GblaRCS Chpt 34

==Guided by the light of a (Red) Cameron Star - Chapter 34 -==
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"It wasn't so much the start of a beautiful friendship but the ComStar War did at least cement relations between Niops and the Free Worlds League into a mutually beneficial, and usually civil, acquaintance." Stephen J. Tran, Red Star Rising: A History of Niops 2800-2900 - Niops Press, 2915
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===Diplomatic Mission to Niops===
Zenith Jump Point – Niops System – 2838
Lieutenant-Colonel Mary Heath had never expected to rise above the rank of Major during her service with the Niops Association Militia, there were just too many junior officers chasing too few senior positions, but the expansion of the NAM in terms of personnel and responsibilities over the last decade had changed her career trajectory considerably.
Oddly enough her career had however come full circle in a way. When the SLDF jumped in back in 2827 she had been the officer with responsibility for making sure the system was being constantly monitored for inbound JumpShips and then ten years later she found herself doing the same thing again.
Back then of course her office had been in Militia Headquarters on Niops VII and now it was on a shiny new million-ton Olympus Recharge Station at the Zenith jump-point. She didn't used to have several squadrons of aerospace fighters at her direct command, many of them packing nuclear ordnance either, but fundamentally it was the same job. Keep an eye on things and if anyone jumped in with evil intent ensure they were warned that Niops was not the typical periphery world and things would end badly for the interloper if they didn't reconsider their plans and get lost.
Heath had been appointed commander of the station after Captain Petroni was reassigned to the salvage mission to McEvedy's Folly. Transferring the Olympus from SLDF to NAM control had always been the long-term plan, but with Petroni needed to make sure the Potemkin assigned to the mission kept working, the transfer went ahead earlier than it would have been otherwise.
Brigadier-General Nellis offered the job to Heath, and since it came with a promotion and more money, as well as being a choice posting in itself, she jumped at the opportunity.
Not that it was an exactly action-packed assignment. While there were inordinately more ships jumping in and out of Niops these days the vast majority of them were SLDF and tended to keep to a tight schedule. There were a few periphery merchants and traders who had started making semi-regular visits, and the occasional cargo JumpShip from the Free Worlds League delivering an order of industrial machinery or the like, but the latter were far fewer than they had been before the ComStar Interdiction for obvious reasons.
The engineers had finally gotten the second gravity ring finished and spinning, so the Olympus station was better off for living space than it had been, but the repair bays and the rest of the recharge batteries were still waiting on the work-crews needed to finish them being available. At the current rate that the government keep finding new high-priority jobs for the zero-gee construction teams any dreams of building a second Olympus station for Niops at the Nadir point were idle to the point of near fantasy, but then again just having one would have been thought of as miraculous not all that long ago.
There was at least a decent chance that the Voidseeker hanger salvaged from Camelot Command might be retrofitted to the station sometime before Heath was due to retire. Fully automated the hanger could not only launch and recover the drone fighters it could also refuel, rearm and if necessary also repair them which would free up a lot of maintenance crews as well as pilots assigned to the station.
Voidseekers were bad news, at least if they were gunning for you. Based upon the Stingray aerospace fighter they mounted a more powerful XL fusion engine, superior sensors and plenty of firepower, which in conjunction with the fact that the computer controlling the fighter was utterly fearless and could take a lot more gees while maneuvering than a human pilot could had left a lot of SLDF fighter jocks from the Amaris War either dead or suffering from SDS related PTSD.
Until the robots took over however the fighters assigned to the station were a mix of older types belonging to the NAM, mostly Eagle and Ahab heavies for DropShip and JumpShip busting and some of the faster Lightning for anti-fighter work. They had all been upgraded in recent years with improved weaponry, plus more heat sinks and armour, so the Olympus was by no means poorly defended but Heath would have preferred some of those souped-up Royals the SLDF were using every time an unscheduled and unknown vessel jumped in.
Naturally there was always a destroyer nearby just in case, either the destroyer Essex II, NAS Cape Bon or the Lola III Protecteur, with the other usually to be found at the Nadir Jump Point, but they could be called away in theory leaving the Olympus to defend itself.
