FSRB Chpt 42

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==The Federated Suns Reborn - Chapter 42==
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January 3065Plots
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===Redeployment in the Former Chaos March===
The first reports of the orbital bombardment of Harlech began to leak out beyond the Outreach system during the early days of the New Year. Almost immedietly the First Prince took his leave from Northwind although he made the offer that the 1st Kestrel Guards RCT and 2 Fox class corvettes would remain to aid in the defence of Northwind for the time being. He made sure to convey that this was not in any way an occupational garrison, not only to the Highlanders but also to the officers of the Kestrel Guards and captains of both warships. If they were requested to leave they were to do so immedietly. In the meantime he and the 1st Davion Guards RCT and the 1st Revenant Guards RCT along with the FSS Melissa Davion along with the FSS Brest and FSS Kathil head for Capolla. The FSS Simon Davion heads for it's long awaited refit while the FSS Lucien Davion fresh from it's refit at New Syrtis rushes to join the First Prince. Along with the FSS Lucien Davion the FSS Marduk and FSS Filtvelt leave the Outback and head to join the Task Force Victor. All 3 warships will rush along the jump lines built up the the AFFS to link key worlds - the 2 corvettes using the former line that used to run from New Avalon to Tharkad through the Sarna March for much of their journey. The First Prince does say goodbye to Duchess Marik who heads back to New Avalon with a heavy fighter escort. 
The FSS Marduk and FSS Filtvelt places in the Outback will be taken over by the FSS Broken Wheel and FSS Markesan fresh from the new Fox slips at New Syrtis. Both new ships will go on the now traditional training cruise within the Outback, working up in the relative safety of that region where they will assist in counter piracy operations. 
Not wishing to drag a large number of RCTs from garrisoning postings that they have just returned too after helping him break the Northwind blockade the First Prince instead decides to summon a large number of conventional brigades to augment his 2 RCT's and also to request the 1st Dragonlords who are enroute to their new garrison posting on the Taurian/Capellan border be rerouted to join him at Capolla while also requesting his cousin Duke Hasek dispatch the 8th Syrtis Fusiliers RCT to join Task Force Victor. The Duke not only agrees to this but also immedietly sends word that he is also sending the 1st Capellan Dragoons to back the First Prince up along with the Medusan mercenary command. The High Command also orders the 1st Chisholm Raiders RCT to reinforce the First Prince. 
General Tom Stancel of the Vegan Rangers mercenary command having been tipped of that Prince Davion was reassembling Task Force Victor in response to the Outreach bombardment immedietly requested permission for his 3 commands to rejoin the force. He pointed out that his mercenary regiments had barely began to unpack at their garrison postings and could be at Capolla much faster than the regular units being shifted from further afield. When this request is forwarded to the First Prince he sends a personal thank you and invites the general to bring his troops to Capolla at his earliest convenience. The general's own Alpha Regiment arrives a mere 3 days later and the other 2 regiments only 36 and 48 hours behind them - having obviously left to join the First Prince even while the request was being sent in the first place. 
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===Task Force Victor moves to Capolla===
With 2 RCT, 3 mercenary mech regiments, 1 Avalon cruiser and 2 Fox corvettes assigned, Task Force Victor is nowhere near the strength it was just a month previously when it broke the Northwind blockade. A few within the AFFS criticize the First Prince for having broken it up far too prematurely on the grounds of diplomacy, however 3 more RCT and a mech regiment as well as another cruiser and 2 corvettes are already heading at their best speed to join the First Prince. He also had retained the 4 aerospace regiments which had been assembled previously and added 5 brigades of conventional troops of varying types to his force. A 5th independent aerospace regiment is also dispatched from Addicks, complete with a full wing of Dagger-O fighters. 
One final addition does arrive on Capolla, unasked and unexpectedly. The Roughneck's Battalion of MacLeod's Regiment arrives under the command of Major Chastity Mulvaney and requests to join the Task Force. The always pro-Davion Major had survived the attempt to run the WOB blockade and after having heard the First Princes's offer to Northwind and it's people had had her faith in the Federated Suns reaffirmed. As such she had gathered a group of like minded officers to bring her battalion up to strength (it's third company had not survived running the blockade and the other 2 companies had lost warriors in the brief fighting against the WOB ground troops) and left Northwind to follow the First Prince. Her request is granted. 
