New Dawn in the Sun's (Battletech AU)

December 12^th 3016
Zenith Jump point
Daneshmand, Free Worlds League

“Even with the staff you brought along this isn’t going to be an easy sell,” Harry stated flatly. The failure of their Commonwealth adventure was firmly fixed in his mind, he had thought that they had an easy path to achieving their goals but that hadn’t proved to be the case.

“Dame Catherine is invested in aerospace, as a former fighter jock she knows it like the back of her hand, and being a canny politician, she plays to her strengths,” Brenda gently chided her son. “Losing Andurien Industries completely is not something she is willing to continence. They needed to sell their production equipment for the Intruder to Andurien Aerotech to repair what they could after the league retook Andurien. Losing the Excalibur as well? That’s going to finish off the company, which is an economic hit she cannot afford to take. Her Mosiro Mechworks might have kept the archipelago in the Dutchy, but it's been bleeding money at an unsustainable rate.”

“I don’t doubt she’ll be interested in what we’re selling… what I doubt is that she’s going to be willing to deal.” Harry countered. “We do have a lot to offer her, but the price isn’t going to be something she is willing to pay. Especially not given her political position. She’s on the outs with Atreus, going to a foreign supplier for anything is going to be politically difficult.”

“I’d say it’s a gamble, she did invest the time and funds into rebuilding Irian…” Brenda pointed out. She was well aware that it was a weak point in her argument, if the Brockton's got what they wanted the political capital the dame had earned would be burnt.

“Possibly, I’m just not getting my hopes up.” Harry’s down tone was enough to convince Brenda that this wasn’t just about the industrial deals they had been striking. His attempts at courting while they had been in the commonwealth hadn’t gone well, to put it mildly. The only families who had expressed interest in him were those looking to loot Trevlu, and they hadn’t hidden that. It had been a congo line of humiliation for him, and after his experience on New Avalon, she was worried that his self-confidence had been badly damaged.

“Chin up, from your father's last letter things are looking up at home. Between Roger and Prakash’s efforts our social isolation is looking like it's going to be a thing of the past by the time your kids are ready to start dating.”

“If I manage to have kids that is,” Harry grumped out. “You really think things are going to be any better on Andurien than they were on Thakard?”

“Can’t be worse,” Brenda acknowledged. “So, what’s your guess on what the dame is going to do with what we’re offering?”

“She’s going to pull a hostile takeover, Andurien Industries isn’t a company her family owns, but if she can pull them into being a subsidiary of Andurien Aerotech?”

“Probably. She does seem to be determined to concentrate as much industry into her family’s hands as possible. So, the question we need to ask is what is she going to be willing to pay us with?”

“My guess? Data. Her people working on Irian seem to have done more repairs than replacements if the news feeds we’ve gotten are anything to go by. She might be willing to let us license the Stingray, but given how protective of that design the Humphreys have been?”

“Point.” Brenda pursed her lips as she considered that. The Stingray should have been licensed out to more than one manufacturing location given its prevalence in the FWLM, but at the moment it was confined to one production site. Andurien Aerotech’s factories were surprisingly productive, especially for a Liao-built facility, which made Brenda suspicious. Liao production of any type was infamous for its shoddy workmanship, and that Andurien Aerotech produced enough Stingrays for the entire FWLM made her think that there was something else going on there. That was part of the reason she had been open to taking this side trip before heading home. While buying machine tools had been a bust, they had achieved the bare minimum of their objectives in the Commonwealth. That didn’t help Harry though, he would need some political capital of his own when he took over as duke, and the trip hadn’t given him that. There were no additional orders for Brockton made goods, and the majority of their profits were being spent buying engine kits from Defiance Gibbs, necessary but not a visible benefit to the people of Brockton. The family had kept their population, and the planetary government happy, by bringing home business. Without a major win to his name, Harry would be forced into being an agricultural salesman, a position that she knew he would hate. Harry was his father's son in that his interests lay outside of the life sciences, and he found agriculture to be boring.

“We might be able to convince her to throw in a copy of the Capellan archives from when they held Andurien,” Harry worried his bottom lip as he said that. “It’s not the sexiest information around but it's something that the college could use. Moving away from being known solely for the life sciences would reduce the stigma its graduates operate under. I think we could get support from New Avalon to put together a damn good Capellan culture and history department.”

