InaG Chpt 4

==It's not a Gundam - Chapter 4 -All The Inner Sphere's a Stage==
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===Envy of a Captain-General===
Captain-General's Office, Atreus City
Atreus, Free World's League
February 3025
SAFE was not as much a joke as it was believed. For every open blunder there was a successful mission. A Blakist barred from Parliament, a Capellan assassination failed, a Tharkad-backed business liquidated.
 
In this case it was making sure that that mockery of Rome kept their grubby hands off of Free Worlds League Citizens. This time their agents had brought them something else besides troop movements.
 
A planetary militia fought off one of their invasion forces ... and were striking back in turn.
 
The sight of a PPC bristling Aerodyne raised her brow and the Captain-General's. As did the fact that a whole Lance had stepped out of Airlock and joined their weapons with the Dropper's broadside. Among them a bulky never before seen industrial-looking mech holding twin missile launchers. It was an unorthodox, last-ditch strategy. But not unfamiliar.
 
"Bold~" she whistled, "and lucky."
 
"If it's stupid but it works it isn't stupid." Janos observed, "What do we have on Junker?"
 
"Periphery world." She listed out in bored rote, attention more on the nail file in her fingers, "Known as a local all-tech workshop. They have a talent for improvising replacement parts and refurbishing wrecks, even Lostech, with them."
 
"And now that includes pulling PPCs out of their ass and making their own Aerodyne and that Frankenmech. Dote forward to the time stamp."
 
"Kay~"
 
Casual as she was, she stopped and stared as the Aerodyne opened its bottom mech bay. What stepped out was another humanoid battlemech of unknown design. It was thinner, but only so much. Four massive jet engines that covered its shoulder and hips made it stand out from the rest.
Scene Music
Then it jumped off. Two large wings unfolded, catching the air as the engines roared alive. What became a steep dive turned into a steep climb. The unknown mech climbed higher and higher finally stopping mid-air as four cones of plasma held it aloft.
 
Like a King looking upon his kingdom it scanned the battlefield... before falling on the Marian craft like a spirit of vengeance.
 
Twin crackling spears spelled the end of one ASF. The Aerojock's wingmen spiraled away with one side singed.
 
The mech, no, Land-Air Mech dropped like a rock, diving onto the second like a bird of prey, practically kicking it hard toward the earth as the Junker used the ASF as a springboard toward its future quarry.
 
Support PPCs fired, slicing through metal as easily as it did metal. Fired in sequence, fired for effect, as the Marian Air Force learned the hard way. Jets and ASFs circled the LAM as it danced through the air striking them down one by one. Every weave, every twist, every roll, every dive, every kick that shattered planes, every high-g maneuver that blasted another out of the sky was a matter of leveraged weight and momentum. She knew what it was.
 
It was her college thesis.
 
It was what got her the job in Atreus City.
 
It was AMBAC.
 
But it was above all...
 
"Beautiful." she found herself whispering.
 
What would be a brief but violent dogfight stretched in her eyes, as Marian Jets and ASFs tumbled out of the sky. The skies over one world found it's ruler in all his grace and glory. And he found the Romans wanting.
 
The secretary swallowed, a leak was inevitable. Not just because it was SAFE going through its usual channels.
 
"...Secelia." Janos' voice trailed, "Get ahead of the story. Have League Central Coordination and Command assemble in my office immediately. I don't care if SAFE has to drag them here myself."
 
All the playfulness left her and her posture and face stiffened, "...understood, sir."
 
The video ended with the LAM hovering triumphant over a burning base. As below him a dropship cut a base apart.
 
Was he from THERE also? She wasn't sure if that was good ... or bad.... really, really bad....
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===Careful moves of the Archon===
Archon's Office, Triad
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
February 3025
New Avalon wine was overrated. The moment Katrina needed a drink it turned out Tharkad beer suited her better. All the day's work was swept aside as her sister and spymaster invited themselves into her office.
 
Junker was simply too far away. Try as the LCAF might, try as the Lyran entrepreneurial spirit may go, there was no way to get to Junker in a timely manner. Not before Marik did at least. The Archon would not disparage the Free Worlds League so casually, there was a reason that her predecessor was ousted by a vote of no-confidence.
 
Marik's economy rivaled their own and despite their infighting, she knew plenty of Social Generals that she would have gladly traded for a competent FWLM officer.
 
No, Junker, and their technology, would go to Marik; for now.
 
