Marrying Victoria off is the last thing he should do with the coup, because Victoria was his right hand, an almost literal extension of himself, that made the coup and the Directorate work. If you suddenly marry her to someone else and expose her to their ideas and influence she's no longer reliable. Victoria Espinosa-Marik is vastly more likely to side against him. Supporting coups sets a bad precedent for one's own rule and nation, after all.
(Incidentally this is probably why the Aurigan Directorate was doomed; Victoria was not enough of her own person to be an effective ruler after her father.)
Also: as Countess, Erin herself is going to be under increasing pressure to also marry. Or at the least, adopt.
Marrying Victoria off is the last thing he should do with the coup, because Victoria was his right hand, an almost literal extension of himself, that made the coup and the Directorate work. If you suddenly marry her to someone else and expose her to their ideas and influence she's no longer reliable. Victoria Espinosa-Marik is vastly more likely to side against him. Supporting coups sets a bad precedent for one's own rule and nation, after all.
(Incidentally this is probably why the Aurigan Directorate was doomed; Victoria was not enough of her own person to be an effective ruler after her father.)
Also: as Countess, Erin herself is going to be under increasing pressure to also marry. Or at the least, adopt.
Different political situation.
Not sure he would have a real choice if the Mariks came acourting, and Victoria was interested. Plus after the Anton thing, the FWL is likely to take a generally dim view of kinetically mediated successions in their area of influence, and they're the superpower next door.
Point about Erin. She does have time, and a living parent.
I am pretty sure the coup has been butterflied away. Not only do I believe to remember that Acyl said so in the past but also the political situation in the Aurigan Coalition and its environment has changed quite a bit. With the Solaris pact and the its implied support of three of the successor states the Aurigans have far less to fear military speaking and I suspect that their economy also profits handsomely from the increased trade. Sure it is probably still a bit lacking on the effective government side of things but with a better (galactic) economy, closer ties to some of its neighbours and probably a less dangerous frontier due the increased pressure on pirates and the like in that region I would say that Santiago might not have such a negative view of the current situation regarding the Coalition and almost certainly a harder time gathering support. It would also not that unbelievable that the increased international activity and effects from that results in some strengthening of House Arano over the others, certainly getting treated as something of an equal by the likes of the Federated Suns and the Lyran's can't have been bad in regards of its prestige, and/or Kamea (or others) might be more open to his argument that the Reach needs a stronger central authority/more effective government. Or if you want to go the cheap route simply don't have Kamea's father die to a freak jumpship accident at this point in time because without his death the coup also becomes far more unlikely. You could also go the other route and say that the various noble families are using this opportunity to establish ties with other families outside the Reach which wouldn't react well to their new relatives getting sidelined/killed.
And narratively speaking having yet another civil war in a story already full of similar conflicts doesn't really make that much sense in my opinion and you don't really win anything by going that route, espeically since Acyl clearly wants to focus on the bigger theatres like the war against the Capellans (which will likely see the Combine also get involved in some since I don't see them standing aside while the other successor states grow) and of course the clan invasion.
Espinosa wants to secure a powerful backer to Auriga. In the HBS game he does so by plotting and conspiring to secure a Taurian alliance.
In this timeline he has the Solaris treaty. And soon the next best thing to a guarantee from the Marik.
Baron Pulaski rapped the end of his cane against the ground. "You have House Muldaur as well. Diana got them all out of Hengshan in time, but they're coming in overland. Siddigs are holed up in their estate. Not likely they can make it here, but they're friendly. The Lien head has been detained, but her daughter and some of the family are squared away in Reza's basement."
Baron Pulaski probably also deserves an upgrade before Erin does; Reza Kevan-Zou is already a Count, and we don't know what are the Muldaur's, Siddig's and Lien's titles, but it wouldn't do to have Erin pass them, either...
Those guys aren't just rich landowners; it's a neofeudal system. They owe the Zou family their allegiance, and high treason would be reason enough to strip them of their assets and titles. No judge would say otherwise and since Martin promised that the feeral government wouldn't object, no one can stop Adena. They could revolt, but with the Fighting Tigers and the coming federal troops backing Adena up, that's a fool's bet.
What crest would he choose besides something vulgar?
I admit the only thing I came up with was a Carp behind the head of a mech, a splash from the impact and a strange expression fitted to the Carp face. Suggesting something Lewd.
Unless the Carp gains gunports and firing like the Flashman he has.
Espinosa wants to secure a powerful backer to Auriga. In the HBS game he does so by plotting and conspiring to secure a Taurian alliance.
In this timeline he has the Solaris treaty. And soon the next best thing to a guarantee from the Marik.
While I generally agree that Santiago was interested in an alliance/The Coalition playing a greater role in international politics from what I remember the Taurian alliance came pretty late in his regime and could easily be viewed as an reaction to the success of Kamea.
Baron Pulaski probably also deserves an upgrade before Erin does; Reza Kevan-Zou is already a Count, and we don't know what are the Muldaur's, Siddig's and Lien's titles, but it wouldn't do to have Erin pass them, either...
Those guys aren't just rich landowners; it's a neofeudal system. They owe the Zou family their allegiance, and high treason would be reason enough to strip them of their assets and titles. No judge would say otherwise and since Martin promised that the feeral government wouldn't object, no one can stop Adena. They could revolt, but with the Fighting Tigers and the coming federal troops backing Adena up, that's a fool's bet.
Eh, making your powerful nobles even more powerful is just creating problems for future generations and probably something to avoid where possible. Temporary boon might be better on that regard.
And I would argue that this whole complete stripping of assets on such a large scale is actually relatively rare in feudal systems historically speaking. In my experience feudal.systems are probably some of the most lenient when it comes to stuff like that. Taking land like that and giving it out to your favourites generally causes more problems than it solves. Though of course in this case Adena has the advantage of the FWL backing her which makes opposition to her course that much more difficult. And of course this is a sci-fo story where the nobility doesn't necessarily match history all that well.
I don't think so. I am pretty sure that the massacre happens during the mid/late stages of the game though I could mix it with when it becomes plot relevant. It certainly isn't mentioned as her motivation for doing so earlier in the campaign since I just replayed those.
Eh, making your powerful nobles even more powerful is just creating problems for future generations and probably something to avoid where possible. Temporary boon might be better on that regard.
