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An SI in the Concordat - GhostRider's Revenants (Battletech CYOA)Rev.2

On December 4, 3035 Kamea Arano gave birth to two twins, Paul and Peter Arano-Bassot. A special holiday was decreed in all the Reach.





The delicate, and very secret (no one trusting ComStar for its good services on these matters) negotiations between the Taurian Concordat and the Aurigan Reach, concerning the merger of both nations finally reached an agreement on March 12, 3036.
At first Kamea had little interest in negotiating anything but the fact that she had absorbed two independent systems making her realm an enemy of the Capellan Confederation, the fate of Andurien, who had just been reabsorbed into the League, the Magistracy, which without Thomas's help, would have been invaded by the Capellan Confederation and even the fate of this later, which after suffering defeat at the hands of the Federated Suns, had been attacked from all sides, had changed her way of thinking. Even if she didn't forget that she had been 'forced' into this war by Thomas Calderon, she tried to stay objective and realistic. To be honest, we also had long discussions on this matter and reality was that our nation was too poor and weak to have a great future alone, if any. So, reluctantly at first, she agreed to come to the negotiation table to discuss what was in the end, the integration of the Reach into a richer and more powerful realm.


Surprisingly, the conditions negotiated with Thomas were quite generous, both in terms of autonomy and in financial terms. Without the guts to surrender the independence of the nation the fought so hard to take control of, she managed to delay the absorption to the next generation. After all, the myriad of small but vital details was going to take some time to be dealt with. When the next generation would come to power, the Aurigan Reach would become a province, albeit with great autonomy, of the Taurian Concordat, governed in perpetuity by the Arano-Bassot family. In return, the Concordat committed itself to invest heavily in the Reach infrastructure starting today. It was obviously not a relationship of equals like the integration of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth as in this case the Aurigan Reach was clearly the secondary member, with everything it implied.


Part of the agreements was that the facilities in Mechdur would be upgraded to become the third - fourth counting the "secret" base of the Concordat Navy in Bolthole (a system that did not exist in the official charts, although it was already known to some nations, Liao for example, and Comstar)- shipyard with the capacity to build JumpShips in the Taurian Concordat. The military-industrial complex in Detroit would also receive the necessary means and funds to be able to build 'Mechs, even if the forecast was not before 3045 for Mechdur and 3042 for Detroit. While these investments were very big and almost impossible to do if undertaken by the Reach alone, with the help of the Concordat and the time we had, it would be manageable.





Why was the Concordat so interested in the fusion with the Aurigan Reach is a question that was often asked when the news broke out. The industrial output of the New Vandenberg system alone, granted one of the richest systems in the Concordat, was superior to all the production of the Reach combined. Also the only dockyard in Mechdur needed considerable investments from the Taurian to be converted to a shipyard and the limited military complexes in Mechdur and Detroit also needed considerable investments to be useful for the TDF.


But, few people are more nationalist and prideful than the citizens of the Taurian Concordat.and since more than half of the systems of the Reach were ex-Taurian colonies, recovering them peacefully was a matter of national pride for the Concordat when the opportunity presented itself.







In the Magistracy of Canopus, the situation was worse as the end of the war with House Liao had left the armed forces exhausted, the coffers empty, with only one system captured and with a great debt to the Concordat. But, with both the Capellan Confederacy and the Free Worlds League as a not friendly neighbors, it was necessary to rebuild the MAF one way or another. With many people in positions of power unhappy, it was without great surprise that on the 7th of July 3036 a coup put Emma Centrella in power, dethroning her mother.


Apparently, Kyalla jealous of the crescent popularity of her daughter, lauded as a hero of the Magistracy, while she was being accused of disastrous decisions, tried to frame Emma for an espionage conspiracy, only to discover that even her personal guard preferred Emma to her.


By this time Andurien had been completely reabsorbed into the Free Worlds League.

Meanwhile the Fighters development went well with several projects going forward.


The first prototype of the HDK (Hell Duck Heavy ASF) flew on October 21st, 3036. With 90 tons, 16.5 tons of Ferrous-aluminum armor, 270XL engine, 20 Freezers, 1 ER PPC on the nose, 1 ER Large Laser and 1 LBX-10 A/C with two tons of ammo on each wing and 2 Medium Lasers facing the rear, it was a killing machine. A Guardian ECM and a Beagle Active Probe completed the equipment. Besides the usual hardpoints for bombs and rocket pods, it also had two internal bays with capacity to carry 4x Arrow IV AAM. In the CAS configuration, these were replaced by 4x 'normal' guided Arrow IV, if there was a unit equipped with TAG in the area, or non-guided if none was available. The immense concentration of advanced technology had greatly delayed the development of the ASF, and the cost was 14.350 million of C-Bills. But simulations against other Fighters in interception or ground support missions showed that it was money well-spent , being the most capable figher in service in the Concordat by a large margin.


The Hell Duck, although more capable than any other fighter was a bit a Big Toy and because of his price and high technology he was only produced in small numbers – at least until the Clan Invasion – and only delivered to units loyal and with excellent technician support., more specifically, the Taurian Guards, the Revenants and the Wolf Dragoons.


At the opposite range of the Aerospace Fighter range, the Canopian model that VMI had obtained license to produce, the Dragonfly, was produced in great numbers and was an instant sales winner. For the cash strapped customers, like the MAF for a time, the MM1 was a decent light Aerospace Fighter with an all energy weaponry and for the ones that could pay extra, the MM2 was an excellent choice. For those with more money, the VMI top model was the Dragonfly MM3, an in-house upgrade, unlike the MM1 and the MM2 that were Canopian designs. With an upgrade to a 160XL Engine, the addition of an extra Freezer and improved electronics, providing the already good MM2 with improved performance in combat and better heat management.
 
Located 27.53 LY south of Taurus, the Bolthole system had no habitable planets. Due to this, it had been chosen as the secret base of the Taurian Navy and the place for R&D and production of the HPGs.
After producing its first 6 HPGs, 2 of which were of class A, the Concordat had changed the R&D focus to work on the production tools needed to produce in large scale HPGs. Finally, in early 3037, the program had reached the point where the production of HPGs of class A and B was fully industrial, with no components to be manually produced by highly skilled technicians. This both increased the number of parts available and dropped the number that did not meet the required quality.
Much of this development and research had been done in conjunction with NAIS in New Avalon, one of the few areas where both nations collaborated fully and in the utmost secrecy. At the moment the production of new HPGs was kept at low numbers, partly because of the high cost or the low number of components, but also because at the time being it was not planned to install a full operating network of HPGs independent of Comstar as it would attract unnecessary attention. But thanks to the stocks of components we were slowly building (to try to keep a low profile as much as possible), this possibility existed in the near future.


To provide the needed resources through extracting raw materials in the two in-systems asteroid belts, 6 Improved Snowden, a new model, mixing the traditional model equipped with K-Boom and modernized technology for better performance, were also present.



Due to the components brought in from Mundo Nublar and the continuous investments made by the Concordat (a large part of the black budget was applied to this system), Bolthole had a fully operational shipyard capable of processing ships up to 2 million tons. The three Concordat Navy warships were present, the TCS New Vandenberg, a Vincent class Corvette, the TCS Samantha Calderon a Congress class Frigate found on Epsilon Pegasus and the TCS Amanda Calderon a modified Soyal class Heavy Cruiser found on Mundo Nublar. Completely rebuilt and in perfect condition, they served as Bolthole and Taurus guards (Taurus being only one single jump away) and as training ground for various navy crews.
Although the construction of new WarShips was, for now, out of the capabilities of the Concordat because of the tremendous costs of building one and because building the powerful and complex intra-system engines that any Warship needed had proved extremely difficult, curiously much more than working on the K-F compact cores, the Concordat was slowly building all the necessary infrastructure for their future production.



To ensure the maximal secrecy, the safety level in the system was far more than paranoid even for standard Taurian levels (which shows how serious things were). Several Aerospace Fighters and Tigress gunships squadrons, mostly armed with Alamos, patrolled the system and 2 space marines regiments provided the security, together with an impressive TMI security apparatus.
Communication between Bolthole and Taurus was done via a pair of HPGs of the Concordat. Its location in the Taurus system had been extensively studied with all types of sensors and at several ranges, which made a location on the other side of the more distant Taurus moon a safe place to operate it. At this distance and location if the best sensors owned by the Concordat (Star League tech for this test) had only been able to barely detect the transmissions from the Comstar HPG, it was reasonably safe to presume that Comstar couldn't detect anything. Probably.


Any JumpShips arriving at Bolthole had previously to be announced by one of these communications, with the list of people and cargo onboard coinciding, any deviations being treated as saboteurs or dangerous cargo. If a ship arrived without clearance, it was immediately dealt with by the TDF in a not "soft" way. So far, 'only' two ships had gone through such treatment.


In spite of all the precautions, there were some incidents delaying the overall production or research. So far, nothing had been proved but there was not a month without someone being reassigned or imprisoned (did I mention that only a few selected officials could leave the system?), a reminder not to let our guard down.






Although the production of WarShips was for a not yet foreseen future, since 3035, the Concordat had started on a small scale the production of BattleSats,small armed stations of 1,500 tons, equipped with a NL55 and a tiny crew. Several of these already protected both the shipyard and the other facilities in the system. In the future, they were also expected to be placed in the Taurus system and other systems considered strategic for the Concordat. The ground version, a small (relatively) fort with a fusion reactor, one or two NL55 and the necessary tracking systems and heat sinks was in final phase of testing. If I were in another universe, I would say "just imagine the Ion Canon on Hoth".


Unlike full Warships, that for now don't exist plans nor budget to produce any, plans for producing a Pocket Warship, based on the Union DropShips were well advanced. Removing the 'Mech bays but maintaining the ones for the Aerospace Fighters and the weapon systems, two Killer Shark launchers and 16 capital missiles were added. This project would quickly gave an extra punch to the Concordat Navy at a much lower price and well inside the budget capabilities available right now. A further bonus was that the missiles could also carry nuclear warheads (Santa Ana variant), an obvious plus. For simplicity and lower price, the normal weapons systems and armor had not been upgraded, at least for the prototype phase.


After extensive analysis of the Lee DropShip found at the same time the Congress Frigate, it was considered too complex and expensive to produce, so it was send as a "gift" to the 1st Taurian Guards Regiment.
 
For Kamea's 39th birthday (January 2nd, 3038), I offered her the first Warhammer WHM-7A produced in New Vandenberg. Typically of her, she comment that 'only you would think of offering a war machine to a woman on her birthday'. Not that it would stop her from spending endless hours practising until she mastered it, or later thanking me conveniently between sheets. My demanding wife, for you.

The investment of time and resources in Niops finally paid off, when the infiltration team returned with a series of datacores.
Locating the database of the technocrats who ruled the system had been difficult, as it was in the deepest levels of the citadel that was simultaneously the local government palace. Curiously, it was not protected or watched over, it was just difficult to discover and they had concluded their mission without being detected.
Contrary to what I expected, it contained no military information, much less anything about Nighthawks PA(L). It had, however, an immense amount of films, music, songs and documentaries, as well as an enormous amount of scientific texts and the formulas of almost all the vaccines developed until the time of the creation of Niops in 2700, as well as numerous plans of civilian equipment. Much of which was not included in the Helm or New Dallas datacores.
The media part - films, music and documentaries - was given to a company to be distributed in the Inner Sphere and other kingdoms of the Periphery, which were more than eager to pay for the whole and still make some profit out of it.
The rest was used to improve the conditions in the Aurigan Reach, and delivered at an advantageous price to the Taurian Concordat. For the first time, the Reach was in a position to provide knowledge which did wonders for Kamea's ego as well as to the nation coffers.



Although my plans to obtain the Nighthawks were a complete failure, the Jack's were going into initial limited production.
At 800kg, and able to withstand the fire of all light (infantry) weapons, machine guns, flamethrowers and small lasers, they were a great improvement over normal infantry armor. With much luck and if the angle was correct, they could perhaps survive a medium laser shot. Not in the same class has Clan Battle-armor, obviously.
Having two fully articulated and powered hands, they could only use weapons specifically designed for them. All attempts to use normal infantry weaponry had failed. The current version, the Jack JK-1A, had a pulse laser in the right arm based on the one used on the Mauser 960, but connected to the armor main batteries which allowed it to do much more standard shooting. Weapons created for its use included: HMG, flamethrower, sniper/anti-materiel heavy rifle, disposable one-shot SRM-2 (normal or Infernos), a semi-portable PPC and a hatchet, unlike the Kurita and their fascination with katanas, the weapon chosen for boarding combat had been a small (relatively) hatchet. With the strength of the pseudo-muscles of the armor behind it was a terrible weapon in small, confined spaces. To help in mobility the Jack could pack magnetic-clamps or a jet power pack capable of making jumps up to 30m. Both were extremely useful in space or against 'Mechs.


Currently, the small production was only for the use of the Taurian Guards and the Revenants, both because this prototype was still a secret and because of it being a prototype, we wanted to evaluate it and come up with a version 1B after limitations and problems were inevitably found and hopefully corrected.

One of the Concordat's problems was that they did not produce a specialized DropShips to transport troops or vehicles. Instead of starting the production of the Triumph class, for example, a new version of the Union was chosen to solve this peculiar problem. All 'Mech space was modified to transport from heavy or light vehicles to all kinds of infantry - mechanized, normal, jump, etc. The Union had the advantage of being a well-known model in the Concordat, already in production in several systems, which would make its construction much more economical than the Triumph, although it was a much less capable DropShip for the new job. TTI and VMI that already produced other variants of the Union were also selected to produce this one. The big advantage was the use of existing facilities and spare parts, since it was "just" a new variant line in the already existing ones.

