TBntG Chpt 40

==The Bull and the Genie- Chapter 40 - Epilogue: Book I==
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===Discussion of the future between Father and Son===
Protector's office - Taurus, Taurian Concordat
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"Two medium RCTs." Thomas stared at his son. 
"First and Third, Since the second is still balls-deep in the Alliance." Edward shook his head. That wasn't going well. The complete failure of the Alliance to accept the need to reform their government…"Some of their worlds had put out feelers to the Draconis Combine and Federated Suns, and you knew things were going badly when Periphery worlds were thinking the Inner Sphere was the better deal.""You didn't expect everything to go your way, did you? For that matter, they were in quiet discussions with Quatre Belle to extend protectorate status with it. So he couldn't exactly say the Concordat wasn't also thinking about looting the corpse."
"If we can stop, or reduce piracy along their borders, both the Lyrans and Dracs will be willing to control their allies that border us. It makes the indirect costs of attacking us higher. Also, if you've been reading Canopus Daily, some of their people are talking about how a medium RCT would make a great raiding force. We move them, and we calm down the neighbors."
"At the cost of helping to protect a slave-holding state." 
"One of the deals is that Oberon renounces slavery.", Edward said
"So they just become indentured servants?" Thomas glanced at his son.
"Maybe, but Dad, that's a step we can work from. Carrot and stick, tied to improvement. Weren't you the one that warned me I couldn't solve all the ills of the world in one go?"
"That was when you were running for class representative… Right." Thomas shook his head. "You know that if they move against us, take what we're building, we can't do anything about it."
"No, but we know they're not trustworthy.", Edward told his father.
"Grover's family is shrieking about reducing our defenses.", Thomas said
"We have project Thunderchild." Even here, Edward didn't say more.
But that fight with the WarShip gave us all kinds of data. Depending on one big ship was madness, and they were already working on two escort models. It'd be years yet, but they'd be able to field a fleet of parasite WarShips, different designs compensating for their respective weaknesses. Right now, with six of the big models, they probably had more than any successor state did. 
But anyone trying to invade us is going to find out, the hard way, that you can't invade without space-superiority. 
"And you have other reasons.", Thomas said to Edward
"Yes. Dad, if we expand around here, we're just another successor state. Of course the Magistracy is going to get nervous. Why shouldn't they? We're powerful now, and by the last couple of hundred years of logic, that means we throw our weight around. If we start uplift and support operations in places we can never conquer… well, maybe we don't intend to conquer." Edward called up a map of the worlds between the Concordat and Magistracy. "There are dozens of worlds there. But developing them requires trust and by…"
"Sending two of our expeditionary forces off to the ass-end of nowhere to help a pair of successor states so they can have more troops free to shoot at each other, they'll trust us?", Thomas commented
"I think so."
"I think they'll want to know what you're smoking and if they can get a trade deal on it. But to be honest, our security situation, even if we deploy them, is better than it's ever been." Thomas shook his head. "Well, I just had a band of business-sharks in here telling me this was a good idea, and I had Loren in here right before them, telling me that some of her Far Looker friends want to tag along." 
"Dad?"
"Not a colony operation thank God, but nobody's ever really charted that section of space. Not well, and she convinced the University of Taurus to send a boatload of astronomers and some new telescopes they've been working on." Thomas chuckled. "Supposedly they'll be able to chart out the region better than ever."
"Well, I can't see the issue. I think General Cheng should be promoted to overall command." Edward answered.
"We've been promoting her a lot.", Thomas commented
"Well, she hasn't yet sank under the water or run off screaming into the night. Keep her in direct command of the First for now—they'll be operating spread out, and we can just have her be senior commander. I'm also… going to have to borrow your authority, Dad."
