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The return to New Vandenberg went without incident.
Almost two years had passed since the last time I had been in the system and some changes were evident. The shipyard was in operation, with the first JumpShip, called New Life a few days away from officially entering service, a ceremony was even planned.

By now six Snowdens were already in operation with two more almost ready. Although only one slip of the shipyard was used to build new JumpShips, two more were in operation, maintaining JumpShips. Curiously, one of them belonged to a Federated Suns company.
While the mainframe was decoding the data cores, I was upgraded to the latest news. The technicians  from VMI and V4RUhad finally reached a final prototype for the Concordat version of the Marauder II and it was ready to enter production.
Using the latest available technologies, it packed an Extended-Range PPC and a Medium Laser in each arm, a Medium Pulse Laser in the center torso and an LRM10 with a ton of ammunition in each torso. 20 Double Heat Sinks cooled it with the rest being equal. The production of ER PPC had started three months ago although at a limited speed.

For the launch of the New Life, which was the first JumpShip built in the Concordat but also in the whole Periphery, in the last hundreds of years, Edward had come.
'Edward, tell me how did the negotiations with Hanse and Katrina go?' I asked him as soon as I had a chance to be alone with him, in a place protected from wiretapping.
‘It is true that you weren’t in the area in the last months. What I can tell you is that I arrived in New Avalon when the ban was already doing a lot of damage to the economy, so our proposal to provide a HPG class A SLDF with full blueprints, manuals and tech specs couldn't have come at a better time, as you had anticipated. The possibility of both kingdoms being free from Comstar control in the future led to very interesting concessions being extracted'.
'And can you specify them, or is it a secret I don't have access to?' I asked, because he hadn't gone into details, just put on an air of satisfaction.
‘Well, normally the details would be secret, but my father gave me the permission to let you know because of your involvement. We got a credit of one trillion kroner, available over the next 10 years, full access to NAIS, various business concepts and production licenses and access to markets. In both nations, or if you want in the new Federated Commonwealth. And finally a better relationship on the military side'.
'Not bad, not bad at all. And by the way, what's a Davion JumpShip doing in our brand-new shipyard?
'Oh that? Part of the deal included maintaining House Davion's JumpShips, they were put under a lot of pressure with his little war.'
'Very cute. And where are ours repaired? They need a lot of maintenance too, as you know.
"Jean-Luc, Jean-Luc, you're forgetting that our shipyard on Taurus is also operational, even though it won't be capable of built new JumpShips until the end of the year, for now it can only do maintenance. And we're investing in Mechdur in your wife's kingdom. I'm sure we can maintain some there too, which will help both nations businesses,' replied Edward with a calm and satisfied air.
'Since we are talking about the kingdom of Kamea, we found in Detroit an old Earthwerks factory, that is repairable, with very interesting capabilities. If someone brings the money, I can get the technicians to repair it. Do you happen to know anyone who might be looking for a good investment?' I quietly counter.
"Jean-Luc, you know perfectly well that this money is to improve Concordat not other nations..." replied Edward with an exasperated look.
"Come on Edward. We both know your father's idea is that in the next generation, if not before, we will merge both kingdoms as Davion and Steiner did. If I’m not wrong, we tried to sell that before to the Centrellas, but they didn’t buy it. I'm just looking after your interests for when you will be Lord Protector. ‘
After a quiet pause, Edward answered.
'Perhaps something can be arranged, but I must speak to my father first.' Edward replied with a thoughtful look and not denying my statement.
Since I had his attention, I asked one last question
‘And what about the long range expedition to the SLDF Navy test base? Have they returned?’
‘God, you are relentless!’ said Edward with a laugh. ‘Yes, they have returned, three months ago, to be precise. They returned with a modified Soyal Heavy Cruiser. The SLDF was apparently experimenting with sub-capital weapons and this cruiser had some installed. And we also found a partly disassembled advanced dockyard that we took with us and we decided to use it to repair the one in Bolthole. And before you ask, we found enough hardware to create at least two regiments of ‘Mechs, several regiments of armor, mechanized infantry and diverse support units from the various caches along the way.’
With a laugh he added
‘That is if you want to use hardware from the Time of War. We also got about a company of late Star League ‘Mechs and lots of spares for army and navy.’

