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Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 2
Chapter 3 - Let the Bad Times Roll[]
Searching for lost treasure[]
Michtal…
…orbits a G2 Variable sun that's younger than Sol. How much younger? The accretion disk forming the solar system is still pretty messy.
The fourth planet has a reducing atmosphere due to being roughly sixty percent of the mass of Old Terra. It's just like Mars, only a few million years younger.
The third rocky world is VERY Terralike-as it might have existed in the late Devonian. The atmosphere has oxygen levels right up to almost toxic to unprotected lungs' and a lush, fungus-and-big-bugs ecology.
Three centuries ago, this place looked like a good place for people, with fern-like forests and mad fungal growth.
The initial settlers figured out pretty quickly that 'younger earth' isn't necessarily 'good place to live'. Most of the native 'plant life' is sporulating, which is horrific for anything that uses filters or needs to (or ought to).
The brown death swathe where the settlers had lived, before either dying out or leaving, showed how incompatible biology can result in ecological disaster.
Michtal's ecological disaster was adapting, but definitely still visible-even from orbit.
Strangely, this worked to highlight where the SLDF depot had been. The pattern of death around the bunker complex stood out like a road sign.
"Well, we know they've been here, and recently," Larry commented. He wasn't looking at the wreckage of best intentions on the planet, but instead at the mostly abandoned station orbiting the young world.
The view was via telescope. "Looks like they haven't left," Amanda noted.
"Maintenance Gantries…and a fueling dock. It's not in the same place you expected," Larry pointed out.
"Why would they move it into that position, the gas giant's ring is stable," she argued with herself, but directed the question to her XO.
"Can't be water, the system's lousy with water-ice and frozen gasses that are easier to harvest," Mister Samuel observed.
"They moved it here, because they needed the forward base, and didn't know about the OWA base in the outer system… or it was blown up," Larry speculated.
"They looking this way?" she asked.
"Unlikely."
"One point five gee burn to the gas giant," she said. "Run us for one hour forty minutes."
"You think it might still be there?"
She nodded.
"Why?"
"Because they set another one up over the planet in the worst possible location," she said. "that's the one they're using."
"What if it is?" Mister Seron asked.
"If it is, we can use it." she said. "If it's damaged but the right areas are intact, it'll still have useful stuff, maybe intel. If they looted it, well, then we can mark it off."
They'd gotten used to using off-axis entries, so they were at a favorable angle to the plane of the ecliptic.
Debate on Parliament Floor[]
"The Privateer reserve…
…force is entirely engaged in peacekeeping." The political side of the duty was endless, in some ways, even with civilian political cover.
"Loremaster Howe, the sheer number of captured hulls brought to auction argues strongly against that!" Rep. Sephanie Wa'lesk (Cerburus, 11th district) argued.
"I confess, there is precious little peace to keep in the unincorporated regions, but nevertheless, the Privateer organization is not engaged in wartime martial activity." He folded his hands, "if they were, we would be bringing warships out of mothball, and mobilizing additional forces from the Touman to make certain the wartime activity ends in favor of the Alliance."
Briefing 'oversight' from civilians was one of those political duties. It wasn't because they had any influence whatsoever, but rather because the appearance of civilian oversight makes the job for the Khans, and himself, easier. People tend to be far less resentful of Warrior privilege if they think it is their idea, or that the military serves their interests and listens to them.
Something the late Khan Lynn McKenna figured out during the negotiation period, when the Clan was joining with the Outworlds in the first place.
Not that listening to the civilians didn't turn dividends. It does. Several cells of Outworlds Patriots have been turned in, not out of fear of the Raven response, but because their neighbours had reason to want the garrisons there, protecting their pacifist brethren.
Which meant that, on occasion, Acton Howe has to sit in chambers with representative ministers from the Alliance Government, and answer poorly considered, badly constructed questions from naive politicians hoping to make a point, (or, very, very rarely, actually learn something.)
"So you don't deny this 'privateer force' has engaged in combat with pirates on no less than six major occasions?" Madame Wa'lesk asked.
"I do not deny that at all-their actions have freed thousands of prisoners and saved potentially millions of innocent lives, and brought back into the Outworlds Alliance six inhabited worlds so far-the additional seats in Parliament testify to the agency's effectiveness, and the additional shipping tonnage and revenues, to the agency's value to the nation."
"But you maintain they are a civilian agency." Ms. Wa'lesk seemed keen to argue, "Would it not be better to have the Touman, or proper OMC forces filling that role?"
"Find me the budget." he countered briskly, "Find the budget, and find me a means to overcome the national pledge embodied in the Republic Treaty. These, at least, are not mercenaries, lucrewarriors, filling this role and doing these services. As testimony from freed persons brought here to speak before you shows, the role must be filled, yet, we can not dismantle our borders with the Draconis Combine, nor the Federated Suns, in order to fill this role, nor can we appear weak in the eyes of the other Clans. The privateer force functions, it allows the Raven Alliance to keep our word to the other major powers, while still serving as an effective check on rogue elements and bandits along our coreward-spinward and anti-spinward borders."
