Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star

[Wrangler]

That's hilarious how Niops is poking at the most diabolical fantastic Primus in ComStar history.

[Daryk]

Loving it!  :D

I can only hope Danny's mom makes it home...

[Hotpoint]

Part XLIX - Section 1 of 2

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"Contrary to what you may have heard, the last Battle of the Amaris War was fought on Algenib in 2829, not on Terra in 2779, but the history books are right that the SLDF won it."

Colonel Robert MacArthur - 2841CE

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Guadraro Military Spaceport – Italy (Terra) – 2841

When the Star League Defence Force had retaken Italy as part of Operation Liberation in 2777, the SLDF had been forced to fight its way into Rome, their advance following the route of the old medieval road known as the Via Tuscolana and establishing a temporary headquarters at the Guadraro Military Spaceport before going on to smash what was left of the forces loyal to Amaris in the city.

Getting to Guadraro was a lot easier for the SLDF sixty-four years later as Italian air traffic control simply gave them permission to enter their airspace after the inbound spacecraft dropped from orbit and directed it to set down on the assigned landing pad.

Following instructions the Intruder class dropship made a slow, smooth descent and gently lowered itself onto the pad whereupon it such down its engines and waited for a mass of ground vehicles to approach, many of them bearing police or paramilitary markings, before lowering its ramp.

They weren't the first spacecraft bearing Niops insignia to land at Guadaro, that being the shuttle which had arrived an hour earlier and which could be seen resting on a nearby pad. While still in orbit the Intruder had deployed a shuttle to land ahead of the dropship, the ST-46 carrying diplomat Gareth Jeffries so he could be whisked to the Vatican by VTOL and formally present his credentials.

The Holy See tended to be very formal and correct when it came to paperwork. The Niops Association couldn't hand over Bernard Critchly to the Vatican City State if the two sovereign entities didn't officially recognise each other, so that needed to be sorted out first with Jeffries officially accredited as ambassador from the Niops Association to the Holy See and an extradition treaty signed.

With the bureaucracy satisfied the Intruder had eventually followed its shuttlecraft down from orbit, the airspace around it cleared from all other traffic for security reasons and it wasn't until it set down that even VTOL craft had been allowed to take the air again within a hundred and fifty kilometres of Rome.

Colonel Robert MacArthur wearing his full dress uniform, regulation pistol and short-sword at his hip, strode purposely down the ramp where he was met by a man wearing an even more ornate uniform with a thick red strip down the trousers and feathers on his cap. "Colonel Robert MacArthur, 295th Battlemech Division" the SLDF officer formally introduced himself, saluting because he had been told he was going to be met by a general.

"Vicecomandante generale dell'Arma dei Carabinieri Antonio Mannerini" the other man replied, returning the salute. "I am to escort you and your prisoner to the Vatican City" he added, his English good but heavily accented. "If the Pope was not so adamant that the bastardo belongs to him we would want him for his crimes against the people of Italy" he stated flatly.

"Perhaps after the Catholic Church has taken their pound of flesh the Vatican will hand him over?" MacArthur suggested.

The Italian Carabinieri officer laughed. "If you think that the Inquisition will let him off lightly enough for what's left to stand trial in an Italian court you underestimate just how long and how deeply the church can hold a grudge" he said wryly. "It took them four hundred years to publicly admit Galileo was right after all, and all he did was say the Earth went around the sun."

MacArthur chuckled. "We named a star system after him, Galileo I mean, not Bernard Critchly" he replied. "The only star-system we know of actually named after one of Stefan Amaris's posse of war-criminals is Von Strang's World, although the fact that there are still people out there who think Amaris wasn't the villain is the reason we're being quite so cautious with transporting our prisoner" he explained.

Using a Congress Class Frigate carrying two armed dropships as a prisoner transport was probably a little excessive to be honest, but the Niops Association was deliberately trying to make waves in this mission. The James Sever had jumped into the Terran system at the Nadir point where it and its Titan class dropship escort currently waited for the Intruder to return. Just the arrival of a commissioned Star League Navy warship would itself have been major news on Terra but given who it was transporting, and to where, had guaranteed press and public interest that ComStar did not even bother trying to downplay.

In any other circumstances getting permission from the Free Worlds League to fly an armed warship from one end of their territory to the other and back would have been quite the ask, but when Niops explained that they had caught Bernard Critchly and were hauling his sorry ass to Terra to hand him over to the Pope the usual objections had vanished almost overnight.

Mannerini nodded. "As per our agreement you will be permitted to drive your convoy under-arms through Rome to the Vatican, with both my Carabinieri and the city police acting as escorts" he said. "I suspect Critchly is more at risk of being assassinated by those that justifiably hate him than he is being set free by deranged radicals though."

"You've cleared the route I take it?" MacArthur checked.

"We have and lined it with more armed men and women than have been seen in Rome since the SLDF drove out Antilos Legos and his so-called Greenhaven Gestapo" Mannerini replied, his obvious expression of distaste from even saying the man's name aloud hard to miss. Legos had looted his way up and down Italy having been given free rein to do so by Amaris himself, and he had turned much of the country into a charnel house doing so.

During their headlong retreat northwards from Rome the self-styled Greenhaven Gestapo had even resorted to deploying nerve gas against the advancing SLDF, a move which ended up killing even more civilians than it did the soldiers of the Star League. Between that and the years of wanton brutality they suffered under the occupation the people of Italy were not likely to forget the names of Legos and his murderous lieutenants anytime soon.

"Very well Sir" MacArthur said. "I'll unload my three wheeled APC's and a Chevalier tank that will lead my column" he said.

The Carabinieri officer nodded. "Which of the three APC's is Critchly in?" Mannerini asked.

"I'm not prepared to tell you that, Sir" MacArthur replied flatly before saluting again.

Mannerini smiled. "Good, it's nice to know I'm dealing with a professional that actually understands security" he replied, returning the salute.

Ten minutes later a long column of police, paramilitary and military vehicles rolled out of the spaceport onto the Via Tuscolana and headed off towards the centre of Rome. As they rolled down the highway tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people lining the route watched them pass from behind barriers guarded by armed and armoured police officers.

The Eternal City had a long memory and Bernard Critchly was nothing if not memorable. The man was almost cartoonishly evil, infamous not only for personally slaughtering some six hundred unarmed monks from the seat of his assault mech, but also for his nickname of 'The Ogre', his notoriously bad temper and predilection for random violence and for actually having his own portrait painted over part of Michaelangelo's fresco in the Sistine Chapel.

There was an old legend in Rome that while visiting the city if you threw a coin into the Trevi fountain backwards over your left shoulder with your right hand that you would return there one day.

Sat handcuffed to a wheelchair in the back of an APC, a handgun practically stuck in his face by someone that very much looked like they were fervently praying for an excuse to pull the trigger, Critchly could only wish that he hadn't thrown that damn coin over his shoulder seventy years ago because this was seriously the last place he had ever wanted to come back to.

It had been a long time since the Inquisition had stretched someone on the rack, but if he arrived at the Vatican and found then dusting off one brough up from the museum achives in preparation for his arrival Bernard Critchly would have been less than surprised.

They hadn't of course, but to say the Holy See had been rather shocked to receive an HPG one day from a tiny interstellar power in the periphery, the message informing them that this obscure 'Niops Association' had captured one of the most wanted war criminals in human history, one that they had been after for decades, and would they like him, was a teeny bit of an understatement.

Once they had established it wasn't just an elaborate practical joke the Roman Catholic Church had responded very much in the affirmative. Niops had told them to expect a naval warship, a frigate no less, to deliver the prisoner into their hands and could they please clear that with ComStar and maybe smooth things over with Atreus if House Marik complained about the warship crossing their territory.

Word had spread like wildfire and the Niops Association was inundated by HPG's from governments and media outlets from one side of the Inner Sphere to the other seeking confirmation and asking a lot of questions.

Niops replied that its representatives would be happy to hold a press conference at the Vatican City on Terra to answer any and all questions once Critchly was handed over, assuming of course that the Pope was agreeable to that.

Robert MacArthur himself suspected that the Holy See would have happily offered to gift Niops a piece of the True Cross and appoint High Associator James Murray a Cardinal in order to get their hands on Bernard Critchly and was entirely unsurprised when the Vatican immediately acquiesced to the request to host the press conference.

About the only diplomatic hiccup, albeit a minor one, was when the New Avalon Catholic Church announced that they should have been offered Critchly too since their Pope was just as legitimate a successor to Pope Clement XXVII, who had been murdered by the Greenhaven Gestapo, as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church was.

Having anticipated such a reaction the Niops Association had replied that they were handing over Critchly to the Vatican State for entirely secular reasons, the particular crime in question being the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed civilians on their territory. That those civilians were catholic monks who had been protesting on Pope John-Paul II Square was irrelevant as far as Niops was concerned, the Vatican had legal jurisdiction because they were the sovereign state where the crime took place.

Of course the fact that the New Avalon Catholic Church only really had a following in the Federated Suns, while the Roman Catholic Church had influence everywhere, certainly entered into the calculation. The Pope might not have had any divisions, at least not since the Papal States were dissolved anyway, but the Papacy still wielded a massive amount of soft power, so much in fact that they had swept aside ComStar's reluctance to allow outsiders to jump an actual warship into the Terran system.

Despite being technically only an observer to the still extant Terran Congress it was surprising just how many votes there the Holy See apparently had in its pocket and ComStar still had to play lip-service to the notion that the Congress was the legitimate government of Terra.

