Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Contract
Luxens 's public leadership were insistent on keeping the Volunteers here... and the planetary authorities did have a point with only a handful of HPG stations in the Magistracy of Canopus, and one failed attack it seemed likely Black Jack would come a knocking later. The problem with that was that Luxen's planetary government wasn't really the one footing the bill, and Gene wasn't entirely sure that the leadership understood that... but he wasn't all that clear on how the magistracy's command was supposed to work... and their contract was clear on that cadre training duties were their primary contract, and there was a garrison clause.


… and on the MRB side of things ComStar was paying a lot of attention to their security obligation because they were likely to be targeted if the pirates did come knocking. Not today's problem though and he'd deal with that behind closed doors. Preferably where the public wouldn't start panicking the unit was going to go haying off for the unknown... but there were too many civilians crowding nervously around the starport and around the encampments.


Some of the highlanders were cracking jokes about it, but thus far they hadn't actually made good on running up the SLDF banner. Still Dante was issuing out broadsheets and statements to the public relations side of the unit based on the Hegemony's civil service. On that other hand they were being surreptitious about that, Kelly if not necessarily Black Jack seemed to be distributing Rim World revanchist propaganda, and that potentially added a different dimension to their SLDF uniforms even without running up the Cameron Starburst to fly over the base.

A handful of Claymore's 'cadets' started to pick up the paper laden boxes and move out.

The documents for study had been printed up and begun distribution early this morning... and they were running a little late... but the truth was Gene had been working on the documents most of the trek into the periphery from the Inner Sphere... it was just there had been less time for regimental training opportunity than he had originally expected prior to their arrival on Luxen. He had also been obliged to have enough materials printed up for the Azami units as well, even though some would be making the journey to Alamut and others would be deployed to caravan protection duties elsewhere.


He had been given the Eridani's logs of how the RCT had evolved as the succession wars had worn on the unit and those impacted some of the revision he had made o the documents. Things that only further highlighted that doing what the Coordinator couldn't was going to be a high priority once they made it back to the Inner Sphere whatever political implications that would have, they needed to secure Nagayan Castle Brian on Helm to build the Eridani and the Blue Star Irregulars.

That was all in the future, for now well in the here and now there were talks about how their RCT would act in conjunction and in advising the training of the Luxen Volunteers. Gene ran his hands through his hair as he blew out a breath looking down at the master copy. The Azami Regiment under Taisa Bey had already begun the planning and process for offloading their original equipment for their own white shield program. He supposed after a minute that that was in a sense wrong, the passing of machines, of BattleMechs and ASF from father to son was common was defining of the succession wars where production had dwindled to a trickle.

He had included a statement that terms for Battle and Horse units terms like Ranger and Chasseur continued to be used by regiments even though the units no longer reflected n many cases what composition under those labels would have entailed in the time of the Star League. But the truth the documents had originally begun as a way to provide school room instructions to the massive expanded force... they were just a larger force to be included in that instruction than the Battalions aboard Hidalgo and Presidio now.

Bardiche and Claymore had been the original target audiences for the writings. Their officers were already on the assembly point, and it wouldn't have been off the mark to say that no one wanted to be left out. So today they needed to cover a broad base of material, and also to avoid overwhelming anyone, he glanced sideways, "There is a liaison from Majesty Metals on site?"

"Yes sir." The ruddy faced highlander officer replied, "Is it a problem?"

"No." He answered, and he hoped that he was right. It was unlikely that Majesty Metals would be a source of intelligence for the pirates, but, "I do want to know what they have planned for Luxen though." The Magistracy did produce domestically its PPCs which was useful, but like with the first contract it was ammunition that was going to be a concern, "I assume there here about the charger and cicada refits." Then perhaps unnecessarily, "As long as they don't cause trouble, we need to get going."

It was a short ride to row of hangars and it was crowded. Crowded was an understatement, maybe there were less people overall than at the Highland faire on Northwind, but it was the mass of technicians and mechwarriors in the space and the sense of urgency even as the wrenches went about that work which made it feel that way.

It reminded him of the initial days on Robinson just crammed together. Part of that was the noise from the working techs scrambling to connect hoists or unfasten the reactor from the chassis, which the first step of everything going on. This was larger in a way than the Robinson contract to train DMM mechwarriors for the then tentative invasion of the Combine. Certainly the Company had more staff now, and more experience... but also there were the implications of a Rim World resurgent able to field Star League era 'mechs and their political aspirations.

He idly observed that they had their work cut out for them. Gene noticed immediately that it was more than the Azami paying attention to the modifications being done to the Chargers and Cicadas, the latter of which as a result of the Star League had been a common enough medium mech in the armies of all member states. Attrition had worn those down, the basic cicada mounted only four tons of armor, but that would change since as with the Charger the engines were being pulled out for a smaller engine, which would allow more armor.

Gene didn't expect that Majesty Metals, or any Canopian manufacturer would start producing new Cicada... but they might be approached to produce the engine for the standard Cicada to be put into new production Chargers. Akashi's customized, giving it an ornate samurai armor esque appearance, Griffin was crouched nearby. "Are they ready?"

"The Luxen Volunteers should be fully assembled in another minute," She replied.

He nodded, having seen on the itinerary that one set of the Vindicator pilots had been on morning drill practice, "Then you're up." He stated, giving her time to make sure she was ready. In the comfort of closed doors with just the company staff Bubbles had mentioned that the academy she had attended had used was the Cicada, but since they were doing extensive modifications her limited experience with the '2B' model wasn't likely to do much good. So even with that information he was comfortable with her planned assignment. And, of course it hadn't stopped Chang from suggesting that since at some point in the future Raventhir would have more of the otherwise mediocre eighty ton scout 'mech being produced maybe some could be refit with assault auto cannons.

One thing at a time though, but he didn't oppose the suggestion. The machinery on Pioche left in stasis after the rock had been dropped on the bread basket agricultural colony was black boxed so all it really needed was to be fed material. Still, from what Raventhir said she'd only managed to build up a single battalion thus far, and that while Pioche was working on more machines the bottleneck would be engines for the Chargers after they arrived at Luxen.

Silently to himself, he decided it was something he'd talk to Majesty Metals about, he decided, if it hadn't already been brought up. If it had, well then presumably it was being worked. He gave a final nod, and let Akashi go over the Charger, and Cicada modifications to the assembled MAF pilots.... all too aware that every so often the eyes of the assembled flicked towards his direction, and that included his command, Akashi among them, and the MAF personnel.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen Contract


Lady Raventhir watched the work. The Straios on her staff was a little leery of how readily the Terran Colonel in her employ handed matters over to his combine Ronin. On the other hand she also admitted that the number of officers who were female would help prevent issues with more conservative MAF unit commanders... if things went badly and lead to a mustering of units to attempt to sally in defense of an important coreward world.


The Azami techs seemed to be modelling the appearance of the chargers after the woman's highly customized Griffin. She was content to leave them to their work though. There was the fact that even with eighteen machines to heavily overhaul Shepherd's support personnel weren't meaningfully strained. The Azami provided an abundance of technically skilled labor, and were excited at the work in front of them.


The Azami's noticeable presence was darkly amusing for other reasons. MAF observers, not really official intelligence personnel had relayed color displays that showed Azami troops, who were almost certainly rebels, and even if they weren't the Rasalhague battalion certainly was up front about it, identified with SLDF with Star League era Combine units... which just brought the MIC and the Straios on her staff back to the issue that Shepherd's own publications treated the command, explicitly spelled out in its general orders on unit discipline, and the training material, as if it were a Star League unit. That wouldn't have been unusual if carried out in the methods and traditions of the Eridani Light Horse even out here in the Periphery... but here there most likely opposition were to be pirates who were using SLDF weapons... and no pirates who increasingly advertised themselves as revanchists of the Rim World Republic.


She had no more idea what to make of that than Canopus did. There was a slight cough from her aide de camp to callher attention away from the view of the window, "Force Major Seghal is here Lady Raventhir."


It was that time, "Send her in," they exchanged the customary salutations and other formalities expected of their situation, and Lady Raventhir immediately pushed forward to the topic at hand, "are we expecting any developments?"


"I wouldn't know what to expect at this point." The other woman replied, which at least an honest take... they had expected a large force to appear whenever Shepherd arrived at the Jump Point... not the massed formation that had arrived. "I've spoken with Colonel MacIntyre over the Highlanders they plan to establish a second 'mech Battalion when they return to the Inner Sphere. From what he's outlined its similar in arrangement to the," Luxen "Dragoon's new Battalion."


"What do we know?"


"The core of the unit will be a dragoon weight formation of base six built around Crockett Assault BattleMechs,"The machines had apparently been left in the care of the Highlanders 'home clans' back on Northwind in preparation for the unit's return, but the machines themselves had a similar provenance to the machines that the Azami themselves had recently received. Magistracy Intelligence had already drawn comparisons to the now legendary Wolfs Dragoons mercenaries ability to repair damage sustained in battle...with Raventhir aware that, there might be pressures to find caches, "Colonel MacIntyre was remarkably open minded regarding our successes defending Luxen." Seghal sounded unsure of that, to an extent Raventhir herself wondered exactly how open minded the Highlander would have been if his own commanding officer hadn't been present at Luxen. "The current plan appears to be amalgamate Claymore's two cadet companies with Easy Company and the new Dragoon pilots."


As Raventhir understood it the Ronin was even now supposed to be evaluating which of the pilots were most suitable, "And what are your expectations?"


"The new pilots are largely green, my Lady,"Seghal replied, "Shepherd's contract for training the unit is based on what we already knew he was capable of. By all indications, from material that went out this morning, he's more than prepared for that." It was a stronger endorsement than other officers might have given to other leaders. "The educational material is thorough."


Raventhir nodded, but that was no surprise. Her father's notes, and the biographical work up from the MIC Shepherd had probably been groomed by the Hegemony for a command, that he had been posted out to the periphery to cut his teeth under more experienced terran gunslingers. The psych profile for his near single minded focus was that for all intents purposes Shepherd lived, and breathed his profession... that that focus on his war fighting capabilities might be what was keeping him together in the face of the Hegemony's destruction while he'd been in a stasis tube. She turned back to the window... "Do the Azami have a time table on when their work will be completed?"


"They're working in batches, the work entails pulling mechanics and Mech Technicians from both Azami Regiments."


She turned back to the Force Major, "What does that mean in practice?"


"They're working on a platoon of Chargers and a platoon of Cicadas side by side." There was a pause, "They've agreed to bill the Magistracy for the additional Pitban 320 Engines. As for an actual time table. Approximately the end of the month for having the machines put back together." That was roughly a company of 'mechs a week. "My understanding is this won't effect the first Company -"


She raised a hand to stop Seghal, "Are you confident in the process?"


"Yes, ma'am." The Force Major stumbled the sudden interruption, and Raventhir's motion of turning on her heel towards her aide de camp didn't help that, "I-" Her aide was handing her the packet.


"This a request, we expect a fight with the pirates, and we need recommendations and also the ability to have the support staff refurbish machines we take from the pirates." In short it was an under the table method of getting around procurement bottlenecks. She wanted to rebuild 1st​ Battalion of the Luxen Dragoons but to do that they were going to need 'mechs that would have to be taken from the enemy.
–
Gene watched the techs work. This was a manpower intensive project, and it also required taken a significant portion of machines offline in order to facilitate the work, which if the company hadn't expanded so significantly he doubted the Magistracy could have considered signing off on the program.


A mech was a mech, any mech was better than not having one, and it would have been the expectation to just make do. At least the chargers, anemic as their firepower would have been, could have taken a hit, the cicadas on the other hand well that was a different story.


Colonel Bey approached wearing the SLDF mechwarrior cooling suit in khaki, "We have a development." He remarked, "We have finished processing the battle rom footage from Kalidasa, Kelly fielded a number of late SLDF designs hitherto not present among the pirate forces, which was flagged for review. In addition to 'mechs like the Grasshopper he also field Crabs, and King Crabs, Dante stated that this detail was important."


Gene bit down a curse and maybe he was making unwarranted assumptions again but... The Grasshopper had no business in cache of any sort, it had been developed as an endurance campaign machine. The Crabs, and King Crabs were largely extinct in House Armies, and had been relatively new 'mechs at the time of the Amaris crisis kicking off. "Do we have confirmation that he's heading back to the periphery?"


"We do not. I have however spoken with the precentor regarding a live transmission to the Precentor New Avalon, and that of the First Prince. The Precentor Luxen has already given confirmation that they will be informed and a time for the communication set down with all possible alacrity." The Azami Taisa stated solemnly.


"Good." A live transmission was going to be drawn out by the light speed lag and they couldn't have a long conversation but this was important. "They'll already know since Kelly was veryclear about what cause he was fighting for," But it still raisedthe question of where the mechs were coming from, something to look into but probably some time after Kerensky had left, "You said the Combine still produces Lancelots?" He'd been surprised by that since he had been under the mistaken impression the design had largely died out.


"They are not well regarded given the decline of our means to craft the weapons of war." There was a pause, "From the what the Canopians relate to us, the machines to which are engaged still possess the efficacy of the technologies of humanity's golden age." Which by itself just meant that the components hadn't been attritted by centuries of warfare without resupply because most of the factories had been blasted to smithereens, "Further, the MRB representative comes vouching for hirelings," He meant basically green mercenaries, "That he has vetted as of upstanding character, and moral justification to battle the pirates."


"Friar Tuck?" Gene asked, thinking of the drunk.


"The same, he was caught understandably off guard by the the Company's, great expansion, but has been trying to find recruits based on the hiring preferences you left for him when the Company departed Luxen."


"Did you look at them?"


"It is only a small group I am afraid, as I said the Company is now substantially enlarged, but he had some success with pilots as that was your principle aim." At the time of the First Luxen contract, he hadn't had any ASF and the small craft aboard the Sam Houston's operation would have meant stripping people from the DropShip it'd been one thing on Pioche, but using it as anything more than a launch had been chancy. "I may have overstepped and volunteered Captain Pasha to speak with these men on your behalf while we prepared the Canopian troops."


"Yeah, we have a lot to do," Gene replied, "Did Tuck say why the Magistracy hasn't hired them on? I was under the impression that everyone was hiring who they could."


"The MRB on Luxen was given dispensation to hire additional security, though I suspect that that was only months after Black Jack's forces were shown off, and those funds," His tone implied that he didn't think well of the penny pinching of ComStar's terran based hierarchy in regards to the periphery "allowed him to keep them on retainer sweetened with the promise of introductions."


"So they've been here this whole time?"


"Since at least last year I believe, the year before perhaps."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Interlude: 3020
The Phone Call​

The Charger in front of him was further along than others. The Azami techs dressed in khaki coveralls were presently fitting a Holly SRM 4 launch into the machine's torso, while the one that would be mounted on the other side sat resting beside the machine. "You pilot a Marauder."


"Yes," The MAF officer had asked him a lot of questions. She was someone on Raventhir's understandably expande dstaff and given the situation he could understand the need to ask questions. "Its mainly the command software." As people here and now told him, such as in relation to the Charger a 'Mech was a 'Mech. The Magistracy had been looking for Marauder pilots after his first action on Luxen because of the impression but...


"But the combine dueling etiquette dictates a preference for ranged engagement."


Well that was true, he was willing to admit, "The Marauder is a frontline combatant, but that software is meant to insure the whole formation is kept abreast of the situation," Gene had to stop and sign off on transferring the LTV 400 series engines out. They were going to be moved to serve as permanent, or at least in fixed position stations for local ground based turrets. The MAF officer had had a lot of questions about what they were doing, and in particular seemed to expect there would be potentially issues with the Luxen volunteers Mercenary Commander... and Gene wasn't sure what to make of that, there times where well he was looking at a puzzle with pieces missing and other people could see the pieces, "I don't expect much dueling."


"No? You savaged House Kurita in your recent campaigns for House Davion."


Well, that was true. Would the combine spare the resources? Could they, probably not in the grand scheme of things but would they... yeah maybe. "Commander," The Azami mechwarrior was one of a dozen Ali, and there was a lance worth of them just piloting Pheonix Hawks. The man gestured to a moderately drunk and cheerful rotund man in the robes of a ComStar adept. Friar Tuck had dismounted an olive drab hover 'jeep'. The ten ton vehicle was open topped with a medium laser that wasn't currently manned by any one from Hammer's people.


"Ah I have other questions." The MAF officer stated following after him as he began to walk towards his original Luxen MRB liaison. Perhaps against his better judgment Gene decided …given how fucked the situation was it wasn't going to hurt anything to include a member from the Canopians when he told the Davions the bad news about the situation out here. Her comment about the Kuritas was... well he'd ask if there was any sign that had reached them about it... and dreaded the possibility of what the optics of that would like given the situation.


It took the better part of an hour to get to the ComStar facility which housed not only the Luxen HPG station but also the MRB facilities of well what had originally been fairly minor up until a few years ago. It was him, Friar Tuck, Ali, and the MAF officer plus the driver of the vehicle, though he waited with the ride even as the Precentor Luxen came out to usher them in. Defending the HPG station were a lance of assault battlemechs in blue and gold with the crossed pikes of Bardiche from Sigurd Company. If the pirates came close the Pillager Ds defending would make Black Jack's people regret the decision.


Their prescence clearly helped sooth the nerves of the ComStar personnel. Whether or not leaving the mechs in parade colors rather than an appropriate camo pattern for their environment was debatable but it demonstrated more security than most stationsin the periphery seemed to be able to call on... and the atrocities on Kalidasa were all the news could seem to talk about.


The Luxen Precentor, Labarbera, had rarely had reason to have a live transmission, and made several inquiries to the Adepts to make sure things were ready as Gene flipped through his notes as those final checks were underway. "Is this in regards to Kalidasa?"


"Yeah," He replied to the MAF officer's question not glancing up, "Kelly had been on the Capellan border... I don't know if he had a circuit," And this era that was a lot of JumpShips for one pirate to have, which raised still other questions, "ready to take his battalion to the Free World's League but he had been trying to stir up trouble there." He said avoiding name dropping the reach, "He had made some claims about Amaris..." He trailed off just as the hologram flickered. It took a few seconds to coalesce into the familiar features of the Precentor New Avalon, Huthrin Vandal, and also the Prince's Champion Yvonne Davion appeared. They exchanged a somewhat tedious, for the lag in communications, round of salutations. Even as they made them, Gene accepted the greetings passed on from the Eridani, and the Blue Star Irregulars and others... he remembered Elidere, and Tristan's security precautions, "Its good to see you both," He said, "I need to ask something," And for that he really was glad they were both there, even though he wasn't sure ComStar's neutrality would necessarily stop Vandal from answering him even if the PNA didn't know why he was asking, "I need to know where the Wolf Dragoons are, they're in contract with House Marik... so they could come after Kelly?"


The two on the other end of the line glanced to one another, "About that, yes we are aware of the news from Kalidasa. Originally Jaime Wolf had intended to rebuild the unit after losses, I assume to move onto working for House Steiner,"


"Yes?" He prodded against the light lag of Yvonne's statement, which she probably didn't receive before she continued.


"We made contact with the Dragoons as they moved the border shortly before the atrocity on Kalidasa hit the news, so they're aware of details. Colonel Wolf is going to rebuild his forces, he said he would be in contact soon... but I'm not sure about a time frame."


What exactly would constitute soon in this case... in this cluster fuck of a situation. "So they won't be coming?"


"The Black Widow Company under Natasha Kerensky detached from the Dragoons main body of force at Northwind." Yvonne stated, Gene noticed that Vandal happy to allow the Prince's Champion the opportunity to answer these and thus probably save his image of neutrality from further criticism. Gene nodded, "Are these claims by Kelly credible?"


