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Beyond Hope
- Chapter 67 - The ripples before the tsunami[]
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”Main reason I made it off Kowloon before everything went down was because of timing. My brother was having another episode, and my Dad was being my Dad and not dealing with it. How stupid is it I got off in time because my idiot brother thought it was an okay idea to try and ship me a block of modeling clay with wires going to a digital clock?”
Interview with Sean MacIntyre-Carlyle
Recorded 13 June 3084
An Appointment with Exoskeleton[]
University
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran States)
3065
“Miss me?” Nathan chuckled in the University gym.
“You again. I’m starting to not like you,” Sean growled.
“I see you are still in the ‘angry at the world for the injustice of my injury’ phase of your recovery.” Nathan observed.
“That’s what Doc Huyn seems to think too. But I’m also angry at myself. I wasn’t good enough,” Sean said as she looked Nathan in the eye.
“Shall we get to work?” asks Nathan
“You’re timing is off today, lover boy. I already got my workout in and ******. I’m going to be late for my appointment.”
“Not that you are unattractive, but I have no intention of coupling with you and where do you need to be?”
“Medical Annex. Third Floor. Doctor Pol’s office. I’m being fitted for my first compact exoskeleton today to help me walk again without ruining my back. I’ll never make it in time now.”
“Then I shall assist.” Nathan grabbed Sean’s wheelchair. “Ready yourself.”
Then he started running.
“COMING THROUGH! MAKE A HOLE!” Nathan shouted.
A blur of hallways then doors, and the concourse outside flashed before Sean’s eyes as they covered ground in a hurry.
Nathan expertly dodged faculty, staff, and students as they crossed from the gym to the medical annex.
Then it was time to dodge nurses and patients in the Medical Annex.
Nathan finally let them both catch their breath at the elevator.
“Shit. That trip nearly takes me half an hour, and we’re here in five minutes,” Sean panted. “Okay you win. You can be my new physical therapy coach. Anything just to not do that again anytime soon.”
“Aff. It is good you have accepted it finally.”
“It helps that you just scared the hell out of me and if you can cross that much ground in five minutes then I know you’re in shape and know what it takes to get in shape. Plus, I know I can take you at your word that you won’t be grabby. So yeah. You definitely win even if I’m still not sure I actually like you.”
“I can work with that,” Nathan nodded.
“MacIntyre. Fifteen hundred appointment. Oh and this is Nathan Roshak. He’ll be coming in with me as he’s my new physical therapy coach. He’s a bastard, but he knows what he’s doing. So he’ll need to be briefed on my exoskeleton too,” Sean said to the receptionist.
They waited a few minutes before being shown back to the exam room.
“Problem with your existing coach Hauptman MacIntyre?” Doctor Pol asked.
“Yeah. Jeffery wasn’t getting me the results I was looking for, and all that new age bullshit he peddled was getting old, too. Nathan Roshak here is a little more traditional so I’ve decided to go with him.”
“Well then. The fitting won’t take long, and the system is pretty low maintenance. This is where the powercell goes. With the power off the system is a bit rigid to provide support but easy to remove. It’ll still be a few months before you have full mobility again, but you’ll be able to walk if all goes well today.”
“So I’ll still need someone to wipe my ass for me,” Sean groaned.
“Only for a little while longer. Now Mister Roshak, these buttons here are the engage/release mechanism to get Sean in and out of the exoskeleton in case you need to.”
“This is a most impressive system,” Nathan noted.
“Prototype by one of my medical engineering students. It takes principles from neurohelmet technology combined with the latest advancements in material science. The myomer bundles and endosteel frame easily provide the support she needs to avoid aggravating her injury while her back heals. Of course, it’s still a bit bulky to wear under clothing reasonably, but we’re working on that.”
An hour later Sean was in her exoskeleton and taking her first step on her own since that day on New Avalon.
“Better?” Nathan asked.
“Much,” Sean nodded.
Cavern of Broken Machines[]
Cavern ruins of a lost city
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3065
The cavern was only partially artificial, the remains of ferro-steel brazing showed that.
"Huh, Rampage… Rampage, that one over there is a Hecatoncheires… These weren't rusted junk when they were put here." Jakob confirmed. "Unit markings weren't removed either. These 'mechs were captures."
Eddie Vanh flicked a broken bit of sandstone with his toe. "So, not a Rim Worlds cache then?"