Not that an absent destroyer was an issue when the sensors on the Olympus detected an emergence wave forming several thousand kilometers away and an alert was automatically sent to Heath's noteputer. A second update, a manual one this time sent by the duty officer, then reported that Protecteur was already starting to swing around ready to accelerate towards where the inbound vessel would arrive if needed. Thank God for paranoid SLDF types always on the lookout for invading clanners or a Marik taskforce, Heath thought to herself, leaving her office and heading down the corridor to the control centre while the computers tied into the sensors would be attempting to establish the likely mass of the inbound and how far away it might have been jumping from.
One thing that differentiated this particular Olympus station from the standard design was the recent addition of a very large optical telescope installed in a turret-like mounting atop the station, and by the time Heath arrived at the control center it too was pointing at where the emergence wave was forming.
Supposedly the mirror for the big reflecting telescope had been deemed 'imperfect' when it was manufactured, which was why it had been rejected by the university, but just because it wasn't considered good enough to take high-resolution photographs of stars on the other side of the universe that didn't mean it wasn't good enough for other things.
The operator just had to remember to zoom out the image when taking a look at a ship which had appeared on this side of the Zenith point if they wanted to identify the type of vessel, not count the rivets in the hull.
"What have we got?" Heath asked the control room staff.
"Best guess is an Invader, jumping in from Romita." the duty officer reported. "IR signature detected, yes it's an Invader." they confirmed as the electromagnetic interference from the jump cleared up and the computer collated the data coming in from the suite of sensors directed at where the unknown had just appeared.
"IFF?" Heath queried.
"Invader transponder is squawking that it's the Free Worlds Navy JumpShip Dark Regret."
"Hell of a thing to name a ship, although I'd bet the Free Worlds League has regretted a lot of the things it has done in the past" Heath replied. "Transmit the standard greeting from Niops Traffic Control and inform them of the local rules regarding our restricted airspace. If they look like they're planning to try and send a DropShip down to Niops in violation of our regulations ask Protecteur to paint them with her targeting radar, that should make them behave."
Nothing happened for the next few minutes as the Invader was greeted and informed of the rules visiting ships had to obey in this system and they signalled back their intention to comply. This wasn't the First Free Worlds ship to visit Niops since HPG contact with Hednesford was made, although they were certainly a rarity and it was the first since Heath took over. "We're being hailed by the Marik JumpShip" the communications officer announced. "They want to talk to the station commander."
"Okay, let's hear what they have to say." Heath replied, putting on a headset microphone. "This is Lieutenant-Colonel Mary Heath of the Niops Association Militia, commander of the Zenith Recharge Station" she announced herself. "How can I be of assistance today?" she added politely.
<<"This is Garth Marik, son of Charles Marik Captain-General of the Free Worlds League, I am here on a diplomatic mission on behalf of my father and request an audience with a senior representative of your government. Ideally your High Associator.">>
"Holy shit!" one of the control room staff exclaimed as Heath herself looked a little stunned for a moment before she collected her wits.
"Taking you at your word that this is a diplomatic mission, the Niops Association is pleased to welcome you to our home system. In accordance with our custom for such visitors the Dark Regret may approach the station whereupon we will begin beaming power to your jump sail with no payment for the service required" Heath signalled back. "It takes a while to recharge your drives normally here. Our M5V class star is a little on the dim side, particularly compared to an F4V like Atreus." she continued. "I will forward on your request for an audience, however my government may wish you to present some credentials to verify your identity before agreeing to do so."
<<"Asking me to confirm my identity seems entirely reasonable under the circumstances. I'll await the response from your government with the appropriate level of patience and understanding.">> the man claiming to be Garth Marik replied. <<"Incidentally we weren't aware you possessed a Lola III class destroyer as well as the Essex II a previous Free Worlds vessel reported encountering here. I'm now wondering how substantial your fleet of warships actually is?">>
"Well if you'd jumped in last week you'd have met our vast fleet of Luxor class heavy cruisers." Heath responded wryly.
