I was head deep among reports, both paper and digital, along with the rest of the vetted staffs: advisors, administrators, bureaucrats, colonels, and everyone's aides.
Strategic plans came and went. Other plans were modified and rejected. Stupid motions were utterly crushed before they had a chance to take root. We even cycled out some of the planners with active civilian and military personnel so that we can get fresh ideas in the room.
I was in the middle of one of those meetings where I had three noteputers to my left, a stack of paper on my right, and the entire map of the Capellan Confederation in a digital format laid out as part of the central command chamber's desk-slash-war map.
Oh, and let's not forget the coffee cups, cans, and bottles everywhere.
(I think someone was also snorting coke and someone else had meth, but I wasn't going to stop them right now as long as they didn't start suggesting stupid things like the last colonel.)
And it was in this meeting that a courier soldier came running in with vital news.
Both Styk and Tikonov held.
More importantly, there was a chance that Styk might turn out to be victory for us!
It was a small blessing in the midst of the biggest shitshow I had to handle.
Because while the more important worlds held, I achieved this by weakening the defense of many of Sian Commonality worlds and even some of the Tikonov Commonality and Sarna Commonality worlds near the League border.
It was a price that some worlds had already paid on his behalf, because Styk and Tikonov weren't the only worlds the Federated Suns struck.
The confederation's most coreward worlds - Sirius, Keid, New Home, Bryant, Epsilon Indi, Small World, Ingress, Ronel, Tybalt, Carver, Epsilon Eridani, Sheratan, Fletcher, Tigress, Alpha Eridani, and Algol - had all fallen. Sirius stung my heart the most because I had stripped their world of half a regiment it had to reinforce Tikonov.
In effect, this had already opened up a shaky corridor between the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns through which the former began to supply the latter with medium and heavy mechs.
But not all was against us; both the Draconis Combine and the Free Worlds League had begun their promised assault.
The Draconis Combine didn't stop chasing after the Wolf's Dragoons but also amassed a force to take Galtor and surrounding worlds it. This was far away enough from my country's borders that the Federated Suns would be forced to divert enough firepower to prevent losing those worlds to the Combine.
The Free Worlds League, on the other hand, went after Bolan, a world and region that the Lyrans and Leaguers have been fighting over for the last three hundred years. At the same time, my spies within the League reported a force of ten regiments striking at New Earth, putting pressure on the Lyrans who were trying to desperately hold onto their Skye Federation worlds close to Terra and the new corridor to their allies on the other side of Sol.
Other defenses held. The remnants of the Northwind Highlanders who stuck with me and the Capellan Confederation held Highspire. The Federated Suns wasn't dumb enough to put their Northwind Highlanders up against the Draconis Combine, which did have a token force of four regiments guarding their Dieron Military District's rimward border and another six regiments along the anti-spinward border to fight off the Lyrans.
What concerned me, though, was their most famous mercenary company, the Eridani Light Horse.
If there was a minor protagonist within the Battletech narrative, then it was them. I don't remember too much about them, but I knew enough from before and far more thanks to my Chancellorship to know that I needed to keep an eye on them.
But that's where I had a problem.
This mercenary company with over twelve jumpships and twenty-two dropships had gone completely missing after they helped the FedSuns conquer Algol. I knew that they weren't helping the Lyrans or fighting off the Dracs; I'd know in either case.
The fact that they were absent meant Hanse put them somewhere where my Maskirovka could not see easily. That scared me, because I now had a mercenary command loyal to my enemy that was missing and could possibly pop out anywhere.
And those were the worst kind of surprises, especially in the Sian Commonality right now where I'd stripped so many worlds of their regiments. Including Sian itself.
As of right now, Sian, the capital of the entire Capellan Confederation as well as the ruling seat of Sian Commonality had minimal defenses.
One grab-bag mercenary regiment of dubious loyalty but whose skills were guaranteed to be elite. One full mech regiments of fanatical loyalty but of middling experience. Ten mechanized infantry militia regiments of the same condition. Two artillery specific regiments of fanatical loyalty but of the least experience. And, finally, one battalion of secret surprise.
This … was not a lot for a capital of the Inner Sphere's Successor House. I would go so far as to say that if two elite mech regiments dropped in, then they might be able to sweep the board quickly enough for the full might of the defending militia to be voided.
As we were all learning from the invasion of Tikonov Commonality, militia regiments were far slower to react and mobilize than mech regiments simply because a militia regiment was usually a mechanized infantry regiment with more people, more equipment, but, crucially, less transportation.
A good example of this was none other than the world whose name was floating around across the Inner Sphere for the latest Inner Sphere atrocities: Ronel. Ronel had one battalion of the Kerr's Intruders, one battalion of Ronel's 1st Home Guard regiment, and one full mechanized infantry militia regiment. This was, in total, two regiments worth of defenders.
But they lost to one regiment of Davion militia and two battalions of a mercenary command called the Miller's Marauders because when they landed, they struck together as one while the defenders hadn't been grouped up in the classic Third Succession War defense set-up of covering all of important sites on the planet equally.