After the ceremony was over and Edward had returned to Taurus, I was able to analyze the data cores obtained from Baumann's base and to do this alone
They were in pretty bad shape and much of the information was not recoverable, but they included part of the captain's logs of a JumpShip, the SLS Dobrev and parts of the route to a destination, which looked like the Pentagon worlds with a return route from there to this side of Periphery. Unfortunately the maps were all badly damaged and it was impossible to establish the exact location of the Clans worlds or the exact route to there. The logs included pieces of the history of the Wolverines, which were similar to what I knew from the Betrayal of Ideals novel and with talks about a destination beyond Periphery on this side. Unfortunately it contained no details and the maps were not usable or complete missing a lot of information.
For VMI the last two years had been very good. All the production had been sold, Andurien had been added to the list of clients, meaning probably that the Concordat government wanted to weaken the Capellans as much as possible as several other military industries in the Concordat were also selling their production to both the Magistracy and the Andurien military, providing both forces with more options than in the story I remembered and allowing them to be in much better shape while making the Concordat and my companies richer.

Just before departing for Coromodir, I asked Thomas to provide me with the Combine contacts obtained during the interrogation of Santiago Espinosa. Then, I talked with John Smith to see if we could use these contacts to try to acquire several DEST suits.
In early July 3031 I arrived in Coromodir where a pleasant surprise was waiting for me: Kamea was pregnant.
With the child to be born at the end of August if everything went well, I basically went into 'nervous father' mode. I requested from New Vandenberg the latest medical equipment for maternity hospitals, the latest Star League ones that were being brought back into production and from Canopus the best medical team I could get my hands on. This was despite Kamea assuring me that they had competent staff in Cordia City, but I was not willing to take any risks.
Fortunately, my fears were unfounded, and on the 27th of August 3031, Sara Arano-Bassot was born, a beautiful, healthy girl.
To commemorate the birth of her daughter, Kamea decreed that the Restoration was complete and that the nation would be called Aurigan Reach again.
The Shadow Hawks were being upgraded with modern armor, myomers and weapons in Mechdur. Unfortunately, doing so for the electronics and engines proved impossible, but they were still a much appreciated booster.
The delegation that had gone to Niops had successfully obtained a trade treaty. That wasn’t easy, mind you as the Niops ruling elite was very isolationist and suspicious.  And if her people could get a copy that information would be  hers, and with a bit of luck, some of that information would be new, not included in the Helm and New Dallas data cores, and could be traded at full value, with no need to negotiate with Thomas for scraps. From the beginning of this operation I had informed Kamea of the difficulties and possible winnings, so she could understood that it was gong to be a medium to long time operation as it couldn’t be easy, nor fast as I didn’t have any idea where that information could be located on the planet and I didn’t believe negotiations would get us through; meaning she needed to send a long term infiltration and spec ops team, because I didn’t believe that she could get it through negotiations. But the first contact was already made, and she now had a base of operations on system, namely the Embassy that she had secured.
The DEST suits arrived at New Vandenberg, and it was soon discovered that I had been had. While they were indeed what I ordered, the very expensive order was of second quality, with many of the components replaced by ones of sub-par or obsolete ones. But, my team in V4RU was confident that they could replace all the bad or sub-par parts with ones made locally, and as soon as they would have finished the refit, they would send them to Coromodir.
In the middle of 3032, it was evident that the invasion of the Capellan Confederation was at a turning point. Even with the support of the Concordat, Romano Liao’s troops  were better and that was showing on the battlefields.
To my amazement, Thomas, who so far had wanted to stay out of this conflict, sent us a personal envoy, evidently unwilling to entrust this type of information to Comstar, informing us that he would begin operations against the Confederation in early January and that he 'expected' Kamea to do the same.
Kamea was not at all pleased with the 'suggestion’, but she was a politician and realistic enough to know that she had no alternative if she wanted to continue in Thomas' good graces and continue to receive the economic aid that her nation needed.

Thomas targets on the first wave were going to be Rollis, Larsha and Corodiz, and he expected that Kamea’s forces, supplemented by the Revenants would hit Ward. The objectives for the second wave were Yuris, Zanzibar and Muridox  and for the Aurigan forces, Hurik. That is everything went well. The main objective was to secure the South East salient of the Capellan Confederation while at same time relieving pressure from the Canopian forces. Kamea  would get two worlds for her participation and almost no border with the Capellan Confederation. And the thanks of Thomas and Kyalla. Oh, and probably the hatred of Romano Liao, but such is life, after all.
Further objectives were not planned but that could change depending on the results.
At the end of December 3032, the Revenants with the support of two of the few mechanized infantry regiments Kamea had at her disposal arrived at Weldry on the border between the Capellan Confederation  and  the Reach.

