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While handling orders management for both the Draconis Combine - which had just placed an order for 50 Jenner JR9-TC3 (DHS, EndoSteel, Ferro-Fibrous, 4 ML, 1x SRM4 Streak and CASE), and the Federated Commonwealth, amidst the various requests from mercenary forces came one from an old acquaintance.

Grayson Carlyle, the leader of the Grey Death Legion, had an irresistible proposal.

The GDL had suffered badly in several hard fights against the Jade Falcons, and needed urgently some advanced equipment to rebuild its forces. Knowing that it could not match the volume of orders (and their priority) from the major nations and bigger mercenary groups, and as such, being right at the middle or end of the list to receive upgrades / replacements, it proposed that in exchange for some of its stock of Clan hardware, obtained at great cost on the battlefield and which was to all intents and purposes impossible for it to maintain, he could get a line of credit for our most advanced equipment with top priority to delivery.

Even though we all had received the Wolf's Dragoons' datacore, the info in it was some 35 years old and perhaps a bit too much Wolf oriented. What Carlyle offered were examples of current equipment from the Jade Falcons, another Clan. Not that I believed that it was going to be much different, but some differences in models and preferences were always possible. Even though in the agreements signed in Outreach, it was defined that the Concordat would receive Clan technology samples, it was clear that this would not be one of the priorities of either the Federated Commonwealth or the Draconis Combine, they would more than probably keep said samples to themselves for their companies to analyze first. The FRR, would hand theirs over to the Earth forces as expected, since they were the ones who had put troops on the ground to help them.

After a quick conversation with Kamea as she was after all the other partner in the CHI company, we decided to satisfy Carlyle's order.

This matter led me to have a conversation with Edward, regarding precisely how to obtain technology from the Clans.

It was decided, that even though the Taurian Concordat would not officially send forces, a volunteer brigade would be created from carefully selected elements of the TDF, that would act under the guise of a mercenary unit and whose goal would be to obtain Clan hardware and secondarily gain experience fighting them outside of training with the Wolf's Dragoons.

But, soon the politics and prejudice ugly head raised again. Even with the last decades of good relations between the Concordat and the Commonwealth, very few in the Taurian Armed Forces considered the option of serving under the Federated Commonwealth orders and since the Combine didn't have a good reputation with mercenaries, we were in a stalemate. The Taurians didn't accept less than independent command and full salvage rights, something the Kuritans were against on principle. Also, to guarantee that said force was not subject to limited access to supplies, something that mercenaries were always exposed to the Taurians needed to provide almost all of the needs of such force and that greatly expanded the supply train. The conclusion was to only a full TDF Task Force, with WarShip support would fit the bill. In the end, with all disguise left out, three full TDF Brigades with WarShips support and a large supply train was organized. For interaction with the Kuritans, both accepted to use the same protocols and rights that the old SLDF had when operation in the Houses territories, that have been dig up by the DCMS archivists. A Liaison Officer was accepted, but to ensure coordination and communication services with the DCMS and DCA and with no controlling power.

In Coromodir, the negotiations with Irian Technologies ended without any accord. While their presence represented an expansion on the industrial capabilities of the province, the conditions that the Irians requested were not acceptable for Kamea. They also didn't accept that everyone and everything needed to pass the very demanding vetting process that the Kamea security forces had.

Part of the problem, was that the Irians still thought that they were in the dominant position, and that the local rules were going to roll over themselves to have their industries on the local planets, and getting all the usual and shady perks they had inside the League. Kamea on the other side, while very interested in expanding the industrial capabilities of her territories, was in no mood to compromise the control and security of said territory.