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

Hm not a good death perhaps but still far better than canon where he was disgraced and remembered as a madman. SunTzu must be perplexed that his diplo scheme fell through with other powers not even interested. Probable be a spiteful asshole about it later now that he knows these tools wont work willing for him. Though his predation on Andurian might well mean he is to busy "peace keeping" more systems there to do much though that dead spy is very concerning but who knows who they actually worked with but my gut says they best be careful or yards might suffer a accident perhaps even a nuclear one and would not be surprised the Capellans start building Taurian knockoffs...

And sucks to be clans and welcome to the rice fields motherfuckers. The Weir is more a eh. By the time they can fix it sinking vast sums of resources it might be a obsolete platform and one that sucks more treasure than it provides defense. But we shall see. They could radically change it.

I would have just switched armors and been done with it. Switching to using only one type for naval is a short term high expense that levels out. Better than having to refit a ship yet again just for armor. Also think you mean" start to build the Block II." And "helping the Magistracy expand the shipyards".
 
Hm not a good death perhaps but still far better than canon where he was disgraced and remembered as a madman. SunTzu must be perplexed that his diplo scheme fell through with other powers not even interested. Probable be a spiteful asshole about it later now that he knows these tools wont work willing for him. Though his predation on Andurian might well mean he is to busy "peace keeping" more systems there to do much though that dead spy is very concerning but who knows who they actually worked with but my gut says they best be careful or yards might suffer a accident perhaps even a nuclear one and would not be surprised the Capellans start building Taurian knockoffs...

And sucks to be clans and welcome to the rice fields motherfuckers. The Weir is more a eh. By the time they can fix it sinking vast sums of resources it might be a obsolete platform and one that sucks more treasure than it provides defense. But we shall see. They could radically change it.

I would have just switched armors and been done with it. Switching to using only one type for naval is a short term high expense that levels out. Better than having to refit a ship yet again just for armor. Also think you mean" start to build the Block II." And "helping the Magistracy expand the shipyards".
If the MAF does the same thing the EDF does to the Farragut, the Weir (AKA, trade some cargo space for a lot of anti-ASF / anti-missile weapons) can turn into a scary MoF. At this time nobody knows who penetrate the Taurians. Capellans / Sun Tzu been his normal self.
 
If the MAF does the same thing the EDF does to the Farragut, the Weir (AKA, trade some cargo space for a lot of anti-ASF / anti-missile weapons) can turn into a scary MoF. At this time nobody knows who penetrate the Taurians. Capellans / Sun Tzu been his normal self.
Well like a lot of League ships if you dropped a few thousand tons of cargo you can make some fuck off terrifying shit. Fun might be if clans ever find out about the Weir and send forces demanding information. Though not knowing who penetrated them is going to keep a lot of people up at night worrying.

See what Sun-Tzu does but he is a bastard who is going to bastard and will be hilarious to see him overreach eventually. Those mercs who switched sides basically just scuttled their careers because no one sane will ever trust them again and the Cappies are just making themselves targets for when the other powers can turn their forces back their way.
 
Chapter 100
In Luthien, discussions regarding the next step to take led to the conclusion that it was best at the moment to concentrate offensive operations against the Smoke Jaguars. Not only had the IlKhan been one of them, but they had also been the Clan that had led the invasion - at least in the Draconis Combine.


It was decided to attack 3 systems, systems that the infiltrated forces had reported were not protected by WarShips and the local defenses were about a Cluster of front line forces strong, already worn down by constant guerrilla and commando attacks.






Jeannete


Defender - Fourth Jaguar Dragoons


Attacker - 5th Taurian Guards, 10th Ghost Regiment, Ryuken-yon and the ex-TCS Ajax, now the DCS Benjamin






Easy victory, not only were the Smoke Jaguars tired and under-resourced due to constant attacks by guerrillas and the various infiltrated DEST teams, but their immense aggressiveness led them to a suicidal frontal assault on the invading forces, pathing the way for their destruction within hours.






