Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

@Imperator Pax I am a little lost? What is happening again?

Click to shrink...

Luxen, in the Magistracy of Canopus is getting filled in on the start of the Aurigan section of the pirate wars, that is to say a JumpShip arrived in Luxen several months after the coromodir scene and passed the news down to Luxen's government because news travels slowly in the periphery.

Out of universe, this is also tying in my other , newer campaign ATOW into the posted story by integrating bits of their campaign story into GWW [Even though in their current Canon, GWW and Aurigan;s primary storylines are occuring alongside one another rather than as separate timelines but thats not really an issue]

 

[NPC]

What is the omake policy?

 

[Imperator Pax]

I have no objection to content contributions, I post non canon or alternate stuff from time to time so if you've got something you wanted to share be things like bofors mech designs that proliferate in the other fics or how you think other characters react to the chaos go ahead i wont stop you

What is the omake policy?

Click to shrink...

 

[Imperator Pax]

Luxen Dragoons Interlude Part 2
Miranda Raventhir would have preferred greater control over the news, but she also accepted that was probably an unreasonable wish. The 'Second Battle of Luxen' the first actual incursion by BlackJack's pirates onto Luxen had occurred in the latter half of the summer of 3016. She would have preferred if the mercenaries small as they were would have remained available but there was wealthy, and then there were immense financial resources that her father and the organization he belonged to could afford to manage... and for all she knew looking at the reports this all could have been planned years in advance, though she doubted it. Raventhir didn't consider herself paranoid, though she did understand that the Azami had fled to the periphery looking for safety from some internal schism within the Combine but she hadn't been told about until later.


A fraction of the Azami apparently had hoped that given their dire straits that they might be able to locate some ancient Hegemony ruin and wake the sleepers within. To wake Hegemony soldiers and tell them what they had discovered about the Coordinator's conduct in the last years of the Star League... and it was she supposed plausible that that was what had happened with Shepherd. Someone had woke the young ace from a stasis tube... but there were details there that didn't quite line up with what she understood of the situation. It would have been better to have had Shepherd stick around even without knowing the truth.


Still having a Hegemony Gunslinger on call would have made her life much easier these last two years. She had made do with the resources her wealth allowed her access to, and that had meant scrounging for more mercenaries, but trustworthy ones had always been the trick in the trade. Still whatever had played out on Elidere had obviously been worth the money... Shepherd's Company had been shipped into the Inner Sphere being paid for the transit costs that entailed...which was to say effectively they had been paid twice for it since the Company owned its own JumpShips, and arrived on the Davion border in time to bushwhack an entire Combine Regiment.


The killing on Elidere ... a massed combined arms assault of his battlemechs and armor had resulted in the appellation of the Walking Death... among a host of other florid nicknames. That had only been the beginning of Shepherd's Company's tenure with House Davion.


It had been the following campaigning season, for the year 3018, which had included the battle of Dieron. That had marked the invasion and conquest of the planet by the Federated Suns. The MRB hadn't had the time to post that information back to the periphery, back to Luxen despite it being or perhaps because it was a six month journey one way from the Terran core of the Inner Sphere and the magistracy's rimward frontier.


She hated that. That such news had only arrived from a free trader now in the late fall of the year 3019 just as the massing exodus fleet was preparing was probably less than a month away from arriving at Luxen or would be if they were coming straight here. The Azami merchant who had arrived with the news broadcasts was carrying ROMs for what passed for a news service in the Aurigan Coalition, which was to say a state sponsored broadcasting corporation. The local MRB office for the Aurigan capital had signed and documented the most recent information. Apparently the Regimental Combat Team hadn't been overly worried about the Aurigan's ability to pay since they were being offered a bounty... really a king's ransom from the Precentor of New Avalon for actions taken against Black Jack.


The letters from the Precentor of New Avalon had authorized Shepherd's Company to take legal possession of Black Jack's vessels, and other material goods as bounty in reprisal for the pirates acts against civilized space. On the surface the letters of marque were not a novel development, but they gave Shepherd's Company the ability the legal resources to register seized vessels and material under the MRB ineffectively overnight turn around, and it gave him legal protection authorized by one of ComStar's first circuit on top of the bounty in c-bills for pirates killed or captured... and Shepherd reportedly did seem to be making an effort to arrest and capture pirates where that was available.


The Azami merchant bowed slightly, a repeat of the gesture he had made during their formal introduction at the star port, "I have the honor of being permitted to open dialogue ahead of our fellows arrival."


"Do you know when that will be?" Raventhir responded, not quite curtly, but from what she gathered at least the massed fleet of jumpships was unlikely to just appear over Luxen and cause a panic... at least she hoped that wouldn't be the case. It wouldn't matter what markings they bore, the sudden arrival of that much mass at zenith or nadir carrying so many military dropships would be mistaken for an invasion force by the public. Luxen had been menaced by far smaller numbers in 3016 and the people might panic before the images solidified and distributed out to the public at large.


"In the new year, Colonel Shepherd means to lay waste to the pirate base on Axlyus and make a circuit around Detroit denying them staging grounds," Which was of course good news but she doubted, given the news out of the Aurigan Reach that any pirate band up to and including Black Jack himself would be looking to directly engage a full scale regimental combat team... and she could only imagine the contents of the report the straios on her staff would be sending to Canopus proper based on what the Azami had carried in terms of spoken, as well as recorded roms of battle against the pirates. "Many of these men have chosen to wear the colors of the satan Amaris, and it is thus they must be driven far from the boundaries of civilization if not killed outright." The man spread his hands broadly that only emphasized the stretched skin around arthritic digits.


"Good," Was the partially drunken slur from the robed ComStar figure, 'Friar Tuck' was also a portly man, though many years younger, "killing all of them would be for the best." He remarked straightening. "I took the copy of Precentor NewAvalon's letter to Precentor Luxen..." She had seen the letter of introduction... not that it was really needed. The cover sheet of introduction was formality... what was more important was the bounty on the pirates, and even more so than that that Shepherd had been provided legal sanction to seize and take ownership of pirate materiel... including their space borne assets jumpships, and dropships. Something to which Friar Tuck proceeded to outline, a bit unnecessarily for her.


She supposed that Tuck's statement could have been taken to reassure the representative from Luxen's planetary government that Shepherd's presence was unlikely to bankrupt the planet. A veteran battalion of highlanders would have been an unthinkable expense only a decade earlier on the eve of Black Jack's arrival in the rimward periphery. "Should we expect the entirety of the RCT?" She settled for asking the merchant instead. "And if so when?


The man spread his hands a little wider, and sighed wizendly, "I would not say no, but the community must visit many of our distant cousins. Perhaps one of the other Regiments," He remarked. "Many of the warriors will be required for our own protective duties," There was a pun there on the legal name of the company, "Given however Luxen's importance we could hardly make excuses to leave you without protection."


It was more than that. The last stint Shepherd's Company had worked for her, and the Magistracy more broadly had brought with it access to their own JumpShips. That had been invaluable, not just because it had allowed them to carry the expedition to Pioche in the first place but it had also bolstered trade missions she had wanted to support during a time of uncertainty. JumpShip captains were uncertain of their safety with Black Jack running around, and that had driven rates up in the periphery for fear that pirates would attack them. Even a temporary influx of available carrying capacity would be good for the region, and for the Magistracy more broadly.


She could live with all of that. The Magestrix, and the MIM, would have been more than a little alarmed if she had had the ability to retain the entirety of the mercenary army. In practice, in the legal fiction of such things she was shouldering part of the burden. House Raventhir would pay the lion's share of the bond for the contract but Luxen's planetary government would be involved.


That still didn't mean her resources were infinite. Luxen could in theory make more compromises if the planetary government chose to. The MIM was going to scrutinize whatever they did, there would be criticism if she went too far, or if Luxen's government didn't go far enough. Not for the first time Raventhir wondered exactly what the drunk priest representing the MRB here actually knew as the man shuffled through his sheaf of papers. "Well," He coughed slightly, "we should talk about what assets would be available. I can draw up recommended market rates of course."


She frowned. The truth was that ComStar's compounds had been largely content to rely on hires of vehicles, and infantry to protect their little enclaves... but that had been enough to protect them from minor disturbances not Black Jack's predations. She wouldn't have been surprised if the Precentor Luxen did more than just ask the planetary government to consider ComStar's station here for needing additional protection... or if Olaf Fredericksen didn't decide to make a personal appeal when Shepherd's Company arrived in force... at least this wasn't likely to turn into a bidding war. "We would like an expansion of our previous contracts," Raventhir found herself saying almost mechanically... she had planned to lead into this.


"Of course, the fleet and the support personnel," The Merchant smiled a portion of the old gentleman slipped, in favor of calculating buisnessman, "I can give you estimates on available carrying capacity, and where our techs stand." Just as her office had already been furnished with estimates of various goods from the Inner Sphere that the Azami had brought to trade already. "As I understand it you have received a company of Merlins."


"Yes, and we have a number of Cicadas that we were hoping to modify along lines you may be already familiar with." To make the best use of what resources that they had available. It had been something they had discussed anyway... they just the Luxen Dragoons as a skeleton formation simply didn't have the personnel necessary to do the work, and Majesty Metals while it expressed interest similarly declaimed having the resources for such at this time.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Interlude Pirate Wars Davion II
Alexandria was exhausted, but she could legitimately lay claim to participating in the battle on the line rather than as a staff officer. There were fresh stencils from enemy mechs that she could say were her work. Robinson was safe; the Kuritan positions enveloped and overwhelmed. House Sandoval had had generations to prepare their world for a serious combine attack, and Lord Aaron's ancestors had used that time well. The Combine had mounted repeated sorties , sometimes against defenses that Lord Aaron had already withdrawn from , to the extent that she couldn't understand what the Combine leadership hoped to accomplish by this action. Waste lives, the Prince's Champion had suggested.


Hellcats secured from the Brian Cache that had been located here were being kept in reserve as the air situation had stabilized, but if the Combine had hoped to pillage and loot SLDF stockpiles that objective had been put aside by the opportunity to fight the Draconis March Brigade those pilots and contributions the DMM had assembled for the Dieron and Altair campaigns. They had plowed into fortresses of steel and prepared armor.


It might have lacked the mobility of Shepherd's movements, but Lord Aaron had greater numbers, and knew the terrain like the back of his hand. His understanding of the whole situation around him seemed almost prescient at times... but she supposed if she were ever put into a situation of defending her House's patrimony of Kestrel that she would be half as a good at least.


The most recent conflict showed that the Combine was prepared to commit to reckless offensives to show that they still had the will to fight... a will that had never been in question to their hereditary enemies... but the Combine seemed determined to leave no doubt. As if this attack weren't enough, her latest report from New Avalon, made possible by the HPG live transmission from the capital, had included confirmation of the Combine's Arkab Legions moving to raid the Free Worlds League... but she could make sense of that. She had been on Dieron after all, though there had been no explanation for how the Coordinator had found out about their conclusions.


