TBntG-3 Chpt 17

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 17 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Preparing the Finishing Blow==
===Debriefing for the Inner Sphere leadership===
"No." General Mary Cheng said.
 
"We've got the forces," Theodore Kurita warned. "And many of my troops are unhappy to leave so much of the Combine under Clan occupation."
 
"Forgive me, Coordinator, but we don't have the navy. Parasite warships aren't enough—all a Clan ship has to do is jump in and kill the JumpShips they need—which can be killed by a few fighters, and they can leave the parasites to wither on the vine."
 
Mary leaned back in her expensive chair, which right now felt like a bed of nails. Why did I ever think combat was the worst? 
 
"But our raids…" Melissa Steiner-Davion murmured.
 
"Have been left alone for the most part because they're keeping their fleets at nodal points." Mary shook her head. "Fortunately, they're still squatting over Tharkad and New Avalon. I'm not about to convince them they need to withdraw and free up those forces."
 
Melissa winced as she massaging her healed, clearly broken nose. Most of the tales ranged from her getting into a Circle of Equals with an Elemental, to refusing the sexual demands of an enemy mechwarrior.
 
The fact that she'd openly said it had come from diving for cover a little too enthusiastically when an Elemental had sent an SRM her way was politely ignored in favor of the more exciting stories.
 
"Please don't say that in hearing range of the news." asked Melissa
 
"I won't," Mary said. "But the Clans are spread so thinly, that most people on Tharkad haven't seen them. To be blunt, we're not endangering anyone by forcing them to keep McKenna and Texas' battlegroups protecting them." She stood up, looking out at the Tokyo skyline. She'd been here, observing some new tests of some of their toys.
 
"We need enough Warships to keep the Clans from pulling what they pulled last time. This time, we have to be able to both pin their battlegroups and let our offensive groups operate without fear of being cut off."
"So far we only have six Corvettes in operation, not including the remains of the Comstar fleet." Hanse Davion muttered.
 
"Which we can't risk because those are the ships big enough to keep the clans from using their warships as lone wolves." Mary nodded. "Yes." She gestured at the holographic image. "But look at this. The blue line is what our estimates of Clan production is in Warships."
 
More sophisticated production. The Clan forward factories were advanced version of Star League multi-purpose fabrication systems. Even if they were incremental improvements, they still gave them more production than they had any right to have.
 
The blue line rose sharply, then flattened out. "Our estimates are that they started several ships, but as they expend the materials brought from the Homeworlds, they'll have to rely on a thin logistics chain and local production which slows it down."
 
"And crew?"
 
"The Snow Ravens. From what our intelligence has gained, are more willing to accept "freebirths" and even recruited periphery troops into their forces. But yes, I expect crew is going to be a problem for them. You can't make a warship crew over night."
 
Everyone was silent, and Mary gestured at another image, this one with a red graph. Unlike the blue line, the graph started out at a shallow rise and then shot up, quickly outmatching the blue.
 
"Even with the core, we had to come back from behind. Lots of worlds with damaged infrastructure, lots of…" Mary paused. "Fingers in the tills."
 
"You mean systemic corruption," Hanse said. "Melissa and I won't faint at the word."
 
"Ah, yes, First Prince." And let's not even start with the Combine. For a place where missing quota gets your head chopped of… they have a lot of people missing quota.
 
Not Theodore's fault, but his anti-corruption work was pissing a lot of people off.
 
Not my problem.
 
"But the fact remains, even if we started out at a lower productivity, that was changing even before the Clans arrived, and now, we have more shipyards than they have drydocks. Granted, it takes time, sort of like getting nine women pregnant doesn't get you a kid in a month, but…" Mary smiled. "All this pissing around the front lines lets us build up our people, and in a few years, I expect to have over 60 corvettes, with the same amount being added in new production yearly, backed up by cruisers and the ComStar forces, and about 50 divisions." She gestured at the images. "Enough to push them back on all fronts, without risking any of our defenses, while we can rotate any units that take a beating behind the lines for rest, and leave us enough to keep pushing for the Clan Homeworlds, building up our own logistics net as we go."
 
"And yet you're launching raids." Edward said. "Some costly."
 
