GblaRCS Chpt 41

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 41 -==
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"Even at its worst the Star League, or rather the Terran Hegemony, was never nakedly imperialistic. It always preferred to operate under a veneer of paternalism, telling people that we're doing this for your own good and you'll see that one day as it dispatched its military might off out into the galaxy, and raised the Cameron Star wherever SLDF boots hit the ground. With that inspiration and background it is not perhaps surprising that as Niops expanded its own influence it had a tendency to come across as well-meaning but also more a little condescending at times. People involved in quarrels with each other do not usually like being told, 'play nice children or we'll come over there and take your toys away', although this tended to be more the product of Niops being terrible at many aspects of regular diplomacy, while being very good at the gunboat kind rather than deliberate antagonism."Stephen J. Tran, Red Star Rising: A History of Niops 2800-2900 - Niops Press, 2915
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===Status of the Black Warriors===
Zenith Jump-Point – Niops System – 2839
"In all honesty, sir, I can't believe we're taking this crap seriously." Lieutenant-Colonel Mary Heath, the station commander stated candidly as she escorted General Hallis from the airlock where his dropship had docked towards the brig where the prisoners waited. "Anyone can say that they're soldiers, but if you ask me these ****** are the most piratety pirates that ever pirated."
"I can't say I disagree, Colonel, but actually proving that to a sufficient degree that we can hang them, or else just ship them to Alphard to dig up germanium for the rest of their lives, is another matter unfortunately" Franklin Hallis replied glumly. "You know I can never get used to just how smooth the grav deck on this thing feels." he added randomly, "Nowhere near as much sense that there's something a bit wrong with 'down' as I remember from being stuck on the Zug all that time and that was a better grav deck than most."
"It's over twelve-hundred meters across, makes all the difference." Heath replied. "I try and run the loop whenever I can, it's not a bad way to stay in shape and the deck circumference is long enough that you don't feel like you're in a hamster wheel" she said. "As for our guests, well I mean they literally have the Jolly Roger painted on their 'mechs, and their supposed 'uniforms' would have to be a lot more uniform to be considered, well, actual uniforms, so it all seems ridiculous to credit their claims with any merit."
Hallis stopped walking and sighed, taking a small pocket noteputer from out of a pocket on his jacket, pressing a few buttons and then turning it around to show Heath what was on the screen. "It only took me a few minutes searching through the military database to find multiple units that have used a skull, or skull and crossbones design as their unit insignia over the years" he said, scrolling through a few of them to show her. "All of these examples come from legitimate military commands, hell, according to their pirate queen her grandfather got the idea from a book about Frederick the Great he once read as a military cadet. They called it the Totenkopf in German."
Heath smiled at the use of the phrase 'pirate queen' since it did indicate Hallis wasn't buying into what they were selling. "Her grandfather?" she queried.
"Zachariah Cirion, he started out as an SLDF regular. That's the other problem, the Black Warriors had already adopted their skull-and-crossbones insignia when they were still affiliated with the SLDF, at least tangentially as a mercenary regiment under contract, and nobody made a fuss about it when they were training new recruits for Kerensky" Hallis told her, putting the noteputer back in his pocket and starting to walk again.
Heath frowned. "That's true? They actually did that? I mean I heard that's what they claimed but…" 
"All true, we checked the records. Not just Zachariah himself but most of regiment were originally SLDF who left to become mercenaries after putting in their time, honorable discharges not deserters." Hallis confirmed. "They fell out with their employers in the Free Worlds League apparently, which is how they ended up out in the periphery in the first place, but when the Amaris Coup happened they declared for Kerensky and returned to the colors. It's not like we're dealing with another Blood Rain scenario, these sons-of-bitches were on our side during the war. They were mercs but they were still loyal to the Star League."
"Which makes a difference I suppose." Heath responded with a shrug.
"General Romanov thinks that it earns them a fair hearing at least." Hallis replied. "I assume Major MacArthur had similar thoughts on the matter which is why he chose to have them all carted back here rather than just let the Illyrians have them."
Heath nodded, she also suspected that MacArthur was smart enough to make them somebody else's problem. "I stuck most of them in an empty barracks I could secure, placing the officers in the brig as ordered" Heath told him. "No real problems with them causing trouble, they're disciplined enough I'll admit, but they've been complaining about the fonio porridge I've been feeding them."