<<"And there I was under the impression that every single one of those had been lost fighting Amaris.">>
"Drat, you've seen through my clever ruse." Heath replied, chuckling. "Would you believe a squadron of battleships?" she asked.
<<"Those left with Kerensky.">>
"That's what the secret Cameron heir really running Niops wanted you to think" Heath told him. "But keep that to yourself."
<<"Pah, everyone knows that ComStar is hiding the secret Cameron heir on Mars, along with the cryogenically frozen body of Jerome Blake while they try and figure out how to cure him of the genetic disorder that killed him.">>
"You've got me, apparently I need to prepare a more convincing bluff." Heath replied, a couple of the station command crew visibly trying not to crack up laughing. Whoever came up with the notion that a refuge in audacity approach to keeping the Great Houses ignorant of Niops possessing several full-sized battlewagons was a genius in Heath's mind. Any intelligence operative of the Great Houses who came to believe that Niops had a lot more naval strength than they were letting on was bound to have to deal with a sceptical superior retorting that the analyst or operative in question was suffering from a sense of humour failure because Niops was always making jokes about their secret battleships, and of course their cabal of Camerons survivors plotting a second Reunification War.
<<"Does ComStar know about your second destroyer may I ask?">>
"Probably, it's not really a secret and we've always assumed they had access to a lot of the old SLDF records. The two of them were assigned to the 295th as divisional escort ships which is how they ended up here" Heath explained, truthfully though with a hell of a lot of backstory being left out.
<<"They never passed on the information.">>
"Yeah, I guess they only hand over military intelligence like that to the Lyrans and Capellans" Heath responded laughing, unable to resist yanking his chain. "Too soon?" she added after a few seconds of radio silence from the other end.
While the supposed Garth Marik had evidently not liked the last dig at the Free Worlds League and its current ComStar-related predicament, the fact remained that he had been very friendly and congenial indicating he really wanted to be on good terms with Niops, even to the point of bantering with a military officer from a pissant periphery state.
It didn't take a genius to work out why he was here of course, thanks to the Interdiction Charles Marik and the Free Worlds League was getting their ass kicked by Steiner and Liao and they were clearly having little luck in restoring the HPG net. Seizing control of the abandoned HPG stations wasn't the problem, it wasn't like ComStar kept military garrisons there to defend them, rather it was a combination of both sabotage and the League's own lack of technical knowledge regarding how an Hyperpulse Generator operated in practice, as opposed to theory. There were still plenty of physicists on Atreus who understood the equations set down by Kearny and Fuchida, knowing exactly how the math applied to the practical engineering was another matter entirely.
Of course, if the Inner Sphere continued to blast itself into a pre-industrial society, one also severely lacking in Higher Education facilities thanks to a surfeit of funding and a surplus of radioactive craters, before too long they wouldn't have the physicists either. They hadn't quite regressed to that level as yet, but the Second Succession War was still less than a decade old and if the First was any indication it might have another quarter-century left in it before everyone ran out ammunition, manpower, money or just the will to keep banging their heads against a brick wall.
That was a problem for the future however. What Charles Marik needed right now was people that didn't belong to ComStar but were apparently well informed enough about the operation, maintenance and indeed manufacture of Hyperpulse Generators to have their own HPG network.
If it had taken SAFE this long to realize that people like that could be found only a single jump from Free Worlds territory it seemed that their reputation as being the worse intelligence agency in the Inner Sphere was well-founded. Unless it had just taken Charles Marik this long to swallow his pride and approach some podunk periphery nation for help of course, that couldn't be discounted.
Lieutenant-Colonel Heath had of course been advised that the Free Worlds League might well come knocking on Niops door looking for some HPG related assistance as the Interdiction wore on, that Charles Marik would send one of his own children to do so did come as something of a surprise though and could be seen as either desperation or astuteness on his part.
Given that he had blasted the Oriente ComStar station with warships, most observers on Niops tended to discount the suggestion that he was a particularly astute or pragmatic man which meant he was getting desperate.
