Strat-2 Chpt-2

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==Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 2Chapter 2 - You must have a plan.==
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===Remember when I wanted to be a Pirate?===
"We're going to need…
…a real plan if they've got a base there." Amanda noted. "Or if they don't."
Larry nodded, looking at the tactical holomap on the table. "Yeah…we've gotten the LRM racks repaired, and we're almost finished buttoning up the waist armor."
Each success has made things more complex. Each threatening situation, complicated interaction, every world so far, has added to it.
Things have NOT gotten easier, or simpler.
"We'll need to…ugh…actually coordinate with proper fleet for this." she added. "Even Fleet-Captain Foster agrees." she looked up, "Remember when I wanted to be a freebooting pirate, Larry? No bosses, no chain of command, no..responsibilities?"
"I remember." He answered.
"Is it just me, or does that dream feel…stupid now?" she complained, "Childish."
"It's not childish, Amanda." Larry told her, "Your dreams aren't stupid. Sometimes they're the only thing you have left, believe me on this…how you get there? That can be something of a REAL surprise."
"But-"
"But nothing." he taped his collar, "How we get there is the surprise. When I was your age, graduating from Albion? I didn't know I'd end up being the Executive officer to a leader like you, someone who actually deserves greatness. Don't get a big head, you can still lose it, but if it wasn't you, I'd be back out there looking for gray market and black market work, hating myself for it, or I'd be dead. Me-at-eighteen wouldn't have imagined doing what we're doing, or the good we're doing." he gave her a grin, "But sixteen year old me, who stepped off the shuttle and into Albion Academy? He did. He dreamed this dream I'm living now in my fifties."
"So…"
"So, we have a book and it's worked so far." Larry said, not so subtly directing her back to the work, "We recon the system first, spot their weak points, and then we make the actual plan. Recon, evaluate, estimate, plan, strike. You've made it a signature because it works."
"But I could screw up…"
"Everyone does eventually." he told her, "everyone fails, greatness is how you get over the failure, it's what you do next..." he gave her a grin, "Besides, you've got backup, and allies. Those make it a hell of a lot easier to get back up."
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===Problems with Foreign Relations===
You never tell…
…your subordinates just how screwed up things really are. This doesn't mean you hold back on telling them the facts-it means you frame those facts in ways that don't immediately and instantly kill morale.
"Roberts, I want you to take Evanescent on a recon…of Michtal, not Culmia." Fleet Captain Foster told her, "I want you to keep it soft shoe, try to avoid jumping the gun."
"Why Michtal??" she asked.
"Because if the enemy is even half awake, they're not going to have that base at Culmia." he explained, "our guys already passed through that system last year, remember?? If there were a base there, they'd have run into it, because the transports for the ground units had to restock water…but we did not get to check Michtal out, and Michtal is a better choice. Single jump from Bannerhoft, Grankum, Aalzorg, and Raetia-all worlds dropped off the net, two with markers on the Joan's Post map for military activity either from the Star League, or the Outworlds Alliance."
"Resources." she said.
He nodded. "That's my working conjecture. I'll take Illusive the long way through Culmia and up past Raetia to come at them from that side. Try not to get into another dogfight with a Destroyer until you know for a fact we are on our way."
She nodded, then froze, her tone flattened when she spoke, "What about Erinyes?" she asked.
"Erinyes is sticking here with Kappa Galaxy." He explained, "There are…delays in bringing forward enough backup to fill the escort role for that Newgrange."
"What kind of difficulties??" her tone was neutral, calm.
"Politics." Dave said, breaking one of the fundamental rules. "The Khans are dealing with it, but it has a lot to do with committing heavier resources this far out while the Draconis Combine is rattling sabers and the Republic is trying an appeal to the Parliament to push a case for seizure of the Erinyes itself."
"What basis?" she scoffed.
"The Erinyes is being accused of exceeding treaty limitations on military equipment, and the Republic is also pushing a case that your adverse possession under salvage law is invalid." he told her, "They're claiming the Outworlds are potentially in breach of the Naval Limits in the Republic Treaties,,,and that whether or not the mass driver cannon has been dismounted, it still represents a weapon of mass destruction that violates the arms limits."
"But- who is co-sponsor for this effort?" Larry spoke up.
"The Federated Suns has seconded the complaint, claiming a right due to damages from the mass driver weapon…and there is a parallel claim from one of the Clans here in the Inner Sphere, claiming the weapon is unbalancing and dezgra."
"Who?"
"You made the mistake of letting it be publicly known that Erinyes has an Artificial Intelligence." he said, "This has distressed not only warriors in the Touman, but also most of the Clans near our borders, Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Wolf have both advanced motions to have the AI destroyed as a technological abomination. They will, of course, have to win possession first, and such a trial cannot be fought using proxies, so as long as Erinyes is out here, away from easy contact, and months away from their usual lines…"
"She's not stakes or a Prize!" Amanda scowled.
"You know that, I know that. Convincing them may require something more persuasive than words-but if they come out here..?"
"They'll probably run into the sons." She filled in, "Which might give them something more interesting than murdering someone for what they were born as."
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===A heated discussion between Khans===
"NOW you are…
…Interested in the Outworlds Periphery?" Alberto Crow scoffed, "Now?? Because…The time to lodge this complaint was over a year ago!"