"Not by half. Procedure was to secure captured equipment as a reserve, kind of like how the Succession Wars went on after enough of the industries were finished. I'd say these were mostly captured by the 90th Heavy Assault, who worked with the one seven one on Elbar and after. How far back does it go?"
"Couple kilometers. Nothing's in usable shape as is. Water got in, and there were some ceiling collapses."
"Brush me up on the history. When your ancestors left after the Liberation, they had to turn in the Loaned equipment, right?"
"Yeah, it was standing policy with the SLDF to require rallier units to hand over any loaned equipment. And most of the one-seven-one's heavy equipment was provided by SLDF quartermasters."
"Kerensky wouldn't authorize handing over captures to a departing unit. Then again, if it didn't reach his desk…"
"You're saying we stole it?"
"Nope. See, I was with Helena during a lot of that time period. I kept my eyes and ears open. Sam Winters was a Star League patriot, but he wasn't one of General Kerensky's groupies. The guy was a professional, but not a member of the personality cult… He was also a pretty badass bureaucrat, so here's what I think…" Jakob led them up a mostly-intact gantry stair, to the open cockpit canopy of a Hecatoncheires assault 'mech, "Yep."
"What?"
"The tracking tag's been inactivated, and see here? They altered the neurohelmet harness. The Nine-Zero was a Royal unit, which would have the techs to make these modifications. Winters must've been clued in on Exodus, so he 'arranged' for his drinking buddy's people to get a bunch of captured materiel on the sly. This stuff got here, and I bet they hid it in The Folly, in this dug-out bunker, as insurance."
"We could've used it over the centuries." Eddie muttered.
"Yeah, you could have," Jakob agreed. "If you knew it was here, or if it was safe to unbox it. So here's my speculation: your people hid it so it wouldn't be taken from you by the Lyrans. And then whoever hid it kept the secret so well, that everyone forgot it was even here."
"Rain and weather did the rest…" Eddie put the pieces together mentally. "A couple floods, the entry door wasn't meant to last because this was supposed to be temporary and…"
"You've got a short division of broken 'mechs that will cost more to repair than buying new ones," Jakob agreed. "Probably tanks too. Maybe those got buried deeper in, or maybe they went with the One-Seven-One during the death ride to Kentares..."
"That's probably when they lost the knowledge we had the stuff," Eddie speculated. "If the vets from the Amaris War were the only ones who knew where the stuff was stashed, and they got blown up by the Dracs…"
"It gets forgotten, left here, until the floods eroded enough to breach the cover and fill the chamber a few times." Jakob agreed with a nod, "Thus, ruining the delicate electronics and screwing up the mechanicals."
"If we'd known to even look…"
"Your people are fantastic at keeping secrets, Eddie, even from yourselves. Comes with the epic ability to hold a grudge for centuries. I'd say pick out the best pieces and send 'em to museums, maybe firm up the structure and charge admission, or finish collapsing the cavern."
"We'll figure something out. Thanks for taking the time to come have a look.
Frustrations of an old Man[]
Groom Lake, Nevada
Terra, Sol System (Word of Blake Protectorate)
"Are you really that surprised?" the retired man asked. "Encouraging them to re-form the Star League was going to have side effects. It's why we didn't do it earlier. There's never a guarantee that the result is going to be one hundred percent what you wanted."
"They're bringing in the Clans as mercenaries!"
"No, they're pointing a dagger right at the center of the Order's power." The old man took off his straw hat, waved his face with it, and started walking back to the garden shed. His visitor hurried to follow. "See, in my day, we didn't screw up the assassinations. We either didn't attempt it, or we succeeded the first time."
"Sir, I came here looking for-"
"You came here looking for advice, maybe benediction, or at least the comfort of hearing an old man agreeing with you as you make your power play… Maybe even an endorsement. I gave decades of my life to Regular Operations Maintenance. You kids are an embarrassment. I've never been happier to be out of the business, than having you standing here looking for a solution because you've ****** it up by the numbers. We created Focht because the conditions had changed, the leadership got impatient… and you still are. You're trying to make Blake's prophecy come true because you stupidly think it's a blueprint for utopia, instead of a warning of what to prepare for."
