Denouement
August 20th, 3028
Main Conference Hall, Hilton Head Island
5:00 pm
Due to the size of the wedding party, it is some little time before everyone at the cathedral is transported to the conference hall on Hilton Head Island. Among the first to depart are the First Prince, his new bride and Archon Katrina; following behind in other limousines are General Hodges, Hanse Davion’s other groomsmen and Melissa's bridesmaids. Next are the House lords and their attendants.
The new couple arrives at 5:00 pm and forms a receiving line along with the groomsmen and bridesmaids. All other guests in attendance are personally greeted before they take their seats. Next, the other guests are seated according to precedence; with their distance from the central table being an indication of their status. Lastly, the wedding party takes their seats.
Light music is being played in the background while initial refreshments are being served; once Quintus Allard’s glass is full, he raises it in salute to the First Prince and accompanies this with a nod of his head. Hanse Davion returns the gesture n likewise manner, knowing that great matters are taking place elsewhere in the Inner Sphere at this very moment.
Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner-Davion are seated at the center of the table, with Archon Katrina immediately to the First Prince’s left; as a mark of General Hodges’ own status he’s seated to the Archon’s left. While the other guests circulate around the room and indulge in informal ‘business’, Hodges leans to his right and says in a quiet voice “Archon, your highness, once we are on the return trip, there are matter of great importance that have to be discussed.”
The First Prince replies with a questioning glance, to which General Hodges responds by tapping his right ear and surreptitiously pointing to the ceiling (thus indicating the possibility that all discussions in the hall are being listened to by their hosts.
A short time later, the Master of Ceremonies enters the room and strikes his staff three times on the floor to gain the attention of one and all. He announces loudly “My lords, ladies and gentlemen, Pray take your seats for the serving of the banquet.” While this is going on, a separate table is brought in and place before the central table to display the wedding cake; next to this is a table for the wedding gifts. Very soon thereafter, the wait staff (all of whom are Constar acolytes) begin to carry in covered dishes to serve the guests; by tradition, the wedding party is served first. Next, the guests are served in order of precedence.
One wedding tradition that hasn’t gone by the wayside over the centuries is the custom of getting the bride and groom to exchange kisses by the guests tapping on the rims of their wineglasses; General Hodges is the first to begin and soon, the entire hall is ringing; Hanse and Melissa enthusiastically indulge their guests (accompanied by much applause and more than a few cheers). From the central table, General Hodges raises his glass to Takashi Kurita as a mark of respect, then follows this up with malignant glares at Romano Liao and then Myndo Waterly; Romano’s return glance is nothing less than withering, while the expression on Myndo Waterly’s face is one of studied indifference (inwardly, however, she’s absolutely seething with rage directed towards General Hodges). Just then, a senior acolyte comes over to Waterly’s table, leans over, speaks a few quiet words and is then dismissed with a wave of her hand. Taking note of this, Hanse Davion sends one of his aides to enquire what happened.
Toasts (some of which are genuine) are now exchanged between the new couple and their guests. Following this, the new couple takes to the floor for their first dance together. Next, as the guests begin to move out on the floor for their own dances, Hanse and Melissa now dance with other members of their wedding party; the first of these is General Hodges, who comes up, stands in front of Melissa’s seat and says “may I have this dance, my lady?” The First Prince nods his consent, then General Hodges and the Archon-Designate move out onto the floor; next are Hanse Davion and Katrina Steiner (who seize the opportunity to have a quiet word while they are dancing together.
“Well Katrina, we’ve done it. All of our plans have brought us to this moment, and it is my sure and certain hope that we are successful.”
“I have no doubt of that, Hanse. You genuinely love and care for Melissa, and she reciprocates the affection for you. Right now, Comstar’s hierarchy is most likely furious that they were neither able to anticipate what we did; nor, to prevent it. They came close with the Silver Eagle Incident; this is an insult that I’ll never forgive or forget .”
“You and I are of like mind on this, Katrina. You may rest assured that Comstar will come to know my vengeance…”
While dancing with the Archon-Designate, General Hodges comments “you’re a natural at this, your highness; my compliments to your dance instructors.”
