Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Two: Audacity
Ross 248 March 14th, 3016

“Why is that second Yardship not moving yet?” Commodore Frye asked. “We’ve got the ships that can move out of the space station already moving to the jump point.”

“Ma’am,” The comms officer replied. “Marines are reporting that they are locked out of the ships systems, they can move the ship, but they’re going to have to do it directly from engineering until we can bully past the lockout.”

“Well, have them start moving then, we’ve got to start getting out of this system.” Commodore said in response. “Have the mobile ships jump to the rendezvous point A system, we’ll have the ones that can’t move jump to point B and start getting out of this system before any enemies jump into the system.”

“Understood Ma’am,” The comms officer responded, “Relaying the message now.”

“Alright people, we’re going to need to maintain a careful lookout.” She told her bridge crew. “We need to make absolutely sure that there isn’t anything else here that might try and take a bite out of us.”





“Mathis, am I hearing the comms properly?” I asked. “I was a little distracted pulling the last of the data.”

“Yes sir, we’ve found five Elephant class dropships attached to the station.” Mathis said. “They’re stripping as many people as they can from the Sting’s in order to crew them, and using the ones that had their gunships shot out from underneath them as primary crews.”

“Makes sense.” I replied before turning my high end comms gear on. “This is Marksman Actual, I need the stats on those tugs ASAP.” I told anyone who was listening. “I may have a plan.”





“Rook, is the jump calculated?” Paige asked the tech specialist. “Because we’re ready to leave this godforsaken system.”

“Yes Ma’am.” He responded. “Everything checks out and we are able to move to Plan A.” He paused. “Our Sting escorts are attaching to the collars now, we are ready to leave as soon as they are on board.”

“Jump us out as soon as we have confirmation that they are attached.” Paige told him and the Marines around her. “And when we are at the rendezvous point I want the company to move the POW’s to the Stings for holding.” She sat down in the captain's chair. “I don’t want any escapees here.”




“Black Lion is moving to the jump point along with the other three with intact drives.” Sergeant Lovell reported to the officer in charge. “The Sting’s are docking now with the recovered crews for the Elephants.”

“Good, we’re going to need to move quickly if we want to pull this off.” The officer responded. “The rest of the escorts and aerospace fighters are docking with the Age of Discovery and heading to the rendezvous point in order to provide some extra firepower there.”

“Hull wants us to prioritize the Cruisers and Destroyers.” Lovell said. “If we can get those up and running later we’ll have the makings of a decent sized fleet.”

“This is Marksman Actual.” came over their comms systems. “I need the stats on those tugs ASAP, I may have a plan.”

“Safe thrust is 2.5gs, and maximum is 4, reinforced bow and has lots of internal cargo space.” Lovell read off the computer screen in front of him. “What’s the plan sir?”

“We’re going to send the station into the gap between the systems after we’ve gotten the Warships we can out of here.” You could almost here the grin in his voice. “If we can get all five of the Elephants to coordinate, we can shift the station and get it’s orbit to shift to the gaps in between systems, allowing us to come and take what we need at our leisure.”

“That’ll take time sir, we’ve still got to get the Warships out of here.” The officer reported. “We’ve only gotten the mobile ones out of here so far.”

“I know it’ll take time Captain, I’m not worried about it.” Their CO inhaled audibly. “If the worst comes, we’ll just scuttle everything and leave.”

“Copy on implausible plan number seventy five.” Commodore Frye weighed in. “We’ll cover you, and I’ll have some people start crunching numbers on where to launch it for ease of access.”




“Get this hunk of junk moving.” The marine Sergeant told the boarding crew onboard the previously enemy Warship, now theirs. “We have been ordered to move to rendezvous point B.”

“Copy that Sarge.” The marine in charge of navigation responded. “But you have to remember this is the secondary CIC, and we’re unfamiliar with these systems. Give me fifteen minutes, and we’ll be mobile.”

“Sarge!” A separate member of the fireteam called out. “We’ve gotten all of the POW’s locked up on the Archon’s Favor.”

“That’s good news.” The sergeant replied. “Most of these people weren’t any problem, but station some guards just in case.”




Ross 248 March 22nd, 3016

“That’s the last one that we can manage.” Lovell reported to Hull. “We’ve gotten all of them except for the Vincent’s, the Congress, and that Aegis out and jumped to rendezvous point B.”

“Good, Have the Manassas on standby to grab the rest of the Elephants after we’re done.” Hull replied. Two of the tugs had left with the Warships that had jumped out.

“Let’s go.” The infantry boarded the Colossus and got ready to leave the system while the three tugs all synchronized their drives and began to push the Space station out of it’s stellar orbit and onto a path that would have it be in the gap between systems in half a year.

“Docking and moving to the jump point.” The last tug docked with the Manassas; they jumped out headed for rendezvous point A.


Author’s note: The list of ships that we managed to leave with are as follows. 1 Black Lion, 2 Lola II, 1 Volga, 2 Essex, 1 Aegis, 1 Sovetskii Soyuz, and two Faslane’s. The second one is still locked out and will take months to break into the computer systems. We also managed to capture the Narbonne. But it’ll need many months of yard work before it’s able to be flown properly again.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Comstar/House Lords Interlude 3016
Davion Palace, New Avalon
“You have a message for me?” Ian asked Colonel Peterson the CO of the first Marksman RCT.

“Yes sir.” Peterson replied, “I was told to hand deliver this Pad to you personally.” Peterson inhaled. “Hull recommends you wait to open it until Hanse is in the same room as you.” Peterson then waited until he was dismissed before leaving.

Ian picked up his phone to call directly to his brother's room and waited for him to answer. “Yeah, Hull sent us a message. No I haven’t opened it yet, he wanted you here before I read/saw it.”

While Ian waited for this brother to arrive, he settled down and did some paperwork. They were still rebuilding some of the units with Hardware from the Helm cache and some things needed to be signed off on and reviewed.

“You ready to watch this?” Ian asked as he waved the small disc in his hand at his brother. “Because He was just here a little while ago, what trouble has he gotten into that required a specialized courier?”

“Let’s find out.” Hanse took the data disc and put it into a Tri-Vid viewer.