“That…” Brenda thought about the idea for a moment before continuing. She was well aware of the tension between New Avalon and New Syrtis, as was Harry evidently, and what he had just proposed would take advantage of that tension. It was good to see that her lessons on politics hadn’t gone completely to waste. “Is a good idea. Do you have an idea of the valuation we should assign to the data?”

“It’s going to be star league vintage information, my guess would be that it's going to be heavily concentrated on cultural and security issues.” Harry speculated aloud. “That said Andurien was a Commonality capital during the Star League, and we haven’t managed to capture one of those. The archives will be a treasure trove for historians, and MIIO, so it's going to be expensive.”

“That I knew, the question is just how expensive it's going to be for us to get our hands on it.”

“Data like that… I’d say about half the cost of what we’re going to be offering dame Catherine, if not more. Information is power, and control over information has made the high nobility into what it is today. We’re going to be asking for a copy of what the Humphreys consider their birthright, especially after they lost so much when Kanata was nuked. I know that for a copy of the alliance-era cores we’ve kept, I’d be pushing for a price in the trillions of pounds range, at the very least.”

“Partial credit, I would argue,” Brenda grinned as she pounced on the teachable moment. “You’re underestimating the cultural factors in play. Yes, information is a nobles birthright, but the information we’d be after if we put a deal like the one you’re proposing on the table would be tainted in the Humphrey's eyes. Keep in mind that they hate the confederation with a passion verging on fanaticism, that’s going to devalue the archives.”

“They can hate the cappies all they like, they’ll still fight tooth and nail to keep control over every scrap of information they gleaned from them. It’s a trophy if nothing else.”

“Trophies would be original copies of the documents that are in the archives, physical things they can bring out to show off,” Brenda argued back, pleased that Harry wasn’t just accepting her word. “If they valued the data for itself they would be using it.”

“You think they aren’t?” Harry asked, slightly surprised. “After the Humphreys School of Warfare was nuked the Humphreys training academy was set up awfully quickly, and you know which enemy they’re focused on.”

“You’re thinking that they’re using their data like the Brewers are?” Brenda asked, mildly impressed by the speculation.

“At least a part of it, Humphreys has too good of a reputation for producing officers who understand the Capellan mindset and who are well versed in impromptu combined arms. You would never get them to admit it, but both of those specialties imply to me at least that they’ve used their extensive access to Capellan documents to build their curriculum.”

“The League is known for their focus on combined arms…”

“The FWLM favor using their lighter conventional elements as scouts and skirmishers, think an epee, the Anduriens tend to have heavier elements in the mix and are closer to our hammer and anvil tactics, something we picked up from the Capellans and refined.” Harry shook his head in disagreement. “The RCT formations we use are better than anything the Capellans field, but the same idea is present in both our RCT tactics and the CCAF’s use of their militia formations. Hold ground with tanks and infantry, and use your mechs as the maneuver element and breakthrough unit. The difference is our tankers and infantry are professional, and we can use them offensively if the situation requires it, whereas the CCAF emphasizes the defensive aspects of such tactics and does it on an ad hock basis.”

“So how do we use our speculation to our advantage during the negotiations?” Brenda was glad to see Harry coming out of his shell. She was of the opinion that had he acted like this when they were in the commonwealth he would have gotten better offers, putting her on point for the negotiations had robbed him of some of his self-confidence. Part of that was her fault, she had after all given him a spectacular tongue-lashing about his lack of preparations, but mostly she blamed his father. It wasn’t intentional, but his decision hadn’t been the best from the perspective of getting Harry ready to inherit. Letting him fail and learn on his own would have been wiser, and the display of confidence in him would have helped him recover from his mistakes on New Avalon.

 

January 3^rd 3017
Sanromea Dropship Yard
Brockton, Federated Suns

Andrew wasn’t quite sure just what this latest meeting was about. Despite the profitability of the dropship yards, and the critical importance of the jumpship refit slips, he had little to do with the aerospace industry. Yes, he owned it, but that was through managers. He preferred to leave decisions in their hands as he was well aware that he was a rank amateur when it came to making business decisions around the industry. The last time anyone from his family had invested more than money had been several generations ago when they had steered an asteroid mining subsidy through parliament, and that had been at the request of the planetary ecology party as part of a raft of environmental regulations. This is why it came as such a surprise that his managers were requesting a meeting about the yards.

