Sakhara
Alexandria had spent the better part of the morning just walking the campus grounds. She'd gotten up earlier than she needed to, her earliest class simply couldn't come early enough. Sakhara had changed with the awarding of the county from when she had first been admitted. She had arrived on the same JumpShip that had brought the then freshly minted count of Sakhara but also the same jumpship laden with the heavy battlemechs, and attendants.
... not though the vessels that would come later.
Still there had been a handful of retainers then, men who ... whose counterparts would have been her own ancestors. Men who after the fall of the Star League had joined the Federated Suns and become members of aristocracy as a result. The 7th Crucis Lancers had units which traced to SLDF men who had joined the AFFS after Kerensky had left.
Which was the yet other side of the coin. The hulking infantry officer who all too frequently served as as Clay's bodyguard was a descendant of soldiers who had left with Kerensky's exodus. The Robinson Cluster was a military unit here to support, and protect Clay if Amaris's descendants came calling.... which was a horrifying prospect in its own right. That that was a concern as real as the combine threat.
Then there were all the other details, but most of all that the Combine had provided information to the Rim World Republic that had bloodied the SLDF. Done more than just bloodied some units, her uncle... Justin's father had dealt with the Eridani... and if he hadn't been familiar that fourth chair, that empty fourth chair in the room and what it symbolized was there.
She hadn't brought it up yet despite being admitted into the room and the mild insanity ... at least for now had kept her from doing so.
Henry seemed less worried about that, at present he was too busy grumbling about how his original plans for Bristol were going to be delayed by the trip to Kathil. Something about DropShip production here and how he was waiting for men to return. There were papers from Galax, andFederated Boeing that must have arrived from the same New Avalon hailing star lord that arrived on the circuit with the other news, with the rest of the mail.
A circuit which readily facilitated couriered messages from home much easier. In theory of course the HPG could have been even faster but ComStar charged exorbitant rates for live communication, and even at those rates they were not always available... for unknown arcane reasons... or if one were more suspiciously inclined arbitrary availability.
"Tell Federated Boeing that once we've recovered the Richard IIIthat we will pass it along to them,"
The Captain paused. He did look sort of like his nominal superior, a man who spent too much time in low gravity from the looks of him, "But we already have the ship," He replied.
"I know that and you know that but," He held up another courier delivered letter, "I'm sure someone is reading our mailto Boeing before it reaches the board, so Yvonne is wanting to see who gets that message and spring a little trap on them, it might be mostly harmless industrial espionage, they haven't done anything per se yet, but it could be foreign spies, and DMI wants to deal with that, and if it is internal someone will get a ruler smack from the civilian ministry about what's polite among gentlemen." Another shrug, as if the statement wasn't so characteristically flippant to utter, "The Richard by itself isn't much useful to us anyway...getting the class into production that would be so much more useful but again that's largely on the basis using cargo dropships of a certain tonnage along the circuit," but then that was still a matter of JumpShip carrying.
The holographic map was a familiar one, it was only distinct in that the three dimensional star chart was of superlative size for her to see in detail the jump route that reached the capital, and traced to the other worlds. The expansion of the circuit was already facilitating a much larger volume of trade between those worlds it touched and those worlds involved in the circuit were already being spoken to about how that grater trade might be expanded further. In short that there would be investment in them, not just in money but that the home ministry was looking to expand education prospects to the public as there would be need to be more workers, in other diversified fields.
She knew that because by this point the circuit had been in place that people of importance trusted it for their mail to be carried to Sakhara to their children. Her parents trusted it to bring her mail, and instructions even without knowing the latest details. They also trusted the mail to go the other direction from Kestrel, to New Avalon. Alexandria understood that within Sakhara they were waiting for Haakon's return, though not explicitly stated but most likely she assumed with further JumpShips to expand the carrying trade with which would carry goods.
Sakkhara was famous for being the site of the Academy, and the wealth and prestige of its alumni of course. The new industrial megaplex which had sprung up changed that dimension. There was a spur, had always been a spur where ships could depart the rendezvous point to travel to Robinson, but not there were earmarked lines for Hoff, Royal, New Ivaarsen and a handful of others. There were shipping manifests being repaired for DMM units.
"Lord Aaron mentioned the raids by the Galedon Regulars." He had mentioned them as they had departed New Avalon, but it had been something that had been discussed while they had been there.
"They're certainly a problem." Henry replied to her observation. "They hit Kesai at the tail end of last year, and seem to be looping back we think they're looking to do a bit more, but Samsonov, their commanding officer is proving hard to predict." There was a pause, and then wistfully, "We'd love to trap them somewhere. Samsonov has competition or disagreements in the DCMS its not impossible he might try and raid here for supplies..."
"Might?"
"Its always possible that if he attacks here, some sword of light officer will think he's getting too much of a fat head and give him a hair cut." He blew out a wistful sigh, "Not that I'm counting to heavily on that, Samsonov isn't stupid but he does seem callous given the reports of how he uses his supporting arms. The consensus from high authority is that he won't try, but its not out of the realm of possibility."
Alexandria thought about the shipyard , and the skeleton of the JumpShip under construction. The tournament on New Avalon had hardly been the first time she'd driven a battlemech but it had been the first time with that size of spectator crowd, but it hadn't been areal battle. Not that her graduating class would be the first line of defense.
In the event Sakhara was attacked they would be expected to assist in the defense... but for the first time in centuries really Sakhara had a much larger presence of defenders ... and there was the expected visit by both the Eridani Light Horse , and the Robinson Rangers.
Heedless of those thoughts Henry gestured to the shipping directives. "When Haakon gets back we're going to start shipping orders to some of the other DMM units, those on nearby worlds. Nothing really fancy but a lance of Sentry BattleMechs are going to Ivaarsen we'd really like the Chasseurs to consider newer mech designs, most of the rest will be shipments of Sphinx Medium Tanks. Ivaarsen if they're not interested in the Sentry will likely ended up buying more Centurions, and the Sentry will go on to other worlds on the frontier. Ivaarsen may of course end up wanting larger 'mechs but its a wait and see sort of thing"
