Seras
Well-known member
Chapter 16.2 Shocked Awe
3026
Zaniah III
RedBase
I had known that going all out like that was going to change things. Especially in the Commonwealth, it was one thing to be a mercenary group, which many still viewed us as, that had helped stop a raid on a planet.
It was a whole other can of beans, when news from Ko spread across the Inner Sphere. Of course the Combine did everything in their power to quell the broadcasts, I had even heard that the 22nd Dieron had been ‘stood down’ instead of ‘annihilated to the last’ according to the Combine news agencies.
That didn’t really matter, because for the few days we controlled the planet, ComStar had no problem spreading the news of what happened. The ComStar News Bureau had picked up our actions on Ko without problem. The final Holovid of me holding the Governor Kagemuchi at sword point had become doubly famous once it had been revealed I was the “SLDF Standard Girl.”
I reminded myself to make a note to take a mercenary contract out on Haufenpfah. A few assassins should remind him of my irritation at what he had done.
But that led to the current situation. The ISDF were more than just the local heroes now. We came back after basically single handedly conquering a Combine world.
That just didn’t happen. The Combine were the single greatest military in the Inner Sphere, we walked up, squared up on them, and punched them in the mouth.
Then we walked away.
Eris had sent me basically a stack of requests from Generals in the LCAF requesting my regiment for raids, and assaults.
It was starting to become an issue.
What was worse was the fact I was now sitting across once more from Governess Alessa, who had requested a meeting with me not long after we had returned but I had put it off for as long as I could.
I really didn’t want to deal with her right now. It was exhausting dealing with politicians. They were always so schemey!
I sipped my garbage leaf water, barely hiding my grimace at the taste. Why couldn’t anyone drink a real drink, like a soda, or coffee. Even if space coffee was just a horrible tasting caffeine delivery system.
“Lady Alessa.”
“Commander Eisen-Blume. Thank you for keeping my son safe during the battle.” The Governess offered simply, without preamble. “He informed me that you made sure he had plenty of reinforcements to retreat, even if his showing was… lacking.”
“No, his showing was exactly what I hoped for. He popped a trap, and showed that despite all of our training there are men out there better than we could imagine. His BattleRom of his fight probably taught my people more than anything else during the assault.” I denied her immediately. “We owe Vincent a lot for taking that risk.”
The Governess blinked surprised at what I had just said, obviously she wasn’t expecting my words. Not really a surprise. Vincent had taken his one assault during the battle… roughly. He hadn’t liked ‘losing’ the fight.
I felt bad still for it, since I had sort of set him up into a difficult situation to see what would happen. Him popping that trap, and showing high level combat was valuable. Considering everything I had no issue supplying his four mechs with all the repair parts they needed after we lifted from Ko.
“That was not exactly how my son described it.”
I nodded at that. “Your son looks at the battle as a Mechwarrior, where every battle he goes into he should win that fight. I am looking at it as the Commander in charge of a large very serious battle. Vincent performed perfectly, no one died, he hit them exactly where we needed him to, and his efforts gave us valuable intel.”
The Governess nodded slowly as she sipped her tea. “Thank you.” She agreed. “I will have to pass on your words to him, I am sure he will appreciate them.”
I shrugged, I doubt Vincent would really care, he never really had any real respect for me in that way. He was kind of an asshole.
“Is that why you requested this meeting?”
The Governess blinked at me, as if I had just said something monumentally stupid.
Then she snorted. “I forget how indifferent you are to politics.” She shook another sip of her tea having seemingly relaxed in a way. “Yes Commander. I requested a meeting so I could commend you on your work and thank you for your service, as is customary to a returning raiding force. You did something that surprised the Commonwealth, of course I am pleased that you were successful. Even with our… Difficulties.”
This was my turn to blink. “Thanks then?”
She rolled her eyes at me. Which was weird, she was usually far more put together. “You are as difficult to deal with as ever. Victoria do yo-”
“If you have to, call me Vicky.” I interrupted. No way was I letting this woman use my full name. I already had to deal with Katrina.
“Vicky then, do you realize what you have done? How the Commonwealth reacts to such things?” The woman sighed “I don’t think you realize just how much your actions are in the news. It has been quiet recently, raids are down, things are slowing, and you just went and upended the Inner Sphere. There aren’t that many regiment sized commands in the Inner Sphere. You aren’t the Eridani Light Horse.”
“No. No I’m not.” I offered a little bitterly. I wanted to respect that group, and I did to an extent, but the remnants of the SLDF were no better than any other merc group at this point in time.
She noticed my bitterness with the EDF, but didn’t mention it, instead continuing. “And yet, a new Regiment just appeared, and then destroyed one of the Combines… You aren’t just some strange mercenary group on the outskirts of the Commonwealth anymore. I have been fielding questions about you from across the Commonwealth since the news broke.”
“Sorry for the trouble?”
Another snort. “I accept your apology, but that’s why I asked to meet with you. I am not a military woman, Vicky, so I decided to bring this directly to you. Here is the list of requests I have received, it would do you good to create a list of answers to many of them. That way when the questions come down, an answer you are pleased with is going out.”
“Err. Isn’t that weird? If they are asking you about me, shouldn’t you tell them what you think? I mean, it’s not like they are asking me directly, thank God.”
