New Dawn in the Sun's (Battletech AU)

August 27^th 3016
Davion Summer Palace
Argyle, Federated Suns

“Operatively interfering with the rebuilding of Irian is turning out to be impossible. I apologize my prince but SAFE is being unusually effective at maintaining security over the entire project, including the logistics,” Nicholas reported blandly. “Efforts to procure tooling at the source have also run into difficulties, the tooling which is being used is supposedly being supplied by Andurien, but we can find no evidence of any such industrial activity. Fortunately, one of my people came up with a work around that we believe can work.”

“Duchess Humphreys isn’t willing to work with us?” Hanse asked with a raised eyebrow. Catherine Humphreys was notorious for being a contrary cuss, and hating Janos Marik for his focus on the commonwealth border. If she was being recalcitrant then MIIO really needed to have another look at the situation, because something was going on there beyond the usual free world’s politics.

“She was remarkably evasive when approached,” Nicholas confirmed. “Not even dangling our report on the coupe was enough to budge her from her position.”

“She was willing to forgo vengeance for her aunt in order to protect this secret?” Hanse clarified, just to make sure he was understanding this correctly.

“Correct. It is most vexing. I’ve had to redirect most of our free world assets onto the problem, because there is something going on there and we don’t know what it is.” Nicholas actually sounded annoyed for a change. His normal calm demeaner clearly being tested by this latest development. “SAFE can be spotty at times, defensively they have traditionally been fairly effective especially against the provincial intelligence agencies but this jump in competence makes me nervous.”

“Keep on that, changes like what you’re talking about don’t happen overnight and I can’t see how we would have missed it,” in the privacy of his own head Hanse was wondering if it was time for Nicholas to retire. He was missing too much these days, between Brockton’s surprise moves and now SAFEs sudden competency the surprises were coming far too often. “You did mention an option earlier?”

“One of my proteges came up with it, would you care to hear from him yourself, or would you like me to brief you?”

“Do I know this protégé of yours?”

“I presume so, you did grant his sons request to be assigned to the hounds for his fifth year.”

“Quintus,” Hanse immediately recognized who was being talked about. A good man, and one whose mind could be as twisty as one would want from a spy. “Bring him in.”

Nicholas left Hanse alone on the balcony to contemplate the sunset. Despite the truly exceptional view Hanse mind was troubled. The Inner Sphere had been stable for a long time, it was a paradigm he had meant to shatter in his own time, ending the succession wars decisively in favor of the only rightful clamant, but there were currents below the surface which threatened his plans. He knew he needed to deal with internal opposition, his brother-in-law was particularly bad at concealing his ambition, the scope of what he faced had come as a surprise. Perhaps he needed to steal a page from Janos book, his pause to rebuild had been remarkably successful. It was an attractive idea, especially as it gave his scientist time to digest the find from Hadlestad.

In a few years the Suns would be on the ascent, their scientific prowess unmatched except possibly on terra. Time was the one thing that he seemed not to have. There were rumblings coming out of the Draconis March that the Combine was testing a new weapon, which if true meant that five new weapons systems had been developed in the past handful of years. The race Hanse had thought he had to himself was turning out to have a remarkably crowded field. He still had faith that his scientist would be the ones to win, to bring the Suns back to their glory days before the others managed it, but it was a lot tighter than he liked.

Especially when he contemplated the industrial situation that the Suns found themselves in. He had known that things were bad, supplies being inadequate at the front for even a prince of the realm, but he hadn’t realized just how bad it had gotten. Almost the entirety of the suns heavy industrial base was engaged in repairing what they could, leaving him little margin for error. Hanse didn’t want to admit it but finding out just how hollow the Crucis march reserves were had shaken him badly. It was why he was willing to take chances with semi friendly states, an action he never would have contemplated when he was still just the heir. Before he could continue obsessing over the problems facing him Nicholas returned leading Quintus onto the balcony.

“Duke Allard, it is good to see you again,” Hanse shook the man’s hand, slipping back into his politicians’ mindset. He Allard was a man he had met, but he knew of him more then he actually knew the man. “Nicholas tells me you might have a solution for our tooling problem?”

“I have an idea, my prince,” Quintus replied cautiously. “The working group I’m assigned to does more work on the confederation then the League, but the conflict between those two states means there is a bit of overlap. We were looking for ways to provoke the League into conflict with the confederation when the orders about machine tooling were passed down and I think we have a way to achieve both objectives.”

“The League is looking pretty exhausted after their latest batch of civil war,” Hanse said cautiously. He was all for anything that would remove the distraction of the confederation for a bit of time and allow him to focus on the real enemy, but from the reports he had read the League just wasn’t in good enough shape to provide that distraction.