"Took me a while to get used to it when the first shipments arrived from Alphard a few years back. If you ask me they should turn all of that grain into beer and stick to oats for porridge." Hallis opined. "After I've talked to Ms. Cirion, I'll let General Romanov know my assessment and then she'll discuss the matter with the High Associator."
"I sort-of expected you to arrive with an interrogation team" Heath admitted. "One of Gloria's proteges or maybe even the scary old lady herself."
"The truth-drugs and thumbscrews are on hold, at least for now." Hallis replied with a wry smile. "It's not just the foreign policy aspect of the political dimension involved, although Circinus is a sovereign nation-state so it's a factor, the truth is Olson wasn't all that happy when he signed off on enhanced interrogation techniques for Stefani Marcus and her merry band of slavers and unapologetic war criminals. We've no indication that the Black Warriors are that level of irredeemably evil scum, they might just be amoral opportunists, so they get the kid gloves treatment unless our civilian masters decide otherwise."
"Just a suggestion, but putting them all on trial would cost the taxpayer a lot more than putting them out the airlock" Heath observed, only partly in jest. "Here we are Sir" she told him as they arrived at the door to the security offices with the brig attached to them. "Do you want me to sit in with you during your conversation with the ranking prisoner?" she asked.
"That won't be necessary, Colonel, you've got a station to run." Hallis replied as she opened the door for him and led him inside. "And a well-run station it seems to be. I'll let Brigadier-General Nellis know that he put the right person in charge when the SLDF transferred command over to the Militia."
"Nice of you to say so, Sir, but I'd hope he knew that already." Heath replied, smiling. "I'll have a security team escort the prisoner to the interrogation room. Everyone knows that you are to be referred to by your alias at all times for security reasons."
"I hope their memories are better than mine, I nearly forgot to only put one star on my collar when I got dressed on the dropship this morning. It only occurred to me when I switched the 'Hallis, F' nametag on my uniform for the 'Franklin, H' one."
Heath chuckled. "I you don't mind me saying so, but your secret identity as 'Brigadier-General Hal Franklin' isn't the most difficult pseudonym to see through" she commented.
"You wouldn't be the first to say" Hallis told her. "In my defense it's refuge in audacity because if the clanners ever caught wind of a General Hal Franklin on Niops they're going to assume I couldn't possibly be so stupid as to adopt that as a fake identity" he said, grinning. "Also, it's easy for me to remember" he added.
"Pity your real surname wasn't something a little more common, like say 'Smith', you could have kept using it" Heath observed.
"Yeah, but the thing that really chaps my ass is that the kits with the McEvedy bloodname could still get to use it because it's been suggested they pretend to be the descendants of that lunatic Alpheus McEvedy not Sarah." Hallis complained. That was another refuge in audacity move, if the clans ever found out there was a planet in the Niops Association called 'McEvedy's Folly' it would ring a lot of alarm bells, but if they investigated further and found it had already been nicknamed that before the Exodus, and for an entirely different member of the wider McEvedy family, that could throw them off the scent nicely. 
Still, the most amusing alias had to be the one that Kirsten Mroczkiewicz had suggested for those that bore her bloodname after a lifetime of being asked 'how the hell do you spell that?'. On off-world deployments their name-patches and dog-tags now said 'Brzęczyszczykiewicz' instead.
Assuming that they hadn't hauled her all the way from Illyria just to throw her out an airlock Anjelica Cirion was relaxed enough as she sat patiently waiting in the the interrogation room. Her chair beside the grey metal table in the middle of the room wasn't exactly the most comfortable but they hadn't roughed her up or mistreated her in any way, other than feed her that weird gruel with the suspicious taste and texture, and so far it seemed like they took this 'We're the SLDF' thing seriously enough to still follow the regulations regarding the correct treatment of Prisoners of War.
Of course, if they concluded that she was a pirate, not a POW, that would all change. The Star League didn't believe in torture of brutality, but it did believe that pirates were legally hostis humani generis, the enemy of all mankind, and did not treat them leniently. 
The door to the room opened and a surprisingly familiar looking man wearing an SLDF duty uniform bearing the rank insignia of a Brigadier-General entered, closing the door again behind him. "Anjelica Cirion?" he checked.
"That would be Major Anjelica Cirion, Sir" she replied. "I would stand up and salute but, you know…" she continued, rattling the handcuffs that were securing her to the table.