Chupadero


Defender - 214th Jaguar Dragoons


Attacker - 2nd Taurian Guards, 7th Ghost Regiment, Ryuken-Go and the ex-TCS Jerome (Pinto class), now the DCS An Ting






Unlike the 4th Jaguar Dragoons, the 214th was more careful and tactically flexible (for a Smoke Jaguar unit), which led that it was only 15 days later the system was considered safe, meaning casualties were also higher.






Jeronimo


Defender - 3rd Jaguar Cavaliers, Nu Galaxy, the CSJ Korat (Liberator Class ) and the CSJ Lioness (York Carrier Class)


Attacker - 3rd Taurian Guards, 6th Ghost, Ryuken-San and the TCS Detroit (Concordat Carrier Class)






By a fluke of bad luck, two days before the invading force arrival, Nu Galaxy escorted by 2 WarShips had appeared in the system. The DEST cell operating the black box that maintained communications with the outside was destroyed, leading to the reinforcements not being reported.


Note - unlike OTL, Nu Galaxy has been reconfigured as a front-line unit, with the most modern equipment the Smoke Jaguars were producing at this time, and was composed of the latest generation of Trueborns that the sibkos had trained.






To further make things worst, the Kuritan and Taurian forces emerged right on top of the Smoke Jaguars' WarShips, with no way to escape.


The Detroit only managed to launch about half of its ASFs before the combined fire of the Korat and the Lioness destroyed it.


Adding to the difficulties, these Clan WarShips had good defenses against ASFs, and a higher number of ASFs than usual. The first wave of ASFs, could only do limited damage to both WarShips, which by now were beginning to pound down the DropShips that were speeding at full power towards Jeronimo, trying to escape.


Only the use of all the ASFs of the 3 regiments, and the fact that the 3rd Taurian Guards carried nuclear weapons , allowed both WarShips to be destroyed, although 2 Lee (Taurian), 3 Overlord and 1 Triumph (Kurita) were destroyed, as well as a considerable part of the ASF component of the 3 regiments.


While these new classes of Warships (both the Liberator and York classes being post-SL Clan designs, not previously seen in the Inner Sphere until now)had considerable anti-ASF weaponry, they still lacked dedicated AMS systems, making them vulnerable to Alamos salvos.






Unaware that a Galaxy was present on the planet, the attacking forces decided to continue the mission to liberate Jeronimo in spite of the losses suffered, that amounted to 4 'Mech battalions and 2 vehicle battalions, during the run towards the planet.


Unfortunately, when they landed, they were confronted by the full might of the Nu Galaxy, 3 brand new, fully equipped, front-line Clan Clusters, reinforced by the Cavaliers (Cluster size force), all the while with the Clans enjoying a comfortable superiority in ASFs, which was a total reversal of the usual situation


A week later, one of the Mriya arrived at Jeanette, making use of its LF, with news of the disaster, prompting a quick rescue force including the WarShip present (the DCS Benjamin, Ajax class Destroyer) and the 5th​ Taurian Guards (that used Mriya JumpShips with LF) to be launched. During this time, the forces on the planet were trying to survive, executing a continuous running battle, and denying, if possible, the decisive battle the Jaguars wanted so badly. While they had lost much of their ASFs, they still had many of the Flak/SAM units, thus negating partially the Clan air superiority, even if that meant they had to concentrate some of their forces, making them vulnerable to ground forces.






When the relief forces arrived, the plan was only to extract the allied forces. However since the majority of the Smoke Jaguars had decided to press on their attack after the detection of the incoming forces, with the hope that they could destroy the survivors before having to face a new battle, they offered an easy target for orbital bombardments before being finished with a daring combat drop of the Taurian brigade on top of those still fighting the allied forces. Around one battalion strong was rescued just before collapsing, the only remains from two DCMS regiments and a Taurian brigade (equivalent to a full RCT).


The few forces that dispersed, were later tracked and destroyed, thanks to the use of the Taurian high altitude drones with neutrino emission detectors, that were able to find even the most well hidden units, as long as they had their Fusion reactor activated. Unfortunately for the Clanners, they didn't have much experience in 'going underground' and two weeks later the planet was declared safe.






Note.: The Taurian high altitude drone with passive neutrino sensors was already shown in chapter 68 - first used against the Wolf's Dragoons (in training).






