personal6

9

January 30, 3000

Capellan Confederation

Sian Commonality

Yuris

Outskirts of Sogal

The Viridian Egg landed on the planet of Yuris without permission, ignoring all comms from the Capellan military command in the city of Kikril, and the traffic control systems from the main spaceport. The Morten Protectorate dropship wasn't heading there, though, and it wasn't running any IFF to let them know who it was, so from the Capellan point of view it was an unknown jumpship coming into the system and landing an unknown dropship on their surface.

In other words, it was probably smugglers or an armed invasion by mercenaries or raiders.

The defending mechs on the planet were nowhere near the city of Sogal though, so the Overlord-class dropship was able to beat them there and land outside the city even as another dropship from Kikril was taking off to hot drop mechs near their location…but it wasn't going to get there in time, for as soon as the Viridian Egg landed it took off again, just pausing long enough to lower its ramp and allow a single individual to step off and walk far enough away not to get caught in the engine wash.

Taran Lee watched from the nearby forest, dressed in regal robes mimicking well the tailoring of high end Capellan noble fashion, as the Morten dropship lifted off, having actually done as they'd promised and returned him to a Confederation world.

Part of him couldn't believe it, and another part of him knew his journey was not yet over. He had to get back to the capitol world of Sian without Comstar becoming aware of it, otherwise he'd probably end up dead on the way there.

Taran walked away from the clearing through the woods, not minding the mud on his boots as it was Capellan mud and a free man's problem to deal with. He walked for several hours through the night, having no trouble navigating due to the pair of well-lit moons in the sky, until he came to the main road that ran between Sogal and the capital of this border world. The fact that House Morten could run him to ground and get away with it displayed how poorly defended it was, but if the Davions wanted to take it he hoped the garrison would at least put up a good fight. He was tired of losing worlds to them, and knew Maximilian felt the same way.

He started walking towards the capital along the edge of the road, but it wasn't long before a patrol car stopped him. After a harsh exchange of words…primarily from him to the disbelieving officer who finally accepted that he was a noble who outranked him…he was given a ride into the capital and straight to Duke Harken's palace, with orders to deliver him there through a back entrance and to do so before the sun rose.

It took considerably more talking at the gates than should have been necessary, but as he later found out the Capellans believed he had died some two years ago, with a massive state funeral broadcast to all the worlds. He was touched at the effort, but knew it to be a rallying point against the Davions who had been laid the blame for his death.

Normally he would have accepted that without issue, but it seemed that either an assumption was made or that Comstar wanted them to think it was the Davions to cover their own abductions…for now he was sure there had been others, or perhaps assassinations, to push their varying agendas. He had an idea what one of those might be, but sensed that he was just a part of a massive plot to control politics in the Inner Sphere. One that Comstar had done well to hide up until now.

Which was another reason that he would not make it back to Sian alive if they discovered him here.

Once he was allowed inside and the Duke was rudely woken up, Taran made him see who he was and underscored the importance of secrecy…with the threat of reprisals if he didn't keep a lid on this. Transport was arranged on a regular jumpship route that would eventually get him back to Sian within a few months, and he'd travel as a commoner so not to draw attention. Papers were made up to give him the cover story, as well as appropriate clothing and personal items to match, including a Sto'shani that was posing as his wife.

The Sto'shani were highly coveted across the Confederation, for they were trained from birth to be skilled in many areas beyond mere consorts. Philosophy, science, combat, computer hacking…you name it and they probably had some skill training for it. All of them were girls, and beauties at that, which were purchased for enormous amounts of money to the Houses that sponsored and raised them.

Duke Harken had two as his mistresses in addition to his own wife, and he'd gladly donated one of them to serve as cover, and as a bodyguard, for Taran on his trip to Sian. She'd also make for some pleasant diversion on the way there, for in addition to their practical skills, they were also well schooled in the sexual arts.

