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On December 4, 3035 Kamea Arano gave birth to two twins, Paul and Peter Arano-Bassot. A special  holiday was decreeted in all the Reach.

The delicate, and very secret  (no one trusting ComStar for its good services on these matters) negotiations between the Taurian Concordat and the Aurigan Reach, concerning the merger of both nations finally reached an agreement on March 12, 3036.
At first Kamea had little interest in negotiating anything but the fact that she had absorbed two independent systems making her realm an enemy of the Capellan Confederation, the fate of Andurien, who had just been reabsorbed into the League, the Magistracy, which without Thomas’s help, would have been invaded by the Capellan Confederation and even the fate of this later, which after suffering defeat at the hands of the Federated Suns, had been attacked from all sides, had changed her way of thinking. Even if she didn’t forget that she had been 'forced' into this war by Thomas Calderon, she tried to stay objective and realistic. To be honest, we also had long discussions on this matter and reality was that our nation was too poor and weak to have a great future alone, if any. So, reluctantly at first, she agreed to come to the negotiation table to discuss what was in the end, the integration  of the Reach into a richer and more powerful realm.
Surprisingly, the conditions negotiated with Thomas were quite generous, both in terms of autonomy and in financial terms. Without the guts to surrender the independence of the nation the fought so hard to take control of, she managed to  delay the absorption to the next generation. After all, the myriad of small but vital details was going to take some time to be dealt with. When the next generation would come to power, the Aurigan Reach would become a province, albeit with great autonomy, of the Taurian Concordat, governed in perpetuity by the Arano-Bassot family. In return, the Concordat committed itself to invest heavily in the Reach infrastructure  starting today.  It was obviously not a relationship of equals like the integration of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth as in this case the Aurigan Reach was clearly the secondary member, with everything it implied.
Part of the agreements was that the facilities in Mechdur would be upgraded to become the third - fourth counting the “secret” base of the Concordat Navy in Bolthole (a system that did not exist in the official charts, although it was already known to some nations, Liao for example, and Comstar)- shipyard with the capacity to build JumpShips in the Taurian Concordat. The military-industrial complex in Detroit would also receive the necessary means and funds to be able to build 'Mechs, even if the forecast was not before 3045 for Mechdur and 3042 for Detroit. While these investments were very big and almost impossible to do if undertaken by the Reach alone, with the help of the Concordat and the time we had, it would be manageable.

Why was the Concordat so interested in the fusion with the Aurigan Reach is a question that was often asked when the news broke out. The industrial output of the New Vandenberg system alone, granted one of the richest systems in the Concordat, was superior to all the production of the Reach combined. Also the only dockyard in Mechdur needed considerable investments from the Taurian to be converted to a shipyard and the limited military complexes in Mechdur and Detroit also needed considerable investments to be useful for the TDF.
But, few people are more nationalist and prideful than the citizens of the Taurian Concordat.and since  more than half of the systems of the Reach were ex-Taurian colonies, recovering them peacefully was a mater of national pride for the Concordat when the opportunity presented itself.



In the Magistracy of Canopus, the situation was worse  as the end of the war with House Liao had left the armed forces exhausted, the coffers empty, with only one system captured and with a great debt to the Concordat. But, with both the Capellan Confederacy and the Free Worlds League as a not friendly neighbors, it was necessary to rebuild the MAF one way or another. With many people in positions of power unhappy, it was without great surprise that on the 7th of July 3036 a coup put Emma Centrella in power, dethroning her mother.
Apparently, Kyalla jealous of the crescent popularity of her daughter, lauded as a hero of the Magistracy, while she was being accused of disastrous decisions, tried to frame Emma for an espionage conspiracy, only to discover that even her personal guard preferred Emma to her.
By this time Andurien had been completely reabsorbed into the Free Worlds League.

Meanwhile the Fighters development went well with several projects going forward.
The first prototype of the HDK (Hell Duck Heavy ASF) flew on October 21st, 3036. With 90 tons, 16.5 tons of Ferrous-aluminum armor, 270XL engine, 20 Freezers, 1 ER PPC on the nose, 1 ER Large Laser and 1 LBX-10 A/C with two tons of ammo on each wing and 2 Medium Lasers facing the rear, it was a killing machine. A Guardian ECM and a Beagle Active Probe completed the equipment. Besides the usual hardpoints for bombs and rocket pods, it also had two internal bays with capacity to carry 4x Arrow IV AAM. In the CAS configuration, these were replaced by 4x 'normal' guided Arrow IV, if there was a unit equipped with TAG in the area, or non-guided if none was available. The immense concentration of advanced technology had greatly delayed the development of the ASF, and the cost was 14.350 million of C-Bills. But simulations against other Fighters in interception or ground support missions showed that it was money well-spent , being the most capable Figher in service in the Concordat by a large margin.
The Hell Duck, although more capable than any other Fighter was a bit a Big Toy and because of his price and high technology he was  only produced in small numbers – at least until the Clan Invasion – and only delivered to units loyal and with excellent technician support., more specifically, the Taurian Guards, the Revenants and the Wolf Dragoons.
At the opposite range of the Aerospace Fighter range, the Canopian model that VMI had obtained license to produce, the Dragonfly, was produced in great numbers and was an instant sales winner. For the cash strapped customers, like the MAF for a time, the MM1 was a decent Ligh Aerospace Fighter with an all energy weaponry  and for the ones that could pay extra, the MM2 was an excellent choice. For those with more money, the VMI top model was the Dragonfly MM3, an in-house upgrade, unlike the MM1 and the MM2 that were Canopian designs. With an upgrade to a 160XL Engine, the addition of an extra Freezer and improved electronics, providing the already good MM2 with improved performance in combat and better heat management.

