Commonwealth and the Steiner-Davion legacy. I want stability, I want Prosperity, and I want all of the Tamar Pact back in the Federated Commonwealth by whatever means are necessary, no matter how long it takes without sacrificing that stability or that prosperity." she sighed, "I want to win it all, Karl."
"As you command, My Princess." Karl Steiner-Davion said, the relief in his eyes was genuine.
"First, we settle any issues with MRBC and Wolf's Dragoons..including custody and inheritance since his bloodline will have a claim on a second major industrial world through the children." Victoria stated, "Second, I want NAIS working on everything that can be dug up about Cholmann's syndrome, and tell Phelan Kell I want some of his scientists on this as well-Humanity hasn't cracked that nut in almost a thousand years, it was beyond Star League medicine to do it, I want to see if that Clanner medicine can do what their ancestors could not...at the very least, i want those kids to be healthy, call it my baby-shower gift to Liz, and I don't mind if it hits the newsies. Third, Karl, begin working up the operational planning and logistics for a counter invasion of our occupied sectors, focus on doing to the Clanners what they did to us-hitting hard and fast and rolling them up, talk to your man Christofiori about it, his raid into the Falcon zone is a precedent I want to see repeated and improved upon. for far too long, a pernicious foreign enemy has stood on FedCom soil, I want you to begin fixing that-see if you can marshall help from the Member states to increase your chances, I know you have friends among many of our former enemies and not a few neutrals, we're going to repeat Bulldog, but stronger, harder, and faster."
Karl positively beamed "Right away." he announced, then he asked, "And..?"
"It's been long enough since the last official visit by the Archon Princess to Kowloon. I'm going to contact a few of our mutual acquaintances and arrange a baby shower, then begin the work of making sure you have the infrastructure to carry out your part of this-I know you can do it, Little brother, but I want to have you come home to your wife after with all your bits attached to you." she smiled at him, "Sarissa is a lovely woman, I think she would look poorly in widow's black, and I know I would personally desire NOT to lose you."
HPG Station Outreach, roughly the same time...
"Founder's balls, father! what were you thinking??" General Maeve Wolf demanded over the channel. "She's younger than I am!! she's young enough to be your GREAT grand-daughter!!"
"She's limber." Jaime Wolf stated, "And it's been a long time, and for a moment, she reminded me of your mother...and she insisted on no strings, only it's not working out that way."
"you got her pregnant and it's going to kill her, Dad. did you know what she has?"
he looks uncomfortable on the image, "I do now. she still insists she won't press me on the paternity, but that's not the point, is it?"
"Dad, when you said you were taking a Cadre job, teaching 'loonies to be 'mechwarriors, it was supposed to be a busywork project that brought in a little good will and a fairly substantial amount of money, along with a substantial favor owed by the Federated Commonwealth, to us. Now MRBC is involved, I'm having to make midnight calls to New Avalon and Tharkad, if malfeasance is in any way suspected we're looking at fines for contract breach on the conduct clause...and, if they live, I'm going to have siblings young enough to be my grandkids, loaded with a time-bomb in their DNA."
"This has, in retrospect, occurred to me. We'll come through the MRBC with flying colors, don't be concerned about that. Focus on keeping things friendly with the FedCom, and our other clients. unless something DOES come up, we're in the clear."
"I'm just wondering how she seduced you, Dad."
"I liked her, we hit it off, it was supposed to be a one-time thing...hell, I still kind of like her. Not enough to make it a relationship...but she was a fun roll and she's smart. Smart is sexy, even for an old guy like me."
"Report says they're fraternal twins, dad, do you want me to have our legal team pursue custody? she won't live to raise them..."
"yes. at least one. and send some of our...legacy medical personnel up here to check their genetics, maybe they can work out a way to disarm that genetic time bomb. those kids give us another hook into the Federated Commonwealth and the Inner Sphere, one more link we can use to maintain our position."
"And you want to see if they've got any talent." Maeve stated, "Right?"
"That too. My kids, right? I'd like to think Wolf's Dragoons will have a lock on that kind of potential, and if we don't? then I want to know that as well."
"Do you even have feelings for her?" Maeve asked.
Jaime looked thoughtful, "no. not really. she could have been a Cappie Bar-girl, but I did end up getting her pregnant, and I don't shy from my responsibilities, especially when there is an advantage to be gained and money to make."
Maeve sighed, "good." and relaxed. "I'll scramble the teams on the next ship out."
-
Amusing as always... ;D
-
Bien Hoa Training Range, South Continent, Kowloon...
"If I wasn't looking right at it, I would think you were insane." Jaime Wolf commented.
"You know what it is?" Charles 'Chuck' Vanh was a local from the south shore of Golden Lake, an enormous inland, mostly freshwater sea polluted with germanium salts and other metals, the size of the assembled Amazon basin, and deep. Somewhere down below those three hundred meter deep waters, a continental fracture had been spreading and bubbling magma since sometime before humanity came down from the trees in Africa, hundreds of light years away.
Kowloon's people were as...characteristic as their topography, and Jaime knew more than most Clan-Born about them, about their ancestors, and their history. Here on the planet itself, that history has a habit of bubbling up like lava.
"Hechatonchieres class. Late war Rim Worlds production. Eighty five tons, forty kilometer walking speed and extinct since before the Exodus." Jaime recited, "The clans...kept tech specs but never encountered one intact." he looked at the one-armed rancher, "Where did you find it?"
"There's about thirty six of them buried in a bunker in Minsky's Folly." Charles stated, "What's it worth?"
The paint had peeled, and there was the characteristic crosshatch corrosion of Ferro-Fibrous armor left exposed in a damp, salt-rich environment, but not so much that the capture markings were completely gone.
"These are war-captures from the Amaris war." he announced, "I would have to ask Cranston for his evaluation, but to the right collector they'd be worth a fair amount...you found it in a bunker?"
"Most of a bunker." Charles amended, "The roof and upper levels collapsed some time ago, maybe a quake plus runoff in the limestone. The reinforcements were pretty shoddy. I'd say it's about a kilometer from where Condit and his bandit friends were searching back in '51 and '52, before Liz took over, we assumed it was something big they were after, since they kept hitting the folly, and there was a shit-ton of old Star League armor in the bottom of prospect gully,b ut that shit was all used up, too ruined by exposure to be any good. stuff that was any good, was picked over by scavengers back in the Duchess' grandfather's day or earlier."
"I...see." Jaime frowned, "did you find any records in the rubble?"
"I haven't searched it fully." Vanh confessed, "Took a heavy crew just to get this thing out of the hole, figured I'd bring it up here and the military school could decide if they want to dig up the rest."
captured Rim Worlds 'mechs, intact, here? Jaime knew Kerensky's orders for Exodus, including the sealed ones, from the preparation. The 171st had been sent home without a scrap of the Star League surplus they'd been given when they joined the war effort, stripped of weapons even, because the Great Father didn't want them to be able to launch another effective rebellion against the Rim Worlds Republic once it was stabilized. he hadn't wanted another Dinh Diep incident, and after seeing them at Eagle's Nest, Elbar, and Terra, he considered them both effective, and effectively impossible to control.
"Feel like showing me?" he asked. There were discipline records from right before the orders for preparation were set in motion-directed at members of the leadership of the SLDF's 90th heavy assault Division, 'Kerensky's Sledgehammers'-one of the few SLDF units that worked closely with Colonel Tranh's 171st Volunteers without issues. Very few of that unit joined Exodus.
"Sure, we can take my Hummingbird down." Vanh proposed.
Jaime felt a little apprehension at that-the single-engine prop planes aren't fast, aren't particularly durable, but are very easy to repair and often used by the rural families that mostly hold sway along the eastern shore of Golden Lake.
"How about we take something...more substantial?" he suggests, "I can have a Type Seven ready in half an hour, and we'll be able to bring a team from the teaching cadre."
"Works sir. Airfield in half an hour?"
Minsky's Folly, Section 2437421 South Range
there wasn't anywhere even a Type VII shuttle craft, capable of VTOL landing could actually put down, so they landed on a nearby plateau and took horses along the narrow trails.
Horses.
The Folly is a canyon system that would give the Grand Canyon on earth envious fits, a spiderweb of shattered and eroded land the size of Texas. Something cataclysmic hit here a few million years ago, and left this enormous scarred and eroded webwork of gullys, gorges, and mesas. The Folly itself is the dominant feature, a lump of near-metallic grade copper five hundred miles across that the original colonists almost landed on thinking it was arable land.
"People have starved to death getting lost down here." Vanh said, "Well, that and rock slides."
it was another three hours for the Tech team to follow them to the dig-site.
the 'bunker' was huge. Not in the sense of a Brian cache, or Brian fortress, but in the sense that the cavern that someone had improperly tried to fortify was gigantic, easily big enough to hide nearly a division of weapons and equipment...though it was likely smaller before the upper levels collapsed onto the lower ones. water stains marked the walls, broken stalactites and stalagmites were scattered between buried or partially buried war machines.
"Like the heads on Easter Island." Jaime commented.
"Yah, the're pretty well buried." Vanh agreed, "Well?"
"I think before you look for buyers, you should have told the Duchess." Jaime stated, "This is hers, courtesy of the 90th Heavy Assault, I think."
"Huh, funny that." Vanh said, rubbing his stump with his good hand.
"We'll know how much of it can be salvaged once the teams have gone through it." Jaime amended. "I've never had the chance to drive one, except in simulations..."
-
Is this design posted anywhere? ???
-
The “ "Hechatonchieres” is from the Black Tiger stories I believe.
Semi modular design.
Might have the design posted on the “Our Battletech” page.
-
Good thing I had these squirreled away. Still a massive fan of the 90th and the BTSD universe.
Hecatoncheires HET-7D-H
Mass: 70 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Age of War/Star League
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/E-F-E-A
Production Year: 2750
Cost: 6,665,303 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,679
Chassis: Unknown Endo-Steel
Power Plant: Unknown 280 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor w/ CASE
Armament:
1 ER Large Laser
2 LRM-15s
1 SRM-6
3 Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Endo-Steel 107 points 3.50
Internal Locations: 3 LT, 3 RT, 4 LA, 2 LL, 2 RL
Engine: Fusion Engine 280 16.00
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 10(20) 0.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 217 14.00
CASE Locations: 1 RT 0.50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 22 33
Center Torso (rear) 11
L/R Torso 15 22
L/R Torso (rear) 8
L/R Arm 11 22
L/R Leg 15 30
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Laser HD 3 1 1.00
SRM-6 CT 4 2 3.00
Medium Laser RT 3 1 1.00
Medium Laser LT 3 1 1.00
2 LRM-15s RA 10 6 14.00
ER Large Laser LA 12 2 5.00
@SRM-6 (15) RT - 1 1.00
@LRM-15 (32) RT - 4 4.00
Free Critical Slots: 16
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 7 Points: 17
4 3 3 2 0 3 1 Structure: 6
Special Abilities: CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, LRM 1/1/1, IF 1
Hecatoncheires HET-7E-H
Mass: 70 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Age of War/Star League
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/E-F-E-A
Production Year: 2750
Cost: 6,580,303 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,621
Chassis: Unknown Endo-Steel
Power Plant: Unknown 280 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor w/ CASE
Armament:
1 Autocannon/20
1 ER Large Laser
1 SRM-6
3 Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Endo-Steel 107 points 3.50
Internal Locations: 3 LT, 3 RT, 4 LA, 2 LL, 2 RL
Engine: Fusion Engine 280 16.00
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 10(20) 0.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 217 14.00
CASE Locations: 1 RT 0.50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 22 33
Center Torso (rear) 11
L/R Torso 15 22
L/R Torso (rear) 8
L/R Arm 11 22
L/R Leg 15 30
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Laser HD 3 1 1.00
SRM-6 CT 4 2 3.00
Medium Laser RT 3 1 1.00
Medium Laser LT 3 1 1.00
Autocannon/20 RA 7 10 14.00
ER Large Laser LA 12 2 5.00
@SRM-6 (15) RT - 1 1.00
@AC/20 (20) RT - 4 4.00
Free Critical Slots: 12
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 7 Points: 16
4 4 4 1 0 3 1 Structure: 6
Special Abilities: CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, AC 1/1/0
Hecatoncheires HET-7F-H
Mass: 70 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Age of War/Star League
Tech Rating/Era Availability: E/E-F-E-A
Production Year: 2750
Cost: 6,580,303 C-Bills
Battle Value: 1,868
Chassis: Unknown Endo-Steel
Power Plant: Unknown 280 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor w/ CASE
Armament:
1 Gauss Rifle
1 ER Large Laser
1 SRM-6
3 Medium Lasers
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown
================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Endo-Steel 107 points 3.50
Internal Locations: 3 LT, 3 RT, 4 LA, 2 LL, 2 RL
Engine: Fusion Engine 280 16.00
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks: Double Heat Sink 10(20) 0.00
Gyro: Standard 3.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 217 14.00
CASE Locations: 1 RT 0.50
Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 22 33
Center Torso (rear) 11
L/R Torso 15 22
L/R Torso (rear) 8
L/R Arm 11 22
L/R Leg 15 30
================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Medium Laser HD 3 1 1.00
SRM-6 CT 4 2 3.00
Medium Laser RT 3 1 1.00
Medium Laser LT 3 1 1.00
Gauss Rifle RA 1 7 15.00
ER Large Laser LA 12 2 5.00
@SRM-6 (15) RT - 1 1.00
@Gauss Rifle (24) RT - 3 3.00
Free Critical Slots: 16
BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 7 Points: 19
4 4 4 2 0 3 1 Structure: 6
Special Abilities: CASE, SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA
-
Hmmm... Cannonshop had said it had Ferro-Fibrous armor...
-
Could be, these files are a few years old.
The HET-7E-H doesn't have the available slots for Ferro Fibrous armour though, I'll have to go see if the original threads are still around. :)
-
I've only seen the Heck D & E converted for MM. In his main story TRO he only wrote up the E model. I think he published the D into a discussion thread back in January of 2011.
The D & E had standard armor in the originals.
The H model matches the "rebranded" Heck the 90th HAR and the Terrans rebranded as the "Tiger" in Through A Mirror Darkly Book 3, Those who Break the Unity. He took it out for a spin onscreen in Ghost of the Dead when Liz Hazen takes one out to face the Wolves on Tamar.
This bunker came from The Smell of the Ashes by Cannonshop, my copy dates to 8 January 2011
SLDF/HAF Temporary Captured War Materials Bunker
Somewhere outside of Vancouver, Terra, Terran Hegemony
15 May, 2781
“So why are we here Mr. Case? Not that I mind a quick trip to the ass end of nowhere.” Brigadier General Jimmy Qua asked as the two men walked up to one of the huge prefab hangers.
Jon Case chuckled and punched a key pad on the personnel entryway next to the massive hanger door.
“Patience is a virtue General, watch…” He hit a stud on the wall and the lights came on in rows. Standing there were row upon row of monstrous forms. The nearest had the lean predatory lines of a great raptor from Earth’s past. Back canted legs, a narrow torso and hunched shoulders spoke of menace.
It was an all too familiar form, that of a HET-7E-H Hecatoncheires. The very symbol of the Rim Worlds Republic.
“Okay, it’s a Heck, so what?!” Qua thought he knew but he needed to hear Jon say it.
“So there is a brigade’s worth of captured RimJob metal men here; never used and only dropped once.” Qua gave Jon a grimace as the man went on. “On this site you’ve also got enough equipment to outfit two more brigades of mechanized infantry, older stuff mostly but on par with anything the House Lords have.”
Qua waited silently as Jon rapped his knuckles on the Heck’s shin.
“Sadly this entire depot is going to be the victim of a training error, an entire battalion of guns is going to hit it in three months time. Tragic isn’t it?”
“Yeah, Jon tragic.” Qua said smiling. The Coasties’ supply chain was still active… Two months should do it. Question is would the folks back home use RimJob shit. Then again we did back in ’69…
As Jimmy Qua thought, Jon lit a cigarette and waited patiently.
We remember our friends here in the Hegemony and what Kerensky doesn't know can't hurt us.
-
Hmmmm. Maeve Wolf calling Jaime ‘dad’, references to her ‘mother’ ... methinks there might be some more butterflies. Is she still a gender flipped clone? Who’s ‘mum’?
-
Hmmmm. Maeve Wolf calling Jaime ‘dad’, references to her ‘mother’ ... methinks there might be some more butterflies. Is she still a gender flipped clone? Who’s ‘mum’?
Wolf would NOT be pleased if Comstar tripped to the cloning thing, and that tidbit must've been published in a source I no longer have access to. In this case, even a gender-flipped clone would have had both a mother, and father figure, seeing as wolf's not a fan of turning institutionalized sociopaths on his adopted homeland and there's way too many chances for someone to slip up if the cover story isn't air-tight.
-
Wolf would NOT be pleased if Comstar tripped to the cloning thing, and that tidbit must've been published in a source I no longer have access to. In this case, even a gender-flipped clone would have had both a mother, and father figure, seeing as wolf's not a fan of turning institutionalized sociopaths on his adopted homeland and there's way too many chances for someone to slip up if the cover story isn't air-tight.
It was revealed at the end of Wolfpack that Maeve was a ‘retread’ with the gender reversed. She was raised in a Dragoon sibling company, and in canon (so far as we know) never actually knew her relation to Jaimei: she was just an awesome commander during the Dragoon Civil War, and rose to become the first Dragoon commanding general.
