5 Conclusion
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Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Heron felt the twitch, it was a subconscious gesture of aggravation at this ... mess. He hadn't started to pace yet, or perhaps that was a worse sign. The truth was he hadn't expected the conference to have a necessarily speedy resolution, but he had hoped that it would be a success. He had been apprised of the cappellan attack shortly before it had broken... but this latest word from the Free World's League was certainly worse...and it had spilled out into the public much faster... not really a surprise given all the gory details of Kelly's atrocity.
The escalation of conflicts were an intrinsic risk of any use of force, including the lack there of. Politics, political leadership made decisions based on individual and cultural calculus. The Cappellans escalating hostilities in response to the increasingly brazen raids by Kelly's pirates was something Erineyes recognized. The capellans could not afford the raids, could not afford further loss of face given their modern reputation as the sick man of the inner sphere. House Marik coming just off the heels of its own civil war likely couldn't afford the implication either.
The ComStar driven news media had done nothing to help. It stoked anxiety on both sides of the inner sphere periphery divide... and the implication if not concretely proven of Taurians aiding the pirates were a concern. The cappie delegation here in the Reach had not yet had its orders changed... most likely because a live communication broadcast order was either not deemed secure or too much of an expense.
There was also the risk of revanchist nonsense by the capellans as much as the Taurians. "The news broadcast may or may not scuttle talks," And truth be told the recess they had taken had come when they still weren't sure whether or not the settlement would be accepted. There was the chance the bulls would be pressed to accept the settlement if they believed a CCAF raid in force was going to move into Hyades... but as he had discussed with the Canopian Ambassador two days earlier Hyades was entirely too close to the Reach in a strategic sense.
His objective remained a negatiated settlement based on the current real borders. "I know that Alistair," He informed the Highland Lieutenant Colonel cooly,"Which is why I plan to send you to Luxen. Ostensibly it will put the dragoons out of reach until things calm down," He ignored the poppy cock outburst of protest from his subordinate, "Make clear to the canopians our goodwill, and our willingness to treat them as equals... and that we are just as hostile to the predations of these pirates as they are."
"Kelly is wearing Gestapo colors," Including having dressed his men in their uniforms... for whatever sense ... perhaps it only made sense to Kelly. "there are reports of Amaris Dragoons as well. There are two million dead in Marik space according to the news. Two million dead civilians for bastards in death's heads with sharks, and chalice. It ain't going to be Sian, the Captain General can hardly let those things lie..."The outburst punctuated by excited hand waving stopped mid stride as the Highlander caught himself, "Dobrev's nav computer,"[She] "was going to Canopian space... she was heading for Luxen."
He nodded. "I suspect given the data that we have Terran descendants who couldn't ascertain the location of fail safe bolt holds and settled opposite of Kerensky's exodus." In short they probably had chose to come down here because it was the opposite, maybe they had hoped to find other Terrans, but regardless, "That the 'Minesota clan' settled into the Magistracy."
"What about the Lyrans?"
"Another splinter from them, or so Erineyes thinks. We can't be sure," They didn't have enough data, "But Dobrev was loaded with weapons," Iterative improvements, "of improvements on Royal Systems. The Dire Wolf tells us that the Kerensky exodus continued to improve and produce them."
"But there is no sign of that in the Magistracy."
That was true, "If there is anyone fine, if there isn't unfortunate," He replied, "I am hoping that navigation data can be pulled that somewhere there is a JumpShip computer with the navigation data intact enough to tell use where Kerensky ran to, so if you can make contact with the descendants of McEvedy's people do so. Defend Luxen from the pirates, destroy any Rim World , Neo Rim World force you encounter, preserve civilian lives and property. Win over popular support and secure as much of our flank as possible." There was no indication that Kelly and Black Jack were going to be stopped any time soon, "And," Arsacid paused gravely, "Expect that if tension s with the Taurians do remain elevated that I will send you to Northwind."
Erineyes's holographic image warbled in digital tittering. He ignored the machine spirit's laughter, but Alistair didn't, "The combine show boating is a mite of a nuisance sir." The Highlander replied referring to the ronin challengers. "Most of them died quick."
Second and third rounds against gunslingers who had been young pilots during the second hidden war, and who now ranked Majors or better, "Admittedly taking the time during the down time to air out those grievances is a distraction...but it might also benefit us. The Taurians are unlikely to push for a military resolution to this if they see what they're potentially up against."