For Kamea's 39th birthday (January 2nd, 3038), I offered her the first Warhammer WHM-7A produced in New Vandenberg. Typically of her, she comment that 'only you would think of offering a war machine to a woman on her birthday'. Not that it would stop her from spending endless hours practising until she mastered it, or later thanking me conveniently between sheets. My demanding wife, for you.

The investment of time and resources in Niops finally paid off, when the infiltration team returned with a series of datacores.
Locating the database of the technocrats who ruled the system had been difficult, as it was in the deepest levels of the citadel that was simultaneously the local government palace. Curiously, it was not protected or watched over, it was just difficult to discover and they had concluded their mission without being detected.
Contrary to what I expected, it contained no military information, much less anything about Nighthawks PA(L). It had, however, an immense amount of films, music, songs  and documentaries, as well as an enormous amount of scientific texts and the formulas of almost all the vaccines developed until the time of the creation of Niops in 2700, as well as numerous plans of civilian equipment. Much of which was not included in the Helm or New Dallas datacores.
The media part - films, music and documentaries - was given to a company to be distributed in the  Inner Sphere and other kingdoms of the Periphery, which were more than eager to pay for the whole and still make some profit out of it.
The rest was used to improve the conditions in the Aurigan Reach, and delivered at an advantageous price to the Taurian Concordat. For the first time, the Reach was in a position to provide knowledge which did wonders for Kamea's ego as well as to the nation coffers.

Although my plans to obtain the Nighthawks were a complete failure, the Jack's were going into initial limited production.
At 800kg, and able to withstand the fire of all light (infantry) weapons, machine guns, flamethrowers and small lasers, they were a great improvement over normal infantry armor. With much luck and if the angle was correct, they could perhaps survive a medium laser shot. Not in the same class has Clan Battle-armor, obviously.
Having two fully articulated and powered hands, they could only use weapons specifically designed for them. All attempts to use normal infantry weaponry had failed. The current version, the Jack JK-1A, had a pulse laser in the right arm based on the one used on the Mauser 960, but connected to the armor main batteries which allowed it to do much more standard shooting. Weapons created for its use included: HMG, flamethrower, sniper/anti-materiel heavy rifle, disposable one-shot SRM-2 (normal or Infernos), a semi-portable PPC and a hatchet, unlike the Kurita and their fascination with katanas, the weapon chosen for boarding  combat had been a small (relatively) hatchet. With the strength of the pseudo-muscles of the armor behind it was a terrible weapon in small, confined spaces. To help in mobility the Jack could pack magnetic-clamps or a jet power pack capable of making jumps up to 30m. Both were extremely useful in space or against 'Mechs.
Currently, the small production was only for the use of the Taurian Guards and the Revenants, both because this prototype was still a secret and because of it being a prototype, we wanted to evaluate it and come up with a version 1B after limitations and problems were inevitably found and hopefully corrected.

One of the Concordat's problems was that they did not produce a specialized DropShips to transport troops or vehicles. Instead of starting the production of the Triumph class, for example, a new version of the Union was chosen to solve this peculiar problem. All ’Mech space was modified to transport from heavy or light vehicles to all kinds of infantry - mechanized, normal, jump, etc.  The Union had the advantage of being a well known model in the Concordat, already in production in several systems, which would make its construction much more economical than the Triumph, although it was a much less capable DropShip for the new job. TTI and VMI that already produced other variants of the Union were also selected to produce this one. The big advantage was the use of existing facilities and spare part, since it was “just” a new variant line in the already existing ones.

Ana Maria Centrella had not done well with the change of government. For many years, one of Kyalla's trusted elements, she had lost her place in the Magestrix coup. Since she had never cultivated a relationship with Emma Centrella, she was looked on with the distrust that (almost) all the elements of the previous government suffered and she was cut from all the places of power. Recognizing that she did not have a future in Canopus, she soon traveled to Coromodir, trying her luck with Kamea. She was lucky because Kamea needed someone with experience in diplomacy and because of Ana Maria's origin and history, it was obvious that she was perfect for that. When her closest advisers objected to including Anne Marie in the Aurigan Reach diplomacy Kamea replied that if she had a husband who was a nobleman from another nation, she might as well have a foreign diplomat on her personal service.
Meanwhile the Revenants had grown. With their share of the Big MAC spoils and new production, the two first battalions received an extra full company of ’Mechs. The other battalions received upgrades in the form of extra units of infantry and / or mechanized and tank forces. Karl Stone, a retired XO of the 1st Taurian Guards, took command of the 1st Battalion while Karen Andris, The Hero of Panzir, took control of the second one.  More and more ex-Taurian Guards personnel and also people from the Aurigan forces that wanted to try a mercenary life applied for a place in the the Revenants.

