Fortress Dieron Part 5
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Fortress Dieron Part 5
The entry process was the standard insert data and blood sample he'd been expecting, followed by a neuro-helmet boot and logging for access to enter the secure facility access lift... and he could understand why. Nothing had changed in the hundred plus years since Clancy had been here... there capital scale surface to orbit guns still concealed in hardened and disguised recesses of the mountain's surface capable of murdering attacking warships.Not that the successor states had warships anymore... somehow... but if someone had had control of the fortress and the ability to order the guns into action... warships would have had a bad day... but he had already seen enough to know Kerensky's exodus had functional warships, that the Wolverines had fled clan space with warships. There were no reason for warships to have gone extinct out there... and besides if it could kill a warship it could pop a dropper... not that he really wanted to advertise such a capability if he didn't have to.
The command center though felt empty. It felt tomb like and claustrophobic more so than Fort St George. There were no bodies of course. There was no indication this facility had ever been threatened from within. There was no indication that anything like what had fallen the Outpost Castle St George on Elidere had happened here. In fact it was a little strange that Kerensky had not attempted to strip the facility before running for the periphery... but then again he might not have had the time or personnel ... and Commanding General or not Kerensky couldn't have known everything.
... and of course House Cameron really needed to expand its naming conventions. There were too many that relied on traditional english or scots diaspora naming conventions. St Michael, Harlaw, St George, Wellington.... there was a long long list each of those, and then a handful of various ones named after other famous terran officers from the 19th and 20th centuries... but he wasn't here to critique the naming conventions of a long dead government. He was here to look at the holographic displays. "What are the probabilities Lockdale Anchorage is intact?"
Or any of the anchorages for that matter... but he declined to voice that question about the rest of near terran space... and it would be years before that question was looked at.
All the same calculations were weighed, and the AI considered the question with all due seriousness. "Given the absence of data and that Admiral Clancy would likely have access to the facility. It is possible the facility is intact, but that it was relieved of further useful material... on the other hand if the Minnesota tribe, as you called them were in need of overhaul I have a hard time believing it would have been especially practical to use the anchorage assuming it were intact."
Lockdale was a jump from Northwind, which historically would have meant nothing of course. Lockdale Anchorage probably had taken receipt of fresh materiel and immediately put it in storage until it needed to be shipped out somewhere else... the problem was so far as he could parse from the historical record was whether or not the successor states had ever fought over Lockdale... or if they had just written it off in the early first succession war.
The Davions had after all had to take Northwind from the Capellans.
"I am collating the reports I deem to be most important relating to briefing you on the current facility condition and its stockpiles, as well as other resources of Hegemony stockpiles on Dieron." The AI remarked as new holographic displays populated.
There was a lot of data here, never mind all of the data from the combine archive. Data that he wouldn't possibly have time to review personally but that the AI had the computational power to take a crack at. Still even the AI would need some amount of time. That left him with the ability to wander around while things were being compared.
--
The members of the community were awash with activity. Bahar took a sip from her canteen, and waited for the connection to establish.
It was true that mechwarriors were mostly supervisory in these duties, but they were still present. Bubbles had been correct the use of artillery to shatter the sword of light had left significantly less salvage than would have been typical of mech to mech engagements... never mind having to just salvage a mech who's cockpit had been shot out or otherwise forced to bail out. Though, from what they had examined there were a number of intact enough machines that didn't even posses such rudimentary safety features. For some that was absurd, but it was... all too common within the DCMS as a belief.
"Is this line secure?" The holographic image wavered, attenuating for a moment as one of the techs checked.
"We are," Pasha remarked.
"How long are the techs going to be needed out there?"
It was an absurd question. The ability to take a portion of the salvaged remains of the enemy were the lifeblood of most mercenary commands. Bahar amended that they were also not most. They weren't anything approaching the average up and coming commands, and for a soldier born in a distant bygone time of scientific understanding and material progress the idea of needing to salvage equipment must have been a straining concept.
The elder Azami stroked his beard, "We will be done with the work soon. There is not much left to be done given the coup de grace delivered on the Sword of Light." Pasha remarked.
"This is a sensitive operation," Gene remarked after a pause. "And its going to be labor intensive work. Give the men twenty four hours to stand down before you brief them... don't bring anyone who's claustrophobic or afraid of being underground."
Within the distant underground fortress Gene leaned back in the chair as the line disconnected... a significant amount of the Hegemony research apparatus and indeed mass production of certain systems had been pioneered within the core worlds of the Hegemony. Worlds that were lost. He was pretty sure Venus was gone, Mars was probably dying, Earth had been reduced to having nation states again... New Earth had eaten Nuke, New Dallas... well truthfully he'd need to make a circuit of the worlds in question. "Are they functional?" He asked.
"Unfortunately the program was interrupted," By the Coup presumably, "the advanced control system for battlemechs was still being evaluated in the field. Given the success though of integrating command software between ground vehicles and aerospace fighters there is no reason the Hegemony program wouldn't have born results."
Of course for the Hegemony the primary goal was to prevent any enemy from even contacting ground forces. The Hegemony hadn't seriously allocated resources to offensive warfare deployment for Drone BattleMechs because the drone program was intended as primarily defensive as a force multiplier. The ASF component though, well that was intended, and had been folded into the SDS program with the intention of keeping invaders off world in the first place.