Hopefully not desperate enough to make threats if Niops didn't concede to his requests, or possibly outright demands, although with the Free Worlds League Military currently getting hammered into the ground by their rivals what reserves they had were barely in a fit state to invade the Illyrian Palatinate, let alone the Niops Association. 
With the Olympus station relaying the conversation back to Niops VII it wasn't long until instructions to Heath on how to proceed from that point on arrived from Brigadier-General Nellis. For a start play nice and express some noncommittal platitudes about how sad it was that the Free Worlds League was suffering because of underhanded ComStar shenanigans. As regards the current military situation, with the League being invaded from two directions, feel free to disparage the Capellans Nellis advised, people on Niops didn't care for their caste-like servitor system and predilection for biological warfare and didn't mind one bit if the Capellan government knew it, but don't bad-mouth the Lyrans. After all the Steiners weren't complete ******, they represented a big potential market in the future and they might already be holding a grudge about the outing of Raymond's Redcoats, so diplomatically it was best to play nice with them as well.
Niops didn't really care for any of the Successor States but there were clearly lesser evils among them and the government and military were pragmatic enough to differentiate. The Free Worlds League itself was objectively a better neighbor than the Capellan Confederation or the Draconis Combine would be, the inability of the realm of House Marik to ever get its shit together politically being an absolute blessing. Having a united, well-run and frankly less fractious and disorganised state than the Free Worlds League on the border would be of far greater concern than what they had now, so long may the status quo continue.
A joke being told at SLDF headquarters was that in the past Niops could have carved off a small chunk off the Free Worlds League and Atreus wouldn't have realised for five years. With the HPG network down it would be so long before they noticed they might not be absolutely sure if worlds like Revel and Stettin ever actually belonged to them, or there was something wrong with the old maps.
When the Dark Regret got close enough to the station to begin receiving beamed power to its jumpsails, at this point so close that it noticed the telescope array on top of the Olympus and had to be reassured that it wasn't a gigantic naval laser pointed right at them, Heath sent over a shuttle to confirm the identity of the man purporting to be Garth Marik.
Joking that he could have just shown himself at a viewing port and held up his identity documents so the big telescope could have read them instead Garth Marik willingly presented his credentials to the inspection team sent over to the ship and was told that despite them being accepted, and his being granted diplomatic status, he would still not be allowed to travel onto Niops VII.
However, given the unusual circumstances, and the fact it would only take a couple of days to make the journey, High Associator Giles Olson was willing to meet him personally aboard the recharge station and a DropShip was being prepared to ferry him there with all haste.
Since, even with power being beamed from the station, it would take much longer than that before the Dark Regret would be ready to head home anyway Garth Marik seemed perfectly fine with the proposal and expressed his thanks that Olson was willing to make the trip. Live face-to-face contact was preferable to electronic communication, even if Niops still had the fancy holographic projectors that were quickly falling out of use across much of the Inner Sphere.
Fortunately for Olson the journey from Niops VII up to the Zenith point also gave him plenty of time to analyses the situation, run through various possible scenarios on how this might go and consider a number of proposals on how to proceed.
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===Negotiations and Bartering===
Arriving at the zenith station aboard a Confederate class military dropship, the only one the NAM owned and operated, escorted by an SLDF Titan, Giles Olson was pleased that preparations for hosting the meeting aboard the station were well in hand, with Lieutenant-Colonel Heath having prepared a conference room as well as temporary quarters for the Free Worlders if they needed them.
With a diameter of just over twelve-hundred metres, and also unusually wide, the main rotating grav-deck of an Olympus made living and working aboard such a station quite pleasant compared to most space stations. Eventually the grav-deck would even house stores and other businesses to cater for visiting JumpShip and dropship crews, but as yet most of the floorspace was unused other than as temporary extra storage space for goods being imported and exported from Niops.