The Vatican was of course likely aware that the Niops Association was looking to leach off a little of its soft power through means such as requesting to host the press conference there, even if only to help it raise its profile, but they were willing to go a long way to get their hands on the Ogre.

Raising the interstellar profile of Niops was most certainly a central part of the objective for this mission, something that was made obvious by the fact that not only were the armoured vehicles the SLDF had deployed to ferry Critchly from the starport to the Vatican emblazoned with the Blue Star insignia of the 295th Division, the Mailed Fist and Sword logo of the Eleventh Army and of course the Red Cameron Star, they were also all flying the Niops Hegemony flag.

Watching the flag flying from the APC ahead of his in the convoy via an armoured porthole, MacArthur could not help but sigh as he recalled just how much time had been spent back home deciding just how large the flags should be, one of the perils of government by committee. They wanted them large and eye-catching, but not so large that they looked like they were deliberately trying to be eye catching.

Calling themselves the Hegemony, if not the Terran Hegemony, so publicly on Terra itself was certain to rouse comment, or at least Jeffries hoped it would because he would hate not to reap all the potential diplomatic and political rewards given that it had taken nineteen jumps to get here and would take another nineteen to get home again afterwards.

It was a pity the porthole didn't offer a better view as the column of vehicles rolled through Rome at a decent pace, this was certainly a city that was worth seeing MacArthur knew, one dotted with ancient architecture and with a breathtaking history.

Fortunately for the city, the Sixth Army of the SLDF which had liberated it from Amaris had baulked at the idea of using artillery or air strikes to soften up those occupying it because of the incalculable collateral damage that could have caused to irreplaceable buildings, and had instead used infiltration tactics whenever possible rather than just blast their way in. They had paid a price for this decision in blood, the Sixth taking heavier casualties than they would have otherwise, but who would want to be the men and women that flattened Rome?

General Romanov had dispatched a wreath on behalf of the 295th to be laid at the monument to the so-called 'Tomb of Kerensky's Unknowns' to be found in the Pantheon itself. The Sixth Army had done its duty and failing to pay due respect to the dead would be unforgivable so before they headed back to Niops MacArthur would make sure to lay the wreath there.

In an attempt to hold off the advance of the SLDF six decades earlier Antilos Legos had ordered the bridges across the Tiber that bisected the city to be blown, thus when the convoy of vehicles heading to the Vatican that day reached the river it crossed it via a modern bridge that had little trouble supporting the weight of all the armoured vehicles as they neared the home stretch of the journey.

Rolling right into Saint Peter's Square and unloading Critchly there would have been showier perhaps but not wise in terms of security considerations, so with the Police and Carabinieri vehicles peeling off beforehand and with what Macarthur assumed was the Pontifical Swiss Guard, judging by their distinctive uniforms, directing traffic once the Chevalier and the APC's reached the dotted line on the road that indicated the border, the column left Italy and arrived in the Vatican City State.

Flagged to come to a halt in a piazza next to St. Peter's Basilica the wheeled tank and the armoured personnel carriers it was leading pulled up and they were immediately surrounded by several dozen more Swiss Guards, MacArthur noting that most of them were carrying modern rifles not their usual ceremonial halberds. Seeing the Mauser 960 laser rifles, the same model as used by the SLDF, in the hands of men wearing bright renaissance-era dress was at least somewhat jarring as far as visual images went, but it helped demonstrate that despite the late medieval garb they weren't justsoldiers.

The three APC's lowered their ramps and half a dozen SLDF infantry in full combat gear disembarked from each followed by Colonel MacArthur and the two officers accompanying him as his temporary staff.

One of the Swiss Guard that seemed to be an officer himself, at least judging from the fact his uniform was even more ornate than that of the others and that he was wearing a very fancy rapier at his hip, spotted MacArthur and approached him. "Colonel MacArthur?" he checked, the man's accent sounding Lyran to the SLDF officer's ears though presumably he was from the German speaking part of Switzerland.

"Yes" MacArthur confirmed.

"Oberst Johann Helbing" the officer introduced himself standing to attention, saluting and snapping his heels together making him seem even more Lyran.

MacArthur returned the salute. "May I present Major Claire Donovan, also of my 295th Division, and Captain Jason Carmichael of the Niops Association Militia" he introduced his companions who also exchanged salutes with the commander of the Swiss Guard. "Thank you for allowing my troops to remain under arms after crossing the border" he added after the formalities.

Oberst Helbing smiled wryly. "We don't want to risk the son-of-a-bitch getting assassinated, or worse getting away, any more than you do Colonel. Probably even less" he replied. "We have laid on refreshments for your men in our barracks and one of my junior officers will give them a quick tour of the Vatican unless you plan on ordering them to stay with their vehicles. Those vehicles will, of course, be perfectly secure here with a detachment of my Halberdiers guarding them until you depart, I assure you."

Given the reputation of the Pontifical Swiss Guard MacArthur believed him. They were very much the epitome of 'I'll die before I give up my post and as God is my witness I'll take ten of you with me' soldiering. Religious faith and martial skill in equal measure. "I'll take you up on that offer, Oberst Helbing" he replied, his other ranks would no doubt enjoy the chance to see more of the Vatican and his orders from General Romanov being to play nice with his hosts as much as possible anyway. "Be warned that none of them have ever set foot on Terra before, let alone visited Rome or the Vatican, so they might bombard your guides with questions."

Helbing laughed. "On a normal day we deal with tens of thousands of wide-eyed tourists, I think my people can cope" he replied. "We've prepared a holding cell for the prisoner if you want to hand him over now."

MacArthur nodded. "Bring him out" he ordered, a wheelchair emerging from the back of one of the APC's and rolling down the ramp, the chair being pushed by an SLDF sergeant.

"He got old" Helbing noted, directing a look of utter disdain at the man sat in the wheelchair, his face being partially obscured by an oxygen mask connected to a tank affixed to the back of the chair.

"Frail too" MacArthur replied. "We had to clone him a new liver and stick an artificial heart in him at one point to keep him alive. His lungs are a wreck too, we think he caught a whiff of poison gas at some point, possibly something they used themselves which drifted back on them when the wind changed direction, and it caught up with him eventually with age" he said, Amaris's forces had deployed chemical and biological weapons a lot more during the war than the SLDF ever had. "We could have just let him die, but we figured you'd want him alive and besides which he deserved as many years in solitary confinement as medical science could allow" he added. Imprisonment had aged Critchly fast and he hadn't been a young man to start with.

Helbing sighed. "Alive yes, to stand trial. Time was the church would have simply burned him at the stake" he observed wistfully, thinking back to an age of purer justice. "An artificial heart you say?" he queried.

MacArthur nodded. "Powered by a fission battery, should be good for another ten years at least but if you do decide to bring back the old methods watch out for it exploding when you set him alight" he warned drily.

"Oh, if only bringing back the auto-da-fé was an option" another voice interjected from nearby, their accent French. "Please remove the mask so we can properly verify his identity" the man continued, walking towards Critchly. As they approached it could be seen they were not wearing the uniform of the Swiss Guard but rather priestly robes instead, rather ornate and colourful ones topped by a bright red cap, and that they were carrying what looked like a facial scanner.

"May I present His Eminence Cardinal François Cointerel, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith" Oberst Helbing introduced the newcomer.

Until now Bernard Critchly had been sat docile in his wheelchair, seemingly resigned to his fate, but he now visibly flinched and sat up straight.

"Ah, I see what has likely haunted your nightmares for over sixty years" Cardinal Cointerel addressed Critchly with some satisfaction. "How gratifying to know you were expecting this encounter to happen one day" the head of what had once been known as the Roman Inquisition added, smiling coldly.

MacArthur had read up enough on how the Church hierarchy worked to know that a cardinal was considered one step down from the Pope himself, a 'Prince of the Church' in the formal parlance, and if this man was also Head of the Inquisition that he was very senior indeed. "Sergeant, remove the prisoner's oxygen mask please" MacArthur ordered. The SLDF non-com reaching down to do so as Cointerel held the scanner up to his face.

"It's him, bone structure and retinal scan confirms it" Cointerel confirmed, looking at the display intently. "Replace the mask please, I wouldn't want him to expire before his time" he said, the sergeant doing so after MacArthur nodded his affirmation. "You know the last time the SLDF handed over one of these creatures to me it all went rather differently" he remarked, transferring the scanner to his left hand while making the sign of the cross with his right.

"The last time?" MacArthur queried, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes, October '77, I still remember it like it was yesterday" the Cardinal recalled. "Hans Mikkelsen," he said, bending down and looking Critchly right in the eye, watching as the war criminal own eyes widened. "Did you hear what happened to Mikkelson, Colonel MacArthur?" Cointerel asked, still looking into Critchly's eyes.

"I heard a rumour that when the Sixth Army caught him they handed him over to the Swiss Guard who put him up against a wall" MacArthur recalled hearing that story not long after Amaris died.

"Not quite" Cointerel replied evenly. "They handed him over to me and after I excommunicated him on the authority of the Curia and the Pope, thus damning his soul for all eternity, I personally shot him in the head" he announced, watching Critchly's dismayed expression with a sense of satisfaction that made the Cardinal feel ever so slightly ashamed of himself as he straightened back up. "The Holy Father himself personally heard my confession afterwards. He didn't want my soul following Mikkelsen's to hell for breaking the Fifth Commandment since I was only acting under his orders."

