Chapter 35
Operation Empire.
*Unknown Space*
13th October, 3025
It had been months since the first maneuvers had been put into motion. And now I watched as the last of my ships arrived in dead space, the co-ordinates a closely guarded secret, as Capella had been driven into a state of panic over the event that had come to be labelled as the Night of Blood, so too had ComStar been driven into a panic, intelligence said that they were desperately hunting for the jumpship that had gone missing with the two captured arco-flagellants aboard and they were offering a reward to anybody who located it. A reward ten times the jumpships actual worth.
Meanwhile Kamea, Miranda and myself had 'toured' the worlds of the outer rim and build up rapport, a rapport that was expected to culminate into the rise of a greater power. The Lathe nation. The spacedock piers were extended and the hulls of three new ships were being made under an accelerated schedule. They were no warships like the escorts, and definitely no forge-ship. Their purpose was significantly more practical.
They were troop ships. Cetaceus class vessels. Each capable of holding a full regiment within enough Devourer dropships to land the entire regiment in a single drop. Each of the Cetaceus were huge, and yet mostly hollow. They would serve little purpose except as frameworks to carry their Devourer cargo to their destinations. They would not be suitable for a battlezone without an escort ship.
"Kane, have you read these reports?" Miranda said picking up a tablet.
"I have." I remarked with little sign of cheer.
Kamea piped up from the other side of the table. "Glitch's campaign is driving Liao to practically the point of implosion. I think she needs to be recalled. If it gets much worse we may drive away support, the chance of discovery is growing high."
I sighed and moved over to examine the table. "I've already had a recall transmitted for Glitch, I need her back here for more significant deployment. Hanse and Katrina have developed their own plans and the timetable has been set in stone. They are going to commence their assault just after Christmas, but they want the Cappies out of place."
Miranda stood up and cocked her head as one of the crew entered and nodded. The delegates were being moved to the 'conference' rooms antechamber. It was time to get ready. "Thankyou Greenly, Kane it's time."
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Hall of Conquest
Dan Forth
We had been shuffled into a chamber the size of a palace ballroom, delegates from the rim not associated with major powers or the Taurian Concordat, even the Magistracy of Canopus had a representative present. The chamber itself was almost clinically functional despite its vast size, I saw numerous displays in a language I didn't understand, even though the baroque architecture did little to put us at ease the people handing out food and trying to answer questions had put most of us at ease.
And yet, even now, many of us couldn't quite process it. We stood on a terra-normal gravity on a starship without any rotation sickness and the air was clean and smelled faintly of Terran pines, a scent I recognized from a nature preserve.
Finally, after almost an hour of waiting a chime sounded and before us a set of smaller doors in a vast pair opened, a pair of crew emerging from within. "Ladies and Gentlemen of the rim. Welcome to the Forgeworld. You have all undergone a small tour of the ship. But now, Duke Kane Giordino, master of the Lathe nation bids you welcome to the Hall of Conquest to discuss the rise of the Rim." The two spoke in unison, their voices booming through as the crew began to usher people in an orderly line to the entrance.
Following directions I noticed that every few seconds the line stuttered, frozen, before moving on and I began to grow irritated at the repeated interruptions until it was my turn to step forth across the threshold of the chambers doors. A massive round table was headed by a semi-raised dais upon which a very martial looking chair was occupied by a man in archaic-seeming armour that looked like ancient knights of terra and cooling vest had a child.
But that was not what froze me. Behind the chair I hesitatingly thought of a throne it rose. Taller than an Atlas I followed the sight of its legs, painted in scenes of battle to the waist, war banners hanging from it depicting a battle that looked familiar. Above that its chest billowed out into a vast fastness, arms carrying weapons that could annihilate a mech hovered overhead as smaller weapons looked down on the collective group while on its shoulders rested a pair of honest-to-god turrets between which a missile battery sat.
My blood ran like ice as I faced down the monstrous war machine. Barely even comprehending the shadow of something even larger behind it, deliberately shrouded in shadow and darkness leaving only the outlines to be seen.
"Welcome to the Forgeworld," The Dukes voice boomed out across the chamber once they had all taken their seats, he sat there akin to an ancient warrior-king, one hand clutching a massive blade, on standing I was almost surprised he seemed only man-sized, "I'm not going to play around with words or try and mince the events surrounding us." He paced lightly as the table began to project holograms.
The room was silent as they watched numerous elements of the Raven Guard's footage.
"The fact is, the periphery has always been the favourite stomping ground of major nations trying to avoid stirring another succession war, a proxy playground. The fact is, that by and large ComStar has been directly involved in manipulations designed to promote and continue that state of affairs, and the affairs in the Aurigan Reach have only served to magnify and highlight this. A civil war that gets Thomas Calderon in a pickle, House Liao mercenaries coming to play and in the end a ComStar insurgent team to play nuclear terrorist." He beseeched them to look at the footage, footage of bodies being pulled out, and more.
"You see this here, and I know you all feel it too. You've all felt the hungry gaze of the 'greater powers' gnawing at your borders whenever they feel like hardening a unit. And I know you're all tired of it." The quiet murmuring was interrupted by one of the leaders near the Taurian's border speaking up.
"And we know how you've gained the favour of the Davion's and even been seen hobnobbing with the Steiners!"
"Yes. I have. Do you think that change comes on its own without support? Do you think to stand alone and go 'no more?' Do you think you could stand alone if Liao decided to drop a regiment of Highlanders on your planet?" The intensity of response sent the blood singing, "Because unlike you I can. Unlike you I could march on Terra and set its continents alight before the year was ended and nothing they could do would be capable of preventing it."
His gaze crossed them all. "I am a direct descendant of Cameron, I came from a world sheltered away from the Inner Sphere developing technologies unthought of and forbidden, hidden away in case of the worst. And the worst came to be. Now I will do what I must to protect people oppressed, abused and subjugated by the semi-Fuedal lords of the old regime. The Steiners and Davions seek to build a new commonwealth, a confederation of unity to bring a peace to the stars not known since the days of the Star League."
"So you come here as a lackey to take us as a gift for them?" The dissenting voice spoke up again.
Kane laughed.
"No. I come here to build an Empire of the Periphery."
The room went silent.
"I intend to take the Periphery up in my hand and build an Empire greater than anything the Great Houses call home. I intend to burn out Liao, subjugate the Concordat and burn the pirate states to the ground. And you, all of you, I want to bring up with me. To raise and elevate as a new class of nobility. A whole greater than the sum of its parts. I intend to unit the Periphery and tell the major powers that no more are we going to be their private military playgrounds and proxies."
The dissenter stood worried. "You want to what, raise yourself as Emperor! I don't see why I should listen to this megalomaniacal tripe."
The representative of the Magistracy stood. "Lady Kamea Arano and Lady Centrella have both granted their assent to join in this union," The man quieted down, looking cowed but unconvinced, "Before the Lathe Nation declared itself the Raven Guard served both our interests well and protected the Reach when nobody else would, and have sought to lift up the Aurigan people with their technology only to see the black hand of ComStar try and undo that work. It is time the Periphery presented a united front. We have squabbled and fought long enough alone, it is time to dispose of stubborn colonial attitudes and rise up as something greater."
"Or what!" The dissenter snapped.
"Or be left behind and ground into the dust between the annals of history as your people are forgotten and forsaken, left to watch as history passes you by unremembered