A noise escaped the Governess that, I realized only after a moment was a groan as she pressed her face into a hand. “What did I do to deserve this?” She whispered to herself before looking up and seemingly nodding to herself after a moment… I think she just remembered the whole poisoning orphans thing.
“Vicky, you are now a political actor. I invited you here, to ensure you realized what that meant, and ways to best protect your people and now use your status to your advantage… I am offering my experience to assist you in this. It’s obvious to me that you plainly don’t have the interest in politics, but politics now has an interest in you.”
I blinked. it struck me.
The Governess was basically offering to work with me.
Wow. The Ko raid really did change things.
“I would appreciate any advice.”
This time she smiled nodding. “Let me call in General Faulkner. His advice on handling the military politics will be invaluable to you, while I can help with the civilian side.” She offered, and I felt nothing but dread. I had just been trapped into learning, and dealing with politics, I was wrong, she was even more evil than I ever expected.
—-
I was totally unprepared for the sudden betrayal. As I entered back into the base, I was brutally attacked. Betrayed!
Both of my arms were captured and my feet dangled. I growled, I wasn’t exactly short, and there weren’t many people in the ISDF that were taller than me. “BETRAYAL!” I screamed as the two cackling boys walked me right down the hall in the opposite direction of where I was going. The other kids we passed all giggled or waved as I was walked past them. “Traitors! My wrath will be terrible! SO MANY LAPS!”
But they all simply accepted that as I was dragged into one of the break rooms. The room was pretty packed, and I was forcefully settled into a seat on the couch infront of a large Holovid.
“Hanna.”
“Vicky.”
We acknowledged each other, as my glare had no effect against the girl that was cleaning her nails with a knife as everyone settled in. “Popcorn?” Gauge asked offering the bucket to me, and I took the entire bucket from him with a glare. He just smiled at my wroth before the Holovid kicked on.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” I grumble. But all the kids were cheering as news report after news report played. All of them about the Ko Battle. I was forced to sit through a marathon of all the news reports in the Inner Sphere talking about our battle, some were pelted by Popcorn by the crowd, especially the Combine ones, but most of them earned cheers or cat calls when they described our actions.
“Is this really necessary?” I whisper to Hanna who snorted at me. Long finished cleaning her nails she was happily stealing my popcorn as we watched.
“Yeah, you need to relax. A movie night of sorts is just what you need. Plus look.” She pointed out and I could see Sandy, and a lot of her former crew were also packed onto other couches. “It’s good for them.”
I had to acknowledge that too. Their cheers were the loudest of anyone when it came to what we had done. The fact some of the news reports even had information about what had happened to them which is what led to the battle invigorated some of them.
What they had gone through was known, and many of the reporters spoke with sympathy. Of course the reporters didn't know everything that had happened. The debrief for all of them had been…
Well I had left early because otherwise my desire to name my next Colossus Shiroyama and take it to the Combine would have grown too much.
The Combine had been VERY interested in the ISDF. Very interested in where we had gotten the information the Commonwealth now had.
Eris had already sent the information to the LIC that the Combine were at least nominally aware that the Memory Core existed.
The cat wasn’t out of the bag, but with knowledge of it existing it wouldn’t be long now.
But the kids had done a good job keeping themselves alive. Many of them had revealed some information, and had cried into my shoulder while apologizing for doing so.
Again there was a reason I was forced to leave the rest of the debriefs to the others. Knowledge of the Memory core was nothing to my concern for my kids. And I made sure they all knew that.
So it was a good chance the raid on the Isaribi had been more than just an equipment raid.
My thoughts were pushed away when the Holovid showed a picture behind the reporter about that stupid movie.
My groan as I dumped my head into my popcorn to get away from it was completely drowned out by the shouting cheer of my kids.
While I hated that movie, it was basically necessary watching in the ISDF. I swear there was movie night at least once a week about it.
“You're all doing laps forever.” I grumble into the popcorn, but I don't think anyone even heard me. Instead they had already changed the Holovid. The Jingle for the Immortal Warrior already playing.
—-
The next few months felt a lot like idling. Just wasting time. But I also knew it was important, all of my kids had a sense of normalcy resume, before we got back to it. Although while they were laying around I was fielding angry messages, or requests from all across the Inner Sphere.
Katrina funnily was a bit of both. On one side, her message by HPG was very concerned, hoping that our mission was a success and that everyone was okay. She had even put me in touch with some military psychologists, that might help.
They had.
On the other hand. She gave me a very disapproving angry mom look after that and hammered into me. “I should have told her before I left.” yadda yadda. “Upsetting dangerous enemies.” Blah blah blah.
I think the only line that actually made me wince was the old “I’m not angry, just disappointed you didn’t trust me.” Although I still wasn’t sure if she was talking about my late message about our mission, or the Colossus.
Or something else. I am pretty sure I had at least a handful of other things that I haven’t told her about yet… Well that’s future Vicky’s problem.
On the other hand, the idea that had been forming ever since we saw that Panther pilot show off what it meant to be an elite mechwarrior was coming together. Hanna, Benny and I were putting it all together.
The outsiders had been hired. I had built up a new complex outside Redbase to house our guests, some might take it as a slight, but I made sure the building was very luxurious, as I had explained to the first Elite pilot that arrived. “I figured giving you your own privacy off a military base will suit you more.”
That and I didn’t want them wandering around my base.
But Hanna had done as I asked, gathering together some of the best pilots across the ISDF, and putting them into a single unit for this training.