Of course the SDS had also refined the system to allow high functioning artificial intelligences to operate. Warships never mind stations were sophonts though still bound into the concepts that had shaped their formative programing... and ultimately vulnerable to exploitation of having ground commands target hostile forces ... as had been born out by the subversion of the SDS system.
... if only the over ride and release command had gone through. It might have, probably would have... created other problems but it would have locked Amaris into an unsustainable planetary conflict ... but that was a what if, something that hadn't happened and there was no point going down that rabbit whole.
"The principle problem remains jump exposure?"
"Correct." Jose replied, "Jump Transit and the time," In null space or whatever one wanted to call it effected AIs badly, "between has always created significant problems. There were tentative reports that some AI were able to deal with this, but all AI who were capable of making jumps while active had onboard human crews."
Gene paused... taking a moment to weigh his next question... and then blurted it out, "The psychic space squid theory?"
Jose's holographic image flickered, "There was significant research on hyperspace phenomenon that still could not explain various debris patterns or data tracks from experiments intended to measure hyperspace. AI make the transition best when we're safely sealed within our cores, but obviously that leaves us dependent on humans for transit. Rampancy after exposure to jumps is commonplace."
But theoretically you could move the AI by sealing their cores and bringing them along. They just needed to be shut down for the Jump. Then woken back up on the other end.
"So?"
"While such drone BattleMechs are not in my inventory, it would be feasible to retrofit an ASF carrier dropship as a drone mother ship. It would be even less complicated to use a common armor carrier such as the Triumph as a deployment platform for ground vehicles as you have already utilized against the Combine in the Elidere System."
He was surprised Jose was willing to countenance such a proposal. The risk of revealing such systems in operation were part of the reason the hegemony had not gone for them. They didn't want to show that they could because of how the other member states would react. Hegemony pilots were bad enough, if the Hegemony started fielding mech regiments whose CO's were commanding combat teams of AI armor and air assets as force multipliers... well... to play the what if game a conflict with the Combine might well have taken a very unpleasant, and very likely nuclear turn.
"This is not a suggestion I make lightly Commander Shepherd. These are assets that would be very difficult to replace with our current resources, however your command is markedly short on available forces, and there is an severe ASF deficiency." The Fortress Dieron AI remarked, "My responsibilities entail providing a full spectrum of advice."
"So you want me to box you up and take you with me?"
"No. My primary responsibility is to defend Dieron... given the information available and particular the data you have shared we must consider that the Combine represents a significant threat to order in known space, and worse represents a major distraction in the even that the descendants of Kerensky's people do return in force."
Holographic displays appeared.
Data that he'd been viewing over the last couple days since the sword of light had been defeated.
The Azami fleet currently over Northwind had a plotted jump route that stretched out towards the Aurigan Reach. It terminated there. There was no continuation path to Alamut. That was data the captains of Lebanon and Colorado kept separate for good reason. Not that it mattered, what mattered was even just moving to the Reach should have put the Azami outside of the realistic reach of the Combine just because they'd realistically have to move through two or three political entities including one they had just lost a major world to.
That exodus had the potential to support basing operations in the periphery for ... at least investigating the disappearance of, and the loss of the Tripitz.
The AI did not like what he was seeing from the reports filtering in from the periphery. They hadn't had the resources, or the inclination to look too hard at the mechs the pirates had used during the second battle of Luxen... but that seemed to have been an oversight given some of the footage that was making its way back into the Inner Sphere.
There other things. Perhaps foremost among them though was the reiteration of all the various Hegemony worlds that were worth visiting. That might have information or supplies.
"I must additionally recommend given these Wolf Dragoons, that resources be allocated to locate additional information regarding the Minesota tribe, and its departure from whatever colonies Kerensky established."
"I was already planning to."
"Very good... then there is one other matter. I have an HPG signal transmitted through the network coreward. The location of the SLS Ulithi is here," A holographic image projected a series of coordinates, along with a navigation route, "the message is a follows..." It wasn't anything special they were looking to find Kerenssky and join the exodus.
When it was done Gene stared at the holographic map, fighting back the headache.
The Draconian rift was a coreward region of space. It was the Draconis Combine Periphery border. The Fotress's computer's astrological data had fed in the coordinates detailing 1245K3 and the habitable world within a single jump's distance as determined by the system. That wasn't what made it interesting. It was the feed data from 2785. Buffalo Meadows had attempted to send out a message, the contents were disappointing they'd been ferreting out, searching after General Kerensky having missed the Exodus lift off but it was something.
He punched up the coordinates again, and printed them out. Along with the scuttling protocols for triggering a warships self destruct... which assumed that they were there still... they were too close to the combine the last thing he wanted was the combine potentially taking warships on a death ride against anyone.
--
Notes: So I have for August a couple of other things slated to go up, these will be misc thread stuff mostly starting out. (As I mentioned I started playing the Xenonauts 2 demo, and I bought into early access when it dropped) I have based on xenonauts 2 fic of sorts in the works the first three roughly segments are done, and also I'm strongly considering doing an Inuyasha fic centering around a Seshomaru SI but that is still tenuous (this would be set during the original anime and focus on muromachi era japan most likely).
