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The Aurigan Renaissance [A BattleTech Isekai]
- Thread starter Imperator Pax
- Start date
BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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The Locura being an SDS AI makes a horrific amount of sense. The fact the Aurigans will have access to the SDS fighters, dropships, and ground to orbit batteries is also going to cause a commotion when it's noticed .
3.5
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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3.5
Katinka in contrast to Artru was entirely capable of supporting its population without any kind of complex environmental controls. Katinka's ecosystem had sustained damage from the mass driver strike, but that took the effect of several degrees of global cooling that in turn had trapped moisture at the poles which while not a full on glaciation event had been bad for the agriculture that had been established north and south of thetropics before 2765. Without outside help it would have been feasible to adapt crops and farm plans for agriculture that needed tobe more cold tolerant and need less water... but the Star League had collapsed and by the 30th Century the Taurians had had withdrawn any presence on the planet.
With mechanization they would put thousands of kilometers of wheat because frankly Katinka's northern main continent was suited for it. Geographically when the first colonists had arrived in the 26th or 27thcentury they had brought with them the flora of North America's midwest, and that had meant conifers and deciduous trees had thrived over the intervening centuries.
The cattle, and dairy operations of the pre crisis era hadn't fared nearly so well, though there were still some herds. They hadn't had to actually reimport anything like cows, chickens, rice, or such... it was just a matter of providing the assistance and organization to expand.
That should have been Arsacid's ...that should have been the material dominating his morning reports...the agriculture that would feed planets, millions of tons of grain that would be made into bread, and so forth. Cattle, chickens, and their by products. Rice, and peanuts, and so forth and so on... those reports were pushed down to lower level authorities in the face of a conflict with the Taurians. "Lets start from the top shall we?" He remarked, largely rhetorically. He would have liked, he certainly would have preferred if Brinton could have somehow been resolved without potentially pushing things towards a shooting war.
"The capellans have been very quick to claim that the Taurians are supporting Black Jack," Which was the same accusation the Canopian ambassador had thrown at the Bulls, but the evidence was circumstantial. More likely the latest recrimination was the Capellans justifying their actions on Brinton, it was a theatrical declaration "We know McGirk had jumped the border, but between his direct forces and the pirates he's strong armed he's all over the rimward periphery all the way to the Davion frontier."
"And what do you make of that?"
"I would guess that there were Hidden Army depots we missed," There was a pause, "I don't think its feasible he could be just operating out of Tortuga, not with as far spinward and anti-spinward as he's ranging."
Arsacid nodded, and of course there was the lingering question of why McGirk hadn't tried to legitimize himself. The Marian Hegemony opposite side of the Canopians were slavers and pirates with a roman theater flare but they had been trying to carve out something of a niche of respectability... at least enough so that the Free Worlds League didn't have a reason to pay them attention. So far McGirk had left them alone but there was a lingering question if the reason he hadn't hit them was the lack of a ComStar presence... which just raised other questions. "And the robes?" He asked after a moment. The nickname, and a not a flattering one, was one he wasn't quite sure when he'd started using to refer to comstar but it was something had quickly become popular through out the mass of displaced across time hegemony citizens...whatever ComStar's people were expecting rolled eyes was generally the most benign response to their presence, and snide comments and sneers were the majority of responses.
It was true they had HPG Network... but the SLCOMNET was in tatters. There was so little of the network left... and so much of it was trashed they hadn't yet allocated jumpships to start looking for the deep space network's condition...which given the Tripitz's loss was something they were going to have to look into... "Besides the expected they're not happy with the Taurians either."
The sooner the troops were off of Brinton the better. There was no higher authority though to appeal to. They were sure that the stockpiles had been safely destroyed but all sides were still in something approaching a mexican stand off in Brinton... but no one had started shooting at the other parties jumpships. He was pretty sure that from the last report from the dragoons that the Capellans and Taurains both were hoping to turn something up that had been missed.
... the actual pirates notwithstanding.
No nukes had flown... and for the moment they weren't actually at war. He wanted it to stay that way. The assembled officers had all been present the previous September where he had questioned why someone hadn't managed to kill Black JackMcGirk previously... a decade long rampage.. and yet this chaos was still unfolding hundreds, thousands of light years from where it had begun... and getting worse by the day.
That conversation had also been before the JumpShip Yards had come online or the BattleMech production facilities for the Archer. Still that had in part been on the expectation that the Aurigan Coalition Military would receive an expansion, be allocated more funding to contend with things. There were still talks ongoing but those were stalled in endless committee meetings according to Shawkat, and Espinosa both writing from the coalition's capital. Neither expected a break through, and at the moment the coalition's industry was largely focused on domestic production of wheeled and tracked vehicles not hovercraft.
That might well mean it would fall to them to push forward... but it still wasn't likely to fix the problem. Pinching the bridge of his nose Arsacid took a breath and glanced at the other Hegemony officers. The legislative deadlock on coromodir was a problem of course, but one that he was growing somewhat used. "What do I need to know about them?"
"The Robes?" There was a pause, and a ruffled series of loose leaf sheets being thumbed through again, "Officially ComStar expects both its neutrality to be respected, and insured by host governments, it claims that the Taurians aren't doing this." There was another pause, "Our analysts suspect its more about the mistrust of the Taurians have for what's left of the COMNET, the robes are condescending toaster worshippers and the Taurians have no love lost for the Inner Sphere given the situation the accusations regarding the pirates, and the WMDs are just an excuse to push the issue. On our end. Aea has an HPG station."
Katinka didn't. He tapped his fingerson the desk, "And?"
"Their best offer so far has beento act as a neutral third party between us the bulls, and thecapellans , which might well be in good faith or they could be up tosomething... but however it is the precentor made it sound like hewas doing us a favor and how we should be falling over ourselves toaccept his saintly aid." The New Dallas native drawled.
Arsacid nodded. "Have the capellans actually made direct contact?"
"No, the most we've gotten from Brinton is that we're both agreed to let each other leave once the drives are charged and everyone is one board." Not that the drives weren't already charged. They had arrived before the capellans, the scotts Dragoons though had needed to insure that the rimworld weapons had been safely destroyed... and that had been time consuming to say the least. The Capellans had stuck around looking, hoping to turn up stuff, and had exchanged some rounds with the Taurians, but the actual governments seemed to have both devolved to the officers on the ground.
He returned to pinching the bridge of his nose.... this was the headache he'd been hoping to avoid "Bring our people home, and in one piece, I suppose we will have to contend with the Capellan response whenever they actually decide what they're going to do," But from the sound of it, from the reports he had received thus far that was most likely going to require word to actually get to the Capellan capital and then for word to transmit back... and if the news from the Inner Sphere was accurate there was a lot more going on in the Free Worlds League that outweighed a dust up on a periphery world.
Katinka in contrast to Artru was entirely capable of supporting its population without any kind of complex environmental controls. Katinka's ecosystem had sustained damage from the mass driver strike, but that took the effect of several degrees of global cooling that in turn had trapped moisture at the poles which while not a full on glaciation event had been bad for the agriculture that had been established north and south of thetropics before 2765. Without outside help it would have been feasible to adapt crops and farm plans for agriculture that needed tobe more cold tolerant and need less water... but the Star League had collapsed and by the 30th Century the Taurians had had withdrawn any presence on the planet.
With mechanization they would put thousands of kilometers of wheat because frankly Katinka's northern main continent was suited for it. Geographically when the first colonists had arrived in the 26th or 27thcentury they had brought with them the flora of North America's midwest, and that had meant conifers and deciduous trees had thrived over the intervening centuries.
The cattle, and dairy operations of the pre crisis era hadn't fared nearly so well, though there were still some herds. They hadn't had to actually reimport anything like cows, chickens, rice, or such... it was just a matter of providing the assistance and organization to expand.
That should have been Arsacid's ...that should have been the material dominating his morning reports...the agriculture that would feed planets, millions of tons of grain that would be made into bread, and so forth. Cattle, chickens, and their by products. Rice, and peanuts, and so forth and so on... those reports were pushed down to lower level authorities in the face of a conflict with the Taurians. "Lets start from the top shall we?" He remarked, largely rhetorically. He would have liked, he certainly would have preferred if Brinton could have somehow been resolved without potentially pushing things towards a shooting war.
"The capellans have been very quick to claim that the Taurians are supporting Black Jack," Which was the same accusation the Canopian ambassador had thrown at the Bulls, but the evidence was circumstantial. More likely the latest recrimination was the Capellans justifying their actions on Brinton, it was a theatrical declaration "We know McGirk had jumped the border, but between his direct forces and the pirates he's strong armed he's all over the rimward periphery all the way to the Davion frontier."
"And what do you make of that?"
"I would guess that there were Hidden Army depots we missed," There was a pause, "I don't think its feasible he could be just operating out of Tortuga, not with as far spinward and anti-spinward as he's ranging."
Arsacid nodded, and of course there was the lingering question of why McGirk hadn't tried to legitimize himself. The Marian Hegemony opposite side of the Canopians were slavers and pirates with a roman theater flare but they had been trying to carve out something of a niche of respectability... at least enough so that the Free Worlds League didn't have a reason to pay them attention. So far McGirk had left them alone but there was a lingering question if the reason he hadn't hit them was the lack of a ComStar presence... which just raised other questions. "And the robes?" He asked after a moment. The nickname, and a not a flattering one, was one he wasn't quite sure when he'd started using to refer to comstar but it was something had quickly become popular through out the mass of displaced across time hegemony citizens...whatever ComStar's people were expecting rolled eyes was generally the most benign response to their presence, and snide comments and sneers were the majority of responses.
It was true they had HPG Network... but the SLCOMNET was in tatters. There was so little of the network left... and so much of it was trashed they hadn't yet allocated jumpships to start looking for the deep space network's condition...which given the Tripitz's loss was something they were going to have to look into... "Besides the expected they're not happy with the Taurians either."
The sooner the troops were off of Brinton the better. There was no higher authority though to appeal to. They were sure that the stockpiles had been safely destroyed but all sides were still in something approaching a mexican stand off in Brinton... but no one had started shooting at the other parties jumpships. He was pretty sure that from the last report from the dragoons that the Capellans and Taurains both were hoping to turn something up that had been missed.
... the actual pirates notwithstanding.
No nukes had flown... and for the moment they weren't actually at war. He wanted it to stay that way. The assembled officers had all been present the previous September where he had questioned why someone hadn't managed to kill Black JackMcGirk previously... a decade long rampage.. and yet this chaos was still unfolding hundreds, thousands of light years from where it had begun... and getting worse by the day.
That conversation had also been before the JumpShip Yards had come online or the BattleMech production facilities for the Archer. Still that had in part been on the expectation that the Aurigan Coalition Military would receive an expansion, be allocated more funding to contend with things. There were still talks ongoing but those were stalled in endless committee meetings according to Shawkat, and Espinosa both writing from the coalition's capital. Neither expected a break through, and at the moment the coalition's industry was largely focused on domestic production of wheeled and tracked vehicles not hovercraft.
That might well mean it would fall to them to push forward... but it still wasn't likely to fix the problem. Pinching the bridge of his nose Arsacid took a breath and glanced at the other Hegemony officers. The legislative deadlock on coromodir was a problem of course, but one that he was growing somewhat used. "What do I need to know about them?"
"The Robes?" There was a pause, and a ruffled series of loose leaf sheets being thumbed through again, "Officially ComStar expects both its neutrality to be respected, and insured by host governments, it claims that the Taurians aren't doing this." There was another pause, "Our analysts suspect its more about the mistrust of the Taurians have for what's left of the COMNET, the robes are condescending toaster worshippers and the Taurians have no love lost for the Inner Sphere given the situation the accusations regarding the pirates, and the WMDs are just an excuse to push the issue. On our end. Aea has an HPG station."
Katinka didn't. He tapped his fingerson the desk, "And?"
"Their best offer so far has beento act as a neutral third party between us the bulls, and thecapellans , which might well be in good faith or they could be up tosomething... but however it is the precentor made it sound like hewas doing us a favor and how we should be falling over ourselves toaccept his saintly aid." The New Dallas native drawled.
Arsacid nodded. "Have the capellans actually made direct contact?"
"No, the most we've gotten from Brinton is that we're both agreed to let each other leave once the drives are charged and everyone is one board." Not that the drives weren't already charged. They had arrived before the capellans, the scotts Dragoons though had needed to insure that the rimworld weapons had been safely destroyed... and that had been time consuming to say the least. The Capellans had stuck around looking, hoping to turn up stuff, and had exchanged some rounds with the Taurians, but the actual governments seemed to have both devolved to the officers on the ground.
He returned to pinching the bridge of his nose.... this was the headache he'd been hoping to avoid "Bring our people home, and in one piece, I suppose we will have to contend with the Capellan response whenever they actually decide what they're going to do," But from the sound of it, from the reports he had received thus far that was most likely going to require word to actually get to the Capellan capital and then for word to transmit back... and if the news from the Inner Sphere was accurate there was a lot more going on in the Free Worlds League that outweighed a dust up on a periphery world.
