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Triad, Tharkad
Lyran Commonwealth
30 March 3031

It was the first time that Hanse Davion had visited Tharkad. It was only fair that he did now, since Melissa had spent months on New Avalon with him and having missed the birth there was no possibility whatsoever that Hanse was going to miss his son's first birthday. At the moment Victor Ian Steiner-Davion was not present and therefore his aides along with several senior officers of the Lyran Commonwealth were therefore spared the sight of the First Prince dissolving into a puddle of paternalistic pride. He had handed out cigars though.

Katrina Steiner tolerated the social niceties with the amused toleration of aging matriarch before calling the room to order with a casual flick of one hand. Yep, she decided as everyone settled into their chairs, I've still got it. "Hanse, would you like to begin?"

"Thank you, Katrina." Hanse looked down the table from where he was seated next to the Archon. "To recap the agenda, we are here to discuss our military policy over the next few years."

Backs straightened along the table as officers braced themselves to champion their particular opinions.

"The first point is of course that neither LCAF nor the AFFS is ready for an offensive war." It wasn't much more than a year since the end of the Fourth Succession War and while equipment losses had almost all been made good, the stocks to replace new combat losses were still all but non-existent. The personnel and financial situations were even further from being ready.

Hanse leant forwards. "There are essentially two points of view within the AFFS High Command. The first is that we should rebuild as fast as we can and hit the Draconis Combine a second time before they have the chance to recover." There was a murmur of approval. "Alternatively, we not only rebuild but expand and defer military action until we have sufficient forces to ensure that the action is decisive."

"Respectfully, your highness, that sounds like an excuse to hold off on dealing with House Kurita. We know that that the League and the Capellans are in disarray over Andurien and probably will be for the next few years," observed Roman Steiner. "Further, while our supply situation is still somewhat lacking, the DCMS is in a much worse condition. This is our best chance to finish them off without having to worry about Marik and Liao at our back."

"Everything that you say is right, Roman," Katrina agreed. "But we aren't just talking about a quick campaign. You've not been directly involved but the occupation of the worlds we took in the last year is still posting a drain. Pushing the DCMS to breaking point means pushing at least as far in as Benjamin and occupying a hundred or more worlds. And that's a strain that we can't support for at least a few more years."

Hanse nodded his agreement. "It is unfortunate, but realistically we're looking at 3034 or 3035 before we can support another major offensive. So I do see the opportunity, but we're not in place to take advantage of it."

"I think we can all agree that striking at the Dracs as soon as possible is very appealing." Colonel Thomas Steiner-Green was a much more distant relative of the Archon than Roman Steiner. He'd also not led any unit larger than a battalion into battle, but he was a rising star of LCAF's Replacement Depot Corps and highly familiar with the state of the supply situation. "What are the arguments in favour of deferring to build up our forces further?"

"Primarily the expectation is that with the Lyran military-industrial complex and the acquisition of several Capellan factories, we have something of an advantage in production over the Kapteyn powers combined and we're already ahead of them in recovering from the last year. The theory is that we could build up such a lead over ten or fifteen years that we could then crush the Combine or the League while still being able to keep enough forces on our other borders that we're still entirely secure."

Roman shook his head. "What are you suggesting we could build up in that time? The entire SLDF?"

"Nothing quite so formidable," Katrina told him. "The idea that has been put forward is to use the First Federated Commonwealth Regimental Combat Team as the seed of a new joint military force - the Federated Commonwealth Armed Forces - built up partly by raising new regiments and partly through transferring regiments, from the LCAF and AFFS, replacing them with newly raised units. The Arcturan Guards have been suggested as the Lyran contribution to the core units of the new force."

"If we do go down this route, their counterparts would be the Avalon Hussars. Both formations have a long history going right back to the beginning of each state and I don't believe that anyone here wants to see those traditions to be lost in our union. Neither the Archon nor myself sees the Federated Commonwealth as something that leaves our heritage in tatters."