And I would argue that this whole complete stripping of assets on such a large scale is actually relatively rare in feudal systems historically speaking. In my experience feudal.systems are probably some of the most lenient when it comes to stuff like that. Taking land like that and giving it out to your favourites generally causes more problems than it solves. Though of course in this case Adena has the advantage of the FWL backing her which makes opposition to her course that much more difficult. And of course this is a sci-fo story where the nobility doesn't necessarily match history all that well.
I respectfully disagree. You have to reward your loyal vassals so other vassals get inspired into loyalty the next time around and the ones that backed her now feel that they should keep backing her in the future.
As for historic feudal nations not really taking away nobles' lands and titles, that's the mechanism that did in feudalism itself. In the renaissance, national states got strong enough that --- with the backing of the merchant class --- sidelining nobles was a viable strategy, but the trick is that you have to screw over all of your vassals at once, because any leftover vassals with actual power will be very leery of you. Of course, if the noble in question was a traitor or a heretic, your other vassals will most likely let it slide if in the process you don't become strong enough to challenge them all.
And I would argue that this whole complete stripping of assets on such a large scale is actually relatively rare in feudal systems historically speaking.
But honestly it's a lot less rare for people to get attainted than you think. Minor nobility being attainted and lands shuffled was actually fairly common, with the primary reason usually being they couldn't meet their feudal obligations to provide taxes or soldiers.
And I would argue that this whole complete stripping of assets on such a large scale is actually relatively rare in feudal systems historically speaking. In my experience feudal.systems are probably some of the most lenient when it comes to stuff like that. Taking land like that and giving it out to your favourites generally causes more problems than it solves. Though of course in this case Adena has the advantage of the FWL backing her which makes opposition to her course that much more difficult. And of course this is a sci-fo story where the nobility doesn't necessarily match history all that well.
While generally true, treason/sedition tends to be a capital offense in such settings (and in general), and if no member of the noble family in question remained loyal during the revolt the title and lands can find themselves suddenly lacking in ownership. The less a noble family sprawls out, the easier it is to meet the 'everyone is a traitor' lose condition.
Going the other way, the Pulaski family would likely have been completely toast, had Corian won. I do not think any of them sided with Corian or remained neutral, and the example points out that if the families on Corian's side were as coherent they might well be sorely lacking in members who will still be capable of holding titles shortly.
He secured Taurian backing for the Directorate coup in the game, but FWL backing would presumably be preferred. I'm not sure of the timeline though, the coup may have been butterflied entirely or merely delayed due to Solaris.
I am pretty sure the coup has been butterflied away. Not only do I believe to remember that Acyl said so in the past but also the political situation in the Aurigan Coalition and its environment has changed quite a bit. With the Solaris pact and the its implied support of three of the successor states the Aurigans have far less to fear military speaking and I suspect that their economy also profits handsomely from the increased trade. (...) And narratively speaking having yet another civil war in a story already full of similar conflicts doesn't really make that much sense in my opinion
Yes. This. My personal read on it - and you can certainly disagree if you wish - was that Santiago Espinosa and Victoria were not power-hungry for personal gain per-se - or at least that's not what they would claim. I imagine they genuinely believed at some level that what they were doing was for the greater good of the Aurigan Reach. Yes, Santiago was a dictator who committed atrocities, but I like to think he was the kind of dictator who was genuinely concerned about economic growth, lifting folks out of the poverty line, education, and the like. I like to imagine he really did think Kamea was unfit to rule.
Here, though, the Aurigans are experiencing an economic boom, there's investment and joint business projects flowing from the FWL and Canopians on actual good terms. Militarily they're also in a better position from canon on the back of this, and so on. So no coup. And Erandil's right in saying that narratively speaking, I didn't want to run through the Aurigan coup plot at all.
I've been toying with doing something else, a different story, more closely zooming in on the Aurigan region - depending if there's enough meat to sink into when the Aurigan PDF comes out. But in the framing of this story, it was always going to be a side note rather than a primary focus.
Yeah, and occasionally I do have even the supposed protagonist characters say things that underscore the feudal nature of BattleTech. It is what it is.
Sunlight seems a bloodsmear; night comes blood-black;
Dawn breaks open like a wound that bleeds afresh
-- Thus their heads wear this hilarious, hideous,
Awful falseness of set-smiling corpses.
-- Wilfred Owen, Mental Cases (1918)
DAVION PALACE, AVALON CITY, NEW AVALON
3 JUL 3026
Hanse Davion studied the little ferroglass figurine, one of the few personal items he kept in his private office.
BattleMech canopy armour was a poor medium for sculpture, but the artist had done good work. The figurine was based on a holo of Hanse and his late love, Dana Stephenson. It had been sculpted from the remains of her Enforcer's cockpit, what little had been left after an enemy 'Mech had shattered the machine, taking Dana with it.
He knew that. He remembered that, and the years hadn't eased the pain.
The original holo had been a casual shot, not a formal posed photo. Someone had captured them smiling, laughing. The holocamera had caught them in formal wear, so it must have been at a ball… the Christmas ball, where Hanse had proposed? That must have been it.
But he could not, for the life of him, remember who had taken the holo. Or indeed, what artist had sculpted the figurine. Had the holo been taken by Ran Felsner? Or maybe Ardan Sortek? Most likely. One of them must have commissioned the artwork, too.
He should have known, though. He should have known, for sure.
He ran his finger down the figurine, to the base. He knew there was an engagement ring there, inside the base. Yet he could not recall how it looked. He must have purchased it himself, or had it crafted. But…
He was tempted, then, to unscrew the base of the figurine. To see for himself. Yet as his fingers searched for the seams, he couldn't remember how it opened, or if it even did.
Dana's death had nearly destroyed him. He knew that. It had taken both Ran Felsner and Ardan to pull him out of his shock, out of his stupor. And it still scarred him, even today.
Losing Dana… that was why he'd never married, in all the years since. Even though there was immense pressure on him to do so, as the First Prince of the Federated Suns.
Dana had been killed on Halstead Station. He'd lead the battle from the front, and Dana had accompanied him, along with Ran and Ardan. They still called him the Victor of Halstead Station, but the title rang hollow. Halstead wasn't a victory, not in Hanse's mind.
