Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

[ShadowArxxy]

Apparently I am in an unusually write-ey mood, so have an omake!

----




Within hours, General Potter reports that all military assets have been brought to DEFCON 2 level readiness, while an uncharacteristically serious Tyler reports that all senior officials have acknowledged COGCON 2 and are prepared for dispersal to hardened shelter sites. As a standard security measure, the actual site assignments will be randomly generated and transmitted when the enemy dropships reach the eight-hour mark. Both of the Triton class submarines have been recalled to port for immediate resupply, preparatory for acting in their secondary design role of long-duration mobile national command posts.

Public emergency shelters are being brought online, supply stocks verified, and vital infrastructure carefully locked down. Official evacuations won't begin until the two-day line, but handfuls of citizens nonetheless begin arriving at the shelters shortly after the Queen's address to the nation; none are turned away, and those who are fit are quickly organized to help.

It is, one newscaster comments, simultaneously heartwarming and frightening to see an entire world fall silent and brace itself.

----

The heavily loaded submarines set sail at the one-day mark. On the bridge of one, the Queen stares at the incongrously bright, sunny sky for the last time in a long time, and wishes Willis were here to blame instead of on board the other submarine.

----

The ASFs launch at the two-hour mark, fusion torches glowing star-bright and sonic booms rattling empty buildings and streets. They vault into the air, wheeling in formation, and await their final intercept vectors and commands.

Below them, the shelters seal and lock their doors.

----

War has come to Griffin's Roost.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

More omake, inspired by certain discussions in the Discord. . .

Tai-i Daisuke Takahashi kept a careful watch on his sensor readouts as the lance of Chargers descended towards the planetary surface on drop chutes. The sheer dishonor of not only being defeated by mere animals but losing one of their irreplaceable DropShips had led the Tai-i in command of the previous expedition to commit seppuku shortly after the surviving vessels had reached their JumpShip, but assault mechs were not so easily swept aside. Already modified for anti-insurgency operations by having two of their Small Lasers exchanged for Flamers, his lance would drop directly onto the herd of creatures that their DropShip had located from orbit, clearing the way for a full commitment of the Dragon's might. Soon, the puny settlements of this insignificant backwater would be brought to heel.

Such was the will of the Dragon.

The Charger abruptly lurched in midair, and Takahashi stared in utter disbelief as an impossibly colossal tiger -- A TIGER THE SIZE OF A BATTLEMECH! -- A TIGER SOMEHOW WEARING A SNEAKSUIT!!!! -- latched onto the head of his 'Mech with ten-inch-long claws coated in pink glitter nail polish.

The will of the Dragon fell screaming all the way down.


P.S.: Yes, that is Bastet being a Space Pirate Amazon Ninja Cat.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

More Omake! Also (totally not!) poking fun at my current job.

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To: incidentreports@office.ditchwatersecurity.com, supervisors@office.ditchwatersecurity.com

From: officer.bcalhoun@employees.ditchwatersecurity.com

Subject: Incident Report, Griffin Run Shipping

At appproximately 0730 hours on 4 July xxxx, while on duty at the Griffin Run Shipping facility, I observed two unidentified VTOL aircraft approaching the building at low altitude. I alerted the on-duty supervisor, who stated in substance that he was not aware of any scheduled air arrivals for this client. I then proceeded to the roof pad via the stairs, since the the passenger elevator at this facility remains offline due to ongoing maintenance issues (see previous incident report).

At approximately 0735 hours, I arrived on the roof, where I observed one VTOL aircraft in a final approach posture and one VTOL aircraft hovering at a distance of approximately 50 meters. I was then approached by an individual who identified himself as W. Breen, the "global operations manager" for Griffin Run Shipping. Breen stated that the VTOLs did not belong to Griffin and were not authorized to land here. The landing VTOL continued to approach and was unresponsive to "wave off" hand signals. I radioed a situation update to the on-duty supervisor, who stated that additional security was "not available at this time".

At approximately 0739 hours, the VTOL aircraft touched down and I approached it, announcing myself as security and stating that they were trespassing on private property. At this time, four armed individuals and three grifftigers exited the VTOL and identified themselves as law enforcement officers. I asked them if they had a warrant and they confirmed that they did. They directed me to wait at the pad while they executed their warrant, leaving one grifftiger with me.

At approximately 0800 hours, the second VTOL landed on the roof but did not deploy any personnell.

At approximately 0915 hours, the group of law enforcement officers returned to the roof with ten individuals in business suits, including Breen, in custody. They were loaded into both VTOLs.

At approximately 0930 hours, both VTOLs departed the property. I then returned to my routine security duties.


Officer B. Calhoun
DitchWater Security

----

From: incidentreports@office.ditchwatersecurity.com
To: officer.bcalhoun@employees.ditchwatersecurity.com

Subject: Re: Incident Report, Griffin Run Shipping

DUDE, THERE WERE GRIFFTIGERS AND YOU DIDN'T GET PICTURES?

----

From: officer.bcalhoun@employees.ditchwatersecurity.com
To: incidentreports@office.ditchwatersecurity.com

Subject: Re: Re: Incident Report, Griffin Run Shipping

All relevant photographs are in the incident report.