"This is a nightmare, it can't be true," thought Force Leader Mo Ling. A month ago Chancellor Romano Liao had ordered the Death Commandos and House Imarra to give a harsh lesson to those Aurigan Reach barbarians who had once again dared to invade the sacred kingdom of the Capellan Confederation.
Commandeering the use of various civilian JumpShips, they had arrived at the capital of Aurigan Reach much earlier than was possible for the mercenaries who were at this time still in the middle of the Confederation.
And then everything started to go wrong. An until now unknown orbital station that was in geostationary position over Cordia City, the capital and target of this raid, had destroyed the two Overlords that transported not only the main bulk of the forces but also the command structure of both units, before the escort Fighters could destroy it.
The Death Commandos had continued with their original plan and dropped over the enemy palace. That was hours ago and after initial warnings of heavy turrets and enemy ’Mechs, no more transmissions came from then.
Now, Mo Ling was leading what was left of House Imarra forces, in the middle of the inferno that was Cordia City.
It was evident that the opposing force did not play in the same league as the Death Commandos or the Imarra warriors, but they did not lack courage. Countless times SRM Carriers or even infantry had poured Infernos salvos on Liao force, while more distant LRM Carriers kept harassing them, and while they caused tremendous casualties to the defenders, as they advanced towards the palace  which was the main objective, they also suffered serious losses. Mo Ling already thought at that time that no one would survive to return to Sian.
Jasmine’s Withworth had been lost to an enemy SRM Carrier, Patrick’s Phoenix Hawk had been destroyed by a Kintaro, that Ling executed too late, and countless others had fallen in this trice damned city. The infantry had not survived as not only the enemy had more infantry to oppose then, but they had also several IFVs and APCs and even some strange armored units, too big to be infantry, too small to be ’Mechs, that had managed to kill many of is compatriots with almost impunity. Li had hit one but for his amazement, the strange unit had survived his small laser fire and ran away before Li could change to more heavy weapons.
Now, finally arriving  at an avenue that led to the front of the fortress, Ling faced the last two defenders, a huge ’Mech that looked like a Marauder on steroids and that his computer claimed to be a Nightstar and a Warhammer similar to his own, among several wrecked ’Mechs in the Death Commandos colors, and many more in the Royal Guard ones. A bit afar, the destroyed parts of several turrets could be seen on the walls of the palace. As soon as Mo Ling’s survivors resumed the advance and long before they were in range, the enemy ’Mechs fired. Like the ’Mechs of the mercenaries who were deep in the Confederacy, these two had long-range weapons and firing at the same time as Ling’s unit, the enemy Warhammer had destroyed one of his teammates, by placing two ER PPC shots in the Vindicator, one destroying the left torso and the other penetrating the center of Zhang Kang's ’Mech and finishing it off with this single salvo. Ling had a chill in the spine, it's true the Vindicator had suffered damage in battle, but the Warhammer shouldn't have been able to do such damage with a single salvo. The returning fire from the Vindicator had destroyed the SRM-6 launcher of the enemy Warhammer and Ling fired at almost the same time, hitting the center torso and right leg of the Nightstar, but the armor of the ‘Mech was not penetrated, which could cause problems later on (if there was a later) as it was obviously not left behind in terms of letality and although obviously struck several times, with several marks on its thick armor, the left arm ripped off and a pronounced limp, it had lost several of his weapons, the ‘MechWarrior who piloted him was a superior warrior, no doubt like the one driving the Warhammer, they have survived against the Death Commandos after all. If the Mask was right, Mo Ling would have laughed at that good joke if he had the time to do it, they were the regents of this savage Periphery nation, and the principal targets of this cursed operation.  With a salvo of a Gauss Rifle and an ERPPC, the Nightstar destroyed the other survivor of Mo Ling's lance, a Raven, leaving only Mo Ling to face both opponents with his Warhammer 6L. Accelerating his ‘Mech to full speed, Ling managed to get within range of all of his weapons before his opponents could fire again, placing two ER PPC shots on the enemy Nightstar, time destroying its left leg and sending the big brute to the ground with a crashing sound that could be heard even inside is cockpit. At almost the same time his ’Mech shook violently, as the Nightstar returned shots, destroying the right side of his Warhammer. Shifting focus to the enemy Warhammer, in the colors of the Arano Royal Guard, Li moved just in time to evade the fire of his adversary, and fired all his surviving weapons, but the ER PPC missed. Another pilot could panic after being hit by flamers, but not this one. The enemy Warhammer rotated calmly to stay centered on Mo Ling’s ‘Mech and let go with all its weapons, totally unaffected by the heat.
And  this is when Mo Ling found himself in the air, the self-ejection having saved him from the destruction of his ’Mech.
Soon after, the Liao DropShips took off, except one Triumph that had been damaged by artillery and , scuttled by its crew before they were captured. With no forces to oppose then in space, the DropShips re-united with the JumpShips and some time later departed the system.
For the records the Aurigans tried, they really tried, but without powerful enough thugs, and very short time, the best they could do was to redirect the free falling Overlords to almost uninhabited areas of the planet: one crashed in one of the oceans and the other in a rural area, causing a few unfortunate deaths.
The victory cost dearly to the Reach. When the shots ended, the Royal Guard had been gutted with only the ’Mechs of Jean-Luc and Kamea were still operational, and to say so of the Nightstar was feeling . And the infantry units were also almost completely destroyed as well as whole areas of Cordia City.
It was a very close call. Jean-Luc and Kamea only survived because many of the Royal Guards interposed their ‘Mechs between the rulers and the Death Commandos. The Jacks proved to by lethal against even elite infantry, but also demonstrated they were not yet ready to go against ’Mechs. Of the twelve Jean-Luc had in Cordia City, only three survived.