“Hello, is this thing on?” A vid of Hull appeared. “We good?” He nodded at the camera. “Okay, so I decided to do a raid on a Comstar facility using a Warship that I had hidden from you.” Hull said flat out. “We’ve got actionable intelligence, and are going to hopefully be pulling several intact Warships that need minor repairs out of Comstars hands and into ours. There are two facilities, and I’ll be hitting one of them. Upon my return, I’m going to be repairing them and sending a good portion of them over to New Avalon. I hope to be back by June, wish me luck!”

“That son of a bitch.” Hanse said as he stood up. “I’m gonna kill him.”

“Why?” Ian asked.

“Because he didn’t take me with him,” Hanse said.




The Triad, Tharkad

“Melissa, I’m going to need you to calm down a bit.” Katrina told her daughter. “David won’t be here for another couple of weeks.”

“But he’s the same age as Elsa!” Melissa squealed, “We’re going to be the best of friends.” She laughed a little maniacally.

Katrina just facepalmed at her daughter's dramatic behavior before picking up her third child to rock him to sleep.

“Archon,” Simon Johnson entered the room. “Is this a bad time?”

“No, just let me get some things done here and I’ll join you in a bit.”





“We’ve finally pinned Duncan down to one planet.” Anton Marik observed to his brother Janos. “We’re just going to have to finish off two regiments of radical elite forces.”

“I am aware of this.” Janos glared at his brother. “We shouldn’t have let it get this far in the first place. The Steiners are probing us, and the Andurians are carving chunks off of the Capellan Confederation while we are here fighting each other.”

“We’re going to have to do this quickly if we want to bring the Andurians to heel.” Anton said. “We’ve already taken too long to whittle their forces down to this state.”

“I’m moving my personal forces to Procyon in order to assist in taking out Duncan.” Janos said. “Remind them to be mindful of the forest.” Anton said. “There’s an extreme risk of a forest fire if Duncan’s forces decide to do so.”

“That’s a chance we’ll have to take.” Janos said. “If the war goes on for much longer we may split into separate nation states once again.”




Sian, Capellan Confederation
“Why is she not dead yet?!” Maximillion Liao screamed at the current head of MASK. “I told you I wanted her head delivered to me.” Max drew his sword and decapitated him.

“That’s the third one this week.” Candace muttered to herself below her breath. “Maybe I shouldn’t have set Romano up.”

“Father.” Cancade announced. “I request the ability to move to St. Ives, and begin to recover some of our forces”

“No.” Max looked at her with madness in his eyes. “You will remain here, I have need of you, seeing as these incompetents cannot accomplish a task as simple as killing she who has no name.”




Luthien
“Director Indrahar,” Takeshi Kurita greeted. “Walk with me my old friend, we have much to discuss.”

“Of course Coordinator.” Indrahar replied. “As the Dragon commands.”

“Why is it that I find the ISF revealing itself to the Davions in a wasted assassination attempt?” There was a shar edge to the Coordinator’s voice. “When the Dragon has ordered no such thing to be done.”

“Coordinator, any assassination attempts were not authorized by myself or any of my immediate subordinates.” Indrahar promised. “I believe that others have obtained some of the command codes that we use to activate cells such as the ones on Robinson.”

“Then they are traitors.” Takeshi said with finality. “Find them, and bring them to me. I wish to see them dead at my feet.”



Hilton Head Island, Terra

“Sir, there’s nothing here.” The captain of the CSV Bordeaux reported to Primus Tiepolo. “There’s some debris, but there’s no station, and none of our Warships are here.”

“Primus!” One of the adepts nearby said. “Are you there?”

Tiepolo grabbed his chest in agony, his face scrunching up as he struggled to gasp for breath and lost his footing, falling to the floor.

“Primus!” The adept said once more before turning to another Adept as she began CPR. “Get a med team in here, I think the Primus is suffering from Cardiac arrest.”

The entire team of people in the room scrambled to find something that they could do to help, with one of the other CPR certified Acolytes rotating out with the Adept.

“Come on! I’ve still got a pulse and breathing, but I’m not sure how much longer he has.” The Adept yelled.

The med team arrived a couple of minutes later. Loading the Primus up on a stretcher and taking him away to get medical treatment.




“I regret to inform the First Circuit of this.” Precentor Rom, Vesar Kristofur started their meeting. “But Primus Tiepolo suffered from a heart attack yesterday and we did not manage to get him to the hospital in time to save him.” He sighed deeply. “I would like to ask that we have a short period of mourning in order to announce his death to the Inner Sphere before electing a new Primus.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Three: Evaluations
Kentares, Draconis March, Federated Suns May 11th, 3016

“How long will it take to get the Ships up and running?” I asked Captain Jewel, our main repair expert.

“If we dedicate multiple work crews, we should be able to rearm the Black Lion battlecruiser and the Lola II’s in a couple of weeks. The Volga will take a bit longer because it still has a small amount of Armor damage and is missing some weapons.” She said.

“And getting the Manassas and Narbonne up and repaired?” I asked. “I want them up and running ASAP just in case we face some retaliation.”

“Eight days on the Manassas if we focus multiple work crews on it.” She responded. “It would be faster if we had the second Yardship up and running, but its computer systems are still locked down.” She sighed. “The Narbonne will need a minimum of three weeks before we can get everything repaired on it. Then we can start on the other vessels.”

“Okay then, I want the Manassas and Narbonne fixed up, and then we can focus on the battlecruiser and destroyers.” I told her. “I’m promoting you, and placing you in command of the Functional Yardship, I’m going to be giving the battlecruiser and the transport to the Davions, so as soon as we can, I’m going to need them able to move and shoot.”





June14th, 3016

“Colonel Wolf.” I greeted the man in front of me. “Where is my wife?”

“She is currently helping our Khan to prevent an invasion.” He told me bluntly. “I was given orders to help prepare the Inner Sphere for said invasion.” He reached into the hard case he had beside him and pulled out a data core. “This contains all of the information you need to begin advanced technology development, I need you to begin distributing it to anyone you are nominally allied with.” He then turned to leave.

“Hold up a minute.” I stopped him. “You don’t get to just drop a bomb on me and then leave for your current contract.” I stood up and got in the slightly taller man's face. “You said you were supposed to help prepare the Inner Sphere for an invasion and just dropped this on my lap.” I blocked the doorway. “I will not be doing your job for you, so sit down, shut up, and let me explain exactly what is going to happen.”

