“…the AFFC recovered quickly from the blows of the Clan Invasion over the 4 years between it’s end, and the beginning of Clover Spear. What was most remarkable was the ability of the Federated Commonwealth to marshal it’s industrial capacity in such a way that the economic capacity of the Commonwealth was not even close to being tapped once the War of ’56 began.
What really surprised observers was the formation of several new ‘Mech regiments, many of these units were formed to carry on the linage of destroyed units, but some were units that had not seen a battlefield since the 2nd Succession War. Almost all of these units were posted to the Sarna and Capellan Marches to cover the departure of other units for Clover Spear.
8 so called “free” regiments were formed, From the Lyran State Command, the 8th Arcturan Guards, the 10th and 12th Donegal Guards and the 4th Royal Guards, and from the Federated Suns State Command, the 5th, 9th, 33rd and 41st Avalon Hussars. All, with the exception of the 4th Royal (which was formed from some of the best Mechwarriors in the Commonwealth) were still fairly green when war came. That said, some of them gave a good account of themselves when the Capellans and the Mariks came. Many of these units had bought the time the Commonwealth needed with their lives…”
“A Bloody Standard The Federated Commonwealth’s Preparations for the War of ’56" (Precentor Alex Carrigan, ComGuard (Ret), Castemate Press, Terra, New York, 3069)
March 9th, 3055
Private Offices of the Captain-General
Atreus City
Atreus, Free Worlds League
Captain-General Thomas Marik was not a happy man. It was a cool spring night on Atreus, but not even a comfortable fire or a tumbler of Glengarry Reserve could improve his mood. He’s my son-in-law for a few months, and already, he thinks he can call the damned shots? I should have kept going after Andurien..rid the Inner Sphere of the entire foul Liao brood. Thomas shook his head violently, expelling such thoughts. They were allies now, as much as Thomas had to control himself from spitting every time he had to say it.
But this plan is the height of insanity. Almost 2/3 of the CCAF and a third of the FWLM, not to mention some twenty regiments of mercenaries, to be hired with Marik money no less, and “gifted” to the Capellans (Parliament would love that) was to cut the two halves of the Commonwealth off, take Sarna and Kathil, and force the Commonwealth to the peace table under favorable terms. If we get as far as Styk and Oliver, we should fall down on our knees and thank god.
The plans, codenamed EAST SEA, were ambitious, but they had been scaled down from what the original plans had been, or at least the LCCC thought so. Thomas took another sip from his brandy, there were quite a few issues. First, logistical. It seemed the CCAF was going to depend on the League to come up with the supplies to make this work. And if I say no, what the hell might that idiot son in law of mine do then? What does my daughter see in that Capellan anyhow?
The other issue was political. First, while the Mask was a very good intelligence agency, it was not infallible. The Davions had foxed it before, and the constant reports of troop movements into the Lyran state could mean anything? Perhaps he is rotating forces, perhaps it is an exercise, perhaps, perhaps…
And then there is the not so small issue of how many provinces are going to vote with their feet on this war. Home Defense Act be damned.
SAFE for various reasons, did not completely trust the Capellan analysis, and their view was that the Capellans had probably missed more than a few regiments along the border, or were being taken in by some Davion shell game designed to precipitate a border incident. It is an assessment I am coming to agree with.
Thomas reached over, and tapped a key to turn on his noteputer. Thomas reached over to the keyboard, and quickly typed up the following message:
***************************
From : C-G Marik
To: Director, SAFE
Wilson,
I have a plan the Capellans delivered via diplomatic courier yesterday for an offensive into the FC’s Sarna March. Needless to say, I do not trust my Son-In-Law further than I can throw him, especially now that he has married my daughter. I want you to put your best people on the project of double checking the Capellan information. Davion has fooled them before.
Furthermore, and I only want this handed to the most trustworthy people you have, I want a blackmail file begun on my dear son-in-law. I hear he has a new female adviser. Find out how close they are, and if it is exploitable. It would be nice to be able to dissolve this marriage, as I fear it will get us into a bigger mess than the nation can handle right now.
Consider both of these matters to be of the highest priority,
Thomas
***********************
Thomas gave the message a once over, then tapped a few keys to move the message into the classified message traffic buffer and then tapped the SEND key to send the message on it’s way.
After I have Wilson tell me whether it is on the level or not, I will have Garabaldi and Blake take a look at this thing, and tell me if we can actually pull it off..not to mention meet with the Ministry of Finance and see if we can actually come up with the money…
Thomas leaned back and took another sip of his whiskey. Either way, the League is going to come out of this mess a winner.