MacArthur blinked. "You're not going to do the same to Critchly are you?" he asked nervously. "Because we put a great deal of time and effort into getting him here and we could have just shot him back home" he pointed out, not being particularly shocked at being told that the man had personally executed another famous, or rather infamous war criminal. Summary justice had been all the rage back then in the aftermath of the Amaris Civil War, just ask anybody named Amaris in the unlikely event you could still find one. Aleksandr Kerensky had ordered his entire family shot with only maternal relatives with a different surname spared.

"Oh no, tempers are far less wrought than they were back in my youth when emotions were still running high over the then recent murder of poor Pope Clement" Cointerel replied, shaking his head. "The current Pope and the Curia agree that a public trial is called for, and we have even obtained the most competent and professional legal counsel available to conduct the Ogre's defence" he told MacArthur. "My days as God's Own Hit Man are long past me" he said, smiling. "Although I suspect it did do wonders for my career" he admitted, doubting he would have ended up as not only Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith but also a Prince of the Church otherwise. After what had befallen Pope Clement XXVII and the Vatican itself, the Roman Catholic Church under Clement's immediate successor, John Paul V, had become rather hard-line and being the man that 'dealt with' Hans Mikkelsen, another notorious war-criminal lieutenant of Antilos Legos, had looked good on a résumé.

Pope John Paul V had died a few years ago, his own successor, the current Pope, being more moderate and liberal in outlook, which was not to say that the Roman Catholic Church was not still monumentally pissed off at Bernard Critchly. Christ may have preached forgiveness, but some people made following in the footsteps of the fisherman very, very hard.

The average life expectancy on Terra being so long meant that there were still plenty of people around that had personally witnessed the atrocities perpetrated by the Greenhaven Gestapo and some memories don't tend to fade much over time.

For that matter there wee still quite a few people around that remembered just how bad Critchly used to smell, largely thanks to poor personal hygiene habits. During his time in custody on Niops he had been cured of this however, mostly by the expedient of his guards telling him, 'It uses the shower or it gets the hose again' if he didn't keep himself clean.

[Hotpoint]

Part XLIX - Section 2 of 2

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"Oberst, if you could take that down to the holding cell" Cardinal Cointerel requested, indicating Critchly, "I will personally escort Colonel MacArthur and his officers to where Ambassador Jeffries is waiting for them to join him" he said. "I believe that the Holy Father intends on having the prisoner taken to the Sistine Chapel later to witness that his desecration of the fresco has been stripped away, and Michaelangelo's vision fully restored to the Glory of God, so you may wish to make security preparations for that" he advised.

Helbing nodded.

"While I doubt the prisoner is in a fit state to make a run for it, if he does may I suggest you instruct your men that while the word of Our Lord as passed down to us in the Bible frowns upon killing, and that they should therefore refrain from shooting him in the back if possible, the book is somewhat fuzzier when it comes to the subject of kneecaps" the cardinal advised sagely.

"I'll let them know, Your Eminence" Helbing replied, trying not to laugh because it would bad in front of the men.

"Excellent" Cardinal Cointerel responded brightly, clapping his hands together. "Shall we be off Colonel?" he asked MacArthur rhetorically, gently tossing the facial scanner to one of the Swiss Guard who caught it before marching away, a distinct spring in the man's step.

MacArthur leaned over towards Helbing. "You really wanted this ****** didn't you?" he asked.

"It would be difficult to express in words just how much" Helbing replied earnestly, nodding as MacArthur quickly made to catch up with the Cardinal, Major Donovan and Captain Carmichael in pursuit.

Oberst Johann Helbing, Commander of the Swiss Guard, looked down at the man sat in the wheelchair. "Consider this as confirmation of the truth that God will not be mocked and don't go thinking that repentance will save you from hell because God's mercy may be limitless but that doesn't hold true for his Representative on Earth" he warned, having heard that the Pope intended on excommunicating the man personally.

Critchly took a deep breath. "****** you, candystriper" he replied. "And ****** your Pope" he just about managed to gasp out afterwards.

"Candystriper?" Helbing repeated, looking down at his uniform. "Good one, and four whole syllables too, you're not as dumb as I thought" he said. "Let's get you down to the cell. Feldweibel Schallberger should be ready with the Iron Maiden by now, he spent half the night sharpening all the spikes inside."

Bernard Critchly blanched and Helbing was gratified that all of his men had remained stony faced when he mentioned the Iron Maiden, that particular device of medieval torture supposedly favoured by the Inquisition being very much a later fabrication.

They did have some old thumbscrews in an archive somewhere apparently, but while John-Paul V might have sanctioned their use his successor was less 'Wrath of God' and more 'Love of God' as the Church got over the trauma of the Amaris era.

"Hauptman Wettstein, please escort our SLDF guests to the barracks, Make sure they feel welcome" Helbing instructed one of his officers, sticking to English rather than Italian or German so the soldiers of the SLDF could understand as well. "Leutnant Ochs, you and your men will remain here to guard the vehicles. Do so with the same zeal you would the Papal apartments" he ordered, both officers recognising their instructions with a nod. "We are indebted to the Niops Association and the 295th Battlemech Division for bringing us the Ogre" he reminded them.

None of the SLDF infantry or the tank crew were actually from the 295th, despite what the insignia on their uniforms said. They were all from the 331st and had been born on Circe or Strana Mechty being assigned to this mission because they knew to keep their mouths shut about that. If asked they were the children and grandchildren of the original soldiers of the 295th which had officially arrived at Niops not long after failing to catch up with Kerensky's Exodus.

Most of the soldiers were also young enough to have been raised on Niops, and thought of it as their home by now, so when asked about where they came from by curious member of the Swiss Guard they truthfully spoke of what it was like to live on Niops VII way out in the periphery.

After lunch one the SLDF infantrymen even performed the old rap about Galileo and his own encounter with the Vatican, which was about as convincingly Niopsian as you could get, even if the cultural anchor point was entirely lost on the rather perplexed soldiers of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

Apparently you could move faster in those robes than Robert MacArthur would have expected because Cardinal Cointerel had set a brisk pace as he led the Colonel and his two officers through the rooms and passageways of the Vatican towards where Gareth Jeffries was waiting. On a normal day there would have been a lot more people around, not just clergy but also other guests and visitors, but for security reasons the number of people allowed inside the walls had been severely restricted.

As they proceeded Cointeral had bombarded Macarthur, Donovan and Carmichael with questions, which they all supposed was part of his job description, and they were glad they had all rehearsed a consistent script that was mostly true but left out or obscured details that Niops did not want anybody from outside the Association knowing. Fortunately he was more interested in talking about the capture of Critchly than he was about Niops which made things easier but the man was definitely fishing for information nonetheless.

As they eventually reached a large set of doors, a pair of Swiss Guards stood outside them, Cointeral knocked and entered, leading MacArthur and his companions inside.

Gareth Jeffries was waiting inside as expected, what MacArthur had not expected was that he would be sat at a table drinking coffee and eating pastries with the Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church and the Vicar of Christ himself.

You could have warned me, MacArthur thought to himself directing a brief glare at Cardinal Cointerel who noticed the Colonel's expression and seemed amused. "Your Holiness, may I present Colonel Robert MacArthur and Major Claire Donovan of the 295th Battlemech Division of the Star League Defence Force and Captain Jason Carmichael of the Niops Association Militia" he announced them grandly.

The Pope put down his coffee cup and stood up off his chair, Jeffries instantly following suit as befits protocol.

"Your Holiness" MacArthur spoke up, saluting then offering a shallow bow. He wasn't Catholic himself but the Pope was a Head of State holding a position deemed equivalent in the ranks of nobility to an emperor. Even the First Lords of the Star League had bowed to the Pope when they met, it would be uncouth not to and besides which potentially disrespecting the untold billions of Roman Catholics in the galaxy was such poor politics that only Richard Cameron would have been stupid enough to do it.

The Pope smiled and approached MacArthur. "No need to kiss the Papal Ring Colonel, a handshake will do" he said reaching out his hand which MacArthur took. He then subsequently shook hands with Donovan and Carmichael before fixing his attention back to MacArthur. "I consider it a pity that General Romanov could not be here herself, I would have liked to present her personally with the Papal Commendation I plan to issue to the men and women of the 295th Division, but I trust you will convey it back to her Colonel" he said. "Your valour in finally bringing the war-criminals of the accursed Amaris to justice, after so many years of them avoiding their righteous punishment and continuing their vile ways, cannot be praised too highly" he continued. "The 141st Amaris Dragoons were barely less irredeemable than the mercenary scum that followed Antilos Legos, murderous butchers all, and to see them brought low while they were commanded by an actual cousin of Stefan Amaris himself is almost poetical."

"Isn't it unusual for the Catholic Church to do something like that?" MacArthur queried.

"We do not, as a rule, involve ourselves in international politics or temporal matters it's true, at least not since the Papal States were dissolved anyway" the Pope replied, smiling. "When it comes to opposing evil however we like to think our ourselves as very much in the fight" he said. "If Stefan Amaris, Antilos Legos and Bernard Critchly were not tools of Satan himself I'll eat my hat and if you've ever seen it you'd know that the Papal Tiara is rather indigestible" he joked.

"I remarked to His Holiness that your son asked you to get his autograph Major Donovan" Jeffries spoke up, the woman having mentioned this during their long journey to Terra.

