Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

Not the best name for a merc unit all things considered.

Then again so long as it's a scary and effective merc unit you could probably get away with almost anything as a unit name in Bt

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To be fair when Gene picked the name, it was him, Bahar, + the Azami tankers and space people, and it never changed after Septim, Chang, and Beau joined up never mind once whole new units started being added.

Its also why later on people (including to be not limitted to Kimi and the Church of St Cameron) keep Assuming there is a 'THE' in the company name instead of referring to his surname

 

[AHHGKS]

Since Shepard is in the area (Periphery, Aurigan nation), will he end up finding the Argo at Axylus? Using the Argo to then raid another SLDF facility and grab the sweet, sweet loot which as a HAF / CID agent he should theoretically be allowed to take.

Maybe seduce a couple of pretty local girls, or maybe just a bunch of lovely degenerate Canopian ladies?

TftC!

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 8​

For Raju Montgomery was too much of this that didn't add up. He could have accepted that maybe the pirates had managed to piss off someone in Davion Space to get them to chase... given what Black Jack McGirk had gotten up to it wasn't that outlandish of a notion... and given the damage that the pirates were doing maybe it was past time ComStar had spent some money to hire mercenaries to address the problem.


Given the amount of heavy metal, Raju had to guess that the Mercenaries remaindered by the Precentor for New Avalon must have cost a some serious kroner to pull them out to the periphery The details otherwise just didn't line up... no one pulled a heavy BattleMech Regiment and its supports like that otherwise... and it wasn't that Raju considered himself a naturally suspicious person it was just he had a responsibility to Tamati and the Aurigans who had taken him in, and the situation seemed off.


He decided not to touch the discussion of this 'exodite fleet', but they could work out what was going on there later on. "High Lord Tamati of House Arano, and the Aurigan Reach would like to invite you into talks," He paused, "Once combat operations are concluded obviously."


"Of course," The young colonel replied


Raju frowned. It was one thing dealing with noble scions who had inherited a command and who had been groomed for it from birth... it was another to feel like you were talking to a man who despite his age was directing troops at this level with... too much experience.

"Colonel Shepherd." The sandy haired blonde man was taller than his superior officer... not really a surprise given the difference in age, the man's tactical flash were a pair of crossed pikes.


"Raju Montgomery, this is Lieutenant Colonel Soren Holmgren commanding Bardiche." It was almost too much to hope the man was Lyran, or that that might win him some special consideration. "Did you need something?"


"Not particularly, Waldemar's crusaders have the last of the enemy pinned down in a gulch about four klicks west of here. With the air support tied up or needing to rearm I figured it was a good time to make my report, I didn't realize we had company."


Raju frowned, the Swedenese man had an easy confidence. Maybe not unwarranted but it was the kind of dismissal that came from knowing something that Raju didn't. "So you said you were a regimental combat team?" Mastiff asked stirring the conversation probing for details.


"Yes that right. BattleMechs, tanks, hovercraft, mech INF," He stated emphasizing the abbreviated word, "Ground Aerospace Wing, fleet component."


The Lieutenant Colonel chuckled at his boss's deadpan statement... Raju wanted to gather as much information as he could.. but he also recognized that if he left Kamea and Victoria to their own devices much longer it was that much more likely they'd get impatient and make ... ill thought out overtures that would include introductions and revealing who they were... so long as the two remained buttoned up in their mechs they were just pilots in the Royal Guard.


--
Pasha's expression was one of contemplative concern as reports filtered in from the ground, and in the space around Coromdir VI.


He at least could hide some of his concern behind his beard, his hands told a different story. Pirates adopting the symbols of the Satan Amaris and his lackeys would have incensed even the least morally grounded Azami even in the most normal of times, the Arkab legions would have happily offered to hunt down such rogues for the dragon if it were feasible. IN a world, at a time, when once more the old wounds, and the damage done was set fresh, and torn open to carry the marks of the Rim World Republic... was an abominable affront to the pride and honor of fighting men.


That these worthless scum defaced machines of the Star League Defense Forces so was merely further salt in the psychic wound. To do so was unforgivable... that these were pirates and slavers on top of such... well his hands continued to knit under the table. This was not what he had expected when they had arrived first in the Aurigan coalition, even if he had expected that some engagement against pirates would be on the itinerary. Already he dreaded the conversations with the elders scattered amongst the fleet.


Heedless of such things or at least not commenting the mechanical djinn of the Terran world of Northwind the ai Dante continued to tally the ongoing battle on the surface of the planet. "We have full network coverage,"


"The fools actually thought they were getting away?" Yusef asked over the line. The younger Azami JumpShip master was the picture of glee, you would have thought him a good ten years younger.


The scottish brogue of the machine spirit peaked through a synthetic guffaw, "They were given the opportunity to surrender." The ... living might not have been the best description, but the assault dropships had turned and rolled to engage the DropShip which had broken orbit. Braunfelds and Hedwig named for ancient places on Terra as he understood had struck like lightning when the offer to surrender was rebuffed by the brigands.


"It does seem as if the pirates are not aware of our boarding actions."


"Yes, well, that is what electronic warfare is for." The AI observed, "Point to point laser coms would function but they can't do that to JumpShips without an orbital presence," At least not without a significant, dedicated ground based system... and you couldn't fit one of those on a battlemech... and even on a command vehicle such would have been surely LosTech... and even then with their enemy's holding the orbital high ground the pirates had little hope of being able to relay word to the Jump Point... or for the pirate jumpships to get word out of their predicament.


In a way of course he was relieved... the truth was since he had seen the sleeping leviathan in the anchorage at Lockdale, he himself had not slept well. Warships were the relics of the disastrous early succession wars ... the idea that Kerensky's exodus had retained their warship, such that ... their no doubt prolific descendants would have them to still wield worried him. The appearance of warships would almost certainly mean nuclear responses... the dragon had thus far not used nuclear weapons to attempt to fend off House Davion's blows... but the truth was he was alarmed at the possibility that Kerensky's people might reappear in the time they were making the inbound trip from Alamut and that they would be caught unawares.


It was something of a recurring nightmare... but on the other hand, he was relieved that the battle of Coromdir had no involved such colossal machines.
--
Gene adjusted his boots where it was starting to rub the back of his right heel. He'd get a new pair of boots soon, but these had gotten him through everything after Elidere. They had as far as shoes that he more or less wore every day had held up pretty well, but it was getting time to change them.
His radio came online. "Markham's still staked out at the star port apparently their contractor won't think of letting him leave." That was fair, the merchant wanted that 75 ton Marauder that Markham drove close enough to touch, "His XO should be here any minute boss." Septim remarked over the line, heedless that Gene was fiddling with his foot wear. Cuing his throat mike he grunted an acknowledgement to the information and looked over the situation.


A set of Highlander Assault Mechs drawn from the second company of cadets or recently graduated cadets were positioned on defensive over watch. Their machines were Star League era, they had Gauss Rifles and LRMs if anything entered long range, and they had clean sight lines. Backing them up were further Blackwell industry built tanks and clusters of infantry recruited on Northwind. The omni vehicles filled out an impressive sight, a reassuring sight he imagined to the collected natives.


... now if only there wasn't a large and and prominent Cameron starburst having been erected at garrison... he suspected that the Northwind recruits had probably stolen the idea from the way the 3rd​ RCT established their own CP while on Dieron. It was also just as likely that the Northwind natives were doing it directly in response to all the Amaris symbols in the pirates' ranks that was a little more apparent as they dug through tanks, and bits of graffiti covered trucks.


... and with the pirates in mind they were going to need to catalog the battle roms, report that and the combat that to the MRB. That was probably going to raise questions... he wasn't precisely sure how that jurisdiction ... what kind of jurisdictional friction was going to cause. He knew, or at least expected that there would be... but the Aurigan Coalition's government seemed shaky at best... he certainly didn't want to be the one to push it over the edge. The old fortress had had its city spring up around it, that probably compromised some of its defensive integrity, but then again it probably didn't matter all that much... this ... clusterfuck couldn't possibly have been something the locals reasonably would have prepared for.


They were lucky that Coromodir VI's MRB outpost was as large as it was... was it large enough to handle them? Were they even set up to do anything more than credit their account? Was the Precentor New Avalon capable of paying the bounty... probably, but it might end up in an escrow account that would require time and a trip back to Davion space rather than payout in money they could immediately access. He might have been overthinking things, or worrying too much, but it was a thought that had crossed his mind.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Shame there aren't any prefix codes for SLDF kit that Dante could use otherwise it would be a cakewalk to beat them. That does give me ideas for a amaris war AU though

 

[Imperator Pax]

Shame there aren't any prefix codes for SLDF kit that Dante could use otherwise it would be a cakewalk to beat them. That does give me ideas for a amaris war AU though

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Yeah, we've had this conversation before where the Hegemony thinking machines get to go 'no nice toys for you' & 'those are mine'.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Yeah, we've had this conversation before where the Hegemony thinking machines get to go 'no nice toys for you' & 'those are mine'.

