The Best of Enemies (A Battletech AU)

[Yellowhammer]

The Best Of Enemies (A First Succession War Battletech AU) -- Chapter I

“The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.” -- Sun Tzu, 孫子兵法 (The Art of War)​

Sian Center for Martial Disciplines, Sian, Capellan Confederation

16 November 2795

“Neurohelmet Pattern Confirmed, enter security passphrase.” The booming synthetic voice of the TDR-5Sb Thunderbolt battlemech filled the cockpit.

A young woman dressed in the jade-green and gray uniform of a cadet took a deep breath and spoke Chinese words written over three thousand years ago during the Warring States: “Zhìgāowúshàng de zhànzhēng shǒuduàn shì zài bù dǎjià de qíngkuàng xià zhēngfú dírén.”

“Passphrase accepted. Shíshī awakens. REACTOR ONLINE, SENSORS ONLINE, WEAPONS ONLINE.”

The MFDs sprang to life.

The pilot took a deep breath and adjusted her SLDF Royal-issue neurohelmet slightly in a nervous gesture.

Her brown eyes flickered over across the readouts for her Ceres Arms Warrior PPC, the Delta Dart LRM-15 mated to a Nirasaki A4 targeting-tracking system, the trio of Diverse Optics Type 18 5cm lasers, the Hovertec Streak SRM-2 rack, and finally the twinned Starflash Plus 3cm pulse lasers for anti-infantry use.

With the readouts all showing that training mode was set and confirming that her weapons were safed, she throttled up and strode out of the Mech Bay. The metal behemoth shook the ground slightly with each step of its sixty-five ton chassis.

The yellow-white sphere of Sian’s rising primary cast her shadow behind her as she turned onto the road heading to the training ground for her cadet unit’s scheduled field exercise.

Then a light flashed in her cockpit and a tone sounded in her ears.

The pilot gave a sigh and flicked the switch to open the communication channel. “Cadet Liao reporting. Service to the State.” Her voice was sharp and confident, revealing nothing of her thoughts.

There was a crackle and then the Tikonov-accent of Major Kornyeva came on the secure comm channel. Her cadet battalion commander’s voice was flat. “Cadet, your presence is required elsewhere. Return to the Mechbay and await transportation.” There was a pause and then a softer, more human tone in the next words. “I’m sorry.”

Grandmother.

The pilot took a deep breath and spoke in a flat tone. “Understood, Major. Orders received, returning to Mechbay. Against fate even the Gods strive in vain.”

-----------------------------------​

The flight to her destination passed in silence.

The armed guards who had picked her up did not speak, which suited her mood.

Dressed in a cadet’s simple jumpsuit thrown on over her cooling vest and shorts, Ilsa Liao wished to be alone with her thoughts.

The shuttle landed at the private pad in the heart of the Celestial Palace.

Ilsa absently caressed the familiar hilt of her dao sword -- a fifteenth birthday gift from Grandmother after she had qualified as a Mechwarrior Cadet, had achieved her brown belt in Chángquán, and had passed her Citizenship examination -- as she waited for the hatch to cycle.

“This way, Lady Liao.” The functionary waiting to guide her, a courtier from Andurien, spoke to her with the subtle signs of worry in his eyes and posture.

Not Cadet. This was… not good.

She continued through the familiar halls where she had grown to adulthood. Her mind raced like a rat in a cage behind her facade of poise and confidence as the destination became apparent and her fear increased.

The doors to the medical wing hissed open and she stepped inside. The courtier spoke as she approached a guarded door. “Your sword, Lady Liao….”

A slashed hand cut him off and dark brown eyes burned as Ilsa Liao turned on her heel. “I bear it to the woman who is the only parent I have known after my father, mother, and uncle died in the Eagle’s talons over Calloway VI! Respect for parents and elders is the essence of goodness!” She snapped out from a face that could have been carved from stone.

A weak voice came from beyond. “Bring my granddaughter to me and then leave us alone.”

On the other side of the door, a dying woman lay in a bed surrounded by the medical machinery and doctors keeping her alive. Monitors hummed and a rhythmic mechanical hissing came from the cardiopulmonary machine that was vainly trying to cleanse her blood from the myeloma that was killing her as her plasma cells unstoppably destroyed her own organs.

Ilsa hurried to her grandmother’s side and knelt.

“Lǎo ye, I am here.” She choked out as her composure cracked.

The doctors and guards moved away to give the precious illusion of privacy to her and her only surviving blood kin. Never true privacy. Not here, not for the Liao.

A weak hand caressed her tear-stained cheek.

Ilsa leaned into the touch.

“Sūnnǚ, I do not have long to live, so you must listen to my final lesson.” Her grandmother’s voice was weak, yes, but also filled with wisdom and authority.

Ilsa shook her head. “You’ll get better, I’m sure….” She whispered while fresh tears fell.

A hacking laugh answered her. “Even the Celestial Wisdom cannot order Yen-Lo-Wang around, child. No, you must engrave on your soul that the power that I hold and you shall inherit comes with honeyed traps. Just because I can order it does not make it so… and the cost of mistakes… my mistakes….”

A rattling cough interrupted her Grandmother. Then, as Ilsa leaned close, her grandmother whispered to her as their eyes met. “I can never forget what I did to Kerensky. How stupid, how insanely stupid I was! I broke a good and honorable man, better than I have ever been… and for what reasons truly? Wounded pride and the lure of the throne on Terra that Amaris left for us to squabble over like mad children. We destroyed in instants what it took our ancestors generations to build! What I did that day -what I continued to do until I came to the truth. Too late!- was worse than any crime, it was a mistake!! Now we have all paid bitterly for it. The cost of my folly continues to build for our people. My orders to strike the Mariks has only turned their hatred toward us into a raging inferno so now the Confederation burns in the fires of war.”

