FSRB Chpt 20

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==The Federated Suns RebornChapter 20==
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May 3063Fallout
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As May began the recriminations began. Various Generals, Dukes, and even Rulers began to heavily criticize not only the ComGuards, but also the SLDF for it's handling of protecting the Star League Courts and the accused Katherine Steiner-Davion. Nobody had any idea what Khan Ward wanted with her, but few assumed it would be something good for the rest of the Sphere. Adam Steiner on Tharkad was particularly vocal in his criticisms of the Precentor Martial's handling of the security and strongly suggested that the ComGuards fleet should have merely attacked the Wolf ships and destroyed them. This was countered by points that it had been a Lyran unit and Lyran corvette supporting the Wolves. 
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On Northwind, the peace talks were not going well. At least twice Warlord Kurita had threatened to storm out when Baron Sandoval had made it very clear that his demands for the return of the captured planet and the extradition of the CEO Judith Hotchkiss were not going to happen. Tancred had bluntly pointed out to him that he was not exactly in a position to make those demands. The AFFS had forces on those worlds and controlled them. Short of the DCMS invading to take them back there was little chance of any of those worlds being returned to Kurita control, and if that was the intent then the peace talks might as well end now and the fighting resume. A point Tancred made forcibly and pointed out that before his own DropShip left Northwind a dozen RCTs could be in space heading for more ill defended Combine worlds if that was what the Warlord wished to report back to Luthien. Just how many more worlds did House Kurita wish to lose before it was prepared to make peace?
Faced with that unpalatable statement the Warlord of Dieron had little choice but to return to the talks. Under protest of course. It was soon abundantly clear that the Combine knew it had lost the worlds and had little chance of getting the renegade CEO back but was desperately seeking some sort of face saving concession. The Warlord even at one stage tried to claim that the AFFS should evacuate Skat and Cylene and allow them to return to Kurita control as they had been before the War of '39. However given the precarious positions the DCMS had on those worlds it wasn't like he could claim they were under effective Combine control. 
By the end of May the Warlord Isoroku Kurita had managed to get a number of very minimal concessions from Baron Tacred Sandoval. Namely that the 11th and 12th Ghost regiments would be allowed to salvage their equipment before they withdrew into Combine space. That all prisoners taken in all of the fighting would be returned at the cost of the Davions. The Davions would also agree NOT to produce the Combine specific designs of the Shugenja, Ninja-To, and Tai-Sho Classes of BattleMech that they had acquired from CEO Hotchkiss. However, he had been unable to get a similar agreement not to produce any of the other designs or to not put equipment such as the Improved C3 into production within the FedSuns. The jumpships of the 3rd Benjamin Regulars would also be returned to the Combine along with the bodies of the troops. The DropShips and any salvageable equipment however would be retained by the AFFS. 
Warlord Kurita had to admit in his message to the Coordinator that the concessions were on the face of it pro-forma and of little real value. Probably the most valuable of them were the return of the jumpships and the return of the various prisoners. However even these were frankly of limited value. But with the Ghost Bear's smashing regiment after regiment along the Clan Front they DCMS couldn't afford the dozens of regiments and major war it would require to retake their lost systems. Worse there was every likelihood that in the event of the combat resuming then the AFFS would be in a position to seize more worlds. 
Forced to face this unpleasant truth the Coordinator agreed to the terms. However he would already begin to place the blame upon is cousin the Warlord of Deiron for the failure in the negotiations amongst many of the nobles. Warlords were after all expendable. Coordinators weren't. 
The peace treaty would be signed on the 31st of May. Many within the Second Star League spoke of how the First Lord had managed to bring the two sides to the peace table, however many others would point out that this had been a conflict between two of the main powers within the Second Star League and that it didn't bode well for the future. 
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In mid May, the 1st Chisholm Raiders would arrive on Bell. A full battalion of mechs and 2 battalions of Tanks would begin refitting in the expanded Hasek Refit Center. By the end of the year the entire RCT would have been refitted up to a modern standard with the worst of their equipment merely stripped for parts and replaced by new factory fresh machines. The next unit to be sent to be refitted would be the Valexa CMM. 
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During May, while keeping an eye on the daily reports from Northwind, First Prince Victor also met with Nathaniel Hasek who was now almost the Capellan March's official ambassador to the First Prince on New Avalon. During this time it was formally agreed that the 1st Syrtis Fusiliers would be formed up on New Syrtis with much of the equipment for the new unit coming from the Capellan March itself but many excellent designs being routed from the other areas of the FedSuns. At Duke Hasek's request the unit would be formed up as an assault-heavy weighted RCT. During this time First Prince Victor also promised to help support the formation of a light weighted 7th Syrtis Fusiliers unit in the future although was unable to commit to a time. He also promised that as soon as the 1st Dragonlords was at full strength it would be deployed to the Capellan-FedSuns-Taurian border. 