Click to shrink...

Point... maybe the prefix codes would be on the 6 command mckennas?

 

[SGlenn]

Hey out of curiosity who all knows that he is from the past. I'd like to read chapter or two on people's reaction on it.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Hey out of curiosity who all knows that he is from the past. I'd like to read chapter or two on people's reaction on it.

Click to shrink...

The Davion leadership is aware, the O5P leadership suspects, the command staff of the company knows, Northwind leadership knows

 

[kioras]

now if only there wasn't a large and and prominent Cameron starburst having been erected at garrison... he suspected that the Northwind recruits had probably stolen the idea from the way the 3rd RCT established their own CP while on Dieron. It was also just as likely that the Northwind natives were doing it directly in response to all the Amaris symbols in the pirates' ranks that was a little more apparent as they dug through tanks, and bits of graffiti covered trucks.

Click to shrink...

This has all the sort of flags to trigger as a crusade for this unit and the fleet.

Now they just have to work over both salvage and pay. Salvage will be a real pain without a contract before landing.

 

[Spectral Avatar]

Heh. No official contract yet and he's already boarding the drop ships in orbit. Good odds that they may be able to nab the jump ships too using them. Looks like he's gonna get some serious growth right there.

 

[Kildar]

Hey out of curiosity who all knows that he is from the past. I'd like to read chapter or two on people's reaction on it.

Click to shrink...

I think a lot of the top level folks suspect, there were a few sections from their perspective.
No one has just outright asked him however.

 

[Imperator Pax]

I think a lot of the top level folks suspect, there were a few sections from their perspective.
No one has just outright asked him however.

Click to shrink...

This, and par t of this is currently in snippets that will probably go up in the Junkyard but Gene's specific exposure is so limitted that even that it makes news that it effects perceptions.

Sit down with Hanse Davion, with the duke of Robinson, but well at this point he hasn't met MHD... he has had basically no contact with the other great houses its all davion basically, and Abner isn't about to tell his fellow members of IE the story so the Lyrans don't know anything or have reason to suspect

the ISF and O5P have different motivations and thus different outlooks on the situation, Florimel is thinking about House Kurita's honor and history, Subhash's focus is the current modern state and its internal divisions and is at the moment probably thinking more along the lines of 'oh he's their yorinaga guy thats a DCMS problem' because Shepherd is a military commander he's not a political figure or political leadership

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 9​

"... and I mean on top of that, you're going to have the Magistracy ambassador asking all sorts of questions... I'm sure the bulls ambassador has questions too seeing as you just come from their end of space, but you've done work for Canopus before." Darius shrugged the picture of youthful boyish energy good nature and all the while still savvy business minded executive officer.


Raju Montgomery had left more or less ... well maybe he had decided to leave on the chance that going to talk to Markham might have yielded something, and Markham wasn't coming in person after Oliveira had shown up.


Darius however had danced around the size of the force, and the difference. This wasn't Luxen a few years ago... and it wasn't Detroit either the planetary government nominally was head of government kind of sort of... Detroit had been weird with its corporate oligarchy thing going on. That wasn't the case with the Aurigans regardless. House Arano ruled Coromdir VI it ruled the Aurigan Reach as High Land... thus was in charge of the Coaltion as head of state and government. "You've been around them for a while," enough that Darius should have at least had some idea what to expect, "What should I expect from the Magistracy," Since he'd singled out their ambassador, and he doubted it was 'just' because of a previous working relationship with their government.


Darius Oliveira tugged on his short jacket, and then shrugged, "Everyone has been under a lot of stress to tell it like it is." Oliveira didn't seem to begrudge them going into the Inner Sphere for a contract with a big house. That didn't necessarily mean it was true, but Oliveira probably wouldn't have let it show in this situation... besides they weren't here to push the Marauders out of a job.


He'd been warned about that kind of threat from larger more established groups back on Luxen when they'd gotten the first regular contract with the Magistracy as a Company. The company as a legal entity had really... well everything had changed, and he wasn't sure if this Centrella cadet member grasped that more than anyone else. "What was the pirates objectives then, it sounds like the ambassadors were getting acrimonious with each other?"


"I mean yeah, that's true they did go at it, I was in ear shot for that..." Darius paused, "Both of them are accusing the other of using the pirates to their advantage, they're governments of course they're going to use what's happening as an excuse to things they wanted to do anyway." Both the Taurians and the Magistracy were holding Black Jack up as an example of why their respective states should if not be in charge to other outlying independent worlds then at least as an example of why closer ties diplomatically, economically, and that military coordination... read basing rights should all be topics of discussion... but while those had been existing issues of tensions of state competition it had escalated with the other implication that both sides were doing more than just taking advantage of the attacks in other ways... which had blown up into straight out accusations of state sponsored or at least endorsed attacks by the pirates by the taurians.


"What brought that accusation on?" Gene asked, he was attempting not to turn this into what might be perceived as an interrogation but... on the other hand, "That's a strong accusation isn't it?" he said taking a softer tack but asking the same question."


"Oh for sure, and the Taurians probably aren't doing that.... at least not the actual bulls government, but there are pirates who are former taurian citizens, are taurian citizens and you know mechwarriors paint their 'mechs." Darius replied hastily.


... and even if they hadn't seen it it was just as possible that there were Canopian nationals in the pirates... and it was only a matter of time before some Taurian lost his temper and pointed out Kossandra Centrella had been a pirate back in ancient history before the Magistracy had even been a free hold. If that was all that was going there, it was a pretty water substance to level the accusation, but it might poll well with the masses in the wait of an attack... and sway public opinion for supporting a less Taurian friendly policy. "Anything else about the pirates?"


"Maybe not these pirates, unless Black Jack manages to bring them into line, but I had just inked a deal with Lord Tamati for a planned campaign to hit the pirate clans on Fjaldr," and Darius had confided that the whole Fjaldr campaign had been a mess for the Aurigans to get rolling... and that there was no way that the pirates there didn't know that it was coming, but the idea of a government debate calling up troops and apportioning funding for the campaign had been... a shit show in the Aurigan legislature.


That could have been coincidence or not... one of the pirates who had attacked with Black Jack was one Grim Sybil and had been one of the few to get away... but it was equally good that that was due to an authoritative or lack thereof chain of command with the pirates. It was either that or Black Jack had had a watcher posted, some one with orders to be ready to jump if things started going pear shaped... but maybe he was just being paranoid.
--
He had, or would have accepted the invitation the second time it had been made anyway, but he had wanted to confirm details of the pirate attack. Black Jack or his local commander had sent thrusts first and foremost at the comstar bureau and the star port. Since Black Jack had no qualms about , and seemed to emphasize even going after HPG stations to keep word from getting out that division of forces was typical but it had also probably helped keep the defenders in the fight.


Any one strong point thrust and given what the Aurigans had on call on short notice and the pirates could have forced their way through... and the less disciplined pirates had followed the main attack and they had went after more typical smash and grab targets ... which had caused chaos but by that point the mechanized infantry the aurigans liked to use were dug in and weren't really engaging in maneuver warfare. The geography both the natural terrain, and the human made modifications of centuries of inhabitations had then favored the defenders.


Septim gave a low whistle as moved to look at one of the pillars. The aurigans had provided light refreshment, and the Lyran had grabbed a pilsner to wile away the time, "This place reminds me of the Archon's palace on Tharkad."


Gene nodded. He had a seismographic map from his Marauder, and Dante's report from that data,
"Yes, they did a good job repairing it." He replied looking around and then pointing to the ceiling, "You can there where the DOME replaced a structural support," Where an industrial mech had spider walked across the floor and installed a structural support. The remodeling of the original Taurian architecture to cover up where... most likely SLDF war machines had breached the fortress and taken out Amaris's local leadership two hundred years earlier.

"Why didn't they fix the guns then?"

"Even discounting having the parts, most likely because the Taurians were in open revolt and fighting for Amaris." And with the situation in 2766 being as bad as it seemed why install replacement guns if you were afraid the rebels might turn those guns against you... still the Cordia city palace was an amazing blend of polished and transparent metals and ceramics built in an already picturesque countryside. It was a fairy tale castle, and in significantly better condition than the residences of the various dukes of the Elidere system... which made sense Elidere was too close to the Combine border... and of course they would have to go back to Elidere at some point... given the situation he probably owed it to Kerston to re authorize their access to the Fort if a campaign against the Combine was in the wings.


... but for now this periphery business was going to monopolize their attention... and of course waiting in the wings were the ambassadors from the taurian concodant and the magistracy of canopus... both of whom were clearly at a heighted state of animosity with one another.

"Why do I not like that look?" He asked Bahar as Septim took a pull from his beer.

