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

[paulobrito]

Parents being parents, one of the biggest problems for Jean-Luc and Kamea was that Sara was currently serving in the first battalion of the Revenants - part of the expeditionary force that was invading the Marian Hegemony. Both had taken risks on the battlefield and the 1st battalion was one of the best equipped and full of veterans but they were still worried.

Not wanting to show any preferential treatment, the solution they found was to make use of the fact that this was also the battalion where traditionally Jean-Luc's companies tested their new models.
Thus, a Lance was added, officially for testing new models that would be chosen for production, unofficially with secret instructions to stay close to Sara’s unit. This experienced unit had at its disposal 2 Jenner JR9-TC3X (DHS, endo-steel, Ferro-Fibrous, 1x experimental SRM4 Streak and CASE), 2 Locust LCT-2ERX (DHS, Ferro-Fibrous, 2xERML and 2SL) as well as 2 Dragonfly MM-3R1 (equal to MM-3R, but with capacity for an Arrow IV AAM or AGM). The experimental lance had ’Mechs that could keep up with Sara's Toro II but this was obviously only mere coincidence.




Meanwhile, Jean-Luc had ordered his best technicians to analyze the Mercury II blueprints in detail, with special attention to the plug-and-play components and everything that eased replacements.




Without much surprise for Kamea and Jean-Luc, while the other forces of the TDF received Pocket WarShips support and the one that was already on its way to the Lothian League even had a WarShip, the forces of the Reach, targeting Addhara and New Venice didn’t get any support. The political enemies of the family were working at full force. Even if the Marian Hegemony didn’t have any kind of real navy, Kamea didn’t want to take any risk and she made available two (relatively) old Union PW, which belonged to the defenses of the Reach, weakening them.

The only advantage in a way was that the opponents of the family were burning political favors at great speed, and would force Edward to soon take a position, which could put them into a unfavorable position.


While the TDF was performing its operation against the Marian Hegemony, the entire fleet of the Concordat had planned, for reasons that would be obvious to anyone, to conduct very visible exercises near the borders

 

[paulobrito]

Note: At this time and in this AU, the MHAF only has the I, II and III Legio – all veteran forces, the IV, V and VI have not been created so far. Their remaining forces are militia, poorly armed, equipped and trained, when compared to the Inner Sphere, Taurian Concordat or Magistracy of Canopus regular units.




May 12, 3054

New Venice

Marian Hegemony




Contrary to the cautious estimates made when deciding to launch the offensive, the Marian Hegemony forces didn’t have Pocket WarShips. They didn’t have any real forces with few Aerospace Fighters or ‘Mechs, the majority of the defenses being composed of several mechanized units with material outdated by the MAF / TDF standards. Even if it was a good training exercise in deploying units far away someone would have to answer for this totally wrong estimates.




In the New Venice system, the TDF forces landed unopposed, not a single ASF having challenged the approach.

Four days after landing, the 1st Battalion of the Revenants was advancing towards the world capital, facing only sporadic attacks from the few surviving MHAF forces present, a mix of the III Legio and local militia, the majority of the defenders having already been destroyed.

Outdated material or not, the III Legio units, unlike the local militia, were competent enough to have to be taken seriously during the offensive. The day before, the heiress of the Aurigan Reach had been wounded in an attack by Gladius Hover Tanks and was resting in a field hospital. Attacking by surprise from a well-camouflaged position, that somehow had escaped detection from the ASFs flying high (this is what happens when you get too lenient and contemptuous of your opponent), the fast hovers had spread confusion in the scouting elements of the Aurigan unit and only the fact that two lances were present instead of one had allowed the Revenants to get the upper hand in this encounter. Hit several times in the head by rocket salvos, Sara Arana-Bassot’s Toro II had fallen with the pilot injured. The ambush had however cost the defenders dearly, since only one Gladius had escaped.







Note: due to the fact that the Marian Hegemony in this AU did not have access to AC/10 (in OTL they were imported from Taurian Concordat), the Gladius are equipped with rockets and / or SRMs.







The landing on Alphard had been lightly contested with a dozen ASFs trying to prevent it. Obviously without much success, since they had to fight one WarShip and close to a hundred ASFs all of them carrying much more advanced technology.




With Sean O'Reilly captured on Lothario together with his eldest son only 14, the regency was in charge of Livia O'Reilly. Until now her job had been to manage Alphard Trading Corporation, however she tried her best to defend what remained of the Hegemony with her ordering the II Legio stationed on the capital world, while the remaining systems were defended by the III Legio and militia forces. But since the Marian Hegemony only trusted in might, she had to deal with among others the Prefect of the II Legion, which had been left in charge of the II Legio and all units on Alphard by Sean O’Reilly.

This Ron Brown was very aggressive and was only used to fight in the nearby Periphery without understanding the changes he was facing with the advanced weapons and numerical superiority enjoyed by the TDF. This is why he decided to contest the landing of the TDF forces, without regard for Livia O’Reilly’s advice, that it would be better to disperse, given that the invaders had WarShips support and a clear command of the air following the destruction of the airfields, which at this time had only atmospheric fighters, and of all the MHAF ASFs in space, executed by Naval Lasers, in a clear demonstration of force that didn’t reach the Prefect mind.




Although the II Legio had numerical superiority over the Taurian forces that had just landed, the difference in technology and even in mass, both in normal average and because of the use by the TDF of a Company worth of Assault ‘Mechs was much larger than the MHAF thought.

Adding artillery, including Arrow IV, Battle Armors and ASFs with air-to-ground weapons, made the battle for Alphard a fast, brutal and incredibly one-sided one.

At the end of the day, the Marian Hegemony capital was in the hands of the TDF, with the rest of the reigning family captured as they tried to escape.




In Pompey, the local commander of the III Legio, seeing that the invaders (the Reach Guards) were mostly composed of Griffins decided to move as quickly as possible to a close combat option, guessing that the PPCs and LRMs of the invaders would have great difficulty in reaching his lighter, but faster ’Mechs at such short distance.

Unfortunately for the defenders, the TDF Griffin's were the TC variant, with Enhanced ER PPCs with no minimum range, and two extra Medium Lasers. Instead of fighting the invaders to their advantage, the III Legio was massacred.




In the other systems, the invasion went better than planned - the defenders being fewer in numbers, with bad equipment equipped and virtually no air support.

Within one week, the Marian Hegemony had been totally occupied.




Following the discovery of some advanced systems among the captured equipment of the I Legio in Lothario, ongoing investigations were trying to find out from whom the MHAF had acquired them.

 

[paulobrito]

While the purely military part of the campaign had gone better than expected for both the TDF and the MAF, including the important yet often overlooked transportation and logistics component, the intelligence part had been a disaster.

The only good news was that the mistakes had all lead to an overestimation of the capabilities of the MHAF. An in-depth analysis in both the TMI and the MIM showed that because none of them considered the Marian Hegemony a serious danger , the offices in charge of this nation were either composed of second choice operatives and analysts, or the dumping place for the most incompetent agents. Curious that both nations suffered from the same bias and had used the same place to deposit the trouble cases.




Following the invasion, the Magistracy of Canopus sent both civil and military personnel to ensure a smooth transition from pure military occupation to being a part of the Magistracy.

For the Taurian Concordat, the next step was to negotiate with the Lothian League the 'offer' of the systems that the TDF had won

While Dame Lorelei Logan was satisfied that the invasion of her Realm had failed and that a troublesome neighbor was no more, the truth was that she did not have the needed resources to absorb the systems that the Concordat 'offered' her.

To do so, she would have to hire more mercenaries (something her exhausted treasure did not allow) or accept the Concordat proposal that the TDF forces could be used for that, keeping those systems de facto under the military control by the Concordat, even though they nominally belonged to the Lothian League.

Of course, if she did not accept the Concordat proposal, the risk was to have the Concordat indefinitely as her neighbor, a nation much more powerful than the now defunct Marian Hegemony, and which had justly demonstrated the ability and willingness to invade and conquer small nations.

On the other hand, even if the Concordat had absorbed, peacefully and apparently in agreement with the local rulers, the Aurigan Reach, it also had invested heavily in the new territory, and the old rulers were still in power locally, which was a sign that the Concordat was an honest partner even if bigger nations had no morale when it comes with dealing with smaller ones.

But, in the present situation, Lorelei knew that she herself had asked the Concordat to intervene, begged was a more precise term, because the alternative was to have her kingdom conquered by the much more aggressive Marian Hegemony. The presence of the Concordat in this region of space was entirely her fault. And to be honest, the terms were not bad at all when compared to the alternatives : to replace the HPG network with one controlled by the Concordat, to have a military base in Alphard and preferential trade agreements. In return, they would provide help in defending the nation and fighting local pirates. The Concordat also planned to build a dockyard in Alphard, which would be of vital importance to local JumpShips, as none existed nearby.

However, Dame Lorelei Logan knew that this was the first step into becoming a Taurian protectorate and that she might have exchanged an obvious danger for a more pernicious one.




In August 3054 the Federated Commonwealth executed the Galahad 3054 exercises. The bulk of the maneuvers were, as expected, on the border with the Draconis Combine, although the other borders were not left without demonstrations of force. These large scale operations involved more troops than all those available in the combined TDF and MAF. Of particular importance was the number of WarShips involved, including for the first time some of their new models. At least one of the new ones, a big one, probably a Battle Cruiser or a Heavy Cruiser, got some problems, and needed assistance. 4 Mako class Corvettes were also detected, which indicated that either the Federated Commonwealth had recovered two more, or more likely that they had a shipyard producing them (be it an unknown one or an existing one).

Obviously, getting that information became another one of the top priorities of the TMI, a TMI that was becoming overextended.

In the FWL civil war, with both sides exhausted, the tempo of the operations slowed, but the number of sabotages and assassinate attempts grew.




While starting later and while not considered a strategic program like in the Concordat, the Federated Commonwealth also had a program to revisit abandoned or dead worlds inside their frontiers. For that, they had bought, at discount prices, several Magellan JumpShips from the Earth government, that having severely reduced the explorer missions, had a surplus of these. These were obviously sold without the HPG system (promptly replaced by one of FC manufacture) but with the LF battery still present.

