Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)
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Comstar Historical Interlude 3010-3020
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Comstar Historical Interlude 3010-3020
Introduction: This section of the textbook only refers to the Comstar historical period of 3010-3020 for information on the historical periods of 3000-3010 and 3020-3030 you should look at sections thirteen and fifteen.
It should be interesting to note, that Comstar in this period was not truly neutral as they are today, in fact, you could consider them a developing and hidden superpower until 3012 when their secrecy was broken by a lone Precentor’s mistake. The first two years of this time period was of particular note because of the current Precentor ROM, Vesar Kristofur planting the seeds and assisting in beginning the tension that would later explode into the Marik Civil War(1). Comstar had encountered no problems of any note at this point until the Precentor of the then hidden world of Versailles(2) (Known as Taussen to Comstar) launched an attack on the world of Kentares IV, intending to pin the blame on the Draconis Combine. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated the sheer amount of defenses that were in place in the Kentares system, and the attacking forces lack of information security allowed this hidden world to be discovered.
Now, it should be noted that the ComGuards were mostly a security force at this time, with only Terra (And some other locations mentioned later) being guarded by more than a token force. This meant that the Comguards that they did have were not quite up to a comparable training level of the rest of the Inner Sphere.
After the failed attack on Kentares IV, the Federated Suns retaliated with a precision raid against the hidden world, stripping away many Lostech factories and facilities from the world, and beginning to try and reintegrate the population with the Federated Suns. Unfortunately, Comstar had sent the Warship Narbonne (Later known as the Defender) to investigate the lack of contact with said world. The Federated Suns forces had all evacuated by this point aside from the personal dropship and guard of Duke Hull of Kentares IV, who managed to escape with a minor amount of casualties.
Comstar disavowed any knowledge of Warships in this time period, which was effective for a time until their ROM intelligence department made a critical mistake in allowing their communications to be intercepted in late 3015. ROM had used stolen codes to activate sleeper cells of both the ISF and MASK that had been previously unknown to the Davions. This move, while if it had been successful may have postponed several of the issues that occurred later, ended up costing Comstar a large portion of their Black navy fleet when Duke Hull retaliated.
By late 3016, Comstar had suffered a major loss in the form of Primus Tiepolo, and a not insignificant portion of the fleet that they had been preparing. The theft of these Warships later allowed the FedSuns to begin reverse engineering compact K-F drives, and begin development of their own Warship.
The Comstar Civil War as it is known to many historians, doesn’t have a specific date on it, but most assume that it began in 3016 when instead of electing a new Primus, accusations of Precentor Rom poisoning the Primus and other insults were thrown, leading the more radical elements of Comstar to begin persecuting and trying to eliminate what are now called Moderates, along with have been termed as the businessmen.
Comstar began to split in two major directions at this point, the radical elements who desired to subjugate the entirety of the Inner Sphere, with the Moderates and businessmen as the opposition to that. While the Moderates and Radicals were fighting (Sometimes literally) The businessmen were the ones ensuring that Comstar remained functional as an interstellar entity, continuing the services that Comstar was known for and essentially remaining neutral, (Though moderate leaning) in the civil war.
The Comstar Civil War didn’t truly end until 3019, when the last known elements of the radicals were eliminated, with Precentor Thomas Marik of the Comstar Exploration Corps being elected Primus. Thomas Marik immediately set about fixing many of the issues with Comstar, and created a new position and council to hold oversight over the First circuit, this councils first Chair was the protege of Thomas Marik, Myndo Waterly, he had taken note of her technical skills and political prowess early on, and had supported her rapid rise through Comstar’s ranks.
This odd power duo, created a truly neutral entity for trade and communications, with many HPG’s in periphery worlds and places like the Outback of the Federated Suns and the Outworlds Alliance having schools and hospitals attached. With the funds that had been devoted to the Hidden Worlds(3) being devoted to other areas that promoted education and health, Comstar exploded with new recruits, and while they never truly lost their slight religious bent, they had transformed the culture of Comstar in such a way that by 3025, Comstar certifications and graduates were compared to the likes of NAIS and SLC(4).
Unfortunately for Thomas Marik, his home nation never recovered from the Marik Civil War, with the Anduriens splitting off to form their own independent state, and many others following suit. Nearly the entirety of the border between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth had voluntarily joined the Commonwealth by 3025, and the Marik’s held a fraction of the worlds they once possessed. Thomas Marik never returned to the Free Worlds League, instead dying of old age many years after retiring as Primus, passing his title on to his protege Waterly, and she led Comstar to even greater heights.
Introduction: This section of the textbook only refers to the Comstar historical period of 3010-3020 for information on the historical periods of 3000-3010 and 3020-3030 you should look at sections thirteen and fifteen.
It should be interesting to note, that Comstar in this period was not truly neutral as they are today, in fact, you could consider them a developing and hidden superpower until 3012 when their secrecy was broken by a lone Precentor’s mistake. The first two years of this time period was of particular note because of the current Precentor ROM, Vesar Kristofur planting the seeds and assisting in beginning the tension that would later explode into the Marik Civil War(1). Comstar had encountered no problems of any note at this point until the Precentor of the then hidden world of Versailles(2) (Known as Taussen to Comstar) launched an attack on the world of Kentares IV, intending to pin the blame on the Draconis Combine. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated the sheer amount of defenses that were in place in the Kentares system, and the attacking forces lack of information security allowed this hidden world to be discovered.
Now, it should be noted that the ComGuards were mostly a security force at this time, with only Terra (And some other locations mentioned later) being guarded by more than a token force. This meant that the Comguards that they did have were not quite up to a comparable training level of the rest of the Inner Sphere.
After the failed attack on Kentares IV, the Federated Suns retaliated with a precision raid against the hidden world, stripping away many Lostech factories and facilities from the world, and beginning to try and reintegrate the population with the Federated Suns. Unfortunately, Comstar had sent the Warship Narbonne (Later known as the Defender) to investigate the lack of contact with said world. The Federated Suns forces had all evacuated by this point aside from the personal dropship and guard of Duke Hull of Kentares IV, who managed to escape with a minor amount of casualties.
Comstar disavowed any knowledge of Warships in this time period, which was effective for a time until their ROM intelligence department made a critical mistake in allowing their communications to be intercepted in late 3015. ROM had used stolen codes to activate sleeper cells of both the ISF and MASK that had been previously unknown to the Davions. This move, while if it had been successful may have postponed several of the issues that occurred later, ended up costing Comstar a large portion of their Black navy fleet when Duke Hull retaliated.
By late 3016, Comstar had suffered a major loss in the form of Primus Tiepolo, and a not insignificant portion of the fleet that they had been preparing. The theft of these Warships later allowed the FedSuns to begin reverse engineering compact K-F drives, and begin development of their own Warship.
The Comstar Civil War as it is known to many historians, doesn’t have a specific date on it, but most assume that it began in 3016 when instead of electing a new Primus, accusations of Precentor Rom poisoning the Primus and other insults were thrown, leading the more radical elements of Comstar to begin persecuting and trying to eliminate what are now called Moderates, along with have been termed as the businessmen.
Comstar began to split in two major directions at this point, the radical elements who desired to subjugate the entirety of the Inner Sphere, with the Moderates and businessmen as the opposition to that. While the Moderates and Radicals were fighting (Sometimes literally) The businessmen were the ones ensuring that Comstar remained functional as an interstellar entity, continuing the services that Comstar was known for and essentially remaining neutral, (Though moderate leaning) in the civil war.
The Comstar Civil War didn’t truly end until 3019, when the last known elements of the radicals were eliminated, with Precentor Thomas Marik of the Comstar Exploration Corps being elected Primus. Thomas Marik immediately set about fixing many of the issues with Comstar, and created a new position and council to hold oversight over the First circuit, this councils first Chair was the protege of Thomas Marik, Myndo Waterly, he had taken note of her technical skills and political prowess early on, and had supported her rapid rise through Comstar’s ranks.
This odd power duo, created a truly neutral entity for trade and communications, with many HPG’s in periphery worlds and places like the Outback of the Federated Suns and the Outworlds Alliance having schools and hospitals attached. With the funds that had been devoted to the Hidden Worlds(3) being devoted to other areas that promoted education and health, Comstar exploded with new recruits, and while they never truly lost their slight religious bent, they had transformed the culture of Comstar in such a way that by 3025, Comstar certifications and graduates were compared to the likes of NAIS and SLC(4).
Unfortunately for Thomas Marik, his home nation never recovered from the Marik Civil War, with the Anduriens splitting off to form their own independent state, and many others following suit. Nearly the entirety of the border between the Free Worlds League and the Lyran Commonwealth had voluntarily joined the Commonwealth by 3025, and the Marik’s held a fraction of the worlds they once possessed. Thomas Marik never returned to the Free Worlds League, instead dying of old age many years after retiring as Primus, passing his title on to his protege Waterly, and she led Comstar to even greater heights.
- The Marik Civil War ended up taking place a couple of years later, and ended up with the dissolution of the Free Worlds League
- It was later revealed in 3050 when it was declassified by the Kentares Guard that there were supposedly five Hidden Worlds based on different aspects of war production.
- Referenced previously, the Hidden Worlds had been where a massive amount of money was spent, and the ability to shift those funds allowed Comstar to begin the increase of Education levels in the Inner Sphere and the Periphery.
- Sharpshooter Learning Center, founded in 3018 by Dr. Adamina Rogers. Known as the premier engineering and materials science school in the Inner Sphere, only rivaled by NAIS’ R&D team.
Chapter 79
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Seventy-Nine: Dismantle/Repair
Lutyen 68-28 August 25th, 3017
“Captain Rogers.” I greeted the Comstar officer. “I need you to explain to me in your own words what is going on in Comstar’s ranks.” I handed him a glass of water. “If I like your answer, I might just repair the Bordeaux and send you on your way back to Terra.”
Rogers just sat there for a minute collecting his thoughts. “There’s something of an ideological disagreement between several factions in our ranks.” He finally replied.
“Ideological differences rarely lead to trying to kill the entirety of the other side.” I commented, “Unless one side is like the Spanish Inquisition.”
“That’s shockingly fitting.” Rogers said. “To be completely honest with you, there’s a radical faction who are trying to ensure that Comstar has total domination of the Inner Sphere.” He met my eyes. “But you already knew that didn’t you?”
“I suspected.” I said after a moment. “And with the data we pulled from this system, I have confirmation.” I paused for a minute. “If I return you to Terra, I expect you won’t be supporting the radical faction?”
“No sir,” He shook his head. “Not after they tried to kill us like that, I’ll be supporting the moderates through and through.” Rogers sighed. “I expect it will take time to clear out the radical elements though.”
“That’s fine.” I responded. “Just so long as they stop trying to make war on me and my family.”
“I can’t promise anything.” Rogers said after a moment of silence. “But I’ll do what I can.”
“Get the Bordeaux to the yardship.” I told him, “We’ll get your ship fixed up an rearmed and sent back on to Terra.”
“And the rest of this system?” He asked me.
“This system.” I replied, “Belongs to the Marksman now.”
August 27th, 3017
“The populace giving us any issues?” I asked Mathis. “I don’t want anybody doing anything stupid.”
“No sir, they seem to have settled down.” He responded. “They don’t seem to much care as long as their standard of living isn’t impacted.”
“We’ll have to maintain a presence in the system anyway.” I replied. “The amount of material here is amazing.”
“Yes sir.” Rook replied. “I compiled a report of all of the orbital factories.” He glanced down at his ‘Noteputer. “We’ve got some massive Endo-Steel and Freezer factories in orbit, along with some other Lostech in production.”
“Such as?” I asked. “We had to destroy a fair few of them due to the amount of radicals on board.”
“The remaining factories produce Gauss Rifles and ERPPC’s along with ER Large Lasers.” He replied. “Those and the Freezer and Endo Steel foundries/factories were the ones that we prioritized, everything else is either in need of repairs, or we had to destroy.”
“Lovell.” I turned to the NCO at the table. “What Ships are able to be repaired in short order?”
“There’s not much left of the Montpellier.” He started. “We might be able to salvage the K-F drive and some of the capital weapons emplacements to move to the Kentares system, but it’s pretty well shredded.”
Glancing down, he consulted his list.
“They apparently were in the finishing stages of refitting the Cameron class here into a command ship. It just needs ammunition, a crew and it’s ready to go.” He sighed. “It seems they focused on the Cameron, and the Potemkin, and Vincent claIss ships here. Because all of the Lola III’s here are in need of full repairs and to be brought out of Mothballs.” He glanced down at his notes again. “While those three are in the late stages, the others are going to need a couple of years of yardwork to be brought back online.”
“Well, considering we’re going to be using this system as a base, I think we can spare the people to get them working again.” I said. “While y’all were looking into everything else, I went on a search for the SLIC ships that may have been mothballed here.” I grinned.
“And?” Hanse asked, finally speaking up. “What did you find?”
“There are Five Pueblo Class Dropships here along with three Bug Eye Warships.” I got a little excited. “There are also several mothballed Nightwing’s and three to four Tracker Warships.
“And that means what exactly?” Hanse asked me.
“It means that we have options for surveillance that we didn’t have before.” I told him, “We can use these vessels to help us keep tabs on the Draconis Combine, or any other nation that we might be up against.” I shrugged. “By the way, do you mind delivering the Vincent class to the Taurians.”
“No, why have me deliver it though?” Hanse asked bluntly. “I’m a Davion.”
“Exactly, just make sure to get a picture of Thomas’s face when you’re giving him the keys to the Warship ok?” I grinned. “I love messing with him.”
“I worry that one day you’re going to piss off the wrong person.” Hanse told me. “And no one will be there to back you up.”
“I never go anywhere alone anymore.” I shrugged in response, still grinning. “So I’ve got backup everywhere I go.”
Odessa, Lyran Commonwealth, August 25th, 3017
“I’m giving them the Commonwealth Medal of Honor.” Archon Katrina Steiner told Colonel Felicia Paige and her XO Major Jenkins. “They earned it.”
“I know they did.” Paige responded sadly. “I just wish they didn’t have to earn it at all.”
“I’m having the noble’s on Odessa tried for treason.” Katrina told the two officers. “I know it’s not much consolation, but it’s what I have to offer for now.”
“Thank you Ma’am.” Jenkins and Paige replied in unison. “We’re going to have their funeral on Kentares if you want to join us.”
“I can’t.” Katrina gave a sad smile. “I spent too long away at the beginning of this year already.”
“We’ll record it for you.” Paige responded. “I know they were your old Marksman Fireteam.”
“You do that.” Katrina replied. “If they have any family, I’ll be matching whatever the Marksman provide for deaths in service.”
“We appreciate it Ma’am.” Paige replied. “But we take care of our own.”
Lutyen 68-28 August 25th, 3017
“Captain Rogers.” I greeted the Comstar officer. “I need you to explain to me in your own words what is going on in Comstar’s ranks.” I handed him a glass of water. “If I like your answer, I might just repair the Bordeaux and send you on your way back to Terra.”
Rogers just sat there for a minute collecting his thoughts. “There’s something of an ideological disagreement between several factions in our ranks.” He finally replied.
“Ideological differences rarely lead to trying to kill the entirety of the other side.” I commented, “Unless one side is like the Spanish Inquisition.”
“That’s shockingly fitting.” Rogers said. “To be completely honest with you, there’s a radical faction who are trying to ensure that Comstar has total domination of the Inner Sphere.” He met my eyes. “But you already knew that didn’t you?”
“I suspected.” I said after a moment. “And with the data we pulled from this system, I have confirmation.” I paused for a minute. “If I return you to Terra, I expect you won’t be supporting the radical faction?”
“No sir,” He shook his head. “Not after they tried to kill us like that, I’ll be supporting the moderates through and through.” Rogers sighed. “I expect it will take time to clear out the radical elements though.”
“That’s fine.” I responded. “Just so long as they stop trying to make war on me and my family.”
“I can’t promise anything.” Rogers said after a moment of silence. “But I’ll do what I can.”
“Get the Bordeaux to the yardship.” I told him, “We’ll get your ship fixed up an rearmed and sent back on to Terra.”
“And the rest of this system?” He asked me.
“This system.” I replied, “Belongs to the Marksman now.”
August 27th, 3017
“The populace giving us any issues?” I asked Mathis. “I don’t want anybody doing anything stupid.”
“No sir, they seem to have settled down.” He responded. “They don’t seem to much care as long as their standard of living isn’t impacted.”
“We’ll have to maintain a presence in the system anyway.” I replied. “The amount of material here is amazing.”
“Yes sir.” Rook replied. “I compiled a report of all of the orbital factories.” He glanced down at his ‘Noteputer. “We’ve got some massive Endo-Steel and Freezer factories in orbit, along with some other Lostech in production.”
“Such as?” I asked. “We had to destroy a fair few of them due to the amount of radicals on board.”
“The remaining factories produce Gauss Rifles and ERPPC’s along with ER Large Lasers.” He replied. “Those and the Freezer and Endo Steel foundries/factories were the ones that we prioritized, everything else is either in need of repairs, or we had to destroy.”
“Lovell.” I turned to the NCO at the table. “What Ships are able to be repaired in short order?”
“There’s not much left of the Montpellier.” He started. “We might be able to salvage the K-F drive and some of the capital weapons emplacements to move to the Kentares system, but it’s pretty well shredded.”
Glancing down, he consulted his list.
“They apparently were in the finishing stages of refitting the Cameron class here into a command ship. It just needs ammunition, a crew and it’s ready to go.” He sighed. “It seems they focused on the Cameron, and the Potemkin, and Vincent claIss ships here. Because all of the Lola III’s here are in need of full repairs and to be brought out of Mothballs.” He glanced down at his notes again. “While those three are in the late stages, the others are going to need a couple of years of yardwork to be brought back online.”
“Well, considering we’re going to be using this system as a base, I think we can spare the people to get them working again.” I said. “While y’all were looking into everything else, I went on a search for the SLIC ships that may have been mothballed here.” I grinned.
“And?” Hanse asked, finally speaking up. “What did you find?”
“There are Five Pueblo Class Dropships here along with three Bug Eye Warships.” I got a little excited. “There are also several mothballed Nightwing’s and three to four Tracker Warships.
“And that means what exactly?” Hanse asked me.
“It means that we have options for surveillance that we didn’t have before.” I told him, “We can use these vessels to help us keep tabs on the Draconis Combine, or any other nation that we might be up against.” I shrugged. “By the way, do you mind delivering the Vincent class to the Taurians.”
“No, why have me deliver it though?” Hanse asked bluntly. “I’m a Davion.”
“Exactly, just make sure to get a picture of Thomas’s face when you’re giving him the keys to the Warship ok?” I grinned. “I love messing with him.”
“I worry that one day you’re going to piss off the wrong person.” Hanse told me. “And no one will be there to back you up.”
“I never go anywhere alone anymore.” I shrugged in response, still grinning. “So I’ve got backup everywhere I go.”
Odessa, Lyran Commonwealth, August 25th, 3017
“I’m giving them the Commonwealth Medal of Honor.” Archon Katrina Steiner told Colonel Felicia Paige and her XO Major Jenkins. “They earned it.”
“I know they did.” Paige responded sadly. “I just wish they didn’t have to earn it at all.”
“I’m having the noble’s on Odessa tried for treason.” Katrina told the two officers. “I know it’s not much consolation, but it’s what I have to offer for now.”
“Thank you Ma’am.” Jenkins and Paige replied in unison. “We’re going to have their funeral on Kentares if you want to join us.”
“I can’t.” Katrina gave a sad smile. “I spent too long away at the beginning of this year already.”
“We’ll record it for you.” Paige responded. “I know they were your old Marksman Fireteam.”
“You do that.” Katrina replied. “If they have any family, I’ll be matching whatever the Marksman provide for deaths in service.”
“We appreciate it Ma’am.” Paige replied. “But we take care of our own.”
Chapter 80
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty: Results
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns, September 28th, 3017
This was always the part that I hated. The burial of people who were friends, those who had been with me for over a decade at this point. In this case, there were no bodies to be buried. The nuke they had intercepted had destroyed their dropship, and vaporized the people on board.
We had a closed casket funeral, and while this gunship crew didn’t have much biological family, they did have a massive non biological family. Every single member of the Kentares Guard and Marksman who weren’t on duty had turned up for the funeral. And the plot of land we had set aside for the tombs of our fallen brothers and sisters was filled to the brim. Hundreds of us, all in uniform and ready to give one last salute to the ones who had sacrificed their all.
There was an eerie calm as we lowered the first of the empty caskets down into its hole. The silence filled the air, and yet, it wasn’t an oppressive silence, it was calm, almost accepting. Then the silence was broken as the assembled fireteams began their 21 gun salute. We had cloned old WW2 rifles specifically for this detail, so that we could maintain the tradition in the best way possible.
We did this for every single crew member of the Sting gunship Archon’s favor. And then again for those who had given their lives in the taking of both Lutyen and Odessa. We wanted the families of our people to know just how valued they were. And then the Marksman would be paying the families the same base salary that our men and women had during life. While we couldn’t replace the people, we could honor them and their families to the best of our ability and means to do so.
September 29th, 3017
“Mr. Soto,” I greeted the father of the pilot of the Archon’s Favor. “The Archon awarded the Commonwealth Medal of Honor with a Diamond cluster to each of the members of the gunship.” I handed him the assorted Awards.” I gave a heavy sigh. “I’m deeply sorry for your loss Mr. Soto.”
The older man just stood there gripping the awards and flags silently, and some tears dripped from his eyes. Setting them to the side, he shook my hand firmly and looked me in the eye. “Thank you.” He said after a moment. “She was worried that she would never be able to fly again….” He wept slightly. “But you gave her that chance again, thank you.”
“I just wish she were here to thank me herself.” I told the man. “I’m glad to have served as her commanding officer.”
After he had dried his tears and said goodbye, it was time to move onto the next family. I hated this part of the job, and I didn’t do it for everyone under my command, but those who had been with me from the onset of the Marksman… Those people had earned me personally doing this.
“You good sir?” Mathis asked me as he opened the door to the armored SUV I was using.
“Yeah,” I said after a minute. “I just forget how hard this part is.”
“I think we all do.” Mathis replied after a minute or so. “We get so caught up in the current mission and what is happening in front of us that we forget the hard things, the endless waiting, the things that make our way of life difficult.” He sighed. “But then there’s the good things that come afterwards too.” He smiled, “Like the joy of a successful mission, or celebrating the lives that we were able to save or make better.”
