Collection 36 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 36

-VB-

Maximilian Liao

Sian, Capellan Confederation

3004 June

“A Star League-era equivalent shipyard?” Maximilian Liao frowned as he read through the report. 

It came through the Maskirovka’s agents in the rimward periphery, and detailed where the shipyard was, what it made, and how many it produced. 

A shipyard that was capable of producing a jumpship every week? 

That was priceless.

“... This region of space is rightfully Capellan Confederation territory,” he hummed to the three advisors he brought in to look at the report along with him. “Wouldn’t you think so?” 

The first of these answered with a nod. “Of course, chancellor,” Director Chandra Ling of Maskirovka replied.

The second hummed. “It is the truth,” Strategic Director Pavel Ridzik agreed. “Though the Taurians have fought us at every step of the way, they no longer claim that space, do they not?”

“Good,” Max hummed. 

“... I think we should hold off for a few months.”

Everyone turned to look at the fourth person in the room.

Jacob So, the Minister of Information Standards, was a cunning man who knew when to speak and when to shut up while providing competent service to the confederation. He was one of the few ministers to survive the purge that followed Max’s coup. “With how weak and undefended those worlds are, they will welcome Capellan rule. However, the same cannot be said for the man responsible for building the shipyard.”

“Yes, the Leaguer.”

Edward Arlaoskas was infamous now. He was the only person alive who had publicly fought against ComStar and their ComGuard and survived to tell the tale without being labeled a pirate or criminal. It had helped the man that he had a full recording from multiple angles of the “incident” that took place in orbit of Kendall. 

The way Arlaoskas handled that scandal told Max that he was no fool. In fact, he had been ready to fight ComStar, which made him a dangerous man. Not even the Capellan Confederation, with all of its power and might, would dare to attack ComStar. 

“Why do you think that?” Max asked Minister So. 

“If what we know about this ‘Arlaoskas Fleet’ is true, then they will come to defend the Aurigan Coalition, if only to prevent what they built at its capital. With the distance between Coromodir and our rimward worlds exceeding three jumps, and thus mostly requiring a month alone in just travel time while the Arlaoskas Fleet can move at least thrice as fast as the fastest fleet in the Inner Sphere, they will be able to respond to our rightful annexation. And from what we know, we do not have the means of adequately defending ourselves from their fleet.”

Max frowned and thought about it. “Then we wait until he is either deep into Taurian space or deep inside the Federated Suns.”

Nods went around the room. Except from Director Ling. 

“If we wait too long, then the Coalition will have enough jumpships in their possession to be able to match whatever expedition we send against them,” she noted. “Even a periphery state, if they have enough jumpships, will be able to match firepower we can bring with our limited jumpship count.”

That was also a good point. 

“Perhaps …. Should we start our expedition whe we hear about another shipyard being constructed?” Pavel hummed. “We know that they should be in the Concordat now.”

“... Let us wait until we hear news from our spies within the Concordat,” Max spoke up after a while glancing at Ling, who nodded. 

-VB-

Zarantha Calderon

New Vandenberg, Taurian Concordat

3004 May

Although it took her and her son a full month to travel to New Vandenberg, they made the journey while she continued to receive updates not just from New Vandenberg but also the Aurigan Coalition. 

The High Lord of the Aurigan Coalition confirmed time and time again that this was no trap. No trap created a shipyard that kept on creating jumpships and jumpship parts. If there was a problem, then it was that the shipyard couldn’t find enough germanium quickly enough. It was a bottleneck that wasn’t being met because the shipyard’s manager refused to buy germanium from any source, using only the germanium mined by the mining ships dedicated to the shipyard itself. 

“It’s real,” she hummed. 

“... But it makes no sense still,” Thomas hummed. 

She glanced over at her son. He’d lost the gruff and moody grumblings in favor of actually looking at the wider picture with all of the supporting evidence.

And the evidence said “this shit is real.”

