And here's the second-to-last of the content I've prewritten on the tech thread - it's been expanded a bit thanks to some input from Follower38, so there's some small value in a reread for those who have already taken a look at it.
"Do you really think the SLDF became a cargo cult?" Markham asked curiously as they sat in the lounge, resting after the flurry of discussion and rapid planning that had followed the revelation.
Apparently, an 'Outpost Castle' was one of the SLDF's major regional outposts – not a full 'Castle Brian', the huge defensive fortifications that they used to act as unstoppable roadblocks in the face of a blitzkrieg. Even if the rest of the planet fell, the castle would stand, forcing the enemy to expend resources engaging them for fear of a threat from behind. And it would be an undeniable threat, with two full brigades poised to storm out if left unchecked.
Malmsteen had to admit – hearing them more fully from the locals, he had to concede that the Hegemony had done some impressive things with their limited technology, making up for a lack of sophistication with pure brute force in some ways. Diverting entire oceans and constructing Castles on the seabed, then reflooding the entire area…
Well, the Star League certainly didn't care about environmental impacts to say the least. To be honest, if it was standard procedure to just murder all the architects after each one he wouldn't have been surprised in the slightest.
An Outpost Castle wasn't quite as extensive a fortification, but they still generally held an entire SLDF brigade's worth of equipment, to act as strong-points, staging grounds and resupply depots for their forces in the area against pirates or an unruly and rebellious populace.
The discovery of one had instantly sent the locals into a frenzy of planning and discussion to try and figure out how best to exploit this massive prize they had found.
It might have already been looted. It might not have been. But even if empty just the rumor alone could spark an entire war – forget the Taurian Concordat dispensing with diplomacy to just take the system of Artru themselves, this was the kind of thing that could get the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere involved.
This couldn't be bungled – and the foremost concerns were diplomatic. Guns and violence would be of no use in this field, so they had left to wait in a guest room while Espinosa and Arano furiously debated and discussed how to best handle this hot potato before it exploded in their faces.
Now they were here, eating fancy snack food and making small talk.
"Honestly? I doubt it – I mean, weapons are to be valued but I can't imagine them devolving far enough to worship BattleMechs." Malmsteen opined.
"So what do you believe happened? You have read on the Exodus and its background, I assume?" Raju asked curiously.
"Well, that's a bit of an involved question – but first and foremost, anyone who thinks that the SLDF founded some peaceful utopia is delusional." Malmsteen said simply. "A huge part of that population were soldiers – soldiers who had known nothing but war for over a decade, and quite brutal and intense war at that, involving enough war crimes even I'm rather appalled at the idea. Those men wouldn't integrate into civilian life so easily."
"And furthermore, a large number of personnel, both military and civilian, came from the Great Houses, not the Hegemony – and the people closest to humanity's home seem to have an excellent ability to hold onto grudges for centuries no matter how far removed they are from it. Without a common threat, those grudges would raise their heads again." Malmsteen continued. "I expect wherever they settled down, they soon split into factions based on the Five Great Houses again and began to squabble and fight – the Inner Sphere in miniature, only with the SLDF's vast arsenal attached to a far smaller population."
"You do think they survived though." Markham noted.
"Oh, yes – Kerensky wasn't an idiot, and I doubt he'd condemn every single one of his followers to a slow death in the black." Malmsteen confirmed. "If things became truly untenable, truly dire, I imagine he'd have turned his ships around and come back."
"So, the Inner Sphere in miniature then. Quite cynical – most who believe they survived choose to believe that they founded a golden utopia." Markham mused as he chowed down on some of Lord Arano's hospitality.
"That's because people have been stuck in a downward spiral for over a hundred years and grasp at whatever hope they can." Malmsteen said flatly. "Still, that's just the most likely possibility – another one, and not a mutually exclusive one is a cult of personality."
When the two men looked at him, he shrugged. "A population loyal enough to uproot themselves from everything they knew, all other social contacts they had, their homes, their very roots, and follow one man out into uncharted space? Even if Kerensky himself never approved of it, a generation or two down the line? I wouldn't be surprised if a personality cult sprung up around the man, maybe started by a family member or one of his officers where he was literally worshiped, people drawing legitimacy from how close they were to him."
