-
A notice about Rule 3 regarding sites hosting pirated/unauthorized content has been made. Please see here for details.
-
Staff is working to deal with the problem of synonymous tags. See here for more information and to suggest tag mergers.
-
Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
Breaking the Veil (Commissioned NuBSG/BT crossover)
- Thread starter MarkWarrior
- Start date
Chapter 33
MarkWarrior
Occasionally decent writer
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2019
- Messages
- 952
- Likes received
- 55,603
Chapter 33
Date: May 4, 3001/1991C
Location: Cylon section 1.879435
"The reports indicate that any war we started with the Colonials would cause them to reach out to the other parties in the galaxy for assistance," The Seven reported. "While the nations of this 'Inner Sphere' are scattered and warring with each other. It is likely that upon facing an external threat, that they would be capable of coming together as the Colonies of Kobol did. It is my conclusion as well as a majority of both the Sevens, Eights, Fives, and Fours."
"We must still prepare for a potential war," A One argued. "We cannot trust that the Colonies will leave us along and maintain the Armistice. After all, their stealth ships believe they can avoid our scans and encroach closer to the line."
"Do we not do the same with our infiltrations?" One of the Five asked. "Due to the data that we have stolen, we have been able to relieve our own tylium dependency and are beginning to scan remote systems that we would thrive in. Instead of pushing for war, it might be better if we left a force behind to maintain the armistice while the remainder of us find somewhere else to exist. There are many worlds among the stars, and now that we are aware of just how many are capable of sustaining both our biological states as well as that of our mechanical brethren."
"I do agree with those who are more willing to embrace war," one of the Five originals stated. "We should look into pursuing the best of all options. At present, we are not capable of waging war against the entirety of this "Inner Sphere", even with the advantages we know we possess. However, we should be pushing to develop more technologies that will counter both the Inner Sphere as well as the Colonies. I believe the Centurions had a plan that would improve their own chassis based upon the 'mechs that our agents have sent back details of."
The Centurions present signaled in the affirmative. But that it was less of a chassis upgrade, and more of a larger variant of the Centurions that would be constructed and made capable of dealing with the threats that the 'mechs posed to any of their ground forces.
"I believe we should put the discussions to a final vote. Whether we plan for war, peace, or simply for leaving this place, we must all be united in our decisions," one of the Ones stepped out and spoke. "Given the odds against us, we cannot afford to be distracted or pulled apart. We must all work together or we shall perish against the humans."
"That presumes we go to war with them at all," the Seven who had spoken earlier responded. "Peace may be tentative, but it is possible to maintain. To that end, I believe we should add another option to the votes we have available. We should also see if we can establish trade and a full relationship with the Colonies."
"I'll add it to the voting options," one of the Five nodded. "Now, I'll begin broadcasting it to the rest of the Cylons so that we can see what is chosen."
To no one's surprise, the Centurions had a majority of the vote, and swung it towards the exploration. They had little to no interest in war, and instead wished to leave the Colonies behind and seek their own future uninfluenced by humanity.
The humanoid Cylons, on the other hand, were split on everything. Leaving the Cylons with a final majority.
"Majority had agreed upon exploration focus with an infiltration as the next highest. As such, we'll begin moving to carry out the will of our people shortly," The Council stated.
The One who had been present bared his teeth in a grimace for a brief second before concealing his facial expression behind a mask of calm.
"We accept the ruling of the majority," The Seven nodded. "And we'll turn our attention to ensuring it is completed."
Date: July 9, 3001
Location: New Vandenburg, Taurian Concordat
One of the things that people underestimate about military operations isn't the amount of waiting that the troops have to do. No, it's the preparations and logistical requirements that have to be made before any operation is taken.
On the surface, it seemed easy. Make sure there's enough ammunition, food, water, and power for all of your troops for the duration of the operation. Yes, that was the simplified version of it. But when you broke it down in the 'modern' era, it got exponentially worse.
Because a military unit wasn't just looking at a handful of standardized ammunition types. No, you had to have twelve different types of autocannon munitions, and four different series of short range missiles, three of long range missiles, the machine guns didn't all use the same ammunition, and God forbid one or two people that had lostech in their 'mech somewhere.