Ana Maria Centrella had not done well with the change of government. For many years, one of Kyalla's trusted elements, she had lost her place in the Magestrix coup. Since she had never cultivated a relationship with Emma Centrella, she was looked on with the distrust that (almost) all the elements of the previous government suffered and she was cut from all the places of power. Recognizing that she did not have a future in Canopus, she soon traveled to Coromodir, trying her luck with Kamea. She was lucky because Kamea needed someone with experience in diplomacy and because of Ana Maria's origin and history, it was obvious that she was perfect for that. When her closest advisers objected to including Anne Marie in the Aurigan Reach diplomacy Kamea replied that if she had a husband who was a nobleman from another nation, she might as well have a foreign diplomat on her personal service.


Meanwhile, the Revenants had grown. With their share of the Big MAC spoils and new production, the two first battalions received an extra full company of 'Mechs. The other battalions received upgrades in the form of extra units of infantry and / or mechanized and tank forces. Karl Stone, a retired XO of the 1st Taurian Guards, took command of the 1st Battalion while Karen Andris, The Hero of Panzir, took control of the second one. More and more ex-Taurian Guards personnel and also people from the Aurigan forces that wanted to try a mercenary life applied for a place in the Revenants.
 
16th July 3039, Balcony of Kamea's private apartment in the Arano's palace, Cordia City, Coromodir VI, 6.30 am.



'So you think that this time Hanse Davion bit off more than he can chew?' Kamea asked calmly while we had breakfast.
'It seems Theodore Kurita apparently has more forces than everyone outside of the Combine thought, and Atreus and Sian started to move too.' was my response as I consulted the latest news and personal messages on my noteputer, enjoying looking to my wife, who in a semi-transparent summer kimono was particularly sexy.
'Sian and Atreus? Well, if they're focusing on the Federated Commonwealth, that means we're safe, right?'
'Relatively. They both started small raids, and Hanse Davion sent his mercenaries to fight back. More precisely, the Highlanders against the CCAF and the Wolf's Dragoons against the FWLM. Oh, this is new! A job offer for the Revenants.' I said with astonishment after reading the message twice.
"What does Thomas want now?" asked Kamea with an air of boredom.
"It's not Thomas', luv, it's from the Federated Suns and the mission is to run a series of raids against the Capellan Confederation.
"The Federated Suns?" It was kind of fun watching Kamea spit out the orange juice with the surprise. "There's no way I'm letting you go," said Kamea looking at me with a deadly serious look.
"Relax luv, my adventurous times are over, as are yours," he said trying to calm her down.
'Unless we get invaded...' said Kamea very low.
"Unless we're invaded," I calmly agreed.
"Show me this proposal" demanded Kamea with her hand out.
Without a word, I handed her the noteputer that continued with the proposal open on screen.
'Mmmmm, basically a deep raid with the details at your discretion and excellent payment and salvage conditions... Hanse Davion wants you to distract Romano Liao while he takes care of Theodore Kurita?' It was Kamea's conclusion after carefully reading the contract. "Are you thinking of accepting it?'
'Why not? The Revenants are a mercenary force after all, the conditions are good, excellent in fact, and the first and second battalions are well equipped and have good commanders, the proposal came via MRB, it's legitimate and the price is good,' was my answer after some thoughts. 'The third can stay in New Vandenberg and the fourth remains in Ward.'
'As long as it's clear that you're staying here with me...' Kamea said very low without looking at me.
To change her line of thinking, I asked 'by the way, how is Ana Maria's Blond Bimbo Brigade doing?'
Kamea almost choked. Looking at me with a patient look, she replied 'first, most are not blondes, second bimbos is not a correct term to define highly qualified agents and last brigade? They're a very small number to be a brigade. Other than that, the group of former MIM agents who decided to follow Ana Maria instead of working for Emma Centrella, are doing an excellent job, I'm glad you ask. Blonde Bimbo Brigade, frankly.' Kamea ended with a tolerant smile.

When Emma overthrew her mother and assumed power, she purged it of Kyalla's few loyalists. A small group of former MIM agents had decided to risk their future with Ana Maria and not Emma. Coming to work for us, Kamea had quickly created a fiction in which they worked on their own, selling technological secrets, civil blueprints that we provided them, from the New Dallas and Niops datacores, to finance their operations. Some of the money went to Kamea, and the rest actually financed their activities. They were actually quite capable and had quickly started to create a network that provided us with an interesting amount of information from all over the Inner Sphere. The last thing I knew about was that they had sold several plans to build water purifiers to Chandrasekhar Kurita in exchange for a large sum of money.
'Good,' I replied, pleased to see her smile, 'by the way, production of the first 'Mech in Detroit, the Jenner JR7-D, is due to start in January next year. Around the same time in Coromodir V we will also start the production of Freezers, those that go to our forces will be updated, those for exportation, not'.
'At last the investments in Detroit are starting to pay off," said Kamea, looking pleased.
 
"This is a nightmare, it can't be true," thought Force Leader Mo Ling. A month ago Chancellor Romano Liao had ordered the Death Commandos and House Imarra to give a harsh lesson to those Aurigan Reach barbarians who had once again dared to invade the sacred kingdom of the Capellan Confederation.
Commandeering the use of various civilian JumpShips, they had arrived at the capital of Aurigan Reach much earlier than was possible for the mercenaries who were at this time still in the middle of the Confederation.
And then everything started to go wrong. An until now unknown orbital station that was in geostationary position over Cordia City, the capital and target of this raid, had destroyed the two Overlords that transported not only the main bulk of the forces but also the command structure of both units, before the escort Fighters could destroy it.


The Death Commandos had continued with their original plan and dropped over the enemy palace. That was hours ago and after initial warnings of heavy turrets and enemy 'Mechs, no more transmissions came from then.


Now, Mo Ling was leading what was left of House Imarra forces, in the middle of the inferno that was Cordia City.


It was evident that the opposing force did not play in the same league as the Death Commandos or the Imarra warriors, but they did not lack courage. Countless times SRM Carriers or even infantry had poured Infernos salvos on Liao force, while more distant LRM Carriers kept harassing them, and while they caused tremendous casualties to the defenders, as they advanced towards the palace which was the main objective, they also suffered serious losses. Mo Ling already thought at that time that no one would survive to return to Sian.


Jasmine's Withworth had been lost to an enemy SRM Carrier, Patrick's Phoenix Hawk had been destroyed by a Kintaro, that Ling executed too late, and countless others had fallen in this trice damned city. The infantry had not survived as not only the enemy had more infantry to oppose then, but they had also several IFVs and APCs and even some strange armored units, too big to be infantry, too small to be 'Mechs, that had managed to kill many of is compatriots with almost impunity. Li had hit one but for his amazement, the strange unit had survived his small laser fire and ran away before Li could change to more heavy weapons.


Now, finally arriving at an avenue that led to the front of the fortress, Ling faced the last two defenders, a huge 'Mech that looked like a Marauder on steroids and that his computer claimed to be a Nightstar and a Warhammer similar to his own, among several wrecked 'Mechs in the Death Commandos colors, and many more in the Royal Guard ones. A bit afar, the destroyed parts of several turrets could be seen on the walls of the palace. As soon as Mo Ling's survivors resumed the advance and long before they were in range, the enemy 'Mechs fired. Like the 'Mechs of the mercenaries who were deep in the Confederacy, these two had long-range weapons and firing at the same time as Ling's unit, the enemy Warhammer had destroyed one of his teammates, by placing two ER PPC shots in the Vindicator, one destroying the left torso and the other penetrating the center of Zhang Kang's 'Mech and finishing it off with this single salvo. Ling had a chill in the spine, it's true the Vindicator had suffered damage in battle, but the Warhammer shouldn't have been able to do such damage with a single salvo. The returning fire from the Vindicator had destroyed the SRM-6 launcher of the enemy Warhammer and Ling fired at almost the same time, hitting the center torso and right leg of the Nightstar, but the armor of the 'Mech was not penetrated, which could cause problems later on (if there was a later) as it was obviously not left behind in terms of letality and although obviously struck several times, with several marks on its thick armor, the left arm ripped off and a pronounced limp, it had lost several of his weapons, the 'MechWarrior who piloted him was a superior warrior, no doubt like the one driving the Warhammer, they have survived against the Death Commandos after all. If the Mask was right, Mo Ling would have laughed at that good joke if he had the time to do it, they were the regents of this savage Periphery nation, and the principal targets of this cursed operation. With a salvo of a Gauss Rifle and an ERPPC, the Nightstar destroyed the other survivor of Mo Ling's lance, a Raven, leaving only Mo Ling to face both opponents with his Warhammer 6L. Accelerating his 'Mech to full speed, Ling managed to get within range of all of his weapons before his opponents could fire again, placing two ER PPC shots on the enemy Nightstar, time destroying its left leg and sending the big brute to the ground with a crashing sound that could be heard even inside is cockpit. At almost the same time his 'Mech shook violently, as the Nightstar returned shots, destroying the right side of his Warhammer. Shifting focus to the enemy Warhammer, in the colors of the Arano Royal Guard, Li moved just in time to evade the fire of his adversary, and fired all his surviving weapons, but the ER PPC missed. Another pilot could panic after being hit by flamers, but not this one. The enemy Warhammer rotated calmly to stay centered on Mo Ling's 'Mech and let go with all its weapons, totally unaffected by the heat.


And this is when Mo Ling found himself in the air, the self-ejection having saved him from the destruction of his 'Mech.


Soon after, the Liao DropShips took off, except one Triumph that had been damaged by artillery and , scuttled by its crew before they were captured. With no forces to oppose then in space, the DropShips re-united with the JumpShips and some time later departed the system.


For the records the Aurigans tried, they really tried, but without powerful enough tugs, and very short time, the best they could do was to redirect the free falling Overlords to almost uninhabited areas of the planet: one crashed in one of the oceans and the other in a rural area, causing a few unfortunate deaths.


The victory cost dearly to the Reach. When the shots ended, the Royal Guard had been gutted with only the 'Mechs of Jean-Luc and Kamea were still operational, and to say so of the Nightstar was feeling . And the infantry units were also almost completely destroyed as well as whole areas of Cordia City.


It was a very close call. Jean-Luc and Kamea only survived because many of the Royal Guards interposed their 'Mechs between the rulers and the Death Commandos. The Jacks proved to by lethal against even elite infantry, but also demonstrated they were not yet ready to go against 'Mechs. Of the twelve Jean-Luc had in Cordia City, only three survived.
 
Three weeks later, a military convoy arrived at Coromodir. It was carrying the 5th Taurian Guard Regiment, an extra ASF squadron and was escorted by the TCS New Vandenberg, a Vincent class warship.
Comptroller Jacob Ponce at the reception with the ruling family not only handed over his orders, which were to help defend the system until Kamea's forces are reorganized, but also a personal missive from Thomas to Kamea and Jean-Luc, of which he knew nothing (according to him)


'Kamea, Jean-Luc, I'm very disappointed with both of you. What were you thinking, when you decided to accept Hanse Davion's contract? Did you ever think about the consequences of provoking someone like Romano Liao? Or did you just look at the money, unable to see anything else? I do hope it will be a lesson For you. Hanse, without losing a single soldier, destroyed two elite Capellan units, had the CCAF occupied for months, and you paid the bill, even worse, your people paid it. Frankly, I expected more from both of you. Start thinking about the implications of your actions if you want to survive in these dangerous times.'


After reading the message, Kamea took a deep breath and turned to Jean-Luc. 'Thomas is right, your decision to accept the contract was stupid and I did not act better by agreeing with you. You'll spend a few nights on the couch to learn and I want to see you and your companies very visible helping the reconstruction of Cordia City.'
I still thought about asking why only I would be punished, but a look on Kamea's face silenced me just in time. I was glad the couch was comfortable…


What was hard to swallow was that both Thomas and Kamea were right. I had not thought beyond the contract, I had never realized that Romano could react as she did, although I knew she was vindictive to say the least. And the consequences of my mistake had been paid for by the people of Cordia City.


By December, the full-scale conflict had ended, leaving only a few systems challenged. The result had been somewhat better for the Federated Commonwealth that I remembered as they had won 11 systems and only lost 2. The incursions of the CCAF and of the FWLM had not succeeded in capturing any system, being neutralized by the use of mercenaries by the AFFC.



With the return of the Revenants and their staying for now in Coromodir and a replacement BattleSat also arriving, that needed to be moved from its defensive location, because no 'free' one is available at the moment in the Concordat, the 5th Taurian Guard and the New Vandenberg returned to the Concordat, leaving only the ASF squadron to provide support. Several Industrial 'Mechs had arrived from New Vandenberg, greatly helping with the efforts in Cordia City and as requested they bore my marks/colours.


The Revenants had suffered very few losses, mostly because the worlds they hit with few exceptions only had Home Guard units and even those with more units had no more than a company of 'Mechs, none of them upgraded or modernized. After all, the objective was to distract CCAF forces, not to engage front-line units. In that, it was a success. They had good intel on the targets, courtesy of the combined efforts of the MIIO, DMI, TMI, and MIM, and so the planets had been hit hard and fast with them quickly moving to their next target and never staying more than the minimal necessary time on each system.
The wreckage of the different units that had fought on Coromodir had allowed a company of 'Mechs to be rebuilt. Meanwhile 6 Dragonfly M2 had been 'offered' by Thomas as well as a company of 'Mechs, leftovers that had been replaced by Royal level ones, to help rebuild the defenses. From the Reach factories in Mechdur and Detroit enough Mechs arrive to help rebuild the Royal Guards to they former strength.


