Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)

[MarkWarrior]

List of Equipment on the Manassas
Four confederate Dropships, each with a lance of 'Mechs and two Aerospace Fighters on board

Found on Confederate Droship Last of Us were four Warhammers, two WHM-6Rb's, one WHM-7A, and one Gunslinger modified WHM-6Rk. The 6Rk has been upteched to ER on all weapons and still maintains both Armor and speed. Also on the Last of Us were literal tons of replacement arms and armor as well as a single 'Mech repair gantry. There were two Stingray Medium Aerospace fighters in the Aerospace bays.

Found on Confederate Dropship Dying Light were two Marauders, one MAD-2R and one MAD-2T, two Thunderbolts one TDR-5SD and one TDR-5Sb. Two Corsair CSR-V12b. Along with other assorted spare parts and two Manufactering data Cores.

Found on Confederate Dropship A Curse from Beyond were two Griffins, both GRF-1N variants,two Crabs; both CRB-27 variants. The two Aerospace fighters were Ironsides IRN-SD1s and there were a stockpile of DHS located in the cargo bay.

Found on the Confederate Dropship Takes Two to Tango were two Royal Stingers both STG-3Gb variants, there were also two Mongoose's/Mongeese? One was a MON-66b variant and one MON-66
Also found on the Takes Two to Tango was ground based Mobile 12 ton HPG and the spare parts to go with it. In the cargo bay were two mostly deconstructed Stuka STU-K5b's. Considering that was what was also in the aerospace bay they should be considered spare parts.

Found in the Manassas cargo bay.
A mini library filled with both science and engineering texts, along with hand written detailed notes by the sailors who worked on the Manassas upgrades and repairs.
The equipment to start a colony and build the beginnings of a Star League era city.
This includes but is not limited to, Satellites for mapping, water filtration systems, communication systems, the beginnings of a Space station for the manufacture of both Endo-Steel and Ferro-Fibrous.
A small disassembled Industrial 'Mech factory, spare parts for everything in the Confederate dropships, along with stores of seeds, food, and assorted beverages both Alcoholic and non-alcoholic.
In the fighter bays were eight various VoidSeeker variants both interceptors as well as strikers. The rest of the Aerospace fighters were a solid mix of lights to Assault.
BlackWatch Codes and one Nighthawk located in a hidden area in the armory.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Sixteen: "Dogs of War, Soldier of Fortune"

"Alright, we're about to jump into the system that we think the Pirates are in. Marines, do your jobs and I'll make sure there's a bonus for everyone." I said over the small craft comms as we prepared to jump into the system that we had pulled from the Unions computers showed. "Second Lieutenant Felicia Paige, It's your show from here on out. I'm along for the ride." I nodded at the Commander of the Marine Platoon.

"Alright ladies, you know the music, time to dance." Lieutenant Paige said through the comms of the vacuum rated combat suit. "Our goal is to take any Jumpships in the vicinity of our point, given recharging times, we may only have a few minutes to launch and take whatever is at the Jump point." We are launching in two separate boarding shuttles escorted by our new hires Wardog Squadron. If there are two Jumpships we'll split up and take both. Do your jobs, follow instructions and lets live to spend that combat bonus."

"You heard the Lady." Staff Sergeant Jones repeated. "Now strap yourselves in and get set for a Combat Launch."

"Yes Staff Sergeant!" The two Shuttles roared.

As we sat down and strapped ourselves in we made sure our magazines were loaded with Frangible rounds and that and our weapons were charged. "This is Captain Frye, jumping into the unknown in three, two, one." I saw someone bleeding out underneath me as a fighter roared above and then we were in real space once again.

"Shuttles, you have permission to launch, we have two jumpships on sensors." Captain Frye repeated over the comms. "Transmitting Coordinates now. good hunting Marines Godspeed."

The pilots boosted out of the shuttle bay and all of us in the troop bay triple checked both ours and our neighbors seals to make sure that we wouldn't die due to vacuum exposure. "This is your pilot speaking, we have two minutes until we reach Jumpship target one. Shuttle two has already begun deceleration to target two. Initiating deceleration burn in three, two, one." The shuttle turned back towards the way we came in order to change our momentum in order to hit one of the Docking clamps directly. Upon impact, we locked into the airlock and waited for our tech to override the Airlock doors.

When the tech specialist finished, we stacked up and on his signal went through the now cycling airlock. "Captain, you're on rear guard, Mathis; you're on point. Watch your corners and lets do this." Paige ordered.

"Yes Ma'am." we responded and moved to our positions. I stayed focused on making sure we didn't get sneaked up on while she commanded the Marine Fireteam with grace and precision. "Hold!" She commanded as we stopped and cleared the next room. Popping the door open, Mathis tossed a Flashbang in and then followed it up by racing to clear the right hand corner of the room. Lieutenant Paige was second and followed up by clearing the left corner. I was on read and heard two shots with calls of "Tango down."

"Alright, this room is clear let's move up." We began to clear the hallways systematically and anyone that surrendered we plasticuffed and moved on. When we reached the bridge, We stacked up and cleared it to realize that there was a hostage being held by a pirate at gunpoint.

"I will Shoot him!" Screamed the Pirate. Not realizing that we had no idea who his hostage was. "You need him alive right? In order to keep the systems running." At this point, the pirate was just rambling on and on. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Paige signaled to Mathis and I to get in position to take a head shot if we were able to do it without injuring the hostage. Because we were wearing helmets with Encrypted comms channels, we were able to discuss what we planned to do. We had captured enough pirates that we didn't necessarily want this one alive and so Paige told Mathis to take the shot.

One shot range out from Mathis' rifle as the pirate dropped with the top and back of his head missing. The hand holding the hostage released in death and the hostage began to weep. When we were finally able to get him coherent, he told us that he had been one of the original Jumpship crew when it was first taken by pirates twenty years ago. He said that he and a few others were made slaves and had to maintain the Jumpship or that they would be killed.

We took all of this with a grain of salt and warned him before cuffing him and putting him with the rest of the prisoners that we had collected in the cargo hold. We had just doubled our interstellar carrying capacity with one move and zero casualties. Not bad for the beginning of our pirate hunting adventure.


The Tramp wasn't in great shape but had been maintained fairly well, and we would be keeping it while we would be trading the Merchant that fireteam two had taken for some extra lift capacity in the form of dropships. After clearing both of our new acquisitions of all resistance and checking for booby traps I shuttled back over to the King Henry V.

Once I was aboard the King Henry V again, I got aboard the Bittersweet and we began our burn to the moon we were detecting signals from. We had gotten lucky, the Tramp and Merchant were almost at the end of their recharge cycle and they hadn't had any Dropships either on their way, or attached when we boarded them.



Three days later…

"This is Blaze, you are go for drop Bittersweet Wardog has you covered." Sounded over the comms of my Warhammer. "Listen up boys and girls, we have no idea what is on this moon so make sure your seals are tight and make sure every shot counts." I said as we stepped out of the 'Mech bay of the Bittersweet.

"Wardog, anything you can tell us as far as recon goes?" I asked over our comms as I jogged the Warhammer in the direction of the base the pirates were using. "Yes Captain, we have what appears to be a massive ship crashed into this moon to the north and the Pirates are trying to tear it apart for fortifications."

"Copy that Wardog, thanks for the heads up." I replied. "Rifle Lance flank speed north. I want to try and catch these pirates with their Pants down."

"Yes sir." Sheppard responded, "Moving at flank speed to scout ahead." His Mongoose kicked up a decent wave of dust as he moved upwards of 120 KPH while flicking the switch on his Beagle Active Probe. "I read a couple of turret emplacements but that's it so far." He reported and slowed down to let the rest of the lance catch up.

As we sniped the turrets from long range, I got a strange feeling that something bad was about to happen just as Bitchin' Betty announced. "Mech powerup detected, 'Mech powerup detected." A Quickdraw leading a pair of Griffins and a Locust crested over the hill behind us. "Mckay, Lamb, focus fire on the one Griffin at a time, I want them down before we get sniped. I'll take the Quickdraw with Sheppard in support, we'll join you after we're done." I gave my orders and fired both PPC's at the ankles of the Quickdraw. "Sheppard, go flank Griffin designated target one." I ordered as I began to back up from the Quickdraw to lure it in.

Alternating fire from my PPC's I actually busted out in a full belly laugh as one of them snapped the Ankle joint of the Quickdraw and sent it smashing into the surface of the moon. I slowed down and waited to see if there would be a response. When the Quickdraw didn't move for thirty seconds, I moved to assist the rest of Rifle lance. They had already savaged one Griffin and taken the Locust out of the fight with a lucky shot to the cockpit, just leaving one last Griffin to go.

Finally settling into the Goldilocks zone of all of my weapons, I launched a savage Alpha strike on the final Griffin along with the rest of the Lance and watched as one of Mckay's LRM's landed a shot that hit the ammo compartment. Cooking off all of the LRM ammo and wrenching the Griffin to the ground where Sheppard stomped on the chest of the 'Mech and pointed his Medium lasers directly at the cockpit.

"Power down and surrender, or don't, that'll be more fun." Lamb Snarked over the channel as the Griffin actually powered down. "It's less fun when they actually give up." She remarked as we called and waited for the Infantry and salvage teams to reach our location.

 

[MarkWarrior]

One MON-66
One WHM-6Rb
One GRF-1N
One CRB-27
All with SLDF ‘Mech suits/uniforms

Assorted small arms and ammunition bought on Pierce on the direction of both the MechWarriors and NCO’s
Enough weapons to outfit two platoons of infantry and for the crew to have weapons available as well.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventeen: Salvage and Recovery

"Well, the Captain really nailed this one." Staff Sergeant Packer said as they opened the rear hatch on the Quickdraw. "The whole thing practically buried itself, must've been moving at it's max speed when it lost it's foot."

"Damn!" PFC Mendoza said to Sergeant Packer and Private Jenkins who were peering in with him. "Someone forgot their maintenance, look at those straps." Where the five point harness was attached to the seat had frayed and snapped, causing the pilot to snap her neck against the roof when the Quickdraw's foot got taken out from under her.

"Alright, let's haul the body out and get to the Vagabond, we have some astechs who want to take a look at this thing and see if they can get it up and running again in a couple of weeks." Sergeant Packer told the duo with him. Waving at the Jabberwocky that they were using as a partial salvage 'mech. The three JabberWocky's with them each grabbed a 'Mech and began to drag it to the Vagabond where the techs and salvage people did their jobs. The last Griffin, the one that the pilot had surrendered in, was still able to move on it's own power and so Lieutenant Peterson was piloting it into the cargo bay now.


While most of the Infantry platoon helped out with the 'Mech salvage, the dropship engineers and the tech specialists that were a part of the Marksman were diving into the massive wreck to see if they could get it either up and running or what they could salvage if they couldn't.

"Try it now." Chief Petty Officer Victoria Jewel called out from the reactor room. The Spaceman apprentice assigned to her flipped the switch that she had connected this to. "Turn it off, and let me check one thing." She called from the other room. "I'm looking for one burnt out conduit and I've narrowed it down to two."

"Wait one," She called while fiddling with some equipment. "Alright, try it one more time." The power flickered. Come on you stupid piece of crap work!" She yelled and kicked the reactor. When she kicked it, everything came on and stayed that way. "Alright, now I'll check with Petty Officer Taylor and see if the engines are still operational. You go and see if the Captain need any assistance with the computer systems."

"Yes ma'am," the Spaceman apprentice called and headed towards the bridge where the captain was. Captain Mark Hull, the commander of the Mercenary company was a strange man. SA Bruce mused to himself. He had mandated cross training with everyone and himself had trained with everyone. He had never had to qualify with a rifle or heavy machinery before joining the Marksman. He did like that everyone knew what the different jobs entailed though. The infantry guys he hung out with could assist people like Chief Victoria just as well as he could and he could back them up in a firefight if necessary.

SA Bruce shook his head. That was enough woolgathering for now. He had work to do.



"Why is this stuff so heavy?" Asked Corporal Lamb as she helped Private Mckay pick up a crate of material that they had taken from the pirate's storage. "And where is Sheppard? Wasn't he supposed to help us with this?"

"I am," Sheppard said while picking up a crate the same size as the one they were struggling with by himself. "I'm doing all of the work here with Corporal Dunham and y'all are just struggling here."


Corporal Dunham was a beast of a man, 6 foot four and two hundred and seventy five pounds of pure muscle. But, he was also one of the few infantryman with a classical education. He was one of the people that took to the cross training the best. "At least we only have a few crates left," Dunham tried to broker a peace between the two parties. "What's even in these things?" he did ask, hoping that at least one of the 'Mech pilots would know.

"Small arms and SRM launchers." Sheppard replied, "The pirates had been stocking them for years before we got here." He placed the last crate on the pallet they were loading. "Alright ladies get the straps and lash this thing down. We want it to not move when they carry it over to the Vagabond."

"Yessir, the two female 'Mech pilots responded as they moved over to the ratchet strap and began to strap down the crates while Dunham climbed the ladder to the Jabberwocky they had been assigned and got everything ready to carry the crate over to the Vagabond.

Seeing as they had loaded everything else up, they got comfortable while waiting for Dunham to return.

"So… How'd you get hired?" Lamb asked, referring to the other two. "I got started by being on the Janus when he jumped in but how'd y'all sign up?"

"Well," Sheppard started. "Mckay and I served together in the AFFS together until we got injured in a Capellan raid, Captain showed up at the bar we were at and offered us a place." Mckay just kept quiet while Sheppard told their story.

"What Sheppard isn't saying, is that he almost refused until I tore him a new one for refusing to get his leg and back fixed." Mckay snorted and told the rest of the story not leaving out the bits that Sheppard did. "We both had to be medically discharged and hadn't been wise with our money so we couldn't afford the care we needed." She kept going. "The captain took one look at the injuries and offered to pay for them regardless of whether we signed up to join the Marksman or not and the same goes for a lot of the NCO's and infantry around here."