It was enough to make any sane quartermaster want to pull their hair out, and it was one of the reasons Colonel McCarthy was almost willing to push for the Concordat to move to an entirely energy-weapon based set of 'mechs if not for the benefits that were provided by missiles and kinetic projectiles.
There just had to be a better way to do things than this. Hell, all of this should have been settled and fixed in the days of the Star League. Despite the Overall hatred of the SLDF and the Star League in general, he admitted that it would have been a good use of the time spent together as 'one' unified group of nations.
But no, the SLDF didn't fix the logistical supply chains, they made them worse. They had so many programs and 'mech designs in the works, and every corporation having their own weapons system and ammunition types.
"Alright, let's go over this again," McCarthy swallowed some painkillers to stave off the headache he felt coming on. "Which autocannon rounds are we short on?"
"They're on the list there," The logistican replied. "We have enough to do a week or two, but any prolonged combat will see our Blackjacks, Hunchbacks, and your Victor running low."
"Then I'll stay in the HQ," McCarthy sighed. "We'll have to seize stocks from the Capellans, or more will come from Taurus. Either way, we can't afford to postpone this for long. "A good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan later. We strike in September. Regardless of whether my Victor has autocannon ammunition or not…"
Date: May 4, 3001/1991C
Location: Cylon section 1.879435
"The reports indicate that any war we started with the Colonials would cause them to reach out to the other parties in the galaxy for assistance," The Seven reported. "While the nations of this 'Inner Sphere' are scattered and warring with each other. It is likely that upon facing an external threat, that they would be capable of coming together as the Colonies of Kobol did. It is my conclusion as well as a majority of both the Sevens, Eights, Fives, and Fours."
"We must still prepare for a potential war," A One argued. "We cannot trust that the Colonies will leave us along and maintain the Armistice. After all, their stealth ships believe they can avoid our scans and encroach closer to the line."
"Do we not do the same with our infiltrations?" One of the Five asked. "Due to the data that we have stolen, we have been able to relieve our own tylium dependency and are beginning to scan remote systems that we would thrive in. Instead of pushing for war, it might be better if we left a force behind to maintain the armistice while the remainder of us find somewhere else to exist. There are many worlds among the stars, and now that we are aware of just how many are capable of sustaining both our biological states as well as that of our mechanical brethren."
"I do agree with those who are more willing to embrace war," one of the Five originals stated. "We should look into pursuing the best of all options. At present, we are not capable of waging war against the entirety of this "Inner Sphere", even with the advantages we know we possess. However, we should be pushing to develop more technologies that will counter both the Inner Sphere as well as the Colonies. I believe the Centurions had a plan that would improve their own chassis based upon the 'mechs that our agents have sent back details of."
The Centurions present signaled in the affirmative. But that it was less of a chassis upgrade, and more of a larger variant of the Centurions that would be constructed and made capable of dealing with the threats that the 'mechs posed to any of their ground forces.
"I believe we should put the discussions to a final vote. Whether we plan for war, peace, or simply for leaving this place, we must all be united in our decisions," one of the Ones stepped out and spoke. "Given the odds against us, we cannot afford to be distracted or pulled apart. We must all work together or we shall perish against the humans."
"That presumes we go to war with them at all," the Seven who had spoken earlier responded. "Peace may be tentative, but it is possible to maintain. To that end, I believe we should add another option to the votes we have available. We should also see if we can establish trade and a full relationship with the Colonies."
"I'll add it to the voting options," one of the Five nodded. "Now, I'll begin broadcasting it to the rest of the Cylons so that we can see what is chosen."
To no one's surprise, the Centurions had a majority of the vote, and swung it towards the exploration. They had little to no interest in war, and instead wished to leave the Colonies behind and seek their own future uninfluenced by humanity.
The humanoid Cylons, on the other hand, were split on everything. Leaving the Cylons with a final majority.
"Majority had agreed upon exploration focus with an infiltration as the next highest. As such, we'll begin moving to carry out the will of our people shortly," The Council stated.
The One who had been present bared his teeth in a grimace for a brief second before concealing his facial expression behind a mask of calm.
"We accept the ruling of the majority," The Seven nodded. "And we'll turn our attention to ensuring it is completed."