Fasbir
Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?
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The story is all over the place. Can't understand anything that you're writing in the story.
Put names before different povs. Tell the backstory & situations first.
After reading the story i have no idea what's happening or who is who.
I don't even know who is the Isekai protagonist and whats his powers are.
Put names before different povs. Tell the backstory & situations first.
After reading the story i have no idea what's happening or who is who.
I don't even know who is the Isekai protagonist and whats his powers are.
Last edited:
Chapter 4
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Chapter 4
As the Duchess of a canopian world she had been born into a privileged position. That didn't mean she had done nothing to earn that.. in theory the Magistracy's aristocracy was a merit based system... but her surname was Raventhir.
She had made the attempt after all to protect Luxen, unsuccessful as that was. Risked greatly to try and protect the planet. The handful of mercenaries and young volunteers had tried to protect the capital... and at least most of them had survived.
It was why her father had committed to an expansive expenditure here in the periphery had come bringing battlemechs for her to find pilots for. Raventhir knew he meant well, but what she really needed was for the magistracy to have more than just an old lyran duke's largess. Well meaning as it might have been.
... and it wasn't as if William Abner, her father, was just her to play doting father to favorite child ...Interstellar Expeditions wasn't oblivious to the developments anymore than the Magistracy was. The tall Azami man had a henna dyed beard, a bright orange color as he stood next to the aging Atlas pilot. "Terran Hegemony Royal Scotts Dragoons." Abner remarked expansively, "Mindy, yes do you see those. Royal series Highlander BattleMechs." An entire company of them no less, the Battalion had dropped in force against the Taurians.
The Azami's eyes turned downwards, "Men whose brothers were murdered by the Satan Amaris as they prayed to almighty god's mercy." He remarked.
"Yes, the Christmas Massacre on Northwind." The Lyran man nodded, "A great atrocity." and one of many, one of so many, "Katinka was struck by a mass driver during the rebellion." The statement made her want to ask about Pioche, if there wasn't something more that they could do there, but it was not practical.
"Yes. To little avail. The running dogs clearly failed to penetrate the protective bunker complex," What in the floral literary writings of the combine's mostly poetic court language would have been referred to as invariably the border of the afterlife, or such or in more laconic terms a 'tomb'.
"Indeed," The holographic image shifted to one she was more familiar with.
Heron Arsacid was a tall man, good looking. He could have easily been one of her instructors when she had attended the Nagelring. The Assault BattleMech pilot's NightStar was not however how the Magistracy of Canopus or its intelligence service the MIM remembered him from 2765. The Terran officer had accepted the Canopian surrender on behalf of the SLDF ... not that the Canopian part of the Hidden Army or its support for the Rim World had been particularly expansive... and the truth was that while there had been periphery first supporters back then... Miranda Raventhir hoped that once word had reached of the Rim World was doing, and the Taurians for that matter that her people had recognized they had been wrong.
The Magistracy had done its best afterwards to survive the breakdown of interstellar trade, but it had still meant that had retreated from other worlds. Luxen had gone from an important provincial capital to edge of the canopian frontier in the rimward periphery of vastly less importance.
"The bunker complex? Like on Pioche?" She managed... even if that had been a Hidden Army facility... that was to say while built with technology of Terran origin had been used by the other side.
The old Lyran tilted his head, "Yes, though given the numbers I would say most of the facility were able to reach their assigned stasis tubes."
The Aurigans had since they had arrived on the interstellar scene always been fond of the Star League. More culturally close in disposition to the Inner Sphere than their proximity to the Concordat would lead one to believe. For most people that was an eccentricity, and a largely harmless one, in the Periphery.
Even without the mounting security threat of Black Jack McGirk Magistracy strategic policy had been to deep trade and relations with ... the truth was that despite being half the size... in number of planets the Magistracy only really had Majesty Metals to rely on in terms of large scale weapons manufacturing. They'd been undersupplied in terms of the military for decades, simply because the budget and the supplies weren't there.
Trade with Aurigans, and friendly relations would also serve as a realpolitik blocking space against any further conflicts with the Concordat... even though official direction from the Magestrix remained an open policy of nominal trade and open convivial relations. The Aurigans for all the fondness they expressed for the Star League had never gone so far as the most recent change in the strategic picture. The Arscacid Margravate contained five core worlds plus Tarragona but that latter outlying world was treated differently. The rapid establishment of government were in the policy of the Terran Alliance and Hegemony. There were already students at the university of Luxen, for which her father occasionally lectured, writing on those comparisons from Katinka's promulgated constitution and historical examples of worlds in the 23rd century far closer to the cradle of humankind.
Arscaid had demobilized a brigade the 60th according to the MIC and the diplomatic corp in expectation of peace. Other units of the old SLDF lost out of time had been demobilized as well leaving primarily a reported force of readied BattleMech regiments, but there were questions of whether or not such a small realm could maintain such numbers.
Abner nodded, "What do you think Mister Dara?"
"The Dragon's," He meant the Draconis Combine, which was far away, so as to have basically no formal relationship diplomatically with the Magistracy, "Ignorance of the situation is, has concerned me... I did not realize when Black Jack fled a decade ago it was to go come to this. His mischief then was a trifling thing, beneath the contempt of the Dragon and he did not wear such accursed colors at that time... the coordinator's court will be alarmed to have such outlaws in Amaris's colors facing the demon king of the sixth heaven... perhaps even more so with the Highlander battalion with him."
She didn't understand, well in that she understood that combine enjoyed applying flowery names to everything, and the longer and more pretentious the better. Calling a BattleMechAce a Demon King was entirely within their habit. It was just that this wasn't a modern Davion Ace, or a famous mercenary... and while there had been stories told, while there was always the popular urban legend and fascination that the Kerensky Exodus of the SLDF might one day return to the Inner Sphere it wasn't quite the same thing to actually see the sudden return of SLDF units...
Not their descendants but the abrupt reemergence of men born in the 28th Century, Abner was quick to reiterate he was a scientist, "The stasis tube while amazing, awe inspiring even is not magic. These men went to sleep as part of a planned action, something that the Hegemony thought about and considered before undertaking."
"Watched over by a machine spirit, and guarded by powerful mechanical jinn wielding the weapons of Old Terra," Dara replied, "Yes, the Hegemony of old hoped its sons would survive catastrophe but the world they awake to is one that has been irrevocably tainted by Amaris's crimes." The Azami warrior replied. "Crimes which the coordinator, and his heirs abetted, and concealed their complicity."
As the Duchess of a canopian world she had been born into a privileged position. That didn't mean she had done nothing to earn that.. in theory the Magistracy's aristocracy was a merit based system... but her surname was Raventhir.
She had made the attempt after all to protect Luxen, unsuccessful as that was. Risked greatly to try and protect the planet. The handful of mercenaries and young volunteers had tried to protect the capital... and at least most of them had survived.
It was why her father had committed to an expansive expenditure here in the periphery had come bringing battlemechs for her to find pilots for. Raventhir knew he meant well, but what she really needed was for the magistracy to have more than just an old lyran duke's largess. Well meaning as it might have been.
... and it wasn't as if William Abner, her father, was just her to play doting father to favorite child ...Interstellar Expeditions wasn't oblivious to the developments anymore than the Magistracy was. The tall Azami man had a henna dyed beard, a bright orange color as he stood next to the aging Atlas pilot. "Terran Hegemony Royal Scotts Dragoons." Abner remarked expansively, "Mindy, yes do you see those. Royal series Highlander BattleMechs." An entire company of them no less, the Battalion had dropped in force against the Taurians.
The Azami's eyes turned downwards, "Men whose brothers were murdered by the Satan Amaris as they prayed to almighty god's mercy." He remarked.
"Yes, the Christmas Massacre on Northwind." The Lyran man nodded, "A great atrocity." and one of many, one of so many, "Katinka was struck by a mass driver during the rebellion." The statement made her want to ask about Pioche, if there wasn't something more that they could do there, but it was not practical.
"Yes. To little avail. The running dogs clearly failed to penetrate the protective bunker complex," What in the floral literary writings of the combine's mostly poetic court language would have been referred to as invariably the border of the afterlife, or such or in more laconic terms a 'tomb'.
"Indeed," The holographic image shifted to one she was more familiar with.
Heron Arsacid was a tall man, good looking. He could have easily been one of her instructors when she had attended the Nagelring. The Assault BattleMech pilot's NightStar was not however how the Magistracy of Canopus or its intelligence service the MIM remembered him from 2765. The Terran officer had accepted the Canopian surrender on behalf of the SLDF ... not that the Canopian part of the Hidden Army or its support for the Rim World had been particularly expansive... and the truth was that while there had been periphery first supporters back then... Miranda Raventhir hoped that once word had reached of the Rim World was doing, and the Taurians for that matter that her people had recognized they had been wrong.
The Magistracy had done its best afterwards to survive the breakdown of interstellar trade, but it had still meant that had retreated from other worlds. Luxen had gone from an important provincial capital to edge of the canopian frontier in the rimward periphery of vastly less importance.
"The bunker complex? Like on Pioche?" She managed... even if that had been a Hidden Army facility... that was to say while built with technology of Terran origin had been used by the other side.
The old Lyran tilted his head, "Yes, though given the numbers I would say most of the facility were able to reach their assigned stasis tubes."
The Aurigans had since they had arrived on the interstellar scene always been fond of the Star League. More culturally close in disposition to the Inner Sphere than their proximity to the Concordat would lead one to believe. For most people that was an eccentricity, and a largely harmless one, in the Periphery.
Even without the mounting security threat of Black Jack McGirk Magistracy strategic policy had been to deep trade and relations with ... the truth was that despite being half the size... in number of planets the Magistracy only really had Majesty Metals to rely on in terms of large scale weapons manufacturing. They'd been undersupplied in terms of the military for decades, simply because the budget and the supplies weren't there.
Trade with Aurigans, and friendly relations would also serve as a realpolitik blocking space against any further conflicts with the Concordat... even though official direction from the Magestrix remained an open policy of nominal trade and open convivial relations. The Aurigans for all the fondness they expressed for the Star League had never gone so far as the most recent change in the strategic picture. The Arscacid Margravate contained five core worlds plus Tarragona but that latter outlying world was treated differently. The rapid establishment of government were in the policy of the Terran Alliance and Hegemony. There were already students at the university of Luxen, for which her father occasionally lectured, writing on those comparisons from Katinka's promulgated constitution and historical examples of worlds in the 23rd century far closer to the cradle of humankind.
Arscaid had demobilized a brigade the 60th according to the MIC and the diplomatic corp in expectation of peace. Other units of the old SLDF lost out of time had been demobilized as well leaving primarily a reported force of readied BattleMech regiments, but there were questions of whether or not such a small realm could maintain such numbers.
Abner nodded, "What do you think Mister Dara?"
"The Dragon's," He meant the Draconis Combine, which was far away, so as to have basically no formal relationship diplomatically with the Magistracy, "Ignorance of the situation is, has concerned me... I did not realize when Black Jack fled a decade ago it was to go come to this. His mischief then was a trifling thing, beneath the contempt of the Dragon and he did not wear such accursed colors at that time... the coordinator's court will be alarmed to have such outlaws in Amaris's colors facing the demon king of the sixth heaven... perhaps even more so with the Highlander battalion with him."
She didn't understand, well in that she understood that combine enjoyed applying flowery names to everything, and the longer and more pretentious the better. Calling a BattleMechAce a Demon King was entirely within their habit. It was just that this wasn't a modern Davion Ace, or a famous mercenary... and while there had been stories told, while there was always the popular urban legend and fascination that the Kerensky Exodus of the SLDF might one day return to the Inner Sphere it wasn't quite the same thing to actually see the sudden return of SLDF units...
Not their descendants but the abrupt reemergence of men born in the 28th Century, Abner was quick to reiterate he was a scientist, "The stasis tube while amazing, awe inspiring even is not magic. These men went to sleep as part of a planned action, something that the Hegemony thought about and considered before undertaking."
"Watched over by a machine spirit, and guarded by powerful mechanical jinn wielding the weapons of Old Terra," Dara replied, "Yes, the Hegemony of old hoped its sons would survive catastrophe but the world they awake to is one that has been irrevocably tainted by Amaris's crimes." The Azami warrior replied. "Crimes which the coordinator, and his heirs abetted, and concealed their complicity."
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BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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Oh, oh…I hadn't realized just where Heron stood in the SLDF hierarchy. If he EARNED that Demon King title in battle, not with atrocities, and was the one to personally receive the Canopian surrender…yea, Colonel or not given the losses he would've had stars on his uniform and run at least a division for Kerensky and DeChevalier. All that on top of the Coordinators direct relative (sister/niece/cousin?) was his lover and committed suicide rather than betray him.