Donovan looked appalled at having this mentioned but the Pope smiled again. "I think I can manage that although I believe I'll send you back to Niops with something more consequential as well" he said. "Ambassador Jeffries informed me that you were the mechwarrior who defeated Bernard Critchly in battle?" he asked her.

"I was Sir, almost to be honest I had no idea at the time who was sat in the cockpit of the Rampage I was shooting at" Claire Donovan replied, trying not to sound too nervous given who it actually was she was talking to.

"Nonetheless Major you faced a mortal foe of the Roman Catholic Church in battle and defeated him, something that merits reward" the Pope told her. "As such I am naming you to the Order of the Golden Militia, what some call the Order of the Golden Spur, an honour that has been bestowed upon those who have contributed to the glory of the Church by feat of arms since the Fourteenth Century. A Papal Knighthood."

Donovan stared at him. "I'm not Catholic" she managed to reply.

"Strangely enough it's not actually a requirement that you are" the Pope replied. "It has even been awarded to non-Christians in the past, although I assume you are one?" he asked.

"Episcopalian" Donovan replied.

"Ah, one of our Anglican brethren" the Pope responded. "I will make sure to mention you to the Archbishop of Canterbury the next time we meet, lovely woman, and we agree on so many matters of religion as long as the subject of King Henry VIII of England and his daughter Elizabeth aren't raised" he added with a chuckle. "Forgive me for not saying so earlier, Captain Carmichael, but naturally the Niops Association Militia with also be receiving a Papal Commendation for their part in the Battle of Algenib, I'm told you fought there?"

"I did" Carmichael confirmed. A company of the militia had helped the SLDF against the Blood Rain, earning Carmichael himself the Combat Mechwarrior's Badge, something that not very in the NAM could boast of.

"I look forward to seeing the presentation on the battle Colonel MacArthur intends to give to the press later, it sounds like the Amaris Dragoons put up quite the fight, although nobody ever accused them of being cowardly I suppose, just malevolent beyond measure" he said before turning to Cardinal Cointerel. "Ambassador Jeffries has informed me that the Niops Association intends to provide the entire Inner Sphere with the blueprints to both the Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifier and the Eligus Medical Diagnoser, once restricted Terran Hegemony technologies, and to do so for free as an act of Christian charity" he told him. "I will converse with the Curia about the Church assisting in the distribution of these technologies if we can, they could save many lives and alleviate much suffering."

Cointerel raised his eyebrows. "It is very generous of them to do so without recompense, not something we see very often in these dark days" he replied. "I suppose that the rumours are true that Niops has maintained the ability to produce many devices that are lostech elsewhere and not just Hyperpulse Generators?"

"Ironically the new Dark Age that has befallen the galaxy elsewhere never reached the worlds orbiting an unusually dim star far from the light of Terra" Jeffries said poetically.

The Pope nodded. "Yes, the new Dark Age, the one in which ComStar sees itself as being akin to taking the role our church did in late antiquity, keeping the wisdom of the ancients safe after the Roman Empire fell" he observed.

"The current Primus most certainly seems to believe in that creed" Cointerel agreed. His spies within ComStar indicated that Raymond Karpov intended to push his organisation even closer towards cosplaying the medieval Roman Catholic Church what with the chanting, and the robes and the pseudo-monastic orders. Still, they did say that imitation was the sincerest form of flattery.

"Makes one wonder if he realises that in this scenario that the Niops Association and its growing Hegemony are the part of the Roman Empire that did not fall, which also retained the knowledge of the ancient Romans and Greeks and still boasted the legions to defend it" the Pope asked rhetorically. "I must say I never thought I'd meet the Byzantine Empire reborn but here we are" he said, waving his hand towards Jeffries.

"Byzantine?" Carmichael repeated the word quizzically.

"The Eastern Roman Empire, the part that didn't collapse when Rome did in the west and kept going for another thousand years" Jeffries explained. "They actually still called themselves Roman, or rather Rhōmaîoi in Greek the language they mostly used, rather than the Byzantines because as far as they were concerned they still were."

"Which would make us the 'Anti-spinwards Terran Hegemony' I guess" MacArthur said.

Jeffries smiled. "I guess all we need now is to elect ourselves our own Justinian as High Associator and find ourselves a Belisarius" he said grinning, wondering how many reporters at the press conference later would get the references if he made them in jest.

Watching that press conference live from his quarters at Hilton Head on the other side of the Atlantic Raymond Karpov, Primus of ComStar, was already incensed enough when the diplomat from Niops gave the announcement about releasing the blueprints for lostech to the galaxy, but he practically had a stroke when Jeffries mentioned the Byzantines… and Belisarius!

Having the successes of Operation Holy Shroud possibly gutted by these upstarts had been bad enough, but now he faced a far greater problem.

The Eastern Roman Empire hadn't just survived the fall of Rome itself, at one point they had very nearly managed to reconquer the western part too, and had retaken large parts of it including Italy. General Belisarius, the greatest military commander of his age, in the service of the Emperor Justinian, had once again raised the standards of the Roman Army over Rome itself, earning himself the later sobriquet as 'The Last of the Romans'.

The worst part of it all from Karpov's personal perspective being that one of the first things Belarius had done after taking Rome was throwing the then Supreme Pontiff, Pope Silverius, out on his ass because the Eastern Roman Empire considered him a stooge of the barbarian tribes who had earlier destroyed the Western Empire, and they were still pretty sore about the whole thing.

Still watching as this 'Colonel MacArthur', apparently the son of the commanding officer of the 295th before the current one, told the press about the Battle of Algenib where the SLDF had taken on and defeated the Amaris Dragoons, thus winning the last battle of the Amaris War in his words, something else suddenly dawned on Karpov.

"Romanov, their general is called Romanov" he exclaimed. "Of course they're the damn Byzantines" he realised, dropping his face into his hands as he envisioned the 'Anti-Spinwards Terran Hegemony', as Jeffries had called it, thundering out of the Periphery one day to once again raise their standards over Terra.



----------

Note from the Author:

Okay, so the preceeding quarter-million words or so may have left the readership with the impression that because Johann Sebastian O'Reilly was not the man that discovered the tens of billions of C-Bills worth of Germanium on Alphard, that this story was not about the Roman Empire being recreated in space. I apologise for the confusion, this story is about the Roman Empire being recreated in space, it's just not the Roman Empire you were expecting.

If ComStar is the Roman Catholic Church of the Dark Ages then the Niops Hegemony is the Eastern Roman Empire, the part that kept going long after Rome itself fell to the barbarians.

Military sci-fi just isn't the same without a reference to Belisarius is it?

Hans Mikkelsen of the Greenhaven Gestapo being caught by the SLDF and then handed over to a representative of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (the Roman Inquisition) who promptly excommunicated him on the order of the Pope and then shot him in the head comes from the sourcebook Historical: Liberation of Terra. Turns out if you murder the Pope and the Curia, slaughter hundreds of unarmed monks, loot the Vatican and paint over the fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel you will make the Catholic Church very, very mad at you, who would have thought?

The Pontifical Swiss Guard may look like toy soldiers in their late medieval style dress uniforms and carrying halberds, but both in the Battletech Universe and in real life they are not.

Finally the Order of the Golden Militia, AKA the Order of the Golden Spur, as awarded here to Major Claire Donovan is a real thing.

[PsihoKekec]

How nice of them to stoke Karpov's paranoia to new heights.


I guess the Inquisition lost some of it's flashiness since the fabulous days of Torquemada


BTW, Iron Maiden is a band (greatest ever in my not so humble opinion), torture instrument is iron maiden.

[Wrangler]

I'm surprised he not freaking out that division of the SLDF is active outsider of Terra.

[Daryk]

But you made the Cardinal French...  How could you miss the opportunity to make him SPANISH! ;D

[Kujo]

"But you made the Cardinal French...  How could you miss the opportunity to make him SPANISH! ;D"

No one EXPECTS the SPANISH Cardinal!  I mean Inquisition

I doubt it will be in the manner of History of the World part 1 (Mel Brooks! you can't Torquemada out of anything!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR7hp0613QY

[nerd]

For what it's worth, the Vatican Observatory is a real thing, and would be quite interested in the original mission of the Niops Colony.

[Daryk]

I'm sure there's at LEAST one actual Astronomer on this mission... ;D

[Hotpoint]

"But you made the Cardinal French...  How could you miss the opportunity to make him SPANISH! ;D"

Unfortunately it says in Historical: Liberation of Terra that the guy from the Inquisition who shoots Hans Mikkelson in the head, after the SLDF catch him and hands him over, has a French accent.

Mikkelson hears the accent and thinks they must be a Swiss Guard from the French speaking part of Switzerland. When the man corrects him explaining he's actually from the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Mikkelson becomes considerably more nervous.

For what it's worth, the Vatican Observatory is a real thing, and would be quite interested in the original mission of the Niops Colony.

I'm sure there's at LEAST one actual Astronomer on this mission... ;D

The Vatican is savvy enough diplomatically to use this as a opportunity for outreach (they're considerably less 'bull in a china shop' than Niops, they've been playing the game a lot longer.).

[Daryk]

Makes perfect sense... too bad he didn't have a Spanish assistant at least... ;D

[crestrunner]

The Vatican is savvy enough diplomatically to use this as a opportunity for outreach (they're considerably less 'bull in a china shop' than Niops, they've been playing the game a lot longer.).