“You are the elites of our mech forces.” I tell them standing on the foot of my Nightstar as the group including Hanna stood at attention before me. “You will be the elites that we use to stop enemy elite pilots from overrunning our forces. Considering circumstances, and history there is only one thing this program can be called. Gunslingers! Train hard!”
The roar of approval from the mechwarriors was what I wanted to hear. Restarting the SLDF Gunslinger program wasn’t really possible, the fact was the knowledge was basically lost, or at least it was lost to us. Venus the training world of the Gunslingers had been thoroughly destroyed by Amaris.
“The Gunslingers were once the SLDF’s answer to the Ronin of the DCMS. The ISDF too see the Gunslinger program to be the answer to the modern Samurai!” And it was. The best answer to an elite mechwarrior was another elite mechwarrior with a parity, or more advanced tech.
That was the goal here. To create the elites of the ISDF. Hanna standing tall in the front of the line of Mechwarriors hadn’t known what I intended to call this formation. From the sparkle in her eye it had been a good choice. “Now, Gunslingers! You have instructors, learn from them, put your arrogance away. The ones you are learning from are officially elite Mechwarriors. They will know things that we don’t. Learn them, master them. Become the Elite you were born to be.”
I saluted the group, and the return salute was full of support.
Hopefully they would keep that excitement, once the training actually started. I had talked to one of the elite pilots about what the plan was.
It was going to be harsh. Honestly I was tempted to name the program the N7 school instead. But well. Gunslinger had class.
—-
“Hello no. No with a side of fuck no!”
“Vicky. I’m not asking.” That shut me right up despite how much I hated it. Gauge had been squirrely since we got back. Now I found out why.
“Gauge. You can’t just leave!”
“I can. I am. It’s important to me Vicky.” He breathed out a long sigh. “Don’t make this harder than it already is. But this is important. I need… Well I have some things I need to find out, don’t worry, I won’t… Your secrets will always be safe with me.”
“Fuck secrets! I’m not worried about that! ComStar is… Far away..” I ended weakly, damnit, I couldn’t just say ComStar were dangerous. We hadn’t had the conversation about them frankly yet, and worse, I still didn’t have any actual evidence. Finding actual examples of ComStar Malfeasence, wasn’t as easy as you would think.
“I know.” he offered instead which brought my furiously racing mind to a stop.
“I know something about ComStar is… Wrong. I need to see how bad it is Vicky, I believe in ComStar, in what they should be, just like I believe in the ISDF. How can I stand aside and not try and do something. I’m going to Terra. Michaelson got me an offer to join ComStar. I’m sure they will try to interrogate me on you, but… Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“I need a sensor.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone or how much I will be able to send through the mail, but trust me.”
“You're my family. Of course I trust you. Idiot.”
“Thank you.” I groaned at his earnest tone as he pulled me into a hug. “This isn’t forever. I just have something I need to do. What can I say I learned about responsibility from the girl that decided to shoulder the future of the entire Inner Sphere.”
“Low blow.” I grumble but I pull away from him. “I would send an HPG with you if I thought I could fit one in your luggage.”
Gauge snorts at that. “I think Terra is a little far for that. But I appreciate the thought besides, our communications team has improved a lot. Our tests of the Mobile HPG were successful, if you ever need to send an HPG message, well. You have as many HPG’s as you need.”
“I know. I just always thought you would end up being my HPG guy.”
“I am… I’m just gonna be the HPG guy for the Inner Sphere too.”
“Pfft.” I couldn’t help but snort at his bad joke. “Seriously Gauge, I don’t like this, you will be completely out of reach and ComStar… Just... Don’t trust them.”
“I won’t.”
—--
So the Combine were going to be a problem. One in which I decided that I would be ready for. A fucking Haiku had been sent by the Coordinator. One he had personally penned.
I don’t read Japanese, and I certainly don’t know shit about poetry.
I did decide to keep it though. If I ever did a museum for the ISDF that would end up there. But it meant the Coordinator wasn’t willing to end our relationship as it stood.
So as always I decided I would take refuge in audacity. Thanks to our recent efforts recruitment had been… Extreme. The ISDF was growing, and I had already been forced to consider new ways to earn money in order to keep up, even with the Cooling suits now available for more civilian use, it still was barely keeping our income above our costs. I had taken to putting up some of the SLDF Neurohelms for sale. The price of those helped ensure we had plenty of funds in reserve for any emergency.
With how many people we had coming in, it was finally time for our next expansion, which is why I was gathering a lot of people into a Leopard.
The Leopard had originally been the same one Vincent had taken out to Ko, but well… I ‘rented’ it from the Governess. And then created my own. I would explain that the old one got blown up or something when I give her a new one as an apology, but that was for the future, because the thing was, no one really knew we had a Leopard.
I was going to use that.
“Vicky, I really don’t like this ‘idea’ the idea that you specifically won’t tell me about.” Benny grumbled. We were standing on the tarmac and once more Benny was trying to weasel an explanation about what the hell I was planning out of me.
“Sorry Benny, I know you want to know, but I need to keep this one close to my chest. Just trust that it’s a good idea, or if not that, trust that it’s probably a Vicky plan.”
He snorted at that. “I don’t think you are supposed to call your own plans Vicky plans, that’s our word.”
“Eh. If you can’t beat em.”
