Dogs of War Part 1
Odin had spent his down time, the rest of the year really doing what was expected of him, rubbing elbows, and cementing his bona fides as patron of the arts on Alpha Centauri. It was expected of a lyran noble to do those sorts of things. To provide for the common good, that there was a noblesse oblige to shelter the less fortunate...
You know by giving them jobs and stuff and letting them contribute to the economy.
Like a good Lyran noble... admittedly some of that delay had been needing time for those star league era terraformers to do their job, and the ground was now stable enough, and also safe enough... after cleaning up chemical weapons and lingering other hazards from the downfall of the Star League to actually start civil public works projects that included factory jobs.
"What happened?"
"JumpShips?"
"Free Worlds League?"
"We do not think, but they are," The flurry of DropShips which had detached from, "still two days out." Schmitt replied, and then sensing his next question "We also do not believe the vessels are from the Combine either, our best guess is that they jumped in -" She stopped as the resolution magnified, and footage from Riken's watch station solidified, into an image with an MRB number, but that wasn't all, "According to this they're Mercenaries, we're projecting an attempted landing here, here and here." She indicated across the landmass.
"They're attempting to hit both of us?" He wasn't surprised per se, but that meant the mercenaries were splitting their focus, "Who are they?"
"McCarron's Armored Cavalry."
"So its the capellans then?"
"Yes, that is how it appears."
He tapped his foot, "You have command of the defense," He meant operationally, and tactically, and looking at the dropships burning in, "Do the neighbors know?"
"If they do we are not seeing much in the way of mobilization." She replied after calling up feed from the Hall's network of sensors built spread across the surface of the moon. Schmitt frowned, and punched up a series of secondary feeds. "... I do not think the enemy is planning on launching simultaneous attacks."
Odin sat down in the seat, mostly so he could call up his essence but also just so he could be sitting down, "Elaborate?"
"I think this is a blocking force designed to stop forces from the planetary capital from moving," So in theory stopping reinforcements from cross what was otherwise fairly wide tidal causeways, and miles and miles of sea shore.
He nodded, eyes scanning through the block script that listed out the contents of inventory. The truth was that this wasn't per se what he'd been expecting. He had been expecting retaliation from the Mariks. Frederick Steiner had spent most of the fall months crowing bawdily to the Lyran media... comments that had to be filtering back, and reaching the Captain General of the Free Worlds League... because they were so obviously intended to be provocative. Even though it was equally possible that the Hammer was also trying to peacock to the sitting Archon that he'd been successful.
He had expected some kind of recrimination from the Free Worlds League. Marik Militia, or mercenaries but some kind of response, but the capellans... why the hell, "recommendations Tanya?" He queried
"We should hold our forces in reserve, this doesn't seem right."
A gut instinct... why were the capellans here. Why not, if Mercenaries why not the Wolf Dragoons, they were in Marik service now after the end of the civil war. Something didn't add up to all of this.
--
The precentor wasn't happy with how hastily they had moved on this. He wasn't happy with how fast the rest of the first circuit had jumped down his throat as if it was his fault. The PRK had been feeding the information back as his ROM personnel had catalogued, but that was harder than it seemed. Lowe's educational background was a concern, but there was no indication he was doing anything more than taking advantage of his inheritance... the exception that possibly existed were the missile launchers.
That was hard to prove since Lyran Intelligence were present in multitudes.
No, the real driving force for this was from within the Free Worlds League. That was when they had been able to see really in force what all Lowe's genetic donor had left the boy as an inheritance. If there was anything that the Precentor Rigil Kentaurus was concerned with it was inheritance... or more correctly its source. Individual LosTech could be attritted that was the standard method of keeping it out of unworthy hands, by telling everyone around who had it.
To that end the brothers in teh Free World League were just adhering to standard policy, but the problem was the stridency by which they had done so. The problem was with the factories, which was what had been zeroed in on by the first circuit. They had been leaked to the Capellans, and in turn he had been tasked to cajole and suggest to Rigil Kentaurus's other noble that he might be able to take advantage of the upstart's misfortune.
Not that McCarron was supposed to leave anything standing that he couldn't carry away, but they were banking more on pride and sheer arrogance than anything else. They were rushing... which was why the wolf dragoons hadn't been sent across the border as well.
They could have waited. Convinced the idiot carrion lords to attack, but that was taking too long... and has had been noted the Dragoons had their own JumpShip fleet, they would have needed the Mariks to commit to an attack first, and then tell McCarron about the attack, and there still would have been no surety that they would meet... so they had rushed into it.
--
They had expanded the war room to encompass more than just his personnel guard. There was still however plenty of room around the star league holographic table.
"We're still not seeing any movement."
Odin looked at the video feed. A few more months and maybe they could have done something to confidently interdict the DropShips in motion... but Sheridan was still splitting his forces between the moon, and the planet, and patrolling the system. That wasn't working, they needed more ASF, which meant he needed permission from the Archonate the Rapier was a Lyran design he was trying to leverage the ruler of the commonwealth to give him permission, to waive the patents. They weren't in production anymore... and he had expected that to take months.
Years maybe, but once he could actually demonstrate production of an air frame maybe some movement. Then maybe some exports. So they needed Hellcat production up and running, but they didn't have time to worry about that now.
"In air terms what are our options?"
"They're not trying to contest our air space,"
"Is that normal?" Odin asked, the chairs had been expanded to accommodate the full staff, which included the inherited officers, as well the militia.
"They may not be willing to risk an air battle without definitive advantage."
There was a disagreement, "The assault weight force may want to leverage us into an engagement before bringing the air in. They alternatively may want to simply use the threat to hold us off."
"They have commandos as well." That was unusual for Capellan commands, even if technically the Big MAC were mercenaries they were lavishly supported by House Liao. He raised an eyebrow.
"We can expect him to attempt to force the defenses." Tanya remarked looking up from the packet they had been able to piece together from the news, and from the MRB, putting an end to the discussion.
"I'll release the Patton, Rommels, and Zhukovs if you want them." He told her. The response was to keep them in reserve. The chances were that McCarron would attack, and they would have to at them across the intercoastal highway, "So you want to confront them with the regulars?" That was a misnomer. The 'Militia' the feudal militia was largely tanks, and ground vehicles of other stripes, it was infantry, but it was all the sort of things that would be overlooked by mech jocks. .. but these were not necessarily the typical mech jocks. "The Militia is larger than they will be expecting. You want them to commit?"
"They're expecting to fight a combined arms unit, based on how we fought against the Free worlds League, they are most likely expecting us to be disorganized, or even overawed by their reputation. I want to feign our true numbers until they're stretched out along the coast."
--
Notes: A minor time skip forward to 3016. The major hold up here was really the ComStar interlude.
