Janos Marik stared at the reports from SAFE's agents on the ground, military intelligence provided by the Capellans, and reports of his own military.
Obviously, he didn't have the means to conquer any substantial Lyran worlds. The damnable Home Defense Act was keeping him tied up completely, and Duchess Catherine Humphreys of the Duchy of Andurien was doing her utmost to keep the Free Worlds League out of the so-called Fourth Succession War.
It was obvious why she was doing this. She had been a vehement opposition to the Kapteyn Accords, even if it didn't really change anything, because her Duchy of Andurien would stop growing if they and the Capellans were forced into a peace treaty. The duchy grew under her by many means, but one of her calling card was for a "better shared defense" against the Capellan Confederation. With the Kapteyn Accords removing that particular threat, some of the worlds under her duchy moved to secede from her control.
So for her, helping the Capellans in their hour of need was the last thing she wanted from the wider Free Worlds League.
Oh, he knew what she was planning. He would be a fool to not see it.
SAFE may not be the best or even middling civilian intelligence agency in the Inner Sphere, but it was still a semi-competent one. They brought him documents upon documents detailing military movements within the duchy towards the Capellan border.
Janos knew that she intended to hit them and take their worlds once the Capellans were at their lowest.
But he also knew that she didn't know about the Capellan's growing industrial might. In the short few years that William Liao had been the chancellor of the Capellan Confederation, he had focused heavily on revitalizing the Capellan's dying industries.
And succeeded.
Officially, the Capellan Confederation had 45 mech regiments.
Unofficially, the confederation was making half a regiment a month.
How the hell they achieved this SAFE could not find out.
But he had an idea.
Or rather, everyone in the Inner Sphere had a good idea.
'He really was willing to make peace with the Lyrans and the Suns,' Janos thought as he thought back to the small memory core that Chancellor Liao crushed underneath his foot. He knew for a fact that the leader who managed to revitalized his nation kept copies of that memory core. And that the memory core he crushed had to be a copy in and of itself.
Which meant that the Liaos found a memory core containing Lostech. Worse, they found military lostech that could be used to fix their broken factories. What else would explain the near 50% increase in mech production across the Capellan Confederation?
If the Lyrans or the Suns got their hands on that, then their larger population and industrial base would be retooled… And turned against him and the Free Worlds League.
If the Capellans didn't have that memory core, then he would have been more than happy to let the fools knock themselves dizzy while the League sat back, rested, and enjoyed the show.
This was ultimately the reason why he couldn't afford to not help the Capellans, even if William was not his father and not the one who turned his own brother against him.
The problem, once again, came down to the Home Defense Act and the border provinces' unwillingness to help in "a foreign war."
Dumb motherfuckers.
No, not dumb.
Foolish, shortsighted, and fractiousmotherfuckers.
He leaned back into his office chair and felt it bouncing lightly after reaching its maximum backward tilt.
He looked up at the office ceiling and hummed.
Then there was a knock on the door.
His secretary came in, walked all the way around the long office filled with posh furnitures, bookcases and books, and aesthetically pleasing filing cabinets that served no purpose whatsoever, and came up to his right.
"Sir, there is a man verified to be a member of the Maskirovka of the Capellan Confederation waiting for you. He claims that he has a message from the chancellor to you that he could not allow ComStar to read."
He blinked.
So that's a thing.
---
Theodore Kurita stared at the Maskirovka agent standing at attention in front of him after having given the Combine's customary kowtow.
He may be young. He may not be politically acute as some of his peers or even his elders.
But he was not stupid.
The Maskirovka coming here to pay homage to him and not the Coordinator signalled who the Capellan Confederation saw the future of the Draconis Combine.
It also set a very dangerous precedent that could cause … problems.
But he couldn't just ignore an agent sent by the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. Aside from the fact that the Draconis Combine was a nominal ally of the confederation in the latest war burning away at the Inner Sphere, then it was also that he, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne, could not be seen turning away a guest without a good reason.
And he had no good reason right now, aside from the fact that he was in the middle of a campaign in the Rasalhague Military District to fight off the invading Lyrans, who like always, lacked a decisive leader to take advantage of their scarily competent subordinates.
The chancellor probably knew what he was doing, and in a way, this act made Theodore question just how deeply the Maskirovka infiltrated the Draconis Combine if they came to him and not his father with whatever important message they carried which they refused to send with ComStar's HPG network and how they knew he would be here on Vega to time it perfectly with his arrival.
"Tell me," he began. "What does the chancellor want to say to the Draconis Combine that he sent you to me, a servant of the Coordinator?" he asked.
