GblaRCS Chpt 16

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 16 -==
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"If we keep this rate of expansion up then one day soon the rulers of the Successor States are going to look at a map of the Inner Sphere feeling very puzzled. All of them wondering where the hell that great blob of systems colored orange on the map, a whole new interstellar nation sitting between the Free Worlds League, the Magistracy and the Palatinate, suddenly came from and then they're going to bawl out their intelligence agencies." Admiral Jacob Bremman - 2840 CE
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===Chit-Chat about the Current Events===
Robert H Goddard Spaceport (Niops VII) - Niops Association – 2829
With so much more traffic to cope with the spaceport had been expanded drastically over the previous two years, not only in terms of landing pads but also additional warehousing, hangers for aerospace fighters and a large concrete office block that now housed Fleet Headquarters.
Admiral Bremman had chosen an office for himself on the top floor, one that overlooked most of the spaceport. Although, apart from his chair, the furniture and decor was utilitarian in the extreme, and the rushed nature of the construction showed in the build quality, he was becoming quite fond of the place. He even enjoyed the way the windows rattled in their frames whenever a dropship took off, it gave the place character he felt. On the other hand though if the large viewscreen mounted on the wall opposite the windows ever did fall off its bracket, like it constantly threatened to, he would have somebody shot.
The viewscreen was currently showing a live projection of the Niops system. It was telling as to just how small the system really was that you could just about visually detect the planets closest to the star moving in their orbits on the screen. An orbital year on Niops I was only a day and a half long in Terran measurement, which almost made the eighteen-day-long years here on Niops VII seem almost reasonable.
"That's a Mule heading out for the asteroid belt to deliver supplies to the fleet and bring back metal ore." Bremman announced from his chair, not even looking up from the noteputer on the desk in front of him as behind him a huge cargo dropship could be seen lifting off atop a column of fire.
"You know all the launch schedules?" Trish Ebon asked, surprised. She had recently been assigned the job of liaison between the government and the military, in part because General Romanov was stumped at what to do with a 'saKhan' otherwise, and she had just arrived at the spaceport to come see him via the passenger VTOL that now ran hourly between there and the capital. The VTOL ride had been shakier than Bremman's windows, but not by as much as she thought was appropriate for a building rather than a rotorcraft.
Her chair sucked too. Bremman's looked far more comfortable, in fact it looked like he had requisitioned it from some spaceship with a grav deck. Probably a Star Lord, they were pretty luxurious for a transport jumpship which was why crews competed for a spot on one.
"It's the only thing that large heading up this morning and nothing less than ten thousand tons in mass feels like that" Bremman told her as the sound of the dropship faded away into the distance. "Is Olson kidding about this?" he asked, looking up from the screen on his portable computer. Ebon had come bearing gifts, or rather instructions from the High Associator.
"Neg" Trish responded. "I mean negative, or nope. Pretend I said nope." she corrected her phrasing. "Amazing how that still slips out sometimes."
Bremman smiled. "I think a lot of us found it easier to get used to using contractions in speech again than it was to give up on state-mandated abbreviations" he wryly observed. "I called one of my junior officers a 'Ristar' instead of a rising star in a performance evaluation last week" he told her. "He does know that this will mean we can't mothball a couple of the Star Lords as well as all the Monoliths, right?" he checked. "We might even need to keep the one we took off the damn pirates in service too if he wants to maintain an effective military presence out as far as Algenib." he continued. "It's not just the number of commitments, it's the need to rotate the ships through a maintenance cycle."
"I thought you'd be pleased at not having to downsize the fleet so much?" Trish queried, seeming a little puzzled by his unenthusiastic reaction to the news.
"Just so long as it doesn't come off the budget I've been allocated to maintain some of our warships in a operational state I'm fine with it, and we'll have a few older crewmen that were facing compulsory retirement that'll be ecstatic, but I'm frankly surprised at Olson's decision given that we haven't started selling off the jackpot we hit on Alphard yet." Bremman replied. "I know it looks like the Inner Sphere is about to start tearing itself apart again but until they do, and everyone's too busy killing each other to notice some pissant, obscure periphery nation making suspiciously large purchases and paying for it all with germanium, we're way overstretched trying to do what we're already doing" he said. "Those retired crewmen would have probably ended up doing zero-gee construction work, they're all EVA qualified and the navy pension isn't exactly great."