In the last quarter of 3057, the infiltrated DEST teams started to report that Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Hell Horses units were invading worlds that until now were under control of the Smoke Jaguars. By the end of the year, no force of the Smoke Jaguars could be found on the worlds where the Draconis Combine had eyes on.


Only much later was it learned that because of the severe losses this Clan suffered (3 Galaxies in Luthien, another in Jeronimo and enough front-line Clusters to amount for another Galaxy), the death of the IlKhan and the Khan, the other Clans, sensing a weakness, decided to take advantage of it. By February 3058, the Smoke Jaguars were no more, having been absorbed/destroyed by the other Clans.
 
Painful loses but frankly the clans can afford them less. They warship losses are something they can only replace by activating more units from a limited mothball caches and those lost units? Well it would have been better if they been lost against other clans fighting the absorption. Still the clans dont have them either so the Jaguars are functionally a straight loss with the warrior caste die fighting and the lower castes mostly useless because of the warriors antics.

And the real repercussion is a major clan is dead.

The invasion is not just fun anymore it is deadly serious. The invading clans are winning great "honor" and resources but they fuck up they die either by the houses hands or their own kin and that will cause some major stress.
 
The clans at this time have much less warship (and jumpship) construction capability than the IS - heck, even less than the taurians alone.
And part of that capability is tied to refiting old warships from the SLDF times.
On top of that already exist a clear division between invading clans and clans that stayed home. The chaos about the election (or not) of a new IlKhan is a good example of that.
 
Societies based around tiny numbers of gladiators do not make great industrial anything. They can produce them but they dont use warships much and still have caches to play with for now but those will empty fast if they are in actual combat. The divide should not be that big yet since the initial invasion is still happening but the home clans are just looking for a excuse and the invaders have to balance everything against that risk. Any clan warrior with a brain will look at the Jaguars and wonder if they are next if they run into a catastrophic loss or several grinding battles.
 
The Home clans want the election of the IlKhan to be in Strana Mechty, the Invading clans don't want to send their Khans (and all the blood named warriors) on a long voyage, during the actual conflict.
The Home clans 'loved' to capture the SJ holdings and assets, taking on one of the invading clans - one particularly detested.
Some divisions already exist.
 
Going home in canon was fucking stupid and should have cost them ever captured world or at least gave the houses time to build a defensive wall the clans would have bleed hard breaking and i bet they did love fighting the jaguars as they died screaming taking as many as they could with them but then as hated as they should have been a lot of old grudges got settled as well.
 
Chapter 101
Ever since I had appeared in this universe (3015) and had been given access to a computer, I had been thinking of what could be done by adding the technology from the universe I had come from.


It took me decades to be able to do something. My first company, V4RU, had nothing to do with computers and even when I became first a member and then the CEO of VMI, I had the same problem as it was not a company dedicated to producing / developing computers.


Only when I bought a stake in O-P Computer Electronics in the 30s, was I able to start investigating other chip building techniques. Finding / hiring like-minded researchers was extremely difficult, not even counting the limits imposed by extremely tight security.


It didn't help that my background was as a programmer, with little knowledge in this peculiar field.


Only in the mid 40s did we see the apparition of new techniques by some small laboratories , which allowed for the reduction of chip sizes.


But it was only in the early 50s, with a company / lab specifically dedicated to the problem and built on Coromodir V, that the first components, smaller and faster than the original ones, started to be produced. Obviously because of the lack of applied researches in this field for centuries, they were fragile and could only be produced at a small scale and were not yet up to the military specs, meaning they could only be used in some places that needed much computer power and were considered safe. Fragile, being for me a very relative term, since by my standards, they were incredibly robust, but by local standards (with BattleMechs lasting hundreds of years), they were fragile and short-lived.






It was also in the 50s that we finally started building industrial models of the equipment we had taken from the Argo. For all intents and purposes, they were a kind of highly advanced and versatile 3D printers, capable of building almost anything within the dimensions of the unit, provided (quite obviously) they had access to the necessary raw materials and blueprints. Difficult and time-consuming to build, extremely expensive, they were the ultimate state-of-the-art technology from the Star League. A small factory on Coromodir V was, to my knowledge, the only one that produced them in 3058, and even then, less than a dozen unit per year.






