Collection 63 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 63

-VB-

Fleetmaster Edward Arlaoskas

Victoria Fortress Station

3006 August 15

People banged on my door, metaphorically, to try to talk to me about … everything.

Naturally, I refused. 

I had no reason to talk to them.

I didn’t care about the Kuritans. 

I didn’t care about the Davions.

I didn’t care about the Lyrans. 

I didn’t care about the Capellans. 

I didn’t -.

Okay, maybe, I had a soft side for the Free Worlds League, but, even then, I ultimately had a greater duty to my family.

And my family was now in the Arlaoskas Union. My own nation. 

That said, I might not care about the Davions but my wife still did, so I gave them some preferential treatment just as I decided to give the League the same treatment.

“Or so I thought I was being nice,” I sighed while my wife, Anna, looked uncertain where she laid next to me. Because, of course, I would put a ring on her and make her my wife. “Except my dear wife has been doing her best to stymie them behind my back.”

“I wasn’t … blocking them,” she replied petulantly, a rare thing for her. “You know they sent her to you to honeypot you.”

“You mean just like you?”

“Yes. But I got here first and married you. I’m not going to let anyone else try to get in the middle of us.”

I snorted. It was bluntly honest of her. As someone who was trained as a diplomat, she was usually very restrained and polite in her speech. I supposed that her honesty now showed how comfortable she was with me. 

“I know,” I replied with a smile. “But that’s for our relationship. You need to stop stonewalling the League’s diplomat.”

“... Fine.”

“Wonderful. Now, how’s our son doing?”

She sighed. “Well,” she mumbled while running a hand over her round stomach. “He’s been kicking.”

I hummed as I leaned in and ran my own hand over her stomach. 

“He’s six months along now, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” she confirmed with a smile. “... Honestly, I didn’t think I would become a mother this soon.”

“Really?”

“Really. I thought I was going to spend another five years in the diplomatic corps.” Then she pouted. “But you came along and seduced me with all of your … you-ness.”

“Oh?” I asked with a grin. “What about me?”

“I already told you last time!” 

“But I want to hear it again.”

“Ugh. Women don’t like men who need to be praised.”

“I don’t want praise. I want my woman to tell me why she loves me.”

She rolled her eyes. “For someone who can be really ruthless and cold, you can also be incredibly sappy, did you know that?”

“Well, you did say that it was one of the things you liked about me.”

Because I was indeed ruthless and cold when it was required. I ended ComStar without hesitation after their last attack. I ended pirates all across the Fronc Reaches when they attacked a civilian trader. The Inner Sphere screamed that I was a monstrosity waiting to end their way of life. 

Personally, I wanted to spend less time in politics… which Anna has been helping me with. 

Because, oh man, I was not good at politics. 

… Actually, that was incorrect. I was not good at dealing with people specifically but I could set up a pretty decent political compromise when the occasion called for it. That’s how I set up the Union, after all, though I had a lot of help from my family. 

“So?” I asked.

“Hmm?”

“Are you going to say it?”

“Fine,” she sighed but she sounded far more affectionate than she did exasperated. 

-VB-

Spymaster Amy Arlaoskas

Victoria Fortress Station

3006 August 18

Her brother-in-law could be incredibly stupid and innovative. 

He was also very generous and ruthless.

What he was not, however, was careless or disloyal.

Once he married Anna, whatever chance that the other Great Houses had at seducing Edward was gone. Of course, House Davion didn’t exactly come out of their success with everything they wanted. 

To her surprise, Anna had gone above and beyond and revoked her own citizenship of the Federated Suns upon marrying her brother-in-law. 

Amy personally thought that her new sister-in-law was very foolish. She should have used her connection with New Avalon to help Edward. At the same time, she thought it was very romantic. 

If only her own man could be as romantic… Ugh.

“Ma’am.”

She looked up from where she had been working and saw one of her assistants, an “Beta” level Artificial Intelligence. “He” preferred to walk around while looking like a balding man in his late 40’s with the body of a strong man. He’s been working under her ever since Edward created him, and really had a knack of ferreting out spies and getting a handle on a community’s trends.

And in his hands was another datapad report.

“Thank you, Gerald. Can you give me a summary?” she asked as she took the report from him and looked it over. 

“Of course, ma’am. We’ve had an increase in spies in all other planets not directly under the control of the Arlaoskas Fleet,” he began. “The highest concentration of spies has been found in Victoria II, for obvious reasons. Perhaps it is due to the nature of the Capellans that Father conquered, these spies are often easier to find thanks to the insular and tight-knitted nature of the people. The Capellans have the most success when it comes to infiltration, but they also stand out in that regard because they do not possess enough information to fully blend in with the populace nor do they understand that no matter how well they blend in, even micro expressions are used by the Alphas to determine who they are. Spies from other nations tend to blend in more with corporations and tourism industries, which makes it harder for us to weed them out.”

“Speaking of corporations, have you determined if any of them have offers worth taking?” she asked. 

“Some,” he replied. “Corean Enterprise seems to be very eager to set up a branch office within the Union and asks for access to our resource worlds, and are offering substantial cuts of the profit and resource.”

She nodded. 

Resource worlds referred to worlds that were under the fleet’s direct control. Many of these worlds were outside of the Inner Sphere, and most were, in fact, in the Deep Periphery. The only way to reach those worlds in any timely manner was to use the Stargate network. 