"That… hm." Raju frowned. "That is a discomforting thought, but… I see the logic there."
"Mm." A pause. "… changing the topic… so, were the Protoss and Zerg really that scary?" Markham asked curiously.
"Oh, your people tried their hands at the Protoss simulation as well?" Malmsteen asked with a note of surprise. "How did it go?"
"Well…"
"Aaaaaaaaagh!"
"What the hell kind of guns core an Assault Mech in one shot!?"
"Oh god oh god oh god-"
"I can't get a bead on – shit Glitch it's on you!"
"Crap, crap, crap! Somebody spray me down!"
"Oh hell lance just teleported be-"
"This isn't fair! This isn't fucking fair!"
"… poorly. It went poorly." Markham said obliquely. "I think being allowed to bring an entire company of whatever BattleMech they wanted only to get wiped by like, a dozen-odd infantry and ultralights made an… impression on them. I think when you mentioned the Protoss favored elite individuals, they were expecting a Lance of super-alien tech BattleMechs, and got overconfident when they didn't see any."
"The Protoss don't have BattleMechs. As your people have seen, they don't really need them." Malmsteen drawled. "And to answer your question – yes, they are. The Zerg and the Protoss simulations made use of less than a tenth of what they can really do. The Protoss never move in such small numbers unless they're explicit infiltrators – they have the tools to move entire armies in the blink of an eye, hopping from system to system in a heartbeat. They understand concentration of force, and make up for their lesser numbers by defeating their enemies in detail."
"Of course, looking at what they can do…" Raju rumbled.
"Yes, often times they don't need tactics or strategy. They can simply brute force their way through things – for even the outdated Protoss forces I faced, a Castle Brian could have been pulled open like a rotted old melon by a task force." Malmsteen groused.
"If they're so powerful, how did the Zerg overwhelm them?" Markham asked.
"Numbers, and the ablity to recover from losses. If a thousand Zerg organisms die to lay low a single Protoss warrior, that's honestly a fantastically good trade for the Zerg. They can replace those thousand lost bioforms significantly more easily than the Protoss could replace that single warrior." Malmsteen said frankly. "And the Zerg aren't exactly weak either – they're most famous for throwing huge hordes at people, but they're perfectly capable of being sneaky fuckers and using actual tactics, or deploying stronger and more varied assets. I couldn't justify it in the drone simulation, but the Zerg would be fully capable of simply strafing your people with a few hundred flyers, or luring them into an ambush scenario rather than beating their heads against the wall – burrow down deep, perform a feigned retreat, pop up in an instant surround and gut them. Don't even leave holes in the ground you can see afterwards – a good scan will catch out ambushers, but if they want they can dig down so far that even concentrated orbital bombardment won't root them out. Doesn't matter if you've turned the entire surface into glass and boiled the oceans away – they'll still be down there, miles underground."
"Fucking hell."
"It's little wonder, then, that Haven calls itself a nation of refugees." Raju grunted.
"And it's no wonder the kind of training you've been demanding of our people." Markham agreed.
"Yes. We have no expectation that either side would ever wander over here – again, nothing of interest – but if they somehow do, better to have an understanding of what you're up against than be completely in the dark. The only reason I dialed the simulations so far back was because if all the trainees die in the first thirty seconds, you don't have much time to learn anything." Malmsteen dismissed blithely.
He paused. "And besides, if they're training to face enemies who are faster than them, more accurate than them and have guns that can kill them in seconds if they land even a bare handful of shots, then anything else is going to be a cakewalk by comparison." He said lightly.
"Mm. The harder the training, the better they'll fare in real combat." Raju agreed. "And given that none of our personnel are untested novices, the fact even they're being stressed to this degree by your training and the simulations speaks to its efficacy."
"I know my work." Malmsteen said with dignity. Hm. Maybe we should set up sim-pods for infantry as well. We already shell them in training, but it'd be good for them to get a first-hand view of getting torn apart in melee as well.
