FSRB Chpt 46

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==The Federated Suns Reborn - Chapter 46==
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May 3065Continued expansions
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===FedSuns' Brigades continue to expand===
Having spent a number of months away from New Avalon engaged in active military campaigns the First Prince threw himself back into the role of ruler upon his return to the capital. Although he continued to train every day in his battlemech with the various garrison units at the New Avalon Combat Training Center and the NAIS grounds. By now almost the entire AFFS was referring to the Daishi class OmniMechs (the most prominent of which was the First Princes's own ride) by their clan name of Dire Wolf, perhaps as a token gesture to the new Clan Sun Jaguar. 
One of the major new changes that the First Prince did push through in May was the inclusion formally of the Fleet Admiral's position within the High Command. With the growing military might of the naval forces of the Federated Suns and their vital importance in recent campaigns having the Navy have a voice at the highest echelons of the AFFS was seen to be a vitally important step. However the First Prince didn't take the step of breaking the Navy off into it's own separate service. The Federated Suns Navy had always been an integral part of the AFFS and would continue to remain so. 
With the return of the First Prince to New Avalon, Marshal Deedee Faulkner approached the Marshal of Armies again and requested a formal meeting with him and the First Prince about further expansions of the Borderer Brigade. Slightly irritated Marshal Davion did agree. At the meeting Marshal Faulkner pushes again for additional units. Particularly the 1st Sheraton Knights to be assigned to her brigade. The First Prince and Marshal of Armies however are in full agreement that this transfer will not occur. They explain that the Sheraton Knights were raised to their current position as an independent regiment of the AFFS after years of loyal and heroic service in the name of the First Prince. Until and unless the Knights themselves request a transfer this won't be forced upon them. However the First Prince does see some advantages in expanding the Borderers. He makes no promises but does give assurances to the Marshal that he will consider adding new regiments to the Borderers in key strategic locations. As well as giving his formal approval of the formation of an Avalon Borderers regiment once the other ones were approaching full strength. 
One small expansion that the First Prince does authorise for the AFFS is the formation of a new Training Battalion for the Tortuga worlds. The training staff will be drawn from serving AFFS officers from Outback worlds similar to the Tortuga world, while the recruits will be drawn from all 6 Tortuga worlds. An armoured militia regiment and 2 regiments of local infantry militia will also be upgraded to Regular Army status and attached to the unit to help form the "LCT" element of the command. Field Marshal Angela Kouranth is instructed to attempt to choose officers with anti-piracy experience and push anti-piracy work as a speciality for the new training unit. To support this the unit is to be given integrated transportation assets and used to make local anti-piracy sweeps. The battlemechs and tanks chosen for the unit are to be picked for their low maintenance and supply needs - for instance freshly built Wolfhounds from Killarney. 
===New Hardware for ComGuard & FedSuns===
With regards to the offered licenses for fighter production offered by Comstar, Lycomb-Davion makes a strong bid for the Huscarl OmniFighter and Hammerhead Heavy Aerospace Fighter designs. In hastily arranged meetings with the Precentor New Avalon it is agreed that Lycomb-Davion will build 2 lines of Huscarls and a line for Hammerhead fighters at their plant on New Avalon and an additional Hammerhead line at their plant on June. Initially the company had also wanted to bid for the Ahab design but Comstar had suggested that they concentrate on 2 designs and produce a decent number of them rather than spread themselves to thinly and only produce a small number of each fighter. One requirement that isn't popular with Comstar but which Lycomb-Davion insist on is that they are able to sell any production over these initial lines to the AFFS. When this contractual term was refused Lycomb-Davion threatened to pull out of the whole deal and informed Comstar that no other aerospace company would agree to only exclusively supply the ComGuards either. After some checking that this was indeed the case the Precentor agreed. Although insisted that the ComGuards retained the rights of first purchase on any excess the Davion's didn't want. 
In addition to the new facilities to produce fighter designs for Comstar Lycomb-Davion also announces in May that they will be adding a second line of Guillotine Battlemechs. Faced with increasing demand for the versatile and well guarded design they announced they would be begin construction of a second line in June and hoping to have it enter production by January 3066. 