The HPG network with which Combine facilitated her live communications with New Avalon from Robinson seemed likely an answer... but of course ComStar proclaimed its neutrality. That it was beyond their remit to interfere in the mail and messages of their clients. She thought it absurd, but it was the simplest of answers some combine spy had managed to pay the sums necessary for a direct transmission to Luthien and relay that not only had House Davion's invasion of a district capital succeeded they had taken the provincial archive intact... and the work put in to catalog that.


She wouldn't have been surprised if they might have the digital copies of the archive, the searchable database. That was what her mentor the Duchess of Victoria had warned her about, that most likely the Combine's penetration had gone that far. There was nothing they could do about it, and the archive was the Combine's own so it wasn't as if they hadn't, shouldn't have access to the information in any event. It was just the ISF was supposed to protect the Combine from internal security threats it was in their name after all.


It had nothing to do with the attack on Robinson she decided tiredly slumping into the chair of a waiting room within the fortress. She was looking forward to returning to New Avalon. That would entail still more work though. Her latest report form New Avalon had included the estimated travel itinerary of where Shepherd's Company should have been by this point in the periphery, assuming they had stuck to the schedule. The Precentor New Avalon Huthrin Vandal had stated that he had encouraged his fellow precentors to ask their local MRB offices to pass along quickly any updates of the war with the pirates. The Precentor New Avalon was very eager, perhaps as much as they were for news of the conflict. From what Alexandria understood each pirate dead was by itself a sizable bounty... which meant ComStar would be paying a lot of money, and Vandal had given Shepherd the rights to seized jumpships, which would add to the capacity he had.


"Uh, Ma'am." Brevet Lieutenant Sutton was still a slim small figure, his uniform seeming outsized, the missile boat pilot was still officially a cadet at Robinson Battle Academy, but he had been at Dieron, and before that on Elidere, which had meant when the Combine had arrived he'd retaken his place with the brigade and had seen action. "The Colonel," Meaning the Duke of Robinson, "has asked for you to join the other officers in the war room."


She had been expecting that. She would be glad when she returned to New Avalon, but for the moment she was here, and she had responsibilities here. The walk was a short one, she outpaced unintentionally the lieutenant, she more than knew her way around the AFFS command center that was the Ranger's garrison. Bard was already there of course, the transition to the Highlander had suited the Ranger well.


Inside the men waited a holographic recording of battle demonstrating one part of the defense's conclusion.


And, in that the defenders of Robinson had played pipes and drums in the turning of the enemy flank, as massed armor had advanced to roll up the Combine salient cutting their formation from their dropships. That itself would make for footage that the DMM and AFFS High Command would insure played heavily in the news media for the public at large to watch. That was going to be a continuing them going forward, increasingly reiterating such commitment. "I want this sent to Northwind, immediately. "Lord Aaron told his second in command. The Ranger's officer nodded. Bard Cameron flashed a cheeky smile to with his acknowledgement.


It was a reminder to Alexandria that there was a disagreement between the Field Marshal of the Draconis March and the Prince's Champion... and that the First Prince hadn't yet weighed in. Both Field Marshals distrusted the Field Marshal of the Capellan March, and his ability to watch his sector. That was, basically now public knowledge, it was a minor scandal to New Avalon but too much of the capitals gossip was, were the victories that had begun in April of 3017 when the Galedon Regulars had been devastated under a similar Highland March.


Though Shepherd had departed for the periphery the lasting impression made on Elidere, and continued forward by the actions on Dieron, and the seizure with alacrity of San Martin reverberated through the news. That too had been punctuated by pipes, and drums march. A tradition heavily associated with the highlanders, and it thus was concerned that it would draw attention to Northwind, not necessarily from the Combine, though that was possible, but from the Capellan March.


As it was Alexandria hoped that the victory here, and with the Combine reportedly sending the Arkab legion to raid the Free Worlds League would mean the coordinator had no reserves to mount further offensives against the border worlds, or strike at Dieron, or Altair, or indeed Northwind. Lord Aaron Sandoval, duke of Robinson nodded at the Arkab Legion being brought up, "Shepherd left with many Azami, the Combine going hunting for birds might seem foolish on our end but they might not think it wise to send the Legion if they might then switch sides." The ISF did attach political officers, but if the Legion did mutiny... if say Shepherd revealed the betrayal of his own people to Amaris by the Combine, then it was likely to stop a Legion incursion in its track... but not say, the Sword of Light.

... at least she assumed that might have been the thinking... but the Combine could hardly have planned the offensive knowing Shepherd was now deep in the Rimward periphery with the exodus, or at least not have known for sure that was how things were going to be.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Detroit
Gene pressed the acknowledgement of the receipt. The Argo was a hot mess. A lived in mess. It had probably also been a vanity project... a demonstration of how oblivious the league had been. He was going to be glad when they returned to Detroit, but they were going to have to over the ship with a fine tooth comb... but the fusion drive worked, and it was safely docked. They wouldn't have any personnel aboard the secured Argo when they made the Jump to depart the system. It was just safely berthed and shut down. That was enough for the time being at least.

They'd figure out an answer to where they could even dock the ship when they could. He really didn't want to keep it docked aboard a jumpshp until they could make back for Davion Space, he hoped they had another option than Lockdale. There was a lot of work that would need to be done, and he just didn't know enough about the Magistracy's ship crafting capabilities to plan for their assistance.


It was going to be something to leave to engineers... and as much as Dante wanted to issue orders that until the ship was safe, and insured structurally sound it needed to be picked over. The Argo was a remnant of the Star League... was a relic of the Star League rather. That went back to needing to go over the ship carefully. In the mean time, he had other things to do, and would worry about the Argo after, the Company had other business to contend with... which the centuries old hegemony AI seemed to deem less critical as the waveform manifested, "I read the summary." he told the thinking machine, even though his acknowledgement of the receipt should have been processed by the AI.


"Given the condition of the collar system we might be able to mount a leopard aboard." Gene nodded, "The ASF bays will need to be worked on an overhauled. Launching and recovering would be hazardous in the present conditions." No surprise there, and the condition of small craft spaces were little better.


"I was under the impression there was a second collar point?"


There was a gruff noise from the AI's speaker on his desk, "non functional due to age. We will need to repair the power system in order to bring the mechanical facilities and automation back on." The Argo had never been intended for much in the way of armor, which had arguably be a failing found in things like the Overlord as well. "The drive system needs an extensive overhaul before we will be able to maintain regular power."


"Its amazing there is power at all."


"The Argo was built with secondary fusion reactors, "That was hard to miss from the rear photographs, the trio of drive exhausts , but that feature was fairly standard on other DropShips, certainly given the hundred thousand tons the Argo displaced on a starship metric Galax's shipwrights had learned something from the Behemoth's first go around the shipyard."


"It is feasible to repair the ship, is there a yard?"


"In the periphery perhaps not, withdrawing to the Inner Sphere is likely our only option for a full scale overhaul."Lockdale, but that wasn't really news. "There is one other matter, the Mech Bays appear to be configured for a base six configuration, spread across three bays."


"The Argo can't land on planets," He pointed out unnecessarily, "It would have made more more sense to carry 18fighters in their place," But no, for whatever reason the Argo seemingly built by some mad schizophrenic carried extensive facilities for machines of BattleMechs, heavily automated systems the black box facilities of the machine shop were complex... bringing them back on line would have been a boon... and yet to have built the Argo with them would have been a grandiose vanity There was no explanation for that.
--
His office on Detroit was a small ferrocrete block house like most of the buildings that had been built. It was functionally undistinguishable save for the signs out front. It was a boring building without much in the way of creature comforts... but hardly a priority since they werne't sure how long they would even be staying on the planet. Septim double checked the manifest, but it was still correct. There were no faults with it... and he would have been happier he supposed if it didn't feel like he was just rubber stamping the merchants work. The boss had left him in command of the Company'score Regiment... but in truth that entailed having to contend with Holmgren and the grizzled old scot responsible for still other units, and then Hammer too... as if that weren't enough then there were the regiments of the combat team formed and their supporting forces. Both Azami colonels could readily appeal to the elders of their community, and the boss wasn't here to put a stop to that.


They were supposed to be holding position. Insuring Detroit couldn't be threatened, on guard against pirate incursion and so forth. The Azami regiments were looking for action, which was true of Bardiche and Claymore. It was true of Bubbles for that matter, the Atlas driver since she had moved to piloting that for the command responsibilities of it was likewise another voice advocating that they push the situation.


They were supposed to stay put, and watch the merchants. It wasn't glamorous, and after the long haul in the Aurigan campaign had been an oasis of action for the stir crazy warriors after the desert...and that had been a description thrown around. There were no moral quandaries to worry about, see pirates, kill pirates.


The situation was complicated by the psychotic killers running around in fucking Rim World colors, but even for that Septim could say it made things weirder but didn't' change things. It was Fjaldr, not Coromdir that had really stirred up the hornets. The boss had shot down the rim job assault mech... but what they hadn't told the Aurigans as the techs had been pulling the mech apart was that it was broadcast Rim World Army identification... they had told the Aurigans that there was an Amaris on the pirates side... maybe not their main leader but there ... in the leadership.


That couldn't be anything but bad.


Not that showing at Aea there hadn't been bad, he didn't envy the Aurigans their problems with the Taurians at all. There were a lot of recriminations being thrown around there... but there hadn't been anything anyone really could have done to stop the pirates from leaving. Blaming the other side for it wasn't going to fix it, and didn't change the fact that the pirates were out there. For that much Septim was glad to be out of the Aurigan Reach, and away from the Taurian frontier... but Detroit was important enough to have a Combine Legation and the minister for trade well, the situation would have been a mess even without the pirates, would have been a mess even if they hadn't shown up with the Exodus fleet to protect. Detroit's media was all over the news from the Inner Sphere... and of course with Azami merchant convoys having already left Detroit the news would now be proceeding their arrival anywhere else.


That would be a change. He knew the flow of news could be slow but his brief stint home over the border home had been skeptical about things. There was a chime that stirred him, "Come." He ordered reflexively.


"We have mass activity at Zenith, I'd say they're back." The baritone voice declared. The other Alexander, the free worlder was no relation, had command of the independent fire support company of 1st​ Battalion, which really meant he was part of a functionally very large headquarters force. The boss had mentioned wanting to reorganize the Regiment's table but there was too much other stuff always going on... and they didn't have breathing room for it. "The flyboys with the fleet are just making sure, but given the mass readings from the pulse I'd say its them."


But policy still dictated that they should issue orders to the formation. "I'll ring Hammer," Septim reached for the phone and dialed the armor officer. The friesland officer probably wasn't especially happy babysitting the locals though readily excepted that if things dropped into the pot it would be the Regiment which did the real fighting, and accepted that.
--

 

[Tankredburnelli]

[ orders to the formation. "I'll ring Hammer," Septim reached for the phone and dialed the armor officer. The friesland officer probably wasn't especially happy babysitting the locals though readily excepted that if things dropped into the pot it would be the Regiment which did the real fighting, and accepted that.
--
[/QUOTE]

Wait a sec, you have have Hammer running the Armour component. Pirates guna learn, Pirates going to learn real good

 

[Imperator Pax]

[ orders to the formation. "I'll ring Hammer," Septim reached for the phone and dialed the armor officer. The friesland officer probably wasn't especially happy babysitting the locals though readily excepted that if things dropped into the pot it would be the Regiment which did the real fighting, and accepted that.
--

Click to shrink...