"Can't say I necessarily disagree, but I give it less than a year before those idiots on Tharkad, Atreus, and the rest have another go at it myself" Trish opined. "They've had time to lick their wounds and put their militaries mostly back together by now. We wouldn't have seen the Capellan attack on the Federated Suns last year trying to reclaim the Chesterton Commonality otherwise. That was multiple regiments slugging it out over the ownership of several systems, not just a raid or skirmish. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised it didn't trigger an all-out war, but I guess the FedSuns are still too worried about the Dracs to hit back against the Cappies hard."
"Given that the Dracs never really stopped attacking their neighbors despite everyone saying the war ended back in '21 can you blame them?" Bremman asked rhetorically. "They might have resorted to gathering up convicts, putting them in old mechs and throwing them at the Davions and the Steiners because their line regiments weren't in a fit state to keep fighting themselves, but you can't really call that peace, just war on a restricted budget."
"Restricted budgets everywhere I guess." Trish responded smiling. "Did you know the Tsarina put me on the committee deciding what we want to import and making long-term future economic and industrial projections. I'm the token military representative" she told him. "I mostly got stuck dealing with everything that got put in the suggestion box because I'm the only one on there without at least two doctorates."
"Anything good in there? The suggestion box I mean" Bremman asked.
Trish grinned. "That whack-job Farnstrom asked for a million bucks worth of capacitors and a fusion generator so I guess he's having another go at building his own naval laser." she told him.
"Again? After they took away the last one he tried to put together?" Bremman asked incredulously. The story had been front-page news a few months before. A newspaper, the Niops Sun, even printing a cartoon with a caricature of the professor complaining about what the galaxy was coming to when a mad scientist couldn't build his own death-ray without 'The Man' interfering.
"Yep. And when we told him no straight-away he put in the request again under a false name." Trish confirmed. "I don't know if he thinks we're idiots or he's losing what's left of his marbles." she added, rolling her eyes. "There was an interesting suggestion and sensible from a NAM officer though. He says that eventually we'll need more battlemechs for garrison duty and he thought we should go for the Blackjack and explained why he thought so."
"I thought that thing was a piece of crap?" Bremman queried, confused.
"It's a lot better than most people think, but it's actually that lousy reputation that works for us here" Trish replied. "The factory that made the things on Kathil was destroyed back in '96, and because everyone thought it was ****** awful nobody has ever bought the rights from General Motors to make the things themselves. We might be able to get the license, blueprints and maybe even the full technical package from GM for next to nothing."
"I assume there's more to this than saving money, judging from your expression." Bremman correctly surmised.
"Oh, it's genius!" Trish enthused. "If we use an endo-steel chassis we can swap out the AC/2 peashooters for Improved AC/5's which helps the firepower a lot, even before a change to ferro-fibrous armor makes it a bit tougher and double heat sinks lets you use all the lasers as much as you like without overheating" she said. "Taken together with its rep It'll be badly underestimated by anyone that decides to try and hit one of our colonies, which is good for us tactically, but more importantly it'll also hopefully mean we're underestimated strategically by the Successor States too."
"Because if we're relying on supposedly crappy mechs like the Blackjack to protect ourselves how strong can we really be?" Bremman followed through her chain-of-thought. "it'll also make them wonder how much money we have if we went for a cheap licensing deal."
"Yeah." Trish confirmed, nodding. "We can do something similar with the Hussar light. They've got a reputation of having tinfoil for armor, because most people don't know just how much better protected the Royal version of the machine is, but even the better informed won't have a clue about our new model Extended-Range Large Laser giving it the ability to hit without being hit back."
"They finally got it to work?"
