GblaRCS Chpt 57

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 57 -==
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"We didn't technically invade Von Strangs World we were invited in. Okay, so we were bad guests, we overstayed our welcome and we brought along some friends without permission, but vampires of all people should know to be careful about invitations."Colonel Mitch Johnson - 2845CE
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===Risks of a early wake Up call===
Guard Division Headquarters – Von Strang's World – 2844
One of the many problems inherent with an untrammeled autocracy like the Barony of Strang was that there was nobody in a position to tell the person in charge the drawbacks of the bright idea they just had, at least not without risking summary execution. In an example of this Karl Von Strang deciding one day that the rank structure being used in his Guard Division was 'Far too Terran with the stench of the SLDF about it', and that they should therefore revert to the system used by the Rim Worlds Republic before the Reunification War two-and-a-half centuries ago, had been obeyed without question, regardless of all the confusion it caused and all the documentation and uniforms which had to be changed.
Formerly a lieutenant reporting to a captain, Marc Spiller was now a 'Tetrarch' reporting to a 'Lokhagos', although the interesting new title did not come with an interesting new job. He was still one of the unfortunate schmucks that had the thankless, and ceaseless, task of monitoring the jump-points for incoming vessels because the Von Strang family believed that the galaxy was out to get them.
It was, to be fair, an objective fact that of the people in the Inner Sphere that had ever actually heard of the Von Strang's in the first place, this being in actually a minority of them, the overwhelming proportion would have considered the galaxy a better place without any Von Strang's in in it. It wasn't therefore a completely delusional position to posit that they were hated, but that didn't mean that anyone was actually bothered enough by them to do anything about it. The only star-nation that might care enough to dispatch a military expedition to their door one day was the Lyran Commonwealth, although they were currently far too busy fending off a rapacious Draconis Combine, while simultaneously trying to take systems off a weakened Free Worlds League, to bother with Von Strang's World anytime soon. 
For all of Karl Von Strang's oft-expressed bluster that he was the thorn in the side of the Steiners in the bombastic speeches to the masses, presenting himself as the hero continuing to fly the flag of the Rim Worlds Republic and refusing to bow down to Lyran tyranny while other, lesser men had faltered in their duty, in reality the Von Strang's were a minor irritant to Tharkad at best. For obvious reasons nobody on Von Strang's World who was cognisant of that reality would dare to speak such a truth aloud however, people had been put to death on a whim for saying things that were considerably less unpalatable for the man in charge to hear.
Not that Tetrarch Marc Spiller didn't honestly, fervently believe that Karl Von Strang was on the side of right. The loathsome Star League might have been cast into the dustbin of history where it belonged but the craven and thrice-accursed Lyrans who had driven a sword into the belly of the Rim Worlds Republic at its weakest point, too cowardly to attack before then, still remained and continued to occupy systems that rightfully belonged to the Republic.
Stripped of its military strength by Kerensky's bootlickers, who did at least make some effort to minimize civilian casualties while doing so, the Rim Worlds Republic was in no fit state to fight off the Lyran invasion of 2773. The rapacious Steiners had carved many of the most valuable systems and then abandoned the others to their fates, that fate often being a fall into chaos, anarchy, economic collapse and starvation.
There was a reason why raiders operating from Von Strang's World preyed upon Lyran border worlds and shipping in preference to any other targets of opportunity. The Lyrans deserved no mercy or consideration, and any blow struck in retaliation for the Republic-Commonwealth War was a righteous one. Naturally they also considered themselves privateers, not pirates, since they were operating under a letter of marque signed by the Baron of Strang, the lawful authority in this sector of the Rim Worlds Republic.
Trying to find anybody on Von Strang's World who considered Apollo as anything other than the capital of the Republic under foreign occupation would be an exercise in futility, not unless they were brought there in chains anyway and they certainly wouldn't say it aloud for fear of a beating. Even the serf class who certainly didn't benefit from the way the society was structured considered their labor as contributing towards the cause of remaining free of the Lyran yoke, when it came down to it they much preferred the yoke of someone that might have a Germanic sounding surname but didn't have a German accent.