Repairing Kamea's 'Mech had been easy as it was a model under production on New Vandenberg, which meant easy access to plenty of parts. Mine, on the other hand, was an unique one, with the parts needed to be custom made. Because of that only in February of 3040 was it fully operational again. I took the opportunity of that repair to upgrade the ER PPC to the enhanced version we had developed.
By the end of December 3039, the modernization of the production lines in New Vandenberg had been completed, including the Marauder II line. Not only did they produce Royal class 'Mechs, but the quantity produced was equal to Star League best. The VMI facilities in New Vandenberg were probably the most modern of the Inner Sphere and Periphery - except that is for some on Earth.


Talks with the Magistracy led to the Dragonfly M2 to be also produced in Mechdur and Detroit, in exchange for a discount price for the MAF, basically selling them at production cost plus transport. This last move finally provided the Reach with an in-house source of ASFs. The production lines were to be operational by mid 3042 at earliest.


The fact that both Kamea and I took part in the defense of Cordia City and that I was later quite visible in the reconstruction of the city as well as elements of my companies made us quite popular, cementing our rule.
With about half of Royal Guard pilots dead and most of the rest gravely wounded, it was difficult to rebuild the unit. On the one hand, as soon as the "veterans" came back from the hospital, we gave them a 'Mech (one of the only luxury of having more BattleMechs than 'MechWarriors). On the other hand, the recruitment of new elements was time-consuming, with the amount of security checks and the necessary indoctrination that an unit of this type required. It was not before mid 3040 that the unit was at full strength again.


All the embassies present in Cordia City had all reported back the use of the BattleSat, and so, they all started crash programs to replicate the design, the militaries being quick to understand the value of such a cheap unit.


The Concordat was keeping ahead with a more capable version having been studied, the BattleSat II, which was bigger at 3.500 tons with better armor and with 6 Arrow IV AAM/SAM and 12 AMS. The 'problem' was its cost, the triple of the original model, and so, only a few are ordered.


A modernized version of the Tigress started production in 3038 in the Concordat. With advanced weapons, the big advantage was that because of its bigger platform, it could carry up to 6 Arrow IV AAM or 3 Alamos, turning it into a very nasty surprise for anyone trying to invade a system defended by some of them.


After losing two elite units in the Reach and not obtaining any results in the raids against the Federated Commonwealth, the Capellan Confederation took the only road available with an ambitious plan of upgrading and expanding the CCAF, at the cost of almost everything else.
 
In March 3041 I was called to Taurus for a meeting. It had to be for urgent reasons, as a Command Circuit was provided.


Among the presents with Thomas and Edward were also several ministers, including the head of the Exchequer and the ones responsible for the TMI and TDF. This meant serious business.
'A week ago, the Federated Commonwealth announced the existence of a network of HPGs connecting not only New Avalon to Tarkad, but also to all the March and District capitals. At the same time they presented several WarShips more precisely one Davion Block II Destroyer and two Mako Corvettes'. Started Jennifer Lalande, a middle age brunette, Minister of Interior and head of the TMI.
Looking at the data provided, I gave my own conclusions without being requested to but since I was the local expert, I knew it didn't matter 'Probably, old ships recovered, not new production. In terms of firepower, we still have an advantage. Do we know the reasons for such announcement?'
'Officially, no' replied Edward 'but it seems that ComStar found out about the existence of the network and its size and called all the main Precentors to Hilton Head for consultations just before it was made.'
'In response ,the Combine stated that the DCA had reactivated several Narukami class Destroyers, numbers unknown. So we have an imminent communications crisis and several states introducing WarShips' concluded Thomas.
'I wouldn't put much trust in the news from the Combine, the information that I have is that it would be almost impossible to make the Narukamis operational' was my response after digesting the news. 'On the other hand, I don't think ComStar reaction to the public announcement of a competing HPG network is going to be pleasant.'
'Ummmm, I don't know, in the case of our Vincent, a lot of people also thought it wouldn't be possible to make it operational and there it is' countered Edward 'It remains to be seen how many more WarShips thought to be irrecoverable are out there and in which hands. I think it's only a matter of time before we see new constructions, don't you think Jean-Luc?'.
'Well, you and your father here have access to more information than I do, but from what I know of Bolthole, it's harder than it looks to build a new WarShip, and repairing one depends on the state of the ship and the available resources' was my answer. 'By the way, if I may ask, how's our naval program doing?'
This time it was Richard Muller, the head of TDF, who replied 'The design of the new upgraded Concordat class is finished, but not all the needed production units are operational. The best estimates put the start of the construction of the first one around 3045, if more delays don't appear. It has been a bottomless pit in our budget, but as we have seen, with other nations suddenly showing WarShips again, the project is more than justified and since we only retrofitted and improved an existing design it is still cheaper than building everything from the ground up.'

'Just out of curiosity, and to help our budget, do we plan to sell HPG technology to the Combine? I bet they would pay well for that,' asked Lorie Fournier, the Minister of the Exchequer, with a calculating look.
'No. Although we could undoubtedly extract a good sum of it, the risks are too great for both ComStar and the Federated Commonwealth being very upset' replied Thomas with some regret in his voice. 'And we have another potential problem: the CCAF has been rebuilding much faster than expected. We need to move more forces to their border.'


'Let me guess, they suddenly have several regiments of 'Mechs, models that they never built before and all SLDF related, right?' I asked in a calm voice.


'How would you know that?' asked a stunned Jennifer Lalande, 'we only had this intel a few days ago.'


'Just look at all the new 'Mechs ,the DCMS also showed during they recent war with the Federated Commonwealth. The information shared by the Fedcom intelligence shows that the ones they captured were produced during the Star League times and were not newly produced. Care to guess who also uses these 'Mechs and has also a force mostly composed of ex-SLDF hardware?' I asked her back in a bored tone.


'The ComGuards… of ComStar.' she said after a stunned silence.'Are you saying that ComStar is providing both the Combine and the Capellans with several regiments of 'Mechs? And for what reason?'


'To maintain the equilibrium of forces, of course. Just out of curiosity, how big you think the ComGuards are?' I replied.


'Difficult to say, they deploy forces in small groups all over the Inner Sphere and Periphery, protecting their HPGs. Starting with the forces they deployed both in the Concordat and the Reach, and with the information shared by the MIM and MIIO, and extrapolating for the other nations, I can give you a number between 25 and 50 'Mech regiments supplemented by several hundred of infantry and mechanized ones.'


'So, a force stronger than the TDF by a wide margin. And about their fleet? I know about they Explorer Corps and they also have several transport JumpShips and DropShips.'


'Again no official number. They move the ComGuards using their ships, and because the unis are moved over short periods of time, I can only assume it's huge, but no hard numbers. They have also bought several regiment sized orders of vehicles from the Magistracy to supplement their forces, helping greatly the economy of that nation, and showing that they have a big military budget.' concluded Jennifer.


'So, they are rich, have a strong 'civilian' navy and an army bigger than all the Periphery nations combined. The only missing info on their strength is how many WarShips they could have. From what I could gather in the different databases I looked at, they have at least the shipyard on Sol, I think it was called Titan Yards and was perhaps of military grade at least during the Star League. We need to know that. It is hard to believe they wouldn't have any.' was Thomas conclusion.'With the very tense situation between the Federated Commonwealth and Comstar, I think it would be useful for us to know the respective strengths of these potential opponents, just in case. We already have a roughly understanding of the might of the AFFC, we need to know how powerful the ComGuards are. On paper at least.'






After a few seconds, Thomas looked at Edward, and after that, ordered Jennifer to do just that. And returning to Muller 'What are our preparations in case of ComStar forcing a Global Interdiction or only on us?'


'We have already constructed the local infrastructures for the planned HPG first priority network, we only need to assemble said HPGs. All of them are also marked to receive a ground based Naval Laser fort to help defend them, but for now any further progression is awaiting more funds and the order will only be sent if the situation further deteriorates.' said Muller.


'Funds approved, I don't like the actual situation', said Thomas, while Fournier wincing visibly. 'Also make plans to take control of the Comstar installations and capture their personnel, if they take action against us, just in case. With the end of their monopoly in HPGs nobody knows how they are going to react, and the actual Primus is not known for taking extreme measures.'


Having ended with the Comstar contingencies, Thomas continued 'How are the new 'Mechs models doing? The light and medium ones you promised us to replace the not upgraded Toro and Taurus?'


'Well, several companies have send us prototypes for evaluation, including yours Jean-Luc,' answered Muller, 'care to fill the details?'


'The new Toro II is basically an improved Wolfhound, with Jump Jets. The Talos II is also an energy only 'Mech with good protection. Both are ready for production, they just need the evaluation of the TDF and your go-ahead. With these models, all our light and medium lines are modernized and also important, the need for ammo is much reduced.'


'And the new military DropShips?' asked Richard Muller again.


'Well, VMI has already started the production of both the Union CV and PW. The prototype of the Assault variant, that uses a reinforced frame, double armor and fuel and the SLDF Pentagon weapons suit is to do its maiden flight in two months. What TTI is producing or developing you need to ask them, not me.'


'And how is the shipyard on the Reach developing?' asked Edward.


'We just started building the Germanium processing unit. If everything keeps on track, we can start building Invaders by 3046.' was my conclusion.



'Thank God the economy is progressing well' said Lorie Fournier, 'or we wouldn't be able pay so many and so expensive military toys'.


'Growing by leaps and bounds' was my tought, but I refrained to say something aloud, the distaste of the Minister of the Exchequer for any defense expenditures was long known.


Looking to his datapad Muller said 'To reduce costs and simplify the program of a new WarShip, the TDF had taken advantage of the design of the old Concordat class Frigate, retrofitting it by modernizing the secondary armament and heat sinks and exchanging 4 small crafts for Fighters. 20 of the 60 marines were supposed to use Jack battle-armor, increasing the boarding capabilities considerably.


The new Toro II is basically an improved Wolfhound, with 1 ER LL and 3 ML, Endo Steel and Ferrous Fibrous. These changes let VMI add enough Jump Jets for it to jump up to 180 meters, giving it an amazing agility. Unfortunately VMI wasn't able to replicate the full head ejection system that TharHes Industries used, so the Toro II had to use a more traditional one. The Talos II is also an energy only 'Mech, with 2 ER LL and 4 ML without forgetting good protection. I'm comfortable with that.'
 
We never knew what happened. Much of what we know was obtained from extracts from various HPGs and interrogations from various Comstar adepts.


On March 27th, 3041, a series of contradictory orders was issued from the HPG on Earth and after that all went silent for quite some time.


From the First Circuit orders were issued for a general Interdiction to be carried out by all HPGs without exception, and without explanation.


In the Concordat, emergency plans were activated and the TDF advanced to take control of the HPGs who refused to resume activity. As had been expected, several were damaged, although two weeks after the crisis started, all operational HPGs in Concordat were in "our" hands.


While said HPGs were armored and protected by elements of the ComGuards and ROM agents, the superior number the TDF could deploy had prevailed. For example, in the Concordat, only the Taurus HPG had more than one lance of 'Mechs protecting it, most of the others barely had a lance or only infantry. Against these defenses, the TDF brought their Royal level 'Mechs together with Jacks battle-armors and several support units.


HPGs were well defended locations, but no fortress, nor designed to survive fire from 'Mech units. In some, like the Taurus one, the defenders survived long enough for the Adepts inside to utterly damage beyond any hope of repair the HPG itself. In New Vandenberg, on the contrary and much to the amazement of the TDF when they arrived, the ComGuards had taken control of the compound and maintained it operational, but informed the Taurians that any tentative of taking its control would result in the defending forces destroying the unit. For a time, the TDF restrained to invade, while both sides waited for clarification orders.


By mid April, of the Comstar HPGs in the Concordat, one, the HPG of Pinard, was captured intact. 60% were captured but had been damaged beyond the possibility of repair with the spares available, 20% were operational and in ComGuards hands 15% were in ComGuards hands but not operational at the moment and the rest was completely destroyed. Taurian technicians swarmed the HPG on Pinard to analyze in microscopic details how it worked and the differences with the ones of the Concordat. A couple of things were made evident really fast: first, each station had very few spares and almost none in several key areas, being all dependent from deliveries from Earth, second even if the core of the HPGs was similar, the control boards were very different from those built following the blueprints of the Star League and third, not all the installations shared the same internal design.


In Coromodir, we were more or less taken by surprise by the shutdown of the HPG. Sure, I had the reunion with Thomas with talks and plans about that, but I really never believed that Comstar would be so bold as to implement a full wide Interdiction. Contingency plans, like in the Concordat had been made, and soon Aurigan forces moved against the HPG. At 4AM, while a company of 'Mechs was moving slowly to get all the attention of the defenders, every single Jacks available, 6 in total, after taking painful care to arrive near the walls without being detected, stormed the compound jumping over the walls and immediately engaging the defenders, while the single lance of ComStar 'Mechs, all light and regular models, were caught between the fighting inside and the 'Mechs outside that at same time accelerated to launched their attack. From another side, a company of Jump Infantry from the Revenants also jumped the walls and proceeded at maximum speed towards the inside, ignoring the defenders if possible, trying to capture the control room before any sabotage orders were sent. Unfortunately, the control room that they stormed was a decoy one, the real being deeper inside and the Adept in the post did its job and the core unit was completely useless by the time the Aurigan and the Revenants forces had taken the compound. The only option now was to send a JumpShip to Taurus to inform them of the failure and wait for a HPG unit from the Taurian factories when one would become available.