"It's still not ready for mass production yet but it won't be long. The Nova Cats had a prototype working before Klondike so it's taken us a few years to catch up, okay a full decade more or less, but we're just about there. We'll definitely have it ready before we're able to put the Hussar into production anyhow."
"Remember that the navy is going to want those too, so don't think you ground-pounders are going to get to monopolise the production run" Bremman told her flatly. "I've already complained to General Romanov that we're not getting our fair share of the Enhanced ERPPCs coming off the line."
Trish was about to disagree with that notion when the windows started to rattle again, albeit a little less than when the Mule had lifted off earlier. "That should be an Overlord bringing back the latest cargo of salvage from Algenib." Bremman told her. "Hopefully we'll be able to abandon the Command Circuit and bring back all our ships soon."
"Your engineers managed to get that Royalty Class Jumpship running again yet?" Trish asked out of curiosity.
"Not since the last time I checked. Rickenbacker had to fill her full of holes before she struck her colours" Bremman replied. "Her jumpcore didn't take a hit, so she is repairable, but even once they get her working well enough to get her back here that Royalty is going to need a long time in the yard before she'll be all that useful. Her armament is mostly a memory, and half her armour needs replacing, and without those a Royalty is just a second-rate Star Lord."
"The yard we don't even have yet you mean" Trish noted.
"True. Even when Thunderer and Rawhide get back with what they could strip from Camelot it's not just a 'some assembly required' scenario, we'll still need to build an orbital structure over Elizabeth to house the yard" Bremman said glumly. "We've nearly got the orbital forge operational now at least, and the flow of asteroidal metals to feed the thing is ramping up, but a yard isn't even in the top five of priorities for my zero-gee construction crews."
"Still going with the recharge stations first?"
"Yes, but after the zenith station is put together here the next one is going to be at AJC before we place one at Alphard according to the latest plan" Bremman told her.
Trish looked confused. "AJC?" she queried.
Bremman grinned. "You haven't heard yet? It's what they decided to call the system we're going to use to quick-charge ships traveling from Niops to Alphard." he explained. "There were a few candidates but we eventually picked an F7V star that's just within jump-range of Niops, so about two-thirds the way to Alphard. It didn't have as large an asteroid belt as the alternative choices, so it's not quite as good for mining operations as we would have wanted ideally, but from AJC you can get to Alphard, Stafford and Copernicus in one jump so it's more useful strategically."
"Why are we calling it 'AJC' though?" she asked.
"That's just the initials. It's actually 'Annie Jump Cannon' but AJC is quicker to say." Bremman explained. "She was a real person, a twentieth-century astronomer apparently. Face it, we have a government that is going to name every system they can after an astronomer or astrophysicist."
"So you're telling me we're seriously calling somewhere we'll be using for quick-charging Kearny-Fuchida jump drives to speed up deployments, 'A jump cannon'?" Trish asked him, nonplussed.
"It was that or call it Tycho Brahe and that's not funny at all" Bremman responded, grinning again. "Astronomers have a sense of humour, who knew?" he asked rhetorically. "On another matter, that Blackjack idea made me think. We're going to need more dropships at some point, not military ones those we've got more than we realistically need, I mean civilian cargo transporters" he continued. "If we could get a license and blueprints to produce the CargoKing from Federated-Boeing that would be ideal, and because they never managed to get anyone to order enough to warrant putting them into production it might not even be expensive."
"Is there something special about these things?"
"They were intended to replace the Mule, and probably would have if the Star League hadn't collapsed. They can carry more cargo and they're more automated, needing less crew to run during transit while the loading and unloading of cargo is handled by robotics" Bremman told her. "Unlike most everyone else these days we've still got the high-tech manufacturing needed to produce them, or we will when the production lines and dropship yard from Camelot arrives, what we don't have is a manpower surplus."
"So, basically the same reason we're looking to buy as many mining robots from Earthwerks as we possibly can, the committee was discussing that yesterday" Trish replied, nodding her understanding. "I'll run the CargoKing proposal past them, but they usually love technological solutions so I'd bet you'd get sign-off if you put in a written request."
