Scavenged Restoration 72 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFangs

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 72

-VB-

Contrary to what the vast majority of people expected from the Great Houses, the Battle of Dieron did not immediately precipitate into a ceasefire and then a peace treaty. 

The Federated Commonwealth Alliance immediately armed themselves for a conflict with ComStar, but instead of an interdiction or even a declaration of war, ComStar laid back and told the FedCom Alliance that they will confiscate every single FedCom jumpship within the Terran Corridor and hold them as collateral for the damages they caused and that ComStar will levy a new tariff and toll on all FedCom businesses and goods that pass through the Terran Corridor. 

This reduced FedCom’s jumpship count by an additional five jumpships, or thirty-one dropship collars. Many of these jumpships had belonged to corporations who had been using the Corridor for safe passage between the two nations, and the sudden collapse of the peace, precipitated by the Lyrans, again, angered many businesses, who in turn began to demand that the FedCom governments pay the cost immediately.

Combine and League’s jumpships continued to operate freely within the Corridor, which further provided fuel to the fire that would become the Jumpship Boycott. 

In essence, the constant attack on jumpships as a result of FedCom incompetence galvanized many free jumpships to band into a union and declare a boycott on the FedCom Alliance. Their goal? An end to the War of Lyran Aggression. They declared that should the FedCom force any of the union’s members to work for them, then they would all go to work for Kapteyn Accord instead. 

It was the kind of theoretical worst case scenario that no one ever considered seriously, but had now become a reality. 

The Jumpship Union, along with ComStar’s demands and FedCom’s slowly reversing gains, finally brought the FedCom Alliance to sue for peace.

So on December 4th, 3040, the Great Houses met on Terra once again to mete out peace. 

And unlike the last time they met, the tables had turned for FedCom and the Accords. 

-VB-

“Something tells me I should be smirking at the Steiner and Davion pair and say something along the lines of ‘oh, how the tables have turned.’ Be all melodramatic and painfully smug,” Primus Monroe hummed. “But, of course, I am better than them, so I shouldn’t.”

He and the rest of First Circuit were once again on Terra along with the leaders of the Great Houses.

“Do you think any of the Great Houses will pull something?” Precentor ROM Solomon asked. 

“No. Both the First Prince and the Archon are tired of the war,” the new Precenter Tharkad, Samuel Joho, replied. As the youngest out of all First Circuit members, he tried too hard to appear competent. 

Timothy knew that he was competent. That was the reason why he was chosen in the first place to become a precenter at a young age of thirty. And now, at thirty-five, he’d become Precentor Tharkad… because his competency wasn’t in question and neither was his loyalty to the current First Circuit and Timothy himself. 

And he was here to offer any advice or insight he had on the Lyrans.

… But instead of discussing how they could guide the peace negotiations to favor ComStar, all of the First Circuit kept themselves relaxed.

Because, technically speaking, this war had helped them achieve everything they had desired in the short term.

Legitimacy. Authority. Prominence.

ComStar could not achieve any of those things without Lyran “support,” but they also knew that they could not push too hard lest the Great Houses decide to gang up on them. At the same time, they could not afford to allow either side to establish dominance over the other. 

“The Archon is willing to let go of Solaris?”

Solaris wasn’t the most important gain of the war; Chesterton falling to the Capellan Confederation blew the League’s achievement out of the water. 

“The Commonwealth gained quite a bit from the retreating Combine. They will … let it happen.”

“Hmm. And the First Prince?” Precentor Sian Viljah asked. 

Precentor New Avalon de Salome shrugged. “The public is devastated by the loss of Chesterton and believe the First Prince to be incompetent regardless of the fact that it had very little to do with his competence. The loss of Chesterton has more to do with Duke Hasek. Those jumpships allowed the Capellans to copy the Federated Suns in the Fourth Succession War. Without having to lose their defense along the border, the Capellans dropped a massive force that Chesterton could not contest. And the concentration of warships in the system and the surrounding systems prevented the First Prince from reinforcing Chesterton without an even more overwhelming loss. If what happened on Necromo was bad, then a desperate defense of Chesterton would have resulted in a near total loss of the Davion warship fleet. And if that happened, then the Combine would have rushed their rival with their own warships.” He paused. “In the end, the FedSuns lost what gave them ego over the Capellans but nothing much more than that. It isn’t as if Chesterton is some sort of an important manufacturing center of the Capellan March.”