In all the Aurigan Reach, only the HPGs of Mechdur and Detroit were working at the end of April, both in the hands of the ComGuards.






JumpShips arriving from other nations told us that in the Magistracy, Federated Commonwealth and even in the Capellan Confederation, the Interdiction order had been issued as as well.


The situation was creating an immense mess as all areas, from diplomacy to business, to intelligence, was being affected by it.


In the Reach, of the 26 systems, only 14 have HPGs, right now only two of these are operational. In the Concordat 21 systems didn't have one and in the Federated Commonwealth, several systems in the Davion Outback and others in the ex-Rim Ward Republic were also without HPGs. The situation was more or less the same in all nations as the HPG network while very wide never, not even in the Star League time was deployed in all systems.
 
Interrogation of the captured Adepts and consultation of the Logs, demonstrated that the orders for the Interdiction issued on the 27th of March had the seal of the First Circuit. These orders indicated that subsequent instructions for ROM agents would follow and that the ComGuards should help ROM as much as possible. About 40 minutes later, a message sent by the Precentor Martial instead gave orders for the ComGuards to take control of the facilities, place all ROM agents in custody and resume communications. So, the supreme commander of the ComGuards was in the opposing side of the First Circuit, good to known that ComStar was suffering a kind of Civil War. No instructions for ROM could be found – there were two options, or they were not sent, which was considered doubtful, or they were destroyed immediately and the records erased.
As far as the TDF / TMI was able to find out, no communications from Earth HPG reached the Concordat after the one of the Precentor Martial.

In the Taurus HPG compound, after the technicians made sure it that the 'core' HPG was operational, a replacement of the ComStar control boards and software with Concordat equivalent was tested. To the surprise of some and to everyone liking, the HPG accepted the new hardware and software and was able to send a message to Bolthole and receive one, confirming the suspicions that the HPG 'core' was the same, or at least compatible, and that ComStar had 'just' exchanged the software and control boards. This was great news, because in most captured HPGs the core system was intact, leaving 'only' to produce the respective control boards. It would take months if not years for every HPG in the Concordat and the Reach to be operational but it would still be a lot faster (and cheaper) than to build complete HPGs from scratch.
However, the lack of communications was causing delays and increased costs because of the need to use an unusual number of JumpShips to transmit messages, like the Pony Express. Fortunately, since it wasn't the first time Comstar used an Interdiction, most if not all nations activated the contingency plans that existed in case they would be targeted by it, most plans resolving around a kinf of Pony Express service.
What no one had planned or anticipated was a total Interdiction. In contrast, the interrogations showed that Comstar didn't have, or only had very basic plans to counter one or more nations taking over the HPGs. Perhaps because, until recently, they were the only ones capable of producing and understanding then enough to operate them. But, in the Concordat – and the Reach by association – and in the Federated Commonwealth, this was no longer true.
With the 'war' against Comstar 'declared' and the fact that the production of native HPGs had become a top priority, the controller board designs needed to convert the ex-Comstar HPGs to our standard HPGs and put them in operation under new management as soon as possible, effectively ending the Interdiction, were transmitted to all companies in the Concordat with the technical capability to produce them. O-P Computer Electronics and Pinard-Dicolais Electronics with the help of other companies and generous emergency government funds were planning to start limited production of the first series in early 3042.


During April, 3041, a series of high tech companies were attacked or sabotaged by unknown forces, that everybody suspected were ROM teams, and at the same time some important or well placed people were killed around the Concordat. Well, not all the Concordat, more specifically, in worlds that had Comstar HPGs…


One of these attacks was against the V4RU department of VMI, targeting the advanced ex-Argo machinery. While in the end, thanks to the surprise and advanced technology, specially in the stealth department, they succeeding in destroying or damaging much of the present equipment, the attackers were all eliminated, thanks to the numerous defenses, that included security 'Mechs, Jacks, military grade defensive turrets and the company security team, even if our forces suffered more casualties than had been expected.


And the mystery of the attackers deepened, when their equipment was inspected as it was an unknown type of PA(L) armor, with more than decent protection and exceptional stealth capabilities. When the results of said inspection was send to me in Coromodir, I identified it as a Tornado PA(L), used by ROM elite strike / infiltration / assassination teams. I immediately sent orders, with the dammit delay that we had in this troubled time, to send these to the R&D teams for further and deeper analyzes and to try to replicate these advanced suits. I only had to hope that VMI research teams would be up to the task.


While they caused a lot of damage, by the end of July, these 'terrorists' groups inside the Concordat were all terminated or gone in hiding.


The ComStar compounds inside the Concordat and Reach that were in the hands of the ComGuards but not operational, were soon also captured by TDF forces. In a few, the ComGuards presented little resistance, but in most of them they fought to the bitter end, against forces much superior in numbers. One particular system got more attention. From the beginning me and Kamea found it strange the disproportionate number of personnel in the Aea ComStar compound.. While its HPG had been sabotaged like so many others, the computers and data files were captured intact. And we hit jackpot in that system. This was the HQ of the Rimward Operations Area of the Explorer Corps, with plenty of data on systems that nobody other than ComStar knew about. Unfortunately, the locations of the DRUM network Skyward HPG relays in the area were not in the files we got our hands on.
 
Aurigan Reach, Coromodir, Cordia City, Arano Palace, High Lady Accommodations


'From what I can conclude from the data obtained, the Magistracy, the Capellans, and the Leaguers are not taking control of the HPGs, regarding the Outworlds Alliance and Rasalhague, we don't have any information. On the other side, we, the Concordat and the Federated Commonwealth are at war with ComStar and regarding Kurita, the information is contradictory to say the least' was my summary regarding the current crisis.
'It's a good thing that in the last decade the Concordat has been producing Invaders, or the situation would be much worse,' Kamea said, not contesting my conclusions 'even if it has been at a huge cost to the Reach'.
'I detected something strange in the communications with Davion - anything commercial or sent and received by us, takes the right time if you know what JumpShips they're using for mail, but the FedRat ambassador gets his orders from New Avalon and Tharkad clearly faster than they should be, compared to the other messages' Kamea said, looking at me, 'do you know something?'
'Well Kammy , for starters, that ambassador is sloppy, to reveal that piece of information so easily, but there are rumors that they have an alternative messaging system since the end of the latest Succession War, slower than HPGs and with very limited traffic. That could be it', was my answer. 'After all, the researchers that both we and the Concordat have studying at NAIS have noted that several Davion and Steiner top researchers in the field of communications rarely appear at NAIS, the intelligence services here and in Taurus think that they are probably involved in another program.'
'A program that officially does not exist, but is active and allows limited communications and alternatives to the HPG network?' asked Kamea, to clarify, and after I agreed, 'of which so far there are only rumors, but the speed of diplomatic messages seems to confirm its existence. As far as I know the Reach has nothing to negotiate for an entry into that program, and the Concordat?' asked Kamea.'So, Professor, 'she has the guts to wink at me,' in your extensive databases that you like so much to look, is there anything at all that could give us some help negotiating with the FedRats?'
'Not that I know of either, but maybe there's something the Federated Commonwealth is interested in.' Kamea without speaking, raised an eyebrow, inviting me to continue 'on the list of secret SLDF bases, which the Argus database contained, there was one that I never investigated because of its location, but as far as I could tell, it was never discovered after Kerensky left. The reason I never visited it was that, unlike the others that were all in the Periphery, this one wad deep inside the Lyran Commonwealth, relatively close to Tharkad, and very far away from our borders'.
'And do you think that such base will have something of interest to our 'friends'?" asked Kamea with an interested look.
'I have no way of knowing, of course, the database only has the location and type of base. But what I did find was that this base or another in that area, one that I never found anything about, has been used to repair WarShips by Kerensky during the Amaris Crisis, and it never appeared in any report or any history book or study on SLDF after that, at least none that I could get my hands on. Everything indicates that whatever was there must still be there.'
After thinking for a while Kamea turned to me again and decided 'Pass that information to Thomas, let him decide. The last time we took initiatives of this size the results were not pleasant to say the least, and he was furious with us'.


But all of this suddenly moved to second place when a Comstar JumpShip arrived at Taurus system with a diplomatic team.
 
12 Mars 3042, Taurus, Taurian Concordat


The meeting with Comstar representatives was a surprise from the start.


First, they didn't have the usual robes, but rather expensive business suits. Secondly, they informed us that they were representing the Terran Government, not the extinct (!) ComStar. Apparently Earth was now governed by a Joan Stark, someone that nobody in the Taurian side had ever heard about.






However, their technological advance was still there; the Terran delegation had a permanent HPG contact with Earth, an impressive feat since many of the HPGs in the line of communication were damaged or in the Taurian or FedCom hands, which made this network an unlikely mix of Magellan JumpShips and comsats from the DRUM network, with a few operable HPGs (mostly inside the Capellan Confederation) but one that was still efficient. From what we understood, similar contacts were being established at the same time with the leaders of all the Great Houses. The Concordat was the only Periphery Realm contacted because of their mastery of their "own" HPG network.


Apparently the dispute between the religious / ROM fanatics and the secular / ComGuards had been won by the ComGuard - with a little help from the Comstar Navy, a fact only known later. With the WarShips and a large portion of the military DropShips lined up on one side, the religious fanatics and ROM had stood little chance as soon as ComGuard was able to concentrate its forces.


During the conflict ,both leaders were killed and the emerging faction in control, instead of continuing business as usual, decided in collaboration with other big corporations, and the different factions that formed the Earth government under Comstar, to take a new direction. Under the leadership of Joan Stark, they assumed the control of the Sol system and after a small interregnum to put the house in order, started to contact the other nations.


Initially, they pushed for a return to the old status quo, ie that the Concordat would return control of the stations it had captured so that the HPG service could resume under their control. Obviously, the Concordat representatives responded in more courteous and diplomatic language, hell no.


Honestly, that is what the Terran representatives expected, so they changed the negotiations, to their true objective, ie to try to negotiate inter-state communication protocols and fees, extract as many of the ex-Comstar people (and hardware) that might want to come to Earth and obtain rights for they massive civilian JumpShip fleet to operate inside the Concordat while trying to obtain a trade agreement for several civilian products that Earth apparently was going to start producing.






With my arrival at Taurus, almost at the beginning of negotiations with Earth, the information that Davion had an alternative FTL communications system had an interesting effect.
Claiming he had to confer with Kamea, which gave him the opportunity to delay negotiations whenever he wanted, since there was no working HPG link between Taurus and Coromodir, Thomas discreetly called the ambassador of the Federated Commonwealth, and after informing him that Concordat already knew about his alternative communications system, proposed a joint negotiation of both nations, which would obviously bring advantages to both. And by the way, he gave them all the information that the Commonwealth had about the new Director-General (yes, she had returned to the Cameron era title), Joan Stark, which was close to none.
Ten days later, the ambassador returned with an answer , that was not as good as Thomas expected. It was divided in four relevant parts - a) He informed Thomas that the FC didn't have any data on the new Earth leader, b) that the FC JumpShips had detected no less than 12 WarShips in orbit around Earth, at least 2 of them being Battle Cruisers or larger, c) he recognized that the Federated Commonwealth was indeed in negotiations with Earth, not including any details and finally d) that obviously if such a strategic technology existed, details for a potential alternative FTL comm system would not be shared with anyone.


When pressed to give a date on their estimation for resuming normal communication activities, and after speaking with Earth, the representatives of the new Terran Government recognized that unfortunately during the fight, the industrial complex that produce HPGs (and parts) had been severely damaged, and that on top of that the few (their words) "fanatics" that had escaped taking with them a considerable part of the existing stock of spares. This meant that the repair of the HPG network was going to take time and would probably not be concluded before the end of 3045 or even later. Since the estimates of the Concordat were that by that time, it would have already repaired its network, no further collaboration was offered from both sides on that particular area.


In a gesture of good will, the Earth representatives informed us that the ex First Circuit had gifted about five hundred 'Mechs of SLDF origin to the CCAF, thankfully none of them (unless handling errors) Royal. So far, Romano Liao had used these forces to bolster his defenses which needed this help and hadn't not (yet) entered in new adventures. During this time, a deep analysis of the control boards, and software, of captured Comstar's HPGs revealed that they had hidden codes that allowed messages to be sent without registration or even knowledge of the station operators. Another interesting piece of data was that also it was possible to send messages to some addresses, that didn't exist in the official database of HPGs, and messages send to these 'hidden' address were automatically treated without registration also. Comstar secret bases ? So secret that only a small core would know of their existence? So far the mechanism that let the HPGs 'know' where to send these messages had not been found.



Because the FedRats had not proposed to share info / use of they alternative FTL comm system, no information on the possible SLDF base near Tharkad, nor the findings of the secret codes in the HPG network was shared and it was decided that a later mission lead by TMI to the location was to be planned.