Within three weeks he was onboard a dropship again with Mui Ni on his arm at all times, close enough that he could occasionally feel the knife blade she had stashed within her left sleeve as they made only minimal conversation with the other passengers. He let her do most of the talking, and she was quite skilled at it, leaving him the gruff silent type, which was a role he could perform without much effort, for he had no wish to converse with the commoners onboard the ship…

Coden had but one true city, and it was not where Stephan had chosen to build Harris's estate. Instead, he'd given him a huge tract of land carved out of three different neighboring plantations' fields and had built a magnificent series of buildings upon it, including a single dropship pad that he and his House were delivered to upon arrival at the planet that would become their new Earldom, in an economic sense at least.

Viceroy Uni, one of Stephan's very far flung cousins in their family tree, had control of the mech garrison here and was entrusted with securing the planet as if it was her duchy, but she would only be here for a maximum of 10 years before another Morten would cycle in and replace her. House Thorsen, on the other hand, would be here permanently, and he knew they were the ones responsible for laying the foundation of a growing and vibrant planet similar to the way House Morten had reinvigorated Neubenn when they'd taken control of it.

Harris had had a lot of long conversions with Stephan concerning that lately, with his new family members sitting in and taking a lot of notes. He had tried to learn everything he could from the Mortens to get as big of a head start as possible, but now it was up to his House to develop on their own from here.

The dropship, a Union-class, was also now the possession of House Thorsen, and it had been renamed Hammer at Stephan's order. From now on out though, anything his House bought would have to be given appropriate names by him…which he was horrible at, so he'd deferred that duty to Cora as the chief 'namer' in the House, and her first task was to name the estate.

She'd asked him to give her a few days to look around first before deciding on something.

They walked up to the front doors as a group, met by a pair of security guards placed there by the Mortens to look after the brand new estate until they arrived. When they opened the front doors off the expansive patio that was located between the main house and the drop pad, the smell of fresh paint was easy to detect. He'd been assured the place would be finished by the time they arrived, and it looked like the construction crew had barely met that timeline.

"Impressive," he commented, staring up at the high ceilings and wide hallways that split in three directions from the garage-sized foyer they were now standing in.

"This is more extravagant than the Morten's palace," Mena said, walking beside him and looking around in awe.

"They didn't build that one, they just bought it," Harris reminded her. "And then they had to build a lot of housing quickly to hold the rest of their family. I think this is more their preferred style of architecture, and if I know Stephan well enough, the outer walls will be at least a meter thick of ferrocrete."

"We need to find the security office," Martha said, business as usual. This wasn't a pleasure trip for any of them, for they were well used to keeping matters of state for Harris and letting him deal with the major issues at his leisure.

"Third door on the left, Ma'am," one of the security guards said.

"Thank you," the diminutive woman replied, flicking a lock of loose brown hair out of her glasses. The humidity outside had already messed with her hairspray's effectiveness. "Earl, feel free to explore. We'll get things set up properly."

"Thank you, Martha. This is all your home as well from now on. Choose the bedrooms you like and move right on in," he said, taking Mena's hand and walking forward while his posse spread out in every which direction in the huge place. He and his wife walked silently, taking in the splendor as Harris was mentally mapping out the place as if he planned to assault it later, until they came to a plaza with a glass roof on it and a greenhouse full of trees…most of which were small and in pots, but there were several full grown varieties that Stephan must have had transplanted here from elsewhere on the planet.

"My god, Harris."

"I know. Better than we deserve," he said as they took a break from the long walk out from the drop pad…given that their House didn't own any land vehicles yet…and sat down on a bench underneath one of the adult trees and the shade it provided. "We have a large responsibility here, and only a few years to make good on it. The rest of them will have to carry on after us and repay the Mortens for all this. It's our job to make sure House Thorsen gets established properly."

"Our big kids you mean."

"Yes, something like that."

"And I thought the palace on Cholis was the moment when we had arrived in the noble world."

"Apparently there are nobles, and then there are nobles…and then there are the Mortens."

"Does this make it all worth it?" she asked, looking into his old, tired eyes that were seeing more light in them than they had previously.

"Do you even need to ask?"

"Duty, Harris. It consumes you."

