This Was Easier on the Tabletop - a Battletech SI Fic

[drakensis]

What? It's in the House Davion book.

I just cracked open the book, counted and posted.

[Chris OFarrell]

Okay, time to bring everyone here up to date with the last chapter as I put the finishing touches on the next one :)

Chapter 12: Stormy, with a chance of raining Omnimechs.


Getting to Robinson wasn’t terribly hard. It was a mere three jumps away from Sakhara V and a command circuit was available to take us - by the expedient of holding an AFFS Star Lord at Franklin for a day and kicking an AFFS cargo dropship off it on the grounds of ‘I’m Colonel Ardan Sortek, deal with it’.

They probably weren't too happy about that as Jumpship connections could take weeks to reshuffle. And right now, with GALAHAD III sucking up every Jumpship like Grover Shraplen sucked up crazy (yes that unfortunately was a ‘thing’) they might be stuck there for a while.

Lucky them. Apparently, it had quite excellent ski slopes and it was the height of tourist season. We meanwhile were flying straight into the storm. Lucky us.

Ardan spent the time catching me up on much of the goings on and changes to Operations RAT and Götterdämmerung. Not everything - as it turned out I didn’t have a need to know for a great many things. Which was oddly frustrating from the point of view of a Battletech fan - but perfectly understandable from an OPPSEC point of view. Hell, Ardan himself pointed out that he didn’t have a need-to-know for quite a few of the things I asked about either.

Which was fine, but he had a lot more experience around being kept in the dark. For me? I was just trying not to think of how many millions of troops I knew were even now heading unknowingly to their jump off points. And how many of them were green troops just like my classmates being thrust into this war … and how many of them who might have lived would now die thanks to my actions.
All I could hope was that in the long run my actions would save more lives than would be lost in the original timeline. And try not to think about if some of those who deserved death would now live … and some of those who lived this time I’d much rather had died...

Still, I was let in on quite a bit of information, probably more than anyone outside the AFFS and LCAF high commands. Most interesting for me was the news about the Black Boxes or ‘Fax Machines’. The super-secret FTL communications technology Katrina had found while playing pirate back in the day and shared with Hanse and the NAIS. They were nowhere near as good as HPGs in terms of transmission speed or bandwidth, being barely 25 light years per day with 200kb messages able to be sent every three hours  ... but they were blacker than deep space without ComStar having the first clue of their existence and any transmission from a Black Box could be picked up by another one within a hundred light year radius of the transmitter making them actually more efficient at general broadcasts.
Of course their biggest feature was that ComStar didn’t know they existed. I had been screaming loudly since day one about how ComStar was by far was the greatest enemy of the Federated Commonwealth - and humanity in general. And it turned out when an inter-universal traveler with detailed knowledge of the future arrived to point to an already generally distrusted faction and screamed ‘EVIL!’ ... people listened and threw money and resources around.

There was now a fully operational network of sixty automatic Fax Machine stations spread throughout both Federated Commonwealth states. Taking a page out of ComStars DRUM network, the vast bulk of the units were on unmanned platforms in deep space, light years from any inhabited planet, their exact coordinates recorded only on ultra-secure drives on New Avalon and Tharkad. That was the beauty of the technology of course; while a HPG transmitted to a single point and needed to know exactly where it was, a black box broadcasted omnidirectionally through space up to a radius of about a hundred light years. When such transmissions arrived, the deep space Black Boxes simply checked if it had seen it before and, if not, retransmitted them bit for bit. The endpoint units on the capitals, PDZ command worlds and being modified into select Command Dropships that we’re the start and endpoints had computer ‘codebooks’ that squeezed the most out of that 200 KB per message limit by allowing most any generic order to be encoded against lookup tables, allowing surpassingly detailed orders to be sent to multiple units.
While the network was certainly not going to replace HPGs in a practical way, as a backup to keep a military going in a state of war, it was a hell of an improvement over trying to use precious Jumpships as couriers. Apparently, Galahad II / Thor I had tested the system on a theater scale and after some tweaking it was now ready to go just in case (or more probably when) ComStar mashed the ‘INTERDICT!’ button like a face mashing Inquisitor going for the Exterminatus control.
Probably also yelling ‘****** Heretics!’ while doing it.

And on that topic, a lot of modeling had been done on the economic effects of an interdiction against the Suns. While there were limits to what could be done without either a ****** more Jumpships and/or a great deal more time and money or taking actions that would loudly say we were expecting an interdiction; efforts had been made to build critical civilian stockpiles and update contingency plans to try and smooth out some of the economic issues that would result from ComStar shutting down the Federated Suns HPG network up to and including secret legal changes around thinks like interplanetary banking. I’m sure Hanse had plans well advanced to deny ComStar the excuse based on events in the original timeline, but in one form or another a ComStar-FedCom showdown was probably inevitable at some point in this war.
The trick was to just make sure ComStar didn’t realize that win, lose or draw this round, the next round would be the end for their ****** toaster worshiping cult.

The final end. Oh, I got happy tingly thoughts thinking about that!

So. The board was just about set and the pieces were moving. While the ‘abort’ order could technically be given anytime up to the sealed orders to the unit commanders were opened, in practical terms the Fourth Succession War was now on automatic countdown. We had hit ‘the great deep breath before the plunge’ as Gandalf might have put it and as the Inner Sphere started to turn its head towards Terra, Ardan and I hastened to get the final piece onto the board.

*
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******
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*

“Don’t look down!”

I did of course - and regretted it immediately as the long long distance between my Mech and the ground -or lack thereof - became clear. My Marauder seemed to shake slightly before the Gyro kicked in and compensated for the spike of vertigo from the neurohelmet, adjusting my stride between steps so fast few would have noticed.
Ardan did, from the snort of laughter down the communications line. I tactfully ignored his playing with me though as I continued onto the bridge behind him, trying to ignore the slight feeling of it giving ever so slightly with each footstep.

“Are you sure this thing is safe?” I couldn’t help but ask as I looked back up, resolutely not looking down at the ocean washing around a long way under us. And equally not focusing on the thought that unlike Sortek; my Mech lacked the jump jets to have a fighting chance of surviving the collapse of the massive suspension bridge.
Don’t think about that MW2: Mechs mission with the bridge blowing up and dropping you, do NOT think about that MW2: Mechs mission with the bridge blowing up and dropping you…

“It’s rated as Assault-One” the Colonel assured me from his Victor. “Just ignore the give when you put your foot down, it’s designed to do that."

“I’ll take your word for it” I muttered to myself, trying to not cringe too much at that tiny bounce in the bridge. Or how if I looked just to the left or right I could see the sparkling blue oceans. The three Northbound lanes of the bridge were more than wide enough for our ‘Mechs to cross - with military utility vehicles preceding and following us to give us plenty of room - but from this perspective it really felt like I was walking a tightrope between two cliffs with a very long fall under me.

Still, I had to admit that even if the view inspired vertigo it was stunning, with a sparkling sea and distant humps of islands scattered off to the horizon to my left while to my right was the capital city of the Draconis March itself. The Beuller Victory bridge had been built to replace a bridge destroyed by the DCMS as they retreated from Robinson during its liberation in the 3rd Succession War and reminded me (as did the harbor city for that matter) of Sydney in a lot of ways, causing a brief pang of homesickness to work its way through me. But while the Sydney Harbor Bridge crossed the harbor well back down the harbor from the ocean, this bridge was built right on the cliffs of the harbor head itself. Which put it a very impressive 300 meters above sea level.

It was also the fastest way from the spaceport we had landed at to the South, to reach our destination to the North.
Although why we were taking our Battlemechs to our meeting and not just a damn staff car? It was pretty much ‘Simon Says’ except ‘Ardan says’. Different name; the same rules as far as the AFFS and Federated Suns were concerned. I honestly didn’t think Jamie Wolf and his staff would care one way or the other what we arrived in, but Ardan insisted that arriving as MechWarrior’s in Mechs with full formality and declaring of privilege would do far more to stop any … rash … actions than anything else.

And we didn’t have to stop for traffic lights either which was cool.

It seemed the people of Robinson were used to Battlemechs walking through their city in peacetime, strange as that sounded. There was a network of elevated roads running above key highways in urban areas and alongside them when there was more room, reserved for the use of military and emergency vehicles and specifically built to easily take the heaviest of Battlemechs. They could even serve, according to Ardans ‘tour guide’ talk, as VTOL staging points with things like strategically placed and reinforced multi-story car parks easily converted in a crisis into FARP hangers for VTOLs and Aerospace fighters that had STOVL capability. All pretty cool, but even March Capitals didn’t have so much money that would casually build spare bridges just for military traffic … so we were stomping across it and causing wonderful ripples as we turned an 80 zone into a 40 zone during school pickup hour.
The glares I could see in my compressed display from the soccer moms were only offset by the very excited kids plastering their face to their widows and waving wildly.

I had ever waved back a couple of times … until Ardan told me not to. Spoilsport.

In any event we reached the far side of the bridge without me falling off and veered off quickly onto a separate military road, letting the traffic shoot off to the right where the highway descended down to the foreshore areas. Our road however kept heading Northeast along the top of the escarpment beyond. The region North of here was pretty much entirely Fort Susan Sandoval, named after some war hero of the ruling family from the Succession Wars. It was less a defensive fortification and much more of a staging ground though, with massive warehouses, airbases, machine shops and even a decent spaceport - pretty much at or over capacity with the dropships of the Dragoons packed in there now, hence our long walk from a DMM spaceport on the other side of the city. The outer perimeter of the grounds was not terribly impressive - just a chain-link fence and a guard post with a single fire team who waved us through, but my passive sensor systems were able to tag a well camouflaged observation post on the summit of the tall cliff overlooking the region. And, as we passed through a cutting dug through the cliff – too tall for vehicles or ‘Mechs without jump-jets, my systems also marked a dozen different static autocannon and short-range missile mounts that could turn our little switchback valley into the valley of death at a moment's notice, so, the base wasn't exactly undefended. Clear of that cutting, we emerged onto the reverse side of the slope, which dropped down ahead of us to show the massive staging grounds stretching out to the horizon, with the sparkling sea off to the left …  hang on, were those explosions in the water?

