Chapter Text
Fort Lambourne, Altoona
Milligan PDZ, Woodbine Operational Area,
Draconis March, Federated Commonwealth
20th January, 3063
1100 hours
Of all the things Anastasia had expected in the morning, a Goliath Scorpion jumpship popping up at the L1 pirate point was certainly not it.
She had been deep in a meeting with the C-suite executives of Red Eagle Aerospace and Propulsion Engineering Research, or REAPER, the company her father had financed from the ground up to build a jumpship yard in Altoona. Given the relatively rich germanium resources on Altoona and even more so in the asteroid belt just a bit further from the system primary, building a jumpship yard in the system was almost a no-brainer.
The problem was, getting everything else in order was a real pain.
“As you can see, Baroness Kalinska, we have been able to constantly upgrade and expand our orbital manufacturing facilities with our boutique manufacturing, producing custom spare parts for all the various ships requiring maintenance at the Kilbourne recharge station.” Sonia Deepay, CEO of REAPER, was a woman of indefinable age, but possessed of vast experience and knowledge. She pointed to the infographic on the projector screen. She had worked up to Chief Operating Officer in Federated-Boeing Interstellar before Boris Kalinski poached her to run his startup firm. “Still, in order to get to the next level, we’ll need a massive influx of funds and resources.”
The next slide showed a daunting list of facilities required for a fully functioning jumpship construction yard. “Some of these, we have managed to get already, either by building them up from scratch, or purchasing off the market.” The font of some items turned grey. “Others, we already know where to get them, or how to get them, and is just a matter of time and resources, all acquirable within two years.” Some more items turned to dull blue font. “These remaining items… not so easy, or will require huge expense or long construction times, even if we can pay for the royalties on some of them.”
Anastasia looked through the remaining items. Essentially, the biggest, most difficult items to procure were the huge skeletal ‘ribs’ that would comprise the bulk of the medium-sized unpressurised yard, forming the ‘slip’ that a jumpship would be constructed in. She remembered the shipyards at Schuyler and Chatham, and privately wondered if Boris Kalinski had any idea of just how much work and money was required for such yards… and he was trying to do it on his own!
Thankfully, Raymond had agreed to help finance the project, but converting money into actual physical assets was, as she was finding out, another problem.
“Can we just buy them from Federated-Boeing, or some other shipyard?”
REAPER’s Chief Technology Officer, a greying man named Suresh Nair, frowned and said, “Just because you have a gazillion dollars doesn’t mean you can just buy a particular widget. The Houses found out about that during the Succession Wars. They had money, sure, but the tech to produce lostech was, well, lost. And behind that tech is one huge pyramid of interlocking technologies and markets working together.”
He held up a pencil. “Look at this humble pencil. You might not know from just looking at it, but it took thousands of people working in many different places to build it, using their knowledge and skills and the tools they have. If they lose this knowledge and the tools, we won’t be able to make this pencil either. And that is incredibly true for the manufacturing tools we’re trying to acquire, because the knowledge is rare and the tools behind it even more difficult to obtain. Fed-Boeing or some other yard might have the parts, but why would they give it up for us when they need it for their own lines, and selling it to us might mean they won’t have it as a spare when their own stuff breaks down?”
Anastasia winced. The entire meeting was essentially a crash course in interstellar economics and logistics, and her head was beginning to hurt. After a week of inactivity, getting back up to speed was painful.
She supposed it was somewhat her own fault, since she had taken a week off work for her honeymoon after her wedding with Finn. They had travelled around Altoona in a jeep, hiking through the wilds and enjoying the sights of Altoon’s natural landscape. And the rest of the time…
Well, it was normal for a young couple, especially just married, to enjoy physical intimacy, quiaff?
She also knew Camille had trailed them quietly in her Owens throughout the entire honeymoon, but since the former Diamond Shark had been completely unobtrusive about her presence, she let it slide. Besides, she also knew it was for their own safety.
Finn had left for Delacambre two days ago, bringing with him a long ‘shopping list’ of parts and material that he had to check with Delacambre’s industries to see if they were capable of manufacturing. He also needed to search for workers with experience to construct jumpships. Since many of the clanspeople that came to Delacambre formerly worked at the Schuyler yards, they were confident there would be a number of interested personnel.
“How about the issues in our favor?” Anastasia asked a bit desperately, hoping to change the tenor of the meeting to a more optimistic mood.
