Resurgence - Cataclysm Chapter 18
January 15th, 3153
Palace Executive Offices, New Avalon
1200
Julian, Siobhan, and Sebastien await the arrival of Erik, Dominic, and an individual that Julian had yet to meet. Instrumental to the holding of New Avalon against the Blakists, this individual has made numerous requests to meet with the First Prince. Finally cleared by MIIO, it is time. Through Julian’s office doors the Prince’s Champion leads Dominic McKenna and another man. A man wearing an eerily similar style of clothing to their current enemy. The room is somewhat dimly lit with various holograms floating around the room and over the large, dark brown desk.
“First Prince, I present to you Galaxy Commander Dominic McKenna and Precentor Imala of Comstar.” Erik announces. Julian, Siobhan, and Sebastien had an idea but, to actually hear it…
Standing, Julian responds, “Welcome gentlemen, this is a surprise.”
Stepping forward, Dominic speaks first in response, “The Snow Ravens continue to be thankful for the Federated Sun’s hospitality. With me I have brought a very important man. The reason my galaxy and naval star still live, the reason your Prince’s Champion is alive, and the reason you still have your Capital world.”
“That is truly a list of accomplishments worthy of recognition, Precentor Imala.” Julian speaks directly to the robed man as Imala steps forward past Dominic and Erik. “I have heard you have been interested in speaking to me since you first made contact with the Snow Ravens.”
“Yes, First Prince. Comstar has returned and we are eager to help the Inner Sphere in undoing what our ancestors created.” Imala states with excitement.
“First, tell me why you think I should trust you beyond the actions you have taken. A highly skilled assassin could pull off all those actions just to get to me.”
“Indeed, they could. But I clearly have not done anything to try to get to you other than to help you. We know our history, we know what the Word of Blake did the to the Inner Sphere, what they wanted to do, and what they have done again.” Imala talks with his hands, motioning back and forth as he speaks while Julian leans down with his knuckles on his desk.
“How did they survive?” Julian asks, “From the defeat by Stone’s Coalition I mean.”
“Right now, I can go into your own public history books and find that the Hidden Worlds were not sought out. Multiple Shadow Divisions disappeared without a trace. Ships were unaccounted for and tens of thousands of personal simply vanished. The Word of Blake has star charts of Inner Sphere adjacent systems that can be used to travel around the shortest paths across the Inner Sphere. What little I have been able to have access to shows that Clan or House, your current charts have not even caught up to the basic, unrestricted charts of the Word of Blake.”
Julian’s eyebrows raise, “And you will share that with us?”
“Of course, First Prince, I can upload it via your port on the desk now if you would like.”
“Do it then.” Julian states as he steps back from the desk.
Imala approaches the desk and a mechanical part of his hand extends a plug that enters a port. Julian is prompted to allow the download to take place within a firewalled server. It downloads and the scans are clean, confirmed with a head nod from Sebastien. “If you will First Prince,” Julian extends his hand toward the remote and Imala takes it from the desktop, “This chart will show you your charts that are widely available, likely very close to your classified versions.” He triggers a map to appear; it looks like the typical Inner Sphere 3D map hologram Julian is used to. “You will now see what the Snow Ravens, Ghost Bears, and Capellan Confederation have that I shared with them. Now, here is the Word of Blake chart.” Imala presses the next button and the map nearly doubles in size. Everyone in the room gasps.
Imala stands still and lets them think on the map. Their eyes are jumping from system to system. Watching Julian’s eyes closely, almost there, almost there…
“There, Rimward.” States Julian as he points to a red dot.
“Blake Prime.” States Imala simply.
“What are your intentions as a renewed Comstar?” asks Julian, his eyes still panning over all the lost systems, dozens in his own realm.
“To be what our ancestors failed to truly be and help destroy the bastardization that their spawn created.”
“Those words sound clear to me; you have to understand that for some time no one will truly trust you or your people.” Warns Julian as he shifts his eyes to make contact with Imala’s.
“I understand that. While he has been hospitable the Galaxy Commander has been… strict. Even when upgrading the Rasalhague it felt as though one wrong alarm sound would mean the Ghost Bear guards would tear me and my men limb from limb.”
“I’m sure the details are quite extensive but, how did the Word of Blake survive?” asks Julian.