“Is that what makes you keep going?” I asked the slightly younger man.
“No sir.” He grinned. “What keeps me going is the fun of keeping you out of trouble.” He chuckled a bit. “You forget sir, I love my job, and I’ll keep doing it until I am no longer physically capable of it.”
September 30th, 3017
The fireplace in the main living room of the mansion crackled as I held David in a rocking chair. It was night time, and we had finally finished with all of the funerals and personal condolences. David was asleep on my chest, and I was content. The only thing missing from this moment was Natasha. And I was certain that she’d be coming home soon.
“Sometimes I forget that I’m not from around here.” I told David as I moved to put him in his bed. “Because it feels like I’ve been here my whole life half the time.” I smiled softly, stroking his back as he shifted around on his bed before settling down and snoring softly.
Moving to the office adjacent to the living room, I opened my lock box and withdrew my Iphone. I had long since backed up all of the data I had saved on there years ago, but I hadn’t given the device to anyone for reverse engineering or anything like that yet. But considering that we were on a potential time crunch involving the Clans, I decided that now was probably the correct time to hand the device over to my R&D department.
The Triad, Tharkad, September 25th, 3017
“What was the damage Nondi?” Katrina asked her sister once they had settled down in her office.
“One of the Comstar built Yardships is going to need to be repaired before it’s put into service.” She started, “The actual orbital facility and Yards were captured relatively intact minus some attempted sabotage.” Nondi consulted her notes. “They weren’t working on any full Warships or squadrons in the yard currently aside from repairing two Newgrange yardships that were in different stages of repairs.” She paused. “One of them had modifications being made to it, seemingly some sort of Mass accelerator or something.” She scoffed. “We’re going to be getting those Yardhips repaired and back into working condition.”
“Good.” Katrina said in response. “We’re going to be working our fleets out of mothballs now that we’ve got a few yards we can use to maintain them.”
“Katrina.” Nondi said after a minute. “I personally owe the Marksman a debt, if that Gunship hadn’t intercepted the nukes, I would be dead, along with the entirety of the 9th Hesperus Guards.”
“I made an offer.” Katrina said sadly. “I did work with them for a little while after all.” She sighed. “But Paige refused, saying “We take care of our own.””
“I’m going to be paying the families of the Gunship crew a visit regardless.” Nondi told her sister. “You can call it a vacation or whatever you want, but I need to thank them on a personal level.”
“Take Melissa and Elsa with you.” Katrina said. “They love visiting Uncle Mark after all.”
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns, September 28th, 3017
This was always the part that I hated. The burial of people who were friends, those who had been with me for over a decade at this point. In this case, there were no bodies to be buried. The nuke they had intercepted had destroyed their dropship, and vaporized the people on board.
We had a closed casket funeral, and while this gunship crew didn’t have much biological family, they did have a massive non biological family. Every single member of the Kentares Guard and Marksman who weren’t on duty had turned up for the funeral. And the plot of land we had set aside for the tombs of our fallen brothers and sisters was filled to the brim. Hundreds of us, all in uniform and ready to give one last salute to the ones who had sacrificed their all.
There was an eerie calm as we lowered the first of the empty caskets down into its hole. The silence filled the air, and yet, it wasn’t an oppressive silence, it was calm, almost accepting. Then the silence was broken as the assembled fireteams began their 21 gun salute. We had cloned old WW2 rifles specifically for this detail, so that we could maintain the tradition in the best way possible.
We did this for every single crew member of the Sting gunship Archon’s favor. And then again for those who had given their lives in the taking of both Lutyen and Odessa. We wanted the families of our people to know just how valued they were. And then the Marksman would be paying the families the same base salary that our men and women had during life. While we couldn’t replace the people, we could honor them and their families to the best of our ability and means to do so.
September 29th, 3017
“Mr. Soto,” I greeted the father of the pilot of the Archon’s Favor. “The Archon awarded the Commonwealth Medal of Honor with a Diamond cluster to each of the members of the gunship.” I handed him the assorted Awards.” I gave a heavy sigh. “I’m deeply sorry for your loss Mr. Soto.”
The older man just stood there gripping the awards and flags silently, and some tears dripped from his eyes. Setting them to the side, he shook my hand firmly and looked me in the eye. “Thank you.” He said after a moment. “She was worried that she would never be able to fly again….” He wept slightly. “But you gave her that chance again, thank you.”
“I just wish she were here to thank me herself.” I told the man. “I’m glad to have served as her commanding officer.”
After he had dried his tears and said goodbye, it was time to move onto the next family. I hated this part of the job, and I didn’t do it for everyone under my command, but those who had been with me from the onset of the Marksman… Those people had earned me personally doing this.
“You good sir?” Mathis asked me as he opened the door to the armored SUV I was using.
“Yeah,” I said after a minute. “I just forget how hard this part is.”
“I think we all do.” Mathis replied after a minute or so. “We get so caught up in the current mission and what is happening in front of us that we forget the hard things, the endless waiting, the things that make our way of life difficult.” He sighed. “But then there’s the good things that come afterwards too.” He smiled, “Like the joy of a successful mission, or celebrating the lives that we were able to save or make better.”
“Is that what makes you keep going?” I asked the slightly younger man.
“No sir.” He grinned. “What keeps me going is the fun of keeping you out of trouble.” He chuckled a bit. “You forget sir, I love my job, and I’ll keep doing it until I am no longer physically capable of it.”
September 30th, 3017
The fireplace in the main living room of the mansion crackled as I held David in a rocking chair. It was night time, and we had finally finished with all of the funerals and personal condolences. David was asleep on my chest, and I was content. The only thing missing from this moment was Natasha. And I was certain that she’d be coming home soon.
“Sometimes I forget that I’m not from around here.” I told David as I moved to put him in his bed. “Because it feels like I’ve been here my whole life half the time.” I smiled softly, stroking his back as he shifted around on his bed before settling down and snoring softly.
Moving to the office adjacent to the living room, I opened my lock box and withdrew my Iphone. I had long since backed up all of the data I had saved on there years ago, but I hadn’t given the device to anyone for reverse engineering or anything like that yet. But considering that we were on a potential time crunch involving the Clans, I decided that now was probably the correct time to hand the device over to my R&D department.
The Triad, Tharkad, September 25th, 3017
“What was the damage Nondi?” Katrina asked her sister once they had settled down in her office.
“One of the Comstar built Yardships is going to need to be repaired before it’s put into service.” She started, “The actual orbital facility and Yards were captured relatively intact minus some attempted sabotage.” Nondi consulted her notes. “They weren’t working on any full Warships or squadrons in the yard currently aside from repairing two Newgrange yardships that were in different stages of repairs.” She paused. “One of them had modifications being made to it, seemingly some sort of Mass accelerator or something.” She scoffed. “We’re going to be getting those Yardhips repaired and back into working condition.”
“Good.” Katrina said in response. “We’re going to be working our fleets out of mothballs now that we’ve got a few yards we can use to maintain them.”
“Katrina.” Nondi said after a minute. “I personally owe the Marksman a debt, if that Gunship hadn’t intercepted the nukes, I would be dead, along with the entirety of the 9th Hesperus Guards.”
“I made an offer.” Katrina said sadly. “I did work with them for a little while after all.” She sighed. “But Paige refused, saying “We take care of our own.””
“I’m going to be paying the families of the Gunship crew a visit regardless.” Nondi told her sister. “You can call it a vacation or whatever you want, but I need to thank them on a personal level.”
“Take Melissa and Elsa with you.” Katrina said. “They love visiting Uncle Mark after all.”
Chapter 81
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-One: Leaks
Jumpoint, Summer, November 1st, 3017
“Ma’am, a Draconis Combine force just jumped into the system.” The Dropship Kapitan told Nondi Steiner. “It’s not enough forces to take and hold Summer, but there’s enough here to give us some problems.”
“I thought we had two Sting gunships for escort?” Nondi asked. “We were trying to keep this a secret, hence why we only hired a battalion of the Kell Hounds for an escort.”
“What seems to be the problem?” Morgan Kell asked as he walked onto the bridge with his brother Patrick.
“We just had a Draconis Combine force jump into the system, and they seem to be specifically set up to hunt us.” Nondi stated, looking at the forces that were detaching from their Jumpship and beginning to head towards them. “How many aerospace fighters do we have available?”
“Not enough to deal with that,” Morgan said. “Those Sting gunships you and Katrina swear by better be able to do their job extremely well or we won’t make it out of here, that’s a Vengeance, and it’s being escorted by an Achilles.”
“We’ll start a hard burn towards Summer.” The Kaptain said “If our escorts can cover us long enough, we may be able to get within the Summer defense envelope.”
“I wouldn’t count on that.” Nondi told him. “But we don’t seem to have any other option at the moment.”
“I’ll deploy my Aerospace assets to cover our approach.” Morgan said, “I’ll take Patrick and get the girls ready for a hard burn.”
“This will not be fun.” Nondi said.
“This is Escort one, we see you on our scopes Kell Hounds Squadrons.” The pilot of the lead Sting escort said over his communications systems. “I hope you’re as good as your reputation says you are.”
“We hope so too.” The squadron leader replied. “I hope those Gunships deliver on their promises.”
“They have so far.” The lead Sting responded. “Let’s go hunt some dragon, I’ve had a hankering for burnt chicken anyway.”
“Copy that, initiating combat interception.”
The mass of Aerospace fighters began to get into their formations, intent on taking out the prize now headed for the planet below. The Sting gunships and twelve Aerospace fighters standing in the way of forty Aerospace Fighters deployed by the combine and an Achilles dropship coming in with them.
“Escort two, I need you to try and eliminate the Achilles.” Went through the second escort’s systems. “That’s the only thing with enough thrust to overtake our VIP’s”
“Copy that, focusing on the Achilles.”
The first Sting lashed out with PPC’s, LRM’s, and Large lasers as soon as it entered range, shattering and melting armor, along with outright destroying many of the lighter forces against them, before spinning around and kicking in full thrust in order to keep up with the force of fighters. Even the heavier Slayer Aerospace fighters were not capable of surviving the sheer amount of weapons fire that could be poured into a single target. Eventually, after a quarter of the Combine’s numbers had been whittled down, they stopped trying to catch up to the VIP’s and focused on the Sting that was harrying them, ignoring the Kell Hound’s fighters in order to bring down the assault dropship that was matching the heaviest firepower they could bring to bear.
While the first Sting was making a mess of the Aerospace fighters that the Combine had brought with them, the second one was focusing heavily on the Achilles. While the lighter dropship had a better thrust profile over the long term, in the short term they had to contend with a heavier armed and armored dropship that had a Lot of guns to use against them.
“Captain!” the Dai-i yelled. “This is not a DroST that we are up against.” The Achilles shuddered around them. “It has way too many weapons for that.”
“Rotate, and come about to heading 130, hold course for five seconds, and then begin a reverse burn, let’s get our nose pointed at them.” The Combine captain calmly said instead of replying to his worried XO. “We shall have to see if they can handle most of our forward firepower.”
Summer, Lyran Commonwealth, November 4th, 3017
“Nondi, they can’t leave the system, so they’re going to try and complete their mission anyway.” Morgan told her. “Our forces dropped them down to ten Aerospace fighters, and both of their dropships were destroyed or extremely damaged in the fighting.”
“I know.” Nondi replied. “And I just sent an priority HPG to Katrina.”
“Why?” Morgan asked. “I thought we weren’t supposed to used HPG’s on this op.”
“We weren’t, but this is justified.” Nondi responded. “If what I suspect is true, then we will have to deal with it before we will be able to leave this system.”
Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns November 8th, 3017
“Duke Hull,” Mary said from her reception desk. “You have a priority call from Intelligence chief Dunham.”
“Patch it through Mary.” I told her. “Thank you.”
“Mark, you’re going to want to come to the Messenger ASAP.” He told me over the encrypted phone line. “We just got an HPG from New Avalon that you need to see.”
“I’m on my way now.” I told him and hung up the phone, telling Mathis to have someone bring the SUV around.
15 minutes later…
“What’s going on?” I asked Dunham as he brought me to the mobile HPG in the Messenger.
“It’s better to see for yourself.”
I walked in, and Dunham started the message.
“Mark, I hate to have to ask another favor of you, but Nondi needs your help.” Katrina’s message said. “I need some of your help, I'm not currently able to divert any forces to subdue Lestrade, and the Kell brothers are currently trapped with Nondi.” She visibly sighed. “I was only able to get this to you in a timely manner because of the work that the Davions have put into their own HPG network.” She stated. “Melissa and Elsa are safe, several LIC agents were able to get them hidden away before they were discovered, but when Nondi, Morgan, and Patrick tried to arrest Duke Aldo Lestrade, he turned completely traitor and declared that his system was now seceding from the Lyran Commonwealth.” I have LOKI and the LIC on site, but we haven't gotten any information out of Summer in days, and you're one of the only people I trust to pull this kind of thing off."
“I don’t have much longer to record, but I need you to launch an Invasion on Summer, and save my sister and my children. Before the worst comes to pass.”
Jumpoint, Summer, November 1st, 3017
“Ma’am, a Draconis Combine force just jumped into the system.” The Dropship Kapitan told Nondi Steiner. “It’s not enough forces to take and hold Summer, but there’s enough here to give us some problems.”
“I thought we had two Sting gunships for escort?” Nondi asked. “We were trying to keep this a secret, hence why we only hired a battalion of the Kell Hounds for an escort.”
“What seems to be the problem?” Morgan Kell asked as he walked onto the bridge with his brother Patrick.
“We just had a Draconis Combine force jump into the system, and they seem to be specifically set up to hunt us.” Nondi stated, looking at the forces that were detaching from their Jumpship and beginning to head towards them. “How many aerospace fighters do we have available?”
“Not enough to deal with that,” Morgan said. “Those Sting gunships you and Katrina swear by better be able to do their job extremely well or we won’t make it out of here, that’s a Vengeance, and it’s being escorted by an Achilles.”
“We’ll start a hard burn towards Summer.” The Kaptain said “If our escorts can cover us long enough, we may be able to get within the Summer defense envelope.”
“I wouldn’t count on that.” Nondi told him. “But we don’t seem to have any other option at the moment.”
“I’ll deploy my Aerospace assets to cover our approach.” Morgan said, “I’ll take Patrick and get the girls ready for a hard burn.”
“This will not be fun.” Nondi said.
“This is Escort one, we see you on our scopes Kell Hounds Squadrons.” The pilot of the lead Sting escort said over his communications systems. “I hope you’re as good as your reputation says you are.”
“We hope so too.” The squadron leader replied. “I hope those Gunships deliver on their promises.”
“They have so far.” The lead Sting responded. “Let’s go hunt some dragon, I’ve had a hankering for burnt chicken anyway.”
“Copy that, initiating combat interception.”
The mass of Aerospace fighters began to get into their formations, intent on taking out the prize now headed for the planet below. The Sting gunships and twelve Aerospace fighters standing in the way of forty Aerospace Fighters deployed by the combine and an Achilles dropship coming in with them.
“Escort two, I need you to try and eliminate the Achilles.” Went through the second escort’s systems. “That’s the only thing with enough thrust to overtake our VIP’s”
“Copy that, focusing on the Achilles.”
The first Sting lashed out with PPC’s, LRM’s, and Large lasers as soon as it entered range, shattering and melting armor, along with outright destroying many of the lighter forces against them, before spinning around and kicking in full thrust in order to keep up with the force of fighters. Even the heavier Slayer Aerospace fighters were not capable of surviving the sheer amount of weapons fire that could be poured into a single target. Eventually, after a quarter of the Combine’s numbers had been whittled down, they stopped trying to catch up to the VIP’s and focused on the Sting that was harrying them, ignoring the Kell Hound’s fighters in order to bring down the assault dropship that was matching the heaviest firepower they could bring to bear.
While the first Sting was making a mess of the Aerospace fighters that the Combine had brought with them, the second one was focusing heavily on the Achilles. While the lighter dropship had a better thrust profile over the long term, in the short term they had to contend with a heavier armed and armored dropship that had a Lot of guns to use against them.
“Captain!” the Dai-i yelled. “This is not a DroST that we are up against.” The Achilles shuddered around them. “It has way too many weapons for that.”
“Rotate, and come about to heading 130, hold course for five seconds, and then begin a reverse burn, let’s get our nose pointed at them.” The Combine captain calmly said instead of replying to his worried XO. “We shall have to see if they can handle most of our forward firepower.”
Summer, Lyran Commonwealth, November 4th, 3017
“Nondi, they can’t leave the system, so they’re going to try and complete their mission anyway.” Morgan told her. “Our forces dropped them down to ten Aerospace fighters, and both of their dropships were destroyed or extremely damaged in the fighting.”
“I know.” Nondi replied. “And I just sent an priority HPG to Katrina.”
“Why?” Morgan asked. “I thought we weren’t supposed to used HPG’s on this op.”
“We weren’t, but this is justified.” Nondi responded. “If what I suspect is true, then we will have to deal with it before we will be able to leave this system.”
Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns November 8th, 3017
“Duke Hull,” Mary said from her reception desk. “You have a priority call from Intelligence chief Dunham.”
“Patch it through Mary.” I told her. “Thank you.”
“Mark, you’re going to want to come to the Messenger ASAP.” He told me over the encrypted phone line. “We just got an HPG from New Avalon that you need to see.”
“I’m on my way now.” I told him and hung up the phone, telling Mathis to have someone bring the SUV around.
15 minutes later…
“What’s going on?” I asked Dunham as he brought me to the mobile HPG in the Messenger.
“It’s better to see for yourself.”
I walked in, and Dunham started the message.
“Mark, I hate to have to ask another favor of you, but Nondi needs your help.” Katrina’s message said. “I need some of your help, I'm not currently able to divert any forces to subdue Lestrade, and the Kell brothers are currently trapped with Nondi.” She visibly sighed. “I was only able to get this to you in a timely manner because of the work that the Davions have put into their own HPG network.” She stated. “Melissa and Elsa are safe, several LIC agents were able to get them hidden away before they were discovered, but when Nondi, Morgan, and Patrick tried to arrest Duke Aldo Lestrade, he turned completely traitor and declared that his system was now seceding from the Lyran Commonwealth.” I have LOKI and the LIC on site, but we haven't gotten any information out of Summer in days, and you're one of the only people I trust to pull this kind of thing off."
“I don’t have much longer to record, but I need you to launch an Invasion on Summer, and save my sister and my children. Before the worst comes to pass.”
Chapter 82
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Two: Reputation
Kentares System, November 9th, 3017
“Alright people, looks like it’s time to unveil our fleet.” I told the assembled personnel with me. “Peterson, your First Marksman RCT is going to be heading this up.”
“We’ve been itching for some action.” He responded with a smile. “I assume that some of our less mobile assets will be coming on the Age of Discovery sir?”
“You assume right.” I told him. “We’ve got LF batteries on the Manassas and Defender, but we only have the capacity for Six dropships on the first two, so you’ll be about a month behind us.”
“We’re going to be cutting it kinda close on this one boss.” Sheppard told me after looking at the star charts. “While you’ve got the timing down fairly well, you may have to hot charge the K-F Drives in order to get there in the time frame you want to.”
“I know that, but if we want to get there in three weeks, it’s going to have to be done.” I told the assembled officers. “We’re only taking volunteers on the Manassas and Defender.” I said, and we’ll have our fingers crossed the entire trip.”
New Rhodes III, November 15th, 3017
“Why are you coming with us?” I asked Zarantha Calderon. “I figured you’d be enjoying the fine beaches on Kentares.”
“I can’t let you have all of the fun now can I?” she asked me with a slight smile on her face before getting a bit serious. “I’m here to represent the Calderon Family, and the Taurian Concordat as a whole. What kind of image does it present if I’m not willing to provide aid to this budding “alliance” of ours?”
“It doesn’t present a good image.” I agreed. “But that doesn’t mean that you have to expose yourself to risk in this manner.”
“I’ll be enclosed in an eighty ton Assault ‘Mech, that, I might add, you had upteched and armored.” She responded. “I mean, I could say the same about you, you drive the lightest Mech of any of your officers.”
“That’s because I try to stay out of my ‘Mech until I absolutely have to get in it.” I responded. “My place is in the Mobile HQ, directing strategy, and logistics.”
“But it doesn’t seem to last very long.” She responded. “I’ve seen some of your battleroms and after action reviews.” She smirked, “You’re perfectly fine in the mobile HQ until someone tries to kill some of your men and then you’re right out into the field.”
I opened my mouth to respond, and then closed it again, humming in thought as I considered that statement, trying to figure out if there were any flaws in her logic.
“You may be right about that.” I told her. “I never intend on leaving the HQ, but I always end up moving closer to the front than is strictly necessary.”
November 25th, 3017
“We’ve got about a week until we’re in the Summer System.” I told the people with me. “I need operational plans by tomorrow.”
“Colonel Paterson,” I addressed the officers. “You have overall tactical command, the Marksman are yours after all.”
“What will you be doing sir?” He asked me. “I know you typically like to be in command.”
“Peterson,” I scoffed. “I could care less about being in command, as long as whoever’s in charge isn’t an idiot. And to answer your question, I’ll be taking the Ducal Guard in as an independent company, I’m going to be the Hammer, and you get to play anvil.”
“Poor bastards.” Mathers said with a chuckle. “They won’t know what hit them.”
“What about the 17th Skye Rangers?” Peterson piped up, “Won’t they be a problem?”
“The Archon committed them in a raid against the Combine a couple of months ago.” I told them. “Lestrade couldn’t refuse at that point because there wasn’t any public evidence of him colluding with the Draconis Combine and the ISF. They’re firmly against the Combine, so we’ll be left with whatever house troops and militia that he managed to scrounge up.”
“Are you sure we’ll need the rest of the RCT on the Age of Discovery?” Peterson asked. “I don’t think whatever he has will be enough to fight off what we have with us, much less the full strength of the Marksman.”
“Overconfidence gets people killed.” I cautioned. “And we don’t quite know if the Drac’s are committing more forces then they already have to this fight.”
“So go in heavy, and hope that we don’t have to use all of it.” Peterson nodded, “We’ll have to remember to avoid civilian casualties much more here, we don’t know how much Lestrade has told them, or if he’s going to try and turn them all into insurgents if this bid for succession doesn’t work.”
