Battletech Clover Spear - The War of 3056 (Battletech AU)

SuperHeavy

Well-known member
All you needed was three brain cells to fire at the same time Victor. Just three and you could see how terrible this decision is. I mean you think a man you had beat out of your chambers is your best option?
 

LordSunhawk

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All you needed was three brain cells to fire at the same time Victor. Just three and you could see how terrible this decision is. I mean you think a man you had beat out of your chambers is your best option?
I think this is a case where he had precious few options. The duty posting required a Steiner-Davion, and Adam was the only one available. Victor likely has safeguards in place, and note that his statement about this being his greatest regret most likely refers to the fact that he had to have his brother executed for treason rather than that his brother managed to actually do anything.
 

SuperHeavy

Well-known member
The duty posting required a Steiner-Davion, and Adam was the only one available.
No political post requires a certain bloodline more than it needs someone who isn't virulently incompetent. This is not the FedSun Outback where if he screws up you maybe get a blip in GDP, this a potential landmine handed off to a spiteful moron. That Victor has yet to grasp that basic fact of statesmanship then he has little chance holding this ship of state together.
 

TimeDiver

Member
The duty posting required a Steiner-Davion, Adam was the only one available.
Say what now? Adam is a fairly distant Steiner relation; related to Victor and co. through Hanse marrying Melissa.

The one being a complete asshole here is Arthur, the 2nd youngest of Victor's siblings, aside from Yvonne.

What's more, I must have missed that 'being strongly influenced by the Sandovals' == 'extremely racist and misogynistic', rather than 'strongly prejudiced against any sort of long-term, non-hostile relations with the Combine' (which is completely undertandable, re: Kentares)...

...unless Katherine being a woobie (re: having her personal demons recognized and 'treated') means that someone among the Steiner-Davions must become a Hate Sink, to preserve some form of meta-balance, or I never got an accurate handle on Arthur's canon characterization.
 

LordSunhawk

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My bad, I mixed the two up.

And remember that the Sandoval's go a bit beyond 'hostile' to outright psycho in canon, with Tancred being the only semi-sane one, and that only because he was close friends with Victor.
 

LordSunhawk

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No political post requires a certain bloodline more than it needs someone who isn't virulently incompetent. This is not the FedSun Outback where if he screws up you maybe get a blip in GDP, this a potential landmine handed off to a spiteful moron. That Victor has yet to grasp that basic fact of statesmanship then he has little chance holding this ship of state together.
Again, this is a post that requires a member of the dynasty to fill. Victor has only so many siblings to go around and most likely considers this to be the one that presents the least risk. Sending Arthur off to count penguins on Tharkad would be even more damaging than taking the risk that Victor is taking here.
 

SuperHeavy

Well-known member
Sending Arthur off to count penguins on Tharkad would be even more damaging than taking the risk that Victor is taking here.
No it wouldn't because having no one of the royal family in a position of authority and leagues better than an active incompetent in that same role. If the state cannot spare at least one capable administrator and said administrator doesn't have enough standing despite the full blessing of the entire royal family, Victor might as well pack it in. North Korea has more governmental flexibility then that. Victor gets a free pass, the man is a political failure, but his advisors need to step up.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
It's like having unlanded sons in Crusader Kings. As the sovereign it is expected of him to find a function for his younger brother, but given how he is openly hostile to him, it would be better for Victor to take a bit of prestige hit and assign some junior Steiner to to the function and not the petty asshole, who could be expected to sabotage the project, just to spite him.
 

bobnik

Memetic Warfare Specialist
Given the politics involved, Victor likely has to let Arthur fuck up in public before he can censure him, or even appear to censure Arthur by passing over him. Especially with Omi in the mix.
 

Silverbullet

Active member
Was Arthur like this in canon? All I remember of him was being killed by Krazy Kat for trying to speak out against her and then being one of the people thought Devlin Stone was.
 

Skitzyfrenic

Well-known member
I think I recall reading something about Arthur being very Draconis March-y. A protoge of Tancred's Dad. Mentored and fostered.

