FSRB Chpt 60

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==The Federated Suns Reborn - Chapter 60==
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June 3066Plans put in place
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===Trouble on Highspire===
The most worrying information coming to light in June was the confirmation of May's reports of the Thugee Cult are using hazmat suits to dig into their former temple cave system, along with a long range picture taken by an agent showing at least one cult member thrashing and dying with a tear in the hazmat suit from a sharp rock that had ripped the glove. This is all the confirmation that the DMI needs that the Thugee Cult on Highspire had access to nerve agents and is trying to reacquire them. As soon as this confirmation was received the Davion High Command began planning for a follow on strike at Highspire to ensure that the lunatic death cult didn't get their hands onto the terrifying weapon. However even as these plans are being put together the First Prince contacts the First Lord Christian Mansdottir to inform him of this development. While Victor Davion is careful not to threaten to take action if the First Lord doesn't that is almost implicit and only a fool would imagine that the FedSuns will allow this threat to grow. 
Just in case the Star League's response is too little too late the High Command are instructed to continue with their planning. This time the plans call for no mere raid but instead a descent in force to secure the world and any remaining stocks of nerve agent. However long this takes. The 2nd Davion Guards RCT and the 5th Syrtis Fusiliers RCT are to be tasked with securing the planet while the cruiser FSS Andrew Davion and 3 Fox corvettes are to provide support. Both RCTs are told that if they are sent to Highspire to be prepared to stay there for as long as it takes to find and destroy all stocks of the nerve agent. Even in the face of Capellan counter attacks. To help them small specialist infantry units are assembled for dealing with the actual excavations and the extraction and neutralization of any nerve agents.
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===Sortek leaves for home===
Ardan Sortek takes his leave from Tharkad and begins the long journey home to the Federated Suns. While the deal he has negotiated isn't exactly cheap and he knows he will face at least some criticism from other members of the High Command for having given away so much his primary mission wasn't exactly to obtain a single Texas hull for rebuilding. Buried deep within the computers of said hull will be the design schematics for the ship that are required to perform even basic repairs. With these schematics and the design teams at Galax as well as the information the shipyards would obtain when they were tearing out the old Texas's internal workings to rebuild them the Federated Suns would be able to create a new battleship design based upon the Star League era Texas. One updated to the current era and able to go toe to toe with any enemy battleships. Unlike the Kurita's with their cobbled together ramshackle battleship and the Marik's updated smaller Atreus class battleships, the Davion's would have a truly top of the line battleship due to this deal. With their existing superiority in lighter ships this design was to be the key in safeguarding the FedSun's for decades to come. 
Marshal of the Armies Jackson Davion has a meeting or at least HPG correspondence with all of the top officers within the Davion Brigade of Guards and puts before them the First Prince's new proposal. Although Marshal Alberta Orsina of the 4th has some reservations these are relatively minor and all of the rest of the various Marshals are in agreement with the First Prince's ideas. As such Marshal of the Armies Jackson Davion begins to move ahead with them. 
Fleet Admiral Buchwald also provides the First Prince with his proposed revised ranking system for the Federated Suns Navy. Based loosely on the old British and American rank system and SLDF Navy. This new system will be phased out over the next year and slowly replace the top heavy ranking system of the current navy. 
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===Jaguars arrive at their new home===
At Valois, Russou Howell arrives with the CSJ Streaking Mist and CSJ Osis' Pride. This immediately causes some consternation in the small AFFS "embassy" on the planet and word is sent for the the Federated Sun's Navy to rush warships to the region just in case. The First Prince dispatches his own 1st Cruiser Squadron and orders the FSS Kentares and FSS Galtor to rendezvous with them at Filtvelt. 