The impression I had was that she expected the Combine betrayal to be found out, and killed herself in protest rather than be used against Heron/force him to kill her in battle. Not sure how close I am there.
The impression I had was that she expected the Combine betrayal to be found out, and killed herself in protest rather than be used against Heron/force him to kill her in battle. Not sure how close I am there.
4.2
New
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Chapter 4.2
Heron Arsacid finished drying his face, and really only needed to put his boots back on. The Taurian delegation had had the misfortune to arrive alongside the Ebon Dragon... apparently the old men who had arrived with the combine delegation both the diplomatic personnel and the merchants had been given leave from the Combine.
If they succeeded their rewards would have been prolific... one man had boasted the night before his death that he would ask the Coordinator for the honor of commanding a reborn Sword of Light Regiment in his master's service. Heron was familiar, more familiar than ever with the Dragon BattleMech, and had wasted no time in dispatching his Ronin opponent.
It had been such that the Taurians had arrived too. The dueling culture between gunslinger and Ronin returned after centuries of hiatus. He supposed, after a minute that that might not be entirely accurate... from what he understood the Combine's dueling culture and its emphasis had survived but remained largely directed inward amongst the samurai.
Heron didn't regret killing the man, the heavy battlemech favored by the combine simply hadn't been the equal of his Nightstar. It was the pageantry that concerned him, since it had been carried out in clear view of the Taurians. It would have been less of an issue had the combine visit not overlapped with the arrival of the latter.
"Colonel," The Scotts Dragoon questioned from the doorway of the expansive, and luxurious Turkish baths which were available to the officers.
"I'll be there in a moment." He replied. A part of him wanted to know about the other states in the mix. The Combine and the Taurians sat on opposite borders of the Federated Suns, and then there were the Capellans as well to consider. He supposed eventually they would draw the attention of Kenyon Marik's descendants and House Steiner's Lyran Commonwealth.
The dragoon officer didn't budge, "Ah, sir, this isn't about the bulls, sir."
Heron turned. He was taller than the other Terran native. An inch or two, though the other man was heavier set built more for the rugby pitch. They both piloted assault 'mechs, an eponymous Highlander of course, the machine which formed the core basis of the Royal Scotts Dragoons as a formation. "Then the Combine?" He questioned
"Probably after a fact, seeing as they've had to open their mouth to get the Ronin to come around." The other man replied shaking his head as Arsacid strode forward. He stopped only long enough to collect his boots from the entryway and walked down the hall as the Highlander continued to fill him in, "Minister Shawkat fired off a message to the MRB, a portion of SLDF turned mercenary," The ones who hadn't joined Kerensky on his exodus, and the ones who hadn't joined one of the member states," But if I were to guess she means to do more than that."
Heron's face remained placid as they moved through the government complex of Katinka and into a meeting room that could have been any core world of the hegemony's center of planetary business and administration. It was a small creature comfort that had been allowed as they had constructed the margravate,"Do tell?"
"I believe she means to hire on mercenaries to reinforce our existing flank. We could use it to secure Targonna even even if with just tanks and poor bloody infantrymen," Which was nominally within her remit as his prime minister. He had not seriously considered the prospect of mercenaries being hired, despite the Aurigans retaining Markham's Marauders... in part was simply his lack of familiarity with the modern arrangement that had become the norm of the succession wars. The willingness of the Aurigans to rely on such was probably a strong factor in its consideration... from what he understood the Taurians also employed a sizable number of mercenary battalions, which likely impacted the decision making of his chief minister.
He had no adequate response to the news, and would have to think about it. Ultimately Shawkat probably had a point, they needed stabilization of their forces and the truth was not just against the Taurians, there were the pirates as well. Pirates would have likely been a concern, but Black Jack's materiel advantage was an anomaly. Someone had obviously provided the pirate with the metal, and then per the recordings from some distant world in the coreward periphery far far to the North of Terra made the mistake of sending green troops against hardened killers.
The battle recordings they had pulled from salvaged royal machines was concerning, but it corroborated recovered data from the standard machines that had been recovered that had been present. It raised questions since the prevailing theory was that all the machines regular army and Hegemony machines had to have come from equipment put away after Kerensky had departed the inner sphere. One estimate, though not currently proven, was that they were probably had gone into storage in the 29thcentury, which was controversial since from what they understood of post League history that should have been the height of the first succession war.
The Hegemony had been gone by that point. That was always something he was reminding himself of.
Heron walked around the massive holographic sphere display. Its center point was much as Unity Palace's had been... even if Katinka's government center was nearly as grandiose it harkened back to the Terran Hegemony that no longer drew breath. The Margravate would follow Earth's policy of a contiguous boundary of worlds as possible. Ideally the relationship with the Coalition would be more equitable than that of the Star League... but the Margravate was neither the Hegemony nor the Aurigan Coalition the Star League... those assemblies were gone... but he could not help but see the similarities as his staff worked to knit five core worlds into a functional government, and also to integrate an open and fair trade based economy with still other neighboring worlds.
There were other displays but not one so large as the display of inhabited space around them. There were others though that showed more tactical information. The one he moved to next was of the system proper.
He still would have liked had the Brinton Crisis not unfurled but it certainly could have been worse ,and he knew that as well. "How are the Taurian delegation responding to the combine's presence?" He inquired, and half a mind to ask how well ComStar was responding to the imperious delegation of high born samurai too many of whom had graduated from Sun Zhang. Most of the first wave of arrivals were older men, those who had reached retirement age in the DCMS for whom this was a last chance for glory.
The Taurians had had to watch them directly petition for the opportunity for battle. Some men had made challenges directly... this morning's opponent in the Dragon, other ronin had challenged other Hegemony Gunslingers. This was not the war of davion succession there was no longer anything approaching a technological parity. All of the ACMS Program Graduates in the Highlander battalion were running -b series Highlanders. Most of the Gunslingers were operating royal battlemechs... and those that weren't were running Marauders or Orions. All of whom were survivors of the conflict against Amaris here in the Rimward Periphery.
"Not well I'd suppose. They've got the Davions between them sure, but so far as the bulls are concerned they're not going to forget any time soon how popular Kerensky was with the DCMS units on secondment to the SLDF, or how happy those lads were to put the rebellion on New Vandenburg down." Kerensky from what they had gathered had been very popular with the SLDF line units by the end of the war, enough that units which might have otherwise sided with Minoru Kurita had not backed his claim to the throne, and had instead of obeying Kerensky's removal from his post as commanding general had decided to go along with the Exodus thathad tracked coreward, and far from the California nebula in the rimward periphery. "The combine for their part view the Taurians as barely civilized."
One might have though, though Arsacid didn't mention it to the lieutenant colonel addressing him, that the Combine had not realized it was the 31st century and that the Taurians had not been a territorial state of the star league because the Star League was defunct and had been for two and a half centuries. "Is that going to cause a problem during their stay?"
"I don't imagine so. The ronin are here to fight, but if they start something to break etiquette ...well I don't see that happening." That was probably the advantage of the combine sending old men who weren't quite as 'useful' to the front line instead of a rash bunch of youths... but that was something likely to happen. "Breaking the peace outside of things, would mean an invitation to water the garden sir. Of course its always possible that loud mouth Ostergaard will throw the first punch, he's a young fella and I don't think 'military attache' or not," admittedly a junior one, he had superiors along, "what the hell is going on." There was a pause and the kilted man came to a halt at his elbow as they looked up at the constellation of world the lines formed by jumpship routes, "The Robes don't know what the devil they're looking at either... and they're looking at the work the industrial 'mechs are doing and scratching their heads."
It was through that confluence of routes which control could be maintained. Artru, and the previously mentioned further distant Tarragona were the only worlds of the Margravate that were not one jump away from the others. Aea, and Katinka both were placed in the heavens where they could be jumped from towards several other worlds. Two of those were of course Regis Roost and Qalzi.
It was therefore easy for a jumpship circuit to travel between the margravate worlds. The Taurians had as with the combine only arrived through a straight shot, but they'd probably seen enough that way. Sitting in plain view above Katinka were the massive shipyards that had been unfurled. All of which, all of the space facilities in the Margravate carried a variation of the Terran Hegemony Starburst... the Cameron starburst in white gray.
It was a reminder of who they were. Those facilities were off limits to outsiders of course but you could not meaningfully hide what a shipyard was. Those too formed constellations, and buzzed with activity that at least could have been mistaken for worker shuttles.
Some of those even were... but this was the Taurians first official visit to the system. The Combine was getting its first look. Assuming that the ISF still retained access to documentation from the Star League era they would be able to recognize the shipyards as designs facilities which had disappeared as Kerensky had apparently absconded with the majority of the black box systems when he had left on the exodus... the ones he hadn't taken, or destroyed himself, had been wholly lost it seemed by the second succession war.
What the combine probably did not know was that the shipyards were capable of constructing or maintaining compact or standard jump cores. The Taurians would know them as JumpShip yards, constructing Star Lord-class JumpShips. It was something that the Aurigans knew, and that the Canopians would likely be told. "You said the robes didn't understand the situation?"
The holographic display of in system traffic dominated an area that was equivalent in area to a crew quarter aboard a jumpship, a comfortable crews quarter not steerage. It allowed officers, and other ranks to stand around and watch the live feed. It allowed them to watch the JumpShips of foreign flagged vessels, of free traders, and the like as they sat in system... but the overwhelming majority of traffic were carrying that Cameron starburst.
"We don't worship technology," The highlander remarked, but his tone was more irritated to suggest that he wanted to be a little less polite as what he said. "We have schools sir. It was one of the first things we built were children's creches," The sudden shock of awakening in a new world, and the need to demobilize a mixed gender army that was two centuries out of time had lead to a minor baby boom after all. There had been talk about social psychology and how people had responded to the environment they had woken up to but Katinka was a Terran world, and there had been the need to provide for the emerging society, "For the next generation, we had men and women who retired to become teachers for them. I don't think they've ever seen that before."
Heron made a noise in the back of his throat. "That might become a problem," The colonists, involuntary as they might have been, hadn't had to worry because the essence by selling off HPGs in the Essence system allowed him to buy Hegemony black box factory units which didn't require people to work. So they could focus on building Katinka's government center, and also bringing farms under cultivation, growing vast quantities of wheat. Grain that would help support the other smaller colonies of the margravate all around. "The Earth that was, the Hegemony is gone, and while the HPG network is useful to have, I want those people watched." It had gone without saying no one was going to offer the Taurians an invitation of any of the industrial facilities... never mind that the battlemech facilities in the city south of the planetary capital were producing Archer BattleMechs already, but he suspected that the issue was going to be more than that. "Tell Ridgely that he's to be on his toes for any visitors." There was already a monitored, and protected exclusionary zone around the shipyards, some of that were of course piloted ASF, but voidseeker drones were already up and running.
He had assured Locura after all that he would take precautions to protect this last remnant of the Terran Hegemony's Armed Forces. "I will sir,"
"This meeting needs to go smoothly." He remarked, even though he shouldn't have had to say as much, it should have gone without saying, but things were surreal and complicated.
Heron Arsacid finished drying his face, and really only needed to put his boots back on. The Taurian delegation had had the misfortune to arrive alongside the Ebon Dragon... apparently the old men who had arrived with the combine delegation both the diplomatic personnel and the merchants had been given leave from the Combine.
If they succeeded their rewards would have been prolific... one man had boasted the night before his death that he would ask the Coordinator for the honor of commanding a reborn Sword of Light Regiment in his master's service. Heron was familiar, more familiar than ever with the Dragon BattleMech, and had wasted no time in dispatching his Ronin opponent.
It had been such that the Taurians had arrived too. The dueling culture between gunslinger and Ronin returned after centuries of hiatus. He supposed, after a minute that that might not be entirely accurate... from what he understood the Combine's dueling culture and its emphasis had survived but remained largely directed inward amongst the samurai.
Heron didn't regret killing the man, the heavy battlemech favored by the combine simply hadn't been the equal of his Nightstar. It was the pageantry that concerned him, since it had been carried out in clear view of the Taurians. It would have been less of an issue had the combine visit not overlapped with the arrival of the latter.
"Colonel," The Scotts Dragoon questioned from the doorway of the expansive, and luxurious Turkish baths which were available to the officers.
"I'll be there in a moment." He replied. A part of him wanted to know about the other states in the mix. The Combine and the Taurians sat on opposite borders of the Federated Suns, and then there were the Capellans as well to consider. He supposed eventually they would draw the attention of Kenyon Marik's descendants and House Steiner's Lyran Commonwealth.
The dragoon officer didn't budge, "Ah, sir, this isn't about the bulls, sir."