"most likely." He replied, "Its not the sort of thing that makes sense to lie about... How are things?"


"On Northwind, tense. The Highlanders officially invited the Dragoons to attend the winter Faire while the Eridani and BlueStars were in attendance, when the news broke about Kalidasa things became increasingly strained. We had hoped Jaime Wolf would agree to garrison a few worlds but he was adamant about returning after he had rebuilt the Dragoons to strength... not that he said so explicitly but that was the read."


There was a pause, and the Precentor New Avalon coughed slightly, "I was asked, or rather that the MRB liaison for the Wolfs Dragoons was asked to pass along congratulations for your victories Colonel. I think the commander of Gamma Regiment was particularly impressed by your application of historical tactics on Elidere." He gave another small cough, "Those regards aside, I am afraid that I can't tell you when the Dragoons would be back, given previous behavior I would hazard that the Commonwealth is the most likely contract they will take up, though Janos Marik did send a request to the MRB for the Dragoons to rehire after Kalidasa, which was done in a very public fashion." He remarked, but Captain General's actions were largely par for the course in responding to a problem in the war torn succession era...


The tragedy at Kalidasa had coincided with unrelated raids by the Draconis Combine's Arkab Legions. Kelly's screed across the Inner Sphere had far further repercussions than he could imagine, and that the Dragoons had been wintering over in the near terran corridor had already put pressure within ROM to find out more about their origins, and if they were going somewhere potentially to try and follow them... or to locate where they had come from originally. Such things were removed from the scope of the conversation, and the long distant conference call could not predict the scope of what was to come.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen
For Short the first indication that something had happened was Ancient Company's officers pulling away and moving towards Shepherd and what followed were a hushed series of conversations. That drew more attention given it had pulled the Highlanders away.

"Its got to be news from home." An Archer pilot remarked.


"You think?" One of his fellow Northwinders remarked. Shepherd must have heard them because his head snapped in their direction and the two 'cadets' fell silent under his expression.


The trip to the ComStar station was not the sort of thing he hoped to make a habit of, but it had needed to be done. There was no word on whether or not Kelly was headed back this way, but it was considered obvious that the man knew his way around theFree Worlds League routes, Yvonne Davion hoped that this wouldn't effect, delay, returning to the Inner Sphere but the transfer of news went both ways. He was glad for the time the company had spent on Robinson when he'd been transiting to and back from New Avalon. They had experience even without counting the former instructors from Northwind comprising Ancients Company.


"Put the unit in formation." He looked to the heavy set kilted man. He ordered deciding to side step the question about what they should expect regarding if / when the dragoons showed up... because he didn't know other than that Kerensky could reasonably considered a loose cannon. "We'll tell them now the last thing we need is the rumor mill getting out of hand." and the truth was because it had been Yvonne Davion passing the information along there was no way to know how the Dragoons had reacted to any other news that the Highlanders had relayed to them over their sabbatical on Northwind.


The Dragoons had almost certainly, Gene was willing to bet money that the elders had gone ahead and told the dragoons that Amaris had been fed information on SLDF movements by the coordinator... and Jaime saying he was taking the Dragoons to rearm probably meant phoning home as well... which given the Kalidasa massacre, and the political screed being released alongside the footage … was just a mess... but those were details that couldn't be disclosed.


He let the Highlanders wrangle the formation aware that as officers gave orders, and NCOs started moving mechanized infantry in that the broader MAF presence was watching, which meant that the civilians crowding around the base would know something was up. Luxen's government wanted the civilians to calm down, but they also didn't want the public relations backlash of making the civilians clear out.. and really Luxen's population was largely harmless. It having been a few days most were just scrambling for a view as their home units underwent training maneuvering with the newly arrived mercenary command.


Gene's eyes swept the array of vehicles, fusion and internal combustion powered alike. This was a lot of metal... a lot of metal in plain view. He could buy a little time by stating that there would be a formal note going out this evening, but also, "House Davion, and Northwind are aware of the massacre at Kalidasa. Kristofur Kelly has proclaimed his support for a New Amaris Empire." This news went over as could be expected, chatter breaking out in packets across mechwarriors, tankers, and infantrymen. He kept from scowling and continued, "The Eridani Light Horse, and Blue Star Irregulars were on Northwind at the time as were the Wolfs Dragoons who were passing through to return to their own kinsmen for resupply," There was a larger rumbling of chatter at this, but he didn't address it, this announcement was informal but he needed to make it clear that Northwind was unlikely to be attacked, reassuring them of this was important... but it also allowed him to surreptiously tell people who knew that well Kerensky's exodus would almost surely become informed of the Combine's betrayal of the Star League... and given the situation that was likely to have very large repercussions. "Our objective is to preserve civilian life, the exact obverse of Kelly and conspirators we will remain on Luxen in order to continue the mission."
That was the boiler plate of the short speech since they were in the open he continued a little longer outlining what they could expect in training terms over the next few days as he suggested they would increase the pace of operations, but also to signal he was not going to entertain questions or caveats from the ranks or the staff.
–
As the day had pushed on it had become windier plant debris, even sand and dust were being kicked up... and even if it hadn't been windy the star port had enough activity going that that would have been happening. There were pallets everywhere, being loaded, and off loaded to distribution all the while sensor platforms watched the sky. Waiting for an enemy that probably wasn't coming today or next week, but Gene understood that even though he didn't have a lot of control over the universe around him, he could insist that they be ready for a fight if it did decide to come. Gauss Rifle ammunition was easy to fabricate. Each round was large, eight rounds was a ton of ammunition, and thus relatively bulky to store but it also had far fewer safety hazards than missiles or auto cannon ammunition. The Fury tanks, closer to his position, outweighed the platoon's worth of Vindicators but nearly double... and truthfully most tanks outweighed the Medium 'Mechs for which had taken up the base six organization... what seemed like a long time ago now.


The vindicator was almost spindly in its lines, but outside of issues with the ejection system the Vindicator wasn't a terrible 'mech. At least for the Luxen volunteers purposes. Platoon as a designation was to reiterate that it could be subdivided... and with the Vindicator that meant being able to mass LRMs onto a target.


Septim scratched the back of his head, as they both watched the distant forms of the round head machines maneuver on a 'patrol' of the perimeter... really it was about showing the crowds beyond the star port that there were MAF troops here too, "I mean I guess when you boil it down, its not that different than last time...Black Jack still has a ton of Star League metal to throw at us, and we've got a bunch of green pilots."

That was true, and Gene was thinking about how to best address that.

The Merlin pilot wasn't actually talking about the Vindicator pilots, but that was part of the problem. Both Bardiche, and Claymore had relatively young and green pilots who having fought on Dieron considered themselves comparatively elite to their periphery counterparts despite by this point all of the Easy Company Luxen Volunteers to have had several years of service with the MAF. That was a potential scratch point for relations. It also didn't help the dispositions that Claymore and Bardiche were fully fledged battalions built around much heavier 'mechs... but that was a facet of Star League resources, and also the generosity of House Davion in response to Elidere.


"If they can survive they can train other pilots, something I've told Raventhir. The base six system is great if the machines your using are all the same that's good for the field and for logistics," Gene wasn't sure if he'd want to try and organize six tanks into a platoon but he supposed being able to subdivide to two groups, sections, of three would work for armor "That and well she did have the Vindicators in their numbers. The big test over the next week is going to be those Chargers." Re engine-ing a BattleMech was a lot of work and that was why they had pushed so many 'techs from the Azami regiments over to the work. Still once, they were sure that what they were doing would work, well...


"Raventhir seems to think if it works that Pioche should be able to provide lots of them... I mean that factory is basically Star League era tech. Very little like it left in the universe."


That was true... for both the good and the bad that went with it. Gene was also glad that the Magistracy produced its own PPC even if it meant shipping them in from Canopus proper... which of course was probably plenty of excuse ot have observers come check on their progress. Gene more than once had attempted to wrap his head around how trade was legally supposed to work in the Magistracy, the nobility had apparently rather strong economic privileges.... which even though he wasn't an economist he suspected might account for some of the problems with the Magistracy's own industrial position. But even if he had been here to fix that, which he wasn't he would have had no idea where to start. "Then we protect it, our job to fight pirates, and prevent them from rampaging around as they like. If we need to defend Pioche, then we will... but realistically with an HPG station here Black Jack will probably come to us."


"Do you think he'll come in person? He's got a big bounty on his head, ja? You think he'll chance tangling with us?"


Gene remained silent for a moment. The bounty wasn't really the issue. It was all the questions that Black Jack might be able to answer about this whole mess. "He's also escalated," Precipitously so, that might be hard to account for but this was no longer just attacking HPGs on the fringes, and it very well could have been that after fifteen or so years of rampaging along the periphery he was starting to lose his hold on ever increasing pirates numbers... "We still don't know how connected Black Jack is withthe Rim World and Amaris claims," But that mattered less and less as things mounted, "Kelly invading and attacking both the Capellans and the Free Worlds League is upping the ante even further." And before that there had been attacks on the Fed Suns frontier worlds. "I don't think it matters if Black Jack shows up in person, but some one will show up. If there aren't spies here already," Which who knew how could the MIC was, but they couldn't be perfect, "They will be with all the news going out."


An ICE powered cargo truck pulling an ammunition trailer slowed a stop in an adjoining parking lot... artillery shells for Hammers howitzers. Raventhir had apparently given some speech to the nobility of the Magistracy asking for greater domestic industrial production.... which sounded great but even if the money were there you still needed the tools to make the tools.. "You've got that look in your eye." Septim observed...


"Raventhir is getting a lot support through the Lyran Commonwealth."


"Her father, Doctor Abner might have abdicated but he's still wealthy and well connected."


Gene cocked his head, "Do you know much about that?" He asked, then shook his head, as he decided that it was going to probably be better solved by asking Abner directly the next time he crossed paths with him, "Don't worry about it, we have enough on our plate as it is." and if Black Jack didn't come in person... well there were other targets he could lead the attack on... and there was always the possibility he might try and hit Canopus.


"Wait, boss what did you have in mind?"


"Something that would be trouble for us." He replied shoving his hands in his windbreaker as he glanced upwards tracking towards the horizon and the ASF on patrol as they began to move around the river to the south of the star port. He wanted to help, but the member states might decide that stealing from their neighbors particularly their periphery neighbors was going to be easier than anything, especially if they thought there was Hegemony tech involved, "We need to focus on what we have to do right now." They walked on through the assembly area past various other flat bed cargo haulers, and the spare parts, and the engines that were supposed to reinforce the Luxen Volunteers defensive position. Hammer's artillery would remain parked in the vicinity of the Star Port. .. but unless Raventhir decided to begin moving the command...or realistically potentially had that decision pushed on her from Canopus they were going to start distributing the Company's expanded ranks into the field, "What do you think about the Merlins?"


"The 'mechs are just like mine was," Septim responded, "The kids piloting them aren't bad, just green. They're heavier than the Vindicators but a lot of the same strengths, and I figure since the TTS and Comms system are produced domestically we might consider letting the Azami try and fit Vindicators with Magestrix built systems."


He took note of the suggestion, but zeroed in on the reiteration of the green comment again, "About that, the Chargers and Cicadas are going to need work, how do you feel about taking the recruits through their paces on the Crocketts we have with us? Let them practice gunnery on those?"


"It won't hurt anything, but they're going to be different than what they end up piloting."


"You're the one who keeps telling me any mech is better than no mech. I just want to make sure they have as much time driving one as we can give them."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars


Gene was all too aware of the pervasive nervousness that seemed everywhere in Luxen's capital. He was also aware that the civilians were looking for reassurance... but that didn't mean he had time to talk to news crews... and he wasn't sure his employer wanted him to address the public. It wasn't as strange as he might have thought it was after Elidere that the local media did want to interview Captain Short... he could recall the Robinson press, and Elidere's press as well, fawning over Sutton and his Dervish for their heroism both on Elidere and on Ander's Moon.


He looked over the hologram to the Canopian captain. "The Crockett was developed by the Hegemony as Training 'Mech. Its not perfect but in term of preparing 'mech warriors to walk and shoot, it is hard to beat." He informed the assembled MAF officers in total, "While the Chargers and Cicadas are being rebuilt we're going to start with them. This won't effect the Merlin pilots, or any of other pilots with combat ready machines but you can expect the pipeline tempo to potentially increase as the situation develops ."IN short anyone whose machine didn't need the Azami to go over with a fine tooth comb didn't need to worry about the Crocketts per se. As it was the Azami were optimistic about the Charger project to the point that given Chargers were relatively common in the Combine's ranks that they'd potentially be making refits of their own once they reached Alamut.


The pilots watched a short introductory video, scrounged from the Hegemony's archive of learning material of familiarization. It was a safety brief... being done just to cover the bases. For most part most of these pilots had between twenty and thirty hours in a BattleMech since they had gotten to the Luxen Volunteers. That wasn't a lot but they knew what a cockpit looked like, and which sticks were used to maneuver the machine.
Most of these pilots had been tried using light mechs. Things like Stingers and Wasps which were thin skinned but if any machines could be considered common well it was bug mechs. Still they had arrived on Luxen before there were enough 'mechs for them all to be assigned machines hence the limited amount of time they had in their mechs. They had had time in simulators... much as the original Easy Company pilots had had. There would be further simulator, mech pod, based training as well... the difference as the video concluded was that Gene could recognize the difference between five years ago and the tensions now.


He spent several minutes as Septim, Bubbles, and Ronin divided up the cadets to run questions by Hammer about the best options to employ their armor contingent. That ultimately ran into a number of other issues. As they moved outside as the pilots started their first walk up on the Crocketts that conversation diverged to the internal divisions within the Magistracy government. "We will have to take steps to reassure Luxen's civilian authorities. As for Lady Raventhir, her plan such that I read it is to give the Magistracy room to build up, if she can get it through the nobles who control trade."


"Even if we had enough troops, which there aren't enough of the poofs," Hammer remarked, "We certainly don't have enough engineering assets around every potential target. We're putting a lot on that the pirates will come at the HPG. That isn't a gamble the planetary authorities are comfortable with taking even if they don't have a choice." It was part of the reason so many civilian were crowded around the starport. "But I can already hear the bitching if we start telling the MAF PBI to start digging fighting positions in without the enemy being in front of us," And frankly that would probably be a wasted effort.


"I understand that, I still want the engineering assets we do have to go out and conduct surveys in the field with the MAF." It was not truth be told the maneuver warfare that Hammer wanted, or for that matter that the Scotts Cuirassier wanted to do, but it was the job that needed to be done. If Raventhir wanted to deal with the big picture of interstellar politics within the Magistracy that was fine, they just needed to make sure that nothing happened. He turned towards the throng of young pilots around the machines, and nodded. "We need to plan for a hasty defense Hammer, as if the enemy will jump in at any moment, and we need to be familiar with how we can best exploit the terrain to keep troops alive in contact with the enemy." He also wanted to suggest broader civil defense steps, and evacuation and shelter in place orders...but that expressly fell under the auspices of the civil authorities not Raventhir so he was sitting on the idea for the time being.


As concerned for Luxen's civilian population being caught in the cross fire he understood that if he pushed things the local government was going to protest. They were here to help, and part of that meant knowing when to not do something. "Unfortunately they built the HPG station right next to the hospitality quarter. "Hammer reminded him, "We won't have an easy time defending it."


They had been lucky the first time, the 'second battle of Luxen' when Black Jack's pirates had attacked the first they hadn't come in as significant of a force as Kelly did moving a whole battalion of most heavy battle mechs of star league vintage. That was part of the reason Kalidasa had gone so poorly for House Marik they had been caught completely flat foot even though the thrust did seem to have come in from the Capellan side of the border rather than directly up from the periphery. That wasn't entirely crazy since Kelly couldn't possibly have been tearing across Marik space without being caught before that since Kalidasa was deep in the Inner Sphere being relatively close to Terra as far worlds went.


MacIntyre moved to join them as the Crocketts began to power. At 85 tons the machines were identical to the ones left on Northwind for Battalion D. It wasn't intended as obfuscation it was just that Azami had been told to pull the weapons, and replace them with equipment so that there was as much commonality across the formation as they could manage... that was still a work in progress. "I think Bubbles and Ronin have it from there." He remarked coming to a halt. Septim had already lead the pilots who had Merlins towards where his Cavalry waited with its factory stock siblings. "That being said, we do need to talk about the Dragoons coming out."


Hammer shifted his weight. They had read him in on plans including a revised case black given what they knew about things. Hammer had already been briefed along with the majority of company grade officers on the ISF archive on Dieron and its contents. That allowed them to disclose Amaris-Kurita collaboration with additional evidence to support it. Having the ISF's own internal bickering was well nice, it helped a lot. It didn't meaningfully change things. "There is that," Gene remarked, took a breath and pushed on, "We can expect the Dragoons to return at strength, and if they don't show up with some eager new mechwarriors in tow I will be surprised. Whatever the case Kerensky is probably going to go chasing after Kelly, so" Kalidasa from Northwind was half a dozen jumps, and there was no way that Kerensky's company would catch Kelly that way he'd be long gone by that point.


"What are you thinking, colonel?" MacINtyre asked.


"We did the math," We meaning Dante had doubled checked things. "Kelly has to have some kind of help. He hit Kalidasa after we know he was near Fjaldr when we dropped with the Aurigans. Even if he'd been gone longer than we believe its eighteen jumps without anyone stopping him, across two Successor states to hit Kalidasa on the Lyran border, and then get away clean after humiliating both house Marik and ComStar. On top of that, Pasha had the JumpShips we seized under the letters of marque, most of them are immaculate. He thinks, and I don't know one way or another, but that they're from a cache supposedly like what the Dragoons found, but that still doesn't sound right to me."

The highlander frowned, "The battle rom footage... they were attacked by someone with no skill to speak of but with pristine royal mechs. Black Jack won, he got lucky in the roms but they were trying to drown him in numbers, which meant they didn't care about their pilots or about the metal they were losing. No successor state would do that."

"And its the descendants of Kerensky because they are conclusively good pilots."

"Aye... and Black Jack didn't start espousing this shit about Amaris until recently. He wasn't doing it fifteen years ago when he was raiding the Lyrans."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars
Davion Interlude: Meanwhile on New Avalon
–
Chequers was a tall building with a face of red brick surrounded by walled gardens the ensured the privacy of the property. The country estates of New Avalon followed largely the same lines. They had been laid down and immortalized by traditions in the early years of humanity reaching distant stars from Earth. The capital of the Federated Suns was teeming with celebratory masses congratulating members of the armed forces for the defense of Robinson.


New Avalon's high society, the high society of the Crucis March and the Federated Suns had welcomed her to the capital. With accolades from the campaign on Robinson's fighting, and the thorough beating handed to the combine, Alexandria had some breathing room, but the Prince's Champion had summoned her and so she'd come immediately. War Hero from the Crucis March or not.


Truthfully she wasn't even surprised by the summons. While Davion channels were talking about the shocking proclamation from the petty pirate king it didn't directly effect the war against the Draconis Combine at least not yet. Yes, the Free Worlds league had been embarrassed publicly, but the public at large was ignorant just how damning the pronouncement might be to the Combine. So the summons probably had been forthcoming. This country house, it wasn't lost to here, had belonged to House Davion for four hundred years, though it had been substantially refurbished it was named for some even older home of significance that had once been on Terra.


She had been lead deep inside the sprawling home to a secure room. DMI personnel in a variety of costume patrolled and secured the interior and exterior of the property, but the smoking room she'd entered had only one other occupant. Yvonne Davion the champion of the fire prince. The duchess sat with a holographic projection up her brows knit as she regarded the system that lay before her.


Only a fool wouldn't have known what solar system it was... even nearly a millenium after humanity had left the solar system was it still recognizable.



