Blood on the Horizon (Battletech SI)

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-One: Expansion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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


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


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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty Two: Break Through this Wall


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

"Yes sir!" his company roared in response.

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

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

Two weeks later…

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

Next stop, the Taurian Concordat.


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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Comeback

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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty Four: Kingdom

Valexa, Federated Suns; December 30th,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

February 5th 3006


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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


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


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


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


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


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


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

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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty Five: Damage Assessment

Valexa, Federated Suns March 26th, 3006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


March 30th, 3006



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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Six: Surprises

Valexa, Federated Suns: August 10th, 3006

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


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

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






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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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




Two hours later…

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




August 12th, 3006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Ramping up (Production)

Valexa, Federated Suns September 10th, 3006

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Christmas Come Early

Valexa, Federated Suns December 15th, 3006

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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


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

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




December 21st, 3006


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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





December 31st, 3006

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

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

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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Baptism by Fire

Tybalt, Capellán Confederation February 1st, 3007

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

“This is Chopper, ready op.”

“This is Edge, ready op.”

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

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

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

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


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

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

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


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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“This is RIfle Three…”


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

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

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

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





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


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





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

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




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

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty: Shot in the Dark

Major Constance Vaultaine worried her lip as she looked over the tactical workups and the information she had on the battalion that had made landfall half a week ago. The Marksman were another battalion, and on any other day that wouldn’t worry her. But they had refused to move into the city. Instead, they used some strange light ‘Mech ‘ in order to reach out and take out fixed defenses with PPC’s and LRM’s and then backed up out of range whenever they moved someone to pursue.

It was infuriating, to know that your enemy was up to something but be unable to figure it out. The enemy had artillery, they had used it to great effect against the Lancer’s not even a full year ago. So why hadn’t they tried the same sort of trap on her battalion? She didn’t know and it made her angry.

“Knock Knock.” Someone tapped twice on the door to her office. Even this late at night, there may be someone who had intel for her.

“Doors open.” She responded, glancing up just in time to note that this wasn’t one of her men. Before she could scream for help or anything, she was wrapped in the metal beings arms and getting placed in a choke hold. Major Vaultaine struggled, she tried everything she knew about close quarters combat. She threw elbows into the thing's face, she tried the groin, everything. Her struggle only made her grow weaker faster, and she was still struggling when everything went black.





Captain Paige was both exhilarated and scared for her company at the same time. Their job was to capture the enemy dropships and there were three of them there. The Lothar’s Fusiliers seemed to primarily be a ‘mech oriented battalion and as such only had three Unions to lift off with. Captain Peterson wanted the enemy grounded and unable to flee, and so her and her company had been tasked with this job.

Staff Sergeant Nathan Rook used hand signals to stop his fireteam from moving. There were some of the Union’s crew above them that he could see with his thermal vision. When their backs were turned two of his fireteam went up. They knocked the crew members unconscious. Bound and gagged them, and placed them in a cargo bay. Which Rook then locked from the outside. Moving through the ship, the various members of the Fireteam subdued the crew in sets of two and three until all 42 of the Union’s crew members were bound, gagged, and thrown into the same cargo bay that they stripped of anything that they might use to escape.

When they reached the bridge, Sergeant Rook signaled for his team to guard the entrance while he used his technical expertise to get into the Union’s systems. He navigated through the various logs, stripping valuable data on the Fusiliers and the CCAF in general. He also locked the current crew out of the systems with an override that had been provided by Lieutenant Dunham before he had left for the Concordat.

Risking an comm channel for the first time tonight, he used his Mithril’s slightly limited comm gear (He would have to report that to be improved on the next generation of armor.) “Longshot Actual, this is Longshot two reporting mission objectives seized, awaiting further instruction.”

“This is Longshot actual, Longshot two, proceed with secondary objectives.” Captain Paige responded.

Sergeant Rook clicked his comms twice for confirmation and then told his Fireteam to move on to their next objective.





Lieutenant Packer and his Fireteam moved quickly through the night. They needed to take the comms center and get ready to call for the rest of the Marksman when ordered to by Paige or Peterson. Stacking up on the Comms center’s main door, they broke the lock, and then eased the door open before moving in.

Packer had traded Rook to Paige in exchange for Mathis on this op. Sergeant Mathis was the single best entry person they had in the entire battalion. He loved being on point in a room and always knew what to do and where to go. Mathis noted the empty entry room, checking his corners and any desks that someone might hide behind before setting up on the next room. Using a fiber optic cable and camera to see if there was anyone on the other side. Noting that there were two techs monitoring the Comms systems, he signaled that to the team and had them stack up behind him. They breached the room quickly, using their speed and the element of surprise to subdue the techs before they could sound an alarm. Thankfully, they hadn’t had time to log out of the communications and now they were listening in on all of the Capellan’s communications in the city.





“This is the hardest part.” I observed to Sheppard over laser comms through my Warhammer. “The waiting and not knowing if everything is going according to plan or not.”

“Yeah.” Sheppard replied. “The waiting is what gets everyone. Everyone always talks about the exciting bits of combat, the ‘Mech combat, the aerospace duels. They always forget about the waiting and the in-between.”





“Well, I think Peterson’s plan has the best chance of success with minimal casualties.” Sheppard observed. “He really put this thing together in a hurry.”

“Well, he was a lead in the development of Mithril.” I stated. “It makes sense he’d want to be able to take advantage of it while we are still ahead of the curve.”

“I guess I didn’t see it that way.” Sheppard said. “I know that the cross training helped keep any issues between our various companies down, but I haven’t done infantry stuff in too long.”

“That, and you were gone when we went over the potential uses for it.” I made my Warhammer shrug. “It’ll take time for us to make use of Mithril properly.”


“Well, we’ll basically be setting doctrine for it so I better learn quickly.” Sheppard offered, and then paused. “We should be getting some sort of message soon.”

We went silent for a good five minutes after that, just taking in the silence of the hills and forest around us.

“This is Sniper One.” Our comms system alerted us to a new transmission. “We have seized all primary objectives and are moving to take secondary now. Move in at your discretion.”

We didn’t respond aside from basic acknowledgement of the transmission but began to move in conjunction with the forces we had to the rendezvous point. If they had accomplished the main objectives, that meant that most of the ‘Mech forces were stuck in their bays, the dropships had been seized, and the command staff were either captured or killed.




Captain Peterson was grateful for the advantages that the Mithril powered armor provided his infantry more and more as the night wore on. After they had accomplished their main objectives, they had broadcast a surrender message to the entire city. “This is Captain Peterson of the Marksman, we are a Mercenary company in the employ of the Federated Suns, we have taken your base, and are asking you to power down both your ‘Mechs and vehicles and lay down your arms. If you do so, you will be treated according to the Ares Conventions and you will not be harmed. Resist, and we will respond in kind.”

Most of the enemy had surrendered rather than face superior numbers on every front. That being said, there were a couple of lances of medium and light ‘mechs that hadn’t surrendered, instead; the couple of Firestarters that made up half of the eight ‘Mechs had started to set fire to parts of the city. Heading towards the abandoned factory as they did so. Luckily, the Colonel and Sheppard had anticipated something like this and had a couple of fireteams of Marines and the heavy fireteam moving to intercept. The fireteam of Marines jumped onto the back of a firestarter, broke open the hatch, and chucked a grenade in, using their jump jets to get out of the way before the Firestarter just stopped in its tracks. They managed to take out two of the light ‘mechs before they had to take cover and disappear. The rest of the forces, focused fire on one ‘mech at a time, starting with the Firestarters, and taking them down one by one, until they had stopped destroying the city of Macbeth.




Two days later…

I moved my ‘Mech through the city, heading towards the factory that had been shut down a hundred or so years ago. I had been told that they had a report for me and I wasn’t arrogant enough to believe that I was safe taking a regular vehicle across the city despite us saving them from the rampage of Capellan Firestarters. Reaching the perimeter that we had set around the factory that we were preparing to loot, I crouched my ‘mech down, powered down, popped my hatch, and lowered the ladder. Climbing down, I was met by the head of this project. A woman by the name of Adamina Rogers. When I reached the ground, she promptly handed me a ‘Noteputer with notes on it and led me to the inside of the factory.

“We first examined the factory to determine if there was anything left by the Cappies that we could use to expand Mithril production. Most of the factory is intact, with parts of it being defunct and destroyed from age or looters. Given we need to retool the factory anyway, we found that we should be able to strip this thing to the bedrock and repurpose it entirely for Mithril production.” She gave a very long winded spiel.

“I thought the factory was supposed to produce tanks.” I thought out loud, quite a bit curious.


“It was, most of the machines that we need were used for small things, and will do whatever the computer tells them to do as long as it has enough spare parts to keep going. We could set up two to three lines of production with what we have in this factory. And it would enable us to take the strain off of the Argo’s R&R systems.” She said in reply.

“How long will it take to take the factory apart?” I asked.

“Give us a week and the Jackwagon nearby and we’ll have everything ready for you.” She said.

“You have five days, I’m pretty sure we’re on a time limit here.” I replied.


Authors note: The roll for the factory was a 13. So a decent bit was left behind for us to scavenge. But not as much as we’d hoped for.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-One: War Machine
Tybalt, Capellan Confederation February 21st, 3007


“How in the hell did you make that work?” I asked the scientists on the Jackwagon that we had brought with us. “There’s no way you should be able to fit a working factory into this thing and still have it churning out what we need…”

“Well, we had experience with the Argo’s systems and refitting this machinery is actually easier than the Argo’s systems.” Adamina Rogers replied. “We’ll be able to put out the pilot suits and more Mithril at a rate of five or so a day as long as we get the materials.”


“You’re fucking insane.” I replied. “And I love it. I’m going to need ya’ll to churn out as many of them as possible and then move over to the designated zone.”

“Why Colonel?” She asked. “Is there something that happened?”