Even if, as he just said, it made no sense. 

Zarantha knew that. Someone with this kind of technology could just fuck off to the periphery and create a fleet and an army to not only conquer all of the Periphery but also the Inner Sphere. But instead of leading what could have been the greatest and most terrible military force of all time… Edward Arlaoskas chose to build shipyards for failing periphery states. 

Why? 

“It could just be that he is a man without ambition,” she hummed. It was a point that they had gone over multiple times. 

“If that is the case, then he wouldn’t have the biggest warship to ever see the Periphery.”

She rolled her eyes. “Boys like their toys. Yours happens to be a battlemech. His happens to be a warship. Because he could, I imagine. Or the countless assassins, pirates, and government agents he must have had to fend off.”

“... He mostly fought pirates if the records we got from ComStar can be trusted.”

Zarantha snorted. 

ComStar. 

It was obvious to anyone in the periphery, but the Inner Sphere cultists showed their true face when their attack on Arlaoskas was revealed to the whole universe. Whatever little trust they managed to earn got shredded out here in the periphery.

Then there alarm klaxon came on.

“[This is the captain speaking. We will be jumping in T-minus five minutes].”

Those five minutes came and went silently, and there was a flash as they jumped into the New Vandenberg system. 

And their jumpship immediately spotted the behemoth within visual range. 

“[... This is the captain speaking. Protector, you might want to come and see this.]”

And she did. 

And she realized that she might have been slightly underestimating them.

-VB-

Amy Arlaoskas

Aboard The Maw, New Vandenberg, Taurian Concordat

3004 May

It was both surreal and disturbing how quickly she and the rest of the Arlaoskas family were becoming desensitized to the idea and physical meeting heads of states. 

First, it was Captain-General Janos Marik of the Free Worlds League.

Then, it was High Lord Tamati Arano II of Aurigan Coalition.

And finally, they were about to meet Protector Zarantha Calderon of the Taurian Concordat. 

How many people out of the diplomatic corps could claim they met three heads of states within a year’s time frame? 

But even if her love and his family got desensitized… she knew better than to let herself relax like that. 

“And what are the scanners showing?” she asked her brother-in-law.

Edward, laid back lazily with his legs on his control console, briefly looked down.

“... I don’t see anything suspicious,” he hummed. “Just what you would expect from a head of state’s guards.”

Amy glanced away from him to look at her console’s camera feed, which showed a dozen dropships, a third of which were classified as Fortress-class dropships and another third were Achilles-class assault dropships. This was a force that would make any planetary defenders shudder in fear; those dozen dropships had a whole regiment of battlemechs and a whole aerospace wing. It was enough firepower to outright conquer a world like Kendall, their home. 

But what was that firepower compared to The Maw?

She then pressed a few buttons to see a digital view of the Segerica system.

It’s been, what, five months since they left Segerica? After Edward took it over in just a few weeks? 

The shipyard there has been active since before they left, and they have been … busy.

She looked down at the dots that were zipping back and forth all over the system, patrolling the zenith and nadir of the star and the calculated pirate points that only artificial intelligences could hope to continuously keep track of. 

The Segerica System was, right now, probably the most fortified system in all of the Inner Sphere and the Periphery.

Because she doubted that anyone could win against the warp-able pocket warships capable of aerospace fighter maneuvers or actual warships that can maneuver like Leopard dropships that spew forth cruise missiles in waves. 

Yeah.

What was a battlemech regiment to a fleet of warships? 

Precision target practice, that’s what.

Worse, the production rate of ships over in Segertica was … Unbelievable, even though she was still staring at the screen and knowing exactly how many ships there are in that system.

She sighed. “Should we send them a route into the docking bay?”

“Yeah,” he said before he finally got off of his chair and stretched. “Let’s go meet the Calderons.” Then there was a pause. “Oh, a new point,” he muttered to himself, though she heard him anyway. “Let’s put that in mass manufacturing again…”