“The long and short of it was hiding and hiding in plain sight. I cannot give you the locations of the Hidden Worlds as that is ROM specific, top-secret intel, I have never had access. Essentially, objectives became survival. Facilities went dark, cryostasis pod use became widespread, and rally points were set in the Rimward Deep Periphery. That was the location chosen because so little activity happens where the Word of Blake set their sights. No Clans, the Houses don’t go there because of the larger Periphery nations coreward of Blake Prime, and various other minor details.
“Even with the tens of thousands of survivors whisked away from the Inner Sphere, they still needed more people. Voluntary joining of the workforce was offered to a number of worlds lost since the succession wars. They ensured the only off world communications were with the Word of Blake. Voluntary reproduction incentives were put in place. More people meant more resource harvesting and eventually more building. There were revolts, there were shortages, there were times where people decided they were done with the Word of Blake.
“However, the Word of Blake was not done with them. What once was voluntary was now mandatory for those under Blakist ‘protection’. As leadership changed, they became more and more harsh with the goal of building an unstoppable military force with the sole purpose of retaking Terra. While not much better, our current Precentor Martial expressed some decency and started undoing a large number of forced initiatives among the populations out there. After so long under such severe rule, the lightening of the first of Blake has endeared the population to the Word of Blake.
“His thoughts have been, how could we rule the Inner Sphere where many trillions can revolt if we cannot have a thriving populace with billions? The Precentor Martial plans to sit on Terra, just as the Word of Blake once did.”
“I have many questions on this topic and we should explore it more deeply in the future. I have a different question, what are the drive upgrades?” Julian asks. The information is so intriguing that Julian doesn’t even think to sit down.
“Blakist jump technology is called ‘Slip Tear’. As if one is tearing open space to send something through rather than sending something from one part of space to another. The only reason it worked with the Rasalhague is because of the shipboard HPG. If there is no HPG the jump distances are simply increased with the added efficiency and course-plotting software and some hardware adjustments. That being said, the upgrades and components I have with me are limited, too many jumps with just the upgrades and the standard Inner Sphere drives will fry themselves. I have the schematics to construct new slip tear capable drives as well as to fix the HPGs that were shut down on Gray Monday, assuming they have been even minorly cared for over the years. Even then, they were built with such precision that abandoned HPGs may just start running.
“My intention is to share this information with all the House Lords and Clan Khans because as we know, if word gets out that only one nation has the info, another will come marching in to take it. I have upgraded the Snow Raven vessels that can jump and the Rasalhague so far.”
Julian exhales slowly, a slight whistle sound with a slow shake of his head from side to side. “That makes sense then. Our current technology is to move from point A to point B. Now we just open a door with the right equipment or jump from A to E.”
“Yes, First Prince, that’s a fair analogy to explain it. Furthermore, on the HPG topic, Clarion Call’s counter protocol is called Discordant Mantle. Right now, there are worlds toward the Periphery that have HPGs working again. Their plan is to restore the HPGs when they control a region and essentially tell the worlds that they are under Blakist rule and to imply that the House has been dismantled or crippled. The sooner I can get New Avalon’s HPG up and running as well as upgraded to the AA rating the sooner I can start reactivating HPGs remotely, although not as fast as the ROM devices that send out waves of data for restoration.”
“Well, we have lots to talk about in the days ahead. We will make sure to have more meetings with the other leaders here and get you to the HPG. Given that the Dominion is likely a mess right now and the Snow Ravens have been struck savagely we will share this info with Lars as well. We will definitely share everything here with Danai and General Lee. While I am not prepared for this specific information to leave this office, the Federated Suns has restored two shipyards over the years. I will direct MIIO to work with you and get your there because jump drives are components being worked on there.” Julian adds.
Julian then looks over to Dominic, “Your people have more than made up for the Palmyra disaster that the fool prince set us up for in the first place. As we have done since you arrived, we will continue to treat your people as our own for as long as you desire to stay at New Avalon. Clearly, you know that I highly desire to have the naval star watching over us. Some good allies are hard to come by and all of Erik’s reports show you are some of the best. I would ask that the Snow Ravens consider staying as long as is viable.”
“Your words honor me, my galaxy, and my Clan, First Prince. I am not in a hurry to leave so for the time being I am comfortable remaining at New Avalon.” Dominic graciously thanks Julian’s hospitality.
After some more small talk the meeting concludes and they all agree they need to prepare for the ceremony this afternoon. The remaining hours beforehand will be to ensure the defensive perimeter is intact and strong. This way there are hopefully no Blakist surprises that can ruin such a morale building event.