“McCarron’s Armored Cavalry just hit New Valencia and the Wolf’s Dragoons there.” I replied. “They may have a regiment swing by in order to check on the forces here.”

“Oh…” She replied, her mouth hanging open for a minute. “I’ll get to work on those suits now.”

She hurried back into the Jackwagon in a big hurry and I turned to Sheppard who was next to me.

“So, we have to prepare to potentially hold this planet against one of the biggest merc groups in the Inner Sphere.” Sheppard shrugged Nonchalantly. “I hope we have one hell of a plan.” he turned and looked me square in the eye. “We’re going to need every sneaky and underhanded trick in the book if the Big Mac decides to put a regiment here.” He got serious.

“Well…. I have an idea, but it might not sound all that good out loud…” I said.

“Well, if it’s stupid and it works.” Sheppard repeated the age old saying.

“Then it isn’t stupid.” I finished.

“So, we’re going to need the Marines and some of the Infantry for this.” I said. “And we may have to sacrifice those three shiny Unions we just stole.”

“You’re gonna use the Unions to support Strider and Wardog aren't you?” Sheppard asked.

“I’m going to send the Unions out on what will look like a suicide run.” I said flat out. “They’re going to go in and shred everything they can get into their firing envelope. Our people in Mithril can survive in Vacuum long enough for the Leopard’s to come pick them up. They have a minimum of three hours of air before you tie in extra tanks we can have in the center of the Unions.” I said.

“Even if we lose the Unions, they were never ours in the first place.” Sheppard agreed, “If we can manage to thin out even a battalion, we’ll have lowered the firepower they can bring to bear.”

“Exactly.” I said. “ We’ll have to workshop it and only let Volunteers go, but if we can limit the Big Mac to two Battalions against what we have here, we can at the very least hold them down until we can get some reinforcements here.”

“Wait,” Sheppard said. “I’ve got something similar, and we’ll still need the volunteers along with some really good math, but if it works, we should be able to do a lot more than just bring them down to parity.”

He stopped and grinned the grin of a genius or madman. I wasn’t quite sure which.

“We’ll have a little under a month if we do this right.” Sheppard said. “Let’s make the most of it.”





March 1st, 3007

The Jabberwocky and Daedelus industrial mechs we had brought with us were a literal Godsend. We had built what was quickly turning into a Castle Brian in Miniature. We had our Partisan Tank coordinating the fixed defenses we had stolen from Macbeth and the Capellan base with its targeting computer and had our main combat Dropships under that umbrella while the Buccaneers, Mule, and the Messenger were going to be hidden on one of the other continents. . We had our Tanks dug in, and areas where ‘Mechs could be used as QRF’s set up. Our Mithril suits had paid off here as well, by being able to keep the Industrial mechs stocked with whatever resources they needed.


While all of the construction had been going on, some of our Dropship engineers had been going over the Fusiliers Unions and making them look like they had sustained damage, and Staff Sergeant Rook had even put system restrictions to sell the act even further. When we got word from one of the Federated Sun’s worlds that the 2nd McCarron’s Armored Cavalry had split off from the rest of the unit, we knew that they had more than likely been diverted to check out what had happened to the Fusiliers that had been stationed here.

I had been pitching in where I could, but most of my days had been spent deep in planning. If we were going to defeat one of the premier Mercenary units of the Inner Sphere then we were going to need to play dirty. We had gotten word that the Wolf’s Dragoons had damaged some of the 2nd but not enough to make that much of a difference to a unit like ours.

Sheppard had been training mech pilots with McKay and Lamb for the past week. While everyone got basic piloting and gunnery training, we were going to need every machine in this fight that we had.

Our techs had gotten some crazy ideas that we had taken to implementing as well. Their bright idea was to have some of the Cappie’s mechs and our own be powered down and to have them look like we hadn’t gotten to salvaging them yet. They would wait until the opportune moment to ambush and the rest of our forces would be covered in fake scratches, and messed up looking tanks.


All sorts of nasty things laid in wait for the Big Mac, but none were going to be as destructive as the culmination of mine and Sheppard’s combined plan.


Authors note: If anyone has an idea that hasn't been considered yet, it may end up a part of the lunch menu next chapter... Let me know what you think we set up...

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Two: For the Glory
Tybalt, Capellan Confederation April 4th, 3007

“Marksman!” I called out over the assembled battalion. “I know that all of you have been working hard. And I thank you for it. We turned a hill and some dirt into a fortress to be proud of.” I stopped talking to take in their reactions. “We are almost certain to be hit by at least one regiment of McCarron’s Armored Cavalry if not more. They may outmass us, but we’re gonna tear them to shreds.” I paused and gave a massive grin. “How do you eat a Big Mac?” I asked.

“One bite at a time!” The entire Battalion responded. That having been said repeatedly over the last month.

“We’re gonna eliminate the aura of superiority the Big Mac has for the rest of eternity.” I said. “Volunteers, board your dropships.” I told the ones who had volunteered for the crazy mission that Sheppard and I had put together over the past month. “Battalion!” I called, and the entire Battalion came to parade rest. “Attention, Present Arms!” The entire Battalion turned and saluted as they boarded the Fusiliers unions.

After the Unions launched, the battalion dispersed back to their work sites. We still had a lot of prep to do.




April 13th, 3007

Empty space rippled as a trio of Invaders appeared at the jump point of the Tybalt system. After a second of orientation, nine Dropships detached and started burning for the lone habitable planet that the system was named after. Two Overlord dropships lead a pack of seven Union’s, meaning that if they made landfall, that the Marksman were going to have to deal with a hundred and fifty six ‘mechs at the minimum. But, Captain Sheppard and Colonel Hull schemed for weeks, coming up with a plan, a plan that was about to be executed.

“This is Captain Xang of the Lothar’s Fusiliers, we have been reduced to a company of ‘mechs and are retreating back to Capellan space.” One of the trio of unions in Fusilier’s colors and IFF codes said as they neared the group of Dropships beginning the nine day burn for the planet. “Permission to use your Jumpships to regroup with the rest of our regiment?”

“This is Colonel Lear of the 2nd McCarron’s Armored Cavalry, you may not use our dropships. Instead, you may burn towards Tybalt with us as we reclaim this planet.” The CO of the regiment said. His fleet of dropships slowed down so as to allow the trio of Unions to get in formation.

“Moving into formation Colonel, we’re eager for some payback on these Marksman Bastards.” The captain responded as they moved into the position indicated. “Thanks for the opportunity.”

After remaining in position for couple of days, all hell broke loose. The trio of Unions that the Marksman had commandeered started laying into the dropships nearest them, targeting their drives, and laying into every single dropship that was in range. One of the unions, the one closest to the two Overlords, crippled the drive on said dropship and managed to wound a union before slowing down due to enemy fire and dropping out of the fight, spewing oxygen and fuel.

The second one, managed to ram itself into the Union next to it, sending the two of them careening into a third and spinning off uncontrollably into the abyss. The third just assisted the other two before being damaged enough to cause it to drop, powering down and simulating complete reactor failure.

All in all, the Big Mac lost an Overlord, and two Union dropships, with damage spread throughout the rest of the dropship fleet. After slowing down to make sure there weren’t any other surprises, and picking up survivors from the lifeboats, the Big Mac’s second regiment continued on towards Tybalt. They had been punched in the face, and now they wanted payback.




April 21st, 3007

“How much are we going to lose?” Major Marcus Barton, the now acting CO of the second regiment of McCarron’s Armored Cavalry asked. “Sir, we’re going to be able to get your people on the ground, but I don’t expect to be able to lift off again.” The tech sighed, “They just caused too much damage, and we don’t have the spare parts with us to fix it unless we are able to get help from the rest of the Confederation.”

“Well, get us on the ground first, we’ll do the rest,” Barton said, seething with rage. “We got sucker punched but we’ll win this fight in the end.”

The group of dropships made landfall uncontested, some of them landing to never be able to take off again. The spaceport was empty, and so was the entire area, as the second moved off of their dropships and formed into their lances, they noticed burn marks and holes towards the factory district of the city.

“Second Battalion, I want you to head over to the factory district and check it out, it looks like a fight took place there recently.” Major Barton ordered the Battalion that had suffered the least amount of losses. “Copy that sir, moving to investigate.” The CO of the battalion responded and his ‘mech companies started to move over in that direction.

“First Battalion…” Barton started to say and then stopped himself. First Battalion was gone, only a few of them had made it out on the lifeboats when the Overlord lost atmospheric pressure. “Third Battalion, I saw what looked like an armored outpost on the pictures we took on our way in, us, Fourth Battalion, and what is left of Fifth will head in that direction.




I hated having to play dead. We had arrayed our ‘mechs in ways and created scorch marks and false armor damage so as to look like a major fight had happened in the factory district. And we also had a couple of Archers at other points in the city sighted in on the entrance so that the enemy couldn’t escape once we engaged. I was leading this ambush in my Warhammer, while Sheppard was back in his Marauder at the mock Brian Outpost we had built.

I had all of the Enforcers, the Quickdraw, our Black Knight, and the rest of the heavy mechs that we had taken off of the Fusiliers hands involved in this ambush. We had an overstrength company of ‘mechs here and a jammer that we had set up to prevent their comms from getting out. Hidden on the rooftops were Captain Paige’s company of Infantry, ready to leap onto cockpits and take out whatever they needed to.

Watching as a BattleMaster and Cyclops made their way into the factory district, I felt my armpits start to sweat. We would need every scrap of luck that we had ever had in order to survive this. As soon as the last ‘mech crossed into the perimeter we had set, Captain Paige flipped the ECM suite we had hidden in one of the industrial buildings on and we powered our reactors up. As soon as I had power to my weapons systems, I brought both of my PPC’s to bear on the Battlemaster in front of me, striking his left shoulder at the same time both of the Enforcers hit him with their AC/10s. I used the advanced computer in my Royal Warhammer to coordinate with our mechs and had Captain Paige and her troops start to jump onto what mechs they could.