Over the next years, the ex-Comstar, renamed Earth Communications, ECOM for short, for now operated in all the nations outside of the Taurian+Reach and the Federated Commonwealth. It was observed that the people that had believed in the religious side of the organization had disappeared in great numbers, destination unknown. Several of the ComGuards – now also renamed Earth Defense Force, deserted the organization, but in their case, they mostly turned mercenary, or applied to the armed forces of their former nations.


Earth started to offer high tech products on the market taking advantage of their big and modern industrial capability and commercial fleet, taking a not small share of the most profitable area of the Concordat exports and of mine.


Because of the need for many JumpShips to operate as replacement for HPGs during the crisis, and because a complete change in the production planing of several industries was need to prioritize the replacement / production of parts for the new Taurian HPGs, several new and expansion industrial complexes were delayed in the Concordat + Reach. Including on that list were the shipyard on Mechdur that was delayed by two years at minimum, the new lines of DropShips in Illiushin, the new high tech factories in Coromodir V and several military and civilian production lines all around both nations.


If the objective of Earth was to maintain the control of the HPG network outside of the Taurian Concordat and Federated Commonwealth for a long time, they failed miserably.


By mid 3043 it was known that the fanatics had moved to the Free Worlds League and had been welcomed by Thomas with open arms. The reasons became know very soon, when in early 3045, the League took control of its HPG network and also used several WarShips – all ex-SLDF Navy designs.


By late 3044, the covert mission led by TMI to Odessa had discovered that indeed a repair / mothballed base indeed had existed in the system, but had been emptied recently…


By mid 3046 the Draconis Combine went dark for two full months. When communications were resumed, the HPG network was fully in the Combine hands.


By the end of 3046, this let only the Capellan Confederation, that was too poor and under the reign of Romano Liao, not stable or lucky enough to embark in such long term and expensive research program or to get it from spies and the other Periphery Realms using the Earth HPG network.


It was later discovered that Romano had decided to invest more in rebuilding the nation shipyards, and constructing a new one, capable of producing WarShips in the Sian system, instead on put money and resources in developing they independent HPG network.


So far, all nations had agreed to use ECOM protocols and to talk with each other, but how long this was going to last was anybody guess.


By late 3045, the construction of the Concordat class Frigate had started in Bolthole.
 
Between 3042 and 3046 much changed in the Aurigan Reach.
The reconstruction following the damages caused by the civil war and the later Capellan attack was finally completed. Many new industries started their activity, even though the vast majority of them was not even close to state of the art technology, but they provided the necessary services and products for the local economy.
While the big (relatively) industrial centers were Mechdur and Detroit, I had done my best to put as much state of the art technology, both civil and military, on the industries on Coromodir V, which were directly managed by my family, after the civil war and the end of the House Espinosa. For that, after a lot of meetings and a mix of pressure and fiscal incentives, VMI had created a filial in Coromodir V, but not for old products but for top-of-the-line ones.
Thus, the small (compared to New Vandenberg) local production of Freezers and Endo-Steel was made there, as well as the most advanced state-of-the-art electrical components.
A part of the Griffins produced in Mechdur were then modified, with their 12 Heat Sinks being replaced by 10 Double ones and 2 Medium Lasers. It was not much but at the moment we still did not have a local production for the ER PPC, which was initially planned for 3049, due to delays caused by the HPG crisis. Until that date, they had to be imported from the Concordat, for a few upgraded 'Mechs, mostly for the Royal Guards.
In Detroit, we had started the production of the Vali, which was a cheap option to increase the artillery component for various forces and therefore a good option for export, even if the buyer could not buy the Arrow IV guided version, since for now Detroit could only produce the simplest version, leaving the most advanced one to other firms like VMI.
At the other end of the scale, VMI in New Vandenberg began production of the Pantsir, the 50-tons version of the Vali, with fusion engine, network capabilities (like an early version of the C3 tech) and using the SAM version of Arrow IV. Although it was not cheap, it added for those able to pay a much needed defensive capacity against ASFs.
The news that other nations had WarShips and that at least two of them, Earth and the Federated Commonwealth, had built or were beginning to build new WarShips, led the Concordat to review its plans.
Thus, the shipyard in Taurus, instead of increasing the production of Invaders, began a much more ambitious expansion, which in 3052 would allow the Concordat to produce WarShips. In New Vandenberg, after years of studies, the second phase of expansion of the shipyard began. Instead of producing Invaders, the new program (that should be ready by 3055) would be able to produce a modernized version of the Leviathan JumpShip. With the experience gained in the maintenance of the Leviathans belonging to my companies and with the gathered data on the latest versions of the old JumpShips, which had already solved many of the problems of the old lady, a modernized and updated version, would be built in this shipyard. The first batch would be for the service of the Taurian Armed Forces, adding a much needed transport capacity. The only increase in the production of Invaders would therefore be from the shipyard in Mechdur.
These years were also good for the Revenants which expanded during this period while going through an important reorganization. All the elements that were not Taurian or Aurigan had their contracts not renewed, making the force 100% native. Kaneda Arisa, had meanwhile married one of her colleagues and obtained the Aurigan nationality. She was the commander of one of the 'Mechs companies, and continued to be by a wide margin, the best 'MechWarriors of the Revenants. At the moment she was using one of the few Toro II that the RCT had. Yes, a Regimental Combat Team. The unit had grown in number and even though it was from the beginning a combined arms unit, not only the fact that the Taurians were great supporters also of combined forces, but I particularly was a great supporter of that concept, led me to prefer the RCT format used by the Federated Commonwealth instead of following the traditional Taurian model, even if at the moment two of the 'Mech battalions were under-strength, as well as the ASF component. That also gave us the added benefit to help training the TDF against RCTs, in the hypothetical case of a war against the Federated Commonwealth. In the transportation area, unfortunately, they only had the capacity to move about one third of the forces unless they resorted to external JumpShips and DropShips. They had also changed in another area - they had discreetly dropped their mercenary classification to 1st Aurigan Guards RCT, nicknamed the Revenants. With the future JumpShips production in Mechdur and the expansion in DropShips production all around the Concordat, I was sure that in a few years the transport limitation would be over.
 
Factory by factory, world by world, the Concordat had been upgrading and expanding their industrial capability in the last decades.


That was helped by the continuous production of Snowden and Snowden-L mine stations, which provided said factories with raw materials and were by mid 40s present in almost all the systems in the Concordat and Reach that had a rich asteroid belt. Some ere even start to appear in Oort Clouds in the Taurus and New Vandenberg systems.


That also led to the expansion of the internal market and the overall growth of the Taurian economy.


While many of the other nations had followed a similar path, the Concordat was still ahead thanks to its early start and having access to almost every blueprints of every factory and products (civil and military) of the Star League, Very few outside the Concordat knew its real economic power, they knew that the Concordat can produce advanced tech since it was selling them on the open market but not the volumes it can produce.


One area in special started to benefit from that – big, advanced DropShips.


While before the Concordat Navy only used standard Union models to reduce costs and improve the availability of spare parts, now after a nasty "war" for securing the defense budget, the Lee was selected as the new standard DropShips for the TDF / Navy. It was an incredibly expensive DropShip (hence the "war"), and very high-tech, but the benefits were also great, mostly because of the different variants available


When compared to the Overlord, the mainstay of almost all other States, the 'Mech Transport variant could carry 4 extra 'Mechs, about 900 tons more of cargo, had better armor and weapons, all this with a better acceleration.


The ordered variants were 'Mech Transport, Aerospace Carrier, Vehicle Transport, Cargo Transport and Pocket Warship. Except for the latest one, all others were late SLDF models, and the blueprints are already available.


The Pocket Warship configuration replaced the cargo space that normally carried 40 'Mechs and 6 ASFs with 6 AR10 tubes in the nose and 78 Killer Whale and 12 Barracuda in the standard load-out but could be any mix of Barracuda (30t), White Shark (40t) and/or Killer Whale (50t) up to 4.260 tons.


The Navy was a deciding factor in selecting the Lee over less expensive solutions in the budget wars as what a Concordat Frigate could do with a pair of PW and another of CV (or any combination of the two types) was a wet dream for all the admirals and all that at for less money and faster production time than any traditional bigger WarShips, something they were eager to explain over and over.


With these expensive DropShips starting production for the TDF / Navy, the production of Unions and Overlords switched to being sold only to foreign powers or to mercenary. With the increasing tension all over the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, the demand was there.


In the civilian market, the long time pet project of Dr. Murad also entered in production in late 3046. The Starlifter, heavily inspired by the massive Mammoth DropShips, had all its components produced by VMI in Illiushin, where the assembly was also done. Like the Lee for the military and the Union before, it was to be produced in several variants, Standard cargo, Heavy cargo, Liquid transport;, Liquid gas transport, Passenger transport and Troop transport (which a more streamlined sub-variant of the Passenger transport one). While each taken individually was expensive , the fact was that with them entering in service the number of needed collars was reduced dramatically.


That the Concordat could start both projects in the mid to late 40s, was a demonstration of both the advanced technology it had mastered as well as power and capability of its industry.


In January 3045 a representative of the Wolf's Dragoons visited VMI Headquarters in New Vandenberg. His purpose was simple, Jaime Wolf wanted to start the production of the Shogun Assault 'Mech and proposed this business to VMI. If on the one hand the company was very interested in producing the model, on the other hand the intransigence of the Wolf's Dragoons that it would be produced exclusively for them killed the deal. Even at best, with 5 regiments and two independent battalions, the number of 'Mechs produced would not be enough to offset the expense. Too bad as I was interested in deepening relations with the Wolf's Dragoons, but not at the expense of a bad business that would also affect my CEO position.
Between 3045 and 3047, I was involved in two other VMI matters.


The first was related to the prototype of the second assault 'Mech model to be produced by the company and the first totally original of the company. Continuing the 'zombie' 'Mech line that was the signature of the latest VMI original product series, the Hellfire was going to be a scary machine for anyone facing it and a wonder of technology.




HEL-TC2 Hellfire


Technical specifications
Weight: 85 tons
Cost: 8,454,685 C-bills
Movement: 3/5
Engine: 255
Heat Sinks: 20 DHS / Freezers
Armor: 16 tons
Weapons: 2 ER PPC (LT and RT), 2 LPL (LA and RA), 1 TAG (Head), 1 Guardian ECM (CT) and 2 SL (RL and LL).




As usual,it was only proposed to the TDF, which accepted it with open arms after thoroughly testing the prototype.


The following subject had to do with the Tornado PA(L) wreckage captured in the VMI attack in 3041. The Stealth / Adaptative Camo System was very advanced and out of VMI production capabilities. , even though research continued. The models were clearly tailored to the users personally, something that was also considered inefficient if reasonable production and non-astronomical cost were to be desired. In the end, after 5 years of research and testing, a similar model (without advanced camouflage), and slightly less capable in other areas but that could be mass-produced entered testing. Of course, both the TDF and the TMI were very interested in this project.


How did the TC achieve these capabilities ?

For starters, they were the only nation to get the Helm AND New Dallas data cores.

The others got access to the Helm one but would need about 10 years to decrypt it while the TC got it fully decrypt from the start.

The New Dallas Core not only had a lot of Royal / late SLDF blueprints / designs but more importantly (in this universe) was a repository of industrial espionage, with an immense collection of data, blueprints on all kinds of industrial goodies - from factories to tools to final products - military and civilian, from the time of the Terran Hegemony to the late SL days - just before the Amaris Crisis.

Another factor was that like the Terran Hegemony, it invested a lot in space extraction industries - Snowden and alike.

In this universe, Thomas was not that maniac against the Federated Suns and because Edward survived, the relations with FS / FC were much better.

The result was that in the second half of the 40s that they were very advanced and that these advanced industries could produce a lot of shinny things.

It took them about 20 years, but they did it years before other nations.
 
January 4th, 3048
Coromodir System
Overlord DropShip Chieftain


On route to Coromodir VI, capital of the Arano Province of Taurian Concordat (three months after the unification)



'Jaime, explain me again why we have to satisfy this little prince's desire and come to a meeting with him in person, for something that could be handled by an administrative official?' asked Natasha Kerensky with a bored look.
'Natasha' Jaime responded with a patient air of long years of experience dealing with the infamous redhead 'first, the proposed business includes several items that are of interest to us, including the production of Assaults that Jamison so badly wants, and which Blackwell cannot supply because they have dedicated a big part of they resources, first to upgrade the factories in Outreach to Clan specs, and later using said factories to produce Omnis, at a very slow rate. While we / Blackwell continue to produce 'standard' 'Mechs and equipment, our resources are finite, and the Omnis lines take a big chunk of these. Omnis that we cannot put into service as you well know.' After Natasha acquiesced Jaime continued 'The prince's companies, as you call them, not only do the maintenance to our JumpShips and DropShips but are already one of our largest suppliers of equipment, principally of advanced technology, outside of Blackwell. If he also wants to negotiate a contract for training his forces and asks for our presence, we might as well satisfy the request, don't you think so? So, please don't accuse him of been a Wolverine, ok? Wolfnet has concluded that the hardware he got was obtained from the Baumann's cache.'
'That is why you were chosen to lead our small gang, I do not have the patience for political or palatial games.' Natasha answered 'Ok, ok, I promise to behave'.
Upon entering orbit, the Chieftain passed near TCS Zarantha Calderon.
'The Taurians showing their newest toys?' commented Natasha.
'Considering that this is the first WarShip built in hundreds of years, it is natural that they want to show it, in the capital of their new province' answered Jaime.
The Chieftain was directed to a military spaceport, landing next to a similar looking, but much bigger DropShip.
'Why do I get the impression that someone is trying to give us a not very subtle message?' asked Natasha with an ironic look.
'Or someone important, like one of the Calderons came to pay a visit, which would explain both the WarShips and that one' replied Jaime calmly, looking with an envious look at the huge Lee class DropShip next to his Overlord DropShip. 'I wouldn't mind having some of these in our TO&E.'
A luxurious and discreetly armored limousine was waiting for the pair and took them immediately to the palace.
The protection of the palace was impressive, with several heavy defensive towers, several 'Mechs patrolling the area and battle-armor and PA(L)s at the entrances.
'Now this is definitely showing off the new toys - that I know nobody outside the Concordat and Comstar uses battle-armor or PA(L)s' exclaimed Natasha.
'Comstar and by association the new Earth government have PA(L)s too, but you are right, ' replied Jaime looking at the defenses, 'and if I am not mistaken some of these 'Mechs are Royals. There is definitely something going on,' he said.
Without making them wait, they were immediately brought to a large and comfortable office, very well-equipped, but without ostentation with two PA(L) outside of the door . At the desk was a tall man, in his fifties, without a white or gray hair over in his blond mane, and with a military air that the civilian suit he wore, with a comfortable yet good cut, couldn't disguise, who stood up to welcome them.
'Colonel, Colonel, welcome to Cordia City, the capital of our province. I apologize for the excessive security you saw, but because Edward Calderon is currently in conference with my wife, the security had to be increased. Please sit down, and we have a lot to take care of'.
'It has been a while since we met, your Highness.' said Natasha '17 years, if I am not mistaken. That time it was in 'my office', so to speak'.
'Mantharaka, 3031, good memory Colonel, or should I say Star Colonel Natasha Kerensky of Clan Wolf ? We have a lot to talk about the weather in Strana Mechty and what the Crusader Clans are planning to do, and your position on that, don't you think?'
 