The Star League knowledge they'd recovered was valuable, but was it worth the cost? Speaking as the First Prince, Hanse was forced to agree that the answer was 'yes'. But as a man, Hanse didn't think so.
And yet…
He couldn't even recall the sound of Dana's voice.
Surely there must be recordings, messages that she had left? He resolved to check, because the lapse was bothering him. It wasn't right.
Hanse crossed the office, pacing over the carpet. He could remember the history of the damned carpet, presented to his father by a diplomatic delegation from House Arano, back in the early days when the Aurigan Coalition had been establishing itself as an interstellar power.
He could even recall the history of that hideous painting of Lucien Davion in the corner, with the first President of the Federated Suns looking more like he was suffering from gout and piles rather than striking a regal poise. Because he had been sick when the portrait was done.
He could remember all those bits of esoteric knowledge, all these meaningless fragments that made up the office of the First Prince. Yet, and yet… he could not remember things that should have been important to Hanse Davion, the man, not the Prince.
Hanse stopped in front of a mirror, a full-length reflective surface housed within a gleaming gold frame. The designs along the frame were Terran French iconography, a fleur-de-lys, the Gallic cockerel, the work of a twenty-seventh-century artisan for a New Avalon court that had tried to celebrate the Federation's European roots. The information flashed through his mind, unbidden, as he ran his fingers along the frame.
And yet, when he raised his hand to the mirror itself… he could see the skin of his palm, reflected in its surface. He turned his hand round, examining his own flesh.
There was a scar there, long-healed and white, small and thin… almost blending into the lines and creases of his palm. The scar should have been there. He expected to see it, and so he did.
But he could not remember where it had come from. A minor injury, from his days leading Ardan round the countryside? A training injury, from his time at the Albion Military Academy? Or maybe something he'd picked up on active duty with the Third Davion Guards, back when he'd been a line MechWarrior?
He slid his hand beneath the collar of his tunic, pulling out a short length of chain with two metal ornaments. He held them in his fingers, looking down. Then he looked at himself, in the mirror.
The Unfinished Book pendant, he understood. The symbol of the movement was an open book set against the Federated Starburst.
Hanse was a known patron of the Unfinished Book Movement. He'd used the fifth edition of the text for the oath-swearing portion of his coronation ceremony, instead of the traditional Bible.
But the stylised Star of David that hung beside the book was more of a puzzle. House Davion didn't have strong Jewish roots… did it? Perhaps the second symbol was meant to reflect the fact that the Federated Suns' Jewish community was not officially part of the inter-faith movement.
Maybe it had something to do with Dana? Was that why he wore the symbol on a regular basis?
There had to be a reason. Why wouldn't it come to him?
There was a knock at the door. With the weight and sturdiness of the door to Hanse's private planning office, it was more of a hammering, in order to be audible.
The door cracked open, and the familiar face of Ekkles, Hanse's aide-de-camp, looked through. Hanse twisted round, tucking the pendants back into his tunic. He peered at his aide, curiously.
"Your Highness," Ekkles said. "Field Marshal Ran Felsner and Colonel Ardan Sortek are here. But they don't have a slot in your schedule book. Should I tell them to come back?"
Hanse blinked. "Of course not, man. Good lord, it's Ran and Dan. They don't need an appointment. Show them in!"
For some reason, Ekkles appeared disgruntled at that, as if the unprompted presence of the AFFS officers was a gross disruption to the proper order of things. But he did not disagree, instead holding the door open.
Hanse caught a glimpse of the armed guards outside, but they were not the most notable uniformed figures in the corridor.
Ran Felsner and Ardan Sortek came into the office.
"Apologies for dropping in unannounced, Hanse," said Ran Felsner. He looked calm, and his voice was conversational.
It seemed to Hanse that Ardan looked uncomfortable, however. He glanced at his friend, before turning back to the Field Marshal.
"There's a surprise check today, I'm afraid," Ran Felsner said. "Medical screening for all members of High Command currently on planet. Part of the new security procedures. You and I need to head downstairs."
Hanse frowned, struck by his own feeling of unease. The thought unnerved him, for some reason.
Ekkles picked up on Hanse's displeasure. "The First Prince has a busy schedule, Field Marshal Felsner. Can't this wait?"
"I fear not," Ran said. "That would defeat the purpose of a surprise check, Mister Ekkles."
"I'm not very keen on being poked and prodded by the medics," Hanse complained.
"I'm fifty years old," Ran Felsner said, without much sympathy. "I look it, too. Nobody deserves to see my naked buttocks and private bits. But orders are orders. Your orders, Hanse."
Hanse nodded, slowly. The matter of the surprise checks had come up in the last combined Privy Council and High Command meeting. He had signed off on the new procedures drafted by DMI and NAIS… though why he'd approved the paranoid business, he didn't know.
But it was his signature and thumbprint on the paperwork, true enough
Ardan Sortek squinted at Ran. "That true, sir? Cordelia tells me that she has, er, no complaints about the Felsner physique."
"We keep the lights off," Ran said, matter-of-factly.
Countess Cordelia Spencer was Ran Felsner's wife. His new wife, as they'd only married last year. Hanse had attended the church ceremony and subsequent dinner. Of course he had. It had been quite an event, since it wasn't every day that a decorated member of High Command wed one of New Avalon's best known socialites.
Though he could only recall bits and pieces of the proceedings. The rest was a blur. He hadn't drunk that much, had he? Ran and his wife had obviously opted for some excellent Sortek vintages, but Hanse could hold his alcohol. Surely a few glasses of wine couldn't have rendered him insensate.
"Well," Hanse murmured. "I suppose there's no choice. Downstairs, then?"
Ekkles huffed. The aide-de-camp was upset. "This is most irregular."
"The medics and the experts from NAIS are already waiting," Ran said. "I'm sure they won't keep the Prince long. We've all got work to do."
***
Hanse fidgeted.
Typically, he was good at remaining still. He'd gone through the full course of training at the Albion Military Academy, and he'd worked his way up the ranks rather than having command handed to him. He knew how to stand at attention on a parade ground or company line.
