Resurgence - Cataclysm Chapter 17
January 11th, 3153
Davion Palace, New Avalon
0630
Inside the Davion palace they thought of nearly everything. In the event that leadership became injured a war room had been set up next to the infirmary. Julian Davion had time to contemplate the situation and briefing that is about to take place. He knows he cannot appear weak. Upon his orders to give him whatever was needed to become mobile on his own the doctors gave him a wild mix of drugs to numb pain and counter mind-altering effects.
He enters the room at a slow and purposeful pace. He is still wearing his Mechwarrior vest, shorts, and boots as are most of the leaders present. Siobhan and Sebastien are both standing at the table covered in their own injuries and bandages. Erik, Danai, Lars, and Dominic wrap around the far end of the table, Dominic being unique in his flight suit. Finally, General Lee, Kitsune, and Knight Raul Ortega have joined the group. Both of the Nomads are clearly in a poor mental state due to Lady Joy’s vanishing. Around the outside walls of the war room are a number of security personnel from the different nations – a Maskirovka officer and a female Sang-Wei, a Ghost Bear Elemental, and a MIIO agent to name a few.
Taking a deep breath, Julian grabs the back of his chair as he stands behind it. “Thank you, to all of you. You have the thanks of not just the First Prince of the Federated Suns but, the whole of the people of the Federated Suns.” He starts to choke up a little bit. They all came here to protect our realm and lost many of their own. Each of the faces around the table return the statement with a nod and/or hand gesture and even look to each other with thankful and encouraging looks. At the end of the day, they are all warriors and a warrior’s bond is the pinnacle of trust and comradery.
“Please, everyone take a seat,” Julian continues as the entire room sits down. He hits a couple keys at the top of the chair which activate the holotable and show a sweeping view of the Phase Line Bravo battlefield as of this morning. “The Federated Suns and Nomad forces took an unfathomable number of losses, every few hundred meters a company of mechs and a company of vehicles are left in wrecks. We lost battalions of warriors here alone, that’s before even looking at what happened in Ith.” The viewing continues as meter by meter more dead war material and corpses are strewn out. In the morning light the colors become more visible to show the ground with far more red staining than expected.
Julian presses another button to show a sweeping view of the post battle carnage caused when the Word of Blake tried to split Ith from Achernar Battlemechs. The group can see two remaining and heavily damaged Ares mechs. For a second Kitsune and Ortega can pick out Kerensky’s Night Wolf and Dumont’s Peacekeeper. Two dead Omegas lay lifeless on the field and Julian internally cheers and swears at the dead mechs after having been the target of some the night before.
Now, switching to a recording from the palace itself, peering out through the rain and down at the battlefield, the moment of the allies’ arrival looks just as inspiring as any film. A nearly victorious force of mechs with primarily white color schemes are attacked by reinforcements and pushed back, fleeing to Barrington. Around the table the other leaders are quietly cheering on their own forces as they surge into the Blakist lines. Most clear is the Red Sword touching down with Erik, Danai, and Lars charging out of it just after McKenna’s Wusun and his formation blast by the Palace after their strafing run. The most reserved responses are Lee, Kitsune, and Raul, Julian notices.
“Let me begin with the Nomads,” Julian states as he takes his seat and looks toward the three men. He motions to Sebastien Caeden, “MIIO has agreed to work with you to track down Lady Joy. She has been instrumental in helping set up our defenses and we will need her again before this fight with the Word of Blake ends.”
General Lee responds, “That is most appreciated First Prince,” he looks to Sebastien, “Our Fidelis warriors have already volunteered…”
“As am I.” adds Raul.
“Certainly, Knight Ortega,” Lee confirms and continues. “The Fidelis are staging with their best gear at the Refuge. I would suggest that be our launch site for such a mission. Our enemy will have eyes on all of our major sites but, the Refuge is on the other side of the Grand Avalon Mountains so they may be less likely to expect that to be the stepping off point.”
“Prior to your landing this morning I had been contemplating how we might launch such a mission, after the meeting we will coordinate troop movements. We have a special unit planned to assist in the raid, some of the same deep cover agents that rescued our ally, Lars Magnusson.” Sebastien motions towards the Clan warrior.
“And you have my gratitude. I desire to meet the team now that I am no longer under such heavy drug treatment.” Lars replies with a slight grin as he sits with his arms crossed. His deep, strong voice unique among the Inner Sphere officers.
Taking the moment to advance the meeting Julian shifts gears, “Now, we must ask for the continued help of our allies. The AFFS needs time to run salvage ops, combine commands, and reorganize a huge number of forces.” He looks at Danai and continues, “The Capellan Confederation and the Federated Suns have had a rough recent history. You and I as Chancellor and First Prince can put an end to this. Julian motions to Siobhan. We have secured peace with the Taurians, who are also under attack by a Word of Blake force, no smaller than this one that attacked New Avalon. That being said, I would ask that for at least a few weeks you might stay and help us to resecure Albion.”