“Thank you, General, that was very kind of you to say so.”
Once Hodges’ dance with Melissa is over, he thanks her for the courtesy and heads off across the floor to find Kym Sorenson for their own dance together. While so occupied, Sorenson comments “Jim, if looks could kill, Romano Liao would have you dead in the most imaginative manner possible.” A soft chuckle escapes from General Hodges’ mouth as he comments sotto voce “my dear, I’m not done twisting Romano’s tail just yet. When we’re done here, I’m going . to ask Romano Liao to dance with me; that is, if you approve.”
A questioning look occupies Kym’s face as she replies “You’ve got something up your sleeve, don’t you?”
“Of course I do, my dear. Miss Lot Lizard was quite annoyed that I didn’t fall prey to what she thought were her feminine wiles; figuratively-speaking, I want to stick my thumb in her eye some more.”
“Why not? I am curious, however. What is a lot lizard? Some species of reptile life?”
“Hardly that. On old Terra in the United States, a great deal of freight was carried by men who drove long-distance trucks for a living. Regulations of the time were such that these truckers had to stop every so often for rest periods. Facilities called truck stops were set up so that the truckers could rest, eat and refuel their rigs. One of the several consequences of this business was prostitutes who carried on their ‘trade’ at truck stops; the areas where trucks were parked are called lots and the prostitutes who worked there were referred to as ‘Lot Lizards’.”
“You mean to say that you actually called Romano Liao a whore? She’s not the kind of person who takes an insult like that lying down, you know…”
“I called her a few other less-complimentary names, too; if she had behaved like a married woman, I would have given her the courtesy of being treated like one.”
“Do be careful. Jim.”
“I always am, my dear; it’s one of the several reasons why I am still alive
General Hodges walks across the floor, with his boots thumping against the smoothly-polished wood. He comes upon Roman Liao and Tsen Shang dancing together, and looms over the pair like a Titan from ancient Greek mythology. A tap on the shoulder to Tsen Shang and Hodges says “I bed your pardon, Mr. Shang; do you mind if I cut in?” Tsen Shang looks to Romano for permission, and she nods in the affirmative. General Hodges dismisses him with a curt wave of the hand, as if to say ‘away from me, lackey…”
To Romano, General Hodges says “good afternoon, my dear hetaira. I just wanted to let you know that I bear you no ill will for what passed between us previously…” ; Hodges’ voice is smooth and honey-sweet, yet dripping with hidden currents of both sarcasm and disrespect.
Oblivious to how’s she’s being played like a musical instrument, Romano responds “why my dear General, whatever gave you the impression that I was angry with you?”
“Indeed, madam. Shall we dance?”
“By the way, what was that word you used when you said hello to me? I don’t believe that I have ever heard it before…”
“Do please forgive me for being remiss. Hetaira** is a classical Greek word referring to a woman in your position.”
“Ancient Greece, you say? How very civilized of you to say so; I’ll just have to look it up… Now, shall we dance?”
General Hodges’ and Romano Liao’s arms go about each other’s shoulders as the band begins to play a tune that he had previously suggested (Moonlight Serenade, by Glenn Miller). While the dance goes on. Hodges’ bends his head close to Romano’s ear and says “I’ve heard that you boast some skill with the violin; I can play that instrument too, so what say we have a friendly little contest, you against me? I suggest you go first and play three tunes of your own choice, while I will follow your play with three tunes of my own. Let the witnesses gathered here in the hall be the judge of who’s the victor…” A small (but inwardly malignant) grin crosses Romano’s face as she says “I’ll be delighted to accept your challenge, General.” Inside her mind however, she’s thinking ‘I’ve got you now, you arrogant bastard’
Elsewhere on the floor, other couples are dancing; General Hodges and Romano Liao finish their dance together, then she announces to all those present "the good general and I have agreed to a contest of musical skill; you will be the judges of who's performance was superior. By mutual agreement, we will each play three pieces on the violin and I will go first."