Not to mention they have what is frequently acknowledged to be the world's oldest continuously active intelligence service.  Lacking a traditional military since the fall of the Papal States in the 19th century, they've become absolute masters in the use of soft power in all respects.  Say what you will about the failings of the Catholic hierarchy over the centuries, they are very good at diplomacy and intelligence gathering.

[DragonKhan55]

"While I doubt the prisoner is in a fit state to make a run for it, if he does may I suggest you instruct your men that while the word of Our Lord as passed down to us in the Bible frowns upon killing, and that they should therefore refrain from shooting him in the back if possible, the book is somewhat fuzzier when it comes to the subject of kneecaps"

I just WHEEZED. Oh dear god what a line.

[Daryk]

What a line indeed! :D

Seriously... who knew the Inquisition even HAD a sense of humor!? ;D

[nerd]

Well, face it, you can't Torquemada anything!

[Hotpoint]

"While I doubt the prisoner is in a fit state to make a run for it, if he does may I suggest you instruct your men that while the word of Our Lord as passed down to us in the Bible frowns upon killing, and that they should therefore refrain from shooting him in the back if possible, the book is somewhat fuzzier when it comes to the subject of kneecaps"

I just WHEEZED. Oh dear god what a line.

What a line indeed! :D

Seriously... who knew the Inquisition even HAD a sense of humor!? ;D

Well, face it, you can't Torquemada anything!

The "fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps" line was pretty blatantly stolen, borrowed by me from Shepherd Book in Firefly (still my favourite TV show ever).

As for the Prefect of the Inquisition Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith having a sense of humour, well we've caught him on a good day in an upbeat mood.

Interestingly enough Joseph Ratzinger (the later Pope Benedict) headed the Inquisition for over twenty years and was supposed to have a much better sense of humour in private than people expected...

... though expectations might have been low because he wasn't just head of the Inquisition for two decades, he was also German. 

[Cannonshop]

The "fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps" line was pretty blatantly stolen, borrowed by me from Shepherd Book in Firefly (still my favourite TV show ever).

As for the Prefect of the Inquisition Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith having a sense of humour, well we've caught him on a good day in an upbeat mood.

Interestingly enough Joseph Ratzinger (the later Pope Benedict) headed the Inquisition for over twenty years and was supposed to have a much better sense of humour in private than people expected...

... though expectations might have been low because he wasn't just head of the Inquisition for two decades, he was also German. 

There was a classical observation that only intelligent people CAN have a sense of humour.  It's the ability to recognize the absurd, and adapt to it, that is the root of humour, and why nothing demonstrably false, can be funny.

[DragonKhan55]

Well, face it, you can't Torquemada anything!

Not with THAT attitude.

Give me 12 McKennas and a Watch that looks the other way, and I'll be happy to demonstrate.

[Hotpoint]

Part L - Section 1 of 2

----------

"If you wanted to know when the Niops Association reached the public consciousness, well you could certainly guess worse than when the newspaper cartoon, 'Saint George and the Dragoon', depicting a crusader knight with a Red Cameron Star on his shield fighting a dragon, the dragon sporting a long mustache to resemble Stefan Amaris, was printed in newspapers from one side of the Inner Sphere to the other."

Stephen J. Tran, Red Star Rising: A History of Niops 2800-2900 - Niops Press, 2915

----------

Pisa – Galileo System – 2841

Major Samuel Tyson wondered if Pisa might be the smallest city in the Inner Sphere to have its own HPG station as he settled down in his quarters after a long day to relax and watch the holovid. The NHCOMNET building in the centre of town didn't just send and receive hyperpulse transmissions, it also transmitted a UHF signal for the colonies bare-bones television station, one that broadcast local and interstellar news along with a few kids shows, some old Terran soap operas and a lot of documentaries.

Tyson would have preferred more action movies and police procedurals on TV, although the documentary about the Byzantine Empire yesterday had helpfully filled in a few blanks in his historical knowledge, but you had to admit that living in the boonies in Niops territory was definitely a cut above what it was like in most of the periphery. Hell, the medical clinic in town was better funded and equipped than it would have been in much of the Inner Sphere, while the school actually had noteputers for all the kids, holoprojectors and a science lab.

That schoolteacher from Francas who taught his niece was pretty hot too in Tyson's opinion, hence his habit of offering to walk his sister's kid to school when he wasn't on duty.

Most of the buildings in Pisa were mostly just drab concrete put up in a hurry, including the school, but they kept the rain out, the heat in, had mains water and power not to mention a connection to a proper sewerage system. If you were averse to catching cholera properly constructed sewers were an underappreciated must, not that everyone in the periphery seemed to have gotten the memo on that one unfortunately.

Despite the amenities describing the largest settlement on Galileo as a city was still a hell of a stretch though, even if the place had grown dramatically in size in the couple of years since Tyson's Troublemakers had taken up their contract with the Niops. On arrival the mercenaries had been granted their own district on what was then the edge of town, one large enough for hangers to hold their mechs plus a barracks and a few other prefabricated buildings around a parade ground, but if the town kept expanding in size and population at the current rate the Troublemakers would soon find themselves completely surrounded on all sides by urban sprawl.

It was already getting to the stage where simply shipping in enough food, mostly from Stafford although good quality meat made it all the way from Francas, was starting to become a problem and more and more farms were starting to spring up. There were miners with money to invest and a dream of owning some land, land on Galileo was still pretty cheap anyway, and although the local soil wasn't ideal for arable farming, there were various genetically-engineered crops which could cope with it well enough.

The Troublemakers owned and operated a pair of dropships which were usually were parked up at the spaceport several klicks outside of town but were occasionally hired out to move people and cargo. Their employer had even managed to scrounge up some spare parts for the Troublemakers old Dictator which was getting on in years, and handed them over for a song. Of course, Niops had considerably more modern military dropships than the Dictator practically coming out of their ears, thanks to having a full division's worth of starlift capacity, so it wasn't like they were being super generous. The parts were probably just taking up space in a warehouse gathering dust.

According to the news Niops was even about to start producing a super-fancy new military cargo dropship soon, the CargoMaster, alongside its civilian version the CargoKing, and Tyson was hoping he might get the chance to bid on a soon-to-be-surplus SLDF-owned Mule when they did. Effective mercenary regiments didn't ignore logistics and adding a cargo carrier to the Troublemaker's TO&E would make them look a little less ragged. Also a Mule would potentially bring in a lot more money when offered out for short-term hire, it could easily carry four times as much cargo as the Troublemaker's Intruder and Dictator could combined, and there was usually someone trying to get something heavy and/or bulky from A to B in boom times like now.

Getting used to the idea of living in a place where the economy was surging ahead, and people weren't loathe to invest in building new factories and other infrastructure for fear of some ****** turning up and nuking them, had taken Tyson a while. The weird sense of optimism that everything wasn't spiralling towards total collapse, and that your children and grandchildren would be better off than you are, was just so far removed from the reality of life for most people since the Star League collapsed that it took some serious mental adjustment.

Astonishingly the tiny Niops Association had managed to found more new colonies in the last few years than all the Successor States combined, and the only thing that seemed to be restricting their territorial growth was a lack of people to actually come live on them.

The mines on Galileo itself were being successful enough in attracting labour though, doing better at that than the new colony on Baccalieu was certainly, hence Pisa's sharply rising population. The mining company paid high wages and offered good employee benefits, including the option to buy shares in the business, and the taxes they paid funded infrastructure projects and covered the wages of sufficient law enforcement officers to stop Pisa degenerating into your typical frontier mining town.

Unlike on Alphard the men and women working in the mines on Galileo weren't digging for germanium, or coltan and the rare earth metals usually found with it like niobium and tantalum, they were digging for diamonds and fire opals.

The large majority of the diamonds being pulled out of the ground were industrial, the hardest-known naturally occurring substance had plenty of uses including in mining equipment, though there were plenty of gemstone quality examples being found as well. The fire opals meanwhile were mostly heading for the hedonistic Magistracy of Canopus where both men and women were very fond of their bling and the demand for the stones seemed insatiable. They were pretty, Tyson had to admit, he had been given a cut and polished example of a fire-opal mounted on a tie pin by one of the mine-owners as a gift, and there was a fairly large one cut into the shape of a Cameron Star in a presentation cabinet in the Town Hall.

It might have been in danger of being stolen if not for the fact that everyone knew that if you tried to pull off that kind of heist on Galileo you would have to deal with the mercenaries hired to stop anyone stealing the gemstones that were the planets primary export. Tyson's Troublemakers weren't toy soldiers, or part-time militia, they were professionals who took their job very seriously.

At first most of the miners on Galileo had been men and women from Comstock and Francas, old Star League colonies that had signed up to join the new 'Niops Association Hegemony' being put together out here in the periphery, but increasing numbers of contract workers from the Illyrian Palatinate had been turning up recently and you were almost just as likely to hear Scandinavian accents around town as Hegemony English ones these days.

Niops wasn't running Galileo as a loss by any means, but they clearly didn't treat their colonies as a cash-cow and were ploughing a lot of the money they made from mining back into local infrastructure such as roads, and wages in the mines were high. In the long term they wanted the economy on the planet to diversify away from just resource extraction, as was already happening on Alphard, but for now pulling precious stones out the ground was bringing in more than enough C-Bills to keep the bean-counters content.

As long as Galileo was turning a profit Niops was happy to keep the Troublemakers on the payroll too, which was just great as far as Sam Tyson was concerned. He had buried enough of his friends and comrades already, all of them lost fighting in the seemingly endless Succession Wars with many of the battles they had fallen in being fought for objectively no good reason whatsoever. Sometimes it seemed like the Great Houses were just comparing dick sizes with each other, or even worse destroying something just to stop the other guy getting it, which only screwed everyone in the long term.