===Political Termoil on Northwind===
Even after Victor Davion has left his visit to Northwind continues to cause turmoil on the world. While Major Mulvaney's departure did remove the most vocally pro-Davion of the Northwind Highlanders officers it did not remove all of those speaking out in favour of the First Princes' offer. Even if every pro-Davion Highlander had left it would have still left a very solid number of Clan Elders who are in favour of the First Princes' suggestion that Northwind rejoin the Federated Suns. While not a majority they do make up the single largest block of Elders in regards to what Northwind should do moving forward. The anti-Davion side of the argument has not unexpectedly coalesced around Colonel Jaffray of the Northwind Hussars. While grateful for the help in liberating Northwind and preventing it's annexation to the WOB Protectorate the Colonel doesn't feel that it is in the best interests of the Highlanders or Northwind to rejoin the Federated Suns. However even within his own regiment Jaffray doesn't have full support as many of the veterans of Operation Bulldog hold a great deal of respect for Victor Davion. The colonel is also not overly popular with the Clan Elders. Colonel Stirling manages to walk a fine line between both factions and many feel whichever side wins her support will be the Victor. 
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===Changes in the former Tortuga Dominions===
From Capolla the First Prince took time out from assembling his troops and ships to send a public message to his government, the former Tortuga Dominions and his sister Princess Yvonne Steiner-Davion. He informs all three that he is formally annexing the 6 world's of the Tortuga Dominions into the Federated Suns as the Tortuga Combat Region and orders the High Command and his Government to act appropriately - setting up a command infrastructure structure, etc... As well as arranging for government investments to help secure the worlds integration into the realm. He also informs his sister that she should prepare herself for her role as Duchess of Tortuga and Baroness New Port Royal. In a private message he assures her that he can think of no better person to shepherd the new additions to the FedSuns into their realm, while joking it is an early wedding present. 
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===Realignment of the Borderers Brigade===
Marshal Deedee Faulkner of the Borderer Brigade asks to speak with Marshal of Armies Jackson Davion at this time and in her first face to face meeting with her commanding officer broaches the future of the new Borderer Brigade. She explains that the Training Battalions are slowly bringing all of her 4 regiments up to full strength but she was a little concerned to see that the recent graduates from the 1st Kittery Reinforced Training Battalion were diverted to the 3rd FedSun's Dragoons rather than to her own former unit the Kittery Borderers. Jackson Davion explains that the Kittery Borderers are at full strength currently while the 3rd FedSun's are still rebuilding from the St Ives conflict and hence the reason for the diversion of the recruits. After all the Training Battalions are AFFS formations and not solely to provide recruits for a single regiment - although he is happy to prioritise their home worlds regiments of course when they are under strength. The Marshal however feels that many of these recruits join the Training Battalions in order to protect their own worlds and pushes for the recruits to remain within her units. Marshal Todd Revon's who is the commanding officer of the Regular Army and has also been in attendance during the meeting then speaks up to suggest a compromise. He suggests that as the Marshal of Armies suggests the Training Battalion's graduates go to their respective home world's Borderer regiment but that any excess recruits be siphoned off to form a fresh unit within the brigade which can act as a more national version of the Borderers while being a unit in it's own right. He suggests reforming the 1st Avalon Borderers which was destroyed during the Second Succession War for this purpose. It would also act as a way to not only integrate the Borderer's regiments into the nation but also as a reserve in the event that any of the Borderer regiments receives heavy casualties - it could be rebuilt quickly with the personnel drawn from the Avalon Borderers. The 1st Avalon Borderers if reformed could then move between the various home world's of it's parent formation and train with them and allow cross pollination of tactics and experience. While this isn't the outcome Marshal Faulkner was looking for she can see it's likely to be the best she is going to get from the High Command and she agrees that this would satisfy her and her officers, while Marshal of Armies Davion can see the strong benefits this would bring not only to the Borderer Brigade but also to the AFFS as a whole. Jackson Davion agrees to this proposal - albeit he insists that the recruits who have joined the 3rd FedSun's Dragoons will remain at their posting there. As will the next class of troops graduating from the 1st Kittery Reinforced Training Battalion at the end of 3065 as he is not prepared to form a new unit with a single company of raw recruits. He will require at least 2 of the Borderer regiments to be at full strength before any troops can be siphoned off to add the 1st Avalon Borderer's to the rolls. Deedee Faulkner is almost certain that this condition is to remind her who is in command, but she can see the logic of it and agrees. Given this she doesn't bring up her desire to see the Sheraton Knights transferred to her brigade as she suspects she's used up most of her good will at the present moment, although she can revisit the matter later. 
