Prologue
Unity Palace, Luthien-Draconis Combine, April 20, 3059
Theodore Kurtia was of several minds, he was well aware of what his daughter and the operational commander of Bulldog were up to. He remembered what it had been like to be a young man hiding his affections from his father. He had even married the love of his life in secret with the aid of the Internal Security Force and Order of the Five Pillars. That had been a matter of private concern when the time came to finally reveal his marriage and children to his father, Coordinator Takashi Kurita. If Omiko and Hohiro had not shown themselves to be intelligent and strong scions of the Dragon, Father would have followed his duty to order them 'purified' to ensure that the Dragon remained strong. Thankfully, the plan he had developed with ISF Director Subahash Indrahar and Keeper of House Honor Constance Kurita had succeeded, forcing Father to avoid rash actions and judge his children on their own considerable merits.
In fact, it may have been the first sign of his father's 'mellowing', ever the Foe of the Fox and the Snow Princess. Takashi had further consolidated his rule, the Combine already being one of the most repressive and centralized states as it was. That Theodore a mere generation later had repealed most of those consolidations as well as several from generations, centuries past. Well sufficient to say Takashi had 'MELLOWED'. However, if he were alive today to know what Victor Steiner-Davion was currently doing with his only granddaughter, Theodore would not need a HPG to hear Takashi's reaction even if he were at the farthest end of the Combine. Thankfully once in the land of dead your soul tends to stay there, Theodore smiled. Victor is a gentleman, and a man of great virtue, therefore Omiko encouraged him to consummate their relationship now that he had proved his worth to her and to the Dragon.
From what his ISF had uncovered, they were within standards and practices of both the Federated Commonwealth and Combine. Theodore smirked nothing kinky, "both partners are increasingly pleased and satisfied with the other's performance" he had read the report and even though it was his daughter they were reporting on he nearly laughed his head off. He kept the report from his wife if she found out he was spying on their daughter and her beloved... well it would not end well for him.
So, with all obstacles removed other then having the Federated Commonwealth's Draconis, Skye and most of what's left of Tamar Marchs revolt, While at the same time having Galedon, Dieron and Benjamin Districts in his Combine join them in revolution, with the added benefit of the Black Dragon Society trying to kill his family 'for selling Omiko to the fell yellow bird' Omi and Victor were in fact nearly perfect for the other.
Omi enters, her kimono resplendent, Theodore is amazed, she made the trip from the Place of Serene Sanctuary having 'exercised' with Victor a mere hour ago. Though mildly upset by the thought, he was much more impressed with his daughter and amused by it. Omi kneels "you requested my presence Coordinator," she says with a slight smile.
Theodore "I did daughter, everything with Victor's recovery going well", as motions for her to stand. The Black Dragons had attempted to kill him and Omi nearly six months prior, further increasing the importance of their plans. Omi with a beaming smile full of love "Victor's recovery is going splendidly father, I am fully satisfied with all aspects of it, some he performs even beyond my satisfaction...".
Theodore smirks and though he knows from the ISF just what areas are beyond her satisfaction, he focuses on their plan. "Victor will be here in a few hours with Focht, your brother and Kai to begin to load their dropships, you are going with the Task Force to Wolcott?". Omi nods "I am father", Theodore nods "once operations commence you will return here and we will start our own operations, can you bare the loss of honor and face it will require, the Black Dragons will even try for your life". Omi sadly nods "for him, I can endure anything", Theodore cups her face in his hands "so it is for with me and your mother, and all my children, so you came up with the concept by studying Victor's Davion family history?"
Omi smiles with satisfaction "yes father, while our glorious armies were marching toward New Avalon and the Capellens were marching through toward New Stryis John Davion responded to a riot, murder, and arson on New Avalon's premier Buddhist temple". Theodore "Byodo-in, is it?" Omi nods, "Following the Kentares massacre the majority Davion populace were very angry with Asians, leading them to kill the majority of the monks as they prayed for their souls and burning the Byodo-in. John Davion at that time was First Prince of the Federated Suns, he stood there with the Pope of the New Avalon Catholic Church and the senior Rabbi of New Avalon to condemn the actions of his citizens, to call on them to direct their efforts against their true foes the Combine and Confederation and not against their fellow citizens. John paid for the reconstruction out of his personal funds and would speak out against prejudice and bigotry until our forces assassinated him and his son Joshua a year later"
Theodore shook his head, no Coordinater could have suffered a loss of face like John did, placing his people's needs, protection before honor would have ended in the Coordinator dead. He had been very successful in finding' third ways' around this, but he thought not for the first time there was a good deal of moral courage in his ancestral foes and in his daughter.