Sol.



The Solar System that had birthed mankind, the cradle.


The holographic image, still, suddenly resumed.


"Ah good," Lights flashed, warships spewing destructive fire at one another, nukes exploding. The long forgotten memories of the time before the succession wars. She didn't understand, "This is a command McKenna, a variation of the battleship." Yvonne stated gesturing, almost like one of her instructors at Sakhara had, to the warship under fire... and the ordering was wrong. The positions of the ships were wrong... these were star league ships but they moving away from Earth, moving towards the jump points.



This wasn't Kerensky's liberation of sol this, "This is -"



"The unfolding of the massacre on Terra, when Amaris seized power." Yvonne Davion confirmed her hands moved to a control slate and twisted the vantage point of hte image. The battled scarred ship's name read SLS Enterprise, "Only six of these were built, one survived Kerensky's flagship, the other ships apart of the1st and 2nd fleet were destroyed," She stated as the footage unpaused and fire rained. Enterprise endured for now. "This ship, and its battle group were shielding another. The Black Lion class," The footage altered,"Tripitz." She declared.


Yvonne Davion stood and adjust the holographic system. The solar system vanished so quickly into the night that it might have been dust on the wind. It was replaced by brighter images. Familiar images. The work file for Shepherd.


Alexandria felt her eyes turn to the image of a then teenage major with an admiral beside him, "The Colonel's mother was Killed in Action when Amaris seized Terra," Yvonne remarked still standing, and then moving to a decanter with a heavy sigh as she uncorked it and poured a whisky neat, "at first I considered whether or not she might have been aboard... but I reviewed Admiral Clancy's report from the Black Watch. Those records state with confidence Admiral Krennick died during the atomic strikes that came on the 27th of December. So I moved on from there," She took a pull from a tumbler, and indicated files from taken from Dieron, "Colonel Shepherd's father as we can ascertain from the ISF records was aboard THS Allegiance and was Killed in Action when she was destroyed as a result of House Kurita forewarning Amaris of the battlegroup's approach during the Liberation Campaign. I had considered that any survivors, any warship might be a desperate hope but MIIO and DMI have both collected chatter that does not support that theory."


A part of her understood. She understood the logical basis of where the Prince's Champion had begun looking. "Chatter, ma'am?" She pressed.


"The Colonel stated that the Triptiz ran the republican blockade of Sol, which our evidence confirms. SLS Kharkov survived as well, but Shepherd doesn't seem to have made much of it despite the litany of senior Terran officers aboard her. Kharkov carried very senior officials aboard her, admirals among them." She reiterated.



"What became of it?"



"It," SLS Kharkov, "departed with Kerensky's exodus." Yvonne Davion explained, "The Tripitz has a much more interesting fate, it reappeared in the official records when it was scuttled into the gravity of a gas giant by the mysterious Vandenburg White Wings, which seems to have drawn Shepherd's attention and pushed him to reach out to his contacts at IE."


"Another relation perhaps?"


"Doubtful," Yvonne replied lifting her glass again, "Not impossible of course, and so far as we know from Shepherd's service history he was already in the periphery or en route at the time of the coup. He was certainly not on Terra to escape aboard Tripitz which was another theory put forward. What makes the Triptiz interesting is that the Colussus class DropShip docked was sheltered by space assets under command and control from the ground that Clancy's records refer to as the SDS. It immediately burned for Tirpitz, not Kharkov."


It was another mystery, and didn't they already have plenty of those. She felt the immediate need to reiterate the question, "With all due respect Lady Yvonne, what is the significance of this chatter... given the attack on Kalidasa, and Jaime Wolf taking the majority of the dragoons presumably back in the periphery what does this battle mean in the present?"


Yvonne sighed and shook her head, "I don't know, but both DMI and MIIO have intercepts of discussion both from IE, from Northwinders speaking to the Wolfs Dragoons while on Northwind about matters that included references to Triptiz. Unfortunately we don't have the full context of those conversations."


The Highlanders had been eager to discuss survivors that had left with Kerensky, to the point that it was a prevailing concern that they might have told the Dragoons too much. "The Dragoons were reported to have been informed that Amaris was provided information by the Draconis Combine."


"Not only via the HPG recording, but also through the ISF archive. We considered curating the documents, but ultimately we did include the protests and arguments from the Keeper of House Honor that those actions were a mistake, and that they attempted to warn the SLDF of the leaks." The general consensus remained that that had hardly been anything other than self interest, self preservation on the Combine opposition's behalf. "Wolf has copies, which we must assume he is taking to the other descendants of Kerensky's exodus. What MIIO, and DMI do not have are concrete reactions to a living Hegemony Gunslinger. Recordings, and intercepts from the dragoons have isolated words we don't have references or the full scope of, but Amaris, Amaris pretender I should say seemed to have started some kind of bidding within the dragoons. Bloodname, a title of nobility we believe, was mentioned as a possible reward for killing a pretender to Amaris's title, political ideology though for whatever reason Kerensky herself seems more interested in hunting down Kelly, but that doesn't seem to be the same for her company at large."


"Which is what the precentor New Avalon wanted Shepherd to do if he could find him."


"Precisely."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen
It was just before noon and he had been planning for the upcoming after lunch briefing of the MAF personnel at large... he had not expected to have one of Seghal's senior company commanders show up. The woman was local nobility of some stripe and had likely been short listed for a battalion command slot as the LV expanded. She had questions about how they were doing things. "The principle reason for the Crocketts," Gene found himself explaining, "Is that it was designed as a training 'mech."The answer was in response to questions of why they were using them instead of the Marauder II or its variants. The truth was the transit from the Inner Sphere, to the Periphery, and the roundabout journey through the Aurigan Reach across the rimward periphery to the Magistracy had meant that the unit had trained as much as he might have liked.


Crocketts were not a standard fixture in the battle line of the unit, where as Marauder II Assault BattleMechs were. That was probably why the question had been asked. There were different tactical solutions to problems. It was why he had originally hoped to build up along a slightly lighter faster model for the unit... but that had been formulated from lessons of Elidere, and Dieron against the Combine who had a greater prevalence of light BattleMechs. A hussar regiment would have been still heavy enough to turn the combine flank, but potentially capable with its hovercraft to pin them in place.


Except that this was the periphery and he was as far as possible from the Combine facing an enemy with a predisposition in weight that more akin to his own. Some of the more embarrassing defeats delivered to the Magistracy and the near periphery had been by companies worth of Orions, and Black Knights defaced with obscene symbols of Amaris's Rim World Republic and his imperial delusions of grandeur.


That footage was concerning... but only because they were seeing an increasing number of all energy boats which itself could have been selection effects. "The Crocketts will provide them some experience with auto cannons." He stated to the MAF officer, "If Raventhir thinks its in the interest of our training mission to practice on the Marauder II series we can adjust for that directive, but the Crockett was specifically developed as a training 'mech. The pilots who we are largely working with for the most part have little to no experience driving heavier machines. The modifications to the Chargers, or for that matter even the Merlin pilots need the experience in particular, but functionally the entire regiment," He paused... they could do with whatever extra hours they could manage to cram in, Such that it was, "Needs time in battlemechs not just the simulator pods." This was not, Gene underscored the same as the last contract where they were in a place where the simulators were really their only good option in terms of time usage "If Raventhir is at all serious about this being a new foundation for the MAF then their training needs to start on as strong a foundation as we can, and that means the crocketts should be suitable learning aids." Those pilots didn't need to learn bad habits.


After the officer had been shown out, MacINtyre scowled, "She could have directed that complaint to me."


"Try not to take it personally," Gene replied. "We're operating in a friendly country, but there is just as good of a chance that this kind of thing would happen in Davion space as here." The old highlander grumbled all the same... and Gene didn't disagree but also he had to nip it in the bud. This was their first major contract since leaving the Inner Sphere, and it would have implications towards how things went on. "We're going to be in the news a lot," He informed the larger man, "Local news, and ComStar's interstellar broadcasts Dante already places us at a higher risk of foreign intelligence challenges due to Dieron, but now with Kalidasa having happened we can expect that the Capellans and the FWL are going to be looking at us."


"We're the largest mercenary army in the periphery, it comes with the territory."


Allowing for that being the case in normal situations, "We're not in a normal situation. The Dragoons left for wherever up North Kerensky settled. 3rd ​RCT, and the BSI," Blue Star Irregulars, "Are in Davion Space...I'm not going to lie I'm concerned what McCarron and the Highlander force in the Capellans are going to do." And he didn't even know where to start in terms of what the Free Worlds League might have available. "And our size," Was misleading... and was probably going to raise more questions than less, "Is accounted for by the Azami, and that means we are responsible as a unit for a large volume of dependents." Everything came with trade offs, and their manpower did give them a lot of advantages. "I understand that both you, and Hammer are eager to get back to Davion space start recruiting drives," And Hammer realistically was going to do what hiring he could out in the periphery but the current crisis here meant slim pickings for him. "And I think the Magistracy knows as much."


"You don't plan to send us ahead?"


He shook his head, "No, given the situation, and the likelihood Kalidasa makes the situation so much worse I need the full force of the unit, we're going to lose enough manpower with the units leaving for Alamut, and the troops deployed in the near periphery with the merchants, but that is another thing if the RimWorld objective is a new empire they're going to need to disrupt or subvert local governments that means keeping trade from operating."


"Speaking of trade, Majesty Metals is interested in some face time."


The short briefing continued before both men moved out of the operations center of the Overlord class DropShip which was the Battalion Headquarters for Claymore. The DropShip was surrounded by Bandit, and Badger vehicles protected further by kilted troopers from the Scotts Cuirassier. BattleMech presence were a lance of Thugs assault Mechs, given the time of day most likely from the 2nd ​Cadet Company pulling QRF in the even someone attacked, unlikely as that was, during the meeting or during the one they were now moving to.


Across the starport was another operations center, this one for Hammer and more importantly the coordination point for both their space based assets, and the artillery park. Hammer's mechanized infantry contingent centered on the men who had been with Hammer when Gene had hired him after the last Luxen contract were on perimeter security. They were in turn backed up by a company of Azami Phoenix Hawks proudly painted in an arid brown SLDF desert warfare camo... officially speaking they were now apart of the 12th ​Light Horse Regiment originally apart of XIV Corp, 14th​Army SLDF whose colors had been placed near their dropships. Their sibling regiment had taken the colors of the 139th​Light Horse Regiment, VIII Corp, who had likewise been destroyed during the Campaign to liberate the Hegemony from Amaris.


The ostensible reason for those units was that two centuries earlier the forbearers of certain Azami officers had been pilots in those regiments that had been apart of the SLDF's DCMR nearest to Terra. Those ancestors, who had been Mech Warrior officers, had been some of the last to be able to claim the title Haji because of course Amaris had destroyed Mecca. Though not enshrined in law, conveyed on their descendants special status within the Azami community. 'Blood of Martyrs' as Hammer liked to quip.


That actually created another potential problem for Gene. The Highlanders, their elders, had already been preparing MacINtyre to raise troops to form an eventual new Regiment of Highlanders. The Azami adopting the colors of dead SLDF regular units or just being there even would likely push the Rasalhague political backers behind Soren Holmgren, CO Bardiche, to agitate for a similar expansion since they knew there caches to provide metal for that kind of force. It also wouldn't have surprised him if House Davion liked the idea of a full blown rebellion against the Combine exploding in the Rasalhague Military District to keep the Coordinator off balance... and in theory whatever Soren's backers back home wanted it wouldn't come into play any time soon, but he was aware that was a potential matter.


The force deployment here was relevant for the almost hundred twenty MAF MechWarriors plus other personal in the Luxen Starport facility that served as a centralized briefing facility. "Lets begin with our problem," He belted to the assembled as he strode forward. A mental command through his ever present neuro helmet circlet triggered a map of the Magistracy of Canopus. "in SLDF doctrine we would address this by escalating the level violence against Black Jack. We can't do that this isn't like those campaigns. To the best of our knowledge Black Jack has no support within the Magistracy and is fleet based operating, his last known basing was in the Tortuga dominion."


There was a zoom out, and a pan of the map to show the distance... and the truth was Black Jack had to have a base nearer. Raventhir's other mercenary commander, Volkov, crossed her arms over her jacket but she was listening.


"I've already informed," He had almost used the word warned, but caught himself at the last minute, "Lady Raventhir there is a sizable chance that Black Jack will make a push on either Canopus or Farandir since they hit Royal Foxx," That was just due diligence on his part to present to her the options... the last thing he wanted to do was to be caught flatfoot if the capital of the country they were in came under assault and well some idea came to try and relieve a siege as such. He'd also gone so far as to push those concerns down the ladder to his battalion commanders this morning, whether or not Volkov had read her copy yet... well that he didn't know. "This information is to be understood by the entire command."


Chatter immediately began, as he had expected it would... but he let it continue as the Magistracy soldiers the mech warriors he was expected to train got it out of their system. He decided he wasn't going to mention, at least not today, that given they were supposedly at least dealing with pirates that they shouldn't expect a strict chain of command... though probably already knew it, but the implication from loose associations the way pirates tended to operate meant that if command and control was lax they could be seeing attacks that might have nothing to do with Black Jack, and Kelly's, vendetta against ComStar. Gene suspected from what they had understood after dropping on Fjaldr, and Axylus that smaller pirate gangs were being contracted with carrot and stick to support that vendetta in exchange for loot opportunities, and kept in line by threat of force.


Gene tapped the physical controls as much so that the motion caught the attention of those paying attention as anything else. The Magistracy did not have a lot of HPG stations, and from what he understood ComStar's outlying stations in the independent rimward periphery space had been hit already... for whatever reason Black Jack was dancing over the borders with increasing regularity now.


"This to me looks like Black Jack is going, or wishes to give the impression of moving into the Free Worlds League or Capellan Space." The interruption came from another of Seghal's contemporaries." That she had allowed for the possibility that it was obfuscation was a good sign... it meant she wasn't completely wedded to the notion one way or the other.


"Its possible, though it raises the question of where Black Jack wants to hit most." The 2nd​Battle of Luxen had involved one of Black Jack's lieutenants but not really one too high up in the chain, enough of a shot caller to wield all SLDF metal, but not one with anything truly special, and the bounty while nice had been a gratis not anything like what the Precentor New Avalon had offered for work out here.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars


Gene cracked his neck as the mike crackled and the Marsden II tank platoon leader checked in affirming that her platoon was in position at the way point. Back at the command post Abbas, an Azami tanker in a Fury acknowledged the receipt. Further back the data from his Fury was filtered to an actual fixed command center filled with MAF personnel watch and hopefully learning from the exercise in progress.


Hammer's original company of men were there 'baby sitting'. The 'White Mice' were not happy about it, but it needed to be that way. Dieron had the potential to support mechwarrior chauvinism over combined arms application and he needed to prevent that. His job was to help the MAF build up expertise and to protect a provincial capital as glamorous as 'mechs were they were one combat arm out of several.


He also knew that the Magistracy had a slew of officers who for a variety of reasons didn't like the disposition of their own 'mech forces. The breakdown of this maneuver was modelled on the ones they had operated on Robinson with the Draconis March Militia... but the difference which was most keenly felt was the lack of established facilities to support the exercises.


Right now, Ronin was currently tasking her light company with an attached lance of modified Chargers to advance on a separate waypoint. Septim had the Magistracy Merlins in tow. Beau currently had easy company and was liaising with Volkov as the two hopped towards another waypoint moving to secure a critical river crossing. Lady Raventhir's 'wolves' were currently far side of the river, which was what Volkov had volunteered for.


They were making good progress, so Gene wasn't surprised that the call came in signaling a priority communique. He reached over and keyed the display, eyes narrowing as the packet unfolded... there weren't many HPGs in the Magistracy. Black Jack was trying to destroy all of them it seemed, and had been even before Kelly had entered stage left to join the performance.


Bahar's Highlander transmitted a single click acknowledging she had gotten the video package as well. His Marauder remained still even as he worked his machine's command equipment. The Magistracy of Canopus was or should have been several months from Kalidasa, but after Kalidasa ComStar had apparently decided to summon its 'first circuit' to Terra to do something about this, while Kelly began to move back rimward.


ComStar had a monopoly on FTL communications, or at least public communications Gene had his suspicions that Black Jack might very well have access to fax machines or worse, and was now being pushed to use that. They seemed to have recognized that they were being backed into a corner and were now doing damage control in the face of a panic sweeping the Inner Sphere; or at least that last bit was what was making the news. Carefully weighing his options Gene made the decision that cancelling the exercise would be a mistake.... Kelly on the way out of the Free Worlds League burning all the way apparently but that didn't make him close enough to action on.


More than anything this showed that ComStar was serious about relaying news of attacks now... though the cynical part of his mind wondered if costs were going to go up as a result...rebuilding an HPG station couldn't possibly be cheap especially given the technological backslide. Gene exhaled drummed his fingers on the display and brought up the star map as the exercise continued... it was a only a matter of time until the Magistracy at the base were informed and one of them called in, but he had overall command... and they needed the Luxen Volunteers to be confident moving like this...and the plan was to expand from there to eventually encompass everyone.


Or nearly everyone the truth was he was probably going to given Hanzo command of the units defending the starport during the first major exercise, for which this was a test run, but that would be weeks from now. Weeks to finish making sure all the chargers and cicadas worked. After that... in theory from just a materiel standpoint all the mechs would be combat ready even if the unit was still green as grass. Defending Luxen with the Volunteers as a green force with the company at strength wasn't a difficult proposition. The problem was trying to use the unit offensively supplying the unit defensively was a limited logistical burden, but moving the unit off planet was a whole other problem.


The problem was that the Hegemony, and the SLDF as a result of the Hegemony's machinery had largely preferred heavyweight battlemechs to do the heavy lifting of any fighting. Hussar and Dragoon independent regiments had probably contributed the machines that Black Jack and Kelly had been given and or looted to fight with. There were lighter machines, and there were more contemporary machines, but the MAF was going to have a hard time of it when things dropped into the pot. His job was too do his best to prepare the MAF to fight that.
–
Two hours later Shepherd stood in the expansive departure bay of the Sam Houston. The DrosTIIA had touched down specifically so he didn't have to cancel the ongoing operations. The combat vehicles were still on their maneuvers their advance forward covered by Hammer, Bardiche , Claymore and the Cuirassier as the Maguanac corps of his first battalion formed a base security around the landed DroSTIIAs of their force. They were still within the envelope of Hammer's artillery park at the starport but the dropships allowed LRM clusters to be fired in simulation while the officer force congregated here.


"When we move back to the star port we're going to need to re examine what we know of Black Jack's movements."


"What are you thinking?" His XO asked


"That he has a star map that has worlds on it that aren't on the commercial charts."


That wasn't new, "We have discussed this before... it is worse than that?"


"The Rim World built hidden army depots stocked with machines they were allowed to buy from the Hegemony," The idea had been that the Rim World Republic was a lot closer to the Inner Sphere than the other territorial states... and that had bit everyone in the ass. "None of the JumpShips that we've seized had such facilities noted but its the only explanation I can come up with for not finding him... but..."


"Save that," Bahar acknowledged, "his man Kelly avoids the Free Worlds League with impossible guile."


Yeah... that, he resisted the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. Something was very very off about this whole situation. "Then on top of that if Kelly is coming directly this way we will," He was sure, "Going to be potentially facing amassing of pirates on or towards one of the major Magistracy worlds... and they had already hit Royal Foxx. If they hadn't already negotiated over using Luxen as a staging ground then they might have been pushed to moving to Royal Foxx but they had no ties to that planet, and Luxen's HPG was still intact. "But that is another thing, I don't know how much control Black Jack really has over Kelly." Krisotfur Kelly wasn't one of Black Jack's original men...he'd shown up later... and Pasha had admitted that maybe this was a case of whoever had been supplying Black Jack had thought to try again with Kelly but that didn't make sense given that who that had been seemingly had tried to double cross Black Jack... none of this made sense from a logical standpoint and the whole neo Amaris psychobabble just gave him a headache trying to wrap his head around.


