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

[paulobrito]

Later that night at the party in the Beaudouin’s mansion in the New Vandenberg capital.

God, I really hate this kind of social events. I never liked them in my past life and I still don’t in the new one.

Years of experience, mostly in my past life gave me enough abilities to be able to fake sufficiently and not make a faux-pas. Circulating around and doing my damned best to escape the usual social butterflies that are attracted to this kind of events. I even had a glass of Glengarry Reserve in the hand while doing so and if I may so, this is really a good whiskey.

Josselin Beaudouin, barely 1.60m with high heels, with raven hair, large but not fat, her bone structure didn’t give her any gifts and anyone would hardly call her a beautiful young woman. However the determined look in her face said that she was soon going to be an asset for her family.




After exchanging the usual platitudes with her, I was free to pursue my own agenda and start looking for Edward Calderon, to speak to him and convince him to support me and my agenda.

It took me some time to find him, as he was also trying to dodge the socialites and the kiss-ass people, attracted to people like him. This time, thank God, I wasn’t the top dog in this competition.

‘Lord Calderon? Funny, I never thought I would see such a high personage play the hide-and-seek game to escape the socialites. I’m Jean-Luc Bassot, at your service.’

‘Please to meet you Mr. Bassot. ’ He replied with a harm smile.

‘Would you mind us looking for a quiet place outside of this circus?’

Having been here several times, I was now familiar with the mansion and I easily found my way to a quieter room.




Upon entering the room, Edward Calderon placed a white noise generator on the small table between the chairs and turned it on, signaling that this conversation was going to be ‘off the record’.




‘So, Jean-Luc’ started Edward Calderon, after sitting down in a comfortable chair, ‘would you care to explain to me the enigma of your actions?’




‘What enigma?’

‘On the one hand, you provided the Concordat with WarShips, Royal ‘Mechs and top-of the line equipment that benefit our nation greatly on the military side’, started Edward Calderon with a very serious look on his face ‘but on the other hand, all you created on your own was in the civilian side. Do you care to explain?’

‘There is no enigma at all. I provided the Concordat with the items that I found but what I really want is to improve our economy. If you enlarge the military first, you cripple the economy, but if you do it the other way around, you can easily enlarge the military at a later time while first making the civilians richer.’

‘And you think that we have time to do it that way?’ asked Edward with an interested look on is face.

‘Sure. It is a simple multiplayer game. House Davion principal enemy is Kurita, followed by Liao. The principal enemy of House Liao is Davion and the secondary is Marik. House Marik is preoccupied with Steiner first and Liao second and House Kurita with Davion and Steiner. House Davion, because of his nascent alliance with Steiner also has to deal with Marik. In other words, all the House Lords of the Inner Sphere are too much preoccupied with each other to look towards the Periphery.

It is no coincidence that in the past hundred years nothing bigger than small raids and counter-raids has been done here.’ I said with a reasonable voice.

‘And the worlds that Davion took from us?’ asked Edward Calderon looking at me intensely.

‘After two hundred years? Let us be real. With so much time of Davion indoctrination and with much migration from other Davion worlds these are now Davion worlds, not ours under occupation. No revolts, no manifestations, no heavy troops presence. Should I go on? I don’t like it, you don’t like it and I'm sure your father hates it, but is the cold reality. Even if was the other way around, even if we could triplicate the power of the TDF, we still wouldn’t have enough forces to take them back. House Liao, the weakest of the Inner Sphere realms is still way more powerful than us, so I’m afraid that we don’ stand a chance in that area.’

‘In some circles, that could be considered traitorous...’ said Edward Calderon.

‘If said circles don’t like reality, it is their problem not mine.’ I coldly answer. ‘But if you want to improve our military with a small investment, just open some aerospace academies. The TDF is weak in that arm, even if VMI and Pinard produce ASFs.’

‘And where would we find the instructors for said academies?’ asked Edward Calderon.

‘In the same place I found most of my pilots, just contract them in the Outworlds Alliance. They are not hostile to us and have a very good aerospace force.’ I said.

And the look in Edward face showed me that they hadn’t thought about it.

‘On another topic, what are your plans for the future Jean-Luc? I don’t believe you are happy with what you already got.’ said Edward Calderon, conceding the point, more or less.

‘Glad that you asked that. You see I have this idea...’

Several hours later heading home, I was reasonably convinced that Edward Calderon could be now counted as an ally, and maybe, with a bit of luck, he could convince his father to finance / support my space program.

 

[paulobrito]

Some months later, Lise’s team came back to New Vandenberg.

The official version was that they had found two Mackies 6S that were so obsolete that they could only be donated to museums, the first one being the New Vandenberg War Museum and the other one a BattleMech Museum on Taurus.

The real important price was that the data core was now safely multi-copied and in my hands.

While it contained lots of full blueprints for military hardware, including several Royal grade equipment; the real treasure were the blueprints for many different kinds of factories, shipyards and vehicles. Unlike the military hardware, these were mostly of the non-Hegemony sort, meaning very few if any were state-of-the-art automated ones, but even so they were so much better than what the Concordat had right now.

To be honest, the hundreds of advanced hardware blueprints were utterly useless right now as the Concordat like most of the Inner Sphere and the Periphery could barely produce ‘standard’ hardware. Much more interesting were the blueprints of the ‘black boxes’ in use in the automated systems of today factories. With that, I could greatly contribute to the improvement of almost all the industrial park of the Concordat and that gave me a lot of leverage.

One thing that couldn’t be built right now were the factories that produced advanced items. That meant no Endo Steel, no Ultra or LB-X guns, no Extended Range energy weapons, etc. While I had the plans for several of these factories, several critical components were beyond our capability to produce. And without the science behind to understand them, it would remain so for the near future. I needed the Helm or the Niops cores, the ones with the data on the principles and science behind these technologies.

I had also checked to see if I had any blueprints for the Nighthawks. But no, top-of-the-line hardware of the Hegemony were not included. Bugger. Oh! Well, we would try to get these from Niops in the future, if everything went right, after all.

By the way, several designs of ‘obsolete’ WarShips, JumpShips and DropShips, all obsolete by SLDF standards were also included. Many of these I had never seen in my original universe. One of the gems I found were the full data specs of the Leviathan JumpShip and thanks to it, we would be able to make a full refit of the JumpShip that Dr. Murad’s team was trying to repair in the Badlands system.