Heron turned. He was taller than the other Terran native. An inch or two, though the other man was heavier set built more for the rugby pitch. They both piloted assault 'mechs, an eponymous Highlander of course, the machine which formed the core basis of the Royal Scotts Dragoons as a formation. "Then the Combine?" He questioned
"Probably after a fact, seeing as they've had to open their mouth to get the Ronin to come around." The other man replied shaking his head as Arsacid strode forward. He stopped only long enough to collect his boots from the entryway and walked down the hall as the Highlander continued to fill him in, "Minister Shawkat fired off a message to the MRB, a portion of SLDF turned mercenary," The ones who hadn't joined Kerensky on his exodus, and the ones who hadn't joined one of the member states," But if I were to guess she means to do more than that."
Heron's face remained placid as they moved through the government complex of Katinka and into a meeting room that could have been any core world of the hegemony's center of planetary business and administration. It was a small creature comfort that had been allowed as they had constructed the margravate,"Do tell?"
"I believe she means to hire on mercenaries to reinforce our existing flank. We could use it to secure Targonna even even if with just tanks and poor bloody infantrymen," Which was nominally within her remit as his prime minister. He had not seriously considered the prospect of mercenaries being hired, despite the Aurigans retaining Markham's Marauders... in part was simply his lack of familiarity with the modern arrangement that had become the norm of the succession wars. The willingness of the Aurigans to rely on such was probably a strong factor in its consideration... from what he understood the Taurians also employed a sizable number of mercenary battalions, which likely impacted the decision making of his chief minister.
He had no adequate response to the news, and would have to think about it. Ultimately Shawkat probably had a point, they needed stabilization of their forces and the truth was not just against the Taurians, there were the pirates as well. Pirates would have likely been a concern, but Black Jack's materiel advantage was an anomaly. Someone had obviously provided the pirate with the metal, and then per the recordings from some distant world in the coreward periphery far far to the North of Terra made the mistake of sending green troops against hardened killers.
The battle recordings they had pulled from salvaged royal machines was concerning, but it corroborated recovered data from the standard machines that had been recovered that had been present. It raised questions since the prevailing theory was that all the machines regular army and Hegemony machines had to have come from equipment put away after Kerensky had departed the inner sphere. One estimate, though not currently proven, was that they were probably had gone into storage in the 29thcentury, which was controversial since from what they understood of post League history that should have been the height of the first succession war.
The Hegemony had been gone by that point. That was always something he was reminding himself of.
Heron walked around the massive holographic sphere display. Its center point was much as Unity Palace's had been... even if Katinka's government center was nearly as grandiose it harkened back to the Terran Hegemony that no longer drew breath. The Margravate would follow Earth's policy of a contiguous boundary of worlds as possible. Ideally the relationship with the Coalition would be more equitable than that of the Star League... but the Margravate was neither the Hegemony nor the Aurigan Coalition the Star League... those assemblies were gone... but he could not help but see the similarities as his staff worked to knit five core worlds into a functional government, and also to integrate an open and fair trade based economy with still other neighboring worlds.
There were other displays but not one so large as the display of inhabited space around them. There were others though that showed more tactical information. The one he moved to next was of the system proper.
He still would have liked had the Brinton Crisis not unfurled but it certainly could have been worse ,and he knew that as well. "How are the Taurian delegation responding to the combine's presence?" He inquired, and half a mind to ask how well ComStar was responding to the imperious delegation of high born samurai too many of whom had graduated from Sun Zhang. Most of the first wave of arrivals were older men, those who had reached retirement age in the DCMS for whom this was a last chance for glory.
The Taurians had had to watch them directly petition for the opportunity for battle. Some men had made challenges directly... this morning's opponent in the Dragon, other ronin had challenged other Hegemony Gunslingers. This was not the war of davion succession there was no longer anything approaching a technological parity. All of the ACMS Program Graduates in the Highlander battalion were running -b series Highlanders. Most of the Gunslingers were operating royal battlemechs... and those that weren't were running Marauders or Orions. All of whom were survivors of the conflict against Amaris here in the Rimward Periphery.
"Not well I'd suppose. They've got the Davions between them sure, but so far as the bulls are concerned they're not going to forget any time soon how popular Kerensky was with the DCMS units on secondment to the SLDF, or how happy those lads were to put the rebellion on New Vandenburg down." Kerensky from what they had gathered had been very popular with the SLDF line units by the end of the war, enough that units which might have otherwise sided with Minoru Kurita had not backed his claim to the throne, and had instead of obeying Kerensky's removal from his post as commanding general had decided to go along with the Exodus thathad tracked coreward, and far from the California nebula in the rimward periphery. "The combine for their part view the Taurians as barely civilized."
One might have though, though Arsacid didn't mention it to the lieutenant colonel addressing him, that the Combine had not realized it was the 31st century and that the Taurians had not been a territorial state of the star league because the Star League was defunct and had been for two and a half centuries. "Is that going to cause a problem during their stay?"
"I don't imagine so. The ronin are here to fight, but if they start something to break etiquette ...well I don't see that happening." That was probably the advantage of the combine sending old men who weren't quite as 'useful' to the front line instead of a rash bunch of youths... but that was something likely to happen. "Breaking the peace outside of things, would mean an invitation to water the garden sir. Of course its always possible that loud mouth Ostergaard will throw the first punch, he's a young fella and I don't think 'military attache' or not," admittedly a junior one, he had superiors along, "what the hell is going on." There was a pause and the kilted man came to a halt at his elbow as they looked up at the constellation of world the lines formed by jumpship routes, "The Robes don't know what the devil they're looking at either... and they're looking at the work the industrial 'mechs are doing and scratching their heads."
It was through that confluence of routes which control could be maintained. Artru, and the previously mentioned further distant Tarragona were the only worlds of the Margravate that were not one jump away from the others. Aea, and Katinka both were placed in the heavens where they could be jumped from towards several other worlds. Two of those were of course Regis Roost and Qalzi.
It was therefore easy for a jumpship circuit to travel between the margravate worlds. The Taurians had as with the combine only arrived through a straight shot, but they'd probably seen enough that way. Sitting in plain view above Katinka were the massive shipyards that had been unfurled. All of which, all of the space facilities in the Margravate carried a variation of the Terran Hegemony Starburst... the Cameron starburst in white gray.
It was a reminder of who they were. Those facilities were off limits to outsiders of course but you could not meaningfully hide what a shipyard was. Those too formed constellations, and buzzed with activity that at least could have been mistaken for worker shuttles.
Some of those even were... but this was the Taurians first official visit to the system. The Combine was getting its first look. Assuming that the ISF still retained access to documentation from the Star League era they would be able to recognize the shipyards as designs facilities which had disappeared as Kerensky had apparently absconded with the majority of the black box systems when he had left on the exodus... the ones he hadn't taken, or destroyed himself, had been wholly lost it seemed by the second succession war.
What the combine probably did not know was that the shipyards were capable of constructing or maintaining compact or standard jump cores. The Taurians would know them as JumpShip yards, constructing Star Lord-class JumpShips. It was something that the Aurigans knew, and that the Canopians would likely be told. "You said the robes didn't understand the situation?"
The holographic display of in system traffic dominated an area that was equivalent in area to a crew quarter aboard a jumpship, a comfortable crews quarter not steerage. It allowed officers, and other ranks to stand around and watch the live feed. It allowed them to watch the JumpShips of foreign flagged vessels, of free traders, and the like as they sat in system... but the overwhelming majority of traffic were carrying that Cameron starburst.
"We don't worship technology," The highlander remarked, but his tone was more irritated to suggest that he wanted to be a little less polite as what he said. "We have schools sir. It was one of the first things we built were children's creches," The sudden shock of awakening in a new world, and the need to demobilize a mixed gender army that was two centuries out of time had lead to a minor baby boom after all. There had been talk about social psychology and how people had responded to the environment they had woken up to but Katinka was a Terran world, and there had been the need to provide for the emerging society, "For the next generation, we had men and women who retired to become teachers for them. I don't think they've ever seen that before."
Heron made a noise in the back of his throat. "That might become a problem," The colonists, involuntary as they might have been, hadn't had to worry because the essence by selling off HPGs in the Essence system allowed him to buy Hegemony black box factory units which didn't require people to work. So they could focus on building Katinka's government center, and also bringing farms under cultivation, growing vast quantities of wheat. Grain that would help support the other smaller colonies of the margravate all around. "The Earth that was, the Hegemony is gone, and while the HPG network is useful to have, I want those people watched." It had gone without saying no one was going to offer the Taurians an invitation of any of the industrial facilities... never mind that the battlemech facilities in the city south of the planetary capital were producing Archer BattleMechs already, but he suspected that the issue was going to be more than that. "Tell Ridgely that he's to be on his toes for any visitors." There was already a monitored, and protected exclusionary zone around the shipyards, some of that were of course piloted ASF, but voidseeker drones were already up and running.
He had assured Locura after all that he would take precautions to protect this last remnant of the Terran Hegemony's Armed Forces. "I will sir,"
"This meeting needs to go smoothly." He remarked, even though he shouldn't have had to say as much, it should have gone without saying, but things were surreal and complicated.
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BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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Hmm? I don't quite get what happened at the end there. Did a crap load of Jumpships just enter the system?
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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No it ate about the last third of the fucking update.
Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
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?
Gunslinger*
Ronin*
the Combine's
Samurai*
" in red needs to be removed.
Hegemony's*
margravate, "Do tell?"*
worse, and*
Combine's*
Samurai*
Ronin*
War of Davion Succession*
Royal BattleMechs*
Davions*
Combine*
have been*
Highlander*
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BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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Ah, the fix explained my question. It also brings up something I really hadn't thought about in regards to the black box technology the Margravate is using. Running at normal production rates with proper maintenance and spare parts means the handful of facilities they have can probably match any of the big name conglomerates once they're all running. At least in pure numbers per year.
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Its supposed to be reborn sword of light regiment, most of these ronin are old men and thus asking for command of a freshly reestablished new regiment of the sword of light.
4.3
New
Imperator Pax
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4.3
He spared a look through the massive, but transparent ferro-aluminium bubble of the government center. Katinka's government in keeping Terran traditions was protected from attack, while still appearing visually impressive... it was designed to impress; in a way that was not present or at least not to this scale for the other worlds of the margravate. Unity on the Puget Sound had been modelled on the ancient Terran castle of Neuwachenstein and its imitators built over theintervening centuries, and that included a tradition of carefully tended greenery. Katinka's more northern latitudes would easily support wheat and corn agriculture, and to the south there was sufficient rain for rice, but the capital, in no small part to further obscfucate the presence of the castle outpost he had gone into stasis in and its AI had had tea plants carefully laid out around the impact crater's remains on the surface.
That had not been a consideration of the Combine. If they wanted to consider that it was fine, there was no point disabusing them of such notions. This would be the first meeting of the week on foreign policy. He had made sure to check that his engineers, and the DOME personnel among others were aware that the security procedures were not mere suggestions. He wanted them to exercise caution.. just as he would exercise caution when contending with either, with any of their visitors. That had meant still at least agreeing to talk with the delegations.
He had no interest in refusing any attempts at dialogue. That would have been true even if he had a full Corp behind him, which of course he did not. That would have been a risky proposition at the best of times, and one likely to all to easily be misread misconstrued as a belligerent action. "Centrella is here as well?"
"Yes sir."
"Is it going to be an issue seating her at the table?"
"No, in terms of precedence her credentials as official ambassador give her clear seniority," The aide a naval lieutenant declared, "and its not like we told them where they would be seating, so just a matter of moving the seating around.
He would have liked if Coromodir was more directly accessible to Katinka It would have likely made his life simpler, and certainly it would have made direct participation in Aurigan politics easier. It was only a few jumps, but even that given everything necessitated passing it off to Shawkat, which was itself a reminder of the life span difference of Hegemony citizens and the modern inner sphere. His chief minister, and for that matter his minister for defense, had both been born on Terran worlds in the 27th Century both being in their eighties at the time of the crisis in Christmas of 2765 and the downfall of the Camerons.
That had also lead to leadership being overly cautious at times. The hidden war had proved that, as the current star lord had been surrounded by courtiers who didn't want to rock the boat... the same sentiment that the star lord had himself championed even for the damage it did by undermining the league and went against Hegemony interests... but that had been a long time ago, and he had not been in any position to act then.
None of that really mattered here and now, and it didn't effect the presence of Anna Marie Centrella who was the Canopian Ambassador to the Aurigan Coalition. They were going to need to thread a careful foreign policy program, and one that had to consider the broader circumstances of the Aurigan Reach. Something that even though Canopus was relatively distant, especially given the state of JumpShip resources, had to be aware of.
He doubted Luthien cared about the Canopians. The present Coordinator was would have from what they understood too busy with the Succession Wars his ancestor had inaugurated by attempting to declare himself heir to House Cameron. There were days that Arascid wondered, quietly and to himself if he had not gone into stasis if he wouldn't have then had to make a choice of siding with House Davion against the Kuritas ... or executing the fall back plan into the Rimward periphery. He had been one of a handful of Terran officers that had hoped the Shadow Ministry would do more, that Sister Cameron would do the right thing, right in their opinion and take more assertive action... but that hadn't happened.