November 25th, 3017
“Sorry Katrina.” Simon Johnson said as he burst into her office. “I just received word that an assassination attempt on Duke Grethar Lestrade almost succeeded, he and his wife managed to escape with minor injuries, but their daughter Margaeret is in critical condition.”
“I want confirmation as soon as Duke Hull’s forces arrive in the Summer system.” Katrina ordered after processing what Simon Johnson had said. “If we can establish contact, I want to try and get him to bring the Argo to Skye, so that we can have the Duchy of Skye owe us a favor for getting their daughter the proper medical attention.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Johnson replied. “I still haven’t gotten any information from the LIC and LOKI cells on Summer, I don’t know if they’re holding out for us to move forces, or if Lestrade and the ISF cells he was working with managed to subvert some of them.”
“Doesn’t really matter at the moment,” Katrina replied. “We’re in the midst of the waiting game now, and this is always the hardest part.”
December 1st, 3017
“Here we go, people.” I said as the Dropships detached from the Manassas. “We’re being escorted by the Defender and a couple of Stings, so we should be clear of any Aerospace assets. But just in case, we’ve got Wardog Squadron along with twelve more fighters flying escorts. It’ll take us two days to get to the planet, from there, it’s our job to curbstomp some traitors.”
"You heard the man!" Mendoza echoed. "While our illustrious Duke over here is thinking grand strategy and punching assholes in the dick, it's our job to make sure that he stays alive long enough to do that."
The reinforced company of the Ducal Guard just chuckled in response.
"This means, that if the Duke tries to talk you into letting him do some thing stupid, that you let Lieutenant Mathis know immediately." Mendoza said seriously. "Our Duke has a problem, and Mathis is the solution, he will tie or tape the Duke down if necessary to prevent him from trying to fight yet another Atlas with his Warhammer."
"But Sir," One of the Ducal Guard spoke up. "What if what he's telling us to do involves rescuing the Steiners and Kell Brothers?"
"Special Circumstances will apply in some scenarios, but for the most part, you let Mathis know and handle anything stupidly heroic." Mendoza said. "Am I understood?"
"Yes Sir!" came the response.
"That's good to hear, make sure you get some ruck time, we've got a two day burn before we see action."
Author's note: Me and GeorgiaBoy over on SB did a Lot of number crunching to come up with a three week travel time. he put in a lot of work and it's greatly appreciated. So, I don't want to hear, "But that's impossible." Because we did a fair bit of consulting and mapping and it worked out.
Kentares System, November 9th, 3017
“Alright people, looks like it’s time to unveil our fleet.” I told the assembled personnel with me. “Peterson, your First Marksman RCT is going to be heading this up.”
“We’ve been itching for some action.” He responded with a smile. “I assume that some of our less mobile assets will be coming on the Age of Discovery sir?”
“You assume right.” I told him. “We’ve got LF batteries on the Manassas and Defender, but we only have the capacity for Six dropships on the first two, so you’ll be about a month behind us.”
“We’re going to be cutting it kinda close on this one boss.” Sheppard told me after looking at the star charts. “While you’ve got the timing down fairly well, you may have to hot charge the K-F Drives in order to get there in the time frame you want to.”
“I know that, but if we want to get there in three weeks, it’s going to have to be done.” I told the assembled officers. “We’re only taking volunteers on the Manassas and Defender.” I said, and we’ll have our fingers crossed the entire trip.”
New Rhodes III, November 15th, 3017
“Why are you coming with us?” I asked Zarantha Calderon. “I figured you’d be enjoying the fine beaches on Kentares.”
“I can’t let you have all of the fun now can I?” she asked me with a slight smile on her face before getting a bit serious. “I’m here to represent the Calderon Family, and the Taurian Concordat as a whole. What kind of image does it present if I’m not willing to provide aid to this budding “alliance” of ours?”
“It doesn’t present a good image.” I agreed. “But that doesn’t mean that you have to expose yourself to risk in this manner.”
“I’ll be enclosed in an eighty ton Assault ‘Mech, that, I might add, you had upteched and armored.” She responded. “I mean, I could say the same about you, you drive the lightest Mech of any of your officers.”
“That’s because I try to stay out of my ‘Mech until I absolutely have to get in it.” I responded. “My place is in the Mobile HQ, directing strategy, and logistics.”
“But it doesn’t seem to last very long.” She responded. “I’ve seen some of your battleroms and after action reviews.” She smirked, “You’re perfectly fine in the mobile HQ until someone tries to kill some of your men and then you’re right out into the field.”
I opened my mouth to respond, and then closed it again, humming in thought as I considered that statement, trying to figure out if there were any flaws in her logic.
“You may be right about that.” I told her. “I never intend on leaving the HQ, but I always end up moving closer to the front than is strictly necessary.”
November 25th, 3017
“We’ve got about a week until we’re in the Summer System.” I told the people with me. “I need operational plans by tomorrow.”
“Colonel Paterson,” I addressed the officers. “You have overall tactical command, the Marksman are yours after all.”
“What will you be doing sir?” He asked me. “I know you typically like to be in command.”
“Peterson,” I scoffed. “I could care less about being in command, as long as whoever’s in charge isn’t an idiot. And to answer your question, I’ll be taking the Ducal Guard in as an independent company, I’m going to be the Hammer, and you get to play anvil.”
“Poor bastards.” Mathers said with a chuckle. “They won’t know what hit them.”
“What about the 17th Skye Rangers?” Peterson piped up, “Won’t they be a problem?”
“The Archon committed them in a raid against the Combine a couple of months ago.” I told them. “Lestrade couldn’t refuse at that point because there wasn’t any public evidence of him colluding with the Draconis Combine and the ISF. They’re firmly against the Combine, so we’ll be left with whatever house troops and militia that he managed to scrounge up.”
“Are you sure we’ll need the rest of the RCT on the Age of Discovery?” Peterson asked. “I don’t think whatever he has will be enough to fight off what we have with us, much less the full strength of the Marksman.”
“Overconfidence gets people killed.” I cautioned. “And we don’t quite know if the Drac’s are committing more forces then they already have to this fight.”
“So go in heavy, and hope that we don’t have to use all of it.” Peterson nodded, “We’ll have to remember to avoid civilian casualties much more here, we don’t know how much Lestrade has told them, or if he’s going to try and turn them all into insurgents if this bid for succession doesn’t work.”
November 25th, 3017
“Sorry Katrina.” Simon Johnson said as he burst into her office. “I just received word that an assassination attempt on Duke Grethar Lestrade almost succeeded, he and his wife managed to escape with minor injuries, but their daughter Margaeret is in critical condition.”
“I want confirmation as soon as Duke Hull’s forces arrive in the Summer system.” Katrina ordered after processing what Simon Johnson had said. “If we can establish contact, I want to try and get him to bring the Argo to Skye, so that we can have the Duchy of Skye owe us a favor for getting their daughter the proper medical attention.”
“Yes Ma’am.” Johnson replied. “I still haven’t gotten any information from the LIC and LOKI cells on Summer, I don’t know if they’re holding out for us to move forces, or if Lestrade and the ISF cells he was working with managed to subvert some of them.”
“Doesn’t really matter at the moment,” Katrina replied. “We’re in the midst of the waiting game now, and this is always the hardest part.”
December 1st, 3017
“Here we go, people.” I said as the Dropships detached from the Manassas. “We’re being escorted by the Defender and a couple of Stings, so we should be clear of any Aerospace assets. But just in case, we’ve got Wardog Squadron along with twelve more fighters flying escorts. It’ll take us two days to get to the planet, from there, it’s our job to curbstomp some traitors.”
"You heard the man!" Mendoza echoed. "While our illustrious Duke over here is thinking grand strategy and punching assholes in the dick, it's our job to make sure that he stays alive long enough to do that."
The reinforced company of the Ducal Guard just chuckled in response.
"This means, that if the Duke tries to talk you into letting him do some thing stupid, that you let Lieutenant Mathis know immediately." Mendoza said seriously. "Our Duke has a problem, and Mathis is the solution, he will tie or tape the Duke down if necessary to prevent him from trying to fight yet another Atlas with his Warhammer."
"But Sir," One of the Ducal Guard spoke up. "What if what he's telling us to do involves rescuing the Steiners and Kell Brothers?"
"Special Circumstances will apply in some scenarios, but for the most part, you let Mathis know and handle anything stupidly heroic." Mendoza said. "Am I understood?"
"Yes Sir!" came the response.
"That's good to hear, make sure you get some ruck time, we've got a two day burn before we see action."
Author's note: Me and GeorgiaBoy over on SB did a Lot of number crunching to come up with a three week travel time. he put in a lot of work and it's greatly appreciated. So, I don't want to hear, "But that's impossible." Because we did a fair bit of consulting and mapping and it worked out.
Chapter 83
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Three: Hostage Negotiations
Summer, December 1st, 3017
“What do you mean two Warships just entered the system?” Colonel Fell asked the officer on duty.
“Exactly that sir, and they detached two Overlords, two of those DroST refits we’ve seen, and two… Honestly sir I have no idea what the last two dropships are, only that they’re the biggest military dropships I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s two Colossus.” A tech walking by said. “They haven’t been seen since the fall of the Star League and the Terran Hegemony.”
“Fuck me.” Colonel Fell said. “Nope, we are not doing this today.” He turned and looked at the officer on duty. “Lieutenant, I’m going back to bed, Do not try and wake me up for the next twelve hours because I will more than likely be in a drunken stupor.”
“Requesting permission to join you sir?” The poor lieutenant asked. “I think we might all need a stiff one.”
“Granted.” Fell replied, “In fact, call the senior staff together, I’ll buy the drinks tonight.”
Summer, December 6th, 3017
“But you can’t surrender!” Aldo Lestrade yelled furiously at Colonel Fell, the CO of the Militia on Summer over the communications channel. “I haven't given you any orders to surrender.”
“Duke Lestrade,” Colonel Fell replied calmly. “I’m not sure what world you are living in, but it doesn’t matter if I have an extra two to three regiments of battlemechs on the planet to just drum up, We’re up against an Elite Rated Mercenary unit who is using motherfucking Warships as support.”
“So, I’m countermanding your orders, and giving the men and women of the militia the chance to save their own lives, if you want to die over this, that’s entirely up to you.” Fell cut the comms channel off.
“At least I have the hostages.” Aldo muttered to himself. “But I’ve only got a couple of lances here to defend the estate.” He turned and looked at the screen on his desk.
“I’ll use them to bargain with, I’m sure this mercenary dog that Katrina hired won’t be willing to sacrifice his paycheck on the chance that I’ll kill them.”
“Get me a communications channel to the mercenaries,” Lestrade told some of the members of his staff. “I need to start some negotiations.”
Summer, December 5th, 3017
“This is Colonel Paterson of the 1st Marksman RCT, we do not wish to make war on the people of Summer.” Peterson broadcast on all open channels. “We have been hired by Archon Katrina Steiner to rescue several hostages that Aldo Lestrade has taken.” Paterson sighed, “If any member of the militia choses to surrender, we will not be taking your combat vehicles or ‘mechs as salvage, we have no need of your equipment, and have no quarrel with you.”
“Think they’ll bite?” Mathis leaned forward in his seat.
“I'll put down fifty pounds that they surrender outright, and do it against orders.” Hull said with that smug grin he always had on his face when he knew he was right.
“That’s a suckers bet.” Paterson said as he chuckled. “I’ll counter bet you, fifty pounds that Duke Lestrade tries to “negotiate” his way out.”
“FIfty Bulls that Hull here has someone do a “daring” rescue and pulls off something no one else thought of.” Calderon weighed in.
“I’ll take that action,” Mathis said, and they shook on it. “Anyone else want in?”
“I’ll bite,” Paterson and Mendoza both chipped in.
“Hull, you get to play bookie this time.”
“Yeah yeah.” He waved it off. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
December 7th, 3017
“I told you it was a suckers bet.” Paterson said as we watched the Summer Militia broadcast a full and total surrender. “Now, do you want me to respond to the idiot or do you want to take over?”
“You’re doing fine.” I replied, “I’m going to be heading to an LIC branch that Katrina gave me intel on to try and get Melissa and Elsa in our care.” I looked Peterson in the eye. “You do good work, and I trust you to see this through.”
“I’ll make sure we get Nondi and the Kell brothers home safe.” Peterson said strongly as he shook my hand. “You make sure those little girls are safe.”
“That’s the plan.” I told him with a smile and a wave. “That’s the plan.”
December 10th, 3017
“This is the safe house I have the location of.” I told Mathis as we pulled up in a Motorcade escorted by some combat vehicles. “I’ll go and give the codes, and we’ll hopefully be out of here soon.”
I got out of the armored SUV, and walked up to the house. I knocked on the door and then waited for a good minute or two.
“Bravo Six Delta Niner Five Alpha.” I told him, and the man on the other side of the door waited a second, either consulting his memory or trying to get clarification.
“You’re free to come in.” He finally said in an extremely thick scottish accent. “They’re pleasant little girls, but a bit of a handful aye?”
“Yeah, they can be a little bit of a handful.” I agreed as we walked into the livingroom where the two Steiner children were sitting. “What? No greetings for your Uncle Mark?”
“Uncle Mark!” They both said as they ran to me with tears in their eyes. “It was so scary, and we were scared.”
“It’s okay to be scared.” I told the two little girls. “It’s what you do when you’re scared that matters.” I picked them up and went to the entrance. “You did a good job, and I’ll tell Katrina what brave little girls you were.”
“Even though we were scared?” Melissa asked.
“Especially because you were scared.” I called Mathis and a fireteam in to cover the girls as we loaded up into the SUV.
As soon as we were loaded up, man Portable SRM’s began to fire on our motorcade.
“ISF?” I asked Mathis, who was in the driver seat as per usual.
“ISF.” He agreed. “They were probably watching us the whole time waiting for something like this.”
“Melissa, Elsa, you’re going to want to cover your ears.” I told the two girls as I drew out a rifle to use beside the top mounted .50.
“Why Uncle Mark?” Elsa asked.
“Two reasons.” I told her as our tires squealed while we drove away from the enemy. “One, it’s going to be really loud in here.” I stood up in the secondary firing position to throw some fire at the enemies that were chasing us.”
“And the second reason?” Melissa asked.
“Uncle Mark is about to say some very nasty words, and he would appreciate it if you didn’t hear them or tell Katrina about them.”
Same time….
“Lestrade, I’m going to tell you once again, I’m not at liberty to negotiate your noble rights or not.” Peterson said for what felt like the fiftieth time, before cutting his mic off and turning to his XO. “What’s the status on possible retrieval?”
“We’ve got the sensors blind now, we’re just waiting for night to fall sir.” Peterson’s XO replied. “Getting people in position takes time, and we just need you to buy us another eight hours or so of it.”
“You hate me don’t you.” Peterson buried his head in his hands. “I hate this kind of thing, no wonder Hull wanted to go play at being a superspy.”
“I think you might prefer to be here.” The XO replied. “We’re getting communications from Hull’s group that they have the VIP’s, but they are under attack by what they believe is an ISF cell that was waiting for them.”
“I’ll stick with negotiations.” Peterson said and went back to turning his microphone on. “Duke Lestrade sir, I’m going to tell you what we are able to do once again…..”
Five Hours later…
“Mother of God, if I have to hear that man speak again in the next hour, I might just drop into his mansion from orbit and shoot him myself.” Peterson ranted before looking at his XO. “Please, for the love of all things good tell me that our people are in position.”
“They’re in position, just give the word and we’ll get the jailbreak started.”
“Tell them we have a go.” Peterson smiled. “I want the casualties kept to a minimum though, I may hate the man, but I want the Duke alive to see trial.”
“Jailbreak is a go.” Came over the Powered armor company’s encrypted communications channels.
“Good to hear it.” The CO of the Platoon responded. “I want Fireteam’s Shadow and Dagger to take point, our snipers are already covering us as is, now let’s do this cleanly.”
“Copy that sir.” The mottled black and gray painted suits had specialized bulges and other additions in order to break up their form even more than usual with camouflage. They weren’t visible on most scanners, and the Mark One eyeball was a little more easily fooled when you had people that were really good at their jobs.
“We’re in.” Shadow Fireteam reported. “Running a sweep of the cells now.”
“Dagger here, readying a breach and clear of the Duke’s personal rooms.”
A distant pop was heard as a flashang went off in Lestrade’s chambers, followed by a Fireteam of PA infantry as they subdued the man responsible for this mess.
“Peterson wants him gagged.” The lieutenant ordered. “Says he’s sick of hearing the man's voice.”
“Dagger copies, making good on the kidnapping now.”
“Shadow, what’s the status of the VIPs?” the Lieutenant asked. “We can’t see anything from our thermals from here.”
“Trouble Twins are recovered, apparently Icewoman is held in a different area of the estate.” Shadow reported. “Trouble Twins know the general layout, and will be helping direct us there.”
“Copy.” The Lieutenant said. “Keep your eyes peeled for Drac Infiltrators, they may try and get one last strike in.”
“Yes sir, we’re keeping our eyes on a swivel.”
December 12th, 3017
“Nondi, a pleasure to meet you.” I shook the younger woman’s hand. “Katrina has told me much about you.”
“She’s told me quite a bit about you as well.” Nondi replied. “I just wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Circumstances will be whatever they are,” I shrugged. “It’s vastly more important to have made the acquaintance or friend in the first place.”
“I’ll let you use the fancy words.” She said as she took a sip of coffee. “I know that you have questions, so ask them.”
“I don’t have a lot of questions.” I told her, “Just one really.” I took my own sip of coffee. “What happened?”
“I’m going to assume that you already know the details of the battle in space.” She said as I nodded. “Well, by the time we managed to reach Summer as a refuge from said forces it had been made obvious to me that Lestrade was playing his games.” She clenched her fist, still visibly angry. “I made contact with a local LIC cell and they gave me intel that showed that Lestrade had leaked the travel plans to the ISF and to the Combine.” She took an angry sharp breath. “I was angry; hell, I’m still angry, and so I charged forward, despite protests by both of the Kell brothers to arrest the asshole who tried to have my nieces killed.” She visibly took some calming breaths. “I didn’t succeed, in hindsight, I should have just taken the Kell Brother’s battlemechs and marched through his estate.” She shrugged. “But I didn’t do that, and now here we are, with mercenary troops having to invade and subjugate one of our own planets because we can’t afford to shuffle our troops around right now.”
“Well, we did make good time on our way here.” I said with a smirk.
“And thank God for that.” Nondi muttered. “I don’t want to know what Lestrade would have done if you had taken longer.”
Summer, December 1st, 3017
“What do you mean two Warships just entered the system?” Colonel Fell asked the officer on duty.
“Exactly that sir, and they detached two Overlords, two of those DroST refits we’ve seen, and two… Honestly sir I have no idea what the last two dropships are, only that they’re the biggest military dropships I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s two Colossus.” A tech walking by said. “They haven’t been seen since the fall of the Star League and the Terran Hegemony.”
“Fuck me.” Colonel Fell said. “Nope, we are not doing this today.” He turned and looked at the officer on duty. “Lieutenant, I’m going back to bed, Do not try and wake me up for the next twelve hours because I will more than likely be in a drunken stupor.”
“Requesting permission to join you sir?” The poor lieutenant asked. “I think we might all need a stiff one.”
“Granted.” Fell replied, “In fact, call the senior staff together, I’ll buy the drinks tonight.”
Summer, December 6th, 3017
“But you can’t surrender!” Aldo Lestrade yelled furiously at Colonel Fell, the CO of the Militia on Summer over the communications channel. “I haven't given you any orders to surrender.”
“Duke Lestrade,” Colonel Fell replied calmly. “I’m not sure what world you are living in, but it doesn’t matter if I have an extra two to three regiments of battlemechs on the planet to just drum up, We’re up against an Elite Rated Mercenary unit who is using motherfucking Warships as support.”
“So, I’m countermanding your orders, and giving the men and women of the militia the chance to save their own lives, if you want to die over this, that’s entirely up to you.” Fell cut the comms channel off.
“At least I have the hostages.” Aldo muttered to himself. “But I’ve only got a couple of lances here to defend the estate.” He turned and looked at the screen on his desk.
“I’ll use them to bargain with, I’m sure this mercenary dog that Katrina hired won’t be willing to sacrifice his paycheck on the chance that I’ll kill them.”
“Get me a communications channel to the mercenaries,” Lestrade told some of the members of his staff. “I need to start some negotiations.”
Summer, December 5th, 3017
“This is Colonel Paterson of the 1st Marksman RCT, we do not wish to make war on the people of Summer.” Peterson broadcast on all open channels. “We have been hired by Archon Katrina Steiner to rescue several hostages that Aldo Lestrade has taken.” Paterson sighed, “If any member of the militia choses to surrender, we will not be taking your combat vehicles or ‘mechs as salvage, we have no need of your equipment, and have no quarrel with you.”
“Think they’ll bite?” Mathis leaned forward in his seat.
“I'll put down fifty pounds that they surrender outright, and do it against orders.” Hull said with that smug grin he always had on his face when he knew he was right.
“That’s a suckers bet.” Paterson said as he chuckled. “I’ll counter bet you, fifty pounds that Duke Lestrade tries to “negotiate” his way out.”
“FIfty Bulls that Hull here has someone do a “daring” rescue and pulls off something no one else thought of.” Calderon weighed in.
“I’ll take that action,” Mathis said, and they shook on it. “Anyone else want in?”
“I’ll bite,” Paterson and Mendoza both chipped in.
“Hull, you get to play bookie this time.”
“Yeah yeah.” He waved it off. “We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.”
December 7th, 3017
“I told you it was a suckers bet.” Paterson said as we watched the Summer Militia broadcast a full and total surrender. “Now, do you want me to respond to the idiot or do you want to take over?”
“You’re doing fine.” I replied, “I’m going to be heading to an LIC branch that Katrina gave me intel on to try and get Melissa and Elsa in our care.” I looked Peterson in the eye. “You do good work, and I trust you to see this through.”
“I’ll make sure we get Nondi and the Kell brothers home safe.” Peterson said strongly as he shook my hand. “You make sure those little girls are safe.”
“That’s the plan.” I told him with a smile and a wave. “That’s the plan.”