Some civilian items came to my attention, one was the Super Caravan transport cargo plane; an improved version of the Antonov An-225 from back home. With 6 hydrogen powered engines, it could carry up to 200 tons of cargo and loaded, it had a range exceeding 15,000 km. Few were produced because by this time, the cheaper to operate fusion powered alternatives started to appear. But in a universe where fusion power engines were not so cheap (like right now), maybe they could have a future. The other interesting civilian items was a mix between a cargo shuttle and a short range DropShip. It could carry up to 2,000 tons of cargo to orbit or to a moon while having articulated, powered arms much like the space shuttle of my universe. It was the perfect design to support and expand an orbital industry. It too fell in disgrace with the massive DropShips entering full production.

These industrial blueprints provided me with several options to create production lines in VMI for almost everything from DropShips to ‘Mech for civilian or military use. That is, if I could secure the necessary funds.

Before I could make any decisions on how to best use this new data, I was ‘invited’ to go to Taurus to ‘consultations’ with the Lord Protector. Joy.

Before I departed, I left instructions to my team to present the VMI board with options for possible upgrades and I took with me the latest plans of the future Snowden Lite prototype. Unlike the other times and because of a fortunate alignment of JumpShips, I managed to do the voyage in just about two weeks.




The reunion with Thomas Calderon, his son Edward and Grover Shraplen turned very differently from what I expected. Thomas, while very suspicious of House Davion, wasn’t totally paranoid about them but Grover has a profound hate against the FedRats as he kept saying. On the other side, Edward wanted to reduce the tension between both realms and perhaps to start with some commercial openings, a position I was more than inclined to support. After several hours of discussions and negotiations, it was decided that the Concordat was going to try to open commercial relations with the Federated Suns but only of civilian products and if VMI wanted to participate, the earnings would have to be invested in new military lines whose production would be sold to the TDF at a reduced cost. While I couldn’t decide for VMI, I was only one of several shareholders after all, I was asked to convince them to follow the plans made by this small council.

I also learned that the Far Lookers were going to be directed to the ex pirate location that I had recently cleaned. The two systems were viable and already had a small infrastructure after all. But this time, they would have to do it with only private financing, no funds would be diverted from the government.

Returning to VMI on New Vandenberg, I got involved in several meetings with the board of directors. In the end, the decision was taken to go along the will of the Protector. The new lines that would be created would be for modernized Toro and Talos BattleMechs. These tried and venerable Taurian ‘Mechs would probably create a morale boost in the ranks of the TDF while the research part had already been done at V4RU, allowing V4RU to earn a percentage of the sales and also cutting the price down.

Unfortunately, all this forced me to delay the shift to the air and space assets I wanted to produce.

After all was taking care of, now it was time to start doing some marketing research on the Federated Suns. Not really an easy or a small task.

 

[paulobrito]

Having inside intel, I decided not to wait for any treaty and began looking for opportunities in the Federated Suns.

As I suspected, the market for our Industrial ‘Mechs existed and was indeed huge, even if most of it was in the core worlds, the ones near the Concordat being too poor only ordered a few. Some months later, I received information from Taurus, that a limited commercial treaty had been signed between the Concordat and the Federated Suns, allowing only the trade of civilian goods in both directions with inspection from both side naturally. While that could seem fast, it just showed that the Suns didn’t care about the Concordat and anything that improved the peace in the area and better commerce was considered good enough for New Avalon, so they didn’t delay such limited treaty.

Before the end of the year, V4RU presented a refit of the Talos, replacing the AC/10 and its ammo with 1 PPC, 2 Medium Laser (in the left arm), 1 extra ton of ammo for the LRMs and 4 heat sinks. This version fixed the problem of an ammo dependent ’Mech and became a hit in the TDF, with orders being placed for 50% of the operating Talos to be refitted to this model by V4RU. Considering that this refit was paid at full price (by the Ministry of Defense) but received a full factory support, it was a very good sale for V4RU (much like the AMG / Mercedes relation I knew from back home).

With all of this happening, the arrival at V4RU of the gyro for the Rifleman captured to the pirates was almost unnoticed, even if that result in another Heavy ’Mech for the Revenants.

The sales of Industrial ’Mechs to the Suns largely surpassed even my wildest dreams, most of them being sent to the richest core worlds. Basically they wanted every single one we could sell them as there was no production in the Federated Suns, the factories having been long ago converted to the production of war material.

There was such a demand (as orders also came from the Concordat, the Magistracy and the FWL), that new lines were planned. To fulfill their part in the increased orders, O-P Electronics not only expanded their production in Brisbane, but started a new factory on New Vandenberg. This was only possible because all other nations, including the the Concordat before I financed the new production lines, had focused long ago on other productions like the example of the Federated Suns had shown us.

Thanks to the New Dallas data core I also had access to several formerly lost designs of several other civilian ’Mechs, some too advanced for VMI to produce, some too old, but several just with the right tech level and capabilities to be added to the company growing portfolio. As a bonus almost all the unknown models were from companies that had long ago disappeared, so no problems with the royalties.

By mid 3025 business was booming, the repaired Leviathan had returned to New Vandenberg. Thanks to the profits made, my position inside the VMI board had improved.

So far, I had successfully maintained the Hegemony core a secret, but I knew that sooner or later someone was going to report it or leak its data to the TMI or to another organism of the Concordat government. Until then, I had used several of the blueprints to upgrade as much as possible the production lines of VMI while selling a bit later the same upgrades to other companies inside the Concordat.

I wanted to share the knowledge I had with the Taurian Concordat while making a profit out of it. After all, I wasn’t much of an idealist. Being on the board of VMI, running my own treasure hunting company and having connections among the government was all I needed to be able to speak to several boards or directors about a deal. In exchange for money, shares, production licenses, I gave them access to these “new” upgrades. At the end of the ‘tour’, I gifted one copy of the core to Edward Calderon, thus cementing my relation with the ruling house. While I had no doubt that the Calderons were going to put the core to good use, increasing the competition for VMI, I knew it was impossible to hide the use of said core forever once it started to be used so it was better to make the best out of it.

I used a big chunk of the money obtained that way to buy VMI shares from several sources and with my alliance with the Beaudouins, I got effective control over VMI.

For the gift of the core to the government (technically speaking to Edward, but it was just another name for the government) , I got the title of Baron but because we were in the Concordat, it didn’t mean much in terms of money while carrying some other interesting advantages.

