FSRB Chpt 58

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==The Federated Suns Reborn - Chapter 58==
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April 3066Battleships
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===Warship Talks===
April began with the Federated Suns responding to no less than 2 concerning reports on foreign states warships. Clan Ghost Bear had announced to the other clans and Star League that the Leviathan had now completed it's upgrade from a huge transport into a state of the art massive battleship. Worse was the fact that MIIO and the DMI had confirmed reports that not only was the second Leviathan Heavy Transport also under refit into a full battleship but that the Ghost Bears had began construction of a third such monstrous vessel. By 3069 the Ghost Bear Dominion would have not fewer than 3 huge super battleships each potentially capable of laying waste to entire flotillas and squadrons of lesser vessels. While the Ghost Bears didn't share a border with the Federated Suns the threat couldn't be ignored. However of more immediate concern was the news from the realm that divided the Dominion and FedSuns. On Luthien the Coordinator had announced that the long stalled battleship project the DCS Yamato had finally been completed. The press conference had been light on details, but from bits and pieces that the various agencies had managed to put together it was obvious that while the design had a number of faults and limitations the Kurita's had indeed managed to put a 1,400,000 ton battleship into space. Even a problematic ship like the DCS Yamato offered to give the DCN at least local superiority almost anywhere she went unless countered by mass numbers of lighter warships. Reports were also being confirmed that the Combine had also began a sister ship for the battleship and actually intended to add a second slip in the hopes of assembling a full squadron of 4 Yamatos. If such a formation was created and the Federated Suns Navy didn't have a counter for it then the ramifications would be almost certainly disastrous. The Federated Suns simply could not rely on the Kurita battleships being tied down on the Dominion front. The reports were hurriedly forwarded to the Prince's Champion. 
These reports reached Ardan Sortek just before he meets with the Archon Peter Steiner who has just returned to Tharkad from the slowly quieting Jade Falcon front. When the Federated Suns "ambassador" meets with the Archon the General of Armies Adam Steiner is also present and rather than having the meeting in the throne room under the guns of 2 huge griffin class battlemechs it is conducted in private in a small study. Ardan immediately offers not only his own condolences to the losses that the LAAF but also those of the entire AFFS and First Prince all of whom remember better times when the men and women of the LAAF were their comrades in arms. He assures the two Lyran men that the AFFS is looking for ways to help and that for instance large stockpiles of medical supplies are being sent at no charge or cost to the Arc Royal region by the AFFS. On top of the First Princess own support of having critically injured soldiers brought to New Avalon for treatment. 
General of the Armies Steiner however points out that these condolences could have been sent via HPG and so he asks what exactly the Prince's Champion has came all this way for. In answer Ardan Sortek asks if Star Colonel Daryl Radick, the Clan Wolf-in-Exile's ambassador/liaison to Tharkad, can be sent for. Once the Clan warrior has arrived Sortek lays out his First Princes's proposals in full. The single largest proposal is that the Federated Suns is offering to buy the captured CJF Falcon's Nest. Immediately the 3 men who he is proposing this idea to react with varying degrees of anger to the suggestion. Their respective navies paid in blood and ships to capture the Texas class ship and now the Federated Suns intends to simply buy it off them? Peter Steiner the most moderate of the 3 explains this is entirely unacceptable. He will not sell the hard won prize for mere C-bills. 
Which is when Ardan Sortek asks if he would be prepared to trade it for warships. Sortek points out that both the LAN and WIE fleet's suffered heavily in the Battle of Esteros. The Lyran's fleet has been reduced to a single Fox corvette and a lightly damaged Mjolnir Class Battlecruiser, while the Wolves now only have the lightly damaged Werewolf and the transport Full Moon. All of their other ships such as the Implacable and Fylgja are effectively little more than hulks. The Federated Suns is prepared to pay no fewer than 4 fully operational Fox corvettes for the hulk of a ship that neither the Lyrans nor the Wolves have a hope of returning into operational service within a decade. The Lyran Alliance and the Clan Wolf-in-Exile need ships now, not a single ship in 10 years time. 
