GblaRCS Chpt 2

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 2 -==
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"Buffalo Meadows orbited a red dwarf as well, so settling down on Niops VII felt almost like coming home. Better food here though, and a lot more kids running around."Commodore Sarah Mbeki - 2830 CE
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===Part 2 of the Unexpected Arrivals===
Robert H Goddard Spaceport (Niops VII) - Niops Association – 2827
Standing beside the small vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft that had delivered him to the edge of the massive landing pad, the Goddard spaceport having been constructed decades before from a mix of reinforced concrete, fused black stone and some skilled civil-engineering, High Associator Giles Olson squeezed his eyes shut and steadied his breathing. He had always known this day would come, though he expected it would be the military of the Free Worlds League that he or his successors would be facing when it did, but that certainly didn't make it any easier.
Once belonging to the militia, the Vector VTOL which had picked him up from his home in the capital and then flew him the fifteen kilometers out to the port had been nicknamed 'Bureaucrat One' many years before and the moniker stuck. Painted blue and bearing the crest of the office of the High Associator, the VTOL's nickname was itself a reminder of how a position that was once just that of the director of a long-term research project had only become that of a Head-of-State due to external factors beyond their control. 
This sort of thing was really beyond the pay-grade of a radio-astronomer who had only really turned to politics because his wife pushed him into it, Olson thought to himself glumly.
Another VTOL, also a Vector but this one still painted in its original NAM colors rested beside 'Bureaucrat One', having arrived slightly earlier bringing Brigadier-General Nellis, the ranking officer of the militia, with it. The other Vector was also armed, unlike Olson's own, though what little firepower it boasted was utterly dwarfed by what was heading their way. 
"It's a Lee Class military dropship, pretty much state-of-the-art just before Amaris sent the Star League spinning straight to hell." Brigadier-General Nellis observed professionally as the massive craft they were there to greet began its final descent high overhead. "Seventeen thousand tons, armed to the teeth and it could be carrying a full battalion of mechs plus a squadron of aerospace fighters aboard" he told Olson sounding almost blasé about it all. "Much bigger than anything we've got, armed or not."
Because of the ongoing need to transfer goods and people around the system the Niops Association had maintained a small number of dropships of varying types themselves over the years, a couple of which could be seen resting on the pad nearby. With the notable exception of a single old Confederate the militia used to shuffle war-machines between Niops V, VI and VII, none were of a military nature however and that one exception was pretty small, massing less than two-thousand tons. 
"I'm more concerned about that warship that escorted it here from the jump point, the one that's in geosynchronous orbit above us" Olson replied, opening his eyes again and pointing to the sky.
Nellis chuckled mirthlessly. "It's only a corvette, if they were really trying to scare the crap out of us it would be a battleship aiming Heavy Naval PPC's down at the capital, Sir" he said fatalistically. "As per your orders I made sure to have every bird we have either in orbit or ready to scramble, carrying all the heavy ordinance we could hang off them, just to make sure our guests know they can't foist just any terms they want on us" he informed the High Associator.
"I assume you also re-deployed our ground forces away from civilian areas as instructed?" Olson checked. "I'm hoping these people aren't savages like the Mariks were at New Dallas, but in case they are I don't want nuclear bombs dropping on our towns because there's a few soldiers there too."
"Yes Sir, all our battlemechs, tanks and infantry are now dug-in at least fifteen kilometers from what few urban centres we have." Nellis confirmed. Even in a system like Niops, where the standard stellar jump-points were only a couple of days journey by dropship to the inhabited planets, that still gave the defender plenty of time to prepare. Of course, hostile forces often preferred jumping in to so-called 'Pirate Jump Points' for that exact reason since arriving at a Lagrange point much closer to your objective did made for a somewhat riskier jump, but also an easier fight planetside since the defenders had considerably less time to prepare a warm welcome. 
"Not that we could defend the towns anyway, given how few Battlemechs and tanks we actually have." Olson remarked sadly.
"Urban warfare favors the defending side, but you're still correct in this instance, Sir" Nellis concurred. "On a more positive note we've also rigged the Project Workshops on all three worlds with explosives, so you can threaten to blow them up if you need to play hard-ball in negotiations" he added.