Tetrarch Marc Spiller himself was no peasant of course. His grandfather had been an officer in the Tenth Amaris Lancers who had answered Nico Von Strang's call to establish a loyalist foothold on Erin in the name of Stefan Amaris, Gunthar Von Strang and the Rim Worlds Republic. Unfortunately Marc's older brother had inherited the family Rampage, relegating Marc himself to merely the command of a Burke tank, at least when he wasn't stuck in a control room staring at a computer screen anyway, but he hoped that if ever given a chance to prove himself the Baron might gift him a battlemech of his very own.
It wasn't likely at all that Karl Von Strang would ever see fit to place an assault mech in Marc's hands, or even a heavy for that matter they were too scarce, but there were still a small number of Phoenix mediums that the Baron had yet to assign ownership of, and one of those would do Marc very nicely. It was, after all, an indigenous Rim Worlds design, one then manufactured on either Wotan or even Apollo itself, and that gave the Phoenix a kudos on Von Strang's World that nominally superior machines of Inner Sphere lineage lacked.
Noble enough to be trusted with a position of authority, but not high enough in rank to avoid the more boring and routine duties assigned to junior officers, Marc Spiller actually preferred dull, repetitive jobs such as bore-sighting the PPCs or performing track tension maintenance on his Burke to manning the monitoring station in the control room. At least you were busy when performing those kind of tasks, ships unexpectedly jumping into the Von Strang system were such a rarity that you might not detect a single one during the entire time you were assigned to this duty and it was considered so tedious that you were permitted to sit there and read a book while on duty because that was considered better than you falling asleep in your chair.
Like much of the equipment in the complex the monitoring station dated from when Von Strang's World had still been known as Erin and the faded insignia painted on the wall behind the display screens was that of the Rim Worlds Navy not the Barony of Strang.
The Erin system had once hosted a naval shipyard where the Republic had serviced and maintained part of its fleet of warships. During the war Aleksandr Kerensky had attempted to seize control of the orbital facilities, but sabotage by the defenders had destroyed enough of them to render them largely unusable by the SLDF and thanks to demolition charges large sections of the old yards had ended up falling into the atmosphere and crashing to the ground, with pieces still scattered right across the planet to this day.
Having achieved their objective of denying the shipyard to Kerensky the Erin garrison had then capitulated, avoiding the orbital bombardment that might have occurred otherwise. Thanks to this, and to the SLDF being too busy at the time to requisition everything not bolted down, much of the ground-base facilities had remained intact through the war which was partially why of course Nico Von Strang had decided to claim the world a few years later.
With a breathable atmosphere, a reasonable climate and decent soil, Erin IV, later Von Strang's World, was able to sustain a population readily enough without rare or expensive terraforming technology, which made it viable as an independent world. Even if the remaining military facilities, bunkers and technology on the planet had not been the icing on the cake, the rich diamond deposits known to be present certainly were, but taken altogether it was fairly obvious why, among all the others free for the taking at the time, this particular planet had caught the eye of Gunthar Von Strang's heir.
Quite a lot of the infrastructure had needed repair of course, and the satellites which used to monitor the jump-points and which the Star League Navy had destroyed had to be replaced when Nico and his people took over, but all things considered it really had not taken long to have the newly re-named 'Von Strang's World' operating as a going concern. Not long afterwards the first in a long line of very bored junior officers had taken their place sat in front of the monitoring station waiting for an inbound JumpShip to be detected, or for their seemingly endless shift to end, and as the latest in that line, after decades of inactivity for the detection grid, Tetrarch Marc Spillar flipped to the next page of the novel he was reading and wished he hadn't already finished off his packet of salted peanuts. Being stuck with the graveyard shift at this duty station sucked even more than being there during daytime, at least when the sun was up there were a lot more people around and if you were lucky a friend might drop in bringing a sandwich or a soda. 
