Collection 41 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 41

-VB-

Tamati Arano II

Coromodir VI, Aurigan Coalition

3004 July 16

Four days of chaos. 

The greater chaos came from the utter devastation the Capellan Confederation and ComStar left behind in their march to Coromodir. Most of the inhabited worlds from Guldra right up to the border with the confederation had been scorched and burned. Defenseless as they were, the devastation had only just occurred, so there weren’t any vultures circling to try and take advantage of the coalition’s weakness. 

The lesser chaos originated not from the devastated worlds but from his own people from the rest of the coalition. Edward Arlaoskas had been good on his word, and his FTL comm buoys made communication not only cheaper than ComStar’s HPG communication but also free and widely available to anyone with even a rudimentary satellite dish. 

And they saw what the confederation had done to their people as Arlaoskas ignored the coalition government and installed those comm buoys in each and every single one of the devastated worlds. 

And the people screamed. They demanded blood. 

They may be a simple periphery state with little to no power in comparison to the Inner Sphere and its Successor Lords, but this was an unconscionable massacre of their people! 

Merchant lords, nobles, and representatives alike all demanded Tamati do something about this. 

And he wanted to.

The problem, however, was the reality of the Aurigan Coalition’s military power, or lack thereof. After rerouting every single military and civilian jumpships in his and House Espinosa’s possession to help relieve his people, organization and travel took time. Merely leaving Coromodir system after picking up emergency supplies from Coromodir V or VI took nine days of travel to get to the nadir and zenith jump points. 

So he did the only thing he could. 

He turned to Fleetmaster Arlaoskas and begged for help. 

And he knew exactly what he was asking… because Fleetmaster Arlaoskas had been ready to wage a war upon the Capellan Confederation. 

Considering what Tamati saw the Fleetmaster do to the confederation navy, he knew that the Fleetmaster could wage a successful war. 

Hell, he could just jump around the entire confederation space, shoot down any military jumpship, and the Free Worlds League and the Federated Suns would finish the confederation for them! 

Because that’s what Fleetmaster Arlaoskas did. 

Minutes after accepting the confederation navy’s surrender, he demanded the jumpships above the Coromodir Star to surrender. They didn’t. They jumped out. 

He chased after them.

And destroyed nine jumpships.

Nine.

That, of course, also fostered chaos as people panicked over potential confederation retaliation if not outright sanctions from the coalition’s neighbors. 

But as if to prove a point, Corlaos Shipyard made and sold a Mercury-class jumpship just yesterday, a full three weeks ahead of their public manufacturing schedule. Then announced earlier today that they would have another jumpship ready for sale by the end of the day. 

“He’s stopped hiding his capabilities,” Santiago muttered while nursing a half-full cup of whiskey. 

“We always knew he was capable of more than what he was showing us,” Tamati replied with a sigh. “And now we know.”

“Except it isn’t everything still, isn’t it?”

“No. I have no doubt left in my mind that what we’ve seen in the past week is still not everything he could do. In my communique with Protector Calderon, she noted something.”

“Noted what?”

“Instead of jumping to known systems, he jumped from star to star in an almost direct line across Taurian space.”

“... He has charts of stars beyond the known systems.”

Stellar charts were invaluable to all nations, their merchants, and militaries. It was why even though ComStar bought stellar charts and made them public, each nation worth its salt also kept its own library of stellar charts. In fact, jumpship clans were known to have their own secret stellar charts.

Aurigan Coalition had its own library of stellar charts, which showed uninhabited stars and those suitable for potential exploitation. 

Which meant… There was a not insignificant chance that the Fleetmaster who built shipyards in a month, if not weeks, could have more shipyards out there under his direct control. And if a jumpship could be made in a week than how much more quickly could dropships be made? Smaller fighters that didn’t need dropships but could “jump” together with ships like The Maw? Because the observatories on Coromodir VI went wild when they took photo evidence of it; when The Maw appeared, it did so with ships not attached to it, aside from those that were housed within its, well, maw.

“And if he has stellar charts of unknown systems, then he didn’t really need us to build his comm buoys or jumpships.”

“We were a bait,” Santiago hissed. “He used us as bait, and now, half of our worlds burn…!” 

Were they? 

Tamati wasn’t sure. 

“And now, he sends his buoys out without even consulting us, and our people are raring for Capellan blood,” his friend added. “He’s paralyzed us with his careless actions.”

“He did,” Tamati agreed wholeheartedly. “We can only act so much, even with the jumpships he’s making and selling nearly at cost.”

The head of House Espinosa let out a frustrated stream of air. “And what was his response, Tamati?” he asked. “When you asked him for help?”

Tamati took a sip of his whiskey before setting the cup down and pulling out a folded paper from his pocket. “Here.”

Santiago took it from his hand and flipped it open. It took him five full minutes to go over its content once and then twice. He looked up at Tamati.

“... You serious?”

“I think he is.”

“You think he’s …?”

“We’ll have to see if he actually succeeds, won’t we?”

-VB-

Edward Arlaoskas

Coromodir IX, Aurigan Coalition

3004 July 17

The Battle of Coromodir, as the locals called it, showed me my fleet’s current flaws and strengths against a modern navy of dropships and aerospace fighters.

Strengths: Even without energy shields, my ships possessed enough structural and armor integrity to weather autocannon and laser attacks. My drones, which had the thinnest armor of all of my combat-capable constructs and ships, could tank laser strafes. I already knew this because I tested it multiple times with several different alloys and armor patterns, but it was great to have another confirmation. My weapons struck harder and reached further. A lot of this had to do with computer-assisted targeting and weakness analysis that operate on milliseconds, not seconds. This was hundreds of times faster than Inner Sphere technology. With inertial dampeners and stronger superstructure, my ships and fighters could also make maneuvers that would and have left my enemies baffled and unable to counter. My smart AIs, aka the AI Cores, outperformed every single human combatant in the dust.

Flaws: My dumb AIs hyperfocused on their targets and couldn’t account for half of the things a human could anticipate. This may be an error in my programming or just a general limitation. I’m leaning towards the former rather than the latter. They were, as one might put it, reckless. At the same time, that same recklessness allowed them to down whittle down and destroy opponents many times their size and value; it’s just that their own survival wasn’t a guarantee when I wasn’t actively coordinating them individually, which was impossible because reality didn’t have a pause button and there were too many of them now for me to individually command. 

But the overall trend showed me that I possessed overwhelming technological advantage. 

I already knew this and intended to keep my advantage. 

The easiest way to do this was to prevent the Inner Sphere and the Periphery from getting their hands on intermediary manufacturing technologies. Those existed only within my three shipyards and The Maw so far. 

I also lacked a ground force, which meant that every single engagement will have to be in space where I hold overwhelming advantage. 

However, ignoring ground battle was not going to work. 

I wouldn’t be able to conquer if I ignored that.

I could recruit people from all over the periphery and equip them, but their equipment would have to be similarly technologically overwhelming to overcome any tactical, strategical, and numerical advantage the Capellans might have. 

… Gundams would be great at this but Gundams were also technologically to close to Inner Sphere technology that I was wary about them salvaging Gundams for new tech. I could produce inferior gundams specifically for mercenaries and recruits, leaving only the best for those who I trusted, but I would need a dedicated facility to produce those en masse, and Aurigan Coalition was unlikely to allow me to build one so soon after what just happened to them as a result of the Corlaos Shipyard. 

Taurian Concordat was going to demand a lot from the production lines, so they were also not acceptable for the kind of campaign I planned. 

Which only left one system that was both defended and ready for me. 

It’s time to head back to Segerica and the built-up fleet waiting there.