The Armed Forces of the Federated Suns had a high degree of professionalism, the highest in the Inner Sphere. The Federation didn't tolerate the kind of foolish nepotism that the Lyrans did, and didn't have 'social generals' like the Commonwealth possessed. Even as a member of the ruling family, he'd learnt how to soldier the hard way.
Hadn't he?
His mind said one thing, but his body said another. It was damned difficult to stand in place. He was more out of practice than he'd thought.
Although… the AFFS had never made him stand at attention clad in nothing but a thin medical frock. Not that he could recall. Yet there was something about the medical examination, about being in a lab, that was making Hanse very uneasy.
But his recollections of his younger days were getting increasingly blurry.
It'd been far too long since he'd been a proper MechWarrior and AFFS officer. As the First Prince of the Federated Suns, he was consequently also the Supreme Marshal of the AFFS, but that wasn't a real rank. Not truly. It was a paper general's rank, a political appointment, one that he held through an accident of birth, not via his own track record.
The only consolation he had was that other members of the senior staff would be going through the same treatment, getting poked and prodded by the doctors.
True to his word, Ran Felsner had also disrobed. In Hanse's opinion, Ran was talking nonsense, claiming he was out of shape. The Field Marshal and commander of the Brigade of Guards was in excellent physical condition, far better than Hanse himself. His wife, Cordelia, was a lucky woman.
The doctors and scientists were done with Ran, but they seemed to be deliberating over Hanse's own results.
"Tell me, doctor," Hanse joked, "will I be able to play the piano after my operation?"
Doctor Shali rotated in her chair. That was to say, she spun the chair around, because it was one of those which could swivel. Being a diminutive woman, she nearly vanished in the overstuffed upholstered piece of furniture, all steel and black faux-leather.
Shali lowered her data glasses, looking over the top of the augmented reality spectacles at Hanse. "Very funny, Prince Davion."
While Doctor Shali was indeed an MD, she also held a PhD or two in related fields, and was the current Head of the College of Biology and Medicine at the New Avalon Institute of Science.
Conducting a simple medical screening was therefore well beneath the good doctor's abilities. Yet Shali was present, along with research colleagues from NAIS, instead of just the palace's in-house medical staff. Hanse had been mildly surprised to see her in the medical centre beneath Davion Palace. Surely she had classes to teach, or important studies to conduct?
Or, perhaps, Doctor Shali's presence was a sign of how seriously the AFFS and DMI were taking the new security procedures.
Next to Hanse, Ran Felsner cleared his throat.
"Yes, yes," Shali said, irritably. "We're getting to that, Field Marshal. If you had a shirt, I'd tell you to keep it on."
"Noted," Ran replied.
Shali gestured to the other NAIS representatives still in the room. "Go on."
Besides Shali, there were two young experts present, a man and a woman. The male scientist looked incredibly youthful, barely out of his teens - which meant, naturally, that he was the wunderkind prodigy that was already becoming infamous on the NAIS campus. Doctor Burke Kale was one of the first graduates to pass through a PhD programme at the NAIS, finishing his double doctorate just after his nineteenth birthday.
Hanse thought that he should have recognised the female researcher, apparently a member of Shali's team. There was something damnedly familiar about the woman named Riva, though he couldn't place it. It wasn't that she was pretty, though she was. There was something about the name and her face…
Riva consulted an E-pad. She prodded the screen of the handheld device with a stylus. "Retina scans and fingerprints match what we have on file. Blood and tissue matches both the records and the samples in cold storage."
Ran Felsner frowned, at that. It wasn't a massive shift in the Field Marshal's expression, merely a twitch. But Hanse noticed it.
Doctor Shali made a small circular movement with one hand. "Yes, yes, quite. But what of your specialty, Doctor Allard? That's what you're here for."
Riva Allard! Of course! She was Quintus Allard's daughter, that was right.
Though Hanse had taken a personal hand in appointing the first of the NAIS' staff, back in thirty-sixteen, he was no longer as closely involved in the institute's management. He still retained control of the institute's funding and expenditure, exercising the necessary oversight to prevent ivory tower academics from wasting the Federation's resources on useless avenues of research. But when it came to day to day administration of the NAIS? He had far too many matters to attend to, as First Prince.
But yes, of course. Riva Allard was one of the younger fellows, and a recipient of a grant he'd set up in Dana's name.
Had her father mentioned it, or was it something he'd come across in the institute's reports?
He knew who she was, naturally, but Hanse hadn't seen her since… since her father's…
He couldn't remember.
Riva Allard looked up from her E-pad. "Standard neural imaging shows no discrepancies, but cybernetic interface brain mapping shows several anomalies."
Ran Felsner's voice was harsh, and serious. "What anomalies?"
Riva looked at her colleague. "Doctor Kale?"
Next to Riva, Doctor Burke Kale glanced at the Field Marshal, then at Hanse. "Unusual activity in the hippocampus and amygdala, as well as the prefrontal cortex. The overall pattern broadly matches what we have on record, and the battleROMs from the First Prince's 'Mech, but there are significant deviations here, here, and here… "
As he spoke, the holoprojector on one wall of the room came to life, displaying what Hanse assumed was a representation of his brain, broken apart and colour-coded. The young scientist waved at the display, pointing to different parts of the diagram, in turn.
Hanse smiled, uneasily. "Shouldn't this be covered under doctor-patient confidentiality?"
Shali, Riva Allard, Burke Kale, and Ran Felsner all looked at Hanse.
"Not when it's a matter of state, Prince Davion," Doctor Shali stated, her expression grave.
Hanse leaned against the examination table. He wasn't a man prone to fainting spells or weakness. He'd once been a front line MechWarrior, damn it. But he suddenly found it difficult to stand.
"You're accusing me," Hanse said, "of not being me. Is that what this is?"
Burke Kale coughed into a clenched fist. "Not necessarily, your Highness. There are a handful of medical conditions which could account for these results, such as a severe bout of Kentares fever."
Doctor Shali directed a piercing stare at her subordinate. The lit lenses of her data glasses gave her countenance a ghoulish air. "Where do you suppose the First Prince might have contracted the Kentares flu virus? How do you account for his lack of any other symptoms?"
Burke Kale looked mulish. "I don't know? A tourist coughed on him? He used a spaceport bathroom? My degrees are in neuroscience and cybernetic engineering, not virology. Ask Allard."