"Just be grateful they're not leg irons like we normally put on pirates" Franklin Hallis replied evenly. "Brigadier-General Henry Franklin" he introduced himself, taking a seat across from her. "If they're not calling me 'Sir' most people call me 'Hal', both friends and enemies, don't consider yourself the former."
"I think I've met your son, Sir." Cirion replied. "He's the spitting image of you."
"Yes, he was attached to our training unit's deployment to Illyria" Hallis confirmed. "Scored his first kill according to the after-action report."
"He manhandled me aboard a dropship, none too gently either." Cirion told the senior officer.
"Probably a little sore that you and your people kill or maim a few of the kids he once helped train" Hallis replied placidly. "Of course, not nearly as many as our people killed and maimed of yours" he added. The losses weren't as bad for either side as they could have been of course, if MacArthur had rejected Cirion's offer of surrender under the terms she wanted they would have been considerably worse for the SLDF even if victory was assured by that point in the battle. Forcing your opponent to fight to the death might be the most decisive form of victory but it was rarely a good idea if you had any regard for the lives of your own people.
More armor and the use of CASE to prevent internal ammunition explosions had minimised the number of SLDF personnel that returned to Niops in a box, and the medical technology available to the SLDF could fix practically anything short of outright death, being able to replace lost limbs with cybernetics or even clone replacement organs if necessary, but in Hallis's mind they were still just the little kids he remembered them being. The Ironborn might have been literally bred for war but they weren't ultimately disposable military hardware like the machines they piloted, they were human beings and they needed to be regarded as such. 
"Considering you had numerical superiority and better equipment we didn't do too badly, Sir." Cirion defended the battlefield performance of the Black Warriors under her command.
"I'll concede the point." Hallis replied with a shrug. "For what it's worth Major MacArthur actually praised your handling of the tactical situation in his report, he noted your intelligent choice of terrain on which to fight the action and the piloting and gunnery skills of your people."
"We're professionals" Cirion responded, looking him in the eyes. "Professional soldiers, definitely not the pirate rabble you're accusing us of being."
"That remains to be decided" Hallis told her without commitment. "Major MacArthur also included your claims as regards your supposedly 'legitimate military reason for launching a pre-emptive strike on the Illyrian Palatinate' in his report. Would you care to elaborate on the steaming pile of Eiglotherium shit you're trying to feed us?" he asked sardonically. "Are you really trying to say that you believed that the Illyrian Palatinate was preparing to invade Circinus?"
"No" Cirion replied.
"No?" Hallis repeated, confused.
"No" Cirion confirmed. "I didn't think that the Palatinate was going to invade Circinus, my government got it into their heads that it was, based upon some pretty spurious thinking if you ask me" she told him. "It's not like they just pulled the idea completely out of their ass though."
"Whose ass did they pull it out of then?" Hallis asked wryly.
"Look, we've been living next to the Illyrian Palatinate for decades and we never considered them any kind of threat whatsoever until like the last five years or so." Cirion told him, spinning a carefully crafted yarn designed to keep her and her people away from prison, or worse a gallows. "To describe their military equipment as being Reunification War or even Age of War vintage, would have been generous, they were still using archaic rifled cannon on towed mounts as anti-mech weaponry for God's sake, but then a few years back we got word that they had started to substantially overhaul their military after basically neglecting it for centuries."
Hallis frowned. "In what sense?" he asked.
"One day a load of Star League weaponry started to appear in their inventories, for a start those old towed guns were being replaced by vehicle-mounted autocannons, decent ones in good working order. Not only that they also had a load of good quality laser cannon they were hanging off everything that could move, as well as a whole bunch of SRM and LRM launchers." Cirion explained. "At first we thought they must have dug up one of those Star League caches that are supposed to be hidden somewhere on Illyria, but then we found out that they had been bartering refined metals from their foundries and ore from their mines for the things."
"You seem very well informed." Hallis replied guardedly, and more than a little suspiciously.
"Circinus keeps its ear to the ground and its eye on its neighbors, it's a dangerous galaxy out there" Cirion replied, not wanted to make it seem like a big deal. "Don't be too impressed by our intelligence gathering though, the Palatinate isn't exactly a closed society" she continued. "We eventually found out that they were getting the weapons from you, because someone that was part of the crew of a transport ship that hauls iron ore from Illyria to the Mariks was talking about it in a bar" she said with a gentle chuckle. "I guess you needed steel from the Palatinate so you could build things like this seriously impressive station" she suggested, looking around, "but you had more military surplus than you did ready cash to pay for it right?"
