Breaking the Veil (Commissioned NuBSG/BT crossover)

[Baldrick the Wise]

Jihad, the prequel.

Most of First Circut suddenly dropping dead is bound to raise some eyebrows within Comstar and IS intelligence organisations. And while factions within Comstar will bow to the rule of ROM, they will absolutely seethe at this usurpation and will seek to undermine Simms, including many who otherwise support his views. And while population at large views Comstar as benevolent organisation, intelligence services are not as trusting, though not yet aware of full extent of Comstar duplicity.

 

[Tsureai]

This is a fun crossover. I wonder how the cylons react to a KF jump.

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

You think it would scramble them like BT AI?

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 18

Date: December 5, 2998

Location: New Vandenburg zenith point, Taurian Concordat

"Remember people," Castor McCarron glanced around at the assembled officers of the unit. "We're not here acting like we're being paid for by the Confederation. Keep your comms chatter clear of any indication we are. The techs have already scrubbed any identifying marks from our arms and armor. As far as the Taurians are concerned, we are working for the Federated Suns."

"Objectives are to cause as much damage to the factory complexes here on New Vandenburg as possible. The Chancellor wants the Taurians focused on the Federated Suns and thinking that they did this," Archibald took over the briefing room for his brother. "I know we're rehashing things and that you all have your operational plans. But we want to make sure we're all on the same page."

The MAC had brought two of their five regiments to accomplish this task, and Castor was hopeful that the success would mean the Chancellor was willing to throw more money and funding their way.

"As it is, we're going to have fifteen days in the void before we reach the planet. Once we make landfall, we'll split up according to battalions and start hammering the Taurians where they're weak. Not that it'll be hard, they only have the Taurian Lancers as mainline defenders," Castor smiled cruelly. "The Lancers are green, they're not battle hardened or ready to face anything like what we're bringing to bear. We'll crush them, kill whoever VMI hired to guard their factories, loot, and then burn everything to the ground. Are there any questions that we didn't answer in previous briefings?"

The few people in the room with him shook their heads and the people listening in via comms replied in the negative.

"Alright then," Castor clapped his hands together. "We've got a job to do, and remember. Loot, then burn. Not the other way around."

–

–

Date: December 21, 2998

Location: New Vandenburg

They'd made landfall nearly uncontested. The Taurian's Tigress small craft were no match for Castor's aerospace assets. The Lancers had mobilized fairly quickly for a new unit, but they didn't have any real metal to them. Their 'mech battalions did have a decent amount of tanks in to assist, but the Taurians didn't have control of the air. So, the artillery and tanks they'd brought to bear shouldn't be much of a threat. Not in an open conflict like this.

Reaching the range of his autocannon and missiles, he grouped them together and hammered a Manticore that had just missed him with its PPC. The heavy tank didn't stop shooting, but it did stop moving as one of its treads seemed to fall off after one of his LRMs had detonated against it.

"Someone hit that tank for me," Castor ordered, turning his attention to the Archer he was overlooking the battlefield via a nearby hill. "I'll take the CO."

Castor knew he probably shouldn't be leading from the front like this. But there was something about taking your 'mech and forging a path through the inhospitable battlefields that felt like nothing else. A high that existed when you realized that you were in sole control of your own destiny, and nothing could stand in your way. Well, nothing except another Mechwarrior.

The enemy Mechwarrior wasn't bad. In fact, they were fairly good at getting a target lock and hitting him with at least a few missiles out of every volley. Problem was that being good at gunnery wasn't the same thing as being a good 'mechwarrior. Too bad this Taurian would never get to learn and come face Castor again.

An autocannon shell to the cockpit cracked the protective layer around the Archer's mechwarrior. The laser that followed caused the 'mech to drop as if it were a puppet that had just had the strings cut.

"2nd Bat, status report," Castor ordered as he pushed his battalion further into the forested hills.

"Wew're moving on the factory," Archie reported. "Company mercs are a tougher fight than the Lancers you're fighting are. I'm shifting up third company to break through this line so we can force them back."

"Copy that," Castor replied, knowing that his brother had everything handled. "I'll keep the militia and Lancers off your back."

Turning the comms channel back to the battalion he was leading, he looked for his next victim. A Scimitar danced across his view, and he narrowly missed with his fire, the hovercraft's autocannon pocketing against his armor as it sped away to avoid his Zeus's firepower.

"Speeder fucker, aren't ya," Castor chuckled as he elected to ignore the hovercraft in favor of hitting a Demolisher that was attempting to sneak up on him. "You aren't, though."

"This is Colonel James Norman of the Taurian Concordat, call off your dogs, we'll let you have the factories, just stop hitting civilians!"

Civilians? Castor raised an eyebrow inside of his 'mech. None of his people were even near the cities yet. What was Norman talking about?

The CO of MAC shrugged and just muted that channel. If one of his battalions decided to do some extracurricular activities to sell the Federated Suns unit then he didn't really care all that much. It wasn't like he was ever going to get hired by the Concordat. They couldn't afford him anyway.

"Castor, something's wrong here," Archie had bounced an encrypted channel off the satellite they'd left in orbit. "Defenders are fighting harder than ever, and I've seen a lot more ASF assets than we saw on the way in."

"Just stay the course," Castor ordered. "We'll have this done by the end of the week and can celebrate Christmas with the salvage!"

---

Buchannon did not like his orders, but he had them in hand, and was going to follow them to the letter. He'd been embedded into the Taurian Areospace assets shortly after the SLS Tripitz affair, and had slowly worked his way up to Squadron commander. Now, ROM had finally reached out and given him his instructions.