He still didn't understand Kerensky's choice to go north not south... but there were too many other questions to be had about the last days of the League. They were not, he would be the first to admit, the margravate, the Star League in Exile. Heron turned away from the expansive verdant view over the plateau and of tea plants that expanded across it, and made for the great door of the chamber, cognizant of its white and black check, and the starburst of House Cameron.
As a flag it would have been unnecessary to comment on it. It followed the common practice ofhegemony worlds. As an ensign it would have been easy for most to confuse it with any number of worlds in an around the Earth. That Earth that had been.
The chambers were functional, admittedly the chairs were designed for comfort in that the room was expected to be in use for long periods of time... not that Heron was all that sure he wanted to spend long afternoons with the Taurians or the visitors from the Combine, but he accepted it was a possibility.
The room itself also included a number of the protective anti personnel drones within. Katinka's Outpost Castle AI had control of those and while Heron wasn't worried about himself, it was ultimately a safeguard over any attempts to repeat the Amaris coup against House Cameron. He moved from the doorway to the head of the table as the other door on the other end opened to admit the arriving delegation. Open covenants arrived at by open negotiations, it was an old idea, over a thousand years old ... and it was still an idealistic one, but the point of having all here was to dissuade or dilute paranoia, and lack of trust... whether it would work, Arsacid couldn't be sure. If the Capellans did show up late they'd be offended, the Combine was probably offended they weren't being given preferential treatment, and worse being made to share a table here with the Taurians, but there were inevitably going to be bilateral talks.
... but of course that was the thing, no one had actually come out and laid out a foreign policy statement. They were all of them, just here. They had shown up. That was true of the Combine mission, with its ronin in tow, and it was true of the arrival on the Coromodir circuit of Ambassador Centrella.
Centrella was the easy one. She had formal diplomatic credentials. The combine had not actually attempted to provide an official ambassador, and their representative was a young lady of noble birth, but was here as a representative of the combine's merchants and their pillar of Jade... she was a title official with the Bureau of Interstellar Trade. That was to say the young lady was probably a spy who was here to spy on foreigners, themselves, or to watch the merchants in the capacity of a less obtrusive political officer. The Taurian contingent seemed itself strained and internally divided... the current protector had been in power long enough that her conservatism and caution were rankling the more aggressive reactionary factions.
That concerned him. The representatives of territorial interstellar states as the Combine, Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus were, were joined by the small gathering of secondary but still necessary functionaries, but also by the last party to these discussions. The robe clad representatives of ComStar, the religious order who had inherited the mandate of maintaining the SLCOMNET after the down fall of the Star League. As a gathering they were an odd collection, and made perhaps even more so by the unmentioned to the visitors presence of the Hegemony AI resident of Katinka's Castle Outpost.
On balance the majority of the delegation were men, but it wasn't that lopsided in total. The Canopian, and Combine delegations were both officially headed by women even if there was perhaps ten years or more between them. The Taurian chief negotiator was even older than his canopian counterpart being in his late fifties. The comstar precentor perhaps a decade young than him, and had originally hailed from the free worlds league from his accent. It was in dress where there was a much greater display of national costume. The Taurians ironically were the closest to business attire, while the Canopian ambassador wore light blue, the Magistracy national color, airy dress that was probably fashionable in her homestate. The elaborate kimono, and its layers worn by the young lady were par for the course, her retainers wore similar styles of clothing. At least the retainers trousers were somewhat practical, the nickname robes was not without reason. The technology worshipping order had apparently canonized some middle management type .... which Arscaid supposed he couldn't really fault given the canonization of House Cameron but most of his subordinates were after having slept away two and a half centuries not nearly as indulgent of the world.
Arsacid turned, "Very well young lady, you asked for this meeting, and I'm rather curious as to why given I believed our relationship between by men and the ronin you brought with established where we stood."
Tomoe nodded, "The periphery is full of great dangers, and invites many bandits, and outlaws to its frontiers. Among those were men who deserted and fled from their duty to the Dragon."
He raised an eyebrow, "The Azami fleet that appeared over Luxen in 3015, I had heard about. They have slipped away from you," he replied not maliciously but it wasn't something he had missed either, "As I understand it there are a number of Azami who have fled rimward, but they have not joined with black jack... and nor would I expect them to given he has taken to painting his machines in the colors and markings of the Rim World Republic Army," And that, god in his heaven, that was one of the pieces from Brinton that had given them pause even though they had been on the watch for it. The Brinton crisis had potentially rekindled so much bad blood.
The ISF agent, or that was his working assumption spread her hands, "It is so, but even so they are deserters and pirates who have fled justice and the combine has placed bounties on all of them, and to those who shelter them. This is the decree of the Coordinator of All Worlds." It was at this that the Taurians ruffled slightly in protest, but nothing so gauche as to overturn tables or call out, but they were clearly in objection of the ruler of the Draconis Combine's traditional title and its implied claim over all human space.
He spared a look through the massive, but transparent ferro-aluminium bubble of the government center. Katinka's government in keeping Terran traditions was protected from attack, while still appearing visually impressive... it was designed to impress; in a way that was not present or at least not to this scale for the other worlds of the margravate. Unity on the Puget Sound had been modelled on the ancient Terran castle of Neuwachenstein and its imitators built over theintervening centuries, and that included a tradition of carefully tended greenery. Katinka's more northern latitudes would easily support wheat and corn agriculture, and to the south there was sufficient rain for rice, but the capital, in no small part to further obscfucate the presence of the castle outpost he had gone into stasis in and its AI had had tea plants carefully laid out around the impact crater's remains on the surface.
That had not been a consideration of the Combine. If they wanted to consider that it was fine, there was no point disabusing them of such notions. This would be the first meeting of the week on foreign policy. He had made sure to check that his engineers, and the DOME personnel among others were aware that the security procedures were not mere suggestions. He wanted them to exercise caution.. just as he would exercise caution when contending with either, with any of their visitors. That had meant still at least agreeing to talk with the delegations.
He had no interest in refusing any attempts at dialogue. That would have been true even if he had a full Corp behind him, which of course he did not. That would have been a risky proposition at the best of times, and one likely to all to easily be misread misconstrued as a belligerent action. "Centrella is here as well?"
"Yes sir."
"Is it going to be an issue seating her at the table?"
"No, in terms of precedence her credentials as official ambassador give her clear seniority," The aide a naval lieutenant declared, "and its not like we told them where they would be seating, so just a matter of moving the seating around.
He would have liked if Coromodir was more directly accessible to Katinka It would have likely made his life simpler, and certainly it would have made direct participation in Aurigan politics easier. It was only a few jumps, but even that given everything necessitated passing it off to Shawkat, which was itself a reminder of the life span difference of Hegemony citizens and the modern inner sphere. His chief minister, and for that matter his minister for defense, had both been born on Terran worlds in the 27th Century both being in their eighties at the time of the crisis in Christmas of 2765 and the downfall of the Camerons.
That had also lead to leadership being overly cautious at times. The hidden war had proved that, as the current star lord had been surrounded by courtiers who didn't want to rock the boat... the same sentiment that the star lord had himself championed even for the damage it did by undermining the league and went against Hegemony interests... but that had been a long time ago, and he had not been in any position to act then.
None of that really mattered here and now, and it didn't effect the presence of Anna Marie Centrella who was the Canopian Ambassador to the Aurigan Coalition. They were going to need to thread a careful foreign policy program, and one that had to consider the broader circumstances of the Aurigan Reach. Something that even though Canopus was relatively distant, especially given the state of JumpShip resources, had to be aware of.
He doubted Luthien cared about the Canopians. The present Coordinator was would have from what they understood too busy with the Succession Wars his ancestor had inaugurated by attempting to declare himself heir to House Cameron. There were days that Arascid wondered, quietly and to himself if he had not gone into stasis if he wouldn't have then had to make a choice of siding with House Davion against the Kuritas ... or executing the fall back plan into the Rimward periphery. He had been one of a handful of Terran officers that had hoped the Shadow Ministry would do more, that Sister Cameron would do the right thing, right in their opinion and take more assertive action... but that hadn't happened.
He still didn't understand Kerensky's choice to go north not south... but there were too many other questions to be had about the last days of the League. They were not, he would be the first to admit, the margravate, the Star League in Exile. Heron turned away from the expansive verdant view over the plateau and of tea plants that expanded across it, and made for the great door of the chamber, cognizant of its white and black check, and the starburst of House Cameron.
As a flag it would have been unnecessary to comment on it. It followed the common practice ofhegemony worlds. As an ensign it would have been easy for most to confuse it with any number of worlds in an around the Earth. That Earth that had been.
The chambers were functional, admittedly the chairs were designed for comfort in that the room was expected to be in use for long periods of time... not that Heron was all that sure he wanted to spend long afternoons with the Taurians or the visitors from the Combine, but he accepted it was a possibility.
The room itself also included a number of the protective anti personnel drones within. Katinka's Outpost Castle AI had control of those and while Heron wasn't worried about himself, it was ultimately a safeguard over any attempts to repeat the Amaris coup against House Cameron. He moved from the doorway to the head of the table as the other door on the other end opened to admit the arriving delegation. Open covenants arrived at by open negotiations, it was an old idea, over a thousand years old ... and it was still an idealistic one, but the point of having all here was to dissuade or dilute paranoia, and lack of trust... whether it would work, Arsacid couldn't be sure. If the Capellans did show up late they'd be offended, the Combine was probably offended they weren't being given preferential treatment, and worse being made to share a table here with the Taurians, but there were inevitably going to be bilateral talks.
... but of course that was the thing, no one had actually come out and laid out a foreign policy statement. They were all of them, just here. They had shown up. That was true of the Combine mission, with its ronin in tow, and it was true of the arrival on the Coromodir circuit of Ambassador Centrella.
Centrella was the easy one. She had formal diplomatic credentials. The combine had not actually attempted to provide an official ambassador, and their representative was a young lady of noble birth, but was here as a representative of the combine's merchants and their pillar of Jade... she was a title official with the Bureau of Interstellar Trade. That was to say the young lady was probably a spy who was here to spy on foreigners, themselves, or to watch the merchants in the capacity of a less obtrusive political officer. The Taurian contingent seemed itself strained and internally divided... the current protector had been in power long enough that her conservatism and caution were rankling the more aggressive reactionary factions.
That concerned him. The representatives of territorial interstellar states as the Combine, Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus were, were joined by the small gathering of secondary but still necessary functionaries, but also by the last party to these discussions. The robe clad representatives of ComStar, the religious order who had inherited the mandate of maintaining the SLCOMNET after the down fall of the Star League. As a gathering they were an odd collection, and made perhaps even more so by the unmentioned to the visitors presence of the Hegemony AI resident of Katinka's Castle Outpost.
On balance the majority of the delegation were men, but it wasn't that lopsided in total. The Canopian, and Combine delegations were both officially headed by women even if there was perhaps ten years or more between them. The Taurian chief negotiator was even older than his canopian counterpart being in his late fifties. The comstar precentor perhaps a decade young than him, and had originally hailed from the free worlds league from his accent. It was in dress where there was a much greater display of national costume. The Taurians ironically were the closest to business attire, while the Canopian ambassador wore light blue, the Magistracy national color, airy dress that was probably fashionable in her homestate. The elaborate kimono, and its layers worn by the young lady were par for the course, her retainers wore similar styles of clothing. At least the retainers trousers were somewhat practical, the nickname robes was not without reason. The technology worshipping order had apparently canonized some middle management type .... which Arscaid supposed he couldn't really fault given the canonization of House Cameron but most of his subordinates were after having slept away two and a half centuries not nearly as indulgent of the world.
Arsacid turned, "Very well young lady, you asked for this meeting, and I'm rather curious as to why given I believed our relationship between by men and the ronin you brought with established where we stood."
Tomoe nodded, "The periphery is full of great dangers, and invites many bandits, and outlaws to its frontiers. Among those were men who deserted and fled from their duty to the Dragon."
He raised an eyebrow, "The Azami fleet that appeared over Luxen in 3015, I had heard about. They have slipped away from you," he replied not maliciously but it wasn't something he had missed either, "As I understand it there are a number of Azami who have fled rimward, but they have not joined with black jack... and nor would I expect them to given he has taken to painting his machines in the colors and markings of the Rim World Republic Army," And that, god in his heaven, that was one of the pieces from Brinton that had given them pause even though they had been on the watch for it. The Brinton crisis had potentially rekindled so much bad blood.
The ISF agent, or that was his working assumption spread her hands, "It is so, but even so they are deserters and pirates who have fled justice and the combine has placed bounties on all of them, and to those who shelter them. This is the decree of the Coordinator of All Worlds." It was at this that the Taurians ruffled slightly in protest, but nothing so gauche as to overturn tables or call out, but they were clearly in objection of the ruler of the Draconis Combine's traditional title and its implied claim over all human space.
BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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Given how the young lady in charge of the Combine delegation is acting, is she O5P, ISF, or a junior Kurita cousin?