December 10th, 3017
“This is the safe house I have the location of.” I told Mathis as we pulled up in a Motorcade escorted by some combat vehicles. “I’ll go and give the codes, and we’ll hopefully be out of here soon.”
I got out of the armored SUV, and walked up to the house. I knocked on the door and then waited for a good minute or two.
“Bravo Six Delta Niner Five Alpha.” I told him, and the man on the other side of the door waited a second, either consulting his memory or trying to get clarification.
“You’re free to come in.” He finally said in an extremely thick scottish accent. “They’re pleasant little girls, but a bit of a handful aye?”
“Yeah, they can be a little bit of a handful.” I agreed as we walked into the livingroom where the two Steiner children were sitting. “What? No greetings for your Uncle Mark?”
“Uncle Mark!” They both said as they ran to me with tears in their eyes. “It was so scary, and we were scared.”
“It’s okay to be scared.” I told the two little girls. “It’s what you do when you’re scared that matters.” I picked them up and went to the entrance. “You did a good job, and I’ll tell Katrina what brave little girls you were.”
“Even though we were scared?” Melissa asked.
“Especially because you were scared.” I called Mathis and a fireteam in to cover the girls as we loaded up into the SUV.
As soon as we were loaded up, man Portable SRM’s began to fire on our motorcade.
“ISF?” I asked Mathis, who was in the driver seat as per usual.
“ISF.” He agreed. “They were probably watching us the whole time waiting for something like this.”
“Melissa, Elsa, you’re going to want to cover your ears.” I told the two girls as I drew out a rifle to use beside the top mounted .50.
“Why Uncle Mark?” Elsa asked.
“Two reasons.” I told her as our tires squealed while we drove away from the enemy. “One, it’s going to be really loud in here.” I stood up in the secondary firing position to throw some fire at the enemies that were chasing us.”
“And the second reason?” Melissa asked.
“Uncle Mark is about to say some very nasty words, and he would appreciate it if you didn’t hear them or tell Katrina about them.”
Same time….
“Lestrade, I’m going to tell you once again, I’m not at liberty to negotiate your noble rights or not.” Peterson said for what felt like the fiftieth time, before cutting his mic off and turning to his XO. “What’s the status on possible retrieval?”
“We’ve got the sensors blind now, we’re just waiting for night to fall sir.” Peterson’s XO replied. “Getting people in position takes time, and we just need you to buy us another eight hours or so of it.”
“You hate me don’t you.” Peterson buried his head in his hands. “I hate this kind of thing, no wonder Hull wanted to go play at being a superspy.”
“I think you might prefer to be here.” The XO replied. “We’re getting communications from Hull’s group that they have the VIP’s, but they are under attack by what they believe is an ISF cell that was waiting for them.”
“I’ll stick with negotiations.” Peterson said and went back to turning his microphone on. “Duke Lestrade sir, I’m going to tell you what we are able to do once again…..”
Five Hours later…
“Mother of God, if I have to hear that man speak again in the next hour, I might just drop into his mansion from orbit and shoot him myself.” Peterson ranted before looking at his XO. “Please, for the love of all things good tell me that our people are in position.”
“They’re in position, just give the word and we’ll get the jailbreak started.”
“Tell them we have a go.” Peterson smiled. “I want the casualties kept to a minimum though, I may hate the man, but I want the Duke alive to see trial.”
“Jailbreak is a go.” Came over the Powered armor company’s encrypted communications channels.
“Good to hear it.” The CO of the Platoon responded. “I want Fireteam’s Shadow and Dagger to take point, our snipers are already covering us as is, now let’s do this cleanly.”
“Copy that sir.” The mottled black and gray painted suits had specialized bulges and other additions in order to break up their form even more than usual with camouflage. They weren’t visible on most scanners, and the Mark One eyeball was a little more easily fooled when you had people that were really good at their jobs.
“We’re in.” Shadow Fireteam reported. “Running a sweep of the cells now.”
“Dagger here, readying a breach and clear of the Duke’s personal rooms.”
A distant pop was heard as a flashang went off in Lestrade’s chambers, followed by a Fireteam of PA infantry as they subdued the man responsible for this mess.
“Peterson wants him gagged.” The lieutenant ordered. “Says he’s sick of hearing the man's voice.”
“Dagger copies, making good on the kidnapping now.”
“Shadow, what’s the status of the VIPs?” the Lieutenant asked. “We can’t see anything from our thermals from here.”
“Trouble Twins are recovered, apparently Icewoman is held in a different area of the estate.” Shadow reported. “Trouble Twins know the general layout, and will be helping direct us there.”
“Copy.” The Lieutenant said. “Keep your eyes peeled for Drac Infiltrators, they may try and get one last strike in.”
“Yes sir, we’re keeping our eyes on a swivel.”
December 12th, 3017
“Nondi, a pleasure to meet you.” I shook the younger woman’s hand. “Katrina has told me much about you.”
“She’s told me quite a bit about you as well.” Nondi replied. “I just wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Circumstances will be whatever they are,” I shrugged. “It’s vastly more important to have made the acquaintance or friend in the first place.”
“I’ll let you use the fancy words.” She said as she took a sip of coffee. “I know that you have questions, so ask them.”
“I don’t have a lot of questions.” I told her, “Just one really.” I took my own sip of coffee. “What happened?”
“I’m going to assume that you already know the details of the battle in space.” She said as I nodded. “Well, by the time we managed to reach Summer as a refuge from said forces it had been made obvious to me that Lestrade was playing his games.” She clenched her fist, still visibly angry. “I made contact with a local LIC cell and they gave me intel that showed that Lestrade had leaked the travel plans to the ISF and to the Combine.” She took an angry sharp breath. “I was angry; hell, I’m still angry, and so I charged forward, despite protests by both of the Kell brothers to arrest the asshole who tried to have my nieces killed.” She visibly took some calming breaths. “I didn’t succeed, in hindsight, I should have just taken the Kell Brother’s battlemechs and marched through his estate.” She shrugged. “But I didn’t do that, and now here we are, with mercenary troops having to invade and subjugate one of our own planets because we can’t afford to shuffle our troops around right now.”
“Well, we did make good time on our way here.” I said with a smirk.
“And thank God for that.” Nondi muttered. “I don’t want to know what Lestrade would have done if you had taken longer.”
Chapter 84
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Four: Restoration
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 9th, 3018
"Alright David, seeing as it's your fifth birthday tomorrow, I'm going to need you to get up a little early." I told my soon to be five year old.
"What are we going to be doing dad?" David asked me. "I don't like waking up early."
"I know that you don't like waking up early." I responded while ruffling his hair. "You mom doesn't much care for it either, but if you want me to take you on the trip that you've been asking for…" I trailed off.
"You're taking me hiking!" The five year old cheered! "Are we going to set up a hunting stand too?!"
"Now hold up a second." I raised my hands in a stopping motion. "We're going to go hiking in the mountains like you've been asking, and if I stress the if, we see a decent spot for a hunting blind, I may mark the location down to set up a blind later."
"But dad!" He whined. "You never take me hunting with you."
"Fine," I sighed. "When you turn six I will take you hunting." I raised my hand to stop him from speaking again. "But you have to do extremely well in your schooling before I will let you even think about it."
"But why?" He asked me. "Melissa is already learning how to shoot and do things like that!"
"Melissa Steiner," I repeated. "Is also seven years old." I reminded him. "And she's not my child on top of that."
"I miss mom." David finally said what was bothering him. "I barely remember what she looks like without the pictures."
"I know, son." I knelt down and drew him in for a hug as he burst into tears into my shoulder. "It's okay to miss her, I do too." I picked his head up off of my shoulder to make sure he could see my eyes.
"But you don't seem like you miss her." David continued to cry into my shoulder. "You're always busy or with me."
"Because that's how I cope with missing her." I explained to him. "Do you know what the word cope means?"
"Uh uh." He said, shaking his head.
"It means that's how I handle Nat being gone, I bury myself into work and playing with you." I smiled at my son. "It doesn't mean I miss her any less, it just means that I'm grown up enough to handle it better than you."
"There's snot on your shirt." David said after he was finished crying.
"There is?" I asked with a wide eyed expression on my face. "Who could have possibly put it there?" I tickled him a little bit now that the sad moment was over with.
"Now, let's get you tucked in." I scooped him up to peals of laughter and carried him over to his bedroom. I helped David get dressed in his night clothes and made sure I read him a story before getting ready to leave.
"Dad, I'm scared." He told me before I left the room.
"What are you scared of, son?" I knelt down beside his bed.
"I'm scared of the dark." He told me in a whisper.
"Why are you scared of the dark?" I asked him.
"Because I can't see in the dark, and there might be monsters out there." He finally said after a pause.
"There's no monsters out there," I chuckled.
"How?" He asked me, his question cut short by an intense yawn.
"Because Mathis and I already killed all of the monsters." I told him. "And the few that are left live very far away."
"How far away?" He asked.
"Far enough away that you'll be a grown up before it's your turn to fight the monsters." I kissed him on the forehead. "Now get some sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow."
August 10th, 3018
"David," I gently shook my sons awake. "It's time to get up and dressed, if we're going to hike into the mountains we've got to drive there first. "
It took him a good five minutes to be fully roused from his slumber and into the set of hiking clothes we had picked out the night before.
"We've got everything packed and ready to go." I said in between bites of a waffle. "If there's anything else you want me to bring, speak up now or it'll get left behind."
"But we could send someone back for it." David said in response.
"Nope, this is a hiking trip the old fashioned way, we're tackling a mountain that we haven't fully surveyed yet." I told him with a grin. "
"We get to be explorers?" He asked excitedly.
"Yes David." I ruffled his head full of red hair. "We get to be explorers."
After we had finished our big breakfast, and packed up our hiking kits. (David's only had our small picnic supplies.) We loaded them up into the SUV we were taking to the mountains. Mathis would be shadowing us a decent ways out with a guard detail, but for the most part it was just going to me and my son enjoying the wilderness.
"We could find buried treasure!" David said as I loaded him into his car seat.
"Anything's possible." I agreed with a shrug. "But we'll just have to see."
Three hours later…
"David, we're here." I woke up the five year old. "You ready to get started?"
"Yes!" He cheered as he unbuckled his five point harness and helped me unload our packs. "Let me try to pick yours up dad." He said as I went to get my hiking kit out of the SUV.
"Okay." I laughed. "If you're sure you can handle it." I picked it up by the top handle and lowered it into his arms, careful to control the weight so he wouldn't get all of it until he was ready.
"I'm super strong dad!" He did a small muscle flex after he showed me that he could hold the pack in place.
"You sure are." I agreed as I slung the pack onto my back and clipped the straps across my chest and hips to distribute the weight. After thinking about it for a second, I reached into the SUV and grabbed a handgun and carbine to bring with us.
"Why are you bringing those dad?" David asked me.
"Because it's better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them." I told him the nugget of wisdom. "These may not be able to stop a massive predator, but they'll make them think twice, and that could save our lives should we stumble onto a bear or something else."
I loaded up some extra magazines into the hiking pack,
"Ok. " David agreed. Just happy to be going on a trip with his dad.
"Come here." I pulled David over to me and made sure everything was strapped in properly and distributed evenly. "Let me know if it gets too heavy, okay son?"
"I'm super strong dad, it won't be too heavy for me." David puffed his chest out. "One day I'll be stronger than you."
"I'm counting on it." I ruffled his hair and we set off on our adventure.
Author’s note: Quite a bit of the conversations in this chapter were based on real conversations with my 4 and 7 year old Foster children.
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 9th, 3018
"Alright David, seeing as it's your fifth birthday tomorrow, I'm going to need you to get up a little early." I told my soon to be five year old.
"What are we going to be doing dad?" David asked me. "I don't like waking up early."
"I know that you don't like waking up early." I responded while ruffling his hair. "You mom doesn't much care for it either, but if you want me to take you on the trip that you've been asking for…" I trailed off.
"You're taking me hiking!" The five year old cheered! "Are we going to set up a hunting stand too?!"
"Now hold up a second." I raised my hands in a stopping motion. "We're going to go hiking in the mountains like you've been asking, and if I stress the if, we see a decent spot for a hunting blind, I may mark the location down to set up a blind later."
"But dad!" He whined. "You never take me hunting with you."
"Fine," I sighed. "When you turn six I will take you hunting." I raised my hand to stop him from speaking again. "But you have to do extremely well in your schooling before I will let you even think about it."
"But why?" He asked me. "Melissa is already learning how to shoot and do things like that!"
"Melissa Steiner," I repeated. "Is also seven years old." I reminded him. "And she's not my child on top of that."
"I miss mom." David finally said what was bothering him. "I barely remember what she looks like without the pictures."
"I know, son." I knelt down and drew him in for a hug as he burst into tears into my shoulder. "It's okay to miss her, I do too." I picked his head up off of my shoulder to make sure he could see my eyes.
"But you don't seem like you miss her." David continued to cry into my shoulder. "You're always busy or with me."
"Because that's how I cope with missing her." I explained to him. "Do you know what the word cope means?"
"Uh uh." He said, shaking his head.
"It means that's how I handle Nat being gone, I bury myself into work and playing with you." I smiled at my son. "It doesn't mean I miss her any less, it just means that I'm grown up enough to handle it better than you."
"There's snot on your shirt." David said after he was finished crying.
"There is?" I asked with a wide eyed expression on my face. "Who could have possibly put it there?" I tickled him a little bit now that the sad moment was over with.
"Now, let's get you tucked in." I scooped him up to peals of laughter and carried him over to his bedroom. I helped David get dressed in his night clothes and made sure I read him a story before getting ready to leave.
"Dad, I'm scared." He told me before I left the room.
"What are you scared of, son?" I knelt down beside his bed.
"I'm scared of the dark." He told me in a whisper.
"Why are you scared of the dark?" I asked him.
"Because I can't see in the dark, and there might be monsters out there." He finally said after a pause.
"There's no monsters out there," I chuckled.
"How?" He asked me, his question cut short by an intense yawn.
"Because Mathis and I already killed all of the monsters." I told him. "And the few that are left live very far away."
"How far away?" He asked.
"Far enough away that you'll be a grown up before it's your turn to fight the monsters." I kissed him on the forehead. "Now get some sleep, we've got a big day tomorrow."
August 10th, 3018
"David," I gently shook my sons awake. "It's time to get up and dressed, if we're going to hike into the mountains we've got to drive there first. "
It took him a good five minutes to be fully roused from his slumber and into the set of hiking clothes we had picked out the night before.
"We've got everything packed and ready to go." I said in between bites of a waffle. "If there's anything else you want me to bring, speak up now or it'll get left behind."
"But we could send someone back for it." David said in response.
"Nope, this is a hiking trip the old fashioned way, we're tackling a mountain that we haven't fully surveyed yet." I told him with a grin. "
"We get to be explorers?" He asked excitedly.
"Yes David." I ruffled his head full of red hair. "We get to be explorers."
After we had finished our big breakfast, and packed up our hiking kits. (David's only had our small picnic supplies.) We loaded them up into the SUV we were taking to the mountains. Mathis would be shadowing us a decent ways out with a guard detail, but for the most part it was just going to me and my son enjoying the wilderness.
"We could find buried treasure!" David said as I loaded him into his car seat.
"Anything's possible." I agreed with a shrug. "But we'll just have to see."
Three hours later…
"David, we're here." I woke up the five year old. "You ready to get started?"
"Yes!" He cheered as he unbuckled his five point harness and helped me unload our packs. "Let me try to pick yours up dad." He said as I went to get my hiking kit out of the SUV.
"Okay." I laughed. "If you're sure you can handle it." I picked it up by the top handle and lowered it into his arms, careful to control the weight so he wouldn't get all of it until he was ready.
"I'm super strong dad!" He did a small muscle flex after he showed me that he could hold the pack in place.
"You sure are." I agreed as I slung the pack onto my back and clipped the straps across my chest and hips to distribute the weight. After thinking about it for a second, I reached into the SUV and grabbed a handgun and carbine to bring with us.
"Why are you bringing those dad?" David asked me.
"Because it's better to have them and not need them, than to need them and not have them." I told him the nugget of wisdom. "These may not be able to stop a massive predator, but they'll make them think twice, and that could save our lives should we stumble onto a bear or something else."
I loaded up some extra magazines into the hiking pack,
"Ok. " David agreed. Just happy to be going on a trip with his dad.
"Come here." I pulled David over to me and made sure everything was strapped in properly and distributed evenly. "Let me know if it gets too heavy, okay son?"
"I'm super strong dad, it won't be too heavy for me." David puffed his chest out. "One day I'll be stronger than you."
"I'm counting on it." I ruffled his hair and we set off on our adventure.
Author’s note: Quite a bit of the conversations in this chapter were based on real conversations with my 4 and 7 year old Foster children.
Chapter 85
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Five: Hide and Seek
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 10th, 3018
“Can we play Hide and seek?” David asked his father after they had finished cleaning up the leftover food and trash from their lunch up in the mountains.
“Sure.” His dad said, filling him with joy.
“I want to hide first!” David announced, “You have to count to a hundred and twenty before you can come find me.”
“Alright,” David’s dad chuckled, “I’ll be over here counting.”
David giggled to himself before running off into the trees. He was going to find the best hiding space ever!
He followed a small trail that he made out through the woods, following it as it spun and wound further up the mountain.
After a couple of minutes of following the trail, David stopped to catch his breath. Looking around, he saw the trail continuing to curve upwards, and forgetting that he was supposed to be playing with his dad, he decided to go exploring the rest of the small game trail he had found.
“One hundred and eighteen, one hundred and nineteen one hundred and twenty.” I counted out loud just in case David was listening. “Ready or not, here I come.” I started with a nearby search, and made sure that there wasn’t anywhere that he could easily disappear.
“David,” I called. “I’m going to find you” I wandered out of the clearing we had eaten lunch in, grabbing my carbine and slinging it around my back as a security measure.
I eased my way around, following the small boot prints until they vanished into a small game trail that I couldn’t go through.
“Dammit.” I sighed quietly. “I’m going to have to go around.” I grabbed a notebook out of one of the pockets on my pants and jotted down a quick note of the current landmarks I could see, and the general distance away from the clearing I was.
Grabbing my satcom, I dialed Mathis and waited for him to pick up.
“Everything alright, sir?” Mathis asked.
“Yeah, just have the Drones keep a closer eye on me, David and I are playing Hide and seek, and may be gone for longer than projected.”
“Copy that Sir,” Mathis responded. “I’ll have a couple more drones out and covering the mountain in fifteen minutes or so.”
“Good to hear.” I replied. “I’m moving on up the mountain now, I’ll drop you a line if we need help.”
Hanging up, I clipped the satcom to my hip and began the trek up and around the general area that the trail had led to.
David was having the time of his life, he was climbing a tree to get a better view of the trail up ahead, and he saw a whole castle up ahead!
Shimmying down the tree as fast as he could, he took off in the direction of the castle he saw up ahead. Running through the trees, he gasped when he reached a slight opening in the canopy and the buildings he saw up ahead.
“This is awesome!” He yelled as he ran to the buildings, ready to go exploring. “I told dad we would be explorers.”
He reached a really big fence, and decided to look for a way through it, finding a small hole in part of the concrete barrier and squeezing through it.
“It really is a castle.” He muttered to himself as he saw the outside walls and the inner buildings.
He tried to find a way into the building in front of him, but it was sealed shut. And so were the rest of the buildings.
“How do you get into a castle?” David muttered to himself as he drove his little brain hard for ideas. “They climb into the tower,” he said as an idea struck. “But I don’t have Rapunzel with me.”
He wandered around before seeing what he could do. There was a set of stairs on the outside of most of the taller buildings, and while he couldn’t reach them, he could move things to it in order to climb up them.
Pushing a really heavy trash can, he finally was able to reach the stairs. And pulling himself up, he finally took some deep breaths. “I’m super strong.” He reminded himself before combing up the stairs to the top of the building.
I was maintaining a jogging pace as I finally found a way into the thick trees and brush that had blocked my way previously. And, now that I had clearance and could see some footprints and where David had probably been I could pick up my pace.
“David!” I called as I ran through the trees, “where are you?” I stopped to make sure this was the direction he had headed in.
“David!” I kept up my calling, just in case he hadn’t heard me the first couple of times. While I did have a GPS tracker on him, I didn’t want to use it yet, and was going to be trying to find him the old fashioned way.
“Ahh,” I yelled in pain as my foot fell into a hole that was about thirty centimeters deep. I immediately sat down. Being careful to not put any undue pressure on the leg in case I had broken it instead of simply spraining or straining it.
“Alright Mark,” I muttered to myself. “Ease the leg out, and then diagnose.” I pried my leg out of the hole, and winced as pain spiked through my left leg.
“Well, it’s not an open fracture.” I muttered to myself, “But that doesn’t mean all that much.” I checked to see if there was any swelling happening. “I’m going to have to call Mathis.” I said to myself. “I’m not in my twenties anymore, and this kind of thing sucks.” I grabbed the medical pack attached to my waist and used parts of it to make a makeshift splint. “I’m going to have to keep looking for David though.” I said to myself. “Mathis won’t even know where to begin the search.”
“Yes!” David gave a small fist pump as the door in the roof opened on the first try. “Nobody ever locks the doors on the roof.” He cheered to himself and then frowned. “Except for dad, that is, he always locks all of the doors.”
Grabbing the small flashlight that his dad had given him to put on his own belt, David turned it on and shone it into the stairwell. “This is so cool.” David began to make his way down. “I wonder what kind of princess lived in this castle.” He continued down the stairs while talking to himself. “I bet she was like Melissa.” He nodded. “Yep, she was really pretty, sometimes mean, and a really good friend.” He walked over to the nearest hallway. “There’s so many doors.” He stated.
“Where would I put treasure in my castle though.” David thought to himself. “The bottom of the castle duh,” He did what he saw his dad do all of the time and smacked his palm into his face. “That’s the safest place to keep your treasure.” Instead of continuing to explore this floor, he went to the stairwell and began making his way to the basement.
“I don’t think this is a treasure room.” David said when he reached the basement. “This is just a room full of computers.” He huffed. “This isn’t a castle at all.” He got upset, and whined a bit. “Dad!” His brain finally remembered what he had forgotten. “I need to go find dad, I forgot we were playing hide and go seek.” With that said, he rushed back up the stairs, and heard and saw a VTOL coming in for a landing in the clearing that he and dad had eaten lunch in.
