Lost dreams.
Most of the general population would normally consider rulers to be both a source of inspiration and envy. Many people believed that rulers of nations and states would live in splendor and quiet contentment. When these very rulers would go mad with homicidal rage and plunge their very states into war, their people would often wonder if all that absolute power in their leaders grasps would ultimately compel them to seek more; hence a destructive cycle. The people would sometimes ask themselves why was it that despite the fact that their leaders live in luxury and elegance while they toil in the dust for the improvement of the state, why would these very rulers not be content with their own lives, why not be content with what you have?
These very thoughts were plaguing the mind of ComStar's Precentor Martial at that very moment. Sitting in his office as the sun's rays drove horizontal shafts of parallel light through the partially vented Venetian blinds in the windows of his office, the man who had once been the ray of hope for the Inner-Sphere brooded while waiting.
His name was Victor Steiner-Davion and he was not happy. As he ran his fingers along his hair, once golden blond but now teaming with strands of white, Victor could not help but constantly think about what might have been.
It seemed to be nothing more than a distant thought now. Memories of being raised by his father and mother; shards of time that would sometimes come back to him as if it were just yesterday. But then the day's problems would once again intrude onto the happy thoughts and he would be floating back to a dangerous reality.
Victor was the heir of a hopeful alliance between two of the most powerful houses of the Inner-Sphere, the militaristic Federated Suns and the economically powerful Lyran Commonwealth. As the newly formed Federated Commonwealth began to conquer nearby states, a dream of a united humanity, not seen since the days of the first Star League, seemed to be within his father's grasp. His father Hanse Davion once told him that he would be the ruler of all humanity and that he would either lead them all into a golden age or plunge them back into war and devastation.
Just as final victory seemed to be in his family's grasp, the ghosts of the first Star League returned. After centuries of exile, the heirs of Kerensky came back as the Clans. With their superior technology and alien ways, the Clans cut a swath of destruction across the Sphere and only the timely alliance between ancient enemies had saved the successor states. Faced with a threat that could destroy them all, the great houses of the Inner-Sphere united and formed a second Star League.
With a resounding victory over the Clans that finally stopped the invasion, the Federated Commonwealth seemed destined once again to lead humanity. After all, it was Victor's leadership with the newly revamped Star League Defense Forces that spelled ultimate victory over the Clans. But alas, it was not to be. Victor's sister, Katrina Steiner-Davion, took over and became the sole ruler of the Federated Commonwealth while he was away. The wily Katrina wooed disgruntled elements among the Steiner nobility to help strengthen her own position but it would also prove to be the beginning of the end for the Commonwealth.
As military units within the Federated Commonwealth began to take sides, Victor made the fateful decision to forcibly remove his sister from the throne and soon plunged the entire Commonwealth into a civil war that raged across hundreds of worlds. Millions perished and whole units were destroyed in a maelstrom of death and destruction. When it was over, the dreams of his long-dead parents lay in tatters: the once mighty Federated Commonwealth was permanently partitioned between the Lyran Alliance and the Federated Suns. Victor was to have no hand in ruling any of these states. The task of presiding over and rebuilding these now separate empires would be handled by his two younger siblings, Peter and Yvonne Steiner-Davion.
Groomed to be humanity's most powerful ruler, Victor had never known or experienced the quiet contentment that only a civilian and a family man could truly understand. Raised and taught nothing except politics and war, Victor could have never even grasped the simple pleasures in life; his upbringing was military conferences and palace intrigues. In many ways, Victor envied the lowly civilian, to be anonymous and just to exist would have been heaven to him.
Problems were always the order of the day. Victor was already exhausted from attending the public memorial service for the victims of the Luxor Building bombing earlier that morning. It was his first public appearance in as many months but it was necessary to stand side by side with his brother Peter due to the fact that it was extremely critical to show an image of strength and solidarity to their potential enemies.
More problems. A few weeks ago there were reports of an incident in the Free Worlds League capital of Atreus. The imperial family had denied the news of a rumored assassination attempt but Star League intelligence reports indicated that there were casualties among the Marik family. All of Victor's personal queries to the Captain-General, Thomas Marik, were met with cold silence. Official reports from the ambassador of the Free Worlds League said that Thomas Marik was in seclusion over personal problems and could not be disturbed. Victor knew that the Star League conference was only a few months away; would this have a potentially catastrophic impact on that? Would Thomas Marik even attend the conference?
Deep in the back of Victor's mind were many secrets. Secrets that very few people would ever know. Such was the price of rulership; the illusion was as important as reality. Victor knew for a fact that Thomas Marik was an impostor; his seemingly miraculous reappearance after the bombing that scarred his face and killed his father and of the incompatibility of his DNA with that of the Marik bloodline due to the fact that his now dead son Joshua was once being treated for leukemia by Commonwealth scientists who then concluded that his son did not carry a single trace of the Marik family's DNA code. For the sake of stability Victor kept the lie going. It was important during that time for he could not have afforded a fractured Free Worlds League. But now with this latest incident, more questions began to arise: What happened to the real Thomas Marik? Did anyone else know about the Marik impostor?