PFC Nathan Rook stared in awe as the Captain flawlessly navigated through Star League era systems without having to double check a manual. Even after his years and training in the AFFS, he couldn't get into systems that quickly. Hell, he didn't even know that that back door existed until the captain showed him. Reaching into his cargo pocket, he grabbed his small notebook and pen that he kept on him and started scribbling down notes. Pausing periodically to ask questions, he just observed and took in what he was seeing. Working with the Captain was really fun, he was down to earth and had stopped moving quickly in what he was doing several times to show Rook exactly what he was doing.

"Captain?" Rook finally decided to ask. "Where'd you learn how to do all of that?" Seeing as the Captain was done, he figured now would be the best time to ask.

"Would you believe me if I said a Warship?" Asked the Captain with a strange look in his eye, like it was an inside joke or something.

"C'mon Captain, tell me where you really learned it." Rook insisted, not finding the Captains joke all that funny.

"Well," The Captain paused. "Lots of practice, my dad did a lot of computer work on older and newer systems and I picked up a lot from him. And I took on the family business a lot back then you know?" The captains eyes grew a little sad at the mention of his family. "Well, I hope you managed to pick up a thing or two from this old man." Captain Hull said as he packed up his notebook and 'Noteputer. "Call me up if you need help with the rest of it." he called over his shoulder as he walked away.



"Well, this was a milk run." Chopper called out over the Aerospace only comms to the rest of Wardog Squadron. "We didn't even have to shoot at anything. If it stays like this; I might just stay on permanently." He joked with a hint of seriousness to his voice.

"Chopper, quiet on the comms." Blaze interjected. "We'll discuss possible options with the rest after we are off shift." Everything went quiet for a good fifteen minutes before Motormouth chopper opened his mouth again to break the peace.

"Cut out the chatter Wardog." Interjected Mother Goose, the pilot and acting intelligence officer of the Wardogs. "We're getting word from the Marksman that the massive dropship is space worthy and that it's about to lift off we are transmitting escort positions now."

"Copy that Mother Goose, we are on our way to transmitted Coordinates,." Blaze replied.

Both Blaze and Chopper stared in awe as the massive dropship eased itself off of the moon and begin to accelerate to a good orbit. The Dropship had some dents and dings, but overall aside from a few areas that the pirates had messed with, it was still in good shape. And clearly the internals still worked properly.

"Blaze! Look at the size of that thing!" Chopper chattered away.

"Size isn't everything." Blaze replied. "Take a closer look, it's unarmed and will need to be covered by fighters in order to get anywhere in a hostile enviroment."

"Wardog Squadron, we see you on our flanks, you may want to return to the Puma and get ready to make for the Zenith, we are leaving and heading back to Concordat Space for now." The big ship transmitted as it began to turn and then make for the waiting King Henry V and the other two Jump ships there.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Marksman Ranking structure




Infantry/Armored Enlisted rates:
E1-Recruit
E2-Private
E3-PFC
E4-Corporal
E5-First Sergeant
E6-Staff Sergeant
E7-Gunnery Sergeant
E8-Master Sergeant
E9-Sergeant Major

Dropship/Warship/Jumpship enlisted rates
E1-Spaceman Recruit
E2-Spaceman Apprentice
E3-Spaceman
E4- Petty Officer Third Class
E5- Petty Officer Second Class
E6- Petty Officer First Class
E7- Chief Petty Officer
E8- Senior Chief Petty Officer
E9- Master Chief Petty Officer

Mechwarrior Enlisted
E1-Recruit
E2-Private
E3-Specialist
E4-Lance Corporal
E5-Sergeant
E6-Staff Sergeant
E7- Lance Sergeant
E8- Master Lance Sergeant
E9- Sergeant Major

Aerospace Enlisted
E1- Airman Recruit
E2- Airman Apprentice
E3- Airman
E4- Senior Airman
E5- Sergeant
E6- Technical Sergeant
E7- Master Sergeant
E8- Senior Master Sergeant
E9- Chief Master Sergeant
Kind've a mix of different US military Ranking structures. This is comprehensive as far as Enlisted goes. While we haven't established the main people and what their ranks are, this is set up for future expansion. When we expand due to salvage recruiting etc we will have a good base to work off of. Halfway through one chapter and planning the second. Should have two to three updates come Monday. Also, moving to base 6 as far as military unit goes here as soon as I have the material. Six man fireteams, Six 'Mechs, six aerospace fighters, etc... It's important to keep it up. I'll eventually change my "Lance Sergeants" to "Fireteam Sergeants" in the rate structure.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Eighteen: "Ahh The Negotiator"

After jumping back to Taurian Concordat space, we took the Bittersweet, Puma, and Vagabond down to Burton. On our way down, we transmitted our AAR's to the MRB and our liaison sent his report to Colonel Calderon.

"Alright," I transmitted across the intercoms of the Vagabond and directly to the other two dropships. "All of you are required to take at least forty-eight hours of shore leave starting when we have landed. After you finish your duties, head over to the bar and have them put all of the drinks on my tab. I'll head over after I'm done talking to the locals."


A bunch of cheers resounded through all three dropships. "You sure you want to do that boss?" Sheppard asked me as I rounded the corner headed to the main sleeping quarters. "We'll drink you dry."

I just chuckled. "Y'all deserve it after what we just pulled off." I shrugged, "I'm going to go and sleep until I wake up now. Let Captain Daniels know that he's in charge until I wake up."

"Alright Captain, I'll pass on the message." Lieutenant Sheppard said. "Just so you know, that was a hell of a shot you pulled off on that Quickdraw, shooting like that had to come from somewhere, you'll have to tell me the story sometime."

"Would you believe me if I told you it came from being stuck on a Warship for a year?" I asked, smirking a little bit. Sheppard just looked at me confused. "I'll tell you someday. But for now I'll leave it to your imagination."

"Alright, keep your secrets!" Sheppard yelled after me. "I'll get to them someday."

I just walked away, chuckling all the while. Upon reaching the common sleeping quarters, I sat down on the bunk that I had picked out earlier and as soon as I wrapped myself in the blankets and strapped myself down I was asleep.


Senior Chief Samuels loved his job. Being the senior NCO on the Vagabond was a dream come true for a former career sailor. He was highly ranked enough to delegate and still low enough to actually get to work on things in person. Currently, everyone was supposed to be on shift and he was checking to make sure there weren't any slackers. When he saw that there was someone asleep in the main quarters he took it upon himself to wake them up and put them to work in typical NCO fashion.

"What the Hell are you doing!" Samuels Screamed at the top of his lungs. "Get up and get to work you lazy Shit!" the Senior chief hit the quick release on the straps and tipped the mattress over before stopping as he realized who he had just screamed at and woken up.

"Well, it's good to see that my NCO's haven't slacked on their training." I snarked as I tried to untangle myself from the covers. "I would have appreciated being woken up a bit more gently though."

"I'm so sorry sir." Samuels said apologizing furiously. "It won't happen again."

"No, no." I responded. "You were just doing your job and I get it. I would like to get back to sleep though if at all possible." I shook his hand and let him help me remake the bed as an apology before curling back up and going to sleep.



"Sheppard, make sure the bar is still standing when I get there." I said as I hopped into one of the company trucks. "I want a drink too." I then drove off, headed in the direction of the office that Colonel Calderon had given me the directions to.

"Captain Hull, thanks for coming on such short notice." The Colonel greeted me as I walked into the office. "You want anything to drink before we get down to brass tacks?" He asked as he walked over to a well stocked mini fridge. "I've got sweet tea, iced coffee, some juice."

"I'll take some sweet tea." I replied. Making my way over to the other side of the desk. Opening my rucksack and taking out both my 'Noteputer and my notepad and also retrieved my copy of the contract with the Taurian Concordat. I had both a physical copy in paper here and a digital one on my 'Noteputer.

"Let me tell you," Calderon opened up as he gestured for me to sit down. "You're company does really good work. Even if you do have a weird company structure." He then sighed. "Now for the grit. We want both of the Jumpships you captured. We don't want to invoke the clause we included but will if we have to."

"I want to keep one of the Jumpships. I need the lift capacity. As it is, I had to leave the Messenger here while we went pirate hunting." I responded. "I'm willing to give you the Merchant, it's the Jumpship that's in better shape and frankly, I need the collars."

"I'll be willing to lease the Tramp to you while we fix up the massive ship we salvaged." I responded with a shrug.

"That's not good enough." Calderon responded. "We have money to spare, but we don't have the capability to make our own Jumpships as is." He passed over a sheet of paper with a Lot of zeroes on it."We're even willing to offer you half of the brand new cost of both Jumpships and lend you the use of the Tramp until your contract with us is up and a little bit after."

"While that is a lot of zeroes," I responded. "It's no substitute for lift capacity." I sighed. "I'd like to keep one of them, but if it's that or the clause invoked I want a different deal."

"Alright then, let's hear your counter-offer." Calderon leaned back in his chair.

"You get both Jumpships on the condition that I can use them for sixth months after our contract is up and you cover the cost of repairing the Dropship that I picked up as well as the price listed here." I responded, tapping the paper with the price that they were willing to pay for the Jumpships on it. "I can only swing this though if I can manage to find another Jumpship soon after. So I want a guarantee that if we don't find another Jumpship within a year that we can continue to rent one of them until we've found our own."

Calderon thought for a good long while. "Let me talk to some people and get back to you tomorrow." He said standing up and shaking my hand. "Have a nice night Captain." He showed me the door.


I got in my truck and headed to the bar that the Wardogs and Marksman had taken over. I had a merger to discuss.



"Captain!" the fighter pilots of Wardog Squadron greeted me loudly. "Welcome to our corner of the bar."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are any of you sober enough to discuss terms?" I asked taking a seat across from Blaze.

"Blaze is!" Chopper chimed in. "He's always the Designated driver."

Blaze just shrugged and gestured to a table close by but slightly secluded. "Lets talk away from the motormouths over here."

I sat down and pulled out a sheet of paper detailing what I was willing to offer if they joined the Marksman and what duties I expected them to perform if they merged. Blaze took out a pen and paper and made a couple of notes. Humming to himself and circling a couple of things.

"Change these things a little bit and we'll have a deal. Most of us aren't good at the numbers and logistics. I'm the one who managed all of the books. If you can balance them out and pay off the debt you'll have us for as long as we've got birds and pay." He then shrugged. "Chopper and Hitman will stay as long as you keep them fed and pay for their bar tabs. All jokes aside, it was a pleasure working with you and your men and we'd love to stay on as long as we keep being treated like this."

I nodded. "I can make that work." I shook Blaze's hand and turned to the table they were at. "Welcome to the Marksman Wardog!" I called out while gesturing to the bartender to pour another round.

Authors note: So, no promises I’ll maintain this kind of update schedule. If I manage to find a Beta I’ll probably update even faster than this. So if someone wants to im still in the market for a proof reader or beta.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Nineteen: Repair and Refit
February 1st 3003...

"She's starting to look good." Captain Frye remarked as she steered the shuttle around the giant Dropship. "Just couple of panels fixed and some paint and you'll never know she crashed."

I nodded, content to just take in the view of the ship and of the space around it. Despite having been on a ship more than solid ground over the past two years, I still found myself in awe of outer space a lot of the time.

"You sure it was worth the money to refit it this way?" My ground XO Lieutenant Sheppard asked. "I mean, a dedicated hospital and repair and refit ship seems a bit excessive for our current forces."

"With the current amount of people at our disposal you would be right." I smirked. "I'm looking ahead, we're going to need advanced repair facilities and the ability to care for our wounded soldiers as we expand."

"And the reason you hired those people from the colleges?" Lieutenant Peterson asked. "They've taken over one of the cargo bays entirely." Peterson said exasperatedly, tired of having to move equipment in and out of the cargo bays.

"Well, some of that is to help with any of our people who might want to continue their education." I paused, "and the rest is to hopefully help us gain an edge on anyone we might face."





"Alright, settle down everyone." I said, as all the officers and NCO's, took a seat in the room of the Messenger. "I know all of you have had questions about how I developed my skills, where my money came from, and all of that." I paused. "I've heard all of the rumors. Now what I will tell you is exactly what you've been asking for, though none of it may leave this room. So, before we get started, does anyone want to get out?"


"Now, I'm going to ask you to hold all questions till the end so that I can get through this without having to stop every few minutes to answer questions." I took a sip of the water that I had laid out in front me when I entered the room. "To start with, all of you are currently sitting in the briefing room of the Star League Pueblo class intelligence ship Messenger. And it along with the King Henry V were a part of a long term intelligence gathering mission before the dissolution of the Star League and Terran Hegemony."


From there, I spun my tale, a wild story of having been the only survivor of a Warship misjump. Of being stranded alone, having to fix it up and make my way across a ton of the Inner Sphere, the only thing I left out was being from a different universe. I saw as eyebrows were raised, and the surprise that a good many of my trusted companions had. At the end, I stopped and waited. Hoping that I could still trust these people that I now knew as friends and comrades in arms.

The entire room was silent for a good minute. I could hear some breathing and some muttering and that was it before Lieutenant Sheppard stood up at attention and saluted. "Lieutenant Jonathon Sheppard reporting for Duty Sir." From there it was a strange wave as all of the Officers and NCO's followed suite. It quite literally brought me to tears for a minute. I returned their salute and gestured for them all to sit down again.

"Now it's time to discuss our options." I said, "I need all of your input in order to make the right decision here. Now, I'm about to pass out the information of what I found on the Argo's computers. We need to decide if we are going to purchase some more dropships. Either way, we're going to need to hire some Jumpships in order to carry whatever we find as well as start on some new hires."