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===New Warships launch from New Syrtis===
Fresh from launching the Fox Class Corvettes, FSS Broken Wheel and FSS Markesan, the New Syrtis shipyards begin work on the FSS Ridgebrook and FSS Woodstock. At the same time the newly building slip to construct Davion III class destroyers is now ready to begin construction, as are the 2 slips at Galax. All 3 slips will begin working on the FSS Davion, FSS Defiant, and FSS Defender destroyers. 
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===Jaguars continue to gather at its new Den===
On Defiance, the Sun Jaguars continue to integrate what they can from the various groups that even now are still drifting in as well as the liberated prisoners from the Draconis Combine mine complex. Alongside these are a number of transfers from SLDF and Comstar controlled camps which had surviving members of the Smoke Jaguars within them, as well as a handful from the Lyran Alliance and St. Ives Compact. No transfers have occurred from the Draconis Combine, Free Worlds League or Capellan Confederation. While the latter two have almost no prisoners the total lack of transfers from the Combine is telling and both the Khan and saKhan send a message to the First Prince asking for his assistance. 
The transfers they do get are mostly technician caste and warriors. Given this they are almost all instantly used to help build the Sun Jaguar's Touman. A handful of the best are used to bring both Khan's Keshiks to full strength and enough are left over to help form a 3rd Sun Jaguar Guards and 2nd Sun Jaguar Militia cluster. 
The other major issue is the Nova Cats. They are led by a Star Captain Inanna who reveals a huge secret to the two Khans of the Sun Jaguars. They are not the only faction of Smoke Jaguars to be alive and rebuilding. Instantly the Khan orders saKhan Nevversan to take her reformed Silver Keshik and head for Wayside V with the Star Captain. They enter into discussions with this other remaining faction of Jaguars in order that they might add their strength to the Sun Jaguars if it is at all possible. He also sends the 1st Sun Jaguar Guards along with her, filling it with the most functional omnimechs and equipment left to the Clan. Star Captain Inanna offers to have her dropship's spare parts transferred over to help refit the 1st Sun Jaguars Guards during the journey. The saKhan leaves immedietly as soon as her Keshik and the 1st Guards can be loaded into their dropships. 
===Developments in Industry===
On Novoya Zemyla, the long awaited Templar-O line finally goes online at the Kallon Industries plant. However even after long months of delays there are still problems in the production line and it wont be until July that the line is running at full capacity. Indeed for most of January all that the plant produces are spare parts for existing Templars, the first fully functional Templar-O from Novoya Zemyla's plant will only walk of the lines in February. 
On Filtvelt the Outback FarmMech's plant finally goes into production. Built almost entirely from government grants and with help from the NAIS the plant is despite it's limited size and new nature of the company a cutting edge facility. There will be teething problems with this cutting edge facility of course but within a week the first Stinger will march from the production lines and head for service with the Filtvelt Academy Training Battalion. More so than even the opening of the larger corporation's huge plants throughout the Outback this facility see's a huge upsurge in support for the policies of the First Prince. Duchess Helen Trempeleau herself comes to the opening of the plant. 
The "Lorica" variant of the Cavalier Battle Armor goes into production on Defiance and suffers no such problems. Basically the existing Cavalier, but with different armor mouldings. The small plant begins to churn out dozens of suits of battle armor for the ComGuards even within it's first month. However given the horrendous losses at Caph these suits will nowhere near meet the demand. As such the acting Primus Dow sends the still recovering Focht to meet with the First Prince. Given the nature of the situation he is forced to send the Precentor Martial with a warship escort. The CSV Narbonne slips from the Tuyakkid system and heads via dead systems towards the Federated Suns. 
On New Avalon,, the Awesome line for Lycomb-Davion starts. Given the experience of the firm it is unsurprising that this goes without any problems and soon Awesome class assault battlemechs are walking off the production line and into the 299th Division of the ComGuards and the 3rd Davion Guards and 1st New Avalon Cavaliers. 
Another plant that is tasked with helping rebuild the ComGuards is the new facility on Markesan. Although still months from entering full production, given the devastating circumstances of the ComGuards and the escalating threats on the borders, the plant manages to enter limited production in January to produce Alacorn Mk VI tank and Karnov VTOL transports. 