Date: July 9, 3001
Location: New Vandenburg, Taurian Concordat
One of the things that people underestimate about military operations isn't the amount of waiting that the troops have to do. No, it's the preparations and logistical requirements that have to be made before any operation is taken.
On the surface, it seemed easy. Make sure there's enough ammunition, food, water, and power for all of your troops for the duration of the operation. Yes, that was the simplified version of it. But when you broke it down in the 'modern' era, it got exponentially worse.
Because a military unit wasn't just looking at a handful of standardized ammunition types. No, you had to have twelve different types of autocannon munitions, and four different series of short range missiles, three of long range missiles, the machine guns didn't all use the same ammunition, and God forbid one or two people that had lostech in their 'mech somewhere.
It was enough to make any sane quartermaster want to pull their hair out, and it was one of the reasons Colonel McCarthy was almost willing to push for the Concordat to move to an entirely energy-weapon based set of 'mechs if not for the benefits that were provided by missiles and kinetic projectiles.
There just had to be a better way to do things than this. Hell, all of this should have been settled and fixed in the days of the Star League. Despite the Overall hatred of the SLDF and the Star League in general, he admitted that it would have been a good use of the time spent together as 'one' unified group of nations.
But no, the SLDF didn't fix the logistical supply chains, they made them worse. They had so many programs and 'mech designs in the works, and every corporation having their own weapons system and ammunition types.
"Alright, let's go over this again," McCarthy swallowed some painkillers to stave off the headache he felt coming on. "Which autocannon rounds are we short on?"
"They're on the list there," The logistican replied. "We have enough to do a week or two, but any prolonged combat will see our Blackjacks, Hunchbacks, and your Victor running low."
"Then I'll stay in the HQ," McCarthy sighed. "We'll have to seize stocks from the Capellans, or more will come from Taurus. Either way, we can't afford to postpone this for long. "A good plan executed violently now is better than a perfect plan later. We strike in September. Regardless of whether my Victor has autocannon ammunition or not…"
Chapter 34
New
MarkWarrior
Occasionally decent writer
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2019
- Messages
- 952
- Likes received
- 55,603
Chapter 34
Date: June 18, 3001/1991C
Location: Caprica, Colonies of Kobol
"So, with the lessons and technology we've gained from trading and research with the Taurians, we've had to go back to the drawing board on several of the original ship plans," the lead engineer on the new Mercury-class Battlestars explained to the new Admiral of the Colonial Fleet.
"So, after a decade of research and two ships commissioned, you're having to do a redesign," Admiral Sarkis sighed, his graying hair and wrinkles indicative of his age and the time he'd spent in service. "I understand that the new technologies are able to help us eliminate much of our dependency on Tylium, but I can't help but wonder if there was a better way to do this with less wasteful expenditure."
"There probably was," Engineer Tuck shrugged. "But that's the benefit of hindsight. I can't take back the two Mercuries that we finished. What I can do is make the next batch more efficient and the upgrades make more of a difference."
"So, what's the difference between the 'block one' and the 'block two'?" Sarkis asked.
"For starters, we had to redesign the flight pods and decks to be able to handle the larger fighters that our allies make use of," Tuck sighed."Our Vipers are two fragile for us to feel comfortable in fielding them for more than trainers once we have the more durable fighters the Inner Sphere has. In the process, we had to shrink the overall fighter complement. Instead of up to ninety fighters at max, we're down to forty eight or so. The tradeoff being that the fighters the Taurians and the Inner Sphere uses are much less fragile than our own in a fight."
"I would definitely have appreciated it if we had less fragile fighters during the War," Sarkis agreed. "I lost too many friends in dogfights."
"With the fighter bays being changed along with the tubes, we were able to remake some of the interior layout to add the fusion engines we bought from the Taurians," Engineer Tuck continued to walk Sarkis through areas with heavy traffic from the dockworkers. "We have seventeen engines strategically placed along the superstructure that provide power to the ship. Fourteen primary reactors, and one to assist with the new hybrid drives.
"What about the other two?" Sarksi continued, following the engineer through the ship.
"The other two engines are backup power in the event things go wrong, they along with a tylium generator are the last line of power," the engineer explained. "But, the goal is to move away from Tylium as the primary source of power. The first Block II will be a testbed, and I'm certain that we'll have to make adjustments, but if it proves successful, we're going to have a ship that can run indefinitely so long as we can obtain a source of hydrogen or water."