There were nods of agreement at Hanse's statement.

"In principle the FCAF - or AFFC, which I still think flows better - would reinforce the regiments already on the border of the Combine when the time comes to launch the invasion. Thirty or forty regimental combat teams, along with a similar number of LCAF and AFFS units should be more than enough to do to the Combine what was done to the Confederation."

"You want to outnumber the entire DCMS without moving regiments from facing Liao?" asked Nondi Steiner. "And even with the Arcturan Guards and Avalon Hussars, that's less than twenty regiments."

"I believe Hanse has already made it clear, Nondi, that we're looking at ten or twenty years from now," her sister pointed out firmly. "This will give us the time to get the March Militia regiments that have been proposed."

"Yes, but you can't substantially expand the Arcturan Guards when they still need to recruit a quarter of their personnel from Arcturus. There just isn't the manpower."

"Then maybe it's time that we revise that particular obligation for them," Katrina said unflinchingly. "Give them first call on all personnel recruited from Arcturus perhaps. With the prospect of re-raising half a dozen of their disbanded regiments, they might well agree. Or we assign the Lyran Guards instead. This is all theoretical at this point."

There were thoughtful looks around the table. "I'm still in favour of hitting the Combine as soon as possible," Roman observed. "Theodore Kurita is dangerous - it's an open secret he murdered Frederick on Dromini VI. We don't want him to get his feet under him. Takashi's in a weak position right now, better to strike now while he's in charge rather than giving another Jinjiro Kurita the chance to take power."

"It's a good point," agreed Hanse. "Well launching an attack in 3034 would certainly preclude any major reorganisations..."



Avalon City, New Avalon
Federated Suns
17 August 3034

"Well that puts paid to any thought of going after Theodore this year," Hanse concluded. "Probably not next year either. We can't consider staging out of Skye while it's a mess like this."

"I'm sorry about that," Melissa told him serenely. "But however important long term goals are, we can't ignore the immediate concerns in Skye."

Her husband nodded. "I'm not saying that you're wrong, love. Arguably I've been pushing too hard." He ran one hand through his still ruddy hair, noting that he could do with a haircut. "And the regiments their being identified as 'Davion' soldiers rather than as Federated Commonwealth soldiers is probably the worst of it."

"Wasn't there...?" Melissa tapped her fingers on the glass she'd been drinking from. "Who was it...? Ah, yes. Aunt Nondi mentioned a few years back that you and mother considered forming a seperate Federated Commonwealth Armed Forces that wouldn't be identified with either half of the Federated Commonwealth. That has it's own uniform and rank structure and so forth."

"That's right. We talked about it, but the decision was made to build up to hit the Combine as soon as possible." He frowned. "You're thinking we should revisit that?"

"Well what were the arguements?"

"Mostly to hit the Combine before they could get back on balance after the Fourth Succession War." Hanse reached for the coffee carafe. "I suppose that the fighting in Rasalhague shows that we've missed our chance there. Of course it's also created pressure from Tamar to make good the worlds Katrina has had to hand over to the Republic by launching another invasion."

"Arguably she was more generous than I would have been," Melissa agreed. "Keeping a few worlds around Tamar..." She shrugged. "What's done is done and arguably a buffer zone benefits us just as much as it does Theodore. The question is how strong the DCMS is now."

He offered her a refill of her own mug but she declined with a graceful gesture. Very much her mother's daughter, Hanse noticed wryly. "The only way to find out is to test them," he observed. "Perhaps it's time to make a limited push - Third Succession War style - pick a couple of strategic targets and make some low key attempts to take them."

"It would certainly be good for morale in the border regions."

"The Sandovals would certainly love the idea." Hanse leant forwards, clearly intrigued by the idea. "And if we do this under the banner of the Federated Commonwealth not of either individual state..."

"They'd have to be important worlds. Places that Theodore would have to take seriously." Melissa reached for orange juice, not wanting too much coffee at this time in the morning. "Dromini VI for example - it's very symbolic, his victory from the last war, and it cuts off Alphecca and Skondia."