From Sarna:
Maeve Wolf (died January 22, 3073[1]) was a genetic clone of Jaime Wolf, the commander of the legendary Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early career
1.2 Dragoon Civil War
1.3 Word of Blake Jihad
1.4 Death
2 Titles and Positions
3 Notes
4 References
5 Bibliography
Biography[edit]
Early career[edit]
Her status as a clone was unknown even to herself and Jaime Wolf, and known only by a select few Dragoon scientists and (later) Brian Cameron.[2] After completing her training, she was initially assigned to Jaime Wolf's Bodyguard Lance[3] and saw action on Morges in 3053.[4] Later, having reached the rank of Captain, she was assigned a command in the Wolf Spider Battalion.[5]
Dragoon Civil War[edit]
Maeve Wolf showing Alpin Wolf corpse
During the Dragoon Civil War in 3054, Maeve was acting commander of the Wolf Spider Battalion, as Major John Clavell was wounded at the time.[6] She joined the conflict on the side of Colonel Jaime Wolf[7], and played a major role when she defeated the upstart Alpin Wolf in single combat.[8] Following the war, she won a Trial of Position unopposed, earning the name 'Wolf' and taking the new position of 'General' within Wolf's Dragoons[9], second in command only to (now Commander) Jaime Wolf. She assisted in the reorganization of the unit[10], and served in that capacity for many years.
-
It was revealed at the end of Wolfpack that Maeve was a ‘retread’ with the gender reversed. She was raised in a Dragoon sibling company, and in canon (so far as we know) never actually knew her relation to Jaimei: she was just an awesome commander during the Dragoon Civil War, and rose to become the first Dragoon commanding general.
From Sarna:
Maeve Wolf (died January 22, 3073[1]) was a genetic clone of Jaime Wolf, the commander of the legendary Wolf's Dragoons mercenary unit.[2]
Contents [hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early career
1.2 Dragoon Civil War
1.3 Word of Blake Jihad
1.4 Death
2 Titles and Positions
3 Notes
4 References
5 Bibliography
Biography[edit]
Early career[edit]
Her status as a clone was unknown even to herself and Jaime Wolf, and known only by a select few Dragoon scientists and (later) Brian Cameron.[2] After completing her training, she was initially assigned to Jaime Wolf's Bodyguard Lance[3] and saw action on Morges in 3053.[4] Later, having reached the rank of Captain, she was assigned a command in the Wolf Spider Battalion.[5]
Dragoon Civil War[edit]
Maeve Wolf showing Alpin Wolf corpse
During the Dragoon Civil War in 3054, Maeve was acting commander of the Wolf Spider Battalion, as Major John Clavell was wounded at the time.[6] She joined the conflict on the side of Colonel Jaime Wolf[7], and played a major role when she defeated the upstart Alpin Wolf in single combat.[8] Following the war, she won a Trial of Position unopposed, earning the name 'Wolf' and taking the new position of 'General' within Wolf's Dragoons[9], second in command only to (now Commander) Jaime Wolf. She assisted in the reorganization of the unit[10], and served in that capacity for many years.
I stand corrected, we will term it a 'cover story' move created with an eye toward deeper involvement in Inner Sphere politics-the claim that Maeve is Wolf's biological daughter and is 'family' falls into Inner Sphere norms and would be unlikely to be investigated further-once intrepid investigators 'discovered' Maeve was Wolf's daughter raised in secret somewhere, or born in secret, they would stop looking, thus preserving the continued work by his people on the breeding programme.
(The genetic relationship would be likely obvious to any observer on the outside-familial resemblance isn't that uncommon and a simple blood test would tell most investigators that they're related. It is common for the child of a merc unit leader or minor lord, or major lord to 'inherit' the position of leadership, most of the potential clients and peers of the Dragoons would accept this more readily than "She's a clone!" claims.)
-
I stand corrected, we will term it a 'cover story' move created with an eye toward deeper involvement in Inner Sphere politics-the claim that Maeve is Wolf's biological daughter and is 'family' falls into Inner Sphere norms and would be unlikely to be investigated further-once intrepid investigators 'discovered' Maeve was Wolf's daughter raised in secret somewhere, or born in secret, they would stop looking, thus preserving the continued work by his people on the breeding programme.
(The genetic relationship would be likely obvious to any observer on the outside-familial resemblance isn't that uncommon and a simple blood test would tell most investigators that they're related. It is common for the child of a merc unit leader or minor lord, or major lord to 'inherit' the position of leadership, most of the potential clients and peers of the Dragoons would accept this more readily than "She's a clone!" claims.)
Sounds reasonable. And the mother figure is ...?
-
Nha Tranh Best Western Hotel and Conference Center, Kowloon, October 11, 3066...
General Evelyn Mosovich, AFFC/Reserve, 171st Volunteer RCT, stood up to give the presentation. Her face may not have been the best choice for this, being skull-like with replacement myomers and artificial eyes after being burnt off by an Elemental's small laser on Tamar more than a decade ago, but as Kowloon-the-planet's ranking AFFC officer, there was a feeling that some obligation had to be met for the benefit of the public's safety and comfort.
"...dated material confirmed the find to be from just after the Amaris era, documents located near the bottom after clearing the rubble suggest the site was prepared in a hurry, not surprising given the nature of what was stored there. Duchess Ngo was kind enough to invite teams from as far away as New Avalon to examine the materials found there. Approximately one regiment of Rim Worlds produced Hecatonchieres assault 'mechs, the largest single concentration of surviving models since the first succession war. We've confirmed provenance from the SLDF's capture depot outside Vancouver, dated sometime in 2781. The equipment was moved here, then buried, and then, for some reason, forgotten for over two hundred years. additional finds include a number of Terran Hegemony and Rim Worlds produced armored vehicles, based on examinations, there are better than a brigade's worth of machines and weapons stored down there, the sealing order was signed by Planetary President-Elect Marjorie Ngo, dated roughly ten days before Kowloon signed onto the Lyran Commonwealth."
the slide flickered.
"There were some initial mistakes on identification, while actual examples are amazingly rare, there were telltales that suggested Ferro-Fibrous replacement armor had been patched over battle-damaged type 1 Starslab. Further technical examination of samples pulled from the cavern showed this to be not the case, the corrosion pattern on the initial unit extracted is that of ferro fibrous armor, yes, but the unit itself is clearly an experimental prototype that sacrificed a lot of the design's firepower in a failed attempt to make it faster, the remaining samples in the hole are standard HET-7A-H models with some repairs probably made after capture by SLDF forces on Terra. the majority of these units show severe weathering and corrosion issues from being left in those caves for so long, a small handful were able to be made operational, however, and you can see here-"
[Video image]
"They only required basic depot level maintenance to be brought up to operational standard. We're not going to be doing that, however-these are museum quality examples of an historically significant design. Instead, the 'heck brigade' is being restored for display purposes and offered to University and Academy museums throughout the reborn Star League, you may now ask your questions."
"Why aren't you going to use them, General?"
Evelyn's vox buzzed as she answered, "It doesn't meet with Kowloonese doctrine, the design is also centuries out of production and borderline out of date. as you know, the Kowloon contribution to the National defense relies heavily on standardization of equipment for logistical support, deployable units, and the ability to support our forces in the field by making maximum use of every kilogram of shipping space. Nobody makes parts for the Hecatonchieres, and tooling up for it would cost just as much as you might imagine a new model of Atlas would cost. Admittedly, the heck is a better design, but we're sticking to the Enfield/Blackhawk-KU combo with license copies of the Jenner in the recon 'mech role and the excellent, license built Avatar design. Negotiations for procurement of the Hauptmann class are suspended at this time, frankly, because we don't have the butts to fill the seats, nor a certifiable role in the doctrine of the 171st."
this was a bit of a shock. AFFC may be the combination of the best elements of the Lyran and Federated Suns militaries, but for a Lyran world to have 'no role' for an assault battlemech? this idea borders on heresy.
"So your duchess is just giving them away?"
"I don't make policy, I'm just announcing it. next question, Kari?"
Kari Lundberg of DBS stands, "General, with all of the visible investment into medical technologies, education expansions, and military realignment on Kowloon in the last fourteen years, why haven't you gotten your face fixed?"
"It's not broken. do you have a question about the presentation?"
"Will Kowloon be retaining any of the found 'mechs?" the blonde from Donegal was quick on her feet.
"Yes. One company will be kept for use at Bien Hoa as OPFOR training units and exotic technologies demonstrators, we are also stationing one company at the Dinh Diep Holocaust Memorial as static display, they are to be retrofitted to the model used during the uprising of 2729 that resulted in the destruction by orbital fire of Kowloon's first capital city, and there are several that will remain once we've properly shored the Cavern up, as part of the National Museum of the 171st here on Kowloon. We're hoping to trade four of the Hecks to the Gilmour family in exchange for items of the 90th Heavy Assault to complete that museum, it opens to the public in two years time. Next Question?, you in the back?"
a man in tan coveralls with a long coat stands up, "Yes, General, these are artifacts of the war against the Usurper?"
"I said that." Evelyn stated.
"Do you have any others that will be displayed to the public?" he asks.
"Quite a few. Some have been kept here since the fall of the Rimjobs, mister-"
"Jones, Henry Jones, Scorpion Historical Broadcast company." he said, "Will any of the items be associated to the leading figures of that era?"
"We couldn't get the fat man's head on a spike, if that's what you're wondering." Evelynn's voice was monotone, and her expression was understandably unreadable, "A Goliath Scorpion Media-subcaste on Kowloon? that's darned interesting. How about you stick around after the presentation and we can talk about what you're seeking?" she didn't add how you got here but it was in the back of her mind.
***
Coast Guard Station Nha Tranh Spaceport, three hours later...
Elizabeth Ngo wasn't here, but her assistant, Kelli Whyte, was. "You guys suck at covert operations, Star Colonel." she said, sitting down across from the Goliath Scorpion Seeker in interview room 3A. "Seriously, but you do have such wonderful toys-that holonet that got you through Customs, for example, is top-shelf stuff, but your fieldcraft sucks. why are you here?"
"We believe you have a document from The Great Father, the Elbar Declaration." he says easily enough, "We have a...source that says one copy, possibly the last original copy of it, is here on Kowloon...it has...significance."
"You could have called ahead and just asked, it would've saved you months of space travel." she tells him, "not to mention avoiding diplomatic flaps. before I confirm or deny, I want to know what 'significance' you think it has, and why you think it's here and not on Elbar? and for the record, this interview is with SaKhan Nelson Elam, Clan Goliath Scorpion."
"you're very well informed." he says, "surprisingly well informed."
"We find that knowing who's guesting for dinner is of some use in deciding whether to have the good china out or the paper plates. Like I told you, you could have...ought to have called ahead before making that journey down the Exodus road."
"Will i be detained? Interrogated?" he asks.
"Star Colonel Elam, we are not presently at war with your Clan, yes, you will be detained for a short time, if my superiors decide to grant your request, it will be granted and transportation back to your homeland will be arranged, if my superiors decide NOT to grant your request, you will be sent home empty-handed. The detention is because a lot of my people don't make much distinction between Clanners, and I don't want to have to explain why a visiting...person of rank from a nation we are not at war with ended up dead in an alley on my watch. Liz doesn't like complications that start foreign wars."
"but you are not going to even ask about military intelligence I might possess?"
"Negative, between Loki, Lohengrin, MIIO, Rabid Foxes, SLDFs Intel people, ROM, and our own OCB Foreign Department, we probably know more about your forces and dispositions than you do, and unless you're defecting, there's no reason to pump you for information that would be out-of-date due simply to the time it took you to get here with that half-assed cover-story. While we're waiting for your request to be processed, would you like to visit some historical sites here on Kowloon?"
-
Nha Tranh Public Medical Center...
The hospital bed was advanced, designed to be multi-functional, the best that NAIS and AFFC Medical could devise, the electronic monitors could detect an oncoming seizure faster than Liz could recognize the symptoms, and the automatic restraint system could keep her from hurting herself as her body's electrical system went haywire. The catheterization system kept her free from the danger of soiling her self during a seizure, and whisked away the wastes, while the sheets themselves wicked away sweat and cleansed body odor.
The intravenous delivery system kept her remaining endorphin receptors stocked with the finest painkillers, while still leaving her mostly lucid, and all of it was set up to allow her mostly-free use of her hands, access to a different sort of monitor, and the ability to keep something resembling her dignity in the presence of visitors.
"How are they doing today?" she asked Tamara, Kelli's legal 'wife'-a legal choice made back during independence, when women outnumbered me on Kowloon by nine to one, maintained as a tradition to mark their culture even in the free-wheeling morals of the Lyran Commonwealth era.
Tamara ran a hand down her belly, "Quiet." She said, "Your children are quiet today, Your Grace. I think the girl is sleeping. Have you picked names?"
Liz nods, "She will be named Amanda, and her brother will be named for his Uncle, Patrick." she smiled. "Thank you again. It didn't save my life, but at least they won't be hurt by what I have to take just to stay lucid. They are healthy?"
"Both. the transplant was timely enough to protect them both from chemical damage." Tamara told her. "You'll be able to hold them soon, you know."
"I feel like I should have given you more say over them in the contract." Liz notes quietly.
"You're their mother, I'm just...a taxi." Tamara told her, "Kelli and I had given up on having children, you know. Careers, Not-being-into-men..."
"still, Tama, you had options." Liz noted, "you didn't have to volunteer for...I'm glad you did, but you did not have to do this for me." Liz tracked reports with one eye while they visited. "a Khan??"
"Oooh, is this a bad time now?" Tamara asked.
"No, it isn't. could you...be kind enough to stay? I may need someone here to check my language." Elizabeth muttered invective under her breath as she read the report.
Then she stopped. "He wants the Elbar Declaration." she said, "Imagine that. someone is interested in that after centuries!"
She tabbed a code series to ring Kelli's portable.
"Kelli! your wife is visiting!" Liz said it with mock cheer.
"Oh good, I was about to-"
"You were about to arrange for Khan Nelson Elam to visit the Dinh Diep Holocaust museum, and keep him there for several hours while Commodore Li's people prep Spider Moon for a visit by a dignitary, after which, since it won't be prepped until tomorrow, you are to put him up in the best hotel accomodations and arrange for him to use the Comstar array to phone home and tell them he is alive and well so they don't invade us for jailing one of their senior leadership, then you will take him to the University Library, where he will be allowed to see all the books, be sure to explain to him that we're looking for a copy of the Clan Remembrance, and tell him that the document he seeks to examine will be ready to be examined and viewed-tomorrow, and explain that he will want to bring his escorts with him to the viewing."
"Yes mum..."
"And before he leaves Kowloon, I want to see this man in person, if necessary you will bring him to my hospital room, is that understood?"
"Yes mum."
"Good enough. now, I'm going to have the rest of this call transferred to your wife's phone, and she is to take it out of the room with her to discuss whatever personal things you two need to discuss!"
liz hit the transfer code, as the monitor chimed for an oncoming seizure, then she tried to relax as her restraints engaged.
Tamara's portable toned and she left.
Five seconds later, through the closed privacy door, everyone on this floor could hear elizabeth's screams as her body clenched violently and her mind was washed away on a wave of intolerable agony.
The screams lasted thirty minutes. at the end of them, she lay like a limp rag, body exhausted and muscles strained, whimpering and waiting for the narcotics to dull the ache to a point she could once again be lucid.
-
Negotiations for procurement of the Hauptmann class are suspended at this time, frankly, because we don't have the butts to fill the seats, nor a certifiable role in the doctrine of the 171st."
this was a bit of a shock. AFFC may be the combination of the best elements of the Lyran and Federated Suns militaries, but for a Lyran world to have 'no role' for an assault battlemech? this idea borders on heresy.
We're hoping to trade four of the Hecks to the Gilmour family in exchange for items of the 90th Heavy Assault to complete that museum, it opens to the public in two years time. Next Question?, you in the back?"
"Jones, Henry Jones, Scorpion Historical Broadcast company." he said, "Will any of the items be associated to the leading figures of that era?"
Heresy- there'll be people having heart attacks in the LCAF HQs at Asgard!
Nice call backs to the 90th :thumbsup:
"Henry Jones" would have a stroke if her knew about Tadeo Amaris' nom de guerre. ;D
-
Sounds reasonable. And the mother figure is ...?
Natasha??
-
Natasha??
Probably not: that’d run into the Henry VIII problem of getting involved with your dead brother’s ex.
-
Really enjoying this story, so far. Thank you!
That does make me wonder what ever happened to Bruce Gilmour and the 90th... Wonder if we'll ever know.
-
Dinh Diep Holocaust Museum
The valley was confined at the junction between two mountain ranges and the headwaters of the Little Mekong river-a river that swells to become Golden Lake some two hundred Kilometers to the North East. The plant life here is twisted and stunted, and the immediate impression is of rocky terrain with sinkholes, until you get closer.
"The street level is about one hundred meters down." his guide, a young man wearing a radiation panic-badge on his tan jacket, explained. "rad levels are actually mostly safe in most of the site. Once the SLS Belleau Wood realized they'd set off a thermonuclear detonation, the follow-on laser fire was mosty effective at disrupting and destroying the major fallout in the upper atmosphere...at least, that's the working theory. it took care of the long-term stuff anyway, took gamma levels down to beta and alpha, but nothing is perfect."
up close, the rocks and some of the twisted 'vegetation' resolves into the bones of buildings-girders and re-bar, poking out of millions of tons of tailings that had been shipped in and dumped to contain the worst of it, burying the scorched remains of a city that had once boasted millions of residents, a city burned and destroyed by the Star League on behalf of the Amaris Regime.