“Otherwise, Janos would have responded to the confederation backing Anton?” Quintus asked rhetorically. “That was a consideration, but we think with the right incentive we can push him over the edge. Janos, and the League as a whole, has traditionally been focused on the Commonwealth with the Confederation being a decidedly secondary theatre. The current celestial wisdom has pulled a bit of interest towards his realm, but issues with the Anduriens have prevented Janos from shifting his military focus. That said, with the right pressure we think that Janos can be induced to vent his spleen on the confederation.”

“Lots of abstracts there, walk me through your idea in detail,” Hanse asked, his voice mild but his eyes sharp as he looked for a snow job. He had found that people who proposed operations in a general sense didn’t have the specifics nailed down enough to execute their ideas, which made him warry.

“Kali Yama has been receiving extensive federal support to develop a new mech,” Quintus ignored the brief flash of annoyance on Hanses face. The First Prince didn’t like being reminded that his own realm was behind the Lyran’s and the Leaguers. “From what our operatives could glean its supposed to be a forty-ton design to fill line units facing the Capellans, something a little heavier armed then the Hermes II.”

“Something like our Swordsman? And why do you think its meant to face the Capellan’s?”

“Exactly like our Swordsman, designed with countering the Vindicator in mind. As for why we think its aimed at the Capellans? The weight. A low-end medium would have limited utility against the heavier mechs the commonwealth traditionally deploys. Now the interesting thing from our perspective is that Kali Yama needed to buy several new sets of tooling, they put the orders in before Anton kicked off, and its almost ready to begin delivery.” Quintus didn’t allow the intensity of the first princes gaze to put him off. “With that said, security has been unusually tight on the project, until last year when holes started appearing. Initially it was thought that SAFE was baiting a trap, but from what several of our operatives in the Maskirovka tell us MASK has gotten a few people into the project. My analysists are divided as to why, but the leading theory is that the rushed nature of the design has led to problems and the Kali Yama higher ups want to buy time to fix things. Whatever the reason we have an opportunity here. The new the tooling is going to be transported from Loyalty on a single jumpship, with minimal security, in a security through obscurity gambit. The idea my working group has put forward is that we hijack the ship, recover the tooling, and then dump the ship Jasmine system for the Capellan’s to recover.”

“Loyalty is very close to Atreus…” Hanse waffled a bit, buying himself time to think.

“That is precisely why we think this can be pulled off.” Quintus said mildly. “Anton’s men haven’t been completely cleared out of the LCC, several that we know about were successful in keeping their heads down and cleaning up after themselves.”

“What would we need to pull this off?” Hanse was coming around to this plan. Between the Anton loyalists, who would be vulnerable to Capellan blackmail, active Maskirovka presence in the project, and the fact that the jumpship would end up over Sian being repaired before the Capellans put it into service, there were enough indirect indicators to point the finger squarely at the Capellans for the theft. Especially given they would be on the hunt for machine tooling to put the FireBee back into production. “And what’s the risk factor here?”

“In terms of assets… a naval crewed jumpship, Star Lord or Monolith if we can swing it, unless you want to pull one of our Mammoth class dropships for the raid. The equipment is supposed to be transported in four mules which are going to be docked to the FWNS Ire, a tramp class. So, we need at least enough jump collars to transport four mules and a pair of assault ships for our marines.” Quintus outlined the retrieval force easily. “Our risk factors would be on insertion, the operatives we put on the ships might just have to deal with competition from MASK or Death commando teams looking to do what we intend. We have assets in place who can be tasked for this mission, already cleared by SAFE, so they aren’t much of a worry. With assets in place, we can abort should this prove to be a trap without contact. Again, CCN assets might become an issue, but our people will know if that’s going to come up before our ships begin combat operations. Extraction will be through dead systems, so it is unlikely that the FWLN will intercept.”

“It sounds like you were already planning an operation,” Hanse was distracted as he mentally started shoving units around. He would need to get with Yvonne but if the Capellans and the League went after one another he could take advantage. The Tikonov salient was right there, and the AFFS had been dreaming of taking that world for generations. If the Capellans weren’t too distracted, well widening the defensive corridor around Marduk was a worthy objective. He would just need to build a task force and stick it on Chesterton or Edwards, waiting for the results of the operation.

“We were going to attempt a disruption operation,” Quintus put mildly. “Perhaps some sabotage.”

“Very well, your operation is approved, start putting together the pieces you need.”

 

September 11^th, 3016
Ducal Residence
Brockton, Federated Suns

Andrew hadn’t been entirely pleased to be called back home before the installation on Basantapor had been completed, but needs must when the devil drives. Honestly, he had expected better from the local government, they usually handled things without needing his presence. Unfortunately, it looked like the brewing conflict between the second Chisholm Raiders and local interests was something that would require him to mediate. Meaning that he had to put away his industrial concerns to once again don the little used mantle of duke of Brockton.