Sonia replied with a knowing glint, “We do have some factors working for us. The critical elements, for example, are all easily obtainable from Altoona, and I see from the reports you can ramp up germanium production very quickly if necessary, with more than enough to construct more than one jumpship a year here. Not to mention all the rare earths we’d be using, easily accessible.” She pressed a button, and the screen showed a schematic of Altoona and the other two potentially habitable moons around Red Eagle. “And if we can get these other two worlds online, the total production capacity of this system will be immense.”
Anastasia bit back a groan. She had not even gotten to the plans for terraforming the other two moons of Red Eagle, similar Terra-sized entities that the Star League DoME deemed would be suitable for colonisation after only about ten years of terraforming. For a start, some wit had already named the worlds Belleron and Carvaxes centuries ago, and the rest of the Trivet had taken up these names, always enticed by the possibility of exploring this inner frontier but never really having the funds to do so, and frightened by the costs of colonising them.
DoME was supposed to step in to do this, but obviously the Amaris Civil War scuttled all those plans.
Each of the two worlds presented their own challenges. Belleron and Carvaxes were both colder worlds than Altoona even pre-terraforming. Belleron was cold but somewhat more approachable, while Carvaxes was harder to crack, but offered greater potential payoff with its geothermal activity due to its proximity to Red Eagle.
Not to mention that Altoona itself had yet to be made fully viable! There were legends of DoME working on improving the local conditions in order to support a larger population, but nothing verifiable.
“Any ideas on how we can get the structures for the yard?” She had to ask this question.
Sonia pursed her lips. “We may be able to construct them ourselves, depending on what your man from Delacambre can find out. These structures may be huge, but they can be built on the ground and transported in pieces into orbit for assembly. It’s just that it takes time.” She tapped her noteputer several times, then shrugged. “Without knowing how much Delacambre can produce, I can’t even give you an estimate.”
Anastasia was about to speak, when Hawise burst into the meeting room.
“We have a situation here. Jumpship just popped in at the zenith jump point.” Her voice carried a hint of wonder. “IFF codes downloaded from the Red Cavalcade says it’s a Goliath Scorpion ship.”
Anastasia blinked. Goliath Scorpions? Here? In the Inner Sphere? So far away from the Occupation Zone, and even further away from the clan homeworlds?
“They have opened a communications channel, but we’re holding off on replying until you can get to the command center.” Hawise smiled, somewhat viciously. “You ready for a batchall?”
“A batchall? What’s that?” Anastasia feigned ignorance, while the other occupants of the room shifted uneasily at hearing the presence of clan ships in the system. She turned to Sonia. “I’m sorry, but a situation seems to have cropped up.”
“Certainly, go and settle it.” Sonia was the only member of REAPER who remained calm. The rest looked fearful.
When they arrived at the command center, Erlin was already there. Anastasia noted Erlin, of all people, wore a smirk.
She arched an eyebrow. “Anything I should know?”
Erlin rattled off, “Hunter class jumpship with an attached Broadsword. The Broadsword’s burning in at 1G, standard transit of about 2 days. They were pretty up front about arriving too, sent a preliminary batchall right off, although we do not need to respond until they get closer.”
“So what did they want? And what did they bid?” Anastasia could not help but feel intrigued and excited. A proper batchall and bidding ritual, after so long? She definitely missed this.
“Trialing for the right to explore Fort Lambourne and possession of all our refined germanium, which is about five hundred tons. They bid two mechs, but maybe we can lower the bid a bit. Or play around with the stakes.”
Anastasia frowned. Exploring Fort Lambourne? She would have offered a supervised tour for free, but the five hundred tons of germanium was a fortune, and not something they should part with so easily.
“What else? That smirk on your face says there’s more.”
His smirk grew wider. “Batchall was sent by Star Commander Jeine Elam, a Seeker from their Gamma Galaxy.”
She stared at him, trying to figure out why he seemed so smug. “You know her, quiaff?”
“We tangled before.” He shrugged. “On Babylon, when she sought access to Clan Cloud Cobra’s computer archives in search of astronavigational data. Circle of Equals, augmented. She got the better of me in a close fight, and granted me hegira. Later on, I heard she made some significant find, was nominated for a Bloodname, and won it. She would have been considered a ristar if she sought command instead of artifacts and knowledge.”