“Possible weapons fire, three-ten” I communicated tersely to Ardan as I torso twisted in instinct to face what was increasingly clearly the distinctive black puffs of air bursts and orange zips of tracers. With a flick of my thumb switching my T&T systems from NAV to TACTICAL as Ardan too turned and came to a halt, the two of us reaching out with our Mechs eyes to see … a mixed Lance of Blackjacks and Riflemen running Dragoons transponders standing on the cliff edge at the source of the fire. They were facing the ocean and even as Ardan and I watched, a startlingly fast blip leapt into the air from a barge well out in the sea, the rocket tipping over in the air to swoop down towards the waves, barely avoiding crashing as it spent along a sea-skimming height. First it headed towards the shore -and us!- and my fingers unconsciously reached towards the MASTER ARM switch at that, but the missile hauled around and streaked along then, parallel to the shore on a course that would take it past the waiting mechs. A buzzing warbling sounded in my headphones - scatter from directional high-frequency targeting sensors seeking a lock - and hazey cones of golden light like virtual searchlights materialized around the waiting air defense Mechs holographic images and then even as the drone seemed to start bounding and rolling in a bewilderingly impossible way in response as it aligned to slash past the Mechs-

One single perfectly coordinated burst barked from the black and red Mechs and the target rocket was turned into confetti.

“Impressive, aren't they?” Ardan read my mind as another drone no two - four!- blasted off and again entered the live fire zone, this time with dizzyingly different trajectories, heights and course changes … and once again, none of them come out as the four Air Defense Mechs split their fire and engaged each target simultaneously with brutal efficiency.

Their ‘turn’ clearly over, the quartet of Mechs powered down their sensors turned line astern and started to walk off the firing range.  And with the fireworks over, Ardan started moving again and I fell into step smoothly, switching my HUD back to NAV mode.

“Very impressive” I admitted now as we stomped along, carefully making sure to leave plenty of room as a convoy of DMM APCs headed past us in the other direction. “But I suppose if you’ve survived everything the Dragoons have been through up to now, you’re either incredibly good, incredibly lucky … or both”.

“You’ll get there” Ardan assured me like a coach patting his player on the back after he was pulled from the lineup and I fought the urge to roll my eyes at his earnest tone. Ardan had made it a point to apologize for dragging me out of training several times, even though the written orders from Hanse Davion made it clear this was not his idea, but that of his boss - and in actual fact, my boss as well. All members of the AFFS were ultimately sworn to the service of Hanse Davion of course and nominally all orders carried the implicit authority of Hanse Davion by people authorized to speak on his behalf....
But I had sworn my service and allegiance personally to him what seemed like a lifetime ago … meaning my orders explicitly came from him and left zero wiggle room to question them.

Privately question the sanity of them, by all means; just so long as in the end I obeyed them.

Ours is not to reason why, ours is just to do … and … see if Natasha Kerensky pulls a sidearm and starts blasting when you accidently trigger her?

I made a face. Tennyson, it was not.

At the bottom of the hill we turned right as the road forked, following the signs (and TACMAP nav points for that matter) towards GATE-One, parallel to a more serious inner perimeter fence. Double chain link with manned watchtowers every half klick or so and with an anti-Mech trench between the two, it wasn’t exactly imposing but it was an effective barrier for hostile units without Jump Jets. And covered with enough sensors to make life difficult even for a DEST team should one try to sneak in.
Just ahead was the main gate and standing by it were a Lance of Battlemechs on sentry duty. And while two of them were indeed painted in the Black with Red highlights of the Wolf Dragoons … two were painted a very different color indeed.

That had been the work of Aaron Sandoval; Archduke of the Draconis March and Duke of Robinson. The man had welcomed the Dragoons dependents upon arrival who had escaped while the combat arm of the Dragoons slugged it out on Misery, escorted by a provisional battalion of mixed Dragoons troops calling themselves the Home Guard. Mostly trainees let by a lance or two of Veterans, the Archduke had, forewarned by Hanse, already organized a secure place for them to ground and settle in for the anxious wait for their combat arms to join them.

And in a stroke of genius, he had made sure they had houseguests to wait with them.

After all, the civilians, even if they were military families, were understandably shaken by their narrow escape from the Combine and how rapidly the Combine had turned against them and might need some help settling back in to a civilized society, especially after the ‘siege’ mentality the Combine had put the entire Dragoons family under. So, on arriving they had found they were going to be sharing their new digs with a fellow Mercenary unit. Or more specifically with said unit off vigorously rubbing salt in the wounds of the Dragon; it was the dependents of the Eridani Light Horse, guarded by the 8th Recon and 50th Heavy Cavalry Battalions of same who would be their next door neighbors.

I, of course, knew the story of the ELH - I’m sure most of the Inner Sphere’s military happy-people did. The Light Horse had originally been an SLDF unit, the Third Regimental Combat Team of the Star League Defense Forces. They had (sanely) decided against joining Kerensky on his death march into the unknown, instead declaring they would stay to keep ‘the light of the Star League’ alive. It was an attitude they still claimed to hold today, to the point of still wearing SLDF inspired uniforms, having a whole ritual day of mourning on the date the Exodus Fleet had jumped out of the Inner Sphere and having as their company banner an SLDF flag ringed in black that was only ever raised to half mast. And would be so until a new Star League arose.

Frankly, I saw the current ELH as little more than crack mercs with a thing for Cosplay.

But, even if their worshiping of the Star League instinctively had me rolling my eyes, there was no doubting they took their history very seriously.

All, of their history.

Back in the ‘good ole days’ of the early First Succession War, the ELH had been holding fast to their ‘neutral’ status as loyal SLDF troops, despite the Great Houses starting to throw the nukes around and despite increasing pressure from House Kurita for them to fold into the DCMS and ‘follow the rightful First Lord’. Then, news of the Kentares Massacre had broken and the ELH had decided to leave the Draconis Combine for good. Their sub-units were spread across several worlds but had managed to mostly pull out quietly when the local Combine bigshot on Sendai had caught on to their plan and made his objections known by taking the families of two battalions -the 8th Recon and 50th Heavy Cavalry- hostage. Demanding those two units surrender themselves to him, or, he would execute their families.

Said Battalions had refused.

Said Administrator had carried through with his threat. Seemingly not bothering to ask the obvious question of what now was restraining the aforementioned crack units from coming back down to make their displeasure known at his slaughtering their loved ones?
Because entirely unsurprisingly, both units did come back down and make their displeasure known at his slaughtering their loved ones. Even when a DCMS unit had arrived to investigate, when they were told about what happened - and with the DCMS still in their clinical depression state after the truth about Kentares became known - they had, for once, acted with honor and withdrawn. Leaving the Administrator to his fate as the two Battalions killed said Administrator, his bodyguards and a whole buttload of political officers who probably deeply regretted every ‘Gaijin’ sneer they had made towards the ELH over the years while they were stationed there.

In the aftermath when the two battalions had rejoined the rest of the ELH, their commanders had offered their resignations for the unauthorized attack - which were refused. Instead, they and their commands were in perpetuity made responsible for the force protection mission of the ELHs dependents and it was a responsibility they -and all who had been assigned to those units over the centuries- took very seriously.

As in written into their contacts seriously.

As in those two units always stayed behind with their dependents when the rest of the unit was off-world seriously.

And while Clanners would probably have contempt for being left in the rear area to guard civilians, the Light Horse considered it the ultimate honor to be rotated into those two units for a tour of duty, with very high expectations placed upon them.

The Dragoons being co-located and welcomed by both the troops and their dependents sent several messages to Wolfs people in a way an AFFS unit wouldn’t and credit to the Archduke for organizing it with the ELH. The fact that they were comfortable with having the Dragoons as houseguests given how ridiculously uptight they were about protecting their dependents said in no uncertain what the wider Merc community (with the ELH as their proxy) thought of the claims made against them by the Combine. And fellow Mercs taking their side like that, especially a unit as prestigious as the ELH, frankly, probably meant even more to them than Hanse and Katrina saying as much.
The ELH unit also served as a rebuke to any Home Guard troops who may have been sulking over the fact that they had been left behind while their comrades went into battle. Because the 8th Recon and 50th Heavy Cavalry lived by the same words as many of Robinsons extensive judaic community had lived by for over a millennium.

Never again.

Jamie Wolf had failed to keep his dependents, his family, alive once before - and no-one for a second doubted that he would do whatever it took to keep them alive this time. So, before they complained about sitting this out in the rear, they should talk to their joint patrol partners about what the price of failure meant. Or they could talk to Kerensky to bitch about it if they wanted – they might even survive the experience if they were lucky and she was in a really good mood…

Part of me, as we approached the gate and its guardians, wondered if the ELH presence may also have been meant to serve as a subtler rebuke to the Dragoons. Certainly not rubbing it in their faces, but perhaps at least making it clear that if you walked into a cave with a lion, expect to be ****** mauled. The Combines treatment of Mercs even on a good day tended towards the ‘disdain; you should be on your knees thanking us for the chance to serve the Dragon, unworthy Merc Scum!’ side of the scale and the ELH were hardly the first to have been turned on by the Combine. Why the ****** people wanted to work for them…

[Chris OFarrell]

“Approaching Mechs, this is Colonel Elliot Jamison, Zeta Battalion, Wolf Dragoons. Please identify yourself and state your intentions” came a gruff voice over the general channel and I glanced up at the gate as Ardan slowed to a halt at the precise ‘YIELD’ line painted on the ground marking where approaching units should stop, my Mech matching his movements. The four Battlemechs at the gate were ‘looking’ in our direction now, but my advanced communications systems instead tagged a Dragoons Stalker further back inside the facility as the source of the transmission. With a thumb on a trackball built into the side of my left-hand joystick, I idly swept an indicator over to it and highlighted it.

My LIDAR systems triggered for a half second and moments later a projection of the Assault Mech materialized in front of me, to show it in much greater detail.

