Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven: The Rules of Engagement
New Avalon, January 15th, 3032
"Theodore Kurita," Hanse Davion greeted. "I see that you and your family have made the trip to New Avalon safely."
"Your dog Hull has no honor." Theodore spat on the ground. "He denied me every opportunity to redeem my own honor and establish my son as coordinator."
"Hull is something we can discuss later." Hanse said with a touch of a fox-like grin on his face. "For now, let's get you and your family settled into their quarters in the Davion Palace."
"I will obey as a captive and hostage, but I will never be your puppet." Theodore replied. "My father was murdered by your dog's bitch Kerensky and not even given the illusion of a fair fight."
"I am not my brother Ian." Hanse finally said after a moment. "I believe war is not an honorable thing. Instead, it's something that we must strive to avoid, but, when we must engage in war, then we must crush the enemy so totally that there is not a chance that they are able to fight back." Hanse then glanced backwards. "Lady Jasmine, Lady Tomoe, I hope the trip here was pleasant."
"It was satisfactory." Jasmine Kurita replied, answering for both herself and her daughter in law. "Hull, while rough in his handling of matters of war, has a delicate touch when it comes to matters such as this."
"I am glad to hear of it." Hanse responded. "My lovely wife Dana has been arranging the quarters for you and your family. I hope that you find them to your liking."
"I am certain that our exile will be one of comfort." Theodore responded harshly. "That or torture in order to find the secrets that I may hold."
"We're not concerned with your secrets." Hanse chuckled. "According to everything I have seen recently Hull just demolished the ISF headquarters on New Samarkand, and even if they didn't manage to pull all of the data stored there we shall be fine." Hanse grinned. "The Combine is on the chopping board Theodore, and this may be your very last chance to try and save a piece of it."
Tharkad, February 15th, 3032
"It is with great pleasure that I announce the recapture of every single world that the Combine has taken from us over the entirety of the Succession Wars!" Katrina said before the gathered press in front of her. "We have accomplished something that has not been accomplished in the history of the Commonwealth before, and have proven that not only is our military capable, but that we are able to do our part in this Alliance."
The assembled nobles began to clap and cheer before Katrina waved them down. "We have accomplished a great victory, but we still have much work to do, I am moving garrison forces forward in order to free up our logistics, and with our allies the Wolf Confederation and the Federated Suns pressing in on the Draconis Combine we will continue our advance until we are not able to move forward anymore."
"Do you have any comments on the Sack of Luthien?" A reporter asked.
"I was pleasantly shocked to find that the leadership of the Combine had been removed at the same time that we were in some critical moments of our campaign." Katrina said diplomatically. "And Duke Hull of Kentares has been a close friend of the Steiners for many years, and so we celebrated greatly when we heard of the victory that he had achieved."
"What is your stance on Hull burning down areas on New Samarkand?" Another reporter asked.
"Every stellar nation should be grateful that the tool of tyrants has been burned to the ground." Katrina said firmly. "The ISF has been a thorn in the side of every nation to some extent for hundreds of years, and while I am not naive enough to believe that the threat is totally ended, the ISF has been brought to the lowest point it has ever been in history."
"What about the rumors of First Prince Hanse Davion holding the Coordinators family hostage on New Avalon?"
"Hanse Davion is not called "The Fox" for nothing." She smiled mysteriously. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."
"Why did we hire Davion Mercenaries to assist in OPERATION BLITZKRIEG?"
"Because they are our allies, and the Marksman have an excellent reputation for accomplishing nigh impossible tasks." She gestures to the world of Kessel highlighted in Steiner Blue on the hologram. "This was proven by the 1st Marksman not only taking Kessel from two regiments of veterans, but also managing to hold it against reinforcements from the 18th Dieron Regulars and another battlemech regiment."
"Now, if you'll direct any further questions to the press department," Katrina said. "I have some other duties and responsibilities to handle."
Kentares IV, May 31st, 3032
"We're back home." I told Natasha as we finally jumped into the Kentares IV system. "After nearly a year of combat and making sure that the Combine won't be able to hit us back we're finally home."
"Indeed we are." Natasha responded while wrapped in my arms. "Now all that is left is to unload our equipment and maybe see what the future has in store." She smirked at me. "And I may have something to show you."
"Let's make sure that we get everything unloaded first, and Dunham will need all of the data that we pulled from the ISF HQ." I said as we boosted towards the planet that we called home.
