Disclaimer - I don't own Battletech and I don't claim to. Just borrowing the universe and some characters from it.----------
SLDF Headquarters - Niops VII - 2855"Major McEvedy reporting as ordered Sir" the young woman in SLDF uniform announced from the open doorway causing Lieutenant-General Franklin Hallis to look up from the report strewn across the large wooden desk that dominated his office.
"Come in Major, close the door behind you" Hallis responded, the young officer doing so. "Take a seat Sarah, no need for military formality behind closed doors" he continued with a smile.
"You know one day I'm going to slip and call you Dad instead of Sir in front of the troops and it'll be really embarrassing and awkward for the both of us" she responded taking a seat opposite him.
"Could be worse, I'm always worrying I'll accidentally call you Khan" Hallis replied with a chuckle. "You know, you look more like your mother every day" he observed.
Sarah McEvedy (Junior) rolled her eyes. "That's entirely on
you Dad, you should have told the geek-squad to dilute the McEvedy DNA a little more before they started to brew me up in the Iron Womb" she pointed out. "You could at least have made me blonde or something so that I didn't have to deal with every old-fart Wolverine like yourself going misty eyed when I enter the room."
"If I'd known in advance what a pain-in-the-ass you were going to be as a teenager I would have definitely left out a few genes" Hallis retorted.
"How the hell were you
surprised I had an issue with the notion of mindless deference to unquestioned authority?" McEvedy replied, grinning. "It's the entire reason why you're not still back on Strana Mechty kissing Nicky K's ass" she pointed out wryly.
"Honestly I was just happy when you were old enough to put on a uniform and I could threaten to have you shot without getting a visit from Child Protection Services" Hallis told his adopted daughter. "How did the Council Meeting go?"
McEvedy ran her fingers through her close-cropped hair, maybe I should grow it out so I didn't look so damn much like all the pictures hung all around this building she thought to herself. "As expected the Nerd Patrol are absolutely livid about the damn Telephone Company offing so many of their brethren and they'll happily support getting in some righteous vengeance."
"Good. The more they look outwards the easier it'll be to get them to support expansion" Hallis replied, pleased. "We've already got a foothold on Alphard, our scouts finding all that germanium was an absolute gift, and there's plenty more inhabitable planets out that way" he noted. "Only a handful of colonists still living out there after the First Succession War and with jumpships getting scarcer and their standard of living dropping like a stone they'll welcome us with open arms."
"The Empire of Niops beckons" McEvedy joked. "You should stage a coup, become Emperor and make me heir to the throne" she suggested humorously.
Hallis laughed. "Getting a bit old to dream about being a princess aren't you?"
"Got to top my mother
somehow don't I?" McEvedy asked rhetorically. "She was only a khan, didn't even get to wear a tiara."
"She was always more of a neurohelmet kind of girl in my experience" Hallis recalled. "Incidentally have you been receiving any flak about getting the job of SLDF Rep to the Council?" he inquired. "I know of at least a couple of Colonels that were jonesing for the job."
McEvedy shook her head. "Less complaints about nepotism than I might have expected. You know that nobody likes to speak ill of the great Sarah M publicly and that rubs off on me too" she replied. "For that matter speaking ill of her
privately can often earn you a punch in the face."
"I've slugged people for less myself" Hallis admitted before the sound of some kind of commotion outside interrupted their conversation.
The door to Hallis's office swung open heralded by a loud protestation of "Mrs Hallis you can't just go in there" from the Major-General's Adjutant outside.
"What you gonna do? Shoot me?" the woman who strode into the office asked the officer who had tried and failed to impede her progress. The sarcasm in her tone easily identifiable despite her strong Capellan accent. She closed the door on him and turned towards Hallis. "You leave your lunch at home, I bring it over before going to visit mother" she told her husband, holding up a plastic container which she placed on a convenient shelf.
Hallis looked pained. "You can't just barge in like that Barbara, I might have been in a top-secret meeting."
"Who I tell? Stefan Amaris?" Barbara Hallis replied in an even more sarcastic fashion. "If I know you were here would have brought you a sandwich too" she told Sarah before leaning over to kiss her on the forehead.
"You know he
is right Mom" Sarah McEvedy spoke up, trying but mostly failing to keep a straight face at her adopted father's expression.
"Pah, first time for everything" Barbara Hallis retorted. "Or maybe second time" she corrected herself, "marrying me was first. Much better for him than me"
"So... have you two been arguing again?" McEvedy queried, still attempting to look less amused than she was.
"He complain about my English grammar again, moan that it never improve, give science people wrong idea that Capellans only fit for low-skill work" Barbara told her. "I tell him that when his Mandarin or Russian even ten percent as good as my English he have right to criticise."
"It's a fair point Dad" Sarah couldn't help but agree.
"I know but this society was already well on its way to adopting a quasi caste system when we got here and we don't need any more of
that shit after leaving the clans" Hallis stated firmly. "That's one of the many reasons I married your Mom here, we needed to show the scientists that fully integrating all three societies is the best way forward."
Barbara Hallis smirked. "My mother tell me at time you only marry me because you need someone to help raise adopted clone of dead friend."