The shafts of light entering into Victor's office began to pale as Tharkad's yellow sun had already begun to set. Winter would be coming sooner than expected. From his vantage point, Victor could see the spires of new skyscrapers being constructed; the city was busy rebuilding for the upcoming Star League conference that was to take place late in the year. Even these thoughts of hope soon turned dark as well. Victor knew that the Star League he had helped to create was already beginning to unravel now that the Clan threat had all but gone. It seemed nothing more than a temporary alliance as the successor states began to jockey for power once more. Would they be able to hold it together or would their greed and lust for supremacy shatter it once more? And if the Star League was dissolved, what then? Would a new conflagration erupt? Who would start it?
These dark and worrying thoughts added more wrinkles to Victor's already tired face as his aide Galen Cox entered the office.
Victor got up from his chair and welcomed his long-time friend and confidant. "Galen. Welcome back to Tharkad. How was the jump?"
"Tiring as always, Victor. Visiting over a dozen planets in a few weeks time takes a lot out of a man, even a well-traveled one like myself." Galen smiled as he sat down on the guest chair.
Lieutenant General Galen Cox was one of the heroes of the Clan War, a superb mechwarior and invaluable ally to Victor. Galen had once assumed a false identity named Gerard Cranston in order to fool his enemies into believing that he was dead but now that the war was over, he no longer traveled by that moniker. One habit that Galen did decide to keep from his Cranston days was wearing his beard; he felt that he looked more elegant this way. The other habit was more professional, Galen was the Head of Intelligence for the Star League as well; he was Victor's eyes and ears in terms of rumors and information. And on this day he had some very bad news.
"Let's get it over with." Victor needed to get down to business. He was tired.
"From the top then." Galen answered. "Intel believes that either one or both children of Thomas Marik has been assassinated."
Victor could barely hide his grief. "Oh God. Do we have confirmation on that?"
"At this point, none. But we should know the full story sooner or later. An incident of this magnitude should reveal itself in due course."
"I hope that when the truth is finally revealed that it will not be too late. Do we know any potential factions that might have been behind this?" Victor asked.
"The list is quite huge I'm afraid." Galen sighed. "From Word of Blake, Sun-Tzu Liao or maybe even a disaffected FWL noble intent on gaining power, we are simply not too sure at this point. My personal opinion is that it is the Blakists although a source tells me that it may have even been a third party hired by any of the usual suspects."
"The Star League conference is only a few months away. This will complicate matters at the very least. Theodore Kurita and Sun-Tzu seem intent on backing Thomas Marik's bid to become First Lord." Victor mused.
"That is the least of our problems right now." Galen looked down.
Despite his fatigue, Victor began to straighten up in his chair. "What do you mean?"
"We have noticed an increase in Jade Falcon naval activity in their occupation zone. A large number of Falcon warships, seventy percent of their naval reserve in fact, are now moving into the area." Galen said as a matter of fact.
"Is my sister and the Wolf Clan stirring up trouble again?" Victor guessed.
"It doesn't appear that way. The Wolf Clan occupation zone seems quiet for now."
"What then?"
"Something that could be far worse. We are intercepting coded transmissions from a number of Clan merchant vessels via HPG. We were only able to crack the code a few days ago. That's why I hurried back to Tharkad to meet you." Galen explained.
"Oh God, now what?" Victor groaned. This was going to be a long meeting.
"Judging from our analysis of the situation it appears that we may have a confirmation as to the reasons why the Falcons have placed a biohazard alert and purposely destroyed a number of commercial vessels in their area. It appears that a sizable bulk of the lower castes, either led by the merchants or the scientists or both, are preparing a coup of some sort; possibly with the use of some biological weapon to wipe out the warrior castes."
Victor could hardly believe it. "Could that be possible? How can the scientist caste run a covert biological weapons program without the warrior castes knowing about it?"
"Well the scientists would need to have a base of operations that the warriors would not know about. The merchants have jumpships that can be used for supply and transportation; either they neutralized the warrior contingent on these ships or some warriors may have turned traitor. With their loss against us on Strana-Mechty, some warriors my feel that the Clan cause is now irrevocably lost." Galen stated.
"So where could this base be? The Clan homeworlds? The deep Periphery?" Victor asked.
"It seems that the Falcons are trying to find out as well." Galen answered. "Based on their naval deployments, it seems that the base lies in the Dark Nebula: Camelot Command to be exact."
"Camelot Command? The former base of Snord's Irregulars?"
"Yes." Galen confirmed it.
"Galen, I seem to find it a little too convenient for you to come up with an exact conclusion like this based on very scant evidence. Even one with your talents would not have pieced this together in so short a time." Despite not having any rest for almost twenty-four hours, Victor's mind was still working at peak performance; he had a talent for coming up with the right conclusions.