This does make them all reconsider. However, Star Colonel Radick in particular remains of the view that his Khan will not support this. Even if they were to be assigned 2 of the 4 corvettes it would still leave their fleet in a worse position than when they started the campaign and the loss of the Falcon's Nest would be a difficult one to justify to the Warrior Caste. 
Sortek then offers that the First Prince might be prepared to make it 5 Fox corvettes and a refit for a single Wolf cruiser at the Federated Suns shipyards. However he is also authorized to offer a refit of both battlecruisers, but only if the Clan Wolf-in-Exile is prepared to release the 6th Wolf Guards Cluster, the former 6th Jaguar Dragoons to join Clan Sun Jaguar. As well as the corvettes the First Prince is prepared to ensure that all of the ships bring with them full compliments of aerospace fighters and assault dropships - probably A3 Overlords although perhaps a small number of Vengeance Fighter carrier DropShips can also be released. 
At the end of the meeting the Prince's Champion excuses himself to allow the Archon and his advisers to discuss the deal that he has proposed to them in private. He tells them that he will await their decision but does ask as a courtesy that unless they have reached a decision the deal not be made public which they all agree to. The Lyran's and Wolves will spend much of April discussing the Federated Suns proposal and won't reach a final decision until well into May, by which time Morgan and Phelan Kell have both came to Tharkad to discuss the matter with the Archon personally. 
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===When Jaguars Clash===
At Antallos's main city of Port Krin, Khan Showers of the Sun Jaguars meets with The Jaguar to discuss with him having the bandit caste remnants of the Smoke Jaguars joining the Sun Jaguars. Despite clear indications that many within the group which has traveled from the Home Worlds would wish to join there is a great deal of tension between the 2 groups. The remnants of the Smoke Jaguars clearly feel that they should be afforded a great deal more respect and The Jaguar himself suggests that he believes the Sun Jaguars should reform as the Smoke Jaguars under his own leadership. This matter nearly came to blows before a mutual enemy would appear and unite the 2 halves of the Jaguars in a desperate fight for survival.
In order to keep tensions to a minimum the 2 leaders had agreed to meet on the sixth day of talks with only themselves and a small escort, no more than a star each. This small escort however led to a local pirate group believing that they could overrun the small force and make of with valuable salvage and even Clan OmniMechs and so a full 2 and a half companies of battlemechs and nearly a battalion of locally hired infantry "thugs" armed with satchel charges and light arms attack the meeting site without warning. The 2 formations of Jaguars are soon fighting back to back to fend of the attackers and buy time for the rest of the on world Jaguars to rush to their aid. 
By the time the rest of the Jaguars manage to break through to their embattled leadership the battle is effectively over. The pirates have been routed and the vast majority of them killed, but amongst the dead Jaguars is [Khan Showers. The Khan's Warhawk Prime is a twisted mess propped up only because it is leaning against the back of The Jaguar's own Warhawk. The Khan's OmniMech has had it's entire left kneecap totally blasted away which had left it unable to move and was only able to remain upright with the aid of the other machine. However despite having remained upright the lack of mobility had allowed several squads of the pirate infantry to attach breaching charges to the cockpit of the omnimech and kill the pilot. Khan Showers had refused to punch out even as he heard the breaching charges being emplaced, continuing to pour murderously accurate ER PPC into the onrushing pirate Axman battlemech. 
Descending from his own battered machine to watch as the Khan's torn body is carried down The Jaguar acknowledges that had the Khan not remained within his machine and destroyed the Axman seconds before he himself was killed it is very likely the hatchet wielding mech would have killed him. In honor of the Khan's sacrifice The Jaguar takes upon his old name of Russou Howell and promises to escort Shower's body back to Valois and present himself to now Khan Tiaret Nevversan and seek admission for himself and his followers to Clan Sun Jaguar. He informs the surviving members of the Golden Keshik and 1st Sun Jaguar Guard that as a giftake he brings with him samples of all of the bloodnamed warriors of Clan Smoke Jaguar as well as key technicians and scientists caste members on his circling warship who can recreate a genetics program. The various Jaguars return to their ships and are soon headed for the Sun Jaguar "capital" on Valois. 