***
Palace Throne Room, New Avalon
1600
Julian Davion sits on the Davion throne in the brightly lit ceremony hall. Julian is wearing the uniform of the First Prince. It is a Royal Blue with various gold accents. He wears a full cape with the emblem of the Federated Suns on it. To honor his allies, the tailor added their nation’s emblems around his own.
Off to his left and slightly forward of the throne sits Siobhan Sortek with Erik Sandoval-Groell on the opposite side. Both are wearing crisp AFFS uniforms. Erik has a gold half cape draped over his left shoulder as the Prince’s Champion. Siobhan is wearing jet black heels with a knee length skirt. Both are mostly royal blue, similar to Julian’s.
The seats are slightly angled to create a semi-oval that reaches toward the gallery of the various lords and ladies. However, for this ceremony there are members of all the nations on planet in the gallery. The rest of the semi-oval seating is on either side of a long blue carpet with a white and red adjacent stripe on the right side when approaching the throne. At the end of the carpet stands the awaiting first awardee and various staff to ensure good order once the ceremony kicks off.
On the left, past Siobhan, sits Danai Liao, then Lars Magnusson. Danai is wearing an elaborate and ornate dress with oriental designs and accents. There are many flowing colors. Lars looks drastically different with his gray uniform. Since his time in a coma his physique has begun to return to its prior glory as his top is not so loose around the shoulders and arms. On his back is a white fur pelt.
On the right side past Erik is Dominic McKenna then General Lee. Dominic’s white uniform is pristine, with a cape of Snow Raven feathers draped off of his side. His helmet that gives him an avian appearance is sitting on a stand next to his chair. General Lee’s uniform is pitch black with his various accolades of the Nomad Republic and a beret on his head. Hints of navy-blue accents can be seen on the arms.
A horn sounds to quiet the hall and Julian stands. “Welcome all! Welcome to the many heroes of New Avalon! All of us came together just days ago to break an assault on our world that dwarfed any other. We have a restored enemy of the Inner Sphere on our doorstep and in our home and we will rip them apart with such violence they will not be able to rebuild again!”
Cheers erupt from the gallery and the other leaders ahead of him stand and clap. Lars Magnusson lets out a warcry, followed by a number of Mechwarriors and Elementals in the galleries. Julian is clapping with a proud and resolute look on his face. He looks over the other leaders and they all seem to share the same positivity in their expressions. Siobhan makes eye contact with him and gives him a flirty wink.
“Let us have our first awardee!” Julian shouts in a loud, echoing voice.
***
Palace Throne Room, New Avalon
1730
Stopping next to the First Prince is the final awardee, whom he announces, “Here we have a Mechwarrior from the Capellan Confederation. Will Chancellor Danai Liao join me to award the Cataclysm Star.” Julian motions to Danai as the throne room begins clapping. The young woman is wearing an elegant grown that gives the appearance more of royalty than military.
Danai Liao stands and approaches the throne, standing before the younger woman in front of the First Prince. Both leaders bow their heads slightly to each other as a sign of respect between a House Lord and House Lady. Danai turns and speaks to the hall. “This has been a marvelous evening of awards of all our heroes in the Federated Suns, Capellan Confederation, Clans Ghost Bear and Snow Raven, as well as Nomad Republic. This award and awardee are close to my heart as I have watched this Sang-Wei’s career with great interest.
“For years she has shown excellent skill in a Battlemech cockpit as well as handling matters among civilians.” She motions toward Julian, “Your First Prince knows that I can be more… severe… in my actions.” The hall has some minor chuckling, “I can attest that this young woman can temper herself far better than I can at times.” Danai stops for a moment and looks at the Sang-Wei. The Chancellor and the Mechwarrior are smiling at each other. Julian can spot that Danai’s eyes are slightly welling up, a single tear running down her face… curious. He hands Danai the Cataclysm Star and she slowly pins the star on the elegant gown.
Turning back to the leaders and assembled personnel, Danai continues, “It is with great pride and honor that I present the Cataclysm Star to Sang-Wei Pei-Ling Liao-Davion-Cameron!”
War Party Chapter 1: Between a Fist and Falcon
Author's Note: Stryker's Gaming assisted in setting up the chance for the fans of Battletech to once again see the name Cameron.