“Well you have me here,” Andrew looked around the room they were meeting in and was surprised by its spartan appearance. He had gotten used to the sumptuously appointed meeting rooms that his other industrial concerns had or the palatial ones he had used on Basantapur, this was a rather different approach and he wasn’t sure what it said about the business. Perhaps he needed to allot more funding here? “What do you need?”

“Reassurances,” Josaphine Needlemyer spoke up after she had shared a look with her fellow executives. Andrew only recalled her name due to the briefing he had gotten from his staff on the way over, another oversite he would need to correct. “You’re looking to expand production of the GE 3000 drive system with an eye towards duplicating the lines. That’s not a small move, and you’ve been consistent in where your priorities lay. We’ve been sucking hind teat for a long time, so your interest is getting us rather nervous. We wanted to make sure you weren’t convinced by offworlders of some damn fool notion like trying to propel a warship by strapping dropship drives to the frame in bundles.”

“Is that even possible?” Andrew asked, a bit taken aback.

“No it's not, but I wouldn’t put it past the fools in charge of Challenge systems to sell you on the notion in the name of recovery,” Vernon Strand spoke up. “Before Jalastar bought them out with your money they were floating some pretty out-there ideas…”

“And they have exactly the right sort of bait you would go for,” Josaphine took up the thread of the conversation again. “If they’re pressing you for engines I’ll bet you pounds to pence that they say they have the data needed to put together a core forge, if only they had the right heavy equipment.”

“If they had that I would have known,” Andrew said sharply. He was slightly offended by the presumption that he would be taken for a ride by some sharp-talking businessmen. He did own an aerospace company, after all, he would be a fool to not have asked the people in the room their opinion on any investments he made in the area. Then again… no one had asked about their idea for Andurien so the accusation wasn’t that unwarranted.

“Not saying you wouldn’t, but from our perspective? You haven’t exactly been a paragon of dynamism in our sector like you have been for the mech industry.” Josephine’s voice contained more than a bit of reproval. “You did give away our shot at making fighters after all…”

“That was after I consulted the board at the time and they told me we had no chance of reviving the line on our own. We didn’t have the engineers or the engine line to put a bird into the air unless you disagree?”

“Not really,” Josaphine shrugged off his retort with little worry. “Our r and d is one area of concern we want to bring up with you, as in its more a couple of chair warmers then anyone with real engineering experience and the budget is barely enough for their salaries. Still begs the question, what do you want to do with the engines you’ve ordered?”

“Diplomacy,” Andrew contained his wince at the three unimpressed looks he was getting as he said that. “Look the Excalibur class is nearly out of production; you have all heard about that? The GE 48000 drive system isn’t being made anymore so you can’t get it for love or money. Harry picked up on a rumor that the Dracs are using the GE 2080 drive for the Mule, and then started to wonder if we could get some concessions out of the Anduriens if we rescued their line.”

“Jumbo’s closer in tonnage than a Mule is… might work but you would need to do some tricky engineering to get everything right.” Jin Slone spoke up for the first time. She was the firm's senior engineer so if anyone would know it would be her. “I really hope he’s asking for an engineer exchange, or at least the right to hire some of Andurien Industries' engineers. We could use some new blood around here, our people are a bit too comfortable just doing rote refits on known designs.”

I’ll be sure to include that in my next message to him,” Andrew frowned a bit as he heard the concern. “Would bringing in some new designs help any?”

“Unfortunately, not, most of our best end up working in the mining sector,” Josaphine admitted with a grimace. “The lack of challenge and opportunity means we don’t get the best at the moment. If you do manage to get production rights to anything we’re going to need at least a decade before our engineering department is really up to snuff again. We’ve lost a lot of institutional knowledge over the years and there hasn’t been the funds or will to rebuild it.”

“I’m a little taken aback by that,” Andrew admitted allowing confusion to show on his face. “Part of the reason why the family hasn’t taken an interest in our aerospace holdings is that you, and your predecessors, haven’t given us a reason to be interested. We’ve had steady returns and solid books for more than a century, rocking the boat seemed like a bad idea.”

“Normally it is, and if you want us to keep on trucking there won't be any problems,” Jin’s soft voice was clear despite its lack of volume. “Our people know their designs and can do a lot with them… the problem is that while we turn a consistent profit there hasn’t been much growth for a long time, and all of us would like to see that change. Harry taking an interest in transport, well, that gets our hopes up.”