He started to protest, but didn’t manage to get a word out. “You are going to give me actionable intelligence, and you’re going to actually explain what might happen. Not only to myself, but to both Ian Davion, and Katrina Steiner, I may even have Thomas Calderon or his mother drop by for a visit, while Thomas may not like me, he’ll damn sure listen to me after all that we’ve done for his nation.” I sighed. “You are a military genius as far as short term conflicts are concerned,” I told Jaime Wolf. “But when it comes to long term strategy and planning you fail to understand the consequences.”

“Fine, I shall listen to what you have to say.” Jaime Wolf said with a hint of a growl. “But insult me like that again, and you will face me on the battlefield.”

“Fine.” I threw my hands up. “I’ll take you here and now if it’ll help you get it through to your thick head.” I stalked out of the room while grabbing my comm device. “Mac, I need my backup Warhammer. I’m pretty sure that Nat stole mine again.”




Several hours later…

“I do not think this was a good idea.” Joshua Wolf confided in his brother. “His critiques, while uncalled for, were at least honest.”

“This is the second time he has insulted me.” Jaime growled. “I will not allow him to command me unless he has proven that he is my better in combat.”


Jaime closed the hatch to his Archer ARC-2W, and powered it up. Beginning the journey to the designated combat area by a lake 50 Kilometers away from any potential residences. He was followed by Joshua in his Black Knight, and Sheppard in his Cyclops. Sheppard and Joshua were to be seconds, spectators, and judges for this trial of combat.





“Duke Hull.” Joshua said over an open comm channel. “Are you prepared?”

“I’m ready to rumble.” I responded, my Warhammer bouncing back and forth as if it were a boxer. This wasn’t the Warhammer I typically used, and so my speed was the same as Jaime’s Archer. This was the WHM-7A that we had pulled from the Confederate class Dropship Last of us. Natasha having “Borrowed” the Bobby B from me again when she had left to go on her little side quest.

“Colonel Wolf.” Sheppard said, “Are you ready?”

“Let us be done with this farce.” Wolf said with a sneer in his voice. “I am ready.”


I immediately moved to avoid the LRM’s he had fired at me, knowing that he had the firepower advantage at range, I moved closer, because I had ERPPC’s, I would be able to tank his two medium lasers and SRM’s for as long as I needed to, I had the advantage close in.

On top of that, I was angry, angrier than I had been in a long time. And I wanted to brawl, so I got close in, and dodged the fist that Jaime threw my way while firing my Lasers and SRM’s at his Archer, I lashed out with kicks, and even forced my PPC’s in close to use as melee weapons. At this point, this wasn’t a ‘mech duel, it was a straight up brawl between two angry men in giant robots.

“Should we do something?” Joshua laser commed Sheppard. “I feel like this is something we should be intervening in.

“Just let them duke it out.” Sheppard made his Cyclops shrug. “They’ll either not be able to stand each other, or be best friends at the end of this…”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy Four: Mix things up
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns, June 15th, 3016

“Good fight.” I told Jaime Wolf. “Can we establish the plan now?”

“Yes, I have taken some of what you said into consideration.” Jaime inclined his head. “You are correct in some aspects, and I shall rectify that by helping you out.”

“Helping me out how?” I asked curiously. “I’m pretty sure that I’ve got what I need to start getting production started minus needing more people.”

“While your Warships are well hidden from most eyes in the Inner Sphere, it is hard to conceal them from those who have had to do the same.” There was a smile on his face and a gleam in his eye. “I have five Warships of the Wolf’s Dragoons that are out in the Periphery that I will be taking out of mothballs, if you will help me meet with the various Heads of state that you are known to, I will lend my people to help train crews for you.”

“I think I can agree to that deal as long as you actually have experienced crews.” I said with a nod of my head. “But I’m also going to need some of your engineers and scientists to help mine make sense of some of this data core that you gave us.”

“Only if you allow us to be bumped up in the queue to purchase some of your Sting gunships.” He negotiated. “My aerospace people can’t stop raving about them after looking at the specs.”

“Bargained well and done.” I extended my hand and we shook on it. “I’ll have my people draw up a contract later.”

“Hey!” I said as he turned to leave my office. “Why did you leave all of these civilians with me?”

“Because they have nowhere else to go.” He stated. “Soon enough they would have been no better than slaves.” He raised an eyebrow. “This was the first place I could think of that not only had the capacity to take them in, but to treat them with the respect and honor that they have earned.”

“Wolf,” I said. “I don’t much like your long term planning abilities, but I have the utmost respect for your combat abilities. May we never meet on the battlefield.

“Agreed.” He said. “You do not fight fair after all.”

“If you’re fighting fair you’re losing.” I shrugged in response. “Now give me a rough estimate on when my wife will be back and go back to Marik space. You are still under contract after all.”




Mountain Research facility Bravo, Kentares IV June 21st, 3016
“Duke Hull.” Adamina Rogers greeted me. “A pleasure to see you again.”

“I’m here for a status update.” I said. “I know we made multiple copies of the core that the Wolf’s Dragoons gave us, and I want an estimate on how long it will take to implement some of the upgrades.”

“The endo-steel factory will take two months to modify to the specs listed in the core.” She responded. “The new alloy is a different mixture compared to the one that is listed in our copy of the Helm core.”

“And starting to incorporate some of the upgrades to the rest of our factories?” I asked, “I was going to see if we could enhance the Grasshoppers and Von Luckners we are producing.”

“Well, the upgraded freezers we can start manufacturing as soon as the endo steel factory is up and running. The main difference between the freezers listed in this new data and the Helm core is the use of the upgraded endo steel. This allows it to be smaller than the freezers we make currently.”

“That’ll free up space to add in some extra lasers.” I said. “I want the Grasshopper to be the light mech hunter of the Inner Sphere.”

“It’ll take a while to comb through the rest of it and see what we can easily modify to these new standards.” She replied. “We’re going to focus on the endo steel and freezers and work out from there.”


“Give me a rough estimate please.” I told her. “I need to start getting some Sharpshooter plans in place.”

“Two to three months on the Endo-Steel and Freezers.” She said after reviewing her notes. “The Endo-Steel facility is barely keeping up with our freezer production, and the upgrades should help.” She sighed. “There’s just so much data here to go over. I think it’ll take us at least a year before we have gone through and found what can be easily modified, or what we’ll have to build from scratch.”

“Thank you Adamina.” I said. “I’ll look forward to good news from you.”




June 30th, 3016

“Thank you for all of your hard work.” I said to the crews that had finished the Ducal Estate. “I’ll make sure that you all get bonuses for doing such good work.”