It was like Kelly was going out of his way to piss respectable people in the Inner Sphere off. That seemed especially the case with storming through the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds League and now heading back towards the Periphery at best possible speed. "We will be ready."


"We better be." Gene replied immediately. "Kelly, and Black Jack have to have some place safe off the maps we have to resupply..." And it would be very hard to disappear from Luxen to try and even things up.


"And our own re equipping of the units has drawn attention."


"I know. We're going to have to talk to both Raventhir and the Majesty Metals Rep." and Friar Tuck, the jovial drunk had a list of people he'd been keeping on his personal payroll to keep him and the Luxen HPG station safe while Volkov had been hired on to fill in in the Company's absence which the Friar had had to defend to other MRB offices and his own precentor apparently...but probably not too strenuously to his own boss. "We're going to meet Tuck's team when we wrap this up."


"Do you believe that this Crystal Palace of Amaris that Doctor Abner mentioned is real?"


"Probably real, whether or not its intact …I mean I wouldn't be surprised. Has kelly or black jack found it …"there was no way of knowing with what they had, "If it were this far rimward I'd be surprised... logic would say putting it rimward would be too close to the Taurians I would have expected it under the oceans of some near commonwealth republic periphery world.... I personally wouldn't want it anywhere near the Taurians or the Combine but Amaris gambled a lot..."

--
Notes: The Battletech Junkyard will be getting semi regular updates going forward there are things that canon-ish going up in that thread but that I'm not sure are exactly canon to the main timeline for Ghost mostly from other characters perspective.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen

Checking his watch from the sleeve of his suit he authenticated the receipt of the report. Dante had been running the numbers all morning even without disruptions. They were making progress. They were giving the pilots as much time as they could to prepare them for using their machines, but there was only so much they could do until the cicadas and chargers were all rebuilt. He leaned back in his seat knowing that they were doing what they could. There was a nagging sensation, perpetually undermining that comfort that it wasn't enough. Sam Houston was comfortably apportioned. It was still a dropship of course, but for a small meeting it was entirely workable. He had called Septim, Chang, to join him and Bahar in ahead of a much larger planned meeting to debrief ahead of releasing the unit for their weekend pass. The Mech Warriors knew something was up he'd told them as much by telling them that the meeting was scheduled... but the truth was the Magistracy authorities weren't going to give him much of a choice they wanted him at base at 1800 hours local. Seghal probably had the local authorities breathing down her neck, but he had really hoped to keep the exercise going.


In front of him a holographic globe of space slowly rotated waiting for him to select a star system. The hologram showed him their path out of the Inner Sphere, the course they had taken from Davion Space to the Aurigan Reach and then across the Rimward Periphery to eventually reach Luxen.


The Rimward periphery was massive, space was massive. On the other hand he was preparing the Luxen Volunteers for a battle that was generally agreed by all to be inevitable. If Black Jack's behavior held, if he continued to savage HPG stations destroying the network piece by piece he wasinevitably going to send someone to attack Luxen... and he had had enough time to lick his wounds and prepare for round two.


It had been almost four years now... but again space was big... and it wasn't just HPG stations that the pirates were burning. It was all ComStar Stations. That included MRB offices that were staffed by ComStar personnel which made sense as pulling double duty. Mercenaries were in high demand given the fear the pirates sowed in their wake.


Black Jack's people were pirates... so they probably hadn't planned what to do if they failed... at least not in an in depth way and of course communications were another factor. How long had it taken Black Jack to get word back about the defeat on Luxen. Then how long had it taken for a course of action to be decided on... the consensus such that Gene understood was that blackjack hadn't had the forces to make up that not spread all over the rimward periphery to immediate order another pirate band to attack.


He pushed his coffee to the side, which had been cooling since he'd come into the ward room with Bahar as they had waited for Septim and Bubbles to get in, "I think we should expect similar to last time." At least in terms of an attack, "I think the pirates will jump to the lagrangian point, the pirate point and burn hard straight for Luxen. Even if they were ignorant of the expansion of defending forces, which we should not assume we should expect a larger force than attacked in 3016."


"They were coming in quick and dirty boss."Septim pointed out unnecessarily. "What do you think we will be up against?"


"I'd assume one of the higher ranked pirates in Black Jack's command structure," He replied... but that went to the issue that worried him... if Black Jack understood exactly how large the Company was … he wouldn't come. He wouldn't commit a raid that would likely be slaughtered by the defenders, "But the more I look at it, the more I think he'll try and wait us out... or that he will attempt to draw us off world."


Septim understood that... but Gene wasn't sure he understood the issues larger implications. Gene was under the impression that Seghal as basically adjunt general for Luxen had her position in part due to Raventhir's support, but she seemed to be still tied to the planetary authorities.... and there was a third set of powers. Raventhir was a duchess, but Canopus could still call for aid. "But shouldn't they have their own defenders?"


"Yes, as I understand it Canopus IV does host the Canopian Cuirassiers. My concern is that since House Raventhir's guards are organized under the Royal Guard the Magestrix may choose to order them to reinforce the capital." Especially since Royal Foxx had already been hit. "I plan to inform Colonel Bey that he should expect to hold the majority of his regiment here to see to the defense Luxen if we are asked to move to another Magistracy world. I would not be surprised to be asked to divide the force."


Chang made a face, but Bahar beat her to it, "That will not be a popular order." She remarked, "The enemy rallies around an heir to the Satan Amaris."


"I know that, but Bey will be responsible for defending the civilian population of this planet and our dependents. Our enemy has demonstrated they will commit atrocity upon atrocity, will engage in war crimes against civilians and military defenders alike." He blew out a breath, "I accept this is not a normal situation and I will speak to the colonel personally but we should also recognize if the Magistracy retasks us to, divides the regiments we are defending civilians," He gestured to the hologram "Space is big," He stated emphasizing with the gesture his point, "we don't have the manpower to go chasing black jack because we have no actionable leads for him." They just didn't... he was obviously somewhere out there, but they didn't know, "Bey defending Luxen if we get called away will be here if the pirates attack, so he'll need to defend the civilians and keep faster than light communications open. Protecting the HPG station means that if we are on Canopus we have a direct line to one another in real time." That would probably keep the locals calm. "And again this is contingency, we're talking about this now in case it happens in the future. I want the unit prepared in case it does happen." They couldn't afford delays... delays would cost lives. "If we're ordered to move, we'll go." They weren't going to be in the Magistracy forever, but, "Remember we plan to come back out here after we come back from the Federated Suns. The unit needs to understand that." There were leads they were going to have to run down. They needed to finish this contract in good standing and head back to Davion Space to take the next steps... and then the next steps after that. This foray into the 'galactic south' had done real good, he thought of the Aurigan Reach, but also Detroit and Aquagea they had stopped at other places as well... would being dispatched to Canopus IV be that bad... probably not it would be closer, to the Inner Sphere... for now though, "We need to examine where Black Jack could be basing."


ComStar had originally told them when Black Jack's guy had attacked Luxen in 3016 that when he'd first reached the Rimward periphery that Black Jack had been basing out of the Tortuga dominions. That had probably been about ten years ago now, and had provided, or was thought to have provided the pirate king with afresh influx of manpower and a place to rest. Tortuga was in the 'east' and Black Jack had then started working west. For certain though Black Jack had been operating in the Rimward periphery when Kelly had made his debut streaking through the north, in Black Jack's old stomping grounds. There might have been something there... but it might also be nothing, and they certainly didn't have the resources to try and go searching for it even with the coordinates from the Battle Roms they had recovered.


"Do you think its something like Grim Sybil's outfit?"


"Some lost moon base, probably," He replied, "Black Jack has good enough star charts that his navigators are comfortable jumping to non standard points." It hadn't bothered him four years ago... but a much larger force under his command and amuch larger strategic impact as a result... now it did. In the present day most people wouldn't risk jumping to a pirate point to launch an attack... they had done it at Axylus but that had been an exception to standard operating procedure. "We're going to head into the city after the stand down, I still expect everyone to be accounted for sunday evening and to get plenty rest we really need to double time monday morning."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen
Gene stifled a yawn as they moved across the deck plating.

"Shouldn't be pulling us out of exercise like this. We're hardly so far from the capital that it would be an issue."MacIntyre grumbled. Gene agreed with the old Scotsman. They were insulated from the noise outside but from the view port Gene could watch two of the man's lance mates maneuver their Crocketts for security of the formation. "The weather forecast for next week says we're expecting a significant rain, next thing you know the city folk will be complaining about that if we're out in it."


Now Macinytre was grumbling just to grumble, and truth be told Gene expected similar complaints to come up from Hammer's command, but they didn't have time for that. He didn't like the situation but it was the reality of the situation. "Last time we were here this was a similar issue, but we are here to train the Luxen Volunteers, and we can't train them if the planetary government is actively interfering , and whether we like it or not unless the MAF actively federalizes the command," Which they weren't going to do, "the volunteers in general are subject to civilian planetary oversight."


The highlander blew out a breath, "I know." He replied... and it wasn't so bad as the planetary government was attempting to willfully subvert the efforts This was not a case of pinching pennies creating problems with training... this was a case where the public terror that black jack had caused across the south of known space... he blew out a breath, "But that's not why I'm here?"


"No, its not the only thing we need to prepare for."


"The dragoons then?"


"Yes." He answered, "Beyond training the formation, and emphasis on combined arms preparing for making contact with the dragoons is your task of note." They had circulated confirmation from Davion space that the dragoons had made contact with both the Eridani as well as the clans on northwind... what all they knew was unknown but he gauged that MacIntyre was the best suited to ascertain what Northwind might have told them, "I understand that our work here is not action and adventure, but it needs to be done."


"Aye sir, but Colonel Bey will not like it, even if his Regiment is best suited given its readiness to act... and I do think he'll understand the need. But, our own lads were expecting Luxen to be more akin to our efforts in the Arano's backyard...especially with what we learned."


He answered only with a grave nod as they waited for the rest of the command to arrive. His job with so many units was delegation for operational and strategic purposes. This was no longer just giving missions to subordinate officers to fulfill with the resources available. He watched machines and men move outside, and there was shuffling as the command filtered in through the bulkhead doors. He pulled a quick sip from his coffee, and turned, "We've been pulled back. Seghal is getting pressure from the planetary potentates," He had almost said princelings but had caught himself at the last minute, that wouldn't have done at all with MacIntyre especially right there, "They're worried were too far out," Never mind that any force that appeared even one at the lagrangian point nearest the planet would be more than enough time to stake fighting positions... but that was the problem. "Next week, or the week after we will start pushing units into forays keeping a more visible presence around the city that should help prevent a rehash of this." He triggered the holographic projection of the latest news that had come in, and what had brought them away from their drilling. Gene really would have preferred to remain in his Marauder, but.
…


"And if it doesn't sir?"


He grimaced at the scottsman's question. "Then I am probably going to risk upsetting Luxen's authorities," But the most likely first first recourse would be going through Lady Raventhir.


"I might have been afraid that they had gotten complacent for lack of attack this past few years." Gene blew out a breath, that had been a concern, but the man continued, "Accepting even that the pirate king only has so many troops its a wonder he didn't make a move before now. Still, unlikely for him to show up, but If we are to take the liberty for the weekend..."


The comment he left hanging as they made their way to the lift, "Its not just the Dragoons, Abner hopes to be able to bring a survey crew out" He had certainly had to have talked about it with Raventhir, "and Dante thinks that on the way back in weshould be able to lay the ground work for our return trip, but Black Jack fielding Rampage BattleMechs is a serious break from what we knew previously."


"Nasty things, those tanks as well in among a city especially,"


The phone rang. The highlander answered and perfunctorily handed it over. Gene answered it in turn and nodded his eyes, facial facial expression flat. "And that's going to be an issue," he muttered in a dark tone, once the report was done he returned the phone to the cradle. The lift came to a halt and they moved into the CIC of the DropShip, "Al Jubaylah is apparently under attack by those same machines."


"Sir?"


"its a planet in the Principality of Regulus," MacIntyre replied he knew that, "They're flying Rim World Colors. Battalion strength. It possibly Black Jack is basing out of Astrokaszy, can't be sure, but it might be where he's basing from." The Magistracy had previously identified Astrokaszy as a pirate ridden world anyway, but there was also the Marians to consider as well same neck of woods so to speak. Too far in the galactic west to chance on a gamble. They could kill pirates and still miss the big fish and end up with attacks across the magistracy. "I don't like the report that Dante sent down."


"In what way?"


… Gene blew out a breath, "Dante thinks this is baiting the Free Worlds League into something, drag them into the periphery. Its certainly was disrupting trade." He paused and put it aside there were details about all of this that just didn't add up... and, "Whatever the case there is a chance the second Highlander Battalion might end up cutting their teeth on pirates if we bring them when we circle back," And he had no qualms talking about that on an open floor even one as theoretically secure as the CIC of the Daniel Boone which they had transferred to when it had touched down besides the Sam Houston... he'd been advised that if the Magistracy had an inkling that they'd be regularly cycling back and forth that the Canopians would probably be less inclined to pressure them on other fronts. That didn't eliminate the possibility, especially if Black Jack was about to try a major push, but they had some room to maneuver... what he really would have liked though was knowing how Canopus would react to the FWLM responding to Black Jack it would have almost been easier had their respond been just to send the Dragoons then it would just be mercenaries not potentially house units.
–
It was late in the afternoon, Raventhir's presence underscored Gene thought the disagreements between the duchess and the local planetary government. Her personal guard were sharply dressed, and the local military police contingent was largely focused trying to ease the public away from the area. Given Macintyre's expected rain seemed to have come stealing in earlier than expectedhe thought the wind and rain would do a better job convincing the eager and curious to go home for the evening if it came in as sheets just as darkness fell.


"You have heard the news, colonel." Raventhir wasn't asking a question. "I had hoped that we would have months to have at least much time as with our previous arrangement. My ambition was that the MAF would have units capable of fighting the pirates, but my experts tell me that is unlikely." He felt like complaining wasn't going to really help, but it was also the truth. Gene opened his mouth to speak, but Raventhir pressed onward, "On a familial note my father has stated that he plans to retain the company for one of Interstellar Expedition's Minnesota Tribe expeditions looking for Star League relics," Tripitz Gene figured. "I expect that he will allow the company to fight any pirates that remain but also that he will want your JumpShips to ferry bobbins, and all sorts of other scientific tools to worlds abandoned as a result of the succession wars. Pioche is warming, and might become again a breadbasket world if resources were allocated to assist it, beyond your scope I am sure but it cannot be productive with pirates running amok." raventhir paused to glance to the officers of her staff, "The terms of the current contract are clear, but in a few years once we have a better picture of things the MAF would have an interest in launching attacks on pirate havens like Fjaldr and against Grim Sybil, among others."


"I will keep that in mind, but you mentioned the news." Gene replied. "Kelly has been busy," And ComStar's precentors were having little choice but to broadcast the news live when such things came in, unless they wanted to risk being killed, which had raised questions among his officers, as well as MAF mechwarriors, and thus presumably their officers, "I'd suspect that in a month he'll be back in Magistracy space."


"The worst case scenario is the battalion attack in Al Jubaylah," The officer who had asked him about his Marauder and the crocketts began, "Is a new formation, in that we haven't seen it before, they also appear to be heading rimward according to last reports." He hadn't been told that by the news report... and that was a concern.


Raventhir frowned at the woman, the extent of her displeasure, and then nodded, "There is an HPG station on Palladix we think it is the next target," The creeping sensation Gene felt in his gut must have shown on his face, because Raventhir's officers watched and responded, and the duchess asked bluntly for an explanation with a flat dawning worried, "What?"


"Have you had contact with Palladix since Royal Foxx?"


The officer he was beginning to guess either was some high ranking noble in her own right, or Military intelligence maybe both, answered in the negative. "Not since Royal Foxx, why is that relevant?"


… he had had a conversation with Dante. ComStar had maintained the monopoly on FtL communications, but given their 'toaster worshipping' behavior Dante had expressed a concern that perhaps the Mother Doctrine's efforts to conceal the operating methods of technology like Hyperpulse Generators might have worked too well... people treated the system as if were magic but it had limitations even if ComStar usually wouldn't elucidate what those were to lay persons... and that lack of explanation coupled with the mysticism suggested that those limits were largely unknown even to officers. "That might have hit Palladix already, if Royal Foxx was the next planet in the chain it might not have had anywhere to transmit to, or if it did they would be coreward."


"Marantha's HPG station was destroyed in 3017." Someone noted... and Gene would have killed for a picture of all surviving HPG stations right about now... because so far as he could tell for whatever reason Black Jack had no objection to massacring or enslaving ComStar personnel but Kelly had actually hijacked the network which suggested they worked out enough to make messages be broadcast across the network.

There were nods around the room, "The attack on al Jubaylah though, we thought of interest... ComStar didn't want to start a panic yet, but the battalion colors identify them-"

"As the 141st Amaris Dragoons," Gene stated sharply, for that had been the subject of the phone call on the lift to the CIC of the Daniel Boone. "Don't suppose they happened to say whether or not their unit's lead happened to be the Stefan Amaris Kelly wants to lead the Rim World Republic?"

"It would make sense though, the 141st escaped Earth perhaps carrying Amaris's heir," Gene shrugged at the supposition. Certainly that was a plausible explanation.


–
Notes: We will back into the action phase of the story I know this has been something of a long run, that being said the Magistracy has a number of HPG stations in it more than I actually than I thought

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen


They had had to take a brief recess as Raventhir had been obliged to admit additional personnel in, and excuse others, to issue orders, and various other tasks as evening sat in, and Luxen's bright garish even lights showed in the distance far behind them. The new arrivals had been settled in and Gene had noted that Volkov had been included to perhaps the, poorly concealed, disgruntlement of some of the Luxen officers though perhaps since none of their field officers were present. Captain Short had not been invited up he had noted but perhaps captains were too junior for this gathering.


The ward room was plush, but with a dozen plus officers and a handful of staff It felt a bit crowded all the same as they had jostled around and made to wait after the official end of the recess. As they been made to get comfortable for admitting a last minute representative from from the planetary council. He was grateful that one of the lesser, though senior on planet, Alavi merchant princes was presently monopolizing the attention of the Majesty Metals representative on planet so that they didn't feel neglected. A Senior Vice President of some internal branch which not being familiar with the corporate tree he wasn't sure if that was important or just a flashy title to keep someone happy. Gene kept his expression as inscrutable as he could without looking like he was scowling... the truth was he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. His hands rested on paper work from the MRB, and he was resisting the siren song of the hot coffee in the tumbler next to the paper work.


This was in the legal sense his third contract for the Magistracy as it related to Luxen. Friar Tuck had mentioned that after his fourth or fifth beer in the office the previous week as they had gone over more or less routine paper work for the company...but that was the fact that Shepherd's Company was much larger now, and with as the MRB man had noted, much grander expectations from onlookers.


He was right of course, the beer didnt' dull the heavy set man's intellect. He was aware of the looks that his Company's arrival had gotten when they had reached Detroit after 2nd​Luxen and the difference, the overawe effect of the RCT's arrival months ago when they had returned to Rock City in force. That had been before they had opened up reserve materiel stockpiles prior to making the final jumps to reach Luxen. He had carried out that refitting of the troops in consideration of facing Black Jack aware, and forewarned tht it was likely to draw eyes.