Still, harder to translate that sort of experience into local battlefields, so probably not a huge priority.
"I'm not fond of this." Santiago grumbled in annoyance as he sat by the desk, mulling over their recent discussions with both Haven-Dumassas and the Taurian Concordat over a glass of wine.
"I'd have thought you, of all people, would understand the necessity of this course of action." Tamati noted with a raised eyebrow.
"I understand the necessity perfectly well – that doesn't mean that I have to like it." The man grumbled. "An Outpost Castle… and we have to give so much of it away… and if it's empty, then we'll have just wasted the Taurian's time, which will hardly make them happy."
"The Calderons aren't that unreasonable, nor do they put on those kinds of airs – if it's empty, then they'll understand and leave the matter be." Tamati reminded him. "And advanced technology didn't save the Star League – it wouldn't save us either. A Star League brigade isn't an insurmountable level of force that can't be overcome, and the Taurians would be far unhappier of being denied a Castle. Especially one so close to their borders."
"Much more effective to give them some of the rewards and secure our borders with them." Tamati summed up prosaically. "It'll free up any patrols we have in the region, and settle the matter with the disputed worlds at that."
Santiago sighed, but didn't argue – to be honest it was just grousing anyway. He knew that Tamati had the right of it – even if there was an entire Star League Royal Brigade in that Outpost Castle, alongside ammunition and spare parts, if the Taurians or – god forbid, the Capellans – decided to attack them to prevent them from gaining too much strength, or to take their newfound bounty, or as retaliation for being cut out of a lucrative deal, then the Reach didn't have the strength to resist them.
Landbound assets were all well and good, but the Reach's military was lacking everywhere, not just BattleMechs – naval assets were too limited to effectively defend themselves as well, with too few jumpships for peacetime let alone war.
"… well, regardless, it's done now – we can't exactly contact Chaplin and inform her that we've changed our minds and we don't want to share what we've found." Tamati said prosaically, earning a snort from Santiago.
"That would throw any diplomat for a loop." The man agreed. "… hm. Well, the real winners are most likely going to be Haven-Dumassas, anyway – though we'll most likely share in that victory given a few years." He mused.
"Most likely." Tamati agreed.
The meeting had been a rather hectic one, as not only did they have to contact the Concordat to hash out the details but thanks to Malmsteen's presence and his aid thus far, they also had to contact Haven-Dumassas as well to ensure they were given their fair share of tangible credit.
After all, even if he doubted that Governor Hanson or Commander Raynor would particularly hold it against them, it wouldn't do to snub those who had been giving the Coalition so much assistance.
Of course it was hardly a great sacrifice – between the Aurigans, the Taurians, and the Terrans, the last group had by far the greatest ability to reverse-engineer the secrets of the Star League, and would be most incentivized to share those secrets with the Taurians at the very least. So granting them the right to pick their choice of salvage first, up to a tenth of the contents of the Castle, would grant greater dividends down the line than trying to hoard it all for themselves.
The remaining nine-tenths… well, that was going to be a matter of some discussion to nail down the details, but they were looking at a five-four split in favor of the Concordat along with Artru remaining in Aurigan hands, unless there was something truly bizarre about the place or its contents that forced a reassessment of its value. It rankled, but to be frank even two-fifths of the contents of that place would bolster the Coalition's military might to new heights – while unable to stand up against the Capellans, at the very least it would go a long way towards hardening them against pirate attacks.
And besides, with the gifts the new reinforcements from Haven had brought, the Aurigan Reach could soon become a quite prosperous nation in its own right - and one capable of defending itself too. That took quite a lot of the sting out of having to give away so much of the bounty that would be witin Castle Nautilus.
In the immediate chaos of their arrival those four innocuous cores had gone forgotten, but the day after their arrival Malmsteen had brought forth four 'data cores' that Haven was selling to those who had the money... and, in their case, was gifting without any obligation of repayment.