“But seriously Vicky. We kind of need you here. Disappearing into the black for… however long this is going to take.”
“I know. Trust me. I know. If it could be anyone else, I would not be going but you have access to everything including our stockpile, right now we are just in training mode anyways. Or at least that’s were I am leaving off. If you feel it’s time, you are in command.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that before you are back.”
“Hopefully.”
“Jeeze, first Gauge and now you? What next do I have to worry about Hanna running off to Solaris?”
“I had thought about setting the Gunslingers program on Solaris so they could use the Mech fights as training.” I tell him with a wiggle of my eyebrows before he slugged my arm.
“Don’t joke around.”
“Sorry sorry. I’ll be in touch… The Communications unit has our HPG up and running, we have signal times, and things, as long as we aren’t too far out, we can always even have face to face communications. Just be careful.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. Fuck without Gauge here, I might actually have to train someone to be my 2IC, Hanna is too busy with Gunslinger right now.”
“Yeah, well I’m going with only a few officers, I’m gonna be the one in charge for everyone going with me too.”
“Vicky… You are always in charge. You moron.”
I gave him a wink, as he was unable to resist rolling his eyes. Looks like he was calm again. “Benny. I’ll be back. Take care of everything for me.”
“You know I will.”
—--
A different perspective
Eris Stingler
“What do you mean Vicky left!?” She wanted to scream. Her handlers were going to be furious, but the Archon was going to kill her!
“Yeah she left early this morning, sorry I can’t say anything else, can’t even tell you any more than that, whatever the Commander is up to, it’s like super sneaky Delta level shit.” Catherine was a nice girl, and one of the sources for Eris’s gossip and rumors among the ISDF.
She also had never refused to share information before.
“But you know more, do share.”
“Nope. Sorry Eris, don’t even try your spook stuff with me, like I said this is Delta shit, it got passed around to keep our mouths shut. So we keep our mouths shut. You will just have to find out where the Commander went when she gets back like the rest of us.”
Eris was honestly shocked, she hadn’t expected Catherine to actually realize she was being milked for information. “I don’t do ‘spook’ stuff with you Catherine, I simply enjoy your company.”
“And my lack of filter.” The girl says with a smirk, Huh Eris had to admit she hadn’t expected such awareness from the girl, but it was a good thing for the ISDF, just annoying for Eris. “C’mon don’t look so put out. No one knows where Vicky went, and she was sneaky when she left, I can tell you this, so at least you have something, cause you're a friend. Benny doesn’t know where Vicky is going.”
Eris blinked at that, her next stop would have been the Sub-Commanders office to try and weedle information, but finding out that even he didn’t know anything?
That was… Concerning. What was that Gremlin up to!?
Before Eris could say any more Catherine was already walking away. “Go on I know you want to hunt down what info you can. Chat with you later, You won’t believe what Donal has been up to!”
Eris sighed, she was sure she wouldn't believe what Donal was up to, and as much as she would enjoy hearing about it, Eris did have a job to do.
Keeping track of a gremlin shouldn’t be this hard!
Rushing through the base she noticed right away the difference. Without the Commander there was a change in the atmosphere, it wasn’t a lack of discipline or anything like that, but the change was noticeable. Walking into the Sub-Commanders office she only received a groan from the boy.
“I don’t know anything, she didn’t tell me anything, and I can’t tell you anything that I do know. Please don’t waste my next few hours interrogating me.”
Huffing in annoyance Eris took a seat across from him. “I have never done such a thing, why does everyone believe I am going to pull them into a closet and interrogate them!?”
“I don’t know probably something to do with being an LIC agent… And you did kind of kill your last target didn’t you?”
“He was a disgusting pirate, and it was for the good of the Commonwealth.” She replied flatly, seriously the last time they had fought pirates, and taken them prisoner she had actually had some of the others remind her not to murder them! What did these kids think of her!?
“Riiiiight. Well listen, Vicky left without actually telling me she was planning on leaving, and we lost Gauge, so I’m a little busy here.”
“You do remember that while I am a member of LIC, I am also a member of the ISDF, officially, and I do have experience in command, and handling paperwork?”
“Not a chance in hell, I am sure a lot of my paperwork already ends up across your desk, but I’ll be damned before I hand it to you on a silver platter. Gonna have to work for it spook.”
“Tch.” She clicked at him, irritated that it only seemed to make him more amused.
“But since you offered for extra duty Private Stingler-”
“Hauptmann!”
“Not in the ISDF your not.” He told her with a smirk, Vickys purposeful order not to give Eris a higher rank would have rankled if not for the fact it was literally only the title itself she didn’t receive she was being paid well, and she was treated as if she had a higher rank.
Apparently the kids thought it was hilarious.
“Thank you for that reminder.”
“Right, well if you aren’t busy we do have a group of people that I don’t trust constantly on base. Keep an eye on those elite pilots we hired. On top of the Corsairs, and the crew for the Dropships… And I’m sure we have some more people to keep an eye on.”
“Oh Sub-Commander, I already do all of that, and more.” She hissed at him. “Please ensure that the room is locked the next time you and Hanna decide to find each others tonsils? I would hate for video to be released to the Commander, I am sure she would treat it with the respect and privacy it deserves.”
She stands and leaves, a glimpse out of the corner of her eye showing a pale faced Sub-Commander as she closes his office door.
Make fun of her will he?