Officer B. Calhoun
DitchWater Security

----

From: management@ditchwatersecurity.com
To: officer.bcalhoun@employees.ditchwatersecurity.com

Subject: Client Complaint

Officer Calhoun,

I regret to inform you that our client Griffin Run Shipping has filed a formal complaint against you for "failure to prevent trespass" during the incident which occurred last week. We have informed the client that private security is not lawfully permitted to interfere with law enforcement activity and that there was literally nothing you could have legally done beyond asking to see the warrant.

Nonetheless, the client has demanded that you be removed from their property. We therefore have no choice but to terminate your current assignment, effective immediately. This is a non-disciplinary removal and we will be assigning you to a new site as soon as possible. Please turn over all site-specific equipment as soon as your relieving officer arrives on site.

Respectfully,

Operations Manager G. Freeman
DitchWater Security


---

((Yes, this is loosely based on several actual incidents at an actual security job. Yes, some clients think private security should have tried to actually *stop* police from "trespassing" despite having a search warrant. They apparently watch too many action movies.))

 

[kelgar04]

Interrogation of Lunatic (omake)

Agent Cartwright sat in a steel office chair across from what he considered a rabid lunatic she tapped her teeth with a pen as she looked at the young man who was hurling insults at him in Japanese and sighed. These DEST were proving somewhat hard to break, but then again, Intelligence didn't have much experience with hostile combatants of this level of fanatism. Sighing as the young man just kept hurling curse at her, she stood and moved around the room to refill her water glass probably one of the younger so he will likely prove the easiest to break in the long run especially considering his voice kept cracking every so often which seemed to embarrass him.

She nodded to the technician, and the cocktail was injected, and she said coldly, "quite."

He seemed to resist the drugs then he stopped his tirade and just glared at her, "We will continue where we left off yesterday. Now forces disposition I want to know what casualties you've taken."

"You will get nothing out of me, gaijin bitch," he snarled in his drugged haze, "the dragon will burn your pathetic little world."

She sighed heavily then said, "you have said that every session, but we are still here, and you are our prisoner from where I sit, we hold all the cards."

He glared, and she cut him off, "and your glorious military got defeated by a load of hippo's so it says very little about your capabilities. We will keep doing these narco sessions, the sleep deprivation, the repeated and irregularly timed interrogation, the waterboarding amongst many other methods we have at our disposal."

She leaned back with a cold smile that seemed to get an unease look from her captive, "everyone has their breaking point boy mine was when my husband and daughter where killed in the original assault by your jackbooted thugs."

The cold smile stayed on her face as the lava burned in her soul, "so I can take as long as I need to break you and then it will allow me to achieve what I most desire. Punishing the leader of your little expeditions."

A look of unease filtered across his face and she pushed on, "now where were we? Ah yes, your troop dispositions....."

 

[kelgar04]

First Mount up Part 1 (Omake)

Harry Ossman climbed the ladder as he reached the top of the platform as he looked down at his new mech. The Ambush was the first battlemech ever produced on the world by the Royal Mechworks. She was a thing of beauty sat there in the bay; he was disturbed from admiring his mech by his lead tech.

"You going to climb in," said Sally Barid, "or are you going to keep drooling over it like it's your girlfriend."

He looked to the tech as she climbed out of the cockpit of the mech she was short wearing a grease-covered working uniform with a tool belt, goggles on her head and short dirty blond hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Yeah, I know Sally," he said, "but damn, it's the first mech we have, and she is all mine."

"Yeah, Yeah I know," she said rolling her eyes at him, "now go and climb on in so we can do the final checks and then you can take your new girlfriend out for a spin."

He laughed and climbed into his mechs going through the checklist checking everything was in order and finished with a thorough check of the ejection system since if he had to bail he didn't want to be pasted against the canopy.

He activated his com, "Ok Sally," he said, "all green my end booting her up."

"ok get on with it," she said.

He hit the ignition, and the mechanical voice intoned.

"Reactor Online, Sensors Online, Weapons Online, All Systems Nominal."

He grinned like a schoolboy as he went through his check, "all good here, Sally."

"all good here," Sally said, "take her out."

Still grinning, he walked his mech out of the bay, feeling a surge of pleasure as he walked out of the hanger into the practice yard.

 

[kelgar04]

Self Reflection

Captain Vladimir Sato's hands shook as he sat in the smallholding cell he'd been in since the incident with a concerned guard outside who was there to stop him from hanging himself. He'd hadn't killed anyone, but it had been a near run thing it was supposed to be their first damned exercise, and they'd almost massacred the RRF because of a god damned technical fuck-up.

He ran his shaking hands through his hair; god damn it! He was supposed to be their captain even though he was so shinnying new he squeaked! He was supposed to make sure stuff like this never happened or could happen! God damn it!

He would probably lose his rank even though it was only a month old he would probably hold the record for the shortest captaincy in the Roost history because of this fuck up.

He shook his head and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Well, whatever happened from now on he needed to do better damn it. If and when he got out of here and if he still had command of the unit he needed to work on his learning difficulty he couldn't afford to let it hamper him and caused a repeat of this disaster. His hands clenched it would be hard, but it would be worth it in the long run, and it will make his life easier.

Despair the sick feeling of despair that roiled in his gut manifested into the fires of determination as his mind raced. He also needed to rebuild their confidence and moral they were all still as green as damn grass this had to change. If he still had anything to say on it he would drill them they would go over the manuals, and he would drag a manufacturing technician in to train them, so they knew their triple-A better than they knew their boyfriends and girlfriends.