They could hardly believe it when Malmsteen had described what they were - automated databanks with integrated teaching aides to further accelerate the spread of the knowledge they had? Knowledge which included knowledge on almost everything a colony would need to not only survive, but thrive? Knowledge of how to construct water purifiers better than anything the Star League had, the foundations of biochemistry to design and manufacture their own local medicines, how to build more efficient and effective mining equipment, agricultural tools, roads, and so much more?
Even Malmsteen's efforts up to this date had been asking for things in return - not much, yes, favors to be given in the future, favorable contract terms, but the Coalition was still getting the better end of the deal - but it had been an exchange of things on both sides. Not an out-and-out gift.
When they asked why, Malmsteen had been direct.
'The Aurigan Coalition is a fair distance away from Dumassas. Left on your own, you would probably never have gotten these cores - or at least, not in any reasonable time frame. And their price point would have strained your economy greatly. So my commanders decided to bring the cores to you.'
They had asked why they had given them the cores at all then, and the reply had actually forced Santiago to take a seat to process the statement.
'Because Haven-Dumassas wants to start a renaissance, a period of regrowth in the Inner Sphere after the slaughter of the Succession Wars. When science, education and technology stop regressing, and start progressing. They want to put an end to the colonies that slowly wither and die because of the Star League's policies - they want to put an end to Lostech. Giving you all this serves their aims.'
Malmsteen had had four to give. House Arano and House Espinosa had received them immediately, and were already seeing how they worked, what they could teach, putting that knowledge to use. The other two... they were still discussing, but most likely by the end of the week, Houses Madeira and House Karosas would receive some very, very valuable gifts - of those members of the Founding Council, those two Houses had been quite loyal and broadly supportive, even if they hadn't been enough to break the various deadlocks that crippled the Coalition. That support and loyalty, would be now rewarded.
And it wasn't just the knowledge of how to improve themselves - it was the means to defend what they made as well.
The Haven-Dumassas government had, at extremely favorable terms for them - to the point the only way they could be better was if they just gave the things away - had sold them three battalions worth of what they called 'Personal Protective Suits', what they considered obsolete, basic combat armor for infantry. Obsolete and basic, which was still leagues ahead of anything they knew to be on the open market or used by House militaries. This combat armor... the Star League would have made it their new standard in a heartbeat. Even a number of suits of power armor - again, what they considered old and obsolete, and only enough suits for their officers, but still. They had received multiple suits of CMC-200 - and while the knowledge of how to actually make more power armor would be beyond them for the foreseeable future, Malmsteen had assured them that they would, once they returned from Artru, set up facilities so that PPS's could be manufactured in the Aurigan Reach via a Haven-owned corporation, selling them to the locals at bargain rates.
These visitors from the Koprulu Sector, in the short time since they'd arrived, had been a gift from the heavens to the struggling Coalition - neither man was particularly religious, but these developments were the sorts of things that got someone believing in divine providence.
"… speaking of our friends from the Koprulu sector…"
"Rather discomfiting, truth be told." Tamati pre-empted as Santiago took another drink, as they both ruminated on their luck that the visitors from Koprulu were friendly.
They had gotten used to Malmsteen's reticence on giving information, but now that Haven had contacted them more openly it hadn't been a problem after he had given them the very quick and dirty overview of the two alien races – not when they could just… go to Governor Hanson and get a briefing from her.
And while they could tell that they weren't quite getting the full story, Governor Hanson seemed quite confident that they were at little risk of, say, a feral Zerg swarm tearing through the Periphery and the Inner Sphere like a Firestarter through grassland.
Little, but not technically zero – after all, if they had made it from the Koprulu Sector, so could others.
They had asked for more details, but Governor Hanson had actually steered them towards the other human powers of the sector rather than the alien as far as potential newcomers went.
Not because they were necessarily more dangerous, but because the fact was… if either the Zerg or the Protoss arrived in even moderate force, then there would be precious little anybody but the Terrans could do about it. They would do what they wished and there would be almost nothing even the Great Houses could do to stop them. Even a minor Protoss expeditionary fleet could lay waste to all five Great Houses with impunity.