"The Celestial Wisdom sends you his greetings, Prince Kurita," the agent began with a lyrical tone to her voice. "I am Gyu, a high ranking member of the Maskirovka. I carry with me the words of the Chancellor and a gift," she said and slid an envelope toward him. "This humble one bids you to read the Chancellor's wisdom."
Still a little apprehensive of the competent Maskirovka and the utterly insane timing, he watched as one of his samurai picked up the letter and inspected it for potential treachery before handing it to him with both of his hands. He took the letter and opened it up.
The fine paper and handwritten letter started off rather simply.
"To my future peer of the Inner Sphere," he began.
---
Janos began to read. "To Janos Marik, my peer across the border. It has been four months since the Fourth Succession War was declared upon the rest of the Inner Sphere by the vainglorious Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth. My realm is under siege and yet I do not see my allies of the Kapteyn Accords fighting as they have promised."
He snorted. Of course, he wasn't fighting hard. Why would he? He may not want the FedCom to win but he also didn't want a rejuvenated and stronger Capellan Confederation at his borders.
And that was before his own people dragged their feet, thinking that the war far away wouldn't soon be a war at their front doors.
"Then allow me make my case clear for your undivided attention and cooperation.
"Conquer more than two dozen worlds during the duration of this war from the Lyrans -."
---
"-and I will hand over a copy of the memory core that I crushed upon that wedding hall. It will contain everything I stated before, and my agent in front of you has a lesser copy that you can take to see that I truly do have the civilian lostech of the Star League that you can use to revitalize yourselves.
With hopes of a better future for us all,
William Liao, Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation."
Theodore set the letter down and his eyes drifted back up.
The agent, seeing him focus upon her, turned to look at one of the bodyguards. "I will bring out a datacore on my person. Is this acceptable?"
His samurai looked to him for direction.
Theodore nodded.
The bodyguard nodded.
The woman reached -.
'How shameless,' he thought without looking as she reached into the space between her voluptuous breasts and pulled out a rather sizable "datacore."
… Wait, how did that even fit in there? Her breasts didn't even shrink after she pulled it out.
Huh?
"Bring in my most able … scholar," Theodore commanded, and within five minutes, a man came to answer his call, kowtowing right next to the agent. "You are…?"
"Hai, Prince Kurita. This one is called Marcus Herrikky. This one is a doctor of mechanical engineering and molecular biology."
An accomplished individual, then, especially since he didn't have a single wrinkle on him.
"Did you bring a noteputer?"
"Hai."
"Inspect this and its contents for me."
The 'datacore' went around the room until it came within the man's hands. He found a way to chip the datacore into his noteputer (the datacore had an extendable cord) and perused what it was showing on the noteputer's small hologram.
And the more he saw, the more he grew stiff.
"M-My prince, this -!" he began but quickly shut himself up.
"Is it lostech?"
"Y-yes, but there are many parts of it that have been blurred out or outright missing. I-." He gulped and then his eyes drifted to the woman. He bowed quickly. "Yes, it is lostech but with too many parts of it having been removed, I will not be able to make use of it immediately or in the near future."
"I see. You are dismissed."
And then he was gone, leaving the datacore behind with only a brief hesitance.
"... This is a big gamble on your chancellor's part," he began. "Especially since he came to me and not my father, who I am loyal to," he stressed with narrowed eyes.
"Our chancellor sees much, Prince Kurita. He asked me to give you the second letter if you showed interest in his offer."
A second letter?
He took a deep breath in. "I will discuss this with my father. But I am personally interested in it. If my father allows, then I would gladly go on the offensive against the distracted Federated Suns."
She nodded and pulled out another letter. This one did not, thankfully, come out from between her breasts but from a sleeve in her arms.
Man, where was all of this coming from? Was she stage magician as part of her cover?
He took the letter after his samurai checked it, again, and this one…
He read it.
And read it again.
Before slamming it down on the table.
"How did you and the Maskirovka get access to the royal records?!" he roared with eyes wide open and his mien twisted into a wrathful snarl.
He was not angry.
No, he was fearful.
Because the letter's content described something that made him fearful.
But explained so much about his father's changes since his stroke.
"Our chancellor sees all," the Maskirovka agent replied calmly. "He is the Chancellor who truly fits his title, the Celestial Wisdom." She paused. "Prince Kurita, I shall be in the city for as long as you need for the reply. If there is nothing else…?"
"You are dismissed."
She bowed deeper before leaving backwards.
Skilled.
Once the door closed and his samurais gave him the all clear, he nearly grabbed the small desk in front of him to throw it in a fit of rage.
Not only was the entire Draconis Combine humiliated by having the Maskirovka infiltrate the royal palace on Luthien but for other state to know of their weakness?!
It was …
Instead of flying into a fit of rage that would make him look like his father, Theodore took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I must talk with my father