WoWS3 Chpt 31

<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 31 - ==
----
===Negotiations between national leaders===
Throne Room, Triad
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
10th July, 3144
Helena Cameron had not been to the Triad in a long time. Only a handful of times at most, all when she was much younger.
The pair of Battlemechs certainly were imposing but she couldn’t help but feel they were impractical for the task.
“May I present Lady Helena Cameron, first of her name. First Lord of the Star League in Exile, Director General of the Terran Hegemony in Exile, and the Eternal Princess.” Ezekiel announced.
Helena shot him a glance at the last title but composed herself.
“Welcome, Lady Cameron. I must admit I am surprised with your reputation about the nature of forces under your command that your honor guard is all human.” Trillian Steiner-Davion stated flatly.
“A deliberate choice by the architect behind the Regiment, Archon Stiener.”
“I will not lie, it is a reassuring one. Though I admit we here have all developed a certain fondness to a particular member of your diplomatic delegation.” Trillian told her
“Alice seems to have that effect on people no matter where she goes.” Helena commented.
“Shall we move to a space more conducive to negotiation then?” Trillian smiled.
“At your leisure, Archon Stiener.”
----
They began walking with their various bodyguards following along.
“You intrigue me, Lady Cameron. Logic says I should be denouncing you as a fraud, that there is no way you really are the youngest sister of the last First Lord of the Star League. Yet somehow I do believe that the Star League at its height was able to produce a life extending serum that grants a much prolonged life and despite everything you survived the Coup.”
“I get that a lot, Archon Stiener. My sister survived too and believe it or not she’ll actually outlive me despite everything she has been through. But that is not my story to tell without her permission.”
They came to a conference room and entered.
Trillian sat at one end of the table flanked by bodyguards while Helena did the same at the other end of the table.
“Still you must have some fascinating stories to tell having been witness to so much history.” Trillian told her.
“I’ll be glad to tell you a few of them.”
“Business first.” Trillian said
“Agreed.” 
“I’m inclined to agree to your compromise in principle. Obviously there are fine details to be worked out.” Trillian commented.
“Standard expeditionary forces rules. While operating in your territory your liaisons have operational seniority and thus final call but our forces will operate under our regulations and abide by law. The joint command on Skye is our show. It’ll be purely voluntary and loss rates will be higher than you’re likely used to but lower than Clan Standards.”
“Still a bit broad strokes but agreeable enough.” Trillian commented.
“Well the real nitty gritty is about to start. Because you don’t have a Navy and until you do, that school on Skye isn’t going to mean a whole lot. To get you by I’m willing to sell you Tracker class vessels. Technically Warships but they look and act enough like standard commercial Jumpships that they can serve in that role during peacetime but effectively be self escorting in fringe areas that lack the power to take even a low grade Warship. It’ll be imperfect but it’ll get you by until you get more yards than just Gibbs up and running and figure out your own designs.”
“Thankfully, the trade deals brokered by your daughter has managed to do the groundwork for currency exchanges.”
“Yes but now we’ll have to talk maintenance schedules, pricing, and establishing Visas for students.”
“You sound like you have a lot of experience.”
“I had a really good tutor. His name is David Foster. I’ll have a copy of his book series sent over later. I think you’ll find it enlightening.” she told Archon.
“One other item I wish to talk with you about while you are here. Your Ambassador, no, your daughter. She’s impressed me. Enough I’d like to talk contingency plans to secure both our realms futures.”
“I knew this was coming. I preach personal choice and freedom but the reality is she is my daughter and she is in the game. I think on some level she knows that with it being public what family line she is a part of she knows that this discussion was inevitable. Roderick?”
“Depends on if he hits it off with another person, I’ve sent him off to meet but yes.”
“I understand. You want him to have a choice as well, at least to an extent and another candidate presented themselves first.”
“I realize it is an awkward situation now.”
“No mother likes the idea of their daughter being the second choice. But in this case I do find some relief in the idea.”