"What of the armaments?" Sarkis stood in the bridge, looking at the ship that was being pieced together around him. Engineers and shipwrights installed consoles, ran wires, and moved bulkhead panels around him, and below, smallcraft began to add external armor panels and work on weapons emplacements.
"Well, we kept the primary weapons systems from the original Mercury. We're in the process of running power to the new energy weapons that will supplement the kinetic CIWS, along with some of the scaled-up weapons the Taurians showed us how to manufacture" Tuck seemed irritated at the thought of using tech that wasn't fully fleshed out. "Our ship-scale lasers are more primitive than theirs, and we could have purchased them directly from the Taurians, but the Quorum denied that and forced us to make use of localized components. As a result, ours are bulkier, and require more power than the ones we could import. We believe that with time, we can fix and address that. However, for now, we're going to be reliant on the lesser models."
"If the Quorum gives us the budget to do the research, that is," Sarkis heard another voice. "Admiral," a man in another engineer's uniform entered the bridge. "Tuck."
"Sam," The lead engineer nodded. "Admiral Sarkis, this is Sam Fisher, he's the one who's been responsible for making sure that our homemade lasers don't explode on us when we run our tests."
"Honestly, it's less about them exploding, and more about making sure that people leave the testing area clear," Fisher chuckled darkly. "We put tracers on our kinetic weapons so we can see them in the void. You can't do the same with invisible light. We've had a couple of people think that things were fine and breach the weapons testing area before they found out the hard way."
"We're going to have to do something to address that," Sarkis frowned. "Not knowing where an ally is firing will lead to a series of friendly fire incidents that could make or break a battle."
"I'm aware, sir," Sam agreed. "Right now, our best solution is to either find a way to tune the lasers so that they're visible, or to have a ship send out a signal and the planned firing lane for a laser be shared and linked between ships."
"That sounds a lot more interconnected than I think I like," Sarkis rubbed his head. "I assume that the Taurians already have a solution for this problem?"
"Unfortunately, sir the Taurian's electronic countermeasures and network security is better than ours," Tuck explained for Sam. "They've had battlecomputers and battlenets for hundreds of years that can work on the ground, or in the void. When one of their fighters or dropships fires a laser, it sends a burst transmission along the battlenet, and their computers compensate and tell everyone where it is."
"I think I'll stick to missiles and kinetics," the Admiral felt the pressure of a headache starting to form. "You two can figure out the rest of it, I'll just stick to commanding the Fleet."
"Yessir," Tuck laughed. "Now, we've made a few more modifications to the actual thrusters…"
Date: September 11, 3001
Location: Menke, Capellan Confederation
"You can tell McCarthy that he can launch the dropships for the ground invasion after I've made certain the void is clear," Commodore Miller informed his communications officer. "I understand he wants payback, but he's going to have to wait until we've done our job. Now, get those fighters out there."
The pair of Warships that Miller had in the system was but a small portion of the fleet. But the rest of it was scattered across a series of systems in the Confederation. The Taurian Defense Force was striking and attempting to take every world from Menke all the way down to the border between the Concordat and the Capellans in a simultaneous strike. Some worlds it would probably be easier on. But a world like Victoria or Menke was going to require more forces to take and hold.
So, McCarthy had a pair of battlemech regiments, supplemented by vehicle and infantry regiments that had volunteered for this. The Warships were here to make sure that they all arrived on the ground intact, after that, he was going to interdict the system. No jumpships would be allowed to arrive in and provide reinforcements to whoever was on the ground.
The Capellans had struck first, but the Taurians would make sure that their hit hurt a lot more than the initial punch of this fight.
Date: June 18, 3001/1991C
Location: Caprica, Colonies of Kobol
"So, with the lessons and technology we've gained from trading and research with the Taurians, we've had to go back to the drawing board on several of the original ship plans," the lead engineer on the new Mercury-class Battlestars explained to the new Admiral of the Colonial Fleet.
"So, after a decade of research and two ships commissioned, you're having to do a redesign," Admiral Sarkis sighed, his graying hair and wrinkles indicative of his age and the time he'd spent in service. "I understand that the new technologies are able to help us eliminate much of our dependency on Tylium, but I can't help but wonder if there was a better way to do this with less wasteful expenditure."