Bremman smiled. "There was a military version of the dropship too, the CargoMaster, so if the price Federated-Boeing wants us to pay for the CargoKing plans is really low we might want to try and get those too" he advised. "We could even agree to not export either type if they're concerned that we might eventually eat into their existing market share of Inner Sphere dropship production."
"Oh, while we're on the subject of selling dropships I heard you want to off-load the ones we got from the pirates?" Trish asked suddenly.
"Our Overlords are better than the old Dictators they were using as battalion transports so if we kept them they'd just be gathering dust somewhere" Bremman replied. "The Magistracy might go for them, I'd bet they'd pay more for them than the Free Worlds League at least and I'd be less worried about the Magestrix ever using them to try and invade us than I would the Captain-General."
"If we told the Magistracy we took them off the Blood Rain after we kicked their ass that would probably go down well too, everyone in the periphery from Illyria to Alpheratz hates those bastards" Trish reasoned. "Thinking about it that might be a really good way to introduce ourselves properly to the neighbours" she suggested, considering the diplomatic side of the equation. "We were probably going to try and strike a deal with Majesty Metals and Manufacturing for purchases of industrial plant and machinery anyway, low-tech heavy engineering stuff like rolling mills, so their government putting in a good word in our favour would be useful there. Good PR pays dividends."
"Those guys also produce a licensed copy of the Sabre if we're ever thinking about stationing a squadron or two of aerospace fighters at Alphard, or Comstock or wherever and want to keep our better machines back here" Bremman suggested. "They'd be good enough to keep pirates away and it wouldn't be hard to upgrade them later if we had to. The Royal Sabre was basically just a regular one with an XL engine, double-heat-sinks and six medium lasers instead of three. It's not practically a complete rebuild from the ground up like some of the Royal ASF's were."
Trish smiled. "What would we do with the old fusion engine we took out?"
"Hell if I know. Modify it for use in a ground vehicle instead and stick in a tank or something maybe?" Bremman suggested with a shrug. "I was just spitballing really. We've got more fighters than we need right now, but if we're going to start claiming systems then eventually we won't, and it would be easier to buy them from elsewhere than set up a production line. We've got the money and the tech, we just won't have the people to staff another factory complex anytime soon" he pointed out. "If we wanted a mix of light and medium fighters for a more balanced force we could see if the Free Worlds League will allow Andurien AeroTech to sell us the Stingray as well. It's a lot harder hitting than a Sabre, and pretty maneuverable in an atmosphere, but it's not that fast so we wouldn't just want those on their own."
"More your area of expertise than mine so I'll take you word for it" Trish replied. "Bringing the conversation back to why I'm here how quickly would you be able to have the forces in place needed to secure the systems the government wants made unofficial protectorates?" she asked. "Olson is going to ask me, and I'd like to be able to answer authoritatively."
"If he wants it done properly, ten to twelve weeks minimum and a free hand to transfer aerospace squadrons around, maybe including a couple from the NAM. The biggest source of delay is that all our Star Lords are still stuck in the Command Circuit to Algenib for now, with some of them several weeks away even if we recalled them early" Bremman told her. "I can deploy a couple of smaller jumpships to Comstock and Francas in the interim if he wants, stick an Overlord on each with a squadron of fighters and maybe a couple of companies of mechs loaded aboard, but the mechs are more your department."
"We'll have to run this all past Romanov and Hallis anyway, but I'm sure Olson will be pleased if we can do something quickly. Between you and me I think he's looking for something he can campaign on in the election next year" Trish confided. "The noble and mighty Niops Association defending our poor, benighted neighbors from those that would do them harm."
"And with the dynamic Giles Olson leading the charge for Truth, Justice and the Hegemony Way" Bremman responded with a chuckle. "If he plays up Comstock and Francas being Terran citizens that might actually work for him pretty well. The press coverage about the Algenib operation focused a lot on the rescued slaves from Comstock in particular."
"Easier to identify with people whose families emigrated to the periphery straight from Terra, Caph or Dieron I guess" Bremman supposed. "You know, given our manpower problem we could think about hiring from Comstock and Francas, assuming that the civilian leadership would find that more acceptable than signing up people from Alphard, for example."