He will also cajole, persuade and scream at them to try and get them moving as a unit again and pull them back together as a unit. and get them moving in the same direction. He looked up god and kami as his witness he would do all he could to fix his unit if he could and make amends for the incident!

He looked up a new fire welling inside he if he wasn't locked up or cashiered he would damn well make it happen.

Omake writers note: A quick point this isn't intended to offend anyone with dyslexic or any form of learning difficulty I suffer from dyslexic and used anger amongst other things as a motivator so I could become competent with the English language when I was younger.

 

[kelgar04]

Sharp dressed man

In the secure lab of the Material Science section of the Carter Building of University campus, Dr Rafael Cardones examined the synthetic mesh of the suit. The stuff was fascinating. It was used to absorb the user's body heat and radiate into the surrounding atmosphere evenly making the wearer harder to detect and from what he could protect against extreme environmental conditions.

He took a sip out of his mug with a picture of a green falcon on it and added more notes to his already thick notebook on this project. He smiled he'd already sketched out a rough idea for a possible simplified version extreme environmental protection of the suit for their troops with a scribble note in the corner to see if they could develop it for explorers and miners.

"How's it going, Raf?" asked the rotund Professor Port.

"Well so far, Port," he said looking at his former mentor, "the fibres and material of this suit are incredible despite being unmitigated assholes the Drac's can build a stealth suit."

"Aye," Port said, "I've been looking over the more armoured sections the Kevlar used in it well-protected as well if we hadn't upgrade our infantries rifles a few years ago we would have been in trouble."

Port took a wig out of his mug and said, "We probably won't be able to make anything this advanced, yet however it's given me an idea's for new infantry armour and uniforms for our troops."

Rafael nodded, "same I was thinking of how we could adapt the hostile environment protection on the suits for our people it would help when we have to send people to Phinoex or when we launch people to other worlds."

Port was about to say something else when Professor Leila Sharif came into the lab, "Hey Port, Hey Raf."

"Hey Lei," he said, "hows it going?"

She grimaced, "Not well had to get away from that Allah thrice-damned rifle."

"Oh yeah, you were part of the team looking over the Mauser," he said, "what's wrong with it?"

She walked over to the coffee machine and poured herself a mug, "what isn't," she says as the works the coffee machine, "damn thing was built by a committee that wanted to cram as much damned crap into one weapon."

"That bad?" Port asked.

She turned back a full mug in her hand, "Oh don't get me started when I was rocking khaki in the infantry before I left our rifle weighed about six kilo's," she takes an angry gulp of the coffee, "this is about ten kilos fully loaded it's too heavy, and unless you're an over-muscled bodybuilding superhuman, then it's a bitch to carry in full field gear."

"I can imagine," he said, cutting her off before she can get going, "From what I saw it was the SLDF trying to cram all the bells and whistles into it."

"Yep," she said taking a swig of her coffee, "My team and I already have a rough idea of an improved version we could attempt, but we have no clue if it would work since it's only a hazy idea, but I would say it would be a damn sight better than the 960."

Port nods, "Anyway, I should get back to work. I'll see you two later."

He raises his mug and waves as port heads back to his side of the lab and looks to Leila and asked, "So other than your initial assessment of the SLDF's spending habits. How's your day been?"

"Good so far," she said, smiling at him, "We still on for tonight? I need to go back to my people."

He smiled at her, "You know it, I'll see you at the Hole in the wall after work."

She smiles at him as she leaves his and Ports lab and he goes back to work on the Bastard Drac suit with a grin.

 

[kelgar04]

First Mount up Part 2 (Omake)
Harry walked the ambush around the yard he'd put in serious time in the sims to get ready for this, but it hadn't prepared him for the strange feeling of the Mech moving beneath him. It felt odd like a lurching sensation, but it still couldn't dampen his excitement which seemed to grow as he walked around the yard—testing rotation and control as he moved the Mech around locking onto various targets such as the armoured cadets as they drove past or the commandant jeep at one point to test the sensors.

"Ok since you got a feel for her," Sally said over the com, "Were going to take her out to the testing range we set up I'll monitor you from here at central and try not to catch the paint job."

"Roger that Sally," He said, "I'll be careful."

"Ok," she said, "marking first Nav point on your HUD as Alpha get there, and the fun will begin."

"Roger," he said as he walked his Mech out the gate leading to the practice range and training ground and stopped waiting as a Nav point appeared off in the distance.

"Ok we are going to push your Ambush and you," Sally said, "We're starting with the obstacle course follow the Nav points and try to maintain maximum speed as you go to end we have the firing range we'ill see how well you do then."

"Roger Sally," He said, smiling, "Let's rollout."

He took the Mech into a slow walk then pushed it to a run the lurching became worse, but he felt a spike of adrenaline as he Mech went from 50kph to 97kph as it ran along the dirt road kicking up mud.

The Mech flew down the road turning the practising armour and artillery on the range into shakey blurs. He took this time to test the senors switching rapidly between friendly targets. Before long the computer informed he'd hit Nav point alpha which led along a military road with a sheer side that dropped into the river.

Then Nav point Beta appeared leading him down the road he had to slow slightly to navigate and avoid going into the river due to misstep. He felt his nerves shoot up a little as he looked into the water he remembered last week they had an infantryman drown in this river. He was no coward, but he really didn't want to fall into the river and get stuck in his Mech.