Again, Royal Command got the best toys.

The Stalker looked operational, but it also clearly needed servicing, with field patches all over the armor and a bit of a rushed paint job to cover it up...
To be honest though, the Freddy Krueger look just made it more terrifying - and a Stalker was plenty terrifying already, what with the sheer number of guns sticking out of it and with a wave I dismissed the hologram.

So. That was the commander of Zeta Battalion, the ‘big stick’ of the Dragoons. One of the original Clanners … and I had absolutely no idea which way he would jump come the fun that was about to happen.
Of course, that held true for a lot of the Dragoons, which made this whole ritual of challenge and approach rather important and hence Ardans desire to arrive in full Mechwarrior pomp. ‘Sacred Hospitality’ under the name of Honors of War was still a thing in this neo-feudal society - especially between Mechwarriors. Even on the Battlefield, ‘claiming privilege’ could be done to at least allow for brief ceasefires to have a civil discussion, often through third parties like ComStar. And the Clanners at least nominally held to such customs with their own bargaining practices and traditions such as Safcon and Hegira…

Well, we’d see how this went.

Then as Ardan went through the formal reply process which basically came down to ‘I have an appointment with Colonel Wolf, I believe I am expected?’ my EW board chirped and the Stalker flashed as it in turn scanned me … then a few seconds later, a deeper warbling sounded as a much more focused multi-band scan swept over me and the corner of my mouth twitched up in a smirk.

That was the Battlemech equivalent of a double take. Clearly Jamison had also just realized this wasn’t a MAD-3D.

The Dragoons had (possibly past tense depending how Misery ended up) at least some Marauders in their TO&E. And indeed, they were exclusive user and creator of the Marauder II - the jumping assault mechs big brother of my design. But I was pretty confident they had never seen anything like this, well, except perhaps back in the Clan Homeworlds.
But if he was off balance from my one-of-a-kind but definitely not a Frakenmech, he gave no hints in his voice as he now answered Ardan.

“We have been expecting you Colonel Sortek” the Zeta commander replied smoothly with exact formality. “Pass friends and enter.” And with that the lance of Battlemechs at the gate backed up a little as the anti-vehicle barriers sunk into the ground, the two of us walking through the entrance as each guard Mech raising their right arm in a gesture universally recognized as a ‘Mech Salute’ that Ardan returned smoothly as we stepped past, the unit closing ranks behind us once again. Ahead, Jamison’s Mech ‘lifted’ slightly as he took it out of parking mode and the armless monster with an absurd amount of guns started stomping off at a sedate thirty KPH, the two of us falling into line behind him.

I didn’t mind the slow pace through; it gave me a good look around at the base as we carefully walked down the road, the lights all green for us with railway like boom arms holding traffic back on crossroads. The first blocks nearest the gate seemed to be administration offices, presumably filled with locals doing all the support work the Dragoons needed done as they settled in. And probably a lot of the Dragoons dependents who in merc units tended to handle the back-office stuff.

Because even in the 31st century, the paperwork must flow.

Beyond the office blocks were clearly residential areas and apartments - although this main road was carefully raised now to minimize danger to civilians, giving a good view of what amounted almost to a miniature city for the personnel and their families. Some of whom I’m sure would be rejoicing in the return of their loved ones.

Others…well, I saw what seemed to be a large military hospital in the distance and it looked like it was pretty damn active.

No surprise there.

The Dragoons had taken losses that, while not enough to destroy them, were certainly the worst they had taken since the ‘fun’ in Antons rebellion, according to the summary Ardan had received on the way in from DMR and DMI. Twenty percent of their Mechwarriors and sixty percent of the Aerospace pilots were listed as KIA with another thirty to forty percent of their Mechwarriors WIA to a non-mission capable level. Add to that roughly 50% equipment losses and the Dragoons were in a world of hurt.
In normal times, they would have reserve stockpiles to restore some of that, but the long ‘company store’ play the Combine had run had quite ruthlessly drawn down those stockpiles down and there were no more Clan resupply runs for them either. They had a decent amount of salvage of course, both their own and DCMS gear ... but so brutal had the battle on Misery been that DMIs reports suggested said salvage was less about rebuilding Mechs and more about yanking useful components out of scrap either for repair work on other Mechs, or, putting up for sale to get some quick cash. Because it went without saying that finances wise no-one was paying the bills now.
House Davion was letting them crash here with free housing, food and support of course, but surely, they wanted to get a new contract hammered out soonest? Thus, I was sure they would be very happy that Hanse Davion’s personal troubleshooter had come all the way out here to treat with them so quickly.

In short, the Dragoons were at their weakest since they had entered the Inner Sphere.
And probably at their maddest too - or at least tied with Anton-time.

Still there was some good news. Firstly, their kill ratio had been insane; the DCMS were estimated to have suffered total non-recoverable equipment losses of about five and a half to six Mech regiments - a staggering amount of war material to lose in a single pre-Helm 3rd Succession War engagement. I had no idea where Takashi had even gotten the Mechs to build the Ryuken units in the first place; most fanon suggested either out of his ass (aka ‘FASA cannot into math when inconvenient’) or that he had blocked replacement shipments to the entire DCMS and organized key transfers of personnel with family owned mechs. In either case, between the Ryuken and Genyosha, the strategic reserves of the DCMS had to be thin to none by now; not a good place to be, considering what was coming.

No strike that, a very good place for them to be considering what was coming!

Just as brutal, close to 90% of the DCMS Mechwarriors who had lost their ride had also lost their lives. Now, if that was because they had refused to eject, ‘refused to eject’, ejected into the sub-zero ‘fun’ of Misery and died of exposure, or had slit their stomachs open because of their perceived failure … who knew?
In all honesty (and this fact distantly worried me) I found it hard to care.
The DCMS had offered no quarter after moving against the Dragoons so surely expected to receive none in return. The Dictum Honorarium, the code by which all Combine citizens and soldiers (theoretically) operated, was pretty clear in the best traditions of World War Two Japan, that to fall into enemy hands was the ultimate disgrace and a fate worse than death. It also stated that those who refused to serve the Dragon were enemies of the Dragon. And that enemies of the Dragon needed to be destroyed.

And it seemed the Dragoons had seemingly been perfectly happy to oblige them on those terms of engagement.

Presently, we passed past a somewhat more substantial wall and security gate that opened and closed behind us as we left the outer ring of the base and moved into the ‘business end’; a massive sprawling tarmac of reinforced ferrocrete with hangers, warehouses, workshops and military facilities of every kind as far as the eye could see. Vehicles were driving everywhere, but smartly stayed the hell out of our way.
Two Assaults and a Heavy had a way of making 31st century Mac Trucks rethink the food chain and their place in it.

Unsurprisingly as a nodal point of key strategic logistical support for the entire Draconis March this base was huge, sprawling over three hundred square kilometers if you included the Robinson Standard BattleWorks anex, whose bread and butter was providing major repair and support services to AFFS units cycling in and out. In the distance off to my left closer to the ocean were the ovoids of countless dropships, mostly in the black and red trim of Wolf’s Dragoons. Between them and us were vast fields of Battlemech repair bays; row after row inside hangers filled with sorry looking Dragoon and ex-DCMS units, with teams from RSB alongside the Dragoons either stripping down damaged units for repair or ripping apart units for any useful scrap and salvage in showers of sparks from heavy tools.

And there seemed sadly to be far more of the later going on than the former.

To my right was another partition of the base, with a couple of AFFS Enforcers on guard at the gate into that section. That was, according to my floating TACMAP the main supply stockpile where truly massive amounts of supplies arrived from the Crucis March - and now quietly from as far as Coventry - to be distributed across the Draconis March. Security looked tight too, but that made sense as no-one wanted some damn Ninjas to sneak in and blow up a few megatons of high explosives.
Or perhaps it was because of the shipment Hanse Davions instructions to Ardan and I indicated should have arrived several weeks ago.
Not for the first time as I reflected on Hanse Davions orders, I wondered if genius and insanity were but two sides of the same coin. ‘Crazy as a Fox!’ was certainly put into context when it came to Hanse Davion. The man must at times give poor old Yvonne Davion heart attacks…

In any event, after ten minutes of walking, we reached the center of ‘Dragoon town’, a headquarters building with attached Mech and vehicle bays and a Lance of battered Mechs proudly standing at the four corners on watch. We headed straight in to the Mech Hanger where a bit over half a dozen Mechs were already docked - senior officers mounts? Certainly, the somewhat banged up looking blue Archer I recognized as Jamie Wolf's mount…and the jet-black Warhammer with the Clan Widowmaker symbol was of course You Know Who’s...
Each of us were guided into a gantry by ground staff and I curved off to my assigned bay carefully. The gantry wasn’t a full Mech bay - more of a slot on the wall with a light cage to allow easy access on and off Mechs, so it was no trouble to reverse into place without scratching anything (totally still felt protective of my shiny grey paint) and, once there, quickly run through the shutdown checklist. Finally, I activated the security lockouts before unstrapping myself, setting the neurohelmet to the side and getting up, brushing down my dress shirt.
Once again, I wasn’t wearing the normal shirts, shorts and cooling vest of a field Mechwarrior - said vest was hanging off to the side however -just in case- but I was wearing the AFFS dress uniform of one. As I had yet to be commissioned as an officer in the AFFS my uniform jacket was rather plain. No rank insignia or unit markings; just the Federated Suns flag on my right shoulder and nameplate on my chest for decorations. And no spurs which I had not yet earned.

A completely plain uniform stripped of all rank and insignia had its own air of mystery that perhaps suited me better than the uniform of an AFFS cadet. Which would raise all manner of questions I could do without. But at least I had a pretty solid claim to the right to wear an AFFS uniform this time, which made me feel much less uncomfortable than I had on Helm.