The High Associator nodded. The Project Workshops, bespoke manufacturing facilities that could reproduce near any piece of machinery or circuitry, were in some ways the technological crown jewels of the Niops Association. They had made it possible to maintain the system's high tech-base and standard of living despite being cut-off from any possible resupply of equipment. They had even produced the majority of the handful of Highlander and Black Knight battlemechs which represented the main striking power of the NAM's ground forces.
Mass production was not something a Project Workshop were optimised for, however. In that role they were far inferior to even the assembly lines of the Successor States, let alone the slick automated robot factories of the former Terran Hegemony. That being said however, while they couldn't make anything in quantity quick or efficiently they could however make you most anything, just as long as they had the schematics for it, or an example to reverse-engineer.
If you wanted a gauss rifle for a Highlander, a new fusion engine for a cargo dropship, a replacement radio-telescope or a complex part for a Hyperpulse Generator then a Project Workship could make it for you. If however you needed a hundred of any of them you'd better be prepared to wait a good long while because it was, in effect, extremely high-tech artisanal production that was partially hand-built.
High Associator Olson suddenly laughed causing Brigadier Nellis to regard him quizzically. "Something strike you as funny, Sir?" Nellis asked wondering what that could possibly be under the circumstances.
"It just occurred to me that I should have listened to that maniac that wanted to build a few nuclear devices to crack asteroids for mining." Olson explained his laughter. "They would have come in handy right now to improve our negotiating position."
"Or just the knowledge they existed could have gotten us glassed from orbit unless we had scores of them plus effective delivery systems." Nellis suggested just before the deafening sound generated by the fusion engines of the dropship coming into land made continuing the conversation impossible for now.
Olson and Nellis covered their ears with their hands as the landing gear of the massive spheroid spacecraft deployed and with engines being smoothly throttled back, so as not to completely scorch the surface of the landing pad, the Lee class dropship set down as gently as seventeen thousand tons worth of metal, plastic, glass and ceramics actually could.
"Think I should wave a white flag?" Olson asked, both of them uncovering their ears as the engines shut down completely. "I've got a handkerchief in my pocket."
"I doubt they think we're coming here expecting them to surrender so it's rather a moot point, Sir" Nellis replied wryly as one of the battlemech-sized hatches on the dropship began to open and an unloading ramp started to slide down.
"I should have stayed in radio-astronomy." Olson muttered to himself, setting off towards the ramp with Nellis beside him.
"If it makes you feel better, if they decide to vaporize us on a whim with one of those big Particle Projector Cannon mounts I've got a battery of artillery set up and ranged in that will unload a whole heap of shells on them in response." Nellis told him.
"I'm sure the expanding cloud of hot gas that was once me will be very pleased about that" High Associator Olson replied sardonically.
"My cloud will be." Brigadier Nellis responded rather more brightly, sounding sincere enough about it that Olson seriously doubted the man's sanity.
By the time they reached the dropship four figures, three male one female, had already descended the ramp, all wearing SLDF uniforms, two of them in army fatigues and the other two in the jumpsuits favoured by the navy.
"I feel overdressed." Nellis quipped since he himself was wearing his dress uniform, although it was at least the same color as their army fatigues, the standard olive drab of the Star League military which looked even more dull than normal given how bright, or rather dim, the local star was. 
If a young child on Niops was told by their parents not to look directly at the sun a reply of 'Why not' was not an unreasonable response. It was some of the fluorescent fittings inside that could hurt your eyes, particularly in brightly lit laboratories, workshops and efficient hydroponic farms. 
One of the two men wearing white navy jumpsuits stepped ahead of the others. "High Associator Olson?" he queried.
"I am." Olson confirmed.
"Nice to finally meet you in the flesh, we've only conversed via radio before, and then with a delay" the man told him, smiling. "I'm Captain Simon Mitchell, not quite as retired from the Star League Navy as I made out to be when I jumped into Niops last year."
"Apparently not." Olson replied drily.
"Apologies for the minor deceit there but I'm sure you can see why it was necessary now" Mitchell continued unabashed. "It's even colder here than I remembered it being, of course I'm a few years older now so that could be the problem" he admitted. "Town's grown a lot too, got a good look dropping in from orbit."
"You can ramble later, just get on with it please Captain" the only woman in the group spoke up impatiently.
"Damn kids have no respect these days either." Mitchell complained, grinning.
"I'm eighty-nine." the woman retorted.