Boy, I had been dreaming for so long to say this to their faces...
The silence then the silent denial, followed by the understanding was going on like I had foreseen it. And I had everything recorded from various angles and in high resolution... unfortunately not in 3D/holographic as the equipment for that was too big to hide well.


A few minutes latter


'How?' asked Jaime, keeping a calm air, but his eyes and tone of voice indicated that the time for joking was over.
'It is a damn Wolverine, it has to be with the 'Mech and equipment that he showed more than a decade ago,' Natasha almost screamed with a very dangerous look, forgotten the Wolfnet information that debunked that theory, and almost jumping out of the chair.


'First, thanks to confirm that information' I said in a calm voice with a small, tense, smile. 'How? It is quite simple, after all – after you stopped communicating home in early 3020s, the Smoke Jaguars sent a ship to investigate. Fortunately for us, said ship suffered a misjump and ended stranded deep in the Periphery, with almost all the electronics fried, and all people dead. About two years ago, one of my teams, searching for hidden SLDF bases, found it. Like I said, both the JumpShip and DropShip electronics were fried and all aboard were dead, but the personal data crystals are another story. And in the captain's cabin we found several heavily encrypted crystals, with a variant of late SLDF codes. A few months ago, the decoded files arrived to my hands, and they told me a very interesting story about your little group. Your mission, your TO&E, including several WarShips that you never showed, a lot about the political and history of the Clans – interesting stuff, Trueborns and Freeborns, Bloodnames, Wardens and Crusaders, and a not-named Clan, that I believe is the Wolverines, by your reaction, - and their mission, finding you to discover why you stopped sending them intel. So, I will ask you one more time, why did you stop send information back, and what are your intentions these days?'


'And what do you intend to do with that information?' asked Jaime after a long exchange of glances with Natasha without answering my question.


'Good question - in reality what is really of interest to me is what you intend to do, when as I predict, either the Crusaders – that I infer just want to invade - win the majority, and decide to mount a campaign to 'free' us, or the Terran Explorer Corps come face to face with one of the worlds of the Clans? From what I know, and from what I got from the Wolverines data, I have a good idea of the location of the Clans worlds and the TEC is getting close. From what I know, the Clans have equipment superior to the best that even the Royals had. So I ask you again, when the Crusaders invade, what do you plan to do, and in case it's helping us, when do you plan to start?'
This was followed by a prolonged silence with several exchanges of glances between the two.
Since they didn't decide to talk, I added 'as far as I know the last time you carried out a resupply mission and received more Clan personnel was almost 30 years ago, so, what happened? You decided to stay, or you received secret orders from your Clan to stop all contact?'
'Eliminating you will not solve this issue, will it?' asked Natasha, but her posture and stance made it clear that she didn't intend to do something stupid.


'Apart from these PA(L)s just outside that door, there is also a WarShip in orbit. Let's say that if you try something violent, you won't leave this system alive, so spare me the useless menaces, ok?' after a moment, Natasha acquiesced, and I continued 'If I understand what I read about the society that the Clans have created - you don't have a future there in case you want to come back, right?'
Again, a prolonged silence with the respective exchange of glances. Finally, Jaime looked at me.
'We have a lot to think about, before making a decision that affects the totality of the Dragoons, can we have a few hours?'
'A reasonable time, yes but not a single minute more.' was my answer.


'We will come back to you, before the end of the day' say Jaime Wolf, and with that they both departed for their DropShip.
 
The integration of the Aurigan Reach in the Taurian Concordat was finally concluded on October 4, 3047, eleven and half years after the Agreement in March 3036.


The changes to the Aurigan side were fewer than one would have expected, mostly because the Aurigan legislation was loosely based on the Taurian one and because we were already partly economically integrated..






However, some problems needed to be addressed. For starters, the fact that there wasn't a 'Province' in the whole Taurian Concordat or anything close to that. After that, that said Province was to be governed hereditary by the Arano-Bassot family also needed to be included into the Taurian law. And many other big or small details, all vital for the good and pacific integration of both realms. Thomas took advantages of the need for so many changes in the Taurian laws to add a few of his owns with some of them being discarded after later review by the Concordat Courts. One of the big problems caused by the integration was that the Arano-Bassot were at the top of the power families, just under the Calderons, something the other families didn't like very much for obvious reasons. A lot of political soft power and a few behind the scenes negotiations were needed to get the legislation to pass, and even then with a closer margin than Thomas liked or would have thought (which probably meant more troubles ahead of us) Thankfully, for Thomas, the status of the rest of the Reach nobles, already left without much power by Kamea, was not touched upon by the new legislation, and they were considered as the equals of the Concordat ones. On the negative side, all these nobles were a group of unhappy people with some power, that sooner or later would need to be dealt with.


While many problems still existed, the decision to advance with the integration was made from both sides and from history, it was known that wanting all the problems to be fixed would mean running the risk of the unification never happening. After all, the Federated Commonwealth merge occurred with plenty of problems to be fixed.


During these eleven years a subtle campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Aurigans (and the Taurians) to the new future was run, with a remarkable success, aided, no doubt by the Aurigan royal family doing everything they could to ease the transaction – they would be governing the province after the unification, had signed the accords, and were not interested in troubles, after all.


The fact that during the past twenty years, first the Bassot companies and in the last decade the Concordat, had invested heavily inside the Reach, also helped. For example the shipyard in Mechdur, that before could barely repair a JumpShip at once, turned before the unification in a full shipyard, starting producing Invaders, while at same time being able to provide maintenance to six JumpShips at the same time. In reality, it had been planed that the first JumpShip should be built before the integration, but the Comstar / HPG Crisis had delayed that. And even if the population of the Reaches might still be lacking the skills to work there, they benefited from all these investments.


With so many things that still needed to be done, it was going to take several decades for the worlds to be fully integrated in the Concordat, but the process that had started eleven years ago, was coming to a new phase.


The ceremony held for this unification was festive in Taurus, and dignified in Coromodir – understandably, the ruling house had less to celebrate as they adjust changed from the supreme rulers of a nation to rulers – with a superior – of a province.


Soon after, the TDF forces and the Taurian diplomats started to 'visit' the free / independent worlds in the area that existed near Detroit and Herotitus. These worlds that the Aurigan Reach had in the past considered too poor to annex and that had mostly been abandoned by the Concordat, the Capellan Confederation or the Magistracy of Canopus long ago, were now from a security point of view, to be absorbed.


After all, it wasn't a good idea to have independent world inside the Concordat, and unlike the Reach or the investment program going on, they could be taken and brought to better standards without crippling the finances.
 
As agreed, Jaime and Natasha returned to my office at the end of the day. By the serious, closed expressions, I got the idea that it wasn't going to be an easy conversation, and that it was better to be extremely careful with what I was going to say.
After the usual banalities, I went straight to the point - 'I assume you made a decision, can I know what it is?'
'What the Dragoons are and do, only concern them' answered Natasha with clenched teeth and a bellicose look. This is not starting well was my immediate thought.
'We are not confirming anything, Your Highness but Natasha is right and the Concordat has nothing to do with the internal affairs of the Dragoons.' replied Jaime in a calmer tone, but looking me straight in the eye and with a posture and tone of voice that left no room for doubt that I was on the road to big troubles if I kept on this path.
'Understood' was my immediate response as I processed the position of both.
'With that, I think it is time for us to leave.' asked Natasha standing up with a challenging look.
'Of course, there is no conflict between the two parties' was my answer to Natasha 'but I think that the initial reason for your coming here could still be discussed, don't you think?' I continued, trying to get something out of this mess.
'I must say you are not lacking...' replied Kerensky with a laugh, starting to get up in order to leave, but was interrupted by Jaime.
'He's right, Natasha,' Jaime answered without getting up and with a thoughtful air, 'after all, we came here to discuss contracts and options of equipment production, not politics or loyalties.'
'You've got to be kidding me,' murmured the famous Black Widow as she sat down again.
'For my part, I'm interested in hiring for six months, Natasha's forces for advanced training' I was interrupted by a short laugh and a funny look from the red hair legend 'and as for the construction of Assault 'Mechs, I see no problem in creating a production line for the Shogun, if the sale is authorized for the TDF, which will make production profitable. For other customers, subject to your permission, of course'.
After an exchange of glances between Jaime and Natasha, Jaime replied 'Unfortunately Colonel Kerensky's forces are unavailable for the foreseeable future' to train the Dragoons in Clan tactics, it was my thought 'however I could give you Zeta or Epsilon for that job.' Jaime replied 'As for the Shogun, I think we can come to an agreement.'
'Zeta? Please, Colonel, Zeta is the kind of blunt instrument that you aim at a target and say "Zeta, smash"' Natasha laughed at this ' but it is not the kind of unit that is useful in training other forces, Epsilon is acceptable. As for the Shogun, I was thinking of producing an updated version, like the -2H'.
'The initial SLDF model?' asked Jaime, after I agreed, he continued, 'if the first production run is for us we have an agreement.'
'I think that access to advanced technology is out of the question?' I asked without much hope 'In your dreams', was the answer in an ironic tone from Natasha, while Jaime more diplomatically shook his head.
''And regarding your "findings", I think you will keep them for yourself? After all, I think I read this sort of crap by dozens by now.' said Jaime.


'Why not? After all, we are business partners and it is not as if we were on the verge of being invaded' was my conclusion.
As I watched the Chieftain heading into space, I thought that I hadn't achieved much with this meeting, this is what you get when you underestimate your opponents. At least I didn't have to give complicated explanations to anyone.




Still thinking about it and even if I had been at first confused by the refusal of Jaime and Natasha to help the Inner Sphere so far, it was not that surprising.

Jaime was a very bitter man at this time as I saw it. He was founded to hate three of the four Houses of the Inner Sphere and this might explain his "refusal" to carry out his orders:
Kurita - for their breach of honor and backstab of both troops and dependents.
Marik - for the death of his brother and maybe his children as well as of innocent civilians, even if it was repaid in blood and fire, the bitterness could still be here.
Liao for hiring the Dragoons off to Marik as shock troops for the rebellion and using them as tools in their little games.


Or he could have had a problem of foreseeing how to do it alone without real proof of the Clans and without the possibility to harm innocent ones back "home" if he told everyone about it.
 
In 3049 and knowing that all the IS nations - including Terra - had and were building WarShips, and in the case of Terra and of the FWL - thanks to the now Word of Blake - larger and more powerful ones than those owned by the TDF, a new construction plan was decided for the Navy.
The admirals wanted Battleships or at least Battle Cruisers and a substantial modernization of the Concordat Frigates, that were still under construction.
The realities of the budget quickly put an end to these dreams of greatness.
Ships larger than the Concordat were out of the question, not only because they were prohibitively expensive, but they took too long to build, which would lead to very few ships available.
After several heated discussions, a construction plan was decided that would allow a (relatively) versatile Navy with a reasonable number of ships without breaking the Concordat budget.



The Concordat Frigate would be improved to mod.III, even if it was not as much as the Navy wanted.
The armor would be replaced by improved ferrous-aluminum and not by lamelor ferro-carbide - too expensive - and it would not receive a mobile HPG. However, it would receive 24 AMS, 6 Arrow IV SAM, the LRM get Artemis IV, the Large and Medium lasers were upgraded to pulse models, 12 ASF were added and the 7 Naval Lasers would be all of the NL55 model. They also received 2 AR-10 launchers, and the Taurians being the Taurians, every ship would carry some 'special' warheads for the capital missiles.


All these upgrades came at the cost of reducing the cargo capacity, the cargo could 'only' carry 30k tons, instead of the just over 50k tons on the standard model.