Working out of my seat I picked up said uniform jacket from where it was hanging behind my seat (yes, the little space where the Rumble Seat could be unfolded could be used to hang spare clothes; I loved this thing) and turned to the hatch, hitting the release which caused it to pop out and slide back. A Dragoon tech was waiting outside and I took her accepted hand as she helped me up and out. I thanked her and hit the hatch lock - double checking it locked with the loud Beep-Beep! before moving to the drop lift. The now familiar smell of coolant and machine tools came to me as I dropped down to the floor, once unpleasant yet now oddly comfortable in that way you got used to such things. Pulling on my jacket as I stepped out of the lift, I found Ardan stepping out from the feet of his monstrous Victor and he wordlessly handed me his secure attaché case to hold while he slipped into his own dress jacket.
I couldn’t help but glance at the golden disk on his jackets right breast, distinctive opposite the numerous campaign tabs and other awards as he fussed his uniform into place. The highest award a soldier in the AFFS could receive, the Medal Excalibur said that if you knew nothing about this man, it was sufficient to know he was considered a hero by the Federated Suns.

And coming from a highly militaristic culture where dying in glorious battle was ‘Tuesday’, that really said something. As did the fact that the medal had been earned well before he had saved Hanse from the whole imposter plot.

So yes, Ardan was a hero and don’t you forget it. But a humble one; incredibly competent but with a strong moral compass. In the original timeline he had been let in on Justin Alards true deep cover mission only because he had more or less stormed into Hanse office and let him have both barrels over the railroading bullshit trial the man was being put through, being perfectly willing to resign and publicly denounce it do if he needed to do it.
It took a lot of balls to threaten that to The Foxes face. As well as showing exactly why Hanse kept him so close to hand as he plotted and schemed; the ‘speed break on the ship of state’ if he started to cross certain lines.
As one of those lines had quite possibly been executing me outright to maintain OPSEC for the Federated Suns HPG research program and instead giving me a new life … well I think EVERYONE was more than happy with the results of that choice.

His jacket in place, Sortek and I were quickly escorted by a waiting Dragoon tech to the main lift. At a bit of a jog, Colonel Jamison moved to join us, having parked his own monster next to Wolf’s. He was a surprisingly big man (as in fit big) - who looked strikingly like Tom Selleck - but I held that thought back as he extended his hand to Ardan with a smile on his face.

“Colonel, it is a pleasure to finally meet you” he greeted Ardan, the two shaking hands firmly.

“Likewise, Colonel” Ardan nodded, his expression sincere before turning to gesture to me. “May I present John Smith, my aide-de-camp?”

“Colonel” I nodded and extended my hand after shifting Ardans annoyingly heavy secure case to my left, the Dragoon officer taking it and shaking it firmly, but with no contest of strength or anything silly like that (which was good as I’m sure he could have crushed my bones quite casually) as he briefly took in my plain uniform.

“Mister Smith. That is a very interesting Battlemech you have” he said as he released my hand, glancing back behind me at it for a moment, his eyes clearly intent on it as he picked it over. “Looks like a modified Two-Romeo with a large pulse laser and … two mediums under the chin?”

“Well spotted” I freely confirmed the loadout of my Mech - after all, it wasn’t as if Wolfnet wouldn’t be able to confirm that easily enough and I was sure while we were upstairs, some of their people would be crawling over the outside of my Mech taking pictures.
Of course, very few people should know off the cuff what a large-pulse laser looked like and I wondered if that was an unintentional slip from the Clanner … or a fakeout attempt to test me?
After all, Katrina's casual ‘exposing’ of Snord being on Jamies orders should have Wolf at least wondering what else we might know...if he’s not being more of an idiot than normal anyway.

“I take it this was a Helm mech?” he continued, his tone suggesting it wasn’t a question as he continued without waiting for an answer. “A very impressive looking retrofit; I am presuming an NAIS job?”

“Have you transferred from Zeta to Wolfnet?” I asked, keeping my tone light and amused as the elevator arrived with a ‘ding!’.

“Just curious” Jamison laughed gruffly as the doors opened and he waved us in - then paused and stepped backwards as a Mechwarrior carrying a cooling vest in one hand and a neurohelmet in the other strode out of said lift.

…Holy. Shit.

That was about all I could think. After all, it wasn’t everyday a Battletech legend casually walked out of an elevator in front of you.

“Ah, Major” Jamison greeted the newcomer. “Good timing - before you head out I’d like to introduce you to our representatives from the Federated Suns” he gestured towards us.

The woman turned to us and - damn. I mean, just … damn.

In a Mechwarriors sports bra (with Clan Widowmakers distinctive spider sewn into it), shorts and boots with a holster supporting a wicked looking knife on her shin and a heavy slugthrower pistol on her hip … there was no ****** way I would ever have guessed, for so much as a second, that this woman was nearing sixty years old. Seriously. A very fit and ridiculously deadly mid thirties, tops.

Clan medscience was seriously bullshit.

Especially with her abs looking like you could grate cheese on them, her limbs looking like they used myomer rather than muscles and her blazing orange hair making her seem more energetic than a runaway fusion reactor-

Okay. I’ll admit it, much like in Battletech the game, Natasha Kerensky the real was just …

Wow.

A genetically engineered killing machine trashborn Clanner of course. But, still … wow.

You know, if her Granddaughter looks like this and Phelan -as we all suspected- was thinking with his dick, his defection suddenly starts to makes more sense...

“Colonel Sortek” Natasha Kerensky greeted him as she stepped forward, casually dropping her neurohelmet to the ground to offer him her hand which Ardan took and shook briskly. “It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, at last”.

“The pleasure is mine Major” Ardan smiled as he released her hand. “Prince Hanse sends his personal regards - and reminds you that you still owe him two bottles of Thirty Oh Five Glengarry reserve.”

Kerensky smirked an oh-so cocky way - a grin I’m sure many people in the past had tried to wipe off her face.
I doubted many who tried had lived.
Her MIIO file strongly suggested that ‘Natasha Kerensky’ might damn well be a default ‘cause of death’ on death certificates across the Inner Sphere given her estimated kill count.

“Unless I’m mistaken Colonel” she said in a tone that made it clear she knew she was not, “Ian never found out where those two bottles on Hanse’s desk vanished that night. Those bottles filled with that magnificent, smooth, Scotch … presumably. But feel free to tell him that I actually picked up an Oh-Five … somewhere … in my travels. And I’ll crack it open and raise a toast in his name with the Widows when he ties the knot with that cutie Steiner he’s marrying”.

“I’ll be sure to pass that on” Ardan said with dry amusement before stepping to the side. “But I don’t want to keep you and Colonel Wolf is expecting us.”

“Given that you ran out here all the way from New Avalon I’m sure he can wait a few minutes more” Kerensky snorted dismissively at that as she turned to face me and at a glance took in my odd uniform. “And who exactly are you then?”

Annnndd there goes the heart hammering in the chest. Right on schedule. Trying very hard not to either think about what she had done, purely on reflex, to Fadre Singh...or squee at a high frequency over the fact that Natasha Kerensky was paying attention to me.

So don’t ****** give her an excuse to pull her gun John?

“Smith. John Smith” I offered her a polite nod and extended my hand. “Big fan of your work”.

“Well, always happy to meet a fan” she smirked. “Any favorite hits?”

You killing Burke Crason and nailing Vlad Ward in the back to score four kills in your little Trial of Position to re-test when you rejoined the Clans was pretty awesome...

“Well … it’s pretty hard to go past your avenging Joshua Wolf and the Dragoon dependents” I said - and seeing the ancient embers of pain and anger that flickered in her eyes I quickly moved onwards from the battle she had arguably made her name, founding the Black WIdows and turning into the murder machine we all knew and loved. “But, I have to say that from what I read, you’ve reached a new level of excellence as a Champion of Chaos and Master of Disaster on Misery?”

“What can I say? I’m a Gal who likes her work” she shrugged impishly but then seemed to notice the time on her watch. “But we’ll have to table comparative destruction; my slot at the firing range won’t be held all day and I have a high score to set” she said as she reached down and picked up her helmet - oh GOWD don’t look at her as she bends over like that, she might stab you in the eye! “Ciao!” she said and with that strode out whistling in an off-key sort of way … wait, was that ‘You ain’t nothing but a Hound Dog?’

Must have been hanging out with Rhonda Snord.

[Chris OFarrell]

I turned back to Zeta’s commander as her last words came to me.

“The Major won’t be joining us in the staff meeting?” I asked Jamison curiously as he hit the lift call button again, dragging with almost physical effort my gaze away from the way her short-shorts moved...

“Not bloody likely - with a slot on the gunnery range open now that her Mech has been pieced back together” he explained, his eyes rolling but his tone tolerantly amused. “Whenever we hit a base with a firing range that scores individual performances, she always heads out to set a new high score. With a standing offer of a bottle of booze to any Dragoon who manages to beat it.”

“Has anyone managed that?” I asked in curiosity at that as the lift dinged and we stepped inside.

I didn’t try to seriously calculate my odds of beating her score, three billion to one perhaps? If I had the wind at my back?

“Jamie keeps getting close - honestly I am sure he could beat it but lets her have it to encourage the rest of the Dragoons” the Colonel smiled briefly as he hit the button for the top floor and we started ascending. “Only one person ever actually beat it back when we were in Steiner space; Lieutenant Char Aznable. One of my Zetas. Not sure it was worth it though, Kerensky was sulking for a month after that - even though she made it a point to go out and beat his score by twenty percent, half hungover, the day after.”

Oh yeah, forgot that. The Dragoons have their own expy Gundam pilot don’t they? Wonder if his neurohelmet is as crazy looking...

“Well it could be amusing to watch her reaction if he beats it again” I thought aloud. After all, so long as it wasn’t directed at me, a sulking Natasha Kerensky could be hilarious...

“Probably not going to happen for a while, Char got knocked about on Misery and is going to be out for a least a month” Jamison said, his expression distant. “Lost eight good men on that final push into Sabaku, but we bashed open the hole for Alpha and Gamma and they poured through, ended the battle in an hour that could have taken days."

The silence in the lift was painful.

