Scavenged Restoration 43 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFAngs

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 43

-VB-

The confederation could not survive forever on a diet of Firebees, Vindicators, and Cataphracts along with a sprinkle of assaults seeded here and there. 

Firebees were cheap and easy to manufacture, but they simply didn’t survive long enough to justify a prolonged production or development. And once Firebees became expensive, then they lost their edge as a useful tool.

Vindicators were great at where they were. The confederation as a whole accepted it as an almost icon of Capellan endurance. They were easy to modify and have been modified already to a degree. 

Cataphracts were frontline wrecking balls. They were not, however, tactically flexible. With autocannons and lasers, they fought on the frontline and only the frontline. They did not provide firepower where they could be needed but where they also could not reach due to their slow speed. 

There was a need for a backline heavy.

The Thunderbolt was a good option as it was both a Capellan mech and produced locally. This might not have been the case if Tikonov was lost or if the factories on Tikonov weren’t move prior to the Fourth Succession War, but they have been and so the Thunderbolt line was firmly secure in the confederation’s hands. 

And so, they began upgrading it not just with lostech but a vision of what a Thunerbolt could be in this new prosperous era for the Capellan Confederation under the directive from the chancellor himself. 

The chancellor made his demand clear: there must be a new heavy or assault mech to work alongside the frontliners like the Cataphract and Firebees but which could wreck havoc by itself if called upon to do so. At the same time, it needed to work well with a flanker like the confederation’s Vindicator. 

Earthwerks Limited, the creator of the Thunderbolt, saw this as a chance to upgrade their Thunderbolt line into something new. 

A Thunderbolt already had everything that the chancellor was looking for: two long range options to support the frontline if need be but also enough brawling weapons like SRMs and machineguns for close quarter combat. 

The initial development team wanted to upgrade the existing line with lostech but then when the director in charge changed, the new director wanted something else. 

A new chassis.

A heavier Thunderbolt. 

A powerful Thunderbolt. 

And so they went to the drawing board and made something new. 

Bolstered with lostech and knowledge, they designed a Thunderbolt that would outdo its predecessors. 

The Thunderbolt II.

And it would be glorious.

-VB-

While Earthwerks Limited worked on their new Thunderbolt design, the same could not be said for Hollis Incorporated. 

As the producers of Highlanders, they were hard at work producing, well, Highlanders. It was an assault mech, one of the very few, that was made natively in the Capellan Confederation. 

Until a new directive was issued by the chancellor. 

The chancellor wanted Hollis Incorporated to expand, and gave them funding and leeway to repair and expand the Highlander factory on Corey II as well as the authority to get the job done. 

Samuel Hollis, the CEO of Hollis Incoporated, knew not to abuse this. He’d seen the trials. He’d seen the executions. He’d seen what happened to those who abused the chancellor’s trust.

So he got to work and sparsely used the temporary authority given to him by the chancellor. 

And he was proven right when he was visited one night by the Maskirovka.

They congratulated him for being an upright citizen of the Capellan Confederation and left him with an even greater authority and funding to use as he saw fit.

But Samuel never forgot that the Maskirovka appeared inside his room inside his private residence inside his private estate in the middle of the night without a single alarm being triggered and walked out of his estate as if they owned it. 

He was given authority and funding but he did not yet have the full trust of the chancellor. That he would be watched.

Again, Samuel knew his place. He may be the CEO of one of the largest corporations in the Capellan Confederation but at the end of the day, he was a Capellan. 

Like his brothers and sisters across the castes, he was but one more man, and his place was to help support the greater confederation. 

He knew this from the start. In fact, he considered it a mark of blessing and approval from the chancellor to him that the Maskirovka came to personally visit him. That he was important enough to warrant serious attention! 

That he was, in his own small way, great.

And that… Samuel understood. 

More so when after the repairs, the chancellor himself bought a whole company’s worth of Highlanders. It was a surefire approval of his company and its mechs! 

---

Though they did not take great part in the Fourth Succession War, the loyal Northwind Highlanders who stayed behind showed themselves to be not only a strong mercenary command despite their numbers getting cut in half if not more. 

Because he and his soldiers turned Highspire into a meat grinder for the sake of a nation that cared more about them than their own brethrens have. 

All of their talks about Northwind Highlanders’ prestigious past, the elders were no different than politicians. 

And today, he got a reaffirmation of the Capellan Confederation’s dedication to the Highspire Highlanders. 

The herald who came bearing the message only asked that the officers of the Highspire Highlanders kneel before him as if they would kneel before the chancellor, for he carried with him the word of the chancellor. 

“Oh hear my words, proud and mighty warriors of the Highspire Highlanders!” the herald began. “It is I, Chancellor William Liao of the Capellan Confederation. It has been too long since we have conversed with each other, but that is simply the nature of our positions as one commanding a nation and another who defends it for pay. However, I have not forgotten our exchange and your loyalty when your brothers and sisters abandoned both of us to join with the Davions across the border! Oath breakers! Contract breakers! 

