Pirate Wars
He didn't immediately respond to the report, and everyone waited for him to respond, "The pirates aren't confused by our force structure?" Gene asked surprised at the conclusion reached by analytics.
"Not their leadership."
That didn't make sense, which was of course the next thing to come out of Septim's mouth. The benign explanation didn't seem to meet the facts they had. That explanation would have been simply that Black Jack's lieutenants and people associated with the pirate king simply made the accurate assumption that they had found a cache of their own.
That was true.
"The prevailing assumption from interrogation, or the details that have slipped out," The tattooed Azami officer remarked, "Is that we have a patron capable of supplying us with such equipment." Which in the context of the succession wars didn't make sense... or at least from commonly publicly known details didn't make. The Great Houses didn't have the kind of reserves of materiel to commit to such a program. Black Jack's people knew they had Star League Machines, knew they had SLDF machines. "However while we departed Aurigan space with some idea of their provenance, and their response to our own, we had not had time to fully process the computer cores, and roms of the salvage." That included salvage work from the initial engagement on the Aurigan capital, and part of it was volume...
The battle rom was dated more than a decade earlier. The machines on the opposing force including what air support they had were in factory white, and lacked properly configured IFF to indicate who they belonged to... and, and they were amateurs behind the yokes of the machines. At least the BattleMech pilots were, up in the sky the ASF pilots seemed to be doing better, but it wasn't enough.
The attacking force, the force attacking the pirates on some where a couple of jumps off from the Lyran border blundered into a box cavern to attack the pirates head on. Royal Machines were good, but technology could only carry weight for stupid tactical decisions so far. Not far enough, as it happened to make the difference in this case.
Gene felt a headache coming on. He'd give Dante time to process all of this, but it seemed pretty self evident that someone had given green mechwarriors royal tech to fight pirates. Was that what BlackJack assumed ... or his people assumed was going on here? The Clans would have had Royal Tech and factory fresh machines... but that seemed unlikely. That wouldn't have made sense, and the Rom dated to before the arrival of the Dragoons in Davion Space, before they had reached the Inner Sphere. Besides that, the Dragoons had arrived with cohesive unit tactics, and configured equipment that broadcast their formation data. The Dragoons had been a prepared military unit in other words... "Someone gave these people Hegemony Machines to attack the pirates, and they got slaughtered fighting experienced pilots." He stated.
"Yes." Was the simple terse acknowledgement from the AI.
"Septim, continue training while you are here on Detroit." He told the Lyran glancing to his left, "I don't plan to remain on Axlyus longer than I need to be." The attack plan was simple take out the generators and radar systems, engage any battlemechs or combat vehicles protecting those installations and then land Marines to wipe out the nest. If they were lucky they'd take JumpShips and DropSHips as marque file the paperwork of claim when they returned, but it wasn't nearly the priority of eliminating the nest. "If something comes up though and local authorities are impatient or have questions, or if the local diplomatic body," Which included the Combine legation, "You can take point on that."
The truth was the salvage time... well Fjaldr had added to the work load, but the Azami had their hands full. The ship registries were being done here to establish legal ownership, but the seizures particularly of the vital FtL capable carrying ships were something he was dividing with the Azami... Alamut was far away from here, the Alexandrian worlds were far and any carrying capacity that could be spared might insure that the Azami colony could thrive. He understood that... but also given the situation the Azami would need the mobility if they turned towards the fight... even if he personally could have done without phrases like 'sword of the prophet' going around. What was more important would be that the JumpShips would cease being pirate vessels and become trade ships, and good for the periphery.
That might have seemed idealistic given the situation but it was something at least. They could try and put it truly into practice once Black Jack had been dealt with, but that assumed they could kill the pirate king... and that had also been before Fjaldr. "Maybe the Rom isn't comprehensive, but I didn't see any Rim World markings in it."
"No sir, we have scoured all of the oldest footage." There was a glance sideways towards the holographic projection that was Dante's 'seat at the table', "The appearance of Amaris symbols appears comparatively recently, an appearance within the last few years."
