FSRB Chpt 190

==The Federated Suns Reborn - Chapter 190==
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December 3070Interlude: Andurian
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Baxter Palace
City of Jojoken, Andurien
Andurien Commonality
Former Free Worlds League / Capellan Confederation Space
Staring at the various print outs and data pads around the map of his "realm" was depressing him even further, particularly given that this was Boxing Day and he should have been relaxing. Still there just wasn't enough hours in the day or days in the week for the self appointed "Grand Duke of Andurian". Picking up one at random, a report of the 3rd Andurien Hussars most recent pacification sweep on Kanata and tried not to scream in frustration. The 3rd Hussars were officially built up around two light companies of BattleMechs - almost all of them Urbanmechs or Firebees built at the small plant on Betelgeuse. Unofficially, they were built around two infantry regiments drawn from the scum and prisons of the "Capellan" core worlds of the Andurien Commonality. It wasn't exactly surprising then that they acted more like pirates than soldiers.  The 3rd Hussars had been ordered to sweep the mountain valleys of northern Kanata for pro-Humphrey's insurgents. A simple mission which was well within their abilities and strength. Officially by all the reports he had received from the Sang-shao Huang that was exactly what they did. From other reports it appeared that instead of hunting potentially dangerous insurgents they had merely swept through the mountain valleys extorting cash and favors from the local farmers, ranchers and mine owners. Those that didn't pay were instantly found to have been sheltering rebels in their barns or mines and saw extensive damage to their property in the "firefights" that followed. If the 3rd Hussars had actually killed a single pro-Humphrey's rebel they'd done it by accident! 
Throwing the report down in disgust, Grand Duke Marcus Baxter stared at the other various reports. They all told the same story. Low to medium level insurgencies across the entire commonality. Many of his formations were singularly unable to cope with the insurgents and were handling it badly. From outright ignoring anything beyond their bases to the 3rd Hussar's actions which were making the situation worse. He had only a handful of units who he could actually trust to get the jobs done right - and had more fires to put out than he had reliable units. He was forced to shift the reliable units from post to post, never giving them a break, in order to keep a lid on things. Worse any sort of damage was crippling for his BattleMechs and tanks. He had a small number of production facilities but they weren't exactly producing a surplus. Irian Technology's plant on Shiro was the "crown jewel" of his BattleMech production - yet it rarely reached more than half of it's pre-conquest levels of output through sabotage, industrial actions, etc... Only the newly built facility on Betelgeuse wasn't constantly being sabotaged, but for all the effort he had poured into expanding the new plant it was only producing small numbers of light BattleMechs. The aerospace pants on Lopez and here on Andurien were in a similar mess - although at least his aerospace forces weren't suffering the constant low level attacks his ground troops were. Which meant that he had actually a small surplus of aerospace fighters to sell to the Canopians. Which was a good thing, because he was forced to buy modern BattleMechs and tanks of them at extortionate prices if he was to keep rebuilding his forces and strengthening his commands. 
He had repeatedly pointed out how price gouging him was only more likely to undermine his rule within Andurien and lead to a pro-Davion House Humphrey's return. They continue to charge him far and above the market price for the handful of modern BattleMechs they would sell him. Given that they were his only regular and reliable source of the war machines he needed to maintain his military they had him over a barrel and they knew it. Indeed lately Magestrix Naomi Centrella had been strongly hinting that unless he was prepared to acknowledge her own authority as regent for her newborn son, who she had predictably named after his "divine" father, then said supply of BattleMechs and tanks would halt. Worse she had strongly hinted that perhaps he might wish to display said loyalty by "gifting" the worlds of Sadurni, Caselraigne, Sax, and Andurmax to her son... Said worlds to be ruled by her as regent until he came of age...
Things might have been easier for him if the 2nd Sian Dragoons and House LuSann hadn't defected to the Sian Republic. Or defected back to them as it were. The 2nd Sian Dragoons in particular had been a heavy loss as they had mere months before heading back to Sian been reequipped with two new companies worth of rare BattleMechs in order to try and "buy" their loyalty. They'd taken the mechs... and left anyway. 
If he could have replaced the gutter trash that made up much of the 3rd Andurian Hussars (and unfortunately more than a few of the other infantry formations of the three Hussar commands he'd raised) things might have been easier as well. Unfortunately, if he stripped any further Home Guard formations from his few reliable "Capellan worlds" they were much more likely to defect or fall to the Victoria Commonality or Sian Republic! For the same reason he couldn't strip some of his more effective units from those same border worlds!
Looking over the map of worlds and lists of commands he finally nodded and called over an aide to order the 15th Dracon to Kanata, while the 3rd Hussars relocated to bolster the garrison of Andurien. With his own Command Battalion, the 1st McCarron's Armored Cavalry and the 2nd Liao Guard here to oversee them, maybe they could be kept in check and turned into soldiers... Maybe.
As that decision was made another aide approached with a report from his step-son Rhamses Mccarron's 2nd McCarron's Armored Cavalry on Lopez. One of his lances had taken heavy damage when insurgents caused a landslide to bury them under thousands of tons of rock while they were on a routine patrol... Three of the four mechwarriors were dead and all four BattleMechs were totally destroyed... Rhamses was requesting permission to retain part of next months shipment of BattleMechs to replace the destroyed BattleMechs... 
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