spinoff BSG crossover Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale complete

[cawest]

Jaime sends a deeply coded Black Box message to the nearest FedCom unit in the updated code book that he had been sure to bring along on this mission.  The encryption was not to keep the data in that message from the Styx, but only Jaime knew that he had left a decoding book with the people who lived off the edge of the map.  He had a suspicion that this was not needed, but it was a show of trust on his part to this strange ally.  A second message was sent from the Chieftain, but this one was just sent via a Radio transmission and limited to the speed of light.  It also was a very short message, containing only two words.  Those words were Gama Seven.  It always was best to come up with a whole shopping list of possible plans you might need to fall back on. 

######

When the Black Box communication message was decoded at the FedCom base it was then filed with both the MIIO and LIC.  Then the special LIC agent had a message sent to the POC code word laced message via the ComStar run HPG network.  It would only take a total of 26 hours for the message to be received by all of the Dragoon contract holders after it was first put into the HPG network.  That would start the ball rolling now that the contract was done.  It was reported that all of the clauses had been needed to be activated, and the payments made ready to be transferred.  Clauses with the new ComStar, FedCom, and the TDF were not the only ones that had needed to be activated that day. 

The original plan had it that the Chieftain would launch after the battle was over and join back up with the Styx to get a fast ride back to the Split system.  With all of the damage done on the planet’s surface and the use of not one but two Blake’s Will warships.  Well, that had thrown all of the most likely contingency plans right out the old air lock.  Then again that was why a good command team came up with many different plans to cut down the jumping through hoops that would be needed when Old Murphy showed up on the battlefield.  Now the Chieftain would be staying on this planet and the whole command would fall under the Ground Commander Major Madeux and not Jaime Wolf. 

A crew was drawn up from a mix of trained aerospace personnel and one of the aerospace fighter pilots off of the Overlord to do a two-part mission.  The main ex-ComStar compound might have been turned into a blasted ruin, but that didn’t mean that all of the Blake’s Will assets on this planet were rubble.  A long-ranged shuttle was checked out and cleared for flight from one of the main backup fighter support bases.  Jaime Wolf was loaded onto the craft and when he left this planet, and now no one would “know” that he had ever been there in the first place. 

The small craft could “only” make 1.25gs to the hiding jumpship due to medical needs of one Jaime Wolf, and you have no idea how much that bothered the Old Wolf to be told this when he complained about the pace of this flight.  Not soon enough for Jaime, the long-ranged shuttle docked with the jumpship, but they only stayed attached long enough to unload Jaime, his baggage, and refuel the small craft with air and fuel.  The small craft made a little faster transit back in the general direction of the planet, but that was not because the shuttle’s crew was in a hurry to get back planet side. 

Dropping off The Wolf was only half of the mission that this craft had been required to perform.  Now the small craft had to catch the mostly remaining warship used in this attack, the frigate.  After they had caught up to it, they had to put a remote beacon on the outer hull so that it would help the Dragoons or contract holders to find it at a later time.  After all space is a damn big place and even an over half a million tons of warship was barely a grain of sand on a huge beach that made up just one Star System. There still were hundreds of warships that had been “lost” due to people forgetting the orbit the wrecks had been put in at the time of their abandonment. 

The payment for the Dragoons to run this “training mission” was not just in cash funds, nor would ComStar be the only one paying the dime on the contract payout.  If this mission had a points system of some kind?  Then the more points the mission went sideways, the more that the Dragoons would get out of the deal.  It had taken a lot of lawyer’s time to get ComStar, the Dragoons, the FedCom, and the Taurian Concordat to agree to this complication in the planning of this operation that was in their back yard. 

Soon one of the old SLDF made Newgrange class yardships under ComStar’s control would be escorted by a pair of FedCom crewed warships and supported by half a dozen jumpships would be heading this way.  ComStar would be re-taking control of this area, but in the long term, the planet would fall under the Bulls to govern.  The Dragoons and the FedCom would each be getting one of the smaller but new built Faslane class yardships being made at Titan base in the far-off Sol system.  They also would only be charged a 1 percent fee on any new yardship hulls of that design that the pair of governments would build to support the growing fleets of both the Dragoons and the FedCom. 

The fleeing Blake’s Will yardship would be collected by a different group than anyone connected with the Inner Sphere.  Part of the data that Jaime had given over to the hidden SLIC team when he had been brought back to the Styx was the expected current location of that Faslane class vessel, how long it should be there, and were it was expected to go to when no one else showed at the rendezvous point.  The information about the yardship had been in the briefing given to the Dragoons by ComStar before the contract had been finalized.  The price for the SLiE’s help had been a yardship, and they didn’t care if it was a used one or one fresh off the building slips near Outreach.  For some reason Jaime doubted that the battleship sized SLiE vessel that had been this operations backup would have that much of an issue taking over the yardship they had seen fleeing.  He even had a good idea on how they would get it back to the SLiE’s hidden home.  It was not required but Jaime was planning on leaving that Mule full of all the things needed to support a combat mission behind.  The crew would just pack up and join him on the Green Trees for the trip back to the rest of the Inner Sphere. 

Then there was the issue of the only light to mildly damage frigate that had been disabled in the battle by “some kind” of unknown internal issue.  The Dragoons didn’t need another old and poorly designed frigate that also had more issues than any two other warship designs combined.  But the Dragoons and the FedCom could use a nice cargo carrier/convoy escort… At least they could use one after it had been repaired and the right modifications done to it.  The Dragoons had both the plans for the Volga and the Clan update to that design.  Updates that had fixed most of those known issues with the first few runs of Volga modifications.  Now the Dragoons had one on hand to help the job of copying to make more of the design that the FedCom was sure to be asking for as soon as it became known that it would be possible to replicate the design. 

When the ComStar yardship made it to this far on the edge of the Inner Sphere.  It would first be required to fix the one recoverable enemy warship and safely hold it until a crew from Outreach could be sent out to bring it back to the Dragoons base for the rest of the work that needed to be done.  Work that would be needed to make it better to support the coming conflict that would be taken to Clan space if Wolf Net was right about what was happening behind certain closed doors.  The Dart class Light Cruiser was only going to be useful for refined metals maybe for the factories on the planet to use or the replacement yardship.  But in the end, it would be up to the Bulls and ComStar to figure out what to do with the wreckage of the old warship. 

What the Dragoons and contract holders didn’t know, was that a special message had been sent to the planets of the Inner Sphere just before the HPG had been blasted into a radioactive crater.  The message was not just to be read but it also contained special executable software that someone on a now long dead ROM team had put together.  This data and attached files had been found by agents of Blake’s Will that also died when the nuclear weapon had been detonated. 

#######

Commander Dulla smiled, much to her surprise and the rest of her staff, the information from Jaime Wolf had been spot on.  One of her scout Raptors had found the Faslane at a Nader Jump point of a G5v star, one of the few stars of this class with only gas giants and asteroid belts for company in this part of space.  With the updated and exact location of the massive yardship locked into the Navigation computers of Galactica and her support craft, it had been child’s play for the Battlestar to plan and then launch an assault on the unsuspecting high value high payoff target. 

