52

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.