In March 3041 I was called to Taurus for a meeting. It had to be for urgent reasons, as a Command Circuit was provided.
Among the presents with Thomas and Edward were also several ministers, including the head of the Exchequer and the ones responsible for the TMI and TDF. This meant serious business.
‘A week ago, the Federated Commonwealth announced the existence of a network of HPGs connecting not only New Avalon to Tarkad, but also to all the March and District capitals. At the same time they presented several WarShips more precisely one Davion Block II Destroyer and two Mako Corvettes'. Started Jennifer Lalande, a middle age brunette, Minister of Interior and head of the TMI.
Looking at the data provided, I gave my own conclusions without being requested to but since I was the local expert, I knew it didn’t matter ‘Probably, old ships recovered, not new production. In terms of firepower, we still have an advantage. Do we know the reasons for such announcement?’
‘Officially, no' replied Edward 'but it seems that ComStar found out about the existence of the network and its size and called all the main Precentors to Hilton Head for consultations just before it was made.’
'In response ,the Combine stated that the DCA had reactivated several Narukami class Destroyers, numbers unknown. So we have an imminent communications crisis and several states introducing WarShips' concluded Thomas.
‘I wouldn't put much trust in the news from the Combine, the information that I have is that it would be almost impossible to make the Narukamis operational’ was my response after digesting the news. 'On the other hand, I don't think ComStar reaction to the public announcement of a competing HPG network is going to be pleasant.’
‘Ummmm, I don't know, in the case of our Vincent, a lot of people also thought it wouldn't be possible to make it operational and there it is' countered Edward 'It remains to be seen how many more WarShips thought to be irrecoverable are out there and in which hands. I think it's only a matter of time before we see new constructions, don't you think Jean-Luc?'.
'Well, you and your father here have access to more information than I do, but from what I know of Bolthole, it's harder than it looks to build a new WarShip, and repairing one depends on the state of the ship and the available resources' was my answer. ‘By the way, if I may ask, how's our naval program doing?’
This time it was Richard Muller, the head of TDF, who replied 'The design of the new upgraded Concordat class is finished, but not all the needed production units are operational. The best estimates put the start of the construction of the first one around 3045, if more delays don’t appear. It has been a bottomless pit in our budget, but as we have seen, with other nations suddenly showing WarShips again, the project is more than justified and since we only retrofitted and improved an existing design it is still cheaper than building everything from the ground up.'

'Just out of curiosity, and to help our budget, do we plan to sell HPG technology to the Combine? I bet they would pay well for that,' asked Lorie Fournier, the Minister of the Exchequer, with a calculating look.
'No. Although we could undoubtedly extract a good sum of it, the risks are too great for both ComStar and the Federated Commonwealth being very upset' replied Thomas with some regret in his voice. ‘And we have another potential problem: the CCAF has been rebuilding much faster than expected. We need to move more forces to their border.’
‘Let me guess, they suddenly have several regiments of ‘Mechs, models that they never built before and all SLDF related, right?’ I asked in a calm voice.
‘How would you know that?’ asked a stunned Jennifer Lalande, ‘we only had this intel a few days ago.’
‘Just look at all the new ’Mechs ,the DCMS also showed during they recent war with the Federated Commonwealth. The information shared by the Fedcom intelligence shows that the ones they captured were produced during the Star League times and were not newly produced. Care to guess who also uses these ’Mechs and has also a force mostly composed of ex-SLDF hardware?’ I asked her back in a bored tone.
‘The ComGuards… of ComStar.’ she said after a stunned silence.’Are you saying that ComStar is providing both the Combine and the Capellans with several regiments of ‘Mechs? And for what reason?’
‘To maintain the equilibrium of forces, of course. Just out of curiosity, how big you think the ComGuards are?’  I replied.
‘Difficult to say, they deploy forces in small groups all over the Inner Sphere and Periphery, protecting their HPGs.  Starting with the forces they deployed both in the Concordat and the Reach, and with the information shared by the MIM and MIIO, and extrapolating for the other nations, I can give you a number between 25 and 50 ‘Mech regiments supplemented by several hundred of infantry and mechanized ones.’
‘So, a force stronger than the TDF by a wide margin. And about their fleet? I know about they Explorer Corps and they also have several transport JumpShips and DropShips.’
‘Again no official number. They move the ComGuards using their ships, and because the unis are moved over short periods of time, I can only assume it‘s huge, but no hard numbers. They have also bought several regiment sized orders of vehicles from the Magistracy to supplement their forces, helping greatly the economy of that nation, and showing that they have a big military budget.’ concluded Jennifer.
‘So, they are rich, have a strong ‘civilian’ navy and an army bigger than all the Periphery nations combined. The only missing info on their strength is how many WarShips they could have. From what I could gather in the different databases I looked at, they have at least the shipyard on Sol, I think it was called Titan Yards and was perhaps of military grade at least during the Star League. We need to know that. It is hard to believe they wouldn’t have any.’ was Thomas conclusion.‘With the very tense situation between the Federated Commonwealth and Comstar, I think it would be useful for us to know the respective strengths of these potential opponents, just in case. We already have a roughly understanding of the might of the AFFC, we need to know how powerful the ComGuards are. On paper at least.’