"The Magistracy has already extended feelers out through the MRB." Gene glanced sideways to Bahar, even as he did the mental math regarding how far they were from the modern Canopian border with that in mind it was most likely the local ambassador... even so it risked creating problems. This whole mess was complicating their travel itinerary.

The Rasalhagian contingent knew that the Azami had managed to carve out 'colonies out there in the black' but they weren't up on the details. The original plan, back before Dieron, and the extent of ISF reprisals had been to leave directly from the Aurigan reach, but plans changed even before other things had come up.


"And?"


"We must also consider that while the letters issued by the Precentor New Avalon grant us... certain standings I wouldn't be surprised if the local MRB recognizes Aurigan interests on military salvage on the ground."


"That's fair." He replied. He hardly expected to just grab everything... but the truth was the real reason he wanted the techs to look over things were intelligence and data collections. He wanted to know where the hell Black Jack had gotten his gear... and more ideally what the fuck was going. "I expected there will be some wheeling and dealing on that regardless. How are things on Pasha's end?"


"As of the last check in... he'd like more medical personnel available, but we can draw those from the fleet without recalling our people on the ground."


Well, that was good at least. Small mercies, given the topic they were dancing around. He'd been on this planet for less than forty eight hours and he already had a headache coming on.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 10​

The Magistracy of Canopus was not a great military power. There had always been political, as well as practical economic limitations to the military resources of the Magistracy, and only some of that short fall could be made up for with mercenaries. Therefor the threat posed by Black Jack McGirk was effectively an unheard, a black swan event in terms of overarching strategic planning, the kind of thing that threw everything into disarray.


Instead of the pirate forces either splintering or attritting themselves in raids across the periphery they had enough of a hardware edge, and enough of a coherent strategy to have increased in potency as they had moved into the rimward periphery. They never stayed anywhere long... Black Jack wasn't or had made no attempt to attempt to turn legitimate ... and it hadn't escaped the Canopian intelligence services that something was off about his behavior. ComStar, and thus to an extent the MRB, were being targeted. HPG centers which should have been sacrosanct in the combat of the Succession wars were being targeted. Part of that was that despite being active for decades Black Jack's pirates had never made an attempt to sell out or get hired on by a legitimate state. They'd actually doubled down on acts against civilization, the brutalization of civilian population centers had become more pronounced as they had worked around the periphery.


They had not been expecting reinforcements, or rescue, either. If they were lucky they could have hidden until the pirates decided to leave... and important lesson for the members of the nobility, and reiterated for the diplomatic service was an understanding of who, typically a soldier of a foreign state, and particularly officers belonged. She had been made to memorize dozens of dress uniforms from various states of the Inner Sphere.


For the most part Shepherd's Company wore SLDF style uniforms. A cut of uniform and in patterns popular across the whole of human inhabited space... but Shepherd had always had, and his Highlander units wore the uniform of Terran Hegemony troopers. The Azami uniforms were a variation of the Draconis Combine SLDF service uniforms of the Star League era, but that only made the distinction all the clearer when she had been able to pull the latest that the MRB had available.


There were written indications from the campaign on Dieron, but no footage from the roms of the battle had been transmitted to the local MRB station... maybe by the time her message reached Canopus the MRB office there would have received those battle roms for the Magistracy's military and intelligence to review. She was hardly the only one delving into the local MRB station... not with how ComStar had emphasized the danger posed by Black Jack's pirates as they reaved their way across space, and with seemingly no one able to stop them.

Ana Marie Centrella didn't necessarily believe the pirates were unstoppable, but the average person whose experience was the news could have been excused for accepting that at face value. For all of ComStar's wealth they hadn't been able to do more than tar and feather the pirates in the public consciousness which did nothing to stop the actual physical rampages.


--
Airspace Command had updated his tally of just heavy transport dropships that had come in over the last few hours. Raju had a headache.. and it wasn't from coming down off the battle either. The RCT parked on their doorstep was the strangest thing he'd ever seen... which was saying something since the situation with Black Jack's pirates attacking had been the previous contender for that. The pirate king was using Star League era equipment... that at least was easy enough to rationalize...


A piper signaled, the blast on the bagpipes bringing the battalion of infantry into formation.


The Northwind infantry carried star league laser rifles that looked like they were fresh out of the box... they were carried in hover craft that Raju had never seen before... but he'd been to Kimi a time or two on the Aurigan Frontier where the new Salvationists worshipped the Star League. The Aurigans looked back fondly on the Star League but the Church of St Cameron wasn't that prominent in the reach... but Raju knew what Star League era symbols looked like. If it had just been that it would have been one thing... the periphery attracted all kinds after all, and plenty of mercenary outfits had no shortage of character.


What most mercenary outfits, at least in these parts, didn't have were the abundance of metal to go along with their weird behaviors. Still, they were more like the Eridani than they were say the Knights of St Cameron... Raju wasn't sure if that worried him more or less. Right now, Lord Tamati was addressing the other Council Lords of the Reach. Kamea, and Victoria were still outside of the fortress with their battlemechs... and the truth was the plan had been to be able to manage a fighting retreat underground, if Cordia city looked like it was going to fall, if they couldn't hold the capital against the pirates.


... And then just like that everything had changed again. There were no shortages of Catapults now, and more than a few Kintaros which was more unusual despite it being a lighter 'mech. The founding houses couldn't have missed that either.

Kamea's own Kintaro shifted, and that told him enough to turn the speaker back up. Lord Tamati had yielded the podium to his brother in law. Santiago had always been more of a firebrand in his rhetoric... not all of it was good cop bad cop. Tamati was better suited to the cat herding that defined council politics ... but council politics didn't ordinarily entail the current problems.


There was a ripple across his front screen, and the Centurion's holographic projector illuminated, "Captain Montgomery," Not Sir Raju, the Marauder pilot didn't have a fishbowl on either, in fact he didn't seem to have a neurohelmet on at all. "We've completed combat operations and secured landing zones for our humanitarian aide personnel I understand that there are still other details we need to discuss with local authorities, if now is good to open those talks I believe one of the sheiks is already acquainted with your Lord Karosas."


That was a surprise. Not necessarily an unwelcome one... but on the other hand. "That's good to hear I'll inform Lord Tamati of that. Humanitarian aid?"


"I have doctors, and engineers available and on call, one of my DropShips is a mobile field hospital we deployed it during the second wave of landings." The younger man replied flickering motes of light dancing in front of his image no doubt projected up from his Command BattleMech's LosTech computer systems.
--
The truth was the Reach Council had already been in the process of reviewing what they could piece together of the situation. Santiago had his hands clasped behind his back, and was making a point of having his back turned towards the hold outs on the council. His sister did not approve of course, which meant she shared her husband's disapproval... but the truth was he could not stand to look at Lord Decimus right now.


Realistically, logically it was perhaps petulant. Even if the hold outs on the council had not stymied the most recent proposed military reforms and the recommendations for a larger budget, and and an expanded military... the pirates still would have been attacking. The truth was there little that they could have done in the face of the immediate assault on Coromdir VI, and the capital. They would have fought of course, there could be no questioning the bravery of the Coalition Military as it resisted... but they were fighting and dying against Star League hardware.


Too much, the overwhelming majority of Aurigan Military equipment was modern equipment produced in the last seventy odd years or even newer. Very little of the equipment their ancestors had settled the reach after the fall of the Star League remained, and that put them at a disadvantage against the barbarians at the gate.


Tamati for his part understood this. The holographic globe which dominated the council table, swam with a twisting pattern of lights as the LosTech processed the data. Lord Tamati knew he was in a bind. There was no questioning his popularity as first among equals, but he needed to weigh the opinions of his fellow founding houses. The threat of pirate attacks was the sort of thing that made the Aurican Coalition Military ... most generally react by withdrawing to protect their respective noble lords and homes it made it difficult to root out the problem at its source...

... and there was the potential solution to that of using mercenaries. He had hoped that a combination of the Royal Guard and trustworthy Mercenaries, like those under Commander Markham's banner would be enough to cleanse the bandits from Fjaldr... but then Aea had happened, which had been horrifying news in itself.

... even though his brother in law had opined that it also settle for the time being any disputes over the world with the Taurians. No one would be pressing a claim over a ravaged basically abandoned world especially with the HPG network, one of the major items of value destroyed.

The coalition had been frantic over just normal pirate threats, that Black Jack McGirk had turned his attention here had been a surprise... and there had been nothing to do but stand and fight.....

Fight and die most likely.


If not for Commander Markham being present, if not for that extra battalion then they would have been in more dire straits. What they had not expected was the arrival of a terrifyingly large, especially by the standards of the succession wars and the periphery. There shouldn't have been any fleets that large in the periphery but news travelled slow in the Periphery and it just hadn't reached them. "Santiago?" His brother in law shifted at the inquiry. "We have the MRB data." Serena remarked, "If you would be so kind as to join us at the table."