So far, the results were three worlds rediscovered, two worlds that had their residual population that has regressed to primitive levels.

But in a system relatively near New Avalon, they found a world, very much alive and with advanced technology. The only problem being that the local population was aligned with the Word of Blake. The explorer ship, one of the Magellan JumpShips, barely escaped from capture, thanks to the use of the LF battery, and spread the word , which gave way to a quickly organized invasion by the AFFC. Thanks to the relatively proximity to New Avalon, first class units, like the Davion Assault Guards RCT, were available.

Supported by several lesser regiments and at least four Pocket WarShips, the invading force landed in September 4, 3054, after dealing with the ASFs defending the system. Luckily for the invading forces, the Word of Blake already facing the needs of the civil war in the Free Worlds League wasn’t able to help Versailles with real WarShips or Pocket ones and the forces in place were also minimal, mostly a cadre of trainees and the respective instructors.

What the FC found after securing the world, in mid October, was that they had captured a severely damaged Star League Royal grade massive ’Mech factory with everything needed on world to supply it.

 

[paulobrito]

The conclusion of the team that had examined the MCS Coranna / SLS Bismark was that repairing the WarShip, while possible, was more of a complete rebuild than a repair / refit.


Still, the Black Navy of the Concordat was much interested in the ship, reasoning that a rebuild of this size, while expensive and time consuming, would bring immense information and experience in maintaining, and even building large WarShips.


In the end, the 'purchase' of the WarShip from the Canopians was approved, and it was transferred to Bolthole, where it would be rebuilt.


Meanwhile, the troops that had participated in the conquest of Marian Hegemony were coming home, being replaced by second-line forces, since the mission now was more a peacekeeping one, under the Lothian League flag.


Sara Arano-Bassot, had returned earlier, courtesy of a semi-Command Circuit, landed on Coromodir in September 3054.


Thanks to the best Canopians specialists in cosmetic surgery, the scars she had gained in the campaign, were eliminated without a trace.


The Taurian population and the political opponents of the Arano-Bassot had also noted that they had been the only noble family to send private forces for this campaign. The population did approve of it while the political opponents of the family took good note of this campaign which fueled even more their anger and their arguments against the Reach.






While Jean-Luc stayed 'at home', dealing with the expansion of industrial capabilities in Coromodir V, Sara went with her mother to Taurus, part of her training to one day replace her as regent of the Reach province.


By mere luck, or perhaps not, Edward's eldest son Anthony (call me Tony) Calderon, who by this time was doing his military service in the Concordat Navy, and who was also being trained to replace his father, was at home. Both youngsters found the other fascinating, and conversations between the two were constant.






In September 3054, the MAF executed the long awaited 'cleanup' at Astrokaszy. If on the one hand it did not employ WarShips, as for the moment it only had one, at both nadir and zenith jump points appeared simultaneously JumpShips loaded with combat DropShips that started launching shuttles with marines and ASFs,


This time MIM had done its homework, and a JumpShip also appeared at the most common pirate point and relatively close to Astrokaszy III, immediately launching DropShips to capture the JumpShips stationed in that area.






Even before the first troops set foot on the planet, the mission was already a success, with 7 JumpShips captured, 4 Invaders, 2 Merchants and a Tramp, and 2 DropShips, both Jumbo class, showing that they too could conduct efficient space operations.


Shervanis City had close to a battalion of ’Mechs defending it, but the defense was short-lived. The MAF had indeed learned, and had sent a combined force, supporting their advanced 'Mechs (including 4 Bull Shark Assault ones) with artillery, armored vehicles, infantry and ASFs, All of them well-trained and equipped forces, very different from the pirates and near-pirates who opposed them.


At the end of September, having achieved its objectives, the MAF withdrew from the system. .If in space they had captured only two DropShips, in Shervanis City they had captured ten more, taking with them eight in lift-off condition and destroying the last two before leaving. Between the material captured and the pirate groups destroyed or fleeing, it was a major blow to the pirates in this area, the survivors left for less hostile areas.


Meanwhile, similar, albeit smaller operations had taken place in the space between the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus, with all systems known or suspected of harboring pirates receiving 'visits' from the MAF or the TDF. August and September 3054 was a bad time for pirates in this part of the Periphery.






When news came out in October 3054 that communications with the Greater Valkyrate and the Oberon Confederation had been lost, everyone thought that the Federated Commonwealth or the Draconis Combine had also eliminated these pirate dens, even though the Oberon Confederation was a more or less legitimate kingdom by this time.


Only Jean-Luc, when he got the news, knew what was coming.

 

[paulobrito]

Four months after the loss of contact with the Great Valkyrate and Oberon Confederacy, I was looking at the reports about modified Portable PPCs for use with battle-armor and preliminary research reports on miniaturized gauss rifles also for battle armor, when I was ‘asked’ to participate in a war council with the leaders of both the Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus and their close advisors.


In the old days, that would have included fast traveling to Taurus via command circuit. Now, thanks to the military HPG network created just for that, it was a matter of going to the secure office in the palace where our end of said network was.


Thanks to the infiltration of the rear / administrative echelons of the AFFC, pioneered by the Reach Intelligence and largely expanded by the TMI and MIM, we had a good idea of what was happening inside the Federated Commonwealth, military wise.


This program focused on infiltrating / compromising secretaries and / or data operators with security clearances high enough to deal with confidential / sensible data, but low enough to be virtually invisible, as they were so many of them in the administration making everything work.


Even if the relationships between both nations had been getting better in the past decades, the Federated Commonwealth was still the principal focus of the TMI.


Not that the spy game had gone completely one-sided. Several agents had been caught inside the Federated Commonwealth and been traded quietly for MIIO / LIC ones caught inside the Concordat. For obvious reasons, both nations preferred a quiet and civilized resolution of these problems.


According to our reports, some unknown forces had started invading the Federated Commonwealth from the North, near the Free Rasalhague Republic. Because the FRR served as a buffer state between the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, the best forces of the AFFC were not deployed in that area, nor any WarShip, at least according to the reports of our intelligence services. The invaders were using unknown equipment, but from the videos that our intelligence got their hands on, they were identified as the Jade Falcons, one of the Clans, the descendants of the SLDF, reported in the Wolverine data files.


At the same time, we got news through the Magistracy and Concordat offices in Outreach that the KungsArmé had placed several contracts for mercenaries, paying better than they normally did, and indicating high risk missions.


To me, that indicated that the FRR was also invaded and I expressed that opinion. However while the majority agreed with my statement, we didn’t have any confirmation so far. Nor any information if the Combine was also invaded as I suspected if everything went like in OTL.






Like I thought already a few months ago, the invasion of the Inner Sphere by the Clans had started.


Because of the data found on the Wolverines planet, both Periphery nations knew that this was an invasion by the descendants of the SLDF that had departed with Kerensky. A force that both nations didn’t particularly like. Hated would be more exact. Both considered hilarious that this time the war was fought on the territories of the Inner Sphere nations and not on theirs.


Edward Calderon and Emma Centrella both decided that because the invasion was on the other side of the Inner Sphere and on Inner Sphere territory, they would for now wait and see. Evidently, defense preparations and expanding the budget were approved, but no information was shared with the Inner Sphere nations under threat. But knowing that the Clanners ultimate objective was the control all the Human Sphere and that if they conquered the Inner Sphere, they would come to the Periphery after, they already knew that some measure of collaboration with the Inner House would be needed to be necessary, but later. For now, both sides could exhaust themselves.


In the FWL, a bomb attack killed Thomas Marik and several of his supporters, creating chaos in his faction.


The Wolf’s Dragoons called all their units home, activating the escape clauses of their contracts, without explanations to anyone.


Both the TMI and the MIM detected movements of troops inside the FC, in direction of the invasion area, but considerable forces were still kept on the common border with the Draconis Combine. For now, no movement of WarShips reported, but access to that information was (still) very limited.


The aid from VMI / CHI to MMM to help them built the NightHawk factory provided both companies with insights in ways to help and improve the construction and design of the related but slightly inferior Colibri PA(L) design series.


One of the things that caused concerns in both Periphery nations was the number and types of WarShips the invading Clans had. Unlike the powers of the Inner Sphere, they had several Battleships, including several of the Texas and Mckenna classes, something that no-one had with the exception of the ex-SLS Bismark that was starting to be analyzed in Bolthole, but that would probably take a decade or so before being declared operational. Obviously if everything went right with the refit / update.

 

[paulobrito]

Notes: Much of this information was obtained much later. In this AU, the Overlord A3 has 2 AR-10 tubes, not 1 AR-10 and 1 Kraken. Kraken Missile does not exist at this time (invented in 3057 OTL), and there is no collaboration between the FC and the DC. To simplify things, even if Hanse Davion is still alive, the Fox class maintain that name.






In April 3055 the first local counterattack of the Federated Commonwealth against the Clans was launched.


In the Derf system, recently occupied by the Jade Falcon Galaxy, two WarShips, the FCS Ian Davion (Fox Class) and the FCS Lisa Steiner (Mako Class) appeared at a pirate jump point, and immediately moved towards the only habitable planet, around which the JFS Hawk Eye (Aegis Class) orbited.


Before they reached weapons range, the FCS Ian Davion launched its DropShips - 2 Overlord A3 pocket WarShips and 3 Vengeance CV.


Immediately, the DropShips and the Fox Corvette launched all their ASFs, a staggering flight of 144 Fighters (12 from the Fox, 12 from the Overlords and 120 from the Vengeances).


The JFS Hawk Eye launched all its ASFs in response, a tiny group by comparison of 20 Fighters. They stayed with the WarShip, while another 64 Fighters rose from the planet. When both groups merged, they advanced on the AFFC ASFs, with the WarShip slightly behind.


The lighter and more agile Federated Commonwealth units focused on the Falcon Fighters while the heavier targeted the WarShip that identifying them as the most immediate and dangerous forces started to launch Barracudas against them, while launching White Sharks at the advancing pocket WarShips, that began also returning fire.


At extreme range, both WarShips started to exchange shots, while the surviving heavy ASFs made their first attack pass on the JFS Hawk Eye, which lead to a nasty surprise for the Falcons as several of the ASFs were loaded with Alamos and the Heavy Cruiser did not survive more than a dozen nuclear impacts.