"It might be a little too drastic for the first probe, but yes it's a good idea."



Triad, Tharkad
Lyran Commonwealth
3 January 3036

There was a chill in the air of the Triad that had nothing to do with the snow out on the ground. Leutenant General Gunter Hillam and General John Yapt both rose to their feet as the blonde woman entered the room. She wasn't the blonde that they'd expected to see, although it was no surprise that Melissa was flanked by James Sandoval, wearing the uniform of the commander of the three Federated Commonwealth regiments.

"Gentlemen," Melissa said in greeting, gesturing towards the comfortable armchairs that made up the furnishing of the small antechamber that they had gathered in. "Please be seated. I'd like this to be a fairly informal meeting."

"Will the Archon not be joining us?" asked Hillam cautiously.

Melissa inclined her head slightly. "It's possible, but she has been delayed and would rather that we proceed without her for now."

"I'd like to congratulate the two of you on the Aubsisson last year," she said as the four of them sat down. Prior to Hillam's promotion he'd commanded the Twentieth Arcturan Guards under the overall command of Yapt, working with the Thirty-Third Avalon Hussars RCT to seize Aubisson from the Draconis Combine. The smooth command relationship that had been established between the two of them had been critical in their success...

Something that had been noticeably absent when the Argyle Lancers had been subordinated to the Tenth Lyran Guards RCT for a similar strike on Dromini IV later in the year. The falling out between Colonel Preston and General Devers had probably had as much to do with their failure as the swift arrival of reinforcements led by the new Warlord of Dieron, Michi Noketsuna. Both officers had been cashiered and the Tenth's heavy losses had been a severe blow to a unit still recovering from their near extermination on the same world seven years before.

As if seeing what was on their minds, Sandoval nodded wisely. "Unfortunately your operation was the only really successful attack out of four carried out last year. Meaning no disrespect, the situation on Aubisson probably did benefit from being first and therefore the defenders being less alert but there were still ample opportunites to screw up and you didn't."

"I thought Royal..."

"Royal was a victory only because we were more willing to throw reinforcements in than Theodore was," Sandoval growled. "If the New Ivaarsen Chasseurs hadn't been rushed in, we might well have lost both units commited. And the less said about Murchison the better."

"I am aware that the rumour is that the defeats on Dromini VI and Murchison aborted what would have been an all out invasion of the Draconis Combine this year. Those rumours are both true and false - in fact, they're the result of deliberate mis-information by LIC and MIIO in order to draw out and identify ISF informants in our command stucture," Melissa told them. "We were actually at least two years from being ready to invade the Draconis Combine although all four worlds would have been useful as staging points."

The two 'junior' officers, at least out of this select group, picked up on one detail immediately. "Uh, you said that we ere two years from launching an invasion. I take it that the timetable has been changed?" asked Yapt.

"It's been decided that given the increased capability of the DCMS that we need to do this right," Sandoval told them. "It's also been decided that we haven't really taken all the lessons of the Fourth Succession War onboard - it's hard to be critical when we won. One lesson we've learned is that we need a single, unified chain of command and that starts here."

"Starting from February, James will be appointed Marshal of Armies for the Federated Commonwealth Armed Forces," Melissa declared. "At the same time, Nondi Steiner and Ardan Sortek will take up the same offices for the LCAF and AFFS respectively. The three of them will be co-equal and report directly to Edward Regis as Prime Marshal who will have ultimate responsibility for the military of both realms."

"I thought Ed was retiring."

Melissa smiled. "Mother has persuaded him to stay in harness for a few more years." Then she grew more serious. "So now we get to the point. The new FCAF can't simply be the Federated Commonwealth regiments alone. The Archon has agreed with the First Prince that each national military needs to transfer in several additional regiments and for obvious reasons these need to be respected units."

"You mean the Twentieth Guards and Thirty-Third Hussars?" asked Hillam.