 

[Kyryst]

Time for reactions to Elidere and Dieron, as well as all the other battles. Waiting for the jaw drops for the number of mech kills Gene has. LOL.

 

[Bofors40mm]

i do wonder what impression Gene has had one Kamea and Victoria and in what way.
Showing up like a hero of old to save the day has to leave one hell of impression

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 11 (A)
​

The Aurigans had really rolled out the red carpet, and well, "Kind of reminds me of Elidere," Septim remarked as he surveyed their surroundings more closely after having been admitted into the center of Aurigan governance. There were actual government functionaries around, and some degree of hustle given the fallout of the attack, but that wasn't surprising.


On some level, well, Gene did find himself agreeing with that statement either Elidere or Ander's moon really. There were obvious similarities. They weren't exactly the same but it was clear that the Aurigans, or at least Coromdir's inhabitants looked back on the Star League as the lost golden age of mankind. He blew out a breath glancing up at Cordia Palace's ceiling... and the frescos filling ceiling in some kind of Neo Spanish baroque. Dante had put together the official draft statement regarding humanitarian aid and search and rescue efforts.


It was a boiler plate Star League statement was what it was. That wasn't a joke or exaggeration, Gene was almost certain that the template if not the actual words on the paper had come out of some foreign relations sub unit of the Hegemony. Those leaflets could have easily have been printed out by the Administrative offices of the Star League since they were aimed at the same end goal.


"So they said they were ready for us right?"


That was what Raju Montgomery had said, "Yeah," He replied to the antsy Lyran, "Do you want to go talk to the Ambassador from Canopus?" Septim's eyes bugged out slightly, cadet branch or not no one had missed the Ambassador's last name. "Its either that or she waits until after I've talked to the locals... and I'm going to be honest I expect this will take a while... you can go talk to the MRB officer," He was hoping that the letter from Vandal would clear things up, but it was still sounding like they probably were heading into some legal dispute over salvage rights... and that wasn't something he really wanted to waste a lot of time with. The truth was with as many civilians as they had, they needed to get the fleet to a point where they could get on the road to Alamut and out of, off of contemporary star charts. "Those Rim World markings may be nothing... but then again, they might not." ... and given the make up of the majority of the command the last thing he needed was a disturbance on a nothing. "I want to know if they have anything more on that, and the MRB should be able to tell us more about the pirates."


"Aren't we planning to swing out to Detroit, and the Magistracy after that?"


"Yeah, we'll be visiting Luxen," And Aquagea, which would be after Detroit, but before then, "But I don't want to cause any confusion about our travel schedule." They were probably going to get questions about that anyway.


"What about the Taurians?"


"I don't know, we haven't gotten anything from his office yet... so we're in a wait and see for the moment.
--
The council shifted. The MRB was an .. well offshoot wasn't the right word, but ComStar was the only real source of information that they could turn to in these situations. Dieron, and Elidere were worlds deep in the Inner Sphere especially relative to the rim ward periphery. Santiago remembered enough of his lessons to Victoria about the First of the Succession wars to know where Elidere was, and who ruled it... and who had claimed Dieron. Ownership had apparently changed recently, with this Dieron campaign by House Davion. Recent enough, that the Ambassador from the Concordat had known nothing... but if the First Prince was having success against the Combine the Taurians were likely to be nervous.


Shepherd's Company had just departed from Davion Service earlier in the year. The center most of the prominent trivid was a still holographic image of a young man, probably only a few years older than his daughter or his niece Kamea. The young man stood in dark black pilot suit not terribly unlike the one his grand father had worn that had been passed from the 28th​ century. The image though included the true bona fides of a mechwarrior, the listing of confirmed, by a reputable authority, kills.

His brother inlaw, Santiago Espinosa, had turned around and looked at the data, projected by the holographic globe, and schooled his features, but Tamati had seen the twitch. "You realize that is more mechs than in the whole army." His brother in law commented to the High Lady of the Aurigan Reach Serena Arano nee Espinosa. What Santiago was referring to was the list of confirmed 'Mech kills, and his brother in law had been fastidious in reviewing the available battle footage of the relief of their nation's capital as it came into the Aurigan war room. Even so the numbers were so... if not for the battle roms from somewhere called Elidere in the Federated Suns ... the MRB office did not have footage from the more recent battle of Dieron... he might have questioned their accuracy. Instead he watched as BattleMechs were sliced down with daring tenacity that stood out. "Leaving aside that and of course it much justifying a moniker as the walking death," Santiago clicked the chart.


Tamati had noticed the alias that the Combine had apparently dubbed the young man. His wife's attention was elsewhere though. She did have a point though.

The table of organization was obviously out of date. Then again, that seemed to be a trend, the previous update of the file from Shepherd's Company with the MAF on Luxen was of a much smaller contingent of soldiers.


There was certainly no ' 588th ASF Regiment' listed in the organization. There was a 'ground aerospace wing' a term he had only used perhaps once or twice in his lessons with Kamea when speaking of ancient history. A term that his father had only used in those same lessons without much use in the modern day. 'Bardiche' was listed as a Battalion of Regular experience and reliable. Claymore, appended with an also known as Shepherd's Highlanders, was also battalion strength but had warranted the notation of Veteran unit by the MRB showing significant tallies of hostile forces from the DCMS destroyed on Dieron. There were other tactical sub units... but he had seen those in action as they had finished destroying the pirates invading his home world.

"Lord Karosas." Serena addressed the old achaeo-technologist, "Do you have something you wish to add?"

"My colleagues vouch for their conduct," Not that there was any need for such vouching, duplicity would have been completely unnecessary given the weight of numbers. "I have no reason to doubt their story, what other explanation would there be?"

Tamati chuffed slightly louder than he meant to as he considered things. "I. If I recall correctly didn't you have a number of Azami make a visit a few years ago."

"They did." Lord Karosas replied. "I suspect that that venture was the beginning of whatever colony they've established... but they have not confirmed that."

Lord Tamati could easily gauge the turning in his brother in law's head. He had likely been weighing if the Coalition might not have benefitted from having such an exodus settle on their existing worlds and if it was worth any potential complications with other interstellar nations.

"It is an issue distinct." Santiago remarked with velvet care, as he began to count off, "We have the pirates, who must be killed." He glared across the table, at the holdouts against committing to military action, mood changing like ocean tides, "We have a powerful military force whose intentions we must be sure of but certainly their friendship would extraordinarily valuable to the Reach, and of course then we have the matter of their dependents whom if such is the case," He made a wide sweeping gesture towards a star map, "Are in fact to be our neighbors then it is imperative we remain on cordial terms."

He was correct, and one of the other founders quickly agreed suggesting they think of the added jumpship traffic they could potentially bring and the effect that that would have to trade in this part of the periphery.


"It should I think be obvious, the Company has an extensive Azami body to it." Tamati remarked turning to the still most immediate military matter... much as he would have liked to agree with the prime minister that trade was a very desirable prospect to contemplate.

--
Notes: Due to extenuating IRL circumstances this has been split into A and B.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars 11 (B)
--​

The architecture of the room more reflected the Victorian esque tones favored by the late Star League, it was free of the sprawling art work... which had admittedly probably given lots of local workmen, craftsmen, and artists work whenever the Aurigans had done those renovations. This room was older, and may have dated to the initial post League years built while mainstream star league era styles were still in vogue, and the technology here was los Tech.

Tamati Arano was a fairly large man, he was taller than Soren in any event. Not that Bardiche's CO was present, he was on second line watch with MacIntyre holding the field command of search and rescue operations in and around the Aurigan capital.


It was obvious also that the Aurigans were monitoring those ongoing S&R operations using the Star League era LosTech computers they had.... which frankly gene would have been surprised hadn't left them vulnerable to being back doored by Dante. Whether or not that included audio intercepts from within this chamber ... well it was probably likely, and even a conventional mercenary outfit could have probably leveraged that to their advantage.


The problem, Gene supposed was little of this situation was conventional. Black Jack's priority seemed to be the HPG network, was that part of some insane grand strategy, if he managed to burn down all the rimward periphery hpgs then what? Surely if he had pissed off the Magistracy and the Taurians and then settled down it would provoke some kind of retaliation they wouldn't just leave the pirate king alone... but the rimward periphery was a big place maybe Black Jack didn't have territorial ambitions and just expected.... maybe given past experience on the Lyran-Drac border... that he could just continue to raid. That tentatively could have explained stomping the HPGs, but it didn't fit with Aea.


Rather than a question of who benefitted, the opposite who suffered the largest financial loss was easy ComStar. The pirate king was targeting ComStar, but with no indication to whether there was some higher level goal. So this didn't seem to be about money... and while a conventional mercenary outfit would have put more priority on cash or other concessions... well Gene's expression was focused on the hologlobe of a BattleMaster being eaten up by air to ground fire from a flight of Rapiers, an image saved for posterity by coalition ground pounders.