The old man put the garden tools away neatly, in perfect order, and stripped off his gloves. "Well, congratulations. You've pushed it closer to catastrophe and you're not ready for it. And now you're here, bothering me, because some jackass in the office thought he could change the mind of a Cameron with a nuclear warhead… And you let the imbeciles who did that live." He shook his head. "STUPID. They know we have secrets, you rubbed their faces in it… Well, I'm not going to try to change the laws of physics to save you this time. I'm over a hundred years old and I'm quite fond of no longer being responsible for saving the universe by correcting the mistakes of ungrateful superiors."
"Sir, nobody gets out."
"WATCH ME. I did the job for a lifetime and a half. I've got, according to my doctor, one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel like a silent-movie pratfall. That means I'm dead already. I just haven't decided to lay down and be quiet about it. If I hadn't been 'eased out' when it mattered, Helena Cameron would've been back here, on Terra, taking vows and part of the Order. And she'd be here willingly. But you numbskulls thought you could treat her like some Household Lordling who didn't see the Star League at its height. You treated her like she was a naif, an ignorant idiotic imbecile who could be cowed or bribed. Morons, all of you. I have nothing I can do that will help. And not much interest in seeing what I've got left that might. Go back to Hilton Head, or send a hit team, or whatever idiot thing you think will work, but I'm done. Now, if we're finished? There's a quiz show on Channel Thirty One and I want to watch rubes being plucked by the host with basic questions that should be public knowledge."
Kernov, pensive, watched the old man head into his tiny, trailer-like house. There were very few men in ROM who managed to actually make it to retirement, even in the old days. The Old Bastard had lasted decades as number two at the agency, heading up a section that handled matters too dark and sensitive to allow the First Circuit to even know about.
And the Old Bastard had basically told him you're ****** and I don't care.
Which meant he didn't have to worry that his mentor would step in.
Preparing for Judgment Day[]
That long forgotten world no longer on anyone’s maps)
Precentor Scylla was laying in bed with her paramour.
“I am grateful Apollyon has deemed you worthy to join us here.” Scylla said as she drew her hands over her lover’s body.
“I have proven my faith and you have been serving well. Perhaps when this is over, we can talk about children again. There must be a next generation of the faithful after all,” Charybdis’s husky voice answered.
“That is easy enough, my love. Yes. When this is over. But not before,” Scylla nodded.
“This is a bit of a change.”
“Last time we spoke about this, things were different.”
“We should shower. We both have fleet exercises to attend to.”
“Yes. There is much work to be done.”
In the complex’s canteen, Precentor Pollux stared at his meal.
“You hoped to woo Precentor Scylla,” Precentor Castor sat across from him.
“I did, but that ship has clearly sailed.” Pollux admitted. “No matter. Judgment Day is coming and soon. It must, now that the Clans are pointed at Holy Terra like daggers.”
“They have joined the Star League in doing so. That means we could be fighting all of them at the same time.” Castor ate a fork full of mixed vegetables.
“Yes. That may be unavoidable now. Because the longer we delay, the worse the odds.”
“Perhaps. But perhaps we’ll surprise them all.” Castor said knowingly.
Yes. I think we will have just enough tricks up our sleeves.
Frustration only a Child can provide[]
Nha Tranh, outside Public School 12
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3065
"Get in the car, Simon, right now!" Elizabeth scowled at her son, who balked at the door.
"I don't wanna sit in a baby seat!!" The boy clenched his fists, and stood his ground.
Hannah had already crawled up into her safety seat and was applying the harness and roll bar herself.
"Do you want a spanking? Because I'll give you one right in front of everyone if that's what you want. Get in the car."
"I don' wanna!!"
"One."
She got to 'two' and he was complying. She checked his safety harness, and her daughter's harness, adjusting both and verifying the gee-lock latches (so named because under the acceleration forces of an accident, they would lock the child's seat in an optimum position to preserve life, limb and health), before going around front, and strapping into the driver's seat.
"We're going to the port to pick up your father, and I want you both to behave," Elizabeth ordered, putting the four-by-four station wagon in gear and pulling out of the parking lot.
The illusion of normalcy was only slightly disrupted by the unmarked and plainclothes units, in this case several whose children also attended the school thanks to Her Grace's generous donations to the district.