"I do neurocybernetics too," Riva Allard said, exasperatedly. "I was on your thesis committee."
"Oh," Kale replied, blankly. "Were you?"
Ran Felsner glared at the NAIS experts. "Enlightening as this is, doctors… "
Shali spun back and forth in her swivel chair, moving from side to side - stopping her motion with her feet every time she moved too far, and pushing off in the other direction. She hummed thoughtfully.
"The brain scans aren't conclusive," Shali said. "I will need to conduct further tests."
"Professor," Kale protested. "You can't just keep the First Prince in a lab until you're satisfied your curiosity!"
"No," Ran said. "He will be in a lab until DMI and the Intelligence Ministry are satisfied, not merely Doctor Shali. I trust that you all appreciate the magnitude of this situation?"
"This is Prince Hanse," Kale insisted. "Even if there are irregularities in his scan, it means he's sick, not… "
"Field Marshal Felsner is right," Hanse said, in a quiet voice. But it was an insistent voice, pitched to carry across the small room. "He's right."
Silence fell in the examination room.
Hanse looked at the floor. He didn't want to meet anyone's eyes. He didn't want to see their faces.
"Either I am… not who I think I am," Hanse said. "Or I am ill, and there is something wrong with my head. Both of these possibilities are equally troubling, and equally damaging to the Federated Suns. No matter which is true, we must get to the bottom of this. Besides, I… "
He paused.
Slowly, Hanse lifted his right hand, turning it over in front of his face. He flexed his fingers.
"I know that something's wrong with me. Very wrong."
***
End Notes: The Davion subplot continues tomorrow. Explanations forthcoming.
Unusually for an update that mentions this many characters, they're all canon - Ekkles is indeed Hanse's aide, and canonically a traitor. Shali is the foremost specialist on biology at NAIS, Burke Kale is the scientist who developed the Direct Neural Interface system featured in Unbound, and Riva Allard is, well, Riva Allard.
Kentares fever is the canonical public-consumption explanation for why Hanse Davion was acting erratically for the period of time he was replaced by a duplicate, as per the Warrior trilogy.
Ran Felsner is supposed to be swole and extremely handsome even in middle age, as per the old House Davion book. I also like the idea that someone like Ran Felsner, from what else we know of him, wouldn't be extremely conscious of that. He did marry late in his career, as noted in the text.
I know we were supposed to be getting a first person view of "Hanse Davion"'s increasing confusion and unease, but honestly as he berated himself for not remembering this and that, all I could think was...
"Yep, that's pretty much how my memory works. Yep, that's how well I remember things. No, I don't remember how I got scars either. No, I wouldn't be able to remember more than a few flashes of someone's marriage I attended a year ago either."
Guess I must be a clone double.
(Seriously, not meant as a criticism, but it's just amusing that a level of memory causing slow panic in the clone is pretty much what I consider normal.)
I think it wasn't that he couldn't remember details, those fade with time. He lacked the context for these things, as well as emotional attachments. He doesn't remember details about things that he shouldn't forget because hey are so emotional. For example he swore on the unfinished book, but he doesn't seem to personally know why. Where is the emotional reason for it? He can't remember that, there is no emotional context either.
I know we were supposed to be getting a first person view of "Hanse Davion"'s increasing confusion and unease, but honestly as he berated himself for not remembering this and that, all I could think was...
"Yep, that's pretty much how my memory works. Yep, that's how well I remember things. No, I don't remember how I got scars either. No, I wouldn't be able to remember more than a few flashes of someone's marriage I attended a year ago either."
Guess I must be a clone double.
(Seriously, not meant as a criticism, but it's just amusing that a level of memory causing slow panic in the clone is pretty much what I consider normal.)
We are inside Hanse's head, so we know he's genuine in this, but his unexpected cooperation presents an interesting dilemma for Felsner and Sortek.
This whole thing goes a lot smoother and looks much less like a coup if Hanse publicly (or at least to senior officials) announces that he is suffering from memory lapses and confusion and is therefore voluntarily ceding power until such time as he can be medically cleared. On the other hand, if he is a doppleganger then for all they know this seeming cooperation is a lie to convince them to let him speak to someone outside the lab, and he screams "treason" and calls for rescue if given the opportunity. But if he attempts to cede power while clearly under control, we're back to it looking like a coup and maybe factions in government try to stage a 'rescue'.
Ardan Sortek wasn't sure why or how his family villa had been chosen as the meeting place for the conspiracy. And he couldn't help but think of it as a conspiracy, even though everyone in the room was a high-ranking member of the AFFS or the Federation's government.
But, for the time being, they also constituted most of the people in the Federated Suns who knew the truth about Hanse Davion. Eventually the Privy Council and High Command would need to be informed, but for the moment MIIO and DMI were operating in full lockdown mode.
Perhaps that was why they'd taken over the dining room in Sortek Hall, rather than using the Royal Palace, the Fox's Lair, or any of the other official government buildings in Avalon City. They didn't know who could be trusted. They didn't know which facilities were secure, or which might have been infiltrated by enemy agents.
Hanse's aide-de-camp, his household manager, his secretaries, and other members of the palace staff were all under arrest, as MIIO and DMI tried desperately to clean house. Cleaning figuratively, not literally… though even the housekeepers were being detained and interrogated, as well.
Count Nicholas Truston, the Intelligence Minister, poured himself another two fingers of neat whiskey. He had the entire bottle next to him, on the dining table, with no mixers or ice.
Perhaps that was the other reason, besides security, that the group was meeting in Sortek Hall. The Sortek Albion distillery was not quite as famous as the family vineyards, since Adriaan Sortek favoured growing grain for staple food rather than fermentation.
Ardan personally felt that their single malt was therefore a touch too raw, more brutal than smooth. But there were still always casks and bottles on the premises, given that the distillery was just a brisk walk away.
Nicholas Truston seemed to know that, because he'd asked for the strong stuff almost as soon as he'd stepped through the door.
Next to Count Truston, Quintus Allard swirled his wine glass around, rotating his hand at the wrist. The deputy leader of MIIO wasn't drinking as hard as the Minister, but he was drinking.
"Quint," Nicholas began, "what the devil did Doctor Shali and her team have to say?"