While the distinct electromagnetic signature of the Emergence Wave caused by a ship actually arriving could be detected a very long way away, up to fifteen astronomical units if you had sensitive enough equipment or nearly as far as from Terra's sun Sol to Uranus, the infrared which preceded it was nowhere near as strong. Even the best equipment available couldn't pick it up much beyond fifty-thousand km so if you wanted prior warning of an inbound vessel you needed sensors close to the jump-points. 
When the warning alarm on the control panel went off soon after midnight Spillar was so engrossed in his book, a rather spicy romance novel pretending to be a detective story, that his startled reaction almost had him fall off his chair.
Pitching his book to one side Spillar stared at the viewscreen and the information now cascading across it. One of the pair of satellites keeping watch on the Nadir Jump Point, Nico Von Strang had insisted upon redundancy, had been alerted by the infra-red signature that heralded the arrival of an inbound JumpShip.
Thanks to a quirk of the physics that made a Kearny-Fuichida drive work the detectable infrared radiation at the destination lasted about twice as long as the jump itself, and given that the length of time a jump took was directly proportional to the distance being jumped, and was also effected by the number of docking collars the ship carried, you could actually make a decent guess on what exactly was arriving before it got there.
The causality implications of the fact that the infrared signature at the destination would actually start to appear before the ship had even triggered its K-F drive was best ignored, the fact it was demonstrably true did not make it any less unnerving. For truly colossal vessels with very large numbers of docking collars like a Potemkin, the people at the other end of the journey might already know you were coming while you yourself were still strapping yourself into your chair and double-checking your jump calculations.
That weirdness did of course help motivate people to properly maintain their K-F drives. The things were quite disturbing enough even when in good repair, when they got 'glitchy' they were frankly terrifying.
If you were going to bother to place early-warning satellites at your Zenith and Nadir jump points then you might as well fit them with an optical telescope as well so you could take a good look at the inbound ship when it arrived too, and as the computer started to spit out some very odd numbers Spillar tasked the satellites with directing their telescopes at the interloper.
Thanks to star systems being very large, and the speed of light not being quite up to the task of allowing real-time monitoring of extremely distant objects, the JumpShip would have actually arrived long before Spillar became aware it was even on the way. Regardless of that, you worked the best you could with the information available to you and as the outdated telemetry from the satellites at the Nadir point flowed into the computer it had already become apparent that whatever this JumpShip was it was definitely unusual, he determined.
Nearly half of all JumpShips operating in and around the Inner Sphere consisted of Invader class vessels, a 152,000 ton civilian transport that could haul three DropShips along with it. After that the fairly common, if not quite as ubiquitous, 120,000 ton Merchant with its two docking collars made up much of what was left. 
According to the numbers the inbound craft was highly unlikely to be either of those types, Tetrarch Spillar realized with a grimace.
It might be an older Liberty class, there were still a few of those old buckets around, particularly in the periphery where not everyone could afford to replace an old JumpShip just because it dated from the Age of War, but depending on how far away it was jumping from it might be a Star Lord and that possibility was concerning to say the least.
Only wealthy corporations and the military tended to operate Star Lord class JumpShips these days, and if it was one of those vessels the most likely explanation was that the Lyran Commonwealth had finally had enough of Karl Von Strang's and had dispatched an expeditionary force to teach him a lesson.
Even when the monitoring station reported detecting the JumpShip's Emergence Wave, thus indicating that the JumpShip had actually arrived in the system, the computer was still not certain of the type of vessel. As a result Spillar had to wait a few more minutes for images taken by the satellites at the Nadir Point to be transmitted back to him before he could determine what it was and then, based on that knowledge, decide what to do next.
If it wasn't the middle of the night Tetrarch Spillar might have already been considering pushing the alarm button that would notify his superiors, but if he woke up Major, or rather 'Tagmatarchis' Burkenya, and then the ship turned out to be a merchant trader in a beat-up Liberty his chances of getting his hands on that Phoenix one day would plummet.