He quickly hit Nav point Beta, which was a rough river crossing, used for training hovercraft drivers. He slowed down as Nav point Charlie appeared going into the Jungle just across the river. He carefully walked his Mech into the water. He felt a tinge of nervousness as it reached up to the mechs knees and the lurching motion of the Mechs gait felt like he was walking through thick mud probably due to the resistance of the water.

Eventually, after a few nerve-wracking moments, he made it to the other side and touched the shore and took his Mech up to cruising speed and made his way into the Jungle when he hit the far bank he pushed the throttle and sprinted his Mech through the jungle feeling the change in the terrain as the Mech moved through the jungle.

He felt his mech lurch as he crossed into the jungle the undergrowth wrapping around his Mech and pushed on until he came upon the range they'd set up using some rough carpentry.

"Ok, we're testing the laser," Sally said, "I'm monitoring everything from here give it a whirl on target one."

With a wide grin, he depressed the trigger blasting holes in one of the wooden targets centre torso. It tore through the wood, sending smoking splinters spinning off into the jungle. He felt a spike in heat as the medium lasers were sunk.

"Ok, all good here," Sally said, "time for the LRMs aim at target two and let her have it."

He switched to the bigger wooden Mech off at the minimum range and one pull of the trigger he felt the rumble as the LRM fives blast out. It shattered the wooden target in many little pieces as the missiles impacted.

"All green here," Sally said, "walker your mech back through route charlie we will do a few more test, but all looks good."

"Ok, heading back," he said, "see you in the hanger."

 

[kelgar04]

A Mad Mans Proposal

General Potter sat at his desk; it was a lovely day outside lovely blew sky, warm with a cooling breeze coming through the open window. He focused some papers work as he waited for his aide Corporal Ashdown who had gone to pick up their guest he had to say he interested in this meeting both because of who proposed it and what it was entailed he looked down at the proposal which had a Black Girfftiger claw on a dark red background. He'd read the project proposal and decided to meet the man who had somehow managed to get it into his inbox without his aide even knowing.

There was a knock at the door, and Ashdown entered and stood at attention.

"Sir Captain Churchill to see you," said the young man.

"Send him in Corporal," He said.

In entered a man with short hair wearing the working uniform of the armed forces with short brown hair and a moustache's. With an empty Sword sheath at his side and a quiver on his back, which made Potter's eyebrows rise slightly. He'd Heard of Lieutenant Archibald Malcolm Augustus David Churchill only by reputation a noted eccentric in the armed forces who regularly carried a sword and longbow alongside a rifle and was the leader of 4th Platoon of the 3rd Company, 2nd Regiment who was noted for running through a DEST agent with his sword during the companies against them.

He was also noted to be an avid hunter and adrenaline junkie doing base jumping, motorcycle stunts and all other manners of extreme sports as well as a master of the bagpipes. He was overall a skilled if strange officer as well as a cunning man if he was able to get his proposal into his tray somehow.

He nodded to the Lieutenant, "be seated lieutenant," he said.

The man grinned and sat down, "You read my proposal, sir?" he asked.

"Yes, I did," he said nodding, "however lieutenant I want to hear it from the horse mouth, so to think."

"Well, sir after fighting against those blighted Huns," He said, "I realised sir we don't have a response to the Huns assassins we needed out own Special Actions Force to deal with those bothersome fellows."

He nodded slowly, "Hence you started writing this document," he said, putting his hand on it in question.

"Yes sir," Churchill said nodding, "we need a merry band of men and women who can hunt the blighters down and go behind enemy lines and cause all kinds of mischief against the enemy as well as perform intelligence action in a pinch. For these men, we need them to be exceptional. We need volunteers from the ranks put them through a hard selection and then train them up to be the best of the best."

"That goes without saying," Potter said, "one final question, Lieutenant how did you get this into my tray?"

"Ah sir," Churchill said, "a little sleight of hand hid it in amongst your regular paperwork a little subterfuge sir so it could make it to the top."

Potter smiled at the man's explanation and asked his final question, "what are you planning to call them."

"Ah sir, I was thinking of calling them the Paracommando's sir or the Tiger Claws," said Churchill.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

"This is the most amazing thing ever!"

"Nope, it's too heavy."

"It's a pulse laser!"

"The previous three Star League infantry rifles were also pulse lasers, kid. Pulse laser tech is pretty much standard for laser small arms because of the power efficiency advantages. The only reason our laser small arms aren't pulse that all the plans, tooling, and know-how went kaboom."

"It's also a multi shot repeating grenade launcher!" The intern's enthusiasm was absolutely undimmed. "And the survival kit is brilliant!"

"It's too heavy, and the survival kit makes it worse."

"You keep saying that, but the Star League Defense Force used these for decades. And there's plenty of historical examples of infantry weapons in this weight range."

The senior researcher gave a long-suffering sigh. "Those were squad weapons, and they were still. . . you know what, grab that mock-up you've been drooling over and follow me."

"Where are we going?"

"Just follow me."

----

"This is the university sports track."

"Yes. Start running. Don't forget your rifle."

"Uh...."

"Don't forget your rifle!"

The intern ran. The senior researcher cheerfully reflected that being medically retired and out of practice had not significantly diminished her Drill Sergeant roar.

----

"Ow, ow, ow, ow ow ARGH!"

"I told you it was too heavy."