“That is one minefield navigated then.”
“To an extent, yes. But let us navigate the others first before we come back to this one.”
----
===Fight for Redemption===
Two jumps from Lazarus
1st August, 3144
The system wasn't empty. "Transponder squawk is SLS Indianapolis."
Amanda studied the ship on telescope. "She's running damaged, also running Jade Falcon colors. What's her audio ident?"
"CJF White Aerie."
"That's one of Malvina's, If I remember right, one of the ones on the missing list."
"Ayeh"
"Launch fighters and prep for battle, set condition one throughout the ship, and hit them with a hail, let's see who we're really dealing with."
<<"This is Star Admiral Brenda Von Jankmon!! Who dares challenge the might of the Jade Falcons?">>
"Hi Brenda, I am The Great Captain Roberts, and if you stand down your weapons and drives and promise to be good, I won't kill you."
>>"You cannot be, she is dead!">>
"I got better. Surrender your vessel, your clan is past-tense, you're in bad shape, I have you outgunned. Be intelligent. I don't want to kill you, you don't want to be dead."
Her quartermaster on the side channel interrupted, "Does that ever work?"
"There's always a chance for a first time…" Amanda commented.
"She's launching fighters and those jammer-equipped smallcraft."
"Oh goody…Arnold, play EW games, CAG, get my fighters in the air in attack configuration, gunnery, lock on to their damage. Helm, prep evasive pattern Foster three."
A series of acknowledgments of commands came back as the ship almost seemed to settle down into itself, becoming sleeker and more aggressive.
"Yo, ho, ho…" Amanda cheerfully said.
A vessel this size was not supposed to have 3gs of thrust available to it, but it did anyway.
The familiar pull of acceleration pushing her down, then to the side, and even away from her command couch was almost welcome despite the discomfort.
“Ma’am, hate to correct you from earlier but a Black Lion actually considerably outguns us straight up.” Amanda’s XO commented.
"Yeah, but he's damaged." Amanda said, "Port side and forward weapons bays are slagged, and he's burning red in three of his thrusters, means damage to his fusion toruses and his heat sinkage and PDU. helm, hold us at range overlap and guns, keep focus fire on those damaged areas."
“Aye, ma’am.”
“Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat. We are cheating. We got a significant ASF advantage and unlike them we can actually bracket fire meaningfully.” Amanda added.
On the monitors, White Aerie's fighter stars were blipping out, as they came across the space-fighters from Amusing Anecdote, and with them, the ECM coverage from the Clanner small-craft.
"Okay, Brenda…how are you going to play this…" Amanda muttered to herself. "Your fighter coverage is almost gone, you're not close to a jump point, where are your dropships?"
Damage alerts sounded as their opponent landed a few hits. "Damage control systems to nose starboard and Starboard broadside."
“Armor is holding in those areas.”
A double flash on the monitor as some of their hits dug deep, striking powerplants and other critical spaces.
"She's dumping helium!"
"Keep firing."
The sensors showed the White Aerie trying to bring it’s engines up to full power, to close the distance where it could make most effect of it’s firepower advantage.
"Maintain distance, helm, keep us just off their port side, even if they roll." she ordered, "CAG, how long before the strike fighters hit them?"
"Four minutes thirty."
Amanda felt the tension, come on, dammit, you're crippled, you'll need us to get you help if you want to ground your crew!
“Hang on, going to hard over with lots of lateral thrust!”
As expected the White Aerie tried to roll but the Amusing Anecdote suddenly almost stood up in relation swinging around with lateral thrust and the main engines putting it almost into a orbit around the White Aerie.
"UNNNGGGHHH!!!"
Amanda almost blacked out as the maneuver continued, blazes of capital weapons fire reaching to chew temporarily at the Clan warship's undamaged segments before settling once again on the damage.
It went on, and on…until the strike wings hit it.
A double flash of silvery light announced the first alamos hitting the drive section.