From what Governor Hanson said, the only event in which they would have any actual agency would be if a Terran faction were to follow them somehow, and had given them an overview of things to that end.
It seemed that the Terrans broadly fell into four political camps – the first, the 'independents', would be what the Raiders would fall under. Also pirates, minor colonists, and the like – those not actually under a unified banner or properly affiliated with one of the other three. Not a real concern compared to the other three.
The first, and the least disruptive, would be the Umojans – friendly, an actual functioning intestellar democracy rather than the weird mish-mash of aristocracy and decentralized power systems that could be found elsewhere in the Periphery of the Sphere, and devoted primarily towards defending themselves rather than imposing their will on others, if they arrived then there wouldn't be any real problems that they could foresee.
They would be powerful enough that they would be more or less secure here, especially given that Hanson had admitted quite frankly that the Raiders had a small but functioning fleet of warships, which would mean they wouldn't feel the need to engage in more… proactive, defensive measures.
If they arrived, then the first thing anyone with any sense would be doing – so, not the Capellans, the Kuritans, and probably not the Free Worlds League or the Outworld's Alliance – would be trying to make friendly overtures to them before setting up trade agreements and other diplomatic pacts. Of which non-aggression treaties would most likely feature prominently.
If it were the Kel-Morians, well… from how Hanson had described them, they appeared to be a rather ruthless group of businessmen all told. It wouldn't be cheap, but they could most likely get some advanced technologies from them – but the risk would be in predatory long-term business agreements that they could get entrapped by.
But that was minor as far as threats went, when compared to the Dominion. Formerly the Confederacy, the way Hanson had described it was like the Camerons being supplanted by the Amaris family – a change in leadership and a number of institutional systems, but many of the core policies and ethics remaining the same. A ruthless dictatorship that had no issues with censoring and oppressing its own people, forcing them into labor camps or conscripting them into its armed forces when it wasn't abandoning them at the drop of a hat. Or even worse potential abuses of power, hidden by a monopoly on the media that revealed just enough to give the appearance of legitimacy.
Thank god Comstar exists as a neutral 3rd-party to spread news throughout the Sphere… it's entirely possible that they have their own games, admittedly, but I can't imagine that they'd be worse than the other Great Houses for managing the news network. Tamati mused. What sort of games could Comstar even play? It's not like they're really in the competition for the Throne of the Star League.
But setting the matter of Comstar aside… if the Dominion were to follow, then they both shuddered to think how bad it could get. From what Hanson had said, the Dominion would have no compunctions forcing the powers of the Inner Sphere to submit to them – either as vassals, or conquering them outright. And with a fully functional fleet of warships and the industrial base to rapidly make more if need be, along with pressing manpower concerns back home…
They could both imagine the Dominion forcing the Sphere and Periphery alike to kneel before it under threat of orbital bombardment, drafting huge swathes of their populations and forcing them to far-off battlefields, using the power of their fleets to ensure compliance and acceptance back home.
No, if the Dominion came then the Coalition would have to submit, hopefully as a protectorate of sorts under its rule – giving them vast amounts of whatever resources they could provide to buy their protection and any scraps of independence they could retain.
The chances were low, but they were never zero.
Of course that was all a hypothetical – right now, they had to hope and pray that this deal with the Taurians and Haven went through without any real problems. There would doubtless be hiccups here and there, but hopefully they would find a stocked Outpost Castle, plunder it, and everyone could go home happy.
Secrecy was of the utmost importance, but hopefully the Taurian Ministry of Intelligence could keep this under wraps. Elena Marisol-Chaplin was a personal attache to the Calderons themselves after all, and they could send orders directly from there – it was hardly as if this news would be traveling up and down some vast bureaucratic chain.
Within the Celestial Palace on Sian, the second daughter of the True First Lord of the Star League, Maximillian Liao, was silent as she read the report – having been delivered directly to her through priority channels by a distant cousin of hers, Marina Liao, a member of a branch family from the main Liao line. One of their more able ones, set to manage their operations in the Rimward Periphery.