-----

(Much, much later. . . )

"We've managed to reduce the weight on the prototype M-960B down to 7.5 kilos and significantly improve the balance and ergonomics compared to the original. Specifically, we've removed the survival pack, separated the laser battery from the grenade magazine and moved it to the stock where the survival pack used to be, and changed the grenade magazine to a double-stack configuration with four rounds instead of six."

"Still too heavy." Somewhere in the back of the lab, a former intern sneezed violently.

"Bringing it even lower is going to be extremely difficult. About the only place we could possibly shave more weight is the outer casing. Hmmm, perhaps if we used endo-steel in the most critical areas, and made aggressive use of lightweight polymers in non-load-bearing areas. . . "

 

[ShadowArxxy]

This one is a *absolutely not even remotely canon* omake set many, many, many decades later. . .

"This is Admiral Halsey of the New Terran Federation Navy, broadcasting from the WarShip USS Semper Fidelis. Since you lot have seen fit to not only leave the Star League decapitated for the last FIVE HUNDRED YEARS or so, but also allow the DAMNED PHONE COMPANY to overthrow the rightful government of the Terran Hegemony, we have decided that we -- as loyal citizens of the Star League and the Hegemony -- are putting our feet down. Really, we just went on vacation for a few decades, and THIS is what we come home to?"

Kerensky's liberation of Terra had been the largest and bloodiest military operation in human history, involving a thousand WarShips carrying over a hundred divisions of BattleMechs and supporting troops facing off against the largest and most capable automated drone fleet ever fielded.

The New Terran Federation liberation of Terra was an anticlimactically small military operation, involving just three WarShips facing off against very, very bad language from an outraged Comstar Precentor who continued to insist that they were NOT AUTHORIZED TO LAND DROPSHIPS! As the poor Precentor had all of zero WarShips and zero functional surface-to-space defenses to respond with, the battleship Semper Fidelis and her two oversized cruiser-carrier companions cheerfully settled into Earth orbit and began deploying their parasite craft.

Alas, frantic priority HPG calls to every Great House were met with annoyed disbelief. After all, it was a well known fact that NO ONE had WarShips anymore, and even if some impossibly lucky person had stumbled upon the ultimate in lostech finds, no WarShip had EVER had more than twenty-five DropShip collars. It was therefore absolutely inconceivable that a power that no one had ever heard of had somehow gotten its hands on *multiple* fully functional WarShips of completely unknown classes, larger than anything in the Star League's records and capable of blotting out the sky with nearly a hundred DropShips of also-never-before-seen types.

Absolutely inconceivable, and clearly a very bad prank. The only worse joke would be if Kerensky came back with an even bigger army than he left with.

Elsewhere, the Precentor ROM fell over.

 

[kelgar04]

Omake - Parliamentary Blues

Reginald 'Regie' Whitehall sighed as he sat in the tea room with a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea as he leaned back in the chair engaged in one of his midday rituals of people watching. The most recent session in parliament had been rather frustrating, he was part of the Centrist Party which was a middle of the road loyalist party that had representation in both houses. Several of the more verbose members of the Commons had been giving their rather ill-informed thoughts on her majesty vetoing another one of there acts. This one though had come from a really stupid place though because some idiots had been caught with their mistress's and wanted to impose this farce as a form of ass-covering.

In fact, one of those idiots in question Baron Redcliff was entering looking rather flustered. He'd probably had to deal with his rather equally idiotic wife, he sighed as he watched him hurry to a table and wait for service. The man was one of the Griffport First party a bunch of reactionary old dodderers if he ever saw them but at least they supported the Armed Forces which was something positive to say about them. Baron Redcliff though was the worse an old leecher and a racist he'd heard several rumours that he'd been secretly sponsoring some groups who try to rough up Japanese decedent Griffporters.

The idiot would be caught eventually, heck he was collecting evidence on him to hand off to the police in the next few weeks. He went back to people watching until he saw the two people he'd been waiting for. Earl Sasha Pritchard, Earl of Pho on Capricorn and Sam Gras a Crown Loyalist.

"Hello my lady," he said, "Hey Sam."

"Aye' up Reggie," said Sam.

"Hello Regie," Sasha said, "how are you doing today?"

"Fine thanks," he said, "how did the session go in the lords judging by Redcliffs redface it didn't go his way?"

Sasha snorted, "no," she said as a cup of tea was set in front of her and shed nodded her thanks to the waiter, "him and his creatures trying to get their stupidity through us again, but considering no of are blind, deaf or dumb. Well, it didn't work still don't see why they made him their voice in the lords."

"Probably because their whips can easily manipulate," Sam said snorting into his coffee and they all chuckled.

"Aye," he said, "what about you Sam you were late today as well."

He sighed, "Smoothing some ruffled feathers in the party some of the members are mumbling about jumping ship and I had to help Bob and Li-Su smooth them out."

"Aye some rumblings in the Centrist," he said, "but nothing major it is worrying but nothing we can't deal with."

They all nodded and he smiled and decided to change the subject, "any way Sasha hows your brother last I heard he was working on that infrastructure project."

"Oh yes," she said, "he is working with Page&Sons Constructions on Castor last I heard they are laying out the new route but....."

 

[ShadowArxxy]

The Periphery Studies Department was on the warpath again.