But it didn’t die alone, the FCS Strong Arm (Overlord A3) took several hits that destroyed it, the FCS Lisa Steiner received heavy damage and the FCS Ian Davion only light one.


Freed from their nuclear payload, the Stukas helped the Seydlitzs in eliminating the remaining Omni Fighters, losing 76 of them against the 84 from the Clans. To these you had to add the 12 destroyed by the Barracudas fired by the Jade Falcon WarShip, making the losses of the Federated Commonwealth go up to 88 ASFs, one Pocket WarShip destroyed, one Corvette heavily damaged and another slightly damaged, against one Heavy Cruiser and 84 Fighters. Advantage in raw numbers and nuclear weapons count, after all.


Shortly after, several JumpShips appeared at the same pirate jump point, carrying the Davion Heavy Guards RCT, the 1st Kell Hounds Regiment and the 10th Lyran Guards RCT, all units fully upgraded with SLDF and Royal tech.


The counter attack against the Clans had begun.






Enraged by the use of nukes, the Falcons didn’t offer safcon and disregarded zellbrigen, because they considered the AFFC forces dezgra.


This is why they launched an immediate and furious attack on the disembarking forces. So enraged were they that the picket units deployed to protect the landing zones couldn’t do their job and were so quickly obliterated that they couldn’t warn the 10th Lyran Guards that was caught still disembarking. The Jade Falcons further pressed their surprise advantage by combining their speed, with EW masking their approach and Battle Armors riding the Omnis as taxis directly into battle.






The final result of the attack was that the 10th ceased to exist as a viable force with only 10% of its members surviving, including the Archon-Prince that was seriously wounded when he ejected his Victor VTR-9D.


Unfortunately for the Falcons, that not only put then in range of the Guards DropShips weapons, but also gave time to the other two units to unload and catch then from behind.


In the furious melee that followed, no quarter was given or asked from both sides and ended with only two Clan ‘Mechs surrendering- more or less, both on them doing so only when knocked to the ground with a gun pointed at their cockpit.


Both the Heavy Guards and the Kell Hounds took heavy damage and would need months to be considered operational again. On the plus side, they had captured a lot of Clan salvage, including DropShips.


For the first time too, the Soldier Battle Armor was used in great numbers, the Federated model was a copy (illegal of course) of the Taurian Jack design. With a fixed jump pack that let it jump 60m and a fixed LMG on the left arm to deal with infantry, its main weapon was either a Single Shot SRM-2 or a scaled-up pulse rifle, the first useful against ’Mechs, the second against Battle Armors.


The comparison with the Clan Battle Armor showed that it was inferior in all ways, but it was still better than not using any. Its biggest problem was that the pulse rifle lacked enough penetration power against the Clan Battle Armors.

 

[paulobrito]

By 3055 in all aspects, the FWL had fragmented into several small nations. Marik and Stewart were perhaps the largest group, controlled by what remained of the Marik family and the increasingly junior Word of Blake partners, the latter much weakened after losing almost their entire fleet of WarShips and their industrial capacity on Versailles. Regulus and Oriente, although independent, remained allied against Marik-Stewart for the sake of survival.


Andurien at this time was trying to remain independent, hoping that no one would look too much in her direction, and was trying, although without much success, to re-establish the alliance with the Magistracy.


The rest was in an undeclared state of war in which the larger groups tried to force the smaller ones to go along with them.


In late April 3055, Sun-Tzu Liao seized power in the Capellan Confederation after a coup that killed Roman Liao, Tzeng Shang and Kali Liao.


Even though Sun-Tzu blamed outside forces for the coup (without mentioning any name), an exchange of information between TMI, MIM and MIIO confirmed that the coup had been orchestrated by Sun-Tzu or forces loyal to him.


On May 14th, 3055, I received a message from Edward Calderon, informing me that he had received an invitation from Jaime Wolf, to a meeting of leaders in Outreach, for which Command Circuits had been established. Edward, had invited Emma Centrella. They would meet in Coromodir before traveling together in Taurus One, a highly modified Lee. Edward expected me to join them there too as he wanted my presence as a consultant in the industrial and military areas, and due to the fact that I was probably the only one in the area that “knew” the leaders of the Wolf’s Dragoons well (sort of).


Edward had brought his eldest son Antony and Emma had brought Danai, her heir-designate. Kamea even though she was not going to participate in the trip to Outreach, managed, easily from what I observed, to include Sara, much to her and Antony's delight.






During the trip I had several conversations with Edward and Emma, in which I tried to convey what I knew about the Wolf’s Dragoons' relationship with the Clans in the form of theories that unfortunately sounded a lot like most of the rumors about them that could be heard in the Inner Sphere


As we arrived in Outreach, the presence of several WarShips immediately caught our attention with an impressive fleet in system made of 1 Aegis, 1 Congress, 2 Lolla III, 1 Sovetskii Soyuz and 1 Vincent. Apparently Jaime had recovered his WarShip fleet and made its existence public.






Not since the marriage of Hanse and Melissa in 3028 had so many leaders (and their heirs) been gathered in a single system, even if the success rate was not of 100% as no one was there from the Free Worlds League or its remains and Sun-Tzu couldn’t leave his realm and hadn’t sent any representatives.


What changed from my memories was the presence of Natasha Kerensky, Morgan Kell (with Phelan, meaning something didn’t go as planned for Clan Wolf) and of Joan Stark, the ruler of Earth. Adding to her mystery and even if her presence was logical, she didn’t bring any relatives.






I had the feeling that this was going to be quite different from what I remembered.






By their expressions, it was clear that Hanse (and family) and also Theodore knew, or at least suspected, the origins of the Wolf’s Dragoons. Of everyone present, only Joan Stark and the Rasalhague representatives displayed any signs of surprise when Jaime Wolf admitted his past connection to the Clans.


The reason for the call was made quickly clear and the Dragoons were finally taking a stand, and that was to fight the Clans. The reason for the timing, was that during the last DCMS counterattack in Luzerne, the DCA had destroyed a Black Lion (CSJ Streaking Mist) and severely damaged a Texas, the CSJ Veiled Huntress, which was carrying the ilKhan, Leo Showers, who although he survived had been wounded in the attack.


While admitting that the losses had been high, Theodore did not go into details.


Because of this attack, and in light of the defeat the Falcons had suffered, in which they had also lost a WarShip, Showers had ordered a grand council of the Clans to better plan the invasion, and activate more Clans. Since Showers had decided to held it in Strana Mechty, the invasion was paused, making this meeting in Outreach possible.


The sharing of information showed that in the case of both Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, the invasion had been considerably less successful than what I remembered. For the Free Rasalhague Republic, it was about the same.


When Jaime Wolf proposed training the heirs in the ways of the Clans, both Hanse and Theodore immediately refused the offer, Hanse saying that the role of the Wolf’s Dragoons, was to set up a program to train the armed forces of the present states and to give whatever information they had on the Clans, a proposal which was immediately supported by all the leaders present.


At first Jaime and Natasha refused to share any information but Hanse and Melissa, told them that unless this information was shared, they would have no other choice but to consider the Dragoons as hostile. A declaration that was supported by all the present leaders.


As both groups confronted each other, Joan Stark commented, that a good deal of this information could be obtained on the battlefield anyway, from captured enemy equipment. It would just take longer and cost more lives. After a short pause, Jaime nodded and against his will accepted to release the data-cores with Clan tech the Dragoons had but informed them not to expect miracles, it would take years to convert factories to the more advanced Clan technology.






Surprising everyone, Joan informed those present that the EDF (Earth Defense Force) would send 10 brigades, each one equivalent to 1 RCT, to help defend the FRR, and that it would accept orders for military equipment from the invaded nations, concluding that if the ultimate goal of the Clans was to conquer Earth, it was better to begin the defense now, and not only when they appeared on the Sol system.


After a quick consultation between the two, Edward and Emma, also agreed to accept orders to buy military hardware, provided that both nations also received the Dragoons’ /Clan data cores and Dragoons’ anti-Clan training, but at the moment neither offered military forces. In fairness, none of the invaded nations had asked for forces from them. I received orders from Edward to crank up the production of both VMI and CHI to their maximum.

 

[paulobrito]

One point that came up quickly was the location of the Clans Homeworlds. At first, when Jaime admitted that they no longer had that information, due to it having been purged from their navigational computers in the last contact in 3019, this news was met with astonishment and a general drop in mood, until, shortly afterwards, Emma Centrella informed that the Magistracy and the Concordat had not only the location of said worlds, but also the route used.


This announcement was met with astonishment by all the presents and an almost growling 'Wolverines' from the side where Natasha was standing.


The fact that the distance was about 1,000 light years, and that in spite of this the Clans had mounted an invasion, caused general astonishment, quickly followed by variants of 'how do they plan to maintain a supply train of that length?' from various sides.


Immediately, both the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine started talking about the possibility of raids along that long supply line. Reality quickly kicked in, however, and the fact that the number of available WarShips was minuscule put a damper on those plans. It was a good idea, but not for the next few years. Until that, raids would be conducted using advanced JumpShips with LF batteries and Assault and CV DropShips.


For the moment, and since the vast majority of the WarShips used by the Clans were of SLDF origin with weak defenses against ASFs, (if not retrofitted) what was needed was large numbers of Heavy Fighters and Alamos to bring them down. Everybody knew that without eliminating this threat first, any attempt to liberate occupied worlds or defeat an invasion that included one or more WarShips was doomed to fail.


Because of this, among the hardware produced, the first to be ordered in large numbers, were like in most factories the much needed Aerospace Fighters. For the Concordat, it was Thunderbirds and Hell Ducks Heavy ASFs. Questions as to whether the Concordat or Earth were opened to selling WarShips were answered with a quick 'at the moment no' from both nations.


During breaks in negotiations and planning, the Dragoons several Clan OmniMechs that they were capable of producing although in small numbers. Since most of those present were or had been 'MechWarriors, the interest was evident, and everyone wanted to try out the advanced war machines the Clans were using.