Ilsa looked into her grandmother’s eyes and swallowed as she spoke quietly with fear and pain in her young voice. “And now the Inner Sphere joins us amidst the typhoon of this conflict. We battle the Marik and raid the Davion, the Steiners fight on both fronts, and the Dragon unstoppably marches to the heart of the Federated Suns with blood and fire. I… have read the documents you sent to me about the true casualty estimates for the CCAF. Not one in seven of my classmates will live to see his children grow up at the current rate of losses. What can we do, Grandmother? What… can I do without you to guide me?”

Barbara Liao looked deep into her granddaughter’s eyes. “For me, my time is passing and I shall have to make my reckoning to the Judge of the Dead within the next day, two at the most. I fear it shall not be a pleasant one for me.” Ilsa swallowed and nodded in understanding. ”For you, I have made arrangements for the regency as best I can. Sandol Quinn, Prefect of Tikonov, shall be your Regent. He is a loyal man and a good soldier, but ambitious. He will keep the State safe for you to inherit. When you do,” Barbara’s hand slid from Ilsa’s face, “be strong, but be as the willow to bend with the course of events rather than break. Be brave but not reckless. Be wise with such wisdom has been granted to you and those you trust to advise you. Be compassionate when compassion can be safely given, but also be as hard as your dao’s steel when such is needed to keep the State and the People safe.”

Ilsa nodded, forcing back her flowing tears as best she could. The seventeen year old young woman clasped her grandmother’s hand as the life faded from the twentieth Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation.

Her grandmother gave her a desperate look as she gasped out her final words to the untried young woman who would have to become Celestial Wisdom after her. “Most of all, Ilsa…. Most of all, find a way to make our people safe from the madness that I have helped let loose before it consumes us all….”

-----------------------------------​

11 September, 2796

Kentares IV, DCMS Occupation Zone

A short Japanese man clad in the uniform of a Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery officer strode into the command outpost as energy seemed to crackle from his presence.

The assembled generals bowed before Jinjiro Kurita.

They knelt on the soil of a minor farming planet that had been a forgotten and forgettable backwater in the Draconis March of the Federated Suns.

They bowed to the soil that had tasted the lifeblood of this man’s aged father -- the blood of the Dragon.

Minoru Kurita, Coordinator of the Draconis Combine, had been shot by an insurgent on the Ninth of August. The Armed Forces of the Federated Suns had used the confusion caused by Minoru Kurita’s death to escape with the remnants of their troops before the new Coordinator could arrive with the cream of the DCMS, the Steel Dragon itself, at his back.

Mad steel-blue eyes surveyed his gathered samurai.

The Dragon commanded...

“Kill them all!”

...The Kentares Massacre began…

...over nine of every ten inhabitants of the helpless planet of Kentares IV would perish in the next five months…

...and the Inner Sphere would never be the same again.

-----------------------------------​

Author’s Note: This is a Battletech alternate universe fic. To those non-Grognards reading this, in canon Ilsa Liao was 12 years old when her mother died, leaving the CapCon under the regency of the ambitious and Davion-hating Sandol Quinn (the last non-Liao Chancellor) for six years.

Canon-Ilsa therefore reached the age of majority and inherited the rulership of a larger but militarily exhausted realm trapped in a two front war with the Free Worlds League having made serious inroads. Meanwhile, the militarily revitalized post-Kentares Federated Suns were smarting for revenge after the CCAF under Quinn attacked them at their lowest point with a ‘stab in the back’ during the Kentares Massacre.

Here, she is 17 years old with a six month regency before her birthday on 19 April 2796 makes her a legal adult and full Chancellor.

Calloway VI was a canonical Capellan attempted counterattack in March 2789 to hit a major FWLM forward base to slow the League down. Unfortunately, several Capellan officers who had been sickened by Barbara Liao abandoning the Ares Conventions to use unrestricted WMD release on civilian targets in the New Delos Massacre leaked the attack plans to the League. The result was a catastrophe for the CCAF, including the loss of both of Chancellor Barbara Liao’s sons in the League ambush. In this AU, it went as canon, save that Ilsa was 11 when her parents and uncle died at Calloway VI (and her grandmother nearly died) instead of 6, so much more of an impact on her psychology.

 

[namar13766]

Ah...So I'm guessing people asked "If you were so horrified about abandoning the Ares Conventions during the New Delos Massacre, why aren't you more horrified by the greater violation that was Kentares IV?"

 

[Yellowhammer]

Ah...So I'm guessing people asked "If you were so horrified about abandoning the Ares Conventions during the New Delos Massacre, why aren't you more horrified by the greater violation that was Kentares IV?"

Well Barbara Liao had been dead for just under a year by that point (Minoru was still alive when Babs died of an incurable blood disease). This fic is using her canon date of death with the change being that her granddaughter was born several years earlier.

So the person in charge during/after Kentares was Sandol Quinn who was a Hard Man making Hard Choices and ambitious to boot. He wanted to take Lost Chesterton back from the Fedrats, and thought that their weakness during/after Kentares was the time to make the move on that particular Capellan pipe dream.

It wasn't.