Thankfully, I had picked out the furnishings to go in, and they had done that as part of the building process. So I didn’t have to move anything aside from the personal belongings that Natasha and I had collected over the years. And with David spending time with Aunt Katrina and Uncle Arthur, I could get some of the personal work done without having to tote the three year old around with me.




The Triad, Tharkad July 4th, 3016

“Aunt Kat.” David said. “I want to play.” He opened his hand towards the toys that Elsa and Melissa were playing with.

“Okay David.” She said, “You can go play with them, but be gentle.”

“David!” Melissa gave the younger boy a hug. “You wanna play with the ‘mechs?” She held up an Atlas figure in her hand. “I’m this one!”

Little David looked at all of the assorted figurines and action figures and finally picked up a lone infantryman. “This one, it looks like dada”

“Ok.” Melissa agreed and their whirlwind of a game started.

“Like father like son I guess.” Katrina looked over at her husband. “What are the odds he ends up the best Combined Arms commander of the century?”

“I’m not taking that bet.” Her husband smiled. “I know a suckers bet when I see one.”

“I’ve got a meeting with Johsnon,” Katrina glanced down at her watch. “Keep an eye on them?”

“Of course.” Arthur leaned in for a kiss before going to keep a closer eye on the three children having the time of their lives.


“Archon.” Simon Johnson said as Katrina entered her office. “I have the update you requested.”

“Good, I’ve been trying to get Lestrade for years, do we finally have something to nail him to the wall with?” She asked.

“Yes ma’am, we finally have video, audio, and written evidence of collusion between the Draconis Combine and Duke Lestrade.” Johnson said.

“That is good news.” She replied. “We’ll need to wait to release the information and try him for treason until he steps out of line, then we’ll get him for good so I can finally get the reforms in Skye pushed through.”

“And I have the latest report from the other thing we discussed.” He leaned in and grabbed a folder out of his briefcase before handing it to the Archon.

“We’ll be ready to move on them in six months?” She asked for confirmation. “Because I want the traitors killed.” Her voice hardened. “They betrayed their sworn oath, and I’m going to end them for it.”




Kentares IV, July 31st, 3016

“Mark.” Hanse greeted me as he stepped off of the dropship that he and Dana had been aboard with their son. “I’d like to introduce Jonathon Davion to you.” He handed me his year old firstborn with Dana smiling on.

“He looks healthy.” I told them with a smile. “Have you seen my new home yet?”

“No, and after we take a look at the new Ducal estate, I have some choice words for you.” He said. “You went on an adventure without me, and I cannot abide by that…”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Five: Challenging
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns August 10, 3016

“Where is David?” Dana asked me. “I was hoping to introduce Jonathon to him.”

“I sent him to Spend some time with the Steiners.” I told her and Hanse. “I figured it would be better if he weren’t here in case of any retaliation from Comstar.”

“Speaking of which.” Hanse looked me in the eye. “You haven’t shown me the spoils of your raid against Comstar.”

“That’s because I was waiting until we were finished with some minor details before sharing some of them with you and Ian.” I said with a smirk. “But I suppose it wouldn’t ruin it to show you now.” I got up, and we headed towards the spaceport.




Later that day…

“I notice you have more civilians present than you had before.” Hanse said as we waited to arrive in the place we had hidden the Warships. “I don’t recall the immigration numbers being so high.”

“That’s because they weren’t.” I told him bluntly. “Colonel Wolf arrived with a hundred thousand refugees from where they came from a couple of months ago, and entrusted me with their care.” I shrugged, “They’re productive, and are seemingly happy to not be under threat, I’m working on naturalizing them, but it’s going to be a work in progress.” I stroked my beard. “I have to schedule a meeting between Ian, Thomas Calderon, and Katrina sooner rather than later.” I confided in Hanse. “I’ll need your help to facilitate it, I believe it could be important.”

“Still keeping your secrets Mark?” Hanse asked with a slightly sad look on his face. “I’d have thought that you trusted me and Ian by now.”

“I do trust you though.” I said bluntly. “It’s not my secret to share though, and I keep my word, always.”

“Yes, I know that you keep your word.” Hanse said. “And that is one of the things that Ian and I like about you.” He stated. “You don’t try and play the political games, you just get to work and you say what you mean.” He shrugged. “But sometimes it's damned irritating to have someone who won’t tell you things.”

“Hey now,” I responded, “I was giving you plausible deniability in case Comstar had any reasons to suspect you.”

“Fair point.” Hanse agreed, “But I don’t think that will be a problem for much longer if the Reports I’ve seen from Allard are correct.”

“What do you mean?” I inquired with a raised eyebrow. “What reports?”

“I forgot you were out of the loop due to not having an HPG.” Hanse sighed. “This room is secure?”

“Hanse.” I said., “This is the SLIC dropship Messenger. I don’t let people on it unless they’ve proven their loyalty beyond doubt.”

“Alright then.” Hanse stopped to collect his thoughts. “Chatter from all of the Intelligence groups across the Sphere indicates that Comstar is undergoing some sort of internal division.” He shrugged. “But that seems to just be the surface, MIIO assets inside of various Comstar stations are reporting that Terra isn’t communicating with the individual HPG’s anymore and that it’s sheer momentum that is holding Comstar together at this point.”

“Wait.” I said after he elaborated further. “You’re saying that there is a multi factioned civil war happening within Comstar’s ranks?”

“That is what appears to be happening, yes.” Hanse agreed. “So we are moving rapidly to have some troops in position to seize HPGs if a civil war becomes public knowledge.”

“Seriously?” I asked. “What happened while I was gone on that raid?”

“The Primus, Tiepolo died of a heart attack.” Hanse responded. “And it seems like there is a massive disagreement on who should be in charge, and that is causing the internal divisions we are seeing now.”

“Hmm.” I said in response. “Something to map out later I guess we’re coming up on the spoils of war now.”

“Damn.” Hanse said, “I didn’t realize that Comstar might be hiding this amount of hardware away, are those two Yardships?.” He asked a slightly incredulously.

“Yes Hanse, it’s two Yardships.” I responded. “Only one is operational though, our tech people are still working at unbricking the computer systems.”

“How many of these are operational?” Hanse asked, looking at the amount of ships we had stolen from Comstar. “This could change the face of the Inner Sphere.”