Other events that draw a lot of attentions were the mock battle sessions between those present. With so many elite 'MechWarriors present, the level of battles was amazing, and even though I expected it, I quickly discovered that I was among the weakest present. Okay, I was better than Victor, Hohiro and Ragnar, but all the rest were better than me. And in the case of those I beat, I had the suspicion that it was more due to the fact that I had much more experience, than talent. Particularly hard to swallow was the string of defeats against Natasha - the damn woman was by now 82 years old, ffs. How someone of that age could still be so lethal in a 'Mech was almost incomprehensible. And she did that while still driving her Warhammer, an upgraded one, but still, not using a Dire Wolf.


Initially I thought Hanse couldn't pilot a 'Mech due to his poor health, but apparently he had recently received a heart transplant, something that had been successfully kept secret until now, and was active enough again that the doctors allowed him pilot his BattleMaster from time to time.


In another class of simulations, the Toro II that Sara was using was of particular interest to Daniel Allard and Phelan Kell, both excellent pilots of Wolfhounds. The Toro II was, after all, basically an advanced Wolfhound with Jump Jets, thanks to a lighter chassis, which used Endo-Steel. This ended with the Kell Hounds placing an order for several.


Another series of divergences from the universe I knew was that Justin Allard still drove Yen-Lo-Wang, even if it was the modernized version, with Gauss Rifle, pulse lasers and experimental triple-strength myomer. Kai, while a very good 'MechWarrior, was not at the same level of Natasha, and piloted a Pillager 3Z.


In this reality, the Dragoons offered no OmniMechs, and Victor and Hohiro, kpet on using their Victor (9D) and Grand Dragon (5K).


Theodore, still used the Command version of the BattleMaster that he had started using during the War of 3039.






In the following meetings the industrial capacity of the Clans was analyzed, as well as the size of their fleets, both WarShips and transports. Much depended on the number of Clans participating in the invasion. Too many, and it would be almost impossible to contain or defeat them. On the other hand, their transport capacity was likely to be the hard limit of what they could do, and even though the Dragoons' information was more than 30 years out of date, it was a good starting point, and everything indicated that it would be impossible for more than 10 Clans to invade at the same time. And that number would put a big strain on their supply lines. If political differences and natural distrust were added to this, it was estimated that no more than 7 Clans would participate in a renovated full-scale invasion. We would soon find out if these predictions were right and by how much.






It quickly became apparent that both the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine were receiving information from multiple occupied systems. As this could only be possible via Black Boxes, after a short exchange of opinions with Edward, I put on the table the 'request' for this technology to be shared with the other nations present. Something, which evidently, Joan Stark immediately supported.


Both nations didn’t agree to that and this topic was put under the table.






Business was quite profitable. Even if quantity discounts were negotiated, by my estimates, both VMI and CHI would make a lot of money, and so would Kamea and I, indirectly. For example, any 'Mech that had Extended Range weapons and even upgrade kits were ordered in large numbers, with the payment/credit mechanisms being decided between the nations' leaders. As for battle-armor, orders exceeded by far the production capacity, and for the next few years, the Concordat and Magistracy military factories would be operating at full capacity to keep up with the demand.






Without surprise, the St. Ives Compact declared that it would support the Federated Commonwealth with equipment and troops within its means. Edward and Emma, while not providing troops, agreed to provide equipment to all invaded nations. In return, in addition to orders that would keep their factories busy for years and bring immense wealth to both nations,they would receive sample or even transfer of Clan tech, not only from the Wolf’s Dragoons but also from the nations with whom they established contracts, including production rights of current designs they wanted to be produced in the Periphery to expand the number of designs available for production.

 

[paulobrito]

The rest of the meeting in Outreach dealt with information sharing protocols regarding the Clans between the nations involved and an informal truce, due to Takashi being the ruler of the Draconis Combine and not Theodore, it was not possible to sign a formal one.


As soon as the truce was decided, the best regiments from both the Federated Commonwealth and Draconis Combine, that were still facing each other, started to move from their garrison locations, almost all at the respective borders, to the new priority conflict – The Clans.


Unfortunately for the Federated Commonwealth, both the Capellan Confederation and what was left of the Free Worlds League these days, did not participate in the Outreach meeting, and so, no truce deal with these nations was found. So, the AFFC still needed to maintain a considerable amount of forces on those borders.


Back in Coromodir (again via Command Circuit), I wasted no time in sharing the technical data from the Wolf’s Dragoons database.
The consensus among both VMI and CHI technicians was that it would be necessary to create the tools first and then build from scratch new factories and assembly lines capable of producing Clan tech.
Not only were the precision and tolerance levels more demanding than the best we did today (for the Royal or Wolverine tech) but many of the components made greater use of rare components, which were difficult to obtain.
Fortunately for the Concordat, because of the much expanded mining program in space, we had wider access to most of them than other nations. That was at least the analysis of my specialists.
The general opinion, was that it would be advisable, to prioritize building weapons first and only after that ‘Mechs, ASFs and vehicles.


Even in our best estimates, it would take at least 5 years for the first models to roll off of the assembly lines. As for the ‘Mechs/ASFs/vehicles, it would take at least 10 years before the first ones could be produced.
And that was for VMI and CHI. Estimates for other companies indicated that more time would be needed.


In the meantime Edward had opened the purse strings. Due to the Clan Invasion Crisis, (and thanks to the large number of orders placed by both the Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, that in turn represented an increase in tax revenues for the state) the defense budget was greatly expanded. 10 new brigades were created and the number of WarShips and Lee DropShips ordered was greatly increased.
A Concordat brigade was similar to a Federated Commonwealth reinforced RCT, although the integration/distribution of forces was somewhat different, with the brigade having a larger artillery and air defense component and also a lot more Battle Armor and PA(L). PA(L) were something that only the TDF and MAF deployed on the battlefield, Earth and WoB never moved past the Infiltrator custom-build units, and the other nations didn’t produce PA(L).

The result of a program whose objective was to build the cheapest WarShip possible, the Type 055 - Orca, was something never seen before even if it failed to be cheap in its final, approved version.
The first proposal was a very small ship, 75K Tons, with 2 NL35 and 2 Barracuda tubes. No DropShip Booms, very spartan, with a cost a little over a Monolith.


Evidently, the Concordat Navy although interested in the design, proposed many modifications. The main one was that against any opposition present, it had neither the ability to evade nor the means to defend against anything more than an Assault DropShips, it didn't even have defenses against ASF's.
From interaction to interaction, we came to the time of the Clan Invasion. No longer a small, low priority, low budget pet project, that never passed the concept/ design phase. With the need for a very long range / autonomy warship / raider arose to attack the Clans' very long supply line to their Homeworlds, the latest version was no longer an economical WarShip, due to its use of an LF battery, but met all the requirements for a raider.


With 80K Tons, a LF battery, 2 NL55, (one on the Forward Left and one on the Forward Right bays) and 2 Killer Whale tubes (each with 24 missiles) on the Nose, it was also able to carry two DropShips and had an autonomy of 2 years. Being so small, it had intra-system engines adapted from those used in Starlifter DropShips (50K tons+) which gave it anemic mobility when compared to any WarShips, ASF or most military DropShips, but far superior to any Jumpship.
If it encountered any opposition, the doctrine was that it would use the LF to execute a jump and flee the area, avoiding combat. Without opposition, it was more than capable of destroying any Clan resupply convoy.
With all these modifications, it cost almost 9 billions of C-Bills, but it was the only WarShip / Raider capable of operating deep on the Exodus Road without support (not counting the two DropShips it could carry) for an extended period.
Four were ordered, and received top priority for construction. Taurians, being Taurians, several of the Killer Whale missiles have ‘special ordnance’, aka are nuke tipped (Peacemakers with a 500 kiloton warhead).


While expensive, it was surprisingly fast to build, because with the exception of the compact K-F drive and LF battery, that were unique, everything else was off-the-shelf components, already in mass production.






Because of the disintegration of the Free Worlds League and the internal wars that was damaging much of the military-industrial infrastructure / complex, several companies that until recently only existed inside the League, started to look to create branches or even migrate to other nations, or risk the fate of so many that have been destroyed during the first and second succession wars. One of these companies was Irian Technologies. Unlike many others, that looked to the Capellan Confederation, the Magistracy or the Federated Commonwealth, Irian Technologies started negotiations with Kamea Arano to create a branch in Coromodir V, the place that offered the best tax and incentives inside the Concordat and also already had a comprehensive secondary industry and infrastructure capable of supporting said industrial complexes.

 

[paulobrito]

While handling orders management for both the Draconis Combine - which had just placed an order for 50 Jenner JR9-TC3 (DHS, EndoSteel, Ferro-Fibrous, 4 ML, 1x SRM4 Streak and CASE), and the Federated Commonwealth, amidst the various requests from mercenary forces came one from an old acquaintance.


Grayson Carlyle, the leader of the Grey Death Legion, had an irresistible proposal.


The GDL had suffered badly in several hard fights against the Jade Falcons, and needed urgently some advanced equipment to rebuild its forces. Knowing that it could not match the volume of orders (and their priority) from the major nations and bigger mercenary groups, and as such, being right at the middle or end of the list to receive upgrades / replacements, it proposed that in exchange for some of its stock of Clan hardware, obtained at great cost on the battlefield and which was to all intents and purposes impossible for it to maintain, he could get a line of credit for our most advanced equipment with top priority to delivery.






Even though we all had received the Wolf’s Dragoons' datacore, the info in it was some 35 years old and perhaps a bit too much Wolf oriented. What Carlyle offered were examples of current equipment from the Jade Falcons, another Clan. Not that I believed that it was going to be much different, but some differences in models and preferences were always possible. Even though in the agreements signed in Outreach, it was defined that the Concordat would receive Clan technology samples, it was clear that this would not be one of the priorities of either the Federated Commonwealth or the Draconis Combine, they would more than probably keep said samples to themselves for their companies to analyze first. The FRR, would hand theirs over to the Earth forces as expected, since they were the ones who had put troops on the ground to help them.






After a quick conversation with Kamea as she was after all the other partner in the CHI company , we decided to satisfy Carlyle's order.


This matter led me to have a conversation with Edward, regarding precisely how to obtain technology from the Clans.


It was decided, that even though the Taurian Concordat would not officially send forces, a volunteer brigade would be created from carefully selected elements of the TDF, that would act under the guise of a mercenary unit and whose goal would be to obtain Clan hardware and secondarily gain experience fighting them outside of training with the Wolf’s Dragoons.