"More of the case that we've had trouble getting people to accept the Niops Dollar in the past." Hallis replied. "Weaponry is even more of a universally accepted currency than C-Bills are."
"Yeah, and you don't have to worry about ComStar giving you a shitty rate of exchange or skimming off the top" Cirion observed. "Anyhow, the Palatinate were re-arming, but still not nearly enough to add them to the list of people we had to worry about yet, but then last year we found out that they had done a deal with the Magistracy of Canopus to buy a huge amount of military hardware; mechs, tanks and aerospace fighters, which is when our government became more concerned."
Hallis tried not to look surprised. "Why would that concern you?" he asked, she was wrong about the mechs specifically but otherwise mostly correct. He wouldn't have necessarily described the arms deal between Illyria and Canopus as 'huge' though. 
"Are you kidding? They're our closest neighbour and compared to us the Palatinate is massive" Cirion contended. "They've got several times our population and control four star-systems to our one. There's no sliddiffs to keep people in line anymore, big powers swallow small powers whenever they feel like it. Look at what the Lyran's did to the Finmark Free Republic. It's not like Finmark was a realistic threat but the Steiner's still snuffed them out."
"Not a persuasive argument, the Lyran Commonwealth was also expansionistic, when was the last time the Illyrian Palatinate ever attacked anyone?" Hallis asked rhetorically. "Also, what's a 'sliddiff', I'm not familiar with that phrase?"
"You know, sliddiffs" Cirion said again. "As in the Star League Defense Force, S.L.D.F, sliddiffs" she explained. "You don't use that one then I guess?"
"No, we most certainly do not" Hallis told her flatly. 
"Might just be a Black Warrior thing I guess" Cirion surmised. "Grandad's generation always referred to themselves as former SLDF that way and it stuck I guess." she reasoned. 
----
===Interview with a alleged Pirate===
"You were talking about your government being concerned about the Palatinate rearming" Hallis brought the conversation back on track.
"Right, so not only are they upgrading the equipment they already have, now they're in a full-scale military buildup buying up brand-new equipment which rang a lot of alarm bells because the ruling families in the Palatinate don't like paying taxes, they're tighter than an airlock seal when it comes to money, so why are they suddenly ploughing cash into the military?" Cirion asked rhetorically. "It's not like they're expecting the Free Worlds League to suddenly invade, the Marik's have more than enough problems to deal with already and it's cheaper for them to buy the metal from the Illyrian's than occupy the Palatinate anyway."
Hallis rolled his eyes. "So, you're trying to convince me that you thought the Illyrian's were building up their military because they had a nefarious scheme to invade Circinus? What for? To steal your grain, because that's the only thing you export as far as we can tell."
"Like I said before I didn't believe it, so don't go accusing me of pretending to" Cirion replied. "Although for the record Circinus is actually pretty mineral rich, unusually so in radioactives, we just didn't have the mining equipment to exploit it or the industrial base to make it. Like you just said yourself we're an agricultural society, but do you know who does have a load of mining equipment and people trained to use it?"
"The Illyrian Palatinate." Hallis finished for her.
"Right" Cirion confirmed.
Hallis leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Still not buying it." he said.
"Still not selling it." Cirion retorted. "We thought, and by 'we' I mean the Circinus military, that the Palatinate was just worried about pirates. There's been more and more pirate activity in our region of space over the years, the Succession Wars stripped a lot of planets of their militias and the majority of the former Rim Worlds Republic not annexed by the Lyrans is lawless making it easy for pirates to operate out of there."
"Well, you've got a point there at least" Hallis conceded. "Circinus was originally part of the Rim Worlds Republic and pirates do seem to be operating out of there" he continued, smirking.
"Very droll Sir" Cirion replied, tone indicating she didn't think so. "The fact is, we're one of the few systems in the area that doesn't have a pirate problem because we actually have a military worth the name not just a handful of militia. The Black Warriors might not have all your fancy upgraded mechs, but we're well equipped and well trained enough that buccaneers look for an easier target."
"An alternative explanation being that they don't want to stray onto another pirate band's turf" Hallis countered. "The flag of the Circinus Federation literally has a skull on it, I mean hell your currency is called the Skull. It's not like you're even being subtle about it."