However they are not found to be necessary. The returning Gold Keshik and 1st Sun Jaguar Guards cluster accompany the other former Clan Smoke Jaguar dropships to the ground. There they inform the now Khan Tiaret Nevversan of Khan Showers death at the hands of the bandits. Russou Howell in honor of the fallen warrior submits himself to the authority of the Khan of the Clan Sun Jaguars and presents himself, his warriors and the civilians they liberated from SLDF rule on Huntress as well as the various genetic stocks and industrial designs they downloaded as assurances of his good will and recognition of the Clan Sun Jaguar as the continuation of the Jaguars. Khan Nevversan announces that she is accepting of the other former Smoke Jaguars as new Sun Jaguars and instructs Galaxy Commander Howell to form a Beta Galaxy around his roughly 2 clusters of warriors. The lower castes he brought are accepted into the Clan and bring the numbers of Sun Jaguars on the 3 worlds they occupy to around 120,000. The Khan immediately sends word to New Avalon of the new arrivals and their warships - assuring the First Prince that these warships while claimed by Clan Sun Jaguar are his to call upon. Although they will need a major refit if they are to return to full service. As for the now vacant post of saKhan she declares that an election will be held for the office in August... During which all Sun Jaguars no matter their caste will be given an equal vote... 
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===Developments in Industry===
At Galax System, the FSS Dahar, FSS Edwards, FSS Galax, and FSS Kittery all slip free from the shipyards. With the new yard finishing these now empty yards will begin construction 5 Fox corvettes for the LAN and Clan Wolf-in-Exile Fleet. They are due to be finished in June 3067. The 4 Fox corvettes that have just been finished however don't split off for their training cruises. Instead they are formed into a provisional 1st Corvette Flotilla, 1st Division. The current Fox corvettes which are still deployed however are not formed into flotillas. At least not for the time being. 
Meanwhile at Kathil, the FSS Carl Davion and FSS Jospeph Davion are commissioned. The FSS Carl Davion is immediately assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron in the Draconis March while the FSS Joseph Davion is assigned to the Capellan March based 3rd Cruiser Squadron. 
The FSS Churchill finishes at Panpour and heads to join her sister ship the FSS Congress. Both ships will provisionally be assigned to the 1st Patrol Squadron and sent to help patrol the Outback, particularly around the Taurian border. 
Even as ships are finishing in 3 of the FedSun's shipyards construction continues to expand the various shipyard complexes. In particular the High Command is pushing for as much redundancy as possible in the construction of warships. As such despite the shipyard still not having finished it's first Fox corvette the Filtvelt Shipyard begins construction of a new Davion III Class destroyer slip. New Syrtis see's a new Davion III slip ordered. Galax also begins adding an Avalon cruiser slip for the same reason, as the High Command is very aware that if Kathil was to be taken out they would have no source of new Avalons and likely would struggle to support the existing fleet. Galax also sees the start of a state of the art and frankly huge slip being constructed. This new addition could only be needed for a battleship and it is hard to hide it's existence. Or it's cost which is in fact deliberately inflated in every possible budget that could be seen. Which covers the fact that this slip has a twin being constructed in the semi-secret shipyard complex at Panpour. 
At Galax the select group of scientists who have been responsible for upgrading the Congress-D and Davion III and redesigning the New Syrtis Carrier begin work on 2 new projects in utmost secrecy. The largest of these projects is a complete redesign and rebuild of the Texas class battleship that their First Prince's Champion has managed to acquire - going beyond any previous upgrade they might have done. While the second is a much more conservative and relatively easier project of designing an upgrade for the FedSun's growing fleet of Fox corvettes. 
At Chesterton Achernar Industries commits to a new Argus-O line. While initially tempted with the ever popular Enforcer III the head office had eventually opted for the addition of an OmniMech line at their new plant. This is in the the hope of further omnimech orders from the AFFS. 
The various technicians report back to Colonel Maeve Wolf on Outreach that they think they can probably add an additional Clantech assault mech line to the still somewhat rough around the edges rebuilt Blackwell Industries plant. However they note that even with their best efforts they will probably require at least some help form outside sources such as either Clan Wolf-in-Exile, NAIS or Clan Sun Jaguars. Given the recent help received from the FedSuns Colonel Wolf contacts NAIS and the AFFS High Command and asks them if they can assist in this project and invite the Jaguars to help as well. In return for a share of the production both groups happily agree and work begins on an Imp-C line on Outreach although it will only really properly start in November and proceed at a slow pace. 