I paused to let them weigh in and I took notes on what the suggestions were. The majority were in favor of doing a contract with the Magistracy of Canopus for a bit in order to pick up skilled doctors and surgeons as well as hiring some of the people who had submitted applications from the Taurian Concordat. All in all, we would go from a over strength lance with an attached company of Infantry/Marines to a slightly under-strength Combined arms battalion when we finished up with purchases and hiring. We would complete our current garrison and Anti-Piracy contract before moving on. When we had built up enough people that we could all trust, we would come back and hit the SLDF cache on Artru. Until then, we would be spending money like water in order to get everything done by the time our contract was up in May.


"I always knew there'd be one of you." I said shaking my head. "No, I'm not going to monologue about how I caught you. I don't even care about who you work for. I'm just going to execute you." I shrugged. "Any last words?" I asked while Corporal Dunham and led him to the airlock. I nodded for the two of them to remove the gag.

"Blake will see you dead!" they yelled and began to yell louder and struggle violently before I commanded the two NCO's to step out of the airlock. After they left them in the airlock, I closed the internal doors and began the process of remotely opening the outer door. "See you in hell." I said and watched as their body flew into the void.


"Thanks for the assist." I told the two NCO's with me. "He could have gotten us all killed if he had managed to report what I told y'all to his superiors."

"Who did he work for Sir?" Dunham asked. "They could try and sneak more people into our ranks if we're not careful."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you Corporal." I said. "I'll tell you what I know later, when I've got a decent counterintelligence team put together."

At the sound of that Corporal Dunham actually perked up. "Counterintel you say?" He asked. "I actually got some training in that before I left the AFFS. Now it was mainly in making sure that Mask teams didn't sneak up on us but I can build off of that."

"I'll see what I can come up with and maybe make you head of that team in the future." I responded. "But don't get your hopes too high. We've got a long way to go before we get there."

Authors note: Thanks to pbthhhht for helping with some edits and making sure everything looked good and flowed well. Next chapter will either be a Marksman POV or jumping into the next contract.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty: "Now its Istanbul not Constantinople."

"You ever wonder why we're here?" Staff Sergeant Packer asked, holding his rifle in a dirty Sul technique while relaxed against the wall behind him.

"No, I don't wonder why we're here." Lieutenant Peterson responded. "We're literally on a contract to guard this archaeological dig that Interstellar Expeditions hired us to."

"No, I mean why are we standing over here in the sun when we could be in the shade." Sergeant Packer unknowingly echoed a certain characters words from ages ago.

"Oh, well that makes sense." Peterson shrugged and moved over to the shaded area that Packer had indicated. "At least we didn't get stuck with training the greenies."

"Not this week." Packer nodded, "We're on rotation next month though. They have to learn how us groundpounders operate."

"Oorah!" Private Jenkins and PFC Mendoza replied to that phrase. Their shout echoing through the small box canyon they were in.

"Hey look, it's the Captain!" PFC Rook called out. And the Fireteam on patrol turned to wave at the captain (And the quirky Archaeologist with him)

"Captain," Peterson and Packer nodded. "Making the rounds?"

The Captain just gave them a brief rolling of the eyes, gesturing with his head at the scientist talking his ear off and shrugged while mouthing. "Save Me!"

Shaking their heads, the fireteam continued their patrol. Leaving the Captain to his fate.

This contract had been a godsend, Interstellar Expeditions had come along right as we were about to head to Canopian space and noticed that we were in need of a contract. They negotiated letting us use some of their Jumpships capacity in exchange for us helping with some of their explorations. This time, they were on the lookout for any potential civilizations that may have fled the reunification war. We had hit a couple of minor planets and I had taken advantage of the downtime we had in order to get a lot more training in with my troops.

We had shaped the new recruits that we had picked up from the Taurian Concordat into another couple of platoons of infantry and would be working on specializations when we shipped them back up to the Argo.

We were contracted for another couple of months and then we would continue on to Canopian space where we would look for our next contract.

The person in charge of the Expedition, a Dr. Gerald Ford, had been an interesting person to talk to, even if he did seem a little bit crazy at times. He had his Doctorate and had even helped straighten out some of the history curriculum we had put together for the Argo.


This dig was a bust though. There had once been civilization here, but most of the population lived like the Amish people of my day and so we left them alone. Lifting off in the Vagabond, we got ready to jump to the next system on their proposed map.



"So Dr. Ford," I began while sitting across from him at a table at the mess hall. "What are the chances we actually find anything out here?" I flipped through training reports while waiting for a response.


"Well, the chances are never great." Dr. Ford started "But we always hope for the chance to find something!" He started to get excited and I facepalmed. Realizing I never should have gotten him started. "Why, you never know what kind of society people might have developed away from the influence of the Inner Sphere."

One of Dr. Ford's aids just met my eyes and shook her head. Making sure that I knew that I had brought this on myself. After several minutes of rambling, I quietly excused myself and made a break for it. Leaving whomever was still in the mess hall to suffer for my mistakes.

I walked quickly to my office and closed the door. Deciding to take refuge in the quiet busy work of making sure all of the paperwork and files were documented properly. I had just gotten to filing the current trainee's paperwork when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in." I called, leaving one hand underneath my desk where I had a small laser pistol affixed. "Have a seat." I said as Corporal Dunham walked in.

"Sorry to disturb you Captain, but I had a few question about some things that've been bothering me for a little bit." He paused for a breath. "I want to know how you knew that Sergeant Jones was a traitor." He stated outright, meeting my eyes and waiting for a response.

"Well, first of all, Mathis told me that something was off after we got back from getting the Argo, and I made sure to listen." Dunham nodded at that. "The second thing was that I was intercepting all transmissions from the Messenger when we got into the system. Jones had attempted to record our meeting and when that didn't work, tried to send an electronic report to whoever she reported to. Thankfully, she didn't manage to get a transmission out. She acted on her own without any guidance from her people."

I then showed him the details that I had from her personal effects as well. She had a couple of very vicious poisons hidden in her belongings and had even written things down in a cipher. This included things like potentially kidnapping several of the officers and/or NCO's and backup plans that would have killed most or all of us.

Corporal Dunham paled with every piece of evidence I laid out in front of him. Seemingly shocked at the lengths some people would go to in order to get what they wanted. "Who was she working for?" He asked finally, regaining some of his composure.

"I honestly don't care." I stated. "She aimed to hurt me and mine and I don't much appreciate that." I stood up. "I take care of my people." I said firmly as I met the giant of a mans eyes.


Swallowing a little bit, Dunham stood up, and made his way out of my office. "Thanks for answering my questions Captain." He said as he opened the door.

"Hey Corporal!" I called. "Get me your list of personnel for the department by noon tomorrow."

"Roger that Captain." He repied as he left my office.

"All hands prepare for jump." Captain Frye's voice called out over the intercom's speakers. I strapped myself in, and waited for the go ahead.

We re-materialized and began the standard scanning of the system we were in. Dr. Ford's Jumpship had already sent over the reports of it's scans. There were two what appeared to be Leviathan Jumpships mothballed at a midway point between the Jump point and the planet in the Goldilocks zone.

"Dr. Ford, I'm sending the 'Mechs, the Vagabond and Wardog squadron to escort you down to the planet." I commed the IE Jumpship. "I'm taking the Argo and my other two Dropships to check out those Jumpships."

"We hear you Captain," Dr. Ford responded. " I'll send over one of my people to take a look and see if there's anything of interest to IE on board."

"Copy that." I said, getting ready to station a couple of our trusted people to keep an eye on whoever was going to be coming with us. "Give us your timetable and we'll get to work."


After taking some time to get things in order my dropships burned towards the planet ahead of the Interstellar Expedition's dropships. I trusted that Sheppard and Wardog had things well in hand while I supervised the potential salvage and recovery of potentially two Jumpships.

"Alright," Sheppard said as the Bittersweet neared what appeared to be an abandoned city. "We're here to draw out whatever locals might be here and pray that we look friendly." He paused as the bay doors opened. "Regardless of what happens out here, we are to keep the IE people safe. They're a lot squishier than we are."


"Copy that Sir." The other five 'Mech pilots responded. Corporal Dunham piloting the Captains Warhammer for the operation.
"Anything on sensors?" Corporal Lamb asked Sheppard seeing as he had the better sensor suite.


"That's a negative Lamb, keep your eyes and ears peeled though." Sheppard responded.


"This is the Vagabond, dropping off the Infantry now." The aerodyne landed on the highway next to them just long enough to let the Jeeps and trucks that the Infantry used to get around off before taking off again.


"Peterson, Paige," Sheppard called out over the comms. "I need you and the rest of the infantry to do a quick sweep of the buildings next to us. Everything seems abandoned but I want to make sure of that."


"Copy that Sheppard." Peterson responded and he and his platoon began to move towards the nearest buildings at a reasonable speed. "Will update when we're through."


There was no power, and Jenkins and Mendoza had to pry open the sliding doors before they could enter the building. "NVG's on." Staff Sergeant Packer ordered, seeing how dark the interior was. "We need to be able to see in the dark here." While the main lobby was decently lit, everything else was almost pitch black.


After about an hour of going through the building, they came out and requested a DeCon shower and to be Quarantined. "Nothing but dust and echoes Sheppard." Peterson reported. "But some of the notes we found indicate some sort of disease or something we're not really sure. Have Paige set up the decon and quarantine area just to be safe."


"Copy that Peterson." Sheppard replied. "You heard the man, make sure your hatches are sealed. Paige you copy on that last Comm?"


"I read you Sheppard, We're waiting on the Vagabond to drop off the equipment now." Lieutenant Paige responded. "Me and my Marines will take care of the grunts."


Two weeks later…


"Well doc, what's the verdict?" Packer asked one of the doctors that had been sent down from the Argo. "Am I gonna die?"
Dr. Walker just scoffed. "We can't find anything that could be harmful to any of you here." She paused. "Whatever it was, it's more than likely died out by now. We're clearing all of you from quarantine."


Both the Infantry and the Marines, sick of having been cooped up for two weeks got really excited at first before realizing that now they had to follow the IE archaeologists around.


"Cough cough, Doc, I'm dying." Jenkins made it dramatic. "Make me stay on bed rest for the next…" He trailed off looking at Mendoza for backup. "Two weeks?" He asked weakly, realizing that the Doctor had no sympathy after having to deal with them for the past two weeks.


The rest of the Marines and infantry jeered and then with some complaining and grumbling, got back into uniform and got their kit back on. "Alright, let's make sure these eggheads don't cause any trouble now." Now Staff Sergeant Mathis called out.


"What's the verdict?" Sheppard radioed Peterson and Paige after his computer systems notified him that they were back online. "You all a part of the walking dead?" He joked.


"Nah Sheppard, we're cleared to go back to work. Let the IE boys and girls know that their playground is open for business." Peterson responded.


"Roger that, letting the children out to play." Sheppard then called the IE dropships, letting them know it was safe to land and begin excavating to their hearts content. "Dr. Ford, try not to have too much fun down here." He reminded the easily excitable man.
In Space, same time as Sheppard lands on the planet…

"What's the verdict Chief?" I asked CPO Jewel.


"Frankly sir, this hardware is ancient. Pre Star League even." She responded. "We're lucky that the Dropship collars haven't changed over the years." She paused. "That being said, I think we can get this one back up and running if we cannibalize the other one for spare parts and borrow that IE guy to help."


"Why borrow the IE guy?" I asked genuinely curious as to why bring in outside help.


"Because the guy is a genius and knows a lot more about this tech than I do." She responded. "I can't give you an estimate without taking some more time to look at the internals. Get me that guy and I'll give you something by the end of the day."


"Understood Chief, I'll leave you to it." I left our Chief engineer to her tinkering. We were currently inside of one of the Leviathans and were conducting damage assessments and repair predictions on them. While they mostly appeared intact, one of the Jumpships had suffered from a larger meteorite impact and couldn't maintain an atmosphere. Strangely, they both appeared to have been mothballed properly and so we had to decide which one we were going to fix up.


Two weeks later…
"Spaceman Bruce, I need you to test that air filter!" CPO Jewel called out to her favorite errand boy. "If we did this right when we should be able to pressurize the ship again and I don't want carbon build up ruining our good air."
They had spent the last two weeks swapping parts between Jumpships to see what worked and what didn't as well as fabricating new ones on the Argo before sending them over to make sure everything fit properly.

"Aye ma'am." Seaman Bruce responded, pushing off of the wall of the hallway he was in. "Checking air filter now." He floated over to the main air scrubber for the Jumpship, making sure that it was intact and didn't have anything that would be a concern. "Scrubber looks good Ma'am, fire up the reactor when ready." He called out.


"Alright! Firing this thing up!" She called on the comms before powering the Fusion reactor on. "Bridge, anything on your end?" She called up to where Captain Hull had been working on computer systems and conduits with Captain Frye.


"All systems are green up here Chief." Frye responded. "Looks like we got ourselves an old lady."


"She may be old, but she's got it where it counts." Hull tagged himself into the Comm channel. "Looks like we are onboard the privately owned Leviathan class Jumpship Whirlwind."


"Everything checks out down here." CPO Jewel chimed in. "We're gonna need more crew."


"I know Chief," Captain Hull Responded. "I know."
January 15th, 3004.
It's been a pleasure working with you over this past year Captain. Interstellar Expeditions will mark you down as a favored hire in any future propositions." Dr. Ford said, shaking my hand.


"Thank you Doctor." I replied, smiling back at the man. "We'll keep IE in mind if we hear about any such contracts you're in the neighborhood for."


