27

Chapter 27

-VB-

Terra looked the same as it did when I last visited the homeworld of humanity. 

It was still a den of snakes posing as a neutral haven for international diplomacy. It was a relic of a time that no longer had a place in the greater human civilization. Sure, the Free Worlds League had member "states" that were continent sized but they were nearly powerless members who were closer to a rounding error in their Parliament. 

Here on Earth, Luxembourg was still a thing. 

Yes, Luxembourg, the smallest true state in Europe, was still a thing. In fact, most of the nations from my previous life were still present, though a few select ones were missing like South Sudan. I chalked that up to different geosociopolitical development in the two timelines. 

I held onto my seat as the dropship I was on, the same Princess-class luxury dropship, dove down into atmospheric re-entry. The ship barely shook as it no doubt burned through Earth's atmosphere.

I had a plan. Or rather a schedule. 

With the Fourth Succession War more or less over unless Hanse and Katrina wanted to plunge the Inner Sphere into a total war likes of which they haven't seen before while they were at a technological disadvantage, I had to make sure that the Kapteyn Accords did not break apart. 

The League and the Combine were my beat sticks and shields, and losing them after the war would mean that Hanse, who may not take the outcome of his war well, might come around for round 2. 

I would be far better prepared than before, especially with my people now seeing the threats at the proverbial gate, but it would hurt a lot. I didn't want my nation to get needlessly hurt. 

Which meant that, more than anything, I needed to hand out the promised reward to both the Combine and the League. 

But therein laid the problem.

While Janos succeeded in meeting his quota, Theodore and Takashi hadn't. This… presented a significant problem for me. 

Personally, I liked Janos. He had beef with my father because my asshole father goaded Janos's brother into rebellion before dumping him like a used whore, but Janos didn't seem to have a problem with me.

Unlike a certain someone.

Regardless, I liked Janos because he and I could work with each other. He knew what I wanted, and I knew what he wanted. Neither of us cared for war, especially if it didn't advance our objectives, and right now, war between us would benefit neither of us. He was definitely going to be getting his share, no doubt about that. 

But if I gave Janos the "civilian" core, then could I afford to not follow through? 

… Of course, I never had the intention to not follow through. I needed the Combine to be at least somewhat strong to fight back against the Lyrans and Feds. At the same time, I couldn't be seen handing over what I promised in full because that indicated a weakness. 

Even if I didn't think so, the Draconis Combine still considered the Capellan Confederation to be "in the running" for the domination of the Inner Sphere -.

Ah, we're touching down. 

I wondered what the ComStar reception was going to be like this time. At the very least, they made sure to reserve my dropship on a much more prestigious spot. 

---

To my surprise, the Primus of ComStar himself came out to meet me. 

Well, herself. 

Primus Myndo Waterly greeted me with far more pomp and grandeur than what I experienced last time. 

"Greetings, Chancellor William Liao," she greeted me with an innocent smile as if she wasn't planning on killing me if she ever got the chance to do so. "I am Primus Myndo Waterly of the First Circuit and ComStar. It is an honor to meet you here."

I looked at her for a second before giving her the customary nod one would give to their peer as the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well, Primus Waterly. May your and the future of ComStar be an ever glittering light shining down upon the future of the Inner Sphere."

She seemed to take that as a sign to mean I was not hostile to ComStar. 

Idiot. 

"We've prepared a suite for your stay. Please, follow us."

"... Very well."

I doubted that they were going to kill me. 

And even if they did, then my standing order will take effect…

… and the Inner Sphere will see the return of warships, one way or another. 

-VB-

No more than a week after I landed, I found myself in a meeting with Janos Marik, the Captain-General of the Free Worlds League. 

The Old Eagle.

This was my first time meeting him in person since the Wedding, and I had to say… He at least looked the part of his title. 

Old, aged, and feeble, yes.

But majestic, proud, and sharp despite it all.

