TEP Chpt 11

=The Eagle's Perch=
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==Chapter 11 - Debt==
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===Value of Conflict===
Regulus, Principality of Regulus
2732 AD
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Elise Marik
I sat in my office inside a newly constructed fort outside Regulus City, massaging my head. A wicked headache was forming from all the accumulated stress of the last few years. Losing my brother was harsh, ordering his death was harder, but nothing quite prepared me for the bloodletting a civil war would spark.
 
No one in their right mind would take a civil war as the opportune moment to turn on their brothers and sisters to murder them for past slights. What a fool I was. This was the Free Worlds League, we had passion and optimism aplenty. Of course, someone would see an opportunity in this maelstrom of chaos.
 
In this chaos, no one would think twice about some unfortunate collateral damage. Obviously, it should be expected in a civil war. So who cares if millions are rendered homeless, if trillions of dollars of the economy was destroyed, or that we would be dramatically weakened against our rivals in any peace scenario. That's just the cost of doing the business of war.
 
Thank God for the Star League. Thank God for my ancestors for laying the foundations for such an institution, for without them both the Lyrans and the Capellans would have taken advantage, and entire systems would be lost to their predations. I don't know what transpired, that Jonathan Cameron ordered the Star League Navy to mobilize so quickly to sit on our borders, even as they moved to deal with the Combine-FedSun war, I am just thankful.
 
No doubt those sharks wanted to strike at us while we were at our weakest since the dawn of Age of War. It would have been the perfect opportunity to steal away the border worlds they have long coveted.
 
Reaching to my right, I took my steel coffee cup and drank deep. Piping hot and bitter as hell, just how I like it. It was becoming increasingly rare that I could enjoy these small comforts now that the war had firmly turned against the League.
 
The Eastern half of the Free Worlds League has fallen to the traitors. Having started their rebellion in the Spinward half of the League, the enemy has spent considerable time and energy to secure it. They have dedicated every single one of their fleets and BattleMech regiments towards securing the 'Capellan March'.
 
Had it been just the Spinward half that had fallen, we would have marched forth and crushed the rebels. But then the Anti-Spinward, long a font of simmering inter and intra-provincial hatred, had exploded practically simultaneously to each other. Sardis fell soon after, and the gates to the Eastern half of the League core were thrown open.
 
Waves of marauding bandit regiments roved across the trade lanes looking for anything to burn and salt. What they lacked in warships, they made up for in sheer weight of numbers. Dropships had somehow become the darling and bane of the navy. With the ability to do the lighter tasks of Warships for a fraction of the price in Dollars and training.
 
Time, once our greatest ally, had become our enemy. We now fight a two front war against near two-thirds of the Free Worlds League's provinces. Despite representing the larger concentration of population and material, the best we could do was hold on. And the citizens of the League were paying the price.
 
Three years have passed since the greatest betrayal to the Free Worlds League began. Three terrible years of the worst possible form of warfare have visited itself upon the homes of every single citizen.
 
Centuries old industrial parks have been raised to the ground. Enterprising businesses bankrupted by the fickle reality of war. Homes were demolished, exploded, and burnt as mere collateral in contests between tsunamis of regimental steel.
 
Was it worth it?
 
Yes. A thousand times, and a thousand more, yes. Every day spent fighting is another day spent revealing and killing traitors to the Free Worlds League. Without this war, the cancer I so yearned to excise would have laid dormant, waiting to strike and strangle what my father and I have worked so hard to accomplish.
 
Soon, the garden will be free of weeds. Until then, we hold the line.
 
"I still need to interrogate Charles' kids on why the Anti-Spinward fell apart so quickly," I reminded myself. It made no sense! Of all the regions of the Free Worlds League, the Anti-Spinward had the least reasons to join the rebellion. It was as if every single world just decided they held no love for the Free Worlds League at once, and would rather burn everything we all had built to the ground.
 
It's as if some force, outside the cancer, had reached in and flipped a switch.
 
I would have suspected the Hegemony, but the League being so weakened only served to make them a more attractive target, not less. They had the most to lose from a sudden change in the balance of power.
 
Now, I'm certain it's the Canopians. Boris spent years cavorting as a mercenary there. He spent more than long enough to get into contact with the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry. More importantly, they more than anyone have a reason to explicitly target their efforts against the League. To what end, I wouldn't know. Still, I will have to deal with them later.
 
A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
 
"Madame, your six o'clock is here."
 
"Let him in," I commanded.
 
A well-dressed man, a dreary all black with tasteful frills, stepped in. He had nothing else with him, himself, but he carried himself with a certain dangerous air. It didn't take more than a glance to see him for what he was, a spook, a loyal man of SAFE.
 
"Madame, you wished to see me?" he asked nervously, his clasped hands twiddling their thumbs.
 
 I took the time to drain the last dregs of coffee from my cup before answering him. "Yes, Abhay. I wanted to talk about the problems with the provinces." Smacking down the steel cup startled a small jump from the man, as I leaned in to look him in the eye. "More importantly, I wanted to talk about utilizing the ongoing projects to decisively end this war."
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===Contemplating the unthinkable===
Sian, Capellan Confederation
2732 AD 
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Chancellor Madeline Liao
"A toast! A toast to a good year, nay, a great decade!" I shouted. This evening soirée was the most lavish I've arranged in years. Shrimp cocktails, caviar, wagyu, lobster, vodka, wine, served by fancifully dressed servitor waitstaff from the finest academy's, all the good things on the list of conspicuous extravagance. The Confederations noblest lines gathered together to celebrate the good fortune that has blessed us. Genuine cheer and happy smiles surrounded me, as we, one and all, toasted, drank, ate, boasted, and laughed.
 