He also met with Marshal Jon Davion and heard his suggestions for a lighter form of the famed Davion Regimental Combat Teams based around the old Tancredi Loyalist units. He proposed a fast moving unit consisting of 4 BattleMech companies, an aerospace wing, 4 battalions of armour and 4 battalions of battle armour supported by an auxiliary unit including artillery, engineers, etc... These units would be ideal of pirate hunting, raiding and garrisoning less vital planets. The First Prince intrigued agreed that such a unit would add a potential flexible weapon to the AFFS's arsenal. He agreed that he would form a trial unit and if it was successful would fund a rebirth of the Tancredi Loyalists and Tancredi War College to give them a source of recruits. The Davion Heavy Guards would deploy to the region and the 3rd Davion Guards RCT would replace them here on New Avalon while they rebuilt up to full strength. Once on Tancredi, Jon Davion's Heavy Guards would begin training the trial unit. 
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With the possible creation of this unit in mind the First Prince also communicated with the Duke of Sandoval to discuss adding a Sentry line on the newly building plant on Woodbine which was due to being producing Watchmen in July. In return for this support for the expansion and potential new unit he agreed to add the Battle Hawk and Phoenix Hawk designs to Robinson BattleWork's portfolio, at least one of them put into production at Woodbine. The Duke also pushed for additional aerospace production within his March and the Prince agreed to consider it and look at various options. 
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Within the NAIS's medical center, Princess Yvonne Steiner-Davion was informed that much of the thigh muscle for her damaged leg would have to be rebuilt with myomer fibers. This was a crushing blow to her spirit and although she agreed she settled into a deep depression. Seeing this, her brother immedietly cut orders for Baron Tancred to make his way to New Avalon at the greatest possible speed upon the signing of the peace treaty. 
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A small cadre of NAIS scientists from their aerospace division also left New Avalon and took the short jump to Galax. Rather unusually they were transported by the Fox class warship, FSS Indomitable. The ship took them deep into the huge sprawling megaplex of shipyards and facilities to a small, but highly specialized research center. There they would begin on upgrading previous warship designs for the modern era. At least as far as most of those within the know were concerned they would be concentrating on the Congress-D. First Prince Victor and Fleet Admiral Buchwald however knew that those priorities were not entirely accurate. 
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During May, StarCorp's FedSuns subsidiary began lobbying the AFFS and Government for increased contracts. They had been somewhat frozen out of the massive support for increased production within the FedSuns and their Crofton plant while still extremely profitable was seeing none of the Davion supported expansions of other industrial facilities. They would begin by offering a range of new assault mechs to be produced at the Crofton plant such as the Emperor, Highlander, and King Crab. They also informed the AFFS that they were working on a new heavy omnivehicle design that they thought might interest the Davion military. In support of this lobbying they began to grease the palms of a number of procurement officers. 
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On Galtor, realizing that with the damage to the Robinson Battle Academy during the Kurita's attack, it might be some time before a steady supply of graduates would be available to flesh out his new 3rd Robinson Rangers. Duke Arthur Davion began forming a number of conventional units from the pro-Davion communities on the planet. He ordered the construction of a large training facility for armor crews and infantry near New Derry. He did consider forming a training battalion of BattleMechs but frankly didn't have the mech's to do so. He did send however to his friend and mentor Duke James Sandoval and request a number of Watchmen and Sentry class BattleMechs to help support his militia and potentially form a temporary training battalion with as well as a supply of conventional vehicles. He also began to take steps to put the Galtor Naval Yards back into production and petitioned his brother for the design for the bluewater Rapier destroyer. 
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The 5th McCarron's Armored Cavalry also slipped away from it's base on a routine patrol during May. However, this was noticed by the Davion intelligence service. At which point flags started to be raised about where the hell the other units of that brigade were... It was eventually discovered that they had lost track of the 1st, 3rd, and 5th! 
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During May, Cassandra Allard-Liao officially resigned her commission and took up a posting with the Rubinsky's Light Horse mercenary regiment. 
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Within the Taurian Concordant, the Protector Shraplen began considering forming new Taurian Lancer regiments to safeguard his border from the inevitable FedSuns invasion. He also began forming at this time a new unit the 1st MacLeod's Regiment based on his own home planet. A heavy weight defensive unit he hoped it would be able to protect the MacLeod's land from the ravages of the Davions who would target it as his homeworld.
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