If he is vehemently anti-drac in any story I wouldn't be surprised.
 

CurtisLemay

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I am setting the stage for future stories, as well as some future story hooks. Gotta have a villain or two out there somewhere. And as I have said elsewhere? Feel free to play in the universe, just PM me first so we can conform to each other's movements, so to speak.

I already have planned two shorter stories "The Speech" which is Omi's speech on Kentares, as well an unnamed story planned to discuss the succession of Franklin Sakamoto's daughter to the Combine throne. You'll all love Aoki Kurita. :devilish:
 
A Gathering Storm

CurtisLemay

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A Gathering Storm​



Peace, why on earth was it a dirty word for so damn long? I mean it’s not a bad thing. No more filled hospitals, screaming wounded, weeping families and just god-awful waste. Hanse Davion may have been the architect of one of the bloodiest wars since the 2nd Succession War, but one can say this: It was decisive. It unified the Federated Commonwealth, it has humbled the Clans, destroyed the threat of the Capellan Confederation, and neutered the Draconis Combine. We have a chance to see our kids grow up. So, hell yes, I do support what we did then and continue to support it now.

Even if I lost two sons to that very conflict.


  • Janice Carrington, a staff reporter writing an an op-ed in the Tharkad Abdenblatt on the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the War of ’56.


Salomek Federated Commonwealth National Cemetery

Salomek

Sarna

Federated Commonwealth Cession

April 4th, 3067


Nine-year-old Samantha Melissa Kitsune Steiner-Davion was proving she was absolute hell on wheels. She’d barely heard her mother’s approval before she tore off to chase some butterflies…with her beloved puppy and half a dozen security personnel in tow, as well as her adopted cousins. Her long red hair was like a ship’s pennant and her daughter’s giggling echoed throughout the valley.

Omi Steiner-Davion (nee Kurita) giggled at the antics of her oldest daughter. This I think, pleases the kami of the lost souls here. This is what they died for, and I hope this quiets their souls enough where they can find the peace they seek?

She turned to Dr. Katherine Cox (Steiner-Davion) “Children, they are so much to handle, yet they bring such joy.”

“They do, Omi, though I see a future as a track star in Samantha! She is going to run the security people ragged.”

Omi looked down at Marcus Stephen Hohiro Steiner-Davion, all of five, who had more of his long-departed uncle in him. Hohiro would have loved Marcus, according to Galen, he was giggling when he took him for a ride in his Crusader. The spirits willing, he won’t know war to use a Battlemech in.

She then looked down at her third child growing within her. She was due by the time summer was supposed to end. Victor was not crazy about Omi going into jump four months pregnant, but Omi had ways of getting her way. And it’s not like Sarna was much of a warzone these days.

“I do hope the security folks catch up with Samantha, Jenny, and Robert, there is a bit of UXO out here.”

“Oh no!!” Omi’s hand flew to her lips as she got up, or at least tried to chase after her wayward daughter. “No, Omi, Katlin’s on it. If anyone can catch Samantha, it’s Katlin.” Katlin was the head of Samantha’s security detail, in her late 20s, with a mop of blonde hair she kept short, and a former MI-6 Operator. She had been chosen for two very good reasons. She loved kids, and she was as fast as Samantha was. I hope to ask her soon to make her Samantha’s athletic tutor. Katherine is right.

Omi noticed Katherine was right. She had a wriggling and giggling Samantha under one arm playing a vigorous game of “got your nose.” Jenny and Robert Cox, along with Victoria Sanmorea-Davion, Samantha’s best friend were all tagging along, squealing with delight.

Marcus was seemingly content to play in the dirt, at least he was not trying to eat something he shouldn’t be today. Omi’s mind groaned.

“So, your speech went well. I do hope everyone knows you like this part of your limited royal duties?”

“I owe the folks in the ground over there.” Katherine said, gesturing towards the actual cemetery.

Omi exhaled. “It was war, Katherine. And most of them were mercenaries. Not saying their lives were worth any less. I am just saying they took a warrior’s coin and knew the risk that came with that.”