“I’m sorry for your losses” I said, feeling horribly awkward in that moment with nothing to say as, honestly, what could a man like me who had never seen combat say to that without sounding entirely artificial and pro-forma? “I heard Zeta suffered the highest casualties of any Dragoon unit?"

“And inflicted by far the most - a near five to one ratio while being outnumbered a minimum of two to one at all times” he confirmed with a tone I could best describe as … stoic, tinged with pride. “I lost ten pilots and all but six of the survivors wounded to some degree” he said almost matter of factly and I blinked, feeling slightly light headed and alarmed. Ten dead was near a third of their strength gone from a thirty-six strong nominal force. And almost all the rest wounded?! Over eighty percent casualties!?

****** hell. Was it that bad in the original timeline for Zeta?

“Most of the wounded were just knocked about as their Mechs got bashed around, compounded with heat stress from pushing them past their limits” he waved away the look on my face. “Some are still in bad shape, but the rest will be up and operational within a month at most and you do not join Zeta because it is safe.” The man shrugged at that, seemingly at peace with the losses. “We will rebuild. Already have every damn kid in the training companies pestering me for transfers to the open slots, no matter how many times I tell them we do not have enough Mechs” he rolled his eyes as the lift slowed to a halt. “Anyway, here we are."

The doors opened on a lobby with the usual lifts, bathrooms and glass doors at either end into the rest of the floor … and a half dozen surly looking infantry in full field kit hefting a mixture of SMGs and shotguns that made my hands itch for my sidearm, which I had quite deliberately left inside my Mech. Jamison however led us past them without incident, returning their crisp salutes as he moved into a corridor that ran through bullpens filled with Dragoon officers - mostly walking wounded I tried not to stare at - my mind trying to reconcile the Colonels casual attitude towards his units losses.

Rule number one of being an officer I recalled Captain Rogers lectures vividly. You will, at some point, need to ruthlessly spend the lives people you may well love like your own sons and daughters. You will do so without hesitation, without mercy. Rule number two of being an officer; no-one can change rule number one.

Or, perhaps it was just a Clan ‘glorious death in battle equals good’ thing. Who the ****** knows...

Quickly enough we arrived quickly at a large wooden door guarded by yet more infantry in combat gear waiting and watching us with that same wariness I had seen in the bodyguards around Hanse and Katrina. These two didn’t salute but one of the two reached back and knocked (read; banged) twice on the door before pushing it open and holding it for us as we moved past and inside, closing it behind.

The room beyond was something akin to a board room with the ceiling being a slanted glass roof letting in the sunlight indirectly that made it near impossible to spy on events inside while letting ample natural light in. But of rather more immediate interest were the men and women clustered at the head of the table, who turned towards us as we entered.

“Colonel Ardan Sortek of the Davion Brigade of Guards and Mister John Smith, his aide-de-camp” Jamison announced us before stepping to the side and making way for Ardan to approach the group.

I ran my eyes over the group, tagging every single one of them from the DMI files Ardan had given me to study on the flight in to Robinson. They were all Clanners; some of whom had been with the original Dragoon group and others who had come with one of the resupply runs and been promoted to replace dead or retired officers. The Regimental Colonels of course; four plus Major Kelly Yukinov who was the de-facto Colonel in charge of Alpha Regiment when Jamie was busy leading the unit as a whole. Also present was a man I recognized as Stanford Blake, head of Wolfnet. The Dragoons private little spy network that they had pulled out of their asses a couple of years after arriving in the Inner Sphere… and standing proudly next to him was Marco Ramius.
Okay, not Marco Ramius, but I swear to God Jamie Wolf really was the mirror image of Sean Connery as a Soviet Submarine Captain who wanted to defect to Freedomland. If a tad younger looking.

Oh ****** hell - now I had The Hunt for Red October's opening theme ear-worming its way into my head...

Presently, Ardan moved forward towards Jamie, the Colonel welcoming Ardan warmly as they shook hands and introductions started between the officers as I made myself small in the background, Jamison sliding past behind me, going the long way to join his colleagues.

“Colonel Wolf” he introduced me, “My aide John Smith."

“Mister Smith” Jamie greeted me cordially - and damnit FASA, he even sounded like Sean Connery! Or had Catalyst done that picture? Damnit, can’t remember...
I took his offered hand though, shaking it firmly as he glanced at my uniform briefly, his face giving absolutely nothing away.
“That was a very interesting Battlemech you arrived in” he noted as he released my hand.

“It was a gift from a friend” I smiled faintly, earning a raised eyebrow at the non-answer.

And probably at my odd uniform.

Or what I was really doing here.

Probably figures me as a spook given that the AFFS doesn’t have political officers and Ardan is BFFs with Hanse Davion. Close enough I suppose although I still don’t know why I’m here either...

“Please” he finally gestured us to the side of the table bare of all but two chairs, Jamie and his Regimental officers sitting opposite us. Pretty much all the senior players in the Dragoons bar Kerensky and the Snords who I suppose wouldn’t be here for what everyone thought were contract negotiations with the Dragoons. And Natasha because … well, honestly, I didn’t care why Natasha really wasn’t here, just that she wasn’t!

Well, here we go I thought as I handed over Ardans attaché case to him.

“Colonel Sortek, before we begin our discussions, I would like to extend to you and your Prince the gratitude of all the Dragoons for your warnings” Jamie started once everyone was settled. “My people” and he glanced at Blake who nodded very slightly, “are of the opinion that such superb intelligence could only have come from a very high-level source that you risked exposing by passing on such information. A great many of our people are alive today because of that warning and we will not forget it.”

“Colonel Wolf. I will be sure to pass on your thanks to Prince Davion. However, honesty compels me to point out our reasons for warning you were not entirely altruistic; depriving the Combine of a Mercenary unit of the Dragoons skill and power was certainly one of the factors influencing our decision making” Ardan said with almost brutal honesty.
Must be a hell of a change from the words within words within words of dealing with Combine officials to have Ardan just outright come out and admit it I thought, but none of the Dragoons seemed at all bothered or put off by his directness.
“Accordingly,” Ardan continued, “irrespective of if we come to terms it is my Princes wish that you not consider that you owe any debts or favors to him. Frankly, the sheer damage you have directed inflicted to the DCMS - and opening you left for it to be compounded- has, if anything, made him feel greatly indebted to the Dragoons."

“While I in turn would note that the Combine were going to move against us and make themselves our enemies, irrespective of if the Prince decided to reach out and warn us” Jamie noted in turn, his face turning dark - although I could tell it wasn’t directed at Ardan. “And if he had not reached out, if he had - understandably- been unwilling to risk a clearly valuable source for the sake of a Mercenary unit in service to his greatest enemy, letting Kurita pull off his plans with full surprise? A great many -or perhaps even all - of our dependents and support staff could have been killed or held against us. It could have been far worse than Anton” he said, his eyes closing for a second as his subordinates murmured in agreement with their own expressions turning grim before Jamie opened his eyes, his face once again calm.

“Still, we could spend all day trying to insist that one of us owed the other more so, for now at least, I think it would be more productive to conclude we are both deeply grateful for the others efforts?” Jamie suggested, lifting his hands in a sort of shrug and offering a wry but real smile.

“Well said” Ardan agreed and got to work opening his attaché case. “First, Archduke Sandoval has formally offered indefinite shelter and support for your dependents here on Robinson, at his cost, until any new contract is signed between the Dragoons and a new employer. I also must express that both the First Prince Hanse Davion and Archon Katrina Steiner have authorized me to negotiate on their behalf for the employment of Wolf’s Dragoons in a joint, long term contract to both the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth."

That revelation got a number of raised eyebrows and slight shifting from the crowd of people. Jamie however didn’t even flinch at what must have been an unprecedented - certainly in the time of the Succession Wars - offer of two House Lords putting a proposal forward for the Dragoons services.

“I will, of course, personally extend my thanks to the Archduke later” Jamie observed and Ardan nodded to that. “However” he continued, “before negotiations truly begin between the Dragoons, Commonwealth and Suns; I must note a change in our standard terms. Contrary to the undertakings our agents on Galatea have been suggesting over the last year, the Dragoons will not be seeking a contracted guarantee against facing our previous employer” Jamie started, his tone matter-of-fact but his eyes icy. “In actuality, we will require a front line combat contract against them.”

There was a clear rumble of support from around the table at that, with dark, eager looks on faces.

Okay then. Clearly, ripping apart the Ryuken, slaughtering the Sword of Light and … um … gutting? the Galedon Regulars on Misery wasn’t enough DCMS blood for them.
I managed not to roll my eyes at the Dragoons desire to sign a suicide pact with their latest employer.

“You are requiring a front-line posting against the Draconis Combine?” Ardan asked. His tone was businesslike, not judging one way or the other but simply seeking clarification of the request and he got a curt nod in return.

“Correct” Jamie said simply. “In addition, … Colonel, I would hazard that after our business here is concluded, you will be proceeding to Terra for the wedding of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner?

“I will be” Ardan confirmed after a moment's thought. “Indirectly if we finish quickly enough, directly if these negotiations draw out somewhat” and Jamie nodded once again.

“Then I would also request if I may accompany you. I require a final conversation with the Coordinator and have a personal delivery to make before our previous business is concluded” he stated, and that matter of fact tone could not come close to hiding the flash in his eyes. “You have my word I will not start any violence with Lord Kurita or any of his party” he added as Ardan’s gaze narrowed, as if predicting the next question, holding up a hand in a placating gesture. “I simply need to return something to him, personally.”

Well, I suppose that means that Minobu Tetsuhara went out the same way I thought silently as Ardan and Jamie exchanged stares, neither willing to blink as they took the measure of each other and I let my attention drift in thought.