Finally, there was a personal reason on why not: Joshua. He was still on New Avalon, and for now, was responding to treatment. Is Victor Davion any bit his father? Would he refuse my son treatment? Or worse, would he find out the truth about me?
An unseasonable chill soon filled Thomas Marik’s bones. Disquiet pervaded the rest of his evening, as thoughts of his children and their well-being came unbidden.
March 19th, 3055
Fort Defiance
Defiance
Crucis March
Federated Commonwealth
Colonel Hans Strucker, 54th Artillery Brigade (Commanding) looked on through his field glasses with a mixture of pride and satisfaction as he stood with Marshal Stephan Cooper observing the 54th execute a brigade rolling barrage on one of Fort Defiance’s many ranges. The various techs and umpires took measurements through their own equipment, and typed notations into their noteputers for later comment during the After Action Report.
The rolling ground shook and heaved as the guns, a mile to the rear, continuously fired without letup, the concentrated outgoing fire sending vibrations through the earth that could be felt, and heard even a mile away.
The view through Strucker’s Zeiss field glasses was magnificent, with round after round landing within the area proscribed for the live shoot. So far, there were no reports of any injuries, or technical issues with the guns..as the gouts of earth and dust vomited skyward with the encouragement of tons of high explosives. The small hill that made up the impact range was beginning to be obscured in the smoke and dust, and even with the Zeiss glasses, it was beginning to become harder to see the target, a series of hulked battlemechs and vehicles.
Marshal Cooper smiled tightly, and tapped Colonel Strucker on the shoulder, and waited for the Colnel to lower his field glasses.
“Colonel, you have a hell of a brigade, they get into position quickly, they handle the new Fire Direction Equipment with skill, and your FOs are top notch. You engaged that hill within a minute and had three rounds off from two of your three gun battalions before the first round hit the ground. I am impressed.”
Colonel Strucker bowed slightly, in the Steiner noble tradition when getting praise from a superior officer. He did spare the Davion Marshal the clicking of his heels. It seemed that most Davion officers found the practice silly, and more than a bit showy. “Thank you, Herr Marshal, we drill to a high standard, and the new fire direction equipment makes coordinating artillery fire an easy thing to accomplish. In short, we are ready, Herr Marshal, my men and women want to teach the Clans to respect our guns and rockets…or we will teach them that respect.”
I do believe that Marshal Cooper mused. The fact was, until recent events, Artillery had been a maligned thing in the Inner Sphere. But, with the rediscovery of an ancient Fire Control System called “TacFire” and it’s retrofitting to work with Star League technology (including most importantly, TAG), as well as the advent of faster loading systems for the Long Tom and Thumper class artillery pieces, artillery soon became a pretty nasty thing again..And then, if that wasn’t enough, there is Project Bumblebee, but that is something even Strucker isn’t supposed to know about…yet. If we can make those rounds work…the Falcons are well, and truly done for.
“When are we to deploy to the front, Herr Marshal?”
“Soon, yours was one of the last brigades that needed to complete pre-deployment readiness evaluation, and anyhow, I wanted to get to know you and your brigade…you’re going to be in direct support to my RCT.”
Stucker’s heart soared. This will be a thing to tell my men and women. This is going to make all the loading drills, the live fires, the road marches and everything else worth it. So many of my men and women are from the Tamar March, and so many of them want vengeance. As do I.
Stucker has lost his family on Twycross to the Jade Falcons when he had been commander of the TMM’s artillery battalion. He’d barely gotten out with a battery of guns when it was all over, but they had fired every round they had at the Falcons, but it hadn’t been enough.
But not this time..this time, we teach those arrogant bastards who the real King of the Battlefield is. And what Kings do to usurpers…
April 6th, 3055
The Triad
Tharkad
Federated Commonwealth
“Your Highness, as you can see, most of the units intended for Clover Spear have already moved into position, with a few more expected to close up by the end of July. After that, we intend to do a little creative re-badging to keep the Clans guessing.” Nondi Steiner stated, her strong voice echoing off of the Palace War Room as she illustrated a magnified map of the Clan frontier in the holotank. Friendly worlds blazed gold, and Clan held ones glowed green, or grey, depending on which Clan currently held possession.
The holotank hovered over one side of the room, with the other dominated by a long table surrounding the holotank, each seat with its own sound system to magnify any speech in the room.