Whether integrated in the Concordat or not, Kamea's plans (and mine) were to make the Aurigan Province as independent in terms of resources, factories, universities and even military capabilities as possible. To this end, Coromodir V, Mechdur and Detroit had been chosen as the major industrial centers. Since Coromodir V was personally controlled/owned by our family, I had spent the time from the early 30s until now quietly moving as much as I could of new and/or more profitable departments of the companies I controlled or had a stake in there or into the province



Not that we were planning to get our independence back, far from it, but we wanted to leave a solid and secure inheritance to our children and Kamea would always consider the Aurigan Province as her own.






However, we (me and Kamea) only achieved a partial success in that objective. For one side, while the Calderons and Edward in particular were our allies and friends, ultimately, they were the ruling family of the Concordat, and to maintain / secure their power they couldn't let any other family, not even their closest allies gain excessive power. So, several of the movings we had planned had been blocked, and several big contracts distributed to competitors. The construction of the Concordat class frigates or of the Winchester II Heavy Cruisers and the work on the Texas battleship, were awarded to shipyards controlled by the Calderon family, for example.


And while our political opponents, while good at this game but lacking in the industrial ones, were not blind enough to let us grow too much, without some counter moves. In that they were supported by the Calderons – to a point.






Evidence that the Calderons had started to take measures to guarantee their supremacy was pointed to me by Kamea – I'm a bit blind in that area, I confess. She noted several facts that seemed to prove it:


- in the Marian Hegemony Crisis, we didn't receive any benefits, even if our forces (with our Heir included) were the only ones apart the federal ones involved.- following the creation of the Fronc Reachs – the territory between us and the Magistracy / FWL, no world was added to the Aurigan Province with the best ones directly under the Calderons' control and the rest 'gifted' to our political adversaries.


- while we needed to pay in full the upgrades in the Mechdur shipyard to be able to make Ajax Destroyers, the one in New Vandenberg received generous federal subsidies for that.


- only federal units had been sent to fight the Clans, gaining experience and controlling the advanced tech captured. That turned in a spectacular blow-back with the disaster in Jeronimo.






Yep, the Calderons had started to limit our growing and to secure their position as the leaders of the Taurian Concordat.






Note: the following is based on some ideas I get reading the excellent Cannonshop Ngoverse.






I had launched several pet projects to expand the capabilities of the Coromodir system. These included a new variant of the Snowden-L, with a bay for more mining 'Mechs of a variant that used cheaper fission reactors, a special type of DropShip / thug that was basically a cockpit, engines, K-boon connector and an articulated rib-cage that could 'capture' the Snowden and move it to the desired position and / or transport it via JumpShip to another system.


To complement these, a 'ferry' was designed – a very small JumpShip, using a very old, experimental, type of K-F drive that could only jump up to 3LY, (thanks to the use of modern alloys and techniques of construction) with two K-boom connections and super-capacitors in place of LF battery, to transport the above mentioned units to the Coromodir Oort cloud.


That type of K-F drive, with only 10% of the range of those in use today, even if it used much less energy, had long been considered an evolutionary dead-end and abandoned, but for the ferry job between the inner part of a system and the distant Oort cloud, it was perfect, being much cheaper and smaller than a conventional one.


All of these models were the product of the work of Dr. Murad, the locally resident genius.


So far, none had moved past the theoretical design and / or proof of concept, but together, they would greatly facilitate the expansion of the local economy, provided that we could develop and produce them locally. After all, the tech, tools, trained personnel, and raw materials were already there, I was "only" missing the budget to finish these projects.






The idea of the ferry type JumpShip came out during a dinner with the Murad family. Her adopted daughter, Gabrielle, was working on K-F drives theory and was a very good story teller. She talked about the early 15LY range drives, the experimental 50LY one and even about the tentative to obtain one more compact, simpler and less energy hungry. The last one proved to be an evolutionary dead-end that never exceeded the 3 LY range, quickly forgotten by almost everybody. At the time I was starting to look on the resources of the Oort cloud – too distant to be obtained by DropShip only and using conventional JumpShips would be too expensive and attract too much attention. The story brought me some fresh perspectives and was the start of this project.
 