Tetsuhara had been one of those rare unicorns; a highly competent DCMS officer who not only believed the hype the DC sprouted about itself to the rest of the Inner Sphere, but lived by it and refused to compromise. He had unknowingly spared the life of Jamie Wolf while the Dragoons were in service to Steiner, because his Mech had been overheated and it would have been dishonorable to essentially shoot him in the back.
That decision had, of course, gotten him dispossessed by the DCMS in punishment. Because the DCMS were dicks about punishing people like that whenever anyone actually tried to inconveniently live up to their PR.
The Dragoons had come to appreciate him as an ally though, even giving him the moniker ‘Major Iron Man’ from them (although he was about as far as it was possible to get from any iteration of Tony Stark, let alone Robert Downey Junior), becoming key in keeping the Dragoons relationship with the Combine stable during his tenure as their liaison officer.

But far more important than all that; he had become a close friend to Jamie Wolf.

Things had started to go south when he was promoted into the position of the Commander of the Ryuken, leaving Jerry Akuma (who was all about the whole ‘entrap and/or destroy the Dragoons’ thing and personally loathed Tetsuhara) to replace him as their liaison officer. The man had wasted little time in using his position to start ****** things up in a methodical, systematic way with maximum company store efforts and steadily ramping up the anti-Dragoon propaganda inside the Combine even as the ISF worked to frame them for war crimes against the Combine.

Worse for Jamie Wolf and his friend, the man took his oaths so seriously that despite loathing himself for doing it, he had led the fight against the Dragoons to the best of his abilities once things turned hostile, seeing the orders to destroy the Dragoons as direct orders from the Coordinator himself.
Despite being betrayed by Samsonov he had fought as hard as he could but in the original timeline (and it seemed this one) Tetsuhara had been captured at the end of hostilities and insisted on seppuku to atone for his disgrace, no matter how frantically Jamie had tried to talk him out of it and prove none of the events was his fault and no one in the Dragoons doubted he had fought both well and with honor.
In Tetsuharas world however, there was no grey. His Lord Kurita had demanded success and he had instead delivered failure. His Warlord had betrayed him, sure, but as far as the Combine Officer was concerned, the orders to destroy the Dragoons had come from the Dragon. And indeed, it was his decision all those years ago to spare Jamie Wolf that had inevitably led to this horrible day.

Ergo, he had failed.
The Dragon, like all good Bond villains, did not tolerate failure.
Ergo, Seppuku was the only way to balance his karma and Jamie had stood as his second to shoot him as he finished slicing himself open.

For Tetsuhara; the noble act of a close friend, standing by him to the end.

For Jamie; pure bloody murder of a good friend and better man, forced by Takashi Kurita.

Jamie had then proceeded to Terra to ‘deliver’ Tetsuhara's ancestral swords to the Coordinator, charging him with returning them to the man's widow and family and explaining why her husband had slit himself open. Then, after throwing the swords at his feet, Jamie had taken the opportunity to scorn Takashi in front of the entire assembled senior nobility of the Inner Sphere’s Great Houses. Short of pulling down his pants and dickslapping him, there wasn’t terribly much more that could have been to encourage the DCMS to come after the Dragoons with everything they could scrape together in a howling rage.
Given his desire to head to Terra to ‘deliver’ something to Takashi, it was a foregone conclusion events had played out much the same way this time. And he seemed determined to play out future events in the same way.

[Chris OFarrell]

“From the reports I’ve read...” Sortek continued after a few seconds of exchanging stares with Jamie led nowhere, instead glancing down as he leafed through his papers from DMR; “the Dragoons Mech regiments are, as a whole sitting at greater than fifty percent non-recoverable material losses and thirty percent damaged? With twenty percent personnel losses and another thirty or forty percent currently non-mission capable. Would this be an accurate assessment?”

“Approximately, yes” Jamie agreed with a stoic nod as if Ardan hadn’t just pointed out he had gone from having five crack regiments at his beck and call a few months ago to having barely one right now. “If we can quickly come to contract terms for some other parts as well as helping to expedite a shipment ordered from Blackwell, I am confident we will be able to put two and a half regiments of Battlemechs in the field within two months, with another regiment of dispossessed Mechwarriors combat ready. Plus our training command, although we intend to keep them here with our vehicle support and the remains of Zeta to defend our dependents. No disrespect intended to the AFFS or, of course, the Light Horse.”

“None taken on our side and I’m sure the ELH -perhaps more than anyone- will understand” Ardan agreed before leaning forward slightly. “However as for your posting requests … may I put this directly Colonel?” Sortek asked.

“Of course” Jamie agreed and Ardan leaned back a little, regarding Jamie with an unreadable expression on his face.

“How far are you willing - no, excuse me. How far are you going to take this vendetta?”

Well that’s direct...

Ardan's blunt question seemed to wash through the room like a cold wind and several of the Dragoon officers actually looked a trite taken aback by it.
Although I doubted it would be near enough to get them to start thinking about the likely long term consequences of declaring Jihad against the Draconis Combine with a mere two and a half Regiments of Mechs.
Clanners just didn’t do long term consequences.

No, long term ‘Consequences’ did Clanners!
I mentally high fived Shoulder Consequences at the Smirnoff.

Jaime though, to his credit only smiled faintly in a very Sean Connery Bond way, seemingly utterly unphased by the bluntness.

“I would have thought that Prince Davion and Archon Steiner would have been pleased having a unit so determined to take the fight to their mortal enemy working for them?” Jamie sidestepped the question entirely and I almost felt the frown that came onto Ardan’s face in response to the evasion.

Yeah, no. Ardan wasn’t going to have any of that. The Dragoons thinking they had a right to a private war against the Combine? One that could easily draw reprisals on worlds they were stationed on?
House Davion pushed back against that kind of bullshit from the Sandovals, let alone a Merc unit. In our preliminary groundwork for this meeting Ardan had been highly unimpressed with the idea that the Jamie Wolf would suicide pact his people rather than be their commander and do his damn job...

“If said unit is working from a coordinated and agreed upon strategic plan with their employer? Of course” Ardan replied easily. “If however said unit simply wants to wage a private self-destructive war against an entire Successor State without any concern for the wider strategic implications or possible second order consequences to the nation hosting them? I can assure you neither the First Prince or Archon would accept such a unit as that into their employment.”

Wow. Any more direct Ardan and you’ll be doing the ‘tie to chair osmosis’ thing I thought.

His statement had the desired effect across the room though. I was sure they had expected Ardan was coming here to roll out the Royal Carpet for them, to see to their repair needs with maximum priority with an eye to getting the Dragoons up and ready for round two as fast as possible. Because what House Lord wouldn’t love to throw the Dragoons at their mortal enemy?
There was a palpable irony that Wolf had orders for the Dragoons to save the Inner Sphere … and now it was up to the Inner Sphere to save the Dragoons.

Wolf however seemed surprisingly unphased by Ardan's rebuttal even if his officers were looking increasingly off balance - perhaps even worried about the way this contract negotiation (which I’m sure they thought was going to be mostly pro-forma) was going. But then, I suppose if Wolf could sit through hours of Grieg Samsonov ranting at him and Jerry Akuma lying to his face time after time, this was probably nothing terribly impressive by his standards and that far more would be needed to break his composure.
Remaining calm, he leaned forward after a few seconds to mirror Ardans posture, his gaze not shifting one micron.

"It sounds to me Colonel, If you’ll forgive my directness, almost like you are expecting that the Dragoons will ignore their orders?”

For the record, I tried.
I really tried, given how incredibly serious this was.
But … I just couldn't help it.
The strangled snicker/snort made its way out of my nose, a noise that sounded far, far too loud in the otherwise silent room before I managed to cut it off with a mangled sort of throat clearing and tried to make my face as impassive as it had been.

It didn’t stop the entire room turning to look at me. Um, whoops.

"Something you wish to add to our discussion, Mister Smith?" Jamie asked me with a familiar tone and raised eyebrow that instantly took me back to Sakhara. One that suggested strongly the only acceptable answer was ‘SIR NO SIR!’
Mostly though I was too busy trying not to react to the Hunt for Red October reference - delivered by a Marco Ramius look alike.
Probably BROBs fault - whichever one of the bastards sent me to this universe. BUT, unplanned or not it was probably just about the best opening I’d get.

So I met the look of Jamie Wolf for a moment before shifting my gaze to look at Ardan, an unasked question on my face. And after a moment of consideration, the AFFS Officer casually flipped his folder shut and clasped his hands together on the table on top of it as if waiting for me to apologize or something like that.

In truth however, that was the agreed 'do it' signal.

“Colonel Wolf” I said calmly, choosing my words very carefully from a whole list of possible choices and plans I had ran over and over for a very long time. “Would you agree then, that it is the duty of a soldier to obey all orders from their superior officers? Presuming, of course, they are what the soldier recognizes as lawful orders?”

“Of course” he agreed. Immediately and without any hesitation. As a good soldier should. Not seeing the trap he had just fallen into even if he probably sensed there was one somewhere.
I mean, how could he?
Some days it’s fun being a walking, talking outside context problem…

“So” I continued, leaning back in my chair and gathering my hands together as I regarded him with my best ‘polite curiosity’ expression; “may I thus conclude that you believe your final mission orders from Khan Kerlin Ward were not lawful orders?”

Silence. Or, as HALO would put it, Silentium. An absolute, perfect, primordial silence the filled the room like a living, breathing thing...

Takashi Kurita had noted in Wolves on the Border that Jamie Wolf wore such a perfect mask that it was all but impossible to see real man behind it. Framed in chi bullshit of course, but fundamentally the Coordinator had been annoyed that unlike most people, he simply couldn’t get any read on Jamie in their few encounters, making it impossible for him to anticipate which way Wolf would jump.
That made me regret that I didn’t have a camera to capture the look of numb dumbfounded shock on his face as said iron control shattered, his gaze flickering back and forth between Ardan and I in a way that said he was lost for what to say or do as the rug was entirely brutally ripped out from under his feet.

The eerie silence lasted for about ten seconds when finally Colonel Jamison leaned forward. The leather creaking of his chair was almost painfully loud in the dead silence and drew Wolfs attention with almost undue haste to his subordinate. A quick exchange of looks between them that seemed almost telepathic and the Zeta Battalion commander turned to me, clearing his throat as Jamie seemed almost to withdraw into himself, his gaze directed at nothing.
I couldn’t bring myself to feel terribly much pity for him being called out on not doing his ****** job...