One thing that I was aware of was that the New Dallas data core didn’t provide any help on the theory, on the math or science side, just some blueprints. With that, me and the people I provided said blueprints to could copy several things, but not deviate from the ones in the core or innovate without a massive investment in R&D, something that House Davion could do with the NAIS but that was nearly impossible in the Concordat. For that I needed the Helm data core or the one from Niops. Better even, both.

The lostech front was also a waiting game for now as I wanted the most valuable of all items, Double Heat Sinks. I had the full blueprints for several models, including the latest Star League and even one not so advanced from Davion as well as the schematics for their production lines. What I was still lacking was the capacity to produce out of laboratories, the complex crystalline matrix that was at the heart of all the models.

One interesting bit in the Hegemony core was that it contained all file formats, data structure, file compression standards known at the time, even if very exotic, rare or obsolete. It could be useful for me later.




At this time, I began hearing rumors about a terrorist organization operating inside the Aurigan Directorate under the name of the Aurigan Restoration and commanded by Kamea Arano that seemed after all to be alive.

VMI finally started to build the production lines for the Super Caravan and for the Star-Lifter (the big cargo shuttle). Estimates put the first design to be operational by early 3026 and the second one by mid 3027.

I still didn’t have a clue of how to deal with Helm, so I decided to take a different direction.

 

[paulobrito]

Remembering that the Perdition Massacre should be around this time, I contacted ‘Mr. Smith’ from TMI. Obviously, I couldn't give him too much detail but I informed him that one of my contacts had heard about a terrorist cell planning an attack on Perdition. When asked about details, I answered vaguely about business contacts of one of the companies I was dealing with.
Unfortunately a month later Victoria succeeded and not only did she successfully executed the chemical attack, she also managed to escape without a trace.
To make matters worse, the ‘evidence’ that Santiago Espinosa presented against the Federated Suns was quite convincing but that had to be expected as the special effects / movie tricks team used was very competent.
And that brought a lot of problems to me and VMI. The trade agreement with the Federated Suns was broken by the Taurians, which caused us to lose our largest foreign market and a huge setback in the detente policy that Edward sponsored. Because the Magistracy supported Kamea, something that the TMI had quickly discovered, it created a tense situation between the two nations when Thomas decided to openly support Santiago.
However, by not accepting a contract offered by Espinosa for mercenaries to support his forces, I was able to prevent my Revenants from getting involved.
With great efforts, I was able to very discreetly contact Anne-Marie Centrella, saying her that Kamea should pay special attention to the 'Madeira files'.Having done all I could, I could only hope that she would find the evidence that would clear the Federated Suns while implicating Santiago at the same time.
This whole situation caused a great deal of economic damage to the actual and future plans I had made for VMI and took much of my time, forcing me to postpone for a long time any expedition to Niops, which was my next objective. I couldn’t get away for so long at this point and this was the kind of mission I couldn’t delegate.




This whole situation was problematic inside the unit too. One day, Vasseur came into my office clearly annoyed.
‘Boss, why did you turn down the contract by House Espinosa against the terrorists on the Aurigan Protectorate?’
‘Vasseur, do you think Hanse Davion is stupid or incompetent?’
'I never heard anyone accusing him of that,' replied Vasseur with a surprised look on his face.
‘So think a bit, this deal with the Concordat is clearly good for him. It lowers the tension on one of his borders and creates a new source of trade and money.'
‘So far I'm following you, Boss. But what does this have to do with the Protectorate? '
‘If it is good for him, why would Hanse, who in your words is not incompetent, kill it shortly after it was signed?’ I asked quietly.
'If you put it that way I see no reason,' replied Vasseur, who had obviously not yet reached the conclusion I wanted him to reach.
'On top of that, chemical weapons are not Davion style, they use assassinations or military raids.' I explained 'On the other hand, Santiago Espinosa came to power through a rather bloody coup and clearly needs our support to stay in place.'
‘Are you suggesting that Perdition was a false flag operation performed by House Espinosa?’ asked Vasseur with a startled air.
‘Cui Bono. Of the two, Hanse does not benefit at all from the attack, while Santiago needs our help. It is very convenient for him that House Davion decides to perform this type of operation when it is most needed, don't you think? And the only 'evidence' there is was provided by Santiago.’

‘Maybe, but about some Davion patriots operating independently?’ asked Vasseur.

‘’Possible,’ I answered calmly ‘but usually they act against Kurita first, Liao second, and the last raid against us was how long ago? Not in the last century if I remember correctly.’
Vasseur was silent for a few minutes, analyzing the implications. ‘Do you have any proof?’
‘If I had, I would already have submitted it to the Lord Protector. But this smells a lot like shit, and I don't want to get involved.’ I answered.
Visibly calmer ‘You're right, Boss. It was really better not to accept this contract.’

Not helping at all, Hanse Davion launched Operation Galahad a few weeks later, greatly increasing the tension in the border, even if it only moved troops to the Capellan and Draconis borders. But Grover Shraplen was quick to use the fear of a possible invasion … not the best time I had in this universe.

 

[paulobrito]

While the actions of House Espinosa had caused a lot of damage to my plans, in a strange way, Galahad was good for me and my business.
Betting that it would be equal (or at least quite similar) to the operation I knew from the fiction in my universe, ie that Davion forces would not invade the Concordat, I took advantage of the fact that a Concordat noble was expected to be ready to defend the Concordat and its people and preemptively made the Revenants available free of charge for the defense of the borders. Of course, it was quite a popular gesture in patriotic circles, making it impossible for the TDF to turn my offer down. The result was that a company of ’Mechs with tanks, ASFs, and infantry support was sent to MacLeod's Land under Vasseur’s command, while another unit, similar in strength, went to Pinard under my direct command. This forced me to leave several instructions on both V4RU and VMI to be followed during my absence, but the advantages far outweighed the drawbacks.

For me, provided that Hanse did the same that he had done in my novels, it was a pure public relations operation that would make things better with Thomas Calderon, who liked this kind of patriotic attitude. However for my men, it was a very serious affair, after all they were almost all Taurians and patriots. That was made obvious by the serious looks and small talks I observed during the movement to the border areas.