“There are three that are crewed and fully operational right at this time.” I said. “The Manassas,” I indicated the modified Aegis cruiser. “The Age of Discovery,” I highlighted the Potemkin, “And the Comstar built Narbonne.” I said. “The Narbonne is being crewed by our Marines until we train up a second crew for it.” I paused and grabbed the list that I had of the ships that should be able to move. “The battlecruiser, the transport, and two of the destroyers were in the final stages of being made ready by Comstar when we stole them. They need a small amount of time, and to be rearmed and they will be ready to go.”

“And the rest of them?” Hanse asked. “How long until they are ready to be activated and used?”

“Two years minimum work for many of them.” I said. “Some of them will take longer than others, Comstar thought that they had more time than they did, Luckily, we stole all of the parts that were needed for the repairs and so we don’t have to manufacture them in house.”

“Any chance we can borrow the second Yardship when it’s up and running?” Hanse asked me. “We’ve got some Warships in Mothballs that could use the help restoring them.” He paused. “Assuming you have the data to build the parts that will be needed.”

“We pulled every piece of data that they had on their station and one of the Yardships.” I told him. “Considering the station was a Terran Hegemony repair depot and station, I think we can find what we need, we may need to get NAIS on some of it though.” I said. “My people are kinda focused on manufacturing and ground based stuff aside from the select group that are working on the Warships we stole.”

“I’ll bring Ian in on this and we can work something out.” Hanse told me. “Now, you said something about giving us some of these vessels?”

“Yeah,” I replied. “I’m sending you back to New Avalon or somewhere hidden with the Battlecruiser, the transport and a Destroyer.”

“Why?” He asked me. “You have the opportunity here to carve out your own Kingdom if you wished.”

“That’s way too much work.” I laughed. “I’m already swamped with paperwork and other things as is.” I said. “And, the Battlecruiser is harder to maintain than the other ones I have for now so I’m going to need you to take it with you so I can ease some of the financial burdens off of Sharpshooter.” I shrugged. “While we’re still in the black, we already have a couple of money sinks for right now until we can get some of them up and running, short term losses for long term profits.”

“I understand.” Hanse said. “You’re trying to foist some of your work onto me.” He held a serious face for a bit and then started laughing, the serious atmosphere now broken. “You’re becoming just like Ian, I thought I could trust you but instead you’ve betrayed me.”

“Boo hoo.” I responded with a laugh. “I’m giving you a small squadron of Warships and all you can do is complain, looks like someone doesn’t really want to go on adventures with me.”

“No, you’re taking me on the next adventure or raid.” Hanse told me bluntly. “You run into trouble and profit everywhere you go, it’s about time that I get to go do something fun instead of Ian.”

“Fine, I’ll let you know when we go on our next expedition.” I told him. “But it’s not all fun and games, I end up doing a lot of work to get everything ready before and settled afterwards.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Six: A Hop,Skip, and a Jump

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns, December 20th, 3016

“Daddy!” My son David ran up to me, excited to see me after having been gone for nearly eight months.

“David.” I scooped him up and wrapped him in my arms, gently squeezing him in a hug. This moment was promptly ruined by a nearly seven year old Melissa Steiner running up with an “Uncle Mark!” And trying to get scooped up as well.

“You’re both so big!” I said in an exaggerated voice. “Why, soon you won’t love your dear old dad or Uncle Mark anymore.”

“You are old.” Melissa agreed, to the amusement of Katrina Steiner who was trying to stifle laughter.

“I’m only two years older than your mother. I'll have you know.” I said with fake anger.

“Yeah, but she doesn’t have gray hairs.” Melissa pointed out the silver starting to poke through in parts of my hair and beard. “Neither does dad.”

“I have gray hair because I earned it.” I told her bluntly. “If you had as much to worry about as I did early on you would have gray hair too.” I fake pouted, turning to my son and throwing him up into the air to his squeals of delight.

“I take it you’re spending Christmas here?” I asked Katrina, while distracting Mel.

“Yes.” Katrina finally got out after she had finished howling with laughter. “We’re using this as a getaway until February, then I’ve got some operations to oversee that I’d like to consult you on.”

“Well, I’m going to have to bring David with me.” I told Katrina. “I don’t like leaving him to his own devices, and I need to start him on some of the schooling that Natasha and I had planned.”

“That is fine,” Katrina agreed. “I need to work something out with Ian anyway.”

“Well, if you’re here until February, I need to set up a meeting between you, Thomas Calderon, and Ian Davion.” I added as we began the trip to my ducal estate. “Jaime Wolf has some extremely important intelligence to share with the three of you.”

“Might as well turn it into a working vacation then.” Katrina sighed. “And after I convinced Nondi and Frederick to take over for a couple of months too.”

“It’ll only take a week or so,” I threw in. “It’s important, but it’s not something that you can deal with while on vacation anyway.”




December 25th, 3016

“Merry Christmas!” I woke everyone up in the mansion on the intercom system. “Today’s breakfast, homemade from scratch cinnamon rolls, fresh coffee or hot chocolate, and bacon.”

“You are awesome!” Arthur Luvon greeted me with a smile, the only other morning person present aside from me. “No staff on Christmas?” He asked me as he helped the bleary eyed Melissa, Katrina, and Elsa into their seats around the small table.

“I give them Christmas off.” I agreed . “And I don’t get to cook nearly as often as I like, and while I haven’t been very good about it over the last couple of years, it’s an old family tradition of mine to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas day.”

“Really now?” Katrina having had some of the coffee finally perked up. “Why is that?”

“Well, my dad was always a science guy, and when he discovered that baking and cooking was another type of science he had a year long period of baking and cooking everything, and during Christmas time was when he finally managed to perfect his cinnamon rolls. And ever since, that’s what we have on Christmas morning.”

“Interesting.” Katrina said, “Not quite what I expected, but it makes sense.”

“If you don’t want the kids loaded down with sugar.” I added, “I did make some without icing.”

“It’s Christmas, let them have the sugar.” Arthur said, gesturing to where David was almost finished with his cinnamon roll, and was trying to drink his hot chocolate without it burning him.

“Fine.” Katrina gave a mock glare at her husband. “But you get to feed Adam.” She gave the eighteen month old to her husband for him to feed.

After having a nice and comfortable breakfast, we finally made our way to the massive Christmas tree in the main lobby, I had couched brought in over the week for precisely this moment, and we allowed the children to tear open their presents, their laughter and joy filing the air.

