Scavenged Restoration 76 (Patreon)

Commissioned by RoyalTwinFangs

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 76

-VB-

3049

To say that I was concerned about the crisis about to hit the Inner Sphere was to say that I was more concerned about it than what I would eat for lunch today. 

I had zero problems with it. 

Well… not zero. 

I did not trust the FedCom Alliance - yes, it was still an alliance instead of the personal union-ish thingy that was the Federated Commonwealth - to keep the Clans from burning their way across half of the Inner Sphere to reach Terra. It was just them and the Draconis Combine in the Clans’ path because nobody meddled around to make the Free Raselhague Republic to become a thing. And once they reached Terra and declared one of their kind as the ilKhan, the full might of the Clans would under a united banner and be an actual threat to my people. 

I couldn’t have that. 

However, there was no way in hell and heaven that the FedCom Alliance would ever take my help.

Which meant that the only help I could provide for the coreward worlds was to help the Draconis Combine.

But how? 

If the FedCom Alliance won’t accept my help because they hate me, then the Draconis Combine won’t accept my help because of their pride. To them, the Capellan Confederation was still a weak state that lost the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Succession Wars. Sure, we utterly crushed the FedCom where we encountered them during the Way of Lyran Aggression, but it happened so quickly that most in the Draconis Combine didn’t feel the impact before the war came to end. 

Was it stupid? Yes.

Did stupid care about reality? Hardly. 

Which was why I was going to do some more Capellan cunning. 

It was just going to convoluted, which meant there was a high chance that it could fail and I didn’t like failure. 

… But there was a card I could use. It was not something I liked, though.

It would have to happen with a sufficient “gift” that they can use to help defend against the Clans. 

Ugh.

Anastasia was going to kill me for this. 

-VB-

Theodore looked at the HPG message he had received from the Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation. And to say that he was not expecting this at all was an understatement. 

“To the Coordinator of Worlds of the Draconis Combine Theodore Kurita, 

Hail, my great ally in the coreward Inner Sphere,

Greetings from the rimward Inner Sphere. We, the Chancellor of the Inner Sphere, has encountered a concern and we hope that the Coordinator of Worlds would be able to settle this matter. It has dawned on us that while the Great Draconis Combine and the Capellan Confederation are strong allies who have seen through multiple wars against our belligerent neighbors, we have not had any interactions beyond this. We find this to be disturbing. How are we to coordinate against our enemies if we know not each other? How are we to find common ground and continue to be allies against those who do not understand our cultures? It is with this in mind that we offer you a solution to this dilemma that can occur only with your permission. 

We seek to send the Crown Princess Anastasia Liao on a tour of your great nation so that she may learn of your people, and ask that your own heir Hohiro Kurita to accompany her so that the future rulers of our two great peoples will know each other. Of course, it would be remiss if my daughter were to visit your nation, your home, without a gift, and so I offer you a fleet of eighteen dropships of the confederation’s own design and making, the DroST CC-class dropships. 

We hope we receive an amenable reply to our request in the hopes that our two people will find closer relationships. 

With high hopes,

William Liao, Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation

Duke of Sian.

The letter was so ridiculous that he had both his father and his son to read it for the fourth time. 

“... It is not a trick,” Kanrei Takashi Kurita hummed as he stroked his beard; his father had grown one for the past six years for some reason. “The chancellor is many things, but when he wants something, he states it outright like he did in the letter. 

“Could he be trying to use his daughter to seduce me?” the youngest of the present Kuritas asked. The twenty-five year old Hohiro Kurita the Second, the current heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne, spoke with a frown. 

“No. His love for his daughter is well known,” Theodore rejected the notion. “Too doting, some have bravely pointed out. He has allowed her to command a fleet of warships for the past year. No, I do not see him using her of all people to try to seduce you.”

“... Then he truly seeks to tighten the bonds between our nations?” Hohiro sounded confused. “But why? He knows what we seek.”

“Dominance over the Inner Sphere, yes,” Takashi nodded. “But dominance need not involve conquest if it doesn’t have to. And a friendly relationship with the Capellan Confederation can be used to bring the Free Worlds League in line once we crush the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth.”

Theodore hummed. 

The attempted joining of the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, now two decades in the making, was not going well for the aforementioned two nations. Their failures in the War of Lyran Aggression and the still eroding trust of their royal leadership has resulted in the alliance going nowhere. 

Oh, Archon Katrina’s last minute reforms left the Lyran Commonwealth’s commoners very much in favor of the Steiner-Davion royals, but the Federated Suns’ commoners were unhappy with First Prince Hanse’s lack of achievement and huge sacrifices. Inversely, the Lyran nobles and wealthy were unhappy with the royals because of the last archon’s reforms which were roughhanded for their people. 

But something like those reforms would have been tame for the Draconis Combine and the Capellan Confederation.