“Is there room for growth? I was under the impression that we were limited by technical issues,” Andrew tried to think of an opportunity and came up blank. They made mostly civilian ships, with a single heavily outdated military design, actually, all of their offerings were to the minds of most nobles outdated.

“Possibly…” Josephine said cautiously.

“Oh, give it to him straight you old hag,” Vernon barked out, clearly not in the mood to dance around the subject. “No ones making the Achilles in the suns anymore, so there’s room for an assault dropship. We could fill that need with a modified Drost.”

“Only after we trained up a proper engineering team and went through r and d with a flamethrower.” Jin barked back, a sharp contrast to her earlier soft voice. “The engineering challenges won't be any easier just because we’re working with a frame we’re familiar with. Just running the power lines and ammo feeds would be a major job, getting it right would take planning that I don’t have faith in the chair warmers to do right.”

“Let's…” Josephine started to speak only to be overridden by Vernon who was up off his chair and looming over the smaller form of Jin.

“Only because we don’t have the balls to make the attempt! The ideas have been out there for years but no ones pushed them. Yes, it will be a challenge, but it's not impossible! We aren’t trying to make a new design, just adapt one we know well.”

“We might as well be you, ignorant buffoon, in order to do the job we would have to strip the design down to its frame and engines, working up everything new out from there. That isn’t a rebuild, it's practically a whole new design.”

“PEOPLE!” Andrew raised his voice, cutting off the obviously long-running argument. “Thank you, might I remind you that you all work for me?”

“I’ve got a month before I retire,” Vernon seemed to have kept his combative edge but he settled down a bit.

“And I look forward to that day if this is the way you act in a business meeting,” Andrew warned flatly. “I’m not opposed to putting some money into this idea you have, but I want a solid plan before I even think about it. You’ve told me that no one in the Suns makes the Achilles, fair enough, so what has the Navy used to replace them? Is that satisfactory or is it just a stopgap? I need to know that before I can even begin to make a decision.”

“We have contacts in the navy we can reach out to,” Josephine seemed to realize that Andrew's temper was on edge after that display. “It will take longer then you’re used to for us to find answers though. The navy works a little differently than you’re used to, and getting ahold of people in the Department of Naval defense captains are mobile in a way that regiments aren’t.”

“Alright, get me some answers.” Andrew turned to Jin and Vernon, favoring them with a frown. “The two of you? I want at least the beginnings of a paper study for this new assault ship. R and D aren’t capable of that? Start firing people and don’t hire chair warmers this time. Work together, or separately, I really don’t care. Just get me something that indicates this is a viable option, even if it's for the future.”

 

January 8^th 3017
Foxes Den
New Avalon, Federated Suns

“Aaron it's good to see you again,” Hanse greeted the lord of the Draconis march warmly. Unlike his relationship with Michael Hasek-Davion he got along with Aaron Sandoval, the two men had worked together frequently since Aaron had risen to command the Draconis March.

“My prince,” Aaron bowed slightly. “You summoned me?”

“I did,” Hanse acknowledged. “I have need of your expertise.”

“Another stab at the dragon?” Aaron asked eagerly, his well-known hatred for the Kuritas and all their works showing on his face.

“Possibly, it depends on the situation on the ground as always.” Hanse tried to gently keep Aaron from expressing yet another grandiose plan to do something like raid Luthien and burn Luthien Armor works to the ground. He had more limited goals in mind. “The war is winding down, everyone is too exhausted to make more than a single large push before we all need to begin rebuilding. I think we’ll have the edge there, but the Dragon has surprised us before. In order to mitigate that I have an intelligence operation in the works, but success is not guaranteed. If it works, and unfortunately that is an if not a when we should have some flexibility on the Capellan border.”

“So you want to push there?” Aaron cocked his head to the side with a slight frown. “I’m not seeing where I come into this.”

“Because I don’t know how successful we will be I want you to develop a couple of plans for me mostly using the resources of your march, not federal troops.” Hanse indicated for Aaron to follow him over to the holo table which was already set up to display troop dispositions in the Draconis March.

“Much as I would like to heed the calls for liberation I hear coming from under the dragon's boots I can’t do it on my own,” Aaron disagreed with Hanse mildly. “Oh I could make some progress hitting under-defended worlds, but the cost wouldn’t be worth it. Repairing my forces afterward would be the next best thing to impossible, and I’d need a lot of support to hold what I gained.”