Wait a sec, you have have Hammer running the Armour component. Pirates guna learn, Pirates going to learn real good
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, the next segment is literally Hammer's perspective of them being, and some of the exposition that would have been covered earlier in this story had those segments made it into the thread and were glossed over. We're moving into the part of the timeline where there are more assets being allocated to the subordinate commands in the build up into the 4th succession war and the clan invasion

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars


The devastation of the succession wars had revitalized the mercenary trade. The mercenary companies of the late third millennium were both a response to the attempts to realign the star league under a new ruling house, and a response to the manpower needs caused by the devastation. And so going into the 4th​ millennium, the3000s there was a wide ranging number of professional soldiers for hire by those with money.

ComStar was responsible as the bonding authority of mercenaries through the MRB. It had as a result a number of responsibilities such as minimizing the uncertainty already too frequent in the business of war. The MRB held the contracts, often had a hand in negotiating the terms for both sides, and in theory was there to insure fair dealing... but that too often depended on the authorities involved.

For the mercenaries there was always the fear of being bilked of their pay or shot down by their employers looking to avoid paying in full. There were other concerns, of active malicious usage of their lives, or being faced with some great name or social general who played at soldiering with real lives on the line.

ComStar held the contract, and also served as escrow for the funds to keep mercenaries in the field, which was an additional service not necessarily a standard one, but one used frequently by contracted soldiers. ComStar also facilitated the purchasing of replacement materiel, and hiring on new soldiers, and the berths to ship men across the stars. For which the MRB was complemented with compensation from the hiring or purchasing party, and sometimes by the sellers and hirees as well.

It behooved ComStar's MRB to make sure that both sides kept up their ends of the contract, and while those fees for services were taken with grumbling most of the time it saved men's lives. Friesland had raised a mercenary force and then had tried to double cross them. They had gotten out of it, without being declared bandits for just how badly Trump had screwed up his part of it, that there was no way for the government of the planet to escape censure... but it had told Hammer enough to load up his surviving troopers and get out of the Federated Suns.


Not all of those professional soldiers had the means to build a BattleMech force. Mechs were expensive to the point of pricelessness. Hammer's blue eyes narrowed at the local bulldogs which were fine enough tanks if they weren't still parade colors to reassure the poof industrialists. The bright garish colors would only draw enemy fire. It was why Hammer appreciated Shepherd's insistence that all camouflage be applied to the units. That applied to the Azami light horse regiments supporting them even though only part of those 'mech units were deployed on Detroit. The Light Mechs were scouting and harassing forces and also intended to paint forces hostile to the Regiment for the air power to remove.

At the time they had been planning for the Elidere contract... the down time while in transit to Elidere they had been in talks to purchase Partisans or some other tanks and hire on troopers to man them when they stopped over for the Highland Faire after the contract finished. Then the Elidere campaign had happened. People with money and connections had bought up whatever was available, so Shepherd had made good plans by putting tanks from Star League depots into storage and allocated money to hire new troopers on.


There was still decent money in the Periphery for men who knew their trade but hadn't forgotten his homeworld's betrayal... and some of his originals among the white mice had been leery to go back to the Suns even if it had been the Draconis March. Elidere had mostly assuaged the men that they wouldn't be tried to gotten back at. He'd still watched for the spooks keeping an eye on them, but Robinson had had a tanker for planetary ruler and even without Elidere under their belt tankers would have enjoyed a bit more respect than normal... with participation holding 1st​ Battalion 19th​Galedon in the pot they had dropped into then they hadn't needed to buy drinks at the hotel bar.

It had been a refreshing change of circumstance.

Detroit, coming back to Rock City had driven home how much the situation had changed. Hammer had been trying for the last few years to keep the unit afloat. That hadn't been easy when they'd been cut off from Friesland, and because of that had only limited contact with back home. Alois Hammer watched the Fury tank's communications suite brighten to life. The tank was a product of the finest minds of the earth that had been, of Terra's golden age. The Hegemony Tank though not as fleet as the blowers favored by old Earth was still capable of managing the company's actions with ease, such was the processing power of its computers. Hammer almost believed the scuttlebutt that the things could think on their own.

The stellar plane of the system appeared which told him enough even without the company's communication line ringing. The lyran's voice was easy going... not that he'd ever said so but Alois had always thought Septim Alexander was a little too laid back even if he made a good relations officer with the contracting authorities. "We have mass activity at the jump point, given its size pretty sure its the boss jumping back in, but procedure is to-" Hammer was already ordering the tankers to do what they were supposed to be doing if anything significant showed up at the Jump points in system so he didn't really need the Lyran telling him his business.

Even as they were still waiting for the painfully slow minutes it took to resolve images from the jump point Hammer was already insuring that his artillery were carefully prepared, and that the trailers full of ammunition were ready to be moved with the howitzers if this was a fight. The warning, and briefing in the event of contact with Black Jack's core force. The instructions were fairly simple his tanks were to form a cordon and prevent a breakout, and if Hammer deemed it to be sufficient he was to order the steel rain onto the invading position's head. There was afire release authorization for the LosTech Chapparals among other artillery just in case the pirates were able to be bottled up near their landing site.

The planning systems were arranged on color coded 'cases'.

Hammer didn't expect Case 'Black' and 'Red' would be necessary but the senior officers of the company were prepared for a scenario where it might. Case Black was a nightmare scenario, based around what might happen if this Amaris pretender had the same kind of support to swing a hidden army force enough to fight their RCT, it was based on lessons learned by the SLDF the last time and RCT had found itself on the back foot on Detroit. It was also the reason why they had accepted only limited native support in building their fortifications on North. Case Red only slightly more optimistic was if they became entangled in a fight with a near peer force or 'honorable third party' getting involved. The Capellans, Taurians, or the Combine's anomalous presence out this way... but Hammer understood that if push came to shove his flanking force had the artillery command since the assumption was that most of the force engaged at the front would be the Azami.

Somewhere on the open channel someone breathed a sigh of relief. Two fast moving heavy dropships had detached, another large aerodyne joined them filling the system with electronic traffic. To standard warbooks of the Star League era they registered as two pentagons and a Titan class.

To his IFF beamed down from the satellites they had put in orbit they registered in Terran White as Braunfelds, Hedgwig, and Eisenhower. Other returns populated confirm the detaching of dropships, and lighting fusion drives to ships of Shepherd's Company even if most of them were Azami crewed.

Hammer checked his displays groundside. They were going to have to reassure the poofs that things were okay. Detroit was too important a position to leave undefended and they had put in orders for more ammunition in the expectation that there would be fighting.

The view screen feed which had predominated his attention before the signals from orbit had been piped into his main display returned to the forefront. The local militia bulldogs had halted on their movements. Some of them were now stuck on the highway, others blocking intersections. The civilians watching the parade had all frozen up... which was bloody typical. Someone must have told them of the arrival at the zenith jump point of the jumpships, but not waited for positive identification. Hammer expected that there were would be clogged roads as dusk approached as some people made the choice hurry up and beat the rush by fleeing into the countryside before fast burning dropships could arrive to menace the planet.

... with their ground cars laden with most of their belongings headed out for the bush.

--
There was still something of a panic ongoing even as the task force returned to the embrace of the planet's gravity well. The planetary officials as he'd been warned during transit first by his local officers, and then as messages to his inbound dropship told him enough. The Precentor Detroit was a very nervous man, understandable given the number of horrifically murdered colleagues he'd experienced of late... apparently after escaping over the border into Capellan space the mad man Kristofur Kelly had not only raided a spate of Capellan worlds, he had done so by liberally pillaging escoriciating Inner Sphere institutions with both mech scale flamers and rhetoric that borrowed heavily from the Rim World Republic. His blood letting had focused on ComStar personnel of course, but also on Capellan nobility as well as the schools and institutions of learning that existed on the worlds he had hit. That was an escalation, and a significant one.

Civilian casualties according to estimates for the raids launched after Fjaldr up until a week ago had now climbed into the millions of dead. That might have seemed high but Kelly had had not compunction of poisoning water supplies , or destroying water purification systems on worlds on the frontier of the Inner Sphere. Then there were also the captives who had been marched off world into presumable slavery as well.

MacIntyre had suggested that it was possible that Kelly would proceed to jump the border to the Free Worlds League next escaping Capellan space, but that was hardly reassuring. The Precentor Detroit didn't have the credentials or materiel wealth that his nominal counterpart on New Avalon did, instead what Detroit had done was to beg the PNA in a live broadcast for support before the First Circuit. For additional funding, so that more bounties might be issued, and that the existing 'Level II' gendarmes to which ComStar nominally relied on for their local security be expanded that they could hire full time mercenaries.

Gene had little intention of garrisoning Detroit for long. The longer they stayed here the longer they risked a fight with the combine. On the other hand he did want to secure a supply base on Aquagea just a precautionary measure. He was tempted to scrap that though it was four jumps, as much as he wanted to contribute material back to the Outpost Castle there and perhaps even post a small scratch force he needed to get the Azami Exodus fleet underway and out deeper into the black. The Azami trade caravan, the merchants who had been planning to remain behind and remain the eyes and ears of the community had planned to follow the standard merchant route to where the border of the FWL and Magistracy met. That detachment would officially be on long term mercenary contract with a prominent azami merchant house a legal fiction to support those units as part of the Company to the MRB. Even that was a recent expansion of the plan.

There was however another route possible that would save them time.

Cate's Hold had held an SLDF base ashad Brixtana just over the Magistracy border, both were a jump frompastoral new abilene, a jump from Bonavista... a world which Precentor Detroit had recommend as their next target because it was apirate base preying on merchant shipping. Bonavista was a jump fromJoppa and thus if they could strike it wipe it out and then move overthe Magistracy border from there would shorten their travel time...and Gene knew he had antsy mechwarriors looking for the next fight.From a strategic stand point though, it was a reminder that theyneeded better starcharts. Relying on merchant charts which hadallowed worlds to fall off because they didn't do enough business orhad passed away and star league charts which were hopelessly out ofdate meant going in blind to systems.

Still the Azami elders had demanded for a bigger role in pirate operations, so if they still wanted it, then there was one right there while he stocked aquagea with war materiel. First though he needed to talk to Detroit's government, and hte Precentor, and then read his staff into the latest developments... then go talk to the elders as well.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Ah the fury. A stupidly good command tank cursed by the fact that it has only 1 gun even if it's a gauss rifle. Then again I suppose only having the Gauss Rifle should keep the command staff and tank crew from trying to YOLO in close unlike it's mech peer in the command role the Cyclops and that a command tank should never be deployed alone.

