Collection 33 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 33

-VB-

Tamati Arano II

Coromodir VI, Aurigan Coalition

3003 December

He knew that the mysterious warship was on its way toward his world and nation. 

The news that came out of Detriot System had already reached far and wide. The picture of the giant warship had already circulated into the Inner Sphere and the rimward Periphery.

The first active warship that human civilization had seen since the Second Succession War… and it was heading toward him.

It terrified him. If it hadn’t, then his brother-in-law would have already replaced him as the High Lord of the coalition. Fear was a necessary component of being a leader. How would a leader be able to make the right decision when they didn’t fear for their people? Or fear the people? 

And right now, he feared for his people more than he feared whatever problems they could potentially cause in the face of a warship. 

A warship was what reduced worlds to ashes in the distant past, and the activation of another warship meant that such a fate was on the table once again. 

He hated it. 

He hated feeling so vulnerable. 

It was one thing to have to jockey for political power against the other houses of the coalition. It was something else to deal with larger nations that sat at the coalition’s borders. It was another thing entirely to deal with an unknown actor with the power of a nation. 

But he knew a few things. 

First off, he knew that this mysterious warship did not behave like a jumpship; the ship did not need to jump into the nadir or zenith of a star or use a pirate point to jump in and out of a star system. Videos showed the warship straight-up leaving the system by visibly going faster-than-light.

Not FTL jumping.

Visibly moving faster than light.

His scientists didn’t need to tell him what kind of damage such a thing could cause if the captain of the warship turned out to be insane and ram a planet with a FASTER THAN LIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND TON WARSHIP.

He closed his eyes. 

He was stressing himself out for no reason.

Yes, the mysterious warship and its captain was heading this way. 

However, Tamati doubted that he and his people had anything to offer. 

Though he was proud of his nation and its people, Tamati didn’t lie to himself by saying that the Aurigan Coalition was … great. 

It was a minor Periphery power at best. In fact, if he were to take on a dismissive judgement, then he could even go so far as to say that the Aurigan Coalition was barely better than a pirate kingdom because at least a pirate kingdom had the firepower to defend itself properly. Now, whether or not said firepower would stay loyal in the face of an actual war was an altogether different matter entirely from possessing said firepower. 

And the coalition did not have that firepower. In fact, it barely had enough jumpships to keep its economy trudging along. 

He -.

“High Lord!” someone came crashing into his office. He looked up sharply. It was his brother-in-law’s secretary. 

“Johnson?” he demanded imperiously. Even if Secretary Johnson was his brother-in-law’s right hand man, there were protoc-.

“O-Observatories! They’re reporting that there is a warship orbiting the word!” 

Tamati froze in his seat. 

So it came. 

“... Get me in contact with Espinosa. Now.” Then he turned to his own guards. “Ready all of the Royal Guards and the military companies and prepare … prepare for a potential defense. Raju,” he said, addressing the captain of the royal guards last. “Keep my daughter and wife safe.”

“On my life,” the scarred former mercenary grunted. 

“Then go.”

As everyone left him, he also prepared to leave his office. 

As the High Lord of the Aurigan Coalition and the Head of the House Arano, it was his job to greet and negotiate with the captain of the warship to determine what they may want. 

He took a few calming breaths and noticed his hands shaking. 

… Long, long ago, a man wrote a book. In that book, thus was said. 

‘Fear is the mind killer.’ It was a natural response to the unknown or harm. For the laymen, to fear was to react. For someone in his position, fear ruined nations and peoples. He could not afford to fear. 

Anticipate. 

Observe. 

Negotiate. 

Delay, if necessary. 

That was his job. 

He pushed himself up, intentionally putting strength into his hands and arms to mask his trembling. 

For him to negotiate against a much greater power, he needed to fool them into thinking that there was something of value here. To fool the enemy, he must first fool his allies. But never fool himself in the process. 

He looked down at himself. 

But first, he might need to change out of his office shirt. 

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Coromodir VI, Aurigan Coalition

3003 December

When I made plans to distribute the Star League memory core as a fuck you to ComStar, I initially didn’t add Aurigan Coalition as a stop. Why would I have done that when I knew that the Periphery power lacked the industry needed to fully take advantage of the memory core? 

It was only after running to the planetary nations of Segerica that I amended my plans. 

After all, without any contact with outsiders, regular people of Segerica were able to bring themselves up to 20th century technology out of the ruins of their world. 

If a disconnected and isolated world could do that, then was it fair of me to dismiss someone because they “might” not be able to do it? 

Even if they couldn’t, this wasn’t about me looking to prepare the Inner Sphere and the Periphery against the Clan invasion decades into the future. I didn’t care about the Clans. By the time the Clans came around, even decades earlier, I would be established, fortified, and so far beyond them that it wouldn’t even be funny. It would be a reenactment of Halo’s UNSC versus Covenant and I would be the Covenant. 

Like I said, there were millions of stars in the Inner Sphere alone, never mind how many there were in the Periphery. I left Segerica after starting up an automated factory and naval base. By the time I reached New Avalon, Segerica would have at least a hundred frigates with MAC-equivalents roaming about, all of which should be connected to the main control node at the far edge of the system which was already connected to The Maw’s mainframe. 