“I’m hoping to mitigate that for you,” Hanse didn’t like letting the cat out of the bag this early, reports were still sketchy about the success of the first phase of operation RELIANT, but he would need to if he wanted Aaron to cooperate. “If things go well I’m going to be moving two production lines worth of tooling to produce front-line quality equipment to Robinson Mech Works in the next year or two. I’ve spoken with Countess Jaffey and secured for you the plans and a license to build Awesomes as Robinson's first front-line offering, as well as a significant investment in Robinson by Lycomb-Davion Introtech to get your people over any problems they encounter.”

“That’s…” Aaron might have been a tanker during his own time in service but he was well aware of the power of Battlemechs, and the political implications of building an Assault Mech. Hanse was trying to sweeten the pot for him, which made him cautious. A successor lord didn’t stay in power through sweetness and light, so for him to be making concessions like this meant he wasn’t going to like the rest of this plan of his. “That would be helpful, Quentin is a bit exposed for my tastes, and it is our primary assault mech factory.”

“Dieron district is a hard target, unfortunately, even if everything goes as planned that’s not going to be the focus of my efforts,” Hanse admitted.

“You want a stalking horse,” Aaron accepted, although not easily.

“Not… Somewhat,” Hanse admitted. “A lot is going to depend on other factors. What I would like for you and your command staff to do is come up with a variety of options.” Hanse frowned as he looked over the map once again, still seeking a point where he could do the most good for the lowest investment in resources.

“I’m assuming that the plan using primarily Draconis March forces is the most likely to be used?”

“Yes. I’m going to be cutting orders for the light horses to launch an extended raiding campaign into the Galedon District as a distraction operation. I doubt they will do much damage, but it should tie up most of Warlord Aris Hansen’s forces…”

“Your hoping internal politics get him?” Aaron asked with narrowed eyes. The current Warlord of the Galedon district was known to be disliked by the more traditional members of the nobility who served house Kurita. While his family was known for giving the dragon solid service, having provided several prefecture captains to the dragon over the years, the traditionalists disliked them. Not that the dislike had kept Aris from rising to warlord under Hohiro.

“He’s flexible, which is a bad thing for us, and politically astute enough to have survived the purges that Takashi launched when he took power,” Hanse answered obliquely. “I wouldn’t be upset if someone less capable replaced him.”

“A worthy goal, though I’m not sure how anything I could do would accomplish that…”

“I want you to take a look at widening our defensive depth around Marduk,” Hanse said as he zoomed in on that region of space. “I doubt we could take Galtor, no matter how much I wish to. Tripoli and Paris? Might be possible.”

“It would be a heavy lift,” Aaron frowned as he looked at the map. “Especially with the Chisholm Raiders being moved out of my operations area… Yorioshi might be a traditionalist but he’s not an idiot. That’s going to create a meeting engagement, and the outcome is going to depend on who can feed their reinforcements into it faster.”

“That’s the idea,” Hanse admitted. “I want everyone in the sphere convinced that I’m looking that way for my last push. I’ll give you everything I can to win the fight, but it’s not going to be my priority.”

“Before I say yes,” Aaron frowned as he looked at the map, shoving units around in his head as he tried to make it work. He would need to get with his staff, but it did on the face of it look like an offensive with achievable goals. “I need to know that whatever your true objective is, is worth the cost of blood.”

Hanse was tempted to dissemble, his dream could easily be derailed by just a few loose lips after all. He didn’t in the end though, if his enemies could hear his private discussions in the Foxes' den itself then he had already lost. Besides, Aaron had been critical to keeping Michael from even thinking about making a try at the first princes' title when Ian died. If anyone deserved to hear the truth then it was him.

“I think so,” Hanse reluctantly began to lay out his plans. “Like I said we have an intelligence operation that should distract the Capellans. MIIO is hoping to poke Janos right in the pride, given what happened with his brother it shouldn’t be too difficult to convince him to shift his focus away from the Lyran border. Depending on how he reacts we could see a major offensive from him against the Capellans, or just releasing the border province's forces to take targets of opportunity. We know the Capellans are already overstretched, their primary reserves are mercenaries after all, and with just a little more pressure coming towards them from the other border it opens up some opportunities.”

“The far side of the confederation is hardly my focus, but I have to ask why do you think that just releasing the provincial forces will be enough?” Aaron asked mildly.

“Because even without support the Anduriens took Palladaine recently, and they managed to fight off the counterattack,” Hanse answered promptly.