The issue was one of priorities, the pirates of the region were beginning to show signs of organization and the local government wanted the 2^nd out doing anti-piracy patrols. The second was more interested in getting themselves organized and back up to strength. Being a feeder unit for the first Chisholm Raiders, their mechs were decidedly second rate and from what Andrew had been reading they had transferred their best over before being dispatched to the outback. With the Brockton planetary government not being in their chain of command the Raiders felt that they weren’t required to bow to its wishes, leading the government to call him back as their biggest political gun.

“It’s not going to work,” Captain Henry Bauer said with certainty as he strode into the duke’s office. A line officer by inclination he had been tapped to pull a staff tour this rotation, from the rumors he had picked up it was polish before he was promoted to major and took over as the XO. “Whatever inducements you think you can wave under my nose to get me and the boys hopping to your tune, we’ve seen it before.”

“Well, that’s one way to start a conversation,” Andrew said mildly. “Not surprising given your service jacket, but less helpful than I had hoped.”

“Look I get that things are getting a dicey out here, it’s part of the reason you had a front-line regiment moved to the outback, but our primary responsibility is to protect the industrial assets of Trevlu and the yards.” Bauer hated his orders, but he would fulfil them faithfully. “You have a march militia; they’re supposed to be the ones who keep piracy in check.”

“They do, for the most part, but as you said things are getting dicey out here and they have the wrong equipment mix.” Andrew countered. “It’s not the mechs, when they engage, they trounce whomever the pirates are, it’s their transport assets.”

“And we aren’t in any better shape,” Henry sighed as he admitted that. “We have a, count it one, merchant class jumpship assigned to us. We aren’t in any better of a position to chase after pirates then the marchers are.”

“But you can meet them in space,” Andrew argued back. “Look I get that your new to the region, and probably read up on the situation out here but…”

“No buts, I did. The Anjin Muerta and Broken Wheel marchers are actually better equipped than we are in terms of transport assets. They have a battalion mover, and the best we have are Unions!” Henry’s frustration began to leak out. He knew that the duke he was badgering had retired as a major, but that had been a retirement rank he had actually topped out as a captain. He hadn’t been responsible for space assets, or the logistics of a campaign, and that’s what he was asking the second to do; fight a campaign against the pirates.

“It’s a Dictator, most of the march militia ride around in Lions,” Andrew cut the younger man off before he could continue. “We have lift yes, hell I could personally give you enough lift to supply your regiment on an invasion campaign out of my own resources. What we don’t have is secure lift, or lift that can defend itself outside of atmosphere.”

“Dictator… wasn’t that the SLDF ship which was retired in favor of the Overlord?”

“Yes, just like the Lion was being phased out for the Union.”

“They’re military ships, I’m not sure I’m seeing the problem…” Henry admitted slowly. “They have guns and armor, yes?”

“And they were being phased out for the same reason the militia is having issues. Neither design was built for independent operations, they don’t have fighters. When the militia needs to make a contested landing, or even contest the orbitals, they either need to bring along a carrier or have an established ground base.” Andrew’s frustration leaked into his voice. “Committing the militia to the sort of active campaign that needs to be fought against the pirates would be akin to standing them up against a wall and shooting them myself. Pirates aren’t inherently stupid; they know what we have and when it matters, they can bring enough fighters to down our transports before the militia makes planetfall.”

“You do know that we’re about a battalion under strength, and all of our dropships have chits for a yard overhaul?” Henry asked, understanding finally the issue.

“I do actually know that, no one’s asking you to jump right into putting a lance on every world in the operations area,” Andrew carefully ignored the ‘could have fooled me’ which Henry muttered under his breath. “What we want is for you to at least look at planning some independent deployments. Your Leopards are going to be out of the yard’s hands in a couple of months, give us something… even if it’s not more than a bare bones plan.”

“I can give you a plan, but it’s not going to be feasible,” Henry shook his head. “I would rather be straight with all of you then blow smoke up your collective asses.”

“What are your issues? Aside from the lack of mechs, which I might be able to help you with.”

“You already are, we have about a company and a half of salvage being looked over in the mech yard. Once your engineers and techs sort out what can be salvaged and what’s junk, we will be a little closer to being up to strength, along with the mechs that Trevlu is producing.” Henry acknowledged that the noble was at least trying to be helpful, even if he did have his own agenda. “Look, even if we had a full-strength regiment, we don’t have the jumpers to move around like we would need to. Most of the ones which were assigned to us were Capellan march militia, and they stayed in their march. The others got pulled into a maintenance rotation, because this was supposed to be a defensive deployment.”

“I’m going to have to rattle some cages, but I might be able to get you at least a collar or two on the regular liners in this region,” Andrew pursed his lips. He doubted that he would be able to get a jumpship freed up, but places on one of the regular routes? That he might be able to swing.