"This again?" Cirion responded, rolling her eyes. "Like I told your Major MacArthur the Black Warriors have used the Skull and Crossbones insignia forever, we were already living on Circinus when the refugees from the Lyran Commonwealth arrived and the new civilian government just adopted the symbol of their adopted homeland, tweaking it a little to differentiate the armed forces from the state itself because we're not a military dictatorship." she said. "It's no different than Niops using a modified Cameron Star."
"The connotations are a little different" Hallis drily observed.
Cirion looked at him askance. "Depends on your point of view, just ask the Taurian Concordat" she replied, making a pretty decent point though Hallis wouldn't admit it. "As for us calling our currency the skull, if you think you have trouble getting other people to accept the Niops Dollar then believe me we have it worse. I wasn't just guessing that ComStar probably try to screw you on the exchange rate to C-Bills, they look at our money like it's carrying some kind of communicable disease."
"Ah, well they're not always in the wrong I guess" Hallis replied, uncrossing his arms again and leaning back forward. "I'm still far, far from convinced that your attack on Illyria was just some kind of pre-emptive strike because your government thought the Palatinate was about to invade. They don't even have the armed dropships they'd need to pull something like that off, you're the one with military space-lift capacity, although I guess you're down a Union and two Leopard dropships at the moment, not to mention some starlift thanks to the jumpships we impounded as well."
Cirion sighed. "Our mission to Illyria was expressly aimed at kneecapping their power-projection capability" she replied. "Word reached Circinus that the Illyrian Palatinate was building up a fleet of Danais class dropships with the intent of converting them to armed Trojan class vessels" she lied, although there was just a tiny grain of truth in there. After they captured the things and took them home to Circinus the Black Warriors plan was to perform that very conversion themselves.
"Oh, come on!" Hallis responded dubiously.
"Our intelligence people didn't give the rumour much credit either until they looked into it and found out that the Illyrian's really had stopped selling the Danais class dropships they've been manufacturing for export since the Star League days but they were still making the things" Cirion told him. "A Trojan might be a poor man's Union but they're nearly the same size and with the right refit can carry a whole company of mechs or combat vehicles" she noted. "We're not industrialised like the Palatinate, we can't make any new ships ourselves, the fear was that eventually they'd have enough quantity to beat our quality if we didn't chop them off at the knees before they could."
"If you weren't trying to paint the Illyrian Palatinate of all things as some kind of bogeyman regarding Circinus with envious eyes and drawing their plans against you, you'd be a little more believable" Hallis suggested.
"Double standards don't you think?" Cirion replied chidingly.
Hallis was confused. "In what way?"
"Your argument is that we're automatically pirates just because we use a skull as our national insignia and paint them on our mechs, but the notion that a bunch of Scandinavian descendants who literally use a Norse longship with shields arrayed along the side as their flag might have a hankering for some good old fashioned Viking action never so much as enters your mind" Cirion replied, looking somewhat pleased with herself.
Hallis narrowed his eyes. "Very clever" he said eventually.
"I thought so" Cirion replied. "Once again, I personally didn't think that the Palatinate was going to invade us to dig up our mineral wealth, my government did based upon their reading of the intelligence data" she continued. "The President was persuaded that we needed to act before it was too late, seize or destroy the ships they had already built and wreck the factory that was building them while that was still an option. For a pre-emptive strike to work we had to make our move before the arms shipments from the Magistracy started arriving because we can't absorb heavy losses to personnel or equipment, we don't have the population or military depth."
"As the old saying goes, one man's pre-emptive strike is another man's cowardly sneak attack." Hallis responded. "If you'd actually identified yourself as being the armed forces of Circinus rather than behave like a bunch of pirates conducting a raid you might have a little more creditability here."
Cirion laughed. "You can tell that you guys basically sat out the Succession Wars and hid away from the rest of the galaxy in isolation, because you seem to have missed the memo being sent out that the old rules of war have been relegated to just guidelines these days" she replied. "How is what we did different than what the Great Houses do all the time?" she asked rhetorically. "Just look at the Dracs and their Chain Gang missions intended to keep the Davions and Steiners from recovering too fast from the First Succession War."
"You've got me there," Hallis conceded. "I can certainly see the similarities given that the Chain Gang missions were also conducted by a bunch of criminals."