“That sounds logical, but I have to question how the idea is going to work out in the real world. I’ve heard a lot of plans from MIIO which turned out to be little more than hopes and dreams.” Aaron pointed out pragmatically.

“If that’s the case then I’m going to be bringing most of the corps of Davion Guards and the Marlette Crucis march militia in support of your operations,” Hanse stated flatly. “I don’t want you, or your staff, planning on that happening though.”

Aaron narrowed his eyes and looked at the map once again. Hanse hadn’t said directly what he intended, but given the forces, he had named... Aaron had a very good idea of what he was doing. Mentally he weighed his options before speaking, he had an idea of how to profit from Hanse's plans but there was a political cost there. Finally, he decided that it was worth it, besides better to get in on the ground floor rather than wait and need to fight with Michael Hasek-Davion.

“You’re going to make a stab at Tikonov.” Aaron’s voice was distant as he continued to weigh the odds. “I’ll order the Cartago DMM to support your offensive, but I want priority on the production. I’m going to need it.”

“I can’t give you an absolute priority,” Hanse started to negotiate. “I can reserve a percentage for your use though.”

Aaron started to argue and then stopped himself. He wasn’t as conversant on the Capellan’s industrial capacity as he was on the Draconis Combine, but a part of his march did border them so he was aware of at least the bare bones. Tikonov was the Capellan’s largest mech production center, and it held at least part of their aerospace fighter production, even a fraction of that capacity when funneled into his march would allow him to rebuild his military. Especially given what was made there, Thunderbolts were an excellent mech, and the Quickdraw while hardly the most respected machine around was a sold counter to the fast heavies of the dragon. Aside from the benefits Aaron could see to his march in terms of production, the loss of the planet would be crippling to the confederation. It was an answer to Michael's complaints and would buy Hanse more than enough breathing room politically that he could support a real push against the Dragon.

“I can agree to that,” Aaron said easily. His mind was already turning over the possibility, running through scenarios and seeing how to wrong-foot the dragon before he struck. “How long do I have before you start operations?”

“The earliest I can start would be at the end of this year, it's more likely that things will start heating up at the beginning of next year though. We need to wait for the reaction to my moves before we nail anything down, as it stands too much is up in the air. I’m not willing to just assume that things will go my way, so I want to wait until I see evidence of the Mariks moving before I commit.”

“That makes sense…” Aaron looked over the map once again. “I presume you’re going to begin stockpiling supplies and the like on Exeter?”

“I was thinking Layover, it's closer to Tikonov and Robinson so changing the direction of the thrust would be easier,” Hanse's finger went through the holographic representation of the planet. He didn’t want his supplies to end up in Aaron's hands by ‘accident’ should his maneuver pay off. Loyal as Aaron himself was a build-up of supplies in his march would be a target for diversion no matter what he said. Better not to put temptation in his way. “If fighting between the FWLM and the CCAF doesn’t pick up then I can swing my battle group through Robinson and pick up the rangers there as reinforcements.”

“They might not be there,” Aaron said lightly. “I’ll need to get with my staff before we make a decision though. Just off the top of my head, I think I can easily build up enough to push a front-line RCT backed up by a DMM one onto each of the targets. If I prime the 41^st Avalon Hussars for a push on Proserpina it would give me an excuse to build up supplies for the Cartago DMM, but that’s not going to be believable without you breaking out some of the more specialized units. The chemical damage there…”

“You’re talking about reactivating at least part of the Plague Dogs,” Hanse frowned as he said that. He really didn’t like the message that would send.

“If we mean to keep the world, we’re going to need their expertise at cleaning up chemical weapons releases. That and historically the last time we almost took that world the Dragon decided to open up with weapons of mass destruction.”

“I’ll think about it, but no guarantees.” Hanse could see where Aaron was coming from, but his reservations remained. Perhaps if he moved a couple of dropships to New Avalon that would be believable without being threatening? He would have to go over the idea with his staff before he gave Aaron a definite answer. Given that Proserpina was sixty percent uninhabitable due to the chemical release some form of cleanup would need to be done on world, the Dragon certainly hadn’t done anything to clean up after itself, but that could be handled with specialists using conventional transport. The specialized equipment of the Plague Dogs would be needed eventually if he intended to keep the world, but that needed to be weighed against the optics of having them deploy. Especially as part of an invasion force.