This was actually a lesson the CCAF and I learned, and had changed our tactics accordingly. It was not a change, however, that came without cost. Mercenaries hired by AFFS continued to harass the border worlds away from Tikonov Commonality, and while those worlds hit by mercenary raids - specifically, many Sian and St. Ives Commonality worlds - did not have as drastic of a strategic military placement change as those in Capella and Tikonov Commonality worlds, the change still led to increased success for the raiders and thus a loss for me and my people. It didn't help that CCAF was already the Inner Sphere military that kept the least amount of garrisoned troops, relying mostly on strategic reserves to respond to attacks.
Except that the reserves were at rock bottom right now defending the nation. It wouldn't be an underestimation to say that CCAF might not have strategic reserves at this point in time.
But the changes were necessary. Better prepared and bleeding a little now rather than unprepared and bleeding too much later.
'I think that sentiment perfectly illustrates the state of my nation and people,' I thought as I dismissed the soldier who came with the good news about Styk and Tikonov.
We bled. We constantly bled. We have been losing worlds for three hundred years. We were de jure and de factoweakest Successor State, and this war made that all too clear. We lost another twenty worlds this year alone, and I knew that we would lose more before the Fourth Succession War came to an end.
At the same time, I couldn't afford to only focus on the war with our spinward neighbor. I knew that I had threats in my rear that I needed to handle, lest it came to bite me in the ass in the most inopportune moment. Because, if canon timeline holds true at least one more time, then I would have to face the combined might of the Magistracy of Canopus and the Duchy of Andurien after I got my shit kicked in.
It was one of the reasons why I emphasized survival for my officers and soldiers. I needed them alive for the wars to come, not just the war we were in.
And speaking of surviving, I was glad that Tormano was surviving. One might even say that he thrived in his new environment whereas he languished as a reserve garrison officer with nothing to do before. It just made me happy to see him motivated.
"Milord."
I looked up and saw a Maskrivoka agent kneeling next to me with a thin noteputer in hand. Taking the thing, I quickly read the message within it.
And allowed myself to grin.
It was the latest ComStar News Network article; Lyran Commonwealth's Phecda and New Kyoto had fallen to the Free Worlds League.
My "allies" were making a good progress, indeed.
-VB-
Hanse stared at the map of the Inner Sphere in the command center deep within Avalon City's Davion Palace.
Despite the fact that the Federated Suns was conquering worlds at a record rate, Hanse didn't feel like he was winning.
And he was winning. Let there be no doubt about that.
Tikonov Commonality was more or less half gone. Of the forty-six worlds that made up the commonality, AFFS outright conquered sixteen of them while another dozen or so were being hotly contested, most of which were in the Federated Suns' favor.
But there in laid the problem.
Most.
Not all.
Worse, Operation RAT, whose primary goal had been to deprive the Capellan Confederation of its heavy industries, was more or less about to be labeled a failure. In a move that had shocked him, the Capellans moved almost half of the entire heavy industries of Tikonov to somewhere else. Yet they defended that world with such fervor that the troops on the ground suffered heinous losses.
The worst failure was Styk.
He'd committed so much to conquer that world. If he conquered it, then it would cut off the rest of Tikonov Commonality and thus hasten the fall of the resisting worlds. Of the forty plus regiments he invested into the entire war, a fifth of it was on Styk. Despite this, it wasn't falling because the Capellans weren't fighting them at all if it didn't suit their needs. Assaulting their fortified positions when they had so many artillery and anti-air meant losing too many for too few of a gain, and knowing this, his own generals have been so far left to stew.
Ardan made that very clear in one of his messages. CCAF knew the lay of the land while holding homefield advantage with their suicidal militia, and ruthlessly took advantage of both advantages. To step out of a AFFS base was to be ambushed in the forest, valleys, mountains, or swamps by bug mechs by the dozens or by light and fast SRMs and LRMs that chipped away at their armor throughout the expedition. This left not just the generals wary but the lower rank commanders and leaders wary about fighting. More than a few mechwarriors had died not even to bug mechs but bomb-strapped, suicidal infantry -.
There was a ping on someone's noteputer. Or computer.
He saw one of the DMI planners ducking their head. And then pulled it back up almost immediately.
"M-My Prince, it's been confirmed. Sian is almost defenseless right now," the woman quickly recovered as she relayed the intel. "Two mech regiments at most remain on Sian."
"Just two?" Yvonne Davion, the Champion of the Prince and his relative, frowned. "That is an absurdly low number of defenders. The Chancellor is as mad as his father if he thought he could get away with that."
… Was this it? A chance to force a surrender while he and the Federated Suns hadn't tipped over the edge yet?
But who was he going to send?
"My Prince, there are … powerful regimental mercenary commands we can use to strike at the heart of the confederation," the Field Marshal of the Crucis March, a spindly woman, spoke up.
"Who do we have that can be fielded?" he asked, looking around.
"... The Wolf's Dragoons are busy keeping the Draconis Combine busy," Quintus Allard muttered. "Northwind Highlanders are also doing that."