It wasn't like they would really be in any rush to prepare the defenses even if it was a Star Lord full of angry Lyrans. Von Strang's World orbited a hot bright F class star that was luminous enough that both the standard jump points and the goldilocks zone where a habitable planet could be found was further out from the star than normal. The fourth planet out it took nearly fifteen days for a DropShip at standard acceleration to travel from the Nadir or Zenith points to reach Von Strang's World which provided plenty of time to fully mobilize, distribute ammunition and dig in.
Again, if the JumpShip had arrived much closer to the planet, at one of the Lagrange points for example, Spillar might have hit the panic button already, but it hadn't so he just continued staring at the display until he knew what it was he was looking at.
When the images taken by the satellites appeared at the screen Tetrarch Spillar initially stared at them confused, wondering what it was he was looking at. When the computer identified the thing by comparing it with an electronic copy of Janes Fighting Starships, 2750 edition, and notified him it was a Royalty class armed transport built by Roe Weapon Systems he stared at the screen wide-eyed for a few seconds before reaching for the telephone.
The duty officer downstairs, Captain, or rather 'Lokhagos' Williams was not happy to have his nap interrupted by his telephone ringing, and he was even less happy when Spillar told him they needed to call in Major Burkenya.
After berating Spillar on the telephone for saying 'Major' instead of 'Tagmatarchis', and being understandably unwilling to just take Spillar's word for it about what the computer was saying, a couple of minutes later Williams burst into the room where the monitoring station was situated to see for himself. After staring at the screen for a while, occasionally remembering to blink, Williams decided that not waking up Burkenya would see him in more hot water than if he didn't and so he grabbed the telephone and began a chain of events that would see increasingly senior people roused from their beds.
Normally waking up Karl Von Strang from a deep, restful sleep was the sort of thing that could potentially get you killed, but under the circumstances not doing so could have resulted in a similar outcome so when the news finally arrived at his palace his household servants had quickly notified their master. In the event only one of the servants ended up being punished for doing so, and then it was only in the form of a rather mild flogging for not bringing him coffee quickly enough, the current head of the Von Strang dynasty wasn't a complete monster after all, and neither was he an idiot because that was the sort of news he would indeed want to be woken up for.
His wife was pretty annoyed at being disturbed in the middle of the night however, cranky to the point that Karl decided that if he somehow managed to get back to bed before morning then he would go to his room of his mistress situated down the hall instead.
Being the daughter of a serf, Karl's mistress was inordinately more docile than his noble-born wife, moreover she tended to fidget a lot less in bed which made falling asleep next to her a lot easier anyway.
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===Mystery of a JumpShip===
Arriving at Guard Headquarters, coffee in hand and wishing that they had pastries as well as cookies in the briefing room because he would have killed for a Danish or a Franzbrötchen right at that moment, quite literally killed for one, Karl Von Strang dropped into his chair at the head of the table and looked out at his bleary-eyed senior staff. The young Lokhagos also present, who must have been the duty officer because unlike the others he seed fully awake and alert, looked nervous as well which was just how Karl wanted his officers to be in his presence so that was gratifying.
"So, what do we know?" Karl Von Strang asked, sipping at his coffee.
"It's definitely a Royalty class armed JumpShip, My Lord" the Lokhagos, his nametag said 'Williams', replied quickly. "According to her transponder codes she's the Durant Star and is broadcasting identification codes appropriate for both the Rim Worlds Republic and the Finmark Free Republic."
"Genuine codes?" Von Strang checked, frowning. 
"Our code books are just as out-of-date as anyone else's would be unfortunately" the Lokhagos replied apologetically. "All I can really tell you is that it's an older code, but it checks out."
Karl Von Strang nodded. "Do we have anything on record about the Durant Star?"
"We do" the Lokhagos confirmed, nodding. "According to our database she was built at the Roe Weapons System shipyard at Finmark back in the 2710's, served in the Rim Worlds Navy right through the Kerensky War and was last officially recorded as being seen in action fighting against the accursed Steiners when they invaded us in 2773."