Timothy knew that all too well, having been Precentor New Avalon, and he could imagine the kind of pandemonium that was swallowing the Federated Suns right now. 

Well, actually, no. He didn’t have to imagine. ROM was recording everything from everywhere - the desperate calls for protection all along the Capellan March, the grim calls of retreat from the Combine worlds the Feddies couldn’t hold, and the horrified panic of investors, politicians, and nobles as the stock market plummeted. 

“Then we must ensure that the Capellans hold onto Chesterton.”

“Oh, they won’t let it go,” Precentor Sian smirked. “Even if they were losing, they would rather return every other world they conquered than lose Chesterton.”

-VB-

I stared across the same table that had seen the creation of the Terran Trade Corridor and the end of the Fourth Succession War. I sat there dressed in the traditional (and extremely gaudy) green and gold attire of the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation marked with the insignia of the Greater Capellan Confederation but also with my new personal sigil of the golden phoenix on my chest. Because that’s what I was to my confederation: the patient and long lived phoenix bringing the Confederation back from the brink of collapse. 

And I looked great for a fifty-five year old. The doctors of Canopus will weep in jealousy at the miracles my doctors can weave.

And journalists from all over the Inner Sphere, the most veteran and respected journalists, of course, were here to record it all. 

I ran my eyes over the table. Yes, this was where the Terran Trade Corridor was created. To this day, the Terran Trade Corridor turned out to be my foreign relations masterpiece. What other Chancellor could claim to have the Davions and Steiners stab themselves with the very same pen that they used to sign peace? 

It was a bit of an ego moment for me. 

But I kept my face blank as I met Hanse Davion’s gaze. To my surprise, he also looked a little off. Well, I supposed that anyone would be after the amount of stress he’s going through.

In fact, I looked the best.

The Primus of ComStar, Timothy Monroe, stood up from his seat as the mediator of the talks. 

“I, Timothy Monroe the Primus of ComStar and designated mediator of this peace conference, hereby declare a start to the talks! May Blake guide us all into a peaceful future. Captain-General Thomas Marik, you have the floor first.”

Captain-General Thomas Marik, the original and not a clone, stood up from his seat to my left; all five leaders were arrayed around the giant obsidian table in the same direction as our realms laid in the Inner Sphere. 

“Thank you for giving me the chance to speak first, Primus,” he began. I suspected that it had something to do with his former status as a member of ComStar and a snob at the FedCom for their lack of discretion. Thomas then turned to the rest of the table, looking at us one by one until he met my gaze at last. He gave me a nod and looked to Katrina. 

Katrina was old now, and despite the help from the medical tech and knowledge-stuffed Memory Core I’d leaked to her people, she looked to be close to death. Few wrinkles but sickly pale. 

I suspected that once her business here and on Tharkad was done, she really might pass away. It’s a wonder what the human mind can force the body to do even when the body wants to give up.

“This senseless war began with the Lyrans attacking the League’s allies with nuclear attacks and when offered a chance to make amends, chose not to. To this end, I must demand that the Lyran Commonwealth bear the brunt of the responsibility and consequences.”

“... The Lyran Commonwealth asks what you demand for peace,” Katrina spoke up calmly. Regally, even.

Thomas waved a hand over the center of the table, which all five of us recognized as a holo projector, and a map of the Inner Sphere lit up. He zoomed into the Commonwealth-League border and made adjustments from the map made after the end of the Succession War. 

“An acknowledgement of the return to our shared borders to pre-Succession War status.” This was already a given considering that, outside of the Hegemony worlds, the Free Worlds League had reconquered pretty much everything but the Bolan Thumb. 

“You do not have the Bolan Thumb under occupation. I cannot accept that.”

“Then I will omit them.”

“... Fine.”

“Archon Katrina Steiner? It is your turn now.”

Katrina stood up. Slowly. Weakly. 

I felt … complicated.