Running down the outside stairs. Why were they made out of metal anyway? He squeezed back through the hole in the wall that he had found and ran back through the trail, only stopping when he saw his dad sitting down and doing something to his leg.
“Dad!” David ran up and gave his dad a big bear hug. “I found a castle but there wasn’t a princess and I don’t think it was really a castle at all and.”
“David.” His dad’s voice cut through the noise of his brain. “You can tell me about your adventure later, right now I need you to go back to the clearing and bring Mathis to me ok.”
“I can do it dad.” David saluted with a smile on his face. “I’m super strong.” And he was off to the races once again.
“I thought you were the one who was supposed to stumble into lost factories and stuff.” Mathis laughed as he grabbed the other end of the stretcher I was on. “Not little David.” He gestured with his head to the redhead fast asleep on dad’s chest.
“What can I say?” I shrugged as much as I was able to. “Adventure and fun runs in the family.”
“I’ll have Adamina send some of her new students up to catalog the find.” Mathis said. “You’re probably going to be on bed rest again.”
“It’s probably just a strain or sprain.” I told him, “A break typically has a more painful throb to it, this is more of a pervasive ache.”
“Well, don’t self diagnose yourself too early, because I know a doctor that will enjoy messing with you if you’re wrong.”
“Hale can cuss me out herself later.” I scoffed. “She’s the one who trained me in more than just basic emergency first aid after all.”
“This was fun dad.” David interupted for a moment before he snuggled into my chest even more. “Let’s do it again next year.”
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 10th, 3018
“Can we play Hide and seek?” David asked his father after they had finished cleaning up the leftover food and trash from their lunch up in the mountains.
“Sure.” His dad said, filling him with joy.
“I want to hide first!” David announced, “You have to count to a hundred and twenty before you can come find me.”
“Alright,” David’s dad chuckled, “I’ll be over here counting.”
David giggled to himself before running off into the trees. He was going to find the best hiding space ever!
He followed a small trail that he made out through the woods, following it as it spun and wound further up the mountain.
After a couple of minutes of following the trail, David stopped to catch his breath. Looking around, he saw the trail continuing to curve upwards, and forgetting that he was supposed to be playing with his dad, he decided to go exploring the rest of the small game trail he had found.
“One hundred and eighteen, one hundred and nineteen one hundred and twenty.” I counted out loud just in case David was listening. “Ready or not, here I come.” I started with a nearby search, and made sure that there wasn’t anywhere that he could easily disappear.
“David,” I called. “I’m going to find you” I wandered out of the clearing we had eaten lunch in, grabbing my carbine and slinging it around my back as a security measure.
I eased my way around, following the small boot prints until they vanished into a small game trail that I couldn’t go through.
“Dammit.” I sighed quietly. “I’m going to have to go around.” I grabbed a notebook out of one of the pockets on my pants and jotted down a quick note of the current landmarks I could see, and the general distance away from the clearing I was.
Grabbing my satcom, I dialed Mathis and waited for him to pick up.
“Everything alright, sir?” Mathis asked.
“Yeah, just have the Drones keep a closer eye on me, David and I are playing Hide and seek, and may be gone for longer than projected.”
“Copy that Sir,” Mathis responded. “I’ll have a couple more drones out and covering the mountain in fifteen minutes or so.”
“Good to hear.” I replied. “I’m moving on up the mountain now, I’ll drop you a line if we need help.”
Hanging up, I clipped the satcom to my hip and began the trek up and around the general area that the trail had led to.
David was having the time of his life, he was climbing a tree to get a better view of the trail up ahead, and he saw a whole castle up ahead!
Shimmying down the tree as fast as he could, he took off in the direction of the castle he saw up ahead. Running through the trees, he gasped when he reached a slight opening in the canopy and the buildings he saw up ahead.
“This is awesome!” He yelled as he ran to the buildings, ready to go exploring. “I told dad we would be explorers.”
He reached a really big fence, and decided to look for a way through it, finding a small hole in part of the concrete barrier and squeezing through it.
“It really is a castle.” He muttered to himself as he saw the outside walls and the inner buildings.
He tried to find a way into the building in front of him, but it was sealed shut. And so were the rest of the buildings.
“How do you get into a castle?” David muttered to himself as he drove his little brain hard for ideas. “They climb into the tower,” he said as an idea struck. “But I don’t have Rapunzel with me.”
He wandered around before seeing what he could do. There was a set of stairs on the outside of most of the taller buildings, and while he couldn’t reach them, he could move things to it in order to climb up them.
Pushing a really heavy trash can, he finally was able to reach the stairs. And pulling himself up, he finally took some deep breaths. “I’m super strong.” He reminded himself before combing up the stairs to the top of the building.
I was maintaining a jogging pace as I finally found a way into the thick trees and brush that had blocked my way previously. And, now that I had clearance and could see some footprints and where David had probably been I could pick up my pace.
“David!” I called as I ran through the trees, “where are you?” I stopped to make sure this was the direction he had headed in.
“David!” I kept up my calling, just in case he hadn’t heard me the first couple of times. While I did have a GPS tracker on him, I didn’t want to use it yet, and was going to be trying to find him the old fashioned way.
“Ahh,” I yelled in pain as my foot fell into a hole that was about thirty centimeters deep. I immediately sat down. Being careful to not put any undue pressure on the leg in case I had broken it instead of simply spraining or straining it.
“Alright Mark,” I muttered to myself. “Ease the leg out, and then diagnose.” I pried my leg out of the hole, and winced as pain spiked through my left leg.
“Well, it’s not an open fracture.” I muttered to myself, “But that doesn’t mean all that much.” I checked to see if there was any swelling happening. “I’m going to have to call Mathis.” I said to myself. “I’m not in my twenties anymore, and this kind of thing sucks.” I grabbed the medical pack attached to my waist and used parts of it to make a makeshift splint. “I’m going to have to keep looking for David though.” I said to myself. “Mathis won’t even know where to begin the search.”
“Yes!” David gave a small fist pump as the door in the roof opened on the first try. “Nobody ever locks the doors on the roof.” He cheered to himself and then frowned. “Except for dad, that is, he always locks all of the doors.”
Grabbing the small flashlight that his dad had given him to put on his own belt, David turned it on and shone it into the stairwell. “This is so cool.” David began to make his way down. “I wonder what kind of princess lived in this castle.” He continued down the stairs while talking to himself. “I bet she was like Melissa.” He nodded. “Yep, she was really pretty, sometimes mean, and a really good friend.” He walked over to the nearest hallway. “There’s so many doors.” He stated.
“Where would I put treasure in my castle though.” David thought to himself. “The bottom of the castle duh,” He did what he saw his dad do all of the time and smacked his palm into his face. “That’s the safest place to keep your treasure.” Instead of continuing to explore this floor, he went to the stairwell and began making his way to the basement.
“I don’t think this is a treasure room.” David said when he reached the basement. “This is just a room full of computers.” He huffed. “This isn’t a castle at all.” He got upset, and whined a bit. “Dad!” His brain finally remembered what he had forgotten. “I need to go find dad, I forgot we were playing hide and go seek.” With that said, he rushed back up the stairs, and heard and saw a VTOL coming in for a landing in the clearing that he and dad had eaten lunch in.
Running down the outside stairs. Why were they made out of metal anyway? He squeezed back through the hole in the wall that he had found and ran back through the trail, only stopping when he saw his dad sitting down and doing something to his leg.
“Dad!” David ran up and gave his dad a big bear hug. “I found a castle but there wasn’t a princess and I don’t think it was really a castle at all and.”
“David.” His dad’s voice cut through the noise of his brain. “You can tell me about your adventure later, right now I need you to go back to the clearing and bring Mathis to me ok.”
“I can do it dad.” David saluted with a smile on his face. “I’m super strong.” And he was off to the races once again.
“I thought you were the one who was supposed to stumble into lost factories and stuff.” Mathis laughed as he grabbed the other end of the stretcher I was on. “Not little David.” He gestured with his head to the redhead fast asleep on dad’s chest.
“What can I say?” I shrugged as much as I was able to. “Adventure and fun runs in the family.”
“I’ll have Adamina send some of her new students up to catalog the find.” Mathis said. “You’re probably going to be on bed rest again.”
“It’s probably just a strain or sprain.” I told him, “A break typically has a more painful throb to it, this is more of a pervasive ache.”
“Well, don’t self diagnose yourself too early, because I know a doctor that will enjoy messing with you if you’re wrong.”
“Hale can cuss me out herself later.” I scoffed. “She’s the one who trained me in more than just basic emergency first aid after all.”
“This was fun dad.” David interupted for a moment before he snuggled into my chest even more. “Let’s do it again next year.”
Chapter Eighty-Six: Reports
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Six: Reports
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 11th, 3018
“What’s the verdict doc?” I asked Janet Hale. “Did I break anything?”
“No, you just sprained it, but you’re going to need to keep everything to a minimum for the next couple of weeks.” She sighed, “I’m going to prescribe you an anti-inflammatory because I know you’ll at least take those.”
“I don’t take pain meds doc.” I responded casually. “I don’t like em, they make my brain a little fuzzy and weird sometimes.”
“I know Hull,” She sighed. “Take the anti-inflammatories, and try and stay off of the foot for as long as possible.”
“I’ll wear a brace and use crutches if I need to.” I replied. “But I told David we would go help the engineers catalog the base we found in the mountains.”
“Just be careful,” Doctor Hale sighed. “No more injuries this year.”
“No promises doc,” I smiled. “But I’ll do my best.”
After finishing up with Doctor Hale, I made my way back to the place where David was working on basic reading and writing with a couple of other kids his age.
“Hey guys!” I limped into the room. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’ll be borrowing David for the rest of the day.”
“That’s perfectly fine.” The teacher said with a smile. “He was telling us all about the castle that he found yesterday and is really excited to go back and see it. “
“Well, we marked the GPS coordinates, and we’ll be heading back there today.” I ruffled David’s hair as he clung to my leg. “Hopefully with less injuries this time.”
“We get to go see the castle!” David cheered as we loaded up into a VTOL.
“Yes David,” I replied as we began the lift off procedures. “And Mathis had some people clear out enough of the trees that we can land a lot closer to the compound this time.”
“So you can see it too?!” David asked me excitedly.
“Yes David,” I replied with a smile on my face. “I’m going to be seeing the castle with you this time. “
We spent the hour-long trip just enjoying the view, seeing the mountains and the river flowing down it. David was in awe of the sun coming down over the mountain, and the various colors of the trees. Seeing as we were entering the beginning of the mild fall season, you had a mix of red, yellow and green leaves that flowed over the sides of the mountain. It looked like one of the renaissance painters had gone through and done a masterwork on it. The mountain had been gorgeous when we were hiking on it the previous day, but from this view it was an entirely different perspective.
“It’s so pretty.” David said through the headset attached to his head. “Can we take a picture of the castle and the mountain around it to show to mom when she gets back?”
“Sure son,” I told him. “I’m sure there’s a camera somewhere that we can use to do that after we go explore the compound that you found.”
“Okay Dad.” David responded, ready to go exploring the compound.
We got closer to the compound that David had found, and began to drop lower into the clearing that a group of combat engineers had cleared out in the last few hours. It turns out, explosives make one hell of a stump removal tool.
“That does look a bit like a castle.” I told David. “I understand why you thought that.” I observed the walled compound. There was a ‘mech sized wall surrounding the compound, and a thick metal gate guarding the entrance.
“Now let’s see what’s inside.” I told him and we began the slow journey into the compound.
“That’s the building I went inside of!” David pointed to the tallest building in the area. “The door on the roof was unlocked.”
“Well David.” I knelt down so I could be eye level with him. “Doctor Rogers sent some people over ahead of us to get some lights up and running.”
“They didn’t explore everything without us did they?” David asked with a slightly panicked look on his face.
“No son.” I chuckled “They just got the old lights here up and running again and made sure the doors were all unlocked.” I stood back up. “But they left us to do the fun part.”
“So we get to go exploring?” He asked with hope in his eyes.
“We get to go exploring.” I agreed with a grin. “Shall we?” I opened the first door, and away we went.
“This is boring.” David said and kicked at the dust on the floor. “Why isn’t there any treasure?”
“Because son, not everything has to have treasure in it.” I chuckled and then came to a stop. This building was basically a hanger with bays sized for ‘mech repairs, and in the back was a massive elevator. “But there might be something down there.”
“Dr. Rogers.” I used my comm divide. “Can we get some people in the ‘mech hanger, it looks like we may have found something.”
And so, David and I took a break to eat a snack and let him take a nap while Dr. Rogers went through and got the elevator up and running again.
“How’s the leg boss?” Mathis asked me while David slept on my lap.
“Been better.” I shrugged. “At least it’s not broken this time.”
“Kid doing alright?” He asked, sitting down next to me.
“He thought it would be a lot more fun than this.” I chuckled. “Tell me Rook pulled something from the leftover computers in this place.”
“Rook pulled everything and borrowed some of Dunham’s analysts to go over it.” Mathis shrugged. “But it seems like everything points to this being the outpost the Mckinnon’s raiders used during the First Succession War.”
“Seems to fit, we knew they used a mountain to base off of, and maybe there’s something interesting they left behind.” I agreed.
“Maybe there’s something at the bottom of that elevator shaft.” Mathis said, “But there’s nothing else here aside from an abandoned base.”
“I may have it renovated and used as a fallback point or a ducal retreat.” I said. “But Dr. Rogers has been pushing me to start a school or academy akin to NAIS.” I shrugged, “This looks like a decent starting point for that.”
“Whatever you say boss.” He shrugged. “I’ll let the engineers stick to that. I’m just here to watch your back and shoot who you tell me to.”
“Duke Hull,” Piped in over my comm device. “We’ve gotten the elevator powered back up, and we figured you’d want to do the honors.
“This is way better than treasure!” David exclaimed as we looked at the lance of ‘mechs that were stored here.
“I have to agree with you there.” I said as I noted the ‘mech types. “They look like they took some combat damage before being stashed here.” We walked around the massive machines. “I’m sure we can talk McCallister into getting them back up and running again.
“Hull,” Rook said as he came down the elevator behind us. “I just went over the reports, and it looks like the Raiders left behind a lance of ‘mechs that they didn’t have the pilots or resources to repair.”
“I could have figured that out from looking at them.” I pointed out the machines in front of us. “But, there may be some records we can pull and give to the current iteration of the Raiders.”
“They may want the machines back sir.” Rook said bluntly. “They could argue they have the right to them.”
“I’ll give them first priority on the Grasshoppers and a lance of Toro’s if I have to.” I looked at the lance. “I’m going to have R&D going over them until we can produce them ourselves.”
“That is a fair point sir.” He agreed as I helped David crawl onto the massive foot of the lone assault ‘mech. “If we can build lines to make some more of them, they may take the new ones over this group here.”
"Author's note: I'm going to be twisting canon a bit here on the force composition of the original McKinnon's Raiders. They fielded one additional lance in my version of the Kentares Massacre. Also, sorry for this being late, I've been busy and even if this is technically still posted on Saturday, it's five minutes until midnight here in EST so I guess it still counts.
Kentares IV, Draconis March Federated Suns, August 11th, 3018
“What’s the verdict doc?” I asked Janet Hale. “Did I break anything?”
“No, you just sprained it, but you’re going to need to keep everything to a minimum for the next couple of weeks.” She sighed, “I’m going to prescribe you an anti-inflammatory because I know you’ll at least take those.”
“I don’t take pain meds doc.” I responded casually. “I don’t like em, they make my brain a little fuzzy and weird sometimes.”
“I know Hull,” She sighed. “Take the anti-inflammatories, and try and stay off of the foot for as long as possible.”
“I’ll wear a brace and use crutches if I need to.” I replied. “But I told David we would go help the engineers catalog the base we found in the mountains.”
“Just be careful,” Doctor Hale sighed. “No more injuries this year.”
“No promises doc,” I smiled. “But I’ll do my best.”
After finishing up with Doctor Hale, I made my way back to the place where David was working on basic reading and writing with a couple of other kids his age.
“Hey guys!” I limped into the room. “Sorry to interrupt, but I’ll be borrowing David for the rest of the day.”
“That’s perfectly fine.” The teacher said with a smile. “He was telling us all about the castle that he found yesterday and is really excited to go back and see it. “
“Well, we marked the GPS coordinates, and we’ll be heading back there today.” I ruffled David’s hair as he clung to my leg. “Hopefully with less injuries this time.”
“We get to go see the castle!” David cheered as we loaded up into a VTOL.
“Yes David,” I replied as we began the lift off procedures. “And Mathis had some people clear out enough of the trees that we can land a lot closer to the compound this time.”
“So you can see it too?!” David asked me excitedly.
“Yes David,” I replied with a smile on my face. “I’m going to be seeing the castle with you this time. “
We spent the hour-long trip just enjoying the view, seeing the mountains and the river flowing down it. David was in awe of the sun coming down over the mountain, and the various colors of the trees. Seeing as we were entering the beginning of the mild fall season, you had a mix of red, yellow and green leaves that flowed over the sides of the mountain. It looked like one of the renaissance painters had gone through and done a masterwork on it. The mountain had been gorgeous when we were hiking on it the previous day, but from this view it was an entirely different perspective.
“It’s so pretty.” David said through the headset attached to his head. “Can we take a picture of the castle and the mountain around it to show to mom when she gets back?”
“Sure son,” I told him. “I’m sure there’s a camera somewhere that we can use to do that after we go explore the compound that you found.”
“Okay Dad.” David responded, ready to go exploring the compound.
We got closer to the compound that David had found, and began to drop lower into the clearing that a group of combat engineers had cleared out in the last few hours. It turns out, explosives make one hell of a stump removal tool.
“That does look a bit like a castle.” I told David. “I understand why you thought that.” I observed the walled compound. There was a ‘mech sized wall surrounding the compound, and a thick metal gate guarding the entrance.
“Now let’s see what’s inside.” I told him and we began the slow journey into the compound.
“That’s the building I went inside of!” David pointed to the tallest building in the area. “The door on the roof was unlocked.”
“Well David.” I knelt down so I could be eye level with him. “Doctor Rogers sent some people over ahead of us to get some lights up and running.”
“They didn’t explore everything without us did they?” David asked with a slightly panicked look on his face.
“No son.” I chuckled “They just got the old lights here up and running again and made sure the doors were all unlocked.” I stood back up. “But they left us to do the fun part.”
“So we get to go exploring?” He asked with hope in his eyes.
“We get to go exploring.” I agreed with a grin. “Shall we?” I opened the first door, and away we went.
“This is boring.” David said and kicked at the dust on the floor. “Why isn’t there any treasure?”
“Because son, not everything has to have treasure in it.” I chuckled and then came to a stop. This building was basically a hanger with bays sized for ‘mech repairs, and in the back was a massive elevator. “But there might be something down there.”
“Dr. Rogers.” I used my comm divide. “Can we get some people in the ‘mech hanger, it looks like we may have found something.”
And so, David and I took a break to eat a snack and let him take a nap while Dr. Rogers went through and got the elevator up and running again.
“How’s the leg boss?” Mathis asked me while David slept on my lap.
“Been better.” I shrugged. “At least it’s not broken this time.”
“Kid doing alright?” He asked, sitting down next to me.
“He thought it would be a lot more fun than this.” I chuckled. “Tell me Rook pulled something from the leftover computers in this place.”
“Rook pulled everything and borrowed some of Dunham’s analysts to go over it.” Mathis shrugged. “But it seems like everything points to this being the outpost the Mckinnon’s raiders used during the First Succession War.”
“Seems to fit, we knew they used a mountain to base off of, and maybe there’s something interesting they left behind.” I agreed.
“Maybe there’s something at the bottom of that elevator shaft.” Mathis said, “But there’s nothing else here aside from an abandoned base.”
“I may have it renovated and used as a fallback point or a ducal retreat.” I said. “But Dr. Rogers has been pushing me to start a school or academy akin to NAIS.” I shrugged, “This looks like a decent starting point for that.”
“Whatever you say boss.” He shrugged. “I’ll let the engineers stick to that. I’m just here to watch your back and shoot who you tell me to.”
“Duke Hull,” Piped in over my comm device. “We’ve gotten the elevator powered back up, and we figured you’d want to do the honors.
“This is way better than treasure!” David exclaimed as we looked at the lance of ‘mechs that were stored here.
“I have to agree with you there.” I said as I noted the ‘mech types. “They look like they took some combat damage before being stashed here.” We walked around the massive machines. “I’m sure we can talk McCallister into getting them back up and running again.
“Hull,” Rook said as he came down the elevator behind us. “I just went over the reports, and it looks like the Raiders left behind a lance of ‘mechs that they didn’t have the pilots or resources to repair.”
“I could have figured that out from looking at them.” I pointed out the machines in front of us. “But, there may be some records we can pull and give to the current iteration of the Raiders.”
“They may want the machines back sir.” Rook said bluntly. “They could argue they have the right to them.”
“I’ll give them first priority on the Grasshoppers and a lance of Toro’s if I have to.” I looked at the lance. “I’m going to have R&D going over them until we can produce them ourselves.”
“That is a fair point sir.” He agreed as I helped David crawl onto the massive foot of the lone assault ‘mech. “If we can build lines to make some more of them, they may take the new ones over this group here.”
"Author's note: I'm going to be twisting canon a bit here on the force composition of the original McKinnon's Raiders. They fielded one additional lance in my version of the Kentares Massacre. Also, sorry for this being late, I've been busy and even if this is technically still posted on Saturday, it's five minutes until midnight here in EST so I guess it still counts.
Chapter Eighty-Seven: Education
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Seven: Education
Kentares IV, August 25th, 3018
“Dr. Rogers.” I met my lead engineer's eyes. “We cleared the compound in the mountains and had it evaluated by the architects.” I paused.
“And?” Rogers asked. “Am I allowed to establish the learning center?”
“Yes,” I smiled at her. “We’re going to reinforce the walls, and the Argo will still be a source of some zero-g labs and classified experiments, but we’ll be allowing y’all to begin getting everything established there in the next couple of weeks.”
“I take it, we're allowed to expand it?” She asked me. “Because it’s not quite big enough to hold a whole college as is.”
“I’ll assign some people to help expand the underground and above ground facilities.” I agreed. “ The facilities will take a couple of weeks to be restored as is, and you can move in and start ordering the things necessary to get it established.”