"For what?", Thomas asked
"The Ministry of Defense argues that any soldier can take their leave in local facilities and if they want to come back home, they should pay the cost themselves.", Edward told his father.
"What? Oh, Hell no. In fact, I'm going to one further. We can't have it open all the time. I think we can arrange with the Lyrans to have a DropShip scheduled say, every three months to run a direct line here. Not a command circuit, but at least fast enough so that they can enjoy their leave, as well as setting up… huh. We're going to have to work on long-term facilities for dependents." Thomas shook his head. "Is there actually anything in the book for long-term deployments at this kind of distance?"
"The First was mostly working them up as they went along."
"Well, time to sit down and make certain nothing in the book is going to jump up and bite us." They wouldn't write the thing themselves, but an expression of the Protector's interest in a subject did wonders for getting people to work just a little harder.
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===Deal Making===
Outskits of the Forbidden City - Sian, Capellan Confederation
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"You will fall before this alliance." The meeting wasn't in the palace. It was in a quiet little townhouse, with more security than the palace, and no need to worry about ambassadors who you couldn't arrest dropping off little listening devices. 
Maximilian Liao stopped and stared at the individual who had requested the meeting. For a moment, he was tempted to have her taken and interrogated, before dismissing the idea. After all, someone who asked for a meeting here would have taken measures.
"You think so?"
"I know so. The Draconis Combine has its own interests, as does the Free Worlds League. They will use you to bleed the Davions. Do you think this alliance between the Federated Suns and Commonwealth will remain content to stay within their borders? They are already preparing to obtain another ally. The Concordat."
"Periphery trash."
"You are not that stupid," the woman said. "Already they have added enough forces that they would challenge you. They helped destroy a warship and whatever they say, they are simply the clients of the Lyrans. When Katrina gives the command, Thomas will obey, especially if Capellan worlds are dangled in front of him." 
"And why is Comstar interested in this?"
"Comstar is dedicated to the Blake's Vision. While some do not see the danger that this alliance poses, I do. I would not wish to see your house fall to the rapacity of Lyran businessmen, Davion warriors, and Taurian barbarians. I had considered providing some information to the Draconis Combine, but…" the woman sighed. "Those pirates ended that. At this point, Takashi would be unwilling to initiate a new conflict, and he is too stubborn to persuade, not seeing the danger."
Max saw the danger. "How would you save me from this fate? Comstar has no divisions."
"No. We are a peaceful order. But we do have information. And we can help you insert an agent where he can be used."
"Oh?"
"The Protector is a king in all, but name. And when the king is struck down by treachery, the people will howl for blood. It doesn't matter what his son thinks, he could not endure their demands. If say, Protector Thomas were to die, by a Davion assassin, the Taurians would attack the FedSuns, and they would be destroyed, no matter what toys they have. But the Suns would be wounded, and since the Lyran mob adores the Taurians…"
"It would shatter their alliance."
"I see you understand. I will provide you with assistance."
"Comstar is a peaceful order.", Chancellor Maximillian Liao said
"But even peace requires security. We can gain access through agents on Taurus, and after that, I leave it to you."
"Very well, Precentor Waterly." Max smiled. One blow, and I can destroy my greatest enemy. The Taurians would just be a pleasant bonus.
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==Story Interludes==
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===Logistics, the God of War===
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One little known factor is how weak the "tail" of most Inner Sphere and Periphery units is. Many units had very little in the way of organic repair and logistics capabilities, with the demands of salvage rights attesting to just how bare many a merc and house units cupboards were.
 