I leaned out of the way as an AC/10 from the Cyclops thundered towards me. Snap firing a PPC at his leg before turning and hammering the Battlemaster I was dueling with a brace of lasers and SRM’s. Armor melted off of the Battlemaster as I kept up a flurry of weapons, not caring if people could tell that I was running cooler than a Warhammer should. Ducking under a set of SRM’s, I let the Enforcers continue to take on the now wounded Battlemaster before moving towards the Cyclops that was trying to shred the Quickdraw in our unit. Not caring that my Mech didn’t have hands, I slid into the Cyclops, sweeping the legs out from underneath them while they were trying to target one of my people. Leaning over the now downed ‘mech, I stepped on the cockpit and moved on. I didn’t have time for grandiose gestures, mine and my peoples lives were on the line.

While I was taking the point on the mech forces, Paige and her Mithril clad infantry had dropped onto a good ten or so mechs. Some of her people had satchel charges that they stuck to the cockpit before using their jump jets to get away before the explosion, and some of her people just pried open the cockpit door and threw grenades in. The Colonel wasn’t picky as long as the enemy died.

Along with the mechs that her infantry were dealing with personally, some of her combat engineers had buried long metal tubes in the ground and placed explosives on the bottom of the tubes. They had then filled the tubes with debris, and all sorts of vicious things that would cause damage to a mech. The Black Knight of the group had lured a lance of lighter mechs into position over said tubes before her engineers blew them. Watching the legs get completely blown off of a lance of ‘mechs was a glorious thing but their job wasn't done yet.

One of the enemy Battalion had been trying to nail down the building that the ECM was coming from and when he had figured it out, he crashed his Banshee into it repeatedly, trying to bring down the building and to get the assistance that his Battalion would need in order to survive. Unfortunately for the Second Battalion of McCarron’s armored cavalry, they couldn’t get the help they needed. And because their comms were jammed, they weren’t even able to surrender…





Sheppard sat in his Marauder, enjoying the coolness of his new pilot’s suit of Mithril. He got to be in charge of the Outpost, and he knew that he was going to have to hold out against a much larger force. Fortunately, Captain Rose had dug in and gotten the artillery sighted in on the few places that any enemy could approach from. Using the Daedelus and Jabberwocky industrialmechs, they had been able to create artificial choke points, and because of the Partisan Directed fixed gun emplacements, no one could attack via the air. And on top of that, there were quite a few traps set for the Big Mac as they tried to advance on the Marksman’s new homemade Brian Outpost.



Major Barton was pissed, first they had lost all contact with Second Battalion, then, he had lost a lance of Heavy mechs to a makeshift minefield and a flurry of LRM fire that no one knew where it came from. This slowed his regiment down and gave the enemy time to prepare.

“Anyone got an estimate on how far out the outpost is?” Barton asked his recon lance.

“Yes sir, we’ll reach the clearing in two clicks.” The lance of Bugmechs being lead by a Firestarter replied.

Barton kicked his Atlas up to its top speed of 54 km/h. “Big Mac!” he called on the radio, “Let’s make these bastards pay.”






“Fuck!” Sheppard exclaimed to himself as the full array of the enemy showed itself around the outpost. “That is a lot of metal.” He muttered.

The Big Mac forces charged, seeing as the fixed defenses were being focused against air assets in particular. Sheppard and his lighter mech forces opened fire at their maximum range. Sheppard alternated his PPC’s at targets of opportunity while the Toro’s and Griffins focused fire on one mech at a time. Unfortunately, there was just too much of a mass differential, and the assault lances crashed into and through the gates that they had set up. The arty had softened some of them up, and the armored battalion had helped, but there were just too many big mechs.

Sheppard slagged the cockpit of a Quickdraw, and then turned to see an Atlas kick the rest of the gate down and break one of his Toro’s with its AC/20. It followed that up by wrecking the PPC of a Griffin with its Medium Lasers and SRM’s. Sheppard backed his Marauder up, firing his AC/5 and medium lasers as fast as they could cycle. But then the Atlas turned it’s attention to Sheppard’s Marauder, seeing as it was the biggest mech it could find in the area. It wrecked his left hand PPC and Laser with its AC/20 and stripped armor away from his torso and legs with its medium lasers. Sheppard backed away, trying to generate range for his remaining PPC but it wasn’t enough. One more AC/20 tore its way through his Gyro and he blacked out as his mech struck the ground.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Three: Aftermath
Tybalt, Capellan Confederation April 21st, 3007

“It has been a really long day.” I thought to myself as I moved my Warhammer towards the outpost we had set up. I had managed to get a fireteam of Heavies that still were mobile and could fight, but we were hurting. Thanks to the pilot suits, we didn’t lose any of our pilots, but we didn’t have the time to salvage before going to help Sheppard.

After the ambush that had shattered a Battalion of the 2nd Mac, I had sent Captain Paige and her company to take the enemy Dropships. I wanted them stuck here with us until we had bled them dry.

“Marksmen, give me your overall status and ammo reserves.” I told the fireteam moving with me.

“Marksmen Two, Armor is yellow across the board, no ammo here, I’m a laser boat.”

“Marksmen Three, Armor green, I’ve got enough ammo for three volleys and then I’m down to lasers.”

“Marksmen Four, I’m exposed in some areas but have enough ammo for ten volleys.

“Marksman Five, I’m limping, but my ammo reserves are good.”

“Marksman Six, I’m missing an arm, but ammo reserves are good.”

While we made our way to the outpost, I got in contact with the one fireteam that had made it out of the outpost and the LRM carriers we had left in the city. It was an eclectic mix of Mechs and vehicles, almost all of us were damaged in some way, and the LRM Carriers were the only things undamaged. Put together, we had almost a full company of forces.

Hailing the Dropships that we had, I redirected them to land in the Industrial district. I needed the downed ‘Mechs' up and running again so that we could finish off the rest of the 2nd Mac.

After navigating the city, we came out of the woods onto what looked like a scene out of a Peter Jackson film. Leading up to the outpost we had built, there were heavy and assault mechs lying in craters from artillery and LRM fire. It looked like Sheppard had at the very least put up a decent fight. Staying at maximum range, we just kept an eye on them. We hadn’t left any repair facilities for them to use, and they would have to break for their dropships if they wanted to make repairs or resupply on munitions.

And we would stand in their path. If they took long enough, the automated repair bays that we had on some of the dropships would have the mechs that we had taken out earlier back in service and ready to chew on some more of the 2nd Mac.

And so, we waited. I stood there in my now blackened and damaged Warhammer, just watching. Waiting for confirmation from Paige that we had taken their dropships, waiting for the 2nd Mac to try and talk to us. We just waited. After a couple of hours, there came a comm from our outpost.

“This is Major Barton of the second regiment of McCarron’s Armored Cavalry.” He said. “To whom do I have the displeasure of speaking to?”

“This is Colonel Mark Hull of the Marksman.” I replied. “Is there something you wanted to say?” I taunted.

“We broke your base here. And we’re going to break you.” Barton replied. “After we’re done with you, the Marksman won’t even be a name on the MRB’s board. It’ll be like you never existed.”

I waited as he ranted angrily for a little while longer. “You done?” I asked. “Because I’m not here to talk right now.”





Sheppard slowly regained Consciousness, he moved, turned and looked around his cockpit. His Mithril was intact, and there weren’t any enemies trying to break into his ‘mech, so he assumed they thought that he was dead.

“Fuck!” His leg was pinned underneath a massive layer of his broken cockpit. Looking down, he saw that his Marauder had fallen face first over one of the tunnels that they had dug for the Infantry to use to move back and forth. Seeing rubble shift, he made sure that Peterson’s infantry saw him and remained quiet when they got there to remove him.

After freeing his leg, Sheppard used the two Infantrymen’s aid to limp into the tunnel.

“Set him down right here.” One of the medics assigned to Peterson’s company directed the two of them. “He’s not in critical condition so he’ll have to wait a bit.”

The Infantry company had made it into the tunnels without being seen by the 2nd Mac. And they had collapsed the tunnel entrances in a way that made them look impenetrable. While the 2nd Mac had been taking stock of the outpost, Peterson’s company had been going and retrieving the pilots and tankers from their destroyed vehicles and sneaking them back into the tunnels to render medical aid.




“This is Captain Paige.” I heard over my Comms systems. “We captured the enemy dropships, and we have word that our people in space have been recovered.”

I jolted awake at that. “Did we get any word back from Davion Command on who they were sending?”

We had sent an HPG as soon as we got word that the 2nd Mac was probably on their way. And had been waiting on a response ever since.

“No sir, and I did send someone to check with Comstar and see if there was a response.” She said.

“Sir, I’m going to task the VTOL’s to keep an eye on the enemy. You and the people with you should come back here for repair and refit.” Paige said.

“Copy that.” I responded. “We’ll remain on task until they show up.”




April 24th, 3007

Having automated repair bays working alongside good Astechs felt like cheating sometimes. In two days, we had repaired a third of the Battalion we had taken out and put pilots into them along with repairing a good chunk of our heavy forces. I had been on standby in my Warhammer since it had been reskinned with armor and my SRM’s refilled.

Our Leopards that had retrieved the people from the Unions had made landfall a couple of hours ago and everyone was trying to rest before we were pushed by either the 2nd Mac, or reinforcements showed up. The 2nd Mac had taken the outpost we had made and were using any of their mechs that had hands to get it at least partly functional again. We knew that they didn’t have any repair facilities available so they were going to have to make do with stripping things from the fallen mechs in the area.