"I mean the entire Arcturan Guards and Avalon Hussars corps will be transferred. All seventeen regiments." Melissa smiled slightly. "That means that as the new commanders of each corps, you will each be reporting directly to James in the future." She let that sink in. "It's not yet been decided exactly what the rank structure of the FCAF will look like but you'll be roughly co-equal with LCAF Kommandant-Generals or AFFS Marshals."

"Jackson Davion, currently the commander of the First Davion Guards, has been offered the command of the Federated Commonwealth corps," James Sandoval told them. "However it will be at least a month before he can hand over his current duties so I'd like to start thinking about the basic structure of the FCAF now."

"Where do we begin?" asked Yapt.

Sandoval produced a sheet of paper from his attache case and placed it on the table. It was completely blank. He took a pen and wrote 'FedCom RCTs + Avalon Hussar RCTs + Arcturan Guards'. "From this."

That elicted a harsh chuckle from Hillam. He produced a pen from inside his pocket and scribbed 'RCT' next to the words Arcturan Guards. "I'm getting to like this combined arms business," he admitted.

"I'm rather fond of it," agreed Sandoval.

"While we're looking at importing good ideas, I rather like the idea of Warrant Officers. Gives the non-combat arms something to aspire to beyond Sergeant Major," suggested Yapt. "Since the rank structure is still being organised, that is."

Hillam wrote that on the paper and then looked up as Melissa reached for the paper, a pencil in hand. "I'm inclined to think that the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh FedCom regiments can wait a few years to be formed," she said and wrote '1st Arc. Gds 2nd & 3rd Avln Hsrs' down underneath Sandoval's header.

"Why does Johan get two new regiments?" Hillam asked lightly, allowing his usually fluent English slip slightly towards his native German.

"You're getting something on the order of ninety conventional regiments attached to your corps," pointed out Yapt drily. "It's not as if you're being short-changed."

Hillam spread his hands. "Just playing Devil's Advocate," he promised. "That's going to be difficult though, I'm not sure that we can fill out twenty-five percent of ninety regiments with natives of Arcturus."

"That's why, after some thought, the Archon has decided that that tradition will only apply to the BattleMech regiments," Melissa told him. "Arcturan natives will be given preference, but there will not be a quota."

"That's going to be bad for morale," warned Hillam.

Sandoval cleared his throat. "Given the general shortage of Arcturans in the LCAF, I wouldn't oppose abolishing the entire tradition," he observed. "However Archon Steiner and Prince Davion feel otherwise. They've therefore agreed that to facilitate recruitment, the training facilities on Arcturus will be upgraded to academy status and I will make my headquarters there. It's conveniently placed for the Draconis front and the existence of the Free Rasalhague Republic leaves Arcturus relatively screened against direct approach from the Combine."

The Lyran officer scratched his beard. "Does anyone outside this room know that you want to abolish one of the Arcturan Guards' most sacred traditions?"

"Just the Archon and First Prince." Sandoval shrugged. "Let me guess. I should keep it that way."

He nodded. "Never mention it again."



Triad, Tharkad
Lyran Commonwealth
15 March 3039

Katrina Steiner became a grandmother for the fifth time, the same day that she signed her name to her formal abdication.

In some ways that abdication changed nothing. Melissa was on Liao, technically within the Lyran Commonwealth but far from the capital on Tharkad. Until she arrived along with the newborn Yvonne Steiner Davion, Katrina would continue to rule.

In practical terms, however, responsibility had now shifted out of her hands. That fact had done more to put energy into Katrina's stride than all the medicine she'd taken since being diagnosed with cancer two years before. Not quite as much energy as Victor, who was nine now (or so he declared in cheerful disregard for the exact date of his birthday, which was almost a month away) but enough to keep the boy more or less in sight as he ran cheerily through the corridors of the Triad.