The Arkab legion under orders from the coordinator had acquitted themselves well against the Free Worlds League... though why the Coordinator had launched those attacks was debatable. It had been put forward that perhaps he had hoped to take advantage of thedistraction either at home or abroad, but nothing was concrete. It did however give him a good reason to keep a wholly Azami regiment here on Luxen and away from the Free Worlds League border that was something he certainly intended to avoid while he had alternatives.


"Amaris Fusiliers, now Amaris Dragoons." An MAF officer remarked her accent suggested she was a native of Luxen...possibly some minor nobility along the lines Short was he figured. Ennobled for actually holding a commission or holding a commission for her parents having done the same he figured...


"The 2nd​ Mexican Legion served on Luxen for the Magistracy didn't they?" He questioned.


Lips thinned at his question following the comment.


Seghal glanced to her colleague, and then back towards his direction. "Yes, as the Regiment King's Wild Cards." He had thought the officer's surname of 'King' had been a bit of an oddity for the Magistracy but not enough to comment on it. He had not meant to imply disloyalty, "But there are no Amaris sympathizers in the Magistracy."


That might have been stretching things he felt, but did not question the reply since she did seem sincere in her reply. He was considering whether or not what he'd said might have incidentally put himself in a situation where he needed to verbally extricate himself or if he could leave it to lie, "I am glad to hear this Force Major," He replied after a beat resisting the urge to blow air out of his teeth, "But as your colleague did just note the Fusiliers and the Dragoons are in the field, and we've fought Rampage Battlemechs, as well Ignis tanks previously." He had hoped though that that was an unfortunate oddity of the Fjaldr campaign...it seemed not, "what is to be done?"


There were looks shared between officers, political leadership, and towards Raventhir. After a few moments it looked like there was going to be a spring of conversation so Raventhir retook the initiative, "For the time being the Magestrix has not requested I move to defend the capital." What Gene understood to be something of the ceremonial title or position of the cadet branch. "That may change in the future, but for now I will be obliged to make a report to Canopus." where upon she might be called to investigate the reports of the atrocities, she stated, "But also I will need to ask Canopus to investigate the condition of Palladix, and the consensus is that that House Mark will have to make some kind of response as well." That had been what one of his armor officers had observed as well... the difference was that word of the Arkab legion making a nuisance of themselves dancing around FWLM units added to that need to be seeing 'something done'.


The last thing Gene wanted was a run in with a FWLM unit looking to make a knighthood, or some other sort of bloody necktie in the periphery by finding a distraction to chase. "We're wrapping up work on overhauling the Chargers," He stated, "But if you expect to need to divide the command that will disrupt the training schedule as it is." MacIntyre had wanted to train alongside a unit that had real experience applying the Mech Platoon system, and the Chargers when overhaul was completed would basically be equivalents to the Earthwerks down-tech-ed Thug which would provide useful information. Errai came to mind, but something for later, and not in the company of the Magistracy officers, "But if that is what you need I will abide to make adjustments."


The officer who had asked about his Marauder spoke up, overriding one of the Luxen natives who had looked like she was about to get a word in edgewise, "You have two Light Horse Regiments, SLDF flagged."


"I'll loose one of those when it ships off with the dependents," He remarked, "and I would believe it best to have Colonel Bey's 12th​ Light Horse should remain on Luxen. I don't want any confusion from being on the border with the League," even unsure of her exact rank, and social standing in the Magistracy he was more comfortable arguing the point with her than with Raventhir, and the duchess seemed happy enough to let them hay it out.


"As with Star League Independent Regiments Colonel Bey's Light Horse have their own space lift capacity."


"Yes." He replied, though the entire company was fully mobile he decided not to explicitly state that, "In theory they could be sallied from Luxen in an emergency." Not that Light Horse Regiments were necessarily intended to be used as a reserve force... but it was a mech regiment and one outfitted with machines that had been left in lock up waiting for pilots to arrive a longtime... as the Azami had themselves remarked "Are their preferences?"


"Certainly," Raventhir remarked taking control of the situation, "If I were asked to provide troops to defend the capital your highlanders showed down a Sword of Light Regiment on Dieron," No surprise there, that was sound. "Your Swedenese troops perhaps to Royal Foxx or forward staged somewhere else might be in order, but if the capital were to be threatened we would need to bring all forces to bear quickly." The strategic mobility of the company came to mind, Pasha had carried Davion reinforcements to Elidere after all while they had been on the planet already when the Galedon Regulars had come to call. "I will speak with Precentor Labarbera in the morning," Raventhir was aware that he was unlikely to take advantage of the leave he had issued his officers and men and so would be available for such things... this conversation was not over... and he could potentially expect the unit to be pulled in several directions and potentially very soon so the weekend pass would be good for the troops.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen
The majority of the company ... or at least the mech warriors and other combat arms were now on leave that left their officers though here to deal with other matters ... and hoping not to have any major disciplinary infractions to handle come monday. The staff room was dominated by the wafting odor of fresh brewed coffee as torrential battered the windows outside.

"I'd be shocked if the Magestrix doesn't ask for the Company to reinforce Canopus." Gene remarked in the wee hours of the morning. He'd gone down for three or four hours in the cabin of Sam Houston to sleep, transferring up to Eisenhower would have been a waste though the berth there was certainly more spacious. MacINytre wasn't entirely sure how a bunch of young rowdy highlanders would deal a posting on the capital of the Magistracy. "I would expect she'll want these Luxen Dragoons along as well, with Easy Company. From what I have come to understand the MAF is willing to let Raventhir attempt to overhaul the army. If they can plead saved money in the long run then they might swing the appropriations."


He received a round of skeptical looks, the Alavi scion included. It wasn't that he question ed the work that Raventhir was going to need to put into it, but the magistracy did not have the industrial base for sweeping changes. "I fear much of Black Jack's success," The merchant prince remarked, "Is that of course the light mechs common with MAF are not robust enough to engage the weapons of the star league... even if it were the warriors of the Dragon they would face difficulty." He remarked... to the point that Gene suspected that caveat was an ingrained social habit. He'd heard similar comments from other Azami, merchants in particular.


"The Vindicator, well..." MacIntyre shrugged, "Not the worst mech, and better to have than not." The lieutenant colonel remarked with a shrug.


Septim nodded, "Yeah, I recognize what you said back on Robinson, it really makes things a lot simpler to have to only deal with so many 'mechs. With Easy Company last time," He snorted took a pull from his stein of beer, "Well a lot going on yeah?Still I can't say I like the prospect of spreading the unit out allover the rimward periphery." There were nods of agreement even if some of the officers were more resigned to it than others.


... and that was only part of the issue. "We're getting out in front of this early, because its a likely development." He stated the truth was getting out of Davion Space, and into the Rimward periphery they had stepped into a very different conflict environment. Things might have been different had they remained on station, not been packed onto DropShips bussed by JumpShips through space but they had left Davion space last year with an expectation of the swelling of the ranks being wholly temporary... the two additional regiments meant to safe guard a fledgling colony far from civilization. With Bardiche, and Claymore he had more time, and the expectation that they would be with the unit as a constituent part, and news coming in from the periphery had been limited.


Maybe the Precentor of New Avalon could have given them more, maybe he hadn't been told how bad things were. There were plenty of reasons why the latter might have been true, and benign ones why the former might have been the case. There had been indication s of the situation crossing the border into the concordat but it had really been getting into the Aurigan Reach where the first hand evidence was... their priority had still been protecting civilians which had gone to as Bubble's had put it the morally forthright standards of the company. It was meant as a complement but it gave the impression of being much more on the idealistic side of the spectrum... not that that was necessarily a bad thing, but Gene accepted that the expansion of the company created headaches in command and control.


"A Star League Independent Regiment was intended to be adapted for the challenges it would face in defense of civilization." The older of the two Azami Light Horse Commanders remarked, "We all recognize that Black Jack, Kristofur Kelly, and now this spawn of the devil have weapons of the Star League and experience terrorizing the innocent."


"Aye, they seemed pretty cocksure when they tried Luxen last time." MacINtyre agreed, "Probably surprised they faced real resistance that time." The surprise had kept the pirates from trying Luxen again... the loss of a company sized force of StarLeague 'mechs had had to sting.... more so than the loss of the pilots Gene imagined. "The good news is if Bey stays here the wrenches can work on any Chargers brought in." Accepting that there were likely to be engine shortages to the point on of the techshad suggested using the engine from a recovered Whitworth to power a Charger, making a complete mockery of the name. That hadn't been approved, but it had been put out there, "She expects more doesn't she?"


Gene nodded. "That's what we're told, but I've also been informed that if replacement engines of some sort can't be found totell the techs to pull the smalls and reduce armor." That had turned into the prospect of pulling the two and a half tons worth of Mk I Small Lasers and perhaps and equivalent amount of armor to mount a Mk III. It still theoretically would have left the Charger with seven and a half tons... not great for an eighty tonner... Raventhir needed something to replace the 400 if the black box factory on Pioche could churn out otherwise completed Chargers. "They're your techs Colonel Bey, if we are relocated off world you will needto make the call on what would be most appropriate." Those same techs would also be responsible for the LTV 400s being pulled being used to power surface based turrets to defend approaches to Luxen's capital and the starport and the HPG station, etc etc. "That is the eventuality that we do need to prepare for is being asked to divide the company." But the Chargers were something that, well the Company had been asked to consider the problem but it was a secondary concern. "I will be speaking with all of you individually," All of the Sub Unit Commanders so the two Light Horse Colonels then MacIntyre, and Holmgren, and Bo.


The latter, out ranked by the majority of the others signaled,"The scuttlebutt going around is Easy Company," His small personal command, not the Luxen unit of the same name, "Is staying but you're taking Volkov with you?"


He blew out a breath, "If we're asked to go to Canopus, yes you will probably remain," Gene paused, "As an operational plan to affix you to Bey's Light Horse Regiment as an independent company. I may attach the Light Company to Bardiche to fill a similar reinforcing role."


"And my men?" That was Hammer asking... and the truthwas even with Triumphs moving that much armor and the personnel thatwent with it short term was a logistical hurdle.


"Still in discussion at this stage, again nothing is concrete here,"


"The Magistracy hasn't decided how badly they want our help you mean." Soren asked leaning forward from beside Septim.


"It has to be money right?" The Merlin pilot said in agreement, "If we get told to go, well as bond holder for the contract Raventhir is spending a lot, and the magestrix can't afford to look unappreciative, can she?"


"We are still not sure that we are going to actually be sent to Luxen," Bahar interjected, and she was right this was a largely theoretical planning session for if that came, which was why he had stated he was planning to talk to his next run of officers individually after giving them the opportunity to prepare their plans for what to do. "We should," She continued, "That the rest of the civilians are away before then if it comes. Then we will only be responsible for training the Luxen Volunteers. If we are lucky then this coming week we can focus heavily on that, and demonstrate to the planetary authorities that they are well protected."

--
Notes: We should start Son of Sam next time with the actual division of the company particularly with the Azami exodus having largely left Luxen and thus removing the dependents from the scene at some point down the road we will have an Alamut centered scene either here or in the Junkyard thread with Dara arriving on Alamut, and the first Azami exodus being told about the situation with the Amaris pretender.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Son of Sam
Part 1​

Outside he caught the sight of belted metal links of auto cannon ammunition being moved. From this distance and with trucks in the way he couldn't be sure what they were going to... they didn't look like120mm or 185mm but they did look too big to be 40mm Whirlwind II.


Tuesday had come around before Gene suspected anyone was ready for it. There had been grumbling in the Azami ranks as word had circulated... the truth was Gene suspected also that the Combine's mechwarrior culture contributed, but whatever the case there was an expectation of independent aggressive action. Garrison work was not their preference.


There was a palpable sensation in the air more anger than fear...the enemy were using the symbols of the rim world republic, claimed to be fighting for an Amaris... and best guess from the intelligence was that they were headed this way... or at least back into the rimward periphery. Tortuga was too far as well, and added even further complication s than the prospect of hitting astrokazy which had already discussed hurdles.


The movement outside though was indicative of preparing for afight. "How are our preparations Dante?"


"On schedule," The Highland AI replied running down a roster of task items. It was a long monotonous list, but also represented how large the company was, and its substantial fleet component. Regarding that there were still strategic level arguments over how to employ the jumpships assigned to the 12th​Light Horse Regiment that would be staying behind, "In other news I would suggest that Akashi's light company might be suited to liaison work with the MAF troops if we are expecting aggressive contact."


Gene tapped his heel, but acknowledged Dante's point, Chang haddone well on Altair with her force of Assault 'Mechs but the Marauder II and the Atlas were not the fastest things... but "Kelly hasKing Crabs." He pointed out.


"The standard models only though."


"Two Assault Auto cannons." He replied to the AI. "Ourbest option is to keep them at range and smash them with Alacorns coordinated by Fury networked fire." Gene recognized on saying it that the AI had been expecting him to highlight a solution to deal with the hundred ton anti BattleMech Assault Mechs that Kerensky had provided to the Member States of the Star League. "We could reconfigure the Tactical Groups now, waiting until we're on world would be asking for trouble." The majority of the Azami were gone, the ones that remained would be here to conduct trade and set the stage for in theory relations between Alamut in the deep periphery... Luxen serving as the final way station on the route. The leaving had taken the 139th​ Light Horse and a significant portion of the air power but even that had been controversial. Combine Mech Culture was very independent and current doctrine was for independent companies acting on targets. The Azami elder Dara had left a letter, which had been somewhat vexing in places "What do you make of Dara's letter?" Some of it was fairly straight forward even for a document written in the archaic language of the Coordinator's court. "He said Lady Florimel was relieved that I have the wrong eye color."


"Perhaps merely a throwaway line," The AI replied, which Gene had considered but it was hard to imagine the Azami elder would have wasted the ink. Still Dante pressed on to cover the perhaps more concerning intimation regarding potentially unruly aggressive Azami troops eager to fight anyone wearing or affiliating themselves with the Amaris cause... the appearance of the Amaris Dragoons calling themselves the Amaris Dragoons not the Blood Rain had only further inflamed tensions. There hadn't been a riot though. So the Azami were now back on the road to Alamut and out of Magistracy space. Loss of fighting strength aside it was also a relief. "The Canopians have promoted King to Force Major, Majesty Metals appears to be providing the necessary heavy weapons to support the promotion."


"SO we should expect to be asked to go to Dunianshire then?"


"It would be likely that we would be expected to do so."Dunianshire was only a single jump from Luxen so they might be able to apportion part of Bey's Light Horse Regiment, which might actually assuage some of the energy simmering with those mech warriors about defending luxen, given that the planet did have a ComStar presence. "It might be prudent to forward deploy Bardiche coreward sooner rather than later." They had experience on this with the move to Luxen after all, it was why Sigurd Company was usually handling the defense of the HPG station since the Pillagers were excellent urban fighters. Soren was also the Mech Battalion Commander most likely to handle things in a rational calculated manner if Rimworld marked units did start dropping down. The 12th already had dropships so moving them to Dunianshire wouldn't be an issue.... though Gene did wonder if King promoted to coequal rank with Seghal might then be moved off world, but Dante was pressing on, "Given estimates on travel and course, Kelly should be in the Rimward Periphery." ... and that meant they would be pushing Soren, and Bardiche's still relatively inexperienced pirates forward guessing where they might meet, but the idea was to send them now. In an ideal scenario they still would have been pushing the Luxen Volunteers through their paces and for that he interrupted.

"We will need to leave a training cadre here to preside over the volunteers behind."

"I do not think it would be prudent to leave the oldest members of the company behind, especially the Company's Easy Company which is I assume remains your plan of action."

It had b een, Gene was willing to admit, "Septim, Chang, and Beau all have experience with the Volunteers and Luxen as a planet. In fact I would say leaving all of the scratch company veterans here would help reassure the planetary leadership that this is being taken serious." To which Dante agreed that was plausible, still it was clear the AI wasn't enthusiastic over the idea. 'He' might have had a point, but for the moment this was all academic. They were talking about this because the break in the rain was sufficient to mobilize units for general drills while still staying on guard for any sudden appearances at jump points standards or 'pirate' points. "Dante have there been any other changes to MAF leadership?"

"No other changes reported. Still Colonel leaving them behind would increase the work load of managing the company leadership to an unsatisfactory degree. Additionally I should remind you that if Colonel Bey remains here on Luxen there would be complications to Alexander's presence."

That was a more valid point Gene allowed. He supposed he could ask Bey to take lead on moving a portion of the Regiment to Dunianshire... but his thoughts were interrupted by a chime signaling that he and the AI had a guest on approach, which meant this needed to be cut short.


--
Notes: Speaking of cut short, yeah computer problems with this chapter, plus my life is currently a mess. Indeed such a mess that I may actually cease doing daily updates. About the only sunny side right now is my yard looks nice and the garden is doing great.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Son of Sam
Part 2
Her aunt had gone to the HPG station to ask the Precentor Luxen about some other HPG station in the Magistracy and... other than she had gone, and what it had been about there hadn't been anything more... it was all being played very close to the vest as it were.


Volkov knew she had become a chess piece on a board... or maybe Go. Hide, and Nevan both played Go but the point stood she a piece on a board... what was worse was when people talked about her in those terms confirming her own ruminations. That she was a promoted pawn was infuriating... but there was nothing she could do about...and no changing who her dead biological parents had been. There were times she wanted to lash out, but knew if she did she'd just be validating the media portrayals and editorials. That she was loose cannon, a barely restrained attack dog.


The Luxen public adored Shepherd, but he was cold and the picture of aloof terran stoicism. That wasn't all bad in her opinion but Shepherd came off as far removed from the lowly foot soldier as he could. It didn't matter that he genuinely cared for the men under his command it was that when he took the field or talked of war she could see it as his entire being... which was why the scuttlebutt that Shepherd's Company had of Davion space was hilarious that there were little Fed Sun flowers thinking to heal a broken heart or some nonsense.


Hide nodded to her, "As your honored aunt," He meant Raventhir, "told us, Shepherd is a Gunslinger of the Hegemony it is a high honor Commander for him to respect you." She blew out a breath, frustrated at the notion, but Hide continued in his combine honor centric notions that had been engrained in him at Sun Zhang, but some how hadn't managed to penetrate Nevan's thick skull somehow... "We must hope for the good fortune to have a place of honor in the battle line." Hide was thirsting for battle, for the chance to show he was a worthy pilot of his family's ancestral machine... and well...


As a MechWarrior she did get that. She very much looked forward to fighting a battle against the pirates but a place as a battalion commander meant being off the immediate front in all likelihood at least if they were fighting from prepared positions. The doors chimed and Hide nodded with great ceremony standing back and letting her move forward. Presumably whoever Shepherd had been in a meeting with had been shown out, or maybe he'd been in communication with his sizable naval contingent, it didn't matter he was alone when she reached the office space from which orders for the massive mercenary army were dispatched through.


They were in the final preparations to move, and that was why she was here. Shepherd turned his head and nodded cordially inviting her to cross the threshold of the room. "Our preparations are on schedule Commander Volkov, I admittedly have some concerns regarding Kelly's Assault 'mech complement but we have viable countermeasures in service. You'll be briefed accordingly on that along with the others, and you should expect a briefing packet on reequipping of the Maguanac Tactical Groups shortly. We will most likely consider deploying our armor platoons with leadership aboard Fury Tanks and emphasizing direct fire capabilities. We'll want to do that sooner rather than later since our estimates are that Kelly is back in the periphery."


She nodded, it was the only thing she could think to do in this situation. A part of her was excited at the notion, Kelly had made a name for himself as an infamous pirate the last few years. But it was all together too clinical and even his fingers dancing over the controls to bring up the system seemed a consideration something being done to put them at ease for the techno sorcerery of old earth.


