The Last Command part 1
Colchester
Markesan Operation Area, Crucis March
Federated Suns
April 13, 3024
But even such a prize could not be claimed so quickly. It was a fact of life in the Inner Sphere that nothing actually happened in a hurry. This was because Faster-Than-Light travel didn't really exist in this interstellar civilization.
JumpShips essentially exchanged their positions from a distant point in a thirty-light year radius practically instantaneously, no perceivable travel time in between.
Everything else had to obey Newtonian limits. From Jumpships waiting at distant nadir or zenith points of a star where gravitational forces ceased to potentially cause catastrophic malfunctions while engaging a Jump, people and their equipment had to shuttle towards an inhabitable planet on DropShips.
These were limited mainly by safe gravitational thrust for its occupants. Objects in constant acceleration experience a force opposite to the direction of motion. A DropShip would accelerate at Terran standard 1 gravity, building up velocity, and then midway though the transit flip backwards to burn its thrusters the other way to shed velocity to it can enter a safe orbit around the planet in preparation for landing. This usually would take anywhere from a week to almost a month of transit time.
Meanwhile, a JumpShip had to wait for at least 172 hours to safely charge its germanium Jump Core for the next Jump.
All in all, it takes a minimum of two weeks to do anything - one week to travel from the planet; that same one week while the JumpShip charges to jump, and another week to undock from the jump ship towards the next world. Nothing in the Inner Sphere could ever accomplish anything without this two-week delay.
Nathan Armstrong considered the plotted the most Jump Route from Colchester all the way to Dumassas.
The orbit of Colchester's to its star meant that it was 22 days to the Jump Point where a JumpShip would be waiting.
From there, ideally they would never undock to do anything on a planet - just sit there, waiting for the JumpShip to charge up and Jump again to the next star. Over and over again. Fifteen times.
The world of Dumassas was missing from the normal star charts, the world was abandoned after the Second Succession War. Fortunately the Eridani Light Horse retained Star League maps, so they could plot a course to the absent world.
According to the starcharts, that would be roughly 138 days or four and a half months figuring in transit time.
Then the trip back would involve the same time assuming they don't change the route to throw off a trail.
"Ten months by honest reckoning," he sighed. "Almost a year away from duty, even to me that sounds unacceptable. House Davion always needs the Light Horse on the ready."
"I think a bigger concern is the health and morale of anyone we send. That is almost a year of living in cramped space berthing and with nothing to do except wait," said Major Wendell TeCarr.
As second-in-command of the Light Horse he was not at all happy at the possibility he would be sent out to manage this treasure hunt.
There had to be someone down the ranks with high enough authority but could be spared from the warzone for almost a year.
He continued "We can't send more than a company for this. A company by itself is sufficient to garrison a world from raiding by Wolf's Dragoons. House Davion would never approve any more than that without thinking we are trying to break our contract."
"And the Eridani Light Horse always keeps their word. The honor and integrity of the SLDF isn't worth any temporary advantage."
Then the general groaned and leaned back on his chair. "Two whole regiments. Seven DropShips…"
"If it's true, it doesn't matter if those are UrbanMechs. Those DropShips alone would be worth the trip."
"Potentially one less world garrisoned in full battalion strength for potentially six more in the next year," Gen. Armstrong sighed. "This is important enough that I might need to speak to Hanse Davion about it personally."
"Then the question remains how much you intend on telling him. The prize is big enough that he would be fool not to approve the hunt, but MIIO might want to delay this further to verify before losing the service of the full nine collars of a Monolith - or two Jumpships if we send a Star Lord and an Invader."
"And that time means the bigger risk of someone else finding out that there is something out there. Intelligence agencies monitor other intelligence agencies." Nathan Armstrong scowled and brought his hands together under his nose. "I kind of don't want to deal with any spycraft nonsense because of this."
TeCarr shrugged. "We do have great lassitude in our contract modeled after SLDF basing agreements for supply runs, but until now there hasn't been any SLDF support to actually get any supplies from."
The general grunted. "I'm almost tempted to fulfill the request from the holo and allow Dr. Robotnik to speak to Hanse Davion even by the way of a recording."
TeCarr raised both palms out and said "With all due respect sir, that sounds like a tremendously bad idea."
Armstrong smirked. "That aside, how is the kid doing?"
"Ah. Recruit Devlin Stone is fitting in just nicely with the most recent class. We've left instructions that there would not be any 'outsider' nonsense with the training, they're all of the Light Horse and the SLDF don't quarrel with its own. Unity is our strength. No special privileges though, even if he does have his own Mech ready for graduation. I don't foresee any problem with his education."
"So it's fine if we just… ignore him as an issue? Dr. Robotnik did say that bringing him back home would not be… advisable."