Personal Journal
We had quite a year working with Interstellar Expeditions. The addition of eight docking collars will be a big help in the future regardless of the Whirlwind being older than the Star League. IE found an Age of War computer core and let us copy most if not all of it down. While most of the stuff is outdated, there are some useful designs in there and we could use it to start the process of developing our own tech. We'll be taking a three month rotation of rest and leave before seeking a contract. I know that this year is the year that Katrina Steiner and the Kell brothers make their way out into the Periphery, and I hope to at least make a good impression out here before we begin to move towards Davion space.

Authors Note: Once again, thanks to my new proofreader pbthhhht. He did really good work on making sure this chapter read well.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-One: Expansion

"Thanks for giving us access to your supply lines." I told the Magisty Metals Liaison. "We needed to be able to buy some things for our expansion."

"So, all of our current full vehicle and 'Mech production is promised for" She responded. "With that being said, we are willing to sell you some of our older stuff, as well as some spare parts and weaponry."

"I may end up buying out all of your stores of spare parts." I shrugged. "As well as most of your stocks of SRM and LRM's."

We were prepping to buy some equipment that the Canopians were willing to sell us, mostly things that had fallen into disrepair. After some talking with the local militia commander and our Majesty Metals Liaison, we had managed to purchase some of the older platforms from them. We were filling out an armored company with two Pegasus Hovercraft, two Vedettes, four Maxim's, a Partisan, and two Ballista Self-Propelled artillery pieces. We had also acquired four Vector Assault VTOL's for rapid response and scouting.

Most of what we had purchased were in various states of disrepair or just outright damaged, and we would have to affect repairs of our own before we could put them into use for our company. Thankfully, I had good engineers and Astechs who had been getting bored with only having a few 'Mechs to work on.

I had bumped up my own rank up to Lieutenant Colonel seeing as we were now a short Battalion by most standards with all of the assets we had obtained over the past couple of years. With these last few purchases we had made, we were capable of stopping almost any pirate force in it's tracks. Now we just had to find another dropship or two in order to be able to take our forces anywhere.

"Why did I never try this before?! Sheppard asked the rest of the crew he was training with as he took the Pegasus up to it's maximum speed. "Woohoo!" He shouted, "I'm gonna have to put in for a transfer, this is fun."

Captain Sheppard drifted around one of the obstacles set in place for training purposes. "Sir!" The instructor yelled at him. "You have to slow down immediately." Sheppard, having had his fun, slowed down to the recommended speed for the course and completed it exactly the way he was instructed to from then on out.

"Man," Sheppard got out of the Pegasus hovercraft and stretched. "It's a good day to be alive." He grinned and refused to look behind him as the instructors and recruits that had been his "Crew" began throwing up or walking uneasily. "So, should I transfer to the armored company?" He asked cockily.

"Sir," Lieutenant Mathis replied. "I think you're doing just fine where you're at." He offered, hoping that Captain Sheppard was joking.

"Yeah," Sheppard agreed. "I really am happy with where I'm at." The grin dropped off of his face. "Still; in all seriousness, this cross training stuff really has been a big help."

Everyone else in the training area just nodded in agreement. Even if only a fraction of the population were neurohelmet compatible, everyone was taught how to aim and fire the weapons on every vehicle, dropship, and 'Mech that the company owned.

"So, whens the next live fire exercise again?" Mathis asked Sheppard.

"It's on the memo. Remember to check your box when we get back to base." He replied. "It's supposed to be in like two… maybe thee weeks from now?"

"You don't remember either do you?" Mathis asked.

"Nope." Sheppard responded. "Can I take the Pegasus for a spin again?"

"No sir." Mathis grinned holding the keys he had swiped from the captain. "You're driving privileges are revoked temporarily."

"Oh well," Sheppard shrugged. "Guess it's time to shrink the paperwork pile."

"You could just do it as it comes up." Mathis offered. "It keeps the paperwork manageable versus the massive pile up close to the deadline."

"Yeah, but that would cut into everything else I do…" Sheppard offered. "Like taking the Pegasus for joyrides!"

Sheppard snatched the keys from Mathis and dived back into the Pegasus before sealing the hatch and driving away. Cackling as he drove away and through the obstacle course again.


"Still haven't managed to find a mobile command center Colonel?" Lieutenant Dunham, the head of our counterintelligence department asked as he walked over to me. I was in the the cafeteria of the building we had taken over with a bunch of reports other unclassified paperwork with me.

"No, I'll probably have to make do with the Warhammer until we do." I said with a shrug. "It'll drop us down a front-line 'Mech but it'll enable me to manage our forces until I can."

"How's the vetting of the new Dropship crews going?" I asked making a face at my now lukewarm coffee. And gesturing for him to take a seat.

"It's good so far sir." He responded, taking a seat and stacking up some of my scattered papers for me. "Almost everything checks out." He stroked his beard for a second. "How concerned are you about hiring former smugglers?"

"Former?" I asked, raising my left eyebrow.

"There's no actual records of him having been a smuggler, but the Messenger managed to track down some files that state the possibility." Dunham shrugged. "I'm pretty sure that he's been on the straight for a while, and the rest of his crew checks out. I just think we'll have to keep an eye on him for a bit."

"Alright then Lieutenant." I nodded. "I'll trust your judgment on this."

Standing up, Dunham nodded and then pointed to one piece of paper. "You should buy both of these and the other one the command staff were talking about."

He then grabbed the cup of coffee he had come in the cafeteria for and left the way he came.

A heavy sigh left my lips. The purchase of two DroST IIB dropships a Mule, and one more Leopard CV would take around half of the bounty we had gotten for the Merchant class we had sold to the Taurian Concordat. This would leave us still solidly in the black, but with less of a cushion than I actually liked. Regardless, we needed the lift capacity and so I sent a message to okay the purchase of the Dropships.


The DroST might be a strange choice for today's environment, but we needed something that could deliver both Infantry and Combat vehicles without needing to be unloaded piecemeal via a spheroid dropship. Part of our combat Doctrine had us using our areodyne's to get on the ground quickly so we could seize ground and move before anyone on the ground was prepared for us.

I sighed again, we had another couple of months on this contract and then we would be taking a contract with the Magistracy to hit a Marian Hegemony world in order to get them to back off of the shipping lanes for a little while.


That left us with almost sixth months before many of our troops would see combat for the first time. While I wasn't as concerned with my veterans, the soldiers we had been training over the last year and a half were still considered green. I hoped to get most of them up to regular or veteran status before we went into the main area of the Inner Sphere for more lucrative contracts.


Standing up, I went to heat up my now cold coffee. Pinching the bridge of my nose to stave off the headache from staring at balance sheets and fine print for too long.


"Penny for your thoughts Colonel?" A trio of fresh boot camp graduates from the Lyran Commonwealth entered the cafeteria. Two men and a woman.

"Just plans for the future Privates." I replied, pulling my freshly reheated cup of caffeinated bliss out of the microwave and taking a long sip. "Lot of plans for the future." I met each of their eyes in turn before gathering up my documents and putting them all in their designated place.

"If you're not careful, I may put you on paperwork sorting duty." I called out as I left the cafeteria enjoying the way that they shuddered.
"Listen up people!" Colonel Hull called out over the battalion communications channel. "Wardog and Strider Squadrons are covering us and making sure we're clear in the skies. It's up to us to hit the spaceport and any military hardware they might have on planet."

"Alright ladies!" Captain Peterson yelled at his Company of Infantry. "Our job is to land and seize any and all Dropships that might be planetside." He paused to inhale. "We have targeting priority for our artillery so call it in if you think you need it."

He finished just as the DroST came to a stop, dropping it's ramp and letting off the Maxim's and the trucks the rest of the Infantry used before letting the Vector VTOL's take off for extra cover.


Moving at just below flank speed, the mechanized infantry company moved into the impromptu spaceport. Making sure that none of the armed Dropships powered up before they seized them. "Mendoza, Jenkins, take fireteams one and two and hit those two dropships." Lieutenant Packer, leader of first platoon ordered. "I'll take fireteam three and clear out the rest."


While most of the infantry and armor companies hit the spaceport, the 'Mechs and the remainder of the forces had hot dropped over the small military base that the Marians had put up on the outskirts of the city. I was coordinating our forces from my Warhammer until we managed to get a mobile HQ. In the meantime, I was monitoring reports and calling in artillery coordinates as needed. I knew that micro managing would get people killed so I let my people do their jobs. There had been some minor casualties so far, but it seemed that we were doing what our Contract specified.

Authors note: Hasn't been seen by my proofreader yet, so some of the things in here are subject to change.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty Two: Break Through this Wall


"Alright Colonel Hull," The Magistracy representative said. "Looks like your request was approved."

I sat up a little bit straighter and raised an eyebrow. "It was?" I asked a little more animatedly than usual.


"Yes," She replied. "The details are being sent to your people now." She stood up. "Let me know if you're ever back in the area." She winked and then sauntered off with the Aura of Superiority™. "We might be able to have some fun." She threw over her shoulder and then did that weird thing women do with their hips.

I blinked for a moment there stunned and then shook my head in order to clear it. That was weird. I stood up and looked around the restaurant that I had met her in. Had I just been on a date? Nah, I shook my head; It couldn't be that. She was just being friendly. I got my stuff together and walked out the restaurant still mulling over what had just happened all of the way back to the building we were using.

"You are an idiot." Sheppard said in the mess hall we had set up. "A real fuckin' idiot." He kept going. "You had the chance to sleep with a Hot Canopian girl and you completely blew it."

"How did you not know she was hitting on you?" One of the female members of the command staff asked.

"I dunno." I shrugged, "I didn't always look this good." I gestured to the muscles I had developed over the last four years of dedicated training and work ethic. "Used to be girls never looked my way twice."

"Well Colonel," Captain Jewel said. "I'm afraid those days are long over." She smirked. "Get used to crazy women and men trying to sleep with you for both fun and for information." She then frowned and got serious. "We need to find some more intelligence people."


"I'm working on it." Lieutenant Dunham replied. "It's hard work training people up for this even with the SLIC manuals and documents that Hull gave us." He nodded at me when he said that.

"Frankly, I'm just glad we've got a decent core of veterans here." Sheppard chimed in. "The new guys did really well when we hit the Marians after all."

"By the way sir, what made you so happy when you got in yesterday?" Lieutenant Packer chimed in, having been relatively silent so far. "I mean, you were practically bouncing off of the walls with how excited you were and I'm pretty sure you didn't get laid." He laid into me at the end there.

The entire table broke out into laughter for a moment before I managed to get them to quiet down again. "Well, I managed to get a license to both purchase and manufacture Canopian advanced medical equipment and technology." I held up my hands to stop them from getting too loud. "I took a look at some of the schematics with the teams on the Argo yesterday, and we can produce some of them on our own but we'll be buying the rest and filling out the rest of our medical roster with some people we poached from the Magistracy Medical Corps by the time we leave, we'll have some of the best medical care in the Inner Sphere."

"How the hell did you manage that?!" Captain Peterson asked.

"Well, it turns out returning three dropships with hold full of goods stolen from their own people will net you some goodwill."" I shrugged. "And, I guess people just never asked. I mean, when I put the request in when we took the contract both the MRB broker and the Magistracy Rep looked stunned."

"I don't think we got all of their best stuff though." I said. "But I made sure that we got as much of the scanning tech as we could. I was serious when I promised you guys good medical care in your contracts."

"I'll make sure we load up all of the gear I bought in the morning." I stood up from the table. "We're heading back to get that other Leviathan after we're done loading up."

The goal was to get the second Leviathan up and running within a couple of weeks of dropping back into the system that the deserted planet was in. We would be jumping in and split our forces. The Messenger and Vagabond were going to head in and get to work on the other Leviathan Jumpship; with a large portion of the ship based engineers and astechs. The rest of the group would head to the planet to see if there was any salvage we might have missed the first time. Admittedly, the first time we had landed on planet, we had been more concerned with a possible contagion or being attacked and salvage was the last thing on our minds at the time. Besides that, IE had only been here for a month because they had gotten a lead on a possible Exodus route they wanted to explore closer to Davion space.


"Alright people, we've been here before but that doesn't mean we get to relax." Peterson briefed his company of Mechanized infantry. "Our mission however, has changed. Our job is to go through this place piece by piece until we have ensured that there is no salvage left to recover here." He stopped for a second. "Dibs rules are not I repeat not in effect. If you see something shiny, you call over one of the engineers or astechs before and they will clear you on whether you can keep it or not. Am I understood?" He asked.

"Yes sir!" his company roared in response.

"Alright Marksman!" Lieutenant Packer called. "Mount up." The entire company climbed into their designated Maxim hovercraft or escort vehicle and started up whatever engine they needed to.

"Alright Marksman!" The DroST pilot called. "Dropping in ten seconds." There was a countdown and on the last three seconds lights flashed before DroST's ramp lowered to allow the troops to disembark. The Company plus the VTOL's exited just as they had continuously practiced and began to make their way to the city while the Dropships went to park in empty fields nearby.

Two weeks later…

"Alright guys it's time to pack it up." First Sergeant Mendoza told the fireteam he was working with, they had just done a sweep through most of the industrial district and hadn't found anything of real value.

"Hold up Sarge." Corporal Jenkins called out. He had been getting training in both engineering and general maintenance aboard the Argo while Mendoza went through senior NCO school.

"We didn't check that building out, and something looks strange about it." He said, studying the smallest building in the district. "Every single other building here has it's own dedicated office space attached to it." He expanded on his theory. "And yet here, we have what's only an office building? Sarge, something doesn't add up."

"Alright Jenkins." Sergeant Mendoza sighed. "We'll check out your "strange" building, but if you're wrong about this, I'm putting you on babysitting duty for three rotations."

"Alright Sarge." Jenkins rolled his eyes at his best friend. "If I'm right though, you owe me some of that good liqueur you stashed away when you thought I wasn't looking." Jenkins held out his hand and Mendoza shook it, the deal had been made.