"There probably was," Engineer Tuck shrugged. "But that's the benefit of hindsight. I can't take back the two Mercuries that we finished. What I can do is make the next batch more efficient and the upgrades make more of a difference."
"So, what's the difference between the 'block one' and the 'block two'?" Sarkis asked.
"For starters, we had to redesign the flight pods and decks to be able to handle the larger fighters that our allies make use of," Tuck sighed."Our Vipers are two fragile for us to feel comfortable in fielding them for more than trainers once we have the more durable fighters the Inner Sphere has. In the process, we had to shrink the overall fighter complement. Instead of up to ninety fighters at max, we're down to forty eight or so. The tradeoff being that the fighters the Taurians and the Inner Sphere uses are much less fragile than our own in a fight."
"I would definitely have appreciated it if we had less fragile fighters during the War," Sarkis agreed. "I lost too many friends in dogfights."
"With the fighter bays being changed along with the tubes, we were able to remake some of the interior layout to add the fusion engines we bought from the Taurians," Engineer Tuck continued to walk Sarkis through areas with heavy traffic from the dockworkers. "We have seventeen engines strategically placed along the superstructure that provide power to the ship. Fourteen primary reactors, and one to assist with the new hybrid drives.
"What about the other two?" Sarksi continued, following the engineer through the ship.
"The other two engines are backup power in the event things go wrong, they along with a tylium generator are the last line of power," the engineer explained. "But, the goal is to move away from Tylium as the primary source of power. The first Block II will be a testbed, and I'm certain that we'll have to make adjustments, but if it proves successful, we're going to have a ship that can run indefinitely so long as we can obtain a source of hydrogen or water."
"What of the armaments?" Sarkis stood in the bridge, looking at the ship that was being pieced together around him. Engineers and shipwrights installed consoles, ran wires, and moved bulkhead panels around him, and below, smallcraft began to add external armor panels and work on weapons emplacements.
"Well, we kept the primary weapons systems from the original Mercury. We're in the process of running power to the new energy weapons that will supplement the kinetic CIWS, along with some of the scaled-up weapons the Taurians showed us how to manufacture" Tuck seemed irritated at the thought of using tech that wasn't fully fleshed out. "Our ship-scale lasers are more primitive than theirs, and we could have purchased them directly from the Taurians, but the Quorum denied that and forced us to make use of localized components. As a result, ours are bulkier, and require more power than the ones we could import. We believe that with time, we can fix and address that. However, for now, we're going to be reliant on the lesser models."
"If the Quorum gives us the budget to do the research, that is," Sarkis heard another voice. "Admiral," a man in another engineer's uniform entered the bridge. "Tuck."
"Sam," The lead engineer nodded. "Admiral Sarkis, this is Sam Fisher, he's the one who's been responsible for making sure that our homemade lasers don't explode on us when we run our tests."
"Honestly, it's less about them exploding, and more about making sure that people leave the testing area clear," Fisher chuckled darkly. "We put tracers on our kinetic weapons so we can see them in the void. You can't do the same with invisible light. We've had a couple of people think that things were fine and breach the weapons testing area before they found out the hard way."
"We're going to have to do something to address that," Sarkis frowned. "Not knowing where an ally is firing will lead to a series of friendly fire incidents that could make or break a battle."
"I'm aware, sir," Sam agreed. "Right now, our best solution is to either find a way to tune the lasers so that they're visible, or to have a ship send out a signal and the planned firing lane for a laser be shared and linked between ships."
"That sounds a lot more interconnected than I think I like," Sarkis rubbed his head. "I assume that the Taurians already have a solution for this problem?"
"Unfortunately, sir the Taurian's electronic countermeasures and network security is better than ours," Tuck explained for Sam. "They've had battlecomputers and battlenets for hundreds of years that can work on the ground, or in the void. When one of their fighters or dropships fires a laser, it sends a burst transmission along the battlenet, and their computers compensate and tell everyone where it is."
"I think I'll stick to missiles and kinetics," the Admiral felt the pressure of a headache starting to form. "You two can figure out the rest of it, I'll just stick to commanding the Fleet."