“Hmmm…” Anastasia tapped her chin thoughtfully.
“From what I remembered, she was notorious for almost being a perfect exemplar of a Goliath Scorpion artifact hunter. Uses only energy weapons, disdains the use of missiles and autocannons. They said her only flaw as a Goliath Scorpion is that she does not take necrosia.”
“Seriously? Not taking necrosia is a flaw?” She knew that necrosia, made from the deadly venom of the goliath scorpion, was a highly addictive hallucinogenic drink, much favored by Goliath Scorpion warriors. Not drinking it was a sign of common sense. Her estimation of this Jeine Elam rose a few notches.
“That’s the Goliath Scorpions for you. Wise and knowledgeable in some aspects, completely nuts in others.” Well, the same could be said for other clans too.
“Uses only energy weapons, hmmm…”
“You have an idea.”
Anastasia replied with a grin of her own. “Some misdirection would be useful, yes.”
“What a dreary and miserable system.” On the bridge of the Starlight String, Star Commander Jeine Elam took another look at the Altoona system, a pitiful looking system populated by only the red dwarf primary and a red gas giant, with a thickly populated outer asteroid belt. “I really hope we are not wasting our time here.”
“The archives were very certain. There was a secret DoME research facility on Altoona.” Yashim Dabir reminded her. “Situated in the headquarters of the 225th Mechanised Infantry Division. We had better pray it’s still standing, and not vaporised or picked clean by scavengers."
“That’s why only the few of us were sent out here, quiaff?”
“And the fact you needlessly antagonised Loremaster Ben-Shimon had nothing to do with it, I am sure,” deadpanned Yashim. “What a nice long trip, almost a thousand light years rimward to the back end of the Federated Suns. Great use of my dwindling time as a mechwarrior.”
She glared back at him, “If it was not for me, the Snow Ravens would have relegated you to the solahma scrap heap already. So cut the snark, Yashim.”
Not for the first time, she wondered if taking Yashim on as abtakha was a good idea. The older man was definitely still an elite warrior, even with aging reflexes, and his uncanny tactical sense had pulled them out of trouble several times. Except that he had absolutely no intent to hold back on his sarcastic remarks when commenting on her decisions. The rest of the bridge crew continued about their work, unconcerned about their discussion.
She continued, “The clan is counting on us. The plant genetic samples for enhanced photosynthesis in low light conditions would be very valuable, and DoME was working on some orbital technology that would supposedly revolutionise space construction. This could give the clan an advantage in terraforming more worlds around the Kerensky Cluster. There are more worlds fit for habitation out there, why are we constantly fighting over scraps?” She thought of the long-extinct Explorer faction, and always felt they made some sort of sense, although she still largely ascribed to the Warden view.
“Because once they become valuable, some other clan decides to trial for them and take them away.” Yashim sighed. “I wonder why no replies from the natives? The intel we had was pretty sure this system was still inhabited, and our scopes show definite activity on the surface.”
“Maybe…” Any reply Jeine could have made was cut off when a chime sounded on the bridge.
She leapt to her feet and dashed over to the communications console. The communications tech gave her a nod, and said, “Star Commander, they have connected to our open channel, audio only, and will be sending in three seconds. Two, one…”
A female voice came on, “Greetings, Goliath Scorpions. I am Anastasia Kalinska, Baroness of Fort Lambourne and its surrounding lands. Welcome to Altoona. I have received your ba… whatever you call it. I don’t quite get what you mean, but I get you want something from us, and you want something like a duel to decide? You seek much of our wealth, but we don’t have much to defend it with. Is it acceptable if we take up your challenge with one heavy mech? I await your response.”
There was a beep, and the comms tech gestured to a screen, which showed a photo of a Black Knight. Jeine took quick note of the weapons ports, likely energy weapons. So this is the mech they are bidding for the batchall.
Jeine’s eyebrows climbed up. “I had not expected these Spheroids to accept our bidding practices!” She had half expected to have to battle through the entire complement of local defenders, and that would be risky in the extreme. A limited battle by the laws of the clans would be most preferable.
“And to fight their one mech with two of ours is indeed dishonourable.”
She tapped the button for the channel. “Star Commander Elam here. Since you seem so confident with defending with just one heavy mech, I shall also bid one mech, my Lupus.”