"SENSORS! Look for escape pods!!" Amanda ordered. "We are not leaving anyone to die of thirst, starvation, or anoxia out here!! CAG, scramble SAR birds."
"Can we afford that?"
"We damned well better, I'm not going to look David Foster in the eyes after I leave men to die in darkness and silence!" Amanda shouted.
“Ugghhh.. That’s what they say only pull an Aldo in a fighter or a small craft.” Tamra Graves muttered from helm.
In the distance, the wreck of the White Aerie burned and broke up, escape pods and lifeboats feebly trying to get clear.
"CAG, get my SAR teams in the air, all hands set to condition two, repressurize the hull, DC teams and units, make sure we aren't leaking, that is all."
-----
Fifteen hours of SAR operations later…
"Hello, Brenda. Nice to see we got you out of that in time." She was…exactly like a holovid character.
“You should have left me to DIE!!"
"No, no, no." Amanda Roberts shook her head, "See, I have a little list…you're not on it, so I've got a moral obligation to not let you die of anoxia and radiation when I can do something about it, but cheer up, I may most likely kill you in the morning."
“Why.. Why did my crew put me in that pod… I should have been allowed to die… Please. Allow me to honor my traditions.” Brenda said.
"Because they're decent human beings, I imagine." Amanda said, "We got a few newts off the wreck too-they're in a secondary sick bay, when you can walk again, I'll probably let you see 'em."
“I wish to claim Bondsref.” former Star Commodore asked.
"Since I don't take bondsmen I'll just have the marines post a suicide watch on you. You, Brenda Von Jankmon, Star commodore according to your file, are a prisoner of war, under Star League rules. Means I can't let you kill yourself until you're healthy…which you aren't right now."
“My failure is complete then.”, Brenda said.
"Failure, according to a brilliant Naval mind who taught me how to be a person again, is inevitable, it's how you cope with it, and what you do after, that is the true measure of your character. We should NOT have been able to brew your ship up like that with what we were using." Amanda paused, "You're not on the 'war criminals' list, Brenda. What happened?"
“Most of my crew and our attendant Dropships wished to go with the others to Clan Wolf. I objected. We settled the matter in the way of the Clans. There were after effects. With nowhere else to go I sought the home of the Eternal Princess. I was intent on one last act of redemption. To make her pay for all she had done to us.”
"Redemption…" Amanda shook her head, "You'll get the chance to tell her that yourself, also? Your navigator had you WAY off course for Lazarus, you were steaming toward the wrong region when you picked that fight."
“Stravag, it is that close to the Fortress Wall? Of course it is…” Brenda commented.
"Yah." Amanda nodded, "You'll learn, maybe if you take the next couple weeks of recovery time to think you might even do that thing intelligent people do, where you examine your priorities and the events that led you there, and pick something other."
“Why, why bother with me? I have no honor left and I have proven a failure in every conceivable way.”
"The same brilliant man taught me there are two kinds of honor-there's the honor in public, and the honor inside you. One of those, is real." Amanda told her, "You gotta pick which, the nice thing about being a real person, is that you can change your mind. Back home, we're a simpler folk, really. Are your promises better than your threats? Only you can decide that one."
“I find I am at a loss. I feel no honor whatsoever anymore.”
"Well, when we get you off the painkillers and you have a clear head? You can think about it more rationally. We're a couple weeks out before I turn you over. I would consider it a kindness if you didn't try to undo the six hours of surgery before the stitches heal-my doctor's a sensitive sort, she doesn't take kindly to that sort of undoing of her hard work-and if she has to patch you together, she might put a nerve-block to paralyze you until you're actually healed."
“I will abide by your terms. I seem to have no alternatives anyway.”
Amanda smiled, "Fair. When you're clearer, we'll go over the list of survivors from your crew, so you know you're not alone. When you're healed enough, you'll get to spend actual time with them. Just one thing-if your ship had been in better shape, we would've lost-you're good, you just weren't equipped to make use of it."
