Chapter Seventy-Seven: Briefing

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Briefing

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns March 3rd, 3017

"Wolf," I greeted the man as he walked into the briefing room. "Is this secure enough for what you're planning?"

"It is." He agreed. "Thank you for your assistance in this matter."

"You're welcome." I told him, "Now let's get this show on the road."

Ian and Hanse walked in first, followed by Katrina and Arthur, and Zarantha Calderon was the last one to walk into the meeting room

"Good evening." I greeted the assembled nobles. "This is a briefing put together by myself and Colonel Wolf here." I started. "It covers two main threats to the Inner Sphere, and potentially to our current way of life." I took a breath. "We are going to ask you to hold any questions until the end of this briefing. We'll be here for a while anyway, and we may answer some of your questions as we go."

"We're going to start with a small history lesson." I said and passed the briefing over to Jaime Wolf.

Hour later…

"My first thought was to simply explain how the Clans fought, and how to meet them in regular combat." Jaime Wolf admitted. "But Duke Hull here managed to change my mind on this matter after showing me how he would handle the Clans and their way of combat."

"Simply put, all warfare is based on deception." I quoted from memory. "So I would lie, and "bid" forces, only to have the opposing side meet air support, or extra Mithril clad infantry in order to overwhelm the enemy forces. Given that I would give priority orders to make sure that they couldn't communicate, information would hopefully not leak out." I got going. "And once it did leak out, I would conduct asymmetrical warfare, and run circles around them, having strength against weak forces, and weak forces supported by heavy artillery at every stage." I shrugged. "If you want a world so badly that you're willing to lose most of the forces you bring with you then you're welcome to have it." I smirked. "Until I come back with reinforcements that is."

"Give me your opinion on the individual skill level that they possess." Hanse said after some thought.

"On an individual level, they beat us in skill aside from the most elite of our forces." I stated coldly. "That is both a good thing for them, and their failing."

"How is that a failing?" Ian asked for the entire group.

"It's a failing because aside from a certain respective few, they do not have the same teamwork ethics that we have tried to build." I said, "Their entire culture is built upon survival of the fittest and every man for himself, this doesn't contribute to their overall success on the long term." I shrugged, "In fact, based on what Wolf here has told me, aside from a respective few Khans, most only see short term, and don't typically think into the future as we do."

"Combined arms is going to need to be a focus." Hanse broke into the conversation. "Mark, what would it take to boost your tank production?"

"I need more lines, and I would have to take one line offline in order to duplicate it." I went over to my 'Noteputer to consult some notes. "Two to three years to duplicate the combat vehicle lines that I possess, assuming no other problems show up."

"Katrina," Hanse turned to her. "What of the Alacorn lines that are on New Earth? What would it take to get them back in production?"

"I need Gauss Rifles." She stated. "I have had Defiance and some other companies working on it, but we haven't had total success yet." She turned to Ian and Hanse. "Unless you've come into a Gauss rifle production factory, we're not going to be able to manufacture Alacorns."

"We may be able to assist you in that." Zarantha finally spoke up, having been silent for a little while. "My son and a fantastic team of researchers and engineers have been able to resurrect the Toro light mech, one of our VincentWarships, and have begun to repair our jumpship yards." She took a deep breath. "Given the magnitude of the threat, I'm certain that while Thomas may be upset with me, he will understand."

"We managed to uncover a research facility on Victoria after seizing it from the Capellan Confederation, and while most of the research was dedicated to stealth technology on Battlemechs, there was also a functional Gauss Rifle factory in mothballs present." She sighed, "Thomas had the Marksman relocate the factory to one of our primary manufacturing worlds, and it has been producing ever since."

"What do you need in return for the Gauss Rifles." Ian asked Zarantha point blank. "While the FedSuns have our own manufacture, all of them are already promised to various entities."

"I shall have to talk to the various industries." She said, and turned to me. "What do you have to offer to this meeting and seeming alliance we are forming?"

"Well, I bring my own fleet of Warships to the table." I gave the list of Warships that we were in the middle of repairing to the assembled people. "And I'm going to be mounting another raid on Comstar in order to take out the rest of their Black Navy capacity."

"That reminds me." Ian said. "We have hard evidence that there is a civil war going on in Comstar." He brought out a Pad and passed it to us to examine. "They aren't letting it affect their current operations because they've limited it to Terra so far, but it appears that it's starting to leak into various areas." He showed us a MIIO report on the FWLM. "They are clearly taking sides in this conflict, and we have evidence of stations waiting days before sending their transmissions and things like that."

"I'm going to be hitting a world and system that has been reporting to Comstar for a long time." Katrina said as she turned to me. "Would you be willing to lend me some of your assets to assist?" She sighed. "We don't have dedicated Marines trained anymore, and it is something that I'm going to have to incorporate into the LCAF once again."

"Of course," I replied. "Just let me coordinate and we can hit our objectives around the same time frame."

March 5th, 3017

"Thank you for your input into the meeting Zarantha." I said. "It's been a pleasure having you here."

"The pleasure was all mine." She replied with a smile. "This is still less work than managing the Concordat, and I'm glad to have passed the torch onto Thomas." She grinned, "And I can't wait to see the look on his face when I give yet another gift to him from you." She laughed, "His frustration with you is extremely funny to watch from a parenting angle, he views you as both an asset, and as a threat."

"That's what I am though." I said confused, "I could potentially be a great threat."

"You're not a threat honey." She patted my arm. "You try to do the right thing, and that means that you won't ever be a threat to those who are doing the right thing." She grinned. "That's what makes you so appealing to the nobles that you have met. You're honest and try to do what's right, something of a rarity in the galaxy we live in today."

Author's note: My laptop is fixed. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing, it's a good thing for me because it means I can finally do things with Megamek lab and other programs like that. It's a bad thing for you because it means my updates may slow down a bit...