"Fifty Divisions will need a lot of experienced troopers to serve as cadres. Even if we can produce the hardware, we can't train people overnight." Hanse commented.
 
"Right." Mary answered
 
"Hmm…" Theodore frowned. "A simple plan."
 
"Complex plans either work very well or fall apart," Mary said. "I want to build up an overwhelming force and push them back on all fronts, so they can't get clever." She sighed. "I mean, I hate to take advantage, but if they were Forlough or Amaris, we couldn't do this. We'd be on a time table due to the danger to civilians. But their numbers are small enough and they're hands off enough on captured worlds that we don't have to slam our head into a wall to save days, the way Kerensky did with Amaris."
 
"Speaking of heads into walls, I hear you and Colonel Wolf have been butting heads." Hanse said, an edge to his voice.
 
"He was in here talking about Omnimechs again." Mary shook her head. "Don't need them, don't want them. Either we spend a ton of money stockpiling weapons that never get used, or the extra expense goes to waste, and this isn't exactly going to be a bunch of trials with rest breaks and agreed upon battlegrounds. They are some of our best OpFor, though."
 
"After this conflict?" Melissa asked. "What is your recommendation?"
 
Crap. "Transfer them to the Concordat or the Magistracy and use them for anti-piracy work."
 
"We'll keep that in mind." Edward frowned. "And about your opposite number?"
 
"Frederick Ghost Bear, the occupational zone CO?" Mary nodded. "Yeah, I'm very happy they're keeping him away from the front. I doubt he'd be giving us this time. Intelligence says he's managed to scrounge enough Clan manufacturing equipment to put some old star league era facilities back into production, found some caches, and has some of the captured Battle Armor factories running 24/7. If you'll take a look at page three, you'll see the vids of his combat drills. A mixture of Star League and modern designs, but very little Clan hardware. We're not certain but Comstar thinks that he's being deliberately starved of front line kits."
 
"But they're running SLDF drills."
 
"Yes, Coordinator." Mary gestured at one image. "A little rough, but getting better, and he's putting together what looks like an effective staff all the way down to the regimental level. We know their units have Star League pattern logistics and intelligence officers, something many of the Clans don't have. That's another reason I want to wait. Frederick is someone who might come up with something clever, but clever doesn't work well if I can hit him at every point at once. If it looks like the Clans are about to put him back in charge… well then our plans are going to change."
 
"Well, you are in overall charge," Hanse said. "And since you didn't wander into a Clan ambush…"
 
Yet.
 
"We agree with your planning. Now, I would like to hear of some of your new toys…" asked Hanse
 
"Well, Sir…" Mary began
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===Testing a new rocket's red glare===
The big Clan anti-artillery laser system had been taken apart and then put back together. Now it was playing another role.
 
"Stand by," the mech pilot said, his modified Dragon carrying an Arrow IV pack. "Launching now."
 
Moments later, a missile burst free, only unlike a traditional missile, it quickly headed for the ground, small wings popping out.
Cruise missiles had more or less been a forgotten technology, save for very large ones. But now, the Clan unit had to deal with missiles hugging the deck, while other missiles were launched conventionally, but their nosecones opened up to reveal one-shot LRMS.
Further away, the sound of thunder roared as rocket artillery opened up. This being a new design, using a smaller charge to kick a self-propelled round out of the barrel. Lighter, albeit less accurate than traditional artillery, the rocket howitzers were using guided rounds.
The thunder continued, but this wasn't the only research post on Terra—or working for the UMC… it wasn't even the biggest one.
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===Attempting listen in the Dark===
Clan Homeworlds, Ghost Bear Holdings
The ship was cold. It had been jumped in and the crew had promptly left it.
 
It had to be cold, sitting out in deep space. Sensors festooned its length, and carefully shielded lasers sent information to another ship, nearly five light seconds away.
 
"And?"
 
"Picked up another jump emission. Send it." This ship had an HPG. Which was sent to the central hub, serving as the main computer for five KF cores that doubled as sensors.
 
"Well?"
 
"We'll know in an hour."
 
Because this is the first test to see if we can actually track Clan ships when it's not a dog and pony show around Terra. 
 
And if they could, the Clan logistics network was about to have a very bad day indeed.
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Book 3 - 17