The first wave of twenty Raptors had jumped into a location in space that was less than 10km from the enemy vessel and they had quickly put onto that yardship 200 SLiE Marines fitted with space rated combat PA(L)s.  It would have been better if they had the 1ton battle armor suits, but corridors on the old Battlestar were too low for them to move around without causing damage to the vessel and the Marines.  And if it was too low on the Battlestar than it would be the same situation for any non-clan warships they might find themselves in.  The 200 marines in their armored suits cut thew the defenders like a hot knife threw butter.  When a dozen Raptors returned after picking up another load of combat forces?  There was not much that they were needed to do, so they were mainly used to keep an eye on the POWs. 

The two supply or support dropships had tried to make a break for deeper into the star system in the vein hope of avoiding capture when it was clear that the yardship was lost.  That idea went right out the airlock when the Galactica jumped in between the two dropships and the “safety” of the inner system.  Between the weapons of a battleship sized warship and over six dozen aerospace fighters, the support dropships returned to the Yardship.  Now it was time for the hard part. 

The crew of the old warship spent the next week inspecting the newly captured yardship for any boobytraps and finding them by the boat load.  This just happened to also “let” some of the crew members that really didn’t want to be POWs act up…. and get blasted out an airlock for their troubles.  It might have been a surprise, but a good part of the 232 crew and passengers on the yardship were not that thrilled to be part of Blake’s Will.  The same was not true for the crews of the Mammoth and Octopus class dropships, they ended up dying along with 50 members of the yardship. 

Thanks to the training of carrying “super cargo” the colonial flag ship had been able to slowly close the distance between the two vessels.  In three days the yardship was finally secured to the armored hull and then the great Battlestar started jumping back to the New Circe system.  The Battlestar’s only long term stop would be at the Split system were any troublemakers would be held until they could be brought to New Circe.  That would be done a few at a time so that they could be better integrated into the population, just like what had been done with the captured ComStar and pirate ships after the founding of New Circe.  The yardship had a long list of ships that would need its attention, and that work would start within a week of coming to its new home. 

########

Notes: 

Raid:  Explorer Corps Rimward Operations Area HQ: Hellespont, Taurian Concordat,Commander: Precentor Saskia Dinelli, Deputy: Demi-Precentor Alain Crosier.  Other Explorer Corps posts:  Spinward Exploration Theater: Demi-Precentor Simon Bland, Anti-Spinward Exploration Theater: Demi- Precentor Lisle von Radoslov.

Hellespont forces:  Weak lvl III mechs, Lvl III Inf, Lvl II armor (Lvl III if any warm body was put into a tank), Lvl II aero fighters.  Some merc units (2 different companies, and 4 different Lances). 

Blakes Will aerospace:  2 Trident 3Ts, 2 60ton Gotha 500, and 2 Ahab 443’s

Dragoon aerospace.  The rolls were not kind to the BWs.  2 100ton Chippewa IIC, 2 95ton Hydaspes and 2 40ton Pellas. 

Dragoon command lance.  Thunderbolt WD (9W) JJ 120M, 15DHS, CLPL in R arm,3x torso CMPL and LRM10, Victor C, Archer WD, (the Wolf 2 cERLL in arms, 2cmpl in rear 2 clrm20 with Artemis IV, ECM and AMS, case and 15 DHS, and Warhammer C

Dart class Light cruiser: 680k, with 6 small craft, 6 drop collars, Killer whale missiles (TRO 3057U) speed 2/3

Quixote class frigate: 780kton with 12 fighters, 6 small craft, 6 drop collars Nac 30s, killer whale, White sharks, and barracuda missiles. (TRO 3057U) speed 2/3. 

The speed of Galactica.  I think that the old bucket is as fast as a Texas class battleship so that is 3/5. 

Suicide sleds:  whale shark missiles fitted with 8 Centurions.  Yes, I stole this idea from David Weber and Steven White Starfire book:  Crusade. 

Names of the 1st squad of Centurions on the sled:  Hal-9000, Max Headroom, Red Queen, and A.R.C.H.I.E 3.  Have fun looking those up and connecting the dots 😊. 

[willis]

ARCHIE 3, LOL, Max Headroom and HAL 9000, classic

[Orangeduke38]

I'm really surprised the SLiE would leave the missile frigate for WD to collect. Emptying its magazines alone would provide a nice repayment for services rendered and they could always sell the ship if they don't want to keep it.

[Intermittent_Coherence]

So the Taurians get the planet but none of the military hardware?

[cawest]

So the Taurians get the planet but none of the military hardware?

they get a planet with 5 mech lines that are working (Wolverine, Phoenix, Rampage, UI assault, and a UI light), two tank and two APCs lines that need work.  They also got the CL, but it was a too much of a wreck so will be used to supply the yardship and factories.  the damaged Star Lord is still in orbit so that would be something that they would have to work out.  all for just being okay with the WD doing the bleeding. 

[cawest]

I'm really surprised the SLiE would leave the missile frigate for WD to collect. Emptying its magazines alone would provide a nice repayment for services rendered and they could always sell the ship if they don't want to keep it.

time was an issue, but pulling live missiles out of a wrecked hull is also dangerous without a shipyard or other specialized type crew.  Could the beast have done it... yes.    but the SLiE was more focused on the Yardship. they just stuck to the plan going for the bird in the hand vs two in the bush.  This also was the slowly opening door of getting more involved with IS issues.   

[Orangeduke38]

Given the warship repair facilities on the planet have the TC gotten the specs for different warship designs? Given the age of the Dart it should be easier to put into production than something newer. Just the designs for various parts like the engines would allow for work on new designs to take place. The mech designs and examples of production equipment will really change the TC's position in the next decades with an Assault and other things filling out big gaps in their ToE.

[EAGLE 7]

  Great update, I think your storytelling has leveled up.  I look forward to the next chapters.

[Kyryst]

Great Read! I am SURE that the last message sent will be interesting in the chinese sense of the word. Are we about to see Clarion unleashed early?

And just wondering, who gets the Star Lord Jumpship that was under repair and dumped out of the Faslane?

[Intermittent_Coherence]

they get a planet with 5 mech lines that are working (Wolverine, Phoenix, Rampage, UI assault, and a UI light), two tank and two APCs lines that need work.  They also got the CL, but it was a too much of a wreck so will be used to supply the yardship and factories.  the damaged Star Lord is still in orbit so that would be something that they would have to work out.  all for just being okay with the WD doing the bleeding.

Tank and APC lines will ironically be valued more in the short term. They're not exactly short on mech assembly lines, combat vees OTOH. Though the fact that these are mediums and assaults will mean they will fill out gaps in the Taurians' portfolio quite nicely.

[cawest]

Chapter 93:  The End…for me

By Cliff
Beta and Clean up:  Not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

Early 3058
Whitting Conference
Harlech, Outreach

“Are you a mercenary unit or militia supporting your planet on a tight budget but are out gunned by pirates?  Are you a Security professional and you can’t afford the new generation of extended range 8cm lasers that are on the market across the Inner Sphere.  Then MMM has the answer that you have been looking for.  It is in our new Ace-Improved 8cm Gamma beam Laser, and for those that might have missed the press release in Mechwarrior monthly for the last few months.  The Ace Improved laser is a ton lighter and more compact, but at the same time comes with the same energy output on target as any standard 8cm laser on the market.  This miracle of engineering was done without any increase in heat load for pilots to have to deal with, even when firing a full power charge.  Also contact your local MMM sale representative for reference information on the close out sale of our now discontinued 8cm Ace class weapons.  Once supplies are gone, they are gone!” 