By Clan standards, Nelson knew, he was standing on the grave of a war-crime.
Excavation equipment and decontamination gear surrounded a circular pit. "what is that?" he asked.
"Dig site. we've recovered books, a few artifacts, done some forensics on the actual strike." his guide answered, "Some of the lower levels like the public rail terminal are intact, we found quite a collection of things down there, along with the bodies."
Nelson knew this wasn't from the traitor-lords in their civil war. This was done during the golden age of the Star League. "People trapped by the bombardment, or later?" he asked.
"Execution style in the upper strata of the dig." his guide says it blandly, "medical exams suggest pulse laser to the base of the skull, mostly civvies, a few kids, Rimjob work. uppermost tier of the mass grave's mostly rad exposure and signs of overwork, but down in the subways? lots of suffocation cases, the bodies are pretty well preserved. We keep havin' to revise the death toll upward. started at five million people, finding more evidence of more every day. most date between 2729 an' 2755, when the Star League let the Rimjobs handle the cleanup. They used forced labor."
he followed the man down into the uncovered subway. Work lights showed a mass-transit arrangement that would be familiar to any Homeworld city-dweller, neatly built, of quality materials, the platforms swept clean by the researchers to reveal standard structural elements, posters in frames and blank monitors were arranged everywhere, and a few monorail cars were even parked where they had ceased motion.
an SLDF recruitment poster, visibly faded, in a ferroglass display frame stood inset to the wall, the image was idealized. It was like a punch to the gut, seeing that and knowing what happened here.
"This incident was...lightly discussed in our histories." Nelson offered, "What do your histories say happened?"
"The Rimjobs lost control during the uprising, and called in the Star League to help put it down, the SLDF sent SLS Belleau Wood, a Potemkin class cruiser with a Division embarked from exercises on Arluna with the Lyrans. Our folks opposed the landing, demanded a Star League court hear our grievances, and beat them so bad, they called down an orbital strike, only the coordinates they got from their scouts were wrong, instead of hitting a command bunker they hit the municipal power plant, the overpressure from the strike sent the core supercritical, the plant went up like a dirty bomb. That's the nearest thing we can establish to an objective description, wasted the whole city, hell, got the whole valley in the initial shock and firestorm."
"And then??"
"Then they buried the incident for a decade or so, until a kid named Kerensky showed up with a fact-finding mission. He wanted to charge Admiral Chivington with numerous violations including using orbom on a civilian population, but by then, the old bastard was retired and Steve Amaris was the young first-lord's very bestest pal, so it was basically forgotten about." his guide shrugged, "Politics. nobody was even charged with negligence. The story we got is that the First Lord let funds for the cleanup, but you wouldn't see much of that here. we know that House Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic pulled in political prisoners from off-world, along with civilians they didn't like from on-world, and used them as disposable labor burying the site, and moved their admin headquarters to Nha Tranh and their military headquarters to Hue."
despite himself, he asked, "How many do you estimate? rough guess?"
"We've found enough using echo-sounding and excavation to suggest around thirty or forty million, and archaeological remnants suggest most of 'm were from offworld after about 2735 or 36. They ran a ****** concentration camp here until the late fifties or early sixties. It wasn't, apparently, interesting enough for the SLDF to become involved, unless they were complicit. we don't have much info on that, but there's no supporting evidence here that anyone on Terra knew what was going on out here, at least, not at the time."
Elbar makes so much more sense now.
"Do you maybe want to take a look at our documentation efforts?" his guide asked, "Maybe you can put some clues together we missed?"
Nelson spent the afternoon looking at survey data, holoimagery, artifacts, and bones. A scientist-caste, which any of this crew would easily fit, would have a field day with so much raw historical data. he just felt emptier, and increasingly more horrified by the obviousness of the information. people had been worked to death, and then killed, here for decades, after a mistake made by the Star League that went un-punished.
Nha Tranh...
Upon his return to the hotel, a book was waiting for him at the desk. leather-bound and ancient, written with a spidery, precise hand. Tranh Truk Ngo's war diary from the campaign against the Usuper, it was a copy done using image-transfer but still, contemporary to the Star League's fall.
"You'll want to sleep well tonight, the Archive where the Declaration is housed is ready for your visit in the morning." a Coast Guard officer in dress uniform explained.
"Thank you."
Nelson didn't rest, he spent much of the night reading his gift, filling in holes in his own information on the various campaigns of the first war to Liberate Terra. Colonel Ngo's writing was sparse, terse, a soldier's writing, with a touch of poet, but not so much as to make any of it seem glorious. The primary point he gathered was that Kowloon didn't join the war against the Usurper out of any love for the Star League, they joined out of a sense of hatred and outrage that was bones-deep. They joined to punish the Rim Worlds not for overthrowing the Camerons, but for crimes committed against their people.
Crimes clearly evident after today.
Coast Guard Naval Air Station Spider Moon, Boojum III, 2 AU from Kowloon itself.
The trip from Nha Tranh to Spider Moon took two full days in a relatively comfortable modified Buccaneer class dropship. Nelson was not alone now, he had four of his warriors with him, and he was no longer playing civilian, but dressed in his own Clan's dress uniform, a dignitary being shuttled by a neutral nation to a site they rarely showed to outsiders.
the 'Naval Air Station' was visible on approach. As the dropship landed, he noted the general layout would be (again) achingly familiar to anyone who visited a Snow Raven outpost, or the Ghost Bear asteroid mining facilities.
"what was this before you took it over?" he asks.
"We're not exactly sure, there were bio-research areas and quarantine rooms, but there were also missile silos." Commodore Alicia Li explained, "Most of whatever they were working on was removed before they shut it down, but some of the sections were clearly burned using thermite-plasma flushes, so it was probably dangerous. the site itself dates from the teens to late twenties."
"YOu put an archive here?"
"No, we put the base here, the Archive is inside the moon." she explains, "You can't fit what we stored down there in that little base."
inside, the color-coding was familiar to anyone who grew up with Brian Caches or SLDF's architecture. even the path lines, automatic doors, seals, air-locks and patterns were the same.
The paint was fresher, and it was carefully maintained.
"We do Coast Guard officer training in the outer levels for Dirtyfeet, and we have some of the admin functions located here, but it's not a node of control you can just knock out." Li explained, "overcentralized control of defenses is how my ancestors lost Kowloon to the Rimjobs the first time, we decentralized everything after that."
"So a decapitation strike would be worthless." He said approvingly, "very intelligent."
"We try not to be stupid, doesn't always work out, but we do make the attempt." she said with a smile, "What we do have, is a pressure-walk elevator to the place you want to be visiting, and it's secure."
The lower catacombs were mined out of the bedrock of the moon, and they were extensive. as he followed the Commodore deeper in, he noted names were carved into the walls, with dates.
"What are...what is this?"
"everyone who's died in defense of Kowloon, or under the colors of Kowloon." she told him. "all the way back to the First war, with the Rimjobs, at least, everyone we could confirm. Newer entries are further down, we're still adding names, dates, places."
at a point the passage branches, and she leads him down the branch, to a door.
The crest of the 171st, a red brush-stroke resembling a dragon on a gold field, beside it the crest of the 90th Heavy Assault Division, and finally the crest of the Kowloon Coast Guard, an Orca, rampant on a field of blue that fades to a starfleld at the top.
"it's in here." she tells him, "You might want to seal up, we keep it pressurized with neutral gasses to prevent degradation of the records."
He mountd his helmet and sealed it, activating the rebreathers and scrubbers. "Do you also have records of the 90th?" he asks.
"a few, as many as their gunslinger let us put away, anyhow." she tells him, "some info on where they went, after the fall-would've been better if they'd come here, but...who knows? when they misjumped, they vanished from the worlds, but that was days after your ancestors left Earth for the last time."
They walked through the airlock, into a vast room, filled with hermetically sealed document casings, digital media on racks, holotapes, crystal readers...a librarian's nightmare or fondest dream.
"Somewhere in here, we've got the original copy of the Kowloon Republic's constitution, the colonial charter, and copies of every treaty we were forced to adopt." her voice was tinny through the output speaker of her own skinsuit. "You're looking for the Elbar Declaration, we've got two copies, Gilmour gave us his before Colonel Ngo left Earth for home, and we've got the Colonel's original. I think this is a bad idea, but Liz told me specifically to let you choose which one to see first. there's also something else she wants you to look at while you're here."
"what is it?" he asks.
"The last conversation between Tranh Truk Ngo and General Aleksandr Kerensky, recorded as it happened, no edits. Liz must have a plan for letting one of you guys see that, I don't think it's a good idea, but then, I was against this whole thing."
"Why would you oppose it?" he asked.
"because it will bring nothing but trouble."
-
[out of tale]
for those who 'get' the reference, there is a branch-universe where a misjump put the 90th Heavy Assault division two centuries and change ahead of themselves at Tamar, during the initial Clan invasion (ala "legends" bt with an entire SLDF divsion). This, then, is the timeline that branched because they didn't do what they did when they didn't misjump-kind of the strand kept going. Small changes and big changes happened as a result, such as the change that resulted in Victoria instead of Victor, and Karl instead of Katherine. Someone, somewhere in the woodpile, changed...
the mysterious disappearance of the 90th Heavy Assault, "Kerensky's Sledgehammers" influenced this timeline in lots of subtle and overt ways. the Gilmour name continued, but with a mysteriously vanished Bruce, there's a "sweety" but it's not his original ride with the Royal combat harness, just a very well maintained Marauder with the original armor.
and in this universe, there are two surviving original copies of Kerensky's general order after Running Deer Mountain on Elbar.
[back to our tale]
En-Route back from Spider Moon...
Nelson Elam held his prize-well, he held the protective, bullet-proof, armoured housing containing it. but it gave him no real joy.
"Khan?" his escort, a comrade who'd come with him on this quest, Neill, inquired.
"The crusaders." he says.
"What about them?"
"They were right all along." he looks at his long-time comrade in arms, "they were absolutely right, and absolutely wrong about why they were right. I feel like I have wasted my career...and worse."
"Worse than wasting your career?"
"our ancestors deserted these people." he says, "everything the Star League was supposed to stand for. She was right, this knowledge, it is nothing but trouble...for us."
-
now im curious to know what was recorded.
-
I seem to remember that Cannonshop put some or all of that recording in one of his stories. Now, I have to go thru all of my archives to see if I'm right.
Love the stories, please keep them coming!!!!
-
Nha Tranh Medical Center, Friday...
"you knew." SaKhan Nelson Elam of Clan Goliath Scorpion stood in the hospital room. "you've seen it."
"Now, so have you. That thing loaded?" Liz asked, "if you're not here to do me a favor, have a seat and we can discuss it. I have the same problem he had, and in a way, you've got the same choices Kerensky had, I'm kinda interested in what you'll do."
he sat down in the indicated chair, "I...I don't know." he confessed. "I know you've set this as a trap, I know you're planning to use it against us-but I confess I don't understand what, how, or why."
"Why's easy." Liz sighed, "the word 'collaborator', it's about the nastiest insult we have. I was third in line, not supposed to inherit a goddam thing, and then, Dad went...followed by Blackjack Academy, followed by Patrick, and mom went bonkers." she tugged at her covers, displaying a gunshot wound, "She shot me in the bathroom, the day she killed herself, the day she found out about my other brother. He turned Collaborator. Joined your Jade Falcon colleagues, this is info that is probably going to get out soon, once the offensive to drive them out kicks off."
"And?"
"Had to find a way to hurt them first." she said, "Twist the knife. I'm not a nice woman, Khan Elam, I do my best for my people, but in the end, I'm petty, cruel, and vain and will burn in hell when I die for the things I have ordered, manipulated, dictated, and carried out with my own hands...but I'm damned if I leave one scrap left of dignity for my enemies when I go. Truth, Khan Elam, is a weapon, there's a reason your ancestors censored the living shit out their histories, why they censored more than even the Successor Lords did, and I'm willing to make use of that weapon, even if it's a dying bit of spite. When I read about your clan, I knew sooner or later, one of you would show up. I didn't show Snord that clip, he's gone free agent, it wouldn't have the same impact...but showing you? yeah, I had our agents lay a breadcrumb for you and here you are."
"You can't be certain of what I will do with this." he says.
"I know I gave you a gravedigger's choice, you can perpetuate the lies, or you can uncover the truth." she tells him, "The lies are holding your people back, in their little hot-house utopia, scrabbling for resources in the middle of a ****** bonanza, the raw materials we surveyed in the Clan Homeworlds are rich enough to make anyone envious, but your system automatically squanders them, so you will never develop a fraction of the prosperity we had while the House Lords were pounding each other and everyone around them into rubble. The truth, on the other hand, now that's a thing, isn't it? You reveal it, and your colleagues on the Grand Council will be at one another's throats for the next six hundred years, or until some elected First Lord leads a modernized, organized, structured and competent SLDF right down your throats. Which will probably go somewhat better than it did in the Reunification War for the Taurians, since they still remember what that felt like, and have the good sense not to want to provoke that feeling in anyone else."
"you wished for a copy of the Remembrance, for your archives, why?" he asked.
"completion. It's actually going to be copied to the university too, because I am heartily sick to death of lies...literally sick to death, but figuratively sick of lies. if you know yourself, and your enemy, you can not be defeated in a thousand battles, the art of war, by a chinese general named Sun Tzu-mad Max named his boy after that historical strategist, and surprisingly, I think it's appropriate, maybe visionary, he's probably the best strategist in human space, though he's not much better as an individual fighter than I am. Sun Tzu also said 'seek victory, then when victory is achieved, pursue battle'. this is part of that strategy, and keep it, hide it? whatever, doesn't matter, enough people know you have it. enough on YOUR side of the border. They'll wonder what it is, and if you destroy it? they'll want to know what you fear so much."
he saw it then, her dirty trick, laid out in the open for him to understand. "You gave it to me to provoke civil war."
"Yes. Your way enshrines war, Khan, hell, your people use seventy ton war machines to settle who cut in the lunch-line. So you'll have to fight no matter what, you just have to choose what you're going to fight for." she folded her hands, "Will it be the uncomfortable truth, as returned sons to the Star League, or will it be to continue a lie? your choice, you have to make it. you have to decide what side you're going to be on, you can't sit it out anymore and still be true to your ideals."
"but...the Lords..."
"The Star League is a Nation, not a family, dynasty, or man." Liz told him, "Remember what my ancestor said? The General deserted the nation over a question of who would be the most eligible target of assassins in human space. He betrayed all for which they had fought, and suffered. It wasn't a thing for us, we wanted to be independent, he fouled that promise up, but it could have been excusable, if he'd stayed-you're holding the declaration that could have stopped Kentares, could have prevented three centuries of madness, hell weapons dropped on worlds because the one force that could have checked it, could have stopped it, could have made things stable, abandoned us all for the wounded vanity of an old man."
she coughed, accidentally revealing the Dialysis tubes running into her side. "I'm far enough along, shooting me would be a blessing." she leveled her eyes at him, "You still have a life, but we serve our people to the end, don't we? don't you?"
Nelson rubbed his temples. "I have not chosen yet." he finally said.
"I get that. I do." she answered. "you need to decide which course your people are best served by. I sacrificed the last vestiges of my people's oldest dream to get in position to give you this dilemma. we will never be independent now, we will always be 'part of the Federated Commonwealth' or 'a Lyran world'...but it's worth it if I can change one course away from disaster for everyone, maybe make an eternal damnation worth the price. However things go from here, millions will die, but if my move works, it won't be Billions, or Trillions..." her bedside alarm pinged. "you might want to leave for this part. countdown's twenty seconds, unless you're going to kill me."
he paused, hesitated.
half a minute later, he wished he had not. On the video, he had seen the final seizures of Tran Truk Ngo, but the recording did no justice to seeing..and smelling, and hearing it first-hand. witnessing such agony in another living being, knowing that nothing can be done to stop it.
he remained for the hour, until she collapsed limp in restraints, coated in sweat, and disfigured with dislocated joints and likely broken bones.
"heh...eh...merciless..." she smiled, "ooh you'll..huh...make the..right...choice...ow...."
Medical personnel entered, and set about the task of assessing her injuries and adjusting the devices. Nelson left while the corpsmen worked.
Later that evening, he boarded ship for the Clan Homeworlds. he did not leave his prizes behind.
-
Hot dang.
-
February 2, 3067...
Nelson Elam would miss Elizabeth Ngo's funeral by a factor of weeks, but had he been asked, he would have known it was an agonizing death, and said as much. The final, Terminal phase of Cholmann's syndrome has only one treatment that ends the suffering of a mind trapped in a body gripped by seizures, where the pain center is overstimulated and the body's own mechanisms prevent shock from protecting the psyche.
Her closest aide, Kelli Whyte, administered the kill shot. It was the only choice left, the only option. In so doing, she assumed the directorial role for Ngo Industries.
and Kowloon, for the first time in centuries, had to choose a new head-of-state. The elections were loud, raucous affairs, angry rhetoric and empty promises abounded, but, in the end, it was the sincerity of a Rancher, a veteran of three wars and the undeclared 'range war' fought against a corrupted regent, who raised his left hand, because he had no right, and accepted the office of President in January.
In February, the Ducal Heirs were born, and there was much rejoicing among Lawyers as the custody case began in earnest.