Native Union corporations had a much easier time getting access, and in fact, there were now actual colonies being set up out there. 

“Exactly how much?” 

“Half of the profits.”

Her eyebrows rose up. “That sounds like they are desperate, not that they are offering a genuine business proposal.”

“It may be because their share of the light and medium mech market has been shrinking as of late. After the reveal of Father’s mining drones, there have been calls for higher weight class battlemechs within the Federated Suns. Footage of Hilton Head seemed to have convinced many of them that they needed a lot of firepower to take on the sheer number of drones.”

She shook her head. “Is that the opinion of the public or the actual strategists?”

“The public, unfortunately. Their leadership is keenly aware of the fact that the drones are far more fragile than they appear to be. They are more concerned about our production rate.”

Amy clicked her tongue. 

Because, when it came down to it, the true strength of the Fleet was in how Edward churned out high tech gears, drones, ships, and AIs by the thousands each day from each station, not just the manufacturing dedicated stations.

While it was highly unlikely that the Davions will ever figure out how to use the same method, she didn’t like the fact that they were aware of the true problem at hand.

“That means it shouldn’t affect the AFFS’s purchase of light and medium mechs, though.”

“Indeed, it has not. What has shifted is how the other customers have been making their purchases. In those markets, the Centurion and Valkyries have gone down quite a bit on the charts for mechs purchased. On the other hand, Trebuchets have gone up in value as have mechs like Hunchbacks and Thunderbolts.” 

“Long range supports with a lot of raw firepower.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“... And the Davions’ attempt at warship production?” she asked as she scrolled through the report. 

“Unsuccessful,” he huffed. “Even with ComStar’s interventions no longer causing problems for them, their industries and economies have been too severely crippled. It will take them decades more to produce their first warship and decades further after that for those warships to pose a meaningful threat to any of Father’s ships. But by then, I am sure that Father will have made even more monstrous creations like the ones he’s working in his labs these days.”

He shuddered, and that caught her attention. 

“What is he making lately?” she asked.

He turned to look at her with dead eyes. 

“His hands have been … dipping into things that no longer make sense, even to us, his digital children.”

And that made her sit up straight, because if even artificial intelligences with their superhuman analysis and processing power couldn’t understand what Edward was doing…

“... He’s about to make even more waves, isn’t he?”

“Indubitably.” 

-VB-

Miguel Nohara

Victoria II

3006 September 4

Sometimes, it felt like Edward forgot about his original crew. 

At the same time, moments like these reminded him that Edward didn’t forget. 

Despite the changes the “Fleet” had gone through, Miguel found that he was still the battlemech commander of the Fleet. 

But instead of being just a lance commander, he was now the regimental commander. 

Of course, Ed’s “kids” didn’t want him to because they thought he wasn’t good enough. So Ed, his kids, and he came to a compromise. They would throw all sorts of simulations at him and he would improve, one way or another. If he didn’t improve within five years, then he would personally step down.

And instead of taking five years to prove himself, he did it in two.

He was, as even those superhuman AIs determined, good enough to lead a regiment now. However, he wasn’t leading a full-on mech regiment but a “combined arms” regiment, and he worked with Edward’s older brother, Marco, who led the armored battalion. 

The 1st Union Guard.

And he was colonel in charge of the 1st Union Guard with orders to keep order and law on Victoria II. 

Personally, Miguel didn’t care how that arrangement came about, considering that he knew that the structure of the Union meant that Edward, the “federal government” of the union, couldn’t just force military force on a planet. It had to mean that there was some kind of a political deal to let the 1st Union Guard on the planet to act as the military force. 

… not that he was going to be doing a lot of fighting. 

He knew that the Union was now the safest nation to be in. ComStar tried to fuck up the Union and Edward went and fucked over ComStar so hard that ComStar died.

The other Great Houses couldn’t even get Edward to do anything even though Ed imploded the interstellar communication network. 

Pirates also tried to mess with the Union.

Pirates didn’t last long against the Union. Edward struck back hard, and it was the first time he had deployed with his regiment on some far away world to wipe out the pirates. The Inner Sphere and the Periphery didn’t quite talk about the pirate purges because it wasn’t as big of a news. Even though Miguel and his regiment struck at least four dozen worlds over the six month period. 

That was the kind of lightning campaign that he could never have imagined for himself. Not for Marco, too. But that’s how military life was like in the Union, apparently. A lot of less waiting than what they were used to. 

“Hey, Miguel.”

He looked up and saw Marco. He pulled the cigar out of his mouth and put it down. “That’s colonel to you, Marco,” he said with a grin.

Marco snorted with a smile. “You’d think my brother would have made me a colonel, too.”

“Yeah, but you failed his kids’ assessments, which is why I’m a colonel and you are not.”

“Bah!” the Arlaoskas tanker tsk’ed. “What do they know?” he grumbled before pausing. “Anyways, now what? Are we just going to be garrisoning Victoria II until some other idiot comes around?”

“Most likely.” 

“Then I guess we’re more or less in retirement then,” Marco sighed. “There’s no way anyone else will attack us after what we did to the Reach and ComStar.”

“You never know. Capellans aren’t the smartest people out there, you know?”

“Even Mad Max has to know that he won’t get anyway from messing with us.”

Miguel thought about it. 

“Know, yes. Understand? I’m not so sure. For all we know, he might consider kidnapping people important to Ed.”

Marco scoffed. “Yeah, I’d like to see them try.”