With a sly smile the salesperson fired the final shot.  “You will only get lower performance 8cm models from our competitors around the marketplace.” 

The salesperson’s smile went to full power showing a lot of teeth, and he looked right at the camera with a gleam in his eyes that should have seen him fitted with an “I love me jacket” if they were doing anything but this job.  “Keep an ear out for more reduced size and massed weapons coming to you from MMM, all to meet your combat needs in the near future.  We are “the” cutting-edge supplier of weapons technology for all of the Inner Sphere!!” 

Hanse Davion wanted to smile, but he couldn’t at this publicly available advert bouncing around the whole Inner Sphere for the last few months.  NAIS, MIIO, and LIC all were all surprised when word had leaked out that the MoC was working on releasing a whole new line of improved weapons.  Weapons that were almost as impressive as when the MoC started up mass production of Late Star League grade weapons years ago.  The first had been that improved ER PPC that they called the Bear Slayer, and many intel and corporate R and D teams had just assumed that it was a one-off break through.  Oh, how wrong all of those experts had turned out to be. 

Then this improved 8cm laser was seen in testing at a “secret” MMM weapon’s range, and all of those assumptions made by experts had been tossed into the nearest shredder.  Now many of those report writers were wondering aloud that it would only be a matter of time before extended range 8cm and 8cm pulse lasers also might be going on a diet thanks to the engineers over at MMM.  Many were also wondering how long it would take for these reduced sized weapons to become the new standard for those that could not field captured clan grade weapons. 

Hanse shut off the display with the advert for MMM with a too hard-pressed button on the remote in his right hand.  Then he retrieved another data package on an independent noteputer that he had to review before dinner, and quickly he wanted to smash the noteputer against the wall.  His marriage might have started out as a purely political one, but it had changed over the years.  Now he truly loved his wife and the thought of anyone who would threaten her, or his kids had stoked a deep anger in him that surprised even him.  Hanse had felt like he wanted to burn worlds to get at those responsible. 

It took a lot of willpower to get back into why he was on this planet and not with his family like he wanted.  This important meeting had been first called to be held on the capital of the FedCom New Avalon, but later it had been later agreed on that the planet Outreach was both a better fit and easier for all groups in question to make the trip there.  At least it was easier to get to that star system without causing to many issues for the leadership of the different groups within the Inner Sphere to have to deal with…. for now. 

The reason for that last spat of anger was the reason that his wife was not standing beside him for the most important meeting being held within the Inner Sphere since the breakup of the Star League in the 2780’s.  Instead, she was needed to oversee the court case against the person that had tried to kill her a few years ago.  That kind of thing happens when the accused of that heinous crime has the same last name as the Archon’s family.  It was just a to high profile of a case to hand off the problem to one of their staff members, even a senior one would have been to low ranked for the press and public to accept. 

The event had happened on January 3 3056 after the final New Years banquet on Tharkad had been about to start.  That was when a bomb that had been set up in some planters near where Melissa had been walking to open the banquet had changed things.  If it had not been for her leading guards outfitted in their recon grade Blackhawk armored suits doing one last sweep in front of the slowly walking Melissa?  Then it was almost a certainty that the bomb would have killed her and anyone else who was standing to near to the planters.  The scout armored suits were not damaged that badly in the bomb’s blast, and the built-in scouting systems had even been able to gather a lot of data before a hidden timer had set off the device in their faces. 

All it took was for Melissa to “play” dead for a few days to see who would be the first to try to take advantage of her “death” in such a public manner.  That might have been a bad “prank” to play on the public by playing dead, and there would be issues that were expected to come up with the way this was handled.  But LIC, Loki, and Heimdall had a short list of suspects that they had to sift through that might have been involved in this assassination attempt, and soon that list was reduced to one name… Ryan Stiener. 

In less than a week enough information had been gathered to arrest the Steiner and the operation had started with a leaked set of images of Melissa being rolled out of a hospital in a wheelchair but very much alive.  The public uplift of seeing that she was alive was mixed with a public surge of anger to make sure anyone remotely connected with the plan to kill her would wish that they could fall into a black hole and never be seen again.  It was a tossup on if Loki or Heimdall might have led with a few changes of family leadership of some of the most troublesome of the powerful noble families on that side of the FedCom.  Those changes were back page news compared to the “archon” surviving an assassin. 

######

The rest of 3056 had been just as filled with as much turmoil as in any other time recorded in human history.  The joint intelligence groups within the FedCom had briefed the leadership almost monthly on something earth shattering going on around the Inner Sphere or in Clan space.  One of the biggest had been the news that the Ghost Bears and the Nova Cats had completely moved into the occupied areas of the Inner Sphere under everyone’s noses leaving what they called the Pentagon Worlds behind. 

Clan Wolf was also almost complete in their own move to follow those other two clans to the Inner Sphere, but they had been slower in making the final lifts of people and material from the Clan Home Worlds to make it to their Inner Sphere Occupation zone.  The clan known as the Goliath Scorpions had just “officially” finally taken over the last planets in the groups that had been known as Nueva Castile and the Umayyad Caliphate right at the end of 3056.  They also had stopped calling themselves members of the clan and in an ominous move they had started calling themselves the Scorpion Empire.  That was going to start all kinds of problems when the average person within the Inner Sphere found out about that name change. 

Then there also had been the fallout of the Dragoon raid to cull another major part of the terrorist group calling themselves Blake’s Will.  What had been the biggest surprise of the century, and it had later been tracked back to that mission.  That was when a “message” had been sent to every news outlet within the FWL by a blind multiple HPG message.  What was known was that the messages held a full data file…complete with footnotes to other files that just happened to be in the public domain if not noticed until those messages had been sent.  It turns out that the current Thomas Marik was not even a Marik, but some man called Thomas Halas.  This news had broken the FWL in more ways than one and left the rest of the Inner Sphere picking up the pieces. 

The reported death of “his” son had not even caused a ripple or worth a four second news bite within the rest of the FWL.  Hanse was just glad he didn’t need to use the body double to keep the supplies needed to fight and then rebuild from the Clans flowing.  The breakup had slowed down but had not stopped this flow of badly needed weapons.  Each side of the breakup needed cash and contacts that this trade facilitated, so the tap was still on and was still set at way more than a dribble. 

That shakeup had started almost 18months ago and things had not been quiet on the FWL front ever sense that news had first broken.  It was only with some help from the FedCom, MoC, and ComStar that the Confederation military and leadership had not been able to take advantage of this breaking up of the FWL.  The last thing those three main groups, and a long list of others, wanted was a more powerful totalitarian Capellen Confederation in the Inner Sphere. 