“Could you please elaborate, Mister Smith?” Jamison’s words were ever so carefully chosen, but the white knuckles on his fists and rigid shoulders betrayed the tension roaring through him.

I suspected that Jamison - and the rest of the Dragoons in the room for that matter - had some faint hope that this was just a fishing trip. That the people Ardan and I represented had some information, many suspicions and a whole lot of missing context and had come looking for more data. And perhaps, just perhaps, if they held their nerve they might just be able to limit the fallout from this utterly unexpected, catastrophic and world changing event?

If so, he was about to be sorely disappointed.

“Of course” I nodded politely as if we were talking about who we liked in this year’s Solaris circuit now that Allard had left for Sian after killing Norton. “During the Dragoon's final resupply run Colonel Wolf and Star Colonel Kerensky - the Senior Bloodnamed Trueborn of record in the Dragoons - were given direct, explicit and very clear orders from your Khan to begin preparing the Inner Sphere to repel an increasingly probable Crusader Clan Invasion” I explained in a matter-of-fact tone, perhaps enjoying the numb looks on the faces opposite me a little too much as I talked of things I couldn’t possibly know as casually as if we were negotiating Hydrogen fuel shipment fees. “Following receipt of those new orders and after purging your Jumpship navdata to the Kerensky Cluster to ensure you had to follow them” I continued, “Colonel Wolf led you into employment with House Steiner. The greatest industrial power in human space. And rather than leverage that starting point to, for example, disseminate the Clan technology already in production with Blackwell, Colonel Wolf simply offered the Dragoons once more as frontline shock troops. Then when that contract ended, he in turn offered the same deal to the Combine, leading raids against the Federated Suns until the Combine betrayed you all. And now...” I glanced around the room daring any of the officers to interject even as I kept my voice almost conversationally polite, “you all seem determined to launch a private Trial of Annihilation against the Draconis Combine that can - that will only end one way…”

...with you all dead and your mission dead in the grave with you I didn’t say, but I saw that the implication was very clearly understood as Ardan now glanced at me before leaning forward, causing me to slip back in my chair slightly as he took the lead again in the eerie, numb silence.

“From a mission analysis point of view Colonel” Ardan took over, directly his attention at Jamie who seemed to with an almost physical effort push aside his introspective pensiveness to meet the AFFS officers gaze, “you’ve had most of a decade to start laying the groundwork for defending against a Clan invasion but, as far as LIC and MIIO can tell, no clear work has been done along those lines.”

He wasn’t lying. MIIO and LIC had with some urgency retraced the Dragoons steps not quite down to the micron since their final resupply run, looking for any fingers in any pies in the private sector to confirm my assertions they had done diddly squat. And, with the exception of Blackwell Industries who were still mostly a component manufacturer on New Valencia set up in their early years in the Inner Sphere, the spooks were confident in saying they hadn’t done shit in the private sector.
And as for the Government sector?
Well, Katrina might be ruthlessly pragmatic enough to play the ‘we knew all along’ game against Snord, but word was she was highly unimpressed by Snord, on Jamie’s orders, holding back a whole butload of Lostech from her. To say nothing of the whole Castle Brian thing. Granted, Helm now made his finds almost inconsequential, but the fact was he had covered it up rather than take the perfect opportunity of a genuine Lostech find to nudge the Inner Spheres technology along and repay her loyalty to him with loyalty to her.
‘Just as planned’ or not, suffice to say I didn’t think she would be visiting his museum anytime soon.

“The continued Mercenary work for and against the two states most directly in the path of a Clan invasion has only served to weaken them” Ardan continued in clinical tone of a staff officer as I mused over the reports from the spooks. “Add to that precisely targeted raids on key Federated Suns key industrial and R&D facilities and House Davion’s efforts to rebuild Star League military technology that might have helped close the technological gap with the Clans have been significantly set back. On the face of it, as my Prince and the Archon see it” he added to make sure that everyone knew this was coming from the top, “the Dragoon’s actions over the last decade have in a systematic way weakened the Inner Sphere against a hypothetical Clan Invasion. Not strengthened it.”

And everyone in the room flinched from that blunt rebuke, with Jamie simply closing his eyes.

It was perfectly understandable that the Dragoons had not been expecting to come into this meeting to have Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner deliver, via proxy, an assessment of their success in following their mission orders amounting to ‘it’s near impossible to tell if you were deliberately trying to ****** things up or if you were just that ****** incompetent; keyword, ******’.

It was also understandable that such an assessment brutally shoved in their face in parallel to having their entire super-secret identities ripped open, would be a hell of a lot to deal with.

Kathleen Dumont of Delta Regiment for example had an expression that suggested she was trying to swallow something very bitter and choking on it, looking around for one of her fellow officers to rebut the blunt accusation Ardan had leveled … but none of them, not even Jamison who just looked … defeated perhaps, stepped up to confront the accusation hanging in the air like a gunshot.

Wow. I think we broke the Dragoons.

‘Good….good!’ Shoulder Devil Consequences Palpatine cackled…

Then finally Jamie Wolf inhaled sharply and deeply, his eyes still closed … then exhaled. Moments later his eyes opened and his face, while looking rattled, had regained enough of its strength and poise to immediately draw all attention and rally his officers out of their numb despondency as he leaned forward, his eyes rising to meet our gazes.
He didn’t speak immediately. No-one spoke; the Dragoons clearly very happy to defer to him the question only he could answer … and Ardan and I were in no hurry to rush him either. We’d shoved him head first into the crucible, now it was time to see if we had something we could work with … or a man whose only desire really was ‘Suicide by Coordinator.’

I couldn’t help but idly think how incredibly awesome it would be if he now stood up, smiled, threw his arms wide and shouted ‘The Aristocrats!!’ in response to our accusations...

“This discussion seems to be leading to a singular question Colonel” Jamie instead observed shrewdly. “One that I think we both know you need to ask on behalf of the First Prince and Archon before we move any further ... and so I invite you to ask it.”

Ardan considered that for a moment before slowly nodding and sitting up, his uniform sharp and his bearing implacable, but oddly enough it didn’t feel accusing. More ... simply curious?

“You are, of course, correct Colonel. They insisted before we begin negotiations for your employment that we establish clearly the answer to this question. Do you Colonel -and the Dragoons- ultimately stand in defense of the Inner Sphere against the cause of the Crusaders? Or do you still stand as their vanguard for an invasion?”

Boom - Mic drop.

Not just ‘a question’, but ‘the question’.

Some tiny part of me felt bad for Jamie being put on the spot like this. Of being forced to choose a side ... but only a tiny part.
The majority of me that had needed to find a way to come to terms with the sheer insanity of the truth of my existence as a quantum clone of John Smith inside Battletech … had the universe's smallest violin ready to play about having difficult decisions to make.
At the academy it had been beaten into my head that the single most precious asset in any military operation of any scale was time. Time was a finite resource we would never get back - and if I/we had butterflied the invasion even closer inadvertently, that was time a great many people may rue having been pissed down the drain by Jamie Wolf.

“However” Ardan added smoothly. “They also understand that is a question that the Dragoons can only answer collectively. Accordingly, Smith and I will retire to Bravo One for the rest of the day” he named a massive complex in the still AFFS occupied region of the base, starting to gather his papers and put them back into his. “In the meantime, please have your staff forward your supply and shipping requests to my staff and I’ll see what can be done to expedite them. Otherwise, Smith and I will be around for at least the next two weeks and await your convenience to continue our discussions.”

Ardans sudden desire to end the meeting was like a valve being shut that let out all the tension in the room at once, the Dragoon officers all seemed to slump into their seats slightly at that. And the news that the Archon and First Prince were not rushing into this but were now giving them the courtesy and honor of time to stop, take a breath and think carefully about their future.

The sense of sheer relief in the room was palpable.

Not from Wolf though who as the seconds continued to tick over seemed to steadily piece himself back together until now he was all but the same officer who I had seen when we entered the room in all respects.

“Thank you Colonel - I do think a recess for wider discussions would be best before proceeding” he agreed, giving Ardan an incline of his head as he stood - and dammit, I couldn’t help but feel grudging admiration for the man’s poise and dignity. That he had pulled himself together after being outright accused of dereliction of duty on a humanity wide scale so fast? The man regenerated faster than a frigen Borg Cube…

Although his spy chief looked about as pale as a Borg Drone...

“I think we can all agree the Dragoons have some major decisions to make … however” Wolf added his voice back to full gravitas as Ardan stood, followed by me and the rest of the room. “Colonel Sortek, I wish once again to stress our deepest gratitude for everything the Prince and Archon have done for us over this year. A great many of my people are alive thanks to their efforts and I assure you that we will not forget it” he said, extending his hand across the table.
Ardan didn’t hesitate to reach out and shake it firmly, giving Wolf a respectful nod.

“Colonel, Colonels, Majors” he firewalled Jamie and nodded to the other officers and with that, he handed me his case and I followed him out the room like an obedient aide-de-camp.

Scarface Step number three; complete.

[mikecj]

Wonderfully written, this is a great story.  Lots of depth and tons of fun!  Thanks for sharing!

[cawest]

is it just me?  or is there a hint that they Smith and company have a few "gifts" waiting on the WD if they decided to fight the clans?  I wonder how long it would take Blackwell heavy to start limited SL tech production.  They have been dealing with New Valencia all the back in 3007. 

[ThePW]

This is the big deal for all this mess. It questions some of the most egregious portions of BattleTech's history that had suffered significant RETCON'd.

[Red Pins]

is it just me?  or is there a hint that they Smith and company have a few "gifts" waiting on the WD if they decided to fight the clans?  I wonder how long it would take Blackwell heavy to start limited SL tech production.  They have been dealing with New Valencia all the back in 3007. 

Mostly components, I'd think - Snord got a lot of them too, remember, and as Clan techs, they wouldn't have problems installing and maintaining them. 