But, soon the politics and prejudice ugly head raised again. Even with the last decades of good relations between the Concordat and the Commonwealth, very few in the Taurian Armed Forces considered the option of serving under the Federated Commonwealth orders and since the Combine didn’t have a good reputation with mercenaries, we were in a stalemate. The Taurians didn’t accept less than independent command and full salvage rights, something the Kuritans were against on principle. Also, to guarantee that said force was not subject to limited access to supplies, something that mercenaries were always exposed to the Taurians needed to provide almost all of the needs of such force and that greatly expanded the supply train. The conclusion was to only a full TDF Task Force, with WarShip support would fit the bill. In the end, with all disguise left out, three full TDF Brigades with WarShips support and a large supply train was organized. For interaction with the Kuritans, both accepted to use the same protocols and rights that the old SLDF had when operation in the Houses territories, that have been dig up by the DCMS archivists. A Liaison Officer was accepted, but to ensure coordination and communication services with the DCMS and DCA and with no controlling power.






In Coromodir, the negotiations with Iran Technologies ended without any accord. While their presence represented an expansion on the industrial capabilities of the province, the conditions that the Irians requested were not acceptable for Kamea. They also didn’t accept that everyone and everything needed to pass the very demanding vetting process that the Kamea security forces had.


Part of the problem, was that the Irians still thought that they were in the dominant position, and that the local rules were going to roll over themselves to have their industries on the local planets, and getting all the usual and shady perks they had inside the League. Kamea on the other side, while very interested in expanding the industrial capabilities of her territories, was in no mood to compromise the control and security of said territory.

 

[paulobrito]

What started with a ‘not involved, just selling’ posture before becoming a ‘volunteers only’ was now a full effort of the TDF to deploy the most modern and capable of its forces for a prolonged period of time against the most advanced and dangerous enemy and far far away from home.


The 2nd, 3rd, and 5th Taurian Guards, that were going to be the core of this expedition, were currently in Jamestown, training against the Wolf’s Dragoons Epsilon Regiment and the Revenants. The 2nd Canopian Cuirassiers were also present for training, even if they were not scheduled to depart to the Inner Sphere (call it a gift to the Magistracy).


While the Concordat and the Magistracy were for now not involved in the conflict, they got during the Outreach Summit, the services of one of the Wolf’s Dragoons regiments to train their forces in anti-Clan operations. The other regiments were dispatched to the nations involved in anti-Clan operations. Edward and Emma managed to secured one of the regiments to train their forces as they were there and they had agreed to sell military hardware to the other nations involved.


At same time these units were replacing all their vehicles that didn’t have fusion power, with more advanced ones or were busy refitting them. The objective was that the expeditionary force would be full fuel independent, ie 100% fusion powered. While expensive, this change freed them from the need to secure / transport fuel and gave the units more range while at the same time allowing them to operate in vacuum environments and to simplify and reduce the supply train.


Similarly, all the ASFs of the expeditionary units were upgraded or replaced with more advanced models, the objective being that they should all be capable of deploying Arrow IV AAM and/or A2G.


The infantry was also upgraded with all the Battle Armors being the latest Jack 2C, the “normal” units receiving Colibri PA(L). To give it even more punch, a few prototypes of the newest Heavy Battle Armor (2 tons) were added, for evaluation under fire.


The DropShips were all replaced by Lees, except for a few Union-BA, dedicated to transport/insert of Battle Armor units.


The JumpShips of the expeditionary force were all marked to be Mriyas, which forced some units staying home to give away theirs and receive less capable Invaders, until new ones were constructed.


To achieve all this, several units of the TDF had been ‘forced’ to transfer their more advanced hardware to the leaving units, which also received top priority in the new deliveries instead of the planned recipients.


The Naval escort force was also in the middle of a refit, upgrading its capabilities, with the DropShips and ASF components receiving equivalent upgrades.


Taurians, being Taurians, the number of Alamos and capital missiles with ‘special ordnance’ was very high. In fact, the Alamos were all of a new series, with improved seekers and ECM. In theory their efficiency was greater than the standard model, but the future battles would be the final judge for that.


The supply train would be made of 20 Leviathans that could carry an impressive 160 DropShips force, mostly Starlifters, the heavy cargo ones.


One of these Starlifters was right now being fully modified to have an assemble/disassemble/repair ‘Mech and vehicle unit, equivalent of the most advanced only normally seen in ’Mech factories. Another was in the process of being converted into the most advanced mobile hospital ever constructed – well, outside of the top of the Star League, that is.





The very exigent training regime included replacing those that not could achieve the new much higher standards with new people, being transferred from other units.


The end result was the creation of a truly elite force, easily the very best the TDF could deploy, even if at the cost of the morale in those staying behind and siphoned of their best personnel and hardware was not so high.


In February 3056, with the news that the Clans had resumed attack operations, and the presence of several new Clans in the front-lines, the Taurian Expeditionary Force departed for Luthien, expecting to arrive about six months later.


The supply train departed a month later, escorted by four Pinto class Corvettes, three of them with Union-CV and the last one with a Union-BA. At almost the same time the first Orca raiders, built in record time, departed Bolthole, destination, the Exodus Road.

 

[paulobrito]

With data from OmniMechs provided by the Wolf’s Dragoons, and analysis of the Mercury II, VMI in collaboration with CHI, created the first Omni with IS tech.


Starting with the Marauder II 6TC, the most complicated part was the creation of a programmable Gyro. Next was the creation of OmniPods, that had the same interface as the Clan systems, so they could be compatible and later replaced or upgraded with captured Clan tech.


After much testing and false starts, the first prototype began extensive testing in April 3056. A record time for such advanced technology, with the obvious results that it was still a prototype with lots of custom-made components, and really far from being ready for production or from being free of errors and glitches.


To simplify things, the Jump Jets were fixed, present in all variants.


Primary configuration (equal to 6TC)


1 ERPPC and 1 ML on each arm, 1 LRM 10 on each torso (with 1 ton of ammo each) and 1 MPL on the CT.






Alternate A


Replaced both LRM10 and ammo with an ERPPC on the left torso, upgraded the two ML to MPL, added a Guardian ECM and an AMS with a ton of ammo.


Alternate B


Replaced the ERPPCs with ER LL, the ML with ER ML and upgraded both LRM10 to LRM15.


Alternate C


Replaced both ERPPC with ER LL and the ML with ER ML and replaced both LRM10 and respective ammo with a Gauss Rifle in the Left Torso with 4 tons of ammo.






At the same time, VMI and CHI provided technically support for MMM' new ’Mech project - the M3 and M4 variants of the Bull Shark Assault ‘Mech


The M3 swapped all the armament for 4 LRM20s, while the M4 installed 2 Arrow IVs, both with plenty of ammo and heat sinks for continuous fire. For now, like the Omni Marauder II, they were just test-beds, mass production being something for the unforeseen future.


Information coming from the Clan front reported that more Clans had been added: it seemed that the Steel Vipers, the Nova Cats, the Diamond Sharks, the Snow Ravens and the Hell’s Horses. This was worrisome because not only did it include two more Clans than I remembered, but one of them, the Snow Ravens was known for its very strong naval component.






The Steel Vipers joined the Jade Falcons - a strange connection, as I remembered them hating each other, the Nova Cats joined the Wolfs, the Diamond Sharks joined the Ghost Bears, and the Hell’s Horses shared their corridor with the Smoke Jaguars. WarShips of the Snow Ravens had been seen in all invading corridors, but so far no ground forces.
Obviously many decisions of political rather than military nature had dictated such changes.


The information was scarce, and so far no true partnership had been detected. Apparently, while sharing the same invading corridors, the Clans operated independently and on one case forces of one Clan let the Inner Sphere forces escape and didn’t come to the help of they supposed ally.






On the Free Worlds League front, while the Concordat and the Federated Commonwealth basically stopped their arms deliveries and the Magistracy severely reduced them, Capellan equipment was now detected in bigger numbers, Sun Tzu was obviously active on that front.

 

[paulobrito]

August 9, 3056


Luthien System, Zenith Jump Point, Draconis Combine


Bridge of the CSR James McKenna (McKenna Class BattleShip)


Star Admiral Hinda Shu was thinking about her options before addressing her officers.


”Warriors, now that we have secured this Jump Point, we have two options : go right for their heart or jump somewhere where our Dezgra opponent might have set traps and win only a few days but at the potential cost of several units.


We are Snow Ravens, we are the Clans, we deploy our wings, and we will let fear strike in the hearts of our opponents as they witness us going for them.


Full speed ahead.”










August 17, 3056


Luthien, Draconis Combine






Eight days earlier, a huge Clan fleet had appeared at the Zenith Jump Point.


Quickly dispatching the forces protecting it, it had advanced towards the capital of the Draconis Combine, ten days away at 1 G, as the defense forces around it were preparing to intercept them.


The DCA Home Fleet was by no mean light with the Destroyers Asama and Izumo (Narukami Class) and the Frigate Kyushu (Kyushu Class), which was still undergoing trials, accompanied by 6 Assault DropShips and about 400 ASFs and faced them within two days of Luthien IV.


Unfortunately for the DCA, the invading force consisted of 7 WarShips, the Smoke Jaguar CSJ Snow Leopard (Congress Class Frigate), the Hell Horses CHH Bucephalus (Congress Class Frigate), and the Snow Raven Swift Wing Naval Assault Star, consisting of the CSR James McKenna (McKenna Class BattleShip), the CSR Blizzard (Cameron Class BattleCruiser), the CSR White Cloud (Sovetskii Soyuz Class Heavy Cruiser), the CSR White Terror (Aegis Class Heavy Cruiser) and the CSR Spur (Lolla III Class Destroyer).






Demonstrating that they had learned something from the previous battles, the Clan WarShips were accompanied by Assault DropShips and CV ones, from the Pentagon, Vengeance and Titan Classes, as well as a considerable number of ASFs, while the fleet of DropShips carrying the various Galaxies came considerably behind, escorted by the ASFs of the respective Galaxies.