So, stopping the expansion of the Confederation into the area that had once been the FWL border area had to be balanced with not wanting the breakaway groups to think that they were being invaded by “just” a different outside power.  That was the main reason why no Lyran units had been involved in those missions in the FWL.  Well besides the main units that the FedCom, Hanse had also spent a lot of coin hiring mercenary units to shore up the former boarder lines between the two Houses.  Yea that had been a very fine tightrope to walk….. in a hurricane. 

######

In 3057 Wolf Net reported to MIIO and LIC that the Wolves, Jade Falcons, and Steel Vipers had been fighting something called the Refusal War by the rest of the Clans in battles that stretched from the Clan home worlds all the way to the two shared lines in the occupation zones.  All that anyone knew for sure was that the Falcons had broken almost every clan law, including the use of warships to fire into civilian cities, all in that fight to stop the rest of the Wolves from successfully finishing moving into the Inner Sphere.  Some reports had said that it had been a total blood bath that rivaled some of the bad old days of the 1st SW. 

That three-way war had lasted for all of that year and a little into this one, all before the Falcons and Steel Vipers had slowed down the number of attacks on the Wolves so that everyone could catch their breath.  This might have been helped just a little thanks to the FedCom and ComStar launching a few counter attacks that took a few worlds back from those two blood thirsty clans while they were looking at the wolves with blood in their eyes.  These pin prick attacks had gone over very well within the Lyran part of the FedCom and what was left of the FRR, when the reports were released to the public at large. 

Those two Clans had broken even their own most highly regarded rules of war, and that was the official reason why this meeting had been successfully called.  A great meeting that was hoped to come up with a way to show the rest of the Clans that the Inner Sphere was not going to be a pushover any longer… as if the battles of 3050 had been an easy row to hoe for the clans.  Few would know that this had been in the works for a few years now. 

Hanse spent the rest of the day being one of the two leaders of the FedCom doing the most mondain duties of leading a political group that spanned hundreds of light years.  Hanse had to set an alarm so that he made sure to get to bed early, because he was expecting that it was going to be a very long week with the start of this conference that was hoped by many to be the founding of a New Star League. 

#######

Hanse and the First Prince in Training Victor were walking into the room that would hold this groundbreaking conference.  Hanse would be the face of the FedCom, Capellan Confederation had Sun-Tzu, and members from each of the major splinter groups that made up areas of the FWL were already in the room.  They were soon joined by members from the Draconis Combine, ComStar, St. Ives, Taurian Concordat, Magistacy of Canopus, Wolf’s Dragoons, Clan Wolf, Ghost Bear, Nova Cat and the Scorpion Empire. 

The plan was that the former members of the SLDF that had fled from the Inner Sphere, and that included the Dragoons, were not going to have a vote in this meeting.  They were there only to act as observers and in case any Clan specific questions were asked by the gathered power players of the Inner Sphere.  The other Periphery powers had been invited to attend this meeting, but none had replied that they would be sending a representative.  It was a sad day that this was expected from most of them, but at least the two most powerful of that fractious lot would be attending. 

The Dragoons were running this meeting even if Jaime Wolf might be a Duke within the FedCom, a one-time member of the Dragoons, and a former member of Clan Wolf.  But his group was a mercenary unit and they had worked for all of the major Inner Sphere powers.  The Dragoons were the ones that had “won” the right to be at the head of this table and manage the herding of cats this event was likely to turn into even if they didn’t currently have a “real” vote in any outcome. 

#######

Sun-Tzu Liao, the head of the Confederation delegation sneered at the rest of the room like they were beneath him.  “Now that we are all finally hear, why have we not started?” 

Jaime looked down at his watch and kept is face very still at the insult he had just been given by Sun-Tzu.  Jaime had a mental countdown running in his mind and nothing that overdressed flop was going to ruin this day.  He had only reached 10 and was about to go to 9 when a support member from the Confederation delegation came running into the room and dropped to Sun-Tzu’s feet before the echo of the slamming doors had stopped.  “Wisdom!!  A Texas sized warship just appeared in orbit over the Planet without warning and no IFF… We have been betrayed!!!” 

Wolf Net had been sure that some of the delegations sent to this meeting had set up powerful scanning systems in their dropships, assigned offices or both.  It was just that those systems had been listed as being banned by the Dragoons in the written invitations that each group had been sent and accepted.  This running man had just proved that the Confederation had broken those rules, and this was a breach of etiquette that Jaime was going to be using to beat Sun-Tzu over the head with if not now than in the near future. 

So, Jaime just smiled and gave Sun-Tzu a level look that should have made the other man cower in fear.  Thanks to the years of being the leader of the best and one of the largest mercenary units within the Inner Sphere, Jaime could tell that the leader of the Confederation knew that he had been busted by this action.  “I think that this is the last member that “We” have invited to attend this great meeting after some very long travel in their Battlestar class vessel.  After they land, we can start this meeting.” 

Everyone in the room saw that odd smile on Duke Wolf’s face and more than a few started to sweat at what that might mean, but the old man just smiled and continued with his line of thought.  “I would suggest that you all contact your people, and maybe let them know that their unauthorized systems are only detecting the expected last member of this meeting arriving and not an attack of some kind.  We would not want there to be any misunderstandings.  That is why we put that little line in the invitations in the first place.” 

########

The arrival of the massive Battlestar this way had been planned for as soon as Jaime had sent word about the details of this meeting to the Split system.  Jaime was one of the few within the Inner Sphere that knew about the Cylons and that they had pulled back from human space after the battles of New Circe a few years ago.  This was hoped to be the start of Clan Wolverine coming out of the shadows to be on the big stage of the Inner Sphere.  If they could kick in the teeth of a few of the other Clans at the same time?  Then all the better in the opinion of the SLiE and Jaime Wolf. 

The arrival also would show that this group was not to be messed with and not just another down teched group living on the edge of nowhere that could be blown off.  This was only the first show to be put on by the SLiE, but it would not be the last one needed to come from the SLiE and the Colonials in the coming days, weeks, and months.  What the group of leaders on this planet didn’t know was that not one of the leaders on this planet would have access to the technologies that the SLiE used to wage war…  Well, the Wolverines would only hold back any tech that was not related to the Clans or the old Star League.  Then again MMM was in the pocket of the SLiE and they were the local supplier of items not seen within the Inner Sphere.  Jaime, Wolf Net, and maybe the Nova Cats were the only ones that knew that the new generation of weapons coming out of MMM were based on data and examples that had come from the Pentagon Worlds from before the founding of the clans. 

It was half an hour later when the meeting was rejoined but to the surprise of many, no new people were in the main meeting room waiting for them.  As the group of leaders from the Inner Sphere took their seats the tall twin doors of the meeting room opened once more and in walked a man and woman that had not been there before.  One was in a nicely cut business suit and the other was in a modified SLDF Naval uniform. 

Jaime rose from his seat at the head of the table to address the room.  “Ladies and Gentlemen!  I would like to present to you all, President Lee Adama and Admiral Gao.  The pair represent the groups called the Colonies of Kobal and the Star League in Exile.” 

[cawest]

Jaime smiled and hit a hidden button that would activate a set of hidden cameras and point them at the faces of each of the people within the room.  He was expecting to review those faces for entertainment for the rest of his life… or he would put copies of them in the next book with his updated autobiography.  “The SLiE was founded by what remained of a group that some in this room have called Clan Wolverine or the Minnesota Tribe in the past.  It would seem that the reports of their demise were more than a little exaggerated.” 