"Franklin already had that same basic idea." Trish told him. "He thinks if we started out by recruiting, training and equipping a couple of infantry battalions to help them defend their own planets we could move on from there to asking for volunteers to serve other places."
Bremman looked thoughtful. "Thinking about it we could even do it all Roman Empire style. Garrison other periphery worlds with Terran Hegemony citizens from Comstock and Francas and give the grunts land on the planet they were guarding to settle on after they retire" he suggested. "I can't see many people from Niops wanting to relocate, we're going to have a higher standard of living here than anywhere else in our corner of the galaxy for the foreseeable future, but maybe that isn't the only way to make Alphard and the rest a bit more culturally Terran."
"Olson has the notion that once we eventually go public we might see an influx of immigrants from former Hegemony worlds looking to live under the Cameron Star again" Trish told him. "It might even happen if the next Succession War is remotely as bloody as the last one, and people go looking for somewhere safer to live out on the Rim where they only have to worry about pirates not thermonuclear exchanges and orbital bombardment."
"If it's remotely as bloody as the last one it might not just be refugees from the old Hegemony worlds that start turning up looking for a new home." Bremman responded. "According to our intelligence gathering there's maybe half-a-dozen inhabited systems nearby belonging to the Free Worlds League that won't survive much longer unless the Mariks start pumping in some serious money and resources, and they can't if they're spending everything they can on the military" he told her. "And that's just the ones within two jumps of here."
Trish frowned. "You know if a couple of million refugees from the League suddenly turn up at our doorstep uninvited, and if we're not going to just tell them to get lost, we'll have to try settling them somewhere."
"Several somewheres unless we want a world with a majority population of former Marik subjects" Bremman responded. "If that committee you're on is looking for suggestions then suggest they make contingency plans to deal with that scenario" he advised. "Just feeding them means we're going to need a lot more farm equipment."
"Even more tractors, combine-harvesters and agromechs for the list then I guess" Trish replied. "If we can still lay our hands on any agricultural robots we'll be reserving them for Niops" she said, noting that, as-ever, Admiral Bremman was thinking in the longer term. High Associator Olson thought very highly of Bremman, he had mentioned on a few occasions that the admiral had 'vision', though she also suspected that Bremman's ability to follow an academic conversation about astronomy was a factor there too. Naval officers just tended to know a lot more about types of stars and planetary orbits than ground-pounders did, and for good reason, it stopped them crashing into celestial objects.
"Yeah, we're definitely going to need them if that projected population growth I saw in the newspaper last week is accurate" Bremman responded, rolling his eyes as he remembered reading it incredulously over breakfast. "How many damn Iron Wombs did that journalist think we brought here with us anyway? A hundred thousand?"
"She must have. You know she'll be very disappointed when the first new batch of Ironborn decanted next year isn't even a hundred strong" Trish replied, laughing. There were plans to set up a production lines to make a lot more of the machines, but not for a while yet. As usual there was just something that was always a higher priority.
"Talking of Ironborn, how's McEvedy junior doing?"
"Jennifer's doing well. Handling going to school better than most of the rest her sibko fortunately."
"Sounds like McEvedy genes. Adapting to changing circumstances, not rigidly adhering to prior tradition and codes of conduct" Bremman observed, albeit only semi-seriously.
"I'm just waiting for the inevitable arguments with the principal when she breaks a rule that she thinks is stupid" Trish joked. "She'll persuade her class to secede and go start their own school somewhere else."
Bremman laughed. "Just make sure she keeps wearing her hair long, if she goes for a pixie cut like Khan McEvedy she'll freak everyone out. She already looks even more like her genetic donor than most of the cannister kids do."
"Just as long as she doesn't dye it blonde. Do you remember when Sarah did that, it looked terrible on her. I kept wanting to tell her so, but I was just some lowly Star Captain and didn't even have a blood-name yet." Trish recalled.