3026
Zaniah III
RedBase
I had known that going all out like that was going to change things. Especially in the Commonwealth, it was one thing to be a mercenary group, which many still viewed us as, that had helped stop a raid on a planet.
It was a whole other can of beans, when news from Ko spread across the Inner Sphere. Of course the Combine did everything in their power to quell the broadcasts, I had even heard that the 22nd Dieron had been ‘stood down’ instead of ‘annihilated to the last’ according to the Combine news agencies.
That didn’t really matter, because for the few days we controlled the planet, ComStar had no problem spreading the news of what happened. The ComStar News Bureau had picked up our actions on Ko without problem. The final Holovid of me holding the Governor Kagemuchi at sword point had become doubly famous once it had been revealed I was the “SLDF Standard Girl.”
I reminded myself to make a note to take a mercenary contract out on Haufenpfah. A few assassins should remind him of my irritation at what he had done.
But that led to the current situation. The ISDF were more than just the local heroes now. We came back after basically single handedly conquering a Combine world.
That just didn’t happen. The Combine were the single greatest military in the Inner Sphere, we walked up, squared up on them, and punched them in the mouth.
Then we walked away.
Eris had sent me basically a stack of requests from Generals in the LCAF requesting my regiment for raids, and assaults.
It was starting to become an issue.
What was worse was the fact I was now sitting across once more from Governess Alessa, who had requested a meeting with me not long after we had returned but I had put it off for as long as I could.
I really didn’t want to deal with her right now. It was exhausting dealing with politicians. They were always so schemey!
I sipped my garbage leaf water, barely hiding my grimace at the taste. Why couldn’t anyone drink a real drink, like a soda, or coffee. Even if space coffee was just a horrible tasting caffeine delivery system.
“Lady Alessa.”
“Commander Eisen-Blume. Thank you for keeping my son safe during the battle.” The Governess offered simply, without preamble. “He informed me that you made sure he had plenty of reinforcements to retreat, even if his showing was… lacking.”
“No, his showing was exactly what I hoped for. He popped a trap, and showed that despite all of our training there are men out there better than we could imagine. His BattleRom of his fight probably taught my people more than anything else during the assault.” I denied her immediately. “We owe Vincent a lot for taking that risk.”
The Governess blinked surprised at what I had just said, obviously she wasn’t expecting my words. Not really a surprise. Vincent had taken his one assault during the battle… roughly. He hadn’t liked ‘losing’ the fight.
I felt bad still for it, since I had sort of set him up into a difficult situation to see what would happen. Him popping that trap, and showing high level combat was valuable. Considering everything I had no issue supplying his four mechs with all the repair parts they needed after we lifted from Ko.
“That was not exactly how my son described it.”
I nodded at that. “Your son looks at the battle as a Mechwarrior, where every battle he goes into he should win that fight. I am looking at it as the Commander in charge of a large very serious battle. Vincent performed perfectly, no one died, he hit them exactly where we needed him to, and his efforts gave us valuable intel.”
The Governess nodded slowly as she sipped her tea. “Thank you.” She agreed. “I will have to pass on your words to him, I am sure he will appreciate them.”
I shrugged, I doubt Vincent would really care, he never really had any real respect for me in that way. He was kind of an asshole.
“Is that why you requested this meeting?”
The Governess blinked at me, as if I had just said something monumentally stupid.
Then she snorted. “I forget how indifferent you are to politics.” She shook another sip of her tea having seemingly relaxed in a way. “Yes Commander. I requested a meeting so I could commend you on your work and thank you for your service, as is customary to a returning raiding force. You did something that surprised the Commonwealth, of course I am pleased that you were successful. Even with our… Difficulties.”
This was my turn to blink. “Thanks then?”
She rolled her eyes at me. Which was weird, she was usually far more put together. “You are as difficult to deal with as ever. Victoria do yo-”
“If you have to, call me Vicky.” I interrupted. No way was I letting this woman use my full name. I already had to deal with Katrina.
“Vicky then, do you realize what you have done? How the Commonwealth reacts to such things?” The woman sighed “I don’t think you realize just how much your actions are in the news. It has been quiet recently, raids are down, things are slowing, and you just went and upended the Inner Sphere. There aren’t that many regiment sized commands in the Inner Sphere. You aren’t the Eridani Light Horse.”
“No. No I’m not.” I offered a little bitterly. I wanted to respect that group, and I did to an extent, but the remnants of the SLDF were no better than any other merc group at this point in time.
She noticed my bitterness with the EDF, but didn’t mention it, instead continuing. “And yet, a new Regiment just appeared, and then destroyed one of the Combines… You aren’t just some strange mercenary group on the outskirts of the Commonwealth anymore. I have been fielding questions about you from across the Commonwealth since the news broke.”
“Sorry for the trouble?”
Another snort. “I accept your apology, but that’s why I asked to meet with you. I am not a military woman, Vicky, so I decided to bring this directly to you. Here is the list of requests I have received, it would do you good to create a list of answers to many of them. That way when the questions come down, an answer you are pleased with is going out.”
“Err. Isn’t that weird? If they are asking you about me, shouldn’t you tell them what you think? I mean, it’s not like they are asking me directly, thank God.”
A noise escaped the Governess that, I realized only after a moment was a groan as she pressed her face into a hand. “What did I do to deserve this?” She whispered to herself before looking up and seemingly nodding to herself after a moment… I think she just remembered the whole poisoning orphans thing.