After a few seconds, Thomas looked at Edward, and after that, ordered Jennifer to do just that. And returning to Muller ’What are our preparations in case of ComStar forcing a Global Interdiction or only on us?’
‘We have already constructed the local infrastructures for the planned HPG first priority network, we only need to assemble said HPGs.  All of them are also marked to receive a ground based Naval Laser fort to help defend them, but for now any further progression is awaiting more funds and the order will only be sent if the situation further deteriorates.’ said Muller.
‘Funds approved, I don’t like the actual situation’, said Thomas, while Fournier wincing visibly. ‘Also make plans to take control of the Comstar installations and capture their personnel, if they take action against us, just in case. With the end of their monopoly in HPGs nobody knows how they are going to react, and the actual Primus is not known for taking extreme measures.’
Having ended with the Comstar contingencies, Thomas continued ‘How are the new ‘Mechs models doing? The light and medium ones you promised us to replace the not upgraded Toro and Taurus?’
‘Well, several companies have send us prototypes for evaluation, including yours Jean-Luc,’ answered Muller, ‘care to fill the details?’
‘The new Toro II is basically an improved Wolfhound, with Jump Jets. The Talos II is also an energy only ‘Mech with good protection. Both are ready for production, they just need the evaluation of the TDF and your go-ahead. With these models, all our light and medium lines are modernized and also important, the need for ammo is much reduced.’
‘And the new military DropShips?’ asked Richard Muller again.
‘Well, VMI has already started the production of both the Union CV and PW. The prototype of the Assault variant, that uses a reinforced frame, double armor and fuel and the SLDF Pentagon weapons suit is to do its maiden flight in two months. What TTI is producing or developing you need to ask them, not me.’
‘And how is the shipyard on the Reach developing?’  asked Edward.
‘We just started building the Germanium processing unit. If everything keeps on track, we can start building Invaders by 3046.’ was my conclusion.
 
‘Thank God the economy is progressing well’ said Lorie Fournier, ‘or we wouldn’t be able pay so many and so expensive military toys’.
‘Growing by leaps and bounds’ was my tought, but I refrained to say something aloud, the distaste of the Minister of the Exchequer for any defense expenditures was long known.
Looking to his datapad Muller said ‘To reduce costs and simplify the program of a new WarShip, the TDF had taken advantage of the design of the old Concordat class Frigate, retrofitting it by modernizing the secondary armament and heat sinks and exchanging 4 small crafts for Fighters. 20 of the 60 marines were supposed to use Jack battle-armor, increasing the boarding capabilities considerably.
The new Toro II is basically an improved Wolfhound, with 1 ER LL and 3 ML, Endo Steel and Ferrous Fibrous. These changes let VMI add enough Jump Jets for it to jump up to 180 meters, giving it an amazing agility. Unfortunately VMI wasn’t able to replicate the full head ejection system that TharHes Industries used, so the Toro II had to use a more traditional one. The Talos II is also an energy only ‘Mech, with 2 ER LL and 4 ML without forgetting good protection. I’m comfortable with that.’

Interrogation of the captured Adepts and consultation of the Logs, demonstrated that  the orders for the Interdiction issued on the 27th of March had the seal of the First Circuit. These orders indicated that subsequent instructions for ROM agents would follow and that the ComGuards should help ROM as much as possible. About 40 minutes later, a message sent by the Precentor Martial instead gave orders for the ComGuards to take control of the facilities, place all ROM agents in custody and resume communications. So, the supreme commander of the ComGuards was in the opposing side of the First Circuit, good to known that ComStar was suffering a kind of Civil War. No instructions for ROM could be found – there were two options, or they were not sent, which was considered doubtful, or they were destroyed immediately and the records erased.
As far as the TDF / TMI was able to find out, no communications from Earth HPG reached the Concordat after the one of the Precentor Martial.