"Aye," The AI agreed attenuating strands of light brightening. It was an affectation, it was just designed to reassure people not used to communicating with the AI. Gene personally felt it was unnecessary, but it was such a small thing it didn't matter, "Only after they arrived in the Rimward Periphery I have reviewed the so called second battle of Luxen, in anticipation of having to fight a third. We will have our work cut out for us, but the adoption of Rimworld republic markings does indeed appear to be a recent development. It is not nothing," He remarked definitively, coldly, "But we cannot," Cannae, "Be sure why it was chosen if and only very recently this Kelly bastard has started to talk to the scum about a new Rimworld republic."
Axlyus first though. Eliminate the threat closest to Detroit. "SoI should tell Khan, and the planetary government?"
"Once we're in the final stages of deployment. You can let them know before we jump,"
Septim nodded, "The MRB, ComStar?"
"Given we're expecting to exercise PNA," the Precentor New Avalon's, "Dispensation and the letters of marque issued to lay claim to what we take, yes you can tell them at the same time. Tell the Canopians as well, we're operating partially off of," Well more than partially, "intelligence from Lady Centrella,"The ambassador to the Aurigans, "And Sybil is on the Canopian frontier... but only as we're preparing to jump."
"I wish I were in position to monitor HPG transmissions going out."
Theoretically Dante could have remained behind... but no, they were planning to take the Ice Cubes into combat, and Dante wanted a front row seat to the action, wanted to monitor communications in live situation, wanted to be there. Given that on top of that they needed the Eisenhower to achieve local airspace control ... well that was another reason as well.
"You don't think ComStar would warn them?" The Merlin pilot questioned
"No, and given the network I doubt any warning could go out," He felt paranoid, but a fax machine wasn't impossible but that was why they were waiting before disclosing the information... besides Septim would be here commanding ground forces. "We're disclosing the action out of an abundance of caution, right now we're concentrated enough that there are enough people if we move suddenly people will want answers." They needed, they were going to need to get back to Luxen. Once the Azami civilians were safely far out in the deep periphery they would have a lot more freedom of action, but he also didn't want to advertise that they'd be separating from their dependents for concern of a preemptive attack.
"There is one other thing," Dante spoke up, as the Rom footage from 'north' of the Lyran border rewound. "Whoever these whites are, their aircraft are a high probability match for those that scuttled the Tripitz, and I imagine given the fragmentary electronic communication data we have," Radio barking back and forth between the mechwarrior officer... what passed for officers in pirate bands, and sensors aboard command posts, "so would their jumpships. Its not conclusive, but its certainly coincidental." There were nods.
The Command as a whole had been briefed about the Tripitz... about how it had been found in Taurian space and the mystery of the Vandenburg White Wings. The details of the ship had not been disclosed. There were officers who had been told, but the Tripitz slipping the Republican blockade of Terra had not been discussed. Tripitz was just a lost warship from the Star League... and for now that needed to stay that way. As it was the Battle Roms from Fjaldr were already hitting the media, those disclosures going wide, Mercenary against Pirate would have been typical fare without ...without other context. Dante was drafting public relations statements and shaping media disclosures to the public based on the Star League era playbook of the Hegemony... and it was working.
Hammer's protest was still there, but the armor component would have plenty of mechs to form the front force of battle... if something happened while he was on Axlyus. That was the thing though, Hammer had been briefed on what Kelly... on who Kelly claimed to be working on behalf of... and a courier was back on the way to New Avalon... they had been able to do that much... they had sent a message to New Avalon via HPG that Dante had compiled to have uploaded but the limits on transmission and the condition meant it had made just as much sense to send world to New Avalon... and the Highlander Officers had also been insistent that a message go to Northwind... if the Azami hadn't been withdrawing to Alamut they would have been equally focused on a message to their wider community, but any message would have to go out from New Avalon, and be distributed from there.
That meant months of waiting to hear back. They'd have been busy, done a lot by the time they heard back.