Cirion chose to ignore that jibe. "The Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth had an actual peace treaty in place, but that didn't stop Charles Marik attacking them in 2830 claiming it was because he'd learned they were planning to attack him."
"I don't recall the forces Marik sent to attack the Steiners at Dieudonné and New Hope failing to identify themselves like yours did at Illyria" Hallis countered.
"Okay, so I'm rude and we didn't fill out all the correct paperwork, that doesn't make us pirates" Cirion replied.
"Pretty sure I can find plenty of precedent for that getting people treated as pirates and hanged" Hallis replied.
"We would have identified ourselves to the Illyrian militia on the ground when demanding their surrender" Cirion lied. "We never got to that point because we were attacked by an unknown mercenary force that was presumably working for the Palatinate before we could" she added.
Hallis narrowed his eyes. "Unknown mercenary group? Seriously?"
"Anyone can paint a few mechs olive drab, slap on a Red Cameron Star insignia and say they're the Niops military, it's not like the machines I was looking at backed up the claim. None of MacArthur's machines were late Star League designs that might have given the assertion some credence." Cirion argued. "Hell, it's not like people pretending to be the 295th Battlemech Division isn't a thing, the first thing we heard about Niops is when your General Romanov was sending out rants bitching about Raymond's Redcoats lying about their origins and besmirching the good name of her command. If we'd arrived at Illyria and found a warship there I'd have believed MacArthur's claim, but a bunch of mechs and tanks dating back to the Reunification War or earlier isn't as convincing."
To describe Hallis as less than convinced would be an understatement. "If you didn't believe MacArthur's unit was SLDF then why surrender like you did assuming you would be treated according to the regs?" he asked reasonably.
"I thought I was going to die and get the rest of my people killed into the bargain. A Hail Mary play seemed like a good idea at the time" Cirion replied, truthfully although she hadn't ever really doubted that MacArthur's unit was from Niops, just sowing the seeds of doubt. "You're not seriously trying to dismiss the idea that sailing under a false flag isn't something that happens are you? I mean, we've heard stories about groups raiding planets who are clearly pretending to be us. Our assumption has always been if it's Lyran worlds getting hit it's the Marik's and vice versa, but it's not like we can prove anything, it could just be a genuine pirate band cashing in on the fact we do paint something that looks like the Jolly Roger on our mechs."
Cirion inwardly smirked. Maintaining a semblance of plausible deniability over the decades had been a cornerstone of the Black Warriors approach to not getting crushed by an angry Successor State. If not for that then the Free Worlds League in particular would have most certainly come calling after the First Succession War petered out freeing up some of its military for such operations.
Hallis was about to respond when he was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Enter" he said loudly, wondering what this was about.
The door swung open to reveal Lieutenant-Colonel Heath wearing a bemused expression. "Can I have a word with you outside General Franklin?" she requested. "It is rather urgent" she added.
"I'll be back in a minute. Make yourself comfortable" Hallis told Cirion.
Cirion rattled the chain securing her to the desk. "How?" she asked reasonably, Hallis ignoring her question as he got up and followed Heath outside into the corridor, closing the door behind him.
"What is it Colonel?" Hallis asked the NAM officer.
"We've received a government communication, along with a note General Romanov tagged on" Heath replied. "The HPG net is live again between here and Illyria, ComStar must have gotten the station on Hednesford running again, we're not sure of the specifics but the Palatinate government made contact with Circinus and after being told we had captured their raiding force their government confirmed sending Cirion and her people to Illyria."
"Nice of Circinus to not just disown them I guess" Hallis replied. "Of course, seeing as how it's her own father that commands their military then daddy might have leaned on their government not to hang her out to dry by denying all knowledge."
"Yeah" Heath agreed. "Here's the awkward part, Circinus has said themselves they launched the raid to pre-empt the Palatinate invading them, and given that it failed they are seeking negotiations and a diplomatic settlement."
"I suppose its too much to hope for that the Illyrian Palatinate just told them to go ****** themselves?" Hallis replied.
"Not really their style, their government sees the galaxy in terms of trade and war is bad for business after all." Heath replied. "They'd prefer just to return to the status quo."
"After they lost people? After we did too?" Hallis replied nonplussed.
"Oh, they're seeking financial redress for their losses, and they expect us to do likewise, they just don't want to deal with an actual full-scale war I guess" Heath replied. "We could beat Circinus into submission pretty quickly ourselves of course, but our government sure as hell doesn't want to occupy the place or end up having to defend it from other people because we robbed them of their defence capability."