The room exploded into noise and so went the rest of the day as some updated history was told to the gathered group of power players.  It had turned into a very long day and night for those in that room to have to deal with.  All Jaime Wolf did was sit back and smile at the crap storm he had been a key part in setting up. 

Two days later Commander Dulla and the mistress of the great Battlestar Galactica was walking down a corridor as the meeting broke for a meal break and to allow for some tempers to come down at least a little.  “Commander Dulla, may I have a few moments of your time?” 

Dee had to fight to keep the sour look off her face, but after a few long seconds she turned and had to quickly work out that this was a member of the Goliath Scorpions or Scorpion Empire delegation as they were taken to being called.  Dee was really wishing that Fleet Admiral Thrace was here and let her deal with these “leaders”.  Instead, Dee looked down at her watch and made sure her face didn’t show that she would have preferred to get some food or shoot herself in her own foot than share words with this clanner. 

Then she smiled at the younger man.  “I was headed to the food court, would that due?” 

The Scorpion Star Colonel slowed and took a few seconds to think, after all a public meeting was not ideal, but it was better than nothing and just having the meeting was most important.  The man gave a slight head nod in agreement, and he had fallen into step beside the woman.  The pair of officers walked without speaking further and this stayed the same as the two gathered up some food and went to a table that was some distance from any other occupied table.  After a few bites of food and a long sip of something that was supposed to be cherry tea, the colonial officer gives the man a look. 

The Scorpion looked very uncomfortable for a few seconds and still looked that way when he started talking.  “You are from one of the original planets of what they called the Twelve Colonies of Kobal….quiaff?” 

Dee gave the man a look and then pushed her food away toward the center of the table, this was not something that she had been expecting.  “Yes, I was born and raised on Sagittaron.  And for some reason I think you know that name.  But how?” 

The military man played with his food for a few seconds.  “Yes, and You are not the first colonial that my clan has met.” 

Deep space
Colonial Agro and Botanical research ship Dionysus. 

Tomas Fraser or Boss Fraser was tired, and it clearly showed on his face for everyone to see, but they all had the same worry lines if not worse.  This modified spaceship had started life as a Agro and Botanical research ship called the Dionysus many, many moons ago.  It also had been the last “human” ship to leave Monus Base when the Cylons had finally found that hidden facility.  Tomas knew that after the Ogygia had been destroyed that it was only a matter of time before the Cylons found this base.  Now this ship held what remained of his group, at least the ones that had not died delaying the attacking ships of the Cylon Empire.  There were only three thousand souls on this ship, but besides three unlucky clans there were at least a few members from each clan of the Ha’la’tha and even some from the groups of what normally would have been in competition with them like the Basileus crime Syndicate.  Now all that matters was that they were human, and they all had close to the same mind set. 

Thanks to Captain Hewitt, the Monus pirate base had been able to cull any hidden human form Cylons in the groups that had used that base.  That had not stopped the Cylons from finding that base that had been around since the first Cylon War, it just meant that it had taken a fleet of six capital ships to use massive nuclear weapons to crack the asteroid like a mountain range sized egg to get at the hiding humans.  It was only thanks to Boss Fraser’s planning that even half of the population of the base had been saved when the attack was seen as it was still coming in.  Still, it had been at a very high cost to get those souls out of harm’s way in the form of the loss of all but three of what had been pirate warships before this new war. 

The Dionysus had been a research ship but one that was not fitted with the ability to jump any distance, so samples normally would be brought to it.  That had not stopped the Cylons from finding a way to kill the crew of the small Agro and Botanical research ship at the start of the New Cylon war.  The ship had been quickly recovered and moved to Monus Base under her own power, after all the ship would need to be taken in for heavy maintenance from time to time before the Cylons had come.  The ship had been slowly refitted with parts that had been overlooked by the Cylons.  This find and the parts needed to make the modifications had even been hidden from members of the SLiE.  That mainly was done out of old habits of being a criminal organization. 

The first modification had been refitting the ship with a set of repaired jump drives that had originally come from a mostly wrecked colonial Valkyrie class Battlestar.  It was also hoped that at least some of the medium sized recovered KEW turrets could be fitted to her hull, but it turned out that their mass and recoil would be too much for the civilian designed ship’s hull.  That had not stopped the pirates from fitting the ship with as many of the 50mm close in weapons systems that could be diverted from other needs. 

With the loss of the Monus base, Boss Fraser had first taken this ship and the survivors to Ragnar.  Only he had been forced to leave the area without making contact with the base that was supposed to be hidden within the upper layers of the gas giant.  There was nothing that could be done and with only a rough idea, he had headed towards the hidden planet that Adama had found.  With food generated by the agro part of the ship and fuel supplied by a small refinery that all good pirate ships would possess, they had started looking for aid a long way from what had been Colonial space.  Still there was only so long a single ship could travel through deep space without accessing outside support, and the Dionysus was well past that point. 

Boss Fraser looks over the jump console a dozen steps from the seat that Fraser normally used after they had started this run.  With a head nod the order was given and the ship’s jump drive was about to be fired off one more time, and it was hoped that they would arrive over a green planet that the massive telescopes mounted on the bow of this ship had found.  For the last dozen jumps everyone on the ship would pray and cross their fingers and toes that it would not be the last one this ship would be able to undertake. 

No sooner than the jump had ended than the ship’s alarms sounded and then just as quickly the power to the lights went off.  It was a complete power failure and even the gravity supplied decks were not working like a light switch had been thrown by the gods.  About the only things that were still working on the travel weary ship, electrical wise, were the emergency lights and the SLiE supplied radio with its own battery. 

It took three hours to find out what had happened to the battered and space worn vessel.  Boss Fraser looked over to the floating chief engineer and he was worried about what he was about to be told.  “That its Boss, we’re stuck.  And when the jump drive finally packed it in?  It sent a massive power surge threw out the ship that cooked all of our connected systems.  We are only breathing because that system is completely isolated from the rest of the ship thanks to what was learned back in the First Cylon war.  In short????   We are dead in space.” 

Tomas turned, but he did so a little too hard and then over corrects when he tries to stop the twisting of his body in Zero G.  When he stopped moving, Tomas was not pointing the right way, so he just asked his question to the room.  “What have we been able to find out about this system, besides that there are people living here.” 

A young woman was holding on for dear life so that she does not go floating around the bridge…again.  They had already found out that working in zero g was not all it was cracked up to be as shown in the entertainment shows.  “They speak like the SLiE… kind of.  We think that the locals call the Planet Navarre, and it might be part of something called the Neuva Castile.  Oh, and they know we are here, but they don’t know who we are.  I think we found a lost colony??” 

Tomas Fraser smiles a tired smile that pulls up a little bit of his lips.  The information that he had gained from a person known to have been born outside of the Colonies of Kobal now was going to prove very useful to him.  “Contact them and report that we have just suffered a mis jump.  We are requesting any aid that they might be able to give us.”  He had no idea who this group might be, but the Ha’la’tha would survive. 

