At last, ye next update followeth, wherein Davion & Company get the goods, and Kurita & Marik react to these developements:
Getting the goods
The Fox’ Den, New Avalon
April 7th, 3029
At the station monitoring New Avalon’s Zenith jump point, it’s been another day of business as usual. Suddenly, the datascreens flash a warning to the technicians on duty that dozens of jump signatures have been detected. No sooner has the warning bene passed to the Fox’ Den than dozens of ex-Comstar warships appear at various locations all throughout that area of space. In total, there are 27 warships of varying classes; foremost among these is the SLS Lady Shandra, a Cameron-class battlecruiser. Following this vessel are the three ships of the Comstar-constructed Dante-class frigates (the Montpelier, the Narbonne and the Bordeaux). Next are five Lola III-class destroyers, four Essex-class destroyers, three Aegis-class heavy cruisers, a Black Lion-class battlecruiser, a Sovietskii Soyuz-class heavy cruiser, a Potemkin-class troop cruiser, a Volga-class transport, two Congress-class frigates and a Vincent-class corvette. Lastly (and most importantly), there are four Faslane-class yardships.
Once the 27 ships have finished materializing, JARVIS’ clear and measured voice comes over the station’s comm system and announces “I present the Federated Commonwealth these warships, with the compliments of Mr. Stark.” At the same time, Tony Stark is meeting with First Prince Hanse Davion and his top advisers. As the message from Traffic Control plays over the Den’s comm system, a self-satisfied grin crossed Stark’s face.”
“Well, H. What do you think of my little surprise?”
Among those present is Field Marshal Yvonne Davion, who responds “your highness, this is an unprecedented development, to say the least. To think that, after more than 250 years, there are once again warships in the Inner Sphere. The mind fairly boggles at the possibilities…”
“Indeed it does, Yvonne. I’ll venture to guess that, when Captain-General Janos Marik and Coordinator Takashi Kurita find out what happened, they’ll be having some rather-serious conniption fits. What do you say to this, Stark?”
“H, someone more hawkish than I would say that it’s time to tell the other Great Houses who’s who and what’s what; I disagree. When I was tap-dancing through Comstar’s files, I discovered the presence of other warships throughout their territories, as well as within that of the Federated Commonwealth; it’s only a matter of time before they are discovered. Unless you want to end up blind after another round of an ‘Eye for an Eye’ one-upmanship, I suggest that you reach out to Janos Marik and Takashi Kurita and make nice with them.”
“I’ll that under advisement, Mr. Stark. In the meantime, you have my deepest and most profound thanks for what you have done for the Federated Commonwealth; you’ll find me suitably grateful. You mentioned other warships out there; can you give me any specific examples?”
“Let me tell you a little story about Antares Base; it’s a former Star League-era depot on the third planet of the Antares system (near the Morges and Babaeski systems in the Lyran Commonwealth) established as a replenishment and supply base by the SLDF. In the chaos and disorder of the Succession Wars, knowledge of the base was lost and so it remained, until now.”
“It sounds like quite a considerable installation. Do you have any information about what’s there?”
“Yes I do, actually. There are five warships; SLS William Halsey, a Newgrange-class yardship, a Mercy-class hospital ship and two Bugeye-class surveillance ships (SLS Donovan and SLS Casey), something like 2,000 battlemechs of various sizes, plus thousands of vehicles, tanks, artillery pieces and battlesuits. Rounding out the cache are several million tons of munitions, supplies, equipment and spare parts. I’m pretty sure that Archon Katrina will be pleased to hear of it.”
“She most certainly will, Stark.” A momentary pause, then “ladies and gentlemen, as regards the battlemechs that Comstar stockpiled on Terra, I am minded that they’ll be divided equally among the two halves of the Federated Commonwealth. Mr. Stark, I’ll be obliged if you were to have the locks you placed on their control systems removed…”
“Alright, JARVIS; you heard the man.”
“Right away, sir.”
Correlation of Forces
April 17th, 3029
Elsewhere on the capitol worlds of the Free Worlds League and the Draconis Combine, there is no small amount of consternation when word reaches them about the developments in the Federated Commonwealth. First to receive the news is Coordinator Takashi Kurita, who immediately convenes a meeting of the DCMS High Command, as well as Subhash Indrahar (Director of the ISF) and representatives from the Department of External Relations.