“Vicky, you are now a political actor. I invited you here, to ensure you realized what that meant, and ways to best protect your people and now use your status to your advantage… I am offering my experience to assist you in this. It’s obvious to me that you plainly don’t have the interest in politics, but politics now has an interest in you.”
I blinked. it struck me.
The Governess was basically offering to work with me.
Wow. The Ko raid really did change things.
“I would appreciate any advice.”
This time she smiled nodding. “Let me call in General Faulkner. His advice on handling the military politics will be invaluable to you, while I can help with the civilian side.” She offered, and I felt nothing but dread. I had just been trapped into learning, and dealing with politics, I was wrong, she was even more evil than I ever expected.
—-
I was totally unprepared for the sudden betrayal. As I entered back into the base, I was brutally attacked. Betrayed!
Both of my arms were captured and my feet dangled. I growled, I wasn’t exactly short, and there weren’t many people in the ISDF that were taller than me. “BETRAYAL!” I screamed as the two cackling boys walked me right down the hall in the opposite direction of where I was going. The other kids we passed all giggled or waved as I was walked past them. “Traitors! My wrath will be terrible! SO MANY LAPS!”
But they all simply accepted that as I was dragged into one of the break rooms. The room was pretty packed, and I was forcefully settled into a seat on the couch infront of a large Holovid.
“Hanna.”
“Vicky.”
We acknowledged each other, as my glare had no effect against the girl that was cleaning her nails with a knife as everyone settled in. “Popcorn?” Gauge asked offering the bucket to me, and I took the entire bucket from him with a glare. He just smiled at my wroth before the Holovid kicked on.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me.” I grumble. But all the kids were cheering as news report after news report played. All of them about the Ko Battle. I was forced to sit through a marathon of all the news reports in the Inner Sphere talking about our battle, some were pelted by Popcorn by the crowd, especially the Combine ones, but most of them earned cheers or cat calls when they described our actions.
“Is this really necessary?” I whisper to Hanna who snorted at me. Long finished cleaning her nails she was happily stealing my popcorn as we watched.
“Yeah, you need to relax. A movie night of sorts is just what you need. Plus look.” She pointed out and I could see Sandy, and a lot of her former crew were also packed onto other couches. “It’s good for them.”
I had to acknowledge that too. Their cheers were the loudest of anyone when it came to what we had done. The fact some of the news reports even had information about what had happened to them which is what led to the battle invigorated some of them.
What they had gone through was known, and many of the reporters spoke with sympathy. Of course the reporters didn't know everything that had happened. The debrief for all of them had been…
Well I had left early because otherwise my desire to name my next Colossus Shiroyama and take it to the Combine would have grown too much.
The Combine had been VERY interested in the ISDF. Very interested in where we had gotten the information the Commonwealth now had.
Eris had already sent the information to the LIC that the Combine were at least nominally aware that the Memory Core existed.
The cat wasn’t out of the bag, but with knowledge of it existing it wouldn’t be long now.
But the kids had done a good job keeping themselves alive. Many of them had revealed some information, and had cried into my shoulder while apologizing for doing so.
Again there was a reason I was forced to leave the rest of the debriefs to the others. Knowledge of the Memory core was nothing to my concern for my kids. And I made sure they all knew that.
So it was a good chance the raid on the Isaribi had been more than just an equipment raid.
My thoughts were pushed away when the Holovid showed a picture behind the reporter about that stupid movie.
My groan as I dumped my head into my popcorn to get away from it was completely drowned out by the shouting cheer of my kids.
While I hated that movie, it was basically necessary watching in the ISDF. I swear there was movie night at least once a week about it.
“You're all doing laps forever.” I grumble into the popcorn, but I don't think anyone even heard me. Instead they had already changed the Holovid. The Jingle for the Immortal Warrior already playing.
—-
The next few months felt a lot like idling. Just wasting time. But I also knew it was important, all of my kids had a sense of normalcy resume, before we got back to it. Although while they were laying around I was fielding angry messages, or requests from all across the Inner Sphere.
Katrina funnily was a bit of both. On one side, her message by HPG was very concerned, hoping that our mission was a success and that everyone was okay. She had even put me in touch with some military psychologists, that might help.
They had.
On the other hand. She gave me a very disapproving angry mom look after that and hammered into me. “I should have told her before I left.” yadda yadda. “Upsetting dangerous enemies.” Blah blah blah.
I think the only line that actually made me wince was the old “I’m not angry, just disappointed you didn’t trust me.” Although I still wasn’t sure if she was talking about my late message about our mission, or the Colossus.
Or something else. I am pretty sure I had at least a handful of other things that I haven’t told her about yet… Well that’s future Vicky’s problem.
On the other hand, the idea that had been forming ever since we saw that Panther pilot show off what it meant to be an elite mechwarrior was coming together. Hanna, Benny and I were putting it all together.
The outsiders had been hired. I had built up a new complex outside Redbase to house our guests, some might take it as a slight, but I made sure the building was very luxurious, as I had explained to the first Elite pilot that arrived. “I figured giving you your own privacy off a military base will suit you more.”
That and I didn’t want them wandering around my base.
But Hanna had done as I asked, gathering together some of the best pilots across the ISDF, and putting them into a single unit for this training.