"I believe it would be prudent to leave the Scratch Company veterans here to continue to train the Luxen Volunteers with Septimin overall command of the Company presence. My understanding at present is if we are called core ward then Raventhir will be with us, so command of the Planetary Defense Force will fall to Force Major Seghal. I am going to speak with Raventhir about Duinanshire and partnering Colonel Bey with Force Major King. We will however be leaving Luxen soon I feel." There was a pause and a data bar filled, fillin g the space between them into a star map of Magistracy space... but not the common one she was familiar with. It didn't take a genius to know it must have been from the Star League and that the missing systems or rather the systems missing on modern maps could have been potential pirate havens after having been forgotten . "Our thinking as well," Shepherd remarked the smile of acknowledgement at least slightly reaching his eyes. "We simply don't have the resources to waste on trying to search every lost star system though. We can only hope that our marines can board and seize a dropship or Jump Ship that has its navigation logs intact but we've yet to have any success on that front." He shook his head dismissing the wild goose chase idea, "While I haven't discussed this with Lady Raventhir I expect given the increasing pitch of the rhetoric that we can expect atrocities left and right and that if the possibility exists to move we will have to be ready to go at a moment's notice."


The deployment plan was simple, Volkov felt. They had a limited number of Orbital Drop qualified pilots to land first if it came to that, but really it would be aerodyne jumpships like Leopards carrying all Mech Cubicles or the DroST IIA Shepherd seemed to prefer for his company in the initial wave.


But also, that they would be fighting people with high quality 'mechs. "I tell you to break contact with the enemy you do it, Volkov. I will not take chances with these people Kelly destroyed the water purification systems of Kalidasa which were hundreds of years old, potentially millions of people could die as a result of that, and certainly millions will be displaced by it. I plan to take advantage of hitting them with artillery when we can catch them in the open, but I accept that is an ideal which may not be feasible especially if they get within a civilian population center so we'll bring brawlers in once they're boxed into an area. But if an order comes to disengage, do it."


The map zoomed in, the crossed pikes icon of Bardiche appearing along with the familiar flag of a world that supposedly she'd been born on, but couldn't remember. Bardiche's Sigurd Company's datasheet appeared, and the familiar form of Pillager D's showed in a simulation's rendering. It was a simulated engagement... Bardiche had probably run the simulation this morning or yesterday to simulate protecting House Raventhir from attacking pirates.


The same principle would be applied with Claymore just that the pilots there would be using the modified Marauder II machines carrying assault Auto Cannons. Obviously that the swedenese unit had gotten the first chance at the simulators. Hide had always naturally shined acting by himself or in a small unit... Nevan too for that matter... part of that was also that she didn't have the resources to be send off a whole battalion to complete a mission. She blew out a breath "Black Jack only has so many trusted cut throats." SHe noted thinking about her two most trusted pilots


"And I suspect that attrition has taken its toll, but our advantage is going to be organizational by acting as a cohesive unit with an espirit de corps that emphasizing fighting together." He ran his fingers over the keyboard with a series of sharp mechanical clacks, "So that being said Raventhir has our respective units up in the schedule for acting together. She wont actually be joining us in her Atlas but she will be on sight... and most likely telling us where we're going after... or that there is bad news about what the pirates have done..."


--
Notes: So yeah, general expectation is that my best friend shouldgo into labor probably tomorrow... never mind everything else.Assuming she doesn't go into labor then Archon will update, because its a well prepared empire building fic like AOE so I should managethat easily enough.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Son of Sam
Canopus had a relatively free press, and Luxen being home to one of the few remaining universities in Canopian space had a larger literate population than most periphery worlds. Even if that hadn't been true the population would have passed the troop movements around by word of mouth. That did present security concerns of course. Luxen had planetary defense units though how capable the fresh class of conscripts would be against hardened pirates did weigh heavily on all involved. Perhaps more heavily than normal given that Luxen's leadership had grown accustomed to the steadily expanding force since the Second Battle of Luxen.
It was understandable that they weren't happy about the reduction of forces. Even the ones who had complained about the size of the mercenary force to begin with... and the exodus of the refugee fleet further into the deep periphery was only part of that.


Of course all the fiction that would come out of the Pirate Wars would make things seem so much more coherent... better prepared in the for the masses retellings of everything... that and in the fiction well, things were so much less muddy. The rain hadn't stopped well deserving the moniker the rainy season... it was monsoon levels outside.


A company of Highland Cuirassiers mounted in Badgers and Bandits were in the process of swapping out with the White Mice mounted in the same new Valencia built armored fighting vehicles. Mechs and equipment from Bardiche were moving to the embarkation point to be loaded aboard dropships. Gene dismissed the muted news broadcast... he had stopped reading the subtitles as the las-rifle equipped personal protective detail showed in his officers. Mostly men that Gene didn't know as well as he did the Scratch Company veterans despite the long road in from the Inner Sphere. "The civilians are antsy with that Light Horse Regiment gone." Hammer observed.


"They miss the mechs." The Friesland native hadn't need the additional comment from the Swedense officer who had made it...but the Phoenix Hawks had been notable in their patrols which the Luxen news establishment had taken plenty of stock footage. Soren nodded to the Rasalhague captain... and it hadn't escaped Gene that Soren had started holding conversations modelled on MacIntyre's D program. Ostensibly an 'L' on the table to be fielded 'whenever' 'mechs could be found for the unit... which was of course an expectation that an SLDF cache would be found soon... at least ifSoren had a wish list he hadn't shared it.


"We still have the 12th​," Gene replied nodding to Colonel Bey, though at least part of the unit would be leaving Luxen, and part would be staying behind. Gene was loathe, regardless of how normal in this 'era of the succession wars' to divide his battalions down into companies... regardless of how much experience the Azami had fighting as company sized groups. That had been a topic because Bey and his captains under him were fully comfortable dividing the command as the Magistracy needed them... not the least of which was it raised the possibility of fighting men in Amaris colors. "Soren is Bardiche ready to rerun the drill in the simulators," Another iteration of a simulated defense against the mock up they had of the Amaris Dragoons, "Can you defend Royal Foxx?" Soren gave an affirmative reply to the question... they'd been waffling back and forth whether or not the deployments would actually play out... Gene didn't even want to begin to guess at what kind of horse trading might be going on behind the scenes... trading that seemed set on changing plans every hour it seemed like at times.


... and it would be reasonable to expect that returning to Davion Space would have similar concerns with Battalion D expected to be in the final stages of standing up when they returned. The company was already in the process of reorganizing to reflect its size, and the temporary swelling of ranks through the Azami. "Are we going to Canopus then?"


"We'll see." He replied to MacIntyre's question. "Its still up in the air." ComStar must have been making bank for the HPG conversation in real time between the Luxen HPG station and Canopus...and then there was the trickle in dribs and drabs of fighting from the inner sphere. "Bureaugard," Gene remarked, "Whatever we do," At least right now went without saying, "I'm leaving Baffins here to support Easy Company." The two scratch company veterans who had taken the Majesty Metals contract would be staying behind on Luxen as well... and that would be two more mechs plus the mercs that Friar Tuck had screened which would do pretty well for Luxen if Bey had to move the 12th in force somewhere.


Akashi shifted her weight, her retainer behind her more stoic...but it was also no surprise since it was impossible to have missed that he'd been considering attaching her 'Light' Company to Soren's Bardiche for deployment in the northern Magistracy. "The bandits are pushing this way. A confrontation is inevitable." She blurted out impatiently. "There are two regiments of Rim World origin in the fight."

Probably not whole regiments of course, but the comment did have an effect...


One of Bey's officers nodded in agreement before he could stop himself. The Light Company was filled out with a handful of ice cubes but were largely Azami pilots... most of whom flagged in the system as DC native SLDF troopers with the Torii gate of 15th ​Army. Chang's Company contrasted that by largely being Highland Faire recruits and reflected by being largely using Marauder II mechs...but Chang was also nominally under Septim who was supposed to be assembly a command lance to lead the force... but there were limitations to that... and unlikely to be settled before they next saw action.


... really this whole conversation was likely, Gene suspected, to be one that went around in circles with little to show for it until they knew something more about what their employers wanted them todo. He turned towards the old scotsman, "MacIntyre are you still happy with the base six system?"


"Aye sir, allowing its not perfect but I like the Canopian idea of," Especially given both their original lack of air power,and the Canopian limits on ASF, "Using Leopards to move a whole platoon, using them as gunships with their PPCs is a good idea givenwhat we're dealing with in the Periphery as well." Leopards being Aerodyne dropships could strafe a target if needed or loiterand the Canopians built leopards with domestically produced PPCs."And if we had a permanent peacekeeping presence, frontiers marshals to ride on brush fires here I think itd work." The Company as a fighting force waas unwieldy given its size to respond rapidly to pirate incursions they were finding that out first hand.

Majesty Metals liked the idea too it reassured the corporation that there would be security to work


--
Rain pounded against the transparent aluminum of the protected suite that overlooked the sprawling hospitality district of Luxen's capital... and the swollen river in the distance


Lady Raventhir sat backwards in her chair, allowed her aide decamp to pour the steaming tea into a piece of fine china. The porcelian set was from Earth from before spaceflight even dating to a unit of Infantry long long ago. It had belonged to the 102nd​Division of the SLDF passed down through the ages from its beginninguntil the SLDF division ahd been destroyed by time. Her eyes lifted to meet the savant.


The Straios began to speak "I don't believe this will create an issue with Force Major King."


Raventhir scowled ... because even if that were true, which itprobably was, this had the potential to be a headache. Keeping secrets was hard... Shepherd having been in a stasis tube for some period of time was a detail, an irrelevant one even for most officers of the MAF or people in general. "We are talking about a Terran Gunslinger who lost both of his parents to the Rim World," She rebutted, "And King did make," a Valid point, "That the implication was Shepherd had opened SLDF caches for rearm his Azami troops once crossing into Magistracy space... equipment that could have seriously bolstered the materiel reserves of the Canopian Armed Forces.


News secured from when Shepherd's highlanders had seized the Dieron ISF headquarters had included damming evidence of theCombine's complicity... a complicity which troopers were happy to share. It wasn't just kilted troopers either who talked... you couldn't keep secrets like that not in a regiment sized organization that had spent months transiting space only to find itself facing a revived and hated ancestral enemy... but it was also something that reputable papers would immediately publish. There would be exposes of known personalities within the unit, but not likely before she could move them off world... save for the Easy company and the Azami Osman Tactical Group which were expected to remain... and for the scratch company veterans most had already had been talked about.


Short though had written a book... books now, and would could be expected to dabble as armchair historian... she wasn't quite Luxen's bard but if she published she would do research and it would be read by the planet, if perhaps not the wider Magistracy. Still it might have been preferable than having the papers latch on that the pirates seemed to be doing their best to jump over the borders which invariably result in Houses Liao, and Marik, and probably the Taurians as well chasing after the pirates. Which was why her decision to send, her decision, to dispatch Shepherd personally to investigate the activities of a Luthien based salvage company was going to be controversial, but military intelligence had already confirmed that the pirates were doing the same chasing after Tsubaki salvage works's expedition... which meant it was pressing.


It was also why she was sure she would be sending the Swedenese Battalion, Bardiche, forward, and the Highlanders before she told Shepherd where she planned to send him. It was a calculated decision on her part to minimize any complaints from the unit commanders given that the constant changes to deployment plans was starting to become a point of contention as more news filtered in from the Inner Sphere. ComStar seemed to be doing all it could to push news of atrocities out in effort to pressure the Magistracy to release the mercenaries to go to war against the pirate menace... and it was working.


The Straios had reported that the pressure was being pushed at all levels, from the Magestrix on down as ComStar agitated that governments do something to stop the attacks on their neutrality and the damage being done to the irreplaceable relics of the Star League. Something had to be done, but that didn't mean sending Shepherd to Taragona was without objections, "There are star league ruins on the planet, and the nuclear accident,-" might not have been so much of an accident so much as an attempt to deny resources in the early days of the first succession war to a rival."If there is a cache and its what the pirates are after they have to be stopped." Raventhir gave a small sigh, and pressed on, "And even if they're not something has to be done. "Hitting Black Jack offensively with mercenaries would buy breathing room for a time.
--
The rain had finally slacked off some after about three days... more than enough time to load the DropShips The horizon was still dark, and the wadis were wide and swollen in the countryside. Three days of no drills outside simulators, and just classroom time for training Luxen troops. The Volunteers were improving though, which meant potentially traction for both more rebuilt Chargers and domestically built Shadow Hawks from the Magistracy. "What do we know?" He asked cognizant thatDante had been unusually quiet for most of the meeting's 'preamble', which had covered the latest incoming news, and Raventhir's marching orders.


"Not much more than we already did," Septim replied,"Never heard of these guys so probably just another two bit collection of thugs with an ego but they're big enough that apparently Black Jack told them to get onboard with him." with an implied or else no doubt.


Gene turned from Septim to Pasha, "Anything?"


"Tsubaki Salvage Works is a front for the ISF." He answered in a gravelly tone, "They have a special mission for hunting down evidence of Kerensky's exodus and the Minnesota tribe discretely for the Dragon."


Kiyone started to immediately brindle, and Gene had to hold up a hand to stay the Ronin's outburst, "You can come, MacIntyre I assume you're volunteering as well." The older highlander nodded a breathless 'aye'. "Septim, you're going with the bulk of Claymore to Canopus. You're the Company Liaison work with Speirs and MacKay." Bardiche, aboard their other Overlord-class DropShip, was already burning for the JumpShip Arkansas to head to defend House Raventhir's capital. Soren would join them on the next DropShip to leave since Presidio hadn't lifted off with Claymore but they were cutting it close with this meeting. "Colonel Bey do you foresee any problem working with Force Major King?"


"No sir. Nor should I expect trouble with House Alavi's merchants." The statement left the implied caveat that whoever he picked to go with them to investigate New Vulci on Taragona he was going to have grumbling from pilots not chosen. Bey would have to deal with the complaints within the 12th​ Light Horse himself, but there was no way the Azami Regiment was coming with...just as he couldn't bring Claymore or the mecchanized infantry. "There has been further news however..."


"Yeah the Amaris Dragoons crossed the border into Magistracy space," Gene replied, it was a confirmable sighting something that ComStar had pushed out to them as quickly as they had been able... what would have during normal times cost a pretty penny was now being done on the Robes own concern for their hides... but Gene didn't blame them. "Pasha tell me about the more local Opposition?"


"Criminals with delusions of grandeur, the local smugglers have made themselves wealthy by plying the illicit trade across the frontier," the jumpship captain replied, "I do not imagineBlack Jack regards them fondly but he has likely found a use for them as spies. The Magistracy's authorities are cracking down, but that has proven difficult given the libertine nature of canopian society." The old man replied.


"Recomendations?"


"Killing Notker Bauman would likely fragment his organization..." The man remarked sharing a glance with another Azami captain, "Though few would likely mourn his passing. He is an odious individual to be certain."


Gene nodded thoughtful, "Alright we'll consider that if the opportunity presents itself. They're smugglers, they have JumpShips I assume. We'll leave Tsubaki Salvage Works ships alone, but if Bauman is working for Black Jack his ships are fair game to seize."there were no objections to that line item in the discussion,"Taragona had a nuclear accident in 2977... I want to know moreI'll need a science team to standby to investigate. Dante says there is an SLDF presence at New Vulci that's where we're going I want teams geared up for site exploitation. Most of the Company will be deploying as agreed to defend the Magistracy, our objective is protecting civilians, if your units are going to act as independent companies then they need to be aware that the piratese may target critical infrastructure that could cause loss of civilian life."Protect dams, dykes, water purification centers and other public works... there would have to be a list, and even if ComStar weren't waving c-bills in front of their face they had the remnants of the SLCOMNET and that was the most effective way of staying in contact. He hadn't liked the idea to begin with, but the reality of splitting the Azami units off had eventually pushed him towards the inevitability of dividing the command... and it wasn't really like there was a choice. "Soren we will discuss the Livgardet Battalion further if there is meaningful SLDF material to set aside for use once we return to the Inner Sphere. I will not commit to allocating the resources until after Black Jack is dead." Soren nodded accepting the situation without any unreasonable protests... not that Gene had really expected him to... but better to head off at the pass any idea that if there was a cache on Taragona that those resources were going to be available. He decided to push forward. "When we get back B & L and C&D," Grouped as such "will probably act as Regiments in their own right..." Not that the Highlanders hadn't already been thinking that but might as well get out in front on that as well. For now though, "Septim you and Chang need to make a good impression on Canopus, Soren defend Raventhir's homeworld, Beau keep training the volunteers here," And that would leave Bey nearby, and asthe colonel pointed out Taragona is not that far... even if it was closer to the Aurigans, "House Alavi should be able to lighten the JumpShip burden, even in spite of our recent good fortune."


The Highland AI spoke up, "I have taken the liberty Colonelof assembling a Task Force roster, it should assuage the Azami's elders to know that hte bulk the force will be the magunac tactical groups based aboard the Crockett and Boone." The holographic globe shifted if Canopian authorities were looking for as heavy as a force as they could then tehy would be happy with the allocation of resources from the company stockpiles. Machines with the Cameron Roundels of the Company appeared as the hologram expanded. In theorythey were 'training' local forces on Canopus and Luxen and other worlds they were splitting company assets across. The real plan was to have a heavy weight reserve on those worlds if Black Jack did show up with a heavy battlemech formation of his own.


They had already been in the process of moving Fury tanks as the command vehicles for armor units... the nirasaki built computers represented a potent force multiplier after all. A trio of alacorns filled out each heavy vehicle lance with New Valencia vehicles filling out the light vehicle bays of the DroSTIIA. Crockett and Boone's mech bays carried pairs of Phoenix Hawks and large laser armed 7A. Theyd scout for armor and for the heavier mechs that would be aboard other DropShips.
--
Notes: I wish I could promise that the actual next segment would be going up soon, but I can't I had plans for more BT scraps but yeah IRL is a hot mess.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Son of Sam
They were getting down to the wire or at least that was the feeling they were absolutely getting to the point where something was going to have to give and a choice made... and it seemed like the general populace knew it as well. The Magistracy was going to have to chose where to send the company, which worlds.


Canopus had a relatively free press, and Luxen being home to one of the few remaining universities in Canopian space had a larger literate population than most periphery worlds. Even if that hadn't been true the population would have passed the troop movements around by word of mouth. That did present security concerns of course. Luxen had planetary defense units though how capable the fresh class of conscripts would be against hardened pirates did weigh heavily on all involved. Perhaps more heavily than normal given that Luxen's leadership had grown accustomed to the steadily expanding force since the Second Battle of Luxen.
It was understandable that they weren't happy about the reduction of forces. Even the ones who had complained about the size of the mercenary force to begin with... and the exodus of the refugee fleet further into the deep periphery was only part of that.


Of course all the fiction that would come out of the Pirate Wars would make things seem so much more coherent... better prepared inthe for the masses retellings of everything... that and in the fiction well, things were so much less muddy. The rain hadn't stopped well deserving the moniker the rainy season... it was monsoon levels outside.


A company of Highland Cuirassiers mounted in Badgers and Bandits were in the process of swapping out with the White Mice mounted in the same new Valencia built armored fighting vehicles. Mechs from Bardiche were moving to the embarkation point to be loaded aboard dropships. Gene dismissed the muted news broadcast... he had stopped reading the subtitles as the las-rifle equipped personal protective detail showed in his officers. Mostly men that Gene didn't know as well as he did the Scratch Company veterans despite the long road in from the Inner Sphere. "The civilians are becoming antsier by the day with that Light Horse Regiment gone." Hammer observed coolly.