Even though the more agile Kuritan ASFs had managed, at great cost, to open a gap for the heavier ones loaded with Alamos to get into range, the WarShips were far away enough for the Capital Missiles and the Pentagons to destroy many of the Combine ASFs before they reached the distance where they could launch the Alamos, almost exhausting their stocks of capital missiles


In the end, less than a dozen Alamos were launched, destroying one of the Pentagon DropShips and damaging the CSR Spur.


The last Kuritan ASFs were destroyed, but the Clan OmniFighters had also been severely reduced in number, now numbering less than a hundred.


The Assault DropShips were massacred by the long-range weaponry of the Clan forces, more precisely the Naval Lasers and Naval PPCs of the Ravens' heavy ships, without having done much damage.


Now, only the DCA WarShips and the surviving ASFs were left against a much superior force.


Unfortunately for the Kuritans, with their use of nuclear weapons, the Clans considered them dezgra and the rules favoring individual combat were no longer followed. Their greater range and firepower made themselves quickly felt, when the CSR James McKenna put a massive broadside of HNPPCs on the DCS Izumo, crippling the ship. The Asano managed to hit CSJ Snow Leopard's flank with its HNPPC, but the armor held, even if barely. The Destroyer paid dearly for its actions, being hit next by the Heavy Cruiser White Cloud, which destroyed part of its left broadside, with a salvo of NAC/20, NL45 and MNPPC, in a display of good shooting precision. Meanwhile, the Kyushu was trading shots with the CSR Blizzard, and by luck or superior skill, was doing more damage than it was receiving. That ended suddenly, when the CHH Bucephalus moving alongside it, with a maneuver few captains can equal, unloaded an entire broadside volley on its engines, greatly reducing the maneuverability of the Frigate.


After finishing off the Izumo with a long range heavy salvo of HNPPCs and NL55, the CSR James Mckenna demonstrated why the Mckenna Class was considered the zenith of BattleSghips, destroying the lamed Kyushu at close range with a devastating salvo from its NAC/40s. The Asano, managed to hit the CJS Snow Leopard again, causing moderate damage, before finally being destroyed by the CSR White Terror.


After recovering their surviving DropShips and ASFs and running SAR operations, the Clans resumed their advance towards Luthien IV.


Soon after the battle, the Taizai, a lone Overlord class DropShip departed Luthien heading towards the pirate Jump Point behind Orientalis, one of the four moons of Luthien IV, where a Scout JumpShip was waiting, ready to transport Minoru and Omiko Kurita to New Samarkand.

 

[paulobrito]

Arriving at the Nadir Jump Point the Taurian Expeditionary Force, was first received with hostility, because the Kuritans thought they were a second wave of invading Clanners. One Battlesat fired at the Taurian ships, but luckily, the shot hit the armor of the TCS Ajax that shrugged the damage. Before the Taurians answered in kind, both sides identified the other, and the situation calmed a bit. As soon as they identified the new visitors, the Kuritans requested their help in dealing with the invasion. Thankfully, for the Kuritans, all the ships were equipped with Lithium-Fusion batteries and after receiving the coordinates, they executed a second jump to the nearest Pirate Jump Point, the one to where the Tenzai was running. For a short moment Marshall Daniel Ostergaard toyed with the idea of sending a single WarShips to deal with the clan JumpShips that were at the Zenith Jump Point, but by this time they were likely to have already recharged, and he was probably going to need all his WarShips to deal with the Clan force.






After a quick exchange of words with the Tenzai as they crossed each other path, the WarShips set course aiming to intercept the Clan WarShips, while the JumpShips launched their DropShips that immediately headed for Luthien, to help defend against the impending invasion.


In response, the Clan WarShips also changed course, their objective being evident - to fight the TDF WarShip force.






The TDF war fleet was composed of the Heavy Cruiser TCS Pinnard (Winchester II Class), the Frigates TCS Parin and TCS Detroit (Concordat Carrier Class), TCS Fury and TCS Marantha Calderon (Concordat Class) and the Destroyers TCS Ajax and TCS Perdition (Ajax Class). This force represented about 60% of the available TDF WarShips, without counting the Pintos, and it had been a risky decision to send such a force on such a long voyage but the Taurian Concordat thought it was worth the risk.


While all this was going on, a considerable portion of the ASFs escorting the Clan DropShips changed course and approached their fleet of WarShips, which slowed enough to catch them before they reached the Taurians range, the Clanners commander had obviously decided that he needed a bigger escort after the losses suffered against the Kuritan fleet.






To the Clanners surprise, the number of ASFs the Taurians launched was much higher than they expected, over 600, while they even with the reinforcements, had about 400. Worse, even before they got within range of the weapons the OmniFighters had at their disposal, and which had so far granted them superior range, the Taurian ASFs launched massive salvos of AAM missiles that proved deadly to the OmniFighers, having some sort of seeker that kept them in sight outside of the most violent maneuvers, or the few clan OmniFighters also equipped with ECM units. But the surprises didn't stop there, since a considerable number of ECM systems, reducing the range the Clan radars could lock weapons on the Taurian ASFs, negated their usual long-range advantage.


Again, the heavier ASFs advanced towards the Clans WarShips, leaving the task of fighting the OmniFighters to the lighter, more agile ASFs. However, this time they were not coming alone. Capital Missiles salvos launched from DropShips that stood at a great distance (Lee Pocket WarShips) were rapidly reducing the Clan escorting DropShips in small leftovers of nuclear explosions. Unlike the dueling ASFs, these not only had massive ECM protection, but the capital missile magazines available for the defense of the Clan WarShips had been considerably reduced in the previous combat.


In desperation, the Clan WarShips began using their Naval Lasers to try to destroy the approaching ASFs, and managed to shoot down a few more.


Radical maneuvers, and in the case of the CSR James McKenna, six Goalkeeper Mk.V, prevented the worst, but even so, the CSR Spur, the CSR White Terror, and the CSJ Snow Leopard were destroyed by nuclear explosions, while the CHH Bucephalus and the CSR White Cloud were damaged. The improved Alamos that the Taurians were using, proved that they have a better lock ability than the normal ones.






Note: the Goalkeeper is a non-Lore, small craft, which appears in Delranes Fighting Ships 3061 - pages 85/87.






But now some of the WarShips were within extreme range of each other, and the long range weapons, Naval PPCs and Naval Lasers in the case of the Clans and Naval Lasers and nuke typed Capital Missiles in the case of the Taurians began to be used, the Clans having exhausted their Capital Missiles. Seeing the damage his forces had already done to the clan fleet, Marshall Ostergaard, ordered his WarShips to avoid combat if possible, planning to let the job of terminating the Clan WarShips to his still numerous ASFs that were right now returning home to re-arm and refuel as he didn’t want to risk a conventional battle against much heavier and more experienced adversaries.






Having run out of Clan DropShips and ASFs to destroy, the Lee PW, tried to concentrate their weaponry on enemy WarShips, using nuclear warheads. Unfortunately for the PW Lees, the HNPPC and NL55 had superior range to the capital missiles, and the Clan WarShips dedicated some of their long range armament to destroying them. Of the initial 8 Lee PW, only one survived. Clearly, Pocket WarShips had no business to do in a fight of WarShips.






Meanwhile, the Clanners were getting into range. Being the largest WarShip of the Taurian fleet, the TCS Pinnard received the attentions of the CSR James McKenna, and in the first exchange of fire unlucky, her armor been penetrated in several places by the heavy weapons of the Mckenna, at least not mortal. The TCS Fury was also in bad luck, being hit at the same time by the HNPPCs from the CSR Blizzard and several shots from the NL45 and the MNPPCs from the CSR White Cloud, and ended being penetrated at several points.


CSR Blizzard luck runs out when a Peacemaker hit the battle-cruiser bow, destroying its entire forward section and ending its long career.


The last Taurian capital missiles with nuke warheads finished off the CSR White Cloud, the battle from this point on would be decided with conventional weapons.


At this point, only the CSR James McKenna, incredibly nearly intact, and the severely damaged CHH Bucephalus remained, against seven Taurian WarShips, even though one of these was in equally bad shape.


The two Taurian Destroyers, the only Taurian warships still in combat range, concentrated their fire on the damaged CHH Bucephalus, finishing it off, even though both received several shots in return, leaving the TCS Ajax slightly damaged and the TCS Perdition moderately so.


At this phase in the battle, all the Taurian WatShips were now out of range from the McKenna, with orders to let the ASFs that were right now in the process of rearming deal with the mighty WarShip.


At the same time, pleas for the surrender of the Clan WarShip were broadcast by the Taurians, that clearly wanted to capture the mighty WarShip if possible. They were left without answer either because the Clan WarShip was left without communication means or because it was trying what to do after suffering such a beating.


Soon, about two hundred heavy ASFs, loaded to the gills with Alamos approached the sole Clan survivor. Salvo after salvo of Alamos hit the mighty Warship until it was little more than a wreck in space, venting atmosphere from several places, with the engines destroyed and without power.


SAR operations were immediately launched, while the Taurian ships started their repairs and the TCS Marantha Calderon (Concordat Class Frigate), undamaged, being the first to move in direction of Luthien IV, to help with that part of the battle.

 

[paulobrito]

On approach to Luthien IV, both the TDF and the Clan DropShips carrying the respective ground forces were in a race to see who would land first. The Taurians landed later, but having the advantage of landing in a spaceport, with friends near could deploy faster, while the Clan DropShips needed to land in an unprepared ground, under heavy fire and constant attack by Kurita and Taurian ASFs.


The first battle, was once again, in space, between the ASFs and the OmniFighters, about 400 on each side. And once again, the side with Arrow IV AAM - the Taurians - had the first massive victory, destroying about a fourth of the opposing force even before the OmniFighters could fire. This time the TDF ASFs not having to carry Alamos, had loaded all external hard-points with AAMs - and all the ASFs present could carry at least one AAM with the heaviest could carry 4 of them. Only the fact that the Omnifighter pilots had seen the result of the first massive dogfight, and as soon as the Taurians fired, started to execute radical maneuvers, reduced the number of kills. But, doing so broke their formation and the Taurians took advantage of it to inflict several more losses and to get closer without any major problem.


While this battle was going on, the first line of defense of Luthien, capital of the Draconis Combine, went into action. Luthien had 20 BattleSats - based on the BattleSat model first seen in action on Coromodir several years earlier - and all those in position and in range began firing on the approaching DropShips, with the larger ones, specifically the Overlord-C, being their priority.