"Yessir," Tuck laughed. "Now, we've made a few more modifications to the actual thrusters…"
Date: September 11, 3001
Location: Menke, Capellan Confederation
"You can tell McCarthy that he can launch the dropships for the ground invasion after I've made certain the void is clear," Commodore Miller informed his communications officer. "I understand he wants payback, but he's going to have to wait until we've done our job. Now, get those fighters out there."
The pair of Warships that Miller had in the system was but a small portion of the fleet. But the rest of it was scattered across a series of systems in the Confederation. The Taurian Defense Force was striking and attempting to take every world from Menke all the way down to the border between the Concordat and the Capellans in a simultaneous strike. Some worlds it would probably be easier on. But a world like Victoria or Menke was going to require more forces to take and hold.
So, McCarthy had a pair of battlemech regiments, supplemented by vehicle and infantry regiments that had volunteered for this. The Warships were here to make sure that they all arrived on the ground intact, after that, he was going to interdict the system. No jumpships would be allowed to arrive in and provide reinforcements to whoever was on the ground.
The Capellans had struck first, but the Taurians would make sure that their hit hurt a lot more than the initial punch of this fight.
Chapter 35
New
MarkWarrior
Occasionally decent writer
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2019
- Messages
- 952
- Likes received
- 55,603
Chapter 35
Date: September 14, 3001
Location: Sian, Capellan Confederation
"How could our intelligence have failed so thoroughly on this?" Chancellor Liao asked Chandra Ling, his usual seat on the throne forgone in favor of pacing in thought on the carpets in front while this private discussion was held. "We've held the Taurians intelligence networks in the palms of our hands for generations. It is how we have been able to direct them against the Davions time and time again."
"As far as our agents within the Concordat were concerned, the TCS Vandenburg was the only warship that was operating within Taurian space. We also had reports that while the weapons worked, that the drive systems and K-F drive were beyond repair. According to reports obtained from both the Davion's MIIO, the FWLs SAFE, and other agencies including the Canopians, the ship was intended to be used as a museum piece, similar to the DCS Togura. It is also to be noted that these new ships the Taurians are using do not bear a lot of similarities with any of their previous Warship designs."
"They possess at least six warships, Chandra," Max sighed, returning to his throne and sitting on it, stroking his goatee in thought. "According to the emergency HPGs we received from worlds. Even if we mobilize in response to this, I'm not certain that we possess the forces nor the people with the proper training to eliminate Warships."
"What are you planning, Max?" Chandra asked bluntly, knowing that the time for politicking was through.
"What is the furthest into our borders that they have attacked?" Max asked, reaching for the reports to see for himself. "Menke," Max muttered to himself. "Seeing as McCarron was granted that world to govern and he is the one responsible for this mess, I believe we can opt for negotiations. The Taurians will be stretched thin by this, and won't be looking to push further. So, I'm going to issue a declaration that these worlds are to be ceded to the Taurians as penance for McCarron's failures and that we will allow the administration of these worlds to be seen to by the Concordat so long as they allow us to withdraw any forces that are intact back to the new borders. We can afford to lose those worlds, we cannot afford for the Federated Suns or Free Worlds League to see this as a sign of weakness and strike to take other worlds."
"It would allow us to concentrate our forces a bit more," Chandra admitted. "But would we not also be showing weakness by allowing the Concordat to take our worlds in the first place?"
"It is not weakness at this time," Max sighed. "They possess an advantage that we cannot oppose at this time. No one in the Inner Sphere could have been prepared for this. Warships have been extinct for generations. No, we will fall back to more defensible positions, this is a withdrawal to preserve our forces, it is not a retreat. We can replace worlds if needed, we can replace people, we cannot replace anything else lost. So, I will send a message to our ambassador on Samantha, and we will make plans for the worst to happen. We were allowed panic in the initial moments of the Taurians playing their hand, but now the cards have been dealt, and our hand has fallen short. Therefore, the time for panic is over, the time for action and planning to take the future is now."