“I am unworthy of such praise. Your helmsman is insane though with that trick they pulled.”
"She reminds me of a more skilled, prettier, better and younger me." Amanda allowed impishly, "She's going to be even better with more time on deck."
“The old must always make way for the new. The one constant that we all know…”
“But the old still guides them as best they can to make sure they’re better than we were.” Amanda completed.
Amanda stood as the autodoc whirred, and the Falcon officer lost consciousness in a narcotic haze. "Make sure she lives, Vendetta. They're going to want to interview the last leader of the Falcon Navy."
"Yes, mother."
-----
===Aiding the Lyrans===
Port Lazarus - Space Dock
New Lazarus
28th August, 3144
has been too long Amanda.” Helena Cameron greeted her at the docks.
"Lifetimes." Amanda Roberts (Prime) returned the hug, "My girls haven't' been giving you too many fits, have they?"
“No more than you did.”
“Funny, that, I've got more gray hairs than you, so they must've been at least slightly less stressful. I brought some extra presents." Amanda commented
“I read the reports. I’m glad you made it safely. Though it sounds like we may need to beef up patrols along the trade routes.” Helena told her in Port's airlocks.
"Well, y'know, I'm a troublemaker. Sixty Jade Falcons, the surviving crew of CJF White Aerie, aka SLS Indianapolis."
“Well I guess I should be glad you managed sixty. The Mongols have a nasty tendency to suicide rather than surrender or evacuate.”
"Enough of the crew weren't Mongols to find the keys to the escape pods, and they even evacuated their CO." Amanda confided, "Whom I've been keeping drugged in the secure section of the medbay."
“Well sounds like Juanita is going to have an interesting afternoon then.”
"Yah, she will…how's Dave doing? And the others?" Amanda asked
“Dave’s looking forward to meeting with you as soon as he’s off shift. Which should be any minute now.”
"How did the diplomacy go? I noticed there's signs of mobilization, but not as many as I feared." Amanda asked
“Trillian is vexing my daughter but we’ve made good progress there. Alaric agreed to a one year peace but he’s definitely planning something. Hence why I couldn’t completely clear Dave’s schedule for him to be here to meet you.” Helena commented
"Alaric Steiner is his mother's boy, at least, Priss thinks so and the data we have suggests she's right." Amanda noted. "He's up to something, bet on it."
“Yes. He’s shrewd enough that he’s engineered the situation to where we would be the aggressors and breakers of the treaty if we did anything now. I hate to say it but he could win the peace if peace were the way of the Clans.”
"Damn, I was hoping I was wrong." Amanda muttered. "Okay, so we have a year to prepare for the storm."
“Meanwhile, there are Lyran systems willingly flocking to him that I can’t do anything about. So when the time does come he will be a formidable foe.”
"Figures. I've got some science work Kolossus and Persistence came up with back home, we need to test it." Amanda sighed, "it won't fix the HPG problem completely, but it might help the actual eventual fix."
“Whatever you need.” Helena told her old friend.
"I need your core forge." Amanda said simply, "For about a month, and we brought the Germanium in bars in the hold. See, we have one experiment at Kolossus, but we need a second site this deep in, they're building a third at Port Orphan now, but you've got a proper forge..."
“From what I understand HPG cores are different beasts than Warship cores but if there is even the slightest chance we can even ease the Black Out, if not outright fix it it is worth it.” Helena told her.
"Excellent…" Amanda palmed out a Data-chit, "your AIs are going to want to parse this data and run sims while we're doing the work. I don't understand most of it but, that's with over twenty years of Kolossus teaching me."
“Honestly, I think K-F theory is meant to evade most people. Hell sometimes I wonder if Kearny and Fuchida purposefully structured their journals and papers to pull our legs.”
"Kolossus said a lot of key data was omitted in the published versions." Amanda told her, "He's been playing with it for centuries, he's found…'gaps' and some of those gaps led to this research, thing about research is that any experiment has to be replicated."
