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By 3055 in all aspects, the FWL had fragmented into several small nations. Marik and Stewart were perhaps the largest group, controlled by what remained of the Marik family and the increasingly junior Word of Blake partners, the latter much weakened after losing almost their entire fleet of WarShips and their industrial capacity on Versailles. Regulus and Oriente, although independent, remained allied against Marik-Stewart for the sake of survival.

Andurien at this time was trying to remain independent, hoping that no one would look too much in her direction, and was trying, although without much success, to re-establish the alliance with the Magistracy.

The rest was in an undeclared state of war in which the larger groups tried to force the smaller ones to go along with them.

In late April 3055, Sun-Tzu Liao seized power in the Capellan Confederation after a coup that killed Roman Liao, Tzeng Shang and Kali Liao.

Even though Sun-Tzu blamed outside forces for the coup (without mentioning any name), an exchange of information between TMI, MIM and MIIO confirmed that the coup had been orchestrated by Sun-Tzu or forces loyal to him.

On May 14th​, 3055, I received a message from Edward Calderon, informing me that he had received an invitation from Jaime Wolf, to a meeting of leaders in Outreach, for which Command Circuits had been established. Edward, had invited Emma Centrella. They would meet in Coromodir before traveling together in Taurus One, a highly modified Lee. Edward expected me to join them there too as he wanted my presence as a consultant in the industrial and military areas, and due to the fact that I was probably the only one in the area that "knew" the leaders of the Wolf's Dragoons well (sort of).

Edward had brought his eldest son Antony and Emma had brought Danai, her heir-designate. Kamea even though she was not going to participate in the trip to Outreach, managed, easily from what I observed, to include Sara, much to her and Antony's delight.

During the trip I had several conversations with Edward and Emma, in which I tried to convey what I knew about the Wolf's Dragoons' relationship with the Clans in the form of theories that unfortunately sounded a lot like most of the rumors about them that could be heard in the Inner Sphere

As we arrived in Outreach, the presence of several WarShips immediately caught our attention with an impressive fleet in system made of 1 Aegis, 1 Congress, 2 Lolla III, 1 Sovetskii Soyuz and 1 Vincent. Apparently Jaime had recovered his WarShip fleet and made its existence public.

Not since the marriage of Hanse and Melissa in 3028 had so many leaders (and their heirs) been gathered in a single system, even if the success rate was not of 100% as no one was there from the Free Worlds League or its remains and Sun-Tzu couldn't leave his realm and hadn't sent any representatives.

What changed from my memories was the presence of Natasha Kerensky, Morgan Kell (with Phelan, meaning something didn't go as planned for Clan Wolf) and of Joan Stark, the ruler of Earth. Adding to her mystery and even if her presence was logical, she didn't bring any relatives.

I had the feeling that this was going to be quite different from what I remembered.

By their expressions, it was clear that Hanse (and family) and also Theodore knew, or at least suspected, the origins of the Wolf's Dragoons. Of everyone present, only Joan Stark and the Rasalhague representatives displayed any signs of surprise when Jaime Wolf admitted his past connection to the Clans.

The reason for the call was made quickly clear and the Dragoons were finally taking a stand, and that was to fight the Clans. The reason for the timing, was that during the last DCMS counterattack in Luzerne, the DCA had destroyed a Black Lion (CSJ Streaking Mist) and severely damaged a Texas, the CSJ Veiled Huntress, which was carrying the ilKhan, Leo Showers, who although he survived had been wounded in the attack. 

While admitting that the losses had been high, Theodore did not go into details.

Because of this attack, and in light of the defeat the Falcons had suffered, in which they had also lost a WarShip, Showers had ordered a grand council of the Clans to better plan the invasion, and activate more Clans. Since Showers had decided to held it in Strana Mechty, the invasion was paused, making this meeting in Outreach possible.

The sharing of information showed that in the case of both Federated Commonwealth and the Draconis Combine, the invasion had been considerably less successful than what I remembered. For the Free Rasalhague Republic, it was about the same.

When Jaime Wolf proposed training the heirs in the ways of the Clans, both Hanse and Theodore immediately refused the offer, Hanse saying that the role of the Wolf's Dragoons, was to set up a program to train the armed forces of the present states and to give whatever information they had on the Clans, a proposal which was immediately supported by all the leaders present.

At first Jaime and Natasha refused to share any information but Hanse and Melissa, told them that unless this information was shared, they would have no other choice but to consider the Dragoons as hostile. A declaration that was supported by all the present leaders.

As both groups confronted each other, Joan Stark commented, that a good deal of this information could be obtained on the battlefield anyway, from captured enemy equipment. It would just take longer and cost more lives. After a short pause, Jaime nodded and against his will accepted to release the data-cores with Clan tech the Dragoons had but informed them not to expect miracles, it would take years to convert factories to the more advanced Clan technology.

Surprising everyone, Joan informed those present that the EDF (Earth Defense Force) would send 10 brigades, each one equivalent to 1 RCT, to help defend the FRR, and that it would accept orders for military equipment from the invaded nations, concluding that if the ultimate goal of the Clans was to conquer Earth, it was better to begin the defense now, and not only when they appeared on the Sol system.

After a quick consultation between the two, Edward and Emma, also agreed to accept orders to buy military hardware, provided that both nations also received the Dragoons' /Clan data cores and Dragoons' anti-Clan training, but at the moment neither offered military forces. In fairness, none of the invaded nations had asked for forces from them. I received orders from Edward to crank up the production of both VMI and CHI to their maximum.