"But, if you had the budget?"
"Madame chairwoman, if the budget in resources were to be had, we could certainly DO IT with Regulars, but that is not the universe in which you and I live. The budget committees for both Clan Snow Raven, and the Outworlds members are in agreement-the resources required exceed production and revenue streams, as well as violates agreements with our neighbors and with the other Clans. A major military buildup and broad deployment simply tics too many boxes on the check list of actions that can start a major war…one that, in our present condition, the Alliance is not equipped to fight to a successful conclusion."
Framing is everything, in this case, he wasn't just playing to the civilians in the parliament, he was also playing to visiting dignitaries from the other Clans, as well as Inner Sphere Powers today. "The agency exists, to keep the peace. As resources become available and infrastructure grows, it will be folded into the Regulars, but that is some years from now-after a stable peace has been established in the unincorporated regions, provinces have been re-established and the bandit-caste have been driven from Outworlds Territory. Peace must begin with the presence of Justice, and having an enslaved war zone on our border is neither peaceful, nor just."
Mdme Wa'lesk finally smiled, "You intend to roll them into the Regulars at some point then?"
"That was the impression I was given by President Avellar and the Khans, yes. Not at present, at present the agency remains too small and resources for their support to hit-or-miss. Hence the placement under the Intelligence and Law Enforcement portfolios, rather than the Tactical or Strategic Warfare portfolios. The agency's equipment is limited to systems considered ideal for the role and portfolio it is under, and oversight, such as this committee, is part of that. The full intent is to have a core of regular military acting as oversight, with the bulk of forces being Militia grade and local, buffered by a fast reaction force. Technically, it will be a Second Line or Tertiary organization devoted to peacekeeping and defense within the borders of the Alliance, freeing up front line forces to deal with hostile external enemies and nations."
The inane questioning continued for another three hours.
News You Didn't Want[]
"Give me…
…good news, Cheryl!" the Loremaster was in dress uniform when he stepped into his command center.
"I would if I had any." Watcher Cheryl was a Lankeneau, and middle aged. She'd been a warrior more than two decades ago, in the 3090s, before 'retiring' to the Clan Watch. "Culmia turned out to be a dry hole, just as Foster predicted."
"And Evanescent?" he asked.
"Found two stations, one nearly abandoned except for garrison fighters and a maintenance crew. The other, is fortified with a mix of assault DropShips, landing ships, and two titan class carriers. Roberts sent us extensive imagery, including active agridomes on the fourth world in that system, as well as images of the SLDF depot on the third planet."
"Has she reported to the President yet?"
"Aff."
Acton sighed, "Savashri, of course she did…copy over everything to brief the Khans." he directed, "I just spent most of this afternoon convincing the Parliament and our foreign guests that the Privateers are merely law enforcement…which means we need to tap the Regulars to take charge, just like I told the civilian politicians we were doing."
Plotting an Assault[]
"Well, how do…
..we handle keeping them in?" Amanda had a spherical out-of-scale tactical display of the system floating over the holotable.
"The big issue is going to be keeping them from using those JumpShips for strategic mobility." Larry suggested, "once those are done, we have a mobility advantage once we reveal our presence. There's no warships docked here presently."
Seron nodded, as did Bedwyr. "We can run sorties to hit the mothball station and charging stations, the big issue will be those two Titan class fighter carriers and their Pentagon escorts DropShips-that is a lot of firepower to supplement the Hammerheads and Ironsides aerospace fighters they're flying CAP with."
"We need more fighters." Bedwyr added, "I'm sorry, but they can swamp us three to one as things stand right now, just off the hangar decks of the Tuesday style base, never mind the Titans. If we get in a spot where they can concentrate force, we're toast."
"Well, we've got a minimum of a week before Illusive can join us." she noted, "with Alliance forces including Task Force D still three weeks out before they're even in position to jump into the system…and Kappa only has ground units, landing droppers and escort fighters-and we need them holding Johnson."
"You're having an idea." Seron commented.
"Of course she's having an idea!" Mister Samuel guffawed.
"Let's steal their JumpShips." Amanda ruled, "Let's pin them in place here, while our reinforcement is on the way-trap them in the system. Once we've done that, we take the smaller station, and the orbitals over the third planet, they'll have to send reinforcements at newtonian, or give up the base, and a foothold inside the system. After we've removed their jump capability, we give them a few chases and hit their stockpiles on the Tuesday base."
"Fuel attack?"
She nodded. "Either a fighter strike or a commando raid, we knock out their ability to refuel the combat droppers and force them to string out where they can be taken in detail."
"Contingencies?" Seron asked.
She bit her lip, "Not sure. We need them before we make our move though-so, what goes wrong, where does my idea run into failure points, and how do we mitigate the value of those failures… we have a week, minimum, before we can even try calling for backup."