Imperator Pax
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She's O5P, Heron is just assuming at the moment she's ISF but Florimel sent her.
4.4
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Imperator Pax
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4.4
The room sat there for a moment after the remark regarding the deserters. He wasn't sure that the man had a response prepared for that but it was clear the phrasing had rankled the Taurian envoy. The Combine, not being hereabout Brinton, made sense. They might have cared about the existence of the chemical and biological weapon stockpiles on the planet and indeed about any caches of star league era if not provenance weapons but the Combine itself dismissing the crisis out of hand probably had not occurred to them.
Admittedly it hadn't properly occured to Heron for the simple fact that the Brinton Crisis had been so forward in all thoughts , and news. He knew about the Azami movement through the periphery and the arrival of the combine presence shortly thereafter but he had also awakened only recently thereabouts and he had been forced to engage Black Jack's pirates. By the time he had been in a position to do anything the Azami had disappeared far into the rimward expanse of the periphery... and he had had to order his officers that no, that was not a viable use of their still limited resources.
They simply had not be the time or the resources to chase after them.
If the combine cared so much as to make issue of it here as their first and foremost issue... well that said something and that whatever that something was it was more than just pride. Perhaps they misconstrued that he'd be disinclined to shelter the Azami because of either their former DCMS service, or because ofthe piracy. The latter was more of the immediate issue, but an amnesty proposal really in the present situation was not out of the realm of possibility. The truth was there was a massive difference between the first and second battles of Luxen which had been about a year apart. If given the opportunity the Canopians might well have accepted their need for manpower and have the Azami change sides if it gave them protection for one of their former provincial capitals against a repeat of the rampage that the second battle of Luxen had turned into.
That was the degree of desperation he understood the various planets and polities across the rimward periphery to be in.
The room slowly found its footing. "Black Jack is something of a common foe," Heron remarked as felt out the positions of the room, "Your deserters seemed to have disappeared from the periphery," Or at least the public eye, "I will make no commitments there, but I will exercise caution in dealing with them." To do otherwise would have been stupid. "If they should reappear, if they are your only item perhaps we should table it in favor of moving to discuss Brinton."
"You invaded Taurian Space."
"I did." He replied to the envoy, "A necessity given the situation, the Rim World biological weapons program would have been catastrophic if released by accident, never mind a willful use of it. Brinton at a minimum would have been rendered uninhabitable... so yes I ordered my Scotts Dragoons to violate Taurian sovereignty, for which with the downfall of the Star League I had no legal right to do." Which was true, the council of state was gone, there was no legal. The Taurians were independent and not a territorial state, "But it is not to be misconstrued as policy to infringe upon Taurian independence, "Even though that was exactly what he had done, and that in the faceof such things he would probably have done again, and that would make him a liar. "The representative of ComStar has suggested that we can make remunerations in c-bills for damaged caused by my troopers to civilian property."
What the ComStar representative probably hadn't realized was that the C-Bill was something Arsacid could easily acquire. He had no need to consider loans from the religious order's banking establishments he could simply hand over the payment, and hope that fixed the problem. If reparations for civilian damages fixed the problem, well that would be have been great, but he had only outlined willingness to accept damage his scotts had done, and even that would be inevitable to turn into an argument over culpability for the fighting between Capellan, Pirate, Taurian Defenders and his forces.
"Money?"
"Financial compensation, yes." He replied. It was obvious, it had been obvious that the more revanchist Taurians wouldn't like that resolution, "I would like a good neighbor policy, but we're not going to trust each other, and yes Brinton is as good of a reason as any, so I can hardly propose we work together against Black Jack, but I am willing to extend reparations of if not monetary payments then the equivalent value in raw materials if the Concordat government would prefer that, but a cash payment is the most expedited solution." For which he didneed ComSTar's banking apparatus even if he didn't need to borrow the money from them. "Let me be clear my understanding is that Black Jack before uncovering the Hidden Army Depot had put together on the order of three hundred SLDF battlemechs, including over a hundred Hegemony machines with royal technology." What he wasn't telling the Taurians were those estimates from the intelligence staff officers were tentative, and we quite a ways in assuming that Black Jack had been able to keep his forces in fighting shape... but he was aiming to drive home the threat the pirate posed. Therefore he didn't mind risking overstating the pirate's personal forces... and of course it was true Black Jack was bolstering his forces, and seemed to be operating far and wide from either side of the Taurian border... which had probably encouraged the Capellans to accuse publicly the Concordat government of supporting McGirk.
He wasn't prepared to make a similar accusation because he really didn't have any proof, and avoid deliberately antagonizing the Taurian delegation, but the offer of money really was the easiest possible solution. The holographic display shifting, saved him from the necessity of so gauche a comment that any resources the Taurians might try and spend on a border dispute with the Aurigans would leave them vulnerable to theCapellans, and in theory House Davion. Realistically it was also quite possible that any Capellan belligerence might well be aimed atthe coalition. That was the complicating aspect of the situation was that this was a multi-polar environment where either side opened themselves to raids by a third party in the form of the capellans.
The pirates complicated things further still. He could make no suggestions over trade without the pirates nolnger, or were greatly reduced in their ability to menace trade.
The Star League was gone. He could [police his own borders, but he couldn't spare the forces especially now to go over to his neighbors worlds. Certainly not without some status of forces entailed, and that wasn't going to happen with the Taurians. The Canopian border was too far away to do more than provide an effort that advisory, and even best limited to a planet like Luxen... which was a world that ComStar 's presence there had already been hit hard.
ComStar's meagre presence at periphery stations of vehicles and infantry was not enough. The espoused neutrality would not cover it, and instead the robed monks who reported back to a leadership far off on Terra and a council made up of nominal representatives for each successor state's HPGs insisted on host nation protection. At Brinton, in the face of that not being readily provided that had turned to demands for protection from any military force. That detail likely contributed to the acrimonious feelings between ComStar and the Taurian government both local and national. ComStar did not want a fight in the periphery, if only out of self interest that a fight which stripped resources from major worlds for offensives would leave its stations woefully undefended.
So thus, ComStar wanted a truce, if nota more formal détente... or at least to avoid the Taurians moving to a formal declaration of war.
For that, the current Protector was unlikely to do, at least so long as there was no expected continuation of hostilities. Protector Zarantha Calderon did not want open hostilities, especially not if she had to still worry about an aggressive successor state on her borders... and at the moment the Cappellan Confederation had declined to join any talks.
The room sat there for a moment after the remark regarding the deserters. He wasn't sure that the man had a response prepared for that but it was clear the phrasing had rankled the Taurian envoy. The Combine, not being hereabout Brinton, made sense. They might have cared about the existence of the chemical and biological weapon stockpiles on the planet and indeed about any caches of star league era if not provenance weapons but the Combine itself dismissing the crisis out of hand probably had not occurred to them.
Admittedly it hadn't properly occured to Heron for the simple fact that the Brinton Crisis had been so forward in all thoughts , and news. He knew about the Azami movement through the periphery and the arrival of the combine presence shortly thereafter but he had also awakened only recently thereabouts and he had been forced to engage Black Jack's pirates. By the time he had been in a position to do anything the Azami had disappeared far into the rimward expanse of the periphery... and he had had to order his officers that no, that was not a viable use of their still limited resources.
They simply had not be the time or the resources to chase after them.
If the combine cared so much as to make issue of it here as their first and foremost issue... well that said something and that whatever that something was it was more than just pride. Perhaps they misconstrued that he'd be disinclined to shelter the Azami because of either their former DCMS service, or because ofthe piracy. The latter was more of the immediate issue, but an amnesty proposal really in the present situation was not out of the realm of possibility. The truth was there was a massive difference between the first and second battles of Luxen which had been about a year apart. If given the opportunity the Canopians might well have accepted their need for manpower and have the Azami change sides if it gave them protection for one of their former provincial capitals against a repeat of the rampage that the second battle of Luxen had turned into.
That was the degree of desperation he understood the various planets and polities across the rimward periphery to be in.
The room slowly found its footing. "Black Jack is something of a common foe," Heron remarked as felt out the positions of the room, "Your deserters seemed to have disappeared from the periphery," Or at least the public eye, "I will make no commitments there, but I will exercise caution in dealing with them." To do otherwise would have been stupid. "If they should reappear, if they are your only item perhaps we should table it in favor of moving to discuss Brinton."
"You invaded Taurian Space."
"I did." He replied to the envoy, "A necessity given the situation, the Rim World biological weapons program would have been catastrophic if released by accident, never mind a willful use of it. Brinton at a minimum would have been rendered uninhabitable... so yes I ordered my Scotts Dragoons to violate Taurian sovereignty, for which with the downfall of the Star League I had no legal right to do." Which was true, the council of state was gone, there was no legal. The Taurians were independent and not a territorial state, "But it is not to be misconstrued as policy to infringe upon Taurian independence, "Even though that was exactly what he had done, and that in the faceof such things he would probably have done again, and that would make him a liar. "The representative of ComStar has suggested that we can make remunerations in c-bills for damaged caused by my troopers to civilian property."
What the ComStar representative probably hadn't realized was that the C-Bill was something Arsacid could easily acquire. He had no need to consider loans from the religious order's banking establishments he could simply hand over the payment, and hope that fixed the problem. If reparations for civilian damages fixed the problem, well that would be have been great, but he had only outlined willingness to accept damage his scotts had done, and even that would be inevitable to turn into an argument over culpability for the fighting between Capellan, Pirate, Taurian Defenders and his forces.
"Money?"
"Financial compensation, yes." He replied. It was obvious, it had been obvious that the more revanchist Taurians wouldn't like that resolution, "I would like a good neighbor policy, but we're not going to trust each other, and yes Brinton is as good of a reason as any, so I can hardly propose we work together against Black Jack, but I am willing to extend reparations of if not monetary payments then the equivalent value in raw materials if the Concordat government would prefer that, but a cash payment is the most expedited solution." For which he didneed ComSTar's banking apparatus even if he didn't need to borrow the money from them. "Let me be clear my understanding is that Black Jack before uncovering the Hidden Army Depot had put together on the order of three hundred SLDF battlemechs, including over a hundred Hegemony machines with royal technology." What he wasn't telling the Taurians were those estimates from the intelligence staff officers were tentative, and we quite a ways in assuming that Black Jack had been able to keep his forces in fighting shape... but he was aiming to drive home the threat the pirate posed. Therefore he didn't mind risking overstating the pirate's personal forces... and of course it was true Black Jack was bolstering his forces, and seemed to be operating far and wide from either side of the Taurian border... which had probably encouraged the Capellans to accuse publicly the Concordat government of supporting McGirk.
He wasn't prepared to make a similar accusation because he really didn't have any proof, and avoid deliberately antagonizing the Taurian delegation, but the offer of money really was the easiest possible solution. The holographic display shifting, saved him from the necessity of so gauche a comment that any resources the Taurians might try and spend on a border dispute with the Aurigans would leave them vulnerable to theCapellans, and in theory House Davion. Realistically it was also quite possible that any Capellan belligerence might well be aimed atthe coalition. That was the complicating aspect of the situation was that this was a multi-polar environment where either side opened themselves to raids by a third party in the form of the capellans.
The pirates complicated things further still. He could make no suggestions over trade without the pirates nolnger, or were greatly reduced in their ability to menace trade.
The Star League was gone. He could [police his own borders, but he couldn't spare the forces especially now to go over to his neighbors worlds. Certainly not without some status of forces entailed, and that wasn't going to happen with the Taurians. The Canopian border was too far away to do more than provide an effort that advisory, and even best limited to a planet like Luxen... which was a world that ComStar 's presence there had already been hit hard.
ComStar's meagre presence at periphery stations of vehicles and infantry was not enough. The espoused neutrality would not cover it, and instead the robed monks who reported back to a leadership far off on Terra and a council made up of nominal representatives for each successor state's HPGs insisted on host nation protection. At Brinton, in the face of that not being readily provided that had turned to demands for protection from any military force. That detail likely contributed to the acrimonious feelings between ComStar and the Taurian government both local and national. ComStar did not want a fight in the periphery, if only out of self interest that a fight which stripped resources from major worlds for offensives would leave its stations woefully undefended.
So thus, ComStar wanted a truce, if nota more formal détente... or at least to avoid the Taurians moving to a formal declaration of war.
For that, the current Protector was unlikely to do, at least so long as there was no expected continuation of hostilities. Protector Zarantha Calderon did not want open hostilities, especially not if she had to still worry about an aggressive successor state on her borders... and at the moment the Cappellan Confederation had declined to join any talks.
Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
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thoughts, and*
Independence," Even*
C-Bills*
did need*
ComStar's*
the Capellans*
at the*
Capellans*
police*
neighbor's*
ComStar's*
not a*
BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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Hmm, I imagine a fair chunck of the reason everyone in that room is being reasonable is that Heron scares the hell out of them.
