Debauchery Worlds 19 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Southmonk

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 19

-VB-

Kyuma Fumio

2006.12.17 (Earth Gate) [roughly 2981.02.13]

“You did what?” Fumio muttered in utter shock.

“They were just mercenaries!” his fellow LDP member Tokoma Ryudou snapped.

“And that justifies bypassing me when I am the Defense Minister?!” he roared as anger bubbled up and exploded. “You fool! Look at what you did!”

Their foothold in the Special Region had come under an assault by the very group that their military had been ordered to attack by Tokoma and three dozen other representatives of his own party.

Fumio had received the report about the mercenary group, and he wanted to approach this more slowly and methodically. He was more than willing to trade resources or gems to acquire those advanced technologies outlined in the report, and the prime minister had agreed with him.

But his own party had decided to be idiots and attacked the mercenaries because - as Tokoma put it - they were “just” mercenaries.

Mercenaries that defeated the entire Special Region forces, Mercenaries that bombed them from the skies using heavily armored and armed bombers. Mercenaries that had bipedal machines of war that could withstand unguided bombs delivered by jets. Mercenaries with laser guns!

And the accursed gate was not damaged enough to prevent them from crossing over.

Japan was now in a state of crisis. A threat of an enemy that far outclassed them technologically was now on the other side of the Gate, which itself was situated right at the heart of their capital city. America reluctantly agreed to help, but clawed out an agreement that an American base would also be next to the Japanese when they retook Alnus Hill.

And now, this bomb was being dropped on his lap amid accusation that he was the cause of the crisis because he finally figured out who had been in contact with the general.

General Hazama nearly got sacked as the one in charge, and would have faced court martial if he hadn’t proven that everyone in the chain of command had been fooled by someone. And that someone had been Tokoma, who was the vice secretary in the Ministry of Defense.

Former Vice Secretary now.

“Arrest Representative Tokoma,” he growled to the guards in the room. “And someone get me a diplomat!”

Next to him, the Prime Minister Shinzo Motoi groaned.

-VB-

Alan Marris

2981.02.23

David II

“You want us to help you with your invasion of Proserpina…?” we asked General Jamakawa.

“That’s correct. We would like to hire a battalion from your company to accompany us in the invasion of Proserpina IV,” the woman replied from across our main office’s coffee table. She took a sip of our best coffee and let out a sigh of appreciation. “This is a delicious coffee.”

“Thank you. The local farmers were happy to have a buyer for their product.”

She paused. “This is local?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes. Once the water problem was solved for this arid water, their agricultural output has been on the rise. So much so, in fact, that they are diversifying into cash crops like coffee.”

She looked even more surprised by this. From where we were, it didn’t quite make sense. The good general should still be at the head of the local administration as the martial law hadn’t ended and there was no civilian government in place yet. We wondered how long that was going to last. With the amount of local currency we had built up, we had more than enough to purchase a good tenth of the planet at this rate.

AFFS and the Federated Suns were a voracious bunch.

And now, that bunch, armed and armored with the battlemech and weapons we sold them, wanted to use them. It was the logical end to what they were doing, never mind the fact that they were in an eternal war with their neighbors.

“The Marris Mercenary Company is … amendable to such an operation, yes,” we replied with a smile, and noted that the general grew tense like she was expecting us to jump out of our couch and pounce on her.

Admittedly, she kept a tight figure despite her age, but we weren’t into SILFs.

“What would you like to receive in return for your participation?” she asked us as she set her cup down. “AFFS is ready to reward you handsomely assuming that you will be able to replicate some of the feats you showed during the last defense of David II and Polis.” After a pause, she continued. “Would you be seeking higher monetary compensation?”

“Oh, no. We don’t want money from this. We get enough of it from how much you are buying from us,” we replied, and she nodded. She probably knew the best aside from us as to exactly how much the Federated Suns spent on purchasing weapons from us. Our accounting books clearly stated that the Federated Suns alone - not individual buyers but the AFFS and the Fed Suns government only - already spent a quarter of a billion dollars so far.

“Then?”

“We want rights.”

“Ah, you want noble titles.”

“Nobility? No, that’s not what we want either,” we shook our head. “If we succeed in taking over Proserpina IV… then we want the rest of the planets in the system.”

We knew that we were asking for a lot. In fact, we were asking for something ridiculous. Getting a nobility title would have been a lot already, and newly titled nobles didn’t get even a city in an industrial world as their fief. Sure, we weren’t asking for a nobility title, which gave us a lot of leverage when it came to compensation for something of this size as most mercenary companies couldn’t handle both garrison and invasion work at the same time.

However, we threw that demand out there because we wanted to know exactly how much they were willing to give.

There was a pause before she leaned back. “You’re overly ambitious. First of all, that’s not something I have the right to authorize.”

“Then I will wait for a response from someone with that authorization.”

“You are not interested in Combine salvage at all?” she queried. “They will have many models that are unavailable here in the Federated Suns.”

“While the thought of new models do intrigue us … Nope, and frankly, you know that we can make mechs that are better than most out there at this point.”

She grunted in annoyance. “... Fine. I’ll go and see if I can get authorization, but even then, asking for six planets is too much.”

“Then that’s something we will negotiate when you come back.”

-VB-

First Prince Andrew Davion

He snorted. “I can’t tell if they are overinflating their value or if this is an attempt at gauging our willingness to keep them around.”

“My Prince?” General Jamakawa asked after reporting back from the negotiations.