Houses Espinosa and Arano both called the system home. The other 'founders' were from other systems but espinosa ruled V, and Arano ruled VI and had since the late 28th century had ruled the 'Aurigan space' independent in practice of any historical claims by the Taurain concordant. It hadn't escaped Gene either that the Concordat ambassador was absence... though he did have to wonder what the man made of all the SLDF and pro star league iconography even just the locals had all over their walls... never mind ... never mind the way the unit's mechs were painted.


One of the Azami elders seemed to be in a serious conversation that he and, a man later introduced as Lord Karosas from some other system, were attempting to keep confined to hushed tones. Even without being able to hear them he could guess that it entailed the other aspect of recovery efforts... Black Jack's pirates had landed in serious force by periphery standards, and given that they were talking about the periphery that material left on the battlefield would have been worth a lot of money normally... never mind the equipment the pirates had access to... and it was for that reason he was mulling over the console.


He sighed, "May I borrow this Lord Tamati," The big man paused, started at the question, and Gene clarified what he meant, that he wanted to 'borrow' to use the holographic console's terminal and pressed a series of media access keys, "I was on Luxen when Black Jack's pirates attacked in 3016," There the pirates had managed to jump into a transient jump point... a pirate point, and scramble from their jumpships with hardly any warning. ComStar's local presence had ponied up a bounty for that fight as well... nothing like what the Precentor New Avalon had offered but at the time well given the situation it had been gratis. "At the time we were told that Black Jack had a regiment worth of Heavy BattleMechs implied to have been drawn from the SLDF, and the JumpShips to move them."


That wasn't apparently news to some of the Aurigan Nobles, and a severe looking noble of Spanish extraction had to chastise his daughter... since she assumed he had gotten his hands for what amounted to grave robbing. " The graying statesman remarked, "But regardless they have very dangerous weapons." And you needed mechs to fight mechs, LosTech against LosTech certainly helped even things up.

Gene punched up a series of images from Luxen of a pair of identical machines, "The Ostroc was never a common BattleMech, best that we can tell these machines were built 2680s," And probably had been ready reserve machines for Hegemony forces... but if that were the case how had they ended up in the periphery? At the time he hadn't know that, and he hadn't made note of the standard SLDF style camoflage, a temperate not really reflective of Luxen, the two machines had been painted in... not when he'd been too focused on shooting them. It and the SLDF pattern Thunderbolt Beau had gotten tangled up with had been nasty surprises for the magistracy regulars. "the attack here includes Star League weapon examples, but also then there is this."


The image shifted to footage from yesterday, positive telemetry on a hovertank in a dark blue urban camo like its compatriots... and a breaching shark rampant.


"The Rim World Republic." Tamati murmured gravenly recognizing the symbols from history lessons.


"Has Black Jack expressed any sort of territorial ambitions," It seemed a bit much to assume this was an attempt at psychological warfare given the state of education, why use Rim World and Amaris regulars even... "Because now this is a case of using machines that did probably come from more than one SLDF cache, being," He saw the old Sheikh's expression twist up, "Defaced with the other side's markings... and that isn't normal." Then again none of this was normal, and they had been supremely lucky to make it here. "And what it suggests to me, is that we will see an escalation in violence."


Santiago Espinosa, who had of course been pushing for a mobilization of the coalition military beyond just the pre invasion operation plans for clearing out the bandits on Fjaldr nodded. "Which of course brings us to the issue of material recovery." It wasn't a question he was just broaching the topic everyone had been dancing around.


"I need access to their computer hardware. The DropShips that attempted to cut and run aren't going to be able to provide much." Anything that had managed to get off the ground, and burned hard for exo atmospheric, "Not so much because of navigation data but for ideas of where these people, and what they've done elsewhere. Where their machines came from, we are willing to reciprocate that in turn with star charts and other information secured from the JumpShips."


"You took prisoners?"


"Some." He replied keeping it short, with effort. "We will turn them over to your justice system once we're finished." He replied. "My more significant concern is the likelihood of escalation, on Luxen there was the suggestion from Intelligence that Black Jack had ties into the pirates of Tortuga."

"Given his association with other affiliated pirates," Tamati replied, "That does seem to be the case, I have spoken with our ambassador from the Magistracy regarding those who participated, and it seems as if Black Jack is able to exercise influence over pirates across the rimward periphery without being physically present." That was the thing... the pirate king and his orion hadn't been seen in months, but he had had new and very vocal lieutenants join his ranks, and who had been obviously rewarded for it. The PNA dossier on Kelly's Kommandos came to mind, and what Kristofur Kelly had been known to get up to... which was just another indicator towards escalating violence

 

[Imperator Pax]

Ghost Who Walks
Autumn 3019
Pirate Wars Interlude: The Inner Sphere Consequences​

It would take months for news in the periphery to make its way back into the Inner Sphere normally. Vice versa wasn't usually true. The course of development by which the Inner Sphere had industrialized in terms of human space the density of human colonies had fostered a certain chauvinism with regards to what was outside those rather arbitrary boundaries.


The opposite was not necessarily true for a simple reason that the dismissiveness of say the Great Houses could not be reciprocated. New Avalon would have been perfectly happy to be allowed to forget the Taurian Concordat even existed. The Draconis Combine ordinarily didn't care that the Magistracy of Canopus was even a real place it was just that far away. The Free Worlds League would have been content to ignore the Marians. However the periphery states could not simply ignore what happened in the Inner Sphere even with the degraded state of the HPG network, or the more limited numbers of JumpShips available for merchant duties.


JumpShips were a strategic level component though, all too frequently needed for military campaigns.


There were five successor states. House Kurita, and House Davion only represented two. Then there was also ComStar on Terra. Ordinarily Comstar's dominance over interstellar news services still entailed some degree of 'light speed lag', where in the HPG networks carried news from elsewhere in the galaxy, usually after it had been shipped coreward to Terra for review and distribution. Something that had been sidestepped in the Federated Suns, and to a lesser extent in the Draconis Combine as a result of the breach of the Elidere HPG compound's neutrality, even if officially the Combine disavowed responsibility for that incident.


Then of course both Dieron and Altair had fallen, and fallen much earlier and much sooner than even Davion planners had expected. Border changes in the 3rd​ Succession War were not unheard of but had been relatively uncommon. It was the sort of news that the other Successor states took note of House Liao, House Steiner, and House Marik who respectively ruled the Capellan Confederation, the Lyran Commonwealth, and the Free Worlds League.


... and again ComStar. The fall of Dieron had consequences. Precentor Yin Takami had overseen a reform of the First Circuit, among other actions during his tenure, and the reform had made Precentor Dieron responsible for all HPG stations in the Draconis Combine. This had been in part an internal selection by ComStar wagering that Dieron was less homogenized into the culture of the Combine and that that might be exploited, but also on the assumption that the borders nearest to Terra were some of the most stable. The responsibility for the Combine's HPGs could not fall to a world under Davion rule... similarly there was no easy solution of recalling Precentor Altair since that world had also fallen to the Davions.


The Precentor New Avalon had as nominal protector, and certainly by Yin Takami's reforms superior over the Precentor Elidere had undertaken a number of actions against the Combine which certainly skirted if not went over the issue of the Order's neutrality. That predominantly took the form of uncensored news broadcasts to worlds within range of Davion stations as well as near as possible to break new coverage across Davion coverage. The result was to inflame passions across the Federated Suns, and to undermine the Combine at home after Elidere. In part because, presumably on the assumption that any broadcasts coming must have been vetted or approved, were often simply passed on through the network with other news... which of course the Precentor New Avalon had banked on, and that had held true when he had sent trusted members of the New Avalon ComStar mission to Dieron, and Altair to oversee the handover of authority, had also entailed sanctioned news broadcasts to go out.


All of those were only part of the consequences of a raid that had just gone sour. Davion propaganda and its Combine equivalents were working over time since Elidere. For the rest of the Successor states, for the rest of the Inner Sphere it meant the news trickled into the other successor states. Elidere meant little to either the Capellans or the Free Worlds League, and even for the Lyrans the destruction of the 19th​ Galedon was less important than it was to the Draconis March of the Federated Suns. That was the important caveat of the news broadcasts, Elidere's cache material didn't make the broadcast news crossing the border, the cache on Robinson was popularly misunderstood by spy agencies to have been from the 100th​ BattleMech Division of the SLDF especially as House Sandoval happily used Castor Division symbols. This was the assumption that WolfNet passed on to the leadership of the Dragoons.


House Davion, and House Steiner had been in talks for almost a generation. Those talks had begun small, but had grown over Ian Davion's time as First Prince. The Archon of House Steiner had already begun drafting her peace proposal to the other great houses. This would not be released publicly to the other successor states until the following year, but Katrina Steiner and her closest advisors had already been in the process of writing the proposal in the spring campaigning season of 3019. The publication of the ISF archives on Dieron were important for bilateral talks to follow between Archon and First Prince, they were a stepping stone.