“I agree, we should end this insanity of endless conflicts and broken truces.” Julian clearly gets the hint of her reference and nods. “The Maskirovka have informed me that we too have had a Word of Blake incursion and I must attend to my people. Most of the fighting among our Federated Suns border should have ceased by now. I just do not know if that is the case on the border of the Free Worlds League. We will aid you against the Word of Blake for a short while until I deem it necessary to depart. My Sang-Wei behind me will continue to support the forces at Ith and Achernar Battlemechs. I am comfortable leaving some forces to aid for a longer period but, the MAC will be accompanying me back to Capellan space when it is time.”
“I am grateful for the time you will grant us, Chancellor.” Julian responds respectfully as he slowly looks around the table. “I will be coordinating with Siobhan and we will send all of your commands the confirmed landing sites and joint operation requests. Should any of you desire to take offensive action against the Word of Blake, you have the Federated Suns’ consent to take such action on Albion. Each of you will have an AFFS officer liason to help coordinate actions so we don’t run the risk of friendly fire, civilian casualties, or interfering with existing ops.”
Julian pauses for a second and looks toward Lars and Dominic, “Your Clans will rule the skies. Once the Rasalhague arrives if you two will be remaining on world then… if General Lee agrees and would do the same with the Nomads, I would place the AFFS aerospace and naval forces under the command of Dominic McKenna.” Lee nods in agreement, Julian continues, “The AFFS lost the Admiral Michael Saille and Admiral Wallner. I hear that your XO, Rulia Vong is an excellent strategist for naval combat, even though she is an Elemental warrior. All of that equipment and personnel under Dominic McKenna’s command will secure the planet and system even.”
“Indeed, I am amicable to such an arrangement. The combination of the Rasalhague, our Bonaventure, the Conqueror Naval Star, Aleisha Kris, Nomad Black Vector and Yardships, and even the AFFS fleet of assault dropships will be formidable.” Lars responds and looks over to Dominic.
Dominic is thinking and nodding his head in agreement. “I am prepared to take command of naval and aerospace assets from the commands that would agree to it. I will be in command of aerospace fighters and Rulia Vong will take command of the naval fleet, answering only to me.”
Lars nods in agreement as well.
Danai interjects, “I will be retaining command of my aerospace forces, a united command sounds like an excellent idea. This will allow us to have a ground-based aerospace command that is detached from the overall vision and capable of being called up when needed.” She finished and sits back, her expression daring anyone to question her.
Julian holds back any looks of frustration of Danai singling herself out. That’s who she is, a bit of a lone wolf like her father who must retain control. Even I committed my assault dropship fleets to a united cause… Let’s move this forward instead of dwelling… “As for ground forces, I will rely on the Prince’s Champion for strategic decisions as I must handle matters both military and civilian in nature. Siobhan will be my liason for each of you as leaders with nation specific liasons tasked under her command.”
Erik perks up after having been having to patiently wait for the duration of the meeting so far, “Yes, First Prince, I will expedite the reorganization and we will move to retake our territory. I have already authorized some early morning reconnaissance raids into Barrington with some warriors from the Ghost Bears. They have found a number of challenges. The Blakists have planted electronic countermeasures throughout the city, spoilsport charges to knock down structures, and on top of the civilians they have already murdered, set traps with civilians to kill both them and our troops.” Erik hits a few buttons on the holotable and some battleROMs begin to play, showing some of the encounters after the initial surge into Barrington to break the Blakist lines. He lets these recordings play for a few minutes.
Erik continues, “We will need to take Barrington slowly and I am sure we will encounter the same challenges in Ranford, Corbin, Portland, and New Rennes. We are even stumbling across Level II’s lying in wait that were left behind from the Word of Blake militia. As for the Word of Blake LZ, we cannot get overhead images. While they were beaten back, they still have significant numbers of everything from Battle Armor to Battlemechs to Aerospace fighters. Observer reports are showing that they have created a heavy defensive position with the surviving Swordship holding above in orbit and actively leading repairs on their remaining Warships.”
“That is excellent initiative, Erik.” Julian responds. “Let’s shift gears to…”
***
January 13th, 3153
Davion Palace, New Avalon
1000
The days since the cataclysmic violence on January 10th have been hard for everyone on New Avalon, both military and civilian alike. Phase Line Bravo has shifted forward to the first few blocks of Barrington. A primary defensive zone with extensive refugee settlements now encompasses Jeratha, Avalon City, Mount Davion, Davion Palace, Refuge LZ, allied LZ, NAIS, and the spaceport itself on the West coast of Albion Bay.