"Very well, do we have any actual information indicating that the Durant Star may have survived the war?" Von Strang checked.
"No, however there were rumors that after the Finmark Free Republic managed to get their shipyard operational again it was used to service and repair several vessels, with warships being mentioned as involved" the Lokhagos replied. "Unfortunately, whatever records the yard itself held would have been lost when Finmark destroyed it rather than let it fall into Lyran hands, and the subsequent orbital bombardment of the planet was so thorough we'll never know the truth of it." 
"Steiner scum" Karl Von Strang hissed with distaste. "An entire world burned to ash because they refused to knuckle under and submit to Lyran tyranny" he declared, naturally holding to the version of the story taught to children on Von Strang's World, the one that didn't mention Finmark committing perfidy by feigning surrender then detonating a nuclear device to destroy the shipyard and several Lyran ships that were approaching it at the time.
The Lyran naval commander during the battle, Gustav Sharae, had not been best pleased by the blatant war crime, which was then followed by Finmark destroying two more Lyran warships with nuclear weapons. His scorching of the entire planet with thermonuclear fire in retaliation however, killing hundreds of millions in a bombardment that lasted a full day, was considered an overreaction by most commentators.
Kommodore Sharae of the Lyran Navy had justified maintaining the orbital bombardment for so long, continuing even when Finmark below had begged for mercy offering unconditional surrender, by saying that if you fake capitulation once don't expect a later attempt to surrender to be accepted as honest.
The bombardment did have one lasting effect beyond all the radioactive fallout that still made Finmark an inadvisable place to visit to that day, it made people seriously think twice about pretending to surrender to the Lyran Commonwealth because apparently they really took exception to people trying to pull that crap on them.
"As per standing orders we hailed the vessel claiming to be the Durant Star, asking them to confirm their identity and explain the purpose of their visit' an aging Syntagmatarchis, or colonel, that had served Karl's father before him spoke up. "Listening to the voice transmissions from the the ship's captain he certainly sounded like he was from Finmark, or at least his family was. They claim to simply be introducing themselves, but they asked several questions related to the state of the old Erin shipyards that led us to believe they had other motivations for coming here."
"Hostile intentions?" Von Strang queried.
"No, we think they need repairs and were hoping that we had restored the old shipyards to an operational state, they were just a little cagey about asking directly" the Syntagmatarchis replied. "Their information as to the current political situation appears to be decades out of date. For example, they were seemingly unaware that the First Succession War had ended, and that the Second was underway, we therefore suspect that they've been plying the Deep Periphery for decades, perhaps since the collapse of the Finmark Free Republic itself even, and this is the first time they have ventured this close to the Inner Sphere in a generation."
"Our belief that they were seeking out a working shipyard is supported by them asking, in what they thought was a nonchalant manner, if the yard at Star's End is still operational." Lokhagos Williams spoke up again. "They may have a problem with their ship they can't just get fixed out in the back of beyond, which is why they've only returned now."
"Their jump-drive still works, clearly." Karl Von Strang observed, his grasp of the blindingly obvious always praiseworthy, at least as far as he was concerned.
"Yes, it might be some other mechanical issue entirely, or perhaps it might be that their Kearny-Fuchida drive has just become increasingly unstable over time and needs a full service" the Syntagmatarchis suggested. "Either way, the ship's captain seemed disappointed to learn we couldn't be of help, though they did seem pleased to have it confirmed that the Lyrans have yet to expand this far and that we continue to fly the flag of the Rim Worlds Republic. They had been concerned about receiving a more hostile welcome than the one they received."
"Are the pirates at Star's End even capable of servicing such a craft?" someone queried doubtfully.
"Strangely enough they may well be" Lokhagos Williams responded. "From what I've read the Royalty class was designed to use as many off-the-shelf components as possible to keep maintenance costs down. Her jump-drive is based on that of the Invader and uses compatible parts, and her station-keeping drive is very similar to that of a Star Lord, indeed that might be why the crew of the Durant Star managed to keep her running for so long, it's not like they faced the problems getting spares that the rabble from the Expeditionary Brigade did, leading to them being stranded at Paran" he suggested.