Hallis frowned. "It would be more like robbing them of their offence capability" he responded.
"No arguments here Sir" Heath concurred. "Unfortunately it's being taken out of our hands because the politicians and diplomats are taking over" she told him. "The Palatinate have requested our government to act as a mediator and guarantor in their negotiations with Circinus, and according to her note General Romanov thinks the High Associator will agree."
"Something else to add to his legacy when he steps down next year" Hallis replied, sighing.
"Given the circumstances I think it's safe to say we won't be doing anything with the prisoners until the diplomats sort things out" Heath replied. "Orders from up high say treat them as if they were POW's not pirates, but make sure they're told we don't officially recognise them as POW. It's an academic distinction but they'll probably be happy to hear they're not going to be flushed out an airlock anytime soon at least."
Hallis sighed again. "Anytime soon is right, diplomatic negotiations can take years even if both sides actually want to strike a deal."
"These ones might go a little faster" Heath replied. "Negotiations are supposed to take place on Circinus, we'll be transporting the delegation from Illyria there ourselves, and I don't think it'll be in a civilian jumpship if you catch my drift."
"What makes you think so?" Hallis asked.
"The fact that we've been picking up a bunch of transmissions from Naval Headquarters to Rickenbacker, sorry I mean the James Sever."
"Ah, so gunboat diplomacy." Hallis concluded, smiling.
"You can usually depend on getting better results with a kind word and a Congress Class Frigate than you can with just a kind word" Heath rightly observed.
Hallis nodded. "Nothing like the possibility of facing orbital bombardment if you ****** around to concentrate the mind" he agreed.
"I still think it was all just a pirate raid gone wrong though" Heath opined.
"Yeah, but I'll have to give them credit, they spin a good yarn" Hallis conceded. "Just plausible enough to make you wonder, even if you're still pretty certain it's just bullshit obfuscation."
"Muddying the waters has probably paid off for them a lot in the past" Heath commented. "I've got to give them credit for being pirates pretending to not be pirates while literally using pirate iconography. If the name wasn't already taken they should have gone all-in and renamed their planet Tortuga to really rub people's noses in it."
"Hard to believe they're an old SLDF unit."
"Don't you mean sliddiff?"
"Is it wrong that I find that term more offensive than the damn skull and crossbones flag they use?" Hallis asked rhetorically. "Sets my teeth on edge."
"It gets worse, I've heard them call us 'Nee-oppies' Heath told him.
Hallis grimaced. "That in itself should be enough to hang them" he stated firmly.
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : Although the Jolly Roger definitely screams 'pirate' the fact is that a Skull and Crossbones or Totenkopf motif has been used by an awful lot of military units over the years (including some within the Battletech universe) so the Black Warriors choice of unit insignia can't actually be taken as a slam-dunk proof of them operating as pirates. The Circinus Federation itself uses a related symbol, and even named its currency the Skull, which isn't exactly subtle, but they've never been stupid enough to outright declare they were a pirate kingdom like the Tortuga Dominions did.In canon the Black Warriors had been playing pirate for decades but they managed to keep that under wraps, successfully enough in fact that when they found out in 2853 the Eridani Light Horse (ELH) who ended up working with them were surprised. To me that indicates the Black Warriors were pretty skilled at covering their tracks and had a decent intelligence operation going. Having contingency plans in case everything went wrong on a raid feeds into that.Use of the term 'sliddiffs' for former SLDF units by Anjelica Cirion and her people comes from Dying Dignity (the ELH didn't seem to like it either).Circinus IV is fairly rich in certain minerals, including valuable gemstones and radioactives, but unlike the Illyrian Palatinate their economy isn't centred around mining. Stealing off other people must have better profit margins.At this point in history the Circinus Federation only owns one system which itself only has a small population and by comparison the Palantinate is in fact much larger and with far more people, however despite their Viking Longship sigil the Illyrian's aren't agressive towards their neighbours (which is not to say they're pacifists, when the then nine-system strong Circinus Federation invaded the Palatinate in 3034 the Illyrians won).Cirion does have a point about the rules of warfare being mere guidelines by this point in Battletech History though (and converting Danais class dropships to Trojan class military vessels is very much a thing, if not something the Palatinate planned).
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Chapter 41