April 25th, 3007

“This is Colonel Jaime Wolf of the Wolf’s Dragoons.” Echoed through an open channel on my comms system.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Four: Vengeance
Tybalt, Capellan Confederation April 25th, 3007

“Alright people, we have a couple of hours before the Wolf’s Dragoons make landfall.” I briefed the mechs and artillery I had with me. “I want the 2nd Mac dead and gone before they get here.”

I was leading the mechs we had managed to get back up and running to the outpost. We were going to bait the 2nd Mac into a rage and throw our arty along with the LRM carriers at them from range. In order to do this though, I was going to need to expose myself. As we neared the clearing, I began broadcasting on an open channel.


“This is Colonel Hull, I broke your assault battalion, and I’m going to shatter you before the Dragoons get a chance to pick at your corpse.” I called out, walking out in my Warhammer challenging them. “You a coward Barton? Or just scared?” I taunted, watching as an Atlas was doing the little things that indicated what a pilot might do via the linked neurohelmet.

The Atlas clenched and unclenched its fists before moving forward at its maximum speed. “This is Major Barton, I’m going to crush you beneath my Atlas’ boots and wear your Warhammer as a cape!”


We both circled around the open field pocketed with craters and shattered mechs and vehicles. I wasn’t concerned about facing Barton, he was angry and I was cool, I was freshly armored up, and he had visible damage to parts of his Atlas. While I might despise these sorts of duels on a personal level, I couldn’t deny that it was going to be necessary in order to make sure that the Dragoons didn’t get the credit for our work.


As soon as we were both in the field facing each other, I began throwing PPC fire at his AC/20, I needed that weapon out of commision if I wanted to win this fight. At this point, it didn’t even matter if people could tell that my mech was a Royal variant with Freezers. I kept up a rate of fire with my PPC’s as I closed in that would have melted a regular mech. I knew I was going to be paying the price with my Warhammers myomer muscles later, but this fight was the fight for Tybalt. As soon as I was in range and knew that the AC/20 was down, I dropped my Warhammer into what looked like a baseball slide, coming around at the rear armor and worrying it with some SRM’s and medium lasers before peeling off again.





Barton spun around and let loose with a brace of medium lasers, smiling a shark-like grin as he watched them converge on one of the PPC’s that had been melting armor off of his Atlas.

He then closed in and began to try and hammer the lighter mech with his Atlas’ fists. Laughing to himself as one of them connected and shattered armor on the left shoulder that he spat some SRM’s at.

Barton had been angry originally, but now he was in the zone, he had the heavier mech; one that was built for this kind of fight, even without the AC/20 that normally came with it. And he was still congratulating himself when the Warhammer lashed out with a kick that tore his knee actuator off of his mech.





I had been dodging fire for too long, some of the lasers had come dangerously close to my cockpit. I had been worrying the Atlas in several different places, making sure to make it look like I was spreading out the damage when really I had focused my Machine guns on his right knee, and as I kept harassing the Atlas, I noticed when the actuator had begun to spark, Seeing that I had this one chance, I threw my Warhammer forward, heedless of any shots that might strike me and kicked the Atlas’ knee.

The Atlas knee actuator groaned for a minute before it buckled and fell to pieces. Barton fought to stand on one foot and maintain balance, but he was already crashing to the ground. I walked up, placed one foot on his mech and pointed my remaining PPC directly at his cockpit. At this range it wouldn’t be able to fire, but it would still kill Barton.

“Surrender.” I said over the open comms. “Or don’t. I don’t give a damn either way.”

“Stand down.” Barton coughed over the comms. “We surrender.”

With that, the remaining 2nd Mac powered down and popped their hatches. When the surrender order had been followed, my Mithril clad infantryman that had been in the tunnels below came out, one platoon saw to it that the wounded were taken our dropships, while the rest of them took custody of what was left of the 2nd regiment of McCarron’s armored cavalry.





April 26th, 3007
“We don’t need you, Colonel Wolf.” I said to the man across the table from me. “We held this world and took out a third of the Big Mac.”

“We’re only asking to take part in salvage operations.” Wolf replied.

“I. Do Not. Care.” I enunciated each word. “My people did what yours couldn’t, and unless Ian or Hanse Davion show up to politely ask otherwise I’m going to continue making this my business.”

“Colonel Hull, be reasonable about this, you’ve got wounded and don’t have the manpower to use this amount of equipment.” Colonel Jaime Wolf continued to push.

“I just fought off a reinforced regiment with a battalion and shattered it.” I said firmly, “You and all of your equipment do not scare me. Now fuck off unless you have a Davion that you can pull out of your ass.”


Right as I said this, Ian Davion walked into the room. He had a metal bowl in his hands and he sat at the table between me and Wolf before reaching into the bowl.

“No, please continue.” The First Prince said as he munched on some popcorn. “It’s just starting to get interesting.”


“Prince Davion.” Both myself and Wolf made to stand up and greet him.

“Sit down.” Ian said, and so we did. “Now, what seems to be the issue here?”

“ I want to take both Overlords and one of the Unions as my salvage rights. I’m willing to cede pretty much everything else, but Colonel Wolf here, thinks that my unit can’t maintain an Overlord for long.” I said. “I also want the mechs that were still on the Overlord that’s in space.” I folded my arms. “The two of you can debate any other salvage you find aside from my company's mechs.”

“That’s all?” the First Prince raised an eyebrow. “Done, are there any other issues?”

“None sir.” I said, shaking my head. “As long as the scheduled meeting takes place tomorrow I’ll be set.”




April 28th, 3007

“Sheppard!” I greeted as he used a wheelchair to leave the medbay, assisted by his Girlfriend Sergeant Erika Lamb. “How’s the leg?”

“It sucks.” He replied, and then his face turned solemn. “Rose didn’t make it though.”

“Damn.” I said. “I thought she looked fine.”

“She was supposed to be fine, but apparently she didn’t tell anyone that she had broken a rib in time. She bled out internally.” Sheppard replied.

There were a host of us with injuries, both minor like the torn ligaments and sprained ankles, and major, like Captain Petersons eye, or Sheppards now missing leg. We were currently waiting for Dunham to show up with the Argo and the advanced medical facilities there. Until then, we had commandeered one of the civilian hospitals and were going to be using it for now.





May 1st, 3007

“We are the luckiest people in the Inner Sphere.” Jewel observed to Bruce as they conducted a damage and repair assessment of the Overlord in the void. “There’s only one panel we’ll need to replace in order to get this thing able to be moved to a shipyard for further repairs.” She held up her ‘Noteputer to show Bruce the section she was referring to.

“Must have been a golden BB.” Bruce said. “I’ll get the details sorted and we’ll start working in an hour.”





On Tybalt…

“So…” Ian Davion sat across from me in my Office on the Messenger. “You’re willing to license these to us for manufacture?” He gestured to the Mithril plans in front of him.”

“Yes we are.” I said. “We also have licenses worked out with the Concordat and TTI.”

“Hmm.” He stroked his chin. “You have partial ownership in a factory or two on Taurus, correct?”

“Yessir.” I replied. “We’re trying to make some extra income.”

“Well, I’ll look over the contract, but I’m giving you a solid yes on that.” He chuckled. “Those battleRoms you showed me proved their worth.”

“Understood.” I made to stand up and he waved me to sit down again.

“What do you want?” The First Prince’s normal smile turned serious. “I can give you almost anything you want for accomplishing what you just did. A landhold, a planet?” He paused. “What is it that you truly desire?”

I almost answered, and then paused to think. “Give me a year and a half, three Mules, and two Mammoths.” I smirked. “When I get back, I want Kentares.”

Silence reigned in the room for a good five minutes before the First Prince responded. “Kentares?” He asked. “You’re sure you want Kentares?” you could hear the surprise in his voice.

“Yes sir, give me what I just asked for as a bonus, and I’ll come back ready and willing to get to work.”

“Done.” He stood up and shook my hand. “And I’ll do one better.” he grinned. “I’ll give your people the priority for repairs on the Overlords and one of the Invaders to carry them to New Avalon for you.”

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Five: Achievement unlocked…
Tybalt, Federated Suns May 5th, 3007

“You want to work for us?” I asked the redhead sitting in front of me. “You’ve already got a decent paycheck with the Dragoons, why come work for us?” I paused. “We don’t really do things the way the rest of the Inner Sphere does.”

“I know,” She replied. “I just want to get a glimpse of what a smaller company might look like.” She then smirked at me. “And, it’s not every day you watch a Warhammer drop an Atlas.”

“Alright, you’re hired provisionally,” I said. “We'll put you through our basic after we get to a different world and settle down for a bit.” I stood up from my desk and shook her hand.

“See you Colonel.” She said, and glided away.


I just facepalmed after my door slid shut. “Why does this keep happening to me?” I asked Sheppard who was seated next to me in his wheelchair.

Sheppard had just grabbed his ‘Noteputer 'and started hitting it against his forehead again and again. “He’s an idiot Jack. But he’s our idiot.” He kept repeating until I snapped him out of it.

“You with us Jack?” I asked, making sure that his injuries weren’t flaring up.

“Huh?” He stopped and realized what he was doing. “Yeah, I’m good.”


“Alright then,” I said. “We’ve got to meet up WIth Dunham and Frye along with our gear. I’m planning on sending Jewel and Paige with the Overlords to get them repaired before we head over towards the periphery.”

“Sounds good.” He responded. “Where we going to set up shop in the meantime?”

“I was thinking a return to Pierce was in order.” I responded. “They should be fine with us renting out some facilities to use as a base camp temporarily.”

“You talked it over with the First Prince right?” Sheppard asked. “Yes, I discussed some R&R while he got our bonus ready. Pierce is a bit far, but a lot of our vets are from there and they’ll enjoy the visit.





May 20th, 3007.

We were finally lifting off of this misbegotten rock. Lieutenant Dunham and the refitted DroST’s along with the Argo had arrived in system around five days ago. Captain Jewel and her team had gotten the Overlord and one of the messed up Unions capable of holding atmosphere and at the minimum making the jump to New Avalon.