At first it appeared that Mendoza was right and there was nothing to be found in the building, the fireteam had set up portable generators and lights and had cleared the entire building. All of it was office space. Jenkins was actually about to give Mendoza the win when one of the privates called for them.

"Sarge! Corporal!" Private Frost yelled. "We found a basement door and you won't believe what's down there."

It had been all hands on deck as the entirety of the Battalion pitched in to load up what they had found. The Jackwagon had spread the contents of its cargo holds throughout the rest of the dropship fleet, with the Bittersweet and Honey Badger being converted into temporary cargo ships. It took an extra three weeks to pack everything up and we had even dumped spare AC and LRM ammo. When it was time to leave the system, every cargo hold was full including the Vagabond and Messenger's cargo bays.

Next stop, the Taurian Concordat.


Authors note: Once again, Proofreader didn't have time to look at this. Not his fault, I just put out quite a bit of content and he was busy today. Let me know if you see any glaring errors, and let me know what you think we found. Also, just reached 30k words. First novel length anything I’ve ever written and I’m super pumped.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Marksman Officer Rank Structure


Mechwarrior/Armored/Infantry/Aerospace Wing

O1-Second Lieutenant
O2-First Lieutenant
O3- Captain
O4-Major
O5-Lieutenant Colonel
O6-Colonel
O7-Lieutenant General
O8- Brigadier General
O9- Major General


Black Navy Ranks
O1-Ensign
O2-Lieutenant Junior Grade
O3- Lieutenant
O4-Lieutenant Commander
O5- Commander
O6- Captain
O7- Commodore
O8- Vice Admiral
O9- Admiral

 

[CrazedGamma1721]

I'm Loving This Story. Awesome Work Dude.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Sting

Type: Military Aerodyne

Mass: 5,300 tons

Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Standard)

Introduced 3011

Mass: 5,300

Battle Value: 20,473

Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-D-D

Cost: 839,548,800 C-bills



Fuel: 200 tons (6,000)

Safe Thrust: 5

Maximum Thrust: 8

Heat Sinks: 536

Structural Integrity: 45



Armor

Nose: 1017

Sides: 855/855

Aft: 693



Cargo

Bay 1: BattleArmor (IS) (18) 2 Doors

Bay 2: Cargo (325.5 tons) 2 Doors



Ammunition:

160 rounds of AC/20 ammunition (4 tons),

300 rounds of SRM 6 ammunition (20 tons),

312 rounds of LRM 20 ammunition (52 tons)



Escape Pods: 3

Life Boats: 3

Crew: 4 officers, 2 enlisted/non-rated, 13 gunners, 108 bay personnel



Notes: Mounts 202.5 tons of standard aerospace armor.



Weapons: Capital Attack Values (Standard)

Arc (Heat) Heat SRV MRV LRV ERV Class

Nose (158 Heat)

2 AC/20 14 4(40) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AC

AC/20 Ammo (40 shots)

4 PPC 40 4(40) 4(40) 0(0) 0(0) PPC

8 Large Laser 64 6(64) 6(64) 0(0) 0(0) Laser

4 LRM 20 24 5(48) 5(48) 5(48) 0(0) LRM

LRM 20 Ammo (96 shots)

4 SRM 6 16 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) SRM

SRM 6 Ammo (75 shots)

RW/LW (126 Heat)

2 AC/20 14 4(40) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AC

AC/20 Ammo (40 shots)

3 PPC 30 3(30) 3(30) 0(0) 0(0) PPC

6 Large Laser 48 5(48) 5(48) 0(0) 0(0) Laser

3 LRM 20 18 4(36) 4(36) 4(36) 0(0) LRM

LRM 20 Ammo (72 shots)

4 SRM 6 16 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) SRM

SRM 6 Ammo (75 shots)

Aft (126 Heat)

2 AC/20 14 4(40) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) AC

AC/20 Ammo (40 shots)

6 Large Laser 48 5(48) 5(48) 0(0) 0(0) Laser

3 PPC 30 3(30) 3(30) 0(0) 0(0) PPC

3 LRM 20 18 4(36) 4(36) 4(36) 0(0) LRM

LRM 20 Ammo (72 shots)

4 SRM 6 16 3(32) 0(0) 0(0) 0(0) SRM

SRM 6 Ammo (75 shots)

Thanks to Knowledgeispower.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Comeback

New Vandenburg: March 1st, 3005
"I'm not letting you jump into the system with the rest of your forces." Colonel Calderon said. "You've expanded, and despite the fact that I may have liked you, I don't trust you." He gestured at the folder in front of him. "You might even be a Davion spy for all I know, you did originate there after all."

I wasn't sure what had changed in the couple of years since I worked for Colonel Thomas Calderon, but I didn't like it. And the more that he went on, the angrier I got. Finally, having had enough I stood up and walked out. "Tell the family I said hi." I snarked out as I left. There were other people who would be willing to hear me out.
Taurus: March 30th, 3005
"Thank you so much for being willing to meet with me Protector Calderon." I thanked the woman profusely.
"Well, a Mercenary commander calling my office every fifteen minutes until he got a meeting seemed at least worth a bit of my time." She said, humoring me.
"I know your time is important ma'am, and so I'll get to the point." I said, my face entirely serious in spite of her attempt at humor. "Protector, I have over just over two thousand Taurian Concordat Refugees from the Reunification War in stasis aboard my dropships and jumpships." I went on to describe how we found them and the other things hidden underneath that district.


Protector Calderon just sat there in silence for a bit. Slowly digesting everything that she had just heard. . "I'm going to need some sort of proof that what you say is real."


"Of course Protector." I nodded at her. "I'm willing to take you and your protection detail to my Dropship the Messenger in order to prove it to you."


"Postpone all of my appointments." She turned to one of her bodyguards. "Get me a car, we're going to be examining this "Proof" that Colonel Hull has to offer.


I was escorted to the limo with the Protector and several bodyguards. "You're certain that they're Taurian?" She asked once the limo was on it's way through traffic to the spaceport.


"Yes ma'am." I said, deathly serious. "Both my people and Interstellar Expeditions verified it multiple times."


It took us less than thirty minutes to arrive at the spaceport, the benefits of traveling with the Protector with me streamlining the entire process.


Upon reaching the Messenger, the entry doors were opened and I showed her to one of the cargo bays filled to the maximum with both Stasis pods and the tech to keep them operational. She slowly walked over, examining the pod that had definite Concordat markings on it. Before turning to speak to me.


"Thank you for returning our people back to us." She said. "I'll command the TDF to stand down and not impede your Jumpships." She paused for a minute. "I'll send over some people to offload these pods ASAP and you can have your Jumpship go get the rest of your people.


"Yes ma'am." I responded. "We'll get things prepped here, it takes quite a bit to get them ready to move."
"I can only imagine." Protector Calderon responded before being escorted off of the ship.
What followed was an extremely busy week as we transferred the stasis pods along with the support gear over to the Protector's trusted people. As soon as that was finished we were headed to go collect the rest of my people.
Taurus: May 25th, 3005


"Well, I think that's everyone." I said, wiping my hands on my grease stained work overalls. "Sheppard. Can you make sure that's the last one?" I asked. Groaning as I stretched and felt my back and neck crack a few times.
Sheppard sent a couple of NCO's to triple check everyone's work while I rested against a wall for a second. "That's the last one Colonel." He said.


"Good." I stood up straight. "All right people. Go get some showers and take some time off for the next couple of days. You've all earned it."


I was greeted with halfhearted fist pumps and cheers. We had all worked around the clock and I knew that my people were exhausted. Moving with the rest of the group I was working with, I grabbed a fresh uniform and went to the communal showers.


I still felt tired, but I didn't feel as gross after a quick shower and a change into a fresh uniform. "Alright Sheppard, I need you to hold down the fort while I go debrief the Protector." I called out to the man sprawled out on a crate in the cargo bay.


"You got it boss." He weakly gave a thumbs up and returned to his napping.


I just shook my head as I walked out of the Vagabond and towards our small motor pool. We had bought some local Armored trucks and SUV's to use while in town. Climbing into one of them, I began the drive to Calderon's office.
"Are you sure we can't interest you in citizenship and a Title?" Protector Zarantha Calderon Asked me.


"No ma'am." I responded. "Myself and the rest of the senior staff agreed that returning your people to you was just the right thing to do. The most we expect from you is paying for fuel we used."


"Done." She didn't even hesitate. "And as for the other thing you discussed. TTI will be breaking ground within a month." She looked me in the eye. "And I and the Calderon family will be investing personally in this venture."


"Thank you ma'am." I said. "We're going to need the spare parts and having our own supplier will help greatly."


"Are you sure we can't convince you to settle down here in the Concordat?" She tried one last time.


"Unfortunately not ma'am." I responded. "We've got people from all over right now, and we aim to leave a mark on the Sphere before we're through."


"Well, you've already made a mark here in the Concordat." Zarantha responded. " If y'all ever need a safe haven or need any help from the Calderon family and the Concordat as a whole just send us word."


"Thank you ma'am." I stood up and shook her hand. "We'll be heading out within the week. Have to get out there and get to work."


"It's been a pleasure Colonel Hull."
Artru: July 12th, 3005


"Moment of truth Colonel." Sheppard said over his comms, watching from his Mongoose as the door Colonel Hull was accessing began to slide open.


"Alright people." Sheppard called out. "We don't know if the Star league left any automated defenses behind or not so keep on your toes." The two full fireteams of 'Mechs and company of Armor moved to provide cover for the Colonel as he ran to one of the Maxim hovercraft.


" Rifle two, Move up and check things out." Sheppard commanded. Keeping an eye on his various systems and activating his Beagle Active Probe. "Your Crab has the most armor here."


"Moving up Rifle Lead." Rifle two replied, maneuvering through the doors cautiously, ready to bolt at first contact. "I've got nothing here lead."


"Copy that two." Sheppard said. "Sniper lead you listening?"


"This is Sniper Company, we copy. Moving up to investigate now." The three Maxim's moved at a decent pace to the interior of the SLDF outpost and prepped their targeting systems. Ready for a fight to get out if necessary.
Working with IE had changed the Marksman computer protocols. Whereas before, they just accessed everything all at once without care, now after having heard many a cautionary tale from the IE computer experts they only powered up one computer at a time before accessing the systems. Apparently, the SLIC tended to leave behind nasty surprises for those who didn't have authorized access.


"Well, this wasn't quite what I expected." Colonel Hull said, looking at the outposts computer systems with Corporal Rook. "Looks like it's mostly research on automation and a couple of experimental automated repair bays." the Colonel looked at the files. "Looks like they were trying to work the kinks out of some of the SDS systems and get these repair bays working properly."


"Hey Colonel." Rook called out glancing up from his computer screen. "There should be a lance of heavy 'Mechs and a mobile HQ in the far bay." He shrugged. "Aside from enough Ferro Fibrous to armor all of our 'Mechs and the bays there doesn't seem to be much else here."


"Understood, Corporal." the Colonel responded and then had everyone start stripping the Castle outpost of anything that might be the slightest bit useful. "I want us heading for the jump point in forty-eight hours." He began to delegate duties to the officers. "Sheppard, you're in charge of making sure they get those repair bays out. "Peterson, I want you and Paige to coordinate loading the Ferro Fibrous and that lance." he paused for a second. "Dunham, you're on intel retrieval. I want you to rip everything from the computer systems that might be useful whether it's coding or anything else. Just leave that one alone." He pointed at the one computer he had disconnected from the bases network with the assistance of Corporal Rook and the other technicians. "That one we're destroying."


Personal Journal
Well, the last few months have been full speed ahead. First, getting everything off of the planet that the troops have taken to calling Spectre and making sure that we got it to the Concordat. I had to rotate people on and off of the Argo for R&R for weeks before everyone was well rested again. Then we had to unload everything. My people earned the bonus that I gave them for their hard work over the last six months.


Authors note: Once again ahead of my Proofreader here. Expect some slight changes here and there.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty Four: Kingdom

Valexa, Federated Suns; December 30th,

"You know," Sheppard said to the rest of the crew that had gone out drinking with him. "It's nice to be on a garrison contract again."

"Hear hear." Lieutenant Packer agreed, raising his mug of beer in his massive paw of a hand. "Good booze, great pay, the company though.… eh, could be better." He smirked at the guys he was with.

"At least we're not the Colonel right now." Mendoza offered. "Last I saw him out of the office was three days ago. And even then he was working on the paperwork."

"I've got Peterson on it." Sheppard chimed in. "He's forcing a break right about now." He glanced down at his watch. "Ever since those three he had sorting paperwork for him quit he's been up to his ears in trying to keep up with everything." He took a deep swig of his beer. "Luckily, Hull usually listens to reason."

"Yeah," Paige agreed. "The Colonel is pretty good about that.

"Enough about work already!" Mckay yelled, already plastered. "We're here to Partay!"

"I thought you were on babysitting duty." Sheppard glared at Lamb who pretended to ignore him.

"I'll drive her back to base." Jenkins volunteered, he was the one who usually stayed sober anyway. "Not like I got much else to do but study for this engineer test." he offered.

"Sounds good Jenkins." Packer thanked him with a nod. "I'll cover her tab tonight and I'll help you get that lab time you asked for."
Valexa, Federated Suns; January 15th, 3006

"Alright people, now that you've gotten all of the partying and fun out of your system it's that time of year again." Colonel Hull said to the assembled battalion. "That's right, it's time for live fire exercises again." I paused. "This year, I will be proctoring while Sheppard and Peterson split the battalion in half."

"Oh, and before I forget." I stopped them before they dispersed to get moving to the land plots we had leased and set up with mock buildings and objectives. "Strider and Wardog will not be accessible to either side for this engagement. Ground forces only."