“Which doesn’t help because we need to be mobile in order to respond to threats. It does you no good if we’re stuck thirty light years from the point of contact…”

“DMI and MIIO aren’t completely useless.”

“And what’s their success rate?”

“Fifteen percent,” Andrew admitted with a wince.

“That’s actually not bad, especially for predicting pirates,” Henry was impressed by the number. Most pirates were so random that you would have better luck throwing a dart at the map of your OA then trying to make an accurate prediction of what targets they would hit. “If you can find us the lift we might be able to break out a few lances to cover likely targets… which brings us to the next problem, fighters.”

“How badly are you understrength?”

“The only class we actually match our TOE is in interceptors, our dog fighters are criminally under strength and we don’t have a single attack bird. I know you said we could actually fight pirates in the air but… unless something changes, we aren’t going to be able to do more than prune back their fighters.”

“That’s a problem…” Andrew cocked his head to the side. He could see a solution but it wouldn’t work without the colonels okay. “How do you feel about field testing something?”

“I’d need to talk it over with the colonel, but we might be open to it. Why?”

“I have connections to Ajeet Aerospace.”

“I told you, we have interceptors. More Centurions aren’t going to do us much good.”

“I know, how about Vulcans?”

“It’s out of testing?” Henry asked his eyes narrowing. He had heard about Ajeet Aerospace’s attempt to put the Vulcan back into production, but beyond the initial announcement he hadn’t heard anything about it. Certainly not that it was being deployed operationally.

“The five en model was recently certified, the fire support bird is still in limbo though.” Andrew frowned as he thought about the favors he would need to call in to get the first squadron off the production lines. It might be possible, but it might very well not be. The UCH nobility would have their own call on the bird, and he wasn’t sure just how many of them would use their influence. The Rim reputation might keep a few of them back, but given the dearth of attack fighters in the region even that wouldn’t hold people back for long.

“Tricky,” Henry found himself drumming his fingers along his thigh. “I might be able to convince the colonel… but I might not. We aren’t the sort of unit which has the technical support you would need to really run a trial like that, so any endorsement we gave the bird wouldn’t be worth the paper it was printed on. Assuming we could keep them flying that is, our techs have never worked on the bird so there might be issues. You wouldn’t know where to find a couple of Stukas would you?”

“I have contacts but they aren’t infinite.” Andrew replied with a bitter laugh. “Vulcans would be the best I could do, and even that’s not certain.”

“I’ll talk it over with the colonel and the head air tech,” Henry shrugged slightly. It didn’t cost him anything to offer that, especially since he was sure that the offer would be turned down. Besides being an almost completely new air frame to the AFFS, the Vulcan still had a reputation. Links to the Rim Worlds Republic and Stephan Amaris weren’t something that any right-thinking person wanted to have, even if it was in the form of badly needed equipment. Although they might just end up using the dukes’ connections to replace their Sabers. The Centurion was the hardier bird, and they weren’t first on New Avalons priority lists for supplies. Otherwise they would be getting Sparrowhawks instead of the decidedly inferior Sabres as replacements.

“Do what you can, please.” It cost Andrew a bit to add that last word, but he did it anyway. His wife had managed to pound it into his head that while politeness cost you nothing, the rewards were worth the miniscule extra effort.

“Alright. I’ll try and get the colonel to release a few lances as well, but that’s not going to happen until we’ve finished out the refit cycle. A lot of our mechs were worn down.”

“I read the reports,” Andrew grimaced as he said that. Those had been grim reading, too many of the machines had broken parts or missing systems. The Raiders had been operational for far too long in his opinion without a real refit. “At least your Shadow Hawks should be coming back to you better than new. You’re getting refit kits straight from the factory here.”

“Any way I could convince you to switch up production and get us Whitworths rather than the Swordsman we’ve been assigned?” Henry asked, slightly uncomfortable. He knew that the Swordsman was the dukes pet project, but between the regiments need for fire support designs rather than direct engagement mechs and the Swordsman’s retention of the lingering stench of the Rostovs it wasn’t a design that he particularly wanted. Just the arguments alone between mech jocks about who had to take the Swordsman would be a headache, one he didn’t need.

“That I can’t do, your orders came down from New Avalon. Since they’re the ones paying…” Andrew shrugged lightly. “Besides we’re on contract to get as many of them out the door as possible. We’ve had to send a buying commission to the Outworlds and the Taurian’s for engine kits, all on the First Princes dime. Not to mention he cleared out the brigade of guard’s stockpile of one sixties to send our way. When the first prince wants something this badly…”

“Forget I asked,” Henry apologized, internally his mind was working overtime. This was the first he had heard about the First Prince getting behind the Swordsman and pushing, perhaps things had changed? A couple of barracks room rumors would need to be started, if only to make his life easier.