“But you are not they and you have proven your loyalty time and time again, and it is time that I prove that I am worthy of your loyalty. This herald comes to you not just with my words but my gifts. 

“My first gift, if you are willing to accept, is to raise all members of the Highspire Highlanders as citizens of the Capellan Confederation with all of the benefits that come with it! Let no one proclaim that the steadfast warriors and supporters of the Highspire Highlanders are discriminated against in the world they defend! 

“My second gift, if you are willing to accept, is to raise all officers of the Highspire Highlanders to the position of Knight, Lady, or Lord of the Capellan Nobility! As their commander, Colonel Timothy Senn would be raised to the position of Baron! 

“And my last gift, for this one is one given without expectation, is a company of Highlander Assault Mechs for you to use as you please!

“Let it not be said that the Capellan Confederation and its chancellor forgets loyalty! Let it not be said that the Capellan Confederation ignores its brothers and sisters! 

“Praise the Capellan Confederation, the greatest nation in the galaxy!” 

As the herald rolled the scroll back, he looked at Baron Timothy Senn. “Should you choose to accept, Colonel Senn, I would like to be the first to welcome you into the Capellan nobility.” 

The herald looked at Timothy Senn, who was now looking up with wide eyes. 

After all, the Capellan Confederation was doing something that successor states rarely did: to raise mere mercenaries, no matter their lineage, into nobility. 

“I… I would need to discuss this with my people,” he replied humbly. “I may be the commander, but I am but one man.”

The herald nodded. “The chancellor expected this. Go, but do so with the company of assault mechs he gifts you with no strings attached, only the expectation that you continue your leal service.”

---

“What do you think?” Colonel Senn asked them after having repeated everything the herald had said and showed the scroll that the chancellor’s words had come on. 

This wasn’t just an officer meeting; it was a regiment-wide meeting. There were hundreds of people in the room, those who could make it to the meeting, while the content of the meeting was being recorded to be reviewed by those who couldn’t make it for one reason or another. 

“He wants us to be his dog,” a major replied. “But a well-fed and well-paid dog.”

“It’s better than what the rest of the Northwind have done for us,” someone else grunted. 

That was a thing now. 

The Highlanders who remained differentiated themselves from those who left, calling them Northwind and themselves Highspire. They attached epithets to the names, too. 

Northwind, to flow away without loyalty.

Highspire, to be a bulwark.

But they were still a mercenary company. 

The chancellor’s offer, however, would see them become Capellan. The Highspire Highlanders were not blind to the confederation’s faults and flaws. However, the current chancellor seemed to have put the confederation on a path to make life better for everyone. 

As the discussion continued, it became clear to Senn.

The Highspire Highlanders weren't opposed to becoming Capellan.

Especially the officers. Many of them were very interested in becoming nobility.

-VB-

Janos Marik did not want to negotiate with me with an intermediary. Like we had done on Terra and after, he wanted to negotiate face-to-face. Which meant that either he or I needed to travel across several months of travel time to reach each other. And seeing as my nation was the one still at war, Janos decided to come to me. 

And so we met not on Sian but on the Capellan border world of New Sarna. 

I watched as a squad of dropships came rumbling down from the sky. Janos, being a more pragmatic man, didn’t travel in a luxury dropship like the Princess-class but a purely military Overlord-class dropship. With it came one Union-class and three Achilles-class assault dropships. It wasn’t a show of power rather what both of our states would consider a slightly above minimum escort for our heads of state. 

The dropships landed with hurricane-strength winds blown every which way, and only once did the landing procedures came to an end that the ramps lowered and the Marik Guards came out. 

And only once after the area was secured did Janos Marik come out. 

I gestured for my ICE sports car to move up.

We came to a stop a reasonable walking distance, and Janos walked up to us with his bodyguards. 

“Chancellor Liao.”

“Captain-General Marik.”

“... It seems my people have caused you grief.”

“No more than what my Maskirovka expected.”

“I see. So you knew they were planning on attacking you?”

“Yes.”

He took a deep breath in and let it out. Obviously, the Old Eagle was trying to keep control of himself. 

“Let’s take this indoors,” I said as I gestured for him to join me in the sports car. 

He got in without even hesitating and gestured for his guards to follow him in their own cars. 

“I am not familiar with this brand of sports car,” he commented casually as he looked around. 

“Oh, it’s an old Terran brand.”

“Really?”

“Yup. I’m not sure if you’ve heard about Porsche?”

“No, I have not.”

“That’s a shame. They have history.”

He hummed noncommittally.

Then we took off to where he would be staying and our negotiation would take place. 

‘This negotiation is going to be interesting,’ I thought after glancing at the man who supposedly only woke up from a coma merely three months ago. I had half a mind to go easy on him, but nah, that would piss off the Old Eagle more than going too hard.