Wankger Aerospace accepted Comstars offer of support to add lines for the versatile Tomahawk aerospace fighter in May as well. They agreed to add a line at each of their Axton, Filtvelt and Sun Prairie plants for the fighter and to sell at least half of the production to the ComGuards. The remaining production would be available to the AFFS. Wangker also offered to build an entirely new plant if the ComGuards were prepared to fund the entire construction exclusively for the ComGuard's use. They offered to build not only Tomahawks at this plant but also Corsairs, Eagles, and Thunderbirds. Such a major production plant would obviously be expensive but would provide a large boost to the ComGuards aerospace assets. Still such a major investment would require approval at the highest level and the New Avalon Precentor sent word of the offer to the Interim-Primus, albeit with his suggestion it be accepted. 
One final company did take Comstar up on their proposed fighter production at this time. Jalastar Aerospace offered to put the Spad and Zero designs into production at their flagship plant on Panpour. As part of the deal they also offered to construct a second line for sabre fighters at both of their new plants if Comstar would fund the construction and offer the sale of the rugged light fighter in large numbers to the ComGuards. Both offers were immedietly accepted. 
Remaining for the time being on New Avalon the Precentor Martial makes a heavily encrypted message to the Interim-Primus himself. In it he suggests that the ComGuards consider the construction or purchase of Fox class corvettes from the Federated Suns. While not the best warship out there the tried and tested nature of the design would allow the ComGuards to begin expanding their fleet at a much faster rate than relying on the limited production of their Faslanes. He suggests in his message that Comstar either fund the expansion of an existing naval yard or an entirely new yard to supply their needs - while being frank about the likely price that the FedSuns would demand from them for this arrangement. When the message is decoded and shared with Interim-Primus Dow the man goes absolutely berserk and comes within a hair's breadth of sacking the Precentor Martial there and then. However as he calms and and is forced to listen to Naval Precentor Alain Beresick's frank appraisal of the long term implications of the WOB having access to Titan shipyards he is forced to seriously consider the suggestion.. 
On Errai, with the first payments from Comstar coming in Maltex begins rebuilding their long destroyed plant. Despite initial expectations that they would concentrate on getting a Thug line up and running the company instead concentrates it's efforts on it's urban combat specialist design the Wyvern. This is explained when upon the first stone being laid in the new factory the company announces an exclusive contract to supply the AFFS with 5 full companies of a modern upgrade on the old Royal class designs. Given the fact that the plant is being built using Comstar funds this is seen as a slap in the face to Comstar by Maltex and payback for them handing over the Thug design to Tikonov. However the company does announce that the Thug line when built will sell to Comstar and the Federated Suns. 
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===Developments in Industry===
Seeing various other companies adding a variety of designs to their production output two companies within the Federated Suns decide to branch out themselves and seek to expand on their market share. They do however take a drastically different approach. 
On Tikonov Earthwerk's goes looking through their older designs that are no longer currently produced. They decide to revitalize their long forgotten Koschei class battlemech which stopped production in 2714. A design team is assembled to upgrade and bring the the design into the 31st century. As a stopgap measure and noting the poor sales of their Thrush and Transit Medium & Heavy fighter designs, Earthwerks optains license for the Sabre class light fighter from Jalastar Aerospace for a hefty fee and begin retooling their Thrush lines to produce the more popular Sabre. Initially they had tried to purchase a license for the Sparrowhawk but this was immediately refused. They also contact Comstar and offer to retool their Transit lines to produce the Ahab aerospace fighter design although admit this will take some time to manage. Still it will be quicker than building an entirely new plant. 
Achernar Battlemechs decide however to take a different approach. Now producing the Argus OmniMech at their plant on New Avalon the company decide to firstly add an Argus line at their new plant on Filtvelt, although given the high end nature of the Omnimech design they realize this plant is unlikely to build quickly. In the meantime the company also starts to long term research projects. The first is to design a new omni-variant of their almost iconic Dervish Battlemech. Even with upgrades and redesigns the Dervish has never particularly taken off with recent sales, but it is felt that a Dervish-O would be ideally placed to corner the market for a home grown medium weight omnimech. The second research project that the company undertakes is to design a low maintenance and easily constructed battlemech. This project will grow arms and legs and will eventually lead to Corean Industries being included in the project to gain access to their Centurion chassis. 