"The Screaming Eagles and the Blue Star Irregulars are also tied down fighting in Sarna Commonality," Yvonne hummed. "12th Vegan Rangers and Dioscuri are tied up in Tikonov Commonality."
And then they came to a realization as one.
There was only one mercenary command available right now that could potentially besiege Sian, even in its weakened state.
He leaned forward. "Get me in contact with Brevet General Armstrong," Hanse grinned.
-VB-
Katrina Steiner felt…
How was she supposed to feel about this?
Despite the fact that she has now ruled the Lyran Commonwealth for twenty years, she found herself at a crossroad that rarely came across.
On one hand, she wanted peace in the Inner Sphere, even though she knew that it was impossible. If circumstances didn't push her to war, then the next generation's brave, eager, and often stupid leader will spark one on their own. This desire had, for a time, worked.
On the other hand, she found herself embroiled in a war where she and her "partner in crime" had declared war against someone who had looked to join in on their peace.
Katrina Steiner, as a person, found herself deeply regretting not beginning a dialogue with William Liao. LIC's report of the man depicted someone who cared for his people. Who hated violence. Someone who suffered not unlike how she had. Just as her uncle had tried to assassinate her, William had been silently subjected to a house arrest, which explained where he'd been in the past decade. Worse, she learned of the utterly horrifying tragedies the man had to suffer to get to where he was.
It said a lot about the man when he pulled the raiders and mercenaries back first from his side of the border. That action, coupled with his internal policies and speech, showed a genuine desire for peace. It was a desire she crushed along with the First Prince when it was too late to act upon it.
One does not simply declare war and then take it back, after all.
She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly.
While tainted idealism and cold calculus of astropolitics clashed within her mind, something else gnawed at her, too.
The Memory Core.
It was obvious to everyone now that it had been real. That her hope of it being faked had been herself intentionally misleading herself into believing - wanting - it to be fake. But, looking back on her memories of the wedding, it made sense that William brought something of substantial value. Only something like a memory core could sway entire Successor States to change how they interacted with each other, especially if it contained everything William claimed it had.
Her fists clenched.
Cancer treatment.
Could it really have been in it? Was it a lie fabricated to hurt her after she had lied to his face?
But what she didn't doubt was that whatever memory core the chancellor found, he definitely found military technology as well. It was the only thing that explained the anomaly that was the current Capellan mech production.
Before his ascension, the Capellan Confederation was the least populated and industrialized of the Successor States. They had a few heavy mech factories but most of their mech production pushed out light and medium mechs. It was why the Vindicator medium mech was synonymous with the CCAF. The CCAF had more Vindicators than it had of any cheaper light and medium mechs except maybe the Phoenix Hawk and the Locust, but that was because both of those mechs were made by all five Successor States and even some of the Periphery states.
But the Vindicator was no longer the focus of the Capellan Confederation. No, there was a sudden pivot and ridiculous ramping up of the "Firebee" mechs.
Most of her generals didn't get it. Not even her sister understood without having it plainly stated out for her.
Firebees had gone extinct during the Succession Wars. She confirmed this with the records available to her and the Lyran Commonwealth. Past 2900's, not a single Firebee saw combat unless someone decided to attack a museum or something.
And then there was suddenly more than a hundred of them after William Liao took office.
Even the Lyran Commonwealth would have trouble making a hundred mech of any single design in two years. The fact that the Capellans did it meant one of three things.
Possibility One: they found a cache of Firebees. Unlikely to be the case because of the sheer rate of replacement observed on Capellan front.
Possibility Two: they had working Firebee factories all this time and just didn't make them before because it was an "anti-tank" mech. Aside from the fact that this possibility was brought up by a social general, an anti-tank mech was still a mech that was better than a Locust. Unlikely possibility because the entire suggestion was beyond stupid.
(That was kind of stupid that was still commanding her troops.)
Finally, Possibility Three: they found a Lostech memory core that not only held the design of the Firebee but how to retool their factories. Most likely.
And William Liao had been willing to share the civilian half of that Lostech memory core for peace that she publicly claimed to seek. Hell, she believed now that he would have given away that half if it meant that he had half a decent chance at peace with the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth.
Ironic, wasn't it?
On top of that, both she and Hanse had been so sure of the Combine and the League mostly staying out of the war. But six months into the war, they began to launch massive attacks with real intent to take territory. And just like that, she and her Lyran Commonwealth found itself not just supplying both the LCAF and the AFFS as part of the alliance agreement but she was fighting her traditional enemies in a full blown war beyond what anyone remembered.
Her people hadn't been prepared because she hadn't been prepared.
They suffered because she hesitated to make the right decision.
Because she saw now that the right decision had been to put a brake on Hanse.
She sighed as she rose up from her bed and looked out of her magnificent palace bedroom toward the morning sunlight slowly flooding her room.
'No use thinking about spilled water,' she thought. 'I've made my bed, and it's time to lay in it. No matter how thorny it's become.'
And so Katrina Steiner the Individual took a step back.
The Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth began to plan on how she will bring about the industrial might of her nation to crush her foes