"Yes, dear. But my duty to the Federated Suns was completed honorably, despite the circumstances. I consider it a closed matter. My duty is now to House Morten and helping them build this infantile Morten Protectorate. This isn't a safe and stable world. It's primitive and was ruled by repressive thugs. It's our job to help civilize it, and I take that duty as importantly as any military command I was blessed to have."

"So then…after unpacking, where do you start?"

"We have to make purchases for our own House, and those items will be repaid out of our earnings later. Then we have to figure out where we can best get a foothold in the economy immediately, and start constructing corporations."

"And you know how to do that?"

"Not really. But we have a team now to figure it out, and a few Mortens on planet to ask for advice whenever we need it."

"But not Stephan," she pointed out.

"No, not Stephan. I will miss his company, and you will miss Elena's," he said, referencing the First Lord's mother.

"Duty," she repeated. "It takes us away from friends and family, but now we have a new duty that is all about family. I appreciate the irony in that. And it was no accident either. Stephan made it that way on purpose."

"Off the top of his head at that. The kid is a genius, Mena, and the rest of his family is damn impressive. Andrew Davion must have been the biggest fool ever to remove them from their Duchy."

"Water under the bridge now, and I think they're better off for it, even if Neubenn isn't."

"True," he said as she stood up and dragged him by the hand to his feet. "Rested enough?"

"We have more of our new house to see, and I'll be camping out in here plenty of time later. We'll need to add a few tables, though."

"Start making a list. There's not a lot of stuff we can buy here other than from the Morten store. We'll have to order from off world or make anything else ourselves."

"Coffee, Harris," she insisted as they started walking. "We must start growing coffee. Civilization can't survive properly without it, and Stephan gave us plenty of land to work with."

"Coffee growing and refining might be a good business, but not the first. The locals aren't exactly in a position to buy much of it. They need basic resources and services now, but we'll add coffee production later."

"What about exporting it?" she pressed.

"The people here need products, my dear. Exports are not the duty we've been given."

"But in order to bring currency into the planet, you need exports. Can't you do that with coffee?"

"Luxuries later, my dear. And if the Mortens want coffee grown on this planet, they have plenty of fields of their own to do it. If we want to add a special variety later, we can do it ourselves. Right now we need to establish services like ferrocrete construction, plumbing, electrical, landline communications, road paving…stuff you've probably taken for granted on Cholis."

"Is it really that bad here?"

"Inside these walls, no. Beyond them, I'm afraid so. We're a bright spot of civilization amongst the dark jungle of the Periphery, and we have to start trimming back that jungle. You work on making our new family feel at home and leave the outside stuff to me."

"I still want a coffee company," she said as they walked out the far door of the greenhouse into even more splendor that was a massive pool room with three different areas connected by small waterways and waterfalls.

"If you can find some capable gardeners to hire, we'll start growing enough for our House to use immediately," he offered.

"Deal," she said, feeling the cool yet humid air of the water in here soak into her nose and lungs. "I feel 10 years younger already."

"I know what you mean," he said as they skirted the exterior of the largest pool enroute to the next section of the palace to see what else Stephan had built for House Thorsen.

And from the looks of it, he expected their House to grow by leaps and bounds, not just in population, but in responsibility…for this was no play house. This was the command center for a noble family with responsibilities that matched the elegance. They were to become the economic protectors for this planet, and they already had over 300 million people in need of true civilization being brought to them.

That's what he saw here. A reminder of his grandiose duty. A duty that could only be accomplished by a grandiose House that was still in its infancy. And his new heirs were going to need all the instruction and experience he could pass onto them. He'd been using the downtime during their jumpship travel here, some 5 jumps out from Cholis, to work on legacy recordings for not just the current members of his House but their future offspring. It was a start, and a solid one at that, but he had to train these people into an effective unit while Mena made that unit feel comfortable and loved at the same time.

A House was different than a military command. It was hereditary and civilian, but he had already seen how the Mortens handled it, and their example would not be lost on him.

He had so much to do, and now that he was finally here, it was time to start laying down roots and establishing a proper beachhead into this campaign. He had a planet to economically conquer, and he was going to need a much larger army to do it than he currently had.

First order of business, take care of his current troops. Second…start recruiting.