Patrick, the son, was the first out of the gate. a large baby, heavy, healthy, born with a shock of dark red hair, clear green eyes, and just a hint of his gene-mother's asian ancestry, was first, and under Salic Law, set to inherit Kowloon barring an act by the Archon Princess.
Amanda, the second born, was underweight, with a caul. Worries that the second baby would die early were replaced in some circles by concerns that she would live to disrupt the natural order of succession, that she would pose a threat to stability.
Genetics were tested. Tested by the Coast Guard to verify genetic parentage, tested by Wolf's Dragoons to examine potential, tested by guest doctors from the Exile Wolves, and tested by visiting scientist-doctors from Clan Goliath Scorpion, which had recently declared for the Star League and turned on their neighbours who did not.
The treatments devised by Wolf and Dragoon medics had stopped these two from inheriting the markers for Cholmann's syndrome. they were both 'clean' of the thing that had bedeviled their family lineage for centuries. the results from testing for natural potential showed that in Patrick, at least, the 'best genes' had indeed shone through. The boy would be taller than his father, strong, with the potential for high intelligence and the markers most often associated with being a gifted 'mechwarrior.
However, he would not match the abilities of a Trueborn, at least, not without a considerable amount of effort, he would certainly never exceed what the Breeding Program produced. Wolf dropped his custody claims as soon as the results were analyzed, though he did offer a small stipend as 'child support' in exchange for some say in how the boy would be raised.
Amanda seemed to get some of the weaker traits. She would never be tall-never be broad, nor naturally athletic beyond a possible physical flexibility, but intellect markers were good-the girl would be intelligent, but little besides intelligence and perhaps an elfin eurasian mix of features.
Neither would ever know their mother, except from recordings, stories, and rumours.
Behind closed doors, the decisions were batted around. Which child would, in fact inherit which of the legacies. argument and discussion persisted, as Liz left no statement for which of her children would inherit what from her vast holdings.
-
3077, the Great War...
"...what do you want to be when you grow up?" Her Highness, Victoria Steiner-Davion asked them.
"I want to be a 'mechwarrior, like my Father." Patrick said immediately, "Maybe grow to lead the 1st Royal Guard."
she looked to his sister, Amanda, quietly trying to hide the fact she was reading a book instead of paying attention to the visiting First Lady of the Star League. "Amanda?"
"Don't know yet." the girl said quietly, "There are so many interesting things i could do, or be...I don't want to choose, especially since I'm only ten."
"You don't want to be like your mother? A Duchess, or Princess?" Victoria prompted.
Amanda bit her lip. "mom's videos she says she never got to choose." she said, "she had to be what she had to be to do what needed to be done, no choices, she had a time limit. I don't want to be like that when I grow up. I don't want to be defined by what I gotta do, I want to do what I like to do...your highness."
"That's a good answer...no, that's a GREAT answer." Victoria said encouragingly. "What are you reading?"
"um...The Stars of Selous, it's a novel." Amanda answered, "it's great. I really like the computer, why do we live in the future, but we don't have artificial intelligences like Uncle Smith?"
Victoria leaned forward, "I loved those books when I was a girl, you know. There were only fourteen of them when I was your age."
"The writer got his jump-math wrong." Amanda noted, "I've seen Auntie Alicia's training manuals, the writer got it almost right, but not quite-is that because it's for kids?"
Victoria laughed, "Those books are supposed to be for adults! No, it's because when they were being written, very few people knew how to calculate jumpship travel, especially people who were not spacers."
"I think I might want to be a Jumpship captain then...if we're making choices right now. It looks really interesting!" Amanda said, closing the book, "Do you think i could?"
"I think you can be anything you want." Victoria told her, "but you might consider this-you will always be who you are, a noble in line to inherit your family's estates, and duty may come crashing in on you whatever you wish could be otherwise. but for now...why shouldn't you want to be a Jumpship captain?"
"Not just a Captain, I want to explore." Amanda said it fervently, "I want to see what nobody's seen! go where nobody has gone!!"
"she wants to find the planet of the bird-people from that holovid series." Patrick added with a teasing note of disgust, "Rawwk! rawwk!!" he matched it with a tickle-attack on his smaller sibling, the girl shrieked in surprise and then counter-attacked, the children rolling in a chaos of delighted rowdiness that threatened to ruin their good clothes.
and Victoria wished she could join them.
-
OOT
"the mysterious disappearance of the 90th Heavy Assault, "Kerensky's Sledgehammers" influenced this timeline in lots of subtle and overt ways. the Gilmour name continued, but with a mysteriously vanished Bruce, there's a "sweety" but it's not his original ride with the Royal combat harness, just a very well maintained Marauder with the original armor."
Gilmour's Marauder was actually nicknamed 'Hussy'. It would not surprise me that the 90th might have sent some materials home with the 171st to be quietly stockpiled.
It's going to be very interesting what the GS do in the future...
-
Nha Tranh Medical Center, Friday...
Lots of contractions going on there. Not sure if the GS Khan's lapse in speech is intended or not...
One Ping Only!
-
That was an EXTREMELY good answer from a 10-year old... ^-^
-
Nha Tranh Medical Center, Friday...
Lots of contractions going on there. Not sure if the GS Khan's lapse in speech is intended or not...
One Ping Only!
a lot of my stuff is banged out 'in the raw' with no editing before hand, and less polish, sorry about that. Then again, he was just exposed to something on the order of keter level cognitohazard...
-
I like this timeline. Growing the 90th HA from a regiment to a division- fun!
-
I like this timeline. Growing the 90th HA from a regiment to a division- fun!
given the scale of their accomplishments, I kind of had to. if nothing else, the Elbar add-ons and such would 'grow' the Regiment to division scale by the time they hit Terra, though the core of that division would be the 90th Heavy Assault Regiment. Plus, as I'm working off fan material that is most of ten years or more old, I do make mistakes-even with the stuff I personally wrote, never mind the stuff I'm borrowing from others.
Note about the Clan-side of things;
The Scorpions DID release the material that Liz gave them, in the grand council, in front of the Clan media. This had some decidedly unhappy effects for stability in the Clan sphere, as it overturned the traditional lines of Crusader and Warden debates, since the "Hidden Hope" doctrine was largely validated, at least, for those interested in original source material, but the character of the exodus itself was, for the first time since the Prinz Eugen incident, called into direct and open question.
needless to say, organizational applecarts were firmly overturned and the bloodnamed were forced to realize they'd been fed lies for generations. People were, obviously, very unhappy and several long standing alliances collapsed over night, while long-standing feuds were shoved into the open to face reconsideration.
This all made Clan Ghost Bear's move to the Inner Sphere, all the more interesting, an interest made abundantly more open by their open courting of the Free Rassalhague Republic and Star League. In the outcome of the "Ngo documents", Clan Ghost Bear openly sided with the Star League as allies, seeking legitimacy by linking to the FRR, repudiating their ties to the Clans.
They weren't the only ones, though. Clan Steel Viper's 'questionable' backstory was indirectly confirmed, but rendered somewhat less comforting in light of the documents. Instead of a hope to return as a superior way, they faced the possibility that the hoped-for-return was an act of contrition for a betrayal. This did not do good things for their collective morale, and the Clan entered into talks with the Star League legation on Huntress.
The Jade Falcons felt this was confirmation of one, core thing: that their feud with Wolf was justified. They attacked. By the time Karl's offensive into the occupied Lyran zones was launched, both clans were so deep at one another's throats that the assault was met with little initial resistance. SLDF forces in Operation: Jihad met two clans that were, for all intents and purposes, so badly mauled by one another that in many areas of the front, the League counter-invasion was more of a peacekeeping effort.
Disciplinary collapse spread violently among the Clans in the Homeworlds. Burrock sympathizers and ex-Burrocks holding to the traditions of that clan, chose to finish off the isolationists on York with orbital bombardments as the opening gambit. The Blood Spirits replied with Thermonuclear weapons and the whole thing just went off the rails from there, only pausing when the ice Hellions let loose with a lightning campaign to 'punish the violators of the Elbar Accord!' In this, they were joined by elements of Clan Coyote and surprisingly, Hell's Horses. This move also triggered an internal conflict in Clan Star Adder itself, with some siding with the intervention, and some opposing it.
The various Kindraa of the Fire Mandrills took all this chaos as a great time to try and finish one another off. There wasn't a whole lot left when the Cloud Cobras came in to try and prevent total annihilation.
The Cloud Cobras experienced a huge theological disagreement, a schism or reformation, depending on one's point of view. Crusader-leaning Cloisters upped stakes and moved to the Inner Sphere, to "rejoin the Star League and repent". many of the Warden enclaves simply cut off contact with everyone, while a small cadre of moderates remained engaged with "The Secular world" and began discussions with missionaries from the Word of Blake.
ever opportunistic, the Diamond Sharks simply moved to the better market, formally incorporating distribution in the former territorial states of the Star League and selling propaganda along with technology to whomever was willing to buy, including entering into direct competition with Ngo Industries as an industrial toolmaker and logistics firm, but operating out of the Taurian concordat and Magistracy. The diamond-sharks also sold to other Clans, sometimes supplying both sides in intra-Clan warfare.
Crusader-inclined elements of Clan Snow Raven, moved into the Outworlds Alliance in October of 3079. The merger was, by all accounts, relatively peaceful. This schism was one that could not be predicted. the Warden elements began moves to try to stabilize their pockets in the Pentagon and Kerensky cluster, showing the good sense to view this whole situation as an invite, embossed and embellished, for any and every opportunistic enemy to attack the Clans as a whole.
Said attack would begin in 3080, the SLDF under First Lord (Lady) Danai Centrella, finished mopping up the Jade Falcon occupation in March, by July, the collective might of the Star League, now with competently organized logistics and full expeditionary capability, was poised to pacify the Homeworlds and put a final nail in the Clan Threat.
This is, of course, the worst time for shit to happen. the worst time for the Clans to stop fighting one another, the worst time for the 'scientist conspiracy' to come from the shadows to save their Warrior Brethren, and the worst time for the Word of Blake to suddenly decide they want the visible, as well as subtler, reins of power.
of course, shit happens,and it does so at the absolute worst possible time...
-
Things are about to get a bit... Bumpy.
-
December 22, 3080, Kowloon...
"...no way of knowing if the Prince's Champion, Karl Steiner-Davion, survived the attack. what we do know, is that SLDF flagged vessels fired in a blue-on-blue and then began bombardment of Harlech city on Outreach. I've got other reports here, as well, units from the 222nd Com Guards attempted to storm the POW holding area on Wotan, with the clear intent of killing the Clan prisoners held there, they were supplemented by the Seventh Skye Rangers and a Mercenary command under contract to the Word of Blake. We were able to evacuate most of the POW's but it cost us two cutters, a support tender, and the LCS Inevitable."
"Where is my brother?" Amanda asked. The thirteen year old was sitting in the Coast Guard's headquarters at Vin Drin Lap.
"Jump calcs, Amanda, Mid summer, june ninth of last year, run from Melissia to Main Street, one stop, pirate point insertion at the second planet, show your work, when you've finished it, I'll try to answer your question." Commodore Li ordered, "Make allowance for a twelve hour block of time based on Mainstreet's prime meridian noon."
"Aye ma'am." Amanda set to work. she wouldn't get answers unless she gave the right answer.
Alicia turned to President Vanh, "Orders from the Archon Regent on Tharkad are to scramble reserves and it's war plan White."
"Jesus...what about the Archon Princess?"
"Last confirmed location was safe on New Avalon, they're scrambling fleet units out the galax yards under a Dirtyfoot so-called 'Admiral' named Hasek. I met him doing inspections, guy still thinks ramming is an effective tactic, I can't think of a worse man to command an Avalon class battlecruiser if I tried, and he's got most of a fleet group out there."
"How much of the Lyran fleet's defected?" Charles asked.
"Lots of it, same for the Leaguers and even the Dracs have had a few. Bigger problem is that Luthien is under siege by domestic terrorists with top-line gear and backed by elite regular forces, and that was before the goddam HPG net went down."
"How are we getting reports then?" Amanda asked.
"Black boxes." Li stated, "Coast Guard, some of the AFFC fleet units, and a hand full of FC Guards RCTs."
"So compromised."
"To our eyeballs."
Amanda finished her sudden quiz, and showed Li the jump calculations, "Where is my brother?"
"He didn't make it to Outreach, we know that. The Dragoons weren't all there, and he was on his way to visit your...biological father, so assuming he's still with them, they're laying doggo somewhere between Coventry and Outreach."
Amanda was in the 'no-place' she went when she worked on navigation problems, so her emotions were damped, calmed. "They're going to hit us, aren't they? I mean, they kind of have to, don't they? if they're really making a play for total control?"
"That's our working hypothesis." Li confirmed, "Here, Coventry, Skye's already subverted..."
Amanda nodded silently, then, "What are our guys going to do with the Budgies they pulled out of the POW camp?" she inquired.
"ehm...I don't know."
"Bring them here." Amanda said, "Offer them commissions and equipment and citizenship, but bring them here."
"They're Jade Falcons."
"I. Don't. Care." Amanda stated, "They're trained personnel, bodies to throw at the enemy and they worship conflict, they're a drain on resources if we jst try to keep them locked up, and I want first draft picks on our team. see if you can't scrape up any of their scientists while you're at it."
"They won't be much use on defense." Li pointed out.
"I don't want them for defense, I want them for the counter-attack. Someone is trying to undo everything my mother burned her life away trying to build. we will kick their teeth in, stomp them in, beat them so hard their posterity will shudder at the idea of trying something like this ever again. to do that, we need forces we can place on the attack. I'd like to think the Archon Regent will agree with that assessment, but if he doesn't, we do it anyway. we're Kowloonese, not Heinies."
-
SO, Questions:
In this 'verse, does the Master aka Old Thomas Marik exist as the cybernetic boogieman of the WoB and MD forces?
If not, then who is the leader of this Slightly later than originally planned Jihad?
Also: Any chance that some aspects of Kowloon society becomes cannon?
-
SO, Questions:
In this 'verse, does the Master aka Old Thomas Marik exist as the cybernetic boogieman of the WoB and MD forces?
If not, then who is the leader of this Slightly later than originally planned Jihad?
Also: Any chance that some aspects of Kowloon society becomes cannon?
what a good question!
okay, that was cheap. I'm editing this to be a better response.
Second question first: Probably no way in hell, I kind of missed the boat when it comes to contributing to actual canon when I dropped out of the freelancer pool at the start of the first Jihad Hot Spots book. At the time, I was recently married and unemployed and 'not in a good headspace' would be an incredible understatement. I pretty much gave up writing entirely for a couple of years and by the time I wasn't too screwed up to try again, the window was, as they say, closed-complete with some burned bridges and some less-than-classy behaviour on my part that really put the torch to any chance in the future. It's all good though-they farmed up some VERY good writers from the crop of people they recruited in to help contribute, most of whom are flat out better than I am.
Now, as to why it's 'no way in hell' it's very simple-see, this stuff I came up with? Okay, I'm doing it as fun, it's a hobby, but there have been people in the past whose ideas were close enough that when those good ideas were too similar to what Fasa/fanpro/Catalyst were already doing, the guys on the outside decided to make a mess and even in one case I personally know of, filed lawsuits that had to be defended. This is bad, bad stuff, mm-kay? The guys at Catalyst don't want to expose themselves to that kind of crap, and they don't want to be exposed and I don't think anyone rational could find blame with that, so like with a lot of properties that have active fanfic communities, they're not stupid, they're not going to risk even looking like they are thinking of doing that.
because it would be incredibly bad risk-management and it would be mind-blowingly incompetent to even look like they might. Because I did this stuff as fanfiction, it's outside the 'good' boundaries for what can be submitted. This might be different if I hadn't dropped out, but I did, so my stuff doesn't get included in the official canon (except the stuff they already paid me for back in the early 2000's, which was work-for-hire under strict guidelines and I still managed to blow it on at least two entries that probably made publication because of deadline, and weren't up to the quality of the rest of those sourcebooks.)
Let me be really ****** clear here: I would apologize to the people I insulted and mistreated, if I could. it was MY FAULT. The fact they even let me hang here after some of my behind the scenes conduct is an ****** miracle. There were times when I look back on it, that they not only had the right to ban me from the online community, but really should have and didn't. this demonstrates an enormous level of class, patience, and positive-good-things on their part, for which I am Grateful.
I won't name names, you know who you are.
Now, as to your first question...
I'm not gonna outright tellya, it's 'wait and see'.
Oh, and by the by, I'm doing the fanfic here right now, because I'm kind of stalled on something elsewhere, which If I can manage to actually finish it, is going to be my first novel-type publication, and I'm doing it the stupid way, on Amazon, because their vanity press is nothing-up-front free and I'm an insecure cheap-ass.
-
Good luck with the novel project! :thumbsup:
And I'll take what I can get here... Even if her brother technically rules, Amanda is going to be the one in charge... ^-^
-
:thumbsup:
-
I am merely a decades-long fan of the NGO-Verse, not involved here with nothing else.
@Cannonshop: I must say that I very much like the style and form your apology in answer to the second question. You did not answer the first question, though ...
-
Abandoned station, Somewhere between Outreach and Tharkad...
blood floated in the corridors, because the atmospheric circulation system was down. "come on." the Blonde girl, Harmony, told him. Patrick followed her out of their hiding place.