As Garth Marik, his bodyguard and an advisor were escorted through the station, they had arrived via one of their own shuttles which was now docked in a vacant small-craft bay, Marik made note of the fact that everything seemed to be brand new and freshly painted. This confirmed the report prepared for him by SAFE that Niops had only recently constructed the station and seemed to back up their theory that it was as yet the only recharge station these people had.
There certainly wasn't another such station at their colony Alphard, a Free Worlds JumpShip having visited there to see what was going on in the system given that Niops had purchased the rights to the defunct branch of the Alphard Trading Corporation that once operated there, so their resources were not unlimited Marik surmised. Still, just to have built one of these things, said a great deal about their industrial depth and along with their operating their own HPG net indicated that there was more to these Niops people than just a few inherited warships.
Ushered into a somewhat utilitarian conference room, a large rectangular steel table in the middle with some rather uncomfortable duralumin chairs lining each side, Marik and his advisor took a seat while the bodyguard stood off to one side back against a wall.
They had let the bodyguard keep his sidearm, though given the number of armed NAM and SLDF military personnel infesting the station that was likely because they didn't think he represented much of a threat, and while they waited Marik made a mental note to ask why the Niops Association Militia had not been fully integrated into the SLDF structure when General Romanov and her people arrived.
Olson did not keep them waiting long and he entered wearing am expensive looking and well-cut business suit accompanied by a man wearing SLDF dress uniform, the star of a brigadier-general on his collar. "Sorry to keep you waiting" Olson began, smiling. "Giles Olson, High Associator of the Niops Association." he introduced himself. "May I present Brigadier-General Hal Franklin of the SLDF, General Romanov's second-in-command" he continued, indicating his companion.
"Garth Marik, here representing my father Charles Marik, Captain-General of the Free Worlds League." Marik introduced himself in turn, shaking hands with Olson who couldn't help but note how young he was, barely into his early thirties if that. "My companion Elise Stewart, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs."
"A pleasure," Olson responded, smiling at the woman. "Your cousin is the Earl of Stewart I believe?" he checked.
"Second cousin many, many times removed." the woman replied, smiling back.
"Still, having all this aristocracy around makes a humble scientist turned politician like myself feel positively plebian" Olson joked. "What about you General Franklin?" he asked the military officer by his side.
"The Niops Association knows no lord but the First Lord of the Star League whose name is Cameron" Brigadier-General Hal Franklin, AKA Lieutenant-General Franklin Hallis, growled.
Olson sighed. "You'll have to forgive the SLDF people their ways" he said apologetically. "It's been said that diplomacy is the art of saying 'Good Doggie' while looking for a big stick, while the military only emphasises wielding the big stick" he observed. "Our military intelligence people have gotten it into their heads that you might intend to threaten us into handing over Hyperpulse Generators so you can better prosecute your war against the other Great Houses and I confess it has our forces rather on edge."
"The Free Worlds League has no such plans." Garth Marik denied.
"Wonderful news" Olson responded with a broad smile, "Naturally we would sabotage all our equipment to prevent it being seized in such a manner and I would so hate to have to counter with a threat to turn every Marik controlled world within sixty light-years into radioactive rubble" he said brightly.
The youngest Marik son raised his eyebrows. "That would seem… an overreaction." He opined.
"After what you people did to New Dallas and Brownsville? Like ****** it is" Hallis retorted. "We've spent over forty years stockpiling enough megatonnage to make sure that if the same thing happens to us you'll ****** regret it" he stated venomously.
"That's enough General!" Olson told him curtly.
"My apologies, Sir" Hallis replied, hoping that he was playing his role nearly as well as Olson was his.
"I'm afraid that given our lack of what the military tells me is called 'strategic depth' our defence policy leans heavily towards unleashing armageddon if it looks like what happened to the rest of the Terran Hegemony might happen to us" Olson explained. "Our star may be dim but that does not mean that our final rage against the dying of the light would not be very bright indeed."
"You consider yourselves the dying ember of the Terran Hegemony and the Star League then I assume?" Elise Stewart asked.