Romano plays her three pieces and is greeted with polite applause at the end of her performance. General Hodges calls for his own violin and takes the floor; before he plays, he announces "my lords, ladies and gentlemen, my first two selections are from 21st-century popular Terran culture." What follows is follows is a virtuoso performance, worthy of the finest concert halls in the Inner Sphere; the first two pieces are
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnJ7uOK4nYgand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzQahpxucKkAs these two pieces are completed, the applause that General Hodges receives is nothing less than thunderous. Before Hodges plays his third piece, he says "I dedicate the following composition to my worthy opponent." He pushes a chair to the middle of the floor, takes a seat and begins to both sing and play; keeping time all the while by tapping his steel-toed combat boots on the floor.
'The devil went down to Georgia
she was lookin' for a soul to steal
she was in a bind
'Cause she was way behind
And she was willin' to make a deal
She came upon this young man
Sawin' on a fiddle and playin' it hot
And the devil jumped
Up on a hickory stump
And said boy let me tell you what
I guess you didn't know it
but I'm a fiddle player too
And if you care to take a dare I'll make a bet with you
Now you play a pretty good fiddle, boy
But give the devil her due
I'll bet a fiddle of gold
Against your soul
as to think I'm better than you
The boy said my name's Jimmy
And it might be a sin
But I'll take your bet
And you're gonna regret
'Cause I'm the best there's ever been
Jimmy rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard
Cause hell's broke loose in Georgia and the devil deals the cards
And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold
But if you lose the devil gets your soul.
The devil opened up her case
And she said I'll start this show
And fire flew from her fingertips
As she rosined up her bow
Then she pulled the bow across the strings
And it made a evil hiss
And a band of demons joined in
And it sounded something like this
[Instrumental]
When the devil finished
Jimmy said well you're pretty good old girl
Just sit down in that chair right there
And let me take you for a whirl
He played Fire on the Mountain
Run boys, run
The devil's in the House of the Rising Sun
Chicken in a bread pan picken' out dough
Granny does your dog bite
No child, no
[Instrumental]
The devil bowed her head
Because she knew that she'd been beat
And she laid that golden fiddle
On the ground at Jimmy's feet
Jimmy said, Devil just come on back
If you ever wanna try again
I done told you once you old dog
I'm the best there's ever been
And he played Fire on the Mountain
Run boys, run
The devil's in the House of the Rising Sun
Chicken in a bread pan picken' out dough
Granny does your dog bite
No child, no'*
General Hodges finishes his performance with a flourish on his violin and is greeted with cheers and applause that are even more enthusiastic than before. From the expression of pure hatred on Romano Liao's face, it is clear to her that, instead of crushing and humiliating Hodges in this musical duel, it was she that was utterly defeated. As she leaves the floor, she casts a glance at General Hodges that, if it were the beam from a PPC, he would have been vaporized.
Now that the dances and other entertainment are complete, it is time for the wedding gifts to be presented, Takashi Kurita previously requested the honor of being the first to present his gifts, and so he does. For Hanse Davion, he has a set of O-Yoroi armor, a matched daisho (katana & wakizashi) and a daikyu bow with a matching quiver that holds 36 arrows. For Melissa, there are a pair of kinonos and a Japanese tea set; the Coordinator’s gifts are acknowledged and received, then it is General Hodges’ turn.
“Your highness, Archon-Designate, please accept these gifts from me as a token of my esteem. Your highness, for you personally, I have a cased pair of ivory-stocked dueling pistols from my own collection. They were made by the noted English gunmaker Durs Egg and used to settle affairs of honor between gentlemen on old Earth. You see, the practice of gentlemen wearing swords as a required element of dress gradually fell out of favor and was replaced by the custom of resorting to pistol duels whenever they felt that their honor had been slighted.”
General Hodges continues with “Archon-Designate, for you, I have a table service consisting of 12 place settings of 18th-century British porcelain and 12 place settings of table silver made by the colonial American silversmith Paul Revere. For you and the First Prince as a couple, I present a cased pair of Holland & Holland ‘Royal Deluxe’ 12-bore shotguns. Both guns have 2 ¾” chambers and are idea for skeet & trapshooting (along with hunting waterfowl). Like the pistols, the dinnerware and the shotguns are from my personal collection.”
