TBntG-3 Chpt 58

=The Bull and the Genie=
==Chapter 58 - Book III - The Clan Invasion==
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==Katherine Comes Home==
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===Thankful Titles===
The Triad - Tharkad , Federated Commonwealth
The royal hall was packed. Up there Melissa was on her Throne, Hanse sitting by her, a little lower—for a little while at least, despite being married to Hanse, Melissa was the sovereign here. 
 
Victor, after dropping his bombshell that the announcement would be tonight, had walked into the hall, the booming sound of the announcement filling the room: PRINCE VICTOR STEINER-DAVION!
 
Then Katherine walked in: COLONEL KATHERINE STEINER-DAVION!
 
Thank you, General Cheng. The whole misery with "multiple nations forming our army" had any number of barons, dukes, princes, you name it, so the order was plain: if you were in your uniform, it was expected that every nation would treat you as a member of the UMC first, royalty second. 
 
Mom and Dad would be making their announcement later, but Katherine still frowned at what they'd convinced her to do.
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===Future Pans===
Dad was sitting in his chair, looking… 
 
Better. But not like he did. Katherine shook her head. Dad was lucky. But his eyes were still sharp and Mom was by him. 
 
"You've talked about renouncing your position." Dad said. 
 
Victor blinked. "Kat?"
 
"I can't change things if I can always run back to the palace." Katherine said. 
 
"But you won't be changing things until you get out of the UMC," Mom pointed out. "You have two more years, maybe three if General Cheng has her way. You've become useful." Her lips quirked. 
 
"It's a mess," Katherine said. "I should show you my itinerary. General Cheng wasn't kidding when she said I'd be carrying a hatchet." 
 
"I think I got the better end of the deal," Victor said. His unit was being transferred to join up with the returning anti-piracy task forces. Some of the Black Dragons and other groups had fled, assuming they would be able to build their own pirate kingdoms. Victor's people would prove that wasn't the case, especially when the Jump detection net was finished in that area. 
 
For hundreds of years, pirates could just raid…and vanish. The only way to find them was to do detective work. Now… Well, now it was going to be a very hard time to be a pirate. 
 
"You want me to hold off."
 
"Yes," Mom said.
 
"Why?"
 
"Because it gives Victor time, for one thing," Hanse Davion said. "For another, it gives you time to feel out people. You know as well as I do that many people will swarm to Princess Katherine Steiner-Davion, even if she's officially out of the line of succession, who have never bothered to read Common Sense, let alone believe it."
 
"Which is fortunate, because if they read The Rights of Man, well, I think they'd have a heart attack." Melissa smirked. Then she frowned. "It's not unknown in the core worlds, and nobility is far less powerful than many think, but beyond…"
 
"Beyond is where it's needed the most," Katherine said. "We can't improve while we have entire worlds being used as a piggy bank. Some of my best officers and soldiers could tell stories about what happened when their relatives pissed off someone with the wrong connections."
 
But they're right. We've got enough problems right now without me tossing my hat in the ring… And it lets me stand back, observe, and see who is going to be… Okay, I can do this. 
 
"So you're going to step down in what, a year?" Katherine tilted her head. "That's when Victor is coming back—oh. Oh…" 
 
"Yes?" her brother asked
 
"If Victor dies heroically, that means you've got someone with combat service to step in—Victor, if you die, I will haunt you." Kat told her brother.
 
"I don't think that's how it works, Kat." Victor commented
 
"I'll make it work." But it made sense, and Dad was nicknamed the Fox for a reason and Mom had scared the Clans badly enough to give her and escort. Did he plan this when he let me join up? Did he see this… even back then?
 
She didn't get an answer, and you couldn't say no when Dad and Mom made sense.
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===The Big Announcement===
The Triad - Tharkad , Federated Commonwealth
So here she was. Omi was back on Earth and Katherine wondered when and if they were going to let that particular bomb drop. Granted it might have saved him…
 
"I believe your brother is under attack." 
 
Katherine looked up. "General Redburn," she said. "A pleasure." 
 
"Thank you. My thanks for your performance during Gun Control. The few suicide bombs we faced were bad enough, if all of them had been distributed…"
 
"A day's work," Katherine said. "I just gave the orders and the troops humored me when they were doing what they were going to do anyway." She glanced over at Victor, on the far side, a line of older men and women with younger daughters hemming him in. "If he was a mech that would be a perfect ambush—wait, how young is she? Fifteen?"
 
"The heir to Baron of Derf's Reach?" Redburn said.
 