In 9 January 3033, we jumped on Ward, just two days after the Concordat forces started their operation, invading Rollis, Larsha and Corodiz in the first wave. Because Romano Liao’s forces had been involved for some years in war with the Canopians and Andurien, and before that had been severely reduced in the 4th Succession War, she had left only light, poorly equipped forces to protect this side of the border. The long time defenders of Ward, the Kamakura’s Hussars were supposedly on  Turin, the only forces left were some Home Guard units, AKA, Capellan national militia. At least, that was the intel gathered by the TMI and the AIS (Aurigan Intelligence Service).
The first part of the operation went well, our run to Ward VI, the only planet inhabited in the system, was unopposed.
We dropped a few kilometers from the capital, our recon flights not detecting any opposing forces in the area.
Approaching the capital, my force was ambushed by a group of Manticores and Vedettes supported by a company of ’Mechs. Normally, one of my Beagle equipped Black Knights should have detected the ambush force, but severe interferences prevented that from happening. Several of the Revenant ‘Mechs were damaged, including mine. I saw Cornet Kaneda Arisa executing a Death from Above on top of a Liao Vedette, while at same time discharging her PPC on one APC. God, that woman was really good! Only the massive armor of the Nightstar saved me, from PPC hits from two Manticores. After placing two Gauss rounds in one of the Manticores, I changed targets for one Cataphract, in the colors of Warrior House Lu Sann, because the second Manticore was already a smoking wreck, I didn’t see who destroyed it. WTF were ‘Mechs in the colors of a Warrior House doing on this forsaken planet? As usual the ‘Intelligence’ services had it all wrong, shocking, really. The bastard fired first and hit my ’Mech on the left torso, reducing the already damaged armor to dangerous levels. My returning fire penetrating its center torso, killed it. As soon as the Cataphract was destroyed, the interference terminated. Wait, was that one of the very rare, CTF-0X? I quickly placed an order to secure the wreck and searched for another target, this time selecting an already damaged Marauder, a 3L variant or so say my computer. The unfortunate ’MechWarrior was busy fighting against one of Revenants Thunderbolt, so I got the luxury of taking time to make a carefully placed shot on his left torso, destroying it with two Gausss rounds and a shot of my ER PPC for good measure.  All the ambush force  had been eliminated, and we continued advancing towards the capital. By sheer luck, we caught the Home Guard Mine-layer infantry just finishing deploying a minefield, and so we quickly eliminated them before avoiding the dangerous area.
No more forces appeared to challenge us, so we captured the capital and Lord Whitt Ricardo surrendered the system to us. All in all, while the battle was intense, it was also very short and our losses light. Kamea’s regiments had no time to engage before we eliminated the defenders and had suffered no losses.
A few days later, Whitt Ricardo was found dead, assassinated during is sleep. The security team in charge of his protection never saw the culprits, and the body had a sign saying 叛國罪 - ‘Traitor to the Nation’. And this was just the beginning as we quickly discovered that several small units of infantry from the House Guard had dispersed, no doubt with some veterans from the Warrior House  and began playing a guerrilla campaign against our occupation in the following months, inflicting several losses on the forces we kept for garrisoning the planet, mostly to the infantry regiments. Thank God, the civilian population was mostly calm or things could have gone ugly very fast, because we didn’t have enough troops on the ground to control them.
After an extended infield analysis, the first ‘Mech I had destroyed was indeed one of the very rare CTF-0X, electronics was thankfully intact, so I sent it to New Vandenberg for analysis.

In early February arrived the time for the second wave and we departed for  Hurik. Thankfully, we had received reinforcements, two extra Aurigan infantry regiments  had arrived to take garrison duties bringing also the planned replacements for the losses for the units of the first wave and two lances of the refurnished Shadow Hawks 1R. So, we departed with a full force again, the Revenants had even had the time to repair the damaged ‘Mechs.
Just before our departure for Hurik, a DropShip arrived from New Vandenberg. Inside it were three ‘Mechs – the prototypes of the PNT-1TC Penetrator, the prototype of the MAD-5TC Marauder II and the BSK-MAZ Bull Shark. Like the two prototypes, the Bull Shark, after being microscopically analyzed was being deployed for battlefield testing.

Aurigan Reach Military
At this time – Early 3033 the Aurigan Reach Military consists of
5 and a half battalion of ‘Mechs – one and a half survivors of the civil war, with none bigger than medium, three battalions of Griffins and one of Shadow Hawks 1R
6 regiments of mechanized infantry – equipped with light / medium tanks, SRM and LRM Carriers, APCs and IFVs and some towed arty.
40 regiments of infantry – militia / Home Guard,  with small arms and transported by trucks, with a few LAWs and SRM-2.
One battalion of ‘Mechs plus one of the mechanized infantry make the Royal Guards, the only force that has a small number of atmospheric fighters / fighter-bombers.
The Royal Guards and the mechanized forces are all veterans of the civil war, experienced troops. The rest are green, and about half of dubious loyalty.