On Broken Wheel, the Andoran Industries plant has the new Mercury line come online, with the Hussar light 'Mech line not far behind and due to start producing battlemechs in July. This now raises the number of operational lines to 1 Clint, 2 Mercury and a Hussar production line with a second Hussar line about to start. A far cry from the shattered company that was only capable of refits only a few short years ago. Andoran Industries Ltd announces that they will be adding a second line for their flagship battlemech the Clint in the near future. 
At the New Independence Weaponry's primary factory on Kestrel, the Marauder II enters production. This now means that the Atlas, Marauder II, Gunslinger, Victor, Marauder, and Jagermech III are all currently being built there. 
On Northwind, Corsara Weapons with the full support of the Clan Elders offer to increase production of the Crab and King Crab battlemech's and to sell this increased production to the AFFS. The AFFS happily accept both designs for increased production and using what is now a well established practise offer the company and Northwind several incentives to help increase production such as tax breaks. 
\Michael Heavy Industries which until now has been somewhat overlooked during the expansions of various military industrial companies is now contacted by the First Prince's representatives. The company is invited to build 2 new plants - on June and on Sun Prairie Land Train to initially concentrate on building Yellow Jackets and Hawk Moths VTOLs, but with plans for the company to expand to include all their current designs. 
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===Highsphire Crisis===
First Lord Mansdottir sends word to Chancellor Sun-Tzu Liao of the information that he has received regarding the nerve agent that the Chancellor's sister followers are attempting to dig out on Highspire. He informs the Chancellor that he is proposing a joint mission by a hand selected CCAF regiment and the 151st Light Horse regiment to stop this threat. The Chancellor, horrified by this revelation still is unhappy about the inclusion of an SLDF unit in the plan, but the First Lord points out that it is very unlikely that the AFFS will accept a purely Capellan response and are no doubt drawing up plans to deal with the situation themselves. As such the Chancellor reluctantly agrees and orders his own Red Lancers to Highspire. 
===Word of Blake Raids===
Across the Inner Sphere there is a serpate of attacks upon ComGuard garrisons and Comstar compounds by raiding WOB Militia forces. Nothing larger than a company formation is seen - and mostly consist of infantry, but they cause widespread panic in the civilian populations of the Lyran Alliance, Federated Suns and Draconis Combine as well as casualties to the ComGuards. All 3 realms military step up patrols to find where these small raiding forces came from and how they managed to land without anyone having seen them.
===AFFS Restructured Naval Ranks===
Naval Ranks
Old Rank-------------New Rank--------Old Usual Command--------New UsualCommand
Fleet Admiral--------Fleet Admiral-------Federated Suns Navy-----Federated Suns Navy
Admiral--------------Admiral-------------Flotilla/Squadron----------Fleet
Vice Admiral---------Vice Admiral-------Warship---------------------Task Force
Rear Admiral---------Rear Admiral------Warship XO-----------------Squadron
Commodore----------Commodore-------Dropship Squadron--------Dropship Squadron/Warship Division  
Light Commodore----Captain------------Dropship-------------------WarshipAll ship's commanding officers known as "Captain" while aboard their vessel. Also if another "Captain" is assigned to a vessel they are temporarily and unofficially promoted or designated in a different way - For instance "Flag Captain" for a naval staff officer or "Major" for a ground force captain.
Major------------------Commander------None------------------------XO of Warship/CO Dropship
Captain----------------Lt. Commander--None------------------------XO of Dropship
Lieutenant-------------Lieutenant-------None------------------------None
Sub Alteran------------Lietenant JG----None------------------------None
Cadet------------------Cadet------------None------------------------None
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