Specifically, several members of the tenured faculty had recently gotten into a bit of a manic focus on military hardware and had come up with what they firmly believed was a BRILLIANT out of the box solution to modern mechanized warfare. They'd even spent months in the University's well-equipped (and well-supervised) machine shop to craft a lovingly detailed, three-foot-long, partially functional remote-controlled scale model of their brainchild. Their plan was to present this to the Ministry of Defense along with the stack of papers (in super professional looking clear plastic binders!) detailing their proposals, which would then surely cancel all those stupid money-wasting Battlemechs and begin immediate mass production of their design instead.

And then a mere secretary at the Ministry of Defense coldly informed them that the Ministry was flatly not interested in 'unsolicited proposals off the street'. This hadn't been in their oh-so-carefully gamed out meta-tactical adoption strategy! They hadn't planned for such an arbitrary and capricious obstacle! This wasn't fair!

An emergency conference was called, and it was quickly and decisively resolved over the course of the next six weeks that they should pack up their beloved model and march to the Royal Palace, where the Queen would surely see the justness of their cause! Especially since the model was very fast, and everyone knew the Queen totally had a soft spot for fast vehicles. It was only the worst-kept insider secret in the entire history of Griffon's Roost.

Unfortunately, they got lost. They got very lost, and then they got hungry, and then they got even more hungry while debating -- with decreasing collegiality and increasing rancor -- what sort of food they should eat. By the time their trusty administrative staff took a vote and secured a narrow majority win for pizza, things were really quite dire. And then a second vote had to be called over pizza toppings, and a tertiary vote over sides, and. . . well, in the end they weren't hungry anymore, but the momentum of the thing had been completely ruined.

They ended up going home and filming a great deal of footage of their mighty General Amphibious Vehicle Mark 1-N model dashing at high speed across the University swimming pool and "assaulting" up the handicap access ramp, dramatically blowing up large numbers of hapless plastic toy Battlemechs with the potato cannons which served as notional substitutes for the brace of heavy recoilless rifles which the real version would wield. This clearly demonstrated its total superiority, and satisfaction was had.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Secure Containment Information Facility - Griffin's Roost University

"We were relatively lucky, Your Highness. The Combine forces appear to have substantially underestimated the capabilities of our new aerospace interceptors and somewhat overestimated our orbital defenses. As a result, they jumped to one of the outer planet pirate points on the opposite side of the solar system and then burned in-system, giving us plenty of time to detect them and respond; their high velocity suicide strike meant that our ASFs only had a single shot at intercepting them, but there was no real chance they could evade detection. Had they jumped to the closest possible pirate point -- our own planetary L1 or L2 -- they would have emerged at a distance of only one and a half million kilometers, and it would be trivial to time the jump to be behind the moon. At that point, their dropship and fighters could sneak in on a spiral trajectory that kept them behind the moon until they cleared it, at which point we would have had less than an hour to respond and our ASFs would have had much less favorable intercept trajectories."

"They could have come in as cee-fractional kinetic strikes?" the Queen asked sharply.

"Oh no." The professor gave a bit of a chuckle. "As terrifying as the kinetic energy numbers for 'suicide burns' look, they're strictly the stuff of bad science fiction. The atmosphere of any inhabitable planet makes such an attack physically impossible -- any spacecraft travelling remotely that fast would either skip off the atmosphere or completely disintegrate long before it reached the surface. That sort of strike could only be used against deep-space infrastructure, and even then only to a limited degree."

"I see. What can we do to improve our defenses against repeats attacks of this kind?"

"Inner-system pirate point jumps are so inherently high-risk that they're generally discounted as a viable attack vector in system defense scenarios. We really wouldn't have considered the possibility except for the fact that they did in fact risk a pirate jump for this attack, albeit with what appear to have been expendable forces on a one-way suicide mission. As such, we concur with the Ministry of Defense's evaluation that they are very unlikely to repeat such an attack.

That said, we could substantially improve our response time to any future strikes by placing a space station in a halo orbit at the L3 solar Lagrange point, along with communications relay satellites at L4 and L5. This would fill the blind spot that the sun creates in our deep-space sensor net, and it would also allow us to forward deploy an ASF squadron out of the planetary gravity well. Alternatively, stations at L4 or L5 would be cheaper to emplace and easier to resupply while still providing deep space sensor cover."

"I see. Please pass a full write-up of these proposals to the Ministry of Defense."

"Of course, Your Highness."


((This is a write-in option as well as an omake, although the GM will have to determine the costs etc. We already have one orbital space station, and our current level of orbital infrastructure allows up to two space stations. This one would be in a stable orbit on the far side of the Sun. We can't build capital ship grade weapons yet, so this is not a "baby SDS"; it's just a floating hangar and refuelling station.))

 

[ShadowArxxy]

The Queen's dramatic actions were almost immediately dubbed the "Royal Checkmate", and the zeitgeist of the moment was brilliantly captured by an enterprising student theater group which launched into a flash mob reenactment of the Checkmate in the public square. Only the cheeky rogues took gleeful creative liberties like replacing parts of the actual parliamentary procedures of Griffin's Roost with the far grander ones of Old Earth England, adding adaptations of songs from a certain musical, and somehow shoehorning in *Star League Battlemechs*.

Thus, in this rendition the locked doors of Parliament were physically smashed open by a magnificently costumed Lady Usher of the Black Rod. And the Queen then entered in a *Royal Atlas*, carrying a mech-scale Royal Battlemace of Judgement and grandly ordering the Lord High Executioner to devour the conniving politicians on the spot.