Ilsa wasn't able to do squat since OTL she was 13-14 then and wouldn't inherit for another five years. By the time that she took power and bungled her peace proposal with Paul Davion II in the early 2800s it was far too late with the Suns feeling (justifiably) that the Liaos had treacherously piled on once the Kuritas knocked them down but not out.

Also the CCAF was as nuke happy as anyone in the 1SW, the FWL/CC front in particular was incredibly savage (second only to the DC/FS grudgefest, perhaps, MAYBE the LC/FWL Bolan Thumb campaign matched it).

 

[Bear Ribs]

Nice to see Liao get some love instead of being the mustache-twirling villains. I'll be watching this one closely.

 

[bullethead]

Maybe the Capellans won't be total scumbags in this timeline.

 

[PsihoKekec]

Not many fics are set into WMD bonanza era, I'm eager to see how this will develop.

 

[Yellowhammer]

Nice to see Liao get some love instead of being the mustache-twirling villains. I'll be watching this one closely.

Thank you, expect another chapter tomorrow.

Maybe the Capellans won't be total scumbags in this timeline.

To be fair in this era, the Dracs took the gold, silver, and bronze medal for total scumbaggery and then shot and robbed the judges. Despite the best efforts of the LCAF, FWLM, and CCAF to get a honorable mention.

Not many fics are set into WMD bonanza era, I'm eager to see how this will develop.

Well it's a sadly underutilized era,, honestly.

 

[Knowledgeispower]

Welp as I've said on the Bruce quest discord this looks highly promising. Do carry on my good sir

 

[Yellowhammer]

Welp as I've said on the Bruce quest discord this looks highly promising. Do carry on my good sir

Already got chapter 2, 3, and 4 prewritten and I'll be releasing them.

 

[Kujo]

Wonder what the Relationship between her and Paul Davion (one of the Greatest Davion rulers up there with Alexander and Hanse!) will be...

 

[Yellowhammer]

Wonder what the Relationship between her and Paul Davion (one of the Greatest Davion rulers up there with Alexander and Hanse!) will be...

**points at the title**

 

[Yellowhammer]

The Best Of Enemies (A First Succession War Battletech AU) -- Chapter II

“Hence a commander who advances without any thought of winning personal fame and withdraws in spite of certain punishment, whose only concern is to protect his people and promote the interests of his ruler, is the nation's treasure. Because he fusses over his men as if they were infants, they will accompany him into the deepest valleys; because he fusses over his men as if they were his own beloved sons, they will die by his side.” -- Sun Tzu, 孫子兵法 (The Art of War)​

3 March 2796

Mirach, DCMS Occupation Zone

Commander Ilsa Liao gasped as she leapt Shíshī out of the Dropship nine and a half miles above the surface of Mirach below her and her fellow Mechwarriors.

What she was doing here was a calculated risk in far more ways than one.

Her eyes watched the altimeter tick down rapidly as the planet’s gravity drew her into a deadly embrace. Then with a roar that even at this altitude shook her and the sixty-five ton cutting-edge war machine she was piloting, the Union-class dropship that she had just leapt from fired its fusion drive to slow its descent.

Fifteen thousand meters….

Surrounded by her Battlemech and the radar-reflective chaff that had been fired to hopefully obscure what she and this Battalion of the Red Lancers were doing, Ilsa Liao fell toward Mirach with only her own thoughts and memories to keep her company.

Words spoken in the luxurious opulence of her rooms within the Celestial Palace three short weeks ago tumbled through her brain as she fell through the clouds.

“And if you die, Lady Liao? What then?” She could remember the florid Slavic face of Sandol Quinn, his graying goatee bristling as he stared into her determined eyes.

A deep breath both in memory and reality as she remembered making her argument to her Regent.

”Then you and the other Prefects join in wisdom to select the next Chancellor from among your ranks, my Regent. I know the cost of war, how could I not?” Her trembling hand pointed at the funeral tablet with the characters that she had written with her childish hand and watered with her tears of grief and loss for her father Balthazar Liao, her mother Yuying Mei-Liao, and her uncle Barnabas Liao. “I have sacrificed for the Confederation almost as much as you or the people of your beloved Tikonov have. How can I look my soldiers in the eye to send them needfully to their deaths in my name if I am unwilling to take the same risks when my responsibilities allow for me to? What is needed in these dark and terrible days is a Chancellor that is both ruler and warrior, a Liao who shares her peoples’ burdens, who sees with her own eyes what they must endure, and who sacrifices of herself as they do, to lead them as first among equals.”

Her Regent looked into her eyes for long moments and nodded, finally. “Leading the Red Lancers to strike the Combine supply depots on Mirach will send a message to the Kurita that the Confederation is not as weak as the Davion dogs. I just wish that you would approve my plans to reclaim the Chesterton worlds once and for all.”

Her head shook. “You and Count Dexter Heargreaves of Chesterton-in-Exile both, Sandol. No, the time is not right. We must go forth with my mother’s plan for counterattacks on the flanks of the advances the League has made toward Sarna and to isolate Andurien for recapture.” She pointed at the holographic map showing the Capellan Confederation in jade green with the purple of the ‘Free Worlds League’ advances like a livid bruise cutting in through the Sarna and Andurien Commonalities. “By all means, we should do reconnaissance raids on the Suns to ensure that the Davions are not massing to strike upon our other flank, but no more, and at a low level. We need the troops that would be stationed there to fight off the League.”