Date: September 15, 3001
Location: New Avalon, Federated Suns
"I am exceedingly glad that we made preparations for fighting a war with the Taurians as well as the Capellans," Andrew Davion weakly smiled at the council. Ian Davion sitting at his right hand to act as the Prince's Champion. "Now, the Taurians have revealed their hand, and we must decide on our actions. I am aware that the Draconis March is currently under severe threat, and that-" the First Prince violently coughed into a handkerchief while his thin frame shook as if it were freezing. "Apologies. Our border with the Combine is under threat. However, Hohiro is straining his civilian economy and will collapse if he continues to strain logistics in this manner. It may be months, it may be years, or decades, but if he continues, we will be able to wear him down."
"Unfortunately, with us having to open and refortify our border with the Concordat, we are not in a position to take advantage of any of those openings as they present themselves," Ian took over for his father. "Given the suddenness of the Taurian's strike on the Capellans, it's obvious that they believe they were responsible for the nuclear attack that struck New Vandenburg nearly three years ago. While this is fortunate for us in that it allows us time to prepare for eventual Warships strikes on our border with them, it also requires us to divert significant aerospace assets to said border. I believe some of our ground agents made emergency reports as to their ground forces, I believe Simon has something more on that," Ian Davion nodded towards the head of Davion Military Intelligence.
"Yes," Simon cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Of particular note on the Taurian's ground forces is that they're using forces and units that have not been active for quite some time, we also have captured images and our agents risked breaking protocol to send us HPG images of the 'mechs that are being used by the Taurians in these offensives. These units are not using 'mechs that the Taurians have traditionally used. Instead, we're seeing an influx of designs that haven't been seen commonly for years. A significant amount of Strikers, Emperors, and other designs that went mostly extinct after the fall of the SLDF. Given some of the RUMINT uncovered from the periphery, we believe that they found and retrieved an SLDF cache somewhere on their borders and used its contents to rapidly build up and deploy for this action."
"So, we not only have to account for more space-based forces, but also for better armed and numerous ground assets and troops," Ian concluded. "Which means that we're going to be stretching ourselves thin. So, we need to start preparing properly for what this will mean for the future. We know of at least six Warships, we need to work on our ASF forces, and with this new threat in mind, we're going to be taking control of Challenge Systems and the O'Neill yards above Panpour. They've been failing to meet quotas, and are in dire need of a change. Their new priority will be to coordinate with Jalastar Aerospace in the production of new fighters, as well as dropships to carry fighters and to begin laying the groundwork for the restoration of Warship production. We cannot afford to fall behind on this front, or we will lose to one of our enemies…"
Date: September 14, 3001
Location: Sian, Capellan Confederation
"How could our intelligence have failed so thoroughly on this?" Chancellor Liao asked Chandra Ling, his usual seat on the throne forgone in favor of pacing in thought on the carpets in front while this private discussion was held. "We've held the Taurians intelligence networks in the palms of our hands for generations. It is how we have been able to direct them against the Davions time and time again."
"As far as our agents within the Concordat were concerned, the TCS Vandenburg was the only warship that was operating within Taurian space. We also had reports that while the weapons worked, that the drive systems and K-F drive were beyond repair. According to reports obtained from both the Davion's MIIO, the FWLs SAFE, and other agencies including the Canopians, the ship was intended to be used as a museum piece, similar to the DCS Togura. It is also to be noted that these new ships the Taurians are using do not bear a lot of similarities with any of their previous Warship designs."
"They possess at least six warships, Chandra," Max sighed, returning to his throne and sitting on it, stroking his goatee in thought. "According to the emergency HPGs we received from worlds. Even if we mobilize in response to this, I'm not certain that we possess the forces nor the people with the proper training to eliminate Warships."
"What are you planning, Max?" Chandra asked bluntly, knowing that the time for politicking was through.
"What is the furthest into our borders that they have attacked?" Max asked, reaching for the reports to see for himself. "Menke," Max muttered to himself. "Seeing as McCarron was granted that world to govern and he is the one responsible for this mess, I believe we can opt for negotiations. The Taurians will be stretched thin by this, and won't be looking to push further. So, I'm going to issue a declaration that these worlds are to be ceded to the Taurians as penance for McCarron's failures and that we will allow the administration of these worlds to be seen to by the Concordat so long as they allow us to withdraw any forces that are intact back to the new borders. We can afford to lose those worlds, we cannot afford for the Federated Suns or Free Worlds League to see this as a sign of weakness and strike to take other worlds."
"It would allow us to concentrate our forces a bit more," Chandra admitted. "But would we not also be showing weakness by allowing the Concordat to take our worlds in the first place?"