She was someone who could have made peace with me and forced Hanse to settle down. Had she done so, no matter how late it was, then billions of people wouldn’t have died in the Fourth Succession War and their latest fuck-up.

But she didn’t and had still received my help, so I felt very little pity. 

“I am Archon Katrina Steiner, and I want it on record that the Lyran Commonwealth has punished all co-conspirators of those who committed the atrocity on Alshain. When we were offering to fund the entirety of Alshain’s recovery, the declaration of war was too much.”

To my surprise, Coordinator Takashi Kurita remained silent for a long while, despite the fact that she had directed those words to him. Also, Katrina. That was a very weak excuse, but everyone knew it, including Katrina herself. 

“The dragon cares not for money. It is honor and justice that it sought. By punishing the wrong-doers yourself, you took our justice from our hands. Of course, it was not acceptable. Wars have been declared for less, so how could I not declare war for more?”

“Your brand of justice borders on crimes against humanity.”

Takashi raised an eyebrow. “At least we are bold enough to face our own sins.”

She made changes to the map.

I frowned.

“... The Lyran Commonwealth demands that the Combine acknowledge the worlds currently under Lyran occupation as part of the Lyran Commonwealth.” 

“You have not occupied all of the worlds currently being proposed,” he swiftly denied.and made changes himself. “I will accept this.”

Katrina glared. “No change?”

“For all of the atrocities you committed in this war. Fair and just, no?” he smirked. 

“I will not accept that.”

A new change. More honest but still favoring the Lyrans.

He made the changes again, and this change gave the Lyrans less than what they fully occupied. 

She glared at the map. 

“... Fine.”

This time, it was Takashi who rose up when the Primus called. 

“Although we declared this war, we were dragged into it as a result of Lyran atrocities. And while we have settled the border with them, I have not yet done so with the Federated Suns. I will accept fully occupied worlds as being under … the Davion steward but all actively contested worlds must be returned to the embrace of the dragon. This is non-negotiable.”

Hanse glared at Takashi.

“I will accept this on the condition that you return all FedCom prisoners.”

“Only if you do the same for the Accord’s.”

“Done.”

Takashi sat down. 

I looked at him and nodded. This was also most likely going to be his last visit to Terra as the Coordinator. He was much better off than Katrina - not having cancer certainly helps - but even then, he too was old at seventy years old. And unlike me, he did not have the benefit of Star League era medical technology. 

It was the Davion’s turn. 

To my surprise, he didn’t look to me but instead looked to ComStar. 

“While the Federated Suns is an ally of the Lyran Commonwealth, you have imposed the same tariff, toll, and asset seizure against us.”

“Yes,” Primus replied. “Because you are allies.”

“Then I demand that after the signing of the peace treaty, you return all of the Federated Suns’ assets, including the jumpships. The Federated Suns has not struck against ComStar and still acknowledge the Terran Corridor.”

The Primus hummed. “We will do so.”

… Oh? That was given away way too easily, especially so considering the fact that the Federated Suns desperately needed those jumpships. 

Then it was my turn. Since Hanse didn’t address our border, I supposed that I had to. 

“The Capellan Confederation has already welcomed our brothers and sisters back into our fold. In fact, many of the worlds we welcomed back raised their arms against you two,” I said, adding Katrina to the mix. “You will acknowledge that those worlds and their people now belong to the Greater Capellan Confederation again.” Then I made the changes. 

I added two more worlds, insignificant worlds that my forces had not captured in favor of juicer targets, and waited. 

I was basically telling them to give those worlds up without a fight. This would cause waves back at home for them because they were two former Tikonov Commonality worlds. Because this was not something done in the Inner Sphere. No one gave up worlds that hadn’t been occupied.

Katrina sighed. “I accept your offer.”

And yet, her acceptance highlighted just how bad of a position the FedCom Alliance was in. 

Hanse gritted his teeth. 

“... What about Duke Hasek?”

“Him?”

… And this was the chance I have been looking for. To make a further mockery of the man who thought himself the Fox. The man who let his trauma burn a billion people. 

“Why would I return my spy?”

The entire room froze. 