And in consequence, no one was really paying any attention to the various media talking heads trying to spin the situation in all directions; they were too busy singing, "SHE HAD A LITTLE LIST! AND NONE OF THEM WERE MISSED!"

 

[ShadowArxxy]

The Charge of the Grifftiger Mounted Police

"DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING! SINGING THE SONG OF ANGRY MEN!"

"More like the song of men who can't sing to save their lives." grumbled the police lieutenant, adjusting his hearing protection. "And they're completely ruining my favorite Old Earth musical."

"IT IS THE MUSIC OF A PEOPLE WHO WILL NOT BE SLAVES AGAIN!"

There were only about a dozen protesters outside the courthouse -- more were inside -- but they were deplorably well supplied with portable PA units and megaphones. Worse yet, two or three of them thought the stupid Bart Simpson stacking megaphones trick actually worked, which wasn't actually any louder, but did produce horrific squeals of microphone-speaker feedback.

The ground rumbled. Subtly at first, then louder and more steadily. It almost sounded like. . . surely they weren't deploying tanks against a tremendously annoying but peaceful protest? The lieutenant's field radio crackled, but the obnoxiously heavy military surplus set wasn't doing a very good job of being heard over the crowd caterwauling. He refused to refer to that as singing, dammit.

"Crowd....this ....command one. Stand...mobile riot control. . . "

The lieutenant was still fiddling with his radio as the Royal Grifftiger Mounted Police made their first operational deployment. Ten intimidatingly huge Grifftigers decked in glossy scarlet full plate barding trotted around the corner in a shoulder-to-shoulder formation that completely filled the street. Atop each Grifftiger rode two human officers on paired left-and-right sidesaddles, clad in matching scarlet dress uniforms and visibly carrying swords and lances.

"ATTENTION, CITIZENS." Apparently, there were PA systems integrated into those armor suits, and they were much more powerful than the portable units the protesters had. "YOU ARE COMMITTING UNLAWFUL TRESPASS ON ROYAL GROUNDS. YOU ARE COMMANDED TO DISPERSE IMMEDIATELY."

The crowd shushed for a moment, then began chanting, "FREE THE GRIFFTIGERS!"

"THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING. DISPERSE OR WE WILL USE FORCE."

"FREE THE GRIFFTIGERS!"

"MAKE READY LANCES!!!"

There was a definite element of theatricality as every single mounted trooper unclipped their lance from holster and snapped it out at precisely forty-five degrees, shock tips sparking vividly.

"FREE THE GRIFFTIGERS!"

"PRESENT! ARMS!"

All of the lances came down in precise synchrony, producing an evenly-spaced wall of crackling shock points at chest height. For all that they were "only" less-than-lethal weapons, it was a tremendously intimidating sight.

"FREE THE GRIFFTIGERS!"

"ADVANCE!"

The mounted police did not charge; instead, they moved forward at a slow walk, shock lances steady.

"FREE THE GRIFFTIGERS!"

The tigers stepped faster. The lances bobbed slightly.

"FREE THE GRIFFTIGERS!"

The tigers sped up a little more. The lances bobbed again.

Now the crowd was starting to hesitate.

The tigers broke into a trot, still holding precisely shoulder-to-shoulder.

The crowd quailed.

The tigers sped into full thundering-growling-run.

The crowd broke, abandoning the makeshift street-barricade and scattering in all directions -- some back into the
courthouse, some down side streets.

The tigers and their riders leaped cleanly over the barricade and into the courthouse through the second-story windows, neatly bypassing the locked lobby doors below.

----

Approximately ten minutes later, a dismounted Royal Policeman unlocked the lobby doors from the inside, then informed command that the remaining protesters had locked themselves in the courthouse holding cells. And apparently had done so immediately after storming and barricading the building. It appeared that someone had convinced the rest that a "proper political protest" required being besieged and then arrested, without mentioning the part where the police were supposed to be doing the arresting.

 

[kelgar04]

Omake: A Heart Of Oak

Cadet Richard Anson cursed as he caught his hand on a jagged piece of metal which cut through the work gloves he and held his hand to his chest and looked out of the destruction left by the drac terror attack. He and his classmates of the dropship and Naval course worked to help repair the damaged factory the entire class had been called up for this purpose he and his good friend Joseph 'Joe' Bruat had been doing so to that effect helping clear out the factory line.

"You ok Anson?" asked Joe.

"yes," He said as he examined the cut, "looks deep."

Joe tocked the big bit of shrapnel off to the side walked over and had a look himself, "aye best go get it seen to besides we need to report back any way that we've done with this section."

They walked back towards where the instructors and Senior cadets had set up the field headquarters.

"Bloody Dracs," He mumbled, "Damn ass hats made the delay in getting back up there almost intolerable."

"Yep," Joe said with a scowl, "but at least once the line is back up we should have better security."

He nodded, "we will also be able to walk on different worlds other than the Roost and what an experience that will be."

"people did it on old Terra," Joe pointed out.

"but no one did it on Roost in a long time," He said, "it will be a big step for us."

"It will also let us strike back at the Dracs," Joe growled.

He looked to his friend since his family had died when the Dracs had landed and tried to take over before they were hit by the stamped that bombardment had left him orphaned and his younger brother both crippled and mentally scared with his grandparents forced to look after him with his aunt. He knew his friend was itching for revenge but thankfully he hadn't fallen in with one of those groups who went after ethnic Japanese at least he made the distinction.