Also I'd say the bulldog is isn't that good of a tank. Its a lesser tank to the goblin in most respects since it pays no less than 15 tons of mass and 2 tons of armor and not carrying a squad of infantry to have those 2 SRMs 4s. Which to be fair are useful but probably not enough.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Detroit
The Eisenhower's allotment of rooms was spacious, comfortable. It made an excellent meeting place for his assembled commanders ahead of the planned meeting groundside with the rest of the command. Gene settled into the chair as the attenuating hologram wave form of Dante signalled he reviewed the footage sent up from the ground station. "Who gave the order for the unit to be bushwhacked, after the unit recovered the incriminating holovid that we're all privy to?"


"I do not know." Tai-sa Bey replied. The honesty was refreshing, and the lack of bluster more so. It was annoying that the colonel didn't know who had ordered the attack that had gotten all of this rolling, but at least, Gene appreciated he wasn't being lied to. "That is the problem, the order was abrupt."


Probably because of the combine command chain, but also, "Because House Kurita was being blackmailed by the footage?" He assumed it was in the past tense in any event, but the whole affair stank to high heaven.


"The coordinator conspired with the Satan Amaris, but we only learned that after the attack was botched."


"Yes," Gene replied, "But who was trying to do the black mail, who benefitted from holding that information over the Combine?"


"ComStar." Dante replied interrupting the conversation.


"Is he right?" Gene asked.


"Yes. There was communication. We simply, we originally believed that the communications were simply a matter as intermediary."


Dante interrupted again, "It is possible that it was a rogue action, did you know there are data markers left over in the archive footage." The AI really wasn't asking a question because he continued on immediately, "The transmission is a copy from a central archive on Terra," specifically one in North America, "but the date of the copy is from 3005." When the galaxy had changed irrevocably when the Dragoons had arrived... but the dates didn't line up. The copy had been made before the Dragoons reported arrival.


That put a kibosh on the light horse officer's initial theory about the date. "It also doesn't make sense that they'd wait that long, when did things get out?"


"Before the Sword of Light left to," Do, "battle on Halstead Station." Ardeth replied, "The decision to flee had been hasty, and then the Coordinator chose to meet Prince Hanse in battle in defense of Mallory's World, and that battle distracted any pursuit I think."


Gene got up to pace, and then nodded, "We don't know enough about the situation... and yes Dante is right ComStar's archives probably has no shortage of black mail material. The ISF commissar, "Not the man's official title of course, "On Elidere with the19th​ had an HPG command stick, it was preconfigured with the battle roms of the 19th's fight up until then."


"Do you have it in your possession?"


"No, it was turned over to Davion intelligence, ComStar didn't realize what it was until they got the device active and pulled the data from it, but the Precentor New Avalon was pretty furious by all accounts." Gene replied to the other colonel's question, "Anyway the long story short, is I think there is a lot going on that we don't get... the copy from the archive was pulled after attacks on ComStar stations in the former Rim World on modern the Combine-Lyran border. I'm speculating but I think that the Coordinator was going to be blackmailed to attack Black Jack... but then the Dragoons showed up."


"Do you believe so sir?"


"Its just a guess, but also ComStar underwent a change in leadership, a change in head priest if you will. I guess there was a scandal, but one they kept under wraps..." He blew out a breath, "Anyway, I just wanted to read you in on where we stand Colonel Bey, we're going down into the Gravity Well tomorrow and make plans on where to go from there." In the mean time... Dante had put together an exhaustive report that Gene was only half way through on the footage from what Kelly had gotten up to on the Capellan frontier.


That was material he needed to finish before the Eisenhower descended tomorrow.
--
Bubbles had not taken the news, or the footage of damage reports from Kelly's foray into Capellan space well. They had expected that but she hadn't been purposefully excluded from the briefing the day before... that had explicitly been about the Azami and the Combine. As for the fighting in Capellan space current estimates from the fighting put Kelly's Commandoes at an over strength possibly square battalion with a sizable baggage train. Plenty of infantry and hovercraft that were of similar models as they'd encountered on Fjaldr. It seemed likely the bastard had been the one to find that cache of old machines.


Gene would have liked to have been able to do more than reiterate the objective. The mission did take priority. If they found Kelly,then yes obviously they'd put paid to that, the bastard deserved it but, "We should probably accept that Kelly had plans to go back to Capellan space. It was bad luck we didn't catch him on the ground at Fjaldr," He declared trying to keep an even tone. "We need to continue to eliminate places like Fjaldr." Eliminating Grim Sybil's base on Axylus could be said to do that, "I'm going to put together a following task force to hit other pirate bases and clear them out, but we are not a making a return to the Inner Sphere until the Exodite fleet is safely departed our charge." That was the objective of the company. The Precentor New Avalon had asked for Kelly Dead or Alive and they might in the face of this go for it...but not without more information, and a more permanent basing. "We're going to Luxen in the short run, and given ur Cruine and Duianshire we will probably need to stage forces there as well." They were likely going to be tempting targets for pirates looking for material gain.


The Magistracy and the industrialists were in agreement about looking to protect those planets, and their investments. They'd discuss such arrangements further though only in more concrete terms once they reached Luxen, and once the Azami were safely away. A point that he had needed to make repeatedly. The Precentor Detroit continued to lobby for whatever parts of his time the robe could manage to gather, and was even as Gene sat surrounded by his staff twiddling his thumbs no doubt behind the safety of the fortifications erected by Azami industrial mechs and pioneers.


Those fighting positions were reinforced by Badger and Bandit vehicles supplied to the company as part of the last order from Blackwell as part of the payment from the Davion contracts. There were plans to continue to patronize Blackwell for parts and supplies and vehicles but Dante, and Gene would have been lying to deny that they hoped to locate Brian Caches, and stockpiles meant to support the regiment, and expand its force... which was the next topic on the agenda.


He was really hoping that the Azami didn't start dueling, as was the popular rumor, for assigning allotments to the 'active' portion of the force. Garrison duty was he allowed boring, but Alamut far out in the black needed protection.


"A battalion, is a formidable force in this day and age." The older of the two Azami regimental commanders observed, speaking over Colonel Bey "indeed for the Capellans, and their limited numbers it must be of grave concern to face machines of the Star League on their periphery frontier, and in such numbers." The chancellor of the Cappellan Confederation ... 'the celestial wisdom' was going to have to do something, but the question was what. Then perhaps more brazenly, "you will require many warriors."


There were looks around the table, "My understanding Colonel was that House Alavi would potentially be retaining one of the Light Horse Regiments," But that Elders hadn't actually said which one yet, and the idea of giving up such a large portion of the forces that had originally intended to protect the colony hadn't been planned. Then there was the air component as well, much of the 588th​as it had been established was going to defend Alamut. The Air Wing's technicians and personnel hopefully able to restore more of the mothballed JumpShip fleet left by the Alexandrians , and maybe able to bring Jump Yard facilities online though those were optimistic views by the Azami, in part bolstered by confidence in god's providence.


"After the new year," The older man replied, "In the mean time as you said there must be strikes against the pirates who assail merchants and a good offense is the best defense."


"There are pirate havens which need to be neutralized, if House Alavi wants to operate from Detroit that's one thing, but its wholly another if they intend to base from the Aurigan Reach."If it was the latter then they needed to start preparing to move forces back in that direction... and such that Gene understood, the Azami themselves were unsure of where they wanted to base from, and had been divided even before moving into the now active war zone of the rimward periphery. Before assholes started running around in RimWorld colors... that had pushed demand for more of a response, a demand that only had increased as word had swept through as men pulled apart the Rampage.


Kelly piloted an Orion. Whatever publications he was issuing now were not the same as using Rim World mechs. Kelly's Commandoes were active in Capellan space but the battle roms Precentor Detroit had shown them showed nothing but machines that had come from SLDF depots. It was a detail that was nagging him, because the machines were pristine. Prevailing theory was that Kelly had been provided or located an SLDF depot... but that seemed almost too easy, too simplistic an answer given the man's rampaging across space near and far. "Could we potentially pull such data from his Orion?"


"We would have to find them first, and then take his machine from him." The Azami officer replied to his colleague to a round of grim chuckling that moved through the room.

 

[JohnDoe22]

Thanks for the update! Battletech stories are kind of thin on the ground!

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Destroit
Gene could feel the palpable difference with Khan on the streets of the up town district of Detroit's capital. The local militia commander was doing a better job being composed and not showing his concern with the situation than the average corporate worker and manager on the street. People were still going to coffee shops but so much of Detroit's population were dependent on caffeine to do their jobs even the threat of invasion would have stopped that, but it didn't change the atmosphere.


Kelly hitting across Capellan space was... was bad news to say the least. What bothered him more about the news was the lingering question of whether or not the Capellans would stay on their side of the border or if they would send troops after Black Jack... but the answer to that question was unlikely to be forthcoming... even if ComStar passed the news to the public as soon as they learned of it, which he doubted would be the case.


That was going to get annoying because people were scared now, and they were getting antsy on top of being nervous. Gene didn't disparage that, as Kelly was intentionally engaging in terror attacks and it was clearly working. There was no reason to deny that, "We're going to try and hit pirate bases we know exist, deny them basing options, but Kelly," And black jack... and all of the ones below him, and the situation was complex, "has no such base we've identified." He personally suspected that the Azami were going to be disappointed if their choice of targets didn't have rampaging fiends with rimworld gear to fight, but he wasn't expecting them to just trip over them...


"You still plan to move on to the Magistracy."


"I do," That wasn't going to change. There could be no changing that plan since the Magistracy was now the agreed upon deparature point into the far rimward periphery given the situation. Once the Azami Exodus fleet was away, was on its way to Alamut, then things would change... but the MRB had already responded with tentative offers of employment from House Raventhir with bonds supported from a Lyran banking consortium that was almost certainly represented Doctor Abner's or his colleagues. That bond was important because IE had paid very well for the Company travelling into the Inner Sphere regardless of what Elidere had unfolded into as a contract... but right now mercenaries were far more in demand than there was supply and the market rates for any good sized mercenary unit in good stand were far higher than they had been before they had departed the periphery.


If Gene held out for a better offer he could probably get it from the Magistracy's federal authorities... but that would have almost certainly meant being involved in a whole new kettle of political fish. Also, if he were so inclined holding out for a better offer would almost certainly price out individual independent worlds like Detroit. Detroit just didn't have the money for it if they weren't going to be selling off big parcels of land.


That was less appealing for the company for composition reasons. The Azami wanted to take the fight to black jack now. The Highlanders weren't much different, but both them and predominantly swedenese who comprised Bardiche were in the longer term looking to return to the Inner Sphere... and to fighting against the Combine.


There was little here Detroit could offer that couldn't be gotten elsewhere, and few places in the periphery could promise them riches ufficent to change that. "Most of my men," Gene continued, "Want to fight the pirates." That meant he didn't need to pay them exorbitantly... in fact he had made a pointed effort as they had moved into the Inner Sphere to begin paying at ranks and for time in grade.... even though that had been based off of magnuanac pay scales already in place with the original Azami contingent. "There is going to be an azami presence here." Which Khan had probably been told about, "There may even be eventually an Azami settlement around the fort," He stated pushing forward with the conversation, but Khan had more pressing issues... and it was actually in hindsight a wonder he had waited this long.


