Having been pressed for this:
Epilogue
Cat's Eye, Caprice
New Star League, Deep Periphery
18 December 2800Jason Karrige closed the dossier on the latest report on the fighting around King Henry. The settlement, housing veterans and dependents of the 349th Royal BattleMech Division, was still refusing to submit to the authority of the First Lord despite volunteer forces from the other settlements on Terra Nova holding it under siege for six months now.
"There is one more thing," the young officer - he was only in his thirties - added. "The
Argussent back their preliminary report this morning."
Having half expected the reports to be over, Elizabeth Hazen-DeChavilier paused with her hand on the drawer that contained her cigars. "Something of interest Major?"
The
Argus, a battered Tramp jumpship was the New Star League's primary link back to the Inner Sphere, making the eighteen month round-trip to the Mica worlds every two years. Under the cover of trading metals from Caprice's mines for electronics (and as she was officially unaware, for a few luxury goods) the crew picked up the real treasure: news from the Inner Sphere and brought it home.
"A change of power, ma'am." Karrige pulled out a disk. "The First Prince died last year. News reached Mica just before the
Argus departed."
She sighed. "There goes the last of the old ones." Since Barbara Liao's death five years ago, John Davion had been the last living person to have been part of the Star League Council. "I guess if one of them was going to survive at least it was the one who didn't screw us over. So who's First Prince now?"
"Duke Hasek was regent when the Argus left - the Prince's grandson Paul wasn't quite of age. I imagine he's taken the throne now: he turned twenty-one this year."
"What implications are there for the stability of the Federated Suns?" asked the First Lord.
Kerrige shook his head slightly. "Very little, ma'am. The Chancellor Quinn appears to be fully focused on trying to reclaim Andurien from the League and the Combine's still bogged down fighting in the Outworlds Alliance. Zabu Kurita isn't crazy enough to give the Federated Suns reason to do more than sell the Alliance military hardware at scrap prices and he'd rather have a morass he can use to keep his generals busy with than have the AFFS make another push for An Ting the way they did in '96 after that 'ronin' invasion of Prosperpina."
Hazen-Dechavilier scribbled a note to herself to bring that up at the next Council meeting. "Alright, thanks for the heads up." No doubt the representatives from Jotunheim and Home would want to press for re-establishing contact again with the Inner Sphere on the excuse that now the last of the 'Old Council' was dead...