"One day that blasted warship is going to fail completely and then we'll see to that scum." Karl Von Strang practically spat. It irked him to no end that there was literally an SLDF remnant with a heavy cruiser situated only a couple of jumps away. "We should make sure to warn the Durant Star about the Pioneer. Assuming they are who they purport to be, and have not visited this region of space in decades, they are likely unaware of her existence."
"Very wise, My Lord." Williams concurred. "A Royalty is far, far from a match for an Avatar."
"Indeed, and by warning our guests from Finmark it should stand us in good stead as regards constructive, and mutually beneficial relations." Von Strang reasoned. 
"I feel I should point out that if they are originally from Finmark then they weren't as loyal to the eternal cause of Amaris and the Rim Worlds Republic as we are" an officer at the other end of the table muttered disparagingly. "They sought to create a new nation, not to resurrect the one they should have stayed true to."
"Perhaps, although I suspect that having Finmark glassed likely robbed them of any delusions they might have had about living alongside the Commonwealth in peace" Von Strang suggested wryly. "They broadcast Rim Worlds Republic transponder codes as well as Finmark Free Republic ones you said?" he verified with Lokhagos Williams.
"Yes Baron" Williams confirmed. "That may have been simply to try and ensure an amicable first contact rather than an indication of where their loyalties lie of course."
Karl Von Strang nodded. "My grandfather Nico once reached out to Finmark seeking an alliance against the Steiners but was rebuffed" he said. "They thought concluding such an alliance would only provoke Tharkad, little did they know that the avaricious Lyrans needed no such excuse to attack them" he continued with a sigh, shaking his head sadly. "Still, at least they did not buckle under to Steiner threats, choosing in the end to fight rather than submit to tyranny. We must credit the people of Finmark with possessing courage as well as naivety. With their backs to the wall they came out fighting, proving at the end that the blood of the Rim Worlds Republic still flowed through their veins."
With those words the officers sat at the table thumped their fists upon it repeatedly, like his forebears the current Baron liked to make these little stirring speeches and it behoove them to demonstrate their support for his words.
"Have we entertained the possibility that this is a ruse however?" Karl Von Strang cautioned. "An enemy might consider using a Royalty rather than another type of vessel in order to have us lower our guard" he suggested.
"It cannot be completely discounted, My Lord" one of the officers replied. "Although actually laying your hands on one these days would be difficult in the extreme. The lead ship of the class, the Amaris Star, vanished without trace somewhere near the Dark Nebula during the Kerensky War and conceivably might have been discovered and salvaged by the Lyrans, and we recently received intelligence that another of the class was captured from the Blood Rain pirate band, the former 141st Amaris Dragoons, by the Star League remnant at Niops, but they are the only possibilities we know of."
"Given that Niops is nearly a thousand light-years from here I think we can safely rule them out for a start." Lokhagos Williams said, smiling. "I checked the starcharts just before the meeting, not really knowing where Niops exactly was beforehand" he explained his knowing that. "In any case, even if not for the sheer distance involved it seems that the Blood Rain vessel put up a fight and was shredded by return fire from a Niops warship."
Karl Von Strang nodded. "I would never expect a regiment of the Amaris Dragoons to go quietly." he said, pursing his lips. "It is indeed a shame that poor Bernard Critchly was captured, he was likely slandered nearly as much by SLDF propaganda as my own illustrious forebear Gunthar was. Painting us as the villains to justify the wholesale butchery of House Amaris by Kerensky, men women and children all" he said with feigned dismay, it wasn't like Stefan Amaris hadn't previously done the same to everyone belonging to House Cameron with a decent claim to the throne.