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===Grim News of Menke===
The first Dove class Hospital Dropship arrives at New Avalon and is met by no lesser personage than the First Prince himself. Victor Davion personally salutes every single warrior being carried or helped from the Dropship and elements of his personal guard provide an escort for the wounded soldiers to NAIS. There they will begin treatment at the finest medical center within the Inner Sphere. Each following Dove that arrives will be given similar honors. 
The First Prince also lodges a formal protest at the "massacre" of the ComGuard troops on Menke and promises his full support to Comstar in bringing those responsible to justice. He also invites all ComGuards forces still remaining within the Confederation to withdraw to the Federated Suns where they will be treated with respect. This will also shorten the supply lines for these troops. Although a number will withdraw into the St. Ives Compact, where Precentor St Ives has been making a number of military trade deals to obtain the products of the Compact for the ComGuards as a secondary source of weaponry. 
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===Developments in Industry===
On Chesterton, the Lorica Battle Armor plant goes online and is soon shipping out suits to the various ComGuards units within reach. Many of these units were originally deployed in the Confederation and they begin to transition their infantry formations to battle armor formations with the basic armor consisting of Lorica class. 
The Sabre line on Islamabad funded by Comstar goes online and soon the versatile fighters are also being shipped to various ComGuards units. Although a small number are also sent to ComGuards warships to add light combat patrol fighters to their aerospace wings. 
The Johnston Industries facility on Torrence see's it's first battlemech line go operation with Caeser class battlemechs coming into production there. The heavy class battlemechs are soon appearing in growing numbers throughout the Crucis March and beyond. 
With both sides full agreement the New Earth Trading Company plant on Markesan is scheduled for expansions and upgrades. Although new and already expanding once the demand for the products of the facility is far outstripping the supply. As such 5 additional vehicle lines are to be added to the existing build order, with 2 new Von Luckner lines and 2 Alacorn lines taking center stage and a 2 Karnov lines being added. When the current expansions and this new one are finished the plant will have 5 lines producing each of the Von Luckner and Alacorn tanks as well as 3 Karnov lines and a single engineering vehicle line. 
The Federated Suns Government also begins legal work at reforming the local branch of Star Corp on Crofton. Since the recent legal cases and scandals StarCorp Federated Suns has been effectively operating as an entirely separate legal entity to the parent organization and the FedSuns Government plans to formalize this in the next few months.
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===Dragon's Hidden Problems===
Within the Draconis Combine the news that the DCS Yamato has been launched takes full and center stage, although the recommissioning of the Aerospace Carrier, DCS Togura also is noteworthy. Parades, celebrations and honors are heaped upon the builders and upon the Draconis Combine Admiralty. They are the first Inner Sphere power to commission a full battleship since the fall of the Star League and the nation swells with pride about the achievement. 
Unknown to the cheering crowds there are a number of faults remaining within the battleship. Although formally listed as having a speed profile of 3/5 the captain and crew are all very aware that if they push the engines beyond 1.5 G's (3) then they will likely cause structural damage to the ship. Likewise if they jump while traveling at more than 1 G this can lead to catastrophic damage to the ship's spine. Although heavily armored and with a wide variety of weaponry as well as being more than capable of carrying a full admirals staff if it is to operate as a flagship, the ship finds itself extremely short on cargo. The DCS Yamato will be a deadly vessel in any engagement, but will be forced to remain close either to bases with suitable supplies or rely on extended supply lines to keep it operational. Yet with all these limitations it is a massive achievement and one that is rightly celebrated throughout the entire Combine. 
Work immediately begins on a sister ship as well as another yard to allow a third vessel to be ordered. Plan Fuso calls for no less than 8 of these battlewagons to be in commission to give the Combine and House Kurita complete naval superiority on the Federated Sun's front!
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