The Aurigan Armed Forces don't have ASFs, nor DropShips or JumpShips. When in need, civilian ones are commandeered.

And you need to take into consideration that from these, the 3 Griffin's and the Shadow Hawk battalions are provided by the SI. In the House Arano sourcebook, they have about a battalion and a half if so many, 'Mechs.

Hurik, unlike Ward was a cold, harsh planet with a population barely a million.
The intelligence services had reported that it was defended by a Home Guard regiment, but we only found about one battalion of poorly equipped and trained militia. Unlike Ward, it didn’t have an HPG. After defeating the Home Guard, we raided the only valuable thing in the world, a mine of titanium, taking with us several tons of raw and processed ore, before returning to Ward.

We return to Ward without problems. Two weeks later, we detected two JumpShips at a pirate point, a few hours away of the planet. No doubt a military force, the fact that one of the DropShips launched was a Overlord was a dead give away.
More data came from the space sensors: the invading forces was composed by an Overlord, 3 Unions and a Triumph. Was this merely a raid in force, were they stupid or they've bad intel ? That force couldn’t carry more than two battalions of ‘Mechs with a bit of support. With the reinforcements, I had almost 5 companies of them, plus support. Unless this was some kind of elite force, there was no way in Hell they would retake the system from us...

Near the planet we intercepted the attacking force, covered by 12 Aerospace Fighters, in the colors of the Kamakura’s Hussars, but the Revenants had more of them and also more advanced ones, leading to the total destruction of the Liao Fighters for only 4 of ours, even if almost all of ours took some kind of damage.
Knowing who our opponent was, was a good thing. Consulting the Intel we had on the CCAF prior to the invasion, mostly obtained from the Magistracy and the Federated Suns, we found out that they were a second line unit, two battalions strong, with mostly lights and mediums ‘Mechs, and with a penchant for frontal assaults. That changed our operational plan as they were not an elite force like the Death Commandos, just the force stationed here before the start of this not so little war. So, it was probably just a raid in force or they had real bad Intel. Or they were stupid, something that couldn’t be discounted.
Near the atmosphere, our fighters severely damaged the Triumph, that disintegrated while trying to land. And there went the support force for the enemy ‘Mechs...

The Capellan DropShips landed near the capital. Soon after, a force of 'Mechs, about two battalions of them, came to meet us, in a frontal and massive attack. Although they did not lack courage, it was the worst tactic against the Revenants who had a considerable amount of long-range weapons and heavier ’Mechs to better absorb damage. Starting to retreat slowly as soon as we entered combat we tried to keep our advantage of a greater range for as long as possible, keeping the Assault and Heavy 'Mechs in front because they had more protection and could buy us more time. The enemy, while continuously approaching, used every bit of terrain to negate our advantage in range. They were not that suicidal after all. Pity.
My support forces with long range weapons (LRMs, arty, and a few unguided Arrow IV), placed behind the Revenants ’Mechs were adding their firepower to the ‘Mechs, turning the Capellans life miserable, and at same time my ASFs are strafing then.
The enemy forces was indeed a mix of lights and mediums with a few heavies, they had advanced faster than we could retreat.
At same time, a small force appears from the jungle, in our back, two ’Mechs and a small group of infantry, in the colors of House Lu Sann. So, the survivors had decided to join the battle? Fine for me, we could make a clean sweep this time.
One thing you could say about the Kamakura's Hussars  and Lu Sann warriors is that they didn't lack courage, and they knew how to die well. And dying, that's what they did that day up to the last 'man.
The Lu Sann ‘Mech force, one Locust and one Wasp, at first destroyed some vehicles and killed a few infantry, but soon find themselves under the fire of two Leclerc flak (3xAC/5 each) and four Merkavas. Lights don’t survive much time against that kind of firepower, and the enemy infantry, few in number, is destroyed soon after. And so end Warrior House Lu Sann.