"Based on the initial examination being… what it was," Quintus said, "showing a match between the man we've been calling First Prince and the data we have on file… the Professor suggested that our records of Hanse's biometrics and DNA might have been altered."
Yvonne Davion scowled. "Altered?"
"Most definitely," Quintus said. "NAIS compared what we have for Hanse with Ian's blood, Marie's, and Andrew's. Even Morgan's, and yours, Yvonne. And Jack's."
At the head of the table, Yvonne Davion's frown deepened.
With the real First Prince missing, Yvonne was the closest thing they had to a ruler. As the Prince's Champion, she had the power to act on behalf of Hanse, and she was was fully authorised to make discretionary military and political decisions in the Prince's absence.
That made Yvonne Davion the de-facto leader of the Federated Suns, even if the galaxy at large did not realise it yet.
"Let me guess," Yvonne spat, "he's no Davion."
"Someone's done a very careful job of gene-editing," Quintus said. "But they started with an adult subject with only a distant relation to the Davion family, at best. Closer to the Argyle Davions than the New Avalon or Victoria lines, but… he's not a Davion, ultimately. Though you might share an ancestor some way back."
"He looks like the spitting image of Hanse," Ran Felsner pointed out. "Could be his twin. That can't simply be genetic tampering."
"It isn't," Quintus said. "There's signs of surgery, extensive surgery. Whoever altered the man tried to erase the traces, but there's still tissue damage, places where they've broken and knitted bone. From what Professor Shali says, they damn near turned him inside out and glued him back together again."
Ardan winced. He wasn't certain if he truly felt sorry for the imposter who'd taken Hanse's place. He sort of did, in a way, although some of that sentiment had to be because the man had his best friend's face, a kind of sympathy by association.
But maybe Ardan did feel sorry for the man, in his own right. The image that Quintus was painting was gruesome.
"Jesus Effing Christ," Nicholas Truston swore.
"No," Yvonne Davion said. "Maximilian Liao. Though he might as well be the antichrist and the devil himself. Liao's gone too far."
Field Marshal Yvonne Davion had once been an active MechWarrior, but Ardan knew her health had never been that good. While she'd persisted in building an impressive combat record for herself, at this point in her career, Yvonne Davion had spent more time in staff positions than combat roles.
However, Ardan had no doubt that if Yvonne Davion could confront Chancellor Max Liao in person, Yvonne would figure out a way to murder the Chancellor with her own two hands. Despite her own age and questionable health, Ardan would put money on Yvonne Davion strangling the life out of him. No need for a BattleMech.
"We're assuming that Max Liao is responsible. But that's an assumption," Ran Felsner pointed out. "We're basing it on those intelligence reports from the Free Worlds League. They have a vested interest in pointing us at the Capellans."
Yvonne was the only person in the dining room who wasn't drinking. Even Ran Felsner and Ardan had beers, given their collective desire for something stronger than water. But Yvonne Davion didn't have a glass of anything in front of her.
That meant she was stone cold sober, and the stare she gave Ran Felsner was cold enough to instantly freeze ice.
Theoretically, both Yvonne and Ran were of equal military rank. Their AFFS uniforms had the same Field Marshal insignia. Of course, Yvonne was the Prince's Champion and Ran Felsner was a 'mere' brigade commander, but they were both Field Marshals.
That didn't stop Yvonne Davion from looking at Ran Felsner, much in the same way that a seasoned NCO looked at a raw recruit who'd just said something incredibly stupid.
"You're not suggesting," she said, "that Janos Marik replaced Hanse with an imposter, in order to blame it on Max Liao. Are you?"
"Of course not," Ran Felsner defended himself.
"If it's the Mariks," Nicholas Truston said, raising his whiskey glass, "I'd pin it on Martin Marik, meself. Janos' boy is even more twisty than his da, and we know the old man is stepping back from day-to-day affairs."
Yvonne gave Nicholas an equally scathing look.
"What I mean is," Ran Felsner carried on, "if it's a foreign actor, it could be the Draconis Combine, the Taurian Concordat. Though I would say, for this to even work, there must be someone within our borders collaborating with them. Someone very highly placed."
"Michael Hasek," Yvonne said, immediately. "He tried to assassinate Hanse back in thirty-twelve, long before Hanse took the throne. He's responsible for anti-Davion sentiment in the Capellan March, he's tried to subvert the government… "
"We've never been able to prove that," Nicholas Truston noted. "Never did link the sniper back to New Syrtis, and we've not found one single bloody shred of evidence connecting Mike Hasek to the rabble-rousers, or all that rampant misuse of government funds."
Yvonne gave Nicholas a dirty look. "Don't give me that, Nick. Who else could it be? Hasek was MIIO himself, and he had effective control of three ministries of the Federal government until Prince Hanse forced him out. Your predecessor was Hasek's man, in case you've forgotten."
"Oh, I remember. I still haven't been able to get the stench of poo out of me office," Nicholas drawled. "I even ripped up the carpets."
"That was mostly for listening devices," Quintus said. "The real housekeeping was digging out all of Hasek's people, and I doubt we've got them all."
Ardan glanced at Yvonne. She hadn't mentioned it, but Ardan was also quite aware that Yvonne Davion had personally run afoul of Michael Hasek's machinations. Some twenty-six years ago, Michael Hasek had effectively forced her out of High Command by removing her from the post of Commander of the Capellan March - a seat that Hasek now held personally, himself. Prince Ian hadn't done anything to block or overturn the move, and Yvonne had almost resigned from the AFFS in protest.
It was Hanse who'd convinced Yvonne to stay on, and Hanse who'd used his influence to secure her a position at the Department of Military Intelligence.
"Right. The only conclusion is," Ran Felsner continued, "there must be an extensive conspiracy on our side of the border. Firstly, someone had to penetrate our security thoroughly enough to snatch Hanse and replace him with this imposter, without alerting any of us. Secondly, for this man to convincingly play at being Hanse… mannerisms, body language, and the like can be easily gleaned from tri-vid footage and public appearances, yes. But this goes further. Dan, didn't you say he was familiar with stories from your childhood?"
Ardan nodded, reluctantly. "Yes. That, and a number of things. Personal things. If it weren't for the evidence, I'd have sworn he was Hanse. I did think he was Hanse, for too long."