That meant that she had a perfect view of the boy crashing headlong into the legs of Gunter Hillam as the Marshal - the rank that had eventually been decided on for his position - left one of the many office suites on this level of the Triad.

"Whoops," the mechwarrior declared in surprise, half-turning to catch the little boy before the collision could sending the much smaller participant tumbling to the ground. "Steady there, lad."

"I'm okay," Victor replied, shaking off the hand.

"Victor," called Katrina sternly.

The boy winced and then bowed formally towards the Marshal. "I'm sorry for running into you, sir."

"That's alright," Hillam replied. "These floors are slippy, running on them is like running a 'Mech on icy ground. You have to be careful to watch what you're doing." Above Victor's head he winked at Katrina and she smiled broadly. Clearly the Marshal had been warned of the best way to make a lesson stick with the young heir to the throne: put it in terms of being a mechwarrior.

"You've got blue trousers," Victor observed thoughtfully. "That means you're eff-caff, right?"

"FCAF," confirmed Hillam, enunciating each letter clearly. "And yes, I am." The uniform of the FCAF was predominantly of the Lyran-pattern with a high-collared jacket and stirrup pants. However while the LCAF dress uniform used white pants and a blue jacket with metal epaulettes, the FCAF made the pants Steiner-blue and the jacket Davion-green with white and orange epaulettes. In addition, Hillam wore both his school rag around his waist and rowel-less spurs on each trouser cuff in the fashion of a Davion mechwarrior. Other than the neat line of braid on his left breast pocket that represented various medals, in keeping with the Archon's long-standing preference, the uniform was bare of other decoration.

The boy nodded his head, apparently committed it to memory. Then he pointed at the spurs. "Do those mean that you're a mechwarrior like my father's spurs do?"

"They do indeed."

Then Victor asked the first of two questions that he'd asked every mechwarrior he encountered for the last year and a half: "Do you pilot a Victor?"

"Not yet." Hillam smirked slightly at the confused expression on the boy's face. "I used to pilot my family's Zeus, but I handed it on to my nephew now that he's about to graduate from the Nagelring. Fortunately, I've been assigned a Victor as a replacement."

The boy started hyperventilating and Katrina laughed out loud. "You've just made his day, Marshal Hillam. No one's ever said yes to that question so far."

"Can I see it!? Please!" Victor all but shouted.

"Not unless you're quite a bit more polite about asking," Katrina told him.

"Please may I see your battlemech, Marshal Hillam," Victor begged, turning big pleading eyes on the man.

The Archon-Emetrius could see that Victor's secret weapons were weakening whatever resolve Hillam might have mustered in opposition of the idea. "Only if it fits in with your schedule, Marshal."

"Well not today. Perhaps tomorrow?"

Victor's face fell, but his grandmother came to his rescue. "I think that your piano lesson could be let slip tomorrow but only if you practise properly tonight," she offered. "And you are not for any reason to touch the controls of the Marshal's 'Mech. No piloting any Battlemech until you're at least eleven."

"Eleven," Victor grumped, although he clearly wasn't too depressed since he would now get to see a Victor BattleMech for real and by implication, actually get to go into the cockpit.

"I didn't start learning until I was twelve," his grandmother said firmly.



Altair, Dieron District
Draconis Combine
9 November 3042

The golden trim on the heavy BattleMechs of the Eighteenth Dieron Regulars was bled crimson by the setting sun as they ran for the cover of the spaceport's buildings.

Chu-sa Martina Falkenburg was not among those who withdrew. Only the faster of the regiment's machines would reach that shelter in time and her Atlas was many things but it was not fleet of foot. Instead she joined the thin line of assault and heavy machines that were trying to blunt the oncoming Forty-Second Avalon Hussars.

Attrition and transfers had diminished the Forty-Second from the five battalion behemoth it had been in the 3020s but it was still one of the heaviest regiments to have ever served House Davion and it had only benefited from access to Lyran factories. They hit the Kurita line with three times their number and four times their tonnage, supported by air-to-ground fire from a squadron of Lucifers.