We had every reason to. No one could have predicted the chain of events that pummeled our rivals. Anyone that says otherwise is a liar of the highest order. Who in their right mind would have predicted the Draconis Combine would open the Pandora's Box of interfering in the succession of another nation? Certainly not the Davions! Or that the historically united Mariks would rip the Free Worlds League in two for a clash of 'ideals'.
 
It was as if everything that could go right, did go right!
 
"Did you hear, Chancellor?" a voice whispered from behind me. "The Star League Defense Force has stationed the Royals inside the Hegemony."
 
Well, almost everything.
 
"Thank you, for telling me, Xavier. Have you tried the shrimp cocktail?" I asked my Head of Intelligence. A waiter passed with said cocktails in hand, Xavier gave the drinks a considering look before shaking his head.
 
He gave an aggrieved huff before answering me, "I'm afraid not today, milady. After the party comes more work."
 
"The Mariks?"
 
"Yes," he hissed. Ever since the Marik Civil War began, Xavier had been swamped with a truly mountainous amount of work. Just keeping an eye on Elise Marik alone had justified increasing Maskirovka's budget. Oliver and Boris never entered the equation as persons of interests. The larger threat of the Federated Suns, budgetary constraints, and the sheer willing irrelevance of the two meant we were blind when it came to their motives, intentions, and capabilities. We had badly miscalculated the desperation of Elise's opposition.
 
I was floored by how quickly the Free Worlds League split itself apart into camps, the Federalists on one side and the Parliamentarians on the other. It went completely against our predictions. We thought that opposition to Elise would cement inside Parliament, grudgingly giving political ground to buy time and resources, before rallying and correcting most of her overreach. It's what historically happened against powerful Captain-Generals that sought to quickly centralize power into their seat.
 
Even after an emergency session with all the organs of Maskirovka left me and my advisors with more questions than answers. It wasn't until we had consulted an anthropology university professor that specializes in studying modern cultures that we understood.
 
Poor Xavier lost days worth of sleep for missing something so obvious. The Free Worlds League political culture was unique, it was the product of negotiation, precedence, and comportment. Crucially, past centralizing Captain-Generals worked within those restrictions, and Parliament, while unhappy, tolerated it. Elise did not work within those restrictions, she ignored them, belittled them, and actively destroyed them wherever she could. Just stationing BattleMechs outside Parliament Hill itself, before the Members of Parliament arrests, was a massive breach in protocol, not seen since at least before Albert Mariks era.
 
It would be the equivalent of me going around and tweaking the nose of every single Warrior House inside the Confederation, then smacking their heirs in their bums. If the Warrior Houses didn't lynch me within the day, I would be disturbingly surprised. That wasn't even going into the increased surveillance, suspension of habeas corpus, rise in taxes, and economic downturn that frustrated the citizens of the Free Worlds.
 
It's no wonder the provinces of the Free Worlds League were all but ready to jump into Oliver and then Boris', camp. Elise provided the best possible argument in favor of rebellion. No further work was necessary. Not even a single dollar from Maskirovka's budget.
 
I was in an excellent mood, and so were the rest of my guests as they mingled around. Genuine cheerful laughter occasionally interrupted the excited talking of the crowd. "Well, nothing to be done about it, Xavier. But don't worry about it, the misfortune of the League brings good tidings for us. We'll be having more parties like this sooner, rather than later."
 
Xavier's face turned brittle at that. An unexpected reaction to good news. To the rest of the partygoers, he was the picture of a soft, smiling professional minister. But I knew him well enough to spot his plastic smile and blank, fretful eyes.
 
"Who?"
 
"The Lyrans." he replied laconically. As if that explained everything, and in a way it did.
 
The Lyrans were the most economically powerful state in all of Human space. In the contest of the free market, their industries were giants standing tall against normal men.
 
Everyone that was anyone did everything in their power to mitigate the Lyrans advantage in sheer economic might. The Hegemony had their technology, the Combine and Davions their protectionism, and we had our unity and intelligence organs. The Free Worlds League stood as the odd one out.
 
The Free Worlds had a strict, almost religious, understanding, and adherence to the 'Free Market'. The Free Worlds willingly let their companies and industries compete on an even playing field against the most powerful the Sphere had to offer. They willingly let their own fail against foreign powers and foreign interests. Their recent recession showed the folly of that. Then more pragmatic thinkers entered their Parliament and yoked that mule of a nation into more sensible policies against the Lyran threat.
 
"How bad?"
 
"The civil war has obliterated the Free Worlds cohesion and carefully crafted economy and the entire Commonwealth has gone into a spending spree. They're expanding their factory lines, especially the heavy industries. We could see them swallow seven percent of the Free Worlds' slice of the pie wholesale within a generation."
 
That was disastrous news.
 
That was beyond catastrophic.
 
We were just getting by as is, with all the effort put into coordinating the Confederation's economy. With that much economic heft, the Lyrans could very well be in position to start a more aggressive policy to expand their market share. As the weakest of the Inner Sphere states, we would be first on the chopping block.
 
Realizing the gravity of the situation, I grabbed another two vodka shots from a passing waitress, and slammed both down my gullet in quick succession.
 
"For the future of the Confederation!" I roared to hide my thinning nerves. The crowd roared back and started talking more excitedly, and laughing even louder.
 
"Exactly, madame, for the future of the Confederation." The cheek of this man. Dropping a bomb on me in the middle of my party, then following it up with the worst word play I've heard since my grandfather died.
 
"We'll be having words, you realize that, right," I whispered to him.
 
"Yes. And, God forbid, some of those words might even involve saving the FWL," he shuddered out. That sent an unpleasant trail of ice sliding down my spine. If it ever came to that, may the Servitors forgive me, and my ancestors spare me.
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