Sam Tyson's mother, the original commander of the Troublemakers, had chosen not to follow Kerensky into the void, the SLDF's Twenty-third Heavy Assault Regiment under her command signing as mercenaries for the Federated Suns instead. You couldn't really accuse House Davion of being particularly malevolent, compared to the Draconis Combine and the Capellan Confederation they were usually fighting the Federated Suns was objectively the lesser evil by a long, long way, but they still treated their mercenaries as being more expendable than their own troops which had led to the Troublemakers being effectively rendered hors de combat by the end of the First Succession War.

Now lacking their own jumpship, and a far cry from the Twenty-Third Heavy Assault of old which had stomped Amaris's lackeys into the dirt and could throw three full-strength battalions of heavy and assault mechs at the enemy, the remnants of the Troublemakers had been scrabbling desperately for work that wouldn't get what few of them remained killed when they heard about Niops. Sending General Romanov that HPG offering their services had been a Hail Mary play that worked out, there wasn't much demand for mercenaries that weren't happy to throw themselves headlong into the meatgrinder for a few bucks anymore.

If you didn't know about the wealth of precious stones to be found on Galileo you might wonder why anyone would want an admittedly understrength but still formidable mercenary unit to garrison it. The fact was all those shiny rocks would attract pirate raiders like horseshit attracts flies if word reached them about it, and the unusually heavy average tonnage of the Troublemakers battlemechs made for good bug repellent.

A couple of lances of Wasp, Locust or Stinger light mechs might make your average pirate band out in the periphery the ****** of the walk, able to raid most whoever they liked with impunity, but Major Sam Tyson had a stable of heavy and assault mechs some of which massed as much than a whole lance of lights on their own. Moreover, he had mechwarriors inside his machines that had cut their teeth against Sword of Light Regiments, not against poor dirt farmers with rifles that dates from the Reunification War, and who would love the chance to stomp pirate scum into the dirt.

On the subject of pirate scum Tyson noted that the holovid was repeating the news conference from the Vatican on Terra, the one he had first watched in the bar last week along with several other off-duty Troublemakers. How the Niops people had managed to keep the almighty whupping they had inflicted on the Blood Rain under their hats all these years he couldn't imagine, they were certainly on-point when it came to stopping intel leaking out, but damn wasn't it good to hear that the fist of justice in the form of the Star League Defence Force had smashed the last of the Amaris Dragoons but good, and even managed to finally capture that evil prick Critchly into the bargain.

It had turned out that Major Marcelo Gao, the current commander of the small contingent of infantry belonging to the 295^th on Galileo, technically its official garrison even if the Troublemakers provided most of the actual firepower, had himself fought in the Battle of Algenib. This had resulted in him being bought so many drinks at the bar by not only Troublemakers, but also miners born on Comstick and Francas when he let that slip that he had to be carried back to his barracks.

Grabbing the remote-control Tyson turned up the volume on the Holovid and dropped into a chair to watch the press conference again just as Colonel MacArthur and the others were answering questions. The holovid projected a 3D image of an unusually well furnished and ornate press room situated in the Vatican on Terra, some five hundred light years away from where Tyson was sitting, but if not for a slight shimmer to the image he might have even been there in person. Colonel MacArthur's presentation on the Battle of Algenib and the capture of Bernard Critchly had already been shown, along with part of the press conference which followed, but some of the best parts were still to come and were well worth seeing again.

"Émilienne Guérin, Federated News Services" the female journalist given the chance to ask the next question introduced herself on the holovid, her French accent typical of many in the Federated Suns. "If you've had Critchly and the others in custody since 2829 why has it taken until now for you to hand him over to the Holy See?" she asked reasonably.

"Because we wanted to get as much useful intelligence as possible out of them first, and also because much of that intel might have been useless if it became public knowledge" MacArthur replied. "To give one example it was via interrogation of the commanding officer of the Blood Rain that we learned the true origins of the mercenary regiment known as 'Raymond's Redcoats', establishing them to be the 38^th Amaris Fusiliers" he said. "I mean, we always knew they weren't really the 295^th Battlemech division as they purported to be, because we were, but it was certainly nice to find out exactly who was going around pretending to be us."

"But you publicly revealed the true identity of the Redcoats years ago" the journalist persisted.

"We did" MacArthur confirmed, "though I note that the Lyran Commonwealth continues to employ them despite that" he said disapprovingly, "but they were not the only Rim Worlds remnants we learned of from the Blood Rain, and if we had gone public with the news of their defeat and capture a decade ago it might have wrecked our chances of dealing with some of the others before they panicked and went to ground."

"Are you saying that the Battle of Algenib was not the only occasion when the Niops Association has gone up against former units of the Rim Worlds Republic?" the journalist asked in surprise.

"While I am not at liberty to disclose everything we've been up to in the last few years, I have been authorised to announce that if anyone ever finds an old Rim Worlds Republic outpost or two a few jumps from the Magistracy of Canopus and the Taurian Concordat, outposts which somebody has smashed from orbit with naval autocannon, that they shouldn't be surprised to find a sign saying 'Niops was here' sticking out of one of the craters" MacArthur replied drily. "One of them was the base the 141^st Amaris Dragoons initially fled to after they made their escape from Terra via Spica in the Capellan Confederation in 2778."

"Wouldn't that make those military operations the 'Last battle of the Amaris War' rather the one on Algenib?" the journalist, Guérin, queried.

"The outposts in question were no longer in operation. They were smashed to stop them ever being so again by other Amaris Empire remnants who also knew their location" MacArthur replied. "A battle is when there are two sides shooting at each other, those weren't battles, those were pest control."

"Just prior to this press conference the Niops Association has also revealed to the Lyran Commonwealth the existence of two more such facilities in the Deep Periphery anti-spinwards of their territory, these being Rim Worlds Republic Outposts 25 and 27, along with our best guess as to their location" Gareth Jeffries, sat next to MacArthur, added.

"For what it's worth, I still think before we did that we should have made them promise not to offer any pro Amaris holdouts they might find there a job first" MacArthur interjected sardonically, the various journalists laughing in response, except of course for the one from the Lyran-based Donegal Broadcasting Company, "but our civilian government back home isn't as personally aggrieved about the 38^th Amaris Fusiliers, or Cameron's Curse, or Raymond's Redcoats, or whatever the hell it is they're calling themselves this week, as I am."

Tyson didn't know what was funnier, the SLDF officer's sarcasm or the look of mild dismay on the face of civilian diplomat beside him when he said it. Either way it was surprisingly entertaining television for a press conference. He was pretty sure that his dearly-departed Mom would have had a few issues with that bunch of former Amaris soldiers turned buccaneer too. Calling themselves 'Cameron's Curse' for a while certainly didn't make them sound all that repentant, with switching from piracy to mercenary work under a false identity probably just being a savvy career move rather than a complete change of heart.

There were quite a few other Rim Worlds Republic units turned mercenary about Tyson knew, even a few regiments that contained both former RWR and former SLDF troops, but those Rimjobs hadn't turned pirate first after losing the war. The rep of the 38^th Amaris Fusiliers wasn't actually as bad as that of the 141^st Amaris Dragoons had been, but in some ways that was just damning them with faint praise. The SLDF had still very much wanted a piece of them after winning the war for their actions on Castor which had included the use of tactical nuclear weapons in civilian areas, which was why of course they had fled to the periphery in a hurry to take up piracy.

There was a school of thought that it had been the reopening of the nuclear genie by Amaris that had led to their far more widespread and devastating use by all sides during the First Succession War. While the Star League had officially put aside the Ares Conventions when it had launched the Reunification War back in the 26^th Century, use of WMD, particularly on civilians, was still very much frowned upon which was why the casualties of that war paled beside those incurred in later conflicts. Wars were rarely ever clean, but the Amaris Civil War had heralded an era where they had become dirty beyond imagination.

[Hotpoint]

Part L - Section 2 of 2

----------


"Stefanos Rallis, Irian Media Interstellar" another journalist introduced themselves before asking a question. "Your choice of transportation when conveying Bernard Critchly to Terra certainly raised a few eyebrows, warships, particularly ones that large, are scarce these days. According to the records I've seen the SLS James Sever was lost during the Amaris War. How did it end up very much intact and flying the Niops flag?"

"Looks like somebody did the research, well done" MacArthur replied. "The records you've seen may have indicated she was lost, but she wasn't actually destroyed, just disabled with internal and external damage severe enough that she wasn't able to be repaired by the Star League Navy at the time. We recovered her a while back from a system near Finmark where she had been floating as a derelict and after a lot of work eventually put her back into service."

"Does that mean you have a naval shipyard?" Rallis asked as a follow up, this question causing something of a stir with the other journalists.

"No, if we had we could have built a brand-new Congress from scratch in less than a third of the time it took us to get the James Sever running again" MacArthur told him. "Quite a lot of her systems were actually salvaged from another Congress Class frigate we located that had been hit even harder than she had. Effectively between the two wrecked ships we had just about enough parts for one working frigate that we spent years putting back together."

Wishing that he had grabbed a sandwich from the canteen before heading home Tyson momentarily considered going to get one but decided to watch the rest of the broadcast first. He wasn't that hungry but he was already pretty comfortable in the chair in his quarters, it had originally come from an old dropshuttle and was nicely padded to cope with high-gee acceleration.