January 3058
Whitting Conference
Harlech, Outreach

Commander Dulla looked wide eyed at the man sitting across from her, and he was still speaking.  “So, we were able to save every soul on that ship and get them planet side.  The ship was wrecked and besides the people and the plants?  The ship was only good for being scrapped for the metal in its hull.” 

Dee took a few seconds of quiet to know that the Scorpion had finished with his story.  She was fighting not to laugh, much less smile.  “That is quite a story you have there, Star Colonel.  But why tell me about it?” 

The Scorpion now looked a little embarrassed.  “These are Colonials and they claim to be from the tribe called Ha’la’tha, but they have never said the same planet twice about were their homes were.  We would like your people to come get them……. so that they can be returned to their home tribe.” 

Dee smiled and her quick and professional mind worked out a lot with that one word of Ha’la’tha.  “That explains what happened to the pirates based out of the Acheron Asteroid belt.  I also bet you’re having a problem with Chamalla extract, Opium, Fumarella Leaf, and all kinds of low to mid-level crimes?” 

Dee could tell that she had been right.  But then again it could have been the way that she had spoken in “non-Proper SLDF English” to the clanner.  “Yea, that doesn’t really work for us.” 

The Scorpion seemed to have expected this and had a counteroffer ready to quickly give to the colonial military officer.  “My Khan understands this would be a costly endeavor, and my Khan could be seen to move them to a point that might be closer to your home worlds.  I might even convince him to pay for transporting them the rest of the way to their homes on your ships.” 

Dee was keeping her face very still, but on the inside.  She was fighting to not roll along the floor laughing her head off.  “We will pay you to keep them.”

The Scorpion started sputtering.  “You are being unreasonable!!” 

Dee smiles and stands up in one smooth motion.  “I heard this one saying before coming to this planet, and I think it fits this situation……. Finders, Keepers.”  And Dee walked off. 

She made a bee line to exit the building, and she barely made it to a nearby tree of some kind before she broke down into almost hysterical laughter.  She was so going to enjoy writing this report to be filed with SLIC.  Those Clanner fools had scrapped what should have been a massive treasure trove of new technology without thinking. 

#######

When the afternoon meeting started up, Jaime was sitting at the head of the table with now everyone sitting around the massive table.  The supporting staff that could attend the meeting had been reduced and now only two support staff members per leader were sitting against the walls of the room.  Some of the leaders in this room had been surprised at the limit put on the staff that they were able to bring to this meeting and any others that would follow today. 

When the massive doors closed to separate the security and the rest of the support staff from the most powerful of the Inner Sphere.  The meeting started with Jaime standing.  “I hope everyone didn’t eat too much for lunch, we are in for another long day.” 

At the blank looks Jaime smiles and continues with his prepared statement.  “The next part of the meeting is going to be discussing how to deal with any future invasion of the Clans.”  Jaime waves a hand, and a huge holographic system activates and projects into the center of the room.  Soon an image of the Inner Sphere is on display to the room only for it to zoom to the stars that made up the different clan occupation zones. 

Morgan Hasek-Davion enters the room from a side door and starts talking as soon as he was close to the center table.  “Thanks to working with the Dragoons and embassies of some of the other Clans, a plan has been drawn up.  The join forces of this Second Star League will need to take out enough of the clans in a way that forces the other clans to abide by the results of the trial.  To do this, it was found best to target Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Steel Viper and take back the planets of the FedCom they are sitting on.  If the Falcons had not lost so much fighting the Wolves, we would have just targeted them, but we need to be seen as strong, so we will have to take on two of them at once.  We will use how those two clans have both used orbital bombardment, had dealings with Pirates, and the way they treat the lower caste to justify our focused attacks.” 

The Kurita almost levitates out of his chair, but he is careful not to look at who he is about to verbally attack.  “We need to free the worlds that rightfully belong to the Dragon!  We will not let this occupation stand!” 

Khan West from the Nova Cat smiles at the leader of the Combine, but he replays the vision that had shown a samurai stabbing a Nova Cat that had been defending the warrior from behind.  “Those worlds do not belong to you any longer.  They have been taken by combat, just like the worlds you took from the Terran Hegemony.   quiaff?  Would you give the worlds that the Combine took from the Hegemony back to the descendance of the SLDF….. quineg?” 

Khan West’s smile shifted to one that was not in the least friendly and then the Khan of the Nova Cats looked over to the Khan of the Ghost Bears.  The pair were not going to say that they were still rebuilding to support the long-term plans of both Clans now that they had pulled everything that they could from the Pentagon Worlds.  When West looks back to the Kurita, he was still doing that dying fish thing working with his lips.  Seeing that he had scored the points that he needed, now he needs to make sure that his clan was protected. 

Khan West had no idea how long the Ghost Bears would need, but the Nova Cats needed about 18 more months, and then they would have all of their mech and aerospace fighter production facilities they had been able to evacuate returned to operation.  That would be on top of the dozens of weapons production lines they had captured, repaired and or updated from the Combine.  It would take longer for any new jumpship production to start, but the recovered cache jumpships were filling in nicely with the local made but captured jumpships.  And according to the Nova Cat’s Watch, the number of common jumpships in their OZ was more than all of the “civilian” jumpships in operation for all Inner Sphere powers but the FedCom. 

That number of jumpships would only grow as more infrastructure came online and old jumpships and nonoperational vessels could be repaired.  The Navy had so many warships, that the Nova Cats didn’t have enough crew for all of the warships they had on hand.  The two Leviathan Transports were even on half crew status while in orbit until they could get more crew trained or that a repair slip opened up and the pair could be turned into “true” battleships and free up their caretaker crews.  Still West had to admit that all of those “extra” warships just sitting around did act as a good bluffing tool.  Just having a pair or more enemy warships in system tended to complicate any attackers’ plans. 

Thanks to Morgan’s years of being trained as a high Noble of the FedSuns an now FedCom, he picks up with his briefing without missing a beat after the Combine and Clan leaders had stopped talking.  He was wondering how the elections of a new First Lord would go, but not for the first time, he was glad that he had not followed in his father’s footsteps.  With a stone face, he continued with the plans drawn up for what his staff had labeled Operation Serpent and Bulldog. 

#######

Candace Liao looks at the ornate gavel in her hands and she rolls it around as she was lost in thought.  That ornate gavel was the official sign of the office of the First Lord of the Second Star League in any meeting of the Council of the Star League.  Candace had been careful to hide the shock of winning the election for this post even if she had fought hard to get those needed votes from the rest of the leaders.  She still wonders what her father and sister would have thought that a Liao would now be the head of the Star League, at least for the next four years.  Only she was not the leader of the Capellan Confederation when this happened but the leader of a splinter group that called itself the St. Ives Compact.  Candace Liao knew that Sun-Tzu was not pleased that it was her name that was put at the top of the list with the most votes in a sign of trust in her and not him.  Part of her mind was very aware of how much joy she had on seeing Sun-Tzu stewing at the loss. 

[cawest]

Candace put the gavel down and signed a thick packet of documents that had come out of this amazing meeting, only one part of that stack had been about the plan to take the war to the Clans.  It was not a step-by-step plan of combat operations, but one that gave the military commander an end state and it was up to the Marshal of the Star League to reach that point. 