Another side of Galahad that benefited me was that due to the perceived risk, the Concordat government increased the budget for military expenditures and ordered several new ’Mechs from VMI and some refits from V4RU. Due to the escalating international tensions, several mercenary companies also placed orders with both companies, making good use of the modernization of production lines that we had just finished at great cost.
Another advantage I had not realized was that unlike in the HBS game, the expeditionary force operating in the Aurigan Directorate and commanded by Commodore Samuel Ostergaard was called back. For several reasons, most of which I had caused (like the disappearance of the Argo and its databases before he would go for it), Ostergaard had no personal vendetta against Kamea Arano, nor did he ever find her, and he returned home smoothly.

Three months later, with the end of Operation Galahad and the returning home of most of the Davion forces, the situation in the frontier cooled down a bit.

VMI sales department in Galatea following my instructions had tried for several months to sell equipment to the famous Wolf’s Dragoons, but to no avail. I wanted a contact with the Dragoons for the future. But by the end of 3026, they finally managed to make a sale, even if it was a small one.




The Leviathan was currently operating on the busiest commerce lines within the Concordat. Old or not, it was the JumpShip with the biggest cargo and DropShips capacity in all the Concordat and this by a wide margin. The next ones were two Star Lords, with almost all the rest of the fleet being of the Invader or Merchant classes. To protect the ship against any pirate having bad ideas, one of the collars was taken by a Leopard loaded with two ASFs and marines (instead of ’Mechs).

Later on, two old Tigress that were being used in patrol duty in the New Vandenberg system were refitted and placed in two of the four small craft bays of the JumpShip. Part of the refit was to equip them with several rocket pods and armor piercing warheads, guaranteeing a very bad day for any pirate DropShips they would engage. The marines were quartered in the passenger area, freeing the much needed collar for another cargo DropShip.

During my time on Pinard, I also negotiated several deals with Pinard Protectorates Limited, Pinard-Dicolais Electronics and Wingman Enterprises Limited, ranging from partnership to exchange of licenses. For example, VMI received the rights (and blueprints) of the Sabre light ASF from PPL in exchange for those for the Toro light Battlemech.

Interestingly, PPL take on the Toro was different as they replaced both LRM-5 by one SRM-4 and torso mounted jump-jets, creating a ’Mech similar in capabilities to the popular Combine Panther.

No company started producing new units as at this time as all were busy with current orders or involved in the shipyard or Snowden / Snowden Lite long term projects. Their recent upgrades had cost them a lot of resources and they needed some return on investment before doing anything else.

 

[paulobrito]

Just before the return of the expeditionary force to the Aurigan Directorate under Ostergaard’s command, some news arrived that completely changed the scenario.

Fred of having to deal with Concordat forces, Kamea got her hands on the Madeira files and obtained the proof that the Perdition Massacre had been planned by Santiago Espinosa and executed by his daughter Victoria. Unfortunately, I heard that Alexander Madeira hadn’t survived the extraction mission.

Saying that Thomas Calderon took these new badly was the king of understatements. He went ballistic and sent the already ready force under Ostergaard to the Aurigan territory, but this time to defeat and capture the Espinosas. To support the Guards, he wanted to recruit a mercenary force and I accepted the job, securing the Revenants participation, which not only help me improve my relations with the Calderon family but also allowed me to play my part in the end of the Espinosa regime, AKA the Aurigan Directorate.




At the same time, Edward Calderon was tasked with fixing the relations with the Federated Suns, a difficult job, but if anyone could do that it was him.

Coordinating our actions with Kamea, through the good offices of Anne-Marie Centrella, we managed to make all the forces converge towards Coromodir for the final showdown.




Coromodir, February 23, 3027

This time the Taurian forces were much bigger than the early expedition (that one only included the Iberia), with one Fortress, the Iberia, two Unions, two Leopards and one Triumph transporting a full ’Mech battalion of the Taurian Guards and support forces.

The few Directorate ASFs, four in total, were quickly swept away by the combined Guards and Revenants escorts, opening the way for the capital of the Arano Directorate. Kamea’s forces, wanting to be the first to land, pushed their DropShips to 2g moving ahead of us and messing with the approved plan for the sake of ‘honor’ or pride..,

Four days later, near the planet capital.

Like the Revenants, the Taurian Guards were firm believers in combined arms operations. Thanks to superior training and better coordination, the resistance of the Directorate forces against us had been so far rather weak. To be honest, they were also busy with the more numerous but poorly equipped Restoration units that had arrived earlier.

Advancing with my Command Lance, with my Nightstar, Georgina’s Merlin, Ruben’s Thunderbolt (that was earlier Vasseur’s own) and Pauline’s Marauder, against a detected enemy presence ahead of us, I suddenly saw Kamea and Victoria fighting.

‘That Catapult K2 is mine, engage the rest!’ I ordered on the mic, advancing against Victoria’s ’Mech that had just destroyed the left leg of Kamea’s Kintaro and was getting ready to deliver the final blow.

An interesting consequence of me mixing with everything was that both had their original ’Mechs. Kamea had never received the Atlas II from Nautilus and Victoria never lost the Catapult nor received the King Crab. I had always thought that Periphery small lords getting her hands on such a ’Mech outside of a SLDF cache was impossible, but game mechanics… Reality was different.

Taking advantage of Victoria’s focus on Kamea, I carefully aligned my shots and let loose with all the weapons available at that range, both Gauss Riffles and the ER PPC.

I got lucky as all the shots hit, the ER PPC and one of the Gauss hitting on the right side, destroying one of the K2 main weapons while the other Gauss round hit in the center, causing damage to the gyro and putting Victoria in serious trouble.

Showing just what a good Mechwarrior she was, she turned my way and fired all of her weapons, while I tried to move sideways and out of the line of fire.

Her PPC barely missed but both Medium Lasers hit my ’Mech in the center, making two deep scars in my pristine armor, but not penetrating. This baby was made to take and survive much heavier damage.

From a semi upward position, Kamea fired all of her surviving weapons at the back of Victoria’s ‘Mech and at least eight of the SRMs hit sending the Catapult to the ground.

Not giving her time to recover, I carefully targeted her legs and put one Gauss round and a laser beam on each, destroying both and ending her struggle.

Looking around I realized that my teammates and the only survivor of Kamea’s unit had finished dispatching Victoria’s unit and that in this area, the war had ended.

‘Are you okay, Lady Arano?’ I asked with concern in my voice.

‘Just a bit bruised, but I will survive. Let's end this.’ Is the answer.

Before resuming our advance in direction of the capital, I sent instructions for our infantry to capture Victoria. Soon after a pair of Maultiers arrived and two platoons of heavily armed and armored infantry quickly disembarked. They took care of Victoria, that until then, under the sights of my ’Mech weapons, had in her cockpit. After their arrival, my lance could advance again.

