TBntG-3 Chpt 15

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 15 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Gearing up for War and Murder==
===Assembling Titans in the Dark===
Clan Occupation Zone, Location Unknown - Inner Sphere
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The half completed Nightlord lay in the mobile birth, the rest of the Snow Raven mobile factories far distant. Only materials that had been finished would be brought to the assembly point.
Lynn McKenna glanced at the technician. "It will be finished? Quiaff?"
"Aff. As will the others. We have also recovered…" a moment's consultation with a pad. "At least twenty SLDF ships, including four McKennas that can be made functional. The caches that the Great Father shared with Blake… have been moved, mostly.
 
"Yes." Lynn nodded and we will face them. They had brought most of their construction assets up from the Homeworlds, many of their civilian castes coming along with them, mostly based on the more pacified worlds that "Khan" Frederick was controlling.
 
Khan in all but name. I wonder how many who exiled him realize that the orders to the occupational forces go through him and those he have chosen. She had a feeling that even the Smoke Jaguar's assigned to him might find it difficult to follow their own Clan's orders… Since they sent the oldest warriors, the ones with nothing in front of them but a dishonorable death, and Frederick… is finding other uses for them. 
 
The Snow Ravens had never been quite so hostile to older warriors—naval warfare took longer to master after all, but on the other hand, they did have ground warriors, and the AAR's that some of the more conservative clans were refusing to take seriously made it plain that even a slow warrior with experience could beat a fast warrior without it…
 
Although perhaps it was that Frederick's occupational forces didn't even bother with Zellbrigen, focusing on laws regarding avoiding targeting civilians.
 
Good training, since the Inner Sphere doesn't either.
"So six Nightlords, and twenty lesser ships will be ready?"
 
"Within the year, not counting salvaged ships, my Khan."
 
"Excellent."
 
Except it isn't, is it? The Clan Watch had the numbers. The spheroids, especially the Taurians, might not have warships, not yet, but they had determination and skill. And they were funneling resources…somewhere.
 
More of their parasite warships? The Clan was working on those, even if they were death traps against Warships, the ability to move by attaching themselves to JumpShips gave them incredible strategic mobility.
 
"It's a pity the Taurian's universally bondsref." At least until we just started putting them in POW camps. It hadn't taken them very long to learn that lesson. The Spheroids saw it as treason, odd for people who used mercenaries. But still, the Taurian's fly like they were born to it and fight like… what were the words that one warrior said? Ah, like someone mixed a Smoke Jaguar and Ghost Bear in the iron womb.
 
"I wonder they are preparing for us…" She finally said. The battle lines were quiet, had been quiet for nearly a year.
 
Some Khans were saying it was a sign the Sphere had been beaten. Lynn didn't think so, and neither did Frederick, since he was moving like a madman, training occupational units and preparing positions.
 
We have spent generations honing the greatest warriors in known space. So why is it that I trust an aging Elemental from the Ghost Bears?
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===Lost shipyards rumble with urgency===
Quatre Belle Shipyards - Outworlds Alliance, Periphery
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The great shipyards that had once served the SLDF were only partially functional. Hundreds of years of scavengers had seen to that, and the shiploads of gear from both Taurus and Sol couldn't change everything.
 
But there were twelve shirt-sleeve construction bays running 24-7, every shift staying on duty until the next shift picked up their tools.
 
"Once they're closed up at least the primary components, we jump them to their final assembly point where the guns and such will be added." the engineer told him.
 
"Why not finish the assembly here?" asked visiting Protector Edward Calderon
 
"These shirt-sleeve systems let us save a lot of time on the engines, some of the big components, but not so much on guns, and such." his guide gestured. "Sending them to an assembly point also lets us run tests enroute and saves more time."
 
"I see." Behind them were twelve other assembly points those for the KF drive cores. No atmosphere could be used there, during the delicate curing process within a cocoon designed to protect it from heat, radiation, even gravity.
 
Edward hadn't toured that. For such a powerful device, it was terrifyingly easy to contaminate a core—even the workers used chemical, not electrically powered lights. But the moment one of these berths were empty, they'd lose no time moving the next ship in.
 
"Pity we can't build anything larger." The engineer murmured. "I mean, they're good little ships, and you won't hear me say that about many Davion designs. But…"
 
"WE have some other designs we are working on." Edward said. Nothing more. Nobody here needed to know where or when. "But if the Clans start moving, better a ship we can build now, rather than one that will be better but can't be finished."
 