She touched the hologram’s control panel and the display shifted. Now it showed the massive crimson bite taken out of the Federated Suns as she pointed to the flashing crimson planets of Odell and Delevan one jump from their capital of New Avalon itself. “Assuming that the Maskirovka has not gone blind when they report on our old foe, the Suns need every man and ‘Mech as badly as we do.”

-----------------------------------​

The altimeter buzzed to interrupt her recollection.

She looked at the display reading eight hundred meters and stomped her feet to the floor where they rested on the control pedals.

For an instant, a terrifying heart-stopping instant, nothing happened.

Then her ‘Mech shook like a leaf in a hurricane when the external drop pack roared to life.

Flames fully double the height of her Thunderbolt began to slow her plummet into a hopefully controlled landing.

She began to guide her Mech with delicate movements of the controls of the jump pack toward the coded radio beacon of her Company commander.

She flicked on her radio from standby as the plummeting numbers of the altimeter slowed down.

The time for introspection was over.

The time for war was now.

-----------------------------------​

With a crash that rattled her bones her Thunderbolt hit the earth of Mirach.

She left meter deep divots in some farmer’s field as she touched down.

The crops had been set afire and the soil baked hard by the flames of her drop pack.

She slapped the release switch for the drop pack and began to run for the assembly point.

“Niúwěidāo Lance, Form on Niúwěidāo One!”

A green-camouflaged Catapult landed next to her on its own internal jets.

It then sprinted to cover her flank, the twin box-like ‘arms’ of its Holly LRM launchers waggling almost comically as the armored covers opened and locked to reveal the rows of deadly missiles.

”Niúwěidāo Four down, Commander!”

Ilsa spared a brief prayer of thanks to whoever was listening to her. Her older cousin Mei Ying had made it down alive.

Unlike the shattered and scattered remains of a Warhammer whose jump pack had either malfunctioned or been damaged by enemy fire.

-----------------------------------​

“Qiāng One to all Qiāng Units! Advance as planned to contact!”

Ilsa glanced at the icons of the Archer, Catapult, and Orion making up the rest of her Fire Support Lance.

She waved her arm to direct them forward to provide overwatch for the heavier units advancing into Cingulum City to hit the warehouses at the military base there.

-----------------------------------​

Suddenly, the air alert tone screamed from her advanced electronics as she reached the suburban park that was her destination.

“Incoming! Cover!” She yelled over the lance frequency as she lumbered to her right.

Her thumb flipped her weapons to anti-air mode.

Moments later, her arms and torso elevated as her Mech twisted automatically toward the threat vector.

Split seconds later the first pair of ASFs screamed in at low altitude on rockets of nuclear fire.

Lances of coherent light slashed into her while clouds of LRMs slammed into her -- and her lance along with the surrounding homes and businesses.

She did not notice the moment when her own LRMs and PPC returned fire as the computer got a lock on one of the enemies.

Only the wave of heat in the cockpit when her weapons fired registered.

Only later when she reviewed the BattleROMs would she realize that her snapshot had torn the wing off one of the ex-Star League Defense Force Zeros to cause it to spiral out of control to slam into the heart of the city.

Worse was to follow.

Much worse.

In the wake of the ASF pass came a steel rain of incendiary and anti-armor cluster bombs dropped by them as they overflew the Capellan advance.

Shíshī shook and shuddered as the bomblets slammed into her, shaving tons of armor off his thick hide.

A wave of heat from the Yama Kings’ hellish domain hit Ilsa when the world around her exploded into flames from the Inferno bombs that had turned this peaceful city into a hellscape in the blink of an eye.

Acting on trained reflex, Ilsa slammed the reactor overheat shutdown override and flipped the view mode to magscan.
She felt the evidence of her terror trickle down her legs under her cooling shorts.

“N-Niúwěidāo Lance report in!” She croaked out while her wide eyes sought any sign of the enemy coming to kill her.

“Two is condition yellow!”

“Three green.”

“Four is yellow.”

At the calm words from her subordinates, something fundamental inside Ilsa Liao relaxed slightly.

She was still more terrified than she ever had been in her life, but she had her people to live for now.

To fight for.

To -- if her service to the State and her People demanded it of her -- die for.

“Eyes sharp, they know we’re here.”

-----------------------------------​

A neon-blue bolt of man-made lightning suddenly came from somewhere to her right.

It slammed into Ying’s Catapult, causing her cousin’s Mech to stagger as armor dripped from its leg.

Hot on the heels of the shot came two flights of LRMs that further cratered armor on Ying’s right side.

Ilsa gripped her weapons triggers tighter as she scanned the burning city with eyes and sensors.

Nothing….

Nothing….

THERE!

Thought and action were as one as she dropped her crosshairs onto a flicker of movement among the flames.

Her Thunderbolt shook once more as her missiles chased her own PPC bolt toward her foe.

A fresh wave of heat filled the cockpit while the advanced cooling system fought against the burning pools of inferno gel around her, the flames from the city’s agonies, and the discharge of her own weapons.

But her agonies were as nothing to the Mongoose scout Mech that she had targeted.

The Mech, painted in the urban camouflage that the 29th Dieron Regulars favored, staggered when her PPC shot flayed the armor off its side torso.

The advanced guidance packages on Ilsa’s missile spread homed in on her target to hammer the smaller ‘Mech mercilessly thanks to the state-of-the-art bleeding-edge Terran Hegemony fire control computers in the Liao family’s Mech.