Three days later in the Coromodir palace.

‘Milady Kamea, my orders are very explicit. I have to return to Taurus with both Santiago and Victoria Espinosa cuffed or in coffins.’ said Ostergaard to Kamea while I stayed a little away. I was only a mercenary and even if socially I was superior to the good Commodore, he was in charge of the Taurian forces.

‘As a proof of the good relations that should be from now on between our nations I give you both of them, Commodore’ answered High Lady Kamea Arano.

A few hours later, when the official ceremonies were over, I received an invitation for a private meeting with the High Lady.

Arriving at the small office, I was surprised that Anne-Marie Centrella was also there. I would need to play my game the best I could.

The following afternoon (and dinner) was very agreeable. In company of two beautiful, sophisticated woman we discussed the present and future of the region and what that meant for the Aurigan Restoration. They were in a weaker position than before, with the economy in pieces, the industry seriously damaged and several ex-directorate forces turned pirates. The relations of the Concordat with their respective nations were also discussed. I had the felling that I was in the middle of an interrogation by at least one expert (Anne-Marie) and I was afraid that I might have revealed way more than I wanted while getting very little in return.

At least I successfully deflected the questions about how I knew about the Madeira Files, making a tale of how with the Madeiras being very able at politics and very close to the ruling clan at the time I had considered very likely that they had tapped in the surveillance cameras in the castle and even added some new ones, to get leverage on others. If Kamea and Anne-Marie believed a single word of what I said, I didn’t know, but apparently they accepted the story.

Anne-Marie was way too well-informed about the Concordat in general and my business in particular for my liking. I put a good bet that she had dropped the MIM on me long ago.

All in all, I returned to my DropShip satisfied but with too much to think about.

 

[dreese55]

Wow ok, you have already posted a bit. Maybe consider a beta reader or something? Your second sentence in the story has poor grammar and makes it hard to get through, but i will definately be coming back to this story to read it completely. I only got about half way through the first post, you seem to know the setting well, just need to fix some of your sentence structure, hell i didnt get far enough to tell if thats even a problem later on. But unfortunately that second sentence was not the only one with an issue.

Thanks for posting! i love myself a good battletech SI story.

Ok, made it halfway into the second chapter, and watched. This has a ton of potential. However, You really need a beta reader to go over and correct some of your sentence structure. Your story is good, but the way you have it written out makes it painful to read.

 

[Tryglaw]

All in all very interesting story. I'm not that much of a Battletech fan, but I do like rooting for the underdogs, and a story set in the Periphery about people having to tough it out and make do with what (little) they have is far more interesting then about the adventures of an all-Atlas Steiner scout lance.

 

[Georgiaboy1966]

Wow ok, you have already posted a bit. Maybe consider a beta reader or something? Your second sentence in the story has poor grammar and makes it hard to get through, but i will definately be coming back to this story to read it completely. I only got about half way through the first post, you seem to know the setting well, just need to fix some of your sentence structure, hell i didnt get far enough to tell if thats even a problem later on. But unfortunately that second sentence was not the only one with an issue.

Thanks for posting! i love myself a good battletech SI story.

Ok, made it halfway into the second chapter, and watched. This has a ton of potential. However, You really need a beta reader to go over and correct some of your sentence structure. Your story is good, but the way you have it written out makes it painful to read.

From what I gathered from previous conversations, English is not paulobrito 's primary language. But that is only a guess on my part.

I would volunteer to be a Beta for you, paulobrito. I have an extensive history with Battletech,

 

[Nyarlathotep]

You've just committed the ultimate crime: using a comma instead of a period!

 

[dreese55]

Its more like the way he worded his sentances is poorly done. I get what he is saying in the story but its rough to read. English not being his primary language makes a lot of sense here. English has weird sentence structure compaired to a large number of other languages.

 

[Georgiaboy1966]

Its more like the way he worded his sentances is poorly done. I get what he is saying in the story but its rough to read. English not being his primary language makes a lot of sense here. English has weird sentence structure compaired to a large number of other languages.

Very true, and we from North America can not agree on sentence structure also. Also, specific word usage is very much in contention. Such is the word "parse" until just a year ago, I had never heard of this word used outside of a programming class, in 50 years.

 

[paulobrito]

Before I got back to the Concordat, I didn't miss an opportunity to perform one more coup. After the conflict ended, the mercenary force known as the Markham Marauders was in a much worse position than in the video game. Without access to Argo or SLDF ’Mechs and with the number of Assault ‘Mechs in the Periphery not being inflated as in the game, they had suffered severe casualties.
In fact, at this point, they only had one injured MechWarrior (Jessica Chernovskaya, call-name Glitch) and their only surviving ’Mech (a Griffin GRF-1N) was more junk than ’Mech. What they had, and what I was interested in, was a good team of technicians, an excellent DropShip pilot, and a Leopard.
It wasn't hard for me to convince them to sign for the Revenants, a superbly equipped force, by Periphery standards and with much more means.
Even Darius had his usefulness, after all, he had good contacts in mercenary circles and in some less legal areas. You never know when these contacts would be useful.

As I suspected and as the Marauders files confirmed, they had found in Panzyr the hulks of about a hundred Griffins GRF-1N. The Directorate had used the available parts to repair about a company, but they didn’t have the expertise and industrial resources for the rest, as far as I knew, nor the Restoration or the Magistracy. Only a few companies in the Concordat, including mine, could do that. The others that were capable of that were all in the Inner Sphere.

Just as we entered Concordat territory I had one message waiting for me: Proceed to Taurus at full speed. The Lord Protector wants to talk with you, ASAP.
While I went to Taurus, the Revenants returned to New Vandenberg for a well-deserved R&R. The return trip went smoothly, but Taurus was clearly on high alert when we arrived, something had happened during my absence.




Calderon Palace

Thomas and Edward immediately received me, another sign that something serious had happened.
‘Welcome back, Jean-Luc. I regret to inform you that Concordat is in a much worse situation than when you left.' Thomas began by going straight to the point 'when Edward was charged with fixing our relations with the Davions, Grover had a fit of rage. Using forces that he managed to trick, he tried to take over the two Warships to use them to attack the Federated Suns. In the ensuing conflict, we managed to stop him, but both the ships and the dockyard were seriously damaged. We lost several of our special forces that day. The first estimates for the repair of the ships and the dock is a decade and that is the best scenario we have.'
Edward leaned towards me 'If you have any more miracles or hidden bases to visit, now is the best time to inform us. The Concordat needs a backup immediately. Right now we don’t have any way to stop any of the Great Houses if they want to invade us, outside of massive use of nuclear weapons'.