"A dispossessed?" A new term, no longer meaning just a mech, but the nobility that had fled or been removed by Frederick's juggernaut. Derf did switch over pretty quickly…
 
"By no means. Her father ordered the world to surrender without a fight and cooperated with Frederick—a bit more than being occupied justified. But not every noble on the world did, and so I'm assuming he sent his wife and daughter here to hopefully… well, it would be difficult to try the father of the Archon-Prince's wife for treason." 
 
"No pressure. That's probably why she looks like she wants to throw up or hide. Something tells me she's not used to the low-cut dress." And hey, maybe you really aren't mortified that someone decided the newest display style suited you, or you're shy, but that's not the thing, it's that we need you to be a walking heir and political power dispenser. Also, you were probably told your father's life may depend on this. All hail your ovaries!
 
However, Victor managed to pull away, saying many words that meant little, and then retreated to some officers where he could talk openly.
 
"It's going to be difficult," Redburn commented in a musing tone.
 
"What?"
 
"Sorting this out. Some of the Dispossessed were the kind of nobility your mother and grandmother hated. Some of them fought until the last shuttle, or choose to leave rather than expose their people to war. Some of the ones who stayed and served the Clans were trying for the best deal for their people, others were…" 
 
"Out for the best deal for themselves." And everyone is going to be saying they did the best they can, and have a dozen witnesses backing them up. Maybe staying in the servi—"Oh you sneaky, sneaky parents."
 
"Pardon?" She glanced over at Redburn. Had he been read in on it—right he was on the list. "Victor will be serving for at least the next year. Want to bet any unpopular decisions regarding the dispossessed get made before he gets out?"
 
"I'm not paid well enough to make those bets." But then the party slowed, as Hanse and Melissa strode up the steps to the throne. Melissa Steiner-Davion would speak here, and Hanse Davion would speak on New Avalon. 
 
//"My friends. Valiant soldiers. Citizens of worlds both untouched and scarred by war, I thank you." Melissa paused. "First of all, I wish to note that by HPG coms, the Clans have agreed to the plan for their general withdrawal from the worlds of the Federated Commonwealth, with the exception of certain regions that will be leased—not annexed—from the Federated Commonwealth in order to ensure continued trade and relations with our brethren."\\ 
 
The cheer was subdued. Some might think this was a sign of weakness. Others, most notably business people were looking very interested. The Clans still had some tech more advanced than anything the Inner Sphere had, but their life style was harder than some periphery worlds, and if "buffet bombing" wasn't going to be a part of any great poem, it made sense. The Clanners who had joined up with the UMC certainly acclimated quickly enough.
 
//"But there is another thing. The Combine is gone, never to rise again—"\\ She had to fall silent as a roar filled the hall. //"The Black Dragons destroyed their own worlds, and we, as strange as it might be, played a part in their liberation."\\ Melissa paused. //"And what to do now? Our enemy, the enemy that generations of our citizens have fought, lies prostrate at our feet. But the UMC will aid us in rooting out the last remnants of the Dragons. So what do we do now?"\\ Melissa raised her finger up and rubbed her broken nose. 
 
Katherine could appreciate the artistry. Melissa could have her nose rebuilt so you couldn't never know it was broken. But it reminded everyone that she wasn't just a royal—she'd been a warrior, and had the right to talk with any one down here who had seen action. 
 
//"We will not take Vengeance,"\\ She said. //"Jinjiro is not who we shall emulate. We know that the Kuritan people suffered from the scourge of their masters, no less than many of us. A nation where speaking truth could see you invited to kill yourself—with your family paying if you did not. Entire generations brought up to believe that their destiny—their honor was to die for those who used them. Hohiro Kurita has renounced his position, as has his entire surviving family. We will watch and ensure that the states that rise up, are not aggressive, do not listen to the cult of death, and we will take the best vengeance possible upon those who would have conquered us—make their memories reviled by their own descendants…" She paused. "And where does that leave us?"\\ Then Melissa smirked and said. //"Do you know that on many worlds of the Combine the lower classes, even the middle classes, were denied consumer goods, luxuries, proper medical care? Why, my brothers and sisters, we will do what we do best. We will make money."\\
 
Even louder cheers arose. 
 
Katherine smiled. It was amazing what you could do if you were smart, like undercut any potential opposition by appealing to both greed and nobility.
 
//"But,"\\ Melissa said. "There is another factor. Hanse and I," she took her husbands hand, //"have steered you through difficult waters, I hope with your approval. But this world is not the one we were born into, and so I announce now that My husband and I will, when Victor, our son's, duties with the UMC are concluded, step down in favor of the first Archon-Prince of the Federated Commonwealth."\\
 
And now the cheers were even louder, as the great windows flashed with the first fireworks launched over the city. 
 
Now that's how to work a crowd. Kat thought
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