Worst of all for the Drac, shrapnel from one of Ilsa’s missile warheads hitting the compromised torso armor cut the main power cables to the advanced ECM and sensor suite for the scout mech.

Suddenly, it became visible to the heavier machines that it had been spotting for the rest of its lance to snipe at and harass.

As the mangled Mech staggered for cover at its best speed, the missile lock-on warning screamed once more that steel rain was coming for it….

-----------------------------------​

Sweat poured down Ilsa’s face as she reached her next firing position.

She spun on her heel to cover the escape route for the fighting retreat of the Red Lancers.

Their HALO drop had worked perfectly to keep the garrison guessing as to their location and intentions, allowing the Lancers to overrun the warehouse area’s guards while the Dropships came around to land at the farm that had been picked for their dust-off location.

Behind the Lancers’ Mechs, the flames were spreading uncontrollably through the kilotons of DCMS military supplies that had been stored there.

A fresh explosion shook the city as another mushroom cloud of fire went up from the munitions stockpiles.

While individually the samurai of the DCMS were no match for the CCAF’s finest, unfortunately there were many more of them than there were of the Red Lancers.

The numerical losses taken fighting the FWLM, especially from the disaster at Calloway VI, had barely been made good with transfers from other shattered and less prestigious regiments and a leavening of the best cadets in the Confederation.

“Niúwěidāo Lance in position on line Méihuā!” Ilsa snapped out on the command channel.
She took deep breaths while she scanned the still burning city for signs of the enemy that had to be hot on their heels.

”Liǔyèdāo Two. Fire support urgently requested at coordinates Cùlì Eight!”

Ilsa pivoted her ‘Mech, punched in the code group into her tactical computer, and opened a tacticom link to her lance.

“Fire support call, prepare Rain and Thunder for the Dragon!”

Her missile rack elevated while the high-speed ammunition hoist whined when it loaded fresh missiles from the second bin. A light burned a jade green on her console, followed by three more as her lance reported readiness.

“Fire!” Smoke filled the air as her Lance sent a full hundred Thunder and Swarm LRMs downrange. Then a second volley followed on the heels of the first.

“Two shots out, Liǔyèdāo Two! Yǔ hé léi shēng!” Ilsa said as she resumed the scan of the surroundings.

Fresh smoke billowed from the direction of her fellow Capellan’s overwatch position as her indirect fire arrived.

-----------------------------------​

Buildings were still burning here and there, and the city was a wreck.

Suddenly motion amid the wreckage caught her eyes.

A young girl, clearly a toddler, was crying and hugging a soot and dirt-covered stuffed rabbit to her chest as she crawled out from underneath the corpse of a woman.

A spreading red pool on the shattered and torn concrete told the tale of what had happened to the girl’s mother.

“Contact Left!”

Ilsa snapped around her head at the shout as a Hunchback appeared around the corner of the next junction south.

The massive Assault Autocannon that gave the deadly urban fighter its name elevated and roared.

Behind it, a second Hunchback turned the corner as two more humanoid Mechs leapt on pillars of fire to the buildings on either side.

Ying’s Catapult collapsed with a crash as the stream of high-velocity slugs scythed her Mech’s legs out from under her.

Something inside Ilsa froze at the sight.

A stranger used her ice-cold voice in words of Command that came from her heart and her soul.

“Ying, get out, grab that little girl near the wrecked van! Popov, pick Ying and that girl up, then cover our rears! Jahanara, back me up!”

She charged down the street toward the DCMS urban assault lance as her focus narrowed to her foe and those she stood in defense of.

Her crosshairs dropped on the first Hunchback and her fingers released all her triggers at once.

The smaller ‘Mech staggered as man-made lightning and lines of green laser light melted tons of armor off its barrel chest, stripping it naked. Then her wave of missiles hammered it as LRMs and SRMs pounded it.

Heat filled her cockpit, but was but an ice bath to the righteous fury and rage consuming her while channeled to her will.

The Chancellor serves the State and her People!

With a cataclysmic detonation, the Autocannon ammunition touched off, and the ‘Mech disintegrated.

Autocannon shells hammered into Shíshī and lasers lashed her in a deadly web.

Ilsa didn’t care.

Still, in that frozen moment of clarity and understanding, she charged through the explosion at the second Hunchback while shrapnel rattled her cockpit like a tin can in a hailstorm.

Moving with the deadly grace of a woman trained by the best sifu that her grandmother could find to teach her the martial art of Chángquán, she shoulder checked the second Hunchback, spinning it half around as armor plate was ground to dust.

As if present at her side, Sifu Li whispered in her ear as she leaned back to roll with her foe’s counterpunch and converted the spin of her shoulder check into a foot sweep.

“In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack--the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers.”

The Autocannon roared as the second Hunchback toppled when she kicked its ankles out from under it, yet she was not where her enemy expected her to be.

“The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle--you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?”

More missiles and shells slammed into her as a DCMS Shadow Hawk landed on jets of flame to draw a bead on her rear armor.

“Thus one who is skillful at keeping the enemy on the move maintains deceitful appearances, according to which the enemy will act. He sacrifices something, that the enemy may snatch at it."

Ilsa spun on her heel once more to spoil the back shot as she pivoted to her right.

More explosions covered Shíshī, stripping the last of the armor from her right torso.

Ilsa’s left hand dropped to point her Starflash Plus pulse lasers square at the damaged cockpit of the prone and helpless Hunchback while her right arm rose to point her PPC at the head of the Shadow Hawk.