In the Taurus HPG compound, after the technicians made sure it  that the ‘core’ HPG was operational, a replacement of the ComStar control boards and software with Concordat equivalent was tested. To the surprise of some and to everyone liking, the HPG accepted the new hardware and software and was able to send a message to Bolthole and receive one, confirming the suspicions that the HPG 'core' was the same, or at least compatible,  and that ComStar had 'just' exchanged the software and control boards. This was great news, because in most captured HPGs the core system was intact, leaving 'only' to produce the respective control boards. It would take months if not years for every HPG in the Concordat and the Reach to be operational but it would  still be a lot faster (and cheaper) than to build complete HPGs from scratch.
However, the lack of communications was causing delays and increased costs because of the need to use an unusual number of JumpShips to transmit  messages, like the Pony Express. Fortunately, since it wasn't the first time Comstar used an Interdiction, most if not all nations activated the contingency plans that existed in case they would be targeted by it, most plans resolving around a kinf of Pony Express service.
What no one had planned or anticipated was a total Interdiction. In contrast, the interrogations showed that Comstar didn’t have, or only had very basic plans to counter one or more nations taking over the HPGs. Perhaps because, until recently, they were the only ones capable of producing and understanding then enough to operate them. But, in the Concordat – and the Reach by association – and in the Federated Commonwealth, this was no longer true.
With the 'war' against Comstar 'declared' and the fact that the production of native HPGs had become a top priority, the controller board designs needed to convert the ex-Comstar HPGs to our standard HPGs and put them in operation under new management as soon as possible, effectively ending the Interdiction, were transmitted to all companies in the Concordat with the technical capability to produce them. O-P Computer Electronics and Pinard-Dicolais Electronics with the help of other companies and generous emergency government funds were planning to start limited production of the first series in early 3042. 
During April, 3041, a series of high tech companies were attacked or sabotaged by unknown forces, that everybody suspected were ROM teams, and at the same time some important or well placed people were killed around the Concordat. Well, not all the Concordat, more specifically, in worlds that had Comstar HPGs…
One of these attacks was against the V4RU department of VMI, targeting the advanced ex-Argo machinery. While in the end, thanks to the surprise and advanced technology, specially in the stealth department, they succeeding in destroying or damaging much of the present equipment, the attackers were all eliminated, thanks to the numerous defenses, that included security ’Mechs, Jacks, military grade defensive turrets and the company security team, even if our forces suffered more  casualties than had been expected.
And the mystery of the attackers deepened, when their equipment was inspected as it was an unknown type of PA(L) armor, with more than decent protection and exceptional stealth capabilities. When the results of said inspection was send to me in Coromodir, I identified it as a Tornado PA(L), used by ROM  elite strike / infiltration / assassination teams. I immediately sent orders, with the dammit delay that we had in this troubled time, to send these to the R&D teams for further and deeper analyzes and to try to replicate these advanced suits. I only had to hope that VMI research teams would be up to the task.
While they caused a lot of damage, by the end of July,  these ‘terrorists’ groups inside the Concordat were all terminated or gone in hiding.
The ComStar compounds inside the Concordat and Reach that were in the hands of the ComGuards but not operational, were soon also captured by TDF forces. In a few, the ComGuards presented little resistance, but in most of them they fought to the bitter end, against forces much superior in numbers. One particular system got more attention. From the beginning me and Kamea found it strange  the disproportionate number of personnel in the Aea ComStar compound.. While its HPG had been sabotaged like so many others, the computers and data files were captured intact. And we hit jackpot in that system. This was the HQ of the Rimward Operations Area of the Explorer Corps, with plenty of data on systems that nobody other than ComStar knew about. Unfortunately, the locations of the DRUM network Skyward HPG relays in the area were not in the files we got our hands on.

12 Mars 3042, Taurus, Taurian Concordat
The meeting with Comstar representatives was a surprise from the start.
First, they didn’t have the usual robes, but rather expensive business suits. Secondly, they informed us that they were representing the Terran Government, not the extinct (!) ComStar. Apparently Earth was now governed by a Joan Stark, someone that nobody in the Taurian side had ever heard about.

However, their technological advance was still there; the Terran delegation had a permanent HPG contact with Earth, an impressive feat since many of the HPGs in the line of communication were damaged or in the Taurian or FedCom hands, which made this network an unlikely mix of Magellan JumpShips and comsats from the DRUM network, with a few operable HPGs (mostly inside the Capellan Confederation) but one that was still efficient. From what we understood, similar contacts were being established at the same time with the leaders of all the Great Houses. The Concordat was the only Periphery Realm contacted because of their mastery of their “own” HPG network.
Apparently the dispute between the religious / ROM fanatics and the secular / ComGuards had been won by the ComGuard - with a little help from the Comstar Navy, a fact only known later. With the WarShips and a large portion of the military DropShips lined up on one side, the religious fanatics and ROM had stood little chance as soon as ComGuard was able to concentrate its forces.
During the conflict ,both leaders were killed and the emerging faction in control, instead of continuing business as usual,  decided in collaboration with other big corporations, and the different factions that formed the Earth government under Comstar, to take a new direction. Under the leadership of Joan Stark, they assumed the control of the Sol system and after a small interregnum to put the house in order, started to contact the other nations.
Initially, they pushed for a return to the old status quo, ie that the Concordat would return control of the stations it had captured so that the HPG service could resume under their control. Obviously, the Concordat representatives responded in more courteous and diplomatic language, hell no.
Honestly, that is what the Terran representatives expected, so they changed the negotiations, to their true objective, ie to try to negotiate inter-state communication protocols and fees, extract as many of the ex-Comstar people (and hardware) that might want to come to Earth and obtain rights for they massive civilian JumpShip fleet to operate inside the Concordat while trying to obtain a trade agreement for several civilian products that Earth apparently was going to start producing.