“We were meaning to ask you about that.” Rogers threw in, meaning her colleagues on the planet and the Argo. “Would you mind if we partnered with Sharpshooter in order to start expanding?” She held up a hand before I could answer. “We know that you’re working on setting up schools and hospitals in the periphery and the Outback, and we want to help contribute to the science, engineering, and math curriculums with the hope of the really good ones potentially being offered a job.”
“What would you call the learning center then?” I asked her. “After all, I thought most people who established a school wanted it named after themselves?”
“We’d go with simple Hull.” She smirked, “You should know by now that we prefer that, I’m thinking of the Sharpshooter Learning Center.”
“You would teach more than just engineering and materials science right?” I asked for clarification.
“Yes,” She nodded in response. “We would have degrees in everything that we can hire people for, but with a more of a focus on materials science and engineering studies.” She shrugged. “We have plenty of history scholars in the Inner Sphere, what we lack is people who understand the first principles of what the Star League manufactured and accomplished, and that is what we are going to be trying to teach.”
August 30th, 3018
“Dunham, Mathis.” I greeted the two of them. “Now that we have solid data on how long the Texas will take to finish repairs, I figured it was time to go hit one of the last locations that I have data on.”
“What location?” Dunham asked me, seeing as he had most of my SLIC information.
“There were always rumors of a massive SLIC data center on New Dallas.” I said with a shrug. “I was never able to confirm said rumors, but I figure that if there were anything there we should go and see if we can locate it now.”
“Isn’t that all the way over towards Marik and Steiner space?” Mathis brought up, “And why tell us before Paterson and Packer?”
“Because you two will be in charge of taking the Age of Discovery and four Mules to see what can be salvaged from the planet.” I said. “Colonel Stone is going to be launching a raid on Carver V in order to grab a couple of aerospace lines that were mothballed a long time ago.”
“And it’ll be a useful distraction I take it.” Dunham said. “Why send Mathis with me though and why Stone and the 2nd Marksman instead of Peterson and the 1st?”
“Because you’re the intelligence chief.” I replied, “But Mathis is my personal hatchet man.” I shrugged. “He’s there to make sure that anyone who tries anything monumentally stupid dies a very quick death.” I took a breath. “Peterson and the 1st need a break, and the 2nd need to be bloodied.” I sighed. “I hate to say it like that, but while they have a solid core of Veterans, they’re still a mostly green unit, and so I’m going to be using them to conduct the raid in order to get them some more experience.”
“What do we do if we find a bunch of salvage or old mothballed mechs or something?” Mathis questioned. “Are you sending an engineering team with us?”
“I’ll have Dr. Rogers send along a couple of teams with both you and with Mason Stone’s 2nd Marksman.” I nodded. “If you find a bunch of old designs and mothballed Mackiies or something then that’s what the Mules are for, and if you manage to find a set of mothballed DroST’s or something than that’s what the extra collars are for.” I chuckled a bit. “You can never have too many of the Sting refits after all.”
“Amen.” Both Dunham and Mathis agreed.
“Now, I’ll make sure you have what data I have on the New Dallas system.” I stood up, “Let’s go check the Messenger’s logs shall we?”
“Just one last question.” Dunham said. “You did tell Peterson he wasn’t going on this trip right?”
“Nope, I’m letting his son do that.” I gave a sad smile. “He’s spent more time deployed than with him, and I’ve been half raising him in the meantime with Sheppard’s assistance.”
“Ouch.” Mathis gave a small shudder. “Hit him straight in the gut next time, it’ll hurt less.”
“Needed to be done.” I said sadly as we began to walk to the garage attached to the Ducal estate. “He needs a wakeup call, and his death wish is going to have to take a backseat to his remaining family.”
September 4th, 3018
“Second Marksman,” I began to the assembled regiment in front of me. “I’m sending you out on your first op with us.” I smiled. “I know you’ve spent a lot of time training, and that some of you have just finished the therapies that made you combat effective again, and I’m proud to claim you as part of one of the premier Mercenary units in the Inner Sphere, I expect you to punch above your weight and to get the job done.” I grinned wide. “Follow your training, and remember that we want you to all come back alive. Colonel Stone,” I turned to the CO of the 2nd Marksman. “I trust you with this command and expect great things to come out of this.” I shook his hand and then saluted the regiment. “Godspeed, and good luck.”
There was a loud “Click” as the assembled troops clicked their heels together and saluted me.
Colonel Stone then took the podium and stood at attention. “2nd Marksman, fall out!” He commanded; the various battalions and companies repeating the command.
“You have one day to get your affairs in order.” Stone told the assembled group. “I expect you all on the dropships and ready to lift off at 0930 in the morning.” He inhaled.
“Yes sir!” Echoed throughout the parade ground.
“You think they’re ready sir?” Stone asked me. “Because they’ve been itching for a deployment for the last year or so.”
“They’ve been ready for a while, I just wanted to make sure they got the extra training.” I looked him in the eye. “I know you’re young Stone, and that this is your first command but Sheppard says that you are ready, and the senior NCO’s are there to help you out.” He had risen through the ranks over the last five years or so and had proven himself well in the 1st Marksman before Sheppard had recommended him for the command track and suggested he be placed in a command role.
“If you’re sure sir,” He still sounded a bit uncertain. “I just feel unqualified for this position sometimes.”
“Want to know a secret?” I asked, and he nodded his head. “Everyone feels unqualified, even when you’ve been doing it for as long as I have.” I half shrugged. “Rely on your senior NCOs and Veterans, they’ll assist you, they know that you’re young, but they trust Sheppard, Peterson, and myself to make wise decisions with commanders, and for my last piece of advice.” I chuckled. “ “Better a good plan executed violently now, then a perfect plan later”” I quoted from memory. “Don’t worry about making the plan perfect, in war it’s always better to advance and to do something than to sit and do nothing, inaction get’s more people killed than anything else in a commander.”
“Thank you sir?” he said with a questioning look on his face, trying to unpack everything that I just said.
“You’ll get it later.” I patted him on the shoulder. “It just takes time.”
September 15th, 3018
"Mary," I paged my secretary. "Did we ever manage to get a message back from McKinnon's raiders?" I asked.
"Yes sir," She replied, "Their CO, Ross McKinnon will be dropping by next month to discuss some things with you." She consulted her notes, "There was also a note in the file attached by Hanse, and it's for your eyes only sir."
"I'll take a look at it in a minute," I said as I looked over Sharpshooter Inc's numbers for the last quarter.
"Looks like the Jumpship yard is back up and running." I observed, "And Norse is accepting our offer of funding in exchange for partial ownership." I leafed through some more reports. "We're going to need more Sting lines."I said after looking through the list of back-orders. "We're going to be booked on sales for the next ten years at this rate."
Kentares IV, August 25th, 3018
“Dr. Rogers.” I met my lead engineer's eyes. “We cleared the compound in the mountains and had it evaluated by the architects.” I paused.
“And?” Rogers asked. “Am I allowed to establish the learning center?”
“Yes,” I smiled at her. “We’re going to reinforce the walls, and the Argo will still be a source of some zero-g labs and classified experiments, but we’ll be allowing y’all to begin getting everything established there in the next couple of weeks.”
“I take it, we're allowed to expand it?” She asked me. “Because it’s not quite big enough to hold a whole college as is.”
“I’ll assign some people to help expand the underground and above ground facilities.” I agreed. “ The facilities will take a couple of weeks to be restored as is, and you can move in and start ordering the things necessary to get it established.”
“We were meaning to ask you about that.” Rogers threw in, meaning her colleagues on the planet and the Argo. “Would you mind if we partnered with Sharpshooter in order to start expanding?” She held up a hand before I could answer. “We know that you’re working on setting up schools and hospitals in the periphery and the Outback, and we want to help contribute to the science, engineering, and math curriculums with the hope of the really good ones potentially being offered a job.”
“What would you call the learning center then?” I asked her. “After all, I thought most people who established a school wanted it named after themselves?”
“We’d go with simple Hull.” She smirked, “You should know by now that we prefer that, I’m thinking of the Sharpshooter Learning Center.”
“You would teach more than just engineering and materials science right?” I asked for clarification.
“Yes,” She nodded in response. “We would have degrees in everything that we can hire people for, but with a more of a focus on materials science and engineering studies.” She shrugged. “We have plenty of history scholars in the Inner Sphere, what we lack is people who understand the first principles of what the Star League manufactured and accomplished, and that is what we are going to be trying to teach.”
August 30th, 3018
“Dunham, Mathis.” I greeted the two of them. “Now that we have solid data on how long the Texas will take to finish repairs, I figured it was time to go hit one of the last locations that I have data on.”
“What location?” Dunham asked me, seeing as he had most of my SLIC information.
“There were always rumors of a massive SLIC data center on New Dallas.” I said with a shrug. “I was never able to confirm said rumors, but I figure that if there were anything there we should go and see if we can locate it now.”
“Isn’t that all the way over towards Marik and Steiner space?” Mathis brought up, “And why tell us before Paterson and Packer?”
“Because you two will be in charge of taking the Age of Discovery and four Mules to see what can be salvaged from the planet.” I said. “Colonel Stone is going to be launching a raid on Carver V in order to grab a couple of aerospace lines that were mothballed a long time ago.”
“And it’ll be a useful distraction I take it.” Dunham said. “Why send Mathis with me though and why Stone and the 2nd Marksman instead of Peterson and the 1st?”
“Because you’re the intelligence chief.” I replied, “But Mathis is my personal hatchet man.” I shrugged. “He’s there to make sure that anyone who tries anything monumentally stupid dies a very quick death.” I took a breath. “Peterson and the 1st need a break, and the 2nd need to be bloodied.” I sighed. “I hate to say it like that, but while they have a solid core of Veterans, they’re still a mostly green unit, and so I’m going to be using them to conduct the raid in order to get them some more experience.”
“What do we do if we find a bunch of salvage or old mothballed mechs or something?” Mathis questioned. “Are you sending an engineering team with us?”
“I’ll have Dr. Rogers send along a couple of teams with both you and with Mason Stone’s 2nd Marksman.” I nodded. “If you find a bunch of old designs and mothballed Mackiies or something then that’s what the Mules are for, and if you manage to find a set of mothballed DroST’s or something than that’s what the extra collars are for.” I chuckled a bit. “You can never have too many of the Sting refits after all.”
“Amen.” Both Dunham and Mathis agreed.
“Now, I’ll make sure you have what data I have on the New Dallas system.” I stood up, “Let’s go check the Messenger’s logs shall we?”
“Just one last question.” Dunham said. “You did tell Peterson he wasn’t going on this trip right?”
“Nope, I’m letting his son do that.” I gave a sad smile. “He’s spent more time deployed than with him, and I’ve been half raising him in the meantime with Sheppard’s assistance.”
“Ouch.” Mathis gave a small shudder. “Hit him straight in the gut next time, it’ll hurt less.”
“Needed to be done.” I said sadly as we began to walk to the garage attached to the Ducal estate. “He needs a wakeup call, and his death wish is going to have to take a backseat to his remaining family.”
September 4th, 3018
“Second Marksman,” I began to the assembled regiment in front of me. “I’m sending you out on your first op with us.” I smiled. “I know you’ve spent a lot of time training, and that some of you have just finished the therapies that made you combat effective again, and I’m proud to claim you as part of one of the premier Mercenary units in the Inner Sphere, I expect you to punch above your weight and to get the job done.” I grinned wide. “Follow your training, and remember that we want you to all come back alive. Colonel Stone,” I turned to the CO of the 2nd Marksman. “I trust you with this command and expect great things to come out of this.” I shook his hand and then saluted the regiment. “Godspeed, and good luck.”
There was a loud “Click” as the assembled troops clicked their heels together and saluted me.
Colonel Stone then took the podium and stood at attention. “2nd Marksman, fall out!” He commanded; the various battalions and companies repeating the command.
“You have one day to get your affairs in order.” Stone told the assembled group. “I expect you all on the dropships and ready to lift off at 0930 in the morning.” He inhaled.
“Yes sir!” Echoed throughout the parade ground.
“You think they’re ready sir?” Stone asked me. “Because they’ve been itching for a deployment for the last year or so.”
“They’ve been ready for a while, I just wanted to make sure they got the extra training.” I looked him in the eye. “I know you’re young Stone, and that this is your first command but Sheppard says that you are ready, and the senior NCO’s are there to help you out.” He had risen through the ranks over the last five years or so and had proven himself well in the 1st Marksman before Sheppard had recommended him for the command track and suggested he be placed in a command role.
“If you’re sure sir,” He still sounded a bit uncertain. “I just feel unqualified for this position sometimes.”
“Want to know a secret?” I asked, and he nodded his head. “Everyone feels unqualified, even when you’ve been doing it for as long as I have.” I half shrugged. “Rely on your senior NCOs and Veterans, they’ll assist you, they know that you’re young, but they trust Sheppard, Peterson, and myself to make wise decisions with commanders, and for my last piece of advice.” I chuckled. “ “Better a good plan executed violently now, then a perfect plan later”” I quoted from memory. “Don’t worry about making the plan perfect, in war it’s always better to advance and to do something than to sit and do nothing, inaction get’s more people killed than anything else in a commander.”
“Thank you sir?” he said with a questioning look on his face, trying to unpack everything that I just said.
“You’ll get it later.” I patted him on the shoulder. “It just takes time.”
September 15th, 3018
"Mary," I paged my secretary. "Did we ever manage to get a message back from McKinnon's raiders?" I asked.
"Yes sir," She replied, "Their CO, Ross McKinnon will be dropping by next month to discuss some things with you." She consulted her notes, "There was also a note in the file attached by Hanse, and it's for your eyes only sir."
"I'll take a look at it in a minute," I said as I looked over Sharpshooter Inc's numbers for the last quarter.
"Looks like the Jumpship yard is back up and running." I observed, "And Norse is accepting our offer of funding in exchange for partial ownership." I leafed through some more reports. "We're going to need more Sting lines."I said after looking through the list of back-orders. "We're going to be booked on sales for the next ten years at this rate."
Chapter Eighty-Eight: Discussions
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Eight: Discussions
Kentares IV, October 15th, 3018
“Captain,” I greeted the CO of the McKinnon’s raiders. “I’m glad we were able to meet.”
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Duke Hull,” He shook my hand. “I’ve heard a great many things about you and it’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”
“Well, I hope the things you heard were good.” I said with a good natured laugh. “Because otherwise I might have to get some new PR people.”
“I recommend starting with your PR in the Capellan Confederation.” He replied with a straight face. “I hear they burn pictures of you at festivals now.”
“I almost believe that,” I chuckled. “Now, my son David accidentally stumbled onto a base that your predecessor’s used to harry the Combine forces and a lance of ‘mechs that they had left behind.”
“I got the message you sent.” McKinnon replied. “While we would like to take possession of the ‘mechs, we can’t afford the repair costs that you estimated at this time.” He sighed. “Although I wish to have the ‘mechs, I realized that your people can probably do more with them. And with that in mind, I’m willing to accept your offer of a mixed lance of factory fresh ‘mechs in exchange.”
“What ‘mechs were you thinking of?” I asked him bluntly. “We only produce the Grasshopper and Toro here on Kentares IV, with the rest of our facilities scattered in various locations.:
“We want either a Highlander or Crockett in replacement for the Nightstar that you found, a Crab, and a couple of Grasshoppers.” He told me.
“It’ll take about a year to get you the Crockett, Highlander or Crab.” I told him, “I can move some of the Grasshoppers that were intended for the local forces over to you immediately.” I shrugged, “I’ll give you some Mithril pilot suits to go with them, along with enough to outfit your entire unit.”
“We can wait on the ‘mechs.” Ross McKinnon responded. “Your reputation is rock solid, and we trust that you’ll keep your promises.”
“Now, I know you probably get this a lot, but I want to hear about a couple of your battles.” He grinned and leaned back in his chair across from my desk. “How’d you beat Major Barton in a Warhammer when he was using an Atlas?”
“Well, for starters…”
October 17th, 3018
“Captain Ross McKinnon?” A Kentares Guard member asked.
“Yes, that is me.” He responded. “Why do you ask?”
“I’ve got a delivery for you, but I’ll need a signature as well as a small blood sample before I transfer this over to you.”
“Very well.” McKinnon accepted the specialized pad from the Kentares Guards Officer, it had a small area where it pricked his thumb with a small needle to analyze his blood and ensure it was him. He had donated some blood to make sure that they had his bio-identification markers so that he could receive deliveries and classified information if necessary. “That always stings more than you’d expect.” He told the Guardsman who looked sympathetic to his plight.
“Yeah,” The guardsmen rubbed his thumb.” You expect it and yet it still manages to surprise you. “But it works, so I guess I can’t complain too much.”
“Where’s the delivery?” McKinnon asked, not seeing a truck or anything.
“It’s being held at the local starport until you bring the pad with you to confirm transfer.”
“Well that’s complicated innit?” McKinnon asked.
“It may be complicated, but it works sir; and it was my assigned job for the day.” The guardsmen laughed. “If you’re done, there’s plenty of beach and sun to go around, take a soak before you leave too, it’s gorgeous year round.”
“I thought you were in the middle of Autumn though?” The confused man asked.
“That’s only in the mountains for the most part. We get parts of seasons, but it’s only on the top of the tallest mountains here that it snows. Everywhere else is mild or warm all year round.”
Carver V, Capellan Confederation, November 3rd, 3018
“Move in and hit their flanks.” Colonel Stone ordered from his Marauder, “Their Infantry and vehicles are reeling right now, and we should press on now.”
“Copy that sir.” His Battalion commanders responded. “Closing the trap now.”
Stone had used his command lance as bait, and it was paying off in spades, the Carver V militia, despite receiving some benefits of having had the Wolf’s Dragoons on their world for a bit, were also still recovering from the damage that had been done in their escape. This was allowing Stone to pin down and hammer at the militia until they could free up some time and space to start stripping the Mothballed Ironsides lines and doing a quick search to see if there were anything left of the Victor and Atlas lines that could be salvaged.
November 8th, 3018
“I’m sorry sir, but just about the only thing left here to salvage is the Ironsides factory here.” The lead engineer that Dr. Rogers had sent with him reported. “There’s not even a scrap of an Autocannon left to piece together.” (Stone is the unluckiest dice roller in all of the command staff somehow, he ended up rolling a 2 on a D(20) five times in a row!)
“Alright then, I guess we’ll just pack this up and start moving everything onboard our dropships for transport.” Stone replied, “The militia here is beaten down, and with the FWL a mess, I’m not worried about us being hit by any forces with any sort of strength anytime soon.”
“I can’t believe you just said that sir.” A Staff Sergeant said as he drove his forehead into his palm repeatedly. “Now we’re for certain going to get hit with something.”
“What do you mean?” Stone asked with a look of confusion on his face as a staff member ran in.
“Colonel Stone, the Free State of Stewart just jumped into the system with a regiment in order to subjugate this world.”
“Well that ones new.” Stone said. “They must have seceded from the FWL while we were in transit.” He sighed. “Alright people, we’re on a time crunch now to get everything packed up, we have around five days before they manage to land and I want us to take off and head for the jump point in two.”
“But sir,” The engineer protested. “We’ve only gotten a quarter of the factory packed up as it is.”
“Well your people better pick up the pace then, because we need to be leaving before that Regiment decides that they want to pick a fight with us.”
“Engineer,” Stone’s XO chimed in, “If you can’t pack it up, make sure you get the correct dimensions on the replacement parts, we can fix the lines if we have too, but we’d prefer them intact.”
“Right, I can do that.” The engineer stammered in reply, “And we’ll try to get everything packed up, it might go quicker if you lend us some of your infantrymen though.”
“Let us know what you need to get done faster, and we’ll make sure that you get it,” Stone replied.
Kentares IV, October 15th, 3018
“Captain,” I greeted the CO of the McKinnon’s raiders. “I’m glad we were able to meet.”
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you Duke Hull,” He shook my hand. “I’ve heard a great many things about you and it’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”
“Well, I hope the things you heard were good.” I said with a good natured laugh. “Because otherwise I might have to get some new PR people.”
“I recommend starting with your PR in the Capellan Confederation.” He replied with a straight face. “I hear they burn pictures of you at festivals now.”
“I almost believe that,” I chuckled. “Now, my son David accidentally stumbled onto a base that your predecessor’s used to harry the Combine forces and a lance of ‘mechs that they had left behind.”
“I got the message you sent.” McKinnon replied. “While we would like to take possession of the ‘mechs, we can’t afford the repair costs that you estimated at this time.” He sighed. “Although I wish to have the ‘mechs, I realized that your people can probably do more with them. And with that in mind, I’m willing to accept your offer of a mixed lance of factory fresh ‘mechs in exchange.”
“What ‘mechs were you thinking of?” I asked him bluntly. “We only produce the Grasshopper and Toro here on Kentares IV, with the rest of our facilities scattered in various locations.:
“We want either a Highlander or Crockett in replacement for the Nightstar that you found, a Crab, and a couple of Grasshoppers.” He told me.
“It’ll take about a year to get you the Crockett, Highlander or Crab.” I told him, “I can move some of the Grasshoppers that were intended for the local forces over to you immediately.” I shrugged, “I’ll give you some Mithril pilot suits to go with them, along with enough to outfit your entire unit.”
“We can wait on the ‘mechs.” Ross McKinnon responded. “Your reputation is rock solid, and we trust that you’ll keep your promises.”
“Now, I know you probably get this a lot, but I want to hear about a couple of your battles.” He grinned and leaned back in his chair across from my desk. “How’d you beat Major Barton in a Warhammer when he was using an Atlas?”
“Well, for starters…”
October 17th, 3018
“Captain Ross McKinnon?” A Kentares Guard member asked.
“Yes, that is me.” He responded. “Why do you ask?”
“I’ve got a delivery for you, but I’ll need a signature as well as a small blood sample before I transfer this over to you.”
“Very well.” McKinnon accepted the specialized pad from the Kentares Guards Officer, it had a small area where it pricked his thumb with a small needle to analyze his blood and ensure it was him. He had donated some blood to make sure that they had his bio-identification markers so that he could receive deliveries and classified information if necessary. “That always stings more than you’d expect.” He told the Guardsman who looked sympathetic to his plight.