"Dying? No, not hardly." Olson replied. "More like the spark that relit what will one day become a raging inferno lighting the way to the future" he said before chuckling. "You know, if I was allowed to stand for re-election that line would have definitely been recycled into a speech, but as it is I'll just have to save it for my memoirs" he continued. "Oh, in case you don't know I'm serving out my last term in office, our constitution only permits the High Associator to be re-elected twice so come the next election in 2840 I'm back to being a private citizen. It's actually quite liberating in a way, I don't have to schmooze with people I don't like or pretend to agree with random nutjobs I run into out on the street anymore."
"Term limits? Not very Terran of you." Stewart observed.
"The positions of First Lord and the Director-General of the Hegemony may have been lifetime appointments, and the elected members of the High Council certainly had no term limits, but there's always room for innovation and improvement in government" Olson replied. "Our system certainly makes it trickier for one man or woman to so entrench themselves in authority that they become some kind of tyrannical dictator." 
"I'll choose to assume that by 'tyrannical dictator' you are referencing those sat on the throne of the Draconis Combine or the Capellan Confederation, rather than my father" Garth Marik remarked.
"No offence, but honestly I can't see the Free Worlds League as being centralized or organized enough for any Captain-General to meet the usual criteria." Olson replied. "That's really not meant as an insult by the way, your parliament and regional power-blocks act as somewhat of a check on your leadership that is sorely lacking in other places. If you want to see true totalitarianism in action look at what happened on Kentares."
"We don't like you for what you did, not who you are." Franklin Hallis interjected. "It's an important distinction."
"We don't like the Capellan Confederation for who, and what, they are which is the reason why we're prepared to be accommodating, if not necessarily in the manner you're hoping for" Olson told Garth Marik. "I'll cut to the chase, no we won't give you HPG's or technical assistance on how to get ones you've seized from ComStar running again, not because we like ComStar, in fact at the moment we're extremely ill-disposed towards them, but because we signed an agreement with them that gave us access to their network as long as we didn't provide Hyperpulse technology to any other state."
Marik frowned. "But aren't you currently unable to access the ComStar Network because your only HPG link operates through the Free Worlds League that they've put under interdiction?" he queried. "Doesn't that mean they broke the agreement between you?"
"We can still access it in a roundabout manner through the Magistracy, though there are related financial matters which we are extremely aggrieved about" Olson replied. "Frankly it's a pain-in-the-ass, but we have business dealings with parties beyond the local area and losing ComStar network access would have a negative effect on our economy."
"We could certainly make it worth your while." Marik persisted. "Even a handful of HPGs or a few manuals would help swing the war back the other way" he said. "It's going badly for us as I'm sure you realise" he admitted.
"Worth our while in the short term perhaps, but not in the long term I suspect." Olson replied. 
"ComStar is not to be trusted." Marik declared. "Do you doubt that they passed on our military secrets to our enemies thus violating their supposed neurtality?" he asked, feigned indignance ignoring the fact that in secret they had previously informed the Free Worlds League of what the other Successor states were up to first. 
"Oh, we believe you about that, the only thing we're not sure of is why you thought they wouldn't" Olson replied, chuckling. "Look, if you feel obliged to make threats at this point to try and get what you want then please go ahead, but it won't get you what you want while it will mean I don't tell you my proposal on how we might be of assistance otherwise."
Elise Stewart and Garth Marik looked at each other before turning back towards Olson. "What proposal?" Marik asked curiously.
"Okay, assuming threats are off the table then allow me to present a scenario." Olson began. "Let's say that hypothetically the Niops Association was interested in purchasing Stingray aerospace fighters, from Andurien Aerotech, I'm told they have a manufacturing facility for them on Westover four jumps from here." he continued, looking to Hallis for confirmation the military officer nodding. "Now, what with the war going on, and your ability to transport raw materials around restricted by the need to use JumpShips to carry messages not just haul cargo, Andurien is currently in no position to oblige, woe is Niops."
Garth Marik looked puzzled. "I'm not sure where you're going with this" he admitted.