About a company of 'Mechs from the Revenants had been severely damaged, with only four destroyed during the battle, but because we had taken control of the battlefield, our technicians took over all the wreckage and were of the opinion that they would be able to repair / recover almost all our ‘Mechs and even increase our numbers with what they would recover from the opponent ’Mechs.
Among them was an almost intact VND-1R Vindicator, with its head destroyed by the Penetrator. Luckily for us, another CCAF Vindicator, this one with is center torso cored, laid near, and his head could be used to repair the first one, so this one could be used right now, the rest needed to be sent to New Vandenberg to possible rebuild. The Penetrator, Marauder II and Bull Shark had all performed well in combat and none had been destroyed, even if they all had taken some kind of damage.
Shortly after the end of the battle, the opposing DropShips took off, soon accompanied by another Overlord, probably the hidden Lu Sann one, that we hadn’t found before.
Our surviving Fighters harassed them all the way to the JumpShips, but didn’t destroy any, just doing them more damage and as soon as they docked to their JumpShips at the pirate point they left for an unknown destination.
While again in control of the planet, the Capellan forces had publicly executed a number of people that had collaborated with the Reach forces, sending a clear, if gruesome message“Death to the traitors”. Unfortunately for then, this changed the mind of many, from neutral / indifference to hating they former masters, turning the integration of Ward in the Reach easier.

With the Capellan Armed Forces defeated a second time and the guerrilla forces eliminated, the local situation calmed a lot. So far we had successfully destroyed some Capellan units and because of that, we did our job to support the Canopian and Taurian forces, and for us it hadn’t been a bad campaign. I and Kamea never had any illusions on what we could probably get from this, but we had taken a decent world, for Periphery levels, that is, for a relatively small price.

With the situation calming down on our part of the border, in January 3034, the Revenants were sent to a well-deserved and necessary R&R after a year of operations. Half went with me to Coromodir, the other part to New Vandenberg. In our place, a battalion of Griffins and a company of Shadow Hawks moved to Ward. The two Shadow Hawks lances that had been there since February of '33, also went home.
 
In January 3034, the shipyard in New Vandenberg activated the second slip for the construction of Invaders, having at that time three extra slips for maintenance.
VMI had during 3033, doubled the production of Double Heat Sinks, increased the production of Endo-Steel by 50% and started the production of Ferro-Fibrous. O-P Computer Electronics had started small scale production of Guardian ECM and Beagle Active Probe. It was planned to upgrade the ER PPC production to the more advanced version designed following the Wolverine design and to launch small-scale production of Extended Range Lasers  for the end of 3034.
All these production lines were highly secret and only for the Taurian Defense Forces and Revenants use. Thomas was not prepared to make public such advanced equipment. Their development and production was only possible thanks to the massive funds provided by the HPG accords with the Federated Commonwealth. These funds also provided for the nascent capability of producing advanced water purification, massive  civilian fusion reactors (perfect for the needs of cities) and the expansion on the shipyards and the ultra-secret HPG program.
Although these tech and the Taurian capacities were (we hoped) still secret, they would probably not remain so for long. During the last months the number of infiltration attempts detected had skyrocketed. So far, we knew of no  success but all the security experts knew that it was only a matter of time.
As a result of the operations against Liao, MRB had updated the Revenants ranking to Veteran / Reliable, with a small note questioning whether they would soon become an House Unit, the question was whether Taurian or Aurigan.
The ‘fixed’ DEST suits finally arrived in Coromodir. The contacts that Santiago Espinosa got on the Combine are interesting to say the least. They had access to advanced combine ‘Mechs and hardware, but I bet good money that they were not official ones. Yakuza maybe? Half were distributed to the security apparatus in charge of me and my family security, the rest being sent to the team in Niops, with a package containing advanced electronic spy / commando gadgets, to help them when / if the data core was discovered.
V4RU teamed with OP- Computer Electronics and VMI to produce an Concordat version of the suits. Obviously, TMI was very interested in acquiring some.