Now that the plan was approved and as soon as the messages could be sent to the HPGs station, then the forces would start to be gathering under the flag of the Second Star League.  It was deemed to cause too many issues for the currently non-voting clan members of the Star League council to send combat forces, unless under special circumstances for this fight.  First part of the plan would be the attacking and removing of the two clan forces in the Inner Sphere proper, and then they would collect forces to take a “fast” trip to clan space. 

All had not gone well in the overall strategic part of the planning.  One of the major road bumps had been when the “friendly” clans had been very smug when they had refused to hand over navigation data about their old home.  Then the fact had come out that same data had been removed from the Dragoons systems by a special team back in 3005.  The Dragoons only had the location of a few new contact systems and the systems that they had already met up to received new personnel and other supplies. 

Then the gather Clan Khans all were shocked in turn when a member from the SLiE had dropped a data pad on the table.  When the device was put into the Holo display soon it showed an image with a very detailed star map that seemed to cover stellar data that stretched from the Inner Sphere going all the way to what was marked as the Pentagon Worlds.  The way to the rest of Clan space was now opened to the military powers of the Inner Sphere, but little did the room know that there were key data points missing on what they were seeing.  The missing data was not related directly to the Clans but about systems that the SLiE wanted to keep to themselves.  At that second in time, the core of the Inner Sphere Clans knew that soon two clans of the Great Father would soon be on the shooting boards. 

June 3058
Near Clan Jade Falcon OZ

SLDF Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion was impressed with the command facilities at his command spread out around him and those hidden from view.  Every power within the Inner Sphere had sent forces for this mission, well all but the Clan forces already within the Inner Sphere.  Still there was the help from outside the Inner Sphere to counter those “missing” forces one might have hoped for.  Much to the disappointment of many political leaders, it was found out that one group of outsiders had some amazing weapons and other technology that had broken to many minds of scientists to count at their repeated demonstrations. 

The Wolf’s Dragoons had sent forces that made up over half of their available ground forces at the time.  And while the other clans would not support this mission with military forces, two Clans had been willing to send some kinds of support.  It only took the legal fiction of trials by card game and who can score the best with a warship’s weapons.  The Nova Cats and Ghost Bears had lost trials that would let a Tramp LF fitted with an obsolete Gazelle class dropship be sent to support.  The 15 heavy vehicle bays were not carrying any combat tanks, but they carried the clan version of the Wayland mobile bases in their places.  The other two dropship collars were filled with cargo dropships that had been filled with supplies needed to keep clan grade battlemechs and omnimechs on the battlefield. 

The Nova Cats had even sent a few dozen early production runs of what they were calling a rotary autocannon.  It was a massive weapon, but it had the damage output 50% greater than an AC20 but at the range of a standard AC5.  The selectable fire weapon could shoot 1 to 6 times as fast as a “normal” AC5 and still use the older tech ammunition.  It was a bit of weapons tech that could change the battlefield, and so far, only the Nova Cats had the technology.  The shocker was that no one even knew they were working on the project, not even Wolf Net. 

Now those oddly shaped “Stealth” Raptors would jump into the space near the first six worlds that would see the start of this counterattack.  The 50ton craft would use the smallest jump drive seen by the Inner Sphere or clan space by a few orders of magnitude.  The little craft would radio the modified Batchall to the clan commander on the local planet.  Then the reply to this information would be passed to the Marshal via a FedCom supplied Black Box.  With this information in hand, the attacks would be launched onto those six worlds. 

Jumpships, Warships, and one of the two of the amazing warships or one of the two support ships that had been offered by the SLiE would bring the land forces to those planets.  If it was needed?  Then those same amazing and small jump craft would be re-tasked to send in nuclear tipped missiles to take out any Clan warship that might contest the attacks.  Only then would the ComStar, FedCom or Wolf’s Dragoon supplied warships come to deal with what remained before making their way towards the planets.  It was easier for warships to deal with enemy dropships and aerospace fighters, because it was time to kick ass and not pee on them. 

Even before the first six planets were finished being contested, the next six planets on the list would be given the Batchall and the process would be repeated.  While the Zephyr and Styx were supporting the point of the spear, the “normal” jumpships would follow up with supplies to keep the war going after the first four waves.  All of this was commanded by one of the two modified Potemkin class Troop Cruisers working to end the militaries of two Clans.  Troop Cruisers that didn’t need the crew to use the hamster wheels to keep healthy thanks to the amazing gravity generating decks.  It was just too bad that only Morgan Hasek-Davion and his staff were aloud onto this amazing vessel.  Still, despite this limited number of outsiders, it would not take long before reports made it to intelligence services around the Inner Sphere about this artificial gravity technology. 

It was only a matter of time and the amount of blood that would be needed to be spilled before Clan Jade Falcon and Steel Viper are kicked out of the Inner Sphere.  Not all of the worlds that were once called part of the Jade Falcon or Viper OZ would go back to the originalish owners.  After the first two dozen or so planets had fallen back into the hands of the FedCom, Clan Wolf led by Ulric Kerensky and Phelan “Ward-Kell” had launched their own raids to take ten worlds that were a mix of former Viper and Falcon.  This was not in the “Planned Operation” but it was both expected and wanted by the military and “civilian” leader of the Second Star League.  When it is all over, a lot of Clan tech weapons and even a few factories were recovered for the Inner Sphere to use.  The icing on the cake was that many of those factories had been taken with very little damage done to them by their former owners or the Star League military in taking them. 

Sep 3059
Unknown system
Edge of the Inner Sphere

Morgan Hasek-Davion looked around the zenith jump point at the collection of combat power at his command and he was in awe.  The original battle plan had been set up so that while the planets of the Inner Sphere were being cleared of Jade Falcons and Steel Vipers, a second group of combat forces would start the long trip to what was listed as the Pentagon Worlds on the map.  But thanks to this SLiE being able to jump between three, eight, and a frakk ton of dropships right into orbit of a target planet.  That had clipped the timeline down to something undreamed of before. 

That had also cut the needed forces for these two operations down by almost half of what had been planned in the more detailed meetings.  Now those extra on call units had been useful, and while some units had been much reduced in the battles, replacements were quickly on hand at jump points. And soon those fresh or rebuilt units were moved to this location on the edge of the Inner Sphere.  Marshal Morgan Hasek-Davion and his staff had been flying their lights on the Invisible Truth, a modified Cameron class battlecruiser run by ComStar when the battles in the two OZs were wrapping up but for those that just could not get the hint. 

Besides the battlecruiser, ComStar had also committed some Lola III and Essex class destroyers from the old Star League to fight along with the newly built Suffrens and Dante class vessels coming out of the shipyards of the Terra system.  The Dragoons had committed the Black Lion class cruiser now called the Black Wolf along with an Aegis and a Sovetskii Soyuz cruiser escorted by a force of frigates and destroyers.  The FedCom committed the McKenna class battleship now called the Black Prince supported by the Invincible and their own fleet of Makos, Vincents, Foxes, and Vigilantes class corvettes.  And the Dragoons had a second group of destroyers and frigates that were defending their home against any surprises.  Even the Combine, while not committing ground forces, did sent a pair of Kyushu class frigates to be added to the fleet, but the Combine Navy had also sent a fleet of dropships fitted with capital grade missiles to escort jumpships with the Dragoon Volga class convoy escort. 