"I think Dwight told her eventually. It's the saKhan's prerogative to tell the Khan what they're doing wrong" Bremman replied. "Not usually about choice of hair colour but you're right, it didn't suit her at all" he agreed. Sarah McEvedy had been a tall, striking woman with piercing eyes and having blonde hair had detracted from that somehow.
"Franklin thinks I abuse that privilege" Trish confided, smirking. "What can I say, it's funny to yank his chain, especially when he's in that 'I have to live up to the standards Sarah would have expected of me' mood he gets into sometimes when he's being dour and introspective. She was never that damn formal or intransigent, and Dwight was downright amiable, so I say Wolverine Khans and saKhans shouldn't have a stick up their ass, it's just not who we are."
Bremman nodded. He had always liked the way Khan McEvedy didn't just tolerate disagreement, she wanted to be told if you thought she was doing something wrong, which worked for him because she didn't understand naval operations nearly as well as she had ground ones. "Out of interest has Hallis persuaded Romanov that she should get a kid of her own out of the Iron Wombs yet?" he asked. "It might help persuade the rest of the 295th to embrace the concept, and it's not like they're going to have any more children the natural way at this point. If nothing else it would help widen the warrior-caste gene-pool."
"The 'Warrior Caste' Admiral? How Kerenskyite of you" Trish chided. "I might not have the military rank to rap your knuckles for that, but I do in the clan hierarchy" she said impishly in a manner that betrayed her relatively young age, still being barely thirty and a couple of decades younger than Bremman.
"You know what I mean, saKhan Ebon" Bremman responded, only somewhat abashed by his faux-pas. "Chances are most of the Association military is going to be carrying genes from our people or Romanov's going forward, a lot of what makes for a good soldier are inheritable genetic traits and the 295th have plenty of people that have proved they were damn-fine soldiers."
"I completely agree" Trish told him. "Even Colonel Benedict has come around to the same line of thinking, although his idea of tempting the Tsarina around was for us to create a Romanov bloodname, thinking it couldn't possibly fail to sway her."
"New bloodnames not sanctioned by the ilKhan? Isn't that heresy?" Bremman joked.
Trish smiled. "To be honest it's not really such a bad idea. If nothing else think how much it would annoy the crap out of Nicky K if he ever found out" she said. "I have my doubts that General Romanov would go for it though. She thinks clan-stuff is weird."
"Objectively, it is weird" Bremman observed. "I mean, what kind of society allows a mere colonel to rap the knuckles of a flag officer, an admiral for example, for a slip of the tongue" he asked rhetorically, trying not to laugh. "It's bad enough that we're on our second khan, and third saKhan, and they've all been Mechwarriors" he complained. "I should have joined the Snow Ravens, they don't discriminate against swabbies."
"And they only nuked their own capital city by accident once." Trish quipped. "Too soon?" she added in response to Bremman's look of disapproval for that one.
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===Winning Bet Arrives===
The building began to shake again, though not nearly as much as before, as another dropship started to lift off. "NAM Confederate on the way to Niops V." Bremman said, not looking around to check.
"If it is then it might be carrying the lance of upgraded Burke tanks Brigadier Nellis was talking about at a meeting I sat in on a few days ago" Trish theorized. "The council is still insisting that the NAM remain separate from the regular army, but also want it integrated, so Nellis reports directly to Romanov and Olson which makes the chain-of-command a lot messier than it needs to be and all the extra paperwork is driving Nellis up the wall."
Bremman shrugged, what else could you expect from politicians and bureaucrats, he thought to himself? "From what I heard the NAM guys who tagged along did okay on Algenib." he said.
"Franklin certainly says so, they helped mop up what was left of the Blood Rain after the big battle and fought a decent-sized skirmish with a few lances of Jackrabbit and Firestarter lights too after our lights flushed them out of hiding. They captured a freaking Warcrime Whitworth as well, you know a WTH-0, it was with the enemy lights. Damn nice trophy, I'll bet they put it in a museum."
"They'll have to build the museum first. Something else for your list" Bremman told her. "Just make sure it's low-priority."