"Major Alexander," Septim, "informed the planetary council that the pirates claim to represent a new rim world republic under House Amaris."


"Yes, Kristofur Kelly claims to represent an Amaris pretender." He replied, and he had come to terms that in telling the Azami, and the Highlanders and the whole wider command even though he was obliged to do so to inform his civilian authorities of relevant details... that decision had all but insured that such was going to actively get out to the broader public at large first in the periphery and then across known space. The Azami had been adamant about relaying such news, and the Highlanders getting a message off to Northwind. The conspicuous use of Rim World design, something at appeared to be increasing as Kelly mounted ever more brazen raids in capellan space was attracting attention, "His political rhetoric its the Rim World talking points, but he does not represent a territorial state. He's," Kelly, "leading an armed terrorist group." And then pivoted to the matter at hand, because there was no point in talking about that the Azami couriers had probably already gone out with the merchants, and it wouldn't have surprised him if copies of the HPG recording were alright out in the wild now, "The Azami merchants intend to stay on, and realistically that could be a problem with the Combine Legation."


Colonel Khan nodded. The planetary council might have liked trade with the Inner Sphere but the likely response at least for the near future would be to tell the Legation to politely pound sand... maybe even less politely if an ethnically Azami battalion actually ended up fighting any pirate incursion. It was more than just money right now, it was the security threat posed by the pirates, "The Azami are preparing to depart the system. I mean on an expedition."


"Yes, there are pirate bases used to raid Canopian, andCapellan bound free traders and worlds along the trade route, I'm sending Colonel Bey to clear them out." Gene replied... and while the younger of the two Azami colonels were off doing that House Alavi would be here cementing their position, and he would be preparing to jump to Aquagea... which had other newer connotations due to the proximity to the Capellan border. "You are not going to be left to fend for yourself there will be a continued bolstering security presence that will assist in defending Detroit, that is planned to include a Company of BattleMechs and supporting units here," Meaning in the vicinity of the main star port as well as the planetary HPG station... which was a concession to Precentor Detroit, and the planetary government, but most of Azami were going to be at the fort on North. Facilities which Gene really had not had the time to tour, but he didn't have time for that... he just didn't. It was the post shipping off deployment that he needed to discuss with Khan. That was the real focus of this working lunch. He needed to outline to Khan what the company responsibilities were in terms of the Battalion of troops that would be on Detroit, and in particular what military assets were available in the event of an attack. "House Alavi, the merchants that's really between the government here, and them, I know Hammer has been busy the last couple of months, and that the militia would probably benefit from having more time to dig in,"


"We have to defend the city we live in, not the one we actually want to fight in." Khan replied,


That was the simple truth. Jinking and ducking through streets was something the defender had to focus on, but civil defense authorities were going to have to contend with pirates being less considerate of civilian homes and businesses. "If we can eliminate the pirates in the near vicinity, and new ones can be prevented from replacing them that will increase the security of the planet," and might encourage more investment into Detroit, but he couldn't make that kind of promise

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Leaving Detroit had been a relief. They had managed to avoid a major battle, but they had spent an inordinate amount of time trying to avoid having conversations aimed at delaying their departure in favor of staying on longer. Not just from local business interests, or civilian planetary officials, but also from ComStar. There was also the risk that the longer they stayed the chance of their travel plans would get out.


They could hope to obfuscate their movements on the basis of trade, but the local pirate presence was going to notice after hitting Sybil... so that meant capitalizing while they had the momentum... it also meant ascertaining the conditions on other worlds. That included making inquiries about conditions in Capellan space... which was what he intended to post Bubbles to asking about on behalf of the company and nominally 'coordinating' with local authorities over the border. That coordination though meant real coordination with not just Azami merchants who were going to look for opportunities to trade, but also ComStar to rely on information and validating their credentials... that meant that they'd be down her portion of the unit. She was going to take the two veterans of the ur Cruinne contract with her along with a handful of the recruits they had picked up from Davion space, but would also be looking to potentially hire on troops.


Given Capellan sensibilities she wasn't too optimistic about finding good mechwarriors, but the situation in the frontier regions was bad. They were hoping for good luck, but preparing for little to no cooperation. In the mean time the Azami elders had ultimately made their decision. That decision established what resources, which commands of the corp would be available.


The Azami though had pushed through a memorial acknowledging that protecting the colony of Alamut had to be the accepted priority. It wasn't a popular decision with most, but one of the elders had clearly put his foot down on the matter. That at least meant they could move forward... it had meant a delay. The elders had accompanied the force away from Detroit, so that would set them back a few weeks in total... but a decision had been reached.


"We're going to begin division of forces as planned," But Aquagea was a stop over... "The locals have a mining industry particularly for Germanium," Which was why the Azami were officially here, "However it bares stating, that in 2765 there was an SLDF regular garrison in addition to the garrison for the 3rd​ Sian Dragoons," who had been "serving as a QRF in the near rimward periphery ahead of the New Vandenburg rebellion," Gene remarked as a holographic display of the map spread out, "In the present day Aquagea is poor and underdeveloped the neighboring world of Zathras is to be considered hostile, planetary militias are nominally under the command of the capital but in practice are lead by regional sheriffs and gentry."

Gene had no interest in recapping forthe unit command the whole story of waking up.

He was going to move the Highlander formation and Eisenhower directly down to the Outpost castle while Soren and Ardeth landed near by. They were going to make contact with the locals and then while the Azami asked about buying Germanium, and potentially other options they were going to look about various parts and ruins. Truthfully they might get lucky, Aquagea's people had been fixing up things from their 'big part' during the second succession war.

"the Taurians invaded the planet that year in concert with the Amaris Dragoons." Dante observed, immediately causing a stir among the assembled officers, "SLDF taskforce losses were significant as a result of the nuclear attacks on the fleet." And the outbreak of the succession wars had done the locals no favors, but it had really been the losses of the 2nd​War which had finally driven the borders of the inner sphere backwards and left Aquagea to fend for itself... but that had been true for so many worlds, and not just Cappellan worlds as the inner sphere's borders and the periphery states had shrunk inwards.

The change in territorial borders was beyond their concern... but they were going to need bases of operation... but Dante was reluctant to give Chang a full time independent command despite her place in the chain of command in part because it might convey the wrong signal to the capellans, and also because Chang had experience with the original mission to Luxen...they were going to need experienced trainers for this... 'Luxen Dragoons' project of Lady Raventhir's.

There were other concerns. Majesty Metals was like any big company. It wanted to keep costs down and while Aquagea did probably need foreign capital and direct investments ur Cruinne's report suggested that given the situation …Majesty Metals probably was not the corp to try and entice. "We're going to touch down, and assemble positions to base from, the locals at Via Cabellero are friendly enough and their salvage and mech workspace should be enough to support any presence we leave back here."

The current plan was for Bey to clear any pirate havens on the way into the magistracy, and that they would be able to traverse a circuit similar in course to the one that had originally taken the scratch company to Luxen years earlier... but part o the concealed driving need to return to Aquagea was the outpost castle and its AI.

Something that hadn't been disclosed yet to operational elements... but the Ancient Company of Claymore would be briefed when they landed. From a recovery perspective they were going to see if any Star League era Capellan facilities were intact, and the Azami were going to land to see if anything from the SLDF regulars were intact... and they would hopefully be able to going to them and get some semblance of the defensive works back online. The Aquagea mission was also going to be aimed at trying to muster the local militia so that they had some kind of fighting chance against a pirate incursion, and to dissuade their neighbors from trying anything.

One of the Azami captains spoke up, "Given the number of worlds abandoned we will have little warning if Kelly moves this direction from Capellan space."

"All the more reason we reach out and talk with the local authorities... given what he's up to," Bubbles declared, but the truth was the nearest actual Capellan governor was on the world of New Roland... which was where Bubbles detachment would be heading back from Aquagea, in this case jumping to Segarica and then to New Roland... but they were trying to do a lot. They knew Kelly had jumped the Aurigan border and hit Ward, and from the last reports from ComStar had pushed further into the Inner Sphere, but Gene frankly doubted even with a battalion of 'mechs Kelly could afford to push too deeply into the Confederation. "The atrocities he's committing."

Gene did wonder how ComStar's broadcasting service in the Capellan Confederation was telling things... from what he had pieced together ComStar had been reluctant to let live communications go out... except when it directly involved their own assets ... "We also aware that Kelly is hitting ComSTar jumpships used for mail services," The so called class D service... which was either new or news that hadn't reached the Precentor New Avalon... which was a potential legal issue since well... they'd yet to actually retake any such JumpShip and frankly had no idea how that would go.
--
Notes: Sorry I lost power last night (and it only came back on in the last hour) while preparing this update, next time we will touch down on Aquagea and cover the expanded strength of the Company including the two Azami BattleMech Regiments particularly from the perspective of the locals, which is why we're not doing that here.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea


There had been nothing like it in his lifetime... and for that matter anyone else's on Aquagea. Yan ran his head over his bald head... the pirates had been passing them by...they'd been lucky. Just lucky, Yan figured he didn't take any of this providence stuff the preacher man who'd been making the rounds about how the Star League would come back seriously.

He had figured that their luck would run out. That seemed to be what was going on, and Yan was resigned to a fight that would be hard, but still had to be fought. Yan took along drag from the cigar from within the cockpit of his BattleMaster ignoring the wailing of the town's emergency klaxon, and the busses trying to get the most vulnerable of townsfolk out of the way.

There was a reverberating hum through the cockpit as the reactor came online, bringing his consoles into a wash of blues, and greens and reds before they steadied out into readable displays, or colored indicator lights.

There were only the barest threads of contact that Via Cabellero had in terms of communication with the authorities down in Leone. The thrashing that the Zathras gun thugs had been given a few years earlier shook things up, mostly cause it meant they had been busy. A handful of 'mechs out here in the periphery was plenty to say one was the biggest stick on the planet...

The BattleMaster's computer came to life, showing him what was making its way through the planetary atmosphere. A full on planetary invasion force. The planet probably hadn't seen anything like for two hundred years since the Star League had fallen. To that end, Yan could have done without Hank getting on the radio and hollering about lights coming on in the ruins and saying stuff he didn't understand.

What he understood were the number of signatures.... and the relative size of ship that each fusion drive was pushing towards his home.

Hank Bremman's folks had grown up in the hills and the old SLDF ruins that were a few miles from his family's homestead had been stripped clean of most stuff, but it was still a big sturdy building, with good winches and some tooling. That the Mariks hadn't tore out the radar was he guessed a lucky breakeven if Hank couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"Sheriff."

"I heard you Hank, you tell me what you see." He told the fifteen year old junior that normally ran around with Boyd, and Charlie and that lot of young guns.

"Well,-"

"I think its busted." Darrylcut in, "He's piping the feed into my 'mech, and its says we have a Star League Regiment'" He clipped the word, "Combat Team under Terran Command coming down. Got all kind of computers and stuff places down here, and up there talking, but it don't make any kind of sense."