On March 12th, 3034 in Coromodir I received a visit from Colonel Nikitch, a member of the Wolf’s Dragoons.
The official reason for the visit was the purchase of several ‘Mechs by the Dragoons, but the conversation was interesting...
‘Your Highness, the Wolf’s Dragoons are interested in acquiring several units of the 'Mechs that your unit recently used against House Liao, more specifically the new variant of Marauder II, the new Heavy and the new Assault. As well as the much advanced weaponry as you could sell us, specifically the extended ranges energy weapons and the Double Heat Sinks'.
'Well, as usual Wolfnet is well informed, they were quick.' was my thought before I answered.’I’m curious Colonel. VMI is in New Vandenberg, not in Coromodir, and they have an excellent sales department. So why do you come to see me and not go to New Vandenberg?’
‘That’s true your Highness, and I did go there first, but they said they don’t have authorization to sell said items, so I came to you, to see what was necessary to smooth any problems with us buying so new hardware.’
'I'm sorry Colonel, but the sales of such hardware are not allowed outside of the Concordat by order of the Protector Calderon. I am sure you understand why' I didn't deny or confirm anything, it was useless. ‘Until he allows that market to be open, VMI hands are tied. Anyway, at the moment we are just starting the production of the second variant of Marauder II, for the Heavy, which is called the Penetrator by the way, we still have some production kinks to fix, and the Bull Shark is too expensive and sophisticated to produce, ot is one of a kind, we found in the Periphery .
‘Just curious, why did you change the Marauder II, that is a pure energy Assault ‘Mech to one also using LRMs ?’
‘Oh, that is an interesting story, colonel. At first, with the replacing of the heat sinks with Freezers, the idea was to upgrade the Large Laser for an PPC, creating an  Awesome with jump jets if you want. But several MechWarriors wanted to add the indirect fire capability, and they got a very good case. The 5TC is the result of they brainstorming.’
'Interesting. About the Bull Shark, can I know where you found that 'Mech, or is it a secret?' Nikitch asked, trying to be merely curious.
‘Curious, he was found in a bunker at Baumann's smuggler's base during the operation we ran into your Colonel Kerensky. Unfortunately because Kerensky killed Baumann and destroyed most of his base, where Baumann found the 'Mech will always be a mystery. Our conclusion is that it is an advanced model of the SLDF Royal Branch, it was painted in Wolverines’ colors after all.'
'Wolverines? What do you mean?' asked Nikitch with an intense eye and a sharp change of position, although he tried to disguise it, but since I was expecting a reaction I knew when it would appear.
So, you're one of the Clanners... interesting. That was my thought. 'Oh sorry Colonel, Wolverines is how the 331st Royal Battlemech Division was know, and the Bull Shark was painted in their colors and had its symbol. Ancient history.' I replied with an innocent smile. 'They were in New Vandenberg in 2764, so it's not strange to find a 'Mech of them in this region... sorry to bothering you with ancient history, but it is a hobby of mine and that's how my late father and I started the Revenants, finding equipment from that time.'
Nikitch relaxed visibly after hearing my explanation.
'But, can I interest you in something else, Colonel? Both in New Vandenberg and Mechdur we have several maintenance slips for JumpShips and if I remember correctly the Wolf’s Dragoons have a considerable fleet that should need maintenance. I think you capabilities in that area in Outreach are limited…’
‘Excuse me your Highness, but that is a bit more than four months on each direction…’
‘Yes, but unless I’m wrong,  you have an excess of lift capability right now, Jaime Wolf has not yet activated several units, after the losses sustained against the Combine. And the shipyards in the Federated Commonwealth are at full use, heck, we are even doing maintenance of several Davion ships on New Vandenberg. So, I think you could take advantage of our slips in Mechdur for a while, without reduction of your capabilities…’
‘Mmmm. I see that you are as well informed as your reputation says, your Highness. I will pass your proposal along. So, no luck in providing us with some advanced technology or some of these advanced ‘Mechs?’
‘Maybe, Colonel, maybe. If Jaime Wolf give us, and by us I mean the Concordat and the Reach, access to some of your technology, like the production rights of some of your exclusive hardware, and say, first choice in contracts when your regiments return to active duty, after their contract with House Davion, of course, at a decent price, I am sure Thomas Calderon could add the Dragoons to the few units that have access to our latest toys...’
And so the conversation shifted to safer topics...

After sending a quick message to Kamea something along “sorry Dear, I'll be late again, work duties”, I left for New Vandenberg.
Granting Davion’s and Steiner's technicians access to the various departments of VMI created a number of problems, not only security but also for many old school Taurians who did not see the situation with good eyes and only the fact that it was a direct order from Thomas led them to collaborate even if with a lot of grumbling.
This, in turn, facilitated the second and most delicate part of the instructions Thomas had given me.
One of Pascal Allais' team members, posing as an official disgusted with the situation, got in touch with a member of the local Combine embassy which by “mere” luck turned out to be part of the spy cell operating there. In return for an exorbitant sum, he handed to the Combine the plans for the ER Large Lasers and Freezers as well as the production line blueprints for both.
To convince Pascal and his team member to do it, I needed to show them Thomas Calderon’s orders  and only then did they agree to participate in this operation.
Some time later VMI security ”found out” about the leak and ”investigated” it. If MIIO and LIC believed it, I never knew, but the Davions did not make a scene about the case.