The meeting is called to order and Kurita begins with “Servants of the Dragon, I must inform you that, through diligent work by Indrahar-san and the ISF, word has reached us that the Federated Commonwealth is now in possession of some 27 warships of various classes”; which announcement causes no small amount of consternation to run around the table.
First to respond is Gunji no-Kanrei Theodore Kurita, who says “most redoubted father, I doubt not the valor of the Soldiers of the Dragon. However, given the presence of warships in the Federated Commonwealth (and the 50 regiments of battlemechs which they took from Comstar) , the correlation of forces which now faces us is adverse in the extreme.”
“Well-spoken, my worthy son. What is your counsel in this matter?”
“Father, if the Federated Commonwealth were to come against us, I and the men & women of the DCMS would do our utmost to defend the realm. However, I don’t judge this to be a likely development.”
“How say you?”
“Kurita-sama, the primary reason for the Federated Commonwealth’s extraordinary success can be attributed to the First Prince’s adviser Tony Stark. Rather than being a typical gaijin, he behaved most honorably towards the Combine when he laid Comstar low and returned control of our portion of the HPG network to us. If Stark-san were hostile to us, he would not have done so. Perhaps an overture might be made to Hanse Davion; the better to maintain peace between the Commonwealth and us…”
“An excellent thought, my son. Indrahar-san., what say you?”
“Kurita-sama, centuries ago on Ancient Terra, the great Musashi once said in part ‘Truth is not what you want it to be; it is what it is.’; so too is our present situation. I am in agreement with Kurita-san’s idea to send a diplomatic mission to New Avalon; thus far, the Federated Commonwealth has only undertaken hostile action only against the Capellan Confederation (with justification, I might add). If the Combine secures peaceful relations with the Commonwealth, then we would be free to undertake the development of warships of our own design with neither let or hindrance. Of course, maintaining the Combine’s territorial integrity would be an important consideration…”
A minute or two of silent consideration by the Coordinator follows, then he speaks up “servants of the Dragon, I believe that the Gunji no-kanrei’s suggestion is the proper course of action. Therefore, it is my order that a diplomatic mission be sent to New Avalon at the earliest possible opportunity; Minister Kamikawa, your ministry will make the appropriate preparations.”
“Hai, Kurita-sama.”
April 19th, 3029
Two days later on Atreus, a very similar meeting takes place takes place in the Captain-General’s office. Aside from Janos Marik, those present include Jaime Cornejo (Director of SAFE), Erin McQuarrie (Minister of Defense), Harrison Kalma (Director of Military Intelligence) and Secretary of State John Forsyth. Never one to waste words, the Captain-General claps his hand loudly on his desk and says “alright; tell me what just happened in the Federated Commonwealth.”
Jamie Cornejo responds “Captain-General, all of us were pleased to hear it Tony Stark engineered the downfall of Comstar and returned control of the HPG network within the League to us. However, when news came out that the Federated Commonwealth now has control of all the battlemechs that Comstar had stashed on Terra (along with all of the warships that the Order has concealed at Ross 248 and Luyten 68-28), the question that immediately occurred to us is what does Hanse Davion want to do now? In terms of raw numbers, adding the regiments of battlemechs seized on Terra would increase the front-line strength of the Federated Suns by a full 50%; to say nothing of the warships, which no other state in the Inner Sphere or the Periphery has.”
“Director, do you think that the Federated Commonwealth means to attack us? With their vastly-increased strength, there wouldn’t be much that we could do to oppose them…”
”No, Captain-General. The assessment of SAFE is that Hanse Davion will be content to digest those portions of the Capellan Confederation that he’s gobbled up so far. Additionally, our confidence is high that those 50 regiments of former Comstar battlemechs will be divided equally between the two halves of the Federated Commonwealth; this is also the case with the warships.”
“So, there is no threat to us now or in the immediate future.”
“You are correct, sir; however, I can say nothing about what might happen when the throne of the Federated Commonwealth passes to someone else.”
“A cogent observation, Director. Esteemed members of the council, it is my judgement that we should send a diplomatic mission to New Avalon to further sound out the position of the Commonwealth. Additionally, we should take advantage of the peace between the League and the Commonwealth to begin a program to develop our own warships; unless I am much mistaken, the Draconis Combine is doing the very same thing.