She was his age, but so much cooler. The two made their way along the ring. "god, you're hopeless." she told him, stopping and adjusting his bandages, "Didn't your mother ever teach you about blood in nullgee?"
"Mom's dead." he confessed.
"I can see why, hurry up, will you? we don't need those white-suit maniacs to come back around and find us."
Her objective was clearer once she finished altering a panel, opening to a vision like a hanging garden in space-green plants along the far wall, lit by lume-tubes. Patrick followed her in, and she closed the portal behind them. "grab what you can, stuff your face, we've got five minutes." she told him.
Pat drifted down, the smell compelling. "Will we be rescued?" he asked.
"Don't know. Can't know. Space is big." she tells him, "but we have food and oxy, water filtration, and..." she dug into a locker, "Weapons." she held up a cutting bar. "We might be able to hold out long enough if your ship managed a distress signal and they had follow-ons, otherwise?" she shruggged, "You're a Dirtyfoot, right? Planetsider?"
"Yeah." he nodded, then took another bite of the red, plump fruit.
"Gonna need to find you supplements. Dirtyfeet don't get the implant when they're born, lose calcium and muscle mass." she said knowingly, "you're young though. Apprentice shipsman?"
He shook his head, "Sorry, no. I was a passenger."
she let out a disgusted groan, "What do you know how to do?"
"I was training to be a 'mechwarrior." Patrick tells her.
"Oh finagles bleeding colon!" she muttered, "No skills at all then. alright, Patty, whatever you are in the Gravity Well, you're a nub here, do like you've been doing, follow instructions and maybe you live to get back down into the dirty."
"What...where did you come from?"
"Linedecker." she tells him, as if it means anything. "I'm actually rated now, passed my ado-quals, Bos'n's Line, been here since we had a seal malf that tossed us out into the steady-black, but I'm qualified and know how to be a Stationer, you don't. Why in the purbie blue gonads did your ship come outa jump here?"
"I don't know." Pat answered, "I was shoved into an escape pod and-"
"And your ship blew up, yeah, saw that. You think the maniacs had some to do with it?"
Pat nodded.
"Okay, well, they attacked a ship, killed people, screwed up my steading. we kill the bastards. We get good fortunes, mom comes picks us up, but that means no ride home for you, you'll end up being my 'prentice and I'm not even Journey yet."
It filtered in, finally. "You were living here??"
"Gotta have a Stationer doing upkeep, it's Adulthood, right? prove you can survive on your own, that you have skills for maintaining a habitat, can do fixes and upkeeps without a helper, only you show up and Now I gotta explain having a helper, at least you're unskilled, so I won't get docked points toward my ticket. If I prove I taught you basics and you end up useful? I get extra points, maybe enough to get an officer-slot or even a birthing license...but that assumes you don't get stupid and die in my care."
"you sound like a.." Patrick stopped, "You're not a Rockjack, are you?"
"A what??"
"Belter...spacer?"
she nods, "Yah, sounds right, your folks have contact with The Folk?"
"maybe. My sister's guardian...um...mentor? Alicia Li."
The name registered, "Murphy's Ova! wait...Engo...nope..." she pulled out a tiny pocket-display. "Ngo. ******. You're a dirtyfoot from Kowloon?"
"Yeah..."
"Okay, maybe you'll go home when MY ship arrives...if they arrive. we just gots to keep you breathing and healthy for another two months, which means removing the maniacs from my station soonest...just one thing...Do you know Free Stars?"
"I...ahm...no." He shook his head, "never heard of it."
"Oh, we're going to have fun." she smiled at him, but it wasn't the strained smile of someone under unwanted stress, "I'll tellya abot the Free Stars and you can tell me what it's like to live at the bottom of a well, okay? but first, we dump the unwanted trash."
-
Calling Captain Mallory... calling Signy Mallory...
Heh. I'm getting serious Mazianni vibes from this lady. Fun times.
-
Spider Moon CGNAS, January 19, 3081...
"...Free Stars was a movement in the early colonization boom, It's part of why my ancestors helped your ancestors escape from Old Earth." Alicia Li explained. Amanda was enraptured in spite of her feigned lack of interest. "You might liken it to fraternal orders that crop up from time to time, or a religious movement, or political philosophy-it has all of those. Your mother was...uninterested in it."
"Mom had a lot on her plate." the young girl said calmly, "She was kinda focused, wasn't she?"
"She was. I think knowing how little time she had made her a bit hyper-focused until just near the end." Li agreed. "Where did you hear about it? we don't discuss that with...planetsiders that much."
"The War Diary." Amanda said, "mom left book marks in the copy she left us, I sometimes read it to try and understand what she was really thinking. Commodore Cu'ong spoke to Colonel Ngo about it when they were discussing the supply situation and the progress of the war against the Rimjobs, from there, I visited the Library and looked for every reference in it I could, all of them were Rockjacks or people who dealt with that part of our society, but nothing was...defined, definitive or descriptive except for some Rimjob propaganda pulled out of Dinh Diep. I thought it was interesting, and guessed you would know more."
"Most adherents are separatists." Li confessed, "It's mutated over the last thousand years, but in general the principle is that you can leave if things get bad, that there are always other places you can go, to start over again, if all else fails, like it did for the Yizroelis or the Ell-Dees on Old Earth, or the peoples in the South China Sea after the World Government handed them to China in exchange for integration into the Terran Alliance. The majority of the colony ships that left Earth for everywhere, were crewed by believers in the Freedom of the Stars, which shortened into 'Free Stars'. First into the Belts, and then into interstellar space, but it didn't tend to last with the passengers-the groundsider colonists had their own ideas about faith, and culture, and what constitutes 'freedom'."
"is it unified anywhere?" Amanda asked.
"You don't have to give up your gods, or your politics to believe in Free Stars, Amanda-except among some of the weirder branches. The first principle is motion, the second is self-reliance, losing the grip of 'group identity', so there really isn't a 'uniform' set of doctrines." Li told her, "Hence, why I serve a Nation subordinate to an Empire that is subordinate to a political state, instead of choosing the life of a nomad, see? I, myself, am reliant on myself, I can choose whether to trust and obey, or defy, and it's a conscious choice."
Amanda frowned "That's really confusing, you put up with me, you put me up to following Assembly meetings and doing political...stuff. how is that letting me be an individual?"
"You're still a child, still learning responsibility." Li explained, "The social contract is a trade of mutual responsibility. I provide you with the best parenting I can because I chose to accept that responsibility, I could have denied it, Kelli Whyte would have understood it if I had stepped back from that, you would not have suffered...but, I chose to raise you, and in line with your mother's principles because doing is follows my principles." Li passed a bulb of tea across, and Amanda caught it one-handed with a clapping sound. "Also I'm fond of you and your brother." the Commodore added. "of the two of you, I had hoped you would be interested when you grew older."
"Why not Pat?" Amanda asked.
"because you can do jump calculations." Li explained, "You were practically born to be a Spacer, I see how you behave in public, occupying as little space as you must, you're naturally neat and mentally orderly, heck, I have training officers who spend untold hours trying to break bad habits you never developed-Amanda, Patrick is a Grounder to his core, he's..." she sighed, "And you get TDS, the sickness you experienced when you visited Outreach."
"what about it?"
"Great navigators often suffer heavily from what medical people outside the community call Transit Disorder Syndrome. Visions, nausea, it's a sign of real talent, especially for Jumpship Navigation. I suffer a touch myself, but my ace Cutter bosses suffer from varying strains of severe cases, something about how your brain is naturally wired, makes you the sort of person my ancestors, at least on my Mother's side, would look for when recruiting in the Gravity Well."
"By 'recruiting' you mean the stories had a basis in fact, that Rockjack traders would...spirit people away?"
"By 'spiriting away' you mean 'freeing from slavery or worse'? yes. those activities kind of tied us to Kowloon in ways we probably didn't mean to-the Rim Worlds were brutal overlords, and practiced chattel slavery, and it was partly humanitarian and partly maintaining stable numbers, but often we would 'recruit' people from worlds to join us, this as a very long time ago, we don't do it now...at least, this branch doesn't-we have better means now."
Amanda nodded, "The Coast Guard. Mom didn't have to push the expansion so hard-but she did."
"She wasn't interested in the philosophy, but she saw value in it, I hope you do as well."
"I want to learn more. Why keep it a secret?"
Li brayed a laugh, "It isn't!" she says, "it's one of thousands of philosophical schools through human space, we're just...selective about it thanks to old wives tales and a very real and rational caution in the presence of some other viewpoints, such as those held by Feudal governments and local overlords!"
Amanda sipped her tea from the bulb, "I'm not in charge down there." she said after a moment, "Mom did a good job setting things up, 'Duchess' or 'Duke' is pretty much vestigal...can I...I want...can I apprentice? maybe start early on my 'five years' of service?"
"School first, Amanda." Li told her, "You may feel your role is vestigal, but millions of people look to you anyway because of who your mother was, and how much you resemble her. I will consider allowing you to select a Junior Reserve slot with the Youth program, but only if you meet your responsibilities firmly, and without hesitation. Hesitation in space kills more people than shoddy equipment."
"Where do I start?" Amanda asked.
"in the Well, Amanda. This spring, if it's still there, you will begin as a Seaman Apprentice with the Vin Drin Lap Junior Cadets, learning the ropes, so to speak. To reach the next level you will have to be signed off and transfer to Giap Island for Blue Water duty, and you will have to qualify for submarine training."
"Why subs?"
"Because piloting a Dropship on instruments, is a lot like conning a submarine, first off, and secondly, most of the skills for a submariner are direct equivalents to Space duty. We don't normally draw groundborn personnel from the other branches, but we draw heavily from Submarines and Aviation. You'll have to qualify for both, if you want to serve as an Officer of the Coast Guard's Blackwater squadrons...and to do all of that, you still must pass your school exams, so get studying."
-
Interesting. I'm taking some of this is you on the soap box, in the vein of H&MP in Starship Troopers?
-
A separate question. How long did the above chapter take to write? How long ago did you start it, how many days did it take to gestate, and how many days between writing & posting?
I think I know some of the answers, just interested.
And now Patrick has to unlearn some habits ...
-
It'll be interesting to see who's learned more when the twins are back together again... ^-^
-
Nicely written, thanks
-
January, Harmony's station...
She must have been watching him for over an hour, before she laughed. "You're so hopeless, Paddy." she said, and float-tumbled to an inverted position over the console. "Look, see? The capacitor bank isn't oriented to be easily seen from the angle you picked, you gots to stop thinking twodee, this isn't the Well..." she took the microtorch from his hand, and soldered the connections quickly. then she craned and spun to face him, "you're cute from this angle, though."
she called me cute! He flushed, and couldn't find words.
"come on, got something special in Hydroponic three."
"what is it?" He asked.
"Rabbit. the population's gotten high enough to need trimming, which means we get to eat meat tonight! no more veggie-substitute...and I need help."
"Help?"
"I can't figure out how to cook it, there's .25 gravity down that axis, spun grav but it's there, and...help?"
"Lead on, oh station-mistress." he said.
In his mother's letter on raising nobles, she put down an emphasis on 'regular people skills' like teaching her kids to cook. Patrick hadn't understood it as a child, Nobles in holovid dramas had staff who did the cooking and cleaning, but out here? with no staff and at the bottom of a very short pecking order, his 'domestic regular folks' skills were getting a workout. Third time in three weeks that Harmony announced 'meat was on the menu', and that meant breaking the rust off of the survival cook training that General Mosovich or Commodore Li, or the staff personnel assigned to the Ngo Children in their absence, ingrained.
"Set up the vacuum?" he asked. In the rest of the Station, Harmony was boss, but here in the galley? the Galley belonged to Patrick. He looked over the container, it held a fat, old, male rabbit from the animal deck, the creature was not aware of what he was about to do, as Harmony locked the suction unit to the inside of the case.
Patrick opened the top, and took the animal by the scruff of its neck, and with a single, clean stroke, sliced head from body and began the process of skinning and cleaning.
"Ever had meat besides rabbit?" he asked.
"Had rat a few times, and chicken, of course, and lots of fish...mostly at Stations." She answered him the same way she did every time, now, like it was a ritual.
"Well, what about red meat, beef?"
"I've heard of it." she told him.
"When we get home, I'll show you what I can do with a nice, heavy loin of beefalo." he says, "you've missed out, Harmony. Beef is good."
"Better than rabbit?"
He nodded. "You'll love it."
"I can't wait...I brought the ingredients you told me to last time." she said, "is that okay?"
"Perfect."
-
32 Light Years away, Galatea system...
Commander Bianh Vu Dao studied the passive sensors. two cruisers, four destroyers, and a pack of jumpships with dropship escorts were lined up in ambush configuration at the system's Zenith point, with a similar array parked near the system's Nadir, both clustered around recently reconstructed charging stations.
"Send to Beresick, SLDF Outbound Light, code book two, 'They know you're coming', and pipe them the imagery from our drones."
"Aye Mum." Her RTO powered up the mark 2 Black Box installed on the bridge, and tapped out a series of encryption codes known as 'book 2' in the Coast Guard. An RTO specialist on the Flagship will be decrypting the message, bypassing HPG and-hopefully-most non-humint methods of detection.
"How long until we're ready to make the jump out?" she asked.
"Next orbital point is in nine hours, seventeen minutes."
The Sampan Mk II class is tiny, not as small as an SLDF Bugeye, but tiny compared to most jumpships, let alone combat vessels, and the jump-sail is made of a black material designed to absorb, rather than concentrate and reflect, solar radiation, (along with most other forms of electromagnetic spectra), making for a sort of 'hole in detection' that amounts to a reduced Radar sensor signature. In spacegoing terms, it's the closest thing you can get to being a submarine-a ship that, so long as it isn't burning thrust, can drift along a vector and be harder to detect than a rock half its size and a quarter the mass.
all passive, all disrupted if they have to turn on the active sensors or fire the main transit drives.
"Nav officer, keep plotting points, If the Blakies are holding the door and the back door..."
"Come in through a temporary window?"
"Exactly, we need to verify with passives, but I think there might be enough temporary points to bring the fleet in right under their noses and hit them before they can reorient, and if I'm seeing this, so is Beresick."
"Aye mum."
"They asked us to scout ahead, we found it. Someone is compromised in the allied fleet, near the top of the command chain."
-
SLS Invisible Truth, Cameron Refit, one jump galactic north of Galatea...
"Why did they fortify this system?" Flag Admiral Alain Beresick of the SLDF navy, formerly of Comstar's Com-Guard naval arm, asked the question rhetorically.
"That should be obvious, Admiral. There is something in the Galatea system, or near it, they want, or need to defend." His aides were gathered, "Some reason to fortify here, it must be of some strategic importance."
Captain Giao Pham of the 11th Coast Guard cleared her throat, and the gathered senior officers turned to look at the Kowloonese reservist. "No there doesn't." she said. "Think of it like this-a double ambush-they're counting on a Naval fleet action, probably on your scouts reporting it ahead of time, you've got to commit a major force to take the system, and thanks to some of the truly spectacularly nasty shit they dropped on worlds with major yards, they know you can't make up losses faster than they can reactivate the mothball fleets the Star League salted all over the old Hegemony."
"What mothball fleets?" another ex-Comguards man scoffed, but Beresick looked interested.
"never show your whole hand in a game of watch-me." Giao said, "you don't deploy ships without backup, the lesson from the first succession war was pretty ****** blatant, sir." Giao snapped at the man, "We don't, why would they? the configuration is a crust defense, which is not what their Precentor naval would normally do, so why is that?"
"What do you mean 'crust' that's two major battlegroups-" the Fedsuns rear admiral in charge of the AFFS contingent scoffed.
"Two battlegroups holding pose just outside the jump limit." she snapped, "Does that make sense to you? Oh, wait...you're that imbecile who tried to use an Avalon class as a ****** battering ram. how did that work out again? Oh, right, it didn't. Admiral Beresick, I want permission to pull my ships out of that place, it's a trap. you're not letting us use our best weapons, this can't be won with tonnage alone, not from our side."
"you want to use NUKES? are you mad, woman??" the Feddie admiral practically spat as he said it.
"Captain Pham, inform your Commanders, the use of Physics packages is authorized." Beresick said, "We're going in, it's a trap, we know it's a trap. fine...Mister Linklater, please escort Rear Admiral James to the brig, where he is to be searched and held for interrogation by vetted ROM agents."
Guards in PA(L) suits seized the indicated officer, and dragged him from the war room.
"There were three variants on the Galatea operation, and that force your scouts observed, fit the one I told James about." Beresick stated, "now, we make our offensive plans."
"It is a pleasure to work with a professional of your caliber, sir." Giao said.
"Then please cease disrespecting Rear Admiral Hasek-Davion, he might have made ONE mistake, but he is a superb officer and your technical superior." Beresick said blandly, "I won't have, as your people so saltily put it, 'rot in the ranks'."
"Aye sir." Giao said after a moment's hesitation. "Did you mean it about uncorking the physics packets?"
"Yes, but we're not just going to do this pell-mell, I want your cutters to strike with real bite...and at the right time. pull in the other two Patrols, and have them begin plotting timed crossings into the Galatea system..."
He began describing the timeframe he wanted, and Giao took careful notes.
with the main fleet acting as the distraction, the Cutters were to conduct surprise reprisal on the Blakist naval forces, hitting from the flanks before drawing off their lighter escort units.
-
System (redacted)...
The star here was ancient, an oxy-magnesium white dwarf remnant of a stellar explosion, wrapped in the nebular remains of its past life.