The plan was to have the DrOST’s transfer over to our Leviathans, while the Overlords took the King Henry V to the New Avalon Shipyards in order to get them fixed up. Jewel was going to head up that mission while the rest of us began the long journey towards Pierce.

Before I boarded the Messenger though, Prince Ian Davion grabbed me by the shoulder. “New Avalon for Christmas next year,” he told me. “Don’t be late.”


He left me with those words as we burned for orbit.




May 29th, 3007.
We docked with the Whirlwind at the same time the Argo did. Allowing us to transfer the wounded over to the advanced facilities on board the Argo. We had also transferred the bodies of our fallen brothers and sisters to the Cargo holds. I had written personalized letters to each of their families, and would be sending a part of the bonus that the Davions had given us to each of the fallen’s families.

“Get well soon.” I told the wounded senior staff as they were taken over to the Argo. Sheppard just flipped me off, while the rest of them responded with affirmatives.

Currently, I had a lot of XO’s filling in spots that normally the senior level staff were on and once we had charged the K-F Drives, we would be splitting up. The Leviathan with the Argo, the Unions, the Triumph, and Both Buccaneers along with one Leopard and one Leopard CV. We weren’t taking chances on the Capellans taking a shot at us.

While Sheppard and most of the newer veterans were going to Pierce to set up a temporary training camp, I was taking the other Leviathan and the rest of the dropships and heading for where I had left the Manassas. It was time to go Lostech prospecting.





Location: Classified, somewhere on the Taurian Concordat and Davion border. Date: October 31st, 3007

All of the company I had brought with me watched with bated breath from their dropships as the depot’s bay doors slid open to reveal the two Warhips inside. The senior staff and other people entrusted with the info had believed me, but seeing it was a whole different ball game.

“Now that is a ship.” Lieutenant Packer observed, he was currently serving as my temporary XO.

“She’s beautiful ain’t she.” I responded. “Take us in slow to the docking bays. We’re gonna have a lot of work cut out for us on getting the advanced stuff off of the Confederates.

The pilots of the various Dropships. (the Bittersweet, Puma, and Messenger) eased us in and docked fluidly. When we were docked and the bay doors shut down, I sent the SLIC codes to repressurize the bay. Once everything was set, we all left the various ships in order to get to work.





Personal Journal: November 5th, 3007

I had almost forgotten what the massive Warships looked like until I saw them again. As soon as we had docked, we began to work. Maneuvering the Confederate Dropships off of the Manasses one at a time in order to unload the cargo stored on each one while also gettin the Unions off of the Age of Discovery in order to transfer everything over. Thankfully, we were able to fit everything from the Confederates, and a good chunk of the spare parts from the Manasses. (Freezers, Endo-Steel, Ferro Fibrous, ER weapons and Gauss Rifles, the Manasses had a lot of these things on it.) I also made copies of the Manufacturing core that the Manasses had to take with us and all of the scientific journals, the research that I had done everything that we could. The Age of Discovery still had some things I had apparently missed in its cargo bays, including enough Freezers to outfit an entire regiment of Assault mechs. Anyway, our next stop would be Pierce in order to unload everything we had stripped from this depot. And then we would hit a couple of the others that I had the coordinates for. Even if it was just spare parts, it would be worth it…

Authors note: I'm on a roll today if you couldn't tell...

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Six: Land, Loot, Survive…

Pierce, Federated Suns December 4th, 3007

“Why am I doing this?” A redheaded woman asked as she pushed the dirt.


“Because here in the Marksman, every single one of us learns how to be an infantryman. You will learn how to deal with Battlemechs, other Infantry, and how to deal with armor and come out not only alive. But victorious.” Captain Sheppard told the entire platoon he was training with. His prosthetic needed to be calibrated and what better way than to get some work done at the same time. “While you are a part of this unit, you will develop interpersonal skills. All of us are capable of using armor and weapons, and a good handful of us are neurohelmet compatible and will go on to cross train into the mech piloting section.” He explained “But first, you and everyone else here will start at the bottom just like the rest of us did.”

“I bet Colonel Hull didn’t have to do this.” one recruit muttered to another one.

“I heard that.” Lieutenant Mathis said. Crouching down next to the two recruits. “I’ve been with the Colonel from the beginning. And he was the one that instituted and started this training.”

He dropped down and started doing the exercises with the two recruits. “The Colonel actually out performs many of us in our individual tasks simply because he works harder to learn and be better at them.” He said calmly while continuing to do all of the different sets that Sheppard was putting them through. “I am an Infantryman, I love my job and I’m still a trained astech.”

Mathis stopped doing the exercises when it was called for. Not a drop of sweat on him or even a hint of being out of breath. And raised his voice to finish what Sheppard had been instructing them on. “Here in the Marksman we do not expect perfection!” Mathis called out over the massive training ground in a booming voice. “What we do expect is that you always perform at your personal best. What that looks like is different for all of you. But the foundation for learning your limits starts here, at infantry school.”




December 5th, 3007 location classified.
This was going to be the second depot that we were going to hit. The material we had gotten from the Manassas and Age of Discovery was going to keep us set for a while. But this next deep space depot looked slightly different from the first one we had stripped. Entering the SLIC captain’s codes, Packer and I watched as the bay doors opened.

“That thing is massive.” the pilot of the Messenger observed, looking at what the computers were telling him was a Texas class Battleship. As they eased in, they noticed why it had been parked in the depot. A portion of the side had been ripped off, exposing the interior to vacuum. The thing that stuck out to us was the massive Colossus dropship attached to its hardpoints.

After we had docked, we began to get the station powered up again.




Pierce, Federated Suns December 15th, 3007

“So you have strong bodies.” Sheppard said, drilling the recruits. “That means nothing. A strong body leads to weakness if it doesn’t come with a strong mind.” He started to teach the basic organization of the Marksman.

“Who can tell me the basic formation used in the Inner Sphere?” He asked the classroom in front of him.

“You recruit.” He selected one at random.

“It’s a lance sir.” The recruit responded.

“That is correct, and you would be right….” Sheppard paused. “If we worked like the rest of the Sphere. In the Marksman, we use what we have labeled the Fireteam.” He stopped to let them digest that.

“The fireteam is a six unit measurement that is used for all of our formations barring aerospace and dropships.” He turned to see a redhead giving him a slight glare. Then shrugged and moved on. “Can anyone explain why we use the same unit of measurement for all of our forces including infantry.”

No one answered or put their hands up. “It’s to help generate unit cohesion and better decision making.” Sheppard answered.

"How does it help with unit cohesion if no one knows what their proper duties are?" The redhead asked with an angry look on her face.

"Well, while we do ensure the cross training is kept up to date, you will pick a primary focus and a secondary while you are here in the academy." Sheppard said. "For instance, I myself have a primary focus on Mech piloting, with a secondary in armor and I maintain my infantry qualifications at the bare minimum expected level." He paused. "Colonel Hull on the other hand, has chosen to cross train in everything. He is certified to do any of the jobs that are required in the Marksman, from the garbageman to the K-F drive engineer."

"Can anyone tell me why the Colonel would devote so much time to training in this way?" Sheppard asked, and then answered his own question when no one did. "He does this because of something he once told me. "I cannot ask anyone under my command to do something I am not willing to do myself." Sheppard paused his lecture here to let it soak in. "Colonel Hull, is one of the most talented Mech Pilots I have ever seen, a decent cook, and an awful driver.... But he wasn't willing to let that be enough. His personal best is by knowing all of you, and what your job entails and knowing where to put you so you feel like you are not only contributing something to the unit... But that you also feel valued for you to know, that once you are a part of this team, that you are a family. Cross training is a part of this because it builds those interpersonal relationships that a tight knit unit relies on in order to survive."

Looking at the clock, Sheppard almost fell over distributing the various study pages he had printed out. "Sorry for that ladies and gentlemen, I may have started rambling a bit there." He met the redheads eyes. "Kerensky, my office after the sims."


December 15th, 3007 location classified.

The Texas was a bust, the fusion reactor wasn’t even able to be powered on and we had to manually remove the Colossus and Overlord from the drop collars. On the Colossus, we found a complete RCT. A good portion of them were Royals intended to liberate the Terran Hegemony, but after an RWR lucky nuke rendered the Texas inert, the SLN had towed it here and forgotten about it in the aftermath of the Amaris Civil War. The Overlord simply had a Battalion of Light mechs and some Aerospace fighters in their bays to support. Getting everything out of the depot, including all of the spare parts we could find, we headed for the Whirlwind. It was time to return to Pierce.




Pierce, Federated Suns, December 31st, 3007

“You look miserable here.” Sheppard told the redhead seated at the table across from him. “If you want to quit and go back to the Dragoons, the Colonel left the offer open.”

“You think I want to quit?” Natasha Kerensky snarled. “No, I just do not really understand why you do all of this “Cross training”. It goes against everything I have ever known.”

“Do you want to see what cross training looks like for real?” Sheppard asked, as he had her walk with him to the armor asset bay. Seeing the two Pegasus hovercraft that they somehow always managed to recover he grabbed the keys to one of them and gestured for Natasha to get in.

“Have you ever driven a tank or a car?” Sheppard asked.

“No, never.” Kerenksy replied.

“Well, take it slow, ease the throttle forward, and we’ll get started.” He instructed.

Taking the copilot seat, Sheppard began to instruct on the different controls before letting her handle it.

“This is so different from my Marauder.” Kerensky observed. “It feels different, like the controls are both less and more responsive somehow.”

“That’s because it is both. Tankers have to rely on what their instruments tell them, they don’t have clear cockpits, and they’re not able to compensate for things with a Neurohelmet like we as mech pilots are.”Sheppard continued in his instruction, having had to break quite a few of the mechwarrior “mafia” out of their own heads.

