6

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 6

-VB-

After a decade, I finally met my little brother.

Tormano Liao walked across the throne room of the Chancellor and stood about fifteen meters from the foot of the raised dais.

But even from here, I could see how my little brother's aged. Last time I saw him, he had been only eighteen years old. Now, he was thirty one with muscles and slightest of wrinkles on his forehead.

He moved to kneel but I raised my hand, stopping him.

Instead, I stood up from my throne and walked down the stairs, making my guards uneasy. I could tell that they were even though they were not showing it outwardly.

I reached the foot of the dais and then walked across it until I was in arms' reach of my little brother.

And I raised my arms. An invitation.

Tormano Liao looked at me with exasperated eyes before smiling and sighing. He crossed the final meter of space between us and enveloped me in a hug.

I grinned, my eyes only a little wet as I thumped his back with my hands. I pulled him back and grinned. "So!" I said. "How have you been?"

"Happy, actually," he replied with a grin.

I noticed, now that I was closer, that he had new scars along his face and neck. I frowned at that.

"Oh, these?" he asked me, obviously seeing where I was looking. "I got them while fighting off one of father's assassins."

"Dad sent assassin after you?!" I asked in horror.

"Yeah," he grimaced and then grinned triumphantly. "Obviously, I won."

I snorted. "Good. I don't remember you sucking as a mechwarrior, but having confirmation is always good," I remarked. Then I cleared my throat. "Let's take this to a more private place, yeah?"

"Sure, Will," he said and followed me.

As he followed me to filed all of the information I have gathered so far on my brother. Tormano came into the throne room wearing the traditional formal attire of the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces rather than the princely or noble attire. That was a pretty big statement, which also showed that Tormano, despite having spent a lot of time away from the royal court, still knew how to coordinate a statement like a noble should. Or he had someone to advise him on that.

I knew from records that he had married a lowborn. I personally had no issue with this, but the same record showed how both our now-widowed stepmother and father had issues. They had an issue so deep and extreme that that dad used his position as the Chancellor to edict the marriage away.

Sufficed to say, Tormano had as much of a reason to hate Maximilian Liao as I did.

We finally reached one of my private offices, where I was saluted to by the guards who walked in with us.

Once inside, the guards quickly checked the office for any bugs. Finding none, they saluted and left.

"Want anything?" I asked.

"Water?"

"Sure."

I walked over to my mini-fridge, brought out some bottled water, and handed one to him.

He took his plastic bottle with a raised eyebrow.

"What? Is bottled water too common for the Chancellor?" I asked with a wry smirk. "When I want privacy and I'm working with classified files, it works."

He shrugged and popped it open. "So. Congratulations on your chancellorship."

"Thank you," I smiled and then my smile dropped. "And I need your help."

"... How can I help, brother?"

I took a deep breath in and let it out. "Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth are preparing to attack."

He froze and then slowly met my eyes. I looked back evenly. Tiredly. "You're sure of this."

"I am." Because even if my foreknowledge wasn't reliable, the regular spies and Maskirovka reports are collaborating my insights. Jumpships were way too active. Regiments from their periphery were moving toward our borders but just out of sight so that we wouldn't immediately suspect anything. I reached into one of the drawers and pulled out a simple map. "This is the best we have for what kind of forces are where."

He took the map, opened it, and looked at it.

Tormano kept up a good poker face but he couldn't stop his face from turning pale. He set the map down and covered his face with one hand while leaned on the other.

"A hundred regiments."

"Just along our coreward borders, yes."

"Shit."

"Yes."

"Fuck."

"Very."

He glared at me, looked ready to say something, but then stopped himself and sighed. "And where is Candace? Shouldn't she be helping?"

"... You didn't hear?"

"Hear what?"

I grimaced. "Her husband turned out to be a Fed Sun spy."

He looked at me and then groaned as he leaned back. "Fuck. Does no one in this family have a good family life?"

I scoffed. "It must be the true cause of the Liao Madness. Shitty family life leads to shitty mental," I laughed.

He snorted. "... Where do you need me?"

It was time to get down to business then. "I want to assign you to the Blackwind Lancers. They have one regiment, three battalions. It's a medium-heavy mech focused regiment, centering around Archers and Enforcers. Their first battalion is currently on St. Andre, and it will be one of the worlds hit by the Steiner-Davion alliance. I will have the Lancer's second and third battalion reinforce that position soon. Your job, if you accept this, will be to hold out for as long as possible, but under no circumstances are you to needlessly sacrifice your mechwarriors and soldiers for just a few days. We will need them after the war comes to an end."

Tormano stared at me.

"You are putting a lot of trust in me, brother."

"You are my brother. While Romano and dad were utter assholes, I know I can trust you and Candace. Both of you are loyal to the confederation."