Sheppard and Peterson groaned, but came up to the parade ground stage. Our war games forces were all picked via a lottery based system. First you drew what equipment you had,then the staff was sorted into lots based on skill levels and training, and finally, you drew whether you were defending or attacking. While this didn't make things fair, it enabled us to get a feel for different scenarios that may happen in real life due to bad intel or any number of other things. This year, I had removed my Warhammer from the lottery and also taken the Messenger and our aerospace squadrons out of play. I had plans for them…
"Dammit!" Peterson cussed, he had gotten most of the Battlemech company barring the Marauder and Crab and had managed to grab Paige's non mechanized infantry company in support along with the artillery pieces. To make matters worse, even though his forces would probably be used better on the offensive, he was stuck defending the "fort" that the engineers had put up over the last couple of weeks.

Pushing aside his anger, he climbed into the Mongoose and triple checked to make sure everything was set to training mode. There had only ever been one accident during their live fire exercises and after what the Colonel did to her, it had never happened again.

This years exercises were scheduled to take almost a month, and the Colonel always made them interesting by adding in little surprises that he had planned in advance. Last years exercises had been conducted in a hurry because of how busy they were and had only lasted two days before they had to pack up and leave. This year, being denied access to their normal Air cover would make things interesting indeed.

February 5th 3006


"Sheppard!" Peterson laughed. "I got you good this time." He slapped the shoulder of his friend. "Any idea why the Colonel called the exercises off early?"
"Nope" Sheppard responded shaking his head. " But I'm sure if you wait, he'll be briefing us shortly."
"Listen up!" Colonel Hull called when the battalion had settled in. We have Capellan raiders burning into the system as we speak. From what the Argo and Messenger have picked up it looks like we have two battalions headed here to raid and they are three days out."
February 15th, 3006
"Colonel, we need to fall back." Lieutenant Lamb, the commander of 'Mech fireteam Carbine radioed in.
"That's a negative Lieutenant" I replied, "I need you there so Sheppard can come in with the heavies."


"Sir, Mckay and Rogers just punched out." She said as she fired a large laser at an Enforcer. "I'm down to a Lance here. I need something with more firepower to hold this line."


The comms went silent for a second as I put Dunham in command of coordinating and keeping the various companies updated and climbed into my Warhammer. Rushing through the startup process, I pushed at my fastest speed to help bail out the fireteam.


"Dunham, see if our Spotters managed to range the Lancers' Dropships yet." I commanded as I rushed through the trees. "Rifle lead, we may need to spring our trap early."


"Roger that Marksman actual." Sheppard responded. "Rifle, trigger is pulled."
I rounded a hill to see Mckay's Griffin slumped over with it's fist embedded in the cockpit of an Enforcer and Roger's Shadow Hawk was leaning against a tree with it missing its left torso.


I snapped off both PPC's at an Enforcer, hitting it's shoulder and causing it's autocannon to miss it's intended target. Lamb and Maverick focused fire with me and we dropped the Enforcer before backing away. I fired both PPC's at an Archer this time. Nearly taking the pilot out and drawing most of the ire that this company had.


"Marksman actual and Carbine, Watch your fire." Sheppard called. Coming out of the woods on passive sensors with the rest of the battalion hot on his heels. The Lancer's were pinched between both of our forces. But they fought until there was only a lance left before surrendering.


After the aftermath of the battle, my Warhammer was missing a PPC, I was out of SRM's, and we were down both Pegasus hovercraft, one Vedette medium tank, and a full fireteam of 'mechs was out of commission. While we had been running distraction on the 'Mech forces in our area, Peterson and the infantry had gotten the dropsite of the Lancers ranged and sited with the Ballista Artillery we had. They had managed to get the drop on about half of their dropships and the rest had powered down and surrendered rather than get crippled from artillery at range.


March 10th, 3006
It was strange, losing so much and yet being grateful for it. We utterly dismantled the battalion of Blackwind Lancers that had dropped in to raid Valexa. But we had lost all of our Armor barring our Maxims and the Artillery. Most of our 'Mechs were in various states of disrepair and some of them might even be scrapped entirely. Mckay had punched out but would be laid up in the Argo on medical leave until spinal compression and a concussion went away. Rogers had to have his left leg and arm in a cast after his ejection seat threw him into a tree. I had over 50% casualties In the armored company alone.

The infantry companies had made it out with the least amount of casualties and would be handling most of the patrol duties. The infantry had made it out the most intact because we had mostly used them for scouting for the artillery and ensuring the POW's didn't try to escape.
Whereas the militia had been wiped out almost to a man fighting Marion's Highlanders and had only managed to take out a company before they lifted off with the spoils of war we had managed to take out and take prisoner a good portion of what the Lancers had landed with.
March 24th, 3006
"It was a good plan Mark." Sheppard said, the command staff all sitting down in the room we had claimed. "If we had thought it was bad then we would have told you." He shrugged "We did better than most regular units would have done in our place and that's something to be proud of."


"Their lives were spent sir." Captain Rose said with a sad smile on her face. "Not wasted." Her company had taken the majority of the losses over the past two months.


"We're going to have to pull some people from the training Cadre." Peterson advised. "And we need heavier machines. While what we had worked well with pirates, we're gonna need heavier machines and more of them if we're going to take on house units like this on the regular."


"I put together a wish list Colonel." Rose said. "I'll have it on your desk in a couple of days." She paused. "After the funerals that is."
I just nodded. Having been taking notes the entire time. "I'm gonna need a list of improvements from all of you the day after tomorrow." I said. "We're going to be stepping up our game in training, recruitment, and in materials."


"Are we heading to Avalon?" A couple of the staff asked and I shook my head. "We wouldn't be able to explain where the equipment came from." I sighed. "We're stuck doing it the old fashioned way for now."


"Alright then." Sheppard said. "I expect full debriefs on my desk before you turn your improvements and wish lists in to the Colonel." He looked at each of the assembled senior officers including me. "I expect all of you to get at least eight hours of sleep and eat a solid breakfast before the funerals in the morning." He said sternly, the usual humor gone from his face.


"Yes sir," The senior officers said and then they dispersed to head to their quarters and go to sleep.

Authors note: I'm pretty sure pbthhhht is asleep right now wherever he is. So once again, expect some minor changes as we go. Also, my laptop is about to head into the shop tomorrow and so I'll be stealing my wifes computer to write everything.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty Five: Damage Assessment

Valexa, Federated Suns March 26th, 3006

“Colonel, you are one lucky son of a bitch.” My lead astech Jerome MCallister said. “Somehow, without losing more than the one PPC, you managed to strip every single last ton of Armor off of your ‘Mech without having to punch out.” He shook his head incredulously. “It’d take me two weeks without the repair bays to get this thing fixed.” He shrugged. “Give us five days and we’ll have this thing back in the fight.”

“Thanks Mcallister.” I replied. “But focus on getting the rest of the ‘Mechs up and running. I can run things from the mobile HQ for now.”

“Alright then,” The big black Irishman replied. “I’ll let the crew know to work on everything else first.”

“Hey Colonel!” Captain Rose greeted me with a sad smile as I walked through the parts of the JackWagon we had converted to using as repair bays temporarily. “Thanks for making sure my Vedette got put back together in time for the funeral.”

The Marksman funeral had been held the day before. And we had used the Vedette in synch with our infantry to give our farewell salute to our fallen brothers and sisters.

“Captain, I saw your list, and I’ll be making some calls after our Garrison contract is up to work on them.” I said. Gesturing to the notepad in my hand filled with notes on it. “Let me know if I missed anything.” I saw that she was barely holding in tears and brought her in for a hug. We might be a military unit, but I made sure that this felt like a family.

“We’ll make it.” I said, rubbing her back like I used to do to my sisters when they had a breakdown. The shoulder of my uniform was covered in snot and tears but that didn’t matter right then and there. Right here and now, some of my people were hurting. And we would be striking back in return.

“I’m sorry Colonel.” Rose said as she straightened up. Wiping the tears and snot from her eyes. “I’m good now.”

“Rose,” I said, meeting her eyes. “The Marksman are a family we all have eachothers back.”

“You did good work out there Rose.” I smiled. “I’m proud of you and your team.” I patted her back and began my trek to the place I had commandeered to do my paperwork for the day. “Make sure you get some rest.” I called out over my shoulder.

“Yes sir.” She replied. It seemed that at least some of the weight had lifted off of her shoulders.


March 30th, 3006



While I had a main office on the Messenger I rarely made use of it. Preferring to utilize areas closer to where my people were working so as to be more accessible. I had managed to line up a lot of heavier replacements for the combat vehicles we had lost. The Davions had taken two of the Unions and half of the Battlemechs we had salvaged in exchange for a Triumph class Dropship and the ability to purchase tanks and equipment directly from the Davion supply chains.

I had managed to wrangle two Manticores, one Vedette, two Tigers, two Thumpers, two Ballistas, Four LRM Carriers, and we had even managed to talk some people into selling their Puma assault vehicles when I added 500,000 C-Bills on top of their asking price.

On another note, I had received a message from the Pierce Militia. The lease on the Troy, the Buccaneer that I had leased out to them was up and they didn’t want to renew it. So, I was sending the King Henry V along with Sheppard and a decent amount of crew to go collect it along with our new combat vehicle purchases and bring them back to Valexa while we were finishing out our Garrison contract. I would be sending Wardog Squadron, Sheppards new Marauder, and a fireteam of infantry with him as backup.





May 5th, 3006
“Alright Sheppard.” I said, shaking his hand as he and the rest of the group with him made to depart. “I already negotiated all of the deals and got the lawyers involved in the purchase contracts. All you need to do is verify your identity and pick up our gear.”

“Safe travels boys and girls.” I stepped back and saluted our purchasing team. “We’ll hold down the fort until you get back. Dimissed” The assembled team dispersed to say their goodbyes and put their stuff away before takeoff.

Lieutenant Dunham had gathered a decent group of Intel people to accompany them as they traveled the Federated Suns gathering up their gear. Their estimated time to get everything and return was around seven months and we would be training and recruiting until then.

Personal Journal: June 7th, 3006
I’ve spent the last month focused on making sure that we were training and repairing around the clock. We managed to restore all of our ‘mechs back to fighting status and also put together another four Archers and two Enforcers in that amount of time. While quite a few of our pilots are still lightly injured, we’ve shifted some of the remaining armor company to pilot in their places for now. We were able to get both of the Pegasus hovercraft up and running again, but everything else was a bust aside from the one Vedette that had limped back in. So, currently we are stronger in ‘Mechs than we were before; being able to field almost two Companies of ‘Mechs at this present moment. Captain Rose has been recovering from the loss of most of her command at a decent pace. The therapist’s and rotation through the Argo for R&R has kept morale high along with the bonus the Davions gave for outstanding work. It seems that while we kept the two battalions of the Highlander’s and Lancers pinned down the rest of their formations had been hit and mostly destroyed by the Wolf’s Dragoons. Also, I got word from R&D that they need a handful of volunteers (Read: Test subjects) for testing a couple of projects that they believed were nearing completion.

Authors note: Once again I'm ahead of my proof reader. Sorry pbthhhht! I do appreciate the help, I just tend to want to post it as soon as I'm done writing. I do go back and make the edits he shows me after I publish it though I promise!

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Six: Surprises

Valexa, Federated Suns: August 10th, 3006

“Mmm.” I relaxed into my morning cup of coffee. “This is the life.” I was taking a week long break after having been doing training exercises with the new recruits for the last six weeks. I hadn’t even so much as looked at a stack of paperwork in three days.


Thankfully, most of the training didn’t need direct oversight and we had nearly perfected our standard recruit and cross training regimen. Our Senior NCO’s got to supervise and were able to develop the kind of things we looked for in officers, and the junior NCO’s got to prove that they had the chops to move up to senior NCO’s. Also, Dunham’s team had gotten extremely good at weeding out the intelligence people that tried to join our battalion and we would find reasons to flunk them out of boot.

Currently, I was sitting on the front porch of the building I had rented for the week of my vacation and doing nothing more than reading, and relaxing. This was the first Vacation I had had in six years after all and I didn’t want to get burnt out. Peterson was in command while I was on this getaway and he ran a pretty tight ship in conjunction with the rest of the senior staff.






I was still being sent reports that I was periodically browsing though and the latest report said that they would be field testing the finished project that R&D had been working on for the past two years.

The Argo had become the home to a bunch of extremely interesting people. Our R&D department was generally made up of people that were criticized and outcast for wanting to try new things instead of following in the Star Leagues footsteps, and our doctors, nurses, and therapists were all the best that we could afford from both the Taurian Concordat and Magistracy of Canopus.

I would still be on vacation when the field tests were conducted. However, Peterson and the rest of the current command staff were still supposed to file reviews and document everything that was going into this project. We were also working on a couple of projects that would probably spook the Wolf’s Dragoons. Modular technology was something that I knew the Clans had near perfected, even if it took another five years, having modular weaponry to swap out on a dime in order to swap roles for combat would be worth both the money and time invested. For now, I had them working on building the framework for Modular Combat vehicles. We could scale up or down as necessary.

For now though, I wasn’t thinking about work. I was making a concerted effort to relax. I hadn’t originally planned this vacation. (But according to Sheppard and the rest of the command staff I had been working too hard.) But by God I would make the best of it. I did bring my Warhammer and a decent supply of small arms with me after all. There was no way I was being taken by any sort of intelligence agency without a fight. So, I sat on the front porch in a rocking chair, drinking my coffee while I was cleaning the carbine I usually kept in the Warhammer.

“I’ll need to remember to send the Wolf’s Dragoons a fruit basket or something.” I reminded myself. “They did manage to get the rest of the Highlanders and Lancers taken out after all.”


My comm device started chirping at me while I was finishing the last of my coffee.

“Colonel Hull.” I answered, putting the device on speaker while I finished cleaning.

“Colonel, It’s Peterson, you might want to get back to base ASAP.” He said.