The losses the combine had taken were unsustainable especially given no corresponding Davion losses. The DMM had been emphasizing a Combined Arms, tanks and artillery, expansion for both fiscal reasons as well as experience since Aaron Sandoval had come to power and those had only begun to increase after 3015, never mind the victory at Elidere... and it was to be at Robinson that the next Combine thrust was to be aimed.


An attack that the DCMS leadership would not countenance being carried out by either the Arkab Legions or troops from the Rasalhague Military district troops who as a result of Dieron falling had been reshuffled. The Galedon Military district's losses were actually less than that of the Dieron Military district, but it would fall to soon to be former Dieron Military Distrct's soon to be rebranded regiments to attack Robinson in response. An attack that would come before the end of the year, and an attack that would not include the presence of the mercenaries who had been present for much of the developments of 3018-19.


Aaron Sandoval as Field Marshal of the Draconis March would command the defense of Robinson in 3019 using veterans from Dieron, but with a very different coordinated defense. A defense that would cement reputations in the public consciousness.
--
Notes: This is large in universe history blurb, it was supposed to be accompanied by a Davion PoV but that may have to wait until next week, but this is basically an end of arc summary of the Inner Sphere actions and the effects they have on the wider sphere with all the dominos that have been tipped. Thats part of the reason this interlude is shorter but the pirate wars in the periphery opens as the realization of a lot of factors are just starting to become apparent in the Inner Sphere proper and thats months after Gene and Co have trekked out to the periphery.

And of course this is largely broad strokes, it doesn't touch on the Highlanders, or the nobility of the successor houses and their responses to things, which is something we will see in the Davion PoV interlude.

 

[Bofors40mm]

honestly the dracs hitting robinson was a dumb move. leaves them exposed to counter attacks at the edge of their supply lines. Taking back altair and dieron would have been the smart move with raids all along the draconis march to tie down forces

 

[Imperator Pax]

honestly the dracs hitting robinson was a dumb move. leaves them exposed to counter attacks at the edge of their supply lines. Taking back altair and dieron would have been the smart move with raids all along the draconis march to tie down forces

Click to shrink...

Cause its more about face and honor than it is about strategy, I'm literally pulling this from mistakes made by Imperial Japan in terms of the WHY. Takashi's warlords are insisting that they hit back at a major enemy capital, and if they fail by the Combine's logic that isn't the coordinator's fault, its theirs for being bad samurai

 

[Bofors40mm]

Cause its more about face and honor than it is about strategy, I'm literally pulling this from mistakes made by Imperial Japan in terms of the WHY. Takashi's warlords are insisting that they hit back at a major enemy capital, and if they fail by the Combine's logic that isn't the coordinator's fault, its theirs for being bad samurai

Click to shrink...

Given the circumstances the odds are all they do is crash into a steel fortress.
Given how much pain Robinson suffered under drac occupation the place is probably Given ALL the fortifications.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Davion Interlude
3019​

Davion command would have ordinarily celebrated the victories at Altair and Dieron with parades and military medals and other awards. The decision to post the Eridani Light Horse and the Blue Star Irregulars on the worlds they had helped secure for the Federated Suns had been a calculated choice. A choice partially impacted by the resolve the mercenary commands had demonstrated in fighting the Combine, if not necessarily explained to AFFS leadership who did not know.


Those were secrets that House Davion was for the time being kept in reserve as need to know.


It wasn't intended as a long term deployment, but there was a necessary precaution to keep those worlds now that they'd been taken... in the event of a Combine immediate counter attack. The other reasoning was to rotate Davion regulars back to debrief and study what had worked at Altair and Dieron and compare and contrast. That the Combine would attack the capital of the Draconis March in retaliation fit with Combine patterns of behavior. It was a fight, that she personally gauged, House Sandoval would almost welcome for the opportunity to inflict damage on the enemy further. New Avalon, from the Capital of the Federated Suns, still looked to leverage the situation further still.


That was her job in all of this... the leverage.


Yvonne Davion looked out over the grounds of her Alma Mater. Albion remained as time immemorial an institution of Davion prestige and power. Her school was happy to welcome her home whenever she was on the capital, especially when she came bearing gifts of precious star league defense force manuals... and for that matter the latest in after action reports, summaries, and studies of recent combat. Her own staff within MI2 were working overtime, even months after Shepherd's departure.


They had so much material to cover. In July of 3017, more than two years ago now, they had envisioned the opening strokes of operations of cutting the Combine from the Terran corridor, to bleed the combine. The objective had been to make good on the victory at Elidere, and the destruction of the Galedon Regulars under Samsonov. On Elidere, after killing General Samsonov Shepherd had signaled an advance across the front by Highland March... something well established now in the popular recounting of the victory even as most underrepresented the coordination of different arms. It was from those victories, and the Star League manuals found in the caches on Elidere, Robinson, and Northwind that her alma mater and others as well as the many thousands of tons of materiel from the Star League which were impacting policy at Davion military institutions of higher learning.


Albion, New Avalon, the RBA on Robinson, Northwind, and the dropship bound trade schools even were all in the papers which her office were looking at. New Avalon Institute of Science had thousands of tons of SLDF equipment that had been LosTech to crawl over... and also the computer core of the Medical University of Volgadon. Highlanders on Northwind clamored for a great rising as newly uncovered BattleMechs were uncovered from both Northwind as well as from recently conquered Dieron with talk of Highland Regiments forming and funds being gathered for buying elsewhere within the Davion economy. Northwind was in talks with Robinson with at least financial backing from the duke of Elidere.


Unlike with Elidere where the Duke had expended large amounts of money on, frankly alarmist updates of the situation which yielded only little tactical or strategic relevance the communications from the great bulwarks that settled Robinson's capital were much more useful.


Jefferies came in after a knock at the top of the hour with the latest report as expected with Alexandria's report on the fighting. Perhaps it was just that Lord Aaron was defending ancestral ground, or perhaps just as an armor non com he'd never been put in the position where his strategic command abilities had been able to shine, but the Combine were going into a meat grinder. It was wasteful, but the DCMS emphatically espoused the notion that martial vigor, and their notions of 'moral forthrightness' would allow an attacker to overcome any defense. DCMS line officers even questioned teaching defensive tactics as somehow inherently antithetical to proper Samurai thought, even though those officers were a minority they weren't censured for holding the position that should have been blatantly obviously foolhardy... mostly because they came from mechwarriors from the right families with the right clubs, and the individual talent as mechwarriors to defend themselves in honor duels. She thought it was stupid but Yvonne Davion recognized when to let your enemy make mistakes... and the Combine by launching a campaign against Robinson was sending manpower and material into a difficult to support action... and one prepared to be a costly action if it bogged them down.


A deep raid would have been one thing, but Robinson was playing host to the majority of DMM officers who were veterans of the 'Brigade' that had been in action on Elidere. She estimated that she about ninety minutes to review the reports transmitted on what the Combine were doing on Elidere and how that might effect the broader strategic picture. Ninety minutes, because then she'd have to start composing her own thoughts as Hanse would be expecting not just the latest report from the front but also what she made of it, and also what other powers would make of the fighting.


It wasn't a lot of time, and especially with the latter question there were other matters. ComStar or at least the Precentor New Avalon, who had since departed for Terra for some ecumenical council or other such bother were being cooperative... but there was no telling how long that would last. The borders of the great powers had shifted. Dieron, and Altair had fallen, and the Combine were lashing out, but potentially in a way that would be ultimately self harming to the Combine's own efforts later.
--
Reports covered the hard wood desk. That was normal. There were trunks brought in with the papers laying open, and still yet others he hadn't gotten to. He wouldn't have time to visit Buckaroo Banzai today. He probably wouldn't be able to visit the NAIS all week, but he recognized too that he needed to be patient.


Hanse Davion knew it would take time for an investment to pay off. The books from the university vault had been the start, but they had working examples of the technology to rely on, which would help. The Draconis March Militia and elite units of the Crucis March had been bolstered in anticipation of future offensives.


Future offensives that required him to weigh the question of reinforcing units now in contact.


Yvonne Davion, his aunt, and also his Champion, prepared to finish her report, "As things stand the Combine continues to rely on Takashi Kurita's reforms emphasizing the company as the normal unit of battle, even when larger units are being deployed. Alexandria reports the Combine is focusing on attacking the brigade, and that Field Marshal Sandoval has recognized this, and is supporting the three Companies with armor from prepared fighting positions to overmatch Kuritan attacks."


As much as he wanted to focus his attention on Robinson by all indications the Field Marshal of the Draconis March Aaron Sandoval had things well in hand, "We'll put this to one side for the time being, then." He informed his Champion with enough regal effort to make it clear that he was serious. "I need you to refocus your efforts with the Highlanders. The Dragoons have struck Hesperus II," The 13th​ Battle in the Long History of the Succession Wars... and one that in terms of materiel appeared to have been very costly, "The raid failed in a manner of speaking, and the dragoons appear to be breaking off from the League... presumably I think we can infer from previous behavior that they are moving to rearm."