Using the same base design - to save on costs, research, and construction speed - a carrier version would be built. Removing the NAC/20 and the respective ammo allowed it to receive a total of 36 internal Fighters. The modifications also included CAG installations, flagship installations, advanced communications and sensors, and a mobile HPG while armor, naval lasers and defensive systems equaled those of the Mod.III. The fuel capacity was doubled, and spares, ammo and fuel reserves for the ASF greatly increased.
The complement of DropShips would be 4 Lee-CV, which together with the internal ASF would give this carrier a staggering 196 ASF, more than enough to dominate any adversary force. And if that was not enough, you could always add the 36 extra ASF from the three escorting Concordat Frigates. And any ASF that the DropShips loaded in said frigates could carry.





To complement these ships, it was decided that a modernized version of the Pinto class Corvette - with the 80 MG replaced by 24 AMS and the 800 SHS by 600 DHS - would be produced in large quantities.
The main purpose of this ship would be to patrol Concordat systems as it was more than capable of dealing with any pirate or any force not accompanied by WarShips, which would free the other ships for other duties.


The result of Dr. Murad's team ingenuity (in reality heavily based on a design from Nebfer at SB), the Mriya was a fast armed military transport. Incredibly expensive, it was to be only for use by the TDF and took two years to be completed, the first to be delivered in 3052. Because of the price, only a few were ordered, enough to move a quick reaction team the size of a reinforced combined arms brigade.


Mriya JumpShip – Fast Military Transport
Weight: 400,000 tons
Cost: 2,274,159,434 C-bills


Heat Sinks: 142 DHS [284]
Fuel Points: 742 (297.0 tons)
Armor: 100 (Capital Scale) (Improved Ferrous-Aluminum) – 167 tons.


Equipped with lithium-fusion battery system.


Armed with 12 ER LL,8 ERPPC,12 MPL and 12 AMS


Carrying Capacity
Aerospace Fighter (2 doors) - 2 units (2 recovery open)
Small Craft (2 doors) - 4 units (2 recovery open)
Cargo Space (2 doors) - 724 tons


Dropship Capacity: 4
Grav Decks: 1 (100 m)
Escape Pods: 0
Life Boats: 19







With all the changes and alterations needed on the shipyards, none of these new ships – the Concordat Mod.III, the Concordat Carrier, the Pinto and the Mriya – was planned to start construction before mid 3051 at least.


At 200 tons, the Flanker was a replacement for the Tigress, an enlarged, much more advanced one. Using the latest technologies available, it was armed with 3 ERPPC in the nose, 1 Gauss Rifle on each wing, with 2 tons of ammo each, 2 rear facing Medium Lasers and 1 AMS with 2 tons of ammo. It was also equipped with a Beagle Active Probe and a Guardian ECM while being protected by 20.5 tons of Ferro-Aluminum, and using 18 DHS. It could also carry externally, under the wings, 6 Arrow IV AShM/AAM or 2 Alamos.
Its production would start in mid 3049. This TDF only unit would be deployed at the zenith and nadir jump points.

The integration in the Concordat led to the production of Griffins in Mechdur and Jenners in Detroit being modernized.
The Griffin -1N production line was upgraded to the -2N model (Royal) and the Jenner was redesigned with an Endo-Steel chassis, Ferro-Fibrous armor, 10 DHS, its SRM-4 being replaced by 2 Streak-2 and CASE to protect the ammo.
The Leclerc series of vehicles received a new variant. In the fusion engine ones, the AC/5 and LRM15 were replaced by a Gauss Rifle with 4 tons of ammo.



In 3049, although the full production of the PA(L) specializing in infiltration / stealth had not started, some had been built. Like those from Comstar / Terra / WoB, they were extremely expensive and had to be produced manually by specialized technicians, however ours were extensive modifications of the standard models and not personally customized. The main utility of the two built was to be used as OpFor for sensor tests capable of defeating their advanced stealth systems, or for counter infiltration training by organizations that had this technology. At first TMI was very interested in some stealth PA(L), but they balked at the price and maintenance hours. This was a very maintenance intensive 'toy', after all. After some complains, they managed to get their hands on some of them, as they were ideally suited for their black ops.
An interesting side of PA(L)s production was that it greatly helped solving several problems affecting other battle armor models. The new Jack-II included several improvements and corrections and it was superior in all aspects to the previous models. Unlike the old one, the Jack-II could to use the new Light TAG that was coming into service on the TDF in 3049.
 
Chapter 68
Outreach


Harlech City


Early 3051


Office of Colonel Natasha Kerensky







Natasha Kerensky and Elizabeth Nichole were in a comfortable looking sofa, sampling the contents of the well equipped whiskey stock of Natasha.


'So, Nichole, how is it to train the Reachers?'


'That depends, Natasha. The former Royal Guards, now the Reach Guards, are a standard battalion of moderately competent fanatics, but lacking in imagination and with standard equipment. They take the punishment and might one day improve'.


'And the little Prince's pet troops? Are they a decent adversary?'


'The Revenants? God, they are a nightmare. They have hardware you don't find in other forces, Battle Armor, almost a battalion of these buggers, Fighters armed with AAM and AShM variants of Arrow IV missiles, a lot of EW equipment and other things that nobody has. And they are starting to know how to use them.'


'Well, everyone is starting to produce these new toys, it is just a matter of time before we also get some. I'm confident that you will find a way to overcome these toys.'


'Well, while everybody is indeed starting production of these, and the key word is starting, the Revenants have already plenty of them and are developing a doctrine to use them and they have used us to test it and train their personnel. They also have another variant of the Arrow IV, the FASCAM one, that deploy minefields on demand. Real nasty, until now I have see that one at 'home'. On top of that, they also have a new arty smoke shell. This one also messes with IR, Radar and Lidar. Some of my techs think they use a mix of hot, persistent particles, magnetic ones and a new type of aerosol with a real impact on Lidar systems. They successfully mixed all these in a single warhead and when fired in numbers, they turn your forces almost blind. They like to use them just before launching an ambush or to stop a rush.


'I see I need to arrange some exercises against them, I always liked a challenge. Something more to report?'


'The troubles begin in space, with these heavy Fighters loaded with their special missiles, they can defeat many invaders there. After that, they have these armed satellites and SDS lite forts with Naval Lasers. I'm telling you, only a force with WarShip support could invade a world like that. And that is just the beginning.'


'Oh? Tell me more.' said Natasha refilling the cups.


'The Revenants have a bigger than normal Aerospace Fighter component. All, even the light ones are armed with these dammed missiles. On top of that, in the atmosphere, they use some modified old cargo planes, with DropShips like sensors and comms, that give them better sensor range and allow for better coordination of the Fighters. Normally they are very fragile, but you can't get to them. If you try, you end in a trap against Heavy ASF with plenty of these triple dammed missiles. I only was able to win against them a few times.'


'New toys and new doctrine. I see the Little Prince has been busy.' commented Natasha.


'Don't tell me. As soon as they achieve air domination, they deploy high altitude – out of the range of ground weapons – high endurance drones, with passive sensors, IR and neutrino detectors my techs speculate so that they can detect our forces anywhere.'


'Have you tried scenarios without them having air domination?' asked Natasha after a bit.


'Yes, they are eager to try these also. No good. It is slightly better, because they don't deploy these radars, but our own aerospace forces couldn't do much as they deploy a lot of Leclercs in the flak configuration supported by Valis with SAMs. My aerospace forces hates the Revenants by now. They are trounced most of the time.' said Nichole with a melancholic air.


'And other than the these bad news, what new surprises do they have in stock?' asked Natasha, after emptying the cup and with an interested look.


'Let me see… They love arty. Between these smoke shells and minefields on demand, they can stop any assault very fast. Trying to destroy it is complicated as it is very mobile and always protected by strong forces. They like to use the new Leclerc variants for that, one that is equipped with a Gauss Rifle and can do nasty things to the Light 'Mechs sent against the Arty. Somehow, they also have a new heavy camo net, that can help conceal the tanks way better than the normal ones.' said Nichole, taking the bottle and refilling her cup.


'And on the 'Mechs side? Also bad news?'


'Apart from the fact that they have a lot of them equipped with Beagle or Guardian ECM units, and that they most of the time refuse decisive battles, not so much. The Prince as you like to call him, prefer to send fast units to deal with our depots and kill us with a thousand cuts strategy. He has modified some of the Maultier hovers to fast carry battle-armor, using them to execute said raids to destroy our depots. The silver lining is that they are just starting using that new doctrine and toys, so, we got them several times because of failed coordination, wrong sense of timing everything that happens when you are not yet proficient in a job.'


'Ouch.' said Natasha with a sympathetic look 'and how did the Arano-Bassot behave on the battlefield?'


'Only the daughter fought. Kamea is busy ruling the Province, and Jean-Luc is more in the HQ, coordinating his brainchild. But I have seen both in the range and they are good, very good in fact. The young one is not bad for her age and experience, piloting one of these new Toro 'Mechs they started to deploy which is basically an advanced Wolfhound with jump-jets. By the way, my 'MechWarriors want to get some of these.'


'What I think is strange, is that they are showing you, well us, so much new hardware and their new doctrines. Normally these are state secrets, not show in front of mercenaries, much less ones that are resident in another nation.'


'Oh, the Prince, wants us to know his ideas, he calls them Air-Land Battle 3050 and he want your and Jaime's input. In fact, he asked to know what you both think about the results if they were to be used against forces from Home.' looking intensely at Natasha, Nichole continued 'I think that the Prince considers a serious possibility that an invasion will take place in the near future.'


'So, he knows something and is preparing. That makes sense in a way. The Revenants are gearing to a very different kind of warfare and we need to adapt or be left behind.' Said Natasha refilling her cup again. 'Any bright-side on that depressing report, Nichole?'


'Some. For starters, we are a better unit than the Revenants, if you remove the fancy toys and novel doctrine. They are still adjusting / learning to implement it and several times it failed. It is also very expensive to implement and much of that demand that they obtain early air supremacy. My suggestion is that we invest in EW and enlarge our aerospace arm. We also need to advance with our Battle Armor program faster.'

Wolfnet analysis and conclusions – no recommendations at this time





Technologies that started to be produced by several nations.

Battle-armor
AAM Arrow IV
SAM Arrow IV

Technology / designs used by Comstar / Terra / WoB / Taurian Concordat

PA(L)

Technology / designs only used by the TDF / Revenants - The Revenants because of their close association with VMI get almost all the Concordat tech early on


AWACS - cargo plane with DropShips class sensors and comms suit. It is not a factory made conversion, more a field modification, probably made by the V4RU VMI department. Only one observed.
Drones - long endurance not manned drones that fly at altitudes higher than any 'Mech weapon can reach with IR and Neutrino passive sensors. Factory made, only 3 observed. Probably prototypes / first production run for field test. Numbers show not enough for a continuous field survey.
Heavy / advanced camo net - similar to late SLDF Royal models, but apparently a bit more advanced.
FASCAM - minefields deployed by arty / Arrow IV.


Advanced 'smoke' shells - smoke shells with hot particles + magnetic particles and a mix of improved aerosol that do a mess to any laser system (Lidar, rangefinder, or other)
Maultier BA - modified Maultier hover transport modified to move Battle Armours Factory made models.
AShM Arrow IV - very good to destroy DropShips, outside the range of said DropShips weapons.



While other nations use passive deployed sensors, the Revenants use more and more advanced ones.


Note – While the Revenants are integrated in the TDF after the merging of the Aurigan Reach with the Taurian Concordat, they still have a considerable margin of independence.


Wolfnet considers unusual that the Revenants show so much new hardware and doctrine to the Wolf's Dragoons. It seems that for unknown reason, the decision makers from the Taurian side or the Arano-Bassot regents want this knowledge and their capabilities to be known and understood by us.
 
Chapter 69
Note: In this chapter, several of the shipyards and WarShips being built have nothing to do with OTL / Lore. The differences are significant. Note that it is the initial phase of construction, of new designs, with the exception of some cases pointed out, which means that the first ones produced are still many years away from being considered operational.


TMI Report regarding the construction of WarShips by other nations.

Federated Commonwealth
New Corvette design in Port Simon Naval Shipyards (Galax) and Ioto Galactic Enterprises (Gibbs).
New Heavy Cruiser or Battlecruiser design in Port Sydney Naval Shipyards (Alarion)
New Heavy Cruiser or Battlecruiser design in Kathil Shipworks (Kathil) - different design from the one under construction in Alarion.

Capellan Confederation
New Heavy or Light Cruiser design in Saroyan Shipyards (Sian).

Free Worlds League
New Corvette design in Illium Shpyards (Atreus).
New Heavy Cruiser design in Illium Shipyards (Atreus and Ionus).

Draconis Combine
New Corvette design in Midway Shipyards (Midway) and Terada Warship Yard (Dieron).
New Frigate design in Midway Shipyards (Midway).
Narukami class Destroyer (Block II / modernized?) in Luthien Naval Yard (Luthien).
Samarkand class Carrier (Block II / modernized?) in Luthien Naval Yard (Luthien).

Earth
New Destroyer design on Titan Yards (Sol).
Dante class Frigate in Titan Yards (Sol).

Apart from the Frigate produced in the Sol system and the Destroyer and Carrier under construction in Luthien, all these are new models, all in the initial construction phase of the first model of their class and it is most likely that they will suffer from delays as well as problems before real production can begin.


TMI estimates that none of theses new designs could be operational earlier than in five years.