"But if you're thinking it might still be a trap, then bringing him along could be useful."
The general waved that aside. "That would be wasting a year of training time. No, I'll take this on faith. We'll make it work somehow - tell Green-Davion that I want to arrange a meeting."
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Major Robert Green-Davion was the Federated Suns liaison to the Eridani Light Horse and handled all the day to day communications and cooperation needs between a mercenary unit and the AFFS and civilian support organizations. It was a duty that was more administrative than anything, he was not expected to jump into a BattleMech anytime soon, but he did earn his way to this rank via combat duties in the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns.
The AFFS had a high degree of professionalism and believed they were the best-run army in the entire Inner Sphere. The Free Worlds League Military was too disunited to be effective, and the Lyran Commonwealth may be well-equipped but as the ELH previously contracted with them, even they had enough of the bungling of inept social generals commanding real soldiers.
The Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery was made of frothing madmen. And the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces were made of poor underequipped frothing madmen.
The Eridani Light Horse had strange rituals and an almost religious insistence of being called the SLDF, but he found it quite charming. Other than that, there was nothing more to ask from the Light Horse's professionalism and concern for the rules of war.
The Eridani Light Horse behaved as a full combined-arms RCT and trained in-house to standards that would not be out of place to the Davion RCTs. It was just another day in the Eridani Light Horse encampment and he watched troops and civilians move around with swiftness and purpose.
But somehow he could taste it in the air. Nothing unusual presented itself to his eyes. But the Eridani Light Horse were behaving slightly more kooky than the norm.
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"I need privacy," said General Armstrong to his wife. "Would you mind not disturbing me in office for say… an hour? If Green-Davion arrives, tell him we'll discuss it over dinner."
"Sure," Julia replied with a small smile. Their prefab home had a small windowless study that could be locked and was electronically separated from the rest of the home and was acoustically opaque. She was used to her husband bringing home sensitive data that needed to be reviewed even in an officer's down-time.
Other officers might be able to 'take off their cap' and relax while at home, but the leader of the Light Horse was always on duty.
There, in silence and darkness apart from the light coming out of the holovision monitor, Nathan Armstrong pressed his finger into the thumb recess of the holocatridge. A wide range of miniaturized sensors and circuitry used noninvasive methods to verify his identity and activated the gene-locked device.
He inserted the cartridge and waited for it to boot up. The Robotnik logo shifted into the gaunt but still grinning Dr. Robotnik.
"Access granted, Nathan Armstrong, general of the Eridani Light Horse," the hologram clapped. "You have questions, I will answer them. A dead man has no use for secrets. Don't be shy now."
"Robotnik, keyword Hanse Davion, keyword Maximilian Liao. Tell me more about OPERATION DOPPELGANGER."
"Ah. What year is it? As long as it's not 3025 it should still be fine. Recap then - in 3015, the Maskirovka abducted seven scientists from Sanilac, a world in the Federated Suns…"
Nathan Armstrong grimly listened to a story that was almost unbelievable. But surgical and behavioral alteration was not entirely lostech. This was an ambitious plan, but if it succeeded then much as Maximillian Liao caused the Free Worlds League to erupt into civil war with minimal investment, then this would collapse their most hated ancestral enemy, the Federated Suns.
The Capellan Confederation could never defeat the Federated Suns militarily, economically, or even demographically. House Liao always lived in brooding resentment that if House Davion was not constantly distracted by House Kurita's many many aggressive and atrocity-filled invasions, the Capellan Confederation could easily be losing even more worlds to the Fed Suns.
Replacing Hanse Davion with a doppelganger would do more than simple asassination. After all, Ian Davion was suppposed to be the First Prince, and when he died in battle Hanse Davion needed to take the helm. The Federated Suns' democratic institutions apart from the heriditary nature of its rulership, always tended towards smooth transition of power. The time of leaderless chaos would be minimal.
This was implausible... but not impossible.
"As long as it's not 3025, you can be confident you're still speaking to the real Hanse Davion," Dr. Robotnik finished.
"How do you know all this?" he asked the recording, not really expecting a dead man to respond.
"SIGINT is nothing to me, all that is electronic is mine to command," replied the holo. "I have sources of information beyond the usual intelligence agencies. I am Doctor ROBOTNIK, and I am more than just some up-jumped treasure hunter! My doctorate is certainly NOT in archeology! Find my cache. Take what you need. Break the rules, break the status quo! I give you all the tools you need to create your future!
"Solve all your problems with Urbanmechs until your only remaining problem is Urbanmech!"
And the holo shifted to display a slowly spinning Mech. An Urbanmech.
UM-HPG.
Urbie-Ground Mobile HPG.
Nathan Armstrong's little hairs broke out in hives. The room felt chillingly cold all of a sudden.
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