TheAdvisor33

==Chapter 33 - The Advisor==
Dieron Star System
Draconis Combine
3157
The Draconis Combine Admiralty (DCA) had to rely on Pocket Warships still.  The Combine's fleet were working on getting Kimagure production back up. The yards here had been severely damaged, but were still worth repairing, and the best engineers in the Combine were working tirelessly to do something just like that-only somewhere else.
Somewhere not one jump from a hostile border.
What assembly and production machinery could be moved was moved out.  The former DCA Shipyard now served as a moorage for dropship units. A base that could maintain the dozen or so smaller vessels.
By the standards of the time before Gray Monday, Dieron was a well-fortified system.  Two full squadrons of Jumpship-transportable pocket warships and carrier dropships patrolled the space here. The early warning network was state of the art, and the Combine's fleet units and fighter pilots drilled constantly.
The defenses were state of the art.
WERE.
At 0400 hours, a jump point opened at the Dieron L1 point, a big jump point.  Through that point, came the inverted-cone-and-tower form of an Avalon class cruiser, holding a "Ryan Formation" with two Fox class vessels and a pair of Lola III destroyers."
Alarms sounded, and reaction forces scrambled, but at Fleet Base Dieron, appeared waves of capital missiles from nowhere, catching the 33rd and 41st DCA patrol squadrons in the slips, while unseen attackers struck patrol groups further out in the system, unseen and undetected.
The only images of this attack before Dieron went off the air again, showed an Avalon, in the Red-and-gold sunburst of the Federated Suns, leading a short group of Fox corvettes.
This was by intent, the Comstar adepts running the HPG system made sure that was the encoded image that was received at DCMS Headquarters on Luthien.
The announced return of the Melissa Davion to Federated Suns service had made the rounds throughout the Inner Sphere. All the while there WAS one other Avalon class listed as 'missing'.  Nobody seriously believed the Alexander Davion could be anything but a lost ship.
The move was crass, political, and played on Kuritan politics, even if Yori Kurita believed the Federated Suns had not participated in the retaking of Dieron. She could not afford to make the politically stupid move of saying so and keep her hold on the Combine's leadership.
Likewise, Julian Davion's hot denials of involvement would gain no traction in either the Suns, or the Combine, except among his detractors who would insist this was the first prince striking the wrong target on behalf of an ally, much as Victor did, rather than liberating his own realm's worlds.  His only option, would be to launch the attack on the Combine's occupation now.
Regardless of Julian's personal views, his political position would force him to deepen his realm's connection to the Republic, because regardless of this being a crass false-flag, Devlin Stone's announcement that "Republic Forces have retaken Dieron" would absolve Julian in some eyes while convicting him in others.
The tune would be called from Old Terra, the question of war had been asked and the answer in the Stone Administration was 'yes'.
Fox Class Corvette (in orbit from MW3 art revamped).jpg|Fox Class Corvette (in orbit)
Lola IV Class Destroyer (Space Background).jpg|Lola III Class Destroyer
Avalon_Cruiser_(Fan_Made_-_Artist_Unknown).JPG|Avalon Class Missile Cruiser
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