"If we assume that, and follow the pattern that they mean to continue their clockwise pattern then its the Lyrans next." Yvonne replied.


"Yes, if they hold to the pattern... but I am not comfortable with that gamble." Hanse had come to the throne almost six years earlier at the age of 30, and only after losing his fiancé and his older brother. The Dragoons had first found employment in the Inner Sphere under Ian, they had first appeared in Davion space. The reigning First Prince folded his hands, "I want you to go to the Highlanders, and through them make contact with the Dragoons, under no circumstances can we have them find employment with House Kurita, so tell them... anything, all of it if you need to, but keep them out of Combine service... and if they do return from the periphery back at full strength, I want the government to make the best effort by which to swing them back to our camp. We will need them for the offensives to come."


"All of it?"


"They're descendants of the SLDF aren't they? If it will swing them to side with us, tell them the whole thing."


"Including that the Colonel is a living ghost of the Terran Hegemony?" She asked. "The Dragoons knowing would mean almost certainly it would get out, and it could cause us other issues."


"We need them Yvonne, we need all of them, and we must deny them to the Combine as well. If they join the Lyrans after this its one thing, but I would hope Jaime Wolf would at least hear me out in person before making a final decision." She wasn't sure that was enough, or viable, but Yvonne nodded sharply and acknowledged the command from her sovereign.
--
Notes: We will return to the Periphery next time, but touching on whats going on in the Inner Sphere is important for later, and that includes the Dragoons during this period, given what will happen in the latter half of the Pirate Wars.

 

[Arimai]

Including that the Colonel is a living ghost of the Terran Hegemony?" She asked. "The Dragoons knowing would mean almost certainly it would get out, and it could cause us other issues."

Click to shrink...

A living Terran Hegemony Gunslinger with Gene's combat record would have every Clanner who want to earn a Bloodname and Glory come running out of the woodwork. Gene will have to fend off the endless challenges both the Combat Challenges and the Amorous women who want his name for their children.

I can't believe I missed him killing the last Amaris.

 

[Imperator Pax]

A living Terran Hegemony Gunslinger with Gene's combat record would have every Clanner who want to earn a Bloodname or Glory come running out of the woodwork. Gene will have to fend off the endless challenges both the Combat Challenges and the Amorous women who want his name for their children.

Click to shrink...

Hanse knows not what he is dealing with in the Clans, just that the Dragoons are a bit eccentric

Especially since we have the Amaris descendant coming up in the following year

 

[Bofors40mm]

Wait a second....Gene being a gunslinger and the Slayer of the last known amaris decendant....
I could legitimately see the clanners giving him a honorary bloodname. Or if they get his DNA a actual one.

 

[georgiaboy1966]

Wait a second....Gene being a gunslinger and the Slayer of the last known amaris decendant....
I could legitimately see the clanners giving him a honorary bloodname. Or if they get his DNA a actual one.

Click to shrink...

From what Pax said above, the Amaris Arc has not happened yet.

 

[Bofors40mm]

From what Pax said above, the Amaris Arc has not happened yet.

Click to shrink...

thinking about the future not the present in story.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars II​

Autumn 3019​

Part 1​

Pasha had been right Coromdir VI was a nice world. It would have been nicer if they hadn't just had a combat drop, and impromptu short action, but at least that gave the locals plenty of reason to be friendly. It didn't hurt that both sides were perfectly happy to emphasize the shared heritage of SLDF units, and a positive view of the Star League. Unfortunately Gene had had to contend with other operational concerns as a precaution he had had Dante evaluate the chances that the Aurigans were some fragment of the Minnesota tribe... but thankfully that didn't seem likely.


Officially the Coalition had been founded in 2910, early in the 30th​ Century. The preceding Aurigan Trade Partnership was only a few decades earlier, late in the 29th​ century, but on the other hand the Aurigans showed no indication of having reached prominence ... their local history was too established before the strangers from Clan space had made their way back through the Inner Sphere. If that had been a possibility after ... almost two hundred years it didn't seem to have effected the Aurigans in any meaningful way... but the 'Wolverines' didn't seem to have been involved, and that was in its own way a relief.


The truth was they already had enough problems to deal with... but it still left the unanswered question of why the Minnesota tribe had seemingly been making its way the long way to the rimward periphery. They didn't have answer for that... and he wanted an answer, but they had other questions in the Rimward that needed to be answered... and some were more pressing than others... Black Jack's pirates were a concern.


On the other hand given the history of the Aurigan reach, its constituent worlds, and its territorial claims the AI did want greater scrutiny paid to the Coalition even if they weren't exiles, or escapees from Kerensky's madhouse. That was something he was going to delegate to the Azami, they had hands down the most experience in the region as merchants and travelling caravans... and of course there was no Interstellar Expedition presence to rely on. Doctor Abner had gone back to the Lyran Commonwealth after Dieron... something that probably would have consequences good or bad it didn't matter, but something would happen once they got back to the Inner Sphere... and the plan was to go back... but for the time being the Periphery had so many suspicious urban legends going on he was feeling almost paranoid with what they had enough information to contend with... and it still didn't get him out of meetings with the local authorities either.


He moved out of the ready room, and headed down the hall, meeting Markham about half down. The grizzled middle aged mercenary commander, and Marauder pilot, was just chugging down ... probably his second or third cup of coffee. "How are things on your end?"


"House Espinosa is in the process of getting all of my guys back." The espinosa mech refit and reapir yard here on Coromdir VI was working around the clock so the mechwarriors could get back in the saddle, "My chief mechanic is glad to have the help." That was one thing that they hadn't done. Markham seemed to be in good with the Aurigans and his mercenary outfit had aurigan produced armored vehicles in its ranks.


The Azami had detached a pair of mules ... heavily rebuilt Mules whose real purpose Gene suspected was for the colony on Alamut, but the Industrial Mechs and salvage machines and technicians who had lumbered onto Cormodir VI's star port assembly area were handling patching and repairing much of the unit's, much of their own equipment. The Azami presence, often in the form of Phoenix Hawks and Mongoose, reiterated that as the cavalry presence were in a woodland camo also of SLDF vintage. "From my understanding the Magistracy knows where Grim Sybil's base is,"


"She probably hasn't given them enough trouble," And the truth was that was probably normal with the limits on force states had to call upon... apparently Fjaldr had been left to fester that even without Black Jack the Aurigans would have had to do something soon. "Are you heading that way?"


He nodded, "Well yeah," Gene replied, "But that's the thing, its your employers well Karsosas I think maybe more so than the Aranos, who started talking about."


"They haven't mentioned anything to me," Markham remarked draining the last of the coffee from the Styrofoam cup in his hand and tossing it in the trashcan they were coming up on, "But if you are heading that way it makes sense."


There was a lingering pause for a minute. Alamut, travelling to the Alexandrian Covenant worlds was almost directly rimward of Skyfog, but also a straight rimward route from the Magistracy of Canopus. The Azami were probably using the Coalition stopover to pick up supplies in a state that was large enough to have abundant trade but also wasn't the Magistracy, as well as to potentially obscure where their final destination was... but the pirate conflict was going to be more complicated... "My understanding is that given the pirates size there are concerns they will hit other Aurigan targets."


"Mhm, Fjaldr's clans have threatened to try and raid Mechdur, but Black Jack is a whole different kind of animal, so."


"Mechdur," Since there were so few HPG stations in the periphery to begin with, it hadn't been hard to get a list of the ones in the Aurigan Reach once things on Coromdir had started to calm down, "has an HPG station, Black Jack will probably make a move against them as well."


"Yeah, that hadn't gotten by me." The older man replied.


That ultimately twisted into the advantage the pirates had. They were the ones attacking. Mechdur and its industrial works, originally built by the Cappellans during the league era, had been too far from Sian to presumably be economically viable, but Coromdir was much closer... and that made the planet critical to the Reach's economy... and in the Aurigan war room, that they were walking into, it was one of several worlds highlighted on the three dimensional holographic star map projected.


The Aurigan Reach had been on the frontlines of both the Reunification War, and the New Vandenburg uprising. It showed the effects of the early succession wars as well. The Capellans, the Taurians had both had to withdraw and cede ground to movements with stronger local support. The devolution to local control left things limited.


Mechdur wasn't the only world with a ComStar presence... but in terms of human needs? In terms of people, the population? With less than a hundred million people, and limited infrastructure Panzyr wasn't an immediate concern... not because the ruling house was less important but because House Decimis, the Marquis of Panzyr accepted the logic of Mechdur being a more tempting target... no one contemplated the Mass Driver strike on Katinka or the ruins of warships and other vessels left behind by the wars that had ravaged the rimward periphery in history.


