SCMR Chpt 56

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==Chapter 56 - Self Configuring Modular Robot==
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"...configuration makes for a pretty strange mission profile."
Hanse noted as he looked over the plans submitted by Marshall Kerensky. "I mean, the interception job can be done by dropship-"
"Not if what they're to be intercepting, isn't in a friendly system it can't." Natasha commented. "Clan doctrine seizes JumpShip assets or destroys them-a practice your people gave up after significant losses in shipping. I understood immediately what Duke Ngo was proposing, even if he did not."
"Commerce raiding?"
"Yes." she said, "It's an eighteen month one-way trip from the Homeworlds. Hitting shipping along that route can significantly impact the invasion force, and the lack of supplies will force the Clans participating into making sacrifices, and it will hamper and impair their ability to replace losses. Strategic warfare, something my people have not faced since they left the Inner Sphere with Aleksandr Kerensky, and something you're uniquely qualified to wage, it's logical to do so."
Hanse frowned, "I'm concerned about the possibility of the means dictating the ends here, Field Marshall." he said quietly, "it's too easy to fall into the trap of our ancestors in thinking that good ends justify any means. It's how we burned half the worlds of mankind in three centuries of constant war, and how someone on Callison would release a self-replicating robot plague that's cost two dozen more, and billions of civilians."
"A bit late to feel squeamish, Your Highness."
"It's not 'squeamish', Field Marshall, it's practical. What's the escalation going to look like, hmm?"
"Intelligence suggests the Draconis Combine has been releasing those self-replicators on their worlds ever since Turtle Bay happened. I think 'escalation' is already in progress-we may need to win this quickly, before the Crusader Clans decide that 'annihilation' is appropriate for everyone."
His frown darkened, "Yeah. There is that...okay, how do we get them to Negotiate rules of engagement?" he asked, "Ones that don't radically favor their dueling practices and technology over what we have, and can have?"
"Negotiation?"
"Eventually, when the killing has gone on long enough, you always have to negotiate." Hanse told her, "If that weren't true, we'd still be fighting the Fourth Succession War. We wouldn't have stopped when we did."
Natasha pursed her lips, "Tricky." she said, "You need a decisive victory, something that they can't claim you 'cheated' to win."
"On their terms?", Hanse asks
"Cultural drives, Highness. This is a holy crusade for the Clans, they want an Honorable victory, and won't accept anything less than the most honorable defeat."
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