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===Distress call from Outreach===
In orbit over Outreach the attacking WOB forces find themselves looking down upon the smoking ruins of Harlech. With no ground forces the WOB task force fires a few remaining shots into the planet, taking out a number of supporting facilities around the city of Harlech and then destroys every single scrap of orbiting infrastructure before withdrawing. As soon as they leave a handful of survivors of Wolf's Dragoons manage to begin sending distress calls out. The planets HPG was destroyed along with Harlech City, but the Dragoons had always kept a SLDF vintage small mobile HPG transmitter in reserve. As soon as the WOB have jumped out system the shattered survivors unearth the transmitter and begin sending for help. 
The call is immedietly answered. First Prince Victor himself orders his still assembling Task Force to jump to Outreach and orders the follow on units to head for Outreach rather than Capolla. 
As soon as they arrive the various units being landing around the devastated capital and rush to engage in rescue operations. The large force of conventional forces are a massive boon in this regard and soon entire infantry brigades are working through the rubble and putting out fires as they try and rescue any remaining trapped survivors. At this stage the death toll is unknown but first reports are staggering. Millions are presumed dead in the destroyed city and almost the entirety of the Wolf's Dragoons supporting elements and Gamma Regiment are wiped out. The Dragoons Housing Center is nothing more than a crater. The WOB hasn't spared the industrial facilities that provided the backbone to the Wolf's Dragoons and several barrages have fallen within the Blackwell Heavy Industries. Along with this the Wolf's Dragoons supposedly hidden clan tech manufacturing centres on Remus had also received a brutal bombardment. 
Along with working to save people and salvage what could be the various engineering units attached to the commands also began rebuilding the shattered spaceport. Or at least enough of it to support the landing of large numbers of cargo dropships bringing relief supplies and further aid as well repairing enough run ways to support a substantial force of aerospace fighters. If the WOB returned to Outreach the AFFS wanted to be ready. 
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===Stand off at Caph===
At the end of January the Commanding General of the SLDF leads a task force from Deiron to Caph. The ground elements is built around the still rebuilding 1st Royal Battlemech Regiment, with the 21st Striker Regiment, 19th Heavy Cavalry Regiments of the Eridani Light Horse, 91st Division of the ComGuards, the 1st Genyosha, 2nd & 46th Deiron Regulars, and 4th Arkab Legion of the DCMS. Escorting them are the the DCS The destroyers Lair of Mighty Wyrms, DCS Night of Agony and Inazuma-class corvette DCS Winds of Heaven. As soon as the task force jump into the system General Kurita orders the WOB to stand down and surrender to face trial for war crimes. He also informs them that his ships will use maximum force to retake this system for the Star League. 
In orbit over Caph, the WoBS Herald of Retribution, WoBS End of Wisdom, WoBS Faith's End, WoBS Blake's Redemption, and 3 Zechetinu II corvettes break orbit and take up a blocking position in front of Caph. They reply to the heir to the Draconis's Combine's demands that they surrender by informing him that he is trespassing within the WOB Protectorate. Giving a warning, if he does not immedietly leave they will be forced to open fire. Both forces end up in a stalemate, facing of against each other just out of range as January ends. The Star Leagues task forces's naval officers know that with only a single Tatsumkai class destroyer and 2 corvettes they stand little to no chance of winning a naval engagement against an Aegis cruiser, 2 Lola III destroyers, and 4 corvettes. While the WOB officers don't want to start a war with the Draconis Combine by killing the heir to that realm. At least not now. 
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===Depands of the Word of Blake===
Within the Free Worlds League the Captain-General has a visit from an emissary from the WOB. He is informed that unless he supports them at the current time they will release the real details of Thomas Marik and that he is an impostor to the entire Inner Sphere. They demand that he jump a major naval group into the system of Caph in order to deescalate the situation there and allow them to retain ownership. The Captain-General points out that he will require to have some concessions in order to justify this to his fellow Star League members, suggesting that the WOB allow him to evacuate the survivors of the various anti-WOB forces on planet. The emissary makes the pointed reminder that the False Thomas has no authority or leverage to bargain with in this matter... However his suggestion is sensible and will help the WOB consolidate control of Caph. He provisionally agrees and will put the suggestion to not only his own master... But the Fake Thomas's as well. In return no fewer than two Thera Aerospace Carrier Warships and escorting warships are to be dispatched as soon as possible. He suggests that the 3rd Free Worlds Guards go with them to help arrange the evacuation... Leaving the Captain-General wondering why that unit had been chosen...
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