The sheer magnificence of these gifts causes much discussion to run among the other guests; in due course, gifts from other guests are presented. Now it is time for Hanse and Melissa to make their presentations to each other.
With her own hand, Melissa cuts a slice of the wedding cake and presents it to her husband, saying “my love, in honor of our marriage, I give to you a full regiment of battlemechs, along with the means to support it in perpetuity. Hanse presents Melissa with a slice of cake on a silver dish and says “My love, along with this tasty morsel, I give you the Capellan Confederation.”
This statement doesn’t cause much of an uproar among the other guests, as no one there really expects that the First Prince is being serious; elsewhere, events are transpiring; events that prove that Hanse Davion has never been more serious in his life. All across the Davion-Liao border, units of the AFFS have begun Operation RAT; dozens of planets were struck with near-simultaneous attacks, thus catching Liao forces completely off-guard. The proximate causes of this conflict are Hanse Davion’s desire to seize as much as possible of the Capellan Confederation’s industrial infrastructure; thus crippling House Liao’s ability to make war against him. Also, the First Prince has never forgotten Chancellor Maximilian Liao’s attempt to take control of the Federated Suns by replacing him with a body double in 3025; which plot being foiled by the actions of Ardan Sortek. The AFFS were able to exploit a weakness in House Liao’s force structure which had the CCAF lightly-garrison border worlds while having a strategic reserve that could respond to local conditions as needed. By using his traitorous half-stepbrother Duke Michael Hasek-Davion to feed misinformation to the Capellans, Hanse Davion was able to lure the CCAF into mis-deploying their assets and so, was able to catch them napping. In many locations, the AFFS outnumbered the CCAF defenders by margins of three or four-to-one.
On the intelligence front, the First Prince scored a pair of critically-important coups when Justin Xiang Allard (son of MIIO Director Quintus Allard) was infiltrated into the Capellan Maskirovka as a double-agent. Additionally, Alex Mallory joined the organization as a MIIO deep-cover agent. When the war broke out, Xiang and Mallory were, respectively, the #2 and #3 men in that agency (thus providing unparalleled access to Capellan intelligence assets, sources and information).
On the Commonwealth-Combine front, the First Prince was able to persuade Archon Katrina to join the action by attacking House Kurita in Operation: Götterdämmerung. Here, House Kurita was much-better organized than House Liao and so, Kuritan resistance was stronger. The objective of Operation: Götterdämmerung was not so much to seize territory from the Draconis Combine as it was intended to tie down DCMS regiments that could have been sent to help the Capellan Confederation/
The AFFS and the LCAF had a critical advantage over their opponents, in that selected units had been refitted with items of General Hodges’ new technology and material from the Helm Cache; for the AFFS, the units are the Davion Brigade of Guards and for the LCAF, they are the 1st & 2nd Royal Guards and the 10th Lyran Guards. The specific items are Star League neurohelmets, multi-spectral rangefinders, stabilization systems, improved myomer fibers, combat computers, improved cooling jackets, accurate weapons and caseless-electrothermal autocannons.
In the meantime back on New Avalon, Field Marshal Yvonne Davion realized that, with the coming of the war, it was very possible for New Avalon itself to come under attack. In such a situation, one of the objectives for any enemy attack would be the destruction of the New Avalon Institute of Science. Therefore, she exercised her authority as Prince’s Champion to raise Dr. B. Banzai’s unit (the Hong Kong Cavaliers) to the status of a full regiment and order that it be refitted with battlemechs from House Davion’s share of the Helm Cache; the specific models are as follows:
18 WHM-7A2 Warhammer
36 MAD-2R2 Marauder
18 BLR-2G Battlemaster
18 Marauder-III
These battlemechs will have the same refits as the machines assigned to the Hong Kong Cavaliers.
The purpose of the Cavaliers is to defend NAIS from attack, and also to reinforce New Avalon’s planetary garrison where possible. Additionally, four Battlemasters from the Helm Cache were customized for the use of the First Prince and the three members of his command lance.
*: adapted from 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia' and 'The Devil Went Back to Georgia'
**: Hetaira; in Ancient Greece, a prostitute who acted as a paid companion for wealthy men