Imperator Pax
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Yes, Heron in terms of comparing to the other protagonists should be in the public perception the scariest. The Taurians, the Magistracy, the Combine all recognize him as an officer of the Hegemony. Gene doesn't have that public recognition that hasn't been publicly disclosed. Heron has a history in the public record of all three states, and now he's back after 2.5 centuries. Zarantha Calderon's government does not want an open war, the Magistracy wants peace and trade, the Combine has a grudge but also is concerned with Face, there are rules to a combine vendetta between noble houses
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Imperator Pax
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4.5
The room was dominated by the holographic display, and for the sea for the stars and jumpship lanes it might well have been missed the star date upon the legend. It read 2765, under the auspices of the defunct Star League, and while it had been updated to reflect modern political boundaries it held no shortage of worlds in the Periphery that had largely disappeared from maps for disuse or depopulation.
It painted a picture that Black Jack had no shortage of worlds to hide. For that Ana Maria Centrella hadn't needed it, it was a lesson that she didn't need. She had known it all too well. Arsacid showed the map freely as he outlined that while in theory they could discuss a common front, there was no trust between them after the events on Brinton, if there had even been some before. "I will be blunt in saying this, the League died with the murder of House Cameron, and the disaster that befell the Hegemony." The Terran remarked resigned, and perhaps cynical, that his long gone and now distant empire to which he had dedicated so much of his life had overstretched itself, and placed its trust poorly. "Any cooperation must reflect the facts on the ground, even if that cooperation is just the recognition of our real borders, which is what I ask. If we can engage in equitable trade, and enterprise then so be it, but the basics must be recognized."
Arsacid was a tall man. He had never known privation common across the periphery or the inner sphere worlds were the war had devastated the local environments. It would have been all too easy to contemplate the words as honey, and the speaker soft... but history showed that the Hegemony while it had made mistakes and whose hubris had brought about its own destruction had not been soft. The Combine had bestowed a ridiculous absurd epithet in their flowery language in the hidden war over the Davion Succession, and then when the SLDF had gone out to the periphery it had been Hegemony troops and troops recruited from the Combine which had fought alongside one another.
The DCMS soldiers had loved Terran officers as heroes. Not because they were suddenly disloyal to the combine, but because Samurai ethos, and the books that the combine produced emphasized personal loyalty. The SLDF had been recruited from across the Inner Sphere, and also the periphery 'territorial states' of the era. Arsacid had seen the end of that era, watched it disappear. For that Ana Maria Centrella had no doubt that made 'the demon king of the sixth heaven' impossibly dangerous, the straios warnings, and historical footage were reiterations much as the legend on the map was.
It was similar in thoughts to the Combine. For Tomoe Lady Florimel's warning was especially poignant, Arsacid had lived a warrior's life. He was as much of a ronin as any who could be, for he had outlived House Cameron. To deny him Samurai status was unconscionable as he was a living remnant of what had once been. What was potentially calamitous was that Arsacid held command of a fragment of House Cameron's loyal soldiers now long displaced from the Hegemony. Florimel's caution was that while the coordinator's respect was to be conveyed, it might be preferable if the demon king were left to tend to matters in the periphery far far from the Combine's splendor.
For ComStar, the considerations were however all together different. Arsacid's martial prowess was not the farthest thing from their minds, but that he came from an era where the original Stefan Amaris had lived, and what they could not readily broach was Black Jack's partnership, through Kristofur Kelly, the alias of a disgraced precentor ROM, of a man who was heir to Amaris legacy... which would be more than simply embarrassing to Blake's blessed order if it came to light.
It was the Taurians most concerned with the violation of Brinton, and Taurian territorial sovereignty who were most focused on the present... and far less concerned about the walking ghosts of the hegemony. That was not however to say that didn't concern them, but Zarantha Calderon's government was modern, moderate, and interested in peace and trade and investment, not in making war on its neighbors.
For the Taurians, Ana Maria recognized her presence, ComStar's presence, and perhaps especially that of the Inner Sphere state sitting at the table were still an unwelcome intrusion on bilateral discussions over the border dispute. Given the 'after the facts' statements that had come out of Brinton the Combine might well have attempted to participate if they had believed their ronin could have somehow secured 'star league era weapons'... but the Combine hadn't had the luck to hear about Brinton before the fighting was already done. There was nothing they could have gained by trying to mount a lostech claim jump even if the lostech hadn't been potentially unstable wmds. Especially as unlike the Taurians, Pirates, and Capellans Arsacid's highlanders had arrived to destroy the weapons, and the bunkers they were in with massed incendiary and scuttling charges meant to extinguish any possibility of the biological or chemical weapons surviving the effort.
That Star League era was technically true, but that they had been Rim World bio weapons on a Taurian world, in a conflict where pirates were now seemingly as a matter of routine wearing Rim World colors was not a good look for the Taurian government. The press in the conversation came in the rolling together of the idea of reparations, in conjunction with the Taurains, and nominally the Aurigans, recognition of the border positions as they existed by ComStar. ComStar who at the same time also hoped to as apart of the treaty wrangle concessions from not just the two recent belligerents, but those present at the table. Concessions on security of HPG stations Ana Maria didn't necessarily have the power to make even with plenipotentiary powers.
Arsacid paused at the priest, his eyes calculating, as his fingers moved around the papers, "Your existing Level IIs, such that I understand are a gendarmes for all intents and purposes." Which obviously could no longer suffice, "A combination largely of infantry and armor," He added, "I can't speak for the broader Coalition, but as I understand it your Level II is something of an understrength company equivalent. I will allocate for a company's worth of BattleMech air lances," An air lance being 4 'Mechs, and 2 ASF, which was by itself a hideous expense, "along with attaching their headquarters force to the existing planetary presence on Margravate worlds with existing HPG stations." The holographic trick was part of the demonstration... Ana Maria expected this was Arsacid's normal working space the larger trick was in what it implied, and what matching the offer would require.
The Margravate hosted class B HPG stations on Aea, Regis Roost, and Artru. That was in theory half the margravate but still only three companies in addition to the existing planetary forces. For the Concordat allocating a 'mech company to every world with a class b station was logistically impossible if the Concordat hoped to have any offensive striking capacity left over. The same was true for the Magistracy, her home country lacked the ability to spare such forces just to reinforce the vulnerable HPG stations across the two larger periphery states.
The Combine representative kept a placid expression but given the looks the robe was sending her didn't like the proposal either. That didn't stop the representative of ComStarfrom pressing, and had there been a representative able to speak for the entire coalition, not necessarily Lord Tamati but certainly Ana Maria suspected they would have tried to finagle an agreement. The Robe's efforts quickly overshadowed the entire conversation of reparations as Arsacid sat back to let the ComSTar representative argue for an unrealistic commitment of forces from the states as if silently sharing in a joke with some unknown other party in the room.
The room was dominated by the holographic display, and for the sea for the stars and jumpship lanes it might well have been missed the star date upon the legend. It read 2765, under the auspices of the defunct Star League, and while it had been updated to reflect modern political boundaries it held no shortage of worlds in the Periphery that had largely disappeared from maps for disuse or depopulation.
It painted a picture that Black Jack had no shortage of worlds to hide. For that Ana Maria Centrella hadn't needed it, it was a lesson that she didn't need. She had known it all too well. Arsacid showed the map freely as he outlined that while in theory they could discuss a common front, there was no trust between them after the events on Brinton, if there had even been some before. "I will be blunt in saying this, the League died with the murder of House Cameron, and the disaster that befell the Hegemony." The Terran remarked resigned, and perhaps cynical, that his long gone and now distant empire to which he had dedicated so much of his life had overstretched itself, and placed its trust poorly. "Any cooperation must reflect the facts on the ground, even if that cooperation is just the recognition of our real borders, which is what I ask. If we can engage in equitable trade, and enterprise then so be it, but the basics must be recognized."
Arsacid was a tall man. He had never known privation common across the periphery or the inner sphere worlds were the war had devastated the local environments. It would have been all too easy to contemplate the words as honey, and the speaker soft... but history showed that the Hegemony while it had made mistakes and whose hubris had brought about its own destruction had not been soft. The Combine had bestowed a ridiculous absurd epithet in their flowery language in the hidden war over the Davion Succession, and then when the SLDF had gone out to the periphery it had been Hegemony troops and troops recruited from the Combine which had fought alongside one another.
The DCMS soldiers had loved Terran officers as heroes. Not because they were suddenly disloyal to the combine, but because Samurai ethos, and the books that the combine produced emphasized personal loyalty. The SLDF had been recruited from across the Inner Sphere, and also the periphery 'territorial states' of the era. Arsacid had seen the end of that era, watched it disappear. For that Ana Maria Centrella had no doubt that made 'the demon king of the sixth heaven' impossibly dangerous, the straios warnings, and historical footage were reiterations much as the legend on the map was.
It was similar in thoughts to the Combine. For Tomoe Lady Florimel's warning was especially poignant, Arsacid had lived a warrior's life. He was as much of a ronin as any who could be, for he had outlived House Cameron. To deny him Samurai status was unconscionable as he was a living remnant of what had once been. What was potentially calamitous was that Arsacid held command of a fragment of House Cameron's loyal soldiers now long displaced from the Hegemony. Florimel's caution was that while the coordinator's respect was to be conveyed, it might be preferable if the demon king were left to tend to matters in the periphery far far from the Combine's splendor.
For ComStar, the considerations were however all together different. Arsacid's martial prowess was not the farthest thing from their minds, but that he came from an era where the original Stefan Amaris had lived, and what they could not readily broach was Black Jack's partnership, through Kristofur Kelly, the alias of a disgraced precentor ROM, of a man who was heir to Amaris legacy... which would be more than simply embarrassing to Blake's blessed order if it came to light.
It was the Taurians most concerned with the violation of Brinton, and Taurian territorial sovereignty who were most focused on the present... and far less concerned about the walking ghosts of the hegemony. That was not however to say that didn't concern them, but Zarantha Calderon's government was modern, moderate, and interested in peace and trade and investment, not in making war on its neighbors.
For the Taurians, Ana Maria recognized her presence, ComStar's presence, and perhaps especially that of the Inner Sphere state sitting at the table were still an unwelcome intrusion on bilateral discussions over the border dispute. Given the 'after the facts' statements that had come out of Brinton the Combine might well have attempted to participate if they had believed their ronin could have somehow secured 'star league era weapons'... but the Combine hadn't had the luck to hear about Brinton before the fighting was already done. There was nothing they could have gained by trying to mount a lostech claim jump even if the lostech hadn't been potentially unstable wmds. Especially as unlike the Taurians, Pirates, and Capellans Arsacid's highlanders had arrived to destroy the weapons, and the bunkers they were in with massed incendiary and scuttling charges meant to extinguish any possibility of the biological or chemical weapons surviving the effort.
That Star League era was technically true, but that they had been Rim World bio weapons on a Taurian world, in a conflict where pirates were now seemingly as a matter of routine wearing Rim World colors was not a good look for the Taurian government. The press in the conversation came in the rolling together of the idea of reparations, in conjunction with the Taurains, and nominally the Aurigans, recognition of the border positions as they existed by ComStar. ComStar who at the same time also hoped to as apart of the treaty wrangle concessions from not just the two recent belligerents, but those present at the table. Concessions on security of HPG stations Ana Maria didn't necessarily have the power to make even with plenipotentiary powers.
Arsacid paused at the priest, his eyes calculating, as his fingers moved around the papers, "Your existing Level IIs, such that I understand are a gendarmes for all intents and purposes." Which obviously could no longer suffice, "A combination largely of infantry and armor," He added, "I can't speak for the broader Coalition, but as I understand it your Level II is something of an understrength company equivalent. I will allocate for a company's worth of BattleMech air lances," An air lance being 4 'Mechs, and 2 ASF, which was by itself a hideous expense, "along with attaching their headquarters force to the existing planetary presence on Margravate worlds with existing HPG stations." The holographic trick was part of the demonstration... Ana Maria expected this was Arsacid's normal working space the larger trick was in what it implied, and what matching the offer would require.
The Margravate hosted class B HPG stations on Aea, Regis Roost, and Artru. That was in theory half the margravate but still only three companies in addition to the existing planetary forces. For the Concordat allocating a 'mech company to every world with a class b station was logistically impossible if the Concordat hoped to have any offensive striking capacity left over. The same was true for the Magistracy, her home country lacked the ability to spare such forces just to reinforce the vulnerable HPG stations across the two larger periphery states.
The Combine representative kept a placid expression but given the looks the robe was sending her didn't like the proposal either. That didn't stop the representative of ComStarfrom pressing, and had there been a representative able to speak for the entire coalition, not necessarily Lord Tamati but certainly Ana Maria suspected they would have tried to finagle an agreement. The Robe's efforts quickly overshadowed the entire conversation of reparations as Arsacid sat back to let the ComSTar representative argue for an unrealistic commitment of forces from the states as if silently sharing in a joke with some unknown other party in the room.
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Bofors40mm
Experienced.