When the clans had been dealt with Omi would admit the Combine's sins in the succession wars with an emphasis on the main one, the Kentares massacre. He would, of course, denounce and disown her, the Black Dragons would attempt to take her life. Victor, his father Hanse and Mother Melissa would offer her sanctuary, defend her, and make the case to their recalcitrant marchs that she was now one of them.
After a year or so the Fedcom would settle, Victor and Omi could marry having renounced any claim to the Coordinator. Then he could slowly begin bringing them back into the family, bit by bit, inch by inch. That wouldn't be easy for Omi, or even him was an understatement, but there was a time to admit sins and ask for forgiveness. For what Hanse did for them at Luthien, for who Victor is, it was time for the Kurtian family to borrow from the Davions and admit wrongdoing and direct their people toward their true enemies.
A few hours later
Precentor Martial Focht "all appears to be in order, though it is doubtful that our plans will survive the first contact with the enemy". Theodore nods, "but we have the best strategic, operational and logistical minds of the current and past generation we will be able to make adjustments", Victor nods, still a bit dreamy, his mind thinking more about tactics, and strategies on pleasing Omi then driving the Smoke Jaguars from the Inner Sphere, Hohiro beats Kai or Galen Cox in nudging him and whispering "there will be plenty of time to think about my sister after we win, which reminds me as a potential future uncle any male you produce with my sister the name Hohiro would work well" he chuckles, Hohiro would state to his sister she could do worse than Victor, what he meant and what he knew his sister heard was that she couldn't do any better.
Theodore looks over to the 'Brat pack', so much talent, skill courage and dedication to duty as well as their peoples. Victor Ian Steiner-Davion, Kai Allard-Liao, his own son Hohiro, their aides, Shin and Galen, even the bubbling Hauptman Renny Sanderlin(Theodore smiles not every good soul can be in a gracious package), every one committed to the task, dedicated to free his star nation from the clans, that some would not be coming home from caused him no small measure of grief.
Victor "task force Serpent is already on the way to Huntress, the deep strike should..." Theodore wished Morgan Hasek-Davion luck and hoped to see the Prince's champion and leader of the Capellan March home alive, far different than his feelings in the past.
After a few hours, everyone headed to their spaceports and loaded their dropships.
a week later
CSS Invisible Truth, April 27, 3059 Orbit Wolcott.
Focht had assembled his commanders, "Men and Women, Ladies and Gentlemen we leave for Wolcott when we arrive after a week where we break into our task groupings and begin to roll the clan invasion back world by world. It will not be easy the clans have some of the best warriors in the universe. Their tech hasn't been addled by centuries of total war and operations by certain parties to ensure the inner Sphere remain in benighted days. They are not Invincible the Clans, many of my upper-level commanders have won more than one battle against them. With that having been said I am glad we are going against the Jaguars, The Wolves though Wardens have a certain skill and ability to win that makes them the last clan we want to fight rather than the first."
Focht continued "This is a war not only to liberate Combine worlds and drive one of the most dictatorial clans from the game. It is to end the invasion all together, when we have won here, when task force serpent has won at Huntress we will go to Stranta Mechy and demand a trail of refusal to all the clans. When we have won we will slowly either integrate or drive from our lands the remaining clans, likely we will have to fight the Falcons, some of the Vipers, but it is also likely that clans like the Wolves, the Ghost Bears, and the Diamond Sharks we will find an accommodation with like we have with the Nova Cats."
Focht ends "we jump within the hour, to liberate worlds, to bring the fight to the enemy and to end the threat to our sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, even our cousins. Humanity will learn again that soldiers will beat warriors, and that Soldiers defend civilization! God Bless and Godspeed!"
one hour later
The fleet jumps, hundreds of jump ships, thousands of dropships, tens of thousands of fighters, mechs, hundreds of thousands of tanks, VTOLs, MICVs, APCs, Hovercraft and artillery pieces have space folded around them, over a dozen warships escort the 52 mech regiments, 400 armoured regiments and over a 1000 supporting regiments as they arrive at...
A different universe, a different star system, a different time.
Tau Ceti, initial offloading of Imperial staff, MA 2127
Sorcha Freeman had a week or so before her and her Titan/Hybrid/Avalonian staff would begin to get refugees from the effects of the Emperor's executive order, the Zeramblin Act had failed by two votes, TWO VOTES, both were changes from the Liberal Party, LIBERAL PARTY. No one knew which two it was as the change happened at the end of voting, then the follow up on at least granting the humans a status better then pets, the same intermediate status of national so that they could at least start their way toward proving themselves worthy of citizenship (Sorcha being the half-human daughter of one of the most brilliant sapients ever to live while being her father and oh by the way HUMAN, never doubted their right, she doubts the Titan's 'protection'). It also failed by TWO VOTES again by Liberals switching their votes at the last moment. So the Emperor issued an executive order granting humans National status and demanding the issue be re-visited in five Titan years.