“So it shall be. I don’t think you’ve met Zulu yet. Of my AIs she’s the science nut. So good luck keeping your sanity.” Helana told Amanda as they departing the Port. 
"Oh, Kolossus would adore that!" Amanda said cheerfully, "I think even when I was AI I wasn't quick enough mentally to satisfy him. A proper AI with the right interests and he might not be bored."
“I imagine so. You’ll also need to meet Truk.” Helena told her.
“Apologies for the delay but I am here my Lady.” Truk’s avatar walked up to them. “A lot of work to be done these days and as capable of multitasking as I am still feels like there isn’t enough of me to go around. Looks like Amusing Anecdote needs some armor repair and a few internal systems looked at. I have my best crew on it.”
“Thanks, Truk.”
“Just don’t be in a rush to undo all my crew’s hard work. I know we’re about to be at war again but it would be nice to see my work last a while.”
“I’ll do my best, Truk.”
“I have more news so let’s find ourselves a bar.” Helena smiled.
-----
===Talk over couple Drinks===
Hubble’s Bubbles and Brews
New Lazarus
“So what’s this other news?” Amanda asked.
“Seems we’re in a race with each other for who becomes a grandmother first. Well in my case again. Trillian is trying to set Roderick up with one of your daughters and if that doesn’t work out she wants to set him up with Lori.” Helena told her.
“That fills me with a lot of conflicting emotions…” Amanda responded.
“Preacher, choir.” Helena
“Yeah, that must be especially confusing for you, your daughter being the second choice.” Helena told her.
“Very much so.”
“Being a mom has changed a lot for me.” Helena said
“Unavoidable.” Amanda told.
A waitress sat down a bottle of spiced rum, one low gravity shot tumbler, and a low gravity tea kettle and tumbler.
“You’ve really changed.” Amanda noted.
“I probably waited too long to clean up some bad habits, but I have.”
“So it’s true.” Amanda commented.
“Yes.”
“You don’t seem particularly bothered by it.”
“Living as long as I have I have gained an appreciation for the gift that is mortality. Plus I do have a succession plan in place and a spare if need be.” Helena commented.
"That's good. That's real good, Helena…I expected more…ire, I guess is the word, Vendetta and Kolossus told me that you'd been informed on the calving experiments."
“I’ve accepted it would be like being angry at water for being wet. It is who you are, indeed I’d probably have done similar if my circumstances were different. I didn’t because I already have a trusted network of friends and allies.”
"I neglected mine while I was running it." Amanda stated, "I got into this idea that I could make…replacements? It didn't work out that way, but it took Kolossus denying me access before they could make me stop trying."
“It is a hard lesson to learn. One we’ve both been stubborn about in our own ways. Making and maintaining connections.”
"At my lowest, I'd lost something on the order of fifty IQ points, it's taken most of this year in recovery just to get them back. The becoming stupid was part of why Kolossus cut me off."
“You’re taking steps. It will be a long journey but you’ve started it. And it makes me happy you’ll be making part of it here.”
"I'm here, because here is, as Vendetta put it, 'not Kolossus'. I have to live in the real world here, instead of concocting horror scenarios with the intent of breaking my own mind, that said, Trillian's trying to set Roderick up with one of my daughters, is it Priss?"
“Yes. She’s been trying to organize the independents to help them protect themselves from bandits and pirates.”
"Huh…I kind of wondered how she'd turned out once she wasn't in the virtual environments, once she got a taste of being human." Amanda commented.
“Well, fortunately I’ve managed to rig things so most of your daughters are here for a visit with you. Some had to be away. Peregrine should actually be back here soon though.”
"That's also good…but you're a bit wrong. I calved sixty five times, only a dozen or so have been transferred to an organic body, the rest are content to live in virtual worlds, helping Kolossus analyze exploration data or run simulated experiments." Amanda told her.