“Now, take it as fast as you feel comfortable going.” Sheppard said, triple checking his harness.

The Pegasus flew forward, and Kerensky maneuvered through the tanker obstacle course as fast as the Pegasus would allow. Letting out a whoop of joy when it reached its maximum speed. Powerslides, everything she could think of, she put that machine through until they were running low on fuel.

“So,” Sheppard began. “What do you think?”

“When can I learn how to drive the big ones?” Kerensky asked. The grin on her face was prevalent.

“Well, improve your cross training scores, and we’ll get you qualified on all of the hovercraft at least.” Sheppard finished.




Pierce, Federated Suns January 31st, 3007

"Natasha Kerensky, for achieving victory over overwhelming enemy forces in both simulations and live fire exercises, we hereby promote you directly to Lance Corporal with all that that entails." Sheppard said from his podium as Kerensky walked up and received her rank insignia. Returning the salute he gave her before carrying on with the rest of the graduation ceremony.


Natasha was strangely happy with her decision to leave the Wolf’s Dragoons for a bit. While she had initially raged at the thought of needing to be retrained, the Marksmen trainers had a method to their madness and had beaten down enough of her pride that she had a new viewpoint on it. Now, she would still prefer to be in her Marauder, but now she understood how to best use her armored vehicles and the Infantry that may end up under her command as a Lance Corporal. And if she maintained her qualifications in order to be able to take the VTOl's and various Hovercraft out for "Test drives" then that was nobodies business but her own.

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Setting up (Shop)

Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns. June 7th, 3008

It had been a long six months. After looting two of the half dozen depots I had on my list, we had just about run out of lift capacity, having to quite literally squeeze one of our Leopards into a bay before leaving to meet up with the rest of the Marksman on Pierce. We arrived right in time to see our second Invader show up with the two freshly repaired and painted Overlords we had stolen from the 2nd Mac.

We made landfall on Kentares IV about a week and a half ago, landing in one of the abandoned cities that we were going to do our level best to restore. I made sure that the Jabberwocky’s and Daedalus were the first out. We had given the Industrialmech pilots a set of blueprints and told them to scavenge whatever they needed from the city in order to build the fortress we needed/wanted.

It’s always interesting how technology both advances and regresses all at once. For example, where sometime around the industrial revolution walls had become obsolete, and with the advent of aircraft following World War II, there was less entrenching involved as the tank improved. But the further into the future you get, the more necessary these things become until they are once again rendered obsolete.

With that bit of woolgathering finished, I climbed into my shiny and new Warhammer WHM-6RM and made my way back to the prefab buildings we had set up temporarily while we were working on the main base.

Everything was starting to come together nicely, and while I was definitely paranoid, I was also doing my best to prepare for every eventuality. Dunham had negotiated with TTI and the Calderons, and they would not only be putting a Mithril plant in addition to the Toro plant, but they had granted me a license to manufacture Toro’s of my own and TTI had sent people with Dunham to help open a branch into the Federated Suns. It turns out that me having returned a large portion of their national pride and talked Zarantha into improving relations had resulted in a much more profitable relationship between the two nations.

The TTI people had identified a couple of factories that they would like to begin reconstruction on once the main base was set up and the defenses running. And it would take a year or so to get those factories up and running. In the short term, we had taken the factory that we had taken off of Tybalt and were assembling it into an abandoned factory. We were going to be churning out the Mithril suits for infantry, pilots, and vehicles for as long as we could keep up production.

Our new Colossus was being used as housing for now, while the air base that we had repurposed was launching flights of new trainees all the time. Wardog and Strider had complained for all of ten minutes before they hopped into their shiny new birds and had begun to turn tricks like nobody's business. They enjoyed training people, both those new to piloting aerospace, and those that had been in the business for a while. Wardog and Strider were hands down some of the best pilots in the ‘Sphere, and they had proved it time and time again.





Just because we were all pitching in to build new facilities, didn’t mean that we were slacking on training, both the new recruits and our veterans were training with the new equipment we had, and getting set up just in case the Draconis Combine decided to drop down for a raid. On top of training, we were upgrading our mech forces over time and those we weren’t upgrading, we were incorporating into lances where they could still make use of the advanced tech we were putting into use.

We had a lot of metal now, and our main job before Christmas was to get our meat trained up while we were still on a rest period. Because as soon as I put our unit out for contract again, the Davions would have us raiding.





“How do you still manage to do that?!” Major Sheppard shouted as he jumped out of the simulator, he had finally done enough therapy that they (the doctors) were letting him get back into a combat role instead of the teaching/admin role he had been in for the past eight months.

“Well, I finally have both the speed and armor to do some of the crazy things I’ve always thought about trying but couldn’t because I didn’t have the speed or armor.” I replied, cackling a little madly. I had been in the simulators all day, doing a sort of battle royale per se. I had started with Sheppard’s Fireteam and was now working my way through one of our mech battalions. One by one they came, and I began to dismantle egos. I didn’t care if one of my people managed to beat me, but I didn’t need ego destroying the camaraderie I had built up and maintained.




An hour later…
At this point, there was a live tri-vid of the simulation battles, with people taking bets and shots based on what Hull or his opponent was doing. The ones that had managed to get close to taking him out had been a tanker crew driving a Manticore in an urban setting. They had used their small profile and led Hull around for a merry chase as they stripped armor with their PPC and LRM’s. Hull had managed to close the gap on them, but not before they had nearly cored his mech with a skilled gunner.

The Colonel had actually climbed out of the sims at that point and walked over to congratulate them for almost winning the scenario.

He had then climbed back into the simulator and gotten back to it. He had basically stated he would be in the sims until someone managed to take him out.

It had been hours. People had come close to taking out the Colonel, but somehow he always managed to dodge the worst of it and come out on top. It was almost like his Warhammer was responding before he was sometimes, and it was uncanny. Finally, a Demolisher tank team led by Lance Corporal Kerensky had managed to barely eke out a victory over the Colonel.
The entire regiment cheered and threw Kerensky and her crew onto their shoulders and carried them to the table that had the liquor and beer on it and began to pile drinks on them for being the team to finally beat the Colonel.





“Dammit.” I said to myself as I woke up with the beginnings of a migraine. “I knew I overdid it yesterday.” I shuffled to my closet and got out a fresh uniform, laying it out over my bed before heading to the bathroom for a five minute shower.

Once I had a fresh clean uniform on and was showered, I headed for the command center we had put together to see how the regiment had recovered from yesterday’s spontaneous festivities. Walking outside and wincing from the frequency of the light, I reached into my pocket for the sunglasses I was rarely without only to find nothing.

“Oh.. that’s right, that red headed she devil took my sunglasses as part of her bet.” I started muttering to myself. That had been my only pair of sunglasses from the 21st century. And now I was going to be stuck with 80s styles. “Oh well,” I shrugged to myself. “I guess I’ll have to find a pair of aviators.”

I finished my walk to the CIC and took a seat at my desk, enjoying the fact that we had proper aides to sort through the paperwork again. I took care of the small amount of documents I had and then went to check on the fort we were building. Our engineers had been told to go wild, and I was finding that if I had wanted this done fast I should have gone with civilian contractors instead of the combat engineers I had.

I moved through the regiments various quarters, observing training, maintenance, and whatever else they were up to. The NCO’s and regulars were the beating heart of a unit and I needed to constantly keep my finger on the pulse. One of the constants I got was to import more of the coffee that I brought with me. Apparently that brand only did limited edition stuff and I had lucked out when I found a stash of it.


One of the things we had implemented while the cities around us were abandoned was to do urban environment training, this was for our Mithril, our tankers, and our mech Pilots. So once a week, we ran a simulated urban training scenario and looked to see how we could improve.





Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns. July 15th, 3008

“Dear Colonel Mark Hull,

“I, Ian Davion and brother Hanse Davion, would like to cordially invite you to spend Christmas on New Avalon with us. Please make all of the preparations necessary and depart with all due haste. Thank you, Ian Davion. PS. Wear your uniform"

There was a bunch of other stuff in the letter, but it basically amounted to “You can bring an escort, but it can’t be massive.”

I got together with the Senior staff and put together a team that would go with me. I was going to take the King Henry V and the Messenger as my dropship and jumpship. And I had a “Bodyguard” team of four people. I was going to be lifting off in a couple of hours and I had handed a series of operational plans to Major’s Sheppard and Peterson expecting them to be able to handle the construction and training while I was gone again.

Authors note: I'm tapped out for the day/night ladies and gentlemen. I'm about to crash. (You know you're tired when you're leaning over a computer cackling to yourself as you type an inside joke)

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Tell me, have you heard of...
New Avalon, Federated Suns December 10th, 3008

“This is the Dropship Messenger, requesting a flight path.” The pilot of the Messenger commed the main space controller for the New Avalon system.

“We see you Messenger, move to the designated spaceport in the order that we send you.” The traffic controller told my pilot and we waited until we received the coordinates and the order we were given.

Once we had an order to descend and move towards the planet below. We now had seven days in which to spend time doing nothing but prepping for politics. And trying to figure out how to avoid offending people by my thoughts on the Star League.





December 17th, 3008

Even though we were personally invited by the First Prince to New Avalon to celebrate the season, we still had to go through all of the standard protocols that everyone else had to go through. This included checking all of the stuff we had brought with us through customs which included the gift we had brought for the Davion brothers.

When we exited the Messenger and began to make our way to a hotel that had been recommended to us. When we left the spaceport, we began to be blinded by flash bulbs and all sorts of questions. The reporters had somehow gotten word that I would be coming to New Avalon and were waiting in ambush…

“Colonel Hull! New Avalon News here! Can you tell us what it was like to be a part of the destruction of the 2nd McCarron’s Armored Cavalry?”

“Colonel Hull! New Valencia Associated Press. What was it like being rescued by the Wolf’s Dragoons.”