“They don’t want all of the planets in the Proserpina system. That much is obvious from how they didn’t ask for Proserpina IV itself,” he replied to her unspoken inquiry. “They are not after … profit. Yes, it’s not profit they are after. They want another base of operations where they can freely build and operate to their heart’s content.”

She didn’t say anything for a while before her eyes widened. “And if they get even one world…”

“Since that entire planet would be theirs, they will be able to build whatever they want. I’m not even sure if a lack of atmosphere will hinder them more than a company of infantry would against the mech lance.”

He hummed before nodding to himself.

“General.”

“Sir!”

“I give you permission - ” he began as he pulled out a piece of paper and scribbled a rough authorization of the negotiation. He would need to digitize this later either by taking a copy of it back to New Avalon or send it there via ComStar. “ - To negotiate on behalf of the AFFS and the Federated Suns for the services of the Marris Mercenary Company in the capture of Proserpina IV. They can choose one celestial body within the Proserpina System as their reward and nothing else. This reward is only available when Proserpina IV is captured.” He walked over to the printer off to the side, made a copy of it, and gave her the copy. “That means your objective is now a real invasion, not a factory-destroying raid if you think that the planet’s defenses are too much. Understood?”

“Yes, sir. I won’t let you down.”

---

General Rachael Jamakawa

“I am not authorized to give you the entire system other than Proserpina IV,” she told him bluntly. “I am, however, authorized to reward you with one planet or moon for your service if you help us invade and conquer Proserpina IV.”

He leaned forward with a smile. “Now, we’re talking.”

“This also includes more defense clause, however. You will be bound to protect that system and Proserpina IV from any and all threats to the Federated Suns’ control over the system as long as you hold that world,” she told him.

If he said no here, then she would kno-.

“Of course. That’s expected.”

-huh? Did he agree to it that easily?

… Just like their tech, she couldn’t tell what was happening inside the merc’s noggins. Perhaps her prince would have a better idea once she reported to him before he returned to New Avalon.

“... Very well, then. Let’s get down to the fine print.”

---

???

“The mercenaries are splitting their forces?”

“Yes, precentor. A battalion strength force will leave with the AFFS in an invasion to Proserpina while the rest would remain.”

“That would mean that their ‘MAC’ emplacements will still be here, yes?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Troubling. But it’s not something a few saboteurs cannot destroy in preparation for a ‘pirate’ raid, no?”

“... If we are prepared to burn all of our assets on David II, then we can manage it, precentor. However, if they fail or even one of them slip up…”

“They will not. I assure you of that. Go rest. The Holy Veil must be kept in place, and these interlopers to the Inner Sphere must be removed before they can get even more established. Allowing them to grow as much as they did was an error on our part.”

-VB-

Prosperina IV 2981 invasion force further breakdown

Captain(?) Alan Marris of the Marris Mercenary Company

*1st Marris Battalion (100% Combat Readiness) Mixed Battalion
--1st Marris Mech Lance
----2 Heavy, 1 Medium, 1 Light

--2nd Marris Mech Lance
----1 Assault, 1 Heavy, 1 Medium, 1 Light

--1st Marris Support Company
----???1 Dropship(?), ???2 Dropship(?), ???3 Dropship(?)
----Artillery Squad 1, Artillery Squad 2

--1st Marris AFS Company
----???1 Wing, ???2 Wing, ???3 Wing

Total Tonnage (excluding dropships): ~1,600 tons

-VB-

A/N: Fumio Kyuma was a Defense Minister in 2007 when he proclaimed at a university that, summarized here, the atomic bombs “could not be helped” as he understood situation of Japan and World War II. I checked the sources, and yeah, he did say that, which led to his resignation once it became clear that - regardless of the truth of the matter - his words hurt his party’s future election results.Oddly enough, he is supposedly affiliated with the Japanese revisionists as well, but I’m not quite sure how his previous statement and affiliation work together when Japanese revisionists’ general stance on the nuclear bomb is “it was totally unnecessary.”

Oh, and he’s still alive. Yes, I inserted a IRL person into GATE as a background character. I thought it fit.

A/N 2: a lot of question marks in the battalion loadout. I know. But I wanted to introduce new models or tech.

A/N 3: Alan (MC) and his crew do not know about ComStar’s dickery cuz they don’t know about this universe like they knew Worm or GATE. They are, however, on a constant lookout for saboteurs since they learned about the Combine loyalists.

Addendum:
While I won't explain everything this version of Japan thought prior to their attack, I'll point out a few things. Many jets carry enough bombs to sink small warships. Japanese jets are currently based on F-15, which can carry AMRAAMs, 44 lb warheads on a 351 lb missile, and they can carry up to 8 of these. This is comparable to a Battletech LRM-20 missile (not the whole 20 but just 1 of 20) in missile weight. Older F-15s can also carry a cruise missile if you jank it. Japan and JSDF didn't know that the mercenaries had mechs, but assumed it wouldn't be any tougher than a warship.

IE if they landed all of their initial volley of missiles - 24 AMRAAM from trio of jets - on the light mech that was there and not the medium/large mech they hit, then they could have scored a kill... if it was a regular light mech and not Marris bullshit tinkertech incorporated light mech.

Japan's politics is a one-party rule (fight me if you think otherwise), which means that a lot of the political shenanigans that happen is more internal in one party than externally with the other parties. To put it into numerical perspective, in 2024 at the moment, LDP holds 372 of 713 total seats (councilors and representatives) in the National Diet. IE they hold 52% by themselves, never mind their coalition team member, the Komeito. This is not counting them holding about half of the prefecture chief executive and assembly seats. 

So their attempt wasn't a completely chanceless thing. They just needed to bring the entire military to win decisively and steal the tech.