“Why are you sad?” Elena Susanne Steiner, nicknamed Elsa asked me after a moment.

“A little bit.” I gave a watery smile as I helped the four year old into my lap. “Auntie Natasha is gone, and she’s missing a lot of David’s life right now.” I told her, “So I’m recording everything so that she can see what he did while she was gone. It's hard to be apart from people you love sometimes.” I said with a wan smile.

“It’s okay Uncle Mark.” Elsa gave me a hug, before scampering off to play with some of the toys that had been opened.

“You ready for your gift?” I asked Katrina. “I finally got authorization from Ian to do this anyway.”

“You got us a gift?” Katrina asked. “I already owe you for the list you gave me years ago, don’t sink me further into debt now.”

“You’ll want this gift.” I told her, as I handed her a box.”

“Wow, a data core.” She said sardonically before she glanced down and read the label on the core. “A data core!” her brain had finally clicked into gear, but she had seemingly frozen, not knowing what to do.

“I think you broke her.” Arthur chuckled. “The only time I ever managed that was the day I proposed, and hear you’ve done it twice now.” He kept laughing. “Next time you’ll have to take me with you on an adventure, so I can give her gifts like this.”

“Get in line.” I said, “Hanse is first on the list, and the list keeps growing with every House Lord and important person I meet.”




January 15th, 3017

“Duke Hull, a pleasure to see you again.” Zarantha Calderon said as she walked into my office. “Though you seem to have aged a good deal since our last meeting.”

“And you seemed to have aged backwards.” I said in reply as I rose and shook her hand. “I heard that Thomas was Protector now, but I didn’t expect you to be dropping by for a visit, have a seat, make yourself at home.”

“Thank you.” She said as I poured her a glass of sweet tea. “This is a vacation of sorts, with me being partially an ambassador for Thomas, and partially me being able to travel and enjoy the galaxy in my slightly advanced age.”

“You’re what? Sixty-Seven?” I asked. “That’s not advanced age.”

“It is when you are the ruler of a nation.” She said tiredly. “I can see it on you already, and you have only been doing this for a fraction of the time that most rulers do.”

“I think I understand what you mean.” I said, “Now, seeing as you are already here, it saves me the trouble of having to contact Thomas…”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Briefing
Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns March 3rd, 3017

“Wolf,” I greeted the man as he walked into the briefing room. “Is this secure enough for what you’re planning?”

“It is.” He agreed. “Thank you for your assistance in this matter.”

“You’re welcome.” I told him, “Now let’s get this show on the road.”

Ian and Hanse walked in first, followed by Katrina and Arthur, and Zarantha Calderon was the last one to walk into the meeting room

“Good evening.” I greeted the assembled nobles. “This is a briefing put together by myself and Colonel Wolf here.” I started. “It covers two main threats to the Inner Sphere, and potentially to our current way of life.” I took a breath. “We are going to ask you to hold any questions until the end of this briefing. We’ll be here for a while anyway, and we may answer some of your questions as we go.”


“We’re going to start with a small history lesson.” I said and passed the briefing over to Jaime Wolf.




Hour later…

“My first thought was to simply explain how the Clans fought, and how to meet them in regular combat.” Jaime Wolf admitted. “But Duke Hull here managed to change my mind on this matter after showing me how he would handle the Clans and their way of combat.”

“Simply put, all warfare is based on deception.” I quoted from memory. “So I would lie, and “bid” forces, only to have the opposing side meet air support, or extra Mithril clad infantry in order to overwhelm the enemy forces. Given that I would give priority orders to make sure that they couldn’t communicate, information would hopefully not leak out.” I got going. “And once it did leak out, I would conduct asymmetrical warfare, and run circles around them, having strength against weak forces, and weak forces supported by heavy artillery at every stage.” I shrugged. “If you want a world so badly that you’re willing to lose most of the forces you bring with you then you’re welcome to have it.” I smirked. “Until I come back with reinforcements that is.”


“Give me your opinion on the individual skill level that they possess.” Hanse said after some thought.

“On an individual level, they beat us in skill aside from the most elite of our forces.” I stated coldly. “That is both a good thing for them, and their failing.”

“How is that a failing?” Ian asked for the entire group.

“It’s a failing because aside from a certain respective few, they do not have the same teamwork ethics that we have tried to build.” I said, “Their entire culture is built upon survival of the fittest and every man for himself, this doesn’t contribute to their overall success on the long term.” I shrugged, “In fact, based on what Wolf here has told me, aside from a respective few Khans, most only see short term, and don’t typically think into the future as we do.”


“Combined arms is going to need to be a focus.” Hanse broke into the conversation. “Mark, what would it take to boost your tank production?”

“I need more lines, and I would have to take one line offline in order to duplicate it.” I went over to my ‘Noteputer to consult some notes. “Two to three years to duplicate the combat vehicle lines that I possess, assuming no other problems show up.”

“Katrina,” Hanse turned to her. “What of the Alacorn lines that are on New Earth? What would it take to get them back in production?”

“I need Gauss Rifles.” She stated. “I have had Defiance and some other companies working on it, but we haven’t had total success yet.” She turned to Ian and Hanse. “Unless you’ve come into a Gauss rifle production factory, we’re not going to be able to manufacture Alacorns.”


“We may be able to assist you in that.” Zarantha finally spoke up, having been silent for a little while. “My son and a fantastic team of researchers and engineers have been able to resurrect the Toro light mech, one of our Vincent Warships, and have begun to repair our jumpship yards.” She took a deep breath. “Given the magnitude of the threat, I’m certain that while Thomas may be upset with me, he will understand.”

“We managed to uncover a research facility on Victoria after seizing it from the Capellan Confederation, and while most of the research was dedicated to stealth technology on Battlemechs, there was also a functional Gauss Rifle factory in mothballs present.” She sighed, “Thomas had the Marksman relocate the factory to one of our primary manufacturing worlds, and it has been producing ever since.”

“What do you need in return for the Gauss Rifles.” Ian asked Zarantha point blank. “While the FedSuns have our own manufacture, all of them are already promised to various entities.”

“I shall have to talk to the various industries.” She said, and turned to me. “What do you have to offer to this meeting and seeming alliance we are forming?”

“Well, I bring my own fleet of Warships to the table.” I gave the list of Warships that we were in the middle of repairing to the assembled people. “And I’m going to be mounting another raid on Comstar in order to take out the rest of their Black Navy capacity.”