"Jane Moore, The Times of London" another reporter interrupted. "Has the Niops Association salvaged any other warships?" she asked.

MacArthur and Jeffries looked at each other. "Well of course we have" Jeffries replied after a pause. "So far we've managed to get forty McKenna and Texas class battleships back running again, not to mention a half dozen Enterprise class supercarriers" he deadpanned. "The High Associator is only days away from signing an executive order that will send our whole fleet on a mission to reconquer the Terran Hegemony. Our plan is to appoint Duke Ian Cameron-Windsor as the new First Lord of the Star League… could you do us a favour and pop into Buckingham Palace when you get home to let him know."

This time everyone in the room laughed, except for Robert MacArthur who was looking at Jeffries disapprovingly. "They never got the Enterprise class ships to work" he said, shaking his head.

"Really? Damn, do you think they might have bought it otherwise" Jeffries asked, looking like he was trying to keep a straight face and almost, but not quite, succeeding.

"Probably not" MacArthur had replied. The exchange between them being so funny Tyson couldn't help but suspect it had been rehearsed. You could get away with a lot of obfuscation if you turned everything into a joke. The mercenary honestly wouldn't have been too surprised at this point if Niops had a few other smaller warships they had recovered squirrelled away, joking about having a fleet of battleships was a smooth way to avoid answering questions about corvettes or the like.

It would certainly help explain why the hell Niops and the 295^th had been so quiet during the First Succession War, Tyson reasoned. As well as stockpiling nukes so the Mariks didn't do to them what they did to New Dallas, they were also surreptitiously salvaging every warship they could and emptying every Star League cache they knew of.

Reestablishing HPG contact with the Inner Sphere had waited until Niops was in a position where if the Great Houses tried to lean on them the response would be the flat, 'Come at me Bro', which had always worked for the Taurian Concordat.

You could conquer the Taurian Concordat, hell the Terran Hegemony wearing their Star League hat had actually done it during the Reunification War, but it just wasn't worth the cost in blood and treasure to do it.

"In all seriousness," Jeffries continued on the holovid, "while we wouldn't tell you if we had salvaged any other warships, any serious naval analyst can provide you with an estimate of just how large a fleet a polity our size could realistically crew and maintain" he sagely advised the journalist from the Times. "I will say that the vast majority of our salvage operations over the years was just us collecting spare parts from old hulks that we needed to keep the ships we have running. That said however, I am prepared to reveal that we successfully captured a Royalty Class armed Jumpship of Rim Worlds manufacture from the Blood Rain, effectively their flagship. Unfortunately in that engagement our own flagship, the James Sever, had to riddle her so full of holes before she lowered her colours that we're still in the process of trying to get it fully operational again."

"It's like trying to get hold of parts for an old car. The Terran Hegemony built over two hundred Congress Class frigates, and we know where most of them were lost, so finding spares for one isn't as difficult as it is for some limited-edition custom jalopy built and operated by someone else, like a Royalty for example" MacArthur added for himself.

The journalist from Irian Media Interstellar nodded. "Presumably it's also a little easier for you to keep your Lola III class destroyer running than your Essex II for the same reason?" he asked.

MacArthur nodded though Jeffries looked at the journalist amused. "Okay, you know far too much about this stuff" the diplomat observed. "Did you used to make little plastic models of warships as a kid by any chance?" Jeffries queried wryly.

Being someone that did that as a hobby himself as a boy, although in his case it was battlemechs not warships, Tyson felt somewhat personally aggrieved but judging by their expression the reporter took it in good humour.

"Rebecca McTavish, Donegal Broadcasting Company" a reporter from the Lyran Commonwealth now spoke up. "Can you tell us anything more about the Blood Rain and how Bernard Critchly came to join them?"

"Not much more to tell beyond what Colonel MacArthur already said in his presentation on the Battle of Algenib earlier" Jeffries replied. "The 141^st Dragoons fled Terra before the noose closed around them and it appears Critchly bribed them to take him along. Given that they were also a bunch of wanted war criminals with a price on their head he probably thought it was safer to stick with them afterwards than risk associating with less disreputable folks that might turn him in. When the original commander of the Blood Rain retired from piracy Stefani Marcus took over. Her being an actual cousin of Stefan Amaris himself, and named for him no less, apparently gave her the edge in the election. She liked to call herself 'Colonel Marcus', or even the 'Pirate Queen of the Blood Rain', though we mostly just call her 'Inmate' these days as you'd expect."

"Election?" McTavish repeated quizzically.

"Yes, the Blood Rain held an election to choose their new commander, we're given to understand that Critchly also stood himself but recieved hardly any votes" Jeffries replied. "Even other scum think he's scum. Everyone has standards I guess."

"And she's really a cousin of Stefan Amaris?" the Lyran journalist asked.

"Yes, DNA test confirmed it" Jeffries replied, nodding. "She did tell us that despite her not liking Critchly personally that she freely admits he was her most effective company commander when raiding. Unsurprisingly being a murderous, bloodthirsty pirate suited him down to the ground."

"Find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life" MacArthur said wryly.

"James Clark, Interstellar News Network, given the claim of the Niops Association to be a de facto, and de jure, continuation of the Terran Hegemony some might be wondering why you didn't come to the aid of the rest of the Hegemony during the dark days of the First Succession War" the reporter for ComStar's own news organisation asked.

"We didn't wade into the fray with our single battlemech division for presumably the same reason Jerome Blake didn't with the eight SLDF divisions at his disposal, that being because we're neither stupid nor insane" Jeffries replied coldly. "If you think that the Terran Hegemony citizens of Niops, Comstock, Francas and Frobisher are indifferent to what has befallen their brothers and sisters in the core worlds of the Hegemony then you are very much mistaken. We were simply in no position to intervene on their behalf."

"I see, and how do you respond to allegations that Niops proved itself merely a puppet of the Free Worlds League by its supply of weaponry to that star-nation that it then used against its other neighbours?" the reporter from INN queried.

"We only made payment in arms for purchases made by us from the Free Worlds League during the ComStar Interdiction because we were unable to do so with C-Bills, we certainly weren't engaging in barter by choice, it's a pain-in-the-ass" Jeffries replied evenly. "ComStar also effectively froze our bank account, one denominated in germanium bars, which was deposited with them at Hednesford, which didn't help matters either, but I guess that's all in the past now. The Niops Association no longer sells or barters weaponry to the Free Worlds League, and we certainly don't give them away either."

"Your germanium reserves do seem quite extensive, care to comment on that?"

"Captured war criminals and pirates swinging pickaxes in germanium mines can be surprisingly productive" MacArthur replied. "The secret is motivation. They know we're motivated to find an excuse to hang them so they don't give us one. Next question please."

Tyson laughed. Deal with Niops long enough and you soon learned they had a very technocratic, generally rational way of doing things. Imposing capital punishment on the worst of the worst might be cathartic, but being sentenced to twenty-five to life of economically productive hard labour instead of being executed still monumentally sucked for the person concerned and was better for the taxpayer.

"Philippe Lefort, Le Figaro. The 295^th Division was not a Royal formation but despite that you seem to have a lot of Royal-grade military equipment in your inventory. Was this merely recovered from star League caches or are the rumours true that the Niops Association manufactures such extremely advanced weaponry itself?"

"Both" MacArthur replied. "By which I mean we reverse-engineered Royal equipment that we recovered and put it into low-level production to replace less capable equipment as it wore out."

"We don't have issues with so-called 'lostech' on Niops, though occasionally we do have to figure out something that the Terran Hegemony didn't deem to provide a mere astronomical research colony the blueprints for" Jeffries interjected. "I can give you a less warlike example of our scientists and engineers reverse engineering some tech we never had ourselves too. The Magistracy of Canopus has asked for our assistance in maintaining their Terran-supplied Stasis Tube technology and we have a team taking one apart right now to see how it ticks."

"Interesting. Will you be disseminating that technology for free as you are the J-U Water Purification system and the medical diagnostic equipment?" the reporter from the French newspaper asked curiously.

"That's really a question for the Magistracy, it's still their intellectual property after all, but I doubt my own government would be averse to doing so. It's a non-military medical technology that could potentially save a lot of lives" Jeffries replied.

"I'll try and reach the Magistracy for comment then. On a wider point, I'm sure that many people will be wondering why a self-described minor power in the periphery is simply giving away advanced technology it could readily demand and obtain payment for."

"Because there are people throughout the Inner Sphere who are starving because they can't irrigate their crops, and they're dying from diseases that our great-great-grandparents thought they had eradicated forever" Jeffries replied. "We're doing it for the same reason we smash pirates and hunt down war-criminals, because it's the right thing to do and somebody damn well should."

Jeffries shook his head and sighed. "The Star League used to do these things, it's gone and everyone else is too busy slaughtering each other over where a dotted line on a star-map is drawn to worry about the little guy, or even see the big picture. The reason why every hospital doesn't have a Eligus Medical Diagnoser anymore is because they were made on Saffel, and the Federated Suns and Draconis Combine wrecked the place fighting over it. The reason why all the colonies that depended on Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purifiers are falling off the map is because the Free Worlds League devastated the planet where they were made with nuclear weapons just to make sure the Capellan Confederation didn't end up controlling the supply. If you're going to claim you're the rightful heir to the Star League you might want to try acting like the Star League and remember that despite commanding the most powerful military in history it still built more often than it destroyed."