"Simon," she spoke to the Chancellor of Lyran Intelligence, "I want the LIC to send someone to Junkers ... and someone to stop whatever LOKI has planning. I will NOT be the one to kill the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. Also, send this over to the First Prince. Nothing redacted. If the NAIS wants to prove they aren't just some passion project they can tell me what I just witnessed."
 
Simon nodded, taking with him a satchel of papers to the HPG station with some fire in his eyes.
 
Katrina groaned as her face fell into her hands, by her side her sister waited for her to finish being exasperated.
 
"This could all be nothing." Nondi downplayed.
 
"My instincts say otherwise, Nondi. What do you think? you've fought LAMs before."
 
"A handful. They are fast but fragile, under-armed, unstable, and extremely difficult to maintain. Never something so ... elegant."
 
The Archon stared at her screen and the monster before her.
 
Word would eventually get out. She was lucky that the LIC could penetrate SAFE well enough to get the unedited report almost as soon as Atreus did.
 
For herself. For her people. For her daughter. She would make sure that whatever force that was the Junker's patron would not threaten the Commonwealth or it's place in the world. Even if she had to fight whoever it was by herself.
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===Davions craft a Plan===
A Certain Bar...
New Avalon, Federated Suns
February 3025
Tharkad beer was overrated. The moment Hanse needed a drink it turned out New Avalon wine suited him better. Though he would not disparage the last gift that the Lyran Diplomat gave him. The new one was so important that Katrina's pet messenger tracked him down to the private room of the private bar known to a friend of a friend to a friend that was provided for the First Prince.
 
"The Periphery is full of surprises," he admitted to his friend and de-facto second Champion, "What do you think, Ardan?"
 
"Envy." he admitted, "And I'm speaking for myself and if Ian was here. Although I'm no Aerojock."
 
Envy was an appropriate reaction. Men and women in this day and age killed for half-rusted Battlemechs. A LAM that floated around the battlefield like a figure ice skater would have many stop-at-nothing to claim for themselves ... or to deny to others.
 
The First Prince nodded, "Indeed. I am sure the fleet and ASF corps will want an in on this."
 
They wouldn't want to lose even more ground to the Mechwarriors in social circles.
 
As he poured another drink for Quintus and Ardan he was poised to offer it to his chief researcher. Dr. Banzai of the NAIS waived it off, his cup was always non-alcoholic even when it was a guy's night out.
 
"I've confirmed what we received from Tharkad and our agents in the Free Worlds League." Quintus spoke, "It is as authentic and raw as it can be."
 
"THAT is concerning." he scratched his chin, "This whole business seems like it came out of nowhere."
 
"We will look." the head of FedSun intelligence spoke, "We'll find out what exactly Junkers is hiding and how they did for so long."
 
"An aerodynamic frame with no need for a complicated and bulky transformation system." Banzai finally spoke, eyes still fixed on the LAM, "usage of standard military VTOL air-breathing jets for long duration flight and reduced heat build-up. Instead of standard vehicle PPCs they use relatively lighter mounted Support-PPCs. Rate of fire is slow but either the pilot has superhuman aim or he possesses a highly advanced targeting system which means any lock is a near-definite hit."
 
"And the spinning?" Ardan asked, "No Mechwarrior or Aerojock I know moves like that."
 
"There was a paper." Banzai spoke, "Active Mass Balance Auto-Control penned by Secelia Dote, a college student on how to leverage weight and inertia to reduce the need for thrust, especially in low to zero-G environments. It was, mostly, an unproven but mathematically verified theory. No one wanted to donate their small craft for science."
 
"It looks proven to me." Ardan observed, "We should bring her aboard."
 
The researcher winced, "There is just one problem-"
 
"The Captain-General's new secretary is also named Secelia Dote." Quintus spoke, "I assume they are the same person."
 
"Unfortunately yes."
 
"Well," Hanse spoke, "No use crying over spilled milk. Quintus proceed with your investigation. Not just with the LAM, but also that Aerodyne. It's practically a pocket WarShip and I need ways to counter them both if it ends up in Takashi's or Max's hands. Doctor, we cannot wait to get samples. We now know what is possible. And I'd like the NAIS aerospace and mech research section to begin brainstorming any and all avenues a viable LAM can offer us. Ardan..."
 
Ardan stiffened at attention, then paled at seeing a sly fox grin.
 
"You're going to help me draft a report for the Privy Council."
 
"Hanse, no."
 
"Hanse, yes."
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===The Dragon wisely waits===
Imperial Palace
Luthien, Draconis Combine
February 3025
Speed. Aggression. And, as some younger samurai would put it: 'looking good doing so'.
 