The few Omnifighters that stayed with the Clan DropShips advanced at full power and started to destroy the Kuritan Battlesats, that being so small, lacked armor or defenses against ASFs.






But, the defenses of Luthien did not stop there, once the DropShips reached the upper levels of the atmosphere, ground based Naval Lasers replaced the satellites in the mission to destroy as many DropShips as possible before they could land, in a desperate bid to reduce the numbers of the invaders. Several big submarines equipped with Killer Whales capital missiles are in construction, to further add to the defenses, but unfortunately none is operational yet.


Aggravating the Clanner problem, the capital city was protected by 2 ground based Naval Lasers, forcing the surviving DropShips to land more distantly or to drop their load before being hunted down and to scatter them more than e initially planned


Of the five Galaxies that had begun the operation, a force more than sufficient to conquer the planet, little less than three, composed of remains of the five, managed to get on ground But their ordeal was not yet over as the TCS Marantha Calderon (Concordat Class Frigate), as soon as it arrived in orbit, a few hours later, started to use its Naval Lasers to destroy the grounded DropShips, and the forces caught still unloading. It was this confused, demoralized, and disorganized force that finally faced the defenders on the Tairakana Plains.


Against them were present the 1st Sword of Light, the Otomo, the 2nd Legion of Vega and the Dragon's Claws - the first two being fully modernized, the others, only partially. These forces were joined by the elements of the 2nd, 3rd and 5th Taurian Brigades, all fully modernized, that had already unloaded their DropShips, not waiting for the rest of the taurian forces, still unloading.


To further widen the gap, only two dozen OmniFighters had survived, and they could not stop either the Taurian ASFs or the last reserve of Kuritan ASFs and conventional fighters from continuously bombarding their forces - the Taurians with advanced Arrow IV A2Gs, the Kuritans with more conventional bombs, rockets and strafing.


As they were getting into range, they were now subjected to massive Arrow IV, tube artillery attacks and had to go through minefields after minefields.


The exhausted Clan Warriors who finally came within firing range of the defenders, had almost all their ’Mechs and Battle Armor damaged at one point or another, and faced a numerically superior force, equipped with weapons of almost the same range and power, their equipment in perfect condition, rested and in excellent defensive positions.






Two days later, the last of the invading forces had been captured or destroyed. The Clan JumpShips that had so far been waiting at the Zenith Jump Point departed back to uncertain destination, almost certainly back to the occupied zones, before any Taurian WarShip could trap them.

 

[paulobrito]

The following days were very busy in Luthien.


Fortunately the Clans had not interfered with Luthien Naval Yard, probably thinking that their capture would be a given after conquering Luthien IV. Because of this, all available tugs could be used for SAR / recovery missions and the Taurian WarShips could receive light repairs - the most important ones would be done in one of the Concordat shipyards to prevent secrets from being revealed and also while the Kuritans didn't have the necessary components.


Among the wreckage, two Overlord-C hit by Naval Lasers had missed the planet, and were captured, drifting in space, with much of the equipment intact or slightly damaged inside.






Understandably, Takashi and Theodore were very interested in not only buying large quantities, but also obtaining the production rights to the advanced versions of the Arrow IVs used by Concordat - AAM, SAM, A2G/AGM, Thunder/FASCAM, AShM and Advanced Smoke. Admiral Ostergaard, for reasons that would be known in the near future, delayed the negotiations.


To that end, they offered not only first choice on all Clan equipment captured in the battle, but access to Black Box technology, which they knew Concordat wanted to obtain.






Interrogation of the prisoners revealed that not only had the IlKhan been present at the battle, but also the Khan of the Smoke Jaguars. A closer check of the identity of the numerous bodies recovered confirmed that both Leo Showers and Lincon Osis had died. Sarah Weaver, the Jaguars saKhan, had not been present, and was therefore the highest ranking Smoke Jaguar still alive. The number of Bloodnamed Warriors captured or killed was quite high, indicating a more than likely succession crisis within the Clan.


Meanwhile, the Draconis Combine had gone into full propaganda mode, not only announcing in every possible way the extent of the victory, but also performing impressive ceremonies to honor both the fallen in combat and the victors - including awarding honorary titles to several Taurians.


For obvious reasons, the TEF (Taurian Expeditionary Force) extended its presence in Luthien, rather than quickly moving on to the front line. It had to wait at least until the WarShips had completed their emergency repairs and the supply fleet train arrived, which happened in mid-September.


When it arrived, it also brought something else of vital importance as it had along the way established a direct line of HPG satellites capable of communicating directly between Taurus and Luthien, without going through the HPGs controlled by the Federated Commonwealth. Many of the satellites previously used to communicate with the Lothian League and taken back after, had been re-used in this new, secure line of communications. The advantage was that the Concordat could deploy said HPG network without the knowledge of the Federated Commonwealth intelligence services.


Like the TEF before, the supply train used uninhabited systems during its pass over the Federated Commonwealth territory. During the movement through the Federated Commonwealth, both groups (the TEF and the resupply convoy) got a FedCom JumpShip escort, to ‘help’ the crossing. In reality to guarantee that nothing unusual would happen. That made necessary some creative / precisely calculated positioning of some ships of the supply train to mask the launch of the HPG satellites, or sometimes the ship with that task suffered from a “misjump” to execute the operation after the FC JumpShip already departed.


The fact that the Concordat had not only sent 7 WarShips with the TEF, but 4 more with the supply fleet, even though the latter were Corvettes, did not go unnoticed by the DCA, which at this point had an acute shortage of WarShips.






With a secure line of communications with Taurus established, negotiations regarding the licensing / sale of Arrow IV advanced technology, proceeded apace. At this time the Combine also wanted to buy at least two WarShips, preferably four. They were ready to buy anything including Pintos as they had to replace the losses suffered in Luthien. After all, the Concordat Navy had 11 WarShips at Luthien, while the DCA total inventory was 6 WarShips, all on the front-lines and for those under construction, the closest to being delivered was still 9 months away from being fully operational.


In return, in addition to Black Boxes technology and first choice in captured Clan equipment, they were also offering sharing their development on OmniMechs with local technology and a wide range of Combine equipment production licenses. Basically, anything the Concordat wanted related to licenses and research, in exchange for some WarShips and the desired technology.






Edward, after a long conversation with Kamea and me, made a counter-proposal that basically guaranteed for the Concordat everything that this expedition was intended to obtain.


In exchange for two Pintos, the two Ajax, which the Combine would have to repair, half the Arrow IV ammo types that the supply train had brought, and an order for several Arrow IV advanced types of ammo, which would take at least five years to be fully satisfied, at an excellent rate, the Draconis Combine would deliver a battalion of Omnimechs and the equivalent of another battalion of miscellaneous Clan units, full access to the Black Box tech and Omni tech developed by the Combine, as well as a choice of Clan prisoners to be delivered to the Concordat, an extensive list of production licenses and a considerable amount of C-Bills. The contract would provide the Combine with enough missiles during the time they needed to built the local factories, and for these to achieve cruise production levels, to cover their needs.






For unknown reasons, the HPG network between the Combine and the Concordat stopped working two months later. Ping testing, confirmed the problem was with one of the satellites inside Federated Commonwealth territory. Several months later, a TMI Mryia JumpShip arrived at the location with a replacement, but instead of a dead satellite, and after a very exhaustive search, only found what could only be the result of said satellite self-destruct activation. The consensus, was that the FC escort ship had detected at least that launch, and that a team had been sent to analyze or capture the satellite, causing the explosion. The replacement satellite was placed in a very distant place in the same system, and the network was calibrated. The TMI ship had now the undesirable task of verifying all the nodes of the network inside the Federated Commonwealth territory searching for tampering.

 

[paulobrito]

Wolf Clan Occupation Corridor


Rasalhague


October 2, 3056





Khan Ulric Kerensky was not having a good day/week//month/year.


First the invasion had been costlier than even the worse simulations had predicted. After that, Clan Wolf had been forced to share its corridor with the Nova Cats. Not exactly enemies, but not friends also.


Then the IlKhan had been killed, during the first turns of what was turning into an Inner Sphere counter-attack, creating a lot of confusion, with calls to return to Strana Mechty to elect a new one, something clearly impossible during an enemy attack. However, a council had to be carried on as soon as possible, but the only way was to use a HPG holoconference, something that the Clans still at home for pure political reasons strongly disagreed with.


While not affecting him directly, the number of Bloodnamed Jaguars killed, including the Khan, and the IlKhan, caused such chaos inside that Clan that he almost pitied them. Almost.


Two weeks ago, the Federated Commonwealth had appeared in force over Twycross and his own estimates was that even the much vaunted Falcon Guards, even supplemented by several second line units had few chances to survive and even fewer to win.


Right now, it was his turn to face a thread. A few hours before, a massive fleet had arrived at the Zenith Jump Point.


While the Wolfs had the CWS Werewolf (Mckenna class), CWS Dire Wolf (Sovetskii Soyuz class) and the CWS Nature’s Wrath (Lola III class) in orbit and the Alpha and Gamma Galaxies on the ground, the forces moving against them were superior in numbers.


So far the WarShip component had been identified as the ENS (Earth Navy Ship) Defender of Earth (Farragut class) the ENS Lady Shandra (Cameron class), the ENS Earth’s Vengeance (Sovetskii Soyuz class), the ENS Bordeaux (unknown class) and the ENS Defender of Humanity (Essex class).






Note.: The ENS Bordeaux is the ex-CSV Bordeaux (Dante class), a type of WarShip the Clans don’t known. The ENS Defender of Earth is the OTL WoBS Righteous Justice (no SLS name known), but in ITTL it was recovered and massively refitted by the Earth Navy. The Cameron keeps its original name, the others changed the Comstar names to ones more in line with the new owners – many of the Comstar WarShips didn’t have an original SLS name in Sarna.