"And I'm a hundred and seven so the point stands, Ma'am." Mitchell replied, smirking
"Mitchell" the other man wearing a naval JumpShip chided with a distinct edge to his tone. 
Mitchell straightened up. "Sorry, Admiral." he responded, abashed. "Ahem" he cleared his throat. "High Associator Olson may I present our ranking commanding officer, Major-General Jenna Romanov" he formally introduced the woman who now stepped forward herself.
"I apologize for Captain Michell's irreverence, I'm afraid he's long past the point in his career that he takes protocol seriously and long past the age where threatening him with a firing squad isn't an exercise in futility." Romanov said with a resigned sigh. "May I present my senior staff, Acting Major-General Franklin Hallis and Admiral Zoltán Bremman."
Olson acknowledged them with a nod to each. "My military advisor and head of the Niops Association Militia, Brigadier-General Craig Nellis." Olson introduced his own companion in turn.
"Major-General" Nellis recognized Romanov's rank with a salute that she returned.
"Nice to see you're still wearing SLDF colors here Brigadier-General Nellis." Romanov observed. "Sorry, I don't still have my own dress-uniform but it got recycled years ago." she said. "We should get onto business I suppose" she continued, looking back to Olson.
"I confess I'm dying to ask what brought you here, where you've been all this time and why you're back now, but that can all wait for the moment, Major-General Romanov." Olson addressed her, cutting to the chase. "What terms are you offering?" he asked flatly. "Please bear in mind that Niops is not undefended and we all fully prepared to destroy our own most valuable facilities to prevent them falling into hostile hands intact."
"Terms?" Romanov queried.
"The terms you wish to dictate for our surrender." Olson explained, wondering why he had to.
Romanov suddenly burst out laughing causing Bremman and Mitchell to do so as well, for his part Hallis just smiled.
"Something strike you as funny?" Olson wanted to know, realizing he was now in the position Nellis had been not so long ago in not getting what seemed to be a private joke.
"Yes, I'm afraid you've really gotten the wrong end of the stick here, High Associator." Romanov told him once she managed to stop laughing. "We've been poking around the Inner Sphere for nearly two years looking for what's left of the Star League, or rather the Terran Hegemony, and you appear to be the only part left that isn't near-utterly destroyed or else under foreign occupation" she told him. "You've also continued to govern yourselves as a civilian administration within the bounds of the Hegemony legal system, making you de-facto, and arguably de-jure, the Terran-Hegemony-in-Exile, whether or not you've ever really thought of yourselves that way."
Olson looked confused by the way this seemed to be going. "What are you saying exactly?"
"That we've concluded that, by default, the Government of the Niops Association is effectively the Government of the Terran Hegemony and therefore the High Associator, that being you in this instance, is also the Director-General."
"I'm sorry?" Olson replied, nonplused.
"Perhaps this will clear things up" Romanov replied, giving Mitchell a nod.
"Atten-hut!" Mitchell said loudly, himself and the others snapping to attention. "Present arms!" he continued, all four of the SLDF officers then saluting.
Saluting Olson.
"Eleventh Army, Star League Defense Force reporting for duty, Director-General." Romanov addressed Olson formally. "With your permission we will start deploying aerospace and naval forces to help defend the system immediately, and in conjunction with Brigadier-General Nellis begin making plans to integrate our ground forces with those of the Niops Association Militia."
Olson stared at her for an extended period of time as his mind caught up. "Shouldn't you be trying to track down someone named Cameron?" he asked plaintively, taking them at their word for now.
"Amaris was a little too thorough unfortunately, the only ones left are very distant cousins." Romanov replied sadly. "The closest might be the Windsor-Camerons on Terra, but we suspect they'll be under the thrall of the damn phone company by now." she said. "A figurehead to rally around would be great, but not if they think the sun shines out of Jerome Blake's ass."
"This isn't some ploy or trick is it, get us to lower our guard then stomp us?" Olson asked, pretty reasonably he thought.
"No, Sir." Romanov replied, shaking her head. "We'd like to stay, establish a new home here, but if you order us to leave and never come back we'll do so" she told him honestly. "I mean we could invade and take over but that would make us the kind of people we just don't want to be."