Only the FWL and Confederation didn’t commit warships in any way, but that was more than made up by the warships that the TDF and MoC had sent.  Those two powers had sent a small fleet of Pintos, Vincents, and Vigilantes covered by a pair of Athena class cruisers.  The only pledged warship that had not made it had been the “new” modified Dart class light cruiser from the TDF.  It had been on the way before it had melted part of its jump core.  It would take months to get it ready to jump again, and then only back to its shipyard.  The next Dart class vessel would not be ready for at least two years, if they could fix what had caused the lead ship to miss movement. 

What was so disturbing was that this was not all of the warships that the Inner Sphere could call on, at best it was only half according to some of the intel reports floating around.  Even the mercenary Dragoons had left behind the Wagon Wheel along with a small fleet of destroyers first recovered from Odesa to keep over Outreach or they are supporting the remaining ground main units on contract that could not be freed up for the attack into Clan space.  After all Wayne Waco and his Rangers were still out there… somewhere. 

Now the plan is for the two SLiE Troop Cruisers fitted with special super jump drives would super cargo the largest of the 2nd SLDF warships to a barren star system that was 60 light years from the two targeted Clan worlds.  The reports said that any super cargo carried in a super jump fashion would need at least a week for their crew to recover for what was listed as the worse cases of TDS ever recorded.  The SLiE Zephyr, Styx, Battlestar Pegasus and an Aegis class cruiser called SL/NC Cuirass were also moving warships secured to their outer hulls.  They would be moving slower….. if you can dare to call moving 15 light years every hour being a slow way to travel between the stars.  It was reported that it would take “only” two months to get all of the warships, jumpships, combat, and cargo dropships to that targeted system. 

At the last second the Marshal of the Star League boards an oddly shaped 50ton craft made off the edge of the map.  The flagship of this mission is not going to be the ComStar battlecruiser, but the hybrid battleship/carrier called the Battlestar Pegasus.  When the great Battlestar arrives at the targeted gathering system?  The Marshal is greeted with good news that all is well, after a fashion of TDS working its way out of the crew systems.  He is also greeted with odd news that two bodies had been found on the Invisible Truth.  A pair of bodies that were not on the crew list of that vessel according to their DNA when it was run against the personnel database.  The big question that will keep coming up while the operation to end both Clan Jade Falcon and Steel Viper was on going, would be how a pair of stowaways got onto what had been listed as the flagship for the mission to the Pentagon Worlds in all of the operational plans.  That made not only the Marshal nervous but all of the counter intel types. 

Just as the first ships started to jump out of the marshaling system, the SLDF Marshal wonders if this was the end or just the end of the beginning.  Only time would tell because there were other Clans out there and then there were the Cylons that were still hiding out there somewhere.  That would have to be dealt with as soon as things calmed down a little with the rest of these Clans.  Agreeing to use the resources of the Inner Sphere in dealing with the Cylon threat had been key in getting New Circe to join the Second Star League. 

#####

Notes

Reviewer SomewhatEvil:  The production lines originally found on that planet were to support the Secret Army making common mechs.  The Rampage and Phoenix lines were found on a dead world in the old Rim Worlds area and hidden by ROM and then brought to a new home (Rampages sell better than Banshees but ROM was always planning on selling them because they were not made in the IS to other groups). 

The Annihilator was known only in partially recovered blueprints but known to have never been produced.  The Imp was totally new along with the Hephaestus Station.  The grey area would be the Badger and Bandit omnis and the Kestrel (Turnfalke) and Peregrine (Wanerfalke).  I put the German names because that was where I first saw them, and it was said that they were knew to the IS.  They would be built by Blackwell, but it would be a safe bet that the Dragoons had at least some of them before 3007. 

You are right about the fighters.  When I was reviewing the Dragoon source book (1989).  I found that they only had 4 carriers and they were all Leopards.  I looked it up that the Mars (Vincent mk42) had 10 fighters, the two Lola III carry 6 or 10, Aegis has 18 or 20, Congress 6 or 10, Sovetskii 18 or 20.  They have 4 Leo CV that could take 24 of that number.  The warships alone have 64 or 80 fighter bays.  So, where are they and any dedicated escort carriers the warships would have? 

My idea to cover that hole was that they were Golden Age craft and stored with the rest of the clan tech.  I got lazy and just random rolled on the Golden Age RAT and as long as they were not omnis I went with them.  This is the airwing assigned to protect Jaime Wolf so I thought they would be good but not using omni fighters that front line Dragoon Units would need to be fighting another top tier unit. 

I hope this helps show my line of thinking for right or wrong.  I will say that its great to see another fan of this game and always keep pointing out issues.  It makes for a better writer and researcher on projects. 

And this ends my part of this AU.  Thank you for your time, support, and suggestions on this adventure.  I have to say that this has been one wild ride that started with the first draft of this being done back in Nov 2016.  Now I must say that I’m looking forward to getting new story lines out of my head.  I hope I have left this AU with enough still on the bones for any others to work on. 

Improved weapons:  Thanks to the Golden age tech the Star League Nova Cats had on hand that needed to be replace with Clan tech after finding New Circe.  TTM “traded” these “new weapons” to MMM.  They now have production for improved PPCs (to go with the IER PPC they already were making), iLL, iLPL, iLRM, iSRM launchers, and all four classes of autocannons by the end of 3058.  This is one more step getting them closer to being able to make full on clan tech weapons.  MMM is almost half owned by New Circe by now. 

Results of First Whitting:  With Hanse still alive, Kat not playing her games, and the breakup of the FWL and so I have it that Candace wins.  Hanse in a political move had not really wanted the job of First Lord.  It was a show of power that the leader of a smaller group within the IS could be the current First Lord. 

SLiE fleet on this operation:  Egg Sac, Maverik, Zephyr, Styx, Pegasus, SL NC Aegis Cuirass.  The Lyssa is being held back along with the Zug and Bismark in case the Cylons come back. 

WD fleet:  Black Lion Black Wolf, Soviet Athena, Aegis Alexander, with Beowolf, Darius, and Nelson as escorts.

A scene I really wanted but just could not get it to come out right.  Nova Cats POV on New Circe.  Star Captain X having a drink of something called ambrosia that had been made over in the colonial city state.  Seeing a Centurion painted in mix of squares of white and black running an animal rescue had been disturbing on many levels for the Star Captain. 

[Shadow_Wraith]

that was a nice ending and left enough openings for other future stories.  thank you for the story!

[mikecj]

Thank you for hours of entertainment from a great story!

[DOC_Agren]

Wow then end has come and it was well done

 

[Cannonshop]

Epic.

[mikecj]

Please tell me someone has collected this into a PDF?  I really want to read it straight thru this time.

[ckosacranoid]

Find that we have ended this very epic story. Holy crap that was a very long time in being written for sure.
2016 to 2023, wow and very fun to follow over the years.

Thank you so much for w ritting this and finishing it up this year.
Any chance to see a follow up of what happens after this a few years and does the is and clans ever face down and deal with the cyclone for good.