‘It is the exact situation as before the WarShips turned operational, isn’t it?’I asked, not seeing the big problem. Then I remembered that the existence of the operational WarShips played a big part in reducing Thomas’ fears and paranoia regarding a Davion invasion.

‘Well, yes, but right now we strongly suspect that at least one if not more of the IS Houses know that we have ships and that they are no longer operational. It is only a question of time until one or more of them try to grab them. We even suspect that Liao has already done that.’

‘Why do you suspect Liao's hand in the Grover case?’ I asked puzzled.

‘Well, we don’t have any proof, mind you’ said Edward, after looking at his father and Thomas silently nodded ‘but TMI found some advanced electronic codebreakers, of very recent Liao manufacture, on the bodies of some of his men. Codebreakers that were used to gain access to the WarShips’ computers. Also several of these people couldn't be identified and the reports talk about a high number of very capable fanatics.’

‘In other words, Death Commandos or ROM Rho’, said a small part of my brain that I tried to keep quiet with effort. Crap. Liao or ROM, both use the ships to start a war between us and Davion. Any of them would love that. ‘I can only recommend increasing the defenses there.’ I said softly, was my answer.

Damn, that was not good at all. I took a quick decision.
‘In fact, I know some places we haven't visited yet, but they're all distant or complicated.' I replied as I began to see the scale of the disaster.
‘Whatever is needed and that the Concordat can provide is yours.' was Thomas' answer.

‘Ok, let’s play cards on the table then. I know the location of a weapons test place of the SLDF Navy.’ At that mention, both Calderon looked to me with hope in their eyes. ‘There is no guarantee that any WarShip will still be there to be looted but it is possible that we find something useful.’ I said in a calm voice.

‘And the catch is?’ asked Thomas, ‘because if it was easy, you would have already taken action.’

‘For starters, it is further away than the place where we found the dockyard’. I said and I saw the look between both Calderon's good news is that I also have four possible cache locations that could be ‘visited’ during that voyage.’ With that being said, I was sure to get what I wanted.

‘It is a long voyage, but we can provide you with the same force used in the previous mission’ said Thomas, while Edward nodded in agreement ‘let’s hope that they will find useful things there then. We won’t forget your help on this, Jean-Luc. Are your forces also available for this mission?’

‘Not this time, my Lord.’ I said ‘I want them for some missions including trying to obtain more Star League files. They are also vital, after all.’ I explained.

‘Changing subjects, about the Arano case, if we leave the area alone, the Magistracy will not take control. They already have immense influence over Kamea, I think it is better to try to counter it.’

‘Mmmm’ Thomas looks at me pensively ‘and what do you propose?’

‘While I’m not trying to dictate our diplomacy in the area’ I started (yeah, right, I thought very quietly), ‘I think that providing some support is going to do us a lot of good. Like helping Kamea with the nascent pirate problem or help her rebuild these Griffins the Directorate found on Panzyr.’

‘You are funny, I give you that’ Thomas laughs, ‘in the first case your mercenaries are the best option and in the second one, your company is tailor-made for the job.’

‘I never said I didn’t want to gain something from the area’ I said lightly, looking at Thomas in the eyes. ‘But the truth is that both options will help us immensely with the Aranos and help us to reduce the Magistracy influence so close to our borders. By the way, before I forget, before you execute the Espinosas, can TMI obtain their Combine contacts? That can be useful in the future.’

‘Sure, I already said I like your style,’ said Thomas in a good mood.’ But it is up to you to secure both contracts from High Lady Kamea. If you want it, you will have to work for it.’

‘In that case, I need two things’ I asked Thomas. ‘One is a comprehensive team of ex-TMI people, which covers security, infiltration, code-breaking and interrogation. Because of the needs of chain-of-command and deniability, I can’t take any current unit, but because I’m going to operate in another nation and with a third one operating in the area, I want these capabilities available to me’. I know full well that they are going to report back to TMI / Thomas but that is a price that I’m comfortable to pay.

After a few moments Thomas answered ‘No problem, I can arrange that for you. And the second one?’

‘I also need to know your intentions about the Aranos and Centrellas – while in theory, I’m going as a mercenary/ industrialist, we both know that I’m also a Concordat noble with close ties to you. So, I need to know what you want or plan for that area to not put myself in a delicate or contrary to your intentions position.’

‘That reasonable. Well what I want his...’

 

[paulobrito]

One of my pet projects as soon as I took control of V4RU was the Omni vehicle.

Thanks to the great experience of the V4RU technicians in retrofitting systems and the fact that the Revenants had several Merkavas, I decided to make this experiment based on that chassis, which thanks to the age of the design was a bug-free and very sturdy one.

The Merkava design had several advantages that made it possible to convert it to an Omni vehicle.

The chassis is already using a Vlar 300 fusion engine, and the engine compartment is big enough to accept an ICE or fuel cell type instead, no doubt because the older variants used ICE ones and even a primitive fusion – thank god they don’t changed much the dimensions. Even so, the V4RU technicians need several years of tinkering and testing to arrive at a solution that lets change more easily between all types. While swapping ICE with fuel cell engines and vice-versa is a no brainer, changing to a fusion one takes a lot more time and need to also replace several electronic boards in the crew compartment. But is possible for a decently trained tech team even on field conditions provided they have the necessary tools – and time.

Then, apart from the front mounted MG, all weapons and ammo were mounted on the turret. Thanks to this, with a simple change of the turret – and replacing some electronic boards in the crew compartment - you could get a completely different weapons load-out. The complicated part was the interface, electronics in the crew compartment that needed to be upgraded to accept the more-or-less plug-in boards.

The crew compartment is like the one in my timeline the T-14 Armata – full inside the frontal area of the chassis, with an extra layer of armor.