Falkenburg's Atlas staggered backwards as missiles shattered armour all across the barrel-chest of the 100 ton 'Mech. Her missile salvo rocketed somewhere into the onrushing 'Mechs but whether or not it hit anything or not she couldn't tell.

A Warhammer next to her fell to the ground as a pair of Victors closed in and opened fire, their powerful autocannons tearing through the chest armour with relative ease. Falkenburg placed her crosshairs over the nearest and fired a salvo from her own autocannon, backing it up with lasers and SRMs. The Victor's pilot raised his 'Mech's left arm just in time to shield his cockpit - the shells from the potent 'MechHunter autocannon splintering armour along the limb from wrist to elbow, severing entire bundles of myomers. Had the salvo struck the cockpit then it would surely have been destroyed.

Propping itself up on one arm - the other hung loose and useless - the Warhammer unleashed a muted volley from its secondary weapons at the other Victor, which responded with a vicious kick that caught the fallen Dieron 'Mech above the knee, literally half-spinning it around. The Victor squatted slightly to place the muzzle of its autocannon above the rent in the right-chest and fired a volley directly into the wound.

The resultant explosion as the missile reloads inside the Warhammer's chest detonated sent parts of the luckless 'Mech across a square kilometer of tarmac and lifted the responsible Victor off the ground, gravity slamming it back onto the concrete with brutal force.

Falkenburg and her own immediate adversary were less affected, although the clatter of debris against their armour was an unwelcome distraction. They exchanged fire again, with the now dis-armed Victor coming off second-best, Falkenberg taking the autocannon shells against one well-armoured leg of her Atlas while her fire pummeled the chest and upper thighs of the Victor viciously. The FedCom mechwarrior made the mistake of taking a half-second to stabilise before using his jump jets to open the range and Falkenburg closed the fist of her Atlas around the muzzle of the other 'Mech's autocannon, turning what had been intended as a well-controlled hop into tumble that dropped both 'Mechs onto the ground.

Before she could release her hold - which had somehow survived the tumble - the autocannon went off. Given the twist that their one point of contact had suffered, the rounds didn't make their way out un-interrupted and the forearm of the Victor came apart, similarly obliterating the left hand of Falkenburg's Atlas and sending lethally sharp splinters of metal out through the area between the two. Struggling to right her fallen 'Mech, it took the Chu-sa a moment to realise that the face-plate of her opponent's head had been torn open by one such shard and that the 'Mech was not moving.

As the Atlas finally came to her feet she noticed two things.

Firstly, that more dropships were descending on the port. Dozens of them, some spilling additional 'Battlemechs towards the surface. Unlike the light gray of the Avalon Hussars, these were painted the navy blue of the Federated Commonwealth RCT.

Secondly, she was surrounded with no less than seven assault-weight BattleMechs pointedly aiming their weapons at her.

Later reviews of BattleROMs would show that the momentary hesitation that to the Chu-sa felt like at least half an hour was no more than a second and a half. She broken into a charge directly towards the nearest 'Mech, the Victor that had killed her comrade in the Warhammer.

Four seconds later the crippled wreckage of her Atlas managed to fall against the Victor with enough force to knock it down for a second time.

Unconcious inside the cockpit, Falkenberg could do nothing to prevent FCAF infantry from forcing open the hatch and dragged her with no particular gentleness towards the holding area set aside for prisoners of war where a pair of Firestarters were lurking in pointed indication of what would happen to anyone standing next to a prisoner who decided to die like a samurai.



Avalon City, New Avalon
Federated Suns
17 December 3042

"Well that went rather better than last time," Hanse noted with satisfaction as the map on his offices display screen updated to show the outcome of the three attacks that had been authorised to let the FCAF cut its teeth.

Altair, less than five light years from Dieron and the only world between it and Terra, was of fairly minor strategic value but immense psychological value: not only was the Draconis Combine 'cut off' from Terra but the motherworld was now surrounded on all sides by the Federated Commonwealth. The effects not only on the court at Luthien but also on ComStar would be interesting.