Basantapur Fine Metals at the invitation of the Federated Suns Government sends a team to Cooperland to inspect the long dormant mines. Their remit is to decide whether the mines can be put back into operation and turn a profit that would support the development and integration of the world into the Federated Suns. Including supporting a garrison of troops. Early reports from the engineers attached to the support troops as well as historical records suggest that as well as a large quantity of various common metals the world also had small but rich deposits of Germanium. 
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===Changes in Mercenary Markets===
Outreach is formally accepted into the Federated Suns and premier mercenary garrison contracts signed between the Wolf's Dragoons and the AFFS at the same time. In the meantime the Dragoons have managed to begin salvaging the Blackwell plant. Given the damage it is unlikely that they will be able to put any of the larger battlemechs back into production but they do begin rebuilding a single Clan Tech Falcon battlemech line. Although given the extreme damage and lack of viable parts this will be a long term project that will stretch into 3066. In quite discussions it is explained to Colonel Maeve that it would be in Outreach's and the Wolf's Dragoons best interests if they did not hoard this technology for themselves but offered up at least a portion of any future production to the wider AFFS and FedSuns. Particularly given the Dragoons' desperate need for support in rebuilding. One thing that is suggested that if the Wolf's Dragoons are prepared to be flexible on this then the First Prince might ask his new allies the Sun Jaguars to send clan trained technicians to help with the rebuilding. Which will massively increase the chances of successfully rebuilding the line. 
The Black Thorn mercenary company which consists of almost 4 lances of mechwarriors mostly equipped with clan tech omnimechs and battlemechs withdraw from their contracts with the Draconis Combine and leave Galedon heading for Northwind. With a friendly hint from their former Liaison Officer they swiftly seek passage across the border and into the Draconis March. As such they narrowly avoid the DCS Amber Lotus which had been ordered to seize their dropship and take them into custody. 
Major Cullen Craig resigns his commission with Swann's Cavaliers and with nearly 2 companies of former Cavaliers he also heads for Northwind. His commanding officer Colonel Rapier is furious at this "desertion" but given the popularity of the well regarded Major has little option but to grit his teeth and ignore it. 
Within the Lyran Alliance, the 15th and 19th Arcturan Guards are scheduled for upgrading to RCT status. The Archon has promised that as soon as this upgrading is complete 2 units of the Donegal Guards will also begin upgrading. This is seen as a rolling upgrade process to have as many units as possible have full RCT support and status. 
The Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation orders a small stockpile of assault and heavy battlemech's to be built up on Sian for a project of his. He envisions secretly returning the Capellan Chargers to the active regiments of the CCAF and using them in a similar manner to House Davion uses the Assault Guards. He also receives the former Death Commando Colonel Jaffray and his troops on Sian during May. Although the Colonel suggests and pushes for his unit being hired as a mercenary force the Chancellor does not agree and instead "offers" them a place within the Capellan Brigade as a 2 battalion command, listing them as Jaffray's Own. 
===Free Worlds League aerospace reinforcements arrrive at Caph===
At Caph, in a clear show of strength to their FWL "allies" 3 new Dante class frigates enter the system and join the patrolling WOB ships. Whether this is a gesture of what a strong ally they are or a pointed reminder to the FWLN not to turn on them is a matter of open debate. The Captain-General when he reads the reports is clear on which he thinks it is and begins engaging SAFE in anti-WOB preparations... He is however unable to prevent the delivery of 3 additional Zechetinu II corvettes to the WOB in May. 
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===Free Raslhague Republic considers it's security concerns===
In the Free Rasalhague Republic concerns begin to grow that the ComGuards are considering withdrawing from the Republic. Either to retake Terra itself or perhaps given the reports of investments within the Federated Suns to that realm. However they receive assurances that the ComGuards will remain to safeguard the Republic against any Clan threat. However these assurances do little to quieten concerns and some within the Republic begin to argue that perhaps an alliance of some sort with the Clan Ghost Bear would be in the people's best interests!
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