“I know, but it’s still hard for me to accept it blithely.” Katherine said, shaking her head.

A wind picked up, blowing through the high grass, and disturbing some dandelions, filling the air, and making young Marcus sneeze.

“Oh dear, he does take after his father in the hay fever department.” Omi reached into her baby bag for a tissue for young Marcus, then beckoned him over as he sneezed again all over his Aunt Katherine.

“Gomen, Katherine-Chan, you know children.”

Katherine laughed. “They’re all germ factories at that age. But hey, if we can’t handle the cooties, then we shouldn’t have become parents. Speaking of which, where the hell is my brother, this isn’t like him?”

Omi helped Marcus blow his nose and then released him to go play some more in the dirt. “He’s with Kai negotiating a new aid package for the Confederation. Attacks by the rebels are up, and it was another reason he wasn’t crazy about either of us coming to Sarna.”

“Kai has his hands full. Even without any overt aid to the rebels, it just seems they get stronger every year.” Katherine shrugged. “It seems the Confederation was awash in weapons, and we didn’t get them all when the old CCAF surrendered.”

Omi shook her head. “At least the Combine is quiet since my niece took over. But I have heard some compare her to my grandfather. She is both ruthless, and amoral, or at least that’s what the briefings I get tell me.”

“Send you a love letter she did?”

“Yes, a black origami cat in my bathroom vanity. I guess she wanted to know I could be got.”

“She has to know that applies to her as well,” Katherine said.

“She does, but she feels if her death forwards the Combine, then it is an honorable one.”

“Let’s not forget Kai and the Anduriens have fought three wars, all of them draws. And that Miklos Marik is causing all kinds of trouble for Corrine in parliament. I never thought a child of Isis would be so…against his own family. Then there’s the fact no one knows where the Blakists have disappeared to, mad ravings of Paul Masters aside. Oh, and who can forget my dunce of a brother, Arthur? The fact that he has any following in the Tamar March is incredible. But he does, even if my brother named someone else March Lord.” Katherine shuddered involuntarily. “So, what have we bought our children? A pause to reload?”

“Katherine my dear sister, I hope that is not the case. I would think after Sian, Sarna, Luthien, Waldorff, and Sudeten, the Inner Sphere has tasted its favorite dish entirely too much?”

“When it comes to that, I don’t bet on it, Omi. And I don’t want to kick the can down the road towards the kids.”

“Neither do I.”

Omi then noticed a dark cloud on the horizon, it was coming toward the kids and security personnel in the distance. They’d already noticed and were beginning to corral the kids towards the waiting dropshuttle over the hill behind Katherine and Omi.

“It seems there is a storm coming,” Katherine said blankly.

“It does, dear sister. I hope we have bought the children some time at least, time to grow up and know some of the joys of life.”

“And if we haven’t?” Katherine asked with a concerned tone.

“Then we fight for the things behind us, love, family, and our homes. This Federated Commonwealth is my home now, Katherine. It is the home of my husband and my children. I pray they never see me truly angry because it will mean something happened to them.”

“I’ve seen you angry, Omi. It is a sight to behold. But between Aoki Kurita’s little origami project and that cloud. I just can’t think that we have an omen for difficult times ahead.”

“Hai.” Omi answered simply, her eyes never leaving the cloud. A look of fear crossed her features that did a lot to unnerve Katherine. Both women contemplated the koan of the cloud and the futures of their children.

FIN…for now.​
 
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Tiamat

I've seen the future...
“There’s a storm coming in.”

“I know…”


Seriously, hats off to you my friend. One hell of a story, and one hell of a ride. By most everyone’s reactions? You did the Battletech universe the proper justice it deserved.
 

Knowledgeispower

Ah I love the smell of missile spam in the morning
well the fedcom is in a dominant position no doubt. for one I assume they've been building not just foxes and avalons but probably at least 1 or two other warship design and they've picked up at least 1 ex drac yard and maybe a ex capellan one. And without the resources of Terra and their protectorate the WOB is one hell of lot less of a threat. And the Fedcom has passed through the greatest period of danger for staying intact as a realm.
 
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