"What happens if they decide to try and nuke us before the SDS is finished?" Heron's eyes narrowed and he waved to the holographic globe, and the veteran of Brinton fell silent watching, "Drone carrier...how... I mean yeah I know we have the black box factories, but – Artru. We left something behind here didn't we?"
Heron shook his head, "No... were that the Hegemony had the forward thinking." Admittedly the AI there was unique even by the standards of AI... in that the AI could for whatever reason make jumps without having a human crew... then again Locura was homicidal, maddened by the loss of her Terran troops and the losses over Aquagea that carried the witch's unit at the hands of Taurians, and Rim World atomics. Maybe it was the machine's rage or grief maybe there was some stability that came with age who knew, but Locura could remain active through a jump and was vastly more dangerous even by the standards of SLDF warships, or Terran drone warships for that matter. "Artru is secure, Katinka as well, we will harden Aea as best we can in the interim." They would rebuild the surface to orbit batteries on Coromodir... the batteries that hadn't been rebuilt when the SLDF had taken the planet originally, "And that should deter a pirate incursion, especially with these Azami that House Karosas is now employing to bolster their defenses."
--
They had not yet officially resumed discussions... tomorrow, maybe the next day... but if this stalled much longer Heron suspected that the talks would simply fall through. He didn't want that, but the delay was not intentional. It wasn't planned this wasn't political calculus. It was fear, it was paralysis setting in from the face of the unknown, of the threat mounting on all sides. A siege mentality threatening to set in, and not just for the Taurians.
The Canopians were unsure what to do if two of the great houses started having to reorient towards the periphery. "What do you think," He asked, "Personally Lady Centrella?"
"The latest outburst," This morning at breakfast, "could have been worse."
"The Taurins have a long history of such..." as the capellans had argued historically the Taurians were not subject to the Ares Conventions and the Taurian nuclear doctrine was what it was, "the Taurian military attache should have known better than to be baited into the conversation," But he was also a young man. Ostergaard shouldn't have let himself be drawn into an argument about events long in the past... here and now certainly wasn't the time or place.
The MIC liaison on Ana Marie's staff spoke up, "It is concerning that the Capellans alleged that the Taurians had previously attempted to recover a warship. The SLS Tripitz – the so called vandenburg white wings incident was decades ago, but if the Taurians had made the attempt and were stopped,"
"By an honorable third party," Heron quipped with a smirk, "yes. Not Terrans, I assure of that. Those were not Hegemony war planes that scuttled her," He stated, "But yes the Taurian ambassador became very," Nervous... twitchy, he blew out a breath, "Unsteady," was the word he settled on, "when warships were discussed and Taurian efforts of one... I feel as if the Capellans were implying something but aren't sure they have the proof to come out and say it." but it didn't matter... not right now, "Capellan Taurian posturing weakens the talks."
"You could always release the draft proposal to the public at large."
"It already is," He replied, "Our proposal is readily available in the public space, we want peace with the taurians," But they had no easy way of spreading that message to the Taurians at large... and well... now the news was too saturated by all the death and destruction caused by war machines in the colors of the rim world republic.
She shook her head, "But ComStar is very much in favor of the proposal, the precentor has stated that it is a reasonable proposal to stop the violence," And thus allow all sides to focus on the much larger problem of pirates rampaging over one another's borders.
"The precentor is also adamant," a position that he had come into the talks with, "that all participatory members to the agreement including observer states," For which the capellans and canopians had both been included as, "provide resources to defend ComStar's facilities, which is a significant ask." That hte precentor in charge of the ComStar delegation came from the Free World's league was taking this personally, well that made a certain amount of sense as well. "Never mind that sense you brought the warship, I've noticed that the Precentor is a bit more than perturbed by that line of conversation as well." He was looking at Ana Marie, but he nodded the slight twitch of approval or acknowledgement from the MIC aide in his peripheral vision.
--
Notes: I was going to wait and expandthis somewhat further but I also hadn't realized it had been a year since I had updated. I was originally planning to put this up in theJunkyard thread but here is an update. Chapter 6 when we get there will cover House Centrella dealing with the fallout of Kelly's raidsin Marik and Liao space so their side of this clusterfuck.