After this “small” works, the tank could be swapped between different configurations. The basic one was like the Merkava Mk.VIII but with Concordat produced weapons and electronics, the next one used a Thumper, the third a Sniper cannon in the turret for SPG role, followed by another that used three AC/5 and dedicated anti-aircraft sensors and electronics, like a smaller (but still very capable) version of the Partisan. Yet another replaced the AC/5 of the Merkava by one PPC, but this one could only be used with a fusion engine limiting the design because of its cost. And, finally, one used the Arrow IV launcher system. This last one could only be designed after we got our hands on the Hegemony data core of New Dallas. I always thought that it was strange that everybody forgot how to produce the Arrow IV missile. The guidance packages and advanced warheads, sure, but the missiles per se were not that complex nor was the launch system. Both could be produced with the current Concordat tech level without any problem.

For this first production run, the missiles were unguided as we couldn’t produce the guided system but several warheads were provided, HE, FRAG, incendiary and smoke being available from the beginning of the project. Later, HE-FRAG and thermobaric followed in the mid-thirties by sub-munitions and scatterable small mines were also produced. Guided, SAM and AAM (this one for ASFs) variants of the Arrow IV missile were being studied, but again the problem was the advanced warheads needed, something that the Taurian Concordat military-industrial complex was not yet capable to produce outside of labs even with the upgrades that I had given it.

When I presented the results to the VMI board of directors, they first thought that I was crazy, but after showing them the prototypes working at V4RU, the possibilities were understood by most of them.

So, in late 3027, the Leclerc, the first Omni vehicle started production at VMI. The Arrow IV variant was only produced by late 3029 and at first only for the Revenants or the Taurian Guards. So, the first batch offered two MBT (AC/5 or PPC), two arty and one flak variants that could be changed from one to another, even with the small mechanic support unit that the poorer militia or mercenary unit normally had. For them, it meant doing it in the rear areas but capable units could do the swap on the field. Only the PPC variant was less accepted than the others and that was because of the increase in price that put it outside of the pocket of most customers, but even that one got several orders.

Nothing high tech was needed to create this very successful tank, just clever design and the ingenuity of the V4RU technicians, which meant that the attention from all around the Inner Sphere and the proposals for license production offered by firms all around the Inner Sphere meant more money for V4RU. Unsurprisingly, Wolf’s Dragoons were very interested in the design and ordered a lot of them, for a merc unit that is.

In late 3029 two extra configurations are offered – one use 3x Doombud LRM-20 in the turret essentially re-creating an LRM carrier – even if a costly one, and another – that need the fusion engine, also turning it costly and unpopular – with a turret with a pair or Sunglow Type 2 Large Lasers and two Magna Mk.I Small Lasers (for anti-infantry support) and the electronic, radar and tracking systems of the 3x AC/5 / Flak variant. Neither is popular nor generate big sales, but they added an extra layer of versatility and both the Revenants and Taurian forces – both Guards and militia – bought several.

 

[paulobrito]

Still in Taurus, I exchanged a long - and expensive - series of messages with my companies and mercenaries in New Vandenberg.
Like almost all the royal houses in power, the Calderon's had shares in the main military industries of their nations. In a support demonstration, Thomas gave me (temporarily, duh) the right to use his in VMI, increasing my control over the company. With this support, I launched two new lines - not full production lines, but different variants/assemblies. One was the factory production of the Talos modification that the V4RU was already doing, making this model cheaper - and with higher production - and freeing the V4RU specialists for other jobs. Of course, Smith (the V4RU manager) was not happy about this, but he had to settle for the small license that VMI started to pay the V4RU for the use of the model.
The other was the modification that PPL had released for the Toro - again paying for a small license - after all, both the Toro and the Talos were VMI drawings. Because both were 'only' variants, the creation of these new lines was much more economical - and faster - than a completely new and total 'Mech' line.
Having dealt with this, I set off again for Coromodir and sent instructions to the Revenants to go there as well. Another of the messages informed Vasseur of the new recruits that he should wait.
Even before he left, Edward informed me that the Federated Suns ambassador had not only announced the Galahad 3027 exercises but also invited observers from Concordat to attend - clearly so that these exercises would not create tensions between the two nations.
The trip took place without history, arriving in the capital of Aurigan Restauration in the middle of August 3027.
I was immediately greeted by Kamea - good news, I didn't have to suffer the usual - waiting for power games - who welcomed me alone in a small office in the palace instead of the usual social reception in the noble hall. Clearly Kamea wanted to treat something with me urgently and without much apparatus - good, that went against my plans.
Moments before I was received in the palace, I received a call from the new Taurian ambassador, informing me of the latest local news. The main one for me was that Anne-Marie had returned to Canopus, having been replaced as ambassador by a new and in the opinion of the ambassador, less capable and not so highly placed member of the royal family.
On the one hand, I was sorry, Anne-Marie was an interesting woman and a more than capable adversary, but if Canopus decided to make it easier for me who was I to protest.
My proposals for Kamea covered three areas:
V4RU proposed to repair all the Griffins that had been found in Panzyr. When Kamea countered that her nation couldn't afford it, my counter-proposal - the payment could be a Griffin company, leaving Restoration with two full battalions - took her by surprise as she clearly didn't expect it.
V4RU and VMI would participate in the repair and upgrading of the military-industrial complex in Mechdur, the payment is made in shares and not in C-Bills which I knew the nation of Kamea was greatly lacking.
And finally, the Revenants would perform various anti-piracy missions - basically eliminating the various surviving Directorate groups. Not surprisingly, Kamea again admitted that she could not afford my mercenary force, but this time she asked what my proposal was because obviously I already knew that.
My proposal was simple - if the pirates surrendered without resistance, Kamea would take possession of their equipment, but if they showed resistance, all the equipment of the said pirates would belong to the Revenants, that being the payment. Elements of liaison with Kamea could accompany my forces to confirm operations - and report places suspected of pirate activity.
'Why are you doing this Jean-Luc?' asked Kamea looking inwardly at me. 'First, you provide the information that prevented our nations from going to war, then you saved my life on the battlefield and now you propose to help my nation in this way? And don't think I don't know that the fact that Thomas suddenly decided to forego any compensation for Perdition is to do with you.'
"I think you're giving me too much credit, Kamea," I replied softly. 'Thomas knows perfectly well that your nation cannot afford to pay any compensation at this time, so he decided it was no use increasing the tension between the two nations.' Kamea's gaze showed that she did not believe much in it, but she did not respond. 'Second, I gain something from all my proposals, I do not do this for your beautiful eyes or for the welfare of your nation, even though peace at the borders of Concordat is beneficial to me.’
I don't think that's all,' replied Kamea with a strange gleam in her eye.

And suddenly she leaned over to me and kissed me directly on the lips.