"So," Ran Felsner said, "this man knows things that only Hanse Davion... or a very select circle of individuals... should know. I don't believe Hanse has engineered his own disappearance, and I don't believe Ardan or the Sorteks have anything to do with this. Or you, Yvonne. So where does that leave us?"
"Michael Hasek," Yvonne stated, flatly. "And Marie, if she's been foolish enough to side with her snake of a husband over her own damn brother. She's always been weak-willed and stupid, but if she's now figuratively rather than literally in bed with Michael?"
Ardan stiffened. He'd believe that of Michael, but he didn't want to imagine that Marie Davion would turn on her own flesh and blood. Michael Hasek was one thing, but if an actual member of House Davion was involved in this madness…
"Marie is quite intelligent," Quintus Allard disagreed, softly, but insistently. "She's spent years cultivating a soft and meek public image, including sabotaging her own military training. But many of our analysts are convinced that she's behind some of Michael Hasek's plots, not Michael himself."
"I'm not referring to her book smarts," Yvonne Davion said. "Intelligent people can do incredibly stupid things. Such as marrying Hasek and supporting his insanity. Supporting Maximilian Liao, too."
"Hasek and the Capellans," Nicholas Truston mused. "Match made in hell."
"Marie and Hanse aren't that close," Ardan objected, half-heartedly.
"No," Quintus Allard stated, rubbing his chin. "Prince Andrew and the rest of House Davion always did keep her at a certain remove, given her inconvenient birth status. But she does know Hanse. But testimony from her would give anyone training or programming an impostor a place to start. A baseline from where to go looking. If the Capellans… "
"We're assuming the Capellans are involved, because the Free Worlds League told us so," Ran Felsner said. "It may well be, but since when did we take direction from League intelligence?"
"Based on what Quint told me," Ardan spoke up, "the Free Worlds League warned us about this in the first place. They told us someone might have gotten Hanse, or were plotting to do so. They knew about this before any of us did, damn it!"
"Caught us with our pants down," Nicholas grumbled. "Pants off and over our heads. I'm not too proud to admit that SAFE and the Mariks were a step ahead. Hellfire, I don't know if our own intelligence services can even be trusted. Bloody well look like right fools, don't we?"
"How long," Ardan said, tightly, "has Hanse been gone? How long have we not noticed, how did we not notice?"
"Since last year, we think," Quintus admitted. "I believe the swap was made on Argyle, while he was at the Summer Palace."
The statement didn't help Ardan's mood. He had accompanied Hanse to Argyle, as was their habit. If what Quintus said was true, it meant that he'd personally failed Hanse, by not realising the difference, and not sounding the alarm.
"They've gotten to our Argyle personnel as well, then," Ran Felsner said. "We'll have to investigate the entire palace, and everyone holding an official position in Stirling."
"And the Argyle Davions themselves," Nicholas Truston muttered. "Might be that Marie isn't the only Davion to suck on Hasek's bits, what?"
"The Duke of Argyle is loyal," Ardan protested. "Besides, you can't be saying the Stirling branch are traitors."
"Nick has a point," Yvonne interjected. "Some of the family have always had a bit of a chip on their shoulder, versus the reigning Davions. It needs to be looked into."
Ardan scowled. "Are you going to accuse Nelitha or Joan Davion next? Stephen Davion, maybe? This is ridiculous, we can't just… "
Nicholas Truston looked thoughtful. "That's a good point. Rather, we can safely assume Nel and Joan are trustworthy. Hanse is the one who moved Nelly from the AFFS to civilian politics, she wouldn't be a Minister without him. And he bleeding well had to beg Joan to stay on at the Chancellery after Ian died. But Stephen, yes… Quintus, make a note. Check into Stephen Davion. He's always been close to Marie Davion, damn close, even before she shacked up with Hasek. She's been Stephen's patron for decades. Someone needs to properly vet him."
Ardan looked at Ran, with some alarm. "Ran… Field Marshal, sir, this is insane."
Marshal Stephen Davion was the commanding officer of the First Davion Guards RCT, which worked closely with Ran and Ardan's own Heavy Guards. That meant Stephen was the second highest-ranking military commander in the entire New Avalon Combat Region, next to Ran Felsner himself.
Stephen was technically a Davion, but the Ducrimmon-Davions had been thought to be a long-extinct line… before Marie had discovered Stephen and his parents living in anonymous poverty. Stephen had been confirmed at court based on Marie's authority, and she'd paid his way through the academy.
Ardan knew that Ran Felsner and Stephen deeply disliked each other, with the disdain being particularly strong on Stephen's side. That had put Ardan himself in difficult positions, in the past, given that both men were direct superiors. But he had thought that Ran's strained relationship with Stephen was personal, or at the very least a professional difference between Ran's strategic mind and Stephen's preference for brutal combat… not a matter of court politics.
Ran Felsner looked back at Ardan, grimly. "Nicholas is right. With luck, we can clear Stephen from any suspicion. But his connection to Marie, and therefore Michael Hasek, we can't ignore that."
Ardan clenched a fist, under the table, feeling somewhat betrayed.
He supposed he couldn't blame Ran, precisely. The Field Marshal had run afoul of Michael Hasek before, having previously served in the Capellan March. Ardan knew that Duke Hasek had taken credit for Ran Felsner's military victories, before. And Ran had allowed him to do that, fearing reprisals. It was Hanse's patronage that had gotten Ran out from under Michael Hasek's thumb.
In that sense, it was logical for Ran to be wary about the Duke of New Syrtis, much in the same way that Yvonne, Nicholas Truston, and even Quintus all deeply distrusted the man. But Ardan wasn't comfortable with the fact this was turning into some sort of witch hunt.
He took it as an article of faith that the Federated Suns, all of it, was loyal to House Davion and the office of the First Prince.
And yet…
The Suns had seen plots against the First Prince in the past.
Hanse's own grandfather, Prince Peter, had been assassinated. The history books and all the media reports claimed that the incident was the act of a handful of dissident AFFS officers with personal grudges against the Prince. Ardan had always assumed the story to be true. Now, though, he was starting to see conspiracies at every turn.
How many First Princes of the Federated Suns had fallen to assassins? The unpopular Etien Davion had committed suicide, but only after countless attempts on his life. Simon Davion had killed Etien's equally unpopular son, Prince Edward, before taking the Princehood for himself.