“You are the elites of our mech forces.” I tell them standing on the foot of my Nightstar as the group including Hanna stood at attention before me. “You will be the elites that we use to stop enemy elite pilots from overrunning our forces. Considering circumstances, and history there is only one thing this program can be called. Gunslingers! Train hard!”
The roar of approval from the mechwarriors was what I wanted to hear. Restarting the SLDF Gunslinger program wasn’t really possible, the fact was the knowledge was basically lost, or at least it was lost to us. Venus the training world of the Gunslingers had been thoroughly destroyed by Amaris.
“The Gunslingers were once the SLDF’s answer to the Ronin of the DCMS. The ISDF too see the Gunslinger program to be the answer to the modern Samurai!” And it was. The best answer to an elite mechwarrior was another elite mechwarrior with a parity, or more advanced tech.
That was the goal here. To create the elites of the ISDF. Hanna standing tall in the front of the line of Mechwarriors hadn’t known what I intended to call this formation. From the sparkle in her eye it had been a good choice. “Now, Gunslingers! You have instructors, learn from them, put your arrogance away. The ones you are learning from are officially elite Mechwarriors. They will know things that we don’t. Learn them, master them. Become the Elite you were born to be.”
I saluted the group, and the return salute was full of support.
Hopefully they would keep that excitement, once the training actually started. I had talked to one of the elite pilots about what the plan was.
It was going to be harsh. Honestly I was tempted to name the program the N7 school instead. But well. Gunslinger had class.
—-
“Hello no. No with a side of fuck no!”
“Vicky. I’m not asking.” That shut me right up despite how much I hated it. Gauge had been squirrely since we got back. Now I found out why.
“Gauge. You can’t just leave!”
“I can. I am. It’s important to me Vicky.” He breathed out a long sigh. “Don’t make this harder than it already is. But this is important. I need… Well I have some things I need to find out, don’t worry, I won’t… Your secrets will always be safe with me.”
“Fuck secrets! I’m not worried about that! ComStar is… Far away..” I ended weakly, damnit, I couldn’t just say ComStar were dangerous. We hadn’t had the conversation about them frankly yet, and worse, I still didn’t have any actual evidence. Finding actual examples of ComStar Malfeasence, wasn’t as easy as you would think.
“I know.” he offered instead which brought my furiously racing mind to a stop.
“I know something about ComStar is… Wrong. I need to see how bad it is Vicky, I believe in ComStar, in what they should be, just like I believe in the ISDF. How can I stand aside and not try and do something. I’m going to Terra. Michaelson got me an offer to join ComStar. I’m sure they will try to interrogate me on you, but… Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“I need a sensor.”
“Okay.”
“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone or how much I will be able to send through the mail, but trust me.”
“You're my family. Of course I trust you. Idiot.”
“Thank you.” I groaned at his earnest tone as he pulled me into a hug. “This isn’t forever. I just have something I need to do. What can I say I learned about responsibility from the girl that decided to shoulder the future of the entire Inner Sphere.”
“Low blow.” I grumble but I pull away from him. “I would send an HPG with you if I thought I could fit one in your luggage.”
Gauge snorts at that. “I think Terra is a little far for that. But I appreciate the thought besides, our communications team has improved a lot. Our tests of the Mobile HPG were successful, if you ever need to send an HPG message, well. You have as many HPG’s as you need.”
“I know. I just always thought you would end up being my HPG guy.”
“I am… I’m just gonna be the HPG guy for the Inner Sphere too.”
“Pfft.” I couldn’t help but snort at his bad joke. “Seriously Gauge, I don’t like this, you will be completely out of reach and ComStar… Just... Don’t trust them.”
“I won’t.”
—--
So the Combine were going to be a problem. One in which I decided that I would be ready for. A fucking Haiku had been sent by the Coordinator. One he had personally penned.
I don’t read Japanese, and I certainly don’t know shit about poetry.
I did decide to keep it though. If I ever did a museum for the ISDF that would end up there. But it meant the Coordinator wasn’t willing to end our relationship as it stood.
So as always I decided I would take refuge in audacity. Thanks to our recent efforts recruitment had been… Extreme. The ISDF was growing, and I had already been forced to consider new ways to earn money in order to keep up, even with the Cooling suits now available for more civilian use, it still was barely keeping our income above our costs. I had taken to putting up some of the SLDF Neurohelms for sale. The price of those helped ensure we had plenty of funds in reserve for any emergency.
With how many people we had coming in, it was finally time for our next expansion, which is why I was gathering a lot of people into a Leopard.
The Leopard had originally been the same one Vincent had taken out to Ko, but well… I ‘rented’ it from the Governess. And then created my own. I would explain that the old one got blown up or something when I give her a new one as an apology, but that was for the future, because the thing was, no one really knew we had a Leopard.
I was going to use that.
“Vicky, I really don’t like this ‘idea’ the idea that you specifically won’t tell me about.” Benny grumbled. We were standing on the tarmac and once more Benny was trying to weasel an explanation about what the hell I was planning out of me.
“Sorry Benny, I know you want to know, but I need to keep this one close to my chest. Just trust that it’s a good idea, or if not that, trust that it’s probably a Vicky plan.”
He snorted at that. “I don’t think you are supposed to call your own plans Vicky plans, that’s our word.”
“Eh. If you can’t beat em.”