With my arrival at Taurus, almost at the beginning of negotiations with Earth, the information that Davion had an alternative FTL communications system had an interesting effect.
Claiming he had to confer with Kamea, which gave him the opportunity to delay negotiations whenever he wanted, since there was no working HPG link between Taurus and Coromodir, Thomas discreetly called the ambassador of the Federated Commonwealth, and after informing him that Concordat already knew about his alternative communications system, proposed a joint negotiation of both nations, which would obviously bring advantages to both. And by the way, he gave them all the information that the Commonwealth had about the new Director-General (yes, she had returned to the Cameron era title), Joan Stark, which was close to none.
Ten days later, the ambassador returned with an answer , that was not as good as Thomas expected. It was divided in four relevant parts - a) He informed Thomas that the FC didn’t have any data on the new Earth leader, b) that the FC JumpShips had detected no less than 12 WarShips in orbit around Earth, at least 2 of them being Battle Cruisers or larger,  c) he recognized that the Federated Commonwealth was indeed in negotiations with Earth, not including any details and finally d)  that obviously if such a strategic technology existed, details for a potential alternative FTL comm system would not be shared with anyone.
When pressed to give a date on their estimation for resuming normal communication activities, and after speaking with Earth, the representatives of the new Terran Government recognized that unfortunately during the fight, the industrial complex that produce HPGs (and parts) had been severely damaged, and that on top of that the few (their words) “fanatics” that had escaped taking with them a considerable part of the existing stock of spares. This meant that the repair of the HPG network was going to take time and would probably not be concluded before the end of 3045 or even later. Since the estimates of the Concordat were that by that time, it would have already repaired its network, no further collaboration was offered from both sides on that particular area.
In a gesture of good will, the Earth representatives informed us that the ex First Circuit had gifted about five hundred ’Mechs of SLDF origin to the CCAF, thankfully none of them (unless handling errors) Royal. So far, Romano Liao had used these forces to bolster his defenses which needed this help and hadn’t not (yet) entered in new adventures.  During this time, a deep analysis of the control boards, and software, of captured Comstar's HPGs revealed that they had hidden codes that allowed messages to be sent without registration or even knowledge of the station operators. Another interesting piece of data was that also it was possible to send messages to some addresses, that didn’t exist in the official database of HPGs, and messages send to these ‘hidden’ address were automatically treated without registration also. Comstar secret bases ? So secret that only a small core would know of their existence? So far the mechanism that let the HPGs ‘know’ where to send these messages had not been found.

Because the FedRats had not proposed to share info / use of they alternative FTL comm system, no information on the possible SLDF base near Tharkad, nor the findings of the secret codes in the HPG network was shared and it was decided that a later mission lead by TMI to the location was to be planned.

Over the next years, the ex-Comstar, renamed Earth Communications, ECOM for short, for now operated in all the nations outside of the Taurian+Reach and the Federated Commonwealth. It was observed that the people that had believed in the religious side of the organization had disappeared in great numbers, destination unknown. Several of the ComGuards – now also renamed Earth Defense Force, deserted the organization, but in their case, they mostly turned mercenary, or applied to the armed forces of their former nations.
Earth started to offer high tech products on the market taking advantage of their big and modern industrial capability and commercial fleet, taking a not small share of the most profitable area of the Concordat exports and of mine.
Because of the need for many JumpShips to operate as replacement for HPGs during the crisis, and because a complete change in the production planing of several industries was need to prioritize the replacement / production of parts for the new Taurian HPGs, several new and expansion industrial complexes were delayed in the Concordat + Reach. Including on that list were the shipyard on Mechdur that was delayed by two years at minimum, the new lines of DropShips in Illiushin,  the new high tech factories in Coromodir V and several military and civilian production lines all around both nations.
If the objective of Earth was to maintain the control of the HPG network outside of the Taurian Concordat and Federated Commonwealth for a long time, they failed miserably.
By mid 3043 it was known that the fanatics had moved to the Free Worlds League and had been welcomed by Thomas with open arms. The reasons became know very soon, when in early 3045, the League took control of its HPG network and also used several WarShips – all ex-SLDF Navy designs.
By late 3044, the covert mission led by TMI to Odessa had discovered that indeed a repair / mothballed base indeed had existed in the system, but had been emptied recently…
By mid 3046 the Draconis Combine went dark for two full months. When communications were resumed, the HPG network was fully in the Combine hands.
By the end of 3046, this let only the Capellan Confederation, that was too poor and under the reign of Romano Liao, not stable or lucky enough to embark in such long term and expensive research program or to get it from spies and the other Periphery Realms using the Earth HPG network.
It was later discovered that Romano had decided to invest more in rebuilding the nation shipyards, and constructing a new one , capable of producing WarShips in the Sian system, instead on put money and resources in developing they independent HPG network.
So far, all nations had agreed to use ECOM protocols and to talk with each other, but how long this was going to last was anybody guess.
By late 3045, the construction of the Concordat class Frigate had started in Bolthole.

Factory by factory, world by world, the Concordat had been upgrading and expanding their industrial capability in the last decades.


That was helped by the continuous production of Snowden and Snowden-L mine stations, which provided said factories with raw materials and were by mid 40s present in almost all the systems in the Concordat and Reach that had a rich asteroid belt. Some ere even start to appear in Oort Clouds in the Taurus and New Vandenberg systems.


That also led to the expansion of the internal market and the overall growth of the Taurian economy.


While many of the other nations had followed a similar path, the Concordat was still ahead thanks to its early start and having access to almost every blueprints of every factory and products (civil and military) of the Star League, Very few outside the Concordat knew its real economic power, they knew that the Concordat can produce advanced tech since it was selling them on the open market but not the volumes it can produce.