Frankly - I think the goons are going to be used to spearhead an assault.  On Terra.  So they'll get the time to patch their stuff up, fill the holes in the regiments, and eliminate the biggest threat to the IS early as suikrede (?  Whatever it is).  And the FC gets all the stuff squirreled away by Blake plus the HPG system.  That's at least - what - a division?

[ThePW]

Mostly components, I'd think - Snord got a lot of them too, remember, and as Clan techs, they wouldn't have problems installing and maintaining them. 

Frankly - I think the goons are going to be used to spearhead an assault.  On Terra.  So they'll get the time to patch their stuff up, fill the holes in the regiments, and eliminate the biggest threat to the IS early as suikrede (?  Whatever it is).  And the FC gets all the stuff squirreled away by Blake plus the HPG system.  That's at least - what - a division?

I would imagine what TPTB gets is a world undergoing an unscheduled ice age: a 4SW Comstar would not blink at the idea of nuking Terra itself as a spoil sport move.

[cawest]

Mostly components, I'd think - Snord got a lot of them too, remember, and as Clan techs, they wouldn't have problems installing and maintaining them. 

Frankly - I think the goons are going to be used to spearhead an assault.  On Terra.  So they'll get the time to patch their stuff up, fill the holes in the regiments, and eliminate the biggest threat to the IS early as suikrede (?  Whatever it is).  And the FC gets all the stuff squirreled away by Blake plus the HPG system.  That's at least - what - a division?

I don't know about going after Terra, just yet.  they have a good sized fleet 3 Dante's and others.  even with Helm, I think they will be able to field more SL tech weapons, for now.  maybe instead of 3039 vs the DC.  they could go after ComStar then.  it is still going to be bloody.  what would the Cappies, DC and FWL do while Terra falls?

[idea weenie]

An attack on Terra might be too much too soon.

What they could set up is a Rasalhague Republic, and encourage Comstar to post its troops to guard the planets in addition to theHPGs, saying that Comstar is neutral between Lyrans and Draconis.  When the Clans invade, Comstar's troops get hit hard and they need reinforcements.  Will the WoB troops come out to play?  If WoB tries to use nukes, Rasalhague complains, and that lets both both Lyrans and Draconis complain about the nuclear weaponry.  If WoB types keep their troops hidden for a later reveal, the Precentor Martial will be very angry with Precentor ROM, allowing for the schism in Comstar to happen (so it is easier to spot who is decent vs raving insane).


But for now, the key tech to get into service is DHS.  They allow any Mech to have much better cooling than before, meaning they can be more aggressive.  In the meantime, simulators allow Davion and Lyran troops to start testing themselves against OpFors that have better weaponry, and are individually better skilled.  They might even give the OpFors better weaponry than what the Clans actually have, so the troops aren't that intimidated when the funny animal worshiping cultists start attacking.

[cawest]

the two things that they need more of DHS hands down but XL engines.  they need DHS by the dropship load a month. 

[snakespinner]

At the moment Comstar has a few warships with green crews, they have the remains of the SDS.
For the rest they mainly have pirate bands and a few green combined arms units.
Now would be a very bad time for Comstar if anybody decided to attack them.

It would be interesting to see what is going to happen especially if the FS gets the Dragoons to use their warships. :thumbsup:

[Red Pins]

It would be interesting to see what is going to happen especially if the FS gets the Dragoons to use their warships. :thumbsup:

Hence, Terra.  WarShip vs. WarShip action!  Clan Wolf's Dragoons takes Terra, becomes IlClan!  Homeworld Clans furious!  News at 11!

At the moment Comstar has a few warships with green crews, they have the remains of the SDS.

SDS?  Source, please.  I thought those were all gone!

[Starfox1701]

Hence, Terra.  WarShip vs. WarShip action!  Clan Wolf's Dragoons takes Terra, becomes IlClan!  Homeworld Clans furious!  News at 11!

SDS?  Source, please.  I thought those were all gone!

SDS just means space defense system. Ground to space weapons are an SDS you don't need Caspers.

[Dave Talley]

"Takashi Kurita had noted in Wolves on the Border that Jamie Wolf wore such a perfect mask that it was all but impossible to see real man behind it. Framed in chi bullshit of course, but fundamentally the Coordinator had been annoyed that unlike most people, he simply couldn’t get any read on Jamie in their few encounters, making it impossible for him to anticipate which way Wolf would jump.
That made me regret that I didn’t have a camera to capture the look of numb dumbfounded shock on his face as said iron control shattered, his gaze flickering back and forth between Ardan and I in a way that said he was lost for what to say or do as the rug was entirely brutally ripped out from under his feet."



 :D

[Icerose20]

Well, if Natasha was there when that was dropped, there would be two gunshots, and the end of these stories.   So good thing having her shoot up the target range.

[snakespinner]

Red Pins, the SDS remaining at this time was mainly a few ground based systems.
The Wobbies rebuilt a lot of the SDS when they took over including space based Caspers and other automated systems.
But at the moment it is very limited and weak. :thumbsup:

[ThePW]

historically speaking, when did the actually commencement of the SDS rebuild commence? Tukayyid or after?


When I spoke about Comstar playing spoilsport, that's why: Because the way Comstar considered the unlikely event that any one of the houses would invade (they knew just how many jump ships each house had left to a reasonably accuracy plus no active warship capability), they never bothered to consider investing funding into SDS, at least until the 4th succession war and a fully realized Federated Commonwealth. I still believe an invasion attempt would result in Terra's demise because the First Circuit would flip out maxim...

[Sir Chaos]

historically speaking, when did the actually commencement of the SDS rebuild commence? Tukayyid or after?

I´d say after the Word took over Terra. So starting in 3058.

When I spoke about Comstar playing spoilsport, that's why: Because the way Comstar considered the unlikely event that any one of the houses would invade (they knew just how many jump ships each house had left to a reasonably accuracy plus no active warship capability), they never bothered to consider investing funding into SDS, at least until the 4th succession war and a fully realized Federated Commonwealth. I still believe an invasion attempt would result in Terra's demise because the First Circuit would flip out maxim...

After the 2nd Succession War, any attempt to take Terra would have to be without warships, thus without orbital bombardment capability, so a relatively limited amount of ground-based weapon systems to take out approaching troop dropships, with air defenses to protect the weapon systems of ASF attacks, should be more than enough to defend against invasion. Any attacker would need to spread their forces out to cover the entirety of Terra´s surface, meaning no location would be hit by enough ships to overwhelm local SDS systems.

It doesn´t take all that much firepower to destroy/disable troop transports, not compared to the massive firepower needed to fend off warships.

On the other hand, against even the few warships available to Wolf´s Dragoons as orbital support, you´d need a lot more firepower - probably more than Terra had before at least the 3060s canonically.

[cawest]

remember those WD warships would have very green crews.  they have not seen action in 20 some years. (3005-3028).  tgat is if they are all still alive.  replacements would need to be brought on with no pretraining

[Tyrchon]

Another thing to consider is that the Dragoons' warships would need time to be recovered and outfitted, let alone crewed.  In a few of the source-books that mention them, it was indicated that after the Dragoons recovered their warships it took them about a year to bring them all into fighting trim using the Dragoon facilities orbiting Outreach.  Most likely this was just crews of technicians going over each ship and making sure everything was in working order and making small repairs where necessary.  That said, there would be no facilities for the Dragoons to do such reactivation at themselves so trying to do the full reactivation themselves would probably take longer than a year, plus the fact that there would be the question of personnel needed to do the reactivation and then crew those ships given the state of the Dragoons at the moment.  The Dragoons could probably shave time off by taking the ships to somewhere with orbital shipyards, Galax in the FedSuns for example, but even then there is still the issue of pulling crews together given the current state of the Dragoons.

I would guess that the Dragoons are not going to be able to bring their warships online and back to fighting trim until sometime after the 4SW at the earliest.  More likely than not, the ships will be used to help spearhead efforts by the new FedCom to claim the Ruins of Gabriel and all that is there as that would be a far bigger strategic objective than Terra.  I could also see a ship or two being used to help find and secure Camelot Command, as that would act as a good forward operating base for FedCom forces when the Clans finally come calling.

[Red Pins]

You forgot travel time, too.  All of which is beside the point, Hanse isn't going to telegraph the decision to take Terra.

But - the goons are going to make their repairs, take the time to prepare.  The wedding is about to happen.  Presumably, Justin is going to be there, the triple-strength myomer sample was captured.  And all the rest.

I'll go out on a line and make a prediction.  The wedding happens, the 4th war goes off, the goons have a minor role, and ComStar goes ahead and Interdicts the FC.  Then, it gets interesting.  I don't thing there will be a FRR, so no major influx of equipment to the DCMS.  Whether they surprise ComStar with a surprise invasion by units 'returning' to posts in the Lyran portion, I don't know.  I expect the goon WarShips would lead such an invasion, though.

[PsihoKekec]

historically speaking, when did the actually commencement of the SDS rebuild commence? Tukayyid or after?

There were some orbital defences at thew time WoB took over, controls were targeted by their special forces, but real rebuild started afterwards.

[Grognard]

this is just too freaking AWESOME.   Abso-freaking-lutely Love this story.

[Kwic]

Very well done Chris.   Keep it up!  We can’t wait to read more. 


One question:  does mr smith know about Camelot Command and the fleet bases that will be used by Comstar?  Ross. Lutyen.  Some of which were in the Star League Source books so would be in reference material.

[ThePW]

that's a good question, as we really know little of his life before the HPG hijinks'.

[ckosacranoid]

I do not know about your guys, but the reactions after they leave the room with the goons and what happens after smith dropped that bombshell with the clans. I have to say wold is going to really be looking at the head of wolfnet to figure out just what happened for someone to learn thier dark sercert that someone knows way to much about, any chance to see the after action of that little bombshell from the room and the actions of the goons to it?

[truetanker]

I'm waiting for Mr. Smith to say QuiAff or QuiNeg to Natasha, followed by proper Batchcall for an answer.

Before the clans advance thru the periphery! Meaning he uses Clan names for Clan mechs!

TT