I'm going to try and limit the Warrior Trilogy influences as best I can. Not a fan. We'll start to diverge even further, but I'll be referencing both of Charrette's work as we go on.
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Governor's Palace, Elusian City, Nirasaki
Dieron Military District, Draconis Combine
3 April 3028
It took a lot to stun Jaime Wolf, but lately all it took was someone with the name 'Kurita'. He shook his head and smiled, "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. You said your name was?..."
The jolly fat man, dressed in robes of scarlet red and ivory, smiled back. "Chandrasekhar Kurita, your civilian liaison. The Coordinator did say you'd be assigned one, yes?" Without giving the colonel time to answer, he continued. "Call me Chandy, please, mon colonel," the round man said as he inspected Jaime's rather bare bar.
Shaking his shaven head at the poor offerings, Chandrasekhar pulled a battle from his sleeve and poured three glasses. He offered one to Jaime.
"To the Dragon and the Dragoons!" Chandy roared in between gulps from each hand.
Jaime downed his drink in one shot, and regretted it immediately as it burned, pleasantly, down his throat.
"What did I just--"
"--It's a good thing you arrived when you did, mon colonel." Chandy began, without even pretending he was sorry for interrupting. He flashed a few more chips and deposited them in Jaime's empty glass. "Those all need your signature. I've authorized the construction of your corporate headquarters here, and the plans your staff forwarded for the 'Hiring Hall' have been slightly altered. Expanded, really."
Jaime grew flustered, but Chandrasekhar's blue Kurita eyes held him still. This one plays a fool. But he isn't, not one bit, the colonel surmised. He kept a tighter rein on his emotions, which became harder to do with the liquid spreading warmth around his body.
"You'll find them all detailed in the chips. I'm sure they'll meet your standards."
"Why did the Coordinator send you here? A Kurita?" Jaime asked, seeking to re-gain the initiative.
"Well," Chandy began, "there's a small matter of me irritating a few of the worthies at the Luthien Court. It involved a camel, some Lyran mannequins, some of their daughters and sons, and the whole of last October..."
"I... see."
"Regardless, I am here. Oh, and I'm also the representative of the Nirasaki Computer Collective!" Chandy flashed a sleek noteputer. "You're familiar with the Blue Lotus, aren't you? What with your SLDF origins, you should know all about them. Did you know my nephew, well, cousin actually but I'm like an uncle to young Theodore--he pilots General Kerensky's original Orion? Hah, olive drab and everything."
"The what? Really, the original? Wait, 'SLDF origins'?"
Chandy nodded. "Found it on a glob of junk around New Samarkand, flushed before they jumped I imagine. And hmm, well, let's see... a fleet of well-preserved JumpShips. A jump-capable station no less, along with more than five regiments of 'Mechs with their own DropShips and fighters, nearly all SLDF-era designs. Surely you're familiar with the rumours you've done nothing to dispel? Oh and the fact that Natasha Kerensky's... well, a Kerensky. Not too subtle."
"There are many..."
"Of course there are. My gardener's a Kerensky, and related to the General himself!" Chandy refilled his glasses.
"The former planetary governor's a fine fellow, there's a dinner tonight by the way, and everything on the civilian end is neatly tied up. Technically, he's the vice-governor now since you're in charge. But the NCC, they're really interested in talking with your technical people. Nirasaki makes more than just fancy noteputers and comms, you know."
"Why the NCC?"
Chandy smiled. "Good, mon colonel. You see to the heart of it."
Jaime Wolf nodded, taking his chair and plugging in a chip at random into his deskputer. "Matabushi on Hachiman," Jaime said a moment later from memory. "Gorton, Kingsley & Thorpe from Satalice. Luthien Armour Works, of Luthien and every damn place else." Chandy smiled and kept drinking. "Those are the top three electronics, military electronics, manufacturers in the Combine. Not to mention their satellite factories. I hear even the Imperial Institute of Technology on Xinyang's supplying some chips these days."
"Very good, mon colonel." Chandy bowed. "Simply put, they're fuddy duddies."
Wolf couldn't help it, he barked a laugh.
"Hah, indeed, mon colonel. But it's true. They're old, mostly, but they're tied to the Procurement Department in so many disgusting ways. The NCC is mostly a civilian operation, there's some chips and boards we supply of course to the military. But again, this is the Combine. Even the rice farmers sell to the DCMS."
"Point."
"We're less likely to stab in you the back. And you're bound to be running low on the high-end stuff you use. Nirasaki is unique in the Combine in that this world's economy isn't suborned to the military or ignored, but actually allowed to be different. Capitalism thrives here, but greed doesn't hold sway."
"I've heard that most of the people live in communes... and they use work credits as currency."
"Indeed, mon colonel! They're not interested in money, they have what they need but they still sell to the Combine, for a profit of course. It's a very odd arrangement. But now you see the wisdom of the Dragon in offering this world to you."
Jaime Wolf sat back and recollected his suspicions which Chandy was giving him time to do by refilling his own glasses again. Nirasaki sat right next to Dieron, which given his friend Minobu's promotion made a certain sense. Tetsuhara was now one of the most powerful men in the Combine, a friend of the Dragoons, who would always look to their best interests as long as it didn't conflict with the Combine's. The system was close to the Davion border, but raids were not common, and now would be less so with at least one regiment of the Wolf's Dragoons always on world, plus any sundry mercenaries the Dragon saw fit to hire.
That was the grand bargain Takashi offered Jaime: a world of his own, without Combine interference, to limit the cultural contamination mercenaries brought with them. The mercenaries serve the Combine, but when they were on his world to rest and re-arm, or even train, they'd be his to use. The world was his. His only conditions were that none of the mercenaries he allowed on the world would work against the Draconis Combine, including his Dragoons. Over time, the DCMS would rotate regiments to Nirasaki to train with the Dragoons.
Convincing the other colonels hadn't been easy, but without Akuma and Samsonov's rotting influence they had all agreed that the Combine had treated them the fairest. The five solid years had seen many marriages between the civilians of the Dragoons and those on An Ting, and many Combine worlds besides. Despite themselves, the Wolf's Dragoons had put down roots.
The warrior culture does remind me of home... Home.
"Indeed, mon colonel." The fat man said, interrupting his thoughts. "Home."
"Well, Chandy," Jaime tasted the name. "Please set up a meeting between my people and NCC's engineers, but before that happens, I'm going to need a continent."
"How about a moon?"