"You're right, Victor." Galen closed his eyes. The truth was going to hurt. "The final piece of this puzzle was obtained just yesterday in this very city."
"What do you mean?" Victor's eyes went wide with horror. "The terrorist bombing of the Luxor Building?"
Galen sighed. "It wasn't a terrorist bombing. The Luxor Building was actually a front for an intelligence gathering group. I sent in a team of operatives to secure some information yesterday."
"Intelligence group? A team of operatives? Jesus Christ." Victor's hands began to tremble.
"After partially decoding these Clan merchant transmissions, we traced it to an intelligence gathering front in the Luxor Building. We had a general knowledge that messages were being decoded by a computer firm and then passed on to operatives in the Inner-Sphere." Galen continued.
"So what you are trying to tell me was that this computer company was actually a communications relay for these coup plotters?" Victor asked.
"Yes. It seems that based on the information that we retrieved it is apparently a small group of renegade merchants and scientists based in Camelot Command. Once they have delivered the biological weapon, both the Clans and the Inner-Sphere would be so devastated that it would be easy for them to gain power. And then the Clan invasion would begin anew under their leadership." Galen answered.
"Are you saying that every one of those people killed in the Luxor Building was a renegade Clan spy?" Victor was aghast.
"No. I am quite sure there were a large number of innocent civilians there." Galen looked sadly at Victor. "But we needed to make sure. So the orders were to spare no one."
"Who gave the order?" Victor demanded.
Galen stayed silent.
"Who gave the order!" Victor had finally lost his temper as he partially got up from his chair.
"I did." Galen said softly.
Victor slumped back in his chair. He was stunned. "Oh God, Galen. I had attended the memorial service with Peter just hours ago. Now you are telling me that it was us, it was we who killed our own people."
Galen did not speak for a long time. When he did it was barely a whisper. "There are times that we have to do terrible things so that our people can sleep soundly in their beds at night. What I ordered was a terrible crime which I will have to live with for the rest of my life."
"Could we have done this in another way?" Victor groaned. So this was the price of rulership, to be responsible for the deaths of innocents and then having to cover it up.
"I'm afraid not." Galen's eyes stayed downcast. "We needed to make the hit that day otherwise they might have known that we were on to them. I couldn't take the chance."
"So now what?" Victor wanted to get this meeting over with. It was all too much. "We have our intel but what good is it? I made a solemn promise that no SLDF troops would go into Clan space again otherwise it would be war. Anyway, we don't have the troops to do it."
"There is an alternative." Galen answered.
"What?"
"For the past several months I have been assembling a black ops unit specifically for missions such as this. Some of them are former SLDF soldiers while others are mercenaries. If we send them into the Dark Nebula, we have plausible deniability." Galen explained.
"But we don't even know what's out there. You are asking this covert unit to perform a suicide mission. You know that we cannot afford to send any naval assets at this time." Victor protested.
"It has a very low chance of success but we need to try." Galen was adamant.
Victor sighed. So be it. Would his soul be further damned if he sent more people to their deaths? By this time he was so emotionally numb that it didn't even matter now. "Very well, then. Who is the commanding officer of this unit?"
"Do you remember the Talos incident?" Galen asked.
"How could I forget?" Victor answered rhetorically.
As the Federated Commonwealth Civil War drew to a close the year before, an expeditionary force made up of the newly formed SLDF 3rd Royal Battlemech Regiment and a mercenary unit called Stilicho's Stilettos were dispatched to a remote planet in the Periphery near the Rim Collection. Their mission was to uncover a strange artifact found on the planet's surface that may have provided a link to the fate of the extinct House Amaris. The planet was named Talos and it became a nightmare for everyone involved. Within hours the expedition's naval and aerospace assets were suddenly attacked and destroyed by a Caspar Drone warship; the few dropships that landed on the planet were instantly hit by thermonuclear weapons and obliterated while the surviving ground forces were attacked by battlemechs of unknown design. Less than a dozen soldiers lived to tell the tale. The mission ended in failure and the survivors were evacuated offworld.
"A survivor from that mission who calls herself Natasha Kerensky." Galen activated his noteputer and handed it to Victor. "You've read the file on her before, right?"
"Yes. From what I read it seems that she fancies herself as the reincarnation of the original Black Widow." Victor studied her file on Galen's noteputer. "Interesting. It says here that she was involved in the Jade Falcon raid on Solaris VII that same year and she beat them handily; it also says that she may have been responsible for the destruction of a cult out in the Periphery somewhere."
"That's not all." Galen declared. "I ran an analysis on her DNA when I had one of the doctors take a sample of her blood during a routine physical exam. She didn't know of course."
"And?"
"It's an exact match as to the original Black Widow's DNA."
For the second time in this meeting Victor was completely stunned. "But that's impossible! Natasha is dead! How could this be?"
"I don't have the full answers yet. But I hope that we will know soon." Galen answered.
"Lets just hope that we get all the answers we seek before it is too late." Victor added.