Yan put the cigar down in the ash tray of his mech, "We have a what, now?" It took too long in Yan's opinion for the computer in his mech to talk with the computer up in the mountains... and then the video piped in. The gray white hulls of the aircraft would have been hard to see in the distance of the sky. He had remembered the complaints about trying to shoot aircraft when the Zathras air wing had tried to go in for guns.

The ASF were divided into two groups, escorting a division of dropships. One group bird shaped like bigger jet fighters, and the other the egg shape of spheroid droppers like the familiar Union or the common Mule.

Emblazoned on every gray white hull though was a Cameron starburst, and at the front of a hammer head shaped dropper was THS Eisenhower... and no sooner had it come into view on the frame was Hank Bremman coming over the line saying they had radio.

"Via Cabellero air traffic controller, this is Colonel Gene Shepherd, my RCT is on guide beacons as follows," The boy's voice was almost mechanical as he rattled off landing points that coincided with what his computer was piping.
--
The Eisenhower was currently decelerating as it approached the planet's gravity well, and the border of the atmosphere. He had had no one to make reports to. There had been no one to tell about waking up alone on Aquagea... yes the status of the outpost castle on the planet had been relevant enough to relay to Tristan on Elidere, but it had not been until the trip back to Northwind to even consider the exodus of people from Lone Star... and even then that had been the 29th​ century and it was now the 31st​.

Gene stared at the outdated map, "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

It had been a rhetorical question. Dante continued to go on that given their available evidence the attacks, and the destruction wreaked might have been a coincidence, certainly while the Finmark province had been a regional sub unit apart of the Rim world republic there was not in at least a cursory search of available material indication it was host to revanchists longing for Amaris. Black Jack had attacked worlds like Lost though.

"Moving on," He stated into his throat mike so that the officers on the bridge in this conversation could hear him, because while that was concerning, "I think the Terran exile population came from Lone Star in the 2830s..."Which at the time had meant nothing to him, he'd just been going off the shipping logs, which hadn't provided much in the was of political affiliation, but there had been news clippings from which had used to parse things... it was by no means definitive... "That material needs to be combed through."

There was a glint of hope in the White Shield's expression as they moved towards the edge of the atmosphere. "Our people would have made every effort to save Terran citizens from House Kurita."

Gene would have liked if that were true, but it seemed optimistic. "I don't discount that as a possibility." He remarked conversationally, but Dante was quick to point out that while not impossible a correctly configured Royal Division frequency could do as they were doing now, and thus could have landed at the castle outpost... the castle outpost where Gene had been in stasis. "When we get on planet," He continued ignoring the Northwind AI's interruption, "We will split off a civil affairs team and go looking through public records from what I remember when I was here last time is that a lot of the settlers have pretty comprehensive ancestry books." The family registry weren't necessarily going to be perfect evidence, but it might tell them something... and they would be a hell of a lot less invasive than asking to run the populace through blood tests even if they had had a comprehensive service registry... which of course they didn't. Asking about Star League dog tags was likewise going to be another thing that ... you just didn't do. Gene might not have fancied himself the most socially adept soldier but he understood that that kind of asking around was a bridge too far.

It did make some sense he allowed that if the 331st's command had realized what was happening then evacuating the survivors well they would blend in better as refugees fleeing the Inner Sphere for the periphery and it was doubtful they would have gotten out. It might well have explained the hardware as well.

"We are approaching optimal transmit range." From what he remembered of conversations, the locals had only limited space telemetry, but by this point there was no denying they'd have seen this many fusion fusion signatures. "I am picking up returns near the LX Army garrison."

"There is air traffic control?" Gene questioned. 25 Tons of Germanium was a lot he allowed, and value but not necessarily build a star port and if via Caballero was exporting that much Germanium, to allow for a port, then it was wonder the pirates hadn't beat them here. "Can you achieve LasCom then?"

"One moment."

The original plan had been to transmit wide band from orbit and just radio down that they were coming in, and were not hostile. He had planned to visit the town, but they had planned to land in the wastes beyond the settlement hours deep into the scrub where the castle outpost was.

 

[Arimai]

andit

Click to shrink...

And it

unitapart

Click to shrink...

Unit apaŕt

and value but not necessarily build a star port

Click to shrink...

Valuable but not necessarily enough to build a star port.

it was wonder

Click to shrink...

It was no wonder

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Aquagea was a temperate world in places, there were plenty of high mesas and valleys but the Capellan mining industry which had been the forefront of the planetary economy during the star league. It was a period for which Gene didn't know enough of, to really comment on...and yet there were members of the command who expected him to know.


As it was the offloaded Azami industrial mechs were busy setting up gaibon nets to hold sand and rock as they scraped paths and widened existing trails. Similar work had been done on North, but the climate, the patterns of rainfall, temperature variation and humidity... they were different but that was only a speed bump for the engineers. The camps were spreading out, tents popping up in all directions around where the civilian laden DropShips had touched down. The Azami had made the long trip out with children, and families. He had known that as a fact but the long journey had failedto adequately prepare him for the prospeect of the familes in sizefleeing the Combine.


What made it worse was that the Azami flight was only partial. There were still plenty in long colonized worlds... the Azami had been much more inclined to settling worlds and had taken to the stars leaving Earth behind. There were rumors making their way through the Exodus fleet that Gene really didn't want to have to address, and those ran the scope of ... well everything... but an Amaris pretender was one of them.


It had he understood only been a matter of time. He couldn't have kept it secret for very long.... but at least it hadn't broken out while they had been at Kimi. It was actually a wonder that they'd kept things under control this long... there were other factors.


The Azami had adopted the Dictum Honorium in its 5th​edition form after the McAlister branch of the Kurita had ousted the Van Rohrs branch from power. Therefore in the face of a surviving 1st​Edition copy ... there were Azami elders who had memorized the 5th​Edition version and could expound differences between the version of the text their ancestors had sworn to uphold to the Keeper of House Honor, and the modern painfully long six volume edition.


Gene had all of these thoughts as he adjusted the trim on the Marauder's course bringing him up a ridge. There had been a hydroelectric dam at one point. It had altered the natural concourse of a powerful long river that made the rio grande on old earth look small... and when after centuries of being dammed up, that dam had been destroyed... the results had been predictably catastrophic. What was ironic was that the dam hadn't been destroyed by the Taurians or the RWA who had been supporting them... no it had survived the war against Amaris... just not the succession wars that had follwed afterTerra had been liberated.


He eased back on the throttle bringing the machine up to the crest of the ridge. The derelict towers had once strung hundreds miles worth of power cables... those had long been stripped by weather blown away by the biggest seasonal dust storms... but the skeletal towers remained. The truth was he didn't care about those... they weren't important. Not today anyway. They were old pieces of civil infrastructure from a bygone era. They were a reminder of what was gone, but their civil infrastructure nature was also what eliminated them from consideration as his avionics package mapped the crest.


The Black Horse had the correct data plugged in... in that it knew where to look... but the landscaped had changed the trees had grownup... there were changes in the terrain. He flipped broadcast... and got nothing. Not that he was surprised, "Dante, I'm not getting anything." Which on the plus side meant that in theory there was no air defense, something that might squawk off and spray the Ike as it came down with ground based fire.


"Aye." The AI responded, "Broadcasting..."Silence for a moment. "nothing."


"Explanation?"


"There should be a ground control radar for the Outpost itself."


"Tristian's fort was heavily reduced in capability." Heo bserved... then paused, "I've got fusion signatures coming up, One BattleMaster, Two Centurions... hold on, One Wolverine." Gene paused at the mass of electronic noise the four machines generated. He rubbed his head, "Still nothing?"


"No signals," Dante ran a simulation through the comms channel putting forward his best guess was a landslide the better part of a century earlier had reshaped most of the face. Which meant digging... lots of digging... and probably for no real gain. An Outpost Castle wasn't the same sprawl as a Castle Brian... sure Outposts were supposed to be the most modern of Castles but they also reflected the Hegemony's strategic belief that conflicts were increasingly moving towards low intensity brushfire conflicts where intelligence gathering and quick rapid movements by special operations forces were going to be how fights were handled. AN Outpost Castle shared features with Brians but weren't as well defended, had much smaller killing fields, and far fewer turrets. It might not be worth it to try and dig down into the mountain side to try and access buried communication bunkers or or checks for turret remains... not when most of the defenses had probably been destroyed in the fighting of the late '60s. "Broadcasting for landing clearance... now."


The doors of the Castle Opened skyward, which suggested that the facility could receive it just couldn't transmit directly... areminder that it had been probably two hundred years. The Outpost had been built only to accommodate Aerodyne DropShips... an oddity considering that the late Star League had been moving to increasingly large Spheroid Droppers ... but the castle could accommodate the Titan easily. Just it couldn't accommodate to the two Overlord DropShips they were going to put down near Via Cabellero.


Bardiche was going to act as the principle screening force. Eisenhower was too laden with supplies that they were going to put in the castle stockpile to adequately carry the Highlanders so Claymore, and the Mechanized Infantry Component would be offloading behind Bardiche. That would not only allow the Scotts Cuirassiers time to move their Badger and Bandits off, it would let them potentially configure those vehicles if there was forward warning about a Pirate Threat... and if such a threat appeared they should have had plenty of time to scramble the rest of the unit.


"Dante what can you tell me about the Centurion?" The AI had after all been in the Inner Sphere. There was a gruff noise from the other end of the line, giving him enough warning of the incoming procurement lecture. Like the Grasshopper and the Jenner and some other 'mechs that had been designed during the last years of the Star League the Centurion had only become famous in the Succession Wars. Companies were still building new Centurion factories, but it and the machine had emerged as the Davion workhorse mech of the latter half of the 1st​ Succession War. Corean would likely have gotten the same treatment as the Jenner or the Dragon had by the SLDF establishment had the Centurion been ready... but the machines that Terran exiles, remnants or refugees had brought had likely been made in the gap between the first and second succession war or maybe towards the end of the followed decade as the 2nd​ had mounted in intensity.


The auto cannon would never have passed for the Star League Defense Force... but the AFFS had been in dire straits and the 29th​century's conflict had been built upon all the existing losses of the war which had destroyed the hegemony. Someone around the middle of the 29th​ century had managed to get away from the fracas of the 2nd​ Succession War.


Gene adjusted his Marauder's torso twist nose out towards the approaching lance... slowly weighing whether his priority needed to be the planned check in at the outpost castle or making in person contact with the town's militia. Given the offloading civilians, the children being allowed to transit down from orbit to have real gravity, it wasn't a hard choice.

--
Notes: Yes, Corean built the Centurion debutted the centurion in 2801 I'm expositing fluff that isn't strictly Canon

 

[Bofors40mm]

Could have had some prototypes enter service alongside the mech it was made to support aka the trebuchet

 

[Imperator Pax]

Yeah teh bucket has the: TBT-3C The original Trebuchet as produced for the SLDF, it carried two Artemis IV-equipped LRM-15s with CASE, four medium lasers, double heat sinks, an Endo-Steel chassis and a 300-rated extralight fusion engine. However, the attrition of the First Succession War forced Corean Enterprises into redesigning the 'Mech without advanced technology to keep the production lines running.[9]​

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
He watched the data relays, and lights on his console.