The Magistracy Ambassador was still angling for a move against Grim Sybil and of course that would put the Regiment, his command, in much closer proximity really right on the Canopian border, and they had planned to return to Luxen anyway. Gene stopped at the door, and Bubbles made her way over, "Wasn't just here," She remarked with the Coromodir's heirs in tow, "The Robes just got word that, well you know that pirate that Vandal told us about, apparently Kelly's Kommandos jumped the border and hit Ward," On the Capellan side of the fence, "a few weeks ago."

"Same MO?"

"If not for trying to destroy the HPG station, we think they failed, before falling back it looked like an otherwise typical pirate raid, but they were saying casualties were in the tens of thousands from the broadcast."

"What are the chances he jumped to Fjaldr, and is operating from there?"

"Its not impossible." She replied.

"The capellans probably won't offer you a bonus," Markham remarked.

"I don't care." Gene replied flatly... leaving that aside it wasn't really a matter of the Capellans, for whatever reason the Precentor of New Avalon wanted Kristofur Kelly dead, and rampant piracy was a good enough reason. "If he's using Fjaldr as a base that's going to be a problem."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars II
Part 2​

For the Star League had been the golden age of humanity. The highest pinnacle which had existed, and for the loss of which they were forever reduced. House Kurita had promised to in seeking to assume House Cameron's place maintain the Star League to extend the gold age of humanity, and for that had regardless of the costs incurred secured the loyalty of the Azami to maintain the oaths their forefather's had sworn... but that had been based on ignorance of House Kurita's treachery to the Star League.

As a young man he had merely accepted that House Kurita were for all their pretentions still only human, and subject to human failings ... not that they had conspired...well.

Collaboration with the Satan Amaris was an unforgivable crime. It was one thing to speak of the destruction perpetuated upon the Earth, and the Terran Hegemony's worlds... it was wholly another to have both Dante, and the corroborating images and transmissions from the mechanical Jin of the Fortress Dieron, and the Lockdale Anchorage ... including of course final transmissions of the officers and the offices of the Terran Hegemony Armed Forces who had been resisting the Rim World's massed armies.


Officially Pasha expected a policy of vacillation from the Interstellar Expeditions leadership... but eventually word would get out... they hadn't had time to actually distribute the information to the Azami communities back home. The trip to the anchorage, and returning to Northwind had been ahead of the exodus, and had only allowed the community to digest the historical record.


The Highland clans of Northwind however had the same information, and would almost certainly distribute it to the Wolf Dragoons when the time came. It was still a shock to the system to see anyone use willingly use the colors of Amaris's butchers. From a logical stand point it was probably fair, and he might agree that Commander Markham was correct that the Capellan Confederation would probably not offer a bonus to actions taken against the pirates... except perhaps as part of some sweetener in hopes of getting them to sign on more regularly but they were not looking to do that.


Dante had of course structured the statements the Company had issued publicly to the populace, and its leadership... but those lacked some of the raw blunt dismissal of one of old Earth's sons eschewing the prospect of material reward for doing what was virtuous, and morally upright in this situation. It was also probably better than having the elders issue a fatwa... which admittedly was probably going to be the Sunni community's response here in the Aurigan Reach. He did still expect such a statement that of course all apart of the community should resist the barbarity of those who would willing adopt Amaris's symbols and plunder and enslave their neighbors.... but this was likely to be better received.


Pasha academically understood of course that the Central Intelligence Directorate of the Hegemony was ... like the well perhaps most like House Davion's DMI, but Colonel Shepherd was a young warrior and he lacked some of the callous cynicism many displayed. This was surely a matter of pure honor, and duty for which the old captain was appreciative of. He hoped that the Aurigans would take such in the good nature it was intended and not be mistaken for naiveté. "If we might move along, I believe Lord Tamati is waiting," He remarked to the others. "There ... are other matters with which we should speak of with him." Including what moves they were prepared to commit to as well.


Tamati Arano was waiting, but patiently. He had been preparing for this meeting once it was clear that they had breathing room... and the comment regarding Fjaldr was something of a relief. He had been informed by his attaché of the attack on Ward almost as soon as it had been announced... and he understood the potential implications. The raid might ordinarily been sufficient leverage to convince the council and its holdouts that they had to commit to an expensive campaign.


His brother in law, and the more ... vociferous hawks in the council still didn't think it was enough and wanted further centralization efforts undertaken, but part of his reluctance to seriously consider those were the lack of JumpShips in the Coalition. More centralized administration would have required that Coromodir could facilitate communications with the member worlds far more regularly and it certainly wasn't as if ComStar would be constructing any more HPGs not with all of this going on. It didn't help things that Kamea had already heard from her cousin that... Santiago had agreed to allow Victoria a place with house Espinosa's military detachment for the Fjaldr operation.


In the realm of politics, it wasn't an unreasonable allowance.. neither Kamea nor her cousin were all that sheltered and they had both fought in defense of Coromodir against the pirates, but he wished Santiago hadn't agreed to allow Victoria to deploy. It would make it that much harder to refuse Kamea... and allowing the heir to the reach to go was politically risky... he had the potential to refuse the truth was he had been planning to go himself he would have Raju with him after all and that would allow him to insist Kamea remain here... but that had been before Coromdir had been attacked... and before the arrival of reinforcements. Now he was less sure, but he could not afford to look indecisive especially as the seats of his war room began to be filled as the air crackled with the holograms taking shape.


Serena made a final request that he consider prudence, but the other lords of the council were already here. "I thank everyone for coming," He said spreading his hands, and looking out over the numbers. In the archives... of the before, of before there was a coaltion, the early days of the Trade Pact and before that even there were images and recordings of the forbearers of aurigan nobility in trooper style suits and the early security forces in SLDF uniforms. That had changed over the years , the ruling houses had gradually adopted more ceremonial and more impressive attire but it was hard to miss the SLDF military uniforms filling the circular table.


It was one thing of course to see the flag flying at the Mercenary's base with its Starburst, but the physical presence was different... and from the look in her eye he wasn't the only one who recognized the uniforms the mercenaries wore. The Ambassador for the Magistracy of Canopus nodded slightly, "I thank you for the invitation to this meeting Lord Tamati, I say on behalf of my government that the Magistracy of Canopus appreciates the seriousness with which the Aurigan Coalition is taking the pirate threat." on the other hand it hadn't stopped her from probably hoping to talk whatever mercenaries she could to coming over the border to work for the canopians, but Tamati didn't begrudge her that, even though he was appreciative for Markham not taking the offer he was sure had gone through the Magistracy before a final agreement over Fjaldr had been reached.


There was a rumbling of seats as everyone sat back down. Everyone here had been introduced previously, some in this very room, but today's proceedings lacked some of the haste of that previous session. The pirates had been driven off coromdir, and they had breathing room, and had had time to think, and to feel out the other positions... and that included digesting the information they had recovered from the pirates who had been taken prisoner, and at least parts of what information they had recovered from computers.


Black Jack had a lot of materiel. If the pirates were to be believed far more than anyone had imagined, and he was looking for more so much to drown 'the enemies' in their own blood. How much of that would have been written off as bravado ordinarily was irrelevant. Black Jack had proven that he had an abundance of star league weaponry and apparently the pirate king had been expanding his ranks and promoting new members since he had arrived in the Tortuga domains, and that included men who happily and proudly claimed descent from the Rimworld or spoke favorably of ancestors participating in the New Vandenburg uprising.


What they couldn't or hadn't given up was where the pirate king was, but it was as good of a reason to move on Fjaldr sooner rather than later... and to ask who would commit to that.


"The RCT in full, no. While I am assured the Elders have authorized use of force the fleet is my priority," Shepherd replied to the question, "From available volunteers I'll stand up a task force to ship there, but the majority of the fleet will be remaining here for the time being. If, however the pirates make a second attack on Coromodir, Bardiche will be here with most of our heavy armor."


... and of course the ambassador from the Magistracy couldn't help but asking about Grim Sybil.


"I have to make a run to Detroit, its a jump to Alloway from there after Sybil is taken care of I'll split a task force to escort a trade and dialogue mission to Luxen, and discussion with the Magistracy authorities can be carried out there."


"You're not going personally?"


"With the mission no. I'll drop on Fjaldr, and against Sybil, but,"


The elderly Azami, JumpShip, captain placed a hand on his superior's forearm, "There are certain obligations we must see to," He regretfully spread his hands in a what can you do gesture, before nodding, "with Allah's good fortune and the number of JumpShips available to us, we will be able to implement a limited JumpShip circuit from Detroit, and thus we can reliably say that the command staff can return to Lady Raventhir's hospitality in the new year at some point. Once of course that the civilians have safely reached our brothers in the community we will be free to wage a just war against these outlaws."

It didn't escape Tamati that whatever officer had written the public statements that Shepherd's Company had released had not probably been the elderly captain, and while Shepherd himself did speak in similar language most likely he had delegated the actual drafting to some other senior officer.