"Now you see while Niops does not have a production line for the Stingray, or any aerospace fighter type for that matter, we do have a certain amount of indigenous arms production, which includes the ability to manufacture Particle Projector Cannon." Olson continued. "A weapon that I believe the Stingray mounts but is in somewhat short supply in the Free Worlds League at the best of times."
"Too many of them going into the Awesome I guess." Hallis wryly observed.
"I don't know where you got the mistaken idea that the Free Worlds league was lacking in PPC production" Marik replied flatly.
"Well one indication was the way you've been noted as replacing the PPC on your examples of the Black Knight with a Large Laser, which you wouldn't be doing if you had PPCs to spare" Hallis responded. "Now to be fair it's not that you don't make a lot of PPCs, it's more likely that your problem is that so many of the machines you rely on mount them. You've got two factories making the Awesome, two making Marauders, other factories making the Thug, Warhammer, Battlemaster and Griffin… well I've made my point, but when added to all that the fact that your primary medium aerospace fighter also mounts a PPC it's not surprising that production doesn't meet demand."
"Indeed. So what if Niops was to try and speed up Stingray production in particular by shipping PPCs to Westover, purely for our own benefit of course, helping to clear the production backlog so we get ours sooner" Olson suggested. "Of course, there is also the matter of how we would pay for these aerospace fighters once they were complete, I mean with the HPG net down we can't simply transfer C-Bills now can we?" he asked rhetorically. "We might even have to resort to barter."
"Bartering what?"
"More PPCs obviously," Olson replied, smiling. "And I mean, we're not actually in any rush to receive our new fighters right now, so if we had to wait a couple of years for the first batch that would be fine even though we would make full payment in advance."
"Full payment in the form of PPCs" Garth Marik replied, playing along.
"Indeed" Olson confirmed. "Naturally we would deliver the PPCs to Westover ourselves, perhaps in a JumpShip that was honestly too large for the assigned task and might be forced to pick up and transport other cargo along the way to make the trip worthwhile."
"We were thinking about a Monolith following a very roundabout route from here to Westover and then back again. Got any cargo that needs moving between any of the systems between here and there?" Hallis asked. "I mean, what with so many of your JumpShips busy elsewhere you must."
"Nothing military of course, we're strictly neutral and trust that any encrypted communications we might carry along with us for you would not violate that status either." Olson added for himself.
"You don't see the PPCs you're moving in this hypothetical scenario as being military cargo?" Elise Stewart asked knowingly.
"Nah, just trade goods because we can't pay in C-Bills." Olson replied. "Wholly the property of the Niops Association until they get to Westover, at which time what happens to them is none of our business" he said. "Just to be clear this proposal should not be taken as a sign that we like you, it's more that we don't like ComStar, particularly not at the moment."
"Do you mind me asking how it is you seem to have this PPC production capability that must be beyond your own needs?" Garth Marik asked.
"Not at all, we made some weapon production lines to replace worn out hardware, you've got to remember all our machines date from the Amaris War or just afterwards, and planned to sell any excess production, perhaps to the Magistracy or even to yourselves eventually" Olson replied. "I'm sure you know we also purchased a license to produce the Thug, and we were going to need PPCs for those as well of course."
Elise Stewart frowned. "You realize that getting our hands on more PPCs, and a little more transport capability, isn't going to help enough for us to beat back the Lyrans and Capellans?" she asked.
"Yes, but other than offer our thoughts and prayers there isn't much more we can do without breaking our agreement with ComStar as I said" Olson replied apologetically. "Even if we could scrape up a handful of HPG's for you, and maybe offer technical assistance, it's extremely doubtful we could swing the war back in your favour anyway, not at this point. When you eventually throw in the towel we don't want to be the next ones Interdicted."
"Honestly I'm not sure that my father will think this is a good enough response from Niops" Marik suggested. "If he thinks you're bluffing about your purported nuclear arsenal he might order more direct methods to force you to comply with his demands."
"Then he'll find out that we're not bluffing and the Free Worlds League is in no fit state right now to deal with what we'll do to every one of your worlds within reach of our military" Olson replied flatly. "If he's trying to save his domain then getting a fair chunk of it orbitally bombarded because his warships are tied up elsewhere is not the way."