“Why?!” I stood up and grabbed my go bag, making for my Warhammer. “Is there a problem?”

“No sir, but Hanse Davion is here and wishes to speak with you.” He replied.

“When did he get on planet?” I asked as I rushed up the ladder to the cockpit of my Warhammer. “I should have at least gotten a report of some kind.”

“Colonel, no one knew he was here until he walked into the repair bay and started lending a hand with some repairs.” Peterson said a little incredulously. “He was on site and assisting in coveralls for a solid hour or two before Sergeant Lamb walked through and recognized him.”

“He didn’t have bodyguards?” I asked as I powered up my Warhammer and ran through my ID protocols.

“He did, they were helping too, and with all of the new people we’ve recruited over the past couple of months he blended right in.” Peterson said. “It’s hard to keep track of all five to six hundred of us. Honestly, we need to give Dunham a promotion and more funding if this keeps up.”


“On my way now.” I said as I linked my Warhammers GPS to the small satellite we had put in orbit. “ETA two hours.”

“We’ll expect you then, Peterson out.” The comm device shut off.




Two hours later…

I parked my Warhammer in the warehouse we had converted into a temporary ‘Mech bay' and climbed out as soon as I had powered everything down. Rushed onto the catwalk and made my way down to ground level. I was seriously concerned that I would leave a bad impression on both Hanse and my new recruits by having not been here when he first arrived.

“Colonel.” Peterson greeted me as soon as my feet touched the ground. “ Colonel Davion of the Third Davion Guards is in the Mess hall. He’s been waiting patiently for a while now.”

“Alright.” I replied. “I’m not even in uniform though.”

“I don’t think it’ll make all that much of a difference at this point sir.” Peterson observed.

“Let’s just get going then.” I said, running a quick glance over my jeans, scuffed gray boots, and flannel shirt.





“Colonel Davion.” I shook the man’s hand firmly. “I apologize for not being present when you arrived.”

“It’s quite alright Colonel Hull.” Hanse Davion smirked. “I’d wait almost any length of time to meet a time traveler after all.”

I facepalmed. “I guess you read Precentor Winfrey’s treatise?” I asked after my embarrassment had eased a bit and the redness in my face had subsided.

“Why yes actually, it was quite an interesting read.” Hanse replied, that insufferable grin still on his face. “Now tell me, what was it like living in the Star League before the Exodus and Dissolution of the Hegemony?”

I knew at this moment that how I answered this question would at least influence part of how Hanse and hopefully Ian Davion viewed the Star League.

“Do you want the truth?” I asked. “Or do you want me to lie to you?” I was extremely serious at this moment.

“Well, better an uncomfortable truth than a lie.” He replied.

“The Star League was a failure in both the governance of its people, and a failure in terms of a nation.” I stated outright. “And this is coming from someone who was born on Terra during the Amaris Civil War.” I said, making sure he knew where I was coming from.

“History teaches us that if a nation has to constantly and consistently be looking for someone to conquer in order for the state to remain stable then that state will eventually fall. The Star League was an attempt by Ian Cameron to pit his enemies against eachother and weaken every nation but his own. The various non-periphery member states benefiting was simply a fortunate side effect of being closer to Terra. The Reunification war was a series of aggression and exploitation that simply sealed the Star League’s fate. The Succession Wars are simply the breakdown of what was a failing system in the first place.” I paused for Breath. “I’m sorry if I ramble a little bit, but history is one of the things that I’ve always taken an interest in and how civilizations rise and fall is one of the things I particularly enjoy reading about.”


“No,” Hanse sat there with an extremely intrigued look on his face. “Please continue

“Well,” I began to start up again “ what the Star League led to was essentially institutional reliance and slavery for the periphery nations and I would add the member nations as well. You see, the way that the First Lord kept the member states in line was by being the source of advanced technology both military and civilian in source. As we see throughout the Succession Wars, being bound to the technology and science path of the Star League has actually led to more issues than anything else. Rather than each Member state and Periphery nation building and researching things on their own and inventing new devices, there was an overreliance on parts made and overengineered by a nation that needed things to work in their favor.” I paused to breathe again. “This is the way that I see it, coming from Terra directly and having seen both before the Succession Wars and in the midst of them now.”

“Well,” Hanse said after a moment. “That’s going to be quite a lot to digest.”

“I’m sorry if I offended you.” I responded. “I am a firm believer that we wouldn’t have been in the situation that we are in if not for an overreliance on both the Hegemony and Star League for research and Technology.”

“The Succession Wars?” Hanse asked for clarification “Or the Lostech?”

“The Succession Wars were going to happen regardless of the Amaris War.” I wave a hand. “They would have been just under another name. But the technology difference, I lay the blame for that squarely at the feet of the Camerons and Hegemony.”

“Well, I came here to get the measure of our newest Mercenary hires and instead I got an interesting opinion to digest.” He shook my hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Colonel, I’d get your people trained up and repaired quickly if I were you.” He winked. “We may have an offensive planned.”

“Thank you for the heads up sir.” I responded. “We’ll be ready.”

At that, Hanse got up and said his goodbyes. It seemed he had to get back to his Regiment.




August 12th, 3006

Alright, we have a green light.” Peterson said, turning to the soldier about to run through the course we had designed for field testing. “Corporal Jenkins, you have a go. Proceed through the course as you see fit.”

Jenkins started off with a brief jog, getting a feel for how everything handled before speeding up. He slid underneath the logs covered in Razor wire while shooting at targets that had been set. And used jump jets to get over the higher obstacles. Using the weapons placed in different areas to simulate different scenarios.

“Alright Jenkins,” Peterson told him over comms. “Head towards the next area for live fire exercises and simulations.” We were using the mockup we had made for the previous yearly exercise that had been interrupted for this trial and test run.

Jenkins took off at a solid sprint and made it over to the next testing area with plenty of time to spare. “All Green?” Peterson asked. Jenkins gave a thumbs up.

“Exercise is a go.” We had our VTOL’s in the air and our lone Vedette along with our Shadow Hawks for this exercise. If Jenkins could disable even a single VTOL and/or make it through without taking crippling damages then we would consider the trial a success and put it into production on the Argo.

The entire review team was watching the cameras we had set up and making notes. Trying to see if issues could be brought up. We had already done longevity testing as well as manufacturing feasibility and ease of repair and it had passed all of those tests with flying colors. This was more of a demonstration run for the Command staff just why I had funneled so much of our excess funds into R&D.

Jenkins made his way through the mock city fairly quickly, taking shelter in buildings and even using his jump jets to land on and place a “Det charge” onto a Shadow Hawks rear hatch. Rendering that Shadow Hawk as “Dead” to the rest of the Opfors sensors. He then used the “Dead” ‘Mech as a distraction and made it to the LZ for a solid mission complete.


“So,” I turned to the rest of the command staff. “What do you think?”

“Do they fit in armored vehicles?” Captain Rose was the first to ask a question. “Because if we can outfit everyone with a variant of this, we can cut casualties by a lot.”

“We’re currently working on scaling down for Cockpits and armored vehicles.” I replied. “The R&D team has told me that they won’t be quite as tough as the base models, and they probably won’t have Jump jets but they’ll be available after the Infantry are outfitted with their variant.”

“Any other questions?” Peterson asked. He had been heading up this project since we left the Magistracy of Canopus.

When everyone had either said no or shaken their heads in the negative he continued on.

“The M10A-Mithril Powered armor is going to be the new face of infantry.” He started. “It is impervious to Small arms fire, able to take anything less than a Medium Laser and survive, it is also completely sealed against any gasses or chemicals. It can achieve a maximum speed of fifteen Klicks an hour and has jump jets to boost mobility. The Mithril is powered by a fuel cell that will last a minimum of a month before needing to be swapped out. This ladies and gentleman, is where we make our mark on the Inner Sphere.”

Authors note: I know that my viewpoint on the SLDF will spark some debate, I just want y'all to keep it civil if at all possible. I’ll also be going back and cleaning up some of that word vomit to read better.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Ramping up (Production)

Valexa, Federated Suns September 10th, 3006

We had been working around the clock on building Mithril suits, managing to boost our own production from one and a half suits a day to around two to three depending on whether we had people on rotation or not. After a month of production, we had been able to outfit just under half of our infantry over the last month. Given that we had a limited time frame, I wasn’t sure we would be able to get the pilot/armored suits scaled down in time for any offensive. As it was, we would have to get our people working on the new combat vehicles ASAP when Sheppard got back around December.

Thankfully, our Triumph class Dropship Vanguard had finally arrived and the local Militia had taken the two Unions as payment. I had immediately set the various Dropship teams loose on the Triumph to check if there were any damages or improvements to be made and to get me a report ASAP.




“Alright Colonel,” Captain Jewel handed me the reports from the various dropship techs and engineers I had set loose on the Vanguard. “Looks like most things check out, we’ll need to do some small maintenance, but aside from that it looks good.”

“Thanks for summarizing that Captain,” I replied, smiling at the thought of not having to leaf through all of the reports that they would have filled out. “Anything else I should know while you’re still here?” I asked.

“Well sir, the DroST people have come up with an idea…” She trailed off.

“What kind of idea?” I asked with my eyebrow raised, a bit concerned at the way she had phrased that.

“They want to convert the Drost to a dedicated support and/or Gunship platform now that we have a dedicated infantry and vehicle dropship.” She replied.

“Did they give a solid workup?” I asked. “I like the idea, but I want solid numbers and how long it would take to refit.”

“Yes actually.” Captain Jewel paused, digging through her file folder. “They actually did all of the math and everything.” She finally produced the file and workup that the DroST crews had submitted.

“If I take a look at it and find that it’s feasible before we go on the offensive, I want you to head up the refits Jewel.” I said, meeting her eyes. “I would consider keeping the infantry on the DroST’s though.” I said. “We could use them in conjunction with the Mithril to do combat drops over the top of enemy forces.”
“I’ll bring it to the crews, they know the DroST’s best after all.” Jewel replied. “I’ll get on this and check on the people we’re going to crew the Triumph with.”

“Concerned about losing your chief engineer for a bit?” I asked, smirking.

“Yes.” Captain Jewel replied, leaving it at that.

“Alright Captain, take a lunch break and then get to whatever you were doing before this.” I said, taking my last sip of coffee. “Oh, can you have one of the cooks bring me another cup while you’re passing by the Cafeteria?” I asked.

“How many cups have you had today?” She asked.

“I think that was number five or so…” I considered. “I lost count around noon.”

“It’s five in the evening Colonel.” She deadpanned. “I think you should be done with the work for the day.”

“But I’m almost done for the week.” I replied, wanting to finish the last of the dreaded paperwork. “I even filed everything ahead of time so that I can spend the rest of the week helping out with the Mithril rollout.”

“You’re hopeless.” Jewel replied, shaking her head. “I’m cutting you off for the day, no more coffee or paperwork. Instead, you’re getting out of this office and getting some air.”

“Fine,” I agreed, knowing that I always lost this argument with the rest of the command staff. “I need a break anyway.”

“See, that wasn’t so hard was it?” Jewel asked, a smug smile on her face. “Now, I hear that the cooks are breaking out the Steaks tonight.”



When I woke up the next morning, I felt physically exhausted, bruised all over, and a massive headache all at once. Stumbling around my quarters, I managed to get into a fresh uniform and tried to exit my room without falling over. When I stumbled out I was greeted by a widely grinning Captain Peterson.

“Why good morning Colonel.” He started, “Or should I say afternoon.”

“Captain.” I greeted. “Did y’all let me sleep all day?” I asked. “And what happened last night? I feel like I got stomped on by an Atlas.”

“Well sir, you decided that a great way to take a break last night was to get involved in a game of Rugby with all of us infantry.” Peterson grinned. “Forgetting that Dunham is a bit on the small side for most of our infantry.

“I didn’t.” I facepalmed “Please tell me I at least played well?” I asked.

“You actually did play pretty well for a guy physically outclassed.” Peterson responded, that insufferable grin still present. “You got knocked a little too hard on the head towards the end and we had to drag you off of the field with a mild concussion.”

“That explains the headache and the bruises.” I said, wincing at the thought of sitting in my office again. “I take it Doc told me I’m not allowed to work today?” I asked.

“You Colonel,” Peterson paused. “Are not allowed to even think about paperwork for the rest of the week. The full list of things you can’t do were messaged to all of the senior staff and NCO’s. If you go against the doctor's orders, we will know.”

“Dammit.” I swore, holding my head as it rung like a bell from me being too loud. “I’m going back to bed.” I said, “Wake me up when the concussion is over.”




“Alright,” Peterson started, the Senior Staff, both officers and NCOs were seated around the briefing room table. “The Colonel is on bed rest for a week.” He nodded towards Dunham, the one that had laid the Colonel out in the rugby match. “Nice hit by the way, he never saw it coming.” He complimented. “I want to see if we can get all of the paperwork done and see if we can at the very least get started on those DroST refits before the Colonel is allowed back to work.” He stopped there. “Now I know that Sheppard typically sorts through the various paperwork and thins it out before it reaches the Colonel, but he’s not here; and we need to pick up the slack.

Dunham stood up “We’ve been given a priority of training and repairing.” He stated. “Now, we’ve gotten most of the repairs and refits done aside from the dropships.” He consulted a file in front of him. “We need to get the new recruits some live fire training and begin the basic cross training. That’s all we have on the agenda aside from Mithril before Sheppard gets back in December.”

“Thanks Lieutenant.” Peterson said. “We’ll get to work on this and hopefully by the time the Colonel is back on his feet we’ll be up and running at peak efficiency.”




September 24th, 3006
“Alright Doc, what’s the verdict?” I asked from the medical bed.

“You're cleared to go back to work as long as you don’t play rugby again for another week or so.” She replied. “Now get out of my office, I’ve got other people to see.”