The diagnostic on his 'Black Horse' Marauder's computer core had been an afterthought really. Dante ascribed the issues of confusion and memory loss of his first firefight as typical of extended duration stasis tube use. The issue was in the hand shake exchange with the Via Caballero Outpost Castle and its incomplete warbook data, which extended beyond the fall of the Star League but had not been updated to reflect the latest standards... incomplete was the best description therefore for the data upload.

That was the problem.

They had come out here, and since coming back out to the periphery found more and more things to ask questions about… he supposed the most benign answer was that that in the 2840s or so the planetary data networks must have been more intact, and it had allowed some updates to filter back. It meant less right now… he would have liked, Dante would have liked to have access to the log data, but that would mean being in the Castle proper. There was a scheduled check in from the dropships Kennedy, and Johnson... which were their legal registered names

Gene let out a breath, reached out adjusted the comms suite, sending a tight beam laser comm connection the highlander a mile down the embankment, "MacIntyre."

"Colonel?"

"I'm moving to meet the local militia." He'd sent Septim, and Chang down to the planetary capital's starport along with part of the second Azami. Hammer had wanted to deploy across the river plain, but that would looked too much like they were going to offload to cut the rail juncture that was really the capital's only direct link to Via... but it really would have been the best place to offload their artillery. It also would have been an ideal place for an invasion force to put down...which was another reason that Alois wanted to have control of it while they were here... and he had a point control of any former Star League positions was great but not taking the obvious position would attract more attention to those. "Dante should be able to handle authentication and handshakes, let me know if things look like they're are going to be a problem."

"Aye."

His Marauder pushed forward. The Sam Houston was back behind the line, the truth was he expected to need to reorient his dropships at least a few times even without a fight breaking out. Move Bardiche, shuffle the Azami up and down given the need for civilian populations to be given to enjoy time in the planetary gravity well... there was a lot to do.

Four klicks west from the Houston another predominantly Azami combat team was based out of a similarly equipped DroST IIA. The DroST were an ancient class of DropShips massing 5300 tons and capable in their Azami configuration of landing a mixed battalion given their utility they should have been more common. Out massing the leopard by more than double, the DroST provided his foreward most elements the options to operate against a variety of challenges... and the only major ammunition concern were the missile launchers aboard which meant it largely supported the Azami's desire to be supply chain independent as much as possible. Gene suspected that the first DropShips that Alamut constructed would be a design that had taken flight under the Terran Hegemony, which he supposed must have been some kind of historical irony... or homage

The combat team was the first of three, its spread out BattleMech complement pulling double duty as the Light Company under Kiyone Akashi who had an Azami XO responsible for the armor complement aboard Hood, McCulloch and Ross. The air wing was entirely Azami constituting the assault boats, and six Azami maintained and piloted Eagles. It was the most recent approved change over, and recognized that breaking with what they had told the Davions when they had left Northwind... there would be a very significant Azami with the Company going forward. An update they would probably include with the official paper work from the MRB to the courier they were planning to send off to Northwind, and Davion space just as soon as they were settled here.

That change also entailed plans to bring rationalization to the units of the company as much as possible, which meant really when you got down to it... lostech prospecting or scavenging. They were already rearming pilots who had established their qualifications on Northwind with Marauder II BattleMechs simply because they were in storage.

That pushed the weight balance of the force heavier than he had planned but the Blackwell industries machines were what he could spare to do what he needed in terms of rationalizing the labor, and maintenance requirements of the units. They wouldn't be able to do that for an entire regiment worth of mechs unless they found a regular army brian cache or castle brian, which of course just pushed Dante to suggest returning to the Inner Sphere... and that was likely to draw vastly more attention than he wanted to need.

The Nagayan Castle Brian Complex was in the Free Worlds League. A planet called Helm... Minoru Kurita had thrown a nuclear temper tantrum when he'd been unable to access the Quartermaster Corps stockpile and been unable to get anything. Kurita had been on the wrong side of Terra... Gene mused as he brought the machine down aware that his friend and foe tracker was monitoring both his own lance as well as the movements of Kiyone's Marauder II far out on his flank.

MacIntyre hadn't said anything to the junior officer. She was being groomed for command, and part of that was that for whatever reason whatever her father had done had earned the Azami's trust which meant she was one of the few options for command... and frankly the only option short of putting Bahar in command... as the latter has actually refused the post. Kiyone was willing to take the command.

He decided after a second that Kiyone's course adjustment wasn't likely to present a problem given the plodding pace she was keeping her hundred tonner at. He adjusted his comms suite, "BattleMaster"

"Gene, holy shit." The radio call had been on an open frequency, even if it hadn't the lance was probably networked in, "Hey man."

"I noticed you rebuilt the train station, and people have moved in." The change didn't meaningfully alter the rail course. It was mostly a rebuilding effort, and from the looks of it most of the construction had scavenged what was left behind by older buildings and the newest buildings were very new.

"Yeah,"

The Centurion's transmission went silent, and the BattleMaster's pilot spoke up. "Not that I'm not glad to see you, but uh-"

"Its a regimental combat team, we're loaded for bear." He replied, "You want me to tell you why in person, or you want me to tell you now?"

The answer wasn't firm, "I take it is must be bad."

"Kristofur Kelly claims he's supporting a descendant of House Amaris's efforts to restore the Rim World Republic, and to break the hold of the tyrannical Inner Sphere by any means necessary... which apparently includes enslaving people, and burning others at the stake." Gene replied in a deadpan dropping the veritable verbal bombshell, "and that's only part of the problems on my plate."

"Yeah maybe we ought to have this conversation face to face." The old man's voice on the other end of the radio broadcast replied, which was ultimately Gene's preference for having this sort of talk. They moved their mechs down slowly towards the hub which Zathras had been looking for, and had held the weapons and material that had helped the town start down the path they were on. "Alright, before we get onto this talk, you need to know that since you've been gone we've had our share of weird preachers." The succession war had been hard on everyone, Periphery and Inner Sphere alike and while the authorities had mixed feelings itinerant street preaching far predated human space flight. "It all started a few months after we got back from Detroit, a fella showed up in a homespun robe talking about the Light of the Star League..." And Yan from within the cockpit of his BattleMaster did not expect a much cleaner reaction to a spawn of Amaris than was usually received by the Azami getting the news. Darryl's interruption from within his Centurion that quirky or not kind of liked the guy was put to one side while they moved. "Its a little hard to miss your light show up... or those starbursts on your side."

Again Darryl interjected into the conversation that as it was the kid they had in the radar station had probably sent a runner down to the town... which Yan had agreed with but hadn't wanted to spook the town either... which was going to be doubly important given they were coming. The town hadn't changed much in the intervening years. It had gotten a little bigger... there were newer machines and from the looks of it the germanium from the depot had fueled an expansion of the mines letting them expand production without foreign capital investment that might have otherwise come with strings attached... and even though it wasn't the most regular trade Aquagea was now exporting Germanium off world. Germanium was important but the most important thing it was used for were in goods that weren't produced in the same volume as they had when Aquagea had been a Capellan world. The Cores of JumpShips … well JumpShips themselves were now much more limited...but Germanium was used for other things, and its production overall had declined over the course of the succession war.

What Aquagea had enjoyed, perhaps because it lacked an HPG station or hitherto no real ComStar presence besides a 'class d' mail line had been peace. The exception had been their neighbor's attempt at exerting influence and power. Zathras having seceded from the Magistracy had no HPG station either, which meant it also was enjoying the lack of attention from BlackJack McGirk and his pirates... where less ideologically motived pirates would have pursued the opportunity for easier plunder.

 

[Imperator Pax]

What is the omake policy?

Click to shrink...

So when am I going to see your omake idea I'm curious

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Septim had checked in that everything was all clear. Apparently something in the local news must have tickled him though, something had happened in a conversation with their long absentpilots that had been on ur Cruine that he and Bubbles found extremely funny. They hadn't elaborated, and frankly whatever it was could wait until he was done.


The only real difference in the crowd where that likehe had grown, most of the people who had been teenagers had gotten a little taller, and more muscular over the intervening years. The adults all still looked pretty much the same... but that was in the people. They all largely still had the tanned natural tans of high sun, and wind... the town did look better. There was more activity, but then again he hadn't really spent much time in the town during normal frames... and actually given the buses maybe this wasn't so normal.


"I take it this is because of us?"


Yan who had also dismounted from his mech paused...they had at least silenced the emergency alert system, "Yeah..."He trailed off in a slow low voice.


"I understand." Gene replied, and he did. The initial detection of the Azami Exodus Fleet as it arrived at Northwind had prompted a snap mobilization out of concern that it was a combine invasion... but House Kurita had been only the top of the list of potential threats. Northwind was on the Capellan border as well... and it wouldn't have been impossible that House Marik might have decided to do something reckless either in the name of prestige. It wasn't his prerogative to consider the political ramifications...it wasn't his job. If they did go after Nagayan then, they were probably going to piss the FWL leadership off... but rebuilding originally SLDF RCTs to strength … was something they needed to, "My regimental combat team has been working our way this way since we reached the periphery." He and the BattleMaster pilot made small talk over that. "I'm the ranking colonel of the 'mech Regiments, that's why I hold overall command." Which was a courtesy that the Azami hadn't necessarily had to make, but in the original view the plan had been to get out into the deep periphery and away to Alamut, "The Company is going to head back to Luxen once we clear out the pirates in the vicinity, that way they don't have bases to raid our merchants."


"Yeah, we heard about Luxen a couple months after it played out... that was before that lady published her book," Gene didn't know what he was talking about, "And then after BlackJack's pirates showed up, well we were on a run to Detroit with more Germanium so ComStar's news broadcast was all over the big screens." And of course by the time that had gotten out to the Media, they'd already been making the trek from star system to star system that would eventually culminate in Elidere.


The campaigns of Elidere, and then the Davion Contract were unknown to the periphery. Or at least they had been as the news moved slowly. When they had reached the Aurigan Reach the authorities there whether state or the local MRB office hadn't even gotten word, so it was no surprise that a world with no real ComStar presence hadn't heard of the change in border worlds in House Davion's favor.


But even though historically Aquagea had been a partof the Capellan Confederation the Federated Suns were far away, and House Kurita further still. They were too far away, and thus largely removed from the severity and enmity that categorized public consensus of the Draconis March. Aquagea's older generation were till favorably disposed to the Idea at least, or the historical memory of the Capellan Confederation and held some lingering grievance with House Marik's Free Worlds League but culturally as one time part of the Inner Sphere were also largely favorably predisopsed over all towards a fondness for the Star League.... "You're kidding me," The sheriff laughed, "Well the preacher will be happy to hear that."


"How so?"