The questions kept coming so I stopped trying to fight through the reporteres, and decided to just hold a miniature press conference there.

“Stop!” I barked in my Command voice and watched as the crowd of reporters stilled. “I will answer your questions, but I will do it in order and one at a time.”

I pointed at the first person who had asked a question. “You first Ma’am.”

“I’m Felicia Land with the New Avalon News network.” She said, “Can you tell us what it was like being a major part in the destruction of the 2nd regiment of McCarron’s Armored Cavalry?”

“It’s something that can't really be put into words, but I think a quote from an old Terran commodore suits it best. “We have met the enemy and they are ours.”. I paused and took in the moment of silence. “Next question.”

“Marian Dance, New Valencia Associated press.” he said. “What was it like being rescued by the Wolf’s Dragoons?”

“Rescued?!” Lieutenant Mathis, the head of my bodyguard detail, spoke up. “ What fucking rescue? We didn’t need rescue, we weren’t trapped on Tybalt with the 2nd Mac, they were trapped there with us and we were making them bleed.”

This caused an uproar, and the various news organizations talked over one another until a Davion security team escorted them away.

One of the security team members doubled back and told me that there was a discrete car waiting out front, and that the Davions had arranged for a stay in the New Avalon palace complex.

Climbing into the unmarked black sedan, my four escorts and I enjoyed the relative quiet for a time.




A couple of hours later…

Security in the palace complex was no joke, we had been going through the layers of security since we had arrived through the main gates. We had been checked over for weapons a minimum of three times. (Mathis had tried to convince them to let him keep some of his hidden weapons, but it didn’t go over well.) We had gone through virtually every test that had probably ever been thought up.

When we were finally through security, (If I went through another scanner I was getting my team checked for signs of cancer when we got back to the Argo.) We were directed to a side room and instructed to wait.

There was a version of a miniature Fridge there, and they had small bottles of water laid out along with assorted alcoholic beverages. I merely grabbed a bottle of water and took some sips before taking a seat on one of the various couches. After waiting for a period of about fifteen minutes or so, the door opened to reveal a butler/aid who instructed me to follow him.


I followed the man down the winding corridors, finally reaching one final security checkpoint where they did one last sweep before allowing me into an office. There was an obviously well used desk in there, ornate and hand made, but that desk wasn’t in use, instead,there was a smaller side desk where Ian and Hanse were looking over paperwork and arguing about something or another. When they saw me, they both stood up to greet me.

“Colonel Hull,” Hanse greeted me with a firm handshake. “A pleasure to see you again.”

“Hull.” Ian said and shook my hand immediately after Hanse was done. “Take a seat.” He sat down, moved the thing that Hanse and Ian had been arguing about out of the way and gestured for myself and his brother to sit.

“You wanted to see me?” I asked, as I took a seat in one of the surprisingly comfortable chairs.

“Yes.” Hanse and Ian looked at each other before Ian nodded to Hanse. “What is your real backstory?” Hanse asked outright. “No one, not even a confirmed time traveler should have been able to access the gear that you magically produced over the last couple of years.” Hanse paused and stroked the small beard he had grown since I last met him. “Ian and I like you, but unless we get the truth we will not be able to trust you.”

I sat there for a moment, gathering my thoughts and decided to let them know at least part of the truth.

“I was a part of the Star League Intelligence Corps towards the end of the Amaris Civil war.” I then told them my story making sure to leave out things like the Manassas, the locations of them where I had stashed it and the other depots, and my extradimensional origins.

“That…” Ian leaned back in his chair. “Is a lot to digest.”

Hanse just sat there quietly, mulling over everything in the space of his own mind.

“Is there anything that you can give us that would help us recover any Lostech?” Hanse asked after a second. “Anything that can help prove that what you say is true?”

I paused, thinking it over before nodding to myself and smirking at the two brothers while stroking my beard mysteriously. “Tell me, what do you know about a world called Helm?”




Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns December 17th, 3008

“Kentares is beautiful.” Sheppard said to his girlfriend Erika Lamb, was sitting beside him while she picked at his false leg.

“I still don’t understand why you didn’t go for a cloned leg?” She replied. “Not that I hate the prosthetic or anything…” She tried to wave off any offense as Sheppard just laughed.

“No, it’s just that I find it funny that you took this long to ask.” Sheppard pulled the shorter brunette into his arms and placed his head on her shoulder. “I’ll change to a cloned leg if you want.” He said. “But I wanted to get back to what I was faster, and we couldn't afford the downtime as a unit then.” He laid a kiss on her cheek and eased down onto the blanket beneath them to look at the gorgeous sky.

“I think I’d prefer your regular leg back.” Lamb responded, having taken a moment to think about it while relaxing back into her lover's arms. “I know it’s silly, but it bothers me that it’s missing sometimes.” She rolled over onto her side and made sure he could see her face. “I will still be with you regardless of your decision. But I miss the warmth of you having two legs and I hate how the prosthetic sometimes causes you pain even though you try to hide it.”

She stroked his slightly worn face and smiled gently at him. “I want you whole and to not feel pain. That’s why I want you to go with the cloned leg.” She then smirked. “Besides, you’d enjoy using the downtime to go and instruct the new recruits.”

Sheppard just chuckled and poked her in the side, starting a slight tickle war that went on for about five minutes before subsiding. “Alright Erika.” He got serious. “I’ll talk to Hull when he comes back from New Avalon and have him put me on training rotation until I get used to the cloned leg.” Then his eyes twinkled a little bit. “But you’re the one that has to break the news to Peterson’s wife.”

Erika’s eyes widened at that. “On second thought, you can keep the prosthetic….” She tried to argue against her previous case, not wanting to be glared at by the new mother.

“She’ll kill me.” Erika said. “You can’t do that.”

“She won’t kill you.” Jack waved his hand nonchalantly. “She just seems scary, she’s really sweet though.”


“Yeah, I know.” Erika said. “I just don’t want to cause a rift between her and Thomas.”

“You won’t,” Jack stated. “She’ll understand, after all, Paige and Mathis stepped up while he was in recovery for his eye surgery.”




“I forgot how much paperwork Sheppard and Hull handle.” Peterson said to his wife Francesca Jones who was sitting on the couch in his office, nursing their three month old son while he was finishing up the last of the paperwork.

“Hey you.” Francesa said while Thomas looked at his wife questioningly. “I love you!”

Thomas just smiled back at her. “I love you too. Let me finish this last couple of pieces of paperwork and I’ll burp him for you.” He took a couple of minutes to read over the submissions before sorting them into three piles, accepted, for further review, and rejected and when he was done, he went over and began helping his wife take care of their son.

Authors note: I know that it was a bit of cuteness overload there at the end, but this story isn't just about Hull...

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Title Pending(I still haven’t thought of one… edit: 1k words and still don’t have one)

New Avalon, Federated Suns, December 29th, 3008

“You’re going to need to send someone with my message to the rest of my unit.” I told Ian and Hanse, we had been sitting and plotting for a good week or so now. “They can spend the time training and building up further defenses while I’m gone, but it still doesn't look good for a unit to be without its commander for a while.”

“We’ll put the Marksman on a garrison and defense contract with raiding clauses.” Hanse said. “And we’ll have it in there that we’re borrowing you for consulting work with the Third Davion Guards RCT.” Hanse paused. “It’ll work as a cover pretty well if we disguise the Third being gone on training exercises to see if we’re going to adopt the Marksman’s unit organization or not.”

“That should work,” I thought out loud. “I’ll send a handwritten and encoded letter to my XO and a recorded message for them along with the contract details.”

“Being gone for a year isn’t very good optics though.” I said. “If the Third and I are gone for a year people will start to wonder.”

“You raise a good point…”

We continued to hammer out the fine details of our planned raid over the rest of the days until the new year. After we had gotten the details set we had made “Public” the details of the Marksman’s contract and that I was being granted a title and a landhold as a result of destroying a third of the Big Mac.




January 1st, 3009
“Make sure this gets to both Major Sheppard and to Major Peterson.” I said, handing Mathis a sealed note and a package to go with it. “I’m counting on you to make sure that the Messenger gets there in one piece while I’m gone and to help everyone hold down the fort.”

“Yes sir.” Mathis replied. “Anything you want me to tell them that’s not in the letter?” He asked.

“Just to keep up the good work.” I said, “Thanks for all of your hard work Mathis, make sure you take a vacation when you get back.”

“I’ll take a week or two off before getting back into it.” He replied. “See you when you return Colonel.” He came to attention and gave a snappy salute before boarding the Messenger and getting ready to take off.




A couple of hours later… 3rd Davion RCT dropship…

It was kind of funny. After I had decided to tell the Davions about Helm a few months ago I had gone over the SLIC records at my disposal all over again and had actually found documentation regarding the Brian and the cache within. The irony of it was not lost on me at all.

Shaking my head, I stopped woolgathering and made sure my harness was strapped in tight and there was no fraying. After all those years ago and the destroyed Quickdraw I was still paranoid that I would lose my footing and die if my straps snapped like that pirates did.

Hanse just grinned at me from his seat across the room from me. “You okay there?” He asked. “You look a little bit concerned.”

“One the first mech kills I got before making Ace was on a Quickdraw being piloted by a pirate. They didn’t maintain her straps and when I took out the ankle…” I trailed off.

“The straps snapped and she died in some horrific way I imagine.” Hanse finished, nodding in understanding.

“Yeah, ever since then I triple check any straps before I go anywhere.” I said, not caring if it made me seem paranoid.

“I’ve seen stranger rituals from career soldiers.” Hanse said, “We’re going to be here for a while, so tell me… Why did you decide on a six man team…”





Kentares IV Draconis March, Federated Suns January 2nd, 3008

“Put your backs into it!” Sergeant Kerensky yelled at the platoon she was training. “I wanted this wall up yesterday!”