Honestly it sounds like your family will be facing "accidents" or marriage deals soonish. Even absorbed the reach is still strong enough that it could stand on its own and it will only get stronger and the Taurians need to bind the Reach and its nobles closer or be ready for consequences down the line. And that K-F drive does not sound like a dead end but a advanced that need to be field tested and worked at. 3 light years is still 3 light years and less energy should mean faster recharge times and if it is smaller and cheaper? That is the potential for something very interesting. If nothing else actually exploring the line could find interesting uses like he has already as a in system ferry that should revolutionize space mining but could it be used to make system defense warships or perhaps short legged cargo haulers for destination under 30 lightyears? Add in computer chips that are radically different from standard and those 3d printers which are probable in high demand and you have a strong base to fuel other economic growth.
 
The Heir of the Concordat and the Heir of the Reach are more or less in a relationship at this time - nothing official, yet.
Yes, that kind of K-F drive has many uses - not in a traditional way, but plenty of use. Just because the TH and SL never used them doesn't equal to be useless.
 
A relationship that might get pushed because the Reach is rapidly becoming a second power center and the Cauldrons will want that happy and interested in staying in the Concordat not getting ideas they would be better off going it alone... Which might be very true given the levers they are having to push to hold them back from a tech and economic explosion that could see them out pace much of the rest of local space. Innovative thinking like that K-F drive will carry them far.
 
Chapter 102
When we were also excluded from the contract to expand the Quatre Belle shipyard in the Outworlds Alliance, and from the to help Magistracy repair / refit the ex-SLS Zughoffer Weir (no MCS name assigned yet, that we knew of) Kamea decided it was time to activate the Deep Space Resources program. The first step of this program was the exploration of the Oort cloud in the Coromodir system.


To this end the production of at least four 'Ferry' class JumpShips was authorized.


The first one was built on the Orca prototype chassis, to keep costs low (after all this program had a limited budget) since both designs had the same dimensions were similar. It helped that with everything required already being produced in Mechdur, the production of future Ferry would be considerably less expensive than any other JumpShip design.


The main difference with a classical JumpShip was that we removed all armament, LF Battery and compact K-F drive in favor of a short range K-F drive. This type of drive had some interesting features, for example, being made of only 80% of the usual Titanium-Germanium alloy while the remaining 20% were various metal alloys, neither exotic nor expensive to produce. Even if it had a maximum range of only 3LY and a minimum of 0.05LY, it could be 'charged' in just one day via fusion reactor safely and did not need a solar sail to do so. Because of residual effects, there was also a minimum period of 6 hours between each jump, making the implementation of super-accumulators for a second jump in a row useless. Its size was basically the same as a compact K-F drive, but at the cost of a 'civilian' K-F drive, making it much more economic provided you had the space to put it into any ships.


It also had a higher jump error margin, about 10% than standard drives, with the pilots calling it suicide to use one to reach the smallest pirate points.






Only the final step, installing the new K-F drive, was performed in Coromodir V, everything else was done in Mechdur at the facility that also built the Orcas.


Testing with the Ferry 001 began in March 3059 with some jumps between one of the Lagrange points of Coromodir V (the biggest one) and various areas of the Oort cloud system and back.






The funds for this project came partly from the provincial budget, partly from the Aurigan Central Bank controlled by our family, and partly from our personal funds.
 
And this is considered a dead end tech? 3 light years a day? Cheaper to build and same space as a compact core? Could it be charged faster with sail and fusion? Yeah standard drives are faster on long haul but how many systems are inside 10 or 15 light years of each other? In the time a standard core can jump once this type could jump to potential 5 different systems. Especially in places like the confederation where the systems are rather tightly packed that could be so useful. This opens up heavy mining of dead systems near inhabited ones. Probable make some very dangerous monitors with it to. This is going to be a amazing money maker once they get going and present the Cauldrons with a major problem because they cant just make you stop production or hand it off to rivals without basically handing you just cause to revolt.
 