"See, my grand father fought against House Marik, and there were folks who told us what Kurita been doing. We may live out in the sticks but we'd heard about Kentares, but we had our own problems. Too busy trying to drive the purple chickens out. Grand pappy always said he sure missed the star league," Yan paused, "Not that I really can reckon how," The sheriff was old by local standards with adult grand children of his own, including one who was in line most likely to take over piloting of the BattleMaster the sheriff had taken from the underground warehouse, "But then I've been in this job thirty five years this past November, and Papa was sheriff for at least as long."


Even so, Gene suspect was Yan's grandfather actually missed was the Star League that had existed in his own Grandfather's day, or maybe his father, "You said the preacher would be happy to hear about the border change."


"Yep, sure will. Listen to him talk well that's what the preacher says that House Kurita brought everything down … as if they were the ones whose killed off the Camerons," Yan shook his head, "I mean we've had people like, there are people up in the mountains the fellas who ran up into the hills to fight the Mariks never came back down with everything busted up like it was, but he's been off world, and," And the Church of St Cameron was less critical of House Marik … and Gene really didn't want to consider the implications... even though that did potentially fall in his wheel house... of how and what reactions might be, "What?"


Gene weighed his options, "This doesn't need to get out," Even though realistically he wasn't sure who it would get out too per se, and if keeping it a secret was even feasible, "The reigning Coordinator collaborated with Amaris... and from what we presently understand his sister and the ..." He didn't have a good word for it, shook his head, "there was opposition and they began warning the SLDF under Kerensky."


"Guess it didn't do a lot of good there. Everythingthat came after," No, Minoru Kurita had been KIA-ed only onKentares after Kerensky had left for the northern periphery. Yan fiddled with the cigar tube he'd been twiddling from his fieldjacket, "Actually, if you wouldn't mind I need a favor before we doany kind of public talking. Everyone will be glad to see you, but itis a lot of metal... and I'd like if it everyone calmed down a bit, ya know." He paused closing the cap of the case instead of taking it out, "What about these merchant folks, you said something about Germanium?"

"House Alavi is with us, they're looking to buy Germanium..." But the problem Gene recognized was that they had plenty of c-bills but that wasn't likely to be useful on an independent world with no direct ties to ComStar or larger markets, "They have JumpShips but I don't know what they have to trade, in goods."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
–
The workshop was... a mess. There was no way to describe it otherwise its was just parts, and oil and tools... but Darryl looked proud of the work he had done on his centurion's paintjob and its equipment. He'd apparently managed to splice the cores of the two dismounted Phostech Medium lasers together.


He was interested in the project, but Yan had also insisted they not immediately make themselves known to town. Yan had gone back to his 'office' and was hoping to dissuade 'the preacher' from getting the town any more excited until he had had the chance to talk to everyone, especially the mayor of Via Cabellero and some of the bigger ranchers and the mine owners.


As for the Centurion it had been stripped down in the warehouse, but otherwise centurion was in surprisingly good condition. The only immediate oddity was in the torso where... something had replaced the two medium lasers... they looked like medium lasers but rather than just singular weapons it was... putting off more heat, but that was understandable. It was like someone had mated together two Medium lasers without including any kind of extra internal cooling. Twice the punch twice the heat, in a single ton weapon system.

Ordinarily a centurion's two PhosTec Medium Lasers were split front and back instead the locals had some how cobbled the two weapons together. Two third of a ton of standard grade armor could be blasted through ... it was true it didn't have the range of a PPC but Darryl's cobbling had generated a weapon that didn't produce anywhere near the waste heat of a PPCeither.

No one would have thought that this development would become the defining weapon of new brawler mechs used by what would become the Via Caballero rangers.

"They're pretty cool aren't they?" The pimply faced tech asked in the local twang of english, a twang that he couldn't particularly say he missed.

"I don't have this model Medium laser." But he could provide Martel and certainly Magna equivalents, "If you think this could be replicated."

"Hell I don't see why not, its the cores of the laser where most the work is done. I'm sure there are some differences, but I got this to work alright after a couple weeks." He blew out a breath, "Now you give me just a couple of minutes I'll got show you what it does. You can go up top," He indicated the ladder, "give you a good view of it."

When one got down to it there were differences in individual weapons. Whether this could be replicated or not of if Darryl had somehow found some magical exploit, they'd have to see. Ultimately Myomer, heat sinks and armor were largely interchangeable. What made a mech a mech was the Chassis. That was the skeleton of the mech and the internal components.

The eventual Canopian Centurions, deeply ironic since the Marians would move to produce a truly retrotech totem mech Centurion, would be built under license from the Federated Commonwealth as part of a technology sharing agreement but would be a variant on the AL. Given existing Magistracy weapons production that variant would carry a PPC in place of a large laser and thus run a bit hotter.

Simply put with no reliable locally built trade options it was easier to field two Holly LRM launchers and standardize the parts used. Even by the time trade with the Duchy of Andurien became feasible it was a simpler more capable solution to product demand. As for Darryl's medium laser combo they would prove remarkably effective though wouldn't enter production until well after the current threat of Black Jack McGirk had been putdown.

Aquagea simply didn't have the population base. It could support mech refit yards certainly, but battlemech production was simply beyond the local population's ability to provide for...especially given the focus on supplying germanium to market and the growing agriculture sector with new irrigation and drought resistant plants. It would only be much later, towards the end of the following decade that the Aurgians would begin production of Griffins and Dragons and even these would initially be built largely using imported weapons from the Canopians so the eventual supply of AC 10sand LRM 10s never were readily available in enough numbers to convince them to switch back to the original version of the Centurion.

This stop was about other things though. Whatever interest a specialist weapon was, lucky, today was more about stopping at Aquagea to deal with problems in the region. Aquagea had already been having problems with its neighbor of Zathras, which wasn't that stable. Gene looked over the scrub country his ears picked up the rumblings of the machinery as the bay doors opened as the tinkerer took his 'mech out. "If Black Jack is going over the border into the Free Worlds League, we can be reasonably sure he's probably jumping over the Capellan border as well." Given previous attacks on the Fed Sun that seemed pretty likely scenario given what they knew... but it wasn't what he was really concerned about, "If ComStar's footage," That they had picked up from their stopover on Detroit was accurate about what happened. "Was accurate BlackJack has been hiring on... I have to question how much control he really has." Or if the rest of the pirates nests in Tortuga and wherever else the vermin lived were going along with itbecause he had the biggest big stick of any of them in terms of mech forces at his disposal.

As it was no one hit by the pirates was having a good time. This was no longer about raiding and pillaging. Oh that was going on, but the rate of atrocities being committed was increasing with little rhyme or reason.

Not that they'd been a professional military force to start with but increasingly FireStarter and other mechs had been deployed in a clearly organized terror campaign over the border with the League targeting civilians who clearly weren't a threat before they had bugged out.

That kind of behavior just went beyond the pale.

"That's not all is it?"

He blew a breath out, and glanced to the mongoose pilot, "The attack on," Probably managed by jumping to Viribium first, "Claybrooke showed a Rampage. Eighty Five tons, now to be sure the Rim Worlds republic exported these to the Taurians, and for that matter anyone with interest but certainly all the territorial states had them before 2765. It isn't insane to think that one might have survived...but it was in Amaris colors. That strikes me as very unusual. "Admittedly it was the only mech he had seen in 'correct' colors, there had been other mechs using shark iconography but nothing recorded in the roms had been put up that suggested anything some asshole pirate decided hey I'm going to paint my mech in how it would have been the Amaris Fusiliers in the 28th century.

It could be nothing... but it was an outlier that did stand out in the footage. It also broke with Black Jack's known habits... he hadn't repainted of his mechs in that kind of parade job. He didn't seem to have a parade use at all. He seemed to have liked black and red. He liked skeletons and devils, skulls and crossbones but even that wasn't uniform.

The mech stood out because atypical compared to everything else in the video.

After a moment of contemplation, Bahar answered, "Somewhere like Pioche perhaps. Many worlds were lost when the Star League fell, and more were abandoned over the long darkness of the succession wars, could he have found another hidden rim world outpost. These could also be the ones who attacked the Aurigans,"

"No, I considered that possibility. The JumpShips are different and the machines, I went back through the Aurigans roms there is no indication of non SLDF mechs. The attack on Cormodir seems to have been core units of McGirks force... these seem different." Whether it was or not, it didn't change the fact that McGirk was rampaging across the rimward frontier. Whether it was directed or he just let his subordinates run rampant the truth was the pirate wars of the late third succession war era were to effect everyone in the rimward to some degree or another. This was to include the three states of the Inner Sphere, and the major , and minor periphery powers. McGirk was ultimately a raider, a bandit maybe a warlord at best in terms of administration, threatening and extorting whatever world he temporarily occupied, but he wasn't staying anywhere for long periods of time. No one could say where the Orion pilot was, just where he had been, and some times not even then. McGirk attacked with his host and moved on rather. There was no pirate nest to go attack like there had been at Fjladr.

Establishing a land hold on Aquagea put them on a planet where they could deploy forces... and certainly since Aquagea mined Germanium... and the Alamutian Azami needed Germanium, or would need Germanium in the long term it made sense to have a presence here. "We'll see what the thrust into the League yields... if we can catch them on this side of the border, so much the better." As it was the rumor from the League side was the Duchy of Andurien was not happy about the situation and there were concerns that in addition to black jack that the Capellans might try and take advantage of any Marik weakness. "What do we know about what happened on Claybrooke?"

"We know that they didn't destroy the HPG station there." Bahar paused, "That is a break from how McGirk has been acting."

He nodded. That was true. He hadn't considered that, but the survival of the HPG station was a break, previous to this attacks on worlds with an HPG station aimed at hitting COMSTAR so that they couldn't beam word out that delayed knowledge of, or would delay knowledge of pirate activity. Precentor New Avalon had cited the loss of the HPG station on the davion side of the border as reason for his office to issue bounties on the pirates... even though it had been very clear that Huthrin Vandal had wanted to act against McGirk before this.

Financial conservatism within ComStar's higher ups made a certain degree of sense, but had a gnawing suspicion that there was more to it. Where had Black Jack gotten his material in the first place... how had he managed to operate as long as he had? "McGirk's behavior before that still didn't make sense." He replied, and then stopped talking as the Centurion trundled into view in the backend of the junk yard. The machine raised a hand and waved to the 'observation tower', and Gene wouldn't have been surprised if there were beers in the box fridge underneath the awning next to him.

Bahar nodded to the machine, "You said the locals did not fight against Zathras."


"They didn't have 'mechs when I was here last time, and I honestly just thought the Zathras people were pirates." He replied in a way excusing his rush to get in his Marauder and into the fight... "But they seemed to have come a long way," In just a couple of years. "Should we expect anything, the sheriff seemed... concerned."


"The Church of the Saints Cameron are uncommon in the lands of the Dragon... I suppose that in light of what we know now that the Dragon would have had good reason to dissuade their presence in his realm."

 

[JoeDragon69]

Pirate Wars Aquagea

Click to shrink...

Thread mark please.

 

[Silverbullet]

I'd cut the bit on mech production and future variants and put that in a separate informational blurb. Jarring to have it in the middle