"They miss the mechs." The Friesland native hadn't need the additional comment from the Swedense officer who had made it...but the Phoenix Hawks had been notable in their patrols which the Luxen news establishment had taken plenty of stock footage. Soren nodded to the Rasalhague captain... and it hadn't escaped Gene that Soren had started holding conversations modelled on MacIntyre's D program. Ostensibly an 'L' on the table to be fielded 'whenever'' mechs could be found for the unit... which was of course an expectation that an SLDF cache would be found soon... at least if Soren had a wish list he hadn't shared it.


"We still have the 12th​," Gene replied nodding to Colonel Bey, though at least part of the unit would be leaving Luxen, but part would be staying behind. Gene was loathe, regardless of how normal in this 'era of the succession wars' to divide his battalions down into companies... regardless of how much experience the Azami had fighting as company sized groups. That had been a topic because Bey and his captains under him were fully comfortable dividing the command as the Magistracy needed them... not the least of which was it raised the possibility of fighting men inAmaris colors. "Soren is Bardiche ready to rerun the drill in the simulators," Another iteration of a simulated defense against the mock up they had of the Amaris Dragoons, "Can you defend Royal Foxx?" Soren gave an affirmative reply to the question... they'd been waffling back and forth whether or not the deployments would actually play out... Gene didn't even want to begin to guess at what kind of horse trading might be going on behind the scenes.


... and it would be reasonable to expect that returning to Davion Space would have similar concerns with Battalion D expected to be in the final stages of standing up when they returned. The company was already in the process of reorganizing to reflect its size, and the temporary swelling of ranks through the Azami. "Are we going to Canopus then?" 'We' in this case meant both Claymore ... and also whether or not he'd be going to Canopus personally... the current deployment had changed yet again with Raventhir's mercenary niece still going... but they'd have to see.


"We'll see." He replied to MacIntyre's question. "Its still up in the air." ComStar must have been making bank for the HPG conversation in real time between the Luxen HPG station and Canopus...and then there was the trickle in dribs and drabs of fighting from the inner sphere. "Bureaugard," Gene remarked using his given name, "Whatever we do, I'm leaving Baffins hereto support Easy Company." The two scratch company veterans who had taken the Majesty Metals contract would be staying behind on Luxen as well... and that would be two more mechs. That would help somewhat.


Akashi shifted her weight, her retainer behind her more stoic...but it was also no surprise since it was impossible to have missed that he'd been considering attaching her 'Light' Company to Soren's Bardiche for deployment in the northern Magistracy. "The bandits are pushing this way. A confrontation is inevitable." She blurted out impatiently.


One of Bey's officers nodded in agreement before he could stop himself. The Light Company had filled out with a handful with an influx of eager Azami pilots... most of whom flagged in the system as DC native SLDF troopers with the Torii gate of 15th ​Army. Chang's Company contrasted that by largely being Highland Faire recruits and reflected by being largely using Marauder II mechs...but Chang was also nominally under Septim who was supposed to be assembly a command lance to lead the force... but there were limitations to that... and unlikely to be settled before they next saw action.


... really this whole conversation was likely, Gene suspected, to be one that went around in circles with little to show for it until they knew something more about what their employers wanted them todo. He turned towards the old scotsman, "MacIntyre are you still happy with the base six system?"


"Aye sir, allowing its not perfect but I like the Canopian idea of," Especially given both their original lack of airpower, and the Canopian limits on ASF, "Using Leopards to move a whole platoon, using them as gunships with their PPCs is a good idea given what we're dealing with in the Periphery as well." Leopards being Aerodyne dropships could strafe a target if needed or loiter and the Canopians built leopards with domestically produced PPCs."And if we had a permanent peacekeeping presence, frontiers marshals to ride on brush fires here I think itd work." The Company as a fighting force was unwieldy given its size to respond rapidly to pirate incursions they were finding that out first hand.
--
Septim leaned back even if it hadn't been raining it would have been dark except for the backdrop of lighting from canopian buildings and dropships. The lyran took a pull from his beer, "My own battalion?" Mech Battalion, he blew out a breath then took another swig from his beer, "Its a lot boss... we've got a lot of metal in reserve... I know you've said that something doesn't sit right with what Black Jack is swinging at us, but the money we pull in the salvage we take. Its almost too good to be true."


Gene looked out at the horizon of the illuminated magistracy city, and its reflection in the river, "We're unavoidably entangled in politics. Here, and with the Inner Sphere now." If they stuck around for anywhere that would probably be the case, but it was especially true, "We'll still be going back to Davion Space I may need to send you and Chang to Robinson."


"Check on little Sutton, or," He chuckled "King Wolf", the laugh threatened to turn into a full laugh at the Rio Scion's self chosen call sign before Septim exerted control and schooled his features. "But yeah, ok training cadre. I get it. Youre right we could start with two companies... maybe three if Andy and Joe decide to come in with us this time. A couple of us training five ten green cadets maybe with more experienced cadets helping."


"Magistracy Metals wants a permanent company security detachment." There was a muttered of course they do, "They have some light vehicles, It'll be good pay, and they're, and they're talking about having other options on the table as well. Via Caballero comes to mind," on Aquagea


"Can they really promise that? I figured just with ... well things being as they are, but if King is supposed to be supported by them do they have the ability to trade us gear?"


Gene shrugged, "I think they expect we'll kill Black Jack before too long and things will simmer down," and of course theofficers of the company were ... had been getting ahead of themselves in discussing the salvage... if they ran into more manticores which seemed likely well Hammer had actually put papers up the chain of command expressing that they could be used for reserve and training units to expand the Slammers, but that was mostly a question what they could feasibly move.


"Back to normal?" Septim took another pull from the stein in his hand, "I don't think they'll ever get back to normal boss," Black Jack had been running amok for a while now, the MAF had more volunteers this year than they had ten years ago, but didn't have the equipment for them. "And it'll be an even bigger mess when we get back... Black Jack hitting the Cappies and the League. When we get back Hammer is going to be scooping up tankers from whatever Davion sources he can get... which will settle our manpower issue I guess, but-" Septim trailed off, "There are days I figure our best option is to side with House Davion, but I keep dreaming of green raptors," Birds, "Coming out of the sky attacking... but I can feel it that we have to be there."


Septim had spent ... maybe not the only one but had spent time talking to the Preacher on Aquagea... which hadn't seemed like a problem at the time... "One fight at a time Septim," Gene replied, "We are going back to Davion space, and expanding the force is the plan," He'd have to talk to Hammer though he agreed in principle with the plan... and more concretely with both the standards expected and the pay tables being drawn up for the company. "We have to get through fighting this campaign." and speaking of that campaign the door chimed to let Haqim enter with the latest logistics report... and a dour expression on his features.


"Is that it?" Septim asked. "I mean isn't -"


The Azami leaned in, "Lady Raventhir is unhappy it seems. Something has developed." He remarked. He straightened, "The additional vehicles," From New Valencia "and personnel from Northwind are en route."


"I'm aware that a Swedish battalion, a second one is in the works." Soren was developing the idea, but they didn't have the personnel and they all knew that. "We will deal with that when we return to the Inner Sphere since MacIntyre no doubt left Northwind with clear instructions on preparing cadets for his wants." Soren couldn't possibly be ignorant of that. When Septim asked him what he was thinking, "Realistically it would depend on what we can find, but this L idea he's talking about borrows liberally from what MacINtyre has been sharing with the staff," And with the Canopians... and realistically the Archer Group was probably feasible as a starting point. "So I figure the next step will be to forma battalion of mechanized infantry along cuirassier lines... but that might be looking too far ahead." He blew out a wistful breath, "The Cuirassier have done good work, it reiterates that fighting isn't just the MechWarrior and if we're put into another situation like Dieron we will need infantry to screen advances of Mechs and Armor. To that end the resupply due in from New Valencia will be good when it gets here." since it would be carrying spare personnel as well.


Septim nodded acknowledging that despite the Ares conventions calling for avoiding urban warfare due to the unacceptable risk it posed to civilians and infrastructure the pirates certainly didn't give a damn... and House Kurita hadn't either.


Gene acknowledged that Dieron's urban fight could have gone significantly worse. "Again we got lucky, and if we hadn't had infantry things would have certainly been harder. I'll be talking to MacIntyre and Hammer both about... probably extensively when we're back in the Inner Sphere... there were stasis tubes on Dieron... with people in them." He didn't, he suspected that Fortress Dieron's AI had been collecting combine rebels to stage a rebellion but he didn't voice that.


"But first the pirates." Septim remarked with a nod..."and these shark fuckers." He added darkly sharing a look with Haqim. "What are we going to do about them?"


"For now we're still waiting for Raventhir to decide on the strategic level deployment... hurry and wait." He remarked clamping down on his own irritation at the tedious hurry up and wait that defined their present situation... and the monsoon season hadn't been helping that at all. "Hopefully we'll know something in the morning."


Haqim spread his hands apologetically, but he was just relaying the news.
--
Notes: This is not substantively different from the teaser and the new few updates should go up basically as soon as I type them up from my handwritten copies up until we hit Dobrev I think at which point we will slow down some but at least for the next month minimum I should be able to update regularly if I can sit down and type things up

 

[Imperator Pax]

Interlude Post Battle of Robinson
[Steiner Peace Proposal]
Alexandria Cunningham had returned to court finery... though it would have been acceptable to remain in her Davion Guards Uniform. Beside her Yvonne Davion also stood in civilian dress, but they were overshadowed in presence by the boisterous friendly form of the First Prince welcoming the ambassador of the Lyran Commonwealth. The emissary from Tharkad and the Archon represented a promise of further change to the Inner Sphere. It would also make it easy to slip from the room now that the circuit of polite greetings had been completed.


The talks with the Commonwealth .. the rumors were of a peace treaty proposal to bring an end to the 3rd​ succession war. To formalize the borders, which ordinarily Alexandria would have seen as farcical... but perhaps just maybe the Commonwealth and Federated Suns could make common cause and given the violence shadowing the periphery Liao, and Marik were distracted... Marik especially given the Combine's recent raids on the border forcing the captain general to split his attention.


This event for all that she presented the outward appearance of paying attention was nothing more than a facade. All important conversations would be after. Lord Aaron, and his counterpart from the Capellan March were both present as were other dukes of the Federated Suns including her father as well as the Duke of Elidere. The precentor New Avalon was present of course as were other religious figures of note. All talks of peace and good will though could not change the facts. The Federated Suns had enjoyed a string of victories and besides anti-combine sentiment had been at a fever pitch before they had invaded Dieron, and now Lord Aaron had a victory wholly his own to celebrate... which was why Lord Michael Hasek-Davion was smarting at the situation... probably made worse by Lord Aaron singling out several Robinson nobles for distinction before this.


... and while that was hard to miss, and there were abscences, like Friseland, who were noteworthy it was the presence of emissaries from the wolf dragoons also which had caused some speculation in the highest circles of society. Unfortunately polite conversation with the Dragoon's MechWarriors had proven difficult. Then on top of that there had been the surprising twist of Huthrin Vandal suggesting in relation to the Steiner Peace Proposal that perhaps Rasalhague might be granted independence from the combine as a way of securing peace between the Great Houses... which she didn't believe for a minute though given it would have humiliated the coordinator and the combine she didn't object to... but it did represent a significant breach of the robe's espoused neutrality. The strategic implications of such a shift, especially if it were broader than just the PNA were the Duchess of Victoria's concerns though and others... she had other more pressing issues. ComStar had been releasing a steady stream weekly of news broadcasts from the periphery... and that meant that the public was aware of the 'Pirate Wars' taking part across the border between the Inner Sphere and into the Periphery.


That the Capellan, League, and Federated Suns borders worlds were all suffering under raids by pirates who publicly proclaimed an allegiance to an heir of Stefan Amaris. Raids that unfortunately given the LosTech involved made the Great Houses seem impotent to stop. Black Jack, Kelly... the Amaris pretender didn't change thereality of the sucession war, of the deadly rivalries that existed between the successor states. The raid by the Arkab legion on the Free Worlds League were just a part of that... a reminder that war raged between the former member states of the Star League.


The proceedings continued until decorum let them come to an end. That allowed them to slip away to a secure smoking room, "The latest report seems to imply Black Jack is doubling down," That he was becoming desperate. Conventional wisdom suggested that he might have bitten off more than he could chew given his pirates had jumped over the border into the Inner Sphere and attacked planets of both the Capellans and the Free Worlds League. Jeffries made the observation that Shepherd's reorganizing of his Azami into two line SLDF units, the 12th​ Light Horse, and 139th​Light Horse could not have escaped combine notice. "Units destroyed during the Hegemony campaign, that may well have forced Black Jack's hand." Yvonne remarked... it was no secret that the bulk of the Eridani, and the Blue Star Irregulars were in the Draconis March but news had to have reached them and likely the Lexington CG as well. There was a pause from the head of DMI as she surveyed the throng of high society, "The Dragoons have been acting... squirrely," was the word she resignedly settled on, Lord Aaron had after all been a tanker in a common line unit after all, and his description was apt. "all this news from the periphery."


"They did send Captain Kerensky out." Jeffries observed. Alexandria was content to have the Guards officer make his observations. Truthfully she was still catching up on the material that had mounted during the defense of Robinson. "Our best guess is that both Shepherd and this Amaris pretender will come to blows sometime in the next year, they're both definitely opening caches...and I highlighted my concerns about the growing combined arms we're seeing used," The venerable Ignis tank by units in Rim World colors, "by the pirates." Which seguewayed into a conversation that had come second hand, "The Precentor Dieron,"or former Precentor Dieron ... the elevation of Dieron to primacy over the Combine HPGs had only occurred under Primus Takami ... and by seizing Altair and Dieron the knock on effect had been to reshuffle the First Circuit, "apparently believes Shepherd to be a descendant of Kerensky's exodus... which may have been leaked to the Combine." Jeffries meandered for a moment, "Some of itsounds like the spluttering sort of excuses we're seeing from the Voice of the Dragon, but that is the," apparent, "proffered explanation for the materiel Shepherd is using to expand with."


Alexandria had no immediate response, not that she was expected to have one. A fictionalization of the defense of Elidere had released to success not long after the Snakes had been shown off Robinson. It was a wild success in the Draconis March, the miniseries beginning from the desperate struggle of the initial invasion of the Galedon Regulars and building into the conclusion of the penultimate episode of Shepherd's radio call to signal the pipes and drums. "Shepherd's mother died during the nuclear attack on the Black Watch." ... which was a detail a she hoped didn't break soon... though it was possible it and other details had already begun to diffuse among the Highland clans of Northwind.


"The combine can't possibly know that..." Yvonne paused, "Admittedly Admiral Krennic's death, they could easier reconcile the vendetta I think...even more so if they piece together the destruction of the THS Allegiance due to the coordinator feeding Amaris the intelligence that lead to the loss of the Battle Group..." her fingers traced the rim of the Glencairn. "Which brings us back to the Tripitz, and its disappearance... which admittedly doesn't seem to have phased the dragoons a bit, but means a great deal to others,"


Jeffries nodded, he'd begun to pace the smoking room, "The Taurians could have ended up recovering the ship, and this mysterious white force ... we know the dragoons have penetrated the Capellan intelligence network to some extent..." probably in response to their time working with the Capellans and the fallout of the Marik Civil War, "the Wolf Net recorded that the Capellan operatives relayed to Sian our interest in the Tripitz and the event. That could have additional effects on the periphery front."


"It could," She acknowledged, foreign intelligence washer prerogative after all... in addition to being the Prince's Champion... her nephew and sovereign was busy... "We'll see how Galtor goes..." Part of the reason they were comfortable moving on the SLDF cache they had confirmed being there was that the periphery was so active that the Capellans would be distracted. "Shepherd asked if he could borrow the Eridani," And Kerston seemed accepting of whatever the Terran Colonel had in mind, even as Jeffries sputtered about the request, "and the Blue Stars."


"You have a suspicion?"


"I don't think its an attack on the combine," Yvonne truthfully imagined that if Shepherd intended something bold against the Coordinator Shepherd would have laid it out... given everything they knew... but from piecing little details together, and new information, "The rearming of the Azami into SLDF Light Horse Regiments," And Shepherd had trained the Robinson cadre on Light Horse opponents Alexandria recalled, "suggests to me that may be what he plans to do." Yvonne regretted that Hanse was aware of the request to 'borrow' the RCTs it would have been irresponsible of her to not inform the First Prince even if he hadn't been in contact with General Kerston, but Shepherd also wasn't slated to return to the periphery until another year or more and those had been before the pirates had adopted wide scale use of the Rim World colors and equipment or their more significant, deep, raids into the inner sphere.


Having regained some of his composure after choking on the he wants to borrow what my lady comment, "Speaking of Kerensky, and the Dragoons there is the matter of their participation at New Valencia, and their input on corporate decision making." Jeffries added, "Good news is that we shouldn't have to strong arm the company if the Dragoons do go to the Commonwealth next."


"A development from New Valencia?" Yvonne questioned turning to face Alexandria fully, but she had not heart of this until Jeffries had brought it up. "I was aware that a resupply of additional vehicles had been dispatched, but there are other developments?"


The two of them cut different figures. The Prince's Champion perhaps as befitting the head of DMI was dressed in an almost subdued manner... still appropriate for court, but also a reminder that the duchess had children grown. "We expected Lyran interest, the Dragoon strike on Hespersus may have contributed further we know that the Dragoons utilized Marauder II BattleMechs during the battle but also that by this point..." The LCAF High Command had to have thoroughly scrutinized the BattleRoms of Dieron.


"And their proposed partnership with Cosara?" Their in this case being Blackwell industries, and Cosara's refit facilities here being the object of talks.


Alexandria paused briefly to consider her response, the truth was... "Blackwell receives or we are nearly certain they received parts from the Dragoons originally. Machinery."


"The Dragoons are interested. Enough that they will consent to industrial arrangements."


"Yes, that seems to be the case." The Dragoons partnership with Blackwell had entailed warriors from the Mercenary Company being present , but their interest had begun to build before the inundation of news from the Periphery. It apparently predated the delivery of the first Marauder II BattleMechs to Shepherd's Company, which was interesting... she supposed. "They were quick to visit Robinson." A pause... "Were already planning to visit before the Combine began to move, the Dragoons do seem to believe our cover story that the Robinson cache was strictly from the63rd​ mechanized infantry division... which by itself doesn't seem to have concerned them."


Alexandria read between the lines, and her mentor nodded. "They suspect ... his origins? Or have the Highlanders already told them?"


"I suspect the latter to be the case, but yes I believe the first was already the case... just now the Highlanders have told the dragoons." A pause, "There is also the fact Shepherd identified himself to the Canopians as a Major, which coincides with what he departed the Hegemony in 2765 as, but his SLDF documents record him as a Lieutenant Colonel brevetted to the rank of full colonel." The Robinson Cache paper work the 'Brian Cache' documents had been scrutinized... Shepherd hadn't attempted to hoardor conceal the cache and allowed it to pass into Davion hands. Documents from within the Cache had suggested that had hostilities not ceased the plan had been to release the cache at the discretion of a HAF SOF Regiment under Colonel Heron Arascid operating against the Combine pretender to the Davion throne. "We have the benefit that the growth of the company reflects the difference in rank... but from the documentation we have access to Shepherd's promotion originated from the Hegemony Special Operations Command." YvonneDavion paused her fingers closing around the glass of whisky and her gaze scrutinized the remaining liquid resting at the bottom of her glass.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Son of Sam Cassilda Part 1
In the distance burned landscape and choking smoke lay ahead a blight on the horizon. Tropical rainforest tens of thousands of acres burned.

