So, yeah. Real life has kind of exploded for me; new job, less free time, less energy... And it didn't help that this particular scene was being a pain. I'm still not entirely happy with it, but I'm so sick of being stuck I'm going to kick it out the door as-is.
Enjoy!
OUTREACH, FEDERATED COMMONWEALTH
AUGUST 14, 3050
At the start of the day’s deliberations, a haggard-looking Vera Tseng rose to address the gathering off all of the Inner Sphere’s leaders - including the white-robed Precentor that had been sent as the plenipotentiary of the Primus of Comstar. “Four hours ago,” she said, in a tone that would have been conversational if not for the mechanical deadness of her brown eyes, “The HPG mounted aboard Dieron’s Run received a message relayed from the world of Polcenigo.”
There was a flicker in the Precentor’s expression, but he inclined his head, since her gaze hadn’t shifted from him. “Yes?”
“Three weeks ago, the Comstar Warship Invisible Truth jumped into the system at the planetary pirate point,” she said. “It engaged the Clan Ghost Bear Warship Den Mother, stationed there, along with the aerospace elements of the cluster it was supporting and the mercenary unit which had been hired to provide security and civil order on Polcenigo. All of them were destroyed by nuclear strikes.”
Her tone of voice was so mild, so quiet, that the words almost didn’t register. But they did, and she had to shout to be heard over the commotion.
“After that point... After that, Invisible Truth assumed a low planetary orbit and directed saturation bombardments against every military base on the planet,” Melissa Steiner paled, and Haakon Magnusson’s jaw clenched, “both active and not, without demand of surrender or other condition. Also targeted were every medium and heavy industrial facility on the planet… and three universities.”
She leaned forward on the edge of the round conference table, glaring across its width. “The deployment of nuclear weapons in accordance with the relevant articles of the Ares Conventions I will not… complain of. It is within the bounds of war, and no threat to the innocent. The bombardment of planetary targets is abominable, but explicable - the annihilation of military forces and the tools that support them. But, Precentor, I wonder… Why the schools? What possible lie can you spin to claim that that was justified, even in your own mind?”
“It is a tragic necessity of the kind of war you have imposed,” he replied. “Knowing that our Order lacks the military strength to reclaim the worlds you have assaulted, and that the Successor Lords are unlikely to muster either the organization or the vision to attempt it, we are forced to face the fact that you will shackle every soul in your occupied territories into servants of your efforts to destroy the last bastions of the Star League’s light.”
Ulric Kerensky flushed in sudden, and atypically obvious, rage, but aside from a faint thinning of her full lips, Vera’s face could have been carved in stone as the Precentor went on. “Knowing that the technical ability of your slaves is key to your warmaking efforts, denying you their strength for your jihad required impeding the propagation of that ability.”
“Truly,” she said softly in the silence that followed, “you are the enemy of all of civilization.”
The Precentor looked bland; Romano Liao looked interested and approving; every other face in the room bore some mix of horror, contempt, and fury - or was set in a threadbare mask over those emotions.
“Hardly,” Comstar’s man denied. “When those worlds are liberated from your yoke, Comstar will guarantee the reconstruction of their educational systems at the Order’s own expense.”
Hanse Davion snorted, not troubling to hide his contempt. “With extra courses on the rewards of servitude to Blake’s Holy Vision, no doubt.”
“Clan Ghost Bear,” the standing woman said, raising her voice again to regain the table’s attention, “must obviously withdraw from this conference-”
“To which you were hardly invited,” the Precentor sniped.
“Neither were you,” Davion shot back.
“To concentrate on the martial measures which are discovered to be necessary. I will, however, leave you with a parting offer. To any state which is willing to repudiate all agreements with the dezgra cult, Comstar, expel its agents, and seize its holdings within their borders, Clan Ghost Bear will provide complete theoretical, technical, and manufacturing data, including required seed tools, on the construction, maintenance, and operation of hyperpulse generator systems.”
There was a moment of utter hush; the root of all of Comstar’s power, more than the military might of its Com Guards or warship fleet, far more than its command of the most fabulously wealthy and industrialized world in known space, was its monopoly on the HPG network that passed information across the Inner Sphere faster and more cheaply than any competing method.
Interdiction - the simple failure to carry the message traffic of an interstellar power - could, and had, brought even the mightiest of the Successor States to its knees, and was a threat that had hung over the head of almost every delegate present at the conference like the proverbial sword of Damocles.
Vera’s deal could free them from that feared and resented threat - forever - at the same time that it shattered the foundation of Comstar’s success and influence.
Hanse Davion spoke first. “The Federated Commonwealth already possesses that data, by right of its peace settlement with Clan Wolf. Do you have an alternative offer prepared?”
She inclined her head. “Due to the haste my news has imposed, I have not had time to prepare one. Would His Highness have a suggestion?”
“My intelligence sources lead me to understand that Clan Ghost Bear has, under construction, a number of warships.”
“This is correct, although, given the exigencies of war, I regret that none of them are for sale for any price.”
He smiled and made a demurring gesture. “In fact, my own shipyards have begun to lay down new keels of their own-” both of them ignored the stir that roused from those in the room that hadn’t known of it “-but have found the construction of suitable sublight drive systems… challenging. My price is the data needed to resolve those issues.”
“Well bargained and done, Prince Davion.”
Haakon Magnusson ignored the pale, strained figure at his right, the Precentor’s paralyzation in the face of the doom inflicted on his world seemingly beneath his contempt. “Galaxy Commander, you have in the past been very careful to make clear the limitations on your ability to commit your Clan to any agreements. Why has this changed?”
“Because this vermin’s agents have murdered my trothkin,” she replied, “and I will dare more for their sake than for duty’s. I will ensure that these bargains are kept.”
The Prince of Rasalhague inclined his head in sincere respect, and Vera bowed back.