For a long while, we didn't say anything to each other. After all, we were evaluating each other right now, and words would only get in the way. 

Oh, Janos wanted his memory core, but he also wanted to get a measure of me. 

I wasn't sure if I was passing his standards, though. Couldn't tell anything with that poker face of his. 

I, on the other hand, already had both positive and negative thoughts about him. He was disciplined enough to not cross his arms unlike many amateur politicians. A crossed arms right off the bat showed a guarded body language, something that will influence the response of the other party unless they were a social dimwit incapable of reading the simplest of body languages. He also did not blink too often, which could be a sign that he was thinking feverishly and thus on guard. 

At the same time, he did not smile. A smile could mean positive reception, yes, but it could also mean that he saw me as someone weaker than him. 

Or both.

Even if it was true, such a first impression to his own peers would be … impolite, and Janos Marik was anything if not well educated, disciplined, and, above all, calculating.

Depending on how this meeting went… Well, that's up for my future self to deal with, wasn't it? 

"Should we end it there?" I asked him, and he grunted affirmatively. "I7?" 

One of my shadows stepped up and brought out a case. He opened it next to my head and showed the memory core within.

"As promised, the civilian memory core," I said to him as the agent closed the lid of the suitcase and handed it over to his counterpart. Marik's own agent accepted it, stepped aside, and there were scans using some very high tech stuff. Star League stuff, in fact. "I wasn't aware that SAFE still retained Star League era equipment."

"Some of the very few we have refrained from using over the years," Janos replied evenly. 

We stared at each other coolly. 

If this is nothing but a trap…

I know.

It will mean the end of our cooperation. 

I know. 

Good.

A silent conversation without gestures or words. It was almost poetic and overdramatic, completely fitting for some kind of period drama or something.

But this was not a soap opera for lonely wives at midnight. It was real life, and I just handed him something worth hundreds of trillions of C-Bills. Because if a mercenary came up to Marik with it, then he would sell planets to that mercenary to get his hands on it. 

"I actually added additional data in it as an … appreciation and gesture of future cooperation," I spoke up after a while. 

"What kind?" he asked blankly. 

"Colossus dropship blueprint, jump drive blueprints, and … endosteel manufacturing process."

The Captain-General shot up from his seat and I stared up at him with a smile. 

"You're crazy," he hissed. "If you were in your right mind…!" 

"I assure you, captain-general, I am in my right mind," I grinned. "If I wasn't, then I wouldn't have given it to you."

"That makes no sense," he hissed. 

"Does it?" I asked in a way I knew could be infuriating. "If I wasn't in my right mind, then I would keep it to myself and make you work for it by sending spies into my worlds. The worst agency versus the best agency. I wonder how that will go?"

He glared at me for the first time. 

"You will not gain any ground. You will keep losing agents. You will become frustrated. Your heir will learn about it and get angry that no progress was made."

"Assuming that is how it plays out."

I laughed. "Captain-General, my agents learned about Takashi Kurita's stroke and the formation of the Federated Commonwealth years in advance," I said, showing him teeth in my grin. "Should I also tell you who else goaded your brother into rebellion aside from my father?"

He looked downright murderous. 

That's right. The memory core wasn't a desperate move or the only card I could play.

I had cards to play. 

I had many more cards to play. 

-VB-

Theodore stared at me.

I stared at him. 

He looked neither defeated nor exhausted but both feelings nevertheless radiated off of him. Was it because I knew on some level what he must be feeling? 

"I believe this is the first time we've met in person for a purpose, Heir Kurita," I began after another customary evaluation phase. "It is a pleasure to meet you."

"A pleasure to meet you as well, chancellor," he began. "But we know how this ends."

"Of course," I said as one of my shadows stepped up… and opened a suitcase to reveal a memory core.

Theodore's eyes widened. "...What?" he muttered out loud. 

"Please don't look so surprised," I chuckled. "I am not someone who is so inflexible," I drawled at the end, and he didn't quite flinch but he also knew who I was referring to. 