The second success had been Klathandu IV, one of the worlds that had been taken by the DCMS in the Fourth Succession War. It wasn't particularly important, not something that Theodore Kurita would consider he had to fight to the death for, but it was a bone to throw to the Sandovals and helped to firm up the saved Raman Command further.

"The only fly in the ointment is Buckminster," he admitted. "That was too bold perhaps."

"A tactical defeat," admitted Justin Allard from where he sat facing the First Prince's desk. "I suspect that Theodore will consider it a strategic victory for us however."

"Oh?"

The Deputy Secretary for Intelligence nodded. "As a prefecture capital we knew that Buckminster was well protected, with two regiments of the Alshain Regulars assigned there. The reason that our invasion force retreated offworld was the arrival of two more regiments as reinforcements. We'd not anticiapted that because those regiments are not part of the Order of Battle we had for the DCMS."

Hanse glanced up. "Unknowns? That's worrying."

"And no doubt something that Theodore would have been delighted to hide from us." Justin produced a data disc from his attache case. "We don't know where he found the mechwarriors, or the supplies. But we do have a theory on where he found the BattleMechs. Or to be more precise, where he bought them."

"Oh?"

"We've had the occasional indication that the DCMS has had an influx of rare designs. BattleMechs like the Thorn, the Hussar or Kintaro have been occasionally sighted over the last few years. Enough that we thought they'd found a small cache. But the regiments that reinforced Buckminster had scores of 'Mechs, apparently in good condition, that have been out of production for centuries."

Hanse frowned. "That would be a huge cache to find. Something on the order of the Gray Death find on Helm, if not larger."

"And we keep very close tabs on that sort of thing. It's unlikely that anyone turned up a new find like that without at least some rumours getting out." Justin spread his hands. "However there is one cache of these machines that we do know about: Akira Brahe, currently part of the Kell Hounds, located a huge cache of Star League era designs stored under Hilton Head in 3028, hundreds of 'Mechs being maintained by ComStar."

"I begin to see." The First Prince accepted the data disk and loaded it into the appropriate slot of his desk. Images came up on the screen, 'Mechs of an unfamiliar design painted a gray-white as if they where ghosts of the armies that had waged the devestating campaigns of the late twenty-eighth century, fighting for control over the Terran Hegemony and the empty throne of the Star league. "You think this was a gift from ComStar?"

Justin raised one mechanical finger. "Almost. A payment, not a gift. We've been wondering why Theodore would take the immense risk of allowing the secession of Rasalhague. The fact that it let him draw out and destroy many of the hardliner opposition to his reforms was the only idea that made sense but it still looked like quite a gamble. However if he could do that and secure the battlemechs to replace the losses the DCMS suffered during the last war..."

"He'd be a fool not to," Hanse agreed. "And it's likely that he has more than two regiments."

"I've got a team looking into it now," Justin assured him. "Now that we know that they exist we have something to look for. It's going to impact on strategy though."

"You're right. Firstly it means that Theodore has the means to fight back against our nibbling along his frontiers. And secondly, now that he knows that we know about them, he has no excuse not to. If these... ghosts... hadn't appeared, the logical conclusion from the way we won on Altair and Klathmandu would be that he couldn't." He laughed. "That cunning devil, he's been deliberately luring us in. Sooner or later we'd have over-extended and then he'd have dropped regiments we couldn't account of on us and hammered us just as badly as the Wolf Dragoons mangled the DCMS on Misery and Crossing."

Justin nodded. "It sounds almost like something that you'd do."

"A dangerous man." Hanse removed the data disc from his desk and returned it. "Let me know what you find out."

After he was alone Hanse retreived a bottle of whisky from his drinks cabinet and served himself two fingers, neat. "Here's to you, Kanrei," he offered the toast towards the setting sun outside his window. "Let's leave this one to our sons."