The Marksman had made helping the construction of the base a part of the physical conditioning for the new recruits.

“Now go drink water!” Kerensky yelled’ “You have a sixty second water break and then we’re heading out to the field!” She had really started to enjoy this. The Clans had never had a boot camp sort of experience, and watching people that she was in charge of teaching learn, develop, and grow was extremely satisfying. Well that, and she got to yell at people.

“Get in Formation! Move it people!” The platoon stumbled into formation and began to run towards the field that had been repurposed into an advanced obstacle course.

“Drop and give me fifty push ups, and then hit the course.” Kerensky ordered. She wanted them exhausted before they hit the course so she could use it as a lesson. She then traded places with her DI partner and went to wait at the end of the course.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?!” Kerensky heard from her DI partner on the other side of the course. “Swing your legs over that log! What do you mean you can’t do it?! Go to the back of the line!”





The sounds of drill instructors made Sheppard smile. He might actually request permission to be permanently placed on training rotations to help get the next generation of Marksmen set up. Plus, he actually enjoyed teaching and was good at it to boot. Parker would do a good job at filling Peterson’s shoes and Peterson was already a second XO in all but name anyway.

“I’ll have to write down some changes to the command structure soon.” Sheppard said to himself as he wrote that down.

“Hey Peterson!” He called as he saw the other man walking somewhere. “Can I talk for a second?”

“Yeah Sheppard,” Peterson replied. “What’s up?”

“I’m thinking about stepping down in order to man the home base and training facilities.” Sheppard told him directly. “Would your wife be opposed to you becoming XO?”

“Probably wouldn’t be opposed at all actually.” Peterson responded. “We have both been enjoying the time together while on garrison, and she likes that I love my job….” He paused “Give me a day or so to talk it over with Francesca and I’ll get back to you.”

“Alright then, I’m headed to the Argo in a couple of hours to get the work up done for the cloning.” Sheppard said, having gotten approval to get the operation done.

“Make sure you get the head doc!” Peterson called over his shoulder, “I know she’s scary, but she’s also the best.”




March 14th, 3009

“Why a Treble clef necklace?” Hanse Davion asked me as I spotted for him in the ship's gym.

“It was a Christmas present from my little sister.” I said, helping him rack the weights he had been using.

“Ahh,” Hanse replied. “I’m sorry..”

I stopped him from making any apologies. “No need to apologize Hanse,” I said, getting set for my own reps. “It’s not the first time I’ve been asked, and it won’t be the last.”

“And I guess you left a wife behind as well?” He asked, figuring he might as well be blunt about it.

“Yeah,” I said wistfully. “She would have never believed me if I told her that this would have happened.”

“Do you have a picture?” Hanse asked curious to see what kind of woman would marry a man like Hull.”

“I do actually,” I pulled out a picture that I had printed using some of the devices on the Messenger years ago and handed it to Hanse. It was a picture I had taken when she wasn’t expecting it, and even though it didn’t capture her when she was dolled up, or in fancy clothes or a dress, It was a picture of her on my parents farm, holding a hunting rifle slung across her back and telling me not to take a picture. “I’ve got better ones saved somewhere.” I told Hanse, “But this one is my favorite.”


“Do you have anyone you’ve got an eye on?” I asked Hanse, trying to get to know him better.

“Well, there is this one girl…” He said

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter Forty: A roll of the dice

Helm, Free Worlds League May 17th, 3009

“We managed to get the key right?” I asked Hanse, wanting to ensure that we didn’t get buried in a Castle Brian by accident.

“We got the key.” He replied. “We’re going to need your help to locate the area the cache is in though.” He said,

We got both the maps from the key and from the most recent planetary survey and compared them while I consulted my SLIC notes. “Follow the river.” I told the tech after I had consulted my notes, “There stop.” There was a small building, almost a shack that was outside of a mountain. “That’s the area the Brian is in.”

After I had pinpointed the general area of the hidden Nagayan Mountain we descended into a nearby valley.





“Thanks for the mech.” Hanse said, I was currently riding in his jump seat. “Never had the chance to drive a “Royal” before”

“Really?” I asked as we neared the lone building by the side of the mountain. “I figured that you’d have access to all sorts of Lostech.”

“Last time I checked, my name was Hanse.” He replied with a smirk on his face. “Not Ian.”

“So Ian has a Lostech mech than?” I asked.

“I can neither confirm nor deny any allegations as to what the Davions pilot.” He replied with a chuckle. “Aside from this baby of course.” he patted the side of the TDR-5Sd that I had gifted the Davions for Christmas. “Why didn’t you bring your mech?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“The techs were still figuring some things out when I left.” I responded with a shrug. “That, and I didn’t want to have people trying to steal my mech thinking it was the one I took an Atlas down with.”

After fifteen more minutes of conversation and plodding along, we reached the shack and Hanse made his mech crouch so that we could use the ladder to get to the ground.

“Think this is it?” Hanse asked, looking at the strange square prefab in front of us. Little more than a shack. “I didn’t think ancient Star League facilities had gate houses that looked like this.”

I just gave him a look™. “You would be very surprised.” I said as I walked in. “Hand me the case?” I asked, and Hanse passed me the key.

“Moment of truth.” I said, as I placed the key into the slot in front of me. There was a moment in which nothing happened, and then the ground shook, and a part of the rock face began to split apart.




An hour later…

“Is everyone here?” I asked, as the rest of the column finally arrived. The Third had left behind a good portion of their people and metal on garrison in order to make the most out of their lift capacity.

“Yes Hull,” Hanse rolled his eyes at me. “That’s everyone. We can go inside now.”

With that, we slowly walked the Thunderbolt into the Nagayan Mountain, flipping the spotlight on so he could see.

“Holy Shit!” one of the mechs behind us whispered over his open comms as we saw the rows and rows of SLDF mechs that the various spotlights illuminated. .

Hanse just snickered as various other phrases echoed over the open comms channels. After making sure the entrance was clear, we went through the kneeling and dismounting the Thunderbolt once again.

We then spread out, looking for the main computer so as to not accidentally trigger the self-destruct.

“Hull, over here!” Hanse yelled from the far side of the cavern. “I think this is it.”

I made my way over to him and saw a massive computer screen in front of me. “Yeah, I’d say this is the right place.” I walked up to it and inserted the Helm key into the computer and watched it boot up. The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty’. James Madison. Popped up on the screen in front of me. Then the standard OS of the Star league appeared in front of me. The facility also started to bring lights online and everything was starting to be unveiled.




Two Days later…
“We could finish the Capellan Confederation in less than a decade with the spare parts alone here.” Hanse said as he examined a copy of the manifest I had printed out.

“Well, It’s a good thing we brought all of the dropships then isn't it.” I said, putting the copy of the core I had just made into a sealed crate along with the sixteen others I had made. “Make sure you split these up, I want every dropship out of here to have at least one of the cores.” I told the two aids I had borrowed to assist me in getting everrything together on this. “These are worth more than all of the equipment in here.”

I had brought enough computer cores to copy the whole library at least twenty times over, in every format it could copy them to, including the original. I had sixteen of them in the common format used today, and four of them in various other formats, such as the computers aboard the Messenger.




May 24th, 3009

We were lifting off now. We had to ditch pretty much all of the autocannon, SRM, and LRM ammunition in order to squeeze some of the tech in, but in the end, we managed to fit the most important parts of two brigades onto the dropships we had brought. We were stacked on top of eachother, and we had to leave some of the mechs that were still common in the Fedsuns behind, but we had made it out with a lot of material and over thirty copies of the computer core.

When we got ready to leave, we triggered the explosives we had set on the core and the material left behind and watched as the sea returned to the surface of Helm.





Hilton Head complex, Terra May 30th, 3009

“What do you mean there’s a sea on Helm again?” The Primus, Julian Tiepelo asked Precentor Helm.

“Primus, we woke up this morning and the Yehudan Sea was back.” the panicking B station precentor was panicking.

“Precentor,” Tiepelo lowered his voice in order to help calm the man down. “It was probably something the SLDF did that finally collapsed on them. It would hardly be the first DoME project that failed after the destruction of the Succession wars.”





Atreus, Free Worlds League June 15th, 3009

“What do you mean the Yehudan Sea is back in place on Helm?” Janos Marik asked the SAFE agent briefing him. “It was there last month wasn’t it?”

“Yes Captain-General,” The agent replied. “We fear the rumored cache may have been found and taken by someone.” the SAFE agent replied. “But we don’t have any evidence to prove that theory correct as of yet.”

“Well, then don’t come back with this kind of BS without evidence to back it up!” Janos Marik exclaimed, standing up from his desk.


Personal Journal: October 25th, 3009
Well, I did it. I managed to get the Helm cache, and as far as MIIO can tell no one is the wiser. We have enough cores to scatter out, and Hanse and Ian will be establishing NAIS as an attachment to NAMA within the next couple of years. I was allowed to take a lance of Royal Assault mechs with me as initial gratitude, and Ian had sent a message to Zarantha Calderon requesting a face to face meeting to take place in the next couple of years facilitated by yours truly. I had warned Hanse and Ian about Comstar wrecking efforts to recover lost technology and showed them the copies of secret operations and communiques I had made using the Messenger’s facilities and so they were taking every precaution possible as far as the security of the cores was concerned and would only be bringing in various companies as necessary. I requested permission to buy out Salvatore Incorporated and received an affirmative as long as I could get the production lines up and running again. Thankfully, with the Mithril production starting to take off and our investments in TTI starting to pay off, we would be able to buy them outright and begin the process of getting our own dropship lines up and running again soon. I also was able to bring two of the copies of the data core with me to install in the heart of my base on Kentares IV.

Authors note: The dice were kind to Hanse... and I hope you guys like that I gifted one of the last remaining Davion Thunderbolts in existence to Hanse. I know it's not his Battlemaster, but I think it suits him.