"Some of us have a recent history having to deal with a tyrannical ****** that thinks might makes right and he's not someone we care to emulate." Acting Major-General Franklin Hallis spoke up for the first time. "We do have some ideas for the future though Sir" he continued to Olson. "It would be a real shame to let all this starlift capacity and firepower go to waste, but that'll be your call."
"At least a half-dozen unclaimed systems with habitable planets within easy reach of here to antispinward" Admiral Bremman chipped in. "Only small existing populations for the most part, if any people at all, who could be swayed to accept protectorate status by the promise of jobs, protection from pirates and a generally higher standard of living."
"It's Free Real Estate." Hallis agreed, nodding enthusiastically. "We strongly advise it would be best to plant a flag there before the damn Mariks do, get a foothold we can develop into something with a big future and prevent Niops being surrounded by the Free Worlds League as well."
Now utterly dumbfounded, Olson looked from one of them to the other trying to determine if this was all some bizarre dream, or else the most monumental practical joke played on anyone in the history of the Inner Sphere.
"Oh, there's one more thing I'd better mention as a matter of some priority" Hallis continued. "Captain Mitchell told us that when he was here originally, transporting cargo to and from Niops for the SLDF, back at the dawn of time when battlemechs ran on clockwork, you had something called a 'Project Workshop' that he got a tour of because there wasn't much else to do."
"Yes. Yes we do." Olson responded guardedly.
"And that it could make just about anything?" Romanov checked for herself.
Olson nodded. "Within certain limitations but broadly yes" he confirmed.
"Great because it would make it much easier if we could borrow it to make the replacement parts we need to fix our Potemkin Class Transport and then use it to bring the rest of my division and its gear here" Romanov told him. "The alternative would be having to send all our available JumpShips back to the Draconian Drift in order to collect them, instead of just one carrying spare-parts and a bunch of engineers and technicians to help speed up repairs."
Hallis nodded. "Even after getting their other ships running again after forty years, the ones which did have functioning jumpdrives I mean, we didn't have enough starlift between us to give all of the 295th a ride." he explained, "Much less haul away all those battlemechs gathering dust out there" he continued sadly. "We can really use them too, hence wanting to go back quickly."
"How many Battlemechs are we talking about?" Nellis queried, intrigued. He doubted it would be anything close to a full division's worth, not after the losses taken by the SLDF fighting against Amaris, but even a couple of battalions would represent a lot of striking power these days.
"Six regiments worth." Romanov told him. "Near pristine condition, completely wasted on some rock orbiting a red-dwarf in the periphery" she opined. "I mean a different rock, orbiting a different red dwarf in the periphery" she corrected herself for clarity.
Nellis raised his eyebrows. "You have six regiments worth of battlemechs?" he asked in shock.
"No, the 295th has six regiments, which is admittedly more than twice what my 331st can boast, but then again we do have better machines."
"Well yes, obviously. The 331st was a Royal Division." Nellis replied having made sure to brush up on them before the meeting. The 'Royal' commands of the SLDF were given upgraded equipment than regular line formations like the 295th.
"No, I mean well yes we do have a fair number of SLDF Royals as well, but I was referring to the new stuff, the gear that was developed after we followed Kerensky Senior off on his Exodus" Hallis told him. "Major-General Romanov's people missed out on all that."
"From what you've told us that seems like a blessing." Romanov interjected.
"I doubt you'd have gotten along well with Nicky K so yes." Hallis confirmed with considerable understatement.
Olson looked from one to the other. "Wait. Didn't you both come from the same place?" he queried, confused as ever.
"No, his people went with Kerensky when he left the Inner Sphere, my people tried to, but we were delayed in joining them before they set out." she explained. "We followed later, hoping to catch up" she continued. "Then one of our damn JumpShips broke down only a few jumps out into the periphery and, because it was the Potemkin I mentioned before, and was carrying about two-thirds of our Dropships, we had a choice of either settling down out in the wilderness or ferrying everyone back to the Inner Sphere a few at a time with what working ships we still had. Long story short, we settled down and played farmer for forty years until Hallis and his people ran into us while they were running away from Kerensky Junior."
"I'd prefer to call it a secession, or at least a tactical withdrawal, Ma'am." Hallis responded defensively.
"So would I in your shoes, but that doesn't mean I'd be right." Romanov told him, making Hallis wonder if she had always been cranky and mean-spirited sometimes or if that streak in her character had developed with age.