In part, this was due to the devastation of the Succession Wars, as well as the distrust many house lords had for their vassals. 
 
But in larger part it represented a fundamental blind spot in war, one that saw conflicts as short, sharp battles. Indeed, of all the SLDF's advantages, being one of the few powers with both the desire and means to maintain a strong "tail" ratio, was far from the least. While the growing economic prosperity of the 3020s saw a change, the fact of the matter was, as much as they would claim otherwise, few successor states were capable of truly deep operations—another reason why Hanse Davion's wedding surprise would come as such a rude shock. 
 
With the long deployment of the RCT(M), the Concordat faced the same issue—only the Concordat had never engaged in deep range operations. This required them to study the books of the hated SLDF and adapt them for their own use. The first deployment had gone well, but enough defects had been seen, that the TDF general staff agreed for a reworking of the concept.
 
The RCT(M)s that were deployed after the Wolverine Incident were somewhat different from their predecessors. For one thing, they had far more supplies, with their units, under ideal conditions, being able to engage in at least sixty days of consecutive combat before needing resupply. 
 
In addition, every battalion had its own company-sized support unit, usually based on a dropship, including mechanics, medics, and other support personnel. Each regiment had a higher level maintenance unit, based on modified dropship hulls, capable of depot-level repair and refitting. Lastly, the RCT itself included two transportable space stations, capable of repairing dropships and jumpships to a limited degree. 
 
This permitted even battalions to engage in long-term independent operations, without needing to withdraw, something quite important for anti-piracy sweeps, where many pirates had simply tried to wait their pursuers out. 
 
Organizationally, the stress on independent operations saw the RCT(M)s equipped with a wide range of energy weapons, with most projectile and missile weapons limited for special uses, such as guided bombardment. The greater than normal logistics arm also made the RCT(M) the natural choice for large scale deployment of the Trooper and Sergeant class powered armor (PA(L) and medium BA, respectively), in 3030. 
 
This did not come without a price—the Concordat had to cut plans to add several conventional regiments to their forces, although the increased safety of the Concordat's borders, along with the fact that their military was still substantially larger than it had been in 3020 moderated the loss. 
 
As did the fact that by 3030, the Capellan Confederation was no longer a serious factor in Inner Sphere politics. 
 
The resultant creation became a nightmare for Pirates, pursuing them longer than most other forces could, and simply waiting them out. This became especially devastating in 3032, and the sharing of Black Box technology between the Taurians and the Federated Commonwealth, allowing their forces to more effectively coordinate with each other. (The price for this, although phrased in terms of brotherhood, was the assistance of Concordat engineers in the Federated Commonwealth's JumpShip program. The speed with which the Concordat's R&D sector seemed to understand the Helm Core would not be understood for a number of years…)
By the Clan Invasion, the wide ranging RCTs had contacted a number of regions, and were in fact in negotiation with several periphery polities. While the RCTs were utterly unable to stand in the path of the Clan Juggernaut, their independence and supply advantages allowed them to start raiding behind the lines. The number of Clan forces they pinned down insured that a trickle of supply and reinforcements would keep them operating through most of the war, although General Cheng was forced to evacuate back to Terra due to her appointment to CINC of allied forces. 
 
For their part, the Clans declined to take the bait and slow their advances, rather, accepting the losses to raiders. In a case of making lemonade out of lemons, the Ghost Bears, Wolves, and Jade Falcons picked out regions of high raiding activity and rotated new warriors through them to get experience in lower intensity warfare before being thrown into the cauldron of the Inner Sphere front. 
 
Years later, even though the Periphery region is now a highly developed and peaceful part of human space, it is not uncommon to come across a small graveyard, tucked behind a church, with a Taurian flag fluttering overhead, a memorial to the long dead soldiers who remained on the worlds they defended…
 