One area in special started to benefit from that – big, advanced DropShips.


While before the Concordat Navy only used standard Union models to reduce costs and improve the availability of spare parts, now after a nasty “war” for securing the defense budget, the Lee was selected as the new standard DropShips for the TDF / Navy. It was an incredibly expensive DropShip (hence the “war”), and very high-tech, but the benefits were also great, mostly because of the different variants available


When compared to the Overlord, the mainstay of almost all other States, the ‘Mech Transport variant could carry 4 extra ’Mechs, about 900 tons more of cargo, had better armor and weapons, all this with a better acceleration.


The ordered variants were ‘Mech Transport, Aerospace Carrier, Vehicle Transport, Cargo Transport and Pocket Warship. Except for the latest one, all others were late SLDF models, and the blueprints are already available.


The Pocket Warship configuration replaced the cargo space that normally carried 40 ’Mechs and 6 ASFs with 6 AR10 tubes in the nose and 78 Killer Whale and 12 Barracuda in the standard load-out but could be any mix of Barracuda (30t), White Shark (40t) and/or Killer Whale (50t) up to 4.260 tons.


The Navy was a deciding factor in selecting the Lee over less expensive solutions in the budget wars as what a Concordat Frigate could do with a pair of PW and another of CV (or any combination of the two types) was a wet dream for all the admirals and all that at for less money and faster production time than any traditional bigger WarShips, something they were eager to explain over and over.


With these expensive DropShips starting production for the TDF / Navy, the production of Unions and Overlords switched to being sold only to foreign powers or to mercenary. With the increasing tension all over the Inner Sphere and the Periphery, the demand was there.


In the civilian market, the long time pet project of Dr. Murad also entered in production in late 3046. The Starlifter, heavily inspired by the massive Mammoth DropShips, had all its components produced by VMI in Illiushin, where the assembly was also done. Like the Lee for the military and the Union before, it was to be produced in several variants, Standard cargo, Heavy cargo, Liquid transport;, Liquid gas transport, Passenger transport and Troop transport (which a more streamlined sub-variant of the Passenger transport one). While each taken individually was expensive , the fact was that with them entering in service the number of needed collars was reduced dramatically.


That the Concordat could start both projects in the mid to late 40s, was a demonstration of both the advanced technology it had mastered as well as power and capability of its industry.


In January 3045 a representative of the Wolf’s Dragoons visited VMI Headquarters in New Vandenberg. His purpose was simple, Jaime Wolf wanted to start the production of the Shogun Assault ‘Mech and proposed this business to VMI. If on the one hand the company was very interested in producing the model, on the other hand the intransigence of the Wolf’s Dragoons that it would be produced exclusively for them killed the deal. Even at best, with 5 regiments and two independent battalions, the number of ’Mechs produced would not be enough to offset the expense. Too bad as I was interested in deepening relations with the Wolf’s Dragoons, but not at the expense of a bad business that would also affect my CEO position.
Between 3045 and 3047, I was involved in two other VMI matters.


The first was related to the prototype of the second assault ’Mech model to be produced by the company and the first totally original of the company. Continuing the 'zombie' ’Mech line that was the signature of the latest VMI original product series, the Hellfire was going to be a scary machine for anyone facing it and a wonder of technology.




HEL-TC2 Hellfire


Technical specifications
Weight: 85 tons
Cost: 8,454,685 C-bills
Movement: 3/5
Engine: 255
Heat Sinks: 20 DHS / Freezers
Armor: 16 tons
Weapons: 2 ER PPC (LT and RT), 2 LPL (LA and RA), 1 TAG (Head), 1 Guardian ECM (CT) and 2 SL (RL and LL).



As usual,it was only proposed to the TDF, which accepted it with open arms after thoroughly testing the prototype.


The following subject had to do with the Tornado PA(L) wreckage captured in the VMI attack in 3041. The Stealth / Adaptative Camo System was very advanced and out of VMI production capabilities. , even though research continued. The models were clearly tailored to the users personally, something that was also considered inefficient if reasonable production and non-astronomical cost were to be desired. In the end, after 5 years of research and testing, a similar model (without advanced camouflage), and slightly less capable in other areas but that could be mass-produced entered testing. Of course, both the TDF and the TMI were very interested in this project.


How did the TC achieve these capabilities ?

For starters, they were the only nation to get the Helm AND New Dallas data cores.

The others got access to the Helm one but would need about 10 years to decrypt it while the TC got it fully decrypt from the start.

The New Dallas Core not only had a lot of Royal / late SLDF blueprints / designs but more importantly (in this universe) was a repository of industrial espionage, with an immense collection of data, blueprints on all kinds of industrial goodies - from factories to tools to final products - military and civilian, from the time of the Terran Hegemony to the late SL days - just before the Amaris Crisis.

Another factor was that like the Terran Hegemony, it invested a lot in space extraction industries - Snowden and alike.

In this universe, Thomas was not that maniac against the Federated Suns and because Edward survived, the relations with FS / FC were much better.

The result was that in the second half of the 40s that they were very advanced and that these advanced industries could produce a lot of shinny things.

It took them about 20 years, but they did it years before other nations.