"Listen up!" He looked out over the squadron of nuggets. All of the veterans had been reassigned to the Warship program within the last few years. "The enemy unit has disregarded any rules of war and is going after civilian targets as a priority. With that in mind, we've been given authorization to draw from the stockpiles and put some warheads on foreheads. Jinx, Tag, you two have the best scores, you'll be carrying two apiece along with the two I've got on my bird. Remember, we want airburst, not collision with the ground. Radiation fades quicker that way. Now, mount up. We don't have a lot of time."

The way he'd instructed them over the last few months had left them with no reason to question his instructions as he peeled off to the side and spoke with some of the techs. They were a bit more questioning, but a flash of the authorization that had been forged by ROM quickly put to rest any of their hesitation. Five minutes later, six nukes had been attached to the hardpoints on three of their fighters.

"Watch out, nugs," Buchannon said as he moved his bird further up into the atmosphere to avoid any enemy fire. "Looks like they brought a lot of Triple A."

"Enemy craft moving on an intercept course," Jinx reported. "Heading three four five."

"I see them," Buchannon replied. "Maintain heading, Frag, Bob, you two peel off and head them off while we position for attack runs."

The enemy squadron was probably more experienced than the nuggets he'd just wasted against them. But Buchannon didn't have to care about whether he spent or wasted lives anymore.

"ETA to targets is two mikes," Tag said. "Sir, do we have authorization to drop the nukes?"

"Authorization's granted," Buchannon replied. "Just do your job and drop them on target."

Two minutes later, they were over the dropships and his nuggets dropped their payload before veering off and heading to intercept the enemy fighters that were still coming after them.

Buchannon's sensors chirped in alarm as the radiation spiked, but he turned them off as he armed his pair of nukes and waited.

One Heartbeat, two, three, in the distance, a portion of the city was engulfed in a mushroom cloud, the cobalt enhanced warhead would be scattering material all over the area. Now all that was left was to finish the job.

Plotting the direction, he set the nukes on a timer and edged his fighter into a nosedive. If he was right, the impact would kill him, if he was wrong, the nukes would. Either way, he would have accomplished Blake's will.

---

Date: December 22, 2998

Location: Sian, Capellan Confederation

"This," Maximilian gestured towards the image of mushroom clouds that adorned the screens behind him. "Is on every Comstar News Network station in the Inner Sphere. We know it wasn't the Taurians that nuked themselves this time. So, who dropped nukes on the Concordat? And why?"

"Chancellor," Chandra Ling began. "I burned some of our Maskirovka assets getting embedded intel out of TMI and into our hands as fast as possible. They think that either we did it, or that the Federated Suns did it. There were forged orders to utilize them against the MAC. Unfortunately, that isn't the part that concerns us. TMI is easily penetrated, though they have improved in OPSEC as no one was aware of the TCS Vandenburg until she appeared. That said, the Taurians are angry, and they're blaming both the Federated Suns and the Confederation."

"What of the McCarron's armored cavalry?" Max asked.

"The two regiments were unable to make it offworld," Chandra reported. "Their dropships were one of the things hit by nuclear weapons. The last reports we heard had them holding up in a seized town awaiting relief or negotiations with the Taurians. The McCarron brothers are brutal, but we do not believe they were privy to the weapons going off. If they are captured or surrender, it is likely they will give up the deniable operation through interrogation."

"Ensure that should they be captured, that they will not be able to do anything of that nature," Max ordered. "Burn what assets you must. Now, the Taurians cannot be swayed to push towards the Federated Suns as a primary target?"

"No," Chandra shook her head. "The civilian populace is clammoring for war against the Inner Sphere as a whole. As they do not have a solid grip on said populace, it is unlikely they will be able to ignore such things. Estimates are that by the end of the year, they will move into a full war setting, and by the end of five years, they will be ready to fight us or the Federated Suns to a standstill."

---

Date: December 26, 2998

Location: New Avalon, Federated Suns

"Please tell me that we are not responsible for this," First Prince Andrew Davion coughed into a handkerchief and frowned as he saw a few flecks of blood.

"I don't know," the head of DMI replied with a small shake of his head. "Neither I nor MIIO planned for any assets to terrorize the Concordat. While we have done things in the past to force them to act in one way or another, we don't even have nuclear weapons on standby for a strike such as this. TMI is not responsible for a false flag either. Even with their Operational Security improvements for certain projects, they're still lacking in many ways. We're still waiting on reports from certain embedded agents, but we believe that this was done by a fourth party. Someone not Capellan, Taurian, or one of us. The problem is, even though TMI, MASK, and we know that none of us had anything to do with it. Civilians aren't going to believe that. The Taurians are going to have to move to a war footing."

"Until we find this other party, we're going to have to shift more forces to the Concordat border," Andrew sighed. "With us having to shift said forces, the Combine may move to take advantage of us. So, I'll have Sandoval ready for any reprisals, and we'll work on propping up what aerospace industry we may have been lacking in. If we missed the Vandenburg, and everyone else did, too. What else might the Taurians be hiding behind a shield of 'incompetence'?

"We don't know," the MIIO head admitted.

"And that's what concerns me," Andrew said. "Let's start preparations for having to fight a Concordat on equal footing with the Capellans. I want plans in place on my desk by the New Year. Until then, gentlemen. Enjoy what's left of the holiday. If you can, anyway...."

 

[HellTeddy]

Send the fleet to Sian and start orbital bombardment of military sites(not necessarily with nukes), that should be a sufficient amount of finding out.
Shame Comstar got away with this crap, hope the reveal of the warships would freak them out hard enough to start making mistakes.

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

ROM already knows about warships, this is their ploy to trick Taurians into unleashing these warships onto Inner Sphere, as part of Comstar plan knock humanity into stone age.

 

[Tsureai]

Harsh. The Mac are never leaving there alive

 

[zack1224]

Thanks for the chapter