17

June 3029

As the colonel in charge of the coreward-most commonality, skirmishes and battles were never far from him. Even when he became the Strategic Military Director, he was not far from battles. 

It simply was how it was, and the fact that he himself was one of the best mechwarriors he could field made the need to step onto the battlefield even clearer. This was unlike Maximillian Liao, the former Chancellor and the one who gave him his current rank. Max had been … something of a conundrum for Pavel. 

The man wasn't insane like everyone thought. It's just that he was cold, ruthless, calculating, and logical to the extreme that ousting and assassinating his own father was just another step he took for what he believed was his destiny as a Liao and the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. It was those qualities that kept the confederation afloat when they have been losing worlds one by one up to that point. 

His son, William Liao, was his father's exact opposite. Though he too could be cold, ruthless, calculating, and logical, those were skills he fabricated for his use, not his innate and immutable traits.The promise of giving servitors immediate citizenship if they killed any enemy officer or mechwarrior was cold and ruthless, but it was a decision made out of desperation, not apathetic calculation. In the same vein, Chancellor William sent his own elite bodyguards to train and bolster the two commonalities they knew would be hit by the Federated Suns, despite the fact that this would leave him vulnerable. This was a logical and calculating move he made for the sake of the confederation, not his safety. Maximilian would have never sacrificed his own safety for the whole of the confederation, because, in the dead man's own words, "I am the confederation."

If Maximillian Liao had been the leader necessary for the confederation, then William Liao was someone the confederation looked up to. 

A light that had finally shown down upon the confederation after centuries of losses.

Decisions made by William Liao continued to prove to Pavel that he had been right in staying out of the potential political power struggle that could have happened if the other Liao hadn't been … seduced. 

Pavel frowned as he thought about Candace. 

He wouldn't call her a dumb bint in any polite setting, but he would in private away from any recordings and away from the chancellor. 

Because that's what she had been. 

Candace Liao had been everything William Liao tried to be, and managed to do it without interference from her late father and sister because of just one fact: she was a woman. Max saw William as a threat, which was why that decade-long house arrest happened in the first place. With the freedom she had, Candace didn't achieve a quarter of what William did in just two years of his rule when she had over a decade and a half. 

And what she did achieve amounted to nothing after she fell in love with a spy of all things. 

… Perhaps she wasn't an idiot. 

But she was dumb for trusting the wrong person. Could she have known? No, but Justin "Xiang" Allard had been known Federated Suns-born and that alone should have excluded him from being approached. 

Yet she had.

And she suffered for it. 

She wasn't an idiot, but she did make a dumb bint-like mistake. 

But such was life, wasn't it? 

After all, if he followed that logic to its extreme end, then he should be working for the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, which now look like they were about to become the biggest Successor State.

But no.

He chose to stay and fight for the confederation because it was here that he was honored, appreciated, and respected. This was his home. This was where he would die if it came down to it. 

"D-Director!" 

He looked up from where he'd been resting on his chair still in his mechwarrior outfit and glared at the soldier who'd intruded on his very brief and very few rest times. 

"What?" he snapped. 

"I-Intel from the front, sir. The Federated Suns…!" 

He listened. 

He was running out of the door before the soldier even finished, having snatched the intel paper from the soldier's hands, and ran towards the HPG station while shouting for someone to get him a ride right this fucking second.

A brilliant light had finally risen for the confederation. 

Please don't let the light go out.

-VB-

Some time ago…

March 3029

Katrina Steiner looked down upon the holographic 2D map of the Inner Sphere that depicted all of the current battles, maneuvers, and situation on the ground. Where she had the intel, the map depicted brightly. Where she didn't, the map depicted dimly. 

It was for this reason that the majority of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth was well lit but their enemies were not except along the border and on famous worlds where they had spies consistently reporting back. 

And one of those worlds was none other than the capital of the Capellan Confederation. 

"You are sure that Sian is poorly defended?" she asked the Federated Suns officer. 

"Yes, Archon," Lieutenant General Sarah Metedan replied. "All of the Red Lancers and Warrior House Imarra are off defending their border worlds, Styk, and Tikonov. Our intel states that Sian currently has maybe one green mech regiments undergoing training, up to five mixed militia regiments, and two battalions of aerospace defenders. Death Commandos have been sighted all across the Capellan front, though we can only account for half a battalion of them."

So.

Katrina didn't believe that intel. Not that she didn't think that the Federated Suns didn't believe their own intel but that not all spies were made equal, and MIIO and DMI have shown themselves to be barely above SAFE considering how this war was going.

After all, it was their lack of preparation that led to the Capellan front grinding to a stalemate.

The Federated Suns thought that there was a total of seven regiments of mechs, aerospace fighters, and militia guarding Sian. Fine. That's what they believed, but she was going to believe something else; what the Federated Suns told her was the minimum, not the maximum count of defenders. 

After all, the Capellan Confederation showed the entire Inner Sphere and periphery that there were always defenders to be found among the populace. 

"And your plan is to strike Sian."

"It is. Our deep raid will either be discovered before they make landfall, thus causing the confederation to withdraw troops from the border, or we will land without being discovered and hammer their industry and leadership before departing."

"Assuming the defenders do not stop you."

"Yes, assuming that they can stop us. Or rather who we have put to the task."

"?"

The general gave her a vindictive smirk. "The First Prince has tasked the Eridani Light Horse for this task."

Katrina straightened her back a little. 

Eridani Light Horse…

Despite the fact that they no longer operated in the same manner as thor ancestors did during the Star League era, this didn't change the fact that the Eridani Light Horse remained a highly mobile and devastating force. With three regiments and their own jumpships and dropships, they certainly were capable of the raid. 