"Perhaps we should throw them another bone, the one we discussed earlier" Hallis said to Olson.
Olson nodded. "As well as the PPCs we have limited ERPPC production and can provide some of them, along with double-heat-sinks, that Brigadier Franklin advises you could secretly mount to some of your new-build Marauder mechs after they've left the factory."
"A MAD-3R with those would basically be a downgraded Royal Marauder, just without the ferro-fibrous armor" Hallis explained. "It's not a war-winning weapon, but if you suddenly deployed say a company of the things onto the battlefield one day, maybe even painted up in SLDF colours, it might make your opposition think you'd found a big Star League cache and cause them to halt their advance. It's not like they've got ComStar feeding them intelligence on all your dispositions right now."
"By 'limited' we mean we're hand-building them." Olson lied, "So don't go thinking we can ramp up production and help you turn the tide with hundreds of pseudo-royals." he said. "My advice would be to sue for peace while you've still got a star-nation that's mostly intact."
"Presumably you're hand-building ER PPCs for some of your hand-built Thug assaults" Marik surmised. "That makes sense under the circumstances" he reasoned. 
"What exactly would you want for these ER PPCs and heatsinks?" Stewart queried.
"Ongoing courteous relations with the Free Worlds League and for you not to tell anyone where you got them" Olson replied. "You can tell ComStar about the normal PPCs though, in fact we'd actually like you to once you're back on speaking terms, we're trying to make a point there that there are consequences to messing with us."
Garth Marik looked thoughtful. "I've got to admit this is not what I thought I would be discussing with you when I arrived at Niops." he told them honestly.
"To be frank we certainly never expected an actual member of the Marik family to come to us looking for help so these are untested waters for all of us." Giles Olson replied with a shrug. "There is one thing though, I was wary of asking this earlier because I feared it might sound crass, but under the circumstances for the life of me I don't know whether I should offer my condolences for the death of your aunt Jeanette or not." he added awkwardly. 
==Chapter Notes==
*;Notes from the Author : Despite his relative youth Garth Marik, youngest son of Charles Marik seems to have been the one responsible for the Free Worlds League getting off as likely as they did after losing the ComStar War. Instead of his father sending him off to negotiate with the Primus Raymond Karpov and the First Circuit as in canon he is dispatched to Niops first to try and get some HPGs (and/or technical assistance).Niops does not want to break their agreement with ComStar but they are angry enough with them to offer the Free Worlds League some help of a different kind. The FWL suffered an onging shortage of PPCs through the Succession Wars which only got worse over time, needing to replace the PPC on some of their Black Knight mechs with a large laser as early as 2809 in the First Succession War was just one example. By 2873 they also ended up having to produce a model of the Marauder without PPC's and in 2915 a type of Banshee without them.It wasn't that they didn't make a lot of PPC's, it was that so many of their most numerically important machines used them (including the Awesome which mounted three) that they rarely had enough, thus often having to substitute in lasers and LRMs instead . If their PPC supply was such a logistical bottleneck at the best of times it must have been surely even worst during the ComStar War/Interdiction so an additional supply of Particle Projector Cannon could have an outsized (If still far from war-winning) effect. It also amuses Niops that if asked why they're giving the FWL PPC's they can blame ComStar; "We're not giving them PPCs, we used them as currency. We wanted to pay for new fighters in C-Bills instead but we couldn't because of the Interdiction."The Stingray is a decent aerospace fighter with a lot of punch, but if you don't have enough PPCs for all your mechs having your primary medium fighter mount one as well isn't great logistically. One of the factories that makes the Stingray is on Westover, only four jumps from Niops, so it's pretty close. A Monolith taking a less-than-direct route there and back could haul a lot of cargo between different inhabited systems which might be handy if the ships usually flying between them are unavailable.Niops could easily provide a lot more ERPPC's than they are too, but not letting the FWL know that is rather important.
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Chapter 34