“Yeah,” The guardsmen rubbed his thumb.” You expect it and yet it still manages to surprise you. “But it works, so I guess I can’t complain too much.”
“Where’s the delivery?” McKinnon asked, not seeing a truck or anything.
“It’s being held at the local starport until you bring the pad with you to confirm transfer.”
“Well that’s complicated innit?” McKinnon asked.
“It may be complicated, but it works sir; and it was my assigned job for the day.” The guardsmen laughed. “If you’re done, there’s plenty of beach and sun to go around, take a soak before you leave too, it’s gorgeous year round.”
“I thought you were in the middle of Autumn though?” The confused man asked.
“That’s only in the mountains for the most part. We get parts of seasons, but it’s only on the top of the tallest mountains here that it snows. Everywhere else is mild or warm all year round.”
Carver V, Capellan Confederation, November 3rd, 3018
“Move in and hit their flanks.” Colonel Stone ordered from his Marauder, “Their Infantry and vehicles are reeling right now, and we should press on now.”
“Copy that sir.” His Battalion commanders responded. “Closing the trap now.”
Stone had used his command lance as bait, and it was paying off in spades, the Carver V militia, despite receiving some benefits of having had the Wolf’s Dragoons on their world for a bit, were also still recovering from the damage that had been done in their escape. This was allowing Stone to pin down and hammer at the militia until they could free up some time and space to start stripping the Mothballed Ironsides lines and doing a quick search to see if there were anything left of the Victor and Atlas lines that could be salvaged.
November 8th, 3018
“I’m sorry sir, but just about the only thing left here to salvage is the Ironsides factory here.” The lead engineer that Dr. Rogers had sent with him reported. “There’s not even a scrap of an Autocannon left to piece together.” (Stone is the unluckiest dice roller in all of the command staff somehow, he ended up rolling a 2 on a D(20) five times in a row!)
“Alright then, I guess we’ll just pack this up and start moving everything onboard our dropships for transport.” Stone replied, “The militia here is beaten down, and with the FWL a mess, I’m not worried about us being hit by any forces with any sort of strength anytime soon.”
“I can’t believe you just said that sir.” A Staff Sergeant said as he drove his forehead into his palm repeatedly. “Now we’re for certain going to get hit with something.”
“What do you mean?” Stone asked with a look of confusion on his face as a staff member ran in.
“Colonel Stone, the Free State of Stewart just jumped into the system with a regiment in order to subjugate this world.”
“Well that ones new.” Stone said. “They must have seceded from the FWL while we were in transit.” He sighed. “Alright people, we’re on a time crunch now to get everything packed up, we have around five days before they manage to land and I want us to take off and head for the jump point in two.”
“But sir,” The engineer protested. “We’ve only gotten a quarter of the factory packed up as it is.”
“Well your people better pick up the pace then, because we need to be leaving before that Regiment decides that they want to pick a fight with us.”
“Engineer,” Stone’s XO chimed in, “If you can’t pack it up, make sure you get the correct dimensions on the replacement parts, we can fix the lines if we have too, but we’d prefer them intact.”
“Right, I can do that.” The engineer stammered in reply, “And we’ll try to get everything packed up, it might go quicker if you lend us some of your infantrymen though.”
“Let us know what you need to get done faster, and we’ll make sure that you get it,” Stone replied.
Chapter Eighty-Nine: A(Nother) Roll of the Dice
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Eighty-Nine: A(Nother) Roll of the Dice
New Dallas, November 16th, 3018
"You shut down those satellites right?" Mathis asked Dunham, "Because I'm pretty sure those were supposed to alert Comstar or somebody else that people entered the system. "
"I got em, you would think Comstar has picked up on the fact that we have backdoors into their systems now, but no. "Dunham replied. "Rook took care of it, he's still our best tech specialist, and so he's coming with us down to the planet."
"Sensors are showing that it's mainly uninhabitable." Dunham said as he checked in with the bridge crew of the Age of Discovery, "But with Mithril, and a lot of oxygen refills and filters we should be fine."
"Remember though," Mathis said. "We should probably start with the capital city complex, I bet if there's anything, it'll be there."
"Makes as good sense as anything I guess." Dunham replied. "We'll need to maintain careful seals though, it's still pretty irradiated down there, my guess is The Free Worlds League used dirty nukes to make sure everything was glassed and unusable."
"We brought the scanning equipment and everyone who was available from the Interstellar Expeditions gig from years back." Mathis said with a shrug, "While no Jenkins or Mendoza, if anyone can help find a hidden computer and stash, it'll be these guys."
"Too bad David wasn't available to help us out given his luck of late." Dunham chuckled.
"I know right, and here I thought it was his father with the luck." Mathis joined in with a booming laugh. "Don't tell Mark, but I laughed hysterically under my armor when I saw him sitting down having fallen into a hole."
"I won't tell him," Dunham replied. "But I bet he'll figure it out anyway."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to make it easy for him."
November 20th, 3018
"Nothing but an old Mackie here." Mathis reported as he gestured to his scanner team to pick up their gear. "Looks like it needs a new engine, but might be salvageable."
"Mark it for pickup later, I want to find the computer core if it exists first." Dunham replied from the Dropship that he was coordinating things in. "Next location is navpoint beta, see if there's anything there and move on to Gamma for me."
"Think this one is a dud Dunham?" Mathis asked on an encrypted channel. "We've been here for days and haven't found anything."
"We were at the Taurus plant for a couple of weeks before we found anything there." Dunham reminded him. "Besides, we've found enough small salvage it could almost be called a success."
"Two lance's of 'mechs in need of repairs are not exactly what I would call a success Dunham." Mathis replied sourly. "But we'll maintain our current pace until it's time to pull out."
"Pack it up people." Mathis told his crew after swapping to that specific channel. "We've got three more nav points to scan before we head in for ruck time."
"Yes sir." They responded and began to pack everything up onto the trucks they had brought, thankfully their equipment was decently portable and did its job well enough that no one was upset that it was taking a long time to go through everything on this archaeological dig.
"Sir, the next location looks like one of the original dome habitats that the Terran Hegemony set up when they were terraforming the planet." One of the scanning team members observed, "Might be in there sir, you never know with the Hegemony or star league."
"Good point," Mathis told him, "I'll let Dunham know we're going to be doing a much more comprehensive scan here."
November 22nd, 3018
"Hey Dunham," Mathis commed. "We've got sealed doors here, and what appears to be a bunch of old wrecks or something on our scanners. Wanna come take a look at it, see if you can get it open with Rook's help?"
"We're heading your way anyway." Dunham said, we're about thirty mikes out though, so see if you can get some generators hooked up to the doors for us so when we get there it'll make it easier on Rook."
"We'll get right on it." Mathis replied, and he turned his external speakers on. "You and you, get those generators off of the trucks and hook them up to the doors, I want them powered up and ready for whatever techno wizardry that Rook and Dunham are able to cook up."
"Yes sir." They responded and got moving. Mathis himself went and grabbed a generator and heaved it up onto his shoulder, carrying it and gently setting it down wherever the engineers told him to. From there, he began supervising and assisting where he saw he was needed until the hovercraft with Rook and Dunham pulled up.
"That's a pretty big set of doors." Rook said as he stepped out of the hovercraft. "Let's see if I can get them open." He cracked his knuckles and neck and walked over to the keypad and lone computer blocking access that Mathis and Dunham had found.
"Oh," Mathis said as he synced his 'Noteputer up to it. "Mathis, I'm glad you called me over, because this thing would have self destructed and taken you with it if you had tried to open it without some of the codes that Dunham and I have."
"But, with the correct access codes that the SLIC and HCID left behind…" Rook trailed off. "We can just have it open for us."
The doors squealed open slowly and the ground shook a bit from how large they were. The Terran Hegemony and Star League didn't do anything small after all.
Hours later…
"Well, look what we have here." Rook smiled to himself as he unpacked a bunch of spare computer cores. "Looks like we just hit the mother lode."
"That's a good thing to hear." Dunham replied. "Mathis is finishing up the inventory of what we ended up finding down here."
"What's the word on the salvage?" Rook asked curiously. "Anything good?"
"Well, we got about two battalions of Age of War Era Mackies, Sarissas, and a bunch of combat vehicles too. We've got a metric ton of Ballista Artillery pieces and Merkava Mk. VII tanks. Think they can do anything with em?"
"I think we can put them to use if we bring them up to modern standards." Dunham said. "And it's not like we haven't fielded the Balista before."
"Fair enough." Rook replied. "Were those DroST's in there able to be moved or not?"
"They're the old original IIb's." Dunham responded. "There's about ten of them there, and the techs say they should be able to fly."
"So ten more Stings to add to our forces in a year or so?" Rook asked.
"Looks like." Dunham agreed. "How goes copying the core?"
"I've made three copies so far, and I'm working on a fourth now." Rook shrugged in return. "It's an older operating system and takes a bit longer to make copies than more modern systems."
"Can you see if there's a way to open the top of the dome?" Dunham asked. "It'll make it easier on us when it's time to get the dropships out of here."
"Sure thing." Rook replied. "I'm kinda at the waiting part of this anyway."
Carver V, November 10th, 3018
"We don't want to fight you," Colonel Stone told the CO of the Stewart regiment that was burning in. "We've just completed a raid and are leaving."
"We don't care." You're taking something that would rightfully belong to us after we subjugated this world." The Co of the Stewart regiment responded. "Now surrender, or prepare for combat."
Authors note: Mathis and Dunham rolled a 15 for the loot rolls. So pretty decent findings. If a bit dated.
New Dallas, November 16th, 3018
"You shut down those satellites right?" Mathis asked Dunham, "Because I'm pretty sure those were supposed to alert Comstar or somebody else that people entered the system. "
"I got em, you would think Comstar has picked up on the fact that we have backdoors into their systems now, but no. "Dunham replied. "Rook took care of it, he's still our best tech specialist, and so he's coming with us down to the planet."
"Sensors are showing that it's mainly uninhabitable." Dunham said as he checked in with the bridge crew of the Age of Discovery, "But with Mithril, and a lot of oxygen refills and filters we should be fine."
"Remember though," Mathis said. "We should probably start with the capital city complex, I bet if there's anything, it'll be there."
"Makes as good sense as anything I guess." Dunham replied. "We'll need to maintain careful seals though, it's still pretty irradiated down there, my guess is The Free Worlds League used dirty nukes to make sure everything was glassed and unusable."
"We brought the scanning equipment and everyone who was available from the Interstellar Expeditions gig from years back." Mathis said with a shrug, "While no Jenkins or Mendoza, if anyone can help find a hidden computer and stash, it'll be these guys."
"Too bad David wasn't available to help us out given his luck of late." Dunham chuckled.
"I know right, and here I thought it was his father with the luck." Mathis joined in with a booming laugh. "Don't tell Mark, but I laughed hysterically under my armor when I saw him sitting down having fallen into a hole."
"I won't tell him," Dunham replied. "But I bet he'll figure it out anyway."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I have to make it easy for him."
November 20th, 3018
"Nothing but an old Mackie here." Mathis reported as he gestured to his scanner team to pick up their gear. "Looks like it needs a new engine, but might be salvageable."
"Mark it for pickup later, I want to find the computer core if it exists first." Dunham replied from the Dropship that he was coordinating things in. "Next location is navpoint beta, see if there's anything there and move on to Gamma for me."
"Think this one is a dud Dunham?" Mathis asked on an encrypted channel. "We've been here for days and haven't found anything."
"We were at the Taurus plant for a couple of weeks before we found anything there." Dunham reminded him. "Besides, we've found enough small salvage it could almost be called a success."
"Two lance's of 'mechs in need of repairs are not exactly what I would call a success Dunham." Mathis replied sourly. "But we'll maintain our current pace until it's time to pull out."
"Pack it up people." Mathis told his crew after swapping to that specific channel. "We've got three more nav points to scan before we head in for ruck time."
"Yes sir." They responded and began to pack everything up onto the trucks they had brought, thankfully their equipment was decently portable and did its job well enough that no one was upset that it was taking a long time to go through everything on this archaeological dig.
"Sir, the next location looks like one of the original dome habitats that the Terran Hegemony set up when they were terraforming the planet." One of the scanning team members observed, "Might be in there sir, you never know with the Hegemony or star league."
"Good point," Mathis told him, "I'll let Dunham know we're going to be doing a much more comprehensive scan here."
November 22nd, 3018
"Hey Dunham," Mathis commed. "We've got sealed doors here, and what appears to be a bunch of old wrecks or something on our scanners. Wanna come take a look at it, see if you can get it open with Rook's help?"
"We're heading your way anyway." Dunham said, we're about thirty mikes out though, so see if you can get some generators hooked up to the doors for us so when we get there it'll make it easier on Rook."
"We'll get right on it." Mathis replied, and he turned his external speakers on. "You and you, get those generators off of the trucks and hook them up to the doors, I want them powered up and ready for whatever techno wizardry that Rook and Dunham are able to cook up."
"Yes sir." They responded and got moving. Mathis himself went and grabbed a generator and heaved it up onto his shoulder, carrying it and gently setting it down wherever the engineers told him to. From there, he began supervising and assisting where he saw he was needed until the hovercraft with Rook and Dunham pulled up.
"That's a pretty big set of doors." Rook said as he stepped out of the hovercraft. "Let's see if I can get them open." He cracked his knuckles and neck and walked over to the keypad and lone computer blocking access that Mathis and Dunham had found.
"Oh," Mathis said as he synced his 'Noteputer up to it. "Mathis, I'm glad you called me over, because this thing would have self destructed and taken you with it if you had tried to open it without some of the codes that Dunham and I have."
"But, with the correct access codes that the SLIC and HCID left behind…" Rook trailed off. "We can just have it open for us."
The doors squealed open slowly and the ground shook a bit from how large they were. The Terran Hegemony and Star League didn't do anything small after all.
Hours later…
"Well, look what we have here." Rook smiled to himself as he unpacked a bunch of spare computer cores. "Looks like we just hit the mother lode."
"That's a good thing to hear." Dunham replied. "Mathis is finishing up the inventory of what we ended up finding down here."
"What's the word on the salvage?" Rook asked curiously. "Anything good?"
"Well, we got about two battalions of Age of War Era Mackies, Sarissas, and a bunch of combat vehicles too. We've got a metric ton of Ballista Artillery pieces and Merkava Mk. VII tanks. Think they can do anything with em?"
"I think we can put them to use if we bring them up to modern standards." Dunham said. "And it's not like we haven't fielded the Balista before."
"Fair enough." Rook replied. "Were those DroST's in there able to be moved or not?"
"They're the old original IIb's." Dunham responded. "There's about ten of them there, and the techs say they should be able to fly."
"So ten more Stings to add to our forces in a year or so?" Rook asked.
"Looks like." Dunham agreed. "How goes copying the core?"
"I've made three copies so far, and I'm working on a fourth now." Rook shrugged in return. "It's an older operating system and takes a bit longer to make copies than more modern systems."
"Can you see if there's a way to open the top of the dome?" Dunham asked. "It'll make it easier on us when it's time to get the dropships out of here."
"Sure thing." Rook replied. "I'm kinda at the waiting part of this anyway."
Carver V, November 10th, 3018
"We don't want to fight you," Colonel Stone told the CO of the Stewart regiment that was burning in. "We've just completed a raid and are leaving."
"We don't care." You're taking something that would rightfully belong to us after we subjugated this world." The Co of the Stewart regiment responded. "Now surrender, or prepare for combat."
Authors note: Mathis and Dunham rolled a 15 for the loot rolls. So pretty decent findings. If a bit dated.
Chapter 90
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Ninety: Disengagement
Carver V, November 11th, 3018
“Think they got our message?” Stone asked his XO. “Because if this works, we’ll have some very unhappy Stewart’s upset at us.”
“I think that we’ll find out soon.” His XO responded. “We’re going to be lifting off and only covering our own asses up there, so I hope they don’t pursue.”
“If they do, we’ll leave ‘‘em in the black.” Stone shrugged. “And stranded here on Carver V too.”
“I’m still not sure this will work, but we’re willing to take the chance anyway.” The Staff Sergeant who had given Stone a reaming for tempting Murphy earlier said.
“Well sergeant, if it doesn’t work then we’ll just have to fight it out, all this does is prevent us from having to duke it out with someone who we have no information about.” Stone replied.
“We’ve got your back sir.” The XO stated, “We’re just keeping you apprised of the potential issues that may come up.”
“Well, now it’s a game of us lifting off with our loot before they can stop us.” Stone said as he rolled his neck. “Let’s make sure everyone’s accounted for and get moving.”
November 12th, 3018
“We’ve reached orbit sir, timing our launch at the same time they dropped in through atmosphere was genius sir.” Stone’s XO said as they cleared the atmosphere. “It rendered them temporarily blind to us lifting off.”
“Now we just have to get to the jump point.” Stone replied. “We don’t know what kind of aerospace assets they had, so we’re going to stay on alert.” Stone stroked his small goatee. “Have our company of Marines ready to board their Jumpships. Unless they hot charge their K-F Drives they won’t be going anywhere.”
November 18th, 3018
“I’d hate to be one of those pilots right about now.” Stone’s Staff Sergeant muttered. “Poor bastards didn’t stand a chance.”
“Better them than us.” Stone’s XO replied. “And they should be able to be recovered in the vacuum, it’s not like we went after them to ensure pilots were killed or anything.”
“Point,” The NCO responded. “But still not somewhere I’d like to be,” He shuddered. “Keep my feet on the ground thank you very much.”
“Stow the talk,” Stone said after a minute. “I’m trying to listen in and see how our Marines are doing.”
“What Jumpships did they jump in with?” The XO asked.
“A Star Lord, and an Invader.” Stone responded. “I figure the extra collars were used for infantry transport if they were planning on taking and holding this world.”
“That would confirm the data our people picked up from the burn in.” the Staff Sergeant agreed. “You would need the greater amount of infantry too, the Capellans don’t tend to just lay down and let you subjugate a world for some reason.”
“Brainwashing.” The XO replied. “It’s also the only way that the servitors and caste system is enforced.” He shrugged. “It’s why the production on previously Capellan worlds is so high within a couple of generations.”
“Socio Economics degree?” Stone asked.
“Yep,” The XO agreed. “The Marksman are helping me pay off my doctorate.” He grinned. “And I get to see it in action everywhere we go.”
“Doesn’t seem like a practical thing to have.” The NCO said with a shrug. “But to each their own.”
“Marines are reporting that they’ve taken the Star Lord and Invader.” Stone reported from the headset. “They’ll be ready to jump out of the system in a couple of days. The charge time here is almost a full eight days.”
“We’ll turn over prisoners to the MRB later.” Stone said with a shrug. “This new “Free State of Stewart” will probably want their crews back.”
New Dallas, November 25th, 3018
“We want to be careful hauling this stuff off of the surface of the dome.” Mathis cautioned, using his demolitions experience to fall back on. “I know that the DroST’s can take some of the damage, but we don’t want to have to dig through the entire structure to get them out of there.”
“We know Lieutenant.” One of the combat engineers said. “We’re doing this as carefully as we can.”
“Just making sure no one is getting cocky here.” Mathis said with a shrug. “Last thing we want is to bury some of our guys in there.’
“It’ll take us another couple of days in order to clear off the dome enough to get the DroST’s out.” The engineer advised. “Are we still loading up the combat vehicles we found in there?”
“Yeah, we’ll be loading up the Mule’s to capacity, and some of our extra crews are grabbing those individual ‘mechs we found scattered around the city.”
“It was what, two lances scattered around?” The engineer asked. “At least that’s what I thought I heard over the comms.”
“Yeah, two lances of damaged Royal grade machines for the most part.” Mathis agreed. “Good mix of Assaults to Lights too.”
“Nobody salvaged them?” The engineer asked. “That seems odd.”
“They were found in some of the areas that were the most irradiated.” Mathis shrugged. “They’re going to need a full scrub down before they’re usable again anyway.”
“Might want to have one of the machine shops do a full rebuild on em.” The engineer replied. “Might be one of the better ways to scrub and get rid of some of the rads.”
“Well, in a week or so, we should be headed back to Kentares IV, and then it’ll be up to the teams there to fix everything up.”
“Mathis,” Dunham’s voice came through the comms system. “Can you give me a status update?”
“Engineer just told me it’ll be a couple of days before enough is cleared out to move the DroST’s.” Mathis reported. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“No, just looking to get an update, we’re starting to move the last of the combat vehicles out now.” Dunham replied. “And the Mules are just about finished loading up, so all we will have left to do is get those DroST’s up to the Age of Discovery and we can head on home.”
Kentares IV, December 6th, 3018
“Hull,” Packer walked into my office. “We just had a pretty significant fleet of Jumpships appear at the jump point, and they say they’re here to speak to you.”
Carver V, November 11th, 3018
“Think they got our message?” Stone asked his XO. “Because if this works, we’ll have some very unhappy Stewart’s upset at us.”
“I think that we’ll find out soon.” His XO responded. “We’re going to be lifting off and only covering our own asses up there, so I hope they don’t pursue.”
“If they do, we’ll leave ‘‘em in the black.” Stone shrugged. “And stranded here on Carver V too.”
“I’m still not sure this will work, but we’re willing to take the chance anyway.” The Staff Sergeant who had given Stone a reaming for tempting Murphy earlier said.
“Well sergeant, if it doesn’t work then we’ll just have to fight it out, all this does is prevent us from having to duke it out with someone who we have no information about.” Stone replied.
“We’ve got your back sir.” The XO stated, “We’re just keeping you apprised of the potential issues that may come up.”
“Well, now it’s a game of us lifting off with our loot before they can stop us.” Stone said as he rolled his neck. “Let’s make sure everyone’s accounted for and get moving.”
November 12th, 3018
“We’ve reached orbit sir, timing our launch at the same time they dropped in through atmosphere was genius sir.” Stone’s XO said as they cleared the atmosphere. “It rendered them temporarily blind to us lifting off.”
“Now we just have to get to the jump point.” Stone replied. “We don’t know what kind of aerospace assets they had, so we’re going to stay on alert.” Stone stroked his small goatee. “Have our company of Marines ready to board their Jumpships. Unless they hot charge their K-F Drives they won’t be going anywhere.”
November 18th, 3018
“I’d hate to be one of those pilots right about now.” Stone’s Staff Sergeant muttered. “Poor bastards didn’t stand a chance.”