She paused for a heartbeat as the weapons crosshairs for her torso mounted missiles and lasers blinked with a good lock.

“Energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow; decision, to the releasing of a trigger."

Her fingers released the triggers once more so Shíshī could lay low the enemies of the Capellan Confederation.

 

[namar13766]

This must be what, the first time the CCAF has ever fought the DCMS in actual war?

 

[Jarow]

Well, given the Terran Hegemony (and precursor states) was in the way before... But very much doubt this was the first battle between the two during the 1st Succession War.

 

[PsihoKekec]

Yeah, everybody was fighting everybody with gusto in the wild days of the 1st Succession War, there was even one world where all five states fought at the same time. Unsurprisingly it fell off the maps soon after.

 

[Yellowhammer]

The Best Of Enemies (A First Succession War Battletech AU) -- Chapter III

“The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgment that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish ... the kind of war on which they are embarking.” -- Carl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege (On War)​

Forbidden City, Sian, Capellan Confederation

16 November 2796

Vomit stained the priceless lacquered teakwood of the table and spattered the holographic projector atop it.

The Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation stared with wide eyes in her pale face at the equally ghost-like faces of her advisors as the transmission ended.

Prefect Quinn was shaking his head with disbelief and disgust writ large on his face.

The Maskirovka Director, Mandrinn Jiàn, was stone faced but Ilsa could read the subtle signs of shock in his face.

Ilsa glanced over at her friend and cousin Wei Ying. The young woman was weeping uncontrollably.

Ilsa wiped her mouth clean, not caring how she soiled her silken robes in this moment. She took several deep breaths, trying desperately to master herself to prevent another outbreak of vomiting. Her voice was unsteady as she finally spoke. “This… footage… is confirmed then?”

Jiàn nodded shakily. “Facial analysis gives a 97% confidence identification that the officer… supervising those events is Coordinator Jinjiro Kurita. It also corresponds with the recent reports that our agents in the DCMS have filed. It also matches the psychological profile we have developed on Jinjiro Kurita’s… instability.”

Ilsa slammed her palm down in the puddle of her vomit on the table. Fury and horror filled her eyes as she stabbed her finger through the frozen hologram of the Kentares Children’s Hospital to point at the man who had ordered everyone inside to be put to the sword and for their heads to be stacked before him.

Some of the heads were very small….

“Instability!? I say this is insanity!!” Ilsa shouted in a shrill screech as her tear-filled burning eyes raked the room. “Kenyon Marik is a megalomaniac -- calling himself ‘The Eagle’ indeed! -- but Jinjiro Kurita is as much of a monster as his Rìběn gǒu ancestors were at Nanjing!! As much a monster as Amaris the Usurper was!!!” Her tone challenged those present to try to persuade her differently.

None spoke as her gaze flickered from face to face.

Finally Ying stirred. “Celestial Wisdom -- Ilsa -- what do we do?”

Ilsa glanced at Quinn with a question. Her general shook his head. “We don’t have any forces available, not with the bulk of our strength tied down fighting the League around Andurien and on Chamdai, Tsinghao, and Second Chance. We also must protect Tikonov if the DCMS makes a move in our direction. Once the forces on Kentares IV… finish… then the DCMS will have a powerful force including three of their Swords of Light within striking range of our borders there. Although it is more likely that they will take New Avalon once they iron out their supply difficulties and build up for the next push.”

Ilsa nodded tiredly. “Bring up the strategic map, please, Ying.” Once more the view shifted to the familiar green of the Confederation hemmed in by Marik purple, Kurita scarlet, and Davion gold on the star map. Ilsa sank into her chair, staring at the map as her thoughts chased each other around and around like dogs after their own tails.

Davion gold….

Ilsa’s head raised. “Quinn, you agree that as much of a threat the Federated Suns have been to us for centuries, they are not total barbarians even at their worst? Not like… that!” She waved a hand at the vomit-stained projector.

Quinn bit his lip and finally sighed with a sour look on his face. “No, not like that, Celestial Wisdom. If John Davion had given those orders his troops would have mutinied. My men would have mutinied if I commanded that against sick children and they would be right to do so!”

“Indeed.” Ilsa agreed, rubbing her temples. “I have two decisions that I must make. First, my grandmother gave the orders that the Ares Convention restricting nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons along with the use of orbital bombardment was to be suspended before she sent off Colonel Devlin to raze New Delos at the start of this war. That was… not well thought out.” She looked at her chief general and spymaster. “Effective immediately, I am reinstating the Ares Conventions among the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces. No first use of WMD, and any second strikes will only be allowed by the most sober and reliable officers who understand such is an absolute last resort in response to prior illegal use by our foes. Disobedience will result in an immediate capital court-martial.”

The two men shared a look. “But the deterrent effect---” Quinn began.

Ilsa shook her head. “Is useless. Atrocity has been piled upon atrocity in this war. Tell me truthfully, did what the League calls the ‘New Delos Massacre’ now break their morale or harden their resolve?”

Jiàn sighed. “Strengthened their desire to fight. Revenging New Delos is a core precept of their indoctrination of new soldiers now along with their domestic propaganda as Kenyon Marik consolidates all power under his hand.”

Ilsa gave a small tired grin. “Exactly! So if that for the League, how much more so for the Suns when they see what we have seen? We have fought them enough over the centuries to teach them one of the lessons of Master Sun. ‘When in death ground, fight!’ The Davions find themselves in death ground now against the Kuritas. With that understanding in mind, I see a possible way for the Confederation to profit from the Suns’ new understanding of where they stand….”