"Nobody thought you would adopt the thing!!" Khan Ruel Chistu of Clan Jade Falcon argued, "We heard, we thought you would do the right thing and dismantle the abomination!!!"
"We had a hand in disarming it." Alberto stated, "but-"
"But WHY did you Leave the machine mind intact??"
"Because we do not own it." Alberto stated. "OWS Erinyes is not the property of the Clan, it is listed as part of the Outworlds Relief Fleet organization."
"A Political Fiction!!"
"I can show you the relevant legal documents. We took possession of the weapons emplacements and combat systems, the vessel is civilian in nature."
"You disarmed it." Khan Elsa Ward of the Wolves frowned, "HOW disarmed?"
"We left only weapons suitable for defending the very expensive colony support equipment from meteors and other hazards." Alberto stated, "Not a single capital-grade weapon was left on that hull when she was released from dock."
"You Disarmed a Dreadnought?" Teresia Cooper of the Hell's Horses scoffed, "YOU, the Naval Clan disarmed a Dreadnought and turned it over to a civilian agency?"
"Cheaper than keeping it running and more useful as a mobile relief, Aff. We did." Alberto stated, "In case any of you has trouble remembering, Clan Snow Raven agreed to fleet reductions!!"
"And then you turned it over to Civilians, Quineg?" Kerensky was flabbergasted.
"Aff." Crow stated, "We did exactly that. As a large scale support vessel it is useful to the Outworlds Alliance, and in many ways, still serves useful functions for the Touman, but without the logistical nightmare of maintaining a Dreadnought Hull, or the treaty violations keeping it on the rolls with the Clan would create!"
"But you left an artificial intelligence on it!!"
"Which makes it easier for the farmers to make it useful." Crow snapped. "What is it going to do, float menacingly? Computer-generate harsh language? You are all acting like we did not take suitable precautions to keep a juicy, useful flying database firmly under human control!"
"Database." Mori Hawker of the Sea Foxes mused, "You kept it for the databases…but you gave those databases to your civilians…what is on those databases?"
Alberto chuckled, "Useful data." he said, "I take it your Clan would also like to register a complaint, quiaff?"
"Neg… I would like a look at what sort of industrial and colonization information you have on that ship."
"You will need to send merchants to discuss it with President Avellar. The vessel is not presently under the Clan's military control, though we do have a small garrison aboard for protection and anti-piracy. The unincorporated regions she is currently serving are…considered a rough neighborhood."
"The 'privateer fleet'." Khan Aletha Kabrinski (Ghost Bear) spoke up, "Your little 'dodge' around the Treaty."
"It is NOT a 'dodge'." Crow said, "It is an organization under civilian authority…that sometimes does work for the Touman. Much like the Solaris Stables run by several of the Clans here in this meeting."
"Only yours is doing actual work, quiaff? Clan Ghost Bear votes against Censuring the Snow Ravens for preserving the Artificial Intelligence, but moves that an inspection be advanced to guarantee the peaceful nature of OWS Erinyes and their mission in the Outworlds Wastes...and to examine your pet Cyborg."
"Excuse me?"
"Ahem, 'Captain' Roberts, Director Amanda Roberts, of the Privateer Fleet, we have cause to believe she has been extensively polluted with Manei Domini technologies. Do you deny it?"
"Neg." he said, "She was subjected to forced implantation of cyberwarfare gear by a cell of enemy remnants, whom she killed in her escape." Crow said easily, "The girl is under control."
"But is the machinery?"
"Aff, the machinery is also under control."
"Yet she is not in your Touman."
"Neg. she is not."
"Why?"
"What part of 'civilian' escapes you?" Alberto asked.
"The part where she captured a rogue AI Dreadnought and is flying under a letter of marque." Kabrinski stated. "The MINIMUM you should have her under proper Military Discipline!"
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===Political Dispute between Diplomets===
"Hey, why have you not made steps to remove the hardware?" 
"They cut into her brain. As she is, she serves the Alliance effectively, Mr. Al Daibh." President Avellar argued, "removing the implants would render the girl unretrievable, a vegetative lobotomy victim. It would be insanely cruel to even attempt it. in her condition."
The Fedsuns Diplomat blanched. "You're sure?"
"I'm sure our doctors are sure." the President stated. "I trust them. They know their business, what those monsters did to that girl was horrifying. The fact she's managed to recover and become a productive citizen? Is a miracle, and I don't poke at Miracles."
"What if she goes rogue?" the foreigner asked, "It isn't unknown for that to happen…"
"We have top men keeping an eye out for that, Mister Ambassador. Amanda Roberts is constantly surrounded by people well equipped and trained to handle her if she becomes…a threat to the peace."
"What of the Erinyes?" Hoshigara from the Combine asked.
"Is currently on deployment to the Outworlds Wastes, doing colony support and helping us re-establish lines of communication with worlds that have been cut off from help for centuries." Mitchell stated. "The Mass Driver cannon and the capital weapons mounts were taken in payment for repairs to fit the ship out for that duty, I believe if you're going to look for them, you should ask Khan Crow, he might even be in a good mood and show you where they're being scrapped."
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