Nicole Minh reclined in her cutter's command couch. On the helmet HUD, she watched as the jumpship Half an AU away, docked to refuel a Baron class vessel.
The orders from Li to the 13th Squadron, were explicit; locate the Blakist supply lines, and begin severing commerce along them.
They'd gamed these against hypothetical Clan forces, with a totally fantasy-based enemy commander who knew what logistics even was, and was willing to use dead systems and off-routes to secure his line of communication.
"tight band to Seven. targets are fully linked, time to make the donuts."
The jump-sign here had been promising, the Blakists were conducting offensives deep inside allied nations, leapfrogging past heavily garrisoned worlds to strike with atomic weapons, bio, and terror-raids from orbit.
So far, none of the cutters in active service had trailed the enemy back to what had to be a string of secret bases and cache sites, but this system fit the description as well as any for a quick layover between known enemy sites.
"gravitational window in three...two...one...initiate jump."
in-system jumps are discouraged in the official training most spacers get, even most military spacers, only Pirates, and those who hunt them routinely, truly master the half-science-half-art of sliding through a point of neutral gravity barely wider than the ship itself.
fewer still would slide from one such point, to another, within half an AU of the target destination.
Discontinuity
she crawled on the floor of the frozen cell like an animal, and like an animal, she was, for she was starving to death and could feel her life ending. The corpse of her cell mate lay there, cold meat, preserved by the chill. calories to feed on.. she tore at the body with her teeth, cold, wet blood on her lips, the act of chewing, swallowing...
Discontinuity
"Gunners Mate! Fire as we bear! don't wait for the screens to clear, just count on your calculations!!" The cutter rumbled as her missile packs fired, launching megaton level warheads at a range so close the initial ion waves would flicker the lighting.
"Missiles away, tubes clear!!"
"Battery status?"
"Hot!"
she typed the coordinates into the ship's core directly from her seat, waited forty more seconds, then hit the execute button.
discontinuity
she was an animal, in a cage with no way out, starving to death, eating...eating to survive the cold and isolation, she wanted to die...
the frozen doors creaked as they were pried open, and lights-so bright, in her eyes... "We've got a live one here!!"
Discontinuity
The enemy wrecks were visible from the exit, a point between two colloids of material and a gas cloud at the edge of the stellar envelope-that zone of clear space made clear by a star's magnetic field and particle output.
The Baron tumbled, her port side, the side facing the tanker/support ship a gaping maw, the broken hull of the tanker itself tumbled as well.
"Engineering, get me damage reports, RTO, transmit imagery. when the wrecks cool enough we'll send boarding parties."
"Aye mum."
the move was...ballsy. the enemy were using a moonlet as their rendezvous point, and she had come in like Crazy Jane, only with engines going hot through the transit point. The pulse of thermal and EM at that range blinded their fire control systems and the nukes were fired on the move, by the time they reached MIRV separation she was already clearing the initial contact zone for a smaller rock that was orbiting the bigger one.
"Drives are clean, Mum, hull is intact, we took a little hit of gamma to the port aft."
"alright, secure and deploy the sail, radio silence for now. unship small boats and fighters, assume triple rotation CAP at early-warning range...I wonder if their nav com was hardened?"
"could be useful to capture it, assuming the bombs did their job, and it somehow survived..."
"Let's hope for Earth build overengineering."
-
You know... BT space combat could be as exciting as the 'mech kind this way... ^-^
-
Hilton Head, Terra...
"Apollyon, do you know the problem with big, impressive forces?" The Master asked rhetorically after the report of the near disaster at Galatea came in.
"No?" the Cyborg 'leader' shook his head.
"Everyone who has one, under-estimates everyone who does not." The Master admitted, "My calculations failed to take into account something small and, at the time, silly." There was no fury in the Master's tone, more of an amusement.
"The Coast Guards?" Apollyon hazarded, and the Master nodded.
"INdeed. primitive, mass-produced pseudo-warships crewed inadequately by a mish-mash of personnel from a spectrum of backgrounds-trained by the traditions of a local system that has been, at the best of times, a thorn on the foot of every empire that's ever claimed it...and yet, we have lost proper warships to these toys they build at Kowloon. Beresick is only just starting to use them to their potential, and we missed it."
"They're not as flexible or as useful as even single Mule-based Q ships, Master."
"I know, but they have strategic mobility, they are hard to detect at range, and are armed with more-than-adequate antishipping weapons...and we don't have an equivalent. Every jump-navigator we have, is too valuable to put into such tin-can ships, and that begs the question..."
"Ah! where are they getting their navigation training?" Apollyon announced.
"Precisely. Our best digital modeling software can't execute the kind of maneuvers we know they're using, someone, somehow, is supplying them with superior training, and superior technology. We need to find that source, and make it our own, or find it and eliminate it." The Master paused, and looked out over the Atlantic shore. "Enlist what,or whom, ever you need to unravel this, we're in a race against time, if their methods spread, it places the entire plan in jeopardy."
-
I love a good, thinking adversary. It makes the plot so much more interesting.
After all, its not like he pulled a Tarkin... he doesn't underestimate the small ships. And he keyed in on the navigators.
-
"Near disaster?" ???
I wonder what went wrong for our heroes...
-
"Precisely. Our best digital modeling software can't execute the kind of maneuvers we know they're using, someone, somehow, is supplying them with superior training, and superior technology. We need to find that source, and make it our own, or find it and eliminate it." The Master paused, and looked out over the Atlantic shore. "Enlist what,or whom, ever you need to unravel this, we're in a race against time, if their methods spread, it places the entire plan in jeopardy."
And having made an observation about underestimating someone with less impressively sized forces, he makes the same assumption about technology. No, the tech isn't that hot. The wetware using it is just that awesome. :thumbsup:
Breaking down the last fight, the Sampan jumped into a point blank range of the Blakists, fired off their missiles in Maddog seeking mode, then used their LF Batteries to jump out to A)avoid return fire from the Blakists, B) get clear of their missile's blast range, and C) avoid the potential of one of those missiles locking on them if it missed and went looking for a target.
-
"Near disaster?" ???
I wonder what went wrong for our heroes...
We know that ’Loonie scouts spotted the trap in time, and that the Coalition planned to pull an Obi-Wan: “Next step, spring the trap!” The Blakers clearly realised that the CG’s hit-and-hype nuclear raids were the Coalition’s reaction to spotting the hook behind their carefully-dangled bait, and once they knew Operation: PLAY BERESICK FOR AN IDIOT was a bust, they also knew that if they stayed to fight, they’d be doing it on Beresick’s terms. That being a mug’s game, they instead did the sensible thing and refused battle, withdrawing to preserve their remaining forces for a better opportunity.
-
Tharkad, The Triad, March, 3081...
Peter Steiner-Davion hadn't really wanted this job. Victoria pressured him into serving as her regent, forcing him out of self-imposed isolation at a rehabilitation facility masquerading as a monastery.
but, there were compensations for being shoved into a chair of decision, things like being able to right some obvious wrongs.
One of those was standing before him. well, two of them. Alessandro DeGaurde, Lord Duke of Arluna, and a skinny, mid-twenties redhead who looked like chewing steel nails was a balanced part of her morning breakfast named Debra MacAulliffe. The two were both here facing judgement. Duke DeGaurde for embezzling tax money, running his landhold into the ground, tyranny and corruption. MacAulliffe was here because she'd been leading a rural revolt that threatened to tie down better than two Regimental Combat Teams to put it down if the Archon-Regent hadn't stepped in and demanded talks.
The Mjolnir class vessel Ymir helped reinforce that demand, along with the lead company of the 1st Royal Guards. The girl's plea had enough solid evidence, and the backing of Arluna's closest stellar neighbor (Kowloon) to get his attention. well, that and Vanh's threat to drop a Marine Corps Division on the planet to set things right if the National government wouldn't.
"You're here before me as your Liege and Lord." Peter began. "That means I have to decide which of you is going to be charged with what crimes in this mess. we're under national emergency and just so you fully understand what that means, it means I can either hand you over to the Judicial system directly, right now, and go have a nice lunch, or it means I can make a ruling as Archon-Regent, which involves a significantly longer period of argumentation and evidence displays before handing ONE of you over to the Courts...help me decide here folks? You see, before me, I have two people charged with Crimes against the State that has resulted in a minor civil war, during wartime. To be really clear here, that is treason. One of you is an official, sworn to loyalty to the Federated Commonwealth, the Lyran Commonwealth, the Melissia Theater of the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth...and the other, is a farmer's kid who picked up a gun."
"Bit more th'n a gun, yo'hahniss." Debra muttered.
"Yeah. I know." Peter snapped. "bit more than a gun by a hell of a lot! You damned near had Kowloonese Peacekeepers dropped on your collective heads.." He rounded on DeGaurde, "You still might, I'm half a mind to let Vanh send Mosovich to sort your shit out, Al."
some of the Royal Guards in the room stiffened, Peter rarely, if ever, used crude invective, and almost never addressed anyone by a derisive nickname-especially in that tone.
"You are both in luck, during the weeks of your transit here, I was able to examine not only evidence submitted by each side, but also to get a full accounting from Lohengrin of the events that have brought us all here, on this rotten, cold, rainy spring morning."
"Milord, you can't have already decided!?" the Duke scoffed, "It's barely been a month!"
"I have enough evidence, Al, to have you shot." Peter stated, "Your lands confiscated, your titles stripped, your brother in law put in chains, along with most of your miserable damned family, most of your friends, most of the officers assigned to your militia, a good chunk of your police force...shall I go on? we'll start with the easy one, the extrajudicial murder of Thomas MacAulliffe, the incident that began this whole mess."
He turned to the woman. "ANd you...incitement to revolt is also treasonous, we are at war. Terrorism, is not something we tolerate, not something we really can tolerate..."
she turned white, "din't have no choice." she muttered, "it 'uz rigged, courts an' th' guv'mint..."
"I know." Peter said. "that's why you're here, instead of in Blackgate Prison waiting to be executed."
"Corporal of the Guard!!" Peter barked, "I've made my decision. Clap the former Duke Alessandro DeGuarde in restraints and conduct him to Blackgate to await his trial for High Crimes. his land remit is to be pulled from his family, his assets are forfiet to the State, his title..." Peter drew in a breath, "Is to be held in Trust until such time as Miss Debra MacAulliffe has completed officer training and basic Decorum classes and can be demonstrated to be ready to assume her position as Arluna's Duke...and inform Mister Vanh that I expect General Mosovich and her Fifth Marine Division to deliver Arluna as intact as humanly possible. She will be supervised by the commander of the Fourth Royal Guards, but I want it done by the end of the month, and services restored there by the end of THREE months."
He reached out, and touched Debra's forehead, "congratulations on your promotion. Don't screw up or you're going to be following him to the execution range, understand me?"
"yes Milord." she gave a curtsey.
Peter turned to one of the Lords standing witness. "Maggie, she's your problem now. civilize her... like you did with Liz Ngo, but try to curb the bloodthirst?"
"Yes Your Highness...Come along, girl. we have got to do something about your attire...and your manners." Margaret Doons said with a beckoning gesture.
-
Hmm. Did Peter have the same misencounter with Free Skye, or was it something else?
Nice call to a different background company from HB:HS.
-
The quality of most nobility is improved with a few feet of manila rope and a short drop...
The smart corrupt ones will settle down and who needs dumb & corrupt nobles anyway?
-
MS Out of the silent planet, Merchant-class...April 22, 3081
Harmony's father, Brian, breathed, "confirmed, the hull is the Kharkov, which makes it..."
Patrick flinched, "The Dire Wolf, the Wolf Clan's flagship...I think they're aligned with the Star League now..."
Harmony reached over and squeezed his hand, "Relax. they're non-hostiles, you might be getting a ride home."
"Handshake protocol established, we have visual comm."
"This is the Wolf Clan vessel Dire Wolf to the unmarked merchant vessel in our targeting queue. Identify yourselves, heave to, and prepare to be boarded."
"This is the free trader Out of the Silent Planet, hailing out of NIOPS. Our defenses are on stand-down, and we are prepared to accept your boarding party."
"To whom am I speaking?"
"I am Brian Oldwell, ship's Master."
"Await Boarding."
the S-7 from the warship was escorted by fighters that Patrick mentally identified as Visigoth class omni-fighters, a rare choice these days.
The Clan boarding party were outfitted in powered armor, at least the first wave, and they swept the jump-ship with precise efficiency.
the process took twelve hours.
"You are running a little light, Ship-master Oldwell, and this is a long way from the NIOPS facility." the lead warrior announced when they were done searching for contraband.
"We had a good month, but not the best. This insanity from earth has-"
"Spare me. Your crew roster checks out, except for that one, and you do not have any manifested passengers. Explain."
"This young man we rescued from an accident site." Brian said casually, "He is not crew, but it would be inhuman to leave someone to suffocate, starve, and freeze in deep space...and my daughter is quite fond of him now."
"We will need to take charge of your...rescued person...hells, what is your name, boy?"
"My name is Patrick Ngo." Pat said and straightened proudly, "I am the son of Elizabeth-"
"And Jaime Wolf's bastard. savashri, the universe is certainly playing a fine joke on us all. I do not know if the Khan will find this merely humorous, or infuriating, grab your things."
"Um, if I may? My daughter was involved in his rescue, and she has never seen a planetary surface, we were going to deliver the boy-"
"You will be compensated for your time and effort thus far."
Harmony frowned, "ah...what's the big deal, Paddie?" she asked in a low tone while the officers discussed just exactly whom was going to be doing what.
"These are crusader wolves, Vlad Ward's people, they only signed up after the Blakists turned on everyone, and they're still rivals with Kell's wolves. it's not 'good' luck we stumbled on them-at least, it might not be. they will do what they say they are going to do, but it might not be the way you wish they had done it. They're allies by necessity, not friends."
"oh..."
"You might want to rain-check the beef barbecue just in case..."
Harmony glanced to her father, and some kind of silent signal passed. "I'm coming." she announced.
This startled the warrior officer and paused the discussion.
"I said, I'm coming." she stated, more boldly, "I can work my passage, and I'm a better general tasks shipboard tech than you probably have, while Paddy-I mean, Patrick here, he's a dirtyfoot right down to the roots of that red hair and completely bolks with tools, but if he's important enough you knew him on sight, someone needs to be at his back to keep him from hurting himself. Also, unlike Patrick, I can answer questions about where and how his ship went down, including charting for the wreck recovery, and testify to-"
"You don't have to give the whole store." Brian interrupted. He turned, "is that acceptable? I would love it if you said 'no', my daughter's a spacer and she is unused to more..cosmopolitan and advanced views."
"You may accompany him...but you will not be joining our Clan. Not yet. grab your possessions, you both have five minutes."
Harmony and Patrick took the dismissal for what it was, and, followed by an elemental in armor, hurried to gather personal belongings from their spaces.
The boarding team's officer turned to Brian. "you know we will be testing them both, quiaff?"
"Aff. no surprises in either one, but you will see that for yourselves. will they actually be taken to Lyran authority?"
"Absolutely. one, because it will deeply embarrass Phelan Kell, two, because if the boy is who your report said he is, he is leverage, and three, because once we place supplies in your hands, I want to be certain those supplies arrive where they are contracted to go. a Hostage means I don't have to waste resources on crewing this...ship, or posting guards. I know you 'Folk' tend to vanish into the deep night the moment things become uncomfortable."
"Your supply train will arrive at the coordinates you set forth, on time, and intact." Brian stated.
-
Ummm… date stamp? ???
-
3082-an overview of the middle of the Great War.
Inner Sphere estimated population at the start of the Great War: 2.45 Trillion total
By the mid-point of the Great War: 2.46 Trillion
average estimated population growth across the Inner Sphere without the war: 11% (based on birth rates and average death rates prior to the start of the Great War in 3080.)
In the first three years of the Great War, humanity lost billions. Entire political entities ceased to exist, worlds were devastated or even lost outright.
and yet, the population as a whole, increased. admittedly by less than half of one percent.
The devastation of the Great War can not be underestimated, and the impact among the Clans was, if anything, worse.
Raw numbers (all Castes):
Clan Blood Spirit: 235 million, January 3080, 11, January 3082.
Clan Jade Falcon: 114 Million, January 3080, 10,347,535, January 3082.
Clan Diamond Shark: 223 Million in january 3080, 15 Million in January 3082.
Clan Steel Viper: 53 Million in January 3080, 742 in January 3082
Clan Wolf (both sides): 113.7 million in January 3080, 12,500,000 in January 3082.
Clan Goliath Scorpoin: 57.8 million in January 3080, 7 million in January 3082.
Clan Ice Hellion: 31.92 Million in January 3080, Extinct January 3082.
Clan Hell's Horses: 192 Million January 3080, 18,753 January 3082.
Clan Star Adder: 253 Million, January 3080, 11.2 million January 3082.
Clan Snow Raven: 33.8 million, January 3080, 41.6 Million, January 3082.
Clan Fire Mandrill: 81.6 Million, January 3080, Extinct, January 3082
Clan Ghost Bear: 224 Million in January 3080, Integrated w/ the Rassalhague Republic, population standing now at 18.752 Billion.
Clan Nova Cat: 11 Million January 3080, Extinct January 3082.
The Clan homeworlds were savaged by multiple releases of a Biological weapon related to project 21B, as well as targeted chemical attacks and internal strife. the survivors threw everything into the effort to pay back the Word of Blake for this horror.