In the case of the FWL, the considerable fleet of ex-SLDF WarShips is maintained by a new dockyard in orbit of Gibson, the system gifted to the WoB by Thomas Marik. That said ships are all still crewed by WoB operatives and that none were transferred to the FWLN is a source of tension between both groups.






The race-to-arms in the dark navy explains mostly why we don't see many new 'Mech designs, the other nations military are content with upgrading the current models with refit kits , or upgrading the lines to include the new technologies for the next production runs.

Addendum – The mystery of the new JumpShips deployed by the Magistracy of Canopus





While not WarShip related, it came to our attention that during the last decade the MoC has deployed several more JumpShips than it is supposed to have. The first ones were old ones, but their origin is still today unknown. In the last two years the MoC started to deploy more brand new Invaders than their only shipyard in the Canopus system can produce. We couldn't find any link with other nations making a purchase unlikely . TMI postulate that the MoC has a hidden shipyard, somewhere. So far, none of our ships that routinely visit the MoC to deliver goods, has found anything. If you add to it, the six months disappearance of the Second Canopian Fusiliers eleven years ago, it is probable that the MoC has found a lost colony in the Deep Periphery, one with a functional shipyard, and managed to conquer it.
 
Chapter 70
The Federated Commonwealth, sick of the pirate attacks launched from the Tortuga Dominions, finally decided to settle the matter once and for all.
The Lexington Combat Group brigade was sent, with extensive support from CV DropShips, assault DropShips, the first Pocket WarShips built in the FC - Overlord A-3 - and the two Mako Corvettes, that fortunately had just undergone a complete refit.
A large group of space marines, special forces, and several tug-class DropShips were also sent.
A force perhaps excessive to eliminate pirates, even considering the size of the groups that operated from Tortuga, but the AFFC Navy took advantage of the occasion and the fact that it was a relatively low intensity operation, far from the usual opponents eyes, to test new doctrines and gain much needed combat experience.

Note: Because in this AU the collaboration between the FC and the DC don't exist (no Clan invasion so far) the Overlord A-3 has 2 AR-10 tubes instead of 1 AR-10 and 1 Kraken-T.

The operations started with almost simultaneous emergence at both Nadir and Zenith jump-points of Tortuga Prime. At each site, one Mako Corvette accompanied by an Invader JumpShip carrying 1 Overlord A-3, 1 Avenger and 1 Leopard CV exited hyperspace and quickly took control of the present JumpShips and the few forces that the pirates had locally.
Two hours later, the rest of the invading force emerged at the Nadir jump-point, and immediately headed for Tortuga Prime III.
Even though the operations at the jump-points was very favorably to the Federated Commonwealth, at least one pirate JumpShip was stationed at a pirate jump-point, very close to the planet and because they detected the invasion in time, managed to escape.


The rest, even if they fought viciously and with the energy of despair, knowing well what was waiting for them, had no chance. The mercenary unit in charge of this operation had recently modernized their equipment, and easily won total space and air superiority. Paula Trevaline's body was taken from the wreckage of her Banshee, Lady Death.
This situation was repeated in the other five systems of Tortuga Dominions - Morgan's Holdfast, New Port Royal, Fletcher's Feast, New Hati and New Gascony. For some obvious reasons, the few pirates that escaped each time did not alert their fellow groups in the other systems of the Dominion, preferring to depart to distant and safer places at full speed, rather than facing once more the Federated forces (I guess this is what you get when you use a hammer to smash a nut with a sinking morale). In the end, only 3 JumpShips carrying half a dozen DropShips escaped destination unknown. Several thousands of slaves were liberated, about a dozen JumpShips and two dozen DropShips were captured in diverse state, some needed parts and a tender ship with skilled technicians to be operational again, but that could be arranged.


Note: In this AU, there was no 'clean-up' operation in 3042, executed by 9th FedCom RCT – at that time the FC was distracted with the HPG Crisis. And as such, Paula Trevaline is the leader of the pirates in 3051, when this operation is executed.






Following up, several regiments of militia / second rate units took home on the just conquered planets, and a half supported program of colonizing the 6 systems started with some terraforming and water purification systems being delivered.






How does the Taurian Concordat know about this ?


During the last decade the ex-agents of MIM that moved to the Reach had started a school in seduction, compromising and infiltration, to be attended by selected members of the Reach Intelligence – very beautiful woman with the right mentality. This school was later expanded to the full Taurian Concordat, and a full collaboration with TMI started.


One of the best results was the seduction and subsequent compromising of a high level clerk with very high classified clearance in New Avalon. The information of said source was transmitted back to the Concordat via selected JumpShips of the growing Taurian commercial fleet, that routinely visit the Federated Commonwealth.
 
Chapter 71
Note.: ships designs courtesy of Adventwolf.






The TMI report on other nations shipbuilding plans as well as the report on the AFFC starting using WarShips in combat operations, caused a major shake-up in the TDF leadership.
Two nations - Earth and the FWL (although in this case more precisely the WoB) already had not only larger navies, but also bigger ships. Worse, all the large neighboring nations, the FWL, the FC and the CC, were building Cruisers, a type of WarShip that the TDF had decided not so long ago, it would not need.
The need for a proper navy in a few years was made evident and the construction plans had to be changed accordingly, following the wishes of the Admiralty that like all good naval officers always aimed at the biggest machines possibles
Two new types of WarShips were added. One was the very modernized and extended version of the old Taurian Cruiser class Winchester, the other was a completely new design.


Class: Winchester II / Cruiser
Mass: 770,000 tones
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament (Capital): 11 NL55, 2 NAC/30, 8 NAC/20, 1 NAC/10, 6 AR-10 Launchers.
Armament (Secondary): 10 ER Large Lasers, 20 LB 10-X AC, 16 ER Medium Lasers
12 ASF and 6 small crafts
3 DropShips
LF Battery

Class: Ajax / Fast Destroyer
Mass: 390,000 tones
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament (Capital): 3 NAC/20, 10 NAC/10, 9 NL55, 2 NL35
Armament (Secondary): 16 AMS, 20 LB 10-X AC, 22 ER Large Lasers, 6 LRM 20+ArtIV
18 ASF
2 DropShips
LF Battery


While the construction of the Winchester class, was not a major problem from a technical point of view, the Ajax suffered from all the problems that a new design had - delays, cost overruns, glitches on the first ship, etc.
As the budget was not unlimited, even after the information of the construction plans of the neighboring nations, the number of Concordat (Frigates and Carriers) had to be reduced in order to provide means for the construction of the new ships.

The two Concordat variants (Frigates and Carriers), the Cruiser, and the new Destroyer, were all LF battery equipped, allowing task forces equipped with these WarShips to have great mobility, unlike the Pintos, already relegated to patrol and anti-piracy operations.
To accompany / refuel the task forces, a fleet train equipped with Mriyas, each carrying three Starlifter DropShips (50k+ monsters), was planned, as they were the only type of JumpShips equipped with LF battery, and thus able to cope with the speed and range of these task forces.


Although the TDF had a clear preference towards using their new standard Lee class DropShips, these were tremendously expensive, and with most of the available funds allocated for the construction of WarShips, the use of more economical DropShips had to be accepted in some areas.
Thus, a new variant of Union (Union-BA) was accepted, with a capacity to carry 72 battle-armor troops, and to rearm, repair and maintain the BAs.
Another was a (relatively) cheap version of Leopard. Eliminating the cargo capacity, it was equipped with a NL35 spinal mounted, thus creating the cheapest (and not ammo dependent) pocket WarShip in service on the TDF Navy.


Meanwhile, the shipyards at New Vandenberg and Mechdur were in the middle of the upgrading / expansion to be capable to also build Pintos. The bigger WarShips for now, could only be produced in the shipyards at Bolthole and Taurus. In Badlands and Pinard, two new dockyards were in the early phase of construction.
 
Chapter 72
Several studies and simulations showed that although the Taurian WarShips were better defended than the SLDF ones against Aerospace Fighters (including those carrying Alamos), they still needed increase defenses to stand a chance to survive against a determined adversary.


While having a lower range and power than the capital missiles and without the capability of being armed with nukes, the Arrow IV SAMs were still very effective against ASFs. They were also much cheaper and took a lot less of volume and mass compared to the more conventional options. And until the heavy AMS systems reached production phase (which was still a long way to go), they were the best defense option available.


ABRD (Arano-Bassot Research and Development), based on Coromodir, was working on adapting the tracking and targeting systems of the AMS to be used with Pulse and ER Lasers. The difficult part was to let the weapons switch from AMS mode to the 'normal' one and vice-versa. If / when successful, these systems could be used in WarShips and DropShips, to defend them against all kind of missiles from SRMs and LRMs, to Arrow IV anti-ship, or even capital missiles, greatly improving the defenses of said Ships. While very promising, the program still had several problems to resolve.
Because of this, a change in the configuration of the new Winchester II Heavy Cruiser was submitted just before it entered production, changing the layout of the weaponry.



Winchester II - final weapon configuration
Capital Weapons - 11 NL55, 4 NAC/30, 8 NAC/20, 2 NAC/10, 6 AR10 Launcher
Secondary Weapons - 16 ER Medium Laser, 22 ER Large Laser, 20 LB 10-X AC, 12 Arrow IV SAM



At the same time, all WarShips models, including the ones already in service (except the low-cost Pinto) also received 12 Arrow IV SAM, to substantially increase their defenses against ASFs.
This change was not well received by the shipyards as it would create delays in the construction of the first WarShips with all the needed changes in planning and logistics, without forgetting increases in the costs.




Meanwhile, things were moving ahead on the political front too. The immense power that the Arano-Bassot family had in the Concordat was not seen with good eyes by the other groups, with the exception, of course, of the ruling family. This led to continued protests, and in order to calm down the situation, Thomas ended up withdrawing the New Vandenberg government from Jean-Luc and hand it over to one of his most influential supporters groups that was against the situation.
Jean-Luc and Kamea, who had been waiting a long time for this to happen, were neither surprised nor offended by the position Thomas had to take, viewing it as a necessary measure to maintain power. Just as it was clear that it did not affect Jean-Luc's position in the various companies in which he had a stake, this being much more important for the family.


The exception being the Arano-Bassot shares in the New Vandenberg shipyard, that they are also 'forced' to sell to a conglomerate controlled by the politicians that had forced the relinquish of the government of the same system. The Arano-Bassot family, instead of fighting that in the tribunals, accepted the deal pacifically and immediately invested the received funds in the shipyard in the Mechdur system. That group also wanted to buy the Arano-Bassot shares in VMI, but they didn't have enough funds for that after having to buy the shares of the family in the shipyards. For now. They had a lot of political pull and financial might, but not enough money to pay for it. Their goal was to keep the Arano-Bassot within the Reach province.


However, their plan would lead them to nothing as in the last decade, Jean-Luc had used his influence and Kamea tax incentives and in some cases subsidies, to attract several Taurian companies in the Reach to create branches, if possible in Coromodir V, the former planet of the Espinosa family now fully controlled by the Arano-Bassot family.




The TMI was also getting better at finding info about the other powers even in the Inner Sphere.


For example, in recent years the intensity and severity of attacks by pro-Capellan guerrilla groups on the worlds that the Concordat had captured in the war in the 3030s, had increased substantially.
Unfortunately for the Concordat, their security forces had little experience in counterinsurgency operations (COIN). Only in Ward, which had been captured by the Reach, was the situation slightly better. This was due to the fact that due to years of having to deal with pro-Espinosa fanatics, Reach security forces had more experience in COIN operations.
During their regular exchanges with the MIIO, the TMI discovered that the same thing was happening in the Sarna March, Romano Liao had clearly adopted a different strategy this time, one that made raids in retaliation unlikely.


On November the 2nd, of 3051, Hanse Davion suffered a mild heart attack. Although he recovered almost completely, he was forced to reduce his work rate substantially, with Melissa Steiner-Davion taking over many of her husband's duties. At that time, Victor Steiner-Davion who was on active duty in the 12th Donegal Guards RCT, had been called back to New Avalon, but it was apparently decided that he would not take the throne before gaining more experience.
Curiously, around the same time, Katherine Steiner-Davion also entered NAIS for prolonged medical treatment, but it was not specified for which illness.


Rumors were that the AFFC had started to field 'Mechs equipped with more variants of Ultra and LBX cannons – LBX-2, 5, and 20 and Ultra 2, 10 and 20. So far none had been confirmed, but if one took in consideration the 'love' the Davions have for ballistic weapons, it has to be expected.






The TMI confirmed that all nations had initiated searching programs where there had been ancient naval battles, apparently looking for wrecks of WarShips that were possible to recover. At the moment, they had no information on the results, only that the ongoing searches were extensive.
 
On November the 2nd, of 3051, Hanse Davion suffered a mild heart attack. Although he recovered almost completely, he was forced to reduce his work rate substantially, with Melissa Steiner-Davion taking over many of her husband's duties. At that time, Victor Steiner-Davion who was on active duty in the 12th Donegal Guards RCT, had been called back to New Avalon, but it was apparently decided that he would not take the throne before gaining more experience.
Curiously, around the same time, Katherine Steiner-Davion also entered NAIS for prolonged medical treatment, but it was not specified for which illness.
Here's to hoping Crazy Kat doesn't cause a civil war.
 
Here's to hoping Crazy Kat doesn't cause a civil war.
Nope - more like she as diagnosed with a rare type of decease that some Steiner's suffer - is in Lore (or in some Fanfic, not really sure) but i can't find it right now.
 
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