-----------------------------------​

Ipava, New Avalon Administrative Area, Coreward Combat Theater, Crucis March, Federated Suns.

2 December 2796

“Urgent dispatches for the First Prince!” The call from the command bunker entrance cut through the hubbub of the staff officers packing the facility.

Leftenant General King waved a pair of sealed message forms at the white haired man at the head of the table in a Field Marshal’s uniform. Weary blue eyes in a lined face looked at the officer. “Out with it.” First Prince John Davion sighed as his shoulders slumped.

The first form passed hands. “It’s from Delevan.”

A groan rippled around the table.

The officers’ faces all said the same thing: Two weeks ago, the 33rd Avalon Hussars, 4th Deneb Light Cavalry, and 3rd Dragonlords had launched an all-out suicidal attack without orders straight at the tip of the Combine spear threatening New Avalon.

The seal broke and paper rustled.

Blue eyes widened in shock. “The Hussars and DLC report that two Drac Narukami-class destroyers were overwhelmed and killed by their airwing at the Zenith jump point thanks to a series of ramming attacks that gutted their engineering spaces. They have made planetfall and have the Drac forces on the ropes!” John Davion wept as he leaned over the map table as an angry scarlet world on the display began to flash orange showing it was disputed. “Thank God for loose cannons! Archie, get the Ninth Avalon Hussars and Fourth Davion Guards moving ASAP to escort a supply convoy to finish the job and push them off our soil!”

The despair lifted and was replaced by energy.

John broke the green dao and triangle seal of the second communication and began to read. He rubbed his eyes, reread it and then lifted his head. “Everyone, I have a communique from the Cappies here.”

“Fucking Crappies….” came an anonymous mutter in a New Syrtis accent.

“Chancellor Liao says to me and I quote:”

‘First Prince Davion, I speak to you today not as Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation, not even as a Capellan citizen, but as a fellow civilized human being.

Our nations currently have our massive differences and our violent histories; I will not insult your intelligence by denying that. We have disagreed on much of importance; many in your realm or mine would say that we disagree in all things. But there is one thing any civilized person can agree upon. What has happened and continues to happen on Kentares is evil, and an unforgivable crime against humanity.

The monster who ordered it, those who obey him, and those in the Combine who are too cowed to speak against it even in their heart are the enemies of any civilized person. They are barbarians, and it is the duty of all civilized men and women to set aside their differences to stand against such evil.

To that end, I have ordered my soldiers to strictly obey the Ares Conventions. I swear never to perform a first strike with strategic weapons as long as I hold the Celestial Throne. This mad war threatens to consume us all and leave the survivors naught but ash and bone if we do not take a step back from the abyss.

Furthermore, I have also sent out ironclad orders to immediately halt any and all incursions and offensive actions in currently held Federated Suns space; if any of my officers or men disobey them, they are pirates and outlaws and shall be immediately delivered to your justice as you require it.

I shall maintain the right to strike the Combine troops occupying planets formerly yours under the Star League when such is required to keep my people and my realm safe.

Finally, I am ordering the CCAF garrisons fronting you in the Saint Ives, Sian, Sarna, and Capella Commonalities to be reduced to the bare minimum needed to protect my vital industries on planets proximate to your borders there. Sadly, Tikonov is threatened by the barbarians you fight now, so I cannot reduce garrisons there to a level that can free up your troops holding Chesterton.

All I shall ask as my price for this assistance to you is that you and yours bring the monster that calls itself Jinjiro Kurita and its minions to justice for his crimes against our common humanity.

With prayers for your victory over the foes of civilization and with sorrow for Kentares IV,

Ilsa Liao, Duchess of Sian, Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation’​

The bunker was dead silent.

John Davion looked around and then took a deep breath. “Countess Cunningham! Get me the most current brief on the CCAF’s dispositions on our border! If it’s true that she’s giving us breathing room rather than taking advantage of our situation….”

His eyes lowered to the map table where an enterprising staff officer had pulled up the list of available Capellan March garrisons and he gave a relieved smile.

-----------------------------------​

New Avalon Military Academy, Avalon City, New Avalon, Crucis March, Federated Suns

6 December 2796

“Senior Cadet-Leftenant Davion, report to the Commandant’s office immediately!”

The younger of the two dark-haired teenagers jogging across campus to their next classes elbowed his older brother in the ribs at the announcement from the loudspeakers. “Busted, big bro!”

Paul Davion rubbed his side and gave his kid brother an annoyed look as they changed direction to jog toward the administration offices. “Peter! Unlike you, I have a perfect record here!”

Peter smirked. “Yeah, because they don’t know how you stay up after lights-out reading your Clausewitz, Napoleon, Guderian, Rommel, Sun Tzu, Kerensky, and Thucydides under the covers with a flashlight in bed! Or the extra access you scrounged up to use the battle computers to run sims!”

Paul gave Peter a flat stare. “How’d you know?”

“I know you, Bro.” Peter replied and shrugged. “You’re fascinated by warfare and rulership.”

Paul paused, then sighed. “A bit, I guess. But the big thing is that I have to prepare to be First Prince once Grandpa retires like he’s grumbled about wanting to do and then Dad leaves it to me. It’s the biggest exam of my life and if I blow it… well you saw what happened when Grandpa picked the wrong enemy to prepare against.”

Peter sobered and muttered with a scowl. “Yeah. I saw the video. Fucking Snakes!”