Then there was William Davion. He was supposed to have died from illness, but every schoolchild on New Avalon knew that the timing was suspicious. Prince William's death ended up triggering nine years of civil war. Hell, the traditional opposition of New Syrtis to New Avalon that Michael Hasek liked to play up, it stemmed from that time.
Joseph Davion hadn't been murdered, but he had died on the field during the War of Davion Succession. John Davion had been assassinated, but that was during the First Succession War and almost certainly the work of the Dracs or Capellans. Then there was Carl Davion, who did die on the battlefield... but his reign was so disastrous that entire planets in the Federated Suns had severed ties with New Avalon and threatened secession. If the Kuritans hadn't eventually gotten him, perhaps someone on New Avalon might have. Hell, perhaps his own staff had arranged for him to commit suicide-by-Drac.
The Marik civil war proved that such a thing could still happen, even in the thirty-first century. Ardan had always believed that the Federated Suns was better than the Free Worlds League, above such backstabbing and internal dissent. But if Ardan looked at history objectively, and if he considered the sharpened knives that had been pointed at Hanse's back since even before the start of his friend's reign?
And ultimately, someone had succeeded in getting to Hanse.
Ardan clenched his fist even harder, his skin whitening in places, going red in others.
He was angry, yet he wasn't sure where to direct his anger.
Yvonne rapped her own fist against the dining table. "We'll come back to the matter of Argyle and security checks for other members of the family. Ardan, if it makes you feel better, at this point I'd suspect my own firstborn son, if he wasn't off serving on Sirdar. Now, have we asked the Mariks for more information? Seeing as they alerted us?"
Quintus Allard put his wine glass down, and sighed. "Yes. The difficulty is, the League embassy and our Ministry-level contacts have been infuriatingly vague about precisely where their knowledge came from. An allied group, was all they would say."
"If it turns out that the Marians or Aurigans figured out that we'd misplaced the First Prince, before we did," Nicholas mumbled, "I'm going to bloody shit meself."
"Capellan dissidents," Yvonne suggested. "Opposition members of their House of Scions. Planetary authorities. A rogue faction of their intelligence service. Any number of movements within the Confederation that might have links to the League. Fine. Keep pushing them for an answer, but for now it doesn't matter. Our first priority… "
"Is finding Hanse," Ardan finished.
Ardan realised, belatedly, that he'd interrupted Yvonne Davion. As every single AFFS officer knew, one did not simply talk over Yvonne. It wasn't done.
But the Prince's Champion did not appear to be offended. To the contrary, she nodded in agreement.
"That brings us back to the starting point," Ran Felsner said. "We need to know where to start. Even if we accept that the Capellans are involved… "
"It has to be a Successor State," Quintus Allard noted. "While we might suspect Michael Hasek, Marie Davion, and perhaps the Argyle Davions, none of them have the resources to physically duplicate Hanse to this degree. To produce the impostor we have in custody? We're looking at another major power. The Capellans must logically top that list."
"The Canopians have the medical know-how," Ran said.
Nicholas Truston snorted. "Please. The Canopians would send an agent to seduce Hanse, not replace him."
"Gentlemen," Yvonne said firmly, "let's stay on target. Based on what we know for now, we must assume it's the Capellan Confederation. Unless any of you have a more compelling case to make than this groundless speculation?"
Nicholas Truston looked at Quintus, over the rim of his whiskey glass. "What does that look-alike have to say? The bugger's singing to your lads, isn't he?"
"He's being remarkably cooperative," Quintus said. "I genuinely believe that he's just as shocked as we are. He thought he was Hanse Davion, it wasn't an act. That's the problem. He has no conscious memory of being an agent for anyone, or receiving any instructions. It's likely he was conditioned to ignore or block out any inconsistencies, in favour of simply… believing himself to be Hanse."
"Surely he must have orders," Ardan insisted. "To carry out some agenda. Otherwise, what would be the point?"
"It's more subtle than that," Quintus explained. "Our best guess is, they programmed him with particular opinions and unconscious biases. To subvert policymaking at the highest level of our government. So he'd make decisions in a certain way, but without knowing he was an agent."
"They stuffed his head with a punch card script, then wound him up and let him go," Nicholas Truston summed up. "Poor bastard."
"I'm more concerned with the real Hanse's health than that of some impostor," Yvonne said. "Unless we can find evidence to the contrary, I am going to proceed on the basis that treasonous elements within our own nation, working in conjunction with the Capellan Confederation, are responsible for abducting Hanse and replacing him with this… thing."
"Hanse might be dead," Ran Felsner suggested.
Everyone stared at him.
"It's possible," Ran said, defensively. "I don't like the idea, but we have to consider it."
"I am proceeding on the basis that Hanse has been abducted," Yvonne Davion repeated, emphasising the key word.
"So what do we do," Nicholas Truston asked, "send Max Liao a strongly-worded letter? Please, sir, can you return our Prince? We'd like him back, if you're done with him, thank you very much."
"First," Yvonne said, "we need to look closely at our own backyard. Here on New Avalon, but also on New Syrtis and Argyle. I want no stone unturned, gentlemen. Find out who within our borders is responsible for this travesty. Second, we need to mobilise our intelligence assets in Capellan space. Let me be perfectly clear, Nick. The Intelligence Ministry and the Department have dropped the ball. You'd best be ready to pick it up and run."
Nicholas Truston grunted.
"Third," Yvonne continued, turning to Ran Felsner and Ardan, "we need to mobilise our troops."
Ran Felsner frowned. "You mean… "
"I mean," Yvonne Davion said, "I'm invading the Capellan Confederation. Any objections, gentlemen?"
Separate post, since I didn't want to put this in the threadmarked post body. This marks the end of my Arc 8. And the end of all the banked material I have to throw out for daily posts. So we're on brief hiatus, no more daily updates, until whenever Arc 9 is half-written.
I'll probably post the 3026 Tigers TO&E/order of battle sometime by the weekend (or around there, depending on how busy I am). So there's still that coming up as an informational threadmark, and perhaps the 'official final' Sarissa, Hector, and Dalian-built Zeus stats need to go up as well, along with the Caracal.
"What a tweest!"