She did not wait long to receive a reply. Anastasia said, “I propose the rolling hills to the north of Fort Lambourne, two days from now at 1200 hrs.” A pause, “In exchange, if we win, we gain the two mechs and warriors you would have used. Fair enough, given the value of the germanium at stake?”
Not likely with your piece of junk! Jeine smiled, “Bargained well and done!”
Yashim looked very dour when they closed the channel. “Why did you agree to that? If we lose, we are going to be stuck in this hell of a backwater for ages!” He grimaced. “I feel something is amiss, they seem too familiar with our customs and practices.”
She laughed. “Oh please, it is only a Black Knight, and from the looks of it, a relic from the wars of their Scavenger Lords! What could go wrong?”
Jeine cursed when the Black Knight’s particle bolt slammed into her Lupus, devouring more than half the armor on her right torso.
She was shocked at the sheer damage it wrought. Freebirth! Dungeoneer cannot take too many of those shots! That is clan-spec weaponry! She looked carefully at the enemy mech. It looked like a Black Knight, moved like a Black Knight, but the smoothness of the way it moved unnerved her. She had expected novice mechwarriors in a backwater region such as this, but the other pilot was easily on par with her, a Bloodnamed trueborn mechwarrior of the clans!
There was also something wrong with its visual, though she could not pinpoint exactly what was wrong. The laser apertures were roughly in the correct positions, but something seemed off. What was clear was that this was not the easy battle she expected. Had she been taken in by some nefarious deception?
I have to get into range of my heavy lasers. The Black Knight was likely armed with a similar energy loadout, and her array of heavy lasers would surely outmatch it at close range. Her weapons were not suitable for a mobile sniping match, she had to get in close and use her heavy lasers to rip it to shreds.
Committing to her decision, Jeine throttled her Lupus to its top speed to more than eighty kilometers per hour, and closed the distance to the Black Knight rapidly.
At a hundred fifty meters, her weapons were already locked on the Black Knight, which had also closed in fearlessly. Then something weird happened. Using one hand, it tore off the paper plastered across its front, revealing a frightening bank of missile tubes that had been hidden.
“Dezgra! You used another mech instead of the one in your bid!”
Her opponent, sounding like the woman she had bargained with during the batchall, Anastasia Kalinska, laughed over the open comms in reply. “Neg, this is the same mech. Configured for close combat, of course.”
How? Was she implying that her mech was an omnimech? “Lies!” With that, Jeine squeezed her triggers. With just a split-second delay after that, her heavy lasers blazed at the Black Knight, along with a slight distortion of her HUD from the intense EM interference from the laser emitters. She had to do as much damage as possible, before the missiles could fire. Then try to get some distance and deplete its ammunition with high speed oblique passes.
Still, she held back two of her heavy medium lasers, because it simply would have been too much heat and slowed her mech down too much. As it was, she risked a shutdown already, waves of heat slamming into the cockpit and making her gasp for breath.
The Black Knight weathered the storm of heavy lasers stoically, armor sloughing off all over, but barely staggering, and still coming on fast. Jeine braced herself for its reply, even as heat slammed into her and Dungeoneer turned sluggish under the effects of overheated myomer and actuators.
The wave of missiles leapt at her from the racks, and her eyes opened in shock when she realised they all carried red tips.
Infernos!
“Freebirth!” Jeine cursed when the inferno missiles slammed into her mech, engulfing it in flaming napalm gel. The heat in her cockpit, already overbearing, spiked further.
Sweat dripped into her eyes, obscuring her vision of her HUD. Not that it made much difference, because in the next moment her mech shut down with a piteous whine from the heat overload, her HUD and console lights dimmed to run off the APUs. It left her with only the thin view through the thick plastisteel window, itself tinged with the flickering flames from the burning napalm gel.
Inside her baking cockpit, Jeine could only watch impotently when the Black Knight marched up, held its right arm PPC barrel up to her cockpit, and then in a superb display of piloting skill, tapped the head armor ever so gently with it, making Jeine rock in her seat. Up close, she thought she could see the glow of capacitors within the dark recesses of the weapon, and gulped.
Her opponent could fire the PPC before Jeine could ever restart her mech in time from the reactor shutdown.
Her comms crackled. “Concede, Star Commander Elam.”
Resigned with her defeat, Jeine replied, “Aff, I concede. You have won this Trial.”