As a sop to those supporting human rights, the house did support by an overwhelming margin of 750 to 250 an aid and trade package to Earth. Sorcha snorted, Earth the supposed backwater primitives were already classified as class one sapients, but they weren't part of the empire, they didn't vote in imperial elections and many of those that would be hurt by human emancipation within the empire were benefited by trade with Earth. If you were a 'wild' human you had rights within the empire (as long as you weren't already a part of it, sorry Alex, Nick, Darren, Norah, Lessy, and on and on). If you were 'domesticated' you were shit out of luck.
Needless to say, Sorcha was not in the mood to be challenged, but Captian Jonas of the 13th Jacks didn't let her foul mood interfere with what he felt was his duty. "Ma'am, I believe you and the other Titans as well as Hybrids (had to be careful with her, call her a titan and she may act like one...) are overcompensating for the lack of positive legislation, even if the Zeramblin Act had passed, I am under no illusions that someone like Forna Qorni would of funded human education and transition to humans becoming full citizens."
Sorcha smirked meanly, and breathed slowly as she very carefully place her palm toward the good captain, that she was over 142 feet tall, and stronger then virtually any other living being with the potential exception of her fellow hybrid Joseph Archer-Mavoy she knew was intimidating enough, for her to show her mother's titan temper was even worse as he climbed on she said with annoyance "go head CPT Jonas, tell me we are giving those 'pets' that have been released by their owners a vastly better lifestyle then they are ready for, that using pre-fabricated blocks apartments isn't logical and cost too much, that actually importing fresh/synthesized food while getting their farms up was allowing them to live in the lap of luxury, cause if it is, then I need to do even better, they have been pets, PETS without freedom and only what their owners, OWNERS deemed necessary, as they are people forgive me for wanting them to have at least a minimal level of comfort compared to what they had!!!"
CPT Jonas didn't doubt her heart, or even her mind, he doubted her mental peripheral vision, she saw right and wrong, black and white, but on the sides there were gray. He had no doubt she could see the political gray, but tactically he doubted she was fully aware of just how great a danger their neighbors represented. The insectoids weren't far way and they like to snack on humans like him, but Sorcha KNEW that uncle Aertimus would be there to save them if they invaded, Jonas wasn't so sure. Jonas "Boss, I have no doubt your heart is in the right place, and that your head is as well", Sorcha cut him off "then why are we having this conversation again?" she said a bit exasperated, again she reminded herself he was doing his job. Jonas "cause we are snack food for insectoids, you are not". Sorcha nodded "you are right, ok Captian tell me you plan again, you know where I stand, but it won't hurt to see if we can integrate some of it into my overly 'kind' project" calming herself and wishing he didn't have a point.
CPT Jonas smiled as the professional Civil Administrator/Planner Sorcha kicked in, after her brief disaster in reorganizing agriculture in Avalon (she was in the end right, but ran roughshod over everyone, she figured out like the genius she was to allow input, It did fill out and improve her intail plans, not by much, but enough, though the buy-in was what made even the best plan work, not the plan he smiled and he saw that she had learned it at least partially) she listened, she didn't necessarily adopt or modify, but she did listen and logged it. Jonas "one titan tent can handle 20,000 humans and is much simpler to put up, climate control and maintain, one titan survival ration can feed hundreds of humans for days, both are much cheaper, easier and simpler to supply then the pre-fab modules, also this level of comfort would be conducive to military training, so that every refugee has the training to aid your staff if there is an insectoid incursion if not invasion."
Sorcha nods "good points, but I don't want to substitute one form of servitude for another, I know being a Soldier isn't being a slave for you, but you choose it, what it sounds like the refugee humans are going to be drafted, I won't lie I could use the labor and civil control, but it feels like we are limiting my kin" she very gently and with affection rubs her chin on his body "as my 'brother' you choose your life, let them choose theirs please?" This was the most dangerous form Sorcha has, the loving, caring and thoughtful human hybrid, only Lessy could regularly stand against her, unfortunately though her default form she was easily stirred to anger and frustration, but she was getting better control over her anger issues week by week, month by month, year by year. If she could maintain her default form(with her thinking straight, being charming as only a demi-goddess like she could be and incorporating the best that others suggested) she would be invincible. She would consider his suggestions, it would just be too long to be of help in the future.
If they had used tents evacuation would have been simpler, if the humans were trained in basic combat and discipline they would have required less supervision and in most instances been helpful if not decisive in the colony's defense. With the simplified power and water grids, the loss of a power plant would have only affected maybe 100,000 and only for a short time. So Sorcha's compassion for her human kin caused more deaths then Jonas's desire to have them find their own dignity.