With Thomas' permission and the release of some of his personal funds, however small, the migration of the older / low tech lines from VMI with ‘Mechs such as the Stinger 3R and Griffin 1N production to Mechdur began as well as the collaboration with Kamea to participate in the reconstruction of the Detroit factories as well. The amount obtained from Combine was fully applied in Detroit. The initial idea had been to send the ’Mech production lines to Detroit, but the fact was that while Mechdur had the auxiliary factories to support said production lines, for several years Detroit did not have this capacity and we decided to change the initial plans.
From the material captured in the two battles in Ward, V4RU with the support of components supplied by VMI, had been able to rebuild 13 'Mechs, one being a Cataphract 2X that last one had been done using parts of a 2X and of the 0X. A new ‘Mech company was created by the Revenants, a mixture of Concordat and Reach ’MechWarriors and it was sent to Ward to participate in their defense and to get some experience in real operations. After all apart from their lack of experience, these Mechs, unlike the others used by the Revenants, had no advanced components and this company had no other support elements.

Meanwhile, TTI on Taurus had expanded its DropShips building capacity (while New Vandenberg had focused on JumpShips) and launched a new and much improved version of Jumbo, called Jumbo II, demonstrating a total and expected lack of imagination for new names.  In the area of military DropShips thanks to the help provided by Federated-Boeing under the cooperation agreements the production of Overlords had started.

In June 3034, the DropShip carrying Edward Calderon suffered a take-off failure,and only the high quality and quick response of the crew prevented this accident to turn into a total catastrophe. Even so, they suffered several deaths and Edward was seriously injured, being hospitalized for several months. An exhaustive analysis of the wreckage indicated that the probability of sabotage was quite high but produced no indication of who could have done it.

By September 3034, the Andurien last forces  had been expelled from the Capellan territory with severe casualties and Romano began planning a counter-invasion, but was informed that the FWL would side in the conflict with the Duchy of Andurien, leading Romano to turn her attention against the Magistracy.

Extracts from The Periphery vs. Liao - New Avalon Press, 3047
Chapter XXI- The Mercenaries War
In the middle of 3035, the Magistracy of Canopus had lost the initiative and was clearly on the defensive. With her army exhausted and her treasure spent, Kyalla Centrella asked Thomas Calderon for help, any help that Thomas could spare.
To the amazement of many, Thomas sent mercenaries. More precisely, almost 4 regiments of them: Gordon's Armored Cavalry (GAC), the Revenants but also the Black Widow Battalion and the Beta Regiment of the famous Wolf’s Dragoons.
The fact that Thomas Calderon was able to secure a contract with the Wolf’s Dragoons and that it was the first time that they accepted a contract for a kingdom of the Periphery amazed many.
Instead of coming piecemal, the mercenary forces converged on Mechdur, and after they had all arrived, departed to New Roland.
Of note was that for the first time the commander of the Revenants was not with them, the prince regent of Aurigan Reach had decided to stay on Coromodir, the motive was soon know as High Lady Kamea informed the Inner Sphere a few days later that she was pregnant, and his regiment was placed, as well as the GAC, under the orders of Colonel Alicia Fancher, commander of Beta Regiment of the Wolf’s Dragoons.
This force arrived on New Roland two days before the Capellan Confederation Defense Forces, joining the 2nd Canopian Cuirassiers, commanded by Emma Centrella and the 1st Canopian Light Horse, the only Magistracy Armed Forces units on world. Both MAF units had been mauled in the previous battles and together they had less than a battalion available. For political reasons, the overall command was given to Emma Centrella but the operational command stayed in the hands of Colonel Fancher.
At this time all other Capellan worlds captured by the Canopians had been lost to the CCAF, meaning that for reason of national pride, it was likely that New Roland would be targeted and the Capellan forces didn’t deceive the joined Taurian/Canopian forces by sending an invading forces, consisting of all McCarron’s Armored Cavalry regiments and of Warrior House Dai Da Chi.
In theory the Capellan forces were superior in numbers, however, unlike the forces sent by Thomas, which were fresh and with enough spare parts and ammunition, the Big MAC, like the MAF units, after several years of constant war operations, was a shadow of its former self. Instead of 5 full regiments, it had slightly less than 3 regiments, mostly composed of Heavies and Medium ‘Mechs, with less than 15% of their number Lights and almost no Assault units , furthermore most of their 'Mechs were in dire need of a complete overhaul. While initially a force well maintained, the constant war and the fact that House Liao had been dealt a heavy blow in its production capacities when Davion took Tikonov forced the Big MAC to deploy its forces in less than acceptable conditions. Even the capture of the some Andurien depots in Prix was not enough to fix this problem (see Appendix 4 - TO&E on both sides), because, unfortunately for the MAC, the Andurien forces had escaped with more than half the depots. House Dai Da Chi was also in a depleted state, fielding a bit more than a company of 'Mechs and just a few infantry forces. Files later captured, confirm that the Maskirovka missed the deployement of the Taurian sponsored mercenaries, leading the Strategos to think New Roland was an easy target.