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Here we see comstar cursing the day they decided to let the orginal comguards disappear into the background/in general as the ex sldf soliders manning them retired. They sure could use a dozen mech regiments right about now
BlueRanger O-Doom
Not too sore, are you?
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And Arascid just calmly and coolly flexes in everyone on the room.
NPC
Getting sticky.
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What is this?
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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Magistracy of Canopus thing, imagine mad scientist genius + adviser.
We will get more into them later on, but here https://forum.questionablequesting....deas-and-discussions-thread.4740/post-7618913
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4.6
New
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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4.6
They had agreed to briefly adjourn for lunch. Adjourned was something of a strong word, really since it had entailed stopping ostensibly for food but really and excuse to keep the precentor from badgering for demands of protection. What the precentor had made clear he wouldn't have accepted was a matching in volume, all the HPG stations had needed to protected in the respective polity. That had eventually, as he had expected it to, to turn into a push for him to speak for the entirety of the Aurigan Reach.
What of course the precentor didn't realize was that Arsacid had run the numbers already. What he needed was political sanction to move the resources he gathered from Artu and build small bases across the Reach in order to justify those companies. Shawkat probably wouldn't appreciate the commitment or the need to pressure it, but he was already envisioning pulling infantry and armor from a coalition federal commitment to the worlds with HPG stations not under his charge.
He'd need to speak to both his chief minister, and Lord Espinosa, but Coromodir coupled with Katinka could manufacture Thunderbolts and Archers and there were the Dragons and Griffins which would make an impressive presence to rally around as their numbers expanded in the next few years, but what they would really need was to expand the federal militias of tanks and infantry as a deterrent... not so much against the pirates but against meddling by the other 'successor states' as was the term of the day.
Artru's materiel stockpile fed into his essence and then recycled meant he had a select reserve. There was however the use of the term 'Aurigan Reach' which was potentially a legal pitfall. There were independent worlds apart of the Reach who were not members of the Coalition. It was legal fencing, they were going to have establish terms, and definitions... but he planned to send off a message to Coromdir and inform Shawkat sooner rather than later. It was the least he could do given the potential headache this was for his prime minister.
The break had also given him time to pull previous recommendations from his staff. The Naval Officer who wanted schools built was an option, sending a company of 'mechs along with them was something he could afford... but not to Canopus. He had other officers who had questions, Delaney hadn't brought it up sense, but the officer still had questions... and the Combine bringing up the fleet that had slipped away from Luxen was going to cause his staff to raise those questions even if Delaney didn't suggest mounting a search party.
Arsacid wished that the Hegemony had made better success in the aeroscout automated ftl drones for exploration... but no, there were things in hyperspace that drove machines mad if they lacked a human crew, and even then it was safest for the AI to be asleep and secured in their berths than to make the Jump.
"The parties are ready to resume." He nodded to the ensign, and passed his instructions along. He wasn't going to make suggestion either to the staff now, they were perfectly capable of reading and reviewing, or executively making the proposal to Ana Maria Centrella in her capacity as Canopian Ambassador either now or in the span of the next few days. The entire point of having a staff was to check your work, and draw up proposals based on ideas like this... it was also to tell him if something was out of line. The same reason for not allowing Delaney the resources to go haying off into the dark,
An advisory mission to babysit some doctors and scientists and educators well well, roll that all into one maybe they could manage to see if any strange Azami merchants showed up..... but he doubted that much, the first few items might do some good, serve some higher cause of state. "Very good, make sure that is passed along," Shawkat's absence was always a headache. It was easy to rely on much older Terrans to do things when they had generation of experience by normal standards... that was likely to be especially true given the health care, and life spans expected of the modern age they found themselves in. Heron stood and made his way back through the door, leaving the ferro aluminum bubble overlooking the tea plantation behind.
The noise was already starting to build in the room. "Something on?"
"The Precentor," A voice whispered through his neural link, "Might have accidentally let slip details of attacks that have yet to be made public. Information transmitted through the SLCOMNET, most likely in real time transmissions." An apparently near unconscionable expense for when people wanted to use the service... apparently that cost didn't apply when the priests needed. "It may indicate they have a more effective use of the network than previously surmised."
He made a sub vocal affirmation, unnecessary since the mind machine interface of his circlet made it very easy to communicate acknowledgement to the Katinka AI, and turned towards his chair, and pulled it out. He had only caught part of the conversation for the din, but the young lady from the combine had seemed openly contemptuous the flash of dismissive malice most appropriate to the schoolyard hanging there as she harangued the robed precentor, he contempt barely veiled for both the priest, and for the 'the Capellan's misfortune'.
The details of that misfortune did help explain the agitation for commitments to defense of ComStar's stations, that had also included the Combine's commitment to defending the stations. Realistically Black Jack was unlikely to wheel around and start attacking ComStar in the Draconis Combine but if the Combine were to commit to security contingent then the Capellans might be pressured into agreeing to such.
Truthfully Arsacid didn't care about that. His intention to speak to Shawkat on what they could do to bolster the security presence on Coalition worlds, the potential legal ramifications of terms like 'Aurigan Reach', all of that could be discussed in committee. If Black Jack were hitting the Capellans then that had other implications, more immediate security implications for the state rather than ComStar's concerns over the HPG network... but the implication that ComStar was perhaps making the network seem less available than it was, even if they had perfectly valid reasons was a data point that couldn't be overlooked... especially given McGirk seemed intent on breaking up the HPG network for his own reasons.
He had no reason therefore to stop the argument. Letting the Combine representative argue with the precentor suited him just fine. It was the best option to let them air their grievances in public, let them argue among themselves while he watched, and got a feel for them. According to her credentials Lady Ana Maria Centrella had been born on Canopus in 2984, her Taurian counterpart had been born to a well established Taurian family coreward in the late fifties.
The two of them were content to let House Kurita protest on their behalf, even if that wasn't the Combine's intention. They had no intention of either provoking the combine to turn attention, nor to let the precentor harangue them for their government's limited resources.
It did however give him yet further reason not to bring up at this juncture any talk of schools and teachers in Canopian space. It had occurred to him, given the importance of House Karosas's efforts that he risked a quite parochial fight if he rushed forward with schools staffed by DOME men stood down in the reach... and also that he was probably going to need those men available for other duties on worlds like Fjaldr or Weldry both which needed maintenance of terraforming equipment to make them not quite so bitterly cold and unpleasant. The problem with that was precisely the thing to which the young lady and the precentor were arguing about... doubly so if Black Jack were jumping the border.
--
Notes: Formatting correction pending.
They had agreed to briefly adjourn for lunch. Adjourned was something of a strong word, really since it had entailed stopping ostensibly for food but really and excuse to keep the precentor from badgering for demands of protection. What the precentor had made clear he wouldn't have accepted was a matching in volume, all the HPG stations had needed to protected in the respective polity. That had eventually, as he had expected it to, to turn into a push for him to speak for the entirety of the Aurigan Reach.
What of course the precentor didn't realize was that Arsacid had run the numbers already. What he needed was political sanction to move the resources he gathered from Artu and build small bases across the Reach in order to justify those companies. Shawkat probably wouldn't appreciate the commitment or the need to pressure it, but he was already envisioning pulling infantry and armor from a coalition federal commitment to the worlds with HPG stations not under his charge.
He'd need to speak to both his chief minister, and Lord Espinosa, but Coromodir coupled with Katinka could manufacture Thunderbolts and Archers and there were the Dragons and Griffins which would make an impressive presence to rally around as their numbers expanded in the next few years, but what they would really need was to expand the federal militias of tanks and infantry as a deterrent... not so much against the pirates but against meddling by the other 'successor states' as was the term of the day.
Artru's materiel stockpile fed into his essence and then recycled meant he had a select reserve. There was however the use of the term 'Aurigan Reach' which was potentially a legal pitfall. There were independent worlds apart of the Reach who were not members of the Coalition. It was legal fencing, they were going to have establish terms, and definitions... but he planned to send off a message to Coromdir and inform Shawkat sooner rather than later. It was the least he could do given the potential headache this was for his prime minister.
The break had also given him time to pull previous recommendations from his staff. The Naval Officer who wanted schools built was an option, sending a company of 'mechs along with them was something he could afford... but not to Canopus. He had other officers who had questions, Delaney hadn't brought it up sense, but the officer still had questions... and the Combine bringing up the fleet that had slipped away from Luxen was going to cause his staff to raise those questions even if Delaney didn't suggest mounting a search party.
Arsacid wished that the Hegemony had made better success in the aeroscout automated ftl drones for exploration... but no, there were things in hyperspace that drove machines mad if they lacked a human crew, and even then it was safest for the AI to be asleep and secured in their berths than to make the Jump.
"The parties are ready to resume." He nodded to the ensign, and passed his instructions along. He wasn't going to make suggestion either to the staff now, they were perfectly capable of reading and reviewing, or executively making the proposal to Ana Maria Centrella in her capacity as Canopian Ambassador either now or in the span of the next few days. The entire point of having a staff was to check your work, and draw up proposals based on ideas like this... it was also to tell him if something was out of line. The same reason for not allowing Delaney the resources to go haying off into the dark,
An advisory mission to babysit some doctors and scientists and educators well well, roll that all into one maybe they could manage to see if any strange Azami merchants showed up..... but he doubted that much, the first few items might do some good, serve some higher cause of state. "Very good, make sure that is passed along," Shawkat's absence was always a headache. It was easy to rely on much older Terrans to do things when they had generation of experience by normal standards... that was likely to be especially true given the health care, and life spans expected of the modern age they found themselves in. Heron stood and made his way back through the door, leaving the ferro aluminum bubble overlooking the tea plantation behind.
The noise was already starting to build in the room. "Something on?"
"The Precentor," A voice whispered through his neural link, "Might have accidentally let slip details of attacks that have yet to be made public. Information transmitted through the SLCOMNET, most likely in real time transmissions." An apparently near unconscionable expense for when people wanted to use the service... apparently that cost didn't apply when the priests needed. "It may indicate they have a more effective use of the network than previously surmised."
He made a sub vocal affirmation, unnecessary since the mind machine interface of his circlet made it very easy to communicate acknowledgement to the Katinka AI, and turned towards his chair, and pulled it out. He had only caught part of the conversation for the din, but the young lady from the combine had seemed openly contemptuous the flash of dismissive malice most appropriate to the schoolyard hanging there as she harangued the robed precentor, he contempt barely veiled for both the priest, and for the 'the Capellan's misfortune'.
The details of that misfortune did help explain the agitation for commitments to defense of ComStar's stations, that had also included the Combine's commitment to defending the stations. Realistically Black Jack was unlikely to wheel around and start attacking ComStar in the Draconis Combine but if the Combine were to commit to security contingent then the Capellans might be pressured into agreeing to such.
Truthfully Arsacid didn't care about that. His intention to speak to Shawkat on what they could do to bolster the security presence on Coalition worlds, the potential legal ramifications of terms like 'Aurigan Reach', all of that could be discussed in committee. If Black Jack were hitting the Capellans then that had other implications, more immediate security implications for the state rather than ComStar's concerns over the HPG network... but the implication that ComStar was perhaps making the network seem less available than it was, even if they had perfectly valid reasons was a data point that couldn't be overlooked... especially given McGirk seemed intent on breaking up the HPG network for his own reasons.
He had no reason therefore to stop the argument. Letting the Combine representative argue with the precentor suited him just fine. It was the best option to let them air their grievances in public, let them argue among themselves while he watched, and got a feel for them. According to her credentials Lady Ana Maria Centrella had been born on Canopus in 2984, her Taurian counterpart had been born to a well established Taurian family coreward in the late fifties.
The two of them were content to let House Kurita protest on their behalf, even if that wasn't the Combine's intention. They had no intention of either provoking the combine to turn attention, nor to let the precentor harangue them for their government's limited resources.
It did however give him yet further reason not to bring up at this juncture any talk of schools and teachers in Canopian space. It had occurred to him, given the importance of House Karosas's efforts that he risked a quite parochial fight if he rushed forward with schools staffed by DOME men stood down in the reach... and also that he was probably going to need those men available for other duties on worlds like Fjaldr or Weldry both which needed maintenance of terraforming equipment to make them not quite so bitterly cold and unpleasant. The problem with that was precisely the thing to which the young lady and the precentor were arguing about... doubly so if Black Jack were jumping the border.
--
Notes: Formatting correction pending.
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Eternal Lord
Getting out there.
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Jao
(Verified Lemon Drop Addict)
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independent*
acknowledgement*
prescence*
ramifications*
Red = Missing Space.
Orange = Spelling Mistake.
Yellow = Capitalization Mistake.
Also the threadmark is missing.
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Chaotic-logic
possible impossibility
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@Imperator Pax
you are missing the threadmark
you are missing the threadmark
Imperator Pax
Talon Master
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I don't know why it didn't threadmark earlier, thats up and first round of corrections of the xf2 formatting fixes are up.