His hands tightened around his knees.

"... And our allies?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What allies, Tor?" I asked. "You can't been the Concord?"

"Yes, them."

"... Brother, you've been stationed right on the Free Worlds League border. You know exactly what goes on there."

From the way he bit his lips, he knew.

While we might be "allies," the Free Worlds League and we still raided each other using deniable assets. It was an open secret that we were still fighting in a shadow war while we waited for the Steiner and Davion to act.

No. Tormano knew better than most did that we had no allies. Our allies weren't even allies.

-VB-

The Helm Memory Core … remained safe.

There were now copies that were being moved across the confederation as well as contingencies in case someone (read: ComStar) tried to take them off of my hands. At the same time, one factory had begun rolling out a previously lostech weapon: pulse lasers.

While pulse lasers were heavier than than normal counterparts and built up heat much faster, they also caused more damage by firing faster in burst.

But it was much easier to have laser weapon factories retooled to make pulse lasers than it was to make ferro-fibrous armor, endo steel, or double heat sinks, all of which required whole new production lines. Also, the cost of each pulse laser was very affordable. Sure, a small pulse laser was fifty percent more expensive, but, again, this was cheaper than anything else any of my factories could make right now.

I had less than six months before the -.

"Celestial Wisdom."

I looked up from my office.

Oh, damn. I didn't even notice my personal secretary knocking on my office door.

"Yes, Major Roswell?" I asked the blonde man.

"HPG message for you, milord. Two of them, in fact," he reported and I saw two manila folders in his hands, both of them sealed with ComStar's sigil on wax.

Yes, sigil on wax.

Frowning, I gestured for him to come and give me the messages. I took them from his hands

The first was addressed to me … from First Prince Hanse Davion and Archon Katrina Steiner.

I knew what this was.

With a sigh, I opened it up and read the invitation within.

An invitation to the wedding of First Prince Hanse Davion and Heir Melissa Steiner. It was a deadline to the Fourth Succession War and it was marked … Huh. It was marked October. Strange. Didn't it take place on August in the canon timeline?

Actually, I didn't care. Two extra months was two extra months I could use to pump out just a few more mechs, few more weapons, and fortify the Sarna and Tikonov Commonality.

And the second message was from one of the mercenary companies that I reached out to.

Grey Death Legion.

Without the Stewart Chip to open the Castle Brian, the locals and the ComStar Precentor on site decided to pry it open, the former hoping to get into the thing and the latter to try to destroy it. This was after my Hands have come and gone, taking the most prized possession. The failsafes of the Castle Brian obviously worked and a whole lot of the planet got flooded. Of course, all of the SLDF had been lost. ComStar blamed this on the action of Grey Death Legion, and the League had no other reason to believe otherwise.

And now, they were on the run, having lost everything.

I offered them an out.

And the message here said … they were willing to take it.

This was the mercenary band in another timeline that would have done what right by humanity. No one would know it but I would reward them for it, nonetheless, and if that reward came in a generous garrison contract within Sian Commonality's antispinward worlds, then that's what it'll be.

And considering how quickly they responded, they weren't willing to throw this contract away even if they must be paranoid as fuck right now.

I snickered.

"Thank you, major."

He bowed and left my office, leaving me to my work.

And it was only after he left that, on time, one of the Hands stepped out from a side panel in the wall and knelt down to one knee.

"Chancellor."

I smiled. "Welcome back. Have you and the other Hands rested fully for the next mission?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." Helm Memory Core had been a boon to the Capellan Confederation, but it was not something that would give us an edge in the short term. No, I needed something more that could give me that short-term advantage. "Your next mission is New Dallas. I have information that the New Dallas Militia had access to the latest SLDF technology, which also explains why the Mariks had to nuke it; they didn't have the strength to conquer it. No, what I am after is not the SLDF equipment but what may have survived the First Succession War."

"... Another memory core."

"Correct, or at least the closest thing to it. I already had this cleared with the Director of Maskirovka and mapped out New Dallas's location from the palace's older stellar maps. Go to your headquarters, and they will have it ready for you. Take the fastest jumpship and a dropship from the CCAF and as many deep scanning equipment as you want. Bring me that memory core."

He bowed and left by the same side panel.

Satisfied, I leaned back.

If the Helm Memory Core was a general tech core, then the New Dallas Memory Core was a military-specific tech bank. I remembered that it was in a bunker (ergo why I told him to take the deep scanners) and would give rise to RetroTech, simpler and easier to manufacture primitive designs that I could use to bolster my numbers as quickly as possible.

Because if I was going to lead the Space Communist, then by God, I was going to use Space Commie Human Wave Tactic!

I just hoped the Hand would return in time for the start of the Fourth Succession War