Note ii.: The refit of the Farragut consisted in adding a LF battery, HPG, Naval Comm-Scanner Suite Large, replacing the 22 Killer Whale tubes with AR-10 ones with very deep magazines, replacing the 40 LL with 40 LPL, 12 LBX-10, and 36 AMS. The 36 ASFs were expanded to 72, and the 10 small crafts were Goalkeeper V – yes, Earth also has that design / tech - and doubling the fuel capacity. For that, the cargo as been ‘reduced’ to 140.ktons. That refit was executed in the Titan shipyards, the only one capable of such feat at this date.





Following them, were a number of DropShips that could easily transport up to four or five Galaxies, some with FRR IFFs but the majority with EDF/ENS IFFs.






Ulric was still dealing with the shock of the massive defeat that the Jaguars, Ravens and Horses had suffered in Luthien, and now this. The Khan was slowly understanding that the Clans have bite more than they could, he had already ordered several Clusters of garrison units to be moved to the new territories, to help pacify them, and had also ordered the activation of all the reserve / mothballed WarShips of the Clan, but the felling that it was too little, too late didn’t disappear. The fact was that they have very little WarShips or even on JumpShips production capacities, and the Inner Sphere had showed them that the data collected by the Wolf Dragoons until 3019 was now obsolete, and the Watch efforts so far provided little results.






‘Open a channel to the enemy commander’, Ulric commanded.


An older woman, with a deep blue uniform, appeared in the holotank.


‘I’m Admiral Cynthia Ferguson, of the Earth Navy. With whom I’m speaking?’


‘I’m Ulric Kerensky, Khan of the Wolf Clan, and the leader of the forces defending this system. I ask for Hegira.’


In the holotank, the admiral listened to some advice from out of vision range ‘And why I should let you depart free?’


‘Oh, you have enough forces to win the battle in space no doubt. And because you are no Clan, no doubt you will use your surviving WarShips against my forces on the ground. That forces me to deploy inside the cities, to negate that. The following fights are going to be not only very bloody, but will irreparably damage the infrastructure of the planet you want to capture, and do an immense number of casualties to the civilian population. If that’s what you want, fine I can deliver you that kind of battle, but I think we would both benefit from a more civilized solution.’


Several unintelligible arguments again from outside of what he could see, while Ulric waited patiently, not showing any reaction on is perfect poker face.


Finally, the leaders of the invading forces achieved a consensus ‘I grant you Hegira. Cynthia out.’ was the only answer and after that the comms was cut.

 

[paulobrito]

The Aurigan province of the Concordat had not only fully recovered in late 3056 from the ravages of the civil war, but in many areas had far surpassed its previous status.


All systems had modern hospitals, sufficient food, potable water, and power to ensure a standard of living equal to or higher than Coromodir had in 3023.


The number of JumpShips and DropShips operating within the province was at that time, more than three times any number recorded since before the fall of the Star League, and all systems also had an HPG for the first time ever.






Military equipment production was centered in three systems - Mechdur, Detroit and Coromodir (V), by contrast, civilian industry was fairly spread across all systems in the province.


The shipyard in Mechdur, which at the moment was building Invaders and Pintos, had an ambitious expansion underway, which by 3060, would also allow it to build Ajax class Destroyers (2 slips), and a higher number of Invaders (4 more slips to a total of 8). The construction of Pintos (4 slips) would remain unchanged.


Initially, Kamea had ambitions to build a shipyard on Coromodir V as well, but funds were not and would not be available in a reasonable time frame, and the decision was made to go for a complex capable of building several types of DropShips, civilian and military.






These included a variant of the Leopard (PW1), which had removed the 4 ’Mechs bays and in their place had installed 2 SCL/3s, the first operational use of sub-capital weapons. The remaining armament had also been upgraded - 2xERPPC, 3xLRM20 with Artemis, 7xERML and 5xLPL, the armor now being Ferro-Aluminium and the Heat Sinks being upgraded to double ones. It was a relatively inexpensive Pocket WarShip, which could also be used effectively against ground targets.


Another variant (PW2), kept the advanced weapons and improved armor of the PW1, replacing the two SCL/3s with 4 Arrow IV AAM/SAM launchers and 6 AMS, both with deep magazines, as anti-ASF / escort.


The PW2 variant was ordered in large numbers, as Pocket WarShips, by the Taurian Navy, and after delicate negotiations, by the DCA (Draconis Combine Admiralty - Combine Navy) and the Magistracy Navy. Sales to the Combine and Magistracy were still in C-Bills, and not in Bulls or in their currency. Even, with the fall of Comstar, the C-Bill had not disappeared. At first, there had been theories that Earth would move on to use a currency of its own, perhaps return to the SL Dollar, but the fact was that inertia, huge replacement cost, and weight of large Earth banks, had kept the C-Bill in use for interstellar exchanges, even though it had suffered a devaluation.










Sara, having finished her military service, went on to learn the art of governing from her mother, (unlike me, the 'kid' had a natural knack for it, obviously taking after her mother for that). Meanwhile, the twins had finished the academy and had begun serving the nation, Paul in the Revenants, Peter in the Reach Guards (ex-Aurigan Royal Guards), both ’MechWarriors, and both piloting brand new Penetrators - a gift from relatives. For obvious reasons, they were not both in the same regiment.






The Capelan Confederation announced the commissioning of the first Feng Huang Heavy Cruiser in November, 12 3056. This was the first Capelan Navy WarShip in over 200 years, the Confederation being the last major nation to have WarShips - at this time there was doubt as to how many WarShips the WoB had, estimates ranged from 2 to 4 not knowing how many would be operational and to what extent.


Note: For the sake of cost (and production capacity) even though everything else was the same as the OTL class, the armor is Improved Ferro-Aluminum and not Lamellor Ferro-Carbide.






To compensate for having only one WarShip, the Capelan Navy has a robust program on Pocket WarShips, DropShips-CV and ASF, even if it was at the cost of reducing the ground forces substantially.






This slow reinforcement of forces was possible because Aerospace Fighters had become the main weapons against WarShips but at huge human cost making it impossible to maintain a continuous offensive because of the shortage of pilots and Fighters, even with the extension of all academies and priority on construction. That was the reason behind the actual lull in operations against the Clans, after the recent activities in Luthien and Twycross and some relatively small raids from the Vipers and the Bears. For now, the best estimates was that the number of ASFs in the front line was going to be enough for new offensives by mid 57 – that is if the Clans didn’t launch big operations of their own.

 

[paulobrito]

On January 4, 3057, Thomas Calderon, who had been in an asylum for the mentally ills for several years, died.






Note: He had been hospitalized since 3052, see chapter 76.






In February '57, Sun-Tzu began a charm campaign, trying to create an alliance with the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus.


The best that could be said is that it was not successful. The Capellan Confederation had nothing interesting to offer, was viewed with great suspicion by both nations, and even if relations with the Federated Commonwealth were not always good but they were good and important enough not to be sacrificed for a gain that was dubious to say the least. The Taurian Concordat also had excellent relations with the St. Ives Compact, which would also suffer from such an agreement.


In March, mercenaries who had hitherto defended Furud and Shiro, suddenly changed alliances and revolted against the few forces Andurien had present. Obviously, this was part of a plan, as in the same week, Warrior Houses Fujitsu and Hiritsu with major support from ASFs and Pocket WarShips, appeared in both systems for 'peace-keeping' and managed to take control of both systems for the Capellan Confederation, without any opposition from the 'revolted' mercenaries.


Despite the protests of Dalma Humphreys, the Duchess of Andurien, the reality was that Andurien could do nothing about it, not having sufficient forces to oppose them, with what little remained of the Defenders of Andurien, after the hard fighting of the still ongoing Civil War, stretched to the limit defending the various borders.


As was to be expected, the return of the Capellan Confederation to offensive operations / invasions of neighboring nations, at a time when everyone (minus what was left of the Free Worlds League) was busy with the Clans, was viewed with considerable concern.






On March 5, while analyzing the belongings of the deceased victim of a traffic accident , confidential data from Concordat Aerospace Limited, the company that controlled / managed the shipyards in the Taurus system was found . The ensuing investigation could not identify the victim, nor who she worked for / spied for. Also, even the most exhaustive spy-hunt, didn’t give any hint about how she could get in possession of said confidential information.






During February and March 3057, the number of Clan WarShips in the Inner Sphere / invasion corridors increased substantially, much more and faster than the most pessimistic predictions had foreseen.


The reason for this was identified when the Taurian Orcas began operating along the Exodus Road, which was much less protected than what had been feared. This caused an unusual number of losses for the various Clans, at no cost to the Taurian raiders. On two occasions they even captured a considerable amount of equipment. The Orcas operated from a base in Gravenhage, on the Northern border of the Draconis Combine, very close to the corridor used by the Smoke Jaguars, which didn’t manage to discover it.


During this period of time, the number of SpecOps units inserted in the worlds captured by the Clans increased constantly, creating a never-ending number of problems to occupation forces that were not trained or equipped to deal with this type of problems.






In late March, 3057, our people working in the military shipyard of the Magistracy witnessed the arrival of two JumpShip, quickly followed by a badly damaged, barely operational Mckenna class WarShip. That the Canopians didn’t even try to hide its arrival from our people supported the theory that they knew that they couldn't repair it alone, and that in the near future were going to ask for our help.






It was later known that after exhaustive analysis of the Wolverine records,MIM had found the location of the SLS Zughoffer Weir, that the Wolverines had been forced to abandon, because they couldn’t repair it. Knowing the exact level of the damages it had suffered, the Magistracy sent an expedition with enough technicians and spares (and fuel, food, etc) to bring it back.


Note.: Concordat technicians are helping the Magistracy expanding the shipyard, to be capable to build warships. Right now is capable of building JumpShips and servicing WarShips up to 1Mtons.


OTL the WoB needed 3 to 5 years to repair it on the Titan Yards (found it 3061, entered in service in 3065), but the MoC is going to need more time.






In Mechdur, the Concordat started to built the Block II of the Pinto Corvette, replacing all the conventional weapons (5LL, 10ML, 48SL, 80MG, 10 AC/5 and 4 AC/20) with 16 LPL, 16 MPL, 16 AMS and 4 Arrow IV SAM tubes, and replacing the 800 SHS with 500 DHS. Plans for upgrading the armor to Improved Ferro-Aluminum were delayed to the following Block III, because of the involved costs. After all, the Pinto class was supposed to be a (relatively) cheap WarShip.

 

[paulobrito]

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.