Speaking of which, I glanced at the display solely dedicated to “Segerica System Defense.” Heh, SSD. 

It’s funny how solid state drives were considered minor technology in all of the databases of technologies I’ve acquired so far yet the Inner Sphere couldn’t even match it. 

Oh sure, they had a different kind of tech: high capacity storage devices. They were monsters of literal capacity, able to store so much for the same amount of work put into making them and the size of the storage devices. It was actually impressive how much they could store. However, they were also slow compared to SSDs. And this was the tech that they have had for the past, what, five hundred years? 

But for all of that storage, it wasn’t something most people used because it was expensive.

Like a “high grade” high capacity storage device could be anywhere from ten thousand C-Bills to over a million C-Bills for the really powerful ones. 

The Segerica System Defense actually already showed me three automated picket ships: the Kite-class Picket Dropship. While these weren’t the frigates I would be making out of Segerica eventually, their automated nature, high cruising speed, and maneuverability meant that they were the best cheap fast response ship. The material cost of a single Kite was a third of a Glimmer-class dropship I was lugging around. 

Far weaker, yes.

But I would feel only gleeful joy when I would inevitably have to order the underarmed and underarmored Kite to ram into pirates or unwanted ComStar/Inner Sphere ships. 

“Sir.”

I looked up and saw my first dedicated AI assistant’s hologram. It was one of the latest AI’s I’ve developed and also the one who claimed the blue warframe that demolished the ComGuard back on Kendall as its body. 

The stern looking man who looked like he could be my grandfather stood to the left of my office desk, an ornate metal thing that was made to mimic a mahogany table. In fact, he looked like Sebas Tian from Maruyama’s Overlord. The butler-monk. Except instead of thick, corded muscles that made his outfit a bit tight to look at, my AI liked a thinner look. 

“What is it, Jason?” I asked. 

“The world below is calling you.”

I hummed. “About time,” I muttered. “How long have we been in orbit?” I asked. 

“It’s been four hours since we arrived.” 

“You’d think that they would respond quicker but they really took their sweet ass time,” I shook my head. “Well, is it a message, a threat, or a request for a call?”

“A request for a holocall, sir.”

“Sure. Patch them to my office, will you?” 

Jason raised his left hand up and snapped, but considering that he was projecting a hologram, he was being all too dramatic about it. “Done, sir.”

In an instant, another hologram opened up without any support or projector in the middle of the room. 

On one side was my face in high definition and on the other side was a currently blank screen.

Moments later, another face showed up with fuzzy and low definition output. The man on the screen was a dark-haired and clean-shaven man. Though the term didn’t really apply these days, he looked like someone took a Texan Latino and crossed them with a Chinese and had the build of a soldier. He wore a simple circlet intertwining two metal strands around a hexagonal gemstone in the middle. His outfit was that of traditional neo-medieval lords: a fur cape on top of his military uniform denoting his rank and achievements. 

“Greetings. I assume you are the ruler of this world?” I asked.

“I am. I am High Lord Tamati Arano the Second, and I demand to know who you are and why you have set your warship to orbit my world,” he replied while keeping up what I assumed was his calm look or blank poker face. 

“For someone curious about such a thing, you took your sweet time to call me,” I hummed, deciding that I wanted to mess with him a little. “Especially when you don’t have anything comparable in orbit. Or on the ground.”

I planned on giving him a memory core! I deserved some payment, however transient it may be. I wanted to be paid with some entertainment.

If that meant making a “high lord” sweat, then that’s my entertainment for the day. 

To my surprise, he held his ground and just stared at me, waiting for my answer. 

“Well, then. Introductions are in order. I am Edward Arlaoskas, the captain of The Maw and the Fleetmaster of the Arlaoskas Mercenaries. Or should I say Arlaoskas Fleet? Because at this point, I have both the firepower and industry that outpaces half of the periphery nations.”

My words shook him. I could see it. It wasn’t as clear as day, but it was obvious nonetheless from the shift in pose and body language. 

“As for why I am here… I’m actually here to give you a gift, High Lord Arano,” I replied. “If you could send up a shuttle or a dropship up to my carrier, then I will give you a Star League memory core just as I had given one to Captain-General Marik.”

My words, again, shook him. 

“W-Why would you do that?”

My grin became a predatory snarl. “Let’s just say that someone pissed me off. And seeing as technology is one of their main shtick, I decided to… hmm… proliferate it as cheaply as possible.” A pause. “So I am not here to do you a favor, Lord Arano. I am here to use you to piss off someone else.”

He searched my eyes. 

Then he made the connection as news from the Inner Sphere over the course of a year slowly formed a puzzle in his mind. My name, my mercenary company, technology…

There was only one group in the past few years that had directly tussled with me, and the name of a man exonerated from “shooting an innocent  jumpship” doesn’t disappear so easily. Or the people who accused the man of it. 

“... ComStar?” he muttered.

“Bingo.”