"I'll try but I spent an hour yesterday arguing that a factory to make J-U Water Purifiers was a better use of resources than building a new neutrino observatory, so I probably used up some goodwill there" Trish told him.
"If we can get those things turned out in meaningful numbers then there's a fair few extra systems we can think about colonising at some point" Bremman said, considering the possibilities. "Our survey teams turned up several that would be viable if they had a decent supply of fresh water" he said, picking up his noteputer, standing up and walking over to the viewscreen on the wall pushing buttons.
The image of the large viewscreen changed to a map of the local systems and Bremman pointed to one. "Here's one example. We named it Huygens" he said. "It's within jump-range of both Algenib and Islington and it's got a planet in the goldilocks zone that's marginal for habitation right now, but it does have oceans and with a little help from our old friends Jamerson and Ulikov, well it'll probably be nicer to live there than Niops V and it'll have better weather."
Trish smiled. "You're thinking further ahead than I was. I was arguing we needed the purifiers to allow development of the island continent on Alphard."
"And here I was thinking we were going to call it 'New Australia' and fill it full of convict labor." Bremman replied.
"We can't call it that. Captain Francis and his Australia Tribe would claim ownership" Trish joked.
"Okay then, Crux, we should rename it Crux" Bremman suggested.
"Crux?"
"Constellation visible from the southern hemisphere on Terra." Bremman explained. "They also call it the Southern Cross, it's on the Australian flag."
"I'll suggest it to the committee" Trish told him grinning. "Anything to do with stars and they're bound to…" she continued being cut-off by sudden beeping alarm and the viewscreen suddenly switching to a different image automatically.
"Unscheduled inbound jump-signature." Bremman said looking at the screen, frowning as he did so. "We're networked with the Monitoring Station at NAM Headquarters" he told her as another smaller image appeared superimposed on the screen. "Orbital telescopes re-training to the Zenith point. The astro-nerds are going to be pissed, they hate it when we borrow their toys unannounced."
Scrolling data started to appear on the viewscreen. "Multiple inbounds, and they're big." Bremman said, reading the estimates. "Really freaking big!" he added. "Aerospace Defence Condition raised to Level Two. Duty squadrons and warships being alerted to possible hostile incursion."
"You guys practice for this a lot don't you?" Trish observed, it seemed like everything was running like clockwork to her. The Admiral didn't even have to issue any orders, it was all smooth and meticulously rehearsed.
"Drills twice a week, never know when Nicky K is going to turn up" Bremman replied calmly, continuing to read the data. "We keep two squadrons of Ahabs carrying nukes on standby at all times" he said. "Yukon, Saratoga, Protecteur and Cape Bon ordered to action stations."
Because of the light-speed time-delay the incoming vessels would have already arrived and been identified by the guard vessels at the Zenith jump-point well before that information reached Niops VII. You just had to wait and cross your fingers that the telescopes weren't about to record the momentary flash of nuclear detonations going off in a vacuum.
"Hot damn. It's the Ulithi!" Bremman announced gleefully as the ships arriving were identified. "She's got Buccaneer and Maverick with her, they must have managed to get her working almost as soon as they go to Buffalo Meadows" he said, grinning. "The jury-rigged jumpdrive repair worked."
"Crap. I had fifty bucks on Rawhide getting back here before Ulithi made it." Trish grumbled. "I was sure she'd break-down again on the way and that would cost her at least another few months."
"Oh ye of little faith." Bremman responded sounding a little smug. "It might have been a kludge fix but it was a well-engineered kludg.e" he said. Having been fortunate enough to have another Potemkin in their possession while working out how they might be able to get around the problem with Ulithi's drive had been a blessing, almost as much of a blessing as having a Project Workshop to actually make the bespoke custom gadget required. "You put your money on the wrong Potemkin."
"You had money on Ulithi didn't you?" Trish asked him suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.
"Nah, I might have been accused of wagering using insider knowledge." Bremman told her honestly. "Could be really noisy around here for a while if we've got six regiments worth of battlemechs that need to be ferried down and unloaded" he observed. "I hope you ground-pounders have somewhere to park them because I don't want them cluttering up my spaceport and making it look unsightly."