It was still a little surprising that Aleksandr Kerensky had the stones to do it though, Karl idly thought to himself. Although it wasn't something he would admit out loud he knew that for the most part the SLDF under Kerensky had behaved itself much better under his command during the Amaris Civil War than their predecessors had under Amos Forlough during the Reunification War. While it very much suited the Von Strang family to pretend that their side, and Gunthar in particular, had been clean as the driven snow Karl was not nearly stupid enough to believe his own propaganda.
"Have they requested to land?" Karl asked.
"No, Baron, in fact once they learned we lacked the facilities that would be needed to service their vessel they informed us they would be departing as soon as their jump-drive was recharged" Lokhagos Williams replied. "Even when we tentatively indicated they would receive a warm welcome and enjoy the great generosity that Von Strang's World is known for, at least to those deserving of it, they appeared less than enthused."
Karl Von Strang frowned. "Did they say why?"
"This seems to be one of those occasions where the nature of our star system makes visiting our world unappealing" Williams responded. "While it will only take a week to recharge their drive, just traveling here from the Nadir point and back would cost them a whole month, nearly as long as their continuing journey all the way to Star's End."
"If they leave we may never see them again." Karl Von Strang noted glumly. "Have they given any hints as to what they've been up to all these years?" he asked curiously.
The Syntagmatarchis chuckled. "When we asked as smoothly as we could if they were of a, let's say, piratical nature, a fair question given their ship's armament, they seemed very offended" he replied. "They did however claim to be operating under a Letter of Marque from the Finmark Free Republic, so the distinction may be somewhat moot."
"Ah, so they're Privateers" Von Strang concluded, an armed JumpShip with fighter support would be wasted just hauling cargo of course. "Or at least they would be if the Finmark Free Republic still actually existed."
"The Royalty class was very much designed for that purpose" Lokhagos Williams noted. "No match for an actual warship but able to easily outgun any civilian JumpShip, even the Tramp which the Star League Navy liked to use to haul cargo in riskier parts of space" he said. "In addition to the ship's guns a Royalty has internal hangers that can easily carry over a dozen aerospace fighters as well as shuttlecraft for boarding actions, plus it has four docking collars for DropShips."
"Think of what we could do if we had one of those ourselves" Von Strang thought aloud wistfully.
"Unfortunately, I don't think they came here intending on swearing allegiance to the Barony of Strang, My Lord" the Syntagmatarchis observed drily, senior enough in rank and of high enough birth that he didn't have to be completely differential to the Baron.
"Nevertheless, I shall talk to them myself tomorrow after a few hours rest" Karl Von Strang replied. "Perhaps I can persuade them to visit properly with us at least, if we can make a good impression it might not be another generation before they return. Just knowing that there are still other remnants of the Rim Worlds Republic out there that did not bend the knee to Steiner will gladden the hearts of our people I'm sure."
"They may be interested in trade too perhaps." Lokhagos Williams suggested.
"True, and few men, and even fewer women are immune to the allure of diamonds if the possibility of obtaining some is dangled in front of them." Von Strang agreed, smiling. "What of our own JumpShip at the Zenith Point?"
"Her drive is fully charged, and we could jump her and her DropShips to the Nadir point at your order, though they would be no match for a Royalty of course, particular given that our telescopes indicate that the Durant Star is hauling a Triumph and a pair of Dictator class military DropShips, plus a Jumbo class cargo transport."
"That's a lot of firepower, especially if those DropShips are carrying Battlemechs or additional aerospace fighters" the Syntagmatarchis observed. "Probably not enough to overwhelm the Guard Division, even if we didn't call up the reserves and weren't fighting a defensive action, but it would be foolish to allow them to all land regardless."
"I concur." Karl Von Strang replied, standing up. "After I've enjoyed a few more hours sleep I'll return, by which time I expect you to have more information regarding our guests, ideally confirmation as to their identity, after which the Baron of Strang will personally contact the Durant Star and see if I can't be a little more persuasive than the rest of you in getting them to hold off on their journey to Star's End for now" he said. "This represents a potential opportunity that we would be foolish not to grasp firmly with both hands, so long as we are reassured that it is not just some elaborate Lyran trick."