But this was an illusion nobody really believed in. Her Grace's pretending to have a normal, somewhat mundane, life, driving herself, putting her children into a local school, even the ducal residence being a split-level house on a cul-de-sac… all an illusion. The cul-de-sac's houses were staffed by staff, lived in by said staff's families, the whole neighborhood was built to bunker spec, sitting on top of a network of tunnels. The Household Guard might wear police badges and you might call them 'constable' but they were the same level of troops that you'd find inside the royal palace on Tharkad or New Avalon.
It just looked less like a prison than most fortresses, and included parks and schools, shops and fueling stations. And warehouses covering tank parks among wide, winding streets.
The public side of her role-as Duchess, was handled in a converted stadium in downtown, with bleachers for the public to see the Duchess when she held court, or to watch their elected representatives debate. It wasn't much of a draw, to be honest, but then, how else do you govern one point seven five billion people?
To an extent, you have to let them believe they mostly govern themselves. Because no matter what system you have, that's what people will do.
The neighborhood/palace Marjorie Hills has an entry and exit onto the highway leading to the Nha Tranh spaceport. This wasn't marked 'for official use only' but it saw a great deal of official use anyway.
I bet Helena's son doesn't throw a tantrum when he's told to get in a car… Liz sighed as she pulled to a stop at the light. A tractor-convoy was coming up the highway interchange from a military logistics point. Disrupting it, even to be early for her husband's arrival, was not an optimal choice-not if she wanted her children to absorb the importance of not being petty with your vassals.
"Simon, recite, what did you learn today?"
Eventually the last military transporter was through the intersection and turning up the road to the base, and the lights finally turned green.
Uncovering Truth of their ancestry[]
Clan Compound - Nha Tranh
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
3065
"That arrangement is weird," Ariel Suvarov observed. "She turned a fortress into a school and chose to live in a merchant's apartment?"
“Look at the layout from above. It’s a trap,” Vlad Ward noted.
Marthe Pryde caught it before Suvarov did. "No bunkers," she said. "Or, you can say it is all bunkers. The streets are short, with corners to block line of sight, mismatched to prevent long -range shots, and I will eat a hat if those houses are stick-built."
“And if you try to air deploy or jump jet into it, there are several points from which they can apply overlapping fields of fire and cut down anyone foolish enough to try such tactics.” Vlad pointed at several structures and conveniently located hills.
"Better. No bunker means no concentrated point a Headhunter Star can strike that will disable a defender," Marthe continued. She glanced at Roshak. "There is a doctrine at work here, clarify it for my fellow Khans."
"Begin with the assumption that no help is coming," Nathan said. "No relief in a siege, so castles are of limited value. And more limited, if you read the local literature."
Khan Sennet pursed her lips, "No fortress, so no siege. Their doctrine is mobile warfare, quiaff? They do not rely on fortifications because fortresses are targets not safety."
Marthe nodded. "No bunkers," she asserted again. "No fortress complexes, because fortress complexes give an enemy something to concentrate fire upon. Multiple routes of escape to force an invader to spread their forces if they want to contain it. Sight lines laid out to negate range advantages. I would suspect there are inactive ECM systems spread throughout the development to create blind areas. The greenbelt is likely mined, but only with vibrobombs to allow civilians to escape. And the parks would make good landing fields for VTOL and vertical takeoff aircraft, while the highways in and out double as landing fields."
"That, one could say for the entire network of major highways," Nathan said. "They reinforce them to an almost absurd degree, and the overpasses could double as hardened aircraft shelters."
“Aff, and much like their ancestors....we should consider it likely they have extensive underground facilities connected by tunnels for what fortifications they do have.” Ariel seemed to be starting to understand.
"Zalman was an idiot," Marthe pronounced. "It would take a galaxy of forces plus supplements to take one city, and most of the combat losses would be from how it was built and laid out."
"What he would take, would be ruins," Sennet said bluntly. "A strategic loss in every tactical victory." The Diamond Shark Khan folded her arms. "Which is also an almost obscene demonstration of wealth. This was not cheap."
“And all the while, we can expect to be fighting under a most explosive rain as their other settlements flood us with aerospace fighters, Dropships, and perhaps nastier things.” Vlad cupped his chin in his hand.
"They wouldn't!" Karianna Schmitt scoffed.
"They would," Nathan said. "Every major settlement has a part-time militia, they call it the 'Ban'. And that militia has a second-line-to-the-second-line's-second line, the Arrière-Ban." He nodded respectfully. "Almost like your Clan's arming of the lower castes, only Kowloon has numbers and allows their common citizens broad access to powerful weapons."