"She's not a clone, and she's sat
right here woman!" Hallis protested.
"To be fair, I'm definitely a bit clone-y, clone-adjacent at least" Sarah interjected. "You know grandma Jing
still calls me 'Science-devil' sometimes" she told him.
"She
what?" Hallis exclaimed.
"It pet-name, term of endearment" Barbara defended her mother. "Sarah is her favourite adopted grandaughter."
Sarah switched to Mandarin "Also the
least favourite by default as I'm her
only adopted granddaughter."
"Just be grateful that she doesn't constantly nag you for great-grandchildren like she does your sister Judith" Barbara replied in the same language.
"Oh I am, believe me" Sarah told her honestly, continuing in Mandarin before reverting back to English again. "Feeling left out there Dad?"
"I heard you mention Judith, at least
she's always polite enough to translate" Hallis noted.
Sarah grinned. "I love your assumption that just because little Sis is a daddy's girl that she doesn't leave any stuff out when she translates" she responded, winking at her adoptive mother. "You know Dad, Auntie Trish once told me that the real reason you married Mom here was because when you met her at that meet-and-greet mixer thing you thought she had a great ass."
Franklin Hallis looked suitably appalled. "What the hell was she thinking telling you that?"
"Maybe that it was better than thinking you married her to get free childcare" Sarah suggested.
"Trish right, it always been my theory too" Barbara chipped in. "Years of data collected from practical experimentation and observation of subject support this hypothesis" she continued, mimicking the speech patterns of the scientific elite that still dominated on Niops. "Also ass still pretty great now despite having grown up children" she added, complementing herself. "You should come home to dinner tomorrow night, not eat at barracks like usual" she told Sarah. "Judith is bringing new boyfriend around to meet family, nice college boy, going to be radio astronomer."
"What
another one?" Hallis moaned. "She must have dated half the students at the university."
"Always being asked out, sweet girl who also smart and inherited great ass from mother" Barbara responded, grinning at the running joke. "She tell me to tell you not scare this one away like last two who came for dinner. No talk of crushing man under foot of mech and having to scrape him off on building, and no explaining about what flamer does to infantry"
"But those are his best stories" Sarah opined earning a glare from Barbara for her troubles.
"Scare this one off too and sleeping on couch for next week" Barbara told her husband sternly.
"And just think about how much you'd miss her great ass" Sarah deadpanned, raising one hand to high-five her Mom.
Franklin Hallis narrowed his eyes. "Sarah you've clearly been spending far too much time with Trish, I may have to send her to command the Alphard garrison."
"Before you do just ask yourself, 'What Would Sarah McEvedy do?' I mean other than get nuked at Great Hope" the Khan's namesake and doppelganger replied. "Too soon?" she added when his expression became very dark.
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Author's NotesThis is not the Sarah McEvedy you are looking for. Your Khan is in another castle. ;)
In case you were wondering what the point-of-diversion was from the original time-line it all has to do with when the jump-drive on the Saratoga went wrong during Operation Switchback. Instead of being a case of really bad luck it was extremely fortuitous here.
The Niops Association was cut off from the Inner Sphere by the Amaris Civil War and remained isolated during the subsequent Operation Exodus and then the First Succession War.
A large group of Capellan Refugees fleeing the widespread destruction wrought by the First Succession War stumbled upon Niops and were partially integrated into the existing society, in canon eventually ending up as a labour class ruled by the scientific elite. When the survivors of Clan Wolverine arrived a few years later (during the brief lull between the First and Second Succession Wars the Wolverines own recent experiences regarding the caste system of Nicolas Kerensky caused them to take a dim view of the way they saw Niops developing (and they had the numbers and influence to make a difference).
Franklin Hallis, last Khan of Clan Wolverine married Barbara, a woman of Capellan refugee descent. This was after he decided to use the Wolverine's genetic records to create another Sarah McEvedy (genetically she's somewhere between being a daughter and an actual clone of the former Khan). The clans developed Iron Womb technology before Wolverines seceded, Niops has it now. The cultural separation between the Capellans and the original Star-League population on Niops means that her English isn't perfect despite being born there to refugee parents. She speaks the Mandarin and Russian of her parents people perfectly though.
The Marian Hegemony was founded on Alphard (less than 48 LY from Niops but further out in the periphery) in 2920. This was funded by the discovery there of an abandoned storehouse holding some 50 billion C-Bills of germanium. Thanks to the ownership of multiple jump capable vessels (and a desire to look for resources outwards rather than towards the Inner Sphere while the Second Succession War raged) Niops got there first.
Clan Wolverine was at the cutting edge of ERPPC development when they left the clans. Producing less advanced Star-League Era ERPPC's and PPC's is easy for them. Fortunately the closest Successor State to Niops, the Free Worlds League, had an even bigger problem getting hold of a supply of reliable PPC's during this era than their rivals. That was a ready market opportunity for an independent polity that can readily explain it's ability to produce such equipment as its being a high-tech scientific colony founded by the Star League. As long as the PPC's keep arriving from Niops the Free World's League is more than happy with the new emerging interstellar micronation on their border.