The Capellan Confederation was the smallest of the Great Houses thanks to Davion perfidy, but that had forced them to adapt and grow clever in turn – using intelligence and wisdom as dangerous weapons in their own right. Their spies reached out all over the Inner Sphere, allowing them to see what their enemies saw, hear what their enemies heard – to the Confederation the Kuritan ISF, the Davion's MIIO and DMI, the Steiner's LIC… they were all simply branches of Maskirovka that didn't know it.
And of course, amongst their patsies was the Taurian Ministry of Intelligence – she had to wonder why those Periphery barbarians even bothered with having an intelligence agency, it was hardly as if it was any good. Their security might as well have been made of cheesecloth.
And what their agents there had found, and what Marina had informed her of, was… shocking, indeed.
A hitherto-undiscovered Outpost Castle? If their agents in the region had let knowledge of this prize slip through their fingers then she would have spared her father the trouble and ordered them all shot herself.
The benefits such a thing could provide to the Confederation couldn't be understated – a full Star League Brigade of pristine Lostech BattleMechs… that was the kind of force that could potentially be used to threaten an entire March of the Federated Suns. And that was just the BattleMechs – if it had a Star League Memory Core, then perhaps the Confederation would be the first to truly reverse the trend of Lostech that had been dragging the Inner Sphere down.
The world it was situated on was apparently already occuupied, but not really – the only power there was some Periphery group, the 'Aurigan Coalition' desperately surviving on the fringes of Capellan space. They would provide no resistance whatsoever – now that they had become a prize worth taking, the Confederation would swallow them whole.
True, there had been reports that the Aurigans were in talks with Dumassas – who had even sent a commander of theirs under the guise of a mercenary company to sound them out before making a more formal introduction, but they were not there in force. They would be little issue against the CCAF, or those who fought under the Liao banner.
And of course, there was the location as well – bordering the Taurians, the Castle itself was apparently right on their doorstep.
This… was an immense opportunity. One that could enshrine her dominance over her rat bitch of an older sister forever.
She could see it now – claim the Coalition, provide CCAF support to those who wished to have a change in leadership and turn it into a vassal state of the Confederation, Capellan in all but name. With the Outpost Castle's location, the brigade's worth of material inside could be granted to one of the Warrior Houses, who could in turn immediately turn its guns against the Taurians, using the Castle as a regional stronghold. The Taurians, with so many troops along the Federated Suns border, would be totally unprepared for this invasion – and with Taurus so close to Aurigan space, to Artru, they could claim the most valuable worlds of that upstart Periphery 'state' with ease.
And from there, they could pressure the Federated Suns into retreat – catching their forces along the Rimward Liao-Davion border on two sides, pressuring them into retreat, and securing themselves as they took more Taurian territory in turn, using one to fuel the other.
In this single masterstroke she would be responsible for nearly doubling the size of the Confederation, claiming many valuable worlds at that rather than fringe agricultural territories, and delivering unto them a king's ransom in Lostech. And they could even gain intel on what those from Dumassas had to offer as well, given the presence of their forces in the region.
She would go down in history as one of the greatest Liao's to ever live – her sister, Candace, would be a footnote compared to her. Whether in the history books, or in the eyes of their father.
But to do this, she had to do this properly – the CCAF and the Warrior Houses couldn't just storm the Coalition. Well, they could, but to do so would leave them vulnerable to the Davions.
The wise path instead would be to have others fight for them – some troops would have to be devoted of course, but she had little doubt they could find those in Aurigan space willing to support the Confederation. And if they wished to prove their loyalty, then they could fight for them – the Confederation would supply the weapons, they could supply the warriors. They most likely wouldn't even need to devote that many BattleMechs to it, a company at most to shore up their catspaws – infantry and vehicles would be plenty beyond that.
She turned away from the report as she began drafting orders. There would be no need to trouble her father with this – the Coalition would provide no threat. Once she had claimed it and the bounty it had stumbled upon, then she would present both on a silver platter to him – she would have his favor forevermore from that point on.