“And they have done the unthinkable before.” Vlad traced impact craters from the uprising on a map.
"Twenty Seven Sixty Nine, they 'dropped rocks' on the Rim Worlds Garrisons," Ariel nodded sagely. "Kinetic impactors from deep in the system, on timed and plotted drift courses to strike specific points at high speed. High enough speed to rival the detonation of nuclear weapons."
“These are not a people one conquers, at least not easily,” Vlad nodded.
"General DeChevalier had to ask them to stop doing it at Eagle's Nest, after they destroyed the main command bunkers to free up SLDF units," Ariel contributed. "That six month siege was over in a matter of hours. But the hoped for intelligence resources had been ground to dust, a copy of a Brian fortress rendered impassible slag."
"More history?"
"More history. My Seekers had to dig deep into records to find accounts that had not been redacted or edited by our ancestors."
“And what did they find?”
"Helena Cameron's hand," Ariel said. "She and Samuel Winters channeled these people for General Kerensky. Kept them working for the Star League instead of going off the rails… well, except for Elbar. On Elbar, even other Rallier units were so horrified and disgusted by what was found at Running Deer Mountain that the call was for extermination of Amaris forces and personnel. It took General Kerensky himself to rein them in."
“The Elbar Declaration. We have heard of this. Some of our founders even supposedly had a copy.” Khan Sennet nodded.
"Well, we do not. There are references to it, but the actual declaration is lost," Ariel commented.
"Not lost," Nathan said. "These people have multiple copies."
"What?"
He scratched his scalp. "They have multiple copies. I have seen documentation citing it, even quoting it. And when I asked, they said there are multiple copies in the National Archive. Including originals with signatures…" He gave Marthe Pryde a pained look. "...Which I faithfully reported before. Does nobody read my reports?"
"I got the summary… Kael?"
Loremaster Kael Pershaw harrumphed. "You did not include confirmation," he said grimly.
"We need to see it," Ariel stated. “And the Dig Site. I was partially mistaken before. Seems we need to negotiate access to more than one site as a group.”
Preparing for Culture Shock[]
Office of Duchess Elizabeth Ngo-Steiner-Davion
Kowloon System, Federated Commonwealth (Lyran State)
August 7th, 3065
"They want access to your Archives, Liz," Helena said. "Suvarov in particular is hot to see both the Dig site, and now, the Archive."
Elizabeth finished brewing the coffee, and joined her friend in the glassed in breakfast nook. Outside, snow was cloaking Nha Tranh in a hard winter's grasp. "It's August and we're nowhere near a thaw." She shook her head. "Maybe a late spring and mild summer this year… of course I'll grant clearances for the Archive, Helena. What can you get out ot them first?"
“I guess the question is what do we want from them. Ariel is too eager for her own good, but Sennet is no push over.”
"Didn't think she would be. She almost gets the give-and-take," Liz observed. "You realize we'll be exposing them to a cognito-hazard if we let them read the Elbar Declaration's actual text, right?"
“I know, but I don’t think we can prevent that now. Not without undoing a lot of work we both put in anyway.”
Elizabeth looked out the window as children from the neighborhood, and her children, played in the snow. "Yeah," she nodded. "We'll arrange the tours, and see where it gets us." She sighed. "It could go the other way: showing them could tip them back into hostile postures. People adore their legends, Helena. They don't like to think those legends violated fundamental principles of morality."
“Most likely, we’re going to set off a lot of internal conflicts because I think most of the leaders here can handle the truth. The rest of their Clans, however…”
"Yep," Liz sighed. Hannah was riding a bigger boy's shoulders up the hill to take a sled back down. Simon was participating in a snowball fight with a few boys near his age. "Were we ever that young, Helena?"
From the den of the house, a slow choppy rendition of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata started playing as Jonathan was practicing the piano.
“No. My destiny was always to be married off to some supporter, or even a House Lord’s heir. So I barely got to play like that. Fate intervened. I’ll never regret the friends I’ve made, but I’ll always wonder just how different things could have been if I never came to this time.”
"And I was born under a death sentence," Liz nodded. "Yeah… we're doing this so they don't have to live like that… Negotiate something. I don't know what. I'll have the Archives readied for their visitors."
“Sure. They have some material refinement technology we still haven’t been able to fully match. That should work.”
Outside, the children played in the August snow of late winter.