"Permission to speak freely, Sir." Lokhagos Williams requested.
"Go ahead." Von Strang bade him.
"Given the diminished number of armed JumpShips known to exist in the Inner Sphere I have my doubts that if the Lyran Commonwealth did recover one that they would risk it in a ploy aimed at us, rather than keep it in reserve for use against the Draconis Combine" Williams suggested. "Kurita is an existential threat to Steiner, we are not" he said. "It may not be a warship, but it's the next best thing, and we're just not important enough in the big scheme of things to warrant this kind of effort. So, if you ask me my opinion I'd say that this probably isn't a ruse."
A number of the senior officers gasped while the rest glared at the mere Lokhagos for his temerity.
Karl Von Strang however burst out laughing. "I cannot fault your argument, and you've certainly got some balls to say that in front of me" he responded. "I'd rather take advice from a man that thinks, and would tell me an uncomfortable truth, than listen to idiocy spouted by a mewling sycophant any day" he said, wondering whether to have him flogged later for speaking above his station or promote him to Tagmatarchis.
Hundreds of millions of kilometers away on the bridge of the 'Durant Star', or rather the NAS Dragoon's Loss, Colonel Mitch Johnson of the Blackhearts was leaning back in his chair looking confident. "You see, the trick is to make them think they've talked you into coming when you didn't initially want to" he said, smiling. "Removes a whole lot of suspicion on their part" he continued, looking over to the ranking Niops officer aboard, a Colonel named Mubǎrak.
"I'm just amazed you could pull off that accent on the comms.", Jax Benedict, AKA Johan Mubǎrak replied. The Finmark accent had once been fairly accurately described as sounding like somebody with a Scandinavian accent, whose first language was Greek, speaking English.
"It's a gift." Johnson replied. "Now, speaking Russian with a Capellan accent from Sian, now that's my real party-piece" he said, still smiling. "I hope those telescopes you people have are as good as you say they are."
"They are, we just need to be a lot further into the system to get full use out of them" Benedict replied. "The resolution is more than good enough for us to check out the Lagrange points for any rocks big enough to cause a problem."
"You know, it'll take us a couple of weeks to get there, plenty of time to practice a fake accent of your own if you don't want to leave everything to my people" Johnson suggested.
"Yours are a lot better at this stuff" Benedict replied.
Johnson grinned. "Yeah, but it's polite to give you a chance to contribute." he replied.
"We contributed this damn ship didn't we?" Benedict asked rhetorically.
"Yeah, I guess so." Johnson conceded, it did help more than a little with the cover story he had to admit, and it was some of the best bait for the hook that he had ever had to work with.
Keeping up the accent for an extended period of time later that day while engaging in a long-distance conversation with Karl Von Strang himself was hard on his throat though, and the time delays at this distance were an absolute pain in the ass.
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : Von Strang's World, originally known as Erin, once hosted an orbital naval shipyard that was almost entirely destroyed during the Amaris Civil War. The Rim Worlds Republic only ever operated a handful of such yards, another being not too far from Erin at Stars End while perhaps the most important was at Finmark, a former provisional capital and later itself the capital of the relatively short-lived Finmark Free Republic (2779-2802).The rank structure of the Rim Worlds Army (before it was changed to the more conventional system used by the Terran Hegemony) was rather distinct. The Barony of Strang reverting to it seems like something they might do.Between the Republic-Commonwealth War, and what the Lyran Commonwealth later did to Finmark, it's perhaps understandable why a lot of people in the former RWR (including those on Von Strang's World) really don't like the Lyrans. They think of the Steners about the same was as the people of the Taurian Concordat think of the Davions, which is not to say favorably whatsoever.To say that Karl Von Strang would be willing to do a lot to lay his hands on a Royalty class JumpShip is not exaggeration. Them being cautious however is a given, as although they wouldn't really expect to see Niops venture way that far there was at least one Royalty that went missing in what was now Lyran territory, the Amaris Star, and they're always wary of the Lyrans.
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Chapter 57