What the hell did I get myself into was my last rational thought before I got too busy. Note to self - Kamea kisses very well.

 

[paulobrito]

The next week was 'interesting'.
During the day both I and Kamea, both workaholics, had a lot to do. She ruled her kingdom, I handled the multiple details of our arrangement. From planning with Mechdur managers to the imminent arrival of both VMI and V4RU technicians and specialists for the planned upgrades and repairs to arranging for Griffins to be sent to New Vandenberg for repairs by V4RU. Luckily, VMI produced the model and I was sure that if some extra parts were needed, access to them wouldn’t be a problem. Not forgetting the long sessions with Kamea's military consultants to get information about the possible locations the former troop of the Directorate or should I say the pirates?
Being both fitness fanatics, a common feature of many ’Mechwarriors we ended up training together several times. Thanks to the fact that I hired some of the best coaches money could get me in the Concordat and to the good natural basis this body had, I was in an enviable shape but Kamea was not behind me.
The nights ... I never thought Kamea would be such a demanding and experienced mistress with a little kinky taste. Who knew the High Lady had that wild side? Thank God for this new, athletic body, with plenty of stamina, or I could never have kept up with her.
With the arrival of my staff, I moved from the organization phase to action, taking, as usual, the command of one of the Revenants combined-arms battalions.
The first system we visited was a flop as to the Aurigan advisor's great embarrassment, the location was deserted.
The second one put my forces against a group that had some infantry, more or less motorized and 4 'Mechs but nothing too big (1 Locust, 2 Wasps and 1 Phoenix Hawk). At first, they tried to escape, but after putting a Gauss round on the back of the Locust, the rest of the group surrendered quickly. Because they didn’t surrender immediately and I needed to fire on a ‘Mech, they were considered as having resisted and the Restoration didn’t get access to the captured hardware.
In the third system, we found once again an abandoned base. Same story in the fourth one.
In the fifth system, the former Directorate troops surrendered as soon as they saw our forces and I must say, it was to the Aurigan liaison great relief because they could finally take care of some and much needed military hardware. Not that it was much, but when you need anything, 2 Wasps and several APCs and trucks were better than nothing.
At the last place on the list (Vasseur had another list and was 'visiting' other possible pirate activity locations in other systems), we found something different. For starters, this group, unlike the others, had a JumpShip, an old Merchant, which we captured without much difficulty. Intrepids loaded with marines were really useful for this kind of operation. While heading down towards the pirate base, we located at high altitude that they had 2 DropShips, an Union and a Jumbo. With us having captured their JumpShip, there was no fear that they would escape far away, but just in case, I put the ASFs on standby to prevent any escape with the DropShips.
The approach to the pirate base was running smoothly until we got close to a hill. Lieutenant Joshua Pride, who was driving one of the two Royal Black Knights the Revenants had and who due to the specifics of this hunting mission I had traded with Vasseur (both Black Knights being in his battalion) for Antony Rubens and his Thunderbolt. because of the very useful Beagle Active Probe capacity, the Royal ’Mech had reported that a couple of ’Mechs were hidden just over the hill. Suddenly, a pair of Griffins rose in the air and fired their PPC... At a distance greater than the maximum range... and they both hit the unfortunate recon Toro that was in front, One of their shots beheading the ’Mech and killing Sergeant Raul Lagarde.
A quick glimpse at my sensors confirmed what I already knew, - we were facing ‘Mechs with advanced weapons. Oh, shit.
‘General alert! We have Star League ’Mechs ahead. Proceed with extreme caution.’
Changing the channel (so you want to play rough? I'll give you the rough game) I called our artillery giving them the coordinates where the Griffins had landed again, behind the hill. Changing channels again, I called our ASFs who were on patrol and ordered a strafing pass with rocket pods, which I knew they had loaded, in the same area as soon as the artillery finished their mission.
Fortunately for me, the ASFs on patrol were the two Vulcan that the Revenants had, both types being ASFs particularly good on support missions as they were able to carry a large number of rockets and had a pair of AC/10 that gave an extra 'punch'. As soon as the ASFs started strafing, my ’Mechs advanced at full speed with Georgina being the first to climb the hill, making excellent use of her Merlin jump-jets. When I finally reached the top of the hill thanks to my Nightstar's cursed slug speed, it was all over here, the two Griffins were destroyed, having been hit several times by all kinds of weapons.
Fortunately, the rest of the enemy forces had no more advanced weapons, making their defeat easier thanks to the use of our extra long-range weapons adding to our account, 1 destroyed Thunderbolt, 1 captured Cicada, 2 Withworths (one captured and one destroyed) and 2 destroyed Locusts. Luckily, I didn't lose anyone else in this battle, even though several ’Mechs were damaged and two ’MechWariors were wounded. As anti-climax, both DropShips surrendered without any further troubles, realizing that against my ASFs, artillery and with the capture of their JumpShip, it was useless to try to escape.
After the battle, I took some time to check the only ER PPC still intact but I couldn’t link it to any model that was in my database, which had every version from the first-ever made by the Hegemony to the beginning of Amaris’ Crisis. Where the hell did this gun come from? Unfortunately, both ’MechWarriors were dead and couldn't enlighten me.
The report from the intelligence team that was with me, which included an in-depth analysis of the DropShips and JumpShip computers as well as 'robust' interrogation of the surviving pirates only reported that they had recently had contact and equipment exchanges with a notorious black market group controlled by a Notker Baumann. Was this the supplier of advanced equipment of unknown manufacture? I had to find out now that the last pirate group that Kamea military had indicated to me was eliminated.

 

[Tryglaw]

Considering this is Battletech, so "Ho, Feudalism in Space!", marriage as calculated, pragmatic choice is the norm here.
If you could do that with a genuine relationship (best strike the iron while hot...) as basis, so much the better. So why don't you formalize your relationship by making a honest woman out of Kamea and thus set yourself up as a co-ruler. Better to rule in Hell then serve in Heaven after all, and I don't think you could "hit" much higher then that...

 

[paulobrito]

It is an open option right now to be true.

 

[Tryglaw]

It is an open option right now to be true.

As co-head of state (even if a small one) your bargaining position towards the Concordat would be so much stronger...
(And you could always offer personal union in future for a Calderon marriage for your eventual kids, Inner Sphere (ok, the Periphery) Game of Thrones for the win!).

 

[paulobrito]

That turns the story in a different direction - one that is not much used (that I know) to be fair. I need to think about that.