“Did you think that Hasek got his assets during and after the Fourth Succession War because he was lucky? No, I released the coordinates to Star League caches to him that he showed off to you. He was the one who gave my Maskirovka access to the shipyards. He is the one who got my connections with your other nobles.”

He stared at me with wide eyes. 

What I said was true, but it didn’t matter even if it wasn’t true. My words, being recorded right now, would spread into the Federated Suns. 

It would spark a witch hunt. MIIO and DMI, even if they already vetted everyone, would have to keep working in search of ghosts that didn’t exist. 

And Morgan Hasek-Davion, that talented general, would never be able to rise up further because of the taint that was his father. In fact, from what we narco-interrogated out of Hasek, Morgan helped his father with the planning of the Necromo invasion. Once that bit of juicy news got out, he will become a suspect, too. 

Oh yes. I wasn’t just preventing a talented general from reaching his full potential but also putting a crack in House Davion, forcing the uncle to sideline his nephew. 

And Hanse knew what I was doing. No, what I had already done.

Wrath burned in his eyes. 

‘You fucking deserve it,’ I thought as I returned his glare with a cold stare. 

“So no. Dear Michael is enjoying the Capellan hospitality at a vacation house with women to spare.” No one in the room looked like they believed what I said, but did it matter? No. “But I will return your patriots. They keep dying trying to escape, and we’re not Lyran enough to murder them all,” I said as I glanced at Katrina. 

She looked upset as well. 

‘You really should have accepted my offer.’

And I looked back at Hanse. 

… This was it. 

If the Fourth Succession War had been a desperate bid for survival and relevance, then this unexpected War of Lyran Aggression was the triumphant return. 

The Greater Capellan Confederation was no longer the Old Man of the Inner Sphere. 

We were the Titan.

And Hanse gritted out a response. 

“I accept.”

I smiled and sat down. 

Now, the biggest terms of the peace treaty were acknowledged. 

We moved onto the annoyingly small tidbits. 

-VB-

The Treaty of Terra (3040) marked the end of the War of Lyran Aggression. Unlike the previous treaty which ended the Fourth Succession War, the Treaty of Terra (3040) was a remarkably unremarkable piece of legal document. It outlined the terms of peace, which mostly involved transfer of prisoners and territories. 

But its effects reached far beyond what mere exchange of territories would have done. 

The greatest of these came from the FedCom Alliance. 

The Chancellor’s confirmation that Duke Michael Hasek-Davion was a spy led to a frenzy of MIIO and DMI activities within the Federated Suns while Archon Katrina Steiner used the losses incurred during the war to justify a thorough purge of social generals; she did not have them executed for their incompetence like the Draconis Combine would have done, but she removed them from their offices with extreme prejudice. This would be her final act as the Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth. In doing so however, she created intense resentment within a significant percentage of the Lyran elites who began to back Frederick Steiner to become the Archon instead of Katrina’s daughter. 

The Draconis Combine learned valuable lessons for future military doctrines. Though they did not completely shift away from the ASF-focused naval engagements, their investments within the warship production doubled following the war. With that done, Takashi Kurita stepped down as the Coordinator and crowned his son, Theodore Kurita, as the next Coordinator. 

ComStar asserted their position as the “caretaker” of Terra and its surrounding worlds, regardless of their current political affiliation. They got the Great Houses to reaffirm their role as the protector of the Terran Trade Corridor, and would receive war reparations from the FedCom Alliance for decades to come. 

The Free Worlds League was probably the nation who benefited the most with the least amount of investment. The conquest of Solaris led to the renewed resurgence for House Marik, and stabilized Captain-General Thomas Marik’s rule for multiple decades. 

The one who saw the most benefit, however, was the Capellan Confederation. Half of their FedSuns borders reached the borders from the end of the First Succession War. They also reconquered a dozen Tikonov Commonality worlds from the Lyrans. But most of all, they took Chesterton back from the Federated Suns, retaking the world that they had lost before the birth of the Star League. The following decades would be called the Capellan Golden Age as the Capellan Confederation developed internally through numerous technological innovations not in line with the Star League but also an expansion outward not into other Great Houses but rimward into the Periphery and the Deep Periphery.