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106

Between mid 3060 and late 3062, the conflicts on the various fronts were little more than light raids / reconnaissances "en force".

One of the reasons was that all participants were busy repairing / refitting WarShips, in order to give them better defenses against attacks from ASFs loaded with Alamos.

On the Draconis Combine front, by late 3060, the Taurian Concordat had rotated its forces. Three new brigades of Taurian Guards had replaced those hitherto on the Clan front, and among the replaced WarShips had been dispatched the TCS Amanda Calderon a modified Soyal class Heavy Cruiser (see chapters 40 and 51), which had meanwhile been converted to a Heavy/Fleet Carrier, after extensive trials had resulted in the decision to remove the Medium Mass Driver and take advantage of the space to increase the ASF force to 72 units, with abundant fuel, spares and ammo.

The 11th Taurian Guards Brigade faced the Hell's Horses in Nykvarn in March 3061, in the biggest battle of these period, defeating the 12th Mechanized Cavalry Cluster, part of the Alpha Galaxy, and capturing the heavily damaged CHH Gold Knight (a Lola III class Destroyer). The Taurians superior number of ASFs, the presence of the TCS Amanda Calderon, as well as the large number of Battle Armors - more than twice as many as the Clanners had locally - contributed to this victory, even though several new BA models - including some up to 1,500kg (Rhino and Gnome) - deployed by the Hell's Horses were an unpleasant surprise.

The fact that for the first time, a Clan used AAMs, and in great numbers, was a warning of what the future would be. On the positive side, the Taurians captured models of the new BAs and the AAMs used by the Hell's Horses, which they immediately sent to the Concordat for analysis.

The TMI finalized the re-deployment of the HPG satellite network that connected the Concordat to the Combine in March of 3061. All satellites were moved to other uninhabited systems and at same time, replaced by more modern models, with improved stealth, anti-tampering protections, and longer duration fission reactors. As the Concordat suspected, some had been tampered by the Federated Commonwealth, to let them listen to the traffic between the Concordat and the Combine.

In the Coromodir system, although it was not possible, for the moment, to build a shipyard, a large dockyard was taking shape around Coromodir V, equipped with a dozen slips and able to service the Concordat largest civilian and military ships. A smaller one is in construction in the Detroit system, planned to be operational by 3065.

In 3061, both Jaime Wolf and Natasha Kerensky retired from active service, due to their advanced age . Jaime was replaced in overall command by Mackenzie Wolf and Natasha by Maeve Wolf, who promptly changed the name of the unit to Wolf Spider Battalion.

The Wolf's Dragoons had the same problem as other nations that had ex-SLDF warships - they had to upgrade them with defenses against ASFs. However, Outreach was lacking a shipyard, and the Federated Commonwealth had theirs occupied for a very long time, meaning they had to turn to my family.

This explains why in late 3061, the WDWS Alexander(Aegis class) docked onto the shipyard at Mechdur, for a refit. The other Wolf's Dragoons WarShips were to be modified one at a time, so as not to overload the shipyard, which already had a long list of orders. The quid pro quo for such a service remained secret for some time.

On September 12, 3062, Takashi Kurita passed away, being officially reported to have died in his sleep.

On October 22, 3061, Dalma Humphreys, the Duchess of Andurien escaped an assassination tentative. The assassins were stopped at the last minute by MIM agents that had been ordered by the Magestrix to protect the Duchess.

The assassins, later identified as Death Commandos with cyborg-like enhancements, were defeated by the PA(L)s of the MIM agents. Unfortunately (for the Magistracy), they couldn't hide their presence in the Duchy of Andurien any longer.

Having their two last WarShips finally repaired and refitted, the Marik forces used them, with a massive escort of ASFs, Assault DropShips and Pocket WarShips to renew the war with Oriente.