Victor Steiner-Davion smiled, So far dad, so good. Now the question remains, do the Capellans know we have stolen a march on them, or are we still doing well enough to convince everyone we are just rotating units from the frontier?
Victor raised his hand and all discussion stopped. He turned to face the head of LIC, General Karl Halberg, who was a large, bullet-headed man who wore his graying hair closely cropped, and his uniform immaculate. His eyes betrayed sadness, the sadness of a man who held too many secrets, and had done things to keep them that didn’t bear close thought.
“General Halberg? Do the Capellans know what we’re about to do?”
“Your highness, it is our estimation and that of MIIO that the Maskriovka has probably guessed we are about to do something, the good news is, we have managed to clog up the rumor mill so badly for them, they are going to be spending a bit of time figuring out what is about to happen, until it does. I know you got that letter at the beginning of the year, your highness, but there has been no Capellan or League troop movements or other unusual activity to suggest that they in fact, know what we are about to do. ISF or O5P might just be playing games with us, and they told your friend because they know we would give her information more weight.”
“Suggestions, General?”
“Keep doing what we are doing, we are too far along anyhow, General Savinson has a lot of Loki assets deployed and ready to execute, and a lot of my Norns are going to be breaking cover to support them and the Longherin strikes on identified POW camps. In short, this goes wrong, the intelligence netwoek in Clan space is going to be gutted. So we have no choice, go. After that, your highness, my only advice is this: Beat the Clan bastards as quick as we can.”
Victor nodded, General Karlberg was right. Time was becoming a factor, as there was only 17 months left until the operation commenced. And, with interstellar distances and communications involved, armies and states did not turn on a dime.
“So, General Steiner, any concerns, or changes?” Victor asked.
“No, your highness, we should be briefing regimental and RCT commanders within the next three months as to their roles and targets. The help we have gotten from General Karlberg and his people on current conditions, as well as the enemy ORBAT has been outstanding.” General Steiner responded, a tone of professional satisfaction In her voice.
“Any concerns, anyone, please, now is a good time to mention them?” Victor stated, a bit more pleading in his voice than he had intended.
“I do have one concern of my own. Our inclusion of nuclear weapons. As much as I think the Jade Falcons are a threat to our very way of life, what are their possible response if we begin to nuke their warships?” Victor asked.
General Karlberg stated without hesitation “Your Highness, they will probably retaliate with something akin to Turtle Bay, but the fact remains, and this is with all due respect to our navy colleagues, but the fact remains. Our own warship programs are woefully inadequate. And asking ComStar..”
Victor finished the statement “..would pose a host of political problems. Alright gentlemen, you have your conditional nuclear release. But, if the bastards go after civilians, then all gloves are off, verstehen? Now, as for the rest of the plan, is this as good as we can make it?”
No one said a word, except for a tow headed officer, whose uniform was a bit rumpled, with a number of coffee cups emptied in front of him. Victor knew him only by reputation, Marshal Renier Poulin. Poulin was a hard charging Lyran officer of the old school who had definitely not come up through the Social General system, but had been languishing in a post on CMO 26 before a Colonel Katrina Steiner had noticed the young Hauptmann. The rest, as they said…was history.
“Your Highness-“ Poulin’s gravelly voice filled the room with all the lyricism of a cement mixer, “We should go, hell, we must go. The Clans are as blind, intel wise, as an opponent I have ever faced. We have a lot of citizens on those worlds, and things are not like “Wait until the next war” out there. No, Your Highness, these Tankers, to quote one of my favorite movies, think they are on a mission from God, and with luck, and a little firepower and preparation? We can more than disabuse them of that notion. Also, sir? Let me say this..I hate anybody who goes around saying that they are the master race.”
A response came unbidden from the Davion side of the war room, “Wait, you mean you Steiners aren’t?” It was a new version of an old joke about Germans…and now, Lyrans.
The entire room had a good laugh at that, even Victor chuckled before he held up his hands to get things back under control “I can’t take you people anywhere, can I?” Victor stated, as he flashed a winning grin around the room.
“Ok, so, what everyone is telling me, is we should go?”
There was a loud consensus of fists banging on tables and shouted “Yeses”.
“I see we have consensus. Alright, I know my mother has already approved. Gentlemen, we go.. But one thing. I hear the Clans have their biggest holiday on the 24th of August. I know we had chosen the 6th..but why in the world should they be the only ones celebrating?”
Nondi Steiner smiled a feral smile at the idea. “Your Highness, we can make this happen, can we General Karlberg?”
General Karlberg nodded.
And thus, the die was cast.