I left the medbay and met Dunham right outside. “Next time don’t hit me so hard.” I slugged him in the shoulder. “You know I hate going in there.”

“I’ll do my best,” He shrugged. “No promises though.”

We started walking towards the main area. “How is the Mithril production going?” I asked, eager to get back to work.

“We’ve outfitted all but a couple of platoons with the new armor.” He replied. “We’re continuing production and training to get them accustomed to how everything works.”

“They’re still getting used to being able to use the jump jets and everything else?” I asked. “I figured we’d have to go back through training again.”

“Yessir, Jenkins is taking the lead on it considering he was the one who volunteered to pilot it and everything for the first time.” He responded. “We’ve gotten around fifty percent of the unit used to the Mithril and have been training the ‘Mech fireteams the way that you wanted.”

“Good work.” I said. “And the last thing I asked you to look into?”

“Sir, we had the legal team look through it, and there’s really no way that Comstar or anyone else can touch you as far as nationality goes.” He paused. “You’re technically a noncitizen. Your nation ceased to exist as a whole. It could be argued that you’re the last person who could reform the Terran Hegemony, but that would take more time and effort than they considered necessary. The current Hegemony worlds have been a part of one Successor state or another for over a hundred and fifty years in some cases. We just don’t have the time and money to devote to that right now.”


“Whew” I wiped some imaginary sweat off my brow. “That one actually did worry me for a bit.”

“We’ve got your back Mark.” Dunham smiled. “You can count on us.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Christmas Come Early

Valexa, Federated Suns December 15th, 3006

“Captain Rose.” I asked, looking around the briefing table on the Messenger. “How is the acclimation to the new Combat vehicles?”

“We spread the Vets out with rookie crews.” She responded. “Leaving us with an easier learning curve.” She consulted a paper that her aid gave her. “ We’ll still be considered rookies for now but we’ll be able to compensate by having more armor now.”

“Anything we can do to speed up the training?” Sheppard asked, leaning back in his chair.

“Well, we could have another live fire exercise before heading out next month. But that might strain our resources a bit.” She replied.

“If it helps less of our people die, then it’ll be worth the resources.” I said, cutting off any argument against the exercises. “Those exercises cost us money, yes, but the training is worth the money.”

“Alright then,” Sheppard said. “Scheduling live fire exercises over the next week.” he wrote something in his ‘Noteputer. “Next thing on the list. Peterson, how’s the Mithril rollout?”

“Proceeding ahead of Schedule, we’ve got enough suits for both Companies of Infantry and outfitted our two platoons of Marines as well.” Peterson responded. “We started on the Armor/pilot suits, but we’ll only have enough for around half of our forces come our liftoff date.”

“Copy that.” I said. “Blaze, anything on your end?” I asked.

“No sir, it’s business as usual for now.” He replied.

“Captain Paige?” I asked. “Anything on your end?” Her company typically helped cover our artillery.

“No sir, we are in the clear.” She responded.

I made my way through the rest of the command staff, getting a quick review and briefing on any developments that Sheppard or myself might have missed.


“So, I’m sure you know y’all are wondering why we’re having this briefing when you already know that we’re headed on the offensive.” I said, getting to the main point of the meeting. “Well, we are contracted to hit the world of Tybalt. The Davion Military Intelligence think’s there’s minimal forces garrisoned there right now. And they’re using the Wolf’s Dragoons to raid a series of other worlds in the Capellan Confederation anyway.” I paused. “Our Primary objective is to land on Tybalt and eliminate or tie down any military presence that might be on the planet. That being said, the Davions have listed a couple of bonus objectives. If we can eliminate and hold Tybalt until the Davions can send us reinforcements then they’ll cede the world to us as a home base. Regardless of whether we can seize the world or not, we’re going to be hitting this.”


A tri-vid of a factory complex appeared above the central table. “This is the Jolassa Armored Vehicles factory complex. They shut down in the First Succession War due to a lack of spare parts. After we take out or distract whatever military forces are on Tybalt, we will be dismantling the factory for our own purposes. The R&D team have told me that they want to be able to mass produce the Mithril versus having to manufacture on the Argo only for now. They believe that they can repurpose parts of the factory to Mithril production and want the rest of it for whatever they can cook up later.”

I then began to lay out what our basic plan would be. This wouldn’t be as short a campaign as stopping the Lancers was. We would need to utterly destroy whatever was on the planet if we wanted the factory. And beyond that, if we managed to take the planet, we would be setting ourselves up to have a decent manufacturing center as a home base in the short term.




December 21st, 3006


“Captain Rose.” I walked up to the armor company commander. “How goes the live fire exercise?”

“See for yourself.” She handed me the binoculars she had been using.

“The exercise seems to be going well.” I observed, handing back her binoculars. “Any issues that have shown up?”

“We’ll need to be careful to maintain range with those Puma’s.” she replied. “They’ve got really good long range weaponry but I think we’ll have to pair them with the Enforcers to make everything work well.”

“Sounds good to me.” I said, “Anything else we need to be concerned about?”

“We should weld some handles onto the Maxim’s and some of the other craft” Captain Rose stated. “They can’t fit the same amount of Power Armored infantry that they can regular, and we can be a lot more capable of dealing with urban environments if we can just have them hop onto a vehicle and hold on while they take them somewhere.”

“Thanks.” I said, taking some notes in my ever present notebook. “I’ll bring it up to McAllister and see what can be done.”

“Thanks Colonel.” Captain Rose turned her attention back to the exercise she had engineered.





December 31st, 3006

“Everything set for lift off on the second?” Sheppard asked one of the junior officers. And waited for an affirmative. When he got it he handed said junior officer a beer and sent him into the New Years Eve party that was going on. As people were finishing their pre liftoff duties, they were handed a beer and ushered into the party. There wasn’t anything harder than beer and the music was being done mostly by people in the unit that could barely play their instrument, but everyone was having a good time. There was a real mix of characters here that probably wouldn’t get along outside of this unit. You had people from Canopian space, Taurian space, and Davion space, with a sprinkling of immigrants from other places getting along without many issues.

The party was mostly silent. They had about forty five seconds until midnight and so they were quietly chattering before the countdown. When the massive projection of numbers reached twenty they started counting down. “Twenty!” “Nineteen!” “Eighteen!” “Seventeen!”.... “Five!” “Four!” “Three!” “Two!” “One!” “Happy New Year!” The entire Battalion yelled out as massive fireworks began to go off in the distance. They were enjoying this party as the end of the little bit of time off that the Marksman had before leaving to go on the offensive. After the fireworks ended, most of the Battalion pitched in to help with clean up before heading to their bunks. They were going to enjoy their last bit of peace for a little while.

Personal Journal: January First, 3007
Well, what a year 3006 was. I don't think I've ever been as tired as I was towards Christmastime. I was worried for the Battalion back in March when we almost lost to the Lancers and it expanded until Sheppard managed to return with the extra armor assets. Luckily, now that we have Mithril and were able to equip all of our infantry and a good half of our tankers with cut down Mithril, I can rest a little bit easier. My hope is that Tybalt has minimal resistance and that We can get enough reinforcements to both take the world, and begin to use it as a home for the Marksman. But if that doesn't work, we're going to be taking that factory with us when we leave along with any data that might be left there. I'm going to be sending Dunham with both of the DroST's and the King Henry V to the Taurian Concordat to negotiate a licensing deal for both the Mithril, and to get the DroST's refit to the designs submitted. Thankfully, we have the Triumph to take up the slack and should be fine without them. On another note, it turns out that the license for producing DroST's is cheap. It only costs a couple thousand C-Bills a year and ComStar is the one who provides the license as an outdated and rarely useful Hegemony Design. Well, that's what they think, because if they're as easy to build factories for as my R&D people tell me then they'll be genuinely surprised when we unveil the Sting and Mithril together in a year or so.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Baptism by Fire

Tybalt, Capellán Confederation February 1st, 3007

“This is Blaze, get in formation and give your ready status.” The Aerospace commander ordered.

“This is Chopper, ready op.”

“This is Edge, ready op.”

The pilots of both Wardog and Strider squadrons signified their ready status.

“Wardog, our job is to knock out any fighters sent to intercept the ground pounders.” Blaze started. “Hitman, you’re lead on Strider, you’ve got coverage of the drop ships in case any get past us.”

“Hitman copies.” The ace replied. “Strider moving to escort positions.”

The two squadrons launched from their Leopard CV’s and moved to their respective places. Strider squadron mainly had weapons that were more useful in escort positions anyway. And with both the aerospace fighter’s weapons and the Dropships coverage you had a decent escort. Wardog was the heavy hitting intercept forces.


“We’ve got enemy bogies incoming.” Edge called out, spinning her Thunderbird around to face the incoming forces. “Appears to be a squadron of of Transit’s.

“Acknowledged,” Blaze replied. “Coming about and arming weapons.” He flicked the master switch on and moved his Chippewa around to face the incoming fighters. “Match thrust profiles and Ready LRM’s. Lightnings, make sure they don’t make it past the rest of us.”

“Roger that Blaze.” Archer and Swordsman responded, drowning out whatever mouthy response that Chopper was responding with.


As soon as the four birds that had LRM’s had a solid lock, they opened fire. Managing to take out two of the Transit’s before having to come around and chase them. Archer managed to tag the cockpit of another Transit with his AC/20 in the fly by. Leaving them with only three to contend with.

“Split up into your designated Wing.” Blaze told his squadron. “I want those three birds dead before Strider has to intervene.”

The six birds of Wardog split up into their designated wings, each wing giving chase to one bird. The three Transits were not being piloted by Aces. Blaze noted, if they had been, then they would have caused more damage in the pass and tried to move out of the way. As it was, they were being maneuvered into a separate fighters cone of fire every time they tried to escape from the volley of another fighter. In a few short burst of intense combat flying in the void, the rest of the CCAF fighters were down for the count.

“Wardog, good work out there. RTB” Blaze ordered. Him and the rest of Wardog heading to rejoin the dropships now entering the atmosphere.




“You want to do this Colonel?” Sheppard asked, beginning to power on his Marauder’s systems.

“Nope.” I responded, my Warhammer ready and raring to go. We were in the Union’s ‘Mechbay. “This is your show Sheppard.” I tightened down my chair straps.

“Fireteam Rifle.” Sheppard started broadcasting. “We are hot dropping onto the surface of Tybalt in order to secure our landing zone. We are going to have the most dangerous job in the Marksman and I know for a fact that all of you can handle it. Most of the crew - not to mention your fellow ‘Mech pilots - will be landing on the ground the normal way. They'll ride to the surface in air conditioned comfort, sipping wine, and nibbling on appetizers. Not you, however. Oh no, you're going to leave in a different method. Tell me boys and girls… how will you leave?”

“We go feet first sir!” Was the resounding response on the comms.

“Damn straight Fireteam Rifle. Punch it!” Sheppard commanded, and the drop pods with the assorted ‘Mechs of Fireteam rifle were launched out of the Dropship.

I had never felt so exhilarated and terrified at the same time. The metal “Sheath” around my ‘Mech was linked to my sensors and I had a computer calculated trajectory, but all of that seemed to shrink in my focus as the pod started rattling around the Warhammer. After a minute though, the shaking stopped and the pod fell away, leaving the jump pods temporarily attached to the back and legs of my Warhammer to slow my descent for the last seven hundred meters or so. When I hit the ground with a jolt, I jettisoned the jump pods, and tuned into the command channel for Fireteam Rifle.

“This is Rifle Actual. Give me your location and a status report.” Sheppard ordered.

“This is Rifle Two, one klick out and green across the board.”

“This is RIfle Three…”


The rest of Fireteam Rifle reported that they were green and formed up on Sheppard.

“This is Marksman Actual.” I called in as I walked up to the fireteam with my IFF on. “I am green across the board and ready to assist.”

The seven ‘Mechs that we had here were going to be moving to a flat area around fifty Kilometers away from Macbeth, the capital city and main population center of Tybalt. Mine and Fireteam Rifle’s job would be to make sure that the LZ was clear in the first place, and keep it secured while the rest of the Battalion finished unloading.

Luckily, aside from a few scout hovercraft and VTOL’s, the enemy left us alone and we landed uncontested aside from Wardog’s fight in the void.





We had split our forces up in order to force an engagement of the forces holding the city of Macbeth. We didn’t want major civilian casualties and so we were using the Toro’s and our two Pegasus to draw out a larger formation. The fireteam was taking potshots at various turret emplacements while our PA forces sneaked in behind enemy lines.


Captain Peterson had an ambitious plan and had presented it to the command staff before we had left Valexa. We were going to occupy and divide the attention of as many of the enemy forces as possible. We were going to put on a big show, slowly unload the dropships etc… All of this while two companies, a hundred and fifty men and women in powered armor, sneaked in and got ready to take all of their gear, weapons, people… You name it, they were going to either force a direct surrender or would essentially kill off the entire unit.





Lieutenant Packer led his platoon quietly through the urban jungle of Macbeth. While a few of the new recruits almost made some really rookie mistakes, the Mithril had allowed them to recover and not be discovered. Captain Peterson was leading another platoon and Captain Paige and her second were hitting another objective.

They had been scouting out the main military base for a couple of days now, noting down patterns, gaps in the perimeter, and anything that might prove useful in infiltrating and taking out this battalion. After sunset tonight though, they would be hitting the main base that the Lothar’s Fusiliers were operating out of and doing whatever they needed to in order to take the world.




Later that night…
Captain Peterson waited and watched as a sentry walked by. After a solid minute, he waved the platoon through the gap that they had noted down earlier. After they had breached the bases perimeter, the various fireteams split up to go hit their own objectives. Peterson’s fireteam was going for Major Vaultaine herself. If they managed to get the command staff captured and the main officers and/or senior enlisted personnel then they would have taken out the main opposition force on the planet.