Scavenged Restoration 99 (Patreon)

Scavenged Restoration

Chapter 99

-VB-

And so on the eve of 3055, Crown Princess Anastasia Liao sailed from Sian with her Phoenix Brigade to the rimward Federated Suns-spinward Taurian Concordat border. 

Tha Taurians, upon learning about the impending Clan Snow Raven’s naval expedition that would reach their border within the year, happily (if somewhat begrudgingly) welcomed them in, though they also put watch on the Phoenix Brigade, both discretely and overtly. 

Allies they may be, but it was still unnerving to have a fleet thrice as heavy as theirs moving through their borders. 

The Capellans, for their part, saw her expedition and knew that it would be another glorious victory for the confederation and their people. 

Clan Snow Raven learned about the expedition while raiding a FedSuns world to resupply, and they were ecstatic about the upcoming naval battle. 

There was, however, one people who weren’t happy about this. 

The Davions and their citizens. 

From the spinward periphery, the Snow Ravens had begun a two prong war against them. Clan Snow Raven within the Outworlds Alliance had begun to attack both Draconis Combine and Federated Suns worlds in search of challenging foes, and despite their naval-focused specialties, had absolutely trounced the garrison units who had been unalerted and unprepared for Snow Raven toumens landing on their worlds. The Combine lost Groveld, Niles, Valentina, and Delacruz while the FedSuns lost Bryceland, Tancredi, Kesai, and Conroe in just the first few months of Snow Raven’s conquest. This was a disaster of the highest order for both states because while the Snow Raven weren’t the most numerous or powerful of the Clans, they were also far from the main frontlines, and routing mercenary and regular regiments capable of standing toe to toe with them will draw that same strength away from the stalemated frontline and thus give the main Clan force a small advantage they might be able to use to conquer more worlds. 

And then there was the naval expedition itself, which was system hopping across the spinward-rimward periphery, striking at worlds that had barely any garrisons and making off with significant supplies, both raw and finished. The Snow Ravens occupied those worlds with solahma units that couldn’t be defeated by Outback mercenaries or regulars, meaning the FedSuns had to pull even more troops away from the frontlines. 

And now, the Capellan’s most decorated fleet skimmed along their border on a crash course with the Snow Raven fleet. Win or lose, one side would grow stronger by absorbing the other side’s assets, and neither were friends to the Federated Suns. 

And First Prince Hanse Davion felt this very keenly as he looked at the maps. 

Because from his perspective, his people and nation became surrounded by enemies on all fronts. 

For all of the blustering paranoia that the Taurians had displayed for the past two hundred years, they had never done anything about it and had been previously written off as a non-player. But now, they had allied the Capellans and given a fleet of their own in what could only be a Taurian rearmament program funded and supplied by the Capellans. Similarly, the Outworlds Alliance had been a none player even during the Reunification War, but now with Clan Snow Raven taking residence on their worlds and attacking them, even they had to be factored into the game. 

And the Snow Ravens themselves presented a nasty surprise. If the conquest along their Combine border wasn’t enough, then it was the fact that their navy, which was both stronger and larger than the Federated Suns’ navy, scoured their worlds and depleted their resources even further while casting a net of occupied worlds that needed to be liberated lest they become beachheads used to claw into the unprotected underbelly of the state. 

But Hanse didn’t have the experienced veteran mechwarriors and troops who could fight the Clans that could be pulled from the front. Mercenaries were already too busy bleeding on the frontlines on coreward Lyran worlds. Even Northwind Highlanders were fighting the good fight.

Where did this leave him? 

Hanse stared at the holographic map of the Inner Sphere, specifically around the regions in and around the Federated Suns. The map also showed the locations of all of the active mech regiments and fleets, not including the militia, garrison, and training cadres. 

Currently, the AFFS possessed forty-eight regiments and fifteen warships at or above the destroyer tonnage. The LCAF had fifty-three regiments and twenty-two warships at or above the destroyer tonnage. 

Compared to them, the Capellan Confederation had sixty-nine mech regiments and fifty-one warships at or above the destroyer tonnage, according to DMI and MIIO. Which meant that the Capellans had ten more warships hiding somewhere inside their nation that no one knew the location of, not to mention the corvettes that weren’t counted there. Or the pocket warships that have been shown to be capable of taking the fight to the corvettes in wolf packs. 

And a third of those ships were now circling to the most vulnerable region of the Federated Suns. 

‘Is he planning to rile up the Outbacks?’ Hanse asked himself. 