Heron felt the twitch, it was a subconscious gesture of aggravation at this ... mess. He hadn't started to pace yet, or perhaps that was a worse sign. The truth was he hadn't expected the conference to have a necessarily speedy resolution, but he had hoped that it would be a success. He had been apprised of the cappellan attack shortly before it had broken... but this latest word from the Free World's League was certainly worse...and it had spilled out into the public much faster... not really a surprise given all the gory details of Kelly's atrocity.
The escalation of conflicts were an intrinsic risk of any use of force, including the lack there of. Politics, political leadership made decisions based on individual and cultural calculus. The Cappellans escalating hostilities in response to the increasingly brazen raids by Kelly's pirates was something Erineyes recognized. The capellans could not afford the raids, could not afford further loss of face given their modern reputation as the sick man of the inner sphere. House Marik coming just off the heels of its own civil war likely couldn't afford the implication either.
The ComStar driven news media had done nothing to help. It stoked anxiety on both sides of the inner sphere periphery divide... and the implication if not concretely proven of Taurians aiding the pirates were a concern. The cappie delegation here in the Reach had not yet had its orders changed... most likely because a live communication broadcast order was either not deemed secure or too much of an expense.
There was also the risk of revanchist nonsense by the capellans as much as the Taurians. "The news broadcast may or may not scuttle talks," And truth be told the recess they had taken had come when they still weren't sure whether or not the settlement would be accepted. There was the chance the bulls would be pressed to accept the settlement if they believed a CCAF raid in force was going to move into Hyades... but as he had discussed with the Canopian Ambassador two days earlier Hyades was entirely too close to the Reach in a strategic sense.
His objective remained a negatiated settlement based on the current real borders. "I know that Alistair," He informed the Highland Lieutenant Colonel cooly,"Which is why I plan to send you to Luxen. Ostensibly it will put the dragoons out of reach until things calm down," He ignored the poppy cock outburst of protest from his subordinate, "Make clear to the canopians our goodwill, and our willingness to treat them as equals... and that we are just as hostile to the predations of these pirates as they are."
"Kelly is wearing Gestapo colors," Including having dressed his men in their uniforms... for whatever sense ... perhaps it only made sense to Kelly. "there are reports of Amaris Dragoons as well. There are two million dead in Marik space according to the news. Two million dead civilians for bastards in death's heads with sharks, and chalice. It ain't going to be Sian, the Captain General can hardly let those things lie..."The outburst punctuated by excited hand waving stopped mid stride as the Highlander caught himself, "Dobrev's nav computer,"[She] "was going to Canopian space... she was heading for Luxen."
He nodded. "I suspect given the data that we have Terran descendants who couldn't ascertain the location of fail safe bolt holds and settled opposite of Kerensky's exodus." In short they probably had chose to come down here because it was the opposite, maybe they had hoped to find other Terrans, but regardless, "That the 'Minesota clan' settled into the Magistracy."
"What about the Lyrans?"
"Another splinter from them, or so Erineyes thinks. We can't be sure," They didn't have enough data, "But Dobrev was loaded with weapons," Iterative improvements, "of improvements on Royal Systems. The Dire Wolf tells us that the Kerensky exodus continued to improve and produce them."
"But there is no sign of that in the Magistracy."
That was true, "If there is anyone fine, if there isn't unfortunate," He replied, "I am hoping that navigation data can be pulled that somewhere there is a JumpShip computer with the navigation data intact enough to tell use where Kerensky ran to, so if you can make contact with the descendants of McEvedy's people do so. Defend Luxen from the pirates, destroy any Rim World , Neo Rim World force you encounter, preserve civilian lives and property. Win over popular support and secure as much of our flank as possible." There was no indication that Kelly and Black Jack were going to be stopped any time soon, "And," Arsacid paused gravely, "Expect that if tension s with the Taurians do remain elevated that I will send you to Northwind."
Erineyes's holographic image warbled in digital tittering. He ignored the machine spirit's laughter, but Alistair didn't, "The combine show boating is a mite of a nuisance sir." The Highlander replied referring to the ronin challengers. "Most of them died quick."
Second and third rounds against gunslingers who had been young pilots during the second hidden war, and who now ranked Majors or better, "Admittedly taking the time during the down time to air out those grievances is a distraction...but it might also benefit us. The Taurians are unlikely to push for a military resolution to this if they see what they're potentially up against."