Yes, for short-range is good. The problems are that the error in jumping is bigger so no pirate points and to jump 30 LY you need 10 days while the normal drive does it in one jump. For 60LY, 20 v 1 week or two weeks depending if you count the initial charge, etc.
So, is slower and more limited. On the plus side is cheaper and faster for short distances. For some reason, in the past - that has been invented during the Terran Hegemony time and the SL poured a lot of resources trying to fix the limitations - the design is abandoned and the actual one turned standard.
 
Well obviously they can use some pirate points because they are jumping from langrage points which are pirate points but even without they are still incredible valuable and able to move stuff around and in the right systems could vastly speed up traffic. Being cheaper means easier to produce to create networks of them and that makes for faster travel even if each leg is shorter. Being smaller and cheaper means more potential drop ship capacity... I wonder how expensive it would be to make a Potemkin like version with 20 collars or just 10? Just one with 6 collars is already more than most designs and could see very fast travel between a road of systems.
 
Cost - cost the same as a standard drive but as the size of a compact one - or put another way - is a compact drive that costs 5 times less.
Is operating from the largest 'pirate point' / Lagrange in Coromodir V, anything less is considered dangerous and any transient Pirate point is considered suicide.
The name says all - is a Ferry, not an interstellar type of ship.
The idea of a Potentkin type to move lots of dropships from the Zenith or Nadir to a stable big 'pirate point' is good. The design must be made first, and the money available. Maybe in 10 years, you see one operating in the Coromodir system.
I based the design/idea on some models in Cannonshop Ngoverse, and they indeed use some for fast intra-system travel. Only in Kowloon. Me, i plan to travel the same path - using this tech only on Coromodir - the home system of the Arano-Bassot family.
 
Chapter 103
The much anticipated continuation of the Federated Commonwealth counter-offensive against the Clans began in February 3059.

Hanse and Morgan Hasek-Davion had gathered 50 of their best RCTs near the border with the Jade Falcons, reinforce by extra artillery and Battle-Armor units. All units had been upgraded to the latest technology and the assault had received a full naval support with WarShips (80% of the Federated Navy being deployed for this operation), Pocket WarShips, Assault DropShips and extra units of ASFs.



The remaining WarShips, the second echelon regiments and mercenary forces would remain behind to protect the borders.



The delay before launching the attack came from all sort of logistical and organizational problems. For example, in order to maximize the impact, the Federated Commonwealth took the risk of producing two vessels of their newest and still untested designs, even before fixing the design quirks. Other units had to go through a complete retrofit of existing units like one Mjolnir that had serious problems with the intra-system engines.

Another basic "problem" was that the moving of so many RCTs took time and this without taking into account the time spent upgrading the units and re-training the personnel, even if it had been backed up by the massive industrial capability of the Federated Commonwealth. Luckily, in the two last decades, the number of JumpShips in all the Inner Sphere had grow considerably, which, unlike in the 4th​ Succession War, allowed to move so many forces at the same time with only minor disruption in trade.



Such delays had also given a boost to the Fighters branch with more Royal grade Stukas available for the FC Navy (and for some RCTs) while the first full production run of AAMs reached the frontline units.



As with the Draconis Combine and the Concordat operations, and prior to any offensive moves, several units of the Rabid Foxes and Loki had been inserted into the targeted systems. Now, months later, had they not only identified the Falcons bases, ammunition depots and parts, but they had also prepared sabotage and assassination operations for when they would be activated. Thanks to communication through the Black Boxes, the AFFC High Command had a fairly detailed picture of the forces present. It had also been decided, from the very beginning, to attack only one Clan, in an attempt to drive it out of the Inner Sphere, or to weaken it enough to make the other Clans turn against it.

On February 23rd​, 3059, 10 systems controlled by the Jade Falcons were suddenly invaded. Each system, received the full might of 5 RCTs with extensive support. At the same time, infiltrated units were ordered to do as much damage as they could.