In a continuing battle of movement, always denying a decisive battle and using the greater reach of the Revenants advanced 'Mechs to kill Liao most aggressive 'MechWarriors, Alicia Fancher led the CCAF forces in a wild race, executing small and well executed ambushes, one after the other.  However, thanks to their advanced electronics, the Capellans escaped  from about half of said ambushes. During this time, in the air, the Dragoon and Revenant Fighters were slowly winning the battle, focusing more on preventing anyone leaving the planet and making everything ready for the final act.
About a month after the start of the hostilities on New Roland, the forces led by Fancher, now with clear air superiority and having reconfigured all of their Leclercs to artillery versions (Sniper, Thumper or Arrow IV), suddenly changed direction and advanced against the exhausted Capellans, destroying one regiment in a well-planned ambush that made full use of her superiority in artillery and Fighters, as well as of the superior range of the Revenants 'Mechs. Now in clearly inferior numbers and with their ammo running low after a month of hide-and-seek games, the Capellans tried to escape, the long way back to the DropShips being marked by the wreckage of several Capellan 'Mechs. However meanwhile Kerensky's battalion, with the support of several Revenants 'Mechs with advanced ECM capabilities had moved along a path not detected by the Capellans and captured most of their DropShips. What she didn't capture, she destroyed, with the exception of two lucky DropShips that managed to leave, meaning that House Liao forces were trapped on the planet with no possibility of escape. Just over a battalion of  Light 'Mechs managed to escape including two Ravens in their ranks, making later contact with the two DropShips that had evaded capture.
The image of Natasha Kerensky's Warhammer over the ruins of Marcus Barton's Marauder was one of the most famous images of this conflict. There are serious indications that several 'Mechs of the Wolf’s Dragoons had also received advanced technology (Appendix 6- business between the Wolf’s Dragoons and the Concordat) and reports of the battle between Natasha and Barton indeed point out that Natasha's Warhammer managed the temperature much better than one would expect.
 Archie McCarron,  and Ian MacPhearson, that were not part of this operation as they had been busy creating a network of trading companies to support the mercenary unit, were executed when they tried to stop chancellor Romano Liao to incorporate what remained of the Big MAC, a battered battalion,  in the CCAF, thus ending the story of the infamous mercenary force (Appendix 8 – The end of the Big MAC).
It is worth of interest that unlike many battles between mercenaries, this time no quarter had been asked nor given.
After this operation the Black Widow Battalion was not available for contracts until up to today, with the most diverse rumors about its current status running; from acting as a training unit for the other regiments, to being expanded to a regiment, to being modernized with advanced technology provided by the Concordat.
With the destruction of the Big Mac and House Dai Da Chi, Liao forces were exhausted and there were no more operations on this border.
After their defeat on the Taurian border, the win on the Andurien border and the recovery of almost all worlds on the Canopian one, all this at great cost, the Capellan Confederation decided it had had enough and changed to a defensive posture, clearly aiming at recovering from an exhausting war.
The big winner of the Periphery battles against the Capellan Confederation was undoubtedly the Taurian Concordat, with 6 systems conquered, followed by the Aurigan Reach with 1. The Magistracy of Canopus had also captured one, New Roland, but its army was exhausted, while Andurien had not only failed to secure any Liao system but was soon to be reabsorbed by the Free Worlds League.

Sidebar
Why did the Big MAC operate in a way so different of their normal conduct ?
Post-battle interrogation of the few survivors and analysis of the data captured showed that they only had a limited knowledge of the mercenaries contracted by the Concordat after landing. Furthermore because of the exhaustion of the CCAF, the Big MAC had been under tremendous pressure from Romano Liao to take more conventional duties, unlike their normal heavy raids / free hand. They were also quite confident in their capacity to deal with any opposition having a surprising number of advanced weapons, not only the EW equipment displayed before by the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces but also Artemis guided missiles, Narc Missile Beacon, a few Pulse Lasers and more surprisingly, several Freezers of Steiner manufacture. That last piece of information was later passed to the MIIO and the LIC and generated several arrests including Simon Kincaid the owner of Kincaid Defiance Industries and closing the access of the CCAF to Freezers for a while, until they managed to launch their own production (Appendix 9 – Aftermath).
Of particular interest is the way that both sides fielding more advanced systems in the field than any other conflict for a long time, used them to gain advantages or deny said advantages to the other side. A prelude to what would be later seen in the War of 3039.