Twelve slips here, six at Taurus, six at Atreus, and another 12 at Sol. Eight more scattered around. Forty-four ships, hopefully each slip turning one out every eight months or so.
If the Clans gave them time. If they didn't bring back the man who had been driving them forward. Because Edward had living nightmares of another McKenna battlegroup slashing through their defenses and turning these slips to rubble.
 
But if they did have to send the little corvettes against battleships, a lot of men and women were going to die. Edward hoped they'd have some of their other surprises ready by them.
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===Bulls sharpen their horns===
Far orbit of Taurus - Taurian Concordat, Periphery
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The big shipyard was buzzing, and at its core were two skeletal forms.
 
"Wonder why the old Star League never did this?" Wanda asked, gesturing at the ships.
 
The KF cores were identical. Life support, identical. The structural reinforcement was a Taurian/Sol innovation, letting you build up a battlecruiser or leave open spaces for a carrier.
"Because it was more about paying contractors than efficiency." Her boss said. "We need a hull that can be used for four classes."
 
"Right." Heavy cruiser, gunship, carrier/raider, and support ship. Each one would share at least 75 percent parts commonality, and the bean counters were as happy as she had ever seen them. And last and not least, it would take at least four years before they could even think of fabricating a million ton+ KF Drive core and they didn't have that much time.
Hope they're as happy when a McKenna chews them up… Wanda thought
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===Black Dragons plot rebellion===
From an Empty Room - Draconis Combine
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"The Dragon cries out in illness. Theodore has proven to be an unfit coordinator, by allowing the offense against his father to be unavenged."
 
Nobody was in the room, the speakers communicating via comlinks.
 
"His father ordered him to not waste forces in the defense…"
 
"And how long can that excuse hold? Theodore continues to allow the weak to rise to power, setting aside old families in favor of his Yakuza pets. Even women are rising to high position, setting aside their ordained place."
 
There were murmurs of that.
 
"Many noble officers have been driven from their position by the whispers of those underneath them, possibly even the pillowtalk of his wife."
 
"And yet Takashi bid us to serve his son."
 
"Takashi has not seen what his son has become. He listens to merchants, not warriors… It is said that he is even giving through to abolishing the unproductives."
 
"Such angers many commoners, who feel that he dishonors their contribution to the Dragon…" A voice spoke, musingly. "Bewitched by Comstar and others, he has failed to understand that the Coordinator is both head and embodiment of the Combine. If he fails to embody its principles…"
 
"Changes to the Dictum Honorium."
 
"But the rot goes deeper," the first man said. "Too many have been encouraged to rise above their station, to question their betters."
 
"A poor ruler can lead a nation to disaster—the Clans remind us of Richard Cameron's evil…"
 
"Yet he is surrounded by those who are loyal to him—those who have been bought, like mercenaries."
 
"Yes." The voice was assured. "And he will have to go to war against the clans, surrounded by his henchmen. We will put into the ear of the public that he fears them. Theodore is enough of a Kurita that he will move forward and then… We will deal with him, and the Clans will deal with the remains. You who remain behind, you must prepare. The rot has sunk deep into our society, so let no mercy stay your hand. Be true samurai! A babe in swaddling clothes can grow up into a man seeking to avenge his father, no matter how righteous his father's death was. So we much cut out this rot, letting no child live to avenge a father nor father to avenge a child! Let their examples motivate the people as we purge them!"
 
"And the Azami?"
 
"They were an error, made out of mistaken kindness. No other religion can be held to stand in the way of the precepts of the Dragon. No other religion is needed for the people who must have only one purpose in life, and this tolerance leads their leaders to indolence and weakness. We will forge a new Combine, without weakness! Its birth shall be listed as the first year of the new calendar. The only calendar the people of the Combine will need."
 
"And what of the Kuritas? Do we have an heir?"
 
"Of course or we will. The Clans have provided us with great assistance there, even if they don't know it. The new coordinator will be a child without parents to lead him astray of pure Kuritan blood. Who we shall raise up to be a model of what a Kurita will be. Now go. Carry out your duties."
 
A few moments later, the room was silent.
 
Soon. After all the rearmament programs were vast, and it was easy to lose equipment in them… especially if the people supposed to watch out for that were working for you…
 
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