"It is not weakness at this time," Max sighed. "They possess an advantage that we cannot oppose at this time. No one in the Inner Sphere could have been prepared for this. Warships have been extinct for generations. No, we will fall back to more defensible positions, this is a withdrawal to preserve our forces, it is not a retreat. We can replace worlds if needed, we can replace people, we cannot replace anything else lost. So, I will send a message to our ambassador on Samantha, and we will make plans for the worst to happen. We were allowed panic in the initial moments of the Taurians playing their hand, but now the cards have been dealt, and our hand has fallen short. Therefore, the time for panic is over, the time for action and planning to take the future is now."
Date: September 15, 3001
Location: New Avalon, Federated Suns
"I am exceedingly glad that we made preparations for fighting a war with the Taurians as well as the Capellans," Andrew Davion weakly smiled at the council. Ian Davion sitting at his right hand to act as the Prince's Champion. "Now, the Taurians have revealed their hand, and we must decide on our actions. I am aware that the Draconis March is currently under severe threat, and that-" the First Prince violently coughed into a handkerchief while his thin frame shook as if it were freezing. "Apologies. Our border with the Combine is under threat. However, Hohiro is straining his civilian economy and will collapse if he continues to strain logistics in this manner. It may be months, it may be years, or decades, but if he continues, we will be able to wear him down."
"Unfortunately, with us having to open and refortify our border with the Concordat, we are not in a position to take advantage of any of those openings as they present themselves," Ian took over for his father. "Given the suddenness of the Taurian's strike on the Capellans, it's obvious that they believe they were responsible for the nuclear attack that struck New Vandenburg nearly three years ago. While this is fortunate for us in that it allows us time to prepare for eventual Warships strikes on our border with them, it also requires us to divert significant aerospace assets to said border. I believe some of our ground agents made emergency reports as to their ground forces, I believe Simon has something more on that," Ian Davion nodded towards the head of Davion Military Intelligence.
"Yes," Simon cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Of particular note on the Taurian's ground forces is that they're using forces and units that have not been active for quite some time, we also have captured images and our agents risked breaking protocol to send us HPG images of the 'mechs that are being used by the Taurians in these offensives. These units are not using 'mechs that the Taurians have traditionally used. Instead, we're seeing an influx of designs that haven't been seen commonly for years. A significant amount of Strikers, Emperors, and other designs that went mostly extinct after the fall of the SLDF. Given some of the RUMINT uncovered from the periphery, we believe that they found and retrieved an SLDF cache somewhere on their borders and used its contents to rapidly build up and deploy for this action."
"So, we not only have to account for more space-based forces, but also for better armed and numerous ground assets and troops," Ian concluded. "Which means that we're going to be stretching ourselves thin. So, we need to start preparing properly for what this will mean for the future. We know of at least six Warships, we need to work on our ASF forces, and with this new threat in mind, we're going to be taking control of Challenge Systems and the O'Neill yards above Panpour. They've been failing to meet quotas, and are in dire need of a change. Their new priority will be to coordinate with Jalastar Aerospace in the production of new fighters, as well as dropships to carry fighters and to begin laying the groundwork for the restoration of Warship production. We cannot afford to fall behind on this front, or we will lose to one of our enemies…"
Radek
Promethean
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2017
- Messages
- 674
- Likes received
- 3,340
ComStar First Circuit must be having a stroke right now. They were supposed to be the only power in known space with WarShips, and here the Concordat casually shows off half a dozen hulls of completely unknown design.
Where were they built? When were they built? And why oh why did ROM completely miss this happening!?
Where were they built? When were they built? And why oh why did ROM completely miss this happening!?
MarkWarrior
Occasionally decent writer
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2019
- Messages
- 952
- Likes received
- 55,603
Comstar's having a Civil war, remember?
Baldrick the Wise
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2025
- Messages
- 358
- Likes received
- 3,633
How many of the First Circut are still alive at this point?
Radek
Promethean
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2017
- Messages
- 674
- Likes received
- 3,340
I do now, but the issue remains: fully built WarShips are the product of years of work by dedicated facilities, large workforces and visible supply chains. Somehow, this was all missed.
Powerful groups do not like being blindsided.