Black Earth, Golandrinas, Somerset, Apollo, Wotan, Maxie's Planet, Butler, Romulus, Seiduts, and Evciler had been selected because none of them was protected by more than 2 Clusters and therefore they were quickly cleared, with the Falcons losing about 3 Galaxies (out of the 10 they had in the Inner Sphere) as well as the WarShips CJF Black Talon and CJF Blue Talon, with 4 other WarShips escaping with varying degrees of damage.

Particular attention had been directed to neutralizing the Snow Raven Storm Crow Naval Pursuit Star CSR Mountbatten (Texas), CSR Kerensky's Hope (Cameron), CSR Ark Royal (Conqueror), CSR Storm Crow (Sovetskii Soyuz) and CSR Nestling (Carrack), which was stationed at Planting, and could counter-strike, even if records of Clan cooperation were nearly non-existent – with the exception of the attack on Luthien. To deal with this threat, a Strike Fleet had been gathered with several heavy Ships, the FCS Alexander Davion and the FCS Lucien Davion (Avalon), the FCS Mjolnir (Mjolnir), the FCS Fox and the FCS Ian Davion (Fox), the FCS Jaipur and the FCS Midale (New Syrtis block 2) and the FCS Invincible (Tarkad). All the Federated Commonwealth WarShips were equipped with LF and positioned at Derf.

Note.: The New Syrtis Block 2 Class is a modernization of the previous Class, with LF, AMS, DHS and Ferro-Aluminum Armor

At the last minute, the MIIO lost track of the Snow Raven combat group, which had vanished. Much later, it was discovered that the Snow Ravens had made a deal with the Ghost Bears and moved to help defending their territories in the Inner Sphere, in exchange for getting the Bears territories in the Homeworlds, with the Bears moving their entire Clan to the Inner Sphere.



Unlike in OTL, the deal between the Snow Ravens and the Ghost Bears includes the squadron of Snow Raven warships that until now patrol the area controlled by the Jade Falcons and Steel Vipers, to move to patrol and help secure the area controlled by the Ghost Bears. The helping build the Leviathans and moving the Ghost Bears population to the Inner Sphere (the OTL deal), is also included. For that the Snow Ravens receive all the Ghost Bears territories in the Homeworlds, and access to any future shipyards that the Bears built in the Inner Sphere. The reason of the different deal is caused by the inclusion of the Snow Ravens in the invasion, by then IlKhan Leo Showers.



On March 17th​, 3059, at Romulus Nadir jump-point, a big Jade Falcon force, including several WarShips emerged, immediately heading for the inhabited planet. As soon as it was detected, a message was sent to Derf. A few hours later, the Federated Commonwealth Strike Fleet also appeared at the Nadir jump-point, immediately beginning the pursuit.

Because the Jade Falcons were indeed heading towards more offensive operations, with most of the units already embarked or in their way to gathering areas, their reaction was faster than had been expected, all the Falcon Khan had to do was to change the objectives from invading new worlds to attacking where the AFFC was now.
 
Functionally the falcons are already screwed. Three galaxies is a lot and just pulling reserves will bleed more time and effort and slow them down. And now its a brawl and even if they win they are going to lose more galaxies and probable pushed to the point of collapse or at least being jumped by other clans... And the FedCom can probable survive losing those troops even if it will hurt like hell. But given it is Hanse and Morgan in charge i think they will be eating plenty of green turkey. See how it actually goes... The Bears are moving rather fast to migrate. And thats a real threat because the houses cant really afford to let a clan move in and get really entrenched. But how well will they be able to do so in a non canon universe where the rasalhague people known for stubbornness and independence perhaps dont roll over and merge while claiming how similar they are to the bears?
 
Some clans understand that to defend their posses in the IS they need to be here in full force, not with a part of the clan separated by a 1000LY distance.
Others are slow to get to that point and pay the price.
Ultimately, even the ones that move early don't have the industrial might nor the numbers to defeat the bigger nations of the IS, but that is for the future.
Unlike OTL, the tech difference is already very small, and the IS nations have a robust production of warships - and ASFs nuke loaded.
 