“But seriously Vicky. We kind of need you here. Disappearing into the black for… however long this is going to take.”
“I know. Trust me. I know. If it could be anyone else, I would not be going but you have access to everything including our stockpile, right now we are just in training mode anyways. Or at least that’s were I am leaving off. If you feel it’s time, you are in command.”
“Hopefully it won’t come to that before you are back.”
“Hopefully.”
“Jeeze, first Gauge and now you? What next do I have to worry about Hanna running off to Solaris?”
“I had thought about setting the Gunslingers program on Solaris so they could use the Mech fights as training.” I tell him with a wiggle of my eyebrows before he slugged my arm.
“Don’t joke around.”
“Sorry sorry. I’ll be in touch… The Communications unit has our HPG up and running, we have signal times, and things, as long as we aren’t too far out, we can always even have face to face communications. Just be careful.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. Fuck without Gauge here, I might actually have to train someone to be my 2IC, Hanna is too busy with Gunslinger right now.”
“Yeah, well I’m going with only a few officers, I’m gonna be the one in charge for everyone going with me too.”
“Vicky… You are always in charge. You moron.”
I gave him a wink, as he was unable to resist rolling his eyes. Looks like he was calm again. “Benny. I’ll be back. Take care of everything for me.”
“You know I will.”
—--
A different perspective
Eris Stingler
“What do you mean Vicky left!?” She wanted to scream. Her handlers were going to be furious, but the Archon was going to kill her!
“Yeah she left early this morning, sorry I can’t say anything else, can’t even tell you any more than that, whatever the Commander is up to, it’s like super sneaky Delta level shit.” Catherine was a nice girl, and one of the sources for Eris’s gossip and rumors among the ISDF.
She also had never refused to share information before.
“But you know more, do share.”
“Nope. Sorry Eris, don’t even try your spook stuff with me, like I said this is Delta shit, it got passed around to keep our mouths shut. So we keep our mouths shut. You will just have to find out where the Commander went when she gets back like the rest of us.”
Eris was honestly shocked, she hadn’t expected Catherine to actually realize she was being milked for information. “I don’t do ‘spook’ stuff with you Catherine, I simply enjoy your company.”
“And my lack of filter.” The girl says with a smirk, Huh Eris had to admit she hadn’t expected such awareness from the girl, but it was a good thing for the ISDF, just annoying for Eris. “C’mon don’t look so put out. No one knows where Vicky went, and she was sneaky when she left, I can tell you this, so at least you have something, cause you're a friend. Benny doesn’t know where Vicky is going.”
Eris blinked at that, her next stop would have been the Sub-Commanders office to try and weedle information, but finding out that even he didn’t know anything?
That was… Concerning. What was that Gremlin up to!?
Before Eris could say any more Catherine was already walking away. “Go on I know you want to hunt down what info you can. Chat with you later, You won’t believe what Donal has been up to!”
Eris sighed, she was sure she wouldn't believe what Donal was up to, and as much as she would enjoy hearing about it, Eris did have a job to do.
Keeping track of a gremlin shouldn’t be this hard!
Rushing through the base she noticed right away the difference. Without the Commander there was a change in the atmosphere, it wasn’t a lack of discipline or anything like that, but the change was noticeable. Walking into the Sub-Commanders office she only received a groan from the boy.
“I don’t know anything, she didn’t tell me anything, and I can’t tell you anything that I do know. Please don’t waste my next few hours interrogating me.”
Huffing in annoyance Eris took a seat across from him. “I have never done such a thing, why does everyone believe I am going to pull them into a closet and interrogate them!?”
“I don’t know probably something to do with being an LIC agent… And you did kind of kill your last target didn’t you?”
“He was a disgusting pirate, and it was for the good of the Commonwealth.” She replied flatly, seriously the last time they had fought pirates, and taken them prisoner she had actually had some of the others remind her not to murder them! What did these kids think of her!?
“Riiiiight. Well listen, Vicky left without actually telling me she was planning on leaving, and we lost Gauge, so I’m a little busy here.”
“You do remember that while I am a member of LIC, I am also a member of the ISDF, officially, and I do have experience in command, and handling paperwork?”
“Not a chance in hell, I am sure a lot of my paperwork already ends up across your desk, but I’ll be damned before I hand it to you on a silver platter. Gonna have to work for it spook.”
“Tch.” She clicked at him, irritated that it only seemed to make him more amused.
“But since you offered for extra duty Private Stingler-”
“Hauptmann!”
“Not in the ISDF your not.” He told her with a smirk, Vickys purposeful order not to give Eris a higher rank would have rankled if not for the fact it was literally only the title itself she didn’t receive she was being paid well, and she was treated as if she had a higher rank.
Apparently the kids thought it was hilarious.
“Thank you for that reminder.”
“Right, well if you aren’t busy we do have a group of people that I don’t trust constantly on base. Keep an eye on those elite pilots we hired. On top of the Corsairs, and the crew for the Dropships… And I’m sure we have some more people to keep an eye on.”
“Oh Sub-Commander, I already do all of that, and more.” She hissed at him. “Please ensure that the room is locked the next time you and Hanna decide to find each others tonsils? I would hate for video to be released to the Commander, I am sure she would treat it with the respect and privacy it deserves.”
She stands and leaves, a glimpse out of the corner of her eye showing a pale faced Sub-Commander as she closes his office door.
Make fun of her will he?