Distant Thunder: The Conflicts that Molded the Present, 3190, Strany Mechty Academic Press.
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===Immigration===
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One last thing for the future, but not much more this week. I'm afraid. Also, if you're wondering how bad the Combine Civil War was? If refugees couldn't make it out any other way, the Smoke Jaguars were by far the preferable choice to staying in the Combine. 
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The Third Immigration Boom 3030-3100
The periphery had long been isolated from the Inner Sphere by the lack of Jumpships and the general reputation of the periphery. The Taurian tech boom, now fueled, we know, by the Hegemony Core, started boosting immigration to the region but it was not until the 3030s that the first massive wave to the region occurred. That was sparked by a number of factors. New JumpShips, larger dropships, and the increasingly successful anti-piracy operations in Taurian space, were combined with the Periphery Common Market and the Pan-Periphery Security protocols (at this point, it must be stated, limited to the Magistracy, Concordat, and minor states in their region, with the largely unrecognized rump government in the former Outworlds Alliance also signing), all combined to create a greater sense of security in those regions and many worlds were quite happy to entice skilled Inner Sphere workers to their shores.
But the biggest driver was the Fourth Succession War, and the subsequent conflicts. The unparalleled scope of the conflict resulted in many border populations digging up old books about the First Succession war, and wondering if they were going to see similar horrors. The generally good reputation of the Concordat saw people booking passage from worlds across the Inner Sphere. 
It did not always go smoothly as the 3033 anti-Davion riots on Samantha showed. This also saw the Periphery States decide to unify immigration under the Pan-Periphery Ministry of Immigration and Colonial Support, which among other goals, attempted to avoid creating ethnically unified worlds. After the Collingswood riots in 3035, it was modified. While diversity would be maintained, the ministry avoided settling people who hated each other next door to each other. 
Ironically, once again the Concordat found help in the Prometheus core created by their greatest enemy—many of these colonies were established using Hegemony standard governance and economic development systems. 
It was well that the system was established—with the arrival of the Clans, and the fragmentation and destruction of the Draconis Combine under the twin hammer blows of invasion and Civil War, a tide of immigration unseen since the days of the Terran Alliance struck the Periphery. Well-organized evacuations of businesses were mixed with dropships packed to and beyond the safe level, as jumpships streamed through the Inner Sphere. 
Perhaps the most pathetic were the millions, then tens and hundreds of millions of souls fleeing the Draconis Combine, as the Black Dragons engaged in "purifications" that called to mind the worst atrocities of the Amaris regime. Hanse Davion, understanding the potential social consequences of huge numbers of former Draconis Combine citizens settling among those raised to hate them, worked with Comstar and the Periphery states, to establish medical and care waystations for the migration paths through the Federated Commonwealth. 
There were many differences between these migrations and the ones that had come before. For one thing, there was some organization, and factories churned out simple, but rugged tools and equipment for colonization. For another thing, there was a wealth of experience among the periphery when it came to doing more with less.
Ultimately, many immigrants came to live among more established Periphery powers—in some cases, there was quite the bidding war to get skilled immigrants, with the Arugian Reach scoring quite the coup with the faculty, students and families of the New Samarkand University establishing itself in their worlds, along with other educational professionals fleeing the "Purge of Thoughts Hostile to the Dragon". 
Other worlds were settled from scratch, although here the Concordat and its associates worked to ensure that every world would eventually have at least a few million—enough to hold off pirates and establish a self-supporting economy, as the TDF and other Periphery states didn't want to have to protect a hundred barely populated worlds. 
Perhaps the oddest immigrants were Clan Sea Fox, split off from the Diamond Sharks in a bit of maneuvering that fooled nobody. The Merchants of the Clans saw the burgeoning worlds as an opportunity, and the presence of their trade and commerce protection fleets were (with some caution) seen as a badly needed boost to the region's security. 
By 3100 the full scale waves of immigration had stabilized and more importantly with many newly populated and prosperous worlds, new immigrants tended to just book a flight to their world after filling out paperwork. While few of the new worlds were heavily populated, a world of 100 million people in 3100 had all the amenities one expected from a core world—along with plenty of elbow room. 
But even today, the history of these worlds has continued to have an impact. Founded by those fleeing the wars born of the Ancient sins of the Star League and the Greed of the nobility, largely organized along democratic or republican models, the children of Lyran businessmen and Combine Unproductives looked to each other and outward for their destiny. As many as five hundred new worlds, ranging from neighboring the Concordat to as nearly far away as the Clan Homeworlds, represent a mixture of the children of humanity, a diverse set of populations born from the flames of war kindled in the final death of the Dream of the Star League.
Where Did We Come From?A history of Periphery Immigration PatternsNew Luthien Press, 3140. 
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End of Book 1The Story Continues with Book 2, The Ninety-five Theses
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