"Yes," he said then pushed on, "at least we have sailing tomorrow and sea survival that is always an interesting class."

"Aye," Joe said his face brightening, "good to see how they did things one Terra gives an impression of how far we have come also useful if we end up stranded in the middle of a worlds ocean."

"There is that," he said with a grin, "also heard in the evening that Beta Division is going to put on a BBQ afterwards and someone was talking about setting up a TV to watch the races."

"That would be outstanding," Joe said, "You think Beta would let me bring my brother along he needs to be with people."

"I don't see why not Sally would probably be happy to sort that out," he said referring to his better half in Beta Cadet Divisions, "I'll help arrange it."

"Thanks," Joe said as they both moved towards the field headquarters.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

From: m.ditchwater@ditchwatersecurity.com
To: employees@ditchwatersecurity.com

Subject: All Hands On Deck

You all know what's going on. I've talked to Griffsport PD and they are authorizing us to provide crowd control for the public vigils to free up their officers for more critical duties. Everyone who can get out there, get out there right now.

Sincerely,


Marvin Ditchwater
Ditchwater Security
"Crafting Sole-Source Synergies In Tactical Protection and Intervention"

 

[ShadowArxxy]

A Cat Of A Different Coat

Michelle Carter was easily underestimated for being sincerely warm, friendly, and vastly more forgiving than anyone expected. But she was also the head of the most powerful organized crime syndicate in Griffin's Roost, and one did not rise to such a position without leaving a trail of bodies. It was simply that none of Carter's could be provably linked to her.

"Are you familiar with Rudyard Kipling, by any chance? An Old Earth poet from the early industrial era, one of rare talent and great insight. This one is from, 'The Jungle Book', the actual book and not the movie and cartoon adaptations that followed in the information age. It's really a pity it's so poorly known."

She closed her eyes and softly recited from memory,

The stream is shrunk - the pool is dry,
And we be comrades, thou and I;
With fevered jowl and dusty flank
Each jostling each along the bank;
And by one drouthy fear made still,
Forgoing thought of quest or kill.
Now 'neath his dam the farm may see,
The lean Pack-wolf as cowed as he
And the tall buck, unflinching, note
The fangs that tore his father's throat.
The pools are shrunk -- the streams are dry,
And we be playmates, thou and I,
Till yonder cloud - Good Hunting! - loose
The rain that breaks our Water Truce.

The young woman having lunch with her boss tensed, paled, and then slowly nodded. Two hours later, she was reporting to Janet Chambers in person.

Michelle Carter was not a nice woman. But she was a Griff through and through -- and a mother to boot, although she rarely let that impact her business dealings -- and there were lines she would not abide crossing. For the duration of this crisis, the syndicate would officially unofficially cooperate with the authorities.

 

[kelgar04]

Hunters - Omake

Senior Agent Sidney Riley and Inspector Tomoe Gozen entered the conference room it was filled with counter-intelligence agents of various departments and police of various departments all were sat intently. They both approached the podiums all eyes following them to the podium were intent.

They both stood behind their respective podium and he scanned the crowd of police officers and agents sat on the rows. They were the task force assembled to hunt down the mastermind of the attack against the Royal Family and deal with the rogue elements that could be used in a similar attack. He had been put in charge and Inspector Gozen was made his second in command

"Ladies and gentlemen," He said, "You're all here because you are impeccable agents and officers as well as trustworthy and well thought of."

He scanned the room and nodded as he saw the determined looks on each of their faces, "we are going to hunt down the vindictive sons of a bitches who took thought it would be a bright idea shot at the Royal consort and their daughter. We are also going to deal with the groups who could make up a possible source of manpower for them."

He looked at Gozen and gave a small nod and she spoke up, "Since this is a joint effort by the Police and Counter Intelligence you will be broken up into joint teams each will be given your tasks by Agent Riley and myself. So far we have eight possible teams and your personnel already assigned."

She paused and consulted her notes, "also this does not leave this room this comes under official secrets and will see any of you in a cell with my boot print on your backside but Michelle Carter and her syndicate are offering unofficial cooperation with the government to catch the perpetrators."

He looked around the room as Gozen finished, "We will assign teams in a moment. However, any questions before we proceed?"

He saw a young police officer raise her hand, "Any chance we have surviving gems?"

"Unlikely," Gozen said, "the sweeps and trials were quite through though we need to keep an open mind."

An agent raised his hand, "what about the dracs?"

"At this moment we are unsure," He said, "But we are not ruling that possibility out we are dealing with deep cover infiltrators who saw an opportunity and took."

He scanned around the room, "No more questions? Good now as to teams...."

Several hours later

Sidney and Gozen sat in the secure cafeteria going over their notes so far they had Alpha, Bravo and Charlie teams assigned to hunt down possible masterminds under the codename Isu they knew was out there. While Delta, Echo and Foxtrot were going after the various groups they believed had contact and were asserts for Isu. They also had one team called Golf and Whiskey who they were using as a backup team for either group though they would be assisting them in analysing and compiling data as it came in.

He leant back and took a drink out of his coffee mug and looked at the clock, it was already late.

"Gozen," He said, "We should call it a night we have had a busy day and got another one tomorrow."

She looked up at him and then looked to the clock, "Yes let's call it a night."

She starts to pack up the said, "come on let's go get a drink there is a police bar down the road."

He nodded and the left to go get a drink.