The Cassilda Guards were being run ragged, the planet they lived on actively making operations harder... which only contributed to his headache. The headache was no surprise. The company had landed on an artificial island built to serve as a space port with a bridge running to the stretch of neighboring islands. Cassilda was volcanically active which made it mineral rich, productive for agriculture and then on top of that it exported plenty from the abundant seas.
It had no HPG station in the modern era so the incursion and the company's arrival had not been considered pressing. They had deployed because of the reports of Neo Amaris raiders landing... and since then... the company had been engaged for the last eighty odd hours. It was no surprise he had a headache given the intermittent contact over that period of time.


A regiment worth of armor, green or not, had not been what the canopians had been expecting. They'd reported an over strength company of rim job mechs... or the stolen SLDF machines... which would have been bad enough. Gene moved the marauder around the still smoldering remains of the deaths head marked Ignis tank, and trundled through the mangrove swamp. One of its squadron mates had been holed out by a highlander gauss rifle as it had tried to crest the manmade ridge of the coastal roadway.
He flipped channels in the command software of the marauder acknowledged the armor notification from the earlier brace of srms at close range... very close range. It was not like he had wanted them to get that close but the deployment was wearing. This wasn't Dieron, the neo rim world lunatics were bloodthirsty savages but were also far more desperate than the combine on Dieron had been. These bastards proclaiming themselves to be Amaris Dragoons knew they cornered even before Volkov had closed the cauldron and cut them from their Dropships near the railway that serviced the mines they'd landed at. 'The wolves' were now in the rear with Macinytre having come forward through the lines to link with the maguanacs.
The Dalban squawked a flash message in his minds eye to the fusion signature. A grasshopper, the Black Knight's lance mate, that had slipped away from them earlier. Gene swung his Black Horse to bare and pulsed the throttle up to flank targeting systems protesting be damned. That was in part because the SLDF machine was still broadcasting 321st​ Hussar Regiment. A unit that had survived to see the liberation of the Hegemony and the downfall of Amaris's cursed reign... but it wasn't as if it was the o nly they had encountered. It raised questions they didn't have good answers for.


His Targa 7 flashed lock and a spate of HE-DP and Inferno launched from the tubes as he held the trigger down and the hoppers fed missiles from their bins. Unlike his enemy he had the benefit of celluar armor storage which he was grateful for especially in an attrition engagement like this where his marauder's armor was in places from the proacted attacks and counters on the chain of bottlenecks created by equatorial archipelago of Cassilda. They were driving to drive the enemy away from the civilian population center that was nearest. They needed to finish this and move on. His missiles were joined by enfilading fire from ambitious highlanders mounted in Bandit Aus F carrying large lasers. They were three hundred odd meters behind him where the opposition Ignis tanks with their srm2s had been trying to push towards his forces.


His computer registered MacInytre's Highlander about a klick further. Beyond that were the coms returns from the George Patton the mothership for Schiltron under MacInytre. A Maguanac tactical group was self contained aboard a DroST forming a robust combined arms group. It was the latest development in the company roster coinciding when the Magistracy had ordered the bulk of the Company off of Luxen, and into the north 'eastern' expanse of the Magistracy...which had entailed them handing them a new liaison officer.
--
The George Patton that carried Schiltron's Highland Tactical Group was named in accordance with the Hegemony's provincial tradition. That of being named for famous texans long dead by the time New Dallas had been settled.
Organize Stabilize Revitalize. OSR. The acronym came from the DOME and before that the Hegemony's public relief works for dealing with disasters... and the landslide qualified. He parked the marauder hull down and dismounted. The Triumph class DropShip which was the the center of the nominal RCTs medical apparatus was surrounded by palletized containers, and Gene was grateful that he canopians had weathered the downfall of the star league the least ... in terms of medical acumen.
Their new liaison wanted him off the front line. Cassilda well was and wasn't independent depending on who you asked... and apparently most of the conscripts gathered to man the rim world tanks had come from Zathras. They had to do something about that. The Magistracy had to be shown to be doing something in the face of of ... Black Jack or Kelly or whomever conscripting coopting Zathras with hook or crook into this. Aquagea was also on the list of targets, and it would have been no surprise if Kelly were staging off of Zathras to hit planets in the Inner Sphere... more Neo Rim World forces jumped over to either the Marik or Liao side of the border to pillage and prompted retaliation in force.


His shoulder twinged a reminder of the days spent inside his seventy five ton war machine. The aches, the fatigue were nothing unusual, but he still had no shortage of duties to perform even now that the shooting had stopped. Some of those tasks Dante was handling. Some he could have dealt with by other officers in the taskforce. Gene looked sideways to the Azami Colonel who fell in beside him, "The canopians are a credit to their people." He remarked, "I would not have nearly to tend this many wounded, " The thin graying doctor remarked. The azami officer smelled of coffee and cigaretts having no doubt burned one or a few as Gene's marauderhad crossed the wire and headed in. The small detachment of Highlanders aboard Shciltron remained on QRF but most of the securityforce was easing off letting their posts be taken as the plaentary militia was slowing pulling itself together. The responsibility forlising with them had been foisted on Volkov. The planetary authorities were being comped forty percent of the ground salvage byCanopian authorities. Volkov taking the bounty of share for the pirate dropships but here was likely going to be some contention about the JumpShips his Marines had seized even if the precentor and MRB thought it was cut and dry.


"Harry said flamers," The standard Ignis tanks not the SRM versions which had rolled down the mining road towards the force.


The doctor nodded, "By Allah's mercy mostly smoke inhalation at the school, we would not have the resources at all to handle thousands of burn victims."


Gene mirrored the gesture, nodding, "I sent Arslan and Ali's Tactical Groups to run them to ground." At last report they'd been tracking them northwards running them towards the shore line ... most likely the pirates were trying to hit Cassilda's industrial star port a two hundred mile trek through broken uneven rain forest in the north and get off world.

"That was wise," The Doctor had produced a cigarette from his scrubs but had not lit it up... but was obviously considedring it given the course of events, "We must," He remarked sucking in a deep breath before continuing, "Kill this son of the Satan Amaris and soon," And Black Jack and Kelly too Gene agreed, putting paid to any of them would do a world of good.


... and speaking of Harry a Mad II moved into sight carrying the Ice Cube as the assault mech moved to disembark. The hundred ton marauder ii was scored from SRM fire, like most of the armor damage not done by direct energy weapons fire. The pirates hadn't really had the gunnery skill to engage with the company, but urban conflict and the broken dense forest terrain and limited lines of sight from the foliage had given them some relief from the company's range advantage. The techs were going to be busy, and most likely via caballero on aquagea was going to be doing a slew of work repairing and patching armor damaged on this deployment.


The doctor and he walked through the security cordon of highlander mech infantry dismounted from blackwell industry combat vehicles. The machines were painted in SLDF type 2 temperate pattern a contrast to the Azami arid tans and browns never mind the canopian planetary milita in more lively colors... but then ordinarily this time of year the flora made everything an eye watering orange. The plants would grow back in a couple of months... supposedly this place prone to wild fires anyway and the local fire brigade had actually done a lot of good once the tanks had been driven off.


It had been far more help than most planetary authorities were...but on the other hand with the fighting between mechs done now would there would be the word sort of fighting and that would have far far more sides to it than just them versus the pirates. First though to get as much of the clean up and security operations handled before, before anything changed. Like Cassilda Aquagea didn't have an hpg station so when they jumped there they wouldn't have FtL comms until they finished and moved on somewhere else...
The Rio Verde's Jump drive at least should be charged up soon, they would just have to redock the task force aboard it.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Son of Sam Callidasa Pt2

The only truly good news was the low skill level of the opposition. They might have claimed an infamous name, but they didn't have the skill level to compare to the Amaris Dragoons. The bad news abundant as it was... no pun intended, was the volume of enemies. That had been a surprise, and the planetary authorities who had rushed to the Magestrix for protection had not said they were facing such numbers.

Gene checked the time table for any deviation having already been told to expect delays. Comstar was trying to run the HPGs harder than they had been run since the fall of House Cameron and he wondered if the robes weren't going to end up breaking something. Break something that they couldn't easily replace rather... HPGs were not battlemechs after all and frankly as it was his own techs were going to be spread thin trying to deal with this. His techs were being asked to do more with less time and facing an unexpected if green armor regiment was something to run up to the MRB.
Never mind the surprise it had been for their ammunition reserves. Never mind the the patching armor and more intensive repairs. The canopian authorities had had things even worse off and they had the collateral damage to civilian structures to clean up. It had been one thing to see the aftermath but another to watch as this sort of thing played out. Then on top of that they were were likely going to be dropping into a potentially... a repeat of this.

Black Jack according to the latest report was hitting Marik space hpgs, the Humphreys were having a hard time of it against the sldf machines. Kelly might still be operating in liao space of the reports of that could be stale news or bad identification, but to the point of inciting the community the amaris pretender was stirring shit in the periphery ....


Gene thumbed to the reports for his Maguanac Tactical Groups rather than the two Union born BattleMech companies or the Triumph-class Bexar. The captain of the Sam Houston, his image projected from the CIC, flickered. "We should take the fight to their running dogs on Zathras." The captain remarked hunched forward in his command chair.


"That does seem to be what our new liaison would like us to do." He replied, but she had also apparently been the lynch pin to negotiations to bring Callidasa back into the fold with the Magistracy, "She'd be happy to have us do the heavy lifting to bring that world back into the Magistracy, and Hammer isn't with us at the moment." They hadn't received orders as such saying their near term objective would be Zathras. "Zathras holds two systems after all." Besides they were mercenaries, planetary conquest was something the magistracy could order them to do if the Magestrix decided to go that way, but he wasn't going to do it on his own recognizance with the company divided as it was. "Aquagea may be able to furnish us local security," The hiladgos of the planet had bought scorpion tanks and the ignis and hover tanks worked well enough... the hidden army stockpiles had to be deep.


A tone signaled Dante's latest message arriving and stopped the captain from continuing the conversation for the moment. The message itself was nothing more than a two line reminder of the meeting and attendees. Gene stood up, and stretched, inspecting his empty coffee mug. He'd be changing rooms for the meeting... a part of him even with the drawbacks it would have brought missed the presence of the Azami elders who had departed with the exodus. Callidasa's authorities would be absent from this meeting. The MAF at a federal level would be represented and volkov as a cadet of Raventhir could be considered to represent the magistracy but she shied away from politics.

Gene could have navigated his way to the other ward room by following the wafting smell of fresh coffee where crewmen were setting up. Pasha was already there, and handed over a block teletype printout. "4 Leopards?"

"6 Mech," To a platoon, "Bay, Canopian "PPC armed, "Pattern." Of course the mech contingent would have to be settled on... but they had pulled those wolverines from the Cache... Merlins would have been an option as well given mountain wolf battlemech hoped to sell into the magistracy. "Archers or Dervishes for the missile boats. Catapults." Azami pilots of course, "As you laid out for the task force 65 kph and jumpjets. To serve as a cavalry detachment, rapid response but four leopards would occupy collars." 24 Mechs meant a lot, "Yet we enjoy a great bounty. ComStar's sanction to seize the jumpships is a great boon we are able to enrich ourselves precipitously against those who would sully themselves with the Satan Amaris's colors."Comstar's desperation was increasingly pitched the letters from the PNA to carry out those seizures were damn near clinical in comparison to precentor Canopus... never mind the recent circular from the Precentor Atrues railing against Black Jack.

"If we can stand up these units it'd do us some good at least," He paused, "Has the Precentor of Atreus fled back to Terra?"

"Supposedly yes." Gene shrugged at Pasha's answer, "Our new liaison seems to be interested ... doubtless expects us to enrich her family and their prospects by our actions. She seems to wish to commit us to trying to expand the magistracy's borders... and perhaps push the magistracy to do too much." If the gamble succeeded however... well the Centrella matriarch, the Magestrix would doubtless be pleased, "Lady Centrella is however a capricious woman," Pasha replied in a cautionary tone... and Gene was glad they hadn't rotated to Canopus.

Time would tell. "Alright the interrogation teams say that a plan was to hit aquagea. If that attack is in progress we're going to jump there and stop it... if they want us to take Zathras proper I want to have Hammer and the Canopians will have to be ready to hold the planet."

"I am sure Majesty Metals," Who had a liaison of their own along, "is looking hungrily at what it might extract in concessions for supporting things, and they already have great ambitions." The old azami captain remarked... he'd read the reports not that anti union or guild activities were anything new to the corps but Majesty might push people to support black jack, kelly and amaris if they were too heavy handed but gene wasn't sure how well House Centrella could leash the megacorp outside of the borders of her realm.


The conference room took another couple minutes to fill in despite the planned attendance. Apparently there had been a last minute complaint from the planetary authorities at being excluded from that had delayed starting for a good twenty minutes. Not that Gene minded it gave him time to drink his coffee and discuss things with Pashaa about what they could expect. "Even if we put this rabid dog down it will scatter his rogues. Black Jack could also flee back to Tortuga," Or to some other pirate infested shit hole like Astrokazy. "We will likely be hunting pirates on every rotation back to the periphery but perhaps this is but a test. A test young warriors to season themselves." But Alamut was deep in the periphery, getting word that the situation was what it had topped into would take time. "Dara will argue for aid, once our people are settled even the most passive elders must countenance resolutions in council for decisive action."

Gene recognized the blend of combine japanese neofeudal-ism with the Azami's historical revolutionary shiite roots. It had existed was documented extensively in Hegemony documents about the combine reports from the ronin wars especially. Those conclusions appeared to be broadly valid into the 31st​ Century. With the company split across half a dozen planets there were fewer seats set. Septim Hammer and Soren were all absent. Macintyre was here though most of Ancients company were with the Claymore on Canopus. Easy Company under Beau should have been on Luxen, charged with training new pilots of the Luxen volunteers in anticipation of the MAF attempting to bring the brigade to full strength. The highlander sat down to Gene's left. Harry nursing a black eye from his face hitting the control deck of his marauder while maneuvering took a seat one down. Volkov slid in beside the ice cube. "The hidden army stocks aren't much different than those SLDF machines Black Jack has." Volkov commented hair loose around her almost lupine face.


That was true in the sense that the machines were uniform near factory new, and in good condition. On the other hand Amarsis's hidden army machines were all machines much older in designs for the most part than those which they knew were SLDF machines. Black Jack had machines Kelly had machines from the latest SLDF designs King Crabs and Grasshoppers and royal machines that had to come from somewhere. Amaris had bought tooling for battlemechs that were mature and would attract less scrutiny than the then current generation of member state designs.


Which left them wondering where SLDF Grasshoppers had been. Black Knights or even marauders, and certainly orions could have been easier to explain away. Those machines weighed in the balance as the LosTech royal models appeared and struck targets in the Inner Sphere.
"When he can," which was often since he was the attacker, "concentrate the MAF gets mauled." It was the wrong comment true as it was for the facts since the MAF had finally shown up.

Gene put his coffee, just refilled aside, "Its a matter of weight," and the machines that the magistracy could domestically produce the best commonly available to line units being the shadowhawk and even it had flaws... but at least its weight gave it something of a chance. The light mechs in service too often were outweighed by machines with pilots of equivalent or better skill in RWA machines that were in better condition.


"The MAF would benefit from more heavier machines," The blonde woman their new liaison remarked but even if the MAF expanded its pool of conscripts what it really needed were weapons and those were in everything not just mechs in short supply and high demand. The force major appointed to liaise with the company from the hitherto lower middle or 'up and coming' ranks of the magistracy nobility. Apparently before the most recent success with Callidasa their major success had been to buy goods and hire dispossessed soldiers from the losing side of the marik civil war to improve the family's position after 1st​ Luxen had played out... and that near prescient investment meant they'd potentially be contributing weapons and combat vehicles though not 'mechs to the MAF.

"We've inventoried everything we've run into," He replied, and that had been with special focus on the machines obviously not of recent manufacture both SLDF and Rim World. The report also highlighted anything heavier than fifty tons of which there were understandably a lot of. Plenty of reports assaults like they'd been afraid of even in the case of chargers which were showing up with alarming frequency in Rim Job colors. "MacIntyre's point isn't disputing your own." Unfortunately as slow as the meeting had been to get started it dragged on with probing questions not relevant to operations. Questions about Zathras that they couldn't possibly answer.

Gene winced visibly as the three way raid on Brinton two years earlier when they'd been in the Fed Suns was brought up. That had been over a rim world cache... worse the Capellans were increasingly bellicose. Worse it was just a tactic to try and wheedle and get them to commit the company to areas outside the immediate area on the guise of him exercising his operational initiative. It might have been posturing but desperation overrode rationality at the worst times and if the Capellans did come in for a second round he had concerns.

Still it wasn't all prickly matters. The leads on the Bauman group was useful... even if the details were sparser than what he would have liked. "What ever he's doing on Zathras nothing good can come of it." For the most part most people just thought of Zathras, like Callidasa or Aquagea for that matter, as another potentially lucrative source of minerals... which of course explained Majesty Metals interest. "Zathras is a staging ground for the enemy, that mineral wealth is probably supporting them.

"Yes the MIC reports are that Amaris has suggested setting up the Empire of Zathras as a local satrapy ruling over nearby systems." Lady Hallis replied, "Amaris is installing or confirming once worlds support him." The press was sensational, "And this could present a very real security challenge to the Magistracy. If the Rim World republic starts reforming itself on our doorstep, or worse manages to coopt the Marian Hegemony we would be forced to divide our forces."

"Neither Black Jack or Kelly seem to have gone that far yet... and to the best of our knowledge the Amaris pretender has yet to make any sort of public address." This all seemed to be being undertaken by intermediaries and he didn't know enough about the Marian Hegemony but he couldn't see such petitions swaying the Taurians. That didn't make this development irrelevant, "I'm not ignoring it, but our information says Zathras is being used as a staging ground, and that an attack is planned against Aquagea."That Bauman was supporting that thrust had the potential to yield up more information that they could work on. "Black Jack has never expressed territorial ambitions this is all new behavior." He stated.


MacIntyre shifted his weight, just another growing sign of the Highlander's weariness of the discussion s of what they didn't know, details they couldn't know agreed that the near term should be securing 'our own base of operations', and "preserving right thinking worlds from usurpation and conquest." He declared The latter they could certainly read out in boiler plate to those friendly planetary governments but this campaign was threatening to suffer from further mission creep.

"Hitting Zathras at some point is hardly out of the question," Specially if they could pin down any high ranking pirates never mind Kelly or Black Jack personally, "But regime change thats another prospect all together." Occupying zathras for any length of time he felt risked putting the company on a world with a hostile populace and being forced to defend it... "We'd be in a position to face a set piece battle against the enemy if they moved to retake the planet and they could force us into a fight. "The company could be bait in a trap, and while Zathras had been apart of the Magistracy at one point they'd been outside the borders for more than a generation. "I feel its best to move the Task Force to Aquagea," Whatever the rumors on Zathras politics were Gene could remember the conversation with Hammer about the 'Empire' when they'd been on Aquagea. "I would recommend that if you want us to move on Zathras you ask the Magestrix to bring enough infantry to operate the planet and let me bring Hammer with us. In the meantime," He nodded to Pasha.


"We will need to establish a jump circuit to insure that -"


"I think we should discuss another matter." Gene wondered exactly when Hallis's ancestor's had left the Federated Suns... but waved her on even though Pasha didn't appreciate being cut off, "We don't have access to the HPG network." He nodded, "But Bauman has apparently warranted an increased bounty." The update wasn't small either, "The increase was approved from Terra directly." Hallis informed them. The MRB headquarters.


Pasha's expression boggled for a moment forgoing his earlier annoyance, "Fifty million C-Bills dead for an upjumped smuggler?" It wasn't quite what they were offering for Black Jack or Kelly but more than any of their lieutenants. The reward for taking him alive and even more obscene number.