The DCMS was vaunted for its use of agile mobile attack forces. While Steiners lumbered in their oversized boxes House Kurita's Battlemechs flowed around them like water, and as water washed their foes away.
 
He stepped out from his quarters, away from the embrace of his wife, to read the message and watch the recording sent to him by his spies in his alleged allies.
 
The Kapetyn Accord was an alliance of convenience. A Davion-Steiner coalition was as much a threat as a returned SLDF.
 
Now I see a third Yellow Bird in the making., Takashi thought to himself.
 
As the full moon hung up high above the palace his eyes were downward looking at what the ISF had managed to pry from SAFE intelligence gathering.
 
It subtly rankled him that the Combine, the owners of the last LAM factory, would be stood up by some unknown backwater. The moment Lexatech would hear of this non-transforming LAM they would seek his audience, vowing to prove that the Dragon would not be upstaged by Periphery Neo-Barbs.
 
The Draconis Admiralty who played second to the ground forces would want their say in things. Land-Air mechs were already an edge case over jurisdiction. They would not let the DCMS have more influence than it already did when the LAM and that blue DropShip showed to the Inner Sphere how potent a force the Junker militia possessed.
 
Junker itself was in the complete and direct opposite side of the Inner Sphere from him. Trying to get to it would be an exercise in futility. He resigned himself to wait. An impatient warrior was a dead warrior and he would not waste resources chasing after a prize that his enemies may just as likely offer to him on a silver platter.
 
"Take no action." he spoke, "Let the rest of the Great Houses squabble over it for us. In the end, the Dragon will have its due."
 
He went back to bed, just as silent figures dispersed out from the palace to dispense the Coordinator's will.
 
In the morning he would summon his Warlords and the Zaibatsu heads. For now he needed some decent sleep.
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===Meanwhile in the Periphery===
(Former) Pirate Base
Uncharted System, Periphery (Rimward, Anti-Spinward)
February 3025
Everything hurts.
 
High Gs equal high pains. In hindsight, I realized that the characters in Gundam Wing were either freaks of nature who could pilot rocketships on legs without a G suit, or there was something I messed up when I upgraded the Aries.
 
I'm thankful I'm wearing a mask and I've cultivated the strong, distant, silent-type vibe with the Junkers. They likely didn't expect me to be bedridden six out of the seven days we've been on this rock. Only today I could safely say I was capable of APPEARING to walk normally.
 
In that time we were busy. My little show scared the living daylights out of the Fake Romans. The Principes and the die-hards well, died hard. Everyone else surrendered and what slaves that couldn't be freed on site by the Haros were going to be sent to Junker. From there? Unknown.
 
Some we knew were recently kidnapped and had to be returned. That was where the Ptolemaios stepped in. Many had nowhere else to go and both Biggs and Wedge were going to see if they could get Mayor Cid to expand the settlement for dozens more mouths to feed. Some still had family in chains in the greater Hegemony. My bleeding heart told me to start a war with Space Rome here and now. My head argued I needed to prepare.
 
The Aries was banged up. It had been gutted by me and then put under stress and battle damage. Mack somehow convinced me to let him tinker with it.
 
The AGE Builder was already at work with my 'Reward' after it was done making stuff for the militia. We were picking this base clean. What we couldn't take we would burn. I knew that a few Marians had run and gone to ground rather than surrender but I couldn't care less about them. For all intents and purposes they were defanged.
 
That left my Tieren. As the rest of the militia and ex-slave volunteers worked to level the base I had the Tieren placed outside so I had more space to refit it. The Haros did most of the heavy lifting, literally, I sat on a chair directing what I could from a Noteputer.
 
"LORD EXARCH!"
 
Luckily my mask hid my very unmanly scream. I stood up, wincing, as one of the former slavers approached me. He was fit, handsome, and with cobalt blue hair. He stared at me with an intensity that was borderline uncomfortable in subtext.
 
"May I help you?"
 
"You are going to fight the Marians! Aren't you!?"
 
"Yes, yes I am. But I need to prepare my forces though. War is never easy."
 
"No, it is NEVER easy." he said, "BUT I realize that all my suffering in this new universe was not for nothing! It is time I atone for my sins!"
 
Suddenly he dropped to his knees, kneeling before me like a Knight swearing an oath to his king.
 
"I AM Mashymre Cello! And I pledge my services to your noble cause!"
 
....aw fuck.
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Chapter 4