And if she added to this force as the First Prince was requesting, then the deep raid was likely to be a success. 

At the same time, she felt too constrained to act. 

The dissenting voices within the commonwealth were on the rise as worlds began to fall to sudden rush of League and Combine assaults. The League's assault was the bigger problem compared to the Combine, which continued to focus on the Federated Suns. But focus in one area did not mean neglect in other areas, and Takashi Kurita had placed six regiments in assaulting her worlds. 

Worse, those six regiments were separate from their defenders, and moved like a single unit. They struck world after world. At this point, Tamar Pact as a whole might shatter. 

They needed a way to stop the war before the commonwealth took further damage.

Could this opportunity be it? 

Or was it just her own wants making her think that Sian was an opportunity and not a trap? 

For all she knew, Sian might have regiments sitting in nearby systems, which could be called up to fall back to Sian in case of an invasion. 

And however good the Eridani Light Horse was with their three regiment, she didn't think at all that they were capable of a surgical strike on the scale that Hanse thought they could. Or that they themselves thought they could. 

Either way, Katrina - after looking at all of the relevant data available to her - didn't believe this operation would be successful without her help. The AFFS and Hanse realized this, which was why they were here asking for her help, weren't they?

"Currently, I only have two units who I can send to help. If you find them unacceptable for this operation, then you will not get any other help."

"Who are they?"

"The recently reformed 6th Lyran Regulars and the 10th Lyran Guards led by Colonel Frederick Steiner. They have rotated out from their station on Tamar Pact after the renewed assault saw their stationed world conquered."

The general frowned. "I see."

"If you are concerned about the competency of a defeated unit, then don't. Colonel Steiner cost less than a company to destroy a battalion of Combine mechs," she said after seeing the frown. Frederick might consider himself her political rival (idiot), but his military competency shouldn't be downplayed. 

In fact, if the AFFS didn't accept Frederick's units, then she intended to send them back against the Combine with fresher mechs and an additional armored infantry regiment to support him.

"Ah. So he is not one of your …" the general paused and looked around. This was a small meeting. 

"No, he is not a social general," she deadpanned. 

"Then we will gladly take his help."

The meeting continued on after that to cover other means of military cooperation and promises of supplies to be delivered, and throughout it all, Katrina began to wonder if there was a very real chance that she may have just traded Lyran worlds for possession of Capellan ones. 

Not a victory that she and Hanse had envisioned but just another iteration of the Succession Wars that she had begun. She wondered if her legacy had changed irrevocably. Or if she had inadvertently become Chancellor Liao's stepping stone for his legacy. 

-VB-

Borders weren't immutable. 

And the Fourth Succession War made that fact very clear. 

The Capellan Confederation was now completely cut off from Terra, and yet they performed their own counterattacks against the Federated Suns to reclaim the salients into St. Ives Commonality. Where the Capellans lost almost thirty worlds now in Tikonov Commonality, they also gained fifteen worlds in and around St. Ives Commonality. 

It was by no means a net gain for the Capellans, but these worlds reduced the number of garrisons needed to protect the rimward-spinward border, which meant that, strategically, it was a long term gain.

But maybe that was just me trying to think of something positive in the current scenario. 

"Celestial Wisdom."

I paused and looked up from my private office desk.

I wasn't in the central command room. My sister had forced me to rest, using my cute one year old nephew as a tool of her goal. 

She forced me to babysit him and forbade anyone else from taking the job from me. Of course, I knew why she did it. I have been … negligent of my body's needs. Sleep was a premium. Coffee was forever. 

Yes, yes. I know. A Capellan drinking coffee instead of tea?! 

Well, sucks for me, tea, no matter what kind, tended to put me to sleep even if they had caffeine. So what I got instead of energy was fitful and sweaty sleeps instead. Woe is me. 

So I was in my office with Kai in his crib, working when I shouldn't be. 

And then this Maskirovka showed up.

"What is it?" I asked as I set my pen down.

The agent betrayed no emotion on his face or voice, but I heard the concern nonetheless.

"We have emergency intel from Strategic Military Director Ridzik," the agent said as she lifted an envelope. 

I took it, opened it up, and read the content. 

My eyes widened before softening and closing. 

When I opened them back up, I was ready to do what had to be done. 

"Agent. Go and find my sister and get her to the central command. I will be there shortly."

The agent bowed and left, leaving me to stare at the documents. 

The first held Ridzik's intel.

The second was evidence to back it up.

The evidence was an image.

An image that held nine jumpships in close proximity. 

And the closest jumpship held the image of a jumping horse. 

"WAAAHHHH!!!"

The cry startled me out of my thoughts. I set the papers down and walked over to the crib, where Kai Liao cried. I picked him up and bounced him a little, and he started to quiet down. 

… Though half-Allard he may be, he was still my nephew, and I loved the little shit-making machine. He was … I didn't like being philosophical about what family members represented because I believed such a thought process tended to distance me from my own family, but Kai was the future of the Liao until there were more of us. 

A new shining light if you will.

"... You are my sunshine," I hummed. "My only sunshine."

I loved my sister. And my love extended to my bastard nephew. 

"You make me happy… when skies are gray. You'll never know dear~... how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away…"

Because I sang my little nephew to sleep, I could almost hear the dull and loud roars of dropship thrusters carrying my would-be killers toward my home. 

I will make them regret even thinking about coming here.

Who knows? Maybe. Just maybe. Justin will be among them, and if he was, then I'll have to make my irritation with him very public