Ultimately the clans are just to small and poorly optimized to fight the houses. Who cares if you turn out a handful of supreme warriors with each class when each academy of the houses churn out thousands of good enough? When they have worlds by themselves with equal or more people than your entire clan and their industry should match? The invading clans will join the jaguars in dying and the bears are gonna be turbo dead because they went all in on a pair of 7s thinking them aces. How the clans react long term to the fact they are not even that relevant is gonna be both hilarious and horrible as their cultures implode.
 
Chapter 104
The past year had been a nightmare for Marthe Pryde. First, was Elias Crichell's scandal of his false combat certifications, which had led to his execution and Marthe's promotion to saKhan.

After that, in a gambit to augment the available WarShips, the clan moved several ones that were playing escort roles on the Exodus Road to the front lines.

That backfired spectacularly, when the Taurians raiders started to hit the area, with the Falcons losing several JumpShips. In particular, the loss of the CJF Arrowhead (a Star Lord), with enough equipment to equip two full front line Clusters, had delayed the resuming of the invasion by several months. That the other Clans had also reported losses and also had to delay their operations was of no help. The only answer was to to move the WarShips back to protect the supply lines, removing several warships from the front-l lines.

Then the Federated Commonwealth launched its offensive, just as Vandervahn Chistu was about to order the new offensive operations. By the end of this operation, not only had the Clan lost 10 systems and about 3 Galaxies, but also 2 WarShips with 4 others being damaged. The counterattack had been a disaster, with the ambush on Romulus and the subsequent destruction of 2 other Galaxies and 4 more WarShips, including CJF the Turkina's Pride (Cameron) and the CJF Falcon's Nest (Texas), as well as the death of Vandervahn Chistu, promoting Marthe to Khan of the Jade Falcons. The fool had advanced blindly in the jaws of the Federated Commonwealth trap, never understanding that the technological gap had been reduced and that the forces he faced were first class, not second rate ones, like during the first stage of the invasion.

It was of little comfort, that he and his force had died well, concentrating all the OmniFighters, from the Warships and Galaxies alike, to protect the force to arrive mostly intact to orbit, and them, for the ground forces to land. Unfortunately for them, the AFFC forces have dispersed or hidden, not presenting a viable target to the warships weapons. And them, the AFFC warships arrived, and in the following space battle, the clans are defeated, even if extracted a heavy toll, enough to force the Federated Commonwealth fleet to return home to much necessary repair, removing the massive warships from the front-lines for several months, if not years.

On the ground, the battle as not gone much better, the numerical superiority of the AFFC, supplemented by great numbers of artillery and some space support, from the surviving and still operational warships, dictated the victor.



Demonstrating their numerical superiority, the AFFC had resumed its attack, occupying 6 new systems and destroying 3 more Galaxies, and 2 other WarShips, the CJF Green Lantern (Congress) and the CJF Lightning Strike (Vincent). Again, they launched 3 RCTs in each one of their target, leaving the more damaged / exhausted units to defend each of the recently conquered / freed systems.



Left with only about 2 Galaxies, one of which was composed almost entirely of second-line forces, and with the Steel Viper moving to take advantage of their weakness, Marthe had had no choice but to abandon the Inner Sphere and return to the Pentagon, to try to recover and survive.

To that end, she had given orders to Samantha Clees, her saKhan, who was in Eden, to launch a crash training program for the Trueborns of the last generation who had failed the tests as MechWarriors and even to test Freebrons who showed qualities. At the same time, he had given her orders to open the Brian Caches available to equip all the forces thus created with whatever they obtained from the Caches, since the Falcons with only 4 Galaxies, 3 of which being mostly garrison forces, desperately needed more troops and equipment, unless they wanted to suffer the fate of the Smoke Jaguars.

Now, Marthe just hoped to get to the HomeWorlds in time, to prevent the Clan absorption, and if possible rebuild her forces. One thing was certain - it would be many years before she could return to the Inner Sphere.
 
If she gets back and the falcon still exist its because the council is waiting for her return to make it a proper and clean sweep. More likely she gets home to find she and her forces are the only falcons and can be absorbed or be destroyed. And now the real question become which clan will dare to step up and try to take their place? And what of the wolves because by now they must know their position is increasingly unstable. Falcons and Jaguars are dead. The bears are entrenching and the houses resistance is basically a wall. Retreat or die?
 
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