“That reminds me.” Ian said. “We have hard evidence that there is a civil war going on in Comstar.” He brought out a Pad and passed it to us to examine. “They aren’t letting it affect their current operations because they’ve limited it to Terra so far, but it appears that it’s starting to leak into various areas.” He showed us a MIIO report on the FWLM. “They are clearly taking sides in this conflict, and we have evidence of stations waiting days before sending their transmissions and things like that.”

“I’m going to be hitting a world and system that has been reporting to Comstar for a long time.” Katrina said as she turned to me. “Would you be willing to lend me some of your assets to assist?” She sighed. “We don’t have dedicated Marines trained anymore, and it is something that I’m going to have to incorporate into the LCAF once again.”

“Of course,” I replied. “Just let me coordinate and we can hit our objectives around the same time frame.”




March 5th, 3017

“Thank you for your input into the meeting Zarantha.” I said. “It’s been a pleasure having you here.”
“The pleasure was all mine.” She replied with a smile. “This is still less work than managing the Concordat, and I’m glad to have passed the torch onto Thomas.” She grinned, “And I can’t wait to see the look on his face when I give yet another gift to him from you.” She laughed, “His frustration with you is extremely funny to watch from a parenting angle, he views you as both an asset, and as a threat.”

“That’s what I am though.” I said confused, “I could potentially be a great threat.”

“You’re not a threat honey.” She patted my arm. “You try to do the right thing, and that means that you won’t ever be a threat to those who are doing the right thing.” She grinned. “That’s what makes you so appealing to the nobles that you have met. You’re honest and try to do what’s right, something of a rarity in the galaxy we live in today.”


Author's note: My laptop is fixed. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing, it's a good thing for me because it means I can finally do things with Megamek lab and other programs like that. It's a bad thing for you because it means my updates may slow down a bit...

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Raid
August 15th, 3017

“Remind me to send Hull a thank you note.” Katrina told Colonel Paige. “You’ve done a lot in a short amount of time.”

“We’re Marines ma’am.” Paige puffed her chest up a bit. “We don’t do things by half.” She grinned. “We’re better than infantry, we’re shipboard littoral combat specialists, we could have been Black Navy Sailors, but we chose violence instead.”


“Well, regardless of your job description, I’m glad to have you.” Katrina said. “You split your troops up to support this operation and Hull’s correct?”

“Yes Ma’am, we have two battalions of Marines at our disposal, one of them is with Hull, and I’m with the rest here.”

“We move in as soon as we get the go signal from our people on the inside.” Nondi Steiner spoke up. “Katrina will be staying behind while I supervise the operation.” Nondi Steiner met Colonel Paige’s eyes. “I need to know if you can follow my instruction and cooperate with the rest of our forces.”

“You can count on us.” Paige said firmly. “We are very good at our jobs.”




August 16th, 3017

“We have a go, people.” Nondi broadcasted to her forces, and the forces that had been hidden in the debris around the Odessa IV facility finally moved to take the shipyard. “The Archon wants a lot of prisoners for interrogation.”

“Marksman copies.” Paige replied as her Sting dropship dropped her and her company off. “We’re here and beginning our approach.”





Lutyen 68-28 August 15th, 3017

“Commodore!” The sensor officer called out to Commodore Frye. “We have two of the same class of ship we faced at Ross 248 present, but they’re shooting at each other.”

“Ma’am” the Communications officer spoke up. “We’re being hailed.”

“Let them speak.” Frye Commanded. “I want to hear what they have to say.”

“This is acting Captain Rogers of the CSV Bordeaux. If you help us out, we can work out whether to be enemies later, we didn’t sign up to commit atrocities across the Inner Sphere. I had to enact some desperate measures to say the least.”

“This is the Manassas, we hear you, indicate which vessel is the enemy, and we’ll be happy to assist.” Commodore Frye responded. “We can sort out whether to kill you or not later.”

“We’re receiving a data burst with IFF embedded.” The comms officer said. “Relaying IFF across the board now.”




“Listen up.” I said to Hanse Davion and the Marines with me. “We’re aiming for the two Yardships below, it seems that we stumbled into Comstar’s very own civil war, and now we get to step in. So watch your targets, if someone surrenders then disarm them and cuff them, we want data and intact machines.” I took a breath before continuing. “Mathis and Rook will be leading the assault on the station, you know what to do.”

“Sir,” Sergeant Lovell spoke up. “I’ve split up the tech specialists between companies so everyone has several, they’ve got the mapping data loaded as well, so they’ll be your guides.”

“You heard the Sergeant , follow your tech specialists, they’re on point for this op” I said.


“Yes sir!” They responded. And now the hard part began, waiting to get close enough to jump to the Yardship.

“I thought waiting in the rear of the frontlines for information was bad.” Hanse observed to me via laser comms. “Waiting to be dropped off at an objective is worse.”

“You get used to it after a while.” I responded, “I forgot you got promoted quickly enough to skip a lot of the stuff that sucks as a front liner.”

“That, and I always had something to do.” Hanse said. “I’m not used to just being along for the ride.”

“Well, in a couple of minutes you won’t be worried about that.” I said as I stood up and grabbed onto the handle above the “bomb bay” “Get ready Marines!”







“Commodore, the enemy vessel labeled the CSV Montpellier is drifting, and the Bordeaux is damaged.”

“Make sure to divert a couple of the boarding parties their way.” Frye said. “We may be able to salvage it.”

“Ma’am, Captain Rogers wants to speak to you.” The comms officer said.

“Alright, I’ll speak to him.” Frye responded.

“Manassas,” Captain Rogers started. “We’ve taken some heavy damage, we’re powering down weapons and slaving control over to you.”

“Copy that Captain Rogers, prepare to receive Marines to enforce this.” Frye responded.

“We’ll accept just about anything as long as you’re not shooting at us right now.” Captain Rogers said.




“Nice to meet some fellow professionals.” Paige said to the members of the 6th Hesperus Guards.

“Good to see some other Marines out here.” The fellow Colonel responded. “Thanks for the Powered armor, it’s nice to have some advantages here out in space for once.”

“They’re pretty nice to have.” Paige agreed. “Certainly makes my job easier when my people can survive mistakes to learn from them.”

The two groups of Marines continued down the corridor, clearing out any opposition and ensuring that no one did any damage to the Shipyards.

“How goes the capture of the two Yardships?” Paige asked. “I’m worried they may try and skuttle them.”