"What happens if they decide to try and nuke us before the SDS is finished?" Heron's eyes narrowed and he waved to the holographic globe, and the veteran of Brinton fell silent watching, "Drone carrier...how... I mean yeah I know we have the black box factories, but – Artru. We left something behind here didn't we?"
Heron shook his head, "No... were that the Hegemony had the forward thinking." Admittedly the AI there was unique even by the standards of AI... in that the AI could for whatever reason make jumps without having a human crew... then again Locura was homicidal, maddened by the loss of her Terran troops and the losses over Aquagea that carried the witch's unit at the hands of Taurians, and Rim World atomics. Maybe it was the machine's rage or grief maybe there was some stability that came with age who knew, but Locura could remain active through a jump and was vastly more dangerous even by the standards of SLDF warships, or Terran drone warships for that matter. "Artru is secure, Katinka as well, we will harden Aea as best we can in the interim." They would rebuild the surface to orbit batteries on Coromodir... the batteries that hadn't been rebuilt when the SLDF had taken the planet originally, "And that should deter a pirate incursion, especially with these Azami that House Karosas is now employing to bolster their defenses."
--
They had not yet officially resumed discussions... tomorrow, maybe the next day... but if this stalled much longer Heron suspected that the talks would simply fall through. He didn't want that, but the delay was not intentional. It wasn't planned this wasn't political calculus. It was fear, it was paralysis setting in from the face of the unknown, of the threat mounting on all sides. A siege mentality threatening to set in, and not just for the Taurians.
The Canopians were unsure what to do if two of the great houses started having to reorient towards the periphery. "What do you think," He asked, "Personally Lady Centrella?"
"The latest outburst," This morning at breakfast, "could have been worse."
"The Taurins have a long history of such..." as the capellans had argued historically the Taurians were not subject to the Ares Conventions and the Taurian nuclear doctrine was what it was, "the Taurian military attache should have known better than to be baited into the conversation," But he was also a young man. Ostergaard shouldn't have let himself be drawn into an argument about events long in the past... here and now certainly wasn't the time or place.
The MIC liaison on Ana Marie's staff spoke up, "It is concerning that the Capellans alleged that the Taurians had previously attempted to recover a warship. The SLS Tripitz – the so called vandenburg white wings incident was decades ago, but if the Taurians had made the attempt and were stopped,"
"By an honorable third party," Heron quipped with a smirk, "yes. Not Terrans, I assure of that. Those were not Hegemony war planes that scuttled her," He stated, "But yes the Taurian ambassador became very," Nervous... twitchy, he blew out a breath, "Unsteady," was the word he settled on, "when warships were discussed and Taurian efforts of one... I feel as if the Capellans were implying something but aren't sure they have the proof to come out and say it." but it didn't matter... not right now, "Capellan Taurian posturing weakens the talks."
"You could always release the draft proposal to the public at large."
"It already is," He replied, "Our proposal is readily available in the public space, we want peace with the taurians," But they had no easy way of spreading that message to the Taurians at large... and well... now the news was too saturated by all the death and destruction caused by war machines in the colors of the rim world republic.
She shook her head, "But ComStar is very much in favor of the proposal, the precentor has stated that it is a reasonable proposal to stop the violence," And thus allow all sides to focus on the much larger problem of pirates rampaging over one another's borders.
"The precentor is also adamant," a position that he had come into the talks with, "that all participatory members to the agreement including observer states," For which the capellans and canopians had both been included as, "provide resources to defend ComStar's facilities, which is a significant ask." That hte precentor in charge of the ComStar delegation came from the Free World's league was taking this personally, well that made a certain amount of sense as well. "Never mind that sense you brought the warship, I've noticed that the Precentor is a bit more than perturbed by that line of conversation as well." He was looking at Ana Marie, but he nodded the slight twitch of approval or acknowledgement from the MIC aide in his peripheral vision.
--
Notes: I was going to wait and expandthis somewhat further but I also hadn't realized it had been a year since I had updated. I was originally planning to put this up in theJunkyard thread but here is an update. Chapter 6 when we get there will cover House Centrella dealing with the fallout of Kelly's raidsin Marik and Liao space so their side of this clusterfuck.