“Fucking Snakes all right!” Paul agreed with bone-deep hatred in his voice. “I can’t wait to get into the fight against them. Grandpa said that if I keep my grades up, I’ll get into the Guards as a Leftenant.”

“My big bro the bookworm.” Peter said as they reached the administration building. “Listen, if you need a fast escape from Stumpy’s office, give me the high sign and I’ll pull the fire alarm.”

Paul just shook his head as he marched up the stairs. He paused to clear the security checkpoint, and then strode down the hall to his destination.

He rapped his knuckles on the door and barked out in his best command voice. “Senior Cadet-Leftenant Davion reporting as ordered!”

“Enter!”

He stepped inside, snapped to attention, and rendered a parade ground salute to the middle aged officer waiting for him. Leftenant-General Markham returned the salute with his one good arm. The Commandant then nodded to the Major standing next to the school chaplain.

Paul’s eyes widened at the sight of his older cousin Major Thomas Halder-Davion in his Davion Brigade of Guards field uniform. Thomas whispered, “I’m sorry to have to be the one, my Prince.”

The words hit Paul like an autocannon salvo. He swayed and nearly fell. “H-how?” He gulped and gave his cousin a disbelieving look. “Dad?”

Thomas shook his head. “It was an assassin with a laser pistol. He infiltrated the forward HQ on Ipava and killed your father and grandfather while they were up late working on some troop movements.”

He then hurried over to hug the crying young man. Markham stood with a hiss of pain and placed his hand on Paul’s heaving shoulder while the chaplain prayed for healing for the newly-orphaned young man.

Paul looked up and shook his head. “No… not... it can’t be….” He choked out desperately while tears trickled down his pale cheeks.

Thomas sighed deeply. “But it is, Paul. I swore my loyalty to your grandfather when I became an officer, but now I am and shall be your man unto death and damnation, But you must now lead us as the senior Davion of the blood.”

Paul closed his eyes and his shoulders slumped. He swallowed several times, and opened them as he whispered.
“Dad... Grandpa. I’ll make you proud of me, I promise.”

Then Paul’s face firmed up and his spine straightened in his cadet uniform. “What do I need to do Tom?” He said with determined courage despite the tears still trickling from his eyes.

The chaplain picked up an AFFS-issue Bible from the commandant’s desk and extended it. “Place your left hand on the Bible and raise your right hand. General Markham, and Major Halder-Davion will witness the oath of office.”

“I, Paul George Davion, eldest son of Joshua Galahad Davion, and senior grandson of First Prince John Davion do solemnly swear to defend to the death the Peoples and Liberties of the Federated Suns. I swear to cause Law and Justice in Mercy to be executed in all my judgements. All these things that I have before promised I swear that I shall keep as I enter the office of the First Prince of the Federated Suns. So help me God!”

----------------------------------- ​

Author’s Note: For the non-grognards among us, there is a second change in the timeline here that is partially caused by the Ilsa-butterfly.

IOTL, Paul Davion took the throne on December 6th 2797 after the death of his father and grandfather as seen here. Here in this AU, it happens exactly a year earlier during the news of the Massacre, resulting in Paul Davion II taking the throne at eighteen instead of nineteen.

Also, I aged up Peter Davion (the future OTL Prime Marshal of the AFFS for his older brother Paul II and then nephew Michael Davion) slightly, enough to get him into NAMA as a first year cadet underage. The man had an incredible career later as the Yvonne Davion/Ardan Sortek to his brother’s Hanse Davion (or if you prefer, he was Belisarius to Paul’s Justinian the Great) so this is justified by his canonical later history as one of the greatest non-First Prince Davion generals.

 

[Bear Ribs]

At this rate the fourth succession war will have Hanse Davion giving Candace the Combine as a wedding present while they form the Capellan Suns.

 

[Yellowhammer]

At this rate the fourth succession war will have Hanse Davion giving Candace the Combine as a wedding present while they form the Capellan Suns.

Fun fact, the Lyrans are the natural ally of the Suns AND and the CapCon geostrategically since they border both neighbor's enemies.

 

[Bear Ribs]

Yeah, politically in BT each nation is usually the arch-enemy of whoever they share borders with and the potential ally of whoever is one border over. This, I guess, is a function of the weirdly pie-shaped map, though the Taurians hate the Suns who they share a border with more than the rest of the inner sphere.

 

[PsihoKekec]

Vomit stained the priceless lacquered teakwood of the table and spattered the holographic projector atop it.

The Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation stared with wide eyes in her pale face at the equally ghost-like faces of her advisors as the transmission ended.

Prefect Quinn was shaking his head with disbelief and disgust writ large on his face.

The Maskirovka Director, Mandrinn Jiàn, was stone faced but Ilsa could read the subtle signs of shock in his face.

Ilsa glanced over at her friend and cousin Wei Ying. The young woman was weeping uncontrollably.

After years of unrestricted WMD butchery you would expect the leading figures to be somewhat hardened to little holographic violence.

stabbed her finger through the frozen hologram of the Kentares Children’s Hospital to point at the man who had ordered everyone inside to be put to the sword and for their heads to be stacked before him.

Some of the heads were very small….

Oh, that would explain it then.

At this rate the fourth succession war will have Hanse Davion giving Candace the Combine as a wedding present while they form the Capellan Suns.

More like Hanse Davion-Liao will give the Combine to Melissa. And since triple names are so clunky, the couple will change it to Cameron. Afterall, they will have the required three votes out of four.