“We captured one of them, but they seemingly bricked the system's controls, it’s stuck drifting in space until we can get them fixed.” The other Colonel shrugged, “The second one self destructed as soon as we got near it.”

“We may have some things that will help with the bricked Yardship,” Paige responded, “But we should probably finish our current job first.”

“You’re right.” He agreed, and tossed a flashbang into the next room. “First.” He entered the room with Paige hot on his heels.




“This is terrifying,” Hanse said as we used the Jump jets on our Mithril to navigate to a lifeboat. “One bad move and we’re gone.”

“That’s why we attached the tethers to the ship.” I responded. “We’re here.” We breached the lifeboat and got into the Yardship.

“This wasn’t in my reports.” I said as we stepped over bodies littering the corridor. “I’m afraid this could be really bad.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Seventy-Eight (Continued): Dead Space

Lutyen 68-28 August 15th, 3017

“Mark, I don’t like the look of this.” Hanse said as we advanced through the Yardship, seeing only scattered corpses and blood streaks along the walls and floors.

“Hanse, I don’t either, but the lights are still on, and we’re much better armed and armored than these poor bastards were.” No sooner had the words left my mouth than the lights turned off, the emergency lighting casting odd shadows and causing a haunting effect.

“Night vision on people, and guns at the ready,” I told the various fireteams with me. “I want everyone’s head on a swivel, this isn’t anything like what’s happening anywhere else.” I had advanced comms systems loaded into my custom Mithril suit, allowing me to at least monitor the situation.

“Colonel!” One of the Marines who had been with me since the inception of the Marksman called out. “This body looks strange.”

“Huh, you’re right.” I replied, this one seems to have been torn apart instead of ripped apart by weapons fire.” I raised my rifle. “Get ready people, this body was fresh, so we’re getting closer to whatever it was that is killing these people.”

We finally reached the door to the bridge, and it had been sealed shut. “Lovell, open it up.” I ordered, even though I knew it was probably a bad idea. “Everyone else, get ready, whatever it is that’s killing these people is stuck on the bridge.”

“Ready boss?” Lovell asked.

“We clear?” I asked to head nods and affirmatives. “Open it.” I uttered with finality, ready to shoot whatever came through the door.

What it was, was a man. A crazed man with open wounds, and open cybernetics chained throughout his body. You could see through his facial expression that he was in pain, but he was still fighting through.

“Kill me please.” He said. “They put this stuff in me, made me do terrible things.” He said while his body readied itself to try and kill us. Looking down the iron sights of my rifle, I pulled my trigger once, drilling the center of his head, and causing his body to drop lifeless and stiff against the ground.

“Give me your thermite.” I told our explosives expert,. “I want this body burned now.” The marine just nodded, unspooling his cords of thermite and helping me layer the body with them.” As soon as we finished, the corpse tried to move and get up but we triggered the explosives, melting the cybernetics and flesh off of the body, and causing the skeleton to fuse in several places.

“This is why Comstar needs to be destroyed.” I looked at Hanse’s faceplate. “Because they believe it is their right to play God and do things like that to people.” I sighed, “Let’s take the bridge, I don’t think there’s anyone left on this Yardship to oppose us.”

“Sir, computer systems are entirely intact, and my teams are reporting that they didn’t even manage to start wiping the computers, probably due to that clusterfuck we walked into.” Lovell reported. “We’ll have the Yardship up and moving in fifteen.”




“Everybody okay?” Acting Captain Rogers asked. “I know we just took a beating after all.”

“I’m good.” The gunnery officer responded, followed by the rest of the bridge crew. “I hope those Marines bring some extra medical supplies though.” The communications officer said. “We’ve got more wounded crewmates than the infirmary is able to handle.”

“They’ll be docking in fifteen.” Rogers responded. “I’ll greet them and explain our medical needs to them.” He sighed heavily. “It’s not like we’d be able to put up much of a fight right now anyway.”




“Commodore,” The Comms officer said. “Duke Hull is reporting that the Yardship they hit has been taken intact, no casualties, the second Yardship is reporting minor casualties, and a partial lockout of the computer systems similar to what happened in the Ross 248 system, only not as comprehensive.”

“And the space station?” Frye asked, I want the status on that.

“Mathis is reporting minimal losses, and that the station will take another couple of hours to clear out the last holdouts.”

“Good, when we have our marines on board the CSV Bordeaux have them treat the enemy wounded, we’re not savages after all.”

“Yes Ma’am, relaying the message.”




Odessa, Lyran Commonwealth, August 16th, 3017

“Those fucking Savages!” Paige swore. “They’re lucky we managed to intercept the fucking thing.”

“I get it.” Major Jenkins agreed. “Even when we were out for blood against the Capellans, we never tried to take it out on a civilian population, much less what these bastards decided to do.”

“Blaze is going to crucify Comstar against a wall.” Paige said with finality. “Chopper was his best friend, and he died to a dirty fucking nuke!”

“Ma’am! We have multiple nuclear missile launches detected, they’re targeting the Lyran Dropships.”

“Fuck!” Colonel Felicia Paige swore again. “Wait, why are our Dropships leaving?”

“They’re intercepting the Nukes ma’am.” Jenkins said. “With everyone we have being in Mithril, we stand the greater chance of survival.”

“We’re going to lose a lot of people, Jenkins.” She replied. “And those crews aren’t easily replaceable.”

“This is the Sting class gunship Archon’s Favor.” Echoed through the open comms channels. “Tell our old fireteam member Katrina that we’ll…” A white flash shone as bright as the local sun for a split second before disappearing to reveal that they had managed to intercept alll of the nukes headed for the other dropships, at the expense of the lone gunship.

“Dammit.” Jenkins swore. “Those guys were with us from the beginning, I served with them against the pirates while we were stationed in the Concordat.”

“I know Jenkins.” Paige patted his armor clad shoulder. “I know.”

“I hate these kinds of ops.” Jenkins muttered underneath his breath. “Even when you succeed, you feel like you lost something important in return.”

“Yeah,” Paige agreed, “Sometimes these ops make you feel like losing hope.”


Author's note: Well, that took a much darker tone than I intended when I started this chapter, but I'm going to leave it because I think it fits..

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.

1. The Marik Civil War ended up taking place a couple of years later, and ended up with the dissolution of the Free Worlds League
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.

 

[MarkWarrior]

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."

 

[MarkWarrior]

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.