While the Word of Blake propaganda pieces continue to flow over compromised radiowaves, the Federated Suns have begun to show videos of the evils of the Word of Blake and patriotic footage of retaking Barrington. One of Julian’s favorite videos is a sweeping view through a city street where every block a new faction’s warriors are clearing. The camera will sweep by and see AFFS troops rescuing civilians, the next block will be Snow Raven troops with captive Blakists, and so on.
Siobhan is sitting next to Julian on a pair of chairs in the mech hangar outside the royal barracks. His arm is wrapped around her as her head lays against his chest, her dark brunette hair cascading down his uniform. His other hand is sitting on his thigh with her fingers intertwined with his. They are watching some of the latest videos he has to authorize to release to the public. Facing the mech gantries he occasionally looks up at his old, yet new Battlemech. Resting, waiting for battle once again, Arthur awaits.
Standing next to Siobhan’s fully repaired Victor, the two are ready and waiting for the First Prince to take to the field again. Just in his doctor’s appointment two hours ago Julian has been cleared for combat. The op he will be participating in will be to begin pushing into Ranford.
Horrific news continues to pour out from the city. Tortured civilians, brutal massacres, mutilations, and other purely evil events are taking place. Infiltration ops have been very clear that the general Word of Blake plan is to hide among FedSuns civilians to prevent bombardments and eradication. However, in doing so, they have left behind entire battalions of deranged troops in the population centers who did not fare well in the cryo process over the decades. Everything from regular militia to Manei Domini have been given free rein to torment the population to stoke fear.
Yesterday, a number of ships in the Blakist LZ left the surface of the planet while the rest flew to the Western Albion cities they control. After abandoning their LZ, FedSun forces were able to navigate up the rivers from Avalon City and disable to poison that was being poured into the water. Once the ships reached their fleet they docked and then the Blakist fleet jumped out of the system. Now, the allied forces can definitely move in and crush the remaining invaders.
Thinking on his mech, Danai had recovered Arthur after it was crippled. Erik coordinated with her for it to return to Julian. He also replaced his lost mech with a Lancelot of Clan origin. It is an impressive design to be sure. The Marauder II was a complete loss. Both legs were shattered, both arms crushed and cut apart, huge swaths of torso internals were broken and mangled. Partly because of the Legacy pilot that focused on him so savagely and the Omegas.
Many of the Blakist interrogations so far have gone poorly with many of them activating some sort of suicide device to kill themselves. One wound up detonating himself. Since then, no personnel are allowed inside a room with the prisoners until they have a foolproof way of determining it can’t happen again. Interrogators have narrowed down the potential valuable prisoners to a handful.
Julian’s mind continues to race as the two of them sit together and the final video for approval comes to an end. Disrupting his thinking, Siobhan sits up in her chair and looks at him, “Well, I think these came out fine. Public morale is still holding, even still from retaking New Avalon from the Dracs.”
“Continuing to show the public that we are all working together to help our people is huge. Even the Capellans being here to help is having very interesting in public views on the Confederation. That’s similar to what happened with the announcement of peace with the Taurians.” Julian says. “It does feel… interesting looking up in the night sky and seeing Warships from the Nomads, Ghost Bears, Capellans, and Snow Ravens lingering above us but, as allies, not conquerors. It was such a relief when the Blakist Swordship left the system with their fleet when the Rasalhague, Aliesha Kris, and the Conqueror Naval Star began to get close to New Avalon.”
“We are going to have to remember that if we can root out the Blakists here, the other nations will need our help. Going into Capellan, Taurian, and Snow Raven space will be our obligation going forward. Your decision to start recalling units and reorganizing the AFFS will help handle this. As for dignitaries I have already sent to the Combine to try to establish some level of peace; I hope your prior interactions with Yori Kurita will sway her to it.” Siobhan says as she adjusts in her chair, looking at the Templar III in front of them with her hands holding onto the seat. Arthur, you better keep Julian safe.
Julian chuckles to himself, catching Siobhan’s attention. “I had a thought… didn’t something really important happen… Why are the Nomads here? Wasn’t…” he is exaggerating in a humorous voice and a smile on his face. “Isn’t there a ‘Star League’…” he uses air quotes, “or an ‘ilClan’ out there that is supposed to protect the Inner Sphere?” Both share a chuckle with each other as they return to what silence can be found in the hangar before their two great war machines.
They sit quietly as they contemplate the situation and what lays in the near future for not just the Federated Suns, not just their allied factions but, for the entire Inner Sphere. Things could be far worse than they understand…
Chapter 18