Parallel outbreaks at Alarion and Pandora, Dieron and Galax, and other worlds critical to war industries showed the Clan outbreaks weren't an isolated incident. But humanity pressed on, and a cure was found by early 3082. The 21b Virus was identified thanks to Clan and remnant inner sphere records, it was a project initiated under the original Star League's government as a pacification agent, only it worked in ways the original designers could not have predicted. The "Kerensky Flu" claimed billions before it was subdued, in the process fundamentally changing Clan society at the basic level. Most of the surviving Clans found themselves in desperate need of basic help, and the angry Inner Sphere was at first unwilling to render that aid.
But then, sometimes sanity does prevail. The Blakist viral attack with a Level Zero contagion was as harsh to their efforts, as it was to the targets, indeed, harsher. Mars was nearly depopulated, and Earth itself, went from over twelve billion inhabitants, to less than 500 million-and that's before accounting the wrath of wounded surrounding nations and Clans eager for payback.
3087, Allied Summit, Glengarry...
Amanda's dress blues itched-or would itch, if they weren't wrapped around a skinsuit. The ranks on her shoulders were Coast Guard rank, marking her as a Fleet Captain. on a leatherette tab hanging from the button of her right breast pocket, the AFFC equivalent rank of "Hauptmann" dangled.
"You're under-ranked, sis." Patrick told her. His SLDF uniform only carried the rank of Lieutenant, and it was brown trimmed with a Wolf's head logo on the unit patch. Not the same Wolf's head as General Kell's Wolf units, this was the rabid wolf of the Commanding General's bodyguard unit, Wolf's Dragoons.
"Not under-ranked, I'm not sure I even qualify to be here." Amanda groused, "My boat was just part of the escort."
Patrick didn't correct his sister. around them, were Generals-or rank-equivalent to generals, Khans, and politicians.
"You know they could decapitate the whole business with one bombing strike." Amanda continued.
"They could, if we didn't have the bastards on the ropes." a Marik officer joined the two, prominent lips and curly hair over a permanently flushed complexion, consolidated SLDF uniform with purple piping. "You know what they're discussing? who gets to go into the Sol system first."
Amanda rolled her eyes, "of course."
"you don't get how important this is, do you? we have representatives from all the remnant Clans here, as well as leaders from every faction that the Blakists hit. The Clans-"
"First Clan in gets to claim 'ilClan', as if that matters anymore." Amanda almost snapped, "Sir. it means being 'big dog' among the remains, a leadership position and prominence, could unite them after the war."
"Exactly."
Amanda sighed, "I know who's going in first already."
"Money on it?" the Marik Captain asked.
"Coast Guard. we'll go in to scout their defenses, like we've been doing since this started." Amanda continued, "the prestige spot isn't the scout force, it's the main body and whose flag gets to lead the main body of the invasion."
"Who do you think it will be?" the Marik asked, "Leading the..'prestige' forces?"
a group of Outworlds Alliance officers, accompanied by obviously-clanner types in black uniforms with white piping, clustered near the far side of the room. Amanda nodded in their direction. "Outworlds alliance, maybe Taurians, but either way, it'll be Snow Raven ships-they have the largest fleet-in-being and they're recent to the fight, they've got the advantage of being in without making the mistakes everyone else has. I'll bet a shiny Kroner that the main body will be led in by the Snow Ravens."
"Interesting...aside from the subtle slur on the Free Worlds Navy, why?" he asked.
"No domestic enemies." Amanda stated. "Nobody on their border is someone they consider a threat, means they can put forward heavier forces. Your lot still feel like you need to guard Marik-Stewart, and the Lyran border from ours on one side, and watch the Cappies on the other-means you can't put forward the forces and don't trust your allies. They don't have that problem. the big argument's going to be getting them to commit to it, and that's like the briar rabbits in that story-enticing them to do what they want to do."
"That's very logical..." the Marik officer scooped a stemmed glass from a passing steward, "it's wrong, I mean your strategic analysis is spot on to a point, but you're wrong. My pick..." he surveyed the room, "is either the Ghost Bears, or Wolf."
"Rassalhague still has enemies." Patrick noted.
"Yes, but they are angry." their companion said with an amused note, "The two together can match the tonnage the Snow Ravens can field, and First Lord Shraplen isn't likely to want to commit Taurians or their close allies in the Outworlds and Magistracy to what is bound to be a combination blood bath and meatgrinder. It's interesting you don't think the AFFC will be first across the line, even with your newly acquired Falcon and other Clan residents."
"Numbers don't lie." Amanda said, "We don't have the hulls, not with as much space as we have to patrol, we don't have hulls and we don't have the bodies, neither do you, or you'd be suggesting the FWLN would be first across the line."
"but you expect the Coast Guards will be the scout force?"
Amanda shrugged, "it fits the numbers and it makes strategic sense-we're the most expendable asset with the needed capability, and we've got a working supply network to handle losses better. what the Guard doesn't have, is the heavy firepower to bring the ball to goal. once the naval fight is over, it's a ground war."
-
Ummm… date stamp? ???
Corrected.
-
June 6, 3087, 0200 GMT, 0200 Hilton Head Time, somewhere in the outer belts of Saturn...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGjbPTmGOU&list=RD6oTluzrthb4&index=11 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfGjbPTmGOU&list=RD6oTluzrthb4&index=11)
Coast Guard 13/C/12, CGS Tranh Truk Ngo
Her ancestors came to Terra last, as part of Kerensky's final push against the Usurper. Amanda studied not only his war diary, but the descriptions left by Commodore Anh Cu'ong, the Coast Guard officer sent by Kowloon to support the 171st Volunteers. Cu'ong's notes on the system defenses at the time were extensive, the analysis of a Rockjack officer raised in a culture of numbers, calculations, and innate understanding of space warfare.
"Secure from jump, keep sails reefed for now, thruster power to one-quarter, there's going to be a hell of a lot of enemy firepower here. Engineering, keep our battery primed, but start a trickle charge to the main core."
"Aye mum."
Nicole Minh with 11th Squadron had made contact with the Metis Coalition and a few of the other Belter communities, they had mapped out the Blakist system defenses, but to get those defenses thinned enough for Star Admiral Jorgensson to bring the main force through, means sending in squadrons first.
In six hours, the Star League's combined Allied Navy would be coming through the stable points in the Solar system-not just the Zenith and Nadir points that Kerensky relied on, but all of them.
The plan meant the Kowloon Coast Guard was committing an entire cutter Division, twelve squadrons, to clear the beaches for the assaulting force.
nearly their entire active duty force.
"Sensors up, deploy outriders, passive magnification three, let's go hunting."
Ninety percent of Command, is looking confident to your subordinates. Amanda was junior-in-time to most of her crew, but senior-in-grade, the only thing she could really hang any of it on, was the legend of her mother, and her relationship with Li. borrowed prestige, easily lost.
so she managed to hold poise even though the post-jump visions had been nauseating and horrific, and she was fighting a crushing headache.
"Commander, you're bleeding." her XO told her, offering a sponge-rag to wipe the blood away from her eyes.
"Thanks." There was that. Amanda's TDS was a lucky symbol to the Rockjacks in the Guard. The fact she'd plotted an intercept on a neutral gravity point this close to a gas-giant without smearing the ship across half of hyperspace is a thing her people attributed to that TDS, to being 'touched' by slipspace.
"Enemy contact! Four dropships, running heavy mass for the hull planform, Thermal indicates high-output engines pushing warship-grade mass profiles."
a few seconds and the rest of her Patrol came through, appearing like a trail along their target asteroid's orbit.
She didn't breathe relief until the last one came through, confirming her calcs were on-the-nose.
"Shake out the formation, arm weapons."
Somewhere out there, Bianh Vu Dao's Squadron would be appearing to strike targets in Jovian orbit, while Nikki Minh's forces would be making for the Nadir point, drawing enemy interception inward, and Chao's 10th Squadron would be doing the same at their target locations.
"Targets are diverting from their path, moving to intercept ours."
"prep first volley as bearings-only, ready secondary weapons and a second volley of shipkillers, outriders are to run missile interception, but stay clear of direct-fire weapons."
Dear Diary, I don't know what I'm doing, so I'll do what Li and the T.O.'s at Spider Moon taught me to do, and hope for the best.
"XO, suggestions?"
"Oh, do what you're doing, Amanda." her executive officer urged, "but maybe adjust course and start running evasive patterns while we're at it?"
"Yeah, exactly that.. you guys heard the XO. do what Silverberg 831 said. evasive pattern, conn, you've got choice of pattern." her throat felt like it would close up with anxiety, and deep inside, she felt like she looked foolish.
god don't let me screw this up, please god...
"you're doing fine." Silver told her with a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "It's a good trait, listening, just focus on thinking ahead a little more, we'll handle the details."
somewhere out there, missile plumes turned to nuclear blooms. the battle for Sol had begun.
-
SLS Incomprehensible, Fox-class, D+4 Hours...
"all personnel, secure for jump!"
Patrick nestled in his cockpit harness, and stroked the image of his Fiancee. Harmony was safe on Kowloon, attending University and working with Groves on the Sampan-4 redesign. She'd kissed him when he proposed, and three months after that, it still lingered in his mouth.
Somewhere ahead of them, his little sister by seven minutes was leading ships in battle. By Patrick's own reckoning, Amanda was the right choice for the Ducal seat and welcome to it.
Patrick had his destiny, he was sitting in it. 70 tons of Timberwolf omnimech, a rank in the SLDF and a Star-Lance of the best soldiers a man can serve with-or under.
There was only the discontinuity moment, and then, "Separation!!"
The objective wasn't Terra, it was Titan...General Wolf's decision to send the combined Clan forces to Terra first, it was logical-the Terran defense net would turn that assault into a meat grinder, and the competitive demands of the Clan Khans who attended the Glengarry meeting back in February meant they would each be pushing hard to seize objectives planetside, blazing a path for the rest of the Allied Armies to roll in with (one hoped) less resistance.
The real prizes in the sol System, though, were Luna, Titan, Uranus, and the facilities on Mars.
-
"We honestly didn't know what we'd find when we shipped for the Terran front, what we did know, was that all of a sudden, wet-naval expertise was extremely valuable, and we're kind of the experts they had, not necessarily the ones they needed, where that is concerned."
-Cdr. Rachel Goldfarbe, Kowloon Coast Guard 2nd Submarine squadron.
Somewhere in the Pacific...
for days now, streaks of fire and light had crossed from horizon to horizon, as the battle for Earth raged in the orbitals, and occasionally, where dropships made it through the SDS to penetrate, releasing chaos on the ground as forces tried to establish beachheads.
It wasn't going spectacularly well for the attackers, though more on the lines of 'you should see the other guy'.
things changed this morning, the eleventh day of the assault on the Word of Blake's capital.
This morning, amid an escort of fighters flying dangerously close, four streaks struck the Pacific Ocean, four more in the Indian ocean, yet four more in the South and North Atlantic.
Imagine a dropship, now imagine paring it down to just a maneuver drive, some explosive bolts hlding the hull together, and a basic set of controls. Give it just enough armor to handle some fire and re-entry heat.
Like a drop-pod, but big. big enough to contain one, single, piece of equipment.
Sixteen submarines built at Vin Drin Lap on Kowloon, to design concepts even the Terran Hegemony considered too ridiculous to put into mass-production, were now prowling the seas of Earth.
Oversize hunter-killers with fission reactors and MHD drives, built to absorb sonar and confuse sensors, armed with large-diameter torpedoes the like of which no one has seen since the 1940s.
They're here to hunt Kraken. Not the mythical many-armed sea monster, but submersible antishipping platforms designed to engage targets coming in to low orbit.
The expense of them is horrific-not merely the building cost, but the cost of the 'podships' to deliver them, a one-use design built to hold one piece of very, very, very large cargo. then, the cost of bringing them to Earth-horrific, enormous, each 'pod' taking up two docking collars.
all to deliver one combat vessel across interstellar distances for one conflict.
they sent twenty, sixteen made it to the surface.
simple cigar shapes slip away from the sinking wreckage of their transport, then slide under the waves. The hulls are optimized for hydrodynamics, no protrusions because the seas they were made for, are 'rougher' seas, harder to maneuver in, easier to be detected in, deeper, and more primal.
nobody in the Word of Blake, or the Terran government bureaus, even back to Admiral McKenna, ever considered seriously that Earth's seas would one day once again be the battlegrounds for an actual wet-naval conflict. It simply never occurred to them, even the CAAN planners, that someone would bring a dedicated wet navy presence to attack a planet. to defend one, certainly, but to attack?
On the AFFS Avalon II, Her Majesty, Archon Princess of the Federated Commonwealth, Victoria Steiner-Davion contemplated this, and it was she who ordered the engineering and the planning, and the deployment of numbered, "Unterseebooten' class Submarines, configured as hunter-killers, well before the final details of the invasion of Terra were finalized at the Glengarry conference.
Victoria had made a guess based on another, now famous, use of wet-naval forces by one of her Vassals. she saw that the tactic was obvious, the advantages likewise, and the counter? just as clear as daylight.
so she planned for it, pushed it, paid for it, the way she'd helped pay for space-naval expansion in directions other rulers ignored.
She watched nothing, being half the system from where those ships were deploying. "How long before we know?" she asked for the hundredth time.
"Won't be long now. We know four of them were shot down, but the remainder made their landings and sent the clear." Archer Christofiori had been her Brother Karl's closest lieutenant before the betrayal by the Word. Now, he was hers.
she studied the maps, the status of Allied forces, the reports from General Wolf's command. Titan was in allied hands, Mars, Phobos, Ceres, Luna, were all in allied hands-some of them unexpected allies from the Metis Coalition, but secured. The Blakist 'drone navy' was neutralized in space.
The Colonists have come to conquer Terra itself. a chill ran down her spine.
"Keep me apprised, Archer." she told her closest aide, her confidant. "We'll see this thing through."
-
New York, D+31 days...
The battle here raged. Blakist Militia and auxiliaries used the buildings, people, the city itself, to fight them.
"Call an orbital strike,dammit Ngo!!" Patrick found himself in an unusual position-the only 'mechwarrior with the codes to summon direct support from the orbiting ships.
"No." He said. there needs to be a symbol, a sacrifice. He wouldn't do what Chivington did to Dinh Diep centuries before he was born, not here. Not ever.
"Rally on me, we're going for Central Park."
a Blakist White flame rushed out of an alley between two high-rise ruins. Patrick savaged it with fire from his 'mech's autocannon, cluster rounds, the Clan-made 105mm gun belching submunitions in a pattern that revealed the Purifier suits stalking the flank.
He kept advancing, releasing swarms of short-ranged missiles and barks of heavy autocannon fire, watching his scope for telltales that would reveal 'mech traps and tank traps in the urban terrain.
He danced, wondering if what he'd tucked behind his seat was somehow protecting him, as if the spirit of Gilmour were with him.
The maze opened, and there it was, the largest remaining open space in the city.
He stalked forward, heedless of enemy resistance, to a place visible from the surrounding arcology-like buildings.
He stopped in place, in the center, and was pleased to see tanks from the 171st had also driven for this point.
He popped his hatch, and grabbed the bundle from behind. Standing, He held it unfurled and aloft.
the fire momentarily stopped.
Then, it began again, but less focused, as the terrain that blocked SLDF allied forces turned on its occupiers.
he held the banner up until his arms were ready to give out.
The regimental standard of the 90th Heavy Assault, derived historically from the New York National Guard, had finally come all the way home once again.
Someone came and took it up from his hands as he finally started to collapse.
Patrick Ngo was medevac'ed from Central Park at 5PM, July 2nd.
The day New York rose against the Word of Blake and the Terran Bureau.
It would take 15 hours of surgery and eighteen months of rehabilitation to deal with the wounds he was given to wave a nearly forgotten flag in the middle of an enemy city.
-
Allied Landing Zone Baker, North Carolina...
the air stank. The foliage was too green, lacking the blackish-red undertones of home. Amanda adjusted her Landing Party gear, and checked the magazine on her K-1 Rifle for the hundredth time, before walking to the Command Post.
"General Wolf, where's my brother?" Amanda said it aggressively.
"He's on his way to the rear, safe as houses." General Maeve Wolf looked down to look at her vastly-much-younger half-sister. It had been nearly ten years now, the 20 year old Amanda had Elizabeth's frame, and size, but thankfully not the woman's disposition, nor the fatal defect.
"Did you know he was going to pull that damnfool stunt?" Amanda asked.
"I knew your brother Patrick would pull some kind of damned fool stunt, as soon as I assigned him to 'mech support for the 171st and the 7th Andurien." Maeve stated, "His damnfool stunt, as you put it, pacified the city in hours, instead of weeks."
Amanda chewed on that for a moment, "alright, so he's smegging brilliant. he got out of his 'mech and got shot full of holes."
"And made a powerful statement." Maeve rejoined, "Now I wonder, was that what possessed you to come down out of your very-useful orbital position, to visit me in person?"
"you know that's not it." Amanda said, "You cut the order yourself, you said you needed a Marine Platoon to conduct initial recon on the Hilton Head complex, well, Mine's un-engaged and we're available."
"You don't really expect me to let you poke your spacer ass into that, do you?" Maeve asked.
"It's 'Rockjack', only honorary, and no, Master Chief Petty Officer Nguyen will be conducting the recon, I'm here to do the Liaison thing and be here in case it goes Murphy on us."