“If I had known it was that many I would have made the trip back to Kolossus during some of the relative peace periods and pulled you out myself.” Helena commented.
Amanda chuckled weakly, "Yah, We kept it quieter. The sickening part is that while I was rigging in, I got a share of their memories, their perspectives back, especially when one of my girls had to upload after a death. I'm not certain they learned all the lessons they needed to-Perfidy in particular didn't seem to develop a decent sense of self preservation."
“I don’t think I could handle that. As it is I’m having to force my staff and AIs to keep which unit my Sally is billeted with from me so I won’t be gun shy about sending it into danger.” Helena commented.
"The difference, Helena, is you're a good mother by nature, I'm…not. I've had to learn how, and made a lot of mistakes." Amanda poured herself a drink. "By all rights, my kids have every reason to despise me."
“Oh mistakes are par for the course. I screwed up so badly the first time my daughter ran off. Now I’m making the mistake of not getting to know my children as adults. I know some of that can’t be helped as David and Nathan have made their lives in the Alliance and have returned there to live them and I guess I’m fixing that with Lori.”
"At least you're fixing it." Amanda allowed, "Nobody can fault that part."
“Now you can get to know your daughters too. And look at the time.” Helena smiled as Dave Foster entered the bar. “I do believe this is my cue to let you have some alone time with your adoptive father figure. We’ll talk more later I’m sure.”
-----
"You've gotten gray." Amanda greeted Admiral David Foster, "gray-er. That hair's almost white now."
He chuckled, "And you have not been dying yours." he gestured, "Not the child I knew, a Black Lion Battlecruiser?"
"They were pre-damaged when we got there, and I followed your lecture." She allowed, "have a seat old man, it's damned good to see you in reality, instead of just a simulated memory!"
He chuckled and sat at the table, "Your drinking habits remain atrocious."
"Yep. The SLDF uniform actually looks snappy on you, sir, and the ranks are correct-not some 'fleet captain' thing, you're an actual admiral in a real navy now."
"I would be remiss if I said I didn't sometimes miss that collection we put together, Amanda. What really brought you out here, because I know it was not nostalgia."
"Super-Science." Amanda said, "and a chance to relive some of my youth…and nostalgia."
He joined her laughter. "The Amanda Roberts I remember, still scowled over the memory of Amos Forlough…and the Star League."
"Yeah, well, you know what the best way to prevent an Amos Forlough is, is to be involved enough to stop them from getting into a position to act. To do that, It's best to be in that kind of position, or at least adjacent to it." she topped up her glass, "besides, some kind of Star League is going to be absolutely necessary, and soon."
"Soon?"
"On a galactic scale. Within a few thousand years at the outside, but the sooner we get one, the sooner we can be ready for what's out there. The BIG mystery is that aside from the accident that crippled Erinyes, they haven't hit us yet. It might be we're too small, or they're busy with bigger fish, but sooner or later mankind is going to get the attention of whatever whacked that planet….at that point, it won't be what it likely was this time."
"Which is?"
"Kolossus thinks it's someone's stray shot, likely from the lesser Magellanic Cloud. Something fired from so far away, and so long ago, that a return shot would take potentially millions of years to arrive. Our logic is based on Fermi's Paradox and what Kolossus has observed about non-carbon lifeforms-that is, it's actually really easy for life to occur, and the Inner Sphere is full of it, except, only one intelligence, which doesn't fit the pattern, the volume of space we're in, should be lousy with intelligent life." Amanda told them.
"And it isn't." David commented.
She nodded. "Hypothesis is, we're not the first, or the tenth, or the ten-thousandth,we're just the most recent. Intelligent life is the best reason for the extinction of intelligent life…and I don't know about anyone else, not really, but I'm kind of against going extinct."
“And Helena represents our best shot at avoiding such a fate of all the players on the table.” Dave nodded soberly.
-----
<<Previous Chapter - Return to Story Index - Next Chapter>>
31