It was his shame that he could not help the Outbacks as much as he wanted to. Even during the peaceful times, the naval build-up and rearmament had cost so much that he hadn’t been able to spare anything for the ever impoverished region. 

But now, there was a not insignificant chance that the Capellans would show him up and convince the Outback that they didn’t need to be part of the Federated Suns, especially if they saw this “Phoenix Brigade” defeat the largest threat the Federated Suns has faced that wasn’t another Successor State. 

“We can’t afford to be seen doing nothing when enemy states have fleets in our backyard.”

He looked up and saw his son, Victor. Of his three children (Victor, Andrea, Catherine, and their new youngest, Shawn), he was the most martially inclined. Victor was a mechwarrior just like him, preferring to ride the Black Knight upgraded with Clan technology. He was an even better strategist and tactician than a mechwarrior. And so, Hanse had got his son into the strategy room with the other generals and advisors of the state specifically to train his analytical mind.

“You are right,” Hanse replied. “If we allow the Capellans to so easily trapeze around our borders with a fleet that powerful, we will be nothing more than a laughingstock to our own people. Worse, we will appear powerless to defend them. The only thing that’s stopping the Capellans from attacking our worlds is the current Clan invasion giving us a tacit understanding. If it had been any other chancellor other than William right now…”

“We would be fighting a three front war,” Victor finished for him. 

“Indeed,” Director Lucy Miller of DMI, a tall and lanky woman with a no nonsense demeanor and more than a decade of field experience under her belt, replied. “And it is possible that the chancellor saw the Snow Raven’s travel before they did when he sent his nephew to clear out the pirates along our border.”

“Did he?” Hanse had to ask. 

Was that truly what happened? Or was it a simple joint expedition between the Capellans and the Taurians and his spies were reading too much into it? 

“Sending his nephew might have been a bait in and of itself,” Arden Sortak, speaking as the Prince’s Champion, said with a frown. “While all of our eyes were focused on him, we might have missed his subtler approaches.”

“What about the mysterious jump emissions that our spies kept getting but never seeing anything of?” Alexi Mallory, the Minister of MIIO, asked. “We have reports and event data but nothing else that correlates with them.”

“You sure they were real in the first place?” someone else asked. 

“Positive,” Mallory grunted. “The jumps were consistent with the average recharge time of each star the jumps were noted.”

Director Miller stared at Mallory for a long while before she suddenly jolted.

“Stealth armor,” she muttered in horror before she hurriedly began to flip through reports on her touchscreen noteputer. 

Hanse’s attention immediately snapped to her. “Director?”

“I remembered that during the Andurien Secession, our spies in the Free Worlds League reported an hour by hour play of the Battle of Andurien V, but the battle didn’t begin on the ground. It began in contested orbit,” she hissed out before she finally stopped flipping. “And something we noted before that battle was the use of stealth armor by the Capellans during the Battle of Sian,” she said as she looked up and handed him her noteputer. “And in the opening move of the Battle of Andurien V, the Capellans launched a wave of stealth ASF to do a cold bombing run. The Andurien fleet didn’t stand a chance when they didn’t spot anything with thermals or EM on their sensors.”

“You cannot be serious, director,” Mallory asked, aghast at what she was implying. 

“I am serious. This is Chancellor William’s Confederation we are talking about!” she hissed out uncharacteristically with pallor. 

Chancellor William’s Confederation was how the analysts at MIIO, DMI, and other institutes across the Inner Sphere differentiated the confederation before and after his ascension as the chancellor. The “CWC” was a still ongoing period where the Capellans were making technological gains not just in former Lostech but also new technologies. 

As Hanse came to understand the situation, he too felt his heart squeeze. “You are suggesting that the Capellans have a stealth jumpship.” He did not say stealth warship. That was … that was too horrifying to even think about. 

“Yes,” she replied as she turned to look at him briefly before turning to look at the rest of them. “What’s better than a recon force freely scouting out our systems while everyone else is looking at his prized nephew? A recon force literally no one cannot observe.”

“... Then how do we find and keep track of them?” Victor asked the relevant question. 

“Whatever it is, it’s not emitting thermals,” Mallory quickly reported. “We also do not know the size or shape of this force.”

“Then that’s where we will start,” Hanse declared. “And we will use the New Avalon Defense Fleet as cover for the search. We can’t, after all, allow the fleets of two different nations to loiter in our own backyard.”

There wasn’t a plan but it was the start of one.