Chapter 32
S.A.R
Coromodir
24th June, 3025
Coromodir Palace Grounds.
The S.A.R operations were underway as I watched from one of the vast earthmover leviathans, those Knights with power fists had their energised fields disabled as they moved in and helped stabilise or move heavy debris from the ruined palace. Sentinels moved in support of locally built cranes as troopers in sealed void suits sorted through the wreckage. Kamea and her cabinet had been moved to the Leviathan and even now she watched, frazzled, as they struggled to clear the site.
"Kane, th..." she stuttered, by all rights she should have still been in her medicae bed, "these traitors." I held up a hand to forestall her and she stopped embarrassed by the stutter.
"Kamea, you should be in bed, the neurological effects of losing your Knight can be severe," Putting a comforting hand on her shoulder I examined the neural plugs, "Besides, these were no traitors, they certainly weren't locals." Miranda came over and watched, neither of our Knights were suited for this work.
Alexander Madeira sat down quietly examining the intelligence packages we'd handed him, the discovery of a jumpship leaving the system shortly after arriving in Coromodir space had not gone unnoticed despite their best efforts. "Kamea, darling," Alexander said tired, "We've been duped. We were never the target, the Knight and Helena were."
"Wh,who would do this!" Kamea said almost sobbing from the emotional disconnect.
"Lady Arano. Pull yourself together." I snapped taking on the tone of a field marshal, the shock of it snapped at her heels and she had the good grace to look chastised. "Who would do this? Everyone that i'm not trading and negotiating with. Calderon and Liao to name the big two. But most importantly, the dogs who are jealously guarding technology. ComStar did this."
Kamea went quiet as she processed that, "I'll have their heads for..."
"No Kamea. You pick an open provocation with ComStar then it'll turn into an ugly conflict. You were the vulnerable point of my technology grid, the robes can't act against Steiner or Davion, the influence and power presented there is too great. They couldn't strike directly at me, my ships would gut anything they hurled at me from outside of their engagement range. You meanwhile were vulnerable, despite getting the benefits of a Castle Brian you are still a rimward nation."
Kamea sat down as the medicae finally arrived. "Lady Kamea.... you're in no state." Mechadendrites firmly sat her down as medicae probes began checking her implants in more detail.
"I know Kane... I know, but this can't go unavenged. Thi..."
"We have a plan, but this might work in our favour in the end." I took a seat as the vox traffic multiplied, one of the Knights warhorns blaring in triumph as it lifted part of the ruined mechbays structure. "The Lathe Nation, I think this is how we can build it. We can take the pirate strongholds at leisure, but the more civilized planets need a bit of a softer touch. So lets bring them into the fold, one after another, expose the threat of ComStar and use it to bring them under our protection."
"How is this going to avenge what they did here!" Kamea asked angrily.
"Because I'm going to unleash a campaign of pure terror on ComStar. A war in the shadows conducted to a fine edge. Then when the time comes, we shatter their stranglehold on communication completely."
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Samuel
The rubble was vitrified, the nuclear blast making its mark on the landscape to be seen for a long time without intervention. And yet, Kane had put him and the others into the field, and the work was sobering. Shadowy impressions on stone from those too close and without cover, the quiet ticking of the rad counter in his mind as the Knight fed him environmental data. The bomb was remarkably clean, but there was still dangerously high radiation so soon after the blast.
The rubble was being cleared as quickly as it was safe to do so around the site, with Glitch he worked at the mech-bay, and the destruction was horrifying, now they were past the worst of the raw rubble and vitrified glass, they were now finding mangled bodies and shattered mechs. Some of the locals moved around in crude hazmat equipment as he lifted over-large pieces of rubble for them to fish the hamburger meat from the hollows. "This is Samuel, i'm getting a noospheric alert ping."
The communications chatter stopped as Kane shut out all the distracting noise. "Samuel, you got a ping?"
Rubble was lifted as Samuel concentrated on the work, revealing a mangled Knight. Scorched and more than a little ruined. He moved in and began rapidly clearing more of the rubble. "Kamea's Knight is here, it's... wreckage, the... i'm getting alarum transponders..."
The activity sped up as Glitch marched over and added her might to the excavation. Vitrified bunker debris was removed at a rapid pace as the excitement peaked, the sight of a Knights carapace revealed as they moved greater chunks.
Excitement tempered as the rushed digging revealed that the Knight was almost beyond salvage, its cogitator core and machine spirit had been gutted, the main chassis was a blasted ruin and the only reasonably intact part of the war machine was the main carapace.
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The knight was brought into the earthmover leviathan's workshop the wreckage was being doused to bring down the radiation levels, but a casual glance showed that there was nothing to salvage. The main carapace and several noospheric nodes being the only elements that hadn't been crippled in the nuclear explosion or battle that preceeded it. I watched as several Sacristans in void suits examined it before Trotter turned up to the balcony I stood on and shook his head.
Kamea was on an Aquila being transported up to the Forge-World as we continued with the SAR operations. Miranda stood at my shoulder. "What are we going to do?"
"Get her the medical aid she needs, and break ComStar. The Aurigan Restoration isn't safe so I think it's time we discouraged further activities against our allies." I frowned as I stared at the wrecked Knight.
"How?" Miranda asked, worried.
"The Grand Unification of the Outer Rim to build allies on the face of things. But on the shadows... well you'll see