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June 10th, 3032
"This was supposed to be ready six months ago," Natasha said with a smirk as she led my blindfolded self around. "But we were a little busy back then."
"Is it a cheesecake?" I asked. "You know that my weakness is cheesecake."
"No, keep guessing," Natasha laughed. "Or you can wait until we get there."
"I'll wait." I replied. "I'll wait."
We continued walking and I remained almost literally in the dark until we finally reached the area that Natasha had set apart for this.
"Now, behold what an excellent wife I am." Natasha said proudly as she ripped my blindfold off, revealing a new 'Mech. "This is a very experimental machine that took both Dr. Rogers and MacAlister working together for six months to refit and put together."
"It looks like a slightly taller Warhammer." I said after examining it for a moment. "It's not one of my refits, because I went with an all energy loadout last time." I walked around the two story machine and tried to figure everything out.
"It's a Warhammer IIC." Natasha took pity on me. "We had to use an experimental XXL engine like the one that they developed for Melissa's Alacorn in order to get the movement profile that you enjoy, and also traded NAIS for some triple strength myomers." She patted the machine's foot. "This baby has a maximum speed of 86.4 kilometers per hour before you use the TSM and has 5 jump jets to assist it in mobility. You now are able to take a bit more damage because you have 15 tons of standard armor and are able to hit something at virtually every single range on the battlefield."
"Thank you for this." I said as I pulled Natasha in for a kiss. "Any other surprises I should know about?"
"We'll just have to wait and see." She replied as she walked away. "You coming with?" She called out over her shoulder.
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June 15th, 3032
"We need to put an endo steel factory in orbit over Markesan before we can move the extra Gladiator lines over there." I said to Watson. "I assume we have the teams ready for putting some new factories in place?"
"I'll get the orbital team on it." He replied as he flipped through the inventory of what we had taken from Luthien, New Samarkand, and Soul. "You want the Grand Dragon factories on Kentares IV, correct?" He asked.
"Yes, I was going to have the stock Dragon lines be moved to Robinson, and the Charger as well." I said, "I want the Schrek and Lancelot lines moved to Argyle, and I want to sell the Quickdrawline to the Davions, we're going to be producing enough stuff as is."
"What about the loot from Soul?" He asked as he looked through the data from there. "What do you plan on doing with that?"
"I plan on trying to see something, there were a couple of Battlemasters mixed in with the Crocketts that were in storage there, and the techs found a couple of manufacturing lines there."
"Going to have R&D go over stuff?" Watson asked.
"When we go through everything I'll let you know." I told him. "For now, we're going to have to stick with what we have though."
"I'll get to work on moving around the teams and getting everything set up, should take a year or more to get everything production ready." Watson replied. "I take it you want to create more endo steel facilities in orbit of every world that we have manufacturing on?"
"Yes, the costs are negligible compared to the benefits overall when it comes to production." I replied. "It allows us to make machines like the Gladiator or Von Rohrs able to do more than comparable machines."
"It'll take at least a decade to get that done in orbit on every world." He said as he flipped through the data. "But we can get at least the ones that will feed the Gladiator lines on Markesan set up within a year."
It's okay if it takes time." I told the man. "We've got a lot of work ahead of us anyway."
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June 25th, 3032
"We brought back around sixty or so Crocketts from Soul." I told Godbolt and Packer. "My plan is to use them to fill in some of the gaps that we have where we lack assault 'mechs."
"You may want to wait until the Marksman units get back." Sheppard chimed in. "They're going to need some replacement machines as well."
"We'll take care of it," I said with a shrug. "Given what we pulled off, I'm okay with bumping some people back down the list in order for us to get our units replenished."
"I am sure Hanse will sign off on it." Natasha said from behind my right shoulder. "We are still finishing the Excaliburs and Triumph class dropships that we stole from Luthien."
"I'm gifting half of those to the 3rd Kentares Guard." I said, "We have plenty of lift for the other units, but we're still lacking lift for the 3rd Kentares aside from the Sting dropships that we built for them.
"We can organize that later." I said, "Right now we need to focus on the rebuild priority."
"Packer gets first priority for now, and then Godbolt, and we'll figure out the Marksman when they get back to Kentares."
"So, most of my losses were in 'mechs…"
Author's Note: I'm going to post the new Hull Warhammer in the informational later, and I'll update the Sharpshooter page in a bit, there's a lot to sort through.