“To strengthen our alliance while theirs wane…” Theodore hummed. 

“... It is a smart move,” his father grunted. “But it may also galvanize their leadership to put their differences aside for now if they see a bigger threat in our strengthening alliance.”

“And when have we ever steered away from a course due to what others might think?” his son challenged. 

“Perhaps it is my age talking,” his father chuckled. “But I have learned to be more patient. Patience is all I have these days. And waiting to allow the FedCom Alliance to fall apart on their own certainly sounds better than letting it become better.”

“Maybe,” Theodore agreed. “We’ll think on this for a few more days. I will also talk to my advisors. Thank you, son, father.”

Both of them nodded and left together. But as they did, Theodore saw the two discussing the subject quietly if fervently. 

It was good to see his son being friendly with his father. 

-VB-

The Terran Free Trade Corridor ended up being the saving grace for their aging mech regiments and new warship fleets. 

First Prince Hanse Davion set his papers down for a moment to look out of the windows of the Triad palace’s office of the archon. It was a much more prestigious and decorated room compared to his own back in New Avalon.

It’s been the eighth time he’s come here as part of the annual rotation of offices of his family. 

Creak.

He looked away from the window showing the lightly snowing outdoors and turned to see Melissa walking in. She silently made her way across the office and sat down in her own chair next to him.

“Tired?”

She nodded and he gave her a kiss on the cheeks. 

Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion, his wife, was the most beloved person in the now named Steiner-Davion family. She was the heart of the Federated Suns and the face of the Lyran Commonwealth. The public only became more enamored with her over the last decade while his popularity… well, it’s suffered a little earlier this decade but he’s clawed some of it back with his social programs aimed at bringing up the more poverty-stricken colonies’ education up to par with both nations’ averages. It wasn’t just that, of course, but that particular program was what many people cited as their “swing incident.”

But it wouldn’t have been possible without the Terran Free Trade Corridor. 

Despite the advances they were able to make in recovering lost technologies, the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth were still behind the Free Worlds League and the Capellan Confederation in manufacturing jumpships. In fact, the Capellan Confederation went all in on the warships. As Chancellor William casually said oftentimes during interviews, warships were better for defensive doctrines, implying that the Capellans were the ones being attacked.

And when excesses were sold, those excesses eventually found themselves in the Trade Corridor’s many worlds where they were sold up a ridiculous mark up. 

But both the Commonwealth and the Federated Suns were able to invest in new jumpships at a pace they couldn’t otherwise produce on their own because of those jumpship and jumpship components. 

It was why the Federated Suns was able to recover from their jumpship losses during the last war in just five years.

… But it also meant that the Capellan Confederation, Draconis Combine, and the Free Worlds League only gained more jumpships and warships since then. 

With none of the Kapteyn Accord nations looking to be seeking war, he had also done his best to silence the extreme and vocal warmongers in his own nation.

He didn’t want a repeat of the last war, after all.

The problem he had to solve right now was the fact that the FedCom Alliance lacked both the technology and the manufacturing capacity of the Kapteyn Alliance. He had sponsored and invested in as many manufacturers small and large as he could get away with, and while there was a boom in the manufacturing sector, it took time for the growing sector to produce tangible results, so if they ended up in another war right now, then all of the gains they made in the last decade would go up in the air. 

Like what happened during the last war. 

Before his mind could spiral, a knock echoed off of the office door.

“Come in,” Melissa declared as she straightened up and sat properly on her chair. 

The door opened after a moment and one of the LIC generals walked in.

“Your Highness, we’ve just received intel regarding the Liaos,” he said as he waited for her to gesture for him to come closer, which she did. 

The general laid down a packet on their desk, and Melissa opened it up.

She frowned at what she read and then handed it to him.

Hanse took it and read it.

Chancellor William was sending his heir to tour the Draconis Combine… with the heir of the Draconis Combine. 

“... Are they mocking me?” he grumbled. 

“I doubt it,” Melissa hummed from his side. “But it is a strategic decision we should keep a close eye on.”

He didn’t answer for a while. “Yes, it is.”

She nodded and turned to the general. “General, make sure the entire LIC knows that I will not accept any sort of unsanctioned actions against the two heirs.”

“Understood, Your Highness.”

And then there was another knock on the door. 

“Come in,” she called out. This time, it was an HPG communications officer, someone in charge of receiving messages from the HPG. “What is it?”

“Your Highness, we’ve received word from the periphery and along our borders. Chainelane Isles and the bandit kingdoms have all fallen to a mysterious Deep Periphery invader.”

“... All of them? At once?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Hanse narrowed his eyes. “We’ll need eyes on that front and fast. Even though they were just bandit kingdoms, they shouldn’t have collapsed so quickly. How long has it been?”

“ComStar reports that the initial invasion began just … two months ago.”