“Better them than us.” Stone’s XO replied. “And they should be able to be recovered in the vacuum, it’s not like we went after them to ensure pilots were killed or anything.”
“Point,” The NCO responded. “But still not somewhere I’d like to be,” He shuddered. “Keep my feet on the ground thank you very much.”
“Stow the talk,” Stone said after a minute. “I’m trying to listen in and see how our Marines are doing.”
“What Jumpships did they jump in with?” The XO asked.
“A Star Lord, and an Invader.” Stone responded. “I figure the extra collars were used for infantry transport if they were planning on taking and holding this world.”
“That would confirm the data our people picked up from the burn in.” the Staff Sergeant agreed. “You would need the greater amount of infantry too, the Capellans don’t tend to just lay down and let you subjugate a world for some reason.”
“Brainwashing.” The XO replied. “It’s also the only way that the servitors and caste system is enforced.” He shrugged. “It’s why the production on previously Capellan worlds is so high within a couple of generations.”
“Socio Economics degree?” Stone asked.
“Yep,” The XO agreed. “The Marksman are helping me pay off my doctorate.” He grinned. “And I get to see it in action everywhere we go.”
“Doesn’t seem like a practical thing to have.” The NCO said with a shrug. “But to each their own.”
“Marines are reporting that they’ve taken the Star Lord and Invader.” Stone reported from the headset. “They’ll be ready to jump out of the system in a couple of days. The charge time here is almost a full eight days.”
“We’ll turn over prisoners to the MRB later.” Stone said with a shrug. “This new “Free State of Stewart” will probably want their crews back.”
New Dallas, November 25th, 3018
“We want to be careful hauling this stuff off of the surface of the dome.” Mathis cautioned, using his demolitions experience to fall back on. “I know that the DroST’s can take some of the damage, but we don’t want to have to dig through the entire structure to get them out of there.”
“We know Lieutenant.” One of the combat engineers said. “We’re doing this as carefully as we can.”
“Just making sure no one is getting cocky here.” Mathis said with a shrug. “Last thing we want is to bury some of our guys in there.’
“It’ll take us another couple of days in order to clear off the dome enough to get the DroST’s out.” The engineer advised. “Are we still loading up the combat vehicles we found in there?”
“Yeah, we’ll be loading up the Mule’s to capacity, and some of our extra crews are grabbing those individual ‘mechs we found scattered around the city.”
“It was what, two lances scattered around?” The engineer asked. “At least that’s what I thought I heard over the comms.”
“Yeah, two lances of damaged Royal grade machines for the most part.” Mathis agreed. “Good mix of Assaults to Lights too.”
“Nobody salvaged them?” The engineer asked. “That seems odd.”
“They were found in some of the areas that were the most irradiated.” Mathis shrugged. “They’re going to need a full scrub down before they’re usable again anyway.”
“Might want to have one of the machine shops do a full rebuild on em.” The engineer replied. “Might be one of the better ways to scrub and get rid of some of the rads.”
“Well, in a week or so, we should be headed back to Kentares IV, and then it’ll be up to the teams there to fix everything up.”
“Mathis,” Dunham’s voice came through the comms system. “Can you give me a status update?”
“Engineer just told me it’ll be a couple of days before enough is cleared out to move the DroST’s.” Mathis reported. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“No, just looking to get an update, we’re starting to move the last of the combat vehicles out now.” Dunham replied. “And the Mules are just about finished loading up, so all we will have left to do is get those DroST’s up to the Age of Discovery and we can head on home.”
Kentares IV, December 6th, 3018
“Hull,” Packer walked into my office. “We just had a pretty significant fleet of Jumpships appear at the jump point, and they say they’re here to speak to you.”
Natasha’s Adventures in Clan Space! (Trial of Refusal)
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Natasha’s Adventures in Clan Space! (Trial of Refusal)
January 15th, 3017
This was the third day of the Trial of Refusal, and Natasha’s cluster was exhausted. They had already managed to hold off two clusters, and now there was a third on the way…
“This is Khan Yvonne Hazen of the Jade Falcon Clan.” Came through the Warhammer’s communications system. “Who challenges us on this day?”
“This is Star Colonel Natasha Hull-Kerensky of Clan Wolf.” She responded. “I am here with a Cluster, and am ready to bring you trashborn to your knees.”
“I shall crush you beneath my talons, and make you all my bondsman.” Khan Hazen replied, and three to four mechs and vehicles for every member of Natasha’s Cluster were supposed to be present in the area. “Was your Khan not willing to face me?” Hazen taunted. “All I see before me is trashborn scum.”
“Well come and face me then.” Natasha taunted back, wading through the river that she stood alone in. “Or are you not able to handle a mere Star Colonel.”
“You shall pay for your insolence!” Echoed through as an Atlas II stepped out of the trees a couple of kilometers away, accompanied by a trio of ‘mechs. Two Summoners and a Storm Crow. “And you face me with an outdated machine such as this?”
“It may be old.” Natasha taunted as she lashed out with her ERPPC’s just out of range of everything except Hazen’s LRM’s. Her PPC’s joined in and connected with the right knee of the Atlas II and Natasha began to walk backwards, keeping just out of range of everything except the LRM’s, trusting in her AMS to handle the missiles that came her way as she wore down the armor on the Khan’s mech. "But it is enough to handle you."
While she was keeping the Khan busy, she had sent out a signal to the rest of the Binary that it was time to spring their trap. And the Star of Elementals who had been powered down in the trees emerged behind the Storm Crow and swarmed the trio of ‘mechs. Bringing down the Storm Crow and distracting the Summoners until the remaining four mechs of Natasha’s star had emerged. There, the Elementals left the Summoners alone to face the mechs, while they finished off the Storm Crow.
Meanwhile, Natasha had finally begun to close the distance between herself and Khan Hazen, knowing that reinforcements wouldn’t be far behind. She had worried the armor on the Atlas II until she was confident in closing the range. When Hazen threw Autocannon fire at her she dodged with an almost prescient grace, sliding around the Atlas II and seemingly avoiding everything that Khan Hazen threw her way. She got behind the Khan and lashed out with a kick, causing the Jade Falcon MechWarrior to nearly lose her footing on the bank of the river, and after her medium lasers had connected with the knee joints, she unknowingly echoed what Hull had done to Major Barton’s Atlas almost a decade ago by breaking the actuator in the knee. When the Atlas II’s knee gave way, Khan Hazen proved why she was still Khan by remaining standing on one foot, and finally connecting all of her weapons onto Natasha’s borrowed Warhammer. Unfortunately for the Khan, she didn’t manage to concentrate any of the fire, and the recoil of the LBX combined with a kick from Natasha had her crashing to the ground. Then Natasha placed her foot on the Khan’s mech and pointed her full array of weapons at the cockpit. “Khan Yvonne Hazen, I hereby claim you as my Bondsman.”
January 20th, 3017
“We have lost much.” Khan Ward said to Natasha. “But we are victorious, and have shattered much of the enemy forces. It will take them many years to replace the personnel that they lost. And I am claiming a good portion of their machines as Isorla.”
“Aff.” Natasha said with a smirk. “I am keeping my Bondsman and will be introducing them to the Marksman method of training that I underwent.”
“As I expected you would.” Khan Ward said in response. “We have just bought time, I predict we will have fifty years before the Crusaders are strong enough to accomplish an invasion of any sort.”
“Now take me home, Khan.” Natasha said bluntly. “I have people to return to, and Bondsmen to break in…”
January 15th, 3017
This was the third day of the Trial of Refusal, and Natasha’s cluster was exhausted. They had already managed to hold off two clusters, and now there was a third on the way…
“This is Khan Yvonne Hazen of the Jade Falcon Clan.” Came through the Warhammer’s communications system. “Who challenges us on this day?”
“This is Star Colonel Natasha Hull-Kerensky of Clan Wolf.” She responded. “I am here with a Cluster, and am ready to bring you trashborn to your knees.”
“I shall crush you beneath my talons, and make you all my bondsman.” Khan Hazen replied, and three to four mechs and vehicles for every member of Natasha’s Cluster were supposed to be present in the area. “Was your Khan not willing to face me?” Hazen taunted. “All I see before me is trashborn scum.”
“Well come and face me then.” Natasha taunted back, wading through the river that she stood alone in. “Or are you not able to handle a mere Star Colonel.”
“You shall pay for your insolence!” Echoed through as an Atlas II stepped out of the trees a couple of kilometers away, accompanied by a trio of ‘mechs. Two Summoners and a Storm Crow. “And you face me with an outdated machine such as this?”
“It may be old.” Natasha taunted as she lashed out with her ERPPC’s just out of range of everything except Hazen’s LRM’s. Her PPC’s joined in and connected with the right knee of the Atlas II and Natasha began to walk backwards, keeping just out of range of everything except the LRM’s, trusting in her AMS to handle the missiles that came her way as she wore down the armor on the Khan’s mech. "But it is enough to handle you."
While she was keeping the Khan busy, she had sent out a signal to the rest of the Binary that it was time to spring their trap. And the Star of Elementals who had been powered down in the trees emerged behind the Storm Crow and swarmed the trio of ‘mechs. Bringing down the Storm Crow and distracting the Summoners until the remaining four mechs of Natasha’s star had emerged. There, the Elementals left the Summoners alone to face the mechs, while they finished off the Storm Crow.
Meanwhile, Natasha had finally begun to close the distance between herself and Khan Hazen, knowing that reinforcements wouldn’t be far behind. She had worried the armor on the Atlas II until she was confident in closing the range. When Hazen threw Autocannon fire at her she dodged with an almost prescient grace, sliding around the Atlas II and seemingly avoiding everything that Khan Hazen threw her way. She got behind the Khan and lashed out with a kick, causing the Jade Falcon MechWarrior to nearly lose her footing on the bank of the river, and after her medium lasers had connected with the knee joints, she unknowingly echoed what Hull had done to Major Barton’s Atlas almost a decade ago by breaking the actuator in the knee. When the Atlas II’s knee gave way, Khan Hazen proved why she was still Khan by remaining standing on one foot, and finally connecting all of her weapons onto Natasha’s borrowed Warhammer. Unfortunately for the Khan, she didn’t manage to concentrate any of the fire, and the recoil of the LBX combined with a kick from Natasha had her crashing to the ground. Then Natasha placed her foot on the Khan’s mech and pointed her full array of weapons at the cockpit. “Khan Yvonne Hazen, I hereby claim you as my Bondsman.”
January 20th, 3017
“We have lost much.” Khan Ward said to Natasha. “But we are victorious, and have shattered much of the enemy forces. It will take them many years to replace the personnel that they lost. And I am claiming a good portion of their machines as Isorla.”
“Aff.” Natasha said with a smirk. “I am keeping my Bondsman and will be introducing them to the Marksman method of training that I underwent.”
“As I expected you would.” Khan Ward said in response. “We have just bought time, I predict we will have fifty years before the Crusaders are strong enough to accomplish an invasion of any sort.”
“Now take me home, Khan.” Natasha said bluntly. “I have people to return to, and Bondsmen to break in…”
Ahhh, Momma Natasha is scary. Bets on whether or not she uses her new trainees as babysitters?
I'm pretty sure they'll get pushed to find their own way once they get through all the training.
Chapter 91
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Chapter Ninety-One: Reunion
Kentares IV, December 21st, 3018
“Mommy!” David ran up to Natasha as soon as she walked off of the dropship that she had been on. “I missed you.” He buried his face in her hair. Automatically defusing any possible tension that might have arisen.
“I missed you too.” Natasha held onto the five year old. “I promise to never be gone that long again.” After Natasha and David had stepped to the side, an older gray-haired man stepped out of the dropship.
“You must be Marcus Hull.” The man greeted me with a firm handshake. “We have heard a great deal about you from your wife over there.” He indicated the two redheads loving on eachother out of the way of the people disembarking from the dropship. “But I gather she is a bit preoccupied at the moment.”
“I’ll have to agree with you there.” I stated as I released him from the handshake. “I take it you are Khan Ward?” I asked, “The Wolf Brothers spoke highly of you.”
He was about to start speaking again when my wife interrupted him with a flying tackle that brought me to the ground.
I tried to speak, but was smothered by a kiss instead.
“I’ll set up a meeting with you later.” Khan Ward chuckled, as he began to coordinate the sorting of the passengers. “I think you will be busy for a while.”
December 22nd, 3018
“Natasha,” I rubbed my eyes. “Why are there six women in our living room with workout clothes on?”
“Well,” She wagged her eyebrows at me. “I figured that if one kid wasn’t enough to keep you out of trouble then six would probably work.” She grinned at me impishly. “Well? Do your new concubines meet your approval oh Duke Hull?”
“I think that you’re messin 'with me.” I raised my eyebrow at her. “But right now I can’t tell.” I turned around and went back into the bedroom. “Wake me up again when I can process this properly.” I called over my shoulder, Natasha just laughing at me the entire time, and smacked my butt as I crawled back into bed.
“I’ve been working on that joke for a year now.” Natasha crowed in victory, “And it was worth it for the expression on your face!”
“Was it now?” I questioned as I pulled her back into bed and began tickling her. “Was it really?”
“Yep.” She rolled me onto my back. “Worth every second.”
Later that day…
“So, you’re leaving about fifty thousand people from Clan Wolf here?” I asked Khan Ward
“Yes, there were quite a few freebirths that wished for an opportunity at a new life.” He responded. “And while I have plans to address many of the issues with the Clan way of life, they will all take time to implement.”
“So taking over the former RWR worlds?” I asked him. “Hopefully you manage to reverse some of the destruction that the SLDF left on those planets.”
“That is the goal.” He agreed. “There should be a decent amount of resources left, and we still possess terraforming equipment that the Terran Hegemony used.”
“I hope you met with Archon Steiner before passing through her space on your way here.” I stated.
“Indeed I did.” He leaned back in his chair, we were sitting on the ducal estates front porch for this meeting instead of my office for once. “Her and her Husband are both wise individuals for their age.”
“I have taken your measure, Hull.” Ward said as he leaned back in his rocking chair. “It takes an individual with character to accomplish what you have done.” He stroked his beard. “Now all that is left is for me to see what kind of character that it is you have.”
“To most of my people, you are a freebirth and by definition inferior.” He started. “But I am not most of my people.” He took a sip of some of the sweet tea that I had set out earlier. “I spent yesterday speaking with your people after Kerensky distracted you.” He inhaled. “And do you know what I found?” I just shook my head and raised an eyebrow, not knowing where he was going with this.
“I found people who are absolutely devoted to you and the way of thinking that you have developed over the years.” He paused for a minute to get his thoughts back together. “I do not think you realize how interesting it is that you have people of more than three nations here, and cooperating as more than a mercenary unit. Even the people that Colonel Wolf left here have integrated well and managed to make lives for themselves. It takes a special kind of place to do that.”
“Thank you? I said with uncertainty.
December 24th, 3018
“Well, I guess that works as a decent Christmas present.” I said as I looked at what Natasha had just handed me. “What am I supposed to do with six Clan Bondsmen, a dozen Dropships, and half a dozen jumpships?”
“Put them to use.” Natasha shrugged. “I’m leaving that sort of thing to you to figure out.” She laughed. “And you will not have to worry about the Bondsmen.” She smirked, “I’ve already broken them in.”
“Now, you’re going to have to tell me how you managed to take two Khans, two Galaxy Commanders, a Star Colonel, and a Star Captain as Bondsmen at some point.” I said. “And you’ve got to start telling me when you take my Warhammer’s on trips.”
“Why would I do that?” Nat asked me. “When you spec them out so well?”
“Because David found a nice Nightstar in the mountains and we’re upgrading it for you specifically.” I smiled. “I think you won’t have much need of my Warhammer anymore.”
“Did he really?” She asked. “He was trying to tell me about a castle that he and you had found before he fell asleep last night.”
“You should have seen the look on his face when he was describing it to me.” I said as I pulled out the pictures that David had taken on our trip to the mountains.
“He had you take these?” She asked me.
“He took them actually.” I said proudly. “He’s also three to five levels higher in schooling than the other kids in his group.”
“I am sorry that I missed so much of it.” Natasha said sadly, tears starting to shine in her eyes
“Hey.” I made Nat look at me. “Sometimes things happen that make us have to physically be apart from our loved ones.” I pulled her in for a deep hug. “But, we get to make new memories, and you get to be a big part of his life now.” She quietly sobbed into my shoulder and chest for a few minutes. “I love you.” I told her as I stroked her hair.
“I am expecting a full report on all of the things you got up to while I was gone.” Natasha said as she rubbed the tears out of her eyes.
“We can trade stories tomorrow after we’re done with Christmas festivities.” I told her with a small laugh.
Kentares IV, December 21st, 3018
“Mommy!” David ran up to Natasha as soon as she walked off of the dropship that she had been on. “I missed you.” He buried his face in her hair. Automatically defusing any possible tension that might have arisen.
“I missed you too.” Natasha held onto the five year old. “I promise to never be gone that long again.” After Natasha and David had stepped to the side, an older gray-haired man stepped out of the dropship.
“You must be Marcus Hull.” The man greeted me with a firm handshake. “We have heard a great deal about you from your wife over there.” He indicated the two redheads loving on eachother out of the way of the people disembarking from the dropship. “But I gather she is a bit preoccupied at the moment.”
“I’ll have to agree with you there.” I stated as I released him from the handshake. “I take it you are Khan Ward?” I asked, “The Wolf Brothers spoke highly of you.”
He was about to start speaking again when my wife interrupted him with a flying tackle that brought me to the ground.
I tried to speak, but was smothered by a kiss instead.
“I’ll set up a meeting with you later.” Khan Ward chuckled, as he began to coordinate the sorting of the passengers. “I think you will be busy for a while.”
December 22nd, 3018
“Natasha,” I rubbed my eyes. “Why are there six women in our living room with workout clothes on?”
“Well,” She wagged her eyebrows at me. “I figured that if one kid wasn’t enough to keep you out of trouble then six would probably work.” She grinned at me impishly. “Well? Do your new concubines meet your approval oh Duke Hull?”
“I think that you’re messin 'with me.” I raised my eyebrow at her. “But right now I can’t tell.” I turned around and went back into the bedroom. “Wake me up again when I can process this properly.” I called over my shoulder, Natasha just laughing at me the entire time, and smacked my butt as I crawled back into bed.
“I’ve been working on that joke for a year now.” Natasha crowed in victory, “And it was worth it for the expression on your face!”
“Was it now?” I questioned as I pulled her back into bed and began tickling her. “Was it really?”
“Yep.” She rolled me onto my back. “Worth every second.”
Later that day…
“So, you’re leaving about fifty thousand people from Clan Wolf here?” I asked Khan Ward
“Yes, there were quite a few freebirths that wished for an opportunity at a new life.” He responded. “And while I have plans to address many of the issues with the Clan way of life, they will all take time to implement.”
“So taking over the former RWR worlds?” I asked him. “Hopefully you manage to reverse some of the destruction that the SLDF left on those planets.”
“That is the goal.” He agreed. “There should be a decent amount of resources left, and we still possess terraforming equipment that the Terran Hegemony used.”
“I hope you met with Archon Steiner before passing through her space on your way here.” I stated.
“Indeed I did.” He leaned back in his chair, we were sitting on the ducal estates front porch for this meeting instead of my office for once. “Her and her Husband are both wise individuals for their age.”
“I have taken your measure, Hull.” Ward said as he leaned back in his rocking chair. “It takes an individual with character to accomplish what you have done.” He stroked his beard. “Now all that is left is for me to see what kind of character that it is you have.”
“To most of my people, you are a freebirth and by definition inferior.” He started. “But I am not most of my people.” He took a sip of some of the sweet tea that I had set out earlier. “I spent yesterday speaking with your people after Kerensky distracted you.” He inhaled. “And do you know what I found?” I just shook my head and raised an eyebrow, not knowing where he was going with this.
“I found people who are absolutely devoted to you and the way of thinking that you have developed over the years.” He paused for a minute to get his thoughts back together. “I do not think you realize how interesting it is that you have people of more than three nations here, and cooperating as more than a mercenary unit. Even the people that Colonel Wolf left here have integrated well and managed to make lives for themselves. It takes a special kind of place to do that.”
“Thank you? I said with uncertainty.
December 24th, 3018
“Well, I guess that works as a decent Christmas present.” I said as I looked at what Natasha had just handed me. “What am I supposed to do with six Clan Bondsmen, a dozen Dropships, and half a dozen jumpships?”
“Put them to use.” Natasha shrugged. “I’m leaving that sort of thing to you to figure out.” She laughed. “And you will not have to worry about the Bondsmen.” She smirked, “I’ve already broken them in.”
“Now, you’re going to have to tell me how you managed to take two Khans, two Galaxy Commanders, a Star Colonel, and a Star Captain as Bondsmen at some point.” I said. “And you’ve got to start telling me when you take my Warhammer’s on trips.”
“Why would I do that?” Nat asked me. “When you spec them out so well?”
“Because David found a nice Nightstar in the mountains and we’re upgrading it for you specifically.” I smiled. “I think you won’t have much need of my Warhammer anymore.”
“Did he really?” She asked. “He was trying to tell me about a castle that he and you had found before he fell asleep last night.”
“You should have seen the look on his face when he was describing it to me.” I said as I pulled out the pictures that David had taken on our trip to the mountains.
“He had you take these?” She asked me.
“He took them actually.” I said proudly. “He’s also three to five levels higher in schooling than the other kids in his group.”
“I am sorry that I missed so much of it.” Natasha said sadly, tears starting to shine in her eyes
“Hey.” I made Nat look at me. “Sometimes things happen that make us have to physically be apart from our loved ones.” I pulled her in for a deep hug. “But, we get to make new memories, and you get to be a big part of his life now.” She quietly sobbed into my shoulder and chest for a few minutes. “I love you.” I told her as I stroked her hair.
“I am expecting a full report on all of the things you got up to while I was gone.” Natasha said as she rubbed the tears out of her eyes.
“We can trade stories tomorrow after we’re done with Christmas festivities.” I told her with a small laugh.
YAY! Honestly, I love how you write Momma Bear Natasha, if anything she's even scarier than Black Widow Natasha!
MarkWarrior
Well-known member
Different motivations lead to different changes in characters. Natasha doesn’t go the insane Black Widow Route because she has more to live for than just the next fight.