MacArthur nodded. "Somebody needs to step up and attempt to reverse the decline, not just sit back and wait for it to happen, so the Niops Association is stepping up. Maybe we'll fail miserably, let's face it we probably will, but at least we're out there trying."

"Okay so we're maybe a little naïve, utopian even, but we're also technologically advanced and heavily armed so hopefully we'll get away with it" Jeffries added, grinning. "Don't worry, we'll head back home soon returning all you cynics to your regularly scheduled entropic decline into a new dystopian dark age. We'll be roleplaying the Eastern Roman Empire out in the hinterland" he joked as a call-back to something he had said earlier about history not really repeating itself but rhyming on occasion.

Tyson didn't think that the analogy fitted perfectly by any means, but Terra being Rome, the Terran Hegemony being the Western Roman Empire, ComStar being the Catholic Church during the Dark Ages and the Niops Hegemony being the Eastern Roman Empire lined up just well enough to make the historical allusion work.

The Successor States might not be best pleased at being equated to the Goths, Vandals, Alans, Visigoths and whatever, but they had sacked, pillaged and burned enough worlds that Tyson himself thought that if the shoe fits wear it.

Resolving to go get that sandwich after all Sam Tyson turned off the holovid and was already starting to climb out of his chair when his thoughts of pastrami on rye were interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Enter" Tyson said loudly, standing up.

The company clerk opened the door and stepped inside holding a letter. "Sorry to disturb you Sir, but the mailman just dropped off an HPG that's come for you" he said, holding it out.

Tyson took the letter and dismissed the clerk who hurried back to their work closing the door behind them. Because only a small minority of people on Galileo as yet had a noteputer that could be connected to their data grid NHCOMNET operated a postal service in town to deliver printed-out HPG's by hand which was a little low-tech for Niops but this was the frontier after all.

The mercenary commander opened the letter assuming it must be from Niops but as he started to read he realised it had come from a lot further away from that, being routed into NHCOMNET from ComStar's own separate network.

Raising his eyebrows when he saw who it was from Tyson read it through twice before stuffing it into his pocket and going to fetch that sandwich while he thought about how he was going to reply.

It wasn't like Tyson's Troublemakers were exactly tight with Bolton's Rangers whose commander had sent the HPG. The two mercenary units had actually fought on different sides during the First Succession War, with the Rangers signing a contract with the Draconis Combine while the Troublemakers did so with the Federated Suns, although they hadn't ever actually come to blows in the field.

They were both former SLDF though, and the SLDF turned mercenary units liked to keep track of each other, partially because they rated each other as dangerous potential foes, generally superior to House regiments, and partially because it bothered them somewhat shooting at each other.

Ever choosing to work for the Dracs wasn't a good look for the Rangers in Tyson's opinion, although just as you'd expect from them the Combine had screwed Bolton's Rangers over with their 'Company Store' policy and a few other things, leading to the Rangers leaving their employ for that of the Duchy of Oriente a few years back.

Their timing to go work for one of the big three member states of the Free Worlds League just before the ComStar Interdiction hadn't been great though, especially given that the Duchy directly bordered the Capellan Confederation.

Just making their way across the Free Worlds League during the Interdiction in order to take up their contract with Niops had been a major pain in the ass for Tyson's Troublemakers, meanwhile Bolton's Rangers had to help deal with a full-scale invasion by angry Capellans looking to exploit the chaotic situation.

There was one thing that most every former SLDF unit knew about Bolton's Rangers, mostly because it was something they went out of their way to tell you. Back when they had been the 208^th Hussar Regiment they had fought beside Aleksandr Kerensky right at the end of the Amaris War, literally right beside him.

Unlike most units saying the same they could actually prove it too. They had video footage taken by one of their mechs at the time which showed Kerensky's Orion kicking down the gates of the Presidential Palace on Terra where Amaris was holed up.

It was a good thing that Tyson did know the story because if he hadn't the part of the HPG letter than said 'Turned out we didn't fight in the last battle of the Amaris War after all. Kinda annoying but when we heard we raised a glass to the 295^th anyway' would have made less sense.

The part of the letter where Colonel Bolton asked what it was like working for the Niops Association, did Tyson know if they were hiring, and, if so, could he put in a good word, was fairly self-explanatory.

Major Sam Tyson knew something else about Bolton's Rangers, something that almost made up for them working for the Dracs at one time, they still painted their mechs up in SLDF colours and they always wore the Cameron Star next to the insignia of whoever they were working for.

From a personal perspective, being effectively asked for a letter of recommendation by a unit that boasted one of commendation personally signed by Aleksandr Kerensky made Tyson feel pretty pleased with himself too, even though he knew it was basically just because he commanded the only mercenary unit Niops currently had under contract.

For most of the Inner Sphere the Niops Association was still an unknown quantity, if one that had just managed to drastically raise its interstellar profile in a very dramatic fashion. Just finding out that the 'Niops Association Hegemony' already controlled multiple star-systems and was continuing to expand territorially likely surprised a lot of people almost as much as learning that their navy was even more powerful than thought did.

Getting in on the ground floor before everyone else tried to sign up was probably a fortuitous decision, Sam Tyson thought to himself with satisfaction. The Troublemakers weren't nearly as large a mercenary command as Bolton's Rangers, for example, but when negotiating a future contract with Niops they could always point to the fact they had offered their services to the people still flying the Cameron Star first and cash in on that.

As to whether or not Niops might be interested in hiring on any more mercenaries or not at the moment Tyson wasn't sure. They certainly weren't at war with anyone right now, although for a while it had looked like they might be about to go and give the Circinus Federation a hammering, but conversely they were still planting their flag in new places and those places would potentially need a garrison to both keep pirates away and stop that flag being pulled back up by someone else.

Deciding to go and see Major Gao before replying to the HPG Sam Tyson made sure to remember to grab his wallet on the way out as well as get that sandwich. Gao's truly epic hangover from last week must have faded by now and he might accept being bought a drink again.


----------

Note from the Author:

In case you've forgotten Galileo is what the planet Pompey is called in this story (instead of the Marian Hegemony naming everything after famous Romans we have Niops naming everything after famous astronomers). Pompey was known for exporting diamonds and fire opals and while the name is different the geology is the same. Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in italy hence the capital of the planet being named that. Bit of trivia, the UHF transmission tower on top of the NHCOMNET station on Galileo has a noticeable lean, this is deliberate.

Like Tyson's Troublemakers, Bolton's Rangers was a former SLDF unit that stayed behind during Kerensky's Exodus and became a mercenary regiment (in the latter's case they were originally the 208th Hussar Regiment of the SLDF). The Rangers initially worked for the Draconis Combine but got screwed over (the Combine's rigorously implemented Company Store policy seems very much intended to do just that) and so they went to work for the Duchy of Oriente instead (part of the free Worlds League). In canon Bolton's Rangers signed up with the Duchy permanently in 2845 becoming the 5th Fusiliers of Oriente regiment but that hasn't happened yet (and won't).

The Eridani Light Horse and the Crater Cobras might be the most famous former SLDF units turned merc that still express some loyalty to the Star League but they are by no means the only ones. Bolton's Rangers were extremely proud of having been with Aleksandr Kerensky when he put an end to Amaris and retained SLDF colour schemes on their mechs even when they signed up with the Duke of Oriente as House troops.

Incidentally we're now at chapter fifty and well over 280,000 words (roughly three novel's worth of text). Nice to see plenty of people still reading at this point!

[PsihoKekec]

On arrival the mercenaries had been granted their own district on what was then the edge of town, one large enough for hangers to hold their mechs plus a barracks and a few other prefabricated buildings around a parade ground, but if the town kept expanding in size and population at the current rate the Troublemakers would soon find themselves completely surrounded on all sides by urban sprawl.

Common issue, especially in Europe. And then people complain because there is a military base right in the city, well base was there well before you decided to buy a plot next to it. 

[paulobrito]

Common issue, especially in Europe. And then people complain because there is a military base right in the city, well base was there well before you decided to buy a plot next to it.

Military base, airport/airfield, heck even fireworks factories.

[FubarX]

This has become one of the favorite fanfics out there from all the fanfics out there.  The little details like the UHF tower leaning, on purpose, in Pisa is hilarious.  The Niops leadership making jokes about all their battleships as a long term OPSEC move is beautiful.  There will be a day when the Niops Admiral will hail his opponent and say something like "It's hilarious that we were not joking".

Looking forward to the shenanigans they get up to as Comstar tries to figure out how to respond and Niops is a few steps ahead with no F**ks to give.

[Daryk]

Nice to see other former SLDF units rallying to the Red Cameron Star! :)

[Giovanni Blasini]

Nice to see other former SLDF units rallying to the Red Cameron Star! :)

Looking forward to seeing the Eridani Light Horse doing so.

[Daryk]

I suspect the Crater Cobras might come first... ;)

[mikecj]

I'm sure the Primus enjoyed the news to everyone else that he had 8 Divisions...

I don't think that was ever spelled out to the Houses in the original timeline.

[The Wobbly Guy]

I'm sure the Primus enjoyed the news to everyone else that he had 8 Divisions...

I don't think that was ever spelled out to the Houses in the original timeline.

And Niops knew thru the Wolverines. Did the 295th know about it, or was it information only known to Aleks K and his closest advisors?

[PsihoKekec]

I think the fact that some SLDF troops stayed with Blake should be common knowledge amongst the Exodus participants, while specifics would be known to Kerensky an his staff.