LUU Chpt 12

==Let Us Unite - Chapter XII -==
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===Fatal Encounter===
Date: May 26th, 2767
Location: One jump away from Flintoft, Taurian Concordat 
"Captain, we're in the Concordat, but I'm afraid I've got some bad news." the Tripitz shook as the impacts of naval autocannon detonated against the armor.
"I can see the Monsoon and the Avatar," Little coughed. "Bring us about and get our broadsides focused on the battleship, we've got to take it out of the fight first if we want to stand a chance."
 
The Tripitz rotated, her autocannon's tracer fire bright against the dark of the void as the missiles arced to flow at the Monsoon that attempted to challenge her.
 
"Sir, batteries A through E are offline, crews are gone as well," the damage control officer reported. "I've got teams moving to render aid as we speak."
 
"Get them on the guns," the ship shook again, the red glow of the lights dimming for a brief moment. "We can recover the dead and wounded later, but if we don't take these two out, there won't be any dead or wounded to recover, because we'll all be dead."
 
"Enemy batteries on this side are dead!" a sensors officer reported, we've hit something critical!"
 
"Push that offensive now!" another rumble and a shake caused the navigation officer to hit his head on a console, knocking him clear out.
 
"Get him off of the bridge and into a life boat!" Little unbuckled and ran over to the console, strapping himself in and refamiliarizing himself with the the controls for a couple of seconds before setting his hands back on the sticks.
 
"Sir, Monsoon is dark," an explosion erupted into the void, nearly as bright as a new star for a brief moment before reality set in and the wreckage of the old Terran Battleship floated away.
 
"Brace, I'm using the chemical thrusters!"
 
The ship suddenly spun around, the intense G-forces causing some bouts of near unconsciousness for a minute or so before they regained their posts.
 
The Avatar heavy cruiser was all that remained, but her escorting fighters outnumbered the Tripitz's, and the fighter screen that the Black Lion relied on dwindled away as the two Warships hammered away at each other, the Tripitz eventually floating away from the wreckage of the other two as its power conduits were damaged.
The Battlecruiser was leaking atmosphere, and what limited power it had left the Captain diverted to the sensors and comms, his hope that someone would pick it up and be able to respond. But there was nothing, the dropships had been destroyed, and all that was left was dust and echoes, a few surviving Aerospace fighters ignited their fusion torches in the hope that the nearby planet might have some hope of sustaining life, But after a few days, the crews surrendered to the lifeless void.
 
They never accomplished their mission. Aleksander Kerensky was never made aware of the fact that Camerons were able to survive, and instead of a rapid and immediate push back into the Terran Hegemony, he went about conquering the Rim Worlds Republic and securing said state before launching an invasion to liberate the Hegemony.
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===Fateful Decision===
Date: January 5th, 2772
Location: Bolthole, Terran Hegemony
"Look, I hate to say it, but it doesn't seem like General Kerensky is going to move on the Hegemony at any sort of timescale that will help. And the only reason our Jumpship made it back with our intel is because if it's lithium Fusion battery. It might be time to go on ice," Elizabeth sighed. "The twins have been raised here for pretty much their entire lives at this point."
 
"She's right," Capell agreed, a troubled look on his face. "If Kerensky takes another decade to take the Hegemony, we're going to have issues. Might as well go on ice, and make sure that we rotate shifts out of cryo."
 
"But ultimately, the decision is yours, Ma'am," McFadden looked at Colonel Hanni Schmitt. "We can weigh in all we want to, but you're in charge here."
 
"We haven't gotten any communiques back from the Tripitz. And I'm afraid that we're out of range of Kerensky's mobile HPGs. I'd use the Jumpship, but Every system within one or two jumps is either dangerous due to not being well charted, or The fat Bastard has locked down with the SDS." Schmitt tapped her fingers along the table. "I think it is time to go on ice. As long as we rotate properly, we can attempt to at least make sure that we keep the gear in working order."
 
"I'll start drawing up the rotation schedule," Hazen stood up from the table. "Capell, start getting things mothballed. McFadden, I want the Warship crews and captains briefed and instructed on what the protocols are. And I'll have some of the others begin briefing the civvies, I don't want them to panic."
 
They all dispersed and began to get to work, Sergeant McLeod ensured that the Camerons were both briefed and ready for the cryo chambers, while the rest of them accomplished their duties, and a month later, the cryo pods sealed shut over the Black Watch and the other remnants of the SLDF in Exile. Once again, Bolthole went silent aside from the steady maintenance of the farming machines and the hum of the generators that maintained the cryo chambers.
 
In the void, the Drones continued their patrols, taking into account the two Warships that remained in a preprogrammed geosynchronous orbit around Bolthole.
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===Deep Sleep as history takes it's course===
Unfortunately, by the time General Kerensky decided to invade, it was too late. Most of the Black Watch members that were aware of Bolthole's existence had been killed in the brutal guerilla warfare that they waged against the Amaris regime, and those who were aware, had no intelligence on whether any of the Camerons made it out alive or not. So they operated as if the Camerons had not survived the Coup, and so a dynasty fell as many have before.
 
The Star League had fallen, and General Kerensky led most of what was left of the SLDF into the Coreward Periphery, leaving only a few scattered commands behind that either fell in line with Comstar or became Mercenaries, even while stubbornly clinging to their roots as SLDF Regular units.
 
First, two decades passed, then have a century. And finally, the year 2856 AD arrived, ninety years to the day of the Amaris coup, the cryo pods hissed open for the first time.
 
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A programming error, a single one carried over instead of a zero ensured that the Black Watch and their charges slept for far longer than intended. A Galaxy in war and chaos awaited them. But there's always the chance to induce change.
 
This, is the story of the Inner Sphere, and how things changed.
 
Whether it was for the better or the worse, only history will tell….
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===Bolthole Force Composition===
Bolthole System Defenses
- Six M-9 Pavise Battle Stations. Three at both the Zenith and Nadir points of the System
– Five M-5 Capital Drones.
– Fifty M-3 Drones
– Innumerable Aerospace drones
Fleet Assets outside of SDS
- One McKenna Class Battleship
– One Aegis Class Heavy Cruiser
- One Tramp Class Jumpship
– Seven Titan Class Aerospace carriers with full compliments
– One Pueblo Class Dropship
– One Colossus Class Dropship
– Two Union Class Dropships
– Two Civilian Aerodynes
Other System Assets
– Two Repair Yards with Two Bays for Capital Ship repair, two bays for Dropship repair
– Automated Mining Depot, placed in the asteroid belt between Bolthole III and IV respectively
– Assorting Orbital support facilities that can be repurposed for either Ferro Fibrous or Endo Steel should it be required.
 
Bolthole Force Composition (Ground Assets)
SDS Ground-based defenses
One Understrength (Read: ½ of a full force) Regimental Combat Team
Ground-based repair facilities and machine shops based on those prototyped on the Argo.
Castle Brian with usual defenses and 'Mechs stored away.
Note: Other assets available to the Camerons will be shown later. But for now, they are stuck with whatever is in system when we pick up in 2856.
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Chapter 12