After all, it was because of that particular inflexibility that Theodore hadn't received the support he needed to go on a true offensive before Lyran reinforcements made further advances impractical. 

"I am a friend of the Draconis Combine," I replied. "Mostly because we are both enemies of the new Federated Commonwealth, but a friend nonetheless. And a friend wouldn't leave his friend without memorabilia to remember their first meeting, would he?" I grinned. 

"But …"

"You tried, Heir Theodore Kurita," I cut him off. "With what little you were given, you cut through Lyran ranks. I've seen reports from your own desk. Of the frustration you felt .Of the tension between you and your father."

Theodore nearly gritted his teeth. "So you know."

I didn't. I just made an assumption based on some out-of-context-ly acquired intelligence that was now some fifty years old. 

"Of course. I am the Celestial Wisdom."

His shoulders drooped as he dropped his guards to my surprise. 

But then I realized why. 

I was already deep inside his ranks. Deep enough to acquire copies of his personal reports. I already knew everything I wanted to know in his mind. What was a momentary guard against the man whose agents infiltrated the very heart of the Draconis Combine?

I doubted they found any actual Maskirovka agent when they purged the Unity Palace of its staff; I didn't have any Maskirovka agent inside, after all. 

The continued perception of failure was probably driving their ISF through the roof in frustration, though. 

I chortled. 

"While I cannot afford to give you everything I promised, I made sure to match it in proportion to what you did achieve," I noted as my shadow closed the suitcase and handed it to Theodore's own shadow. "I actually went ahead and added a surprise in there as well."

"I hope it is a welcome one."

"I do think ferro-fibrous armor blueprint would be a welcome surprise."

Theodore froze.

Then he looked up at me in shock. 

"Oh, don't be so surprised, Heir Kurita," I chuckled again and he winced. Was I getting on his nerves? "You fight the two heaviest realms of the Inner Sphere now. The least I could do was make sure that your Panthers could survive at least one AC/20 to the chest."

-VB-

Monster. 

In the private quarters of his temporary residence, Theodore Kurita shuddered as he stared at the memory core that his technicians had already checked out. 

Yes, it was real, and he had gotten it even though he shouldn't have. 

And the Monster had given it to him anyway. 

'Mad Max was doing everyone a favor by keeping William the Wise locked up,' he lamented privately as he dragged his hand down his face. 

He wondered what the Capellan Confederation would have looked like now had Mad Max abdicated in favor of his son. The man dragged a nearly dying Successor State to rise up to the challenge of a full frontal assault by its bigger and more powerful neighbor in the span of only half a decade. 

Where would the Capellan Confederation be if William the Wise had been a chancellor for over a decade? Two decades? 

The peace-loving chancellor… might have even married peace-loving Archon. Oh, it was very unlikely but, with William the Wise, was it impossible? 

No.

And that very thought - the thought that such a thought was possible because it was Chancellor William Liao - was what made Theodore continue to refer to his once counterpart as a Monster and the Wise. 

Because Theodore could not imagine winning in William Liao's position.

Worse, the fact that he gained something when he shouldn't have - because he failed - will send a political shitstorm across the Draconis Combine. 

Idiotic warlords will visit him, begging him to take the Chrysanthemum Throne. 

That will put him at odds with his father. 

That will limit the effective actions of the Draconis Combine while ensuring that the Capellan Confederation remained on its good side. 

Ferro-fibrous armored samurai would make quick work of either side of the Federated Commonwealth but should such a political scenario break out, then the DCMS will become ineffective. 

A status quo. 

Theodore could imagine it. 

A way to bolster the confederation's ally without giving them too much of an advantage and thus allow it to grow out of control. 

It was brilliant. 

It was - .

-VB-

"Man," I sighed as I tucked into my bed. "Just talking to those is tiring."

And then I went to sleep, still fretting about whether or not the Kapteyn Accords would remain in place after the signing of the peace treaty.