Debauchery Worlds 21 (Patreon)

Debauchery Worlds

Chapter 21

-VB-

Rachael Jamakawa

General of AFFS in charge of the 41st Avalon Hussars

Military Governor of David System and David II

2981.03.20

David II

All preparations were complete, and nothing else could change in the immediate future in terms of their invasion outfit.

As she settled into her seat within her command dropship, she felt a sense of calm. Was it because she found herself in this exact position a mere year ago? It was indeed very similar to the invasion of David II that she had been put in charge of. She hadn’t come to David II thinking she would win, however, and it was only the abrupt appearance of the Marris Mercenaries that she brought David II into the embrace of the Federated Suns.

It only became clearer and clearer as each month passed on and more evidence racked up on just how decisively the Marris Mercenaries had changed the course of the invasion.

So having them by her side at the start made her feel better about this invasion than the David II invasion.

That did not, however, mean that she was completely certain about the invasion’s chance of victory. Prosperina IV was the homeworld of the free-floating Proserpina Hussars, and while it was unlikely that the entire Prosperina Hussars would be there to defend the system when they didn’t even know about the invasion, there was still the possibility that one of their regiments would be. This meant that her regiment and Marrisians might get outtonnaged on the ground…

But that thought died an ugly death as the realization that the mercenaries were bringing along a mini-warship.

Calling the unnamed Stomato-class Patrol Ship as a mini-warship was both good and bad. It was good because the Stomato-class patrol ship the mercs were bringing had firepower comparable to that of warships with the MACs it came equipped with. MACs were high-end naval-grade gauss cannons. In fact, with just how powerful it was, she classified the weapon as a heavy naval gauss.

It was bad because it was an escalation of the Third Succession War. The Draconis Combine will do anything to see it and its creators destroyed to keep it from the hands of the Federated Suns. What they didn’t know yet was that the Marris Mercenary Company had already produced another Stomato and sold it to the First Prince. The newly christened Bright Avalon was now being ferried across the Federated Suns to be stationed above New Avalon.

It was also bad because it was a misnomer. The true classification of such a vessel would be something like a “heavy assault dropship” rather than a mini-warship because it lacked the KF Drive needed to truly give it the warship designation.

But considering that the Marrisians had a large germanium deposit and were tinkering with the two KF Drives they bought from the AFFS…

She wasn’t sure how long that misnomer would remain the case.

Rachael pulled up the summary of the invasion force on her mPad and looked at the force contribution brought in by Commander Marris.

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

----Stomato Patrol Ship, militarized Crawdad Dropship, militarized Crawdad Dropship

----Artillery Squad 1, Artillery Squad 2

--1st Marris AFS Company

----101st Wing, 102nd Wing, 103rd Wing

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

She found herself concerned not about the invasion but the mercenaries as she looked at the profile, description, and armament of the militarized Crawdad Dropships, which were in their civilian form the commander’s asteroid mining ships. The long-ish and semi-aerodyne asteroid miners were, in her eyes, too quickly armed and up-armored. A process that should have taken a week just for the armor took a week total for the two M-Crawdads.

And the difference was glaringly obvious when she compared the two on paper.

Crawdad-class Asteroid Mining Dropship

Mass: 2,500 tons

Cargo: 600 tons of cargo - 4 doors

Armor: 60 tons total

Armament: 6x Medium Lasers

Crawdad-class Militarized Dropship

Mass: 2,000 tons

Cargo: 4 Battlemechs - 2 Doors, 1 ASF - 1 Door, 100 tons of cargo - 1 Door

Armor: 220 tons total

Armament: 6x Medium Lasers, 4x AC/20s, 2x LRM-20s

The mining ships that ambled between David II and the asteroid belts and gas giants were, in her eyes, all capable of becoming Leopard-equivalent dropships on the fly.

This meant that Commander Marris had under her very nose built a fleet of dropships capable of ferrying a regiment of battelmechs, two companies of ASF, and God knows how many infantry and armored companies!

That was scary, because, according to Major Armstrong (her liaison to the Marris Mercenaries), the commander had recalled two ships and militarized them in a week without allowing the refit to affect his shipyard’s production speed, which meant that either the factories had been built with refits in mind or the mercenary commander’s factories were not functioning at 100% output.

And that meant that the MIIO, AFFS, and the Federated Suns currently had no idea what kind of industrial output the mercenaries had. For all she knew, they might have another production line of dropships that have been building without anyone noticing and who knows where they hid those!

(The germanium deposit.)

She froze.

Could… Could they use the hollowed-out earth as …? Surely not…?

Surely not…

… she dismissed the disturbing thought. It was highly unlikely that they could hide another forty dropships, even if the germanium deposit had been big.

(But they don’t need to have the entire fleet assembled. Just storing parts would be enough.)

She closed her eyes and massaged the bridge of her nose.

They could. They certainly could…

And then a sudden epiphany struck her, tossing her paranoid thoughts to the side.

‘Are all Crawdads modular?!’

The refit was too fast! It was too seamless! It was too planned!

And it was the perfect way to hide military assets. It was the perfect way to appear smaller. To appear weaker.

To… To… To what end?

She stiffened in her seat as her dropship, a Union, took off the ground with a dull roar of blasting thrusters.

‘Did I let a wolf in sheep’s clothing into the Suns?’

-VB-

Kyuma Fumio

2006.01.09 (Earth Gate) [roughly 2981.03.17]

Tokyo became a staging ground for an international force to retake Alnus Hill.

But then there was a problem.

“The Gate’s not working?”

“No, minister,” the captain, who had been in charge of the scouting mission to reassess the situation on the other side of the Gate, reported while at attention. He stood before Kyuma and a dozen other officials and generals not just from Japan but also from USA, France, South Korea, and Great Britain.

“Explain, please,” the only South Korean general asked quietly.

“My team entered the Gate and the dark veil that prevents us from looking further than a few meters only led to the other side of the Gate here in Tokyo. We tried multiple entries but never left Tokyo.”

Fumio felt conflicted. On one hand, this meant that there was another change that Japan would have to adapt to. On the other hand, this meant that japan wouldn’t owe USA any favors.

It wasn’t like they could offer resources from the other side of the Gate when they couldn’t even access Falmart.

“... Very well. Keep a watch of the Gate.”

“Yes, sir!”

What could have happened…?

---

Falmart (4 days ago)

“You’re through?”

“We’re through.”

“Did they notice you?”

“No.”

“You have their Earth’s coordinates?”

“Yes.”

“Alright. Good. Then Operation Ceasefire is a go.”

“Tallyho~!” one of our clones cackled as he and the rest of the mechs surrounding the Alnus Gate in a half-circle opened fire.

The Gate groaned and crumbled as the firepower of two battlemech lances slammed into it.

A divine structure, it may be, but there weren’t a lot of things out there in the universe that could take that kind of firepower and come out unscathed.

The Gate, unfortunately for it, wasn’t one such structure, and after taking too many lasers, shells, and missiles, its stone structure cracked and then shattered, tumbling away from each other in a cascade of dust and rocks.

“Operation Ceasefire is a success.”

---

“What the hell are they doing?!” a black-haired immortal screamed in horror.

-VB-

In which the general becomes paranoid about the Marris Mercenary Company, and Japan found itself disconnected from Falmart.