"Unsightly? I like to think of them as ornamental features" Trish disagreed. "I'd much rather have a mech in my front yard than a garden gnome." she said. "Unless it's a JagerMech, those things look like a Rifleman whose parents were brother and sister. Franklin's old Shadow-Griffin was prettier, swear to God" she said, holding up one hand as if making an oath.
"Romanov is going to be pleased that the rest of her people are finally here too. At least we've got housing for them and the food situation is better than it was when we turned up" Bremman noted. "I guess we'll have to throw the latecomers a party, as well as get them caught up on recent events."
"I can't wait to see their reaction when we tell them we probably just won the last battle of the Amaris War and we've got Bernard-******-Critchly locked up in a cell." Trish exclaimed, grinning. "They are going to be ****** pissed that they missed it by volunteering to stay behind until we could go fetch them."
"No good deed goes unpunished." Bremman sagely observed.
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==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : As saKhan Tricia Ebon outranks Jacob Bremman within the clan structure, but he outranks her in military terms. I can readily imagine General Romanov wondering what the hell to do with her and concluding that making her the military liason to the civilian government was the solution (because it could be viewed as having high-status but avoids some chain-of-command issues).With a great deal of rushed construction going on build-quality is likely to suffer. the SLDF Navy got themselves a new HQ at the spaceport but it's not exactly a pretty or particularly refined structure (plain concrete box with windows that rattle).I personally think that Annie Jump Cannon is a great name for a system where you want to build a Olympus Recharge Station for Kearny-Fuchida jumpships. You can't get from Niops to Alphard in one jump so you need to stop somewhere and AJC is well placed to get to other inhabited worlds too (Stafford and Copernicus).The BJ-1 Blackjack medium 'mech has a lousy (though largely undeserved) reputation because the early production machines had a litany of faults that weren't fixed until after it's bad rep was fixed in people's minds. It's main long-range armament of a pair of A/C-2 autocannon are pretty lacklustre (long-range, no punch) but Niops easily has the technology to make a better, harder-hitting Blackjack.The clan version of the Extended Range Large Laser was in prototype by 2820 (so before the Wolverine Secession) but it wasn't actually put into production (by Clan Nova Cat) until 2825. Niops wasn't starting from scratch on the technology but they won't have the things until a few years after the other clans do. The HSR-200-Db 'Royal' version of the Hussar mounted the older Star League era ERLL but by the time they have them in production they'll have a clan equivalent weapon to put on them instead. The HSR-200-Db used a 270XL fusion engine like the one used by the Stag so they already have a production line for those. As an advanced light scout mech it also carries a Beagle Active Probe and a Guardian ECM system (which proved their worth recently on Algenib) and they have production lines for them too (the Mercury II carries both). Taken altogether choosing an upgraded HSR-200-Dbn Niops version of the Hussar for eventual production just makes sense (less retooling needed).If you've got a high-tech industrial base, but lack manpower, then the CargoKing and CargoMaster might be a good choice for transport dropship production. Federated-Boeing-Interstellar never managed to get anyone to buy them (the First Succession War made budgets very tight and eventually technological sliding made the robotics inside LosTech) so if someone approached with a sack of money looking to buy the blueprints for licensed production they might jump at it. Again, if manpower is an issue, Earthwerks Incorporated started out making mining robots and they're not LosTech (yet).The Sabre light aerospace fighter is made in the Magistracy, the Stingray medium ASF in production by the Free Worlds League. Since setting up a factory to make new aerospace fighters domestically isn't going to be a priority then importing any additional ones required from the neighbours is likely to seem like a better option for a while.The 295th's Potemkin class Warship Ulithi finally reaches Niops along with the Sovetskii Soyuz class cruiser Buccaneer and the Monolith class transport Maverick that were sent to fetch her. She comes bearing gifts, the six regiments of battlemechs that the 295th mothballed on Buffalo Meadows.
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Chapter 16