"well, have a look, then."
-
October 1, 3087...
Effectively, the war was over. Amanda watched from the side-line as they marched "the Master" of the Word of Blake, the mastermind behind it, out for the holovid crews.
"I'm done." she said it even before they finished hauling him to a prisoner transport.
"you're done?" General Wolf asked.
"I'm done. I'm going to option for Civil Service if they let me, finish out my five years, and I'm done, or I'll ask for civil patrol duty for the remainder of my five years, either way, I am heartily sick of war, and that's without being a big fan of it in the first place."
"you two...really are nothing alike, are you?" Maeve asked.
"Sure we are, have the same parents even." Amanda stated, "but Pat takes after our father, and I get jump visions something fierce. I really don't want or need to pile more traumatic stress on top of that, so I'm done."
"Victoria might have something to say about that." Maeve told her, "She isn't stupid, after all. There will be a lot of rebuilding to be done after this..."
"Rebuilding is for civilian contractors and regular people, so I want to be a regular people, not a soldier." Amanda insisted, "she'll understand."
"and your ducal responsibiities?"
"Patrick's got that ball. One, he's older, two, Duke is a feudal term, feudal nobility is rooted in the concept of a warrior class, he's a warrior, the role is his by right of birth order, and he's welcome to it."
"And what will you do?"
Amanda breathed in, and out. "Exploration." she said, "Navigation. it's something I'm good at, it has social value, everyone spends too much time arguing about limited resources and the resources of the galaxy are literally beyond our grasp to comprehend, much less overuse. Exploration can be the safety valve for everyone, and it builds things." she gestured at the destruction around them, "War does neither. we will always need warriors, but I don't have to be one."
-
New York will always remember the 90th
-
*Hand Claps... long into the eve*
-
Sol, after the Great War...
Earth and the rest of the Solar System would spend the next 20 years partitioned by the major powers into occupied zones, each zone policed by Clan forces from the remaining Clans. But that's the future.
In the present, in January of 3088, stiffened by a medical exoskeleton and bundled in bandages, Patrick Ngo stands before the Archon-Princess Victoria Steiner Davion. He's lucky to be standing, in a sense.
With his sister Amanda watching from the gallery, here in the rebuilt grounds of Buckingham Palace on Earth, He swears the final oaths of service to the Federated Commonwealth, modified to account for a man whose braced legs can't bend properly without a lot more rehabilitation.
Many, including 'cousin Maeve', considered this the less optimal solution, but Patrick was the choice agreed on by his most likely rival, and Amanda's outright abdication made it simply inevitable.
Once again, a Ngo would return to Kowloon from war on Terra. Unlike the last time, the Kowloonese soldiers returning brought their weapons, their reputation, and their honors to display openly.
Kowloon would never be independent, but...they would be damned hard to intimidate or subjugate again.
Then, it was Amanda's turn.
This meeting would be held in a historical room, once used by Britain's royal line for personal meetings.
"What will you do now?" Victoria asked.
"you asked me...I think I was ten? what I wanted to be when I grew up." Amanda said, accepting a cup on a saucer in homage to the British Tea Ritual.
"you said you didn't know."
"I was ten." Amanda said, "I know what I want now."
"I take it you won't be taking over for Kelli Whyte when she retires?"
"No. I won't." Amanda said, "we are so...limited by this constant game of thrones around us, aren't we? Can we do better?"
"I thought that answer already came up." Victoria said, "The Blakists showed what uncontrolled scientific research leads to."
"No, they showed what a narrow perspective so-called visionaries really have, when they dabble in politics-they were going to bomb us all back to the stone age and become a sort of 'tech priesthood', and damn but they didn't get close. I want to build a research vessel, I want to end this contraction back to the center that mankind has been on since the First Succession War."
"Ha! I remember more than you think!" the Archon-Princess laughed, and smiled delightedly, "You wanted to be an explorer."
"Yes. I still want it." Amanda told her, "more than anything, I want to open the horizon, and I want it open to everyone."
"Do you know what is sad, Amanda?" Victoria asked, "I want to go too."
"Why don't you?" Amanda asked.
"I'm bound by duty, someone has to keep things running here, while you go off to explore, someone has to make sure there's someone for your reports to reach."
"You'll let me go?"
"I can't stop you, I wouldn't if I could. but wait a bit, you need more than a fifteen light year cutter if you're going to do this right, and we've got the engineering for a much better star-ship for you to push the boundaries of humanity with. Give it two years...and bring me the horizon."
-
Is this the end?
I hope not...
-
[Out of Story]
This pretty much ends my flirtation with an alternate-to-an-alternate-to-an-alternate universe. I toyed with the idea of figuring out how to bring Hotpoint's "Hunted Tribes" concept in at the end, but couldn't do it justice.
You'll note that a LOT of this is disconnected vignettes. all of it could probably be treated better by someone else, especially the battles and such that I glossed over.
Key outcome differences as follows:
Because Victoria was always in more of a 'strategic planner' state, unlike Victor, she kept a wide-angle view, and played a longer game. Karl's demise was sad, but inevitable. I didn't give Yvonne many lines.
Elizabeth's death is really a direct result of how different her version of the Falcon conflict on Kowloon was. Yes, she did the same dirty trick, and it worked, but the other conditions surrounding it changed outcomes. One result, is that she died younger, killed by the Cholmann's syndrome before her children were born to a surrogate. Liz had little influence on either of her children directly as a result, and she never fell in love with Nate Roshak, because she never got the chance to meet him. Instead, she had a whirlwind night with Jaime Wolf, which proceeded to hasten her demise.
I also did not go 'in depth' with Wolf's relationship with his children, or their relationship with Maeve. Suffice to say, Patrick was more welcome a visitor than Amanda, and far more frequent thanks to Amanda's TDS. (ironically the thing that kept her from travelling off world is the thing that makes her such a good Jump Navigator.)
I didn't mention Arthur. Here's where the ripples really hit-Arthur wasn't born. This likely prevented a number of things.
Devlin Stone also doesn't appear in this version-because MIIO never deployed him, he was never captured, didn't have the chance to be Victor's bestestbuddyever/BFF, (because it's Victoria, and Victoria doesn't go rushing off to the front lines to play battalion commander instead of running the war like a national leader.)
so there's that. some of the other side-effects that got shorted, "the five". they're out there, but The Master is in custody, he doesn't even get to die a martyr.
the KCG is huge in this setting, this is because instead of a Victor, we have a Victoria, and she WAS BFF with Elizabeth Ngo, who had a lot of good strategic ideas and a handle on execution. Victoria let it happen in part, to get around the joint Bureaucracy of the AFFC, which is understandably top-heavy. The Coasties grew so fast and so far because the Archon-Princess was backing Lizzie,and later Li, with money and permission.
but remember, Victoria is the strategic genius that Victor never got to be. both had the talent, but Vickie was channelled into a role that made use of it, while Melissa let Vic play Soldier too much and he never grew the right skills.
Thus, Victoria foresaw a situation where one might have to orbitally deploy serious wet-naval assets, because Liz showed that a serious wet-naval asset can be a damned dangerous thing in the right hands. Thus, the Kowloonese Coast Guard got to play Navy on Earth, much to the surprise of everyone on those WoB refit Krakens.
I don't know who took up the banner of the 90th when Patrick fell to his wounds, but I kinda suspect it was a descendant of one of the 90th who didn't join the jump out. It might be hilarious to think that it was the descendant of Gilmour's adopted kid...
that WOULD be hilarious.
The First Lord's slot is a voted term, and we have a small field, so I imagine Vickie and Sun Tzu probably traded off a few times, between 'anyone but those two!!' votes.
Yes, Grover Shraplen was First Lord for the Liberation of Terra from the Word of Blake. No, he didn't bother to come for the victory party in North America. He was busy banging a Centrella.
incidentally, DAnai Centrella will be serving as First Lord after Grover. NO, she's not the one he was banging.
creeps.
The Partition of Sol would continue for twenty years, after which, a new Terran hegemony would be formed by treaty. This is NOT the Republic of the Sphere, for one thing, they don't get all the good industrial worlds.
What they DO get, is a constitutional form of government mainly influenced by the Free Rassalhague Republic's system, as influenced by Clan Ghost Bear, the IlClan as acknowledged by every other clan that participated. Something about Bjorn Jorgennson being SMART, and his Clan having effectively become about 100 times larger than their nearest competitor.
go figure. Most of the Clans either settled in the reborn hegemony or in one of the other states. (that is, the ones that still existed did.) Integration is slow but promising, something about not having to fight for basic commodities has an influence after all.
imagine that. Not to say nothing happens, it does. but anyone suggesting taking a pair of seventy ton war machines out back to fight over who cut in the lunch line gets mental health treatment. Fist fights? are fine in relative terms, disrupting the entire base is not.
Clan Sea Fox (used to be Diamond Shark) is currently competing with a number of large industrial concerns, both in and out of the Inner Sphere. They're prominent, but still no shakes on 3M out of Canopus or Ngo Industries in their respective markets, and neck-and-neck with old line companies like Defiance. They field a stable on Solaris VII, with decent standings.
peace, for a time. only for a time. After all, humanity really doesn't change that much and war is a permanent feature of the human condition.
-
For me, two Clans stand out:
- with only 11 members alive, the Blood spirits are effectively dead unless they saved all their blood legacies and the Loremaster.
- On the other hand, the Snow Ravens should now be the leading clan by being the most populous. I can see the Outworld Waste becoming their version of the Kerensky Cluster.
I could see Amanda commanding a crew of Rockjack and Snow Raven for the ship and some Scorpions Seekers for the exploration side. ^-^
-
I can see the Scorpions migrating to Kowloon. Excellent story as always. Can't wait for the next installment.
-
Shakes head.
Those population losses...
Dammit, Thomas, did you learn nothing from 2784-2865?
Great tale, cannonshop, thanks for sharing.
-
Man, I go to work for ONE day, and look at the place! :D
Thanks for the date stamps, and well told! It will be missed... :thumbsup:
-
Shakes head.
Those population losses...
Dammit, Thomas, did you learn nothing from 2784-2865?
Great tale, cannonshop, thanks for sharing.
Pretty much every 'fanfic'/Ngoverse version of the WoB Jihad was in one way or another, worse than what actually made it to print at Catalyst. Initially it was to try and make Devlin Stone make sense, later it's just 'one of those things'. This time around, in THIS story, it's a two-parter and thus, worse than even my usual.
From a certain point of view.
the Canon Jihad started in 3067. "Operation:Jihad" in this setting was a concerted effort to roll back the Clans, starting not too terribly long after, because instead of dissolving the Nu Star League, Vicky kept the band together for around thirteen more years until the Master got impatient and kicked things off late.
Thus, on the macro scale, a longer 'war' and more horrific, but with the war against the Blakists only going on for about seven years in the eighties, instead of from 3067 to 3080.
Twice the duration, but only the latter half would be termed "The Great War"-you know, like other conflicts that caused enormous body counts (such as 1914 to 1918.)
Part of THAT being that they whupped the Clans REAL good before the WoB turned their coats and attacked their allies, so the Clans were kind of in a position of some already defecting, thus fewer side shows and more focus on the main event...which still ended up being a hard, nasty slog, but didn't result in the kind of societal chaos that spawns messiahs out of nowhere.
In semi-modern political terms, Victoria, et al were able to achieve a 'symphony of Europe' condition in part thanks to a single adversary, only changing that adversary when the Blakists made their play to take over the business, resulting in a bipolar situation astrographically first vs. the Clans, only Liz exploited the fundamental weaknesses of the Clans, leading to a unified putsch that really hurt the Crusaders LOTS...and then Victoria was able to turn that trick a second time when the Blakists practically gift-wrapped an enemy for her to keep everyone together for. (Well, her, and Sun Tzu, and Tom Halas, and Theodore Kurita, and Ragnar...)
at the end of THIS story, the new adversary has yet to be revealed. This is deliberate on my part, I ran through all the good ones like an alcoholic lotto winner during happy hour at one of those upscale bars with the scantily clad wait staff.
Means I plum ran out of credible baddies. probably should've taken longer, or set the stage for something or someone to take up the black hats.
at the 'present' in this timeline, everyone still has their domestic squabbles, but those are muted. The human sphere has just been through twenty years of horrific war, everyone is tired, They finally think they have peace, and even the secessionists, radicals, ideologues and stooges are worn out. Further, the Fedcom and a few select allies have domestic forces that can provide measured response without dropping Battlemechs into down-town, making things like the Glengarry rising kind of difficult to execute and achieve.
Patrick Ngo's period as Duke of Kowloon will be marked as one of that system's most peaceful, and profitable times. Prosperity lifts many boats, and even the OWA, Taurians, Canopians, and Cappellans will benefit from this brief 'peace dividend'.
so I need a new baddie. Someone or some group that can appear out of nowhere (credibly) to threaten everyone and throw it all into chaos.
any suggestions?
-
any suggestions?
Evil alien space lizards? And not the cute cuddlely Speilberg alien type of lizard, either.
I'm thinking bat crap crazy, evil saurons, who spew toxic acid with thick scales. Kinda like Trek ToS Gorns but faster.
-
Cannonshop
:beer: :clap: :rockon: :thumbsup:
Bad guys who can pop out if nowhere, Wolverines?
Or someone who brings together surviving Black Dragon, WOB, Brotherhood of Cincinnatus, Thuggees, into an organization like V.E.N.O.M.
lead by someone like him(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/c3/Blofeldpleasance67.jpg)
-
Enemy from within? The AI Singularity? Or from without - Caspar technology with Von Neumann machines in the deep periphery pick up disturbances associated with the Great War, and send a pod to investigate? Tabi mk II?
-
Two ideas:
- from the inside. You got the Master by said nothing about Hapy and the rest of the Domini. And you stated ourself that the Five were not discovered/destroyed so the Wobbies can come back more modified then ever.
- Something from the deep periphery found an impetus to come to the sphere. Maybe something from the California Nebula... or weirder as you can imagine. ^-^ :P
-
Crossovers, but weird. Say an anomaly created contact with
- The Empire of Man (Niven & Pournelle, see 'Mote in God's Eye')
- battling fleets from the Horus Heresy era thrown out of the Warp, which then leads to demonic attention given to the IS ...
Or read "And I Feel Fine", for some inspired crossovers ...
-
go simple, an accident, honest to god actual accident that takes out
2 or 3 major players at a council, especially any who dont have children,
or a simple lone loon who came across some nerve gas etc
-
any suggestions?
Given the Federated Commonwealth still looms over the Inner Sphere like a monolith, I'd be inclined to think that either Victoria's successor feels they should push for further reuniting the Inner Sphere (permanent First Lordship, press historic claims, etc) or that the other Star League members are so paranoid of this that they start plotting to destroy the FedCom.
I'd lean towards the former simply for the 'live long enough to see yourself become the villain' vibe and having a somewhat cyclic nature of who the good-guys/bad-guys are, but that's just me.
-
I'd lean towards the former simply for the 'live long enough to see yourself become the villain' vibe and having a somewhat cyclic nature of who the good-guys/bad-guys are, but that's just me.
Hmm... yeah... why relinquish power to someone else when you know that none of them could possibly wrangle this bag of cats as well as you managed to? It would be inviting disaster! The rules say you have to relinquish power, but the rules aren´t a suicide pact, are they?
(the above being how they themselves justify the thing to themselves, good intentions being the paving material for the road to hell and all that...)
-
What about the Marians? If, say, some fleeing WoB forces make it out there, that could boost their productivity and tech enough to become a real threat over time.
-
Great Writing here :thumbsup:
Do the Canon thing: HPG outage 8) and go from there
Avoid crossing over into other (game) universes: too much mix-ups will spoil the plot.
Just please write Kowloon as the mother of all munchkinism AFAIAC ^-^
-
Well, to tie back into another story of yours... the Cylons.
Yes, I'm saying to bring back Hunted Tribes and But Somehow A Most Melancholy.
-
Well, to tie back into another story of yours... the Cylons.
Yes, I'm saying to bring back Hunted Tribes and But Somehow A Most Melancholy.
As delightfully welcome as more of those stories would be (and Lord knows I’ve been procrastinating about cross-posting Melancholy to SB.com long enough), I don’t know that replacing one band of delusional techno-religious lunatics (WoB) with another (Cylons) would quite work in this iteration of things.
Maybe reach over into another timeline and borrow the Kess’Rith from Renegade Legion? Some of the tech-issues could be handwaved, and if nothing else, watching the IS’ collective head implode when they realise that these people (gasp!) don’t use BattleMechs at all would be... entertaining.
Or there’s always a race/coalition-of-races from X-COM (or XCOM, depending on which iteration the writer prefers), for some real culture-shock.
-
Another idea-the Covenant show up and find that instead of a humanity with small numbers of super soldiers and a majority of people still using 21st century firearms, they run into Battlemechs, lasers, PPCs, armor unlike anything they've ever seen, and a populations reaching well past the trillions among the Inner Sphere and beyond.
-
Another idea-the Covenant show up and find that instead of a humanity with small numbers of super soldiers and a majority of people still using 21st century firearms, they run into Battlemechs, lasers, PPCs, armor unlike anything they've ever seen, and a populations reaching well past the trillions among the Inner Sphere and beyond.
One Necro. Two. It would not matter. If anything they are worse off because of shit space tech. The Covenant dont even bother with ground fight unless forced they just take the orbits and glass worlds then pick through the wreckage if they feel like it.