Part 654: Political Vote 22 Results and Combat Theater Vote 21

“Lieutenant, pick up your pace.” Isoroku Kurita marveled at how easily he slipped into the role of drill instructor for the massive force assembled on the beachhead at Chatham. Although the world itself bore little resemblance to the Sun Zhang military academy he’d so recently commanded. Soldiers were soldiers no matter where—or, it seemed, whom—they were. It wasn’t simply his job to whip them into shape and point them in the right direction, it was his duty. Isoroku Kurita took his duty very seriously.

Slender but wiry, Isoroku had always been described as “intense” and “strong.” He disagreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment, the determination to fight for one’s home and family did not spring from strength but an understanding of one’s own weakness. So too was the courage to look death in the eyes and calmly march forward born of discipline. He could not say he agreed with all of Hanse Davion’s doctrinal “enhancements”—the DCMS moved at times a tortoise when it came to implementing change—but he understood the necessity. Both the soldiers of the AFFS and DCMS needed an operational environment in which they could reasonably expect to be able to predict how other units would react in the field. The integration of lances, companies, and even whole battalions of forces from “across the border” had been a painful learning experience for all involved. Isoroku had first managed to content himself with the knowledge that the Federated Suns officers he worked with were as unhappy as he himself had been.

Ultimately, however different their training might have been, the men and women of the DCMS and the AFFS were soldiers. They’d done their duty and worked to integrate distrustful gaijin into their own command structures. Isoroku had done his best to set a good example for the other regimental commanders, treating his new men with the same honor and compassion he showed those born on one of the Dragon’s own worlds. He consulted regularly with the commanders of the Davion Heavy Guards, the Sword of Light, the Robinson Rangers, and the Federated—Draconis, he corrected—Suns Lancers. He’d worked to open lines of communication, and had encouraged both sides to cycle through playing the OpForce in simulated wargames.

An understanding of the sort of equipment the Clans were using was no substitution for understanding their mindset, but hard data about how the Clans actually thought was in distressingly short supply. Knowing one’s enemy was as important as knowing ones’ self, and Isoroku had quietly encouraged his counterparts in the former DCMS to get to know their Davion counterparts very well indeed. He’d been surprised how many of those same commanders he’d actually befriended. Hanse Davion’s men may have been poorly educated, but they were surprisingly earnest, a trait the Draconis Combine had always prized. They had more in common with their erstwhile enemies than Isoroku Kurita had first believed. The men still considered the soldiers from the Federated Suns unwashed savages—but after a year, they’d become “our” unwashed savages. That, Isoroku hoped, would be enough.



The Black Pearl
The largest battle force assembled since the fall of the Star League stands ready to retake Luthien, the Black Pearl. Two disparate armies have trained together for more than a year to familiarize themselves with new combined arms battlefield doctrines. For the first time in history, determined Kuritans stand side by side with the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns. On Luthien, the Draconis Suns will forge their sword in battle—or shatter it completely.

Red Dawn
Jumping farther than 30 light years is impossible, provided your end goal is to keep the jump drive intact. With a staggering disregard for a JumpShip’s reusability and enough applied mathematics, a JumpShip can be sent anywhere in the known universe. This knowledge was lost with the fall of the Star League, but even before the sheer waste of billions and the exponentially increasing risk of a misjump meant that the purely theoretical “long jump” had never been attempted under any circumstances. Before now.

Clairvaux
The first Crusade was a failure, plagued by infighting and collaborators and dancing to the tune of a disgraceful traitor. Failure cannot be tolerated, and traitors will be the first put to the sword. Only the True Clans can bring Kerensky’s peace to the fallen and the animalistic barbarians of the Inner Sphere alike!

Plan D
Incensed by the death of Stefan Amaris VI, the cybernetically-enhanced soldiers of the Rim Worlds Army and their mercenary allies have begun the final campaign to drive Clan forces from Andurien and secure the fledgling Republic’s place in history as one of the Inner Sphere’s great powers. Their goal is no longer the humiliation of the enemy, but its complete destruction.





Combat Theater Vote:
A) The Black Pearl (Campaign)
B) Red Dawn (Campaign)
C) Clairvaux (Campaign)
D) Plan D (Campaign)