"Ironically the reason we ended up running into them was because one of our JumpShips broke down heading in the opposite direction back to the Inner Sphere decades later." Admiral Bremman remarked. "It necessitated a major detour in our planned route that happened to put them in our path."
"Love the symmetry, but not necessarily the maintenance crews." Captain Mitchell joked before taking notice of the increasingly confused and clueless expression on the High Associator's face. The man was clearly trying to understand what they were all talking about without the benefit of decades of backstory to fill in the gaps. "It's all a long, convoluted tale of woe, Sir, and if you're interested in hearing it all then you might want to start by inviting us to stay in your lovely star system" he told him, the old man putting on the most persuasive and winning smile he could, being very glad he still had all his teeth.
These being the teeth Mitchell was also lying through about the system being lovely. Beyond the cold, and despite how large the sun appeared in the sky above you, the eternally drab color it painted everything was hardly conducive to lifting your spirits.
High Associator Olson once more squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath to steady himself. "What the hell." he said eventually. "Welcome to Niops where the sky is always red, the medical care hasn't yet degenerated to the level of boring holes in your head to let out the demons when you've got a headache, and the Chinese food is surprisingly good." he said. "I also recommend the sport-fishing in the ocean but try sunning yourself on the beach and you'll get frostbite not a tan." he warned as a sprinkling of snow started to fall from the sky.
"Eh, you should see some of the weather on Strana Mechty." Hallis replied with a shrug.
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*;Notes from the Author : The Niops Association only controls one system, but has people living on three different planets there. As such it must be able to move people, goods and machinery between them (including the battlemechs and aerospace fighters of the NAM) hence having spaceports and a few dropships for transport. The NAM has a Confederate of its very own but can borrow one of the civilian Mule dropships if necessary. The Mule is pretty big, over 11,000 tons, but that's still quite a bit smaller than an SLDF Lee.The VTOL aircraft 'Bureaucrat One' is a Vector which the Star League produced in very large numbers (over ten thousand built so the NAM getting hold of a handful isn't implausible). It's armed and can carry an infantry platoon (or a politician).The 331st Royal Battlemech Division of the SLDF under Major-General James McEvedy (father of Sarah McEvedy we will hear a lot more of later) followed Aleksandr Kerensky on his Exodus back in 2784. The 295th Battlemech Division under Major-General Jenna Romanov wanted to leave with Kerensky too but were delayed and arrived at the rendezvous point after the Exodus fleet had already left. The 295th set out in pursuit, hoping to catch up, but their Potemkin Class Transport Cruiser broke down in the Draconian Drift only a short way into the journey. This was a very big problem because it was carrying some twenty-five dropships worth of personnel and equipment (the majority of the division).The 295th ended up settling on Buffalo Meadows, an inhabitable planet itself orbiting a Red Dwarf. In canon, they ended up dying out there because they weren't having enough children to sustain the colony in the long term (because the 295th recruited mainly from the Terran Hegemony, Romanov was trying to get the division back the 'Royal' status it used to have once again, most of them had lost their families in the Amaris Civil War).The 331st, by way of morphing into Clan Wolverine (again we will hear a lot ore about that later), pulled a reverse Exodus in 2823 during which one of their JumpShips broke down. In cannon this happened a little later than it does in this AU and resulted in most of them getting killed. Here, because it occurred a little earlier, it resulted in them having to take a detour that eventually saw them running across Buffalo Meadows (to the great surprise of all concerned).Two divisions of what had been the 11th Army of the SLDF (the 331st was part of V Corps, the 295th in XLIX Corps) tripping over each other in the middle of nowhere because they both suffered jumpdrive failures (albeit forty years apart) is so improbable, yet so poetical, I just had to run with it.Directly antispinward of Niops ('west' on a map of the Inner Sphere) can be found several habitable worlds that in original canon would eventually form the Marian Hegemony (founded in 2920 by a man that perhaps liked movies about Gladiators a little too much). We're currently a century before then so those worlds are still up for grabs... and well worth taking control of incidentally).I'll leave you with an image of what the sky looks like on Niops VII (the image is actually an artists rendering of what the sky might look like on the exoplanet Kepler-1649c, but since the star Kepler-1649 is an M5V Red Dwarf like Niops, and 1649c orbits about the same distance out from it as Niops VII does its own star, it should be a good representation).
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